Zim Daily
Friday,
December 23 2005 @ 04:06 AM GMT
Contributed by:
correspondent
A top UN official has accused Local government
minister Ignatius
Chombo of being a hypocrite after condemning as
"sub-standard" a model of a
home built by the United Nations (UN) for
victims of a government clean-up
blitz that left hundreds of thousands
homeless.
Zacarias told a press conference in the capital,
Harare, that he
was "somewhat puzzled" by the minister's response. He went
on to describe
the model as a joint effort by the Zimbabwean government and
the UN, as "it
was designed jointly by UN technicians, together with
technicians appointed
by the ministry of local government, and is the result
of extended
negotiations between the UN and the government of
Zimbabwe".
The government-run Herald Wednesday quoted Local
Government
Minister Ignatius Chombo as saying that the UN was told to
"follow set
guidelines but they went ahead and built this sub-standard
building." "This
structure is not permanent. We want permanent houses for
our people," said
Chombo during a visit to a camp where the UN has built an
example of the
brick and asbestos house. The Herald added that Chombo, after
viewing the
model home on Tuesday, commented that the people who had
designed the
structure were guided by "a this-is-good-for-Africa
attitude".
"I would like to take the opportunity to
categorically refute
suggestions that the UN has applied double standards to
Africans and more
specifically to Zimbabweans," said the UN representative.
In fact, Zacharias
said, the house very closely reflected technical
specifications contained in
a letter the government wrote to the UN on
November 14 this year approving
the design. After all, Zacharias said, the
model house that was being
criticized was superior to the plastic sheeting
that the majority of
families affected by the clean up exercise continued to
find themselves in
months after the exercise.
The Mercury
December 23, 2005
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party
will amend the constitution in the new
year to cancel presidential elections
in 2008 and extend President Robert
Mugabe's tenure until 2010, government
sources have said.
Even if the 82-year-old Mugabe opts to retire before
2010, the
envisaged constitutional amendments would enable him to appoint a
successor.
Mugabe's term expires in 2008, when Zimbabwe is due to
hold its
seventh presidential elections. But using his two-thirds majority
in both
parliament and the recently established upper house, the Senate,
Mugabe's
party aims to defer the presidential elections so that they can run
concurrently with parliamentary elections in 2010.
-
Mercury Foreign Service
By Ralph
Black
This article is inspired by the “Letter to a Chinese gentleman,” written in 1899, by the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, the author of the “War and Peace.” Although this letter was written over a century ago, its urgency and directness is astoundingly current as if it were written yesterday. It reads as advice to Zimbabweans both at home and abroad and poignantly reveals the root of the evil that has paralyzed and crippled Zimbabwean society.
It reads; individuals and societies are always in a transitory
state from one age to another, but there are times when these transitions both
for individuals and for societies are especially apparent and vividly
realized.
And further, this
transition consists in the necessity of freeing themselves from human authority
which has become unbearable.
Here is the advice Leo Tolstoy gave in the letter to a Chinese gentlemen, which Zimbabweans are best advised to urgently consider and heed.
You should free yourselves from the unreasonable demands
of your Government, which exacts from you actions contrary to your moral
teachings and consciousness. Only adhere
to that liberty which consists in following the rational way of life… and of
themselves will be abolished all the calamities which your officials cause
you. You will free yourselves from your
officials by not fulfilling their demands and above all, by not obeying you will
cease to contribute to the oppression and plunder of each
other.
Profound and prophetic words! And how applicable to the current situation in Zimbabwe. If the Zimbabwean people are to live a peaceful and industrious life following in their conduct the principles of their religious faiths, not doing to others what one does not wish to be done to himself, obedience to God and His law, respect for nature and the recognition of human authority that is subservient to divine authority and the dictates of conscience, then of themselves would disappear all the calamities from which the nation now suffers.
At this historically pivotal moment in Zimbabwe’s history, Leo Tolstoy’s words sound like a wake up call and an encouragement for Zimbabwe to retrace the steps of its rich and glorious history and culture, and to shake off the nightmarish existence and suffering imposed by the guardians of nationalist propaganda. However, to remedy the nations plight, collectively and beginning at the lowest and most basic unit of society we must identify and decisively deal with the root of the evil and not with its consequences.
Tolstoy reveals; in
order to free oneself from the evil, one should not fight the consequences, the
abuse of Government, the seizure and plunder of land and natural resources,
repressive legislation, homelessness, poverty, dislocation and displacement…
emphasis added…, but[one should fight] with the root of the evil; with the
relations in which people have placed themselves toward human authority. If the people recognize human power as higher
than the power of God, higher than His law, and higher than the laws of human
nature and the laws of the land…emphasis added…, then the people will always be
slaves and the more so, the more complex their organization of power… which they
institute and to which they submit.
The lesson; our nations attitude toward human authority is the root of the evil calamities our nation faces. Human authority in the person of Robert Mugabe and his party ZANU-PF, is so revered and feared, that it has been placed above divine authority, divine law, hence it is not governed by the dictates of human decency nor the law of the land. It follows then that the socio-political formations whose objective it is to oppose the glorified human authority of Robert Mugabe, struggle and fight the consequences of the evil regimes rule i.e., AIPPA, POSA, Constitutional Amendment 17, the electoral act and not the root of the evil, which is our collective hallowed perception and relation toward its authority.
Failure to recognize the root of the evil as being our relational attitude toward human authority and not the consequences of errant rule, denies the nation of our right and duty to disobey human authority that has become unbearable. Perhaps the dictates of Harare’s authority has not been unbearable or calamitous. Or to the contrary, the calamities that have befallen the nation at the hands of the repressive Mugabe regime have not forced a change in our relations towards its authority.
Again, Tolstoy advises; you
will free yourselves from your officials by not fulfilling their demands and
above all, by not obeying, you will cease to contribute to the oppression and
plunder of each other.
Could it be that we have contributed to the oppression and plunder of each other?
Ralph Black is the Director of Communication for the
Association of Zimbabweans Based Abroad (www.azba.org.),
co-chair of the North American Coalition for a Free Zimbabwe (www.zimbabweans.org)
and board member of DFW Community Alliance (www.dfwinternational.org). He writes in his personal capacity. He can be contacted by e-mail at
ralphblck@yahoo.com.
News24
23/12/2005 08:16 -
(SA)
London - Fed-up Zimbabwe cricketers, who went out on strike on
Thursday,
desperately need help from the International Cricket Council (ICC)
if they
are to keep on playing.
Their representative Clive Field
insisted that many players will be forced
to turn their back on the game as
the sport in the country goes through
another depressing
crisis.
"It's a financial issue - these guys are crying out for help,"
Field told
the BBC.
"If they don't see a viable career in cricket
they will have to earn a
living doing something else."
The players
went on strike and said they would not travel to next month's
Afro-Asian
A-team tournament in Bangladesh unless their demands, including
the
dismissal of Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) chairperson Peter Chingoka and
managing
director Ozias Bvute, and payment of monies owed to them were met.
The
Under-23 side would also not travel to neighbouring South Africa to play
in
cup matches in February.
Last week, the players decided to resume
training so that they would be
prepared for the tournaments, but they
changed their minds because of what
was described as "the ongoing failure of
ZC to address players concerns,
both contractual and governance".
ZC
shut its offices without notice a fortnight before Christmas and they are
not expected to re-open until mid January.
In an earlier statement
put out by Field, on behalf of the Zimbabwe
Professional Cricketers
Association, it was alleged match fees were paid
late or not at all for
series against India and New Zealand.
"In the light of the persistent and
continued failure by both the
chairperson and the managing director of
Zimbabwe Cricket to address the
legitimate concerns of their players,
effective immediately no player will
train or avail himself for national
duty," said the statement.
Last month former Zimbabwe captain Tatenda
Taibu said he would be heading to
Bangladesh to resume his career after
retiring from international cricket -
at the age of 22.
He resigned
the captaincy in protest at the alleged mal-administration of
Chingoka and
Bvute.
I have deliberately been fairly quiet
on the evolution of the crisis in the
MDC since October when the first cracks
appeared. The main reason for this
was that I was waiting to see how events
played themselves out while trying
to ascertain exactly what is going on.
From day one it was clear that there
was more to this internal crisis than at
first met the eye.
My own personal views were well known from the start
on the Senate issue - I
was against participation for a wide range of
reasons. Like others I was
shocked and surprised by the acrimonious debate
and the split decision in
October at the National Council meeting. Then,
while we waited for
reconciliation and a resumption of business as usual in
the MDC, far from
the situation improving we were spectators of a game where
both sides were
guilty of "sledging". For non-cricketers this a term is used
to describe a
situation in a game of cricket where one side or one person, by
word and
deed, denigrates the opposition. The debate left the majority of us
confused
and unhappy.
It is quite clear now that the real agenda had
little to do with the Senate
race and everything to do with the issue of how
to approach the question of
securing progress on the change and recovery
agenda in Zimbabwe. It is now
clear to all - even Zanu PF, that there will be
no progress until Mugabe
goes. That he wants to go is no secret - just today
the local pink paper
headlined that "Mugabe seeks a safe exit." By safe they
mean that he wants
to go when he is satisfied that his position after
relinquishing power is
still secure. No Saddam Hussein trial for him. His
colleagues are equally
anxious to ensure that when he goes - the whole
edifice of Zanu PF and it's
control of power does not simply wobble and
collapse.
They are not fools - they well know that they are hated
throughout the
country and that they could never win a free and fair election
on a level
playing field. They also know what lies ahead for them if the
situation does
get out of hand.
The group that attempted an internal
coup against Morgan Tsvangirai in
October was and is of the opinion that if
the Zanu PF cannot be defeated in
an election and that they cannot be
overthrown by a popular uprising, then
the only way forward is a "deal". It
is quite clear that such a deal has
been thrashed out and agreed and that
this operation is well under way -
with considerable international
support.
The dilemma for this group is that they do not command
sufficient support
inside the MDC to control the grass roots of the Party
where Morgan
Tsvangirai remains an icon and has massive support across the
country.
Morgan's great strength has always been his ability to touch the
"common
man". When he realized that he was the subject of a carefully
planned and
co-ordinated strategy to remove him from the MDC, Morgan turned
back to the
streets.
Since October he has toured the country
tirelessly, walking among people in
markets, holding rallies and meetings of
Party loyalists to explain what he
feels is happening and why he has decided
to stay with the course he set in
2000. At that time he argued that the MDC
had come into being to confront
Zanu PF - not to compromise with Zanu PF. He
sees the present conflict as a
choice between these two poles.
I have
supported Morgan throughout this trauma - many of my friends and
colleagues
have not and I am saddened by that, but it does not change my
view that he is
the only political leader with the trust and support of the
majority - in
Zimbabwe, that means, the poor, disadvantaged majority.
When I worked for
three years in the early sixties among peasant farmers in
the Gokwe district,
I gained a real respect for those poor people; their
wisdom, grasp of the
essential fundamentals, hard work and sense of
community. Above all, their
instinctive grasp of who was genuine and who had
their interests at heart.
Since then I have worked among the poor in urban
areas and helped start
Zambuko, a micro lending organisation that finances
small business. My
respect for the people who make up the great majority of
the third world and
depend on the informal sector for survival has become a
guiding principle for
my life. These street-smart people know where their
real interests lie, they
also know who can be trusted with those interests
and who cannot. They are
amazingly principled and have good communications
and sense of community. In
short, I trust the instincts of the poor.
There is no doubt in my mind
where the majority sentiment lies here - both
in the MDC itself and in the
country. It is with Morgan Tsvangirai and his
immediate support group. In
fact I have been shocked and surprised at how
vociferous the people attending
MDC rallies have been about the dissident
group led by Welshman Ncube et al.
At yesterdays meeting in Bulawayo for
example, he was repeatedly called
"Wishman" to the laughter and jeers of
several hundred people from the length
and breadth of the Matabeleland
region.
The present situation in the
Party is that Morgan is slowly regaining
control of the Party across the
country. 7 out of 12 Provinces have now held
their Congress's and have
elected new leadership to replace those who are
perceived to have defected.
In my own district, all those who supported the
Senate contest have been
brushed aside and new leadership - improved
leadership in many cases, has
been selected.
This process will be completed by mid January and then the
MDC will hold its
national Congress in early March. At that meeting all the
leaders who have
failed to restore their relationship with the grass roots of
the Party will
be replaced by new leaders and a fresh mandate given to them.
The Congress
will be a celebration for a movement that has survived 6 years
of battering
by Zanu PF, the media and the CIO. It will provide a strong
affirmation of
our people's faith in democracy and freedom, of their
commitment to continue
the struggle to defeat those who have destroyed what
was once a proud and
self-sufficient country.
It is a time to choose.
I was delighted when the warrior Roy Bennett, came
out of the woodwork to be
elected as Chairman of Manicaland Province for the
MDC. Roy has reservations
about some of the things that have been going on
in the MDC but recognizes
that whoever is responsible - and most of us
suspect the CIO and their
internal plants, the people are united and are not
in any way confused. They
are backing Morgan's leadership and are willing to
go all the way with him.
You cannot sit on the fence in this game, all that
that gets you is flak from
both sides.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 23rd December
2005
UK Herald
ALISON CHIESA
December 23 2005
Public indifference is
forcing a charity to consider putting fund-raising
for Africa on
hold.
The chief executive of Care International says it needs £2.2m to help
drought-hit sub-Saharan Africa. However, two newspaper campaigns raised only
£20,000 for Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania, Geoffrey Dennis
said.
He explained: "We can feed something like 9000 children for a month
with
that money, with high energy protein supplements. But it is nowhere
near
enough."
Now the charity may postpone a campaign relaunch. "It costs
us money to
raise a campaign. It may mean that a full relaunch will not
happen until the
situation is really disastrous in these countries and that
would be a real
shame," Mr Dennis added.
He said the situation was
potentially one of the worst facing Africa's
present generation.
"Thirty-five million people, we are forecasting, will be
affected. There are
no animals left. Crops have failed. There are people
already on the verge of
starvation."
In addition to drought there were longer-term issues, Mr Dennis
said. "The
effect of HIV/Aids across the whole of Africa, one million
orphans in South
Africa alone, life expectancy in Zambia now down to 37,
while in the 1970s
it was about 60.
"This is affecting the whole of
society. Farmers can't work in the fields if
they are affected and they are
losing family members like this."
Meanwhile, research has found that ethical
shopping at Christmas is
increasing.
Of 1070 people surveyed for the Body
Shop, 27% said they expected to spend
between £11 and £50 on ethical goods
this year. This could mean a UK-wide
ethical spend of £310m compared with
£230m last year.
Public indifference is forcing a charity to consider
putting fund-raising
for Africa on hold.
The chief executive of Care
International says it needs £2.2m to help
drought-hit sub-Saharan Africa.
However, two newspaper campaigns raised only
£20,000 for Malawi, Zimbabwe,
Zambia and Tanzania, Geoffrey Dennis said.
He explained: "We can feed
something like 9000 children for a month with
that money, with high energy
protein supplements. But it is nowhere near
enough."
Now the charity may
postpone a campaign relaunch. "It costs us money to
raise a campaign. It may
mean that a full relaunch will not happen until the
situation is really
disastrous in these countries and that would be a real
shame," Mr Dennis
added.
He said the situation was potentially one of the worst facing Africa's
present generation. "Thirty-five million people, we are forecasting, will be
affected. There are no animals left. Crops have failed. There are people
already on the verge of starvation."
In addition to drought there were
longer-term issues, Mr Dennis said. "The
effect of HIV/Aids across the whole
of Africa, one million orphans in South
Africa alone, life expectancy in
Zambia now down to 37, while in the 1970s
it was about 60.
"This is
affecting the whole of society. Farmers can't work in the fields if
they are
affected and they are losing family members like this."
Meanwhile, research
has found that ethical shopping at Christmas is
increasing.
Of 1070
people surveyed for the Body Shop, 27% said they expected to spend
between
£11 and £50 on ethical goods this year. This could mean a UK-wide
ethical
spend of £310m compared with £230m last year.
Public indifference is
forcing a charity to consider putting fund-raising
for Africa on
hold.
The chief executive of Care International says it needs £2.2m to help
drought-hit sub-Saharan Africa. However, two newspaper campaigns raised only
£20,000 for Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania, Geoffrey Dennis
said.
He explained: "We can feed something like 9000 children for a month
with
that money, with high energy protein supplements. But it is nowhere
near
enough."
Now the charity may postpone a campaign relaunch. "It costs
us money to
raise a campaign. It may mean that a full relaunch will not
happen until the
situation is really disastrous in these countries and that
would be a real
shame," Mr Dennis added.
He said the situation was
potentially one of the worst facing Africa's
present generation.
"Thirty-five million people, we are forecasting, will be
affected. There are
no animals left. Crops have failed. There are people
already on the verge of
starvation."
In addition to drought there were longer-term issues, Mr Dennis
said. "The
effect of HIV/Aids across the whole of Africa, one million
orphans in South
Africa alone, life expectancy in Zambia now down to 37,
while in the 1970s
it was about 60.
"This is affecting the whole of
society. Farmers can't work in the fields if
they are affected and they are
losing family members like this."
Meanwhile, research has found that ethical
shopping at Christmas is
increasing.
Of 1070 people surveyed for the Body
Shop, 27% said they expected to spend
between £11 and £50 on ethical goods
this year. This could mean a UK-wide
ethical spend of £310m compared with
£230m last year.
Zim Daily
Friday, December 23
2005 @ 04:05 AM GMT
Contributed by: Reporter
HIV
and AIDS patients will now have to fork out a whooping $4,5
million for the
much-needed generic Anti Retroviral medication per month.
The latest
development comes as a major blow to the suffering Zimbabweans
who are
caught in an economic meltdown puzzle.
The sole manufacturer
of the generic ARVs, Varichem indicated
that the rising inflation coupled
with the constant crippling shortage of
foreign currency has seen the
unprecedented rise in the much sought after
drug. HIV and AIDS activism
organisations have bemoaned the shortages
levelling the blame on the
government's reluctance to take the issue
seriously.
Dr
Edwin Muguti, deputy minister of Health and Child Welfare
lambasted
independent media for 'melodramatising' the situation. Dr Muguti
chose to
attack journalists, whilst admitting that the crisis is far from
over.
"Tozotaura kana zvinhu zvanaka (i will only give a
comment when
the situation is back to normal)', said Dr Muguti. Human rights
lawyers
weighed in blaming reserve bank governor, Dr Gideon Gono for
choosing to pay
the International monetary Fund using money that 'was raised
in a
controversial manner'. Zimbabwe needs US$1 million to adequately
acquire
ARVs for the 290 000 needy. Currently less than 20 000 patients are
on
medication, the figure that is set to drop drastically against the
background of the skyrocketing prices.
SABC
December
23, 2005, 10:45
Traffic is reportedly running smoothly along the
Musina-Beitbridge road in
Limpopo Province. Thousands of cars are passing
over the border to Zimbabwe.
There have been problems of traffic congestion
throughout the week at the
border post, but the problem was resolved with
the deployment of more staff.
For many days the queue stretched for
6km.
The situation improved after the more than 80 defence force members
and
police officials were roped in to control traffic congestion. Earlier
this
week a person was knockdown by cars during the congestion. A number of
overloaded vehicles also broke down along the road to Beitbridge.
A
meeting of the border control co-ordinating committee resulted in steps
being taken to address the problem, which was flaring tempers among
motorists waiting to be attended to. Nkosana Sibuyi , home affairs
spokesperson, admitted there had been a lack of professionalism and
managment efficiency at the border post.
Water points and portable
toilets were provided to ease the wait while
contingency plans were
made.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
GOVERNMENT
will next month splash out a staggering US$4,8 million - about
$427,7
billion at the ruling parallel market exchange rate of US$1: $90
000 - to
MPs and senators to buy personal vehicles at a time when forex
remains
scarce and millions of Zimbabweans are without food.
Official sources
said lawmakers in the lower and upper chambers - who now
number up to 216 -
will each get US$22 000 to import a vehicle under
parliament's car loan
facility. This means US$4 752 000 will be spent on
vehicle
allowances.
The House of Assembly has 150 MPs while the
newly-reintroduced Senate has 66
members. The re-introduction of the
bi-cameral legislature has stretched
already scarce national resources as
new members push for perks. Expenditure
on the recent Senate election and
allowances and other benefits for the
senators will further deplete the
country's scarce forex resources.
Zimbabwe is reeling under a serious
foreign exchange crisis which has in
turn caused shortages of fuel, power,
drugs, spares, production inputs, and
grain.
The foreign currency
shortage was caused by poor export performance, lack of
balance of payments
support, and drying up of donor aid and direct foreign
investment.
"Legislators, both members of the lower house and the
upper house, will from
next month start to draw down on the facility in
which they would be able to
access US$22 000 each to import cars," a source
said. "Initially MPs wanted
US$46 000 each but the figure was brought down
to US$22 000."
The loans will be secured at a preferential exchange rate
of US$1:$26 000
and will be interest-free. The vehicles will be imported
duty-free.
However, the legislators want the loan increased because
they argue that it
was too little to buy suitable off-road
vehicles.
"There is no useful car that one can buy with US$22 000
because MPs need
all-terrain vehicles that work in all constituencies,
especially rural
ones," one MP said.
"The only car one can buy
with that amount is a re-conditioned Japanese
vehicle, those from Durban
(South Africa), which cost between US$3 000 and
US$10
000."
Parliament has been in dire straits due to budgetary
constraints. It has
during the course of the year failed to pay MPs their
allowances.
In October, Speaker John Nkomo and a delegation of MPs
failed to travel to
Geneva, Switzerland, to attend an Inter-Parliamentary
Union (IPU) conference
because parliament was broke and had no usable
foreign currency. It could
not raise the required US$1 500 travel allowances
for each of the MPs.
Nkomo was expected to travel with Zanu PF MPs,
Leo Mugabe and Margaret
Zinyemba, and opposition MDC legislators Job Sikhala
and Gilbert Shoko.
Zim Independent
Loughty
Dube
THE ruling Zanu PF has admitted for the first time that the
controversial
land reforms it masterminded five years ago are fraught with
irregularities,
a report by the party has revealed.
The concession by
Zanu PF vindicates assertions by local pressure groups and
the international
community that the land reform exercise was hurried to
achieve a political
goal and that this has contributed to the decline in
agricultural
production.
Zimbabwe is grappling with acute food shortages caused
mainly by disruptions
to commercial farming and the shortage of inputs such
as fertiliser and
grain seed.
The Zanu PF central committee two
weeks tabled a report outlining the
problems at a closed meeting during the
party's national conference held in
Esigodini.
The contents of
the report angered President Mugabe who, in his closing
remarks at the
conference, lashed out at government departments for failing
to deal with
problems in the agricultural sector.
The report, titled Land and Land
Reform, confirms that the latest land audit
has revealed there are fresh
farm invasions despite government claims that
the exercise has been
completed.
In highlighting some of the problems plaguing the land
reform process, the
report says the land audit currently under way has
discovered that only 81
farms from a list of 6 482 acquired have been
submitted to the
Surveyor-General for title surveys.
From the
list, only two farms in Matabeleland North and four in Masvingo
have been
submitted to the Surveyor-General for the title surveys.
The report
further indicates that multiple-farm ownership is still prevalent
country-wide.
"Double allocations and multiple ownership are
still prevalent but the
ministry is addressing the situation," the report
says. "Provincial land
committees have been requested to take corrective
measures as a matter of
urgency.
This is one of the problems that is
also being addressed by the land audit."
Senior government officials and
Zanu PF supporters have in the past ignored
President Mugabe's calls for
multiple-farm owners to surrender their surplus
farms.
Successive
land committees appointed by Mugabe to take stock of the land
reform
exercise have all indicated that Zanu PF chefs owned several farms
each but
few have bothered to hand back the extra land.
The report also
highlights vandalism or under-utilisation of infrastructure
on state farms,
government's failure to deal with people on the land without
offer letters,
and those with offer letters but not on the ground.
"There is rampant
vandalism of infrastructure and equipment on a number of
farms, especially
the destruction of tobacco barns," the report says.
"A number of
farmers without offer letters have been identified on the
ground and these
claim to have moved to the farms in the year 2000 and
therefore claim that
they are protected by the Rural Land Occupiers Act," it
says.
While the confusion on the farms continues, the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe is
mobilising resources to import 50 000 tonnes of
fertilisers needed by
farmers for the current farming
season.
Despite the widespread rains, reports on the ground indicate
that there is
little farming activity due to input shortages and on-farm
disruptions.
The ongoing land audit has established that settlers are
involved in the
destruction of trees on the farms.
"The settlers
are involved in wanton destruction of trees, selling firewood,
gold panning,
poaching and vandalism of farm properties among other things,"
the report
says.
The land audit seeks to address issues of farm utilisation,
identification
of property left on farms by former white owners, farm
disputes, double farm
allocations and the issue of multiple farm
ownerships.
It is also expected to deal with cases of beneficiaries
with offer letters
who are not on the ground and farmers on the ground
without offer letters.
"There are cases where existing infrastructure
like dairy infrastructure is
being converted into classrooms and in some
cases coffee, citrus or timber
plantations are being cleared to pave way for
crop production," says the
report.
It highlights cases of illegal
gold panners who are using prime farming land
for mining
activities.
The report also states that there is massive irrigation
infrastructure on A1
farms that is not being used at all by the new
farmers.
The government intends to amend Section 10 of the Farm
Equipment and
Minerals Act to allow it to compulsorily acquire former white
farmers'
equipment and give it to A1 and A2 farmers.
According to
the report, a total of 140 698 A1 families have been resettled
on 2 740
farms while 14 856 A2 beneficiaries have been resettled on 2 280
farms.
Zim Independent
* "HE met Cde
Msika but he was adamant and Msika gave up. The next day we
heard he had
filed nomination papers to stand as an independent and we
advised him that
it was not wise to stand as an independent. I advised him
that the whole
machinery of the party will fall on you and you will be
demolished. You can
never win against Zanu PF. You can't educate him." -
President Robert
Mugabe commenting on Jonathan Moyo who had defied the party
leadership to
contest the March election as an independent in Tsholotsho.
* "Those
people waiting for a launch ceremony might wait for a very long
time because
the party for today to make tomorrow better has already
come." - Tsholotsho
MP and former Information minister Jonathan Moyo in
response to questions
when the United People's Movement would be launched.
* "The only
option left is for the responsible authorities to call for
elections so that
residents can elect a mayor with a vision for the
municipality. "- Glen
Norah resident Walter Muneneri commenting on the
reappointment of the Harare
commission led by Sekesai Makwavarara.
* "I have no interest in
playing idiotic games with idiots. Tsvangirai and
his gang believe I am
interested in playing their idiotic game." - Welshman
Ncube responding to
claims of his suspension as MDC secretary-general by
party leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
* "I don't want to give lies any respect. Those are just
lies. I have seen
website stories saying I knew about this and did nothing.
Those are lies.
You are a seasoned journalist and I don't think you want us
to discuss such
things. I have no personal views on lies." - Former State
Security minister
Nicholas Goche dismissing reports that he was involved in
the spy case
involving Phillip Chiyangwa, Kenny Karidza, Itai Marchi,
Godfrey Dzwairo and
Tendai Matambanadzo.
* "There is nothing
wrong with the party policies. But there is something
wrong with some of the
leaders. We have party leaders who think they should
die in power and should
never be challenged. We do not have leaders who have
the Mandela-style of
leadership - a type of leadership where you lead some
day and groom someone
to lead you tomorrow. You then look back and feel
proud of your achievements
and the continuation of party ideals." -
Suspended war veterans leader
Jabulani Sibanda castigating the Zanu PF
leadership.
* "The women
were assaulted with batons and kicked by the police. They were
taken into an
interrogation room that had a table in the middle and
underneath the table
was a pool of blood. Police details interrogating them
threatened that if
the women continued with Woza their blood would be added
to the pool under
the table." - Woza coordinator Jenny Williams describing
the ordeal women
demonstrators went through at Harare Central police station
for protesting
against Education minister Aeneas Chigwedere.
* "This book is a
prophecy of what is going to happen. The book tries kuudza
vana veZimbabwe
kuti kutengesa nyika hazvibatsiri. Kutengesa nyika kunoita
Africa irasike.
They have gone to create a media whose hatred of Zimbabwe's
revolution
surpasses the smell of a thousand dead donkeys." - Director of
Zanu PF
publicity Steve Chidawanyika commenting on a booklet published for
the March
parliamentary election listing the names of people perceived as
traitors.
The list included Trevor Ncube, Basildon Peta, Geoff Nyarota,
Archbishop
Pius Ncube, NCA chairperson Lovemore Madhuku and most MDC
legislators.
* "The problem with our leaders is that they don't
look at the economy
strategically. They must not allow Zimbabwe to be a
free-for-all economy
where inferior products just flood the market to the
detriment of our
manufacturers. Zimbabwean manufacturers cannot be expected
to compete
against the Chinese. China has huge economies of scale which we
don't
have." - President of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce Luxon
Zembe
commenting on the flooding of the local market with inferior Chinese
products.
* "People blame us for not organising protests against
the government. But
how do you organise a person whose immediate priority is
to see where his
family is going to eat or sleep next? You cannot tell a
person preoccupied
with finding alternative accommodation for his family or
a temporary place
to keep his belongings to join a protest march." - MDC
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai responding to charges that his party should have
seized
opportunities presented by the unpopular Operation Murambatsvina to
rally
people against the regime.
* "People know my assets and God
knows they are mine. Even if they take them
they will remain mine. What have
I done?" - Businessman James Makamba
responding to reports that government
wanted to take over his stake in
Telecel.
* "This is about
intimidation. This is about clamping down on the
independent media. This is
about thought-control which has forced people to
look over their shoulders
before they express themselves." - Publisher
Trevor Ncube commenting on the
seizure of his passport by the state.
Zim Independent
Grace Kombora
A
BLEAK Christmas beckons for crisis-sapped Zimbabweans as inflation
continues
to gnaw at the national currency, forcing buyers to carry huge
bundles
called "bricks".
Going down memory lane, many adults remember times when
Christmas was an
occasion for celebrations. Every child in our neighbourhood
would look
forward to the day. They looked forward to receiving new clothes
or a pair
of shoes and invariably sweets.
Flaunting new clothes,
the kids would roam around the rural shopping centre
in the "townships" with
the $5 mothers would have generously given them as
"pocket money". It was so
loaded with value that they would spend as much as
they could and still
return home with change.
Food flowed - winnow baskets full of bread
slices, sweets and candy cakes -
the rare treat that children would wait a
whole 365 days for.
Everything that a child could dream of was freely
available. Relatives would
bring home the bacon in the form of dozens of
bread loaves to grace the
Christmas day table.
All that is long
gone. The joys of Christmas have been receding since the
current economic
crisis took hold in 1997 accompanied by rising food costs
which have spawned
deepening poverty.
Christmas Day no longer raises expectations but
competes with any other for
daily worries.
There is little hope
of re-incarnating the good old days owing to a serious
plunge in the value
of the Zimbabwe currency, gnawed to the bone by rising
inflation which is
now more than 500%
The crippled economy has spawned hard times for
Zimbabweans.
Travel to rural areas and the gathering of family units
for Christmas has
become too costly for ordinary
Zimbabweans.
Fuel shortages, which hit the country three years ago,
have left Zimbabweans
without any hope of getting normal supplies in the
near future.
The would-have-been festive season appears to have turned
into a curse
exemplified by Josephine Mano, a widowed teacher at a primary
school in
Harare.
Mano, a mother of two, does not know how she is
going to survive not only
this Christmas but in the coming
year.
With a paltry $3 million monthly salary and a similar amount in
untaxed
bonus, she does not have enough to make the minimum required to feed
a
family for a month.
Mano fears that she will not be able to pay
school fees for her children
come January when schools open.
As a
civil servant, Mano is among ill-paid public servants who are gradually
joining a growing number of urban poor hard pressed to make a decent living
out of formal employment.
"I do not know how I am going to
survive especially next month as I have
already used up my cash," Mano
said.
"I have to beg and borrow to make ends meet. That does not give
me any
reprieve because come monthend I must pay what I owe and start
borrowing
again. It's a vicious cycle," Mano said.
Zim Independent
Shakeman
Mugari
CHRISTMAS Day could pass without anything to distinguish it from any
other
day for about two million poor Zimbabweans this year. They got their
Christmas "present" from government in the form of Operation Murambatsvina
seven months ago.
For those affected by the controversial slum
clearance operation - put at
over two-and-a-half million by the UN -
Christmas Day is likely to find them
busy patching the leaking roofs of
their shacks, hastily put up after their
homes were destroyed in
May.
While President Robert Mugabe might be looking forward to his
traditional
annual Christmas holiday abroad, the victims of his government's
brutal
actions have nothing to celebrate.
With their sources of
livelihood destroyed and homes razed by bulldozers,
they have lost hope of
ever rebuilding their lives again.
Nowhere is this lack of hope more
apparent than at Whitecliff Farm where
thousands were left homeless by the
operation. The place now resembles a
bombed village. Massive heaps of bricks
and rubble are what remain of their
homes.
In other places
coloured floors and pock-marked slabs serve to remind them
that they used to
own a house there.
The government said their houses were not planned
but to the people of
Whitecliff their structures were
home-sweet-home.
Fearful of the coming rains, the people have built
makeshift shelters some
of which rise barely two metres off the ground. Many
have become used to
crawling into their homes instead of walking
in.
To ask them about their Christmas plans and New Year resolutions
is an
insult. Their faces bear a hang-dog look.
It is a question
that they believe has an obvious answer if one looks around
them. "What else
can a man with a destroyed home hope for?" says July
Mushonga (41), who now
lives in a shack with his wife Mary and two kids.
"What can you do on
a Christmas day if you don't have money? To me Christmas
will just be
another day of suffering, another day of struggle to eke out a
living," says
Mushonga.
It is very difficult to find any other name for his shack
than a hovel. It
leans precariously on two wooden poles used as pillars that
it could take
only a slight storm for it to crumble. But Mushonga has
nothing to fear
because he says the government has "killed me already". A
black plastic
sheet on the entrance serves as a door. He has learnt that the
simple act of
opening a door is a luxury reserved for those who have proper
houses.
During heavy rains he does not sleep, dealing with leaks on
the roof.
"I am destroyed already. Nothing could be worse than what
the government did
to me," he says almost in tears. When a man weeps in
Africa it means his
situation is dire.
A single sofa probably
bought from Siyaso - the informal market - during the
good times before
government swooped on informal settlements and traders
shows that he once
owned furniture.
"I sold all the property I had to buy food after
they destroyed my roadside
tuck shop and house," he laments. Inside the
hovel, there are no
demarcations between bedroom, kitchen and dining-room -
one plastic
contraption serves both purposes. In the dark corner of the room
a glowing
fire flickers underneath a black tin.
He is boiling
today's relish -nyevhe - an edible weed that grows during
summer. Next to
the fire is a tin half full with mealie-meal that might on
first look pass
for brown sugar because of its poor quality.
"This is what I will eat
for Christmas," he says opening the tin for this
reporter to
see.
"I am ashamed I will not be able to provide my children with the
few goodies
that I enjoyed during Christmas when I was young. I am ashamed
of myself for
failing to provide for my children."
He remembers
how as a young boy growing up in Murehwa under the Smith regime
he would
look forward to Christmas Day.
Then before the economy had been
vandalised he would wake up early on the
day with other village boys to go
to the river.
There they would scrub their cracked feet to wear their
canvass shoes
brought from town by their fathers. They would smear their
bodies with Shell
oil and put on their new clothes. It was
good.
Christmas was a day when the family had plenty to eat from
bread to rice and
chicken. For the boys those with a blinking Quartz watch
would be heroes.
Those without anything to show would compensate by smearing
their mouths
with margarine or butter to show off. No one starved because
everyone was
willing to share.
At the local shops the children
would splash their valuable cents on local
fizzy beverages drinks. One of
the drinks was famous for its twisted bottle.
The rock buns and candy
cakes (Chikondamoyo) were also favourite items of
confectioneries.
But all that has changed for Mushonga and
millions of Zimbabweans now
poverty stricken because of economic meltdown
caused by misrule.
The Mushongas last had bread three weeks
ago.
"Bread is now a privilege for people like (Local Government
minister
Ignatious) Chombo," Mushonga says in frustration punctuated with
sarcasms.
"Kana ukataura zvechingwa kwandiri unenge uchitondituka.
Chinodyiwa nevari
muhurumende savana Chombo ndiye nyakupaza imba yangu." (To
talk about bread
to me is an insult. Bread is for those in the government
like Minister
Chombo who ordered the destruction of my house.)
He
has more pressing problems to worry about over Christmas. His eldest son,
Godknows (8), will need $400 000 to go back to school in Murehwa, Mushonga's
rural area which he last visited four years ago.
In Whitecliff
there is no distinction between those who have and those who
don't - they
are all poor. The villagers are bound by one common goal - to
get something
to eat today. Tomorrow in another day to be lived when it
arrives.
Norman Bondayi (38), a father of three, shares the same
misery with
Mushonga.
He has pulled through the past three months
selling bricks from his
destroyed house to people in the neighbouring
suburbs like Kuwadzana
Extension.
"But the bricks are almost
finished. I have to look for other means to
survive," said Bondayi.
Christmas to him has lost its meaning.
"Even if it meant anything to
me, what would I do if there is no money in
the house?" he
asks.
Once a staunch supporter of Zanu PF, Bondayi now has no kind
words for
Mugabe and his government.
"I now know who is killing
this country, it's the Zanu PF government and no
one else," he declares
bravely. He says poverty has taught him to be
critical and analyse
things.
"I feel angry when I hear the president's motorcade passing
along the road
(Harare-Bulawayo). I ask myself why he doesn't look this side
and see how we
are living."
Zim Independent
A NUMBER of
Zimbabweans will be unable to visit South Africa for the festive
season
after failing to get visas due to the stringent requirements made by
the
South African authorities.
Prospective travellers interviewed this week
expressed frustration with the
South African visa requirements which they
said were being used to block
genuine travellers under the pretext of
controlling illegal immigrants into
that country.
Those
interviewed said they were unable to get visas because they did not
have
invitation letters needed to accompany a visa application. Tourists and
holidaymakers do not travel by invitation, they pointed
out.
Thulani Gumede, a Bulawayo resident who wanted to go to South
Africa for
holidays with his family, said he was unable to secure visas for
his family
because he could not produce an invitation letter to back up his
application.
"I telephoned the guys at the South African embassy
and they told me I
should not bother to submit the passports unless I had an
invitation letter
from someone," Gumede said.
"I asked the
officer at the visa section how I could get an invitation
letter to go on
holiday on my own resources. In a way, I'm a tourist and
since when have
tourists been invited to tour holiday resorts?"
To get a South
African visa, one needs to attach an invitation letter with
the name and
address of the host and a travellers cheque worth R1 000 or
savings with a
South African bank of the same amount. The visa takes seven
days to process.
South Africa recently introduced transit visas for
Zimbabweans, in a move
that showed a tightening of the visa regime.
If one is applying for a
visa to attend a funeral, the embassy needs a death
certificate, which means
a bereaved family has to confront government
bureaucracy to get the
certificate before attending to more immediate
issues.
To make
matters worse, local travellers say, officers at the South African
embassy's
visa section in Harare are generally hostile and treat customers
with
disdain.
Another potential traveller, Andrew Mutasa, said he also
failed to get a
visa because of the strict requirements.
"It's
very disappointing to be subjected to such kind of treatment, not only
by
fellow African brothers, but also by neighbours," he said.
"When will
South Africa realise it has to treat other Africans with due
respect? It's
unfortunate such a small thing might end up damaging relations
between the
two countries if not addressed in time."
Several travellers who
failed to make it said they were annoyed by the South
African visa demands
because they would lose money - thousands of rands -
they had paid for hotel
bookings and other holiday activities in advance.
"I will lose R3 000
just because I couldn't get a visa. This is really
unfair and insulting,"
one traveller said.
Last month editor of the Standard newspaper
Davison Maruziva failed to
attend an important media conference in
Johannesburg after the South African
embassy withheld his passport, claiming
it could not be released before
seven days had expired.
South
African embassy officials could not comment on the issue this week.
The head
of the visa section (only identified as Nzuza) demanded questions
be put in
writing.
In the region, Zimbabweans are the only ones who need visas
in advance to
enter South Africa.
Eight months ago South Africa
signed an agreement with Mozambique for the
removal of visa requirements for
Mozambican nationals visiting South Africa
for a maximum of 30
days.
South African Home Affairs minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
said the
Zimbabwean visa issue needed to be addressed urgently. Observers
say it has
become untenable for South Africa to block people - mostly
ordinary citizens
and businessmen - from travelling on spurious grounds. -
Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Ray
Matikinye
THE United People's Movement (UPM) says it will push for a
broad-based
constitution in its first 100 days in office to undo the damage
that the
ruling Zanu PF has inflicted on ordinary Zimbabweans since it took
office in
1980.
In a position paper published recently and being
distributed selectively,
UPM promises a radical shift from Zanu PF policies
to restore property
rights, enfranchise Zimbabweans abroad and break the
stranglehold on tribal
chiefs that Zanu PF has maintained.
The
position paper assumes UPM will benefit from the divided loyalties of
disgruntled members from the MDC and Zanu PF by offering a policy
shift.
UPM promises to de-politicise the Central Intelligence
Organisation, the
Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe National Army
and remove them from
direct political control by a sitting
president.
Current UPM focal person, Pearson Mbalekwa, said his
movement will not
launch itself at a press conference like other parties
have done.
"We know the risks involved," Mbalekwa, who sent his
resignation letter from
Zanu PF to the party headquarters along Rotten Row
through his gardener,
said last Friday.
"As a movement we have
been mobilising in secret because we know who we are
dealing
with."
Mbalekwa resigned from Zanu PF to protest the widely condemned
slum
clearance scheme, Operation Murambatsvina.
Mbalekwa, a
former CIO officer, resigned in April.
He refused to name other
members but the UPM position paper gives pointers
that the movement has
drawn support from President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF
party.
"While the leadership in Zanu PF is now deadwood, the same
is not true of
the bulk of its membership which is part of UPM," it
says.
Unlike Zanu PF which has remained wedded to the politics of
liberation, UPM
says it will reverse the marginalisation of young people by
ensuring they
play a pivotal role in national politics and the
economy.
It says its ideological position "seeks a radical revision
of democracy and
public institutions, not only as a response to the failed
Zanu PF's
one-party project but as a response to the push down effects of
globalisation below and above the level of the state".
This will
be achieved through decentralisation and devolution of political
power to
produce what constitutes public or national interest.
Once the UPM is
in government, it will embark on a rationalisation of land
reform and
institutionalise a freehold land tenure system to promote
effective land
utilisation and eliminate abuse by the ruling elite.
UPM will abolish
presidential appointments for MPs and provincial governors
to ensure anyone
holding political office is directly elected by the people.
"UPM
believes in representative leadership, not in leaders who are not
elected by
the people or leaders without followers who have no mandate
beyond their
personal interests," the position paper says.
Zim Independent
AS the 2008
presidential and 2010 parliamentary elections draw closer,
internal Zanu PF
reports indicate that 10 of the party's 12 provinces are
faced with serious
factionalism that threatens to divide the party.
The reports,
communicated to the party leadership during the just- ended
Zanu PF national
conference, state that Mashonaland East and Central are the
only provinces
unaffected by factionalism.
A Zanu PF "National Security" report that
looks at the state of the party
nation-wide says factionalism is so rife
that it has an effect on the very
existence of the party.
The
divisions have prompted the central committee to recommend that the
party
restructures from cell to district level in all provinces ahead of the
presidential election due in 2008.
"Factionalism is rife in most
provinces with the exception of Mashonaland
East and Central. If there are
any differences within the ranks of the party
leadership of the two
provinces, it is minimal and of no consequence to the
party," says a summary
of the state of the party.
The report further states that in most
cases there are two factions in each
province while other provinces have
more than two.
According to the report, the leaders of each faction
in each province are
known and can easily be identified.
"In most
cases there are two factions in each province, though in other
provinces
there might be more. The leaders of each faction are known and can
be
identified without any difficulties," the report says.
Zanu PF is
fraught with factionalism that dates back to the early 90s but
the latest
fragmentation was accentuated by the succession issue that saw
six
provincial chairpersons suspended for allegedly plotting against Joice
Mujuru's rise to the post of vice-president.
As a result, two
camps emerged with one camp backing Mujuru while another
was rooting for
former speaker of parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The report, divided
into several sections, also assesses Zanu PF's
strengths, the security
situation around the country, activities of minority
parties, the recently
held senatorial elections and the strained relations
between Zanu PF and the
international community.
The party report says voter apathy,
corruption within its ranks and protest
votes are some of the problems
undermining Zanu PF.
"However, the weakness of the party, which has
also become its major threat,
is its continued failure to effectively
destroy factionalism, voter apathy
and protest votes within its ranks. The
party should be exemplary in dealing
with corrupt leaders within its ranks,
as failure to do so would seriously
erode its fortunes through mistrust,"
the report says. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
ZIMBABWE
Mirror Newspapers Group CEO and editor-in-chief Ibbo Mandaza said
yesterday
he will today file a contempt of court charge against his company's
board
which has prevented him from resuming duties despite the nullification
of
his suspension.
Mandaza, who secured a court order against his suspension
last week and a
"clarification order" to put the lifting of his suspension
beyond doubt,
said the Mirror board had issued a memo to employees urging
them not to
cooperate with him and said that "amounted to contempt of
court".
"The circular amounts to a contempt of court and my lawyers
are going to
court tomorrow (today) to file a contempt of court charge,"
Mandaza said.
"The court order interdicts, prohibits and restrains some
board members from
holding or continuing any disciplinary proceedings or
other actions against
me."
The Mirror group, publishers of the
Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, has been
taken over by the Central
Intelligence Organsiation using public funds.
Mandaza was first
suspended in October by Mirror chair Jonathan Kadzura and
his deputy John
Marangwanda. He had to fight in court to overturn his
suspension. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
SUBJECT to
confirmation by the Rhodes Trustees, two Zimbabweans have raised
the
country's flag high by being nominated for entry to the prestigious
Oxford
University in the United Kingdom in October next year by the Rhodes
Scholarship Selection Committee for Zimbabwe.
The duo - Rosemary
Nyabadza and Tara McIndoe - will join some 240 Rhodes
scholars from 19
countries.
McIndoe was educated at the Dominican Convent High School
in Bulawayo where
she obtained flying colours scoring nine "A"s in her "O"
level examinations
and three "A"s and one "B" at Advanced level. She was
headgirl in the year
2000 and is an avid athlete who represented the
school's first teams in
swimming, tennis, hockey and diving. McIndoe
proceeded to Trinity College,
University of Dublin, where she obtained first
class honours throughout her
four year BA degree in Economics and Social
Studies. She is set to complete
an MPhil in Economics at
Oxford.
Nyabadza on the other hand attended Arundel School where she
amassed ten "A"s
at 'O' level proceeding to score an impressive three "A"s
and two "B"s in
the Cambridge Advanced Subsidiary examinations. Nyabadza is
also an active
sportswoman who represented her school in athletics and
hockey.
From Arundel she joined Griffiths University in Brisbane,
Australia, where
she won various awards for academic excellence in her
Bachelor of Biomedical
Science degree. She wishes to study for a MSc in
Global Health Science.
Oxford Scholarships are awarded to outstanding
and deserving students across
the world who display unparalleled academic
excellence in various fields of
study. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Itai Mushekwe
IN
a clear case of disapproval, visual arts students from the Zimbabwe
Institute of Visual Arts (Ziva) recently produced stinging work against
government's infamous slum clearance blitz Operation Murambatsvina/ Restore
Order.
The damning presentations were on display at Ziva's graduation
ceremony held
a fortnight ago at the City Bowling Club in the capital.
Fifteen students
were awarded with diplomas for completing the institute's
two year visual
arts programme.
Of the displays viewed by guests
at the ceremony, four presentations from
four artists emerged head and
shoulders above the rest owing to their
powerful political connotations told
through sheer graphic design prowess.
The visual pictures which
included Clean Up? by Thomas Mwasangwale and A New
Beginning by Michelle
Motsi together with Operation Sunga Zvinhu (lock it)
and Warning presented
by Fadzayi Chiwandire and Kundai Hove respectively
speak volumes about the
devastation and suffering inflicted on the people by
the
operation.
One of the artists who declined to be named expressed
grave concern over the
plight of those affected describing government's
so-called urban renewal
which left a swathe of destruction on its trail as
horrendous.
"As artists we are society's mirror," said the
artist.
"It is incumbent upon us to reflect reality and matters
affecting humanity
through our work.
"Transgressions committed by
the state while undertaking this mad operation
amount to an atrocity and are
unforgivable as Zimbabweans have been reduced
to paupers after working so
hard to improve their lives."
The visual displays complement each
other in communicating the fate and dark
cloud cast upon by Murambatsvina.
The displays left people attending the
graduation ceremony overwhelmed with
grief as they painted a vivid picture
of what transpired during the
crackdown. UN envoy, Anna Tibaijuka produced a
damning report following her
fact-finding mission which states that 700 000
people were rendered homeless
and robbed of their source of livelihood.
Warning warns against
playing Russian roulette with people's life, which it
argues cannot be
recycled like waste. Operation Sunga Zvinhu through the
metal lock talks
about how the state made life difficult for ordinary
Zimbabweans by
undertaking the operation.
Zim Independent
THE year
2005 could be described as one of the most difficult for businesses
in
Zimbabwe. Shortages of foreign currency, fuel, power and water all
contributed to massive loss of production and at times the closure of
companies. Luxon Zembe, Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC)
president, spoke to our senior business reporter, Shakeman Mugari on the
state of business in 2005 and next year's prospects.
Mugari: How
would you describe the year 2005 from a business perspective?
Zembe:
I would say this was the most difficult year for business in
Zimbabwe. We
saw the whole thrust of the turnaround failing to achieve its
goals. The
minor gains of 2004 were reversed this year. Foreign currency
supply almost
dried up to the extent that at one time the auction system
could only meet
3% of national needs. The inflation rate also increased
drastically while
interest rates climbed up to more than 450%. From a GDP
point of view, we
are still in the negative.
Mugari: What other problems did business
face this year?
Zembe: There was a shortage of everything. There was
no fuel, water and
power. Power outages actually intensified while water
became a scare
commodity with other areas going for more than three months
without water.
Mugari: What caused all these
problems?
Zembe: This was an election year. And we must realise that
during an
election year politicians put everything aside to win an election.
This is
one of the most unfortunate aspect of Zimbabwean politics - the
economy does
not take centre stage in an election. In other countries
leaders are
evaluated on the basis of the state of the economy, the
standards of living
and employment. Voters in other countries use the
standard of education,
health and transport system to choose their leaders.
That is why I don't
believe we have a leadership in this
country.
Mugari: What do Zimbabweans use to evaluate their
leaders?
Zembe: Well they focus on relationships, associations and
tribal issues.
There is a culture of the politics of hatred in this country.
That is why we
don't elect leaders in this country, we elect comrades. We
put personal
interests at the forefront. People are forced to look at their
personal
interests. They believe if they vote in so and so they will lose
their land
or property.
Mugari: What were the other causes of the
crisis?
Zembe: We had wrong people occupying land. That is why we
failed to raise
agricultural production despite pouring billions into the
sector. We have
people without skill, resources and passion for agriculture.
They are
occupying the land for political reasons. That is why after free
land they
want free tillage, free fertiliser and free seeds. They want
everything
free. In the end they are only working to feed themselves and not
the
nation. They are merely subsistence farmers.
Mugari: So what
is to be done?
Zembe: We need to go back to the Utete (Charles)
report which recommended
that we resettle these people. I am not saying
people should be removed from
their land. What I mean is that there must be
a clear distinction between
land for resettlement and for business. That did
not happen when we started
the land reform and we are still suffering from
those effects of omission.
Mugari: How about government policy, did
it have an impact?
Zembe: Oh yes, it did the damage. In August 2004
President Mugabe said the
reform had ended but we have witnessed fresh farm
invasions. We have seen
massive disturbances on productive farms. The fiscal
and monetary policies
were not compatible. We also had these command
policies that are killing the
economy. We still have price controls on
commodities like sugar and fuel. As
for fuel, we have four prices that are
being used.
Mugari: What are those prices?
Zembe: We have
$11 000 as the price for the privileged farmers who then sell
it on the
black market instead of using it to till their land. We have $23
000 as the
price for the lucky ones who have contacts in government. We have
the US$1
as the price for the rich who can afford to get foreign currency.
Then we
have the price for the desperate ones which ranges between $100 000
and $150
000 per litre.
Mugari: Other policies you could say also affected
business this year?
Zembe: Money supply growth. Government kept on
printing money to fund its
bloated debt. The RBZ also contributed to the
inflation surge with its
quasi-fiscal actions. It was pouring money into
parastatals and local
authorities like confetti. That pushed inflation to
new heights of over
500%. It is clearly unsustainable.
Mugari:
President Mugabe declared 2005 a year of investment. Looking back,
would you
say there was any investment?
Zembe: That has not materialised. We of
course have a few Chinese here and
there but that is for their own benefit.
In real terms we have not seen any
investment whether local or eternal.
There were some mergers and
acquisitions but that is not real investment. It
is just the same money
changing hands locally. That it not wealth creation.
So in terms of luring
investors, the country failed to
perform.
But how can we get investment when we are still ranked so
lowly in
corruption and political risk terms? Our policies are not clear. We
don't
have a policy of indigenisation in the mining sector. We are still
invading
farms too.
Mugari: If we had all these biting problems,
how did other companies
survive?
Zembe: That was probably out of
their ingenuity, perseverance and
resilience. That is why we say with proper
policies this country would do
wonders.
Mugari: But government
says they are part of "economic saboteurs" working to
undermine the national
interest?
Zembe: Now that pains me. It pains me to see businessmen
and leaders who
have struggled this far being victimised and traumatised.
The government
forgets that these are the same people who have kept the
economy running all
these years, they deserve respect and we should treat
them with love. Even
politicians should be grateful to have such patriotic
businesspeople in this
country. They have saved this country from civil
unrest.
Mugari: What do you think is in store for business in
2006?
Zembe: We could start on a positive note if what Minister
Murerwa said about
price controls is going to be implemented. He said we
would have a
market-driven economy but that remains a statement of intent
instead of
action.
It is the implementing side that lacks in this
country. They should
implement policies with speed like they do with taxes.
When announcing taxes
Murerwa will say "with effect from today". That is the
speed that we want on
other policies.
Mugari: Minister Murerwa in
his budget statement says 2006 will be a better
year, especially for
agriculture.
Zembe: Those predictions are based on false assumptions
that agricultural
production will increase. But the situation on the ground
shows that this
season is probably the worst in terms of preparation. It
would be a miracle
if we manage the 28% growth that he talks about. It's
impossible. Irrigation
equipment has been vandalised and there are no
inputs.
Mugari: What about our bilateral relations?
Zembe:
They are at their worst currently. Murerwa and (RBZ governor Gideon)
Gono
are saying we should engage the international community but they are
being
attacked left, right and centre by other government officials. It's OK
for
countries to have differences but our government has gone further than
that
to create enemies. They forget that the economy is built on a political
platform.
Zim Independent
IT is
incomprehensible as to why Zimbabwe has been the victim of fuel
shortages,
for Zimbabwe does not run on fuel, it runs on rumours, and it
certainly has
no scarcity of those.
Of course, the fact that none, or almost none, of
Zimbabwe's rumours have,
during the past 25 years, had any foundation of
fact has been, and continues
to be, irrelevant. Rumour raconteurs
unhesitatingly, and with great
authority and deep conviction, assure their
listeners that the rumours are
absolute in substance, for invariably they
have heard them direct "from the
horse's mouth". The facts that horses can
also lie, when it suits them, that
many horses are often asses, and that all
they can usually say is "neigh",
and that should probably (bearing in mind
the Zimbabwean political
environment) be spelt "nay!", are invariably
disregarded.
In view of this Zimbabwean rumour syndrome, it can be
taken for granted that
the rumours below of presidential intentions to
restructure his cabinet are
without foundation and naught but a figment of
this author's imagination.
And yet, there have been so many calls for
Zimbabwe belatedly to adopt the
precepts of transparency, and especially so
in the fields of politics and
state management of economics, perhaps such a
restructuring would at least
belatedly give the president's cabinet an aura
of reality of awareness.
If there should be any substance to the
alleged intent of the president to
restructure his cabinet, then the first
of the changes is that the Ministry
of Agriculture will be in future, the
Ministry of Fallow and Unproductive
Lands, and Rural Disorder. Such a title
would transparently reflect all that
the ministry has achieved since 2000,
with a year-on-year decline in
agricultural production, ever less land under
cultivation, recurrent
unfulfilled promises of agricultural inputs
availability, and the only real
production being by the ministry itself,
yielding a wealth and plethora of
mythical projections of seasonal
agriculture outturns.
Alongside the Ministry of Fallow and
Unproductive Lands must be the Ministry
of State for Land and Resettlement
Programme, which will surely be retitled
the Ministry of Snatch, Displace
and Destroy, for it has so effectively
pursued government's policy of
identifying farms with great production,
immense contributions to economic
well-being (including great employment,
foreign exchange generation, and
downstream economic spending, as well as
fiscal contributions), and
destroying all that, that the name Ministry of
Snatch, Displace and Destroy
must aptly describe the ministry and its
achievements.
However,
not to be ignored, in this sector of government, is the Ministry of
State
for National Security responsible for Lands, Land Reform and
Resettlement,
for not only has that ministry issued innumerable Letters of
Offer of
legitimately owned productively operated farms, to others who have
then
destroyed productivity, but concurrently it has severely jeopardised
the
state's economic security, any prospects of the security forthcoming
from
having a united populace, the security of being a respected member of
the
international community. In the restructured cabinet, this ministry will
be
the Ministry of National Endangerment and Ruination.
Next for name
transformation is the Ministry of Education, Sport and
Culture. So
pronounced has been its endeavours to intensify its controls
over private
schools, thereby both enlarging the minister's empire and
facilitating a
future lowering of their standards so that government's
schools cannot be
compared unfavourably to them, that mass emigration from
Zimbabwe has been
provoked.
Thousands of parents have reluctantly packed their bags,
and those of their
children, and departed for pastures new where they would
feel more assured
that those children will benefit from quality education.
Thus the president
will undoubtedly restyle the ministry, and it will
hereinafter be known as
the Ministry of Emigration Promotion and of
Reflected Glory from Kirsty
Coventry Achievements.
With
Zimbabwe's ever greater alienation of potential friends abroad, and
intensifying confrontation with the world at large, including the United
Nations, the European Union, and the Commonwealth, and despite Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono's vigorous conciliation efforts, the president's
continuing castigation of the International Monetary Fund, it is clearly
necessary to restructure the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for Zimbabwe has
ever less of those. In the restructured cabinet it will be known as the
Ministry of Shrinking International Relations.
Bearing in mind
the immense extent to which the Ministry of Information and
Publicity has
sought to develop and intensify the techniques and tactics of
the former
ministerial circumvent, the president will presumably, in a
desire for
utmost transparency, restructure the ministry to be the Ministry
of
Professional and Rocket Scientist Disinformation and Negative Propaganda
Techniques.
Also in line for transformation is the Ministry of
Energy and Power
Development having regard to the frequency of interruptions
of Zesa supplies
of electricity, exacerbated by equally frequent bouts of
"load-shedding",
and bearing in mind that Zanu PF espouses "More Power To
The People", that
ministry will hereinafter be known as the Ministry of
Governmental
Undermining.
Despite his very conscientious and
determined efforts to restore Zimbabwe's
fiscal well-being and to promote
assured economic recovery, Minister of
Finance Herbert Murerwa has endlessly
had his endeavours frustrated and
overturned by his ministerial colleagues,
the presidency, the politburo, the
central committee, and the ruling party
as a whole. Therefore, pursuant to
policies of transparency, the ministry
will be restructured as the Ministry
of the Empty Purse and Gargantuan
Debt.
Believing that fire must be fought with fire, the president
will probably
also create a new ministry, to be the Ministry of Targeted
Sanctions.
Although that ministry has yet to come into being, it will be
given some
guidelines, including that Tony Blair shall be subjected to
stringent
sanctions barring the supply of him of sadza, mopani worms and
biltong. No
camels shall be supplied to Jack Straw, for fear that he will
break their
backs.
Those responsible for preparing Australia's
sanctions list shall from now
onwards no longer be recipients of birthday
cards, in recognition of their
inability to be aware of birthdays of others.
Once the ministry has come
into being and commenced its work, it will
undoubtedly identify many others
to be sanctioned. If the criteria are to
list those who have done Zimbabwe
ill, presumably many of the other
ministers will be immediate selections.
Zimbabwe must await 2006 to
see whether rumour will become fact, but the
prospects of this rumour doing
so are unlikely. Nevertheless, maybe 2006
will herald some greater
transparency in government, and that may belatedly
start to move towards
true democracy, genuine law and order, and economic
upturn, and a happier
Zimbabwe for all. - Own Correspondent
Zim Independent
Eric
Chiriga
THE year 2005 has ended on a very low note and the current economic
challenges will spill into the New Year as the government has failed to
sustain the economic recovery hinted at the start of the year by low
inflation, business leaders and economists say.
They said claims by
the Minister of Finance Herbert Murerwa and central bank
governor Gideon
Gono that the economy was on a recovery path have failed to
materialise.
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president
Pattison Sithole said
that at the beginning of 2005 they were optimistic
that the economy would
improve.
"We started off with a bit of
optimism because inflation was very low and on
the downward trend, products
were available and the foreign currency
shortage was not so severe," he
said.
Sithole, who is also the chief executive of Zimbabwe Sugar
Refineries
Corporation (ZSR), said as the year progressed inflation started
picking up
and shortages of products began.
Zimbabwe's inflation,
which declined to 123% in January, has since risen
sharply throughout the
year. The Central Statistical Office recently
announced a November inflation
rate of 502%, further dampening Zimbabweans'
hopes of the much-touted
economic turnaround.
In October the inflation rate was 411% after
increasing by 51,2 percentage
points from September's 359,8%.
"We
hoped that the trend of economic recovery would be sustained but
unfortunately it was not," Sithole said.
He added that the
economic challenges that the business community faced
during the year would
continue in 2006.
"A lot of work still needs to be done from all
angles," Sithole said.
He said the major task that the authorities
should do was to boost foreign
currency earnings and that this could only be
achieved by increasing
production.
"You cannot solve the foreign
currency problem without increasing production
and sorting out the
parastatals."
Sithole said there should be a more coordinated
approach in reviving
agriculture and resource allocation.
He
added that the government should also mend its relations with the
international community and pursue avenues of getting significant foreign
direct investment to augment inflows from the Diaspora.
"There
were very low levels of investment throughout the year," he
said.
Economic analyst John Robertson said the year 2005 has had a
bad ending,
with higher levels of unemployment and declining standards of
living.
He said the perpetual rise of inflation, interest rates and
deterioration of
other economic fundamentals would spill into the New Year
unless government
makes better political decisions.
"The decline
in the agricultural sector has killed the country's
manufacturing and
commercial sectors," Robertson said.
He said Zimbabwe did not receive
significant investment this year.
"Under the current policies no
investor would give the country a second
look," he
said.
According to a report titled Doing Business in 2006, recently
compiled by
the Investment Climate Department of the World Bank, Zimbabwe
has been rated
as one of the most difficult country to do business in due to
bureaucracy,
corruption-prone systems and high start-up
costs.
Zimbabwe was ranked 126 out of 155 countries that were
surveyed to ascertain
the investment climate.
There is also a
contrast between Murerwa's targets and the situation on the
ground.
In his 2005 national budget statement, he had predicted
that the
agricultural sector would improve by 28%, only for the same sector
to
decline by -12,8% in his 2006 national budget statement.
Gono,
who had predicted that the inflation rate would be between 280% and
300% by
the end of the year has also been proved wrong as the rate has now
ballooned
to 502% and is expected to hit 600% by February.
Zim Independent
Eric
Chiriga
THE deteriorating economy, particularly the soaring cost of
borrowing, saw
numerous listed firms resorting to rights issues to raise
capital.
Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) went into the market to raise $80
billion
through a renounceable rights issue. The hotel group proposed to use
the
funds for refurbishment of its hotel premises around the country,
regional
investments, working capital financing and IT
upgrade.
According to the results of the rights issue, existing RTG
shareholders took
up 42% of the more than 1,2 billion shares on
offer.
The rights issue resulted in Accor Afrique, once the largest
shareholder in
RTG with 34,2%, having its shareholding diluted to only
9%.
Laaico, a Libyan-based investment company, which previously held
13,84% in
RTG, had its shareholding diluted to below
4%.
Pharmaceuticals company, Caps Holdings Ltd, recently launched a
$77 billion
rights offer seeking funds to refurbish the manufacturing
facilities of its
joint venture subsidiary, Caps Shreya, and upgrade its IT
infrastructure.
Out of the $77 billion rights offer proceeds, Caps
intended to spend $66
billion on the refurbishment, $7 billion on IT upgrade
and $4 billion to
cover the expenses of the rights offer.
General
Beltings also launched a $55 billion renounceable rights offer,
which closed
with 96% of the total ordinary shares on offer being taken
up.
According to the offer results, out of 346 904 738 ordinary
shares worth
$55,5 billion that were available, 332 713 790 shares worth
$53,23 billion
were taken up. The rights issue was in the ratio of 11 new
rights offer
shares for every five ordinary shares already
held.
General Beltings also proposed a $55 billion rights issue to
raise funds for
recapitalisation of its merged operations with Cernol
Chemicals (Pvt) Ltd
and to pay off SMM debts.
Insurance giant,
Zimre Holdings Ltd, also earlier this year issued a $60
billion renounceable
rights offer to shareholders.
Part of the funds was channelled
towards the recapitalisation of its
struggling South African subsidiary,
Southern Union Reinsurance.
The rights offer resulted in businessman
Mutumwa Mawere, who had a 43%
controlling stake in ZHL, losing the
company.
NMB Ltd also launched its rights issue, anticipating to
raise a $64 billion.
The bank said the funds were to be used to meet the
central bank's minimum
capital adequacy ratio for commercial
banks.
NMB offered 426 million shares of which 417 million (97,73%)
were taken up.
The year 2005 also witnessed a few acquisitions and
mergers.
Zimnat Insurance Company, a subsidiary of TA holdings,
acquired AIG
Insurance through a share transfer. The company acquired the
entire issued
share capital of AIG, being 10 million ordinary shares of $1
each and in
turn issue 1,1 billion ordinary shares in the company (Zimnat)
to TA
Holdings, the majority shareholder in AIG.
Zimnat
shareholders approved the transaction at an extraordinary general
meeting
(EGM) held on June 28.
Zimnat proposed that the balance of the
authorised but unissued shares,
after the merger, be placed under the
control of the directors for an
indefinite period.
The company
also proposed to amend its Articles to increase the authorised
share capital
from $18 million divided into 1,8 billion ordinary shares of
$0,01 each, to
$30 million divided into three billion ordinary shares of one
cent
each.
Zimnat is understood to have structured the deal in a way that
will allow it
access to the management of the company and at the same time
access to AIG's
clients and markets. Zimnat's merger with AIG came after the
company
acquired a controlling interest in another short-term insurance
company,
Lion of Zimbabwe Insurance Company, to form Zimnat Lion
Company.
General Beltings merged with Cernol.
According to
the terms and conditions of the merger, General Beltings issued
68 847 894
fully paid-up ordinary shares to the shareholders of Cernol.
In
exchange, General Beltings would acquire the entire issued share capital
of
Cernol, thereby achieving total ownership of Cernol, including its
immoveable properties.
Delta Corporation Ltd recently diverted
from its core business of beverage
manufacturing and distribution by
acquiring Ariston, a horticulture concern.
Delta made a 272 billion
takeover bid of the produce and flower exporter. It
made a cash scrip offer
to Ariston shareholders of 9,3 of its shares for
every 100 shares they held
in Ariston or a cash payment of $70 070 for each
100
shares.
Phoenix Consolidated Industries Ltd also acquired two
subsidiaries that were
being sold to them by Apex Corporation of Zimbabwe
Ltd.
Apex was disposing of two of its subsidiaries, Bardwell Printers
and RCP
Belmont Printers to Phoenix for $6,7 billion.
The
transaction was of a direct acquisition of all the assets and assumed
liabilities of Bardwell and RCP at a total purchase consideration of $6 783
650 000. The purchase consideration was settled partly by settlement of debt
due from Apex and partly in cash.
Both Bardwell and RCP will
become divisions of Phoenix and will be included
in the company's
forthcoming financial results for the year ended October
31.
Phoenix took over the management control of Bardwell and RCP
in April.
Apex Holdings Ltd owns 51% of Phoenix and is a wholly-owned
subsidiary of
Apex. On the other hand, Apex Pension Fund owns 8,29% of
Phoenix.
There were also some failed attempts to go for a right
issue. Hwange
Colliery's intended $2 trillion rights issue failed to take
off the ground.
The rights issue was abandoned after the company's largest
shareholder,
Nicholas van Hoogstraten refused to exercise his
rights.
Van Hoogstraten said the rights issue was irrelevant as there
were several
other avenues of raising the money.
"A rights issue
should always be the last course of action by a company
wishing to raise
additional capital. At 100 billion, the costs of the issue
are too high,"
the British investor, argued.
The offer proceeds were meant to
finance Hwange's capital projects such as
expanding its huge open cast and
underground mining operations.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
Joram
Nyathi
MY editor Vincent Kahiya is away attending a funeral. He lost his
father on
Monday.
At first I thought I should write something light,
about how Christmas has
died and how people are so stressed out and broke it
is hard to be happy.
Even about how I am unable to go to Mberengwa to see
my mother this
Christmas because of the biting fuel crisis. All that changed
on Tuesday.
In his brilliant book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed,
Brazilian psychologist
Paulo Freire wrote to the effect that nothing so
fascinates the oppressed
person as much as to be like the oppressor. "To be
is to be like the
oppressor," he noted.
This observation neatly
dovetails with French philosopher Voltaire's
aphorism that nothing is easier
for the slave to use than the methods of his
master.
I have in
the past thought of these writers in relation to Zanu PF's alleged
use of
violence against opponents and its fascination with Ian Smith's
infamous Law
and Order (Maintenance) Act (Loma) which it has further honed
into the
catch-all Public Order and Security Act (Posa). Better than Loma,
Posa has
put the country in a virtual permanent state of emergency in
relation to
gatherings, demonstrations and political activities.
The same writers
came to the fore again as I was reading MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai's
briefing to the Harare diplomatic community on Tuesday. This is
what he said
of his "erstwhile colleagues" who participated in the senate
election three
weeks ago:
"We are fully briefed and painfully aware of the extent to
which Zanu PF is
the dynamic force behind the destabilisation of the MDC.
Our erstwhile
colleagues are not reading from an independent script. They
are not free
agents or autonomous operators. Instead, they are Zanu PF's
fifth column
inside the MDC. We are aware of the level of logistical support
and the
quantities of material assistance that Zanu PF is providing to our
erstwhile
colleagues."
This is the kind of language and reasoning
that former Information minister
Jonathan Moyo would have loved to hear.
After all don't they say imitation
is the most sincere form of flattery? We
all know what President Mugabe
thinks and says about the MDC - its origins
and its mission in Zimbabwe.
Whenever he sees the letters MDC, he sees the
shadow of British premier Tony
Blair - hence the "anti-Blair election" in
March. Whether he believes it or
merely trots it out for propaganda purposes
is neither here nor there. The
point is that the contagion is taking a
deadly effect in the minds of those
who claim to be different and fighting
for a better Zimbabwe.
The meaning of Tsvangirai's words is simple
and devastating in its
implications. That which is overtly loathed in the
oppressor is covertly
admired. The soldier for democracy subconsciously
envies the power and the
tactics he is seeking to fight in the
enemy.
Unfortunately it is not just Tsvangirai who is guilty of
envying the
oppressor. We all saw and heard how the warring factions in the
MDC were
only too happy to use the state media to attack each other. That
includes
footage of Tsvangirai's supporters burning the T-shirts of MPs who
have
aligned themselves with the other faction.
There has been no
pulling of punches in the trading of insults here. The
Zanu PF slogan "Down
with so-and-so" is being freely reproduced at public
meetings. This is a
question of scoring points and hoping that he who shouts
the loudest will
win the contest.
What is evident is that we are still far from a
democratic people. Like Zanu
PF, we all see our opponents as enemies to be
destroyed by whatever means
necessary. Somebody once said that we cannot
change our current conditions
so long as we continue to think and use the
language of the present. I took
this to mean that a dictator is defined by
his methods and tactics, not the
colour of his skin or the name of his
political party. So long as we love to
use the language and tactics of the
oppressor, we haven't moved an inch
towards the goal of democracy and
political tolerance.
This I have heard said by colleagues in the MDC
before and after the March
parliamentary election. They say if the MDC had
won that election, they
would have pleaded with their leader to allow them
at least two weeks of
havoc to deal with their "enemies" in Zanu PF. That
way they would be
mollified.
It reminds me of an
ethical-cum-legal paradox eloquently expressed by
political activist Barbel
Bohley of Germany soon after the fall of the
Berlin wall: "We wanted justice
and they gave us the rule of law," she cried
in disgust. While she had spent
years fighting injustice in East Germany,
she was herself not averse to
exacting revenge.
The truth is that we cannot practise democracy
before we are democrats. That
means we need to respect the dignity of the
individual as a constituent
member of the broader democratic society we
aspire to establish in Zimbabwe.
It is not enough to attack Zanu PF for one
to qualify to be a democrat when
we are secretly fascinated by its modus
operandi. It is time to face the
truth and think and behave differently if
we wish to be different.
A new constitution on its own is not enough to
restrain those with a
penchant to breach the law. Let's learn to be
democrats at heart first. That
starts with the leadership, from language to
actions.
I don't know which diplomats attended Tsvangirai's briefing.
If it was the
usual lot that has in the past pronounced the elections free
and fair even
before voting took place, they must have loved what they
heard. On the other
hand, those from countries with a tradition of democracy
must have been
hugely embarrassed listening to Tsvangirai speaking - and
acting - like
Mugabe.
Zim Independent
Shakeman
Mugari
WHEN President Robert Mugabe appointed his current cabinet in
April after
his disputed March election victory, he said 2005 would be a
year of
investment.
This was a follow-up to his "war cabinet" of 2003
and the "development
cabinet" of last year. The public was told the
"investment cabinet" would
tackle head-on the current political and economic
crisis to attract
investment and achieve growth.
Mugabe's statements
gave the impression the economy would be in a better
shape by the end of the
year. They also suggested that Zimbabweans might for
the first time in five
years have a relatively happy Christmas and
prosperous New
Year.
Observers say it needed a great leap of faith to believe Mugabe.
They say
the economy is now in a far worse condition than it was in
April.
We are faced with a collapsed economy when we were told it should
have
recovered by the end of the year. Inflation is now over 500%, up from
123%
in January.
Government has forecast the economy to shrink by
3,5% this year when it
initially claimed it would grow by 5% before it
revised that to 2%.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which
initially forecast a 7%
contraction, now says the economy will shrink by
4,6%. All the other
economic indicators - interest rates, budget deficit,
national savings, and
domestic and foreign debt - remain in negative
territory. The situation next
year looks increasingly grim.
Companies
are still closing down. And the shortage of foreign currency,
fuel, power,
spares, drugs, food and basic commodities have not abated
either. If
anything, they have got worse, showing Mugabe's growing
proclivity to
misjudge his policy pronouncements.
Instead of attracting investment,
Zimbabweans saw government exerting more
energy in destroying their
investments, particularly in the informal sector.
They saw a calculated
assault on property rights and a further curtailment
of civil and political
rights.
This provided a powerful disincentive to foreign investment. The
confiscation of farms protected by Bilateral Promotion and Protection
Agreements, contempt of court orders, and the occupation of the Lowveld
sugar estates have scared off investors in all sectors of the economy,
including mining.
In the end it means for the fifth year running it's
going to be a miserable
Christmas for Zimbabweans.
Christmas and New
Year have now become irrelevant occasions in Zimbabwe.
They come and go
virtually unnoticed for the majority, except for the
wealthy who can afford
to go on holidays abroad.
Mugabe had claimed the economy would grow
through increased investment and
production in key sectors like agriculture,
mining and tourism. However,
events during the year show that the government
spent more energy trying to
scare away investors than bringing them into the
country.
The formulation of unworkable policies, for instance on price
controls, and
intensification of repression - such as the arrests of
political and civic
activists as well as journalists - compounded the image
of a failed state.
Recent Zanu PF annual conference resolutions to seize
citizens' passports
and crack down on NGOs has aggravated the situation.
Mugabe's continued
fight with the international community, including the
United Nations,
militate against investment. Zimbabwe is now more isolated
than ever before
and this will militate against its efforts to attract
domestic and foreign
investment to revive the economy.
Save for the few
Chinese investments, Zimbabwe did not receive any major
foreign direct
investment because of its high political and economic risk.
Companies which
want to invest in Zimbabwe are still holding on to their
plans while they
assess the situation.
The year kicked off with government taking over
tycoon Mutumwa Mawere's
Shabani Mashava Mine for allegedly failing to pay
its debt to the state. The
Reserve Bank also helped the state in taking over
Trust, Royal and Barbican
banks to incorporate them into the Zimbabwe Allied
Banking Group.
The owners of the companies are still in court seeking
redress but the
government is committed to keeping them at all
costs.
Operation Murambatsvina, which destroyed people's informal
business
investments and homes, was also alarming to those who might have
wanted to
bring new investment into Zimbabwe. Thousands of small companies
were swept
away by the so-called clean-up.
When the United Nations
(UN) raised concerns about the humanitarian
situation spawned by
Murambatsvina government lashed out accusing the world
body of being an
agency of the United States and Britain.
The government also passed the
Constitutional Amendment No 17 Act which
further limits democratic space and
attracts negative publicity.
The amendment practically nationalised all
acquired land and amounted to an
attack on the judiciary by removing the
courts' powers of jurisdiction on
land cases.
Fresh land invasions
were also damaging. About 33 companies operating in
Export Processing Zones
closed after their land was invaded or due to the
foreign currency
crisis.
Then there was the problem of unstable macro-economic
fundamentals.
Inflation, which was 123% in January, has surged to 502%. The
increase in
inflation e he continues to wipe out people's disposable
incomes, one of the
key ingredients for economic growth.
National
savings crashed to about 10% of GDP, leaving the country with
limited
sources of funds. In an ideal situation savings should account for
25% of
GDP. National savings are one of the major sources of domestic income
and a
favourite indicator for international investors. Disposable incomes
determine people's expenditure levels. Investors target countries where
people have strong buying power because of their disposable
incomes.
Government also continued on a spendthrift path splashing
national resources
on questionable institutions like the newly reintroduced
senate when over
three million across the country face starvation and have
to survive on
donor food handouts.
In the end, instead of being a
year of investment, 2005 became a year of
record disinvestment and
de-industrialisation. And going by the current
power dynamics, there is no
sign that things will change any time soon.
Zim Independent
By Jonathan
Moyo
TWO things happened two weeks ago that initially seemed unrelated but
later
proved to be connected in the broader scheme of things. Firstly, the
ruling
Zanu PF officially opened its annual conference on December 9 at
Esigodini,
the same day that my name was brought up in Trevor Ncube's
passport seizure
saga.
The Zanu PF conference was later to pass a
strange resolution to undo
changes effected at the government-controlled
media when I was still the
Minister of State for Information and Publicity
in the Office of President
and Cabinet. Linked to that issue, Zanu PF MP Leo
Mugabe appeared in the
state media after his party's conference making
unprovoked attacks against
me on all sorts of pretexts, including our work
in the transport and
communications parliamentary portfolio
committee.
Stories were run about me in the newspapers where Zanu PF
mandarins
virtually declared war against journalists working in the state
media who
stand falsely accused of being my underlings. The authors of those
stories
did not seek comment from me about the Zanu PF allegations and
others
fabricated claims which on face value appear isolated but are part of
a
coordinated campaign of disinformation and scapegoating.
The
context of these issues was President Robert Mugabe's address at the
conference where, predictably, he pontificated about events that preceded
the Zanu PF congress last year, the so-called Tsholotsho
Declaration.
Rather blandly, Mugabe repeated his claims about a
Tsholotsho plot that
never existed except in the bankrupt imaginations of
his hangers-on who went
on to grab positions in the party
unconstitutionally, crudely using phony
allegations of a palace coup plot
that was non-existent beyond a democratic
and healthy competition for
power.
On the same day of Mugabe's address, Ncube was told that his
name was part
of a list of 17 people which was compiled by me. Of course,
when the
Zimbabwe Independent telephoned me to enquire about this issue, I
dismissed
it as not only false but also preposterous. There has been a chain
of lies
told about me when I was in and out of government. These range from
laws
which were allegedly crafted or engineered by me, such as Posa and the
NGO
Bill, the deportation of the Ugandan fugitive Nyekorach Matsanga,
bombing of
the Daily News, and a blatantly false story in December last year
in the
Financial Gazette about my purported resignation from
government.
It has now come to my realisation that working in Zanu PF
and its government
invites such kind of scapegoating which on the surface
appears coincidental
when in fact it is a systematic campaign to allow the
real agents of
dictatorship off the hook at the expense of others who might
err in the
process of trying to deal with genuine national issues as opposed
to those
who are in the government for personal
aggrandisement.
When I looked at the recent seemingly isolated - but
clearly connected -
events, I was able to situate the scene and plot of this
issue where it
rightly belongs: in the Zanu PF and state propaganda
departments now hostage
to securocrats.
If there's one very
dangerous development in Zimbabwe's body politic today
it is that
ill-advised policymaking in government and wicked Zanu PF
political
decisions are being engineered by unaccountable state security
agents whose
role and influence have now gone beyond their competence and
constitutional
mandate.
While the roots of this rot are to be found in the notorious
1965 Rhodesian
state of emergency which was extended by the Zanu PF regime
and continued in
force between 1980 and 1990, these episodes follow a new
two-pronged
strategy hatched by securocrats to deal with the collapse of
Zanu PF
structures in the 1990s and the rise of the MDC in 2000 underlined
by
government's policy failures that have led to the current economic
meltdown
in the country.
The new strategy calls for:
*
state security to purge and take over the running and control of Zanu PF
structures, especially in the wake of the so-called Tsholotsho
Declaration;
* state security to infiltrate the opposition in order
to destroy it from
within. The core purpose of this strategy is to enable
state security to
determine Mugabe's successor and the manner or process of
his succession on
behalf of factional interests in Zanu PF.
What
is terrifying about this development is that while these security
agents
invariably act on behalf of factional interests in Zanu PF, neither
they nor
their faction has been willing to take responsibility for the evil
they
do.
Consequently, Zimbabweans - including many in Zanu PF itself - are
now
hostages whose human and constitutional rights are open to
abuse.
The fact that the CIO told Ncube that they were impounding his
passport on
the strength of a list that they alleged I prepared when I was
minister
clearly demonstrates that those involved in this case knew only too
well
that it was wrong and illegal for them to seize the passport. It shows
the
CIO lacks the courage of its convictions.
But still the CIO
wants to become involved in the whole spectrum of national
life, both public
and private. As a result, Zimbabweans must brace up for
all manner of
illegalities to be visited upon them by the CIO. But as
citizens we must
defend our rights to the end.
While having the CIO using an
individual like myself as a scapegoat might
appear to be of no national
significance, allowing them to get used to such
conduct can have disastrous
consequences on the conduct of state affairs as
our recent history
shows.
In May the same security agents conjured up a self-indulgent
claim that some
Ukrainian-style "Orange Revolution" was under way in
Zimbabwe and connived
with Mugabe to justify the reprehensible demolition
blitz, Operation
Murambatsvina, which destroyed the homes and livelihoods of
18% of our
population.
When I was in government it was routine
for these CIO agents and their
factional counterparts in government and Zanu
PF politicians to abuse me as
a scapegoat for anything they were unable to
explain or defend. That's why
for example, even though the fact is that John
Nkomo steered Posa through
parliament, the propaganda to this day is that it
was my brainchild.
The same goes for the NGO Bill drafted and steered
through parliament by
Paul Mangwana. The talk is that I came up with that
ill-fated Bill.
Also conveniently ignored is the fact that the
version of Aippa that was
passed by parliament without any opposition from
the MDC was drafted by
Patrick Chinamasa in consultation with Welshman Ncube
after the
Parliamentary Legal Committee threw out the original
version.
The list is very long and includes absurd claims,
conveniently fuelled and
peddled by the same securocrats that I bombed the
Daily News as if I was in
any way in charge of the CIO, ZRP or the army who
should know better.
One particularly annoying case where I was abused as
a convenient scapegoat
when Nicholas Goche, then Minister for State
Security, played a major role
was the Matsanga deportation
story.
Apart from abusing me as a scapegoat to justify their illegal
actions, the
CIO agents and Zanu PF politicians have also invented ludicrous
stories
about me. In one case, they invented a son for me from Kadoma and
gave him
money to regularly visit CIO offices over a long period before
finally
giving him money to go and look for me in
Tsholotsho.
Another invention was made last December in the aftermath
of the so-called
Tsholotsho Declaration when I was on holiday with my family
in Kenya. The
CIO, working with George Charamba, planted a deliberately
false story in the
Financial Gazette claiming that I had resigned from
government after
tendering my resignation letter to Joice Mujuru who was
acting president at
the time.
But I confirmed earlier this year
that Charamba had directly given the false
story of my alleged resignation
to the Fingaz after the newspaper's editor,
Sunsleey Chamunorwa, told a
high-ranking public figure over his speaker
phone in my presence (without
Chamunorwa's knowledge) that indeed Mugabe's
spokesman was the source of the
story.
At the time, the Mujuru faction in Zanu PF was desperate to
force me out of
cabinet and Charamba - eager to pander to the whims of that
camp - was also
desperate to prove he had nothing to do with the Tsholotsho
saga. Yet it is
common cause among those who know what happened that
Charamba, Mugabe's
press secretary, actually drafted Emmerson Mnangagwa's
speech that was
delivered by Chinamasa at Dinyane School on November 18,
2004. I still have
the original copy of Charamba's draft speech with his
handwritten cover note
attached!
Scapegoating and blaming
everybody else but themselves is Zanu PF's
stock-in-trade and no wonder they
take no responsibility for their current
failures. After me, Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono is next in line!
* Professor Jonathan Moyo is MP
for Tsholotsho.
Zim Independent
By
Tawanda Mutasah
IT is difficult to read without some hint of fascination the
news that South
African President Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart,
Olusegun
Obasanjo, have appointed as Ivory Coast prime minister, Charles
Konan Banny,
the governor of the Central Bank of West African
States.
While Mbeki's and Obasanjo's interesting but unusual role is
obvious to
those who have been following the Ivory Coast political crisis,
and the
transition from it, the morale of the story cannot be lost that the
concept
of sovereignty is changing in Africa.
Here is a prime
minister of an African country being appointed by the
presidents of two
African countries that are many miles away from its
shores.
Could
it be that, contrary to the disappointments we have seen on African
engagement with the Zimbabwe question, the African Union is finally
realising that "domestic" African matters are, in fact, its own
business?
Even then, to the vast majority of human rights-deprived
citizens of the
continent and its sub-regions, including the Southern
African Development
Community (Sadc), cynicism remains endemic concerning
the benefits of
regional or pan-African institutions and processes. What,
Africans question,
is the point in the massive outlay of resources for the
2nd session of the
Pan-African Parliament that sat in September in South
Africa?
Could the just-ended 38th Ordinary Session of the African
Commission on
Human and Peoples' Rights put food, so to speak, on the tables
or laps of
ordinary Africans?
What happens at the national level,
to all the ringing declarations that
Sadc heads of state and government sign
up to every year at the summit? How
does one bridge the gap between the
rhetoric of good governance churned out
in regional fora, on the one hand,
and, on the other, the kind of state
arbitrariness at a national level that
results in heinous actions such as
the unlawful seizure of passports of
government critics, Operation
Murambatsvina and harassment of the
media?
The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
courageously led the way
when, at the conclusion of its 38th ordinary
session, it emerged that it had
adopted a progressive resolution on the
human rights situation in Zimbabwe.
Beyond these useful beginnings, however,
the more systemic question of how
protocols and other forms of regional
treaty law are translated into the
legal systems of our countries now begs
wider discussion.
Without domestication, excellent regional
agreements signed by African
leaders are useless nationally, except as
fashionable showpieces on the
international good governance
catwalk.
For instance, while it is positive that the African Women's
Rights Protocol
has recently come into force, women and girls experiencing
discrimination or
violence have limited recourse to its protection if the
protocol is not
integrated into the domestic constitutions, laws,
institutions, policies,
culture and practices of different African
countries.
A number of civil society organisations, a few progressive
lawyers and
leaders in some of the region's governments, and some
parliamentarians
across the region, have been providing leadership on
domestication of
protocols.
In August, an important voice was
added to these efforts. Botswana's
president, Festus Mogae, on taking over
the chair of Sadc, undertook as one
of his five priorities, to put in place
a monitoring mechanism for protocol
implementation in relation to the 23 or
so protocols that Sadc has produced
to date.
Yet the problem is
deeper than could be resolved by the good intentions of
the Sadc chair and
other policy actors. It is about the reality of political
contestation in
the parliaments of some countries, a factor which may hamper
effective
bipartisan collaboration for domestication of regional treaty
law.
Also, some national leaders hide human rights abuses or
democratic
shortcomings behind the convenient cover of national sovereignty,
law and
custom. Lack of skills and resources for national domestication
processes is
also a problem. Sometimes, there is no real national-level
political
commitment to absorb the full protective possibilities of
international and
regional norms and standards.
In some cases,
Sadc and African norms and standards are in any case framed
in such a
hide-and-seek way that countries could claim to have domesticated
them
without doing anything meaningful to change the restrictions in their
own
laws, policies or practice.
Take, for instance, the Sadc Principles
and Guidelines Governing Democratic
Elections, agreed in August 2004 at
Grand Baie, Mauritius. How is it that a
country with an electoral system as
creatively defective as Zimbabwe's could
have been passed by the "official"
Sadc observer team as having complied
with these
principles?
Depending on which way each of the Sadc leaders reads the
document on Sadc
election principles, vastly different permutations of
democratic growth in
Sadc countries may be the result.
A year
after the Mauritius principles on elections took effect, could the
elections
that have been held in the last several months in Botswana,
Namibia,
Mauritius, Mozambique and Zimbabwe be said to have been illuminated
by the
principles?
While the "official" Sadc observer delegation, for
instance, concluded that
the March Zimbabwe election reflected the will of
the people, and complied
with these new Sadc principles, on the other hand
Sadc's Parliamentary Forum
was barred from observing the same election
because it was feared they would
return a dissenting verdict - consistent
with their position in Zimbabwe's
2002 presidential election. Could it
indeed have been possible that the
parliamentarians and the Sadc "official"
observers were singing from the
same hymn sheet?
On sitting up
and reading the fine print in this document, one notices that
the principles
are in fact, subordinated to national processes, laws and
constitutions,
whatever state all these things are in. Sadc observation of
elections in a
member country occurs, under the principles, "in the event a
member state
decides to extend an invitation to Sadc to observe its
elections".
The principles include acceptance of election results
by political parties
when these have been "proclaimed to have been free and
fair by the competent
national electoral authorities in accordance with the
law of the land".
There is no caveat about how those authorities are
to be chosen in the first
place, nor what norms and standards ought to
constitute the democratic
minima of the "law of the land".
Thus
Zimbabwe could assert, as it did, that its March elections pass the
Sadc
test by dint of their having been held under Zimbabwean laws, including
laws
hurriedly put together a month before the election.
Ideally, the
principles should have framed a clear and inviolable set of
norms to be
elevated as the electoral standard for the region, with the
imperative that
national constitutions, laws and processes must be aligned
with this
yardstick.
With such a normative base, auditing national
constitutions and legislation
for compliance becomes imperative. Such an
exercise would easily show
significant shortfalls in Zambia's public
security legislation, Zimbabwe's
repressive media legislation, and so
on.
It could also show positive models such as the law enacted in
Mozambique in
June 2004, regulating the use of state resources during
electoral
campaigning. Otherwise the present positivistic approach results
in the Sadc
principles meaning everything to every member country. Even the
Hitlerist
draftsman of that infamous March 24 1933 Enabling Act would be
envious.
Yet another problem with Sadc and African norms and
standards is that not
all of them are framed as binding treaty law. Again
the Sadc principles and
guidelines governing democratic elections, for
instance, occupy, in the
community of Sadc regional legal instruments, the
poor cousin's place of
being no more than a set of "principles and
guidelines", and not a
fully-fledged protocol.
With all these
problems, a particularly African schizophrenia between talk
and action is
often the result.
It even becomes difficult for Africans of goodwill
to decide how to feel
about the numerous transnational initiatives that
often come up within the
continent.
In southern Africa, should it
not matter, for instance, that, about five
years into the New Partnership
for Africa's Development (Nepad), annual
economic growth figures are - with
the exception of Mozambique's and Angola's
- nowhere near the 6% annual
target on which the very accomplishment of
Nepad goals is predicated, and
that an economy such as Zimbabwe's is
actually shrinking at an alarming rate
of about 8% per year?
Again, what is to be the most constructive
Africanist attitude that one
should have on finding that, three months after
the signing by Sadc leaders
of a protocol facilitating the movement of
persons in Sadc, a Zimbabwean
citizen who travels to the US on a 10-year
multiple-entry visa is now
required to have a one-off transit visa whenever
she passes through
neighbouring South Africa? And that the same citizen has
to use one or two
full visa pages every time she enters neighbouring
Mozambique
notwithstanding the mutual sacrifices of Zimbabweans and
Mozambicans in a
shared nationalist liberation history, not to mention the
obvious
flow-charts of consanguinity?
This credibility gap - the
distance between policy rhetoric and action -
remains the Achilles' heel of
African policy-making, particularly in
relation to progressive policies such
as those that would improve access to
human rights. What could be
done?
Article 144 of the Namibian Constitution says that, "unless
otherwise
provided by this constitution or Act of Parliament, the general
rules of
public international law and international agreements binding upon
Namibia
under this constitution shall form part of the law of
Namibia".
It would immensely assist the cause of human rights in the
countries of Sadc
if a provision of this nature were to be secured in Sadc's
different
national constitutions.
* Tawanda Mutasah is a
Zimbabwean human rights lawyer.
Zim Independent
Eric Bloch Column
By Eric Bloch
FEEDBACK from many who attended the eighth
People's Conference of Zanu PF at
Mzingwane two weeks ago concentrated
almost entirely upon two aspects.
The first was the amazement at the
abundance of food available to delegates,
ranging from 50 cattle, to
estimates of several hundred sheep and goats,
kudu, hundreds of kilogrammes
of maize meal, and much else. Clearly there
was very bountiful feasting,
apparently reminiscent (for some) of the
reputed orgies of ancient Rome and
Greece.
That such gastronomic revelry was possible was not surprising,
for over and
above receiving vast donations from the well-endowed of the
party members,
and equally vast donations from numerous businesses in
Matabeleland South
and in Bulawayo (undoubtedly responsive to subtle
pressures!), the party
also received a "donation" of $1,5 billion from
Zimbabwe United Passenger
Company Ltd (Zupco). It is a company owned by the
state, and one must ponder
as to what pressures may have been applied upon
its management to make that
donation.
One must also ponder as to
whether the donation was not a devious, albeit
technically legal,
circumvention of the legislative limitations of funding
by the state of
political parties. (Why did Zupco not make simultaneous
donations to MDC,
UPM and the few fringe political parties?)
Although all, or almost all,
who partook in the bunfight, undoubtedly
enjoyed the feasts, there were
clearly a conscientious few who had a sense
of guilt, and qualms of unease,
prompted by awareness of the many millions
of Zimbabweans unable to access
even if minimum food needs. With so many
suffering from malnutrition, with
under-nourishment increasingly becoming
the order of the day for a growing
number of Zimbabweans, there appear to
have been some conference delegates
who had twinges of conscience and a
sense of shame as they revelled
unabated, whilst numerous Zimbabweans were
starving.
Possibly it was
this which caused many to focus upon Zimbabwe's
hyperinflation during the
deliberations of the conference. More probable,
however, was that that focus
was driven by a fear of progressive loss of
support from the electorate as
hunger, poverty and misery intensifies.
Inevitably there must be an
increasing party concern that its 25-year grasp
on power would progressively
be in greater jeopardy, as ever more would
blame government for the economic
ills afflicting Zimbabwe or, even not
holding government culpable for those
ills, nevertheless blaming it for not
reversing them.
Apparently
there were two overriding views as to the causes of inflation,
and the
necessary measures to contain it. The first was, yet again, that
soaring
prices are naught but the machiavellian machinations of commerce and
industry to realise excessively great profits, or as malicious techniques of
businessmen to undermine confidence in government.
It appears that
these politicians have an impenetrable barrier to their
brains (if they have
any), barring their recognition that, first of all,
businesses cannot
survive if they do not make profits, and secondly that
attainment of profits
without price escalations is near impossible if costs
are rising (including
wages and parastatal charges), and if sales volumes
decline as a result of
foreign currency shortages, declining consumer
demand, and other factors.
The ability to survive and to engender even a
reasonable return on capital
employed is further exacerbated by dependency
upon greater borrowings, as
working capital needs soar in response to
inflation, and consequentially
greater interest charges.
For businesses to contain price increases, they
need an adequacy of
operational inputs on a regular basis, which is
dependent, for many, upon
availability of foreign currency, so that they can
maximise their
utilisation of productive capacity to best advantage,
achieving greater
volumes to bear apportionment of fixed costs. Moreover,
greater productivity
generates greater volumes of the products, fuelling
competition, and there
is little that can curb price escalation more than
can competition. But
delegates, with a paranoid conviction that the business
sector wishes to
destroy the party by using prices to turn the populace
against it, will not
face realities.
Their repeated calls for price
controls can only destroy private enterprise,
other than the black market,
but they remain rigidly oblivious to this
long-proven, internationally
recognised, incontrovertible fact.
The second, even more economically
dangerous, perception very voluably
exposed at the conference, was that the
primary cause of inflation is the
depreciation of the Zimbabwean dollar, and
that not only must that
depreciation be halted, but also that it must be
reversed. It is undeniable
that a very, very major contributant to inflation
has been the declining
value of the national currency, for that has fuelled
a massive rise in the
landed costs of imports, be they agricultural, mining,
industrial or other
inputs.
But the demands from numerous conference
participants, including a
significant number of ministers, that the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe be
directed to effect an arbitrary gargantuan revaluation
of the Zimbabwe
dollar demonstrated an abysmal ignorance of economic
fundamentals. Their
demands evidenced that they have absolutely no
understanding of the
devastating, disastrous consequences that would flow
from such an action.
Those demands were that the exchange rate then
prevailing of approximately
$75 000: US$1 should be adjusted to the rate of
some years ago of $824:
US$1, and some even suggested that the rate should
revert to the one time
rate of $55: US$1.
The repercussions of any
such rate adjustments would be catastrophic in the
extreme. Each and every
exporter in Zimbabwe, including producers of tobacco
and other agricultural
products, mining, manufacturers, and the tourism
industry, would be faced
with irreversible, immediate collapse. With such
exchange rates they would
not be able to fund even the most basic of their
operating costs. Overnight,
at least a million Zimbabweans would become
unemployed. The total cessation
of exports would mean that the only foreign
currency inflows into Zimbabwe
would be those of international aid agencies,
embassies and NGOs. Even the
present extremely limited imports of fuel,
food, agricultural inputs, health
care products, and the like, would cease.
The Zimbabwean economy would no
longer be ill, it would be dead!
The politicians are correct that
Zimbabwe needs exchange rate stability, for
diverse reasons, including
inflation containment. But the manner of
achieving that stability should not
be by destructive regulation. It must be
brought about by ensuring that the
availability of foreign currency is equal
to, or greater than, the demand
for it.
That must be achieved through a number of actions, including
containing
inflation by curbing state expenditure, containing money-supply
growth,
increasing productivity (and especially so in agriculture, which
must be
de-politicised and restored to viability), encouraging competition,
eliminating waste, and halting corruption. That inflation containment will
stimulate export performance.
Increased availability of foreign
currency must also be brought about by
other export stimulatory efforts,
including meaningful incentives,
consistency in export processing zones'
policies, encouragement of toll
manufacturing, recourse to barter trade, and
to import substitution, and the
like. Concurrently, non-confrontational
policies impacting upon
international relations will enhance availability of
foreign lines of
credit, and of aid. And all these factors, if reinforced by
restoration of
genuine democracy, and of law and order, will motivate
foreign direct
investment.
Those at the conference who so foolishly
advocated and demanded regulated
exchange rate revaluation need to think
again (or is it, begin thinking?)
and recognise that the exchange rate must
reach conducive economic levels by
constructive, stimulatory economic
measures.
Zim Independent
Muckraker
MUCKRAKER had a good chuckle over the Herald's attempt to explain
why
President Mugabe had been denied an opportunity to grandstand in
Malaysia
last Friday. He had been due to address the Perdana Global Peace
Forum, we
are told, "but his presentation was cancelled at the last minute
due to an
oversight by the organisers".
And what was this oversight?
The organisers had slotted in Mugabe to speak
at lunchtime on Friday but had
"overlooked the fact that most of the
participants would have gone for
Friday prayers".
"Overlooked the fact" that in a Moslem country most of
the participants
would have gone for prayers? How plausible does that sound?
ZW News provided
a more likely view.
The speech was cancelled due to
a lack of interest, the news service
suggested.
It appears that
Mugabe had requested to speak at the conference, former
Malaysian premier
Mahathir Mohamad's brainchild, at the last minute, and was
allocated the
Friday lunchtime slot. But the organisers, the Perdana
Leadership
Foundation, decided to cancel the engagement.
"The organisers regret that
the session for Mugabe had to be cancelled due
to an oversight. The
atmosphere at lunch would not have been suitable for a
head of state," a
spokesperson said diplomatically. Many of the participants
would have been
at Friday prayers, and the organisers decided not to risk
having Mugabe seen
talking to an empty hall.
But the cancellation of what was bound to be
the usual demagoguery suggests
Mugabe is running out of space to pose as the
developing world's champion.
His fans make constant reference to his
performance at the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg
in 2002. But he was fortunate there
to tap into the anti-American
resentments of well-organised social
movements.
Since then one gets
the sense that the developing countries would rather not
have him speak on
their behalf. He got some polite applause at the FAO in
Rome this year and a
hug from Hugo Chavez, himself no mean tub-thumper, but
nothing
more.
Indeed, it was instructive to see that while the Herald reported on
Mugabe's
meeting with Mahathir, his host while in Kuala Lumpur, it did not
give any
coverage to what, if anything, was discussed with the current prime
minister, Abdullah Badawi. Instead we were told about a session with the
Vietnamese premier. And the presence of George Galloway, another demagogue
of note, would hardly have compensated for the meeting with Tony Blair that
Mugabe appears to yearn for!
It was good to note in the Business
Herald that the government is "committed
to improving its
image".
Economic Development minister Rugare Gumbo said this when
speaking on the
2006 budget. "We are committed to improving the image of the
country,
retaining tourism, and attracting Zimbabweans in the diaspora to
contribute
to the development of the country," he said.
He spoke of
the need for improved expenditure management, foreign
investment, and
parastatal reform. These remarks came in the same week as
newspapers
disclosed huge perks for the new senators, a stampede by public
companies to
advertise their support for the regime, including individuals
at its helm,
in the official press, continuing raids on farms for
agricultural equipment,
and abuse of those countries that are the main
markets for the tourism
sector.
Gumbo's recognition that the government needs to improve its
image, despite
claims by Simbarashe Mumbengegwi that everything is just fine
as it is, is
in itself welcome. But he needs to see the private sector as
more than just
a cash cow. Several colleagues of his have in recent weeks
made hostile
remarks about seizing companies. Currently sugar producers in
the Lowveld
are under siege and the holders of Bippa agreements have seen
their
properties taken.
Is that the "conducive environment for the
private sector" he talks about?
The problem here is very simple. People like
Gumbo, Herbert Murerwa, and
Gideon Gono have some idea of what needs to be
done before the country can
recover. But a coterie around Mugabe, including
the most delinquent of
ministers completely ignorant of economic
fundamentals, want to punish, loot
and destroy. So long as those characters
have the bit between their teeth
the country is doomed.
"Zimbabwe
will never be a colony again," it is declared by every parrot in
the Zanu PF
cage. But in truth, following the recent arrest of radio
journalists and the
state's bid to confiscate the passports of its critics,
the country has
indeed become a colony again - a penal colony.
Muckraker was interested
to note remarks made by Zanu PF deputy Information
secretary Ephraim Masawi
calling for the government to "weed out" supporters
of former minister
Jonathan Moyo from government and party structures.
There was need to
restructure these organs of information dissemination and
rid them of these
elements, he told the Zanu PF conference in Esigodini two
weeks
ago.
"Jonathan Moyo was doing things for his personal gain," Masawi
claimed, "at
the expense of the government and people of
Zimbabwe."
Now why didn't Masawi say that at the time Moyo was running
the Information
machinery? Why has he waited until the former minister's
political demise
before finding his voice? Have you noticed how brave Zanu
PF spokesmen are
when they have nobody to take them on?
Which brings
us to Blessing Makwambeni who, we are told, teaches journalism
at the
National University of Science and Technology.
He had an op/ed piece in
the Herald last Friday attacking Morgan Tsvangirai
in trenchant terms. None
of it was new. But we are now looking forward to
Makwambeni doing a similar
hatchet job on Robert Mugabe with particular
emphasis on his economic
management.
Makwambeni accuses Tsavangirai of being a populist and a
dictator. It will
be interesting to see what he makes of Mugabe's approach
to politics.
Because we would hate to think that Makwambeni is only able to
criticise
Tsvangirai's shortcomings as a leader. We would hate to think he
is a
snivelling little coward who lacks the courage to mete out similar
treatment
to the real author of the country's demise.
The state media
is full of bravery - so long as it doesn't involve
mentioning the president
at any point!
Here is the man who is not simply head of state but head of
government and
leader of the ruling party whose prejudices set the national
agenda. And
none of these eunuchs who occupy the opinion pages of the Herald
is allowed
to breathe a single word of criticism. Such boldness is truly
awe-inspiring!
We wonder what Makwambeni's students think of such courageous
"journalism"?
Tafataona Mahoso was caught by ZTV at Esigodini dutifully
grinning at Mugabe's
facile attempts at humour. And he wants us to regard
him as a professional!
Last weekend he claimed in his Sunday Mail column
that the "popular masses"
had renamed Jan Egeland "Ian England in order to
indicate that they could
not tell the difference between this purported UN
envoy and the line of Ian
Smith and his English settlers here".
As
usual, Mahoso's claims are rooted in ignorance. Smith was of Scots
descent.
And the only "popular mass" that we know of calling Egeland
"England" was
Nathaniel Manheru in the Herald.
But we should not be surprised that
Mahoso confuses a government spokesman
with the "popular masses". The week
before he was claiming that Zimbabweans
had disowned their decision to
reject the draft constitution in 2000.
One of the reasons given for the
rejection was that it would have given
President Mugabe too much power, he
says. "Why should such an allegation
become so routine?" he asked with some
indignation.
He claimed that "in contrast to the elaborate draft
constitution for
Zimbabwe in 2000.the parliament of Zimbabwe, after
listening to the majority
of the people, passed the 17th amendment to the
constitution of Zimbabwe at
1% of the cost of the 2000 draft.
"But
that 17th amendment was more valuable to the people than the one
rejected in
2000.because (it) was intended to settle a seething fundamental
political
and legal conflict going back 120 years".
In other words, the views of
the people of Zimbabwe expressed in the 2000
referendum, after extensive
consultation, were of no consequence. Instead
the 17th amendment, passed
with little or no consultation and giving the
government powers to bar the
courts from performing their constitutional
duty, is seen as more
significant because it settles "a true national
question".
Why should
an arbitrary amendment passed with little or no public debate be
regarded as
settling a "seething political and legal conflict" just because
Mahoso says
so?
Does he really think that land reform won't be revisited by a future
government and that recourse to judicial review will not be reinstated in a
democratic constitution to prevent arbitrary confiscation? Why is it
presumed that a regime where state stooges claim to speak for the "popular
masses" and abuse the instruments of unpopular power to settle scores with
their media critics will hold sway forever?
Who are the popular
elements here? The independent press that champions
democratic freedoms or a
hand-picked gang of media assassins whose mission
it is to silence any voice
government finds inconvenient?
So, at last we know who is responsible for
the mess we find ourselves in
today. "Tanzania made Zimbabwe what it is
today," President Mugabe was
reported as telling Zimbabweans resident in
Tanzania.
We feel it is somewhat unfair to blame Tanzania for the
collapse of
agriculture, social services, infrastructure and democratic due
process.
Zanu PF must take some of the blame. Meanwhile, we wonder if Thabo
Mbeki
will own up to the indiscretions regarding Tony Blair which Mugabe was
reported as revealing in his address. Somehow we don't think
so.
Mugabe appeared indignant that Zimbabwe should be accused of not
holding
regular democratic elections in line with the constitution. The
British had
painted "a picture of Zimbabwe that is not real, that Zimbabwe
is not
law-abiding, it's a dictatorship that does not recognise democracy.,"
he
complained.
In the same edition of the Herald on Wednesday Local
Government minister
Ignatious Chombo was reported as saying there would be
no mayoral election
in Harare over the next two years. The reason he gave
was the absence of
electoral boundaries. In the meantime his handpicked
puppet at Town House
will be "running the show".
So there you have
it: the will of the residents of Harare contemptuously
swept aside by a
minister who decides when the capital's voters should be
allowed to go to
the polls. And all because they voted for the opposition.
How is this
classified as "recognising democracy"?
President Mugabe should stop
complaining about the British tarnishing
Zimbabwe's reputation. This was,
like the passport fiasco, entirely an own
goal.
Journalists who
attended the GMB's media reception last week had free
lessons on press
freedom from the principal press officer in the Ministry of
Information, one
Retired Major Anywhere Mutambudzi. According to the Herald,
he warned that
failure to report accurately on the GMB could "subvert
national security"
since it was a strategic parastatal.
"If you misinform people about GMB,
you are not only satisfying your ego of
lying or meeting the requirements of
your paymasters," he said, "but causing
unnecessary anxiety in the nation,
thereby subverting national security."
Needless to say, he didn't say nor
was he challenged to explain what
national security was
threatened.
"As a matter of fact," he declared, "it is common practice
the world over
that press freedom ends where national interest
begins."
This is patently false and shows the dangers of military men
trying to play
philosopher. The national interest and press freedom can't be
divorced. It
is the ignorant propaganda of people like Major Anywhere that
threatens
national security.
But he did relent though, telling the
journalists his statement did not mean
"they should turn a blind eye on
malpractices and other negative
developments" at the GMB.
We are
grateful to him for that at least. We are in possession of a copy of
a
tender by the said GMB for the supply of T-shirts which closed on December
19.
They want 1 000 golf shirts "in fancy fabric" and 2 000 printed
colour
T-shirts with piping and double neck "fancy crewneck", among the 6
500-item
order. The question is: who pays the extra cost for the "fancy"
bits or are
we in breach of national security by asking?
Zanu PF has
resolved that it should have a representative in almost every
organisation
in the country. It was one of their resolutions at the
just-ended conference
in Esigodini. Those who wish to train as journalists
will now need to first
undergo national youth training.
We all know what that means.
Then
the party's secretary for youth Absolom Sikhosana pleaded with his
superiors
that there should be a 50-50 representation of the party in
soccer, in
cricket and especially among those who will travel to Egypt to
cheer the
senior national team next year.
Don't ask what qualifications these
people have to poke their nose into
soccer and cricket. Sikhosana had a
ready answer: "I know that these party
cadres can sing and dance at match
venues and they will be representing the
party at such a high level," he
said.
But considering the chaos that has dogged soccer administration
in
this country over the years and the contagion that has spread into
cricket,
we are shocked to be told that Zanu PF is not overrepresented
already!
Zim Independent
Comment
ON the same day that the Herald reported President Mugabe in
Tanzania
expressing his indignation that the West had refused to accept that
Zimbabwe
held regular elections every five years and had branded his regime
a
dictatorship, the Minister for Local Government was telling the residents
of
Harare that they would not be allowed to vote again until
2007.
There appears to be a serious dislocation between Mugabe's claims
and the
realities on the ground. He cannot understand how his brutal and
suffocating
regime could possibly be described as not law-abiding and
undemocratic.
This is the same regime that routinely ignores court
orders, confiscates the
passports of its critics, and holds journalists over
a weekend when the
state admits it doesn't have a case against
them.
Does Mugabe seriously suggest he is unaware of all
this?
Here is a government that in May this year launched a campaign,
Operation
Murambatsvina, that targeted the urban poor, depriving 700 000
people of
their homes, according to a UN report. Over two million lost their
livelihoods.
The author of the report, Anna Tibaijuka, was abused by
the regime's
spokesmen because they didn't like her findings. Another UN
envoy, Jan
Egeland, came in for even worse abuse when he declined to
contradict his
colleague's report and described the situation produced by
Operation
Murambatsvina as a social "meltdown". In the process "crimes were
committed",
he added.
Mugabe had hoped that Egeland would disown
Tibaijuka's report. Instead,
after seeing the situation on the ground, he
fully endorsed it. So did every
other credible observer.
Operation
Murambatsvina mar-ked a watershed. While previously Mugabe had
been able to
cite historical anomalies in the pattern of land distribution
as
justification for property seizures, in this case it was the poor who
suffered the destruction of their homes. But the motive was the same: the
liquidation of perceived bastions of opposition support.
At the same
time the economy that the government kept dishonestly assuring
us was
undergoing a turnaround, was in fact in tailspin. Inflation was
galloping
ahead owing to the state's incontinent spending habits while
agricultural
production had in many areas completely collapsed, thus
depriving the
country of forex.
Ruling-party spokesmen claim-ed all this was the result
of drought and
sanctions.
In response to the crescendo of criticism
surrounding the government's
increasingly desperate measures, the state
thought it could block the
message by muzzling the press. This attempt to
replicate the Burma
Syndrome - the prevention of information leaving the
country - was partly
achieved through reported infiltration by state
intelligence, threats from
the government's media commission, and
confiscation of the passports of
press critics.
But in one key
respect the policy backfired. The seizure of Trevor Ncube's
passport two
weeks ago generated a storm of protest around the world,
particularly in
South Africa where the Mbeki government was seriously
embarrassed by this
clumsy behaviour, and focused an unwelcome spotlight on
repression in
Zimbabwe.
Freedom of movement is guaranteed not only in the Zimbabwe
constitution but
in the African Union charter and Article 19 of the UN's
Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. In other words, Zimbabwe was in
violation of
its own laws and international laws it had signed up
to.
This is the government Mugabe claims is "law-abiding".
The
year therefore ends with the country looking increasingly like a
detention
camp in which the homeless have multiplied owing to the state's
depredations, the press is under siege for telling the self-evident truth
about our delinquent rulers, and the country is rapidly running out of
resources of all sorts owing to unworkable and punitive policies.
In
the midst of this the opposition has lost its mind and instead of
providing
leadership to a rudderless nation, has descended into internecine
warfare.
Nobody is impressed by its antics and Morgan Tsvangirai should be
told that
in no uncertain terms.
This is the least Merry Christmas on record for a
long-suffering population
that deserve better but appear paralysed by the
sheer enormity of the
tragedy unfolding around them. We would like to hope
2006 will be better.
But going by precedent that seems
unlikely.
Where do we get the dung from
minister?
AGRICULTURE minister Joseph Made doesn't cease to amaze
me.
The week gone by, he urged farmers to use natural manure instead of
waiting
for human-made organic fertilisers. Although Made didn't specify
which
natural manure he meant, I'm tempted to believe he meant cow
dung.
As Minister of Agriculture, I'm sure Made needs no reminding
that Zimbabwe's
cattle herd has diminished over the years that even if we
were to rear
cattle for the sole purpose of providing cow dung for purposes
of manure,
all the cattle in Zimbabwe today wouldn't provide enough for
agricultural
purposes in Shamva or Mwenezi alone, or even the peri-urban
fields in Mbare.
That Zimbabwe's national herd has diminished is in
no doubt as evidenced by
the price of meat in butcheries and President
Mugabe's assertions that
cattle rustlers should get minimum jail terms of
nine years.
Moreso, as Made was at the recent Zanu PF conference in
Umzingwane, he needs
no reminding that they killed 147 natural
manure-providing animals in three
days, further diminishing the depleted
herd.
Could it be that Made's utterance was some kind of Fools' Day
prank made in
December!
He is Minister of Agriculture but seems
to lack vital information about his
ministry's
responsibilities.
Remember two years ago he went on a tour of the
country aboard a helicopter
assessing the food situation only to declare
that Zimbabwe had adequate food
supplies judging from the crops he had
seen.
Even President Mugabe infamously told Sky TV that we weren't a
hungry nation
and had enough food awaiting harvesting. Not enough grain was
produced
because Made on his joyride saw vast forests instead of crops hence
the
wrong results.
Can the minister tell the nation why
fertiliser is in short supply? I hope
he will not consult his boss because
the answer will end up having something
to do with United States president
George Bush and UK premier Tony Blair.
Made is still minister because
performance never matters to baba vaChatunga
but
loyalty.
Dung-ho,
Harare.
-------
Thanks to Dr
Mahathir
I HAVE always wondered why the United States and Britain
would sit by and
watch - for years - while thousands of defenceless people
are tortured,
murdered, and made homeless by an insensitive and cruel
government in
Zimbabwe.
Merely imposing meaningless sanctions on the
country's leadership and
holding endless debates on what action to take
against the Zimbabwean
government is not good enough.
Now I know
the answer, thanks to Malaysian former premier, Dr Mahathir
Mohamad, at the
recently held Perdana Global Peace Forum in Malaysia.
He enlightened
us by pointing out that a dictator can kill and maim his own
people while
the United States and Britain would not intervene - simply
because that
country has no oil.
And Zimbabwe has no oil!
Bongani
Ndlovu,
Bulawayo.
-------
Will Blair seize'errant'
Galloway's passport?
AN extract of a story carried in the Herald
issue of December 19 read: "In
his address at the forum, Mr George Galloway,
a British MP, said the US and
Britain have arrogated themselves the duty of
deciding which country must be
invaded, occupied and which regimes to change
and prop up."
He said the terrorist attacks that have rocked some
countries in the Western
bloc were a direct result of "Western policies of
injustice and double
standards" against other people.
Galloway
depicted the US and Britain as war-mongers who had created some of
the
terrorists now tormenting them, describing US president, George W Bush
and
British prime minister, Tony Blair, as "the self-appointed emperors of
the
earth".
"I tell you these killers, liars and imperialists must be
condemned by any
right-thinking person of any religion at any time," he
said.
I wonder if the Zimbabwean state media and the government would
consider
such statements by a UK MP as being anti-British, unpatriotic, a
threat to
national interests and security?
Is the Blair
administration going to follow Zimbabwe's example by seizing
Galloway's
passport once he sets foot in London?
We will see who is more
tolerant and democratic: Tony Blair or Robert
Mugabe.
By the way,
who drafted the programme for the Perdana Global Peace Forum?
My
logical guess would be that it was a Malaysian who would have very much
known "that most participants at the forum would have gone for Friday
prayers" at the same time that he slotted in President Mugabe to deliver his
address.
Are the Zimbabwean government's so-called "progressive"
allies finally
waking up? The sun truly rises from the
East.
Patriot,
Bulawayo.
------
Bennett: the
stabilising factor
CONGRATULATIONS to Roy Bennett on his election as
MDC chairman for
Manicaland and stressing the need for unity in the
party.
The MDC desperately needs some unifying, stabilising factor to
lead it from
the present unstable situation.
Could Bennett be
that factor? For years he has been revered, supported in
his own
constituency by his workers and all who have benefited through his
development of the area and its people.
Now with eight months'
gaol in Mutoko, courtesy of a Zanu PF parliamentary
majority, behind him, he
has the qualification that prepares a man for
leadership.
And who
would not support a man who did what millions wish they could do -
flatten
Justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, in parliament?
There will be
some I suppose, who criticise the fact that he is white, but
it has not held
him back. His true worth shines through everything he
touches.
He
will be there to give strong, forthright, truthful advice to the
party.
PNR Silversides,
Harare.
----------
Why
Chombo should keep Sekesai at Town House
ALLOW me to congratulate
Local Government minister Ignatious Chombo for
extending Sekesai
Makwavarara's tenure as Harare acting mayor.
Makwavarara defected from
the MDC - a puppet party - according to President
Mugabe, so she has to be
rewarded handsomely.
Harare is the best run city in Africa, Minister
Chombo. Makwavarara should
thus keep her job even for life. After her, we
can then appoint her daughter
or maid because good brains seem to flow in
her family.
There are no potholes in Harare, no raw sewage flowing in
the streets, water
cuts are a thing of the past, no single street light is
out of order and the
housing waiting list is reduced, thanks to Operation
Garikai.
And more importantly, her shrewd thinking led to Operation
Murambatsvina
which we all know was such a huge success that London and New
York are
contemplating following suit.
Residents' water bills are
always correct to the last cent. There are no
street kids and vagrants in
Harare and vendors sell their wares without
harassment.
Enough
money is there to procure water purifying chemicals and Harare has an
abundant fleet of refuse collection trucks and ambulance crews that respond
to calls within five minutes on average.
Harare council clinics
are stocked with sufficient drugs and personnel while
the municipal police
are so efficient that they have become the envy of the
FBI and
Interpol.
The council's books are audited annually and all council
projects are well
ahead of schedule and above all, our mayor is not greedy;
she never bought
that new vehicle, it was all rumour. In fact, she goes to
work by either a
commuter omnibus or freedom train.
Yes, Minister
Chombo, Makwavarara deserves another term because of her good
work.
She produced a turnaround programme for Harare in minutes,
a feat Misheck
Shoko of Chitungwiza failed to accomplish.
Misheck
Kagurabadza "ruined" Mutare while Japhet Ndabeni Ncube "lied" about
people
dying of hunger in Bulawayo, so why not reward Makwavarara?
Harare
does not deserve to elect another mayor as she is the best for the
job - the
best-ever Harare has had!
You were right minister to fire Shoko for
going to Victoria Falls for a
strategic seminar whilst Makwavarara was so
shrewd to blow US$27 000 on a
jaunt to Moscow to see and learn about Moscow.
Now that's what we call
leadership. Little wonder why Shoko had to go. That
was good thinking
minister.
Makwavarara has Harare at heart, she
has had countless meetings and
consultations with residents over her
two-year tenure.
Even in Chegutu, Executive Mayor Francis Dhlakama
had to go. Why he never
thought of going to Moscow is another
mystery.
Makwavarara is always there when residents need her. She has
an open-door
policy, compared to all other mayors.
Please make
Commissioner Makwavarara Life Mayor. In fact, she needs to go to
Moscow
every two weeks because Harare is now better than Johannesburg and
Cape Town
ever since she returned from her trip.
Long live Minister Chombo,
Long live Commissioner Makwavarara!
Gorge
Time,
Harare.
----------
This Morning's interview exposes
sanctions fallacy
I WAS amazed by an interview that appeared on ZTV's
This Morning on
Wednesday conducted by Gilbert Nyambabvu with the out-going
Swedish
Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Kristina Svensson.
It was really a
revelation.
He asked the out-going ambassador what she had done to
alleviate the plight
of the suffering Zimbabweans, considering that her
country (and other EU
members) was the main "cause" because of their
sanctions against the
country.
The ambassador replied by
explaining to him that the "sanctions" were
targeted at senior government
and ruling party officials only, and not the
country and its citizens (the
very same thing US Ambassador Christopher Dell
said a while ago), and thus
had no effect on the economy.
Considering the outcry made by the
government, Zanu PF and the state media
over Dell's comments, this was a
chance in a life-time for them to prove to
the whole country, once and for
all, that the EU and their counterparts are
responsible for the economic
meltdown this country finds itself in.
Nevertheless, what does the
unfortunate Nyambabvu do?
He stammers, stutters and does not even
bother to counter the statement -
obviously knowing fully well that she was
telling the truth, and there was
nothing he could say to dispute that fact.
And he did not.
Thank you Nyambabvu and ZTV for the revelation. I
hope that puts the flimsy
excuse of sanctions being responsible for our
poverty to rest forever.
You had your chance to prove your claims and
messed up pretty good.
The government, ruling party, the state media
and the Mahosos should now
tell us who REALLY is responsible for Zimbabwe's
demise.
If these jokers had a solid case, why are they so afraid of
confronting
their adversaries face-to-face on national television, for
example, on
National Agenda - instead of spewing empty vitriol
everywhere?
Are they afraid of doing another
Nyambabvu?
Bongani Ndlovu,
Bulawayo.