http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011 19:34
Wongai
Zhangazha
AS Zimbabwe prepares for a general election later this
year, the country’s
shambolic voters’ roll contains dozens of names of
people born in 1897,
thousands of children under 18 years of age and babies
born in 2007.
According to two audits of the March 2008 voters’ roll, one
by an
independent analyst and another by the Zimbabwe Election Support
Network
(Zesn), the roll also contains thousands of ghost
voters.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC has, since 2000,
accused Zanu PF and
the Registrar-General’s office of using the chaotic
voters’ roll to rig
elections in favour of President Robert Mugabe and his
former ruling party.
The MDC and civic organisations have been pushing
for a raft of electoral
reforms, among them empowering an independent
electoral commission to audit
the existing voters’ roll, conduct voter
registration and administer the
polls.
The independent analyst’s
audit revealed that there were 26 475 people aged
100 years and above, of
which 17 475 were 107 years old.
It also showed that there were 5 600
children below 18 years old, who
included babies born between 2005 and 2007,
on the roll.
There were 93 children below one year old, who included
Mildah Nehuhambi
from Chief Nyashanu Nehuhambi’s village, Buhera, who was
born on February 25
2007, Argentina Vurahore born on January 17 2007 from
Kambuyuni village,
Gokwe, and Mhurai Mavuto born on February 12 the same
year.
Excerpts of the March 2008 voters’ roll for a ward in Mutare West
in
Marange, included names like Bumhiwa Pachawo who was born in 1898. Some
of
those born in 1897 were Zvichamunetsa Dikita from Tivaringire village in
Zaka East, Chiriseri Sansly Munyukwe from Mutumiri Kraal, Headman
Nyamangara, Chief Zvimba and Derina Shiringo from Chikomba East.
If
Zimbabwe is to go by the 2008 voters’ roll, then it probably deserves to
be
included in the Guinness Book of Records as having the highest number of
elderly people aged 107 years and over. According to the online encyclopedia
Wikipedia, the oldest person in the world is believed to be 114-year-old
Eunice Sanborn of America, who was born on July 20 1896.
One source
who was part of the team that undertook the audit said: “This
makes one
wonder how a child between one and three years can be found on the
voters’
roll. We know very well that voter registration in this country is
done
manually, where one is required to have a valid passport or national
identification (ID) and proof of residence. I assume the one-year-olds went
with their IDs to register.”
Extracts show that most of the people
aged above 98 years and children aged
between one and three years were from
rural constituencies such as Bargain
Estates-Selous in Chegutu, Manyoni
Resettlement in Kadoma, Saunyama in
Nyanga, Hama in Chirumanzi and
Hwedza.
The independent audit of the voters’ roll which included ghost
voters,
duplication of names and babies came at a time when Zesn has
produced its
own report, which was launched yesterday, also revealing that a
significant
number of ghost voters still exist on the voter’s
roll.
Zesn took a sample size of 102 wards of 1 958 in Zimbabwe and did a
comparison of registered voters between 2008 and 2010 to test the voters’
roll accuracy, currency and comprehensiveness.
Some of the sampled
wards were in Mutare South, Bikita South, Shamva North,
Bindura North,
Guruve South, Muzarabani North, Mount Darwin North, Zvimba,
Mhondoro Ngezi
and Mutoko South.
Three tests were used to conduct the analysis, namely a
computer test, a
list-to-people field test and a people-to-list test, an
analysis of the
voters roll.
According to the audit report, the list
to people test showed that 27% of
voters registered on the voters’ roll were
deceased while the computer test
disclose 2 344 people born between 1900 and
1909 therefore aged between 101
and 110-years-old.
The Zesn analysis
shows that nine born between 1890 and 1899, aged between
111 and 120 years
old in 2008, were also on the voters’ roll.
“Overall, the presence of
close to a third of registered voters who are
ghost voters revealed by the
list-to-people audit, has always been a concern
to most Zimbabweans. This is
a clear indication that no serious efforts have
been taken to update and
cleanse the national voters’ roll of persons that
should not be on the
roll,” read the report.
“The presence of more aged ghost voters is a
clear reflection of an
inherent problem in the voters` roll which has been
accumulating over time.
Broadly, the two reasons explained above (deaths and
migration) account to
the majority of ghost voters in the national voters’
roll. Therefore, a
fresh voter registration exercise should target such
crucial areas, whilst
also focusing on age specific dynamics.”
Zesn
said while it was mandatory for the government to continuously update
the
voters’ roll, “such a crucial exercise has not been meticulously
undertaken
in Zimbabwe”.
Last month at a press conference, Register-General Tobaiwa
Mudede said since
August his office was updating the voters’ roll and so far
32 000 cases of
expired voters had been found. He said the updating was a
process hence
would take time.
The Zesn audit observed lower voter
participation among youths aged 18-30
years who consisted of only 18% from
the computer test, while old age (71
plus) showed a total of 9% or 32 901 of
registered voters.
Mashonaland East recorded a large number of
“grandparents” age group (16%)
while Manicaland registered 14%, and Bulawayo
and Midlands 13% each.
“Such findings fly against the population
demographics in Zimbabwe, with a
life expectancy now of 45.779 years. This
figure ie 32 901, underestimates
the total national voters’ roll population
of people aged 71+, as such the
audit findings are from a small sample size
of only 102 wards.”
“Such findings are inconsistent with the age
distribution of the national
population, where only 3,9% of Zimbabweans are
aged 65+10. Going by this,
the proportion of the 71+ should even be
smaller.”
“Additionally, with Zimbabweans’ low average life expectancy
of only 45,77
years; such a finding is divorced from the real life
situation,” says the
audit adding that the small younger generation could be
a result of the
consequence of the HIV and Aids pandemic,” reads the audit
report.
The legal framework was blamed for having a number of loopholes
especially
in the deletion of voters from the voters’ roll which may deprive
the right
to vote to some voters.
“While the law stipulates that a
voter may present proof of residence and
the national registration card, in
practice proof of residence has been
demanded without flexibility especially
for urban dwellers which increased
the burden of registration as a voter.
These demands have prevented
legitimate voter registration, which ultimately
leave a number of people
unregistered,” the report said.
“Proof of
residence is also discriminatory for people who are homeless but
would like
to vote as they cannot register to vote due to lack of proof of
residence. A
similar situation is faced by transient and internally
displaced individuals
who lack a stable permanent home address and therefore
are unable to vote,”
says the report.
The deletion process, according to Zesn’s analysis is
not transparent such
that even if the law provided modalities for the
deletions they could be
abused and some voters could be maliciously deleted
from the voters’ roll.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011 19:31
Vincent
Kahiya
DIVERSIFIED Indian giant Essar Africa Holdings — which
scooped a controlling
stake in the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Zisco) —
have set their sights
on much bigger acquisitions in the country, including
a major stake in a
listed miner, RioZim Ltd.
Government last year
announced that it was selling 60% of its stake in Zisco
to Essar for an
as-yet undisclosed amount. Government has an 89% stake in
Zisco. Sources
close to the agreement said the deal with Essar, which is yet
to be signed,
was however almost ready to be taken to cabinet for approval
before
signature.
A government negotiating team on Wednesday held a long meeting
with the
Essar team in Harare to discuss the signing of the deal. Industry
and
International Trade minister Welshman Ncube (pictured) yesterday
confirmed
the meeting and said he expects negotiations to conclude by
month-end. The
signing, which had been scheduled for this month is now
expected next month.
Essar is controlled by Indian brothers Shashi
and Ravi Ruia whose fortune is
estimated at US$15 billion. The company has
international operations in
power, gas, mining exploration, communications,
shipping ports and
logistics, and publishing.
The Essar team in
Harare is led by resident director Firdhose Covadia. The
firm’s advisors
include chartered accountants Delloittes, financial advisors
Renaissance
Capital and law firm Kantor & Immermann.
The delay in the signing
of the agreement has not deterred Essar who are in
the process of setting up
corporate offices in Harare and buying properties
for its senior managers in
preparation for an estimated US$1,5 billion
investment in mining and
infrastructure development.
The company’s interest in Zimbabwe
extends to iron ore extraction and
export, coal mining and beneficiation,
infrastructure development and power
generation.
Government
sources this week said the company had shown “a great interest”
in
underwriting an ambitious quest by listed miner RioZim to raise US$40
million for the Sega coalfields and thermal power
project.
Contacted for comment this week RioZim CEO Josephat
Sachikonye confirmed
Essar’s interest in the mining firm.
“They
(Essar) are not our underwriters,” said Sachikonye. “In fact, they are
the
ones who are talking to us. There is no agreement yet.”
Asked at what
stage the negotiations had reached, he said: “I cannot
disclose that. All I
can say is that we are still talking.”
RioZim are on the market to
raise capital for the development of the Sengwa
coalfields in Gokwe North.
The project is integral in the construction of a
thermal power plant
adjacent the coal fields. Mining activity on the Special
Grant 849
designated for the power station was stopped in May 2008. Since
then efforts
have been focused on the power station project.
Energy and Power
Development minister Elton Mangoma in an interview this
week confirmed
Essar’s interest in power development.
“Essar have been coming here for a
long time,” said Mangoma. “They are
serious investors and are interested in
power. That interest has been
expressed to us.”
Sources close to
the company this week revealed that by the time Essar
started bidding for
Ziscosteel, it already had a foot in the door as it had
already opened talks
with government and the private sector. In fact, the
company has already
started mining exploration for iron ore at Manisi in the
Featherstone area.
The Manisi claims are owned by Buchwa Iron Mining Company
(Bimco). Bimco is
a wholly owned subsidiary of Zisco and owns most of the
iron ore deposits in
Zimbabwe.
“Essar showed interest in the Chivhu iron ore before
looking at Zisco
itself,” a source said. “There are 33 billion tonnes of ore
in that deposit.
Bimco’s figures are ‘inferred’ and thus are not really a
bankable
proposition. In order to take Manisi to the bank as security to
borrow money
the deposit would need to be measured and the deposit upgraded
to ‘proven’.
How do you do this? …With a drilling programme.”
The
source said the Manisi iron ore has a 43 iron content which is lower
than
the 52-57% at claims in Redcliff. He however said the company could
still
make money from exporting iron or which is on high demand at major
steel
plants throughout the world.
“The other option for Essar is to
actually build a new steel plant in
Featherstone and process ore from
Manisi,” the source said. “That is long
term though. At the moment they have
to repair Zisco to produce 2,5 million
tonnes of steel.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011 19:29
FINANCE
minister Tendai Biti warned on Wednesday that Zimbabwe could face a
“bloodbath” at elections this year and urged the international community to
do more to prevent crises in Africa.
Biti, a former opposition stalwart
who has helped bring Zimbabwe’s economy
back from the brink of collapse,
warned of “disastrous, debilitating
consequences” if there is a repeat of
the violent, contested elections of
2008.
“The tell-tale signs
are already there that you could have another
bloodbath,” he told Agence
France-Press on the margins of a global poverty
forum in
Johannesburg.
“What is required is pro-activeness to prevent quite
clearly a foreseeable
situation,” he said, alluding to the need for foreign
states to step in.
President Robert Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since
1980, has called for new
elections this year, saying the tense power-sharing
government formed after
the 2008 vote is no longer
working.
Biti’s party, the MDC, and Mugabe’s Zanu PF formed a
coalition government in
2009 after a violent presidential poll that saw MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai
withdraw from the race, citing violence against his
supporters.
The stand-off ground the country to a halt and sparked an
economic crisis
that saw hyperinflation reach world record levels of
billions of percent.
Biti, who told AFP he inherited “the worst job
in the world” as Finance
minister, oversaw an economic overhaul in which the
country ditched its
inflation-ravaged currency and adopted the US
dollar.
The move helped bring inflation down to a figure of 3,2% last
month.
However, Biti warned of a return to economic crisis if new
elections unleash
fresh violence or if Zimbabweans see them as
unfair.
“If citizens feel that this is not an election, this is a
sham and an excuse
for assaulting us or torturing us, of killing us, of
destroying our
livestock, there will be capital flight, there will be
physical flight
across the border,” he said.
“If that is the
case, yes, there will be disastrous, debilitating
consequences. All the work
we have done, all the construction we have done,
will dissipate ... in
seconds.”
Biti also criticised the international community for
reacting late to
developing crises in Africa, and urged the United Nations,
the African Union
and Sadc to prepare for the possibility of a fresh crisis
in Zimbabwe.
“International institutions have failed Africa. They are
reactive. They wait
for crises to happen,” he said, citing the current
political stand-off in
Ivory Coast as an example.
“What is
required is pro-activeness to prevent quite clearly a foreseeable
situation,” he said.
A poll published on January 5 showed that
70% of Zimbabweans want elections
this year, but less than half the
electorate believed such polls would be
free and fair.
One in
seven also feared election campaign intimidation or violence, which
characterised the 2008 vote, amid slipping confidence in the unity
government.
The Afrobarometer survey questioned 1 192 citizens
across Zimbabwe in
October last year. — Sapa-AFP.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011 19:28
Faith
Zaba/Paidamoyo Muzulu
A CRUCIAL Zanu PF politburo meeting this month
will decide the extent to
which the party wants the government of national
unity to be extended after
President Robert Mugabe insisted its term ends
next month. Insiders say most
party bigwigs will support an extension of not
more than six months.
Sources in the politburo told the Zimbabwe
Independent yesterday that top on
the agenda for their next meeting expected
before month-end was the lifespan
of the Government of National
Unity.
They said Mugabe, who together with Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and his
deputy Arthur Mutambara, has the final say on when
elections should be held,
would obviously consult his cronies first so that
they can come up with an
agreed party position on how long the GNU should be
extended.
The sources said everyone was in agreement that they did
not want an
“open-ended” extension with no timeframes for the implementation
of the
agreed principles, such as electoral and other necessary reforms,
that were
needed to pave the way for a free and fair
election.
Sadc facilitator, South African President Jacob Zuma, has
said there should
be a clear roadmap leading to the elections at the expiry
of the Inclusive
government. Among other things, the roadmap should include
the completion of
constitutional reforms, security sector reform, and media
and electoral
reforms.
Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo
confirmed that the next politburo meeting
was likely going to discuss the
extension of the GNU.
“Yes, we are likely to discuss and come up with
a party position on how long
the GNU can be extended,” Gumbo said in an
interview on Wednesday.
“However, it is still up to the principals to
decide when the next elections
would be held. But I am sure the president
will come to us and we will
discuss and come up with a position on the way
forward.”
Gumbo concurred with the other politburo members, saying
they wanted an
extension which was not more than six months and should be
issues-based with
a timetable or a framework of things to be implemented
before the elections.
“We are agreed that we don’t want an extension
of the GNU. We don’t see
ourselves going beyond August — we will go by what
the president said that
we cannot go beyond six months,” he
said.
Asked if six months was realistic considering the snail’s pace
of the
constitution-making process due to lack of funding and an alleged
deliberate
ploy to stall the process in order to delay elections by a
certain section
in the GNU, Gumbo said Mugabe has since ordered the
acceleration of the
process.
Although there might be some members
opposed to early elections, senior Zanu
PF officials said they could not
openly express this view which is contrary
to what Mugabe has been
advocating.
Mugabe has said elections should be held soon after the
referendum,
irrespective of whether the draft constitution is accepted or
rejected.
Meanwhile, election campaigning in Zanu PF has intensified
with those vying
for parliamentary and senatorial seats already fighting it
out.
“The campaigns had become so dirty in some instances. Generally
it had
become so divisive. People were decampaigning sitting MPs in their
presence
hence the announcement by Cde (national commissar) WebsterShamu
that
electioneering should stop until primary election dates are announced,”
said
Gumbo.
Zanu PF said it would field serving and former
security forces as candidates
in the next harmonised
elections.
Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa
confirmed the
development in a telephone interview with the Zimbabwe
Independent on Monday
this week.
“The party (Zanu PF) is composed
of all sectors of people including war
veterans,” Mutasa said, “They were
the root of the party in Mozambique. We
cannot stop them from contesting if
they so wish and they have the support.
If the people want them, we cannot
deny them that space.”
Minister of Defence and Zanu PF legal
secretary Emmerson Mnangagwa last
October told parliament that there would
be many security officers competing
for political office as most of those
who joined the army in 1980 were
reaching retirement age.
“We
should not lose sight of the fact that the majority of those that were
integrated into the Defence Forces in 1980 are now reaching retirement age,”
Mnangagwa said in reply to a question on serving security forces
participating in politics.
The minister added that security
services personnel like any other citizen
had freedom of association and
assembly and could join political parties of
their choice.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011 19:17
Brian
Chitemba
STATE Enterprises and Parastatals minister Gorden Moyo has been
sucked into
the fierce political storm that erupted at the MDC-T Bulawayo
office over
plans to impose the minister as the party’s provincial
chairman.
The positioning of Moyo, who was not at last Saturday’s meeting,
ahead of
the party congress in May is part of a wider jostling for posts by
officials
seeking influential offices.
MDC-T insiders said there
was drama at the Bulawayo offices on Saturday
afternoon as debate ensued
over the plan by MPs, including Pelandaba
legislator Samuel Sandla Khumalo
and Bulawayo Central’s Dorcas Sibanda, to
dethrone incumbent provincial
chairperson Agnes Mlotshwa, and replace her
with Moyo, a former civic
activist.
MDC-T deputy spokesperson Thabitha Khumalo declined that
there were serious
party scuffles over posts.
“I was not at the
meeting but I would tell you that there is no infighting
in the MDC-T,” she
said.
But sources who attended the weekend meeting told the Zimbabwe
Independent
this week that Khumalo threatened party member Dick Mohammed who
led a group
opposed to Moyo’s planned ascendency.
Mohammed’s
group is allegedly opposed to Moyo’s imposition as the Bulawayo
provincial
chairman saying the minister was not even an ordinary party
member. For Moyo
to assume a party post, MDC-T officials say, he has to
serve the party for
at least two years.
Moyo was handpicked from civil society by Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
as Minister of State in his office at the
inception of the coalition
government in February 2009.
“How can
Moyo be given the post just like that; we have to follow party
procedure.”
asked an MDC-T senior official who requested anonymity. “We won’t
allow Moyo
to enjoy our fruits of hard labour without serving the party for
two
years.”
Moyo was previously linked to the vice-presidency’s post
currently occupied
by Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe although he
denied the claims.
Contacted for comment, Moyo dismissed the story as untrue
and refused to
discuss the issue.
“Your story is incorrect and
thus I can’t comment on information that is not
true,” he
said.
At the Saturday meeting, sources said, tempers flared over the
involvement
of the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) in
party politics
to bolster Moyo’s image among city residents. Moyo is the
patron of BPRA and
is allegedly using the association to build his political
empire.
“BPRA officials were instructed by party stalwarts in the
city to desist
from playing politics. But basically the bickering and
infighting is all
about party posts ahead of the May congress,” said the
source.
BPRA coordinator Rodrick Fayayo denied that they were
campaigning for Moyo,
arguing that the association was not involved in
politics.
“Our membership is drawn from all political parties and we
are not
campaigning for Moyo; it’s not true,” he said.
Meanwhile,
the fight over posts also surfaced in Matabeleland North at the
weekend
where provincial executive members led by Sengezo Tshabangu were
involved in
a heated debate following a meeting addressed by MDC-T national
chairman
Lovemore Moyo in Hwange. Lovemore Moyo is said to be on a whirlwind
tour of
provinces to garner support to retain his post at the May congress.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011
19:16
Bernard Mpofu
THE Zimbabwe Industry Tobacco Auction Centre
(Zitac), the country’s
embattled tobacco sales auction floor operator, has
threatened the Tobacco
Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) with unspecified
action for alleged bias in
handling the wrangle between property owners Boka
Investments and Zitac.
This move comes barely a week after Zitac shareholder
Caleb Dengu demanded
Agriculture minister Joseph Made’s resignation. Dengu
was unhappy that Made
rubberstamped a decision by TIMB, the industry’s
regulator, to award a
tobacco auction floor licence to Boka Investments, a
company run by late
businessman Roger Boka’s family.
A document
purportedly authored by Dengu warns that Zitac, currently tenants
at the
Boka Tobacco Auction floors owned by Boka Investments, would block
the
property owners from running the floors after TIMB last year issued an
operating licence to the company. Boka Investments’ licensing signalled an
end to Zitac’s nearly 10-year occupancy at the disputed
property.
TIMB’s decision follows a High Court order in November 2010
that “barred,
restrained and interdicted” TIMB from issuing an operating
licence to Zitac
if it intends to operate from the 50 000 square metre Boka
Tobacco Auction
floors.
“We would like to state upfront that we
are concerned with the impartiality
of TIMB regarding a commercial dispute
between two indigenous companies,”
reads the statement dated January 17,
2011.
“The Boka Auction Floor will not open unless Zitac is given a
tobacco
auction licence. The recovery of the tobacco sector is going to be
affected
negatively if farmers experience marketing problems. It is
unfortunate that
TIMB is indifferent to people who are bent on looting other
people’s
business.”
Philemon Mangena, Zitac CEO, referred
questions relating to this document to
Dengu after being asked to specify
the action the company would take if Boka
Investments starts operating at
the auction floors at the start of the
tobacco marketing season on February
15.
“I didn’t do that document. Let me give you Caleb Dengu’s number.
He is the
one who wrote it. I haven’t read it so I can’t comment on it,”
said Mangena
in a telephone interview on Tuesday. Repeated efforts to get
comment from
Dengu were in vain as his mobile phone continued to ring
unanswered.
TIMB, Zitac further alleged, should not “take sides” in
the dispute adding
that the industry regulator should be “instructed” to
grant them a licence,
arguing that the firm has a running lease agreement of
the Boka Auction
Floor. Boka Investments is seeking to nullify the agreement
signed in 2001
after blaming Zitac for breaching the
contract.
However, in what could be a forerunner to anticipated drama
at the auction
floors, the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board on Wednesday
said two auction
floors including the disputed Boka Tobacco Auction Floors
would be opened to
the public by mid next month despite concerns raised by
Zitac.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011
19:16
Bernard Mpofu
TIME Bank, a re-licensed commercial bank, says
it has transformed its focus
to investment banking and will in March
commence taking deposits from the
public.
Chris Takura Tande, the
managing director of the bank that was closed seven
years ago and only
re-licensed in 2009 after a bitter legal wrangle, told
the Zimbabwe
Independent this week that the financial institution will be
re-opened in
phases.
“Time Bank has decided to go the investment banking route,” Tande
said in
written response to questions from the Independent. “Under this
business
plan, the bank will be re-opened in phases. As part of phase one of
such a
business model, the bank commenced lending activities without taking
any
deposits from the public.”
He said the loans were coming from
“shareholders funds and for a specific
housing project and related
business”.
The bank has secured from its shareholders a line of credit of
US$20 million
to finance the current projects.
“Besides the housing
project there are a number of projects that are lined
up which have a
significant impact on the needs of our clients,” Tande said.
“The last phase
will be deposit taking from the public, and we intend to
start taking
deposits by March 2011. We are not in a hurry to mobilise
deposits to
support our business plan.”
In 2009 the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe agreed to
the restoration of the bank’s
operating licence after the Administrative
Court ruling its 2004 closure by
the central bank.
The bank was placed
under a curatorship in 2004 and subsequently its licence
cancelled in 2006,
but the Administrative Court reinstated the licence in
2009.
Local media
has been in recent weeks carrying Time Bank advertisements of
“The Golden CT
Suburb”— upmarket residential stands which can be purchased
through the bank
as part of its plan to grow the balance sheet.
The bank, according to Tande,
sees “a lot of opportunities” in investment
banking, a banking sector
currently not so active owing to liquidity
problems.
Central bank figures
show that commercial banks account for 87% of the total
assets whilst
building societies and merchant banks accounted for 8% and 4%
respectively.
Asked how they will transact in investment banking when
they have a
commercial banking licence, Tande said: “Investment banking can
be done in
the context of a commercial banking licence. The commercial
banking licence
offers the widest range of banking activities, and from the
list of
permissible banking activities, Time Bank will emphasise those
activities
that are normally done by investment banks.”
Investment
banking entails financing projects, assisting individuals,
corporations and
governments in raising capital by underwriting and/or
acting as the client’s
agent in the issuance of securities.
Like most financial institutions, Tande
said, his bank is undergoing massive
restructuring and streamlining of
operations that will result in downsizing
branch network and centralisation
of operations.
Following the introduction of multiple currencies in 2009,
several banking
groups disposed of units and rationalsised operations in
their bid to
realign capital positions and business.
The bank has four
branches in Harare and a branch each in Bulawayo and
Mutare, which have been
maintained since 2004 although they remained under
lock and key.
“We have
developed a business plan that does not rely on using deposits from
the
public,” he said. “The organic growth of the bank will begin from
utilisation of shareholders funds, and proceed to turnover a lot of
non-funds-based business, thereby earning a significant non-interest based
income,” he said.
Last February the bank began offering a loan scheme
that attracts 5%
interest with the loans being repayable within six
months.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011 19:15
NEWSDAY,
Zimbabwe’s only independent daily newspaper, continues to grow
strongly with
daily sales expected to reach 45 000 in three months, Group
Chief Executive
Raphael Khumalo has said.
NewsDay is published by Alpha Media Holdings who
are also publishers of the
Standard and the Zimbabwe
Independent.
Khumalo said: “As a new kid on the block we are
committed to updating
readers and advertisers on a regular basis regarding
the performance of
NewsDay.”
NewsDay has been on the market since June
last year and is now the most
widely read daily newspaper in Zimbabwe in
only seven short months.
“We have exceeded every budget projection
and we are very bullish about
NewsDay. Circulation growth has been the
biggest performer which in turn has
proved to advertisers that NewsDay is a
strong national advertising
platform,” Khumalo said.
Copy sales
during the just ended holiday season were exceptionally good with
Christmas
and New Year issues completely sold out, Khumalo said.
“We are
pleased that readers have quickly adopted NewsDay in their everyday
lives
and circulation figures remain very high. On average we are now
selling 95%
of our print run which is a technical sell out.
Readers in most major
cities and towns across the country and also in areas
“off the beaten
track” such as Ngundu, Mpandawana, and Lalapanzi are
getting their NewsDay
every day and are fully plugged into what is
happening on the national
front and can contribute to topical issues
through our reader feedback
forums.
“Current indications are that this strong growth will
continue in 2011,
hence attracting new readership and widening advertiser
reach as we increase
our coverage and grow our distribution footprint
throughout the nation,”
Khumalo said.
In only seven months
NewsDay has also broken new ground with its ability to
cut across age,
gender and income barriers. The brand has established a
strong connection
with young and old readers alike. NewsDay has a wide
appeal to female
readers and is found in a variety of households.
“Introducing a new
product, especially in a depressed economic environment
is both exciting and
challenging,” said Khumalo. “NewsDay’s success is due
to its ability to fill
a gap in the market for a balanced, non-partisan, and
objective daily
newspaper that is affordable. In a market which sees new
products launched
only to disappear from the shelf after six months or less,
we believe that
NewsDay continues to thrive due to relevant content,
innovative marketing,
strong distribution and loyal readers.
“NewsDay’s success is in large
measure due to the editorial, production,
marketing and distribution team
that we have put together,” Khumalo said. —
Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011 19:14
Brian
Chitemba
THE inclusive government will celebrate its second birthday in
February. The
coalition government can celebrate achieving economic
stability but the
political gridlock which almost crippled the alliance
shows that much work
is needed to address the asymmetrical division of
power.
President Robert Mugabe of Zanu PF, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
of
MDC-T and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara of MDC, signed an
ambitious
Global Political Agreement (GPA) on September 15 2008, leading to
the birth
of the inclusive government in February 2009.
Since then the
principals have struggled to establish cordial relations as
Mugabe and
Tsvangirai were at one time or another involved in a bitter power
battle. At
one point last year the two allegedly went for months without
talking as
relations between the long-time rivals soured.
The differences between the
two are partly ideological and as a result their
mindsets are miles apart,
but they have struck a compromise and so far it
has worked to the extent
that many feel this experimental form of government
should continue while
the economy stabilises further before any elections
are held.
For the
first time in a decade, Zimbabwe’s stratospheric inflation, which
stood at
231 million percent by the end of 2008 disappeared at the onset of
dollarisation and the country briefly slid into deflation before inflation
rose to 3,2% in November last year.
Industrial capacity utilisation
jumped from 10% to about 40% last year while
hospitals and schools which
were facing closure due to lack of resources
maintained operations.
Even
investors joined the euphoria, with delegations and investment scouts
descending on the country.
However, on the flipside of the coin, analysts
say political reforms
implemented in the past two years have been largely
cosmetic and more action
was needed from the coalition.
The wobbly
government helped Mugabe gain legitimacy after the one-man June
2008
presidential run-off sham.
The GNU however, failed to distribute power
evenly, with Mugabe holding all
the levers of power. Mugabe remains head of
state and government and chairs
cabinet while his rival, Tsvangirai, is
prime minister.
The irony is that Tsvangirai cannot chair a cabinet meeting
because,
according to the GNU’s power structure, he is only number four
behind Mugabe
and his two lieutenants, vice-presidents Joice Mujuru and John
Nkomo. In
Mugabe’s absence nobody is allowed to chair the cabinet.
The
MDC have confirmed on numerous occasions that they are secondary
partners in
the power matrix of the GNU, and this failure to balance the
distribution
has often led to clashes between the two on matters of policy
and
priorities.
This has seen multilateral lenders and donors refuse to extend
loans and
lines of credit to the new government until “real” political
reforms
resulting in proportional power-sharing have been
implemented.
Investors who had joined the trek to the verdant opportunities
in the
country held back as discord emerged in the GNU over some laws,
notably over
the indigenisation and economic empowerment regulations.
The
inclusive government can take credit for reducing political violence.
The
tacit acknowledgement of how deeply the violence-scarred the country can
be
seen in the appointment of ministers of national healing under the three
principals to spearhead the remedial process.
Political analyst Dewa
Mavhinga said two years of the inclusive government
had given Zimbabwe a
measure of political and economic stability which he
felt would be
threatened if the country were to hold elections later this
year.
“The
inclusive government has dismally failed primarily because Mugabe and
Zanu
PF continue to call the shots and continue to block progressive
democratisation reforms,” he said.
He also blamed the two MDC formations
for failing to stand up to Mugabe and
for giving the impression that the
inclusive government is a bed of roses
when it clearly is not.
Failure to
fully implement the GPA means that the principals cannot fully
trust each
other or work together.
For instance, Mugabe has consistently refused to
swear in MDC-T nominee for
the deputy agriculture minister post, Roy
Bennett. The 87-year-old ruler has
also unilaterally appointed judicial
officials, ambassadors and provincial
governors in breach of the GPA while
he retained his cronies Gideon Gono and
Johannes Tomana as Reserve Bank
governor and attorney-general respectively.
Political analyst Trevor Maisiri
said Mugabe’s political machinations had
undermined any hope of better
governance Zimbabweans may have expected at
the onset of the GNU.
“The
political situation going into 2011 is clouded in tension,
irregularity,
unrepentant political attitudes, power games and outright
disregard for
political normalcy. This unfortunately has far-reaching,
deep-rooted and
widely-diffusive effects on the social and economic sectors
of the
country.
“To date more than 24 months after the signing of the GPA and the
subsequent
formation of the Government of National Unity antagonism still
spoils the
projected expectation of political sanity. Zanu PF and the MDC-T
still have
major disagreements in the discharge and function of the unity
government
and on key reforms which were supposed to result from the said
agreement.
These two main parties have adopted shifting positions away from
the spirit
and dictates of the agreement they signed,” he said.
Maisiri
said gains realised from 2008 into 2009 could be lost if the
political
leaders fail to commit to intentional reforms and democratisation.
Finance
minister Tendai Biti projected economic growth to peak at about 7%
last year
but by April he had downgraded his projection to 4% as investors
adopted a
wait and see attitude to Zimbabwe’s political head-butting.
Mugabe has, for
example, called for elections later this year while his
rivals want
constitutional, electoral and other critical democratic reforms
implemented
before such elections can be held.
The business sector has also lobbied
against elections to protect the gains
achieved in the past two years but
their voice is unlikely to carry favour
with power-hungry
politicians.
“Where it comes to the stabilisation of politics the GPA has not
really
succeeded. The mere mention of elections in Zimbabwe affects
everything and
this is not what we want for our democracy,” said Julius
Mutyambizi-Dewa, a
lawyer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011 19:13
Wongai
Zhangazha
WHEN Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said at his inauguration
in February
2009 that civil servants would start earning salaries in foreign
currency
that would enable them to provide for their families, the joy was
unbridled.
This was after all coming from a former trade unionist made good,
who during
his campaign in 2008 said he held the “keys” to unlock resources
that would
see among other things civil servants’ working conditions
improve.
In his inauguration speech, Tsvangirai said: “As Prime Minister I
make this
commitment that, as from the end of this month, our professionals
in the
civil service, every health worker, teacher, soldier and policeman
will
receive their pay in foreign currency until we are able to stabilise
the
economy.”
“These hard currency salaries will enable people to go to
work, to feed
their families and to survive until such time that we can
begin to sustain
ourselves as a country.”
This, to the civil servants who
for many years had borne the brunt of a
collapsing economy and
hyperinflation, brought hope that finally priority
would be given to improve
their working conditions.
What also raised their expectations was the fact
that MDC was born out of
labour unions and as a result more sympathetic to
their cause. Their hopes
were high that the inclusive government would
succeed where the former Zanu
PF government had failed.
However, two
years on, civil servants are still grappling to provide a
decent living for
their families on a meagre salary that ranges between
US$150 and US$200 in a
country whose cost of living for an average urban
family of six stood at
$498 in November, according to the Consumer Council
of Zimbabwe.
Finance
minister Tendai Biti said in his budget statement that he had
increased the
wage bill to US$1,1 billion from US$600 million and raised the
tax threshold
to US$225, but instead of wages doubling, government only
increased the
basic pay for the least-paid worker by a paltry US$6 per
month, which union
leaders have described as a “pittance” and an “insult”.
In addition, the
government increased housing and transport allowances for
the lowest-paid
worker by US$6 and US$13 respectively.
The basic salary for the uniformed
forces was increased by between US$8 and
US$10 while their housing
allowances were raised from US$9 to US$45 with
transport allowances rising
from US$8 to US$42.
After receiving their payment vouchers last week civil
servants have
threatened to go on strike until their demands are
met.
Chairperson of the Apex Council, a representative body for civil
servants,
Tendai Chikowore told the Zimbabwe Independent they were not going
to bow
easily.
“We are not going to accept a continuation of the
government’s pittance
salaries. We have understood for a long time. We spent
the whole of 2010
without any serious increment with the hope that in 2011
things will have
improved and they will take (into account) our
considerations.
“2011 has come and they tell us there is no money. That is
not our problem.
It is not our business to look for money. It is their
responsibility to set
up adequate funding for civil servants salaries. If
they honestly put their
priorities right they would definitely find a way to
pay the workers fairly.
We are not satisfied and it is (the offer by
government) totally unfair,”
she said.
Chikowore said civil servants want
a monthly salary of US$500 for the lowest
paid worker and are now waiting
for the government’s response.
International Socialist Organisation local
leader Munyaradzi Gwisai said the
government of national unity was not
concerned about the plight of its
workers because it was a “government of
the elite”, only concerned about
uplifting themselves. He said it was
unfortunate that both MDCs have “joined
the gravy train”.
“The government
is playing with fire by taking the plight of the workers
lightly. They say
they do not have money but it is this government that was
able to find US$50
000 for MPs to squander on petty projects and fund
foreign trips,” said
Gwisai.
In his 2011 budget statement, Finance minister Tendai Biti promised
every MP
an allocation of US$50 000 to kick-start projects that would
enhance their
constituencies.
In addition, Biti proposed to buy the MPs
additional new vehicles and
increase their monthly salaries by between 100%
and 200% this year. This
means his ministry would have to fork out around
US$4 million for the
acquisition of the new cars for about 270
legislators.
In 2009, the government spent US$6 million buying Mazda BT50
double cab
trucks which were going at US$25 000 each.
In June last year
his ministry in its first quarter treasury bulletin said
foreign travel
costs for the period to March amounted to US$5,6 million,
about 1,4% of the
government’s total expenditure over the same period.
Gwisai said: “What
Minister Biti is trying to do is to create a minimum wage
of starvation. A
survey was done at the end of last year and it revealed
that managers get 91
times the salary of the worker, some getting between
US$15 000 and US$35
000.”
“Ideologically some policies are there to protect employers and the
rich at
the expense of the workers. This shows the acceleration of the
neo-liberalism of this government. These policies of neo-liberalism have
failed and have caused social revolts across the globe in countries like
Algeria and Tunisia being the latest.”
He added that: “I hope we get to
(a situation similar to) Tunisia where
workers will realise that their
rights are equally important and they wake
up for their own emancipation.
Workers from both the private and public
sector must mobilise themselves to
support their own demands.”
A commentator on economic justice and governance,
David Takawira said civil
servants’ salaries was an issue of misplaced
priorities and which, if not
resolved, could lead to food riots like what
happened in 1998.
Takawira said: “Unless government takes timely corrective
and calculated
action, a re-enactment of the 1998 food-riots is a
possibility at the
moment.
“Minister Biti megaphones to the world how the
GDP has gained ground and how
the economy has grown when in actual fact the
economy is not expanding
opportunities for employment.
“As a result civil
servants work for long hours and get very low wages. So
it’s true when
minister Biti says, “what doubled was the overall allocation
to employment
costs which includes pensions...as Ministry of Finance we do
not do the
actual allocation to individuals.
“So in essence government should realign
its priorities and ensure that
resources are channelled to the engines of
the economy,” said Takawira.
For civil servants, it is a long wait for
recognition.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011
18:48
Leonard Makombe
WHEN Margaret Dongo, as an independent
candidate for Harare South in the
1995 parliamentary elections, successfully
challenged the outcome of the
polls citing fraud, many thought it was a
tipping point that would radically
change the way the country held
elections.
However, 15 years on and six general elections later, Zimbabwe
continues to
grapple with archaic mechanisms for holding elections,
especially a tattered
and shambolic voters’ roll, contestable electoral
laws, an unfair and uneven
playing field, administrative incapacity and a
partisan management of
elections.
Dongo, the first and only candidate to
successfully challenge an electoral
result within the life of a parliament,
premised her petition on a ragged
voters’ roll and then won the rerun
against Vivian Mwashita of Zanu PF.
There was never a lull between the
historic Dongo challenge and the current
mechanisms as piecemeal reforms
were undertaken, of significance being the
adoption of the Sadc Principles
and Guidelines on Free and Fair Elections in
Grand Baie Mauritius in 2004
which sound good on paper but have failed to
clean up the country’s
electoral record.
Such scepticism is justified by the country’s electoral
history since the
adoption of universal suffrage, where all eligible voters
could cast their
ballot in 1979 during the short lived Zimbabwe-Rhodesia
regime.
It would thus have been refreshing to hear Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa proposing further electoral reforms, specifically establishing an
Electoral Court, but political players and legal experts took these as mere
cosmetic changes without much significance.
An Electoral Court would be
empowered to “review any decisions of the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission or
any other person made or purporting to have
been made under the Electoral
Act” and hears appeals, applications and
petitions in terms of the same
Act.
Analyst and legal expert Alex Magaisa said if properly used, electoral
courts were a useful institution in the electoral
landscape.
“Nevertheless, past experience in Zimbabwe does not support any
optimistic
belief in that institution,” said Magaisa who is also a lecturer
at Kent
University in the United Kingdom.
Another analyst, Sibanengi
Ncube said establishing an Electoral Court did
not automatically mean that
they would clear the cases.
“The advantage is we have people who concentrate
on a particular area,” said
Ncube who is also the programmes manager for the
Parliamentary Monitoring
Trust. “If the judges focus on one area, that is
elections, they would have
a better understanding of the processes hence
better justice delivery.”
There are politicians and analysts who questioned
the intention of the
Justice minister, arguing that he had shown
undemocratic tendencies which
would taint the reforms.
Magaisa said it
was important that Electoral Courts were truly independent
and sufficiently
resourced “so that they are not beholden to anyone”.
Problems which have
affected the operations of other courts could also weigh
heavily on the
Electoral Courts, especially respect for their rulings or
their
enforcement.
Dongo said while there has been some movement since her
challenge more than
15 years ago, there were many issues to be addressed
before the elections
are free and fair.
“We have problems with the
voters’ roll,” said Dongo. “We should make sure
that there is a democratic
and well prepared voters’ roll.”
In Brazil, the system of the electoral
courts is decentralised to provincial
levels and they are responsible for
voter registration, eliminating the
partisan nature of recording potential
voters in Zimbabwe.
The political terrain has changed significantly since
Dongo’s challenge as
petitions are not only challenging the threadbare
voters’ roll but issues of
intimidation, political violence and other
irregularities.
Those challenging the outcome of the elections have learnt
that Dongo’s case
was unique and has never been repeated as the country’s
courts have failed
to handle all electoral matters brought as expeditiously
as is required when
dealing with such cases.
Whereas there was only a
single electoral challenge in 1995, there was a
surge in 2000 as the MDC
brought 32 cases and Zanu PF had eight petitions
for redress in the
courts.
Two years later the presidential elections were disputed and the
injured
party, the MDC, brought another case before the courts, bringing
eight more
in the 2005 poll.
None of the 49 electoral cases brought to
the courts between 2000 and 2005
were concluded to their logical conclusion
as High Court rulings were
appealed and the Supreme Court, which is not a
specialised court, dealt with
the cases without any urgency.
Election
petitions remained unresolved for one full term of office of MPs, a
development which legal experts termed as justice denied in that prospective
MPs were in some cases denied the benefit of their High Court
victories.
The political landscape has radically changed with the turn of the
century
and the contest around election results continues to
increase.
One way of resolving them could be giving teeth to the Electoral
Court thus
preventing the sort of delays that have impaired the democratic
process in
the past .
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011 18:44
Bernard
Mpofu
ZIMTRADE, the national trade development and promotion body, has
postponed
signing a trade deal with China over concerns of a widening trade
deficit
that is heavily tilted in favour of the Far East giant.
Kenzias
Chibota, ZimTrade director on Monday told businessdigest on the
sidelines of
a function to promote the Chinese trade fair to be held later
in the year,
that Zimbabwe favoured an agreement that would capacitate local
industry.
“They (Chinese counterparts) want to sign an agreement with
ZimTrade. I have
the draft. We were supposed to sign it today but I said we
won’t sign it. I
want that agreement to emphasise that issue of helping us
capacitate our
processing capabilities so that we export finished items
rather just a one
way trade,” said Chibota at the Promotion Conference of
the 109th session of
the China Import-Export Fair, scheduled for China later
in the year.
Zimtrade, according to Chibota, is wary of the expanding trade
deficit, with
Zimbabwe exports valued at US$54 million to imports from China
at US$129
million in 2009.
The 2010 figures are likely to show an even
wider gap, Chibota said.
“Certainly this gap worries us because we cannot
have such a deficit when
our little resources are going out but we have
nothing coming back. It just
doesn’t balance and it is unsustainable. But
again we need to be aggressive
as Zimbabweans. We need to engage in joint
ventures not just focus on
finished products,” he said.
Chinese imports
to Zimbabwe increased by 24% in the four years to 2009,
according to
official statistics.
South Africa continues to be the dominant trade partner,
accounting for 60%
of local imports.
The increase in imports is despite
government tariffs discouraging imports
of finished products. Government
levies up to 5% import duty for raw
materials while imported finished
products attract 40% in duty.
Experts, however, say while Zimbabwe exports to
South Africa are mostly
mineral resources, the country’s manufacturing
industry has the capacity to
increase market share for value added products
in furniture, textiles and
clothing, horticulture products and arts and
crafts.
Chinese investors have in recent years intensified investments in
retail and
mining — with interests in extraction of chrome, nickel and
platinum.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011
18:40
Nqobile Bhebhe/Taurai Mangudhla
“CARELESS” statements by
politicians will derail the country’s economic
recovery pace economists said
this week.
Zimbabwe Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa last week threatened
to seize
foreign owned companies’ shareholding unless they urgently denounce
sanctions which he said were put in place by Western
countries.
Mnangagwa said companies’ bosses will soon be summoned to appear
on national
radio and denounce Western sanctions failure of which they will
lose 90% of
their shareholding.
“We will ask them if they support
sanctions or not. Those who indicate that
they do not support sanctions will
be asked to go live on national radio and
tell the nation and the rest of
the world their company does not support
sanctions,” Mnangagwa was quoted
saying.
He said that authorities were already “in the process of rounding up”
the
bosses of foreign businesses who are still operating in the country.
Another
report on Sunday stated that the money raised from the 90% would go
to
Mugabe.
Economist Eric Bloch told businessdigest on Tuesday that local
banks relied
on international lines of credit from their foreign partners
who were
closely monitoring developments in the country.
“Local banks’
international partners are not willing to release funds as
they are still
not convinced by political developments,” said Bloch.
Bloch said with limited
free funds local financial institutions would
continue availing short term
credit which have a significant contribution to
revival.
US$3 billion was
needed to revive the country’s industries, but several
factors were
militating against growth.
“Although an in-depth study on the exact amount
needed to revive industries
has not been done, estimates put the figure
between US$2-3 billion,” he
said.
“However, at present it’s impossible to
raise such an amount due to the
unstable political situation” said
Bloch.
He said renewed threats of grabbing a 90% sharing from foreign
companies
would only serve to scare would-be lenders.
Addressing a media
briefing on Tuesday this week Indigenisation and
Empowerment minister
Saviour Kasukuwere supported Mnagagwa saying:
“Mnangagwa’s statement is
consistent with the indigenisation drive and the
country’s desire to fight
sanctions”.
“We have been under colonialism for a very long time and we need
a
sustainable structure,” Kasukuwere said.
Kasukuwere however said
government did not have a “grab-all mentality” and
people should have equal
opportunities.
“I am not aware of any big fish who has benefited from the
indigenisation
exercise…We want to address racial imbalances,” he
said.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce economist Kipson Gundani is of
the
view that low funding could characterise the year with political
uncertainty
being the major risk factor.
“There could be slight
improvement with regards to funding of industries.
Long term funding through
local financial institutions would remain
depressed as long as the
political side is not clear. Banks would continue
catering for shorter loans
which in the long run would mean insignificant
changes to industry” said
Gundani.
Industry minister Welshman Ncube on Tuesday said his ministry was
working on
curbing obstacles that inhibit companies from achieving full
growth in
capacity utilisation
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011 18:39
Paul
Nyakazeya
FUEL prices in Zimbabwe have shot up by between 10% and 16%
since December
21, 2010 after stocks dropped drastically and demand rose
significantly in
European countries due to the onset of the winter
season.
Fuel dealers in Zimbabwe cited the sudden increase in international
crude
oil prices and increased demand over the festive period for the price
increase. The price of Brent crude has averaged US$95 in that period,
pushing the price of fuel up.
As of Tuesday the price of diesel had risen
from US$1,15 per litre in
December to between US$1,30 and US$1,40 per litre
while petrol was selling
at between US$1,40 and US$1,49 from US1,25 per
litre during the same period.
The latest round of fuel price increases has
triggered a widespread surge in
the cost of basic commodities and consumer
goods.
Economist David Mupamhadzi said developments on the international oil
markets have not been favourable for fuel importing countries like
Zimbabwe.
“The spike in the oil prices directly affects the price of fuel and
hence
the recent increases in the fuel price. Domestic factors also played a
part
in pushing the price of fuel in Zimbabwe, especially the high
structural
cost of landing fuel in Zimbabwe,” Mupamhadzi said.
He said
the surge in the prices of fuel was a worrying development,
especially for
an economy like Zimbabwe which was at a delicate stage of
recovery.
“Continued fuel increases could imperil a fragile economic
recovery.
Ordinary citizens will also be hard hit by the price increases, a
situation
which will worsen the welfare of people,” he said.
The price of
two litres of cooking oil rose from US$3 in December to US$4,30
during the
first week of January, blue bar washing soap rose from US$1 to
US$1,40
during the same period while a one kg of economy beef rose to US$5
from
US$4,50.
Surf 500g now cost US$1,86 from US$1,50, Mazoe two litres rose from
US$2,75
to US$3,00 while two kgs of Rice (Mahatma) rose to US$2,85 from
US$2,50.
Economic consultant Sonny Mabheju said the fact that Zimbabwe was a
fuel
importer meant that it was vulnerable to the vagaries of global
economics.
“We are vulnerable to volatilities in these factors over which we
have no
control. If the fuel price increases get sustained over a long
period, they
will end up influencing the price of goods and services
upwards,” Mabheju
said.
According to the international media there is
always a high demand for oil
during mid- December to February in European
markets as they experience
freezing conditions, increasing the demand for
energy.
Eric Bloch, a local economic commentator, noted that the increase in
demand
for fuel in Europe was primarily due to the unusually cold climatic
conditions in most northern hemisphere countries, creating considerably
higher demand for oil.
“The rise was also partially due to increasing
demand as global economies
slowly recover from the 2008/2009 recession and
also to some diminution in
production by BP in the Gulf of Mexico and some
oil-producing countries
recently impacted upon by floods.”
Bloch also
said the extent of impact upon prices and hence upon the
inflation rate will
be contingent upon how soon the global demand for crude
oil
declines.
“The extent will also be determined by the extent crude oil
production
increases, but currently it is probable that the extent of
commodity and
service price increases and of rises in public transport fares
will occasion
at least a 3% additional rise in the 2011 annual inflation
rate, with a
resultant of that rate potentially being as great as 7%,” Bloch
said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011
18:38
Leonard Makombe
LONDON Zimbabwe (LonZim)'s subsidiary,
Forget Me Not Africa (FMNA) has
acquired a US$1 million exclusive licence
for a unified messaging system and
message optimiser, which enables low cost
internet messaging.
FMNA, which is 51% owned by LonZim, exercised its option
to take the
exclusive, perpetual licence for the unified messaging system
and message
optimiser following an initial trial investment in early 2009.
Forget Me Not
Hong Kong owns the remaining 49% shareholding.
LonZim on
Tuesday said since the initial investment two years ago, FMNA had
delivered
significant progress in the deployment of its products such as
mobile
e-mail, on-line chat and Facebook solutions, signing up five African
mobile
network operators.
David Lenigas, Executive Chairman of LonZim, said: “FMNA
has made astounding
progress in a short time and in just 18 months has
signed up access to
networks with over 42 million subscribers in Africa. The
purchasing of the
perpetual licence establishes a solid foundation for the
further expansion
of the FMN product range across Africa.”
FMNA has
established a network in Kenya, Nigeria, Lesotho and Republic of
the Congo
making access to mobile e-mail and on-line chat available to 42
million
subscribers.
The telecommunications company also has agreements with Econet
Telecom of
Lesotho, Econet Zimbabwe, Glo Mobile in Nigeria, Safaricom and yu
in Kenya
and Warid in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Message
Optimiser is deployed in mobile networks to enable access to
low-cost
internet messaging on first generation, SMS-enabled mobile phones.
Jeremy
George, Chief Operating Officer for FMNA, said: “Internet access
across
Africa remains very low compared to the rest of the world, but the
fast
growth rate of mobile phone ownership means that mobile access may be
the
only way the vast majority of Africans ever access the internet, so the
market potential for Message Optimiser is huge.”
George said by securing
the perpetual licence, LonZim lent further mettle to
FMNA’s objective of
bridging the digital divide by turning the millions of
basic handsets on the
continent into virtual messaging smart phones that can
access email and
other FMN applications.
Local telecommunications companies have value added
on their networks
offering new services including data, banking services and
email.
Cellphone penetration rates have improved significantly in Zimbabwe
where
the three mobile network providers share more than six million
subscribers.
LonZim is listed on the LSE Alternative Investment Markets and
has been
using its subsidiary to penetrate the telecommunications market in
East and
southern Africa.
The core product used is the message optimiser
which allows
telecommunication operators to immediately provide
comprehensive
cost-effective, unified messaging services to all of their
customers without
any upgrades to the device or any need for downloading new
applications onto
the device.
This opens up a range of previously
inaccessible services to many of their
customers including two-way email and
two-way instant messaging
communication capability.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011 18:37
Paul
Nyakazeya/Paidamoyo Muzulu
PRIVATISING state-owned enterprises without
addressing management and
administration deficiencies will not provide the
all-curing solution to
problems facing parastatals in the country, analysts
believe.
Finance minister Tendai Biti wants 10 parastatals to be privatised
to ease
the burden on the fiscus and to provide better back-up service to
industry.
A well functioning public sector would also provide a solid base
for
economic recovery, with some parastatals anchoring the most critical
sectors
in the country.
“The poor performance of most parastatals is
largely due to management
inefficiencies, poor governance systems, and in
some instances lack of
resources. Furthermore government, despite pledges to
reform parastatals,
has also failed to implement a clear recovery plan for
these parastatals,”
economist David Mupamhadzi told businessdigest this
week.
Government last year launched the first phase of the reform programme
targeting 10 major state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for privatisation namely
Agribank, Air Zimbabwe, Grain Marketing Board, Cold Storage Company, NetOne,
TelOne, Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company, National Railways of Zimbabwe,
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe and Zesa Holdings.
Government has
already sold a controlling stake in Ziscosteel to Indian
company Essar
Africa Holdings and is in the hunt for similar deals for other
parastatals.
Mupamhadzi, however, said there was need for government to
evaluate all
parastatals in order to come up with an option for each
individual company.
“There is need for government to evaluate all parastatals
in order to come
up with an optimal option for each parastatal, which will
determine the
route that the government should take,” Mupamhadzi
said.
“The evaluation exercise will help to identify the reforms that are
required
for these perennial loss-making entities. At a broad strategic
level the
options that are available includes privatisation,
commercialisation and
restructuring. However, it is important to ensure that
a proper evaluation
is done, to avoid costly mistakes.”
Analysts say
government should, as part of measures to reform parastatals
include
performance-related contracts and these should be scrutinised by
institutions of accountability such as parliament.
The creation of a
ministry to manage state enterprises in 1995 has to this
day failed to
address policy inconsistencies, address the lack of political
will on
government’s part or give direction to the poorly performing
parastatals.
Kumbirayi Katsande, former CZI president and business
executive said: “The
major problem has been to do with administration and
supervision of the
companies. Some of the ministers are not sure of the
alternatives to
privatisation like commercialisation.”
However, there are
other enterprises whose failure to operate effectively
can be directly
located on the doorstep of the government. The inability of
the state to
fund these enterprises combined with the leadership failure in
these
parastatals has meant that Zimbabweans have to grapple with the twin
problems of service delivery failure and non-employment
generation.
Economic consultant Eric Bloch said the current state of
virtually all
parastatals was “grossly appalling”.
“They (parastatals)
are all grossly under-capitalised, have immense
accumulations of debt and
have lost the services of many of their essential
skilled personnel, have
vastly ill-maintained and obsolete infrastructures,
and with rare exception
are unable to provide effective service delivery,”
Bloch
said.
Parastatals, he said, required capital injection sufficient to ensure
settlement of debts, rehabilitation and upgrading of infrastructure,
technology, management expertise and technically skilled personnel.
“The
revival of the parastatals has been primarily prevented by government’s
inability to fund their capital needs. It has also been compounded by
ongoing unwarranted political controls and constraints and by endless
governmental reluctance to pursue privatisation vigorously,” he
said.
Recently the ministry of state enterprises and parastatals has
attempted to
inject some bite in its administration of SOEs.
The
ministry, in its official documents, says it will look at many
strategies of
turning around failed parastatals in addition to
privatisation,
commercialisation and strategic partnerships.
It recently unveiled a
Corporate Governance Policy aimed at achieving what
successive governments
since Independence have failed — making parastatals
self-sustaining.
State Enteprises minister Gorden Moyo last month said
the policy aims at
improving accountability among government bureaucrats and
senior managers of
state-owned enterprises will now sign performance-related
contracts.
However, analysts say with political umbrage attached to the top
posts of
the parastatals, it is debatable that such a provision will be
enforced.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011
18:36
BOARD Director Independence Elusive, an article carried in this
column is
currently receiving wide readership on numerous websites
worldwide. The
article has even been translated into other languages. In a
related
development, a local state paper and recently, a South African
weekly
carried a story of lecturers fired from Solusi University who are
alleging
violation of corporate governance norms.
At the centre of the
storm are allegations by the beleaguered lecturers as
reported in the Sunday
Times that the vice chancellor of the private
university, Norman Maphosa was
irregularly appointed to the chair of
Zimsec, a body established by the
government to administer secondary school
exams. It is claimed that the
Minister of Education, David Coltart, who
administers the Zimsec Act, and a
senior partner of a law firm Webb, Low &
Barry (WLB) are the
university’s legal advisors. The insinuation is that the
business ties
between the academics’ former employer and the minister’s firm
are good
grounds to disqualify the university chief from being appointed as
Zimsec’s
chair. Minister Coltart defended his position claiming that he last
received
a salary from WLB in February 2009, a subtle intimation calculated
to prove
that he was not an interested party at the time he appointed
Maphosa.
Each time one says there is a breach of corporate governance
norms in
Zimbabwe we have to ask: which norms?
The Zimsec Act is the
principal corporate governance frame stipulating the
procedure for
appointing the chair to the Zimsec board. The Zimsec act is
very lucid that
the minister, in consultation with the president shall
appoint one of the
serving vice chancellors of Zimbabwe’s universities as
the chairperson of
the Zimsec board. Thus in terms of Zimbabwean law, there
is nothing
irregular about Maphosa’s appointment to Zimsec chairmanship.
If we throw in
major corporate governance frames does the picture change?
* First,
let us consider the UK code that came into effect in June 2010.
UK code’s
Principle A.3.1. suggests that the chairperson should be
independent when
first appointed, but thereafter, the need for independence
falls away.
Under UK custom we would need to ask: was Professor Norman
Maphosa
independent when he was appointed by minister Coltart? Coltart
claims to
have last received a pay cheque from WLB in February 2009. For
this to be
relevant to the question of independence from the Zimsec board’s
corporate
governance viewpoint we need to establish if Coltart’s connection
to WLB was
causing Maphosa to act in a biased manner when making decisions
on the
Zimsec board. But, how do you prove that someone is acting in a
biased
manner before they even sit on the board?
* Second, South Africa’s
King III code does not restrict chairmanship to
independent directors. King
III recommends the appointment of a
non-executive director as a chairperson.
As a management consultant I make a
lot of recommendations. A client has
three options for dealing with a
recommendation: adopt, adapt or reject. Any
organisation that adopts King
III can do likewise when it comes to the
appointment of the board
chairperson. Since Maphosa is not and has never
been an employee of Zimsec,
he is a non-executive director. Clearly, under
King III, Maphosa’s
appointment is in compliance with recommended practice.
Being a
non-executive is not the same as being independent. Under King III,
independence is irrelevant to a chairperson’s appointment.
*
Third, we shall apply the more stringent and scientific approach of
the US
corporate governance system. Under US custom, if the fees income to
WLB from
Solusi University is greater than 2% or US$1m (whichever is
greater) of
WLB’s combined revenues, then minister Coltart and professor
Maphosa would
be considered non-independent directors. But that’s only
relevant if Coltart
and Maphosa sit on the same board. Under US customs it
is not mandatory for
a chairperson to be independent.
However, under our hypothetical
circumstances, one could argue that Coltart
should not have been involved in
the appointment of Maphosa to the chair of
Zimsec as he would have been
deemed not independent. But is Coltart a
director of Zimsec? The answer is
no. The Zimsec act does not require the
setting up of a nominations
committee to carry out the selection and
appointment on behalf of the
board. If we overlay modern corporate
governance customs, it could be
argued that the minister is a one-man
nominations committee, making him a
“virtual director” by virtue of the
powers vested in him by the Zimsec Act.
Effectively, the Zimsec Act empowers
the “shareholders” to be directly
involved in nominations, a practice
considered inappropriate under modern
norms. The only way the Maphosa
appointment would be considered irregular
would be to hope that WLB have
been receiving at least 2% of their income
from Solusi and then force US
custom into the UK code to argue that Maphosa
was not independent when he
was appointed to the Zimsec chairmanship. That’s
an equivalent of trumped up
charges.
* Fourth, minister Coltart’s
claim that he last received a salary in
February 2009 is partly relevant. Of
more relevance is whether the minister
was personally representing Solusi
University as its legal advisor in the
three years preceding the
appointment. If it comes to light that the
minister was personally providing
legal services to Solusi then he was an
interested party at the time of
Maphosa’s appointment. Here is a dilemma.
The Zimsec act is silent on the
issue of interested parties being precluded
from participating in
nominations. Since the act vests powers in the
minister and not the board to
appoint the chairperson, if he recuses on the
grounds that he is an
interested party then the “nominations committee” (the
minister) is totally
paralysed.
* Fifth, the UK and SA corporate governance codes are
voluntary. Their
enforcement hangs on the “apply or explain” principle. In
other words,
should a board show good cause why it is not applying any of
the code’s
practices, it is not in violation of good corporate governance.
The
Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Sox) of the US is a “comply or else” corporate
governance system. But Sox has no jurisdiction over Zimbabwe. Here is the
stark truth. Zimbabwean organisations, including Zimsec are not compelled to
abide by any corporate governance code. Worse still, Zimsec is not governed
by our Companies Act, wherein matters of interested parties, by law, have to
be disclosed. Sad to say that even if the much awaited home-grown national
corporate governance code comes into effect, Zimsec will be under no
compulsion whatsoever to abide by the code’s practices since they are not
legally binding.
The bane of voluntary corporate codes is that they
depend on shareholders
and markets to reward or punish good and bad
corporate governance behaviour.
The problem is that markets and shareholders
do not always act in expected
ways. It has been argued that once a
corporate governance code is adopted
it becomes part of common law. Perhaps
the Companies act and parastatal acts
should make that explicit.
Under
present governance norms, only an extraordinary legal mind can prove
that
Maphosa’s appointment was irregular as that would make powers higher
than
Coltart culpable. That’s a tall order.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011
18:34
TETRAD Investment Bank Managing Director, Emmanuel Chikaka (EC)
says those
banks that will leverage off technology will emerge as the
winners as
financial sector will be more technology driven in 2011. In an
effort to cut
costs and reach a wider market, Chikaka says banking is
trending more
towards internet and cellphone banking and the use of plastic
money. He
speaks to businessdigest chief business reporter Paul Nyakazeya
(PN).
PN:What have been the major highlights at Tetrad Group in
2010?
EC: I would say our successful transition from a discount house
to a
merchant bank. We also managed to meet the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s
minimum capital requirements, launched the gold fund and the e-mali
transactional card.
PN: What has been the response to the Tetrad
Gold Fund, particularly from
small investors who see the fund as an
alternative to the unattractive
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange?
EC: The
response from the market has been good. Clearly the product came in
at the
right time when the market was starved of alternatives given the
lacklustre
performance of the stock market. The fund has managed to attract
over US$1
million since its launch and is growing.
PN: Can you explain how the
e-mali transactional card works?
EC: E-mali is essentially a
convenient, cost effective and very powerful
banking solution designed to
bring the convenience of mobile banking to the
unbanked and under-banked
population of Zimbabwe.
It works off a distribution network of strategic
partners that have been
given point of sale (POS) devices around the country
in their various
outlets. The POS devices are essentially a bank in a box
where one can open
an account in less than 60 seconds, proceed to make a
deposit, do in store
purchases, transfer money in an instant to friends and
relatives throughout
the country where e-mali partners are present, pay for
their bills at the
point of sale and if they so wish withdraw cash out off
their account.
PN: So how does one get the card?
EC:
Getting an e-mali card is very simple. All one has to do is approach any
of
our distribution partners or Tetrad branches with a copy of their I.D and
the rest of the process will take less than a minute.
PN: Who are
your distribution partners?
EC: Our distribution partners to date
include TM supermarkets countrywide,
Innscor Fast Food outlets such as
Chicken Inn, Creamy Inn and Nandos,
Truworths stores, selected Spars,
Moonlight Funeral Assurance outlets
countrywide and many more partners are
still signing up. It’s really that
simple!
PN:What should
shareholders and your clients expect from Tetrad in the
current financial
year?
EC: They should expect consolidation of our position and new
status as a
merchant bank and to grow our market share and profitability. We
also want
to expand on our product offerings and improve existing ones.
Tetrad has
always been a product driven organisation.
PN: What
makes Tetrad different from other banks?
EC: We pride ourselves in
innovation which is one of our key values. Six
months ago Tetrad, through
its asset management company, TFS launched the
first commodity-based unit
trust product in the country, the Tetrad Gold
Fund. Our merchant bank also
launched a transactional card, the e-mali
(transactional card) which has the
lowest transacting costs in the market.
The response has been good and has
definitely put Tetrad on the map.
PN: What challenges are banks likely to
face in 2011?
EC: Lack of liquidity has been the main challenge
facing banks since the
advent of dollarisation in 2009. Other challenges
include, the absence of
long term financing options, high cost of capital,
unaffordable wage demands
and limited success in securing lines of
credit.
PN: Do you think these challenges will improve in the second
half of the
year?
EC: It is not possible to look at these
challenges in isolation. The banking
sector is intertwined with
macro-economic performance. Most of these
challenges will be resolved as the
economy recovers.
PN: What significant trends do you see in the
future of the banking sector?
EC: The banking sector is likely to be
more technology driven going forward,
in an effort to cut costs and reach a
wider market. Banking is trending more
towards internet and cellphone
banking and the use of plastic money, which
is convenient. Products will be
tailored to capture the informal market.
Those banks that will leverage off
technology will emerge as the winners.
Also expect greater competition from
within as well as internationally
leading to some mergers and acquisitions
as competition intensifies.
PN: What is your take on accusations that
the banking sector has not done
enough to mobilise lines of
credit?
EC: That perception is not fair to say the least. It is not a
question of if
we have done enough. Banks are working hard to mobilise lines
of credit both
locally and internationally. We have no choice but to
continue working
harder. At Tetrad, we are working with a number of local
and foreign
institutions to facilitate more lines of credit, which will in
turn reduce
our cost of on-lending to the productive sectors.
PN:
Confidence plays a huge part in banks attracting more depositors and
lines
of credit. To what extend do you think it has been restored among
depositors?
EC: In comparison to when the economy first
dollarised, we have seen some
degree of confidence returning among
depositors, though not to the extent
that we would want. The banking sector
initially had zero US dollar deposits
when the economy dollarised and we
have managed to increase them to about
US$2 billion, which is commendable.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that a
similar amount could still be stashed
away in homes or warehouses; we are
intensifying our campaign to increase
confidence and lure these to formal
banking channels.
PN: What do
you attribute the stagnation to?
EC: It reflects the pace at which
the economy is recovering and the level of
confidence among depositors as I
have mentioned earlier. It is not an
immediate success. Though the
Zimbabwean economy has managed to register
positive growth after years of
decline, we still need to do more to attract
significant capital and improve
liquidity.
PN: What is your position on the Indigenisation and
Economic Empowerment
Regulations on the financial sector?
EC: The
regulations need to be clear and consistent to attract both foreign
and
local investors. We as a sector need to deal with the issue collectively
and
transparently for the benefit of the sector, our clients and the
economy.
PN: Financial institutions stand accused of charging
punitive interest rates
on borrowers, while rewarding low interest rates on
deposits. Can you
explain the anomaly?
EC: This assessment is a
bit exaggerated. The bulk of deposits, about 96%
are demand deposits and
these cannot be loaned out without banks taking
undue liquidity risk
associated with the volatile nature of the deposits.
PN: Who is
Emmanuel Chikaka?
EC: Chikaka is a career banker who is the managing
director of Tetrad
Investment Bank. Tetrad Investment Bank is a member of
Tetrad Holdings
Limited which has interests in banking, property and
insurance.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011
18:55
By Silence Chihuri
In this article continued from last week
Silence Chihuri argues that
Zimbabweans are judging MDC-M leader Welshman
Ncube harshly as he has shown
outstanding political maturity. Last week he
applauded the historic
transition of power within the MDC-M. Here Chihuri
showcases Ncube's
political credentials and rebuts charges that he was
responsible for the MDC
split because he is anti-Morgan Tsvangirai.
THIS
nonsense that Ncube has manipulated the entire MDC-M provincial
establishment around the country to ensure he is catapulted to the
presidency of that party is to me extremely bigoted.
It tinkers with
the equally bankrupt notion that has also been peddled by
some warped
analysts that, being a Ndebele from the Matabeleland part of the
country,
there was no way Ncube could mobilise predominantly Shona
provincial
councils to nominate him and eventually get him voted for the
presidency of
the party.
The development in the MDC-M party must send a very clear
message that
political influence is in those who are in politics and not
those sitting in
the comfort or rather discomfiture of their armchairs and
analysing from
their distant homes.
IT is only a shame that this
is not happening at government level and I am
sure most people would have
wished it was Mugabe passing the button not
Mutambara. As Zimbabweans if we
fail to appreciate this very significant
development in the history of our
politics in which the sitting, able bodied
and very young leader of a
political party has realised the need to pass on
the torch we will be doing
ourselves and our politics a great disservice.
It is not the MDC-M
party that has been creating “safe positions” in its
party. The entire
Zimbabwe knows which part has been doing that. We have
seen how contagious
clinging on to power can get because Zanu PF is now very
well being
replicated in the MDC-T formation where that party’s forthcoming
congress
has been predetermined.
Mugabe has been saying that he cannot even
contemplate stepping down and
risk compromising his party’s Chimurengas we
have lost count of and he
apparently intends to die in power. Now Tsvangirai
in his 10 years or so in
politics has already taken his lessons on clinging
on to power so well that
even he can’t step down and risk compromising the
“democratic struggle”.
What democratic struggle is this? Surely a
party that has such a narrowly
defined agenda as the now hugely diluted
MDC-T party should be more than
capable of replacing its leader from within
its ranks. Does this really mean
that if Tsvangirai were to drop dead today
he would be buried together with
his dear party as no one after him would be
able to carry on from wherever
he would have tragically
left?
Yes, Mutambara has not done or achieved anything spectacular as
MDC-M
leader. He has taken the political establishment by storm by safely
and,
without any pandemonium save for a few disgruntled delegates who were
too
sad to see him go, passed on the baton in a democratic way by African
political standards. Neither has Tsvangirai achieved anything spectacular as
MDC-T leader other than a few near victories at the ballot and he should
surely seriously also ponder stepping aside.
Obviously Ncube’s
calculated and cautious approach to national politics
might not have earned
him a lot of admirers over the years and this is
against a time when
vocalism and confrontation was deemed heroic and the
most MDC way of dealing
with Zanu PF.
In some circles Ncube started to be viewed as a sympathiser
of Zanu PF and
his background as a University of Zimbabwe lecturer did not
help matters as
the institution’s administration remained firmly loyal to
Zanu PF, in stark
contrast to the student population that has had constant
running battles
with the authorities.
But Ncube was and
remained MDC through and through and the main reason why
he was chosen as
party secretary-general was purely on the basis that he was
an up and coming
academic-turned-politician with no trace whatsoever to Zanu
PF
activities.
When the MDC party split in 2005 Ncube took much
unjustified and at times
bizarre criticism that he was responsible for the
break-up of the party.
One wondered how one man could singled-handily
split a party that he had
secretary-generalled for six years, especially
given that the MDC had become
something of a mega party by the time of the
split. To his credit Ncube
never came out frothing like we saw some MDC
politicians –– some of whom
were actually more responsible for the split
than Ncube –– doing.
There was a lot of tribal vitriol that was
directed towards most of the MDC
leaders from Matabeleland and yet there was
nothing tribal at all about the
split of the MDC. The insults that were
directed towards Ncube and his
colleagues, especially Themba-Nyathi and
Sibanda, prompted Tsvangirai into a
belated if terse apology at Sibanda’s
funeral, but why did it take so long
to realise that an apology was an
appropriate way of making up with
disaffected colleague?
There is no
way now that Tsvangirai can tell if Sibanda got and accepted his
belated
apology. As Zimbabweans if we are really serious about working
together for
the good of the nation then there is an opportunity here.
Ncube is now
the most senior politician from Matabeleland because he is the
person from
that region leading not just some briefcase party, but a party
that is
actually in government. And if he was to assume the deputy
premiership (I am
not suggesting that he should or he will), he will be the
second most senior
person in government from Matabeleland behind only John
Nkomo, the Vice
President, and this is only thanks to Zanu PF paranoia that
has sought to
belittle the role of the prime minister and deputy prime
ministers, the
structure and composition of this unity government.
There are critics
who have cited Ncube’s perceived detestation of Tsvangirai
as a possible
hindrance should the former become deputy premier, thereby
causing friction
in government. Again this is unfounded because these people
conveniently
forget that it was Ncube’s crafty negotiating skills that
played a key role
in the process that brought the three parties to form a
unity government.
Ncube does not hate Tsvangirai personally, but has very
consistently,
whenever prompted, cited his personal disquiet with some of
Tsvangirai’s
decisions and stances.
As for the great party that is the MDC-M, I
think the biggest miss of the
ended congress was the suggestion to change
the name of the party to
Congress of the Movement for Democratic Change that
was reportedly shot down
by some delegates who obviously still have very
strong nostalgic connections
to the original MDC 1999.
That was a
missed opportunity to cement the party’s credentials as a serious
contributor to our national political and democratic discourse and I think
that is a subject the party may need to revisit as a matter of urgency
because reality should dawn to any sections of that party that the original
MDC party is no more.
As the MDC-M seeks the way forward it needs
to brand itself in a manner that
will strike a chord with its target support
in 21st century Zimbabwean
politics. I don’t think the suffix M that gives
the party some extended
relative (of Mutambara) status will inspire and
attract a lot of serious
support going forward.
It is a phenomenon
that its typical of African politics where political
leaders seek to own
political parties and run them as their own prized
personal properties. I am
not necessarily suggesting that this is what
Mutambara is doing in this
case.
Lastly, I have not been inspired to write on this subject
because of any
particular agenda to make Ncube more or less acceptable; he
already is.
Everyone who is in the political trenches deserves to be
supported for what
they are doing if there is a genuine desire on their part
to improve the
lives of the Zimbabwean lot.
The MDC as a party did
not live up to all our expectations and it never
delivered what Zimbabweans
thought the party would deliver. Nobody knows who
shall take our country to
the Promised Land.
Silence Chihuri writes in his own capacity and can
be contacted on
silencechihuri@googlemail.com
This e-mail address is being protected from
spambots. You need JavaScript
enabled to view it .
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011
18:51
MUCKRAKER has commented in the past on normally sensible ministers
being
required to make ridiculous comments at the urging of their party’s
spin-doctors.
So people like John Nkomo and SK Moyo –– and even Emmerson
Mnangagwa ––
would get into line with daft remarks that they would never
have considered
making in the past.
Of course we can’t regard Joseph Made
as “sensible” in terms of his past
record of public pronouncements, but he
was certainly giving us an example
of downright idiocy in his repudiation of
Fewsnet’s latest crop forecast.
An estimated 2,2 million Zimbabweans are in
need of food aid, the
USAid-funded agency said.
Minister Made, not known
for the accuracy of his crop forecasts in the past,
declared Fewsnet “not
transparent” and “insincere”.
“Why should they care about Zimbabwe when they
imposed sanctions that are
hurting our people?” he wanted to know. And he
had more daftness to follow.
“In any case they should leave us alone and
relocate to Australia where they
are wanted because of the calamity there,”
he declared.
One is tempted to laugh out loud at this calamity closer to
home. But Made
is evidently ignorant of the fact that Australia has a
successful farming
economy and even with the floods in Queensland it will
still be able to feed
itself this year although exports will be down
somewhat.
What Made doesn’t reveal is that after 30 years of Independence
Zimbabwe can’t
feed its own people because of its disastrous agricultural
policies. That’s
why organisations like USAid have to come to our rescue,
and Made waves a
nationalist flag as a figleaf to cover his government’s
naked incompetence.
Not content with exposing his ignorance on Australia’s
situation, he moves
on to the United States.
“It would be interesting to
know food projections in America against
freezing temperatures and climate
change?” he mused.
Indeed it would. But we need to remind ourselves that he
is a Zimbabwean
minister, not American. His responsibilities lie
here.
Meanwhile our thanks to Albert Nhamoyebonde for revealing to Herald
readers
the vast extent of efficient US agricultural production, witnessed
while
visiting his daughter in the States.
Zanu PF’s apologists are
once again questioning the integrity of the
electorate that keeps voting
against the self-embedded gang that won’t let
go of power.
“We must ask
ourselves,” the Herald reflects in an editorial,“whether we
have measured up
to Murenga, the legendary fighter in whose honour we have
christened our
three revolutions?”
The answer is a resounding No.
No you haven’t measured
up which is why voters keep rejecting you. And only
party publicists cover
themselves with the mantle of nationalist glory
because they’ve got nothing
else left. Nothing works anymore, not the
railways, not the national
airline, not the electricity system, and
certainly not the
government!
“President Mugabe has gained a reputation as the most outspoken
and fervent
critic of neo-colonialism in the world today,” the Herald
declares, but “can
we say we have done enough?”
This comes at a time, the
Herald claims, when the powerhouses of the West
have deployed their “full
arsenal” against Zimbabwe including their “weapons
of mass deception” such
as “reactionary media” like the BBC, Sky, CNN and
France 24.
The fact is
that no one out there swallows this puerile nonsense any more.
They know
perfectly well who claims to be the saviour of the nation but lets
it down
at every turn. Corruption thrives and ministers get rich. They
cannot get by
in an electoral contest without beating the hell out of their
own supporters
as well as those belonging to other parties.
The Herald’s editorial came
just as the names were published of victims of
political violence handed to
the Attorney-General. He declined to act.
Then we have Zanu PF’s weapons of
mass deception such as the suborned ZBC
which has lost its national audience
because it is incapable of telling the
truth. That’s why thousands of
viewers have switched across to the BBC, Sky
and CNN. Who wants a ZBC
headache every night!
“Libellous and slanderous claims about Zimbabwe, its
leadership and people
are peddled daily by the local opposition and South
African apartheid media
without comeback,” the Herald pathetically bleats.
“It is time we took the
peddlers head-on even if it meant suing them in
their own countries to prove
the veracity of their claims.”
So Zanu PF’s
newspapers and dissembling broadcaster are not good enough?
They have proved
unable to get their deceitful message across. They now
think the British and
US courts will give them a more sympathetic hearing.
We can hear the hilarity
already. “Put up or shut up” is our message to
these culpable cowards.
Is
it seriously suggested by the Herald that Tichaona Chiminya, Talent
Mabika,
Tonderai Ndira, Elliot Machipisa, Washington Nyanga and dozens of
others
were all victims of a mysterious accident?
On a lighter note, what sort
of defensive measures have our local policemen
taken against followers of
Bruce Lee who appear to have invaded our shores?
A local newspaper reported
that a Chinese businessman used his kung fu
skills to assault four policemen
who had arrested one of his workers. He
managed this amazing feat while
handcuffed. All four cops were flattened,
the report
claims.
Interestingly, we are told, taxi touts in the area took the side of
the
police. A backup team arrived on the scene and took the businessman
away. As
he departed he shouted at the crowd: “You are stupid. All of you
are stupid.
Nothing will happen to me. I’m protected by President
Mugabe.”
So now we know!
We noted the way Muammar Gaddafi was
wrong-footed by the Jasmin revolution
in Tunisia.
The bloodshed and
lawlessness across Libya’s border was because Tunisians
were in too much of
a hurry to get rid of their president, he claimed, not
without a hint of
self-interest.
Gaddafi said he was “pained” by what had happened in
Tunisia.
“Tunisia now lives in fear,” he said. “Families could be raided and
slaughtered in their bedrooms and the citizens in the street killed as if it
was the Bolshevik or the American revolution.
“What is this for? To
change Zine al-Abidine? Hasn’t he told you he would
step down after three
years? Be patient for three years and your son stays
alive.”
Tunisians
weren’t prepared to wait, it seems. But what we detect here is a
palpable
nervousness.
We wonder what other dictators were glued to their TV
sets!
Stories circulating about Madam Ben Ali reveal a life of extravagance
and
indulgence. The First Lady at one level projected an image of caring for
her
people as she headed numerous charitable foundations. But in reality,
known
as the Imelda Marcos of the Maghreb, she helped herself to anything
she
wanted.
The rest of the First Family were just as bad, according to
reports.
Anything they took a fancy to they simply grabbed. Somebody lost a
yacht
that way. Other relatives would hold lavish dinner parties where the
food
was flown in from St Tropez in the south of France.
“Power
corrupts,” Lord Acton famously said, “and absolute power corrupts
absolutely.”
Don’t we know it!
Meanwhile, the extent of Zanu PF’s
concern was reflected in this week’s “My
Turn” column by Caesar
Zvayi.
“For us here in Zimbabwe I counsel vigilance,” he said. “Don’t be
surprised
dear reader to see or hear people from the usual sponsored
quarters trying
to instigate public disorder.
“…Zimbabwe is not Tunisia,
and Tunisia is not Zimbabwe. Any attempted
subterfuge should be met with the
full wrath of the law.”
This is Zanu PF in its enforcement role. But can they
turn back the
democratic tide?
BusinessDay put it neatly when, referring
to Sadc solidarity around Mugabe
in 2008 when his near ousting at the polls
threatened a domino effect, it
said: “If history teaches us anything it is
that people cannot be held down
forever –– and that earthquakes do not
respect borders.”
Hubert Nyanhongo seemed rather reluctant to tackle the
issues his audience
clearly wanted to hear. Whilst addressing a sprinkling
of Harare South
residents on Monday, he went on and on about how decimated
the MDC-T was.
“The MDC is now officially dead,” he boldly proclaimed to a
bemused crowd
who hardly looked like willing participants.
He however did
not furnish them –– or the ZTV viewers who had to watch ––
with any reasons
why the MDC has met with this sudden demise. It seems to
have escaped
Nyanhongo’s notice that while he was spouting ad infinitum
about the MDC,
some in his audience were holding placards protesting
corruption in the
allocation of stands.
Nyanhongo should be reminded that demise will happen
closer to home if they
do not address the disaffection within their own
ranks.
We were amused by Zanu PF Manicaland chairman Mike Madiro’s
statements in
the Herald on Wednesday.
He warns “ambitious” members
against using “unorthodox” means and divisive
tactics in their quest to
represent the party. Madiro’s comments, we are
told, come against a backdrop
of serious jostling for tickets to represent
Zanu PF.
“Let me make this
clear that the party will not stand aloof and watch some
ambitious cadres
disturbing the peace and tranquility in Zanu PF,” he said
rather
improbably.
“We are quite aware of the unprincipled means, the backbiting and
other
divisive tactics that some of our ambitious comrades are using.”
We
thought Zanu PF condoned unorthodox and unprincipled behaviour when
practised by their own supporters. Ask the MDC, they have a long story to
tell in that regard.
“No-one other than the people of Zimbabwe will have
a final say on who will
represent them,” he added.
Hope you can heed the
people’s verdict this time Cde Madiro!
Finally we liked the Herald
front-page picture on Tuesday of John Nkomo
laughing uproariously and
pointing to a gift, a “Ding” we are told, a
Chinese symbol of power and
fortune handed to him by the Chinese
vice-minister of commerce, Zhong
Shan.
Nkomo seemed to be saying: “Ding Dong, what a funny little Zhing
Zhong!”
Which is better, we suppose, than expressing eternal revolutionary
solidarity.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011
18:49
REGULARLY since the mid-1980s most of the hierarchy of Zanu PF has
pursued
policies which inevitably decimated the economy in general, and
negated
prospects of Zimbabwe attracting critically needed investment. The
inevitable conclusion is that they are determined to wreck the economy
totally.
Whilst it is human to make errors, it is inconceivable that
those in
political control of a country and its people should do so
consistently for
more than a quarter of a century. Their doing so is so
incredibly disastrous
that it must be concluded that they do so deliberately
and with ulterior
motives.
After Independence in 1980 the hopes
and expectations of all were that
Zimbabwe’s vast economic potential would
be constructively realised,
bringing about wellbeing to the lives of all
Zimbabweans. The country had an
enormous treasure of diverse mineral
resources.
It had land which was so fertile that it could not
only feed the nation,
but enabled the country to be the “breadbasket” of the
region. It had the
second most developed industrial infrastructure in
Africa, south of the
Equator. Its tourism resource was great and
diversified. And it had very
able people who were willing to work. For
almost five years the economy
developed and grew, recovering from the
economic tribulations of the 15
years of pre-Independence liberation war and
international trade sanctions.
As has become apparent, with the
belated wisdom of hindsight, that recovery
must have been anathema to the
ruling political regime for whatever
Machiavellian reasons, for they then
embarked upon progressive stratagems of
economic destruction. That
commenced with the diabolical Gukurahundi
wherein the Zimbabwean military,
aided and abetted by North Koreans,
launched cruel attacks upon tens of
thousands of Ndebele people,
slaughtering many and grievously injuring and
torturing many more.
Over and above the unjustified suffering
inflicted upon so many, and the
reinforcement of the tribal divide instead
of the development of a united
nation, these governmentally-motivated
actions had adverse economic
consequences. The development and growth of
the tourism sector was not only
halted, but reversed. Investor and business
confidence was eroded, and
productivity in Matabeleland markedly
diminished.
In 1990, the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme
(Esap) was launched,
but despite massive international support government
was pronouncedly
half-hearted in pursuing it effectively, until it very
belatedly did so in
1994.
Its reticence to implement the programme
further prejudiced the economy, and
continued to beleaguer the impoverished
economy, but once it finally pursued
Esap wholeheartedly, the economy
witnessed a slow upturn but that was to be
short-lived. Having in 1991
enacted land acquisition legislation, in 2000
government was determined to
implement it vigorously.
Land reform and equality of land usage rights
were indisputably necessary,
but this was pursued in the most destructive
manner, with contemptuous
disregard for property rights, international law,
human rights, economic
consequences and the wellbeing of hundreds of
thousands of farm workers and
their dependants.
Foreign
investment was alienated and considerably diminished, much of the
population
rendered unemployed and impoverished, the downstream of
agriculture’s
economy markedly constricted, foreign exchange earnings
diminished, and
there were innumerable other disastrous economic
consequences.
As
the economy became more and more emaciated, government pronouncedly
denied
culpability, resorting to intensive, false attribution of the ills to
the
malevolent actions of others. Concurrently, it progressively abandoned
adherence to the principles of law and order, human rights, property rights
and good governance, and to any and all precepts of
democracy.
Concurrently, it accorded total disregard for the many
Bilateral Investment
Promotion and Protection Agreements it had entered into
with innumerable
countries, thereby further destroying international
confidence in Zimbabwe
as a safe investment destination, or even as a
reputable borrower of
much-needed international
funding.
Inevitably, the result was a decline of the economy to
levels wherein an
estimated 87% of the employable population was devoid of
formal sector
employment, and more than half of the population was
struggling to survive
on incomes markedly below the Poverty Datum Line. The
national debt became
ever greater, millions of Zimbabweans sought
livelihoods beyond Zimbabwe’s
borders thereby depriving Zimbabwe of
much-needed skills and grievously
impairing family lives, while
progressively more and more businesses had no
alternative but to discontinue
operations. Concurrently, the goodwill of
Zimbabwe’s traditional
international friends was increasingly destroyed.
However, the
resilience of Zimbabwe and its people is amazing, the country
and its
inhabitants battling on to survive (a luta Continua!). This appears
to be
unacceptable to many of the Zanu PF hierarchy, for they have so
blatantly
made one economically destructive decision after another. So, yet
a further
new destruction policy and action is required, and has been
announced.
Last week the Minister of Defence, Emmerson
Mnangagwa (oft forecast to be
the future successor of President Robert
Mugabe) reportedly stated that work
on creating an anti-sanctions fund is at
an advanced stage.
Foreign companies will, he said, be forced to assist
in capitalising the
fund. He added that the chief executives of the
approximately 500 foreign
companies operating in Zimbabwe will have to
disclose (first to government,
and thereafter on international television)
whether they support, or are
opposed to, international sanctions against
Zimbabwe. In the case of those
that are supportive of sanctions, 90% of the
shares in the companies will,
he said, be taken over by
government.
This statement is yet another nail in the investment
coffin, for such
threatened actions are a gargantuan deterrent to any
possible investor.
Those who apply the sanctions have no malice against
Zimbabwe or its people,
but only against oppressive, non-democratic
policies of those who have
abysmally and disastrously misruled Zimbabwe.
Now to resort to
expropriation of their companies is tantamount to piracy
and theft.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011 18:47
By
Levi Kabwato
A LONG time ago a farmer decided to deal with a troublesome
mouse once and
for all. The plan was to set a very lethal mousetrap. Upon
realising that
his life was threatened, the mouse enlisted the services of a
cock at the
farm to disarm this mousetrap. The mouse pleaded with the cock
to help him
pointing out that this mousetrap would be fatal for someone at
the farm in
the future. The cock sarcastically retorted that it was only the
mouse who
was under the direct threat of this trap and it was his business
to deal
with the trap on his own.
The mouse unhappily walked
away and asked a cow if she could help in this
predicament only to receive
the same answer as the one which had been given
by the cock.
As
time went by the trap caught a snake one night and the farmer went to
investigate and possibly celebrate the end of the troublesome mouse, only to
be bitten by the angry snake. As the health of the farmer deteriorated it
became necessary to kill the cock in order to make chicken soup in the hope
it would help cure the farmer. The farmer eventually died and it became
necessary to slaughter the cow to feed the gathering mourners. The mouse was
very sad to watch his friends die in these painful
circumstances.
The mousetrap was everybody’s business after
all.
This sad story captures the problem of collective action in
Zimbabwe today.
As William Heath writes, “…the mere fact that people know
that a certain
social change would be in their interest does not mean that
they will have
an incentive to do anything about it.”
One of the
reasons why the oppressed — especially those who constitute the
middle class
— will be reluctant to do anything about their situation is
that they live
fairly comfortable lives and that “revolutions are risky
business” to
them.
The Zimbabwe crisis has at the centre of it a middle class that
generally
benefited from the chaos that plagued the erstwhile breadbasket of
Africa
over the past years. Indeed, many from this class have become rich
overnight.
While some left the country for greener pastures
others stayed behind to
benefit from the money sent in by those in the
diaspora. This state of
affairs made those who were living relatively
comfortable lives and
capitalising on the chaos in Zimbabwe more reluctant
to join the revolution
preferring to mind their own
“businesses”.
An end to tyranny and the chaos associated with it
would also spell the end
of their hay-making days so they preferred the
oppressor’s sunshine to shine
forever.
It is such
shortsightedness and selfishness that has stalled the struggle
for democracy
in Zimbabwe and is underlined by the thinking that
unemployment, poverty,
hunger — among other calamities affecting the poorest
of Zimbabweans — is
none of their business. But then, an unemployed, hungry
poor population will
steal and rob from the rich and possibly kill them in
the
process.
Secondly, the oppressed suffer from a “free-rider” problem
in which one
party quietly hopes the other will revolt against the
oppressors, meeting
all the costs that come with such activity at no expense
whatsoever to them.
This follows from the observation that agents
naturally desire to have other
agents fight their battles for them but still
share the spoils equally.
Freedom is a public good that can be enjoyed by
everybody regardless of
their participation in the revolution so why
participate? This is perhaps
the greatest plague that has resulted in the
regression of the Zimbabwean
revolution.
It would seem that
people are too busy to be bothered about political
activity, even the simple
task of registering as a voter. Besides why must
you face the prospect of
being arrested and being beaten up when Morgan
Tsvangirai (Movement for
Democratic Change) and Lovemore Madhuku (National
Constitutional Assembly)
can be beaten on your behalf?
Take student politics as another
example of how students have completely
abandoned the struggle for fear of
being expelled from college. Most
students have done a cost-benefit analysis
and elected to stay out of
politics for fear of not obtaining their degrees.
What the students have
conveniently forgotten is, if they together put a
united front against the
oppressor, the oppressor would be in a weaker
position.
There is no way, for example, 5 000 students will ever be
expelled from the
University of Zimbabwe in the aftermath of a mass protest.
The “if you
injure one you injure all” (we need to reprint these T-shirts)
spirit that
became the heart of student politics in the early 1990s when the
likes of
Professor Arthur Mutambara led student activism seem to have
deserted
student politics at present. Ironically, as long as the political
problems
are not dealt with, high unemployment will still be common, much to
the
detriment of the non-participating agents.
Many scholars
agree that the state never has enough resources (army, police,
and
intelligence) to deal with well-coordinated collective action. The army,
for
instance, will never have the capacity to spread across an entire
country at
the same time. But also, these agents of violence live with the
masses and
share the same everyday challenges with them. They do not sleep
and eat at
State House. However, because the state is able to coordinate and
concentrate its resources, aptly maximising on legislation and the rational
behaviour of the oppressed, it will be more than capable of containing
dissent and punishing those who oppose it.
But the masses — the
oppressed — are disjointed making it risky business for
any one individual
to engage the oppressor because there simply is no
guarantee that other
oppressed members of society will join in. In Zimbabwe
the police, weak as
they may be, have been known to apprehend a significant
proportion of
transgressors. The idea behind this, usually, is to instil
fear in the minds
of the citizenry by using the apprehended transgressors as
living examples
of what consequences can befall those who speak against the
state so that
they refrain from challenging the regime.
The point here is not to
incite the masses but to highlight this obvious
weakness of the state. This,
also, is not an attempt at inciting public
violence but a genuine effort to
make the masses aware of the potential
power they hold over tyranny and
fear.
There is likely to be an election in Zimbabwe this year. As we
approach this
election, all Zimbabweans would do well to remember that
despite one’s
position of advantage, misgovernance, unemployment, poverty
and corruption
affects all of us directly or indirectly. Apathy will only
enhance the
advantage of the oppressor. Let us remember that the oppressor’s
brutality
is directly proportional to his vulnerability and fear of the mind
of the
oppressed.
Hence, there is an urgent is need to
synchronise the efforts of students,
labour, peasants, opposition political
parties and civil society. Any
success of the fight for freedom in Zimbabwe
will depend on how the
oppressed conduct and organise themselves between now
and the day of the
election this year. If not for ourselves then for
posterity’s sake!
* Levi Kabwato is the Media and
Communications Officer for the Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition’s regional
office in Johannesburg.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011 18:45
By Dumisani O
Nkomo
THE tragedy of opposition politicians and civics in general is the
fact that
whilst there is widespread criticism of the shortcomings, ills and
evils of
Zanu PF there has been failure to critically analyse its structural
strengths and weaknesses which have contributed to its continued hold on
power. An analysis of empirical evidence focused on the party’s election
strategies as well as political behaviour will assist in formulating
effective measures of defeating Zanu PF.
Advantages of incumbency
The
fact that Zanu PF has been in control of vital state structures and
organs
for 30 years presents it with huge advantages over the other
political
parties. The fact that in Zimbabwe the party and the state have
been
synonymous for a long time means that some key government structures at
both
central and local government levels have operated as quasi political
structures serving the interests of Zanu PF.
The constitutional outreach
process proved that Zanu PF structures were
better organised than other
political parties in spite of Zanu PF’s
unpopularity. They were able to
mobilise their supporters by any means
necessary. They dominated most
meetings held in the rural areas and gave a
strong showing in the towns.
Whilst I do not in any way condone the wayward
ways of Zanu PF it is
critical to understand how Zanu PF was able to
dominate the
constitution-making process even though it did not have the
support of most
progressive forces .The mobility of local Zanu PF structures
was clearly
evident as they were able to bus the small groups of their
supporters from
venue to venue.
Quite clearly they operated using tactics from the liberation
struggle using
small groups of cadres as advance parties and using terror
and persuasion to
win the hearts and minds of the rural populace. The
constitution-making
process was used by Zanu PF strategists to gauge the
preparedness of its
structures for elections whilst everybody was busy with
the
constitution-making agenda they were busy preparing for
elections.
Now, whilst everybody is blindly following the election agenda,
they are
already thinking about post-election power dynamics. To this end
they are
tactically and technically superior to the other political
parties.
Strategy formulation
Zanu PF and Mugabe in particular
have become masters of political stratagem.
Opposition parties have since
1980 been forced to be constantly reacting to
agendas set by Zanu PF.
Importantly after the government’s draft
constitution was rejected by
Zimbabweans in 2000 it looked like Zanu PF was
poised for a crushing defeat
at the hands of the MDC, but in a space of six
months Zanu PF changed both
the political discourse and direction of the
nation through the chaotic land
reform project. New Zanu PF strongholds were
created in resettlement areas
and potential opposition strongholds were
weakened
Besides the usual
tactic of violence Zanu PF is already targeting various
publics including
churches, youths, indigenous business persons, artistes
and “farmers”. It
appears Zanu PF is a diligent student of Machiavelli who
counsels that at
times force may not be necessary where persuasion or
political fraud can
work.
The youth have also been targeted through youth-“friendly” methods such
as
music and dance with a number of young artistes pledging their support
for
Mugabe and Zanu PF. The young artistes are being used as part of the
Zanu PF
propaganda machinery in an attempt to woo those voters born after
Independence (the “born frees”) .This is a new strategy as Zanu PF has
always focused on its traditional rural support base in Mashonaland, parts
of Masvingo, Midlands and Manicaland.
This youth strategy is also
buttressed through structures of the Ministry of
Youth which although
purporting to be non- partisan provides opportunities
for party youths or
those who choose to align with Zanu PF to benefit from
small loans to start
micro enterprises.
The Zanu PF machinery has already strategically positioned
itself beyond the
debate on land to that of the extractive sector and
industry by dangling the
indigenisation carrot to thousands of struggling
black entrepreneurs. In the
same manner in which land was used as a tool of
enticing the rural vote,
“indigenisation” is being used to gain inroads
into emerging urban elites,
the middle class and young black
businessmen.
African politics and diplomacy
Whilst Zanu PF is
clearly out of favour with the European Union and the
Americas it has
managed to win the souls of African statesman through
arguments on
sovereignty and anti neo- colonial rhetoric. They (Zanu PF)
seem to have a
far better understanding of how African politics and
diplomacy works and
have managed to skillfully and deceitfully evade
scrutiny from numerous
Sadc summits. Due to the weaknesses of opposition
parties at international
level Zanu PF has managed to run rings around
their opponents and blocked
any meaningful interventions from Sadc as a the
most critical player in the
Zimbabwean transitional process. The proposed
Sadc roadmap to free
elections may fall victim to Zanu PF shenanigans and
chicanery.
Zanu PF
has always and will continue to use or abuse traditional structures
as a
tool of political coercion in plebiscites and this is already evident
in
that contrary to the Traditional Leaders Act some chiefs have openly
declared their support for the party. Strategically traditional leadership
structures filter to village level and serve as useful appendages of Zanu PF
party structures come election time.
Summation of
strengths
The above strategies which are a combination of force, fraud,
coercion and
persuasion are already being used to target different
electorates.
Interestingly Zanu PF is no longer just interested in
consolidating its
traditional support base but is actively engaging and
enticing new target
groups such as organised business, urban youths,
churches and academics.
Where coercion fails violence will be used but in a
tactical and targeted
manner.
In Matabeleland which is crucial to
attaining an electoral majority Zanu PF
will make a spirited attempt to win
one seat in Bulawayo, four in
Matabeleland South and two seats in
Matabeleland North. They will pray for
apathy in the elections so that their
loyal supporters vote in their numbers
and hope that the opposition vote in
Matabeleland is split between Zapu and
the MDC factions. They will also hope
that the opposition presidential vote
will be split between two or even
three aspirants just as Simba Makoni’s
slice of the vote which was just
above 6% made a great difference in
deciding the course of the electoral
contest.
Weaknesses/deficiencies
The factors that militate against
Zanu PF‘s electoral success are numerous
and do not need the ingenuity of a
political scientist.
Zanu PF is associated (and rightly so) with the collapse
of the economy,
corruption, chaos, anarchy, poverty, deterioration of
service delivery and
mass poverty. The electorate believes that Zanu PF has
failed for the last
30 years and nothing short of miracle will make them win
elections fairly
Closely tied to this is the undeniable fact that Zanu PF is
a losing brand
and for many, especially young people, it has no place in the
future. It is
associated with all manner of failure and as such people do
not want to
associate with failure. Sovereignty, loyalty and patriotism will
not pay
people‘s rent, give them bread or jobs.
Lessening
influence
Zanu PF’s hold on the state media for propaganda purposes will fail
because
of the emergence of alternative media in the form of satellite TV
and
shortwave radio as well as the independent print media. Even in rural
areas
few people now listen to or watch ZBH programmes. A lot of resources
may
thus be wasted flogging a dead horse.
Zanu PF’s propaganda machinery
may achieve results contrary to their
expectations as people will believe
the opposite of whatever the state media
is saying. The government’s “Vote
Yes” campaign of 2000 is an example of how
people voted “No” because of what
they perceived to be a ploy to hoodwink
them. The electorate is in the mode
of supporting whoever is the victim and
is likely to disbelieve whatever is
said against opposition parties.
It is debatable whether violence will
actually translate to more votes for
Zanu PF as people adapt and react to
it. Even though this was generally
true of elections held in June 2008 this
may not be necessarily so as was
proved in 1985 when Zanu PF was
comprehensively defeated by PF Zapu in
Matabeleland after the
state-sanctioned Gukurahundi massacres. Ultimately
people may choose to
attend Zanu PF meetings, eat the food they are given,
chant party slogans
but in the ballot booth the secrecy of the vote will
reign
supreme.
* Dumisani Nkomo is the chief executive officer of Habakkuk
Trust and
principal spokesperson of the Matabeleland Civil Society
Consortium. He
writes here in his personal capacity.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 20 January 2011
19:12
IT is said the condition of a country’s roads closely mirror the
state of
the country’s economy. It does not require much effort to figure
out why.
Last week while making the short trip to Glen View from adjacent
Glen Norah
township I decided to take a so-called “emergency taxi”. A
poignant
anachronism and derisively dubbed “limos”, the so-called emergency
taxis are
in fact 1960s and 1970s vehicles such as Peugeot 404s and Morris
Oxfords.
Like a blast from the past — and despite being banned several times
by
government — they ply short routes from Glen Norah, with the only
sporadic
hazard being an occasional, half-hearted police blitz.
“Sorry I
will have to use the longer route with the better road,” the driver
remarked
as the car’s engine reluctantly spluttered into life as he steered
his
decades-old Morris onto the road.
Having driven on the road he was referring
to before his decision was
understandable: Deeply potholed and now
comprising more earth than tar, it
is almost impossible to get out of first
gear lest you damage your vehicle.
But apparently there’s an additional
rain-induced hazard. The driver
revealed that the day before he had used the
road just after a downpour.
Inadvertently, his vehicle had splashed pothole
water onto a pedestrian, who
furiously scooped mud from a pothole with his
hands and threw it at him
through the vehicle’s window!
Such is the
parlous state of the country’s roads which bear testimony to the
country’s
decade-long freefall precipitated by the self-serving policies of
former
ruling party, Zanu PF, which hardly require reprising. Zimbabweans
had hoped
that the government of national unity would be the vehicle to
transport the
nation on the road to economic recovery and growth, but, apart
from
stabilising the economy, little else has been achieved. The worsening
power
cuts and continuing job losses are but two barometers of this failure.
During
the mid-1980s the poor state of Zambian roads was the butt of several
jokes
in this country. One was that any motorist who kept to his lane risked
arrest on suspicion of drunken driving for it was deemed impossible to drive
in the pot-holed roads without zigzagging to avoid them.
But now we all
know poor roads are no joke.
Similarly, the parties to the unity government
have found the going a bumpy
road given their disparate interests, despite
“dedicating ourselves to
putting an end to the polarisation, divisions and
conflict and intolerance
that has characterised Zimbabwean politics and
society”, as spelt out in the
preamble of the Global Political Agreement —
the precursor to the unity
government.
Only last Sunday our sister
publication The Standard carried a story in
which Zanu PF secretary for
administration Didymus Mutasa allegedly praised
soldiers — accused by the
MDC of spearheading the 2008 poll violence — for
keeping Zanu PF intact. He
opened his speech with a “pasi na (Morgan)
Tsvangirai” –– a slogan reserved
for the party’s arch-enemies.
Zanu PF is clearly in mortal fear that fully
implementing the unity
agreement could deal a fatal blow to its ambitions of
ruling the country
forever due to its “liberation war credentials”. It is
little wonder then
that President Robert Mugabe is now claiming he is
unhappy being in the
power-sharing government, citing its semi-legality and
breakdown in
communication with his fellow principals, and wants elections
as soon as
possible.
Zanu PF’s subterfuge must never be allowed to
prevail. The GNU has failed to
engage the travelling gear largely because
one of the core-drivers — Zanu
PF— will not disengage the
handbrake.
While we can forget about the GNU spawning economic recovery worth
talking
about, there must be no elections until all the reforms as outlined
in the
accord are fulfilled. To do otherwise would be to play into the hands
of
Zanu PF while sacrificing the aspirations of the majority.
Zanu PF’s
ambition of perpetual rule is about as anachronistic as the
“emergency
taxis” plying the short routes to and from Glen Norah.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 20 January 2011 19:12
IS
the silly season upon us so early into the New Year? Or maybe it is a
sign
that elections are just around the corner because Zanu PF politicians
are
competing with each other in making outrageous statements.
Defence minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa, normally one of the more level-headed
individuals among
the Zanu PF elite, last week came up with one of the most
foolish statements
in recent times. Addressing Zanu PF supporters last week,
Mnangagwa — who is
seen as a possible successor to President Robert Mugabe —
said heads of
foreign firms operating in Zimbabwe have to publicly denounce
sanctions or
risk losing 90% of their companies’ shareholding.
Mnangagwa’s statements are
mere political sabre rattling; they’re not
government policy, a fact pointed
out by Economic Planning and Investment
Promotion minister Tapiwa Mashakada
— a senior member of Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party.
For a
country desperately short on external funding and trying to woo
investors,
Mnangagwa’s rhetoric is enormously damaging. The “anti-sanctions
fund”,
which he said would be financed by 90% share takeovers from
uncooperative
firms, appears to be an off the cuff idea arbitrarily thrown
in for dramatic
effect.
“We will ask them if they support sanctions or not,” Mnangagwa
said.
“Those who indicate that they do not support sanctions will be asked to
go
live on national radio and tell the nation and the rest of the world
their
company does not support sanctions.”
Industry and Commerce minister
and new MDC president, Welshman Ncube
described Mnangagwa’s proposal to
interrogate industry chiefs as “kangaroo
courts” which further undermined
efforts to stabilise already shaky investor
confidence in the embattled
economy.
Also, he pointed out, it is illegal under the constitution to force
individuals to make public their political opinions.
But how do you
remove sanctions when you are not the one that imposed them
in the first
place?
More crucially, while Zanu PF as a party may be united in its
condemnation
of the sanctions, it is stretching the imagination a little too
far to
assume that there is a consensus within that party on such a radical
move as
this. The idea might excite a few hawks, but a rational assessment
of its
implications would expose a regime in terminal trouble.
For a
start, before raiding them government would need to prove that foreign
multinationals in Zimbabwe are responsible for, or have a direct influence
over the foreign policies of their home governments. They will also have to
prove that the same multinationals are benefiting from the maintenance of EU
and American sanctions on Zimbabwe.
Or maybe we are missing the point?
Because for some time now, Zanu PF has
tried unsuccessfully to replicate the
land grab of 2000 in industry. First,
they tried to force through the
indigenisation and economic empowerment
regulations targeted at companies
worth over US$500 000, which had to be
watered down after vigorous protests
from its partners in the government of
national unity. And now we have
Mnangagwa and his warning which is nothing
short of blackmail —- a threat
to wrest control of the companies from their
rightful owners without paying
a cent for them.
Clearly this is a party in desperate need of a voice of
reason. Sanctions
were imposed on Zanu PF’s inner cabal by the West and not
by companies; but
now they are being forced to declare allegiance to
politicians of
questionable disposition.
Tsvangirai has put the cost of
rebuilding Zimbabwe’s shattered economy at
US$10 billion. As it stands, that
kind of money is only available from
international investors and
multilateral institutions and lenders.
It is careless comments like these
from the Zanu PF elite that have only
served to scare away such investors
who regard the country as a high
political risk. People like Mnangagwa
believe they can advance their
political careers by parroting the
president’s malevolent remarks. They
evidently don’t care about the armies
of the unemployed whose fate we can
already envisage. Populism trumps good
governance.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw
Thursday, 20 January 2011
19:10
IT IS interesting to surf around the globe ascertaining how
countries
responded to the release of United States diplomatic cables by the
whistleblower website, WikiLeaks, since the first batch was posted on
November 28 last year.
The US, the creator of the cables, is reported to
have concluded, late last
year, that the exposé “was embarrassing but not
damaging”.
Iran, which at first thought the release was a dummy aimed
at diverting
attention from the nuclear standoff, has changed tack and
demanded
explanations from the US government on certain contents of the
cables.
Russia has asked the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
(Nato) to explain
certain contents showing that the release of the cables
was a game changer
in international relations.
In Zimbabwe,
however, the release of the cables was used as a tool for
checkmating
political opponents with Zanu PF seeing a potential arsenal for
its
propaganda artillery which was empty as issues of land, sanctions and
indigenisation had become repetitive and monotonous.
Strategists
in Zanu PF saw the release of the cables as a defining moment
for their
standoff with the MDC, and they started shouting “treason”.
Many did
not take them seriously, given the history of treason charges
levelled
against politicians in post-independent Zimbabwe, but the
announcement that
the Attorney-General, Johannes Tomana would appoint a team
to look into the
issue to see if a crime was committed called for soberness.
Tomana,
in an interview with the Zimbabwe Independent last week, flatly
refuted
authorship of statements published in December and this month by
state-controlled media announcing the intention to appoint the said
commission. He was adamant that he had no constitutional mandate to appoint
a commission to look into the WikiLeaks, and insisted that was President
Robert Mugabe’s prerogative.
Given the constitutional hurdles,
Tomana was on Sunday quoted in the
state-controlled media saying instead of
a commission, he had appointed a
“panel” to give him “expert advice” on the
WikiLeaks.
Any observer would realise that things do not tally here.
Who then authored
the statement in December? What forces were behind
Tomana’s decision to
appoint the probe team which has remained shadowy and
nameless? What are the
terms of reference for the team? Would a nameless
probe team’s final report
be taken seriously?
One is forgiven for
thinking that there are invisible hands manipulating
Tomana. What gives
credence to this suspicion is the confluence of Tomana’s
response, that he
made no such statement, and the call for a probe by the
Zanu PF hardliners
during the party’s annual conference in Mutare last
month. It’s crystal
clear that Zanu PF hardliners intended to arm- twist the
Attorney-General to
come up with a team whose main objective would be to
probe Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai on his engagements with United States
diplomats who later
sent cables to the State Department, which have now been
made public by
WikiLeaks.
The idea is simply to charge Tsvangirai with treason on
shaky grounds ahead
of possible elections this year in a bid to distract him
and his party and
tie them up in legal string.
Tomana should
resist being used as an attack dog of Zanu PF hardliners and
execute his
duties in line with the constitution of this country. And if the
state media
continue to put words in his mouth he should have the courage to
object.