By Alex Bell
14 January
2011
The human rights Tribunal of the Southern African region has ruled that the Zimbabwe government is undermining the rule of law, by refusing to pay compensation to nine victims of state sponsored political violence and torture.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal last month ruled in favour of Barry Gondo and eight others, who successfully sued the State in the Zimbabwe High Court after being beaten and tortured by security agents. The group argued in the SADC Tribunal that the government was refusing to pay the damages ordered by the High Court, in their cases dating back to 2003 and 2007.
The judgment was handed down by Justice Arrirange Govindasamy Pillay in the Windhoek Tribunal. The judgement said that the government was violating the founding principles of the regional bloc, the SADC Treaty, by refusing to pay the compensation.
“We hold, therefore...that the Respondent (government) is in breach of Articles 4 (c) and 6 (1) of the treaty in that it has acted in contravention of various fundamental human rights, namely the right to an effective remedy,” the Tribunal ruled, and “the right to have access to an independent and impartial court or tribunal and the right to a fair hearing.”
The ruling comes as an important victory for the rule of law in Zimbabwe, where the State has displayed a decade long disregard for Court orders. The Zimbabwe Human Right NGO Forum, which led the case before the Tribunal last year, said the ruling is a “progressive.” The group added that it supports the opinion of civil society that one of Zimbabwe’s main challenges is “the absence of the rule of law.”
“The Forum implores Government to respect the rule of law and to honour its obligations under international law in order to ensure the protection of its citizens’ right to an effective remedy and equality before the law,” the group said in a statement.
Political analyst Professor John Makumbe told SW Radio Africa on Friday that the ruling is an encouraging sign that “perhaps we have entered a fascinating year with efforts being made to right the wrongs of the past.” Makumbe however added that “the crux of the matter now,” is whether or not the government will abide by the court’s ruling, after previously dismissing the court as “null and void.”
“I doubt they will abide by it,” Makumbe said. “They will only go along with verdicts that it finds not threatening to ZANU PF.”
The ruling comes as the Tribunal remains effectively suspended and not able to take on any new cases, after SADC leaders decided last year to review the role, functions and mandate of the court. This decision was a result of Zimbabwe refusal to honour the Tribunal and its ruling that Mugabe land grab campaign is unlawful. The Tribunal ruled in 2008 that the exercise was unlawful and discriminatory, and ordered the Zimbabwe government to protect the farmers, their rights to their land, and pay compensation for land already seized.
But in Zimbabwe the Tribunal has been openly snubbed by the government, with Mugabe and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa declaring that the Tribunal’s rulings were ‘null and void’. The High Court then ruled that the Tribunal’s orders on land reform have no authority in Zimbabwe, despite the country being a signatory to the SADC Treaty.
Zimbabwe’s open contempt of court was eventually raised before SADC leaders at a summit in August last year, in the hope that the regional leadership would deal with Zimbabwe as an errant member state. Instead, the SADC leaders resolved to review the Tribunal, a move that legal experts say is an effective suspension of the court. In a legal opinion drafted and endorsed by seven leading national, regional and international legal organisations, SADC leaders have now come under fire for having “deliberately undermined the Tribunal by violating regional laws and acting unconstitutionally.”
“SADC leaders have unlawfully ensured that the
Tribunal can no longer function, leaving citizens without legal remedy at the
regional level,” said Nicole Fritz, Director of the Southern Africa Litigation
Centre.
“We are also very concerned that the decision to sabotage the
Tribunal was taken in bad faith, to appease Zimbabwe and to ensure that it did
not have to comply with a series of rulings related to land seizures,” said
Fritz.
Makumbe meanwhile said that Zimbabwe’s refusal to honour the Tribunal is “a major threat to the cohesion of the region, because it makes the Tribunal superfluous.”
“I can’t see how any other member state will abide by the Tribunal if Zimbabwe disregards it and gets away with it,” Makumbe said.
To see the judgement click here
http://www.radiovop.com/
14/01/2011 14:43:00
Harare, January 14,
2011 – About 15 Zanu (PF) youths went on rampage beating
up Movement for
Democratic Change youths and officials at the party’s
Harvest House
headquarters in Harare.
The youths who charged at the Harvest House
entrance along Nelson Mandela
Avenue beat up MDC youths and passersby before
the MDC youths retaliated
leading to the Zanu (PF) youths fleeing from the
scene.
The MDC in a statement said the Zanu (PF) youths were wearing
their party
t-shirts when they went on rampage.
“Scores of Zanu (PF)
youths this afternoon caused disturbances at the MDC
headquarters, Harvest
House, and attacked innocent shoppers and workers. The
youths wearing Zanu
(PF) T – shirts were dropped at Harvest House by a white
kombi,” the MDC
said in a statement.
“They, however, fled after discovering that there
were hundreds of MDC
youths who had come to attend a Youth Assembly
strategic meeting at the
party headquarters.”
“Some of the people who
were attacked are; Kudakwashe Tapfumanei, Chancellor
Nyamande, Rebecca
Mafukeni, Samson Nerwande and Andrew Marufu. No one was
injured. The MDC
strongly condemns this unnecessary provocation, which
exposes Zanu (PF) as a
violent party.”
Meanwhile in Mberengwa clashes erupted on Thursday
between war veterans and
Zanu (PF) youths occupying Texas Ranch Farm in
Mberengwa, Midlands Province
over village heads positions.
Texas
Ranch Farm has been used as a torture base by war veterans and Zanu
(PF)
militias since year 2000 when they grabbed it from a white commercial
farmer. Over 700 war veterans and Zanu (PF) militias have since settled on
the farm and it has been divided into small villages.
Clashes erupted
on Thursday as Zanu (PF) youths led by one Tinomuda Shiri
accused war
veterans of controlling all activities at the farm and also for
grabbing all
village heads positions.
The war veterans led by Langton Mangena with the
support of Chief Mazivofa
who also settled on the farm had allocated all
village heads positions among
themselves without consulting the Zanu (PF)
youths leaders.
“There is no peace anymore in that farm as we are
witnessing fights every
week between Shiri’s group and Mangena’s group. The
fight is over village
heads positions as the farm as been divided into small
villages and war
veterans wants to control everything,” said a small scale
miner who operates
a mine adjacent to the farm.
A senior police
officer based at Mberengwa police station said “they
arrested three Zanu PF
youths and two war veterans from the farm on Thursday
and have since paid
US$20 admission guilt fee on charges of public
violence.”
When Radio
VOP contacted Shiri on Friday he confirmed the differences saying
“you can’t
have same group of people controlling everything, that’s a big
farm shamwari
(friend).”
Mberengwa has been a Zanu (PF) stronghold since independence,
the party’s
militias and war veterans have been mostly terrorizing
opposition supporters
in the past recent years.
Early this year a
group of war veterans were arrested after disrupting a
constitutional
parliamentary committee consultative meeting on the new
constitution held at
Vutsanana Secondary School in the same district.
Friday, 14 January
2011
The MDC deplores the current upsurge in violence, illegal arrests
and
abductions of its members and members of the members of the public by
state
security agents and Zanu PF supporters. Reports received by the MDC
across
the country show that there is a rise in cases involving violence,
arbitrary
arrests on flimsy grounds and kidnappings of its members
especially in the
rural areas. We have noted a heavy presence of army
personnel in the
countryside, harassing innocent villagers. Last week , a
group of soldiers
from the 4.2 Infantry Battalion went and beat up people at
Mupandawana
Growth Point in Gutu, Masvingo province. Dozens of people were
injured.
On Wednesday, more than 30 people were injured and shops were
forced to
close at Jerera Growth Point in Zaka again in the same province
after
another group of soldiers attacked villagers. Chiefs in Bubi and
Nkayi,
Matebeleland North province, are reported to be telling villagers
that
soldiers will soon be deployed in the area as peace keepers ahead of
elections.
Elson Mutonhori, the MDC Masvingo South secretary was on
Saturday morning
abducted at gunpoint by Major – General Engelbert Rugeje
and one Major
Toperesu at his Renco Mine home. Rugeje and Toperesu who were
driving an
unmarked white Mitsubishi truck took Mutonhori to the Rock Motel
in Chivi
some 100km away, where they interrogated and intimidated him until
midnight
for wearing MDC regalia. Mutonhori made a report at Renco Mine
Police
Station but the police officers refused to open a docket claiming the
issue
was political. Self – styled war veteran, Jabulani Sibanda addressed a
rally
in Ngundu, Chivi, Masvingo province, and threatened villagers with
death if
they voted for the MDC in the next elections.
On Thursday,
scores of Zanu PF youths caused disturbances at the MDC
headquarters,
Harvest House, Harare, and attacked innocent shoppers and
workers. Four
councillors and five MDC youths were arrested in Victoria
Falls last week on
false charges of disrupting a council meeting. They were
each granted a
US$70 bail each on Wednesday.
Hon. Paul Madzore, Glen View South MP, was
served with summons to appear in
court on 15 February on charges of
assualting a police officer and resisting
arrest at Makomva Shopping Centre
in Glen View in May 2006.
The MDC condemns in the strongest terms all
acts of targeted violence and
arrests against MDC officials and ctivists.
Further, the MDC denounces the
deployment of security personnel as a plot to
inculcate a culture of fear in
the rural areas. The MDC urges SADC, the AU
and the international community
to take note of the crackdown on the people
of Zimbabwe by lawless allies of
Zanu PF ahead of the coming elections. As a
Party of Excellence, the MDC
believes in delivering real change to the
people of Zimbabwe with guaranteed
security, dignity, democracy and
freedoms, prosperity and hope.
Together, united, winning, ready for real
change!
--
MDC Information & Publicity Department
Harvest House
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
14 January
2011
Attorney General Johannes Tomana has denied state media claims that
he has
set up a commission of inquiry to investigate Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and other MDC officials over US diplomatic cables leaked by the
Wikileaks website.
Ever since the Wikileaks website published details
of meetings between US
diplomats and MDC leaders, ZANU PF using the state
media has been trying
whip up public sentiment against their rivals. Various
meetings documented
in the cables, showed MDC leaders discussing peaceful
options to force
Mugabe to step down. ZANU PF is trying to spin treason
charges out of the
revelations.
A state media article over the
Christmas holidays quoted Tomana as saying
‘the WikiLeaks appear to show a
treasonous collusion between local
Zimbabweans and the aggressive
international world, particularly the United
States. With immediate effect,
I am going to instruct a team of practising
lawyers to look into the issues
that arise from the WikiLeaks.’
Speaking to the weekly Zimbabwe
Independent newspaper Tomana however denied
making the statement and said he
did not have the powers to appoint a
commission or a committee to look into
the matter. ‘If you look at the
scenarios around the appointment of
commissions, it must be of national
importance and it is only the president
who can appoint a commission. I do
not know where all this is coming from,’
he told the paper.
MDC-T spokesman Nelson Chamisa told us recently that
the revelations by the
WikiLeaks website are nothing more than ‘harmless
thunderbolts’ and that
ordinary Zimbabweans are actually more worried about
the ‘leaks in their
roofs’ during the rainy season. Chamisa said ZANU PF had
desperately sought
to use the leaked cables as political tools but this
would have no impact on
them.
The Kuwadzana MP told us that the MDC
are not going to be bothered with
gossip and hearsay. ‘Those cables are mere
gossip and opinions by
individuals in the corridors of the diplomatic
circles,” he said. Responding
to initials claims that Tomana would set up a
commission he criticized the
AG’s double standards saying he failed to act
on the violence and murder in
the June 2008 election.
Some analysts
have speculated that Tomana might have chickened out of a
probe of the
Wikileaks revelations because the same diplomatic cables
exposed First Lady
Grace Mugabe as being involved in the illegal looting and
trading of
diamonds from Chiadzwa. An alternative theory is that Tomana
might have had
his wrist slapped by Mugabe, who told him only he could
appoint the
commission.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
14 January, 2011
05:48:00 IRIN
JOHANNESBURG, - As heavy rains continue to pound
parts of South Africa, the
meteorological bureau has warned that there was a
"high risk of floods" in
the central and northeastern parts of the country
over the next few days.
The government announced that the army was on standby
as the water levels
rose to dangerous levels in South Africa’s biggest
river, the Orange.
The river rises in the Drakensberg Mountains in the
eastern part of the
country near Lesotho and flows westwards across the
country and along the
border with southern Namibia before emptying into the
Atlantic Ocean,
covering a distance of 2,200 km.
"We are expecting
above-normal rains," said Cobus Olivier, a scientist at
the South African
Weather Services.
Vuyelwa Qinga Vika, spokeswoman for the ministry of
cooperative governance
and traditional affairs, said 36 people had been
killed in extensive
flooding, particularly in the eastern province of
KwaZulu-Natal, parts of
which have been inundated by a tributary of the
Orange River.
Across northwestern South Africa, neighbouring Namibia has
been on standby,
watching water levels steadily rise in the Orange River,
said Japhet Itenge,
the head of the country's disaster management
directorate. "We are
monitoring the situation and the village councils have
been informed.
The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA), staffed jointly by
officials from Zambia
and Zimbabwe, said it would open the flood gates of
the Kariba Dam, situated
between northwestern Zimbabwe and southeastern
Zambia, on 29 January. This
could cause flooding in the region.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Correspondent Friday 14
January 2011
HARARE – The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB)
has tightened the
screws on trade in illicit diamonds by instructing its
members to rigorously
screen all stones brought before them in order to cut
the flow of gems from
conflict areas.
WFDB President Avi Paz this
week called on each of the federation’s 29
bourse members to hold a general
assembly to discuss how to protect the
reputation of the WFDB-affiliated
diamond bourses and their members.
As part of the measures, the WFDB
chief said it was important that each
individual diamantaire who holds
bourse membership was “completely up to
speed as to the requirements, rules
and regulations concerning the ban on
trading in diamonds originating in
areas and regions of conflict."
He urged the individual bourses to impose
an absolute ban on conflict
diamonds as expressed in the rules and
regulation of the WFDB and to prepare
presentations in their native language
on the Kimberley Process
Certification Process (KPCS).
"We have to
uphold our commitment to assure that no diamonds originating in
conflict
regions enter the [diamond] trade, and the members of our 29 member
bourses
are those who need to stand guard over this,” Paz said in a letter
to
members.
The WFDB statement comes in the wake of last month’s arrest of
an Israeli
diamond dealer who was caught trying to smuggle illicit stones
obtained from
Zimbabwe’s controversial Marange fields.
David Vardi
was immediately expelled from the Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE)
for
violating a ban on trade in Marange diamonds.
Vardi was arrested in late
December after a courier he had hired to carry
the diamonds was caught by
custom officials as he was about to exit Ben
Gurion Airport in
Israel.
After his arrest, the courier, Gilad Halachmi, implicated Vardi
resulting in
the trader being picked up for questioning.
The diamonds
were not accompanied by Kimberley Process (KP) certificates as
required by
law and international treaties.
Diamonds from Zimbabwe’s Marange region
are banned for exports as part of
measures to force the southern African
country to adhere to KP mining
standards.
The Zimbabwean army is
accused of alleged human rights abuses at the Marange
fields, including
engaging in forced labour and smuggling.
http://www.radiovop.com/
14/01/2011
14:41:00
Harare, January 14, 2011 – Five Zanu (PF) supporters who
formed an eight man
terror gang that terrorised villagers in the Beatrice
area soon after the
March 29, 2008 elections, were on Thursday sentenced to
three year jail
terms by a Chitungwiza magistrate.
Chitungwiza
magistrate, Patience Ururu-Madondo found the group guilty of a
combination
of torture, open assault and theft, all committed during the
volatile period
that succeeded the disputed poll.
They are Carter Matengambiri, Tabeth
Mubaiwa, Oncemore Matangira, David
Makina and Zacharia Moyo. Three others
were acquitted.
Twenty people are listed as complainants in the
matter.
According to the state, all the accused persons were Zanu (PF)
supporters
who staged a terror campaign around neighbouring villages in the
farming
area accusing their victims of supporting the then opposition MDC
party.
While torturing and assaulting the accused, they would command
them to sing
MDC songs while beating them up with logs and
sticks.
They would also visit the complainants at their homes, making
random
searches looking for MDC regalia and party cards.
They would
further demand back the farm inputs issued under the RBZ
agricultural
mechanisation scheme from those they suspected to have been
supporters of
MDC saying the inputs were not supposed to benefit non-Zanu
(PF)
people.
MDC which lost 200 of its supporters in the 2008 political
violence has
always complained of the lack of prosecution of those who were
involved.
http://www.radiovop.com
14/01/2011
08:40:00
Chimanimani, January 14 2011- A war veteran has been
arrested for planting
mbanje at a coffee farm which he helped to grab from
Roy Bennett of the
Movement of Democratic Change (MDC).
Pachedu farm,
one of the country's major coffee growers and foreign currency
earner was
forcibly taken by a group of war veterans in 2005.
Sources said Gimore
Muusha, a well known notorious war veteran in the area
was arrested by
police this week after the police got a tip from fellow
invaders. Police
recovered 35 mbanje plants in the coffee bushes and in his
pole and dagga
house.
“Muusha has been planting mbanje in coffee bushes for a long time
and
selling the illicit drug to fellow invaders and workers from surrounding
timber plantations," said the source.
Muusha has been fingered
several times in political violence against MDC
supporters. Initially he had
occupied Bennett's main farm house when the
farm was invaded but was evicted
by government owned Agricultural Rural
Development Agency (ARDA)
officers.
Radio VOP failed to get a comment from police as telephone
lines were down
due to heavy rains.
http://www.voanews.com
Urban
management specialists say planting crops in certain areas must be
regulated
to prevent soil erosion and the accumulation of silt, among other
detrimental effects that can arise from city farming
Patience Rusere
| Washington 13 January 2011
Maize meal or "mealie meal" is a staple
of the typical Zimbabwean diet
Many residents of the Zimbabwean capital
of Harare and the country's
second-largest city, Bulawayo, have been up in
arms recently over the
destruction by authorities of maize crops planted in
urban gardens to
supplement food supplies and stretch minimal
incomes.
The Movement for Democratic Change formation of Prime Minister
Morgan
Tsvangirai is holds a political majority on the Harare and Bulawayo
city
councils, but has protested that it had nothing to do with the slashing
of
urban maize crops. It accused police in Harare of destroying the
technically
illegal crops to tarnish the council's image.
Yet urban
management specialists say planting crops in certain areas must be
regulated
to prevent soil erosion and the accumulation of silt, among other
detrimental effects.
For more on this debate VOA Studio 7 reporter
Patience Rusere spoke with
Shamiso Mtisi, a lawyer with the Zimbabwe
Environmental Lawyers Association,
and Precious Shumba, coordinator of the
Harare Residents Trust.
Shumba said Zimbabweans must raise crops wherever
they live as a matter of
survival.
Maize meal or "mealie meal" is a
staple of the typical Zimbabwean diet.
http://www.irinnews.org
HARARE, 14 January 2011 (IRIN) - Timely access to
fertilizers, seeds and
good rains have set Zimbabwe on course for a good
harvest, say agriculture
officials.
The Agriculture Minister, Joseph
Made, told journalists the area planted
with cereals such as sorghum and
maize had increased by thousands of
hectares this season from
2009-2010.
However, he cautioned that a good crop was only expected if
rains persisted
during January. Zimbabwe’s Meteorological Services has
predicted heavy rains
in the coming weeks.
The area planted with
maize was up from 530,000ha in 2009-2010 to 660,000ha
this season, said
Made. Other grains had also seen their coverage increase
from 110,000ha to
174,000ha.
In a decade marked by socio-economic instability, food
production has begun
to improve in Zimbabwe in the past two years.
A
joint mission in 2010 by the UN World Food Programme and Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that after the 2008 season, when
less than 500,000 tons of maize was harvested, production more than doubled
in 2009 and 2010, to 1.27 and 1.35 million tons respectively
Although
expensive, maize seeds and fertilizers, unlike in previous years,
have been
available in the market.
The pro-ZANU-PF daily newspaper, The Herald,
reported in December 2010 that
the government had provided loans worth
US$122.2 million to farmers for
support during the 2010-2011 season, with
banks providing $286 million to
buy inputs.
More than 900,000 poor
households have been given agricultural inputs, noted
the FAO in its latest
update.
But FAO said it was concerned about food price increases: between
September
and November 2010, the price of maize rose by some 26 percent in
the
capital, Harare, after having been stable in the previous
months.
The price of maize meal, a staple food, has begun to climb in the
past two
months.
An estimated 1.7 million Zimbabweans will face
severe food insecurity in the
peak hunger period of January to March 2011,
according to the 2011 UN
Consolidated Appeal for Zimbabwe. About 38 percent
of the $415 million
appeal will take care of food-related needs - down from
50 percent in the
last appeal for 2010.
The peak hunger period is
when crops are planted and nurtured to maturity.
The appeal in December
2010 has received a little more than $680,000 funding
so far, with pledges
worth $2.9 million.
Army-worm outbreak
There has been a scare for
the agriculturally rich provinces of Mashonaland
Central and East in the
north after army-worm caterpillars destroyed more
than 50ha of planted
maize. Farmers in the region said it was one of the
most serious attacks in
recent years.
The Herald newspaper said the attack threatened national
food security, with
another 800ha of planted sorghum, maize and pasture land
at risk. But it
quoted an agricultural official, Godfrey Chikwenhere, giving
assurances that
they had enough chemicals to deal with the
caterpillars.
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations]
http://af.reuters.com
Fri Jan 14, 2011 6:56pm
GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe set up a commodities exchange on
Friday, ending
a government monopoly on trade in grains and cereals to try
to bring higher
prices for farmers and encourage them to increase
production.
Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube said the new
Commodities
Exchange in Zimbabwe (COMEZ), a partnership between the
government and
private investors, would initially trade grains and cereals
and later expand
to cover other commodities outside the agriculture
sector.
"We want a situation where the smallest farmer of grains and
cereals
wherever located should be able to take advantage of the commodities
exchange," Ncube said at the COMEZ launch.
The southern African
country has grappled since 2001 with food shortages
that are often
attributed to agricultural disruption caused by President
Robert Mugabe's
seizure of white-owned commercial farms for black
resettlement.
The
government abolished the only agriculture commodities exchange in 2001,
decreeing the state Grain Marketing Board be the sole buyer and seller of
grain and cereals. Farmers complained of poor prices and payment
delays.
The Zimbabwe Agriculture Commodities Exchange traded commodities
worth $677
million in 2001 before it was abolished.
Since a political
settlement between Mugabe and arch-rival Morgan Tsvangirai
in 2009,
Zimbabwe's farming has started to recover, with output of tobacco,
a key
export crop, doubling last year.
Maize production has also risen on the
back of more support for farmers and
the adoption of hard currencies.
http://www.upi.com
Published: Jan. 14, 2011 at 1:59
PM
HARARE, Zimbabwe, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Zimbabwe will divide the
state-owned
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe into two companies intended to
attract
foreign investment.
In a tacit acknowledgement of the
government's mishandling of NOCZIM Energy
and Power Development Minister
Elton Mangoma said that the new firms would
be open to both local and
foreign investors, telling journalists: "In terms
of partners being local or
foreign it's immaterial ... all we want are
investors and their money. A
business venture with sound capital is far
better operational wise than one
with no money," the Zimbabwe Independent
newspaper reported
Friday.
Mangoma added that no time frame had been set on the search for
partners,
noting that "the government is going ahead with the project at the
same time
seeking partners" and while "several companies have shown interest
in the
project," no definite bids had been submitted.
Mangoma, who is
a senior member of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's
Movement for
Democratic Change party, said the reform of NOCZIM followed the
government's
conclusion that it wasn't viable for NOCZIM to be both a
regulator and a
player.
NOCZIM's reform is an element in the unity government of
Tsvangirai and
President Robert Mugabe to privatize and make commercially
viable state
companies currently losing money that need Treasury
intervention to save
them from collapse.
The NOCZIM reform isn't the
government's first attempt to privatize
loss-making government businesses.
In November the government sold its
controlling stake in the state's
Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company to India's
Essar Group in a deal believed to
be worth nearly $500 million.
Mangoma added that the government was yet
to decide exactly how much
investment it would require from potential
investors to invest into the oil
trading company formed from NOCZIM, saying,
"The partner for the
infrastructure company will be taken in on an
operational basis and they
will be assisting in the stock management of the
company. For the trading
one we are looking for an equity partner though we
are yet to come up with
the actual figure of the kind of investment we
require."
According to Mangoma, there are up to eight other
government-controlled
entities that are earmarked for immediate
privatization or restructuring.
Under the government's privatization plan
for NOCZIM, one of the new
entities would solely be responsible for national
fuel depots and
infrastructure with its primary agenda being managing the
importation of
petroleum products through different modes, including the
Beira pipeline
running from Mozambique to Zimbabwe, while the second firm
would be devoted
to fuel retailing.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona
Sibanda
14 January 2011
The newly elected national executive of the
MDC-M led by Welshman Ncube has
recalled four ‘rebel’ party rapporteurs from
the team drafting the country’s
new constitution.
The four
rapporteurs are from Harare, Masvingo, Manicaland and Mashonaland
East. They
are part of a group that boycotted the party congress held over
the weekend
in the capital. All of them were appointed to the constitution
drafting team
during Arthur Mutambara’s reign as party president.
The party now wants
them removed from the constitution drafting exercise and
replaced by
pro-Ncube members. Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa told us
co-chairpersons
of COPAC received communication from the MDC informing them
of their
decision to recall the 4 rapporteurs.
‘The group belongs to a faction
that is pro-Mutambara and very critical of
Ncube and the way he
outmanoeuvred the former president from the hot seat.
The Ncube group now
view the rapporteurs as enemies and claim they are no
longer members of
their party,’ Muchemwa said.
Over 210 rapporteurs and 70 technicians are
currently in Harare working on
the uploading of information gathered during
the constitutional outreach
process. All, including the four have signed
contracts and have already been
paid some money by COPAC.
Edwin
Mushoriwa, the party spokesman told SW Radio Africa the issue of
contracts
and money was of no concern to them as they were prepared to let
them go
with the pay they have received. He said the party was prepared to
pay those
that are going to replace them from party coffers, including their
hotel
accommodation and upkeep.
‘In the first place we notified COPAC of our
intention to recall them but we
were surprised when they were clandestinely
made to sign contracts. These
people are busy holding press conferences and
denigrating the position of
the president and image of the party.
‘We
therefore don’t have confidence in them to represent us. Whose views are
they going to represent when they are against the new executive. We are
recalling them primarily because of their conduct which is detrimental to
the party,’ Mushoriwa said.
The spokesman said they’ve been made
aware of ZANU PF’s chicanery to
allegedly use the four to inflame
despondency in the MDC. He said Robert
Mugabe’s party was ‘running them’ and
were now of no use to their party.
http://www.irinnews.org
JOHANNESBURG, 14
January 2011 (IRIN) - Zimbabweans now have until the end of
July 2011 to
obtain documentation legalizing their presence in South Africa
following a
meeting between Department of Home Affairs Officials and members
of the
Zimbabwean Stakeholder Forum on 12 January.
A statement released by the
SA Home Affairs department confirmed that
undocumented Zimbabweans could not
be arrested before 1 August.
More than 275,000 Zimbabweans submitted
applications for work, business or
study permits by the end of last year in
a bid to regularize their stay in
South Africa before the end of a 17-month
moratorium on deportations.
Human rights organizations fear that
thousands of Zimbabweans who have
migrated to South Africa to escape the
social and economic problems that
have rocked their country in recent years,
could face deportation when the
moratorium ends.
The Home Affairs
department recently announced that no deportations would
take place until
the end of March 2011 to allow time to process the
applications. Only about
23,000 have so far been approved, with nearly
221,000 still under
adjudication.
However, the Zimbabwean authorities have been unable to
keep up with the
demand for passports and other documents needed to process
the applications.
After Wednesday’s meeting it was decided to extend the
period for processing
documentation until 30 June, after which applicants
will have a month to
collect their permits from Home
Affairs.
According to the statement, the Department will initiate “a
sustained
engagement with the Zimbabwean government to expedite the issuance
of
passports”, starting with a meeting between the Zimbabwean Ambassador and
the Consul-General early next week.
The statement also noted that
lists of applicants requiring passports were
being provided to the
Zimbabwean Embassy on a daily basis.
“We are happy the moratorium on
deportations has been extended,” Gabriel
Shuma, Director of the Zimbabwe
Exiles Forum, told IRIN. “The South African
government has shown it's very
keen to assist Zimbabweans to have a modicum
of dignity in this country, but
we’re not happy that our own government has
been reluctant to assist its
citizens.”
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the
United Nations]
http://www.radiovop.com
14/01/2011
14:42:00
Beitbridge, January 14, 2011 – Soldiers patrolling on the
periphery of the
BeitBridge border fence have been accused of sexually
harassing desperate
border jumpers intending to cross to South
Africa.
Zimbabweans living in South Africa who had come to the country
hoping to
acquire travel documents have been forced to leave the country
without
passports due to chaos at the Home Affairs
Department.
Sources who spoke to Radio VOP said women who use
undesignated entry points
into South Africa are subjected to sexual
harassment including rape.
“Soldiers are forcing women, especially young
girls to sleep with them to be
allowed to proceed to South Africa while men
face severe beatings”, said one
transporter who requested not to be named.
The transporters popularly known
as “Omalayitsha” are notoriously known to
ferry passengers without travel
documents.
In the past two weeks the
soldiers and police officers have been on high
alert at the border as they
thwart undocumented Zimbabweans willing to enter
South
Africa.
Zimbabweans have been so daring that they cross the crocodile
infested
Limpopo River as they flee their country which has been hit by
years of
economic demise and political upheaval.
http://www.apanews.net/
APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) The New York-based Committee to
Protect Journalists
(CPJ) on Friday warned that Zimbabwe is sliding
backwards in terms of
progress towards media reforms and called on the
government to urgently
repeal draconian security and media laws that
continue to stifle the country’s
media space.
CPJ Africa Advocacy
Coordinator Mohamed Keita in a statement issued here
Friday said Zimbabwe’s
unity government was using legal and administrative
constraints to hamper
the work of media practitioners.
"We call on the government to repeal the
repressive Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA),
which would be in line with media
reform pledges made under the
power-sharing government," Keita said in the
statement.
He said the
Zimbabwean government has failed so far to deliver on a March
2010 promise
by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to repeal AIPPA and amend
contentious
media and security legislation by the end of 2011.
AIPAA, considered one
of the most repressive media laws in the region, also
gives officials
sweeping discretion to withhold public information they deem
not to be of
"public interest," according to a study by the Media Institute
of Southern
Africa.
Since 2002, AIPPA, a draconian piece of media-licensing
legislation, has
forced news organizations and journalists operating in
Zimbabwe to annually
register with the government and pay accreditation fees
under penalty of
prosecution and jail time.
The CPJ statement comes
after a late 2010 amendment to AIPPA hiked mandatory
registration and
accreditation fees for the press working in the country by
as much as 400
percent.
Under the new fee structure, an international news outlet must
pay US$6,000
for permission to operate a bureau in Zimbabwe (triple the old
rate of
US$2,000) in addition to a US$1,000 application fee for such
permission
(double the old rate of US$500).
Renewal of the permit
went from being free to US$5,000.
Zimbabwean journalists working for
foreign media are required to pay US$100
to apply for accreditation (five
times the old rate of US$20) while the
accreditation fee quadrupled from
US$100 to US$400. The fee for renewal of
accreditation went from being free
to US$300.
Fees for regional southern African news organizations doubled,
while
increases remained modest for local journalists and news
outlets.
The authorities have imposed a US$1 fine for each day of delay
starting on
January 10, according to local
journalists.
JN/daj/APA
2011-01-14
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by The
Zimbabwean
Friday, 14 January 2011 11:12
Last night my attention was
drawn to a statement published by the online
version of the Zimbabwean
newspaper that was issued by the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) under
the title: “MDC concerned about the plight of
workers and families in
Shabanie and Mashava”
http://thezimbabwean.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=36691:mdc-concerned-about-the-plight-of-workers-and-families-in-shabanie-and-mashava&catid=65:blogs.
After
reading the article, I was compelled to respond not only because it
exposes
a binary worldview that is dominant in Zimbabwean politics but also
if the
issues are not addressed as they emerge, a danger exists that our
history
may end up being distorted and rewritten for purely political
expediency.
No one can doubt the concern of a political party about the
plight of
workers and families. The link between the labour movement and
the party
may have a lot in explaining why the party is not concerned about
the plight
of a shareholder who lost his rights through an act of
state.
To reduce the SMM saga into a personal between Hon. Chinamasa and
myself can
only be described as intellectual dishonesty. I have no doubt
that within
the MDC family there are intellectuals who would and should know
better and
yet the statement carries with it the name of the party and must,
therefore,
at face value represent the thinking in the party on this complex
matter.
Is it fair to describe the SMM dispute as a consequence of personal
bickering and wrangle between Hon. Chinamasa, a political and state actor,
and a private individual like myself? For the record, I have no personal
issue with Hon. Chinamasa and at no stage in my life have I been involved in
any matter that could possibly make him hold a personal grudge against me.
But he is free to speak for himself. How can one upset a Minister of
Justice whose mandate is to promote justice and equity? The Ministry has
very little to do with the private sector and it is only in this strange
matter that issues related to alleged state liability are being handled
outside the Ministry of Finance which point must be of concern to any
genuine democrat.
However, I have learnt to accept that in Zimbabwe, most
of the opinions
expressed are informed by a worldview that reduces any
dispute into personal
rather than national terms.
I was recently shocked
when a fellow passenger approached me on my way back
from a trip to Zimbabwe
in November to warn me that Hon. Chinamasa was on
the same flight that I was
booked on. He was expecting some fireworks but I
responded politely to him
that I harbour no personal ill feelings against
the person of
Chinamasa.
This is and has always been my position. Contrary to the view
expressed in
the statement, Chinamasa is a state actor and, therefore,
represents the
Republic of Zimbabwe. He took the same oath that was taken by
all persons
appointed to cabinet by President Mugabe. It would be wrong for
anyone to
attempt to score cheap political points by alleging that the
government of
Zimbabwe is divisible.
I should like to believe that the
person who authored the statement is fully
aware that there is no
constitutional crisis in Zimbabwe. The inclusive
government is the
legitimate authority through which the business of the
people of Zimbabwe is
conducted. The decisions of the government are
binding to all and the
action of any state actor promotes or undermines the
collective.
Under
the GPA, the three principals are expected to be the custodians of the
peoples’ agenda. There is one head of state and Chinamasa’s actions have to
be viewed in the context that he is and has always acted in a representative
capacity. He has no personal stake in the government and it would be wrong
to accuse him of pursuing personal interest without assuming the burden of
proving it.
Ultimately, the state is a peoples’ project and anyone who
acts in the name
of the state has to be accorded the status that he/she
deserves.
Chinamasa has to act within the context he finds himself. He has
no power
to pass laws on his own. In fact, even to invoke Presidential
Powers to
allow the state and not Chinamasa to seize control of SMM, one
must accept
that he must have consulted the President and the President must
have
authorised the intended course of action.
In fact, the President did
authorise Chinamasa to proceed in the manner he
did. Subsequently, the
temporary measures that were used to
extra-judicially assume control of SMM
through the appointment by the
executive and not the judiciary of an
Administrator were enacted into law
and the President signed the bill which
then gave birth to the
Reconstruction of State Indebted Insolvent Companies
Act.
Since 2005, this is the law of the country. So to reduce the SMM matter
into a personal one is not only regrettable but misses the fundamental
issues at stake. Chinamasa can legitimately argue the bill was passed by
the House of Assembly in which the MDC was represented and at no stage has
the MDC-T asked for the law to be repealed.
Some may say that the law is
a bad law but one must accept that once enacted
it imposes obligations on
the part of the Minister of Justice to whom its
administration is vested to
enforce it. It would be wrong to target
Chinamasa as a person because he is
in reality he must just be a messenger
unless there is proof to suggest
otherwise.
If the law was and is considered to have toxic effects like the
adverse
impact on the livelihoods of SMM’s employees then surely the MDC-T
representatives in the executive and legislature must know what to do rather
than issue statements that tend to mask the real issues at play.
Because
I am black, I would not expect my entry into big business to be
understood
not only because of the country’s history but I believe that
attitudes
determine the altitude one can climb.
We come from a heritage where there are
a few role models in business and,
therefore, anyone who scales the business
mountain is easily misunderstood
to be a crony or an appendage of political
forces.
I guess to the person who authored the statement, my rights are
perishable
and are not worthy of concern to the party. The link between the
employer
and worker as social partners is easily lost in the kind of
politics that is
focused on narrow and personal issues rather than the kind
of Zimbabwe one
would want to see.
I guess if I was of different
heritage, the concern may have been about the
kind of legal framework and
political morality that would allow the state as
a purported creditor to
engage in self help activities and completely rule
out the involvement of
the appointment of an Administrator of a company
incorporated and
administered in terms of the Companies Act.
I should like to think that the
MDC is alive to the fact that the Companies
Act under which SMM was
registered has adequate provisions to protect a bona
fides creditor. If
this is the case, why then would the party not be
concerned about the fact
that in this matter, the state felt as a purported
creditor that it needed
the protection of new laws even using temporary
powers given to the
President to use in the case of emergencies?
The link between the absence of
the rule of law and an environment where
personal liberty is not assured and
property rights are not protected and
job losses is and must be obvious to
all and yet the import of the statement
is to suggest that job losses have
visited Shabanie and Mashava solely
because of a personal dispute between
Chinamasa and me.
Ordinarily in an environment that is characterised by
checks and balances,
reconstruction laws would not exist and a Minister of
Justice would be
restrained from converting allegations into convictions
without the
involvement of the courts.
I was specified in July 2004 and
de-specified in May 2010. A lot has
happened in between these dates and it
must be obvious to the author of the
statement that what has happened could
only have taken place because of the
laws that were passed.
We all expect
to have a Zimbabwe that respects the rule of law but when
political actors
focus their attention on symptoms then one must reflect and
take note that
the kind of protection one would expect from democracy cannot
be taken for
granted. If the people to whom you look for protection are the
very people
who are allergic to justice then only God can help Zimbabwe.
I have
repeatedly made the point that if I was selfish, I would find no need
of
being involved in multiple businesses because one must accept that this
requires one to trust others to manage a large portfolio.
Although I have
been accused of externalisation, is it not strange to the
MDC that I am also
credited for creating an empire not in foreign states but
in Zimbabwe. How
could I do both? To me it would not make sense for one
who does not believe
in building Zimbabwe to then invest in the same
country.
An externalizer
does not need an Administrator to expose his/her ways
because actions speak
louder than words yet in my case very few have cared
to ask the question
what kind of idiot would invest in Zimbabwe and then
stand accused of
externalisation. If I had externalised, the consequences
would be obvious
and the government would have had nothing to seize as the
assets would have
been out of reach.
Yes, I have no doubt of MDC’s interest in the plight of
the workers but I
should like to believe that it should not take 6 years to
express it and
should not have waited for me to be de-specified for
Zimbabweans to know.
In a binary world that many Zimbabweans choose to live
in, every dispute can
be reduced to them and us. In this case, I am
condemned to the “bad guys”
and the MDC is free to assume the higher moral
ground. What the author
sought to demonstrate is that the SMM dispute is a
private matter. If it
was, I would be on the street fighting a private
adversary but this is not
the case.
Chinamasa is armed with state power
and I am armed with nothing. To the
extent that this fight has lasted 6
years, I would have thought that any
rational mind would see the bigger
picture and what time it is in Zimbabwe.
In many other countries, this
matter would be high on the agenda of people
genuinely interested in change
and a better future.
A point is made that: “The reduction of these mines into
dead capital means
people in the surrounding areas cannot tap into it for
support. Workers have
lost their incomes and their families can no longer
afford a lifestyle they
were used to before the de-specification of Mawere
in July 2004.” What it
suggests is that before my de-specification in May
2010, the workers were
enjoying a good life style and it appears that it is
the view of the MDC
that I should not have been de-specified.
It is then
stated that: “It is callous for government whether inclusive or
exclusive to
behold such suffering and it takes no remedial actions” when it
is common
cause that there is only one cabinet in Zimbabwe and with the
exception of
the Ministry of Home Affairs, each ministry has a political
head who reports
to President Mugabe. By blaming the actions of any state
actor one must
accept that the collective is culpable for the conduct of any
of the
Ministers including Chinamasa. Even the Prime Minister and his
deputies
cannot escape blame when they have been part of the inclusive
government for
more than 2 years. In fact, it is instructive that no
dispute has been
recorded between the three Principals on the SMM matter.
What we know is
that on the Roy Bennett matter, there have been differences
and the party
has a known position.
When the MDC says: “It is equally heartless for any
government to ignore the
impact of such selfish and unproductive squabbles
on the women, children,
and underprivileged in our society” without
providing a solution one must
get concerned about the state of mind of the
person who authored this
statement.
Is it true as alleged that: “Sadly,
the lives of over 60 000 people in the
two towns and surrounding communal
lands have been sacrificed by the
wrangling over the future of the mines?”
I have attempted to explain that
to reduce fundamental governance challenges
into personal feuds with no
respect for the facts and the law is an act of
hypocrisy at its best.
It is then suggested that: “Zanu PF - true to its
colour, has shown that it
is anti-poor, anti-workers and anti-prosperity,
which is why in the MDC, a
pro-poor, pro-workers and pro-prosperity party,
we have problems with a
functionary of Zanu PF in the likes of Chinamasa,
who want to despoil assets
without considering the burden such behaviour has
on the general populace.”
What has this to do with ZANU-PF? I should like
to believe that when I deal
with Chinamasa I only do so in his capacity as
the Minister and not as
political actor.
I have nothing against ZANU-PF
because as a political club it has no means
to do the kind of things that it
is normally credited for. Governments only
work best if citizens are armed
with facts and this statement exposes the
kind of work that needs to be done
to improve the condition of Zimbabweans.
Before the formation of the
inclusive government an argument could be made
that the actions of
government reflected the dominant culture in force at
the time but one
should like to believe that there is nothing to stop the
MDC-T from stating
its position on issues like SMM. I assume this statement
represents the
collective thinking in the party that all that is bad coming
from government
actions must be attributed to ZANU-PF. This kind of
thinking must not go
unchallenged.
In stating that: “The MDC finds the behaviour of Zanu PF
towards the mines
intriguing, for nothing can be achieved by the on-going
stand-off with
Mawere when a solution remains elusive” it becomes clear that
the author of
this statement has limited understanding of how governments
work. The MDC-T
has representatives in the government and their actions
cannot and should
not be construed as partisan.
I cannot find an occasion
where for example, a Minister has issued a letter
on the party letterhead in
the conduct of his duties as a state actor.
Since the formation of the
inclusive government, we have to make the
collective accountable and it
should not be wrong to hold, for instance, the
Prime Minister who is also
the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers for
Chinamasa’s conduct.
I
was baffled by the statement: “In particular, the events surrounding
Mawere’s fate smacks of policy confusion in that at one stage he is declared
a criminal – thus forcing him to go into exile -- and on another his
specification is lifted, without any cogent explanation” because I was
de-specified by the co-Ministers of Home Affairs.
Instead of establishing
from Hon. Mutsekwa who was involved in the matter,
it is strange that the
import of the statement is to question the basis on
which the decision to
de-specify not only myself but others was made. Why
would the MDC-T not be
interested in verifying from its own representatives
in government what is
going on?
It is not clear what message the author of the statement is trying
to convey
when he/she says: “The policy flip flop sends a damaging message
to any
would-be investor, with devastating consequences for Zimbabwe’s long
term
economic revival” without precisely spelling out who is flip
flopping.
The people of Zimbabwe deserve a better deal and my only hope is
that our
experiences can help change the content of our daily conversations
to a high
political morality that seeks to build nations founded on values
and not
personalities. Even when I am gone, I would like my voice of the
challenges
of today being heard by future generations. Such a voice must
remain
focused on the prize that tomorrow is only different from today if
change
begins with us.
Anyone who is interested and concerned about the
plight of workers at SMM
must necessarily be concerned about the kind of
environment that would
permit the absurdity to take place while political
actors chose to engage in
diversionary tactics and strategies whose sole
purpose is to score political
points rather than address the root causes of
the problem.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Mutumwa Mawere Friday
14 January 2011
WHAT will Africa be like in 2050 when we complete the
first half of this
century dubbed the African century? Whose business is it
or should be to
shape Africa’s future?
Changing what our future looks
like ought to be the business of our
generation and yet as each day passes,
we look to others to do what we can
and should do in our interest to make
tomorrow a better and brighter day for
all. We hope and trust others to do
what we are not willing to do in our own
self-interest to make the
difference that we want to see in Africa.
During the colonial era, we all
know what was wrong and what time it was.
We are now in control and yet the
invasion of Africa by outsiders who see
more promise in its relatively
unexplored and yet to be exploited belly than
its majority inhabitants
suggests that in 2050, it is not unimaginable that
the Chinese investors of
today, for example, will be given marching orders
by the living generation
of Africans who will find cause to blame the
foreigners for their lack of
progress.
When the generation of 2050 looks back at our generation, what
will they say
about us? We have the privilege of writing our own story
through actions and
yet in many African states the preoccupation is on
political issues rather
than matters that inspire others to scale the
heights of progress.
Someone else’s business?
Imagine the future
without your input. That future should have no relevance
to you and yet many
of us would want to be alive without asking ourselves
what precisely is the
purpose of life if at the end of the day we make no
difference to the
environment we live in.
Is the future someone else’s business? It is and
should the business to all
who have a stake in it. That makes all of us
stakeholders.
On January 7, 2011, I woke up imagining what the future
holds for Africa. As
a Zimbabwe-born African, I could only start by
imagining what my motherland
will look like in 2050.
Will it be a
country dominated by indigenous persons? What would the mining
sector look
like? What would be the ownership structure of land? Who will be
the drivers
of economic and political change?
Will the current political institutions
be still alive in 2050 or will they
sink into followers than drivers as UNIP
and Malawi Congress Party have done
in Zambia and Malawi,
respectively?
Who will control the economic landscape? Will the brain
drain be converted
into a resident brain trust? What would be the state of
Zimbabwean schools,
hospitals, roads, prisons and all the institutions we
generally associate
with progress and civilisation?
In the case of
Zimbabwe, the last 30 years of independence has produced a
toxic mind that
regards politics as the key driver of change. It is not
uncommon for people
to refer to others as, for example, a Zanu PF or MDC
person as if political
parties are capable of owning people’s minds.
To the extent that
political institutions and the individuals who drive them
are accorded a
different status in society, it is natural that many will
look to
politicians to drive the agenda for change.
What we do know is that the
current players in the Zimbabwean political
drama will all have expired in
2050 and yet it will be the case that people
will seek to attribute the lack
of development to the actions and choices of
a few powerful
people.
If one were to ask the question of who most inspires Africans, I
have no
doubt that the likely response will be the names of political
actors. We
forget that politicians are human beings like all of us. They are
incapable
of solving another person’s problems without the means being
created by
others. The political market produces intangible
outputs.
Therefore, it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of
political actors
but we generally associate the impact of human development
indicators to
have a relationship with the actions and choices of
politicians.
South Africa
The behaviour of African politicians is
no different from the universal
behavior of political actors. Their business
is to stay in power for as much
as possible in as much as the business of an
entrepreneur is to remain in
business for a long time if not to eat into the
market shares of
competitors.
Any small-scale entrepreneur will tell
you that his/her ambition is to be
the biggest and yet in pursuing such an
objective, it must be accepted that
the interests of others may be injured
or destroyed in the process.
What will BRICSA mean to the rest of Africa?
The emergence of the BRICSA
grouping as a leading global player offers
opportunities and threats to
Africa’s future.
The BRIC countries are
underpinned by a strong business sector with a
national character and yet
the key drivers of South Africa, the only African
state to be invited to
join this prestigious group, are not drawn from the
majority
population.
When South Africa boasts of strong economic growth, such
growth has yet to
translate into a broad-based internalisation of benefits.
In terms of
control of the commanding heights of the economy, we know that
in countries
like China, India, Brazil and Russia, the control vests in
nationals whose
interests are an integral part of national
interest.
The ruling class in South Africa, for example, is still
preoccupied with the
baggage of the past while the former perpetrators of
economic injustice are
now the global players with African
origins.
The misalignment between politics and business is best exposed
when you
examine how many of South Africa’s key economic drivers of change
are
members of the ruling party, the African National Congress
(ANC).
In the case of Zimbabwe, we have seen business and professional
persons
refusing to associate or even become part of the political process
and yet
are the most vocal critics of the few who chose to dedicate their
lives to a
mandate enshrined in the constitution by representing the
aspirations of the
voiceless poor.
Most of the ruling parties are
denied the wisdom resident in professional
and businesspersons’ minds
because the status of political players has been
sufficiently undermined by
the general disdain and misunderstanding of the
role envisaged in the
constitution of political players.
In terms of funding, the political
institutions that have no control of the
state face a tough time in
sustaining their operations.
I have no doubt that the majority of
Africans will be inspired more by faith
in 2050 than by their own political
institutions. We have seen more being
done in the name of faith than in the
name of politicians.
Tradition of liberation
How can the paradigm
shift to make Africa a winning proposition? We all have
work to do. We have
to start focusing at what we can do to make Africa work
better for our
future generations rather than what politicians have not
done.
Imagine Africa in 2050. If you can imagine it, then you can
make Africa what
you want it to be. Our heritage is rich and yet we rarely
broaden our
discovery to include the corporate legacy that has been created
by the
contribution of all including those born outside the continent but
who
decided to make Africa their home.
We all must look at ourselves
as drivers of change. It is for this reason I
feel judging by the people who
choose to include me in their conversations
that I have played my part in
defining my generation.
Any knowledge I share with my generation will no
doubt assist future
generations in better understanding what was important
to me as I woke up
daily to invest in the business of life fully knowing
that the future does
not belong to me physically but will be shaped and
informed by the things
that I do in life.
If people gossip about you
then you must know that you are alive. Even
people who credit Zanu PF for my
business success, in so doing undermining
my own contribution to the process
of economic and social change, confirm
the thinking that anything good or
that represents progress must have a
political context. If this is true, the
next 40 years will test our
collective capacity to rise above the
limitations imposed by our past.
The enterprise of nation building is
highly dynamic in which the past pain
or glory do not guarantee failure or
success. Short-term expedient
strategies will not work for Africa. We have
to be concerned about where
Africa will be in the next 20 or 40
years.
We have to carry the tradition of liberation and extend it to the
economic
emancipation. We have to build our own institutions to serve not
just the
needs of our generation but also the needs of future generations.
The role
of the state in any human civilisation cannot be to do what
citizens can do
for themselves.
Imagining the future ought to be our
starting point than complaining about
the past for there is nothing we can
do to change what already has
transpired. As I imagine in the quietness of
my time, I hope to hear your
own imagination. Those who choose to remain
silent must remember that the
future will never know what it is that
occupied our minds and time.
Let us tell the story through conversations
that focus on what is possible
if we choose to work together. Rhodesia was
an idea but Zimbabwe like Africa
is an idea whose time has come. We are
ultimately the change that we want to
see. -- Mutumwa Mawere is a Zimbabwean
born businessman based in South
Africa.