News24
17/08/2006 19:36 -
(SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe has hiked the official price of fuel by more
than 1 300%
but this is unlikely to ease shortages of a commodity that has
been in short
supply since 1999.
Fuel shortages, a result of a severe
foreign currency crunch, alongside food
shortages, rising unemployment and
world record inflation of nearly 1 000%
are the most visible signs of an
8-year recession blamed on official
mismanagement.
Energy and power
development minister Mike Nyambuya said on Thursday the
price of petrol had
been increased from Z$23 (9 US cents) per litre, under
the new system of
banknotes, to Z$335 (US$1.34).
The central bank earlier this month
slashed three zeros from the country's
currency and introduced
re-denominated local dollars to deal with
hyperinflation, which has forced
people to carry large piles of cash even
for simple grocery
trips.
"It is clear that with the increases of fuel on the international
market and
with the movement in our exchange rate ... we should also adjust
the price
of fuel," Nyambuya said in remarks broadcast on state
television.
Zimbabwe early this month devalued its currency
60%.
The southern African nation has faced intermittent fuel shortages
since 1999
due to scarce foreign currency, grounding both private vehicles
and public
transport and exacerbating the economic crisis gripping the
country.
Although deliveries have improved lately, prices charged by
private
importers are still higher than the new official price.
At
present, Nyambuya sets fuel prices, but last year started a programme
allowing private importers to buy fuel using their own foreign
currency.
Economic analysts say while this has helped improve supplies,
it is still
inadequate as Zimbabwe requires about US$45m every month to
import fuel for
consumption and strategic reserves.
Under the new
currency reforms, the current exchange rate is approximately
US$1 to
Z$250.
Zim Online
Fri 18
August 2006
HARARE - The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
on Thursday said
it had finished consulting general members and its
decision-making general
council and would meet "soon" to decide the nature
and timing of protests by
workers for better pay and living
conditions.
The ZCTU, the umbrella union body for the country's
workers, has since
last July threatened to call nationwide job stoppages but
had put the action
on hold to allow for more consultations with
workers.
ZCTU deputy secretary general, Japhet Moyo, told ZimOnline
that the
overwhelming response from workers was that labour must "take the
bull by
the horns" through protests to force the government and employers to
accept
linking wages and salaries to inflation, at 993.6 percent the highest
in the
world.
Moyo said: "Workers are struggling to make ends
meet. Their opinion is
that we take the bull by the horns because there is
no way the government
and employers will change their policies without
workers confronting them."
He said the ZCTU's
management committee will meet tomorrow to compile
feedback from workers
into a report to be submitted to the general council
meeting. Moyo did not
say when exactly the council - which however normally
meets every month-end
- would meet to discuss the issue of protests.
Tensions have
remained high in Zimbabwe since the main opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party threatened last March to call
mass protests to force
President Robert Mugabe to accept sweeping political
reforms.
The opposition party, whose protests have been ruthlessly crushed by
state
security forces in the past, insists it is still on course to stage
mass
protests to force Mugabe to give up power to a transitional government
that
should write a new democratic constitution for Zimbabwe and organise
fresh
elections under international supervision.
But Moyo was emphatic
that the ZCTU was acting independently of the
MDC, adding that whatever
action the union's general council would
eventually decide to take would be
purely "worker-based".
Mugabe has however warned that he will not
tolerate protests by the
MDC, ZCTU or whoever, telling hundreds of
supporters at a rally in Harare
earlier this week that the army would "pull
the trigger" on anyone
attempting to cause unrest in the
country.
Both the ZCTU and the MDC accuse Mugabe of plunging
Zimbabwe into its
worst ever economic crisis dramatised by hyperinflation
and shortages of
fuel, electricity, essential medicines, hard cash and just
about every basic
survival commodity. Mugabe denies mismanaging
Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, a magistrate's court yesterday granted $2
million ($2 000
revalued) bail to Wellington Chibebe, the secretary general
of the ZCTU, who
was arrested and detained by the police earlier this week
for allegedly
assaulting a policeman at a roadblock.
Chibebe,
who denies assaulting the police, will appear in court on
September 4 in a
case many observers and political analysts say could be
part of attempts by
the authorities to derail ZCTU plans to call protests by
workers. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Fri 18
August 2006
BULAWAYO - President Robert Mugabe must bite the bullet
by reversing
his farm seizures and re-allocating land only to capable hands
- black or
white - if efforts by central bank governor Gideon Gono to
resuscitate
Zimbabwe's economy are to succeed, analysts said.
Agriculture, like in most developing countries, is the backbone of
Zimbabwe's economy. But critics say disruptions caused by Mugabe's chaotic
and often violent seizures of land from white farmers for redistribution
among blacks have hit the once thriving industry, which has plunged nearly
60 percent since land reforms began six years ago.
The farming
sector used to generate 40 percent of the country's export
earnings, from
crops like tobacco and horticultural produce.
Analysts said the
government should address niggling problems that
have dogged the agriculture
sector since the start of the land reforms, such
as restoring property
rights, paying farmers market prices for their produce
and a viable exchange
rate for those producing export crops.
"The land reforms must be
reversed if we are to restore property
rights, we need to give back land to
those that can produce on a large
scale," Harare-based economic consultant
John Robertson said, in reference
to some black farmers who are not fully
utilising land seized from whites.
"We can encourage investment by
boosting investor confidence in the
country. The attack on property rights
during the land reform resulted in a
flight of investors in all sectors of
the economy," added Robertson.
Critics blame Mugabe's land seizure
drive for accelerating the
economic decline, highlighted by the world's
highest inflation rate at
nearly 1 000 percent, chronic shortages of foreign
exchange, food and fuel,
unemployment around 80 percent and deepening
poverty.
The World Bank says Zimbabwe has the fastest collapsing
economy
outside a war zone and its currency is losing value faster than any
on
earth.
Gono, who has been tasked by Mugabe to pull the
economy out of the
abyss, announced some radical measures early this month
to lift declining
exports and to tame hyperinflation.
In his
monetary policy reforms, Gono devalued the Zimbabwe dollar by
more than 60
percent, cut interest rates and allowed exporters, including
the key gold
producers to keep most of their foreign exchange earnings in a
renewed bid
to revive the sickly economy.
But analysts insisted that recovery
has to start with improved
agriculture production and a stop to flagrant
state spending, which has
pushed money supply growth and
inflation.
Oscar Chiwira, an economist at the National University
of Science and
Technology in the second largest city of Bulawayo, said
farmers who had
failed to use their land productively should lose it,
seemingly echoing
Mugabe's threat last Monday to repossess underutilised
land.
"All that we have to do is to have a land acquisition
appraisal
(audit) so as to remove some of the beneficiaries that have failed
to make
use of the land," Chiwira said.
Part of Gono's reforms
included knocking off three zeroes from the
country's currency and
introducing new bearer cheques, with the switch over
to new currency
expected to have been completed by August 21.
The central bank has
gone on a drive to halt money laundering and says
security agents have
seized trillions of Zimbabwean dollars in old banknotes
at border posts as
launderers tried to smuggle them back from neighbouring
countries where the
cash was being used to facilitate illegal foreign
currency
trade.
Chiwira said the government should also address
long-standing
grievances of industry in order to increase manufacturing
sector production.
Most companies are operating below 30 percent capacity,
hamstrung by foreign
currency shortages and high production
costs.
Foreign investors have taken flight from Zimbabwe over
failure by
Harare to protect their investments while international donors
have stopped
lending to the country over policy differences with Mugabe's
government,
such as the land seizures.
Zimbabwe has a foreign
debt of US$4 billion, with more than half of it
already overdue to lenders.
The southern African country has twice survived
expulsion from the
International Monetary Fund over outstanding arrears.
The Harare
administration's inability to repay loans has seen lines of
credit even for
private companies also dry up, hitting expansion plans and
has also seen
thousands of workers being laid off as industry battles to
survive.
"There is also a need to address the demands of
industry as it is our
major concern. Inflation and unemployment are just
symptoms of a failing
industry," Chiwira said.
"We need to have
two policies for industry and that is industry import
substitution (produce
more so that we do not import) and export oriented
industry (produce to
export)," he added.
Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's 1980
independence from Britain,
denies charges that he is responsible for the
economic meltdown and says
sanctions by Western governments led by London
have wobbled the economy. He
charges that his opponents are punishing him
for the land seizures, which
displaced more than 3 000 white commercial
farmers. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Fri 18
August 2006
HARARE - A coalition of Zimbabwean civic groups says it
will soon
petition the United Nations (UN) to demand that President Robert
Mugabe
resolve a six-year old political crisis and end human rights abuses
in the
country.
The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, which groups
about 50 civic society
organizations, says the petition is already being
circulated among members
of civic groups for signatures in preparation for
hand-over to the UN.
"The UN secretary-general should take
responsibility to inform the
world of the reckless and irresponsible actions
of the (Zimbabwean)
government.
"The UN should exert pressure
on the government to build bridges with
its own people than with some
imagined forces outside Zimbabwe," reads part
of the petition.
Mugabe last month deftly evaded rising international pressure when he
persuaded UN secretary general Kofi Annan to cancel a planned visit to
Zimbabwe and instead back mediation plans between Harare and former colonial
power Britain.
The petitioners want Annan to force Mugabe to
comply with
recommendations by UN special envoy Anna Tibaijuka on last
year's
controversial slum clearing campaign which left at least 700 000
without
shelter or means of livelihood.
"It has become apparent
that despite the UN having sent two envoys to
Zimbabwe on a fact-finding
mission, the government of Zimbabwe has not only
ignored the reports and
recommendations but has intensified its fight
against the poor," reads the
petition.
A senior official with Crisis Coalition said they
expected to collect
about 1 000 signatures before handing the petition to
the UN in Harare.
"We have covered a lot of ground and by
mid-September we hope to have
handed over the petition," said the official
who refused to be named because
he is not authorised to speak to the
press.
The spokesman for the main faction of the splintered
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party, Nelson Chamisa, said his party
endorsed the
move by the civic groups and urged their supporters to sign the
petition.
"While we acknowledge that Zimbabweans hold the solution
to the
crisis, we are also aware that we need to have the international body
taking
a stronger stance against this regime," he said. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Fri 18 August 2006
JOHANNESBURG - A senior official of
Zimbabwe's main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, Eddie
Cross, on Thursday
criticised South Africa for propping up President Robert
Mugabe's
government.
Addressing journalists at the Cape Town
Press Club yesterday, Cross
said President Thabo Mbeki had effectively
adopted a "hands off" approach on
Zimbabwe after he "handed over the baton"
to others to deal with the
political impasse in the country.
The MDC policy adviser said Mbeki must use his influence to push for a
transitional government to oversee internationally supervised elections
leading to the restoration of a legitimate government in
Zimbabwe.
Mbeki and Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo have in the
past tried to
broker a political settlement between Mugabe and the MDC. But
the attempts
failed after Mugabe refused to play ball.
Mbeki
appears to have given up on Zimbabwe especially after he
attempted last July
to rope in United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan
to lead the search
for a solution on the crisis in South Africa's northern
neighbour.
But the Annan initiative suffered a stillbirth after
Mugabe told the
UN chief his intervention was not needed because former
Tanzanian president
Benjamin Mkapa was already brokering talks between
Harare and London.
Mugabe has always insisted Zimbabwe's crisis is
because of a bilateral
dispute with Britain, which he accuses of using its
influence on the
international platform to isolate the southern African
country and sabotage
its economy. London denies the charge and has also
questioned the wisdom of
talks with Harare.
The MDC came
closest to unseating Mugabe's government in elections in
2000 and 2002. But
the party, which says it lost in those elections because
of fraud and
political violence by the government, appears weaker after
splitting into
two rival camps following a dispute between senior leaders
over how to
unseat Mugabe. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thu 17
August 2006
JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will on
Friday brief
fellow Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders on
measures
being implemented by his government to end his country's seven-year
economic
and political crisis.
SADC heads of government and
state are meeting in Lesotho as
burgeoning crises in Zimbabwe and the
mountain kingdom of Swaziland appear
increasingly distorting the way foreign
investors view the region.
The regional summit has reserved
tomorrow for a special session aimed
at finding ways to help Zimbabwe and
Swaziland out of their economic and
political problems.
Zimbabwe is grappling its worst ever economic crisis marked by the
world's
highest inflation of 993.6 percent, shortages of fuel, electricity,
essential medicines, hard cash and just about every basic survival
commodity.
The crisis has driven hundreds of
thousands of Zimbabweans into
neighbouring countries especially South Africa
and Botswana putting pressure
in social services in those
countries.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party
and Western
governments blame the crisis on repression and wrong policies by
Mugabe such
as his seizure of productive farms from whites for
redistribution to
landless blacks.
The farm seizures
destabilised the mainstay agricultural sector and
caused severe food
shortages after the government failed to give black
villagers resettled on
former white farms skills training and inputs support
to maintain
production.
But Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since the country's
1980
independence from Britain, denies mismanaging the country and says its
problems are because of economic sabotage by Western governments opposed to
his seizure of white land. - ZimOnline
[ This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
JOHANNESBURG ,
17 Aug 2006 (IRIN) - Civil society organisations in Southern
Africa have
called on the region's leaders to stop ignoring Zimbabwe's
political and
economic crisis, saying the 'business as usual' approach is
not working and
the region is suffering because of it.
The nongovernmental organisations
(NGOs) want to force the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) Heads
of State meeting to put Zimbabwe on the
agenda. In a communiqué submitted to
the foreign ministers of the 14-member
grouping, NGOs expressed
disappointment that successive summits had
consistently ignored Zimbabwe's
plight, despite growing evidence of its
regional impact.
The two-day
SADC meeting in Lesotho's capital, Maseru, began on Thursday.
The agenda
includes items such as the formation of a regional common market,
the
re-admission to the body of the Republic of Seychelles, an Indian Ocean
archipelago, HIV/AIDS, avian flu and the 2010 World Cup.
No talks on
Zimbabwe's economic meltdown or its repressive security laws
were scheduled,
although SADC secretary Salomao Tomaz said the issue of
political stability
was a priority.
Once described as the region's breadbasket, unemployment
has surpassed 70
percent and inflation is hovering at 1,000 percent. It has
been estimated
that around three million Zimbabweans have crossed into South
Africa alone,
many illegally, in search of employment.
The Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition, which comprises about 50 civic
organisations, urged the
SADC to promote political dialogue and national
reconciliation, and said
regional leaders could not continue to provide
political support for
President Robert Mugabe's excesses, as the ruling
Zanu-PF government had
flouted SADC protocols, to which it was a signatory.
"The constitutional,
legislative and electoral framework in Zimbabwe remains
unchanged.
Repressive security and press laws and other pieces of
legislation,
prejudicial to freedom of speech, the press, movement and
association,
remain on the statute books without amendment," the coalition
said in a
statement.
According to Daniel Molokela, a Zimbabwean lawyer, human
rights activist and
chairperson of Zimbabwe Civil Society Forum, "The only
thing SADC leaders
are likely to do is to adopt Mugabe's choice of [former
Tanzanian president
Benjamin] Mkapa as mediator between Zimbabwe and
Britain. This is in line
with their long-standing policy of appeasement [of
Mugabe]."
He said Zimbabwe's crisis was the result of internal
governance, and Mkapa's
focus should be on an exit strategy for Mugabe. The
proposed bilateral talks
with the British government would not address the
country's real problems.
"SADC leaders can see the effects of the crisis
in growing illegal
immigration to their countries, but they are afraid of
telling Mugabe to
deal with it or go. They will continue to display a form
of solidarity and
praise him - as they have done before - but there is no
doubt that many of
them are worried about the Zimbabwe meltdown and its
effects," Molokela
said.
SICK MAN OF SADC
A senior regional
development planner at SADC's Gaborone regional
headquarters, who declined
to be named, said Zimbabwe's "contagion effects"
could not be ignored any
more, as they were slowing down regional growth and
integration. "Zimbabwe
is the sick man of SADC, the sore thumb in this
region."
The failure
to tackle the Zimbabwe crisis was delaying key infrastructural
and economic
development projects in the region. He cited the stalling of
three new
border posts with Botswana and the construction of the Kazungula
Bridge
across the Zambezi River to link Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as
examples;
agriculturally, the whole region was now in a permanent state of
alert to
combat Zimbabwe's regular livestock epidemics.
On the fiscal front, all
SADC member states except Zimbabwe had tightened
their monetary policies and
reduced inflation rates to single digits.
"Zimbabwe is the only one going in
the opposite direction. In fact, the
effects of its high inflation on the
region are such that the regional
average shot to 23 percent, against a
possible 10.8 percent if the country's
high figures were not factored in. We
can as well abandon the regional
search for a common currency as long as
inflation remains abnormal in one
member state."
Eddie Cross, a
policy adviser to the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party,
reportedly told Cape Town's press club on Thursday that
the Zimbabwean
economy had taken on the dubious mantle of being the world's
most indebted
country: it owed US$5.5bn and $2.2bn in arrear payments,
equivalent to two
years of the country's gross domestic product. He said
Zimbabwe's crisis had
slowed South Africa's growth rate by 2 percent.
Some SADC officials have
indicated that although Zimbabwe is not on the
heads of state agenda, it may
arise in closed-door sessions.
Zimbabwe's justice, legal and
parliamentary affairs minister, Patrick
Chinamasa, told IRIN that the civil
society groups in Maseru were "nothing
but running dogs - agents of western
imperialism that are working to bring
down the government".
"The
so-called petitions and concerns are part of the Western agenda of
regime
change - our enemies sponsor them to rubbish the name of this country
whenever they can," he said. "The government is concerned that some of our
neighbours play host to anti-Zimbabwe organisations, and even allow them to
go about disturbing the peace and important proceedings for mean gains.
There is no crisis in Zimbabwe and, therefore, nothing to petition or call
the region to meet about. SADC knows our position."
VOA
By Blessing
Zulu
Washington
16 August 2006
The Zimbabwean
government said it is launching an investigation into acute
shortages of
maize meal nationwide. Industry and Trade Minister Obert Mpofu
said his
staff will look closely at milling companies to find out why the
shortages
have developed.
Grain Marketing Board Chief Executive Samuel Muvhuti told
the Chronicle
newspaper, a state-controlled publication, that the GMB has
blacklisted
agricultural operators who bought maize from the state grain
monopoly at the
subsidized rate of $Z600 dollars a metric tonne, then sold
it back to the
GMB at the producer price of $Z31,000.
Elsewhere,
international donors are investigating reports some government
ministers and
top officials of President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF
party have
exported maize to neighboring countries despite domestic
shortages, sources
said.
The government has imported maize from South Africa for the
equivalent of
US$200 a metric tonne, but sells it through the GMB for $Z600,
less than
US$3. Most of it ends up being sold for a huge profit across
borders,
according to market sources.
Many Zimbabwean maize producers
prefer to sell their grain to parallel
market dealers offering prices much
higher than the GMB's official price -
and provide
transport.
Independent economist James Jowa says the state must control
maize as a
strategic commodity, but recommended that the price structure be
constantly
reviewed.
For another perspective, reporter Blessing Zulu
of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe also interviewed Iraj Abedian, CEO of Pan
African advisory services
in Johannesburg, South AFrica, who said the GMB
monopoly is exacerbating the
maize crisis.
Mail and Guardian
Donwald Pressly | Cape Town, South
Africa
17 August 2006 01:57
The economic
collapse of South Africa's neighbouring state,
Zimbabwe, is stripping South
Africa of economic growth of about 2% per year,
yet South African President
Thabo Mbeki has "handed over the baton" to
others to resolve the political
impasse in that country, Zimbabwe opposition
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) policy adviser and Zimbabwean
businessman Eddie Cross said on
Thursday.
Urging President Mbeki and the ruling African
National Congress
to use political and economic leverages to foster a
movement to a
transitional government and internationally supervised
elections, he said
that while South African and other African countries had
watched, Zimbabwe's
economy had taken on the dubious honour of becoming the
most-indebted
country in the world.
It owes $5,5-billion
in arrear payments. Argentina, at a
critical phase, had debt of 45% of GDP
but Zimbabwe owes two years of GDP.
From being South Africa's
largest trading partner on the African
continent and a key consumer of
beneficiated industrial goods, Zimbabwe is
now dependent on aid -- including
large quantities of maize -- from South
Africa.
This has
significant ramifications for South Africa, which
should be achieving growth
rates of 8% or more to create jobs and reduce
unemployment. Yet South Africa
appears to be "propping up" the Zimbabwe
regime.
He said
while South Africa stands back, 1,7-million
Zimbabweans -- many of them
orphaned, hungry children who would literally
kill for a cellphone -- are
estimated to be in South Africa.
A further 1 500 Zimbabweans
are streaming in every day. South
Africa is reacting by stripping people of
their possessions and fruitlessly
deporting them. They simply head straight
back.
Speaking at a Cape Town Press Club breakfast, Cross --
who said
his party had been through every ballot of the 2002 parliamentary
election
and found that it had won more than 90 of the 120 parliamentary
seats, which
meant that the Mugabe government had been illegitimately in
power since
then -- said Zimbabwe had arguably declined faster than any
state not at
war.
Noting that the civic organisations,
trade unions and political
organisations are on the brink of carrying out a
mass-action campaign
against the government of President Robert Mugabe, he
said that his party
has been holding talks with the military and he believed
that if there is
conflict on the streets -- with armed security forces
facing unarmed
protestors -- the bulk of the military will not kill their
own people.
He is more worried, however, about the reaction
of the "highly
politicised" police force and Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO).
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), he
said, has estimated
the budget deficit to be 63% whereas sustainable levels
were between about
3% and 5%. Private estimates of inflation are that it is
running at 25% a
month.
This has "a dramatic impact on
everyone", he said, warning that
a month-long time frame for conversion of a
recently introduced currency
could fuel social unrest.
He
noted that the issuing of this currency -- without even
ruling Zanu-PF
Cabinet ministers being forewarned -- meant that all autobank
machines
ceased to operate. People either obtain cash directly from the
banks or
trade directly on the streets.
The economic decline has
affected women in particular, he said.
The bulk of girls are now unable to
go to school and they have a life
expectancy of below 30. Yet no one is
focusing on the predicament of
uneducated women in a collapsing economy, he
said.
The Mugabe regime -- where the security mechanisms are
now more
powerful than the Cabinet -- has routinely sought to destroy known
opposition hotspots.
The population has already fallen --
through emigration and
death -- from about 16-million to 10-million people.
The collapse of white
commercial farms had little to do with the white
farmers and much more to do
with removing 350 000 farm workers who voted
against the ruling Zanu-PF.
He noted, too, that only four of
the nine city administrations
that were won by the MDC remained in that
party's hands. For example,
Harare, the capital, has been placed under an
imposed commissioner although
Bulawayo -- where there was no significant
support for Zanu-PF -- remained
under MDC administration.
Cross, who was once detained by the white Rhodesian regime of
Ian Smith,
noted that there were just 20 000 white Zimbabweans left of a
peak white
population during Rhodesian rule of about 370 000.
He said
there were just three whites left in the state
administration. There were
two white members of Parliament, both from the
MDC. -- I-Net Bridge
CNN
Nation's inflation
down a bit, but still at 1,000 percent in July
Thursday, August 17, 2006;
Posted: 11:38 a.m. EDT (15:38 GMT)
HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) --
Tempers are fraying and panic has crept in as
Zimbabweans scramble for new
currency less than a week from a central bank
deadline to phase out old
notes it says have been hoarded for the black
market foreign currency
trade.
The Reserve Bank gave citizens three weeks, until August 21, to
dispose of
old money for re-denominated local dollars introduced partly to
deal with
hyperinflation that has forced people to carry large piles of cash
even for
simple grocery trips.
Critics say the measures will not ease
the plight of Zimbabweans battling
with chronic shortages of foreign
currency, fuel, food and over 70 percent
unemployment.
Central bank
Governor Gideon Gono knocked three zeros off all banknotes and
devalued the
local dollar by 60 percent in a bid to snuff out a thriving
foreign exchange
black market, where the exchange rate is nearly three times
the official
one.
As the cut-off date loomed on Thursday, an irate woman argued with a
cashier
at a Harare supermarket when he gave her change in old notes despite
a
central bank directive that shops should now start issuing only new
currency.
"Madam, I am sorry I do not have the new notes to give you,
whatever the
Reserve Bank has said. Please understand we are not a bank and
can only hand
out what we have," the man said.
The RBZ insists it has
printed sufficient new notes to go round, but traders
say very limited
amounts are in circulation.
During a trip to a rural district this week,
a Reuters correspondent spoke
to villagers still stranded with wads of old
notes, unable to travel to
distant banks.
Unsuspecting rural folk
have reportedly fallen victim to urbanites who
flocked there to dump old
notes in exchange for anything from cattle to
donkey carts and ploughs
before news of the currency reforms filtered down.
The Reserve Bank says
it has noted "with concern that some major cash movers
in the economy have
continued to inject large volumes of the old (notes)
into circulation
notwithstanding the bank's call that stakeholders now move
to the new
(notes)."
"Instances where some players would collect the new cash from
the Reserve
Bank and elect to hoard it at their cash depots, will not be
tolerated, and
a bank or non-bank financial institution, caught doing such
abortive
practices will be dealt with accordingly," it said in a
statement.
Trillions in old notes seized
The central bank says
security agents have seized trillions of Zimbabwe
dollars in old banknotes
at border posts as money launderers tried to
smuggle it back from
neighbouring countries where it was used to facilitate
illegal foreign
currency trade.
Police have mounted roadblocks along Zimbabwe's highways,
clamping down on
motorists and passengers holding large amounts of cash
whose legitimacy they
cannot prove.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions said police assaulted and arrested its
secretary-general Wellington
Chibebe at one such roadblock after he
questioned the legality of the
exercise.
Police said Chibebe was arrested for assaulting an
officer.
President Robert Mugabe's government has branded inflation --
still the
highest in the world despite a slight brake to 993.6 percent in
July -- and
corruption as the biggest scourges of an economy in its eighth
year of
recession.
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
17 August 2006
As Zimbabweans run around from
shop to shop and to black market
vendors looking for scarce maize meal, it
has been revealed that the
government owes millions of US dollars to
companies that have been supplying
the Grain Marketing Board for years.
Former head of the GMB and MDC shadow
agricultural minister Renson Gasela
told us the government does not have
enough money to import maize and other
basic commodities like fuel. He said
years ago the Mugabe regime stopped
using the tender system that requires
contracts to be given to companies
that offer the best prices for maize.
Instead they have been getting this
essential food staple on credit from
companies that are being paid in bits
and pieces.
Gasela agreed with reports that the situation on the
ground is grim.
He explained how there is very little maize in the urban
areas and none at
all in the rural communities. He said some farmers in some
of the rural
areas harvested nothing this year and the GMB has no reserves.
And without
any maize getting to the millers there is no mealie-meal getting
to the
shops and to Zimbabweans who rely on it daily.
Gasela
reminded us that last year the government said they expected to
harvest 2.4
million tonnes of maize. Then only last month the finance
minister told a
parliamentary portfolio committee that we had harvested just
750,000 tonnes.
At that time the government also said the country would
continue to import
more maize. Gasela said this is because they already knew
we would not have
enough maize.
It has become a standard operating procedure for
government officials
to deny reports of food shortages only to turn around
and admit it
indirectly when the situation is critical. Robert Mugabe
himself told BBC
news last year the United Nations should stop trying to
force feed Zimbabwe
because we had enough food. Then months later the UN
revealed it was feeding
millions of Zimbabweans with approval from the
government. With the economy
continuing to spiral downward there is no clear
plan announced by government
yet as to how they plan to pay for food and
fuel and to service the country's
international
debts.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Reuters
Thu Aug 17, 2006 4:17 PM GMT
By Ntsau
Lekhetho
MASERU (Reuters) - A southern African summit in Lesotho will on
Friday hold
a special session seeking to help Zimbabwe and Swaziland out of
economic and
political crises that increasingly cloud the regional
outlook.
Zimbabwe is battling an eighth year of economic recession
critics blame on
the government of President Robert Mugabe, who Lesotho
officials say will
brief the 14-member Southern African Development
Community on how he is
resolving the issue.
Zimbabwe's problems have
led to millions of its people illegally migrating,
largely to neighbouring
South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia but also
to places like the
United Kingdom and the United States, fleeing uncertainty
back
home.
In Swaziland, King Mswati III has launched a new constitution that
he says
guarantees greater freedoms, but it still outlaws political parties
and the
king does not tolerate dissent and rides roughshod over the
judiciary and an
effective parliament, political analysts say.
"There
would be a special session at the close of the summit to discuss
what's
going on ... specifically in Zimbabwe and Swaziland," Lesotho Finance
Minister Timothy Thahane told reporters late on Wednesday, without offering
further details.
Botswana President Festus Mogae, in a speech to open
the summit on Thursday
, called for greater commitment to SADC's goal of
creating a free trade area
by 2008 and customs union by 2010.
He
urged SADC members belonging to other regional groups to quit them to
give
SADC momentum: "It is of critical importance that member states decide
where
they want to belong," he said.
BELOW TARGET GROWTH
SADC's overall
economy, buoyed by stellar performances by Angola,
Mozambique, Zambia and
South Africa, expanded by around 5 percent in 2005
and is expected to grow
by 6 percent in 2006.
But that's still below the 7 percent target set for
the region to attain the
United Nations Millennium Development Goals that
centre on halving poverty
by 2015, Thahane said.
SADC's chief
executive, Tomaz Salamao, said the leaders would review
progress in fighting
AIDS, a major development challenge because farm
workers are dying or too
sick to tend to crops, hurting overall food
production in the
region.
Also on SADC's agenda will be accelerating regional integration
to boost its
investment credentials, fighting crime, reducing corruption and
ensuring
that bird flu is kept out of the region, Lesotho's Thahane
said.
Lesotho, a tiny mountainous kingdom surrounded by South Africa, is
tottering
under the weight of hosting one of its biggest ever events. With
only two
five-star hotels, it is struggling to find rooms for more than
1,000
visitors expected at the summit.
Lesotho officials were still
driving around private homes on Wednesday and
Thursday to ask whether owners
could accommodate some delegates at a fee.
OhMyNews
'Obi'
explains some of the scams used by gangs
Nelson G. Katsande
(NELKA)
Published 2006-08-17 18:15 (KST)
Recently there has been a high influx of organized crime in Zimbabwe
and
most of it has been blamed on foreigners who use fake identification
papers
or entice locals into marriage in order to validate their stay.
While going undercover to investigate prostitution in Harare I spoke
to a
36-year-old Nigerian who preferred not to reveal his real name.
He told me that the top five corruption hotspots are: customs and
excise,
the passport office, the vehicle and licensing department, the
police
service and the local authorities.
So while the government points
the finger at foreigners, government
officials are lining their pockets with
ill-gotten wealth, using legitimate
businesses as a cover up for their
underhand deals.
In his public address to the nation on Monday,
President Mugabe warned
that he would deal with corruption.
But
with Zimbabwe's law being applied selectively it is yet to be seen
if his
speech will be reinforced. Mugabe should realize that charity begins
at
home. The Zimbawean people will only be satisfied if, and only if, he
starts
scrutinizing those in the top echelons.
I asked the Nigerian, who
we shall call Obi, to elaborate further. The
story he revealed painted an
appalling picture of organized crime in
Zimbabwe.
He said that
a Zimbabwean passport was the easiest document to get as
staff in the
passport office can be bribed to issue unofficial passports.
He
alleged that most of his friends had illegally obtained passports
from
corrupt staff. Furthermore he alleged that only the poor are arrested,
insisting that he had, on several occasions, been released by the police
after paying them huge bribes.
Obi is part of a gang that
terrorizes motorists and businessmen in the
capital. With the help of
prostitutes and some corrupt police officers, the
gang pounces on their
unsuspecting victims.
Recently a well known businessman was coerced
into parting with a huge
amount of money after he was approached by a
prostitute offering cheap sex.
They drove to the woman's house whereupon the
gang pounced on him.
As the two undressed, there was a knock on the
door. The woman
pretended to panic, informing the businessman that her
husband had just come
from a business trip. She opened the door and the gang
confronted him with
the accusation that he was having an affair with a
married woman. The
unsuspecting businessman panicked and was coerced into
paying a huge amount
of money as compensation.
The gang then
shared the illicit proceeds amongst themselves. In cases
like these corrupt
police officers, too, usually get their share of the
spoils. The case goes
unreported as the businessman would want to protect
his
identity.
Another trick played by these gangs is where a prostitute
is used to
pose as a hitchhiker.
The unsuspecting motorists
stop to offer help. Half way through the
journey, she asks the motorist to
stop at a secluded place as she wants to
relieve herself. As he stops, the
gang pounces and demand that the driver
hands over all the cash he has. In
some cases, he is tied to a tree and they
get away with his
car.
With Zimbabwe's prisons overcrowded, the most dangerous
criminals are
just left to roam the streets. Prison inmates are packed into
squalid and
filthy cells with the majority suffering from chronic illness
such as
tuberculosis and HIV. Prison guards also divert food and goods meant
for
prisoners and sell them on the black market.
Poverty and
high unemployment levels have resulted in an alarming
increase in
crime.
Police officers are even demanding bribes to attend to crime
scenes
and in Chakari, south-west of Harare, they are engaging in illegal
gold
panning so as to supplement their meagre salaries.
The
people are disillusioned and keep asking:
"Who will police the
police?"
New Zimbabwe
By Lebo Nkatazo
Last updated: 08/17/2006
19:04:03
ZIMBABWE'S powerful central bank governor Gideon Gono this week fell
short
of accusing some financial institutions of sabotaging his new currency
reforms.
Gono claimed in a statement that some banks were trying to
discredit his
policy of phasing out the country's old currency by August 21
through
continuous offloading of the old bearer cheques onto the
market.
Economic watchers say Gono's new warnings to banks betray serious
concerns
within the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe about meeting the deadline for
phasing
out the old currency which is the centre piece of Gono's new reforms
to
rally a struggling economy and contain rampant inflation of 1
000%.
In a statement made available Wednesday night, Gono said: " The
Reserve Bank
has noted with concern that some major cash movers in the
economy have
continued to inject large volumes of the old bearer cheques
into circulation
not withstanding the bank's call that stakeholders now move
to the new
family of bearer cheques."
This, Gono said, was a flagrant
defiance of his policy directive to all
banks to cease the issuance of the
old bearer cheques by August 14.
He said: "In order to ensure smooth
finality to the changeover process, the
Reserve Bank issued a directive to
all players in the financial sector which
closed the issuance of old bearer
cheques to the public by banks and other
non-bank financial institutions
with effect from 14th August 2006."
Gono's statement came as President
Robert Mugabe warned people opposed to
the currency reforms. Senior cabinet
ministers are reportedly targeting Gono
for threatening their business
interests.
Addressing people gathered at the Heroes Acre Tuesday, Mugabe
blasted:
"These economic saboteurs and enemies of our economic turnaround
strategy
should take heed that we are determined to fight the scourge of
corruption
and do honour to the integrity of our nation".
Zimbabwe's
economy has shrunk by 40 percent in the last eight years.
Gono, an
energetic banker whose rise to become one of Mugabe's most trusted
lieutenants is worrying Mugabe's allies, is now regarded as the most
powerful man after Mugabe.
New Zimbabwe
By Phillan
Zamchiya
Last updated: 08/17/2006 18:33:58
ROBERT Mugabe's daring threats
on fresh farm seizures during the Heroes' Day
commemoration only serve to
confirm the quagmire we find ourselves in
following the erosion of property
rights from our laws.
Our celebrated heroes did not wage the war so that
Mugabe can willy nilly
possess and repossess land like the possessed. There
are various reasons as
to why there has been no significant production on
our farms which needs to
be addressed but we can not also just ignore the
rights issues.
Mugabe is reliving the legacy of the white colonial
settler by promoting
nonexistent distribution of property rights to blacks.
The liberation
fighters waged the struggle so that the final means of
conquest for the
daughters and sons of Zimbabwe be law and not
war.
For a farmer to be able to do her best on land she needs to be
guaranteed
that if she plants maize, she will own the produce. Now such
threatening
statements of evictions from the head of state will exacerbate
the
uncertainty of farmers on whether they have a right to reap the harvest
if
they invest in the crops. Farmers need rights so that they can feel
secure
and are able to contribute freely without fears from the powers that
be.
Failure to address this will mean that we remain "food beggars" to
borrow
Uncle Bob's words.
If Gideon Gono with Mugabe's (un)holy
blessings had the audacity to command
the unruly Border Gezi youths to seize
indiscriminately the poor people's
hard earned cash ,what guarantee is there
that Joseph Made will not be
sanctioned to unscrupulously seize the poor
farmer's grain? The farmers are
living in constant fear including those
closely connected to the so called
presidium because of the nature of its
unpredictability buttressed in the
lack of any recourse to shield and sword
laws.
The Heroes' Day threats do nothing to mitigate the situation. Given
the
people's fresh memories of the sponsored violent invasions and harvest
seizures it is a foregone conclusion that the Government only has to sharpen
its food begging skills. There is a danger that the nation will retrogress
towards the ages of shifting cultivation.
Even the satanic Operation
Murambatsvina could have been averted if the
Government had the people at
heart by merely formalising the occupants'
rights. Formalisation of
informality is being made the whole of Africa. In
Tanzania, since July 2004,
squatter rights for 5000 plots of unplanned
settlements have been formalised
and there are even plans to cover the
remaining 400,000 parts in
Dar-es-slaam. The occupants are now entitled to
compensation if evicted by
the state. Thus the people are secure and willing
to invest their energies
towards nation building.
Whereas there is no international legal right to
land, for the poor majority
it is a fundamental livelihood asset. For the
land to be of asset there need
to be land rights defined in a pro-poor
paradigm. There is need to base
entitlements in rights rather than
discretionary policy. Land rights should
be enforceable.
Farmers'
rights should provide tenure security and this will make a benefit
stream to
be established as a right and hence difficult to have it
re-captured.
Strengthening and providing tenure security will secure rights
to land,
encourage investment and aim at breaking down the traditional
patronage
ownership. It is not enough for benefits to flow only from policy
interpretation. If they are not firmly anchored in rights, the benefits can
be re-routed away and hence farmers are not secure enough to commit to
intensive production and investment.
Tenure rights should also be
enshrined as they give tenants the right to
occupy land and security which
enables them to develop the land. Farm
workers who have the experience and
necessary acquired skills in farming can
be retained in this way. This is
the case with the Labour Tenants Act in
South Africa which has sought for
land to be transferred to the tenant
outright. This is significant as it
reinforces labour tenancy as a strong,
secure and unique land right and thus
enable protection of farm workers as
well as utilizing their abilities for
national development and black self
empowerment.
The regime must also
know that real farmers cannot be fooled by the so
called leases being issued
by the state. The current leases are not even
worth the papers that they are
written on and are a source of more confusion
and controversy rather than
security. The 99-year leasehold can not in any
way create secure property
rights out of an insecure environment. Granting
and protecting rights
involves major political, social, economic and legal
reform. The so called
leaseholds under the current political gangsterism
have only exacerbated
corruption by Zanu PF fat cats who are using their
political influence to
seize the deeds, in some cases confiscating the
existing customary property
rights of poor communities and violating
bilateral agreements.
To
safeguard the future, our kith and kin in the rural areas need protection
from this madness which in no time will reach out to them the moment they
dump the gravy train. Despite the fact that customary land tenure is
recognized there is need to strengthen protection of their rights. In
Madagascar, a new national land policy provides for the creation of land
certificates provided by the commune. Nevertheless efforts to strengthen
customary rights must pay close attention to other risks such as the
management of land being in hands of traditional leaders who could abuse the
system as is already happening in Zimbabwe and there should be room to adapt
to situational changes. Even when land rights are allocated communally to
protect indigenous rights there is need to have institutions that protect
legal recognition and enforcement of community rights.
The ultimate
ideal will be for property rights to provide solutions as
capital assets.
Land rights will give the additional protection that
beneficiaries need and
this type of approach may protect them from the
Government because customary
tenure may not be enough to protect
beneficiaries from re-capture of their
land especially as political dynamics
intensify. A better approach to land
rights would be to assist existing
systems, by promoting and providing
legislative protection to existing
rights and then systematically move to
titling.
The Land rights component should emphasize on good governance
and
accountability. The law must empower marginalized groups to be able to
resist inappropriate changes to land use from the powers that be. There is
need to safeguard existing diverse rights and ensure that they are built
into law. With only redistribution of land and without redistribution of
land rights the few deserving beneficiaries who moved from being squatters
to landowners are now evidently moving from being landowners to squatters on
the land.
Zimbabwe should reflect on the existing property rights and
democratically
make decisions about the distributions. History has proved
that it is
precarious to national economies to dilly dally on the issue of
rights.
Addressing this issue in the context of others will contribute to
long term
focus on development; however it remains a tall order without
addressing the
broad twin towers of constitutionalism and
legitimacy.
Zamchiya is a former student leader and political activist.
He writes from
South Africa