Correspondent says he and two of his colleagues had no option but
to flee the country.
By Brian Latham in London (Africa Reports:
Zimbabwe Elections No 09, 23-Feb-05)
Valentine's Day, February 14,
saw yet another setback for journalists in Zimbabwe. Police from the
country's feared Law and Order Section raided the office used by Associated
Press freelancer Angus Shaw, Jan Raath a stringer for the Times of London
and me, the freelance correspondent for Bloomberg News in New
York.
The police conducted two searches over two days without warrants.
Hard drives were removed from computers and unencrypted without permission.
In the constant company of officers, we weren't even allowed to visit the
lavatory without supervision.
The office, in Harare's downtown
Avenues District, had been used by journalists for decades. Its location has
never been a secret to anyone and it was widely known among journalists as
the old gentlemen's news cooperative because, uniquely these days, it was
shared by competing agencies.
Our lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, a brave
protector of the press over the years, received information that Zimbabwe's
police were going to pursue charges against us at all cost. Independently of
Beatrice, we were also tipped off by sources in the country's ruling ZANU PF
party who said the authorities were going to jail us.
The police
eventually left the office on Monday evening, saying they would either come
to our homes or summons us by phone to Harare Central Police Station. After
about six hours of endless questioning and not-so-veiled threats, we jointly
decided we had no option but to flee.
Earlier in the day, the police, who
refused to give their names, had told Beatrice Mtetwa they did not need
information to search our offices or question us.
"First we find
suspects, then we get information from the suspects," they said, laughing
when Mtetwa said it was supposed to be the other way around.
Leaving the
country was fraught with potential difficulties. Harare International
Airport, guarded heavily by police and state security agents from the
Central Intelligence Organisation, was ruled out. Instead we left by road,
separately and heading for different borders at different times.
We left
behind us our homes, our country, our friends and our families, losing
everything in a flight for freedom in strange, new countries. The future has
never seemed more uncertain.
As for the people who helped us escape, they
cannot be named and their help cannot be written about. To do so would
invite the certain wrath of the authorities, incarceration, beating and
possibly worse. If journalists have a tough time in Zimbabwe, so too do
ordinary people who have seen their fathers tortured, their wives and
daughters raped and their homes burned to the ground by President Robert
Mugabe's notorious Green Bomber militias.
Our departure came just six
weeks before a general election set for March 31 that will see the ruling
Zanu PF pit itself against the Movement for Democratic Change. The poll has
already been dubbed "the free and fear" election by residents of Harare's
overwhelmingly MDC controlled townships.
With the effective closure of
the Associated Press, Bloomberg, DPA and Times bureaus, Zimbabwe's already
embattled foreign correspondents association has seen its numbers fall
catastrophically. Only the tiny Reuters and AFP bureaus remain to cover an
election in a country the size of California. The Zanu PF-controlled
government has already made it clear that "unfriendly western nations" will
be barred from sending observers and monitors.
Still, many say our forced
departure was to be expected. We follow in the footsteps of others evicted
even more forcefully. Long-standing old Africa hands like Andrew Meldrum of
the Guardian was deported, illegally and literally by the scruff of his
neck, for no apparent reason. Others like David Blair of the Telegraph saw
applications for their work permits refused for no given reason.
Our
predecessors, though, had all been born abroad. Angus Shaw and I were born
Zimbabweans. We were educated and brought up there and had lived almost our
entire lives in the country. Meanwhile Jan Raath, born in neighbouring South
Africa, had made Zimbabwe his home over 30 years ago and remains a
Zimbabwean citizen. But birthright and citizenship counted for little on
Valentine's Day 2005.
Others have asked why we did not remain to
fight the system, why we fled. The truth is that we could not fight. During
the last five years of political upheaval in Zimbabwe, all three of us have
witnessed brutality the country has not seen since the 1970s bush war that
ravaged then-Rhodesia. For the lonely individual, the massed Zanu PF forces
of militias, police, spy agencies, informers and soldiers is unbeatable. We
had to escape because the option was a disease ridden prison cell, possible
torture and almost certain beating and humiliation.
Uppermost in my
mind was the almost nine-month incarceration of Mugabe's own finance
minister, Chris Kureneri. He has been charged, but not tried for, the very
same "economic crimes" the police levelled at us. If Mugabe is prepared to
let his own minister rot in prison, what might he charge us with - spying,
working as "illegal journalists", publishing information likely to be
prejudicial to the security of the state and economic crimes before
us?
Brian Latham has for the time being sought refuge in London.
Ex-teacher returns to his former school to find hope replaced by
fear and suspicion.
By Jim Moffatt in Zvimba (Africa Reports:
Zimbabwe Elections No 09, 23-Feb-05)
I have just returned to the
rural Zimbabwean secondary school where I spent a year teaching twelve years
ago before going to university in Britain. I am shocked by the degree to
which the optimism of the past has been overridden by fear.
The
school, when I first arrived as a teenager in 1993, was in a poor village.
There was no electricity and no running water. This, near the small town
where President Robert Mugabe was born and had built himself a small palace.
Mugabe's younger sister, Sabina, was the local MP for the ruling ZANU PF
party.
Although few of the children had shoes and one book had to be
shared between three of them, there was an overriding sense of optimism.
Zimbabwe at the time was the bread basket of southern Africa and the talk
was of improvement.
I was sad to leave. I had made good friends and
had fallen in love with Africa and the way of life. As I followed the news
in Britain from Zimbabwe, I often wondered what had happened to my school
and my friends living there.
At last the opportunity came to return. I
noticed the change as soon as I headed up the familiar old red dirt track
towards the school. Where before the people in the homesteads waved and
smiled, now they just stared sullenly and suspiciously.
I stopped
first at the house of the bottle store owner, a good friend in the old days.
He was pleased to see me but was plainly uneasy and uncomfortable. When I
asked if I could stay with him he looked unhappy and said it was impossible
since his sons were about to visit him.
I went to see Tafadzwa, an
ex-pupil who was now subsistence farming on his family plot. Times are hard,
he said - no jobs, little money and everyone is hungry. In the past the
villagers grew maize for themselves and sold excess to the government Grain
Marketing Board, GMB. These sales provided money for school fees, transport
and grain out of season.
But now the GMB had no money, so there was no
cash income.
We touched on politics and why things were getting worse,
but he put his finger to his lips and said, "We mustn't talk about such
things. This area is politically sensitive." It was a clear reference to the
absolute power ZANU PF wields in the area through the chiefs, police and
youth militia, a violent outfit totally loyal to Mugabe and reminiscent of
Hitler's Brownshirts, but in their case dressed in bottle green
uniforms.
I suggested we head over to the school, as I had bought some
footballs for the pupils. Tafadzwa said that I should also give one to the
"boys who are camping around", the local youth militia unit who have the
fearsome name the Green Bombers. He was also keen that I meet the Green
Bombers' leader - "just so there will be no trouble".
As we
approached the school, we saw a group of men moving in our direction.
Tafadzwa became agitated and said that the leader was coming. He quickly
showed me how to make the ZANU PF fist salute. Soon we found ourselves
surrounded by five men carrying clubs.
The leader introduced his
squad - himself, the secretary carrying a notebook, and three security men
smoking marijuana. I explained who I was, that I had taught at the school
and that we had come to donate footballs, one of which I would be delighted
to offer to the Green Bombers.
The leader said it was compulsory for me
to report to the local chairman of ZANU PF. We went to see him via the
school. The library that we had installed was now just empty shelves. The
science block, which was beginning to be built when I left, was still a pile
of bricks.
Past the school we arrived at a homestead where about twenty
young men were sitting around drinking locally brewed maize beer. On seeing
me everything stopped and the ZANU PF chairman led the men towards me.
Tafadzwa gave the fist salute and started chanting in Shona the ZANU PF
slogan - "unity, togetherness".
The ZANU PF chairman stared hard at
me and, just for safety, I found myself also punching the air and chanting
the slogan. He relaxed, offered me some beer and thanked me for the
footballs.
I saw Nkani, who was captain of the school football team I had
coached. He was now one of the ZANU PF chairman's gang. He said he had been
a miner for a while after he left school, but that he had injured his leg
and returned to the village. "It is good that you have met the chairman, as
now it means there will be no trouble," he told me. I asked what he did
these days, and he laughed, saying he was "just around, helping out with the
guys because there is no work no jobs".
Keen to get away from the
chairman's understated menace, I went with Tafadzwa to find someone from the
primary school to hand over its share of the footballs I had brought. We met
one of the teachers, Mr Marufu, who I had known well. I asked him what the
Green Bombers did in the community. "As long as you kept quiet and have your
party card then things are OK," he said. Looking embarrassed as he showed me
his ZANU PF card, he added softly, "Things have changed since you were last
here."
There followed one of the most unusual football matches I have
ever played in. Both teams, other than Tafadzwa and me, were made up of
Green Bomber youths. The guys were physical, boisterous - they all had the
swagger of men who were used to a certain respect. My team won
4-1.
Afterwards, we headed to the bottle store where it was suggested I
make a donation towards "refreshments". I talked more with Nkani, who
admitted, "Things are bad, but the problem lies with the West which is
making it difficult for Zimbabweans." I saw others whom I had known, but in
the presence of the Green Bombers they were muted and watchful.
I
sensed danger to myself and to Tafadzwa and his family if I prolonged my
visit. The prevailing fear was tangible. It was clear also that ZANU PF and
the Green Bombers have a total grip on the rural community that will
translate into votes for the rulers in the parliamentary election on March
31.
Everywhere else I went the situation was equally grim. In the
towns, fuel shortages, power failures, water cuts and downed telephone lines
make daily life trying and business tough. Banks are being closed down
because directors have fraudulently spent their depositors'
money.
Things will clearly have to get worse before they can get
better.
In the meantime, the people just keep quiet and wait for change.
One old man in my once happy village gripped my arm and said, "We have
become like turtles, just hiding in our shells until it is safe to come out
again."
Jim Moffat is no longer a teacher. He now works in marketing in
Paris.
Zimbabwe leaves it late for poll observer teams Dumisani
Muleya
Harare Correspondent
ZIMBABWE will start officially
accrediting observers for next month's general election at the beginning of
March, exactly a month before the polling date.
Official sources
said yesterday that the accreditation of the observers, who have been
invited but have not yet received invitations, would begin on March
1.
Zimbabwe invited foreign observers last week in breach of the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) election guidelines, which say
the observers must be invited 90 days before voting day.
The
current environment in Zimbabwe is widely seen as not conducive for free and
fair elections.
Zimbabwe has invited 23 African countries, five from
Asia, three from the Americas and only Russia from Europe to observe the
election.
SADC leaders have been concerned about the delay in
inviting the SADC election observer mission to
participate.
President Thabo Mbeki has stressed the need for
observers to urgently go to Zimbabwe and assess the
situation.
Mbeki, who chairs the SADC organ on politics, defence and
security, has been awaiting an official invitation from Zimbabwe to
constitute the SADC observer mission.
After getting the
invitation letter, Mbeki will form the team and mandate SADC executive
secretary Prega Ramsamy to notify the members who will go to
Zimbabwe.
The SADC observer mission will be headed by an official
appointed by Mbeki and will be the spokesman of the team.
The
team is expected to be given unfettered access within the laws of the host
country to do its job of assessing the legal and political framework for the
elections.
The accreditation exercise in Zimbabwe will be done by the
Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC), whose chief elections officer is
retired Brig Kennedy Zimondi. ESC, a constitutional body, supervises the
registration of voters and elections.
The newly-formed Zimbabwe
Elections Commission, a supposedly independent statutory body expected to
run the coming election, can be overridden by the ESC.
By Staff
Reporter Last updated: 02/24/2005 11:28:46 PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's
spokesman George Charamba is leading a dramatic reshaping of the State media
and reversing some unpopular decisions introduced by the former Information
Minister Jonathan Moyo, New Zimbabwe.com was told last
night.
Charamba, the permanent secretary in Moyo's former ministry is
reported to be trying to streamline changes, beginning at the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) which has been struggling to pay
staff.
The restructuing is expected to widen to the State newspapers --
mainly the Herald and Chronicle -- where Moyo still has a lot of
supporters.
"Charamba summoned ZBH senior management to Harare on Tuesday
where he announced plans to undo most of Moyo's ambitious but unprofitable
experiments," a ZBH source said.
Moyo was fired from government after
he filed nomination papers to stand as an independent candidate for
Tsholotsho in parliamentary elections later next month.
Moyo's
ambitious plans, which included relocating some radio stations from Harare
and Bulawayo to smaller towns, have resulted in the ZBH making huge losses,
with workers sometimes going unpaid for weeks.
Sources said Charamba told
the meeting his plans to undo some of Moyo's plans, including renaming some
of the radio stations and abandoning Moyo's stillborn project of introducing
the National Broadcasting Corporation -- a 24 hour television
channel.
Although Charamba is clearly in charge of the Ministry of
Information following Moyo's departure, political analysts see him as an
unlikely replacement for the voluble workaholic, Moyo.
The favourite
to take over charge of the ministry is Webster Shamu, that is, if he wins
the election.
Meanwhile, as the democratic space continues to shrink in
Zimbabwe in the run-up to next month's crucial parliamentary election, the
Voice of America's Studio Seven has introduced a morning show focusing on
the forthcoming elections.
The morning show, which began early
February, is co-hosted by Chris Gande, a former bureau chief of the Daily
News in Bulawayo, and Nigerian journalist Chinedu Offor.
The
breakfast show, which starts at 5:39 am Zimbabwe time, has fast gained
popularity.
Studio Seven, which has been broadcasting for the past
two years for one hour in Shona, Ndebele and English everyday including week
ends, is one of the most popular alternatives to the state controlled
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holding.
The radio station is run by Zimbabwe's
journalists who include Ray Choto, who was severely tortured by the army
following a story he wrote about an alleged coup and Blessing Zulu formerly
of the Independent.
Brenda Moyo, Praxedes Jeremiah, Carol Gombakomba, all
former ZBC workers, Marvellous Nyahuye, Ndimiyake Mwakalyelye and Jonga
Kandemiri are some of the broadcasters based in Washington DC.
On
Tuesday, SW Radio Africa announced it was widening coverage by going on the
Medium Wave with a morning news and current affairs programme.
DISMISSED Information Minister
Jonathan Moyo - still trying to come to terms with his inglorious exit -
lashed out at the system that enticed him into government in 2000 but later
dumped him, saying President Robert Mugabe is now surrounded by undemocratic
tribalists.
In an exclusive interview with The Financial Gazette
yesterday, the former spin-doctor who courted President Mugabe's ire after
he decided to stand in the March parliamentary polls as an independent
candidate, invoked memories of the 1980s when the United States-educated
professor was a trenchant ZANU PF critic. Moyo, who needs to win in
his native Tsholotsho constituency to remain relevant in Zimbabwe's fluid
politics, says he is not bitter about his humiliating exit from government
and ZANU PF, which he claims he helped win the disputed 2000 and 2002
elections. The ruling party's old guard, which considers Moyo to be
arrogant and contemptuous, has however since welcomed his departure as good
riddance while the media fraternity loudly breathed a collective sigh of
relief that it would not have to suffer the anguish visited upon them by
Moyo, widely seen as the architect of retrogressive media laws. These laws
were used for systematic bullying and intimidation against the private media
which saw no less than three newspapers close down inside 12
months. The tongue-lashing academic-turned-propagandist, who was
probably the most hated government minister ever since independence, said
undemocratic political machinations by senior ZANU PF officials contributed
to his political misfortunes, which he claims started long before the
ill-fated Tsholotsho debacle. Since joining President Mugabe's
Cabinet in 2000, Moyo has crossed swords with senior ZANU PF heavyweights
such as Vice President Joseph Msika, ZANU PF national chairman John Nkomo
and ruling party information chief Nathan Shamuyarira, among
others. Moyo had largely avoided crossing President Mugabe's path until
late last year when he was caught up in an alleged Tsholotsho conspiracy
designed to scuttle Vice President Joyce Mujuru's ascendancy to the
presidium. Moyo denies the charge. Yesterday, Moyo attributed
his failure to make it to the central committee, ZANU PF's policy-making
organ, and to contest the Tsholotsho primaries on the ruling party ticket to
tribalism, which he said constituted an internal threat to the ruling
party. He said President Mugabe was surrounded by tribalists dabbling
in the politics of patronage that is threatening the democratic principles
of the ruling ZANU PF, which has since said it will not miss the mercurial
former information minister. "I believe ZANU PF has democratic
principles and I am proud of the fact that ZANU PF is the party of
liberation and that before November 18, 2005, (the day of the contentious
Dinyane meeting in Tsholotsho) ZANU PF had a democratic constitution. But I
am deeply disturbed that these democratic principles, the liberation history
and democratic constitution, have all not been applied in letter and spirit,
in an honest and fair way," said Moyo. "I am standing as an independent
candidate in Tsholotsho as a statement against tribalism, against the
politics of patronage, against the personalisation of national unity by an
increasingly selfish, arrogant and unaccountable old guard and for
sovereignty, democracy and development at local, provincial and national
levels," added Moyo yesterday. "The issue of indiscipline is total
rubbish. It is about the failure to respect the party constitution, to apply
rules in an honest and consistent way in all cases. The Dinyane meeting was
not against any provisions or procedures of the party's constitution," he
added. Moyo registered as an independent candidate in Tsholotsho after
the ZANU PF Matabelelend North provincial executive reserved the
constituency for women following a congress resolution that 30 percent of
the 120 contested seats be set a side for female candidates. Ruling party
supporters in Tsholotsho had nominated Moyo as the ZANU PF candidate for the
parliamentary polls set for March 31. The ZANU PF presidium, which
suspended six provincial chairmen and other senior party officials that
attended the Tsholotsho meeting, regards the gathering at Dinyane School as
illegal. Moyo maintained yesterday there was nothing illegal about the
meeting, except that some senior ZANU PF officials around President Mugabe
were jealous of the emergent class of young ruling party
politicians. "It (Tsholotsho) was not against any rule; in fact similar
meetings and gatherings took place in Mazoe, Beatrice, Ruwa to name but just
a few places. No noise has been made about these similar gatherings because
the participants in these meetings were seen as the right people, meeting at
the right places for the right reasons to nominate the right person. We at
Tsholotsho were seen as the wrong people, meeting at the wrong place for the
wrong reasons of wanting to nominate the wrong person. "I have no
doubt that if we had met as we did with the same people at the same venue
for the same purpose of speech and prize giving but perceived to be
supporting Mai Joyce Mujuru, we would have been congratulated and Tsholotsho
will not have been declared reserved for women. If you understand that, you
will understand why I don't feel I was a victim but discriminated against. I
have sought and looked around why and found that it all because of tribalism
and politics of patronage," said Moyo. "There has been a lot of
personal rule at the expense of principles and the constitution and I find
this very scary. I don't mind dealing with an unfair rule as long as I know
that it can be amended and changed fairly, but I have a problem with an
unfair person or bad person who happens to be in a powerful position that he
or she can use to impose their will against clear rules and procedures and
get away with it." The former information minister, the mastermind
behind the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA), who delighted in pouring vitriol against the opposition and critics
within the government, expressed disappointment at the manner he had been
treated in ZANU PF, culminating to his sacking last Saturday. It is
understood the government immediately withdrew personal aides, government
vehicles and cut off his mobile phone line a few hours after President
Mugabe faxed the dismissal letter on Saturday evening. "I feel it's
uncivilised... the manner in which I was treated. It should not be used as a
precedent because it will scare away honest, good, committed and hard
working competent people from working for ZANU PF and the state. Overzealous
individuals behind it should be forgiven for they do not know what they are
doing," he said. "I have the greatest respect for President Mugabe. I
have first hand knowledge and experience of his commitment to principle and
I know his legacy will remain difficult to match by many generations to
come. But my heart is bleeding because he is currently surrounded by a
visionless tribal clique whose myopic decisions and actions are putting at
risk the President's exemplary legacy."
SOUTH Africa's
crack investigation unit, the Scorpions, last week issued an international
warrant of arrest for maverick Zimbabwean businessman Billy Rautenbach -
wanted across the Limpopo on allegations of fraud involving billions of
dollars.
The controversial businessman, with extensive interests in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is alleged to have committed
various crimes including fraud relating to the conduct of his Hyundai motor
vehicle importation business when he was still head of Hyundai SA.
Reports from South Africa say the Supreme Court of appeal last week
reinstated a restraint order by the Scorpions on Rautenbach's house, six
flats in Sandhurst, farms in Kwazulu-Natal and the Western Cape, a Falcon
jet and a Bell Ranger helicopter. The National Directorate of
Public Prosecutions' Asset Forfeiture Unit has been pressing the highest
courts in that country for a final restraint order to seize the property,
worth around R60 million. Rautenbach however, told The Financial
Gazette this week that some influential business people were out to get him
and accused the Scorpions of being used "in pursuit of personal
vendettas". He said: "Their case is weak ... they have failed to prove
a thing against me for the past five years." The Scorpions have been
battling to nab Rautenbach, who left South Africa five years ago.
Sources said Pretoria might approach the Zimbabwean authorities to extradite
Rautenbach, whose mining activities in the DRC upset the status quo in that
country, resulting in a blaze of negative publicity in the media.
Rautenbach has in the past been linked to the government, and ZANU PF in
particular, although the businessman professed to have no influence in
Zimbabwean politics. The businessman, who headed a joint venture
cobalt-mining company and was chief executive of Gecamines from November
1998 to March 2000, said his problems emanated from his business involvement
in the DRC. His company, Ridgepointe International, clinched mining
rights to Gecamines concessions at Shinkolobwe, which include substantial
deposits of copper and cobalt. "The same people who have tried to
bring me down during the past five years are still after me. I know if I
From Page 1 Mazoe, Beatrice, Ruwa to name but just a few places. No
noise has been made about these similar gatherings because the participants
in these meetings were seen as the right people, meeting at the right places
for the right reasons to nominate the right person. We at Tsholotsho were
seen as the wrong people, meeting at the wrong place for the wrong reasons
of wanting to nominate the wrong person. "I have no doubt that if
we had met as we did with the same people at the same venue for the same
purpose of speech and prize giving but perceived to be supporting Mai Joyce
Mujuru, we would have been congratulated and Tsholotsho would not have been
declared reserved for women. If you understand that, you will understand why
I don't feel I was a victim but discriminated against. I have sought and
looked around why and found that it all because of tribalism and politics of
patronage," said Moyo. "There has been a lot of personal rule at the
expense of principles and the constitution and I find this very scary. I
don't mind dealing with an unfair rule as long as I know that it can be
amended and changed fairly, but I have a problem with an unfair person or
bad person who happens to be in a powerful position that he or she can use
to impose their will against clear rules and procedures and get away with
it." The former information minister, who delighted in pouring vitriol
against the opposition and critics within the government, expressed
disappointment at how he was treated during his last days in ZANU PF,
culminating in his sacking last Saturday. It is understood the
government immediately withdrew personal aides, government vehicles and cut
off his mobile phone line a few hours after President Mugabe faxed the
dismissal letter on Saturday evening. "I feel it's uncivilised... the
manner in which I was treated. It should not be used as a precedent because
it will scare away honest, good, committed and hard working competent people
from working for ZANU PF and the state. Overzealous individuals behind it
should be forgiven for they do not know what they are doing," he
said. "I have the greatest respect for President Mugabe. I have first
hand knowledge and experience of his commitment to principle and I know his
legacy will remain difficult to match by many generations to come. But my
heart is bleeding because he is currently surrounded by a visionless tribal
clique whose myopic decisions and actions are putting at risk the
President's exemplary legacy."
I ALMOST blew my top
when the cashier at The Post in Zambia told me she did not have my
change.
It was only K200. But that was way back in 1997. I was
thinking like a typical Zimbabwean. Two hundred Zim dollars was a lot of
money at the time. I was baffled when the lady gave me K500. I refused
to take it because it was much more than she owed me. I backed down when she
insisted and told her she could keep the K200 instead. I felt very
stupid when I got to my hotel and started reconciling my expenses. I had
been fuming over less than 10 US cents. Eight years down the line, it
has become routine for cashiers at supermarkets here to take my $200 change
without any explanation or excuse. And at times it's no use complaining
because the money is not even enough to buy a box of matches. How things
have changed! Way back in 1997, I would have totally refused to accept
that we would sink this deep. We had seen how our neighbours had wrecked
their economies, so we could not make the same mistake. After all
our leaders had lived or grown up in these countries. We thought they knew
better. Though we were off the International Monetary Fund books, our
economy was improving. At least that was what the figures told us. Inflation
was going down and had dropped to 18 percent. That was until what
has now been dubbed Black Friday in November 1997, when the Zimbabwe dollar,
which had been trading at around 11 to the greenback, suddenly fell to
25. Several theories have been floated. Some argue that the
crash was due to the disbursement of an unbudgeted-for $4 billion to
veterans of Zimbabwe's war of liberation. That was a lot of money at the
time. Others argue that the Zim dollar's fall was triggered by the
listing of more than 1 500 white-owned farms for compulsory
acquisition. Whatever the reason, the country went on a six-year slide,
which saw inflation shoot up to over 600 percent and the dollar slide to
more 8 000 to the greenback. The country had almost become a
free-for-all until Gideon Gono was appointed central bank governor and
cracked down on the financial sector, which was at the centre of widespread
speculative behaviour. The introduction of bearer's cheques, following
a critical cash shortage that crippled the country for almost six months in
2003 resulting in cash itself becoming tradable, seemed to compound
things. People became millionaires overnight. And you could carry that
million in your shirt pocket. It appears the government was more
shocked by the fall of the dollar than the public as it kept an unrealistic
tax-free threshold of $200 000 a month for more than nine months after the
introduction of bearer's cheques, yet the bread basket compiled by the
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe was more than four times that amount.
Though the government has since reviewed the tax-free threshold to $1
million, this still falls short of the poverty line. The consumer council
now says a family needs more than $1.7 million for its basic
requirements. In other words, we now have a ridiculous situation where
we have millionaires who are starving. While we basically have five
notes that still function, the $20 000, $10 000 and $5 000 bearer's cheques
as well as the $1 000 and $500 notes, we still have a lot of useless notes
in circulation such as the $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. To make
matters worse, the central bank insists coins are still legal tender, yet no
one accepts them now. The wear and tear on the notes, particularly the
$1 000 and $500, is just amazing. They are now the equivalent of a $1 and
50-cent coins. This has prompted people to argue that when Gono
introduces a new currency next year, he must seriously consider giving
Zimbabwe's money some value. There are suggestions that the country
should get rid of the last three zeroes, with the $1 000 becoming a dollar
and $1 million becoming $1 000. We would not need big denominations
like the $20 000 bearer's cheque, or even the $1 000 note. The $100 which
ruled supreme in 1997 would once again be the highest-denomination
currency. A lot of things do not make sense as things stand. School
fees now run into millions. Some cars are selling for over a billion. Houses
are going for billions. Companies are making profits in billions.
Instead of having a millionaires' list, those with billions are the real
rich. Surely, this can be reversed at the stroke of a pen. I wouldn't
mind earning $2 000 and being able to buy everything I want and send my
children to school, rather than earning $5 million and not being able to buy
enough groceries for a month. Let us bring back the respect the word
millionaire deserves. We cannot afford to have too many poor millionaires.
Very few people, except us, will understand that. Even children
will end up confused if all they can see are seven and 10 figures. They
might start thinking: what is the point of starting to count from one? They
might as well start at 100 or 1 000 or even one million!
THE International
Monetary Fund's (IMF) decision to spare Harare the rod that would have
shoved the country out of the 184-member family, has given Zimbabwe
breathing space to put its house in order.
The southern African
state, wrestling a five-year economic recession, survived compulsory
withdrawal from the IMF last week, which could have slammed the brakes on
overtures to re-engage the fund. Compulsory withdrawal, the last step
in a series of escalating measures applied by the IMF to members that fail
to meet their obligations, would also have put paid to efforts to fuse
Harare into the international community. The IMF, which pulled the
plug on Zimbabwe in 1999 when it withdrew balance-of-payments support, threw
a major lifeline mid last week after its executive board agreed to give the
country another chance. That the global financial behemoth, whose
backing is considered a seal of approval by other international financiers
could spare the stick on Zimbabwe, has added verve into Harare's think tanks
at the centre of getting the country out of the woods. "If they
(IMF) say things are well in Zimbabwe, others will also come in. That is why
Libya and China are also going to the West; and also, as a strategy, it is
better to fight with others through such integration such as the African
Union," said economist Godfrey Kanyenze. The IMF postponed a
recommendation with respect to compulsory withdrawal in view of the severity
of the decision and increases in payments from Zimbabwe since the last
review in July 2004, providing it with another chance to strengthen its
cooperation with the fund in terms of economic policies and
payments. "The executive board will consider again the managing
director's complaint regarding Zimbabwe's compulsory withdrawal from the
fund within six months or at the time of the executive board's discussion of
the 2005 Article IV consultation with Zimbabwe, whichever is earlier," noted
the fund. Analysts acknowledged the Bretton Woods institution had
loosened the noose around Harare's neck, particularly when viewed against
the voting pattern seen at the Washington-based fund on Wednesday.
Out of the 184-member countries, four representing 31.33 percent of the
votes, voted for Zimbabwe's expulsion, while 19 directors - representing 179
countries - voted in Zimbabwe's favour. These held 65.29 percent of the
votes. Only one country, accounting for 2.85 percent of the votes,
abstained. Britain and the United States, accused by President
Robert Mugabe of working with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
to topple his government, casts their votes against Zimbabwe, sources
say. The rest of the fund's directors, except one, swung the pendulum
in Zimbabwe's favour on the back of increased payments to the IMF and steps
taken so far to arrest the economic decline. Gideon Gono, the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor credited with instituting bold
measures to rescue the economy, picked something positive out of last week's
voting pattern. He was quoted saying: "At the end of the day, it is not
so much the vote for or against which matters, the bottom line is that we
owe it to ourselves to turn around our economy first and foremost; to reduce
inflation to sustainable levels; to promote investments and exports; to
create more employment for our people; more self reliance and empowerment
for ourselves, more than it benefits outsiders." Economist Kanyenze
said the IMF, also accused by President Mugabe of pandering to the whims of
his political foes namely Britain and the United States, had adopted a
carrot and stick approach to entice Harare into doing better. He
said the country should now develop long-term developmental strategies,
saying the macro-economic framework contained in the Finance Ministry's 2005
budget was not enough. "At the moment we are leaning on one leg, which
is the monetary policy and we need to fire from all cylinders," he said.
"The March 31 elections are another opportunity for us. Let us have a
peaceful election so that we can score on the political front as well," he
added. Relations between the IMF and Harare took a turn for the worst
in 1999, as the region's breadbasket then descended into its worst economic
and political crisis. The IMF then gave notice of intent to expel
Zimbabwe in December 2003 and last week's meeting was part of the fund's
six-month review of that position. At the core of the fallout was
Zimbabwe's arrears with the IMF, poor fiscal and monetary policies and
governance issues. Zimbabwe has been in continuous arrears to the IMF
since February 2001. As of February 15 2005, the country's arrears amounted
to US306 million or about 57 percent of its quota in the IMF. The
government recently increased its payments from US$1.5 million to US$5
million. Kanyenze said the fund, which closed its Harare office last
year due to the lack of a country assistance programme since 1999, would
continue loosening its grip on Zimbabwe should the authorities show
consistency in implementing policies that would nurse the
recession. The movement in the exchange rate, according to analysts,
presents yet another danger that could ignite inflation, which took a huge
thud from a peak of around 623 percent in January 2004 to 133.6 percent last
month. "We need huge dosages of foreign currency to bridge demand
because 80 percent of the demand for foreign exchange is not being met by
what is flowing in at the moment," he said. "Everyone should have the
passion that Gono has including labour and other policy matrixes," added
Kanyenze. Financial Holdings Limited economist Best Doroh, who also
welcomed the IMF's stance, said turnaround strategies being implemented by
the central bank need "a bit of time" for the results to be felt.
"What is critical is for us to make sure we are consistent with our
repayments, even increasing them to extinguish our arrears . . . the IMF
will be comfortable with us repaying a large chunk of the debt before they
could start re-engaging," said Doroh. He said Zimbabwe's recovery
would be slower without the IMF.
THE doek worn
by President Robert Mugabe as he launched the ZANU PF election campaign has
a significance that has escaped all of our commentators and observers. Yet
this single act of wearing a doek in public tells us all we need to know
about the President's state of mind at the moment.
And that
state of mind is this: President Mugabe is at the height of his confidence
chart at the moment. Even as you read this, ask yourself whether you
would have walked out of your house wearing a doek to attend a public
meeting (if you are a man). The answer would probably be no. What
would people say, you will ask yourself. What will they think of me, you
will wonder. And in order to protect your image as a macho, gung-ho African
man, you would probably have opted for a baseball cap. Or a bare
head. To opt for the doek, therefore, is actually to say that your
confidence in your own person is so high that nothing you do can diminish
your stature. This is the frame of mind that the President appears to be in
at the moment. So confident is he of victory that he is certain he
can give a preconceived notion the finger and get away with it, which he
did. This man, clearly, is enjoying himself and it is not difficult to see
why. He has whipped his party into line. When fissures started to
appear in the ZANU PF edifice, he stepped in and restored some form of
order. His views still largely carry the day within the party. And
he knows that despite all that has happened between the year 2000 and today,
he is still by far the biggest asset that the ruling party has.
Further, the President must surely be chuckling to himself as he sees MDC
MPs publicly call their own leader names as they threaten to scupper the
campaigns of chosen candidates within the MDC itself. No aspiring ZANU PF
candidate would dare to call the President names or announce in public that
he is going to treat the party's chosen candidates worse than he would treat
the opposition. Unozvitaura wakamira pai? I can almost hear the President
ask. Events on the ground also give us pointers to why the
President's confidence is so high at the moment. Few people would have
missed the data recently published by the Media Monitoring Project in
Zimbabwe, which says both private and public media give undue attention to
ZANU PF. In terms of share of voice, the MDC trails ZANU PF both in the
government media and in the independent press. Although it seems no
one is brave enough to say so, the truth is that this scenario is a creation
of the opposition itself, especially when it comes to the private press. And
by virtue of being the biggest of the opposition party, the MDC must take
full responsibility for this failure in strategy. The MDC has a
constituency that was, at one time, eager to hear its agenda and its plans
for the country. They can be sure of comfortable, even enthusiastic
reception in some of our private media. But that media cannot manufacture an
agenda for the MDC. In essence therefore, despite what others may say, the
scenario painted by the Media Monitoring Project is more a reflection on the
MDC than on the private or government media. Here's why: the MDC's
strategy all along has been to point at ZANU PF and shout very loudly, day
in and day out. The opposition party has deceived itself into believing that
keeping attention focused on ZANU PF is a "strategy". But this so-called
strategy is deeply flawed. For starters, even when ZANU PF bungles, the
MDC consistently fails to capitalise on the situation. Rarely does the MDC
actually take advantage of every misstep made by the ruling party to show
people that it has its eyes on the ball. The private media, especially, is
left with nothing to write about except the goings-on in ZANU PF.
Should it surprise the Media Monitoring Project and the reading public,
therefore, that both public and private media focus undue attention on ZANU
PF? Why should that be, when it is the MDC itself that has put in place a
strategy that says, "Keep focus and attention on ZANU PF", in the hope that
such focus will translate to the magnifying of the ruling party's
shortcomings? It also exposes the very real thinking in the MDC that all it
needs to get into power is for ZANU PF to misgovern the country.
This, in a country with the highest number of university graduates on the
African continent? In a country whose people are generally considered
cleverer (though not necessarily braver) than the people who lead them? The
MDC failed to ask itself how this strategy would work when things appeared
to be going right. Focus will continue to be on the President and his party
as Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono pushes inflation down. Focus will still
be on the ruling party as foreign currency inflows start to pick
up. And what happens when ZANU PF learns from its mistakes and starts
to appear more energetic and more involved with bread and butter
issues? Democracy's lessons are very easy to learn. Whenever your
opponent puts a foot wrong, you must be immediately there not only pointing
out that your opponent has lost the plot, but convincing people that you
would have done a better job, not because you are different from your
opponent, but because you have real ideas firmly anchored in a passion for
developing the lives of the people you seek to lead. This lesson
has been in every British election since Churchill lost the general election
in that country immediately after he led Britain to victory against Adolf
Hitler. Any party, in power or not, that fails to learn these lessons is
simply wasting its time and that of its core followers.
TO watch various South African
interest groups fumble with the Zimbabwean question is like seeing a Sevres
vase in the hands of a chimpanzee, as Evelyn Waugh would say.
On one hand, these misguided groups are increasingly becoming a political
and diplomatic embarrassment for the South African government, which should
surely be desperate to jettison them. And on the other, a squalid nuisance
to the Zimbabwean government which they are driving around the twist at a
time when it has just embarked on the incipient process of cleaning up its
image after being ostracised by the international community. First, it
was the labour movement, the Confederation of South African Trade Unions
(COSATU). And now, before one can even say Nelson Mandela, the headstrong,
patronising and dangerously opinionated South African opposition political
party, the Democratic Alliance (DA) which is given to grandstanding, is also
at it. Last week against its own better judgment, the South African
opposition party which obviously sees foreign policy through the wrong end
of a drain pipe, decided to come to Zimbabwe on a very political mission
without paying due regard to protocol. It sent three officials, Douglas
Gibson, Joe Seremani, and Paul Boughey, on the ill-fated journey.
The three officials of the party, which behaves as if it is the first in 2
005 years to know anything about democracy, came to Zimbabwe last week
ostensibly to assess whether the situation in the country was conducive to a
free and fair election. We could be fooled if we didn't know
better. But we could not be taken in by the pretensions of this hypocritical
poseur that is the DA. Their little stunt could have been about anything
else but the wish to see Zimbabweans express their universal adult suffrage
in a free environment. Now, it is well known that the DA has always had
an exaggerated opinion about its relevance in Zimbabwe's politics. Through
its leader Tony Leon, the party, intoxicated by the love of attention, has
over the past few years enjoyed prophesying regime change in Zimbabwe and
even intimated a wish to play a part, any part, in the burial of the
incumbent government except that of a mute, hence its latest antics. Tony
Leon's radical stance and tub-thumping during debates on the Zimbabwean
issue in the South African parliament is well-documented. It is
against this background that the official thinking within Zimbabwean
government circles is that those who, like the DA, oppose President Robert
Mugabe want to topple him not because of his alleged undemocratic election
but simply to put their man in. And with no other idea above regime change,
the DA's latest publicity stunt would be perceived in government circles as
dovetailing in with well-calculated moves to add to the Zimbabwe regime's
terrible aura to ratchet up pressure on President Mugabe in a world which,
to some extent, has admittedly a distorted view or exaggerated impression of
the situation obtaining in the country. The DA knew that any reaction by the
Zimbabwe government would translate into another turn of the screw.
Granted, Zimbabwe has lost its credibility, prestige and friends amid
controversy over the legitimacy of the incumbent government following
allegations that President Mugabe won an election tainted by unfair
campaigning. A lot has also gone wrong, giving rise to near obsolete
socio-political and economic structures, intermittent but sometimes acute
shortages of food and fuel as well as a collapsing health delivery system
among others. Not to mention the promulgation of bad and retrogressive laws
such as AIPPA and POSA. However, it is also a historical fact that
some of the government's worst critics do not know any more about the
situation in the country than a pig knows about Sunday! Indeed one "could
drive a prairie schooner" through some of the allegations of official
excesses levelled against the government and never scrape against a
fact. But this is probably what the likes of the DA are taking
advantage of. Otherwise we honestly don't see how the inconsequent but
voluble South African opposition party hopes to influence Zimbabwe's
political dispensation. Even in their egoistical imagination, they know that
their influence in the country's politics is no more than a whiff of perfume
on a lady's handkerchief! The way the DA is handling the whole
issue betrays a degree of political and diplomatic naiveté especially as it
emerged later that they had not even conferred with the country's main
opposition, the MDC, which has since made disparaging remarks about the DA's
overzealousness. The South Africans did not seem to understand the
implications, political meaning and basic significance of their aborted
move. Put simply, there is a dark side to the way the DA is poking its
nose in Zimbabwean affairs especially insofar as it relates to the
relationship between the ruling ZANU PF and the country's biggest opposition
party, the MDC. It is not difficult to see why. In the eyes of the
Zimbabwe government, which is increasingly behaving like a cornered black
mamba - the DA was born of a party that was a bloat of blood upon the
history of South Africa, and so is a racist establishment. True, the DA has
protested that it is a new broom. But that is neither reassuring nor
terribly convincing to the Zimbabwean government, which feels that the
broomstick is still being ridden by the same old master who has links to the
deposed but hard to kill Rhodesian element. And rightly or wrongly, this
link is extended to the local opposition. Suffice to say that with the
MDC considered guilty by association, the DA was not doing the local
opposition party, which the government accuses of being a Western front to
effect regime change, any favours. If anything the DA is, for want of a
better expression, nothing but a fly in the ointment.
Does it still make any economic sense going to work every
day?
2/24/2005 7:49:17 AM (GMT +2)
EDITOR - It no
longer makes any economic sense to continue chasing after the worthless Zim
dollar.
It no longer makes any economic sense to continue working
for someone. It no longer make any economic sense to ride a bicycle to
go to work for someone at his or her workplace or premises. It no
longer makes any economic sense to wake up at 4am and prepare to go to work
for someone. The rationale to continue working for someone has to be
seriously questioned in the light of the obtaining and prevailing realities
of hyperinflation. The opportunity costs of going to work are too
high, measured in time, missed opportunities, tears and sweat.
Going informal may actually be more profitable. You may make upwards of
forty five thousand dollars a day as compared to the fifteen thousand a day
obtaining in some sections of the commercials sector. I hate having to
say this, but it is now patently obvious that black employers, although they
make millions a day, are actually the worst when it comes to rewarding
workers. The incidences of underpaying are frightening, to put it
mildly. Something should be done urgently and done now.
The end has come at long
last! To every pig comes his Martinmas, Spaniards always say. Chinobhururuka
chinomhara, or is it aive madziva ave mazambuko? The best news in five
years!
Following recent political developments in the country which
saw the long-outgoing Professor finally going, ZANU PF and ZANU PF alone is
now responsible for the safety of this Professor, whatever "sins" he might
have committed. If anything happens to the man, ZANU PF alone would
be responsible because right now it is ZANU PF alone that doesn't like him
more than anyone else. CZ doesn't like him. He will always remember
him as the man who begot the notorious AIPPA, which in turn created the
killjoy Media and Information Commission which has already made history by
closing a record three newspapers and is threatening three more. (By the
way, when is this MIC going to summon editors from the state media whose
reporters are openly moonlighting for foreign-registered and owned
newspapers?) We might forget, but we won't forgive him.
Curiously, as his parting shot, he said he was doing what he was doing as a
matter of principle. Principle, my foot! As far as we know the Professor, he
always does what he does as a matter of convenience, not principle.
Now he knows the other side of "politics of patronage?" Good. At least
the man can now know how it is like to be an ordinary Zimbabwean in
Zimbabwe.
Journoz
CZ is expecting media hangmen at
the all-powerful Media and Information Commission to make a swoop at one of
the state-controlled dailies and charge it or its reporter with plagiarism
after its staffer last Friday saw nothing unethical with downloading and
literally reproducing an entire column published in a privately-owned weekly
a day before. This young man, who thinks everyone - including his
editors - is a fool, except himself, downloaded an entire column and
reproduced it in its fullness in the state daily . . . the only notable
changes he made being adding his name, and replacing words like big with
large, bell with signal, etc, etc! Surely this is criminal and, in all
fairness, the MIC should act! And still on the good daily, since when
has public relations consultant Jill Day become the managing director of
Mimosa mines? And how can a car robber who died in the course of a
robbery be "expected to appear in court soon"? cznotebook@yahoo.co.uk
A CONSORTIUM led by
retired army general Solomon Mujuru has lost a High Court appeal to have
business documents in the possession of ousted owners of River Ranch Diamond
Mine returned to the mine.
The consortium, comprising Aujan
Southern Africa Development, Rani International and Kupikile Resources, had
demanded that the former owners of River Ranch and Bubye Minerals hand over
all mine documents, including share and asset registers, maps and working
papers. The new board of directors, chaired by Adel Aujan, filed a High
Court application last year demanding that the deposed directors account for
their dealings and assets of the mine from October to September
2004. Justice Uchena, however, referred the case (number 10814/2004) to
trial. Legal experts said this means that River Ranch's new owners
failed to get the order they were seeking and can only proceed by making an
application in the lower courts. "The application by River Ranch
was referred to trial," sources said. Bubye Minerals, which took
control of River Ranch in 1999, accuses the Mujuru-led consortium of
"unlawfully and forcibly" taking over control of the diamond mine.
The loss of the appeal to take control of the crucial mine documents comes
at a time when the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development is reported to
have now intervened in the ownership wrangle.
AN
"exhaustive audit" into the use of funds availed by the central bank to the
agricultural sector is likely to zero in on the Agriculture and Rural
Development Authority (ARDA), the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and the
Agriculture and Rural Extension Services (AREX) in the coming
weeks.
The Financial Gazette is reliably informed that a team of
central bank investigators would soon probe the three state-controlled
agro-based institutions' use of funds availed by the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) in its efforts to turn around the flagging fortunes of the
sector. Of the three institutions, the spotlight is likely to fall on
ARDA and GMB, which are at the centre of efforts to revive the floundering
agricultural sector, sources said. Although no official
confirmation could be obtained from the monetary authorities, sources said
suspicion was high that some of the funds availed to the sector, could have
been abused. "I am not aware of that. I have not met anybody," said
Joseph Matovanyika, the chief executive officer of ARDA. The RBZ,
which has gone all out to stimulate positive supply side responses in the
economy, doled out $1.5 trillion for the procurement of agricultural
equipment, upgrading of irrigation facilities and the purchase of
chemicals. The audit will, among other things, seek to establish
whether the expenditure of the funds, which have already been exhausted, had
been channelled towards the intended purposes. When contacted for
comment, Samuel Muvuti, the chief executive of GMB said: "We haven't seen
officers who came here to audit us about anything, maybe they are still on
their way."
Lack of tourists forces firm to keep luxury camp under
wraps
Staff Reporter 2/24/2005 7:46:44 AM (GMT
+2)
CONSERVATION Corporation Zimbabwe (Private) Limited, which owns
top of the market Matetsi Safari Lodges, is failing to open its Safari Camp,
a luxury camp shut down four years ago due to lack of business.
Lovemore Chihota, chief executive of Conservation Corporation (Conscorp)
said the firm was failing to resuscitate the Safari Camp, whose business
operations are complementary to the sprawling upmarket lodges. The
lodges are situated in the wildlife-infested Hwange National Park outside
the prime tourist resort town of Victoria Falls. Matetsi Safari Camp,
which has now been reduced to a ghost camping site, nestles in the heart of
the national park, 12 kilometres away from the lodges. The failure
to re-open the Safari Camp mirrors the bleak prospects in the tourism
industry dramatised by a sharp reduction in business volumes since
government embarked on a controversial drive to kick out whites from
critical areas of the economy. Re-opening of the Safari Camp, a
major source of revenue for Conscorp, largely depends on the industry
regaining its feet. Chihota said the company, whose market source has
been predominantly whites from abroad, was now seeking to entice locals into
enjoying the splendour of Zimbabwe's natural resources. Chihota
said Conscorp was negotiating for concessionary rates for its clients from
the domestic market with national airline Air Zimbabwe. "Business is
likely to increase when the political temperatures cool down. Then we think
we will be able to re-open the camp," Chihota said. "At the moment we
are trying to capture the domestic market. We believe there is immense
business potential on the local market," he said. The tourism industry,
reeling from the effects of poorly crafted government policies, has been
trying to re-assert itself with little success.