http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011 16:11
Faith
Zaba
A TEAM of detectives has completed investigations into fraud charges
against
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and a close relative Hebson
Makuvise,
Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Germany, on allegations of
misappropriating US$1,5
million in public funds meant to buy the premier’s
residence in an up-market
Harare suburb.
Impeccable sources in
top government circles told the Zimbabwe Independent
this week that the
docket was now with the Commissioner-General of police,
Augustine
Chihuri.
An officer in the Criminal Investigations Department (CID),
which carried
out the investigations, said: “Investigations are now
complete and the
docket is now with the commissioner-general who is just
waiting for the
go-ahead to arrest the prime minister.”
Cabinet
ministers and senior government officials are normally arrested only
after
President Robert Mugabe has consented. CID chief superintendent Alison
Nyamupaguma was leading the investigations team into Tsvangirai’s fraud
case.
However, police spokesperson assistant commissioner Wayne
Bvudzijena
declined to comment on the matter. “For now we are not commenting
on the
matter,” was all Bvudzijena would say yesterday.
A fierce
battle is raging behind the scenes between the law enforcement
agents,
securocrats, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and Zanu PF over the
issue.
Information obtained this week shows that deep divisions have
emerged, with
the securocrats and law enforcement agents pushing for
Tsvangirai’s arrest,
while some Zanu PF politburo members were arguing that
arresting the premier
while the country was preparing for elections would be
tantamount to
committing political suicide.
Another battle is also reportedly
brewing between RBZ governor Gideon Gono
and law enforcement agents, who
want the central bank to be the main
complainant against Tsvangirai.
However, sources said Gono was reluctant to
do so.
Gono played a
central role in negotiating with President Robert Mugabe for
the release of
the US$1,5 million for Tsvangirai’s official residence. The
case has
attracted the interest of the Joint Operations Command (Joc), which
brings
together army, police and intelligence chiefs. Joc wants Tsvangirai
arrested, although some of its members fear this could trigger political
upheaval in the country ahead of elections which could propel him to
power.
One ministerial source said: “The docket is ready and it’s
with Chihuri, but
the problem is that we are in a dilemma – to arrest or not
to arrest. There
are two arguments over the issue. We have the securocrats
pushing for his
arrest and arguing that politics aside, the man should face
the music if he
committed fraud, while another group is saying arresting him
now might not
be a good idea considering that we are going for elections
next year. It
will be viewed as political persecution. We also have Gono,
who should be
the complainant but he is resisting.”
Allegations
are that Tsvangirai and Makuvise misappropriated US$1,5 million
released by
the RBZ in 2009 to purchase the house located at No 49 Kew Drive
in
Highlands. The house, a double storey mansion, is currently under
renovations to ensure it meets standard quarters for a
premier.
Tsvangirai is accused of double-dipping by taking money from
the RBZ and
Treasury for the same project. Allegations are that besides the
US$1,5
million, close to US$1 million could also have been released from
state
coffers for the purchase and development of the same
property.
The sources said Tsvangirai had already overshot his budget
of US$1 million
with the figure thought to have more than doubled by now.
After the
formation of the inclusive government in February 2009, there was
a
legitimate expectation on Tsvangirai’s part that the prime minister would
move to State House, which was home to former president the late Canaan
Banana.
Since Mugabe moved out of Zimbabwe House to his
privately-owned home in
Borrowdale, Tsvangirai expected to move into either
State House or Zimbabwe
House, but the president apparently blocked the
move.
Tsvangirai requested funding from Mugabe to buy a house after
he was denied
access to the two state residences. When the MDC-T temporarily
withdrew from
government in October 2009, the premier’s residence was part
of the issues
he raised with Mugabe, over and above the outstanding GPA
issues and lack of
communication between him and the
president.
Although Tsvangirai wanted US$3 million, Mugabe approved
US$1,5 million for
the project. This came days after the MDC-T ended its
boycott of cabinet and
government following a Sadc troika summit in Maputo,
Mozambique to deal with
the problem.
The paper trail of the
movement of the US$1,5 million through banks shows
that the money was
transferred from the RBZ in November 2009 into a holding
CBZ bank account.
Makuvise then moved the money from the CBZ account to a ZB
Bank account.
US$140 000 was withdrawn from the ZB account and used to buy a
residential
stand, allegedly for Makuvise.
From ZB Bank, the funds were again
transferred into Makuvise’s personal
account at BancABC and later into the
account of a prominent Harare law firm
held at Interfin. The law firm has
previously represented Tsvangirai.
Several withdrawals were subsequently
made over the past two years.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011 16:09
Owen
Gagare in Beijing
CHINA has acknowledged that Zimbabwe’s influence in the
Sadc region has
weakened over the last decade, but says it would continue to
nurture its
relations with Zanu PF with which it has a special relationship
dating back
to the war of liberation.
The deputy director in the
African Department of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, in charge of
relations between China and Zimbabwe, Xiao Nan, said
although China had a
government to government relationship with Zimbabwe,
the ruling Chinese
Communist Party identified more with Zanu PF than other
political parties in
the country because of relations forged during the
fight for
liberation.
China trained Zimbabwe’s liberation fighters and also
assisted with weapons.
“China and Zimbabwe have good government to
government and people to people
relations. There are also good relations
between the two parties (Zanu PF
and the Chinese Communist Party). Relations
were established during the
liberation war, so there is a special
relationship,” Nan said.
Nan, who was attached to the Chinese embassy
in Harare between 2001 and
2005, admitted that Zimbabwe’s influence in Sadc
and Africa had been on a
downward spiral although President Robert Mugabe
was still influential.
He said Zimbabwe remained important to China
adding that his country would
want to keep it by its side alongside other
African countries. “We think
Zimbabwe is a very important country. Maybe 20
years ago, it was number one
in Sadc, but from 2000, Zimbabwe’s economy has
not developed well. Maybe in
future, when its economy improves it will
become influential again,” he
said.
Zimbabwe, once considered the
bread basket of Southern Africa, is struggling
to extricate itself from a
decade-long economic crisis triggered by the
country’s chaotic and
controversial land reform programme and bickering
between Zanu PF and the
MDC formations, among other reasons.
Sadc and the African Union have
had to intervene in an effort to find
solutions to the country’s political
crisis. Nan said his country supported
Sadc’s mediation efforts in Zimbabwe
and had used its veto power in the
United Nations Security Council to block
sanctions being slapped on the
country in 2008 because it believed Sadc and
the AU had the capacity to
handle Zimbabwe’s problems.
He said
China could have also used its veto power to stop the resolution for
a
no-fly zone in Libya, but did not do so because African countries in the
UN
security council were in favour of the resolution.
“The African
countries, South Africa and two other countries in the security
council
(Nigeria and Gabon) were in favour of the UN resolution, so
considering the
African countries’ attitude, we didn’t resist. On African
issues, we value
the opinion of Africans and when we used our veto power to
block sanctions
on Zimbabwe, Sadc and the AU were also against sanctions.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011
15:58
AS the government intensifies its indigenisation and empowerment
drive
buoyed by the just ended Zanu PF conference which gave the
controversial
programme thumbs up, Zimbabwe Independent senior political
editor Faith Zaba
(FZ) spoke to Youth Development, Indigenisation and
Empowerment minister
Saviour Kasukuwere (SK) to get more clarity on the
policy.
FZ: Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono says indigenisation
will only benefit
the elite. Zanu PF supporters at their conference also
raised these
concerns. How will you ensure the well-connected are not the
only
beneficiaries?
SK: The community share ownership scheme and our
commitment to broad-based
policies basically speak for themselves. If
anybody criticises that, I think
I can take the criticism but as far as we
are concerned we are doing
whatever is humanly possible to ensure that the
broad masses of our people
significantly benefit.
FZ: When you
talk about a community, what exactly are you referring to?
SK: We are talking
about a defined geography and people in a given area and
when we say
benefit, it’s development in a given area –– roads and
education. We refer
to assets to be built in a given area for common use by
people in terms of
irrigation, development, agriculture and so on.
FZ: How does the
community-share ownership scheme work? Do they get
dividends?
SK: They
will benefit from the dividends, contracts, direct participation
in the
business itself because community directors will be on the main
board. We
are trying to inculcate a business spirit in our people by
ensuring they
steward the success of entities operating in their community.
Worker
empowerment schemes, we have launched, speak volumes about our
broad-based
policy. Workers have become key drivers of entities they work
in. Schweppes
is one such example. It should move from 30% production to 70%
because of
worker enthusiasm. There is also the Meikles share scheme. I don’t
see in
all these schemes where we have benefited the elite. Criticism can be
justified but one has to look at who is criticising as well as their track
record.
FZ: What are you doing to ensure these trusts are not
manipulated or
hijacked by politicians?
SK: The structures are
watertight, very clear and the statutory instrument
spells out the role of
the community. We are undertaking massive capacity
building.
FZ:
Who runs the community trusts?
SK: They are run by the communities through
their chiefs, Rural District
Council chairpersons, CEOs, women and youths,
and trustees representing
community interests comprising an accountant, a
lawyer and a member of the
qualifying business.
FZ: Some say
this is an election gimmick by Zanu PF to try and woo voters?
SK: Absolute
nonsense! This is a fundamental national policy. It is not just
about
elections; it is what we believe in and what we stand for. Development
is
about people. We can’t stop developing our people just because there is
an
election. In fact, if anything, we have chosen to deliver.
FZ:
Economic Planning minister Tapiwa Mashakada recently said your actions
are
not reflective of government decisions and are mere individual actions.
SK:
You know he was in Perth (Australia) and I understand where he was. He
had
to speak their language. He is one of those few people who firmly
believes
in empowerment but might have a straitjacket to deal with his
political
structure which makes it very difficult for him to be flexible. No
sane
Zimbabwean can oppose empowerment of his own people, unless they are
crazy.
FZ: Do you have cabinet backing to cancel licences?
SK:
It’s not about green light from cabinet; it’s about the roles and what’s
contained in the powers of a minister; what I should do and what the law
permits me to do.
FZ: President Robert Mugabe said it was not a
one-man show.
SK: He is correct. Funny enough everyone then turns around and
said he was
clipping the wings of the minister. What the president was
saying was that
all of us must be involved. Wouldn’t it be a pleasure to see
each and every
minister articulating empowerment even if you are in Perth?
Each and every
ministry must carry out an indigenisation and empowerment
policies. So what
the president said is that this is not Kasukuwere alone
who must be carrying
out this responsibility, it is all of
us.
FZ: But most people took Mugabe’s statement to mean that you
should deal
with compliance, while the implementation should be done by the
responsible
ministers.
SK: Unless you are now the president’s
spokesperson. I don’t know what you
want me to say about that
interpretation. It is what you are saying. I don’t
think I need to add
anything to what the president said. He spoke to all of
us. We held
discussions with the president –– we know what he is saying.
FZ: You
have a dysfunctional inclusive government where ministers from one
party
strongly support the policy and others saying different things. Are
you
getting support from MDC ministers?
SK: What is new about that? MDC-T is
known for speaking different
languages. We are used to that. It is double
standards.
FZ: But in your cabinet meetings, is the support
there?
SK: In cabinet and meetings on government business, there is nobody
against
indigenisation. The fact that individuals cannot defend themselves
when they
are in front of certain crowds is not for me to defend. Who
amongst them has
ever brought to my attention, let alone to parliament and
say let’s repeal
this legislation?
FZ: When you were in Bulawayo
there was talk about resuscitating industries
in the city. Which industries
have you identified and at what stage are you
in offering assistance?
SK:
I sit on that cabinet committee and I can give an example of the Cotton
Printers Company which we successfully made sure is owned by management and
workers. We want to make sure the DIMAF (Distressed and Marginalised Areas
Fund) is made available to companies to resume operations. We want to ensure
indigenous players are supported in Matabeleland to claim their stake in
businesses and become drivers in the economy of Bulawayo and the greater
Matabeleland region, particularly in agriculture. It is critical that the
correct individuals are identified to turn around the fortunes of
Bulawayo.
FZ: US$40 million was to be disbursed to distressed
companies in Bulawayo.
What has happened to that money?
SK: It is
somewhere between CABS and the Ministry of Finance. I think
political soccer
is being played there.
FZ: But is US$40 million enough?
SK: The
minister of Industry and Commerce has said we need lots of funds to
resuscitate the entire national economy, but the US$40 million is a good
start if it had been pumped in. By now, we should be seeing some benefits
across industries in Matabeleland. It is not enough and I don’t know how
much is adequate, but I’m sure the spirit is there to resuscitate industries
and ensure that our people are drivers of the national economy in
future.
FZ: On youth development programmes; what do you have in
place to assist the
youths?
SK: Youths are key in the national economic
revolution. It’s their energy,
as well as education that we must fully
exploit to grow the country’s
economy. We have highly educated people with
skills, many of whom don’t have
a place to exercise what they have learnt.
We don’t want these youths to end
up turning against us because we are not
being responsible. I am pleased to
say facilities have been obtained. We
have support coming through the
budgetary system; we have the CABS facility
and our ministry is finalising
with Stanbic Bank on another tranche of US$20
million. By the end of this
year, we are looking at around US$40 million
which will be available for
disbursement across the country. Whilst that is
not enough, I think it will
go a long way in at least giving hope to our
young people.
FZ: Concerns have been raised that these funds will
only benefit Zanu PF
youths
SK: Young people aged between 18 and 35 will
benefit. You can never tell by
age which party you come from. I think the
most critical thing is that young
people in Zimbabwe must be
supported.
FZ: On the banking sector, is it not already indigenised
given that they are
currently more indigenous banks and financial
institutions operating in
Zimbabwe?
SK: They are not and their attitude
is all wrong. You can tell from the last
AMA bills (Agriculture Marketing
Authority), the lack of support and total
disregard of the office of the
deputy prime minister. We need to support
agriculture as the mainstay of our
economy because about 78% of our people
live off the land. There is a
reluctance to lend to farmers, ignoring
challenges that face our nation. The
banking sector will be nicely tackled
next year.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011 15:56
Brian
Chitemba
FIVE MDC legislators who defected to a splinter group led by
Deputy
Prime-Minister Arthur Mutambara are likely to be fired from
parliament by
the Welshman Ncube-led faction.
The five MPs
include deputy Speaker of parliament Nomalanga Khumalo, Mkandla
Zinti,
Maxwell Dube and senators Kembo Dube and Dalimuzi Khumalo. They
joined the
Mutambara faction and could lose their seats since they were
elected on the
MDC-N ticket.
Plans are now underway to take the MPs before a
disciplinary committee
before they are recalled from parliament, according
to MDC-N organising
secretary Qubani Moyo. “Effectively, the MPs represent
no one in parliament
because they were elected by the people on an MDC
ticket and not Mutambara’s
group,” said Moyo. “Therefore, we want the five
MPs fired from parliament.”
The five MPs and their new faction argue
that Ncube was not an elected
member and hence had no mandate to fire them
from parliament. Former MDC-N
legislators, Abedinico Bhebhe, who is now the
MDC-T deputy organising
secretary, Njabuliso Mguni and Norman Mpofu, were
also fired from the party
and parliament for bringing the name of the party
into disrepute.
Moyo said Mutambara and his group were fading into
political oblivion
because the Ncube executive was chosen by party members
at the MDC third
elective congress in January.
Mutambara, who
voluntarily stepped down to pave way for Ncube as MDC
president, later
somersaulted after he was asked to relinquish the deputy
prime minister’s
post for the new leader.
President Robert Mugabe also refused to
swear in Ncube. Moyo said Ncube’s
MDC was focusing on building grassroots
structures countrywide in
preparation for elections expected next
year.
“The country is now in an election mode, so we are leaving no
stone unturned
in mobilising our power base. The fight for the DPM’s post is
not as
important as luring the voters,” he said.
Last week,
Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Lawrence Kamocha ordered
Mutambara to stop
masquerading as a principal in the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) and also
to stop acting as president of the smaller faction
of the MDC led by Ncube.
Mutambara has appealed against the ruling at the
Supreme Court seeking to
overturn the High Court judgment.
Moyo said Mutambara was in limbo
and his political career had reached sunset
levels because Ncube was the
legitimate MDC president as was decided by
congress and confirmed by the
recent High Court judgment.
Repeated efforts to get a comment from
Mutambara were fruitless as his
mobile was not reachable.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011
15:53
PARLIAMENT last week debated two motions which divided the House
resulting
in a walkout by Zanu PF MPs. The motions were calling for
reconstitution of
the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (Baz) board and
revoking of two radio
licences granted to Zimpapers and AB Communications,
as well as the firing
of clerk of parliament Austin Zvoma for
incompetence.
The motions were moved by MDC-T MPs Settlement
Chikwinya and Brian Tshuma.
The Zimbabwe Independent political reporter
Paidamoyo Muzulu (PM) spoke to
Zanu PF chief whip Joram Gumbo (JG) about the
motions.
PM: There was heated debate in the House this week with
Zanu PF and MDC MPs
crossing swords over two motions introduced by MDC-T
legislators. Did Zanu
PF have a caucus position on the Baz and Zvoma
motions?
JG: There was never any caucus on the motion. We don’t call a caucus
to
panelbeat our members on how they should debate. We want them to be free
and
talk with the national interest unlike from an ideological blinkered
position. We normally don’t take positions on motions. We did not take a
caucus position on Chikwinya or Tshuma.
PM: But you walked out on
the Tshuma motion as a party?
JG: No I stood up on a question of principle
that procedures must be
followed. We do not debate on issues that are
unprocedural. On Baz our MPs
debated freely... The unfortunate aspect on
Chikwinya’s motion was the
winding up. It took us by surprise because the
(Information) minister
(Webster Shamu) had not responded. The minister had
written to parliament to
say he was not available this week to
comment.
PM: You are in the Standing Rules and Orders Committee
(SROC). What really
happened in the SROC with regards to the Baz
appointments?
JG: We have in the past done everything together in the SROC.
After doing
our duty we referred the names to the minister for appointment.
There was
proof that the Speaker had written to the minister confirming the
names.
(VimbaiChivaura, Clemence Mabaso, GeofreyChada were approved by the
SROC
while Kindness Paradza and Benson Ntini were also on the list sent on
August
4 2009, but not approved.)
PM: And on the motion to fire
Zvoma?
JG: As Zanu PF we did not agree with the recommendations. We can’t
agree
with allegations before they are put to the accused and before we get
a
response. We find it difficult to take a position.
PM: But
Tshuma in his motion raised four specific issues the clerk failed to
do,
namely conducting the election of Speaker in August 2008, unprocedurally
and
unilaterally deferring the sitting of the House on March 22 2011,
declining
advice from the Attorney General on the status of Moyo as MP after
the
Supreme Court’s quashing of his election as Speaker, and expunging of
some
material from the Hansard of March 29 2011 without the authority of the
House.
JG: I was not around when the expunging was done. When I came back
I heard
the stories about altercations between Zvoma and (Tendai)
Biti.
PM: I was there in the House and I can confirm the clerk making
the order,
what do you say now?
JG: The Hansard keeps a verbatim report
of proceedings in the House. If
there was reason to remove the contribution,
that was unprocedural. We don’t
condone such an action. He is not privileged
to do that. The Hansard cannot
be expunged. That’s why the speaker asks
people to publicly withdraw any
comments.
PM: Then what is your
problem in supporting that motion?
JG: The only problem as Zanu PF is the
question of procedure. We are not
saying Zvoma is right. We complained that
things were not right in the first
election. Jonathan Moyo then appealed to
the High Court. The error was in
favour of the MDC and they did not raise
any issues then. By that time they
supported Zvoma. Now that things have
turned against them they are fighting
Zvoma.
PM: What did you
expect the motion to say for you to support it?
JG: They should have followed
the correct procedure. If they had a case
against Zvoma, the allegations
should have been brought before the SROC. The
motion should have sought the
approval of the house for the SROC to
investigate Zvoma. The SROC would have
appointed a committee or body of
inquiry and come up with a conclusion that
would have been referred to the
House for debate. It’s not the role of
parliament to give terms of
reference. That is the role of the SROC. It’s a
question of procedure.
PM: And your questions about the Speaker’s
neutrality in presiding over the
case?
JG: It was wrong for the Speaker
to preside over the matter. After private
consultations, he recused himself.
The matter was done at party level. This
was not a new motion. It had been
on the shelves for four months. The
correct procedure is to grant Zvoma the
right to reply before convicting
him. Why the hurry? It’s now a political
matter not an administrative
matter. That’s why as Zanu PF, we said we would
not allow ourselves to be
used on the matter.
PM: What is the way
forward then?
JG: Whether Zvoma is right or wrong he has been let off the
hook because of
procedure. It is a dead motion. The same as Baz because the
minister did not
respond to the issues raised. This is the position, unless
if they decide to
act as MDC and fire Zvoma. For the record, parliament is
not made up of MDC
alone.
PM: Where do these acrimonious motions
leave the inclusive government?
JG: I don’t think the inclusive government
would be affected. The MDC will
have to learn how to handle matters
procedurally. The inclusivity we have is
not an option. The majority support
the GPA. We will continue to support the
actions of the coalition
government. It is in the interest of Zimbabwe that
we remain in the
coalition. It brought peace, economic recovery and I
believe we should try
to build on these successes.
PM: What happens if the MDC insist that
Zvoma be fired?
JG: I would caution that people should not take a political
position. It’s
unfortunate that the clerk was adjudged to have been aligned
to a political
party (Zanu PF). It sets a wrong precedent that the majority
can choose its
senior parliament officers. Let’s not politicise the civil
service, it would
be unfortunate to do that.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011 15:45
Brent
Meersman
THERE were probably many occasions this past year, but nothing
quite like
ex-trade unionist, now ANC secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe’s
speech last
week at Zanu PF’s congress, to move one to repeat EE Cummings’
laconic
observation: “A politician is an arse upon which everyone has sat
except a
man”. Mantashe pledged the ANC’s outright support for an election
victory
for Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF, offering to assist the party with
strategy,
messaging, and electioneering. It sounds all too proper for a Zanu
PF
campaign. Though glad of the support (since Zanu PF has on votes lost the
last couple of elections), I’m sure Minister of Defence Emmerson Mnangagwa
was scratching his head wondering what use he could make of the ANC’s
bourgeois election campaign techniques of polling and focus groups.
Mnangagwa’s party simply unleashes State terror squads and sets up torture
camps. A “killer campaign” in the US does not mean the same thing as it does
in Zimbabwe. GOTV (Get Out the Vote) is done with a truncheon, not a phone
call.
Or perhaps it is the ANC, looking ahead that hopes to learn
more from Zanu
PF about stuffing ballot boxes, starving the electorate into
submission,
suppressing the media, and beating up opposition leaders. One
recalls
Mantashe lashing out at Cosatu for holding a civil society
conference last
year. Spooked by shades of the Movement for Democratic
Change in Zimbabwe,
he accused the unions of plotting “regime change”. Like
Zanu PF the ANC has
more than once said it will not accept an electoral
defeat.
So the ordinary people of Zimbabwe struggle on, desperate and
invisible,
while the moribund African nationalist liberation parties steal
the food and
the money, and grow all dewy eyed for past glories as they
assemble at Zanu
PF’s congress (their Manguang, riven as it is with
factionalism, corruption
and a succession debate looming ever bigger as
Mugabe’s political general
paresis loosens his grip on
power).
Forgotten too was history. The ANC, with the notable
exception of Thabo
Mbeki, had always sided with Zapu (Soviet-backed) and not
Zanu PF (China
supported). In fact Umkhonto weSizwe (armed wing of the ANC)
veterans have
testified to exchanging fire in the bush war with Zanu cadres.
Post-liberation Mnangagwa, connected to the notorious Fifth Brigade which
perpetrated the Gukurahundi (the ethnic massacre of more than 20 000 Zulu
descendants in Matabeleland), presided over the torture and detention of the
ANC’s entire military command in southern Zimbabwe.
South
Africa has never played a straight brokerage in Zimbabwe. The
continued
suppression of the presidential report on the 2002 election is
telling
enough. Mbeki’s controversial “quiet diplomacy”, which a famous
satirist
observed was so effective you couldn’t hear the people scream, was
de facto
surreptitious appeasement.
In an interview with a Zimbabwean
academic, Mbeki, utterly oblivious to its
implications about his
impartiality and good faith, said Zanu PF
intelligence furnished him with
transcripts of phone taps and surveillance
of the MDC’s internal discussions
while negotiations were underway for the
power sharing agreement. This was
proof for Mbeki that the MDC was part of
some international conspiracy.
Imagine if apartheid national intelligence
had fed De Klerk all the ANC’s
internal discussions during Codesa?
Sources in the state intelligence
and Zanu PF told The Sunday Mail that
Mbeki, while paying lip-service to
resolving Zimbabwe’s political crisis was
clandestinely collaborating with
Mnangagwa to assure the latter’s
succession. The plan was to have a clause
in the new constitution that
allows the sitting president to appoint a
successor who will then rule for
the remainder of the electoral term without
calling a general election.
Perhaps this is why there is suddenly such haste
to rush into elections now.
The latest developments cast a deep
shadow over Zuma’s credentials. Some
have urged him to recuse
himself.
Mantashe, unnaturally, sees no contradiction. Zuma will
simply wear his
president of South Africa, Sadc hat, and not his president
of the ANC hat,
when in Zimbabwe. One presumes Mantashe is merely being
disingenuous, though
the possibility exists that he is simply brain-dead.
After all, the Zanu PF
youth are petitioning on behalf of Julius Malema and
those who have been
calling for Mantashe’s blood. Mantashe also seems to
have forgotten how in
2008 he was talking of a “coup” in Zimbabwe when the
election results were
allegedly being manufactured by Zanu PF and Mbeki
stood by Mugabe. How can
one not think of EE Cummings’s
statement?
Zimbabwe, if it ever was, is not a foreign policy
predicament; it is a
full-blown domestic problem. Not only the grievous
refugee situation inside
South Africa, but the fact that South African
businesses in Zimbabwe are
being indigenised or confiscated.
By
pledging allegiance to Zanu PF, the ANC has once again ignominiously
sided
with the old, backward-looking recidivists. Worse still, identifying
itself
as a kindred spirit to a party that is a world pariah and under
sanctions, a
party that has been God’s gift to every Afro-pessimist on the
planet, is an
exceptionally damaging move for Zuma, for South Africa’s
dwindling
international standing, and it will hurt the economy.Brent
Meersman is the
author of Reports Before Daybreak and Primary Coloured
(South Africa).
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011 15:37
By Elias
Mambo
LONG winding queues snake around every service station in Malawi as
motorists hunt for the scarce commodity. The scenes are reminiscent of
Zimbabwe before the formation of the coalition government in 2009 with
motorists queuing for what seems like an eternity.
The queues
tell of the true story of a Malawi on fire. They tell a story of
shortages,
corruption, aggressive youth militia, mediocrity and duplicity in
the
political discourse of the country’s leadership. Actually, the whole
story
reads like a novel authored in Harare.
Political analysts in Malawi
wonder how a country with an economist as
president could slide into such
unprecedented economic turmoil where there
are no essential medicines in
hospitals, rampant fuel and foreign currency
shortages, and virtually no
learning and teaching materials in public
schools.
Impoverished
Malawi is presently locked in a diplomatic row with its former
colonial
master and biggest donor Britain over a leaked embassy cable which
referred
to President BinguWaMutharika as “autocratic and intolerant of
criticism”.
That leaked cable led to the expulsion of
Britain’s ambassador to Malawi
Fergus Cochrane-Dyet. The actions of the
self-styled “Ngwazi”, which in the
local Chichewa language means a God-given
leader, are a reflection of
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, who is a
close ally of WaMutharika.
Analysts are drawing parallels between
Mugabe and WaMutharika, who has been
criticised for a series of increasingly
autocratic moves seen as restricting
political freedoms.
Mugabe
plunged Zimbabwe into dire straits by expelling white farmers in a
chaotic
fast track land reform programme resulting in the European Union
withholding
funds. Like the case of Zimbabwe, soon after the expulsion of
its ambassador
to Lilongwe, Britain reacted swiftly by kicking out Malawi’s
representative
in London and suspending aid worth US$550 million.
This freeze has
dealt a body blow to the budget of a country which has for
long relied on
handouts, and intensified a dollar supply crunch that is
threatening the
Kwacha’s official peg at 175 to the United States dollar.
Prompted by
the fuel shortages and soaring costs of imported goods,
Malawians took to
the streets in July to protest against WaMutharika’s rule.
His government
responded with brute force leaving 20 people dead in the
ensuing
crackdown.
These scenes mirrored Zimbabwe in 1998 when riot police,
armed with batons,
shields and automatic rifles, fired teargas at
demonstrators who had used
bricks and logs to block streets and intimidated
others to stay away from
work in demonstrations against the rising cost of
food stuffs.
Reuben Chilera, director at the Excutivewrite, a
political think tank, said:
“We are almost a Zimbabwe, both in the economy
and in political governance.
There are similarities in terms of their
president (Mugabe) and WaMutharika.
They’re both using a heavy
hand in terms of their governance, in terms of
how they want to rule. And
also disregarding other branches of government —
the judiciary, the
legislature. Like Zimbabweans, Malawians right now are
frustrated. Malawians
are disgruntled in terms of how the country is being
governed, how the
economy is moving.
They want to have more voice. Malawians are
distressed by what they see as
the hypocrisy of their government, which came
to power denouncing the
corruption of the previous regime, but rapidly
became embroiled in scandals
of its own.”
Mutharika, who came to
power in 2004, has been subject to intense criticism
for expelling rivals
from the ruling party, expanding presidential powers
and signing laws that
have restricted protests, media freedom and lawsuits
against the
government.
These moves have alienated foreign donors. Long fuel
queues, failure to pay
civil servants, badly run municipalities, power
blackouts, forex and water
shortages, rising costs of living - all these
have been experienced by
Zimbabweans before.
Echoing Mugabe’s
anti-West rhetoric “Zimbabwe will never be a colony again”,
Malawi seems to
be marching headlong toward disaster and it is high time
Sadc acted to avoid
another Zimbabwe.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011
16:17
Constantine Chimakure
RAINBOW Tourism Group (RTG), the
country’s second largest hospitality
company, is “technically insolvent” and
faces liquidation if it fails to
urgently raise US$15 million to retire an
expensive short-term debt,
complete hotel upgrades and re-align operating
structures.
Confidential documents seen by the Zimbabwe Independent
this week reveal
that RTG management and board were seeking shareholders
approval to raise
the US$15 million through a US$10 million sale and lease
back of Bulawayo
Rainbow Hotel to NSSA and a US$5 million rights
issue.
The proposed recapitalisation of the group, however, is under
threat after
the single largest RTG shareholder, property magnate Nick van
Hoogstraten,
declined to approve it citing corruption and mismanagement at
the
hospitality group.
Van Hoogstraten has a 36,5% stake in the
company, which needs 75% approval
from the shareholders to embark on the
recapitalisation exercise. RTG FD and
acting CEO Paschal Changunda yesterday
confirmed the group wanted to
recapitalise and was weighing four options. He
denied the group was
technically insolvent.
“It’s not true that
we are technically insolvent. Since dollarisation in
2009 we have not
recapitalised,” Changunda said. “We need fresh capital. We
have four options
we are looking into and we hope by the first quarter of
next year our
shareholders would have agreed on something.”
In a letter dated
November 16 to Van Hoogstraten, Corporate Excellence
Financial Advisory
Service, a company contracted by RTG to come up with a
rescue package, said
there was “urgency in implementing the
recapitalisation/restructuring
process” to repay “expensive short-term debt
and reverse the technical
insolvency”.
“Subject to an independent professional property
valuation, the sale and
lease back is expected to raise US$10 million,”
wrote the advisory company.
“The sale and lease back agreement may have a
buy back in favour of RTG.”
On the US$5 million rights offer, the
advisory company said it would be
underwritten proportionately by the major
shareholders and was meant to
“introduce permanent capital into the business
in view of current high
gearing”.
“The proceeds of the capital
raise will be utilised to retire the expensive
short-term debt,complete
critical hotel upgrades, and realign operating
structure to current
environment (staff and operating costs),” wrote
Corporate Excellence.
But
Van Hoogstraten in a letter dated November 22 to the financial advisory
firm
said he would only consent to the capital raise once a meeting of major
shareholders was convened and also if an option to buy back Bulawayo Rainbow
Hotel was in place.
“I do not agree that the reason for the current
financial state of the
company is due to ‘capital erosion due to the
hyperinflation period’,” Van
Hoogstraten said in the letter he signed on
behalf of Hamilton & Hamilton
Trustees Ltd. “The company has been
To
Page 2
brought to its knees by incompetent, self-serving, and in some
instances
corrupt directors and managers. No shareholder with a brain would
give the
same persons control of further monies. Corporate governance and
competence
has not existed at RTG for many years.”
The property mogul has
been trying for years without success to oust the RTG
management led by CEO
Chipo Mtasa. He has also failed to get a single seat
on the group’s
board.
Corporate Excellence replied to Van Hoogstraten’s letter on November
29
assuring the shrewd businessman that for the buyback of Bulawayo Rainbow
Hotel, RTG would have the right of first refusal to repurchase the hotel in
the event of NSSA deciding to sell during or after the initial lease
term.
The financial advisory company also informed Van Hoogstraten that the
RTG
board had agreed “in principle to co-opt three directors to be nominated
by
yourself subject to ratification by shareholders at the next annual
general
meeting” in recognition for his “significant shareholding and in the
interests of the company”.
“As indicated in our previous correspondence,
this transaction is critical
to the immediate requirement of restructuring
RTG’s balance sheet in order
to repay expensive short-term debt and reverse
the technical insolvency,”
Corporate Excellence said.
But Van Hoogstraten
would have none of that.
“The right of first refusal is of no benefit to RTG.
There must be an option
in the transfer for RTG to buy back the property at
the same price,” said
Van Hoogstraten in a letter dated December 2. “It is
not right that an
existing shareholder (NSSA) takes advantage of the current
weakened position
of RTG – this would be a very clear conflict of
interest.”
He also said that had NSSA and the Ministry of Tourism not
supported the
“Econet-sponsored” board in June, RTG “could not have been
defrauded”.
“In particular, NSSA and the ministry voted against our nominated
directors
at the recent (and previous) AGMs and must now accept some
responsibility
for the current situation at RTG,” said Van
Hoogstraten.
At the AGM in June, Van Hoogstraten had proposed Shingirayi
Chibanguza,
Alexander Hamilton, Ian Haruperi and Maximilian Hamilton be
appointed to the
board. However, it was mostly those in the Econet–Afre–NSSA
axis that were
appointed. They were chairperson Tracy Mpofu, Trynos
Kufazvinei, Godfrey
Manhambara, Shadreck Vera, Krison Charairo and John
Gould.
Econet has since sold its stake to NSSA, but it is still represented
on the
board.
“The suggestion that we may now nominate three directors,
whilst welcome, is
a case of too little too late and will need to be
considered carefully and
be supported by legal safeguards,” Van Hoogstraten
said. “I will not agree
to any sale and lease back deal without prior sight
of the legal
documentation, especially as this is my field of
expertise.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011
15:12
INTERFRESH shareholders approved the sale of the group’s
Graniteside
property to Innscor Africa at a cost of US$5, 8 million to
enable the group
to retire its short-term bank debt of US$4,4
million.
The shareholders present, totaling 343 411 987, all voted
for the resolution
although concerns had been raised by other shareholders
over the valuation
and whether or not there had been any takers for the
property besides
Innscor.
CEO Lishon Chipango told the meeting
that an agreement had been put in place
with Innscor although there had been
a number of offers submitted. Chipango
added that CB Richard Ellis had
valued the property at US$5,5 million.
After clearing the debt, the
group will use up to US$1 million to purchase a
smaller head office.
Chipango said that the group was looking at a number of
property options
that are there but none had been confirmed.
Some of the operations
will be transferred to Mazoe Citrus Estates. The
remainder of the proceeds
would be used for working capital, he said. The
disposal will have an impact
on the group’s financial position with total
debt being reduced to US$5
million from US$9,4 million.
It would also reflect a new property
cost of US$1 million and an additional
cash balance of US$400 000. The
transaction would have an effect on the
group’s statement of comprehensive
income. Based on the level and cost of
borrowing at the end of October 2011,
the annualised cost of total debt
would be reduced from US$1,4 million to
US$500 000.
Interest cover would also be expected to improve. In the
first half of the
year the company announced it had secured US$5 million
six-year loan for
both working capital and capital
expenditure.
The group received UD$5 million funding from IDC South
Africa at a cost of
9%. Of that amount US$2, 5 million had been put into
capex and the rest on
working capital.
The other US$2,5 million has been
set aside as working capital chiefly to
rework the distribution
channels.
The group also indicated that a balance sheet
restructuring, reduction of
both short-term borrowing and reduction of
effective cost of borrowing was
in progress.
–– Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011
15:10
Reginald Sherekete
THE recently floated Agriculture
Marketing Authority (AMA) bills failed, yet
again, to entice the market with
the tender raising only US$17,7 million
from the required US$50 million,
despite the special features placed on the
bills.
The AMA agro
bills had received special features which included prescribed
asset status,
liquid asset status and tax exemption status. But the market
continued to
shun the AMA agro bills with the tender only receiving total
bids of US$31,9
million, an indication of the tight liquidity in the market.
Bids
attracted rates as high as 19,75% with the lowest at 10%. The average
weighted rate of the allotment was 11,27% which fell way below the average
annual rates which average 18% currently prevailing in the money market. The
liquid asset status meant that holders of the bills, especially banks, can
access overnight accommodation from the central bank to cover their
positions so that they can meet their obligations.
The prescribed
assets-status was crafted to attract institutional investors
like pension
funds and insurance companies since they are required to hold a
certain
percentage of their portfolios in government bonds.
Despite a tax
exemption, a first since dollarisation in 2009, this failed to
tickle the
market. The government, through AMA, intended to raise money to
finance
agriculture. It was forced to extend the first tender of US$50
million to
December 15 after the financial advisor –– CBZ Bank –– indicated
that
potential bidders needed more time.
Despite the extension, the market
still showed no appetite for the agro
bills which have a tenor period of 360
days. “With a tenor of 360 days, the
market is not keen to buy into these
AMA agro bills considering the
prevailing market forces where the demand
side of money is outstripping the
supply side,” an analyst
said.
Government, which is seeking to raise US$100 million, is
expected to be back
on the market with another tender this week. Out of the
US$100 million to
be raised, US$56,2 million will finance communal, A1, A2
and commercial
farmers’ input requirements, while the remainder will be used
to clear
liabilities from last season.
Government plans to direct
US$21 million to the Grain Marketing Board to
settle its arrears with
farmers for maize deliveries made last season.
Another US$18,6 million will
go towards clearing liabilities to seed and
fertiliser firms that were not
paid for supplies under government-backed
schemes.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011 14:59
Paidamoyo Muzulu
/ Wongai Zhangazha
NATIONAL carrier Air Zimbabwe’s (AirZim) survival
depends on only one
option; going into liquidation and starting on a clean
slate. The airline is
facing a US$134 million debt overhang and the growing
need to restructure
its bloated 1 400 staff complement.
AirZim
has withdrawn from the lucrative Johannesburg and London routes amid
fears
its planes could be attached over long overdue debts owed to various
creditors. The troubled airline had a plane impounded in London over a
US$1,2 million debt.
Fears abound that other creditors may follow
suit. After the London episode,
it dawned on management that for the first
time in the chequered history of
the airline that things cannot continue as
before and hence the decision to
suspended flights to South
Africa.
AirZim’s crisis has largely been self-inflicted. There has
been a distinct
lack of clarity on the part of management on how to turn
around the airline’s
waning fortunes, weak commercial ethics,
maladministration and use of the
airline for political patronage and
cronyism.
The airline’s staff of 1 400 against five planes on its
books, of which only
three are operational, means there are 280 people to
one jet; nearly treble
the aviation acceptable average of 85 workers to one
plane.
The airline has been battling to restructure both its balance
sheet and
rationalise its workforce in the last year without adequate
funding. The
decay at the national carrier was clearly exposed during the
hyperinflationary era between 2007 and 2009 when AirZim charged sub-economic
fares and had the audacity to open new long haul routes to China and Dubai,
which proved to be a financial disaster. At one point, AirZim exercised some
extraordinary extravagance by flying a single passenger to
Dubai.
The government, the sole shareholder, has not helped the
situation by taking
political instead of commercial decisions in managing
the airline through
the board. The airline’s planes are frequently
commandeered to carry
President Robert Mugabe on frequent foreign trips
leaving paid-up travelers
stranded at airports.
This has
invariably dented the airline’s credibility since it’s unable to
stick to
its schedule and created inherent debts for the company as it is
forced to
rebook clients or put them up in hotels until they get connecting
flights.
AirZim’s unenviable position has been worsened by its
ageing fleet with
planes averaging plus 20 years and greatly in need of
replacement. This has
created lopsided competition against other regional
airlines like South
African Airways, Kenya Airways and Ethiopian
Airlines.
Former Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe boss and
Zimbabwe Tourism
Authority CEO Karikoga Kaseke is convinced that AirZim
should restructure
its workforce at all levels, acquire a new fleet and be
privatised for it to
remain viable, among other things.
Kaseke
said: “Airbus A340-500 or Airbus A340 are too big for AirZim because
you
need about 250 passengers on each flight to break even. Therefore, it’s
better if they acquire the Boeing 737-400 or the new generation Boeing
737-800 for regional routes. The 737-200 they currently have should be
parked and used as cargo planes.”
Kaseke said AirZim could not be
restructured in its present form and needed
a complete
overhaul.
“There are lots of advantages to liquidating AirZim than
reviving it.
Currently, Airzim has a bad tag which cannot be just wished
off. We should
liquidate AirZim as of yesterday,” Kaseke
said.
Zimbabwe has a lot to learn from the successful restructuring
of South
African Airways, Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines and British
Airways.
These companies invited strategic partners, joined alliances to
leverage
their businesses and injected massive funding.
Kaseke’s
arguments buttress the MDC-T’s national council meeting resolution
that
called for the liquidation of AirZim and subsequent privatisation of
any
successor airline.
“The party resolves that Air Zimbabwe Private
Limited as it is defined right
now should be shut down and closed
immediately. A new Zimbabwean airline
that partners with a foreign investor
should be formed that will take over
the whole staff at Air Zimbabwe,” the
MDC-T national council resolution
reads.
Acting AirZim CEO
Innocent Mavhunga agreed that the airline should be
restructured along the
proven Kenyan example. Mavhunga said: “We should go
along the Kenya Airways
model with shareholding ratios being decided by the
government. This would
naturally look at staff rationalisation in line with
the size of the fleet,
and more importantly, bringing in new competences and
skills from the new
recruits.”
It remains to be seen whether government is ready to
restructure AirZim and
other perennial loss making state owned enterprises,
which include GMB, NRZ,
NetONe, TelOne and the Cold Storage Commission among
many others.
Kaseke added: “An airline cannot be run by a government.
Gone are those
days. Yes the government may have some shareholding in the
successor
company, but that will not mean it can run the affairs of the
airline but
leave it to management to run it properly and efficiently.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011
16:04
ABOUT 60 families in the Arda Transau area of Marange were recently
holed up
in houses without roofs after strong winds blew the roofs off,
owing to poor
workmanship by the Chinese, reports the Daily News. Mines and
Mining
Development minister Obert Mpofu had declared that the houses
constructed at
Marange were of “world standard”.
“You have seen
what the companies (at Marange) have done, the kind of
settlements in
Chiadzwa right now are compared to nothing anywhere in the
world,” said
Mpofu rather confusingly.
However, the Chinese-owned Anjin
Investments’ relocation co-ordinator Romeo
Daniel Mutsunguma said the roofs
had been poorly secured by the company’s
construction arm.
“There
has been a lot of cutting down of trees in this area as people seek
alternative sources of energy as well as clearing of land for other
purposes,” Mutsunguma said.
“That process has seen close to 60
houses having their roofs blown off by
strong winds as the nails used in
securing the roofing materials were the
wrong ones,” he
added.
“We have since reinforced the roofing sheets with proper nails
to avoid
similar mishaps again. We have also deployed a maintenance expert
on site so
that he can attend to the problems as and when they arise,” he
added.
Is that not what they should have done in the first place?
Last time we
checked, they were no recorded tornados in the Chiadzwa region.
We wonder if
these houses were ever inspected before being occupied.Is that
what our
rulers mean when they say “all weather friends”?
We are sure the
occupants of the houses were not amused.
Muckraker was
amused by President Robert Mugabe’s righteous indignation over
“promiscuous”
cabinet ministers. He said adulterous relationships were
wrecking the
marriage institution.
Speaking at the wedding of his niece, Chipo
Matibiri, and George, son of
Transport, Communications and Infrastructure
Development minister Nicholas
Goche, Mugabe said several ministers have
embarrassed themselves through
promiscuity.
He said a certain
minister from one of the MDC formations was caught
red-handed last year
after he was involved in an accident while travelling
with his girlfriend.
“We are concerned with the behaviour of our ministers.
Some time ago, there
was a minister, not from Zanu-PF, though, who was
caught with a girlfriend
somewhere in Kadoma,” he said.
“When you marry in the church, the law
binds you to have one husband or
wife. When you do anything else, it is
against the law.”
Indeed promiscuity should be deplored, as the president has
done. However,
he should not take the moral high ground lest attention is
also given to his
own indiscretions.
The good book says judge not
lest ye be judged.
Meanwhile a new fashion stable, House
of Gushungo, whose label is President
Mugabe’s signature, has “hit the
capital by storm”, ZBC gushed last week.
If we are to believe ZBC,
the label is likely to send a shiver through the
fashion houses of Milan and
Paris.
The clothing stable is set to “redefine” the country’s fashion
industry
which is mostly dominated by foreign clothing labels, we are
told.
This, according to ZBC, is because the “contemporary line appeals to
today’s
modern men and women, offering style, comfort and a splash of
attitude”.
Label boss Nicholas Munyonga said they saw it fit to
celebrate President
Robert Mugabe’s achievements in style.
“We
decided to come up with something that is long-lasting, something that
will
last forever and in honour of our president,” he said.
We are not so sure of
the long-lasting part given their inclination to Look
East!
Austria has closed its embassy in Harare as
part of cutting cost. As a
result, outgoing Austrian ambassador to Zimbabwe,
Maria Moya Goesth, paid a
courtesy call on Vice-President Joice Mujuru to
bid farewell.
In an interview with ZBC after meeting Mujuru, Goesth
said various foreign
missions have been affected.
She also
clarified that the closure of the embassy was not as a result of
souring of
diplomatic relations between the two countries.
“This has nothing to do with
the bilateral relations between the two
countries but it is part of a series
of closures due to the financial
crisis, of which no country is competely
immune,” she said.
However ZBC was not impressed, keen on getting a
sound bite from the
ambassador about the “illegal” sanctions the European
Union (EU) has imposed
on President Mugabe and his
acolytes.
“Just like her counterparts from Western countries who have
denied the
existence of illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe, Ms Moya Goesth also
continued to
sing from the same hymn book as the EU, preferring to call them
restrictive
measures which will only be lifted if certain unspecified
conditions are
met,” ZBC moaned.
Unspecified? The EU benchmarks
for the removal of sanctions are as clear as
day. Among them is the
restoration of the rule of law, respect for human
rights, media freedom and
institutional reforms.
They have been spelt out by the bloc ad
nauseam and yet ZBC has the temerity
to say they are
unspecified.
“Zimbabwe and Austria have not quarrelled in any forum
but Vienna joined
other EU members in slapping Harare with illegal
sanctions,” adds ZBC.
“This came after Britain internationalised its
bilateral dispute with
Zimbabwe after the country embarked on the agrarian
reform to correct
colonial imbalances.”
The only thing “illegal”
here is a supposedly national broadcaster parroting
the views of a former
ruling party.
Jonathan Moyo seems to suffer from
selective amnesia, particularly on what
he has said before about President
Mugabe and Zanu PF.
In an interview with Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa at
Zanu PF’s conference in
Bulawayo, the Tsholotsho North MP and Zanu PF
Politburomember said “someone
somewhere has a sick mind that he (President
Robert Mugabe) is not well, but
God has been on his side and he remains
well”.
Again he seems to have forgotten saying Mugabe was suffering
from “throat
cancer”, according to the WikiLeaks disclosures.
In
one of the cables, former US political and economic officer Glen Warren
in
the Harare embassy quotes Moyo also saying that Mugabe was determined to
run
for re-election against the advice of his physician.
Moyo has not
denied the cables and even urged his Zanu PF colleagues to own
up.
Who
has a “sick mind” then, we wonder?
Al-Qaeda leader Osama
bin Laden and Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi both met
bloody ends as the
West and Western-backed rebels took on their brutal
regimes.
Their deaths, together with Saturday’s demise of North
Korea’s Kim Jong-il,
showed that 2011 has not been a good year to be a
despot.
The death of Kim Jong-il might not have been caused by commandos or a
people’s
uprising but it did happen in 2011, thus adding his name to a long
list of
dispatched tyrants and terrorists.
Throughout the year we
learnt some strange facts about these men, their
lives and deaths. Can you
match the fact to the leader?
1.Which regime put an Internet blackout
on the country just hours before one
of the biggest planned protests?
2.
Which former leadersparked downloads of an unexpectedly popular ringtone
made up of recordings of his words?
3. Who would send out for cans of
Coke and Pepsi while in hiding?
4. Which son of a deceased leader set a
national trend with his unusual
haircut?
5. Which toppled leader kept a
hoard of pictures of former US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice in his
mansion?
6. Which leader has his blood-splattered face printed and posted by
news
organisations worldwide following his death, only to find out it was a
fake?
7. Which of these was not one of Kim Jong-il’s titles?
8. A passion
for gold, which Gaddafi offspring kept a gilded mermaid-shaped
sofa in their
own likeness found by rebels in a mansion house in Tripoli
9. Which leader
did the flamboyant South African businessman Kenny Kunene
dress up as to
celebrate his 41st birthday?
10. We learnt a thing or two about leaders’
bathroom habits. But which,
according to state propaganda, never needed to
urinate?
Answers:
1. Egypt
2. Hosni
Mubarak
3. Osama bin Laden
4. Kim Jong-un
5. Muammar
Gaddafi
6. Osama bin Laden
7. Leading Light of
Pyongyang
8.
Aisha Gaddafi
9. Muammar Gaddafi
10. Kim
Jong-il
Power FM listeners, on Monday afternoon, were
stunned upon hearing of the
news of the death of Kim Jong the Second. The
announcer was mistakenly
referring to Kim Jong-il.
The announcer
should find solace in the fact that she is not alone in making
that mistake.
The New Yorker states that in his presidential campaign former
US President,
George W Bush, also “mistook the third syllable of the late
Kim’s name for a
roman numeral and called him Kim Jong Two”.
We suppose that is
preferable to “Queen Elizabth the eleventh” which we got
from ZBC in the
early 1980s.
No marks to Barclays which managed to have only one
working ATM in Avondale
on Wednesday, one of the busiest days of the year.
The long winding queues
said it all. This was not a bank that had its
customers in mind.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011 15:47
Brian
Chitemba
DUMISO Dabengwa’s claims that he pulled out of Zanu PF to revive
Zapu
because of widespread violence in the run-up and aftermath of the 2008
elections, which left several thousands homeless and hundreds dead, maimed
and missing, has exposed the hypocrisy which Zimbabwean politicians have for
the electorate. Dabengwa is a former Zanu PF politburo heavyweight who
served in that role since the December 1987 unity accord signed between
President Robert Mugabe and the late Joshua Nkomo, collapsing Zapu into Zanu
PF.
Although Dabengwa championed the revival of Zapu after the
election defeat
of his preferred presidential candidate and former fellow
Zanu PF politburo
member, Simba Makoni, he had been in the wilderness
politically for close to
a decade since he had failed to win a seat in
Bulawayo since 2000.
Since the formation of the MDC in 1999, the
writing was on the wall for all
former senior Zapu cadres in Matabeleland,
particularly in Bulawayo and
Matabeleland North.
After failing to
win a seat in the 2005 parliamentary polls, Dabengwa
probably realised that
his fate had been sealed and the only way to
resurrect his relevancy in
Matabeleland would be to dump Zanu PF.
And so it came as no surprise
when he openly backed the presidential
aspirations of Makoni. This paved the
way for him to formally leave Zanu PF
because he had betrayed the party’s
highest decision-making body outside of
congress by turning his back on
Mugabe, who had been officially endorsed.
However, a closer analysis
of events shows that Dabengwa and his colleagues’
revival of the party they
had willingly collapsed into Zanu PF was a matter
of sour
grapes.
Besides being perennial losers in parliamentary polls, the
benefits of
continuing to serve Zanu PF were fast slipping because all
former senior
Zapu leaders literally served at the pleasure of Mugabe, who
continued to
appoint them non-constituency MPs in order to give them
ministerial
positions.
This move was beginning to cause fissures
in Zanu PF since the likes of
Dabengwa and present former Zapu leaders
serving in government andin Zanu PF
cannot deliver the Matabeleland vote,
yet they continue to hold senior
positions without the mandate of the
people.
While Zapu claims that it merged with Zanu PF on December 22
1987 to end the
Gukurahundi killings which left an estimated 20 000 people
from Matabeleland
and parts of Midlands dead, the question Dabengwa and his
colleagues need to
answer is why it took them over 21 years to realise that
the unity accord
was dysfunctional.
Dabengwa termed the killings,
maiming, disappearance and intimidation of
people in the run-up to the 2008
presidential run-off poll as genocide in
his speech celebrating what would
have been Zapu’s golden jubilee.
This genocide was the reason
Dabengwa gave for pulling Zapu out of Zanu PF.
This is laughable when
compared to the infamous Gukurahundi massacres.
Dabengwa himself served a
jail term during those disturbances and yet he
gladly accepted to serve his
former jailers after the signing of the unity
accord.
This leaves
critics questioning Dabengwa’s sincerity. If Dabengwa is so
sensitive to
the Gukurahundi genocide, why did he agree in the first place
to serve a
party with a well documented history of violence, even against
its own
cadres?
If he was as principled as he now wants people to believe, he
should have
declined to serve in the unity government from 1987. In fact,
that accord
ushered in a new constitution which gave Mugabe uncontested
powers, and yet
Dabengwa quietly served.
Dabengwa was in charge
of the police as Home Affairs minister in 1998 when
the government used
brute force to crush demonstrations against food price
hikes. Why didn’t he
quit government in protest against the government’s
heavy handedness
then?
So was the revival of Zapu in the genuine interest of its
marginalised
former cadres or a push for personal political ambitions by
whipping up
people’s emotions?
Political analyst Nyamutatanga
Makombe said Dabengwa, like any other
politician, was using the issue of
violence as a currency to trade for
political mileage.
“They
(politicians) raise concerns on crimes against humanity when it’s only
politically convenient instead of approaching the issue in a sober manner,”
said Makombe.
Makombe said the unity accord was justified since
Nkomo wanted to save
innocent blood shed by the North Korean trained Fifth
Brigade, but
attributing the Zapu revival to the 2008 violence was
hypocritical.
“Dabengwa was no longer a Zanu PF member by June 2008
because he backed
Makoni in March. Both Makoni and Dabengwa expelled
themselves from Zanu PF
way before the March harmonised elections, so
Dabengwa is not sincere in
claiming that the Zapu revival was forced by the
June violence,” Makombe
said.
But Dabengwa, a former Zipra
intelligence supremo, said the late
Vice-President Joseph Msika also
approved the Zapu revival through a
consultative congress in December 2008
before an endorsement congress in May
2009.
Zapu spokesman
Methuseli Moyo said it was obvious that his party had joined
the unity
accord because that was the only way it could save the lives of
ethnic
Ndebeles.
“Every Zimbabwean is indebted to Zapu for signing the unity
accord,” said
Moyo. “Otherwise the country could have gone into a full-scale
civil war.
Simply, Zapu had no option but to join Zanu. What else could Zapu
had done?
Dabengwa was leader of the Zipra intelligence unit, and not a Zapu
leader
exactly by then. Like he always says, he was commandeered by Nkomo
against
his will into the unity accord. There was no way Mugabe and Zanu PF
would
have signed the accord if key military figures like Dabengwa remained
outside.”
Moyo said Zapu hoped they would influence Zanu PF
positively to end
political violence although it was in vain. The period
between 1988 and
2000, Moyo said, was the most peaceful and there was a lull
in political
killings and abductions.
“Who was the minister of
home affairs during this period? It was Dabengwa.
When he left government
and the home affairs portfolio in 2000, all hell
broke loose,” said
Moyo.
Makombe questioned the role played by Dabengwa to discourage
the violence
which escalated between 2000 and 2008 when he was part of the
Russian-style
Zanu PF politburo.
Moyo was adamant that the 2008
violence led to the Zapu pullout saying the
“mini-genocide” convinced Zapu
that Zanu PF would not change its violent
ways.
“We revived Zapu
because we have always been Zapu, even during the unity
accord it was always
known that Dabengwa and others were Zapu. Zapu is a
brand name which has
obvious political advantages at home, in Sadc and
internationally. Also,
there are outstanding issues such as Zapu properties
and Gukurahundi which
only Zapu can resolve. Again, Zapu is the mother of
politics in Zimbabwe and
the founder and authentic liberation movement of
Zimbabwe whose name and
objectives must never die. The people also said they
wanted their Zapu and
not a new party,” Moyo said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011 15:30
ZANU PF has
finally let the cat out of the bag! The party wants President
Robert Mugabe
to dissolve parliament to make way for fresh polls early next
year with or
without a new constitution. The move would be against the
spirit and letter
of both the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed by the
three parties in
the inclusive government and Constitutional Amendment No
19. And this will
certainly trigger a constitutional crisis.
In an interview with the
state media, Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa
accused the MDC-T of
stalling the constitutional review process to delay the
polls to end the
wobbly inclusive government. As a result, Chinamasa opined,
Mugabe would be
forced to dissolve parliament.
While Chinamasa claimed that Zanu PF
was committed to polls under a new
constitution, it’s apparent that his
party wants the polls under the current
muddled circumstances which favour
it.
“It is very possible for the president to call for elections and
there is no
provision that prevents him from doing that but it is our desire
as Zanu PF
to see the constitution-making process concluded so that we hold
elections
under a new constitution,” Chinamasa said.
“We won’t
entertain any stalling of the process; as a party we are committed
and we
urge the MDC parties to do the same.’’ Before Constitutional
Amendment No 19
and the inception of the inclusive government, Mugabe had
the sole
constitutional prerogative to dissolve parliament and call for
fresh polls
within 90 days, but the scenario is now different.
Constitutional Amendment
No 19 clearly states that Mugabe can only dissolve
parliament after
consulting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
It would be
foolhardy for the former firebrand trade unionist to agree to
the
dissolution of the House and to early polls before a new constitution is
enacted and real reforms are implemented.
Just last weekend, the
MDC-T resolved that there should be a new
constitution and reforms before
fresh elections. “Our members are going to
go for elections after the
completion of the constitution-making process,
the referendum, drafting of a
new voters’ roll, media reforms, completion of
legislative reform, the
conclusion of outstanding issues at the dialogue
table on security sector
realignment and staffing of ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission),” Biti told
a press conference after a meeting of the MDC-T’s
national council on
Saturday. “And also after the compliance by Zimbabwe on
the Sadc electoral
guidelines on free and fair elections and putting in
place of mechanisms to
ensure that violence will not be a factor in the said
election, that is what
the roadmap suggests.”
Mugabe and Zanu PF are desperate for elections
because the current
environment enables them to use state machinery to
campaign, intimidate
voters through violence and rig the whole electoral
process.
The party has nothing to offer the electorate and Mugabe’s
quest for
political papacy is a disaster for Zanu PF and the country at
large. Zanu PF
politburo member Jonathan Moyo rightly observed when he was
still in the
“political wilderness” in 2007 that Mugabe had and has no
agenda save to die
in office.
The mercurial spin doctor wrote:
“Although President Robert Mugabe has of
late been displaying bravado by
ruthlessly attacking in public some Zanu PF
contenders for his 27-year
tainted rule, such as Joice Mujuru, and
unleashing violence against
opposition politicians in police cells while
giving the impression he is
still like an invincible lion, the inescapable
home truth visible to all and
sundry is that he is now behaving like a
cornered rat whose quandary is that
every escape route it tries is a
dead-end.
“This became clear
after his astonishing yet revealing indication last week
that he is set to
dissolve parliament in the next few months to enable him
to yet again stand
for re-election under controversial circumstances that
are certain to widen
and deepen Zanu PF divisions.
“At best, the threatened dissolution of
parliament which has angered Zanu PF
MPs is designed to give Mugabe assured
campaign assistance from the ruling
party’s parliamentary hopefuls who would
be forced to support his divisive
candidacy in joint presidential and
parliamentary elections he wants to call
well before the expiry of his
current term in March 2008.
“But there could be another sinister
agenda to resuscitate Mugabe’s dead
2010 plan. “In effect, Mugabe does not
want to be succeeded by anybody. Zanu
PF factional leaders who imagine that
they are Mugabe’s preferred successors
are living in a fools’ paradise
because Mugabe does not want any successor.
“This is because in his book
there will never be a vacancy for the
presidency as a long as he is
alive.”
Well said Jonathan!
By Constantine
Chimakure
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011
15:28
NATIONAL airline Air Zimbabwe (AirZim) has once again been in the
news — for
the wrong reasons. Just last week the cash-strapped flag carrier
had
its Boeing 767-200 impounded by a United States firm, American General
Supplies, in London over an overdue US$1,5 million debt for aircraft spare
parts leaving passengers stranded. While like any other business AirZim has
been plagued by difficulties, its collapse has reached unacceptable
proportions.
For far too long the national carrier has been left
to pursue a disastrous
business model and develop a reputation for poor
customer service
characterised by delays and abrupt flight
cancellations.
It is struggling to cope with a choking debt of US$140
million and
privatisation or liquidation seems to be the only way out of the
quagmire
AirZim finds itself in. Over and above this huge debt, the airline
has a
staff complement of 1 400 manning just three operational
planes.
The national carrier was once a well-run and profitable
airline with
dependable flights on both its domestic and international
routes, but
rampant corruption and mismanagement have flown the airline into
an abyss.
Over the last 31 years, President Robert Mugabe has abused AirZim
by
disrupting scheduled flights through his commandeering of planes for his
endless foreign trips, including several personal ones.
Being
wholly state-owned worsened the situation in that senior government
officials have continued over the years to manipulate AirZim. The airline
has had a number of management changes, which have all played their part in
grounding the flag carrier.
Present AirZim acting chief
executive officer Innocent Mavhunga recently
conceded that even the best
management would come a cropper at the airline
as long as the government
retained its current grip. Because the airline is
wholly state-owned, it was
also forced to embrace the disastrous “Look East”
policy with dire business
consequences. Since it introduced direct flights
to Beijing and Dubai,
AirZim has been slowly flying itself into oblivion.
No sooner had
it started flying East that it begun to take off three
quarters empty. The
classic was when the airline flew to Dubai with just one
passenger. Even a
commuter omnibus would not leave the rank with a single
passenger on board,
but not AirZim. Such constant senseless decisions are
what have driven
AirZim to the verge of bankruptcy.
It has become the norm for the
national carrier to fly loss-making routes
resulting in it incurring huge
unjustified costs. As a result of the huge
accumulated debts, the national
airline has now been forced to dump its two
most lucrative routes — the
Johannesburg and London routes — for fear of
having the last of its three
operational planes impounded. These two routes
were AirZim’s main source of
revenue and we wonder how it hopes to secure
any cash inflow now that it has
suspended flights to the destinations.
It does not make business
sense to justify continued flights to Lusaka and
to the DRC while suspending
service to the most lucrative routes to avoid
paying up. With such bad
decisions continuing to dominate AirZim on a daily
basis, it’s high time the
government recognised AirZim’s importance as
Zimbabwe’s ambassador to the
world by allowing private investors to help
transform the flag carrier into
a modern operation.
Our main argument for privatisation is that
government has proved beyond
reasonable doubt that it is motivated by
political pressures rather than
sound economic and business sense. On the
other hand, non-state entities
have a profit incentive to cut costs and be
more efficient.
A private company has pressure from shareholders
to perform efficiently and
make money because if performed inefficiently as
AirZim, it could be subject
to a takeover. AirZim doesn’t have this pressure
which is why it has been
easier for it to be inefficient.
There
is no way a privatised AirZim would have retained 1 400 employees with
just
three operational planes and an astronomic debt. Government seems
reluctant
to get rid of surplus workers because of the negative publicity
involved in
job losses, particularly with the current election talk.
We urge
the coalition government to start laying the groundwork for suitable
conditions for privatisation, such as a stable and predictable environment
for investment and a well-developed institutional and regulatory capacity,
improving regulatory frameworks, strengthening the financial system,
enabling increased competition and improved governance.
These
would ensure that not only AirZim, but all other loss-making and badly
run
state-owned enterprises, such as the GMB, CSC, NRZ, NocZim, NetOne and
TelOne, among others, are resuscitated for them to start making a meaningful
contribution to the economic growth of Zimbabwe.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011 15:04
By
Zesn
THERE are ways to vote for persons who cannot be present personally
in their
constituencies and wards on the designated voting days. The more
traditional
way is postal voting, and the other is special voting. This
article analyses
both and makes recommendations for their broader use to
increase access to
eligible voters and greater security to prevent
manipulation of these forms
of voting. Simplification of
procedure
The amendment will restrict postal voting to people (and
their spouses) who
are outside Zimbabwe on government business. One
development is that the new
changes simplify what were previously elongated
and bureaucratic procedures
for postal voting. The process was also opaque,
which made it susceptible to
rigging. A significant development is that
electronic communication is now
permitted to facilitate authorisation for
postal voting.
As with all electronic communication, however,
security mechanisms are
necessary to reduce the risk of abuse and
manipulation. It is a requirement
to use official electronic mail addresses,
authentication by the sender’s
electronic signature. The email must also be
printed in hard copy. Rather
than leave it open to interpretation it is
necessary to provide a
legislative definition of what constitutes an
“official electronic mail
address” for the avoidance of
doubt.
All postal voting applications must be chronologically
recorded. The chief
elections officer must keep a list of all postal ballot
papers issued and
relevant details of the person to whom they were issued.
All of this must be
made available for free public inspection which should
enhance transparency.
The voters’ roll for each constituency should record
clearly that specified
individual voters have been allowed to use postal
voting. Such persons, once
they have voted using postal or special voting,
should be recorded in such a
manner that they cannot vote again in their
wards.
Too restricted
Whilst the simplification of the
special procedure will help to expedite the
process, it is apparent that
both postal and special voting remain too
restricted in scope and reach. For
example, there are persons who may
genuinely be out of the country on
non-government business — such as on
temporary business, working or seeking
medical treatment. Zimbabwe has
thousands of persons who work for
international organisations — as
contracted staff of both inter-governmental
and non-governmental
organisations — without necessarily being designated as
being “on government
business”.
The problems with the restriction
are evident where business persons
accompany government on a trade mission,
for example to China. Unless the
businesspersons are designated as being
outside the country “on government
business” they will be unable to use
postal voting whilst their government
counterparts can.
In
addition, there are now literally millions of Zimbabweans living abroad
who
may be eligible to vote. All these persons are denied the vote simply
because they cannot be physically present in the constituencies on polling
day. If there were no restrictions, the registered voters in the diaspora
would potentially be able to vote in this way.
There has been
much clamour for the so-called diaspora vote in recent years.
It has already
been noted in previous articles how Zimbabwe lags behind
other countries in
the region such as South Africa and Mozambique which
permit diaspora voting
and in the case of Mozambique, it has taken active
steps to register voters
in the diaspora to ensure that they exercise their
right to vote. Zimbabwe
needs to adopt a similarly open approach to ensure
it has a truly
representative government.
Zesn acknowledges that there are risks
involved in broadening the postal
voting facility but rather than close the
door completely, the solution
would be to introduce secure mechanisms to
ensure that votes are authentic
and immune to tampering.
Voting by
soldiers
It is also noted that special voting is restricted to
electoral officers and
members of the “disciplined forces” who are
responsible for performing
security duties during election days. This refers
to members of the police
and defence forces who will perform duties during
polling days. Accredited
election observers will also be eligible to apply
for special voting. The
applicants must demonstrate that they will be away
from their constituencies
on electoral duty. Special voting will take place
in advance of the main
election at special polling stations that are
designated by the commission
and will be open to observation by accredited
observers. Voting at these
special polling stations will be conducted over
two days in order to
minimise disruption to security duties.
Zesn
notes that voting by members of the defence forces and the police has
always
been contentious because it has traditionally been shrouded in
secrecy and
there have been allegations that junior members who constitute
the majority
of these forces are commanded to vote in specific ways. Voting
in barracks
is itself very contentious as it is not a suitable venue for the
expression
of free will. The lack of proper observation of such voting
processes has
also been criticised in the past. To the extent that the
designation of
district voting centres for such special voting will be done
by the
commission, this is a useful development.
No voting in
barracks
In particular, voting must not be conducted in barracks or
police stations.
The process must be subject to the same scrutiny by
electoral officials,
election agents and observers as voting at ordinary
polling stations on
polling days. It is important that members of the
forces vote in peace and
with knowledge that they are not required to follow
the orders of their
superiors. Transparent voting procedures and scrutiny of
the process are,
therefore, important supporting mechanisms.
The
special voting procedure, like postal voting, is too restricted to
specific
categories. It could easily be used to cover vulnerable groups such
as the
elderly or persons who may be too ill or unwell to attend at polling
stations during polling days. In fact both postal and special voting could
be used to facilitate voting by persons with disabilities who would
otherwise struggle to compete with others on polling days. It is a fact that
the long distances and limited means of transportation in rural areas in
particular make it extremely difficult for the elderly and sick to exercise
their voting rights.
State must be pro-active
It has
been recognised by the courts in other countries in the region, such
as
South Africa where the Constitutional Court held that the right to vote
is
one that requires the state to take a pro-active approach that enables
voters to fully enjoy its existence. It is arguable that where it is
impossible or difficult for persons to enjoy that right, this could be a
violation of individuals’ political rights as guaranteed under Section 23A
of the constitution.
It is recommended that just as the state has
made special procedures for
those who cannot be physically present on
government business, it must also
account for the voting rights of those who
cannot be present by reason of
old age, disability or general infirmity. At
present the voting procedures
which effectively limit the participation of
the aged could be seen as
discriminatory on the grounds of ageism and
therefore potentially in
violation of the constitution. It is recommended
that special and postal
voting procedures be set out at law to enable the
elderly, disabled and ill
to exercise their voting rights.
In
conclusion:
Zesn urges the extension of postal voting and special
voting to cover other
persons who are eligible to vote but are not presently
within the categories
stated in the law. It is recommended that as a
security measure, tamper-
proof envelopes should be used in postal voting to
prevent fraudulent
activity.
Further to the recommendation on
diaspora voting, Zesn urges a
reconsideration of postal voting to allow
Zimbabweans in the diaspora who
are eligible to vote to use
it.
Zesn recommends that consistent with the recognition of the right
to vote in
the constitution, the state must take a pro-active approach that
enables
voters to fully exercise their right to vote regardless of their
location
and physical or mental condition.
It is reasoned that
just as the state has made special procedures for those
who cannot be
physically present on government business or because of duties
on polling
days, it must also account for the voting rights of those who
cannot be
present for any other legitimate reason including, but not limited
to, old
age, physical incapacity or generally ill-health.
Special and postal
voting should be extended; there is also need for
security mechanisms to
prevent manipulation and rigging. There is need to
exercise extra vigilance
in the election observation process.
Comments: info@zesn.org.zw /zesn@africaon
line.co.zw.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 December 2011 15:34
THE role of
Zimbabwe’s Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic)
is
increasingly coming in for criticism due to its failure to ensure that
the
three parties in the inclusive government (IG) fully implement the
power-sharing pact.
It has been dismissed by political analysts as a
“toothless bulldog” because
of its inability to deal with the numerous
violations of the Global
Political Agreement (GPA). However, the committee
has dismissed these
criticisms saying there is a misconception about its
mandate and the power
at its disposal.
Jomic, which comprises
four senior members from each of the two MDC
formations and the former
ruling party Zanu PF, insists it is carrying out
its mandate as specified in
Article XXII of the GPA — the principal function
of which is to ensure the
implementation of the agreement in its letter and
spirit. It is also
supposed to serve as a catalyst in creating an atmosphere
of mutual trust
and understanding between the parties and in promoting
dialogue between
them.
However, in the past three years, it has become increasingly
clear that the
will of the principals, especially President Robert Mugabe,
always prevails
and recommendations from Jomic are largely
ignored.
With no powers to summon a person who breaches the GPA and
forced to rely on
persuasion to deal with offenders, it is little wonder
that Jomic is widely
perceived as emasculated.
In view of
escalating politically-motivated violence in the country,
non-fulfilment of
24 agreed GPA issues, hate speech in the state press and
continuing
harassment of independent media, the question on the minds of
many
Zimbabweans is whether Jomic is still relevant or has become a white
elephant.
It is generally agreed that the biggest mistake made
during the creation of
Jomic was its composition. How can Zimbabweans expect
those implementing the
GPA to be the ones to check on their
compliance?
The ideal situation would have been to set up a committee
made up of
apolitical people, mainly from civil society, working closely
with an
impartial police force and Attorney-General to ensure the arrest and
prosecution of perpetrators of violence.
To make matters worse,
there is no law or Act of Parliament that backs Jomic
in any way — so Jomic
simply cannot enforce any decision. I believe that
turning the body into a
statutory organ would give it enough muscle to
enforce its decisions and
have effective oversight over the implementation
of the
GPA.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, Jomic believes it is still
relevant
and that no institution has done as much to ensure that Zimbabwe
does not
slide back into chaos. For example, in an effort to end politically
motivated violence, Jomic has set up inter-party liaison committees at
provincial and district levels.
MDC-T supporters who were forced
to flee their homes in Chimanimani earlier
this year by Zanu PF activists
returned home in October after Jomic’s
intervention. Jomic has also
organised inter-party weekly meetings in Harare
to find a solution to end
the violence that has rocked the capital city and
Chitungwiza in the last
few weeks. Jomic also organised the anti-violence
indaba on November 11
between the three parties’ top leadership.
Jomic has said it will
meet with Police Commissioner-General Augustine
Chihuri to discuss why there
is selective application of the law by the
police, allegedly in favour of
Zanu PF supporters. It is also planning to
talk to the Information minister
to discuss the issue of hate speech and the
state media’s partisan
approach.
But Jomic still has to deal with the implementation of the
24 agreed — and
outstanding — issues. And the political parties remain
deadlocked over these
remaining issues.
It is a classic example
of what is wrong with Jomic. It can talk and point
to violations. It can
bring the parties together to discuss issues. But that
is
all.
By Faith Zaba
