SOUTH African president Thabo Mbeki is abandoning his
policy of quiet diplomacy and could take a tougher line on Zimbabwe,
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) president Morgan Tsvangirai
has said.
Mbeki gave such assurances when he met the opposition
leader at his official Pretoria residence on the eve of the African Union
(AU) summit and the Group of Eight (G8) meeting, Tsvangirai said.
"President Mbeki realises that he has failed to solve the crisis through the
policy of quiet diplomacy. He has to find a new strategy, because he can't
continue on the same path that has failed to bring positive change.
"He admits he has to change tack on his approach to Zimbabwe, at least that
is the assurance he gave me," said Tsvangirai. South African
presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo however told The Financial Gazette
yesterday that Mbeki's position was that Zimbabweans themselves needed to
find a solution to their own problems. "People should stop looking for
scapegoats. Zimbabweans should not expect outsiders to come and solve their
problems. The solution for Zimbabwe rests with ZANU PF and the MDC talking
to each other, not with outsiders. Our view has always been that the
problems of Zimbabwe should be solved by Zimbabweans themselves," Khumalo
said. Mbeki has defied intense pressure from President Mugabe's
opponents to take a tougher stance against his northern neighbour,
preferring a strategy in which he keeps President Mugabe on his side in a
bid to bring about gradual political change. Mbeki has said "megaphone
diplomacy", or shouting publicly at Zimbabwe, would not work "as they would
simply shout back". Mbeki's reluctance to echo Western criticism of
Zimbabwe has also been based on his belief that many of President's Mugabe's
critics are racially prejudiced. In 2003, after heated debate at
the Commonwealth over Zimbabwe that later resulted in the country quitting
the club, Mbeki, writing for his party's online publication ANC Today, said:
"It is clear some within Zimbabwe and elsewhere in the world, including our
country, are following the example set by (former US president Ronald)
Reagan and his advisers to 'treat human rights as a tool' for overthrowing
the government of Zimbabwe and rebuilding Zimbabwe as they wish. In modern
parlance, this is called regime change." A rash of media reports at
the close of the AU summit has suggested that President Robert Mugabe has
bowed to pressure to resume talks with the opposition towards a political
settlement. Yesterday, however, Tsvangirai said there had been no formal
contact with the ruling ZANU PF party, but added there had been "exploratory
measures" taken by African leaders. However, the MDC leader this week
branded President Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba "immature" after he
issued a caustic denial to media reports of impending talks. "The
problem is that people expect the resolution of Zimbabwe's crisis to be
discussed and negotiated in public," Tsvangirai said. Despite repeated
denials from both sides, Tuesday's meeting in Harare between South African
deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and the President heightened
speculation that Mbeki could indeed be leaning more heavily on President
Mugabe to accept foreign intervention to solve Zimbabwe's deepening economic
crisis. Deputy SA Finance Minister Jabu Moleketi accompanied Mlambo-Ngcuka.
Tsvangirai however refused to link Mlambo-Ngcuka's visit to the assurances
he claims Mbeki made.
A DELEGATION of South
African clerics on a mission to assess the impact of the clean-up campaign
left the country on Tuesday without meeting President Robert Mugabe but
later released a statement blasting the exercise, saying it would push
youths to become "catalysts for conflict".
It could not be
ascertained why the delegation comprising a dozen church leaders who arrived
in Harare on Sunday failed to meet President Mugabe, but sources privy to
the visit said it had the blessing of the ruling ZANU PF. An envoy
seconded by the African Union on a mission to assess the impact of the
controversial clean-up campaign, which has left an estimated 300 000
families homeless, was last week also snubbed by the authorities in Harare
who said the visit was unprocedural and in breach of protocol. The
South African delegation, co-led by Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane
and Russel Bothman, the president of the South African Council of Churches
(SACC), however managed to meet Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan
Tsvangirai on Monday night. Earlier in the day, the delegation toured
Mbare township and Caledonia Transit Holding Camp where about 5 000 homeless
urbanites have been dumped. Upon arrival in Johannesburg on Tuesday,
the clergy released a brief report on their two-day visit to Harare
expressing astonishment at the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Harare in
the wake of the government's on-going clean-up exercise, which this week
moved to the low-density suburbs. "Young people who could be agents
for change may become catalysts for conflict as they are exposed to the
hopelessness of their parents. This deliberate destruction of the informal
economy, which is meant to cater for the economically vulnerable groups is
unparalleled in modern day Africa," the clerics said in a
statement. The church leaders said the humanitarian crisis they had
witnessed in Harare was reminiscent of the one seen during Zimbabwe's bloody
liberation struggle in the 1970s. Matthew Esau, the spokesman for
Ndungane, earlier on Monday night told journalists Ndungane had expressed
shock at the gravity of the humanitarian situation in Harare in the wake of
the clean-up exercise. "He (Ndungane) says Zimbabwe is certainly in a
man-made humanitarian crisis," said Esau, adding that a comprehensive report
would be compiled for presentation to the central committee of the
SACC. Ngungane, who is not new to Zimbabwe, was one of the emissaries
appointed by South African President Thabo Mbeki to try and broker talks
between President Mugabe and Tsvangirai. It could not be
ascertained why the delegation failed to meet President Mugabe but sources
privy to the delegation's visit said the ruling ZANU PF had endorsed the
visit, hence the delegation's ability to access Caledonia Farm.
"They left this morning (Tuesday) on the first South African Airways flight
to Johannesburg," said Benson Masinyane, the secretary general of the
Zimbabwe Council of Churches. "It was not possible for them to meet the
President although I believe they tried but nonetheless they managed to meet
various organisations, and more importantly, to hear the views of the
churches on Murambatsvina," said Masinyane. The MDC, Zimbabwe's
biggest opposition political party, claims 1.5 million people have been
displaced and made homeless by the exercise, which enters its third month
next week. Masinyane added: "The delegation managed to freely discuss
with the people the concerns raised by the operation. They also visited
Caledonia where they managed to be briefed by authorities, including the
police, on the operation." Churches, most of whom have given
shelter to the victims of the exercise, have been in the forefront of
condemning the exercise since it started on May 18. The delegation
also included Catholic Cardinal Wilfred Napier, Bishop Irvine Abrahams, the
head of the Methodist Church in Southern Africa and leaders of several
Protestant churches. Sources within Zimbabwe's clergy, said the South
African churches hoped they would use their fact-finding mission to exert
pressure on President Mbeki and other Southern African Development Community
leaders to act on the crisis in Zimbabwe, which has drawn global
attention.
CHIEF Justice Godfrey
Chidyausiku has indirectly admitted that his appointment of Rita Makarau as
a judge of the Electoral Court was illegal, adding fresh controversy over
the March 31 election that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) claims was rigged.
In a letter to Makarau dated June 1,
Chidyausiku admitted that his appointment of Makarau on May 5 had been in
breach of procedure as he had done so without consulting the Judge President
and the Judicial Service Commission, as required by law. "It has
been brought to my attention that some of the litigants in the electoral
petitions are unhappy about your previous appointment as a judge of the
Electoral Court because the Judicial Service Commission was not consulted in
terms of (section) 92(2) of the Constitution," Chidyausiku told
Makarau. "In the event of my appointment of you as a judge of the
Electoral Court on 5 May 2005 not being in accordance with the law, it is
hereby revoked," the Chief Justice said. However, Chidyausiku
immediately reappointed Makarau in the same letter, saying he had now made
all the mandatory consultations. "Please be advised that I, in my
capacity as Chief Justice of Zimbabwe and after consultation with the Judge
President and the Judicial Service Commission, have appointed you, Mrs
Justice Makarau, as a Judge of the Electoral Court with effect from this
day, the 1st of June 2005." High Court judges Tendayi Uchena, Maphios
Cheda and Nicholas Ndou also sat on the Electoral Court. The Electoral Court
was required to hear all disputes within six months of the
election. The revelations will further anger the MDC, which this week
applied to the Supreme Court to speed up the hearing of Morgan Tsvangirai's
2002 presidential election petition. In 2000, the MDC won 57 seats, and
challenged results in 39 others. The High Court heard and nullified some of
the results, but because of ZANU PF appeals to the Supreme Court, the
legislators in the disputed constituencies were still in parliament when it
was dissolved.
PRESIDENT Robert
Mugabe's Cabinet is split over the deepening fuel crisis that has paralysed
key sectors of the country's enfeebled economy and rendered dysfunctional
the public transport system, The Financial Gazette learnt this
week.
Highly-placed sources said the energy ministry-feeling the
heat as fuel supplies run dry-has cobbled up a string of measures to rescue
the situation and stop further economic bleeding but these have sparked
discord in government, with ministers opposed to the cocktail of strategies
shooting them down. The sources said Energy and Power Development
Minister Mike Nyambuya, thrown into the deep end of the crisis, has thrown
his full weight behind the further deregulation of the fuel industry but
faces an uphill task in securing Cabinet support, which is currently divided
over the issue. Technically, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) put
together by industry players for purposes of importing fuel might have to be
disbanded should these proposals sail through. It is the
dismantling of the SPV and the prospect of the proliferation of several
Direct Fuel Importers (DFI) that has split the Cabinet right through the
middle as others members fear chaos might reign supreme in the pricing and
distribution of the product. The central bank, thrust at the centre of
current efforts to turnaround the waning economic fortunes, has already
suggested the whittling down of players in the industry from the estimated
200 companies to around 20 because of the rampant externalisation of foreign
currency. "Nyambuya is basically saying anyone with access to foreign
currency, be it a Zimbabwean in the diaspora or an exporter, should source
fuel and no questions should be asked about the source of funds," said a
source. Nyambuya, who refused to comment yesterday, preferring the
questions to be put in writing, is also against the grilling of DFIs at the
hands of customs officials who require them to prove their sources of
funding. Sources said the energy minister is also pushing for
substantial cuts in taxes levied on fuel at the ports of entry such as the
NOCZIM levy, customs duty and fees paid to clearing agents to make the
product more affordable. His critics however, said such concessions
would rob the fiscus of the much-needed revenue and slow down the
anti-corruption crusade launched by the government last year and has seen
the arrest of several high-ranking government and ZANU PF officials
including former Finance Minister Christopher Kuruneri. Nyambuya's
proposals are viewed as too radical and some of his peers prefer the
smoothening up of the SPV. Meanwhile, the fuel situation has reached
desperate levels with most of the service stations having gone for several
weeks without deliveries. This is despite the 178 percent pump price
increase announced last month that admittedly only helped to improve the
viability of the industry, which had lost margins owing to the massive
increases in international prices of oil. On average, Zimbabwe
requires 2.5 million litres of diesel, 2 million litres of petrol every day
and about US$62 million monthly to foot the bill. But due to a
crippling shortage of foreign currency, blamed on poor exports and the donor
fatigue caused by the International Monetary Fund's withdrawal of balance of
payments support in the late 1990s, Zimbabwe has been unable to meet its
fuel needs. Public transport has become a nightmare to commuters who
are spending long hours in queues. A number of companies have also
threatened to close shop and only re-open when the fuel situation improves
due to the loss of productive hours caused by the crisis. Half the
country's workforce has been reporting for work late despite the government
relaxing transport regulations by allowing companies and owners of lorries
to ferry stranded commuters to and from work.
THE Bulawayo City
Council, which last week barred three government ministers from attending
its private briefing with United Nations special envoy Anna Tibaijuka, has
roundly condemned Operation Murambatsvina, saying the so-called "clean-up"
could cost it $62 million a month in lost revenue.
According to a
report prepared by the council's director of housing and community services,
Isaiah Magagula, for the full council meeting of June 1 - less than
two-weeks after the start of the campaign - but only made available to The
Financial Gazette last week, police had carried out the blitz without
consulting the city council. Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo
has given the impression that the clean-up campaign is being carried out
with the blessing of local authorities. Magagula said from 1995
when the council designated nine vending sites and licensed vendors, it had
carried out raids on illegal vendors in conjunction with the police. The
local authority had also been involved in its own clean-up campaign in
conjunction with registered vendors since April. On June 1
Executive Mayor Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube, town clerk Moffat Ndlovu, Magagula,
four councillors and three other senior council officials had seen police
demolishing some of the vendors' sites without consulting the
authority. "Interviews conducted with the vendors revealed that the ZRP
demolished shelters, confiscating wares and chased away licensed vendors
from designated sites," Magagula said in his report. "Some of the
vendors had their stores or lockers broken into and wares confiscated. Some
claimed that their licences were torn up." Magagula said the council
collected more than $62 million per month in licence fees from an estimated
3 000 registered vendors. It therefore stood to lose this revenue if the
stands were not occupied. In addition, the spirit of self-reliance and
employment creation was being undermined. He said what was more
disturbing was that the designated sites had been built in consultation with
the government and were commissioned by the then Minister of Local
Government, John Nkomo, who chaired a meeting to convince vendors to use the
designated sites instead of selling their products all over the
city. Ironically, the council's decision to establish designated
vending sites came shortly after President Robert Mugabe had instructed
local authorities to amend their by-laws to allow vendors to sell their
wares without any hindrance. "They should be given small stalls to
sell their goods. We see this type of business in New York and London, why
can't we do it here?" he asked on national television in October
1994. President Mugabe, who was responding to a query by the Women's
Action Group as to why police continued to harass vendors, said he had taken
up the issue with the then Senior Minister for Local Government, Joseph
Msika. "I told him that if he did not act, I would personally lead a
group of women with their trolleys in marching to the city centre to sell
their wares," President Mugabe said. Ndabeni-Ncube said the council
had watched helpless as police pulled down and burnt sheds and structures
used by vendors. All the council officials could do was to put the fire
brigade on standby in case the fires got out of hand. "Apparently,
the clampdown was targeting not only those who were operating illegally, but
legitimate vendors as well," Ndabeni-Ncube said. "All the vendors' sites,
which had been properly demarcated at strategic areas in the city with
council and even ministerial blessing with the noble objective of empowering
the disadvantaged, had been razed to the ground." Deputy Mayor
Angilacala Ndlovu said the exercise had been carried out in an insensitive
manner. "It was a shocking experience seeing stalls being dismantled and
merchandise being destroyed or taken away with the owners watching
helplessly," Ndlovu said. "Police on the ground had not explained the
criteria they were using in selecting their targets. Their only response was
that they were simply carrying out instructions." Alderman Charles
Mpofu said the government's action was inhuman because it was destroying
authorised structures instead of spending its energies on more pressing
problems like the shortage of fuel and food. Bulawayo has been crippled
by a critical fuel shortage since the beginning of May. But the
police had not only confined themselves to the destruction of vendors'
sites. They had pounced on so-called illegal structures but in the process
they had also wantonly destroyed legitimate buildings or extensions that had
council approval. According to some residents, police had torn up
approved plans when owners produced them. A bitter Salute Moyo of 74 New
Luveve, whose approved extension consisting of a toilet and bathroom was
destroyed despite the fact that he had an approved plan, 917/85, said he was
at a loss as to what to do. He said a senior police officer who
seemed to be in charge of the demolishing team had bluntly told him that he
was there to do his job. Moyo could take up his grievance with whom ever he
wanted. "What pains me most is that no one has come up to explain what
the way forward now is. I have obtained quotations from reputable contactors
and they have told me it will now cost me $37 million to replace what was
destroyed. Who is going to foot that bill?" he asked. Tibaijuka,
who was sent to Zimbabwe by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan to assess the
situation, condemned the wanton destruction of people's homes saying forcing
people back to rural areas was not the solution to the country's housing
problems. She told Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi who was
accompanied by Resident Minister for Bulawayo Cain Mathema and Small and
Medium Enterprises Minister Sithembiso Nyoni, during her visit to Bulawayo,
that rural repatriation did not work. "These people are not here
because they want to, but they are trying to earn a living. Even in the US
and Japan, people want to work in the city, they try to create small
businesses where they can get a livelihood, and Zimbabwe is not an exception
in that area. There is no way you can stop people from coming into town and
finding employment," she was quoted by an international news agency as
saying. The three government ministers were barred from attending a
briefing between Tibaijuka and Bulawayo city councillors. The council gave
Tibaijuka a list of all the legitimate buildings and extensions that police
had destroyed. Mathema, who was bitter about the way he, Mohadi and
Nyoni had been shut out by the council, told the local media that the
government was building 600 houses that would be completed before the end of
next month to accommodate some of the more than 5 000 people who had been
displaced in Bulawayo. Although this was one of the government's
swiftest responses to a crisis, one resident said the move was akin to a
father seeing his child in tattered clothes, tearing them to shreds,
promising the child a suit, but leaving the child naked for the time
being. "Zvakaitwa nehurumende zvakafanana nababa wanoona mwana wavo
akapfeka hembe dzakabvaruka, vobva vadzibvarura bvarura, vachiti nyarara
mwanangu ndichakutengera sutu, asi vachisiya mwana akashama."
Tibaijuka, who is expected to release her report in another week, seemed to
concur with this view. She said the government should not call other
people's homes illegal structures unless it was able to provide an
alternative. "There is no need to call them illegal structures or
squatter camps because they are homes to other people. They are special to
other people who cannot have special homes," she said adding that Zimbabwe
fared better than most African countries in terms of slums. "From
our statistics, Africa has a slum rate of 72 percent but a study we have on
Zimbabwe conducted in 2001, shows that the country had an illegal and slum
rate of 3.4 percent," she said. She also dismissed claims by police
that the crime rate had dropped since the "clean-up" operation was launched
in May, saying: "The poor are not criminals. They work hard to achieve the
little they get and therefore they should not be criminalised."
VICTORIA FALLS -
Policy Implementation Minister Webster Shamu has called on Zimbabweans to
think beyond party politics to save the country from
extinction.
Addressing hundreds of delegates attending a breakfast
meeting organised by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe at Victoria Falls at the
weekend, Shamu said Zimbabweans had to accept that the country was facing an
economic decline. As such they needed to work together to look for solutions
to the crisis. He said Zimbabweans should emulate central bank
governor Gideon Gono whose breakfast meetings included all players
regardless of their political, religious or other affiliations.
"Party politics should end at the elections," Shamu said. "After the
elections we must speak with one voice because we are one people with one
country and one common destiny. "We must therefore think beyond
party politics because if we continue to play party politics we face
extinction," he said. Shamu was addressing chiefs, captains of industry
and representatives of both ZANU PF and the Movement for Democratic Change
from Matabeleland North province who had gathered at the tourist resort for
a one-on-one discussion about the country's turnaround programme.
This was Gono's ninth breakfast meeting. His nationwide tour has already
taken him to nine provinces with only Mashonaland Central remaining.
Gono, who said it was time to launch Operation Taurai Chokwadi (Tell the
Truth), lamented the poor performance by the province, which on paper was an
economic powerhouse. He said Matabeleland North had the potential to be
the pivot of the country's turnaround programme but the people of the
province had chosen to marginalise themselves. It had the largest
power station in the county, generating 60 percent of the country's power.
It had vast coal reserves with a lifespan of more than 5 000 years. It had
untapped methane gas reserves that could be used to generate electricity and
to manufacture fertiliser, saving the country between US$600 million and
US$700 million in foreign currency. It also had abundant wildlife and one of
the world's best known tourist resorts, the Victoria Falls. "The
only two things we are sitting on are our reserves and our brains," he said,
echoing Hwange Colliery managing director Godfrey Dzinonwa who had concluded
his briefing on the colliery with those remarks the previous day.
Gono said the people of Matabeleland had to wake up from their slumber
because they should not expect to be bailed out by other provinces.
He said the province had generated only US$2 million in foreign currency the
previous year, yet it consumed about US$18 million a month in fuel
alone. This year, its performance was better at US$6 million but all
the foreign currency had been earned by Hwange Colliery Company, yet
Victoria Falls accounted for 20 percent of tourist arrivals in the
country.
FORMER
Comptroller and Auditor-General Eric Harid is tipped to head the proposed
Anti-Corruption Com-mission amid reports that concerns within the ruling
ZANU PF party over the composition of the anti-graft taskforce have caused
delays in its announcement.
Well-placed government sources said the
country's former chief public accounts controller, who strongly called for
autonomy of the Auditor-General's Office during his term citing leniency
towards some government departments by his staff, had been identified as the
right candidate for the job as Zimbabwe moves to tackle widespread
corruption. Harid frequently produced critical reports on government
spending and is expected to add impetus to the ongoing anti-corruption
drive. Harare lawyer Johannes Tomana is tipped to land the deputy
chairmanship of the commission. But his proposed appointment is said to have
been met with mixed feelings in government circles. There have been
revelations that powerful camps within the ruling party were ranged against
Tomana, widely perceived to be an ally of scaked former information minister
Jonathan Moyo. Analysts said the composition of the Anti Corruption
Commi-ssion would be used to gauge the government's commitment to fighting
corruption, widely seen as eating at the country's social fabric.
Harid and Tomana could not be reached for comment at the time of going to
press but senior government officials confirmed that the two would be in the
commission.
FINANCE Minister
Herbert Murerwa has presented supplementary budgets before - but the list of
people he must please has never been longer. Murerwa told Parliament
last Wednesday that he would announce a supplementary budget to address the
costs of unbudgeted for food imports, but feeding the hungry will just be
one of the many miracles Murerwa will be expected to perform.
Government's demands on the fiscus have increased faster than Murerwa could
ever have anticipated, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is heavy on his
back and calls to "do something" about the fuel crisis - and the wider
economy - are getting ever louder. The minister made a string of
forecasts when he presented the 2005 budget last November, the most
prominent of which was a projection that Zimbabwe would snap eight straight
years of negative growth with a 3.5-8 percent positive growth in Gross
Domestic Product (GDP). That this optimism was underpinned by a
projected 28 percent growth in agriculture, and that it is in fact crop
failure that Murerwa says is bringing him back to Parliament, shows how big
a task the minister has on his hands. And that is not even half of
it. Six months of economic and political upheaval have not only thrown
Murerwa's forecasts off course, but have also seen a massive rise in the
number of interests that the minister now has to take care of at the half
year. Murerwa will obviously stick to the official line that
government's controversial urban renewal programme - Operation
Murambatsvina/ Restore Order - will not hurt the economy but is in fact
designed to slash the black market activity that has blighted it.
But doing so would increase friction with the IMF, which last month said the
clean-up exercise would further slow economic growth this year while
painting a dim view of the economy. The clean-up exercise has targeted
unofficial businesses, and many say it has therefore struck at the heart of
Zimbabwe's economy, the informal sector. There are no official
statistics on the exact size of the informal sector. Tendai Biti, opposition
MDC spokesman for economic affairs, estimates the size of the informal
sector at 60 percent of GDP, stressing that the level in stable Third World
economies is around 35 percent. A 2002 World Bank study suggested informal
activity made up 59 percent, the highest in Africa. Tony Hawkins,
professor of business at the University of Zimbabwe, wrote recently that the
clean-up operation could badly hurt the economy. "Even on the most
conservative estimate, the campaign could cost 7 percent of GDP, compared
with the 5 percent government promises to spend on reconstruction - in a
year in which the IMF team that visited Zimbabwe this month believes GDP
could fall by as much as 7 percent," Hawkins said. The budget deficit
might also loom large in Murerwa's budget statement, which the minister is
expected to combine with his half-year review. The minister may repeat
promises he made to the IMF that he would stem the widening of deficits. But
that would be a hard sell, given that government is spending $3 trillion on
an unplanned housing scheme just as latest central bank figures show state
domestic debt now standing at nearly $12 trillion. Sceptical
economists will be looking to see whether Murerwa will stand by his buoyant
growth forecasts, and if he does, there will be many waiting to see which
sector he turns to this time to renew his optimism. The MDC's Biti says
Murerwa is probably preparing massive allocations to the ministry of Local
Government, which is leading the "reconstruction", and also allocate more
funds to Defence. "The supplementary budget is an acknowledgement of
failure and a serious indictment on the lack of planning by the ZANU PF
government," Biti said. Critics say Murerwa will be under pressure
to explain the source of the $3 trillion housing money, given badly depleted
revenues that are falling well short of 2005 revenue targets of $22.5
trillion. The government has budgeted $100 billion to feed 2.4 million
people, Murerwa said, but earlier government estimates have placed the
import bill at US$420 million. Given government's multitude of new
commitments, all of which were unbudgeted for, Murerwa's views on inflation
will be closely watched. Government has been laying the inflation burden on
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) since late 2003, but senior officials
have always maintained that RBZ never acts outside the influence of the
Finance Ministry. Murerwa will keep RBZ governor Gideon Gono's inflation
targets intact, analysts say, staving off any unnecessary pressure on
himself by steering clear of any further promises on that front.
THE
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange steamed past the 3 000 000-point mark on strong
heavy cap buying yesterday as money market rates softened on treasury bill
(TB) maturities and gold purchases by the central bank.
Investors
discounted calls for caution ahead of fresh inflation data expected from the
Central Statistical Office later today. Investors have apparently factored
in yet another rise in inflation that would draw more money out of the money
market and back into stocks. The stock market had opened the week in
slow trade, the main industrial index only managing a 0.67 percent rise.
However, strong buying across the board yesterday carried the index to 3 020
096 points. Market watchers are looking to the upcoming earnings
reporting season to see how firms have performed in a difficult first
half-year and also gauge the sentiment of company executives about future
earnings going into the last half. "The first half has not been
easy for companies, and the second will not be any easier," a leading fund
manager told The Financial Gazette yesterday. "The big thing that people
will want to find out is how they (company executives) plan to keep making
money for shareholders going forward." The market has seen a rush
of rights offers in recent weeks as companies seek to re-adjust to life
after the end of cheap funding from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), but
profit reports will present the clearest picture as to the state of business
in the half-year, many analysts agree. The money market saw softer
rates on Tuesday as it ran into surplus on a series of TB maturities and a
surge in liquidity as the RBZ made payments for gold delivered by
producers. Surpluses of $103 billion saw 30-day investment rates
sliding to 75 percent, down from around 100 percent last week, and 90
percent for 60-day paper from the previous 115 percent. The 90-day
investment rates, however, stood firm, unmoved at the 130 percent level they
have held for several weeks. On the foreign currency market, the
Zimbabwe dollar gained marginally to come off historic lows reached last
week. The United States dollar traded at $10 454, slightly off the $10
500 reached at the last auction, but dealers said demand continued to
outstrip supply by a wide margin. On Monday, bids dwarfed
allocations by US$162 million to US$116 million.
Chidyausiku admits appointment of Electoral Court judge
illegal
Rangarirai Mberi 7/14/2005 8:43:54 AM (GMT
+2)
CHIEF Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku has indirectly admitted that
his appointment of Rita Makarau as a judge of the Electoral Court was
illegal, adding fresh controversy over the March 31 election that the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims was
rigged.
In a letter to Makarau dated June 1, Chidyausiku admitted
that his appointment of Makarau on May 5 had been in breach of procedure as
he had done so without consulting the Judge President and the Judicial
Service Commission, as required by law. "It has been brought to my
attention that some of the litigants in the electoral petitions are unhappy
about your previous appointment as a judge of the Electoral Court because
the Judicial Service Commission was not consulted in terms of (section)
92(2) of the Constitution," Chidyausiku told Makarau. "In the event
of my appointment of you as a judge of the Electoral Court on 5 May 2005 not
being in accordance with the law, it is hereby revoked," the Chief Justice
said. However, Chidyausiku immediately reappointed Makarau in the same
letter, saying he had now made all the mandatory consultations.
"Please be advised that I, in my capacity as Chief Justice of Zimbabwe and
after consultation with the Judge President and the Judicial Service
Commission, have appointed you, Mrs Justice Makarau, as a Judge of the
Electoral Court with effect from this day, the 1st of June 2005."
High Court judges Tendayi Uchena, Maphios Cheda and Nicholas Ndou also sat
on the Electoral Court. The Electoral Court was required to hear all
disputes within six months of the election. The revelations will
further anger the MDC, which this week applied to the Supreme Court to speed
up the hearing of Morgan Tsvangirai's 2002 presidential election petition.
In 2000, the MDC won 57 seats, and challenged results in 39 others. The High
Court heard and nullified some of the results, but because of ZANU PF
appeals to the Supreme Court, the legislators in the disputed constituencies
were still in parliament when it was dissolved.
A SHARP government
response issued this week to quell reports of renewed talks between
President Robert Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader
Morgan Tsvangirai all but confirmed that ZANU PF still believes it can go it
alone despite increasing international pressure.
Presidential
spokes-man George Charamba came out with his guns blazing in response to
recent press reports that Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo had revived his
bid to bring Tsvangirai and President Mugabe - fighting a bitter court
battle over the disputed 2002 presidential ballot - back to the negotiating
table. "We went to an election, the MDC was rewarded with what the
voter thinks it deserves - namely 41 seats - that earned it a place in
Parliament and within which any contact envisaged with the ruling party will
take place," the state-owned Herald daily quoted Charamba as
saying. "We are convinced this is sufficient contact and, in any way,
one which is envisaged by the parliamentary democracy that we are," he
added. Charamba's witty response to reports that had brought so much
anticipation to a nation starved of good news virtually dashed the little
hope left for the resumption of the long-sought dialogue between the feuding
parties. The legislative route being advocated by the ruling ZANU
PF - which won 78 seats against the MDC's 41 in the disputed March polls -
rarely functions as a platform for resolving political differences.
The effectiveness of parliament, said analysts, is normally viewed in terms
of who commands the majority and, in the case of Zimbabwe, it is ZANU PF,
which has already outlined issues to be brought before the august House
during the Sixth Parliament of Zimbabwe. None of them relate to talks with
the MDC. They said the failed talks, whose revival is actively
being brokered by Obasanjo and South African leader Thabo Mbeki, also
revealed both parties' shortcomings in coming up with an explicit and
mutually acceptable agenda that would form the basis of the
dialogue. ZANU PF has been adamant that the MDC, which it accuses of
lobbying for sanctions against President Mugabe and his close lieutenants,
is a front for imperialist governments campaigning to effect regime change.
The main opposition party, which accuses the government of stealing
elections and gross human rights abuses, denies the charges.
Analysts, however, said the stop-go dialogue between ZANU PF and the MDC had
suffered a stillbirth at the hands of partisan politics dividing the ruling
party along tribal and ethnic lines. The analysts, who rated prospects
for the revival of intra-party talks as close to zero, said ZANU PF might
prioritise the succession issue and the looming constitutional changes and
relegate the talks to the bottom drawer. "The idea of coming together
is being interpreted as scoring marks - ZANU PF doesn't see itself as
scoring any points through sitting at a round table with the MDC," said
political analyst Heneri Dzinotyiwei. Dzinotyiwei said both ZANU PF and
the MDC should define the basis and goals of the dialogue before engaging
each other. William Bango, the spokesperson for the MDC leader, this
week said although some people were benefiting from the prevailing chaos and
hoped the shambles would continue for a long time, a point was bound to come
when national sentiment would force such opportunists to abandon what he
described as a "dangerous and parasitic bureaucracy". "The
dig-in-type parasites, remnants of a disastrous five-year defend-power
project, tremble at the prospect of change because it threatens to suck out
the contents of their soup bowl. They care less about any constituency," he
said. "Approaches to ZANU PF and the MDC for principled dialogue as
part of a holistic turnaround plan for a bleeding nation make sense, given
the sharp decline in the quality of life for most of us," Bango
added. Of late, church leaders have been trying to bring ZANU PF and
the MDC back to the negotiating table, seen as the panacea to a crisis that
has seen Zimbabwe's once-robust economy collapse into a recessionary
heap. The talks collapsed in May 2002 after the MDC launched a court
challenge against President Mugabe's disputed presidential election victory.
The octogenarian leader, who has ruled Zimbabwe since the country's
independence from Britain in 1980, had insisted the main opposition should
acknowledge that he is the legitimate head of state. Reverend
Sebastian Bakare of the Anglican Church and other church leaders are
reportedly planning to meet Nathan Shamuyarira, the ZANU PF secretary for
information and publicity, to initiate dialogue between the two feuding
sides. President Mugabe had earlier said his party was open for talks
with the MDC, but ruled out a government of national unity, while the
opposition party said it was ready for the talks "anytime and
anywhere". Despite these official pronouncements, there is no sign of
dialogue on the ground. Analysts said while the talks could send a
positive signal to the international community - at loggerheads with ZANU PF
over alleged human rights abuses - and help turn around the country's waning
economic fortunes, prospects for the resumption of dialogue were
decreasing. They said this year's election had given ZANU PF
"thunderous support", adding the ruling party did not see engaging the MDC
as critical to its continued survival. "Its (ZANU PF) political
space is reasonably safe for the foreseeable future, hence its focus might
be on ensuring that its legacy as a revolutionary party is retained by
future torchbearers," said political analyst Augustine Timbe. Timbe
said as far as ZANU PF was concerned, the MDC, formed in 1999, needed a
complete overhaul of its ideological outlook and value system. Timbe
acknowledged, however, that the political influence of the MDC, which has
maintained its stranglehold on urban centres, could not be ignored.
He said: "The fact that the MDC has 41 seats in Parliament and has a grip in
urban areas cannot be denied . . . issues such as availability and pricing
of goods and the general economic turnaround, although they are an immediate
responsibility of the ruling party, also require the opposition to
contribute." Analysts said the inter-party talks had always caused
anxious moments for ZANU PF chefs, who feared for their future in the event
of a political settlement that would necessitate the inclusion of MDC
members into the government.
JONATHAN Moyo - an
inflammatory and articulate intellectual no-one can really control- once
famously accused President Robert Mugabe of suffering from cognitive
dissonance. He then got conscripted into ZANU PF's most unpopular Cabinet
since independence and was booted out after five eventful years in which he
waged a war of attrition with civil society among a myriad of
foes.
Now he is back on the civil society trail. Small
wonder his band of critics- and they are many- accuse him of cognitive
dissonance. For a man who prophesied that "going towards the year 2000,
they (ZANU PF) would have flip-flopped enough to thoroughly discredit
themselves" before joining up to "save" it, surely Moyo has himself gone
through too many of the proverbial nine lives to be taken
seriously? Not quite, at least judging by a well attended public
meeting in the capital last week. Addressing a full house, Moyo was
at his best, rasping wit and all. He spoke as a man convinced of his
rehabilitation and sanctification, if ever he needed any. He met a crowd
that was not only appreciative of his typically incisive analysis, but was
also ready to forgive and forget. They gave him a standing ovation when
he entered the crowded room and applauded throughout his presentation, which
had to be extended by public demand. The audience defended him against his
old nemesis John Makumbe and mobbed him at its rather chaotic
denouement. The episode was as much testimony to the curious streak of
collective amnesia Zimbabweans have frequently exhibited, as to how much
Moyo has tried to revert to his old persona - a trenchant government critic
known to pull no punches. Moyo, who remained in government until an
inauspicious exit just six months ago and, during his stint, often reserved
his most stinging criticism for civil society groups and the
anti-establishment intellectual community to which he once belonged, told
last week's meeting that the infamous Operation Muramba-tsvina/Restore Order
was symptomatic of the collapse of the state. "What we have seen
now is a novel approach to governance, called GBO - governing by operation.
Apart from Operation Murambatsvina, I understand there are up to 12
operations that the Reserve Bank has embarked upon," Moyo said to
applause. In conclusion, Moyo told the appreciative crowd: "We need, as
a nation, to do all we can, positively, to influence the President to stop
this crisis. To say as a young man, you made some historic decisions. He
should now have the courage and grace to say fellow countrymen, this is my
contribution. It is now time to go and make way for a young, dynamic
leader." It was always going to take considerable effort to eclipse
a panel which included speakers such as Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
secretary general Wellington Chibebe, Makumbe, Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) firebrand Tendai Biti, an impassioned socialist who calls
himself Brigadier Bomber. St Mary's Member of Parliament Job Sikhala, an
accomplished heckler, was also in the line-up of speakers but by the time
Moyo sat down, it was all too clear who would get the lion's share of the
plaudits. When Makumbe stood up and threatened to take Moyo apart with
a citation of his crimes against Zimbabwean humanity, he did elicit some
applause, but also got some brickbats in equal measure from people who
accused him of laying into a fellow panelist to settle "old scores from the
political science department at the University of Zimbabwe". Not to
be deterred, a combative Makumbe charged that Moyo, as information minister,
had presided over "a worse form of Murambatsvina - denying the opposition
MDC access to ZBC, The Herald and The Chronicle." "Murambatsvina is no
worse than the bombing and eventual closure of The Daily News and we want to
hear our colleague here apologising before he can be readmitted. He should
go through a five-year probation before we can trust him again. Who knows,
maybe the bespectacled old man might come again with an even bigger carrot
and he (Moyo) will be even more vicious in dealing with this community,"
Makumbe said. A 10-minute hiatus ensued as a cacophony of voices rose
in the packed auditorium, with opinion now sharply divided over Makumbe's
verbal attack on Moyo. While this is scarcely surprising
considering that Zimbabwe's crisis-battered urbanites are itching for any
symbolic effigy burning, it was surprising, though, that Moyo, who until six
months ago was a symbol of revulsion within the ranks of the community, was
so readily applauded last Thursday. It has been remarked how, as
the sole independent candidate in a sharply polarised Parliament, Moyo would
constantly find himself in an unenviable position - between a rock and a
hard place. He does, however, seem to have found a platform in public
meetings organised by civil society groups he persistently chastised into
virtual paralysis as he held court at Munhumutapa Building. For a
man who, in the not-too-distant past, told The Sunday Mail that; "If the
President needed any space, then he got it from the people of Zimbabwe
through their overwhelming popular vote in the presidential election. Now
the President has a clear mandate to govern for the next six years", his
bold call for President Mugabe to resign smacks of flip-flopping which does
not do one's credibility any good.
FIRST it was the very destructive and
controversial Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order. And now it is Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle under which the government is dishing out residential
stands like confetti at a wedding. From a face value judgment, that is
commendable.
It would seem to mean that government is belatedly
living up to its long neglected responsibility to provide shelter for its
people. Everyone should have a roof over their head. The right to shelter is
enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Given the level of homelessness in Zimbabwe's cities and towns
and the psychological crises spawned by the destruction of thousands of
homes against a backdrop of abject poverty and acute shortages of food and
fuel, the move could very well have been greeted with a collective sigh of
relief by the multitude of Zimbabwe's disillusioned homeless. But we just
hope against hope that this exercise, which - despite government's
inevitable protestations, is to all intents and purposes, an after-thought
that could have gone unthought of - is not just window dressing for the
public and international community's benefit. It is everybody's
hope that the new found desperate hope for the hopeless will translate into
homes for the homeless; that it will not be abused by remorseless, uncouth
and corrupt individuals whose life is all about self-aggrandisement; that
only deserving individuals are being allocated the stands; that standards
will not be compromised whereby structures put up under the hurried
reconstruction exercise will not beg for demolition before the ink on the
offer letters is even dry! Not only that but we also hope that the timeframe
given for the reconstruction, the number of houses to be constructed and the
estimated costs are not just figures plucked from the air, something that
government ministers as exemplified by Joseph Made, are known for.
The need for a well-thought out plan for the upgrading of sewerage works,
water treatment works and roads infrastructure which for Harare alone
independent estimates indicate would cost $3 trillion over a period of 18
months, cannot be over-emphasised. It should not be forgotten that the
infrastructural development requires a huge foreign currency component at a
time when the country's export sector has almost collapsed with the hard
currency flowing into the country in dribs and drabs. To make matters worse,
the country's creditworthiness has been reduced to junk status, which means
there is no question of having recourse to the international capital
markets. It is clear from the foregoing that our fears that the
mammoth reconstruction exercise might go down the plughole are not without
foundation. The imponderables enunciated above require an incredible leap of
faith to believe that this huge exercise will take the giant skip into
becoming a reality. Hence our guarded optimism. We express our
concern because the uncharacteristic speed with which the government has,
over the past fortnight, moved on this issue gives cause for concern. It is
eerily reminiscent of the scandal-tainted fast-track land reform which has
left Zimbabwe with the spectre of probably the biggest sectoral failure and
the once reassuringly resilient economy down on its knees. Given
the haste, mistakes are bound to be made and critical issues will most
likely be overlooked just as happened with the land reform programme,
creating a fertile ground for corruption. The results of such a scenario are
well documented with regards to land reform. The government has had, for
obvious reasons, to take aim without pulling the trigger - instituting
expensive audits where at most nothing has come out of them and at worst
their findings have been swept under a thick carpet of political expediency.
Despite official rhetoric on government's intentions to lower the boom on
corruption, no less than 300 individuals who helped themselves to more than
one farm in violation of government's stipulation of one-man one farm have
not been called to account. The reconstruction exercise could suffer a
similar fate and it could as sure as hell come unstuck. We would be
pleasantly surprised if the exercise succeeds without incident. We
are quite aware that overzealous and all-knowing government spin-doctors who
think that they monopolise objectivity, reason and patriotism and are always
bent on stifling debate on essential political and socio-economic problems
besetting the country, will once again seek to dismiss this observation as
something stewed in the juice of deliberate journalistic dirty-mindedness,
fault-finding, finger-pointing and speculation. But nothing could be further
from the truth. The point is that this is an issue of genuine public
concern, coming as it does against a background of a shocking level of greed
and corruption exhibited by self-centred politicians, their henchmen and
gold-plated businessmen who now rank among the country's most voracious
acquirers of the finite resource that is land. Fronting was rampant with the
uncouth land grabbers registering the farms in the names of their brothers,
sisters, mothers, children as well as their footloose and fancy-free
girlfriends. Which leads to a purely psychological question: What
guarantee is there that the influential corrupt individuals will not grab
the residential stands in the same way they did with the farms under the
land reform initiative.
EDITOR - What is the rule of law? Recently a UN
envoy came to Zimbabwe to investigate activities which the government
claimed it was undertaking to uphold the rule of law. In the hail of
obfuscation that accompanied Operation Murambatsvina, everyone seems to have
forgotten to pay a closer look at what really is upholding the
law.
While on the surface Operation Murambatsvina appears like it
is upholding the law, deep down it actually shows a very disturbing
manifestation of the breakdown of the rule of law that is taking place in
Zimbabwe. In law the burden of making sure the law is applied fairly lies
with the judiciary, ie the courts. If anyone disputes any activity, legally
the courts should have the final say on what is to be done, not one of the
parties to the dispute. During Operation Murambatsvina, the police
acted as if they were the final port of call in determining the legality of
any structure. If they said something had to be pulled down, then they
simply went ahead, even if there was evidence that the structure was legal.
In one case the police demolished the roof of a detached house (servants'
quarters) despite being shown the approved plans of the building. When the
owner went to the city council, he was told there was nothing wrong with his
building and he should put back the roof. This is a clear
manifestation that the police deem themselves not accountable to any law. In
other words we are in a situation where even the most junior of policemen
deem themselves as having the final say in matters of law. The
world over there is no worse manifestation of the breakdown of the rule of
law than that of living in a police state - a state where the police are the
accusers the judges and the executors. That this is being allowed to
happen is a demonstration of the ignorance and incompetence of the people
running the police force in Zimbabwe. These people clearly do not understand
the role of the police in a lawful country. The role of the police is to
gather evidence to be presented before a court of law, not to usurp the role
of the courts. Indeed there are indications that some people within
government know very well that the police are overstepping their bounds.
During the first sitting of the current session of Parliament, Minister
Patrick Chinamasa openly rebuked the police after a junior officer in Harare
announced that urban agriculture was banned, a policy which the government
apparently had not announced. The junior officer's actions are a
manifestation of a disturbing trend which sees every government official
being the law unto themselves. Not only does that result in them violating
people's rights, but in some cases it results in such officials purporting
to give rights to people when they have absolutely no right under the law to
give such rights. An example of such behaviour is the allocation of home
industry stands by council officials. Most of these turned out to be
illegal, and members of the public lost billions of dollars worth of
property as a result.
Normal? IT was really good to have the
UN special envoy, Madam Anna Tibaijuka around . . . a few new-borns got
names like Tibaijuka, Envoy, Habitat, Special, Tsunami etc. But the most
important thing we should collectively thank her for is the badly-needed
reprieve which she gave us.
During her stay here, most of our daily
problems seemed to relent . . . especially the urban transport crisis. Now
that she is gone, the situation is back to normal again - you all know what
is normal in this country . . . long queues, threats, loads of propaganda
etc. So we are back to square one? CZ is told that some of the ZUPCO
buses that were being commissioned and re-commissioned during the good
Madam's stay here have since been returned to the warehouses whence they had
been borrowed. The rural "chicken buses" that had been hijacked to operate
in Harare have since been released back to their normal routes. Everything
that has been happening during the past two or so weeks has been abnormal
and thank heavens we are back to normal! If CZ suggests that we
have a permanent UN envoy around . . . would we not afford contributions of
Z$1 each daily for their stay here - then at least we would be assured that
the official madness would be kept at bay? Turncoats?
RECENTLY, when former CIO chief and also former ZANU PF legislator Cde
Pearson Mbalekwa claimed to be resigning from the ruling party over the
ongoing (winding-up?) clean-up operation, his colleague Roy Bennett from the
opposition MDC was busy telling his day-dreaming Rhodie colleagues in South
Africa that the once good party (MDC) had been hijacked by opportunists
blah, blah. These two think Zimbabwe is packed with over-blown fools, don't
they? They think we don't know them enough to believe their tripe?
So it is only now when Mbalekwa has become a little nobody that he realises
that ZANU PF is a party of the heartless . . . so much that he even resigns
from the same party that he grew up in? Was the party better when he was at
the CIO headquarters, when he was a ZANU PF MP and when the party was
running the country down? Now that he is down and out, he thinks we are so
foolish as to buy his cheap trick? Mbalekwa, is there anything new?
He should tell us - and now please - how different he is from one infamous
Professor! And as for Bennett, the jail-bird, CZ doesn't think he is
the best person to talk about opportunists crowding each other out of the
MDC. Hasn't CZ always been saying there had been a big problem with the
basis on which this party was founded - this stupidity about
my-enemy's-enemy-is-my-friend opportunism - and he can now see it? He can
see that the opposition is made up of opportunists? Isn't he an opportunist
himself? Otherwise what was there in common between him - a Rhodie who
risked life and limb defending Ian Smith's regime - and Nelson Chamisa, a
student leader who violently demonstrated against the privatisation of
catering services in colleges? What's there in common at all? Isn't this
mere opportunism? Wasn't he once part of a regime that nearly everyone
was fighting and now he thinks we can believe that he is the best person to
fight another regime? Maybe Bennett should be reminded that
forgiving is not forgetting! Fidza! "I HAVE grown up and have
been groomed by ZANU PF. I owe most of what I am today to my association
with the party. I therefore, have no hesitation whatsoever to declare and
reaffirm that I will always be a loyal cadre to the party." We are told that
this was what part of Cde Philip Chiyangwa's letter to ZANU PF chairman John
Nkomo read like when he claimed he was quitting (dirty) politics for good!
We all hope so. But on that statement, CZ thinks there has to be some
correction of some sort . . . we all know when Cde Fidza joined the party,
what he was doing before then (for Ian Smith) and that juicy stuff!
And it is quite newsy that Cde Fidza is now a born-again Christian - at
least for now - otherwise what will happen to that whole harem of women out
there . . . Makosi Musambasi etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc! And Gushungo, did
you really grant that interview about this weird Musambasi girl to The
People reproduced in NewZimbabwe.com? Gosh. If someone were to ask
CZ what he thinks about this so-called quitting politics, he will tell you
that the once-flamboyant fellow is just biding his time . . . time to go to
the cleaners and come back . . . like Cdes Charles Ndlovu, etc, etc! A
rebuilding of some sort! Once a something, always a something!
Price hikes AND only this weekend Cde Obert Mpofu - this minister who
cannot address anyone without reading from a prepared speech - appeared on
our staid TV station saying suppliers of goods and services would have their
applications for price hikes considered only if the products are available .
. . but only recently the price of fuel - another non-existent product -
went up! CZ NEWS reaching CZ is that his namesake at the
state-controlled daily - a confused Green Bomber foisted editor at the paper
- at the weekend nearly did what he knows best. Killing. CZ is told that
after losing a professional argument with a female subordinate, CZ's
namesake decided to go physical and, bulky as he is, just imagine! Anyway,
eye-witnesses talk of clenched fists, kicks and upper-cuts flying all over!
What can one expect from a senior Green Bomber? And this is the
same semi-resident Media Watch "guest" who is always pontificating about
professionalism, ethics and exemplary leadership! Or he could not help
it. It might all have happened in a moment of weakness . . . you know this
question of asking and being turned down? You really never know, more so
when the market is awash with serious allegations of sexual harassment at
the establishment! Tsunami dance! CZ cannot understand
Zimbabweans. When all hope seems to have been lost in the ongoing official
madness, one of them pulls a surprise and introduces what is now called
Tsunami Dance! This is a new dance somewhere in between Borrowdale and
Kongonya, but a lot more careless to depict the hopelessness that has
pervaded this once beautiful country. It is the latest dance in town. Those
who want to sample it can visit one or two pubs in the high-density suburbs
where our man-made Tsunami was most criminal.
IN the first part of
this series last week I pointed out that the Zimbabwean crisis is now
assuming proportions outside the capacity of the current regime to deal
with, contrary to all the claims and pretensions of the
government.
This week I discuss how Zimbabwe's economic recession
has now transformed from a cyclical to a structural crisis. The
noble efforts of the central bank in tring to resuscitate the economy are
now taking a negative turn as the regime begins to crumble under the weight
of its irreconcilable complexities and absurdities. The treasury is now
as bankrupt as the political system and the manifestations are there for
everyone to see. The ordinary Zimbabwean on the street who is wearing
the shoe is the one who knows best where it hurts. If the poverty and
hardships faced by ordinary Zimbabweans were shared between them and their
leaders, it would not generate so much tension. The crux of the
matter is that we are witnessing poverty for the masses amid plenty for the
forgetful political class. Indications are that, sooner or later, those who
possess and are selfish will not have their dinner in peace.
Unmistakably, it is the totality of the Zimbabwean crisis which now
generates within the structures of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF party
the pressures for what is called "political reform". While for the
opposition, the broader civil society and the international community a
long-term solution lies in "regime change", for ZANU PF "reform" has become
the magic word for ending the crisis. But the party hopes against hope
that economic, as opposed to political, reforms spearheaded by Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono will do the trick. Being a party with a
Marxist-Leninist orientation, ZANU PF knows well that "economics is the
base, and politics is the concentrated expression of economics".
The idea and hope seems to be that if a miracle happens and the economy
fully recovers, all opposition to the system will fizzle out and the main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change party will be rendered
irrelevant. The ruling party and government seem determined to
continue to believe and argue that the economic crisis in Zimbabwe is not
political and that it can be solved on a purely economic front without any
far-reaching political concessions. There is nothing that can be
further from the truth. The reality is that the central bank is being given
an insurmountable task. The dramatic irony of the situation is that the
costs of managing the superstructure of the status quo and implementing and
sustaining a turnaround programme are beginning to exceed the surpluses
generated by the system. As such, there is no hope for an economic recovery
under the current regime. "Reform", which ZANU PF believes in, by
definition consists of an adjustment of the variables within a given
institutional structure or simply "reform" through changes within the
system. It presupposes an acceptance of the fundamental framework within
which the system operates. In the case of Zimbabwe, this would amount
to no more than rearranging the furniture of ZANU PF and opening windows to
make the system appear more democratic and accommodating, without altering
it in any fundamental way. This, quite clearly, is not what the
majority of the people of Zimbabwe can and will accept. With the
current economic rot and the government's callous insensitivity, if not
inhumanity, a prairie fire has been ignited and there now exists in
Zimbabwe's body politic more inflammable material than is within the
capacity of the fire-fighting Harare regime to extinguish. There
doesn't seem to be anyone who sees the way out for ZANU PF and the economy.
We are just stumbling blindly and falling. Zimbabwe has been in a deep
economic crisis since 1997 and to date we are still experiencing lethal
problems characterised by a negative growth rate, scarcity of foreign
currency on the official market, an intermittent and cyclical
hyperinflationary rate, a biting shortage of fuel and basic commodities,
high unemployment, depressed demand due to low salaries which mean less
disposable income, low investment levels preceded by massive capital flight
from the country. Currently we have an unprecedented fuel crisis which
has literally grounded industry and commerce to a halt, in addition to
worsening an already critical urban transport situation. There is currently
no sound proposal from the government on how to ensure the availability of
fuel. What makes the situation even more tenuous is the proposed hike
of electricity tariffs by between 200 and 600 percent with effect from this
month. The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority has already started
load-shedding on an increased scale. A combination of the fuel and energy
crises will paralyse and cripple all economic activity. Worse
still, there are irreconcilable fundamentals between the government's
progressive monetary policy and its retrogressive fiscal policy, as the two
are not properly synchronized. The government has no fiscal discipline and
the fiscal policy is under threat from high debt levels as the government's
domestic debt is now over $10 trillion while the external debt is around $4
trillion. Total debt is above $14 trillion which is much more than the
country's gross domestic product (GDP). The government is aware of both the
crisis and its magnitude and has tried this and that but the truth is that
they have long exhausted their capacity to deal with the challenges facing
the nation. All the government's "economic recovery plans" have hit a brick
wall but there was unprecedented hope and faith in the Central Bank's
monetary policy, which hope and faith are now wearing thin following the new
levels the crisis is now assuming. In the past we have had several worthy
and unworthy economic plans which became much ado about nothing. These range
from Growth with Equity and Zimcord in 1981 through the first Five Year
National Development Plan in 1986, the Economic Structural Adjustment
Programme in 1991, Zimprest in 1996, Vision 2020, the Zimbabwe Millennium
Economic Recovery Programme in 2000 and most recently the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe's efforts to restart the economy. It is clear now that
notwithstanding the missionary zeal and adventures of its Governor, the
Reserve Bank seems to be fighting a losing battle due to massive
governmental interference for short-term political expediency, and even
outright sabotage by influential politicians and businessmen within the
system. But whatever the case, Gideon Gono will go down in history as having
put up a good fight. He is one of a few operating within the system who
still has a conscience and better economic sense. There are now in Zimbabwe
a whole lot of factors putting a much higher price-tag on the sustenance of
the political status quo and the structures of a mismanaged economy. The
regime and capital have over the past few years generally responded in
diverse ways to the emerging costs and difficulties. For capital, both
domestic and international, Zimbabwe has become a high-risk and high-cost
investment site. It may well be said that capital is in a dilemma. Any move
towards higher capital investment is an act of confidence - that markets
will expand and that profits sizeable enough to repay the capital within a
reasonable time-scale can be generated. That confidence has been put into
serious doubt since the onset of the recession in 1997 and may indeed have
collapsed. The profit rate has slumped while a hyperinflationary rate has
eroded the real value of assets. And the collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar and
shortage of foreign currency suggests a breakdown of confidence on a
substantial scale with large amounts of capital leaving the country. The
refusal of the World Bank, the IMF, major international donors, foreign
banks and other financial institutions to extend credit or grant new loans
to Zimbabwe is now beginning to be traumatic; it implies a dwindling of the
sources of funding to meet the rising costs of ZANU PF authoritarianism.
With the economy in a deep slump, it has now become clear that overpowering
economic and political forces have now combined to produce a comprehensive
structural crisis for the Zimbabwean economy, generating schisms of varying
significance within capital, the regime and some sections of the Zimbabwean
populace. The response of the regime to the crisis, especially since 2000,
has been manifold. The state's involvement and intervention in the national
economy was sharply accelerated. The instruments of coercion and repression
have been perfected and considerably enlarged. The bureaucracy required to
manage and administer the ever-increasing body of legislative and
ministerial controls and restrictions on business and the hungry and
restless masses has been similarly increased. A specific militarist social
formation aimed at securing military self-sufficiency, intimidating
dissenting voices, stifling free political debate and crushing resistance
has been set in train, with the police, armed and security forces occupying
an increasingly political role in directing and implementing the state's
policies. Not to mention a bloated and inefficient civil service coupled
with thriftless non-productive expenditure by government. In these
essentials, the massive growth of the ZANU PF state machine requires funding
far beyond the surplus the regime can generate. These difficulties have now
reached the point of unprecedented crisis- the gravest yet in the history of
the state. The fundamental factor contributing to the transformation of the
recession into a structural crisis concerns the ever-growing absorption of
the country's resources by the state machinery. These resources have to come
from somewhere but they can not come from further taxation of the labour
force as that has been pushed to its limits. Nor can they come from some
miraculous increase in productivity since such an outcome is dependant upon
the wholesale dismantling of the structures of the ZANU PF regime. Recent
developments suggest that resources available from international borrowing
have now dried up and are unlikely to be resumed for years to come. Public
pressure against bank loans to Zimbabwe has become a major political force
in the United States, Britain and several countries of Western Europe.
Hence, the needed resources can now only come from corporate profits, which
are not much, if there is any. It is in this context that for the first
time, business, both local and international, is forced into an agonizing
reassessment of the value of their interests in Zimbabwe, and into making a
choice as to whether they should continue the risk of remaining committed to
the establishment. The regime knows that its policies are not economically
sound and have resulted in massive capital flight from Zimbabwe. Capital, on
the other hand, is equally aware that keeping the lid on a potential revolt
by the majority of the population through mounting repression and state acts
not only puts in question that security, but undermines the capital
accumulation process itself. The system, realizing the anger and impatience
of the people with its failures, has set in motion a systematic process of
patronizing part of the electorate through clandestinely dishing out
unbudgeted for funds to them and thus give them a stake in maintaining the
status quo. Talk of the war veterans, war collaborators and former
detainees. Now the system is pursuing an appeasement policy code-named
"Operation Garikai" to appease "tsunami victims" in the aftermath of the
discredited "Operation Restore Order". Again the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
was arm-twisted to release a yet unbudgeted for and staggering $3 trillion
to build houses for the displaced and homeless. Many of the youth militia
from the National Youth Service who are used to prop up the regime are now
involved in managing the institutions of the system- in the police, security
and armed forces, in the various departments of state, in executive and
managerial positions of the economic infrastructure, and in other forms of
non-productive employment. This parasitic profile of employment has
considerably raised the cost of maintaining an authoritarian regime. As
opposition to the regime mounts, this sector of crony employment can only
become more expensive and extensive. Capital will ultimately have to bear
these costs without any certainty of social and political stability or a
resumption of high rates of return on investment. How far will capital go in
abandoning the Mugabe regime? This is certainly the central problem
confronting the regime but much depends on what the regime itself will do in
the near future. They have to choose either to be responsible and thus dig
themselves honorable graves or to be irresponsible and dig themselves
dishonorable graves. I hope that they will choose the former for, as a
result of my personal interaction with some of the influential pillars of
the system; I know that they want to leave behind a good legacy although
they still need to do a lot in shedding their characteristic
"our-hands-are-tied" syndrome. Let's continue the discussion next
week.
THE demand
for residential accommodation is set to shoot further up, pushing rentals
higher, as the government's controversial clean-up campaign moves to
low-density suburbs, where staff quarters, garages and other outbuildings
are being razed to the ground.
A sizeable number of Zimbabwe's
working population reside in staff quarters or cottages in low-density areas
now being targeted in the ongoing clean-up campaign that had slowed down
following the visit of a United Nations (UN) special envoy. At
least 300 000 families have already been rendered homeless after municipal
authorities, in conjunction with the police, mounted a major crackdown on
illegal structures in high-density suburbs. The exercise, which the
government says is meant to deal with crime and spruce up the country's
towns and cities, has already triggered massive rental increases as demand
for residential and office space soared. The opposition Movement for
Democratic Change has described the blitz as a new wave of repression,
saying up to 1.5 million Zimbabweans had lost their homes. Police
said at the end of June that Operation Murambatsvina/Operation Restore Order
was in its final stages, while the government launched what it has described
as a home building programme for those affected by the demolitions.
The blitz has been condemned by the United States and Britain but African
governments have been mum, with South Africa in particular saying it will
wait for a report by the UN special envoy to decide on what action to
take. UN envoy Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka announced on Friday, at the
end of a 12-day visit, that an office of the UN Habitat agency would be set
up in Zimbabwe to help authorities deal with the aftermath of the
demolitions. - AFP/ Property Reporter
Something fishy about this communication
breakdown
7/14/2005 9:14:46 AM (GMT +2)
THERE was
much ado in the official press towards the end of last year about a
Zimbabwean delegation scoring a "major diplomatic victory"' at a meeting of
the Fourth African Development Forum held in Addis Ababa.
The
delegation's much touted diplomatic coup was attributed to the fact that it
had successfully argued that Zimbabwe had not had a chance to read a report
that was to be tabled in the Ethiopian capital prior to its departure from
Harare. The thrust of the document, one of 28 country reports commissioned
by the United Nations Commission For Africa (UNECA), was to evaluate
"progress towards good governance in Africa". Despite the fact that
none of the other countries had complained about not receiving the report in
advance and the insistence of the compilers of the report, the Southern
Africa Political and Economic Series Trust that the document had been
submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in good time, the delegation
stuck to its guns. This stubborn delegation included the government's former
chief propaganda architect, Jonathan Moyo. I remember questioning in
this column, the wisdom of regarding this diverting of attention from
serious issues by resorting to splitting hairs as an achievement. This was
in view of the fact that this was not the first time Zimbabwe was relying on
subterfuge to avoid fulfilling its international obligations.
Before raising dust over the UNECA report, the Zimbabwean government had
sparked another diplomatic uproar by claiming not to have had sight of
another document before it was due to be discussed. When an executive
summary of a report by the African Commission on Human and People's Rights
(ACHPR) was to be tabled in Senegal in July last year, then Foreign Minister
Stan Mudenge fought like a cock to give the government another lame excuse
to avoid answering for its actions. In this case, Mudenge protested
vehemently that the government had not seen the report, which condemned its
human rights record. The reason given by Mudenge for such an
important report not having been read by anyone in government was that the
document had been sent to the wrong ministry - the Ministry of Justice,
Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. It apparently gathered dust for months
under the nose of the responsible minister, Patrick Chinamasa, who, the
world was made to understand, did not pass it on to his colleagues at
Foreign Affairs. The question I asked in this column then, which still
begs an answer today is, what kind of government is this where the right
hand does not know what the left is doing? No doubt it was regarded as a
sign of bravado to brandish such failings on the diplomatic front as clever
alibis for state delinquency but what is to be said when similar lapses
occur on the domestic front? I refer to the serious communication
breakdown that reportedly occurred between the ministries of Local
Government, Public Works and Urban Development and Home Affairs over the
ongoing clean-up exercise. Weekend press reports suggested that the heads of
these two ministries, Ignatius Chombo and Kembo Mohadi, had clashed over the
demolition of houses belonging to registered housing cooperatives in
Harare. Despite repeated pleas from Chombo for the cooperatives to be
exempted, the police apparently went ahead and bulldozed their houses as
mercilessly as they had done to thousands of other dwellings throughout the
country. Asked to comment on the mix-up, Mohadi was reported to have
admitted that there had been a communication breakdown. "I have not received
a copy of that letter but he (Chombo) mentioned something to that effect.
There has been some sort of communication breakdown and I think I will have
to look at the letter before I can make comment,' Mohadi was quoted as
saying. This statement is alarming and raises many questions. One
is how such a serious failure to pay attention to detail can be excused when
the government is implementing a programme which has such far-reaching
consequences for those targeted? It is difficult to fathom how the state
would embark on a programme of such proportions so nonchalantly as is
emerging through this ministerial dispute. When observers have
expressed reservations about the harsh touch-and-go approach adopted in
carrying out the demolitions, there have been swift and vehement
reiterations that this was a well planned initiative designed to cater for
the welfare of the people. But how well planned and articulated was
this programme when such confusion could still occur at inter-ministerial
level? On the other hand, is it possible that a plan to implement the
exercise selectively was botched up because of poor communication? One
certainly gets that impression from Chombo's claim in a letter to Mohadi
that the co-operatives should be spared because his ministry was about to
approve their plans. But whatever the answers are to these numerous
questions, this does not paint a good picture. It gives credence to
widespread cynical charges that Operation Murambatsvina was a
spur-of-the-moment plan to punish urban voters for rejecting the ruling
party during the parliamentary elections in March. Something is always
fishy about the communication breakdowns within the Zimbabwean
government!
UNCERTAINTY still
surrounds the long-awaited opening of the Infrastructure and Development
Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ), whose official launch has been aborted twice in
recent months.
IDBZ had been slated for opening early in the year
but unforeseen teething problems stalled its unveiling to an anxious banking
public to June, which has since passed. The bank is expected to
mobilise funding for infrastructure development and provide equity to both
public and private sector institutions central to Zimbabwe's economic
growth. Companies in the property and construction sectors said they
hoped the launch of IDBZ would stimulate business, which has suffered a
hammer blow under the current economic recession. A senior official
in the Ministry of Finance told The Property Gazette this week that the bank
would be opened once the operational structure and framework had been
completed. He would not commit himself on the date of the launch.
"There is nothing new. We are still holding on to what was issued three
weeks ago by the permanent secretary in the finance ministry that the bank
would open soon. We are very keen to get it off the ground," said the
official. Analysts said the delayed launch of the bank was yet
another demonstration of the red tape that had delayed several other
government projects. President Robert Mugabe has promised to deal
with bureaucratic sloth in the public service. The delayed launch
of the IDBZ has become a major worry among developmental industries that
feel its creation was long overdue. The government is expected to
transform the Zimbabwe Development Bank (ZDB) into the infrastructure bank
and talks are under way with its shareholders to surrender their
stakes. The transformation of the ZDB is meant to exploit the already
existing structures of the bank and ensure smooth operation of the new
institution. Property players said there were vast tracts of idle land
which needed to be serviced once funds were made available. Public
sector investment programmes amounting to $3.6 trillion are among the first
projects earmarked for support by the envisaged bank.