Zim Independent
Dumisani
Muleya
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's remarks on Zanu PF's explosive
power
struggle in his birthday interview broadcast on Tuesday night were
heavily
censored.
The editing of Mugabe's interview - to
maintain a veil of secrecy on
his views on the succession debate and
aspiring candidates - resulted in the
removal of what would have been a
valuable insight into the president's
thinking.
In the original
interview - two-and-a-half hours long before being
edited to an hour for
broadcasting - Mugabe bares his soul on the succession
wrangles and makes
hitherto undisclosed views.
Those who attended the interview said
Mugabe spoke candidly about the
issue, referring to leading succession
candidates Vice-President Joice
Mujuru and her rival Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mugabe is said to have referred for
the first time to the "Mujuru side" -
meaning the Zanu PF faction led by
retired army commander Solomon Mujuru and
the camp led by Mnangagwa in ways
never disclosed before.
Mugabe made veiled attacks on Joice Mujuru, virtually accusing her of
plotting with former Zanu PF secretary-general Edgar Tekere and prominent
publisher Ibbo Mandaza to use Tekere's autobiography, A Lifetime of
Struggle, to undermine him while in the process promoting her presidential
bid.
Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba yesterday said there
was nothing
unusual about the editing of the president's interview. "As the
president's
press secretary, I'm more than satisfied that the drift of the
president's
message was achieved," Charamba said. "I'm also satisfied that
the ZBH board
is within its rights to delete, retain, or postpone or archive
any material
they would have got from the interviewee, that is the essence
of
journalism."
In the ZBC interview Mugabe suggests Tekere was
being used by Mandaza,
the publisher and editor of the book, and the Mujuru
faction, to damage him
for political ends.
"The Tekere/Mandaza
issue, ah they are trying to campaign for Mujuru
using the book.you can't
become a president by using a biography. Manje
vairasa (they have lost the
plot). They don't realise they have done her
more harm than good," Mugabe is
captured as saying in the censored parts of
the interview.
"Now, I thought people would, if they want to campaign, fine,campaign
in the
provinces. The machinery is not biographies; the people who vote for
us are
ordinary people of Zimbabwe. We have a congress that will decide. It
is
those people who will decide and I thought this is the way we would go
about
things, not the Mandaza way."
Mandaza this week refused to comment,
saying: "I have neither watched
nor read Mugabe's interview."
Mugabe suggests Mujuru's ambitions to succeed him have been "ruined"
by her
associating with people on a campaign to denigrate him.
Tekere's
book portrays Mugabe as a reluctant leader who rose to power
through
political coups and detention-camp plots. It also says some of his
leading
comrades during the war viewed him as a "sell-out".
Mugabe has been
angered by the book. He has publicly attacked Tekere
about it and also
complained during a Zanu PF politburo meeting on January
31. The politburo
resolved to expel Tekere who was only readmitted to the
party in April last
year after his dismissal in 1988. While Mugabe dents
Mujuru's ambitions in
the ZBC interview, he shores up Mnangagwa by speaking
about him in glowing
terms. Mugabe says there are people who think he
supports Mnangagwa, but he
does not.
Mugabe goes on to narrate Mnangagwa's political
case-history dating
back to the early years of the liberation struggle; how
Mnangagwa was
sentenced to death by the Rhodesian regime after he tried to
sabotage a
train and how he was spared execution and later deported to
Zambia because
he was deemed under-age, 16 years old.
Mugabe
further relates how Mnangagwa later in Mozambique became Zanu's
chief of
intelligence, replacing Cletus Chigowe who was in 1978 together
with Henry
Hamadziripi, Rugare Gumbo, Crispen Mandizvidza and Zivavarwe
Muparuri,
implicated in an attempted coup against the Zanu leadership.
Sources said the ZBC management felt the interview in its original
form
would get the public broadcaster embroiled in messy Zanu PF faction
politics. Senior ZBC staff had different views on the issue.
Some wanted Mugabe censored to protect their own camp's political
interests,
while others wanted his remarks fully televised to advance their
group's
agenda.
Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro/Ray Matikinye
GOVERNMENT yesterday intensified its
crackdown on opposition groups by
extending its ban on political rallies to
more areas and arresting three MDC
officials in a move which betrays its
fear of potential civil disturbances
due to deteriorating economic
conditions.
Police, who of late have stepped up arrests and the
beating of
opposition supporters, said the banning of rallies and meetings
had been
extended to the Harare suburban district for a period of three
months.
MDC faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai said the banning of
rallies was a
clear "declaration of a state of emergency".
"A
large cross-section of society is now in rebellious mood. There is
open
defiance of violent autocratic authority," he told diplomats on
Wednesday.
Both factions of the MDC have said they will defy
the ban.
Yesterday police arrested Grace Kwinje, MDC deputy
secretary for
international affairs, Elton Mangoma, deputy treasurer-general
and Kambuzuma
MP Willas Madzimure, on allegations of public
violence.
Their lawyer Alec Muchadehama confirmed the
arrests.
"I am negotiating their release with the police but
nothing tangible
is emerging. It is unlikely they will be taken to court,"
he said.
On Saturday, police arrested MDC secretary-general Tendai
Biti and
scores of opposition supporters on similar charges but released
them on bail
on Tuesday.
Prior to that, there had been a series
of other arrests of opposition
members, women activists and students on
anti-government protests. Police
clashed with MDC supporters in Harare and
Bulawayo last week before engaging
in street battles in Highfield on
Sunday.
Official sources said the prohibition of political
gatherings was
recently decided upon by the Joint Operations Command - which
combines the
army, police and intelligence - after realising the situation
was explosive.
The decision was taken two weeks ago before the
current disturbances
erupted in Harare.
Police have been
putting out notices in state newspapers announcing
the banning of political
meetings, claiming there had been "pandemonium,
looting and destruction of
property" following opposition political rallies
in some townships. The
police announcements, sources said, were a result of
a decision by the state
security agencies anxious to prevent civil
disobedience.
The
state security service in 2005 unleashed Operation Murambatsvina -
a
purported urban clean-up campaign - reportedly to prevent an imminent
rising
similar to Ukraine's "Orange Revolution".
Zimbabwe has of late been
rocked by widespread social discontent -
manifested in strikes and protests
- caused by the severe economic problems
gripping the country.
Zim Independent
Shakeman
Mugari
FOLLOWING complaints by Judge President Rita Makarau
last month about
lack of resources, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has spent
generously on a
new fleet of vehicles and computers for sitting
judges.
The central bank a fortnight ago purchased 30
top-of-the-range
vehicles which include Toyota IMV trucks on behalf of the
Justice ministry
for allocation to the judges.
Makarau,
speaking at the opening of the first term of the Harare High
Court in
January, said government was undermining the judiciary by starving
it of
resources and reducing it to "begging for its sustenance".
The
consignment includes 30 laptops and 30 desktop computers which
will be used
by the judges and their clerks.
The pick-up vehicles are in
addition to Mercedes Benz sedans which are
the official cars issued to
judges.
Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa
confirmed
that the ministry had received the donation but denied that this
was in
response to Makarau's complaints about poor conditions of service for
judges.
"Yes, we got the cars and the computers which we will
be distributing
to the judges soon. In fact, some of them already have their
cars," said
Chinamasa. "There is nothing sinister about the donation from
the central
bank because those are state funds they are using," he
said.
Chinamasa said the ministry was planning to train the judges
in the
use of the computers. There are about 45 judges in the
country.
The donation has however caused problems in judicial ranks
with
sources saying there were grumblings from labour court judges who were
demanding that they too benefit from the donated vehicles.
An
official from the ministry later addressed them to allay their
fears.
"They (the labour court) had a lot of misconceptions so
we had to
explain to them that they too were going to get vehicles and
computers,"
said Chinamasa.
Zimbabwe's judges are however still
paid a pittance compared to their
counterparts in the region.
Analysts have criticised the decision to dish out vehicles to the
judges at
a time when there is a lack of basic equipment for them to deliver
their
judgments timeously.
Acting director of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights Irene Petras
said it was a misallocation of resources to give
judges another vehicle when
they already had the standard cars which are
issued to them on appointment.
"They need a well-equipped library,
more computers and more resources
that help them in the delivery of justice,
not more vehicle," Petras said.
"How does an extra car improve the
efficiency of a judge who does not have
access to the Internet at work,
books or basic stationery?
"Zimbabwean judges don't even have the
system to circulate their
delivered judgments to law firms as happens in
other countries like South
Africa." The new perks for judges comes at a time
when the general staff at
the courts like clerks are demoralised because of
their low salaries which
are as little as $150 000 a month in some
cases.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
DIPLOMATS this week took MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai to task over his
party's political course of action, asking for
specific details of his
programme to tackle the current
problems.
Diplomats who spoke to the Zimbabwe Independent after
Tsvangirai's
briefing on Wednesday said they expected to be filled in on
exactly what he
was doing to resolve the mounting crisis in the
country.
However, the diplomats say they got very little from the
MDC leader
who, instead of giving them straight answers, recycled the same
old
rhetoric.
They said he gave them a generalised picture of
the situation without
a specific programme, leaving them feeling there was
nothing new the
opposition was doing.
Diplomatic sources said
they wanted to know how much ground the MDC
had covered in forging an
agreement on a new constitution, which would
enable the holding of free and
fair elections.
"We wanted to know to what extent dialogue between
government and the
opposition had moved in the direction of breaking the
political impasse,"
one diplomat said.
"We were all
disappointed when Tsvangirai flatly told us there were no
prospects of a
dialogue."
Diplomats also wanted to understand how the MDC
perceived the churches'
initiative, The Zimbabwe We Want. Tsvangirai said
his party welcomed any
initiative that coincided with the MDC's
roadmap.
The source said Tsvangirai declined to give details of his
party's
immediate action plan, insisting that the MDC's roadmap was still
the
guideline which the opposition was pursuing.
Tsvangirai had
called diplomats for a briefing to update them on last
Friday and the
weekend's demonstrations, which saw a number of opposition
officials being
arrested.
In his address to the diplomats, Tsvangirai said he was
aware that
people were now in a rebellious mood but did not want to do
anything
reckless.
"A large cross-section of the society is now
in a rebellious mood,"
Tsvangirai said. "There is now open defiance to
violent autocratic
authority. Teachers, nurses, doctors and the general
civil service and the
public at large have now reached the limits of their
suffering and are no
longer prepared to suffer silently," he said in a
written statement.
"But we are not about capturing international
headlines through acts
of reckless adventurism that might result in a
carnage that might not
achieve our central objective. We will continue to
build our resistance
movement, gauging the pace and resilience of the
people," he said.
Tsvangirai said people were being pushed
physically by state
repression while their material well-being was eroded
daily by the
deteriorating economy.
Zim Independent
Ray Matikinye
HIGHFIELD still retains a rich
history as the cradle of nationalist
resistance to colonial rule and racist
oppression.
Last Sunday I witnessed history repeat itself in a
manner identical to
grainy pictures that people see on television. The
pictures glorifying early
skirmishes involving nationalists of the early
60's to dislodge Ian Smith
are often drilled into people's
minds.
It illustrated how, contrary to popular political myth, the
past fight
for democracy was not more eventful than the
present.
Getting off a commuter bus at Machipisa, the tension was
palpable as
the place bristled with police in riot gear. They were there
ostensibly to
thwart any possible outbreak of violence.
I
walked towards Zimbabwe Grounds, the same venue hundreds of
thousands
thronged in 1979 to welcome the emotional return of the late
veteran
nationalist, Joshua Nkomo and later Robert Mugabe.
A small boy said
to me: "Kune mapurisa akagarira kwamuri kuenda
ikoko." ("There are police
guarding the direction you are taking.")
Naturally I took the tip. A few
paces ahead I encountered a group in riot
gear, teargas canisters buckled to
their hips, standing in a huddle. Their
body language portrayed a distinct
lack of enthusiasm about the task they
had been assigned to undertake. From
the bit of conversation that wafted in
my direction, I heard one of them
say: "So, uchanzwa madhara acho opa order
yokuti tirove vanhu," ("We will
soon get orders to start beating up
people.")
To which another
responded: "Seriya dhara rine dzungu rechipurisa
chakare-kare"
("Like that old guy who still believes in archaic policing
methods.")
I turned back when I saw an armed policeman manning the
entrance.
Minutes passed. The number of MDC supporters milling
around the
parking lot outside Mushandira Pamwe Hotel and OK supermarket was
swelling
all the time. Almost all new arrivals wondered aloud why the people
were not
inside Zimbabwe Grounds.
Police were prudently
ignoring taunts from scattered groups of people,
who felt betrayed by the
false sense of optimism following media reports
that the High Court had
sanctioned the rally. They were feeling a sense of
outrage that the law had
not been respected.
All this time the police and the swelling crowd
were testing each
other's patience.
Someone blew a whistle from
the direction of Gwanzura Stadium and a
chanting wave of people started
moving towards the southern entrance of
Zimbabwe Grounds, taking advantage
of the police patrol that had turned to
prowl the road on the eastern
side.
And when they heard the chanting crowd, they turned back to
confront
the advancing crowd.
Then all hell broke loose,
probably triggered by someone shouting
above the chanting crowd: "Futi
monotambira mari yandinowana ndatengesa
mazai. Muchadya tsvimbo idzodzo"
("And you earn so little which I make from
selling eggs, you will survive on
those rubber truncheons.")
An attempt to move the crowd away from
Zimbabwe Grounds degenerated
into running battles with MDC supporters who
police tried to steer away from
the shopping centre.
At the
shopping centre the police vented pent-up frustration at
roadside clothes
vendors who wrongly assumed they would be spared, as they
were not part of
the stampeding crowd. They kicked down the clotheslines,
beating up vendors
who tried to retrieve their wares.
I saw a woman with a baby
strapped on her back try to salvage part of
her wares only to be whacked on
the rump by a truncheon. She ambled across
the road, baby bobbing
dangerously from her back while she clutched the few
items across her
bosom.
It made me recall George Orwell's remarks when he said: "The
policeman
who arrests the youth demonstrator does not understand the
suffering and
despair that the youths are going through. If he did his own
position as a
bodyguard of the privileged class might seem less pleasant to
him."
By the time the stampeding crowds got out of harm's way,
police fired
three salvos of teargas to try and disperse them. Some of the
smoke drifted
into homes hugging a road near the shopping
centre.
That incensed the crowd which had dispersed in various
directions and
people genuinely going about their daily chores or who had
decided to stay
at home. The situation rapidly deteriorated into open
confrontation, with
the opposition supporters driving back the group of
policemen under a hail
of stones, aided by teargas drifting back into the
policemen's direction.
Like a pack of hunting dogs, another group
who had just retreated
outside Machipisa Police station started daring the
riot police, assured
that if they fired teargas in their direction it would
choke policemen on
duty in the police station instead. One police officer
fired a canister,
which veered off course and landed just outside a hedge
round the house
directly opposite the police station, sending the family
into fits of
choking.
The retreating crowd appeared to sense
that there were only enough of
the canisters to go around after watching one
of them fizzle and make a
fitful, unimpressive noise like the ending of a
thunderstorm. The police
appeared overwhelmed, reluctant to continue chasing
after pockets of youths
trying to break the police cordon.
As I
walked towards Machipisa Bar in the direction of the commuter
omnibus rank,
I saw a swarm of riot police clad in blue jumpsuits snap hard
on the heels
of retreating residents. The riot police were taking advantage
of their long
truncheons to indiscriminately lash out at fleeing victims who
were seeking
refuge in the surrounding hedges and narrow alleyways.
I came face
to face with a living example of the nostrum that there is
no love like a
mother's love. Seeing the impending danger, a young mother on
her way to
Church picked up the youngest of her three kids and threw the
toddler on her
back. She then instructed the elder of the other two to hold
firmly to her
brother, then gripped her daughter's hand literally dragging
her children
along with her away from danger.
I fled in the same direction
towards Machipisa Police station, fearful
of being trapped between the group
in riot gear and the marauding one with
long truncheons.
Just
as I got past Machipisa police station, I heard the wailing of
sirens behind
me.
At exactly 12.20pm almost two hours after the running battles
began, a
convoy of Israeli-made crowd control vehicles with mounted water
canons
whizzed past the intersection, speeding along and spraying water at
every
pocket of resistance.
The scene looked much like a clone
from the post-apartheid South
African movie Sarafina.
Either
the operators of the machines were unfamiliar with them, it
being a test
run, or the vehicles are not so effective at dealing with
scattering crowds
that can duck behind walls.
From the safety of a school orchard at
Tsungai primary school I saw
the spectacular display of waterpower as the
vehicles showered shards of
water on the road verges where people had been
standing.
As soon as the metal monsters came into view, the
opposition
supporters would duck behind walls. Two road runs later, and
cannons hanging
impotently above the awe-inspiring monsters, most probably
because they had
run out of water, they lumbered back to Machipisa Police
Station, with the
drivers ordering the crowds to go home.
I
could detect a sense of resignation from the pleas made without any
sense of
conviction that the opposition supporters would simply go home. It
appeared
a low-profile battle of attrition.
Taking advantage of a lull, I
walked to a commuter pick up point next
to the police station.
That is when I witnessed brutality at it worst.
A commuter bus was
just about to stop at the pick-up point when a
truckload of the
blue-jumpsuit clad brigade drew up. At least a dozen
policemen jumped off,
ordered every passenger out of the vehicle including
the driver. The
truncheon wielding group aged no more than 20 years ordered
all passengers
to lie prone on the tarmac before taking turns to thrash them
first on the
buttocks and then all over the body.
A thought crossed my mind,
standing a few paces from the gut-churning
scene how the long drilling in
"patriotism" had done its work. I had no
doubt in my mind that the group's
behaviour was nowhere near what would be
expected of a professional
policemen.
I also felt that if one of the rabid youths had broken
any of their
victims' limb, he would never lose sleep any the worse because
he would be
still be serving his handlers who had the power to absolve him
from evil.
I, together with my age-peer stood quaking in our shoes.
We decided to
stand, seeing there was nowhere to run because another group
of the
"thrashing brigade" was coming from the opposite
direction.
Perhaps what saved our skins was the greying
hair.
But our luck did not last for long, for it never impressed a
policeman - tall and rangy with eyes that always threatened to pop out of
their sockets - who ordered us to move.
Both of us took
President Mugabe's advice religiously to move when the
police say "Move!"
otherwise "taizodhashurwa."
And that began the long walk through
Engineering Section, Western
Triangle up to a point opposite Gazaland
shopping centre to catch buses back
home. All the way angry youths were
placing barriers and blockading the road
with anything they could get hold
of.
No buses were getting beyond that point.
In a move
viewed as an effort to stanch the running battles with the
MDC supporters
from spreading to other areas, riot control police were
dispatched to
suspected flashpoints and opposition strongholds where they
terrorised
innocent civilians.
In Chitungwiza, the police first raided St
Mary's Chigovanyika
shopping centre where they forced beer outlets to close
and make all people
leave the shopping centre.
Any attempts to
seek clarification or delay in responding to the
police instruction was
treated as resistance and would result in an
indiscrimate and ruthless
beating of all patrons in that bottle store.
People who had been going about
their business scurried for dear life as the
police run riot, dispersing any
small groupings at Huruyadzo Shopping
Centre. A good number were forced to
abandon their meat on braai stands.
People were being beaten for allegedly
having attended Tsvangirai's aborted
rally at Machipisa earlier in the
day.
The terror spread to virtually all sections of the dormitory
town,
Zengeza, Unit D, and Makoni, such that by 7pm all shopping centres and
drinking places were deserted. Police in riot gear kept a heavy presence
until late into the night.
The police's behaviour on Sunday
conrasted with how they had behaved
when Zanu PF held its rally in
Chitungwiza's Zengeza 4 area the previous
day.
Zim Independent
HUMAN rights
groups have expressed concern over arbitrary arrests and
beating of
opposition activists saying it was a violation of human rights,
in
particular Articles 6 and 11 of the African's Charter on Human and People's
Rights.
Article 6 says "every individual shall have the right
to assemble
freely with others"
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights (ZLHR) said it was concerned at the
reprehensible conduct of the
police who arrested more than 64 members of the
Tsvangirai-led MDC over the
weekend as the opposition party prepared to hold
its rally at Zimbabwe
Grounds.
"Worrisomely, police in Bulawayo acted in similar fashion,
beating up
several activists who had gathered for a rally under the
Mutambara led-MDC
faction," ZLHR said in a statement.
Ten of
the people who had been arrested were released save for Danisa
Mpande who
had been beaten severely by police. Mpande suffered lacerations
and bruises
on his head, shoulder and back and had to be hospitalised at
Galen House. He
was discharged on Monday afternoon.
"Police arrested 57 people in
Harare and detained them at the Harare
Central Police Station. Among those
arrested was MDC Secretary General and
MP for Harare East, Tendai Biti, MDC
National Executive Committee member,
Last Maengahama, and deputy secretary
for Local Government, Paul Madzore.
The three were arrested along with five
other members of the MDC Harare
provincial executive," ZLHR said.
Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro
IT is payback time for the new farmers. When they
thought they could
start settling down on their new properties, government
has decided to
transfer the obligation to raise money to compensate
displaced white
commercial farmers to the new settlers.
The new
farmers' ability to raise money for compensation is a new
condition set by
government for them to obtain 99-year leases.
Information to hand
shows that government is simply transferring a
compensation claim from the
evicted farmers into a fee that is supposed to
be paid by the new settlers,
a development viewed as a forced purchase.
When President Robert
Mugabe encouraged the land occupations for
political expediency, those who
stampeded to grab commercial farmland never
imagined they would one day be
asked to pay up.
Land reform analyst Professor Sam Moyo said the
money being demanded
by government was in tandem with the A2 policy
framework. The framework
spells out that occupied land should be a
commercial entity run on a
cost-recovery basis, and that the owner should
have his own resources.
"Lease fees should reflect the
infrastructure the farmer has
inherited, the agriculture potential for that
particular farm and the basic
fee charged per hectare and varying with
regions," Moyo said.
"There is no way someone who was allocated a
plot comprising a
farmhouse, barns and other improvements would expect to
pay the same as a
plot-holder where there are no improvements," he
said.
Moyo said this was the only way government could build up a
compensation fund to pay the evicted farmers.
Last year Gutu
senator and parliamentary committee member on lands,
retired General Vitalis
Zvinavashe, said government should not be expected
to use taxpayers' money
to pay for property that had been taken over by
individuals for their own
benefit.
Farmers who spoke to the Zimbabwe Independent complained
that they
were being made to pay for infrastructure that was vandalised by
marauding
war veterans who first moved onto farms.
"Most new
farmers never anticipated such big figures," said one farmer
who shares
Mmsoneddi Farm in the Banket area with three others. "This is
just as good
as buying the farm and there is nowhere we can raise that kind
of
money."
Mmsoneddi was formerly a highly-mechanised farm hence the
compensation
claim by former owners runs into billions of
dollars.
Observers said senior government officials and politicians
would be
the worst affected after they cherry-picked highly-mechanised prime
farms
throughout the country.
Although the lease document
allows the beneficiary to pay for the
improvements on the property over a
period of 25 years, the lessee is
required to pay at least half the amount
as down payment deposit before he
signs the lease.
Sources at
Ngungunyana Building said the excitement created by the
issuing out of the
first batch of 99-year leases late last year had died
down after farmers
realised that they could not pay the money required
before obtaining the
leases.
The new requirements could see a number of non-performing
settlers
failing to meet their obligations.
Government has been
agonising over underutilised land wrestled from
white commercial farmers
that has been lying idle for the past seven
cropping seasons. Some of the
beneficiaries acquired large tracts of land as
status symbols or "weekend
braai spots" which they have not been able to put
to full production,
spawning food shortages currently being experienced.
In addition to
paying lease fees, the farmers are required to pay an
annual rental, all
levies, fees and charges as may be determined by the
local
authority.
A farmer who was allocated a hundred hectares but
without improvements
in the Goromonzi area is required to pay around $200
000 before he can sign
the lease.
"The lessee shall pay a
deposit equivalent to one year's rental,"
reads the lease document. "The
deposit shall be paid on the date of
signature of this lease."
The figure was broken down as $46 520 for rental, $106 310 for the
purchase
of the lease and a further $47 604 as rental for the period of
actual
occupation to the date of signing.
Zim Independent
Zanele Moyo
AN army major-general and his wife, a
lieutenant-colonel with the
Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), have moved onto
Zimbili Farm in the Mbembesi
area of Matabeleland South province and ordered
war veterans and their
families who had settled on the farm since 2000 to
leave.
Almost 60 war veterans and their families have been affected
by the
eviction but have said they will not leave the farm.
The
war veterans and their families were resettled at the farm in 2000
at the
height of the government-sponsored fast-track land reform exercise.
Major-General Nicholas Dube, the senior officer at the centre of the
row
with the war veterans, is alleged to have threatened to send soldiers to
beat up the war veterans and their families if they resisted his
orders.
Dube is alleged to have moved onto the farm in November
together with
his wife identified as Gertrude, also a senior army
officer.
War veterans at the farm told the Zimbabwe Independent
this week that
the soldier had fenced off part of the farm that has a dam
where livestock
were drinking water from and is now refusing them permission
to water their
livestock.
The war veterans also accuse Dube of
moving into the farmhouse that
had been turned into a clinic for the
resettled families.
"Dube wants to stay in the farmhouse that was
renovated into a clinic
by the villagers and was supposed to be officially
opened by Ministry of
Health officials," said Vusa Mguni, one of the
farmers.
"Lack of a clinic has led to many deaths. So far three
pregnant women
have died due to lack of medical attention," said
Mguni.
The resettled farmers say they now travel for about 18km to
Fingo
clinic for medical treatment.
Contacted on the issue,
Major-General Dube refused to comment and
referred this paper to the
Matabeleland South governor, Angeline Masuku, who
could not be reached for
comment on her mobile phone.
"At the moment I cannot say anything
pertaining to that issue," he
said. "Talk to the Governor for Matabeleland
South province, Angeline
Masuku," Dube said.
Minister of State
for National Security, Lands, Land Reform and
Resettlement, Didymus Mutasa,
however said he was not aware of the issue and
said the major-general does
not have a mandate to evict war veterans from
the farm without his
knowledge. Mutasa said he would investigate the case.
"The
(major)-general does not have the mandate to evict resettled
farmers from
the farm without my knowledge. As for this case, I do not have
any idea
about it but I will investigate," Mutasa said.
Zim Independent
Ray
Matikinye
A GOVERNMENT blitz on illegal settlements in Harare
and other urban
centres in May 2005 under the much-criticised Operation
Murambatsvina
appears to have achieved ephemeral success judging by the
sprouting of
similar settlements in the capital.
The squatter
camps have left government and Harare city authorities
wringing their hands
in frustration at their failure to find a lasting
solution. One such
squatter camp has sprouted on a vacant sub-division of
Stand No 259 in
Harare's upmarket Glen Lorne suburb owned by an absentee
landlord.
The landlord, Mandy Bizure, works in Namibia as a
state lawyer.
Hapless residents say the settlement has degenerated
into a haven for
criminals and immoral behaviour in the tranquil
environment.
They have watched helplessly as authorities drag their
feet in doing
something about the eyesore.
Hidden from public
view along the luxuriant Folyjon Crescent, the
settlement, comprising motley
pole and reed structures, thatch or scrap
metal tin shacks, squats
incongruously in the middle of affluence underneath
gnarled pine
trees.
Bizure left with her husband when Namibia gained
independence after
the couple had constructed a two-roomed
storeroom.
She left a brother as custodian of the vacant stand
until he died five
years ago, leaving it under her mother's
guardianship.
A communal bathroom separates the contraption of
asbestos sheeting,
hemmed in between decrepit shacks, that was initially
meant to be a
storeroom for building materials during
construction.
Further up the vacant stand behind tall grass lies
the squatter camp.
According to neighbours, who preferred not to be
named saying the
Namibia-based lawyer was "well-connected in government
circles", the place
had turned into a popular brothel before police raided
it.
"It has been raided more than twice - three times to be
precise," one
resident said showing remnants of demolished shacks that run
parallel to a
stone and mortar wall.
"Bizure occasionally comes
here to see her mother, and probably to
warm relations with her connections
in government."
One of the tenants, 19-year old Zvanyadza Chingoma,
said she
supplemented her live-in partner's income selling opaque beer
outside a
nearby supermarket. She and her 18-month old toddler started
living in the
camp a month ago.
She shares one of the shacks
made of metal scraps, plastic sheets and
bamboo poles that is crammed in a
corner of the vacant stand with two other
tenants.
Along with
it, the squatter camp has brought serious security problems
for the
residents of Glen Lorne.
Families living in the area complain of a
spate of thefts over the
past few months. More than three families living
along Folyjon Crescent lost
millions of dollars worth of household goods in
the past week, among them
electrical gadgets and equipment.
Zvanyadza said some of the tenants spend most of their time in Mbare
and
only come to stay at the squatter camp for brief periods.
"We had a
tenant evicted (name supplied) for selling mbanje and
kachasu (illicit
brew). She now lives in Mabvuku," Zvanyadza said.
Residents suspect
the camp could be a safe haven for criminals who
commit serious crimes
elsewhere and then lie low for some time until the
heat is off.
"No one would think of coming to such a place to look for criminals,"
suggested another resident.
Highlands police arrested more than
15 suspects, among them two who
live in the Folyjon squatter camp, after
last week's spate of thefts in the
suburbs.
The May 2005
clean-up operation that affected mostly the urban poor
and left more than
700 000 people without a roof over their heads in the
working-class suburbs,
was hastily halted before demolition teams could
spread to low density
suburbs.
The homeless could have been persuaded to believe that
whatever future
demolition blitz the government carries out would not affect
the affluent
suburbs.
Property owners have watched, awestruck
by the fact that the
mushrooming of squatter camps in the midst of leafy
suburbs could devalue
their properties. The Glen Lorne camp is not the only
one in Harare's
upmarket suburbs. Squatters have also established rickety
structures in
Gunhill, close to the Borrowdale racecourse. There are also
illegal
structures in parts of Highlands, Eastlea and
Borrowdale.
However, council officials have prevaricated in
following up the clean
up operation to its conclusion, which has encouraged
replication of the
monstrosities elsewhere in the city.
Government has failed to repair the damage it inflicted on the poor in
its
urban clean-up operation that, in some instances, helped deplete the
national housing stock.
Zim Independent
Itai Mushekwe
FORMER Zanu PF secretary-general Edgar Tekere has
accused President
Mugabe of attempting to betray the liberation war and of
distorting events
during the struggle in Mozambique.
Tekere was
hitting back at President Mugabe yesterday over claims the
president made
during his birthday interview screened on state television on
Tuesday.
The president said Tekere almost threw in the towel in
1975 while the
duo were in Mozambique to pursue the struggle for
Independence.
Mugabe said Tekere woke up one morning - after the
two leader leaders
crossed into Mozambique accompanied by Chief Rekai
Tangweana - to tell him
that he wanted to go back to Zimbabwe. Mugabe said
Tekere wanted to return
to Zimbabwe because the comrades based in Mozambique
did not know him.
Tekere in an interview yesterday however
dismissed the president's
account arguing that while in Mozambique, Mugabe
had infuriated him by
wanting to preach the gospel of Bishop Abel Muzorewa's
UANC upon meeting
with new recruits of the struggle.
Tekere
referred to his autobiography, A Lifetime of Struggle, in which
he
castigates Mugabe as a betrayer of the struggle.
Tekere says he was
calmed down by Chief Tangwena.
"We were discussing what we would do
when we met the other recruits,
and Mugabe was adamant that we should tell
them that we were in the UANC,
according to the Lusaka Accords," writes
Tekere in his autobiography.
"This made me extremely angry, and I
said, 'what a treacherous mind
you have! We are here by decision of Zanu.
I'm not part of the UANC. You are
a betrayer. I'm going to report you to
those who sent us here about your
betrayal!
"Tangwena was with
us at the time, and managed to make peace between
us, and Mugabe insisted no
further. But after that, I made sure that he did
not meet any of the
recruits when I was not there too, in case he began to
talk about the
UANC."
Tekere said Mugabe was at pains to derail his autobiography
but must
be forgiven because his age was now distorting his
memory.
"Hu83 uhu hwava kumukanganisa pfungwa (His age of 83 is now
affecting
his mental faculties). His memory is truly distorted."
Zim Independent
Dumisani
Ndlela
THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has scheduled for
discussion at
its executive board meeting today the restoration of
Zimbabwe's voting and
related rights to the fund, a contentious subject that
nearly scuttled an
annual Article IV Consultation and foiled a board meeting
last year.
An IMF mission was finally allowed into the country in
December after
several scheduled visits had failed after being obstructed by
President
Mugabe's administration which was angry at the board's failure to
restore
the country's voting rights as well as rights to the IMF resources
last
March.
Zimbabwe, which survived expulsion after paying up
outstanding arrears
in the IMF's general resources account last February,
had been adamant that
its membership with the Bretton Woods institution was
only nominal because
of the absence of membership rights.
The
IMF, which had postponed a scheduled board meeting last September
to discuss
the country's other outstanding arrears, had finally broken the
ice with the
Harare administration following a visit by IMF executive
director for
Africa, Peter Gakunu, who had sought a high level meeting with
President
Mugabe to discuss Zimbabwe's frosty relations with the IMF.
It was
not clear if that meeting, which later culminated in a visit by
an IMF
mission, had agreed to persuade executive members to vote for the
restoration of Zimbabwe's rights or not.
Zimbabwe will require
a 70% weighted vote of the IMF executive board
to restore its voting rights
and eligibility to use resources of the Fund.
This is because it
took a similar vote margin to suspend the country's
voting and related
rights with the IMF.
This is in line with various amendments in the
Articles of Agreement
between the IMF and its members.
Zimbabwe
cleared its overdue financial obligations to the IMF's
General Resources
Account (GRA) last February, but still remained with
substantial arrears
amounting to US$119 million under a separate facility.
The
executive board meeting today is also expected to discuss Zimbabwe's
overdue
financial obligations to the PRGF-ESF Trust, as well as Zimbabwe's
cooperation with recommendations for turning around the country's frail
economy.
The Article IV Consultation report will help the board
members in
making a decision on the country.
While the
clearance of its arrears under the GRA facility removed the
basis for
Zimbabwe's compulsory withdrawal from the fund, the country
remained
suspended from exercising its voting rights and rights to IMF
resources as a
member of the Bretton Woods institution.
Zimbabwe had expected that
the suspensions would be lifted, creating
an avenue to secure lines of
credit to support its precarious balance of
payments position.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
AIR Zimbabwe has hiked its international fares by
close to 100% as it
battles to maintain viability amid reports it was now
sourcing its foreign
currency from the parallel market, businessdigest
established this week.
The hikes were quietly effected a fortnight
ago just before the
appointment of new chief executive, Peter
Chikumba.
Sources indicated that international fare hikes were now
likely to
become more regular as they would track rates on the parallel
market.
The airfare for economy class to London went up 65% to $2,8
million
for a return ticket, from $1,7 million before the hike.
The fare had been last increased last October from $358 310.
Passengers to China now pay a fare of $3,5 million for a return trip,
from
$2,5 million before the increase.
A person flying to South Africa
will fork out $726 250 under the new
fares.
Sources said the
fares had been increased following the recent plunge
of the Zimbabwe dollar
on the parallel market.
The Zimbabwe dollar is officially pegged at
$250 to the US dollar.
Using these rates would mean the ticket to
London now costs US$11 200,
which is highly unrealistic.
Airfares to London hover between US$800 and $1 000, depending on the
airline.
The new fares therefore match the parallel market
rate, although they
remain undervalued even when using the parallel market
rate which this week
reached $6 600 against the greenback after settling at
$5 000 mid January.
Air Zimbabwe board chairman, Mike Bimha, on
Tuesday told a
parliamentary portfolio committee on transport that the
airline had made its
first profit in 10 years last year under the management
of Oscar Madombwe.
About 90% of the airline's operations require
foreign currency, but
Air Zimbabwe had been failing to generate enough
because it is not allowed
to charge its tickets locally in foreign
currency.
As a result, it had been generating 30% of its foreign
currency
requirements from normal business.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Ndlela
RATES on the parallel foreign currency market
broke open this week on
unprecedented demand for hard currency, triggering
fears of an
uncontrollable wave of price hikes that could exacerbate the
country's
economic woes and ruin a proposed wage freeze.
Basic
commodity prices have shot up 300% since January, with cooking
oil, tissue
paper and toothpaste going up the highest at 500% in what many
blame on a
riotous parallel foreign currency market whose rates are now a
key factor in
the pricing of products in the market.
Labour representatives have
already warned they are unlikely to back
the proposed wage freeze, saying
incomes were already too low for employees
to afford basics.
The local unit plunged to touch $6 600 to the greenback, from a rate
of
nearly $5 000 reached last month.
It plumbed fresh depths against
the British pound, moving from around
$7 000 to reach $11 000 per pound
sterling.
The Zimbabwe dollar had opened the year at $3 000 and $5
000 to the
greenback and British pound respectively.
The South
African rand crushed the local unit to a low of $880 from
around
$600.
Zimbabwe's defenceless dollar had opened the year at $350
against the
rand.
"Everyone is buying foreign currency," a
parallel market dealer told
businessdigest. "There is a shortage on the
market and even if you gave me
over $900 for a rand, I can't get them for
you," the dealer said.
Another dealer concurred: "There is no
(foreign) cash; the demand is
very high but there are no sellers. People are
looking for forex."
Businessdigest could not immediately establish
if the shortages on the
parallel market were related to a new directive
allowing recipients of
foreign currency from offshore sources to receive
money sent to them through
money transfer agencies in foreign
currency.
The directive, issued by Reserve Bank governor Gideon
Gono last month,
was meant to "promote the free flow of foreign exchange in
the economy".
Recipients of foreign currency from relatives in the
diaspora had been
receiving their money through unofficial channels on the
parallel market,
but it was unlikely they would cash their foreign currency
through
authorised dealers because of unattractive rates on the official
market.
Zimbabwe is currently battling an acute foreign currency
shortage that
has stoked severe fuel shortages and disrupted normal economic
activities.
Gono last month refused to devalue the local unit,
saying devaluation
was unlikely to result in "planeloads" of foreign
currency into the country.
Eight devaluations since he assumed
office had failed to give any
spark to the distressed foreign currency
market, he said.
However, Gono's move resulted in a further decline
in inflows on the
official market, shunned by many foreign currency holders
because of the
poor exchange rates caused by the current fixed exchange rate
regime.
Gono last devalued the local currency on the official
interbank market
to $250 against the greenback in July, from $101 to the US
unit.
Economic consultancy firm, Techfin Research, last year
forecast
Zimbabwe's embattled domestic currency's fair value to reach $1
058,39 to
the US unit by this January, and to end the year at a fair value
rate of $16
588,73 to the US dollar.
The fair value is the
realistic value of the currency taking in to
account inflation differentials
between Zimbabwe and its trading partner
countries.
It is not
necessarily the official exchange rate.
Techfin Research had
anticipated in its forecasts, released in August
last year, that Gono would
devalue the local unit to $1 000 against the US
dollar on the official
market and that the official rate could be adjusted
gradually during the
current year to end at $5 200/US$1 by December 2007.
The parallel
foreign currency market has been declared illegal and
several companies and
individuals have in the past two years been hauled
before the courts for
trading foreign currency on the unofficial market.
However, it has
continued to flourish despite public outrage from
government and the central
bank governor.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
GOVERNMENT is expected to intensify its bid for cash
through long-term
money market instruments, market sources said this week,
indicating that
this money would be largely for capital
projects.
Central government has so far issued three tenders meant
to raise $160
billion apiece for capital projects but these have dismally
failed because
of lack of appetite for long term investments in the
market.
The Reserve Bank issued the third tender for the $160
billion stock on
Friday. The tender is expected to close today.
The long-term instruments are also likely to be used to restructure
government's short term debt in to long term, the market sources
said.
Government is currently choking from huge interest payments
on short
term borrowings made last year, most of which is redeemable this
year.
Analysts said government, whose domestic debt stock rose to a
new high
of $195,1 billion this months, was likely to face a huge budget
deficit due
to escalating inflation.
This was likely to force
it into huge borrowings.
Zim Independent
Shame Makoshori
LISTED tea and coffee producer,
Tanganda Tea Company, this week said
it had registered negative output
margins in most of its products due to an
acute shortage of labour plaguing
the farming sector.
Businessdigest reported last month that a staff
exodus has hit the
farming sector due to poor remuneration and a spate of
farm invasions that
disrupted farming activities in the
country.
Although commercial farming operations mainly run by a new
breed of
under-funded black farmers were losing skilled and semi-skilled
workers and
failing to attract unskilled employees due to poor working
conditions and
remuneration, Tanganda's statement reinforced fears that even
big estate
operators had not been spared by the staff flight that has hit
the sector.
Last week, farm labourers in Bindura told a
parliamentary committee on
agriculture that farmers were only paying $8 000
per month.
Commercial farm workers are understood to be earning
between $5 000
and $15 000 per month. The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe's low
income
consumer basket for a family of six is at over $458 000 per
month.
The average family for most farm workers consists of six
members.
Tanganda said its labour shortages had been compounded by
a non-viable
exchange rate as well as erratic rainfall patterns at its
plantations.
Tanganda operates tea and coffee estates and a
beverages division.
But the group said it had only registered a 2%
positive output in tea
from 7 773 tonnes on the prior comparative period to
8 500 tonnes in the
year to October 31, 2006.
Chairman, John
Moxon said in a statement accompanying the group's
financial results that
Tanganda's performance had been bolstered by firming
international tea
prices to post a $999 million profit after tax from $84
million in
2005.
Moxon said coffee output declined from 170 tonnes in the
comparative
period in 2005 to 113 tonnes in 2006 as older bushes were
uprooted and
replaced with Macadamias and new coffee.
Beverage
volumes declined by 29% due to market shrinkage and packaging
constraints.
"The shortage of labour did cause problems this
year," Moxon told
shareholders in the report.
"Quality suffered
as (we) were unable to pluck timeously. However,
international tea prices
have been significantly stronger this year and this
minimised any reduction
in value realised as a result of the quality
problems."
"Although the rains started late, good rains persisted until April. As
a
result, production of tea was slightly higher than the previous year at 8
500 tonnes. But the dry period from September to December 2005 curtailed our
ability to produce closer to our trend average production," he
said.
Moxon said to address the problem of labour shortages,
substantial
investment had been committed to increase the fleet of
mechanical harvesters
to supplement hand plucking.
Tanganda
said its investment in mechanical harvesters would minimise
the effects of
labour shortages.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
BASIC commodity prices surged by a massive 300%
between January and
Wednesday this week, raising the prospect of a social
upheaval in the
country, businessdigest established this week.
The rise in the prices of basic commodities has been blamed largely on
speculative tendencies in the country's frail economy, now in its seventh
year of a recession.
But economists said dwindling production
levels on the back of
increased money printing had resulted in too much
money chasing too few
goods, and this had been worsened by acute foreign
currency shortages which
had triggered a run on the Zimbabwe dollar on a
thriving foreign currency
parallel market.
Most companies are
now using parallel market rates for pricing
purposes.
A
Businessdigest survey of current commodity prices revealed that
prices had
skyrocketed by outrageous margins between January 2 and February
20.
Business operators said they were battling to remain in
business,
pushing prices up due to escalating inflation.
But
the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) said speculative tendencies
were
pushing prices up, hurting consumers whose incomes were not moving in
line
with inflation.
"Prices of most basic commodities have increased by
worrying margins,
a situation which has brought untold suffering to most
consumers whose
salaries have lagged behind while prices skyrocket," said
CCZ director,
Rosemary Siyachitema.
Siyachitema said the
consumer watchdog was pinning its hopes on a
proposed social contract to
allow dialogues between stakeholders and pave
way for a stabilisation of
prices.
Economists said scarcity, triggered by a slump in
productivity, and
increased production costs had partnered to spark swelling
prices.
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono last month proposed a
social
contract involving labour, business, trade unions and civic
organisations to
tackle an economy that has been in recession for the past
seven years.
He said the objectives of the social contract would be
to come up with
wage and price freezes to allow for a turnaround of the
country's economy.
Siyachitema said: "The wave of prices that we
have been experiencing
in the past weeks has had a direct effect on the
consumer basket and now a
family of six needs $458 000 to buy essentials
every month. But the figure
is definitely going to rise soon as commodity
prices continue to go up."
The Central Statistical Office (CSO)
said an urban family of five
required $566 400 per month, figure higher than
that from the CCZ.
Gono has publicly criticised the "unwarranted
steep rises" in the
prices of commodities, saying if this was allowed to
continue, the economy
would continue on a downward spiral.
"The
shocking rise was done in anticipation of a devaluation which as
we know did
not see the light of day," Gono said about a spate of price
increases in
January.
The consumer watchdog indicated that some basic
commodities such as
flour, cooking oil and sugar were not available on the
formal market.
Independent economist, John Robertson said the
prices of basic
commodities would continue increasing because businesses
were trying to
cushion themselves against the planned wage and price
freeze.
"Shops are increasing their prices to cushion themselves
against the
wage and price freeze which is looming," Robertson
said.
The Ministry of Industry and International Trade has warned
that it
would not hesitate to unleash the police on errant business people
hiking
prices without government approval.
There are fears that
the price of mealie meal could increase markedly
following the increase of
the selling price of maize to millers by the Grain
Marketing Board from $600
to $58 000 a metric tonne.
Zim Independent
Shame Makoshori
A RESTIVE business community
on Friday made a strong protest against
the arbitrary arrest of business
colleagues, telling Reserve Bank governor
Gideon Gono that there were little
prospects of his proposed social contract
succeeding because of increasing
hostility between stakeholders.
Business executives who attended a
Zimbabwe National Chamber of
Commerce (ZNCC) breakfast meeting said the
beleaguered economy was likely to
suffer extensively in the face of
government-sanctioned arrests of business
people for hiking prices to remain
in business.
Government had imposed price controls of selected
basic commodities,
creating viability problems among firms manufacturing
listed products.
The executives said government was being
high-handed in its arrest of
business executives and pointed out at glaring
contradictions in policy as
parastatals were allowed to increase prices for
controlled products while
their counterparts were being arrested for
adjusting prices to viable
levels.
"Why not arrest
parastatals?" asked Mara Hativagone, president of the
ZNCC, during the
breakfast meeting. "They are hiking prices by hundreds of
percentages, yet
government is only arresting (executives in) the private
sector."
The country has in the past few weeks witnessed an
unprecedented rise
in the price of goods and services offered by
government-owned companies at
a time when the police have been arresting
businessmen from the private
sector for increasing commodity
prices.
Last week the National Railways of Zimbabwe hiked passenger
fares by
at least 30% for urban commuter and intercity
services.
The Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco) also
increased its urban
fares, with the minimum fare going up 40% to $1
000.
Power utility, Zimbabwe Power Company, a subsidiary of Zesa
Holdings,
this month advised consumers that it would start making tariff
adjustments
based on the monthly Consumer Price Index with immediate
effect.
The Grain Marketing Board increased the price of maize for
millers
from $600 to $58 000/tonne.
These hikes by parastatals
were last week described by Minister of
State for Policy Implementation
Webster Shamu as welcome.
Shamu said the parastatals were
responding to Gono's call to eliminate
price distortions in the
economy.
The business community, largely seen as friendly to
government despite
its ruinous policies that have resulted in an
unprecedented crisis in the
country, have been drifting away from a
conciliatory approach towards a more
radical position following the arrest
of their members in a clampdown
government says is meant to weed out
speculators from the frail economy.
Recently, two managers from
Blue Ribbon Industries and National Foods
Ltd in Harare were arrested for
flour prices without government approval.
Hativagone queried why
government had ignored the recent wave of price
hikes by state-run companies
when it had refused to give the private sector
permission to increase prices
on controlled products despite pleas made by
manufacturers last
year.
Hativagone, now emerging as the most critical voice for
business,
argued that private companies were facing high operational costs,
foreign
currency and fuel shortages and could not operate viably without
price
increases.
She warned that the continued decline in
industrial production in the
country was pushing many businesses and
individuals into speculative
activities; industries were abandoning
production because it was no longer
viable to do so because of price
controls.
"Some are of us becoming barons - gold barons, fuel
barons and diamond
barons. Do we want to create a nation of traders? Is that
the Zimbabwe we
want?" asked Hativagone.
Gono acknowledged the
arrests had to stop to pave way for a social
contract and exhorted his
principals to understand the concerns of industry.
"We do not
believe in arresting people," Gono said.
"If people in business put
a foot wrong, let's try to talk to them
first because two wrongs do not make
a good," Gono said.
Zim Independent
Ray Matikinye
LAST week's blocking of
journalists by a senior Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) official from hearing
evidence during a parliamentary probe
into gold dealing could easily turn
the fight against corruption into a dead
letter.
The
information screen could undermine the sterling work done thus far
by
parliamentary committees since they started to allow the press to attend
their meetings. The victim of this move is the public who have a right to
know - a fundamental facet of any democracy and a key weapon in the fight
against corruption.
Picture the frustration and angst of a mob
about to catch a thief in
the village. Just then the community leader asks
everyone to retreat,
because the loot likely to be retrieved from the
burglar could cause social
upheaval in the community.
Mirirai
Chiremba, the director of financial intelligence,
inspectorate, evaluation
and security at the RBZ, who refused to give
evidence before parliament's
special committee in the presence of
journalists set an unwelcome precedent
that imperils the oversight role
vested in portfolio committees. But Clerk
of Parliament Austin Zvoma this
week said this was not unusual.
"One swallow does not make a summer," he said. Portfolio committees
are
meant to make government ministries, departments and ministers
accountable
for their actions.
Chiremba's recent show of shyness also sounds
the death knell for all
pretence government has been retailing regarding its
fight against
corruption and to name and shame corrupt
officials.
One useful insight of the request is that Chiremba
involuntarily let
the cat out of the bag on the frightening level of
corruption in the illegal
gold mining saga.
"I do not think it
is suitable to have the press here. I do not wish
to say anything that will
cause instability in the country," Chiremba
pathetically whimpered,
evidently ignorant of his public duty.
The request to put a lid on
media coverage on illegal gold mining
activities countermands RBZ governor
Gideon Gono's observation: "Unless and
until a deterrent framework is put in
place and is consistent across the
board, the country risks continuing to
engage in disruptive brawls with
economic crimes to no avail or benefit to
the country."
Media exposure is one such deterrent.
Parliamentary committees are set up in terms of Standing Order Number
151 to
examine the expenditure, administration and policy of government
departments
and other matters falling under their jurisdiction.
Analysts says
Chiremba's actions serve to justify strong fears
expressed by some
stakeholders who have appeared before the committees to
give oral evidence
but have flatly refused to name names, scared of
endangering their
lives.
As part of recent parliamentary reform measures to "take
parliament to
the people", the media has been allowed into committee
hearings over the
past few years.
But Zvoma said nothing had
changed, adding that there was nothing
untoward in proscribing press
coverage.
"The media is not being banned," Zvoma said in reference
to the
Reserve Bank official landmark incident.
"But there can
be selective exclusion for the media if any official is
giving oral evidence
which they do not want the media to divulge."
He said this was in
accordance with Select Committee rules.
Banning by a different
name, it would appear! This is precisely the
sort of information that needs
to be made public.
Zimbabwe is grappling with high levels of
corruption and illegal
dealings, which have enriched a few while pushing the
majority of the people
deeper into poverty.
"No one can
prescribe to the committee what issues ought to be covered
by the press
because of what they perceive as national importance. The
discretion rests
with the committee," Zvoma said, citing Select Committee
Rule Number
16.
What made the incident more relevant for the media was how it
could
expose the fat cats living off the fat of illegal gold mining,
particularly
after accusations by small-scale miners recently that the RBZ
had been
provided with evidence of illegal activities and the
perpetrators.
Political analyst John Makumbe said the request by
the RBZ official
says a lot about people in the RBZ, Cabinet and the ruling
Zanu PF party.
President Mugabe on Wednesday admitted some of his
ministers were
dishonest.
"His request was understandable,"
Makumbe, who is a political science
lecture at the University of Zimbabwe,
said. "It is obvious that some of the
people he was supposed to name have
the capacity to mess up his life. He
would be afraid for his life, or his
job because some of the people his
evidence would implicate are too powerful
and the press would go to town
about it."
Makumbe said even
President Mugabe was afraid to name them.
He said while
parliamentary committees have done a good job and played
an important role
in probing corruption and other illegal dealings, they
still remained
toothless.
"They write reports which are damaging but neither the
Anti-Corruption
Commission, the police nor the judiciary takes them
seriously. They never
make follow-ups and the committees remain a circus,"
Makumbe added.
While the committees provide an opportunity to
expose the wheeling and
dealing, Makumbe doubted their
usefulness.
"Committee members know they have no bodyguards to
protect them," he
said.
Committee vice-chair Tsitsi Muzenda
told journalists after the
closed-door session that the RBZ had not
disclosed names of senior
government officials involved in minerals
smuggling because it did not have
such names.
Zim Independent
By Eldred Masunungure
THE dictionary definition
of harmonising is "to bring into harmony,
accord, or
agreement".
The word sits rather awkwardly as a description of what
is being
intended because you normally harmonise relations between two or
more
people. You do not normally harmonise things to do with inanimate
matter and
processes like elections.
Ideally, and in respect of
elections, we should rather talk about
sychronisation or rationalisation or
even consolidation. To synchronise is
"to occur at the same time or coincide
or agree in time".
I note, with considerable satisfaction, that the
"harmonisation"
crusade is a public admission of the irrationality of the
original decision
to "disharmonise" the elections. It is an admission that
political parties,
like human beings, err.
Correcting an error
is salutary. It suggests that Zanu PF is now open
to admitting some of its
past errors, and I think that is something
positive.
Assuming
that "harmonisation" is the appropriate descriptive term of
what is
intended, I also note with irony that the intended harmonisation has
immediately disharmonised society and especially the sponsoring organisation
itself, the ruling Zanu PF party.
The harmonisation project
appears to have wreaked more havoc in this
party than any other single issue
since the divisive one-party state project
that had to be abruptly abandoned
in mid-1990s. In short, Zanu PF wants to
harmonise elections before it has
harmonised itself.
I have also observed that no sane Zimbabwean who
knows anything about
our political system and its elections would oppose the
synchronisation of
elections. Public opinion has for long advocated
this.
For instance, a pre-2000 parliamentary elections survey
showed that
more than two-thirds (68%) favoured synchronisation and in fact
that the
2002 presidential election should have been brought forward to be
held
concurrently with the 2000 parliamentary election.
Even in
the fear-ridden 2002 period, still a plurality (47% vs 43%)
favoured a
constitutional amendment that would synchronise the two
elections.
In this respect then, public opinion has for long
been ahead of the
"people's" party.
While the majority of
citizens prefer synchronised elections, a bigger
majority appears suspicious
of the motive behind the otherwise commendable
idea.
Many
people find it difficult to separate the obvious and
unquestionable
rationality of synchronising the elections from the other
issue, the
extensions of the presidential term by their two years.
For many,
there are two imperatives at play here: the synchronisation
imperative and
the prolongation of presidential tenure imperative.
The former is
perfectly rational and popular. The latter is deeply
unpopular, even inside
the ruling party.
President Robert Mugabe once described Jonathan
Moyo as "clever but
not wise". This was on the occasion of Moyo's decision
to contest the
Tsholotsho seat as an independent.
The decision
or even proposition to extend the presidential term is,
to me, neither
clever nor wise.
The manner in which the synchronisation issue was
introduced makes it
difficult to disentangle it from what many view as the
primary reason behind
the "harmonisation" project - that is the prolongation
of the presidential
term by at least two years under the guise of
"harmonising".
In this regard, synchronisation, which has a lot to
commend itself, is
contaminated by the prolongation imperative.
Once we de-link the two - electoral sychronisation and
prolongation/extension of the presidential term - the first imperative
becomes unattractive to its chief sponsors. This is because "the people" are
for synchronisation without reservations, and for them the sooner the
better. The minority ruling elite is for prolongation and the later the
better.
To make the prolongation agenda attractive, it is
couched in the
language of sychronisation and the two are like a package. In
other words,
synchronising elections without prolonging tenure is
meaningless.
What is being "harmonised?"
The answer
is: elections!
But which elections?
I can immediately
think of five possible elections that are routinely
held in Zimbabwe, at two
levels of our political system - the national and
local levels.
At the national level are three elections - the presidential, house of
assembly and senatorial elections. At the local level are ward or councillor
elections in both rural and urban areas and then mayoral elections in urban
areas only.
Comprehensive synchronisation of the elections
would mean many urban
voters would be asked to make five different choices:
for the councillor,
the mayor, the senator, the MP and for the president,
making Zimbabweans
probably the most over-represented people in the world
and presumably on the
same ballot paper, and presumably in one
day.
Alternately the various electoral candidates would appear on
separate
ballots, thus necessitating five different ballots boxes in the
urban areas.
If the latter, the guarding of five boxes at each polling
station becomes a
big challenge, so is the counting of the five ballots in
five ballot boxes.
The administrative and logistical arrangements
are going to be a real
nightmare. Where will the financial resources to but
the additional ballot
boxes come from?
Then there will be the
contentious issue of constituency boundaries,
which presumably will have to
be "harmonised" or rationalised as well.
The boundary of the
presidential constituency is the easiest - there
is normally only one
presidential boundary, which is coterminous with the
boundary of the
country.
The boundaries for the house of assembly and senate
constituencies
will definitely need to be rationalised in two senses: in
terms of physical
delimitation of the constituencies and in terms of the
number of people per
constituency.
The sponsors of the
"harmonisation" project need to be clear. At this
point, we note that in
many instances, as in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare and
all major cities, the
senatorial boundaries will be smaller than mayoral
constituencies. There can
only be one mayor in Harare, but there will be
several senators in the
capital. In other towns, like Redcliff and Gwanda,
the senatorial
constituency will be larger than the mayoral constituency.
Each of
the five elections will need a delimitation process, itself a
mammoth task
that requires time and meticulous execution. If all five
elections are held
simultaneously, it means every voter will be voting at
ward level in order
for them to choose their councillor.
This also means that each ward
will have at least four voting booths
in areas with mayoral elections. The
administrative, human and logistical
resources for this will be massive and
unlikely to be available.
Also opportunities to cheat are enormous
and as we all know the
willingness and inclinations to do so are readily
available. The multiple
electoral frameworks simply multiply the chances to
cheat. In addition,
observing and monitoring such elections will be a
mammoth challenge.
The second option will be to stagger the
elections by having two local
government elections on one weekend and the
three national elections the
following weekend. For the former, one would
need to be in one's ward; for
the second, you need to be in your parliament
constituency.
If the synchronisation is to be a permanent feature
of our elections,
then the tenure of various office holders will also have
to be harmonised
too. That means synchronising the tenures of the councillor
(presently three
years), the mayor (presently four years), the MPs
(presently five years) and
the president (presently six years). The relevant
legislative instruments
will have to be amended accordingly.
What is being harmonised?
Five elections are now a feature of
Zimbabwe's electoral calendar and
all five elections have sparked
controversy each time they are held. In
other words, there is something
defective about the electoral infrastructure
and the quality of the
electoral outcomes.
If this is so, and I think there is generalised
consensus about this,
why do we need to harmonise defective projects?
Harmonising bad things does
not produce a good thing. What Zimbabweans want
are quality elections where
one's vote counts and where the votes of voters
really count and equally.
Presently it's a case of all votes being equal,
but some votes are more
equal than others.
In short,
Zimbabweans want votes that count and count equally. If
harmonising does not
produce this result, then harmonisation on its own is
meaningless.
So, the slogan must be: no
harmonisation before constitutional and
electoral reforms, including and
especially cleaning the voters roll.
In light of the above, it
becomes irrelevant whether elections are
harmonised and held in 2008 or 2010
because if it is the quality of the
electoral outcome that counts, then we
must get the electoral infrastructure
right in the first instance and all
other things will follow.
This also means that elections cannot be
held as scheduled, that is,
in the first quarter of 2008. This suggests that
we need a transnational
period with transnational mechanisms to be activated
at the end of the
present presidential term and ending at the end of the
parliament of
Zimbabwe in early 2010.
We need a transitional
interlude that will also act as a cooling off
period. The two-year
cooling-off period will provide a perfect opportunity
for devising or
crafting "The Zimbabwe We Want" and a time to come up with a
political
formula that will fix our problems on a more or less permanent
basis and in
the national interest.
In short, 2008 is too early for credible
elections where people's
votes count and count equally.
Lastly,
I have observed that there are two projects at play here: the
harmonisation
project and the presidential prolongation project. One is
explicit while the
other is hidden. In whose interest are the two projects?
One is in
the national interest while the other is at best in the
ruling party
interest and at worst in the interest of the prince. In either
case, the
prolongation project is not in the national interest.
So to me it
makes perfect and obvious sense to drop the prolongation
agenda while
retaining the harmonisation agenda but that must follow the
cleansing of the
constitution and electoral framework. This is: we throw
away the bath water
(tenure prolongation) but retain the baby (electoral
harmonisation).
* Dr Eldred Masunungure is a political
scientist at UZ.
Zim Independent
By Brian
Raftopoulos
THE Zimbabwean crisis has reached the point where a
number of factors
are combining to introduce a new political dynamic into
the current
situation. These include the confluence of drastic economic
decline, growing
internal dissent within the ruling party, a renewed wave of
labour and civic
activism and the continued isolation of the regime by
Western countries.
In the face of these growing challenges, the
response of President
Robert Mugabe has been to seek an extension of his
presidential mandate
until 2010 in order to seek more time to deal with the
destructive
succession debate in the ruling Zanu PF party, ensure his own
immunity from
possible prosecution and create more frustration for the
divided opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The
economic challenges facing the Mugabe regime are immense.
In a
statement responding to the monetary policy statement by the
Reserve Bank
governor, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) painted
a gloomy
picture of the indicators of economic decline. These included
hyperinflation
of 1 600% as at December 2006, a cumulative economic decline
of about 50%
over the past seven years, an unsustainable budget deficit of
43% of GDP,
chronic shortage of foreign currency, sporadic availability of
fuel, skills
shortages, and mass unemployment and the collapse of real
earnings of
workers.
In this regard there is anecdotal evidence of numbers of
workers
preferring not to continue working in the formal sector because of
the high
cost of staying in employment, preferring instead to engage in
various
informal sector activities.
The ZCTU and both factions
of the MDC agree in characterising the
contemporary Zimbabwean economy as
based on "rent-seeking" and speculative
behaviour. Distortions created by
developments such as price controls and
foreign exchange controls create
rents.
As Zimbabwean economist Rob Davies writes, this "creates an
incentive
for people to devote resources capturing rents, rather then using
them for
productive purposes".
Tendai Biti, the economic
spokesperson of the Tsvangirai MDC, observes
that at the core of the crisis
is the crippled supply side of the economy.
"The scenario of non-existent
supply," notes Biti, "creates fertile ground
for middlemen and the rule of
rent-seeking activities."
Evidence of this rent-seeking behaviour
abounds in the Zimbabwean
economy. The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) was,
until last week, buying maize
at $52 000 per tonne and selling it to select
millers at $600 per tonne.
Politically connected individuals were
able to buy the subsidised
maize from the GMB, get it milled at commercial
millers and then sell it at
exorbitant prices.
Similar
speculative activities take place in the fuel and fertiliser
sectors where
the new farmers who have benefited from the land occupations
are receiving
subsidised inputs from the state and selling them rather than
using them for
productive activities.
As Arthur Mutambara, leader of the other MDC
faction, states: "The
distortions in our economy create opportunities for
arbitrage."
In such an economy the emphasis of many of the emerging
business
individuals is on fast-track accumulation through such speculative
activities, exploiting the breakdown of the rule of law and the corruption
of the state to accumulate vast profits through unproductive activities.
This is a key constituency that has been created by the authoritarian
politics of the Mugabe regime, and the indigenisation of economic activities
has largely been carried out through this means.
Moreover, an
important part of the battle for succession within Zanu
PF has been fought
over access to various such rent-seeking activities, and
the fortunes that
then become available for further political consolidation
within the
party.
In the midst of these activities there are no doubt
businesspersons
who continue to think about the longer-term need to maintain
and build up
productive activities both in the industrial and agricultural
sectors.
The problem however is that this parasitic accumulation
model is
taking place within a broader context of endemic poverty and a
steady
decrease in the percentage share of wages in the gross domestic
income.
The standard of living of workers has reached desperately
low levels,
fuelled by a general ruling party antipathy to urban workers,
and epitomised
by the massive human rights violations of the "urban clean
up" Operation
Murambatsvina in mid-2005.
The result has been a
renewed wave of labour, student and civic
protests since the beginning of
the year.
In the field of labour protests, public sector workers
have led the
response to the state. Junior doctors earning $56 000 per
month, nurses $35
000 and teachers $84 000 have come out on strike or
go-slows.
Even unions that have had less confrontational relations
with the
state, such as the Zimbabwe Teachers' Association and the Public
Services
Association, have threatened to take industrial action in the next
week if
their salary demands are not met.
Other protests from
the constitutional movement, women's organisations
and students have created
additional pressure on the state.
These protests resemble the
labour unrest in the second half of the
1990s, also triggered by the 1996
public sector strike that was the first
indicator of the force of labour
that would play a major part in challenging
the state during this
period.
There are however some differences with this current period
of unrest.
In the late 1990s the structures of the labour movement were much
stronger,
developed through strong organisational and educational capacity
in the
ZCTU.
The effective use of consultative labour forums
ensured greater
ownership of collective actions by the union membership.
Additionally during
this period the labour movement was able to "speak for
the nation" in their
messaging and demands and build effective alliances
with other civic groups.
In the current period the structures of
the labour movement have been
weakened by a combination of structural
changes in the labour force, state
repression, decreased organisational and
educational capacity and a
leadership that has placed more emphasis on the
ZCTU taking actions on its
own with less emphasis on building broader civic
alliances.
Part of the explanation for this more narrow focus of
the ZCTU can be
found in the difficult relations that have arisen between
the labour
movement and both the MDC and the civics. The labour leadership
perhaps
feels that it has been used and marginalised within the broader
political
processes in the opposition.
However, this recoil
from coalition building is likely to encounter
limits very quickly given the
need to develop a broad front against Zimbabwe's
authoritarian state. It is
thus unclear whether the militancy of the present
leadership will translate
unto a broader participation by the union
membership and the general public
in mass actions.
There is little doubt also that the division in
the MDC that took
place after October 12 2005 has weakened both sides of the
party and created
confusion and demoralisation among its supporters and in
the civic movement.
Over the last year there have been attempts to
heal the breach in the
opposition and this has led to the signing of a code
of conduct between the
two formations, designed to lessen their public
hostility and violence. This
has certainly been a step forward for both
sides, but urgent efforts need to
be taken to strengthen the strategic and
electoral cooperation between the
two groups, whether there is a
presidential election in 2008 or 2010.
Both formations at present
belong to the Save Zimbabwe Campaign led by
church leaders, and also
bringing together all the major civic groups in the
country. The major
demand of this campaign is that there should be a
presidential election in
2008 under a new constitution, thus opposing Mugabe's
move to delay this
election to 2010.
One of the consequences of both MDC formations
working under this
umbrella is that one or both factions may feel less need
to pursue the
possibility of re-unification, but instead use the momentum of
the campaign
to push their separate agendas. This is likely to be a mistake
in the longer
term as closer cooperation between the two MDCs is essential
to confront
Zanu PF.
It is against this background that the
recent monetary statement by
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono needs to be
understood. In many ways the
statement is an admission of a policy dead-end
and recognition that the
primary problem in the country is the political
blockage being created by
Mugabe's actions.
In the statement,
Gono desperately called for the establishment of a
social contract between
the government, business and labour, seeking to use
this vehicle to attempt
to achieve what the political leadership is
unwilling to
attempt.
Clearly in the present political conditions the call for a
social
contract is unrealistic, given the unwillingness of the state to
confront
the political challenges around democratisation, which would be
essential to
a workable agreement between the three legs of a tripartite
arrangement.
Gono's call for a social contract in Zimbabwe is not
new, as the ZCTU
proposed it, under different circumstances, in its 1996
document "Beyond
Esap". Instead the government set up the National Economic
Consultative
Forum in 1997 and the Tripartite Negotiating Forum in 1998
which, in the
words of the Labour and Economic Development Institute of
Zimbabwe, "have
either become talk-shops or their decisions have been
largely ignored".
Both Mugabe's attempt to extend his presidency to
2010 and Gono's
attempt to draw other social forces into a social contract
should be seen as
Mugabe's attempt to control change in Zimbabwe under his
tutelage and that
of his party.
The recent cabinet reshuffle
confirmed Mugabe's need to maintain the
support of his loyalists as he
attempts to get his proposal for a 2010
extension of the presidential
election confirmed by the Zanu PF politburo.
Under this proposal it
is likely that Mugabe would appoint a prime
minister who would still be
responsible to him, as his position as a
purportedly "ceremonial president"
provides him with continued immunity from
possible prosecution for crimes
against humanity.
Such a move could then possibly be a precursor to
small reforms in the
political and economic arenas, as a prelude to an
election in which Mugabe
would hope to defeat the opposition under a new
candidate, and prepare the
way for a "normalisation" of his
regime.
However, Alexis de Tocqueville's warning that the "most
dangerous time
for a bad government is when it starts to reform itself"
should be a
reminder to Mugabe that once small reforms are introduced it is
often
difficult to control the change.
Under the present
political conditions Mugabe's government, as with
all authoritarian regimes,
must continue to choose between compromise and
repression, or more
specifically the particular blend of both.
It is likely that in the
short term Mugabe will continue to emphasise
state coercion in dealing with
dissent in the country.
However, the continued availability of this
option will depend among
other factors on the capacity of the opposition and
civic forces to mount
more effective popular resistance to the regime, the
continued loyalty of
the police and army in the face of deteriorating
economic conditions for the
armed forces, Mugabe's capacity to contain and
resolve the succession debate
in his party and the ongoing pressure and
isolation from the West.
Mugabe is likely to be acutely aware of
the transition dangers that
befell the authoritarian regimes in Eastern
Europe after 1989 and the
lessons of his Chinese friends at Tiananmen
Square.
All the indications are that 2007 will be a crucial year
marking the
Zimbabwean crisis.
If Mugabe continues to deploy
authoritarian strategies in response to
the political opposition, both the
economic and the political conditions
will deteriorate further, and the
international isolation of the regime is
likely to continue.
On
the other hand if Mugabe attempts a controlled reform process, the
new
political spaces opened are likely to provide additional momentum for
the
political and civic opposition, and the internal threat to Zanu PF will
intensify.
Caught between an unproductive confrontational
strategy that he would
prefer and a reform strategy whose consequences he is
unlikely to be able to
control, Mugabe is faced with a very difficult
political dilemma.
On the other hand Zanu PF's capacity to
re-invent itself in part
should not be dismissed, especially if the
opposition forces facilitate this
option by further strategic
blunders.
It would not be the first time that authoritarian regimes
have carried
out a semblance of reform while retaining the core of the
former government.
There are several such examples in both Africa and
Eastern Europe.
Such an outcome would not be unfavourable for a
South African
government that has always been more concerned with the
"stability" of its
neighbour than with a more profound democratic
transition.
* Brian Raftopoulos is head of the Africa programme at
the Institute
for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, South
Africa.
Zim Independent
By Morgan Tsvangirai
MAY I take this
opportunity to place on record a growing political
mood of defiance evident
in the past week as our struggle for change takes a
new turn.
On Sunday, the people of Harare showed a deep sense of maturity as
they
confronted hired gangs of thugs who defied a High Court order barring
the
police from interfering with our rally.
May I acknowledge the
powerlessness of senior members of our
professional police force who failed
to execute their constitutional mandate
to respect the rule of law and to
observe a legitimate High Court order.
Sunday's events in Highfield
exposed the existence of a dangerous
political oligarchy, which has since
usurped the ship of state and taken
charge of Zimbabwe.
Robert
Mugabe and Zanu PF are at their weakest level; they have lost
confidence in
our professional police officers and other traditional state
structures.
Mugabe is now heavily dependent on a rogue militia and partisan
paramilitary
forces in his war against the people.
Zimbabweans are a
peace-loving people. That they have painfully
avoided anarchy, chaos or arms
of war to resolve the crisis demonstrates
their faith in an orderly
political transition and a sovereign right to
change. We shall see
democratic change through peaceful public expression.
All indications show
that the hour for action has come.
Fellow Zimbabweans, our nation
is firmly agreed that unless we unite
against this dictatorship, we are
headed for an abyss. Across the political
divide, we are all convinced that
the status quo is untenable; our destiny
as a people could be in tatters;
and unless we get out of this deep hole, we
risk our values and our common
humanity.
I am pleased to note that those who previously vilified
us are now on
our side, having experienced what it means to live in a
criminal state.
There is nothing left in the feudal Zanu PF plate to
maintain a patronage
system; the propaganda war against the people has run
its course; it is now
clear to all that we must act to save Zimbabwe from
collapse.
A criminal state, run by a gang of criminals and a
military oligarchy,
cannot negotiate itself out of chaos. A criminal state
cannot enter into
social contracts with the people. A criminal state cannot
run credible and
legitimate elections.
A criminal state cannot
be expected to respect the rule of law, adhere
to the principles of good
governance and craft coherent policies for
Zimbabwe. It is a state without a
nation. For 27 years, Robert Mugabe and
Zanu PF have abandoned the nation.
Our country has long disintegrated into a
loose coalition of clans and
tribes, all desperate for a single national
identity. From Nyanga to
Chipinge, right through Chiredzi, Masvingo, Gwanda
to Binga and Omay, the
people feel neglected and abandoned by the regime in
Harare and are
subsisting on their own.
Mugabe has marginalised millions of people
in the southern and western
half of the country; all our urban areas, our
mining settlements and any
other centres of valid economic activity. It is
true that Zimbabweans across
the political, ethnic and racial divide,
strongly feel a sense of exclusion
from the national and natural benefits of
their birthright. We wish to deal
with this fragmentation and build a nation
based on unity, fairness,
compassion, solidarity and
inclusiveness.
For 27 years, our quest for national integration
remains an elusive
dream. And, over the past seven years, the regime has
sought to divide the
people further, pretending to empower a new class of
citizens from within
its ranks. That experiment has failed as evidenced by
the chronic food
shortages, record unemployment, a collapsed economy, policy
distortions and
rampant corruption.
For the past seven years,
Zanu PF and Mugabe have abandoned the social
agenda and masterminded the
collapse of national institutions - all in the
name of preserving political
power through criminal means. The period saw
the imposition of a
totalitarian state, using an ageing squad of serving and
former senior
military officers.
The period saw the political injection of senior
military officers
into civilian administration and other state institutions.
By so doing,
Mugabe formed a reckless military oligarchy whose main task is
to run bogus
elections and to suppress the people of Zimbabwe. The idea is
to push
Zimbabwe to a civil war and to avoid accountability in a post-Mugabe
era.
Fellow Zimbabweans, the replacement of the civilian state with
partisan Mugabe loyalists from the military oligarchy has far-reaching
implications for our nation. The military oligarchy has created a militia
whose task is to deal with civil society and the opposition.
This military oligarchy destroyed commercial agriculture; the military
oligarchy has taken charge of fuel supply and distribution, wildlife
management, trade and commerce, transport, agriculture inputs, food
distribution and other strategic locations - all designed to prop up Mugabe
and manage election outcomes.
The regime has had to print money
to meet the unending demands of this
new administration, which shuns free
markets, and standard norms of commerce
for distributing goods and services.
All public works have been shelved. All
social services have succumbed to
political opportunistic infections from
the military oligarchy. The rule of
law has long been abandoned. The people
are forgotten.
As was
clear in Chiredzi in the just-ended election campaign,Zanu PF
and Mugabe
desperately need the services of the military oligarchy to remain
in power.
Examples abound where reliance on a military junta for civilian
administration and governance matters always ended with unkind results to
democracy.
Added to our existing political morass is Gideon
Gono - the governor
of the central bank. Gono's latest political statement
capped it all:
failure is now certain. Gono literally threw in the towel.
The crisis in
Zimbabwe is political. No amount of tinkering with phony cash
and excessive
controls shall address the root cause of the crisis of
governance.
Our message to Gono is simple. By pushing through a
dispensary of
painkillers, you are wasting our time and delaying the
resolution of the
national crisis.
Give way to political
alternatives. Our message to Mugabe is equally
simple. Allow the people to
exercise their sovereign right to introduce
viable political
alternatives.
A social contract is impossible when workers and
their leaders are
denied opportunities to express themselves. The social
contract is already
dead, as long as workers are brutally attacked whenever
they wish to
assemble and talk to each other. The social contract is history
when
journalists and newspapers are banned from public service and ordinary
people are refused access to a free market of ideas.
Co-operation among political players and other stakeholders for
whatever
national programme is only possible in a healthy climate in which
tolerance,
respect for differences and a non-partisan approach to national
affairs are
part of the game. With millions of Zimbabweans languishing in
the Diaspora,
denied a basic right to vote and determine the fate of their
country, Zanu
PF and Mugabe can forget about any meaningful social contract.
Instead of wasting time talking about social contracts in a
totalitarian
state, let us focus our attention on a new constitution. The
rest
immediately falls into place. The national crisis is now beyond Zanu PF's
ability to attend to alone. The solution lies in our proposals, enunciated
through our roadmap whose signposts for progress require sincere and open
dialogue, a nationally accepted transitional arrangement, a new
constitution, a confidence-building window and a free and fair
election.
We are going into a presidential election in 2008
convinced that the
election shall give us a superb opportunity to reverse
the chaos before us
and embark on a massive reconstruction, rehabilitation
and healing process.
We are determined to get into the presidential election
under a new
constitution in order to restore confidence in the electoral
process. We are
against elections under conditions which produce contested
outcomes. Our
call for elections in 2008 is out of the realisation that the
national
crisis cannot be extended by another day. We have had enough. We
say thus
far, and no further.
Our priority shall reside in the
resuscitation of fundamental
institutions of governance, the restoration of
the rule of law and the
introduction of an accountable and caring
government. The actions by
workers, activists and all professionals on the
ground are commendable and
more is on the way.
We believe the
time to act is now. We make no apologies for organising
and harnessing the
power of the people. We must express ourselves out of the
crisis through
action.
* Tsvangirai is leader of the opposition MDC.
Zim Independent
Comment
GOVERNMENT this week banned demonstrations and
rallies in most of
Harare's high-density suburbs on the grounds that police
had insufficient
manpower to deal with public disorder at political
gatherings in these
areas.
The prohibitions, which were
conveyed to the public in press adverts
on Wednesday, follow the police's
brutal suppression of a planned opposition
rally in Highfield on Sunday and
attacks on innocent residents in
surrounding townships by armed law
enforcement officers.
In essence, the ban on rallies using the
infamous Public Order and
Security Act, successor to the Law and Order
(Maintenance) Act, is a partial
imposition of a state of emergency by
President Mugabe who has become afraid
of his own people. Sections 25 and 26
of Posa grant the police wide powers
to prevent and break up public
gatherings if they are deemed to endanger
public order.
But we
question this new role of the police at political gatherings.
The police are
expected to preoccupy themselves with crowd-control and not
breaking up
meetings.
This is ample proof that Mugabe now requires brute force
to protect
his throne. As pointed out by Crisis Coalition this week, the
Zanu PF
government is committed to the use of violence as a tool of
governance.
Mugabe's power should never be challenged even by his
peers in the
party, he seems to think. He says the door is shut. Anyone
trying to open it
has to go past police riot control vehicles, teargas,
water cannons and
rubber truncheons. There was a clear demonstration of this
in Highfield,
Glen View, Glen Norah, Budiriro and Chitungwiza over the
weekend.
Mugabe, who has become hostage to his thirst for power,
always
pretends in public to be a fatherly figure adored by all his
subjects. He
does not see the dark side of his political
intolerance.
His interview flighted on national television on
Tuesday night once
again exposed this presidential subterfuge which has bred
a culture of
impunity among security forces.
Asked about the
issue of Western sanctions, President Mugabe,
appearing to be unaware of his
country's poor human rights record,
responded: "What evil have we committed
to anyone?"
To him, the butchery of farmers and opposition
supporters and the
accompanying torture of fellow countrymen by security
agents that occurred
in the run-up to the 2000 parliamentary election did
not constitute acts of
evil. This spirit of denying the existence of a huge
human rights deficit
stemming mainly from the impunity with which the law
enforcers operate is
the spur that they require to continue to violate basic
liberties. It is the
kind of impunity that has given police powers to use
force unnecessarily
during the course of their duties.
Stories
have been told of riot policemen telling victims that they are
only trained
to beat up people and not to arrest and take statements. It is
the same
cruel effrontery that drove the police on Sunday to firstly defy a
High
Court ruling to allow the opposition to demonstrate, and the violence
that
ensued in Highfield as law enforcers prevented people from attending
the MDC
rally.
During a Chamber hearing of the MDC application to be
allowed to hold
the rally, the police had argued that they did not have
enough personnel to
effectively police the rally because of the force's
involvement in Operation
Chikorokoza Chapera. That the police in defying the
High Court ruling
managed to mobilise almost 1 000 officers, water cannons,
attack dogs and
trucks, speaks volumes of President Mugabe's view of
opposition to his
hegemony. Despite this, he calls himself a
democrat.
Breaking up rallies and demonstrations is part of his
democratic brand
of governance. This is why he has the audacity to ask the
question: "What
evil have we committed to anyone?"
We can
respond to this by saying there are many today who bear the
scars of torture
and graves where victims of Zanu PF-sponsored violence are
entombed. The
evil that his government has done is creating an environment
that has
allowed perpetrators of political violence to be feted as heroes of
the
Third Chimurenga. It is closing the democratic space and criminalising
opposition politics. It is allowing the police to beat up civilians and
torture suspects while in custody. It is ignoring court orders and
subverting the rule of law. That is the legacy he passes on to Zimbabweans
in his 84th year. And it hangs like a dark cloud over the land.
Zim Independent
Candid Comment
By Joram Nyathi
MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai missed a big lesson last week. If you
want to get your way in
Zimbabwe's poisoned and corrupt world, you must play
big or sound important.
After the High Court granted his party an order to
hold its rally at
Zimbabwe Grounds on Sunday, he didn't need further
authorisation from the
police. The issue is simple. The police barricade the
entrance, you look for
their boss, wave the court order in his face and tell
him candidly: "The
information I want to reveal will compromise national
security if told from
outside the stadium. So let me in to address the
people in
privacy."
With that one has a chance to open the black gates to
State House.
This trick worked in an incident last week when a senior
Reserve Bank
official told the parliamentary portfolio committee on Mines
and the
Environment that he could not give his oral evidence in the presence
of the
media because this would "compromise state security".
Mirirai Chiremba is the RBZ's director of financial intelligence,
inspectorate, evaluation and security.
"Because of the nature
of my job," Chiremba warned the committee, "I
do not think it is suitable to
have the press here. I do not wish to say
anything that will cause
instability in the country."
The oral evidence he was supposed to
give concerned the possible
involvement of senior government officials,
including RBZ officials, in
illegal gold mining activities which have led to
the arrest of over 30 000
small-time tsotsis.
When such an
important man speaks the media must be very afraid. The
parliamentary
committee, chaired in an acting capacity by Gweru-Shurugwi
senator Tsitsi
Muzenda, also cringed and opted to hear this destabilising
information in
camera. This decision was taken "after consultations" among
committee
members, which means the worthy MPs must have agreed the
information was
important, sensitive and could destabilise the nation.
Two weeks
ago police deputy commissioner Godwin Matanga told the same
committee that
"senior politicians" were involved in illegal gold mining in
Kwekwe and
Kadoma. On February 9 leader of the Gold Miners' Association of
Zimbabwe,
Wonder Chanetsa, refused to name politicians involved for fear of
being
killed. Zimbabwe Women's Mining Association president Evelyn Mushava
was
blunt, telling chairman of the committee, Gabuzza Joel Gabuza, that he
would
"be stunned" if told the names of the "powerful politicians".
"Even
if we were to tell you the people involved, you will not act
because you
will also be afraid of them," she said. Both leaders were
suspicious of the
protection promised by the committee. The committee
members were
enraged.
Guruve South MP Edward Chindori-Chininga said arresting
small-scale
miners was addressing symptoms while letting the real culprits
"go
scot-free". He cited the example of a 22-year old man arrested in Zambia
on
his way to Dubai with 22kg of pure gold from Zimbabwe.
Bikita West MP Claudius Makova weighed in saying politicians involved
in
"corrupt" activities should be exposed. "Let's go down, let's go down
deep
there," he said, to which Muzenda chimed in righteously, declaring
"there
should be no sacred cows" as this would undermine government's fight
against
corruption.
All this was before they met the actual sacred cows.
They duly put on
their holy men's long white robes and sojourned to Kwekwe
and Kadoma. From
the summit of the mountain, lo and behold the glittering
city below and the
men labouring in it. They returned with the Pandora's box
and its treasures
but were all dumb like Zachariah for scoffing at the angel
Gabriel's
heavenly message. They were "stunned".
When Muzenda
regained her voice, she told the media still waiting
outside that "no names
of politicians or business people had been revealed"
by the RBZ's Chiremba.
"Honestly they (RBZ) are saying there are really no
godfathers," said a
lachrymose Senator Muzenda. It's all under oath, and
given what happened to
Roy Bennett in 2004, our parliament is not the League
of Nations of
1919.
Muzenda didn't say what state security information Chiremba
was
hiding. What is evident though is that the RBZ, government and the
parliamentary committee on Mines and the Environment have enough big names
corruptly dealing in precious minerals to "cause national instability". But
they will not release them, never mind the expectation and excitement they
arouse in society by promising what they can't deliver. In the end the media
are accused of hiding information as if we were magicians. It happened after
the Zisco debacle.
The implications of the parliamentary
committee's actions are
frightening - that high level corruption in Zimbabwe
is so rampant that
there are people who enjoy absolute freedom to loot
national resources
because they are assured of absolute immunity from
prosecution. The edifice
of the Zimbabwe government is held together by a
thick mortar of corruption
that nobody dares scratch lest the whole
structure collapses, for all
associated with it are stained and fall short
of the scrutiny of the law.
Quite conveniently, University of
Zimbabwe lecturer Claude Mararike
has been appointed to chair a research
unit "on the causes and definition of
corruption" in Zimbabwe. He appeared
on ZBC TV on Monday saying this would
be a long process and that people
should be patient. My fear is that by the
time these diversionary pursuits
are done there maybe nothing to recover.
Toni Yengeni is welcome to
Zimbabwe.
One thing is clear though. Unlicensed gold dealing is
"illegal" for
the poor and hungry and "corrupt" for the rich and powerful
and we don't
have a definition for what is corrupt. So let the orgy continue
while we
look for the definition. I think we need more prisons for the poor.
Otherwise what does the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Minister for
Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies do for a living?
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
By Vincent
Kahiya
WHAT is becoming clearer by the day is that the failing
economy now
presents a greater threat to President Mugabe's government than
the
political opposition and pressure groups all put together.
I will not delve much into the efficaciousness of our opposition other
than
to say that the parties once again advertised their weakness at the
poll in
Chiredzi South last weekend. Even before the holding of the poll,
the
opposition's script about an uneven playing field and the propensity of
President Mugabe's party to rig had already been authored. But in the end,
can members of Arthur Mutambara's fragment of the MDC pat each other on the
back and look at the election statistics with satisfaction and say "we did