Sunday Independent, SA
February 5, 2006
By Peta Thornycroft
Harare - South Africa has told fuel companies to immediately
cease supplying
their customers in Zimbabwe.
The department of minerals and
energy has sent a circular to all
fuel companies in South Africa telling
them that with "immediate effect"
they must cease supplying fuel to
Zimbabwe, citing "refining problems".
Zimbabwean importers of
fuel received e-mails this week from
South African fuel companies
accompanied by the letter from the department.
Most major
fuel companies in Zimbabwe source their own fuel from
South Africa because
the government's National Oil Company of Zimbabwe is
bankrupt and has been
unable to find sufficient foreign currency for fuel
since March last
year.
Fuel is available from selected garages with
coupons purchased
in foreign currency, or with Zimbabwe dollars, at wildly
fluctuating rates.
John Robertson, an economist, said
Zimbabwe no longer had a
strategic fuel stockpile and that there were no
bulk importers left to bring
in fuel via the pipeline from Beira,
Mozambique, to the eastern Zimbabwe
city of Mutare. "So we depend entirely
on fuel from South Africa brought in
by hundreds of small
importers.
"I doubt we have more than a couple of weeks of
stored fuel. The
implications, of course, are grave and our efficiency
levels will fall
rapidly."
I think we can all see that this regime has not got long to
go. Inflation at
50 per cent per month, spiraling expenditures that cannot be
stopped or they
will trigger the inevitable retribution, food shortages of
every sort and a
universally hostile global community. Something is about to
break; when it
does it will be fast and unexpected.
Why am I so sure
of the above statement? Simply because history shows that
this is what
happens to governments that screw up to the extent that the
Mugabe regime has
done. Never imagine they get away with their madness -
they do not,
eventually it catches up with them and they are consumed by it.
I recently
heard an account of life in the Hitler bunker in Berlin in 1945
as the Allies
were closing in on that particularly nasty blot on human
history. It was not
pleasant and you could almost feel sorry for Hitler and
his closest
compatriots.
What would be a tragedy at this juncture is if it happens
and we are not
ready and do not have a plan. They say we are a very
resourceful people - we
can "always make a plan". Well what is
ours?
We in the MDC have just emerged from a nasty split in our
leadership. This
is just about over and discussions are taking place as to
the possible basis
of a divorce. The people who have effectively left the MDC
will now go off
and start a new political party and those of us who have
remained in the MDC
will get on with what we have always seen as our task -
that of removing
Zanu PF from power and replacing them with a democratically
elected, law
abiding government that will respect all our rights as a people.
The main
distinguishing features of these two party's will be that the new
group will
continue to fight elections and we will not - at least not until
we have a
new constitution and can be assured of a level playing
field.
People must now decide where they belong and go off and join the
new group
or stay with the MDC. For me there has never been any question as
to where
the people are - they are still with the MDC. Under the surface of
this
storm, the water has been quite calm and undisturbed. I am always amazed
and
pleasantly surprised at the wisdom, insight and understanding of
the
ordinary voter.
The MDC is busy deciding (never a short process in
any democratic movement)
what to do but the outline of the way forward is
emerging - we are not going
to play games with Zanu PF anymore - we will
resolve at Congress to withdraw
from the democratic process until we have
change. In the light of this
growing consensus we have decided we will not
contest two elections coming
up this month in Bulawayo. Both certain MDC
seats, we still feel that not
only is this a waste of time, it will in fact
do nothing to secure our
primary goal.
Yesterday we held a major
consultation with civil society in Manicaland - a
prelude to starting a
campaign of democratic resistance to the Mugabe regime
in that region. Once
this programme is under way it will spread to other
areas, gradually
increasing the domestic pressure on the regime.
Soon we will meet with
civil society to debate the way forward and to try
and secure agreement on
our goals and strategies. This meeting will include
all the organisations
that made up the Working People's Convention that
launched the MDC on its way
in the late 90's. At this meeting the MDC, as a
child of this group, will
report its progress and failures as a party. We
will be able to point to our
victories and admit our mistakes, but most of
all to say that the electoral
system here is now so subverted that it no
longer offers us a route for
change. Remember the WPC gave us a mandate to
pursue change by democratic,
peaceful, legal means.
Does this mean that we are now turning to
violence? Not at all and the
regime here knows that - just this past week
when the MDC held a short
strategy session in Zambia and Zambia was asked to
evict us, when the
Zambian army, police, intelligence and immigration
officers came to our
hotel to comply with the request from the Zimbabwe
regime, they did not
bother to search us, our rooms or our luggage. They knew
full well we were
there purely on political business and that all we wanted
was 48 hours free
of CIO surveillance and monitoring. So much for SADC
commitments to normal
democratic activity.
In fact our road map has
not changed at all - all we are demanding is that
we are allowed to hold a
national all stakeholders constitutional
conference, agree on implementation
procedures and a transitional
administration and then are allowed to hold
free and fair elections for our
leadership under international supervision.
Simple.
The question is how do we get there and when. Well the economy
and the
dollar are doing their bit - both are in steep decline. We have
effectively
devalued by more than 50 per cent in the past two weeks. Prices
are
spiraling out of control and the shortages are becoming more acute
daily.
Power outages are now the norm and we are close to almost complete
collapse.
We are going to ask our people to also do their bit. If we all
start in a
small way to disobey the State - stop paying our bills to the
State, helping
distribute information to each other and to persuade the armed
forces to
join the people's campaign for a new constitution. Write funny
messages on
walls and stop buying the State controlled newspapers - we can
all do
something.
We are going to ask our civil society partners
(parents) to adopt the MDC
road map to change. Then to decide what they can
each do to help push the
agenda forward. We will ask the Churches to devote
Easter this year to
prayers for change and renewal. We will ask the Unions to
get workers to
demand a new constitution, we will ask the Chiefs to do the
same and will
initiate a campaign in the armed forces. If they join us in our
struggle for
a new Zimbabwe, then it is over; they are the only remaining
pillars
supporting Zanu PF power.
We will be going to the
international community, including the UN to demand
that they come with us on
this new agenda. Do they have an alternative? This
is democratic; it could be
peaceful and will then enable us to restore the
rule of law and all human and
political rights so that a new Zimbabwe can
rise from the ashes of the old.
We will demand that the SADC back us in this
initiative and just as they did
in 1979, force all local political leaders
to attend the conference and to
participate until agreement is reached on a
consensual basis. Zanu PF has no
choice but to come to the conference and to
negotiate its survival and
future.
And this is where you come in - we need money and people. You
cannot survive
for long in politics without both. We have the people - but no
money! Ncube
stole what we had, the State denies us what is ours and our
business leaders
are scared of their shadows and trying to survive the
economic storm that
rages here. We have stopped wasting our time on the
recent spat inside the
MDC and are now working flat out on the implementation
of the MDC road map.
We will not make progress without funds and we must
all stop sitting on our
chequebooks because we are uncertain about which
faction the money will go
to or what will be done with it. There is only one
MDC, its leader is Morgan
Tsvangirai and it is the only possible vehicle for
change - no one else has
the people on their side. For those in South Africa
- remember Zimfund, for
those in Zimbabwe - just contact us. In the US and
the EU contact your
nearest branch. Remember 10 pounds is now worth Z$2,5
million. It all helps.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 5th February 2006.
Zim Online
Mon 6
February 2006
HARARE - Divisions have emerged within the government
over whether to
enact new legislation enabling it to seize citizens'
passports, with
Attorney General (AG) Sobuza Gula-Ndebele said to be
strongly opposed to
such a law, ZimOnline has learnt.
Authoritative sources said Gula-Ndebele has so far resisted pressure
mainly
from Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede, in charge of the passport
office, to
sanction the drafting of the proposed new law.
The AG is said to
have openly confessed to senior aides at his
department that he feared the
proposed passport law would set a bad
precedent besides also helping
entrench further the view that Zimbabwe is a
dictatorship.
"The AG has said it will be a bad
precedent to have such a law but
Mudede has been applying pressure. There
has been no meeting this year over
this issue because of the differences in
opinion," said senior official at
the AG's department, who did not want to
be named because departmental
policy bars officers from disclosing such
information to the Press.
The government controversially amended
Zimbabwe's constitution last
August, granting itself powers to withdraw
passports of citizens who it
deems may harm the "national interest" if
allowed to travel abroad.
Critics opposed the constitutional
amendment saying President Robert
Mugabe would use the new powers to banish
political opponents and human
rights from travelling abroad to alert the
international community to
continued human rights violations and tyranny by
the Harare government.
The government however did not pass an act
of Parliament to enable it
to exercise the new powers to withdraw travel
documents. The government was
last year forced by the High Court to return
the passports of prominent
newspaper publisher Trevor Ncube, opposition
politician Paul Themba Nyathi
and trade unionist Raymond Majongwe after the
AG's office conceded that the
state had acted outside the law when it
confiscated the three men's
passports.
According to the
sources, Mudede and other hardliners in the
government have in several
meetings, most of them held weeks after the state
lost in the High Court,
been pressurising Gula-Ndebele to produce a draft
passport seizure law that
the ruling ZANU PF party could use its
overwhelming majority to speedily
push through Parliament.
But Gula-Ndebele, who as AG is the
government's chief legal officer,
has so far refused to barge, according to
the sources.
Gula-Ndebele however professed ignorance of any
differences between
his department and Mudede's office over the proposed
passport law when
contacted by ZimOnline, only saying: "I'm not aware of
that."
Mudede could not be reached for comment on the matter while
Home
Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, under whose portfolio the immigration
and
passports divisions fall, would not confirm or deny the disagreements
over
the proposed passport law, although insisting that the government would
follow due process if it was to enact such a law.
Mohadi said:
"We will follow due process for the introduction of such
laws. I am not
saying there are no intentions to introduce such laws but we
will go through
Parliament."
Although ZANU PF agreed at its annual conference last
year to push for
legislation empowering the government to withdrew
passports, Gula-Ndebele is
said to have taken his position on the matter
with support from a faction of
ZANU PF controlled by powerful former army
general Solomon Mujuru.
This faction of the ruling party also
includes Mujuru's wife Joyce,
who is ZANU PF and Zimbabwe second
vice-president and is among frontrunners
to succeed Mugabe when and if he
steps down at the end of his term in 2008.
The Mujuru faction has
reportedly been marketing itself as comprising
the more progressive minds in
ZANU PF who will work to bring Zimbabwe back
into the international fold if
they win the battle for control of the ruling
party in the post-Mugabe
era.
The other faction of ZANU PF is led by former parliamentary
speaker
Emmerson Mnangagwa but appears to have lost the upper hand to
Mujuru's group
since Mnangagwa lost the ZANU PF and state vice-presidency
job to Joyce at
the eleventh hour in 2004. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Mon 6 February
2006
MASVINGO - Four British tourists, dressed in their baggy and
leafy
shirts, sweep into a roadside crafts centre, some 15km south of
Zimbabwe's
oldest town of Masvingo.
Two dreadlocked young men
quickly jump onto their feet to greet the
tourists, each one fervently
begging the visitors to buy his carvings.
Language is no barrier
here, as they all understand the universal
language of business. With the
"deal" done, the tourists' four-wheel drive
roars into life as they proceed
with their journey.
This was the scenario on most Zimbabwean
highways six years ago before
President Robert Mugabe unleashed a reign of
terror on political opponents
and critics of his government.
The tourism sector, Zimbabwe's fastest growing sector before 2000,
suffered
the worst from political violence as tourists cancelled bookings,
afraid to
travel to a country virtually at war with itself.
The main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party says at
least a
thousand Zimbabweans died in political violence between 2000 and
2002 when
the country held bitterly contested parliamentary and presidential
elections.
But the crisis in the tourism sector took a turn for
the worst last
May after Mugabe sanctioned a controversial clean-up exercise
in cities and
towns that the United Nations says left at least 700 000
people without
shelter or means of income after the government demolished
shantytowns and
informal business kiosks.
The roadside
sculptor, a familiar feature along Zimbabwe's major
highways, was also hit
hard by the clean-up exercise - which was cynically
named "Operation
Murambatsvina" (Drive out Rubbish) - as the government also
demolished
roadside market stalls.
Adwell Nhongo, a sculptor who used to make
a living selling his stone
works along the busy Masvingo-Harare highway,
said they can hardly survive
due to the low numbers of tourists visiting the
country, especially after
last year's clean-up exercise.
"The
clean-up exercise crippled our operations. There is no more
business to talk
about. Of course we blame this squarely on the government
because we are now
living in poverty," said Nhongo.
Masvingo, which owes its name to
the famous Great Zimbabwe monuments
some 25km south of the town, was among
the three top tourism destinations
that also include the world-famous
Victoria Falls and scenic Nyanga Mountain
range.
According the
Masvingo-Great Zimbabwe Publicity Association, which
markets the tourist
resort in the town, the number of tourists visiting
Great Zimbabwe has
declined by about 90 percent over the past six years,
hitting hard sculptors
who depended on tourists for sales.
Daniel Mpande, who is the
association's information officer, said: "We
are receiving less than 1 000
foreign tourists a year. The situation is very
disturbing."
Perceptions of political instability and economic chaos in Zimbabwe
have
stubbornly refused to go away despite spirited propaganda campaigns by
Harare to mask the crisis.
And the sculpture industry is
virtually on its knees as it battles
dwindling tourist numbers due to
serious perceptions of lawlessness and
violence - thanks to Mugabe's
attempts to violently suppress opposition to
his rule.
A
foreign tourist, Rooney Kite, who was visiting the Great Zimbabwe
monument
told ZimOnline that he was cutting short his visit at the monuments
after he
was harassed by ruling ZANU PF party militants, who had mistaken
him for a
worker of one of the non-governmental organisations operating in
the
country.
The militants of Mugabe's party routinely harass workers
of NGOs who
they accuse of attempting to use aid to bribe Zimbabweans to
rise against
the government.
"I was supposed to stay for five
days here together with my family but
I am leaving as I no longer feel very
safe. It is clear why no one wants to
go to a country where lawlessness is
the order of the day," said Kite.
Masvingo mayor, Engineer Alois
Chaimiti, a member of the MDC party,
concurred with the tourist saying
whatever attempts to market the Great
Zimbabwe monuments would be futile as
long as political violence and
lawlessness was tolerated.
The
mayor said: "As a local authority we had embarked on an extensive
investment
drive telling potential tourists that we have excellent tourist
resorts such
as Lake Kyle and the Great Zimbabwe but the political situation
in the
country makes everything impossible."
With Mugabe firmly in charge
and the opposition in disarray after a
damaging split last November over
whether the party should have participated
in a controversial senate
election, it looks set to be a long while before
the tourism sector and
other downstream sub-sectors such as the sculpture
industry will be on the
path to recovery. - ZimOnline
BBC
Power cuts already
blighting Zimbabwe are set to get worse because of
a lack of coal supplies
for electricity generators, state-run media reports.
The state
electricity provider is also reported to be unable to pay
its debts to
suppliers and transport companies.
Coal-fired stations in the
capital, Harare, and in the second city,
Bulawayo, have already been shut
down.
Zimbabwe's main overseas power provider South Africa says it
has
temporarily halted supplies for maintenance work.
"I would
like to bring to the attention of all consumers that the
current load
shedding due to supply shortfall is set to worsen," head of the
power
regulatory commission, Mavis Chidzonga, was quoted in Zimbabwe's
Sunday Mail
as saying.
'Precarious'
She warned that electricity
production at the Hwange facility
servicing north-west Zimbabwe may also
have to be reduced due to the
shortages.
She said the recent
coal shortages had been made worse by the state
electricity provider's
inability to pay its debts to suppliers and
transporters.
The
government has previously refused to approve inflation-linked
hikes in
electricity fees.
But Ms Chidzonga said management reforms and
massive tariff increases
were needed to address what she called the
country's "precarious" power
situation.
She told the newspaper
they were trying to obtain additional supplies
from Zambia. But BBC
correspondents say this is unlikely as drought is
affecting that country's
hydro-electric power service.
Harare is already experiencing daily
black-outs. The country's regular
cuts in power and water supplies are
blamed on acute shortages in hard
currency, gasoline and imported spare
parts.
The country imports around 40% of its power from South
Africa, DR
Congo and Mozambique.
SABC
February 05, 2006,
19:00
President Thabo Mbeki has reiterated that Zimbabweans must find a
solution
to their own problems. Speaking during an interview with the SABC,
Mbeki
said he was initially optimistic that the ruling Zanu(PF) and the
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would work jointly on a new
constitution after they agreed to that.
Mbeki says current infighting
within the MDC has further stalled talks. "The
MDC has its own serious
problems and at some point they came to us to assist
in mending relations
among themselves. It didn't work when we tried to
intervene".
Mbeki
says he will not stand for a third term in office. He says the ANC has
no
intention to amend the Constitution to this effect, despite having
secured a
two-thirds majority in the last general election.
Reuters
Sun Feb 5, 2006 11:47 AM GMT
HARARE (Reuters) -
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader was deported from
Zambia after secretly
meeting officials from an organisation headed by
former U.S. intelligence
agents, an official newspaper said on Sunday.
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai was ejected
from Zimbabwe's northern
neighbour with eight colleagues from his splintered
party on Thursday for
violating Zambia's immigration laws.
The Sunday Mail said the expulsion
occurred "after they allegedly held a
secret meeting with officials from a
U.S.-funded organisation called Freedom
House headed by former CIA and FBI
agents," the Sunday Mail reported.
"It has also emerged that the U.S.
embassy in Harare arranged the meeting,
with the American team raising
suspicion that the meeting could have been
organised to plot ways of causing
an upheaval in Zimbabwe," it added, citing
unnamed
sources.
U.S.-funded Freedom House describes itself as an independent,
non-governmental organisation dedicated to promoting
democracy.
Government, U.S. embassy and MDC officials were not
immediately reachable
for comment on Sunday, but the paper quoted
Tsvangirai's spokesman William
Bango as saying: "We don't have anything
further to say about that trip to
Zambia other than what is in the public
domain already."
The MDC, which has offered the stiffest challenge to
President Robert
Mugabe's 26-year rule since its formation in 1999, has
split into two rival
factions amid political infighting that analysts say
has limited the party's
effectiveness.
Mugabe's government has
frequently charged both the MDC and Tsvangirai with
being agents for foreign
powers opposed to his policy of seizing white-owned
farms to redistribute to
landless blacks.
News24
05/02/2006 07:44 -
(SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe is to unveil a new law this week that could
help
rejuvenate its once burgeoning mining sector by dispelling the
uncertainty
over ownership.
The economically-ravaged country's mining
sector is currently reeling under
a plethora of woes which have led to the
closure of at least 13 mines in the
past six years, according to the Chamber
of Mines.
An acute shortage of spare parts fuelled by a foreign exchange
crunch,
spiralling inflation, a free-falling currency, erratic power
supplies and
higher production costs have not helped the
situation.
Junior Mines Minister Tinos Rusere said the new mining bill
would be tabled
when parliament returns from the Christmas break next
week.
Despite its vast reserves of palladium, chrome, platinum and
diamonds,
Zimbabwe has seen its mining sector stagnate after President
Robert Mugabe
last year warned that the government would demand a 50% stake
in all mines.
"We cannot recognise absolute ownership of our resources.
No! That must be
corrected," Mugabe said.
Platinum giant Zimplats has
put on hold a $2bn expansion plan until the
passing of the new
law.
"The plans remain alive and will kick off once the outstanding
regulatory
issues have been promulgated and taken into account," said
Zimplats
spokesperson Jack Murehwa.
"Realistically no investor will
release significantly large sums of money
for projects in Zimbabwe before
knowing the rules and regulations governing
the industry," said Murehwa, who
is also president of the Zimbabwe Chamber
of Mines.
South Africa's
Implats owns 86.9% of Zimplats, which operates the country's
only platinum
mine. It produced 494 tonnes of platinum last year.
Under current laws,
locals are entitled to a 15% stake in foreign-owned
mining ventures but
there have been few takers.
A group of Zimbabwean businessmen have been
battling since 2004 to raise
over $30m to purchase shares in
Zimplats.
"Besides the usual problems of foreign currency shortages and
spare parts
the major issue which has to be addressed is that of legislation
on
investment and the stake for locals," said Godfrey Dzinomwa, managing
director of the Hwange Colliery Company.
"Everyone in the industry is
waiting for that new law."
Earnings from mining last year totalled $626m,
representing 44% of
Zimbabwe's total foreign currency revenues, according to
Reserve Bank
figures.
The sector employed more than 50 000 people in
1989, but at the end of last
year the number had dropped to 44 500 workers,
according to the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions.
Mining has also
been hit hard by smuggling which led to a dip in gold output
from 21 342kg
in 2004 to 13 453 last year, Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono
said last
week, with losses estimated at $160m.
Production has also been hampered
by a power deficit as the national power
utility battles to meet the demand
for electricity.
Zim Standard
By Gibbs Dube
BULAWAYO
- Two children of a government minister, police officers, a large
number of
civil servants and soldiers are the beneficiaries of "Operation
Garikai/
Hlalani Kuhle" in Gwanda.
The revelations come at a time when government
has ordered that
beneficiaries immediately move into the houses, although
these are without
water and sewer reticulation systems.
Ignatious Chombo,
the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Urban
Development, has
given the green light for the residents to put up Blair
toilets and other
"temporary toilets" in their suburbs where they would get
water from
communal taps.
"Beneficiaries of completed houses which are not yet
habitable because of
lack of sewer and water reticulation are to move in and
start using central
water collection points as well as Blair toilets while
permanent servicing
arrangements are being made," notes a government
directive in possession of
The Standard.
The scheme is designed to
benefit homeless and poor people who were
displaced by Zimbabwe's
widely-condemned "Operation Murambatsvina".
However, documents leaked to
The Standard show that the programme is set to
benefit well connected people
and government officials.
In Gwanda, two children of the Deputy Minister
of Public Service, Labour and
Social Welfare, Abednigo Ncube - Leslie and
Colleta Thabiso Ncube - whose
addresses are listed as 82 Senondo were
allocated houses last Thursday.
Ncube, who is also the Member of
Parliament for Gwanda, used to stay at
number 82 Senondo suburb before he
moved to Jacaranda low-density suburb
following his appointment as deputy
minister.
Leslie, an employee of the Gwanda Rural District Council and
currently
staying at his father's former residence, is listed as number 9323
on the
town's housing waiting list which currently stands at more than 27
000,
while his sister, Colleta, does not appear on the list at
all.
Other luminaries appearing on the housing list include Acting
Officer
Commanding Matabeleland South Assistant Commissioner Munorwei Shava
Matutu;
Etoile Silayigwana; provincial executive members of the ruling party
Esau
Moyo and Rabson Mpofu Mafu; and senior civil servants Calvin Nzima and
Joseph Kamuzhanje.
Several prison officers and their juniors also
appear to have been allocated
houses in Gwanda in what seems to have been a
free-for-all for government
workers.
Nzima and Kamuzhanje are the
provincial heads of the Central Mechanical and
Equipment Department (CMED)
and Physical Planning Department respectively.
Zim Standard
By Lloyd Mutungamiri
AN audit to
establish how resources Zimbabweans contributed towards the
Warriors
participation at the African Cup of Nations has started in the hope
it will
provide more answers than questions to charges of massive
misappropriation
of funds, The Standard has learnt.
The probe comes amid reports of what
amounts to widespread abuse by members
of the Fund-raising Committee, of
funds and donations meant for use by the
Warriors at the Egyptian
campaign.
Following a massive fund-raising drive by government, which was
spearheaded
by Vice President Joseph Msika, an estimated $50 billion in cash
and goods
was realised, but allegations of what amounts to a free-for-all by
some of
the committee members are beginning to emerge.
The Standard
has confirmed members of the fund-raising committee were on $10
million
allowance every time they travelled to co-ordinate out-of-town
activities
such as galas and matches, with a breakdown indicating $5million
was meant
for fuel and $5million for accommodation.
There were at least four
matches, a musical gala in Mutare and dinner in
Bulawayo.
It has also
been learnt CMED is owed millions for the use/hire of its bus,
and there is
a bill of almost $1billion due to Crowne Plaza, where the
committee was
co-ordinating its activities.
The Standard has also established that a
set of kit bags, shirts and
towels - as well as food stuffs such as orange
juice and corn flakes - meant
for use by the team in Egypt did not go with
the team, and they are still
locked away at the command centre.
A
source has revealed that eyebrows were raised over the "paltry" amounts
declared from the whole fund-raising exercise, with allegations of massive
looting due to lack of strict controls and co-ordination.
There are
also reports of lavish spending by committee members while in
Egypt, where
one of the expenses has been listed as paying for a licence for
Zimbabwe
embassy-issue vehicle that was used for shuttling some of the
members that
made the trip to the north African country.
There is also an allegation
of the committee being made to foot the expenses
of a "member", with
suggestions girl friends were included on the official
list.
A letter
requesting "issuance of PTA tickets" to two "delegates" was
yesterday
discounted by both the purported author and a committee member,
who
travelled with the team to France enroute to the Egypt finals.
Patson
Moyo, a member of the Fund Raising Committee, yesterday confirmed
they owed
a couple of debtors but said: "Zifa owed a lot of money to hotels
and the
team was stranded so we had to find them some place to stay, so we
put the
team at the Crowne Plaza for a few days. It's true we owe CMED as
well, and
the donations to the Warriors are at the hotel as they came after
the team
had left, which was ahead of schedule.
"We will hand the goods which
include kit bags, trousers, shirts and ties as
well as some food stuffs over
to Zifa, after we have reconciled our books. I
deny there were other people
apart from the official delegates that had
tickets paid for by the
Committee. But if there is anything amiss, it will
come out in the audit
report."
Moyo refused to comment on an alleged scandal, which is said to
have been
the talk among the travelling band of Zimbabwean
supporters.
The Standard was also told that a government official, who
travelled to
Egypt for the ACON tournament caused a furore after he
allegedly fondled a
female Egyptian hotel worker, and other accompanying
officials had to
apologise to the hotel management to avert a
scandal.
Zim Standard
By Caiphas
Chimhete
CORRUPTION in Zimbabwe will not end because it involves senior
government
officials who are benefiting from its continuance with impunity,
speakers at
a public seminar said last week.
Speaking at a seminar
organized by Transparency International Zimbabwe
(TIZ), head of the Labour
and Economic Development Research Institute of
Zimbabwe Dr Godfrey Kanyenze
said corruption was persisting because those in
power protected each other
when looting the national purse.
He said the findings of several of the
commissions set up to investigate
corruption since 1980 were never
publicized because they involved senior
government officials or the
rich.
"The commissions named people in the Willowgate scandal, the
Pay-for-Your-House scheme and War Victims' Compensation Fund but no one has
been convicted ever since," said Kanyenze, who however conceded that
corruption was also prevalent in the private sector.
The First Lady,
Grace Mugabe, was among those who benefited from the
Pay-for-Your-House
scheme, while Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, Vice
President Joice
Mujuru, her husband retired General Solomon Mujuru, among
others, benefited
from the War Victims' Compensation Fund.
Commissions and committees were
also set up to look into the National Oil
Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim)
scandal, Airport Tender scandal and the land
redistribution programme, where
senior government officials and Zanu PF
supporters grabbed and shared
Zimbabwe's most prime agricultural land.
Former TIZ executive director,
Andrew Nongogo, said there was a tendency to
protect corrupt officials in
Zimbabwe.
"Remember Shava (Fredrick) was pardoned before the judge passed
a sentence.
It just shows there is a price for corruption in Zimbabwe," said
Nongogo.
President Robert Mugabe pardoned Shava, who was involved in the
Willowgate
Scandal where senior government officials bought vehicles at
subsidised
rates and resold them at exorbitant prices.
John Chikura,
chairman of the training committee of the Institute of
Directors of
Zimbabwe, said Zimbabwe was "like a fish which rots from the
head".
He pleaded with government to put an end to corruption, saying
it was aiding
the country's economic collapse.
"When you are in a
hole, the first thing you have to do is stop digging but
these guys are
continuing," noted Chikura.
Statistics indicate that as of 2001 Zimbabwe,
reeling from an economic
downturn, was losing more than Z$5 billion annually
to corruption.
Parastatals have become ready conduits for shady deals.
Several years ago,
there were calls from the public for government to close
Noczim when
evidence of massive corruption was unearthed.
But the
government argued it could not shut down the parastatal because it
was a
strategic institution.
"Noczim will never be closed because it is where
senior politicians are
siphoning money," Nongogo said.
Kanyenze said
most people, who occupy senior positions in parastatals, were
awarded those
posts because of contribution to the liberation struggle
rather than
competence.
"This is what is killing most parastatals in the country.
Look at Air
Zimbabwe and Noczim," he said.
The Ministry of State
Enterprises, Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies,
although presided over by
two ministers since creation last year has done
virtually nothing other than
gobbling up public funds.
Zimbabwe is ranked 107 on the TI corruption
perception index 2005, among
countries such as Belarus, Vietnam and
Zambia.
Zim Standard
By Bertha Shoko
ONE
of the country's largest referral centres, Harare Central Hospital, has
suspended all major operations leaving thousands of patients who relied on
it stranded.
It was not immediately possible to establish how many
patients may have died
after failing to get urgent medical assistance at the
institution.
The Standard understands that the hospital has not been carrying
out major
heart, kidney and head surgery for more than two years because of
malfunctioning essential equipment compounded by an acute drugs
shortage.
Other less complicated surgery, such as Caesarean operations,
are being
performed based on the availability of relevant drugs and when
theatre
equipment is functional.
However, for the past two weeks,
these have also not been performed because
of a critical shortage of general
anaesthetic drugs and sutures (used by
surgeons to stitch up patients after
surgery). Supplies of these two are
said to be erratic.
Sources said
only two types of sutures - silk and nylon - that are
recommended for use
for "outside stitching" were available.
The source said: "When you have a
Caesarean section, for example, we cut
open the abdomen then cut open the
uterus. After that we need to stitch up
the uterus and these sutures that
are available, are not recommended for
internal stitching."
The
Standard also understands that sometimes the hospital cannot carry out
Caesarean sections because a drug called Oxytocin, used to stop bleeding in
the uterus after the operation, is not available.
Sources said
Oxytocin, which cannot be used on women with high blood
pressure, is the
only drug that the hospital receives.
In the maternity theatre, Caesarean
surgery is limited by the unavailability
of blood products such as
platelets, fresh frozen plasma and blood itself.
Sources said the
hospital was operating with one theatre suite, which is on
the first floor
in the main hospital after the largest situated on the
second floor, was
closed for renovations a year ago. This functional theatre
suite has only
two operating rooms meaning only two patients can be
accommodated at a
time.
Because of this, said the source, the hospital no longer has the
capacity to
deal with accidents.
Also, equipment and machinery in the
theatre is reportedly not working,
making it difficult to conduct operations
while the hospital's Intensive
Care Unit ICU is "dead."
Essential
equipment such as the hospital's Electrocardiograph (ECG), which
is used to
monitor the heart beat of a patient under operation, and the
Boyles (used to
monitor how much anaesthetic a patient requires) are old,
obsolete and
constantly in need of repair, making the apparatus unreliable
for
surgery.
Only one type of anaesthetic called Sodium Thiopentone (STP) is
available
but this cannot be used for patients with low blood
pressure.
However, Health and Child Welfare minister, David Parirenyatwa,
said there
was "nothing unusual" as the hospital was undergoing a major
renovation.
Zim Standard
By Walter
Marwizi and Davison Maruziva
ALARMED by a threat to their property
rights, Borrowdale Brooke Home Owners'
Association met on Monday last week
to consider a unified response to the
government's attempt to take over
their properties.
Three weeks ago, the Ministry of Local Government,
Public Works and Urban
Development wrote to owners with properties adjacent
to President Robert
Mugabe's luxury retirement home near Borrowdale Brooke
informing them the
government wanted their properties.
The notices headed
Proposed Acquisition of Property by Governmet (sic)
signed by L Chimba of
the Valuations and Estates Management Department of
the Ministry of Local
Government, told the owners:
"This serves to advise you that your
property falls within a designated
security area in terms of General Notice
Number 255 of 2004. As a result
this office has been instructed to enter
into negotiations with you, with a
view to the acquisition of the property
by Government.
"We will therefore be contacting you soon to arrange for
inspection of your
property for valuation purposes."
The notices have
sent seismic tremors among property owners in the nearby
exclusive
Borrowdale Brooke residential area, who fear the advent of a wave
similar to
commercial farm take-overs.
While residents confirmed the meeting on
Monday, they were uncertain about
discussing it, citing advice from their
lawyers. Although similar advice was
given to the country's former
commercial farmers it did not stave off the
take-overs. They subsequently
lost all their farms. Out of the estimated 4
500 commercial farmers at the
onset of the chaotic land invasions in 2000
less than 600
remain.
Property owners who spoke to The Standard last week said the
meeting on
Monday was held in order to help them appreciate the full extent
of their
rights.
One of the owners told The Standard: "We have
written to the Ministry of
Local Government in reply to the notices. We have
replied requesting details
of the boundaries of affected areas. To date, we
have heard no response."
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has
deplored further instances
of arbitrary action taken against residents of
the City of Harare by the
Minister of Local Government who continues to act
outside the ambit of his
legitimate mandate, and with perceived
impunity.
ZLHR said: "It is also unfortunate that the government
continues its
attempts to deprive people of Zimbabwe of their property
rights, as well as
their right to protection of the law and right to be free
from arbitrary
State action. Such rights are protected under the
Constitution of Zimbabwe,
as well as key international human rights
instruments to which Zimbabwe is a
party. ZLHR urges the government to
refrain from such arbitrary action and
reminds public officials to act
within the ambit of domestic and
international law."
The government
intends to compulsorily acquire certain properties which fall
within a
designated security area. This area incorporates a property in
Borrowdale
Brooke owned by the President of Zimbabwe.
In terms of General Notice 255
of 2004, "A Property in Borrowdale . and the
areas surrounding these
premises" were declared protected places in terms of
the Protected Places
and Areas Act [Chapter 11:12] ("the Act).
The description of the property
is as follows:" An area within the City of
Harare bounded by a line starting
at the intersection of eastern edge of
Borrowdale Brooke Road and the
northern edge of Green Valley Lane; thence
along Green Valley Lane in a
generally southwards direction to the
north-eastern point of Lot GB
16751/57; thence south-westwards along the
south-western boundary of that
property to the north-eastern part at
Budleigh Close to its intersection
with the northern edge of Carrick Creagh
Road; thence northwards along the
eastern edge of Swallow Hill to the
intersection with Borrowdale Brook Road
to the starting point."
National Constitutional Assembly Chairman, Dr
Lovemore Madhuku, who is
crusading for a new constitution said he did not
expect Mugabe would evict
his neighbours.
"There are so many security
measures in the world Mugabe could have used to
protect himself from his
neighbours. He has neighbours in Zvimba, so he
should have expected to have
neighbours in Harare. After all how can you
dispossess people of their
private property for the sake of one person's
security, who in this case
would be a private citizen? What if that person
dies 10 years down the line,
what will these security measures be for: Grace
and his children?" Madhuku
asked.
Zim Standard
By Nqobani Ndlovu
BULAWAYO
- The High Court will tomorrow issue a ruling in a $5 billion
lawsuit
brought up by a top Zanu PF official who is battling to acquire a
multi-billion dollar safari lodge, left behind by a commercial farmer at the
height of farm invasions.
Zanu-PF chairman and Speaker of Parliament,
John Nkomo, is arguing that the
lodge, Jijima Safari in Lupane, belongs to
him on the basis that it is
located in a farm offered to him by
government.
The ruling party heavyweight is suing businessman and black
economic
activist, Langton Masunda, whom he accuses of unlawfully occupying
the
lodge.
The safari lodge was once owned by James Chattam. The Lugo
Ranch in the
Gwayi River Conservancy and the wildlife-rich Matabeleland
North Province
adjoins Volunteer Farms 47, 48 and 49 given to Masunda in
2002.
Nkomo filed the lawsuit in September last year and is claiming $5
billion
from Masunda, whom he accuses of illegally occupying the safari
lodge on his
ranch. He is also demanding the eviction of Masunda's workers
from Lugo Farm
and Jijima Lodge.
In addition, he is seeking the
court's assistance in getting an additional
$500 million for losses in
rentals suffered from 2003 to date and $50
million a month for damages "with
effect from the date of issuing of summons
for eviction to
date".
Nkomo says he got an offer letter for Lugo Farm from the Ministry
he was
heading at that particular time.
The Speaker's lawyer,
Brighton Ndove of T Hara and Partners, said Masunda
did not have an offer
letter or documentation to prove that he was the real
owner of the land,
adding that the Ministry that gave Nkomo the offer letter
would not have
done so had it known that he was the owner of the land.
However, the
defendant's lawyer, Vonani Majoko of Majoko and Majoko
Partners, hit back
saying Nkomo had no powers to sue Masunda, arguing that
he had entered and
acquired the lease from the government with knowledge
that the land was not
vacant since Masunda was occupying it.
High Court Judge Justice Francis
Bere said he would make his judgement
tomorrow.
Zim Standard
By Godfrey
Mutimba
MASVINGO - Taking senior Zanu PF officials to court has proved
costly for
former Masvingo District Co-coordinating Committee (DCC)
chairman, Clemence
Makwarimba.
The Standard can reveal that Zanu PF
has tasked Local government, Public
Works and Urban Development minister,
Ignatious Chombo, to relieve
Makwarimba of his duties at Masvingo Rural
District Council before firing
him from the party.
Makwarimba
unsuccessfully sued, party national commissar, Elliot Manyika,
Masvingo
provincial chairman, Samuel Mumbengegwi and DCC chairman Walter
Mzembi after
his committee was relieved of its duties last year.
Makwarimba, who is
the chief executive officer of Masvingo Rural District
Council, has since
appeared before a Zanu PF disciplinary committee headed
by Mwenezi MP,
Isaiah Shumba, and is awaiting judgment on the matter.
But Chombo has
since written a letter to local government officials in
Masvingo to probe
Makwarimba on allegations that he has a criminal record.
According to the
letter in possession of The Standard, a five- member
investigating team from
the ministry's various departments has been tasked
to investigate Makwarimba
on four charges including that of a criminal
record.
"In terms of
section 154(1) of RDC act chapter 29:13 I appoint the committee
to probe the
employment of Masvingo CEO with a criminal record and to look
into the
circumstances surrounding the procedure of procurement of vehicles
for
council officials,'' reads part of the letter. Chombo has demanded a
quick
investigation into the charges.
Efforts to get a comment from Makwarimba
were fruitless as he was said to be
out of office the whole week and his
mobile phone was not reachable.
Zim Standard
By Caiphas
Chimhete
THE labour crisis bedeviling Zimbabwe's agriculture sector has
fuelled the
employment of children on farms, labour experts say. They said
thousands of
children, a large number of them driven out of school by high
fees and the
government's so-called clean up exercise, now constitute the
bulk of farm
workers in the country.
The children, below the age of
16, are forced to work for long hours a day
in poorly ventilated tobacco
barns and are given low wages to supplement
dwindling family incomes.
In
Chipinge district, children who cannot pay their school fees are sent to
"Earn and Learn" schools. The schools offer free education but first the
children have to work on the tea or cotton farms.
General Agriculture
and Plantation Workers' Union (Gapwuz) secretary
general, Getrude Hambira,
said child labour had increased due to the general
shortage of manpower on
the farms.
The problem is compounded by the fact that many children who
were displaced
by government's so-called clean-up exercise and thrown out of
school are now
working on farms.
Hambira said due to the worsening
economic crisis the new farmers were
failing to pay stipulated wages and, as
a result, opted to employ desperate
children. A farm worker earns about $640
000 a month.
She said of the estimated 200 000 farm workers in the
country, 10 % of them
were children below the age of 16.
"Child
labour has always been there but this time the problem is going out
of hand.
There are more than 20 000 children working on farms," said
Hambira, whose
organisation represents the interests of farm workers
countrywide.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) secretary
general, Wellington
Chibebe, said new farmers were "enslaving"
children.
He said the low wages that the new farmers were offering to
their workers
were fuelling the employment of children.
"There is
slavery on the farms. It's only that it is not being highlighted.
It's
rampant," said Chibebe.
Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ)
secretary-general, Raymond
Majongwe, said the problem of child labour was
rampant in tea estates and
timber plantations in Manicaland.
"It's
cruel for these farmers to prey on these children. It's disturbing
because
attendance by these children at schools has become sporadic,"
Majongwe
said.
He blamed the government's so-called clean-up operation saying it
contributed highly to increased child labour as most children dropped out of
school.
Some of them, Majongwe said, work in hazardous conditions
curing and
administering tobacco chemicals as well as using potentially
harmful
chemicals. This was happening in Mashonaland East and
Central.
But the president of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers' Union
(ZCFU), Davison
Mugabe, played down the problem of child
labour.
"That's too far-fetched. It has never increased. In fact, new
farmers are
employing children to enable to raise their fees for their own
betterment,"
said Mugabe, whose organisation represents the interests of the
new
commercial farmers.
Child labour remains rampant in the country,
despite the fact that Zimbabwe
ratified the Convention of the Rights of the
Child in 1990 and the
International Labour Organisation (ILO) 182, which
calls for the immediate
prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of
child labour in 2000.
Chibebe said if the government continues to turn a
blind eye on child
labour, ZCTU would report Zimbabwe to the ILO.
If
found wanting, Zimbabwe would be placed on a "Special Paragraph" meaning
Zimbabwe will be labelled a rogue state and the international community will
boycott farm produce from this country.
"This will force government
to act," Chibebe said
Zim Standard
By
Gibbs Dube
BULAWAYO - Levels of food insecurity continue to worsen for
urban and rural
people in Zimbabwe due to reduced availability of staple
cereals and the
ever-rising cost of living, The Standard
understands.
According to the latest report of the United States-based
Famine Early
Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET), household food access has
remained a
serious concern with large numbers of vulnerable people failing
to meet
minimum food requirements.
This has been exacerbated by critical
shortages of fuel, hyper-inflation and
lack of state agricultural
inputs.
The report indicates that food insecurity in Zimbabwe is likely
to worsen
within the next few months as the country grapples to cover the
2005 cereal
deficit of 1.2 million tonnes.
The report says:
"Household food stocks are running low and many people are
being forced to
look for maize and maize meal on the market. While
tremendous effort is
being made by the government to import food into the
country to cover the
production gap, distribution problems arising from
serious shortages of fuel
are restricting cereal deliveries."
A large number of households, says
FEWSNET, are reported having no food
stocks.
"As the little harvest
that was realised in the year 2005 has been
completely drawn down, most
households are relying on purchases but
shortages of food supplies on the
markets have driven up prices while the
continued erosion of purchasing
power means access to adequate food supplies
cannot be
assured."
According to the report, government efforts to move 1.2 million
metric
tonnes has so far seen over 762 000 tonnes of imports between April
and
December 2005.
"However, due to barriers to informal trade, very
little staple food has
been imported informally from its neighbours," said
the report, adding that
although most parts of the country had received
above normal rains for the
2005/06 agricultural season, food insecurity was
likely to cripple the
nation.
"Shortages of farm inputs (seeds and
fertilizers) will continue to constrain
farmers' ability to plant sufficient
crops to meet their requirements and
will lower yields where input supply
has been problematic."
The government recently signed an agreement with
the World Food Programme
(WFP) and its partners to feed about 2.9 million
people facing acute food
shortages in the country where inflation is
currently pegged at 586 percent.
"There is widespread recognition that
food insecure populations have risen
far above 2.9 million which was arrived
at based on unrealistic inflation
assumptions. The number of beneficiaries
is expected to double between now
and March," says the
report.
Zim Standard
THE
worsening humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe is making children more
vulnerable to abuse, according to child rights non-governmental
organisations (NGOs).
According to Witness Chikoko, acting director
of the African Network for the
Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse
and Neglect, "because of the
hike in schools fees many children are visiting
schools (trying to negotiate
payment) - it makes them more vulnerable at the
hands of teachers who
exploit them".
Recently, staff at a primary
boarding school near Marondera was charged with
abusing 52 girls, while 14
primary school girls were also allegedly abused
by staff members at a school
in the capital.
The Girl Child Network (GCN), an NGO working in 32 of
Zimbabwe's 58
districts, said it had recorded an average of 700 rape cases
of girls aged
up to 16 every month in 2005 - more than 8 000 cases.
According to GCN about
93 percent of the children raped in Zimbabwe are
girls and seven percent
boys.
"The numbers are high because more
girls are reporting rape cases," said
Betty Makoni, GCN's founder and
director, admitting that the country has a
high incidence of sexual
abuse.
"It is a combination of factors: the large number of AIDS orphans
and
increasing poverty, which have forced girls to take up risky practices
such
as sex work and forced marriages."
About half the girls raped
were from child-headed households, she added.
Zimbabwe has one of the
highest levels of HIV/AIDS in southern Africa, which
has left one in five
children orphaned.
Last week the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) spokesman
James Elder said the
organisation was "horrified" at the high incidence of
sexual abuse among
children, but noted that the country had more than a
million orphaned
children, which made a large vulnerable
population.
UNICEF is stepping up its work with communities, educating
them to identify
the signs of child abuse and encouraging them to
"tenaciously protect their
children by establishing and supporting
functional child protection
committees, where children themselves are
represented".
Jose Bergua UNICEF's head of child protection in Zimbabwe
said: "Community
leaders, teachers, mums and dads - these people are the
front line in the
fight against child abuse.
"If perpetrators are
going to be stopped, if children are going to have the
confidence to speak
out against these evils, then authority figures need to
make it patently
clear that child abuse in their communities will not be
tolerated - silence
on this issue shelters the perpetrators and is a crime
against children."-
PlusNews
Zim Standard
Comment
ZIMBABWE likes to mislead itself by pretending it is the
victim of numerous
envious external forces. The latest is the delusional
belief that South
African commercial farmers are behind a conspiracy that is
fuelling illegal
migration of workforce from this country.
The
trouble with such thinking is that it is the product of the self belief
that
Zimbabwe is a perfect State, where its citizens are the happiest.
Nothing
could be further from the truth.
What such thinking only serves to do is to
demonstrate how far removed the
leadership has become from the everyday
realities. It reveals a perception,
among Zimbabwe's political elite, that
is contemptuous of the capacity of
ordinary citizens of this country to
decide of their own free will, what is
or what is not good for
them.
But perhaps there is rationale to understanding this approach: to
acknowledge the problem and the cause might be sailing dangerously close to
the truth and authors of Zimbabwe's current messy condition. It is an
unsettling thought, especially for those ever so overwhelmed by the
uncertainties of their tenuous grip on power.
The reason why
Zimbabweans are risking life and limb to cross the
crocodile-infested
Limpopo River to South Africa or joining the great trek
to the rest of the
world is simply that at home they have seen opportunities
for working and
supporting their families being whittled down daily. The
failure by the
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority to ensure regularity of
power
supplies, the inability by the local authorities such as the
commission
running the affairs of Harare to provide basic services, the
decimation of
the informal sector against the backdrop of soaring
unemployment represent
an erosion in the standard of living of the majority
of Zimbabweans. Zesa's
and the incompetence of local authorities have seen
villagisation of urban
areas. There is therefore little to hope for. Worse
still is the fact that
there are no prospects of a return to normalcy in the
foreseeable
future.
It is for these reasons that Zimbabwean workers are taking up
employment on
South African farms. There, at least, they will be able to
plan what to buy
and afford even with the little they get - something that
is increasingly
difficult to do on a Zimbabwean minimum wage.
But by
and large South African farmers value the level of expertise
Zimbabwean farm
workers bring to South African agricultural operations.
The one factor
that has fuelled the great trek to the south is that the new
breed of
government-supported A2 farmers needs to learn to appreciate the
importance
of farm labour. What in essence this means is appreciating,
recognising,
rewarding and paying fair salaries timeously every month-end.
What is
driving many farm workers away from taking up employment with the A2
farmers
is their rapacious and exploitative nature. It is as if farm workers
owe the
A2 farmers a debt of gratitude for allowing them on their farms. Yet
the
symbiotic relationship that brings the A2 and the farm worker together
ought
to be mutually beneficial in that one cannot do without the other. It
is a
mark of short-sightedness that organisations such as the Zimbabwe
Commercial
Farmers' Union (ZCFU) have not seen the need to undertake a
research to
determine why six years after the advent of take-overs former
farm workers
are reluctant to work for the A2 settlers. A study would assist
in planning
the future growth of agriculture in this country. It is a
tragedy that the
ZCFU believes it can chart expansion of agriculture without
considering, as
critical factors, the labour force and its treatment.
Similarly, the
recent and present treatment of growers, who bring their
produce to Mbare
Musika but now face dispersion and steeper charges from the
commission
running the affairs of Harare, will lead them to explore
alternative markets
in Zambia, Malawi Mozambique and South Africa because
Harare is punishing
them while central government is doing nothing to stop
the commission from
frustrating the growers.
The growers, like the farm workers, will look
outside the country not
because neighbouring states are luring them, but
because Zimbabwe does not
value their contribution. The sooner Zimbabwe
wakes up to this reality the
better the chances its turnaround programme
will have.
Zim Standard
Business
Reporter
THE Scientific and Industrial Research Development Centre says
it needs
US$1.5 million to enable it complete research into an antibiotic
for
livestock. The project was meant to have been launched last year but the
institute's chief executive officer, Dr Robson Mafoti, said full-scale
production will only begin in six months due to lack of funding.
"We
are now at the optimisation stage. We are finalising the experiment and
in
six months we should be in full production," Mafoti said.
"We have had tests
on cattle and seen that the antibiotic works well on
ticks and worms in the
stomach. This ultimately means the farmer will not
have to dip and dose the
cow."
Mafoti said US$1.5 million is needed to set up a production plant
and hopes
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe will be able to supply the
funding.
He also disclosed plans for exporting the product to Southern
African
countries."We hope to commercialise the antibiotic. First, it will
be sold
to local farmers and then we hope to expand our market, " Mafoti
said.
Zim Standard
Business
Reporter
FOREIGN currency dealers last week sounded a death knell on the
tradable
balances system and called for its urgent review to stop leakages
of hard
currency to the parallel market.
The exchange rate has been
stagnant at $99 201.58 against the United States
dollar for the past week
owing to the failure of banks to raise US$5 million
a day required for the
rate to move at least by 1 %
As a result dealers said free funds to the
official market had declined,
only to resurface on the parallel market where
rates are pegged at $150 000.
"It has been just seven days since the
Governor (of RBZ, Dr Gideon Gono)
announced his monetary policy but the
effect is being felt. Inflows from
free funds had dwindled," said a dealer
with NMB.
"On average the whole market gets US$500 000 a week and getting
to US$5
million a day is a tall order. We will never handle that amount
especially
when holders of free funds are finding their way back to the
black market
where rates are higher."
The NMB dealer said inflows to
his bank had decreased to US$30 000 last week
from an average of US$50 000
that they were receiving before the
volume-based adjustments to the
interbank rate.
Another dealer with a local bank said inflows had
declined to less than
US$10 000.
"We have not had significant inflows
this week, they have gone virtually
dry," he said.
Kingdom bank
economist, Witness Chinyama, said the central bank might be
forced to revise
the new regime to stop leakages of hard currency to the
parallel
market.
"They might soon revise it. The inflation situation demands that
the
exchange rate should be going up. People had stopped going to the
parallel
market which was facing strong competition from the interbank
market,"
Chinyama said.
"Much of the funds were coming from free
funds and those are going
elsewhere. This is why there is a decline on the
official market. Those with
money that cannot be accounted for by government
are disposing it at
attractive rates on the parallel market," he
said.
He said reviewing the regime would stop exporters from diverting
their
foreign currency to the parallel market.
"Exporters could find
other ways of diverting foreign currency through
transfer pricing and under
invoicing".
Exporters have on several occasions been rebuked by the
central bank for not
remitting their foreign currency to the official
market.But analysts believe
the errant behaviour could continue because of
the cap on the exchange rate.
The central bank said exchange rate
movements would be based on volumes
traded with amounts ranging from US$5 to
US$10 million attracting an
increase of 1 %.
Monetary authorities
also said 80 % of export proceeds would be valued at
the interbank rate with
exporters allowed to retain 70 % of their funds in
their Foreign Currency
Accounts.
Zim Standard
marketmovers with
Deborah-Fay Ndlovu
FEARS of a liquidity crunch in local financial
institutions mounted last
week as analysts raised alarm that a review of
primary dealership
arrangements could affect operations of banks.
The
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe announced a review of dealership arrangements a
fortnight ago that would lead to monetary authorities compulsorily
allocating Treasury bill quotas to primary dealers.
Analysts, however,
feel that the arrangement could create liquidity
constraints especially for
big banks that would have to "carry large parcels
of the
TBs".
Washington Mehlomakhulu of Highveld Investments said: "Big banks
will have
to carry the load for the market. What the RBZ wants is to ensure
that they
have full support for the tenders they float and will be
compulsorily
allocating quotas to ensure that dealers subscribe.
"The
move could have liquidity constraints on banks more so in a short
market.
Say a bank opens the day $50 billion short and they are given a
quota for
$10 billion. It means they have to cover for the deficit and look
for the
$10 billion for the TB, which is an extra burden. It creates
mismatch
between assets a bank holds and deposits."
The new regulations that would
also require primary dealers to register with
the RBZ before they are
allowed to operate will come into effect on 1 April.
Last week also saw a
firming of interest rates driven by deficits on the
money
market.
Dealers attributed the cash shortage to withdrawals prompted by
the
introduction of the $50 000 note and that there were no TB maturities on
the
money market.
They also predicted a $383 billion deficit for
Wednesday, prompting an
increase in short-term rates to an average of 80%
from 40% for 7 to 14 days.
Rates also shot up to an average of 120% from 75%
for 30 days.
Analysts said rates would continue on an upward trend until
14 February when
there are TB maturities.
The increase in interest
rates caused the downfall of the local bourse with
the industrial and mining
indices retreating marginally last week.
The industrial index was down
2.18% points on Wednesday to close at 44 287
853.98 points
The mining
index did not escape the heat losing 1.92% to close at 11 838
998.95 points
due to a $3 000 fall in BINDURA to $42 000 and a $1000 retreat
in FALGOLD to
$10 000.
Profit taking also took its toll on the equities flattening
local stocks.
Interfin analyst, Farai Dyirakumunda, said the losses would
not be sustained
because of the anticipated increase in the inflation
rate.
"The decline will not be sustained. This week pension funds should
be
receiving their contributions and some of that money will find itself in
the
stock market," Dyirakumunda said.
"Inflation figures will be
coming out this week and the central bank has
already conceded that it still
is on an upward trend. That should help
stocks to recover."
Losses
were in Hippo and Seedco, which shed $4 000 each on Wednesday to $56
000 and
$36 000 respectively.
Econet had a bad week, losing $5 000 to $285 000
last Wednesday.
Old Mutual however bucked the trend, adding $10 000 to
$610 000, while
Colcom recovered from Monday's losses to close Wednesday $5
000 higher to
$50 000.
Zim Standard
By our
staff
NATIONAL airline, Air Zimbabwe (Airzim) is currently in the middle
of a
rationalisation exercise, which will see five strategic business units
being
fully operational by the middle of the year.
The exercise is
part of the broader plan in turning around the fortunes of
the ailing
parastatal in a bid to stem the financial haemorrhaging and
return to
profitability.
Mike Bimha, Airzim board chairman, told Standardbusiness the
airline was in
the middle of the rationalisation exercise and had briefed
the shareholder
on what needed to be done.
Bimha said: "We hope to
reach a consensus by the middle of this month and by
June the SBUs should be
in place and fully functional."
The SBUs will be namely Air Zimbabwe
Passenger Services; Cargo Business;
National Handling Services; Galileo
Ticketing; and Technical Services.
Presenting his monetary policy review
statement last week, Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, Dr Gideon
Gono, said the airline was plying
unprofitable and loss-making routes such
as Dubai and China which were
making a combined loss of US$980 000 a
month.
Bimha, ushered into office four months ago, said the board was in
the
process of analysing each and every route to determine
profitability.
"We are looking at the issue of routes in a holistic
manner. They (Dubai and
China) are not the only ones which are making
losses. There are many others
but the reasons are varied," he
added.
He said after the implementation of the turn-around strategy some
new routes
could be phased out and new ones introduced.
Gono implored
the airline to engage a substantive managing and financial
director as the
two posts were vacant after the suspension last year of
Tendai Mahachi and
Tendai Mujuru who occupied the positions respectively.
Bimha refused to
shed light on the fate of the two senior managers saying
they were in the
middle of finalising the issue.
Airzim has been crippled by a huge debt,
which Bimha has blamed on legacy
policies.
The RBZ is exposed to the
airline to the tune of $1.4 trillion and the
Airzim also owes local
creditors $125 billion and foreign creditors US$19.6
million.
According to Bimha, Airzim is looking at ways of stopping
the airline from
incurring further losses and getting into debt while the
shareholder
(Government) was looking at the old debt and might assume
it.
He said that they were looking at all their offices in foreign
countries to
see if they were really necessary and, if not, to close them in
order to cut
costs.
Bimha, also the president of the Employers'
Confederation of Zimbabwe, said
the mismatch between its costs and revenue
was unsustainable and there was
need to break even.
Zim Standard
Sundayopinion by
Webster M Zambara
IF there are two things that Zimbabweans will be tired
of very soon, its
elections and galas. Just as we had the Senate elections
at the end of
November (with a record low turnout perhaps to show fatigue),
we had yet
another gala to commemorate the coming of the Unity Day holiday.
It is the
latter that torched debate, especially with the rhetoric that is
associated
with the Unity Accord of 22 December 1987, that it brought peace
to
Zimbabweans.
We celebrate the Unity Day only three days before
Christmas, the day we
celebrate the coming to earth of Jesus Christ, the
Prince of Peace. I do not
want to delve into the religious arguments on
peace, but as a peace worker I
should hasten to say that except for
Satanism, all religions in this world
preach peace and non-violence.
The
word "peace" is used both by the naïve who confuse absence of direct
violence with peace and do not understand that the work to make and build
peace is now just about to start, and by the less naïve who know this and do
not want that work to get started. Thus, the word "peace" becomes a very
effective peace-blocker in itself. And in our situation, it is my purpose to
contribute to the national effort to unblock the myth that unity is equal to
peace.
The term peace itself is almost impossible to define
categorically - even to
the satisfaction of those who call themselves
peace-makers, peace builders,
peace educators etc. There are two functional
definitions from the peace
discipline by Professors Johan Galtung (1996) and
Geoff Harris (2004) that
are very similar. For the former, peace is what we
have when creative
conflict transformation takes place non-violently. The
latter goes on to say
peace is a way of life committed to the non-violent
resolution of conflict
and to personal and social justice. There is no doubt
that the majority of
people understand the general attributes of peace. I
mean, just by
mentioning the word "peace", some peace images appear in one's
mind. There
is actually an almost universal threesome - peace, love and
harmony.
Peace is a value, and at this point an important distinction
should be made.
It is entirely possible to know a value without holding that
value. By the
same token, it is possible to know peace without one being a
"peaceful"
person, without believing in peace or without even wanting peace
in the
sense of having internalised the value. It is like the difference
between
consciousness and conscience. The point being driven home is; peace
cannot
be imposed or decreed from above. The impacts of direct and indirect
violence upon the marginalised, the poor, women, children, rural
communities, the elderly - which include social, political, economic,
psychological, health and other repercussions are frequently overlooked and
neglected as political leaders and elites come together with fine sounding
words for peace. Peace, if it is to be sustainable, must itself be a process
of transforming our conflicts with creativity, empathy and non-violence,
empowering people and communities to deal with the issues and challenges
facing them in a constructive way to meet the real needs of their
communities, and to overcome and heal from the violence and traumas of the
past, while at the same time transforming deep structures and deep cultures
of violence.
Peace - just, durable and sustainable, cannot be the
monopoly of any single
group or actor, nor can it be imposed or dependent
upon actions from above.
It requires solidarity, commitment, co-operation,
and in some cases, courage
from many people. The challenges of working to
transform conflict
constructively, to build lives and communities torn apart
by war and
violence, and to heal in areas which have been affected are so
great that
they require the committed and sustained efforts of people,
groups and
organizations at every level.
It should be laid bare that
establishing fault lines and pointing fingers of
blame is almost useless as
a way of correcting things. In Zimbabwe,
polarisation has become almost as
automatic as breathing, and it does
nothing but creates rivalries and
worsens the situation. Our media and
information industries are quick
examples.
This unfortunate phenomenon has permeated through our societal
fabrics that
whether you are at a boozers' team, burial society, women's
club,
co-operative or boardroom, the level of intolerance is fearsome.
Having a
different idea to the same goal is viewed as unpatriotic and
divisive,
therefore a cause of disunity. Unity means no debate, and no
debate simply
results in lack of fresh ideas. This is how paranoid
leadership becomes. The
result of which is obvious. This brings us directly
to the two tiers of
peace accepted in peace discourse, which are, negative
peace and positive
peace. At the base of the tiers is negative peace
acknowledged by the state
and the general public - peace born of law and
order in the realm; peace as
the absence of war between states and violence
within the state or against
it. Peace, however, is not the uppermost of
political actors' priorities. To
them, more important are their own
integrity, security and well-being that
enable them to acquire and retain
political power, and in many cases in
Africa, consequently clearing the
avenues to amass wealth.
Positive peace goes beyond that. It acknowledges
to the whole population the
fruit of justice, respect for human rights and
human dignity, and the quest
for development that is humane and ecologically
sustainable, a development
that is qualitative rather than quantitative.
There is no peace in poverty,
there is no peace in unemployment, and there
is no peace when there is no
freedom, just as there is no reconciliation
without truth.
Let me conclude by challenging all peace workers, in
particular in the
non-governmental organisations, that there is great need
to mobilize a
public peace process to change the paradigm inside people's
heads that
maintains that peace and security comes through power over
others. It never
did and it will never will! This paradigm that is shaping
so much of our
thinking could be challenged village by village, community by
community,
state by state around the world by an intense dialogue about what
peace
really entails. True peace is the way to walk, and it is the way to
walk
now. And as Galtung would say; tell me how you manage conflict, and I
tell
you how peaceful you are.
Zim Standard
I DON'T know
how to translate this Shona word into English or any other
language; however
it has a very strong field - force of meaning, which only
those who have
experienced or observed it can attempt to describe.
It denotes the most
cruel, incomprehensible, unmitigated bullying,
especially in a man over his
defenceless spouse.
The man builds his house in a built up area, full of
other people's homes
and then orders them to sell their homes to him, to
create a security zone.
He did the same thing in Kutama, we are
told.
Putting the money issue aside, which we know is from State coffers,
does
President Robert Mugabe ever think that it is possible that these
people may
have an emotional attachment to their homes after living in them
for 25
years?
Gono rinoshusha comes home from a beer drink at 2AM,
wakes up his spouse to
cook fresh sadza because, he says, he cannot eat cold
sadza. He then falls
asleep while the wife is preparing the meal for him and
when the wife wakes
him up so that he can eat the fresh sadza he beats her
up for disturbing his
sleep.
Many people have suggested that Mugabe
is paranoid about security. I don't
agree. I think this is kushusha - the
incomprehensible desire to make others
suffer so that they know that he is
around. His is the paramount need, and
no one else has any
need.
N Nyamaropa
Madziwa
Zim Standard
I AM one of the
civil servants who were recruited for the Senate elections.
With the meagre
salaries I am getting I thought it would be a noble idea to
be involved in
this "project". What I did not know was that we were on a
national
service.
Imagine; I travelled all the way from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls
but it took
me longer to be paid little for using so much of my own
resources.
Sometimes I blame all civil servants. Next time we should boycott
these
"projects" which have nothing to do with development. For example,
according
to my calculations based on the recently presented Budget, civil
servants
are likely to be awarded 180% only. So much for how they value our
service
and reliability!
Anti-Senate
Bulawayo
Zim Standard
I AM touched by the
plight of government pensioners because they earn very
little
money.
My father is a retired teacher and the $1.5million that he is
earning a
month is a mockery of the good service that he whole heartedly
provided for
the twenty-two years that he served in government service.
I
urge the government and relevant authorities to immediately look into all
the plight of pensioners so that they can be able to sustain themselves in
these tough economic times.
Z
P
Highfield
Harare
Zim Standard
READING
through The Standard of 29 January (which is by the way my birthday)
I
learnt something I think all Zimbabweans should take into cognisance -
President Robert Mugabe is never to be taken for granted, that man is old
but is as fit as a fiddle, a despot who successfully manipulates people
without them noticing.
Just like a kapenta fish, which dies with eyes
wide open, some of us are
subconsciously collaborating with Mugabe to
destroy our beloved MDC. The
Senate elections have come and passed. They
caused havoc in the opposition
party, eventually splitting the into
two.
Mugabe and his Zanu PF party took this as an opportunity to crush their
rivals by denouncing them at rallies saying it is a party made up of
confused individuals.
Mugabe knows that denouncing Tsvangirai and
calling him a dictator will
eventually destroy the MDC since the people
invested their trust in him, but
who is calling who a
dictator?
Tsvangirai probably blew it by claiming that he is the MDC,
that some people
decided to call him a dictator. If people classify him as a
dictator or a
despot them I beg to differ. Unlike Mugabe, Tsvangirai is a
benevolent
"despot", a Napoleon I of France who was dictatorial in order to
usher in
democracy.
What I mean is, at this point in time Zimbabwe
needs a "despot/dictator" who
will rule with an iron feast so as to end all
this mess. Zanu PF would not
have survived this long if Mugabe was not so
dictatorial and ruthless. It is
his character that keeps him going. He is
never seen on the defensive but
always on the offensive. He never admits
that there are food shortages in
our country but says Zimbabweans are
reluctant to take other foods except
maize. He is never seen at summits
apologising to the West but adds pain to
injury by his megaphone
diplomacy.
What I'm trying to drive at is that MDC factions need each
other to bring us
a better Zimbabwe. They need to put aside their personal
differences and
concentrate on doing away with our enemies - Mugabe and Zanu
PF.
At the same time, people need not use all their power writing letters
like
"Tsvangirai" must prove his assassination claim" as Max Mkandla did on
29
January or "Why Tsvangirai must go," by E Ndlovu on 24 December 2005. I
thank Vegas L Majies and Tamuka Chirimambowa who wrote in your last issue
for strengthening my hope that the struggle continues.
Let's make a
better you, a better me and a better Zimbabwe.
G C
Machete
Glen View
Harare