Zim Online
by Nqobizitha Khumalo Friday 11 January
2008
BULAWAYO – A special parliamentary committee will next
week summon Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono to answer to
allegations that
the central bank was involved in illicit dealings on the
illegal black
market for foreign currency, sources told
ZimOnline.
Gono, a close confidante of President Robert Mugabe, is
generally regarded
as untouchable. Tasked by Mugabe to revive Zimbabwe’s
economy, he has often
accused top government officials of profiting from the
crisis and blocking
efforts to resuscitate the comatose
economy.
However, members of Parliament’s portfolio committee on budget
and finance
told ZimOnline on Thursday that the committee wanted to question
Gono over a
number of suspect deals among them the issue of Z$7 trillion
released by the
RBZ to an obscure broking firm and later used to buy foreign
currency on the
parallel market.
“The issue now is for Gono to also
explain the strange happenings at the RBZ
or involving the bank,” said a
ruling ZANU PF party legislator who is member
of the committee.
“We
have gathered information that the RBZ is the one that is driving the
foreign currency black market and we need answers on that,” said the
legislator, who declined to be named because he did not have permission from
the House committee to speak to the media.
Both Gono and RBZ
spokesman Kumbirai Nhongo were not immediately available
for comment on the
matter.
But Gono, whose term as RBZ governor ends this year, has in the
past
insisted that he has carried out his functions within the law and
challenged
his accusers to come forward with evidence of
wrongdoing.
The parliamentary committee members, who said Gono will be
summoned next
Monday when the House resumes sitting, said they wanted the
RBZ chief to
explain how $250 billion was allegedly stolen from a bank truck
in Harare
last month.
He will also be quizzed on how $10 billion
worth of new currency was found
in the possession of an illegal currency
dealer, barely 36 hours after the
money was released into circulation by the
central bank.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change parliamentarian
Abednico Bhebhe
who sits on the committee said it wanted Gono to clarify
what he said were
issues that had already received wide coverage in the
local media or had
been disclosed in court.
“There is a problem when
a central bank gives people $7 trillion which is
not even accounted for and
expect everybody to keep quiet about it,” Bhebhe
said.
The committee
will also ask Gono to divulge names of senior ZANU PF and
government
officials he claimed last month were hoarding cash to finance
deals on the
black market.
Gono told a ZANU PF congress last December that top party
officials were
among cash barons hoarding money and causing cash shortages
in the country.
He offered to disclose the names to the parliamentary
committee but chairman
David Butau said the committee was not in a hurry to
call the RBZ boss to
testify.
Butau was himself later accused of
involvement in illegal in foreign
currency deals and has since fled to the
United Kingdom.
Allegations against the RBZ are that the bank gave $7
trillion to Flatwater
Investments, a briefcase company that had promised to
source tractors for a
government farm programme.
Flatwater claimed to
possess US$9 million in an offshore account. However,
it later emerged that
the company did not have the said funds but used the
RBZ cash money to
purchase foreign currency on the black market.
The central bank was
further linked to the black market after foreign
currency dealer Dorothy
Mutekede claimed $10 billion found in her possession
had been given to her
by former RBZ adviser Jonathan Kadzura as payment for
the greenbacks she had
sold him. – ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Patricia Mpofu Friday 11 January
2008
HARARE – President Robert Mugabe is expected to announce
the dissolution of
Parliament and proclaim the date for fresh elections when
he returns from
his annual leave later this month, Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa said.
Zimbabwe is set to hold key presidential and
parliamentary elections in
March although the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) is
pushing for the polls to be postponed.
“It
is only the President who knows but I am sure things will be clearer
when
the President comes back from his annual leave when he will make
disclosures,” said Chinamasa, in response to queries by ZimOnline when
exactly Parliament would be dissolved and polls held.
Mugabe, in
power since 1980 and seeking re-election for another five-year
term, told a
December congress of his ruling ZANU PF party that elections
would be held
in March without fail.
The MDC, that is in talks with Mugabe’s ruling
ZANU PF party, wants
elections moved to June to allow democratic reforms and
other legal changes
the two parties might agree at the South African
brokered talks to have
effect on the ground before voting can take
place.
The MDC has hinted it could boycott the polls if they are held in
March and
before a new constitution agreed at the talks is
implemented.
The talks between the MDC and ZANU PF that are said to have
hit deadlock
over the new constitution and the date for elections are backed
by the
Southern African Development Community (SADC), eager for a lasting
solution
to Zimbabwe’s crisis.
A key objective of the President Thabo
Mbeki-facilitated talks is to ensure
next March’s polls are free and
fair.
Analysts say truly democratic elections are vital to any plan to
end an
acute economic crisis gripping Zimbabwe and seen in hyperinflation, a
rapidly contracting GDP, the fastest for a country not at war according to
the World Bank and shortages of foreign currency, food and
fuel.
Under the law, at least 45 days are required between the date of
proclamation and the actual date voting takes place. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Lizwe Sebatha Friday 11 January
2008
BULAWAYO – The Bulawayo city council has suspended its
anti-malaria spraying
programme due to an acute shortage of anti-malaria
chemicals, ZimOnline has
learnt.
The city’s health department said in
its latest update on efforts to combat
the deadly disease that spraying
would resume once it receives supplies of
required chemicals but did not say
when this would be.
The disclosure that anti-malaria chemicals have ran
out in Bulawayo comes on
the back of warnings last week by the World Health
Organisation (WHO) that
the rate of transmission of malaria would be much
higher in southern Africa
this year because of incessant rains pounding the
region.
Malaria, which is the second biggest killer disease in Zimbabwe
after
HIV/AIDS, is transmitted to humans through mosquitoes.
“The
section ran out of chemicals required for the anti-malaria spraying
programme and it (the programme) has been suspended,” reads a council report
compiled by the health department director, Zanele Hwalima.
“The
section is still awaiting the acquisition of the chemicals for
larviciding
and this delay is worrying as we are well into the malaria
season,” adds the
report that was made available to ZimOnline on Thursday.
The shortage of
anti-malaria spraying chemicals could worsen the plight of
millions of
Zimbabweans who are also grappling with severe shortages of
essential
medicines in state-run hospitals.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of a severe
economic recession that has manifested
itself in shortages of almost all
basic survival commodities like food,
medicines, fuel and foreign
currency.
Critics blame the crisis on repression and wrong policies by
President
Robert Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe’s 1980 independence from
Britain. He
denies the charge. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Patricia Mpofu Friday 11 January
2008
HARARE – Zimbabwean millers have written to the
government seeking
permission to hike the price of maize-meal by more than 1
537 percent to
improve viability in the industry.
Ground maize or
maize-meal is the main staple for more than 90 percent of
Zimbabwe’s 12
million population.
Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe chairman
Tafadzwa Musarara said a
price review would enable millers to ensure
adequate supplies of maize-meal,
in short supply in many parts of the
country that is grappling shortages of
basic commodities after eight years
of severe recession.
“Should we get your dispensation (to raise prices),
we commit to produce
adequate grain . . . and the requisite output of 15 000
metric tonnes of
maize meal,” said Musarara in a Monday letter to the
government’s National
Incomes and Price Commission that reviews prices of
most key basic
commodities.
The request to increase the price of
maize-meal, Zimbabwe’s staple food,
comes amid reports of severe maize-meal
shortages in the second city of
Bulawayo and surrounding
areas.
Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu, under whose
portfolio
the commission falls, said the government was looking into the
millers’
concerns.
“We are doing something to address their concerns
in order to improve
maize-meal supplies especially in southern Zimbabwe. The
government will
make the necessary adjustments if necessary,” said
Mpofu.
If the miller’s request to hike prices is approved, a 5kg bag of
maize-meal
could shoot from the present Z$145 000 to $2 432 71.52, an
increase of over
1 500 percent.
The ever-rising prices of goods are
only an addition on a long list of
hardships bedevelling Zimbabwe in the
grip of an economic meltdown critics
blame on repression and wrong policies
by President Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe’s 1980
independence from Britain and seeking
another five-year term in elections in
March, denies ruining Zimbabwe and
instead blames his country’s problems on
sabotage by Western governments he
says are out to topple him. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Tanonoka Joseph Whande Friday 11 January
2008
GABORONE - I am in total despair but not defeated. I am
embarrassed. Kenya
of all countries!
So Mwai Kibaki of Kenya
leap-frogged former Namibian president Sam Nujoma
and Thabo Mbeki of South
Africa to become Robert Mugabe’s most astute
disciple!
Kenya is one
country that I never suspected would sink so low; and all
because of
dictatorship. African leaders have embraced dictatorship with
frightening
gusto.
Why are the African rank and file always forced to yearn for “the
good old
days” when they were under severe, ruthless regimes?
In
Zimbabwe, it became clear decades ago that life during Ian Smith’s days
was
heaven when compared to what the rogue Robert Mugabe has reigned on the
nation.
Do Kenyans dare yearn for former Daniel arap Moi’s endless
rule? Moi
accepted democracy and stepped aside when the forces of democracy,
led by
Kibaki, triumphed. What do we make of it now?
But what really
did we expect from Kibaki?
He is from the old school of autocrats who led
African countries to
‘independence’ or ruled after attaining independence;
autocrats like Jomo
Kenyatta himself, Kamuzu Banda of Malawi, Kenneth Kaunda
of Zambia, Milton
Obote of Uganda and their ilk who became role models for
aspiring dictators
that include Mobutu Sese Seko of the now DR Congo, Samora
Machel of
Mozambique and our very own Mugabe.
The violent scenes of
Kenyan police and army attacking citizens during
peaceful demonstrations
were a mirror image of what has been happening in my
beloved Zimbabwe since
‘independence.’
Instead of protecting the people from all ills, including
a wayward
executive, the military and the police in African countries
protect
mischievous presidents. They are at the service of dictators and not
of the
people.
Kenya dashed the hopes of many Africans. I am a sad
man. I spent very little
time in Kenya in the mid 80s and could not help
falling in love with the
country and its people.
I have always loved
Kenya for its humble, smouldering perseverance to
succeed and for its
eagerness to maintain stability.
Opposition politicians, including
Kibaki, himself a former vice-president,
spent years bad-mouthing former
president Moi’s undemocratic rule. Kenyans
then said enough was enough,
voted Moi out and installed Kibaki.
Today, Kibaki, the incumbent Kenyan
president who was resuscitated and born
out of a combined and honest effort
at democracy by Kenyans, an effort
acknowledged and obeyed by the once
reviled Moi himself, has turned the
clock back and reminded the whole of
Africa not to trust their own saviours
and political emissaries.
With
a sincere belief and trust in their leaders and the democratic path
they had
chosen and embraced, Kenyans turned out to show their faith in
democracy as
mimed by Kibaki, their president.
Kenyans came out in large numbers to
show their faith, as they had once done
when they asked and received a
change from Moi to Kibaki, in their police,
army and government.
In
the end, Kenyans were left counting bodies not ballots. I look across
Africa
and beyond and what I see is not what should be. Africa is better
than other
continents. I don’t like what I see on the world’s landscape.
Zim Independent
Constantine Chimakure
IN a mould-breaking development, it
became evident this week that a
split was looming in Zanu PF with former
Finance minister Simba Makoni
likely to square up against President Robert
Mugabe in polls scheduled for
March.
Impeccable sources told
the Zimbabwe Independent that the splinter
Zanu PF faction to be headed by
Makoni was expected to roll out its election
programme next week and reveal
the name it would use for the polls.
Former permanent secretary and
academic Ibbo Mandaza, war veteran
Alfred Mhanda (Dzinashe Machingura), and
retired army major Kudzai Mbudzi
were reportedly coordinating the Makoni
project.
Mandaza is understood to be the convenor. Mbudzi was
suspended from
the Zanu PF Masvingo provincial executive last month for
deriding war
veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda’s involvement in marches to
rally support
for Mugabe.
The sources said the Makoni faction
was still debating whether or not
to contest the polls under the name Zanu
PF or to use Patriotic Front.
"Advertisements in national
newspapers will be flighted as from next
week outlining the splinter group’s
programme," one of the sources said.
"The Makoni camp wants to recapture the
presidency of Zanu PF that was
stolen by Mugabe through manipulation of the
party’s formal structures to
endorse him as the candidate at the
extraordinary congress last December,"
he said.
The Makoni
faction, the sources said, had ruled out an alliance with
the MDC,
preferring to continue pursuing Zanu PF’s ideological line under a
new
leadership.
"Makoni and some disgruntled senior Zanu PF officials
are saying that
they are for the ruling party ideology," another source
close to the faction
said. "What they want is someone new to steer the
ideology and to them it’s
Makoni."
The faction, the source
added, wanted to mobilise Zanu PF provincial
executives to declare Makoni
their presidential candidate after they accused
Mugabe of "monopolising and
manipulating" party structures to cling onto
power.
"Those
pushing for Makoni have decided to operate outside party
structures to
become an equivalent of the parallel market and have the
provinces declare
Makoni as the real candidate of their Zanu PF," another
source
said.
The source said the camp backing Makoni was confident that it
would
win the elections and thereafter form an alliance with the opposition
and
have a government of national unity.
The sources said it
was because of the realisation in Zanu PF that the
faction would pursue its
ideology and probably use the same name that
confusion has arisen over how
to handle the split.
"There is confusion in Zanu PF and
government," a senior ruling party
member said. "The split in the party has
extended to the civil service and
the CIO. Some senior CIO operatives have
been linked to the Makoni project."
The sources said a major
onslaught led by war veterans on the Makoni
camp was expected before the
harmonised presidential, legislative and
council elections.
Mugabe roped in war veterans last year to drum up support to secure
the
party’s presidential candidacy amid reports that a faction in Zanu PF
headed
by retired army general Solomon Mujuru wanted the president to
retire.
Apart from refusing to forge an alliance with the MDC,
the sources
said, the Makoni faction also reportedly refused to buy into
Tsholotsho
legislator Jonathan Moyo’s project for a grand alliance to
confront Zanu PF
at the polls.
The sources said Moyo tried to
tag along with the Makoni group to form
an alliance made up of people from
Zanu PF, the MDC and civil society, but
was reportedly told to keep his
distance.
Moyo’s alliance also wanted Makoni to be president of the
united front
ahead of Morgan Tsvangirai on the basis that the former Finance
minister has
an appeal across the political divide and was internationally
accepted.
The former Information minister’s plan was reportedly
being backed by
prominent Zimbabwean businesspeople in the country and
abroad.
"At a recent meeting, Moyo was told to keep away from the
Makoni
project because the group was not interested in the broad alliance,"
another
source said.
Repeated efforts to get comment from Moyo
were in vain at the time of
going to press. However, the sources said the
MDC camp led by Arthur
Mutambara had recently endorsed Makoni’s
candidacy.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
THE Morgan Tsvangirai-led faction of the MDC
will this weekend embark
on a number of rallies dubbed the New Zimbabwe
Campaign in a bid to force
government to introduce a new constitution and
guarantee free and fair
harmonised elections this year.
Nelson
Chamisa, the party’s spokesperson, said the MDC had lined up
300 rallies in
the rural areas this month to press, among other things, for
the
implementation of "agreements" signed between the MDC and Zanu PF at the
Sadc-mediated talks.
Chamisa said the MDC would push for the
reconstitution of the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) to undertake a
transparent and all-inclusive
voter registration and delimitation
exercise.
He said the MDC also wants a new constitution before the
elections and
that the date of the polls be moved to June from March to
allow for the
implementation of comprehensive reforms.
Chamisa
said the MDC would push for international observation and
monitoring of the
elections at least three months before the polls, plus
equal access to the
media. This would push the election to May at the
earliest.
The
party would also demand that all Zimbabweans in the diaspora
should
vote.
"In the event that a new, credible voters roll cannot be put
in place
ahead of the poll, the MDC wants every eligible Zimbabwean to be
allowed to
cast their vote upon producing their national identity card as
happened in
the 1980 elections," Chamisa said.
He said the MDC
is demanding free and fair elections that represent
the legitimate will of
the people of Zimbabwe on who should govern them.
"Another contested
electoral outcome is not acceptable for the country and
the rallies are the
national expression for the people’s demand for a free
and fair poll," he
said.
Chamisa said the campaign entails the people’s demand for a
united
front of political parties, civic groups, churches, students and
workers to
coalesce into a formidable movement to be midwives to a new
Zimbabwe and a
new beginning.
"The party is working hard to
achieve the unity of all democratic
forces in 2008," he said. "At the
national council meeting of December 16
2007, the party resolved to put the
people’s aspirations ahead of any
artificial cleavages that may derail the
democratic train."
The campaign will also take an international
dimension, where every
Zimbabwean based outside the country was expected to
take part in the demand
for free and fair polls.
"In this
campaign, the party appeals to every Zimbabwean, wherever
they are in the
Diaspora, in whatever they do, to find their own little way
of contributing
to the sculpturing of a new Zimbabwe by [item ends here...]
Zim Independent
Lucia
Makamure
THE Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA),
which combines
Anglican Churches from Zambia, Botswana, Malawi and Zimbabwe,
has revoked
Bishop Nolbert Kunonga’s clergyman’s licence and those of
priests aligned to
him.
The decision was reached by 14 bishops
of the CPCA at an extraordinary
Episcopal Synod held on December 20 in
Zambia.
The synod was convened to deliberate on Kunonga’s decision
to pull out
of the Harare diocese from the CPCA on allegations that some
bishops in the
province encouraged homosexuality.
"Dr Kunonga,
having severed his allegiance and cast aside his
canonical obedience to be
bound by the laws of the province, which includes
the diocese of Harare, has
ceased to be a member of the diocese; and is no
longer the bishop of the
diocese; and his licence as a clergyman in the
Anglican Communion is
automatically revoked," read a statement signed by the
14
bishops.
The bishops said Kunonga was no longer authorised or
permitted to have
any authority or control whatsoever over the diocese, nor
to represent it in
any way, nor to use the funds and assets of the
diocese.
The bishops said priests who are aligned to Kunonga were
having their
licences revoked on grounds of misconduct.
"The
faction of priests known to support Dr Kunonga in his action, in
whichever
diocese(s) they may be, has chosen to step outside the province
and the
diocese. Their licences have been revoked as they are no longer
members of
the diocese and the province."
The bishops who passed the
resolution were the Bishop of Northern
Zambia and Dean of the Province of
Central Africa, Rt Rev Albert Chama,
Bishop of Lusaka, Rt David Njovu,
Bishop of Eastern Zambia, William
Muchombo, Bishop of Central Zambia, Derek
Kamukwamba and Bishop of Luapala,
Robert Mumbi.
The others were
Bishop of central Zimbabwe, Ishmael Mukuwanda, Bishop
of Masvingo, Godfrey
Tawonezvi, Bishop of Matabeleland, Wilson Sitshebo,
Bishop of Harare
Sebastian Bakare, Bishop of Southern Malawi, James
Tengatenga, Bishop of
Northern Malawi, Christopher Boyle, Bishop of Upper
Shire, Bernard Malango,
Vicar-General Diocese of Lake Malawi.and Bishop of
Botswana, Trevor
Mwamba.
It was also agreed at the same meeting that Kunonga’s
personal
resignation and withdrawal from the province had been accepted and
Bakare
was appointed as interim bishop of the diocese of Harare and that all
priests were obliged to respect him as Kunonga’s successor.
The
CPCA wants all the priests in the Harare Diocese to write to
Bakare
confirming their allegiance to him.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
FORMER Information
minister and independent legislator for Tsholotsho,
Jonathan Moyo, is set to
join hands with the opposition MDC to save the seat
unchallenged under the
banner of a united front.
The proposed alliance will allow smaller
parties to field candidates
in constituencies where they enjoy support to
avoid vote splitting.
Sources in the MDC said both factions had
assured Moyo that they would
not field candidates in the constituency for
legislative elections this year
as long as he was part of a united
front.
"Both MDC camps recognise the need to forge alliances with
smaller
parties and independent candidates to fight (President Robert)
Mugabe’s
government," one of the sources said. "Moyo will not be contested
in
Tsholotsho by the factions."
MDC Morgan Tsvangirai’s
spokesman Nelson Chamisa said they were
considering an all-encompassing
movement to confront a single enemy — Zanu
PF.
"If independent
candidates or small parties come to join hands in the
united front, we must
respect the space they are fighting from," Chamisa
said in an interview this
week. "There would be no reason for people with
the same goal to fight for
the same space."
He was, however, quick to mention that the
reunification meetings
between the two MDC factions would unpack the finer
details of how
candidates would be chosen for the 210
constituencies.
The two MDC formations this week confirmed that
they were engaged in
consultations to draw up the agenda and set the date
for the formal meeting
to seal the reunification process.
The
meeting is expected to finalise the choice of the opposition
presidential
candidate and the selection criteria for parliamentary
candidates.
Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the Morgan
Tsvangirai formation,
confirmed that they were carrying out informal
discussions but refused to
disclose details for fear of jeopardising
them.
The Arthur Mutambara-led formation’s secretary-general
Welshman Ncube
said the consultations were being held with a view to setting
the date for
the meeting and drawing up a list of delegates.
In
principle, all the democratic forces in the country — including the
two MDC
formations — agree on the one (presidential) candidate philosophy.
Although the Tsvangirai-led MDC has emerged as the stronger of the
two, it
has become evident that a united front is the only feasible way
towards
dislodging the ruling Zanu PF government.
Previously the talks
failed after the formations disagreed on
fundamentals of a code of conduct
to be observed in the process of
reunification.
The sources in
the opposition said when the idea of a single candidate
was mooted, the
proponents of the strategy came up with a "non-aggression
pact", a code of
conduct plus rules and regulations that were to be observed
to promote the
initiative. However, the conditions met mixed reactions from
the opposition
leaders.
Sources said Mutambara wanted the agreement to be made
public to all
members of the opposition and other pro-democracy movements as
a rallying
point to win the electorate. Tsvangirai on the other hand opted
for
mobilisation of stakeholders quietly arguing that making the strategy
public
would expose it to Zanu PF infiltration.
Although
leaders of both factions of the MDC support the fielding of a
single
candidate in the election to face Mugabe, the differences on the
framework
could scupper the effort.
Observers said in fielding one candidate
the people of Zimbabwe will
have a much better chance of defeating the Zanu
PF regime. There are frantic
efforts to strike a common position for the two
parties.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) last month said in a
report the
MDC would greatly benefit from reconciliation to salvage its
domestic and
international image, which has suffered since the October 12
2005 split. The
report says personal friction remains the key obstacle to
reunification.
Joining forces had raised stakes and chances for the
opposition
parties to mount a formidable challenge to Mugabe and a
possibility of
wrestling power from Zanu PF.
But the collapse
of attempts to unite the factions would give Mugabe
an added advantage over
his rivals and a political windfall in the
elections.
Observers
have questioned whether Tsvangirai or Mutambara,
individually or
collectively, could defeat Mugabe if the polls go ahead in
March. While it
is generally agreed that Mugabe is much weaker now than ever
before given
rivalries in his own party and an economy in freefall, it is
also true to
say that opposition leaders are even weaker, especially
divided.
Mugabe is under siege on many fronts. The collapsing
economy is blamed
on mismanagement by his regime while internal wrangling in
Zanu PF has
created serious faultlines. Mugabe is isolated inside his party
and
internationally.
However, he has the state machinery on his
side. He also has a lot of
resources at his disposal to prop up his rule,
the sort of things Tsvangirai
and Mutambara can only dream of.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
THE country has witnessed a massive spate of price
increases of all
basic commodities after the festive season, raising
prospects of an
implosion of the economy in 2008. And worse is to come with
prices likely to
increase ten-fold economists say.
A survey
conducted by the Zimbabwe Independent revealed this week that
a new wave of
price hikes reminiscent of last June which resulted in
government imposing a
price freeze had once again hit the country.
A two-litre bottle of
cooking oil that was selling for $8 million
before the festive season now
costs $13 million. On Tuesday government said
the gazetted price for the
cooking oil was $7 million.
A loaf of bread now costs above $1,5
million, up from $700 000, while
the price of a 2kg chicken has skyrocketed
to about $20 million from $6
million.
A kg of beef costs above
$15 million, up from $7 million. Two litres
of Mazoe now cost $9,5 million,
up from $3,8 million before the holiday.
The Consumer Council of
Zimbabwe (CCZ) said most prices being charged
were not
justified.
"The rate at which prices are increasing, which are not
justified, is
a result of speculation by some business people who want to
make quick
money," said the CCZ.
The consumer watchdog said
most commodities were being charged at four
or five times their cost
buildup, which under the new pricing regulation was
not
allowed.
The National Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC) said
the prices
being charged had been approved.
"If anything is
being sold in a supermarket, that means we have
approved the price. We
believe the prices we are approving are viable and
this should see products
continuing to be bought," said NIPC chairman
Godwills
Masimirembwa.
Government’s decision to mandate the NIPC to approve
prices of basic
commodities has created serious distortions in the market as
businesses
battle to stay afloat.
Goods have gone up in price
because of shortages caused by the NIPC’s
price restrictions.
The move has also resulted in an avalanche of imported goods whose
prices
are being set at parallel market rates.
Surprisingly, government
last week extended the lifespan of
regulations governing product and service
price reviews, effectively
mandating NIPC to approve such reviews for the
next six months.
"The extension of the Statutory Instruments shows
that our principals
are conscious of the fact the price distortions still
exist in the economy,"
Masimirembwa said.
He said stern action
would be taken against businesses that index
prices based on parallel market
rates.
Over the past four months retailers have resorted to
stocking imports
to fill the void left by local producers who are not
manufacturing at the
controlled prices they were forced to charge by
government during last year’s
price blitz.
The prices of most
imported goods are beyond the reach of many
consumers whose wages are lower
than the consumer index.
While the imports might have helped
restock shops, their prices show
the futility of government’s decision to
control prices in the first place.
For example, while local
companies like Victoria Foods are being
forced to sell rice at the gazetted
price of $2,5 million for 2 kg, South
African brands like Tastic rice packed
by Tiger Consumer sells for $10
million for the same quantity.
While the gazetted price for two litres of cooking oil is $7 million,
imports are being sold for between $13,9m (Sun oil) and $15 million
(Sunflow).
Analysts have said if local manufacturers resume
production their
goods might never match foreign products.
Economic consultant John Robertson said as the last stocks of goods
trickle
out of factory warehouses onto the market, the country could witness
an
inflationary spiral that would make today’s prices seem cheap.
"It
could go much higher, 10 times as much for some things in the next
couple of
weeks, as goods cease to exist and imports flood the market,"
Robertson said
adding that the real victim will be the consumer.
ZB Financial
Holdings group economist Best Doroh said local retailers
were being forced
to import basic commodities to fill the gap created by low
capacity
utilisation in the local industry.
"Consumers require these basic
products and if they are not available
from local manufacturers, retailers
have to satisfy that need through
imports," said Doroh.
Zim Independent
Loughty Dube
THE Bulawayo High Court is next week
expected to hand down judgement
in the case in which former Information and
Publicity Minister Jonathan Moyo
is demanding $200 billion from Zanu PF
national chairman and Speaker of
Parliament John Nkomo for
defamation.
Justice Francis Bere was supposed to have passed the
judgement last
month, but the court deferred it citing late submission of
vital documents
in the case by lawyers representing both Moyo and
Nkomo.
Moyo’s lawyer, Job Sibanda of Job Sibanda & Associates
confirmed that
Bere was expected to deliver his ruling next week when the
legal year of the
High Court opens on Monday.
"The presiding
judge in the matter indicated last year that judgement
will be made when the
High Court opens for the year and we expect the
judgement to be made anytime
next week," Sibanda told the Zimbabwe
Independent this week.
Moyo is suing Nkomo for alleged defamation arising from statements
reportedly made by the Zanu PF national chairperson at a meeting in
Tsholotsho.
When the case opened in last year, Moyo told the
High Court that Nkomo
addressed a party meeting in Tsholotsho and told the
gathering that he had
plotted to topple President Robert Mugabe from
power.
Cabinet ministers who included Francis Nhema, Patrick
Chinamasa and
Flora Buka, deputy ministers Abednico Ncube and Andrew Langa
and former
minister July Moyo were set to testify in the case, but did not
do so when
the case closed.
War veterans leader Joseph
Chinotimba was also billed to testify on
behalf of Nkomo.
Moyo
was initially suing Nkomo together with politburo member Dumiso
Dabengwa,
but later dropped charges against the for Zapu intelligence
supremo.
During the trial, Nkomo denied the allegations by Moyo
and instead
accused the Tsholotsho independent legislator of taking him to
court to
embarrass him.
Testifying in the court, Moyo said
statements uttered by Nkomo caused
him much pain before his unceremonious
exit from government.
Zanu PF politburo, provincial committee and
central committee minutes
were produced in court with Moyo and Nkomo’s
lawyers taking turns in using
the documents to cement their cases.
Zim Independent
Victoria Muringayi
DADIRAI Kanengoni wakes up
daily at 4:30am, straps her six-month old
baby on her back and walks for
about a quarter of a kilometre to join
hundreds of other women fetching
water from unprotected wells in the
sprawling high density suburb of
Mabvuku, Harare.
Kanengoni stays in an area in the suburb commonly
known as Kugarika
Kushinga Housing Cooperative near the country’s largest
cement manufacturing
company, Circle Cement. The area has gone for more than
10 months without
tap water thanks to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority
(Zinwa)’s
operational deficiencies and incompetence.
Water cuts
in some parts of Mabvuku and Tafara have become a way of
life since Zinwa
took over the supply of potable water in the capital and is
affecting close
to 50 000 residents.
The problem has forced residents to resort to
fetching water from
unprotected wells, exposing the people to waterborne
diseases such as
diarrhoea and cholera. The Ministry of Health and Child
Welfare recently
said at least 10 people from Mabvuku and Tafara had died
from diarrhoea last
month. The deaths were attributed to water
cuts.
"My day starts at 4.30am. I go to a nearby well to fill my
jars with
water and start my napkin laundry, before preparing to go to
work,"
Kanengoni said. "The water crisis in Mabvuku is unbearable. We don’t
understand what Zinwa is doing to improve the situation."
She
said Zinwa and the government must do something to end the
problem.
Last week, Health minister, David Parirenyatwa, came
face to face with
the water crisis when he visited the two suburbs to
"assess" the diarrhoea
outbreak and water situation in the
townships.
Parirenyatwa revealed that there were 400 diarrhoea
cases reported in
Mabvuku and Tafara and called on Zinwa and the Harare City
Council to
normalise the supply of portable water.
The council
has since pledged to sink 14 boreholes in the two suburbs
to ease the water
shortages. But residents say nothing has happened since
the high-profile
ministerial visit last week.
Despite the inability by Zinwa to
supply water, especially to the
people of Kugarika Kushinga Housing
Cooperative, the residents continue to
receive monthly bills from the
authority.
"Why are we being compelled to pay for a service we last
got 10 months
ago?" asked Ivy Chinavamwe. "This is robbery. We should pay
for water we are
using. Zinwa has let residents down and I suggest that the
council takes
water supplies in Harare."
According to
Chinavamwe, Zinwa officials last month told residents
that the outbreak of
diarrhoea was a result of using water from unprotected
wells close to
blocked sewerage pipes.
"While the Zinwa explanation is sound,
where do they think we will get
water for domestic use if they are not
supplying it? We go to the same
contaminated wells," she said.
A Zinwa spokesperson told the Zimbabwe Independent that water supplies
in
both Mabvuku and Tafara was expected to "greatly" improve in the coming
weeks.
"We have also since commenced repairing the sewer system
in Mabvuku
and water has started running from the taps although there are
exceptional
cases where some parts of Mabvuku and Tafara have no water,"
said the
spokesperson.
Zinwa took over bulk water management
from council in December 2006
and it has not been able to alleviate the
water crisis in the capital.
Residents of Mabvuku and Harare have
been facing water problems since
1998, but the situation worsened when Zinwa
took over.
The Minister of Water Resources and Infrastructural
Development
Munacho Mutezo this week said water cuts in some areas in the
capital were a
result of the shortage of water treatment chemicals needed
due to heavy
rains experienced in the country since December.
MDC Local Government spokesperson Trudy Stevenson said Mutezo should
resign
because Zinwa had failed the nation by failing to provide safe water
to most
areas in Harare.
"Not only are residents succumbing to water-borne
diseases, but even
the clinics have been unable to assist the sick because
of the water
crisis," Stevenson said.
"Hatcliffe Clinic
reported this week that they have not had water for
over a week, and
although they had been sent a bowser, they could not fill
it at the nearby
borehole because the City of Harare had no diesel to put in
the tractor to
tow the bowser."
Stevenson added that it was fortunate that the
city’s director of
Health, Stanley Mungofa, realised the seriousness of the
situation when he
was alerted, and organised some plastic containers of
water for Hatcliffe
Clinic.
Zim Independent
Lucia
Makamure
MAGISTRATES and prosecutors this week returned to work
after three
months on strike pressing for better salaries and working
conditions, but
the judicial delivery system remained paralysed as court
support staff
continued with the industrial action.
The
judicial officers were last week awarded a 3 000% salary hike by
the
government with effect from this month, but salaries for court clerks
and
interpreters were not reviewed.
A magistrate based outside Harare
told the Zimbabwe Independent this
week that the judicial officers went back
to work on Monday after signing
papers committing themselves to their
jobs.
"Our colleagues in Harare were coerced to sign papers
agreeing to go
back to work. But what the government failed to realise was
that the courts
cannot operate without the support staff," said the
magistrate who asked for
anonymity.
After the recent salary
increments, a chief law officer now earns a
basic salary of $661 million
plus $78 million and $88 million in transport
and housing allowances
respectively.
A junior magistrate now earns a basic salary of $441
million plus $78
million and $88 million in transport and housing allowances
respectively.
A magistrate in Bulawayo said the crisis at the
courts could only be
resolved if the government awarded a salary increase to
the support staff.
"We have returned to work, but the courts cannot
operate as long as
the clerks and interpreters are still on strike," the
magistrate said.
On Monday, the Justice ministry secretary David
Mangota urged all the
striking magistrates, prosecutors and support staff to
return to work.
The state media quoted Mangota confirming that
government had awarded
judicial officers substantial pay increases with
effect from this month.
"The issue which had caused officers and
some employees of the
Ministry to go on strike is accordingly, a non-issue
now," Mangota told the
Herald.
However, Mangota at that time
dismissed media reports at the weekend
that magistrates and prosecutors were
awarded a 600% salary increase, saying
the figures released were not
authentic.
Mangota also said government had decided to pay the
judicial officers
half of their salaries mid-month and the remainder towards
the end of the
month.
Judicial officers and their support staff
downed their tools in
October in protest against low pay thereby paralysing
the judicial system as
several court cases had to be postponed.
Zim Independent
Lucia
Makamure/Jesilyn Dendere
THE government has introduced a levy to be
paid by cross-border
traders for importing commercial goods.
According to the latest Government Gazette, the tax was introduced
through
an amendment to the Income Tax Act and is effective from January 1.
"Whenever a cross-border trader imports any commercial goods into
Zimbabwe,
he or she shall pay an officer of the department of the Zimbabwe
Revenue
Authority (Zimra) concerned a presumptive tax of such percentage of
the
value for duty purposes of the commercial goods concerned as is fixed
from
time to time in the Charging Act," reads the amendment.
Presumptive
tax is tax based on notional or estimated business income.
According to the amendment, an informal cross-border trader was
described as
a person who imports commercial goods into the country with the
intention of
carrying on any trade in those goods without a tax clearance
certificate or
proof of registration as a taxpayer in terms of the Income
Tax
Act.
Cross-border traders can only be exempted from paying the levy
if they
produce to Zimra a tax clearance certificate to the effect that they
have
furnished a return under Section 37 or proof that they are registered
taxpayers in terms of the Income Tax Act.
Cross-border traders
will be issued with tax clearance certificates
after paying the
levy.
"Where an informal cross-border trader has paid any amount of
presumptive tax the officer concerned shall furnish the informal
cross-border trader with the appropriate tax clearance certificate," the
amendment reads.
Where no payment of presumptive tax is made
Zimra shall treat the
commercial goods in question as if they were goods in
respect of which no
due entry has been made in terms of the Customs and
Excise Act.
Zim Independent
Bernard
Mpofu/Orirando Manwere
THE chairperson of the Media Council of
Zimbabwe (MCZ), Muchadeyi
Masunda, this week said he will soon engage
Information and Publicity
minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu to persuade him to
appreciate the need for a
voluntary media council to represent the interests
of the journalism
profession and publishing industry in the
country.
This comes in the wake of the proposed establishment of a
statutory
Media Council through the passing of the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Amendment Bill last month.
The amendment
was adopted under the ongoing Sadc-initiated talks
between the ruling Zanu
PF and opposition MDC. The Bill now awaits
presidential assent.
The proposed setting up of the state Media Council has, however, been
slammed by journalists who last year formed the MCZ — a voluntary media
council — with the assistance of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, the
Media Institute of Southern Africa-Zimbabwe Chapter, the Zimbabwe National
Editors Forum, and the Media Monitoring Project.
In an
interview with the Zimbabwe Independent, Masunda said it was not
necessary
to have two media councils in Zimbabwe as this would cause
confusion among
consumers of media products, which the councils sought to
serve.
Masunda, a senior lawyer, said while two councils could
co-exist, it
was up to stakeholders in the media fraternity to decide which
one would
best serve their interests.
"This voluntary council
which I chair is a product of you the
journalists. It was set up after wide
consultations and we were simply
approached to take up positions. It is not
ideal to have parallel councils
in a democracy," Masunda said. "Ultimately,
I hope consumers will be able to
appreciate our role, especially through the
complaints desk which should
expeditiously arbitrate on complaints between
those aggrieved and the media
houses."
He said MCZ was of the
belief that redress could always be reached
without resorting to
litigation.
"The council also has plans to train and equip
journalists with
knowledge and tools on various subjects, including ethical
issues, to enable
them to abide by their own rules. Through these programmes
we feel the rest
will fall into place and there will be no need for
prescribed punitive
penalties," Masunda said.
He said
journalists throughout the world were for self-regulation of
the media as
they were opposed to the use of law to punish "criminal
defamation" and
publication of erroneous information.
These matters, Masunda said,
could be adequately remedied by the use
of civil law of
defamation.
Masunda said he would soon meet Ndlovu and "take him
through the
rationale behind the voluntary council".
In a
separate interview, Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) president
Mathew
Takaona said the history of media regulation in countries like
Tanzania
showed that self-regulatory councils are more effective than
statutory
ones.
"History has it that statutory bodies fall away in the
process, they
are politically manipulated and therefore people look at them
as political
organs rather than professional bodies policing the media
industry," said
Takaona.
He said voluntary media councils
operate on the basis of peer review
mechanism and were
credible.
Takaona said ZUJ and other stakeholders in the media were
not
consulted on the Aippa amendments and had since submitted a letter of
complaint to the negotiating team of Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube (MDC),
and Nicholas Goche and Patrick Chinamasa (Zanu PF).
MDC-Mutambara formation secretary-general Ncube said the amendments to
the
media law reflected his party’s willingness to promote media
freedom.
"The fact that a compromise was reached with a party that
held the
position of maintaining the status quo clearly shows how determined
we are
in liberalising the media," said Ncube. "We moved them (Zanu PF) to a
position where they had to consider our views."
Biti, the
secretary-general for the Morgan Tsvangirai faction, said
while his party
supported a self-regulatory council, an ideal statutory
council would
operate under the same lines as that of other professional
bodies in the
country.
"Our ideal position is to have a voluntary media conduct
and ethics
council," said Biti. "However, it does not mean that a council
ceases to be
self-regulatory when it is born out of an Act of Parliament.
The Law Society
of Zimbabwe is an example of a reputable voluntary
professional council
brought about by an Act of Parliament."
In
an earlier press statement issued on the media law amendments,
Masunda said
any system of regulation established under the widely
discredited Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa)
would be tainted by the
way the law has been applied in the past.
"There is no need at all
for the state to intervene in this area. Like
other professionals, media
practitioners should be left to regulate
themselves by enforcing a code of
ethical conduct," he said.
The recent amendments to Aippa will see
the Media and Information
Commission renamed the Zimbabwe Media Commission
(ZMC).
The chairperson and members of the new commission would be
appointed
by the president from nominees made by a parliamentary committee.
ZMC will
then appoint members of the statutory MC.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
POWER cuts worsened throughout the country
this week after the
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) started
exporting power to
Namibia at a time when Mozambican power utilities
Hidroelectrica de Cahora
Bassa (HCB) and Electrica de Mocambique suspended
supplies to Zimbabwe over
a ballooning debt.
Zesa started
exporting 40 megawatts of power to Namibia on January 3
under the Nampower
contract, a development that created a major power
deficit for local
consumers.
Zesa spokesman Fullard Gwasira confirmed the export
saying it was a
contractual obligation on the part of Zesa.
"Nampower met its part of the obligation by availing the loan
facility, but
like all loans, the conditions stipulated that the debt be
amortised by
power exports," he said.
"The impact of the exports is minimal but
by the end of the project,
it will leave Zesa with a refurbished plant and
better performing units with
a greater electricity generation
potential."
Zesa again confirmed that Mozambique has suspended
power supplies to
Zimbabwe.
"The switching off of power is a
credit management option which was
available for HCB and they have exercised
it," Gwasira said.
Despite Zesa claims that it had reduced its
debt, HCB said the
outstanding debt has ballooned to US$26 million resulting
in the suspension
of power supplies.
Zesa last week said it had
reduced its debt by US$7million, bringing
the amount paid to the power
utilities to US$35 million within one and half
a months and it was
negotiating for an increase in power exports.
Zesa chief engineer
Ben Rafemoyo said they were negotiating with
suppliers to increase up to 300
megawatts from the 75 megawatts power
currently coming from
Mozambique.
The development has plunged more than 70% of the
country, mostly
cities, into darkness. The areas hit worst by the blackouts
this week
included Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Masvingo, Chitungwiza, Kadoma,
Chipinge,
Chegutu, Chiredzi and Marondera.
Load shedding has
been restricted to residential areas but has now
spread to the city centres
and industries.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
MOST parastatals and local authorities have
failed to account for the
billions of dollars they have received from the
Reserve bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) since 2005.
The central bank has
been auditing the parastatals and local
authorities for the past three
months to check on how they used the money
they received under the
Parastatals, Local Authorities Reorientation
Programme (Plarp).
The audits were meant to cover the period from January 1, 2005 to
October
31, 2007.
RBZ sources this week told businessdigest that more than
90% of
parastatals have failed to account for the money they received from
the
central bank. Since 2005 the central bank has been distributing money to
parastatals and local authorities for recapitalisation and
operations.
The initial arrangement was that the local authorities
and parastatals
would submit audited accounts to the central bank on six
month intervals. It
has however emerged that most authorities and
parastatals have failed to
meet this condition forcing the central bank to
use its own auditing teams
to carry out the audits.
"While
other can at least physically point out what they did with the
money, most
can’t even show how they used the money," said a RBZ source. "It
would seem
that that most parastatals used the money for other things that
were not in
the official agreement when they got the loans from the RBZ."
No
official comment could be obtained from the central bank at the
time of
going to press.
Sources however said no parastatal "came clean"
during the audit which
started in October last year.
A decision
on what to do will be made soon, the source said.
"The governor is
most likely to present the bank’s findings (on the
parastatals) in the next
monetary policy. From the findings major
restructuring at management level
could be on the way for some parastatals,"
said an RBZ official who was
involved in the auditing process.
Businessdigest also understands
that most parastatals were not
cooperating with the RBZ
auditors.
The central bank is also currently auditing line
ministries which have
also received money under the quasi-fiscal
operations.
The Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono last year said
companies that
fail to account for the previous allocations will not get
more funds from
the bank.
The RBZ has been criticised for
fuelling inflation by printing money
in order to fund quasi-fiscal
operations.
Gono has however defended the quasi-fiscal activities
saying without
balance of payment support, it was impossible to implement
liberal policies.
Presenting his last monetary policy Gono said:
"How do we implement
liberal policies when at every turn there are local and
international
economic agents whose sole role has now been prescribed as
that of
undermining anything and every attempt we make towards stabilising
our
economy as part of political games?"
The list of
beneficiaries who received money from the Reserve Bank
last year included
communal farmers, women and youth, local government
authorities. At that
time analysts criticised the decision to give out money
without proper
accounting systems.
Zinwa and local authorities benefited from a
US$5,25 million revolving
fund. The Agricultural Sector Productivity
Enhancement Facility has so far
benefited from $3,9 trillion.
Tobacco, cotton, maize and Soya bean farmers also got a fair share of
Gono’s
generosity. Parastatals such as ZBC, NRZ and Zesa have also benefited
from
RBZ loans but their operations have not improved.
Zim Independent
Jesilyn Dendere
JOSPHAT Chiripanyanga has been queuing for
almost two hours at his
bank and the hopes of getting any cash are slowly
diminishing. Chiripanyanga
a doctor by profession says he has no choice but
to hang on until he gets
some cash to pay his suppliers.
"I am
not leaving this queue until the bank manager tells us that
there is no
cash," said Chiripanyanga who says he has been struggling to get
cash for
four days.
While others are struggling to get cash the security
guard at the
entrance of the bank is busy making money by charging a small
fee for
desperate people who want to jump the queue.
Today he
is in a mean mood so people have been told to queue three
metres away from
the entrance.
"For the past three weeks people have been crowding
this door, today I
want order," said the guard as he shoves off some clients
who were pushing
towards the entrance after they suspected that some one had
jumped the
queue.
Chiripanyanga runs Mabvuku Medical Centre, a
surgery in Mabvuku. For
him, going to the bank in search of cash has become
a daily routine.
Although sometimes he is lucky there are times when he goes
back to work
empty handed.
His suppliers have told him that
they no longer accept cheques or RTGS
as payment.
"I do this
everyday, I come to the bank everyday. This is taking the
time that I’m
supposed to use attending to my patients," Chiripanyanga said.
"I
have been doing this since November when the cash crisis started
and it
hasn’t been easy for me to run my business in such an environment."
He says the mere $100 million that he gets from the bank is not enough
to
cater for the daily needs of his surgery.
"My suppliers deliver
drugs on a daily basis, we order drugs,
equipment and my staff also need
money at the end of the month and there are
bills that need to be paid. All
these have to be squeezed into the $100
million and that is
impossible."
Chiripanyanga is not alone in the search for cash.
Brian Kahungwa, a
father of five, has been in the queue for the past four
hours.
"Next week is going to be a nightmare for most parents like
me because
I will need cash to pay fees for my four children at school,"
said Kahungwa.
Kahungwa said even after the reduction of school
uniform prices, the
money he is getting from the bank is still not enough. A
set of a primary
school uniform is selling for $47 million yet he is getting
$50 million from
the bank.
"How many times do I have to go the
bank before schools open in order
to make sure that every child has
everything? For the youngest in Grade One,
I need $98 million for the
jersey, $49 million for the dress and $14 million
for a pair of socks. Then
there is the raincoat which is selling for $35
million and a pair of school
shoes now going for $18 million on the black
market.
Under
normal circumstances Kahungwa could have used his ATM card,
cheque or RTGS
transfers but this is not possible because he is buying most
of the goods
from the informal market where they are cheaper. Even if he
finds the
uniforms on the formal market he cannot use a cheque because most
shops
accept cash only.
"How many Indian shops have swipe machines?" asks
Kahungwa. Indeed
very few shops in the downtown area accept cheques as a
form of payment.
The saddest part of Kahungwa’s story is that his
problems look set to
continue because the cash crisis does not seem to be
coming to an end. In
fact economic analysts are warning that the situation
could worsen when
civil servants get their increased salaries in a week’s
time.
Analysts this week said the ongoing cash shortages will
remain a
permanent feature as long as inflation continues to
gallop.
With inflation at over 14 000%, the value of the dollar has
been
deteriorating forcing people to move around with large amounts of cash
to
purchase basic goods.
Three weeks after the Reserve Bank
governor, Gideon Gono, introduced a
new set of bearer notes — $250 000, $500
000 and $750 000 — some people are
yet to get their December
salaries.
"The government has underestimated the real inflation and
the worth of
the dollar, at the moment it is worth only a fraction of what
they think it
is," said a senior finance lecturer at the National University
Science of
Technology.
Economist, John Robertson, said the cash
shortages could be related to
the fact that the value of notes is so small
such that you need more of them
to buy anything.
He said the
cash crisis could also be attributed to the government’s
belief that the
amount in circulation is more than enough.
"People need more money
than they (government) can print," Robertson
said.
David
Mupamhadzi, an economic analyst with the Zimbabwe Allied Banking
Group, said
the problem of cash shortages lies in the loss of the purchasing
power of
the dollar.
"The fundamental issue is the hyperinflationary
environment in which
the economy is operating, this has led to the value of
the dollar losing its
purchasing power," Mupamhadzi said.
Mupamhadzi said cash shortages were reflective of informalisation,
parallel
market deals and the loss in popularity in conventional methods of
paying
for goods and services since most goods are now found on the informal
market.
"Cash requirements on a daily basis are now high and
they continue to
rise thus people continue to spend hours in bank queues
looking for cash,"
said Mupamhadzi.
Economic analysts have said
it requires more money to buy one
commodity hence the need for more money to
be released onto the market.
"The dollar per commodity has fallen
far beyond reasonable levels,"
said an economic analyst with a commercial
bank in Harare who says the cash
shortages are not a new thing.
"The money in circulation is far too little for cash transactions that
are
taking place in the economy."
The $50 million that is being offered
to individuals is not enough to
cover food, transport, rent, and other
expenses, thus there is little cash
supporting the underlined
transactions.
"The short-term measure in addressing the cash
shortages could be the
central bank printing more notes of higher
denominations for the convenience
of consumers while long term measures
require the nation to address the
issue of inflation without playing the
blame game because people are wasting
production hours in bank queues,"
Mupamhadzi said.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has rejected
Air Zimbabwe’s appeal
to charge fares for regional and international routes
in foreign currency.
The Reserve Bank rejected the proposal last
month saying if approved
all parastatals whose operations were currently
depressed would request for
the same privilege.
Senior
officials at the national airline told businessdigest on
Wednesday that
Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono, had told Air Zimbabwe
that it was not
possible for them to be allowed to charge in foreign
currency.
He is also understood to have told the management at the airline that
there
was no guarantee that they would perform well even if they charged in
foreign currency.
"The feeling was that there was more to
Airzim’s problems than foreign
currency shortage," said a senior official
with the AirZim who was part of
the negotiating team that met the central
bank last month.
"The RBZ said approving the proposal would open
the floodgates for
other parastatals to seek a similar dispensation,"
airline officials said
"The RBZ felt that since most Zimbabweans
earn in local currency
charging them in foreign currency was as good as
encouraging them to use the
parallel market," the official said. Air
Zimbabwe did not respond to
questions sent to them by yesterday. RBZ said
charging in foreign currency
would disturb the equilibrium which prevailed
between foreigners and locals
who are also required to pay departure fees in
foreign currency.
"Air Zimbabwe’s passengers had been increasing
significantly over the
years and charging in foreign currency will trim down
the catchment area
which still needs to be expanded to achieve the airline’s
turnaround goals,"
the official said.
Last August the national
airline submitted proposals to RBZ to be
allowed to charge in foreign
currency.
The airline said it was facing an acute shortage of
foreign currency
to buy spare parts and service external debts running up to
US$20 million.
In their proposal Air Zim said about 80% of its
operations per month
required foreign currency but they were accessing a
quarter of requirements.
Giving oral evidence before the
parliamentary portfolio Committee on
Transport and Communications in
November last year, Air Zimbabwe board
chairman, Mike Bimha, said the move,
if approved, would help address
problems facing the airline.
"We cannot continue to ask the RBZ to give us foreign currency. Most
passengers travelling to Dubai have foreign currency yet they pay in local
currency," said Bimha.
The proposal received backing from the
Zimbabwe National Chamber of
Commerce (ZNCC) and Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries (CZI) leaders.
ZNCC president, Marah Hativagone at the
time said: "We have been
talking about this issue for a long time now. They
(Air Zimbabwe) buy fuel
and spare parts in foreign currency and they should
be allowed to charge
fares in foreign currency for them to be viable. As it
stands now, Air
Zimbabwe is just subsidising us."
She dismissed
assertions from some sections that Zimbabweans do not
have foreign
currency.
"Right now foreign currency is awash in Zimbabwe but it
is being
suppressed. We pay in foreign currency when using other airlines,
but we are
starving our own airline. If people can pay other airlines in
foreign
currency, why can’t they pay Air Zimbabwe?" she said.
CZI president, Callisto Jokonya, also supported the idea saying: "I do
not
have an objection to that proposal as long as it will enable them to be
viable. Anybody in Zimbabwe must be allowed to charge in foreign currency.
We import raw materials in foreign currency and that is the best that can be
done. Why should Air Zimbabwe be stopped?"
Zim Independent
Constantine Chimakure
THE MDC faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai
risks becoming irrelevant by
boycotting this year’s harmonised polls if
government refuses to introduce a
transitional constitution and move the
election date from March to June,
political analysts warned this
week.
The analysts also warned that the MDC would face another
split as some
of its members would break ranks to seek their political
fortunes elsewhere.
Eldred Masunungure, a political scientist at
the University of
Zimbabwe, said the MDC should at all times contest
elections despite the
prevailing political environment as the costs of
boycotting were heavier
than the benefits of running in the
polls.
"Boycotting elections is a political statement," Masunungure
said.
"Given the situation in our country, I am of the view that boycotting
the
polls will not work. You make a threat to boycott elections hoping that
your
opponents will buy into your demands, but that cannot happen with Zanu
PF."
Masunungure said Zanu PF would go ahead with the polls in
March with
or without the participation of Tsvangirai’s
faction.
"There won’t be a shortage of contenders against Zanu PF.
I see the
Arthur Mutambara camp participating and I also see some members of
Tsvangirai’s faction breaking ranks and proceed to participate," the
political scientist said. "The boycott is likely to lead to further
fragmentation of the MDC. It has heavy costs and I hope the MDC will weigh
the costs of boycotting against the benefits."
He said the MDC
would be irrelevant if it is not represented in
parliament.
Another commentator, Michael Mhike, said boycotting polls would not be
of
benefit to the Tsvangirai camp.
"Political parties are formed to
contest elections. The MDC should
desist from threatening to boycott polls
and put in motion its campaign,"
Mhike said.
"We have seen some
opposition parties in Africa boycotting polls and
becoming irrelevant. In
Senegal last year, a number of major opposition
parties boycotted the
parliamentary election, but where are they today?"
In June last
year, 12 major opposition parties in Senegal boycotted
the country’s
parliamentary polls citing the failure by President Abdoulaye
Wade to change
the electoral process, revise the voters’ roll and create an
independent
structure to replace the electoral commission whose officials
were appointed
by the head of state.
They also argued that the 150 contested
constituencies were
delimitated to the advantage of Wade’s Democratic Party
and demanded that
they be redrawn.
But 15 other opposition
parties contested the polls in which Wade’s
party won 131 seats including
all 90 determined by majority voting.
The parties that boycotted
the elections included the former ruling
Socialist Party and the Rewmi party
of Idrissa Seck, who was placed second
in the presidential election in
February of the same year.
The Senegal opposition parties’ demands
were more or less similar to
those being made by the MDC.
Tsvangirai’s faction last week said it would not participate in the
historic
elections if Zanu PF refuses to capitulate to its demands, saying
taking
part in the polls would be tantamount to the party becoming a danger
to
itself while giving the nation a false hope.
The MDC said Zanu PF
was backtracking on "agreements" reached in
Sadc-initiated talks aimed at
ending the country’s political and economic
crisis that has resulted in over
80% of Zimbabweans wallowing in poverty.
"In spite of the mess we
are forced to live with today, Zanu PF has
begun to backtrack on some of
these agreed points and is going it alone,"
Tsvangirai
observed.
"The main sticking points are a transitional constitution
and an
election date. We settled on the transitional constitution following
assurances that the agreement would be implemented before the next
election."
Tsvangirai charged that Zanu PF was now against the
spirit and content
of that agreement and was insisting that the constitution
could only be
implemented after the polls.
Constitutional
lawyer and chairperson of the National Constitutional
Assembly Lovemore
Madhuku said the MDC should not mislead the nation that
they were now for a
"new" constitution.
He questioned why the MDC (both factions)
supported and endorsed
Constitutional Amendment No 18 last September if they
had been pushing for a
new constitution.
"What transitional
constitution are they talking about? They (MDC) are
insisting on the
introduction of a document they signed in Pretoria in a
hotel and that is
not known by the people of Zimbabwe," Madhuku said. "That
is not a
constitution. There is need for a real people-driven constitution
crafted
through a constitutional process leading to a referendum."
Madhuku
added that the MDC was now pushing for a constitution only
after civil
society had questioned its support for constitutional amendments
and
cosmetic amendments to the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy
Act, the Broadcasting Services Act, the Electoral Act and the Public
Order
and Security Act.
"Their document will not bring free and fair
elections because it is
not a people-driven constitution," Madhuku said.
"They (MDC) are still
operating under an illusion that if they and the
government adopt their
document, it will become a constitution that will be
accepted by
Zimbabweans."
Opposition Zanu (Ndonga) said it was
up to President Robert Mugabe’s
government, not the MDC, to set the date for
the harmonised elections.
Its secretary for information and
publicity, Reketayi Semwayo, told
the Herald on Saturday that: "I have said
to my colleagues that the
government of the day is the one which sets the
election date, let’s push
our demands but the election date is set by the
government, otherwise we
cause confusion."
The MDC argued that
the pace at which the transitional constitution
was to be implemented
determines the election date.
The party said the constitution
already agreed to was essential in
setting up requisite infrastructure for a
sound electoral management system,
codes for good governance and a human
rights regimen between now and the
election date.
These, the
MDC argued, were key factors necessary to spur confidence,
redirect the
people towards a national solution, regenerate hope and to
"rally the nation
to unite in handling our sensitive national crisis".
Zim Independent
By Kudzai
Mbudzi
I LEFT this country in 1977 at a very tender age when I
was still
doing Form 4 at the then Chibi Secondary School. I fought
throughout the
armed struggle as a Zanla Detachment political commissar and
instructor.
On January 27 1980, I was in the entourage of President
Robert Mugabe
on a plane from Maputo to Salisbury to join in Rhodesia’s
first democratic
elections which ushered in political independence to our
people.
I and many of my colleagues were prepared to sacrifice our
lives for
two main objectives.
Firstly, political independence
as a panacea to self-fulfillment, and
ultimately the much-sought-after
freedom from underdevelopment and hunger,
and the right to choose one’s own
leaders in a free and fair democratic
election process.
To me
democracy then could be likened to a classroom exercise in the
election of
school prefects. This same view of a simple and unguided
classroom democracy
was to be amplified, much to the satisfaction of my
callow mind, almost 30
years later, when in Polokwane, South Africa, about 5
000 mostly rural folks
replicated my previous shaky imaginations of the
basic tenets of a
democratic process in the choice of their leaders.
When I left this
country I had completed only Form 3, but 10 years
later, had acquired four
prestigious university qualifications, most of
which were achieved with
meritorious performance of clear distinctions,
implying my humble
flexibility to quickly adapt to the challenges in my new
operating
environment.
It is this tradition of clear wisdom which made me a
disciple of a
deliberate process of adaptation that I saluted in the
Polokwane debacle —
or was it a revolution to many of us? At least this open
exercise of freedom
was a wonder to witness at Polokwane.
The
primary objective of any revolutionary fight and the underlying
factor of
our fight against foreign domination was economic empowerment of
all
Zimbabweans regardless of race, creed, colour, sex or age. The general
meaning of empowerment is clear to many of us, as it is supposed and
therefore presumed to be the gateway to success — away from a downtrodden
life of misery and poverty.
I have little differences with
George Charamba on the definition of a
fully empowered person as he is daily
reminded of his own state and his
meagre civil servant’s salary, lying side
by side with the riches of many of
his own principals, as he administers the
proceedings of their deliberations
as dictated by his job
description.
It is the definition and our exercise of the first
objective and
freedom of the revolutionary struggle that I find Charamba’s
assertions and
accusations unutterably foreign to my nature of living.
Charamba refers to
me as a "mere Major Mbudzi", implying a very
insignificant element in the
whole unfolding political process under
review.
Charamba forgets that I directly fought for the positive
construction
of the Zimbabwe we today want. I have therefore a stake in the
democratic
process of this country in a more defined role of an activist and
a
shareholder.
I therefore do not define myself simply as a
passive subject and
therefore a supporter of some predetermined development
and change process.
I am not prepared to mortgage my own fate and that of
all the future
generations to some third parties.
And when I do
this, it will always be with full and constant reference
to what we agreed
upon while in Mozambique, Zambia, Botswana, Tanzania as
Zanla and Zipra
forces to which Charamba might not have been a part.
As he is not
an ex-combatant he should stop poking his nose into the
basic tenets of
freedom and liberation which we agreed upon more than 30 to
40 years ago
while in the bush. I openly challenge him to a public debate on
this, even
on television.
But Charamba, the same zeal and passion you are
showing in being a
master of ideological correctness should also have been
elicited in your
sacrifice and the fight for the same objective during the
armed struggle
and, deducing from your stature, you seem to have been of the
correct
physical build then to have been a fierce freedom
fighter.
So stop trying to be the "Lenin" of the Zimbabwean
revolution through
the abuse of your official position and the public
media.
Charamba must also be ethical.
Firstly, his
position as a senior civil servant prohibits him from
openly bragging about
his political orientation as he is required to be
apolitical. He must be
reminded that he is not a permanent secretary to the
revolution, but to
cabinet, which tomorrow might change to include me.
Secondly, if
Charamba is a loyal Zanu PF cadre within the civil
service, he must be
cognisant of the fact that the party is always supreme
to government. He
must and should uphold the orientation of subservience to
personalities such
as Simba Makoni as a member of the politburo and Major
Mbudzi as a member of
Zanu PF’s provincial executive.
Indeed the lack of wisdom, clarity
and direction in your articles
under the pseudonym Nathaniel Manheru smack
of the same poverty and
lamentable lack of wisdom, clarity and orientation
in the brains behind the
articles.
As I read your article in
the Herald on Saturday (January 5), I simply
but could only conclude that if
a fool climbs a tree, stop all the rescue
operations and wait until it is
dark, he will simply willingly disembark
when his hands start losing grip.
No wonder the public media institutions
are over-managed and under-led. Our
democracy can never develop when our
important public institutions for
self-proclamation are being controlled by
people like Charamba.
A dangerously degenerated level of this view might even lead to a
perception
that only you in top public positions that support the
perpetuation of the
current system and status quo for obvious reasons always
entertain a belief
that you hold the title deeds of liberation and freedom
of the people, and
yet you are simply and ordinarily beneficiaries of a
system collectively
fought for and therefore contrived.
There is then a danger that
some of you, Charamba, might move around
with democracy zipped in your own
pockets, only to produce it when it best
suits you, but quickly zip it back
when your interests and those of your own
principals are
threatened.
Is it a lie Charamba that you personally arranged the
hiring of the
plane used in the Tsholotsho debacle? So why all of a sudden
have you become
the self-proclaimed treasure of our democratic rights and
freedoms against
dissenting voices and therefore rebels?
If you
look at Cuba, one probably wonders whether those comrades are
still on the
same arrangement to go to "Mecca", or they better be advised to
abandon the
Mosaic plans and go back to the biblical "suppressive" Egypt.
Cuba became
liberated in 1959, but up to now its people are yet to cross the
Rubicon and
taste the goodness of independence in an open global villagised
economy.
Indeed systems like the previous communist Yugoslavia,
Czechoslovakia,
Romania and so on were supposed to be barometers for
independence and
freedom but, alas, ended up with very sad episodes of
celebrated break-ups.
But look at China and its Hu Jintao — it’s all fire
and energy, an epitome
of development.
So what is the lesson my
brother, Charamba? It is clear then that we
need to continually adapt
ourselves to the changes taking place in the
global political market place
(with Polokwane as part of this global market
place) and thrive to
continually adjust our thinking and behaviours through
the eyes of this
global political market place.
It is painful Charamba, with all
that I have experienced in this
meanderous revolutionary walk, to enter a
pub and hear some of these young
guys remarking: "Mukoma, kana zviri izvo
zvamakagwira izvi dzokerai nenyika
munoisungira kwamakaisunungura. (If this
is the freedom you fought for, the
country is better off under colonial
rule.)"
As an ex-combatant, I firmly believe, and correctly so,
that there
shall come a time when we shall assume full ownership of the
political
processes in Zimbabwe, and to some of us final victory is
certain.
But what do I perceive as final victory, Charamba, lest
you catch me
once more by the wrong foot?
* Victory means
success of all the individual family units in
Zimbabwe.
*
Victory means more happiness and satisfying lives of all
Zimbabweans.
* Victory means freedom from hunger and
impoverishment.
* Victory means people will not flock into
neighbouring countries
wearing haggard and mournful faces foraging for food
and basic subsistence
and being stigmatised to the extent of totally losing
their own individual
characters through mistreatment and menial jobs they
are forced to perform.
* Victory means that our innocent and
pregnant women, some with babies
on their backs, are no longer swept away by
the flooded Limpopo in a
desperate bid to look for subsistence in South
Africa.
* Victory means those in the diaspora will be free to visit
and spend
all Christmas and New Year holidays with us, pay last respects to
our dead
before saying goodbye to all their loved ones and heading back for
their
different international assignments.
* Victory means that
the arrogant and dehumanising terms " shefu" and
"fugitive" are replaced by
comrades, friends and dear Zimbabweans.
* Victory means
affordability and ability to adequately provide for
our daily dietary
requirements.
* Victory means highly affordable tariffs, low prices
and low cost of
living for all.
* Victory means inner comfort
and a sense of security in every
Zimbabwean worker in the adequacy of the
monthly wage to pay for one’s basic
dietary requirements, transportation and
shelter and, and afford an
opportunity for savings to meet school fees and
related expenses.
* Victory means no shortages of our own monies on
call, deposited in
our own banks; it means abundance of fuel at a cost of
$5,00 per litre; it
means sunset will perpetually be replaced by some form
of lighting; that we
as an evolving human species shall be restored back to
our rightful evolved
era, from our present epoch of hunting and gathering
and endless darkness.
* Victory means a modest but highly
affordable education for all our
children where primary education is once
more accorded a basic right for
every Zimbabwean child.
*
Victory means modest but highly productive manufacturing, mining,
tourist
and agricultural sectors of Zimbabwe, and for some of us, the
struggle
continues until final victory. And indeed, final victory, is
certain
whatever it takes to fully achieve it.
* Victory means that we
transform Zimbabwe into a real African beacon,
an epitome of
development.
People and tactics might change, but the revolutionary
objective, zeal
and passion of liberating the motherland will never change
or become
acceptable in any other different form or definition.
* Retired Major Kudzai Mbudzi is a war veteran, former senior Zimbabwe
National Army officer, and is currently serving a prohibition order as the
Zanu PF provincial secretary for information and publicity
(Masvingo).
Zim Independent
Comment
If the date for the harmonised presidential,
parliamentary and local
government elections is not changed, which looks
likely, we can safely say
we are left with just two months before that
crucial event takes place. Yet
given the dithering and prevarication in
opposition ranks, one gets the
impression that it is the Americans who are
voting in March and Zimbabweans
in November.
We must quickly
admit that we don’t have intimate details of what is
going on behind the
scenes at the inter-party talks between the ruling Zanu
PF party and the
MDC. We believe the voting public is equally searching for
signals. But
faced with the myriad problems besetting the country, most of
us are more
preoccupied with our daily struggles than what the outcome of
the Pretoria
talks is going to be.
President Robert Mugabe has already said
there will be no new
constitution before the March elections. He is likely
to have his way given
the endorsement he received from his party at the
December extraordinary
congress. On the other hand, the MDC now insists a
so-called "transitional
constitution" and a delayed election have become the
sticking points at the
talks. The question on many people’s minds is whether
a transitional
constitution is the same as a new constitution, which has
already been
rejected by the ruling party. There is also confusion among
ordinary people
whether a break-up of the current talks in South Africa is
the same thing as
a boycott of the elections themselves.
It is
not for us to dictate to the MDC when it should start
campaigning. It might
turn out that it is a tactical decision. To the extent
that its supporters
know this, it is fine. Only in the past elections we
have not seen the
benefits of this apparent indecision.
There are genuine concerns in
the MDC leadership that
politically-motivated violence against its
supporters has not abated. There
is still no visibility of its members on
national television, yet we don’t
know what they have been promised at the
talks. And time is clearly running
out for the opposition given that Zanu PF
has already started campaigning.
We can be sure there will be fireworks as
soon as President Robert Mugabe
returns from his annual leave. Is that
perhaps the time when the MDC will
clarify to its supporters what is going
on?
It was MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in his Christmas message
who
stated that the talks with Zanu PF were getting deadlocked on the two
key
issues: a new constitution before elections and postponement of the
elections. He said Zanu PF was backtracking on "agreements" reached in
Pretoria. The implication here is that all other points have been resolved
to the MDC’s satisfaction.
Still there are questions to be
answered here. We know Zanu PF is
reluctant to hold an election under a new
constitution which will reduce its
grip on state resources and allow the
opposition equal coverage in the
public media. What is not clear is at what
stage the MDC felt a new
constitution was the most critical issue in the
elections so soon after
voting with Zanu PF in parliament on September 20 in
favour of
Constitutional Amendment 18?
It sounds naïve to claim
that they supported the amendment because
they had been promised a new
constitution before the elections. What would
be the point of an amendment
that is followed by a new constitution?
Needless to say this
doesn’t inspire confidence in the party’s
decision-making process. It was
this same amendment which brought us an
expanded senate when the MDC split
in 2005 allegedly over a smaller one.
But our concern over the Zanu
PF/MDC talks now goes deeper than that.
The reason the MDC wants the
elections postponed, we are told, is because
they want the "transitional
constitution" to take root. In other words this
is not about a referendum to
give the people of Zimbabwe a chance to craft
their constitution. It is all
about swapping horses at State House.
How can a make-or-break
document (what Tsvangirai calls agreements)
about the future of Zimbabwe be
drawn up in secrecy and we are expected to
merely endorse it? Have the talks
in South Africa been turned into another
Lancaster House conference in which
the people of Zimbabwe had no role?
There is a creeping sense in
which it appears the MDC is beginning to
behave much like Zanu PF in its
belief that people don’t matter so long as
they keep claiming to represent
them. Despite the grave leadership
weaknesses, the MDC seems to have made
itself the final arbiter between the
people and Zanu PF and only itself can
confer or withhold legitimacy by
deciding to vote or boycott
elections.
This is dangerous arrogance and the MDC needs to be
warned not to
overstretch its luck by taking people’s support too much for
granted.
Needless to say the mass exodus of Zimbabweans to the diaspora is
as much a
response to Zanu PF’s disastrous rule as it is disillusionment
with the MDC’s
increasing resemblance to Zanu PF — it has no clue about
ending the
political crisis. Time is running out and there is need for
decisiveness in
the MDC.
Zim Independent
Candid Comment
By Joram Nyathi
A LOT has been said
about the Kenyan election debacle. Lessons have
been drawn locally on both
sides of the political divide. Unfortunately most
of these lessons are no
more than self-serving wishes. In my view, the real
lesson is the danger of
obsession with change for its own sake, and in that
quest, embracing every
claimant to power as the Messiah. Zimbabweans are
guilty of this
propensity.
South Africans look worse. Reading the South African
media about
President Thabo Mbeki’s alleged autocratic rule in the few weeks
before
Polokwane made me feel like we in Zimbabwe were ruled by angels. So
intense
was the hatred for Mbeki that his rival Jacob Zuma was assured of
the ANC
presidency despite his soiled name. It was as if the name Zuma
represented a
cure for Aids, crime and racial inequality in SA.
It is perplexing. Here is a man who answers to every act of
misdemeanor from
rape to influence-peddling to outright corruption and tax
evasion being
elevated to the pedestal of a saint who is being victimised by
a cruel
sitting president whom he has challenged for office! In any
civilised
society, the accusation of corruption, let alone rape, should make
any
decent person recuse himself from the presidential race. Zuma would have
magnified his own stature. He doesn’t need to be convicted.
Things were never going to be easy for Mbeki from the start: matching
Nelson
Mandela’s affability, dealing with a recalcitrant ruler such as
President
Robert Mugabe who is universally reviled by those he has hurt, and
given
growing anti-intellectual sentiment in politics in Zimbabwe and SA.
But in
Zuma we have a man who can stand up when later accused of rape,
violence
(leth’ umshini wami), corruption, racketeering, fraud and
philandering and
say with a straight face: "When I campaigned I didn’t hide
who I
am."
In the face of all this grunge you have influential
organisations such
as Cosatu threatening the judiciary with a "bloodbath" if
Zuma is brought to
court.
The biggest lesson from the Kenyan
post-election violence is the
danger of electing into power democratic
charlatans without institutional
fireguards to ensure such people can be
removed later without bloodletting;
and our fascination with the politics of
tribe and other irrational
considerations which blind us to people’s motives
for getting into politics.
It is the danger of choosing leaders for where
they come from ahead of
enduring values necessary in
nation-building.
Anyone who opposes a hated sitting president
automatically becomes a
democrat. Mwai Kibaki was feted as a democrat for
defeating Daniel arap Moi
without anyone examining his democratic
credentials. The election was judged
free and fair. In five years the guy
has shown his true colours and those
who elected him are shocked by his
"transformation" from what he never was
to a corrupt dictator and tribalist.
To me there was no betrayal of the
people but an exposure of bad
choice.
The irony is that Western democracies which are quick to
point to us
torch bearers of democracy subject their would-be leaders to a
very rigorous
vetting before they are elected. I am fascinated by the
ongoing campaign by
the Democrats in the United States. This is not a
country in any serious
political crisis like we are, yet its leader must
pass through the crucible
of public scrutiny and explain fully what his
policies are, what he wants to
do and how. It is not enough to chronicle the
current leader’s failures. Any
imbecile can do that. Talking democracy and
human rights is cheap — the test
is on delivery.
Unfortunately
in desperation for change, any change, we are shy if not
afraid to confront
our future leaders with hard questions about who they are
and their
shortcomings. Yet it is the political leader ultimately who gives
the nation
its international character.
The other lesson from Kenya is not the
threat of violence if elections
are rigged. Forcing people to vote in a
certain way on the threat of
violence amounts to democracy by fear. It does
not represent the free will
of the people. It is the need to select for
leadership people of integrity.
We need leaders who are able to accept loss
and victory in an election with
dignity and know when to quit.
Kenya’s Raila Odinga might have a cause to complain, but to me there
is no
point in voting for a leader of hooligans, who, after a disputed
electoral
result, rampage in the streets, burning, raping and murdering
people in
church. There was nothing among the poor Kikuyu in the slums of
Kibera and
Mathare to show that they had unfairly benefited from Mwai Kibaki’s
rule
ahead of other tribes. Nor is there evidence that those being targeted
for
attack voted for him. Yet we read that boys and girls as young as six
years
are being raped for voting for Kibaki or for simply being Kikuyu.
In any case, if the Kikuyu are being targeted as an ethnic group
because
Kibaki is Kikuyu, then by inverse rule Odinga forfeits the claim of
a
"people’s president" if only his Luo clanspeople and a few others voted
for
him.
The trouble with wanton violence is that it never affects the
criminal
leader himself. Does anybody for once nurse the illusion that
Charles Taylor
or Joseph Kony will ever fully pay for atrocities they have
committed
against their people in Liberia and Uganda? Or that Odinga is
justified in
causing the deaths
of over 600 Kenyans because he
wants to go to State House?
Broadly, the Kenyans are paying for
what has become the bane of
African politics — short-term and opportunistic
considerations in the
selection of national leaders. Lack of long-term
vision in the beginning
comes to haunt us in the end.
Zim Independent
MuckRaker
THERE has been much commentary on the news networks of
Kenya’s fall
from grace. Here was a prosperous and stable African country
which in the
space of a few days has descended into violence and
chaos.
The ostensible reason is that President Mwai Kibaki "stole"
the
presidential poll. With over 40 ethnic groups jockeying for position,
political rivalry quickly became tribal war.
Much of the blame
has been apportioned to Kibaki himself who was a tad
fast off the mark in
having himself sworn in when the outcome was still in
doubt.
The Telegraph’s David Blair, who used to report from Harare, commented
that
"with blinkered and selfish obduracy, many African leaders will not
relinquish power for any price. Kibaki has now joined the Robert Mugabe
Club — namely the dismal circle of African leaders who are utterly convinced
of their own indispensability."
Indeed, but there is another
point largely unexamined here. The outfit
that got Kenya — and Kibaki — into
this mess was the country’s electoral
commission. Some of its own members
have slammed its failure to do a good
job and, in particular, its perceived
pro-Kibaki partisanship.
The Kenya lesson for us all is that all
parties have to agree before
the election on the integrity of those
conducting it. Then there can be
nocomplaint when the government
wins.
We don’t seem to have learnt that. Look through the list of
the
current ZEC officials and you will see the imprint of the state at all
levels.
By the way, what happened to Brigadier Douglas
Nyikayaramba who, we
were told in 2002 had taken leave of absence from the
army during the
election but turned up in uniform for subsequent
events?
Blair concluded his piece on Kenya with an interesting
observation.
The rise of an urban and articulate middle class, he said, was
"slowly
reducing the grip of tribalism on politics".
"Whether
the president is any good at his job might actually matter in
future
elections."
Unless of course the middle class is driven out by
failed policies.
Do you recall not so long ago that any
reference to South Africa on
ZBC had to be preceded by the word "apartheid"?
Now this formulaic dogma is
applied to sanctions so no state-media hack can
write about sanctions
without first using the word "illegal" — even when
there is nothing remotely
illegal about them!
All this does is
illustrate a paucity of descriptive powers by the
state’s apologists while
at the same time underlining the extent of official
prescription that so
evidently takes place on a daily basis. We suspect that
where columnists
forget to follow the "correct" procedure, the word
"illegal" is popped into
the copy for them!
We now have a newcomer in the list of mandatory
marvels. The word
"incessant" now appears in any reference to the rains
currently battering
the country.
They do indeed seem
"incessant". But our worry is that "incessant"
will soon become an excuse
for failure.
It must be obvious to everybody by now that the mother
of all
agricultural seasons will fail to deliver the much-touted bounty. And
that’s
because there has been insufficient investment in inputs,
particularly
fertiliser.
So the "incessant" rains could soon
become the official excuse for
poor planning. Let’s wait and
see.
Zimbabweans should vote overwhelmingly for President
Mugabe in the
March poll to "protect their sovereignty from Western
imperialists",
Emmerson Mnangagwa is quoted in the Sunday News as
saying.
He was addressing supporters in Lower Gweru. He said
Zimbabwe was safe
under Mugabe’s leadership.
Does that mean
safe from inflation and economic ruin?
Mnangagwa doesn’t suggest
his leader has a solution to the country’s
deepening woes. He doesn’t
pretend Mugabe has any policies that might rescue
the nation from its
plight. Instead he says Mugabe will protect us from
"Western
imperialists".
That was the best he could do. What reward can he
expect for this
pathetic bootlicking we wonder? And how much respect will he
garner praising
a leader who has unleashed an economic
holocaust?
The worst aspect of all this is that Mnangagwa knows
better. He is not
stupid like some of his colleagues. As a businessman he
knows that
investment from "Western imperialists" is vital for recovery. But
he can’t
say so. Nor can he point to a better future.
"Whites
should not interfere in our country," he says. We wonder if
that includes
all those shady white businessmen his party used to cultivate!
Now
all they can talk about is "Western imperialists".
Is this what
Zanu PF has been reduced to? Vacant leaders and vacant
minds?
Zesa CEO Engineer Ben Rafemoyo has a number of
explanations for the
parastatal’s steady collapse as a power
provider.
Most of the distribution infrastructure should have been
overhauled in
the mid-1990s, he told Business Herald. But this was not
possible because of
lack of funding.
More specifically,
Zimbabwe in 1990 "fell out" with the IMF and World
Bank which had promised
funding. (We thought it was more like 1998.)
Then there were the
water-logged cables, power lines damaged by
falling trees and
vandalism.
He wasn’t asked what steps he had taken to step up
security at
sub-stations. Then there is the fuel problem which he wasn’t
asked about.
Zesa crews can no longer respond to distress calls because they
have no
fuel.
But Engineer Rafemoyo did have some good news.
"We are no longer
load-shedding consumers for more than 12 hours," he
volunteered. Let’s
remember that.
But let’s not entertain the
story about distribution infrastructure
exceeding its lifespan. Many
countries with equally ancient systems keep
them running by constant
maintenance. Can the same be said of Zesa?
All too often parastatal
managers complain about the age of their
equipment saying everything needs
to be replaced. Have they tried looking
after what they’ve
got?
Transport minister Chris Mushohwe had an interesting
explanation for
why British Airways pulled out of Zimbabwe last
year.
"I personally think that while it may be true that they were
not
having the best facilities (in Harare), I strongly suspect that the
British
government had a hand in the pulling out . . ." he
said.
Just because the Zimbabwe government, and in particular
Mushohwe’s
ministry, interferes in the affairs of Air Zimbabwe, doesn’t mean
other
governments do the same thing.
Most successful airlines
around the world today are able to succeed
precisely because they make
strategic decisions for themselves.
Air Zimbabwe on the other hand
has been forced into a number of
unprofitable routes, particularly in the
Far East, for political reasons.
Now, we learn from Mushohwe, "plans are
underway" to fly to Brussels, Moscow
and Tehran.
How many
Belgians are there wanting to visit Zimbabwe? And how many
Zimbabweans want
to go to Moscow and Tehran? Market surveys are underway, we
are told. You
can be sure they don’t extend beyond Mushohwe’s desk.
On why
Zambian Airways pulled out, Mushohwe was reported as saying the
airline was
"small and insignificant".
Let’s remind ourselves that Air Zimbabwe
had 18 planes at Independence
in 1980. Now it has six! That UZ Masters
degree is evidently not helping the
minister with his
maths.
Muckraker would like to thank the Swiss ambassador for
his Christmas
greetings card. It was posted in Harare on December 7,
according to the
Zimpost stamp, and reached the offices of the Independent
on January 9. Is
this a record?
Zimpost was among those state
agencies advertising their slavish
loyalty to the regime on Unity Day last
month. "Reaching everyone
everywhere" was their slogan. That should have
read "Reaching everyone
everywhere – eventually".
There has
been a good response to Muckraker’s "Mother of all potholes"
contest with a
number of nominations for the one on Prince Edward St
opposite Alex Sports
Club. A steady flow of water from this crater was
staunched on New Year’s
Day. But the hole was not filled in. Instead a sign
has been placed there
saying "On Duty".
We are not sure who is "On Duty". But it is
certainly not the City of
Harare or Zinwa.
Zim Independent
By Eric Bloch
THE monumental scarcity
of cash within the formal economy that
prevailed in November and December
was not the first to be experienced by
Zimbabweans. However, it was
certainly the most pronounced.
Despite the levels at which the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe restricted
cash withdrawals being relatively
minimal, even before the cash crunch
commenced, the availability of bank
notes was at times so limited that banks
could not even service requested
cash withdrawals at such levels. Instead,
they had to ration the issues of
currency as severely as Zinwa has
restricted water supplies in many Harare
suburbs, for they simply could not
issue that currency which they did not
have.
Although RBZ had hoped to resolve the crisis before
Christmas, that
did not occur, but within the week after New Year it finally
abated, with
the previously gargantuan queues of people desperate to access
their money
shortening.
This was achieved, albeit belatedly by
enhanced supply by RBZ of
currency into the economy, by the very impressive,
vigorous efforts of the
commercial banks to meet the anxious needs of their
customers, keeping the
banking halls open until late each day, and
throughout a weekend, and by
diminished post-festive demand of cash by the
manufacturing sector that is
in recess.
However, as the issue
of new $250 000, $500 000 and $750 000 bearer
cheques, and the
remonetisation of the $200 000 bearer cheques increased
currency
availability, improved also by heavy deposits by holders of the
then to be
demonetised currency, and alleviated the crisis, care must be
taken that
complacency not set in. If it does, future cash crises are not
merely
probabilities, but will be certainties, and probably with
ever-increasing
frequency and intensity.
RBZ attributed the massive shortages of
currency to the accumulation
and hoarding of money by those dubbed cash
barons, and it is
incontrovertible that this was occurring, to some
considerable extent, and
was a major factor in the development of the money
scarcities.
The cash barons comprised, in the main, those engaged
in the unlawful
purchase of foreign currencies, either in order to
externalise assets, or to
fund imports, and others intensively engaged in
cross-border trading
operations. Other cash barons were retailers who found
that they could
realise substantial extra profits by not banking their sales
receipts, but
instead accumulating the cash to sell it, at a premium, to
those in
desperate need.
But, without minimising the impacts of
the activities of the cash
barons, there were other, markedly greater causes
of the cash shortages.
First and foremost was the rampantly spiralling
hyperinflation that
afflicted Zimbabwe throughout 2007.
By
December, 2007 the consumer required 20 to 30 times as much money
to buy
exactly the same goods, in exactly the same quantity, as he or she
needed to
have only one year earlier. Thus, if on a visit to a supermarket a
year ago,
the customer needed to $2 million in cash, by December, 2007 at
least $40
million, and up to $60 million, was necessary to buy no more than
had been
purchased for $2 million only 12 months previously.
Extrapolate
that increased currency need by several million purchasing
consumers, and
the total cash needed by that buying population exceeds all
currency in
circulation! Admittedly, some customers pay for their purchases
by cheques,
or with credit cards, but the masses of the low-income earners
and those who
reside in rural areas, cannot access or afford banking
facilities.
Therefore, it must be realistically assumed that at
least a half, if
not more, of the total currency that was in circulation
was, at any time, in
people’s wallets, purses, handbags, pockets, or homes,
solely in order to
fund ordinary consumer needs. The total cash in issue
was, according to RBZ,
about $67 trillion, and therefore at least $34
trillion, and probably very
much more, was in the hands of consumers, for
wholly legitimate purposes, at
any time.
A further key factor
is that, at the present time, the most virile
facet of the Zimbabwean
economy is the informal sector. With unemployment
being endemic, the
majority of the population has little or no alternative
but to resort to
informal sector activities, ranging from vending at bus
termini, at people’s
markets, and elsewhere, to provision of diverse
services, cottage industry
operations such as production of clothing, and to
numerous forms of unlawful
activities such as gold-panning and other
criminal actions.
A
key characteristic of informal sector operations is the preservation
of a
low profile, beyond the gaze of taxation, licensing and other
authorities.
One way of doing so is by not operating banking accounts,
processing all
transactions in cash, and accumulating cash receipts to fund
outgoings.
Hence, there were undoubtedly many trillions of dollars held by
informal
sector operators.
The magnitude of the monies held by the general
public, for no
untoward reasons, and by informal sector operators, will
undoubtedly have
considerably exceeded the undeniably considerable sums held
by the cash
barons.
This was convincingly demonstrated by the
horde of anxious and
desperate ordinary men and women, almost
panic-stricken, queuing for days
and nights outside banks and building
societies, fearfully striving to
convert their $200 000 notes before they
became valueless.
Others, in a similar state of stress, fearing
intensified poverty due
to the impending demonetisation of their few
bank-notes, rapidly spent their
monies on goods which normally they would
not have purchased, or would only
have done so progressively over the days,
weeks and months ahead.
The tragedy is that all these causes of the
cash crisis of late 2007
will recur, within a few months, unless the
underlying causes are rapidly
and constructively addressed. Doing so
requires that:
lWithout delay and without recourse to its endless
misconceived,
erroneous assumptions as to the causes of Zimbabwe’s
hyperinflation, but
with unequivocal recognition of the real causes,
government must forcefully
address those causes.
lThis requires
drastically reducing its expenditures, very
substantially moving exchange
rates so as to stimulate export operations and
concomitant foreign exchange
generation, so as to curtail the
inflationary-stimulating parallel foreign
currency markets, enhancing
infrastructural service delivery so as to
restore productivity to industry,
agriculture, mining and other economic
operations, as well as many other
constructive inflation-containment
measures as have been frequently
identified to government, and as frequently
ignored.
lAs rapidly, government needs to terminate the operations
of the
National Incomes and Prices Commission, which operations are the
greatest
cause of the gargantuan commodity scarcities in the formal economy
and,
therefore, of much of the growth of informal sector operations, and of
black
market-driven inflation. As long as commodity supply cannot match, or
exceed, supply, prices will inevitably escalate, and especially so in the
unofficial markets. Instead of counterproductive price controls, a
government-led unity of state, business and labour needs to bring into
being, voluntarily, a very long overdue, positive, workable, social
contract.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
Iden Wetherell
THE Mauritius protocol
on electoral norms, agreed by Sadc leaders in
2004, appears to be bearing a
variety of fruits. Sadly, none of them are
proving palatable.
The first attempt by the government to bring Zimbabwe’s electoral
system
into line with the region was the establishment in 2005 of the
Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission. This unprepossessing body was supposed to
take
responsibility for running elections. But it ended up sharing power
with a
Registrar-General who presided over an opaque voters’ roll and a
battalion
of military officers who situated themselves throughout the
electoral
process.
Critically, it was the government that decided who should
observe
elections, not the ZEC.
When this flawed system proved
inadequate in terms of the Sadc
guidelines, further "reforms" emerged from
the South African-mediated
inter-party talks. The Public Order and Security
Act was amended to provide
wider public space to the opposition and civil
society while the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(Aippa) was changed to remove the
impression of Orwellian
manipulation.
The state press has been quick to suggest journalists
should
"celebrate" this move in so far as it removes some of the more
abusive
features of the original legislation and provides for a regulatory
media
commission together with an ethics-focused media council clearly
designed to
over-shadow the self-regulating Media Council of Zimbabwe (MCZ)
now
operating in the independent sector.
But as the MCZ’s
chairman, Muchadeyi Masunda, points out, any system
of regulation
established under the widely discredited Aippa will be tainted
by the way in
which this legislation has been applied in the past
This leads to a
related point. No amount of institutional reform will
work where there is an
absence of political will. Journalists were not
consulted when the two
parties drew up the Aippa amendments. And judging by
previous appointments
to the outgoing Media and Information Commission, the
proposed Zimbabwe
Media Commission will contain individuals who have made no
secret of their
hostility to a free media. Journalists at all levels must
resist any attempt
to apply a cosmetic make-over to the state’s oppressive
edifice of media
control. This is the same state that was responsible for
the abduction and
torture of two Standard journalists in 1999 and then
refused to cooperate
with a court-ordered investigation.
It is the same state that
closed down the Daily News, the Daily News
On Sunday, the Tribune, and the
Weekly Times. It is the same state that
deported foreign correspondents on
spurious grounds in recent years and
continues to abuse the public media for
partisan purposes.
Newspapers and broadcast media are crudely
manipulated by state
officials and provide daily examples of unprofessional
behaviour including
the propagation of invective and deceit. None of this is
acceptable in a
democratic environment and certainly not in the run-up to an
election where
voters have to make informed choices.
The
government must immediately scrap its plans for a media council
and instead
allow its journalists to join the existing council which is open
to all
media.
It should admit to the country any bona fide journalist to
cover the
elections and stop interfering in the administration and output of
the
public media. Above all, the "public" media should act as a genuine
public
media and cultivate diversity and professional standards which are
woefully
lacking at present.
Nobody takes the government-run
media seriously which must be a
disadvantage to government itself. Academic
institutions have also failed to
establish the requisite standards for media
training by buying into the
state’s clumsy attempts at doctrinal conformity.
Journalists in this day and
age cannot be expected to echo the government’s
facile mantras about
patriotism and sovereignty when its record is one of
persistent failure.
The amended version of Aippa, while a marginal
improvement on the
original Act, does not meet the requirements of
democratic reform. State
regulation has been a failure wherever it has been
applied. And the complete
absence of consultation in drawing up the
amendments suggests a culture of
prescription into which the opposition has
been co-opted.
Zimbabwe continues to fail any compliance test with
the Mauritius
terms. It does not permit a free media to flourish and it does
not encourage
media diversity — note the complete absence of radio stations
other than
ZBC.
We do not need amendments to bad laws or a
state which prescribes how
the press should conduct itself. What we need is
a responsible and robust
press that can fulfil its watchdog role and assist
the public in making an
informed choice at the polls.
We wait for Zim to deliver
IT
is with utter shock and disappointment that I am witnessing the
events
unfolding in Kenya. I am a Zimbabwean based in Uganda where I have
many
Kenyan friends and thus have had a closer look into what is taking
place in
that country.
Weeks ahead of the elections violence started to
flare up between
rival camps. At the time I assumed that this was the usual
African politics
at play yet again. What has transpired since the elections
last year has
confirmed those assumptions and proved that African politics
is the same,
wherever you are.
Kenya had become one of the
continent’s leading lights, a country with
a robust and growing economy,
enjoying social and political stability and
taking on a more prominent role
in the East African Community.
All of Kenya’s progress and good
work is at risk of being undone,
after the country was plunged into chaos
and anarchy following allegations
of electoral fraud.
What is
most saddening is that the violence in Kenya has been on
tribal grounds. One
would have thought that such petty hatred and atrocities
would have been
confined to the past, but alas, events akin to Rwanda in
2004 have come back
to haunt us.
This leads me to consider that perhaps all those
negative commentaries
made on Africa could be in a way accurate. In Africa
we still vote on tribal
lines, placing greater emphasis on where a person is
from and if they’re one
of our own. In Africa people are still victimised,
beaten and killed for
their political affiliations. And we still have
allegations of vote rigging
and abuse of the electoral process in almost all
ballots that take place on
the continent.
Even in South Africa,
a country that has previously been hailed as
being a cut above the rest on
the continent, we have a president trying to
cling onto power in his party
and a campaign within the ANC which was laced
with tribal
undertones.
In three months time another African hot spot, Zimbabwe
is set to go
to the polls. What the entire African continent needs now,
after the Kenyan
debacle is a well run, free and fair election. One with no
violence or
political unrest, to restore some of our lost
dignity.
We wait for Zimbabwe to deliver.
Zvichapera Riini,
Uganda.
------------------
It's Mugabe, not Gono
SOME time in December, Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono
made what I would call a startling statement
to the nation. He said he knew
who the cash barons are.
Now,
instead of baying for his blood Gono needs help, and needs it
fast. His
voice sounds very lonely and forlorn. Politicians are working
against Gono
and are benefiting hugely out of that.
What I have noticed is that
President Robert Mugabe is the problem. He
has never condemned corruption
since he got into office 28 years ago. He has
never dismissed non-performing
cabinet ministers. This is the main reason
why the economy is in the
doldrums.
Recently Mugabe put his foot in his mouth and made the
silliest of
statements when he said that Zimbabwe will never collapse
(economically, one
presumes). Well how can Zimbabwe collapse when the
country is lying on its
belly? Mugabe has taken us for granted for far too
long. Is he not ashamed?
Has he got a conscience? God will punish him for
making us suffer this much.
The economy has crumbled right in his
face.
Foreign currency dealings on the so-called black market
started way
back in 1982 and Mugabe was and still is well aware of those
involved. There
are big fish in Bulawayo who teamed up with an Asian
businessmen to
establish what became known as the World Bank. Mugabe knew
about it yet he
did not act. Mugabe acts swiftly, mercilessly and decisively
when it comes
to Zanu PF affairs.
Zimbabweans have kept him in
power for 28 years and he has
reciprocated their trust (and some of their
faith) in him by keeping them
starving by all cruel means. I am one of those
who has trusted him for 28
years.
The whole economy now belongs
to the black market. For the 28 years
that he has been in office, President
Mugabe has never made a key economic
policy statement.
In the
area of economics the president is poorly endowed, if at all he
is endowed.
He is so poor that he fails to dismiss known thieves in his
cabinet and in
the party as long as they support him. The nation has no
foreign currency,
no fuel, no basic consumables. The man is out of touch.
May I
inform Mugabe that what is killing us are transport costs.
Please help us in
this area, Mr President. Come up with your own economic
policies. Are you
scared that your lack of economic grasp will be exposed?
Lastly the
opposition should not come out and say that there are no
cash barons because
most definitely they are there by the thousand and are
destroying the
economy. Gono should now expose them and shame the president.
The opposition
tends to be too negative in their approach to national
issues.
Rosa,
Lupane.
-------------
Have pity on Gono
ONE
must have pity on RBZ governor Gideon Gono. He really does not
have a clue
about the job he is so stoically trying to do. And to add to his
woes his
hands are tied behind his back by equally clueless Zanu PF
stalwarts
(sometimes very fortunately for the rest of us).
Here is a man who
allows the economy to be held to ransom by cash
barons who can do so for as
little as US$4 900, or about a quarter of the
price of a second hand
bakkie.
We must take our hats off to the efficient police who
managed to
apprehend the evil woman who so greedily ties up a whopping $10
billion in
the money Gono is trying so hard to print. The fact that she
would hold it
for less than a couple of hours as she trades it on to another
unscrupulous
person trying to eek out a living by trading in the black
market is
completely lost on Gono, the police and the magistrate. (One must
of course
ask how the police could so efficiently apprehend this hapless
woman and in
the same breath not be able to find out who she got the $10
billion from or
who she gave the US dollars to — we all know they can
torture any confession
out of anyone.)
More seriously is the
misconception Gono has of the value of the money
he is entrusted to print,
issue and oversee. He says that there was a
whacking $67 trillion in
circulation but only a few trillion was getting
back to the banks, so the
rest must be in the hands of hoarders. This
amounts to a mere $6 million per
resident or $12 million per adult.
As the banking sector has been
totally thrown into disarray by Gono’s
policies almost everyone deals in
cash, so of course there is not enough in
circulation to go
around.
Even 10 times his $67 trillion would not help much. The
Reserve Bank
even "restricts" individuals to draw four times the amount at
$50 million.
He probably pegged the $67 trillion when he re-issued the
currency and it
was worth some US$135 billion then. It is now worth about
US$20 million.
Hardly enough to provide cash for some companies let alone a
country.
Gono needs to either resign with his head held in shame or
stop
devoting all his attention to his vindictive blame game, get his
calculator
out and start running the financial affairs of the country
properly.
Gava,
Harare.
----------------
I'm going to the black
market
UNTIL this week, I was one of those people who thought it
was bad to
keep cash outside the banking sector.
After checking
my bank statement I found out that for all the millions
I had invested in
the bank, I only got $30 000 interest and then a $6 000
deduction as
withholding tax. So do you think I will be naive enough to keep
on banking?
Not anymore. If it’s called an economic crime or whatever, then
I’m going to
be the first criminal.
I don’t mind being forced to withdraw a
paltry $50 million a day but
$24 000 for having my funds locked forever?
No!
I’d rather pay Roadport and the black market a
visit.
Lloyd Choto,
Harare.
--------------
Technology could have
helped
RATHER than focusing on cash barons, Zimbabwe could have
averted cash
shortages had the country moved with technology. Having an
economy that
relies entirely on cash for transactions is unthinkable in the
modern world
considering the advancement in technology.
Activities like manufacturing, mining, farming can benefit from sound
financial institutions and sound financial systems.
The problem
is lack of direction and will-power to move the country
forward for the
benefit of its citizens and residents. There has been a
tendency for people
in leadership to exhibit selfishness and self-serving
traits.
The cash crisis could have been averted had Zimbabwe been fairly
computerised with almost everyone having access to technology like
telephones, mobile phones, Internet and e-mail to say the least.
Computerisation of the economy is vital if the country needs to benefit from
the evolution of technology.
If the financial system is fairly
developed and the country
computerised, it will be easy to take advantage of
plastic money and other
innovative ways of effecting settlement rather than
relying on cash.
It is unfortunate that Zimbabwe has lagged behind
in computerisation.
Unequal distribution of wealth has not helped either as
it means only a few
people can move with technology. Some areas are better
developed than
others, a situation that makes it difficult for policy
implementation.
Some politicians are selfish and are not interested in
bringing development
to their constituents but to their homes.
Until such a time when distribution of wealth is spread to the
majority it
will be difficult to come up with solutions that can help
improve people’s
standards of living. Plastic money, like debit cards, visa
cards, and online
banking are convenient ways of doing business rather than
using cash.
However, these ways are possible when everyone has access to
modern
technology.
Manndingo,
mankanj@yahoo.co.uk
----------------
Who's heroes are they?
ZANU PF has lost the legitimacy to declare
national heroes in Zimabwe.
In their infinite wisdom, Zanu PF
bootlickers only see heroes in
people who participated in the liberation
struggle, albeit, from Zanla
forces. Small wonder why there is an increasing
cresendo of discontent,
particularly from Matabeleland. It has become
apparent, of late, that there
is always an excuse for delays in conferring
hero status on people from this
region. But then again, with the likes of
Didymus Mutasa involved, the
credibilty of the process is inevitably
tarnished.
What criteria, if any, is used to declare a national
hero? My
perception is that Zanu PF has politicised the system and in that
process,
deserving reciepients have been sidelined, thus turning the noble
exercise
into some laughable but sad charade.
An immediate
solution to this sticking point would be to constitute an
impartial and
independent body of esteemed citizens who will set the
parameters for the
qualification of hero status.
Heroes should not be limited to war
veterans alone. Pre-and
post-Independence service to the nation should also
be considered. The late
Jairos Jiri springs to mind. Burial at the Heroes
Acre has become a platform
for Mugabe to deride and redicule real and
perceived enemies. In any case,
who wants to hear about "illegal sanctions",
endless invisible "victories"
over Britain and "economic turnarounds" at a
burial ceremony? Certainly not
me!
Joseph
Mhlanga,
Dublin, Ireland.
---------------
Let's
show political maturity
I AM a Zimbabwean based in South Africa and
would like to know how the
RBZ can afford to purchase so many vehicles
during Sunrise I and do this
again for Sunrise II.
I am a Zanu
PF supporter but I think this is going too far. I will not
defect from the
party because I believe within the party there are several
candidates who
think like I do. I believe it’s time we moved from a
communist approach to a
more capitalist manner in the interest of economic
growth.
Simba Makoni is a young visionary who I believe given the chance in
the
party can unite these so-called factions in Zanu PF.
General
Solomon Mujuru is a respectable character due to the fact that
he believes
in public debate. Public debate within our party is good. If
Emmerson
Mnangagwa wants to campaign for the top post, I see no reason why
he should
keep quiet. Let the members of the party speak. Why can’t we
simply show an
element of political maturity?
Zanu PF member,
bigboyjago@yahoo.com
----------------
It's Zesa's fault
THESE floods, I do not blame God but Zesa. The
massive power cuts
experienced all over Zimbabwe have seen massive
deforestation across the
whole country and naturally, when the rains came,
there was very little to
absorb them in the form of vegetation.
Zesa is the cause of the flooding since they have forced even
townsfolk to
go over to the rural areas, cut down trees and bring them into
town,
denuding vast stretches of land across the board. As for the joke that
carrying firewood is now forbidden, just take a drive down any one of our
roads and laugh your heart out.
Witnessed on Tuesday along
Masvingo road a blue lorry chuggin’ along
at 20 kilometres an hour and
packed higher than its own height with
firewood!
Zesa, we thank
you! No matter how many people you suspend to hoodwink
the public, the truth
is that anything the government touches turns to dust,
be it cash, food,
prices, companies, the economy, water and even the
collection of
rubbish.
Tired,
By
e-mail.
-------------
The power is in our hands
I JUST completed a degree in finance at a local university. I had a
conversation with friends recently which in a way left me feeling quite
foolish.
In essence, I was trying to convince them that
Zimbabwe needs people
like us to rebuild it and I was against the idea of
people leaving for the
Diaspora and neighbouring countries to do
self-denigrating jobs.
What reason is there to for one to stay in
Zimbabwe other than the
fact that it is where one was born? Even if I do get
a job, or better still
create my own enterprise, there are still frequent
power cuts, cash
shortages, and for those living in Bulawayo the once-a-week
or even a
fortnight supply of water to make one’s life more miserable. I
know there
are many others who share the same sentiments as they: that all
hope is
lost.
I felt even more foolish as I told them about the
up-coming elections
and how they could contribute to changing the country to
the Zimbabwe they
want through voting for their preferred leadership. To
them the election has
already been lost three months prior to it being held.
"So, what’s the
point?" they argued.
First of all, I am a
Zimbabwean and to me, patriotism means loving one’s
country regardless of
its economic and political state. Just because I do
not agree with the
policy makers does not mean I should be passive and
render myself useless. I
still can contribute meaningfully towards
development either through my
input or criticism.
Secondly, I believe that every individual
should understand his or her
self-worth, from the richest to the poorest.
Let no one be forced to believe
that they do not count. It is by the little
votes of the masses that change
can be brought about.
Voting is
not about winning but about being heard. I will vote in
March and my
candidate might lose but I will be glad because everyone will
know that, at
least, whomever I voted for has one supporter in me.
Lastly, I
would like to say to our leaders that power is in the
people. Their duty is
to represent the people and give maximum results. I
believe that through
focus, actions and achievement, one can attain power
without having to taint
their conscience.
The power is in our hands and there is no good
deed which is
insignificant in the quest for change.
Likhwa
M Moyo,
Bulawayo.
OhMyNews
Institutional framework does not promote free and fair elections
Masimba Biriwasha
Published 2008-01-11 10:27 (KST)
Zimbabwe
has held consistent, periodic elections since attaining
independence from
white minority rule in 1980. But all these elections have
been held in an
atmosphere of acrimony, violence and bloodletting between
supporters of
rival parties.
President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front
(ZANU-PF) political party has been in power for the
past 27 years, a period
in which all state institutions have been designed
to favor the status quo.
As the country prepares to go to another poll
scheduled to be held in March
the ghost of electoral divisiveness is rearing
its ugly head above a nation
that critically needs to map a way out of a
debilitating seven year economic
crisis that has both exiled and
impoverished millions of its citizens.
Zimbabwe’s main opposition
political party Movement Democratic Change (MDC)
is threatening to boycott
presidential and parliamentary elections due to
perceived institutional and
legal irregularities governing the process.
There had been hope that
South African-brokered negotiations between the
ruling party ZANU-PF and the
MDC would level the political playing field.
But President Robert
Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF government appears to be intent
on making cosmetic
changes to the electoral regime thereby prompting boycott
threats by the
opposition.
According to MDC, the legal, institutional and administrative
framework for
elections is currently structured to favour the
incumbent.
“The MDC wants a new constitution before the next election and
the date of
the election that allows implementation of comprehensive reforms
and
tangible deliverables,” said MDC spokesman, Nelson
Chamisa.
Though Zimbabwe is signatory to Southern African Development
Community
(SADC) Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections,
analysts
have accused the government of dragging its feet to institute the
requisite
reforms for free and fair elections.
"The clock is ticking,
and we are moving towards the March elections without
reforms agreed, let
alone implemented," said Mark Malloch-Brown, British
Minister of State for
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. “We are rapidly
passing the point of no
return in terms of what would allow free and fair
elections at that
time."
The opposition has also charged that the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission
(ZEC), which oversees the conduct of the elections in the
country, is an
appendage of the ruling party and lacks
transparency.
“Through the MDC, the people of Zimbabwe are demanding that
the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission be reconstituted to undertake a
transparent and
all-inclusive voter registration and delimitation exercise,”
said Chamisa.
In the past, the ZEC has been accused of gerrymandering
constituencies in
favor of the ruling party.
MDC says that they will
not recognize the ZEC delimitation of constituency
boundaries for the March
elections because the process is seriously flawed.
“Of the 210
constituencies, 143 are now rural constituencies, (Zanu PF
strongholds)
while only 67 are urban or peri-urban (MDC strongholds).
Zanu-PF already has
an advantage of more than two-thirds majority before
people even go to vote.
This is insane, it's a discredited exercise not
worth noting,' said an MDC
representative.
However, the Zimbabwe government rejects allegations that
it is planning a
massive fraud of the elections, and will not concede to
demands by the
oppositions to change the electoral laws.
"Going into
politics is not child's play. We do not have to concede to their
demands,"
Minister of Anti-Corruption Didymus Mutasa told the BBC.
Meanwhile, there
are reports that Zimbabwean citizens are stockpiling food
in fear of
possible election violence, especially in the urban areas which
are
strongholds of the opposition.
United Methodist News Service
Jan. 10, 2008
NOTE: Photographs available at http://umns.umc.org.
By Kami
Rice*
MUTARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS)--The sewage system is overloaded, buildings
are
decaying, electricity is unreliable, and economic turmoil in Zimbabwe
make
operating two schools, a hospital, a children's home and church nearly
impossible.
Yet Old Mutare Mission, a ministry of The United
Methodist Church for 110
years, is determined to continue its ministry to
the people of Zimbabwe, its
leaders say.
"Our sewage system is so
overloaded that ZINWA (Zimbabwe National Water
Authority) is now giving a
fine to the mission every quarter," said the Rev.
Solomon Mudonhi, mission
chairman. "We are trying to do what we can, but
it's challenging in the
current economic situation."
Located down the road from United
Methodist-related Africa University, the
mission is supported primarily by
student fees from its 1,000-student
primary school and 1,050-student high
school. However, the school fees are
now set by the Zimbabwe government, so
the mission is no longer able to
charge realistic amounts to satisfy its
budget.
The schools operate farms that provide milk, eggs, vegetables and
pork, but
other commodities are scarce and expensive. The school has broken
ground for
homes for additional teachers, but the buildings can't progress
because the
school can't get cement.
Electricity is also
undependable, making it difficult for boarding students
to study at night.
Five former students donated a generator to help, but
it's difficult to get
fuel to power it.
Although the schools are run by The United Methodist
Church, all of the
teachers are civil servants paid by the government.
Salaries have not kept
pace with prices. For example, the government housing
allowance is Z$800,000
per month, but a decent accommodation in Mutare costs
Z$20 million each
month--more than a teacher's annual
salary.
Teachers and staff members are basically donating their services
and must
supplement their salaries. One teacher makes cakes to sell during
the staff
tea time. Other teachers are resigning and moving to places like
South
Africa where the pay is better and the economy is more
stable.
In spite of the difficulties, school staff members are friendly
and kind to
visitors. School children smile and play. "Zimbabweans are very
prayerful,"
said Mudonhi. "They are Christians so it appears they get their
perseverance
from God. If this had happened somewhere else, there would have
been riots
and war."
Low-cost hospital fees
While the needs
for health services are great, many people served by the Old
Mutare Hospital
are either unemployed or low-paid farm workers.
"We are not able to
charge fees that are high and help offset our expenses,"
said Mudonhi. "Some
patients aren't able to pay at all, but the hospital
won't deny them
treatment."
The number of patients treated in the 70-bed hospital's four
sections-a
dental clinic, outpatient and inpatient treatment, a maternity
ward and a
voluntary counseling and testing unit--continues to grow, so the
hospital
needs more nurses and personnel. It now has one doctor and 12
nurses, 25
nurse aids and 10 support staff.
In order to attract more
nurses, the hospital needs to build more housing,
which it's unable to
afford now. Nurses have joined teachers in seeking
higher salaries outside
Zimbabwe.
Mudonhi expressed appreciation for United Methodist Volunteers
in Mission
teams. A team from South Carolina pooled their money to help
paint hospital
walls and purchase new mattresses, and a South Carolina
congregation is
supporting a water project.
"We are struggling, but
we are making it through, and we are surviving,"
said Mudonhi. "We are
dealing with necessities only." He pointed to the
cracks in his office wall
and explained that fixing them is now a luxury.
Then he asked, "So where are
we heading to? People are bleeding inside, but
outside it appears things are
going on well."
Asked if he has hope, Mudonhi bounced a soccer ball on
the cement floor and
said, "This is what gives me hope. Once we touch the
ground, we will bounce
back. I don't know how, though."
Mission
needs
Mudonhi said the mission needs help with the following
projects:
* General Mission--Infrastructure and building expansion and
repairs, sewage
system improvements, laptop computer; * Hartzell Central
Primary
School--Computers, woodworking tools, scholarships for children of
local
farm workers unable to pay school fees; * Hartzell High School--Math
and
science teachers are needed, along with housing for teachers; *
Fairfield
Children's Home--A vocational training center to provide training
for
"graduates" of the home who don't qualify for college; * Old Mutare
Hospital--Accommodations for additional staff, revitalization of the
existing hospital, an ambulance and an outreach vehicle, office equipment,
hospital equipment, medical supplies.
Contact Mudonhi by e-mail at mudonhis@africau.ac.zw.
*Rice is
a freelance writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Linda
Green, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.
Cricinfo staff
January 10,
2008
Mark Vermeulen, the former Zimbabwe Test cricketer, admitted
torching
Zimbabwe Cricket headquarters but pleaded not guilty to arson on
the grounds
he was suffering from psychiatric problems at the
time.
At the start of his trial, Vermeulen entered a not guilty plea to
charges of
arson at the ZC offices at the Harare Sports Club in October 2006
and a
similar attack which gutted the national training academy the next
day.
Vladimir Rajkovic, a private psychiatrist in Harare, said Vermeulen,
29, was
not disputing he had carried out the attacks but said his client had
suffered from partial complex epilepsy and impulsive behaviour disorder
after he was hit and injured by a cricket ball during a match in
Australia.
"The illness causes loss of impulse control and compromises
anger
management," the doctor said. "Mark needs lifelong medication to
prevent any
stressor causing an epileptic discharge because of that
injury."
Rajkovic said the cricketer had shown "significant
improvement" since he
started treating him six months ago. "When I first met
him he was this
young, spoilt, cocky and somewhat arrogant young man so full
of himself," he
said. "What struck me first was his nonchalant approach to
the whole case.
From the little golden boy, he has suddenly realised, after
he started
taking his medication, that life can be tough.
"We now
have here a humble young man, not a sports star. As his body
matures, his
body will mend the injury."
Munyaradzi Madombiro, a government
psychiatrist, said: "The damage that has
been caused causes this behaviour."
He added that the condition could only
be controlled by medication and could
not be cured.
The 29-year-old batsman, who played the last of his eight
Test matches in
2004, faces two counts of arson and if convicted he faces 25
years in prison
with hard labour. Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe adjourned the
trial to
January 30.
© Cricinfo