• Reserve Bank: Act Now to Arrest Illegal Forex Deals
• Major Retailers Accept Travellers' Cheques
• Service Stations Sell Fuel At New Prices
• Zimbabwe govt, opposition fight key local polls
• SA land of hope for Zimbabwe workers
• Chissano Defends Land Reform in Zimbabwe
• Democracy - Mugabe-style
• African Gold production barely covers local costs
• Hope of quick end to sanctions dampened
• Church leaders to meet on inter-party dialogue
• ‘Unelected’ groups must be included in the talks
• Malaysians keen to help Zim tap into new energy sources
• Politburo debates Mugabe
• Mudzuri vows not to give up fight for Town House
• Indecisiveness a drag on economy
• Rivalry threatens Free Trade Area
• Stop side-marketing, cotton farmers told
• Late disbursement of funds threatens tobacco output
• People disposing property losing 50% of true value : report
• Strike costs NRZ $400 mln
• Relations between Botswana and Zimbabwe hit new low

The Herald (Harare)

August 29, 2003
Posted to the web August 29, 2003

Harare

REVELATIONS by the Reserve Bank that some financial institutions have
continued to flout the Foreign Exchange Control Regulations by deliberately
engaging in illegal foreign currency transactions, makes sad reading.

The development comes at a time when the public was losing confidence in the
banking sector.

It is common knowledge that most financial institutions are no longer
serving the interests of their clients.

The commercial banks have developed a habit of charging exorbitant ledger
fees even to those clients whose accounts have been lying dormant for some
time.

It is not surprising that if one were to deposit say $100 000 and keep it
untouched for two months, he would find the balance having gone down to
cater for the so-called ledger fees.

Rip-off is perhaps the best term to describe the existing relationship
between bankers and their clients.

Financial institutions' deliberate engagement in illegal foreign currency
transactions is probably going to far.

Although banks can charge exorbitant ledger charges, while hiding under the
Banking Act, and get away with, perhaps the time has come for the central
bank to read the riot act to the culprits once and for all.

Currently, culprits are either asked to pay a financial penalty or have
their foreign currency licence withdrawn in terms of Section 37 of the
Exchange Control Regulations.

Central bank officials warned this week that they will disregard the first
option and go for automatic cancellation of trading licences of the
culprits.

Indeed, the time has come for banking officials to be told that engaging in
illegal foreign currency dealings is criminal.

Those who have transformed banking halls into dark alleys to engage in shady
deals must be brought to book.

The Reserve Bank should be commended for giving a timely warning to the
culprits.

There are provisions in the Exchange Control Act, which allows for the
punishment of offenders by a jail term.

One hopes that the central bank will carry out its threat to bring normalcy
in the once respectable banking sector.

The Herald (Harare)

August 29, 2003
Posted to the web August 29, 2003

Alice Magureyi
Harare

MOST major retailers are now accepting local Zimbabwe dollar travellers
cheques as a form of payment following an initial resistance.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe introduced the local travellers cheques a few
weeks ago as part of measures to contain the bank notes shortages that has
gripped the country.

Some retailers were refusing to accept the cheques as payment for goods and
services arguing that they did not have information on how the cheques were
used.

However, following advertisements by the central bank in both the electronic
and print media, retailers and other businesses are now accepting the
cheques as a form of payment.

Among retailers who have been putting Press advertisements advising the
public that they could now use the cheques to buy from their shops are House
of Kumali, Radio Limited, CW Stores, Creative World and Blooms Furni- shers.

"The new local Zimbabwe travellers cheques are accepted for
purchases/payments for all your clothing, furniture and electrical goods
from any of our branches nationwide," Creative World and CW Stores said in
their advert.

"We could not accept these cheques in the first place because we were afraid
that some of them could be fake," said a creditors' clerk at House of
Kumali.

However, a Radio Limited official said they had been accepting the cheques
since their introduction.

"We have always been accepting these cheques since their introduction
because we feel that they are convenient to our customers", said Mr William
Musamba, the manager for Radio Limited.

The travellers cheques are sold to account and non-account holders by
financial institutions and are found in denominations of $100 000, $50 000,
$20 000, $10 000, $5 000 and $1 000.

The Herald (Harare)

August 29, 2003
Posted to the web August 29, 2003

Harare

A few service stations yesterday started selling fuel imported by oil
companies but most said they would not receive supplies until next week.

The Government has ended Noczim's monopoly on procurement and the oil
companies have undertaken to sell petrol at $1 170 a litre and diesel at $1
060 a litre.

These prices are half to two thirds what some oil importers have been
charging for the private imports that have supplied most private companies
and motorists for several months.

Noczim will continue to supply the Government, parastatals and public
transport operators at the old prices of $450 a litre for petrol and $200 a
litre for diesel.

Despite this undertaking, many commuter omnibus operators more than doubled
their fares yesterday, although such hikes are illegal unless authorised by
the Government.

While most filling stations in Harare still did not have fuel yesterday, a
few had started selling petrol at the new prices.

Market Service Station along Robert Mugabe was selling petrol and a queue
had formed at the filling station when The Herald called in.

"This is better. If fuel is found at service stations the black market will
be destroyed. If this continues, the situation in the country will improve .
. . the deregulation of petroleum products is a welcome development," said
one motorist.

Attendants at the service station said they had received about 5 000 litres
from their headquarters in Birmingham.

However, attendants at other filling stations said they had been told to
expect fuel next week.

On Wednesday, private oil companies said the supply of fuel would take time
to normalise given the severity of the situation.

The country started experiencing fuel shortages at the end of 1999 because
of the shortage of foreign currency.

Individuals and other companies who were importing fuel were taking
advantage of the situation and selling it at prices similar to those being
charged on the black market.

Until the introduction of a dual pricing system, petrol was being sold at
between $1 800 and $2 500 a litre while diesel was going for between $1 500
and $2 000 a litre.

Under the two-tier pricing system, fuel imported by the National Oil Company
of Zimbabwe would be reserved for targeted sectors such as farmers,
Government institutions and quasi Government organisations at the gazetted
prices.

The Government on Wednesday deregulated the procurement of petroleum
products in a move expected to improve fuel supply in the country.

All registered oil companies will import their own fuel and sell directly to
the public at economic prices through approved outlets.

There have been mixed reactions over the deregulation.

While some players in the business sector hailed the move saying it would
improve fuel delivery in the country, others feared the oil companies might
fail to get enough foreign currency to import fuel.

Economist Mr James Jowa said the increase in the price was likely to lead to
increases in prices of other commodities.

"If supply does not improve as anticipated, which is very likely, the price
of fuel will be forced further upwards.

"The cost of production will rise and the exchange rate will be affected,"
he said.

However, others commended Government's decision saying the prices announced
by the private oil companies were reasonable taking into consideration the
fact that businesses were getting fuel at parallel market rates, which were
exorbitant.

"It is an advantage to us and better for most businesses since the prices
that have been announced are much lower than those that were charged at the
parallel market," said Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce national
co-ordinator Mr Luckmore Zinyama.

HARARE, Aug. 29 — Zimbabwe's ruling party faces a crucial test in urban
council elections this weekend in the face of a deepening economic crisis
and an opposition with strong support in the country's major towns.

       Political analysts say President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party goes
into the two-day polls on Saturday as the underdog after losing a majority
of the urban seats to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in
general parliamentary elections held three years ago.
       Since the June 2000 parliamentary elections, the two parties have
fought several elections, with the MDC winning most of the urban contests
while ZANU-PF has retained national control with votes from its traditional
stronghold in the rural areas, home to about 65 percent of the population.
       But the MDC charges that Mugabe and ZANU-PF, in power since
independence from Britain in 1980, have cheated and used violence to win
elections in the last three years.
       MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has a pending court challenge against
Mugabe's re-election in presidential elections in March 2002, which many
Western powers say were rigged.
       Opposition victory in the council polls would expand the MDC's
symbolic control of major towns -- Harare, Bulawayo, and Masvingo are
already under its wings -- but the government has imposed central control of
local municipalities through sweeping powers held by the minister of local
government affairs.
       Opposition gains would also be an obvious setback for Mugabe, who
insists he still enjoys majority support.
       The MDC says ZANU-PF has been using intimidation to win some of the
eight mayoral and 130 council seats being contested in 16 towns around the
country. There are also two parliamentary by-elections, one in the capital
Harare and the other a rural constituency in northwestern Zimbabwe.
       Political analysts say ZANU-PF has been running a low-key campaign
which appears designed to allow the government to play down any big
opposition victories.
       ''I think ZANU-PF knows very well that the urban council elections
are very difficult for it because of the economic problems, and they will
probably be happy to pick what they can,'' said Lovemore Madhuku, chairman
of political pressure group National Constitutional Assembly (NCA).
       Zimbabwe's major towns have suffered the brunt of a serious economic
crisis which has brought severe fuel and banknote shortages and soaring
inflation, now at about 400 percent.
       ''ZANU-PF has been using its usual crude tactics, violence,
intimidation and tampering with vote registers...but we are still confident
of winning these elections,'' MDC election director Remus Makuwaza told
Reuters this week.
       But ZANU-PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira denied charges that the
ruling party was employing violence and intimidation.
       ''This is a sickening song that we are subjected to at every
election, and the song is clearly meant to tarnish our image.
       ''The courts are there to sort out any genuine grievances, but the
MDC must stop making false claims for their failure to win voters,'' he
said.

      South African statistics say almost 47 000 Zimbabweans were legally
resident in the county in 2001, but officials estimate that about one
million more are in the country illegally and say some 3 000 to 4 000 are
deported each month.

      Zimbabwe, too, is struggling to cope with what amounts to a serious
brain drain.

      The country's health and education sectors have been hit particularly
hard as salaries for teachers and medical workers fail to keep pace with
Zimbabwe's rocketing inflation, currently rated among the highest in the
world at nearly 400%.

      Zimbabwe government doctors went on strike in June, complaining that a
recent evaluation and pay review
      of public sector jobs had whittled away their already unsatisfactory
monthly wage.

      The Harare-based Scientific and Industrial Research and Development
Centre says more than 479 000 Zimbabweans work outside the country, mainly
in South Africa, Botswana, Britain and the United States - but the
opposition and human rights agencies say the hardships at home have driven
many more people out.

      South Africa is the nearest land of opportunity and has the added
advantage of allowing Zimbabweans to visit home regularly and send back
essential commodities unavailable there.

      Work may be better in South Africa, but many Zimbabweans still long to
return home and avidly read Zimbabwe's newspapers online to track political
and economical developments.

      "It all looks gloomy at the moment, but I believe one day I will be
able to return to a more prosperous Zimbabwe," said Thulani Dube, another
Zimbabwean who works at the same hotel as Khumalo in Johannesburg's posh
Sandton district.

      Zimbabweans abroad remain divided about what has brought their
homeland so low. Khumalo and Dube agree that whoever is to blame, the road
to recovery will be long and hard. - Reuters

Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)

August 29, 2003
Posted to the web August 29, 2003

Harare

Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano reiterated in Harare on Friday that a
fair redistribution of land and its correct utilisation are essential
aspects in the fight against hunger and poverty in Africa.

Speaking during the official inauguration of the Agricultural Fair in
Harare, Chissano said that this is why he wishes that the government of
President Robert Mugabe be well succeded in allowing all the people access
to land, without any kind of discrimination.

During a ceremony where Mugabe did not speak, Chissano said that time has
come for Africa to face agriculture as an important instrument to promote
development.

He stressed the need for the Africans to share a common vision when faced
with this kind of problerms.

Before his speech, Chissano had visited the different pavillions in the
fair, and recalled that in past years, Zimbabwe would be the regions' burn,
saying that even with the problems it is facing today, the Southern African
development Community (SADC) still faces it as essential in its strategy for
the regional food security.

In his speech, Chissano encouraged the Zimbabweans not to faulter, but to be
ready to fight for the consolidation of their political and economic
independence.

He also aknowledged the Zimbabwean society's efforts to conquer their social
and economic problems caused by the land reform and the subsequent sanctions
imposed by the western countries, compounded by the drought that affects the
entire southern African region.

Chissano also noted that agricultural problems are not exclusive to
Zimbabwe, but affect the entire continent, recalling that, for instance,
during the 1990s, there was an increase in the food imports.

He said that the number of mal nurished people grew from 173 million to
about 200 million in 1999, of which 194 million were in sub-Saharian Africa.

Chissano also noted that the lethal disease AIDS is threatening Africa's
development programmes, and that it has killed nearly seven million workers
in the agricultural sector in the sub-Saharian Africa sence 1985, and
another 16 million are at risk of dieing before 2020.

Harare - Cities, towns and villages across Zimbabwe were bracing themselves
Friday today for what has become a depressingly familiar round of violence,
fraud, bribery and corruption - democracy Robert Mugabe-style.

His ruling Zanu-PF party is facing opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change in two parliamentary by-elections and local
council and mayoral elections in 16 urban areas over the two-day weekend.

A total of 279 seats are being challenged, and Mugabe is leaving nothing to
chance, according to political analysts. Already, the ruling party has
ensured that there will be no vote for 46 of the seats.

The MDC candidates were forcibly stopped from registering or terrorised into
withdrawing afterwards, and the ruling party candidates were declared
"elected unopposed".

"It's the same old thing all over again, brutality and cheating from start
to finish," said University of Zimbabwe political science professor Eliphas
Mukonoweshuro.

"Only this time, they are doing it publicly, and making no effort to hide
it. They don't care any more. They've got away with it for so long they know
they can do it with impunity."

A major obstacle to the ruling party's aims - the independence of election
officials - was dealt by a high court judge on Wednesday this week.

Blatant violation

He delivered a ruling that gave the regime the nod to appoint army officers,
policemen and state intelligence agents to run the elections, in what
lawyers said was a blatant violation of electoral laws.

Judge Tedias Karwi said that the MDC's application to bar state security
officers was "not urgent" and did not need to be heard before the weekend.

On Friday, high court judge Ben Hlatshwayo, who openly professes support for
the ruling party, sorted out another formality.

He dismissed, with costs, an application by the MDC to order election
authorities to allow 11 MDC candidates in the town of Chegutu about 10km
west of Harare to register for the elections after failing to file their
nominations five weeks ago.

The court heard evidence that the 11 arrived at the court and found it
surrounded by a mob of ruling party youths. Police refused to break up the
mob, so the candidates tried to march in.

All but one had their nomination papers torn to shreds and all were
assaulted. Four of them had to be treated in hospital for broken limbs and
other injuries that medical reports said were caused by bricks and heavy
poles.

The one who made it inside was able to register, but withdrew the same day.
He told the Election Supervisory Commission, the state-run election
watchdog, he was "in fear for his life".

Improperly registered

Police fired shots in the air during the fracas. The commission reported
that the atmosphere around the nomination court was "calm and collected".

Difficulties with the voters' roll have also been settled, according to the
MDC. The party's elections director, Remus Makuvaza said there was evidence
of 20 000 new names on the voters rolls for the constituencies and councils
involved who have been "improperly" registered.

A check by the MDC showed the new voters either lived outside the areas they
were entitled to vote in, were given vague addresses, like military
barracks, or could not be traced at all.

Makuvaza says there have been a sudden rush of thousands of ruling party
supporters into the contested areas.

At the same time, in the parliamentary constituency of Harare Central where
Zanu-PF faces certain defeat - it received a third of the votes won by the
MDC in last year's presidential elections - the names of about 1 700 voters
have disappeared from the roll.

The mostly whites, as well as Susan Tsvangirai, the wife of the MDC leader,
all of whom could be expected to vote for the MDC, said Makuvaza. Issues
like the MDC candidates' campaigns and the attitudes of voters also appear
to have been attended to.

The MDC reported Friday that its candidate in the parliamentary by-election
in the Makonde district in the remote north of the country had been arrested
on Thursday and detained for five hours by police when he drove through as
village where ZANU(PF) was having a campaign rally.

Police told MDC lawyers that his presence there was "likely to incite
violence", said MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi.

'Positive persuasion'

Party supporters' homes in nearly every contested area have been attacked,
and party members have been abducted. On Thursday police in Kariba arrested
the MDC mayoral candidate's election agent and his polling agent.

Nyathi recalled that during last year's presidential elections, thousands of
party polling and election agents, whose job was to scrutinise the voting
process on behalf of the MDC, had been arrested the day before elections and
released when voting was over.

And if that doesn't work, positive persuasion may do the trick.

"It all says one thing," said Mukonoweshuro. "Zanu-PF is totally unwilling
to abide by any democratic principles. This is the political culture in
which it intends to continue its rule." - Sapa-DPA

African Gold's facility near Kadoma in central Zimbabwe is operating at
about 10% of capacity and has been hit by power breakdowns and 'a little'
civil unrest.

Today he added, 'We maintain our belief in the potential of the country and
have applied for a number of gold exploration licences.'

      8/29/2003 9:26:43 AM (GMT +2)

      In this part, the fourth in a five-part series, Harare-based legal
practitioner Isaya Muriwo Sithole, reinforces the centrality of
constitutional review in an effort to normalise Zimbabwean politics and it
also argues out a case for the involvement of the so-called "unelected"
groups in the talks, if and when they resume.

      There are various conceptual issues that arise from my last
contribution in this series.

      Some Zimbabweans think that the crisis in Zimbabwe is largely a
political dispute between the government and the opposition and that these
two parties are sufficient to resolve the crisis.

      After all, it is representatives of ZANU PF and MDC that constitute
parliament, so why involve "unelected" groupings in the resolution of the
crisis; whose "mandate" do these interest groups have and whose interest do
they represent?

      The protagonists of this sort of thinking are also invariably the
advocates of the idea that the progressive movement must concentrate on
political or regime change and then address the constitutional question
afterwards.

      This group of people also argues that ZANU PF and the government, like
a leopard, will not change their spots and so it is futile to insist on the
democratisation of the constitution with the ZANU PF government still in
power; otherwise chances are that we will have a replica of what happened
during the years 1999-2000.

      A significant number of people under this category is also anti-talks.

      I understand where the advocates of this school of thought are coming
from and I respect the sincerity of their convictions, but I do not share
the underlying pessimism in the govern-ment’s will and ability to change,
especially with the new heights the crisis is assuming. The view that the
President is irredeemable (won’t change) is too deterministic and
pessimistic an idea which is often advanced by the more sanguinary among us,
wittingly or unwittingly. Like all of us, the President will push his agenda
relative to options available to him at a given point in time. He is not as
blind an actor and will know when his options have narrowed. And they have
rapidly narrowed since his controversial re-election.

      But I can’t help admitting that this is a minority view, judging by
what one reads in the media.

      In my last contribution I accused the two major political parties of
trying to assume a monopoly over what should be national dialogue, to the
exclusion of other interest groups. I was attending my uncle’s funeral in
Glen Norah over the weekend and somebody recognised me and was very keen to
know how "unelected" groupings fit into the puzzle of the resolution of the
political stalemate in Zimbabwe. This question is not very easy to answer
without tracing the history of this country from round-about 1997.

      The involvement of civil society in Zimbabwe’s politics must be put in
perspective if we are to understand the dynamics that are currently at play.

      Up until 1997 Zimbabwe did not have a vibrant and discerning civil
society, neither did it have a credible opposition party worth talking
about.

      The under-developed socio-economic structure undermined the emergence
of social forces capable of exerting a counteracting effect on the
totalitarian tendencies of the post-colonial governing elite.

      When there was a sudden upsurge of labour and student riots in 1997-98
the corridors of power were shaken and the heavy-handedness with which the
security forces dealt with these revolts raised serious constitutional
questions particularly in relation to the powers of the President, the Bill
of Rights, the electoral process among other issues.

      Disconnected calls for constitutional reform could be heard from
various quarters of civil society and this resulted in the formation of the
National Constitutional Assembly in 1997.

      The major objective behind the formation of the NCA, which is a loose
coalition of opposition political parties, civic organisations including
labour and student movements, church groups, youths, lawyers, progressive
intellectuals and academics, was for it to act as a common action front to
lobby the government to embark on democra-tisation of the constitution.

      In January 1998 there were a series of "food riots" and widespread
looting and destruction of property resulting in the President declaring a
state of emergency in terms of the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures)
Act, and the demonstrations were ruled illegal.

      This is when the demand for constitutional review began in earnest.

      There was widespread perception that since its inception in 1987, the
Executive Presidency System has concentrated far too much unaccountable
power in one person’s hands and this power has been badly abused to the
detriment of the people of Zimbabwe.

      The government refused to engage the NCA in meaningful discussions
over constitution making.

      The NCA was advocating that an all-stakeholders conference be convened
to agree on the process and the legal framework for the process.

      Government knew that such an approach would undermine their intended
dominance of the process.

      After realising the political consequences and the difficulty – if not
the impossibility of ignoring calls for constitutional review, the
government sought to highjack the whole process and as we all know, they
preferred to proceed by way of a commission appointed by the President,
while a defiant NCA, under Tsvangirai’s chairmanship, embarked on a parallel
process whose major aim was to act as a gauge to the findings of the
government-appointed constitutional commission.

      The government’s main argument was that the NCA being an "unelected"
body of persons, neither had the "legitimacy" nor the "mandate" to "dictate"
a process for constitutional reform.

      The arrogance of the government was startling and the various civic
groups that constituted the NCA began consultations about the need and
possibility of forming a vibrant opposition political party to challenge
ZANU PF in the 2000 general elections.

      Thus was born the MDC, starting as a broad "movement" of various civic
groups and individuals pushing for "democratic change."

      It is in this broad movement that serious consultations about the need
to form a vibrant opposition party were made, resulting in the launch of the
MDC as a political party in September 1999.

      To date, the MDC remains a member of the NCA.

      The government responded by lumping the MDC, NCA ZCTU and ZINASU
together as enemies of the government.

      In view of the controversies surrounding the process of constitution
making presided over by the Constitutional Commission, the referendum became
a critical event in the constitutional reform dichotomy.

      On one hand, for the constitutional commission, the referendum was an
exercise in legitimacy.

      For a body that had been roundly condemned as partisan and seeking to
rubber stamp the views of the government the referendum was an opportunity
to say its crisis: "The people have spoken".

      On the other hand, for the NCA, the referendum had serious political
implications.

      If the people were to endorse the draft constitution, the NCA’s
theoretical premises would have been badly bruised for the obvious question
would have been: "If the people have endorsed this constitution, who are you
to say it is defective?"

      The triumph of the "NO" vote was a triumph for the so-called
"unelected" interest groups.

      The "NO" vote proved that the government’s criticism of the NCA was
misguided.

      By virtue of the diversity of its membership, the NCA represented the
view of a significant number of ordinary Zimbabweans.

      Constitution-making is about setting out governance structures and one
need not be elected to articulate a view about the way an issue of public
interest should be addressed.

      So if the readers are persuaded that comprehensive constitutional
review should be integral to the talks then it goes without saying that
"unele-cted" groupings of civil society and other minority interests should
also be accommodated.

      These talks have a crucial bearing on the future of Zimbabwe and it
must follow from their very nature that if ordinary citizens organise
themselves in some form and agitate for constitutional reform to top the
agenda so as for them to participate, it is not sufficient to raise their
unelected nature as a basis for rejecting their views.

      What should matter, in principle, is that the views of any person on
matters of constitution-making ought to be respected.

      Although constitution- making can easily be dominated by the
government of the day, as was the case in Uganda, Ghana and Zambia, to
mention just but a few, there is also evidence of transitional processes
where a broad involvement of key players including civil society has worked,
as was the case in South Africa, Namibia, and Malawi.

      The Malawian experience demonstrates that where there is a national
consensus, it matters not that groups articulating a view have not been
elected.

      The Zambian experience under Chiluba is most extreme in terms of
dominance.

      The MDC is modelled along the lines of Zambia’s MMD under Chiluba and
those who argue that political change should precede constitutional change
must be reminded of the Zambian experience.

      Amid the euphoria of the collapse of the Kaunda regime, the Chiluba
government appointed a commission to review the constitution. Most members
of the commission were directly appointed by the President while others were
appointed by him on the recommendation of some organisations. When the
commission submitted its draft, a number of its key recommendations were
rejected by the government which substantially amended the draft, rejected
calls for a referendum and had the constitution promulgated by a
government-dominated National Assembly. There is no guarantee that the MDC
will be different from the MMD of Zambia.

      The point is that right now Zimbabwe has got an incompetent government
which is difficult to remove inspite of the fact that we can see that this
government has no capacity to take us out of the current crisis. The
difficulty lies in that the government has put in place a legal framework,
in the form of a constitution, which makes it difficult to remove it. In my
view, the first step towards resolving this difficulty is changing the legal
framework and create a level playing field for all the political players in
the country and this is why civil society and minority interests are
insisting on constitutional change because we don’t want the new government
to get protection from the same oppressive constitutional order. Civil
society does not seek political power. Instead, it seeks to limit it.

      If these groups have always been involved in the democratic struggles
of this country, what is the rationale of excluding them now from the talks
that are a culmination of these struggles, and which talks are meant to
usher into the long awaited for democratic dispensation. These talks are not
just about power-sharing between ZANU PF and MDC but about restoring
legality, legitimacy and constitutionalism. This can only be achieved by the
broad participation of the generality of Zimbabweans and as such a
negotiation process that allows for such participation is a prerequisite for
the restoration of these values.

      From the history outlined above, even the MDC itself can not afford to
brush aside the issue of constitutional change, neither can it afford to
marginalise the so-called "unelected" groupings. The MDC is a "civil society
party’ whose genesis lie in the constitutional reform movement and the
sooner they realise this the better.

      8/29/2003 10:06:58 AM (GMT +2)
      AS the battle for the political soul of Harare intensifies, suspended
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) executive mayor, Elias
Mudzuri, vowed not to give up the fight to run Harare, the opposition's
bedrock of support. The MDC won 44 of the 45 council wards in Harare, with
its mayoral candidate, Mudzuri, romping home with 262 000 votes to ZANU PF's
57 000 in local government elections that were only conducted after numerous
court applications by residents and members of the opposition. Mudzuri, a
former ZANU PF student activist and founder member of the Forum for
Democratic Reform (Trust) that gave birth to the opposition Forum Party then
led by the late former Chief Justice Enoch Dumbutshena, says he is ready to
do battle with Ignatius Chombo. Chombo, a ruling ZANU PF party functionary,
is the Minister of Local Government and National Housing who is believed to
have hatched a scheme to eliminate the opposition from the seat of power,
Harare.

      The Financial Gazette's News Editor, DUMISANI NDLELA, spoke to Mudzuri
about issues surrounding his suspension and the challenges of being the
first opposition Mayor for the capital.

      Excerpts:

      Question: Why did the Minister of Local Government and National
Housing, Ignatius Chombo, suspend you?

      Answer: It's political. The government wants to run Town House and I
was the stumbling block. The MDC won the capital vote democratically, but
the government wants to come back through the back door. They are being
disrespectful to the Harare electorate.

      Question: You should be guilty of some form of misconduct to have
Chombo targeting you like that?

      Answer: I am not guilty of any misconduct, but if there was any form
of misconduct, I should have been investigated first. To the electorate and
council, I am blameless, but to Minister Chombo, I am very guilty. My crime
is that I am a mayor coming from the other side of the political divide and
I have demanded change in the way council is run. Chombo wanted me to
maintain the status quo. Let us be honest about it. Over the years ZANU PF
had managed to make City of Harare its fiefdom - jobs for the boys, youth
league and women's league cadres and contracts for the party connected
businessmen. The fear - real or imagined - is that the MDC is going to
dismantle this ZANU PF edifice and on its place build an MDC fiefdom. Yes,
this is a political turf war and the old system is refusing to give way to
the new political order.

      Question: When are the investigations against you to start?

      Answer: I should have been investigated first before being suspended,
or if they felt I could prejudice investigations, force me to go on leave.
So, you have to ask my accuser about that. He seems not to be in a hurry to
start his investigations. What I have heard are false starts just to keep us
guessing and speculating on when the investigations will start. Meanwhile,
our mandate is subverted and our tenure is disturbed - the status quo is
maintained and ZANU PF is happy. Simply put, ZANU PF is trying to subvert
the MDC mandate through some dictatorship manipulation.

      Question: But there are other MDC mayors in the country and Chombo
hasn't been harsh on them, why you?

      Answer: Harare is different. Firstly, it constitutes one third of the
country's electorate. Harare is the capital and seat of government. Its
capture by the opposition has profound significance to both MDC and ZANU PF.
Historically Bulawayo belonged to PF ZAPU, while Harare was the political
Mecca of ZANU PF. Losing Harare to MDC was devastating to the old ZANU PF -
they cannot get used to the idea and reality of losing Harare. But this is
not to say there are no political skirmishes elsewhere - they are of low
intensity when compared to Harare, but look at what is happening to the
mayor of Chegutu, Dhlakama (Francis). ZANU PF is on the warpath to
undemocratically and crudely unseat him.

      Secondly, the other MDC mayors work with councils dominated by ZANU
PF. Change in those areas is not as drastic as it is in Harare because in
other areas you are a hostage mayor. In Harare the MDC has 99 percent of the
council and council can and must transform. The mayor works with his
political colleagues, they share the same vision and mission. You have a
free mayor in Harare, something not found anywhere else as yet. We were
making genuine and profound changes in council and that has unsettled Chombo
and ZANU PF.

      Thirdly, Harare is a political fiefdom for the ruling party. The
changes we were making were seen as assaults on the ZANU PF edifice, and
pressure was applied on Chombo to stop us.

      Fourthly, ZANU PF does not believe in multi-party politics. It
believes in a one-party state dictatorship and it has found it impossible to
live with an opposition party at Town House. The situation at Town House put
ZANU PF under trial in as far as their ability and capacity for political
tolerance is concerned. Zimbabweans and other political watchers world-wide
were watching how the ruling party was going to handle the Harare situation.
ZANU PF has dismally failed in this test. They are finding it impossible to
live with the popular choice of the people of Harare, and are prepared to
subvert the mandate we were given to run the affairs of Harare.

      Question: So how are you going to survive the political pressure
building around you?

      Answer: I am an agent of change. When I took up the challenge, I knew
that I was not going to be accorded the respect due to a Harare mayor. I
knew that my tenure of office was not going to be a stroll in the garden but
a struggle - a vicious struggle. I have been arrested illegally twice for
doing my work and thrown into cells for four days. Now I am suspended
without pay - in fact Chombo wants to have me kicked out of the mayoral
house and to surrender the mayoral vehicle. I must persevere and soldier on.
I cannot make a U-turn and accept dictatorship and oppression as normal
practices. It is ZANU PF that must mend and change its ways of governance,
not the MDC. The people of Harare have demanded democracy and freedom and in
the fullness of time, the people will win. I have got my tools for survival.
The machinery being used to persecute me knows they are targeting an
innocent person.

      Question: There are some who say you are a baby of ZANU PF and could
not have risen through the ranks to become the deputy chief engineer of the
city council without being one?

      Answer: I was an engineer. Engineers were few in the city council.
They had no choice but to engage me. I stopped being a member of ZANU PF in
1985 when I realised that ZANU PF was failing - we kept on going deeper and
deeper into a crisis. But this is not to say I am ashamed of having been a
very active ZANU PF cadre. I was very active in the youth wing as a student
in Botswana and Sierra Leone. I played my role in the liberation of this
country and am proud of my involvement. ZANU PF was a great liberation
movement, but as a political party in post-independent Zimbabwe, ZANU PF has
lacked vision, ideological clarity and moral leadership - it has fallen from
grace. This is why when the Forum for Democratic Reform (Trust) was launched
as a democracy advocacy pressure group in the mid 1990s, I became its
founding member. The FDR subsequently merged with the Open Forum in Bulawayo
and eventually the two groups formed the Forum Party, which was led by the
late former Chief Justice Enoch Dumbutshena. There are many people in the
MDC who are former members of the Forum Party, ZANU PF, ZUM (Zimbabwe Unity
Movement) and the UANC. We are democrats.

      8/29/2003 9:16:46 AM (GMT +2)

      THE resilience of the Zimbabwean economy is legendary but the once
robust economy is now caving in due to consistent and persistent battering
in the face of gross mismanagement and natural phenomena chief of which are
recurring droughts.

      But, as has been said before, sometimes-tough economic times do not
only expose weaknesses in economic policies but also bring forth the
innovativeness and resourcefulness of a people or lack thereof. Ordinary
Zimbabweans have, to their credit, by and large shown resilience in the face
of the dip into economic melt-down.

      A major drag has however been indecisiveness on the part of
government. The country’s economy, now entrenched in recession, continues to
burn while stakeholders are engaged in what seems to be endless discussions
in fire prevention. A series of crisis meetings have been held on several
occasions to find ways of reversing the economy’s flagging fortunes.

      These have so far had no appreciable effect on the sickly economy
mainly because, although Zimbabwe is strong on ideas it falls short on
action. We do not follow through on those crisis meetings, which in itself
is emblematic of everything wrong with the way we do things. We are not
strong on decision-making and seem to lack clarity as to what needs to be
done to turn around the economy.

      This indecisiveness, which stems from the fact that most decisions in
Zimbabwe are made for political expediency, has remained a touchstone of our
way of doing things.

      Nothing underscores this fact more than the government’s reluctance,
some six years ago, to bite the bullet and increase the price of fuel when
the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe, though still in the clear, was clearly
moving towards a debt trap. The lid on fuel prices was mainly due to the
fear of a possible political backlash over the likely wave of sensitive
price increases.

      Not only that, but more recently, the eleventh-hour appeal for food
aid to the United Nations Development Programme this year is also a case in
point. The government took its sweet time to approach the UN agency as if
Zimbabwe was the only country on the African continent that required food
relief.

      There is a plethora of other pertinent issues that have since been
victims of this indecisiveness. These include the long stalled sell-off of
government-owned assets whose proceeds could have been used to reduce what
has become the national ulcer — the budget deficit. Except for a few cases,
the privatisations have been left half done as the authorities ponder
whether they should completely dispose of the assets or effect
"corporatisation" — a Chinese half way house between rigid state control and
private ownership.

      Meanwhile, as the government dithers, state-owned companies continue
to pressure public finances as they depend on a life-support system provided
by the already stretched fiscus.

      There has also been indecision over the provision of critical
agricultural inputs, which will certainly compromise the productivity of the
new farmers. Holding on to the land without the inputs is like holding on to
cheques that they cannot cash! There is the real danger that Zimbabwe could
once again fail to produce enough to feed itself. And that would be a
tragedy.

      There is also the continued bickering over the long overdue and
inevitable devaluation of the over-valued Zimbabwe dollar and the
reluctance, especially on the part of ZANU PF, to take the plunge into
political dialogue to find a negotiated settlement to the country’s crisis.
The list is endless.

      It is only when it finally dawns on the government that a stitch in
time saves nine that our situation could improve for the better. Otherwise
the uncertain outlook could be with us for a painfully long time.