Zimbabwe on the brink of total collapse

The Telegraph

By Peta Thornycroft
Last Updated: 2:09am GMT 09/02/2007

The collapse of Zimbabwe's economy has finally taken its toll on
President Robert Mugabe's regime. It is facing a disintegrating army and
police, a wave of strikes, power black-outs and the breakdown of every
essential service.

With inflation running at 1,281 per cent - the highest rate in the
world - Mr Mugabe finds himself locked in a vicious circle.

It takes only a few weeks for the value of every pay rise given to
civil servants to be wiped out. But the bankrupt regime can only cover the
cost of further wage rises by printing money - which fuels inflation still
further and creates pressure for yet more pay increases.

Tension on the streets of the capital, Harare, was mounting yesterday
as people scavenged to earn extra money for food and transport. Some of
those fortunate enough to have jobs cannot even afford bus fares.

In what was once one of Africa's most prosperous economies, a
35-year-old primary school teacher with six years' service earns £13 a
month.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "My take-home pay is
not enough for transport to work, so I am not going to school this week."

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She is not on strike, although many of the 110,000 state teachers
started a "go slow" this week and are absent from classrooms. This has left
parents to fill in as home-teachers.

Zimbabwe's four largest hospitals are crippled by a seven-week strike
among junior doctors, who earn only £6 a month after deductions. All civil
servants received a 300 per cent pay rise in January - but inflation has
already eroded this gain.

Cholera has broken out in Harare because the water treatment plants
are collapsing. Power black-outs are increasing and one town, Chitungwiza,
gets only four days of electricity a week.

Mr Mugabe responded by saying that any protests "will not be
tolerated".

But he relies on the army and police to suppress challenges. Sources
in the army say that soldiers - while far better paid than teachers or
nurses - are still enduring "desperate" conditions. Most of those below the
rank of colonel earn less than $1 [51p] per day - the international measure
for absolute poverty.

"There is plenty of indiscipline because we are hungry," said one
captain.

Mr Mugabe's elite Presidential Guard, which has extra perks and higher
salaries, is also disgruntled, according to the military source.

But the economic collapse has created opportunities for the corrupt
elite around Mr Mugabe, who have already benefited from the seizure of
white-owned farms.

Senior figures in the ruling Zanu-PF party can buy US dollars from the
Reserve Bank at the meaningless official exchange rate - and then sell them
on the parallel market at a 2,000 per cent profit. They can buy fuel from
the state at one twelfth of the market price. This gives a powerful core of
Zanu-PF figures a vested interest in keeping Mr Mugabe in power.

The president, who turns 83 later this month, gambles that by keeping
this wealthy handful happy, he can survive the economic collapse and extend
his 27-year rule.

Splits in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have made Mr
Mugabe's task easier. But continuing this balancing act indefinitely may not
be possible, especially if discontent spreads in the vitally important army
and police force.

"I have never seen a crisis of this depth before," said John
Robertson, an independent economist in Harare. "There seems to be no
solution in sight." Daniel Ndlela, another economist, said: "This is an
unsaveable situation. It is by far the worst since independence.

"It will collapse, as the government will talk a lot but it won't
change its ways. When and how this collapse will happen, that is the
question."

Getting rid of Mugabe

The Telegraph

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 09/02/2007

Who will rid Zimbabwe of its aged tyrant?

In more than a quarter of a century in power, Robert Mugabe has turned
one of Africa's most promising countries into a basket case. As Peta
Thornycroft reports today from Harare, inflation has reached such a pitch
that a school teacher cannot afford the bus fare to and from work. The black
middle class has fled - the Reserve Bank estimates that one million of them
might be in Britain - and those Zimbabweans who remain are witnessing the
disintegration of public services, from hospitals to water-treatment plants
and power stations.

Yet Mr Mugabe remains in power, calculating that the privileges
afforded the top echelons of the security forces and the ruling party,
Zanu-PF, will not only keep him there until his term ends next year but,
through a constitutional amendment, could extend his rule to 2010.

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Over the past seven years of accelerating political oppression and
economic decline, it has become clear that the deus ex machina will not come
from abroad. Britain, the former metropolitan power, fears being accused of
neo-colonialism. South Africa, which could apply powerful leverage,
disguises its revolutionary sympathy with Mr Mugabe by proclaiming the
(illusory) benefits of "quiet diplomacy". Saddest of all, the domestic
opposition Movement for Democratic Change has been weakened by factional
division.

If, then, the president is to be removed before 2010, it is more
likely to be through a palace coup than foreign intervention or electoral
defeat. The most obvious instigator is Emmerson Mnangagwa, a veteran
guerrilla fighter and brutal former security minister who has fallen out
with the president and opposes plans to extend his term beyond 2008. The
catalyst for a coup would be his uniting disaffected elements of Zanu-PF and
mid-ranking members of the security forces. Given Mr Mnangagwa's fearsome
record, the result would hardly be sweetness and light.

But it would at least promise less crazy economic management than that
offered by the octogenarian ogre who currently occupies State House.

Mbeki must share blame for tragedy

The Telegraph

By David Blair, Diplomatic Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:22am GMT 09/02/2007

Nothing was more predictable than Zimbabwe's economic catastrophe.

From the moment that President Robert Mugabe set about destroying
commercial agriculture - his country's leading export earner - by seizing
white-owned farms, the consequences of this policy were blindingly obvious.

Anyone with a basic knowledge of economics knows that if a country
cripples its principal export industry, it destroys its ability to earn hard
currency and pay for essential imports - like fuel.
The value of its currency plunges. Inflation goes up. Eventually, the
country gets trapped in a vicious circle, with inflationary pay rises
begetting more inflation.

This, in simple terms, is what has befallen Zimbabwe. Thanks to Mr
Mugabe, Zimbabwe has lost about 40 per cent of its entire economy since the
land seizures began in 2000.

Given that everyone knew this would happen, why did the outside world
fail to act? The self-immolation of Zimbabwe's economy is not a matter of
horrendous statistics. Behind every number lie countless human tragedies.

Take infant mortality. Five years ago, it stood at 37 per 1,000 live
births. Today, the collapse of Zimbabwe's health service combined with
malnutrition and deepening poverty has pushed it up to 60 per 1,000 live
births.

Think how many thousands of young lives have ended as a result.
Imagine the suffering of the children who will never know that their plight
was completely avoidable and almost entirely caused by one man. When the
history of Zimbabwe's collapse is written, those guilty of standing idly by
while this tragedy unfolded will be identified.

Foremost among them will be President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.
Even making every possible allowance for Mr Mbeki - the leverage he has over
Mr Mugabe is often exaggerated and the Zimbabwean leader presented him with
a huge political problem owing to his following in the African National
Congress - it is impossible to exculpate the South African.

He studiously played down Zimbabwe's crisis and questioned the motives
of those who pointed out the human cost of Mr Mugabe's action.

"The reason Zimbabwe is such a preoccupation here, in the United
Kingdom, the United States and Sweden and everywhere is because a handful of
white people died and white people were deprived of their property," said Mr
Mbeki after Zimbabwe's farcical presidential election of 2002.

"All they want to talk about is Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe. Why?
It's because 12 white people died."

Almost all of those who have suffered at Mr Mugabe's hands are black.

Yes, save Darfur! But what about Zimbabwe?

Caribbean Net News

Friday, February 9, 2007

by Anthony L. Hall

Even though rank incompetence, kleptocracy and depraved indifference to
human life characterized the governments of many post-colonial countries of
the Commonwealth,  black leaders invariably invoked "the legacy of British
colonialism" to rationalize the growing pains they inflicted on their own
people.

For example, in the immediate aftermath of independence, almost all of them
established dominion over their countries by executing nationalization
pogroms.  And the key feature of these pogroms was the wholesale expulsion
of expatriate professionals - who were typically indispensable employees in
critical sectors of national life, including education and law enforcement -
and awarding their jobs (as patronage) to typically inexperienced,
untrained, unskilled natives.

But throughout the Commonwealth today, such jingoistic and myopic policies
are little more than dark secrets in the annals of post-colonial history.
Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to get an accurate account of the
disastrous legacies they wrought by impeding the sustainable development of
these newly independent countries.

The glaring exception, however, is Zimbabwe - where President Robert Mugabe
initiated the belated nationalization of his country's agrarian economy six
years ago.  And true to form, the key feature of this initiative was the
expulsion of almost all of the expatriate white farmers who made Zimbabwe's
annual harvest the envy of the entire Commonwealth.  But just as it was
decades ago - when other black leaders tried such similar policies and found
them wanton - Mugabe's pogrom has proved disastrous.

But the most salient difference in this case is that - with Zimbabwe about
to celebrate its 27th year of independence under his leadership - even the
congenitally anti-British Mugabe cannot blame the legacy of colonialism for
his country's demise.

Alas, another more tragic difference is that - unlike his fellow black
leaders who implemented aggressive measures to redress the failures of their
pogroms - Mugabe seems determined to continue his "sweeping land reforms"
come what may. This, even though evidence of the inhumane legacy his
jingoistic and myopic reforms have wrought is clear for all to see.

In fact, here is the dire warning his national security minister, Didymus
Mutasa, issued on Monday to the few remaining white farmers whose farms had
not yet been seized (and they too expelled):

"Those farmers who do not comply with the orders to vacate the land will be
dealt with severely.It's the duty of police to see to it that those who
don't abide by the laws are incarcerated."

Meanwhile, here is part of the lamentation I expressed for Zimbabwe in March
2005:

"Five years ago, Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of sub-Saharan Africa; today,
it is a basket case of starving people. Five years ago, there were 4,000
white-owned farms in Zimbabwe; today, there are only 400 - mostly
unproductive - farms left."

But then, in November 2005, long-suffering Zimbabweans seemed to have won a
reprieve when the BBC reported that Mugabe had finally agreed to ease his
iron-fisted rule after realizing that doling out white farms as patronage to
black cronies - who had no experience (or interest) in farming - did not
guarantee of his political legacy.or survival.  Never mind  the
criminally-negligent death by starvation of hundreds of thousands of his
people that resulted from his seizure of white farms; or the rendering
homeless of millions more after he bulldozed their homes pursuant to the
"Operation-wipe-out-the-trash" phase of his land reforms.

However, notwithstanding that BBC report (which also cited the prospect of
Mugabe soliciting many of the 3,600 white farmers he evicted to return to
their farms), I expressed doubts about his conversion as follows:

"...my serially-vindicated cynicism compels me to suspect that this mea
culpa is just another amoral ploy by Mugabe to elicit sympathy and extract
financial aid from Western donors. After all, feigning regret for the
suffering they've inflicted on their own people has always served Africa's
'big Dadas' (despotic rulers) well in courting relationships with rich
countries (like the United States during the Cold War and China today)."

Therefore, I was not at all surprised when the Washington Post reported this
week that -  despite completely destroying Zimbabwe's economy and presiding
over a government that is indisputably the most venal, inhumane, corrupt,
dysfunctional and incompetent in Africa - Mugabe remains committed to
keeping his country mired in the death throes of genocidal starvation.

What I find utterly incomprehensible, however, is that - given all the
international protests being mounted to stop the genocide being perpetrated
by Arabs against blacks in Darfur, Sudan - relatively little protest is
being mounted to stop the genocide being perpetrated by Mugabe against his
own people.  And, in this respect, I am constrained to indict his fellow
African heads of state especially for being complicit in his crimes against
humanity by their silence...

Yes, save Darfur!  But what about Zimbabwe - where for years children have
been competing with dogs in scavenging the streets for food...

NOTE:  You can help.  Please register your outrage by contacting your MP or
community leaders and asking what, if anything, your government is doing to
help save Zimbabwe.

Mugabe's new cabinet is another sad joke for Zimbabwe

zimbabwejournalists.com

By Madock Chivasa

THERE is absolutely nothing new to expect from President Mugabe's newly
appointed cabinet which is comprised of deadwood handpicked from his endless
list of loyalists.

As NCA we condemn in strongest terms the continuous abuse of constitutional
provisions by the president that allows him to single handedly appoint
cabinet ministers on the basis of patronage and bootlicking.

As NCA we are also concerned with the president's narrow-minded selection of
cabinet ministers that excludes the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).

Irregardless of the fact that the opposition is significantly represented in
parliament the president continues to turn a blind eye when it comes to
cabinet appointments and he resorts to recycling of his cronies to cabinet
posts.

President Mugabe is stretching the patients of peace loving Zimbabweans and
his newly appointment cabinet is a clear sign of a regime that is
desperately clinging to power at all costs.

The government is bankrupt of ideas and its pitiable that the head of state
believes that change can only come through shuffling of old politicians who
lost in elections.

The appointment of people like Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, someone  who was rejected
by the people in parliamentary elections, is a clear arrogant stance by the
president and its clear that his new appointments does not consider the
wishes of the people of Zimbabwe.

NCA believes that the government is desperately trying to confuse the
populace of Zimbabwe to believe that the problems that we are facing as a
country can only be solved by appointing new ministers. As far as the NCA is
concerned the issue is not about the leaders in offices but it goes back to
the aspect of bad systems and structures that are being used to govern the
country.

We urge President Mugabe and his government to seriously consider the issue
of constitutional reform as a way of resolving the crisis of governance in
the country.

The previously reshuffled cabinet failed under the supervision of President
Mugabe and its a miracle to believe that the newly appointed cabinet will
perform well under the same system and management by the same failed head of
state.

If President Mugabe believes that changing faces in offices will help to
solve our problems then the fact that he is still willing to continue as the
president of this country is a clear contrast to the same initiative. We are
tired of the continuous experiments by President Mugabe and the only
honorable thing that we expect from him is to resign and listen to the
plight of ordinary Zimbabweans who are languishing in dire poverty.

NCA urges all Zimbabweans to join protests against a government that has
lost its mandate of protecting the wishes and interest of its own people.
Its now time to fight for our freedom as we can not continue to observe
President Mugabe running Zimbabwe like his own personal tuckshop.

Lets join hands and resist the continuous dictatorship by President Mugabe
and his cronies. The time for dictatorship is over and the present
government is buying time refusing to give in to constitutional reforms that
will give birth to a democratic nation.

The NCA will not rest until it realize a new Zimbabwe  where leaders are
democratically elected and not handpicked like what we witness in the newly
appointed cabinet.

A new democratic people driven constitution is the only starting point for
building a foundation for democracy and good governance in Zimbabwe.

Madock Chivasa is the NCA's Spokesperson

Trafalgar Square Rally - Dignity for Zimbabwe - Saturday, 10th March 2007

Boris Johnson leads UK Parly debate on Zim deportations

zimbabwejournalists.com

By a Correspondent

CONTROVERSIAL Conservative MP, Boris Johnson, on Wednesday led the House of
Commons in debating the issue of failed asylum seekers from Zimbabwe and the
situation obtaining in the country. Here is the full text of the debate.

Wednesday 7.02.06. 4.30 pm

Mr. Boris Johnson (Henley) (Con): I am pleased that this topic has been
selected for debate so soon, because it is of outstanding importance. I had
better hurry, because I believe that there will be a Division in the House
at some stage. [Interruption.] In fact, here we go--

Frank Cook (in the Chair): Order. Indeed, you spotted it before I did. A
Division has been called, so I shall suspend the sitting for 15 minutes. If
the Division is immediately followed by others, as I believe is likely, the
suspension will continue for a further 15 minutes for each additional
Division.

4.30 pm
Sitting suspended for a Division in the House.

4.56 pm
On resuming--
Mr. Johnson: As I was saying, I am grateful to Mr. Speaker for granting this
debate on a matter that is of fantastic importance. What seems to have
happened is that a nightmare in Zimbabwe has produced administrative and
moral chaos in the Home Office. Letters have been sent to people threatening
them with deportation when they cannot possibly mean that.

We have in this country hundreds of thousands of illegal people, about whom
the Government seem to know nothing and can do nothing. People from Zimbabwe
who should not be here are allowed to stay, and people who have 100 per
cent. British ancestry are being denied any right to stay here. They are
being sent back to a country that has descended into tyranny and
lawlessness, and from which they have severed all links.

As I hope the Minister knows, this debate arises from a letter written to me
by one of her colleagues, in which he confirms that the brother of one of my
constituents, Natasha Samways, of Goring on Thames, must return to Zimbabwe.
He is called Mark Coleman, he is 28 years old, able-bodied, law-abiding and
willing to work, but he is prevented from doing so because he is a failed
asylum seeker. The letter that the Minister's colleague sent to me
concludes:

"In all circumstances we prefer that those with no basis to stay leave
voluntarily, but should Mr. Coleman refuse to do so then his removal may be
enforced."

That seems to be a threat. We gather from the letter that if Mr. Coleman
fails to leave, the intention of the British state is that he may be
arrested, taken to an airport and returned to Zimbabwe by force.

Mr. Coleman is not alone in receiving that message about what the British
state intends to do to people in his position. The Home Office has placed
advertisements in The Zimbabwean, a London newspaper much read by the
expatriate community, saying exactly this: "If you don't have the right to
stay, then you will be deported." Before we turn to what the Home Office
might mean by that threat, let us consider, without being too histrionic or
dramatic, the fate that awaits people such as Mr. Coleman, and hundreds of
others who find themselves in positions like his or even worse.

There is nothing left for Mr. Coleman in Zimbabwe. It is not only a
murderous tyranny where journalists and opponents of the regime are
arrested, beaten and jailed, as the Home Office immigration guidelines amply
attest, but an economic disaster area. Thanks to Mugabe's catastrophic
policies, the Zimbabweans have inflation running at 1,218 per cent., and
shortages of bread, medicines and other essentials, not to speak of an AIDS
rate at 25 per cent. of the population.

It is no wonder that Mr. Coleman's immediate family have been forced to
abandon their furniture manufacturing business and flee to Costa Rica. He
had some more distant relatives, cousins who were farmers, but they, too,
have been forced to flee. Thanks to Mugabe's insane and arguably racist
policies, they have been deprived of their land, with appalling consequences
not only for white farmers like them, but for many black farmers and their
employees.

I remember seeing the devastation in 2004 when I went to Zimbabwe with the
indomitable Peta Thornycroft of The Daily Telegraph, one of the last foreign
journalists still sending dispatches from Zimbabwe. I went to a farm outside
Harare, and I remember interviewing an old couple as they were besieged by
thugs from Zanu PF.

It was deeply moving talking to that elderly couple and seeing the old boy
go to his cabinet where he kept treasured family heirlooms and things that
connected his family with their roots in Essex. He brought out not just the
medals that his father had won fighting for the British Crown, but his own
British passport, which he held by virtue of being born in the British
empire. He was very old by then; he died shortly afterwards and the farm was
stolen. His children then died in tragic circumstances, too, and I remember
his bewilderment at Her Majesty's Government doing nothing to protect Her
Majesty's subjects, of whom he thought himself one.

I think that the Minister would agree that, when all is said and done, we
stood by when Mugabe launched those pogroms. We did nothing. We allowed him
to take away the livelihoods of thousands of farmers, including many British
subjects and their descendants. Having stood by in such a way, I think it is
extraordinary that we are telling the descendants of people who were driven
out of their farms that they must now go back to Zimbabwe, when those farms
have been ruined and stolen.

It is a complete disgrace, and to use a phrase that the Prime Minister has
used about our relations with Africa, it is a scar on the conscience of the
Government. It is an act of apathy and betrayal that stands in ghastly
contrast to our deluded intervention in Iraq--a country richly endowed with
oil, although not, of course, with British farmers and their descendants.

I do not want the Minister or anybody to run away with the impression that
this is purely about white farmers. Although they face persecution, all
opponents of the Mugabe regime have faced persecution. Indeed, it is
possible to argue--I am sure that the Home Office would make this case-- 
that a returning white Zimbabwean might well be in huge danger, but he might
be in less danger than other opponents of the Mugabe regime returning to
Harare. There is clear evidence, of which I am sure the Minister is aware,
that when Zimbabweans return to Harare airport, they face intimidation,
abuse and even torture and jail. Of the 200 failed asylum seekers who were
forcibly returned between November 2004 and July 2005, we know the identity
and fates of about 20.

In several cases, there is evidence, which I think the Government accept,
that there was torture. At least four individuals left Gatwick never to be
heard of again and several ended up in the notorious and disease-infested
Chikurubi jail. It is a measure of the seriousness with which the Government
take human rights problems in Zimbabwe that of the 18,000 people from
Zimbabwe who have applied for asylum in this country since 2000, between a
third and a quarter have been accepted. Those who have been rejected have
mainly vanished into the undergrowth and started to work illegally, but in
pursuance of their targets and their desire to return failed asylum seekers,
the Government have tried to repatriate some by force.

I should stress at this point that that is not always the wrong thing to do.
I do not want the Minister to think that I am against repatriating anybody
to Zimbabwe, because it is right that we should keep out, for instance,
people from the Zanu PF elite. It is crazy and disgusting that Mugabe can
still go around the world, have his hand shaken by the now Leader of the
House and go on shopping trips in western capitals.

Mr. Richard Benyon (Newbury) (Con): Does my hon. Friend agree that the only
people who can afford to come to this country legally from Zimbabwe tend to
be people who are linked to the corrupt regime that runs that country?
Because of the state of the economy, they tend to be the only people who can
afford, through the strict rules we apply through our high commission, to
apply for their student visa, work visa or whatever. The legitimate people
who we want to come here simply cannot afford to.

Mr. Johnson: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The people who are likely
to come here will have access to considerable funds and are far more likely,
therefore, to be linked to the regime. We have to do more to keep them out
and discriminate against them. However, there will be people who face a real
risk of persecution when they get back and it is quite rightly against
British law to send them back in such circumstances. The difficulty with
forced deportations to Zimbabwe--it is a very difficult problem--is that too
often there have been reports of abuse.

On 18 October 2005, the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal found that the
procedures in place for enforced returnees at Harare airport exposed them to
a real risk of ill-treatment at the hands of the CIO--the Central
Intelligence Organisation--which is a secret police far more brutal and
corrupt that the Securitate or the Stasi. The Government stopped forcible
repatriation after that ruling, but they then contested the ruling and
appealed against it. We are now awaiting the outcome of the Government's
appeal against the Asylum and Immigration and Tribunal ruling that asylum
seekers cannot be forcibly sent back to Zimbabwe.

The AIT ruling still stands, and the Government have not yet come up with a
better way back into Zimbabwe than via Harare airport, which is a problem.

What will happen if the CIO spots people coming in, intercepts them there
and subjects them to abuse? Can the Minister explain, in the name of all
that is holy, why her colleague is sending out letters to people saying that
they may be forcibly repatriated in circumstances in which the AIT has said
that that must not happen? I would like to know how that is legally
possible. When the Government say that "his removal may be enforced" in the
letter I have here, dated October 2005, do they mean, "It may be enforced if
we in the Home Office get our way in the courts"?

Is that what the Minister's colleague means? If so, why does he not say so
in the letter? Why does he not say to the person who is the subject of this
deportation order--it seems to be an order--that it may be enforced subject
to the winning of the case?

Mr. Benyon: Does my hon. Friend agree that it seems, perversely, that the
Government have it in for people from Zimbabwe? Last year, we had the
bizarre experience of people legitimately coming to this country through the
ancestral visa route and having their papers held up, sometimes for a period
of well over a year.

They were not able to travel back to Harare to bury dead relatives. Many of
us in the House came across this unbelievably cruel situation when people
came to our surgeries saying, "What have we done? We are being persecuted in
this country. We have come here under an established ancestral visa route
and the Government are holding us on the basis of some fraud that was never
proved."

Mr. Johnson: My hon. Friend is absolutely right again, and I congratulate
him on the work that he has done on behalf of his constituents in securing
their right to ancestral visas. I shall come to that point in a moment, but
while the Minister consults her civil servants--quite rightly, in order that
she may avail herself of the answer--I want to ram home this question: what
did her colleague mean by his letter?

If I understand the position--and surely it must be true--the Government
could well lose the case in the Court of Appeal, in which case, unless I
miss my guess, a removal from this country might not be enforced. Or was the
Minister involved saying that a removal could be enforced even if the
Government lose the case? Is that what the Government are saying? Are they
going to ride roughshod over the Court of Appeal? I would be very interested
to know. Would it not be more honest to say that Mr. Coleman's removal may
or may not be enforced, depending on the outcome of the AA case before the
Court of Appeal, and to add, "If we lose, we do not have a clue what we are
going to do"? That would be a more honest approach.

I cannot remember when I started, Mr. Cook. Did we start at 5 pm?
Frank Cook (in the Chair): Order. The hon. Member who brings the topic to
the Chamber may take as long as is necessary to elucidate it, but the
termination time for this debate--if that is the hon. Gentleman's query--is
5.26 pm.

Mr. Johnson: I am grateful for that, Mr. Cook. I shall rattle through my
final point in order to give the Minister plenty of time to reply.

Even if it were right to send Mr. Coleman back--this is the point on which I
hope to concentrate the Minister's mind--against the clear finding of the
Asylum and Immigration Tribunal that forcible returnees can face torture,
abuse and persecution, and to say that no account whatever should be taken
of his legitimate fears about what would happen to him upon his return,
there is another reason why we should look with favour on his case.

That reason is the saddest and most difficult part of his case, but it could
be easily rectified, because it affects such a tiny number of people. I know
that hard cases make bad law, but I cannot believe that there are many
people in exactly the same position as the brother of my constituent--that
is to say, Mr. Coleman.

I do not know whether the Minister has had a chance to read some of the
media coverage of the case.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Joan
Ryan) indicated assent.

Mr. Johnson: It is clear that the Minister will know what I am about to say.
As has been widely documented, Mr. Coleman is of British ancestry. He has
four British grandparents, yet he cannot claim an ancestral visa because all
four grandparents were born in what was the British empire--three in India
and one in South Africa. To give a flavour of their contribution to Britain
and the British empire, I shall read out what Mr. Coleman's sister wrote to
me about her family history:

"Our father was born in the British Colony of Southern Rhodesia, while our
paternal grandfather, a British citizen, holding a British passport, served
the Crown in Southern Rhodesia during the Second World War. Our paternal
great grandfather was commissioned by Queen Victoria as a surgeon and
retired as a Lt. Colonel in India....our mother who was an Innes Pocock can
trace her British ancestry back to 1160. Our mother was born in India in
1942, after our maternal grandmother was evacuated from Singapore when the
Japanese landed. Our mother's birth was registered with the British Consul
in Bangalore. Her father, and our maternal grandfather, Eric Innes Pocock
was born in British India, and his birth registered with the British Consul.
His birth certificate clearly states that he was born of British parents, in
British India and therefore a British subject by birth."

They were people who served the British empire and the Crown. The truly
extraordinary feature of Mr. Coleman's antecedents is that all eight of his
great grandparents were British, yet strangely, he does not qualify for
British nationality or British citizenship.

As we look at the sweep of history and what has happened regarding Britain's
relations with Africa and the people whom we sent out to colonise Africa
over the past 100 years, it should be possible to reflect the extraordinary
circumstances that have left Mr. Coleman washed up on the beach, as it were,
as the tide of empire has withdrawn. As the tide of Britain's involvement
with Africa has gone out, we have ceased to look after such people. We quite
rightly supported majority rule, but then we did absolutely nothing to
protect British interests and British farmers and their livelihoods when
they were taken away by Mugabe.

It seems extraordinary and very hard hearted that we can do nothing at this
stage to protect someone who must be in a tiny minority. Mr. Coleman has a
much more organic claim to British citizenship than many people who are here
legally or illegally. I wonder whether the Minister can find it in her to
discover some means of granting Mr. Coleman--through some compassionate
device, which is surely available to her--the ancestral visa that he surely
deserves, so that he can settle in this country, work and be a part of the
economy, which is all that he desires to be.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Joan
Ryan): I am grateful for this opportunity to explain the Government's
position in relation to both the case to which the hon. Member for Henley
(Mr. Johnson) referred and the situation on returns to Zimbabwe more
generally. I congratulate him on securing this debate. It is clear from his
presentation of his case that he feels genuinely and deeply about the
matter. I assure him on behalf of the Government that we feel strongly about
the situation in Zimbabwe, too, as I hope will become clear from my remarks.

The hon. Gentleman will appreciate that it would be inappropriate for me to
comment on the case to which he referred in this debate, but the position
was set out in a letter that my hon. Friend the Minister for Immigration,
Citizenship and Nationality sent to him on 15 November 2006. The hon.
Gentleman's comments on that letter will be a matter for the record. I
realise that he may be disappointed that I cannot comment on the individual
case that he has put forward so strongly, but I am sure that he was aware
that that would be the situation.

With regard to the question of UK ancestry, one of the aims of the British
Nationality Act 1981 and related legislation is to restrict eligibility for
British citizenship--and thus for the right of abode in the United
Kingdom--to persons born in, or otherwise closely connected with, the United
Kingdom or one of the current British overseas territories. The legislation
therefore makes a basic distinction between citizens by descent, who cannot
normally transmit their citizenship to a further generation born outside
British territory, and other citizens, who can.

We of course recognise that some families have a tradition of service
overseas that spans several generations. British citizens who work abroad in
that way make a valued contribution to the United Kingdom's economy and
international standing. It would be unfair if the children of one family
member who happened to be born abroad when his or her parents were
temporarily overseas were permanently excluded from British citizenship.

The legislation accordingly makes a number of exceptions to the general rule
that citizenship cannot be transmitted to a second generation born abroad.
One such exception relates to British citizens who are in Crown or similar
service that has been designated as such by the Home Secretary at the time
of their child's birth. Another exception concerns those in the service of a
European Community institution at the relevant time.

Where neither of those statutory exceptions applies, the second generation
born abroad will be entitled to registration as British citizens if either
the British citizen parent has previously resided in the United Kingdom for
any continuous period of three years, or the family returns to the United
Kingdom and remains here for at least three years after the child's birth.
Registration is subject to an application being made within certain time
limits. Further provision is made by the 1981 Act for such issues as the
avoidance of statelessness.

The immigration rules provide for Zimbabweans with a UK-born grandparent to
be granted entry clearance under the UK ancestry route of entry, to which
the hon. Gentleman referred. That allows them to live and to work in the UK
for five years, after which they can apply for settlement. However, we do
not allow switching into that category; if someone wished to make an
application for entry clearance in that category, he or she would need to
return to Zimbabwe and apply for entry clearance from there.

On the more general question of enforced removals to Zimbabwe at present, on
15 and 16 January this year, as hon. Members may be aware, the Court of
Appeal heard the case of a Zimbabwean failed asylum seeker known as AA. It
was the latest stage in protracted litigation, at the heart of which is the
question of whether a Zimbabwean who has claimed asylum in the UK and whose
claim is refused would, if forcefully returned to Zimbabwe, be singled out
as a failed asylum seeker and be at real risk of mistreatment by the
Zimbabwean authorities on those grounds.

In a moment, time allowing, I will set out some background on the issues in
that particular case, but first I should like to explain that the
Government's position on the question of enforcing the return of failed
asylum seekers and other immigration offenders to Zimbabwe is that it is
solely about operating a robust and fair immigration system for the UK. It
is a domestic issue. Our deep concern about the political crisis in
Zimbabwe, and the economic crisis that it has generated, remains
undiminished.

Mr. Boris Johnson: Will the Minister give way?

Joan Ryan: I shall in just a second.

The Zimbabwean economy continues to be grossly mismanaged, leading to
substantial outflows of people seeking opportunities in Britain and
elsewhere. In particular, we categorically condemn the appalling human
rights abuses perpetrated on those who actively oppose the regime. We
continue to work with international partners to press for an end to such
abuses, for the restoration of democracy and the rule of law, and for a full
set of economic and fiscal reforms.

We work closely with our European Union and other international partners to
address the issues. It is not correct to say, as the hon. Gentleman did,
that we stand by and do nothing. I absolutely refute that assertion. We have
taken action through European Union sanctions, the travel ban and isolating
the Mugabe regime. However, we want to be careful about sanctions because we
do not want ordinary Zimbabwean people to suffer any more under the regime
than they are already.

Mr. Johnson: I ask the Minister two quick questions. Is she in favour of
having a look at the rules, so that if someone had eight great-grandparents
who were born in this country, they might be entitled to an ancestral visa?
A tiny number of people would be caught in that category, and doing that
would be one way to help people such as Mr. Coleman.

Secondly, can the Minister explain why, given that the Court of Appeal has
yet to rule on the question, her Department is sending out letters saying
that people may be ordered back to Zimbabwe?

Joan Ryan: No, I am not willing to look at those rules. I looked at them
before I came to answer this debate; that is why I referred to the 1981 Act.
I am satisfied that the rules are appropriate and should stand.

On the background, about which I think the hon. Gentleman is asking, on 18
October 2005 the independent Asylum and Immigration Tribunal held that the
particular way in which we were enforcing returns of unsuccessful Zimbabwean
asylum seekers from the United Kingdom to Harare airport put them at risk of
mistreatment. On 16 November 2005, the AIT issued a further determination in
which it concluded that the effect of the 18 October determination was that
any Zimbabwean citizen who would not return to the country willingly was a
refugee.

We appealed those findings, and the Court of Appeal handed down its judgment
on our appeal on 12 April 2006. It found that, in the earlier case, the AIT
had erred in its approach to the evidence before it in finding that the
particular way we were enforcing returns of failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers
to Harare airport put them at risk of mistreatment. The Court of Appeal also
found that a person who can safely return to their country of origin
voluntarily is not a refugee. The Court of Appeal therefore set aside the
original determination and asked the AIT to look at the matter anew.

A panel consisting of the AIT president and two senior immigration judges
reconsidered the case on 3 to 7 July 2006 and issued a fresh determination
on 2 August. The AIT found that the evidence did not establish that failed
asylum seekers would be at real risk of mistreatment on return simply by
virtue of an unsuccessful asylum application. That applies to enforced
returnees, as well as to those who return voluntarily.

AA, in turn, appealed the AIT's August 2006 determination on a number of
grounds, the essence of which was that it has again misunderstood or
misinterpreted the evidence. The Court of Appeal heard that appeal on 15 to
16 January, and we await its judgment.

It would not be appropriate for me to comment on the details at issue in
advance of the Court of Appeal's judgment, but that does not prevent me from
reiterating the Government's commitment to providing protection to those who
genuinely need it. We know that the Zimbabwean authorities are capable of
persecuting those who oppose them or those whom they perceive to be a
threat--

It being twenty-six minutes past Five o'clock, the motion for the
Adjournment of the sitting lapsed, without Question put.

Mugabe 2010 plan in tatters

Zim Independent

Dumisani Muleya

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's plan to extend his term of office which
expires in March next year by another two years to 2010 is in tatters after
the Zanu PF politburo failed to endorse it last week.

Resolutions in the politburo are carried by acclamation and the
discord of the Goromonzi conference was manifest at last week's meeting,
participants said. Consensus is important to avoid dissent in parliament
when constitutional amendments are tabled to facilitate the plan.

Inside sources said this week the politburo, the ruling party's
supreme decision-making body, baulked at approving the plan, which triggered
an unprecedented internal revolt at the party's ill-fated conference in
Goromonzi in December last year. This put Mugabe's plans in disarray.

As first reported by the Zimbabwe Independent in December, Mugabe
wants to move from being executive president to a ceremonial head of state,
elected by the current Zanu PF-dominated two houses of parliament in a joint
sitting as an electoral college, after March 2008.

After this he would then appoint a prime minister from the majority
party in parliament - which is Zanu PF in this case - to form and lead
either a Zanu PF government or a government of national unity. The preferred
position, in terms of the plan, is to appoint a government of national unity
to rally round the new prime minister - possibly Reserve Bank governor
Gideon Gono - to work without partisan problems intruding.

Mugabe, who probably wants to remain as the Zanu PF leader after its
2009 congress, would be a ceremonial head of state on paper while in
practice continuing to govern as a de facto executive president. This is
said to be part of his strategy to secure immunity from possible prosecution
for his excesses in power.

Depending on events, Mugabe would leave in 2010, but party insiders
say he has resolved to become life president. Last year Mugabe repeated his
self-serving argument that he won't quit because his party would
disintegrate.

Delegates to the Goromonzi watershed conference refused to endorse his
2010 election proposal which had purportedly been backed by eight Zanu PF
provinces and the committee on the state of the party at the meeting.

Harare and Mashonaland East have up to now refused to support the
plan.

Sensing an open rebellion over the conflict-ridden issue during the
conference, the Zanu PF leadership took the safe way out. They suspended the
process of making final resolutions, claiming there was no more time to do
it. Party leaders then tried to mislead their supporters saying the
delegates had upheld the election initiative, although they also admitted
the plan had to be referred back to provinces.

Before last week's politburo, which was the party's first meeting in
2007 after the Goromonzi conference, Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira
claimed the party was meeting to endorse resolutions of that conference.
However, after that meeting he said the election harmonisation initiative
had been referred back to provinces for further consultations, showing the
politburo was still divided over it and had not made any headway.

This effectively means Zanu PF has now gone back to the drawing board
to restart the unpopular process. Shamuyarira and Zanu PF national commissar
Elliot Manyika are spearheading the campaign.

Their other brief is to re-organise the provinces to make them
amenable to the 2010 plan. They however face continued resistance in Harare
and Mashonaland East where senior party officials have refused to endorse
Mugabe's extended tenure.

Sources said Manyika last year shocked members of the conference
committee on the state of the party when he, as the committee chair,
demanded they had to first pledge loyalty to Mugabe before debate on the
issue. Committee members refused and told him to "stop being ridiculous", a
source said.

After discussions, committee members said they supported the idea of
the need to hold the elections simultaneously, but not necessarily in 2010.
They asked why 2010 and not 2008 because they thought it was a Machiavellian
way of trying to extend Mugabe's tenure, the sources said. After the
politburo meeting last week, it was agreed that the party's central
committee would meet next month to deal with the problematic issue again.

The politburo first approved the issue amid firm resistance in
December. But the central committee nodded it through because it was
supported mainly by the Women's League members who appeared choreographed in
their statements. The central committee is likely to endorse it again in
March. However, Zanu PF MPs are mobilising to block the plan in parliament
where only 10 ruling party legislators - already there in the form of
Mashonaland East MPs - need to vote with the opposition MDC to defeat it.

RBZ stuck with new notes

Zim Independent

Shakeman Mugari

THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is stuck with piles of new bank
notes that it cannot introduce because of galloping inflation and political
bickering among key stakeholders.

The new notes were printed at huge cost in foreign currency by a
German company, Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) in July last year.

The Zimbabwe Independent last week published exclusive specimens of
the new notes which central bank governor Gideon Gono said would be released
onto the market soon.

Sources this week however said the central bank could not introduce
the new notes because of high inflation which has continued to erode the
value of the local money.

The notes, whose highest denomination is a $1 000 bill, were designed
on the assumption that inflation would have come down significantly by
February this year, the scheduled launch period, so zeros could once again
be slashed. The central bank instructed G&D to print the notes in the hope
that by December inflation would be down to two digit figures.

Sources say there are now slim chances of the notes being introduced
soon despite the approval by Cabinet last year.

Although Gono told the Independent last week that the money would be
out "sooner rather than later", sources this week said there were dissenting
voices in the government who wanted the RBZ to introduce higher
denominations.

"The biggest problem is that President Mugabe has always been against
higher denominations," a source said.

Serious moves to introduce new notes started in 2003 during the cash
shortages when Mugabe formed a five-member cabinet committee to deal with
the problem. The committee was made up of Information minister Jonathan
Moyo, Finance minister Herbert Murerwa, Industry and Trade minister Samuel
Mumbengegwi, State Security minister Nicholas Goche, and Charles Chikaura,
who was then acting central bank governor.

The committee came up with travellers' cheques which were a major flop
because they required people to have bank accounts in order to use them.

The committee later introduced the bearer cheques which were printed
on cheap paper. The committee also came up with specimen designs of the $1
000, $5 000 and $10 000 notes. Mugabe, sources said, however flatly rejected
the $5 000 and $10 000 notes saying this would send the wrong signals about
inflationary trends.

The sources said new notes can only work when inflation has been
drastically reduced.

They said government was at the moment not willing to slash more zeros
from the bearers' cheques, which would be necessary if a new currency is to
be introduced.

Contacted for comment yesterday Gono maintained the new notes would be
introduced soon but he could not say when.

"The governor is not going to pre-announce," Gono said. "People will
be advised of the period of notice."

Male UZ students evicted

Zim Independent

Itai Mushekwe

HUNDREDS of University of Zimbabwe students have been evicted from
campus accommodation, just two weeks before the first semester begins.

The evictions being carried out under the pretext of "containing
rampant vandalism and theft of university property by male students" are
likely to foment unrest and trigger demonstrations at the Harare campus.
Female students who need accommodation have been asked to "liaise" with the
accommodation officer to occupy hostels vacated by the male students.

Dean of students Taka Mduluza, yesterday said the decision to evict
the male students was prompted by vandalism and theft of university
property, a phenomenon rare among female students.

Mduluza said the university's executive had decided to take action
although not every student would be affected by the policy shift.

"We are aware of a looming student uprising as a result of the
evictions but the law will meet those who choose to revolt," Mduluza said.

"It's a very hot issue, and we know these students are likely to stage
an uprising. However, those who choose to revolt will meet the law."

Student Representative Council vice-president, Clifford Hlatshwayo
said the student body has since moved in to reverse the controversial
eviction notice, which students only learnt of through a press advertisement
on Sunday.

"We have made an urgent High Court application for an interdict to
stop the evictions," said Hlatshwayo.

"The accommodation officer and dean of students are clueless as to
where the eviction directives are coming from. But as students we only have
three options to deal with this scenario. If legal or amicable engagement
with the authorities fail we will devise other means to stop this madness."
Observers have however interpreted the move as a pre-emptive strike by
government to arrest potential student activism ahead of the proposed
harmonisation of parliamentary and presidential elections to 2010.

We've had enough - ZNCC

Zim Independent

Shame Makoshori

THE Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) has reacted angrily
to the arrest by police of business executives for hiking the prices of
basic commodities saying they had had enough of government's harassment.

In what could be the beginning of serious confrontation between
government and business, ZNCC president Mara Hativagone told a press
conference in Harare yesterday that the organisation "strongly condemned"
the arrest of its members. She said government's stance indicated continued
suspicion between the two economic partners.

She was responding to the arrest of two managers from Blue Ribbon
Industries and National Foods on Tuesday for raising prices without
government approval.

The two, Ian Kind and Mike Manga, were charged yesterday both in their
personal capacities and as company representatives. They had not been
released at the time of going to press last night.

Government has intensified its clampdown on businesses that raise
prices of basic commodities and has vowed to continue the arrests.

Hativagone said the arrests had serious implications for the success
of the social contract proposed by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono in his
monetary policy statement last week.

Immediate past-president of the ZNCC Luxon Zembe, who also attended
the press conference, said government was applying double standards in its
dealings with business by calling for dialogue while arresting business
executives.

He said the government was not acting in good faith.

"We have come to a stage where we are saying this (harassment) has to
stop," said Zembe.

He accused state-run companies of increasing prices by wide margins
when strict controls were applied to the private sector. "We cannot have a
social contract when, after agreeing on certain things, government goes
behind our back and does something else. It just does not augur well for the
economic recovery," Zembe said.

"Events on the ground have indicated that dialogue is not working. We
cannot continue saying we are friends when government goes behind our backs
and arrests our members. If we have to continue talking, government must
stop arresting our members," Zembe told journalists.

Warning that the ZNCC had decided to seek legal representation for the
arrested business executives, Hativagone said government's stance came as a
surprise to business especially after holding several meetings with Industry
and International Trade minister Obert Mpofu over the viability of
companies.

The last such meeting was held on Wednesday this week.

"The chamber fully supports the idea of a social contract. In fact we
wish to remind the public and all stakeholders that the chamber has always
advocated a social contract," Hativagone said.

"We have been in the forefront in calling for the social contract and
that is why we took a leading role in the Kadoma Declaration and the
formation of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum."

CIO officers stalk teachers

Zim Independent

Augustine Mukaro

GOVERNMENT has deployed Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
officers to monitor teachers' activities after they embarked on a go-slow
demanding higher salaries to improve their living standards.

Teachers last week started sit-ins in staff rooms after government
gave in to the demands of a six-week industrial action by junior doctors and
nurses, promising a review. Government awarded nurses a salary top-up of
$265 000 over and above the $195 000 given in January.

President of the Progressive Teachers Association (PTUZ), Takavafira
Zhou, said teachers began a sit-in last Thursday after realising from the
actions of doctors and nurses that without a sustained job action they would
not get anything.

"The sit-in started in Masvingo and has since spread to all provinces
except Mashonaland Central," Zhou said.

"The strike has not been very effective in Mashonaland Central because
of harassment by the state agents," he said.

Zhou said teachers were demanding a starting salary of $400 000, a
housing allowance of $150 000, transport allowance of $100 000 plus a
retention allowance of 50% of gross salary.

The teachers are also demanding a clothing allowance of 25% of gross
pay and an exemption from paying fees for their dependants. Teachers are
currently on a starting salary of $84 000.

"It's unfortunate that state agents are now targeting the PTUZ
leadership accusing them of working against government when in fact what we
are demanding are survival salaries," Zhou said.

He said the strike was a struggle to lift the standard of living from
a subsistence level to a social and economic level.

Intelligence sources said the CIO was keeping a close eye on the
teachers with the intention of fishing out trouble-makers who might advocate
taking the strike into the streets.

The CIO and officials from the Ministry of Education this week visited
several schools in Harare where they found teachers gathered in staff rooms.
At some of the schools, the officials asked the teachers to write letters
answering possible acts of misconduct charges.

On Monday police picked up Raymond Majongwe, the PTUZ
secretary-general, for questioning, accusing him of encouraging teachers to
go on an illegal strike.

A snap survey in Harare's high-density areas shows that teachers are
spending their time in their staff rooms instead of teaching.

At Cranbone High School teachers were seen sitting outside.

In a statement, Crisis Coalition Zimbabwe said the deployment of state
security agents and harassment of union leadership was part of government's
broader plan aimed at thwarting all efforts by those in the civil service to
seek better standards of living.

"It is deplorable that the government is fast resorting to colonial
strategies of intimidating democratic forces through extra-legal
mechanisms," the statement said.

Soldiers to get extra allowances

Zim Independent

Augustine Mukaro

GOVERNMENT has lined up a raft of allowances for soldiers to boost
disposable income among security forces, especially non-commissioned
officers whose earnings have been eroded by runaway inflation.

Over the past few weeks, growing discontent over salaries has spurred
doctors and nurses to industrial action, with teachers threatening to join
in. The rank and file in the army and the police appear to be warming up to
the new militancy.

A highly-placed military source said government would this month give
the army "an efficiency allowance" backdated to January.

"An efficiency allowance of between 20% and 35% backdated to January
will be given this month," the source said.

"News of the allowances was announced last Friday to army barracks
throughout the country."

The source said government would be introducing more allowances for
the army to boost their salaries and deal with the growing discontent in the
force.

"A 'separation allowance' and two other new allowances will soon be
introduced to cushion soldiers from the soaring inflation and the
ever-rising cost of living," the source said.

The separation allowance is given to soldiers staying in barracks away
from their families.

Zimbabwe National Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Simon Tsatsi could
not confirm or deny the issue but referred all questions to the Defence
Services Commission.

"Salary questions are best answered by the Defence Services Commission
which is chaired by Mariyawanda Nzuwa," Tsatsi said.

Nzuwa could not be reached for comment by the time going to press.

Observers said government had resorted to allowances to raise the
servicemen's take home incomes. Civil servants' allowances are exempted from
tax.

Information to hand shows that the lowest ranked soldier - a private -
currently takes home around $140 000 broken down as basic salary of $84 000
and the rest as transport and housing allowances. This is against spiralling
inflation of nearly 1 300% and a monthly consumer basket of over $450 000.

Police return miners' tools ahead of meeting with Mujuru

Zim Independent

Pindai Dube

POLICE have started returning mining equipment and gold ore
confiscated from small-scale miners ahead of a proposed meeting between the
Zimbabwe Miners' Federation (ZMF) and Vice-President Joice Mujuru next week,
the Zimbabwe Independent has established.

Police have arrested 250 registered small-scale miners and confiscated
or destroyed millions of dollars' worth of mining equipment under the
ongoing Operation Chikorokoza Chapera.

This week police around the country started inviting small-scale
miners to go to police stations to identify and collect their property.

ZMF chief executive officer, Wellington Takavarasha, confirmed that
police had started to return the confiscated equipment to registered
small-scale miners.

"We are having meetings with police taskforces around the country and
they have agreed to return the equipment and gold ore which was confiscated
during Operation Chikorokoza Chapera.

"We started with Matabeleland South where 22 small-scale miners have
already been allowed to go back to work after their equipment and ore were
returned to them. We will proceed around the country and hold meetings with
the police taskforce in the next coming weeks," said Takavarasha.

He confirmed that Mujuru had invited them to a meeting this week to
hear their grievances although the meeting has now been postponed to next
week.

When sought for comment, Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi was said
to be in South Africa while police spokesman, Assistant Commissioner Wayne
Bvudzijena, referred this paper to Assistant Inspector Jessie Banda who is
spokesperson for Operation Chikorokoza Chapera.

Banda confirmed that meetings between the police taskforce, Ministry
of Finance officials, Ministry of Mines, Environment ministry and Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe officials were taking place around the country and that
miners were being told to register to legalise their operations.

Byo mobilises against Zinwa

Zim Independent

Loughty Dube

THE Bulawayo community consisting of political parties, civic groups
and churches has come together to resist the takeover of the city's water
supply by the bungling Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa).

The issue of the takeover of the city's water supplies by the
parastatal has created divisions in the politburo of the ruling Zanu PF with
some backing the takeover while others argue that the Bulawayo City Council
should be allowed to supply water to city residents.

Just last week, Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust chairman, Dumiso
Dabengwa, reportedly told a politburo meeting that the city of Bulawayo
should be allowed to continue with water provision.

However, another politburo member from Matabeleland, Naison
Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu, argued that government had a responsibility to control
all the water in the country.

Sources said the politburo members were at variance but the majority
were unanimous that the city of Bulawayo was doing a good job with water
provision.

It emerged this week that senior citizens in the city were mobilising
residents to resist the Zinwa takeover while civic organisations were
engaging the public on the same issue.

It also emerged this week that state intelligence operatives have sent
representations to President Mugabe over the issue with the message that
water provision responsibility should be left with Bulawayo council.

The Bulawayo City Council has written to government and to Zinwa to
protest the decision by Zinwa to take over the city's water supply.

Bulawayo executive mayor, Japhet Ndabeni Ncube, confirmed that council
had written to government and the relevant ministry to protest the takeover
of water by Zinwa.

"We are resisting the takeover, we have written to government to
protest the takeover of water by Zinwa and we are awaiting their response
but we will resist, and if it fails, then Zinwa will have to compensate
council for everything including the equipment that they will take over,"
Ncube said.

He said the city had no problem with Zinwa but its track record.

Bulawayo Agenda, a political think-tank, has called a meeting where
residents, councillors, government officials and representatives of civic
society are expected to make representations on the takeover issue.

Zimbabwe Liberators Peace Initiative president, Max Mnkandla, said his
organisation would fight at all costs to have Zinwa out of Bulawayo.

"Zinwa has failed in Harare and we say the city of Bulawayo has been
managing well. We will fight the takeover tooth and nail even if it means
dividing the country. There is no way we can allow Zinwa to mess us up, they
do not have the capacity and they only want to plunder Bulawayo council
equipment," Mnkandla said.

Zimrights chairman Kucaca Phulu said his organisation was consulting
with its membership on the course of action as Zinwa was a failed
organisation that had nothing new to offer.

"The government wants to manipulate people through water and this is
the same government that failed to implement the Matabeleland Zambezi Water
Project. The problem with government is that they want to fix things that
are working smoothly," Phulu said. "We are strategising to help those who
are mobilising against the takeover."

The (Arthur) Mutambara faction of the opposition MDC has also come out
in support of Bulawayo City Council on the matter.

Wave of discontent major threat to gvt

Zim Independent

Dumisani Muleya

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's new cabinet met yesterday after the
reshuffle on Tuesday under a cloud of worsening economic problems and
growing social unrest.

The cabinet - described by critics as transparently mediocre - will
have to confront the aggravating economic meltdown characterised by record
inflation of 1 281% and rising, and severe shortages of foreign currency,
food, fuel, electricity and other basic commodities.

Water cuts and power outages are now commonplace, while sewerage
facilities are unable to cope. Hospitals, clinics, schools and roads are all
in an advanced state of collapse.

These are some of the problems which the new cabinet will have to
grapple with. Observers say the "new" team, stuffed with the same old faces
who have presided over a succession of damaging policy failures in recent
years, is likely to fail dismally in pulling the country out of the hole
they have dug for it.

Samuel Mumbengegwi as Finance minister has no known record of fiscal
management and is likely to prove hostile to re-engagement with the
international community while Joseph Made has very little mechanised
equipment left at his disposal. Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, while popular with
journalists, has no public mandate as an unelected MP and occupies office
despite Mugabe's assurance in 2005 that he would not appoint
non-constituency MPs to cabinet.

The worsening economic conditions and poverty have triggered social
unrest on a wide scale. Zimbabwe, reeling from political and economic
instability for seven years now, began the year with strikes by doctors and
nurses.

A chain of strikes could be looming as inflation continues to surge.
Prices are escalating at an alarming pace and there is a serious likelihood
now of first daily and then hourly price hikes at the point of sale. Most
ordinary civil servants earn an average of $40 000. Domestic workers earn
less than $20 000.

Discontented public sector workers in essential services such as
teachers, doctors and nurses are currently on strike over low salaries and
poor working conditions. Government has been struggling to end the strikes
through a mixture of negotiation and intimidation. Neither seem to be
working.

There have been reports of unrest at the Zimbabwe Military Academy in
Gweru over low salaries. The army and police have been hit by a spate of
desertions and resignations due to poor remuneration.

The groundswell of discontent poses a serious threat to government if
the reported unrest in the army, a strike by doctors, nurses, and teachers,
and threats of further protests by public servants and students erupt into a
nationwide campaign.

Last week opposition groups staged unexpected marches in Bulawayo
against Mugabe's attempt to extend his term of office to 2010.

The reality on the ground is that most Zimbabwean workers have been
reduced to virtual paupers due to economic failure and low salaries. It is
now common to find people who spend more money going to work than they earn.

People survive on shady supplementary activities such as "commodity
broking" - buying and selling of all sorts of products - and corruption.

Reserve Bank governor Gideon last week acknowledged the plight of
workers in his monetary policy statement review. He said most workers could
not afford decent living standards on their current incomes.

"To illustrate the severity of this distortion, say a medical doctor
earns a salary of $56 000 gross per month. With the price of a standard bed
pegged say at $800 000, the medical doctor will have to put aside his or her
total gross salary for one year and two months to afford the bed, without
provision for anything else," Gono said.

"The plight of our doctors, the judiciary, soldiers, prosecutors,
teachers, nurses, the police, civil servants, farm workers and domestic
workers, among many other equally deserving constituencies, cannot be
allowed to go unaddressed."

However, while most Zimbabweans are suffering, the political elite are
engaged in primitive accumulation of wealth because the economy is open to
rent-seeking behaviour and massive looting.

Influential members of society, particularly those with political
connections, are amassing wealth on a scale never seen before in the country
as demonstrated by their huge mansions and posh cars. This is the situation
facing Mugabe's new and possibly last cabinet. Given its record of failure
and refusal to face up to the consequences, there is little or no prospect
of it succeeding.

 

Still waiting for justice five years on

Zim Independent

Shakeman Mugari

IT was almost mid-morning on March 12, 2000 when a small crowd started
gathering at George Gwena's homestead in the Marenga village of Buhera.

They were relatives and neighbours who had come to mourn him after
getting news that he had been beaten to death by riot police. Police had
raided Gwena, vice-chairman of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for
Buhera, in the early hours of the morning.

They had pulled him out of the field where he was working with his
son, beaten him in full view of his wife and two children with truncheons
before shoving him into a truck for further beating and interrogation at
Buhera police station.

People who witnessed his severe beating by the police had brought the
sad news of his supposed death to the village.

"To us Gwena was no more," said Martin Hapanyengwi, a neighbour who
was part of the group. "We had come to mourn Gwena and had no reason to
doubt the news because we knew the political situation," he said, himself a
victim of police torture.

It was in the run-up to the 2000 general election and the people of
Buhera knew that given the poisoned political climate at the time, death of
an opposition political activist like Gwena was not a wild impossibility.

Tension was simmering between the MDC and Zanu PF. People were divided
and hatred among neighbours and even relatives was manifest. The riot police
sent by government ostensibly to keep peace in Buhera were really there to
deal with opposition members.

People had barely started mourning when their attention was drawn to
the whirring sound of an old wheelbarrow coming from the main road. It was a
Good Samaritan bringing a half-dead Gwena. The man had picked Gwena up from
the Murambinda-Chivhu road where he had been dropped by a commuter omnibus.

He was not dead but those who had spread the word were not far off the
mark in describing him as such.

He was bleeding from lacerations all over his body and his legs were
swollen. He had scars caused by batons on his back and his face looked like
a bull frog.

His crime, as the police had told him, was that he was a senior member
of the opposition in the area.

His torturers had told him without wincing that they were teaching him
the consequences of leading an opposition party formed "to remove the Zanu
PF government from power".

Relieved that the worst had not visited one of their own, the crowd
dispersed but for Gwena it was the beginning of worse things to come.

When stories of victims of political violence are told, rarely do
people get to hear the stories of Gwena and thousands of others in the rural
areas who suffered in silence away from the eyes of the media and
international observers. Their geographical location made them easy prey for
violence. It is in the rural areas that you find the real heroes of that
era.

"I have never been in such pain," said Gwena, whose nose is constantly
discharging a brown gooey substance, the effects of injuries to his head
during the beatings.

"They were using everything from their boots, baton sticks and
clinched fists," he said.

Gwena attended Munyira School with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the
1960s. Like Tsvangirai, Gwena also started his politics in the trade union
movement when he was still with the then Posts and Telecommunications
Corporation.

He left work in 1996 and joined the MDC at its formation in 1999. He
had dreams that turned into a nightmare when the retribution started. The
real horror started after his initial beating by the police on March 12,
2000.

For the next three months Gwena's life turned into hell at the hands
of Zanu PF members and the police. Between March and May, Gwena was tortured
three times by the police and Zanu PF youths stormed his house on more than
five occasions.

On the day his house was raided by ruling party supporters, Gwena and
his family slept in the open fearing that the police would come for him
again.

"They told me that they had not finished with me and that they were
going to beat the MDC out of me," he recalled.

And so for the next three months the police tried to live up to their
promises.

"I went to Harare for treatment for two weeks but as soon as I came
back they were on my case."

A week after his return from Harare Zanu PF youths stormed his house
and smashed windows. They destroyed a French door.

The signs of the damage are still visible. When the Zimbabwe
Independent visited his homestead last month there were still smashed window
panes. He could not replace the panes because of financial problems.

"They came in the afternoon chanting Zanu PF slogans and started
smashing the windows." Gwena and his wife hid in the maize field. "If they
had caught me, they were going to kill me," he said.

But his problems were still far from over. A few hours after his house
was damaged by the mob, the officer in charge of Murambinda police station,
one Muyambo, arrived at Gwena's homestead with a truck-full of riot police.
He took Gwena to the police station saying they wanted him for a routine
questioning. He however changed his story along the way and started accusing
Gwena of inciting people to remove the government.

At the station officers took turns to beat him demanding that he
confess that he was fuelling violence in the area. A house of an education
officer had earlier in the day been destroyed at Murambinda growth point.
Gwena was then accused of organising the violence.

"It was as if they were doing it for fun. One of them said he also
wanted a chance to beat me because he had never beaten a leader of an
opposition in his life."

He was granted his wish and worked on Gwena's bare backside with a
baton. Satisfied, Muyambo handed Gwena to the Central Intelligence Officers
who did what they could to inflict pain on him.

He passed out. When he came to, he was under a running tap and a
policeman was prodding him as if to check for signs of life. The officer in
charge delivered him home but not before warning him that they would not
stop beating him until he resigned from the MDC.

He staggered into his house with a ruptured eardrum, swollen legs and
a red eye.

"I could not walk for a week," he said. In the weeks that followed
Gwena and his family slept in the bush. "I was afraid, Zanu PF people were
looking for me and the police were promising me hell unless I left the MDC."

He didn't leave the opposition so the beating and intimidation
continued. His family was denied food aid and the threats intensified.

In May 2000 police arrested Gwena, tortured him at Murambinda before
sending him to Rusape where he was detained for a week on allegations that
he was involved in the burning of the house of the district education
officer. He was with three other MDC members and a teacher who had been
arrested on the same allegations in Dorowa. They stayed in Rusape prison for
a week before being released without charges.

For five years Gwena has been waiting in vain for the arm of justice
to catch up with the officers who tortured him and Zanu PF members who
vandalised his house. Two officers were charged for the crime but never
convicted.

"I went to Harare in 2004 to testify against the officers but that was
the last I heard about my case."

Other police officers in the area have since started harassing him for
raising a charge against their colleagues. Everyday Gwena meets the people
who destroyed his house. He is prepared to accept that they will never be
made to account for the actions under the current government but says he
will never forgive them.

RBZ payments too little to restore viability, say miners

Zim Independent

Shame Makoshori

THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has settled part of outstanding payments
for gold deliveries made to Fidelity Printers and Refiners in September, but
industry experts said this could have come too late to curtail a haemorrhage
in the sector.

Fidelity is the sole buyer of gold produced in Zimbabwe.

Sources indicated that outstanding payments made to the gold miners
ran into nearly US$10 million.

The Zimbabwe dollar component of the payments amounted to nearly $650
million.

Businessdigest reported in November last year that the central bank
had outstanding payments to miners for gold delivered to Fidelity between
September and November.

The central bank is understood to have given the miners payments for
deliveries up to November and still has outstanding payments for deliveries
made in December and January.

Industry sources said the payments had failed to restore viability in
the gold mining sector as miners had accumulated huge debts to cover
cash-flow gaps created by the delayed payments.

Already, several foreign suppliers of mining equipment, spare parts
and other accessories had stopped supplying them, demanding upfront payments
and settlement of outstanding debts.

Gold deliveries last year declined 21% due to lack of equipment,
reduced exploration and mine development as well as illegal trading and
smuggling, RBZ governor Gideon Gono said during his monetary policy
presentation last week.

But industry players said the country had to brace for an even sharper
decline in output this year unless the central bank moved quickly to rectify
problems related to payment delays.

Chamber of Mines managing director, David Murangari warned of imminent
mine closures in an interview with businessdigest last year if payments to
miners remained erratic.

A letter by the Chamber signed by Murangari said: "A number of gold
producers have written to the RBZ advising of the difficulties being
experienced in receiving payment as per the announced policy."

"The silence that prevails in such difficult times does nothing to
build confidence in policy announcements and we strongly suggest that the
authorities provide the industry with some explanation of the challenges
being faced by the RBZ," the CMZ wrote on November 15.

The delays would "cause some mines to temporarily shut down" unless
prompt payments were made, Murangari warned.

MTAs dry of forex

Zim Independent

MONEY transfer agencies (MTAs) were this week scrambling for hard
currency to pay recipients of foreign cash, businessdigest established.

Some foreign currency recipients said they had up to this week not yet
received cash sent to them last week as MTAs battled to raise the foreign
currency in a strapped market.

The hardest-hit clients were those receiving their money through
transfer agencies without links to formal banking institutions dealing in
foreign currency.

"We're not making any payments because we don't have the foreign
currency," a teller at Stanbic's foreign exchange desk told a reporter
during the week. "We can only pay in foreign currency if we receive cash
deposits from the public."

Stanbic has a partnership with international money transfer agency,
MoneyGram.

There were also foreign currency problems at agencies linked to
Western Union, but one branch along Samora Machel Avenue had started
disbursing foreign cash to transfer beneficiaries during the week, although
they were only giving amounts in US$100 denominations.

"We have very little notice to start giving clients money in foreign
currency so we're still trying to source the money from the market. It would
have been helpful if the Reserve Bank had given us the foreign currency for
the disbursements," a dealer with one MTA said. NMB Bank, which has a
partnership with MoneyGram, was said to be having problems with foreign
currency payments.

An employee at the bank's foreign currency section said they were
receiving significant foreign cash from clients buying bank travellers'
cheques.

"Some of our clients come with cash to buy travellers' cheques which
we use to give those who want to receive their money in foreign currency," a
senior official at NMB Bank said.

Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono said last week recipients of
transfers from the diaspora could receive their money in foreign currency
"without limitations", saying this was meant to promote the free-flow of
foreign currency in the economy.

"This way, stakeholders with relatives abroad, who to this point were
shunning the safe, legal, authorised dealers and money transfer avenues of
receiving funds can now transact through the formal system," Gono said. -
Staff Writer.

Exporters on brink of closure - analysts

Zim Independent

Paul Nyakazeya

ANALYSTS this week warned exporters risked closure after the central
bank governor refused to devalue the local currency, saying an overvalued
Zimbabwe dollar was likely to significantly erode profitability.

They said the tourism sector, expected to become the backbone of the
country's economic turnaround programme, could equally haemorrhage from an
overvalued local unit.

In a joint statement soon after Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono's
monetary policy, Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) president Mara
Hativagone and Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Callisto
Jokonya, said exporters and the tourism sector were the worst affected by
the current exchange rate regime.

"It goes without saying, however, that the tourism sector, ahead of
exporters in general, could be the hardest hit by the non-movement of the
exchange rate. This makes Zimbabwe a very expensive tourist destination,"
the business leaders said.

"This could actually reverse the impressive performance of the sector
in 2006 if measures are not put in place to enclave the tourism sector."

Luxon Zembe, the past president of the ZNCC and a prominent business
consultant, said the local dollar had to weaken to restore viability in the
export sector and boost exports.

"Looking at the purchasing power parity, it costs (exporters) nearly
$1 000 to (buy) one United States dollar which they sell at $250," said
Zembe. "It is very expensive and exporters are operating at a loss; it
explains why the export sector has been under-performing over the years,"
Zembe said.

Exporters are compelled to dispose of their foreign currency on the
official market at an exchange rate of $250 to the greenback.

They, however, source the bulk of their foreign currency from the
parallel market at a rate between of $4 000 and $5 000 to the greenback, or
buy raw materials sourced from the local market valued using the parallel
market exchange rate.

Zembe said while devaluation had inflationary effects, the local
currency had to be correctly priced as the longer-term benefits flowing from
a thriving export sector outweighed short-term problems caused by
devaluation.

Zembe said the Zimbabwe dollar should not be devalued to parallel
market rates but to a realistic exchange rate that took into account issues
related to the viability of the export sector.

"I agree with the governor that devaluation alone does not help. There
is need for a holistic approach to the whole situation," Zembe said.

Economists said the current foreign exchange regime had fuelled the
parallel market.

Gono stunned the market when he spurned industry calls for
devaluation.

There had been strong market expectation that the local unit could be
devalued to between $750 and $1 000 to the US dollar when Gono presented the
monetary policy last week.

The hemorrhage on exporters had been compounded by a tax regime that
was also making it unviable to export.

In his monetary policy statement, Gono admitted that tourism had been
"priced out of the market" due to the ruling exchange rate regime.

He said a meaningful upturn in the sector had been constrained by
pricing distortions that were making the country expensive to tourists.

"Using an example of a 750ml bottle of mineral water, costing $2 800,
conversion of this at the official exchange rate of $250 per US$1 yields an
effective hard currency price of US$11,2 which is way too expensive,
compared to the regional and international price of the same product at
around US$2," Gono said.

Analysts said Gono's statement was an admission that the dollar was
overvalued hence the need for an upward adjustment.

"The same extremity of the distortion in tourism is reflected in the
fact that at a price of $25 000, a plate of sadza and stew in a hotel
translates to a hard currency price of US$100 per that same plate," Gono
said, adding: "As a country, therefore, we are overpricing ourselves out of
the tourism market though our internal price distortions."

ECA International Resources, a human resources firm, last year ranked
Zimbabwe's capital Harare as the world's most expensive city for expatriates
out of the 125 cities surveyed.

The ECA International Resources' cost of living survey takes into
account 125 economic factors such as the cost of luxury goods, restaurant
meals, movement of prices and grocery costs for items commonly purchased by
expatriates in over 250 locations worldwide.

'Bid to defend dollar futile'

Zim Independent

Paul Nyakazeya

THE central bank's attempt to defend the frail local currency will not
succeed in the absence of meaningful foreign currency inflows into the
country, economic commentators said.

Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono last week said the central bank
would vigorously pursue its core mandate to defend the value of the local
currency, saying a new Foreign Exchange Contingent Fund would be set up for
that purpose.

The fund will be supported by savings from export receipts, negotiated
trade finance facilities, privatisation and joint venture initiatives,
investment partnership concessions, mineral exports and an expected upturn
in the tourism sector as well as funds from the Diaspora.

Economic analysts said an underperformance by key contributors to the
fund was likely result in poor inflows, resulting in the failure of the
project to defend the local currency.

ZB Bank chief economist, Best Doroh said judging by the country's
import bill, the targeted sources of foreign currency were not sufficient to
support the Zimbabwean dollar in the short to medium term.

"In the absence of significant foreign currency inflows especially
from exports, there is still need for external support for the country to
build enough reserves to defend the Zimbabwe dollar," Doroh said.

The Zimbabwe dollar remains fixed at $250 to the greenback.

Economic consultancy firm, Techfin Research, last year forecast
Zimbabwe's embattled currency's fair value to reach $1 058,39 to the US unit
by last month, and to end the year at a fair value rate of $16 588,73 to the
US dollar.

The fair value is the realistic value of the currency taking in to
account inflation differentials between Zimbabwe and its trading partner
countries.

It is not necessarily the official exchange rate.

Techfin Research said in its forecasts, released in August last year,
that Gono could devalue the local unit to $1 000 against the US dollar on
the official market and that the official rate could be adjusted gradually
during the current year to end at $5 200/US$1 by December 2007.

Gono refused to devalue the local currency when he presented his
monetary policy statement last week, saying devaluation was unlikely to
result in "planeloads" of foreign currency.

Economic consultant John Robertson said the country needed to
seriously generate foreign currency and create a friendly environment for
foreign investors.

"Adequate foreign currency inflows would be the lynchpin to remedying
the country's economic woes and collapse of the dollar although pressures
will continue to be felt across the entire economy. This emanates from the
fact that the economy remains a net user of foreign exchange," Robertson
said.

Analysts said the setting up of the fund meant that the central bank
had abandoned setting up of the much-awaited Exchange Rate Impact Assessment
Board (ERIAB) which had failed to take off six months after bank governor
Gideon Gono announced plans to set up the institution on July 31.

The ERIAB was expected to monitor and review the exchange rate monthly
and make recommendations to the central bank on the fair value rate for the
currency on the foreign exchange market.

 

'Look West'

Zim Independent

Pindai Dube

RESERVE Bank governor Gideon Gono says it is important that the
government engages Western countries and create a conducive environment for
economic revival.

Responding to questions from stakeholders at a post-monetary policy
breakfast meeting in Bulawayo last Friday, Gono said government should
broaden its relationship with the outside world.

"We should engage the international community to revive the country's
economy. We must be all-inclusive in our approach. Let's look west, south,
north and east," Gono said.

President Robert Mugabe's government adopted a Look East policy after
his regime was isolated by the West and put under targeted sanctions that
outlawed him and members of his regime from travelling to Europe, the US and
Australia. His regime has deliberately avoided engagement with the West
which he accuses of plotting regime change in the country.

"We should not only support the government's Look East policy, but let
us engage every part of the world, let's trade with the whole world
including the wealthy Western world," Gono said.

He said Eastern countries that Zimbabwe was looking up to were also
looking to the Western nations.

"The Chinese themselves are trading with the Western countries,
especially the United States of America. We must create a conducive
environment for business to thrive," he said.

Businessman Delma Lupepe said it was government's responsibility to
create a conducive environment for business by bringing to an end farm
invasions and other disruptive practices that had ruined the economy.

"Let's be frank, this is not the time for new farm invasions, fresh
farm invasions should be stopped immediately as they are damaging the
country's image," said Lupepe.

Bakers relax on bread quality

Zim Independent

Paul Nyakazeya

THE National Bakers Association (NBA) has refused to give an assurance
that its members will improve the quality of bread, saying this depended to
a large extent on government allowing bakers to charge prices that ensure
viability.

The government controls the price of bread.

NBA senior vice-president, Vincent Mangoma, said while the association
did not approve the poor quality of the bread on the market, it was also
impossible for bakers to produce a better standard loaf due to an unviable
price regime imposed by government.

"We are facing serious viability problems. One needs to understand our
plight to appreciate our desire to continue producing bread," said Mangoma.

"The price of bread is controlled but our inputs are not and are
rising weekly," he said.

Mangoma, who is also the acting chairman of NBA, said other industries
were adjusting prices upwards fortnightly due to the current
hyperinflationary environment, but bread was under-priced despite inputs
prices increasing remarkably.

There have been complaints that the quality of a 700g standard loaf
was weighing between 350 and 400g, while the quality was deteriorating every
week.

In a statement last week, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ)
managing director, Roseline Siyachitema castigated bakers for charging "poor
quality and below standard weight" bread at $850.

"The quality of the bread in most outlets is worth half the cost of a
standard loaf. We feel customers are being shortchanged by bakers,"
Siyachitema said.

Mangoma said while NBA agreed with the consumer watchdog's views, the
CCZ was however being economic with the truth.

"We understand the role of the consumer watchdog, but they should do
the same survey on other products whose prices are controlled while their
inputs were not and see how their products are operating. The quality of
bread would improve if government addressed our concerns," Mangoma said.

Other products affected by price controls are sugar, flour, and
mealie-meal. Sugar and flour have been in short supply due to unviable
prices imposed on producers by government.

Mangoma said bakers were currently in negotiations with the Ministry
of Industry and International Trade in an attempt to find a lasting solution
to the problems being faced by bakers.

Hourly price hikes on the way, analysts warn

Zim Independent

Shame Makoshori

ECONOMIC analysts this week warned that Zimbabwe could experience
hourly price hikes by June unless drastic economic reforms to end an
accelerating economic crisis were undertaken.

The warning came as the central bank released to the media details of
astonishing price increases in the retail sector made a few days after a
monetary policy statement calling on stakeholders to co-operate with
government in mapping out a holistic reform package to turn around the
ailing economy.

A wave of price hikes has hit the market since Wednesday, and was
expected to escalate as speculative tendencies rise on the back of a surge
in inflation rates to record-high levels.

The RBZ survey established that prices had gone up by an average 500%
since the monetary policy presentation.

Gono last week warned that unwarranted price increases undermined
efforts to end a seven-year economic crisis.

University of Zimbabwe graduate school of management lecturer Isaac
Kwesu told businessdigest this week that Gono's pleas to freeze prices were
unlikely to arrest the turbulence in an increasingly apprehensive market
unless there was drastic improvement in foreign currency availability on the
official market.

"The velocity of money is very high; it has been increasing," said
Kwesu.

"The round-trip pricing, which is currently seven days, will increase
to daily by the end of March and hourly between May and June unless key
issues are addressed," Kwesu maintained.

A consumer analyst who declined to be named for professional reasons,
agreed.

"If price increases continue, consumers will not keep money in their
pockets for too long because it will be losing value and the higher the
frequency of buying, the more the upward adjustments in prices of goods and
services," the analyst said.

Round-trip pricing measures the time between consumers receiving money
and spending it and the impact of this on the prices.

"Our research has indicated that the round-trip is currently taking an
average of seven days because every delivery made to retailers is coming
with a new price. The trend will increase to daily by the end of March and
hourly by the end of the first half of 2007 unless measures are put in place
to deal
with the crisis," Kwesu said.

The IMF has forecast inflation to average 4 096% this year after
reaching a year-on-year high of 1281,1% last year.

Kwesu's warnings added to gloomy forecasts by other economic
commentators who fear the worst is yet to come for the beleaguered country,
currently battling acute foreign currency and food shortages and erratic
fuel supplies.

Last month, independent economist John Robertson warned that Zimbabwe's
fast-shrinking economy could take up to 23 years to recover.

Robertson this week said he "suspected" that the hourly price
increases would soon become custom to the crisis-sapped country.

"This suggestion by economists is what government fears most and that
is the reason why you have seen them introducing price freezes," he said.

"Workers could be forced to demand wage payments