http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 February 2012 10:00
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE & PATRICE MAKOVA
A National Security Council (NSC)
meeting slated for last Friday was
cancelled after a fierce clash between
President Robert Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai over the
composition of the attendees following
the expiry of the term of office of
one of the service chiefs, authoritative
sources confided to The Standard
last week.
The sources said Tsvangirai, who failed to attend
last week’s Cabinet
meeting, had asked Mugabe not to allow Police
Commissioner-General Augustine
Chihuri to attend the meeting as his term of
office expired last month.
Mugabe insisted that Chihuri attend the meeting,
sources said.
The term of office of Zimbabwe Defence Forces
(ZDF) Commander Constantine
Chiwenga, who also sits in NSC meetings, expires
at the end of this month.
“How can you discuss issues regarding
Chihuri’s term of office in his
presence?” said a source. “Those security
chiefs are interested parties and
should not attend the meeting. in any case
his term of office expired.”
The source said a heated discussion ensued
between Mugabe and Tsvangirai
leading to the cancellation of the
meeting.
Minister of Energy and Power Development, Elton Mangoma,
confirmed the NSC
meeting was cancelled, but refused to give
details.
“All I can say is that the meeting did not take place as
scheduled,” he
said. MDC-T spokesperson, Douglas Mwonzora, said the
Government of National
Unity principals were now scheduled to meet this week
to discuss the issue
of security chiefs’ terms of office, which is
threatening to tear apart the
already shaky inclusive
government.
Last week, a government work-plot workshop planned for
Nyanga was cancelled
to enable Tsvangirai to attend the NSC meeting on
Friday.
“The workshop, which was scheduled for Thursday and Friday
this week, has
been moved to the same days next week to allow for an urgent
National
Security Council meeting on Friday,” read part of the statement
from
Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Jameson
Timba.
Sources said the meeting was potentially explosive as there
was mistrust
between the service chiefs and Tsvangirai.
Last
week, Tsvangirai failed to attend a Cabinet meeting without giving
reasons.
But sources in the MDC-T said Tsvangirai boycotted the meeting
protesting
that he had not first met Mugabe, who was on his annual holiday,
to brief
him on what transpired in government during his absence.
“It was
improper for Mugabe, who was away since December, to come back and
proceed
with business as usual before having a one-on-one with the PM. as
you know,
he is in-charge of government programmes and policies,” said a
source.
“Proceeding with the meeting would have undermined the
Prime Minister’s
authority.” “The failure by Tsvangirai to attend Cabinet
meeting and the
cancellation of the national Security Council meeting is an
indication that
all is not well in the government of national unity,” said
another source.
The NSC, which is chaired by Mugabe, is made up of
Vice-presidents Joice
Mujuru and John Nkomo, Tsvangirai, the two deputy
Prime Ministers Thokozani
Khupe and Arthur Mutambara, ministers responsible
for finance, the defence
forces and the police.
Presidential
spokesperson, George Charamba, could not be reached for
comment.
MDC-T wants Chihuri, Chiwenga out
The
MDC-T, which accuses security agents of working in cahoots with Zanu PF
to
decimate its structures, does not want the terms of office of Chihuri and
Chiwenga to be renewed.
The services chiefs have also vowed not
to salute a person without
liberation war credentials, a statement
interpreted to mean they would not
salute Tsvangirai even if he won an
election.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 February 2012 11:02
BY LESLEY
WURAYAYI
A group of about 50 rowdy Zanu PF youths recently threatened to shut
down a
petroleum project run by a human rights activist in Mbare accusing
him of
being an MDC supporter.
The youths besieged Restoration of
Human Rights Zimbabwe (ROHR) spokesperson
Sten Zvorwadza’s business
premises, harassing his employees and threatening
to violently shut the
operation down.
Zvorwadza was arrested and assaulted at Mbare police
station where he had
gone to report the incident. He was charged under
Section 186 of the
Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly
“threatening to
murder” Zanu PF activists, Clifford Mazarura and Clever
Ntabende.
He appeared in court last week.
According to the
defence, Zvorwadza was approached by Zanu PF youths while
installing
underground paraffin tanks at the Harare Municipality pumphouse
near Matapi
in Mbare.
The youths ordered Zvorwadza to stop his work claiming that
Mbare was Zanu
PF territory and threatened him with unspecified
action.
The presiding magistrate ordered the state to investigate the
assault
complaints and remanded Zvorwadza out of custody until next
week.
In a statement ROHR Zimbabwe said Zvorwadza was assaulted by
police and
denied access to medical attention while in police
custody.
“Zvorwadza’s arrest has brought to the fore the concerns of
many
peace-loving Zimbabweans with regards to continued selective
application of
the law and police brutality since the coalition government
was
established,” said the organisation.
Zvorwadza bemoans
conditions at Mbare police station
Zvorwadza said the conditions
at Mbare police station, where he was
detained, were
unbearable.
“Conditions under which we survived were horrendous,” he said.
“We shared
five blankets, the 14 of us.
We were given a
three-litre bucket to use for flushing the toilet, which
wasn’t enough to
serve its purpose. The experience was horrifying,” he said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 February 2012 10:29
BY
PATRICE MAKOVA
THE family of the late Rtd General Solomon Mujuru says
it will not rest
until the truth surrounding his death is known by
Zimbabweans.
Joel Mujuru, brother to the late General who died in a
mysterious fire at
his Beatrice farmhouse in August last year, told The
Standard yesterday, the
family was pleased with the ongoing inquest to
establish the cause of his
death.
“I am happy with the inquest
because it has revealed that several mistakes
were made in handling the body
of Mujuru,” he said.
He however said the family was still not happy
that the late General was
buried before a proper identification of his
remains was done.
“Why did they (government) rush to bury a body
without doing the proper
identification?” he asked.
“As a family, there
was nothing we could do to stop them because we were
confused and still in
shock. They were supposed to give us time to decide
what to
do.”
A total of 36 witnesses have so far testified in the ongoing
inquest which
resumes tomorrow when Vice-President Joice Mujuru is expected
to submit her
affidavit.
On Friday last week, Mujuru’s family
lawyer, Thakor Kewada, made an
application for the exhumation of Mujuru’s
remains buried at the National
Heroes’ Acre to allow for a new
autopsy.
This was after Cuban pathologist Dr Gonzales Alvero had
admitted he
conducted the autopsy without adequate instruments and made an
assumption
that Mujuru died of inhaling carbon monoxide.
He said
he could not draw blood for examination given the charred state of
the body.
It was also revealed in court that Gonzales was not registered
with the
Health Professions Council as required by the law.
director of the
forensic science laboratory, Bethwell Mutandiro, also said
he failed to
establish the cause of the fire and could not say whether or
not a crime was
committed.
He said although the cause of the fire could not be
determined, he ruled out
the possibility of inflammables such as matches,
candles, vaseline,
furniture cleaner or rat insecticide igniting the
fire.
South African police forensic scientists who examined the
debris from the
burnt house also said they failed to detect the cause of the
fire blaming it
on possible contamination of evidence on the
scene.
They said it was possible accelerants or inflammable materials
were present
at the fire scene, but these could not be detected due to poor
packaging by
local police officers who collected the samples.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 February 2012
11:22
BY OWN STAFF
THE management committee of the Constitution
Select Committee (Copac) has
agreed to 26 principles to the new
constitution, chief among them that
security forces must be non-partisan and
that they should uphold the rule of
law.
This could be a huge
victory for other parties who have always accused the
security sector of
being biased towards Zanu PF and have called for security
sector
reform.
Irene Petras of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said what
had to be taken
into consideration was that the new constitution should
serve the nation not
the interests of an individual or
party.
According to a leaked Copac management committee document, the
parties, led
by both formations of the MDC, said they felt Zanu PF was
abusing the
security forces and their independence had to be guaranteed by
the future
constitution.
“All arms of state must uphold the
constitution, respect human rights, be
non-partisan and professional,” reads
the 24th principle the Copac
committees agreed to.
This principle
also applies to civil servants, as it was agreed that top
government workers
became embedded in party politics, and this tended to
compromise their
work.
Already, the MDCs and Zanu PF are embroiled in a debate on the
term of
police chief, Augustine Chihuri, which expired and they want to be
consulted
before President Robert Mugabe makes a decision on extending the
police boss’
tenure.
The MDCs have often accused the police of
being too close to Zanu PF instead
of following their constitutional
mandate.
“What that principle entails is that police, for example,
should be able to
disobey unconstitutional instructions,” an insider
says.
“In recent years police have taken unlawful actions such as
ignoring High
Court orders and effecting illegal detentions.”
He
gave examples of the detention of Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s
Office, Jameson Timba, MDC leader Welshman Ncube, who was detained by police
officers on his way to a rally, and the number of rallies that the police
had disrupted.
The 22nd principle also seems to buttress the
impartiality of the arms of
state, as it reads: “All arms of state to uphold
the principles of democracy
and good governance.”
Copac
co-chairperson, Douglas Mwonzora of the MDC-T, said the issue of
security
sector reform was cast in stone and there was no going back, with
regard to
the new constitution.
“They (Zanu PF) tried to contest, but we looked
at what the people said
during the outreach and that is what they wanted,”
he said. “So they finally
agreed.”
Mwonzora said it had been
agreed that the army, police and state security
organs should be
non-partisan and professional.
On a parallel matter, in the road-map
to elections which Zanu PF and the two
MDCs are negotiating, Zanu PF had so
far declined to broach the subject of
security sector
reform.
Mwonzora’s counterpart, Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, said while
the 26
principles had been agreed on, they were not cast in stone, but they
were
just guiding principles for the new constitution.
“Organs of
the state serve the whole country, they should operate within the
realms of
the constitution,” he said.
Mangwana said they were still reviewing
the draft, which they would soon
make public.
Among some of the
principles agreed are the devolution of power,
decentralisation and
upholding the status of traditional chiefs.
Copac also agreed that
the new constitution should “contain mechanisms of
redressing colonial
imbalances in the distribution of natural resources,
including
land”.
But Zanu Pf may backtrack
But observers are
wary that Zanu PF may backtrack on the provisions,
considering that the
party had opposed security sector reform in the past.
“That is the
challenge,” Petras (pictured) said. “It remains to be seen
whether they want
to be true to the principles of constitutionalism.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 February 2012 11:12
BY JENNIFER
DUBE and LESLEY WURAYAYI
AN illegal trade in unregistered libido-enhancing
products is thriving in
Harare, putting many people’s lives at
risk.
While libido-enhancing products have always been part of the Zimbabwean
traditional medicines, imported products seem to be gaining more popularity
and, unlike Viagra, men are not shy to openly buy the
products.
The products are being sold openly at bars,
open-air entertainment joints
and even in central Harare. Among the products
is Viamax Power coffee, which
is mixed with either opaque or clear beer.
“They are the in-thing,” said a
man who requested
anonymity.
“Many of my friends have told me about them and
how good they are. I intend
to try them in my next relationship as I
currently do not have a
girlfriend.”
There are unconfirmed
reports that one man was arrested for rape when his
girlfriend failed to
turn up after he had taken the medicine while another
suffered from high
blood pressure after taking an overdose of the coffee.
The products
are said to boost men’s sexual performance by increasing the
size of the
male organ. There are also claims, published in adverts in local
newspapers,
that they enable men to improve potency.
Some are said to ease
erectile dysfunction.
A snap survey in Harare showed the products, imported
mostly from China and
ranging from capsules, lotions, teas and coffee, are
selling like hot cakes
despite the high cost of some of them.
At
one shop, the saleslady showed The Standard news crew several empty
containers to prove she had run out of capsules, only a week after receiving
them from her “overseas” supplier.
Libido products on
demand
Among popular ones is a 25g bottle containing a
vaseline-like product going
for US$150. “This one is for elongating the
organ and also increasing its
circumference,” the lady explained. “The man
just smears the product on his
organ and his problem is
fixed.”
She said a lot of couples and men come back to thank them
after using the
products. Also popular is the Viamax coffee, which is mixed
with water or
drinks and taken 15 minutes before going to bed. It costs
US$10. To match
their men’s enhanced performance, women can also buy coffee
specifically
made for them.
Also in demand are the capsules,
ranging from 50 cents per tablet to US$60
for a bottle of 30. These are said
to generally improve sexual performance.
Sale of libido products
illegal in Zim: MCAZ
Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe
(MCAZ) acting director-general Gugu
Mhlanga said the sale of
libido-enhancing products was illegal.
“Libido-enhancing products are
not permitted on the market because they are
essentially making a medicinal
claim which they have not proven,” Mahlangu
said.
“The authority
(MCAZ) is not authorising the distribution of such products
unless they have
gone through the normal registration process and provided
evidence of safety
and efficacy. Any products that are on the market are
there
illegally.”
She said MCAZ does not condone or encourage the use of
the products as men
would be putting themselves at risk of exposure to
chemicals that can have
serious side effects if taken by individuals with
other health problems.
Mahlangu said controlling the importation of
the products was being scuttled
by the fact that they were often imported as
food supplements and not
medicines.
“The authority has in place
import regulations for medicines and is
developing health regulations
together with the responsible ministry to
control these complementary
medicines,” she said.
“It will be easier for the authority to
regulate these and other
complementary medicines once these regulations are
published.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 February 2012 10:55
BY
NUNURAI JENA
GOVERNMENT is working on modalities to “export” unemployed
nurses to work in
other countries, mostly in the Sadc
region.
Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Douglas
Mombeshora, said
arrangements were at an advanced stage before nurses were
exported into the
region and beyond.
He said the idea of
exporting nurses was mooted after the Finance ministry
forced the Ministry
of Health and Child Welfare to stop employing nurses due
to lack of
funds.
He however said the sector still needed more health personnel.
“At the
moment, we have to let go a lot of nurses whom we trained who are
not
employed. It’s not that vacancies in our sector are filled, but it is
because the Ministry of Finance is saying it has no money to employ them,”
said Mombeshora.
He said government would approach countries
that needed nurses and enter
into “a country- to-country
contracts”.
Government will then negotiate for the nurses’ conditions
of service and
salaries to avoid a situation where they could be taken
advantage of by
unscrupulous foreign employers.
Mombeshora said
the pact that no Sadc country should employ health personnel
from a member
country without prior agreement was not working.
He said several Sadc
countries had employed Zimbabwean nurses in direct
contravention of the
agreement.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 February 2012 10:36
BY
PATRICE MAKOVA
THREATS to prosecute people debating the expiry of Police
Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri’s term of office have no basis at law
and doing so is stifling freedom of expression, legal experts said
yesterday.
The experts accused Attorney-General Johannes Tomana
of attempting to
silence people from discussing issues of national
importance.
Tomana last week described as “illegal” calls for Chihuri
to step down and
threatened to prosecute media practitioners and those in
the inclusive
government who were saying the police chief’s term of office
expired on
January 31.
Constitutional lawyer Professor Lovemore
Madhuku said discussing the expiry
of Chihuri’s term of office does not in
any way undermine the Constitution
or the work of the police
force.
“Tomana expressed a very primitive view which we do not expect
from the
government’s top lawyer,” he said. “I think he was misquoted
because such a
view would mean that any debate in a democracy becomes a
criminal act.”
Tomana told the state media that it was only President
Robert Mugabe who had
the power to appoint a Commissioner-General, arguing
Chihuri’s case was
about reappointment, not appointment which requires
consultation as
stipulated in the Global Political Agreement.
But
Madhuku said there was no conceptual difference between an appointment
and a
reappointment.
“It’s a superficial view that an appointment and reappointment
are different
things,” he said.
“It is the same as an election
and re-election. If Mugabe is re-elected
today, it is the same as being
elected.’’
Madhuku said Tomana should desist from threatening people who
debate Chihuri’s
term of office.
“Tomana can threaten and arrest
people, but the fortunate thing is that it
is not him but the courts which
decide whether a person is guilty or not. No
person will ever be convicted
for discussing such an issue,” he said.
No to unilateral appointment
of Chihuri— MDC
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
executive director Irene Petras
also said it was a democratic right for
people to freely discuss public
appointments such as those of the country’s
top police officers and judges.
She said it was in the public
interest for Zimbabweans to have confidence in
people appointed to top
public positions.
“This is part of a robust debate about public
appointments and there is
nothing criminal about discussing whether
Chihuri’s term has ended,” said
Petras.
Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s MDC-T and Professor Welshman Ncube’s MDC
have insisted that
Mugabe cannot reappoint Chihuri without consulting the
two other coalition
government partners.
MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora said
Zimbabweans have a right to know
the correct position regarding Chihuri’s
status following the expiry of his
term of office.
“Chihuri’s
term of office has expired and other officers within the ranks
must be given
a chance to lead the police force,” he said. “People are
entitled to their
own opinion and journalists must not be threatened by a
favour-seeking
Attorney- General.”
MDC deputy spokesperson Kurauone Chihwayi said
the extension of Chihuri’s
term of office was an issue that required
stakeholder consultation and
consensus.
He urged Tomana to quit
government and join mainstream politics, accusing
him of abusing state
apparatus to silence opposing views.
“The MDC will never be cowed
into silence by public officers who are
ignorant of their boundaries,” he
said. “We view the threats as part of
Zanu PF’s broad strategy to ruin the
inclusive government.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
BY CHIPO MASARA
IN the face of the typhoid
scourge that continues to put in danger many a
life, it is more imperative
than ever to clean-up and try as best as we all
can to maintain a clean
environment.
We have relentlessly talked about the need for each
individual to play their
part to clean-up the environs in which we operate
from and complement
efforts by many groups that have, especially since last
year, embarked on
aggressive clean-up campaigns.
These calls,
however, have been widely ignored and many people evidently
look at cleaning
up as a task that is highly denigrating and a preserve for
council
cleaners.
“What are the cleaners being paid for then? They are being
paid big moneys
so they can keep this place clean. Why should we do the job
for them?” were
the sentiments one Harare resident echoed when asked what he
thought of
companies that had converged to clean up the litter-infested
Copacabana
area last year.
In the meantime, many continue to
litter and dump their garbage just
anywhere they see convenient and as we
speak, the country is characterised
by piles and piles of stinky
green-bottle fly-infested litter.
Is it any wonder then the nation is
currently wallowing in the face of a
typhoid outbreak threatening to take us
back to the 2008 scenario when many,
especially in the high-density suburbs,
succumbed to the cholera scourge?
Typhoid, which is contracted
chiefly through the consumption of dirt, is
suspected to be emanating mostly
from drinking dirty water. Considering that
the Harare City Council was
recently fined by the Environmental Management
Agency on the charge, among
others, of depositing raw sewage into water
bodies, this does not come as a
surprise.
But besides the raw sewage, which I suspect to be the chief
culprit, the
litter we continue to carelessly throw around often finds its
way into the
rivers that eventually feed our taps.
With the city
councils claiming to be still economically incapacitated, it
is highly
unlikely all the water purification processes are being carried
through.
Sanity prevails at Harare City Council
finally
On a more positive note, Harare City Council (HCC) seems
to have finally
seen the danger of uncollected refuse and in the face of the
typhoid
outbreak, has no choice but to take urgent corrective
measures.
It also seems to have finally heeded the call by
Environmental Management
Agency (EMA) to start collecting refuse and place
time-tables in the media
showing dates when refuse would be collected in
each area.
It, however, remains to be seen how sincere the city
council is and whether
or not we will soon have the pleasure of seeing
litter piles shrinking.
In Mbare for instance, litter that started
piling up way back in 2010
remains there to the present day with the piles
of dirt now resembling
mountains.
In the meantime, evidently
unmoved, many deliberately set up shop next to
the dirt, selling mostly
home-cooked food stuffs which customers actually
buy.
As much as
we expect the councils to clean up our areas, experience with
Zimbabwe’s
service delivery has taught us to never expect too much.
The council
should ensure refuse is collected on a regular basis, as per
their mandate,
but there is no guarantee they will actually do it.
And if we
continue to mess up our areas expecting the council to clean after
us, we
might have typhoid to deal with instead.
And when that happens and we
have to make endless trips to the hospital, it
becomes our problem to deal
with, not the council’s.
So yes, if the councils could collect litter
and clean up more, that would
really help. However, we really cannot afford
to place our health and
well-being in the hands of our service providers as
that would be tantamount
to suicide.
Instead, we all need to take
the initiative and start ensuring our
surroundings are clean. You might not
care much about the environment, even
though it is in your best interest
that you do, but you need to care for
yours and your family’s health. How
much it will cost you when there is a
diarrhoea outbreak in the home, or
worse still, typhoid, is hard to imagine.
If you care, you will join
in the clean-up campaign by at least ensuring
that whatever place you
operate from, is litter-free.
Hopefully the council will complement
our efforts by collecting litter as
non-collection has led to many disposing
of it just anywhere, fuelling
disease outbreaks.
By Chipo
Masara
For feedback, contact me on:
cmasara@standard.co.zw
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
BY NQABA MATSHAZI
AS Harare chokes in the grip
of a typhoid outbreak, in nearby Chitungwiza
life goes on seemingly
undisturbed, although there is an ominous feeling
that the satellite town
might be affected next.
The air around the town is pregnant with
asphyxiating smells, a combination
of the smell of raw sewage, uncollected
rubbish and shockingly, the smell of
fresh meat, fish and fruits sold at
shopping centres dotted around the town,
some 25 kilometres away from the
capital Harare.
Mary Chipadze, a vendor, with a child strapped on her
back, sells fresh meat
in the open and with a small twig in her hand,
casually swats at flies that
have become her permanent
guests.
Her main preoccupation is discussing with fellow vendors the
prices of their
wares and she does not seem bothered by the flies that have
nestled on her
baby.
“Sausage 5 rand mukwasha,” she says to a
young man, who seems to be
interested in buying meat for that evening at
Huruyadzo Shopping Centre in
Chitungwiza’s St Mary’s high-density
suburb.
Chipadze sells sausages, meat and fresh fish, saying this is
her only means
of survival.
“If I don’t come here then my children will
starve,” she says. “I failed to
get a job so this is my only way of
survival.”
Suddenly her tone changes and she demands to know why she
is being asked
questions.
Chipadze is one of scores of vendors who throng
the centre daily at
mid-afternoon to sell meat, which is surprisingly
popular with customers.
While some vendors sell their meat and fish
in the open, others have become
enterprising and package their meat while
nearby a man sells chicken from
the back of a van.
Another
vendor, Joseph Mapuranga, concurred with Chipadze, saying vendors
were able
to remain in business because there was demand for their
services.
“We would not be here if we had no customers, so it means
these people trust
our products,” Mapuranga, a fish monger, said
confidently.
He asked that council construct vending bays for them,
but seemed oblivious
to the typhoid threat, currently wreaking havoc in
Harare.
“We would not be here if there were proper bays, we just want
to make a
living like everyone else,” he continued, from his vending spot, a
few
metres away from a dirty pool of water that had collected following the
previous night’s rains.
The chaotic situation at Huruyadzo was a
microcosm of the situation in the
rest of Chitungwiza, like in Units D, E
and H.
Open-air sale of meat and other fresh fruit have become very
popular because
the products are usually cheaper.
However, others warn
the meat is usually not inspected and people who buy it
could be
compromising their health.
Fresh fruit like mangoes, long-known to be
conveyors of diseases such
cholera and typhoid, are in demand as the
residents of the area seem not to
be bothered about the typhoid outbreak in
nearby Harare.
Already in Harare the municipality has descended
heavily on vendors of fresh
meat and fish, culminating in the closure of the
ever-popular Mereki
open-air braaing joint.
Efforts to get a
comment from the council were fruitless, as a commission to
run the town has
just been put in place.
Chitungwiza City Council spokesman Zephaniah
Mandirahwe declined to comment
saying he was on leave while Mayor Philemon
Chitiyo referred all questions
to the health department, saying he had not
been to the council offices.
At last count, 1 800 people had received
treatment for typhoid in Harare,
while statistics for other places were not
available.
Experts have warned the typhoid outbreak could be a
precursor of worse
things to follow, like the deadly cholera.
The
government has already warned the typhoid outbreak could be replicated
in
other urban centres, as water and sewer infrastructure in most areas were
generally dilapidated and in urgent need for repair.
But for
vendors in Chitungwiza, they live to sell another day, hoping that
just
maybe, the typhoid outbreak may be tamed before it reaches their
shores.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 February 2012 12:11
BY
KUDZAI CHIMHANGWA
ZIMBABWE’S economic outlook for 2012 is favourable, but is
clouded by
significant downside risks and remains highly vulnerable to a
number of
local and exogenous shocks, the World Bank (WB) has
said.
Commodity price declines, reversals of capital inflows, banking
system
instability and political disturbances are among the key factors
mentioned
by the bank.
Speaking at an economic outlook symposium
last week, WB country economist
for Zimbabwe, Nadia Pifferetti, said growth
in 2012 will be driven less by
the dynamics of the 2009 to 2011 economic
rebound and hinges more on the
presence or absence of long-term drivers of
sustainable growth.
“Zimbabwe’s favourable evolution in 2011
continued to be supported by
exogenous factors, including higher gold,
platinum, tobacco and cotton
prices and favourable weather conditions
supporting recovering agricultural
output,” Pifferetti
said.
“However, the external position remains precarious, with a
current account
deficit of 23,4% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product).” She said
gross official
reserves, including International Monetary Fund Special
Drawing Rights
allocation, were at US$197 million as at December 2011,
representing 0,3
months of imports yet the minimum figure should be three
months.
The World Bank’s observations come at a time when the
government intends to
achieve an economic growth rate of 9,4% and retain an
inflation figure below
5% this year.
The bank also postulates
that commodity prices and trade are the main
channels through which shocks
would be transmitted to African countries,
including Zimbabwe, while high
and volatile local food prices are also a
cited as a source of
vulnerability.
the economic liberalisation and introduction of a
multi-currency regime in
2009, led the country to register remarkable
progress towards macro-economic
stability between 2010 and
2011.
Pifferetti noted that during 2011, Zimbabwe continued to
benefit from the
renewed stability as the Consumer Price Index for the third
year in a row,
remained substantially stable.
Domestic prices
rose moderately as the 12-month change at the end of 2011
was 5,4%.
The
bank urged the government to support recovery through fiscal expenditure
aimed towards rebuilding basic services and public goods as well as removing
obstacles to foreign direct investment flows.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 February 2012
12:00
BY OUR STAFF
RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono
said on Tuesday the
central bank is ready to process applications by new
entries into the
financial sector, as he upped the ante against haphazard
indigenisation
programmes in the sector.
In his first public
address on the monetary policy since the introduction of
multi-currencies,
Gono said the central bank welcomes new players into the
financial sector
and would issue licences if they met the minimum capital
requirements.
“. . . the financial sector continues to invite new
entries and those who
wish to own banks and those who wish to be players in
the sector can apply
for new banking licences. We will be happy to give them
as long as they
comply,” Gono said.
The move is set to draw sharp
criticism from the Youth Development,
Indigenisation and Empowerment
ministry, which views Gono as the stumbling
block to the implementation of
the indigenisation programme in the financial
sector.
Analysts
have raised the red flag arguing there was need for caution when
approaching
the delicate financial sector, the bedrock of the economy.
As at
December 31 last year, there were 26 operational banking institutions
(including POSB), 16 asset management companies and 157 micro-finance
institutions under the supervision of RBZ. However, the big banks account
for over 70% of the market share, leaving smaller banks, in particular those
that are indigenously owned, to scramble for crumbs.
On Tuesday,
Gono said there should be mergers and acquisitions and some
smaller banks
had no basis for continued existence on the market.
“The idea of
clinging onto ownership structures which have no meaning or
capacity should
just go because you will be swept under with your 100%
ownership,” Gono
said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 February 2012
11:58
BY NDAMU SANDU
EMIRATES, one of the world’s leading airlines,
says there is an opportunity
for Zimbabwean horticultural producers to reach
out to the world by using
its global network.
Emirates’ inaugural
flight to Zimbabwe via Zambia landed on Wednesday,
becoming the first
airline from the Middle East to fly into the country.
It will fly
into the country five times a week. Duncan Watson, regional
manager, cargo
commercial operations, told journalists on Thursday he held
meetings with
producers on how they could reach a wider market for their
produce.
“There is a wonderful opportunity for growers here to
demonstrate Zimbabwean
produce can reach so many destinations in the world,”
Watson said.
“We hope to be carrying flowers and vegetables to new
markets in the Middle
East, China and Europe.”
The plane has a cargo
carrying capacity of 15 tonnes, which will be shared
between Zimbabwe and
Zambia.
Jean-Luc Grillet, the airline’s senior vice-president,
commercial
operations, Africa, said the response from the market had been
good and
Emirates would be flying daily into Zimbabwe by October, buoyed by
the
strong response in both Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The inaugural
flight had an 80% load on the 256-passenger plane. Tourism and
Hospitality
minister Walter Mzembi said he hoped going “forward, we will be
able to
increase the internal access, so that when Emirates offloads in
Harare, we
can connect to our various tourist destinations”.
Zimbabwe has been
battling to lure tourists because it has not been an
easily accessible
destination due to the limited number of direct flights
into the
country.
This has made it very difficult to market the country as a
favourable
destination for tourists. Accessibility alongside attraction,
accommodation
and advertising are regarded as the 4As of destination
marketing.
Transport, Communication and Infrastructural Development
minister Nichiolas
Goche told Standardbusiness his ministry had received
inquiries from a
number of leading airlines such as Qatar and Hong Kong
Airlines.
He said the ministry had shot down the proposal of German
carrier Lufthansa
that wanted to fly into Zimbabwe via code-sharing with
Ethiopian Airlines.
A code-share is an arrangement whereby an airline
sells seats, under its own
name, on another carrier’s flight.
“When
Lufthansa came to see us, their story was that they wanted to
code-share
with Ethiopian Airlines. In other words, they wanted Ethiopian
Airlines to
increase its flights here. We said no, you can come directly as
Lufthansa,
in the same way that you used to come here,” Goche said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 February 2012
11:53
TOWARDS the end of 2011, the media had articles quoting Harare
Mayor
Muchadeyi Masunda urging city councillors to re-elect him to lead them
for a
second term at the helm of the capital city.
What this implies
is that the mayor is confident of his performance since
coming into council,
as an appointee of the MDC-T, symbolically elected by
all elected
councillors. But Harare residents did not directly elect him
into
office.
This piece is not about personalities, but about performance
of office
holders within the City of Harare. I will focus on the mayor and
also talk
about the councillors and the heads of departments in the
council.
At the end I will try to recommend policy alternatives
and other strategies
to tackle the leadership transformation for a better
life for the residents
of Harare in 2012.
For the record, this is
the same mayor who, since coming into office in
2008, has lambasted the
calibre of councillors in Harare. While the Harare
Residents’ Trust (HRT)
agrees with the mayor on this position, what boggles
the mind is why someone
who feels there is a huge mismatch in skills and
experience between himself
and the majority of the councillors would still
want to continue working
with them.
The ideal thing would be a decent exit, marking relief
from the pain of
working with incompetent subordinates, rather than seeking
another term.
For their part, the majority of the councillors in
Harare have completely
lost direction and are overwhelmed by their
responsibilities and assumed
powers. The councillors have repeatedly acted
more like mercenaries than
policymakers of the capital
city.
They have failed to influence service provision and instead
preoccupied
themselves with contesting for power and authority over city
workers,
engaging in often dirty warfare with incumbent Members of
Parliament.
The community leaders have failed to convene community
feedback meetings,
updating residents of what they are doing on their
behalf.
Officially councillors and the mayor earn less than US$220
every month in
allowances for their roles as policymakers. Except for a
handful of
councillors, including the mayor, the majority had nothing to
their names in
the mould of cars and houses to be able to lead an
extravagant lifestyle at
the time of their election.
It is their
new lifestyles which have attracted our attention as the HRT.
Some who did
not have enough shirts and trousers to attend council’s
committee and full
council meetings have transformed overnight to even
imitate Nigerians in
terms of dressing and speech, just so that they
showcase their newfound
status of unexplained wealth.
Now, as the debate on whether or not to
retain Masunda as the Mayor of
Harare gains momentum, the key issues that
should be under consideration
include, but are not limited to, the policy
direction the council seeks to
take in 2012 and the council’s ability to
develop alternative strategies to
mobilise resources to sustain its
operations rather than continuing to
depend on already overburdened
residents.
It is important to evaluate the performance of the council
under Masunda,
specifically understanding how they have attempted to address
the housing
backlog, water delivery, road maintenance, health provision,
environment
management and waste disposal.
The mayor has
consistently acted as if he is a legal consultant for the City
of Harare
instead of being the lead official in policy formulation and
decision-making. That needs to change. I know that Masunda has the capacity
to lead, but he needs to get away from populism and
rhetoric.
Leaders who demonstrate persistence, tenacity,
determination and synergistic
communication skills will bring out the same
qualities in their groups. Good
leaders use their own inner mentors to
energise their team and organisations
and lead a team to achieve
success.
BY PRECIOUS SHUMBA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 February 2012 11:43
In 1947, Kwame Nkrumah
returned to Ghana from his overseas studies at the
invitation of the
conservative United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), formed
by elitist Ghanaian
lawyers and businessmen, to help organise the party
which was calling for
independence on the basis of “as soon as possible”.
Immediately after
landing in Ghana, it became clear to Nkrumah that the
leaders of UGCC headed
by leading Ghanaian bourgeois intellectual and
lawyer, JB Danquah, were not
actually interested in the welfare of the
people primarily. Rather they were
more interested in replacing the
colonisers in order to maintain their
elite status as leaders of the people.
But Nkrumah had a different
agenda.
Similarly, recent calls by some African leaders to defend
their countries
from an impending new wave of colonialism could be an
organised move to
maintain their grip on power while not having the welfare
of people at
heart.
Nkrumah’s agenda was for the people of Ghana
and Africa to become masters of
their own destiny, controlling the resources
of their lands. Without doubt,
vibrations began to occur within UGCC,
especially when Nkrumah called for
positive action, a peaceful civil
disobedience demonstration against
colonialism leading to the arrest and
detention of the UGCC leadership.
This is undoubtedly the basis of
President Robert Mugabe’s anti-Western
rhetoric which, in reality, is
divorced from pragmatism as it lacks
sincerity.
African leaders
have been very good at rhetoric, but fail to confront those
that they term
their enemies all because they lack matching capabilities to
achieve their
dream or they are not sincere enough, thereby rendering their
dream a
fantasy that is not backed by any real action.
Mugabe warned African
countries at the recent AU summit that they faced
re-colonisation from the
Western countries that had run out of natural
resources which they now
sought to find in Africa through re-colonisation.
Mugabe harps on
neo-colonisation mostly as a deliberate ploy to shift the
world’s attention
from the real thorny issues on the ground in Zimbabwe,
such as the impending
elections, and also in order to win the sympathy of
fellow African
nations.
Yes, re-colonisation of Africa could perhaps be a reality,
but what has
Africa been capable of doing without the West so
far?
One needs to consider all this shouting from summit podiums as
claims that
the continent is under siege. What are the current African
leaders capable
of doing to stop this onslaught, if indeed it is on its way?
What can
Africans provide for themselves on a sustainable basis without
relying on
Western technology and financial resources?
And of
course, one needs to reflect on why people in Africa continue calling
for
the departure of autocratic post-independence leaders.
Then, would it
be re-colonisation if Africans are assisted to oust their
oppressors?
It
does not need a man from Mars to prove that former Libyan strongman
Muammar
Gaddafi oppressed his own people and there was really nothing
sinister in
Nato coming to the rescue of the Libyans. It can only be out of
the
desperation to remain in power that any leader in Africa would call this
re-colonisation.
What a deceit!
Dictators dotted across
Africa have firm control of the security systems in
their countries, keeping
their fellow citizens inperpetual fear, with no
means to tackle their
oppressive leaders except to seek intervention from
outside. Only in cases
where the outside world has assisted has victory been
certain.
President Mugabe lamented how Gaddafi was killed
allegedly by Nato- backed
forces, creating the impression that he supported
the way the late dictator
oppressed his people.
The President
chose to define the Libyan ouster of Gaddafi as an act of
neo-colonialism in
the context of Western desire to control Africa’s
resources. He said since
Europe and America had run out of oil, they now
sought to siphon Africa’s
reserves.
Yet trade relations between the West and Africa have always
been there and
there is no clear reason why the former would stoop so low as
to revert to
primitive colonialism in order to access Africa’s
resources.
The truth is quite simple: The re-colonisation rhetoric is nothing
but a
well-orchestrated ploy by African dictators seeking to strengthen
their grip
to power by lying to the world about an imaginary recurrence of
colonialism.
stice and therefore falsely accused of purveying a
neo-colonialism agenda.
Nkrumah could have never had called for African
leaders to maim and kill
their own people like what Gaddafi did, like what
former Egyptian tyrant
Hosni Mubarak did, like what former Ivory Coast
autocrat Laurent Gbabgo did.
Definitely that could not have been the purpose
of Pani-Africanism.
Nkrumah must be turning in his grave, with his
Pan-African ideologies being
trampled upon by African
dictators.
The African statesman could not have urged African leaders
to bludgeon their
own people in order to stop fresh colonialism from coming
on the African
continent.
He merely desired an Africa where
leaders blended their ideas to unite the
continent and take it forward as
they break free from colonialism, but now
some leaders claiming to have the
continent at heart have diverged from the
noble ideologies and have turned
against their own people, accusing them of
dining with imperialists although
the people are calling for democratic and
peaceful governance on the
continent.
BY JEFFREY MOYO
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 February 2012
11:34
ATTORNEY-General (AG) Johannes Tomana’s futile attempt to block
debate over
Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri’s term of office
that expired
at the end of last month cannot go
unchallenged.
Unless he was misquoted by sections of the
state media, Tomana declared that
only President Robert Mugabe was qualified
to handle Chihuri’s case, adding
matters to do with his reappointment were
off-limits to the other partners
in the inclusive
government.
“According to our Constitution, the
Commissioner-General as an executive
office serving the Executive
Presidency, is to be appointed by him
(President) and the President has that
leeway to consult whoever he wishes,
but in particular the Public Service
Commission,” he declared.
The AG then threatened with arrest
journalists who continue to question
Chihuri’s illegal presence in office.
Tomana’s intervention in a matter that
would best be left to politicians
does not bode well for his role as an AG.
As AG, Tomana should be concerned
with matters related to the administration
of justice and stop meddling in
political matters; in other words, he should
remain
apolitical.
By attempting to stop a legitimate public debate on the
tenure of office of
a public official, Tomana is getting himself involved in
murky party
politics, forgetting that he should be impartial if he is to
successfully
discharge his mandate as AG.
Tomana should be well
aware that Mugabe is not the sole ruler he was before
the 2008 election.
Under the Global Political Agreement that gave Mugabe
legitimacy to remain
as President, any key appointment to public office has
to be agreed to by
the three principals. Amendment No 19 to the Constitution
is unambiguous
about the need for consultation between the principals before
any key
appointment is made and Chihuri’s case is no exception.
By
threatening to arrest journalists for questioning Chihuri’s expired
tenure
of office, Tomana is showing his true colours and blocking democratic
change.
It is difficult to understand how he can seek to stifle
public debate on
such an important public matter unless he is a Zanu PF
political apparatchik
masquerading as an AG.
Tomana needs to get
real. Zimbabwe critically needs public officials who can
command public
confidence.
Quote of the week
"I do not know why
this pathologist was called; my information is that he
is not registered
here in Zimbabwe and his name does not appear on the
registered medical
practioners list," Mujuru family lawyer, Thakor Kewada
commenting on Cuban
pathologist Gabriel Alvero Gonzalez's autopsy on the
remains of the late Gen
Solomon Mujuru.
