Zim Online
Fri 4
August 2006
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe central bank governor Gideon Gono
has defended
Harare's decision last year to print money to repay the
International
Monetary Fund (IMF) saying the practice was normal the world
over whenever
countries were emerging from conflict and needed cash to
rebuild.
Gono, who was responding to charges by business leaders
that the
government's decision to print money to pay the IMF and salary
increments
for civil servants fuelled inflation, said the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe
(RBZ) would not hesitate to switch the printing machines on again
in future
for as long as the money was used to rebuild the
economy.
"The printing of money for the productive sector is not
inflationary,
but only becomes inflationary when the money is used for
speculative
purposes," Gono said in an address last Wednesday to a congress
of the
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries underway in the city of
Bulawayo.
Inflation, which critics blame on the
RBZ's habit of printing
worthless paper money and over-expenditure by the
government, is pegged at 1
184.6 percent, the highest such rate in the
world.
Both Gono and his boss President Robert Mugabe label
inflation
Zimbabwe's enemy number one.
But the RBZ governor
said there was nothing sinister about Zimbabwe
printing money because
Mugabe's controversial land redistribution programme
over the past six years
was a revolution and the government needed cash to
finance rebuilding and
development progammes in the post-conflict period.
"There is
nothing sinister with Zimbabwe doing likewise (printing
money) since the
country is coming out of a conflict and the land reform
exercise was an
agricultural revolution and to support the post conflict
period the country
had to print money," Gono said.
Economic experts say the chaotic
and often violent land redistribution
exercise under which the government
seized productive white-owned farms and
parceled them out to landless black
peasants destabilised the mainstay
agricultural sector, worsening Zimbabwe's
economic crisis, rated by the
World Bank as the worst in the world outside a
war zone.
The farm seizure programme is also blamed for causing
severe food
shortages in Zimbabwe because the government failed to give
inputs support
and skills training to black villagers allocated former white
farms, leading
to a 60 percent drop in food output since the land reform
programme began in
2000.
Gono said there was need to support
black farmers with inputs and the
government had no option but to print more
money to support the farming
sector.
The RBZ chief, who earlier
this week announced a raft of monetary
reforms including re-denominating the
currency which he also devalued by 60
percent, cited several cases of
countries that had printed money in the past
to shore up productive sectors
of their economies.
"During the post 1945 period, several countries
in Europe resorted to
printing money to support the re-construction period
and countries like
Germany, South Korea, Russia and China all printed money
to support
development projects," said Gono.
Mugabe's
government, which is battling its worst ever economic crisis,
printed more
than Z$20 trillion which it used to buy foreign currency to pay
outstanding
debt to the IMF. The multilateral money lender had threatened to
expel
Zimbabwe if the southern African country had failed pay up.
The
government also this year printed another $61 trillion to pay
unbudgeted
salary increments for civil servants, which analysts say could
only help
push inflation that some say could surge beyond 1 500 percent
before
year-end.
Hyperinflation is one of many severe symptoms of
Zimbabwe's economic
crisis that has also spawned shortages of fuel,
electricity, essential
medicines, hard cash and just about every basic
survival commodity.
Critics blame the crisis on repression and
wrong policies by Mugabe.
But the 82-year old President, who has ruled
Zimbabwe since the country's
independence from Britain in 1980, denies
mismanaging the country and says
its problems are because of economic
sabotage by Western governments opposed
to his seizure of white land. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Fri
4 August 2006
HARARE - Officials from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) yesterday
fanned out across the country educating citizens about a new
currency
introduced this week, amid reports that in some parts of the
country people
were refusing to take the new money.
In sweeping
currency reforms that also included a 60 percent
devaluation of the dollar,
the RBZ slashed three zeroes from every banknote
and said it would introduce
a new "family of bearer cheques" with less
zeroes by August 21.
Bearer cheques are promissory notes first introduced by the RBZ three
years
ago at the height of cash shortages in Zimbabwe. They are not official
legal
tender but are used in the same way as money.
The RBZ said the
currency changes are meant to bring stability and to
lessen the burden for
Zimbabweans who were experiencing enormous
inconvenience because of bearer
cheques with too many zeroes.
Retail shops and residents in the two
biggest cities of Harare and
Bulawayo this week appeared to be fast
adjusting to the new currency.
But in some parts of the country
there has been a lukewarm response,
with for example some public transport
operators and informal businesses in
the eastern border town of Mutare
refusing to take the new currency.
Public transporters in Mutare,
the country's fourth biggest city, said
the new currency had proved to be a
real headache especially because the old
money was still in
circulation.
"We charge $70 000 (of the old notes) per single trip.
Tell me, how
much change should I give someone who hands in $500 of the old
notes?
"It's causing headaches so we have just resolved as
operators here to
accept the old notes only until further notice," said
Naison Bhudhura, a
commuter omnibus operator.
ZimOnline
reporters also tried to buy from shops using the new
currency but found no
takers as most indigenous-owned shops refused to
accept the
money.
"I don't even know how to convert my prices to suit this new
currency.
I will wait a bit until the dust settles and everything is
explained to us.
Otherwise, for now, I am only accepting the old money,"
said Marlon Matari,
who runs a clothing shop in the city.
Only
larges supermarkets and departmental stores in Mutare were
accepting the new
currency. An economist with a Mutare commercial bank,
Edson Marongo, said
hesitation by people in the city and in some parts of
the country to use the
new currency was understandable because the RBZ had
not taken time to fully
explain the currency changes before implementation.
"The bank just
ambushed people with the new notes and everyone is
still trying to come to
grips with it. They now have to win the confidence
of especially the
informal economy so that the money can start circulating
smoothly," he
said.
The informal economy has grown almost at the same pace that
the formal
economy has shrunk and now employs more people as well as
providing more
goods and services than the formal economy.
With
confusion threatening to derail the currency reforms, the RBZ was
said to
have dispatched more than half of its workforce out to smaller towns
and
rural areas to explain how the new money works as well as advising
people on
how to dispose of the old money.
"Our teams are holding meetings
with people in rural areas at central
points such as shopping centres or
even under trees while in urban areas
they are moving around sticking
posters explaining the new currency
measures," said an RBZ official who did
not want to be named.
The police - who have installed roadblocks in
major towns arresting
people found with larger amounts of the old money than
is permitted by the
law - have also been roped in the RBZ's information a
campaign, with large
posters explaining the new changes pasted on walls at
most police stations
across the country.
RBZ governor Gideon
Gono was not immediately available for comment on
the matter. But the
central bank chief on Tuesday toured wholesalers,
supermarkets and banks in
Harare to personally ensure they were accepting
the new money as well as
complying with the new currency regulations. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Fri 4 August
2006
JOHANNESBURG - At least 300 Zimbabweans on Thursday marched to
the
United Nations (UN) offices in Pretoria demanding that the world body
acts
on recommendations put forward by a UN special envoy over last year's
clean-up exercise.
The march, which was organised by the Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition and
the South African Women's Institute of Migration
(SAWIMA), comes a year
after UN special envoy Anna Tibaijuka compiled a
damning report on the
housing demolitions.
The protesters said
they wanted the UN to act on the recommendations
of the report after
President Robert Mugabe government ignored Tibaijuka's
recommendations.
The demonstrators also urged the African Union
and South Africa to
exert their influence to help end a six-year old
political crisis in
Zimbabwe.
The UN said at least 700 000 were
left without shelter after Mugabe
sanctioned the demolition of houses and
backyard shacks in urban areas in
what he said was an attempt to clean-up
cities and towns and smash an
illegal foreign currency market.
The home demolition exercise directly affected another 2.5 million
people,
according to the UN report.
Tibaijuka said the military-style
campaign, dubbed Operation
Murambatsvina, had violated the rights of the
poor and recommended the
prosecution of the brains behind the
exercise.
She also recommended that Harare compensates all those
whose property
was demolished during the campaign. Zimbabwe rejected the
recommendations
outright. - ZimOnline
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
August 3, 2006
Posted to the web August 3,
2006
Sarah Hudleston
Johannesburg
THE Zimbabwe business
community is feeling the fallout from the radical
devaluation of the
Zimbabwean currency by the country's reserve bank. This
saw the Zimbabwean
dollar lose 60Percent of its value following the issuing
of a complete new
set of notes.
While it will make life easier for Zimbabweans forced to
carry around piles
of cash to pay for shopping, critics say the government's
initiative
"Project Sunrise", is wholesale theft and is solely aimed at
boosting the
country's depleted statutory reserves.
Zimbabweans are
allowed to bank up to a total of Z$100m in old notes before
August 21.
Companies are limited to banking Z$5bn, except for established
companies
with high cash turnovers such as supermarkets who can exceed this
figure.
And while many banks are unable to cope with people wishing
to change their
money before the August 21 deadline, Zimbabwe's police force
has set up
roadblocks on the main routes, searching cars and confiscating
large amounts
of cash from people carrying more than Z$5m.
According
to an eyewitness, one motorist had Z$8bn confiscated in Gweru.
Zimbabwe
also has stepped up surveillance at border posts by its tax
authority and
the police to investigate and intercept the "illegal" import
and export of
local currency.
This, says Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono in his
monetary policy
statement issued on Tuesday, is because the authorities can
account for only
$Z10-trillion of the Z$43-trillion in
circulation.
In the meantime, the cash that is pouring into the banks is
boosting the
country's statutory reserves and is a ploy to dig Zimbabwe out
of a hole,
says accountant Nicola Watson.
"While in theory the
changes could be good, but there are going to be a lot
of people,
particularly in the rural areas, who are not going to be aware of
the new
regulations and find that the cash they have is worthless," she
said.
Roy Bennett, the Johannesburg-based national treasurer of the
main
opposition the Movement for Democratic Change agrees that the new
changes
are in effect a form of theft. "It just shows that Gono is
desperate. The
government has completely lost economic
control."
However, some people welcomed the changes.
Mike Garden,
MD of Softrite Harare, which manages companies' payrolls, said
he welcomed
the new controls.
People should not be forced to carry around large
amounts of cash as it made
them targets for criminals, he said.
But
instead of quelling the parallel currency market, the monetary changes
have
boosted it. Harare-based economist John Robertson said now that
exporters
were allowed to keep their foreign currency, money for the
parallel market
is going to be in short supply.
By Tererai Karimakwenda
3 August 2006
Zimbabweans trying to get rid of their old money before the 21 st of
August,
as stipulated by Reserve Bank gGvernor Gideon Gono this week, are
finding it
is not going to be easy at all. It is reported that the new
bearer cheques
are already in short supply and some people were receiving
old cheques at
the banks. It is not clear why this is happening just days
after Gono
announced that 3 zeros would be dropped from Zimbabwe's currency
and gave
people 21 days to convert their old notes. Police, youth militia
and RBZ
officials are reported to be manning road blocks at all major entry
points
leading to the capital. There have been many reports that these teams
are
confiscating foreign currency and Zimbabwean dollars, illegally.
Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchmewa reports that bank officials
have
already started informing people converting their old money that they
can
only accept amounts that are less than the maximum allowed by the new
regulations. Muchmewa said they do not seem to have enough of the new
currency to meet the huge demand. He witnessed several incidents in Harare
banks where people expecting to withdraw cash in the new currency were given
old notes and refused to accept them. He added that in the end they had to
accept whatever they were given because they needed money for daily
living.
Muchemwa told us there is also chaos in the shops, on the
streets and
on the minibuses. He said people are trying to get rid of old
money by
spending it before the 3 week deadline but street vendors as well
as shop
owners are refusing to accept it. This is because they also have to
find
ways to get rid of it themselves or chance losing it. Muchemwa said
there
are arguments everywhere regarding money because nothing seems to be
clear
and no-one seems to have the answers.
Muchemwa described
how people are being subjected to extremely
embarrassing and inhumane
treatment by money squads as they claim to be
searching for excessive
amounts of cash. He talked to several individuals
who alleged that they had
lost all the forex they were travelling with at
road blocks leading to
Harare. The search squads are said to be benefiting
from the situation and
have become a law unto themselves.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
The Herald (Harare)
August
3, 2006
Posted to the web August 3, 2006
Harare
THE Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) will seek powers from the Ministry of
Finance to
reduce the 21-day changeover period the nation had been given to
exchange
the old family of bearer cheques for the new ones that were
introduced
effective August 1.
Reserve Bank governor Dr Gideon Gono said it had come
to the apex bank's
attention that some people and businesses (who were
hoarding cash) were
"trying to beat the system" that had been put in place
before the expiry of
the changeover period.
"The Reserve Bank might
seek to invoke powers to shorten the time and simply
say that's the end," he
told delegates attending the three-day Confederation
of Zimbabwe Industries
(CZI) annual congress in Bulawayo.
According to the central bank, there
was less than $15 trillion out of the
$43 trillion circulating in the formal
economy, with between $10-$15
trillion suspected to have been smuggled out
of the country.
The RBZ boss said the bank had not consulted industry
when it initially
announced the changeover period and would seek powers to
reverse it as
business had suggested the period was too long and should at
maximum, have
been seven days.
Some countries that had undertaken
similar currency reforms had even had a
changeover period in a single day,
he told the delegates.
"After all, it's normal that businesses are
supposed to have been banking
the money anyway," he said.
The
governor, however, said the central bank might be forced to
geographically
extend the changeover period to give a chance especially to
those living in
the rural areas to hand in back the old notes.
He warned certain sections
of the community well known for stashing at home
cash from their business
operations, that Reserve Bank officials would be
"knocking at their
doors".
The central bank would soon employ youths, "give them adequate
training" and
empower them to visit companies checking if they had proper
banking
accounts, he said.
In the future, he said, officials tasked
with licensing business operations
should make it a prerequisite that every
business must have a bank account
first before being granted a
licence.
Meanwhile, banking institutions in the capital were being kept
busy with
individuals and corporates rushing to exchange the old notes for
the new
ones before the expiry of the 21-day changeover
period.
Threshold for depositing of old bearer cheques has been set a
maximum of
$100 million and $5 billion (of the old cheques) for individuals
and
corporates respectively.
Announcing the introduction of the new
family of bearer cheques, which began
circulating in the economy on Tuesday,
the central bank said the old notes
would cease to be legal tender on August
21.
By Tererai Karimakwenda
3 August 2006
Magistrates in Manicaland have refused to try Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa, citing intimidation by the State Security Minister Didymus
Mutasa. It is no secret that the independence of the judiciary in Zimbabwe
has been compromised for years now but this is the first time that all
magistrates in a province have turned down a case, due to interference by a
government official. As Justice Minister Chinamasa runs the courts, yet he
is facing charges of obstructing the course of justice. He is being accused
of trying to influence key witnesses in political violence incidents that
occurred in Mutasa's Makoni North constituency during the run-up to the 2005
parliamentary elections.
But the chief magistrate Herbert
Mandeya withdrew the charges before
plea on Tuesday after the state claimed
that not a single magistrate in
Manicaland province was willing to hear the
case. Lawyer Innocent Gonese,
who is the shadow Justice Minister in the
Tsvangirai MDC, told us the
magistrates informed an open court that they had
been intimidated by
Minister Didymus Mutasa. They said the powerful minister
also accused them
of being members of the MDC. According to the Financial
Gazette newspaper
Mutasa this week denied intimidating the magistrates. He
reportedly said:
"They are lying about me and I don't even know that person
saying those
things at all."
Gonese told us these developments
are very disturbing and gave us an
update on the case. He said: "What has
now happened is that there has been a
separation of trial. The co-accused
are now facing the judge. One of the
persons with whom they were jointly
charged has been removed from remand and
the state will proceed by way of
summons. And from previous experience
sometimes that actually sounds the
death of that particular case." Gonese
said this reinforces that there is no
rule of law, no democracy and no
separation of powers in Zimbabwe. And he
added that this reflects badly on
ZANU-PF.
Gonese also
expressed deep concern for the witnesses in this case. He
said: "The trial
of the minister has failed to take off. And at the rate
that this has been
going it may take a long time before the matter actually
comes up for trial
and during that period you never know what might have
happened to the
witnesses. Witnesses can die. Witnesses can relocate."
Gonese also said that
it was now going to be difficult to ask the witnesses
to testify twice on
the same subject.
Observers have said Mutasa's threats to the
judiciary appear to be a
way of rewarding Chinamasa for interfering with
witnesses in his own
violence case in which he was exonerated. Gonese said
he views all these
developments as a reflection of the internal struggles
within ZANU-PF which
have created two camps vying for power after Mugabe
leaves office.
Late Thursday several reports said that Attorney
General Sobusa Gula
Ndebele had roped in a retired magistrate Phenias
Chipopoteke to handle the
matter. A judiciary officer confirmed that the
matter has been set down for
August 8 and 9. Chipopoteke said he was
approached to take up the matter and
agreed. A report on the New Zimbabwe
website says Gula Ndebele had been
angered that the magistrates had refused
to preside over Chinamasa's trial
without first having notified him and this
had resulted in Chinamasa getting
off the hook.
SW
Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
New Zimbabwe
By
Staff Reporter
Last updated: 08/04/2006 02:27:44
ZIMBABWE'S Attorney
General Sobusa Gula Ndebele has moved swiftly to
resuscitate the collapsed
trial of Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa.
Chinamasa appeared to have
escaped an obstruction of justice trial this week
after magistrates in
Manicaland province refused to preside over the case
following threats from
State Security Minister, Didymus Mutasa.
Ndebele has roped in a retired
magistrate Phenias Chipopoteke to handle the
matter that has been set down
for August 8 and 9, the judiciary officer
confirmed Thursday
night.
Chipopoteke said: "I was approached to take up the matter and I
agreed."
Sources said Gula Ndebele had been angered that the magistrates
had refused
to preside over Chinamasa's trial without first having notified
him
resulting in Chinamasa -- accused of attempting to block the prosecution
of
Mutasa's supporters on violence charges -- getting off the hook
Tuesday.
Mutasa's 23 supporters face violence charges relating to an
attack on
Mutasa's rival, James Kaunye, in the 2005 Zanu PF primary
elections. Kaunye
is a war veteran and a member of Zanu PF's Manicaland
Provincial
Coordinating Committee.
The two were vying for the Makoni
North constituency.
Legal sources told New Zimbabwe.com Thursday that "it
was not surprising"
that Ndebele had intervened. He is said to be at odds
with Chinamasa on a
number of issues, and is generally inclined to
sympathise with Kaunye, a
former colleague in military
intelligence.
Chinamasa denies Kaunye's claims that he tried to bribe him
so that he
doesn't cooperate with the prosecution team as their star
witness.
In his defence outline, Chinamasa said he would say he
approached Kaunye as
alleged but he will say the purpose of the 2004 visit
was to "cultivate an
atmosphere of peace and camaraderie among party members
in Makoni district."
Chinamasa added that he had suggested to Kaunye the
need for a meeting with
Mutasa -- something he claims was accepted by the
former, but rejected by
the latter.
Chinamasa will say: "Kaunye seems
to harbour hatred against all people whom
he perceives as Minister Mutasa's
allies and he will fight and try to
destroy them."
Chinamasa will
further tell his trial, in which he is jointly accused with
four other men,
that Kaunye saw him as "an extension of Minister Mutasa and
it is not
difficult to see the witness's motive for lying."
A new study finds that entrenched corruption remains a
principal obstacle to democracy in transitional countries throughout the world.
The study, Countries at the Crossroads 2006, was issued by Freedom House
today. The study examines the state of governance in 30
countries in which democratic institutions remain fragile or which are ruled by
authoritarian governments. Countries at the Crossroads measures four
areas of governance: accountability and public voice; civil liberties; rule of
law; and anticorruption and transparency. In almost every country included in
the survey, the lowest scores were recorded for corruption and a lack of
transparency. The study further noted that since 2004, when this group of
countries was last evaluated, a lack of progress or, in many cases, an outright
decline in performance on combating corruption was evident. The poor corruption
performance held across geographical regions and governing systems.
"This study clearly shows that corruption is a
pervasive problem throughout the world and a major obstacle to the strengthening
of democratic institutions," said Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer
Windsor. "The report is telling us that those who support democracy must
continue to search for policy solutions that can increase transparency and hold
governments genuinely accountable," she added. Zimbabwe, Azerbaijan, Yemen, Kazakhstan and Bahrain
were the five weakest performers on the anticorruption measure. Zimbabwe was
the worst performer of all 30 countries in this category. The Zimbabwe report
observes that "the primary interest of the Mugabe government is to retain power
through a system of patronage that includes access to both state and private
assets. The ruling ZANU-PF party owns a wide range of businesses, allowing party
elites to profit personally." The report found that countries such as South Africa
and Kenya, which have relatively sound performance in terms of accountability
and public voice, nevertheless posted low scores for corruption. Even in states where reform opportunities have emerged,
the challenges of implementation have been daunting. In Ukraine, for instance,
the report finds that the exposure of corrupt institutions that followed the
Orange Revolution "was not accompanied by a change in the structural incentives
for politicians and civil servants to blur the line between private and public
interests." "These reports illustrate that sound democratic
institutions do not emerge spontaneously after credible elections," said Sanja
Tatic, managing editor of Countries at the Crossroads. "Even most
reform-oriented governments find it extremely challenging to root out corruption
and transform key state institutions," she added. The report's anti-corruption and transparency section
analyzes a government's performance in fighting corruption by evaluating the
existence of laws and standards to prevent and combat corrupt practices,
investigating the enforcement of such measures, and examining overall
governmental transparency. The study also noted increased constraints on press
freedom in some countries where corruption is most rampant. A properly
functioning press plays a vital role in increasing public access to government
activities, exposing corruption and airing debates about how it can be best
addressed. "The news media are a prime target of corrupt regimes,
which seek to keep their activities hidden in the shadows," said Christopher
Walker, Director of Studies at Freedom House and co-editor of Countries at
the Crossroads. The survey presented a number of other significant
findings: Countries at the Crossroads is an annual report
that provides detailed written analysis and comparative statistics, as well as
recommendations presenting suggestions for policy action, on two sets of thirty
states. Each set is evaluated every two years. This year's report examines
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cambodia, East Timor, Jordan, Morocco, Nicaragua,
Nepal, Nigeria, Georgia, Guatemala, Guyana, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya,
Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Malaysia, Pakistan, Yemen, Ukraine, Sierra Leone, South
Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. The findings are available in essay
form as well as in a package of charts and
graphs, and country
narratives are available online. Freedom House, an independent private organization
supporting the expansion of freedom throughout the world, has been monitoring
the state of political rights and civil liberties around the globe since
1972.
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:
Amanda
Abrams
Washington, D.C., and Nairobi, Kenya,August 3,
2006
New Zimbabwe
THE talk in
Zimbabwe these days is of a supposed political initiative
steered by former
Tanzanian President, Benjamin Makapa, aimed at restoring
damaged relations
between Harare and London in particular and the the
Western nations in
general.
While it is true that relations between Zimbabwe's recalcitrant
ruler and
the rest of the world are currently bad, it is generally false to
assume
that Zimbabwe's problems lie squarely with the bad
relations.
The truth is that Zimbabwe's problems are more of an
indegenous nature
characterised largely by political misconduct on the part
of the first
person, sheer thuggery, rapacity, obduracy and the general
disregard for the
common people's right to political choice.
The
supposed initiative rests upon an upside down premise because it assumes
that if Mugabe begins to fly to Europe freely with his retinue, nomarlcy
would return in Zimbabwe.
It disregards the fact that total political
reform will have to occur in
Zimbabwe if we are to start speaking of any
return to international
acceptance.
Those who have purchased
wholesesale into the fallacy in question ignore the
fact that the Mkapa
initiative lends credence to the false claim that Mugabe
and the Zimbabweans
are victims of foreign devils. President Mugabe is
evidently happy with this
false notion because it absolves him of any wrong
doing and places the blame
on the door on an imagined enemy.
Yet the reality remains that once
Mugabe abandons his quarrelsome brand of
politics characterised by brazen
brutality, the thuggish silencing of
political
opponents, banning of
basic legitimate means of protest, closure of
newspapers, seizure of private
property, theft, bench-packing, corruption,
murder and many other related
evils, Zimbabwe would have firmly set itself
on the route to international
recognition.
It is, however, saddening to note that some people who
otherwise should be
respected and have a moral obligation to side with the
victims of autocracy
and economic incompetence that is emblematic of
Mugabe's rule are actually
tumbling over one another in a scramble to be
heard first in the support of
this still-born initiative.
Witness how
they ignore the self evident fact that Mugabe was being
dishonest when he
said Kofi Anan had purchased into his explanations on the
way forward on
Zimbabwe and that he had blessed the Mkapa initiative.
If there is a
person who knows that Mugabe is his own enemy, and therefore
nobody's
victim, that person is Annan.
Therefore, it is hard to imagine, let alone
believe, that he would have
bought into the fallacy that Zimbabwe's route
out of this mess is via talks
with London.
To allow Mugabe to
continue peddling the "false fight" he has erected
between himself and
London will be to allow him to pull wool over our faces
at the risk of
letting him squirm off the hook.
Mugabe's tactic is to impress it upon
his gullible supporters and the lost
"African patriots" that his problems
began with Britian's neo-colonial
machinations. It is his idea to win
sympathy from people who will naturally
side with him since Zimbabwe is a
former British colony.
Why should Mkapa waste time and resources
shuttling between Harare and
London when the easiest way is for Mugabe to
abondon his autocratic ways?
The fact of the matter is that Mkapa should
start a project of delivering
Zimbabwe from under the shadow of the fist
which has been cast over her for
the last 26 years.
He must tell his
fist-waving and air-punching friend to do himself and
Zimbabwe a service by
abondoning his totalitarian project characterised by a
gross and brazen
disregard for the entire package of internationally
accepted norms of
political conduct.
He should abondon his behavior which is totally
rejected by modern
conscience and has visited upon us varieties of moral
degradation.
This is why it is understood why London has refuted the idea
of talks with
Mugabe. It would be a political blunder for Tony Blair to
accept this
approach towards a better Zimbabwe because he would be helping
Mugabe's
claims that he is reposnible for Harare's woes.
Mugabe dug
his own hole. Zimbabwe's inflation is not high because anybody in
London
pushed it that high. Things are generally upside down in Zimbabwe
because
political legitimacy is lacking and it is so because Mugabe's
government has
an outright and renowned diregard for other people's
fundamental right to
make personal choices without being accosted by any
liberation war
hero.
Isn't it clear that a peaceful Zimbabwe where rights of all are
respected,
where political crime is punished, where law enforcement agents
are
politically neutral, where judges are not puppets and the security
agents
are professional, a person like Mugabe would not
survive?
Mugabe's destructive political profile explains the character of
a person on
a mission to create conditions under which he will thrive
characterised by
violence, deception, insults, quarells and
swearing.
That is why he is always thumping rostrums, punching invisible
enemies with
a clenched fist issuing unsolicited ripostes trying to convince
people that
he is fighting anybody.
It is not wholly offiside to
suggest that the symbol of Mugabe's rule should
be a clenched fist dangling
menacingly over Zimbabwe with a dark shadow cast
across the entire country
with terrified people being sent helter-skelter.
Mkapa should know that
instead of us living under the fear of a neo-colonial
demon, we are living
under the shadow of an angry and paranoid master's
fist.
Mthulisi
Mathuthu is a Zimbabwean journalist and New Zimbabwe.com columnist.
He is
currently on leave writing a book. Views expressed here are his own.
He can
be contacted at: thuthuma@yahoo.com
By Tichaona
Sibanda
3 August 2006
Thereis a glimmer of hope for over
15 000 failed asylum seekers from
Zimbabwe who face immediate deportation
from the UK following indications
from influential British politicians that
the issue needs to be looked at
carefully before the forced returns begin.
Despite the Home Office on
Wednesday winning the right to send them back
home, top politicians from the
Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat
parties are uncomfortable with the
British government sending people back to
a brutal regime whose intolerance
to different political views is well
documented.
The Home Office indicated soon after the judgement that
enforced
returns to Zimbabwe could begin as early as next month but
influential
Shadow Home Office secretary for the Conservatives David Davies
on Thursday
issued a statement urging for restraint and more scrutiny on the
issue.
Although all political parties and government are not in
dispute with
the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal ruling, there is growing
concern among
many British MPs that the Zimbabwean issue of asylum seekers
needs to be
looked at differently.
As such, senior members of
the MDC will be meeting for an urgent
Indaba Thursday night to try to bring
a political dimension to the issue.
Frantic efforts are now well underway to
engage politicians from all parties
to try and negotiate a political
decision to halt the removals.
Harris Nyatsanza, a human rights
activist who has barely slept the
last four days, is spearheading this
initiative after spending up to 20
hours per day canvassing for support from
British members of Parliament.
'Firstly politicians here respect
the rule of law and as such they
agree with the outcome of the court
decision. However they feel
uncomfortable to see the British government
sending people to Zimbabwe as
everyone knows the type of government that is
in power there,' Nyatsanza
said.
He added that almost every MP
he has discussed this issue with
sympathises with the failed asylum seekers,
including the British public who
have also voiced their concern during radio
and television talk shows.
'This is a good start, at least we have
the support of many British
people who have been debating the issue on both
radio and television and we
also have the support of influential British
MPs, including those from the
Labour government. What we need to do now is
to approach this politically
since the legal route has come to an end,' said
Nyatsanza.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Lance
Guma
3 August 2006
The man credited with rigging several
elections for Robert Mugabe has
engineered the deportation of Topper
Whitehead, a computer expert who helped
the opposition MDC build up evidence
of the rigging. Last month the
Registrar Generals office led by Tobaiwa
Mudede refused to renew Whitehead's
Zimbabwean passport and instead issued
him with a Prohibited Immigrant (PI)
order, signed last year. This follows a
long history of harassment in which
the election expert has had his home
ransacked by police this year under the
pretext they were looking for
subversive materials. The raid however saw
security officials confiscating
valuable evidence that the MDC wanted to use
in the election
petitions.
The weekly Financial Gazette quotes Home Affairs
Minister Kembo Mohadi
saying, "it is not in the public interest for me to
disclose the reasons why
I deemed Roland Whitehead to be an undesirable
inhabitant or visitor to
Zimbabwe.' The paper also quotes the Chief
Immigration officer Ellasto
Mugwadi as saying they had confiscated his
travel documents after he
surrendered his passport voluntarily to the
Registrar General offices. 'He
had taken South African citizenship and as we
speak he is in South Africa,'
Mugwadi claimed.
In an interview
with Newsreel David Coltart, a member of the MDC legal
team that worked with
Whitehead, described the deportation as 'malicious.'
He explained that
allegations of Whitehead having dual citizenship were not
true as he only
used a temporary South African passport for travel to Zambia
to take up a
job opportunity. This happened because authorities delayed the
renewal of
his Zimbabwean passport. Coltart described Whitehead as a fine
patriotic
Zimbabwean who had done a lot for his country, adding that
deportations of
this nature should be reserved for people like drug dealers
and not someone
like Whitehead.
Whitehead was a key member of the MDC electoral
challenge team and his
efforts alongside others culminated in the auditing
of the 2002 presidential
election ballots between August and November last
year. Mudede was found in
contempt of a court order that sought the handing
over of these ballot
boxes. By deporting Whitehead, Mudede has got his
revenge, Coltart said.
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
Reuters
Thu
Aug 3, 2006 2:46 PM GMT
By Stella Mapenzauswa
BULAWAYO (Reuters) -
Zimbabwe has been left behind in a booming mobile phone
industry in Africa
as a recession and foreign exchange crunch hampers the
three operators'
ability to expand their networks, a leading industry
official
said.
"In terms of penetration rate, we are the lowest in Africa. The
market
potential is currently estimated at 30 percent. Sitting at 6 percent
we have
just scratched the surface," said Douglas Mboweni, chief executive
of
leading operator Econet.
In Zimbabwe, crippled by an eight-year
recession, customers wait months for
mobile phone SIM cards to come on the
market, and most are forced to buy
them at nearly 10 times the official
price on the thriving black market.
"It is about forex injection. We can
make all the Zimbabwe money we want,
but unless we have the forex we will
not do much expansion because the
inputs ... are forex denominated," Mboweni
told an annual congress of
business leaders in the southern city of Bulawayo
late on Wednesday.
Local mobile firms are also saddled with a heavy load
of international
traffic -- forcing them to pay out scant foreign currency
to counterparts in
recipient countries -- because Zimbabwe's low tariffs
made it cheaper to
make international calls than most other parts of the
world.
"At 14 cents a minute we are the lowest in the region in terms of
tariffs.
Kenya is around Kenya 40-50 cents ... South Africa around 20 cents.
Zimbabwe
today is a dumping ground for traffic," Mboweni said.
An
unreliable telecommunications system has worsened the lot of Zimbabwean
companies struggling to survive in a harsh economic climate that has seen
some fold under soaring inflation and frequent electricity
cuts.
Officials say local firms are operating at about 30 percent
capacity on
average.
"With no communication you cannot do business.
There is actually a stumbling
block," said Callisto Jokonya, president of
the Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries.
Last month Econet, which
has about 57 percent of the local subscriber share,
said it aimed to
increase subscribers by more than two-thirds to 800,000
after securing a $20
million network expansion loan from the Cairo-based
African Export-Import
Bank.
Econet competes with two other operators, privately owned Telecel
Zimbabwe,
which has 17 percent of the local market, and state-run Net*One
with 26
percent.
The Herald (Harare)
August 3,
2006
Posted to the web August 3, 2006
Harare
THE proposed
privatisation of the Cold Storage Company (CSC) could take much
longer than
expected as the beef producer is yet to secure potential
investors, seven
months after the Government announced plans to offload the
loss-making
parastatal.
It was only last week that CSC chief executive Mr Ngoni
Chinogaramombe
revealed that the company had "just" commenced discussions
with potential
investors under the company's privatisation
programme.
Sources within the company indicated that it has been an
uphill task to
scout for potential investors mainly due to its unhealthy
financial position
and poor performance.
"It has been difficult for
us to get investors as soon as we had
anticipated," said
sources.
"But we hope things are now taking shape and by the end of
December, we
would have completed our privatisation programme," they said
without
elaborating.
Mr Chinogaramombe was also equally not at
liberty to give more details on
the potential investors.
"We have
just commenced discussions with prospective investors into CSC in
the
context of the company's privatisation programme and given the nature of
the
discussions we find it strategic not to unduly appear in the media,
especially talking about our problems," was all he could say.
In
December last year, Finance Minister Dr Herbert Murerwa said new partners
would be brought into CSC, as part of Government efforts to resurrect the
privatisation policy.
By courting new investors and subsequently
listing on the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange, CSC intends to raise fresh capital.
Production levels have
plummeted over the years due to a combination of
drought and a string of
in-house challenges.
The company has been
failing to pay workers while several farmers terminated
beef
supplies, resulting in the company operating at 20 percent
capacity.
CSC has the potential to generate US$40 million annually, but
exports to the
lucrative EU market were suspended indefinitely following a
foot-and-mouth
outbreak in Matabeleland.
The parastatal earned a
paltry US$325 000 from canned products last year.
The Herald
(Harare)
August 3, 2006
Posted to the web August 3,
2006
Harare
DELEGATIONS from almost 20 African countries are
expected to converge in
Zimbabwe for the annual East and Southern Africa
malaria conference later
this month.
The malaria review and planning
conferences were effective in sharing best
practices and peer review
mechanisms among countries.
The meeting will bring together
representatives of national malaria control
programmes of Botswana, Comoros,
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar,
Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique,
Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda,
Tanzania, Zambia and
Zimbabwe.
Partners and multilateral agencies supporting malaria control
such as World
Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund, the
African Union
regional economic community health desk, malaria research
institutions, the
private sector, non governmental organisations and other
stakeholders, were
also expected to participate at the meeting. In a
statement, WHO country
office said the meeting, scheduled for August 14 to
18 in Harare, was aimed
at providing a forum for reviewing, sharing
experiences, and planning
interventions to accelerate access to malaria
prevention and treatment
towards achieving the Millennium Development
Goals.
The theme for this year's malaria conference is "East and Southern
Africa --Accelerating Malaria Prevention and Treatment".
Other
objectives of the conference were to review country progress,
performance
and challenges in implementing the 2005/2006 country malaria
control plans
as well as to update country drug policy profiles and
implementation of drug
and malaria in pregnancy policies in East and
Southern Africa.
The
meeting would appraise the implementation of indoor residual spraying
and
insecticide treated nets programmes with the aim of improving community
access to the interventions as well as finalise and identify strategies for
accelerating malaria prevention and treatment in the 2006/2007 country
action plans.
While malaria is largely preventable and curable, it
has remained a leading
cause of death in the country.
Mmegi, Botswana
RYDER GABATHUSE
Staff Writer
8/3/2006 3:02:24 PM (GMT
+2)
FRANCISTOWN: Tswapong North MP Oreeditse Molebatsi is steadfast
that
his comments last Friday on Zimbabwe were fair even if they differ with
his
party position.
"I don't think that even the Botswana
Democratic Party (BDP)
government is happy with our relations with Zimbabwe.
The government
continues to lose a lot of money as a result of its relations
with
Zimbabwe," observed Molebatsi.
He insisted that
Zimbabweans are not good neighbours. "I don't take
them to be good
neighbours, no matter how I look at them." Last week Friday,
Molebatsi
shocked some of his BDP colleagues when he told Parliament that
Zimbabweans
are not good neighbours and Botswana should stop any relations
with the
country if it wants to excel in economic growth.
He was
debating a motion by Palapye MP, Boyce Sebetela, that called on
Parliament
to request government to develop and implement a national citizen
contractors' skill and capacity rating system to guide procurement
preference schemes.
BDP MPs, Sebetela, Shoshong MP Duke
Lefhoko and Francistown-West MP
Tshelang Masisi supported Molebatsi's
statement. Molebatsi, who is formerly
an employee of the Botswana Railways
(BR) says recently over 1 000 BR
employees lost their jobs because of the
attitude of the government of
Zimbabwe.
In particular, he
cited the diversion of transit goods from the
Francistown-Bulawayo route to
the Bulawayo-Beitbridge route, which has
negatively affected BR
profits.
"Today, a lot of things are expensive in the country
because of the
mode of transport of bringing goods into the country from
South Africa.
There is a heavy movement of trucks along the major roads
which results in
road accidents," he said. He was worried that costs of
maintaining major
roads are high because of the volume of trucks on the
roads.
"Given this picture, Zimbabweans are not good
neighbours." He was
worried that the government was silent on the employment
of a foreign CEO of
the BR who is from Zimbabwe for that matter. He
expressed a worry that the
Zimbabwe on government continues to show that
they do not want anything to
do with Botswana yet Botswana accommodates them
as simple as that.
"We've got to do something as a country if
we want to catch up on the
economic front and we should not go down with
Zimbabwe," he stressed.
Explaining the BDP position on its relations with
Zimbabwe, BDP deputy
executive secretary, Fidelis Molao told Mmegi yesterday
that Molebatsi's
comments do not necessarily reflect those of the
party.
"I don't think the party can go to that level. I believe
that we have
a policy of good neighbourliness with Zimbabwe and other
neighbours," said
Molao. He indicated that it was unfair to judge Botswana's
relations with
Zimbabwe basing on isolated incidents perpetrated by
individuals. Asked how
he could reconcile the party's position versus
Molebatsi's comments.
"I think if this can be an issue it will
be tackled internally. He is
an MP and was speaking from Parliament and so
far nobody has raised an issue
on his comments." Molao observed that it was
unfair that the MP was painting
Zimbabweans with the same brush. "As a
country, we better allow the law to
take its course on those that are bent
on breaking it."