FinGaz
Mavis Makuni Own
Correspondent
First, shoot the messenger, and then arrest one or two
sacrificial lambs
FIGHTING corruption African style. First, shoot the
messenger or messengers,
and then arrest one or two sacrificial lambs to
detract attention from the
real culprits. Finally, bury your head in the
sand and pretend either that
the problem will go away or that the people
will have been duped.
A cynical view to be sure, but one that is borne
out by events that have
taken place in a number of countries that have been
rocked by corruption
scandals in recent years. The first act in shooting the
messenger is usually
to go all out to muzzle the media through a slew of
draconian laws or
outright persecution of journalists through intimidation,
harassment and
arrests. In most cases these attempts to victimise
journalists are futile
and counter-productive as corruption becomes more
rampant and ruinous in the
long run.
Take the case of Zimbabwe, which now
seems so inextricably engulfed in a web
of official corruption that it will
take a real war to root out the cancer.
The government has promulgated
restrictive laws such as the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy
Act (AIPPA) and the Public Order and
Security Act (POSA) in a bid to
forestall the scrutiny and questioning of
the actions of government
officials but this has not rendered corruption
benign and consquenceless. In
fact, it is now such a rampant and malignant
cancer that even the government
now openly acknowledges its existence and is
belatedly trying to do
something about it.
And yet when the first alarm bells were rung about this
scourge in the
1980s, officialdom reacted in a hostile manner. Geoff
Nyarota, who was then
editor of The Chronicle, was unceremoniously removed
from his newspaper job
and "promoted" to a public relations position after
he had authored and
published an expose on a vehicle acquisition and
profiteering scandal
involving government ministers and ruling party
officials. Subsequent events
have shown that Nyarota has never been forgiven
for his crusading
journalism. Today, he lives in exile in the United States
and is blacklisted
as an enemy of the state. And yet corruption would not
have got out of hand
to reach current levels if Nyarota's brave
investigative journalism had been
appreciated and the government had taken
corrective measures to ensure
transparency and accountability in the public
sector.
Journalists are not the only people that have found themselves in
trouble
for trying to expose untoward activities by people in positions of
power as
South Africa's former director of public prosecutions, Bulelani
Ngcuka, can
testify. He was subjected to a vicious form of character
assassination and
was forced to resign for initiating a probe into financial
scandals and
influence peddling involving former deputy president, Jacob
Zuma. Thabo
Mbeki's former number two was eventually indicted for the
irregularities
that Ngcuka first drew attention to but Ngcuka, who was
hounded out of
office for doing so, paid a high personal price.
The same
fate befell the man who headed Kenya's anti-corruption commission,
John
Githongo, who was forced to flee his homeland after he had exposed high
level corruption in both former president Daniel Arap Moi's administration
and current leader, Mwai Kibaki's government.
Githongo resigned about a
year ago after receiving death threats for
exposing graft and avarice while
serving as permanent secretary for
government and ethics. His attempts to
investigate the Anglo Leasing
scandal, which caused ripples in Kenya were
blocked by four cabinet
ministers implicated in the racket.
From time to
time, some unfortunate minister has been made to carry the cane
for the sins
of a whole government in a bid to give the false impression
that corruption
was being fought from within and that there were no sacred
cows.
Zimbabwe's former finance minister, Chris Kuruneri, who languished
in remand
prison for 18 months before being placed under house arrest is the
only high
ranking government official to have been caught in the
anti-corruption
dragnet since the campaign began. He was indicted for
foreign currency
violations involving his own funds and for holding a
foreign passport.
What makes his treatment seem vindictive and sacrificial is
that those
plundering national resources and stealing from national coffers
remain
unscathed and free to continue their corrupt activities.
Whether
by coincidence or concrete evidence, Malawi's former finance
minister,
Friday Jumbe was arrested a year ago in connection with the sale
of maize
from the country's grain reserves. At the beginning of this month,
Kenya's
finance Minister, David Mwiraira resigned after being implicated in
a
multi-billion scandal.
What is at issue is not that these ministers should
not be exposed or
arrested if there is enough evidence to suggest their
involvement in illegal
and unethical activities. What is jarringly
hypocritical and unfair is to
focus attention on them so as to cover up the
misdeeds of the rest.
FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi
Senior Business Reporter
They came, they saw and they . . . went back
THE
International Monetary Fund (IMF) calls them "useful discussions", but
last
week's talks with Zimbabwe appear really nothing of the sort - once you
scrape off that diplomatic sheen.
The IMF mission's statement last
Friday may as well be a cut-and-paste job
from its own previous statements -
evidence that Zimbabwe has not moved an
inch - while an attempt by both
sides to quickly tuck away the sticky issue
of the source of Zimbabwe's
repayments proved stickier than anticipated.
In its latest statement, the IMF
simply duplicates its previous
pronouncements, again pressing for a
"comprehensive policy package"
comprising: "strong fiscal adjustment; full
liberalisation of the exchange
rate regime for current account transactions;
adoption of a strong monetary
anchor; elimination of quasi-fiscal activity
of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) and transparent absorption of these
losses by the budget; and
fundamental structural reform, including price
deregulation, public
enterprise reform, strengthening of property rights,
and improvements in
governance".
This new statement shows that a gulf
still exists between the IMF and
Zimbabwe on what both sides think the
country needs to do to end the rot.
And by carrying the same content - parts
of it in similar wording - from its
three previous reports, the statement
shows there has been little progress,
if any, since last September.
The
old argument over a free exchange rate returned, especially after new
measures that have trapped the exchange rate at $99 201 for 12 straight
trading days. The IMF wants the rate to track month-on-month inflation,
while the government - according to minutes of one meeting - says the new
system is "a necessary transitory step".
In September last year,
Zimbabwe, once the bread basket of southern Africa,
avoided the boot from
the global financing body after making an unexpected
payment to the IMF to
relieve some of its outstanding debt. Since then, the
country has
substantially curtailed arrears to the fund.
Zimbabwe, which was cut off from
balance of payments support in the late
1990s, had risked becoming the
second country to be kicked out of the IMF
since the former Czechoslovakia
in 1954.
Ahead of the arrival of Sharmini Coorey's team, IMF executive
director Peter
Ngumbullu had written to the finance ministry and the RBZ
looking to allay
fears that the matter of the source of funds would bog down
the discussions.
"I expressed concern on press reports that seem to indicate
that the source
of payments to the fund will remain a major issue during the
staff visit. I
emphasised the importance of bringing this issue to closure
and focus on
more important policy issues," Ngumbullu wrote.
"Clarifying
this to the staff mission will help shift discussion towards
more
substantive issues of economic policy."
But the issue remains thorny. A
January 30 dossier shows that the IMF
mission had made a string of demands:
proof of whether the US$120 million
paid last year is reflected in the RBZ's
books, signed facility contracts,
telegraphic transfer printouts showing
date, account and amounts of funds
credited to the central bank, a copy of
the Exchange Control Act, a copy of
amendments to Statutory Instrument 109
of 1996, and bank details of the RBZ's
offshore bankers.
A document dated
July 22 2005 and titled "Save Zimbabwe Project" showing how
the government
was convinced to agree to the repayments was also brought
out.
The little
matter about the source of funds appears to confirm Ngumbullu's
concern, in
his letter, that "sharing of information with authorities needs
to be
improved".
RBZ governor Gideon Gono and Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa have
over
recent months sought to narrow the gap in opinion between Zimbabwe and
the
fund, but the IMF remains steadfast on the need for wholesale market and
political reforms. But Zimbabwe apparently still sees itself as a nation in
transition that should avoid taking any shock therapy.
Ngumbullu says the
main worry in Zimbabwe is inflation, and calls for the
immediate overhaul of
the civil service, which he says is overrun by "ghost
workers".
"It is
estimated that the recent trend in monthly inflation, when
annualised,
places Zimbabwe as the only country in the world experiencing
hyperinflation," he says.
On the civil service, he says Zimbabwe's wage
bill is more than double the
region average.
But there is hope yet.
Apparently, if Zimbabwe is prepared to talk to the
right people, the foreign
assistance it so craves might yet be a simple
phone call away.
"The staff
believe that Zimbabwe can benefit from some form of technical
assistance
even with the current ban on the country's access to TA. This can
be done
through enhanced dialogue with the staff, discussions with experts
at IMF
headquarters on various issues through telephone, email and direct
contact
during the Spring and annual meetings. The World Bank are of a
similar view
and are prepared to assist on the issue of ghost workers, civil
service
reform and other areas where they have expertise."
FinGaz
Charles Rukuni Bulawayo Bureau
Chief
I CAN see it all from my office. The fights. The weeping. The
celebrations.
The flashy cars. Even the cops. I can see it all because my
office window
faces the top end of the "World Bank" - the hub of illegal
foreign currency
dealers in Bulawayo.
I see the fights when someone
tries to con the illegal foreign currency
dealers. The weeping when someone
intending to buy foreign currency is
conned by the dealers. The celebrations
when one of the dealers comes by to
show off a new car to her colleagues.
The flashy cars, some with foreign
number plates that stop by for the
occupants to change money. The cops who
routinely round-up the illegal
foreign currency dealers but at times also
come to change money.
Business
is booming. One can hardly imagine there was ever Operation
Murambatsvina.
The display of wealth that I see everyday from my office
window makes me
wonder how many people are still earning an honest living.
Where does all
the money that is changing hands come from?
The abundant wealth seems to be
everywhere. People in the high-density
suburbs are extending their houses,
drive imported Japanese vehicles and
watch satellite TV paid for in foreign
currency.
Those in the low-density suburbs are building mansions. They drive
the
latest 4x4s. Their children drive to school in posh cars. They go to
schools
where, each term, they pay fees that are more than the average
worker's
annual salary.
One 18-year-old even boasted that he had so much
money to play around with
that his perfume alone cost $5 million per
bottle.
The wealth displayed on the country's roads and suburbs gives one the
impression that Zimbabweans are filthy rich. One can be excused for thinking
so. Why not, when one reads stories that seem to support this.
In Harare
a domestic worker went on a spending spree that ended in Bulawayo
after
stealing more than $420 million that was kept in the house by his
employer.
Another man was reported by the police to have been robbed of
$6 billion
that was stashed in the boot of his car but he denied the report
claiming he
lost less than $500 million.
Two villagers in Mberengwa were
robbed of $8.4 billion which they were
carrying in a donkey-drawn
cart.
Zimbabwe is behaving like a typical shadow or underground economy. One
study
even said 63 percent of the country's economy was not in central bank
governor Gideon Gono's books.
Friedrich Schneider, an economics professor
at the University of Linz in
Austria, who has done extensive studies on the
shadow economy, says the
shadow economy is also known as the underground,
informal, or parallel
economy. It includes not only illegal activities but
also unreported income
from the production of legal goods and services,
either from monetary or
barter transactions.
Most of the transactions in
a shadow economy are in cash so as to leave no
observable traces for tax
authorities. A bigger shadow economy therefore,
means a greater demand for
banknotes.
While Zimbabwe, at one time, had a booming informal sector that
was
threatening to overtake the formal one, Bulawayo business consultant
Eric
Bloch says the ongoing display of wealth is an illusion. It gives a
distorted picture that Zimbabweans have money.
"The majority of the
people in Zimbabwe don't have money. Seventy to 80
percent of the people
don't have money. Perhaps 20 to 25 percent can make
ends meet. But it is
only the top two percent that has real money and they
flash it around. That
is why they are quite visible and easily become
targets," Bloch
said.
"This is only a small fraction of the population, mostly people who are
dealing in illegal foreign currency, people selling fuel on the black
market, and those engaged in crime. They make a quick buck and also spend
the money recklessly. The majority of the people are poor."
Labour
economist Godfrey Kanyenze concurred.
"This is all arbitrage. People are
making money out of nothing, cashing in
on speculation, just like the banks
were doing in 2003," Kanyenze said.
Arbitrage is the buying and selling of
products, financial securities or
foreign currency between two or more
markets in order to take profitable
advantage of any differences in prices
quoted by these markets.
This is what has been happening in Zimbabwe. Those
with cash have been
cleaning the supermarket shelves of products in short
supply and then
reselling them at exorbitant prices.
The government
admits in its Millennium Development Goals (MDG) report that
80 percent of
the population was classified as poor way back in 2002. The
number of poor
might actually have increased by now because the economy has
further
deteriorated.
Under the MDG, the government intended to reduce extreme
poverty and hunger
by at least half by the year 2015.
But it is already
way off target. It gave five scenarios on how this could
be achieved. The
first was that the country would have to record annual
growth of 6.6 percent
for the next 13 years to 2015. But it wrote this off
as unrealistic because
it could never achieve that growth rate as the
country had recorded negative
growth since 2000.
The second scenario entailed growth of four to five
percent a year. This
would achieve a poverty reduction of 27 percent by
2015. While it said this
was more realistic, the country is still realising
negative growth.
The MDG said a more realistic goal to halve poverty levels
was to aim for
five percent growth up to 2020. Once again the government has
already missed
this target.
The fourth scenario was to aim for a four
percent growth over 24 years. This
would reduce poverty by half by 2026. The
government said while this was a
realistic goal in terms of growth, it was
unacceptable because of the long
period required.
It wrote off the fifth
scenario which would see poverty reduced by half by
2038. This would require
the economy to grow by three percent annually.
Having already gone the first
three years in negative territory, Zimbabwe
will need a radical policy shift
to reduce poverty.
Right now, things are getting worse. Inflation is still on
the increase. The
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) basket is now pegged at
$21.8 million a
month. The labour movement says the average wage is only $5
million.
The situation is so bad that a majority of the 20 percent of the
population
that is gainfully employed is now classified as poor. The CCZ
even advises
those in employment to supplement their incomes through legal
activities or
face starvation.
Reducing poverty therefore, remains a
pipe-dream for the time being. One
young man, doing his window shopping in
Bulawayo at the weekend, summed it
up all in a song by award winner Hosiah
Chipanga.
"Mai mwana ngativakire imba yedu pamusoro pegomo," he sang. "Kana
vokwidza
mitengo, inobata vari pasi". ( My wife let's build our house at the
top of
the mountain. When they raise prices, only those at the bottom will
be
affected".
This is exactly what is happening in Zimbabwe. While the
majority are
struggling to make ends meet - having to work for four months
to afford one
month's basic requirements - life couldn't be better for a
few. And they
wouldn't dream of any change.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Business
Reporter
MUTARE - President Robert Mugabe's cash-strapped government,
under mounting
pressure to revive the comatose economy, has slashed the size
of the
Zimbabwean army by a significant 25 percent to 30 000, a senior
Defence
Ministry official has revealed.
Prior to the cutback, the
army numbered 40 000.
Economic analysts have repeatedly criticised the
government for maintaining
a bloated defence force, which they blame for
draining the country of
crucial financial resources that could have been
profitably channelled to
the deprived sectors of the
economy.
Brigadier-General Trust Mugoba, the director-general of policy,
public
relations and international affairs in the Ministry of Defence, told
a
conference on peace and development convened by the Centre for Peace
Initiatives in Africa here that the government, facing no external threat,
had found it prudent to trim its army.
Mugoba cited the relative peace
and stability in the southern African region
and prohibitive costs as some
of the reasons for the sharp downsizing.
"In response to the peace dividend
that followed the demise of apartheid
rule, the government was able to
pursue prudent policies for the reduction
of defence expenditure while
redirecting the resources to the social
sector," said Mugoba.
"Of
particular significance was the shift from the large, defensive and
robust
forces of old to smaller forces of a minimum self-defence capability.
As a
result, since the mid-1990s, Zimbabwe reduced the size of its military
establishment, first from 52 000 to 40 000 and then to around 30 000
presently," he added.
Mugoba said the trimming of the defence force had
also been necessitated by
prescriptions from the International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank, which
recommended cutting down military expenditure and
allocating resources to
the social and economic sectors.
He, however,
said Zimbabwe would ensure that it had enough capacity to
defend
itself.
"The government remains fully cognisant of the need to compensate the
reduced strength in numbers with modern equipment," Mugoba said. "This will
leave the smaller force still effective, mobile and hard-hitting in the
event of aggression."
The downsizing of the defence force comes in the
wake of media reports
alleging that the army was sending soldiers on
mandatory paid leave because
of food shortages in camps.
Zimbabwe is
grappling with one of its worst food shortages since
independence amid
reports of starvation in some areas.
Other reports say some members of the
security forces are quitting their
jobs because of poor remuneration while
some are said to have deserted.
Despite getting a 231 percent increment in
January, the soldiers say the
salaries are still less than half the Consumer
Council of Zimbabwe's monthly
consumer basket of $22 million in January.
FinGaz
y
Nelson Banya News
Editor
MAVERICK businessman Philip Chiyangwa has sold off Midiron
Enterprises,
which warehoused his leather and footwear industry assets, to
Attorney
General (AG) Sobusa Gula-Ndebele's family in a move that has raised
eyebrows.
Chiyangwa, who was implicated in a high-profile espionage
case in which his
co-accused were sentenced to jail terms ranging from four
to five years, was
removed from remand last year, although the AG insisted
the state still had
a case against him.
Speculation on the size of the
transaction has been rife, with the cost
being put at $90 billion for the
foreign currency generating businesses.
Although Chiyangwa strenuously denied
selling G & D Shoes and Belmont
Leather last week, Cyril Ndebele - the
Attorney General's brother -
confirmed the deal. Ndebele, a former Speaker
of Parliament, told The
Financial Gazette that the Ndebele family now owns
the Bulawayo-based G & D
Shoes.
"Yes, that is correct," Ndebele said
in response to inquiries from this
newspaper.
Asked to confirm if the
attorney general was involved in the transaction,
Ndebele said; "This is a
family concern, of which he is a member. The
transaction was done through
Sonkanke Holdings, of which I am chairman. We
will be making a public
statement on the matter very soon," Ndebele said.
Investigations conducted by
this paper also established that Chiyangwa was
bought out of the company in
November last year. Company registry documents
show that Barrick Price,
Cyril Ndebele and Irene Ndebele have been entered
as the new directors of
Midiron Enterprises following the resignation of
Chiyangwa, Harold Madzivo
and Benaya Muchove on November 15, 2005.
Price, who was the company chief
executive officer, left Midiron on Monday
and was replaced by Trevor
Ndebele, who was previously the company
secretary.
However, in a bizarre
turn of events, Chiyangwa last week maintained he
still owned the company,
while the attorney general flatly denied any
knowledge of the transaction
when contacted a fortnight ago.
"I do not know anything about that,"
Gula-Ndebele said in a terse response
to inquiries.
The AG has previously
sat on the board of Zimbabwe Express Airlines, a now
defunct private carrier
founded by the Ndebele family.
Chiyangwa, on the other hand, said the board
changes did not mean he had
divested from the business, saying the move was
meant to streamline and
restructure the operation. The businessman has
recently shown a predilection
for property development.
G & D
supplies shoes to the South African market, while Belmont Leather
exports
its products to France.
FinGaz
n
Staff
Reporter
THE National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) intends approaching
the courts to
force President Robert Mugabe to accept its draft constitution
as the
assembly continues with its push for a people-driven
constitution.
Slated for August, the court action would be one of a
series of events lined
up by the NCA to push the government into enacting a
new constitution. The
NCA has since 2000, been unyielding in its quest for a
new constitution.
After emerging with egg on its face following the rejection
of the draft
constitution in 2000, the government has flatly rejected fresh
attempts to
put the issue back on the agenda.
Instead, it has opted for
piecemeal changes that saw the passing of the 17th
constitutional amendment
last year that gave the government powers to
expropriate land without giving
farmers the option to go to the courts.
"We want the government to appreciate
our proposals for a new constitution
and, as such, we want to go to court to
force President Mugabe to accept our
proposals for a new constitution," said
Jessie Majome, the NCA spokesperson.
She said Zimbabwe should hold elections
under a democratic constitution by
the end of the year, adding that a new
people-driven constitution was the
only panacea to the political and
economic crises facing the country.
"What we are saying as the NCA is that
let's have a new constitution sooner
than President Mugabe's retirement . .
. We don't want the next President of
this country to be an appointee," said
Lovemore Madhuku, NCA chairman.
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Own
Correspondent
THE Attorney General (AG)'s office came to Strive
Masiyiwa's rescue last
week after the authorities had initially declined to
issue the self-exiled
trillionaire with a new passport, saying they needed
to check whether he was
not on the police wanted list.
The Econet
Wireless founder, who was awarded a licence to operate the
country's third
mobile cellular network after a fierce legal battle that
almost split the
presidium, had applied for the renewal of his passport when
he came face to
face with government red-tape.
Sources said the Registrar General's office,
which prepared a list of people
whose passports had been invalidated and
should therefore be seized, put
Masiyiwa's application on ice insisting they
could only issue a new passport
if he was not one of the fugitives who
skipped the country in recent years.
"It was a big fight. It took
intervention from a higher office, the AG's
office and some senior officials
to have the passport issued," said a
source. "Only yesterday (Tuesday), the
RG's office sent a message advising
Masiyiwa to "come and collect" his
passport after he had paid $1.5 million
for the emergency
passport."
Masiyiwa left Zimbabwe about six years ago under unclear
circumstances. A
few months after his departure for his South African base,
police spokesman
Wayne Bvudzijena was quoted as saying they were keen to
interview Masiyiwa
in connection with the floatation of shares in his
company.
His office is however, on record saying Masiyiwa, whose media
project, the
Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe is also in the courts seeking
to reverse
the closure of The Daily News and its sister weekly, The Daily
News on
Sunday, left the country to focus his attention on developing the
technological stock into a global telecommunications player.
Contacted
for comment yesterday, Masiyiwa's lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa refused
to comment
on personal issues involving her clients and referred all
questions to
Masiyiwa, who refused to comment over the phone.
Econet spokesperson Sure
Kamhunga claimed yesterday that his boss got his
passport using the normal
channels, adding that there was no fight
whatsoever.
"He applied for the
passport through the normal procedure and he got it just
like everyone else.
He got his new passport, valid until 2016, recently and
there was no
struggle in any way," he said.
Sobuza Gula-Ndebele, the attorney general,
said yesterday he was not aware
of the issue but admitted it was possible
that an official from his office
could have attended to it.
"Such things
can happen, but I am not sure who exactly might have dealt with
it in one of
our departments as it is a matter of routine that doesn't
require my
intervention," he said.
Masiyiwa, who is known for his strong beliefs in
justice, fought a bruising
legal battle with the government in the late
nineties over the Econet's
licensing. He has also fought and won many court
battles in countries such
as Botswana, South Africa, Nigeria and
Kenya.
Lawyers representing the South African-based businessman are believed
to
have been preparing a case against the government, arguing that it was
within Masiyiwa's right as a citizen of Zimbabwe to be issued with a
passport.
The latest development comes as the government has just passed
a law under
Constitutional Amendment Number 17, which granted it powers to
withdraw
passports from anyone suspected to be an enemy of the
state.
Already, Movement for Democratic Change pro-senate faction
spokesperson Paul
Themba-Nyathi, Progressive Teachers Association of
Zimbabwe president and
political activist, Raymond Majongwe and Zimbabwe
Independent publisher
Trevor Ncube have had their passports seized. The
passports were later
returned.
The RG's office last year drew up a list
of 17 people including journalists
and prominent human rights lawyer, Mtetwa
whom it perceived as government
opponents.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior
Business Reporter
THE government, grappling with an acute food shortage,
has launched a
crackdown on the country's millers who it accuses of
stockpiling grain, amid
indications the blitz could suck in political
heavyweights.
Milling industry sources said crack teams from the powerful
Joint Operations
Command, which comprises operatives from the country's
uniformed forces and
the spy agency, were dispatched this week to search for
grain at milling
plants across the country and plug possible leakages
feeding into the
illegal black market.
They said the probe team,
which also included members of the Police Internal
Security Intelligence
(PISI) had descended on milling plants demanding to be
furnished with
details of stocks on hand and the last time they took
delivery of grain from
the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), the only body
allowed to trade in maize and
wheat, which are now controlled 'strategic'
commodities.
"They came
to one of our plants asking for any unmilled grain," a source
said. "They
thought that we are holding onto grain."
Repeated efforts to get comment
from Didymus Mutasa, the State Security
Minister, who is also responsible
for maize distribution, were unsuccessful
yesterday.
Sources reported
that some millers had already lost their trading licences
for allegedly
selling maize-meal on the black market where the product is
fetching a
higher price than that fixed by government, which millers say is
uneconomic.
But yesterday millers hit out at the blitz, saying the
government was just
masking its ineptitude to source enough grain supplies
to feed starving
Zimbabweans.
"The unfortunate thing is that they are
asking millers about the
availability of grain instead of the source, which
is the GMB."
Sources at Blue Ribbon Foods, one of the country's biggest
milling
companies, said they had switched off their milling plants as they
had last
received grain supplies in early January and there were no
indications of
further deliveries from the state-run GMB.
"Right now we
don't have anything," the sources said.
Reports of the grain raids came as
the Millers Association reported that its
members were filing for bankruptcy
owing to a cocktail of tribulations.
As Zimbabwe lurches from one crisis to
another, the association said the
people's misery was likely to intensify as
bread supplies could dry up in
the next few days.
Zimbabwe is facing one
of its worst food crises attributed to the southern
African coun-
try's
failure to maximise agricultural production and a hard currency
squeeze to
import grain.
Aid agencies say close to five million people are in urgent
need of food aid
in a country where inflation has reached 585.8 percent, one
of the highest
figures in the world.
Beginning last month, the millers
said capacity utilisation had collapsed to
less than 16 percent after the
GMB slashed wheat allocations by over 60
percent. By the last quarter of
2005, the representative body said, major
millers were operating at an
average 30 percent capacity.
Consequently, the association said the current
levels of throughput could no
longer sustain the existing employment
levels.
"Therefore downsizing is inevitable," the association warned in a
statement
made available to The Financial Gazette ahead of its publication
in
newspapers tomorrow.
The millers' association said it had taken it
upon itself to increase the
prices of its products after price review
negotiations with the Ministry of
Industry and International Trade
collapsed.
"Numerous discussions have been held with the ministry relating to
the need
for the milling industry's viability and economic selling prices
for our
processed products," read part of the association's statement. To
date, no
authorisation has been granted, hence forcing millers to review
prices to
avert bankruptcy."
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
INVESTIGATIONS into
corruption allegations in the Higher Education Ministry
involving about $3.3
billion have been narrowed down and are now focused on
the permanent
secretary and the finance director.
The Financial Gazette can reveal that
a dossier implicating Livingstone
Mbizvo, the secretary and Innocent
Mataruse, the ministry's finance chief,
has been referred to the Attorney
General's office for prosecution.
This was after a lengthy probe into
allegations involving the abuse of
taxpayer monies and the paying of ghost
workers, thereby fleecing the fiscus
of billions of dollars.
A Mr
Jaganda, the acting deputy director of prosecution in the AG's office,
confirmed that a docket implicating the two officials forwarded to his
office by the fraud squad has been sent back to the investigating officers
to tie up some loose ends.
"The matter has been referred back to the
police," said Jaganda. "I think
there are things in the matter, which the
police need to clarify. In some
cases there are some instructions on what
the police should clarify."
In a series of reports last year, The Financial
Gazette exposed shocking
levels of corruption in the ministry in which
billions of dollars of
taxpayers' funds were misappropriated through rampant
abuse of vehicles and
fuel allocations.
FinGaz
Zhean Gwaze Staff Reporter
THE trial of
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chairman and businessman Emmanuel
Fundira, who is
facing charges of externalising over US$100 000 has been
postponed to March
27.
Harare regional magistrate Sandra Nhau postponed the trial by consent
to
enable the central bank to make certain clarifications that would enable
the
state to complete Fundira's other docket that is currently under
investigation.
This is the second time the businessman's trial has failed
to kick off due
to myriad technical hitches arising between the defence and
prosecution.
Prosecutor Obi Mubahwana said the Reserve Bank had requested
time to look
into Customs Declaration 1 Forms submitted to the state by the
defence
counsel. The forms contain information on exports.
Fundira, who
is the chief executive of Makuti Safaris, Game and Lodges
allegedly entered
into an agreement with a United States-based safari
company, Out of Africa
Adventures, in 2002 to source clients on behalf of
the company.
The
clients would then make advance payments in foreign currency to the
US-based
firm, the State further alleges. It is alleged that Fundira later
failed to
repatriate US$101 388 in proceeds from the hunting and safari
services
provided by his company.
Fundira is among several other high profile figures
that have been arraigned
for foreign currency externalisation.
FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi Senior Business
Reporter
FRESH amendments to the country's mining laws to determine how
much
ownership of the lucrative industry should be reserved for black
empowerment
groups will be tabled in parliament soon, The Financial Gazette
can reveal.
There are however, conflicting reports on how much of the
industry the state
wants for black empowerment groups, with Chamber of Mines
president Jack
Murehwa saying the perception in the industry is that the
government wants
50 percent, either for itself or for black empowerment
groups.
Experts conservatively value Zimbabwe's booming mining industry at
US$20
billion. Neither the government nor local groups have the capacity to
buy
half of the existing mining companies given that valuation, Murehwa
said.
This has raised fears that government could go for farm-style
acquisitions
of mines, he said.
Mines Minister Amos Midzi yesterday
declined to say when he would table the
much-awaited amendments, only saying
that he would do so soon.
"We are working flat out to make sure it is out as
soon as possible. I
cannot give you a specific timetable just yet," Midzi
said.
A senior government source, however, told The Financial Gazette this
week
that the amendments were "in effect ready to be tabled". A Parliament
official also confirmed yesterday that the amendments would "definitely be
tabled during this sitting (of Parliament).
Uncertainty over the new
mining laws has seen the country's largest platinum
producer, Zimplats,
deferring a US$2 billion expansion plan. The platinum
producer is ready to
sink US$100 million into the Great Dyke each year over
the next 20
years.
"With this perception, both foreign and local investors have stopped
committing both borrowed and equity funds towards exploration, expansion or
Greenfield projects for fear of losing both control of the business and a
big portion of their investment," Murehwa says in a recent report he sent to
Midzi.
"If, for example, part of the 50 percent of the company is ceded
to
government, and government is then required to pay its share for an
expansion project, how will the Zimbabwean mining company raise the required
funding when government fails to contribute its share of the
investment?"
Mining remains the only industry seeing real growth amid the
collapse of
most key sectors of Zimbabwe's economy. But perceived risk
arising from the
amendments was stalling expansion, Murehwa
said.
"Companies perceive a risky future where they would rather lose what
they
have today than risk investing more funds and lose the
investment."
Zimplats, 87 percent owned by world number two producer Implats,
is also
awaiting the signing of a bilateral accord between South Africa and
Zimbabwe
to ensure that property rights are respected. The accord was ready
to be
signed a year ago, but no progress has yet been made.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE'S leading
hospitality group, Zimsun Leisure, is mulling an
ambitious plan to operate
its own aircraft in the wake of erratic service by
the government-run
national airline, Air Zimbabwe (AirZim).
Insiders at Zimsun said the
hospitality group is currently exploring the
feasibility of operating its
own aircraft to service its tourist routes.
They said the hotelier is locked
in negotiations with an unnamed partner to
run its own aircraft owing to
unpredictable service being provided by the
loss-making AirZim.
Zimsun
chief executive officer Shingi Munyeza said although the issue of
purchasing
an aircraft had been raised at board meetings the group had since
shelved it
as a priority, as the national airline now appears to be on a
revival
path.
He said: "That was the talk after AirZim was grounded last year but
they
seem to be sorting themselves out."
Although Zimsun board chairman
Eben Makonese could not be drawn into
revealing the name of the partner the
hotelier had approached, he validated
the proposal.
"This has been a
subject at our board meetings," Makonese, said.
AirZim hit its lowest ebb in
November last year when the financially
crippled airline failed to service
some of its domestic, regional and
international routes owing to an acute
shortage of Jet A1 fuel,
inconveniencing hundreds of passengers.
The
slump in Zimbabwe's tourism industry has had such catastrophic effects
on
the airline industry that most airlines which took to the skies in
Zimbabwe
disappeared in their infancy.
Zimbabwe Express Airlines (ZEA), which made
history by breaking the monopoly
enjoyed by Air Zimbabwe, left investors who
had pumped millions of dollars
into the venture with burnt fingers after
faltering a few years later.
Expedition Airlines also tried its luck after
the ZEA debacle but crashed at
the hands of the tottering economy. Severe
financial constraints also
crippled, another new kid on the block, Mid
Airlines.
Cargo airline Affretair was liquidated in 2000 after it sagged
under a
massive debt burden that grounded its only aircraft for close to two
years.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief Political
Reporter
Controversial town clerk moves to stave off fresh challenge to his
job
NOMUTSA Chideya, the embattled Harare City Council (HCC) town clerk whose
stint at Town House has been punctuated with controversy since landing the
top post eight years ago, started flexing his muscles yesterday.
The
former banker had his authority challenged by Chester Mhende-the city's
chief strategist appointed by the government last year to superintend the
council's turnaround. Mhende is refusing to take orders from the town clerk.
He has also refused to submit his curriculum vitae to the city's human
resources department.
But yesterday Chideya, who was appointed town clerk
in May 1998, during the
late Solomon Tawengwa's reign, moved with speed to
exert his bruised
authority as the chief executive officer of the
municipality.
He hastily called a series of meetings where he informed
council employees
that he was the man-in-charge of the council. He later
held another marathon
meeting with heads of departments and unit managers
where sources said he
repeatedly told them that "the buck stops here."
Mhende and HCC commission
chairperson Sekesayi Makwavarara were conspicuous
by their absence from the
meetings.
Chideya confirmed holding the
meetings to this newspaper and said the
indabas were "routine."
"We want
everyone to do his or her job. It would be good if everyone worked
for the
general good of the municipality," he said, adding that everything
in the
municipality was under control.
Insiders said Chideya had emerged rejuvenated
after Local Government
Minister, Ignatius Chombo, confirmed he was fully in
charge of the
day-to-day operations of the beleaguered municipality whose
long-lost
sunshine status might take some time to revive because of ruinous
power
struggles.
Chideya has had a volatile time at town house. Upon his
appointment, the
then deputy clerk, Swinfern Mutongwizo, who believed he was
the
best-qualified candidate for the job, contested the appointment.
He
also had a brush with Tawengwa and in October 2002 he was suspended by
former executive mayor Elias Mudzuri for alleged incompetence before
bouncing back following the dismissal of Mudzuri.
FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi Senior
Business Reporter
Figures were price mismeasurement, not the real thing
argues economist
THE sharp decline in inflation seen in 2004 might have been
the result of
"mismeasurement" of prices, a new report prepared for the
International
Monetary Fund (IMF) suggests.
The report, titled
"Suppressed Inflation and Money Demand in Zimbabwe" was
authored by Sonia
Munoz and authorized for distribution by Sharmini Coorey,
chief of the IMF
mission that ended its routine visit to Zimbabwe last week.
The IMF however,
says the research does not necessarily reflect its own
views.
The paper
investigates the divergence between inflation and monetary
expansion in
Zimbabwe since late 2003, and concludes that the sharp slowdown
in inflation
could have been a result of "suppressed" inflation and
erroneous
calculations of Consumer Price Index (CPI).
"Possible explanations for the
divergence include an unstable demand for
money, a sudden shift in the
underlying demand for real balances due to a
sharp change in an explanatory
variable, and a structural break or
aberration in a normally stable money
demand relation reflecting some
unexplained factor such as repressed
inflation or measurement errors in the
consumer price index. The results of
the study point to the last possibility
as the most likely
explanation."
Munoz describes suppressed inflation as a situation in which,
at existing
wages and prices, the aggregate demand for current output and
labor services
exceed the corresponding aggregate supply. Suppression
results from the
inability of wages and prices to immediately respond to
shifts in aggregate
demand or supply.
The research finds that the paths
of money supply growth and inflation
started to diverge from late 2003, when
inflation began its race from about
20 percent in December 1997 to its 623
percent high in January 2004. But
prices then braked sharply from March that
year to 130 percent at end-2004.
Broad money growth, however, had started to
decelerate only in July 2004
from over 400 percent at end-2003 to 130
percent by end-December 2004.
"This is contrary to the experience under
recent stabilisation efforts in
most countries, where inflation inertia has
been evident. That is, inflation
lags-rather than leads-the decline in money
growth because price and wage
expectations are likely to be based, at least
partly, on the past behavior
of inflation and because expectations of the
future stance of monetary
policy are likely to react slowly to shifts in the
observed rates of money
growth," the paper says.
Accordingly, changes in
the rate of monetary expansion would be slow to
translate into changes in
the rate of inflation.
Zimbabwe's real money balances started increasing in
2004, while inflation
was still very high. "This is at odds with the
'conventional wisdom' that
the evolution of real balances typically exhibits
a U-shaped pattern over
the course of a stabilization program, with a
decline during the initial
phases of a program."
Underestimation of
official inflation could explain the unconventional
behavior of velocity,
the paper says. Goods traded on the parallel market
had not been included in
the CPI index, while, more recently, energy prices
were allowed to remain
low in the face of increases in prices of imports.
In addition, the parallel
market premium widened sharply from 13 percent in
January 2004 to about 53
percent in December 2004 and, although the pass
through to actual market
prices may have been relatively rapid, the increase
may not have been fully
captured by the measured CPI.
Therefore, these factors put together could
have understated inflation
during the sharp recorded disinflation in 2004
and explain the dramatic fall
in velocity.
"It is therefore difficult to
identify the factors that could explain the
unconventional behavior of
velocity in 2004, although repressed inflation
and the mismeasurement of
inflation are the most likely possibilities."
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
THE
Zimbabwe government, which has set its sights on creating a national
fertiliser monopoly through the amalgamation of three fertiliser firms, has
recently stepped up imports of the critical input to avert another disaster
on the farms.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which is leading efforts
to import fertiliser
following an acute shortage on the local market, has
organised lines of
credit worth US$45 million to bring in more than 80 000
tonnes of
fertiliser. The first tranche of US$25 million has been partly
used to
import 30 000 tonnes of urea and AN fertiliser, which are being
distributed
free of charge to communal farmers through the Grain Marketing
Board. The 30
000 tonnes costs US$12.7 million.
The central bank has also
organised another tranche of US$20 million, which
it will use to further
bring in 50 000 tonnes of fertiliser.
Last week, the central bank was putting
together funds to pay for maize
imports delivered in January this year. It
remained unclear, however, how
much maize has been imported.
Zimbabwe has
had serious grain deficits since 2000 when the government
embarked on a
controversial fast track land programme, with the situation
exacerbated by a
series of droughts.
An acute mealie meal shortage has been reported in
Bulawayo in recent days.
The country is in the middle of an above average
rainfall season, but a
shortage of critical inputs such as fertiliser, seed,
equipment and fuel
could result in sub-optimal yields.
FinGaz
Audrey
Chitsika Staff Reporter
SOYA bean production might suffer another blow
this season because of the
rising costs of agro-chemicals that might
compromise on crop quality,
agricultural experts warned this
week.
Agronomists said the escalating costs of fungicides and pesticides,
which
are feeding into imported inflation, meant that not many farmers would
be
able to apply chemicals on their soya bean crop and prevent the risk of
soya
bean rust.
According to Sheunesu Mupepereki, the national soya
production coordinator,
soya bean rust can destroy 90 percent of the
crop.
"I urge all soya farmers to take preventive measures against rust. Rust
is a
serious disease that can reduce yields by defoliating 90 percent of the
crop
in four days," said Mupepereki.
Early application of chemicals is
far more effective than late spraying,
which may lead to further
problems.
"With this current wet spell, it is well worth spraying as soon as
there is
a break in the weather. Delay may lead to further problems. The
chemicals
generally need two-to-three hours drying on the plants before
further
rainfall to remain effective," plant pathologist Clive Levy
said.
Folicur250EC tebuconazole, Funginex triforine, Punch Xtra
carbendazim+flusilazole, Score 250EC difenconazole, Shavit 25EC triadimenol
or Tilt 250EC propiconazole are the fully registered chemicals for the
control of soya bean rust.
Currently the poultry industry is facing
critical shortages of soya bean
meal, which is essential for feeding poultry
with the supply of maize only
marginally better.
Zimbabwe produced 40 000
metric tonnes of soya-beans last season, against a
national requirement of
between 175 000 and 200 000 metric tonnes per year,
and the industry targets
production of 150 000 metric tonnes this season.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised concern over
the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)'s thin capitalisation of just Z$2
million, thrusting
the burden of shoring up the central bank's capital base
on the public
purse.
Sources told The Financial Gazette this week
that an IMF delegation that was
in the country last week on routine
consultations deplored the fact that the
central bank had not been
recapitalised since 1964.
The current legislation is also silent on how the
RBZ could be
recapitalised. Ironically, the financial sector superintended
by the central
bank has had to recapitalise several times to preserve the
industry's
stability, which came under strenuous test in 2004 when a
systemic liquidity
crunch claimed the scalps of several banks.
For
example, commercial banks will be required to have minimum capital of
$100
billion by September, with that for building societies set at $75
billion.
Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa made an undertaking during his
2006 budget
presentation last December to recapitalise the RBZ this fiscal
year.
Capital is the ultimate determinant of a bank's lending capacity. The
more
capital a bank has, the greater its ability to underwrite more
business.
Contacted for comment, RBZ senior official Munyaradzi Kereke said:
"I am not
privy to the high-level discussion between the IMF and the RBZ as
they were
done at the ministerial and governors levels. However, I can
confirm the
recapitalisation issue is a sore point that as a bank we have
put forward to
our principals in government who have concurred that the bank
be
recapitalised to levels commensurate with its developmental
mandate."
Kereke said the RBZ, as a supervisor of the financial sector, had
to lead by
example in terms of capitalisation.
The RBZ has been central
to government efforts to revive agriculture,
parastastals and municipalities
through heavy disbursements running into
trillions of dollars.
The IMF
delegation last week urged the government to take over the losses
emanating
from these operations.
Despite the heavy capital injections, most of the
parastatals have reported
massive losses.
The quasi-fiscal operations
which have been carried out by the central bank
have had the effect of
concealing the actual government budget deficit,
while undermining the
central bank's own liquidity management through
massive credit
expansion.
Broad money supply, which opened last year at 178 percent, had
risen to 412
percent by year-end, driving up inflation.
FinGaz
Audrey Chitsika Staff
Reporter
A NUMBER of unregistered money lending and micro-finance
institutions have
mushroomed across the country as the struggling populace
strives to survive
the harsh economic conditions that have reduced the
country from being a
breadbasket to a basket case.
Godfrey Chitambo,
the executive chairman of the Zimbabwe Association of
Micro-Finance
Institutions, confirmed this week that illegal players had
entered the
sector but said a national taskforce had been put in place to
conduct a
survey that would also identify illegal industry players.
"At the moment I
cannot give much detail on the issue until the survey,
which started in
December, is complete by this month," he said.
With bank lending becoming too
prohibitive for the majority of Zimbabweans,
there has been a proliferation
of alternative markets for borrowers that are
in contravention of existing
banking laws.
A snap survey by The Financial Gazette revealed that the bulk
of the
borrowing is meant to cater for medical costs, which recently went up
by 200
percent, as well as educational requirements.
The central bank,
which has also set up a taskforce to spearhead the
development of a national
policy framework for the sector, has 36 registered
micro finance
institutions and 177 moneylenders in its books.
Most of these institutions
have been accused of departing from their core
business of providing loans
for capital projects to concentrate on
consumptive borrowers.
FinGaz
Personal Glimpses
with Mavis Makuni
SOME of the most interesting comments on Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
governor Gideon Gono's no-holds-barred denunciation of
rampant corruption
among chefs two weeks ago were made by Security and Lands
Minister Didymus
Mutasa and brand new senator Aguy Georgias.
Both men
hailed Gono's candour during the presentation of his quarterly
monetary
policy review, with Georgias saying the RBZ governor's "powerful
statement"
showed he was in touch with reality. Georgias said Gono needed
the support
of all politicians and government to fight corruption,
particularly that
relating to multiple farm grabbers and disruptive
activities on
farms.
Mutasa was equally complimentary when he was approached by ZTV for his
reaction. He said he was particularly concerned about the multiple farm
ownership scandal and wanted the culprits to be brought to book. He called
on the Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies Ministry to leave no stone
unturned in ensuring that all those guilty of involvement in corrupt and
fraudulent activities were arrested and prosecuted.
Georgias said land
grabbers were not making things easy for President Robert
Mugabe and his
government to normalise relations with the rest of the world
as they needed
to defend "some among us who are greedy and unscrupulous." He
urged Gono to
target corruption in the private sector as vigorously as he
had dealt with
public officials who were illegally selling minerals and
abusing government
facilities.
Are these comrades not selling us a dummy and constructing yet
another
smokescreen to lull the impoverished masses into thinking that
something is
finally to be done about greed and avarice in official circles?
Take Mutasa
for example. He became the first minister of Anti-Corruption and
Anti-Monopolies when he was appointed to the portfolio at the beginning of
2004. This was at the height of government hype about its determination to
root out graft and avarice wherever they were to be found.
But as is well
known, Mutasa's stewardship of that ministry did not yield a
single arrest
and prosecution. I recall that in April 2004, Mutasa appeared
on the
television programme, Face the Nation to discuss how his new ministry
would
go about fighting corruption. It was his appearance on this programme
that
in fact first raised serious doubts in my mind as to whether the whole
anti-corruption drive was not a charade.
I recall how incredulous I was
when the minister, looking straight into the
TV cameras without a hint of
irony, appealed to all those who knew they were
involved in corrupt
activities to voluntarily come forward and "confess
their sins" to his
ministry. If such wrongdoers gave themselves up before
the Anti-Corruption
Ministry went after them, Mutasa said with a straight
face, their sins would
be forgiven. Naturally, Mutasa left the ministry
without announcing any
successes but it is clear he could not have been
serious about pursuing any
public sector culprits.
How, then can his call on his successor, Paul
Mangwana, to go where he did
not dare to tread himself be taken seriously?
Obviously the same constraints
that paralysed Mutasa from moving against any
corrupt and greedy government
chefs apply to the current
minister.
Moreover, Mutasa has been involved in a case of political violence
in his
Makoni North constituency in which prosecuting him has proved
problematic
because of the employment of extra-legal tactics to thwart the
process. It
was reported recently how agents from some arms of government
had tried to
disrupt court proceedings with the sole purpose of getting
Mutasa off the
hook.
If he can get away with such tactics, what makes
Mutasa think his colleagues
in government cannot come up with more theatrics
to save their own skins?
And more importantly, what moral authority does he
have to tell others to be
prepared to face the music when he is doing
everything possible to avoid
doing so himself?
As for Senator Georgias,
he seems to have cottoned on to the government
trick of talking in circles
really fast. In the process of complimenting
Gono profusely for speaking out
bravely against corruption and pointing out
that it needs to be tackled, he
actually indulged in the convenient cop-out
of passing the buck. The RBZ
governor can give policy guidelines and draw
attention to problems but the
implementation of interventions to reverse the
rot cannot be assigned to
him.
This is the job of the relevant law enforcement arms of government. As
long
as the hands of officials in these departments are either tied so as to
protect political heavyweights, or they are hamstrung by their own
culpability in the plunder of national resources, we are not going
anywhere.
FinGaz
FOR over a decade now, Zimbabwe's
resilient lot have watched helplessly as
their quality of life has taken a
bungee-jump from the good old days when
their living standards were the envy
of many on the African continent to the
current depths of utmost despair
touched off by the near total collapse of
local government
structures.
Save for a few municipalities, structures that were meant to
provide
seamless service to ratepayers in most local authorities have been
rendered
irrelevant and dysfunctional and all the requisite tenets of good
corporate
governance were jettisoned into the deepest part of the Pacific
Ocean.
And the reason? It is because the country's tottering municipalities
have
been shaken by years of fierce infighting, intermittent interference,
greed
and unnecessary gamesmanship regardless of the clear signs of economic
ruin
that will be a millstone around the necks of future generations to
come.
Sadly, this has been left to go on and on for no other reason but
cheap
political gain.
And when harsh words and memos start flying between
the offices of the
capital city's chief strategist and its town clerk as is
happening between
Chester Mhende and Nomutsa Chideya, then God save Harare
from what might
prove to be the kiss of death for the embattled ratepayer
who has had to put
up with a second-string service for far too long.
With
administrative anarchy rampant within the country's councils, this time
pitting officials feeding from the same political system in the wake of
explosive feuds within the main opposition MDC, it means the intermittent
water cuts, uncollected refuse, potholes littering the streets, the raw
sewage spilling into residents' houses and the lack of treated running water
can only get worse. At no time in a free Zimbabwe has Harare, Mutare and
Chitungwiza been so badly run and with no regard for residents. It's a
fact.
But in the midst of this chaos, a time bomb is slowly ticking. The
resultant
shock waves will take ages to put right, not to mention the waste
of
trillions of dollars of the ratepayers' hard-earned income.
Granted,
Ignatius Chombo, the grey-Afro-haired local government minister
with a
penchant for interfering willy-nilly in the affairs of councils and
whose
dislike of opposition party city fathers is legendary, is the most
visible
culprit whom fierce critics of his sometimes self-contradictory
policies
would wish history to judge harshly. In our humble opinion,
however, the
former University of Zimbabwe lecturer is just but one of the
numerous
political figures and senior civil servants taking advantage of the
fragmentation, gullibility and the hear-no-evil, see-no-evil syndrome
emblematic of everything wrong with the country's ratepayers and
voters.
Chombo is clearly not the first to press this destructive button that
has
caused chaos in the country's municipalities and may not necessarily be
the
last for as long as ratepayers are unmoved by the mediocrity that, at
worst,
is autographed by the likes of Sekesai Makwavarara and her bunch of
officials at Harare's Town House. Chombo, who seems unfazed by the rapid and
costly collapse in service delivery in Harare, Chitungwiza and Mutare,
caught up with the cancerous disease when the infection had already reached
an advanced stage in destroying structures in the entire central government
anatomy.
For far too long, commissions and task forces have presided over
critical
institutions. Some, like the Grain Marketing Board, have been
militarised.
There are even disturbing concerns that the Joint Operations
Command (JOC)
wields the largest influence in key national decision making
and yet there
are properly constituted structures being circumvented for yet
unexplained
reasons.
The culture of running central government
institutions through ad hoc
measures has a history stretching back to the
early 1990s when the economic
wheels came off the rails. Civic society and
well meaning political leaders
should come out of their shells for it takes
good men to do nothing for evil
to prevail.
Once such acts are not
censured, accountability and efficiency are
sacrificed for political
expediency and personal aggrandisement. Yes,
individuals may line their
pockets and build empires but, to paraphrase the
Bible, what would it profit
a man if he is to win the whole world and lose
his own soul?
FinGaz
Letter From America with Ken
Mufuka
THIS is the third article in the series on Zimbabwe's crisis. I
have stirred
a hornet's nest. My e-mail is buzzing all day with
suggestions.
Blessed Zim says : "I am a Zimbabwean who does not usually
agree with what
you write. As much as you are against what is happening in
Zimbabwe, you are
also against the help of the IMF and the World Bank. We
need help from these
organisations or else we will be in a worse situation
than we are in now."
The argument in favour of these self serving imperialist
organisations is
that "they will help us" as the brother has naively said.
The second
argument is that we are in a bad situation because we lack
resources and
that we have run out of money.
Africans are truly blessed
in their naivety as Archbishop Desmond Tutu has
illustrated many times. They
cannot accept the fact that the World Bank is
an American bank and that its
purpose is to harness resources towards the
United States, by fair means or
foul.
Paul Wolfowitz, an architect of the Iraqi war, is its president and a
Bush
strongman. He has already said that he will teach Zimbabwe a lesson.
Now, my
brother, think of the lesson. There is nothing more that I can say
on that
score.
The second argument is that Zimbabwe is short of resources
to harness
foreign currency. That is not a fact. Zimbabwe has all the
resources a small
population like ours needs to live well above the standard
of Switzerland,
which has nothing but snow caps and prudent canton
aldermen.
Zimbabwe has hired an Englishman at the central bank, a Mr Jackson,
to be
their chief investigator. First, one wonders whether that Englishman
works
for us or for the British MI5. Can you bet your Zim dollar that the
Englishman is paid in Zim kwachas? Zimbabwe has also hired an Israeli
company to investigate mineral fraud. The question is the same as above.
Zimbabwe's President frequently travels abroad; just three weeks ago he was
in China with a planeload of staff and hangers-on. Do you think, my beloved
brother, that he spends Zim kwachas over there? In the story-lines we
receive here, Zimbabwe has already paid U$150 million to the World Bank
since December.
Even the treacherous Professor Jonathan Moyo went to
Johannesburg to do his
shopping and feasting. It is not the resources or the
money; it is the type
of leadership, stupid!
The World Bank recommends a
return to a lawful society and respect for human
rights. Because of a
serious African inferiority complex, unless a
29-year-old Harvard graduate
tells us these truths, Mukuru will not believe
us. Dr Gono needs to say:
Look, the World Bank said so and so.
Dr Gono had a good idea about harnessing
foreign inflows of money through
the Central Bank but was unable to cure the
root cause of these missing
millions going through the underground. It is
called a "Brazilian economy"
in universities, where the black market economy
is bigger than the formal
revenue creating economy.
The government is
impoverished in a sea of obvious affluence. Look at Harare
and the buildings
going up Samora Machel and the types of Mercedes Benz
machines that cruise
around the potholes of Kenneth Kaunda Avenue.
Zimbabwe is blessed with
resources and an industrious people, but is cursed
by a treacherous, crooked
and thieving leadership. Anything that is not
chained and locked in concrete
they will steal. Wole Soyinka said that there
was nothing wrong with Africa
except the lack of moral leadership. There
comes a time when the leadership
and the problems become inseparable.
The second issue I wanted to deal with
is the complete emptiness and
impoverishment of the leadership itself.
Please pray for them, they deserve
God's mercy. They are not as rich as our
readership assumes.
Without revealing my sources, here is an example. The
chef held at least six
different portfolios in 25 years and owned a mine
somewhere in Mashonaland.
A man is only rich if money keeps its value,
paradigm one. Also, a man is
only rich if his expenses continually stay
below his income. This brother
wanted me to express his bitterness when he
was kicked out of "chefdom." He
lost his cell phone as well as his house and
bodyguards. He could no longer
use CMED trucks to ferry some of his precious
stones.
As I was absorbing this information a military truck passed by loaded
with
timber. "Oh, it belongs to a police chef, so and so. He is building his
home
and when the truck returns from the village, it will carry maize bags
from
the villagers." Of course the chef charged the villagers for transport.
Then
the value of money fell into a hole in 2001 and all the millions the
chef
had in the bank were worthless.
Very few Zimbabwean chefs had the
sense of stashing away some money abroad.
The chef was bitter. These chefs
literally, using Margaret Dongo's
ill-placed idiom, have been feminised.
They have been addicted to living for
free and absorbing personal expenses
into government expenses.
Please my brothers, these miserable sinners need as
much prayer as the
victims of Murambatsvina. They are addicted to a
sycophantic life.
Unless they sing the song of sycophancy, they cannot
eat.
lThis is part of ongoing research on the Economic Decline of
Zimbabwe. The
author can be contacted at
kmufuka@lander.edu.
FinGaz
EDITOR - The
following is a statement made by the executive and members of
the Commercial
Farmers' Union of Zimbabwe (CFU) to the government and people
of
Zimbabwe.
In the course of a nation's historic development, especially when
there is a
high disparity between the 'haves and have nots', it is
understandable that
the government of the day, in pursuit of narrowing that
gap, would legislate
accordingly.
Unquestionably, a period of euphoria
would follow, as would government's
expectation that its actions would
impact positively on the majority,
hopefully resulting in greater yields and
profitability, thus enhancing
benefits to the less
privileged.
Regrettably, correcting what was seen as a nation's right to
reverse
prevailing inequality, has created many challenges.
In such
situations, the quality of Zimbabweans, black and white, is fully
tested. We
at the CFU believe that the greatest asset of a nation is the
quality of its
people.
While current conditions are indeed tough and testing, it is not the
time
for recrimination or going back - it is the time to draw the line and
go
forward, learning from the past.
The CFU is cognisant and sensitive to
the fact that there is sufficient
evidence that both government and those
foreign agencies currently
represented in the country want nothing more than
to see Zimbabwe prosper.
Regionally, Zimbabwe is charged with food security
and is a key player. Our
commitment in coming forward today is to help
restore this country to its
rightful position on the sub-continent of Africa
as a leader in agriculture.
We seek an all-inclusive and vibrant agricultural
industry that is
sustainable. To this end, we urge the authorities to
declare a moratorium on
land and current agriculture policies and, with the
full protection of the
law, bring together all stakeholders and rebuild the
entire industry to
return it to its former status as the principal employer
of labour and
generator of food and foreign currency.
We have the energy
and capacity to help bring Zimbabwe back, once again, to
being the 'bread
basket' of the sub-continent. Let's do it! A return to
productive
agriculture, which will benefit our nation, will attract, in
every way, both
at home and overseas, the support we need to regenerate our
economy and the
status of Zimbabwe.
Douglas S Taylor-Freeme
President
Commercial
Farmers' Union
FinGaz
EDITOR - I refer to a story in a local daily paper this week
where it was
reported that the government had launched investigations into
the
countrywide shortage of maize meal while that maize meal is freely
available
on the black market.
My letter has been sent to the
newspaper in question and l hope that they
will publish it as the issue of
food shortages is critical, affecting the
entire nation.
Anybody, and l
mean anybody, knows that the shortage of any commodity that
is used
extensively creates opportunities for many people to make money. The
lack of
patriotism is being amply demonstrated by and through corruption and
plundering by the ruling elite, who are now dripping in wealth. Why should a
struggling housewife not follow the lead of the leaders? Zvanakira Peter,
zvashatira Zuze!
Last year, l wrote a paper where l challenged government
to investigate the
illegal export of sugar by the ruling elite. The
government kept mum. You
only need to join the sugar and mealie meal queues
at supermarkets to know
what is going on. You will see police officers etc
carrying packets of 20 x
1 kg sugar when the ordinary poor people are
allowed to buy 1kg each.
It is germane to repeat what l said in the past that
ZANU PF knows it cannot
win a free and fair election. It is therefore not in
their political
interest to solve the food crisis. We all know numerous
experts who advised
well in time last year that food will run out. The
government also knew food
would run out but why bother since this is part of
the plan.
President Mugabe has vowed that no one would starve. Are people not
starving
now? Even food aid was refused until December, when it was the
right time,
politically that is, to accept it. Potatoes are too expensive
for the
people.
We have had good rains but there will a shortage of food
again in the midst
of such good rains. What excuses will the government have
this time? Blame
the armyworm although only small sitings were reported in
parts of Shamva
and Mutoko.
Millers and consumers should stop blaming the
GMB for the shortage. The GMB
is only a tool. Do you blame a gun for killing
your friend or the person who
wields the gun? The anger must be directed
where it belongs - the
government.
Renson M
Gasela
MDC
Spokesperson for Agriculture