http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July 2009
22:41
A FIERCE battle drawing in President Robert Mugabe and his
ministers
has erupted between Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono and SMM
Holdings (Pvt)
Ltd administrator Arafas Gwaradzimba over the return of
business tycoon
Mutumwa Mawere's seized companies.
This comes
amid a growing political conflict over the controversial
issue connected to
current power struggles.
The fight pits Mugabe, Gono, and Mawere on
the one side apparently
against Gwaradzimba, Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa and Defence minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa on the other. Chinamasa
this week said court cases
against Mawere must be
intensified.
It forms part of wider corporate and political
power struggles which
threaten to expose a hidden nexus between politics and
business. The veiled
interface between corporate moguls and politicians is
partly at the heart of
the country's poisoned political environment and the
ongoing scramble for
wealth and power.
The current clash is
dominated by heated exchanges between Gono and
Gwaradzimba. Gono accuses
Gwaradzimba of creaming off Mawere's companies by
collecting 6% of gross
proceeds of the sprawling empire and selling off its
assets. This has
triggered accusations and counter-accusations of "looting
of primitive
accumulation proportions" and a resultant "wreck and ruin" of
the SMM empire
under the rubric of "reconstruction".
Informed sources said
there has of late been a flurry of meetings,
telephone calls, emails, faxes
and other forms of communication, as well as
court battles in a bid to
resolve the problem which started in 2004.
After recent
consultations with Mugabe, Gono has argued Mawere must
get back his
companies, which Gwaradzimba has dismissed as "interference and
ill-advised". Gwaradzimba has said it would be "inappropriate" for Mugabe to
rescue Mawere who has already been "nailed" in the fight. He said by trying
to hand SMM assets back, Gono was attempting to "laundry" Mawere's illegal
deeds."
This has sparked heated exchanges between Gono and
Gwaradzimba, roping
in Mugabe, Mnangagwa and Chinamasa, among other
political heavyweights.
Mugabe met Mnangagwa, Chinamasa and
Gono on June 2 to discuss the
escalating dispute. The same group again met
on Monday to find a way
forward.
This latest round of drama
started after Mugabe met with Mawere twice
during South African President
Jacob Zuma's inauguration in May to tackle
the issue which hitherto made
them bitter enemies.
Informed sources said Mawere made his case
before Mugabe and produced
a "pile of documents". Mugabe is said to have
taken the documents with him
to Harare to consider the case which has been
fought in courts in South
Africa, the United Kingdom, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Sources said Mugabe tasked
Gono to assess the documents and recommend a way
forward.
Gono then wrote an advisory note to Mugabe on May 14,
urging him and
government to return Mawere's assets in the "spirit of the
inclusive
government and reconciliation". Gono has also been pushing for the
de-specification of a number of exiled businessmen whom he was accused of
squeezing out at the height of corporate battles during the 2004 banking
crisis and their return home. A number of them were despecified this
week.
In his letter to Mugabe dated May 14, Gono said charges
against Mawere
must be dropped and his companies returned because government
had acted
improperly during their seizure. He said although he was aware the
issues
were before the courts, a negotiated settlement could be a better way
to
resolve the dispute.
"Your Excellency, this advisory
brief seeks to highlight pertinent
review points on the SMM case that are
recommended to form the basis for a
resolute way forward on this long
outstanding matter," Gono wrote to Mugabe.
"It is recommended
that Your Excellency approve the despecification of
Mr Mawere and his
companies so as to pave way for a new beginning,
particularly in the context
of investment promotion and empowerment in
Zimbabwe."
Gono
advised Mugabe the central bank was ready to drop exchange
control-related
and externalisation charges against Mawere. He said
allegations that
Mawere's companies were indebted to the state were handled
badly as it
"violated the law of contracts" between SMM and state entities
concerned.
SMM was taken over by the government over allegations that it was
failing to
pay its debts to parastatals and other state entities and that
Mawere had
externalised millions in hard currency.
Gono said allegations
of insolvency against SMM were pursued without
fulfilling "minimum
procedures of notifying shareholders, creditors, debtors
and other related
parties" and there were no "judicial hearings" to
facilitate the
process.
He said Gwaradzimba's pursuit of "culpability" on
Mawere's part and
attempts to bankrupt him were "self-serving". Gono
suggested that the reason
Gwaradzimba was doing all this and refusing to
allow Mawere to get his
companies back was because he was getting an
enormous return out of it. He
also said there were unconfirmed reports that
Gwaradzimba wanted to secure
equity in SMM entities.
"Gwaradzimba, the SMM administrator, is getting payments set at 6% of
gross
proceeds of all SMM companies which is even more lucrative than
shareholders
themselves, let alone revenues to government," Gono said. "The
administrator's activities also seem to have entrenched interests of
needlessly permanently dispossessing Mawere of all his
assets."
Gono said Gwaradzimba had a conflict of interest in
SMM as a former
auditor of the company.
However, Gwaradzimba hit
back at Gono, saying his remuneration as
administrator was a "contractual
matter that was transparently and lawfully
determined".
"The governor was the prime mover and instigator of the SMM
reconstruction
process, yet he embraces Mawere's allegations and advances
them against the
original case," Gwaradzimba said. "It boggles the mind how
the chief
complainant in this matter can turn around to become the chief
defender.it
is too late for the governor to change course."
Gwaradzimba
also said some of Gono's arguments were misleading "false
claims" and were
"naïve and mischievous". He insisted Mawere must not get
back his companies
because he has "lost 100% of cases in Zimbabwe and South
Africa". (See pages
4 and 5 of the print).
BY DUMISANI MULEYA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16
July 2009 22:27
GOVERNMENT has awarded a marginal salary increment to
the US$100
monthly allowance paid to civil servants after increasing the
wage bill by
about 40% that will result in an average salary of about
US$140.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti in his mid-term fiscal policy
review
yesterday increased the civil service wage bill by 41% to US$48
million
monthly from US$34 million to meet the salary
adjustment.
The current wage bill accounted for 35% of government
total
expenditure and 13% of GDP.
Biti said government
with effect from this month would review the
remuneration framework of civil
servants taking into consideration the need
to differentiate between
grades.
"I am, therefore, proposing to set aside an additional
US$151 million
to year-end to support implementation of a modest pay
structure which begins
to recognise grade, albeit initially across only
limited differentiated
bands," he said. "In line with this, effective 1 July
2009, I propose to set
aside an additional US$14 million per month over and
above the current US$34
million to support a review covering the period from
July 2009."
A simple calculation of the money set aside for the
salaries showed
that civil servants would each get an average of US$140
monthly. The workers
have since February been paid a US$100
allowance.
"Reviews that allow for decompression of the wage
scale will improve
motivation and retention of skilled civil servants. The
Public Service
Commission, guided by the above resource envelope, is working
out the pay
structure effective from July 2009 after which payments should
be processed
by month-end," Biti said.
"To avoid crowding
out non-wage expenditures, additional reviews will
in future be implemented
in line with international best practices with
regards to the ratio of the
wage bill as a proportion of total expenditure
and GDP respectively at about
30% and 8%.
He said further reviews to the remuneration of
government workers
would be made in the next budget.
Biti added:
"Government is also urging public servants, including
pensioners, to
exercise restraint on wage demands that are beyond the
capacity of the
budget and the economy at large.
"I also wish to emphasise that
we cannot spend what we do not have
and, therefore, the decompression of the
wage bill I have made in casu is
consistent with the total absence of fiscal
space characterising this
Government. We are no longer printing our own
money, therefore, the days of
inflationary and populist wage increases are
gone."
In the same review, Biti officially demonitised the
Zimbabwe dollar
and announced that government would raise US$6 million to
purchase the local
currency strapped in depositors' bank accounts, as well
as cash outside the
banking system.
This measure would
bring to an end talk that the Reserve Bank intended
to reintroduce the local
currency after President Robert Mugabe said his
government intended to
review the use of multi-currencies.
"The hyperinflationary
environment, which became more severe in 2008,
left the Zimbabwean dollar
valueless, leading to the adoption of multiple
currencies by government
beginning February 2009," Biti said.
"As part of the process to
formally complete the transition into the
multiple currency system, I
propose the demonetisation of all the remaining
Zimbabwe dollar balances
held by the financial sector as well as notes and
coins in
circulation."
Formal demonetisation, Biti added, should allow
for settlement of all
remaining Zimbabwe dollar transactions and obligations
prior to the
introduction of the multiple currency system in
February.
"At the present moment, estimates indicate that about
US$6 million
will be required to purchase the entire stock of Zimbabwe
dollar balances
with banks as well as cash outside the banking system.
However, current
capacity to raise the required US$6 million is limited," he
said.
Biti, however, said the review of use of multiple
currencies and the
local unit would be undertaken once "there is clear
evidence of a strong
economy" characterised by a "sound track record of
policy consistency" and
implementation, a sustainable external position, and
a strong financial
sector, necessary to support and sustain the desired
currency regime.
"Such a review will also consider a number of
currency regime options,
guided by the SADC objective of achieving a unitary
currency by 2018," he
said.
BY BERNARD MPOFU
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July 2009
22:22
SIXTEEN MDC-T and human rights activists and a journalist are
demanding a combined US$19,2 million in damages from two cabinet ministers
and state security agents for their alleged abduction, unlawful detention
incommunicado, and deprivation of liberty last year.
The
activists and journalist filed their lawsuit with the High Court
on Tuesday
and are demanding US$1,2 million each.
Each of the plaintiffs is
demanding US$500 000 in damages for unlawful
abduction, enforced
disappearance, unlawful detention incommunicado,
unlawful arrest and
unlawful deprivation of liberty; US$100 000 for assault;
US$300 000 for
torture, pain, shock, suffering and psychological trauma,
contumelia and
loss of amenities of life; and a further US$300 000 for
malicious
prosecution.
Collen Mutemagau, Kisimusi Dhlamini, Audrey Zimbudzana,
Zakaria Nkomo,
Gandhi Mudzingwa, Fidelis Chiramba, Broderick Takawira,
Mapfumo Garutsa,
Pascal Gonzo, Tawanda Bvumo, Violet Mupfuranhewe, Chinoto
Mukwezaramba,
Pieta Kaseke, Regis Mujeye and journalist Andrison Manyere are
each
demanding US$1,2 million in compensation.
They are demanding
the compensation from the co-Ministers of Home
Affairs, Kembo Mohadi and
Giles Mutsekwa, Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa, then Security Minister
Didymus Mutasa, Police Commissioner-
General Augustine Chihuri, Prisons
Commissioner Paradzai Zimondi, and
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
Director-General Happyton Bonyongwe.
Also sued are police Senior
Assistant Commissioner Nyathi, Chief
Superintendent Crispen Makendenge,
Detective Chief Inspector Mpofu, Chief
Superintendent Peter Magwenzi, Senior
Assistant Commissioner Chiobvu of the
Prison Services, Detective Chief
Inspector Elliot Muchada, Superintendent
Josh Shasha Tenderere, Assistant
Inspector Mudandira, Superintendent Regis
Takaitei Chitekwe, Detective
Asssitant Inspector Maria Phiri, Detective
Inspector Chibaya, Detective
Muuya and Assistant Director of the External
Branch of the CIO, Asher Walter
Tapfumaneyi.
In one of the High Court summons, Mudzingwa is suing for
his unlawful
abduction and detention at Goromonzi Prison complex despite the
fact that he
had not appeared in court and was not on remand in respect of
any charge.
Mudzingwa alleges that he was held incommunicado, being
denied his
basic human rights such as access to legal practitioners of his
choice,
access to medical practitioners of his choice, access to medication,
access
to family, friends and relatives, among other rights protected by the
Constitution of Zimbabwe and other International Human Rights Instruments to
which Zimbabwe is a party.
He further claims that he was "subjected
to assaults, torture and
other cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment at
the hands of his captors,
"who include and/or were acting in concert with or
in connivance with one or
more of the defendants, either directly or
indirectly through their
agents/subordinates".
Mudzingwa raises
concern over failure by the defendants to institute
any prosecution against
his alleged kidnappers, whom he claims are known.
He claims that while
he was in "unlawful detention at all stages, he
was denied the opportunity
to participate in activities and perform the
duties, which guarantee
plaintiff with a means of livelihood".
Another MDC-T activist,
Mupfuranhewe -- who was allegedly abducted
together with her minor child --
is suing for her alleged unlawful detention
and denial of basic human
rights.
She is claiming damages for the torture she went through when
she was
allegedly ordered into a tub of "very hot" water for failing to
participate
in a quiz.
Mupfuranhewe claims that she was burnt on
her buttocks.
During her detention, she alleges, she was accused of
spoiling the
toilet and spent the whole day having ice cold water poured
into her pants.
She also alleges that she was given rules regarding her
child that he
was only allowed to go to the toilet and was not to cry for
food.
The MDC-T activists and Manyere are facing terrorism charges in
the
High Court.
BY WONGAI ZHANGAZHA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July 2009
22:18
A STRUGGLE is looming between parliament and the principals of
the
inclusive government after the House said it will investigate Monday's
disruption of the first all-stakeholders conference and MPs found to have
participated in the mayhem will be disciplined.
Besides
parliament, the co-Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutsekwa this
week said he
had ordered a full-scale police probe into the disruption of
the conference
in the capital by Zanu PF loyalists.
Both moves by parliament and
Mutsekwa came despite the decision by
President Robert Mugabe, Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy
Arthur Mutambara not to launch a
witch-hunt for the culprits.
Trouble at the conference broke out when
Zanu PF loyalists demanded
the singing of the national anthem at the
commencement of the meeting.
The situation degenerated into a fracas
when House of Assembly Speaker
Lovemore Moyo took to the podium to deliver
his opening speech. He was
drowned out by the Zanu PF adherents singing
revolutionary songs, waving
fists and some pelting delegates at the high
table with water bottles.
Moyo told the Zimbabwe Independent yesterday
that parliament would
charge any legislator identified to have taken part in
the disruption of the
conference.
"The constitution-making process
is parliamentary business and if
there are any MPs that were involved and
identified to have taken part in
the disruption of the conference they will
be charged by parliament," he
said. "Parliamentarians can raise a motion and
if that is done, parliament
will have to constitute an investigative team to
look into the issue and if
any MPs were involved in interrupting
parliamentary work, then they are in
contempt of parliament and the Standing
Rules and Orders Committee will have
to deal with the issue."
Under
Zimbabwe's Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act,
parliament
is empowered to sit as a court and to award and execute
punishments for
specific offences which are listed under the law.
Parliamentary sources
said the House was not bound by the decision of
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and
Mutambara and would take action against MPs who
disrupted the
conference.
In 2005 then Chimanimani legislator Roy Bennett was
imprisoned after
he pushed to the ground then Justice and Parliamentary
Affairs minister
Patrick Chinamasa after he had called Bennett's forefathers
"thieves and
murderers" and said he deserved to lose his farm because he had
benefited
from a British colonial system that robbed blacks of their
land.
Parliament set up a five-person parliamentary committee, the
Privileges Committee, to look into the conduct of Bennett. The committee
found the legislator guilty and sentenced him to 15 months imprisonment with
labour.
On Wednesday, Mutsekwa told parliament during a question
and answer
session that the disruption of the conference that led to the
abandonment of
the business of the day was an embarrassment to the country
and that the
police probe should expose the perpetrators.
"The
ministry has since called upon the officer commanding Harare
province
(police) to make a full investigation," Mutsekwa said. "The
information at
hand is that the incident was called by particular
individuals, some of
which are honourables of this August House. I want to
categorically state
that this was an embarrassment to the state of Zimbabwe.
Investigations will
be done."
But Mutambara contradicted Mutsekwa when he told the same
parliamentary session that the principals of the inclusive government had
agreed to let "bygones be bygones".
"No witch-hunting, we want the
process to go on," Mutambara said.
"More importantly we must work
towards constitutionalism. What you saw
on Monday was a dramatic
manifestation of lack of tolerance."
The Tsvangirai-led MDC blamed
Indigenisation minister Saviour
Kasukuwere, Zanu PF National Youth Director
Patrick Zhuwao and war veterans
leader Joseph Chinotimba for sparking the
mayhem.
"The rowdy and violent scenes that brought the constitutional
proceedings to a standstill took place in front of cameras," the MDC-T said
in a statement. "These scenes are on record and footage is available showing
Zanu PF senior members Saviour Kasukuwere, Patrick Zhuwao and Joseph
Chinotimba leading the mayhem. The three are certainly not and will never be
MDC members." (See Zhuwao's response on Page 7.)
Tsvangirai told
his newsletter this week that Monday's "deliberate
attempts" to derail the
constitution-making process would not succeed.
"Zimbabweans need,
demand and deserve a people-driven, democratic
constitution and I am
determined to ensure that their desires are realised,"
he said. "There can
be no shortcuts to the constitution-making process and
nor can there be any
drafts imposed on the people during the
constitution-making process as there
can be no substitute to a truly
people-driven process."
Tsvangirai
acknowledged that the political dispensation under which
"we are all living
is not perfect from the point of view of MDC or Zanu PF
but that it does
offer us, as a nation, a real opportunity to develop a new
constitution,
institute democratic reforms and hold free and fair elections
leading to a
new democratic Zimbabwe".
"The road to this new constitution has been
too long for the final
product to be anything other than what was envisaged
when we first embarked
on this journey," he said. "Together we will develop
a constitution that all
Zimbabweans can be proud of, that will stand as a
beacon for future
generations and as a testament to the courage and ideals
of our fallen
heroes."
Meanwhile, the National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA) which is opposed
to the parliamentary-led constitution-making
process said it would on Monday
hold a one-day second people's
constitutional convention to be attended by 3
500 delegates.
"It
will be held as a follow-up to the first peoples' convention of
June 1999.
The specific objective of this convention is to adopt positions
and
programmes of action in the light of current attempts by politicians to
undermine our struggle for a genuine people-driven constitution," the NCA
said in a statement.
The assembly said the convention would be
backed by the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions and the Zimbabwe National
Students Union.
The NCA said it would be a convention of like-minded
Zimbabweans with
"deep convictions" that the constitution-making process
must not be led by
politicians; that a democratic and sustainable
constitution can only come
from a genuine people-driven process and not from
a "fraudulent
parliament-driven" process and that the country could not
afford a supreme
law designed "solely" to accommodate the interests of the
current political
leaders.
Bernard Mpofu/ Loughty Dube
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July 2009
22:11
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono recently wrote an advisory note
to
President Robert Mugabe urging him to allow government to return business
tycoon Mutumwa Mawere's assets. Excerpts of the letter are
below.
1.1 Your Excellency, this advisory brief seeks to highlight
pertinent
review points on the SMM case that are recommended to form the
basis for a
resolute way forward on this long outstanding
matter.
Your Excellency, having gone through the availed
documentation and the
facts that prevailed on the ground at the time this
matter arose, the bank
has come to the following conclusions on the various
critical points:
Were SMM liabilities legal loans by the
state?
2.2 Court records and proceedings of the matter indicate that
the
issuance of the Reconstruction Order on SMM was based on the following
liabilities:
a) A debt of Z$396 million in respect of a commercial
bond issued by
the MMCZ whose proceeds were used by SMM;
b) An RBZ
PSF loan totaling Z$30 billion, disbursed in two tranches,
Z$20 billion on
24 May 2004 and Z$10 billion on 17 August 2004;
c) A debt of Z$8,2
billion owed to Zesa;
d) A debt of Z$252 million owed to the National
Social Security
Authority (NSSA); and
e) A debt of Z$39,9 billion
that was due to Zimra.
2.3 Your Excellency, at law the above SMM
liabilities at the time the
Reconstruction Order was instituted did not
qualify as state loans to SMM.
2.9 In this case, the creditor-debtor
relationship lay between SMM and
the individual entities that were owed
money, and not the state as
erroneously advanced.
2 Insolvency of
SMM
2.11 Your Excellency, at law, insolvency declaration is a
diagnostic
conclusion that has to be preceded by minimum procedural steps
that do not
only involve notification of shareholders, creditors, debtors
and other
related parties, but also impels the holding of actual judicial
hearings to
assess the material facts and financial data of the company, as
to be able
to factually determine and conclude the existence and degree of
such
insolvency.
2.15 As things went, and as things stand, the
State is, therefore,
exposed to the risk that the investor community may
conclude that the letter
and spirit of property rights, human rights and
company law is not being
followed in so far as the rights of shareholders,
debtors, creditors,
employees and any other relevant parties are concerned.
This is not good for
government's and the country's image, Your
Excellency.
Alleged exchange control violations
2.19 Your
Excellency, deliberations at the courts on these allegations
have not been
conclusive, as the State could not provide evidence beyond
reasonable doubt
that the relevant amounts as alleged had been banked
offshore with the
express intention never to repatriate them back to
Zimbabwe.
2.22
In the SMM case, the Reserve Bank is happy to drop any Exchange
Control
related charges, in light of the evidence at hand.
Natural person of M
Mawere vs juristic persona in the form of
companies
2.25 Your
Excellency, the State seems to have inadvertently made an
error of principle
by failing to distinguish the boundaries of rights and
responsibilities for
the person of Mutumwa Mawere and those responsibilities
for those who were
running with the day to day issues of the SMM group of
companies.
2.26 Yes, at law, company directors are liable to the circumstances of
their
companies, but in the matter at hand, the State's case seems to have
hurriedly bundled all allegations on the lap of the person of Mawere,
without documentary proof as to his direct involvement in the SMM day to day
dealings, let alone the bulk of the charges levelled against him.
Conflict of interests
2.27 Your Excellency, the Reserve Bank has also
found the following
material grey areas which seem to have compromised the
entire handling of
the SMM case:
a) Though there is reference to
the Fifth Table of the Seventh
Schedule of the Companies Act, which sets the
payment levels for liquidators
and administrators, the fact still remains
that Gwaradzimba, the
administrator, is getting payments set at 6% of gross
proceeds, of all SMM
companies which is even more lucrative than
shareholders themselves, let
alone revenues to government. Your Excellency,
there is genuine need for the
relevant sections of the Companies Act to be
modified. The Administrator's
activities also seem to have entrenched
interests of needlessly permanently
dispossessing all Mawere of his
assets.
b) It has also been established that the Administrator,
Gwaradzimba,
was a former auditor of SMM, making him the least qualified to
vilify SMM
financial systems and try to reconstruct the financial fortunes
of the
company. At best, knowing that he was a former auditor of SMM,
Gwaradzimba
ought to have honourably turned down the appointment by the
Minister of
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. Your Excellency, this
material
fact seems to have been grossly overlooked during the judicial
proceedings
against Mawere.
c) It has also been established that
Manikai, who presided as one of
the legal minds on the SMM issue was a
former legal advisor to SMM, again
making him a less suitable candidate to
preside over the SMM matter.
2.28 Your Excellency, these anomalies do
cast doubt and credibility
deficits on the transparency and integrity of the
subsisting control and
management arrangements of SMM and how the whole
matter was handled.
Self-serving lawsuits
2.29 Your
Excellency, as I write this Advisory Note to you, there is a
matter that is
before the High Court seeking to legally declare
"culpability" of Mawere,
which would have the effect of empowering the
Administrator to declare SMM
assets to be legally and permanently owned and
held by the government of
Zimbabwe. There are also unconfirmed indications
that the current
administration team is actively making preparations to
either directly or
indirectly acquire stakes in SMM.
3. Recommendations
3.1 Your
Excellency, based on the above pertinent factors, and
discoveries, I humbly
seek to submit the following decision points for your
consideration:
e) The de-specification of Mawere and his companies
so as to pave way
for a new beginning, particularly in the context of
investment promotion and
empowerment in Zimbabwe.
f) There is need
for an urgent realignment in the Companies Act in
order to come up with
realistic charges for liquidators and administrators.
Where an administrator
gets 6% of gross proceeds of a company under his/her
insolvency salvage
operations, as is the case with Gwaradzimba in the SMM
case, this creates
intractable conflicts of interest, as well as further
worsening of the
struggling companies' financial standing.
3.2 Your Excellency, if one
or more of the above recommendations finds
your approval, it is also
strongly recommended that an independent
transitional board be put in place,
represented by people other than the
current administrator to exhaustively
work through the financials of SMM to
pave way for an amicable settlement of
this long outstanding matter.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July
2009 22:09
1 IN response to the malicious allegations levelled against
me as the
administrator, and as a private citizen, I respond as
follows:
In General:
a) The manner in which the
administrator is remunerated is
contractual;
b) What the
administrator uses his earnings on, whether from his SMM
assignment or any
other sources, should be the administrator's business;
c) The places
where the administrator's children go for their
education should remain the
business of the administrator's family, not that
of Mawere or Dr
Gono;
d) If the administrator has committed any misappropriation of
funds,
due legal process should be instituted;
e) On the defamatory
allegation by the Governor, that the
Administrator's "team" is preparing to
acquire SMM, I reserve the right to
seek legal advice on this; and
f) The Governor questions my professionalism in accepting the SMM
Reconstruction appointment, and suggests I should have not accepted the same
as I had been auditor of the company. This again is shameful. I was not
appointed in 2004 to audit SMM, but to reconstruct that company. Even if it
were an audit appointment, I had long left the audit of SMM in 2000 when I
left KPMG. It is naive that one would want to pretend to
know the
rules of professional conduct for a profession (where) one
has no clue as to
how that profession conducts its business.
2 I provide below more
information about myself, the law as it relates
to administration
fees in respect of companies under reconstruction, and the
Administrator's
role in any payments by SMM.
Administrator's background, in
brief
a) A member of the Zimbabwe National Liberation Army from 1977
until
1980 at Independence. Demobilised from the Zimbabwe National Army in
1982.
b) Studied for his Ordinary and Advanced Levels examinations from
mid
1982, writing the examinations in November 1983.
c) Studied
Accountancy at the University of Zimbabwe from 1984,
coming out with a
Bachelor of Accountancy (B.Acc) Honours Degree in 1986.
d) Joined
articles of clerkship at KPMG in 1987, qualifying as a
chartered accountant
in 1989.
e) Appointed as a Partner in the KPMG Zimbabwe Partnership
after eight
years with the firm, in 1995.
f) Left KPMG in 2001 to
form AMG Global Chartered Accountants, which
is now a registered Swiss
Verein for legal purposes, and has offices in
Malawi (2), Mozambique, South
Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (3). AMG Global
employs over 120 people in
Zimbabwe alone.
g) Bought his first farm in 1995, then three more in
1998/9. Two of
the farms were surrendered to GOZ for settlement as part of
the land
redistribution.
h) Is still farming, specialising in
tobacco and cattle, which
activities should be expected to generate
reasonable income.
Administration fees from the SMM
reconstruction
a) Administration fees are charged as already explained
under A l
(iii)
above.
b) It should be noted, that no new
way for remunerating those in the
administration of companies was created on
the enactment of the
Reconstruction Act, as existing legislation already
provided for the payment
of such remuneration. It cannot be said, therefore,
that the reconstruction
laws were created with the aim of benefiting AM
Gwaradzimba and certain
politicians, as has been alleged by Mawere. All
other administrators of
companies in this country (and there have been many
of them) are paid in the
same manner, namely in accordance with the
provisions of Paragraph 3 of the
Fifth Table of fees, as contained in the
Seventh Schedule of the Companies
Act, and no one has complained about
it.
c) Also, the reconstruction of SMM was the first ever GOZ
assignment
that AMG Global were appointed to. It cannot, therefore, be
concluded, as
has been done by Mawere from time to time, that it is because
of my GOZ
connections that I was appointed to this assignment. Mawere should
appreciate my role as liberator, which gave him the opportunity to be able
to pretend to be investing in SMM.
d) Because of the difficulties
which SMM finds itself in, for close to
two (2) years now, the administrator
has postponed invoicing the Company
since 2007, neither has AMG Global
received any money therefrom since the
same time.
Summary and
conclusions
The Administrator has raised the issue before, that the SMM
Reconstruction cannot be concluded without judgement on culpability having
been secured in terms of the Reconstruction Act, as well as without the
Supreme Court's decision on the appeal against the Reconstruction Order
having been handed down. The two cases came before the Courts in 2007, and
were initially postponed at the behest of Mawere. Set downs had been
secured for 21 May (Culpability) and 1 June 2009 (appeal against the
Reconstruction Order). The matters were again postponed at the instigation
of the Mawere camp, and using the ABD and the recent intervention of the
Governor.
I kindly request your honourable minister to make an
appropriate
public announcement on the continued/reconstruction of SMM. The
form and
nature of such announcement would be entirely determined by your
honourable
minister, but may take the form of a pronouncement in the
Government
Gazette.
AM Gwaradzimba
Administrator - SMM
Holdings (Pvt) Ltd
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16
July 2009 22:05
IT was never going to be a great success, this First
All-Stakeholders'
Conference: any gathering of 4 500 people will fail to
achieve very much
except provide a spectacle, and the logistics are
mind-boggling!
Trouble started last week when the conference was
postponed - it was
scheduled for the weekend of July 11-12, then Zanu PF
announced it was
postponed indefinitely "due to lack of funds" or some such,
and the
Parliamentary Select Committee had to put its foot down and announce
that it
would take place on July 13-14 instead. There was a rush of
last-minute
preparations: lists of delegates and full-page announcements in
the press,
organisations running around trying to get their delegates on the
list, etc,
and it was only on Saturday evening or Sunday morning that most
of us knew
registration would take place on Sunday!
Registration was a nightmare, and very few of us managed, despite
being
there the whole day and half the night. It was supposed to start at
8am; I
first went there at 9.45am and they weren't yet ready, so I returned
at 2pm,
by which time hordes were already gathered and struggling to get
past the
first hurdle -- registration on the first form. That was nothing,
however,
compared to the next stage: the photo-identity card to get in to
the venue.
There were literally thousands of people milling around pushing
and shoving
and being told (or actually physically pushed) to get into
different queues
going this way and that way for number, signature, photo -
it reminded me of
the scrum when sugar arrived at the supermarket a couple
of years ago! A
policeman kept walking up and down and in and out of rooms
with bundles of
what looked like completed accreditation forms, complaining
that he was not
responsible for accrediting people, but doing absolutely
nothing to control
the chaos!
This alerted me that there was a parallel process going on,
especially
when I saw a queue going into the photo room at the back of the
Secretariat
room next door, and Nyasha Chikwinya slipping in and out -
memories of
elections and the nonsense at some polling stations. Somewhere
at the back
of the photo room one or two people were doing photo-identities,
but by 4pm
they had only processed 87 people! Most of us gave up, but for
the three
thousand or more coming from out of Harare, there was yet another
nightmare:
allocation of food vouchers and accommodation.
I was
very pleased with myself on Monday morning for managing to swan
into the
main auditorium without any fuss whatsoever (no mention of photo-ID
cards!). As I chose a seat, war veteran Joseph Chinotimba greeted me from
behind: "Hello, Stevenson!" He seemed to find it very amusing that I was
seated so close by. Gradually the place filled up, and soon the singing and
dancing started; Zanu PF songs, especially, "Hondo! Hondo yeMinda!" with
much shaking of fists (slogans expressly forbidden in this process) and
marching up and down. I noticed that Chinotimba was directing groups to
start, move, stand up, move back, etc and joining enthusiastically at times.
Most of the people downstairs were joining in this, while upstairs groups
responded with the open-palm MDC slogan and waved their placards.
It seemed quite good-natured, and no one was particularly worried,
although
we were very tired of waiting by mid-day when there was still no
sign of the
opening ceremony starting. The co-chairpersons of the Select
Committee did
appeal to groups not to use their slogans, but they soon
started again.
Eventually the top table filled up, the Clerk of Parliament
Austin Zvoma
announced that the principals would come later but we would
start the
proceedings. We started with a prayer, and this caused noisy
complaints
from the "war vets" shouting "National Anthem! National Anthem!"
The
Clerk appeared not to hear, called for the Speaker of Parliament
Lovemore
Moyo to give his opening address, then the crowds started singing
the
National Anthem. This was OK, we all stood up and sang - and it was
quite a
moving moment. Then Moyo started speaking, and immediately the
rowdy thugs
around the room started singing and shouting and shaking their
fists again,
drowning Moyo, who however carried on with his speech. The war
vet crowds
danced into the centre of the auditorium, egged on by Chinotimba,
and
started throwing water around over the delegates and moving forward en
masse
so that the seated delegates had to stand up and move away. Moyo gave
up
speaking and the top table moved out - the signal for everyone else to
go,
also.
I kept looking around for the police to do something but the few
present just stood idly by - or got out themselves! Eventually most people
had left the auditorium, my colleague Chamunorwa was trying to take me out
but we first moved across to Finance minister Tendai Biti and a few others
who were sitting firmly in their places, determined not to budge. Then more
missiles came flying through the air, Chinotimba was dancing on a table -
and I decided it was time to go!
The" war vets" were singing and
dancing on the steps outside, and
delegates were trying to skirt around them
to get away: I followed a group
of women behind the pillar and through the
flowerbeds! There was a bit of a
traffic jam as those of us lucky enough to
have vehicles drove off - but
most of the 4 000 genuine delegates were
standing around traumatised, not
sure what they could or should do.
We have decided that we must not give in to this thuggery, so we would
re-convene the next day (Tuesday). We heard that the three principals,
including Robert Mugabe himself, would come. I felt if they didn't come on
time and join together to stop this insanity, this constitution-making
process -and the inclusive government - is finished.
=Trudy
Stevenson is former Harare North MP and MDC-M national
executive
member
BY TRUDY STEVENSON
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16
July 2009 21:13
LAST Wednesday, as I was driving into the parking lot
of parliament, I
stopped to greet Honourable Paurina Mpariwa.
She wound up her window, deliberately ignored me and refused to speak
to me,
let alone acknowledge me. I am told that she is upset with me for her
belief
that I had a role in the disturbances that occurred at the
Constitutional
Conference last Monday.
I got terribly upset with Honourable
Lovemore Moyo (Speaker of
Parliament) on both Monday and Tuesday. I spent
the afternoon of Tuesday
writing a scathing letter to him. In my view, the
letter chronicled my
perceptions of the shortcomings in the arrangements for
the all stakeholders'
conference.
When a close friend and colleague
read the draft, he said it was too
personal, insulting, abusive and
emotional. I responded by saying that
President Robert Mugabe had talked
about the GPA coming from the heart;
therefore my letter, too, was from the
heart. He calmly told me that I was
quoting the president out of context,
and that I should take the whole
import of his message from Monday night's
press conference.
He was right. Emotion had taken over reason. He
assisted me to see
that. I have therefore not yet sent the letter.
Minister Mpariwa is not only a good colleague and friend, she is my
homey
from Zvimba. I believe that she is upset with me; so might a lot of
people
be. There are also a lot of people that are upset with Moyo, the
administration at Parliament, or the Select Committee.
I am
therefore writing this article to assist all those who are upset
to enable
their reasoning to take over their emotions. On both sides. To do
that, I
will talk about the events leading up to and involving Monday, and
then
analyse those events in the context of President Mugabe's message on
Monday
night.
At the first and only joint caucus that I attended in
preparation for
the National All Stakeholder Conference on the constitution-
making process,
I made a presentation of six points which included
requesting that the
appropriate logistical arrangements be assured for
delegates, and that the
conference be presided over by the three principals
to the Global Political
Agreement.
My protestations around the
logistical arrangements at the joint
parliamentary caucus were based on my
extensive experience in managing such
major events in my capacity as the
Zanu National Director for Youth. I have
been a member of Zanu PF's National
Preparatory Technical Committee for its
annual conferences since 2003. I
have directed and coordinated the 21st
February Movement Celebrations in
Kutama (the President's 80th birthday in
2004), Marondera (2005), Mutare
(2006), Gweru (2007), Beitbridge (2008) and
Chinhoyi (2009). I have also
coordinated and directed the 3rd Zanu PF
National Youth Congress held in
2004 which was attended by 4 500 delegates,
as well as the highly successful
First National Youths and Students
Convention held at the HICC in June 2008,
and attended by over 6 000
delegates. I knew what I was talking
about.
The framework for managing the above Zanu PF events involves 12
committees made up of 10 - 15 members in each committee. I was convinced
that the 12-member select committee was inadequate for managing such an
event considering that it was catering for delegates from different
organisations. Some of the select committee's members were too busy with
their other duties (eg ministers). That is why I was extremely vocal at the
joint caucus.
On Monday when the conference was due to start there
was logistical
chaos. The accreditation had been such a shambles that it was
impossible to
ascertain whether the persons attending the conference were
bona fide.
Arrangements for accommodation had been so inadequate that there
were
delegates that had slept in corridors, offices and in the open (mind
you we
are in the middle of winter!). Some delegates had not had a meal
since they
left their homes the previous day. It was sad to note that the
fears I had
voiced during the joint parliamentary caucus were playing out
for real.
Although delegates were upset and frustrated, they were
excited by the
prospect of seeing their leaders. United in front of the
people of Zimbabwe,
President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara represented such hope
for the future that the
physical hardships of lack of accommodation, food
and ablution facilities
could be ignored. People felt that they were about
to make history together
with their heroes. They could imagine the stories
they would tell when they
got back home; stories about how they, together
with their heroes, engaged
and discussed the future of Zimbabwe.
As
I walked into the conference room, I noticed that there was no
national
flag. Alarm bells rang in my head. Half an hour later, a huffing
and puffing
hotel official brought a solitary flag into the conference room
and placed
it on the podium. Things appeared as if there were getting back
on track. We
settled in to wait for the official opening.
The dignitaries then
walked in and took seats at the podium. Lo and
behold, all seats at the
podium were filled. None of the three principals to
the GPA was amongst the
dignitaries. There were no empty chairs reserved for
anyone else to come and
join the dignitaries. Several questions came to my
mind. Whose function was
I attending? Who was presiding over this process?
What was everyone else
thinking of inside that auditorium?
The master of ceremonies then came
and announced that the official
opening would be conducted later and
requested that the opening prayer be
said. After the prayer, proceedings
then started. No national anthem was
sung. I interjected from the floor.
Several other people interjected too.
The master of ceremonies ignored those
interjections.
The people then took over. There was a spontaneous
singing of the
national anthem. Proceedings then continued. I then received
a text message
indicating the president (who was billed to officially open
the programme)
was not coming since he had not been invited.
That,
together with the deliberate attempt to ignore the national
anthem, was
totally unacceptable to me. To this date, the ignoring of the
national
anthem and the absence of the three principles of the GPA at this
event are
unacceptable. Irrespective of how much the three principles may
attempt to
gloss over and cover up these monumental blunders for those
responsible, it
is unacceptable. Sevakuru, vanoyedza kuyananisa, asi pane
anenge
ashaisha.
I had asked some colleagues to update me on what was
transpiring. As
we were talking outside, we heard noise and commotion in the
conference
hall. When we returned, there was singing in the hall. Word had
reached the
delegates that the three principals of the GPA were not part of
the process.
The disruptions were, obviously, a manifestation that these
three men, His
Excellency President Robert Mugabe, the Right Honourable
Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, and the Honourable Deputy Prime Minister
Arthur
Mutambara, are truly the owners of this process. The people were
protesting
the hijacking of the people's constitutional project by
individuals that
they did not know. The people were angry, frustrated and
felt betrayed by
the organisers.
I felt for the people. I felt with
the people. I was at one with their
protestations.
President
Mugabe, that Monday night, indicated that "we are
Zimbabweans, Zimbabweans
with one flag, one national anthem". These symbols
of unity were
deliberately ignored by the organisers of the event. Worse
still, the three
principals of the GPA personify the united body politic of
Zimbabwe. Their
absence at the event was catastrophic. This is further
illustrated by the
fact that, after their joint press conference, the
proceedings of the
following day were not disrupted.
So I say to my Ambuya Paurina, yes
you may be upset with me. However,
my actions, the actions of some of my
compatriots on all sides of our
political divide, were the actions of people
who were angered by the
deliberate downplaying of the three majors symbols
of unity that are
currently with us. These are the national flag, the
national anthem, and the
three principles of the GPA.
Our protests
are, in essence, a clamour for unity. Simunye.
Patrick Zhuwao
is MP for Zvimba East and Zanu PF National Youth
Director.
BY
PATRICK ZHUWAO
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July 2009
21:40
FINANCE Minister Tendai Biti yesterday gave little respite to
motorists by reducing duty on diesel marginally from US20c to US16c a litre
and maintained the high rate at US20c a litre on petrol putting paid any
chances of a cut in the price of fuel.
The price of fuel has of
late increased largely due to tax on the
essential commodity and financing
challenges at the National Oil Company of
Zimbabwe. There were expectations
in the market this week that Biti would
reduce or remove completely the duty
on fuel. Diesel is currently selling at
between US$1 and US$1,10 a litre
while petrol is priced at between US$1,40
and US$1,60 a litre. The high cost
of fuel has contributed to an increase in
the price of goods and services.
There are fears that this could stoke new
inflationary pressures on the
recovering economy.
However there was joy for importers of
newspapers as the minister
scrapped the 40% duty on imported titles. Biti
also removed duty on cellular
phone handsets, computers and printers. He
also reduced duty on motor
vehicles with combis with a carrying capacity of
15 to 20 passengers
attracting 15% duty and single cab vehicles 20% down
from 25%.
Biti's budget review however exposed major challenges around
low
levels of revenue inflows that have made it impossible for government to
meet disbursements for requirements by ministries.
He said the
government was facing challenges with regards to
supporting the financial
requirements for agriculture.
"Requirements for the 2009/10 summer
cropping season, estimated at
US$880 million, are not only almost equal to
the entire 2009 national
budget, but are also in excess of the domestic
financial sector savings
deposit base," he said.
He said additional
budget challenges emanated from requests by some
ministries for funding in
areas that had not been covered within the US$1
billion 2009
envelope.
Ministries, notwithstanding their appreciation of the
realities of
cash budgeting, continue to raise bids for additional
requirements, he said.
The requests include services for the audit of
the payroll,
requirements for decent public service remuneration, public
service
delivery, infrastructure, the new constitution-making process. Biti
proposed
to sustain existing ministries' operations as well as provide for
new
requirements. The minister yesterday revised the year-end economic
growth
projection to 3,7% from the original 2,8% on the back of gains
recorded in
all sectors of the economy during the first half of the year in.
Biti also
revised the annual inflation average projection to 6,4% from
6,9%.
In his mid-term fiscal policy statement yesterday, Biti said the
review should realign the 2009 budget expenditure priorities to expected
revenue inflows, consistent with the cash budgeting policy thrust adopted in
February.
"In short, we will continue eating only that which we
hunted," he
said.
"Reflecting economic gains recorded during the
first half of 2009 and
prospects for economic recovery to the end of the
year, the country's real
gross domestic product is poised to grow by an
estimated 3,7% in 2009," Biti
said.
Biti said recovery in the
country's agricultural sector, estimated at
24,3% in 2009 was expected to
influence the this year's anticipated overall
positive economic
growth.
Biti said the devastating impact of the economic collapse over
the
past 12 years was reflected by the de-industrialisation of the economy
and
declining per capita GDP from an average of US$720 during 1997-2002 to
about
US$265 by December 2008.
Further more, informal employment is
said to have risen to over 60%,
leading to sharp contraction of wages as a
share of GDP and overall increase
in poverty levels
"Human poverty
in this country as measured by total consumption
Poverty Line and the Human
Poverty Index is estimated to have risen by above
the 63% and 51% recorded
in 2003 and 2006," he said.
Zimbabwe's real GDP, which recorded
remarkable positive growth rates
averaging 3,9% per annum in the 1980s and
1990s shrunk by more than 40%
during the period 2000-2007 and 48% by the end
of last year, he said.
"From the second half of 2008, mineral prices
particularly for
platinum and nickel at the international markets began to
fall as a result
of the global financial crisis.
Platinum prices
dropped from US$2 048 per ounce in May to US$834 per
ounce by December
2008.
Gold prices also fell but by a smaller margin with March prices
averaging US$968 per ounce while an average price of US$816 per ounce was
recorded in December 2008.
In the first half of 2009, mineral
prices however started stabilising
as a result of interventions through
fiscal stimulus packages introduced by
most developed countries.
Biti said agriculture, which is the main pillar of the Zimbabwean
economy
with strong linkages to the rest of the sectors, contracted by an
annual
average of -7,1% between 2000 and 2008. Cumulatively, agricultural
output
contracted by -79,4% during 2002 - 2008.
Similarly, the mining and
manufacturing sectors recorded average
annual declines of -9% and -9,5%,
respectively, during the same period.
Sector performances during 2000-2008
are indicated in the graph below:
Biti said the most devastating
problem which faced the economy since
2000 was inflation. During 1997 -
2002, inflation averaged 61,7%, after
rising from 18,8% in 1997 to 135,1% in
2002. From 2003, inflation spiralled
out of control and reached recorded
hyper-inflationary levels of 231 million
percent by July 2008.
"This marked the death of the Zimbabwe dollar, which subsequently went
out
of circulation, resulting in the market pricing of goods and services in
foreign currencies from October 2008," said Biti.
High inflation
was primarily driven by high money supply growth on
account of expansionary
quasi-fiscal activities by the Reserve Bank. This
pro-inflationary
macro-economic policy was compounded by speculative
activities in financial
markets and the underlying severe supply constraints
in the
economy.
"The adoption of Sterp has resulted in the country recording
consecutive negative inflation levels, with the month on month rate
experiencing deflation since January 2009," he said.
BY PAUL
NYAKAZEYA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July 2009
21:37
IT is beyond doubt that the events that have unfolded in the
country
over the past few months have helped to paint a new picture of the
country.
Notable milestones include the signing of the
Global Political
Agreement, review of the fiscal policy which was
subsequently followed by
the launching of Sterp, liberalisation of the
economy, full dollarisation,
the government's 100 day action plans and the
investors conferences that
have been held by both the government and private
players.
The launch of Sterp was arguably instrumental in
changing the fortunes
of the country. Policies enunciated in the document
were largely welcomed by
many and they somehow helped to reduce the cloud of
uncertainty that hung
over the economy. Dollarisation of the economy, though
it wiped off working
capital for many companies, provided some stability to
the economy.
Hyperinflation was brought under control with monthly
inflation
figures from January to May this year below 0%. The negative
monthly
inflation is a result of downward adjustments in prices of most
commodities.
The improved outlook on the economy has also resulted in
foreign
investors becoming significant participants in our economy,
particularly on
the stock market.
Since the equities market resumed
trading US$12,6 million worth of
shares have exchanged hands. Most trades
are taking place in the heavyweight
counters and it is believed that
offshore investors could be strategically
positioning themselves ahead of
the economic turnaround. The rationale
behind buying the blue chip stocks is
that these companies are expected to
recover faster than others.
Participation of foreign investors is also a
sign that the investment
community has possibly discounted the level of risk
attached to the
country.
Furthermore, the tobacco-selling season which commenced on May
7 is
progressing very well. To date 38,5 million kgs have been sold
realising
US$114,3 million. In comparison 29,7 million kgs had been sold
over the same
period last year at a value of US$94,3 million. The
improvement possibly
stems from the various lines of credit that were
pledged towards the sector.
These have enabled merchants to procure the gold
leaf from farmers at
favourable prices. Current prices may have also
encouraged farmers to grow
more tobacco this season. Tobacco seed sales at
247 460 kgs represent a 67%
increase from last year.
Another sector
that has benefited immensely from the current
dispensation is mining. The
favourable policies have seen some mining houses
resuming operations after
more than a year of inactivity. As the operating
environment worsened in
2008, several mining firms stopped business and
engaged into what they
termed care and maintenance. Many could no longer
sustain operations due to
lack of funding with several being owed money by
the Central Bank. The
positive policies undertaken this year include
liberalisation of the sale of
minerals and allowing producers to retain all
their sale proceeds. This has
motivated some to start producing again. Over
and above these, the
availability of credit lines for the sector has enabled
players to
recapitalise.
Some of the liquidity filtering from the tobacco sector
has helped to
revive other sectors, particularly the retail and
manufacturing sectors.
Tobacco farmers, who are being paid mainly cash and
to a lesser extent
transfers into bank accounts, have been rather generous
with their money
with some literally going on a spending spree. While some
are preparing for
the next season through buying inputs, others are spending
their newly found
riches on furniture, clothes and used cars.
Besides the tobacco farmers, others that have seen an improvement in
their
disposable income are mine workers. These together with the embassy
staff
and NGO employees have been the major drivers of aggregate consumer
demand
in the country. The majority of people in employment work for the
government
and earn monthly allowances of US$100 each. If this amount is to
be doubled,
the impact on aggregate demand in the economy will be huge.
Increase in
disposable income will result in expanded capacity utilisation
in the
economy.
All of the above has been achieved at a time there is limited
liquidity in the economy. It therefore implies that more can be achieved if
the country can secure more funding. Under Sterp, the Finance ministry
believes that the country requires US$8,3 billion to reconstruct the
economy. The IMF believes that the country needs US$45 billion over the next
five years to return the economy to optimum levels.
Now that
investor confidence levels are slowly creeping up with each
passing day, it
is necessary to source the required finances to turn around
the economy.
Sadc member states have proved that they lack the capacity to
support the
turnaround programmes in the country.
Funding from multi lateral
institutions like Afrexim and the PTA bank
is far from the required amount.
European and American countries are on the
other hand still sceptical about
the idea of giving the country budgetary
support. This means that the
country should seriously consider selling some
of its assets to generate
some cash. Whilst the cash needs are urgent,
caution is required in
privatising the assets if the country is to fully
benefit from
it.
BY KUMBIRAI MAKWEMBERE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July 2009
21:35
FUEL prices in Zimbabwe have increased by 50% inside a month as
the
state-run National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) fails to procure
enough
fuel to meet the country's requirements.
Fuel prices,
which have been on an uninterrupted increase in the last
three months, have
resulted in the prices of basic commodities increasing by
an average of
US$0,90 since May depending on the retail outlet.
According to the
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe the family basket has
been increasing over the
past three months in response to fuel prices.
The price of petrol rose
from US$1 on June 16 to US$1,50 last week,
while the price of diesel rose to
US$1,10 from US$0,90. The price of fuel is
however fluctuating between
US$1,40 and US$1,60 depending on supplies on the
day.
According to
the Reserve Bank, Zimbabwe needs between 100 and 120
million litres of fuel
a month. Zimbabwe consumes about 1,2-million litres
of fuel (diesel and
petrol) a day. Currently the country is only importing
40 to 50 million
litres.
The strengthening of the rand against the US dollar is also
said to
have exacerbated the shortage for small-budget fuel
importers.
Zimbabwe's fuel importers prefer doing business in US
dollars, which
are now fetching less. Yesterday the rand was trading at
8,193 to the
dollar. Most Zimbabweans are still transacting the two
currencies at 1:10.
Economists this week blamed the massive tax on
imported fuel as a
contributing factor.
Government has set excise
duty on petrol and diesel at US$0,20c per
litre. Noczim is said to be
charging them as much as US$0,58c for petrol and
US$0,22c for a litre of
diesel.
Government is however saying the increase is in response to
rising
global
prices.
And as a means of raising hard
currency, fuel importers are said to be
insisting on trading in coupons
rather than cash.
Global oil prices have remained depressed with a
barrel of oil trading
at an average of US$60 and is seen remaining below
US$90 per barrel by end
of year
The coupon system is favoured by
suppliers because it forces consumers
to pay in advance. Rising fuel costs
have immediately translated into higher
transport and food prices.
Though shops are well stocked, the price of goods is rising, with many
unable to afford to buy enough food.
Economist Eddie Cross said
when Zimbabwe converted to the use of
foreign currency for all domestic
transactions, the import fuel system was
liberalised and price controls
lifted.
"This resulted in an immediate resumption of normal supplies
and in a
few weeks all informal fuel sales were suspended," Cross
said.
In the past three months restrictions have again been imposed on
import permits resulting in a resumption of the effective monopoly over fuel
supplies going back to Noczim.
However, because Noczim allegedly
has no credibility in international
or even regional markets, its
transactions have to be in hard cash.
According to Cross the temptation
of many millions of dollars (about
US$1,5 million a day) flowing through the
accounts of Noczim was just too
much for the elements in government and
Noczim resulting in a large sums of
money being taken out of the Noczim
accounts. The parastatal as a result
failed to deliver millions of litres of
fuel, already paid for to local
clients.
"These clients then halted
payments to Noczim and had to try and fill
the resulting void with supplies
from South Africa by road," said Cross.
No comment could be obtained
from Noczim at the time of going to
print.
Energy Minister Elias
Mudzuri is on record saying the current fuel
shortages are as a result of
problems being experienced by Noczim. "Noczim
is not procuring enough fuel
as they are experiencing problems," Mudzuri
said.
BY PAUL
NYAKAZEYA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July 2009
21:33
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai will deliver a keynote address
at a
business initiative forum gala dinner to be held on July 31 at the
Sandton
Convention Centre in Johannesburg.
The prime minister
is expected to brief delegates on the conditions
and merits of investing in
a new Zimbabwe at the banquet organised by Mlilo
Projects Building and Civil
Engineers.
The gala will draw participants from leading companies,
business
experts, policymakers, fund managers financiers and sectoral
investors from
all over the world
The indaba will focus primarily
on matters to do with the business
climate, investment opportunities, and
property protection rights.
Zimbabwe's image as a safe investment
destination had been dented by
years of dictatorial laws by Robert Mugabe's
government.
The country has been facing condemnation for
counterproductive laws,
including breaching business protocols as well as
policies that scare away
potential investors. It has been urged to review
laws concerning protection
of private sector investments if the country is
to get its economy back on
track.
Policy experts and economists say
there is significant interest in
Zimbabwe by investors and the prospects of
recovery can only be underpinned
by government's commitment to reforms that
attract foreign direct investment
and comprehensive international donor
funding.
They say massive inflows of capital are crucial to sustainable
economic growth, leading to job creation and economic prosperity.
The prime minister last month appealed to Western nations for
increased
humanitarian support to Zimbabwe and urged them to consider direct
aid to
the inclusive government.
The government urgently needs about US$8,5
billion to fund
reconstruction of the economy and to restore basic services
such as health
and education.
But so far, it has raised only US$2
billion in credit lines from
African countries and institutions, while the
US and its Western allies have
insisted on reforms first. - Staff
Writer.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July
2009 21:30
IN the Hollywood film Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise plays a
sports agent
with an onerous task of raising Cuba Gooding Jnr's game and
getting him a
better contract.
Gooding, an egomaniac football
player for the better part of the
movie, keeps up his pesky and cocky
attitude to his own detriment telling
Cruise in one of the scenes "show me
the money" first.
Back home, former Chamber of Mines chief, Ian
Saunders, at an annual
general meeting a few years back, likened
government's behaviour to Gooding's
portrayal of the football player in the
Oscar nominated film.
Like Gooding, he said the Zimbabwean government
was demanding to be
shown the money without any behavioural change or
reform. Unlike in the
film, Gooding -- the government's equal -- finally
comes around and gets the
dream contract after dealing with his
issues.
But could the Zimbabwean government be changing its attitude
and
preparing to play ball this time judging by recent comments at last
week's
investment conference?
President Robert Mugabe's assurances
that Zimbabwe is ready to respect
property rights last week came as music to
investors' ears but investors are
still in a wait-and-see mode judging by
the absence of foreign direct
investment.
Mugabe promised that the
new government "upholds the sanctity of
property rights".
His
comments came against a background of continued farm invasions and
apparent
lack of action on the invaders.
Mugabe said: "The conference will do
well to ensure that our
investment policies are fully explained as there has
been uninformed
apprehension concerning some of them particularly those to
do with
indigenisation. Such policies as the Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment
Act should not be viewed as obstacles to investment. Rather,
they should be
welcomed as promotive of the greater participation of our
people in the
economic activity that builds to good business returns for the
investor. In
addition, foreign direct investment is most welcome as it
brings new
technology, capital and new markets.
"It is my pleasure
to invite all the potential investors to sample our
investment opportunities
from which I am sure, they will find some areas
which are appropriate and
supportive of their endeavours."
But his invite is fraught with
suspicion and many investors still view
the indigenisation law as an
impediment to investment.
Analysts argue that government's failure or
success in dealing with
farm invasions should be the benchmark in measuring
its commitment to
respect and defend property rights.
Until
government deals or fails to deal decisively with the
uncertainty over farms
occupations, investors are not likely to commit a
dime towards investment in
the country.
Instead, government seems to be more comfortable accepting
donations
from developed nations than attracting investment.
Apart
from that, Mugabe and his government have in the past behaved
like a crazy
bunch locked up in the attic that investors pretend do not
exist until they
appear and pull a totally nutty stunt on the investment and
economic
front.
Investors had gotten conditioned to a barrage of takeover
threats at
the height of Zimbabwe's economic crisis while those who had
existing
operations in the country were arrested for increasing the prices
of goods
without government's permission.
Last year some businesses
were shortlisted for takeover because the
owners had European origins and
accused of attempting to remove Mugabe from
power by stoking the people's
anger through incessant price increases.
To others, Mugabe is the sort
of leader who says one thing and does
the other. As such, many still believe
Mugabe's promises that the new
government upholds property rights could be
mere lip service.
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara says he is
making desperate
attempts to rebrand Zimbabwe's image.
Analysts say
rebranding the country's image will not be a stroll in
the park and demands
political will from all the parties in government.
Mutambara also faces
an uphill task owing to failure by the
principals - Morgan Tsvangirai,
Mutambara and Mugabe - to iron out sticking
issues arising from the Global
Political Agreement (GPA) the parties signed
last year.
This is
also adding to uncertainty on Zimbabwe, analysts said.
Saunders, now
chief executive of New Dawn Mining Corporation, a
company with a listing on
the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and trading under the
3DM, last week gave the
Independent an insight into investor perception on
Zimbabwe.
He
said: "Currently 3DM is performing a little lower than
expectations.
Certainly with some of the political and economic issues being
unresolved
there is some hesitancy on the part of certain investors to
aggressively
invest in Zimbabwe. Once these matters are resolved we see a
very bright
future for 3DM."
Mutambara last week admitted government is lacking
credibility because
of failure to halt farm invasions and re-introduce the
rule of law.
He said: "For you to be trusted, credible to investors, we
must
resolve that matter (outstanding issues) because if we don't, we lose
credibility. How can we convince investors if we don't respect our own
agreement."
Critics blame Mugabe for ruining the economy with the
help of his
central bank chief Gideon Gono. Under Gono inflation rose to
record levels.
BY CHRIS MURONZI
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July 2009
21:27
A TEAM of indigenous players is set to launch Zimbabwe's first
low
cost airline within the next few weeks with a maiden flight scheduled
for
September this year.
The new airline's thrust will be on
ensuring that flying is both
affordable and convenient and is geared to
cater for the burgeoning
travelling population plying the
Harare-Johannesburg and
Bulawayo-Johannesburg routes.
Aptly
named Fly Kumba, the airline has positioned itself for growth in
line with
the Government of Zimbabwe's quest to re-brand itself and
re-emerge as the
bread basket of the region if not the continent.
Fly Kumba Chief
Executive Officer, Lloyd Muchaka said the airline's
vision and mission was
centred around ensuring that flying is affordable to
everyone.
"We
intend to become Zimbabwe's preferred low-cost airline, delivering
the
lowest air fares with the highest consumer value and offering world
class
service to price sensitive consumers.Fly Kumba intends to fulfill
everyone's
dream of flying based on a fare of below US$80, departure tax
included in
this price for a flight from Harare to Johannesburg," said
Muchaka.
He said the maiden flight was scheduled for September, 2009.
In line
with its vision, Fly Kumba seeks to complement the tourism
service and to
see the ongoing efforts to re-brand the country as another
opportunity for
the airline to play their own part in enhancing the image of
the country in
the outside world.
While flying is often viewed as an exclusive
privilege for the elite,
Fly Kumba Chief Financial Officer, Patrick
Chapwanya said the airline was
cognisant of the fact that the prevailing
economic recession meant tight
budgets for the ordinary person
hence
the introduction of this low cost service.
Chapwanya
said Fly Kumba intends to pass on benefits of low
transportation costs to
its clients as every saving can be applied to cover
other costs.
"We know that the objective of each traveller is to get to their
destination. Fly Kumba has identified a workable solution enabling
travellers to do just that without the burden of unnecessary costs," said
Chapwanya. -- Staff Writer.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16
July 2009 20:30
'CHAOS rocks indaba," the Herald told us on Tuesday
morning. This
followed the shocking events of the previous day when youths
had run riot at
the All-Stakeholders meeting on constitutional reform at the
Harare
International Conference Centre, singing and dancing, and drowning
out
remarks by Speaker Lovemore Moyo and secretary to parliament Austin
Zvoma.
They pelted dignitaries with an assortment of missiles
including
bottled water.
The Herald omitted to tell us which
youths were responsible for this
anarchy. Nor did it tell us why President
Mugabe failed to turn up. It also
omitted to mention that many of the rabble
had reportedly arrived with
Saviour Kasukuwere and Patrick Zhuwao. Joseph
Chinotimba's presence went
unmentioned.
All we were told is that
President Mugabe described the events as
"disturbing". The best Morgan
Tsvangirai could do was to "associate myself
with what His Excellency said."
- something which he does a lot of nowadays!
What we find "disturbing"
is the selective coverage of all this.
It was obvious to the public at
large which party used the pretext
that some people were not singing the
national anthem to create chaos. And
it was clearly evident who was
toyi-toying and preventing others from
speaking.
Here was a test
for our public media and they predictably failed it.
Tafataona
Mahoso, who likes to point out to the media their
shortcomings, needs some
instruction himself. He said in his long-winded
column in the Sunday Mail
last weekend that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
took his personal
spokesman with him "on what was supposed to be an official
state visit to
Europe and the United States".
Mahoso should be the first to understand
that prime ministers cannot
make state visits abroad. Only heads of state
can make state visits.
Tsvangirai's visit was an official visit. There is no
such thing as an
"official state visit".
Mahoso waxed indignant
over the West setting benchmarks for Zimbabwe
on issues of governance. In
fact they said the GNU should meet its own
benchmarks before it approaches
the West for aid. Why is that so
unreasonable?
Mahoso purports to
speak for the people of Zimbabwe in his column, as
in "the people want the
effects of the last 10 years of illegal sanctions to
be tackled as an
emergency".
In fact the people want an end to Zanu PF's damaging
misrule. That is
what they voted for just over a year ago. Mahoso ended up
on the losing side
in that contest. The people rejected the pretensions of
the rotten and
discredited post-liberation aristocracy he speaks
for.
Mahoso's dishonest explanations for the collapse of the economy no
longer find purchase with the Zimbabwean public. But he continues to churn
out ideologically sclerotic views which have long since passed their
"sell-by" date.
He should read Moeletsi Mbeki's revealing views in
Architects of
Poverty: Why African Capitalism Needs Changing, reproduced
recently in the
Star under the heading, "Colonised by the black
elite".
"Nationalism in Africa has always paraded itself as a movement
of the
people fighting for their liberation," Mbeki notes. "The reality is
rather
different."
He points out that African nationalism was the
preserve of a small
Westernised black elite fighting for inclusion in the
colonial system.
Their record has been spectacularly damaging, he
argues.
He gives the example of Zimbabwe where once the ruling party
had
consolidated its hold on power, "the Zanu PF political elite proceeded
to
enrich itself to the great detriment of the national economy and of the
welfare of the population at large".
Such actions have ensured that
most Africans in sub-Saharan Africa are
poor and getting poorer, Mbeki says.
He uses figures from the World Bank and
US National Bureau of Economic
Research to show that 36% of the region's
population lives in economies that
in 1995 had not regained the per capita
income levels first achieved before
1960. Another 6% are below levels first
achieved by 1970, 41% below 1980
levels and 11% below 1990 levels.
"Only 35 million people reside in
nations that had higher incomes in
1995 than they had ever reached before,"
the bureau points out.
What a shocking indictment and required reading
for Mahoso and the
gang he defends who he helpfully names in his
article!
By the way, Mahoso laments the absence of "visual symbols"
from the
inclusive government, claiming that "in 1987 the raised and joined
fists of
Robert Gabriel Mugabe and Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo instantly became the
emblems
of national unity".
We should not be surprised to hear that
Mahoso believes raised fists
are a suitable symbol of the country's
leadership, but Muckraker has another
"visual symbol" for consideration: the
Jongwe bird on the Zanu PF building
in Harare.
The parties agreed
in 1987 to have the Great Zimbabwe conical tower as
the symbol of the
unified party. But Zanu refused to make the change on the
headquarters
building of the unified formation and today its exclusive
symbol remains
there as a stark warning to the MDC of what happens when you
leave
structural issues unresolved and trust Zanu PF to do what they
promised.
The Herald told us on Monday that the conviction of
the MDC-T MP for
Chipinge South Meki Makuyana brings to four the number of
MDC-T MPs
convicted of various crimes.
The paper ran this as its
main story with the headline "MDC-T MP
jailed for kidnapping".
Why
does the Herald never run a story saying "Mwale escapes arrest"?
How
many Zanu PF supporters have been convicted of kidnapping since
last year's
unprecedented political violence? What has happened to those who
Jestina
Mukoko's lawyers say were responsible for kidnapping her?
Only last
week Judge-President Rita Makarau spoke out against the
torture of suspects
held in police custody. Why, when the perpetrators have
committed such a
crime, have they not been brought to justice?
Zimbabwe's good
friend China has been in the news last week. TV
networks showed footage of
Chinese colonists in Shaoguan, the capital of
Xing-jiang province,
patrolling the streets with metal pipes looking for
ethnic Uighurs to
attack. An estimated 180 were killed in the carnage.
The Chinese
government is telling the world that the violence was
stoked by exiled
Uighurs. But the real story is that local Uighurs bitterly
resent the
invasion and colonisation of their region by Han-Chinese. Like
the citizens
of Tibet, the Uighurs want their freedom from Chinese rule.
As the Star
pointed out last week, the bloody crackdown in Shaoguan
"confirms that China
remains a repressive autocracy intolerant of cultural
diversity".
We liked the story in The Zimbabwean about Gushungo
Dairy Estate being
a model farm. A number of ministers had said how
operations at the farm with
its state-of-the-art milking parlour show the
first family was "taking
farming seriously".
It's a pity dairy
farmers elsewhere in the country have been prevented
from taking farming
seriously. They have been instructed to cease
operations. Many of the cows
that used to constitute the national dairy herd
have been sent for
slaughter. Dairy farming is a pathetic shadow of its
former self thanks to
Mugabe's disastrous land policies.
Workers at Gushungo Dairy estate,
formerly known as Foyle Farm owned
by Ian Webster, told The Zimbabwean that
the new owners' "success" owed much
to the support of the Reserve Bank and
Arda.
Agricultural experts from state enterprises were seconded to work
at
the estate, the workers said.
Senior Zanu PF officials were
amazed by what they saw at the estate.
Local Government minister Ignatious
Chombo said he had "never seen a dairy
of this kind".
"It has to be
emulated," he said. "I am extremely impressed."
Mashonaland Central
governor Martin Dinha, whose fawning remarks we
published a few weeks ago,
said Gushungo Dairy gives us a lot of 'proud'
(sic) as a province."
Perhaps when he is not too busy being "proud", Dinha could tell us
what role
he played in the melée at the HICC on Monday.
We were surprised to
hear the president announce at last week's
investment conference that
farmers who had made improvements on acquired
farms had been fully
compensated.
"The responsibility to compensate farmers rests on the
shoulders of
the British government and its allies," he declared. "We pay
compensation
for improvements. That is our obligation and we have honoured
that."
Really? Can he name a single farmer who has been paid
compensation?
How can he get away with this sort of thing?
Anyway, it was good to have outgoing British ambassador Andrew Pocock's
observation on the record. "In the fairly recent past the Zimbabwean
government has said that compensation rests with the United Kingdom
government. Well it does not - either legally or morally. At Lancaster House
sovereignty was transferred to the Zimbabwean government. The disruption on
the farms was not caused by anything to do with the United Kingdom.it was
driven by Zimbabwean government policy.therefore we have no legal obligation
for compensation. We've never accepted that and we won't."
That's a
message that needs to be firmly delivered to Morgan
Tsvangirai, Arthur
Mutambara and Welshman Ncube as much as to Mugabe who
tried to convince a
sceptical audience that the Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Act was
not a threat to investors, just a measure promoting
local participation in
the economy. You can guess who the "locals" will be!
An international
package for land compensation and agricultural
recovery is indeed possible,
even necessary, but never in the present
circumstances of lawlessness and
downright theft.
Nor, by the way, is there likely to be any investment.
Mugabe put paid
to that last week - ironically at the very conference touted
as the
beginning of recovery and image change.
Another own goal it
would seem!
Muckraker fully supports Childline in its campaign to
supply blankets
to street kids. This is a noble aim at this time of year
when it is bitterly
cold at night.
But should Econet be bothering
its customers with begging texts any
time of the day or night? That goes for
other 444 messages which amount to
unsolicited junk mail being disseminated
by the service provider like the
"Thanks a Million" promotion?
Econet should exercise some discretion in the frequency and nature of
these
messages and stop making a nuisance of itself.
By the way, did the Met
Office ever reply to the letter to the editor
of the Herald complaining
about the silly weather report saying temperatures
went down to -12 degrees
at some point last month? We know it was cold but
not that cold!
It
once snowed in Gweru in 1923. But before cheeky colleagues take a
pot shot,
no, Muckraker was not around to file the story.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July 2009
20:27
ZIMBABWE'S International Investment Conference in Harare was
apparently a major success in all respects bar one, but that one negative
facet of the Conference negated all the positives achieved.
The
conference was said to have attracted over 400 international
investors,
financiers, fund managers, and entrepreneurs, and with one
exception most
were initially filled with great conviction that Zimbabwe is
now a very
attractive investment environment. Much was demonstrated to
evidence the
magnitude of the investment potential that exists and, from
the outset,
the conference participants were greatly motivated and primed
to embark
upon some of the immense investment that Zimbabwe desperately
needs if
its economy is to be transformed from the cataclysmic lows to
which it had
sunk.
The conference attendees were convincingly appraised of the
tremendous opportunities that exist in mining, manufacturing, tourism and
other economic sectors, and which are likely to become available in
Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) within diverse parastatals. Emphasis
was justly placed upon the vast wealth of Zimbabwean national resources,
upon the very considerable industrial opportunities, upon the unique
magnificence of Zimbabwe's diverse tourism attractions, and upon the
economic transformation currently underway (including wide-ranging
deregulation, deflation in substitution for hyperinflation, marked
reduction in scarcities, focus upon restoring parastatals operational
efficacy and service to the economy, and much else).
However, the
considerable mileage gained with the vigorously courted
possible investors
was markedly reversed when issues of land ownership were
addressed.
Conference participants understandably voiced concerns that,
on the one
hand, invasions of farms continue virtually unabated, with
little or no
attempt by the state to contain those invasions and that, on
the other
hand, evicted farmers have still not received compensation for the
gargantuan deprivations they have suffered. President Mugabe reiterated
the endlessly voiced contention that the lands were "stolen" by the British
colonialists, lawfully belong to the Zimbabwean people, and that if there
was any entitlement to compensation for the land, the obligation to that
compensation lies with Britain.
This contention has prevailed ad
nauseum, in total disregard for the
facts that when the colonialists entered
the country, much of the land was
unoccupied and unutilised, and that such
land as was in usage had, in the
main, been expropriated from the San
people, without compensation to them
(clearly that which is sauce for the
goose is not sauce for the gander!).
That disregard was matched (and
continues to be matched) by contemptuously
founded unconcern that at the
Lancaster House agreement of 1979, bringing
about Zimbabwean
Independence, Britain pledged agreed funding for land
acquisition on a
willing-buyer, willing-seller basis, and in the first four
years of
Independence, honoured its pledge. Similar disregard is
demonstrated for the
fact that the expropriated farms were acquired despite
"certificates of no
interest" issued by government.
Not only does government seek to impose
compensation obligations upon
others, in respect of the unjustly -- and
often violently -- acquired lands,
but in addition after almost a decade of
acquisitions, it has yet to effect
compensation for improvements, for
vandalised and misappropriated moveables,
and for loss of income. So
blatantly has there been compensation default
that government has not even
honoured Bilateral Investment Promotion and
Protection Agreements (BIPPAs).
So government assiduously fails to comply
with international norms of
justice and equity, continuously ascribes blame,
culpability upon others in
general, and strives to shed itself of all
responsibility, by contentious
ascription of that responsibility to others.
Compounding this tragic
mishandling of very necessary land reform
(which has devastatingly
destroyed agriculture, undermined a previously
virile economy, and
rendered millions poverty-stricken) is that the
ongoing governmental
stance on the land issues provides an insurmountable
deterrent to
much-needed international economic recovery support. That too
is a
deterrent to the investment which is essential to restoration of a
virile
economy, and much of the impressive mileage gained over the last six
months
by the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers of Finance
and of
Economic Planning and Development is reversed by the dogmatic
adherence of
some to the ill-conceived, unjust, and appallingly implemented
land
policies.
With ongoing expropriation of farms, in many instances
initiated by
invasions led by some in high office within government, the
army or the
police, often pursued with violence and with theft of
livestock, plant,
machinery and equipment, and other privately-owned
assets, all studiously
ignored by the alleged guardians of law and order,
it is inevitable that
potential investors be fearful whether their future
investments will be
secure, or whether they too will be vulnerable to
expropriation, even if
not in the agricultural sector.
These
fears are reinforced by last year's promulgation of the
Indigenisation and
Economic Empowerment Act, and the threatened amendments
to the Mines and
Minerals Act. Investors have an unavoidable reluctance to
invest if they are
faced with a possible expropriation of 51% of the
investment equity, and
that worsened by not even being accorded any credible
assurance of
recompense.
The contradictions at the conference were pronounced. The
President
said that "Such policies as the Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Act
should not be viewed as obstacles to investment
promotion; they should
be welcomed as promoting the greater participation
of our people in the
economy, indeed the democratisation of our economic
activity that builds
up to good business returns for the investor". He also
said that "our
stable political environment is making us more conducive to
promoting the
rule of law". Some 4 000 displaced farmers, their families,
and many of
their employees, will credibly sneer at the suggestion that
Zimbabwe upholds
the sanctity of property rights. So too will be the many
who were
victimised by violent and abusive farm invasions, confronted by
force,
subjected to physical injuries, and immense suffering, insofar as
the
contention that rule of law is promoted. And many will query the
president's
statements that government has "honoured" its obligations to pay
compensation for improvements.
In contrast to the president's
investment-discouraging stance at the
conference, the Prime Minster sought
to be more moderate, stating that
whilst all agreed that land reform was
needed, they differed on the
approach. That land reform was (and is)
necessary cannot be convincingly
justified, and hence the land reform
must be irreversible , but that does
not preclude it being modified to be
just, equitable, non-racialist, and
effective.
At the conference,
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara showed
somewhat greater realism
than his "Unity Government" colleagues,
saying that government should stop
blaming the West for the socio- economic
decline, and should uphold the
rule of law, respect property rights, and
ensure a moratorium on farm
invasions and disruptions affecting white
farmers.
Until
government "gets real" on land issues, unreservedly respects
property
rights, complies with the precepts of rule of law, and
constructively -- not
destructively -- pursues economic empowerment and
indigenisation, prospects
of major investment inflows and other substantial
international support are
tremendously minimised. Zimbabwe could have one of
the greatest economies in
Africa, and could almost wholly eradicate poverty,
if it "gets real", but in
the meanwhile it continues to shoot itself in the
foot.
BY ERIC
BLOCH
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16
July 2009 19:29
AFTER a few moments of international attention when
Morgan Tsvangirai
and his Movement for Democratic Change formed a unity
government with their
long-time oppressors, Zimbabwe has now been eclipsed
by more dramatic
headlines from elsewhere.
The challenges of
rebuilding the country's ruined political and
economic systems are daunting,
and the global recession has seriously hurt
trade and investment
opportunities, as well as remittances from diaspora
workers that provide 8%
of the country's GDP. Meanwhile, foreign donors are
understandably repulsed
by the prospect of having to support a government
still associated with
(President) Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF hardliners.
Yet strong arguments
exist for the world to swallow hard and come to the
country's
aid.
After years of self-inflicted economic degradation, abusive
government, massive displacement and the collapse of its social
infrastructure, Zimbabwe is showing tentative signs of recovery. Hope has
surfaced as prices stabilise; the government begins to function after a
fashion; civil servants receive small stipends; cross-party cooperation
emerges in parliament; schools and hospitals re-open; and humanitarian
assistance picks up. Even in the face of non-cooperation - some would say,
"subversion" - by government hold-overs like the Reserve Bank Governor
(Gideon Gono), the Attorney-General (Johannes Tomana) and the security
establishment, Zimbabwe seems poised to defy the sceptics.
But
Zimbabwe's timing is awful. It is seeking massive foreign
assistance - the
government's recovery plan calls for about US$8,5 billion
over the next
two-to-three years - and private investment just when donors
and
international development agencies alike are cutting aid budgets and
foreign
investors are seeking safe havens in the stormy global economy.
Tellingly,
no one has called for a "Marshall Plan for Zimbabwe".
Further, most
factors that often generate Western political will for
engagement are
absent. Neither the MDC nor Zanu PF consorts with global
terrorists, and a
collapse of the unity government will not lead to jihad
training camps in
rural areas. Zimbabwe is neither a supplier nor a major
trafficker in
illegal drugs, arms or persons. Zimbabwean refugees are not
flooding into
Western Europe or the US. While rich in natural resources,
Zimbabwe seems to
have the wrong commodities at the wrong time: it has no
oil, and most of its
minerals face free-falling global demand. There are no
exotic diseases that
threaten pandemic: just run-of-the-mill cholera,
malaria and HIV/Aids. The
country straddles no sea lanes and has no pirates.
So as Afghanistan,
Burma, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka,
Sudan, and other crises are
filling the in-boxes of Western policy-makers,
Zimbabwe falls to the back of
line, not just alphabetically. Even
international crises themselves are
slipping down the agenda in a world
increasingly focused on domestic
implications of global recession.
In this context, there is no easy
motivation to compel international
engagement. While the scale of suffering
in Zimbabwe matches or even dwarves
that of other humanitarian crises - with
six million people with limited or
no access to safe water and sanitation,
1,5 million children in need of
assistance to attend school, and millions in
need of direct food aid - this
rationale only takes us so far in a world
facing seemingly infinite
humanitarian needs.
The argument for
engagement has to be built on circumstantial
evidence, but it is a strong
case nonetheless.
Start with Zimbabwe's regional importance. If
Zimbabwe is a smallish
country of 12 million people, the southern African
region - with a market of
200 million, growing oil production, armed forces
providing peacekeepers
throughout Africa, and a location along key shipping
lanes - is by contrast
of great strategic, commercial and political
importance. A prosperous
Zimbabwe could be an engine of growth for the
region, providing key links to
regional communications, transport and
electricity grids. Zimbabwe has long
been considered a potential breadbasket
for the region, based on what used
to be efficient agriculture, albeit in
need of serious land reform. Combine
this with abundant mineral resources,
hydro-electrical power to complement
coal-fired power further south, and an
educated and productive labour force,
and the case for integration becomes
even stronger.
By contrast, instability in Zimbabwe is profoundly
destabilising to
its neighbours. An estimated four million Zimbabweans
fleeing economic
hardship and political abuses have flooded across borders,
overwhelming the
social services and the good will of South Africa,
Botswana, and other
neighbours. The fierce xenophobic attacks on Zimbabweans
in South Africa's
townships are just one sign of growing restiveness.
Botswana, Africa's
shining star of stability and human rights, has built an
electrified fence
and resorted to detention and expulsions to keep desperate
Zimbabweans out.
A second argument for Western engagement is based on
the world's need
for success stories in national reconciliation based on
dialogue and rule of
law. This is exactly what Zimbabwe is offering. The
general political accord
guiding the unity government is a textbook example
of how to rebuild a
post-conflict political and economic system: rebalance
power between
judicial, legislative and executive powers; adopt an inclusive
constitution
prepared through broad public consultations; defang and reform
a menacing
security force; eliminate oppressive security legislation; insist
on
accountability for past abuses; and reinforce civil society enfeebled by
Mugabe's divide-and-rule tactics. Success in Zimbabwe could provide lessons
and ripple effects, just as South Africa's own transition did 15 years
ago.
Third, we cannot assume, just because the global effects of
Zimbabwe's
implosion have been modest, that "it cannot happen here". A
world focused
on only the visible threats of the last crisis is no longer
creatively
addressing the unpredictable effects of the next crisis.
Transnational
threats incubate in unexpected ways in the hothouse of
instability and weak
governance.
What if the H1N1 virus had emerged
in Harare and swept through a
country where the health infrastructure had
been ravaged? Similarly, who
would have anticipated that failing states in
West Africa would be the new
transit point for South American drugs going to
Western Europe, or that
dirt-poor North Korea would develop the technology
to launch missiles over
Japan and verbally threaten the world with nuclear
attack?
Finally, the most nuanced argument for engagement may be the
most
powerful. For Western countries and particularly the US, the capacity
to
exercise so-called "soft power" depends in large part on a global
perception
that this power is intended for the global good. For most of the
past
decade, this has been absent.
The world's reaction to the
election of Barack Obama suggests that
America is being given a second
chance.
Immediately following 9/11, I said in a speech: "We ignore
suffering
and instability abroad at our peril. We must dedicate ourselves
and our
resources to fight poverty, illiteracy, disease, hunger, and
repression -
conditions that give rise to desperation that translates itself
into
terrorist acts. We must not squander the reservoir of resolve abroad
ready
to work with us in pursuit of a more secure, more democratic, and more
prosperous world."
Squander is exactly what America did with
international goodwill since
2001. By contrast, in part because there are so
few compelling national
interests in rebuilding Zimbabwe, the impact of a
substantial commitment to
meet that challenge would be all the more
empowering.
* Donald Steinberg, Deputy President for Policy at
International
Crisis Group, served as President Bill Clinton's Special
Assistant for
Africa and as Director of the State Department's Joint Policy
Council under
Secretary Colin Powell.
By Donald Steinberg
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July 2009
21:08
AS the process to craft a new constitution for Zimbabwe rumbles
on,
there is need to pause a minute and look at the constitutionality of a
constitution.
This process, called constitutionalism, must run
parallel to the
formulation of the supreme law in the land if as a country
we are to heal
the scars of the past.
According to Wikipedia,
constitutionalism is the limitation of
government by law, as prescribed by a
constitution. Constitutionalism
implies also a balance between the power of
the government on the one hand
and the rights of individuals on the
other.
These fundamental principles and values -- by which we expect
the
nation to be governed -- include fairness, justice, equality, separation
of
powers, due process of law, supremacy of the constitution, and many
more.
Do we have any guarantees that these will be respected when the
new
constitution comes into being? Has there been a change of mindset in the
powers that be, or in those that believe they have the inalienable right to
lord it over us?
Constitutionalism has one essential quality: it is
a legal limitation
on government; it is the antithesis of arbitrary rule;
its opposite is
despotic government, the government of will instead of
law.
Do we have a paradigm shift -- running parallel to the
constitution-making process -- in the minds of the military brass, senior
government officials, civil servants, political party officials, chiefs,
headmen, the judiciary, the police, the intelligence services, relatives of
the high and mighty, friends with connections in high places, business
leaders who feast at the tables of power, "Nicodemussed" church pastors who
preach against violence by day but fire the flames of the same by night,
national youth service militia; the list goes on.
Constitutionalism
is the political and social practices that make a
constitution an
institution rather than a paper parchment.
The absence of respect for
the constitution and constitutionalism was
aptly demonstrated when Local
Government minister Dr Ignatious Chombo
directed the Harare City Council to
ignore a Supreme Court order for the
re-instatement of two employees,
Engineer Christopher Zvobgo and Misheck
Mubvumbi, who had been on suspension
for the past nine years and six years,
respectively.
I take my hat
off to the local authority which, through the person of
mayor Muchadeyi
Masunda, said council would comply with the court order
reinstating the two,
in effect overriding the Chombo directive barring the
reinstatement.
"We cannot afford to be in contempt of court orders.
Court orders are
there not to be defied," Masunda said.
Will we
have a paradigm shift by the Chombos of this world that they
will respect
court orders, let alone implement them?
Will we have the police
timeously investigating cases of political
violence without showing favour
for one political party over the other? Will
the old order of detention
without trial be rife and rampant, and the rights
to life, personal liberty,
and freedom of expression, association, assembly
and movement no longer be
badly hampered?
It is every state's primary duty to protect its own
population from
grave and sustained violations of human rights, as well as
from the
consequences of humanitarian crises, whether natural or man-made,
as
enshrined in the constitution. Will this be adhered to?
Will the
army be restricted to the barracks and only let loose for the
protection of
the country and its citizens -- and not to bash heads in
support of one
political party.
Will we see the judiciary fearlessly passing
judgements that are
legally considered to be in line with substantial
justice?
That to me is the parallel process that we need to be
inculcating in
not only the political leadership, but right across the
country.
We must disabuse ourselves of this delusion and pre-occupation
that
the crafting of a new constitution will pave the way for a free and
fair
election, something that has eluded us for a long time.
There
is a crying need a paradigm shift that ensures that the tenets
of the
constitution will be upheld and respected by all and sundry.
"The only
honourable course for a citizen is to conduct his life as
though the
constitution, as originally understood, is in full force and
effect, and if
and when that brings him into conflict with public agents, to
take a firm
stance in opposition to their usurpations, regardless of
consequences to
himself, to them, or to others. Maintaining the
Constitution, in every
particular, is more important than human lives, even
millions of them, if it
should come to a choice. Individuals die. The
constitution needs to live for
as long as one human remains alive, and
perhaps even beyond that." - Jon
Roland, 2003.
Thondhlana is editor-designate of the forthcoming
NewsDay.
BY BARNABAS THONDHLANA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July 2009
21:06
THE chaos which rocked the constitutional All-Stakeholders
Conference
on Monday was regrettable but instructive.
It
revealed fundamental problems besetting the current controversial
constitution-making process which those calling for an inclusive,
transparent and participatory approach have been pointing out.
There are all sorts of problems dogging this process which organisers
and
their parochial political handlers are trying to sweep under the carpet.
By
so doing they hope to hide the evident fatal flaws of the process, yet
still
expect to produce a good constitution for the country. This is not
possible.
A wrong method cannot lead to a correct answer. This is the
essence of
logic.
It is very clear the pandemonium on Monday was politically
engineered.
Politicians, in this case from Zanu PF, arrived at the
conference with a
not-so-hidden agenda to disrupt proceedings and stall the
project. They
simply want to sabotage the entire constitutional initiative
and prevent
free and fair elections in the short to medium term.
There is no price for reading through these daft shenanigans by
politicians
who are extremely scared of elections. It's an unmistakable
political and
power-retention computation.
The mayhem exposed the naked truth that
the current
constitution-making process is a theatre for political
manoeuvring and
contestation. This is now overshadowing the main objective
of this
initiative: to write a new and rock-solid constitution for the
country and
for generations without political interference and
manipulation.
After the anarchy, President Robert Mugabe, Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara held a
meeting and
appeared on ZTV condemning the chaos which rocked the
conference. Calm
returned on Tuesday. This actually proved that it was a
political issue. The
hooligans froze their operations after their leader had
spoken. This is
where we have a problem.
There can be no gainsaying
that this constitution-making process is
not only controlled and
stage-managed by politicians, but it is their pet
project. Why people expect
a healthy outcome out of a poisoned project beats
logic.
This
constitution-making process is not people-initiated, let alone
driven. It
was engineered in dark rooms and water-borne negotiations by Zanu
PF and the
two MDC factions. It remains their business and project. They
will only
allow in people so long as they won't have control to change the
outcome.
They had agreed to impose the shoddy Kariba draft, but they are now
fighting
among themselves after realising their sinister conspiracy against
the
people had been exposed and would politically backfire. That is the plot
of
this soap opera.
That is why it is important for Zimbabweans to demand
an open,
inclusive, participatory and democratic process, not this partisan,
opaque
and rather fraudulent exercise. Why is it difficult for these
political
parties to open the process to public and democratic participation
and
control? At the moment the process is closed and managed by MPs who
represent and symbolise manifest vested political interests.
It is
not too late for politicians to realise that insisting on a
self-serving
process will take us nowhere. What is simply needed is for the
party-political leaders to meet and agree that the process should be changed
before forging ahead. We know they won't agree because of their competing
agendas and that provides further proof they are pursuing their own narrow
interests, not a people-driven and democratic constitution.
Let's
engage in frank talk. Zanu PF simply does not want this process
to succeed
because it fears free and fair elections. The MDC-T wants it to
succeed on
its own terms so that it can stand a good chance of winning the
elections.
MDC-M is timid about it because they are also scared of
elections.
So the interests are clear and the reason why the parties don't want
to quit
this idea of a parliamentary select committee running the show is
that they
are in charge to protect their bigoted agendas.
It is surprising to
find some civil society groups collaborating in a
flawed process when there
is no need to because the charade is going
nowhere.
Why taint
themselves with such a contaminated process? The answer can
only lie in
their partisan political affiliations and the agenda of the
funders.
Civil society organisations must learn that operating like
political
hacks and errand boys for political parties does not help us to
democratise
the country.
Here is a good opportunity to come up with
a credible constitutional
reform process and constitution being sacrificed
on the altar of parochial
political agendas. In the end, who benefits from
this sort of approach and
where do we find ourselves as a country and
society after those agendas have
been pushed through or shoved down our
throats?
Let's be clear about this: we need an open, inclusive,
participatory
and democratic approach to produce a credible and legitimate
constitution,
not this partisan and tainted process.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 July
2009 20:45
DEPUTY Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara does not need a
second
invitation to demonstrate with youthful vitality that he does not
belong to
the past.
He loves his PowerPoint presentations when
his colleagues are more
comfortable with reading speeches.
His
quest for modernity is reflected in a series of pet projects that
he has
come up with lately to hopefully bring change to this society. He has
been
championing the Public/Private Partnerships project, the quest to
rebrand
the country, and achieving a national vision.
I understand perfectly
what he wants to achieve: a new image for
Zimbabwe that is saleable. This is
a corporate-type project that is employed
to sell products which do not
necessarily have a good reputation on the
market. But the rebranding process
together with the so-called national
vision are projects bound for failure
as long as they are pitched as
pedantic schemes that are divorced from the
political imperatives on the
ground.
British Author Walter Landor
once said: "Products are made in the
factory and brands are created in the
mind." This is the major challenge
facing Mutambara. Looking at Landor's
theory, to create a brand, there has
to be a product first. The product is
then converted into a culture. It
becomes a way of life. It ceases to be
just a tin of beans on the shelf.
Fathers name their children after it. The
product name becomes bigger than
the product itself. People start to use the
product name as a generic term
for other products on the market; the way we
use a coke to mean other fizzy
drinks (Americans call them sodas), or a
Hoover to mean a vacuum cleaner.
Similarly, Durawall means a precast wall.
The proper noun becomes a generic
name.
The problem with
Mutambara's project is that he has to rehabilitate
Product Zimbabwe first in
the face of obduracy by his colleagues. He has to
convince his colleagues in
the unity government that we have a bad product
on our hands. There are
those in the GNU who still believe that we have a
good product but that the
problem lies with those who criticise or point at
flaws in the merchandise.
But we all know that the product is not saleable
at the moment. It has
earned a bad reputation. Its packaging is inferior and
contents broken. Even
locals do not want to buy it. They are investing their
monies
elsewhere.
Mutambara should pause to think why our own Africa Sun is
mobilising
monies to build hotels in Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana when
government is
saying there is a serious shortage of rooms to cater for the
2010 World Cup.
Whatever reason Africa Sun will proffer; the bottom line is
that they regard
Zimbabwe as an inferior product compared to Nigeria, South
Africa or Ghana.
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora who do not want to come
back home are
sending to would-be investors the same message -- that they do
not trust
Product Zimbabwe.
So the first major hurdle for Mutambara
to conquer is ensuring that
Product Zimbabwe strikes a positive image on the
shelf. That will not be
achieved by asking people to speak positively about
the product. It requires
a collective effort to cleanse Zimbabwe of the
bad-boy image the country has
earned over the years. The negatives that have
blighted Zimbabwe's image are
well documented and there are still there.
Product Zimbabwe has become
synonymous with these negatives and the
challenge therefore for Mutambara is
to see that there are positives which
identify with Product Zimbabwe. At the
moment, it is not clear what punch
lines marketers of this product should
employ. Should the selling points be
sport, farming, mining, manufacturing,
tourism good governance or
investor-friendly legislation? All these possible
marketing thrusts will not
work at the moment; worse still if our rulers
call diplomats idiots. This is
where rebranding needs to start. An
organisation wanting to rebrand does not
insult stakeholders or brandish
fists at those refusing to purchase the
brand. Persuasion works better!
In April When Mutambara started talking
about rebranding, he had this
to say about the country's image: "We want to
rebrand Zimbabwe, but what are
we known for?" asked Mutambara. "How are we
perceived by the rest of the
world?"
"We are known for violence,
farm invasions, disregard for the rule of
law, electoral fraud, cholera, an
unheard of rocket-propelled inflation,
gigantic corruption and mafia-style
abductions and kidnappings of
journalists, human rights activists and anyone
seeking democratic space."
Unfortunately this is the livery Zimbabwe is
wearing today. The task
to hand therefore is ensuring that we have a good
product first before we
talk about rebranding it. Product Zimbabwe must be
generally acceptable to
the generality of Zimbabweans before it can be
marketed to the outside
world. At the moment, many Zimbabweans do not feel
we have a good product
and, without it, the Shared National Vision mantra
withers on the vine.
The issue here is simple. You cannot market a bad
product, neither can
you rebrand it. A brand is like a reputation, you earn
it. Our rulers
instead demand it. They won't get it that way. You tell 'em
Arthur.
DEPUTY Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara does not need a
second
invitation to demonstrate with youthful vitality that he does not
belong to
the past. He loves his PowerPoint presentations when his
colleagues are more
comfortable with reading speeches.
His quest
for modernity is reflected in a series of pet projects that
he has come up
with lately to hopefully bring change to this society. He has
been
championing the Public/Private Partnerships project, the quest to
rebrand
the country, and achieving a national vision.
I understand perfectly
what he wants to achieve: a new image for
Zimbabwe that is saleable. This is
a corporate-type project that is employed
to sell products which do not
necessarily have a good reputation on the
market. But the rebranding process
together with the so-called national
vision are projects bound for failure
as long as they are pitched as
pedantic schemes that are divorced from the
political imperatives on the
ground.
British Author Walter Landor
once said: "Products are made in the
factory and brands are created in the
mind." This is the major challenge
facing Mutambara. Looking at Landor's
theory, to create a brand, there has
to be a product first. The product is
then converted into a culture. It
becomes a way of life. It ceases to be
just a tin of beans on the shelf.
Fathers name their children after it. The
product name becomes bigger than
the product itself. People start to use the
product name as a generic term
for other products on the market; the way we
use a coke to mean other fizzy
drinks (Americans call them sodas), or a
Hoover to mean a vacuum cleaner.
Similarly, Durawall means a precast wall.
The proper noun becomes a generic
name.
The problem with
Mutambara's project is that he has to rehabilitate
Product Zimbabwe first in
the face of obduracy by his colleagues. He has to
convince his colleagues in
the unity government that we have a bad product
on our hands. There are
those in the GNU who still believe that we have a
good product but that the
problem lies with those who criticise or point at
flaws in the merchandise.
But we all know that the product is not saleable
at the moment. It has
earned a bad reputation. Its packaging is inferior and
contents broken. Even
locals do not want to buy it. They are investing their
monies
elsewhere.
Mutambara should pause to think why our own Africa Sun is
mobilising
monies to build hotels in Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana when
government is
saying there is a serious shortage of rooms to cater for the
2010 World Cup.
Whatever reason Africa Sun will proffer; the bottom line is
that they regard
Zimbabwe as an inferior product compared to Nigeria, South
Africa or Ghana.
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora who do not want to come
back home are
sending to would-be investors the same message -- that they do
not trust
Product Zimbabwe.
So the first major hurdle for Mutambara
to conquer is ensuring that
Product Zimbabwe strikes a positive image on the
shelf. That will not be
achieved by asking people to speak positively about
the product. It requires
a collective effort to cleanse Zimbabwe of the
bad-boy image the country has
earned over the years. The negatives that have
blighted Zimbabwe's image are
well documented and there are still there.
Product Zimbabwe has become
synonymous with these negatives and the
challenge therefore for Mutambara is
to see that there are positives which
identify with Product Zimbabwe. At the
moment, it is not clear what punch
lines marketers of this product should
employ. Should the selling points be
sport, farming, mining, manufacturing,
tourism good governance or
investor-friendly legislation? All these possible
marketing thrusts will not
work at the moment; worse still if our rulers
call diplomats idiots. This is
where rebranding needs to start. An
organisation wanting to rebrand does not
insult stakeholders or brandish
fists at those refusing to purchase the
brand. Persuasion works better!
In April When Mutambara started talking
about rebranding, he had this
to say about the country's image: "We want to
rebrand Zimbabwe, but what are
we known for?" asked Mutambara. "How are we
perceived by the rest of the
world?"
"We are known for violence,
farm invasions, disregard for the rule of
law, electoral fraud, cholera, an
unheard of rocket-propelled inflation,
gigantic corruption and mafia-style
abductions and kidnappings of
journalists, human rights activists and anyone
seeking democratic space."
Unfortunately this is the livery Zimbabwe is
wearing today. The task
to hand therefore is ensuring that we have a good
product first before we
talk about rebranding it. Product Zimbabwe must be
generally acceptable to
the generality of Zimbabweans before it can be
marketed to the outside
world. At the moment, many Zimbabweans do not feel
we have a good product
and, without it, the Shared National Vision mantra
withers on the vine.
The issue here is simple. You cannot market a bad
product, neither can
you rebrand it. A brand is like a reputation, you earn
it. Our rulers
instead demand it. They won't get it that way. You tell 'em
Arthur.
BY VINCENT KAHIYA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Zanu PF not Sincere About Constitution
Thursday, 16 July 2009
21:03
ZANU PF is comfortable with the current constitution hence for
them
there is apparently no need to craft another one.
A new
one is most likely to dilute the powers of their leader and
lessen his
capability to manipulate the systems of governance in the
country. The new
people-driven constitution will see their party crumble as
their leader is
the epicentre of power, hence his decline is likely to bring
the party to
its knees.
As a result they are not ready to hand over power for
the simple
reason that they took a leading role in liberating Zimbabwe from
colonial
bondage, as expressed through their song and dance. They emphasised
that
Zimbabwe came as a result of blood and accused those against them of
wishing
to sell this country and therefore deserve to be killed.
They are also not repentant for the butchering of innocent Zimbabweans
in
the run-up to the June 27 presidential run-off elections. Whilst the
nation
is formulating how best to carry out the national healing process
they are
doing nothing except to open more wounds and even boasting of being
masters
of violence.
Their actions show that they have no respect for the
Global Political
Agreement despite the fact that it's the one which gave
legitimacy to the
president of their party Robert Mugabe.
The
"public" media is still dominated by Zanu PF as evidenced by false
claims on
national television that members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions
(ZCTU), National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and Zimbabwe National
Students Union (Zinasu) disrupted the conference. This defies logic
considering that the group which disrupted the conference were well known
Zanu PF offcials. Unless these officials have joined any of the accused
organisations state- controlled media journalists need to revisit their
modules on journalism ethics.
Zanu PF wanted the conference to be a
rally where politicians were
going to take turns lecturing on how they want
the constitution-making
process to be conducted. The role of the delegates
would then be to listen
and endorse through various means which include
clapping and whistling.
The sentiments by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai that we are now in
a new dispensation where democracy, tolerance
and unity are gathering
momentum are contrary to reality, given this sad
incident. It is also
mind-boggling as to whether people of Zimbabwe will be
free to express their
views having witnessed chaos and anarchy which
prevailed at the HICC.
Youth Forum,
youthforumpublicity@gmail.
com
-----------
Tsvangirai's Mission was
Necessary
Thursday, 16 July 2009 21:00
THE recent tour of
Europe and America by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai was necessary and
helpful to Zimbabwe.
It is common knowledge for those with an
active mindset that sanctions
cannot be removed overnight. I believe that
Tsvangirai's tour was a public
relations initiative, not a fundraising
project.
It is not correct for Zanu PF to portray Tsvangirai as a
failure. We
are all aware that no financial aid shall come from Europe or
America until
Robert Mugabe honours the terms of the Global Political
Agreement (GPA).
What the Americans and Europeans are saying is that we
should
implement what we agreed internally. This cannot be interference in
our
internal affairs.
I think Mugabe is solely to blame for the
poor performance of the
inclusive government. As far as I am concerned there
is selective
application of justice, abductions, lack of property rights,
fresh farm
invasions, suppression of freedom of the press and a politically
coordinated
constitution-making process instead of a people-driven
one.
Mugabe should not block the finalising of the GPA issues and he
should
stop hate speech.
Kurauone Chihwayi,
Glen
Norah.
-----------
Ours is a Rotten
Constitution
Thursday, 16 July 2009 20:58
IN his essay
entitled "Some comrades are more equal than others", the
late political
science professor, Masipula Sithole, attributed Zimbabwe's
problems to the
forgetful political class.
He also made reference to the fact that
most people in our country
were having it rough, they were hurting; they
felt cheated over what he
termed the "Independence dividend". Constitution
Amendment No 7 passed in
1987 shows us the extent to which we can rightly
say ours is a rotten
constitution.
One key provision of the
Constitution Amendment No 7 Act in Zimbabwe
is the creation of the position
of executive president. The creation of the
position of executive president
led to the combination of the ceremonial
role of the old president with the
executive functions of the prime
minister. Such a move dealt democracy a
lethal blow in Zimbabwe. This is so
largely because it turned Robert Mugabe
into an unquestionable dictator by
virtue of his being above all other
people in Zimbabwe.
Being above all other people means that one can
also be above the law
and this hinders the development of democracy in the
country.
Who in his right mind then can deny the fact that the creation
of the
position of executive president gave Mugabe excessive powers which
turned
him into a tyrant interested only in his own good and wielding power
for the
sake of satisfying his ego. This makes sense especially when
considering the
fact that no other person has ruled Zimbabwe since
Independence in 1980.
Noteworthy also and germane to this discussion is
the fact that
Constitution Amendment No 7 empowers the president to veto any
Bill
presented by members of parliament as it pleases him. Such power works
against the development of democracy in Zimbabwe.
The president can
accept a Bill that has serious negative implications
for citizens just
because of selfishness. This is true when looking at the
draconian laws that
were pushed through in parliament.
The Public Order and Security Bill
is one such bill that was signed
into law yet it severely curtails the
citizen's right to assembly,
association, expression and movement.
The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill also signed
into
law is anathema to freedom of expression and media freedom.
Surprisingly,
the two Acts are unjustified in a democratic society but
because Mugabe
wanted to maintain his grip on power, he signed them into
law. This also
means that any proposals that threaten Mugabe's power will be
pushed aside
and this is not good for democratic development in Zimbabwe.
Constitution Amendment No 7 also provides for the prerogative of
mercy. The
incumbent president has excessive powers from this amendment to
ensure that
convicted members of his party do not serve prison sentences.
This
encourages contempt and disregard for the rule of law, especially
by members
of the ruling party. Several Zanu PF supporters, the police,
soldiers, war
veterans and youth militia responsible for political violence
in the
elections of 1990, 2000 and 2002 were pardoned.
Corrupt government
officials such as those involved in the "Willowgate
scandal'" were also
pardoned. The question we should grapple with is: Will
such acts of mercy be
extended to members of the opposition? The answer is
no. If the answer is no
then prospects for democratic development in
Zimbabwe remain uncertain at
best and gloomy at worst.
Finally, Constitution Amendment No 7 provides
for presidential
immunity. This means that as long as he remains in office
Mugabe shall not
be charged with a criminal offence nor shall he be sued in
any court of law.
This places the president above the law and this
contradicts Article 7 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which
says that: "All are equal
before the law and are entitled without any
discrimination to equal
protection of the law".
This threatens
democracy and its development in Zimbabwe. When some
people are more equal
than others it becomes difficult for any country to
enjoy social equality,
parity, fairness, equal opportunity, impartiality and
egalitarianism and
because of this it can be established beyond any
reasonable doubt that key
provisions of the Constitution Amendment No 7 are
antithetical and
incompatible with democratic development in Zimbabwe.
On the whole, it
can be concluded that the aforesaid provisions are
the five key provisions
of the Constitution Amendment No 7 which have dealt
a smooth trajectory from
authoritarianism to democracy a lethal blow.
Mutsa
Murenje,
Nairobi, Kenya.
------------
MDC
disillusioning its supporters
Thursday, 16 July 2009 20:57
I STRONGLY believe that the MDC should not allow Zanu PF to continue
taking
the people of Zimbabwe for granted.
Many people like me were
strongly against this Global Political
Agreement (GPA). It seems like the
leadership of the MDC got into bed with
Robert Mugabe without any gain to
us. The MDC and its president, Morgan
Tsvangirai should not be seen to be
authenticating Mugabe's autocratic
policies.
We have been in
this struggle for a very long period of time and it is
mind-boggling to
realise that the urgency that the MDC puts on matters that
we consider as
critical is at variance with what we expect as supporters of
the
MDC.
Many of our MPs are in prison on trumped up charges and it seems
that
nothing is done to bring it to an end. What has the MDC done with the
Gideon
Gono and Johannes Tomana issues?
I also want to know why
there is a delay in the swearing in of Roy
Bennett?
Why can't the
governors be put into office? What did you agree on
about the permanent
secretaries? What's the position on ambassadorial
appointments?
The
list goes on and on but nothing is happening to resolve these
pertinent
issues.
We are getting very restless of Zanu PF's continued
antics.
Trymore Mazhambe,
Mutare.
-------------
Crisis at UZ Needs Urgent
Attention
Thursday, 16 July 2009 20:49
I MAKE this appeal
to the Prime Minister and his government to give
due attention to the crisis
at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ). The UZ is in
a dire and deplorable
situation due to gross mismanagement. I suggest that
the administration at
the UZ be revamped.
In fact certain heads should roll. That is the
only way to resolve the
crisis. There is also need to inject some capital to
kick-start the
institution. Please do not neglect the UZ. It is the epitome
of the success
and/or failure of Zimbabwe's education system and the economy
at large.
The crisis at the UZ has been parochially conceptualised
as hinged on
the shortage of water, but the reality is that the problem is
much broader
and deep-seated. I wish to indicate that even if 1 000
boreholes are
drilled, and there is water galore at the UZ, it will not
open. Lecturers
are grumbling and petulant because of poor working
conditions while the
administration is presiding over the demise of a once
top university in
Africa.
The UZ staff is ridiculously underpaid.
The administration has turned
a blind eye to the cause of lecturers and
non-academic staff and treats them
with disdain and contempt. It's a crying
shame.
Disgruntled lecturer,
Harare.
-------------
SMS The Zimbabwe Independent
Thursday, 16 July 2009 20:47
THE new constitution should limit the
president's tenure to two
five-year terms. He should not make such decisions
as sending soldiers to
war without consulting cabinet.
Ramabulana
T, RSA.
JUST as we have a minimum age limit for the office of the
president
which is 40 years let's have a maximum limit of 70 years. That way
we will
be able to save the country from being led by immature people and
also those
who are over the hill.
Cde Tasangana.
THE
Kariba draft is boat-driven rather than people-driven and an
affront to
people's liberties.
Damba, Mutare.
WILL there be a job for
Lovemore Madhuku after the writing of a new
constitution? Will donor funds
continue to flow into NCA? Maybe these are
tough questions which Madhuku is
trying to avoid thus advocating for another
No vote. I don't think this time
it's going to be like what happened in
2000. New ways have to be put in
place to circumvent the tricks of
politicians so as to write the people's
constitution. That is where your
expertise is needed Madhuku and
company.
TEN.
THE world over people are talking about
recessions but we in Zimbabwe
have had ours for the past 10 years. At least
it seems we are now on a
recovery path.
Optimistic.
ARTHUR Mutambara is realising that his party is slowly disintegrating.
Many
of his utterances in support of Robert Mugabe are meant to curry favour
with
Zanu PF. He will definitely join Mugabe's party in the future.
Chibox,
Marondera.
IF the ministers involved in the rhino horn trade were
from the MDC-T
they would have been tried, convicted, sentenced and jailed
with no option
of an appeal or fine.
Zwai, Masvingo.
WILL someone please tell Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF that they are
clinging to
a sinking ship that is not anchored to anything? The ship is
sinking --
never to be raised again.
NM.
DEVOTION to Zanu PF at this
stage and hoping for its political
resurrection is not only delusional but
self-deceiving.
Berube, Chimanimani.
THE government should
pay proper salaries. Pretending to pay will lead
workers to pretend to
work.
Berobe Dindix, Chimanimani.
WHY should we talk about
national healing when MDC MPs are being
incarcerated? It seems that Morgan
Tsvangirai cares more about Robert Mugabe
than his supporters.
John.
THE ICC is now investigating post-election violence in Kenya,
war
crimes in Somalia and has already indicted several high profile
individuals
in Sudan. Will someone please get them to investigate violence,
murder and
rape before the June 27 election and Operation Murambatsvina. All
these
constitute crimes against humanity.
Observer.
WHAT is Stan Mudenge doing masquerading as a Higher Eduction minister
when
he cannot reopen UZ? He should just resign!
Wezhira,
Masvingo.
OUR leaders are profoundly myopic as evidenced by their
not putting
the reopening of the UZ on the agenda. How are we going to
reverse the
economic slide without skilled labour? Let's have foresight
please.
Futuristic.
THE issue of incentives for teachers
is more about the child than the
teacher. If teachers are hungry they will
not work and then who suffers?
Mai Zimba.
HOW can Lucia
Matibenga be made governor for Masvingo province when a
portion of Kuwadzana
extension -- in her constituency -- has been without
electricity for quite
some time now. MDC-T must wake up and smell the
coffee.
Gochai
Henyu.
A PROMISE brings comfort to a fool. Civil servants should
not dwell on
Morgan Tsvangirai's empty promises because one day they will
sleep on empty
stomachs. US$100 is being swallowed by bills.
Bemused.
I WANT to thank ZTV for continuing to show us images of
the atrocities
committed by the Ian Smith regime. They should also show us
images of the
Gukurahundi massacres and last year's election
violence.
Parity.
WHY is it that all live soccer matches
on ZTV seem to be Dynamos
matches? It's an 18 team league and all teams need
to be shown to the
nation. Currently the league is more of social
competition with no sponsor
and biased officiating.
Mutape.
WHEN are the "new" programmes ZTV is allegedly screening
shown. All I
see are the 1980s repeats.
Baffled.
http://www.voanews.com
By
Patience Rusere
Washington
16 July 2009
Zimbabwe's
constitutional revision process kicked off in earnest this week -
though
with a false start Monday as the first session of an all-stakeholders
conference ended in turmoil as militants of President Robert Mugabe's
ZANU-PF chanted songs and threw water bottles.
In a rare show of
solidarity, President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai
denounced the disruption and warned that more such
incidents would not be
tolerated.
The second day of the conference went more smoothly - but
critics of the
process, which is led by a parliamentary select committee,
said the incident
showed the risk of giving control of the constitutional
rewrite to
politicians with a limited role for civil society
groups.
Non-governmental organizations led by the National Constitutional
Assembly
have launched an alternative mechanism and will hold a parallel
constitutional congress.
For a look at the troubled revision process,
reporter Patience Rusere of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe turned to Farai
Maguwu, director of the Center
for Research and Development in Mutare and
University of Zimbabwe
constitutional law lecturer Greg
Linington,
Linington expressed discouragement at Monday's debacle and the
mix of
delegates.
http://www.voanews.com
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
16 July
2009
Tension within Zimbabwe's unity government is on the rise as the
Movement
for Democratic Change formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
accuses
its ZANU-PF partner in power sharing of twisting the law to chip
away at its
narrow majority in Parliament.
The party issued a
statement alleging a "cynical and diabolical attempt" by
ZANU-PF, which is
led by President Robert Mugabe, to claw back political
ground lost in the
2008 elections by trumping up charges against MDC
parliamentarians. Several
have been convicted and even sentenced to prison
terms, jeopardizing their
seats in the House of Assembly.
The MDC formation expressed dismay at the
suspension this week of Chipinge
West Member of Parliament Mathias Mlambo,
who is now barred from attending
sessions of parliament.
Mlambo was
convicted of public violence by a magistrate in Chipinge,
Manicaland
province, and sentenced to 10 months. But his lawyers have
appealed the
conviction.
The Zimbabwean constitution says a legislator sentenced to
six months or
more in prison "shall cease forthwith to exercise his
functions," specifying
furthermore that the seat shall be vacated 30 days
after such a sentence is
imposed.
Observers say the MDC has cause for
concern: two of its lawmakers have been
convicted on charges carrying a
sentence over six months, and three more
face charges which could lead to
expulsion from the house. Most of those
prosecuted come from Manicaland
province, where ZANU-PF suffered heavy
losses in the 2008
elections.
In those elections the Tsvangirai MDC formation won 100 seats
to ZANU-PF's
99. The MDC formation of now-Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara won 10
seats giving the combined MDC formations (the party split
in 2005) a
110-seat majority. There is one independent.
Elsewhere,
the MDC is urging police to arrest ZANU-PF members alleged to
have disrupted
a national constitutional conference on its opening day
Monday in Harare.
The party said one of its members was arrested during the
floor fracas,
alleging bias on the part of police.
Chief Parliamentary Whip Innocent
Gonese of the Tsvangirai MDC grouping told
reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the law is being
applied
selectively.
Responding to the allegations of bias in the justice system,
Attorney
General Johannes Tomana said the the MDC was unfairly dragging him
into
politics.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own
Correspondent Friday 17 July 2009
BULAWAYO - ZANU PF
politburo member and former Mayor of Bulawayo Joshua
Malinga on Thursday
appeared in a Bulawayo magistrate court facing charges
of undermining the
authority of the police.
The 65-year-old politician and businessman was
remanded on US$50 bail to
July 31.
He was not formally charged with
contravening Section 177 (b) of the
Criminal Law (Codification and Reform)
Act when he briefly appeared before
magistrate Sithembiso Ncube.
His
lawyer, Job Sibanda of Job Sibanda and Associates Legal Practitioners
told
the court that there was no need to put the charge to his client, as he
was
aware of it.
He added that his client was coming from home and had no
complaints against
the police.
The case had to be moved from Court
Two on the first floor of Tredgold
Building to Court Seven on the ground
floor because Malinga moves with the
aid of a wheelchair.
Clad in a
gray suit, Malinga listened carefully as his lawyer addressed the
court and
relatives wheeled him out of the courtroom after the remand with a
prison
officer holding the court record so that they could pay bail before
he would
be allowed to go home.
Prosecutor Evans Mungoni told the court that on
February 11 this year, at
around 10am, constable Raphael Somerayi was on
duty manning the High Court
building reception and was dressed in police
uniform.
Malinga parked his vehicle at the corner of 8th Avenue and
Herbert Chitepo
Street with its tail allegedly encroaching into the road
thereby blocking
other cars.
Somerayi approached Malinga and spoke to
him in Shona requesting him to park
properly.
The state is alleging
that Malinga responded by insulting the complainant in
English saying; "You
are stupid, idiot officer speaking Shona in
Matabeleland".
The police
officer requested to see his drivers' licence but Malinga
allegedly refused
with it saying there was no law that forces him to carry
it on his
person.
Malinga allegedly threatened to put the police officer in "hot
soup" for
interrupting him.
The officer requested him to accompany
him to Tredgold Building to see his
superiors if he (Malinga) was offended
by his use of the Shona language.
At the Tredgold Court section,
Assistant Inspector Tendekayi Murehwa, who is
also a public prosecutor,
attended to Somerayi and Malinga.
The state alleges that Malinga
continued with foul words and said, "He is a
stupid, idiot police officer
who speaks Shona in Matabeleland".
Matebeleland refers to Zimbabwe's
southwestern provinces dominated by
Ndebele-speaking ethnic groups while
Shona is spoken by the country's
majority ethnic group. - ZimOnline
Source: Xinhua News Agency Date: 16 Jul 2009 The Expanded Support Program (ESP), a coalition of local and international
agencies fighting HIV/AIDS, donated antiretroviral drugs, CD4 count machines,
home-based care kits, vehicles, bicycles, a generator and a forklift. The ESP was established in 2006 to support the national response to HIV and
AIDS in line with the Zimbabwe National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan. It is
funded by CIDA, DFID, Irish Aid, Norway, SIDA and is driven by a working group
which includes funding partners, National AIDS Council (NAC), health ministry
and other implementing partners. Health and Child Welfare Minister Henry Madzorera, who received the donation
on Wednesday in Harare, paid tribute to the ESP for its contribution to
Zimbabwe's national response to HIV and AIDS. "The inception of the ESP came at a time when, despite excellent plans and
targets, Zimbabwe has been facing serious economic challenges making the
attainment of various HIV and AIDS targets a challenge," he said. The minister said despite the declining HIV prevalence rate, the burden of
HIV and AIDS continues to rise, with more and more people needing ARVs. He said the ESP is targeting 50,000 people to access ART by the end of this
year in the targeted districts, and on the national program. This is expected to
be increased to 80,000 next year. The support has also been extended to retention of human resources, in the
wake of severe brain drain in the health sector. ESP chairman Tapiwa Magure said donors have committed 50 million U.S. dollars
for the three year duration of the program, which ends in March next year. To date the program has drawn 48 million U.S. dollars. The HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe currently stands at 15.6 percent. The total
number of people living with HIV is estimated at 1.3 million. Over 100,000
people are on ART while nearly 2,500 people are dying every week due to AIDS
related illnesses.
HARARE, Jul 16, 2009
(Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A multinational medical agency has donated medical
equipment and drugs worth 25 million U.S. dollars to Zimbabwe's districts and
organisations involved in fighting HIV and AIDS.
http://www.fahamu.org/pambazuka/
Mutsa Murenje
16 July
2009
Legislation that allows the Zimbabwean president to pass new
laws without
parliamentary approval in times of crisis is open to abuse,
warns Mutsa
Murenje. Highlighting the dangers that the Presidential Powers
Act poses to
democracy, Murenje calls on all Zimbabweans to increase their
awareness of
the country's legislation so that they can challenge and 'say
no to evil
laws'.
I am making a clarion call to all and sundry to
radically change our
orientation and approach to national issues. I am
calling for increased
interaction with the various pieces of legislation
governing our country. I
believe it is only through that kind of interaction
that we can be able to
say no to evil laws. This, my humble contribution,
focuses on four
provisions of the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures)
Act Chapter 10:20
indicating their impact in relation to democratic practice
in Zimbabwe. A
lot shall undoubtedly be depicted in the subsequent
paragraphs.
The Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act Chapter
10:20 is an act to
empower the president to make regulations dealing with
situations that have
arisen or are likely to arise and that require to be
dealt with as a matter
of urgency; and to provide for matters connected
therewith or incidental
thereto. That a number of provisions of this act are
detrimental to
democratic practice in Zimbabwe is beyond dispute and this
requires nothing
but a cogently convincing discussion of this matter and I
am overly sanguine
that I will not disappoint my readers with regards this
issue.
The abovementioned act empowers the president to make urgent
regulations.
When it appears to the president that a situation has arisen -
or is likely
to arise - which needs to be dealt with urgently in the
interests of
defence, public safety, public order, public morality, public
health, the
economic interests of Zimbabwe or the general public interest;
and the
situation cannot adequately be dealt with in terms of any other law;
and
because of the urgency, it is inexpedient to await the passage through
parliament of an act dealing with the situation, then the president may make
such regulations as he considers will deal with the situation. At face value
this appears to be noble, but since human beings are not angels, there is a
general tendency by the president to want to enact laws that suit his
selfish desire to tighten his grip on power and to thwart any dissent. This
however does not encourage democratic practice in Zimbabwe but it is instead
curtailed and restricted.
The president is also empowered by this act
to declare a state of emergency.
This happened during the 'dissident era' in
the early and mid-1980s that was
characterised by mass executions of the
Ndebele people by the North-Korean
trained Fifth Brigade in what is known
today as 'Gukurahundi'. Nobody
apologised and nobody wants to apologise. The
thing is that all fundamental
freedoms and human rights may be flagrantly
violated when the President
declares a state of emergency. Detention without
trial will be rife and
rampant, and the rights to life, personal liberty,
and freedom of
expression, association, assembly and movement will be badly
hampered and
this is clearly a negative effect on democratic practice in
Zimbabwe.
Furthermore, the president may also dissolve parliament in
urgent
situations. This dissolution of parliament works against democratic
practice
in the country because the president may dissolve the parliament
that has
gone against him. Who then can go against an autocratic leader with
excessive powers to dissolve parliament and appoint new members of
parliament? Noteworthy however is the fact that such action by the president
is constitutional but is equally detrimental to democratic practice in our
country. For example, Section 31 (F) of the constitution of Zimbabwe
provides for the vote of no confidence in government. Parliament may pass a
vote of no confidence in the government if a two-thirds majority votes to do
so. In the event of such a development, which is very unlikely given the
circumstances of our country, the president has to either dissolve
parliament or suspend all vice presidents, ministers and deputy ministers
and cabinet or to step down within fourteen days. The likely scenario in
these circumstances is that the octogenarian tyrant will dissolve or
prorogate parliament as is provided for in Section 31 F (2) (a) of the
constitution and this again hinders democratic practice in
Zimbabwe.
The Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act also provides
for
notification of the public about the intention to declare the state of
public emergency through parliament. More often than not, notification by
the president is minimal at best and non-existent at worst. For example, the
act was used in 2006 during the currency seizures when the new currency was
introduced (tichine mari here yatinoti ndeyedu?/do we still have money that
we call ours?). A number of people found that development inconvenient
because it came with little or no notice at all. In short, the act is prone
to abuse by the incumbent president whose political fortunes have been
waning as long as we can remember.
After having said all this, it can
now be concluded that the Presidential
Powers (Temporary Measures) Act has
serious negative implications for
democratic practice in Zimbabwe as has
surely been depicted in this
presentation. I rest my case and I put it to
you.
* Mutsa Murenje is a Zimbabwean human rights defender and an intern
with
World Youth Alliance Africa. He writes here in a personal
capacity.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at
http://www.pambazuka.org/.
http://www.fahamu.org/pambazuka/
Mutsa Murenje
16 July 2009
A new,
democratic, people-driven and people-centred constitution is key to
addressing Zimbabwe's problems, writes Mutsa Murenje. Examining amendments
to the country's constitution that created the role of executive president,
Murenje argues that these have given Mugabe excessive power and undermined
the country's democratic development.
I wish, first and foremost,
to satisfy my greatest debt of gratitude which I
owe to the National
Constitutional Assembly for their production of the
simplified Constitution
of Zimbabwe whose purpose is no doubt to help the
oppressed and suffering
people of Zimbabwe to get to know and understand the
fundamental laws that
govern our country and then make informed judgement
about what a
constitution should have to say. I was going through the
simplified
constitution and have just realised that ours is nothing but a
rotten
constitution. I have also remembered one S. Chimbindi who sometime in
2007
wrote from Canada sympathising with me on the need for a new
constitution.
I had written in December 2006 that: 'A new,
democratic, people-driven and
people-centred constitution remains key to the
Zimbabwe problem'. His/her
argument was that people like Dr Lovemore Madhuku
and Dr Reginald Matchaba
Hove have been fighting for a new constitution but
without success etc. In
my unpublished response to Chimbindi I said without
beating around the bush
that I didn't need sympathy, especially from people
whom I thought were
enjoying a sybaritic, opulent and limousine type of life
that an average
person in Zimbabwe could not enjoy. I was in my fourth and
final year of the
Bachelor of Social Work Honours Degree at the University
of Zimbabwe when I
wrote that article.
I was borrowing Democracy and
Human Rights from the Department of Political
and Administrative Studies and
I happened to be Dr John Mudiwawashe
Makumbe's student under the tutorship
of Miss Evelyn Vutuza. But why should
I be talking about this? The thing is
that we were given an assignment in
which we had to critically examine any
five key provisions of the
Constitution Amendment (No. 7) Act in relation to
democratic development in
Zimbabwe and I will shortly share with you my
submission on the same. But
why am I saying that ours is a rotten
constitution? Go to Chapter IV of our
constitution, which talks about the
executive. Are you there? I am sure you
are all there. Look at Part 1, which
talks about the president. Below there
is Section 27 with subsections 1 and
2. I am not comfortable with subsection
2. Have you read it my fellow
citizens? It is talking about the president
being above all other people in
Zimbabwe. Could it be that some people are
more equal than others?
In
his essay entitled 'Some comrades are more equal than others', the late
Professor Masipula Sithole attributed the problems of the day to the
forgetful political class. He also made reference to the fact that most
people in our country were having it rough; they were hurting; they felt
cheated over what he termed the 'independence dividend'. Ndiyo nguva
yainetsa Chenjerai 'Hitler' Hunzvi. He even made reference to remarks made
by the then 'perceptive' Prime Minister Robert Mugabe in 1987, who when
observing the restlessness of the masses said that: 'The people feel
betrayed. They are after our blood'. The answer, according to Professor
Sithole, was the Sandura Commission, which probed a motor vehicle scandal
involving senior politicians.
Constitution Amendment No. 7 shows us
the extent to which we can rightly say
ours is a rotten constitution. For
this reason, I will reproduce my
assignment, the one that I wrote in
November 2006 for us to be able to
understand why we really need a new
constitution in Zimbabwe. We don't need
the Kariba document for our
constitution. I honestly don't think that
Zimbabwe is made up of people who
are diffident. Here is my assignment:
The debate surrounding Constitution
Amendment (No. 7) Act of 1987 is
problematic and value laden, especially
when taking into cognisance its
relation to democratic development in
Zimbabwe. Perchance this explains why
its critics have been constantly and
consistently pointing out that its key
provisions are anathema and
antithetical to a smooth trajectory from
authoritarianism to democracy, as
Mahmood Monshipouri (1995) lucidly puts
it. The National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA) in its press statement
released on 29 March 2006 attributes
the tattered, torn and shabby state of
the constitution of Zimbabwe to
Amendment No. 7 and this in itself is a
clear indication that Constitution
Amendment No. 7 Act has done no good to
the development of democracy in
Zimbabwe. This discussion is dedicated to
the proposition that certain
provisions of the Constitution Amendment (No.
7) Act of 1987 have dealt
democratic development in Zimbabwe a lethal blow
and this discussion shall
examine five such provisions.
One key provision of the Constitution
Amendment (No. 7) Act in Zimbabwe is
the creation of the position of
executive president. Mair and Sithole (2002)
write that the creation of the
position of executive president led to the
combination of the ceremonial
role of the old president with the executive
functions of the prime
minister. Such a move dealt democracy a lethal blow
in Zimbabwe. This is so
largely because it turned Mugabe into an
unquestionable dictator by his
virtue of being above all other people in
Zimbabwe. Being above all other
people means that one can also be above the
law and this hinders the
development of democracy in the country. Who in his
right mind then can deny
the fact that the creation of the position of
executive president gave
Mugabe excessive powers which, to use Ncube's
(1993) turned him into a
'myopic little village tyrant', interested only in
his own good and wielding
power for the sake of satisfying his ego. This
makes sense especially when
considering the fact that no other person has
ruled Zimbabwe since 1980 when
Zimbabwe gained its independence from Great
Britain.
Another key
provision of the Constitution Amendment (No. 7) Act is that in
addition to
appointing members of parliament and the cabinet, the executive
president
was also given the power to appoint the governors of Zimbabwe's
then eight
provinces and these governors automatically became
non-constituency members
of parliament. The main problem with this provision
is that opposition
political parties are not entitled to also appointing
non-constituency
members of parliament. In other words, the president and
the ruling party
have an unfair numerical advantage of those who represent
them in the house
of assembly yet opposition parties are denied the same
advantage. This has a
tendency of creating a clientilistic pattern of rule
whereby appointees
become accountable to the appointer and not to the
populace. This
discourages the development of democracy in that appointees
work to please
the president at the expense of the citizen. Criticizing the
president
therefore will be tantamount to treason and in light of this
illumination;
it can be argued that Constitution Amendment (No. 7) Act is
anathema to
democratic development in Zimbabwe.
Noteworthy also and germane to this
discussion is the fact that Constitution
Amendment (No. 7) Act empowers the
president to veto any bill presented by
members of parliament as it pleases
him. Such power works against the
development of democracy in Zimbabwe. The
president can accept a bill that
has serious negative implications for
citizens just because of selfishness.
This is true when looking at the
draconian laws that were pushed through in
parliament. The Public Order and
Security Bill is one such bill that was
signed into law yet it severely
curtails the citizen's right to assembly,
association, expression, movement,
to make but a quick, short list which
could be extended many times over. The
Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy Bill also signed into law is
also believed to be anathema to
freedom of expression and media freedom.
Surprisingly, the two bills are
unjustified in a democratic society but
because Mugabe wanted to maintain
his grip on power, he signed them into
law. This also means that any
proposals that threaten Mugabe's power will be
pushed aside and this is not
good for democratic development in
Zimbabwe.
Constitution Amendment (No. 7) also provides for the
prerogative of mercy.
The incumbent president has excessive powers from this
amendment to ensure
that convicted members of his party do not serve prison
sentences. This
encourages contempt and disregard for the rule of law
especially by members
of the ruling party. Several ZANU PF supporters, the
police, soldiers, war
veterans and youth militia responsible for political
violence in the
elections of 1990, 2000 and 2002 were all pardoned. Corrupt
government
officials such as those involved in the 'Willowgate scandal' were
also
pardoned. The question we should grapple with is: Will such acts of
mercy be
extended to members of the opposition? The answer is no. If the
answer is no
then prospects for democratic development in Zimbabwe remain
uncertain at
best and gloomy at worst.
Finally, Constitution
Amendment (No. 7) Act provides for presidential
immunity. This means that as
long as he remains in office of the president,
he (Mugabe) shall not be
charged with a criminal offence nor shall he be
sued in any court of law.
This places the president above the law and this
contradicts Article 7 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which
says that: 'All are equal
before the law and are entitled without any
discrimination to equal
protection of the law'. This threatens democracy and
its development in
Zimbabwe. When some people are more equal than others it
becomes difficult
for any country to enjoy social equality, parity,
fairness, equal
opportunity, impartiality and egalitarianism and because of
this it can be
established beyond any reasonable doubt that key provisions
of the
Constitution Amendment (No. 7) Act are antithetical and incompatible
with
democratic development in Zimbabwe.
On the whole, it can be concluded
that the aforesaid provisions are the five
key provisions of the
Constitution Amendment (No. 7) Act which have dealt a
smooth trajectory from
authoritarianism to democracy a lethal blow as has
undoubtedly been depicted
in this discussion. I put it to you and I rest my
case.
* Mutsa
Murenje is a Zimbabwean human rights defender and an intern with
World Youth
Alliance Africa. He writes here in a personal capacity.
* Please send
comments to editor@pambazuka.org or
comment online at
http://www.pambazuka.org/.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mair,
S & Sithole, M (2002) Blocked Democracies in Africa. Case Study
Zimbabwe. Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
Monshipouri, M (1995)
Democratisation, Liberalisation and Human Rights in
the Third World. Lynne
Reinner Publications Inc
NCA (1999) Constitution of Zimbabwe. Simplified
Version.
NCA Press Statement On the Proposed Establishment Of A Human
Rights
Commission. 29 March 2006
Ncube, W (1993) 'Constitutionalism
and Human Rights: Challenges of
Democracy' in Nherere, P &
D'engelbronner-Kolff, M (eds) The
Institutionalisation of Human Rights in
Southern Africa. Nordic Human Rights
Publications