FinGaz
Hama Saburi Deputy
Editor-in-Chief
HASTY constitutional tampering by the ruling ZANU PF
party, which enabled a
powerful faction to catapult Joice Mujuru to the vice
presidency in 2004,
has returned to haunt the party as the amended
constitution now threatens
the delicate gender and tribal balance in the
party.
Sources revealed this week that certain ZANU PF bigwigs are
concerned that
the November 18 2004 resolution, crafted hastily ahead of the
party's last
congress to catapult a woman into the presidium, had the
unintended effect
of tilting the scales in favour of women.
They said
when the Politburo directed that one of the party's
vice-presidents must be
a woman, it failed to foresee an eventuality where a
woman would ascend to
the very apex of the party. Should that happen, the
party would be faced
with a situation where women may fill up the other two
slots in the
presidium, comprising the president and two vice-presidents.
This could
create disequilibrium and internecine fights in the fractious
ZANU PF, which
President Robert Mugabe had tried to avoid by maintaining an
intricate
tribal balance between the dominant Zezurus, Kalangas and
Manyikas.
With
the next congress due to be held in 2009 and the race to succeed
President
Mugabe is certain to have reached its peak by then, all presidium
positions
could be filled on the basis of technical considerations. Assuming
Vice-President Mujuru ascends to the highest office in the land, as is now
likely to be the case, it means therefore, that the vice-presidential slots
would be filled in line with the provisions of the 1987 Unity Accord signed
between the then Joshua Nkomo-led PF ZAPU and President Mugabe's ZANU PF to
end the unrest that had rocked the Matabeleland provinces and some parts of
the Midlands. The Unity Accord stipulates that one of the vice-presidents
should be from the former PF-ZAPU.
The women's league would exercise its
right to demand the election of a
woman to fill one of the vice presidential
posts.
John Nkomo, the ZANU PF national chairman, was unmoved by these
concerns
when contacted for clarification this week. Nkomo, who is also the
Speaker
of Parliament said: "That issue has already been taken care of . . .
a
decision was made to re-adjust the resolution, the changes will be
reflected
in the party's constitution."
Nkomo said the party's
constitution would guarantee that one of the three
positions in the
presidium is earmarked for a woman as provided for by the
quota system
adopted by ZANU PF, which stipulates that a third of all
positions at every
party level, should be reserved for women.
ZANU PF secretary for
administration Didymus Mutasa, who revealed that the
next central committee
meeting would be held next month, said at its meeting
in December last year,
the policy-making organ considered and "virtually"
approved all the
resolutions.
"There are no problems, tell them kuti wataura neni uye kuti
ndati hapana
chekuchema. (Tell them you have spoken to me and I said there
is no reason
to cry foul)."
Mutasa said the central committee can also
pass resolutions as the
policy-making organ acts as a congress in between
congresses, which are held
after every five years.
To Page
23
Conferences are held annually.
"At that time when people were
talking, the only vacant position was that of
the vice-president and so
we
From Page 1
said it should be left for a woman, but the import is that
one of the three
(president and the two vice-presidents) must be a woman,"
said Mutasa.
Analysts said the manner in which ZANU PF is moving to thrash
out the issue
could in a way confirm that Mujuru might as well be headed for
the
high-pressure job.
President Mugabe has hinted at retiring from
active politics at the expiry
of his sixth term in office in 2008. Several
ZANU PF heavyweights - Mujuru,
Nkomo, Mutasa, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the legal
affairs secretary and Simba
Makoni, the former finance minister, have been
linked to the succession
race.
Sources said the near demise of the main
opposition Movement of Democratic
Change (MDC), which almost ejected ZANU PF
from government in 2000 and still
poses the greatest threat to the party,
came as a boon for the ruling party.
They said the infighting in the
opposition party, which reared its ugly head
in the run-up to the senatorial
elections boycotted by the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led MDC faction, gave ZANU PF
time to reflect on its shortcomings
and put its house in some semblance of
order as it prepares for President
Mugabe's exit and the doubtful
presidential elections in 2008.
Reports suggests that ZANU PF might use its
numerical advantage in the
bicameral parliament to further massage the
constitution, tampered with for
the 17th time last year, and push the
presidential elections to 2010 when
they will be synchronised with the
parliamentary elections to purportedly
save costs and smoothen the country's
electoral processes.
Conferences are held annually.
"At that time when
people were talking, the only vacant position was that of
the vice-president
and so we said it should be left for a woman, but the
import is that one of
the three (president and the two vice-presidents) must
be a woman," said
Mutasa.
Analysts said the manner in which ZANU PF is moving to thrash out the
issue
could in a way confirm that Mujuru might as well be headed for the
high-pressure job.
President Mugabe has hinted that he could retire from
active politics at the
expiry of his sixth term in office in 2008. Several
ZANU PF heavyweights -
Mujuru, Nkomo, Mutasa, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the legal
affairs secretary and
Simba Makoni, the former finance minister, have been
linked to the
succession race.
Sources said the near demise of the main
opposition Movement of Democratic
Change (MDC), which almost ejected ZANU PF
from government in 2000 and still
poses the greatest threat to the party,
came as a boon for the ruling party.
They said the infighting in the
opposition party, which reared its ugly head
in the run-up to the senatorial
elections boycotted by the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led MDC faction, gave ZANU PF
time to reflect on its shortcomings
and put its house in some semblance of
order as it prepares for President
Mugabe's exit and the doubtful
presidential elections in 2008.
Reports suggests that ZANU PF might use its
numerical advantage in the
bicameral parliament to further massage the
constitution, tampered with for
the 17th time last year, and push the
presidential elections to 2010 when
they will be synchronised with the
parliamentary elections to purportedly
save costs and smoothen the country's
electoral processes.
FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi Senior
Business Reporter
THE central bank has raised rates by 110 percentage
points to 650 percent,
and could follow that up with a lift on its Treasury
Bill (TB) rates. The
latest rate hike, the first since December 12, marks
the end of a brief lull
in a series of increases over the past year, and is
in reaction to new
inflation data released earlier this week.
The
Central Statistical Office (CSO) announced on Monday that annual
inflation
rose to 613.2 percent in January, up 28 percentage points from
585.5 percent
in December, driven mostly by housing costs and food prices.
Previous rate
increases have been largely ignored by the market, with
investors continuing
to pile into equity where they see a better chance of
beating inflation.
This is because the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has
not been raising the
rates on Treasury Bills, with central bank governor
Gideon Gono saying late
last year that TB rates would no longer chase
inflation, but would only be
linked to the bank's short to medium term
outlook.
However, players said
this week the rate on the central bank's key 91-day TB
would be raised from
340 to 390 percent. The 365-day paper would go up from
170 percent to 230
percent, while the bank would hold the 180-day TB steady
at 360
percent.
One market player said the expected new rates had however not yet
been
effected due to delays in the start of the Central Depository System,
the
RBZ's new TB allotment method. There was no comment from the RBZ
yesterday.
At the stock market, shares have been range bound since the new
inflation
data came out on Monday. The market had already been sliding
before that on
a combination of profit taking and speculation over the
direction of
interest rates.
Gono said last month that the overnight rate
would be used as a "pre-emptive
tool" against inflation, and would be "based
on projected inflation
profiles".
However, critics charge that the rate
hike alone cannot subdue inflation.
Rate hikes are traditionally used to
curtail speculative borrowing, but,
given that borrowing rates are already
at crippling high levels, borrowing
is already down.
FinGaz
Hama Saburi Deputy
Editor-in-Chief
Zim lags behind as investors rush for SA's freer media
market
IT is almost 26 years after Zimbabwe gained independence, but some
people
argue that the new era has brought nothing but mere political freedom
from
white minority rule.
More than two decades after the end of
colonialism, the country is still
paying lip service to the long-cherished
dream of opening up the airwaves, a
dream which raised hopes after the
Supreme Court nullified state broadcaster
ZBH's monopoly in September
2000.
In contrast, South Africa, where apartheid rule ended 14 years after
its
northern neighbour's independnce, is spearheading a broadcasting
revolution
in Africa and now hosts key pan-African content providers, signal
distributors and infrastructure suppliers.
Pretoria had its first
television broadcast in 1975/76, about a
decade-and-a-half after Harare had
embraced the technology. But South Africa's
electronic media industry has
been growing at an annual rate of around 12
percent since 1996.
A number
of other African states were also quick to accept media pluralism
and break
their stranglehold on the critical sector soon after independence.
Zimbabwe
has had a fair share of prospects: the pay-per-view television
project, DStv
and many more, but they have all slipped through the fingers.
Critics say
inertia and Harare's obsession with preserving ZBH's monopoly
have cost the
industry and the nation heavily in terms of development.
The economy -
starved of fresh capital - has lost out on new investment,
jobs and tax
revenue.
Had the government liberalised the airwaves, analysts say, it might
have
stopped the bleeding at ZBH, which has virtually survived on a life
support
system.
To date, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has sunk nearly $17
billion to shore
up the public broadcaster, led by executive chairman Rino
Zhuwarara.
ZBH runs the country's only TV and radio stations.
Because ZBH
is financially protected by the state, the heavily levied
taxpayer has had
to subsidise inefficiency at Pockets Hill, the headquarters
of the
broadcasting monopoly, and put up with poor television and radio
programming.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) says the law
governing the
broadcasting sector - the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) -
curtails the
free flow of information and plurality of ideas and
views.
"What is of concern to MISA-Zimbabwe is the fact that an industry
which has
potential for generating thousands of jobs, with a multiplier
effect on
downstream industries, has remained stagnant because of the
muzzling
legislative environment," said the institute.
"This is critical,
particularly at a time when Zimbabwe is desperate for
foreign direct
investment and expertise to arrest the massive job losses and
rescue the
ailing economy from the edge of the precipice," it added.
MISA said Harare's
reluctance to license private players was out of line
with the African
Charter on Human and People's Rights to which Zimbabwe is a
signatory.
The charter states that every individual shall have the right
to receive
information and express his/her opinions within the
law.
"Having barred foreign investment, the Act is cruel to even Zimbabweans
in
that it restricts ownership in a broadcasting venture to a maximum of 10
percent. Under the Act, no applicant that is a body corporate shall be
licensed if any one person holds or controls more than 10 percent of
securities in the company," MISA said this week.
A veteran broadcaster
who declined to be named said there had been "poetic
justice" of some sort
in Zimbabwe's broadcasting arena.
Without much effort, he said, the market
had slowly fallen to foreign-owned
DStv and illegal radio stations
broadcasting locally.
"The fear of the unknown is now too much. Ungatye
varoyi zvekutya kuenda
kudondo here? We are not saying the industry should
not be regulated. We are
saying the laws should allow Zimbabweans to invest
in the industry and be
able to operate professionally and ethically," he
said.
"No sensible investor can come in as a minority and, besides, why
should we
restrict the investor from investing in other related businesses?
It doesn't
make sense," added the broadcaster.
The analysts said the
government should follow the example of the banking
sector, where several
indigenous players were licensed at the onset of
Western-backed economic
reforms in 1991.
While the sector-wide liquidity crunch that hit the banking
industry in 2004
claimed the scalps of some institutions, the sector has
remained one of the
few success stories of black economic empowerment.
A
number of potential invetors - including Trans-Africa Satellite Network,
MABC Channel Africa, Special Com Services and MultiChoice- have shown
interest in the broadcasting sector, but political considerations semm to
have scuttled their licensing.
Citing the restrictive BSA, which was
rushed through Parliament in 2001, the
analysts this week said President
Robert Mugabe's government seemed
reluctant to open up the airwaves despite
setting up the Broadcasting
Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) to oversee the
licensing of new players .
They attributed the apparent unwillingness to the
government's obsession
with dictating the "national agenda" even it it meant
Zimbabwe would lag
other countries in terms of development.
Capitol
Radio, a private station, was on air briefly in 2000 before it was
shut down
by the government for broadcasting illegally.
The station took its case to
court, leading to the Supreme Court ruling that
the then Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation's monopoly was unconstitutional.
The judgment
resulted in the formation of the BAZ.
James Makamba's Joy TV was also
switched off air in 2002 on flimsy grounds,
while Munhumutapa Broadcasting
was made to disappear from the screens.
The analysts said the governement's
"bullet theory", which assumes that the
public is passive and can easily
fall for propaganda, would not work in
Zimbabwe considering the country's
high literacy levels.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
British PM refuses
to use SA as 'missile' launchpad
BRITISH Premier Tony Blair, who visited
South Africa last week for a
leadership conference, refused to hand
President Robert Mugabe and his
speechwriters easy fodder to feed their
anti-British rhetoric.
Instead, Blair generated headlines from the
chilling snub he delivered to
his former favourite, Meles Zenawi of
Ethiopia.
Zenawi's democratic credentials have been hit by his government's
crackdown
on opposition protests following last year's election.
Despite
the obvious contiguity to Zimbabwe and the significance of the host
country,
South Africa, which has failed in attempts to help its northern
neighbour
come out of its six-year economic and political crisis, Blair did
not yield
to the temptation to cite Zimbabwe, which has descended from being
one of
the continent's brightest hopes to a pariah state in five short
years.
"Whenever I visit Africa, as I have this weekend, I am always
overwhelmed
not so much by the scale of the challenges still to overcome -
massive as
they are - but by the astonishing vibrancy and potential of its
people.
Given a fair chance, you know Africans will grab it with both hands.
The
problem has been that fairness has simply not come into it.
"Together
we have managed to put Africa at the top of the international
agenda. We now
have to work just as hard to keep it there and to ensure that
we all deliver
on the commitments made by the international community and
the leadership of
Africa," Blair said.
He said nothing about the sharp criticism that has been
used by ZANU PF and
government propagandists to "prove" that the country's
woes were contrived
by Blair and his local "puppets" in opposition.
Some
of Blair's statements on Zimbabwe have been cynically manipulated and
used
as election material by ZANU PF.
Nathaniel Manheru, a columnist for the
state-controlled Herald
newspaper-unmasked as presidential spokesperson
George Charamba by former
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo- betrayed the
apprehension within
government corridors over Blair's visit to the
region.
Writing last Saturday, Manheru sought to warn Blair against "sniping"
at
Zimbabwe's 82 year old leader.
"He (Blair) will obviously seek cheap
shots on Zimbabwe (read President
Mugabe) right from the banks of the
Limpopo, much the same way his BBC does
when reporting on Zimbabwe.
"I
hope someone in the British Embassy cares to remind him Mugabe will be
turning 82 more or less a week after his meeting in South Africa. That is an
occasion which Mugabe commemorates by way of an hour-long interview which
always ends up making international news headlines, including in the United
Kingdom. Should Blair snipe at Mugabe, he is sure to be repaid by the same
coin."
It is improbable that the British premier takes advice from
faceless ZANU PF
propagandists, but he did steer clear of the Zimbabwe hot
potato, even when
he gave Mnet's Carte Blanche an interview.
Responding
to questions from Thumi Makgabo on the hugely popular programme,
Blair
explained the source of his concern for Africa.
"First of all, Africa is
probably the great moral cause of our time because
of the millions of people
who die unnecessarily through conflict or famine
or disease. And because I
think that today's world.in an interdependent
world, it makes no sense for
us to leave the continent of Africa in the
situation of being the only
continent anywhere in the world of the last few
decades that has gone
backwards.
"And there is such vitality, energy and intelligence here and it's
a tragedy
that it is not being mobilised and used in the way that it should
be. So I
think we have a huge moral obligation in countries like mine. But
also, in
the end I think it is an enlightened self-interested act.'
Blair
and US president George Bush have led western countries in their
condemnation of President Mugabe's government over alleged human rights
abuses and a widening democratic deficit.
President Mugabe denies the
charges and claims to have enraged Britain
because of his policy to
redistribute white-held land to landless blacks.
Thabo Mbeki of South Africa,
Sweden's Göran Persson, Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva of Brazil and Helen Clark
from New Zealand are some of the notable
leaders who attended the
conference.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief Political Reporter
AS investigations into
graft allegations in the Ministry of Higher and
Tertiary Education
intensify, the chief internal auditor has released a
stinging memorandum
accusing permanent secretary Washington Mbizvo of
rampant
corruption.
Moses Mbondori wrote a detailed memo to Mbizvo on Monday this
week accusing
him of gross financial irregularities as well as instigating
what he called
"rampant victimizations" in the ministry.
The five-page
memo comes a week after a dossier accusing senior ministry
officials of
corruptly buying cars and having ghost workers on the payroll
was lodged
with the Attorney-General's Office.
The memo has been copied to Higher and
Tertiary Education Minister Stan
Mudenge, his deputy Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the
comptroller and auditor-general,
the chairman of the Public Service
Commission, Mariyawanda Nzuwa, the acting
chief secretary to the President
and Cabinet, Ray Ndlukula, the Minister of
Anti-Corruption and
Anti-Monopolies, Paul Mangwana, the accountant-general
and the assistant
commissioner, Criminal Investigations Department (Fraud
Squad).
Mbondori
wrote: "Audit notes sadly that you (Mbizvo), together with the
director
finance and administration (Mataruse), decided to punish the former
chief
accountant, Mr Gomwe, by not renewing his contract of employment with
the
Ministry's National Education and Training Fund."
The auditor claims Gomwe's
employment contract was not renewed by Mbizvo
because the former acting
chief accountant "co-operated distinctly with the
audit department during
the audit of ghost workers".
"He fully supported the investigations carried
out by the Public Service
Commission Inspectorate pursuant to the audit. He
refused to authorize
payment of fraudulent travelling and subsistence
advance to Mapasure P, a
ghost worker driver corruptly engaged by
Mbizvo.
"He questioned the continued employment and payment of salaries to
ghost
workers who are relatives of either the permanent secretary and or
director
of finance," the memo says.
The chief internal auditor also
raises issue with the alleged victimisation
of an accountant, Mr Nkambala
(EC Number 0801174 Q) and executive officer Mr
Jimu P (EC Number
1343614Z).
"Audit has also learnt further that you intend to punish
(victimize) Mr
Nkambala by transferring him to Madziva Teachers' College.
This is because
he has been furnishing information to the audit regarding
your concerted
fruitless efforts to seek for condonation from the State
Procurement Board
after your corrupt procurement of vehicles involving $3.3
billion," reads
part of Mbondori's memo.
Mbondori accused the permanent
secretary of attempting to cripple the
ministry's audit section by allegedly
not approving its itinerary for 2006,
repossessing vehicle number GHTE 66
from audit "for no just cause, but as
punishment (victimization) for
unearthing grand corruption involving
yourselves."
In the same document,
the chief internal auditor reveals that Mbizvo handed
government vehicle
number 820-170N to his wife, whom he says is not a civil
servant.
"After
she was involved in a car accident she did not report it to the
police. You
(Mbizvo) then compelled the transport officer, Mr Mudzamiri to
have it
repaired at a private garage using the Ministry's funds. The
director of
Finance and Administration was involved in an accident with
Vehicle No. GHTE
26 and never reported the accident but intimidated officers
who declined to
take over the vehicle after the accident," the memo charges.
Investigations
by The Financial Gazette indicate that Mbizvo is yet to
respond to the
memo.
FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi
Senior Business Reporter
INFLATION rose slower than expected in the year
to January, but economists
see pressure on prices rising over the next
quarter and possibly carrying
inflation towards four digits.
Analysts
this week looked past inflation's smaller-than-anticipated 28
percentage
point jump in January to warn that a new surge in black market
trade in fuel
and foreign currency could lead to a sharper rise in prices.
A Financial
Gazette poll of five economists and analysts last Friday had
gathered
January forecasts in a range of 650-685 percent. But the Central
Statistical
Office (CSO) said on Monday that inflation raced to 613.2
percent in
January, running just behind the peak of 622.8 percent reached
over the same
period in 2004.
Month-on-month inflation rose 0.3 percentage points on the
December figure
to 18.6 percent. Analysts say double-digit monthly figures
point to broader
jumps in inflation in the coming months.
"It seems we
are going to be stuck with double-digit month on month figures,
which means
annual inflation will rise faster," Tony Hawkins, professor of
business at
the University of Zimbabwe, told Reuters.
The central bank sees inflation
rising to between 700 percent and 800
percent by the end of this quarter.
But the bank expects inflation to recede
in the next quarter on "tight
monetary conditions, fiscal restraint and the
expected improvement in food
security", to end the year in the 220-230
percent range.
But one
economist has described this forecast as "overly dovish", doubting
that the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe could sharply brake money supply growth
and
convince government to cut down on spending.
The 2005/6 harvest is expected
to start coming in by quarter's end, but
despite improved rainfall this
season, scant and late supply of key inputs
has raised doubt the yield will
come in as strong as hoped for.
Trade in foreign currency on the black market
has boomed since January 24
last month, when the central bank announced
unpopular new measures to
restrict the exchange rate. Before the volume
based trading system was
introduced, official and parallel market rates had
been inching towards
convergence. However, the interbank rate has been
trapped at $99 201 for
nearly four weeks, while rates on the parallel market
have soared.
This week, fuel dealers pushed petrol above $200 000 per litre
after the RBZ
made a U-turn on its policy of allowing selected service
stations to sell
fuel in foreign currency.
According to RBZ data, fuel
accounts for 15 percent of production costs, 75
percent of which are passed
on to consumers. The fuel price rise therefore
means that shop-shelf prices,
which have surged over the past month, are
likely to rise faster.
"The
January figures are not as high as we had thought. I did not expect it
to
come in at anything less than 670 percent, and this new figure gets you
thinking. However, the underlying pressures are getting stronger, and
four-digit inflation is looking more and more a reality now," an economist
with a local bank said, declining to be named.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief Political
Reporter
THE government continues to duck questions over the alleged
secondment of a
crack unit of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) to provide
personal security
to Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President Joseph
Kabila.
Kabila, whose father Laurent Kabila was gunned down by his
personal aide, is
said to be protected by a detachment of about 50 highly
trained soldiers
from the elite Presidential Guard of the ZNA, according to
press reports
which surfaced last August. According to the reports, the
detachment was
under the command of one Lieutenant Colonel Richard Sauta, "a
5th dan North
Korean-trained martial arts expert and formerly the
Presidential Guard's
unarmed combat trainer."
Investigations by this
newspaper indicate attempts by an opposition Movement
for Democratic Change
(MDC) legislator to get clarification in Parliament on
the alleged
deployment of the soldiers to guard the DRC leader have
repeatedly drawn
blanks from Defence Minister Sydney Sekeremayi.
Parliamentary records
obtained last week show that the MDC shadow minister
for defence, Giles
Mutsekwa, has been trying since October last year to get
Sekeremayi to
clarify the issue, which has generated international interest,
to
Parliament. The matter has in fact been deferred several times, much to
the
chagrin of the opposition.
Sekeremayi had been scheduled to answer Mutsekwa's
queries last Wednesday
during question time.
However, the defence
minister failed to turn up for the question and answer
session between
2:30pm and 3:30pm.
MDC insiders allege the government has been dragging its
feet about setting
the record straight since Mutsekwa raised the issue,
accusing the
government, which gobbled several unbudgeted millions when it
sent soldiers
in August 1998 to fight alongside Kabila's father, of trying
to sweep the
matter under the carpet.
Parliamentary records show that
Sekeramayi has been parrying Mutsekwa's
queries since October 12,
2005.
Parliamentary documents indicate that the MDC legislator wants to know
from
the government "why a detachment of fifty (50) soldiers under the
command of
Lt Colonel Richard Sauta is providing close security for DRC
President
Joseph Kabila."
Mutsekwa also wants to know how payment for
such services was being effected
as well as the terms of the agreement
between the ZNA
or Zimbabwean and the DRC government. The MDC legislator also
wants the
minister of defence to explain how long the soldiers have been
performing
these duties and whether they are being paid in their personal
capacities.
"The people of Zimbabwe need explanations and clarification on
this issue of
national importance," Mutsekwa told The Financial
Gazette.
Zimbabwe sent about 11 000 soldiers in August 1998 to fight on the
side of
the late Kabila, a war which sucked in several other countries. The
DRC war
began in 1998 and killed more than three million people, mostly
through
hunger or disease.
The state has maintained a veil of secrecy on
the military's activities in
the war. It is also still a mystery how many
Zimbabwean soldiers perished in
the war, which claimed several thousands of
lives.
Zimbabwean government officials and the army have been linked to
serious
allegations of illegal money transfers and the purchase of blood
diamonds in
the former war zones of the DRC.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief Political
Reporter
THE ZANU PF caucus has ordered embattled Education and Culture
Minister
Aeneas Chigwedere to amend contentious sections in the Education
Bill
rejected by the House of Assembly last week.
ZANU PF insiders
said there was general consensus in the ruling party
parliamentary caucus
that some sections of the proposed law which, among
other things, sought to
give additional powers to Chigwedere to fix school
fees and levies, were
unfair.
The Bill's rejection followed an adverse report produced by the
Welshman
Ncube-chaired Parliamentary Legal Committee (PLC), which deemed
some
provisions of the proposed law unconstitutional.
The Education Bill
makes it mandatory for every school authority to first
apply to the
secretary for Education, Sports and Culture for approval before
increasing
fees and levies.
"We felt it was unfair for the minister to regulate fees at
private schools
because some of these engage highly qualified staff whom
they offer perks
not found in public schools," said a ZANU PF legislator.
"In general, the
needs of private schools are different from those of public
schools. It was
felt private schools offer extra courses outside the general
government
curriculum," added the source.
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, secretary
for education in the powerful ZANU PF politburo
that sets government policy,
confirmed Chigwedere had been asked to amend
the Education Bill.
Ndlovu
said a panel-beaten version of the Bill would be brought to the House
soon.
"Yes, the party has asked the minister to amend it but it will be
brought
back to Parliament in the next few days," said Ndlovu.
Clause 10
of the proposed law proposes to give the minister powers to
prescribe the
minimum qualifications for teachers employed by all schools, a
provision
necessitated by the fact that some private schools employed
celebrity sports
persons who lacked the necessary teaching training.
Education experts say
amendments to the Education Bill augur well for the
country's private
schools that have been jittery over provisions which give
the minister
authority to regulate fees and levies.
The privately-run institutions are
adamant that regulating fees would render
some of the elitist schools
unviable.
FinGaz
Munyaradzi Mugowo
Own Correspondent
ZIMTRADE, a quasi-government trade and export steering
agency, could pay
heavily for its perennial boardroom upheavals, after
former chief executive
Freddy Chawasarira last month filed claims for a full
exit package about two
years after acrimoniously leaving the
organisation.
Information reaching this paper says the matter has been
taken up with the
parent Ministry of Industry and International Trade ahead
of possible
arbitration. However, no details could be obtained from the
parties involved
on the arbitration date or the name of the
arbitrator.
"We have gone for arbitration and nothing has transpired,"
Chawasarira said.
ZimTrade chairman Daniel Chigaru said his board was yet to
discuss the
issue.
"That matter has not been discussed by us as a board
because the parties
went into arbitration. So there has not been a hearing
yet," Chigaru said.
Chawasarira, who has joined the Industrial Develop-ment
Corporation,
resigned from ZimTrade after an alleged boardroom coup which
also claimed
the scalp of his chairman Peter Muzariri.
On resigning in
March 2004, Chawasarira cited political intrigue among board
members, some
of who had accused him of embezzling funds and
"unprocedurally" sanctioning
cement exports through Rooflick, a subsidiary
of ZimTrade.
Owing to the
circumstances in which he resigned, Chawasarira did not receive
his exit
package, but a subsequent audit allegedly did not find sufficient
evidence
to nail him.
ZimTrade chief executive officers are entitled to full benefits
that include
a car on retirement.
FinGaz
Munyaradzi Mugowo Own
Correspondent
THE Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) Company is
confident of
surpassing last year's attendance record despite a backdrop of
dwindling
numbers, especially of foreign exhibitors.
ZITF general
manager Daniel Chigaru said the company, which is holding this
year's
exhibition under the theme The Springboard for Economic Survival, was
at the
peak of selling leases and confirming bookings.
"We are at the peak of our
selling. We are already beating last year's
attendance record," Chigaru
said.
The company, however, could not immediately provide statistics on the
value
of business deals negotiated or sealed during last year's
exhibition.
"Of course, we carry out a survey to determine the value of
business made
soon after an exhibition, but our figures are not definitive,"
Chigaru
added.
ZimTrade, through its Sponsored Buyer Programme, used to
compel exhibitors
to reveal how much business they had made during a trade
fair, but since its
withdrawal of the sponsorship, it has become difficult
to assess the rate of
return on the annual investment.
The total number
of exhibitors fell from 674 in 2004 to 567 in 2005, 525 of
which were local,
mostly small to medium-scale enterprises.
China, South Africa, Australia,
Zambia, Botswana, Malawi, Kenya and
Mozambique were the only foreign nations
represented, while exhibitors from
Bangladesh, Kuwait, Angola, Russia and
Kuwait, who attended the 45th edition
of ZITF in 2004, did not come
back.
Unless inflation is tamed and price competitiveness is restored through
exchange rate stability, more Zimbabwean exporters could find themselves
losing supply contacts, however aggressively they exhibit their wares.
FinGaz
Chris Muronzi Staff
Reporter
ZESA Holdings is pressing on with plans to mine coal and
will soon float a
tender in South Africa, China and India for the
commissioning of a detailed
geological survey at its two
coalfields.
Obert Nyatanga, the corporate affairs director for ZESA, said
tenders would
be floated in the three countries for a detailed survey that
would determine
the mining method to be used for extraction at Western and
Sinamatela coal
fields.
"The coal mining project has just started with
the floating of a tender in
China, South Africa and India for the
undertaking of a detailed geological
survey at our two coalfields. This
survey is important so that we are able
to produce a mining development plan
based on the quantities and quality of
the coal underground, whose
information is to be derived from the geological
survey," said
Nyatanga.
Nyatanga said ZESA will need US$100 million to US$200 million for
the
project but the actual cost will be determined by the geological
survey.
"This survey will also determine the type of mining method to be
employed in
the mining venture. However, we expect the cost of the mining
venture to be
between US$100 million and US$200 million.
"The size of the
mine, the number of people to be employed and cost of
running the mine will
only be known after the mining development plan and
design stage is
completed. It is also at this stage that we will know the
total capital
investment required for maximum capacity operation of the
mine. The survey
and design stages will take about nine months to complete,"
added
Nyatanga.
ZESA operates five power stations and four of them are coal fired.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Business
Reporter
THE steep drop in tourist arrivals suffered over the years
continues to have
chilling effects on Zimbabwe's aviation industry, amid
revelations that
Mozambican Airlines (LAM) and Executive Aerospace of South
Africa - two
major regional carriers - have stopped flying into the
country.
Insiders in the aviation industry disclosed this week that the
two airlines
disappeared from Zimbabwean skies recently, citing lack of
viability on the
Harare route.
They said a company that had been leasing
an aircraft to LAM had
unexpectedly withdrawn its services, forcing the
Mozambican authorities to
recall a plane that was plying the Maputo-Harare
route to service Mozambique's
domestic routes. LAM's Harare office is,
however, still open for bookings.
"They discontinued recently, although no
official confirmation has been
given," a source said.
Mozambican
Airlines, the sources said, has now entered into a code-sharing
arrangement
with Kenya Airways under which it will be allocated seats on the
east
African airline, which is still flying into Harare via Malawi.
Meanwhile
sources close to Executive Aerospace said the South African
airline, which
has also stopped flying into Zimbabwe, had indicated that the
Harare route
had not been as popular as had been hoped and was no longer
commercially
viable.
Mercy Sanzira, the finance and administration manager at National
Handling
Services, a subsidiary of Air Zimbabwe which provides ground
handling
services at the country's airports, confirmed the pullout of the
two
airlines but said Executive Aerospace had always been an ad hoc
operator.
The pullout of the two airlines has cut down to 14 the number of
airlines
flying into Harare, while the withdrawal of the Mozambican airline
means
that Harare has lost a direct link with Maputo.
Air Botswana, Air
Malawi, British Airways, South African Airways, Zambian
Airways and
Ethiopian Airlines are some of the few airlines still servicing
the Harare
route.
Australia's Qantas, Germany's Lufthansa, Egypt Air, KLM, Air France,
Air
Tanzania and Austrian Airlines have left Zimbabwe in recent years as the
economic crisis triggered by the country's controversial reforms
deepened.
In 1998, 28 airlines were flying into Zimbabwe, earning the country
about
US$777 million from tourism. But government-sponsored invasions of
white-owned commercial farms and the violence that characterised the run-up
to elections held since a 2000 constitutional referendum defeat for the
ruling ZANU PF have put Harare on the list of unsafe destinations for
visitors.
The shrinkage in tourist arrivals is now affecting
international airlines.
In addition, aviation experts cite high landing fees
and handling costs
charged by Air Zimbabwe in foreign currency, as well as
navigation fees, as
the other factors forcing airlines out.
FinGaz
Mavis Makuni Own
Correspondent
I REMEMBER writing in this column a number of times over
the last three
years that my main gripe about South African President Thabo
Mbeki's "quiet
diplomacy" was that it was so secretive as to be almost
crafty and devoid of
decorum.
I have always believed that even the
most delicate international diplomacy
still has to be conducted, as far as
practicable, with a measure of
transparency and accountability. But
throughout his stint as principal
troubleshooter on the Zimbabwean crisis,
Mbeki never hinted what sort of
issues he was raising with President Robert
Mugabe's government and what
response he was getting. There were no progress
reports or indications as to
what direction his initiatives were taking
until the beginning of 2004 when
the South African leader suddenly announced
progress in talks between ZANU
PF and the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
Out of the blue and in the face of overwhelming incredulity both in
Zimbabwe
and externally, he set June that year as the deadline by which a
breakthrough would be achieved. Needless to say, the deadline came and went
uneventfully as many commentators had predicted. Now, we learn, what Mbeki
was doing all this time was to get the government and the opposition to come
up with a draft constitution. From what can be discerned from reading
between the lines, this constitution would only have served to address the
political ambitions of the principal players in the talks rather than afford
the generality of the people a homegrown, democratic charter to concretise
their aspirations.
Needless to say, Mbeki's plan floundered in the thick
dust raised by fierce
in-fighting between factions within the ruling party
looking out for their
own interests vis-ā-vis the succession debate within
ZANU PF. Moreover, the
fact that this new constitution provided for an
executive president, a prime
minister with executive powers, a bicameral
parliament with a lower house
and a senate, must have whetted the appetite
of MDC negotiators for a share
of these powerful positions. Speculation has
been rife in Zimbabwe that
there is a more sinister explanation for the
MDC's inexplicable
self-annihilation over the issue of participation in the
senate elections
than the much touted one of party president Morgan
Tsvangirai violating the
MDC constitution.
Now we know for sure. An MDC
negotiator who had signed a draft constitution
providing for a senate would
have no option but to be dogmatic about
adopting a pro-senate position at
any cost when the issue came up for
discussion within his party. This
explains what is tearing the opposition
party apart - personal ambition. The
pro-senate group has not been honest
enough to come clean and say they
adopted their position because they had
made an undertaking to ZANU PF and
Mbeki. No doubt this was after some juicy
carrots had been dangled before
them.
There is no doubt that all those who were privy to Mbeki's plan were
not a
group of men and women prepared to cast aside all thought of personal
ambition and self-interest as the South African president himself
acknowledged when he finally threw in the towel and admitted the failure of
his quiet diplomacy. The people Mbeki was dealing with were definitely not
motivated by a desire to save Zimbabwe and rescue its people from their
misery but by what was in it for them as individuals.
I fault Mbeki for
not being an honest broker in his role as mediator. He was
prepared to forge
ahead with his doomed constitutional plan despite repeated
denials from both
ZANU PF and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai about talks being
underway. This
means he was dealing with factions within the MDC and ZANU
PF, a clear case
of divide-and-rule if ever there was one. He was not honest
with the people
of Zimbabwe and the rest of the world. For a long time, when
he was
challenged to speak out on the human rights situation or other
problems in
this country, Mbeki was quick to take cover under the blanket of
"quiet
diplomacy" which allowed him to claim to be making manoeuvres behind
the
scenes.
This is the story Mbeki repeated ad nauseam when challenged by
various
stakeholders in his own country such as the Democratic Alliance (DA)
and the
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) who were sceptical
of the
effectiveness of quiet diplomacy and advocated a bolder approach. He
fobbed
off American President George Bush during a state visit in 2003 and
former
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder in 2004 with the same fallacious
tale.
Towards the end of 2004, the South African leader's own brother,
Moeletsi
Mbeki, slammed the ANC and the government for failing to come out
clearly in
support of justice and democratic governance in Zimbabwe. The
younger Mbeki
said instead of supporting violence and turning a blind eye on
human rights
violations, South Africa should support the opposition if
necessary.
A dead give-away that Mbeki preferred to duck behind "quiet
diplomacy"
because he did not have the guts to take a clear stance on the
Zimbabwean
crisis was his irritation and impatience whenever he was taken to
task on
the matter. He once clashed with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, whom he
accused of
"empty rhetoric" and "speaking out of turn" after the outspoken
cleric had
expressed concern over Mbeki's failure to adopt a more robust and
principled
stance on Zimbabwe.
As a long-suffering and economically
impoverished Zimbabwean, I cannot
forgive Mbeki for prolonging my misery
over the last five years when he
dithered and equivocated behind a wall of
ineffectual secrecy with the fancy
name of "quiet diplomacy."
FinGaz
EDUCATION to Zimbabweans,
like elsewhere, is a lifetime meal ticket, which
explains why the
terrifyingly swift decline in this country's educational
standards is an
issue of legitimate public concern.
Hence the collective sigh of relief
when the Parliamentary Legal Committee
produced an adverse report on the
Aeneas Chigwedere-sponsored Education
Amendment Bill, some of whose
provisions the committee described as
unconstitutional.
Zimbabweans know
only too well the implications of the retrogressive Bill on
the country's
most valuable assets - children who carry the future of the
country in their
school bags and on whose scholastic development the
salvation of the nation
is therefore dependent.
Our only hope now is that this sets the tone for the
unequivocal rejection
of the Bill in its entirety. Striking out certain
provisions will not be
good enough. Zimbabwe needs no reminding of what
happened with the Jonathan
Moyo-sponsored repressive Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy
Act with which we are now stuck. It was tantamount
to applying lipstick and
mascara to a frog which could not be beautified.
And it is still ugly.
The Bill, despite what Chigwedere claims, was motivated
by his misplaced
distaste mostly for private schools which he seems to
believe are a bastion
of capitalistic privilege and racial discrimination
when nothing could be
further from the truth. Most pupils in these schools
are black.
In our editorial of August 18, 2005, we called on Parliament to
reject
Chigwedere's Bill. Our arguments were not without reason. If this
Bill sails
through, then the seal of death is at that moment set on private
and mission
schools - Chigwedere's pet peeve. Yet these schools are the only
shaft of
light amidst the ruins of what was once a quality system of
education. This
is such an evident truth; there is no gainsaying it, which
is why the ruling
party and government officials who fail to send their
children to study
abroad are falling over each other to have them enrolled
in the private
schools by hook or by crook.
As we pointed out in our
comment referred to earlier on, there are only two
ways of destroying
private schools. One is just to close them down. And the
other is for
Parliament to ratify Chigwedere's Bill.
Predictably Chigwedere, who cuts the
image of a control freak, has in the
past hinted that government would take
over these schools. This was nothing
but an empty declaration. The capacity
just isn't there. And Chigwedere
knows it. Government does not have the
financial wherewithal to run the
mission and private schools. This is why it
has not only scaled down on its
services to the public as can be seen from
the disastrous state of most
public institutions in the country but has also
failed to fund government
schools where, in addition to an acute shortage of
teachers, there are no
functional libraries, laboratories and recreational
facilities.
Underneath all this is a profound question. That of the future of
a more
credible education system. Not one whose only obvious merit is the
increased
number of pupils going through it and not necessarily the quality
that it
produces for which Chigwedere and his colleagues in government and
ZANU PF
who think that they monopolise common sense, reason and objectivity,
have
indulged in an orgy of self-congratulation.
Unfortunately with
Chigwedere, who has lasted this long as a minister simply
because there is
no quality control in government, at the helm of the
education ministry, it
would be an uphill slog to return the country's
education system to its
pre-crisis level.
Much as we believe that the ruins must not obstruct the
prospects in the
short to medium term, Zimbabwe will find it difficult to
restore integrity
and credibility in the collapsing education system and
peace back into the
souls of the country's citizens. Unless, of course, the
rotten head of the
fish is chopped off immediately.
There is simply not
sufficient management depth in the Ministry of Education
and, most
importantly, Chigwedere himself does not inspire confidence at
all.
Remember, this is the minister who once blamed the drought, of all
things,
for his administrative bungling in the face of a state of complete
disorder
and confusion at the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC)!
No other
incident offers a more telling and dramatic example of the
ineptitude in the
ministry than the chaos at ZIMSEC where examination papers
have been leaked,
pupils have had to study wrong set books or received
results for subjects
they did not sit for! These imponderables explain our
scepticism over the
turnaround prospects of the country's education system
under the bungling
Chigwedere. There is no hope.
FinGaz
Letter From America By Ken
Mufuka
MANY readers have been asking a simple question. "Tell us, Brother
Ken,
where do we go from now?" Generally, my job is to be a prophet, to tell
the
truth and let the chips fall where they may.
The first thing we
may want to do, surprisingly, is to tell the truth to
ZANU PF and its
hangers-on. Action follows from knowing the truth. We need
to take our
country back from these pompous crooks and chefs who have
created hell and
called it paradise.
We want to say to ZANU PF: "Please, in God's name, go,
you have done enough
harm." ZANU PF may answer and say: "Ken, you are like a
reed fluttering in
the river, we have 10 000 CIO men armed to the teeth."
The answer to that is
simple. "You may have 10 000 cronies, armed with lies
and cheating, but I
come to you armed with truth and love. Do you dare stand
against the truth?"
The truth is that 50 000 retired railway men receive Z$50
000 per month. In
the last 12 months alone, 650 Zimbabwean companies have
closed down due to
the inconsistent petrol supplies. Hunger still lurks
around the corner
despite the good rainfall because the nature of farming
has changed. Farming
in Zimbabwe has become a scientific industry. I am told
that every year,
there is a period of between 15 to 21 days in which drought
conditions
threaten the moisture levels even in good rainfall areas. The
great farmers
get up to all sorts of tricks to maintain adequate moisture
levels. This can
affect up to one third of their maize yields. It means that
subsistence
farmers cannot replace commercial farmers. Therefore, we must
come to terms
with the latter for the sake of progress.
There are two
other reasons. White farmers represent the technological edge
any developing
country needs for the future. Secondly, they are protected by
Britain, the
US and the World Bank. Any leader worth his salt should know
that it is
better to be at peace with these institutions or all hell will
break
loose.
For instance, one third of the world's air traffic passes through
Heathrow
and Gatwick, the other third through New York, Atlanta and Chicago.
It is
madness to pick a fight with these two giants if one wants tourism to
have
the slightest chance of success. Why is it so difficult to see and to
tell
the truth?
We cannot begin to correct the nature of the petrol
industry if we are
blinded to the truth. Noczim is a corrupt institution
started by the devil
in order to give kickbacks to political cronies. As is
the nature of crony
business, these cronies know nothing about oil, except
that they are engaged
in oily and dirty business themselves. Three inquiries
and reports, the last
one which shocked Brother Enos Chikowore tell the
story in gory detail.
The fact that nothing has been done, and the cheating
cronies still fly and
drive Mercedes Benzes around the country, mocking the
saints and all that is
good and holy is a dastardly inference to the fact
that the system is so
rotten it cannot be redeemed.
Central bank governor
Dr Gideon Gono has workable ideas but they cannot be
implemented in a
dishonest environment. Companies and hotels cannot be
expected to willingly
hand over their foreign exchange to a corrupt
government. They themselves
are denied the same foreign exchange when they
need foreign inputs. The
corrupt chefs fly in and out of the country
laughing their lungs out,
destroying the golden goose that lays the golden
eggs. Where is the sense in
all this? People are willing to cooperate if
everybody is pulling his
weight.
In the 1960s Britain had a similar crunch. British citizens were
allowed 150
pounds per day when travelling abroad. Prince Philip went to
Argentina to
play polo, and to everybody's surprise, he too had only 150
pounds per day
like all the other players.
The same applies to AirZim. I
have counted at least 10 changes in leadership
at AirZim in 20 years. Most
of the leaders are not airmen to begin with.
They are cronies. These cronies
do not have the common sense to surround
themselves with people who know how
to fly. Chefs walk in and out of first
class seats with their girlfriends
and assistants, delaying passengers who
have paid for their trips, generally
making themselves a nuisance, asking
the hostess to announce over the
intercom that we are blessed to have Chef
so and so flying with us. The last
time I threw in the towel about flying
AirZim, after using it for 25 years,
was when passengers were kept at
Gatwick for 36 hours because a chef had
diverted the plane to Spain. All the
parastatals are being run, not with the
aim of providing service, but with
the aim of allowing chefs to steal from
the treasury. Zisco, the National
Railways of Zimbabwe, Zesa and Hwange are
all run in the same way.
The evidence is not far to see. Hwange was a very
good employer until after
independence. And so was the Electricity Supply
Commission until somebody
appointed a relative to run things.
A clean
government does not have to go to the IMF and the World Bank to be
told that
Operation Murambatsvina was bad for the folks who lost their
homes. Why is
it so difficult for the Comrade Minister to see that it was
not about zoning
laws. It was a moral issue, stupid! Women and children were
put out in the
cold by their own government.
In this letter, I have proved to you my
brothers that the crony government
of Zimbabwe is beyond redemption. Twenty
five years is enough to learn and
correct mistakes. I have started with a
small voice. "Go! For God's Sake!
You have done enough damage to our
country." We need to wear armbands of
mourning, with the word GO! emblazoned
on it.
FinGaz
No Holds Barred with Sunsleey
Chamunorwa
HAS anyone noticed how the ambitious-as-Lucifer Jonathan
Nathaniel Moyo is
desperately trying to prop up his tribally based pet
project called the
United People's Movement (UPM)?
Desperately
accosting men with "come home with me dear", the political
streetwalker that
is Jonathan Moyo has intensified the cyber campaign to
absolve himself from
any wrongdoing in ZANU PF's war of attrition against
journalists in
Zimbabwe. After all that systematic bullying and
intimidation?
Moyo, who
has the consistency of a chameleon, must surely take Zimbabweans
for fools
with very short memories. I say so because no other single
individual has
done more lasting harm to the profession of journalism in
Zimbabwe than
Jonathan Moyo, whose patriotism is all jawbone.
More than at any other time
in independent Zimbabwe, journalism became a
more dangerous profession
during Jonathan Moyo's reign of terror where
crusading journalists tackling
corruption and other forms of wrongdoing in
the political sphere were
labelled as willing tools in the so-called Tony
Blair/George Bush regime
change scheme of things. For the Zimbabwean media,
this was the darkest of
historical periods.
And this is the same Jonathan Moyo who now portrays, in
online publications,
the picture of someone who was dragged kicking and
screaming to harass
journalists. Yet nothing could be further from the
truth. It was his evil
wish to force journalists to pander to his every
whim. He is even whining
about how ZANU PF ill-treated him! Tough cheddar,
that is what I say!
Jonathan Moyo made his choice which was against the
people.
If he had any conscience, he should be ashamed to be out of jail
after what
he did to professional journalists in this country since 2000
until his
inglorious exit from the ZANU PF government in early 2005 before
completing
his long-cherished encirclement around the independent
media.
The disgraced former information tsar was deplorably nasty to
journalists.
As minister of information he presided over the closure of
newspapers such
as The Daily News and its weekly stable mate The Daily News
On Sunday as
well as the Tribune through the draconian Access to Information
and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), thus condemning scores of journalists
to
destitution.
Jonathan Moyo is on record as having claimed spearheading
the formulation
and promulgation of AIPPA, which he unbelievably brags
about, without any
hint of irony, as being "a landmark piece of legislation
sought after by
jurisdictions in Africa . . ." What did he expect when the
said
jurisdictions are banana republics under the jackboots of tin pot
dictatorships?
Never have I known a nastier minister of information in my
14 years as a
journalist. I hold no particular brief for his predecessors
for I know only
too well that former Sunday Mail editor, the late Willie
Musarurwa and
former Chronicle editor Geoff Nyarota were hounded out of
their jobs for
doing what they were supposed to do. But Nathan Shamuyarira,
Chen
Chimutengwende, Witness Mangwende and Joice Mujuru before him should be
sainted in comparison with Jonathan Moyo.
If there was one man whose itch
for public office destroyed his intellectual
integrity, it is Jonathan Moyo.
Once President Robert Mugabe, whose choice
of ministers sometimes leaves a
lot to be desired, appointed Jonathan Moyo
as the country's chief censor and
propagandist, the country went to hell.
And we are still stuck in the
inferno, underlying Jonathan Moyo's baleful
influence in government.
Once
he came on board, the ZANU PF leadership, which previously had a
semblance
of tolerance for political cartoons and jokes at their expense,
were all of
a sudden prickly about critical reports. To the extent that you
could not go
into a bar and say something as harmless as "watching ZTV is as
boring as
watching the grass grow" without looking over your shoulder!
Someone lost
their job for saying that Nigerian and Bolton midfield maestro,
Austin
Jay-Jay Okocha is a mesmerising ball juggler, which is what he is.
Now tell
me Zimbabwe, how crazy and power-drunk can one be? Jonathan Moyo
had no
right to treat journalists the way he did. Nobody has that right.
In the
public media Jonathan Moyo instilled the fear of God to the extent of
destroying the distinction between reporting and creative writing through
actions that were meant to malign those who had different views from his
while at the same time glorifying himself. And as I have said previously the
trail of the deadly green slime of his touch still remains. Check the
sunshine journalism from these institutions.
Jonathan Moyo does not know
what it means to use power with sufficient
caution. He is dangerous. Which
is why I sincerely fear for my country
because while he is proposing his UPM
as the country's political
alternative, it would be difficult to imagine a
man less fit to guide
Zimbabwe to true democracy.
How could he possibly
champion the cause for a vigorous democracy when only
yesterday he was, to
all intents and purposes, advocating a repressive
authoritarian regime? He
stifled the private media because he hated it with
a passion. Yet access to
information and the right to free expression form
an integral part of any
democratic dispensation. How self-contradictory can
one individual
be?
This only goes to show that Jonathan Moyo is deception personified. Skim
milk masquerading as cream, if you will. To him the word democracy has the
same meaning as the word love has to a whore! So, can this man who sowed the
seeds of inveterate hostility between the government and the media as well
as between the independent and public media be trusted?
Not if we have
learnt our lesson well. Jonathan Moyo is a disaster. I know
that it is every
Zimbabwean's inalienable right to belong to a political
party of their
choice. But if ever there is a man who does not deserve a
second chance,
from a political point of view, it is Jonathan Moyo, so that
we will not
again have to endure the anguish he visited upon the nation.
We have already
had a glimpse of what he is capable of doing. And my
personal impressions of
Jonathan Moyo influence my vision of the man. He
will be a supreme dictator.
All the telltale signs are there. What those men
who took off their shoulder
epaulettes but never gave up their military
habits - Idi Amin of Uganda,
Emperor Jean Bedel Bokassa of the Central
Africa Republic, Mobutu Sese Seko
of Zaire and Mengistu Haile Mariam of
Ethiopia - did, would pale into
child's play.
Just as well we knew when it was not too little too late that,
for want of a
better expression, this is a horrible politician ill luck
threw our way. He
is a blot on the history of Zimbabwe. Thank God his
political project is
struggling to take off - which is one comfort! Yes, he
is a drowning man and
the best we can do is to throw him both ends of the
rope and invite
Zimbabweans to buy pieces of the rope as a
keepsake!
True, I can only damn Jonathan Moyo but not necessarily everyone
that will
not damn the voluble former government spin doctor because that is
their
choice. Nor will "I damn everyone who refuses to put lights in his
window
and sit up all night" damning Jonathan Moyo. But I don't think I am
alone in
saying that this man should not be allowed anywhere near State
House.
"I would not piss down Hamilton Jordan's throat if his heart was on
fire" so
said James Carville, former President Bill Clinton's advisor.
(Jordan was a
presidential press secretary at the time). I would say the
same of Jonathan
Moyo. And I am not alone. Why? Because what he did is
neither forgettable
nor forgivable. And he must therefore wear the sack
cloth and ashes for
life.
E-mail: schamunorwa@fingaz.co.zw
FinGaz
Letters
EDITOR - We refer to the letter written by a
so-called "MDC
Constitutionalist" in your February 9-15 edition. For
starters we know
"Constitutionalist" is bogus and now very politically
irrelevant in the
political dynamics of this nation. While it's democratic
to differ, we are
appalled and really amazed by the high level of political
immaturity
exhibited by the "Constitutionalist" whom we also assume to be a
Ncube/Sibanda sidekick.
But as we have said before they now belong to the
dustbin of history. For
the record the now irrelevant Ncube/Sibanda group
and its hangers-on like
the Chitungwiza "Constitutionalist" ignored the
groundswell of opinion among
the majority of MDC members against
participation in an expensive, bogus and
irrelevant and insignificant senate
poll. But we can only assume the sound
and smell of cash from the dictator's
table confused the little political
minds of our comrades of yesteryear.
Vakarumwisa bonzo risina nyama ne ZANU
PF.
The genuine MDC, led by Morgan
Tsvangirai, is on a mission and that mission
comes from our basic founding
beliefs. And we act in this cause with friends
and allies at our
side.
The party has known divisions which must be healed to move forward with
complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom. Not because history
runs on the wheels of inevitability, it is human choices that move events.
And the people of Zimbabwe have choices in February and March. The screams
and howls from the Ncube/Sibanda separatists have made their fights against
our struggle their test of our credibility. But we take solace in the fact
that when our party is challenged there are always comrades in our midst who
will not be tempted by sugar coated crumbs from ZANU PF's
table.
Nelson Chamisa,
Frank Matandirotya,
Tongai
Matutu,
Harare
FinGaz
Letters
EDITOR - "THE
right to education should never be qualified by politics or
anything but is
an undeniable right", President Mugabe said as he addressed
prospective Fort
Hare University students at State House on February 3,
2006.
Yet
you just needed to be at the University of Zimbabwe on February 10,
2006. A
sombre atmosphere enveloped the entire institution as word filtered
through
that college fees had been raised astronomically. The current fee
hike
rendered null and void the communication which some students had
obtained
from the institution as late as January 27, 2006.
A student studying for a
post- graduate Diploma in Media and Communication
Studies is now required to
pay $62 million per annum up from $3.2 million.
Those working on their
dissertations for Masters degrees will now have to
fork out $31 million
instead of $3.1 million.
The loans which full-time students get are so meagre
that they can not even
pay the new college fees. Needless to say, this is
going to affect many
students, with some dropping out of school. Why the
government has just
decided to change the fees at such short notice is
puzzling. Perhaps one may
argue that the fees which were being paid by
students were not realistic
considering the rate of inflation which is over
600 percent. Are the
salaries that workers are earning
realistic?
Professionals armed with diplomas and degrees are earning salaries
which are
far below the Poverty Datum Line (PDL). On February 6, 2006,
Consumer
Council of Zimbabwe officials were quoted as saying that a family
of six now
needs $21.8 million to be able to buy basic necessities for a
month. Civil
servants with PhDs are taking home less than that per month.
The UZ
information and public relations director Taurwi Mabeza was quoted in
the
Herald of February 11, 2006 confirming that the government approved the
fee
hike due to the escalating costs of education in the country. Why can't
the
same government, which is cognisant of the escalating costs, adjust the
salaries of workers accordingly so that they can survive? Did the government
consider the glaring mismatch between people's earnings and the cost of
living?
The majority of current and prospective students gathered at the
UZ on
February 10 2006 were either civil servants or children of the former.
Almost everyone was wondering why the government had all of a sudden decided
to commercialise education. There is no gainsaying that the government has
for the first time ever, decided to abdicate its responsibility of educating
its citizens, and at the wrong time for that matter. One does not even need
the mantle of prophet Elijah to stand up and declare that the year 2006 has
started on a very bad note in as far as the economy of this country and the
social welfare of its citizens are concerned. Wherever you turn, you see
misery and despair. The situation is a replica of the fisherman Peter and
his friends washing nets after toiling the whole night in vain.
Prices of
commodities are galloping, mealie-meal and other basic commodities
are a
rare sight in shops, yet a common feature on the parallel market.
Families
in towns and rural areas are going to bed on empty stomachs. These
people
(ordinary people) who are starving are the same who have the
unenviable
burden of sending their children to school, college and
university. They are
making great sacrifices. Some sold livestock to pay for
their children's
fees. But, alas, their children at teachers' and technical
colleges, as well
as universities will be flocking back home next week
demanding money to top
up the fees they paid in January.
Colleges are now charging approximately $40
million per term. Ironically,
there are students in colleges who are still
struggling to pay $10 million
which they were supposed to have paid at the
beginning of the term. Their
Vocational Training Loans(VTL) are a paltry
$6.8 million. Under normal
circumstances the VTL is not meant for school
fees, but for the student's
stationery and toiletry.
Assuming common
sense is still functional, where on earth does the
government expect poor
civil servants and peasant farmers to get $40
million? These parents also
have children in primary and secondary schools.
If anything, the government
and corporate world should empathise with this
poor lot.
The government
should at least appreciate that the citizenry is making great
sacrifices to
educate itself from its meagre resources. Imagine a teacher
who earns $9
million per month parting with $6 million to pay fees at the
Zimbabwe Open
University (ZOU).
He/she has to make do with the remaining $3 million.
Honestly, God has to
come down. Considering what people are earning, the
famine in the country
and the prices of commodities, one would be justified
to conclude that
government institutions are now charging 'black market
rates.
For goodness sake, no sane person should be tempted to say that other
countries in the region are charging fees of that magnitude, because no
other people in the region are grappling with the rigours of hyperinflation
and other adversities as Zimbabweans are doing.
A scenario is looming
where students will withdraw from educational
institutions en masse.
Education has now become the preserve of the rich.
During the colonial era,
successive white governments in the then Rhodesia
formulated pieces of
legislation as a way of restricting blacks from
proceeding with education.
One such piece was the Education Ordinance of
1899. This Ordinance ushered
in a racially discriminatory character to the
educational policy, and it
remained a standard feature throughout the rest
of colonial rule in
Zimbabwe. Only a small fraction of Africans was supposed
to proceed with
education up to tertiary level.
At independence in 1980, the UZ had an
enrolment of 2 000 students. This was
a deliberate, planned and sustained
racist policy to keep the majority of
Africans uneducated. Do we stand to
see ourselves retracing our steps to
that period?
Zimbabwe has been the
beacon of Africa, if not of the entire Third World in
as far as education,
that is both quantity and quality, is concerned. With
the current 'brain
drain', Zimbabwe should be actually making frantic
efforts to have more
students accessing tertiary education. But, not
Zimbabwe today. It is one
step forward, two steps backwards. What the
government is doing now is
essentially 'academic de-stocking'.
Dissertations which were supposed to be
completed this semester have to be
shelved. Students who were expecting to
commence their studies this semester
may not make it to the UZ.
Suffice
to say, both the monetary and fiscal policies of this country should
be
designed and implemented to serve the needs of the people, particularly
those cynically referred to by the well-to-do as "the scum of the
earth".
Politicians in their heart of hearts know and understand that this
segment
of the society is extremely important when the time comes. Who in
his/her
right senses would celebrate the withdrawal of students from
colleges and
universities for failure to pay these exorbitant fees which
were approved by
the government.
The truth of the matter is, unless the
government rescinds the ordinance on
tertiary fees, students are going to
suffer, and parents will no longer be
able to create a better future for
their offspring as they have been doing
by investing in the latter's
education.
Harare City Council revised downwards the rates the farmers pay at
Mbare
Musika after the farmers had said that they were not prepared to pay
the
exorbitant fees the council had approved. The council did the same at
Mupedzanhamo. Zimbabweans are saying to the central government that the fees
it has approved for tertiary institutions are beyond their reach. The fees
hike is unacceptable and untenable.
Lisborn W
Mandizvidza
Harare