Rangarirai Mberi Senior
Reporter 6/30/2005 10:56:07 AM (GMT +2)
GOVERNMENT this
week launched a pre-emptive drive to discredit United Nations secretary
general Kofi Annan's special envoy Anna Tibaijuka, who is currently in the
country to assess the impact of a month-long demolition operation, in
anticipation of a negative report that would attract damaging UN
censure.
Sources say the government was unnerved by a report
released last week by a team of 10 top UN experts, close advisors to Annan,
who have urged Tibaijuka to look beyond the evictions and focus "on the
grave human rights implications raised by the evictions, and Zimbabwe's
legal responsibility" over the operation. Tibaijuka met President
Robert Mugabe yesterday and toured areas devastated by "Operation
Murambatsvina" a day after government publicly questioned the credibility of
the UN diplomat, with Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya playing up
remarks by British Prime Minister Tony Blair that he was confident the UN
envoy would produce "a good report" on the operation. The British premier
said he hoped the UN mission would pave way for the tabling of the matter in
the Sercurity Council. Jokonya had latched onto Blair's comments,
suggesting the Tanzanian diplomat was under pressure from the British leader
and Western governments critical of the Zimbabwean government "to do a dirty
job." In an interview carried by the state broadcaster, Jokonya said he
would demand an explanation over Blair's remarks. However, after
Tibaijuka met President Mugabe yesterday, Jokonya showed signs of recanting,
saying Tibaijuka was "a diplomat of high calibre". Tibaijuka, who
was escorted on her field trip by Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo,
Harare Commission head Sekesai Makwavarara and UN officials, said she had a
"constructive" discussion with the President. President Mugabe said he
had told Tibaijuka that government had planned the operation before the
general election, "but then we feared it would be said that we were
preparing the way for our own victory and affecting the posi- To
Page 31
tion of the MDC adversely. She was receptive".
Tibaijuka's report will be of critical consequence to Zimbabwe, as an
adverse report would be a godsend to Western nations itching to have
Zimbabwe condemned by the Security Council. Jokonya yesterday conceded that
such a development would be "very bad" for Zimbabwe, but banked on support
from permanent Security Council members China, France and Russia to veto any
proposal to formally cite Zimbabwe for rights abuses. Censure by
the world body would further attenuate Zimbabwe's already insecure
international standing, and could see Africa, which has always closed ranks
behind Zimbabwe against sustained Western criticism, being forced to turn on
Zimbabwe. The thinly veiled attacks on Tibaijuka's credibility as an
independent envoy were part of a deft strategy to discredit any negative
report the UN envoy might make as "a ploy by the British". Ahead of
Tibaijuka's field tour, dozens of families were hurried out of Caledonia
farm in open trucks "to their rural homes". Officials were, however,
clearing out more space at the squalid camp to allow for up to 5 000 more
families, a sign that demolitions continued despite weekend state media
reports that the operation was winding up. Police on Tuesday hit Porta
farm, despite an existing High Court order protecting the settlement
government created as a transit camp 13 years ago. Goodrich Chimbaira,
Movement for Democratic Change MP for Zengeza, also reported that police had
on Tuesday demolished homes in his constituency, leaving more families
without shelter. Government insists "Operation Restore Order" has
slashed crime and prevented disease outbreaks, but critics charge the
operation is a deliberate campaign by the ZANU PF administration to punish
pro-opposition urban voters and distract attention from a deepening economic
crisis. International pressure continued to build on Zimbabwe this
week. South African churches said they plan a visit to Zimbabwe next month,
while international rights groups and governments turned up the heat on
Zimbabwe and her neighbours ahead of this weekend's African Union summit in
Sirte, Libya, and the meeting of the G8 wealthy nations next
Wednesday. Cape Town Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane said he
would lead a delegation of church leaders to Zimbabwe on July 10, confident
President Mugabe would agree to meet his team despite signs government is
growing increasingly irritable over widening global criticism of the
programme. "The assault on property, homes and the meagre sources of
income of the poor and destitute in Harare and other major cities has
impacted the lives of over a million Zimbabweans," Njongonkulu said on
Tuesday. European Union President Jose Manuel Barroso said Africa
should join the West in condemning the Zimbabwe government for what he
described as human rights violations. But South African presidential
spokesman Bheki Khumalo said last Friday Africa would "not be scared into a
response" by Western references to the G8 summit. Reports say South
Africa is unlikely to allow Zimbabwe onto the G8 agenda at a time the
regional heavyweight is canvassing African support for a permanent seat on
the UN Security Council.
ZIMBABWE'S biting
fuel shortages have affected tobacco deliveries to auction floors as hopes
for the recovery of the sector, whose output has plunged by more than 50
percent due to the land reform programme, get dimmer by the
day.
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) this week said
the acute fuel shortage was affecting deliveries of the golden leaf,
Zimbabwe's single largest foreign currency earner, to the country's three
auction floors. Zimbabwe, in the throes of an economic recession
now in its sixth year, has been battling critical fuel shortages, which have
cut industrial output by more than 60 percent. The government has
failed to deal with the fuel crisis, which has worsened during the past few
months and is not expected to end despite this week's close to three-fold
pump price hike. "Deliveries have been retarded by fuel and wrapping
paper shortages," said TIMB in a trading update. Cumulative tobacco
sales to June 15 amounted to 23 million kilogrammes at an average price of
US128 cents per kilogramme, compared to 26 million kgs sold at US197 cents
per kg during the same period last year. Tobacco sales have so far
earned the country US$29.6 million, against the US$51 million earned during
the same period last year. Zimbabwe's three tobacco auction floors
cancelled the season's opening sales in April following spirited protests
from more than 150 farmers against a sharp drop in the selling
price. While producers have been protesting at what they deem unfair
prices, tobacco merchants have taken a dim view of the quality of the crop
this season. Tobacco production has also been affected by coal and
chemical shortages, as well as barn rehabilitation problems. The
golden leaf, which enjoyed a peak output of over 200 million kgs in 2000,
has slid year-on-year over the last five years to 160 million kgs in 2001/2,
85 million kgs in 2002/03, 83 million kgs in 2004 and to an estimated 80
million kg this year. Tobacco's contribution to Zimbabwe's export
earnings was 20 percent last year, down from around 30 percent in
2000. The drop in tobacco output comes against a backdrop of a rise in
the number of growers from 1 493 in 1990 to 12 700 in 2003 as a result of
the government's controversial land reform programme that it said sought to
empower previously marginalised black Zimbabweans.
THE massive fuel price hike effected
this week means a long-cherished economic recovery might take much longer to
materialise, leaving ordinary Zimbabweans - who have borne the sharpest edge
of a five-year recession - facing even tougher times ahead.
The
Petroleum Marketers Association of Zimbabwe has dismissed hopes that the 178
percent price hike will release more product onto the market, saying supply
will remain tight as importers still have to queue for the little foreign
exchange made available through the central bank's auction system.
Energy Minister Mike Nyambuya said the fuel price hike would end the loss of
scarce oil to foreign motorists who were taking advantage of Zimbabwe's
cheap price, but economists say the real cause of the shortages has been
Zimbabwe's continued inability to generate hard currency to fund
imports. Industry experts say Zimbabwe needs two million litres of
petrol and 2.5 million litres of diesel per day, but the deepening foreign
currency crisis has seen the country failing to meet even a third of its
requirements. Economists say the increase in the price of petrol -
a key input in industry - will immediately have a ripple effect on
production costs. This will in turn cause a sharp rise in prices on shop
shelves, in addition to the more direct consequence on transport
fares. Reports yesterday said commuter bus operators were already
agitating for higher fares. Zimbabweans - caught between declining
disposable incomes and an escalating cost of living and grappling with
alarming unemployment levels estimated at 70 percent - are growing poorer by
the day with no respite in sight. Analysts this week said the
prevailing shortages of basic commodities such as milk, bread, sugar and
cooking oil would also continue to fuel illegal parallel market prices, seen
as the biggest threat to austere economic recovery strategies being driven
by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ). Many basic commodities have
already vanished from the supermarket shelves, with consumers having to
endure long hours in queues at outlets that would have succeeded in securing
little supplies. Medical and school examination fees have also
increased, worsening the plight of the collapsing health and education
sectors. It seems it never rains but pours for Zimbabweans, especially
the urbanites, who have been affected by the current "clean-up" exercise
that has courted the United Nations. The world body has since sent
a representative to compile a report on an operation which has rendered more
than 200 000 families homeless. As a result of the "clean-up" campaign,
rentals have gone up by as much as 1 000 percent in recent weeks. Municipal
authorities are battling to put a lid on the spiral, which is putting
pressure on inflation, up 15.3 percentage points in May to 144.4
percent. The RBZ expects to keep inflation below 80 percent by
year-end, but the anticipated surge in prices across the board will make it
harder for the central bank to make its tough target.
KATE Hoey, a British
Member of Parliament who slipped into the country incognito last week to get
a first hand view of the controversial "Operation Murambatsvina", has caused
a furore within the country's state security system.
The
outspoken former cabinet minister in British Prime Minister Tony Blair's
government slipped into Bulawayo from United Kingdom through Zambia a week
ago and filmed the evictions of thousands of urbanites under the ongoing
operation. Well-placed sources said Didymus Mutasa, minister of state
for national security, was breathing fire over what is being considered a
security laxity in intelligence circles. Hoey, who has been in
Zimbabwe before, is believed to have shot videos of the clean-up campaign
and met with members of the country's main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) in Bulawayo. She spent a week undercover, only
to reveal her Zimbabwean adventure when she started tormenting Blair with
questions in the House of Commons on what the British government was doing
to help millions of Zimbabweans who have been rendered destitute by the
operation. The British Labour MP for Vauxhall also launched an attack
on South African President Thabo Mbeki, whom she accused of turning a blind
eye on the Zimbabwean crisis. While in Zimbabwe, Hoey visited
several suburbs in Bulawayo and Harare where she witnessed bulldozers razing
people's homes down. "They are driving people back to the rural areas
where it is much easier for the government to control the food, which is in
short supply and to also control them politically," Hoey said. "I
think if I had attempted to talk to anyone in the government, I would
probably have been put straight into a police station and kept there for
some time, because nobody can get in really who is . . . who is there
politically. And I'm obviously a former British minister. "So I
think Mugabe would have quite liked to have held me for a day or two. But
there are some - very many brave people - in Zimbabwe who are helping to
take these films. And we try to get them out as much as possible," Hoey said
in a radio interview with a UK station. Sources said Mutasa had asked
for an explanation from the Central Intelligence Organisation on "its laxity
in monitoring the activities of foreigners from hostile countries coming and
leaving the country." Tichaona Jokonya, Minister of information however
said Hoey was only giving "a little bit of fillip to (Tony) Blair's
anti-Zimbabwe campaign." "She came here with a pre-conceived idea. Hoey
had to promote her coming into the country. She came to take only the bad
information but we would have allowed her in as an MP, anyway," Jokonya
said. "But we need to control our borders and look at these people,"
Jokonya added.
Speculation was
rife in Zimbabwe this week over the fate of Media and Information Commission
(MIC) chairman Tafataona Mahoso, whose term of office at the statutory body
expires today.
The future of Mahoso, an academic and former
journalism trainer, as well as that of the entire MIC board now rests with
Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya and his deputy Bright Matonga, who are
currently pushing for a conciliatory approach in dealing with the country's
small but vibrant private media. Under Mahoso, the MIC has closed
four newspapers, namely The Daily News, The Daily News on Sunday, The
Tribune and The Weekly Times, for breaching some aspects of the draconian
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Sources said
chances were high that Mahoso and his board could be dissolved following
recent indications by the Ministry of Information that it wanted a
self-regulating media body. Government spokesperson George Charamba sought
to downplay inquiries on Mahoso's future at the MIC. "The board is
still in office and at the appropriate time, we will decide whether to
dissolve or re-appoint," Charamba said. The other MIC board members,
who were all appointed by the government, are Rino Zhuwarara, head of
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings; Stephan Mlambo, principal at the Upper
Bulawayo United College of Education; Pascal Mukondiwa, a former editor of
The Sunday Mail; Jonathan Mapenduka, a former assistant editor of The
Chronicle; Alfinos Makoni, a former officer in the Ministry of Information;
and Daphne Tomana, wife to lawyer Johannes Tomana. "The ministers have
shown immense interest in a voluntary media council. Moreover, indications
from the ministry suggest that Mahoso and his board are now a liability,"
said a well-placed source. "He (Jokonya) might maintain them as
institutional memory and for organisational continuity but not for long
because they have become useless in the current scheme of things," the
source said. Speculation over Mahoso's future at the MIC comes at a
time when Mahoso has chosen to remain mum on applications for licences by
the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, publisher of The Daily News and The
Daily News on Sunday, as well as African Tribune Newspapers, publisher of
The Tribune. The MIC last week met to look into the applications of
the two media houses but has not disclosed its decisions.
ZIMBABWE'S
future in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) looks increasingly dire
after the global lender this week demanded more "comprehensive" economic
reforms, including a free exchange rate long rejected by the government,
while painting a grim outlook for the economy.
Zimbabwe had been
looking for encouragement from the IMF, anticipating a fresh reprieve after
a February decision by the fund to give the country six additional months to
show more commitment to reform. The IMF system has its critics, but
economists say a return to the fund would be a signal to pessimistic foreign
investors that hope still remains for Zimbabwe. "A rebuilding of
relations with the international community is a critical part of the effort
to reverse the economic decline," the IMF team said at the end of its visit
this week. There had also been hopeful suggestions that the economy had
bottomed out and could not possibly sink any lower. However, the IMF's
verdict is that Zimbabweans are going to have it a lot worse this
year. The IMF mission that last Friday ended a 12-day tour of Zimbabwe
kept up the mandatory diplomatic talk on Monday, claiming in its report to
have held "cordial meetings" with the country. However, the IMF
report itself reveals otherwise. The IMF team's keen criticism of two
matters that are at the heart of current government policy - "Operation
Murambatsvina" and price controls - suggests Zimbabwe and the IMF may not
exactly be drowning each other in hugs and kisses any time soon.
Weeks ahead of a crucial meeting of the IMF board on the possibility of
Zimbabwe's "compulsory withdrawal" - diplomatic speak for getting the sack -
the IMF said the Zimbabwean economy was headed for ruin if authorities
continued on their current path. "The mission projects that, on the
basis of present policies, the budget deficit will increase markedly in
2005, partly due to the cost of higher food imports, interest payments and
higher pension costs. Together with the RBZ's (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe)
substantial producer and credit subsidies, these deficits would fuel a sharp
increase in money supply, and hence inflation, by end-2005," the IMF
said. Discussions, according to the IMF, had focused on "policies to
place Zimbabwe on a path to achieve sustained growth, low inflation, and
improving living standards". But despite such an apparently
feel-good agenda, the IMF still forecasts that the economy will see further
trouble this year, marked by a sharp fall in output and even deeper foreign
exchange shortages. "The authorities indicated their desire to address
these problems by taking measures to contain further increases in the budget
deficit," said the IMF. But it is unclear how the government would
have promised narrower deficits while at the same time spending $3 trillion
in unbudgeted expenditure on a housing scheme for up to a million displaced
people - in addition to an earlier $1 trillion pledged for
"reconstruction". To put that $4 trillion housing money into
perspective, the government has projected a $4.5 trillion budget deficit for
2005. The government also needs US$420 million for urgent food
imports. The IMF report attempts to toe the diplomatic line, but by
sticking to previous criticism that Zimbabwe is drifting without any
recognisable economic policy, it is clear the fund believes the country has
not moved an inch since the last meetings. If Zimbabwe has moved at all, the
IMF infers, it has moved backwards. "As indicated in previous
rounds of discussions, the mission stressed that the magnitude of the
economic problems confronting Zimbabwe calls for a comprehensive policy
package that should include decisive action to lower the fiscal deficit, a
tightening of monetary policy, and steps to establish a unified,
market-determined exchange rate. The package should also include structural
reforms, such as the removal of administrative controls, to ease shortages
and restore private sector confidence," the fund said. The government
has long shown a deep revulsion for "a unified, market-determined exchange
rate", and is unlikely to take lightly to this key IMF demand. The
IMF's advice that removing controls would ease shortages runs opposite to
long-standing government reasoning that commodity scarcities are only there
because the state had stopped intervening in the affairs of the private
sector. Then the clincher: "The macroeconomic outlook is further
clouded by the gravity of the food security situation and implementation of
'Operation Restore Order', which threatens to worsen shortages, contribute
to lower growth, and aggravate inflation pressures."
"Murambatsvina" sits at the core of everything the Zimbabwe government does
these days, and the authorities have in recent weeks grown increasingly
touchy about any criticism of the programme, especially after Western
countries upped their opposition to the operation. Zimbabwe's
arrears to the IMF amounted to US$295 million as at June 20. Expulsion is
the last in a series of escalating measures that the fund applies to members
that fail to meet their obligations under its articles of
agreement.
MORE than 150 human
rights groups outraged by the ongoing crackdown on shantytowns have
petitioned presidents Thabo Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo, of South Africa and
Nigeria respectively, to put pressure on the Zimbabwean government to
abandon the campaign, which has rendered hundreds of thousands of people
homeless.
It has been established that the Legal Defence and
Assistance Project, Amnesty International, the Centre on Housing Rights and
Eviction, and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights are some of the 150 human
and civic organisations that made an appeal in Lagos this week, calling on
Harare to end the evictions of families from their homes. Kolawole
Olaniyan, director of the Africa programme of Amnesty International, called
on the continental body, the African Union (AU), and international
organisations to pressure President Robert Mugabe to end the evictions,
which they say are an infringement on human rights. The AU is currently
under the leadership of Nigeria's Obasanjo. "This complete and
wholesale destruction of people's homes and livelihood estimated to have
affected some 200 000 people so far constitutes a grave violation of
international human rights law and a disturbing affront to human dignity.
There can be no justification for the government of Zimbabwe's actions,
which have been carried out without prior notice," Olaniyan said.
"We condemn it in the strongest terms because due process of the law or
assurance of adequate alternative accommodation is not observed in the
process of forced evictions," he said. "President Obasanjo and
other African leaders are hereby urged to address the situation in the
country as urgent at the forthcoming AU Assembly in Libya," said Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights representative Jessie Majome. Amnesty
International accused African leaders of maintaining a "conspiracy of
silence", saying "the people of Zimbabwe are being sold out in the interests
of a false African solidarity". International pressure has also heated
up on Harare, with British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressing outrage at
the situation in Harare. "The only salvation for Zimbabwe will come
from the countries surrounding Zimbabwe and inside Zimbabwe itself. I urge
the countries surrounding Zimbabwe to recognise that what is happening in
Zimbabwe is a disgrace," said Blair. Blair's statements come amid
hopes that United Nations (UN) special envoy Anna Tibaijuka's report would
see Zimbabwe being put on the agenda of the UN Security Council
meeting. The calls on regional leaders to act on President Mugabe are
unlikely to yield much, with Mbeki's spokesperson Bekhi Khumalo last week
saying Pretoria was growing "irritated" by such petitions. On the
other hand, the AU has been accused of "shirking responsibility" by its
failure to intervene as the Zimbabwean crisis continues to unfold.
Reuel Khoza, chairman of the New Partnership for Africa's Development
(NEPAD) Business Foundation, was quoted in the South African media as saying
the AU and NEPAD should be in the forefront of condemning the ongoing
operation. "The AU and NEPAD should be the ones leading
pronouncements on anything such as this which causes pain and tribulations
to African people, rather than shirk responsibility," Khoza
said.
THE raging debate
over 114 failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers due for imminent deportation from
the United Kingdom is symptomatic not only of all that has gone wrong in
diplomatic relations between the former metropole and its erstwhile colony,
but the deepening economic and political crisis that has created a stream of
economic refugees from a country whose descent into the abyss has
accelerated in recent months.
As British prime minister Tony Blair
this week expressed outrage over the deteriorating human rights situation in
Zimbabwe-calling for the United Nations security council intervention over
the destruction of shantytown across Zimba-bwe-he did so while reiterating
his government's position on the failed asylum seekers with no hint of the
irony his opponents within and without the isle quickly sought to play
up. The opposition Conservative and Liberal Democratic parties in the
United Kingdom, as well as some members of Blair's own Labour party, have
voiced concern over the deportations-which have already seen about 95
Zimbabweans returned home this year after the expiry of a two-year
moratorium-arguing that ongoing human rights abuses made it "immoral" to
return people to a country they had fled. The Zimbabwe
government-never one to miss out on an opportunity or propaganda- hails the
deportations as a clear sign that Britain, was only posturing when talking
about rights abuses in Zimbabwe because it had found, in the words of Home
Secretary Charles Clarke, that there had been "no substantiated reports of
mistreatment" of the jailed asylum seekers back in Zimbabwe. Clarke has
argued that not all Zimbabweans who claim asylum in the UK genuinely face
persecution. Zimbabwean government spokesmen have been quick to condemn
the British government over the detention of the failed asylum seekers, with
deputy information minister Bright Matonga accusing Britain of
racism. State media reports quoted Matonga saying: "As government we
feel concerned by this racist scenario where black Zimbabweans are being
unfairly treated because the reason for their deportation is that they are
blacks." All manner of political positions have been taken on the
issue-a major talking point in the UK's May general election in which
Labour's majority was whittled down significantly-with church leaders,
politicians and rights activists in the UK and Zimbabwe denouncing the
planned deportations. For their part, the asylum seekers themselves,
many of whom cited political persecution in their applications, have gone on
hunger strike as protest against their treatment by the British immigration
authorities as well as their imminent deportation. Some political
analysts have said the British government finds itself in a fix over the
asylum issue, which has generated a lot of debate in the country, and how to
treat the degenerating situation in Zimbabwe. Blair and foreign
secretary Jack Straw have, in recent weeks, renewed calls for President
Robert Mugabe's censure over alleged human rights abuses in light of his
government's controversial campaign against shanty-towns and informal
industries, which housed and employed millions of poverty-stricken
Zimbabweans. On the other hand, they have to justify the denial of
asylum to several Zimbabwean applicants. To qualify for refugee
status and, as a consequence, asylum in the UK, one has to justify fears of
returning to one's home country because of persecution. Refugee
status will guarantee one indefinite leave to remain in the country and in
order to qualify as a refugee, applicants need to convince the authorities
at the Asylum Screening Unit in Croydon that they meet the definition of
"refugee" set out in the UN Convention Relating to the Status of
Refugees. Under the convention, one has to demonstrate a "well-founded
fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership
of a particular social group or political opinion" in your country of
nationality or your former country of residence. The protection
given to a recognised refugee is called 'asylum' and that the UK agrees not
to send refugees granted asylum back to a country where they face such
persecution. It has been argued that most Zimbabwean asylum seekers in
the UK do not quite fit this criteria and opposition groups, mainly the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), have in the past disowned some
applicants who claimed to be prominent members of the party who faced
persecution back home. Heneri Dzinotyiweyi of the University of
Zimbabwe, however, contends that Zimbabwean economic refugees should not
expect special treatment in the UK, taking advantage of the history between
the two countries, or anywhere else for that matter. "As
Zimbabweans, we do recognise the difficulties that have forced our people to
go abroad in search of asylum, but the matter is for the British, in this
case, to react in their own terms. I do not think they have to treat
Zimbabweans any differently, but they have to consider the humanitarian
element and act accordingly," Dzinotyiweyi said. However, MDC
spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi, whose party has pleaded with the British
authorities to halt the deportations, said the Zimbabweans' case demanded
special attention. "The most important thing is that those people are
Zimbabweans first and perhaps MDC second, third or even fourth. It would be
very unfair if we were to reduce their plight to partisan politics, but that
is the problem with Zimbabwe right now. "Any Zimbabwean who finds
himself outside the country demands sympathy due to the well documented
circumstances back home. When someone seeks asylum in a cold and
inhospitable country like Britain there must be aggravating circumstances.
Secondly, states are urged, in terms of humanitarian considerations, to be
considerate to asylum seekers and we have pleaded their (asylum seekers')
case on that basis," Nyathi said, adding that there had been no formal
response from the British government to their plea.
A FRESH round of
power cuts has hit Zimbabwe, following the interruption of supplies from
SNEL of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the failure of two
generators at Hwange Power Station.
Although ZESA Holdings was
yesterday quick to say it had lost 100 megawatts (MW) from SNEL due to a
line fault, analysts were adamant that the power utility was failing to
pre-pay for energy imports due to a worsening foreign currency
crunch. Mounting fears of a potential blackout have been exacerbated by
the loss of two generators at Hwange Power Station (HPS). Each unit was
generating 120 MW. This means the power utility has a deficit of 340 MW,
which will result in power cuts during this winter period when demand
reaches its climax. Zimbabwe, whose peak electricity demand is
projected to have shot up to 2 900 MW, imports nearly 45 percent of its
national requirements from Hidroelectrica de Caporal Bassa of Mozambique,
Eskom of South Africa and SNEL. Local generation capacity has been
affected by inadequate coal supplies to HPS, which requires stocks for a
maximum of 45 days but is receiving only enough for two days per delivery
from Hwange Colliery Company (HCC). As a result HPS, which is also
reliant on obsolete equipment and lacks spare parts for repairs and
maintenance, has been generating around 400 MW. "We are importing the
maximum accessible power from Eskom of South Africa to bridge the shortfall
but cannot meet the high demand due to the winter peak season," said ZESA's
general manager, corporate affairs, Obert Nyatanga. He added that the two
generators are expected to be back in service before the end of this
week. Government, which is desperate to avert an imminent blackout in
2007, is desperately trying to lure Chinese investors to develop the
country's two power generation plants in return for coal
concessions. ZESA has to prepare for self-sufficiency before 2007 when
regional power suppliers are expected to run out of surplus energy to
export. A Chinese firm, China Aero Technology Import and Export
Corporation (CATIC) has agreed in principle to undertake development of the
power generation. ZESA's erratic payments for power imports have
sometimes resulted in regional suppliers demanding pre-payment for
electricity. The national utility requires a minimum of US$21 million
monthly to meet electricity imports obligations, service debts and purchase
of spare parts. ZESA is only managing to raise a paltry US$2.4
million a month. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) sometimes chips in
with allocations to the financially handicapped ZESA to foot its monthly
electricity imports. The power outages are expected to impact
negatively on the country's industry, which is already suffering from a fuel
crisis that has dragged capacity utilisation below 40 percent.
FIVE years ago, it was hoped that
the land reform programme would unlock the agricultural sector's immense
potential, which would in turn move through the economy like an electric
jolt and help government deal with poverty and inequality. What with tobacco
destined for the unmanufactured international leaf market earning the
country US$600 million annually and horticulture being the fastest growing
industry. Not to mention the beef industry which then had a reputation for
quality and was the supplier of choice to the lucrative EU
market.
The euphoria touched off by the radical land reform
exercise however masked more sobering realities. The scandal-tainted
programme slipped on too many banana skins, which had more to do with lack
of strategic planning than the style, form and approach of the exercise even
though this raised partisan shots from both sides of the political
aisle. This is why the much-hoped-for agricultural revolution has
largely remained a could-have-been-that-never-was, leaving Zimbabwe with the
spectre of what might be the biggest sectoral failure in the history of the
country. Indeed, with the country's food security situation at its most
precarious and agriculture adding very little, if any value to the national
economy, the back-to-the-land idealism could very well come unstuck - a
victim of lack of planning. Logic dictates that once the government
identified agrarian reforms as one area of intervention to achieve national
food self-sufficiency and economic empowerment for the historically
marginalised majority blacks, it was critical to ensure that there was
planning in advance, well before the exercise to parcel out large tracts of
land to deserving individuals commenced in earnest so as to prepare for or
guard against any eventualities. Unfortunately there doesn't seem
to be evidence that this was the case. On the contrary, government seemed to
have been in a hurry to give out land for political expediency as if giving
people land was the be-all and end-all for ensuring food security and
economic empowerment. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.
Redistributing land, while a noble idea, is not a goal unto itself but a
means to an end. Suffice to say though that nothing succeeds where there is
no planning. History is unequivocal on that. Hence the chaos in the critical
agricultural sector where there was no plan necessarily laid down and the
disposal of time was surrendered merely to the chances of incident. If this
were not the case, then matters agricultural should have been prioritised if
government knew how the process was going to unfold. Without
belabouring the point, government should, like a novelist, have known what
its last chapter in the story of the land reform programme was going to say
and one way or other work towards that chapter. This did not however seem to
be so. Otherwise the lion's share of national resources should have been
channelled towards bolstering and enhancing agriculture through the
rehabilitation and expansion of irrigation equipment and infrastructure to
offer a fall back position seeing that the country is subject to the
vagaries of intermittent but devastating droughts. True, Zimbabwe had
an irrigation infrastructure in place and in some provinces dams were indeed
grossly underutilised but the capacity of the irrigation infrastructure
needed bolstering to cater for the increasing numbers of farmers in the face
of land reform. It is disappointing, to say the least, that it is only now
that the government is talking about the need to boost the country's
irrigation facilities more as an afterthought that could have gone unthought
of, when this should have been part of the long-term plan. Why then the
seeming lack of vision and clarity of thinking if government believes that
in agriculture, lies the seed of economic prosperity and self-sufficiency?
The mind boggles! Apart from guaranteeing a reliable state-of-the-art
irrigation infrastructure, such long term planning would also have put paid
to the land reform exercise's terrible aura where scores of newly settled
farmers are, instead of productively using their land, destroying it through
deforestation and environmental degradation for want of critical inputs. It
is an open secret that most of the erstwhile peasant farmers allocated land
did not have capacity, which is why the gears did not immediately engage
soon after these farmers were allocated the land. As we have said before,
over the past five years, most of these farmers were left devastated with a
psychology of impotence and pessimism against a background of biting
shortages of fertilisers, seed and chemicals among other critical inputs -
which again boils down to lack of long term planning on the part of the
scapegoating and blundering officials running the country's agriculture who
have ironically been sermonising the nation on the need for food
self-sufficiency. Not only that but a well-thought out long-term
plan for the land reform programme could have made provision for checks and
balances and in the process prevented the flagrant violation of the
government's one-man-one-farm policy which, in the court of public opinion,
borders on criminality. It is against this background that we feel
that it is all very well for the government to talk about its plans for
bolstering the irrigation infrastructure but it should be noted that no plan
is worth the paper it is written on until it gets you doing something. It's
no longer time for rhetoric but action. Government should now show resolve
and walk the talk if land reform is to become a genuine avenue of redress
for those negatively affected by historical injustices.
FOR the past three weeks the nation
has been held in shock and awe by the economic and social upheavals caused
by the wanton destruction termed "Operation Murambatsvina".
However, as a society, we have been looking at one side of the coin, that of
criticising the authorities, who agreeably have reached the peak of
economic, political and social mismanagement. The government and
its municipalities have exhibited a serious deficiency in strategic planning
within their structures. The government, through its ministry that is in
charge of small and medium enterprises, failed to plan for the current
economic situation where less than 10 percent of our employable people are
in formal employment. Research institutions in both public and private
sectors also failed to read the script that has been penning itself since as
far back as the year 2000, hence no-one advised the government and other
interested stakeholders on the time bomb that we have been sitting on. This
is surprising and shameful, especially for a nation which boasts of having
some of the best brains in Africa. This article is an analysis of
the role that our private sector played or did not play in contributing
towards the pain that the whole nation is experiencing. Over the
past 25 years, our private sector executives decided to bury their heads in
the sand like the proverbial ostrich so as to hear no evil and see no evil
even when it meant pinning the welfare of their employees onto an iron
stake. In my view this is a dangerous red light signal to the whole
nation. It signifies that our private sector executives look in the mirror
and only see their faces looking back at them when they are supposed to see
behind their faces. This means that for the past two-and-a-half decades we
have been staffing our private sector with greedy people whose myopic views
only accommodated their self aggrandisement. I find this to be one
of the plausible explanations to the accommodation and transport problems
being faced by hapless employees in our towns and cities. The
corporate world experienced jolting electrical shocks from the clean-up
exercise. Most industry executives woke up one morning with half empty shop
floors and even unmanned managerial and supervisory cubicles. Employees lost
their shacks, backyard lodges as well as houses that were built by various
housing cooperatives. The United Nations estimates the number of those who
lost homes to be around 200 000 and only God knows how many of them are the
pride of our private sector. A number of private sector employees went
to the extent of "invading" peri-urban farms as well as buying five-dollar
"housing stands" from various war veterans' groupings just before the 2000
parliamentary elections. These so-called housing stands were such a hit that
people went "AWOL" from work hunting for them. Meanwhile, our
intelligent and adaptive private sector executives saw and knew what was
happening. What did our private sector do about these "biblical signs" of
what was to come? They did nothing just like our "revered"
authorities. Our private sector has also become a living example of
myopic planning, greed and rampant corruption. Some executive directors are
in the habit of denying employees housing loans for no economic reasons even
when company policy says so in black and white. They are more comfortable
giving employees clothing and cell-phone allowances so that they all look
smart and prosperous while they are troop out of their backyard shacks.
Instead of getting car loans, some employees get company cars with no option
to buy them later but with the certainty of leaving them behind when they
have had enough of the blood sucking companies. Meanwhile, a few
houses may be bought secretly for those employees who are involved in
furthering the directors' other interests that include personal companies
and even some illegal business activities. These are the very executive
directors who buy new models of cars as if they are buying new pairs of
socks as well as awarding themselves multi-million dollar loans. They are
the very same executives who have stands or houses in every new posh
residential surbub that springs up. As an employee, I experienced all of the
above and it left me wondering whether these executives do it for their
amusement. Can anyone stand up and tell me if this is not being myopic,
greedy and corrupt? Operation Murambatsvina exacerbated transport
problems that we have been living with since 2000 due to fuel shortages. I
vividly remember that in 2000 we had transport blues in Kuwadzana. An
executive director who was my immediate supervisor advised me to wake up
early so as to get to work on time. It was fuel shortage and not anything of
my own making, stupid! Currently fuel shortages have become our daily
bread and everyone in the country is affected. However, a few strategic
planners within our private sector saw what was in store and acquired buses
and minibuses that pick up and drop off employees at strategic points around
cities. Some are quite content to have their employees walking all the way
from Msasa Park to First Street Mall in Harare. These are our industry
executives who have decided to see no evil except when it comes to sourcing
fuel for management cars. They only have themselves to blame when employees
report for work at 10 am or even fail to come to work altogether.
Our private sector has proved to be just as inept as their public sector
counterparts in terms of strategic planning, especially where the welfare of
employees is concerned. Let us not hear the private sector blaming it on the
economy because we had up to 2000 to put our act together. Proper strategic
management and planning will result in companies investing more in the
welfare of employees. Employees are a cornerstone of every business
entity. All the luxurious benefits and perks enjoyed by executive management
and their families are generated on the shop floor. Your employee's welfare
is a key result area in that results will simply not come out of a human
being who has no proper place to call a home and walks all the way or half
the journey to work. The clean-up operation has proved that we do
not have strategists to deal with the economic, political and social
problems in this country. If we have them then they do not know what they
are supposed to be doing. History is showing that we have become a nation of
reactive managers. Unfortunately, this seems to have rubbed off on our
private sector, which should be leading the way by lifting high the torch of
strategic management and planning. We are a nation that seriously needs
qualified and practical strategic managers and planners. This is a special
field in management studies, so let us not hear any scientist, economist or
politician claiming to be all in one, lest our lives are messed up again by
another "operation". It is my hope that the current events have taught
our private sector a valuable lesson that a humanitarian crisis will not
spare industry as well. This is why the private sector should contribute to
national strategic plans that militate against such mishaps. The informal
sector provides suppliers and customers to the formal sector such that the
private sector has lost valuable business through the demise of the informal
sector. The private sector should be seen participating in the
rehabilitation of the informal sector, which is a significant stakeholder to
all economic sectors. Our oldest institute of higher learning, the
University of Zimbabwe, should establish a faculty for strategic management
studies which will have to be closely linked to both public and private
sector so that the studies will be practical and relevant to our
country. lVimbayi M Kusema is an independent research analyst and
writer. He can be contacted on 023 414 903. Email: vimbikayi@lycos.com
FRESH farm evictions have erupted as
the government moves to completely boot out the remaining white commercial
farmers, contrary to recent official statements calling for restoration of
order on the farms.
The move to seize land from the few remaining
whites is completely at variance with calls from pragmatic business minds
that some of the repossessed commercial farms should be returned to
productive white commercial farmers. The government had slammed the brakes
on fresh farm evictions pending the outcome of its numerous land
audits. The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) told The Financial Gazette
this week that an average five of the 400 commercial farmers remaining on
the farms were being booted off the land every month. CFU president
Douglas Taylor-Freeme said some white commercial farmers had kept the farms
for various reasons and some had pledged their support towards resuscitating
the country's agricultural industry, which is on its knees. "Farm
evictions are still continuing as recent as yesterday. An average of four to
five farmers are being evicted every month," Taylor-Freeme said.
The government's often chaotic land reform programme, which resulted in more
than 3 000 whites being hounded from large-scale productive farms, is
squarely blamed for plunging the country's once vibrant agricultural sector
into the abyss. Hordes of government supporters invaded white-owned
commercial farms in 2000, vandalising and looting agro-implements worth
billions of dollars in what the government and the ruling ZANU PF termed the
"Third Chimurenga". The farm invasions, which also claimed the lives of
seven white commercial farmers as violence reared its ugly head, have earned
the country worldwide condemnation. Taylor-Freeme said the white
commercial farmers being booted out had already prepared their farms for the
winter wheat crop but the continued onslaught on their activities had
further placed the industry in jeopardy. Out of fear, some white
farmers had even started attending ZANU PF functions and sponsoring some of
the party's programmes. Documents at hand reveal that towards the March
elections, the Selous community donated fuel worth $44 million to transport
all voters in the Selous area to their respective polling centres.
The community later contributed three beasts towards celebrations to mark
Joice Mujuru's appointment as Zimbabwe's first female vice president.
State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, whose expanded portfolio now covers
land redistribution, refused to comment on reports of fresh evictions on the
farms. Independent food aid agencies say Zimbabwe has more than 2.4
million starving and malnourished people. The country, which is
reeling from the effects of a four-year drought and a recession spanning
over five years, is now among Southern Africa's major maize
importers. Zimbabwe requires more than 158 000 tonnes of maize per
month. The Famine Early Warning Systems, a USAID agency, said the country
could fail to plant the 77 hectares of winter wheat planted last year due to
biting fuel shortages, seed and low water levels in irrigation
facilities. The CFU however dispelled rumours that there were moves to
return displaced farmers back to the land, with Taylor-Freeme saying: "No
one has really come directly to us on that."
PERENNIAL
loss-maker Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO) is set to sign another
agreement of cooperation with Shougang International Trade and Engineering
Corporation of China, a few months after the same company pulled out of a
deal that would have seen the injection of US$200 million into the giant
steelworks.
Zisco managing director Gabriel Masanga said the
company was set to sign the agreement with Shougang, which has renewed its
interest in the business, in a bid to facilitate the turnaround of the
ailing steel giant. He could not be drawn into shedding more light on
the issue, except to say negotiations with the Chinese group were back on
course. Zisco, whose output has tumbled over the years due to lack of
investment and mismanagement, hopes a new investor could improve its
business. Shougang International Trade and Engineering Corporation
of China backtracked on an earlier deal that would have seen the injection
of a US$200 million lifeline in working capital for unspecified
reasons. Zisco needs about 1 200 tonnes of coal a day although it is
operating at below 50 percent capacity. When fully operational, the steel
giant can take up to 2 000 tonnes of coal in the same period. The
steel giant has the capacity to produce one million tonnes of steel
annually, but has lost some of its markets in East Africa and Europe due to
sagging productive capacity.
A LOCAL businessman, Langton Nyatsambo, has entered into a
lucrative deal with a Chinese telecommunications firm, Shenzen Tozed
Communication Company, that will pave way for the manufacture and marketing
of pay phone equipment locally and on the continent, with an initial
projected annual revenue of US$40 million.
In an interview with
The Financial Gazette this week Nyatsambo, who has an interest in the
telecommunications and technology business, said his company was awarded
sole rights to cater for the African market under the deal. "We
want to manufacture pay phones in the country following the signing of a
deal with a leading Chinese firm. The project will involve technology
transfer. At the moment we are sending our team to China for training. The
first load of equipment is expected in the country in the next few
weeks. "Additionally, we are looking into providing SMS facilities with
the new phones. Currently we are negotiating with Econet to facilitate the
provision of the first ever text service on pay phones," he said.
He said over $10 billion would be sunk into the project, which he claims
will also move to address in part the huge demand for telecommunications
services, especially in the lower end of the market. Under the same
deal, Nyatsambo says his company, Leythem Investments, will also provide
special pay phone handsets which can be converted for home use should the
system be accepted. "We are working closely with Econet so that we can
offer our services in countries they are doing business in," said Nyatsambo,
adding that markets in Nigeria, Kenya have been targeted. At least
80 percent of the products are targeted for the export market.
Zimbabwe has seen a boom in the pay phone business over the year owing
mainly to poor service delivery by the state-controlled Tel*One, which
provides fixed phone lines, and inadequate cellphone lines intermittently
released to the market by the three mobile network operators - Econet,
Net*One and Telecel.
HOMELINK (Private)
Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the central bank, has set aside funds
for the construction of houses countrywide.
The company, which
mobilises foreign currency from Zimbabweans living in the diaspora, is
designing a specific programme for that purpose. "Currently, we are
engaged in high-level discussions with local authorities, who have indicated
that they will give us more stands for residential construction purposes,"
said Lovemore Chitapi, Homelink's head of marketing and
communications. Among the Homelink housing projects is the Westgate
housing scheme, which will accommodate 120 units ranging between 800 and 3
000 square metres. Chitapi said John Sisk and the Ministry of Local
Government and National Housing had been allocated 60 stands in the Westgate
scheme, while the balance would be allocated to building contractors
selected via the tender process. Zimbabweans in the diaspora have
shown they are mainly interested in the two major cities of Harare and
Bulawayo. Chitapi said visits had been made to Mutare, Gweru, Gwanda,
Chinhoyi, Rusape and Bulawayo to discuss possibilities of getting more
stands.
THE crippling fuel
crisis is definitely sparing no one.
Schindler Lifts Zimbabwe, a
leading elevator company, this week announced it had suspended ordinary
servicing of lifts and would only be responding to emergencies.
"Due to the critical shortage of fuel in the country, please note that we
shall be attending to callouts for emergencies only at institutions like
hospitals," the company said in a statement. For fear of being
dragged to the courts, Schindler made some tactical exceptions. It said:
"We, however, advise that we shall continue to carry out the normal monthly
maintenance in accordance with the law." Zimbabwe is currently going
through an acute shortage of fuel blamed on poor exports, lack of balance of
payments support from traditional lenders and the current standoff between
the southern African state and former colonial master Britain, backed by the
United States of America and other European states. The fuel crisis
has seen industry operating at an estimated 50 percent capacity, while
public transport woes have worsened. "The situation is getting worse at
the moment that we at times fail to attend to emergency calls in Harare,"
said an official with Schindler.
WEDNESDAY's State House visit
by two senior MDC officials has caused outrage within the rank and file of
the opposition amid reports that the pair did not consult the party before
meeting President Robert Mugabe. Tensions reportedly boiled over at the MDC
headquarters, Harvest House, yesterday after vice president Gibson Sibanda
and party chief whip Innocent Gonese were taken to task over their rare
encounter with the elder statesman. Sibanda and Gonese landed themselves
in trouble after they escorted Parliamentary Speaker John Nkomo for his
official presentation to the President as Speaker of the House. What
seemed to irk other legislators, supporters and party officials was the fact
that Sibanda and Gonese then went ahead and had a photograph taken with the
President - posing as if they had just been appointed to Cabinet. Insiders
said their visit to State House was in breach of protocol as it is the
opposition party's stance not to attend State functions or anything to do
directly with President Mugabe, whom they have since refused to recognise as
Head of State. MDC legislators have this year boycotted three functions
officiated by the Head of State. These are: the banquet for Parliamentarians
before the official opening of the august House; the official opening of
Parliament by the President; and a luncheon for lawmakers hosted soon after
the opening of Parliament. MDC MPs who declined to be named described the
visit to State House by their colleagues as a betrayal of the principles of
the opposition party. Said one MP: "Their visit to see Mugabe took us by
surprise. We were unaware of it. We doubt if (MDC leader )Morgan Tsvangirai
is also aware of this. How can you wine and dine with Zanu PF when they have
embarked on a programme to displace people and increase unemployment through
their operations?" MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi expressed "shock" at
the visit, which Gonese earlier said they were required to make by
Parliamentary Standing Orders - and asked: "You are saying they were
photographed together with (President) Mugabe? I am not aware that they went
there and I have not spoken to any of those guys (Sibanda and Gonese). "I
do not know anything about them attending a function at State House. "It is
not possible for them to attend such a function without the blessing of the
party," Nyathi said. He said he needed to consult with secretary-general
Welshman Ncube before commenting in detail on the issue. Reached later
for comment, Nyathi referred The Daily Mirror to Sibanda and
Gonese. Outside Harvest House in the morning, some legislators were heard
denouncing Sibanda and Gonese's attendance to the State House
function. While Sibanda would not comment saying he was in a meeting, Gonese
promised to send a detailed statement only after he had first consulted the
vice president, but had not done so by late yesterday. MDC national
chairman Isaac Matongo said: "Bvunza vakaendako ini handina kuendako (Ask
those who attended (the State House function), I did not go to State
House)." Yesterday, political analysts spoke highly of the two MDC lawmakers'
visit, with Eldred Masungure saying: "No one predicted senior people from
the MDC would attend an official ceremony hosted not only by the President
but at State House because of the nature of current politics. It may mark
the normalisation of relations between Zanu PF and MDC, signifying the
thawing of relations and heralding a sustainable working relationship
between the two." He said it was high time the two parties admitted the
reality that Zimbabwe is a multi-party state, adding, the era of mutual
hostility "as if Zanu PF and MDC came from Jupiter and Mars", should be
abandoned once and for all in the interest of local politics and the
economy. Another political analyst, Heneri Dzinotyiweyi, said: "As Members of
Parliament, they are expected to attend such events as it is more reasonable
for them to interact at such level. It helps provide space for them to
exchange views informally with other members who are not of their
party." Dzinotyiweyi said if it was indeed true that the pair attended the
State House event without the MDC's knowledge, then it was up to them to
give a satisfactory explanation. National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)
chairman Lovemore Madhuku said: "The MDC is in parliament and what they did
(Sibanda and Gonese) is part and parcel of their being in parliament. There
is nothing dramatic about it." Gonese could not be reached for comment
yesterday.
MDC losing candidate for
Chimanimani Heather Bennett has withdrawn her Electoral Court petition
challenging the winner, Zanu PF's Samuel Undenge in the March 31
parliamentary poll. The retreat came a day after her husband and former MP
for the constituency, Roy Bennett, was released from Chikurubi Maximum
Security Prison on Tuesday. Her husband had been jailed for contempt of
Parliament after he physically assaulted Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa
last May. David Coltart, MDC secretary for legal affairs, confirmed the
withdrawal saying this was precipitated by recent High Court rulings that
the hearing of electoral petitions should continue despite two
constitutional challenges in the Supreme Court. The challenges, one by
the MDC and the other by Heather, seek the nullification of the appointment
of Electoral Court judges by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku on the
grounds of unconstitutionality. "Her case is no longer in the Electoral
Court. She has been effectively forced to withdraw it by the presiding
judge, Rita Makarau, who said if she does not continue with the hearing she
would be in contempt of Parliament," said Coltart. Heather had wanted the
Electoral Court to stop hearing her petition until the Supreme Court had
disposed of the constitutional matters. However, Coltart noted that the
opposition member's constitutional challenge would continue. In the
electoral petition, Heather had been contending that the election was rigged
in favour of Undenge. She also claimed that members of the Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO) harassed the electorate to vote for the
ruling party, among other unfair practices. Heather contested in
Chimanimani after the nomination court rejected Roy's papers, arguing that
he was still behind bars. When the Electoral Court okayed Roy to contest,
Heather indicated that she would withdraw from the race. But when the
judgment was suspended she stood and lost to Undenge, now economic
development deputy minister.
Aid must help people, not governments NS
Special Issue Moeletsi Mbeki Monday 4th July
2005
G8: Africa - The best way to keep Africans poor is to
continue handing money to political elites who suppress development. The
imperative is to rebuild society and business, and so make rulers
accountable, argues Moeletsi Mbeki
After more than US$400bn of
overseas aid, channelled through African governments, the African people are
on the whole poorer now than they were 30 years ago. Will doubling aid and
channelling it through those selfsame governments change
anything?
It is expected that the G8 leaders will approve at
Gleneagles what Gordon Brown has called "a modern Marshall Plan for Africa".
But the Marshall Plan for rebuilding Europe after the Second World War was
driven by the principle of strengthening democratic institutions and free
markets, using existing skills and putting money into productive investment.
Whereas the Marshall Plan produced the intended results in Europe and Japan,
the hugely vaster sum of aid to Africa has failed to produce results either
in economic performance or the welfare of the people. Why is
this?
One of the little-known facts about Africa is that it is a
major exporter of capital. The World Bank estimates that by 1990, 39 per
cent of sub-Saharan Africa's private wealth was held outside Africa; for
south Asia, east Asia and Latin America, the figures were 3 per cent, 6 per
cent and 10 per cent, respectively. According to another estimate, for the
period 1970-96, capital flight from 25 sub-Saharan African countries was
$193bn, growing to $285bn when interest was taken into account. This money
is made up of the savings or surpluses produced by the efforts of Africans
or siphoned off from the aid pump, and it represents lost investment and
lost opportunities for entire economies and millions of people.
There is a strong underlying assumption in the UK-sponsored Commission for
Africa report that strengthening the state will lead to development.
Throughout most of Africa, strengthen- ing the state has led to more
oppression, less accountability and greater underdevelopment. Since
independence, political elites have suppressed or prevented the development
of the civic institutions that strengthen society and provide a balance to
the power of the rulers: not just an independent judiciary, civil service
and news media, but popular groups such as churches, chambers of commerce,
trade unions, universities and, of course, opposition parties.
One reason why South Africa has become one of the most mature democracies in
Africa is that such institutions pre-date apartheid and could not be
eradicated by the rule of a police state: these institutions not only
survived but struggled against the system and eventually brought it down.
Nigeria, on the other hand, does have elections, but it will take a long
time to rebuild its institutions. Under military rule and one-party states
such institutions, where they existed, were crushed. The primary focus of
aid must be to rebuild these institutions - all the elements that hold
society together and make governments accountable.
The more the
African political elites consolidate their power and the more aid they get,
the poorer Africans will become and the more African economies will regress
or, at best, stagnate. The Swedish economist Fredrik Erixon has noted the
inverse ratio between aid and growth and shown how aid diverts money from
productive activity to inefficient statist projects. Aid has actually held
development back. Politically, one of the unintended consequences of foreign
aid is to make African governments even less accountable to their people
because they do not need their taxes and therefore their consent: instead,
their budgets come from aid donors who demand little accountability in
return.
For any of the current initiatives to have a meaningful
impact on Africa, they need to focus on support for the development and
protection of the private sector and civil institutions. All modern schools
of political thought, from Marx and Lenin to Hayek and Friedman, agree on at
least one thing: the private sector is the driver of modern economic
development. Like people everywhere, Africans want security and comfort, but
the great majority of Africans face daily hunger, homelessness, threats of
violence, actual violence, and starvation. Yet these suffering people are
entrepreneurial and full of creative energy. They would be perfectly able to
build their own security and comfort if only allowed to do it within a
stable framework. In most African countries, however, it is illegal to start
a business without a licence, and getting a licence usually involves bribery
or good connections.
Few countries have any form of private
land rights. South Africa provides a good contrast. It is one of few
countries to have freehold embodied in its laws (so does Zimbabwe, but it
does not have the rule of law any longer) - yet it retains communal
ownership in the former bantustans or tribal homelands. This communal
ownership is subject to the whims of chiefs and state: these areas have
fallen far behind in any growth or poverty index, while the areas with
freehold are sharing in South Africa's increasing
prosperity.
The reason is quite simple: with no title to
land, you have no reason to develop it; with no land, you have no collateral
to raise capital to invest in it. Worse, most Africans have no access to
open and stable financial institutions that could provide loans. The vicious
circle closes tight around the poor. Even when peasants or entrepreneurs do
have a surplus to sell, they face enormous internal barriers to trade.
Agricultural produce is subject to compulsory purchase by national marketing
boards (a legacy of British colonialism), which pay artificially low prices.
If those producers do find demand for their goods in neighbouring countries,
they face exorbitant customs duties - duties that are levied even on
essential drugs for Aids and malaria. Finally, if their goods do get to the
global market, they face market-distorting quotas; and what with subsidies
(paid by European, Japanese and American taxpayers), smallholder farmers and
basic industries cannot competitively trade their goods in world
markets.
There are, of course, some exceptions in Africa to these
general observations - in particular South Africa and Mauritius. These two
countries are developing industrial economies that, if sustained over a
significant period, could become important drivers for African development
because of their emerging role as foreign investors in other parts of
Africa.
At independence in 1968, Mauritius was a typical African
country - small land mass, small population, single-crop economy (sugar)
accounting for most of its export earnings and formal employment,
multi-ethnic society and low per capita income. Today Mauritius is, next to
South Africa, the richest non-oil- producing nation in Africa. It boasts an
economy that is almost as diversified as South Africa's, with a per capita
income that now surpasses South Africa's. This phenomenal achievement was
driven by competitively priced, high-quality clothing and textile exports to
world markets. Mauritius, like South Africa, has emerged as an important
foreign investor in other African countries.
As these two
countries show, the emphasis in Africa should be placed on strengthening
national economies and democratic practice by freeing the private sector.
Putting money in the hands of the political elite is futile; you have to put
it in the hands of entrepreneurs, either as commercial loans or simply by
allowing them to produce and trade freely.
During the past 40 years
or so, vast amounts of time and money have been expended on promoting
regional co-operation in Africa, largely to no avail. The pathetically low
trade flows among African countries - excluding South Africa - have hardly
changed from what they were a generation ago. As for promoting political
reform, African leaders are notable for their reluctance to criticise their
neighbours. So what can be done?
The real freedom Africans need is
not just shows of democratic reform but real institutional reforms: property
rights and the rule of law, allowing them to produce and trade freely, to
save and to prosper, free of overbearing officials and institutional
corruption. The real trade "justice" they need is free trade with each
other, within their countries and with each other's countries, free of
compulsory-purchase marketing boards, of customs barriers and of
preferential licences. The real aid Africans need from the west is free
trade without tariff barriers and other protectionist distortions - which
happen to be burdens on western taxpayers, too. In fact, the money value to
Africans of lifting these subsidies would far exceed the amount they receive
in sterile aid. The real help Africans need is from business and industry,
investing in production and investing expertise.
A practical
example of commercial opportunity is Mali's cotton. Mali is the
second-biggest producer in Africa after Egypt, yet it does not have a single
cotton mill. With a fairly stable political and legal system, it is a
straightforward candidate for a commercial venture that would make money
producing even the basic grade of woven fabric. Ethiopia, with huge amounts
of livestock, needs scientific management to improve the lot of the owners,
who are unable to deal with disease and cannot afford better feed.
Traditional farming is not quaint: it is subsistence, living on the edge,
with very little reward for very hard work.
These examples show
what Africa lacks most: not money but expertise. This is what generous
donors could most usefully offer, sending out engineers, managers,
accountants and so on. With stagnant economies and poor education systems,
most Africans who are perfectly capable of learning all these skills have
had no chance of acquiring them. Worse, many of those rich enough to get an
education use it to work abroad: the UN estimates that 70,000 African
professionals leave the continent every year.
The real debt relief
Africans need is relief from the wasteful political elites with statist
plans and Swiss bank accounts who ran up those debts. Imposing economic and
political conditions on aid may well draw accusations of interference in
sovereign affairs: that is just too bad.
Donors have to say loud
and clear to African governments and to their constituents at home that aid
is there to help people not governments, entrepreneurs not
bureaucrats.
Moeletsi Mbeki, deputy chairman of the South African
Institute of International Affairs, is the author of Perpetuating Poverty in
sub-Saharan Africa, published on 30 June by International Policy Network.
This is an edited version of a speech given at IPN in London on 29
June
This article first appeared in the New Statesman. For the
latest in current and cultural affairs subscribe to the New Statesman print
edition.
Making their new life after Zimbabwe
strife 30.06.2005
By KRISTIN MACFARLANE in
Rotorua Tina Doorman remembers the day an army vehicle, loads of
armed government officials and youth militia forced her and her family off
their Zimbabwean farm with nothing and nowhere to go.
That was the heartbreaking day in September 2002 when the Doormans lost
their farm, 100km north of Harare, where Tina had made her home for 16 years
and her husband Christopher had lived all his life.
This was
a time when Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe sought to retain his hold on
power with a controversial land grab programme forcing white commercial
farmers off their farms.
Mrs Doorman said there was a lot
of corruption during this era and she experienced first-hand a lot of the
scare tactics used on people who were not Mugabe supporters.
She heard her next-door neighbour screaming over a radio system for help as
their servants were being beaten to death because they willingly voted
against President Mugabe.
"They used a lot of brutal, brutal force.
That was very much a regular daily occurrence."
Three weeks
after the Doormans were forced off their land, Mr and Mrs Doorman and their
two children Jeremy and Holly fled Zimbabwe and headed for a fresh start in
New Zealand.
"We left everything we had behind," she
said.
The Doormans have spent the last two-and-a-half years in
Rotorua trying to put their past behind them.
"I just want to
forget it. We've had to close that door." The family have since bought a
house in Ngongotaha and Mrs Doorman's mother, 75-year-old Beth Powell, is
also living with them.
"For her, it's been two years of grieving
and heartache."
Mrs Doorman was pleased her family did not have to
go through the strife in Zimbabwe day by day, but she was concerned for
others she knew who were still living there.
"It is good, it's
much better, my children are much happier. I'm just glad I'm not living
there now."
Mrs Doorman, along with friends and fellow
Zimbabweans, the brother and sister co-owners of Fairy Springs Pumpkin
Planet, Stuart Steel and Georgie Beattie, are all disgusted about the state
of their home country.
"Since we've been here, it's just getting
worse and worse," Mrs Beattie said.
"It's just heartbreaking,
it's your home."
Both Mrs Beattie and Mr Steel had nothing did not
believe Mugabe was the only person to blame for the tragedies.
"He's lost the plot completely," Mr Steel said.
"It's not only him,
it's him at the top, but there's [others just like him]," Mrs Beattie
said.
The pair travelled from Zimbabwe in 2002 with a family of 10
including parents, partners and children and say they will never look
back.