Zim Independent
Shame
Makoshori
SENIOR Zanu PF officials have mounted an offensive
against Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono to drop his
controversial economic
policies which they say have failed.
Zanu PF members opposed to President Mugabe's quest to extend his term
to
2010 regard Gono as part of presidential plans to accommodate him in
government as prime minister under a political dispensation to emerge from
the 18th amendment to the constitution.
Gono, party sources
said, was now in an invidious position after his
announcement last month
that he was deferring the presentation of his
monetary statement to
accommodate input from the Zanu PF conference.
Delegates to the conference
at Goromonzi drafted a resolution which not only
appeared to chide Gono but
also warned him of his unwelcome influence.
Gono's detractors in
Zanu PF are now waiting to see if the governor
will revise his policies in
line with recommendations from the conference.
Gono has enjoyed
unprecedented support from President Mugabe over his
quasi-fiscal
operations, blamed for bloating the budget deficit, and his
exchange rate
policies.
But in the past few months many, including those in the
ruling party
and government, have started to question his approach to the
country's
turnaround efforts.
The disillusionment was evident
in Zanu PF's Economic Affairs
Committee's resolutions at the December
people's conference when party
stalwarts who had religiously defended Gono
demanded a radical shift.
Secretary for Economic Affairs Richard
Hove indicated to the
conference that the party was slowly losing
confidence, particularly in the
continued handling of foreign currency by
the RBZ alone.
Hove recommended the establishment of a foreign
currency management
committee, similar to those in developed countries like
the US and Japan, to
oversee the allocation of the scarce foreign currency
trickling into the
economy.
He said the party was concerned by
the influx of flashy cars on
Zimbabwe's roads when critical productive
sectors were battling to access
hard currency for raw materials and spares
procurement. Most companies are
operating at 50% of capacity.
This, he said, was a sign of poor prioritisation that should be
corrected if
the committee was established.
"The little foreign currency coming
in, how is it managed? There
should be a committee and the RBZ should not
intervene in some issues," Hove
told the conference.
Industry
and International Trade deputy minister Phenius Chihota last
year expressed
similar concerns, warning that Gono was not consulting key
stakeholders on
their foreign currency requirements.
"The RBZ should be clear on
what is required by industry and must work
with others, not in isolation,"
Chihota said.
He called for the formation of a foreign currency
committee to manage
the disbursement of hard currency "because the RBZ was
not qualified at all
to do the disbursements or manage the foreign currency
properly".
Central bank officials present took exception to
Chihota's views,
arguing that he was not fully aware of the challenges the
country was
facing.
But the Zanu PF economic committee demanded
more than just a foreign
currency management committee.
Hove
said Gono must overhaul the exchange rate system to a more
realistic
rate.
Gono has kept the Zimbabwe dollar at $250 to the greenback
since
January 2006 but economists say the best way to manage foreign
currency is
to leave market forces to determine the exchange
rate.
Manufacturers say the realistic exchange rate must be around
$1 000 to
the US dollar.
In December, Finance minister Herbert
Murerwa called for an end to
Gono's quasi-fiscal operations but Mugabe said
these were necessary to
finance government projects, a comment that could
embolden Gono to
continuing the operations, which have been condemned by the
International
Monetary Fund.
Gono postponed the monetary policy
review from December to this month
citing the need to take into account
recommendations from the Zanu PF
conference.
But the
resolutions could have come as a shock to him because they
demanded what he
had adamantly refused.
"Given the magnitude of the challenges that
still remain to be
addressed after the national budget in the area of price
stability,
enhancement of export generation, it has become necessary to
postpone the
monetary policy to a later date to be advised in January 2007,"
Gono said.
"It is also critical that the forthcoming monetary
policy statement be
reconciled not only with the budget but with economic
views from the
forthcoming national people's conference of the ruling Zanu
PF," he said.
Analysts say Zanu PF's resolutions left Gono in a
precarious position
because while he would want to adhere to the dictates of
the party, most of
the recommendations were at variance with the economic
policies that he has
advocated.
This could set the stage for a
confrontation between the governor and
Zanu PF.
Independent
economist John Robertson says the major weakness of a
foreign currency
committee is that it could impose stringent measures on
exchange rate
movements but other economists say the committee is necessary
because it
will bring transparency in the allocation of a critical resource.
Zim Independent
Shakeman
Mugari
STRIKING Zesa employees yesterday switched off parts of
the Harare
central business district in a bid to force management to respond
to their
demands for salary increases.
Zesa management has
since threatened to fire the workers, saying the
strike was illegal because
the workers did not follow the labour laws.
Management's plans to fire the
workers could affect more than 50 workers who
took part in the industrial
action.
The workers switched off parts of the CBD before they took
to the
streets after management rejected their demands for a salary hike of
1 150%
in the first quarter. Many parts of the CBD were without power for up
to
four hours yesterday.
The workers' demands could push the
lowest paid worker up to $300 000
a month. Currently the lowest paid worker
gets just below $25 000 a month.
The management had offered a 144%
increase spread between January and
March.
Zesa Holdings
spokesperson James Maridadi said the company was going
to "deal" with the
striking workers, adding that the job action was an
indication that the
workers were negotiating in bad faith.
"The strike was illegal.
Workers are allowed to strike as long as they
follow procedures. These
workers did not follow the procedures, which makes
their strike illegal,"
said Maridadi.
He said management would make a follow-up on the
workers who took part
in the job action, adding: "The law will take its
course."
"It's not victimisation, it is the law. We cannot allow
unruly
elements to disrupt power supply. Customers have nothing to do with
the
labour relations at Zesa and they should not be affected," he
said.
"We will take action," said Maridadi.
Trouble
started after management circulated an internal memo informing
the workers
that it had decided to award 50% this month pending the outcome
of the
arbitration process which started after parties failed to agree on
Wednesday.
The workers yesterday remained adamant saying they
would continue to
push for their demands.
Zimbabwe Electricity
and Energy Workers' Union secretary-general, Ian
Munjoma, scoffed at the
threat of dismissal saying it was management which
incited the workers by
its memo.
"Hapana Izvozvo. It's cruelty to fire workers because
they have just
said enough is enough to low salaries," said
Munjoma.
"This business of underpaying workers started last year.
Surely how
can a worker survive on $23 275 a month? The 50% they are
offering will not
get them anywhere."
Zim Independent
Ray
Matikinye
A ZANU PF committee on information and publicity has
resolved that the
party must recruit propagandists from within its ranks to
be paid by
government to counter news transmitted by foreign radio
stations.
During the committee's deliberations attended by the
Zimbabwe
Independent at the Zanu PF annual conference in Goromonzi last
month, party
delegates also resolved that the deputy secretary for
information and
current Mashonaland Central governor Ephraim Masawi be
appointed substantive
Information and Publicity minister to synchronise
information dissemination
in the party and government.
The
resolution will be considered for adoption at the party's central
committee
meeting to be held soon.
Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies
minister, Paul Mangwana, is the
acting Information minister following the
death of Tichaona Jokonya in June.
Committee member and Kariba
legislator, Shumbayaonda Chandengenda,
said Zanu PF should adopt a similar
scheme as local government promotion
officers whose major task is to promote
the party in rural areas while on
the state payroll.
"Zanu PF
must revive that strategy because we have areas where rural
people listen to
foreign radio stations because our own ZBC transmission
does not cover
remote areas," Chandengenda said.
"We have found it difficult to
convince the people there of government's
development thrust aimed at
improving their lives on the basis of the news
bulletins they receive from
foreign stations on donated radios."
Another member, Chegutu MP
Webster Shamu, said government should
ensure people recruited into a vital
sector such as information were
well-drilled party cadres.
He
said all information officers should be thoroughly vetted so that
government
does not recruit people hostile to the ruling party.
"It is
unfortunate that we cannot persuade Nathan Shamuyarira out of
retirement
because he did a sterling job during his time as minister when he
effectively synchronised party and government information dissemination,"
Shamu said.
Zim Independent
Loughty
Dube
THE government has not conducted an audit of the number of
wildlife in
the country since 2001, a situation that has riled safari
operators who are
questioning the quotas they have been allocated for the
2007 season.
Safari operators this week told the Zimbabwe
Independent that there
were irregularities in the manner quotas were
allocated, with government
accusing some operators of
over-hunting.
The National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority
has not yet given
hunting quotas to a large number of operators and has
returned their
applications demanding to be furnished with additional
information before
they can issue the hunting quotas.
Operators
said despite filling out TR2 forms that reflect on the
previous season's
hunting, the authority was demanding more unnecessary
information.
The operators in the rich Gwayi and Zambezi
conservancies said it was
weird that government was failing to conduct a
national audit to ascertain
the actual number of animals in the
country.
They said a planned national audit for last year never
materialised
after a plane that the wildlife authority was using broke down
before the
exercise could go nationwide.
"There has never been
a national audit by the government but
international organisations like
International Union for the Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) and WWF have been
conducting their own national audits that
they use for the region and
usually they are targeting certain species,"
said an operator who claimed
that he has not received his hunting quota
since applying last
year.
National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority public
relations
manager, Retired Major Edward Mbewe, confirmed that tour operators
had not
received quotas but dismissed claims that there had been no national
audit.
He said the authority was conducting periodic audits once in a
while.
"We conduct national aerial surveys and these are done
continuously.
We have not done a once off audit and we were in the process
of doing a
broad once off survey last year but the plane we were using for
the exercise
packed in before we could go very far," Mbewe
said.
He said the authority was looking at TR2 forms submitted by
operators
and that the additional information they were seeking was to help
determine
the animals to be allocated to each operator for
hunting.
Mbewe however said the department was also doing
continuous surveys at
watering holes where they were doing animal
counts.
But safari operators said the continuous audit was
inaccurate compared
to a one off audit as animals tended to be mobile and
hence over-estimation
and under-estimation of the population was likely to
take place.
Operators claimed the quotas they were allocated were
ridiculously low
and that the country had a surplus population of
elephants.
But Mbewe said they could not give allocations of
elephants off the
cuff as the country was also given a hunting quota by the
Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species
(Cites).
"We get quotas from Cites and there is no way we can go
against Cites
even if the elephant population is high. We have to stick to
our quota,"
Mbewe said.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
BLUNDERS continued to haunt the agricultural
sector with 2006 going
down as the worst year since Independence, throwing
into disarray all
government prospects of a quick fix to the agricultural
sector and the
economy at large.
Analysts said developments
that dealt a severe blow to government
efforts to boost production included
legislative changes that removed the
authority of the courts and the
continued farm invasions that created
uncertainty for
investors.
The situation became untenable following the recent
importation of
substandard fertiliser, grabbing of farming implements by top
government
officials at the expense of ordinary farmers, power blackouts and
the late
planting of both summer and winter crops.
"Nationally,
agricultural output has predictably declined further
relegating government
efforts to a national joke," one agricultural expert
said.
"The
major constraint to increased productivity was the uncertainty of
tenure in
the agricultural sector where farmers are evicted on a daily
basis.
Continued acquisition notices, disruptions, acts of violence on farms
and
lack of land-based collateral are some of the problems farmers
face."
Government issued 99-year leases to selected farmers last
month with
the conviction that they would be used as collateral. The leases
are still
to be accepted as collateral by banks and other financial
institutions.
Banks still have to come to terms with enormous losses they
incurred when
government arbitrarily evicted farmers who owed them millions
in unpaid
agricultural loans.
Farming experts said continued
amendments to the Land Acquisition Act
contributed immensely to the
confusion in the agricultural sector and would
accelerate the collapse of
agriculture as even the farm invaders become
vulnerable to evictions. The
amendment, experts say, will further scare away
investors in the
agro-processing industry and the agro-forestry sectors that
are
capital-intensive.
"It is extremely alarming to note that Gazetted
Land (Consequential
Provisions) Act, was passed," experts said.
The Act repeals the Rural Land Occupiers (Protection from Eviction)
Act and
prohibits the contest of all land gazetted for acquisition since
2000 in
court.
"If the objective of the authorities, by introducing such
draconian
legislation, is to get agriculture back to work they are wrong,"
the experts
said. "It is likely to increase the conflict of ownership of the
business on
the land and reduce meaningful investment in
agriculture."
The Act makes it illegal and "punishable by law to
hold, use or occupy
a piece of land that was gazetted for resettlement
purposes without
authority in the form of an offer letter".
This means that no one will claim protection under the Act any longer.
The
new Bill is a double-edge sword meant to cow commercial farmers from
resisting eviction while empowering government to dislodge trespassers
without offer letters as the tragedy of the inconclusive land reform
unfolds.
The Rural Land Occupiers Act (Protection from
Eviction) Act was
railroaded as a populist expedient after armed soldiers
and police forced
more than 600 families to leave Little England Farm in
Mashonaland West by
torching their homes, because the land had reportedly
been earmarked for A2
farmer, mostly officials from the President's
Office.
Instead of building on the confidence that appeared to be
gradually
welling following six years of serious recession, government
officials
plunged the sector into an unheralded fertiliser
scandal.
To show the magnitude of the substandard fertiliser import
saga,
government was forced to fire Agriculture permanent secretary Simon
Pazvakavambwa.
Between 160 and 800 tonnes of substandard
fertiliser were imported,
prejudicing the country of up to US$300
000.
As if the past blunders are not lesson enough, government is
on the
verge of importing substandard wheat classified as BS1 and BS2
grades, which
experts said was low quality wheat, only suitable for
stockfeeds.
Experts said wheat for human consumption should not
contain any
germinated grain and should have a density of around 75% and a
protein
content of around 14%.
Once there is germinated grain,
that wheat should be recommended for
stockfeed. The wheat that was acquired
through Intshona and due to get into
the country at the end of the month has
a 5% germinated grain.
The chaotic land reform programme, which has
been condemned from
inception by international donors, including the UNDP,
as unworkable and a
recipe for disaster, has turned out to be just
that.
Over the past four seasons production in all facets of
agriculture has
plummeted, dragging the economy down with it.
Six committees were appointed to audit achievements of the land reform
programme but facts on the ground show that agriculture has been completely
ruined by the land reform, which was characterised by widespread violence
and grabbing of farms by army officers, policemen, state-journalists and
judges in addition to ruling-party politicians.
Zim Independent
DOCTORS at Zimbabwe's state hospitals have gone on strike for better
pay to
combat galloping inflation, marooning sick patients in packed waiting
rooms
in the latest sign of the country's economic meltdown.
Economic
analysts warned that workers in other sectors could also
boycott work as
they grapple with a deep recession which critics blame on
President Robert
Mugabe's policies.
Yesterday junior doctors at the country's major
state hospitals
intensified industrial action that started at the end of
last month and has
now paralysed operations at major health
institutions.
Only nurses were working with the help of senior
doctors, who work on
a part time basis because they also run private
surgeries. Staff at private
medical clinics, where fees are higher, did not
join the strike.
At Harare's Parirenyatwa Hospital -- Zimbabwe's
largest -- only
part-time doctors were working and attending to emergencies,
according to an
official notice at the hospital.
Several
patients lay on stretchers in a packed waiting room with no
help in sight.
Some said they had been waiting for treatment for several
days for
everything from injuries to medical reviews in hospitals already
hit by
frequent shortages of medicines.
"The strike continues. If they
(the government) give people the 400%
salary increment we hear they have
planned for this January, then it will
intensify," Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa,
head of the Hospital Doctors Association,
told Reuters.
"The
minister (of health) remains arrogant and refuses to talk to us.
We served
him with a letter five weeks ago and he has not responded."
Health
Minister David Parirenyatwa said he was not aware of the
strike, which has
affected operations at public health facilities used by
the majority of the
population.
But Mugabe's government has singled out health workers
among
government employees barred from boycotting work because they offer
essential services.
This is the second strike in seven months
by the doctors who are
demanding, among other things, salaries of up to $5
million from the current
$88 000as well as increased motor vehicle
allowances.
"They keep telling us that the doctors are on strike so
there isn't
much they can do. I have had to endure this unbearable pain
since
yesterday," said Simba Bvunzawabaya, a farm labourer who broke his arm
in a
tractor accident.
Doctors have staged a series of strikes
in recent years to push for
wages they say have been eroded by rampant
inflation and thousands of
doctors and nurses have sought better-paid jobs
in South Africa, Britain and
Australia. - Reuter.
Zim Independent
Loughty Dube
CIVIC organisations and political
parties have said a referendum is
the only way Zimbabweans can make a
decision on the debate to harmonise
parliamentary and presidential elections
and the extension of President
Mugabe's term of office by two
years.
Debate has been raging after Zanu PF provinces tabled before
the party's
conference in Goromonzi last month a resolution affirming that
the
presidential and parliamentary elections should be held at the same time
in
2010.
However, the party deferred making a decision on the
resolution after
disagreements on whether the harmonised elections should be
held in 2008 or
in 2010 and what the enabling legislation should look
like.
Civic organisations and political parties who spoke to the
Zimbabwe
Independent this week said the decision to harmonise elections
should not be
left to parliament alone to decide but to Zimbabweans through
a national
referendum.
Zimbabwe Election Support Network
chairperson, Reginald Matchaba-Hove,
said under a working democracy there is
no way a nation can extend the term
of its leader without going through a
referendum.
"There is no way a parliament with 30 appointed MPs and
others elected
through a disputed 2002/5 parliamentary election can use a
technical two
thirds majority to extend the term of an unpopular leader
without
going through a referendum," Matchaba-Hove said.
"If the issue were to go to a referendum, even Zanu PF supporters
would vote
'No' to an extension of Mugabe's term because the majority do not
want him
at the helm but are afraid to come out openly and say so."
National
Constitutional Assembly chairman, Lovemore Madhuku, while
concurring that a
national referendum would be ideal, cast a dark cloud over
its
outcome.
"A referendum can be held but how level is the playing
field? If the
referendum is held fairly it should be under conditions where
there is no
Posa or Aippa and under conditions where everyone campaigns
freely and
people have a right to make a choice without being harassed or
beaten,"
Madhuku said.
The decision by Zanu PF to delay
elections has already come under fire
from many quarters, with former
PF-Zapu secretary-general Welshman Mabhena
saying Mugabe is afraid of
leaving office because of the sins he has
committed while in
power.
The Morgan Tsvangirai faction of the MDC supported the idea
of a
referendum but said history would always repeat itself where Zanu PF
would
use violence to cow Zimbabweans to vote in ways that favour the ruling
party.
Party spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said a referendum, if
held under the
proper framework, was legitimate in that all Zimbabweans
would make a
decision on any issue.
He said Zanu PF's attempt
to railroad constitutional changes in
parliament should be resisted by all
Zimbabweans as most MPs were not
legitimate.
"Zanu PF should
not be allowed to railroad certain changes through a
perforated parliament
that has MPs who have pending court cases over their
election. But we know
that the majority of Zanu PF MPs are against the
extension of Mugabe's term
and they should help Zimbabwe by resisting his
evil intentions," Chamisa
said.
Zimrights national chairman, Kucaca Phulu, however said
holding a
referendum over Mugabe's intention to stay in power was a waste of
time as
this was a Zanu PF matter.
"The amendments that
President Mugabe proposes in parliament for
hanging onto power are illegal
and Zanu PF wants to force people to accept
its decisions. To conduct a
referendum on the issue would be a waste of time
and resources," Phulu
said.
He said if Mugabe's term was extended that decision would
only benefit
Zanu PF.
Chamisa and Madhuku said Zimbabwe
urgently needed a new constitution
that would create a conducive framework
for conducting referendums and
future elections.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
THE Zimbabwe National
Water Authority (Zinwa) has no capacity to
provide clean water without
disruptions, the Comptroller and Auditor General's
latest audit on the
parastatal has revealed.
This comes as Zinwa is in the process of
taking over water treatment,
distribution and billing from the Harare
commission. Zinwa is already in
charge of water works in smaller towns,
rural service centres and growth
points
The audit, which was
presented to the Public Accounts Parliamentary
Portfolio Committee last
year, said Zinwa was failing to provide
uninterrupted water of the right
quality to its customers in small towns and
growth points. The report said
the institution lacked an operational plan
and had failed to maintain plant,
equipment and standby facilities. It also
said there was poor record keeping
at Zinwa.
"My audit revealed that Zinwa was failing to provide
undisrupted water
supply and water of the right quality to its customers in
small towns,
growth points and institutional customers such as Prison
Services, Zimbabwe
Republic Police and the Defence Forces," Mildred Chisi,
the auditor-general
wrote in the audit.
She said Zinwa did not
have a section that was responsible for
coordinating the strategic and
operational planning process. The planning
section in Zinwa was instead
responsible for preparing the catchment's
outline plans. The section should
under normal circumstances be made up of
engineers, technicians and
economists who carry out infrastructural planning
and developments within
the authority.
"The strategic, tactical and operational planning in
Zinwa was left
without a coordinator and hence was being done haphazardly. I
discovered
that Zinwa did not have a business plan and that it was not the
responsibility of the planning section to formulate one," Chisi
said.
"At the time of my audit, according to the planning director,
Zinwa
was in the process of drafting a business plan, which had not taken
shape
since inception in 2000," she said.
Chisi said as at
January 2004, Zinwa had not made any meaningful
strides towards the
harmonisation of its operations as evidenced by the fact
that each of the
catchment areas was doing its own thing in terms of
operational
planning.
"It's my opinion that lack of planning contributed in a
major way to
the widespread disruptions of water supply to its customers,"
she said.
Chisi said maintenance of plant and equipment at water
treatment
plants were not being done properly.
"My visits to
the water treatment stations in the catchment areas
revealed that
maintenance of plant and equipment was not being done
according to standards
set by management, and according to the manufacturer's
specifications," she
said.
"Based on the station inspections which I conducted in the
catchment
areas, I concluded that maintenance was not being taken as a
priority by the
authority. I observed that pumps and pipes were rusty and
leaking and not
all gate valves were working," she said.
"The
tanks (reservoirs) were not cleaned at regular intervals. The
walls of
treatment tanks at most stations were almost falling apart due to
cracks and
leakages caused by lack of maintenance."
She said lack of proper
maintenance of equipment contributed to the
increase in the number of
breakdowns and also impacted negatively on the
health of the consumers as
the quality of water could be compromised.
Furthermore, an increase in pump
breakdowns might result in random water
cuts, which have an adverse bearing
on sanitation and the consumer's health.
Chisi said Zinwa had
failed to maintain the standby facility and as a
result stations were
failing to cope with the demand for water by consumers.
"The
situation was quite serious at growth points and small towns
which were
undergoing expansion programmes. There is need to have standby
pumps and
engines at every pumping point. This meant that at least two pump
units,
working in alternation at monthly intervals, were to be installed at
every
pumping point in the system," she said.
Chisi said staff manning
plant and equipment at most Zinwa stations
were not adequately trained,
contrary to management assertion that all staff
at stations was adequately
trained.
Zim Independent
GOVERNMENT has stopped the construction of toll gates along the
country's
major highways after the Transport and Communications
parliamentary
portfolio committee condemned the operation.
The committee said the
gates would hamper the expansion of the country's
two main cities, Harare
and Bulawayo.
Leo Mugabe, the chairman of the portfolio committee,
confirmed that
they had advised the government against the construction of
the toll gates
at the proposed sites since they affected the expansion of
the country's two
big cities.
Mugabe said: "We have discussed
the issue of proposed toll gates with
the Transport ministry and advised
them to remove all that had been
constructed along the highways since they
affect the expansion of the two
cities as they had been put just too near
the towns.
"As I speak, the proposed toll gates between Harare and
Norton in
Snake Park and along the Bulawayo to Beitbridge and Bulawayo to
Harare roads
have since been removed for that reason."
Government construction workers have started removing humps and grids
that
had been put last year at the proposed sites.
The toll gates were
erected 15 kilometres along the Bulawayo to
Beitbridge road and also along
the Bulawayo to Harare highway.
The proposed toll gates were
criticised as an attempt by government to
fleece money from overburdened
motorists already weighed down by
skyrocketing fuel and spare parts costs. -
Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Ray Matikinye
THERE is something ticklish in the
name of the chairperson of the
commission running the affairs of Harare that
rings true of how to react
when Local Government minister Ignatious Chombo
inflates her level of
competence to administer the capital.
Many ratepayers snigger up their sleeves when Chombo stretches the
truth
beyond its trading limit in defence of his protégé's questionable
credentials.
Few ratepayers now doubt the essence of the
decision by the Zanu PF
government to throw a fresh lifeline to Sekesai
Makwavara.
Zanu PF quakes in its shoes whenever the subject of
holding council
elections in the capital Harare is brought up.
Makwavara's presence at the helm of the commission is emblematic of
Zanu
PF's deep fear of losing a fair fight in urban council elections.
It symbolises how President Mugabe's party continues to subvert
democracy
even though he has often gloated: "No one can teach us about
democracy
because we brought democracy to this country," whenever his party
is
criticised for wiping its feet on democratic principles and
internationally
accepted practices.
The norm that democracy functions with the
consent of the governed is
alien to Zanu PF.
Instead, the party
would rather embrace "guided democracy" despite its
latent dangers of
misappropriating responsibility and accountability. It has
its pitfalls in
denying the electorate the right to freely choose who should
lead
them.
It substitutes the people's right to make choices,
reassigning it to
an individual in the likes of Chombo, who has set his own
record of
ruthlessness in ensuring opposition mayors in Mutare and
Chitungwiza are
dismissed.
Otherwise how else would the ruling
party explain the extension for a
record fifth time of Makwavara's term
despite overwhelming evidence of her
incompetence?
Analysts say
extending Makwavarara's term is ample evidence of how
Zanu PF celebrates
mediocrity as long as it serves its political agenda.
However,
prospects of an electoral defeat in the unlikely event of
Zanu PF
sanctioning polls in the near future will continue to hang round
Zanu PF's
neck like a millstone. It will debunk Mugabe's claims of being a
champion of
democracy.
Harare suffocates under piles of garbage, suburbs go for
months
without water, street lights are often on the blink and roads are
marred by
potholes that resemble craters.
All the bluster about
a Harare City Council turnaround strategy has
failed to translate into
tangible evidence of progress but this is the
pretext under which
Makwavarara and her associates have had their
appointments
extended.
One poignant sign of the city's deterioration was that
the Harare
Sheraton ran out of running water during an international
conference,
forcing guests to go without bathing and the international
Sheraton
organisation to withdraw its franchise from the hotel.
But critics cannot take it away from Makwavarara how she has
manipulated an
entrenched system of patronage within the ruling party to
maximum
advantage.
From a political nonentity renowned for hassling workers
who owed her
money when she worked in Harare's industrial sites as a data
capture clerk,
she has defied all set criteria and educational credentials
that govern one's
eligibility to preside over a town as mayor.
A political turncoat who rode into council on the crest of a wave of
popularity for the opposition MDC, Makwavarara has outsmarted even the most
vocal critics with remarkable shrewdness.
She has left party
veterans in the Harare provincial executive
wondering what she has that
blinds her mentors to allow a political upstart
to ride roughshod over them
and snap up a plum job ahead of them.
In an unusual challenge,
spokesperson for the Harare province branch
of Zanu PF, William Nhara, last
year accused Makwavarara of undermining the
ruling party.
He
said the commission chairperson lacked professionalism and
leadership
qualities.Yet no amount of vilification from party veterans who
fear her
continued chairmanship of the Harare commission had become a
liability could
prod her mentor, Chombo, to act on this political danger.
More
importantly, Makwavarara has blown the widely-held myth by the
urban
electorate that the conservative rural electorate allows itself to be
manipulated through threats of dire consequences to hand over electoral
victory to Zanu PF elections despite all its commonplace
failures.
Political scientist Eldred Masunungure defended the rural
electorate
for their behaviour in voting for Zanu PF.
"That
electorate should be credited for their cost and benefit
analysis,"
Masunungure, who is head of the department of politics and
administration at
the UZ, says.
"They know the consequences of their actions and how
Zanu PF could
easily withdraw its benevolence in the form of food aid and
permanent tenure
in the rural areas under the jurisdiction of compromised
tribal chiefs."
Urban ratepayers have failed to protest constant
denials by government
of the right to choose their own representatives. They
continue to sustain
an unelected administration.
Planned
protests by the Combined Harare Residents Association have
remained mere
threats and tend to fizzle out before they have even started.
In most
instances, the opposition MDC and civic groups have taken occasional
potshots at the commission.
Before elected executive mayor for
Harare Elias Mudzuri was suspended
from his duties in February 2002 on
allegations of misconduct and
mismanagement, Makwavarara turned the knife
into her boss's back, accusing
him of "buying expensive whisky for
consumption during council meetings and
squandering ratepayers'
money".
But her profligacy outshone all known squander by her
predecessors
when she ordered dismissed town clerk Nomutsa Chideya to
purchase curtains
worth $35 million for the mayoral mansion.
Makwavara bought $100 million worth of satellite equipment for the
same
mansion while residents endured serious water shortages and shoddy
service
delivery. She has gone on a jaunt to Russia at enormous cost to
ratepayers
with nothing to show for it. She has also presided over
ubiquitous decadence
of the city that once boasted the Sunshine City tag.
She has
credited herself with being able to "pay council workers on
time" as her
major achievement. Most workers belong to the Zanu PF-aligned
Harare
Municipal Workers Union. She may indeed prove good at what she does!
Zim Independent
POLICE working under the ongoing Operation Chikorokoza
Chapera have
arrested over 250 registered small-scale gold miners and
destroyed millions
of dollars worth of mining equipment in the
crackdown.
Small-scale gold miners supply gold to Fidelity
Printers, an arm of
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).
Zimbabwe Miners Federation president George Kawonza this week
confirmed the
arrest of members of his association and said it was
contemplating taking
legal action against the government if the police
continued with their
illegal action."The disruptions of mining operations by
the police are
illegal," said Kawonza. "As we speak right now all the
small-scale mines
have been shut down and police have destroyed mining
equipment that they
have been using and we are saying that is illegal
because our members are
all licensed (but) the police will not hear of
that."
Police
spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka however said police were not
shutting down any
mines but were arresting people who are committing crimes.
"The
police are not shutting down any mines but we are arresting
people that are
committing offences and that includes people who commit
crimes under the
guise of having licences," Mandipaka said.
Kawonza said the
national executive of his association will hold an
emergency meeting today
where a decision to sue the government or not would
be taken.
"We support fully the eradication of gold panning in this country but
for
legally licensed miners to be harassed in this manner is unacceptable
and
the police action will kill the economy because as we speak right now
there
are no gold deliveries to the RBZ," Kawonza said.
Minister of Mines
Amos Midzi could not be contacted for comment as he
was not answering his
mobile phone.
Close to 20 000 people have been arrested nationwide
since November
when police intensified the fight against gold panning
activities in the
country.
The government alleged that illegal
gold panners and small-scale
miners were smuggling tonnes of gold out of the
country.
Kawonza however dismissed claims that miners under his
association
were smuggling gold.
"The police claim they have
recovered only three kilogrammes of gold
since the operation began in
November. Where are the tonnes and tonnes of
gold they have been talking
about? The issue is that there is no more
surface gold. Government should
fund small-scale miners so that they can do
conventional mining alongside
the established miners." - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Shame Makoshori
KEY shareholders in First
National Building Society (FNBS) have
alleged that Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) governor Gideon Gono closed
their financial institution to "settle old
scores", saying he harboured
grudges with the society's management over a
dispute with him when he was
still chief executive officer of the Commercial
Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ).
They are now seeking re-instatement of the
cancelled licence, saying
the Registrar of Banks who acted on behalf of the
RBZ governor, had violated
statutory provisions of Section 14 of the
Building Societies Act which
compels the central bank to give a 30-day
notice of the intention to cancel
a building society's licence.
They argued that they received the Registrar's notice, which was
written on
August 24, on October 12, well
after the stipulated 30 days had
expired.
The shareholders, who have filed an appeal with Finance
minister
Herbert Murerwa, argue that FNBS was solvent but the Registrar of
Banks
acted in a misinformed position in withdrawing the society's licence,
adding
that the central bank's handling of the whole case was driven by
malice.
"The central bank instigated, and without good or lawful
cause, the
placing of the society into liquidation, more to vindicate their
earlier
decision on curatorship, than as a matter of principle," said the
shareholders in the appeal.
FNBS was placed under curatorship
by the RBZ in February 2003 and its
licence was cancelled in October last
year. The RBZ says several offers for
shareholders to find new investors to
inject fresh capital into the
financial institution had failed, forcing its
decision to withdraw the
institution's licence.
But the key
shareholders deny this, saying they had enough cash and
identified partners
who were willing to inject capital and revive the
operations of the building
society.
They allege that FNBS was solvent and events preceding its
closure
"were part of a wider conspiracy actuated by malice, blackmail,
double
standards, vindictiveness and personal glorification" by
Gono.
The shareholders Samson Ruturi and Nicholas Musona said Gono
ignored
due diligence reports by AMG Global Chartered Accountants which
confirmed
that FNBS was financially sound.
Gono, they said,
wanted to settle old scores as he viewed the key
shareholders as part of an
alleged coterie of individuals "back stabbing and
discrediting him" to
curtail his appointment as governor of the RBZ.
Ruturi and Musona
allege that Gono had been infuriated by a claim made
by FNBS to CBZ over an
irregularity on their interest payments which he felt
could scuttle his
prospects for appointment to the RBZ as its third
post-Independence
governor.
According to appeal papers filed with Murerwa's office,
Ruturi and
Musona, through their investment vehicles Lesal Investments and
Strongline
Investments, which together hold an 89,74% stake in FNBS, allege
that Gono
had been vindictive in his handling of their financial
institution's case
and that this had been due to a dispute in which he felt
Ruturi and Musona
were trying to decrease CBZ's annual profits through a
hefty claim of
interest payments on FNBS' investments with CBZ.
The appeal documents dated November 23, allege that FNBS had an
accommodation facility with CBZ in 2002 but CBZ had overcharged interest on
the account while FNBS' deposits were not paid interest for a number of days
from the date of deposit.
By June 2002 interest due to FNBS had
ballooned to $320 million.
Attempts by FNBS to recover the money
did not go down well with Gono
who responded by closing the facility to
force them to stop the claims, the
appeal alleges.
The bankers
said they resolved not to relent and kept pursing their
claim but CBZ
retaliated by bouncing or returning FNBS customers' cheques,
including a
$110 million POSB cheque, under the pretext of non-renewal of
the
accommodation facility.
The documents allege that Gono had pleaded
with Ruturi and Musona, who
were also part of the FNBS management, to defer
their claims to an
unspecified date, arguing that if CBZ paid the $320
million, the settlement
would affect CBZ's annual profits during the year
and consequently affect
prospects for his appointment to the helm of the
central bank.
"At one of the meetings between Ruturi and the then
CBZ chief
executive officer, (Gono) hinted that he had been earmarked for an
appointment to be the governor of RBZ," the appeal documents says,
indicating that Gono had alleged during the meeting that certain individuals
were "back-stabbing him to discredit him and prevent his ascendancy to the
position of central bank governor".
"The then CBZ CEO urged
Ruturi to look at the bigger picture and
ignore pursuing FNBS' claim of $320
million as it would nearly dissipate
profits declared by CBZ. He advised
that FNBS must not be counted amongst
the bandwagon of his detractors," the
appeal document reads.
They said Gono tried to avoid paying FNBS'
interests "at all cost" and
suggested that the society's accommodation
facility be transferred to the
RBZ.
They claim that Gono's plan
had been executed with "subterfuge,
conspiracy and downright corruption
(which was) laid down to besmirch,
incarcerate and wrestle their assets to
take over control of FNBS".
On October 31 2002, CBZ is alleged in
the documents to have demanded
that FNBS must abandon its claim in exchange
for the restoration of the
facility but the facility only worked for a few
weeks before it was closed
without their knowledge.
"The FNBS
claim against CBZ over the $320 million became the
instrument to be used
later in all forms of blackmail against Ruturi and
Musona to prevent them
from pursuing the recovery of this money," the
shareholders charged in their
appeal to Murerwa.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
ZIMBABWE'S frail dollar plumbed fresh depths to hit
$2 900 to the
greenback on the thriving parallel market, starting the year
2007 on a
somber note and reinforcing gloomy forecasts of an unprecedented
acceleration in the rate of inflation.
The rate was at over $3
000/US$ for large volume transactions.
Other major currencies,
mainly the British pound, the South African
rand and Botswana pula, were
moving around the benchmark US dollar rate.
The local unit was
trading above $5 100, $400 and $380 to the British
pound, the Botswana pula
and the South African rand respectively.
The local unit had closed
the year at $2 500 to the US dollar. Dealers
said they expected the local
currency to hit fresh depths in the coming few
weeks when companies re-open
for business and demand for foreign currency
intensifies.
The
local unit remained fixed at $250 to the greenback on the
inter-bank rate,
but there were market-wide expectations Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ)
governor Gideon Gono was likely to devalue the local unit
drastically when
he presents his monetary policy statement for the year.
The British
pound, the Botswana pula and the South African rand are
trading at $492, $42
and $36 to the local unit.
Analysts said the unpredictable central
bank governor, who has kept
the market in abeyance after postponing his
monetary policy presentation
from December 7 to late January, could,
however, disappoint an expectant
market by moving the exchange rate only
marginally or not at all.
Bank economists said the Zimbabwe dollar
was still battling to find a
bottom on the parallel market due to escalating
demand from both
institutional buyers and individuals trying to escape
inflation-induced
losses on local currency holdings.
Parallel
market dealers said the currency had been moving daily during
the week in
line with mounting demand.
Economic consultant John Robertson said
parallel market rates would
continue to rise until foreign currency inflows
improve and major sectors of
the economy start performing.
The
hyperinflationary environment had made it unattractive to hold the
local
currency when costs for goods and services go up almost everyday,"
Robertson
said.
Robertson said the market was expecting Reserve Bank governor
Gideon
Gono to adjust the exchange rate significantly.
Economic
research and consultancy firm, Techfin Research forecast
Zimbabwe's
embattled domestic currency's fair value by December last year at
$814,15 to
the US dollar, against $250 to the greenback fixed by the Reserve
Bank in
August.
Techfin said the frail currency would reach a fair value of
$1 058,39
to the US unit at the start of 2007 and end the year at a fair
value rate of
$16 588,73 to the US dollar.
The projections
support gloomy forecasts made by the International
Monetary Fund (IMF)
suggesting Zimbabwe's economic crisis in likely to
accelerate at an
unprecedented rate next year.
The IMF expects inflation to average
4 278,8% by December this year,
with real gross domestic product (GDP)
contracting by 4,7%.
Zim Independent
Shame Makoshori
MICROSOFT Corporation's
official representative in Zimbabwe, MS
Solutions (MSS), has embarked on a
campaign to stop the illegal use of
pirated software, which is rampant in
the country.
MSS was appointed Microsoft's local agent last year
after the
international software giant had gone for two years without a
representative
in the country.
The absence of an official
representative had been attributed to the
increase in the use of pirated
software in most companies.
MSS, an information technology (IT)
firm involved in the distribution
and servicing of computer software and
hardware, this week said it would not
be confrontational in the initial
stages of the campaign but warned it would
seek the help of law enforcement
agents if illegal dealers continued to
illegally distribute the Microsoft
products.
IT experts estimate that between 75% and 80% of available
Microsoft
software in Zimbabwe is pirated.
They said MSS was
likely to find the task of clamping down on illegal
software usage difficult
considering that software users are scattered
around the country and MSS
might have limited human resources to efficiently
do the job.
Samir Popatlal, an MSS executive director, told businessdigest that
his
company would tackle the illegal trade in Microsoft software to minimise
software piracy.
Popatlal said MSS this week began writing to
listed companies warning
them to stop dealing with unregistered Microsoft
dealers.
"We will not take the punitive route, but we have written
to most
listed companies in Zimbabwe advising them that MSS has been awarded
the
franchise so they should not deal with illegal agents," Popatlal
said.
In the last quarter of 2006, Microsoft Corporation launched
Vista, its
first new computer operating system in five years.
MSS said companies dealing with original products will have the new
system
installed on existing machines.
"There is new software that will be
introduced this year and it will
be difficult to get the updates for those
companies dealing with illegal
distributors," he said.
Zimbabwe
has been hit by an influx of pirated musical videos, audio
cassettes and
computer software.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has
established an anti-piracy unit
in an effort to stop the illegal trade but
the efforts have had limited
success.
Science and technology
development has been described as an important
tool for sustained economic
development across the world but the increasing
demand for software has led
to the emergence of illegal traders.
Zim Independent
By Admire
Mavolwane
THE beginning of the year is always one occasion on
which every
economist, analysts, accountant or witchdoctor worthy of his, or
her, keep -
and even some whose performances set against this criterion are
judged as
falling well short of it - is expected to provide an opinion on
what the
next 12 months are likely to have in store for the
economy.
This notwithstanding a wealth of worldwide evidence
spanning hundreds,
if not thousands, of years illustrating that the
predictions of even the
wisest and best informed among us cannot always be
relied upon to give a
convincing, still less wholly accurate, guide to
future events. One reason
for this virtually unavoidable shortcoming, at
least according to one of
Britain's most literary 19th century prime
ministers, is that: "What we
anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expect
generally happens."
A very early and quite possibly the most
distinguished casualty of the
unexpected this year could well be the
Minister of Finance for having put
his trust in the Meteorological
Department's forecast of a "near-normal"
rainy season in 2006/07 and its
consequential budget prediction of
agricultural output growing by 9,4% and
real gross domestic product (GDP) by
between 0,5% and 1%. As the sage of
Omaha, Warren Buffet, once said,
"forecasts tell you more about the
forecaster and less about the future".
While no rainfall records
for the country as a whole have been
published, anecdotal evidence and some
privately compiled figures suggest
that for the period to the end of
December not only has the onset of the
general rains been delayed but
individual falls have been patchy and
variable and in total well below
normal for the agriculturally important
areas. Such conditions almost
invariably presage a below average summer
cropping season, at once calling
into question the budget's presumption of a
return to overall positive
growth.
Moreover, even if "near-normal" rains do fall over the next
two months
or so their potentially beneficial agricultural effect could
largely be
negated by a threatened further wave of evictions, by
mid-February, of many
if not most of the rump of the remaining white
commercial farmers.
It is the latter who, against all the odds, are
expected to harvest
the bulk of this season's 65 000 kilogrammes of
flue-cured tobacco
representing an approximately 18% increase on last year's
sales, a rare
positive result in an otherwise highly decimated agricultural
sector.
Maize production is virtually certain to once again fall
far below the
regularly predicted targets figure of 1,8 million tonnes to
the extent that
700 000 to 800 000 tonnes of cereal urgently have to be
imported to avert
starvation particularly in the southern half of the
country.
Nor is there much confidence in industrial circles that
the officially
estimated 2% fall in manufacturing output in 2006 is likely
to be reversed
failing much increased availability of foreign exchange for
the procurement
of essential imports of raw materials, spares, intermediate
inputs and
capital equipment.
Mining sector output growth too
depends crucially upon the ability to
secure essential foreign inputs, a
favourable exchange rate regime and
official assurances that investment will
actually be protected and not just
welcomed.
Much has been made
of tourism's great foreign exchange earning
potential. But the sector's
future contribution to export earnings also
depends crucially upon the
introduction of an exchange rate regime which
will dispel the impression of
a high cost destination for potentially big
spending foreigners. Press
reports of a recent survey which concluded that
Harare is the world's most
expensive city for expatriates do the country's
reputation little
good.
Those dismissing such accounts as nothing more than hostile
Western
propaganda should take time off themselves to check the evidence.
One item
mentioned in the survey was toothpaste reported to be on sale at
US$8. This
was stated as costing almost three times more than in New York
and eight
times more than in Johannesburg.
On a quick tour of a
few supermarkets, the best priced 50ml tube
spotted, converted at the
official exchange rate, gave a price of US$8,88,
the increase no doubt
accounted for by the rise in domestic currency prices
since the above survey
was conducted, on its own a major cause for concern.
The fact is
that the overvalued official exchange rate undoubtedly
keeps prices in
foreign currency terms extremely high. It is argued that
this has the merit
of holding down prices of essential imports such as fuel
and food. But
regrettably it all too often provides opportunities for
arbitrage, rent
seeking and profit for a favoured few.
The other side of the coin
is that export sector viability, earnings
and growth are squeezed between
low domestic currency returns and costs
based on the much higher parallel
rate. Asset and investment prices are
pushed up and their returns to
foreigners depressed giving no encouragement
to foreign capital inflows
which are generally accepted as one missing
component of
recovery.
The failure to bring public spending, credit creation and
the budget
deficit under control will, one way or another, inevitably lead
to yet
higher and higher inflation.
The toothpaste story also
holds another lesson. Veterans of Tanzania's
collapse in ruination between
1976 and 1984 like to joke that the bottom of
the economic trough was
reached when Dar es Salaam's best hotel taps yielded
nothing apart from
cockroaches and all the country's toothpaste had to be
imported.
Zimbabwe is patently moving towards satisfying both
these conditions.
Whether this will indeed herald the beginning of a change
for the better
this year or whether it will simply constitute another
milestone on the
country's on-going search for home-grown, non orthodox
solutions to its
economic problems remains as elusive a question as ever to
answer.
Zim Independent
Shame
Makoshori
ECONOMIC analysts have expressed mixed feelings over
calls for the
country to set up a foreign currency allocation committee to
oversee the
management of Zimbabwe's scarce foreign currency
resources.
While saying that it was imperative for Zimbabwe to set
up proper
structures to supervise the allocation of foreign currency, the
analysts
said capable individuals should be appointed to run such a
committee if they
were set up.
If set up, a foreign currency
allocation committee would be expected
to increase transparency and
accountability in the way the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) manages foreign
currency, proponents of the committee have
argued.
Independent
economist, John Robertson, warned that there was a risk of
the committee
putting stringent controls on the exchange rate, overvaluing
the local
currency in the process.
"Market forces should be allowed to
determine the exchange rate. But a
foreign currency allocation committee
would determine the exchange - the
exchange rate must not be regulated,"
Robertson said.
University of Zimbabwe graduate school of
management lecturer, Isaac
Kwesu, said he did not see anything wrong with
setting up structures to help
the RBZ rationalise the allocation of foreign
currency.
"We always need proper structures for the accountable
allocation of
scarce resources," he said.
"Foreign currency
allocation committees are there even in developed
countries where market
forces determine the exchange rates. The problem
arises if there are too
many controls imposed by the committees. That (will)
end up distorting the
market," Kwesu said.
He said the United States and Japan had
successful foreign currency
management committees that worked hand-in-hand
with their central banks.
Zimbabwe is currently going through its
worst economic crisis in
history, characterised mainly by acute foreign
currency shortages that have
forced the central bank into shifting exchange
rate policies since Gideon
Gono took over as the central bank governor in
2003.
The RBZ re-introduced the interbank system in October 2005
after
experimenting with the auction system which it adopted in January
2004.
The auction system was meant to restore stability in the
foreign
exchange market which has been overtaken by the parallel
market.
While the exchange rate on the auction system was allowed
to adjust
periodically, critics said it had been of little benefit to
exporters
because the adjustments were not realistic and did not allow
exporters to
break even.
As a result, export receipts had not
improved as anticipated under the
auction system.
In
re-introducing the interbank trading system, RBZ governor Gono said
he
wanted to promote the "allocative efficiencies in the foreign exchange
market".
Under this system, all exporters retain 70% of their
export proceeds
in foreign currency accounts and sell the remainder at the
auction exchange
rate run by the central bank at determined
rates.
Exporters can now sell the foreign currency held in their
accounts
through authorised dealers.
There has been little sign
that the major thrust of the RBZ's policy -
encouraging export viability and
therefore a boost in foreign currency
receipts - has given any life to the
troubled currency market.
Zim Independent
Pindai Dube
THE Consumer Council of Zimbabwe
(CCZ) has accused wholesalers and
retailers of fuelling inflation by selling
basic commodities at exorbitant
prices on the parallel market.
CCZ Matabeleland representative, Comfort Muchekeza, said the
wholesalers
were hoarding scarce basic commodities for resale on the
parallel market at
exorbitant prices.
"Wholesalers and retailers have been hoarding
the commodities whenever
the commodities are available from the
manufacturers (but) while the
commodity is scarce in shops, it can be seen
in push carts outside the
shop," said Muchekeza.
He said
retailers and wholesalers were hoarding basic commodities in
anticipation of
price increases, leading to artificial shortages.
Muchekeza said
this was further exacerbated by panic buying by
consumers fearing
significant price increases.
"Due to the anticipation of a price
increases, consumers have been
panic buying commodities whenever they are
available," he said.
He said law enforcement agents should monitor
the conduct of some
businesses especially wholesalers and retailers as they
were fuelling the
black market.
"As CCZ, we call upon the
police and government to effectively monitor
the business conduct of some
wholesalers and retailers as these are the ones
fuelling the shortages of
basic commodities," he said.
Last month CCZ blasted bakeries for
supplying confectionery, super
loaves and low quality loaves instead of the
ordinary standard loaf.
Industry and International Trade minister
Obert Mpofu has vowed to
deal with shops that are flouting price controls
and violating the
Controlled Goods Act by increasing prices of controlled
commodities.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
THE property market remained
subdued last year, with prospects of
recovery remaining weak on the back of
increasing inflationary pressures
expected this year.
The first
half of last year saw the property market playing second
fiddle to other
investment vehicles such as the money market, and the trend
is likely to be
maintained this year, with the majority of funds going into
equities and,
should money market rates, which increased during the last
days of December,
remain firm, funds would be kept away from brick and
mortar.
The cumbersome bureaucratic system is likely to remain in place, with
property market transactions taking a long time to conclude.
Against the backdrop of an inflationary environment, this is expected
to
force investors into other forms of investments as the value of
transactions
is likely to change during transaction periods.
Analysts said they
were less optimistic over property market prospects
this year, indicating
that a repeat of last year's scenario was likely this
year.
High interest rates in December had dampened activity on the property
market
as investors parked their funds in the money market where rates had
increased considerably.
Properties remained priced beyond many
potential buyers in a market
where the bulk of the country's working class
no longer qualifies for bank
loans or mortgages.
A standard
medium-density house, which cost between $25 million and
$50 million in
January last year, opened the year priced at around $150
million.
A standard three bed-roomed house in the high-density
areas now costs
between $25 million and $60 million from last year's opening
prices of
between $15 million and $30 million.
A standard house
in the low-density areas now costs over $200 million.
The same kind of house
would have had an asking price of about $80 million
in January last
year.
Figures obtained from Southbay Real Estate indicated that by
November
last year, rentals in Harare had also significantly gone
up.
Retail space went for between $3 000 and $4 500 per square
metre,
while office space was going for between $1 000 and $2
000.
Industrial space was the cheapest at between $300 and $750 per
square
metre.
Rentals for residential properties for medium and
low density houses
were pegged at between $150 000 and $700 000 by November
last year, and
significant changes in rentals are expected this
month.
Rentals for flats were at $80 000 and $300 000 for medium
and
low-density accommodation respectively.
Residential stands
in high-density areas were being charged at between
$5 000 and $10 000 per
square metre while residential stands in low density
areas cost between $10
000 and $20 000 per square metre.
According to information gathered
from the country's four building
societies - Central African Building
Society, Beverley, Intermarket and FBC
Building Society - many mortgage
applications were turned down because the
applicants did not meet the income
requirements.
"The rate at which property prices are increasing
made it impossible
for first time home buyers to own a house," an official
said.
"Salaries have failed to match the rate at which inflation is
rising.
Interest rates on the market have to some extent chased a number of
potential buyers away," the official said.
Real Estate
Institute of Zimbabwe president Nico Kuipa said for the
eighth year running
there were no major developments on the property market
due to the unstable
economic environment and hyperinflation.
"Demand for space to let,
particularly commercial, continued to shrink
as companies downsized on space
requirements. Rentals, although increasing
in sympathy with inflation, were
still way below regional levels and at the
levels they are, are not good
enough to attract new developments," Kuipa
said.
Kuipa said
current office rentals were under US$1 per square metre
compared to between
US$5 and $10 per square metre in the region.
"Rental returns for
property owners were severely being curtailed by
inflation-driven building
operating costs, in particular rates, water and
security," Kuipa
said.
"The tenant, in deciding to take up space, looks at the total
occupation costs and we now have in the majority of cases instances where
operating costs exceed rentals by up to one and a half times," Kuipa
said.
Kuipa said there was an acute shortage of houses and flats to
let,
contributing to the upward movement in rentals.
"In the
case of houses and flats to let, one particular supply side
bottleneck is
the much talked about Residential Rent Regulations which
caused institutions
to shy away from housing as this sector had poor returns
due to controls,"
Kuipa said.
The trend of quarterly rent reviews became the norm as
a cushion on
the impact of rising inflation.
A three-roomed
house in the low-density which cost between $20 000 and
$40 000 is now being
rented for between $100 000 and $200 000.
Medium-density areas,
which recorded the most significant movement
throughout last year, saw
houses being let for between $200 000 and $450 000
in November, from between
$30 000 and $50 000 in January last year.
Low-density house rentals
are above $450 000, from between $50 000 and
$150 000 in
January.
Government's plans to introduce a policy in which new
residential
property owners would not be subject to rent control for the
first 10 years
in a bid to lure investors into the country's dull property
industry
remained unfulfilled.
However, property analysts said
rent controls should be phased out
completely.
They said the
policy would not revive the industry as a decade is not
enough for investors
to realise good returns on investments.
Since 2000, there has been
insignificant investment in the property
market particularly residential and
the major obstacle has been rent
control.
Announcing the
mid-term fiscal policy review in July last year,
Finance minister Herbert
Murerwa said government had scrapped the 20%
Capital Gains Tax on the
transfer of residential properties from companies
to employee housing trust
funds, in a move targeted at improving access to
housing.
Capital Gains Tax is tax charged on the sale of immovable property and
marketable securities.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
HARARE is likely to be stuck
with the Sekesai Makwavarara-led
commission, an unelected body, if Zanu PF
succeeds in its push to have
presidential and parliamentary elections in
2010.
Zanu PF wants to harmonise the presidential and parliamentary
elections and possibly council elections in 2010. The excuse given by party
spokespersons is that this will "save money and simplify electoral
logistics". The proposal faces resistance from both Zanu PF camps: one led
by retired army commander General Solomon Mujuru and the other by politburo
bigwig Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mujuru is understood to have openly
voiced his opposition during last
month's politburo meeting but the party
was largely whipped into line behind
the plan. However, there were signs of
dissent at the subsequent Goromonzi
conference and the matter was eventually
referred back to the provinces and
the central committee.
Harare province secretary for publicity William Nhara said his
provincial
executive had only discussed the harmonisation of mayoral and
council
elections.
"The issue of harmonising presidential elections is a
highly explosive
political issue. Our main focus of discussion was issues
that affect Harare
as an urban province," Nhara said last
month.
Nhara said Harare province would go along with the others if
the
harmonisation of presidential and general elections came up for
discussion.
"It is not a matter of competing on resolutions. The
conference is
meant to discuss issues that come up."
The
proposal to harmonise elections in 2010 was followed by Local
Government
minister Ignatious Chombo's extension of the Makwavarara-led
Harare
commission's tenure for a further six months.
Chombo on Friday
announced several new members of the Harare
commission chaired by
Makwavarara, who was re-appointed earlier this month
to a fifth term amid
criticism by civic activists.
The new Harare commission members
include as deputy chair, Robson
Mafoti, CEO of the Scientific and Industrial
Research and Development
Centre, Killian Mupingo, a member of the board of
the Zimbabwe United
Passenger Company, Civil Protection Unit director
Madzudzo Pawadyira, Sylvia
Masango, a principal director in the office of
Vice-President Joice Mujuru,
and Sasha Jogi, president of the Urban Planners
Association. One post
remains to be filled, and Chombo said the candidate he
had in mind for the
slot is a lawyer.
Passed over were Jameson
Kurasha, Justin Chivavaya, a Harare
provincial administrator still facing
corruption charges over Operation
Garikai housing allocations at Whitecliff,
Michael Mahachi and Alfred Tome.
Chombo axed Tendai Savanhu and
Prisca Mupfumira, both of them highly
placed in the ruling Zanu PF party.
Callisto Matafare was removed too.
Political observers said Chombo
was punishing the first two Zanu PF
officials for their involvement in
efforts by the ruling party's Harare
office to remove Makwavarara from Town
House.
Analysts said in as much as the endorsement of the
harmonisation
proposal would allow Mugabe to remain at the helm after 2008
and see the
continued extension of the Harare Commission's term of office,
the whole
development shows that Zimbabwe is in a constitutional
crisis.
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) chairman Mike
Davies said
the confusion between elections and harmonisation should be
addressed by the
constitution through a referendum and not a Zanu PF
conference.
"The whole process is a violation of both the electoral
laws and the
Urban Councils Act," Davies said. "We will continue to push in
court for
council elections."
Opposition MDC secretary for
Local Government Trudy Stevenson said
elections harmonisation can only be
authorised through a constitutional
amendment and a host of legislative
changes bringing other affected laws
into line.
"The only
technicality that can allow council elections, even if the
issue of
harmonisation is passed, is that local authorities' polls are not
defined by
the constitution," Stevenson said.
"In this particular case it
would work to our favour because we can't
afford to keep the Makwavarara
commission for the next three years." She
said there had been some
recommendations from the Urban Councils Association
of Zimbabwe and Rural
District Councils to constitutionalise local
authorities.
Legal
experts said in terms of Section 121 of the Electoral Act
[Chapter 2:13] "a
general election of councillors shall be held in any
fourth year on any day
in the month of August fixed by the commission in
terms of Section 120 (4)".
The next general elections for the Harare City
Council were therefore due in
August 2006.
"Accordingly, the last day upon which a general
election of
councillors must have been held in the City of Harare was 31
August 2006,"
experts said.
"The effect of Section 124 of the
Electoral Act is to require the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, by notice
published in a newspaper and posted
at its office, to give not less than 28
days notice of a polling day and
also of various matters ancillary to the
holding of the relevant election.
It follows that the last day upon which
such notice could have been given,
and still remain in compliance with the
provisions of Section 121 (2) of the
Electoral Act in respect of a general
election of councillors in the City of
Harare, was 3 August
2006."
Stevenson said the development could attract a flurry of
legal
challenges to try and force government to hold elections on the
strength of
the Electoral Act and the Urban Councils Act.
"Harare residents deserve nothing short of an elected and accountable
leadership to replace the corrupt and dysfunctional Makwavarara-led
commission that was forcibly imposed by Chombo two years ago following the
dismissal of an elected MDC council led by Engineer Elias Mudzuri,"
Stevenson said.
"It appears Chombo is determined to stifle
democracy by extending the
term of the Makwavarara commission. This is
despite overwhelming evidence of
poor service delivery, rampant looting of
council property, corruption,
mismanagement of council property and a
carefree attitude coupled with
downright arrogant behaviour towards the
plight of the ratepayers exhibited
by the commission. This is totally
unacceptable and it must be stopped."
Stevenson said the opposition
party had joined Harare residents in
resisting Chombo's "obnoxious, stinking
and hypocritical machinations by
demanding their right to elect leaders of
their choice to run the affairs of
the city".
Observers say
there is a possibility of Makwavarara continuing at the
helm of Town House
considering how storms of protests within the ruling
party, including the
politburo seven months ago and the Zanu PF Harare
provincial executive vote
of no-confidence in her, were ignored by Chombo
who extended her term last
week for another six months.
Zanu PF Harare province was seeking to
oust Makwavarara, alleging that
she had undermined the position of the party
because of her lack of capacity
to lead the city. And not being a member of
the party herself, she could not
expect cooperation from the residents and
the party in Harare.
Harare provincial spokesman Nhara said
recently Makwavarara lacked the
professional and leadership skills to
deliver to ratepayers' expectations.
"Service delivery is not
improving, contrary to minister Chombo's
claims," Nhara said.
"We want to be educated on where there are improvements. Maybe the
minister
is measuring the city's improvements using growth-point standards."
He alleged Makwavarara had a tendency of making arbitrary decisions
without
consulting stakeholders or even other commissioners.
"As
stakeholders in Harare, we no longer have confidence in
Makwavarara," Nhara
said.
"We will not provide her with any support and we hope other
stakeholders will join in."
The position was reached after
realising that service delivery in the
city was deteriorating under
Makwavarara's leadership.
Nhara said basic service delivery was not
being carried out, and
erratic water supplies and burst sewage pipes were
becoming a perennial
problem.
He said Makwavarara was not
suitable to spearhead the turnaround at
Town House because of her lack of
professional qualifications.
"We want people who can turn around
the fortunes of Harare, are able
to deliver and have the necessary
credentials," Nhara said at the time.
"There are certain
prerequisites for each job, at least demonstrable
deliverable even through
experience. Makwavarara doesn't have any
professional qualifications. She
has undermined and demeaned the position of
the party in Harare and not
being a member of the party herself, she cannot
expect any further
cooperation from the residents and the party in Harare,"
he
said.
Zim Independent
By Chris
Mhike
IN recent weeks, the judiciary has been subjected to
intense verbal
and press-based attacks. That aggression is particularly
lamentable as it
emanates from men who should know better.
The
culprits, high-ranking government officials and other senior
authorities,
ought to be familiar with the basics as well as the intricacies
of the
substantive and procedural law relating to the treatment of accused
persons.
But, alas, distinguished officials have stampeded for
space in the
news columns and for air-time on the small screen to lash out
at the bench.
The furore follows a most commendable recent visit by
Judge President
Rita Makarau to the remand section of Harare Central
Prison.
It is common knowledge to all those who care that standards
in
Zimbabwe's prisons have deteriorated to horrendous levels since
independence. The good judge must have seen for herself the gravity of the
situation during her visit.
Prisoners complain of hunger,
forced to survive on one very poor meal
a day. Just a small portion of sadza
and a few leaves of boiled cabbage,
without tomatoes nor cooking
oil.
The horror starts in the holding cells at the police station
where the
accused is subjected to sub-human treatment, forced to remove
shoes and
under-clothes, including panties, even for menstruating
women.
A tiny cell designed for four or less persons holding more
than 30
people at a time, with lavatory facilities in the same room, and
flushed
once a day from a point located outside the cell.
These
are but a few glimpses, not an exhaustive description of the
conditions that
suspects are subjected to at police stations, and at remand
prison. But
suspects are not convicts. Should the accused's bail application
fail, the
nightmare continues at remand prison.
Indeed, imprisonment at most
prisons in Zimbabwe, including Harare
Central Prison's remand section, or
incarceration at holding cells at police
stations, has become a form of
torture.
The honourable judge discovered during the visit that
certain inmates
had been locked up in remand prison for as long as nine
years, without trial
or sentence. Remand prisoners are in the main persons
who have not been
tried and therefore who are not, at that stage
technically, and sometimes in
fact, guilty.
Even in the case of
convicts, the diabolic treatment of citizens in
police cells and in prison
is totally unacceptable in a democratic society.
Under these
circumstances, therefore, one of the most sensible
outcomes of Justice
Makarau's prison visit was the release of some remand
prisoners. The Herald
reports, without giving a specific figure, that "more
than 100" were
released.
They were released, not on judicial pardon (as is
sometimes done by
the president through the presidential pardon system).
They were admitted to
bail by competent judicial authorities, who presided
over the prisoners'
applications. The judges considered the circumstances of
the applicants, and
submissions by prosecutors (that is representatives of
the state).
Also under consideration would have been the Judge
President's
post-visit observations. Due legal processes were definitely
followed.
Prison officials were part of the tour and pre-release
deliberations.
Justice Makarau could not, as has been suggested in
the press, issue a
blanket directive ordering the release of "more than 100
criminals". Release
becomes possible only after the sort of applications
that were made at the
High Court.
There are many considerations
that guide magistrates and judges as
they preside over bail applications.
But the starting point in bail
proceedings, for most proficient judicial
officers, is the constitution.
Defective as the Constitution of
Zimbabwe is, at least it still
carries a Declaration of Rights. The
declaration is not adequately
expansive, but it all the same provides a
degree of valuable and fundamental
protection to citizens.
"No
person shall be deprived of his personal liberty," says the law.
That
provision is qualified in the same constitution when it is stated that
the
law may condone deprivation of liberty "upon reasonable suspicion of his
having committed, or being about to commit, a criminal
offence".
Related to the citizen's entitlement to liberty is the
cardinal
principle known as the presumption of innocence. This is a most
basic and
well-established tenet not just at home but the world over,
stipulating that
every person shall be presumed innocent until proven
guilty.
This tenet is critical in preserving the credibility of any
legal
system, as well as the credibility of the prison system. That
presumption
should be applied to any accused person, including ex-convicts
because each
case has to be treated on its own merits.
In the
case of preserving the credibility of the legal system, if
suspects are
wrongfully incarcerated, no amount of money or other material
award would
compensate their loss of liberty.
Very little, if anything, would
restore the confidence of the victims,
or society at large, in the system
where it is possible that an innocent
person could be locked
up.
It is better for society to suffer the menace inflicted by a
criminal
who was wrongfully released than for an innocent person to be
wrongfully
imprisoned, especially under the conditions of local prisons or
police
cells.
In civilised society, wrongful incarceration is a
very expensive
mistake because the state would have to pay out huge amounts
of money in
compensation. Not so in Zimbabwe.
But the
motivation to spare citizens from wrongful arrest and
imprisonment should
basically be to uphold the integrity of the legal system
more than the fear
of financial losses.
In the case of the prison system, the
integrity of the Zimbabwe
Prisons Service would be irredeemably undermined
if citizens were to be
denied bail purely on the grounds that they are
"notorious criminals", or
that they have been convicted before.
Imprisonment upon conviction is not just punitive. There should also
be a
reformative objective. A sound prison system should be able to reform a
convict so that upon his or her release, they will be transformed, shying
away from crime.
Many convicts do reform. Often times, out of
laziness and out of
prejudices, police officers target ex-convicts as the
prime or first
suspects. It sometimes turns out that these easy targets are
in fact
innocent.
The presumption of innocence and the right to
personal liberty should
therefore be applied to every citizen, and extended
even to persons with
poor criminal records.
In the ongoing
assault on the judiciary, two of the most prominent
protagonists who seem to
refuse to appreciate the significance of the right
to personal liberty, and
the presumption of innocence, include Home Affairs
minister Kembo Mohadi and
Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri.
The Herald of December 4
2006 screamed in a front-page story that
Mohadi had hit out at the judiciary
over the release of remand prisoners.
The accused were referred to as
"criminals".
The minister is reported to have said: "I am disturbed
by the vicious
cycle in which notorious armed robbers are arrested by
police, placed on
remand and granted bail to rejoin the communities they
terrorise."
He went on to accuse the judiciary of "complicity in
the granting of
bail to such criminals".
Chihuri had been
quoted a week earlier as having commented about the
"criminals". He took a
"swipe at the judiciary" over the same issue.
In Zimbabwe, the rule
in application in most cases is: "guilty until
proven innocent". The
commissioner said: "I don't understand it anymore.
These are cross-border
criminals who operate in syndicates and deserve
deterrent
sentences."
There has been no scientific substantiation to the
suggestions that
"more than 100 'criminals' were released", or that the
recent prison visit
by the Judge President is directly linked to an upsurge
in crime levels. It
is all speculation and suspicion.
A
reporter wrote in the Herald of November 16 2006 that "in a
development that
could be linked to the recent release of more than 100
suspected carjackers,
robbers and burglars from Harare Central Prison . . .
the crime rate in the
city of Harare has risen sharply".
The prevailing economic
environment, high unemployment and poor
national and local governance all
make a more probable explanation to the
higher crime levels.
When one considers the inefficiency of a system that allows people to
rot in
prison for nine or more years, in light of the principles of liberty
to the
citizen and the presumption of innocence, it becomes quite clear that
the
latest attack on the judiciary is unjustified.
* Mhike is a lawyer
practising in Harare.
Zim Independent
By
Wellington Mbofana
THIS year marks 30 years since President
Robert Mugabe ascended to the
throne of Zanu PF, 27 years since he assumed
leadership of the country and
20 years since he browbeat the late Joshua
Nkomo and Zapu into a marriage of
convenience.
Given his long
tenure and advanced age, it has become inevitable that
members of his party
and indeed citizens of the country ponder his
succession. In recent years
the subject of Mugabe's succession has become
imperative given the tenuous
state of the economy.
There is no doubt that Mugabe has cleverly
dominated Zimbabwean
politics over the past 30 years. He has also
consolidated his power in Zanu
PF, the state and government with the same
cleverness and firmness.
Despite Mugabe's insistence that he was
not going to groom any
successor ascribing the function to the party and
people of Zimbabwe, some
still mislead themselves into believing that Mugabe
was anointing heirs and
preparing to leave.
Since Joice
Mujuru's rise to the presidium in 2004, talk was rife that
she was being
groomed to take over from Mugabe. Before November 2004
Emmerson Mnangagwa
was touted as the heir apparent to the Zimbabwean throne.
After
2002 Mugabe managed to lead many along the garden path with his
hints mostly
to foreign media that he would soon be leaving. Yet a close
study at the man
and his political dexterity reveals that he is going
nowhere. This is
because he never intended to go anywhere and he no longer
has anywhere to go
anyway.
In December Mugabe on three separate occasions suggested as
such when
he asked: ". . . Munoda kuti ndiendepi? (. . . where do you expect
me to
go)?" He reinforced this by suggesting that only God knows when he is
leaving office.
In the 1990s he declared that he would only go
the Mugabe way as
opposed to the Mandela and Nyerere way of handing the
baton over to younger
leaders, the Kaunda and Banda way of losing elections
and the Mobutu way of
fleeing the country with the citizens in hot pursuit.
It has become apparent
that the Mugabe way leads from State House to Heroes
Acre.
It has been suggested by others that it is not in Mugabe's
interest to
leave power. It has become risky for strongmen to live after
power. The slow
but surely grinding wheels of justice and the long arm of
the law have
developed a knack for reaching former leaders.
In
recent times the world has witnessed the trials of former leaders
like the
late Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia, the late Augusto Pinochet of
Chile,
Fredrick Chiluba of Zambia, Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia, the
conviction and execution of Saddam Hussein of Iraq and numerous moves to
bring to book several former African strongmen hiding in foreign
lands.
The recent move seeking to extend Mugabe's term of office by
two years
to 2010 under the guise of harmonising the presidential and
parliamentary
terms to save money should be seen in the context of Mugabe
going nowhere.
Similarly, Mugabe's suggestion that he would not
allow himself to go
and rest leaving his party in disarray or leaving the
country at the mercy
of neo-imperialists should be seen in the light of him
extending his
shelflife.
In a recent interview Zanu PF
secretary for administration Didymus
Mutasa revealed that even if elections
were held in 2008 Mugabe would still
remain the party's
candidate.
Mugabe allowed (some would say forced) his late deputies
Joshua Nkomo
and Simon Muzenda to die in office. It can be argued that this
is not
because of the two's invaluable contributions in cabinet, rather
Mugabe was
setting a precedent - from Munhumutapa Buildings to Heroes
Acre!
While Mugabe is resolute in executing his project, there are
numerous
voices of discord across the country and globe. News that some
members of
the Zanu PF central committee are alleged to have retorted that
they will
create vacancies in the presidium to Mugabe's declaration that
there were no
vacancies makes interesting reading and would give security
experts and
political scientists a lot to think about.
From
indications, neither of the Zanu PF factions would dare challenge
in a
significant way Mugabe and his "party position". Given numerous
rumours,
innuendos and allegations of not-so-clean deals involving some of
the more
prominent and powerful dissenting voices, this compromises them and
they
would rather lie low lest they join former Finance minister Chris
Kuruneri.
The disjointed opposition and civil society would
take long to
mobilise to mount an effective Chenjerai Hunzvi-style challenge
to Mugabe.
It should be noted that after the 1990s, National Constitutional
Assembly
and Hunzvi challenges to his power, Mugabe has since learnt to go
to sleep
with one eye open.
Can Mugabe still achieve this feat
and benefit his party and Zimbabwe?
Put differently, the question is: how
can Mugabe preserve himself and allow
Zimbabwe to pick itself up and at the
same time create an opportunity for
Zanu PF to reinvent itself?
It has been conceded that Mugabe has a lot to say on how both Zanu PF
and
Zimbabwe progress into the future. While Zimbabwe risks plummeting
further
into crisis and civil strife, Zanu PF risks meeting outright
rejection by
the people at the next election (whenever that is and with or
without
Mugabe) leading to the demise of the party as happened with Kanu in
Kenya,
Unip in Zambia, MCP in Malawi, NP in South Africa and so on.
At the
risk of sounding defeatist, I hazard to posit that it is
possible for Mugabe
to achieve his project, save his party and release the
country to soar like
the eagle that it is supposed to be.
While the ideal would be to
have harmonised elections under a new
constitution in 2008, citizens can
rest assured that they are on their own
on this as their representatives in
parliament are most likely not going to
support an early general election as
many across the House, like Mugabe
himself, are not secure with the ballot.
I don't think the judiciary is a
factor in this matter.
Mugabe's best option is to assume the position of head of state with
all
protection and benefits (like the late Canaan Banana or better still the
Queen of England!) and let a younger person - not the pompous, populist
politicking type - who can sell to both locals and the international
community, take over the reins of government. This suggests someone who is
not currently in government, for most of the so-called front runners to
succeed Mugabe have been in cabinet with him since independence or at the
forefront of turnarounds that have left the country reeling with
dizziness.
The prime minister would be elected by parliament and
report to the
same. The person so chosen would serve until 2010 when a
combined election
would be held under a new constitution. This of course
would mean another
constitutional amendment.
While the purists
would protest, I think the generality of the
citizenry would be more
interested in the candidate of the prime minister.
Of equal
importance would be an announcement at the most opportune
time of a clear
agenda of a citizen-driven and citizen-centred
constitution-making project.
Mugabe can actually earn a feather in his cap
if he were to do this before
June 2007 - nearly a year before the end of his
controversial and troubled
term.
While this would unfortunately shield Mugabe from those who
may have
issues with him, on the other hand the country would be released to
start
afresh.
* Mbofana is a Harare based writer.
Zim Independent
PROMINENT Zimbabwean activists and a number of unsung heroines who
have
outrightly defied and continue to disregard Posa, Aippa and other Zanu
PF
laws are not only morally upright and justified, but are heroes and
heroines
who deserve a place at the national shrine in a new Zimbabwe. To
push the
regime without disregarding such laws is no more possible than
having a
non-three sided triangle.
If the government is evil as in our
Zimbabwean case, and has abdicated
its duty to promote justice, then our
duty as Zimbabweans is not always to
obey the law as this is not morally
valid.
In spite of the fact that we are inescapably enmeshed in the
political
realm, we can still make choices.We must not think that being good
citizens
requires us to obey the law, even when the law is wrong and even
when
obeying the law requires sacrifice of our constitutional freedoms and
inherent rights in the universal declaration of human rights. We should
reject the idea that a rogue Zanu PF government can coerce us into doing
what we know is wrong including according Mugabe two more years of plunder
through amending the law.
People must know that they are
entitled to engage in various forms of
civil disobedience and should
exercise their duty to defy any legal
proposals that seek to take Mugabe
beyond 2008 or whoever without the
mandate of the ballot. If Mugabe is to
ask us to choose between a peaceful
life in chains of his bad laws and death
we should be ready to answer in the
words of Patrick Henry ".give me
liberty, or give me death". Choosing to
give up liberty is not only foolish
but immoral.
If citizens are not accorded an equal opportunity to
participate in
the process that generates the laws then such laws are unjust
and should be
defied.
Phillan Zamchiya,Cape
Town.
Zim Independent
Muckraker
WHY as a society do we have to be governed by
"blitzs"? Why can't law
enforcement be consistent and
predictable?
Last month in his State-of-the-Nation address
President Mugabe
bemoaned the rampant destruction of forests and land
through veld fires and
illegal panning. Then, just after Christmas it was
announced that at least
16 290 gold panners had been arrested countrywide
and large amounts of gold
and diamonds recovered.
Our question
is: why now? Forests have been systematically cut down,
wildlife poached and
land ravaged since 2000. Why do we need a "blitz" -
Operation Chikorokoza
Chapera in this case - to contain the damage? This is
a matter that requires
proper professional policing on a consistent basis,
not an
operation.
The police must surely be able to act without
presidential prodding.
What have they been doing all this time as the ground
was excavated all
around them?
This is what happens when a
politician declares certain matters
"political" and therefore beyond the
remit of the nation's law-enforcement
agencies. They have in too many cases
simply stood by and watched as our
natural resources have been pillaged and
destroyed. It is too late now to
notice the huge holes that deface the rural
environment. The damage has been
done - just as it has been to the country's
legal framework.
The most forthright confirmation of this came
just after Christmas
from Headman Chiadzwa and other traditional leaders in
Marange who
confronted police over illicit diamond mining.
Headman Chiadzwa told the Manica Post that he confronted the police
"after
realising that some of them were involved in illegal diamond
mining".
"Some of them," he said, "are even seen moving in the
diamond mining
area with shovels in broad daylight and how can you expect me
to restrain my
subjects from entering the minefield when people we view as
the custodians
of the law are willfully violating it?"
He
accused the police of organising teams from outside to come and
mine
diamonds while barring his people from accessing the fields.
"If
people are looting then everyone should be allowed to do the
same," Chiadzwa
said.
He said given the number of arrests of policemen for illegal
possession of diamonds, it was best that the current security system be
overhauled.
The Manica Post reports that the area was dotted
with newly opened
shafts, corroborating claims that illegal diamond
extraction had not ceased.
The Zimbabwe Independent first published news of
the chaos in Marange two
months ago.
Acting Officer Commanding
Manicaland, Assistant Commissioner Obert
Benge, said he was aware there was
conflict between locals and police
officers. Some daring locals had gone to
the extent of using catapults to
scare away police officers, he
said.
"We have beefed up security and deployed the Dog Section
because the
situation has become hostile," Benge said.
He said
counter-intelligence (sic) information indicated that the
local leadership
was being incited to rebel against the law-enforcement
agents after being
promised good roads, schools and clinics by a company
that wanted to tap the
minerals in the area.
Benge promised an investigation into
policemen who broke the law.
"The public should not lose confidence
in us because it is not all the
officers who are corrupt," he
said.
That's good to know!
With the close of the
old year there have been numerous commentaries
in our government press about
2007 being a better year. The wish is often
father to the
thought.
But you would be surprised after all the evidence of
administrative
failure from our leaders how state newspapers continue to
hope that things
will get better.
"Any weaker nation," wrote
Victoria Ruzvidzo in the Business Herald,
"would have bowed to the
challenges, but in our own way, we have all
remained afloat despite the
storms that threatened to drown us."
Does that include all the
businesses that have been forced to close
because of political harassment
and a toxic economic climate? Does it
include the thousands that have been
laid off because there is no investment
or growth because local and foreign
investors have been scared off by
threats of seizure? This is a country that
imprisons bakers when they try to
recover their costs.
Ruzvidzo
thinks inflation is caused by businessmen putting their
prices
up.
She should reflect in her column on the wasteful government
spending
that is fuelling inflation.
Has anybody found out yet
what the Ministry of Public and Interactive
Affairs actually does, apart
from denouncing American imperialism in the
language of a Form II
student?
Inflation is caused by incontinent government spending; by
a policy of
borrowing and printing money; by continuing to purchase fighter
jets and
fleets of vehicles when the country cannot afford
them.
Has Ruzvidzo ever asked her government sources how they
propose to
contain inflation this year when there is no plan to do so and
borrowing
continues to exceed the state's capacity to repay?
"We had originally anticipated the figure to have come down to
double-digit
levels by now," she says on inflation, "but this has remained
an elusive
dream."
Only for heavy-sleepers, Victoria. Nobody else thought for
one minute
that it would be down to double-digits by now given the pattern
of borrowing
and spending.
We were amused to see the
Chinese flatly deny that they were
negotiating a US$2 billion loan
arrangement with the Zimbabwean authorities.
This followed a statement by
Zimbabwe's ambassador to Beijing, Chris
Mutsvangwa, at a ceremony to mark
the handover of fertiliser.
There have been a spate of denials by
China recently over Zimbabwean
moonshine claims published in their sunshine
media. But the Chinese Foreign
Affairs ministry said it was all, well,
fertiliser!
"Look East" is looking distinctly moth-eaten. But we
were glad to have
Thabo Mbeki's uncompromising statement that China's
dealings with Africa
should not lead to recolonisation. At least he has his
eye on the ball!
Still with moonshine journalism, we were
intrigued to see a story in
the Business Herald reporting that most hotels
and lodges recorded high
occupancy rates over the Christmas holiday. This
followed an interview with
the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority's marketing and
communications manager,
Givemore Chidzidzi. He said most hotels recorded an
occupancy rate of over
90%.
Zimbabwe was expecting an influx of
visitors following increased
interest in the country, he said.
Needless to say, no accurate figures were given in the story. The only
attempt to authenticate this claim was a statement from Rainbow Tourism
Group saying they were happy with the amount of business they were getting
over the festive season and that the occupancy rate had risen "considerably"
compared to previous years.
We are sure the true picture will
emerge in the next few weeks as
independent papers interview hotel managers.
You can bet your bottom dollar
that the 90% figure will soon
evaporate.
Meanwhile, the ZTA is planning to send a team of 30
journalists to
five Asian countries to see how they market their tourist
resorts, ZTA CEO
Karikoga Kaseke said. Before that there will be an indaba
on the role of the
media in tourism development in keeping with the National
Tourism Marketing
Plan.
Muckraker thinks this is a great idea.
It is essential that Kaseke and
other Zanu PF adherents in the ZTA
understand why tourists will not come to
Zimbabwe.
So long as
national leaders continue to insult countries which
constitute our source
markets, subvert the rule of law, beat up peaceful
civic demonstrators, and
imprison business leaders for doing their job,
there will be little prospect
of the promised "influx". It is not the sort
of country that makes visitors
feel comfortable.
Kaseke clearly does not understand this so the
planned indaba will
provide an ideal opportunity for educating him on such
things as the rule of
law, freedom of expression, an impartial police force
and an independent
judiciary. Then we can start talking about a national
tourism plan!
Muckraker is pleased to note that comments in
this column before
Christmas, that President Mugabe's recent mysterious
fist-waving at other
Sadc countries could have reflected unease in regional
ranks over events in
Harare, has now been confirmed as it emerges that three
member states were
planning a fact-finding visit here.
Needless
to say, they have been told to observe the correct procedure.
In other
words, "Go to hell"!
But their "concern" will not go away as the
situation here
deteriorates and impacts on others.
Given
the number of civic protesters who have been spuriously charged
with
blocking traffic, Muckraker was surprised to see the absolute chaos
outside
a BP filling station on the corner of Fourth St and Samora Machel
Avenue
last Thursday.
It was a scene of absolute pandemonium as motorists
tried to force
their way in from different directions. There was no
policeman in sight
despite the fact traffic was blocked on Fourth St. BP
appeared unable to
police its own station.
What is the matter
with these filling stations? Can't they by now
anticipate a rush of
motorists when fuel is available and put in place
measures to control
traffic flow? What will tourists think of this man-made
chaos in a city
where self-regulation is clearly absent?
And why was there nobody
to fix traffic lights over the holiday period
when half the city's robots
were out of action? Does the City of Harare
think they can just shut up shop
and go on holiday? Modern cities don't work
like that. They need to be
managed 24/7.
Our media colleagues visiting Dubai and southeast
Asia will soon see
how orderly their traffic management is. Indeed, we have
much to learn and
much to say at the indaba.
Before we leave
the chaotic filling stations, Muckraker has been told
about the chefs' 4X4s
which were sent with coupons for filling during the
Goromonzi conference.
Two-thirds of the fuel would go into the 4X4 and one
third into the driver's
jerrycan. To be kept for an emergency of course!
We had a good
chuckle at Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede's remarks
that in stripping
Trevor Ncube of his citizenship he was acting in terms of
the law and not
his own discretion. He said he was surprised that Ncube had
"rushed" to the
courts when his application was still pending.
"Is he asking the
judge to grant him citizenship? It is up to the
government to grant or not
to grant citizenship."
This statement reflects the fatal
combination of ignorance and
arrogance that Zanu PF breeds in its
officials.
Mudede, let us not forget, has lost a number of court
cases against
this newspaper. He appears unaware that even Zimbabweans with
Zambian
parents are entitled to seek the protection of the courts against
the
arbitrary depredations of state officials.
It is up to the
courts to decide on rights of appeal, not Mudede who
is an interested party
in the case.
This episode has reflected badly on Zimbabwe in the
international
press to whom it is obvious that this is a political manoeuvre
aimed at
silencing an inconvenient voice. Let's put it at the top of the
agenda for
Kaseke's indaba together with the attack on Lovemore Madhuku's
home.
And by the way, what happened to police investigations into
the
bombing of the Daily News offices and Voice of the People? No progress
there
yet? Strange isn't it!
Kenya's ambassador needs to be
acquainted with these facts before he
next gives a gullible interview to the
Herald asking "which country in the
world doesn't have its
problems?"
Why does Vice-President Joice Mujuru insist that
government won't
reward non-performing parastatals when all the evidence
suggests it is
continuing to do so? It was highly significant that many of
the parastatals
congratulating Mujuru on her second year in office were
among the worst
performers.
And on Unity Day TelOne advertised
its loyalty to the regime while its
Internet lines were down and customers
were unable to access external
websites all day. Again, this could be an
agenda item for Kaseke.
We were appalled to note that the
government has rewarded Sekesai
Makwavarara's stellar incompetence by
reappointing her for another term as
head of the Harare commission. The last
commission "scored notable
successes", Local Government minister Ignatius
Chombo said, by improving
revenue collection.
In other words,
taking money from ratepayers without providing a
service. And what sort of
activities does Chombo think the council should be
pursuing? Introducing
training programmes for women and youths and
resuscitating soup kitchens
apparently.
That should do the trick!
Meanwhile,
Muckraker is disappointed that professional planners like
Sasha Jogi have
been roped into lending respectability to a partisan project
that has ridden
roughshod over the democratic wishes of the people of
Harare.
It will also be difficult to take the Scientific and Industrial
Research and
Development Centre seriously again knowing that its CEO Robson
Mafoti has
agreed to serve as deputy to a chairperson of a body whose
legitimacy is
open to serious doubt.
Zimbabwean professionals should know when to
say No to ministerial
blandishments.
Finally, don't lose
hope. The best thing about 2007 is that 2008 is
bound to be worse!
Zim Independent
By Eric Bloch
ZIMBABWE'S
foreign exchange circumstances are progressively worsening.
The biggest
source of current account receipt of foreign exchange was for
many decades
the export of agricultural products. First and foremost thereof
was tobacco,
but Zimbabwe also exported sugar, coffee, tea, citrus, timber,
beef, and
much more. Unfortunately, by application of its pronounced
political
bigotry, government set about assiduously destroying agriculture.
It was, and still is, indisputable that agriculture needed extensive
reform,
enabling black agricultural economic empowerment. However,
government's land
reform legislation, programme and implementation were an
almost total
disaster. As a result, within five years, the production of
tobacco fell
from 237 million kg to 56 million kg, maize production
contracted from two
million tonnes to little more than 400 000 tonnes, until
a recent, very
partial, recovery to about 900 000 tonnes. Sugar output
almost halved, as
did that of coffee, tea and citrus, and beef production
fell by two-thirds.
In consequence, agriculture's contribution to foreign
exchange inflows was
reduced very markedly.
The second greatest contributant to current
account foreign exchange
inflows was the mining sector. Zimbabwe's
production of gold, nickel, iron,
coal, asbestos, precious stones, and many
other minerals, contributed
significantly to foreign currency receipts. But,
despite Zimbabwe's immense
mineral wealth, its mining revenues have not kept
apace with the national
need. Prolonged adherence to unrealistic exchange
rates, compounded by
inordinate delays in receipt of sale proceeds, has
nearly destroyed the
viability of much of the mining industry.
In common with all sectors of the economy, mining has been confronted
with
pronounced inflation, including immense costs of operational inputs
which
suppliers were only able to access, at high cost, through the
alternative
"parallel" and black markets, wage increases quarterly or more
frequently,
escalating energy charges, and numerous other massive cost
increases.
As a result, many mines now operate at reduced
levels, struggling to
survive until viability can be restored. In the
meanwhile, their
contribution to foreign exchange inflows has inevitably
declined.
A further great contributant to Zimbabwean foreign
currency earnings
had been the manufacturing sector. With the second
greatest industrial
infrastructure in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe had very
successfully exported
clothing, textiles, footwear, furniture, engineering
products, processed
foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, and much else.
However, the horrendous inflation cancer that has afflicted the
populace as
a whole, and other economic sectors, has also destroyed the
ability of most
manufacturers to export, as their costs have soared upwards,
whilst the
quasi-static exchange rates provided little or no compensation
for the cost
escalations.
The tourism sector has also been a very great
generator of much-needed
foreign exchange, with numbers of international
tourist arrivals increasing
from a little over 200 000 in 1990 to
approximately two million by 1997.
Thereafter, however, arrivals declined
markedly, as the government's
authoritarian disregard for the fundamentals
of law and order, of the basic
tenets of human rights, and of political and
economic peace and stability,
destroyed Zimbabwe's international image in
general, and as a tourism
destination in particular.
Government
aggravated the damage that it inflicted upon Zimbabwe being
a desired
tourism destination by endless, generally specious and spurious,
attacks
upon Western countries in general, and especially upon the European
Union
states (with greatest focus upon Britain), and upon the USA.
Recently, government has made much play upon a 45% increase in tourist
arrivals during the first nine months of 2006, over the same period of 2005.
In doing so, it disregards not only the relatively low base of 2005
arrivals, but also that a very great number of 2006 arrivals yielded minimal
economic benefit, visits being of very short duration (often less than 24
hours) and many of the arrivals being cross-border traders and back-packers,
instead of tourists of the economic nature that characterised arrivals in
the 1990s.
Zimbabwe has also suffered an immense decrease in
foreign exchange
inflows on capital account. Not only has international
developmental aid
declined to minimal levels, for the international
community is ill-disposed
to support dictatorial regimes that support near
genocidal occurrences, such
as Operation Murambatsvina but, in addition,
investment inflows have been
minute, as compared to the 1980s, and much of
the 1990s.
A devastated economy, a dogmatic political tyranny,
excessive
regulation, and perpetual castigation and lambasting of the very
countries
that could be the source of investment, fail to motivate that
investment.
Nor do the childish rantings of Goebbels-like propagandists such
as
Nathaniel Manheru.
The state will have one believe that vast
investment has been, or is
imminently, forthcoming, as a result of its
self-proclaimed Look East
policy. Realities belie those incessantly repeated
contentions. One gold
mine, a cement factory, a non-operational glass
factory, three brickfields,
businesses engaged in importation of substandard
products (as distinct from
the high quality products which Eastern countries
export to Europe, USA,
Australia and elsewhere), and a handful of Chinese
restaurants, do not
represent the substantive investments that Zimbabwe
needs.
The only flows of significance, but without benefit, have
been
numerous memoranda of understanding (MOU), between Zimbabwe and China,
South
Korea, Russia, and other states, declaring intents to enter into
investment
agreements in mining, energy generation, parastatal
refurbishment,
reconstruction and recovery, transport, telecommunications,
steel
production, and much more. However, there has been exceptionably
little
progress from MOU to binding agreements, and actual investment. The
reality
is merely confirmation of the old saying that "talk is
cheap!"
Zimbabwe is dependent upon substantial foreign exchange
inflows, for
it is a very import-reliant country. Zimbabwe must import all
its fuel
requirements, until such time as it resumes ethanol production, or
embarks
upon the long-talked about development of bio-diesel.
It must import a considerable portion of its energy needs, until it
successfully refurbishes and expands its thermal power stations, the near
50-year old hydroelectric infrastructure at Kariba, develops new
energy-generation resources, and achieves widespread usage of solar
energy.
Many of Zimbabwe's agricultural inputs must necessarily be
imported,
and even those which are locally produced, such as certain
fertilisers,
require imported components. Industry is very reliant upon
imports of many
raw materials, plant and machinery, spares and consumables
and other
manufacturing requirements. Government itself requires great
amounts of
foreign exchange to fund many of its operations (no matter how
ineptly many
of them are conducted), and to service the needs of its
parastatals.
The major dependency upon foreign exchange was more
than adequately
addressed until late 1997, when government commenced its
path of economic
destruction, but since then the inflows have progressively
decreased
exponentially, resulting in massive declines in the economy, and
immense
hardships for almost all, other than certain individuals in the
political
hierarchy, who continue successfully to access whatsoever they
need,
including foreign currency for frequent overseas trips, which often
include
voluminous shopping, and even foreign currency for year-end holidays
to the
Middle and Far East.
That ongoing insufficiency of
foreign currency has not only
contributed to near-collapse of the
infrastructure, including recurrent
energy supply breakdowns, inadequate
water pumping resources for the larger
urban areas, continuously defective
telecommunications, and so forth, but it
has also fuelled the development of
intense illegal traffic in foreign
exchange, through what has become known
as the parallel or black market.
That market has become the greatest source
of foreign currency for the
importation of requirements of manufacturers,
mines, the few remaining
viable farmers (be they new or old), and commerce
as a whole.
The vast premiums payable for the scarce currency
result in even more
vast premiums on those imported requirements, and have
become one of the
greatest causes of Zimbabwe's record hyperinflation.
Hyperinflation is also
continuously fuelled by the escalated unit costs of
production occasioned by
diminished production volumes, caused by shrinking
export operations, and
erratic availability of
inputs.
The hyperinflation is, in turn, a trigger for many of Zimbabwe's other
economic ills. Although foreign exchange inadequacy is far from the only
cause of Zimbabwean hyperinflation, it is one of the greatest, and therefore
a key to halting the encroaching economic demise is to address the worsening
foreign exchange circumstance.
This necessitates, first and
foremost, that exchange rates become
realistic, and continue to be so, in
order to restore export viability,
mining sector productivity, and to
contribute to overall economic recovery.
Concurrently, government must
develop the maturity, albeit very belatedly,
to create a genuinely conducive
and welcoming investment environment.
This necessitates curbing its
vitriolic hatred for most of the West,
its self-centred, ineffectual
infatuation with the East to the exclusion of
all others, its grossly
excessive regulation of the economy, its
authoritarianism and, instead,
should genuinely embrace democracy, justice,
law and order, and unfettered
respect for human rights.
Doing so will not only yield much-needed
investment, but will also be
a stimulus for developmental aid,
balance-of-payments support, lines of
credit, and overall enhancement of
foreign exchange inflows, and the
intensifying crisis will be halted and
reversed.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
By Vincent Kahiya
ZIMBABWE this
weekend host the sub-Sahara Africa swimming
championships at Les Brown
swimming pool in the capital. While the
championships featuring at least 200
swimmers are being held at the smaller
city-centre pool, the world class
venue in Chitungwiza will be hosting music
concerts on Friday and Saturday
and church services on Sunday. During the
day mosquitoes, which terrorise
the people of New Zengeza 4, will be resting
in the slimy green water in the
swimming pool before launching sorties on
the residents as darkness
falls.
I recall as sports reporter in 1993 covering the debate
around the
construction of the Aquatic Complex in Chitungwiza and not in
Harare for the
1995 All-Africa Games. I remember the Sports and Recreation
Commission's
George Chisvo giving me a lecture at the National Stadium about
the
advantages of locating the expensive facility in Chitungwiza. It was a
way
of spreading the sport to the black community, he argued. Swimming clubs
would be formed in Chitungwiza, there would be black world class swimmers by
the time Zimbabwe participated in the 2000 Games. Chitungwiza did not have a
swimming pool anyway, he said.
The Sunday Gazette I worked for
at the time - having exercised some
healthy scepticism over government's
intentions - was accused of trying to
promote the interests of the white
minority. The debate went to parliament
but the usual naivety prevailed. The
facilities were completed in 1994 and I
was one of those invited to witness
the testing of equipment and then the
official opening on the eve of the
1995 Games.
This is a facility with three pools, for little
children, practice and
the heated main pool with underwater cameras
monitored from a
state-of-the-art control room. There is also a grandstand
that can
comfortably sit 10 000 spectators, modern changing rooms and an
electronic
scoreboard.
A decade later, the pool has not
benefited anyone. Swimmers have not
had the benefit of competing in a heated
pool while pupils from schools in
the township can still not swim. Swimming
has not in any way developed into
a national sport as was anticipated by
those who pushed for the construction
of the facility in
Chitungwiza.
Today countries hosting major international events
like the soccer
World Cup, continental championships, Commonwealth Games and
the Olympics
expect the facilities after the games to help local communities
develop
sporting disciplines. The afterglow of major games can be found in
the
United States where the hosting of the soccer World Cup in 1994 was a
major
boost to the professional Major League and the co-hosting of the same
tournament in 2002 by Japan and South Korea gave fresh impetus to the
former's
J-League. Cash-rich-China, which is set to host the 2008 Olympics,
is
putting up expensive facilities designed for the future. The country is
already thinking of a maintenance plan for the facilities, and communities
in which they are located are already planning for their use after the
games. This is the foresight that has failed to accompany our government's
grand projects.
I recall again in 1996-7 covering another
tragedy featuring the SRC -
Chisvo starring again - and the Hockey
Association of Zimbabwe fronted by
Stuart Carlisle. The association wanted
to secure management of Magamba and
Khumalo stadia built for the All-Africa
Games in Harare and Bulawayo
respectively.
Carlisle was
proposing marketing the facilities and raising revenue
which would then be
used for the upkeep of the two grounds. This was turned
down. Carlisle lost
the battle. The SRC won and hockey lost. The stadia
today are in a
deplorable state with the astro-turf playing surface littered
with potholes
just like our roads. Unfortunately the ruts at Magamba and
Khumalo cannot be
patched. The playing surfaces should be redone but the
money is not there.
Can the SRC today stand up and vouch that its decision
10 years ago was for
the good of the game?
No, the commission can't. We were told the
facilities would be living
and breathing legacies of the 1995 games and that
they would be operated in
perpetuity to ensure they were a viable part of
the community. Today they
are not. They have instead become decaying
edifices and monuments to the
government's failed sports
policies.
All the same, well done to the Zimbabwe Aquatic Union for
being able
to bring international swimmers here. I do not read much though
into why
powerhouse South Africa have only sent 10 swimmers. Perhaps the
cold water!
Zim Independent
Comment
HEALTH minister David Parirenyatwa was on
television last week to
announce the formation of the Health Services Board
and a commission to
improve the welfare of health staff.
Health
workers, he said, would no longer be paid by the Public Service
Commission
but by the health commission which would enjoy the leeway to
determine
remuneration levels for doctors, nurses and health technicians.
As
the minister was beaming with confidence on television, doctors
were already
on strike and sick patients were being turned away from
government
hospitals. Parirenyatwa's all-too-familiar tactic of first
professing
ignorance that there is a strike going on, followed by threats,
was again on
display. This is a tried and tested system guaranteed to
produce failure but
it is oftentimes dusted of and put into motion whenever
doctors go on
strike.
We call this naivety of the highest order. Our health
delivery system
is sick and it will not be cured by an equally sick plan.
The formation of
the board and the creation of a commission are cosmetic
manoeuvres that will
not cure the ills. The health commission to determine
the salary levels of
doctors will still be dependent on funding from central
government just as
the commissions which determine salaries for soldiers and
policemen. The
commission cannot use hospital fees and charges to augment
what comes from
central government.
The commission is therefore
beholden to a government that is
responsible for the death of the health
system. The latest move by the
ministry does not address systemic failure in
health delivery in which the
crisis in management has given birth to a cadre
of sometimes lazy, rude and
incompetent staff. It is now commonplace for
government doctors to demand
bribes for them to sign confirmation of death
forms or to perform
postmortems.
There is a serious theft of
drugs and other critical hospital
accessories like x-ray films, gloves and
syringes. Due to manpower shortages
and lack of trust between stakeholders,
government will find it difficult to
inculcate professionalism through a
comprehensive checking of doctors'
competence. An incompetent system will
always find it difficult to execute
supervisory functions geared at
achieving efficiency. The work ethic of
health professionals today is
consistent with what is happening throughout
the civil service.
What can the new board do?
Our experience with these creations is
that they are usually political
decorations. Few seriously concern
themselves with quality and service
delivery issues. They are there to
micro-manage in response to political
pressures but mainly succeed in
confusing the organisations and making
senior executives gun-shy in taking
decisions.
We do not see the Health Board coming up with
forward-looking
strategies to improve the health delivery system as long it
remains an
appendage of the inefficiency abounding in Zanu PF which has
mismanaged
everything. Due to the high staff turnover and constant work
stoppages in
the health sector, the board and the commission are likely to
be lured into
a fixation with manpower issues at the expense of health
delivery.
Addressing remuneration and general conditions of service
therefore
cannot be the panacea to the crisis in the health sector. As long
as there
is continual pressure for more skilled health staff, the demands
for better
salaries will remain together with intermittent industrial
action. The
setting up of the new structures could be likened to putting the
cart before
the horse.
Government has introduced new systems at
district and provincial
hospitals to reduce pressure on referral hospitals
but these have failed
because the smaller institutions still do not have
equipment, staff and
medicines. There has been little development at the
hospitals other than the
extension and building of mortuaries.
We have failed to develop a system appropriate to the needs of the
21st
century. Amidst this, Parirenyatwa believes that the commission and the
board can improve service delivery at hospitals which cannot even offer
patients simple painkillers. These are piecemeal reactions that do not even
begin to address the issue of manpower shortages in the health sector by
staunching the brain drain.
Zim Independent
Candid Comment
By Joram Nyathi
HARARE used to be
called the Sunshine City in the good old days. Today
only the sun remains,
all the shine is gone. A leisurely drive over the
holiday from Dzivarasekwa
through Kuwadzana, Warren Park, Kambuzuma,
Mufakose, Budiriro, Glen View,
Glen Norah, Highfield and then across to
Chitungwiza provided a terrifying
image of urban decay and nonpareil
administrative incompetence.
These are townships occupied by Harare's urban poor. Garbage has not
been
collected since the launch of Operation Murambatsvina in May 2005.
Residents
heap it by street corners or along the road. Water supplies are
intermittent
as evident from young girls carrying containers of all
descriptions from
whatever source where water can be found. Trees have been
cut all the way
from the Bulawayo highway boundary down High Glen road to
the Masvingo road
and replaced with a patchwork of maize fields in the name
of urban
agriculture. No commissioners in sight to assess the environmental
impact
and the silting all this is causing in the city's dams.
Mothers and
youths roast and sell maize cobs anywhere they can light a
fire. Others sell
"fresh" fish as they swat ravenous flies attracted to the
stench.
Sewage flows freely here as children play games in the
street. Clinics
without drugs operate on skeleton staff thoroughly
indifferent to groaning
patients and wailing infants afflicted by
undiagnosed ailments. Amid this
foulness, delivery of bills for water, sewer
and refuse has been the most
regular and consistent preoccupation of the
Harare commission for the past
two and a half years.
It was on
the basis of this miserable performance by the Harare
commission that Local
Government minister Ignatious Chombo felt morally
obliged to reappoint the
Sekesai Makwavarara-led commission for a record
fifth time. It is an
eclectic, heavy load of 11 men and women who owe their
allegiance to no one
but the minister and who sit in contemptuous disregard
for the democratic
wishes of ratepayers.
There are scientists, engineers, architects
and other specialists, all
led by a woman whose professional qualifications
have remained Chombo's most
closely guarded secret. There can be no better
evidence of the venality that
continues to feed Zanu PF's blatant career of
political patronage than the
Harare commission where residents and
ratepayers have for over two years
been denied the democratic right to
choose their councillors and an
executive mayor as dictated by the law.
There is no other reason why any
self-respecting professional should
embroider his CV with a stint in a
patently illegal commission.
The reason I am appalled by the Makwavarara commission is clear from
the
state of our residential areas. Fortunately these are very simple,
accessible places for anybody keen to check on the dereliction of duty.
Chombo and Makwavarara can take a joint tour to see for themselves the
putrid mounds of garbage, slimy green water in what started as potholes but
have grown into impassable craters.
When Makwaarara says she is
humbled by the "trust shown in her
leadership" she certainly is not talking
of the ratepayers of Harare.
Problems with the Harare commission's failure
to deliver have gone well
beyond opposition politics if one listens to the
sentiments of Zanu PF's
Harare province. I was therefore shocked that Chombo
felt that foisting
Makwavarara on Harare was the best New Year present for
ratepayers.
But he had his reasons. The "previous commission" had
"scored notable
successes", he said. It had improved revenue collection (as
opposed to
refuse) and was able to pay staff salaries and wages, Chombo
pointed out
smugly. The "new commission" has a separate mandate. Chombo said
it should
ensure "timeous and regular refuse collection, pothole filling and
improved
street lighting".
It was a revelation. I had always
assumed that that was the primary
task of the commission, not the collection
of revenue and payment of
salaries!
Both Makwavarara and Chombo
said heads of department would now sign
three-year performance contracts
renewable subject to meeting targets. Is
this an intimation that we could be
with them again until 2010? Not just six
months?
Where is the
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe and the Combined Harare
Residents Association
in the face of this supreme arrogance and bullying or
are ratepayers now
left completely on their own?
I was reminded of President Mugabe's
impassioned appeal to the
residents of Harare not to abandon the party just
before the 2005
parliamentary election, when he asked: "What have we done to
you? Think,
think again."
Yes Mr President. As we wade through
sewage and climb over mounds of
uncollected garbage on our way to the
polling stations we will think, not of
Zanu PF but of the pair of Chombo and
Makwavarara and how they have failed
the Sunshine City. It's a miracle there
hasn't been a major disease outbreak
this rainy season.
Makwavarara herself summed up the contempt in which she holds
potential
voters when she declared she was committed to executing her
mandate "as
directed by Comrade Chombo". It's as clear as daylight that she
is not
beholden to the law or the needs of Harare ratepayers but to the
whims of
her political benefactor.
If there was a credible opposition to
Zanu PF she probably would be
less smug about Chombo's power.
Betrayed and forsaken by our own leaders
THE leadership have forsaken
us. They take us for granted. Our dignity
has been flushed away. I have to
ask them this, since 1980, had you dealt
with your own corruption in high
places, the looting and all economically
immoral activities, including
plundering of national institutions as you
should, would we today dare
dabble in anything incorrect knowing fully well
that even the biggest fish
can fry?
If Enos Chikowore had been made to answer for the
disappearance of
public housing funds, the drying up of Noczim? If you had
punished looters
of the War Victims Compensation Fund, would we ever attempt
to sell fuel on
the black market today?
Until such a time that
public office holders are made accountable to
us and not President Mugabe, I
dare say none of us will care about your
turnaround projects.
In recent years you parcelled out land to yourselves and brought
hunger to
our homes, we are broke like we have never been before and in your
greatest
of foresights you tell us that the third generation shall enjoy the
fruits
of your bungling. If any benefit will arise in the future, who will
be there
to give you the kudos?
You pose as gods when you hand out scarce
foodstuffs to hungry
peasants and never tell them they are the ones buying
this food for
themselves through their taxes - sales, value added tax, pay
as you earn,
you name it.
Surprisingly, Mugabe makes it a
spectacle when donating computers to
schools when the ministry assigned the
task of ensuring that such
educational aids are provided to all lies idle.
What is Aeneas Chigwedere
doing?
Tafataona Mahoso is also a
chief culprit, sitting with his three
friends and discussing their ignorance
in front of the whole nation and then
dare to call such theatricals a
National Agenda programme. A nation sets its
agenda, not three musketeers
who agree on everything. You keep crying over
culture even saying it has
been lost, but I differ. Culture is never lost as
it is a way of
life.
What we are living right now is the culture. The three of you
will not
drive culture in the direction of your whims. Whether you like it
or not,
our culture today includes feja-feja, kukorokoza, kujingirisa,
kubatanidza.
You have degraded us and want us to praise you for doing
so.
I have been unfortunate enough to hear Mugabe's apologists
claim his
innocence on the grounds that he is misinformed but surprisingly
he knew of
Tsholotsho before it took place and knows his prospective
successors are
visiting witchdoctors in the dead of the night yet he cannot
know of the
suffering happening in broad daylight.
He pays his
large CIO handsomely. They could never miss it. He just
does not
care.
Can the leadership also please explain why the British and
Americans
continue to donate food to us if they are so short of land in
their own
countries?
And how many other countries on this earth
are thriving on
sovereignity?
A happy 2007 only a
wish.
Museyamwa,
Harare.
--------
ZTA, get your act together
THE
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) has been crowing about improved
tourism
figures and unhesitantly states that tourism is on the rebound. One
shower
does not a rainy season make! While we should be glad there has been
a
slight improvement, we should be careful not to over-promise and
under-deliver to the nation.
Instead of parading the chief
executive in the press on an almost
daily basis and spending huge amounts of
levy income on travesties such as
Miss Tourism Zimbabwe, this body should
get serious and concentrate on two
things: getting the infrastructure right
so that tourism can genuinely grow
and undertaking meaningful promotional
activities in significant tourism
source markets (and not, for example,
trying to source tourists from areas
where per head spend is low simply
because this is a political gesture).
With regard to the
infrastructure, there was absolutely no fuel in the
Eastern Highlands or in
Kariba during most of the festive season and the
outlook is bleak for
January. These two areas depend entirely on motor
traffic for their tourism
arrivals, as the national airline, despite
promises, does not service them
nor are there scheduled coach services there
as there used to be. How can
tourism grow when it is starved of resources to
nurture growth?
Also to do with inputs, there were huge shortages of soft drinks and
other
commodities in both these areas (and probably others, too).
ZTA,
wake up and do the job for which you were put in place. Stop
frolicking
about with pretty young girls and wasting money on junkets for
"journalists"
and others whose credentials are uninspiring, or closing down
restaurants
trying to make an honest living.
If you are clueless as to what
should be done then simply ask the
tourism businesses in the country - they
know what needs to be done and can
direct you accordingly.
Concerned tourism operator,
Highlands, Harare.
----------
Zimbabwe must help self from 'boiled frog'
syndrome
I REFER to the letter "Only a political solution will
salvage
Zim" (Independent, December 21). Whilst this may be correct, it
cannot be
possible until conditions are made right to achieve a political
solution.
One of the major difficulties is that most
opposition parties
continue to operate as if they are in a democracy whilst
the ruling party is
in the midst of a Chimurenga against
Zimbabweans.
Their degrees in violence, their disrespect for
unfavourable
court orders and their lawlessness carries on with impunity. It
is quite
obvious, for those who can see, that 2007 is going to be the year
that they
completely shut down every ounce of democratic space as they
impose their
"North Korea" on our Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwe
situation is unique in many respects. No one is
going to help us as our
African brothers and sisters prefer to keep silent
about our woes. It is
high time that we Zimbabweans realised what is
happening to us. Since 1980,
we have been suffering from the "boiled frog"
syndrome.
The frog is placed in a pot of cold water and has been gradually
heated to
near boiling point. We, the frogs, hardly notice any change. If we
had been
placed in hot water, we would immediately jump out of the
pot.
We Zimbabweans are swiming around in a pot which is
about to
boil. We have taken little notice of the gradual removal of our
rights and
we have avoided any controversy or conflict because we are now
driven by
fear.
The time has long passed when democratic
change could be
achieved through democratic means. No amount of voting will
win rigged
elections. It is up to the people, as individuals, to either
create the
space for a political solution or be prepared to remove, by
whatever means,
the cause of Zimbabwe's demise.
Mass
action is not an option at this time as the degrees in
violence are fully
armed and prepared. However, as individuals, we
Zimbabweans do hold the
power in our hands. We must first create the right
conditions, then mass
action can be viable.
We must determine what instruments are
being used to oppress us.
These instruments require support as no army can
march on empty stomachs. No
army can be mobile without fuel or
spares.
Only then will space be created for a political
solution of
change for the better. Freedom loving Zimbabweans must embrace a
new
Chimurenga that is intelligently fought to get back our freedom of
speech,
of association, of movement and the permanent removal of corrupt and
despicable chefs.
Unless we wake up and start taking
individual responsibility,
the country may as well change its name to Zanu
PF forever, because Zimbabwe
is finished.
David
Mashingkila,
Kadoma.
---------
At least they see the
light
AT least some Zanu PF MPs can now see the light as
evidenced by your lead story headlined "Zanu PF MPs in 'Stop Mugabe'
campaign" (Independent, December 21).
All along
these MPs have been endorsing any kind of idea
from that dictator. They
should oppose in large numbers the idea by Mugabe
to cling to power till
2010.
We cannot count three more solid years of
suffering at the
hands of one person. Currently the inflation rate is about
1 200% - the
highest in world, unemployment hovers around 70%, investors are
running away
in droves.
It is a noble idea for all
civic groups and the opposition
including some MPs in Zanu PF to rise up and
say a big NO.
They should take a leaf from what
happened in Malawi,
Kenya and Zambia where the leaders were enacting laws so
that they could
cling on to power for as long they lived. Zimbabwe does not
belong to any
individual.
Lovemore
Maseko,
Durban, SA.
--------
IMF must be
honest
THE recent IMF article (businessdigest,
December 21)
begs for reality. Not your editorial but the quotes from the
IMF report.
The IMF comments are 95%
gobbledegook! Why is it
that the IMF simply does not have the guts to say
that the economic woes of
Zimbabwe can only be addressed by early free and
fair elections that are
properly supervised by the international community
and that are free of any
intimidation or violence. This must be swiftly
followed by the exchange rate
being brought in-line with the parallel rate
at the time.
Martin
Millmore,
UK.