IOL
January
03 2008 at 09:14AM
Johannesburg - The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) has directed banks -
some of whom were found to have been working with
so-called cash barons - to
adhere to Zimbabwe's anti-money laundering laws
and report any suspicious
transactions, the Herald Online reported on
Thursday.
Those caught on the wrong side of the law would meet the
consequences
of their actions, the Herald said.
RBZ Governor Dr
Gideon Gono said banks, although fully apprised of the
anti-money laundering
laws, had not taken heed of appeals by the central
bank to adhere to the
guidelines.
"Our message and advice to the financial sector is that
we have talked
to one another for a long time now, we have appealed to your
good selves
long enough and we issued many circulars and guidelines on the
subject of
money-laundering and other undesirable banking
practices.
"Now is not the time to continue with such talking
or lectures
anymore but action and as a central bank we shall not be found
wanting in
this direction so that together and in partnership, we can rid
our economy
of the cash-hoarding and money-laundering menace," Gono said at
a press
briefing.
Investigations had shown that some bank
officials were releasing
billions of dollars to cash barons while starving
ordinary depositors, the
Herald said.
In some cases, bank
employees were reactivating dormant accounts
which they would then use as
channels to syphon money.
Some bank employees are said to
have lost their jobs in recent
weeks after investigations established that
they were involved in cash deals
from which they would get
kickbacks.
The bulk of the cash would then be sold to
cash-desperate
companies and individuals at premiums as high as 40
percent.
The cleansing process was meant to plug loopholes
that large
cash movers and some individuals had taken advantage
of.
"As monetary authorities, we now also hold vital
intelligence we
have now gathered from the entire banking system on the
intricate web of
shelf companies and multiple accounts that were being held
and operated
simply to beat the standing banking regulations," Gono
reportedly said.
The central bank implored the business
community, labour and the
general banking public to desist from any illicit
cash transactions. - Sapa
l
by Mutumwa Mawere
The
recent escape of Hon. David Butau from Zimbabwe amid allegations of
exchange
control violations has attracted media attention both domestically
and
internationally but the matrix of facts and legal issues surrounding
this
complex political and economic matter are murky.
Having followed the Butau
issue closely, I thought it would be beneficial to
attempt to unpack the
facts so that informed opinions on the developments in
Zimbabwe can be made.
It is evident that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
is the central player
in the matter.
Butau’s problems seem to have started when Dr. Gono, the
Governor of the
RBZ, threatened to expose the cash barons in a television
interview that was
a follow up to the address he made at the ZANU-PF
extraordinary congress
held in December 2007 in which he alleged that senior
members of the party
and government were economic saboteurs for personal
benefit.
The revelations by Dr. Gono about the rampant corruption
naturally raised
expectations that heads will roll and the executive branch
of the government
would take an active interest in arresting the
acknowledged problem.
However, the President and his cabinet have now
exclusively outsourced the
task of economic management to Dr. Gono who
appears to be accountable to the
President alone.
Concerns have been
raised about the conduct of the RBZ under Gono but it
appears that power has
now been centralized and the RBZ is now the
undisputed center of gravity. So
when Dr. Gono offered to expose the
transgressors, it would only take a fool
to ignore the implications.
Strangely enough, he indicated that he was
only prepared to disclose the
names to the Budget and Finance Parliamentary
Portfolio Committee, chaired
by Butau. Initially, Butau, who as it turns out
knew more about the motives
of Gono than met the eye, refused to convene the
requested meeting but then
it emerged that he was a wanted man himself
raising the question why Gono
had singled his portfolio committee fully
knowing that he was the Chairman.
The context of Gono’s revelations has
to be appreciated. For the past 60
days, Zimbabwe has been facing a cash
crisis and Gono had assured the nation
that everything was under control. As
the festive season approached it
became evident that there was nothing to
mitigate the worsening cash crisis.
In the face of policy bankruptcy and
implementation confusion, Gono
opportunistically provided an explanation to
the nation that the problems
were causally linked to the criminality of
certain high profile individuals.
Adding one plus one it became evident
that Butau was one such individual and
the offer by Gono to disclose the
names to an allegedly tainted Butau’s
committee could not have been in good
faith but an attempt to divert
attention from the core problems.
If
anyone was in doubt of Gono’s powers, the Butau saga has removed any
doubt
that Gono is the law in Zimbabwe. If you are on his target list, you
better
escape before injustice visits you. Butau is not the first victim of
Gono
and one only has to look at the predicament of ENG directors, Makamba,
Kuruneri, the NMB crowd, Tregers, Muderedi, and others. The connecting dots
in all these cases are the foreign exchange violation allegations.
By
targeting selected individuals, Gono has successfully repositioned the
Zimbabwean political and economic crisis as nothing more than a creation of
Zimbabwe’s external enemies using their domestic surrogates which fits in
conveniently with President Mugabe’s thesis that were it not for the land
reform program, Zimbabwe would be a performing country.
The external
enemies have already been identified as the UK, Australia and
the USA in the
main with their Anglo-Saxon cousins supported naturally by
their domestic
political stooges in the form of the MDC. The role of
business in
undermining the sovereignty of Zimbabwe is a subject that Gono
has taken up
as his main theatre of operation.
It is no wonder that during his tenure
Gono has proceeded to centralize
power at the RBZ and effectively put in
place measures whereby all foreign
currency is now under his control. This
has allowed him to be a law unto
himself. He virtually decides who should be
classified as a criminal and
given his modus operandi all business persons
are de facto criminals anyway
for transacting at generally accepted black
market prices for foreign
exchange deals.
Through the various schemes
that he has put in place, he knows everything
about all exporters as well as
domestic producers. He controls the banks and
shareholders have been reduced
to nothing under his tenure.
Against the above background, one has to
appreciate the predicament of
Butau. What wrong did Butau do? What is the
case against him? The police who
are allegedly looking for him appear not to
know what they want him for.
According to Wayne Bvudzijena, the chief police
spokesman, Butau is on the
wanted list for the purposes of investigating
alleged exchange control
violations. The moment you hear the police are
looking for you for exchange
control violations then you must know that Gono
is right behind the police.
Although the real facts on the Butau matter
are not known to the public, the
Herald reported a related matter involving
Mr. Joseph Manjoro, a finance and
administrative executive with Clarion
Insurance Company, who pleaded guilty
to charges of illegally dealing in
foreign currency involving more than
Z$2.1 trillion. The Manjoro case is no
different from the allegations
against Dorothy Mutekede who was convicted of
illegally dealing in foreign
currency. The two appeared before provincial
magistrate, Mr. Mishrod
Guvamombe whose outrage at the conduct of the police
and the RBZ in
obstructing justice has been well reported.
The
central players in the two cases are Mr. Jonathan Kadzura and David
Butau
who it appears are both well connected to Gono. The facts are that the
RBZ
in its well documented quasi-fiscal activities promised to procure
tractors
for the farmers in line with its purported sanctions busting
mandate. Having
convinced President Mugabe that Zimbabwe’s Western enemies
would derail any
attempt to make the land reform successful, Gono has
managed to position
himself as the chief sanctions busting agent.
Under this framework, Gono
needs instruments to execute the mandate. He
prefers to work with his
strategic friends who hold positions that can cause
problems for him if
persons occupying such positions are not sufficiently
compromised in as much
as the President and First Lady have already been
mesmerized by Gono’s
capacity to be creative and innovative with state
resources.
Butau
occupied a position that could potentially be dangerous for Gono not
only
because of the oversight role of the Portfolio Committee that he
chaired but
because parliament is the only organ of the state that has
representatives
from the opposition. With the President in his pocket, it
was only
inevitable that Gono would want Butau to also be under control lest
his
shenanigans in the RBZ would be exposed. If this happens, ZANU-PF cannot
remain in power primarily because Gono’s quasi fiscal activities are a real
threat to the constitutional order and if the public were to know what has
been happening this will be explosive.
All of Gono’s enemies have
been neutralized or externalized through the
active use of the law
enforcement authorities. He now controls ZIMRA, the
Anti-Corruption
Commission, the Police, and the Price Monitoring Commission
(although he
appeared to be against price controls).
The court in Manjoro’s case heard
that it was the RBZ that contracted a
commodity broking company known as
Flatwater Investments Private Limited to
procure tractors for the
Government's Agricultural Mechanisation Programme.
Flatwater Investments got
$2 120 650 000 000 in October last year from the
RBZ and gave it to Manjoro
who sourced the needed currency from individuals
and not from the normal
channels involving the banking system.
The RBZ was fully aware that
Manjoro would buy the foreign currency in the
illegal black market otherwise
it would not make sense for it to allocate
Z$2.1 trillion to a commodity
broking company without going to tender. If
there was any doubt that the
black market is being fueled directly by the
actions of the RBZ this is one
such example of the irresponsibility of the
bank. By using Manjoro instead
of the banking system, the RBZ was
effectively undermining the very system
that it was established to supervise
and monitor. One cannot say that
individuals like Manjoro come under the
oversight of the RBZ. It is not
clear how Flatwater was selected and who was
responsible for identifying the
company on behalf of the RBZ.
It has now been established that Manjoro
transferred some of the money
provided by the RBZ to companies linked to
David Butau -- Squareaxe Pvt Ltd
received $575 billion through its ZB Bank
account while Nyamasoka Farm got
$262,5 billion through CBZ. It is not clear
whether Gono personally was
informed by Manjoro of this transaction but it
is highly unlikely that he
would have been kept in the dark. Indirectly,
through Manjoro it appears
Butau was in the loop of this illegal transaction
whose motivator was the
RBZ using channels that any law abiding RBZ would
rather avoid.
The transfers by Manjoro were an integral part of the purported
RBZ
sanctions busting activities involving the use of nominee companies that
would not be detected by Zimbabwe’s Western enemies. On several occasions
Gono has justified the use of these shadowy companies in conducting
government business because of the sanctions regime that he blames for the
deteriorating governance standards.
In any normal democratic order
one would not expect a central bank to be
involved in procurement of
tractors let alone use companies like Flatwater
when the country has
legitimate tractor dealers. The funds transferred to
Butau’s companies were
then used to procure the foreign currency required by
the South African
suppliers of the tractors.
Having paid the Zimbabwean dollar equivalent
to Butau’s companies, it is
alleged that US$357,000 was paid to Michigan
Tractors on behalf of Flatwater
Investments.
Manjoro is alleged to have
pocketed Z$20 billion from the transaction. It is
now the state’s case that
Butau violated the exchange control regulations by
facilitating the
procurement of the foreign currency at black market rates.
This makes Butau
one of the casualties like Kuruneri who mistakenly thought
that Gono was his
friend and helped with US$500,000 in a fuel transaction
only to find himself
accused of violating exchange controls.
How other Zimbabweans are doing
what Butau is alleged to have done with
impunity? Why has Butau been
targeted? What does he know about Gono’s role
in such opaque
transactions?
Butau now finds himself on the increasing fugitive list that is
daily
updated by the RBZ. When will Gono stop playing games with the future
of
Zimbabwe? Why would the police not investigate the circumstances leading
to
Flatwater getting state funds in the first place? If Flatwater was not
meant
to violate the law by accessing foreign currency through the black
market
then surely someone should explain the basis on which the RBZ
accepted the
mandate to procure tractors without providing the required
foreign currency.
Surely Gono is aware that Zimbabwean currency is not
acceptable by foreign
suppliers as payment. Why would the RBZ, an
institution that has the
capacity to extort foreign currency from exporters
at official exchange
rates, outsource that function to a non authorized
dealer? Could it be that
Butau was set up and Manjoro was just a pawn in the
game? Could Butau just
like Kadzura have been in the loop when the deal was
constructed?
Times Online
January 3, 2008
David Byers
Gordon Brown is set to ban the Zimbabwean cricket
team from touring England
next year because of political opposition to
Robert Mugabe's regime.
Downing Street revealed this morning that it
would be holding discussions
with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)
on the fate of the 2009 tour,
although officials emphasised that no final
decision had been reached.
The development came after The Times reported
last month that talks had
already started between English cricketing
authorities, Zimbabwean officials
and the Government over pulling the plug
on the tour.
If it is asked to scrap the fixtures, the ECB will incur a
bill of £225,000
in compensation under International Cricket Council (ICC)
rules.
It is believed that England will also seek to ban Zimbabwe from
attending
the World Twenty20 tournament, which is due to be held here in
June 2009.
Asked about whether a decision had been reached this morning, the
Prime
Minister's official spokesman said: "I think that it’s very early to
be
making these sorts of decisions.
"We obviously will need to
discuss this with the ECB closer to the time. A
decision will have to be
made about this at some point, but we are not at
that point at the
moment."
Preventing Zimbabwe from touring would mark the latest stage of
a campaign
by Mr Brown to isolate Mr Mugabe's regime. The Prime Minister
refused to
attend an EU-Africa summit last month because the Zimbabwean
President was
present.
The decision, if reached, would also mark the
latest in a series of
occasions in which international cricket has clashed
with politics over
Zimbabwe.
Last May John Howard, then Australian
Prime Minister, ordered his country’s
cricketers to pull out of a scheduled
tour to Zimbabwe, saying it would be a
propaganda coup for Mr Mugabe, whom
he called "a grubby dictator".
In 2005, New Zealand refused visas for
Zimbabwe’s cricketers, preventing
them from playing a planned tour against
the Kiwis.
Zimbabwe have not played Test cricket since 2005 when they
voluntarily
withdrew amid concern about a collapse in the standard of their
performance.
But they have continued to play one-day cricket, and during
September’s
World Twenty20 they caused an upset by beating Australia in Cape
Town.
Last month, The Times reported that England's cricket chiefs were
already
lining up replacements to take over some of Zimbabwe's matches in
2009, with
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh earmarked.
Monsters and Critics
Jan 3, 2008, 9:07 GMT
Harare/ Johannesburg - China
has pledged 5,000 tonnes of food aid this year
to Zimbabwe where more than
four million people will soon require aid, the
official Herald newspaper
reported Thursday.
Deputy Chinese ambassador Ma Deyun also said that her
country and Zimbabwe
wanted to increase trade to 500 million US dollars in
2008 as China expands
its presence in southern Africa.
'This year
(2007) has witnessed a steady growth of trade between our two
countries and
we are working together to push the trade volume to 500
million dollars in
2008,' Deyun said at a ceremony to hand over 97 trucks
ordered by the
Zimbabwean government.
'Five thousand tonnes of food aid that China
provides to Zimbabwe will soon
arrive in Zimbabwe, the deputy ambassador
said.
She said China had pledged to build two primary schools, a hospital
and an
Agriculture Technical Demonstration Centre in Zimbabwe this
year.
President Robert Mugabe's government has welcomed the support of
China in
the face of increasing Western disapproval over alleged rights
abuses and
economic mismanagement in the once-prosperous southern African
country.
Zimbabwe's economy is mired in its worst crisis since
independence in 1980,
blamed by many in the West on a chaotic programme of
white land seizures
that has seen agricultural production
plummet.
The country has suffered food shortages for six years now, with
4.1 million
Zimbabweans - more than one third of the population - expected
to need aid
soon.
Mugabe and his vice president Joseph Msika call
China Zimbabwe's all-weather
friend, a sentiment echoed by
Deyun.
'Whether in the past, at present or in the future, the Chinese
people will
be an equal, sincere and reliable friend, a mutually beneficial
and
co-operative partner and a brother sharing weal and woe of the
Zimbabwean
people,' Deyun said.
Trade between the two countries has
been rising in the past few years, with
figures well over 200 million
dollars recorded in both 2005 and 2006.
© 2008 dpa - Deutsche
Presse-Agentur
IOL
January
03 2008 at 12:41PM
Johannesburg - Nobert Matarutse, the general
manager of the Zimbabwe
Power Company, has been suspended for alleged
incompetence, among other
issues, the Herald Online reported on
Thursday.
"Matarutse, who heads Zesa Holdings' key subsidiary
responsible for
power generation, was debarred from office on December 17,
2007 pending
finalisation of investigations," the website said.
It was not immediately clear what other charges had been levelled
against
him.
However, the Herald had gathered that the Zesa Holdings board
had
accused Matarutse of "failing to improve the electricity supply
situation in
the country".
The board alleged that the general
manager caused delays in
refurbishing units 4 and 5 at Hwange Thermal Power
Station despite the
release of Zim60 billion for works by the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe.
"It had also become clearer
that the power problem went deeper than
the coal supply deficiencies that
have been routinely cited as the major
cause of current power generation and
supply bottlenecks," the Herald said.
Indications were that Hwange
Colliery Limited had raised coal
production by nearly 100 percent in the
last two months.
In spite of increased deliveries to Hwange Thermal
Power Station - a
coal-fired plant - the electricity situation in Zimbabwe
had not improved.
Matarutse is directly responsible for the
generation of power at the
Hwange station, and three smaller coal-fired
stations in Harare, Bulawayo
and Munyati in his capacity as ZPC general
manager.
"Mr Matarutse has systematically provided misleading
information as
regards the power supply situation," sources told the
newspaper.
"Such misinformation has resulted in frequent power
outages, some of
which could have been avoided with proper planning. The
general manager did
not do this."
Zesa Holdings chief executive
Ben Rafemoyo confirmed the suspension.
He said: "Investigations are
still in progress, and once they are
finalised, the board will issue a
statement. Other details largely remain an
internal matter."
Matarutse acknowledged the suspension but refused to discuss details
with
the Herald, saying it was a Zesa board matter.
Zimbabwe has
recently suffered serious electricity shortages.
The situation has
been blamed on low coal supplies, ageing equipment
plus general lack of
investment in power generation projects.
Hwange Thermal Power
Station, which is managed by ZPC, has chronically
under-performed due to
coal shortages.
Imported electricity, which constitutes 35 percent
of Zimbabwe's power
needs, has come at a heavy cost in foreign
currency.
Zesa has been switched off several times by its external
suppliers for
failing to service the huge forex debt, the Herald said. -
Sapa
By Tichaona
Sibanda
3 January 2008
The 400 white farmers in the country who are
still on their properties are
under intense pressure from the government to
leave their farms, according
to Justice for Agriculture.
JAG, an
organisation acting on behalf of around 4,300 white commercial
farmers
dispossessed by the government’s fast-track land reform programme,
says
although there was a lull in forced evictions over the festive season,
they
expect the situation to ‘get hot’ soon.
John Worsley Worswick, chief
executive officer of JAG, said traditionally it’s
quiet over the Christmas
and New Year holidays but things start to happen
again as soon as the
festive season is over.
Worswick’s statement comes amid reports that a
white farmer based in KweKwe
in the Midlands province has been given two
days’ notice to
vacate his farm.
Michael Berry Jansen owns Xanphippe
Farm but has been ordered by a serving
Zimbabwe National Army soldier, Obert
Mabhena, to move off his property or
be dragged to court for resisting the
eviction order.
JAG said they had hoped that a SADC tribunal interim
relief order issued
against the government would have extended protection to
all farmers.
It allowed a white farmer to remain on his farm until the
Supreme Court
rules on his appeal case.
The interim relief order,
granted in Windhoek, Namibia late last year,
protects farmer William Michael
Campbell and his family and all his
employees from the regime’s continued
onslaught of invasions and
intimidation.
Worswick explained that
Campbell sought the relief in his own right and as
such it was extended just
for him. But he said normally in a country that
abides by the rule of law
the government would respect that order across the
board.
‘All
farmers should in fact be protected under this interim ruling, because
it
orders the government not to take any steps, or permit any steps to be
taken, directly or indirectly, whether by its agents or by orders, to evict
Campbell from his farm in Chegutu. This exposes government’s lack of respect
for property rights,’ Worswick said.
Meanwhile floods continue to wreak
havoc in most parts of the country as
heavy rains continue to fall. The
rains have reportedly marooned villagers
and drowned livestock and wildlife
in the Middle Sabi and in Chipinge.
The commanding officer of police in
Manicaland, Assistant Commissioner Obert
Benge, told the Herald on Wednesday
that rescue teams comprising security
forces and members of the Civil
Protection Unit had been deployed to the
affected areas.
Benge said
heavy rains upstream in the Middle Sabi resulted in Save River
bursting its
banks in low-lying areas of Chipinge. The weekend floods also
saw the Dakate
River that runs into Save River, bursting its banks, flooding
nearby
homesteads in Masimbe Village.
‘People fled homes and sought refuge on
higher ground. The same situation is
at the Tongogara Refugee Camp where the
floods have marooned inmates. No
casualties have been reported so far but
the biggest problem is that most of
the marooned villagers are failing to
access food,’ Benge said.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
03 January 2008
01:59
The main faction of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) on Thursday vowed to boycott presidential and
legislative polls in March if the nation's Constitution was not
overhauled.
"It's not only Morgan Tsvangirai or the MDC who
are saying they
will boycott the elections if certain conditions are not
met," William
Bango, spokesperson for Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC
main faction,
said.
"It's the people of Zimbabwe who are
saying they have no
confidence in the current conditions and will not
partake in an activity
whose result will not reflect a correct record of
their voice," he said.
He accused veteran President Robert
Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF
party of reneging on an agreement in ongoing talks
with the opposition party
to amend the Constitution to ensure what he called
"disputeless elections".
"We agreed on a set of benchmarks
regarding the elections,
including the setting up of public institutions to
inspire confidence in the
electoral system.
"As far as we
are concerned, nothing has changed since the last
elections, which were
flawed, and it is not possible to set up the
institutions, recruit staff and
have elections in 100 days."
Among other demands, the
opposition wants a new electoral
commission that would conduct the March
joint presidential and parliamentary
polls.
Mugabe has
said that elections will be held in March and that
the opposition would only
have themselves to blame if they do not adequately
campaign.
Once a formidable force that posed the stiffest
challenge to
Mugabe's stranglehold on power, the MDC was torn apart by
factionalism
following a row over senate elections in
2005.
The Arthur Mutambare faction of the MDC is yet to
decide whether
or not it would participate in the
elections.
Mugabe (83), who has been in power since the
nation gained
independence in 1980, is seeking a sixth term of office. --
Sapa-AFP
By Tichaona
Sibanda
3 January 2008
The National Constitutional Assembly has sent
out what it terms ‘an
expedition team into uncharted waters to educate
potential voters in rural
areas of the need to register for this year’s
elections.
NCA spokesman Maddock Chivasa acknowledged the danger of the
mission by
admitting the whole exercise was being done discreetly so as not
to attract
the attention of Zanu-PF activists. The ruling party has a
history of
forbidding opposition election agents and monitors from venturing
into rural
areas.
‘We are targeting people based in areas perceived
to be strongholds of the
ruling Zanu-PF party. We are also warning them of
the dangers of not going
to vote because voter apathy can have serious
repercussions for
pro-democracy forces in the country,’ he said.
The
NCA launched its voter education programme two weeks ago in Mashonaland
central province and so far the team has been to areas in Mashonaland East
and West.
Chivasa said their ‘modus operandi’ in rural areas includes
organizing
meetings where people gather for beer drinking sessions and
barbecues, where
the main business of the day is voter education.
‘It
has worked most of the time because whenever police officers approach us
they see people drinking and having a meal and they leave us alone. This
exercise is very effective because people in rural areas are good at passing
on information,’ Chivasa said.
He said they have been successful at
informing the rural folk on how
government has manipulated elections in
Zimbabwe using state resources, and
how a massive turnout can make it
impossible for the ruling party to cheat.
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
by Eddie Cross
I have been watching the events
in Kenya very closely and feel that there
are a lot of lessons to be drawn
for us in Zimbabwe. The lessons must be
preceded by the disclaimer that I
know little of Kenya as I have visited it
only a few times and worked there
briefly after 1988 when I was asked to
advise them on the future of the
Kenya Meat Commission.
But even to me as an outsider, the recent
elections seem to have been
seriously rigged in favor of the incumbent
President. I watched with
interest and some considerable hope on Sunday as
Odinga built up a sizable
lead over the incumbent President – leading by 700
000 votes late on Sunday.
Then the sudden shroud of secrecy over the whole
process and the surprise
announcement that Kibaki had won. I still find the
mathematics difficult to
understand as Odinga’s party collected a clear
majority of seats in
Parliament. How Kibaki intends to govern with Odinga
holding a majority in
the House is a mystery to me!
But even so, the
democrats of Africa must regard this as yet another victory
of the ordinary
person. An incumbent President, representing the tribal
group that had
controlled power since Independence was challenged and had to
be beaten off
by non-democratic means. It is rough on the democrats in Kenya
but overall
it is good for Africa. Kibaki will not get away with this
attempt to cook
the books. I am sad for the consequential violence and
killing, as it will
take a long time for these wounds to heal.
But what are the lessons for
Zimbabwe? Many will say it is the need for a
united opposition; some have
already done so, but in fact Kenya has a much
more fragmented ethnic and
tribal background to Zimbabwe and no particular
tribe occupies the dominant
position of the Shona people here. In my view
that is not the lesson. The
real lesson is that we must ensure that we
control and record the vote count
in the forthcoming election from A to Z.
Africans are not dumb, they know
what to do and who to vote for and in fact,
in my experience, are often more
sophisticated when it comes to politics
than their Western counterparts. In
reality we do not really have to
campaign in the classical sense here in
Zimbabwe, not for this election. as
the issues are so clear. What we have to
do is show the people here what we
will do with their vote and with the
subsequent responsibility. That we are
doing and our policies will shortly
be published both in writing and on the
net.
Much more difficult is
how to ensure that all Zimbabweans can vote and that
when they do, it is
properly recorded and then counted and reported. In the
case of the Kenyan
elections it seems as if the State permitted a free and
fair election and
campaign, (something we are yet to achieve in Zimbabwe)
but when the final
count was taking place and it became clear that Kibaki
would lose the
election, the State stepped in and the vote was stolen from
the people. A
great shame as a normal democratic transfer of power would
have been first
prize.
Mugabe has gone off for his annual leave in the Far East and left
behind the
chaos and confusion wrought by his policies. The Z$200 000 note
that was
withdrawn from circulation is back, the queues are even longer and
the
stores just as empty. We have not been able to find maize meal, the
basic
staple food here, for a month. It is also short in Harare and other
towns.
As for prices! Even I am shocked by the way they are escalating – a
150 ml
tub of Yoghurt is Z$1 250 000!
Just before the Christmas break
we met the IMF team that was visiting Harare
for a routine visit. They told
us that they could see no end to the
inflationary spiral in which we are at
present. There is no bottom to this
current crisis, they said. While I was
dismayed to hear such judgments from
an experienced international team of
specialists, I was much more encouraged
by their view that what we proposed
made sense and would stop inflation in
six months. I was also encouraged by
their view that if the politics was
right, we could “deal” with the huge
overhang of debt that this regime is
going to hand over to us when we beat
them in the next election.
In South Africa Jacob Zuma was finally elected
leader of the ANC and it
seems that this event was very much over the dead
body of the incumbent
President. It has profound implications for South
Africa and Zimbabwe. Zuma
will strengthen the pro change sentiments in the
ANC on the Zimbabwe issue
and we should see movement very shortly in respect
to our demand – given to
President Mbeki the Saturday before Polokwane, that
the whole agreement
reached in negotiations in 2007 with Zanu PF be
implemented before any
election takes place here. South Africa and indeed
the whole of the SADC,
have little choice in this matter and I am expecting
the problems remaining
to be dealt with shortly.
That of course will
do nothing to help us get a handle on our economic
crisis. Inflation is now
certainly at 50 000 percent or more and still
accelerating. Shortages are as
bad as ever and the State shows no signs of
even understanding what they are
doing or coming to grips with reality. How
we survived 2007 is a mystery,
but we did. Now we have to survive 2008 up to
the elections and then deal
with the situation that will be presented to us
by that event. That is not
going to be easy or quick and we will have to dig
deep.
But I am
quite sure that we are going to see the 2007 agreements with Zanu
PF
implemented and that we are going to have another election – perhaps the
most important in our history. In that election I am sure that we will win
and that this time there will be a transfer of power to a new government. It
’s a question of time and resources. The regime and South Africa will both
want the election as soon as possible, probably on schedule in
March.
However, the agreements as signed will not allow that if they are to
apply
and it may be necessary to revert to some of the proposals made during
the
talks but rejected by the other participants so as to enable an early
election. For us in the MDC that would be just fine – then to control the
vote!
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 2nd January 2008
By Lance Guma
03 January
2008
South African based businessman Mutumwa Mawere has claimed the
recent escape
to the United Kingdom of Guruve North MP David Butau, exposes
the plot by
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono to shift the blame for the
current
economic mess onto western countries. Mawere told our Behind the
Headlines
series that the victimisation of several high profile individuals,
allegedly
for foreign currency exchange violations, fits in neatly with a
propaganda
campaign to blame the cash shortages on western
countries.
The government is extensively using the Butau case as part of
its propaganda
strategy. Mawere added: ‘The role of business in undermining
the sovereignty
of Zimbabwe is a subject that Gono has taken up as his main
theatre of
operation.’ More worryingly Mawere believes Gono has become a law
unto
himself and only reports to Robert Mugabe. Mawere said; ‘If anyone was
in
doubt of Gono’s powers, the Butau saga has removed any doubt that Gono is
the law in Zimbabwe. If you are on his target list, you better escape before
injustice visits you.’
He says the predicament faced by people like
James Makamba, Chris Kuruneri,
Julius Makoni, James Mushore, Cecil Muderedi
and others all stem from Gono’s
power to decide who should be classified as
a criminal. Mawere himself left
Zimbabwe after his Shabani Mashaba Mines was
expropriated by government on
the grounds that he was a ‘specified’ person
following similar dubious
accusations of foreign currency exchange law
violations.
Turning to the Butau case, Mawere said the RBZ, ‘in its well
documented
quasi-fiscal activities promised to procure tractors for the
farmers in line
with its purported sanctions busting mandate.’ Gono then
used people like
Butau to purchase the tractors using so called shelf
companies. Why they
have turned on him remains unclear but he believes the
regime needs to
manufacture new enemies all the time so as to blame them for
it’s own
shortcomings. As an example he said instead of people talking about
the real
reasons for the cash shortages, all talk is about so-called cash
barons like
Butau and others.
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
zimbabwejournalists.com
3rd Jan 2008 14:24 GMT
By Sebastian Nyamhangambiri
HARARE – Doctors
and nurses at Zimbabwe’s two major referral hospitals in
Harare are still on
strike since downing their tools last week demanding a
review of their
salaries and working conditions.
The strike is crippling the nation’s
struggling health delivery system.
A visit to the Harare Central and
Parirenyatwa hospitals revealed that
outpatients departments at the two
biggest state hospitals in the capital
were still closed for a week now with
student nurses attending to emergency
situations only.
Amon Siveregi,
the President of the Hospital Doctors Association (HDA) said
the strike was
going to continue unless their demands were met.
"We have no solution in
site so far,” said Siveregi. “We might only call off
the end of this week
depending on the progress that the negotiation we are
going to have with the
Health Services Board (HSB).
The Dr. Lovemore Mbengeranwa-led HSB board
was yesterday tight-lipped on the
negotiations referring all referring
question to Health Minister David
Parirenyatwa.
Repeated efforts to
get a comment from Parirenyatwa were fruitless as he did
not answer his
mobile phone while, his secretary said he was in series of
meetings.
Sources within the HSB said they had not been sanctioned to
effect an
increase for health personnel.
"The truth is that there is
no money with the board,” said one HSB member.
“We are still waiting for the
Treasury to give us directions.”
Doctors and nurses interviewed from their
residence at Parirenyatwa said
yesterday said they would only go back to
work when their demands are met.
"We have been promised salary reviews
many times but nothing has
materialised, so this time we will not return
until something is put on
paper,” said one nurse.
Junior doctors are
currently earning Z$40 million while nurses are earning
$15 million, enough
to buy just 15 loaves of poor quality bread.
Zimbabwe’s health delivery
system, once lauded as one of the best in Africa,
has crumbled due to years
of under-funding and mismanagement.
Hundreds of doctors and nurses have
fled Zimbabwe over the past seven years
to seek better paying jobs in
neighbouring countries such as South Africa
and Botswana. The United Kingdom
is another major destination for Zimbabwe's
hard-working health
workers.
The exodus of trained medical staff has hit hard Zimbabwe’s
health delivery
system which is also struggling to cope under an
unprecedented economic
recession described by the World Bank as unseen for a
country not at war.
Reuters
Thu 3 Jan
2008, 9:38 GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Some of Zimbabwe's striking state
doctors have returned
to work on humanitarian grounds but most are still
holding out for higher
pay, the head of the doctors' union said on
Thursday.
Amon Siveregi, president of the Zimbabwe's Hospital Doctors
Association,
told Reuters the industrial action had not been called off,
contrary to
reports in the state media.
"We have not called it off,"
Siveregi said. "Negotiations with the ministry
continue, and while it's true
that some doctors are turning up for work on
humanitarian grounds, that
doesn't mean the strike is over."
Strikes by government doctors and
nurses have become a frequent occurrence
as their salaries have been eroded
by the world's highest inflation rate --
officially put at about 8,000
percent, although analysts say the figure
could be double that.
When
the doctors' strike began in late December, President Robert Mugabe's
government brought in army medical personnel to deal with serious cases,
while other patients were turned away.
The state-controlled Herald
newspaper on Thursday reported that most doctors
had returned to work after
the government approved loans worth Z$100 million
for all state employees,
including health workers.
Health Ministry officials were not immediately
available to comment.
Staff at private clinics have not joined the
strike, but most Zimbabweans
receive medical care through state hospitals
and clinics.
Zimbabwe continues to lose thousands of health workers who
abandon the
country in search of better-paid jobs in South Africa, Britain
and
Australia, hitting a sector already burdened by shortages of drugs and
the
effects of HIV and AIDS.
Economic analysts have said Zimbabwe is
likely to see more strikes in 2008
by dissatisfied workers grappling with an
economic recession marked by
soaring inflation, shortages of foreign
currency, food and fuel, and rising
unemployment.
Mugabe, 83 and in
power since independence from Britain in 1980, denies
accusation of
mismanaging the economy and says it has been sabotaged by
Western countries
as punishment for his seizure of white-owned farms to
resettle landless
blacks.
Anglican Journal
staff
Jan 2,
2008
Harare
The former bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga, has reportedly
resorted to
forgery in an attempt to discredit and stop the appointment of
Sebastian
Bakare as the diocese’s interim bishop, the Church Times has
reported.
Bishop Kunonga’s attempt to withdraw Harare from the Anglican
Province of
Central Africa had earlier resulted in his own
dismissal.
Church Times said the Harare Herald newspaper had been
informed by Bishop
Kunonga that Bishop Bakare, the retired bishop of
Manicaland, had turned
down the Harare appointment because he wanted more
money.
The newspaper also reported that a “correspondence” between Bishop
Albert
Chama, dean of the Province of Central Africa, and the “Anglican
Church
Harare Diocese,” stated that the church has “since appointed Zambian
bishop,
L. Mwenda as a replacement, further plunging the church into
administrative
chaos.”
The bishop of Botswana, Trevor Mwamba, said
the letter, supposedly signed by
Bishop Chama, was a forgery. “It is
propaganda warfare…It is lies upon
lies – it is amazing how they have spun
it up,” he said. Bishop Bakare said
the report was a “complete fabrication
and blatantly mischievous and
misleading.”
A meeting of the diocese’s
churchwardens and clergy earlier released a
statement that Bishop Kunonga
and his supporters had engaged in a campaign
to “destabilize the diocese and
the provincial church, and bring into
disrepute the church as a whole,” and
are no longer licensed to exercise
“any ecclesiastical
functions.”
Bishop Kunonga recently travelled to Kampala, reportedly in
at attempt to
ally his breakaway group with the Church of
Uganda.
Meanwhile, Bishop Kunonga told journalists who were covering the
recent
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala he strongly
supports the
policies of President Robert Mugabe, who is accused of human
rights abuses.
“The West should stop demonizing Mr. Mugabe. He is a man
who was
democratically elected and redistributed land which the white man
had taken
away,” Bishop Kunonga said.
The Zimbabwe government has
seized land belonging to nearly all of Zimbabwe’s
4,500 white commercial
farmers since 2000. It has said that under its land
reform programs the
farms have been allocated to landless blacks – many of
whom lack
agricultural skills. One farm seized from its former white owner
was given
to Bishop Kunonga.
Bishop Kunonga denied reports there are human rights
abuses in Zimbabwe,
describing the reports as lies emanating from Western
countries.
With files from Ecumenical News International.
conservatives.com
Commenting on the Government's decision to block the Zimbabwean
cricket
team's 2009 tour of England and Wales, Shadow Foreign Minister David
Lidington, said:
"It is right that the Government has finally decided
to take serious steps
against the Zimbabwean regime. However, whilst I
support this latest
development, Gordon Brown's new tough stance against
Mugabe has come far too
late.
"That is why we have called upon
countries like China to end their direct
aid to the Zimbabwean regime and
supported the Prime Minister's boycott of
the EU-AU summit.
"The
Government has allowed Mugabe's regime to carry on unchallenged for too
long
and should have taken measures like these sooner."
Due to Mugabe's
sickening corruption and wilful mismanagement:
• Zimbabwe's economy has
contracted by 40% in the last decade and it is the
only country in Africa
which will experience negative growth in 2007
• Four out of five of the
country's twelve million people live below the
poverty line, a quarter have
fled, and unemployment is at 80%
• Four million people will be dependent on
food aid by Christmas due to
famine
• The water and sanitation systems in
Zimbabwe's main cities have collapsed,
and thousands are at risk of
life-threatening waterborne disease
• In violent attacks on the opposition
between March and April 2007, the
regime arrested or abducted 600,
hospitalised 300, and killed three.
David Lidington
MP
03/01/2008
The Weekly Observer
(Kampala)
OPINION
3 January 2008
Posted to the web 3 January
2008
Anne Mugisha
The saddest lesson from the Kenyan election
is that an 'independent'
Electoral Commission does not guarantee a free and
fair election. Everyone I
spoke to swore that Kenya's Electoral Commission
was independent.
Sammy Kirui, a Kenyan electoral official, spoke to the
contrary. At an ODM
press conference immediately after Mwai Kibaki was
declared President, Kirui
said there was shameless alteration of documents
to secure a Kibaki victory.
Independence of an Electoral Commission,
therefore, does not render it a
fountain of honour and integrity nor does it
guarantee a smooth transfer of
power even where it appeared so
imminent.
I followed the slow and predictable stealing of votes in the
Kenyan
presidential election without the emotional sting that I suffer while
watching election robbery in Uganda and it was quite an edifying
experience.
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) of Kenya is struggling
with the same
question that Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) struggled with
less than two
years ago in Uganda: How to convert an electoral victory into
power.
There must have been excruciating moments last week when ODM
supporters
thought their eyes and ears were tricking them. The Electoral
Commission of
Kenya (ECK) could not possibly be reading tallies from the
results that
their agents had signed hours ago.
Of course they were
correct; the results that reach the Electoral Commission
are not necessarily
the same results that left the polling station. It is
quite an out-of-body
experience for those who invest their time and passion
in electoral politics
to see victory snatched at such close range.
The sense of powerlessness
is quite overwhelming. To have proof before your
very eyes, that someone has
robbed you and for that proof to be completely
ignored by the arbiter whom
you entrusted with declaring the results is
nerve racking. Where does one
turn for truth and justice when those in
authority refuse to enforce it and
prefer to stand with those who flout the
very rules and values which we
entrust them to defend?
And so Reuters reported that "As smoke billowed
from protests in Nairobi
slums, Kibaki was sworn in on the lawn of State
House just an hour after the
final vote tally was announced, his hand on a
Bible."
The 76-year-old urged Kenyans to put aside election 'passions'
and promised
a corruption-free government to forge unity in the ethnically
polarised
nation of 36 million, the region's biggest economy. "I thank all
of you for
the trust you have bestowed upon me," he said.
Meantime,
The New York Times reported that, "The European Union said its
observers in
one constituency last week witnessed election officials
announce that
President Kibaki had won 50,145 votes, but on Sunday the
election commission
boosted those same results to 75,261 votes."
Furthermore, ECK admitted
that in a constituency with 70,000 registered
voters, Mr. Kibaki received
125,000 votes; in another, the tally changed at
the last moment to add
60,000 to his score.
So one is left wondering where Mwai Kibaki gets the
audacity to place his
hand on the Holy Bible and swear-in as President of
Kenya.
In an article aptly titled 'Cheated of Change,' The Times of
London states,
"The verdict of Kenya's voters is unmistakably clear. They
have turned out
in force to vote for deep reform of a political system that,
although
democratic by comparison with much of Africa, is deeply scarred by
corruption and dominated by a pampered, self-perpetuating political
elite...Seldom has an African election so clearly reflected public
determination to 'sling the bastards out'. President Kibaki's government and
his opportunistically revamped alliance of the political old guard have been
dismissed by the electorate."
Perhaps when their pain recedes, ODM
will find time to celebrate their
unprecedented victory at parliamentary
level and the resounding defeat of
the corrupt old guard.
Perhaps ODM
will head to court shortly in search of justice and we pray that
the Kenyan
judiciary has a stronger back bone than Uganda's, which says the
right thing
but rules in contradiction of its own findings, in favour of the
incumbent.
There are many lessons from last week's election in Kenya
but for all the
emotion and intrigue of elections, particularly presidential
elections, we
should never lose sight of the fact that vote counting and
tallying is not
calculus or even algebra. It is simple basic arithmetic of
adding one vote
to the next and then ensuring that all votes from all
polling stations are
correctly tallied.
If we can isolate the
instances and areas where votes and tallies are
corrupted then we can
protect the vote. That is the easy part.
The difficult part remains the
will to safeguard the integrity of our vote
against all odds.
We must
want that so badly that we are willing to go to extraordinary
lengths to
face off a powerful incumbent, particularly one with a personal
army, who
loves power nearly as much as he loves his dear life. If we cannot
summon
the will to protect our choice of leaders as single-mindedly as our
rulers
want to stay in power, the election will be rigged.
Are we up to the
challenge?
The author is a Special Envoy, Office of the President,
FDC.