NSSA scheme to squeeze taxpayers

Zim Independent


Shakeman Mugari


GOVERNMENT plans to introduce a new form of tax through NSSA's
proposed national health insurance scheme for all workers in what is seen as
a desperate bid to help it fund the collapsing health sector.

The all-encompassing insurance scheme covering all categories of
workers, observers say, is meant to boost government's revenues which have
been badly depleted by company closures, the brain-drain, unemployment and
galloping inflation.

Contribution to the scheme is compulsory whether one uses government
health facilities or not. Contributors benefit from the supposed national
insurance scheme only when they are gainfully employed.

Observers have said this negates the whole idea of a national
insurance scheme as pensioners, the aged and the legion of the unemployed
will not benefit.

The scheme was recommended to NSSA by government late last year and
will be introduced in July. Workers will from July contribute to the fund
for three months before they can start accessing services from government
hospitals.

The plan is designed to augment the funding of public hospitals as
normal financing from the fiscus is inadequate.

The money will be used to buy medication and fund the operations of
all government hospitals, NSSA acting general manager Amod Takawira
confirmed yesterday.

He said the plan was to "ensure that in time government concentrates
on salaries and conditions of service for health personnel while NSSA deals
with the procurement of drugs using money from taxpayers' contributions".

Preliminary calculations seen by the Zimbabwe Independent show that
from July 1, every worker will be taxed 5% of their salary - capped at $130
000 - as their contribution to the health insurance scheme. Employers will
match it with another 5%. This is in addition to the 3% that workers are
already paying towards NSSA's pension scheme which is also compulsory.

NSSA will be responsible for vetting and registering government
hospitals that can provide service under the scheme. It will then give the
hospitals money for operations and medication in advance.

The new tax is an additional burden on workers and their employers who
are already heavily taxed even though they get very little in return for
their money.

Government this year narrowed the PAYE tax bracket in order to squeeze
more money from the taxpayer. For instance, the highest tax bracket which
was 35% last year has been hiked to 47,5% of income.

All workers including those who have their own medical insurance with
companies such as Masca, Cimas and PSMAS will be forced to become members of
NSSA's scheme to be introduced through a statutory instrument which
government is already working on.

This means that all workers including those who earn less than the tax
threshold of $100 000 will be forced to pay the 5% tax.

The statutory instrument, which will be presented to cabinet in early
April, will require farm workers who earn $8 000 per month to become
members.

"There is no choice, everyone has to pay even if you are on other
medical schemes. It's national," said Takawira.

The medical cover will however apply only at government hospitals,
although those who are privately-insured are compelled to contribute,which
indicates that it is a fund-raising project for collapsing public health
institutions.

Government hospitals are perennially short of drugs, skilled personnel
and doctors.

"It will not cover private hospitals. The aim is to cater for your
expenses when you visit say Parirenyatwa and Harare hospital," said
Takawira.

The scheme, according to NSSA, will cover an employee and four
dependants. It has no grading system to differentiate between service that
can be received by members according to levels of contributions.

That means a farm worker who contributes $400 a month will enjoy the
same benefits as a high earner who contributes say $6 500 to the scheme. The
$400 is expected to cover the worker and his four dependants.

"Yes, that's the international trend, you take from the rich to give
to the poor. There is nothing shocking about that," said Takawira, who has
been in an acting capacity at Nssa for the past five years.

Takawira said the scheme will not cover workers after they retire
while those who are retrenched or fired will only be covered for three
months before they are struck off the scheme.

It does not cover thousands of pensioners who are getting a pittance
from NSSA as monthly payouts because - according to Takawira - "they did not
contribute to the scheme".

Significantly, the timing of the scheme coincides with the
establishment of the Health Services Board which government said was meant
to improve salaries and working conditions of health workers.

The striking junior doctors have questioned where the board would get
the money when it did not get an allocation from the national budget for
this year. Some companies and individuals have however vowed to challenge
the scheme in court because of its compulsory nature.

Striking doctors fired

Zim Independent


GOVERNMENT says it has fired striking doctors who failed to heed an
ultimatum for them to return to work by close of day on Wednesday.

This came as government increased their salaries accompanied by an
ultimatum to return to work by Wednesday morning.

The doctors however did not heed the ultimatum. The striking doctors
are demanding that their salaries be increased from $56 000 per month to
between $4 million and $5 million.

Deputy Health Minister Edwin Muguti, in an interview yesterday,
confirmed the firing of the doctors.

"Those who did not heed the ultimatum to return to work on Wednesday
are considered to have resigned and they should vacate government
accommodation," Muguti said.

However, Health Services Board chairman Lovemore Mbengeranwa yesterday
said he was not aware of the ministry's ultimatum. Last month Health
minister, David Parirenyatwa announced the formation of a board to improve
the health workers' conditions of service and salaries.

A spokesman for the junior doctors yesterday said they were still on
strike and no one had been given a formal letter of dismissal.

Muguti, in the interview, said government had substantially increased
salaries for doctors but refused to say how much the doctors will get.

"There is a good package that we put up for the doctors and there is
no reason for them to remain away from work. The package is good and they
have to wait to see when their payslips come. For now they should go back to
work," he said.

"We have come up with a policy that we will not publicise doctors'
salaries and that is what we effected and the doctors are saying they will
not go back to work because of that."

Medical sources said the striking doctors and Ministry of Health
officials met on Tuesday where the doctors were told their salaries had been
increased "substantially" without being given figures.

The doctors however insisted on knowing the new salaries but ministry
officials refused to reveal the figures.

The government during Tuesday's negotiations ordered that all senior
doctors who had downed stethoscopes in solidarity with their juniors should
resume duties yesterday or face dismissal.

Hospital Doctors Association representatives who did not want to be
named said doctors
would not resume duties until the government met their demands.

"The government claims that it has increased our salaries but they are
refusing to give us the figures. How do we know and negotiate if we are kept
in the dark? We have resolved that we would not go back to work until
government meets our demands," said doctors' representatives.

Muguti however said all striking doctors who did not respond to the
Wednesday's ultimatum should consider themselves dismissed.

The government last week increased car loans for the doctors from $700
000 to $4 million.

 

Mugabe dithers on mining law

Zim Independent


Paul Nyakazeya


PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe will not sign any Exclusive Prospecting Orders
(EPOs) this year despite knowing his consent is vital to allowing mining
companies to explore new mineral bodies to replace what is currently being
mined.

Correspondence made available to this paper shows that Mugabe, who
last signed Exclusive Prospecting Orders four years ago for the 2003/4
mining calendar, has withheld his signature on the document despite its
approval by the Mining Affairs Board.

Mines ministry officials have advised the mining industry that the
president will not sign any new EPOs until new mining legislation
incorporating indigenisation policies is in place.

Government last February proposed to grant itself a 51% stake in all
foreign-owned mines, with 25% being expropriated for free.

The Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines and other stakeholders have said the
policy proposals will damage mining, one of the few performing sectors of
the economy.

"This is perplexing when one considers that an EPO allows a mining
company to undertake exploration for new mineral ore bodies to replace
whatever is being mined now," reads the correspondence.

The mining sector accounts for 4% of the country's gross domestic
product.

Mining companies have not been doing much exploration since the last
EPO was signed four years ago, compromising the future expansion and
development of mining in the country. Analysts questioned why government was
preventing mining companies from spending their money in discovering new
mineral resources.

"What is not appreciated is that the time between exploration and
actual investment take anything between five to ten years," reads the
correspondence.

Civil servants boost taxes

Zim Independent


Shakeman Mugari


GOVERNMENT has been forced to increase civil servants' salaries by
about 400% to ensure that their wages remain taxable.

Government had initially budgeted a salary increase of 300% but
reviewed the figure earlier this month after realising that most civil
servants would fall below the tax-free threshold of $100 000 a month.

Teachers will now get a basic salary of $126 000, up from $31 000 last
year. Their housing and transport allowances which were increased by 140%
and 100% respectively are still higher than their basic salaries.

Government has been on a desperate drive to shore-up its tax earnings
in the wake of massive retrenchments, brain drain and company closures which
have affected its revenue.

Some of the measures include the proposed introduction of a compulsory
national medical aid insurance scheme under NSSA and the widening of tax
brackets to net as many taxpayers as possible.

Apart from widening the bands, the government has also increased the
tax that will be paid by top earners. According to a Zimra schedule, the
highest taxed worker will pay 47,5% ($5 million and above) while the lowest
pays 25% ($100 000-$200 000).

Last year the lowest taxed person was paying 20% while the highest was
paying 35%. Those getting $200 000-$300 000 will pay 30%, up from 25% last
year.

Tax bands have also been increased from four to six to squeeze as much
money as possible from the taxpayer. Government has also brought forward the
due date for VAT submission from companies from the 30th to the 20th of
every month.

The new tax bands make Zimbabweans some of the most heavily taxed
people in the world. Apart from the PAYE, Zimbabweans are also subjected to
an avalanche of taxes that affect every facet of their lives.

They pay an Aids levy (3%) -- which rarely benefits them when they are
sick - and a NSSA pension (3%) whose payouts can only be described as a
pittance.

They are forced to pay VAT (15%) on almost every product they buy and
carbon tax for their cars which goes anywhere except the road system.

If they invest on the money market, the taxman will chop 20% of their
profit. And if a listed company pays out their dividend, government wants
20% of the cheque. If the dividend is from a private company investors are
required to surrender 10% to the state.

Property sellers must remit 20% of revenue to the taxman. On buying
diesel and petrol they pay $60 per every litre towards the Noczim debt
amortisation levy.

For every cheque they write, government wants $100 for stamp duty. On
retirement their benefits are also taxed.

The dead do not escape taxation because a chunk of their estate is
also deducted. The tax burden on the companies is also huge. They have to
pay 30,9% of their net profit to government.

Then there is 15% VAT, Aids levy 3%, Zimdef which takes 1% of the wage
bill and the Standards Levy. They also have to match their workers' NSSA
contributions and other pensions and medical aid schemes.

Recovery will take 23 years - analysts

Zim Independent


Ray Matikinye


ECONOMISTS have predicted it will take 23 years for Zimbabwe's
battered economy to recover to pre-1996 levels without external assistance.

But reversing the legacy of destruction wrought by Zanu PF will need a
complete restructuring of the state with better forms of governance.

It will, however, take 14 years, if Zimbabwe worked to restore
international confidence that would attract external assistance.

Speaking on the subject, The Zimbabwean Economy in 10 Years of
Regression at the inaugural meeting of the Zimbabwe Lecture Series in Harare
on Tuesday, economist Dr Peter Robinson said to get sustained growth,
Zimbabwe needed proper governance buttressed by the rule of law, a
people-driven constitution and a just and lawful resolution of the land
issue.

It had to move away from self-imposed isolation as no one wants to be
associated with a government that acts so irresponsibly, Robinson added.

Robinson said Zimbabwe faced enormous constraints from the legacy of
Zanu PF rule which has spawned moral decadence manifested in corruption,
lack of investor confidence and structural retrogression as well as loss of
physical and human capital.

"Our current position is like falling into the bottom of a well and
trying to get out with little prospects of success because we keep falling
back," Robinson said.

"Politics and governance are our major problems not technical
economics," he said, attributing the economic decline to bad governance,
entrenchment of a patronage system that spawned massive corruption and asset
striping in parastatals.

Robinson said there was a need for a complete restructuring of the
state to a government appropriate for national economic recovery.

Recovery would not be achieved by a government unwilling and incapable
of formulating policies and programmes that address issues of building
confidence in the people.

"The more we talk of sovereignty, the more the economy collapses and
the more dependent we are on donors," he said.

He said Zimbabwe needed a leadership with a vision and the ability to
formulate policies and programmes that inspire public confidence rather than
"irresponsible self-serving policies which have unleashed poverty on the
people".

Speaking at the same occasion, economist John Robertson decried
government's Look East policy, which he said posed a grave danger to local
industry.

He said Zimbabwe should realise that the China of the 1980s is very
different from the China we see in 2007.

China, unlike Zimbabwe, now upheld property rights which he said were
fundamental to economic recovery.

Robertson said Zimbabwe courted the Chinese claiming to be socialist.
"I don't believe we are socialist. We have a leadership who are more
dishonest fascists than socialists - a ruling class which wants to remain in
power forever," Robertson said.

He said the Chinese are hoping to exploit us as a market for goods
that they cannot get rid of.

"We are in grave danger of destruction of our manufacturing industry
and being used as a conduit for Chinese goods into the Sadc region," he
added.

Forex shortages blamed for AirZim's failures

Zim Independent


Paul Nyakazeya


AIR Zimbabwe missed most of its targets last year largely due to
foreign currency shortages as 90% of the national airline's expenses are
paid in hard currency against earnings of 30%.

Information to hand shows that Air Zimbabwe failed to grow its
business because of foreign currency shortages, a weak marketing programme,
delays in the recapitalisation of the airline, and restructuring.

Acting CEO, Captain Oscar Madombwe, said the national carrier's
strategy to generate foreign currency - following the withdrawal last year
of a lifeline from the central bank - was to become more active in foreign
markets.

"We obviously have a foreign currency financing gap and this
constitutes one of our major challenges. We note that our needs for foreign
currency are burdensome to the Reserve Bank," Madombwe said.

"This means we must somehow make our own money. Our strategy to
generate the essential foreign currency is to become more active in foreign
markets," he said.

Madombwe said Air Zimbabwe's partnership with regional airlines should
boost its foreign currency reserves.

"This is obviously a strategy to make more money. We are also looking
for charter work to use up idle capacity that we have now and again," he
said.

Air Zimbabwe had set out to grow business by increasing its market
share regionally by 30% and internationally by 52% by end of last year.

The national airline had also planned to carry 134 454 passengers in
the country during the year.

It however managed to grow regionally by 29%, internationally by 50%
and managed to move only 67 349 passengers during the 12 months.

Madombwe said the airline came short of the intended targets mainly
because it was unable to expand the national route network as planned.

"Despite missing our targets, 2006 saw the airline lay a very strong
foundation for growth by entering into strategic relations with regional
airlines such as Zambia Skyways, Air Malawi and Air Tanzania. This year will
see us benefiting from these relationships," Madombwe said.

He said Air Zimbabwe's dispatch reliability and schedule integrity was
better last year compared to previous years.

"We recorded on-time departures of up to 95%. The most disappointing
was 60%. To dispatch a flight on time, the aircraft must be serviced
technically, fuelled up and loaded on time," said Madombwe.

Madombwe said personnel servicing the aircraft must be positioned at
their various work places on time and passengers themselves must check-in on
time and board the aircraft when asked to do so.

Air Zimbabwe's target for on-time departure this year is 95%

Lawyers want Zanu PF militias disbanded

Zim Independent


Ray Matikinye


THE Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) says government should
disband Zanu PF youth militias who continue to be used for partisan policing
and to undermine the rights of critics of government policies.

The human rights body urged government to ensure that the actions of
the police force are not defined and controlled by illegitimate and partisan
institutions such as a ruling party's youths.

ZLHR was condemning Wednesday's attack by police on two members of the
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) who were advertising a
residents' meeting to discuss the recent budget by the Harare Commission.

Zanu PF militia attacked Ishmael Mayabo and Cleopas Gwatirisa at the
Fourth Street bus terminus while they were distributing fliers advertising a
CHRA public meeting.

The youths took them into a hall and assaulted them using broomsticks,
clenched fists, and boots for over an hour. After this, the youths called
the police.

ZLHR said a member of the Police Internal Security Intelligence took
the victims to Harare Central police station where he viciously assaulted
them. He ordered them to take off their shirts before making them pay
admission of guilt fines for the alleged violation of Section 46 of the
Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.

"In spite of the assaults being pointed out to him at the point when
he took them to the police station, the PISI detail took no action against
the Zanu PF youth militia and instead chose to add his portion of assault to
the victims and take spurious extortive action against them," ZLHR
complained.

"Such a situation reduces Zimbabwe into an anarchical state where the
law does not apply equally. It makes a mockery of all democratic pretensions
that the state of Zimbabwe might purport to harbour."

Succession politics dog Mirror

Zim Independent


Itai Mushekwe


THE Zimbabwe Mirror Newspaper Group, publishers of the Daily Mirror
and The Sunday Mirror, faces an uncertain future owing to succession
politics.

The company's precarious bank overdraft has compounded the crisis that
has cast its future business operations in doubt.

Zanu PF hawks said to be aligned to contenders locked in a power
tussle to succeed President Robert Mugabe are making frantic efforts to
stifle government funding of the two titles now owned by the Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO), sources have said.

This comes as the paper has been hit by a spate of resignations,
internal fights and huge funding deficits from its intelligence financiers.
To compound the publishing company's woes, former owner Ibbo Mandaza has
resolved to instigate a fresh legal suit next week to retain control of the
newspapers following the collapse of talks with lawyers representing the
CIO.

The collapsed talks were aimed at searching for an out of court
settlement with Mandaza. Mandaza's legal representative, Joseph Mandizha of
Mandizha & Associates, told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that his
client was going ahead with the lawsuit against the state intelligence
service.

"There are three dimensions concerning the legal issues and disputes
between the Mirror and Mandaza," Mandizha said.

"The first constituency of that dimension centres on ownership issues,
while the second centres on several newspaper reports that were carried by
the Mirror which my client finds defamatory of his character. The third
concerns labour issues in general and this is to do with money owing to my
client from the date of his unlawful suspension and dismissal."

Mandaza was forced to quit his publishing empire two years ago after
being told by Intelligence minister Didymus Mutasa and CIO boss Happison
Bonyongwe that Mugabe wanted him to leave, sources say.

The publisher agreed on condition that he was paid all money owing to
him - an obligation the CIO has failed to fulfill.

The papers have widely been seen as aligned to a faction supporting
Vice-President Joice Mujuru. The paper, sources said, was a crucial
instrument in campaigning for the elevation of Mujuru to the post of
vice-president in 2004.

Zanu PF politicians opposed to Mujuru are reportedly calling for the
injection of financial resources into the party's official mouthpiece, The
Voice, instead of the Mirror which they say must generate its own revenue.

Insiders at the Mirror contend that the papers have a bank overdraft
amounting to $200 million, although other sources place the figure at $500
million.

"Those papers are no longer viable and have become a heavy liability
for those running them," sources said.

"There is an urgent need for recapitalisation at the Mirror because
the centre can no longer hold."

Last year the newspaper group received an "anonymous" $150 million
lifeline, which it has since exhausted and has been struggling to meet its
operational requirements including paying workers' salaries.

Last week's resignation of three senior managers and the suspension of
the papers' group editor-in-chief showed symptoms of looming collapse at the
Mirror.

The four left after refusing to sign new contracts obliging them to
implement an unrealistic turnaround target that would see the papers
generating $200 million a week, while ensuring that returns are kept below
the 5% mark.

The sales and marketing manager, Wilson Chivaura, together with his
deputy Evans Sagonda, tendered their resignations last week charging that
the new revenue targets were unrealistic because the company was selling
damaged goods and needed to "deal with its image".

Tawanda Majoni, the editor of the Daily Mirror, has also resigned,
while group editor Joseph Kurebwa was suspended after refusing to sign the
contract. Kurebwa is said to have taken with him a company vehicle that he
was using.

Govt opts to restructure parastatals

Zim Independent


Shame Makoshori


GOVERNMENT has transformed the Privatisation Agency of Zimbabwe (Paz)
into the State Enterprises Restructuring Agency (Sera) whose duties have
been expanded to include the reform of parastatals.

Analysts this week said the establishment of Sera was a clear sign
that government had decided to restructure rather than privatise debt-ridden
state enterprises as originally claimed.

Paz was established in 1999 with the mandate of assisting, supporting
and accelerating the privatisation process, working closely with the public
enterprises concerned and with line ministries.

Senior officials at Sera told businessdigest this week that government
had not disbanded Paz but had "broadened" its scope of activities to keep
pace with the restructuring programmes that are currently underway in most
of its ailing parastatals.

"Nothing much has changed but what has happened is that the role of
Paz has been expanded to include restructuring of parastatals," said an
official with Sera on Wednesday.

"Government said it was necessary that the widening of Paz's scope
should be followed by the change of the organisation's name," he said,
referring further questions to accountant-general Judith Madzorera who is
acting as permanent secretary for the Ministry of Finance.

Sources this week said the new entity would work towards dilution of
government shareholding in large corporates while trying to rehabilitate
limping parastatals and state enterprises. There are no immediate plans to
privatise, a source said.

But an analyst told businessdigest that the Paz's revamping was a
strong indication of government's attitude towards the privatisation of its
struggling companies.

Most of them have perennially depended on the taxpayer's money.

Zimbabwe reluctantly privatised some of its parastatals on the advice
of multilateral lending organisations like the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund that privatisation would turn the companies into
more efficient and profitable outfits.

"The question of privatisation is out, and I do not think Sera will
have a bigger role to play except helping in drawing up turnaround plans for
parastatals and restructuring boards. But this is what line ministries were
already doing," the source said.

Your Honour,it's not just about money

Zim Independent


By Gugulethu Moyo


WHEN it comes to questions of money, everybody is of the same
religion, so said Voltaire, the 18th century neoclassical French
philosopher. Indeed, it is difficult not to agree with Judge President Rita
Makarau's assertion that justice in Zimbabwe is imperilled because the
country's judicial institutions are inadequately funded.

In a speech to mark the start of the legal calendar, Justice Makarau
made a forceful case for the government to increase funding to the
judiciary: last year, the High Court failed to go to circuit in the province
of Masvingo. As a consequence, 104 murder trials did not take place.

Criminal suspects are being held in what she describes as "inhuman,
degrading" conditions at police stations. Witnesses in criminal cases are
paid $5 a day for their attendance in court, an amount which she considers
to be "an insult".

The courts operate without computers or adequate stationery, and she
adds that the court libraries have been "aptly described" by the chief
magistrate as "varying in their degrees of uselessness".

The damning piece of evidence: "Reports have reached my office and the
office of the chief justice that support staff are engaging in corrupt
practices," she told her audience.

Who could have disagreed with the judge's statement that: "Judging
from the paltry funds that are allocated," as she states, "the place and
role of the judiciary in this country is under-appreciated"?

The hard fact is that: "For justice delivery, we cannot escape the
local system no matter how rich or influential we are. We cannot escape the
inefficiencies created by lack of adequate funding.

"It is wrong by any measure to make the judiciary beg for its
sustenance. It is wrong to make the judiciary beg for resources from central
government," she said, closing her case.

She is right, of course. And there must have been many converts among
her audience.

As with all other crumbling institutions of government, money is
needed. It is needed now in order to prevent total collapse.

But throwing money at the problems of Zimbabwe's judicial institutions
will not solve them all. The shortage of funds is not the whole problem.

Other derelictions of the executive arm of government equally
undermine the delivery of justice. Hundreds of court judgements remain
unenforced, ostensibly because the government does not agree with the orders
of the court and, unlike in this particular instance where Justice Makarau
has decided to put her head above the parapet in order to draw public
attention to a financial crisis, judges need not break taboos in order to
hold those responsible for defying the law in contempt of court. But, they
have yet to do so.

In the hands of judges, scores of cases remain undecided in instances
where it appears that the political, not the monetary, costs would be too
high.

These days, Justice Makarau and Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku may
be receiving reports of corruption among their staff, but the corruption of
judges has long been the subject of debate about justice in Zimbabwe.

The actions of some judges who, years ago, accepted land from the
government under legally questionable arrangements created the perception
that those judges were willing to subordinate their obligations to justice
in order to amass wealth.

Some would say that this is the cause of the judiciary's present
predicament and that it should not come as a surprise that justice itself is
not valued because certain judges have done much to devalue its ideals.

And, arguably, the palpable failure of the higher courts to uphold
fundamental rights - freedom of expression, freedom of association, the
right of citizens to elect their government - and the absurd departure, in
numerous cases, from established legal principles in order to legitimate
executive action have done more to harm the administration of justice in the
country than any shortage of funds, no matter how serious, could ever do.

Justice Makarau may be pleading on behalf of the judiciary now, but
when those who were more free to speak - in this case ordinary members of
the legal profession - marched last year to protest the encroachment of the
government on judicial independence, her colleagues in the Supreme Court
bolted the door and refused to hear them.

And just last year speakers at the opening of the courts used the
podium to issue thinly veiled threats to lawyers who dared to speak out in
defence of the integrity of judicial institutions.

It makes you wonder just how bad things must be.

* Moyo is a Zimbabwean lawyer who works for the International Bar
Association.

Judiciary abused

Zim Independent


By David Coltart


JUDGE President, Justice Rita Makarau, in her address to the opening
of the High Court on January 15, correctly stated that normally judges
should not complain publicly regarding their conditions of service, but that
she has to because their conditions, and the conditions of all those
involved in the justice system, are now dire.

The MDC is in principle sympathetic towards judges and all those
affected by the fact that the government has not allocated sufficient
resources to the Ministry of Justice.

However, the reason this deleterious situation has been allowed to
arise is because the Zanu PF regime does not care about justice and only
tolerates the judiciary in so far as it serves its purposes.

Since 2000, law and the justice system in general, has been used as a
weapon against legitimate democratic opposition. Spurious charges have been
brought against opposition leaders, activists and supporters. Equally
spurious trials have been held.

Judges have delayed politically-sensitive matters such as electoral
petitions and applications for the release of activists, including MPs,
causing serious miscarriages of justice.

Many judges have seriously compromised their independence by taking
and occupying farms often unlawfully seized from commercial farmers. Many
judges have since 2000 severely retarded the positive strides made by the
judiciary since 1980 in expanding the rights of Zimbabweans through positive
interpretations of Zimbabwe's Declaration of Rights, by handing down a
string of judgments inimical to universal human rights norms. Other judges
who have chosen to act professionally have been hounded out of office while
some have gone into exile.

During the same period the Zanu PF regime has ensured that vast
amounts of money are spent on the CIO. That shows exactly where its
priorities lie.

Accordingly, it is clear that judges have simply been used and
exploited by the regime to further its political purposes. The truth is that
the judiciary will always be seen by Zanu PF as some cumbersome appendix
which is necessary to maintain the façade of democracy and which on
occasions can be useful in furthering a political goal. But the judiciary
will never be an institution which is revered by Zanu PF as an indispensable
part of a Zimbabwean democracy.

It is in light of this that we fear that the Judge President will not
be listened to by this regime and to that extent her statement is futile. It
may be that some individual judges will have their conditions addressed but
in the prevailing environment there is not the slightest chance that
sufficient resources will be applied to address Judge Makarau's legitimate
concerns.

The MDC believes that in order for the judiciary to become strong and
independent, there needs to be more than just changes to the constitution.
In addition, sufficient resources must be made available to the judiciary
through the national budget.

In the interim we urge the judiciary to change its ways and to turn
over a new leaf this year. It has a role to play in fairly applying the law
and by doing all it can to strike down laws which clearly violate our
constitution and offend international laws, norms and morality.

* Coltart is MDC justice spokesman.

Olds' slayers run farm into the ground

Zim Independent


Loughty Dube in Nyamandlovu


AS Zimbabweans woke up to a fine morning to celebrate Independence Day
on April 18 2000, Martin Olds (43) was woken by a commotion at his farm
gate. When he went out to investigate what was happening, he was confronted
by more than a hundred war veterans and government supporter demanding that
he surrenders his farm.

As he retreated from the gate, he was shot in the leg and limped back
to his farmhouse and armed himself with an assortment of weapons.

He radioed Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) colleagues to tell them that
he had been injured and needed an ambulance. He phoned Nyamandlovu police
station, 17 kilometres away from his Compensation Farm and made a report
that he was under attack.

Three hours later, after a long shoot-out with the war veterans, Olds
was lying dead in a pool of blood after his attackers, appreciating his
marksmanship with a rifle, had set the farmhouse on fire, forcing him out.

Out of ammunition and cornered, Olds jumped out of the bathroom window
where he had sought refuge and was battered with iron rods and shot in the
face twice at point blank range.

Nyamandlovu police did not respond to his pleas for help. Instead,
they set up a road block and stopped white commercial farmers who had
responded to his SOS messages from reaching him.

The truckloads of armed war veterans that killed Olds passed through
the same road block and were waved through by the police as they entered and
later left the area.

This episode occurred seven years ago in the prime Nyamandlovu farming
area at the height of the chaotic government-sponsored land reform exercise.

To date none of the people who murdered Olds have been arrested or
prosecuted for the crime.

Two years later, 72-year-old Gloria Olds' bullet-riddled body was
discovered at her Silver Streams Farm, just 10 kilometers from where her son
Martin was murdered, with 18 AK-47 bullets still lodged in her body.

The church minister who presided over her funeral, Paul Andrianatos,
said of her killers: "It is a sad day when men need semi-automatic weapons
to murder a 72-year-old woman, they are not men, they are scum, they are
cowards."

Andrianatos was deported the following day.

This week the Zimbabwe Independent visited Compensation and Silver
Streams Farms to see developments taking place on the two properties since
the killings.

Compensation Farm was a thriving safari, animal and nature
conservation farm before the land invasions while Silver Streams was a
thriving cattle ranch that supplied meat to several butcheries in
Nyamandlovu and Bulawayo, 77 kilometres away.

The burnt down farmhouse and burnt-out shells of cars that the war
veterans set on fire on their way out of the farm tell a sad story of what
happened here seven years ago.

Driving into Compensation Farm one is met with pole and dagga huts
that indicate that the farm has been parcelled out to subsistence farmers.

Despite the fact that the two farms are in regions four and five which
are not suitable for crop farming and have low rainfall, the government
settled families on the two properties.

Thulani Mupande, a middle-aged man, says he moved onto Compensation
Farm from nearby Tsholotsho district at the height of the land-grab but
explains that things are not so rosy for the resettle1d farmers.

"After the farm was acquired by the government, we moved in here
together with other families," said Mupande.

"We are facing serious problems as the government has not drilled
boreholes for us and the crop has not been very good since we arrived. But
we are still soldiering on," Mupande said.

A large number of those allocated land have disappeared leaving behind
crumbling structures.

Mupande however says the main problem the settlers are facing are
water shortages as the farm engines that used to pump water disappeared when
new settlers moved in.

As has happened on many acquired farms, borehole equipment and pumping
engines at Compensation Farm were stolen or vandalised when the new settlers
moved in.

"Water is a big problem here," Mupande said, looking up to the skies.
"We travel 14 kilometres to get water from the Gwayi River and the
Nyamandlovu aquifer. The water reservoirs that were put up by the former
white farmer were vandalised and the engines that were pumping water from
Gwayi River stolen, so we are in crisis.

"We are all praying that it rains, but the skies are not opening up.
We are going to starve again this year if it does not rain."

As we drove deep into the farm we came across abandoned structures
which settlers built when they moved onto the farm with the encouragement of
the government.

"Most people left a long time ago because there is no hospital or
clinic around and the only school is several kilometers away," explains
Mupande.

At Silver Streams Farm the situation is no different. Children of the
newly-resettled farmers travel 20 kilometres every day to and from George
Silundika primary school as there is no school on the farm or in nearby
areas.

The nearest hospital and clinic, Nyamandlovu Health Centre, is 12
kilometres away.

A war veteran identified as Melusi Moyo has moved into the farmhouse
together with his family.

The farmhouse is disintegrating while the number of people we observed
milling around indicated that there could be over 20 people occupying the
farmhouse.

There are about 100 families now settled at Silver Streams Farm and
all of them are subsistence farmers whose wilting maize crop is all there is
to show for their frenzied occupation of the farm in 2000.

Chris Jarrett, the former chairman of the Nyamandlovu Farmers
Association,had no kind words for the newly-resettled farmers.

"When Martin Olds was murdered the people who settled on his farm
stole a lot of his cattle and sold them," said Jarrett.

"Martin had over 1 000 cattle but all of them have gone, either sold
or stolen. His family managed to retrieve a few of the beasts from the
farm," Jarrett said.

Olds' wife Cathy applied for and was granted asylum in Britain a few
months after her husband's gruesome murder.

Jarrett said most of the people who built structures at Compensation
Farm were only interested in hunting animals that were on the farm.

He said when the animal population decreased on the farm most of the
settlers also packed their bags and left.

Compensation Farm had a variety of wildlife that included water buck,
sable, impala, kudu and zebra among others. However, all the animals have
disappeared as settlers hunted them for the pot.

"Olds had a striving safari business that had a variety of animals;
there were thousands of sable and impala on the farm but all were hunted by
the war veterans when they moved into Compensation. Now there is absolutely
nothing," Jarrett says.

Before the controversial land reform exercise began, commercial
farmers in the Nyamandlovu area were among the most productive and fed a
large part of the country with produce from the area.

Farms along the Bulawayo-Nyamandlovu highway have few crops growing
now as most of the farms do not have irrigation equipment and are relying on
the rains.

The area has however not received substantial rains and the maize that
is below knee level is already wilting.

"The situation is sad. Commercial farmers in Nyamandlovu were
supplying the whole country with butternuts, tomatoes, beetroot, maize,
tobacco, paprika, onions and cabbages but now what you get from these
farmers is a few buckets of maize," says Jarrett, adding that it will take
the country a long time to recover and return to pre-2000 output levels.

Cheda raps magistrates, cops for graft

Zim Independent


A SENIOR High Court Judge, Maphios Cheda, has accused the country's
magistrates and police officers of corruption in the execution of their
duty.

Cheda's sentiments echo those expressed by Judge President Rita
Makarau in her maiden speech to mark the official opening of the 2007 legal
year in Harare on Monday.

Cheda was speaking at the opening of the first term of the Bulawayo
High Court, also on Monday.

While acknowledging that the police and magistrates have been working
under difficult conditions, Cheda said corruption by those entrusted to
deliver justice was unacceptable.

"While the majority of police officers have done a commendable job,"
Cheda said, "there are still pockets of some of them who in my view should
not be in the police force at all.

"It seems some of them have completely forgotten that the offenders
whom they arrest, and in particular the traffic offenders whom they invite
to pay fines, such fines should go to the state coffers and not to their
pockets."

He added: "There are some police officers who openly consort with
criminals, not for the purpose of obtaining strategic information required
in the prevention of commission of crimes or apprehension of criminals but
for the sole purposes of sharing the loot or profits which flow from such
criminal activities," Cheda said. - Staff Writer.

Forex inflows dip ahead of monetary policy

Zim Independent


Dumisani Ndlela


THE foreign exchange market was having uncharacteristically low
inflows as foreign currency owners remained tight-fisted in anticipation of
devaluation by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono, dealers said
this week.

Gono is expected to deliver his monetary policy, which had ealier been
booked for December 7, before month-end.

But strong fears emerged as reports began swirling in the market this
week that Gono, who returned from a sabbatical on Monday, could postpone the
monetary policy presentation to February, a move that could force foreign
currency holders to dispose of their foreign currency to meet commitments
earlier suspended in anticipation of a January presentation.

Holders of foreign cash were "only liquidating to the extent of their
immediate needs", a treasurer with a commercial bank told businessdigest,
saying non-governmental organisations and diplomatic missions, the biggest
foreign currency traders on the strapped foreign currency market, had taken
a no-sell position until Gono's monetary policy presentation.

There was strong sentiment on the market that Gono could devalue the
local unit to between $750 and $1 000 to the greenback, from the current
rate of $250 to the US unit.

Zimbabwe is going through its worst economic crisis in history,
characterised by acute foreign currency shortages which have hampered import
of critical national requirements like fuel as well as raw materials and
capital equipment for industrial operations.

"There is a very strong feeling that the Zimbabwe dollar will be
devalued to $750 to the US dollar," a bank executive said. "It could go up
to $1 000 to the US dollar - I don't think the governor will allow it
further than that."

Gono last devalued the local currency on the official interbank market
to $250 against the greenback in July from $101 to the US unit.

While the official rate is pegged at $250 to the greenback, the US
dollar has been fetching over $3 000 on a thriving parallel market, believed
to be the major recipient of inflows from Zimbabweans in the diaspora as
well as exporters trying to increase margins on their earnings.

The parallel foreign currency market has been declared illegal and
several companies and individuals have in the past two years been hauled
before the courts for trading foreign currency on the unofficial market.

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

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

It is not necessarily the official exchange rate.

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

While government has given conservative inflation forecasts of below
500% by year-end, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said inflation
will this year average 4 278,8%, with real gross domestic product (GDP)
contracting by 4,7% in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Year-on-year inflation as measured by the all items Consumer Price
Index reached an all-time high of 1 281,3% in December.

Govt bills flop, undersubscribed 94,2%

Zim Independent


Dumisani Ndlela


GOVERNMENT'S plans to raise $160 billion suffered miserably after the
tender was grossly undersubscribed despite initial projections it could win
support from insurance and pension funds under pressure to fill their
portfolios with prescribed assets.

Figures obtained from the central bank indicate that the bills, which
had been earmarked for listing on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, were
undersubscribed by 94,2%, raising only $9,3 billion of the $160 billion
required.

The bills were meant to raise cash for the funding of government's
capital projects.

"There was no appetite for the bonds - for long-term investments
generally," a market dealer said this week.

An equity analyst said the current uncertain economic environment had
combined with poor timing to result in the under subscription, adding that
huge sums were locked up in other assets such as CPI-linked and
Stabilisation Bonds.

Market watchers indicated that the majority of investors who had taken
up the bills were insurance companies and pension funds but noted that
take-up by these two financial sector players were unlikely to move
subscriptions to required levels.

Pension funds and insurance companies are compelled by law to have a
determined percentage of their portfolios in prescribed assets and central
bank governor Gideon Gono last year called on the sector's regulatory
authorities to compel these institutions to meet prescribed asset levels.

Insurance sector players said they were currently loaded with
portfolios bearing below-inflation returns and were therefore unwilling to
commit themselves to the bills in a significant way.

The bills, three-year government of Zimbabwe local registered stock,
will be listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), with interest being
charged on the general revenue account and assets of the country, are meant
to raise funds to finance government capital projects.

One analyst had indicated poor take-up last week, saying: "We do not
think the paper will garner enough market support to negatively affect money
market liquidity."

In the analyst's view, rates on the bills were too low to attract
investors.

The coupon rate for the bills, which had a prescribed and liquid asset
status, was fixed at 350%, 250% and 100% over 2007, 2008 and 2009
respectively.

The bills are acceptable as collateral for repo and overnight
accommodation by the central bank and are redeemable at the Reserve bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) on maturity.

Interest on the bills will be paid half-yearly on dates to be
indicated on the stock certificates by remittances to the credit of the
investor's bank accounts.

The bills are redeemable at par in the currency of Zimbabwe.

Staff exodus hits farming sector

Zim Independent


Pindai Dube


A STAFF exodus has hit the farming sector, with reports obtained by
businessdigest this week indicating that poor remuneration was at the core
of the latest crisis to hit the faltering sector.

Sources in the sector said commercial farming operations, mainly those
run by a new breed of under-funded black farmers, were losing skilled and
semi-skilled workers and also failing to attract unskilled employee due to
poor working conditions and remuneration.

Commercial farm workers are understood to be earning between $5 000
and $15 000 per month. The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe's low income
consumer basket for a family of six is at over $350 000 per month.

The average family for most farm workers consists of six members.

Businessdigest is informed that current negotiations between
commercial farm workers and employers had collapsed, with employers refusing
to listen to workers demands for better pay.

Farm workers are represented by the General Agricultural and
Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) while employers' unions are
represented by the Agricultural Labour Bureau (ALB), an arm of the
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) and Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU).

Vice secretary-general of GAPWUZ, Gift Muti, confirmed the exodus of
farm workers to other sectors of the economy due to the paltry salaries.

"There is a massive exodus of farm workers from the agricultural
sector due to paltry salaries they are getting from employers. With the rate
of inflation at over 1 200%, salaries which we are being offered are not
justified," said Muti.

Tongai Marodze, the head of ALB, refused to comment on allegations of
unfair pay to farm workers, instead lashing out at the workers for
"tarnishing the image of the employers by rushing to the press".

"The workers should stop going to the press if they want their
grievances to be looked (into)," Marodze said.

The ZCFU president, Wilson Nyabonda, acknowledged problems in the
sector, saying this was mainly due to commercial farmers failing to give
employees attractive contracts.

"The shortage of labour in the agricultural sector is caused by
commercial farmers who are engaging them on a contract basis instead of
employing them on a full time basis. Contract employees can leave at any
time if offered better salaries elsewhere," Nyabonda said.

Southern African Power Pool warns on Zim

Zim Independent


Shame Makoshori


THE Southern African Power Pool (Sapp) has warned that electricity
transmission bottlenecks in Zimbabwe's power infrastructure are affecting
power transmission between utilities in the region.

The warning highlights increasing concern within the region over
Zimbabwe's escalating economic crisis, blamed on President Robert Mugabe's
government accused of mismanaging one of Africa's once most promising
economies.

Sapp is a group of 12 power companies in the Southern African
Development Community (Sadc) which was established to coordinate the
planning and operations of electric power systems in the countries, which
are facing the threat of electricity shortfalls this year.

In its 2006 annual report, Sapp said while major steps towards
regional power integration were taken in the period, the group was worried
about transmission congestion in Zimbabwe.

Power infrastructure in Zimbabwe had not been replaced for decades and
desperate efforts are underway to refurbish major power stations.

"Transmission congestion has been noted on some points in the system
especially the transmission bottlenecks within the Zesa (Holdings) system in
Zimbabwe, which geographically lies at the centre of Sapp," the report said.

"This bottleneck is hindering the electricity trade between northern
and southern countries," Sapp said.

Sapp's concerns came as other Sadc economies had previously warned
that the deteriorating economic situation in Zimbabwe could have negative
consequences on regional economic performance if urgent steps were not taken
to address the decline.

They warned that Zimbabwe, with four digit inflation figures, could
become the stumbling block to the region's economic integration.

Zimbabwe's high interest and exchange rates are also not conducive for
regional integration and this was seen as the reason behind the decline in
trade between Zimbabwe and most Sadc states.

There were plans to build a bridge linking southern African states at
Kazungula near Namibia's Caprivi Strip to evade Zimbabwe because of its
mounting economic woes.

Economic analysts were worried that this could slam the door on Sadc's
trade links with Zimbabwe as most traffic could be routed through that
strip.

In 2002, Zambian companies vigorously campaigned to block cheap
commodities like sugar, tea and cement from Zimbabwe into that market
arguing that they were a threat to local industries.

In 2003, Malawi made frantic efforts to halt Zimbabwean exports into
that country and raised excise duties from 15% to 20%.

Mineral-rich Botswana has been hostile to cross border trade with
Zimbabwe.

The Sadc countries' actions were seen as signals that Zimbabwe's
isolation, which started with the European Union and the United States, was
quietly spreading into Sadc.

Most members of Sapp, including Zambia, Botswana, Malawi and the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), concluded detailed studies for
interstate power transfers in 2006, according to the Sapp report.

But there were no details of significant projects entered into between
Zimbabwe and other members except for the installation of telecommunications
equipment to link member countries.

The DRC and Zambia carried out extensive studies to evaluate the
maximum transfer limit on the existing Zambia-DRC 22kV line.

Mozambique and Malawi finalised negotiations for a power purchase
agreement while Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya secured a US$1,2 million grant
from the World Bank to finance their projects.

Zambia and Namibia completed 60% of their project works on the Zambian
side including substation works in Victoria Falls.

Power utilities making up Sapp include the Botswana Power Corporation,
Eskom of South Africa, Nampower of Namibia, the Tanzania Electricity Supply
Company, Zesa, the Lesotho Electricity Corporation, the Swaziland
Electricity Board,the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi, Zambia's
Zesco and others.

Coal shortages return to haunt industry

Zim Independent


Pindai Dube


INDUSTRY has been hit by renewed coal shortages, threatening
industrial operations already ailing from acute foreign currency and other
raw material shortages, businessdigest established this week.

The coal shortages have prompted a rush for foreign currency on the
parallel market by desperate firms trying to avert closure by importing the
mineral from neighbouring countries.

Those that had their own foreign currency reserved for the import of
critical capital equipment and spares have been forced to divert the foreign
cash towards the import of coal, sources indicated.

Local industries are grappling with runaway inflation at 1 281%, the
highest in the world, and shortages of foreign currency to import raw
materials. This has resulted in most of them laying off staff or downsizing
operations or closing shop altogether.

National Blankets managing director, Jeremy Musgrave, said the coal
shortages had affected their operations and were now busy trying to find a
solution to the supply problem.

"The shortage of coal has affected us but we are trying to find a
solution to the problem," said Musgrave.

George Mutendadzamera, the corporate affairs manager for Zimbabwe
Stock Exchange-listed beverages group, Delta Corporation, said they had
already started importing coal to meet their production requirements.

"We are receiving inadequate supplies of coal locally and import to
augment supplies. The operating environment continues to be challenging for
all businesses in the country," said Mutendadzamera.

A senior official with the steel makers Ziscosteel said production
levels had gone down drastically as a result of acute coal shortages.

Dwindling supplies from Hwange Colliery Company (HCC) have therefore
added to a myriad of mounting problems faced by industrial operations.

Marketing and public relations manager, Clifford Nkomo, confirmed HCC
had been hit by machine breakdowns, resulting in the company's failure to
meet coal demand.

"Coal shortages are a result of major breakdowns which occurred on the
secondary crushing plant and conveyor belting systems," Nkomo said.

Interbank foreign sales slump 51%

Zim Independent


Paul Nyakazeya


FOREIGN sales on the interbank rate declined by 51% in December due to
reduced supplies from key players on the market following companies' annual
closure for the festive season.

Figures made available this week revealed that a total of US$7 155 713
and US$7 230 447 was bought and sold respectively on the interbank foreign
currency market in December, compared to total purchase and sales of US$14
607 430 and US$14 786 235 respectively, recorded in November.

The highest daily purchases and sales of US$1 211 964 and US$1 212 000
were recorded on December 11.

The lowest daily purchases and sales of US$166 477 and US$233 317
respectively, were recorded on December 28.

A peak surplus of US$75 735 was recorded on December 11 against a peak
deficit of US$104 018 on December 7.

ZB Bank group economist, Best Doroh, said demand was expected to
rebound this month.

"Interbank foreign currency trade will increase as companies resume
operations. However, in the absence of significant supplies, the Zimbabwe
dollar is expected to depreciate against major currencies on the interbank
foreign currency market," Doroh said.

Analysts said it was highly unlikely that the demand for foreign
currency could be met on the official foreign currency market, battling to
attract supplies from Zimbabweans in the diaspora, who have been sending
foreign currency to relatives through the parallel market.

Doroh said the local currency was highly overvalued on the official
market.

"Due to the weakening inflation differentials between Zimbabwe and its
major trading partners, the Zimbabwe dollar is expected to remain
overvalued, until such a time the Reserve Bank devalued the local currency
or the domestic inflation rate is reduced significantly," Doroh said.

Speculation is high that Gono will devalue the local currency when he
announces his monetary policy before month-end.

ZB Bank said the recent re-licensing of several money transfer
agencies (MTAs) should prop up inflows in the coming months.

The surprise closure of MTAs by the Reserve Bank in October saw hard
currency supplies falling 15% in that month.

Hysterical reaction to Tekere belies fear

Zim Independent


By Jonathan Moyo


IF there's anyone who still needed evidence that the world of power is
finally collapsing around President Robert Mugabe whose tenure expires in
the next 14 months that promise to be very short, nasty and brutish for him
and his hangers on, it is the paranoid reaction of his propagandists to
Edgar Tekere's autobiography, A Lifetime of Struggle, published by Sapes
Books in Harare last week.

Although it fails to provide new insights into vexing issues such as
the deaths of Herbert Chitepo and Josiah Tongogara, the creation of the
Fifth Brigade and its Gukurahundi carnage and the Unity Accord negotiations,
and while the book does not flow well and fails to fully develop a number of
its riveting anecdotes about happenings in the corridors of power during and
after the liberation struggle, Tekere's autobiography makes three
history-marking disclosures about how Mugabe rose into and remained in power
to the point of becoming a terrible liability to Zimbabwe today.

Using - many would say abusing - the public media, Mugabe's
propagandists have turned the typically dull month of January into one
filled with astonishing political drama through their frenzied media defence
of their embattled boss.

Yet one does not need to hold a brief for Tekere to appreciate first
that he is without doubt one of Zimbabwe's leading freedom fighters to whom
we owe our national Independence, and second that he has written an
informative and useful personal account of his life which was all in the
struggle as captured by the title of his autobiography.

Equally important to appreciate is that Tekere is entitled to narrate
the story of his lifetime of struggle in his own words through his own
memory, not least because we know from the public record that his
involvement in the liberation struggle was not ordinary but pivotal for
better or worse.

Those who have read the autobiography are aware that it is not about
Mugabe who is but one out of many individuals, some famous others not, whose
lives crossed paths with Tekere during Zimbabwe's defining moments in
history. But the hysterical media reaction of Mugabe's propagandists to
Tekere's autobiography would have those who have not read the book think
that it is all about Mugabe.

Apparently Mugabe's propagandists are furious on behalf of their
thin-skinned boss that Tekere's autobiography makes three telling
disclosures that they see as fatal to whatever is left of Mugabe's
reputation and legacy. As a result, Mugabe's propagandists have decided to
raise foolish dust everywhere oblivious of the fact that raising dust in the
rainy season does not work especially when the rain is on you and is pouring
heavily.

The first disclosure that has annoyed Mugabe's cronies is that Tekere
says he played a leading role in paving the way for Mugabe's rise to the
leadership of Zanu PF.

Imagining itself to be correcting this disclosure, the Sunday Mail
(January 14) wrote that: "Mr Tekere is . reported to have claimed that he
was instrumental in catapulting President Mugabe to the helm of Zanu PF, yet
the party's wartime supreme council, the Dare reChimurenga, popularly
endorsed his ascension to the party's top post." To buttress its inane claim
that goes against the grain of truth, the Sunday Mail sought the laughable
rant of a hopeless polygamist clad in shabby youth service camouflage called
George Rutanhire, who was exhumed from his political grave in rural
Mashonaland Central and suddenly and very conveniently remembered as a
veteran nationalist, former government minister and war veteran who was one
of the authors of the famed Mgagao Declaration.

Betraying the ignorance of Mugabe's propagandists who deep-throat it
with defamatory nonsense, the Sunday Mail confidently but falsely reported
that: "According to the war veteran (George Rutanhire), President Mugabe's
road to power began following the Mgagao Declaration which Zimbabwe's
freedom fighters wrote, denouncing the leadership of the then Zanu president
the late Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole."

In the ensuing childish excitement over the political resurrection of
Rutanhire, the Sunday Mail went overboard and allowed their newly found
Mgagao hero to gratuitously insult and defame Tekere by alleging that he
"went mad and formed his own party (Zum) in the past". How Tekere's exercise
of his protected constitutional right to form or join a political party of
his choice could be said to be evidence of mental disability was of course
not explained because it cannot be.

Given that the Mgagao Declaration was made in October 1975, anyone who
believes that Mugabe's road to power started then, or who believes that
Sithole was deposed from the leadership of Zanu as a result of the Mgagao
Declaration, is a dangerous ignoramus.

Tekere recalls in his autobiography that Mugabe's road to power
started after his return to Zimbabwe from Ghana, when he was approached and
incorporated into the nationalist leadership under the NDP. To attract his
incorporation, Mugabe had not demonstrated any notable leadership qualities
besides his impressive proficiency in pronouncing English words with an
acquired if not exaggerated accent that leaves the uncanny impression that
he is a highly learned person when he is not.

As to how and when Mugabe came to head Zanu, Tekere's autobiography
recalls a fact, which has been corroborated by various independent sources,
that he was elevated after the Kwekwe prison sacking of Sithole by his
fellow leaders in mid-1974 in a vote spiritedly moved by Tekere and
supported by Enos Nkala and Maurice Nyagumbo but opposed by Sithole himself
with a cowardly abstention from Mugabe while Moton Malianga did not vote as
he chaired the meeting to sack Sithole from the leadership of Zanu.

About this Tekere recalls that "the votes were cast with three in
favour of the sacking, one against (Sithole), and one abstention - Mugabe.
Once more Mugabe did not want to "break" with his leader. His abstention was
total. He sat silently in the meeting and did not raise a finger. This is
when he was appointed to head the party. For the structure was clear on
this. Since the Vice-President, Leopard Takawira, had died, Mugabe, as
secretary-general of the party, was the next in line."

Sithole's dismissal from the presidency of Zanu by his colleagues in
prison was communicated to all party structures, especially guerilla
fighters, within and outside the country. Therefore subsequent seemingly
landmark events, including the December 1974 "Nhari Rebellion", Chitepo's
assassination in March 1975, the crossing into Mozambique by Tekere and
Mugabe in April 1975, the October 1975 Mgagao Declaration and the letter of
January 24, 1976 from the Dare reChimurenga signed by Josiah Tongogara,
Kumbirai Kangai and Rugare Gumbo, were footnotes to the sacking of Sithole
and his replacement by Mugabe through an indubitably courageous motion that
was moved by Tekere in the presence of both Sithole and Mugabe.

As such, only those who have been blinded by the whims and caprices of
Mugabe's personality cult and who because of that have become either
malicious or sycophantic can deny that Tekere "was instrumental in
catapulting Mugabe to the helm of Zanu-PF". The supporting evidence is
unimpeachable.

In any event, it is clear from the public record that the October 1975
Mgagao Declaration sought to make Mugabe, who had already crossed into
Mozambique with Tekere, only a spokesman and caretaker leader pending the
release from prison in Zambia of Dare reChimurenga members who had been
accused of murdering Chitepo and who were seen by the comrades in Mgagao as
the real true leaders of the armed struggle who had inspired their
declaration. That is why the Mgagao Declaration referred to Mugabe as the
".only person who can act as a middleman". The difference between a
middleman and a leader is like that of night and day.

The second disclosure of Tekere's autobiography that has sent Mugabe's
propagandists running in all directions while making fools out of themselves
is that, because Mugabe is basically an insecure heartless person given to
brutal vengeance, he has over the years used the political power he got with
a whole lot of help from his senior nationalist colleagues to marginalise
and ostracise those very same colleagues who helped him rise to the helm of
Zanu PF in the first place. This is what accounts for the political
misfortunes of the likes of Zanu stalwarts such as Nkala, Nyagumbo, Eddison
Zvobgo and Tekere himself not to mention similar misfortunes of many others
in Zapu including the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo who was humiliated by
Mugabe into submitting to a treacherous unity accord.

In the circumstances, Mugabe has come to be surrounded by dodgy
political characters along with other bureaucratic and media sycophants who
are known for their malice and incompetence.

The third disclosure from Tekere's autobiography that has particularly
rocked Mugabe and his propagandists beyond belief is the book's conclusion
that the blame for 90% of Zimbabwe's ills should go to Mugabe, not the much
touted economic sanctions, and that there is now a critical and urgent need
for bold leadership within Zanu PF with courage to tell Mugabe that he is
now a liability to Zimbabwe and that he should retire and pass the baton to
a younger and more imaginative leader.


* Moyo is independent MP for Tsholotsho.

Discord from Save Zimbabwe Campaign

Zim Independent


Ray Matikinye


JUST over a month since civic groups and opposition parties met under
the auspices of the Save Zimbabwe Campaign (SZC) and undertook to confront
Zanu PF head-on over its proposed postponement of presidential elections to
2010, there is no clear picture emerging of how the broad coalition is going
to go about its mission.

Some members of the coalition advocate petitioning President Mugabe,
while others prefer using all means permissible in a democratic society to
pressure Mugabe to abandon the plan.

Whatever those democratic means are, no one is yet certain. All are
however agreed that any future elections should be held under a new
constitution.

SZC called for the holding of elections in 2008 as scheduled under the
current constitutional provisions.

But the broad movement said the 2008 elections should be held within
the framework of a new people-driven constitution.

The electorate is still waiting for the clouds to clear before it can
see the sky.

"We are drafting a petition and we will try to gather more than a
million signatures which we will present to President Mugabe," Pius Wakatama
of the Christian Alliance said on Tuesday.

Wakatama felt this should prod Mugabe into action. "Within Zanu PF,
the majority of the members want Mugabe to go. We hope Zanu PF members who
have expressed this view in private will come out in support of the
petition," Wakatama said.

He said the Christian Alliance hoped President Mugabe would see sense
and exit in a dignified manner.

If elections are to be held next year in March, as is the tradition,
that leaves precious little time for an all-inclusive constitution that
would entail balloting the electorate to judge its acceptability in a
referendum.

"It's not impossible as long as there is goodwill and intention," says
Lovemore Madhuku of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). "There are
several drafts floating around from which we can draw such as the rejected
draft (of February 2000), the Women's Charter and our own draft as the NCA,"
Madhuku said.

He said although it appeared time was running out for drafting the
constitution, holding a plebiscite in time from 2008 could lead to an agreed
postponement of the election date.

"Once we have an irreversible process in place, it is possible for
people to agree on an election date within reasonable time beyond 2008," he
said.

But gremlins seem to have found their way into the Save Zimbabwe
Campaign already.

At the inaugural meeting to chart the way forward, the Mutambara-led
formation of the MDC was absent.

"That is immaterial," explained Morgan Tsvangirai. "They were part of
the launch."

Madhuku saw it differently. "They lost an opportunity to show unity of
purpose," he said.

While the Christian Alliance has invested in gathering millions of
signatures "even from Zanu PF members who are portending to succeed Mugabe",
the NCA reposes faith in street parades to force Mugabe to accept a new
constitution.

"Mugabe will not flinch or move an inch unless we push hard enough and
demonstrate massive support demanding a new constitution," Madhuku said.

Madhuku's views resonated with those of Paul Siwela of Zapu, who said
nothing short of a protracted push at President Mugabe to force him to
negotiate with the opposition and civic groups would bring about political
change in Zimbabwe.

"Anything short of this will be a waste of time. The push must be able
to restrict those in power from their ill-gotten wealth and privileges,"
Siwela said, adding that it was unthinkable to find democratic ways of
fighting an undemocratic institution.

Siwela said his party would contribute ideas and energy to get the
process of confronting Mugabe going, but warned that this was not going to
be an easy task to accomplish.

SZC has said it will do all that is permissible in a democratic
society to challenge Zanu PF's intention "to deny the people of Zimbabwe the
right to select leaders of their own choice under a democratic
constitutional dispensation".

Dr Reginald Matchaba-Hove of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network
(Zesn) said harmonisation of elections is a noble idea and should be
undertaken in a manner which exacts the least cost on democracy.

But the civic society body, which is also part of SZC, says the
presidential election due in 2008 must go ahead in order to seek a fresh
mandate from the people, who should determine the socio-economic and
political path of the nation.

In a statement last week, Zesn proposes a comprehensive approach to
harmonisation, which should encompass all presidential, House of Assembly
and senatorial elections.

"It would also be ideal to merge the urban council with the rural
district council elections. The harmonisation process further needs to be
accompanied by reforms such as constitutional reform, changes to the
electoral system from the current first past the post to a more proportional
system of representation," Matchaba-Hove said.

He also said Zesn advocated a fresh voter registration exercise
resulting in new voters' roll and rational delimitation of both constituency
and ward boundaries.

None of the organisations that form the SZC appears to be prepared to
put their heads on the block in dragging Mugabe to the negotiating table.

Tsvangirai says the onus to bring about change is not on the
leadership but a collective effort by all Zimbabweans who are keen to
resolve the national crisis.

"This is not a leadership challenge. Change will not come on a silver
platter," Tsvangirai said on Wednesday.

The campaign to confront Mugabe, he said, demanded a united and
popular front for its successful implementation.

Tsvangirai said Zimbabweans have painfully avoided resorting to
mayhem, chaos and arms of war to resolve the national crisis. This
demonstrated their faith in an orderly political transition and a sovereign
right to change.

Bad politics stymies economic recovery

Zim Independent


By Prosper Chitambara


THE Zimbabwean economy continues to be trapped in a vicious cycle of
sustained decline with no relief on the horizon.

While 2006 was undoubtedly the most challenging year to date,
Zimbabweans should brace themselves for a tougher 2007 unless radical
reforms and not piecemeal measures are urgently implemented.

The rapidly deteriorating socio-economic milieu is characterised by
runaway inflation (1 281% as at December 2006), chronic shortages of foreign
currency and fuel, very low levels of capacity utilisation, increasing
incidence of poverty in excess of 80% of the total population and its
glaring income inequalities.

The economy is riddled with distortions and encumbrances which provide
a fertile breeding ground for corruption of variegated manifestations.
Ultimately all these inauspicious developments have conspired to make
Zimbabwe an uncompetitive investment destination to many an international
investor.

With the shrinking formal economy, it is the informal economy that has
taken over as the mainstream economy. Jobs in this economy are insecure,
unrepresented, unregulated and generally suffer from decent work deficits.

Increasingly, formal sector workers are employed on a casual basis,
creating insecurity of tenure. Those fortunate enough to remain in formal
employment are increasingly being casualised.

Hordes of workers can no longer afford even transport to work, being
reduced to walking to work everyday over long distances. So far efforts by
the government to resolve the crises have been a zero sum game as they have
not yielded much.

More worrying is the fact that the government continues to extend its
tentacles and encroach into areas that can best be served by markets
disenfranchising investors in the process.

While the "Look East" policy has received much hype there are few
tangible benefits on the ground to justify this hype. The government should
realise that opportunities arise from all geographic positions and hence
focusing on one regional location is ill-advised and short-sighted in a
globalising world.

The East is actually "Looking West, South and North" - in fact in
every direction for strategic partnerships and opportunities.

The days of splendid isolation and autarchy are long gone and
countries that go that route do so at their own peril. While the
international community can go without Zimbabwe, the country cannot go it
alone and hence the need to swallow our pride and normalise our
international relations as a basis for a sustainable turnaround.

The challenges facing the economy are indeed gargantuan and therefore
transcend the monetary policy and/or the fiscal policy alone. The monetary
policy can only influence economic considerations to a limited extent but it
cannot influence the politics.

In essence the degrees of policy freedom and manoeuvre of the governor
of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe or the Minister of Finance are very limited
as they have no power to influence the political environment.

An accurate and correct diagnosis of a crisis is a prerequisite for
the resolution of that crisis lest a wrong prescription be administered,
creating serious complications in the process. This, however, should not be
seen as a way of indulging in finger-pointing and the blame game but rather
as a way of trying to self-correct.

Past governmental policies have always been predicated on flawed
assumptions and incorrect causal factors.

While the government continues to blame everyone else except itself, a
closer historical analysis of the origins of the crises indicates otherwise.
The government through its own acts of commission and omission has been the
major instigator and architect of the crises.

Political convenience has continued to override economic rationale.
Events that immediately spring to mind include: the haphazard land reform
exercise and subsequent disturbances on farms, unbudgeted compensation to
war veterans, the Congo war, the muzzling of the independent press and the
harassment of trade unions and the opposition among others.

Experiences from a number of countries have shown that there is a
positive correlation between bad politics and economic decline. Bad politics
defeats good economics.

Our situation has taught us that economic prescriptions can only work
up to a certain threshold beyond which they are rendered ineffectual unless
they are complemented by political reforms.

While a lot has been said about "sanctions", paradoxically trade
statistics actually indicate that the trade balance between Zimbabwe and the
West is favourable.

In any event, the withdrawal of balance-of-payments support, lines of
credit, foreign direct investment and the so-called deliberate efforts to
undermine our economic turnaround initiatives is a direct response to the
implementation of wrong-headed policies on the part of the government and
the deteriorating internal governance, and in particular the lack of respect
for human and trade union rights, international norms and standards.

Government officials also continue to scorn and deride international
leaders at every international gathering. In a way, Zimbabwe invited such
measures due to its obstinacy, which in fact led to the country opting out
of the Commonwealth. In this regard, it is the country that must reform, and
not the other way round.

To add insult to injury the government continues to view other
stakeholders in the economy with disdain and suspicion believing that it has
a monopoly of solutions to the problems afflicting the country.

A case in point is the NEDPP which was implemented in April 2006.

This ill-fated programme was crafted without an iota of input from a
number of stakeholders such as labour and other non-state actors save for a
few elite business people.

Business has now, however, learnt the hard way that the government was
never really sincere as some of their members were recently brought before
the courts for flouting price controls.

Institutions established to promote social dialogue such as the
Tripartite Negotiating Forum remain largely marginalised and ineffective.
Therefore NEDPP was doomed right from the onset. Indications by the
government that most if not all of the NEDPP objectives were not met
therefore do not come as a major surprise.

However, it also has to be made clear that even if there had been
stakeholder consultations there has been a dearth of firm political will and
commitment to resolve the crises besides the usual rhetorical statements by
government officials.

The prospects for the Zimbabwean economy going forward do not look
bright at all as the government seems to be lacking the necessary political
will to resolve the crises. The International Monetary Fund in its World
Economic Outlook report forecast that inflation will reach an average of 4
279% in 2007 unless there are fundamental political and economic reforms.
This leaves the position of the ordinary person more precarious and tenuous.

However, on a brighter note the situation though dire is not a lost
cause. The starting point for any sustainable turnaround ought to be the
resolution of the "political risk factor" as identified in the Kadoma
Declaration.

The Kadoma Declaration deals with the political issues such as the
restoration of good governance, restoration of normalcy and in particular
relations with development partners.

The declaration spells out in detail what has to be done to deal with
the "political risk factor". This includes, among others, the restoration of
the rule of law and good governance and the de-politicisation of public
institutions and the restoration of relations with development partners.

* Prosper Chitambara is an economist with the Labour and Economic
Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe.

Zim won't suffer catastrophic power cuts - Zerc

Zim Independent


ZIMBABWE'S electricity regulator this week dispelled fears of
catastrophic power deficits during the year, saying the impact of a regional
power shortfall would be mitigated by refurbishments at Hwange Power
Station. Steps had also been taken to mitigate the impact of the shortfalls
through imports, Zimbabwe Electricity Regulatory Authority director-general,
Mavis Chidzonga, told businessdigest this week.

"Steps have already been taken to secure electricity imports from
Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC)," Chidzonga said, responding to written questions from businessdigest.

It was not immediately clear how regional countries, also battling
shortfalls due to growing domestic demand, would manage to spare enough for
exports to Zimbabwe.

South Africa was yesterday reported to be facing nation-wide power
cuts due to an unexpected surge in demand, leaving the country with a 2 000
megawatt power deficit.

"The situation is critical," reports quoted South Africa's power
utility Eskom's spokesman, Fani Zulu, saying.

"We expect about two hours of shortages a day. We will tap reserve
resources. Hopefully we will resolve the problem early next week," Zulu
said. - Staff Writer.

We are equal before the law

Zim Independent

Comment





JUDGE President Justice Rita Makarau this week led the judiciary in a rare
charge to press for more funding for the legal system.

Opening the first term of the judicial year in Harare this week, Justice
Makarau drew up an inventory of problems being faced by the judiciary in the
performance of its duty saying judges were working in "hellish conditions".

The judge said courts were running out of basics and the constant response
from the Ministry of Justice which is responsible for financing the courts
was that it had no funds. She lamented the underfunding of prisons which had
resulted in dreadful conditions in state jails. The judiciary was operating
without computers and adequate stationery. The library available for use has
been described "as varying only in their degrees of uselessness". The
country's economic crisis has now caught up with the judiciary.

"I wonder how many of us here present have really given thought to the
importance of an efficient and impartial justice delivery system. When
shortages of certain grocery items manifest in the local supermarkets, we
shop in neighbouring countries. We have managed to avoid what we perceive as
shortcomings in the local educational system by sending our children to
schools in South Africa, the United States of America, Australia and the
United Kingdom.

"When we need complex medical procedures and attention that the local
hospitals cannot provide, we fly mainly to South Africa but sometimes to the
United Kingdom or the United States. Yet when we have to sue for wrongs done
to us, we cannot do so in Australia or South Africa and have to contend with
the inadequately funded justice system in this country."

Justice Makarau also said that "the place and role of the judiciary in this
country is under-appreciated".

The Judge President is right in saying that the judiciary should not be
reduced to begging the state for sustenance. A self-respecting judiciary
cherishes its independence from state intervention and intrusion and also
from the general public. In its discharge of duty the judiciary should never
be seen to be beholden to the state lest it becomes an extension of the
executive. The current Judicial Services Commission offers a wafer-thin
buffer to judicial independence. If anything, judges are no different from
our poorly equipped ordinary civil servants.

The political establishment in Zimbabwe would very much love to have a
suborned judiciary which comes to politicians begging bowl in hand. A
weakened judiciary is an essential ingredient for a government on a mission
to subvert human rights. The breakdown of systems at the courts makes them
less attractive as institutions where people go to seek justice. There are
lengthy delays in the conclusion of both civil and criminal cases. Justice
Makarau - on a visit to the Remand Prison in Harare Central last year -
discovered hundreds of inmates festering in filthy cells without trial.

Her exercise of judicial activism by clearing the overcrowded cells was
immediately attacked by Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi who accused the
judiciary of abetting criminal activity in the country. The absence of a
response from the judiciary following these slanderous executive
pronouncements is emblematic of the government's perception of the Bench.
Judges should partner with the executive in the assault on human liberties,
Mohadi's statement seemed to suggest. This explains why the police - in
cases challenging the land reform - stubbornly refused to enforce orders
from the courts on the pretext that the issues at stake were political.

The purge of the judiciary and the execution of the land reform was
therefore no coincidence. The government wanted a pliant Bench that would
not erect a legal blockade to its designs. And it was prepared to pay for
acquiescence with land grants. Even today, the Zanu PF government is keen to
have a judiciary that serves its narrow political interests rather than
upholding the rights of Zimbabweans as set out in the constitution's
Declaration of Rights.

Upon his resignation from the Bench, Justice Michael Gillespie in 2001 aptly
captured the state of affairs in the judiciary.

"I cannot sit as an effective and independent member of this Bench," he
said. "The executive has contrived to politicise the Bench. A judge . . .
who finds himself in the position where he is called upon to administer the
law only as against political opponents of the government and not against
government supporters, faces the challenge to his conscience."

It is clear money alone is not the problem. There is a need for principled
leadership and independent judgements in our courts if Zimbabwe is to
recover its respect for the rule of law.

NSSA's arrogance mirrors the system

Zim Independent

Candid Comment


By Joram Nyathi

I DIDN'T know how to describe the guy temporarily in charge of the
National Social Security Authority (NSSA): haughty, self-important,
conceited or ignorant. That is the acting general manager, Amod Takawira.

It's enough that he has been acting in that capacity for five years
for one to understand the danger that he poses to the image of his employer.

In an interview with The Standard last week, Takawira allegedly said
the $12 900 paid to pensioners a month was a lot of money. He said people
who earn up to $130 000 contribute too little at 3%, which translates to
about $3 900 per month matched by the employer's contribution. He insisted
this amount was insignificant to his organisation. He didn't say which
sources provide him with "significant" incomes and what they use it for.

The gentleman was responding to complaints that senior managers at
NSSA virtually live in what President Robert Mugabe once described as the
"sphere of angels", referring to our diplomats abroad. For instance, senior
managers are entitled to vehicle loans after three months of probation. A
year down the line they graduate to housing loans. These attract a
breathtaking annual interest of 5% at a time when the rest of us accursed
Zimbabweans cannot expect interest payments of less than 400% from
commercial banks.

Takawira said NSSA needed the "best brains" in the country to manage
its investments hence the need to give the managers incentives. To this end,
NSSA had bought 70 vehicles for its workers. The managers also buy at book
value the vehicle they use after every five years. Most companies do the
same, he said. Which is probably true.

He then wondered aloud whether The Standard didn't have a similar
scheme for its employees. I indeed wish we had, but that is besides the
point.

My quarrel with Takawira is over his pretentious attitude that he
doesn't know that we contribute to NSSA against our will and we have no say
in how the organisation spends our money.

The issue is not about the amount, which Takawira calls "too little"
but that that amount is literally extorted from taxpayers who would rather
make their own choice about where to put their money. It is about
accountability in the way NSSA spends that money and parasitic parastatals
as a species.

Takawira talks the same way Harare Commission chair Sekesai
Makwavarara does, that the measure of her performance at Town House is
whether or not she is able to pay the workers and not service delivery to
ratepayers. What is the benefit to pensioners of NSSA getting the best
brains on the market yet they can't survive for a day on the paltry $12 900
it pays them? That amounts to 15 loaves of bread of the cheapest quality.
But that is immaterial to the illustrious guy who heads NSSA who appears to
believe his mandate is to ensure his managers have vehicles and houses, and
is not concerned about the welfare of those who make such luxuries possible.

I said I wished Zimind Publishers P/L could offer similar facilities
to its workers. But we are not so blessed like NSSA which doesn't have to
sell any service to earn those monthly contributions - it is a parasite
feeding on our sweat. Privately-owned media have to operate under the most
iniquitous conditions to earn every penny. That is a tall order in a country
where unemployment is nearly 80%, inflation is over 1 200%, the breadbasket
for a family of six is above $351 000 yet an average worker earns around $60
000 a month.

Takawira can check with Nathaniel Manheru who knows that we don't make
$1 million a week. Yet we must still contribute to NSSA to make sure its
managers live in the sphere of angels.

The issue goes beyond a pecuniary debate when one considers that what
NSSA pays out to pensioners is not enough to feed one person per day. It
assumes both an ethical and moral dimension.

While the average worker in Zimbabwe doesn't earn enough to feed
himself, he is compelled by law to contribute to an institution that
promises to take care of his needs in old age when in reality it cannot. The
institution benefits only those it employs.

By the time the average worker has paid his rent of $30 000 per room,
set aside a few dollars for food, transport for himself and the kids and a
huge amount for water and refuse charges and electricity bills, he literally
has nothing left for medical expenses, let alone investment in anything
profitable to help him in old age.

I could therefore not stomach it when NSSA's boss boasted that their
policies are "replicas" of government policies - which to me reeks of
unaccountable expenditure and upside-down priorities where those in power
think of buying fighter jets and other military paraphernalia while
foreigners feed the starving masses.

I am told somewhere in Murehwa they have built a beautiful mortuary
while local hospitals have no drugs. One minister proposed recently that
they needed more jails to ease prisoner congestion, instead of creating jobs
to reduce unemployment which is largely blamed for rising criminal
activities.

Parliament needs to review NSSA's mandate as a national institution
and ensure it serves its purpose in the long-term. Meanwhile, I have come to
the conclusion that the guy at NSSA is a disgrace to his principals and the
institution he purports to serve.

Gono's last push

Zim Independent

Business Editor's Memo


THE past few days have been anxious moments for Zimbabweans, not least
because of uncertainty over a year already blighted by accelerating price
increases. Adding to their worries will be Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
governor Gideon Gono's plans to rescue the country from a worsening economic
crisis.

Commodity prices, both basic and non-basic, have been soaring unabated
over the past three months, despite a pledge by captains of industry to
contain the increases.

This has left many Zimbabweans increasingly despondent.

Gono is expected to present his monetary policy statement before
month-end.

For 36 months the nation had hoped that the Gono magic - that touch
which wrought his reputation as a turnaround expert after transforming the
collapsed Bank of Credit and Commerce into a money-minting financial
behemoth that has become CBZ Holdings today - would halt an economic crisis
going into its seventh year.

With less than 24 months of his five-year term remaining, Gono is this
month expected to make one last push to victory. If he succeeds in turning
around the country's frail economy, his mandate when he took over control at
the magnificent central bank building in November 2003, he is likely to
serve the remainder of his term towards consolidation.

In his maiden monetary policy, Gono said his 12-month vision was "to
see the implementation of policies that seriously arrest and reverse our
inflation from the expected initial peak of 700% in early 2004 to below the
170-200% levels". Inflation currently stands at over 1 200%.

The two-year plan was to consolidate gains from the previous year
which Gono indicated would "express themselves through reduced inflation
levels, from three digits to a two-digit figure".

The first two years were to be an integral anchor to later economic
revival measures but, as it were, the targets were not achieved during the
first two years.

The central bank's five-year monetary policy vision was to attain a
"healthy economy" in which inflation and currency stability became
entrenched.

There is no doubting the earnestness of Gono in his energetic campaign
to turn around the country's economy for, after the success that followed
him as a banker, he would be worried about a legacy of failure at the
central bank.

But Gono might have failed to locate the real risk to his turnaround
efforts - colleagues in the ruling party and in business pretending to be
running with him in the race when they are chasing him.

The cue might have been given by former Finance minister Simba Makoni,
when he charged at businessmen and political colleagues that they had "run
with the hare and hunted with the hounds", alleging frustration of his
policies from both business and politics.

Gono is a hostage of the same quandary that hounded Makoni, except
that he has exceptional opportunities denied Makoni during his time to take
radical measures.

In a convoluted succession battle in which he is seen to have
political ambitions or to be sympathetic to a group opposed to another,
there are detractors likely to ensure his policies fail the same way they
hounded Makoni to ensure he did not succeed in his own campaign. The feeling
is that if he succeeds, he would stake his political credentials and
possibly challenge for the highest office.

But the truth is even among a coterie of his associates, in both
business and political circles, many are wont to maintain the economic
crisis because they have themselves become major beneficiaries of it.

And Gono has abetted them, allocating so much money to their projects
in the vain belief that they were in the same battle against the economic
monster called inflation.

Little wonder that despite personally expending so much effort and
labour and coming up with an abundance of economic edicts to deal with the
economic catastrophe, it persists.

Productivity levels remain low and sinking despite the central bank
dishing out huge amounts of concessionary funds to industry to boost
production, foreign currency remains scarce, and despite several measures
aimed at boosting exports, the local currency remains perilously weak.
Efforts to defend it have proved futile.

By Gono's own admission, those that accessed cheap foreign currency
for fuel imports abused the facility by selling the foreign currency on the
parallel market, while those that continue to receive large amounts of
diesel for farming activities have also diverted it to the parallel market.

Cheap concessionary funding for productive purposes was also diverted
to quick-cash earning investments like the equities market.

Sadly, the bulk of the abusers have been politically-connected and
influential people, and these have, not inadvertently, poured fuel on the
inflationary fires.

Gono has to deal with that past and his seeming inability to contain
the inflationary impulses generated by his principals.

Tekere sets cat among the pigeons

Zim Independent

Muckraker


EDGAR Tekere has set the cat among the pigeons with his autobiography,
A Lifetime of Struggle, released last week. State publicists have been
falling over themselves to rebut allegations - by both Tekere and Enos
Nkala - that Robert Mugabe was a reluctant recruit to the nationalist cause.

Tekere and Nkala, quoted in this newspaper last week, said they
regretted persuading Mugabe to join the struggle and not being more
vigilant. In the absence of institutional safeguards a dictatorship has been
spawned, the two veterans pointed out.

"In the absence of such institutional safeguards," Tekere said, "any
one of us and not just Mugabe, could have lost the course and degenerated
into a virtual dictatorship, buttressed by the combination of political
patronage and the threat of state brutality if one dared to defy the
powers-that-be."

It is becoming increasingly difficult not to believe that Mugabe was
at the centre of the nation's problems, Tekere said in his book.

Nkala echoed this view saying "we produced a creature that has
destroyed this country". But it was the suggestion that Mugabe had to be
persuaded to come on board when the National Democratic Party, the precursor
of Zapu and Zanu, was formed in 1960, that appears to have stung Mugabe's
supporters. He joined in 1961.


George Rutanhire, a former deputy Minister of Youth, Sport and
Recreation and, we are told, "one of the most influential figures in the
armed struggle for Independence", was wheeled out by the Sunday Mail to tell
us the president had ably executed the mandate for which he was elected.

Rutanhire ventured the view that some people could be using Tekere to
secure the presidency.

"There is no way he can criticise the president," Rutanhire
admonished. "He went mad and formed his own party in the past."

This reflects Zanu PF's view that anybody forming another party must
be mad and that criticism of the president is heresy!

Rutanhire didn't tell us why he is no longer serving in government. We
would have thought the Sunday Mail might have found somebody a tad more
inspiring than a former deputy Minister of Sport to put the record straight.
But then again who is there? Nathan Shamuyarira is not well-placed to
lecture us on the events of the 1970s. And he has been inexcusably slow in
producing his own biography of the great helmsman.


Alexander Kanengoni has chronicled the Mozambique sojourn in some
detail but this has raised more questions than answers.

Mugabe, we understand, crossed into Mozambique in March 1975, three
months after his release. He was accompanied by Tekere. But the much-touted
Mgagao Declaration, in which the freedom fighters accepted Mugabe as their
"middleman" in talks with the recently-restructured ANC leadership, only
came eight months later. This stance was followed by the Dare reChimurenga
letter of January 24, 1976 recognising Mugabe's provisional leadership of
Zanu.

The Herald on Monday made much of this correspondence. But it failed
to point out that the letter endorsing Mugabe's provisional leadership came
10 months after he arrived in Mozambique - during which time he was made to
cool his heels as sceptical guerilla commanders scrutinised his
blandishments - and anyway had nothing to do with Tekere's and Nkala's
evidence that Mugabe was a reluctant recruit to the nationalist cause 15
years earlier. How can a letter of endorsement written in 1976 controvert
something that took place in 1961?


Nkala goes further in making his case and says when Zapu split in
August 1963, Mugabe had to be persuaded to abandon the Nkomo loyalists.

In the circumstances, the Herald's "analysis", attempting to shore up
Mugabe's revolutionary credentials, looks more pathetic than persuasive. Is
this what it has come to? Puff pieces in the Herald written by individuals
who have no real knowledge of the events under review and write what they
are told?

Nowhere do any of these shrill rebuttals deal with Tekere's central
claim that Mugabe is at the centre of the nation's problems.

That will have scuppered his chances of a reunion with his former
comrades. But it is useful to have all this on the record as it reflects a
growing national consensus. And at last we can understand the anguished
remarks of Vice-President Joseph Msika who told the Sunday News in October
that time was running out for him to tell "the true story of the liberation
struggle". He claimed that currently it was being distorted.

He said: "The history of the struggle should be told. I feel I have a
duty to correct this blatant lie before I go but time is running out. The
struggle to liberate Zimbabwe started in Bulawayo at Stanley Hall when we
formed the African Youth Congress."

He added that at one of the meetings he chaired they decided "to
invite people from Mashonaland". Joshua Nkomo, who was then based there,
came into the fold but others refused.

Msika was also quoted as saying some of the people they had invited
later on became "vultures feeding on what they had not killed". But he did
not mention names.

It's time now for him to open up. The sound of vultures eating noisily
permeates the land. And do we really need to have the testimony of police
chiefs whose partisan credentials are already well understood? On Tuesday we
had Augustine Chihuri commenting on a criminal case in order to rubbish the
historical record of a fellow party member. Chihuri called Tekere an
alcoholic who was emotional and unstable and had "anger bouts".

Did this involve waving his fists in the air and threatening his
political opponents, we wonder?


Before we leave the realm of facile claims by state apologists, let's
just raise one point with Tafataona Mahoso's latest long-winded piece in the
Sunday Mail. He states, in his obsessive attack on the Law Society of
Zimbabwe, that "the sanctions law called the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic
Recovery Act was drafted by lawyers in Zimbabwe and sent to the US to
implement".

This is not the first time he has made this claim. It would be helpful
therefore if Mahoso could for the record provide us with the details of this
transaction. Not only does it advertise his ignorance on how US legislation
is drawn up but it credits Zimbabwean lawyers with an authority they would
be only too happy to possess were it true!

Anyway, it would be useful if the claim could be substantiated in some
way so it doesn't look, like the Swedish/Aippa claim, to be bereft of truth
when put to the test!

Apart from that, if Mahoso wants us to believe that there is rule of
law in Zimbabwe and that the LSZ's "attack on the state" is part of a
conspiracy against Zimbabwe devoid of evidential merit, then perhaps he can
explain how Joseph Mwale has been able to roam free for the past seven
years.


'I have often heard it said Madam President that the worst evil that
wise men can do is to sit back and not speak out on public affairs and
politics and let fools run their affairs, more often with disastrous
consequences."

Reading the above statement in Hansard, Zimbabweans would be forgiven
for thinking that it had been made by an opposition politician or a civil
society activist. Wrong.

It was in fact Senator Aguy Georgios attacking fellow senators and MPs
for a conspiracy of silence on the "illegal economic sanctions" imposed on
Zimbabwe by the European Union and the United States.

He accused the two houses of being "guilty and blameworthy for sitting
idle in the face of such a vicious and ferocious attack on our economy by
Western powers".

Muckraker reckons the senator is doing Zimbabweans a huge disservice
by refusing to acknowledge our own culpability in the destruction of our
economy and instead opting to play innocent victims of evil Western powers.

Where does Georgios put the chaotic land reform in all this, greedy
party supporters who sell fuel meant for farming on the black market or
senior politicians who allegedly sell foreign currency on the illegal
parallel market?

It would be interesting to find out from the senator who the "wise
men" are and the "fools" who run our public affairs.

If by speaking out Senator Georgios means telling lies, then he had
better keep quiet.

Part of his problem is also that he appears unaware that the IMF and
World Bank that he accuses of denying Zimbabwe loans and balance of payments
support have been told by President Mugabe to "go to hell". Foreign
investors have all but been handed the same epithet. It's a "Made in
Zimbabwe" crisis that Georgios is trying to export.


Muckraker was intrigued by a report in the online ZimDaily.com that
State Security minister Didymus Mutasa is being sued by a traditional healer
who claims that he has not paid her fees.

Sarudzai Isaya told a court that Mutasa had asked her to give him
charms, so that President Mugabe "could love him".

The 39-year-old traditional healer, or n'anga, also claims to have
used her mystical powers to help Mutasa obtain bail two years ago, when he
was facing charges of ordering an attack on a rival ruling party member
ahead of primary elections held prior to the March 2005 poll, ZimDaily.com
reports.

Isaya went to court claiming that Mutasa never paid her the $6 million
(old currency) fee they had
agreed.

Mutasa denies ever requesting any services from the n'anga and says
she's trying to extort money from him. However, he did admit that she had
once sprinkled water at his house and performed a ceremony which he says he
did not understand.

Mutasa has complained to the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers'
Association about Isaya, which has expelled her for charging exorbitant
fees, ZimDaily.com reports.

Isaya claims that Mutasa gave her a grinding mill as part of the fee,
but Mutasa says that he only gave it to her for safe-keeping.

She told the court that when he asked for his grinding mill back, she
threatened to send hares, fish and baboons to bewitch him.

Mutasa even issued a challenge to the n'anga, saying that if she was
the one who had got him off the hook during his 2005 court ordeal,she should
get him back in the dock.

Riveting stuff. We now understand the abundance of dead fish in Lake
Chivero. But they are not the only thing that stinks around here!

By the way, could this be the source of President Mugabe's irritation
with his ministers consulting witches in a bid to succeed him?


Zanu PF's semi-literate rag, The Voice, should try and wake up to the
new year. Although its masthead claims the current edition is for the period
January 14-20 2007, it contains large advertisements for Unity Day on
December 22. These were placed by the POSB, Zupco, Zinwa, the GMB, NRZ, the
Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe, and Zesa.

The Chairperson of the Commission running the affairs of Harare,
Sekesai Makwavarara and the commissioners also joined in.

What can we say of these organisations spending our money without our
approval? Do the public associate them with sound management values? Are
they well run? Are they free from corruption?

Nothing could be more symptomatic of the nation's demise than these
parasitic bodies lining up to commemorate an event that the voting public
rejected as a false dawn years ago. And we would love to know the process
whereby somebody quietly advises them that it would be in their best
interests to take out advertising in the party's sterile newspaper - nearly
one month after the day they are supposed to be commemorating.


Finally, we were interested to note that in order to prove it was a
good custodian of public funds, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on Tuesday took
out three full page advertisements in the Herald costing $1 953 000 each to
shoot down a story appearing in another newspaper about a Mercedes Benz. It
this value for money?

Communication woes mounting

Zim Independent



By Eric Bloch

MUCH has been and is being said of the cataclysmic state of Zimbabwe's
infrastructure as well as the pace at which it is worsening.

Over the last six to 12 months energy supplies have become
increasingly erratic, not only because of recurrent scarcities of foreign
currency to fund electricity imports, but also because of ageing,
inadequate, ill-maintained equipment, lack of spares and insufficiency of
technically skilled personnel to maintain and repair the
electricity-generating and distribution resources.

The negative economic impacts have been immense, affecting production
volumes and productivity efficiencies of the manufacturing, mining,
agricultural and other economic sectors, and demoralising many of the
populace.

The problems have not been restricted only to the energy
infrastructure. Water management, availability and distribution have been
adversely affected, in both urban and rural areas.

The major cities and towns have not been able to expand their water
accumulation and storage resources, with minimum dam development accessing
and utilisation of ground water, and recourse to water recycling, needed to
secure the needs of their residents, and of the underlying industries. They
have been unable to maintain - let alone enhance - their pumping and water
purification and distribution facilities, and the underground pipes that
traverse the urban metropolis.

The results include intensive water usage restrictions, supply
interruptions, potential health risks in residential areas, and constraints
upon effective industrial operations. Rural water utilisation is also
gravely inadequately addressed.

Mining, agriculture, the manufacturing sector and the generation of
electricity have been horrendously affected by gross inadequacies of coal
supplies due to the inadequate infrastructural and operational facilities
that apparently characterised much of the operations at the collieries in
Hwange in recent years, compounded by various occasions when National
Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) lacked the capacity to transport some of the coal
that was produced.

Declining line of rail maintenance, ageing signalling equipment,
constraints upon maintenance of locomotives and rolling stock, loss to
neighbouring territories of skilled personnel, all impacted negatively upon
NRZ service delivery, despite valiant recent endeavours to rise above the
constraints to improve that delivery.

For a lengthy period, very similar allegations could justifiably be
made against Air Zimbabwe, with aircraft repeatedly grounded, flights
endlessly delayed, and its customer-base becoming progressively more and
more wary as to safety considerations.

In the last 11 months there has (since the appointment of acting CEO
Captain Oscar Madombwe) been a dynamic improvement. Internal flights have
developed timetable adherence levels of which any airline would be proud,
and personnel are extremely customer-care conscious and attentive.

But the airline still has massive operational constraints. It has only
two aircraft to operate its international routes to Europe, the Far East and
elsewhere, only two operational Boeing 737s to serve some of its regional
routes and only three Chinese MA-60s to meet all domestic routing needs as
well as much of the regional operations.

All too often Air Zimbabwe is deprived of one of its two international
aircraft, either because it is hired for presidential usage, or because of
maintenance and service needs. Those needs also apply to the smaller
aircraft, and attending to them is often very prolonged, for the airline
does not have the foreign currency resources to stock all required spares
and is also repeatedly afflicted by losses of technical staff.

The airline is under-capitalised, the victim of continuing personnel
losses, constrained by the foreign currency environment, afflicted by
excessive governmental interventions and much else. In the circumstances, it
is remarkable that it has achieved such a great turnaround in the last 11
months, but it still is severely hampered in meeting national needs in
general, and those of the economy in particular.

Zimbabwe's infrastructural deficiencies extend over numerous other
areas, including its national road network, border posts, municipal roads
and lighting resources, airports and much else.

But, in recent times, the most pronounced infrastructural decline has
been in the entire sector of telecommunications and electronic
communication, which have become an overwhelming disaster. The economic
repercussions are formidable.

The worst factor of all is that the communications' services are not
selectively bad, but are all catastrophically poor, and becoming a
gargantuan hindrance to effective economic operations.

The nation's landline services suffer the normal consequences of
almost all parastatal operations, worldwide - too many chiefs, not enough
Indians, insufficient capital, inadequate motivation, and monopolistic
production. Of course (and thank heavens!), there are some very attentive
and caring personnel who strive to meet consumer needs, but that does not
suffice.

When it can take 30 to 40 attempts to affect a Subscriber Trunk
Dialling (STD) intercity call before any connection (even to an engaged
signal) can be obtained, and after attainment the call terminates before
completion, it is extremely difficult to carry out normal economic and
commercial transactions, to complete business timeously, and to attend to
enterprises' operational needs.

(And, this is even more so if the caller adheres to the old
"politeness school" of dialling his/her own calls, instead of having a
secretary or telephonist do so, with the arrogant expectation that the call's
recipient should then await the caller, at the caller's convenience and
behest!)

The catastrophically difficult STD services, presumably jeopardised by
over-congestion of aged, ill-maintained, equipment, are even more horrendous
when resorted to for international calls. It is generally now impossible to
complete a reasonably-lengthed business call without at least two
terminations and consequential redialling, and with concomitant greater
costs. This applies not only to the outgoing calls, but also to those
emanating from afar.

As appalling as are the landline services, those of the mobile network
providers are even worse. Repeatedly they announce, with great heraldry,
pride and glee, that their systems are being substantively upgraded in order
to resolve over-congestion problems. But, each time they effect such
upgrades, they immediately embark upon massive campaigns to sign-up tens of
thousands of new subscribers, with resultant over-congestion problems.

On the two larger networks, it can now take over two hours (as
recently recurrently experienced by this columnist ) to achieve a call
connection, instead of endlessly repetitive signals of "Network busy", or
spurious, provenly unfounded signals of "user busy", "user not presently in
service", or "call diverted".

And when, almost miraculously, connection is eventually achieved, the
caller and recipient can rest assured that they have only minimal prospects
of completing the call before it peremptorily terminates.

The economic costs are apocalyptic. The first costs are, of course,
the multiplicity of the network charges for the conduct of one transaction,
due to the necessary several calls before completion can be achieved. The
second, of greater magnitude, are the vast man-hours that are unnecessarily
lost, exacerbated by demoralisation, frustration and demotivation.

The greatest costs, however, are the numerous losses of business
orders, delays in concluding time-critical business issues, and the
alienation of customer and supplier goodwill (when they believe, although
erroneously, that they are being ignored). This is especially so when the
third parties are external to Zimbabwe, and unconversant with Zimbabwe's
telecommunication deficiencies.

More recently, communication circumstances have deteriorated even
further, with a massive deterioration in electronic mail services. Ever more
frequent difficulties in accessing Internet have markedly constrained the
transmission of e-mails, as have recurrent equipment faults of many of the
Internet service providers. Whereas, internationally, e-mails are normally
receive almost instantaneously, in Zimbabwe they can be delayed not for
hours but for days.

E-mail has progressively been eliminating usage of postal and other
delivery services which, world-wide, have become known as "snail mail" but,
by now in Zimbabwe, snail mail is becoming a faster delivery, and a more
reliable one, then e-mail.

In order, to keep the economic wheels turning, Zimbabwean business
will soon have to turn to pigeon post or runners with cleft sticks.

In the meanwhile, and until something constructive is done about it,
communication difficulties are yet another contributant to the declining
economy.