From: "Trudy Stevenson" Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 4:53 PM Subject:
Permanent Residents - Reclaim your Vote!
It is the constitutional
right of every Permanent Resident of Zimbabwe to vote:
“Constitution
of Zimbabwe ... Schedule 3.3 Qualifications and disqualifications for
voters 1) Subject to the provisions of this paragraph and to such
residence qualifications as may be prescribed in the Electoral Law for
inclusion on the electoral roll of a particular constituency, any person who
has attained the age of eighteen years and who- A) is a citizen of
Zimbabwe; or B) since the 31st December 1985 has been regarded by virtue of a
written law as permanently resident in Zimbabwe; Shall be qualified for
registration as a voter on the common roll.”
During the 2005 Presidential
election, many permanent residents were removed from the voters roll on the
infamous "Hit List" and not allowed to vote. This was completely
unconstitutional, and it appears that the Registrar General's Office now
recognises this fact, because now Permanent Residents of Zimbabwe are allowed
to register again.
You can register at any Registration Centre (Makombe
Building, Provincial Offices and in Harare at Market Square, Mt Pleasant,
Machipisa, Mabvuku and Hatfield District Offices) NOW, or at the many Voters
Roll Inspection Centres which will open on Monday 17 January until 30 January
ONLY. Permanent Residents currently outside the country should contact
their nearest Embassy or Consulate. You need to take your passport
with "Permanent Resident" stamped in it, plus a letter from
Immigration confirming your status. The letter should not be strictly
necessary, but officers are insisting on this.
Please reclaim your
vote NOW, to be ready to VOTE FOR A NEW BEGINNING FOR ZIMBABWE.
Trudy
Stevenson MP & Candidate, Harare North Constituency
Letter
1: THE WRONG TREVOR SHAW, received 10th January 2005 (Repeat) by
Patsy
Hi there
I read with interest the letters that have been
circulating regarding Trevor Shaw and his appeals for funds to feed
Joyce.
But please, make it known that there are TWO Trevor Shaws in the
Gweru area. 'Chicken Trevor' whose appeal went out and 'Beef Trevor' who is
NOT involved!!! 'Beef Trevor' has been in Australia and should not be
confused with 'Chicken Trovor'.
A lot of damage could be caused to
this young man if the record is not set straight!!!!!
I do not have an
email address for Debs and Jeff White, but, I would like them to know that
this is not one and the same the same person!!!
Letter
3: RE: TREVOR SHAW - FASCINATING DEBATE?, received 12.1.2005 by Rob
Gass
The on-going debate over Trevor Shaw's circular letter requesting
donations for Joyce Majuru has been fascinating to watch. I wonder how many
of the persons condemning Shaw would stand the scrutiny of ' Let he who is
without sin cast the first stone..'
The brief point that I would like
to make is that if from the very beginning of the outrageous and illegal
land-grab the attitude of white commercial farmers had been solidarity, then
the outcome would have been different.
The response of the farmers
should have been that ' what they do to one of us...they do to all of us'.
The collective and united power of the farmers particularly in the matter of
the supply of foodstuffs was a potential bargaining chip which was not
exploited.
Fortunately it is not to late to do the right thing. Get
together and let's see some REAL solidarity from the farmers! The divisive
bickering that you've been engaged in must be a source of great satisfaction
to the land thieves.
Letter
4: RE: CFU, received 10th January 2004 by Ted Galante
Dear
JAG,
Re the recent CFU appeal for funds it might be well to remember the
words of Sir Winston Churchill who said, "An appeaser is one who feeds
a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."
Letter
5: RE: Midlands CFU Chairman, received 8 January 2005
Editor, Farmer
Abroad
Displaced Zimbabwean farmers around the world were recently
treated to the inimitable CFU policy in writing - dialogue at any cost -
thanks to Joe Whaley supplying a copy of the letter from the Midlands CFU
Chairman. It is a little surprising that there should be any surprise at all
- following the CFU Presidential words "we are working with Government with
the land reform programme" in August 2002. This leopard does not change its
spots. The current CFU Vice President's open admission of good relations with
a Mr. Chinotimba as being the CFU's and Government's accepted new form
of Land Tenure instead of Title Deeds - this occurred in Bulawayo in
2003.
Has Trevor Shaw simply revealed the CFU/Government's new form of
Stamp Duty which will be payable on a regular basis?
David Hasluck put
it differently it seems. In his interview with Baffour Ankomah on his last
day as CFU Director, Hasluck quotes the Chief Justice as saying "Mr. Hasluck,
my court is going to deal with matters relating to land in the context of
what I see to be social justice." Hasluck is quoted to go on to say that "a
ginger group, not the whole organisation but a group of like minded white
farmers in and outside the union, joined together and started a movement
called Justice for Agriculture to deal, they said, 'only in truth' (he laughs
sarcastically). I believe I have deepened and strengthened the commitment of
our members to have dialogue. In my community, in Burma Valley, every farmer
is there. Here in Mashonaland, maybe 5%."
Joe Whaley bought a run down
300 acre property in the new Zimbabwe about twenty four years ago, with
borrowed money and developed it into one of the most intensive, efficient and
productive properties in Mashonaland West. Irrigation was developed for
tobacco, cereals, maize and roses to be produced. Millions of chickens were
reared. It was the ideal property for any party loyal member to get the nod
to commandeer - lock, stock and barrel of course - tractors, lorries and a
Cessna. Terry Ford's place next door was also desirable and 'appropriate'
measures had already been taken to liberate it - he paid the ultimate
price.
*Who can blame Mac Crawford or Gavin Conolly for withdrawing the
CFU's privelege of representing farmers from Matabeleland? *Who can criticize
Joe Whaley for holding the CFU accountable? - having served it for the
Poultry Producers Association in 2002 he knows its inner workings better than
most - and he has simply stood up for what is right, for his fellow farmers,
for the 250 000 employees that lost their jobs, and their families who are
now at the mercy of the State.
Letter
6: THE TRUTH AND THE LAW, received 10 January 2005 by Pro
Lege
Editor,
The goings on in the CFU are fascinating for
displaced farmers.
Perhaps the CFU could consider Stephen Covey's
words:
"Principles are like lighthouses. They are natural laws that
cannot be broken. As Cecil De Mille observed in the movie "The Ten
Commandments."
"It is impossible for us to break the law. We can only
break ourselves against the law."
Has the Govenrment lead the CFU into
a fish trap that is getting smaller and smaller at the one end, with no place
to do a U turn?
Pro Lege.
Letter 7: DOUG TAYLOR-FREEME'S COMMENTS,
received 12 January 2005 by Canaan Banana
Dear Jag,
I note
with interest Doug Taylor-Freeme's comments about this "let's lie on our
backs and be raped again" request from the Midlands branch of the CFU to it
few remaining members.
I'm glad to hear that it is not CFU policy or a
directive from Head Office. Whew..... that IS a relief !!
What I would
like to know is what exactly is the CFU policy when it comes to political
matters such as this ? And is it policy to have loose canon hair-brain
cringing letters being written under the CFU letterhead ?
If so, then the
CFU is an absolute disgrace and like ZAPU, maybe they should integrate their
organisation into zanuPF. Then they might be able to save themselves for a
while, at least. But just remember, as sure as the sun rises this regime will
not last, neither will their apparent close friend Mujuru. I recall her words
in 2000 to the land invaders calling on them to return with blood-soaked tee
shirts. Does the CFU remember that? Well, if they can't beat 'em, maybe they
should join 'em.
Quoting directly from Mr Taylor-Freeme's response "Your
are welcome to contact me directly for further discussion on this matter." It
is hoped that this is not an attempt to take this debate out of the public
forum. That surely won't happen as most thinking people have tried
direct communication with the CFU in the past, to no avail. Many of us didn't
even get the courtesy of a reply.
No, Mr Taylor-Freeme, this won't go
away in a hurry and it has made many of us very angry, very bloody
angry.
Letter
8: RE: MIDLANDS DISTRICT CFU LETTER, received 12 January 2005 by Helen
Clarke
Dear JAG,
My son is still living and working here, one of
the few young men trying to make sense of their lives in a truly hostile
environment. Where ones colour, be it black, white or brown edicts some
comment from the people the young men try to work with. Most youth, again
irrespective of their colour have had to leave the country. He deals with a
backward labour force and business comunity but still loves the
country.
The letter from the midlands district of the CFU and seeming
aquiecence to it by the CFU executive makes me truly wonder if there is any
future for him to strive for, in this, the country of his birth?
The
letter was truly disgraceful and until the comment was made by the executive
I was sure it was not serious.
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice for
Agriculture
(JAG).
------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE
JAG TEAM
JAG Hotlines: (091) 261 862 If you are in trouble or need
advice, (011) 205 374 (011) 863 354 please don't hesitate to contact us -
we're here to help! 263 4 799 410 Office Lines
Herald
Reporter SEVERAL residents of New Canaan in Highfield had their electrical
appliances such as radios, television sets and refrigerators worth millions
of dollars damaged on Monday evening owing to high voltage following a power
outage.
Residents in the affected area blamed Zesa Holdings for the
incident in which their electrical gadgets were burnt and might need huge
sums of money for repairs or in severe cases, replacement.
Mr Regai
Masuku, whose television and radio sets were damaged, blamed Zesa Holdings,
alleging the power utility did not notify people of their intention to do
repair work in the area.
This resulted in residents being caught unawares
by the power surge.
"We did not get any notice from Zesa Holdings but we
only realised that the power supply in our area was not normal.
"The
lights dimmed before we suddenly heard the radio and television making some
strange sounds that were accompanied by the heavy smell of smoke before we
saw the smoke being emitted from the appliances," said Mr Masuku.
Had
they known, he said, they could have unplugged their appliances.
Many
residents gave similar accounts of the incident that affected more than 100
houses in the area.
Some were lucky that their appliances were off at the
time while others had expensive appliances like digital videodisc players
(DVDs), video cassette recorders, stoves and satellite decoders
damaged.
Residents yesterday organised themselves and went to the Zesa
Holdings offices where they said they were moved from one office to another
without any help.
They expected Zesa Holdings to explain and
compensate them.
"We need millions of dollars to replace these gadgets
because obviously some of them cannot be repaired," said an irate Mrs
Kudambu.
When The Herald visited New Canaan, some residents whose stoves
were damaged among other appliances, were cooking outside using
fire.
At one house a stench from the refrigerator signified that the
appliance had been damaged and foodstuffs were rotting.
Efforts to
get a comment from Zesa Holdings were futile as the public relations manager
insisted she had not received questions from this paper.
ZANU PF DENIES FOOD TO MDC SUPPORTERS Thur 13 January
2005 HARARE - Ruling ZANU PF party councillors and the police have taken
over the vetting of hungry villagers requiring food under new distribution
procedures that could see opposition supporters sidelined.
Under the new procedures, which ZimOnline witnessed being implemented in the
Midlands province and in some parts of Manicaland, villagers must first get
a letter from the ZANU PF councillor of their local ward stating that they
should be allowed to buy cheaper priced maize from the government's Grain
Marketing Board (GMB).
But the prospective buyer must first produce
a ZANU PF membership card to get the letter of recommendation from their
councillor.
When a buyer gets the letter he then takes it to the
village head and to the local police who will verify and certify that they
reside in the area and must therefore be allowed to purchase
maize.
"Well known Movement for Democratic Change (MDC, Zimbabwe's
main opposition party) members do not get the purchase letters. A ZANU PF
party card is required before the councillor can give you the letter," said
Susan Chando, a villager in Lower Gweru district in the Midlands
province.
Chando said she was only able to get maize from the GMB
after joining ZANU PF three weeks ago. Several other villagers in the area
also said they had to produce ZANU PF cards to get permission to buy
maize.
The MDC's shadow minister for agriculture Renson Gasela also
confirmed that his party's supporters were being denied the letters allowing
them to buy maize if they failed to produce ZANU PF membership
cards.
He said: "I visited areas around Gweru (Midlands) last
weekend where the new procedure is being implemented. You have to be on the
list for you to access maize from the GMB and you also must have a ZANU PF
card to be registered by your local councillor."
Social Welfare
Minister Paul Mangwana could not be reached for comment on the matter.
Mangwana has in the past said that the government will distribute and sell
food to all who need it regardless of political affiliation.
GMB chief executive officer Samuel Muvuti denied that ZANU PF councillors
and the police had taken over vetting of people requiring food.
"It
is not true that there are new procedures for people to purchase maize from
the GMB," Muvuti said.
"People in Harare and Bulawayo (MDC
strongholds) are still receiving food from the GMB," Muvuti, a former
Zimbabwe army colonel, retorted when told that reporters had witnessed
villagers being asked to produce ZANU PF cards before they could get a
letter to buy maize.
The government last year told international
food relief agencies to take their aid elsewhere saying the country had
harvested enough to feed itself, claims which were later proved false by
Parliament.
Critics say the government wanted food aid groups out
of the country so it could manipulate food relief for political benefit
ahead of a crucial election in March. - ZimOnline
Mugabe vows not to reverse land reforms Thur 13 January
2005 JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe will press on with its land reforms despite
foreign opposition, President Robert Mugabe told a crowd of more than 30 000
people at celebrations to mark Zanzibar's 1964 anti-Arab
uprising.
Drawing parallels with the uprising that saw the Indian
ocean island's oppressed African population topple their Omani sultans,
Mugabe said in the same way Zanzibar will not reverse its revolution,
Zimbabwe will not reverse its controversial land
reforms.
"Zimbabwe and Zanzibar share a common history, a history
of struggle and resistance to all forms of colonial domination," the
Zimbabwean leader said.
He added: "My country faces retribution
by the West and that means being unfairly subjected to all kinds of
sanctions imposed as retribution for our embarking on a land reform
programme and following in your footsteps.
"We will not yield
to any pressure to reverse this programme, just as you would not yield to
any pressure to reverse your revolution."
Mugabe has seized
hundreds of white-owned farms in the last four years and parcelled them out
to black families denied land by successive colonial
governments.
But critics blame Mugabe's chaotic and often
violent land redistribution exercise for causing food shortages in Zimbabwe
because the government did not give the poor black peasants inputs or skills
training to maintain production on the farms.
Human rights
observers have also accused Mugabe of violating property rights and of
racism against whites, charges rejected by the Zimbabwean leader who insists
drastic measures were necessary to rectify an "immoral and unjust" land
tenure system that reserved 75 percent of the best farmland to the minority
whites while blacks were cramped on dry and sandy soils. - ZimOnline
Regional leaders pushing MDC to the polls: Tsvangiari Thur
13 January 2005 LUSAKA - Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says Zimbabwe
is now a pariah state because of repressive rule and economic mismanagement
by President Robert Mugabe and his government.
Addressing a
public forum during a stopover in Lusaka, Tsvangirai, who is touring the
region, said: "Our country is now being treated like a pariah state because
of some bad laws which the government has enacted. We have to change some of
the laws."
The opposition leader said his Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party was under pressure from southern African leaders to
contest a crucial election scheduled for March. But the party wants the
political field levelled first before deciding whether to participate in the
ballot, he said.
Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party deny
ruining the economy or using repression against opponents, instead accusing
the MDC of working to undermine the government's image and sabotage the
economy.
Tsvangirai said tough security laws that prohibit more
than three people from meeting without a police approval and press laws
requiring journalists to obtain licences to work prevented the opposition
from mobilising and had to be repealed.
The former trade union
leader said if elected, his MDC party would prioritise fixing Zimbabwe's
bleeding economy.
The party would also urgently revamp Zimbabwe's
crumbling public health and education sectors and sell away poor performing
state businesses. But it would retain in state hands control of power, water
utilities and the railway as assets strategic for development, Tsvangirai
said.
Tsvangirai was in Zambia for talks with President Levy
Mwanawasa on the March elections and presidential polls in 2008 when Mugabe
has indicated he might retire from office.
The MDC accuses
Mugabe and ZANU PF of rigging parliamentary elections in 2000 and 2002
presidential polls and wants new regional guidelines for democratic
elections implemented in Zimbabwe before agreeing to contest in March. -
ZimOnline
State drops charges against journalists Thur 13 January
2005 HARARE - Zimbabwe state prosecutors yesterday withdrew charges against
four journalists who reported that President Robert Mugabe had commandeered
an Air Zimbabwe plane to take him on holiday leaving passengers
stranded.
The journalists' lawyer, Linda Cook, told the Press that
prosecutors on Monday this week agreed to remove Vincent Kahiya, editor of
the weekly Zimbabwe Independent, the paper's special projects editor Iden
Wetherell and reporters Dumisani Muleya and Itai Dzamara from
remand.
The state agreed to drop the charges after the presiding
magistrate had pointed out that the four could not be kept on remand for a
year and had demanded that the state give the court a trial
date.
The four journalists were picked up at their homes almost a
year ago, detained in police cells for a weekend and charged with criminal
defamation of Mugabe and his government.
A report carried by
their paper alleged that Mugabe instructed the national airline to give him
one of its two long-haul jets to take him to Geneva and then used the plane
to fly him and his family to Malaysia for a seaside holiday.
The government denied the story with Information Minister Jonathan Moyo
denouncing the report as blasphemous.
Mugabe has been accused of
frequently cancelling Air Zimbabwe's schedules at short notice and ordering
the airline to fly him to his own personal destinations, inconveniencing
scores of enraged passengers and forcing them to wait, sometimes for days,
for the next flight.
Scores of journalists have been arrested and
brought to court in the last five years by the government under its harsh
media laws. But the state has to date failed to secure even a single
conviction. - ZimOnline
Business
Reporter THE cost of the monthly expenditure basket for a low-income urban
household of six people for December last year has soared to $1,7 million
from $1,6 million in November 2004, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ)
has said.
CCZ spokesperson Mr Tonderai Mukeredzi said the increase
depicts a marginal increase of 4,6 percent, with notable increases being
recorded in the prices of cooking oil, flour, rice, meat and washing
powders.
Since the prices of most commodities are inflation-driven, the
monthly expenditure basket for December was expected to decline.
The
country's annual inflation rate is currently pegged at 149,3 percent as at
November 30 2004 after shedding off a hefty 59,7 percentage points from
October's 209 percent.
"The increase in the overall basket was
largely due to increases in the prices of most commodities.
"White
sugar was the biggest mover, rising by about 20 percent, while notable
increases were also recorded in items such as cooking oil, flour, rice, meat
and non- food items like washing powder, to mention but a few."
"There
was a lot of price movement during the festive season as retailers took
advantage of envisaged consumers' spending power.
"It is surprising that
most producers and retailers continue citing inflation-induced costs for
rises in prices even when the economy is supposed to benefit from reduced
inflationary pressures," Mr Mukeredzi said.
The December basket includes
the price of roller meal, which was not included in the November basket as
it was out of stock in most retail outlets.
Among the major movers of
the basket in November were tea leaves, which rose by 28 percent and meat by
15 percent.
In spite of an increase in the tax-free portion of the bonus,
the consumer rights watchdog said the average consumer was still worse off
during the festive season as the new income tax threshold only came into
effect beginning this month.
While not many workers earn $5 million
to have derived any meaningful benefit from the non-taxed bonus, the
situation was made worse by some unscrupulous retailers who hiked the prices
of some essential products to take advantage of increased consumer spending
power.
The consumer watchdog believes there is no real justification for
the price rise in meat, rice and tea leaves, the third in as many
months.
The monetary and fiscal policies implemented by the Government
since the beginning of last year have ushered in a new culture of hope and
confidence in the economy.
Presenting the 2005 National Budget on
November 25 last year, the Acting Minister of Finance and Economic
Development, Dr Herbert Murerwa, told the nation that the Zimbabwe economy
had experienced a significant improvement in the supply response in the
productive sectors of the economy, especially mining and
agriculture.
There are indications of an improved economic outlook for
2005, with the economy projected to grow by between 3,5 percent and 5
percent.
Zimbabwe paper threatened over interview with
Archbishop
The Zimbabwean government's Media and Information
Commission has threatened to close down the country's latest newspaper, the
Weekly Times, within seven days after its first edition, which carried an
interview with Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo.
In a letter to
Mthwakazi Publishing House, publishers of the community-based paper,
commission chairman Tafataona Mahoso, accused the publishers of "lying" that
their paper would be a general news product when according to him it was
"running political commentary through and through."
Mahoso also took
offence that the paper, which published its first issue last week, had given
space to Catholic archbishop Pius Ncube, who is a known government
critic.
The commission chairman said the publishers should have sent him
copies of the first edition before selling them to the public.
The
government's media watchman said because of the alleged offences, he was
going to suspend or cancel the paper's registration certificate and gave the
publishers, "seven days, to show cause why your publishing licence should
not be suspended or cancelled."
Three newspapers including the
country's only independent and biggest circulating daily paper, the Daily
News, were shut in the last two years under tough state media
laws.
Mugabe seeks revolution against the
West --------------------------------------------------------------------------
ZANZIBAR, Wednesday
Zimbabwe will press on with its land
reforms despite foreign opposition, drawing strength from Zanzibar's 1964
anti-Arab revolt, President Robert Mugabe said on a visit to the former
slave-trading island today.
Mugabe, speaking at a sports
stadium on the tourist haven off Tanzania at celebrations to mark the 41st
anniversary of the rebellion, shouted "Mapinduzi" (Swahili for revolution)
and the crowd of more than 30,000 replied "Daima!" (forever). "Zimbabwe and
Zanzibar share a common history, a history of struggle and resistance to all
forms of colonial domination," he said, tracing parallels between Zimbabwe's
fight against British colonialism and Zanzibar's toppling of its Omani
sultans.
"My country faces retribution by the West and that means
being unfairly subjected to all kinds of sanctions imposed as retribution
for our embarking on a land reform programme and following in your
footsteps.
"We will not yield to any pressure to reverse this
programme, just as you would not yield to any pressure to reverse your
revolution."
Mugabe has seized hundreds of white-owned farms in the
last four years to resettle landless blacks, saying he was correcting
imbalances created by more than 90 years of British colonialism. His critics
say the seizures violated property rights and amount to racism against
whites.
He was speaking not far from the winding alleys of the main
Stone Town settlement, where African stevedores and porters rose up in
1964.
The Zanzibar uprising, hailed by an admiring Africa hungry
for independence, took its cue from the struggle against European
colonialism then sweeping the continent.
Misa-Zimbabwe Speaks Out On Threats to Close the 'Weekly
Times'
Media Institute of Southern Africa (Windhoek)
PRESS
RELEASE January 12, 2005 Posted to the web January 12,
2005
Windhoek
The Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA)-Zimbabwe notes with grave concern that the government-controlled
Media and Information Commission (MIC) is threatening to suspend or cancel
the registration certificate of the recently launched "Weekly Times"
newspaper, barely a week after it hit the streets.
The MIC's notice
to suspend or cancel the licence issued by its chairman Dr Tafataona Mahoso,
speaks volumes about the government's commitment to media freedom and
freedom of expression.
Dr Mahoso accuses Mthwakazi Publishing House,
publishers of the "Weekly Times", of having misled the Commission by not
stating its "true intention" in setting up the paper.
The MIC says
the paper had not made any attempt at impartial reporting in what it
describes as its "running political commentary through and through".
Dr
Mahoso cites the publication's lead story as "a clear sectarian view of the
President of Zimbabwe".
These assertions on the part of the Commission
smack of interference with the independence of the paper's editorial
policy.
The fact that Dr Mahoso intends to suspend or cancel the
publishing company's licence in terms of the widely condemned Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) under which the MIC has
wide discretionary powers to regulate the media industry, gives weight to
calls for the establishment of an independent self-regulatory media council
which is not subject to manipulation by the State or any other interest
groups.
It would appear from Dr Mahoso's notice of intention to close the
"Weekly Times" coming on the backdrop of the closure of the highly critical
"Daily News" and its sister publication, "The Daily News on Sunday",
followed by that of "The Tribune", that the MIC is there to serve the
interests of the State by protecting government officials from public
scrutiny.
While MISA-Zimbabwe acknowledges the need to regulate the media
industry, this should only be done by an independent media council for
purposes of ensuring the impartial adjudication of issues pertaining to the
ethical conduct of journalists.
Brown sees African poverty first hand Thursday, 13
Jan 2005 04:47 Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, has begun his
four-nation tour of Africa to promote Britain's leadership of the G8 and
European Union during 2005.
He is expected to outline Britain's
plans to boost aid and free trade and push for agreement on his brainchild -
the international finance facility - which aim to increase aid by 27 billion
pounds each year to the poorest nations.
He has called for the
international monetary fund, the world bank and the African development bank
(ADB) to write-off poor countries' debt.
Mr Brown has called for a "new
Marshall plan" for the continent - a reference to US-backed plan to rebuild
Western Europe in the aftermath of WWII.
Mr Brown started his visit
in Kenya where he met Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Peace Prize pro-democracy
campaigner.
With Mrs Maathai he planted a tree at a park where she and
three other women were brutally beaten by police in 1992.
He then
held talks with Kenyan president, Mwai Kibaki.
In Nairobi, the chancellor
visited classrooms and met teachers at Olympic Primary School on the edge of
Kibera, one of Africa's largest slum districts.
There he told
teachers: "I am very proud of what you are doing.
"We want to work with
you to provide universal primary education of the highest standard. We are
delighted you are making such progress and we want to help you do
more."
He later told journalists: "It is simply not acceptable in the
modern age for the rest of the world to stand by and have hundreds of
millions of children not getting the chance at education."
Mr Brown
has said 2005 will be "a make or break year" in the fight against global
poverty.
His words took on all the more significance after the Boxing Day
tsunami tragedy in the Indian Ocean.
Mr Brown is also expected to
visit Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa on his weeklong whistle-stop
tour.
He is expected to see an HIV/Aids orphanage in Tanzania and a
women's credit union in Mozambique before moving on to meet the commission
for Africa in Cape Town.
Michael Ancram, Conservative foreign
secretary spokesman, acknowledged the laudable intention to help Africa
escape poverty and oppression, but said Mr Brown's "atlas" had "a gaping
hole in that continent where mine shows Zimbabwe".
Meanwhile, Richard
Dowden of the Royal Society for Africa warned EU countries to reflect on
giving debt relief to Africa countries where governments were
unstable.
Mr Dowden said: 'In so many case in Africa the money is simply
being stolen or diverted into the president's own home area or spent on
white elephants.
"In those cases where the countries haven't been
punished for that then if you then gave them a whole lot of money through
debt relief or aid the same thing would happen again."
By Staff
Reporter Last updated: 01/13/2005 12:55:12 THE Zimbabwe Independent
newspaper moved swiftly this week to fire one of its reporters after he
TWICE misrepresented stories about the Botswana government.
Reporter
Itai Dzamara was dismissed from his job for what a source at the paper
described as "appalling sloppiness in reporting".
His latest fabricated
story carried by the paper last Friday claimed that Zimbabwe's opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai met Botswana President Festus Mogae during a
"private visit" over the Christmas holiday in Victoria Falls.
Botswana's
presidential spokesman Jeff Ramsay was swift in his response to the article.
While confirming that Mogae and his family were in Victoria Falls on a
"recreational visit" on 29 December, he said the President never met any MDC
representative.
"There is absolutely no truth to the story," he said in a
statement. "The President did not hold discussions with Tsvangirai or any
other MDC leader over the holidays. This is the second false story
concerning this Office to be published in the Zimbabwe Independent during
the past year under Itai Dzamara's by-line."
In January last year,
Dzamara doctored a statement from Ramsay (see Independent apology) to craft
a story claiming the Botswana government had called for a crackdown on
Zimbabwean immigrants.
The latest criticism stung the Independent editors
who moved with haste in showing Dzamara the door. It is believed that he was
recently asked to stop his contributions to a South African-based Zimbabwe
news site after his stories were questioned.
The Independent's editor
Vincent Kahiya was not answering his mobile phone on Wednesday and was said
to be out of the office. The paper's news editor Dumisani Muleya said he was
away in South Africa last week and referred all questions to
Kahiya.
The Independent's swift response was necessary to save the
paper's credibility, media observers said. The decision to relieve Dzamara
of his job, it was felt, was also a statement to the Botswana government --
which has not hidden its disillusionment with the Zimbabwe media -- that the
paper had no axe to grind.
Ramsay said: "It should be apparent that
this Office has no motive to deny the Zimbabwe Independent's report other
than the simple fact that it is blatantly untrue."
Njabulo Ncube & Felix
Njini 1/13/2005 7:39:07 AM (GMT +2)
MOST of the ZANU PF
heavyweights barred from participating in the primary elections to be held
this weekend remain sidelined as the party, which has sought to purge
dissenters from its ranks, stuck to its guns on its adopted affirmative
action policy.
The Financial Gazette is reliably informed that the
final list of participants in Saturday's primaries - to be announced
tomorrow - still excludes most officials whose candidacy was turned down by
provincial coordinating committees. Among the notable names missing
from the preliminary list compiled last week were ministers Jonathan Moyo,
Patrick Chinamasa and Sithembiso Nyoni. While their fate could not
be ascertained by the time of going to print last night, politburo sources
said ZANU PF's elections directorate would not budge over the
disqualification. The fate of the suspended provincial chairmen - July Moyo,
Mark Madiro, Daniel Shumba, Lloyd Siyoka, Jacob Mudenda and Themba Ncube -
was however sealed, the sources said. Insiders said yesterday the ZANU
PF national elections directorate had indicated it would not rescind the
decision to allocate a third of the seats to women despite demonstrations
against the policy, which seeks to provide up to 36 female candidates to the
final complement of 120 contestants on the ZANU PF ticket for the March
parliamentary elections. The move has been interpreted as intended to
appease the female constituency within and without the party.
Sources said the ruling party's elections directorate, which has been
accused of imposing candidates on the electorate in an internal row that has
spawned internecine conflict, has also barred Lazarus Dokora (Rushinga),
Elliot Chauke (Chiredzi South), Charles Majange (Chivi South), Paul Mazikana
(Guruve North) and Kindness Paradza (Makonde) from contesting the
primaries. "There is no going back on the quota system. The party has
taken a firm decision to allocate a third of the seats to women in each and
every province," said a senior ZANU PF politburo member. Also
dropped from the race is President Robert Mugabe's nephew, Leo Mugabe, who
was also eyeing Paradza's Makonde constituency. The sources said
President Mugabe had expressed discomfiture with the main Makonde
contestants - Leo and the embattled Paradza - and ordered that the
constituency be set aside for female candidates. Dzikamai Mavhaire and
Eddison Zvobgo Jnr, both of whom were interested in the Masvingo Central
constituency, have also been left in the cold. Shylet Uyoyo has been
thrust on the Masvingo Central constituency, while Priscilla Mupfumira, who
had initially registered her interest in contesting for the Chinhoyi
constituency, is likely to be shifted to Makonde. Two little-known
female candidates will battle it out for Tsholotsho, long coveted by
Jonathan Moyo. Insiders said the ZANU PF elections directorate had thwarted
Moyo's impassioned appeal against the imposition of a woman candidate in the
constituency. The policy to reserve 30 percent of the candidatures for
female contestants has brewed controversy in ZANU PF, with some aggrieved
male politicians warning the move would divide the party and cost it crucial
votes in March. "There was lack of preparation and proper
identification of competent female candidates. Some were even called from
the crowd to submit their CVs. Most of them had not even bothered to apply,
let alone campaign," said a ZANU PF legislator who lost out due to the quota
system. Jonathan Moyo, who lodged his appeal last week, accused senior
officials in the party of being "unfair". Moyo is particularly piqued by the
fact that he was sidelined after mobilising vast resources to wrest the seat
from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Party sources
said the female quota system had created fresh fissures within the
faction-riddled ZANU PF, with affected men considering standing as
independents. Elliot Manyika, the ZANU PF political commissar, said on
Tuesday a full list of candidates would be announced tomorrow. ZANU
PF's supreme decision-making organ, the politburo, also meets tomorrow to
consider the names vetted by the elections directorate, to give the final
word on the candidates to participate in the primaries. President
Mugabe was on Monday forced to drive to the ZANU PF headquarters to pacify
an angry mob protesting against the alleged imposition of
candidates.
THE Grain
Marketing Board (GMB), which is currently grappling with a worsening grain
deficit, has sought to shift blame to millers, accusing them of hoarding the
commodity and "creating artificial shortages."
As the nation
faces the grim reality of yet another shortage of the staple grain, the
monopolistic GMB, which has been at the centre of disputed figures of last
season's maize yield, this week threatened to cancel the operating licences
of 16 milling companies, charging that they could have exported grain
sourced locally, creating a deficit that has been felt in the
market. GMB marketing director Zvidzai Makwenda told The Financial
Gazette that the parastatal, a perennial loss-maker, was now carrying out an
audit of all grain stocks allocated to millers. Harare's retail
outlets have been without mealie-meal for the past two weeks, heightening
apprehension among consumers, who faced chronic shortages of the basic
commodity between 2001 and 2002 after the government had lulled the nation
into a false sense of security over the food situation. The GMB has
been importing maize from neighbouring South Africa on a weekly
basis. GMB officials are reported to have instituted an investigation
to ascertain how 3 600 tonnes of maize grain sold to Harare milling
companies this past week had been used. A 2001 statutory instrument
gave the GMB a virtual monopoly over the marketing and distribution of
strategic grains - maize and wheat - and requires all millers intending to
purchase grain from the parastatal to be licenced. "We are carrying
out investigations to establish what happened to the maize grain sold to the
millers this week and part of last week," Makwenda said. He
threatened that millers exporting or holding on to the grain for speculative
purposes would have their licences revoked. "We have urged millers to
produce and desist from hoarding the grain. The situation should come under
control," added Makwenda. GMB requires US$27 million (Z$165 billion) to
import 222 554 tonnes of grain to replenish the country's depleted grain
stocks. The parastatal incurred a $302 billion loss in 2004 due to
sub-economic pricing. In 2003 GMB recorded a $24.8 billion loss.
The GMB is purchasing maize at $130 000 per tonne and selling it to local
millers at $9 600 per tonne.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
mogul Strive Masiyiwa's Econet Wireless Holdings has broken into the banking
industry following its $1.5 billion acquisition of a 10 percent stake in
Kingdom Financial Holdings Limited (KFHL).
The deal, executed
through a special bargain for 35.8 million shares, went through the Zimbabwe
Stock Exchange (ZSE) on January 6 2005 and was handled by Kingdom
Stockbrokers, a KFHL subsidiary, sources indicated this week. It
will now pave way for the appointment of Econet's representatives to the
KFHL board of directors. The telecommunications group's entry into
Kingdom, one of the few locally owned banks to survive a financial sector
crisis that has resulted in the closure of at least 10 institutions, comes a
few days before an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders expected to
approve a recapitalisation scheme. This will be the first step by
KFHL to raise capital amounting to $100 billion, a proposal already
supported by Econet and other existing shareholders constituting about 60
percent of the KFHL's share capital. The sources said that Econet had
bought the shares - totalling 35 million at a special bargain price of $40
per share - from a vehicle linked to KFHL founder and former chief executive
officer, Nigel Chanakira. Chanakira, who resigned as the banking
group's deputy chairman in November 2004, has been a director of Econet
since its listing on the ZSE in 1998. Sources said the
Johannesburg-based Masiyiwa, personally took interest in the transaction,
which analysts said is meant to cushion his long-time ally Chanakira, from
being diluted by other players in the diversified financial group.
An Econet spokesman confirmed the transaction, saying the telecommunications
group viewed the acquisition as a strategic investment and were likely to
increase their shareholding in the banking group. "This is a strategic
investment for us and eventually we would be keen to be at par with Meikles
Africa as KFHL's major institutional investor," said the spokesman.
Meikles Africa is the major shareholder in KFHL with a 24.73 percent stake,
while institutional investment giant Old Mutual comes second with a 10.18
percent interest. "Although a lot of banks had been pursuing a tie-up
with Econet because of its strong cash position, KFHL has always had the
edge because of its historical relationship with Econet," the spokesman
said. Among its various investments in the telecommunications and
information technology sectors, Econet is the major shareholder in
Transaction Processing Systems, a company providing IT and electronic
banking services to the country's financial services sector. The
telecommunications group said while it would continue with its relationship
with other banking sector companies, it would use its latest share ownership
opportunity in KFHL to grow the bank using the latest technology available
to the sector. The transaction positions Econet to participate in the
forthcoming recapitalisation exercise, should shareholders approve the
resolution at the January 17 EGM.
OUT-of-luck
businessman Mutumwa Mawere has threatened to throw the spanners into the
proposed ZimRe Holding Limited (ZHL) capital-raising project, which will
effectively diminish his influence over the diversified insurance
giant.
Mawere, who tops the Zimbabwe police's list of business
tycoons who fled the country after the unearthing of widespread corporate
corruption last year, is miffed by attempts by ZHL to float a $60 billion
rights issue believed to be targeted at weakening his influence in the
group. The businessman, whose relations with the government moved from
one extreme to the other, is seeking to block the jumbo rights offer, which
is likely to whittle down his shareholding from 46.55 percent to a paltry 10
percent. Mawere's lawyers Costa and Madzonga this week launched an
appeal against the rights offer to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) chief
executive Emma-nuel Munyukwi, imploring the exchange to their client's
imperiled rights. The ZSE appeal is a precursor to a possible High
Court interdict to stop the rights offer, by the embattled former ZANU PF
sympathizer who the authorities say is a fugitive from justice.
"ZHL management, with a board that has not been properly constituted, came
up with the proposal for a rights issue whose merit has not been sold to the
major shareholders," read part of the letter written to the stock exchange
authorities. Mawere, in his eleventh-hour desperate attempt to serve
his investments, is arguing that the specification of ZHL shareholders had
an ulterior motive. ZHL proposed a four-for-one renounceable rights
offer of 2.9 billion shares, each with a nominal value of 10 cents, at a
price of $20.50. Shareholders unable to follow their rights in the
scheme, which is still subject to shareholder approval at an extraordinary
general meeting slated for January 28, would see the value of their stock
being diluted by as much as 80 percent, analysts said. Endurite
Properties, which is currently the largest ZHL shareholder with a 24.32
percent stake and Ukubambana Kubatana Investments (UKI), second largest
shareholder with 22.23 percent, are some of Mawere's firms specified by the
government in August 2004, after it failed to extradite him from South
Africa to face charges of foreign currency externalisation. First Bank,
underwriters to the proposed rights issue, looks set to emerge as a major
shareholder with a cross-shareholding structure with ZHL, which owns 21
percent of First Banking Corporation Holdings (FBCH). "We are informed
that NSSA whose chairman is Mr E (Edwin) Manikai is the instrument through
which government wants to take control of the company while using the
specification to ensure that our clients (Mawere) have no opportunity of
raising capital when the companies are under investigation," reads the
letter. Edwin Manikai could not be reached for comment at the time of
going to print. An investigator appointed by the government in
August last year to probe the Mawere businesses is yet to produce any report
of his findings. In a telephone interview, Mawere queried why a report
from the investigator has not been produced five months down the line. "Was
the specification for the purpose of dispossession?" asked Mawere.
"Has the report from the investigator been furnished to Endurite or UKI as
required by law, where are the interim findings. This is no longer in the
national interest but there are businessmen using the state machinery for
their own benefit," Mawere charged. "This raises our suspicion that
specification is nothing but a strategy to expropriate our client's rights,"
Mawere's law-yers argued in the letter.
MOVEMENT for
Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai took his diplomatic
offensive to Zambia on Tuesday where he briefed President Levy Mwanawasa of
Zimbabwe's level of preparedness to fully comply with new electoral
guidelines ahead of the March parliamentary polls.
MDC insiders
told The Financial Gazette Mwanawasa's ruling Movement for Multiparty
Democracy (MMD) had informed President Robert Mugabe's government over
Tsvangirai's visit to Lusaka to avert a possible diplomatic fallout with
Harare. The consultative talks with Mwanawasa come as regional pressure
continues to mount on the main opposition party to participate in the
forthcoming parliamentary elections. The insiders said Tuesday's
talks centred on Zimbabwe's forthcoming polls set for March this year.
Mwanawasa, they said, had implored on the MDC leader to contest the polls,
as it emerged that Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders had
vowed not to accept a flawed election in Zimbabwe, a former regional leading
light-turned problem child. "We are in Zambia to discuss the political
and economic impasse that has beset Zimbabwe," said Tsvangirai upon his
arrival at Lusaka airport. The MDC leader toured Zambia with MDC
national treasurer Fletcher Dulini-Ncube. Tsvangirai, who faces
another treason trial this month, arrived in Lusaka on Sunday and held a
closed door meeting with the MMD's national secretary Vernon Mwaanga before
proceeding to hold a closed door meeting with President Mwanawasa.
Mwaanga said the MDC leader, who has so far met more than 25 leaders in
Africa and Europe in the past few months following his acquittal in the
first treason case in October last year, was a guest of the Zambian
government. "The Zimbabwean government has been notified of his
visit," said Mwaanga. MDC officials said their leader was on the
second leg of a tour of African states, three months before the
parliamentary polls. Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, the MDC shadow
minister of foreign affairs, said the tour to Zambia was a continuation of
the opposition leader's diplomatic initiative. "He is updating SADC
leaders on Zimbabwe's compliance or non compliance with SADC guidelines and
principles. He is expected back home today or tomorrow," said
Misihairabwi-Mushonga. In August, the MDC announced a decision to
boycott elections until President Mugabe's government fully implemented
guidelines and principles for democratic elections adopted by SADC heads in
Mauritius. The government has implemented some of electoral reforms but
the MDC and other opposition groups have dismissed them as cosmetic, as the
government has gone ahead to clamp down on democratic space through the
passing of laws such as the Non-governmental organisation (NGO) Bill and the
tightening of the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy
Act (AIPPA).
THE ZANU PF
government, under immense pressure to level the electoral playing field as
Zimbabwe's crucial parliamentary polls draw closer, is partially opening the
airwaves to opposition political parties.
But analysts are hardly
impressed. They say the development is intended to hoodwink regional leaders
into believing that the government is committed to the Mauritius
protocol. In what government critics say is an unprecedented shift, the
state broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings, formerly Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), interviewed Welshman Ncube, the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) secretary general, last week to clarify his party's
position regarding the parliamentary election, set for March.
During the same week, an official from ZANU Ndonga, the tribal-based
opposition political party with a single seat in the 120-member Parliament,
was also interviewed on the popular vernacular radio station Radio
Zimbabwe. Media activists said this week they had also noted that
opposition politicians, especially those from the main opposition MDC, were
also being "positively" covered in the public print media. Remius
Makuwaza, the MDC director of elections, was widely quoted in the
state-controlled Herald of last Thursday, while another ZANU Ndonga official
was also quoted, confirming his party's participation. Analysts who
spoke to The Financial Gazette this week said the increasingly ostracised
ZANU PF government, which for the past five years had effectively shut out
the opposition from the public media, was under pressure to comply with the
minimum standards set by Southern African Development Commu-nity (SADC)
heads of state for the staging of democratic elections, which included
granting unlimited access to opposition parties in the public
media. Elections held since the emergence of the MDC as a major
political force have severely dented President Rob-ert Mugabe's
legitimacy. The main opposition party, which the government accuses of
being a Western front for effecting regime change, claims that ZANU PF used
bullying, intimidation and outright violence against MDC supporters in the
last round of parliamentary and presidential elections. The
analysts said with the country's elections three months away, the government
would like to be seen to be adhering to some of the guidelines and
principles agreed by SADC in Mauritius last August, as ZANU PF was no longer
guaranteed the support of African states and institutions, which had given
the Zimbabwe government the benefit of the doubt and, with it, vestiges of
legitimacy. Member states are not, however, legally obligated to adopt the
SADC principles. While President Mugabe's government has approved some
of the changes agreed by SADC, such as conducting voting in one day and the
use of translucent boxes, among other measures, the ruling party has
maintained a grip on the public media to the exclusion of all dissenting
voices. Public media institutions have frequently been used to carry
virulent anti-opposition propaganda. Brian Kagoro, the chairman of
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a grouping encompassing 350 civil society
organisations, doubted the government's sincerity in granting access to the
opposition and non-governmental organisations with an interest in the
forthcoming polls. Kagoro said the cosmetic changes recently noted in
the state media were meant to hoodwink people into believing that the
opposition in Zimbabwe had access to ZBH and state newspapers.
"This regime has mastered the art of window-dressing," said Kagoro. "They
want the world to believe that the opposition has access to the public
media. The appearance of opposition politicians on national television is
for window-dressing purposes, nothing else. The truth of the matter is that
opposition political parties have no access to the public media, period," he
added. Takura Zhangazha, a media activist with the Media Institute
of Southern Africa, said: "The government is not being honest by pretending
to grant media access to the opposition. "The MDC is an important
stakeholder in the political culture of Zimbabwe. It should be given
consistent media coverage . . . not only when elections are around the
corner. The opposition must be allowed to flight their campaign adverts as
well as buy airtime to educate the electorate about their party
policies." Recently, ZBH reportedly declined to air MDC advertisements,
in a clear sign that opposition parties were still far from getting access
to the public media, which continue to show blatant bias towards the ruling
ZANU PF party. Information minister Jonathan Moyo - who has
presided over the entrenchment of a starkly pro-ZANU PF stance in the
government-owned press - and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa have
recently stated that the public media would only be open to a "loyal and
patriotic opposition".
It's fuzzy maths. That is the only
way to describe the Southern African Development Commu-nity (SADC) Gender
and Development Dec-laration quota system.
The gender policy,
which was adopted in 1997, requires national governments to reserve 30
percent out of the total number of decision-making and public service posts
for women. Governments were given a deadline to meet these targets by
the end of this year, but events on the ground make it very doubtful that
any SADC country will pass the test. The 30 percent quota system
has generated considerable interest in Zimbabwe because of the ascendancy of
former freedom fighter Joyce Mujuru to the position of
Vice-President. The ruling ZANU PF late last year invoked the SADC
declaration to instruct its 10 provinces to nominate a woman candidate to
fill the vacancy created by the death of Vice-President Simon Muzenda in
2003. In his enigmatic "I have a dream" remark, President Robert Mugabe
gave a very clear hint that Mujuru could be his anointed successor as the
country's next President. Mujuru's appointment was, however, not
welcomed by everyone in the ruling party. As the Tsholotsho indaba, which
was allegedly organised to derail the historic appointment, has
demonstrated, there was outright opposition to her candidacy.
Mujuru's rise to the top has, in fact, been unique in a controversial way in
that it has claimed an unprecedented number of political causalties. Most of
those linked to the Tsholotsho meeting have been punished in one way or
another. In addition, speculation has been rife that the ruling party
presidium's decision to elevate Mujuru was not exactly underpinned by a
commitment to gender balance. Rather, critics say, it came in handy
as a way to thwart the political ambitions of Speaker of Parliament Emmerson
Mnangagwa. Whether this is true or not is another matter. The
policy has also been invoked to bar certain individuals from contesting
party primary elections. The male aspirants were simply told the
constituency was being reserved for women. The question that still
needs to be asked, however, is whether the SADC policy planners who crafted
this quota system mean business. It has never been explained how they
arrived at the figure of 30 percent when it is an established fact that
women constitute the majority in the populations of all the relevant SADC
countries. In Zimbabwe, for example, women constitute 52 percent of the
population. As this is the trend in the rest of the SADC countries, the
effect of this half-hearted approach will be the same across the entire
region. Affirmative action programmes have been undertaken in
countries such as the United States to redress discrimination against women
and minorities. These have shown that a much more aggressive approach is
needed to enforce the relevant laws. The US Equal Employment
Oppor-tunity Commission (EEOC), for example, is backed up by various
enforcement agencies with powers to take legal action or institute other
punitive measures against non-compliers. As an example, discrimination
in employment - hiring, salaries, fringe benefits, etc - on the basis of
colour, race, sex, religion or national origin is prohibited under an
executive order. A federal enforcement agency, the Office of Federal
Contract Compliance, is responsible for making sure that affected
organisations comply with the stipulated conditions. The
enforcement agency is empowered to bar flouters of the anti-discrimination
regulations from getting federal contracts and grants. Culprits also stand
to lose any federal funding they have already received. However,
despite this vigilance, the EEOC has still struggled with huge backlogs of
discrimination charges, which needed to be investigated and
resolved. The SADC Gender and Development Declaration glaringly
lacks an enforcement mechanism and a regime of sanctions for non-compliance.
It depends solely on governments to voluntarily honour their
obligations. It is safe to say it is too much to expect some of the
governments, which have no qualms about flouting principles pertaining to
democratic governance, the rule of law or human rights, to lose any sleep
over gender balance. They are bound to do everything possible to find
loopholes or resort to other tactics to delay or avoid having to implement
the policy. On their part, the SADC policy formulators have
demonstrated a lack of political will and commitment through their
preparedness to promote an unfair quota system. By what mathematical formula
did these bureaucrats calculate that groups of people who represent the
majority in most SADC countries are entitled to only a third of the national
political cake? The purpose of quota systems and affirmative action
programmes is to enable previously disadvantaged segments of the population
such as minorities and women to catch up in different spheres of human
endeavour. The SADC Gender and Development Declaration quota, which set the
30 percent benchmark, could prove counter-productive in the long run. It can
have the effect of actually institutionalising the gender imbalances it is
purportedly seeking to eradicate. Most governments will not meet
the 30 percent quota. The few that will comply will pat themselves on the
back for a half-baked achievement. The affected segment of the population
will, however, have no cause to celebrate until the SADC policy planners get
their maths right.
BULAWAYO - ZANU PF,
which is banking on chiefs to deliver the crucial rural vote in the March
general election, could be in for a rude awakening as some headmen, who are
considered as chiefs by their people but are a rung below, are disgruntled
by the huge gap between their allowances and those of the top traditional
leaders.
The ruling party, which opposition parties claim scraped
through the 2000 elections using violence and intimidation, has changed tact
and is now aiming for a clean victory that will bring legitimacy back to
President Robert Mugabe's administration and pave the way for a noble exit
for the man who has ruled the country for the past 25 years. Chief
Fortune Charumbira, a traditional leader and Deputy Minister of Local
Government, dismissed the complaints from the headmen, saying they were not
justified. The headmen had complained that while they were regarded as
chiefs by their people, their allowances were a pittance compared to those
of the chiefs. Chiefs are paid a monthly allowance of $1 million
and have been promised Mazda B18000 trucks, electricity and potable water at
their homesteads. Headmen are paid an allowance of $400 000. "The
gap is just too wide, yet we do most of the donkey work," one headman
complained. "Besides, we do not have any representation . . . Chief
Charumbira and Chief Jonathan Mangwende (president of the chiefs' council)
represent the interests of chiefs and not those of headmen."
Charumbira said the headmen who were complaining had got it all wrong. He
said while he acknowledged that headmen were regarded as chiefs by their
people, chiefs were still above them and should in fact be kings.
"Headmen are not deputies of chiefs because a chief can have up to six
headmen below him. This is not a typical job evaluation or grading system
because you only have three levels - the chief, headman and village head,"
he said. "The person who does most of the work is the village head
anyway. Yet he only gets $40 000, way below the allowance of a
headman." Charumbira said the argument that headmen should be paid more
because they did more work did not hold water because even in the private
sector, workers did most of the work but their wages were far below the
salaries and perks of management. While it was not possible to
establish the extent of the disgruntlement among headmen, the ruling party
is banking on them to deliver this year's crucial vote. Zimbabwe has about
260 chiefs and more than 400 headmen. The party, which is now
shying away from violence, is using traditional leaders as its trump card
because they can ensure that their subjects vote for the ruling party in
return for the favours they have been bestowed by the government.
An opposition legislator who has been watching recent polls admitted this
was a new tactic that could earn the ruling party clean votes. He said the
new scheme had already been successfully tested in the Gutu North and Lupane
by-elections which had both been won by the ruling party. There was no
marked violence in both by-elections though the presence at polling stations
of traditional leaders, who seemed to be keeping track of who had voted and
who had not, was intimidating enough to keep their followers in
line. ZANU PF has given chiefs more powers in the run-up to the
election, allowing them to fine people up to $100 million. The party also
used them to distribute seed to the people, a move aimed at ensuring that
come elections, it would be pay back time. But cracks are beginning
to emerge within ZANU PF, with different groups trying to capitalise on the
desperation by the ruling party to secure a victory in the forthcoming
polls. First, the party was threatened with a split following the
bulldozing of Joyce Mujuru to the post of vice-president, a move that led to
the now famous Tsholotsho Declaration which has seen key campaigners in
President Robert Mugabe's anti-West propaganda, Jonathan Moyo and Patrick
Chinamasa, being excluded from the polls. At the moment, party
supporters are disgruntled with the imposition of candidates who will be
contesting primary elections this weekend. Any divisions among
traditional leaders could be the last straw, something the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change could capitlise on. But Zimbabwe's main
opposition seems to be taking a laissez faire attitude towards the whole
election process.
Controversy continues to dog the food security
situation in Zimbabwe - Southern Africa's erstwhile regional bread basket.
The country's confusing food security puzzle last week sparked yet another
political storm.
The furore touched off by an equally puzzling
statistical haze over the food situation pits on one hand, the government,
which has hardly behaved like it has nothing to hide and on the other
international aid agencies, humanitarian organisations and the opposition
political parties - all of which government accuses of ulterior
motives. This is because the food situation is one of the more
contentious issues in Zimbabwean politics - which explains why there has
always been this unfortunate ill-feeling between government and
Western-backed aid and humanitarian agencies, some of whom have indeed not
been working in Zimbabwe's best interests. The Zimbabwean
government is wary of the influence of Western governments, which have
persistently accused it of a democratic deficit and of allegedly exploiting
politics of the stomach by using food aid, particularly amongst vulnerable
groups, as a weapon to coerce them to vote for it. The thinking in
government is therefore that food relief from aid agencies provides its
Western detractors with a perfect heaven-sent opportunity to whip up
emotions against it from a population gripped by disenchantment and fear of
starvation - in order to effect regime change. Hence the haggling where
government insists on claims of self-sufficiency while its critics say that
the nation has again been led up the garden path insofar as the food
security situation is concerned. The figure of 2.4 million tonnes projected
harvest of the staple maize for the 2003/2004 season bandied about some few
months ago by the government, which unfortunately faces a severe crisis of
confidence when it comes to issues pertaining to State held records - thanks
to Ministers like Dr Joseph Made who touch nothing they do not dehydrate -
is thought to be a gross overstatement for political reasons.
Critics maintain that the regional bread basket-turned-basket case could not
have produced more than 1.3 million tonnes of maize in the 2003/2004
agricultural season - 500 000 tonnes short of the annual national
requirement. According to the critics, therefore, figures in government's
estimates were just plucked from the air. Government, on its part,
dismisses this as an alarmist stance taken by those desperate for not only a
regime change but discrediting the land reform as well - to give credence to
claims that the land reform programme was the seal of death for the once
vibrant agricultural sector which had the single biggest sectoral
contribution to the country's gross domestic product. Indeed given this
confusing scenario, as indicated in one of our comments of five months ago,
the question is, if reason consists of seeing things the way they really
are, why then do we have these striking discrepancies in the figures on the
food situation? Unfortunately caught in the middle of this haggling are
the ordinary people who, in the previous food debacle, experienced the
sharpest edge of the knife. In the past when Zimbabwe experienced acute
shortages of food, after repeated official assurances on the food situation,
it is they who suffered the most. Put simply, they wear the shoe and
therefore know how and where it pinches. This is the very reason
why the people get increasingly worried when this war of words between
government and aid agencies over the food situation does nothing more than
muddy the waters, so to speak. To get a semblance of a clearer picture of
the food situation, the people would have to rely on reading between the
lines - that is if basic commodities haven't started disappearing from the
shops. Yet the government has the data. That is why we are of the view
that no matter how polarised the political situation in the country is,
there is no need for government to over-state figures regarding the food
supply situation or for those on the other side of the political divide to
exaggerate the "crisis". It is not about political point-scoring. Most
importantly the government should come clean on the food situation so that
various critical stakeholders would not be found asleep at the switch. There
is clearly need for a paradigm shift in the way the authorities have been
handling the food security situation. Instead of the current short-sighted
and narrow self-serving public posturing of painting a rosier-than-real
picture of the situation on the ground, government should order its various
arms that handle the issue to release figures that reflect the true
situation, no matter how ominous, on public interests grounds. The
last time the government was economic with the truth, the nation was lulled
into a false sense of security and inevitably found itself stuck in awkward
scrapes. That the less-than convincing Grain Marketing Board - which only
recently got into a scapegoating mode when it faced the Parliamentary
Portfolio Committe on Lands and Agriculture which was trying to ascertain
the situation as regards last year's harvest, claiming that it had nothing
to do with crop forecasting - this week tried to assure the nation on the
food situation does little to assuage the general perception that the
country could plunge into yet another food crisis. While we are aware
of the need to withhold information in the areas of national security and
law enforcement, it is our considered view that there would be no prejudice
to national interest posed by the release of figures on the food security
situation which remains very much a subject to the public interest test. If
there could be any "harm" posed to state interest that "harm" would
certainly not outweigh the public interest that could be served through the
release of such information.
EDITOR-I wish to register my
concurrence with the writer of the article on the real cause of
accidents.
Our traffic police are more concerned about making sure
only the buses and kombis adhere to the rules of the road not because they
value human life, but because they are after the wallets these guys
carry. The focus of the Traffic Police seems to be on making money than
making the roads safe. This is the reason why our traffic accident
statistics always seem to get worse. At the moment we have haulage
trucks and tractors as the biggest hazard on the highways. These guys have a
habit of parking their trucks on the road without any reflective warning
anywhere and as such there have been many people dying after crushing into
these vehicles, but no one has done anything about it. As for the
tractors 95 percent of them have no lights but you find them on the roads at
night. The other thing that boggles me is why the police continue to buy
cars for which there are no spares. Recently they introduced the 306's.
Does the Police Commissioner know that Peugeot has stopped manufacturing
these models and it only follows that very soon their spares will be hard to
come by.
Rutendo
Harare
---------------- Harare: daredevil-driver
land
1/13/2005 7:46:18 AM (GMT +2)
EDITOR-Having
read Richard Wiley's article on speeding, I fully agree with the
author.
I travel up to Zimbabwe on a regular basis and what never
ceases to amaze me is the reckless attitude displayed by most drivers in
Harare. I was the unfortunate victim of a hit-and-run on Nov 21 2004 at
the intersection of Fife Ave and Fourth Street. Some suicidal maniac driving
a dark blue ex-Jap Mazda Capella came through the intersection at breakneck
speed (must have been doing 100kph at least!) and as a result I collided
with his/her car. The culprit then sped off and my efforts to chase
him were unsuccessful-after all, he/she went through all the intersections
at the same horrific speed. Of course the police were
unable/unwilling to track down the idiot. I now have to foot the bill for
repairs to my car (about R30,000), never mind the loss in value due to the
accident. After this incident I was a very cautious driver and I began
to notice the atrocious manner in which Harare drivers go about their
business. The red light doesn't mean anything to them, as long as the
intersection still has no vehicles in it it's fair game! Michael
C South Africa
--------------- Probe urban councils
now
1/13/2005 7:46:41 AM (GMT +2)
Editor-I think
there is need to launch an impartial investigation into the state of affairs
at Zimbabwe's local authorities, in particular the Harare and Bulawayo city
councils.
This is in light of the financial mess at these councils
and how, all of a sudden, they are failing to pay their workers. I
believe the investigations should also extend to the parent Ministry of
Local Government because that could be where the problems are coming from.
For instance, over the past few years the ministry has refused to approve
well-thought-out budgets submitted by councils, all in the interest of
protecting residents! Here is where the irony lies - trying to protect
residents by ensuring that the service providers don't have the muscle to
provide essential services.
Elections again! This year is an
election year. Again! So soon! Before past election promises have been
fulfilled, we are already having another election once more! Isn't it
unfair?
Just before those people who were clobbered in the past
election have had enough time to fully recover - if ever they will - another
election is upon them. This may mean another round of abuse - beatings,
rape, murder, you name it - in exchange for more empty promises.
Are elections meant to bring nothing to the people, but misery only? Maybe
only here in Zimbabwe and some few other crazy countries where sleeping in
Parliament is still regarded as an achievement in life. Or are there really
any tangible benefits accruing from our elections? Elections, yes, can
really bring something, other than misery, to the people . . . something
worth showing off later even if promises remain unfulfilled. At
least if standards set in Tsholotsho are anything to go by. Imagine if
all aspiring candidates in Zimbabwe's past five general elections, two
presidential elections, dozens of parliamentary by-elections and hundreds of
local authority elections and by-elections were using campaigning standards
recently set in Tsholotsho. Wouldn't this country have become Africa's first
developed country long time ago? All those who have been following what
has been happening in Tsholotsho over the past year or so will understand
what CZ is referring to. Donation after donation, project after
project, scholarship fund for all children - disadvantaged or not - you name
it, and in no time the area is known to everyone because that is where
things are happening. By these standards, if this had been done by all
aspiring candidates - even those who end up not qualifying - in all
elections, big and small, surely there would be no reason today why this
country would still be stuck where it is today. No ways! Roads
would be there, dams would be there, everyone would have two houses each, we
would be having unfettered access to education, health and all the good
things we dream of. Life would just be sweet, thanks to elections!
Look at what has been taking place in those areas where some aspiring
politicians are trying to copy the standards set by pacesetters in
Tsholotsho. In Glen Norah, where Cde Chinos is trying to settle
after that humiliating loss in a Highfield by-election, when residents
complain of transport blues, he just unleashes ZUPCO buses in
abundance. When they complain of searing poverty, he donates food,
blankets, hundreds of pairs of zhing-zhong shoes and bales of second - if
not third - hand clothes, including underwear. When they complained
of life-threatening boredom, he introduced a soccer tournament in his name.
What more would one want? The same is happening in areas like Masvingo
South, Mutoko North and Chitungwiza. And imagine what would happen if all
politicians would be this creative and generous! In Chitungwiza, we
were only told last weekend that a massive housing project has just started
- a project to deliver 60 000 housing units before yesterday! This
all because election time is upon us. Please don't ask CZ where these
resources are coming from or whether they are well or ill-gotten. He is also
one of those people who are wondering how come some of these brothers who
were recently as poor as a church-mouse have suddenly become ultra-rich as
to be this generous. But you see elections can be useful? Still on
elections, someone asked CZ to please ask Cde William "Analyst" Nhara why he
is not featuring on the list of people who have shown interest in
representing the ruling party. So his "analyses" all over the public
media have not done much to endear him to the owners of that party, and he
has therefore remained largely a rank outsider? Sorry. By the way, what
happened to that website?
Zimbo
Zimboz are just
something else. Heard this story about this Zimbo in Canada who went around
defrauding unsuspecting locals under the mask of tsunami? Yes,
thinking of poverty back home, the compatriot went from door to door
collecting cash and other donations under the guise that it was going
towards helping victims of the recent Asian tsunami disaster. To do
this, he used a false Red Cross ID card and some cooked-up documentation of
a religious organisation. He is now helping Toronto police in their
investigation since he is the only person who knows how many people he
conned. Does this sound new? It should not. Remember what happened when
similar funds were set up for local disasters? The Nyanga bus disaster fund,
Masvingo bus disaster fund, etc. Most of the money collected never found its
way to the funds and that which miraculously got to the funds never got to
the intended beneficiaries. And how much drought relief food
supplies fail to find their way to the people when our leaders invite
themselves to be chairmen and/or patrons of these organisations?
Let us all pray that this time what the country will contribute into the
just opened Tsunami Disaster Fund will find its way to tsunami victims . . .
not our girlfriends and their grandmothers!
Cde Busy
CZ will not dignify those tendentious allegations by Cde Busybody at The
Chronicle. Until now, it used to be taken for granted that all people who
call themselves journalists care to double-check their facts before they ink
anything. Anyway, as CZ said before, a cobra with a broken spine will
try to bite anything within its reach before it dies - so it is not at all
surprising! cznotebook@yahoo.co.uk
THE Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) has targeted a massive US$3.5 billion
power development project, which is likely to rope in investors from Iran,
India, Malaysia, South Africa and China.
ZESA's borrowing spree is
despite the fact that the parastatal, which had a monstrous Z$163 billion
loss in the 2003 financial calendar, is choking from a US$156 million
external debt procured through government lines of credit. The
financial handicap, which resulted in ZESA floating Megawatt Bills
fortnightly to foot energy imports, has not deterred executives at Megawatt
house from crafting new borrowing plans. The US$3.482 billion
required for the energy projects, spread over three years, is outside the
government's own borrowings to finance the operations of ZESA.
Insiders said the government had managed to negotiate the deferment of loans
acquired from the World Bank and its subsidiaries to pave way for new
investors from Asia and South Africa. The new string of ZESA's
investment deals will see China, the lead financier, splashing US$2.4
billion for the development of mainly Hwange 7 & 8 and Kariba 7& 8
power thermals at a cost of more than US$600 million. China, according
to a signed memorandum of understanding, has also agreed to spend US$70
million on coal mining, US$110 million on the rural electrification
programme and US$143 million on energy distribution links, among other
projects. Obert Nyatanga, ZESA general manager corporate affairs, said
an agreement had been reached with the Indian government to provide US$421
million. The government of Iran has also agreed to provide US$220
million, with Malaysia and South Africa promising US$270 million and US$200
million respectively. Nyatanga maintained ZESA had already sealed
the deals to get the funds with the exception of To C8
South African investors, whom The Financial Gazette understands to be a
mining concern with strong links to Eskom. "We have secured the
requisite funds for capital development projects," Nyatanga refused to
disclose under what terms ZESA had negotiated the loans. The bold
survival plan comes amidst a continuously shaky financial position and
failure to secure meaningful timely investment into the key power generation
plants, Hwange Power Station (HPS) and Kariba South Power station.
The cash strapped ZESA has to prepare for self-sufficiency in electricity
supply by undertaking expansion of HPS and Kariba South or face complete
power outages in 2007. The parastatal currently requires US$7 million a
months for spares and procurement of equipment. Failure to timely
settle debts has seen regional power suppliers, Eskom and HCB of Mozambique
demanding prepayments. The power utility's monthly foreign currency
requirements have surged from US$17 million last year to US$19
million. This has seen the central bank raising its monthly foreign
currency allocation to ZESA from an initial figure of US411 million toUS$13
million. "ZESA requires US$7 million for spares and repairs every month
but we do not have the money, the Zimbabwean dollars to purchase the hard
currency so we have to prioritise prepaying power imports," Nyatanga
said. "We would need money for spares and maintenance but we can not
even pay for US$19 million which is needed every month to keep ZESA running.
Our tariffs are too low," Nyatanga said. Last week government gave
the nod for ZESA to hike tariffs by 126 percent. A proposal for
tariff increment to government reveals that ZESA was pushing for a 300
percent tariff rise.
PLANS by the
government to take complete control of the marketing of farm products
through an Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) could drive the sector
further into the ground.
Analysts this week cautioned that
monopolistic tendencies by the government in the marketing of hard
currency-earning agricultural products could lead to loss of lucrative
export markets and worsen investor disenchantment. Already, the
government's monopoly in maize and wheat marketing has caused a plunge in
production of the two products, with Zimbabwe being reduced from a regional
breadbasket to a perennial importer. In addition, a grey market for
farm products has surfaced. "Any controlled form of marketing has not
been conducive to production. When there was free marketing there was
increasing production. In a restricted market there is no incentive to
produce," said Commercial Farmers Union president Douglas
Taylor-Freeme. The government is already making overtures to strengthen
its grip on foreign currency inflows by seeking to directly oversee the
marketing of many lucrative exports, including non-agricultural goods such
as platinum and asbestos. The government, through the central bank,
controls the marketing of major foreign currency-earning commodities - such
as gold, nickel, diamonds - and will soon control the marketing of the
lucrative platinum group metals. Plans to take over the marketing
of all horticultural products, Zimbabwe's second largest foreign currency
earner after tobacco in the agricultural sector, have already been
announced. An AMA Bill has already been crafted to legitimise the
government's intended takeover of agriculture and now awaits President
Robert Mugabe's seal of approval.
FAILURE to
penetrate foreign markets has dealt a hammer blow to Zimbabwe's newly
resettled farmers who ventured into the lucrative floriculture
industry. Several nascent farmers who ventured into flower production
hoping to fill the void left by white commercial farmers are now stranded
with their produce.
The government has said it wants to
increase revenue from the industry, which earned the country US$142 million
from exports at its peak in 1999. But after the controversial 2000
land reform, which replaced white farmers with blacks, the fortunes of the
horticulture industry have turned for the worse, according to a Zimbabwe
Commercial Farmers Union official. The new farmers have been grappling
with shortages of capital, chemicals and general lack of technical
know-how. Industry experts said disruptions to the horticultural
industry caused by the government's agrarian reform had resulted in a 20
percent dip in production. The latest problems have mainly been
because the new farmers do not have foreign currency to pay royalties to
marketing agencies abroad. The quality of flowers is also reported to
have gone down drastically. "Some farmers are finding it difficult to
export their flowers. They do not know the markets and arrangements have not
been made for them to access the agents. "The farmers are also
unable to pay royalties to the agents, people receiving the flowers, and are
unaware of the conformance standards," said ZCFU president Davidson
Mugabe. Flower exports can only make it into the European Union if they
meet stringent regulations and standards.
THE Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corpo-ration (ZMDC) is conducting feasibility studies in the Mazoe and
Sanyati areas to identify copper mining ventures for possible partnership
with Chinese investors.
The ZMDC has signed a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) with an unnamed Chinese company, which will provide
finance for work on the undercapitalised government-owned mining group's
concessions. ZMDC chief executive officer Dominic Muba-yiwa told The
Financial Gazette the corporation was hoping to enter into a marriage with
the Chinese firm if its explorations proved viable and sustainable.
"We have signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese company with a
view to entering into a partnership if we unearth economically viable
concessions. The issue of the joint venture will be determined by the
viability of our findings," said Mubayiwa. Asked whether there was
a revival plan for the ZMDC's closed Mhangura Copper Mine smelter and
refinery, Mubayiwa said the MOU did not involve "resuscitating the
operations".
ZIMBABWE faces a
critical shortage of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, amid revelations this week
that the country's sole producer, Sable Chemicals, is operating below
capacity, thereby threatening the country's prospects of a return to
self-sufficiency.
Major players in the fertiliser industry told The
Financial Gazette that Midlands-based Sable had not been able to produce at
full capacity in 2004 and as a consequence, it is estimated that ammonium
nitrate supplies to the two local fertiliser companies, Windmill and
Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company (ZFC) would be about 140 000 tonnes between
March 2004 to the end of February 2005. Andrew Humphreys,
Windmill's managing director, said the 140 000 tonnes expected to be
produced by Sable for both his company and ZFC was insufficient to meet the
country's demands. "This is well below Sable's maximum production
capacity of about 240 000 tonnes per annum. Windmill and ZFC use a
significant portion of the ammonium nitrate they receive from Sable for the
production of fertilisers and with the reduced annual supply of only 140 000
tonnes, the balance of ammonium nitrate available for the market is
extremely limited and well below demand. This has resulted in the shortages
currently being experienced. "The fact that local supplies of
ammonium nitrate would be inadequate to satisfy demand this season has been
known for several months and several discussions have been held with
government on this important issue," he said.
What is it about holding elective
office that transforms supposedly decent and principled politicians into
violent rabble rousers?
This is a question that needs to be asked
as we approach the general elections to be held in just over two months. In
other countries, the harbinger of such an event is a flurry of campaign
activity or an explosion of rhetoric as aspiring office holders seek to
"sell" themselves to the electorate. In our part of the world,
however, things are disastrously different. Here, the surest sign that an
election is around the corner is an increase in the incidence of political
violence perpetrated against innocent people for entirely selfish
reasons. In this country, if you hope to see candidates aspiring to be
elected to public office sweating it out on the campaign trail, presenting
their programmes and seeking to engage the electorate, you are in for a huge
disappointment. As a matter of fact, the people - the masses - are
the last thing on most politicians' minds at this stage. The only people
they have on their minds are themselves and the only goal they have is to
ensure that they get a seat on the gravy train. So much for altruism and
dedication to public service. These greedy politicians remind me of
an American coach (I forget his particular sport) whose philosophy was:
"Winning is not everything; it is the only thing." I doubt that his tunnel
vision is good even for competitive sport, where contemporary thinking
places great importance on participation. Violence has become a
permanent feature of elections in Zimbabwe, especially since 2000. The
question of who is to blame for transforming the use of violence into an
acceptable form of canvassing support has remained unanswered, officially at
least. Moreover, fingers of accusation have been pointed at the ruling
party and the government by those who have cited the existence of youth
militias as incriminating evidence. However, the truth has a habit
of coming out in unexpected and embarrassing ways! It has been too clear to
see whose hand was at work in some violent incidents. What, for
example, is the public to make of the increasing number of ruling party
legislators being accused of fomenting violence in their constituencies
ahead of ZANU PF's primary elections? The latest party cadre to be
implicated in such violence is none other than Agriculture Minister Joseph
Made. He has been accused of fanning violence in Makoni West, where he plans
to challenge the sitting Member of Parliament, Gibson Munyoro. The MP has
alleged that Made unleashes gangs of thugs to disrupt his (Munyoro's)
meetings. To add insult to injury, the "thugs" hired to do Made's dirty
work are employees of the Grain Marketing Board (GMB). Made's
actions reflect the nasty, brutish culture of impunity that has become
prevalent within the ruling party. As far as the notoriously inept minister
is concerned, there is nothing wrong with disrupting the operations of the
GMB. He is quite happy to divert workers from their normal duties to
spearhead his violent bid to become an elected MP. Munyoro has complained to
the party's relevant organs about Made's activities, which the agriculture
minister has, naturally, denied. Made is, of course, not the first
government minister to be accused of resorting to violence in Makoni. In
another part of this Manicaland district, Didymus Mutasa has become
notorious for his intolerance of opposition. He has been investigated for
fomenting violence and committing some violent acts himself. Police
announced some time ago that he had a case to answer but nothing further has
been done. One, however, cannot help wondering how a politician whose
stock in trade is violence against anyone who dares to oppose him can truly
serve the people. Does the impatience he shows towards political rivals not
reflect the contempt he has for the voters in his constituency? My
disgust with the activities of the likes of Made and Mutasa is not only
because they stretch the bounds of personal decency and integrity. I also
find it abhorrent that they use the charade of being the people's
representatives in Parliament as a means to cling to the unalloyed
privileges this position affords them. There can be no altruism in
serving people who are forced to vote for an MP. And so, whether intra-party
violence rears its ugly head in Makoni or Makonde, it is a symptom of the
same arrogant disregard for the people's interests that now characterises
national politics. We will never enjoy true democracy and create a free
and just society as long as we have legislators who demand to be regarded as
demi-gods. We need candidates for public office who love being of service
and respect the people whose welfare and interests they are supposed to be
catering for. They need to cultivate the art of give-and-take which is
the hallmark of democracy. It is the only way to promote dialogue between
the governors and the governed.