Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro/ Clemence
Manyukwe
GOVERNMENT'S renewed anti-corruption drive is
expected to net
more high-profile figures in a cleansing exercise which
insiders say will
test the power balance in the fractured Zanu PF
party.
This week, deputy Information minister Bright Matonga
was
arrested on corruption charges together with Zupco board chairman
Charles
Nherera. Business mogul John Bredenkamp was also arrested on charges
of
flouting the country's immigration laws by travelling on a South
African
passport. Sources this week said police had widened their probe
of
Bredenkamp who has been linked to the succession struggles in Zanu
PF.
The Zimbabwe Independent this week heard that Bredenkamp
has
been linked to a new grouping in Zanu PF which has been pushing for an
exit
package for President Mugabe.
The sources said the
group - seen as moderates in the party -
wanted to rope in Bredenkamp to
bankroll the initiative. Efforts to get
comment from Bredenkamp failed as his
spokesman said he was "under
instructions not to talk to the
press".
Zanu PF sources yesterday said the arrest of Matonga
had its
roots in the Mashonaland West power struggles in which the deputy
minister
is involved in a fight for land with farmer Tom Beattie, a
self-confessed
financier of the ruling party. A party source said there were
senior Zanu PF
officials in the province who had sided with Beattie in the
struggle.
"Matonga is paying the price," the source said.
This week's arrests come in the wake of President Robert
Mugabe's
pronouncements that graft laws would be amended to strengthen
prevention,
investigation, prosecution and punishment of corruption and
related economic
crimes.
Anti-Corruption and
Anti-Monopolies minister Paul Mangwana said
government had re-invigorated the
anti-corruption drive which would result
in a number of high-profile
personalities being arraigned before the courts.
"People are
being arrested and the arrests will continue,"
Mangwana said. "There is no
(new) operation that we are carrying out but
it's
merely a continuation
of the anti-corruption drive. There is no deliberate
policy to target anyone
whether in a high or low position."
Ruling party sources said
the arrest of Matonga had sent tremors
through the Zanu PF establishment as
police had been asked to investigate
more high-profile persons in the Zupco
corruption case and the allocation of
Operation Garikai
houses.
To bolster its resolve to deal with undesirables,
Zanu PF has
hired a private firm to probe the failure of the party's
businesses. This
followed another probe two years ago whose results were
deemed to be
inconclusive.The party sources said the intensification of the
crackdown in
Zanu PF would define the camps in the party as those fingered in
the probe
would "coalesce around their godfather for
protection".
"Victims have an option to toe the line or face
the music," a
source said.
The sources said internal and
external audits into Zanu PF
companies would be one of the main bases for the
fresh blitz.
The party's politburo had previously set up two
committees
chaired by Zanu PF's secretary for finance David
Karimanzira.
Analysts have interpreted the committees'
mission as having been
intended to push former secretary for administration
Emmerson Mnangagwa out
of Zanu PF's succession stakes.
The
first probe team into Zanu PF's financial empire unearthed a
number of
irregularities in the running of the party's companies. Among the
companies
that were said to have virtually collapsed were M&S Syndicate,
Zidco
Holdings and Zidlee Enterprises.
External auditors Kudenga
& Co chartered accountants, have also
submitted a report on the state of
the party's companies.
Mnangagwa used to preside over the
ruling party's funds and
investments before he was replaced by
Karimanzira.
Officially opening the second session of
parliament in Harare on
Tuesday, Mugabe said the Anti-Corruption Commission
Act and the Prevention
of Corruption Act would be amended to strengthen them.
He said the Police
Act would be amended to enhance the operational efficiency
of the Zimbabwe
Republic Police.
He said the Suppression
of Foreign and International Terrorism
Bill, which empowers the police to
deal with transnational terrorism will be
brought to parliament, while the
United Nations Convention on Transnational
Crime, together with the Sadc
Protocol on Extradition, which fosters
cooperation in the prevention and
suppression of crime in the region, will
be brought before parliament for
ratification this year.
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
FINANCE minister
Herbert Murerwa yesterday presented a startling
$327,2 trillion supplementary
budget which will spawn a hefty deficit and
put the government in the red to
the tune of $253 trillion.
The supplementary budget bloats
this year's budget to a colossal
$451 trillion, a figure which far surpasses
last year's initial targeted
expenditure of $123,9
trillion.
Government this year expects to raise only $216
trillion from
taxes - its major source of revenue. The gap between revenue
and expenditure
means government will have to borrow an additional $253
trillion, a move
that will push government further into debt. This is the
only time in the
history of Zimbabwe that a supplementary budget has exceeded
the original
budget.
The new figures mean that government
will have a budget deficit
of 56% this year alone. During his budget
statement last year, Murerwa had
projected that the country would have a
$13,9 trillion budget deficit which
translated to -4,6% of the gross domestic
product (GDP) - the country's
total wealth.
The budget
deficit of $253 trillion in the supplementary budget
translates to 30% of the
GPD which has been shrinking for the past seven
years.
Presenting his mid-term fiscal policy review, which analysts
described as a
narration of the problem rather than a solution, Murerwa all
but admitted
that government's spendthrift ways and inflation had cranked up
the
expenditure in the first six months of this year.
His
supplementary budget means that government will have to
borrow more than half
of the money it needs to meet its mounting obligations
this year - a move
that economists said would fuel inflation and crowd out
productive sectors
from lending institutions.
Murerwa said government incurred a
deficit of $17,8 trillion
which it financed through borrowing from the local
market. Government is
currently saddled with a whopping $46,1 trillion debt
which means that each
and every Zimbabwean - including children - owe nearly
$4,1 million each.
Murerwa also admitted that inflation will
remain high to end the
year between 950-1 000% admitting that its pressures
will continue to wreak
havoc unless there is a policy change in both fiscal
and monetary terms.
Murerwa's figures are a direct
contradiction to Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono who said
inflation will close the year at
between 280% and 300%.
Murerwa made the same promises to reduce inflation by cutting
down on
government expenditure, curb unproductive borrowing and reduce money
supply -
all of which were part of his commitments in the budget last year
but yielded
nothing in the first half.
Murerwa made attempts to revise
his economic figures claiming
that the GDP, which he put at $840 trillion,
will grow by between 0,3-0,6%
instead of the 3,5% decline that he had
predicted during the budget last
year. He said Zimbabwe was battling to
service its bloated external debt
which is now nearly US$4 billion with
arrears amounting to US$2,1 billion.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
ZIMBABWE is not going to change its
stance on Bilateral
Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (Bippas)
that were violated
under the country's controversial land reform programme, a
position that
could further strain diplomatic relations with affected
nations.
Lands minister Didymus Mutasa recently told farmers
in Chiredzi
that there was no going back on the expropriated sugarcane
estates, most of
which were protected under Bippas signed with South
Africa.
Farmers in Chiredzi said the June 22 meeting, held at
Hippo
Valley country club and attended by new and dispossessed farmers,
failed to
resolve land ownership disputes that have badly affected
sugarcane
production since the launch of the land reform programme in
2000.
"The farmers were seeking clarification as to whether
government
would honour compensation specifications as spelt out in the
Bippa
agreements or prospects of any of them coming back to resume farming,"
one
farmer said.
The farmers said Mutasa became abusive
accusing foreign
investors of stripping Zimbabwe of its wealth, saying "if it
was up to me I
would never have signed a single bilateral agreement because
foreign
investors just come and take Zimbabwe's assets, giving the country
nothing
in return".
Mutasa told the evicted farmers they
should "accept the offered
compensation and leave the country", another
farmer said. "In all cases,
government is offering not more than 20% of the
actual value of the
property."
Under the agreements,
government had promised to pay full
compensation to foreign nationals in the
event of a dispute arising out of
an investment in Zimbabwe. Compensation
would be determined in an agreed way
and paid in the currency and into the
account of the investor's choice.
Mutasa's remarks are a
direct assault on government's National
Economic Development Priority
Programme (NEDPP), and its "Look East" policy.
The most pronounced elements
of NEDPP are the promotion, motivation and
solicitation of foreign investment
under which government has dispatched
investment missions to China, South
Korea, Russia and the Middle East.
Zimbabwe signed bilateral
trade agreements with several European
Union countries, four of them ratified
by President Robert Mugabe.
Diplomatic sources said
government's failure to observe the
agreements has strained relations to a
point where displaced farmers are now
seeking recourse to international
courts after diplomatic intervention
failed to protect their
investments.
The worst affected country is South Africa,
which had over 500
farmers throughout the country.
Farmers
who spoke to the Zimbabwe Independent said government
had completely ignored
the agreements prompting the concerned nationals to
appeal for diplomatic
interventions. These have all failed.
Zim Independent
THE financially-troubled Bulawayo City Council will next
month
hold a donors' conference to raise funds for water sources as the
current
dams cannot meet demand for the growing
population.
The local authority needs about $6 trillion and
US$3,4 million
to carry out projects that will put an end to the perennial
water problems.
Addressing a press briefing in the city on
Wednesday, Bulawayo
City Council public relations officer Phathisa Nyathi
said the conference
was part of the council's plans to solve the water
crisis.
The city council has proposed projects to augment
water supplies
to the city, which have been classified into short, medium and
long-term.
"These proposed projects have financial
implications hence the
arrangement of a donors' conference to source money to
finance the
projects," Nyathi said.
Bulawayo has been
receiving erratic supplies of water from its
five supply dams - Insiza,
Umzingwane, Inyankuni, and Lower and Upper Ncema.
In a bid to
augment the water inflows, the council has
resuscitated boreholes at the
Nyamandlovu acquifer sunk during the 1992
drought.
According to Nyathi, the council will in the next six to 12
months drill
boreholes and erect elevated tanks in western areas worst
affected by the
water crisis last year.
The existing high-yielding boreholes
to be drilled in Cowdray
Park, Mahatshula, Entumbane, Emakhandeni and Pumula
South will be deepened
at an estimated cost of $1,4
trillion.
In the same period, the council will also construct
a pump
station at Insiza Dam, - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
* Government unveils $327,2 trillion supplementary
budget;
* First half suffers $17,8 trillion
deficit;
* Tax-free threshold raised to $20
million;
* Salaries over $54 million to be taxed at
35%;
* Additional revenue of $140 trillion to be
raised;
* Domestic debt shoots to $46,1
trillion;
* External debt climbs to US$3, 968
billion;
* Current account US$434 million in the
red;
* Inflation to average 950-1000% this
year;
* GDP to grow by between 0,3-0,6%;
*
Agriculture anticipated to grow by 23%;
* Mining projected to
decline by 10,8%;
* Gold production to
fall;
* Tobacco production declines;
*
Manufacturing on the decline;
* Multiple fuel prices to be
phased out;
* Maize selling price to be
reviewed;
* Stakeholders call for
devaluation;
* Parastatals continue making
losses;
* Arda to be restructured and;
*
Corruption now a major problem - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Reagan Mashavave
JUNIOR
doctors' industrial action entered its second week
without a solution in
sight after they defied a government order to return
to work before their
grievances can be addressed, the Zimbabwe
Independent
heard.
Hospital Doctors Association (HDA)
president Dr Kudakwashe
Nyamutukwa said government's arrogance was making it
hard for the parties to
engage in fruitful dialogue.
"All
we are saying is that if the government wants us to work it
must meet our
demands and not to hold on to our certificates of good
standing," Nyamutukwa
said. "We don't want patients or people to suffer. But
the ministry is making
the people suffer."
Junior doctors went on strike last week
following a deadlock
over salary increases and improved working
conditions.
They currently earn $41 million a month and are
demanding that
the figure be raised to around $250 million a month. They are
also demanding
a review of their accommodation and vehicle loan
allowances.
Nyamutukwa said certificates of good standing
were normally
issued to junior doctors after completing their housemanship
but that
government was withholding these.
HDA said it
might be forced to take legal action to compel the
Medical and Dental
Practitioners Council to release the certificates.
In a
letter copied to the council and Health and Child Welfare
permanent
secretary, the doctors demanded that government release their
certificates of
good standing or face legal action.
Junior doctors have
accused the government of using the state
media to peddle falsehoods alleging
that the state pays doctors' fees and
welfare at the medical
school.
"To put it on record, government is not paying fees
for students
in the medical school. Right now there is a standstill at the
medical school
as the university is demanding fees from the last group that
is collecting
its results. The group is supposed to begin its housemanship on
Monday,"
said Nyamutukwa.
The University of Zimbabwe is
demanding that students settle
their fees before collecting
results.
Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Edwin
Muguti,
defended fees being paid by medical students arguing that they
were
insignificant compared to the total cost of their
training.
"Training doctors is very expensive, what they are
paying is a
very small amount compared to the total cost that is being
settled by
government," Muguti said.
Muguti appealed to
the doctors still on strike to go back to
work while their grievances were
being looked into.
"We are still appealing to the doctors to
go back to work. The
Health Services Board is still working on new salary
scales. Housing,
transport and rural allowances will also be reviewed,"
Muguti added.
The six-year economic crisis hitting the
country has resulted in
medical practitioners fleeing the country to work
abroad and in neighbouring
countries where they get better salaries and
allowances.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
IN a
development that could put Zimbabwe's chaotic land reform
on trial, Dutch
nationals who lost farms under the programme have filed a
case against the
government at an international tribunal, demanding that
Harare should uphold
Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection
Agreements
(Bippas).
The Dutch Farmers Association, in conjunction with
UK-based
Agric-Africa, registered the case on behalf of the farmers at the
International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes in
Washington. The centre was established in 1966 as an affiliate of the World
Bank. It provides facilities for the arbitration of disputes between member
countries and investors who qualify as nationals of other member
countries.
The Zimbabwe case is number 74 out of the 104
cases that are
before the tribunal.
A group of 11
dispossessed Dutch farmers took their case for
compensation in respect of
confiscated land to the tribunal, claiming more
than US$15
million.
The case was filed by Bernardus Henricus Funnekotter
and others,
and then registered by the tribunal on April 15 under Case
Number ARB/05/6.
It is still to be allocated to
arbitrators.
Arbitrators are expected to hear the case by the
end of next
month.
Three arbitrators will consider the
matter. The Zimbabwean
government is permitted to choose one
arbitrator.
More than 60 Dutch farmers were forced off their
properties
despite the fact that they were protected under a Bippa, ratified
by
President Robert Mugabe in 1996.
There were about 1
000 Dutch nationals, 70 of them farmers, in
Zimbabwe before 2000 who grew
flowers on land that was protected by the
Bippa.
Under
the agreement, government had promised to pay full
compensation to Dutch
nationals in the event of a dispute arising out of an
investment in
Zimbabwe.
Should the ruling by the tribunal favour the
applicants, it
could set a precedent for similar claims against government
in international
courts. The centre's rulings are enforceable in 140 states
that have
ratified
the organisation's
convention.
The Dutch claimants are being represented by
Wiley Rein &
Fielding in Washington, Bishop & Sewell in London, and
by Coghlan Welsh &
Guest in Harare. Agric-Africa chairman Bob Fernandes
used to work as a
property evaluator in Zimbabwe. Since the land invasions
began in 2000, he
has been involved in the valuation of more than 3 000
title deeds of
Zimbabwean agricultural properties.
Officials at the Netherlands embassy in Harare said the farmers
were
demanding what Zimbabwe agreed to pay as compensation in the Bippa
between
this country and the Netherlands.
"The Dutch farmers want an
independent audit firm to assess the
value of the property the government
has acquired," the official said.
"Compensation should be in
the currency the appellants decide
upon and paid into accounts of their
choice. Once compensated the ownership
is transferred to the
government."
Zim Independent
Tendai Mukandi
ZIMBABWE is in
desperate need of food aid as a majority of its
poor cannot feed themselves
due to runaway inflation.
Zimbabwe is grouped along with
Zambia and Malawi among countries
needing urgent food assistance, according
to the World Food Programme.
Speaking at the handover of 30
million euros (US$37,7 million)
in Johannesburg this week, WFP's acting
regional director, Thomas Yanga,
said Zimbabwe's inflation was denying the
poor access to food. The money was
donated by the European
Commission.
"Zimbabwe's high inflation rate makes it
increasingly difficult
for the poorest to buy any food at all, even when it
is available on the
market," Yanga said.
"Many people
have already sold everything they have."
Zimbabwe got the
biggest portion of the donation of 25 million
euro ahead of Malawi and
Zambia.
"Twenty-five million euro (US$31,4 million) has gone
towards
maintaining urgent food assistance over the next quarter to 800 000
of the
most vulnerable people in Zimbabwe, including children threatened
with
malnourishment and patients receiving anti-retroviral therapy," the WFP
said
in a statement. Malawi was allocated 3 million euros (US$3,8 million)
while
Zambia got two million euros (US$2,5 million).
The
WFP is the largest humanitarian agency providing food
assistance to an
average 90 million people worldwide to meet their
nutritional needs each
year, including 58 million hungry children in at
least 80 of the world's
poorest countries.
The donation is part of the EC's 105
million euro donation
towards WFP operations worldwide for
2006.
Although preliminary reports released last month
indicated that
the region as a whole had a better 2005/2006 harvest, Yanga
said people
would still go hungry this year if they were not given food
assistance. He
cited the outbreak of major diseases like HIV/Aids and
chronic poverty as
some of the factors affecting
productivity.
"Patients being treated for HIV/Aids or
tuberculosis cannot farm
or hold a job when they are at their weakest.
Similarly, children who are
orphaned or caring for sick parents need help to
put food on the table.
And mothers with young children need
assistance to maintain
healthy diets during their most critical development
stage," Yanga said.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
THE Sekesai
Makwavarara-led commission's failure to turn around
the fortunes at the
politically volatile Town House is jeopardising Zanu PF's
chances of winning
an election in Harare, the Zimbabwe Independent heard
this
week.
In an interview on Wednesday, Zanu PF Harare province
spokesman
William Nhara said the continued extension of the Makwavarara
commission's
term would jeopardise the ruling party's chances of making an
impact in any
election in Harare.
"Our room to win
elections in Harare is being jeopardised by the
failing commission," Nhara
said. "We want
to have the service delivery system restored by
qualified and
competent people. There are lots of political interests in the
affairs of
Harare so the playing field should be
levelled."
Nhara said Makwavarara's case has not been removed
from the Zanu
PF central committee agenda but had been delayed to allow the
commission of
inquiry to conclude its investigations into the allegations
raised by Harare
province.
"Makwavarara's case is being
discussed in the highest echelons
of Zanu PF but our position remains that
we will not co-operate with
Makwavarara until we get a communiqué from the
appropriate organs of the
party," Nhara said.
Nhara said
he was amazed with Local Government minister Ignatius
Chombo's assertions
that service delivery was improving in Harare.
"We are amazed
as to what would be going on in the minister's
mind when he says service
delivery is improving," Nhara said. "On the ground
service delivery in
Harare is deteriorating. We are talking of tangible
things. The minister
cannot close potholes, repair burst sewer and water
leakages or provide
drugs in clinics, so why is he trying to sweep the
problems under the
carpet?"
Nhara said the fact that Makwavarara was not
suitable to
spearhead the turnaround of fortunes at Town House was not a
Zanu PF issue
alone.
"It's not only Zanu PF saying these
issues," he said. "It's more
of a ratepayers' issue. Do a snap survey of all
stakeholders from business,
politics and ratepayers at home, they all call
for improvement in service
delivery."
Nhara
said he had nothing against Makwavarara as an individual
but wanted someone
who could turn around the fortunes of Harare.
"There are
certain prerequisites for each job, at least
demonstrable deliverable even
through experience. Makwavarara doesn't have
any professional
qualifications."
Nhara said the Zanu PF Harare branch had
communicated its
position to the highest levels of government and party and
were waiting for
an explanation on Makwavarara's fate.
Makwavarara was appointed chairperson of the Harare commission
more than two
years ago after the government sacked the elected MDC mayor
Elias
Mudzuri.
She was elected to council on an MDC ticket and to
deputy mayor
before turning her back on the opposition to join Zanu
PF.
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
ZANU PF
has failed to pay billions of dollars to lawyers for
services rendered in
defence of 17 election petitions lodged by the
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change.
The lawyers are based in Harare and
Bulawayo.
Asked to comment last week, the ruling party's
secretary for
finance, David Karimanzira, who is also Harare governor, said:
"Ask people
at the finance department at Zanu PF headquarters, they would
know better."
Workers at the department said they were not
authorised to
comment.
Speaking on condition of
anonymity, lawyers this week said Zanu
PF had resolved to fund the cost of
the lawsuits on behalf of its
legislators whose victory was in dispute, but
was struggling to settle its
debts.
"Last year the total
bill was $4 billion and the party paid a
quarter of that. The unpaid amounts
would attract a 30% monthly interest," a
lawyer said.
"Every time we ask for the money we are told that cheques are
ready but
nothing materialises," he added.
The MDC did not win a single
case in the Electoral Court in all
the 17 constituencies whose poll outcome
was in dispute.
The opposition party in the 2000 general
election and the 2002
presidential poll said the elections were not free and
fair, citing among
other things violence, politicisation of food aid and
rigging. It won a
number of related cases.
On Wednesday
last week Innocent Gonese, the MDC's parliamentary
chief whip and secretary
for legal affairs in the Morgan Tsvangirai faction,
could not say how many
of their cases were pending in the Supreme Court.
This week
the Supreme Court ruled that the appointment of judges
to the Electoral
Court by the chief justice was inconsistent with the
provisions of the
constitution. This means the cases can be brought back to
court.
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
CABINET
has approved the elimination of multiple fuel pricing,
Finance minister
Herbert Murerwa said yesterday.
The government introduced
multiple fuel prices through subsidies
for different sectors of the economy
such as farming and the transport
sector.
"Cabinet has
approved a fuel price trigger mechanism and a
revised facility for farmers
that is based on actual use in support of
production," Murerwa said during
his mid-term fiscal policy review.
"The government will be
implementing a gradual movement towards
the elimination of multiple fuel
prices in line with cabinet's position."
Farmers were buying
fuel at a heavily subsidised price of $11
000 per litre while public
transport operators were getting their fuel at
$22 500 per litre. The
general public was buying fuel at between $450 000
and $600 000 per
litre.
The minister said stakeholders had made strong
representations
on the need to devalue the Zimbabwe dollar for them to
viable adequate
returns.
He said in the mining sector
production costs were affecting the
viability of the sector with gold
threatened by a further decline.
"Revenues have remained
constrained by the fixed value of the
Zimbabwe dollar hence strong
representations over the industry's viability
have been presented to
government," Murerwa said.
He said consultations with tobacco
farmers had revealed that the
current 35% early delivery bonus was not
enough to enable them to venture
into tobacco farming in the next
season.
Murerwa said Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon
Gono would
make the necessary announcements soon to help tobacco
farmers.
He added that Gono had reduced statutory reserve
thresholds for
financial institutions which have made commitments to
increase their support
for agriculture.
On maize, the
Finance minister said government will shortly
announce a new maize selling
price.
"Following the increase in the maize producer price to
$31,3
million per tonne, cabinet approved the adjustment of the maize
selling
price from the current $600 000 per tonne and the necessary
announcements
will be made shortly," he said.
Murerwa
said farm disruptions had undermined the banking sector's
confidence to
finance farming operations.
Banks required guarantees that
when they finance crops, farmers
would be able to harvest and repay their
loans.
"To this end, government will take a firm stand
against any new,
unwarranted disruptions on farming operations," he
said.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Ndlela
FINANCE
minister Herbert Murerwa yesterday adjusted the tax-free
threshold from $7
million to $20 million a month after admitting inflation
was eroding
disposable incomes and affecting the livelihoods of millions of
Zimbabweans.
But the adjustment fell far short of
proposals from trade unions
which had demanded that tax-free income should
be pegged against the poverty
datum line, currently at $60 million per month
for a family of five.
The tax relief will become effective in
September, when analysts
project the poverty datum line to have escalated to
$120 million, assuming
that prices for the consumer basket increase by an
average of $20 million
per month as has become the pattern over the last
five months.
"The present unfavourable macro-economic
environment
characterised by high inflation has reduced the relief accorded
to
individual taxpayers, especially those below or near the poverty datum
line," Murerwa said.
Murerwa said there was need for
government to complement salary
adjustments through regular reviews of the
pay as you earn (PAYE) income
brackets and tax-thresholds but insisted these
had to be made after
considering the revenue requirements for the
fiscus.
Cumulating revenue collections for the half-year to
June
amounted to $76 trillion against a target of $58,2
trillion.
PAYE, together with value added tax (Vat) and
corporate tax,
contributed to this overperformance.
Cumulative collections for PAYE amounted to $16,9 trillion or
22,2% of total
revenue, against a target of $9,9 trillion.
"This strong
performance largely reflected higher wage and
salary settlements against the
background of the prevailing inflation
environment," Murerwa
said.
Murerwa widened the tax bands to end at $54 million per
month
above which income would be taxed at a rate of 35%.
"This measure will release about $35 trillion to taxpayers,
thereby
enhancing their purchasing power," Murerwa said.
He said
inflation remained "our biggest challenge, affecting
savings and investment,
undermining day to day business activity, as well as
creating price
instability in the conduct of ordinary transactions".
"It has
also eroded the purchasing power of our domestic
currency, adversely
affecting the livelihood of the ordinary household as
standards of living
fall and basic social services become unaffordable,"
Murerwa
said.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
THE country's loss-making parastatals have
presented government
with the undue burden of carrying their debts through
fiscal support,
Finance minister Herbert Murerwa said
yesterday.
Presenting the mid-term fiscal policy review
yesterday, Murerwa
said most parastatals continued to perform dismally due
to huge debts.
"The debt stock for the major parastatals as
at June 2006, stood
at $76,43 trillion. As a result parastatals are failing
to service their
debts, often calling on government to assume their
obligations," Murerwa
said.
Despite receiving support
under the Parastatal and Local
Authorities Reorientation Programme (Plarp)
to enhance their performance,
the National Railways of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
Iron and Steel Company, Air
Zimbabwe, Zesa Holdings and Arda had continued
to make losses, Murerwa said.
The thrust of Plarp was to
steer parastatals and local
authorities towards sound corporate governance,
efficiency, profitability
and sustainable long-term
growth.
Murerwa said government had introduced the National
Economic
Development Priority Programme (NEDPP) to help with the parastatals
restructuring exercise.
Under NEDPP, financial packages
to support the re-equipping of
Air Zimbabwe, NRZ, Zesa Holdings and plant
refurbishments at Ziscosteel and
Hwange Colliery would be availed, he
said.
"This will complement our on-going medium and long-term
initiatives on joint ventures and strategic alliances," Murerwa
said.
"Performance guidelines for parastatals are being
reviewed, with
compliance being enforced through the relevant ministries and
other
structures under NEDPP," added Murerwa.
Zim Independent
FINANCE minister Herbert Murerwa's fiscal policy
statement
issued to support government expenditure with a $327,2 trillion
supplementary budget will see government missing its inflation targets,
Phoebe Goremusandu, a senior market analyst with Old Mutual Asset Management
said yesterday.
"The revised expenditure figures given by
the minister imply
that government will experience average inflation of
about 1400% in 2006,"
she said in a statement.
"This
inflation expectation is mostly in line with market
expectations and is way
above the original inflation estimate of around 300%
implied by the minister
when he gave his budget speech in December 2005."
She said it
was also worth noting that both the expenditure and
revenue supplementary
estimates were double the original estimates thereby
reinforcing the
inflationary message. On the budget deficit, Goremusandu
said; "The revised
figures given by Murerwa implied a fiscal deficit of
around $200 trillion
which widens the budget deficit to around 24% of GDP,
against an earlier
estimate of 4,6%.
"In the absence of other initiatives, this
deficit will maintain
the inflationary expectations at the current high
levels."
The minister, however, allocated $327,2 trillion
instead of the
$614 trillion that ministries had requested. He said the tax
relief given by
the minister that raised the tax-free income from $7 million
to $20 million
was welcome but was out of line with the Central Statistical
Office
estimates that put the poverty datum line for June 2006 at
$68m.
"The revision of the tax-free band was about 186%,
which is much
softer than the movement of prices in the economy in 2006,"
Goremusandu
said.
In his statement, the minister decried
the high cost of
government debt arising out of the expensive short-term
government debt.
"There is therefore need to improve the link
between fiscal and
monetary policy and the two have to be co-enablers," said
Goremusandu.
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
JUSTICE
minister Patrick Chinamasa will plead not guilty to
charges of attempting to
defeat the course of justice when his trial kicks
off on Tuesday, his lawyer
has said.
Harare lawyer James Mutizwa said Chinamasa, who has
failed to
turn up for trial on two previous occasions - July 3 and July 17 -
would
definitely be in court at the beginning of August.
Chinamasa and five others, including the head of the Central
Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) in Manicaland province, Innocent Chibaya,
are accused of
attempting to coerce state witnesses to withdraw their
testimonies against
supporters of State Security minister Didymus Mutasa,
who were facing
charges of violence.
Chinamasa's lawyer said the minister had
not been avoiding
court.
"He is anxious to get it
settled. He will definitely be in court
and will deny the charges," the
lawyer said.
According to the state, the six accused persons
promised
monetary rewards to witnesses in exchange for the freedom of
Mutasa's
supporters, including Makoni North chairman Albert Nyakuedzwa, who
have
since been imprisoned for three years for acts of
violence.
This week, Nyakuedzwa was back at the High Court
facing murder
charges arising from a fatal assault of war veteran Wilson
Mukono.
Violence was directed against James Kaunye and his
supporters
after he expressed a desire to challenge Mutasa in Zanu PF's
primary
elections in 2004.
Chinamasa and the others are
also accused of promising Kaunye
that charges of attempted murder he was
facing at the time would be dropped
if Mutasa's supporters were not
prosecuted.
Assistance in setting up a cattle project and
free services from
the District Development Fund was also alleged to have
been promised to the
war veteran.
On July 3, the AG's
office said Chinamasa did not turn up as he
had not been served with
summons.
On the second occasion the prosecutor Levison
Chikafu applied
for a warrant of arrest and it was granted, only to be
cancelled later
through the intervention of Senior Public Prosecutor
(Eastern Division)
Florence Ziyambi, who said the AG had reached an
agreement with Chinamasa to
move the trial to August 1.
The agreement had not been conveyed to Chikafu, she added.
In
previous interviews with the Zimbabwe Independent, Mutasa has
said the case
"will not go anywhere".
He added that those behind it made a
blunder by not consulting
him first because he would have made them
understand that Chinamasa and the
others had no case to answer.
Zim Independent
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe this week indicated that government had
failed to
bring to an end disruptions on farms, six years after embarking on
the
agrarian reforms.
In an address at the opening of the second
session of the sixth
parliament on Tuesday, Mugabe said disruptions and
indiscipline continued on
farms.
"Attention should
continuously shift towards clearing
impediments to optimal productivity in
the agricultural sector," Mugabe
said. "These include adequate and timely
resource mobilisation as well as
security of tenure and stability on the
farms, issues of commodity pricing,
production and farmer support
programmes."
On disruptions on farms, Mugabe said: "I wish to
make it crystal
clear that government will not hesitate to deal firmly with
all cases of
indiscipline on the farms."
In an address in
July 2004 at the opening of the fifth session
of the fifth parliament,
Mugabe promised to personally see to it that the
chaos, which he referred to
then as "irregularities", were brought to an
end.
Said
Mugabe then: "A number of issues related to land reforms
remain outstanding.
Whatever irregularities have occurred in the process of
land reform are now
being attended to so they can get corrected. The
presidency is dealing with
this matter," he said.
Despite setting up various commissions
of enquiry, taskforces
and carrying out land audits as well as coming up
with laws including a
constitutional amendment touted as the panacea to
troubles in the
agricultural sector, Mugabe said in the latest parliamentary
address there
was still instability on farms.
A week
earlier President Mugabe told Zanu PF members during the
ruling party's 23rd
National Consultative Assembly that people were "pushing
and being pushed"
off farms.
Justice for Agriculture chairman John
Worsley-Worswick this week
dismissed Mugabe's promise to bring order on
farms as rhetoric.
"What he says in public and what happens
on the ground are 180
degrees diametrically opposed. There has not been any
rule of law on
commercial farms for the past six years," he
said.
The president of the Commercial Farmers Union, Doug
Taylor
Freeme, attributed failure to restore productivity to the absence of
consultations when government is dealing with land matters. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
THE Mutambara-led faction of the splintered
Movement for
Democratic Change has condemned double-standards displayed by
Zanu PF in
denouncing violence in the opposition while shielding from
justice its
members facing similar charges.
Although the
faction has said it will not co-operate with an
inquiry set up by Morgan
Tsvangirai's faction, its deputy secretary-general
Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga said Zanu PF had perpetrated violence for
the past 26
years.
"Their moral uprightness in condemning such violence
leaves a
lot to be desired, especially in view of the fact that known
perpetrators of
thuggery and murderers are still roaming the streets," she
said.
She singled out Joseph Mwale and Kainos Zimunya also
known as
Kitsiyatota who allegedly murdered Tsvangirai's election agents
Tichaona
Chiminya and Talent Mabika in the run up to the 2000 general
election.
Misihairabwi-Mushonga commented in the wake of the
arrest and
subsequent release on $20 million bail of Mabvuku MP Timothy
Mabhawu
following the attack on Harare North MP Trudy Stevenson by alleged
Tsvangirai supporters.
Mabhawu and three MDC youths were
arrested on allegations of
assaulting Stevenson.
Mubhawu
was arraigned before the court facing allegations of
bankrolling youths that
attacked the legislator. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Ndlela
THE
International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected to schedule a
board meeting in
September to review Zimbabwe's overdue financial
obligations, sources
indicated this week, suggesting that fresh measures
could be taken against
Zimbabwe for non-cooperation with the multilateral
lending
institution.
The board meeting will open another anxious
chapter in Zimbabwe's
relationship with the IMF after the country survived
expulsion from the
Bretton Woods institution when it settled its overdue
financial obligations
to the IMF's General Resources Account (GRA) in
February.
Sources indicated government and central bank
authorities had
been informed about the pending review, expected to take
place exactly six
months after an IMF board meeting that maintained censure
of the country
after payment of arrears to the GRA
arrears.
Speculation has deepened in the market that Finance
minister
Herbert Murerwa was making frantic moves to block an IMF team due
in the
country around the same month for a routine Article IV
consultation.
The mission's findings, together with any
attempts by the
country to clear outstanding arrears, are meant to establish
Zimbabwe's
cooperation with the Bretton Woods institution's demands for an
overhaul of
economic and structural policies.
Article IV
consultations are routinely conducted on IMF members,
but Zimbabwe is
understood to be digging in its heels on the planned visit,
insisting its
repayments should be rewarded.
Zimbabwe cleared its overdue
financial obligations to the IMF's
GRA but still remained with substantial
arrears amounting to US$119 million
under the Poverty Reduction and Growth
Facility (PRGF)-Exogenous Shocks
Facility Trust (ESF).
An
IMF spokeswoman told businessdigest from Washington that the
IMF executive
board had communicated with the Harare administration its
desire for a
comprehensive economic package to rescue the country from its
economic
quagmire.
"The executive board has asked Zimbabwe to adopt a
comprehensive
package of macroeconomic and structural policies to address
the
deteriorating economic situation," the spokeswoman told businessdigest
on
Tuesday, two days before Murerwa's fiscal policy review presented to
parliament yesterday.
"The board also decided to maintain
the remedial measures now in
place," the spokeswoman said, indicating that
"the declaration of
non-cooperation, suspension of technical assistance, and
exclusion from the
list of PRGF-eligible countries" remained firmly in place
until Zimbabwe
fully repaid its outstanding debts.
The
Zimbabwe Independent reported last week on government's
latest plans to
block an IMF mission to the country, but no confirmation was
available from
Murerwa who has ignored calls made to his mobile phone since
last
week.
While Zimbabwe survived expulsion from the IMF, the
country has
essentially lost all benefits of membership to the multilateral
financial
institution, an issue that has piqued the Harare administration
which kept
the money printing press running over the past year to raise cash
to buy
United States dollars to settle its GRA debt.
An
IMF board meeting of March 8 refused to restore Zimbabwe's
voting and
related rights and to terminate the country's ineligibility to
use the
general resources of the Fund. The move upset government and central
bank
governor Gideon Gono who alleged politics in the handling of Zimbabwe's
case.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
THE Zimbabwe dollar remained defenceless
against mounting
hyperinflationary pressure, losing significant ground
against major
currencies on a thriving parallel market that has become the
benchmark for
commodity pricing in the country.
The
currency was this week quoted at above $500 000 to the
greenback, from $450
000 last week, well above the inter-bank rate of $101
195,
54.
Parallel market dealers were quoting the British pound at
around
$810 000, from $750 000 last week.
They said the
rate was even higher on large volumes.
On the official market
the Zimbabwe dollar is trading at $187
586 to the British
pound.
Dealers said the rate for the pound could reach $1
million
before the end of the third quarter in a tightly-short
market.
Zimbabwe is currently going through its worst
economic crisis in
history, characterised by acute foreign currency
shortages as well as
shortages of basic food commodities.
The impact of the foreign currency crisis has been the shortage
of fuel as
well as failure to import critical capital equipment by
industrial
operations, resulting in low productivity which has in turn
worsened the
foreign currency situation due to low exports.
The tobacco
selling season, which was widely expected to usher
in an improvement in
foreign currency inflows has failed to make an impact.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono is expected
to devalue
the local currency or adopt measures that could allow the
currency to
depreciate on the interbank market when he presents his monetary
policy
review next week.
Economic consultant, John Robertson, said
Gono was unlikely to
stop the parallel market, but warned that the parallel
market would continue
to stoke inflation due to its impact on the pricing of
goods in the country,
mainly those with import components.
Zim Independent
THE Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) feels compelled to
comment and
make a statement on the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)
arrests due
to the importance of the issues as they relate to aspects of
human and
people's rights.
The LSZ is a statutory,
autonomous, independent and
self-regulating body which governs, regulates
and administers the legal
profession in Zimbabwe.
Its
members are registered legal practitioners.
Some of its
duties are;
* To promote the study of the
law;
* Making recommendations on legal
training;
* Representing the profession and articulating its
views on
various issues;
* Promotion of justice;
and
* Defending human rights, rule of law and the
independence of
the judiciary.
We are therefore qualified
to issue this statement.
On July 12, 128 NCA activists were
arrested in Harare for
allegedly contravening Section 46 of the Criminal Law
(Codification and
Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 which relates to obstruction of
the streets and
traffic.
Ms Evidence John collapsed at
Harare Police Station due to
hunger and uninhabitable conditions of
detention and was further denied
access to medical treatment, legal
representation and food.
In Bulawayo, three NCA activists and
two bystanders were
arrested and detained in filthy and uninhabitable
Bulawayo Central Police
Station holding cells.
They had
to pay admission fines to buy their freedom.
In Mutate, 10
NCA activists were arrested for contravening
Section 37 of the said Act
which criminalises a demonstration that poses a
realised risk to public
order.
The LSZ notes with concern the persistent violation of
human and
people's rights by arresting and denying detainees their
inalienable right
to food, medical treatment, legal representation and
placing same into
degrading, inhuman and uninhabitable holding cells; the
sum total of which
is torture.
We condemn such
self-serving legislation which derogates from
people's rights to freedom of
expression, assembly and demonstration.
The government should
improve the conditions of police holding
cells and prisons to meet
internationally-accepted standards as a matter of
urgency so as to protect
and promote people's rights.
It should be noted that these
rights are sovereign and should be
respected at all
costs.
* This is a statement issued by the Law Society of
Zimbabwe
following the arrests of NCA activists last eek.
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
WHEN fuel
stations started lopping off zeros from
fuel-dispensing machines early last
year many Zimbabweans did not see this
as a warning sign of an impending
crisis.
And when the money needed to do casual shopping
became heavier
than the groceries it could buy, few could tell where the
country was
heading.
Many did not realise that it was a
reflection of the dire state
of the economy. As is typical of Zimbabweans,
they adjusted by tossing away
their wallets and replacing them with bags.
But worse was to come.
They did not see that Zimbabwe was
going the German way during
the Weimar era after the First World War when
its citizens needed
wheelbarrows to carry money for shopping. Zimbabweans
joked about it hoping
to ease the pain of being multi-millionaires who
couldn't afford basics.
But now the joke has lost its tickle
- the effects of a
worthless currency have reached such alarming levels that
even the most
sophisticated calculators are struggling to cope with the
number of zeros.
So severe is the problem that it has now
rendered computer
accounting systems and tills in the shops
redundant.
Information last week that government was planning
to slash
three zeros from the local currency to facilitate transactions in
the
purchase of goods and services told the magnitude of the
problem.
Government is toying with the idea of dropping three
zeros from
the currency to create what would be called a "kilo"
dollar.
The proposal submitted to government by the Institute
of
Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ) would save computer application
systems threatened by the overflowing zeros.
In their
submission to Finance minister Herbert Murerwa last
month, the ICAZ said
large transacting figures were causing computer
accounting systems to fail
to transact, store or process.
It said accurate financial
information had been compromised due
to large transaction values which most
accounting systems were not able to
capture.
The
accounting organisation said companies, especially banks,
did not have the
foreign currency to acquire new software to cater for the
number of
zeros.
ICAZ said much software in Zimbabwe cannot support a
$10 000 000
000 (11 digits) figure. Almost all software fails at $1 trillion
that has 15
digits. The accounting body said dropping the three digits would
ensure that
the existing software remains in use. The proposal means that
government
will strike off three zeros from the local currency to introduce
a
kilo-dollar.
A kilo-dollar will be equivalent to the $1
000 currently in
circulation. That in essence means a $100 000 bearer's note
becomes 100
kilo-dollars. In commodity terms, a loaf of bread which costs
$200 000 will
sell at 200 kilo-dollars.
The kilo-dollar
concept is an alternative to Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon
Gono's initial proposal for an outright
currency change.
Economists say while this would ease the burden of carrying
large sums of
money and conserve the current accounting systems which are
under stress, it
was a short-term measure that indicated that government had
not only lost
the war against inflation, but was now preparing for further
increases.
They said the decision would not address the
key issue of
inflation and lack of foreign currency battering the Zimbabwean
dollar.
The analysts said removing zeros would not suffice
for as long
as inflation remained as high as 1 184%, and set to continue
heading north
in light of government's failure to cut down on its borrowing
and
money-printing activities.
Peter Robinson, a director
of ZimConsult consulting economists,
said because of the "abominable mess
that this economy is in, knocking off
the zeros will just be another
short-term expedient that we have become used
to".
"Inflation is going to get higher and we will need to go back
again and
knock off more zeros. It will not work because it is not
accompanied by the
right policies from government," Robinson said.
A new
currency requires a low inflation rate and a stable
currency, he said. There
are however no signs of a government policy to
stabilise the currency and
bring down inflation save for the constant
rhetoric that borders on
propaganda.
Perhaps the major problem is that the people have
lost faith in
government and the RBZ's claims that inflation will come down.
Robinson said
government had squandered all credibility it had and people no
longer
believed it had the will or capacity to deal with the economic crisis
which
is now six years old.
For currency reform to work,
it needs the people to have
confidence in the monetary system and government
policies.
But because there is no confidence in the system,
analysts warn
that there is likely to be chaos and confusion when the
changes are made.
Besides, any slight alteration of a currency is a huge
exercise.
Other analysts believe that government is skirting
round real
reforms that come with currency changes by making cosmetic
changes to the
currency.
The introduction of the
kilo-dollar would not improve the value
of the currency, neither will it
stabilise it against major currencies.
CFX Financial Services
economist, Blessing Sakupwanya, said the
crisis remains and could even get
worse as long as government does not
address the issue of money supply
growth, currently the major contributor to
inflation.
"Money printing for expenditure will have to be cut to reduce
inflation
while interest rates have to stabilise and steps should be taken
to address
the foreign currency shortage," Sakupwanya said.
The real
problem is that Zimbabwe's economic quandary cannot
support a currency
reform just yet. The impulse in government though would
be to leap in
defence of its policies by using other countries as case
studies to justify
their decisions.
Brazil, Argentina and Turkey will be used as
examples of
countries that have plucked off zeros from their currencies in
the past.
It is almost certain that the propaganda mill will
cite
Mozambique, which slashed zeros from its metical currency recently, as
a
reference point.
However, apart from being in the same
region, there are no
similarities between Mozambique and Zimbabwe's
economies. While Zimbabwe's
economy has shrunk by a cumulative 44% since
1998 and the decline is poised
to continue, Mozambique's has grown by an
annual average of 6,5% since the
late 1990s.
That growth
although blighted by occasional floods has been
sustained. Its inflation is
stable at below 15%. These positives are absent
in
Zimbabwe.
A local finance advisory company, KM Financial
Solutions, said
unless the economics is addressed, Zimbabwe might have to go
through the
same process again.
"The case of Mozambique
is quite different in that their
currency has not deteriorated to the same
levels as the Zimbabwean dollar,"
KM Financial Solutions
said.
Economist John Robertson said the move would make life
easier
but government is only dealing with the symptoms of inflation and not
the
problem itself.
"The reality is that of all the
measures that government has
come up with so far, none of them deals with
the issue of money-printing,
restoring commercial agriculture and curbing
corruption - all of which are
inflation drivers," he said.
Zim Independent
By Pedzisai
Ruhanya
THE doctrine of constitutionalism entails among
other things
institutions of government and the allocation of power to these
state
institutions. Critically constitutions seek to control, govern or
restrain
the exercise of power by democratically established institutions.
The
doctrine of constitutionalism therefore rests on restraining governments
in
their exercise of power over those that they govern.
A
critical analysis of the political context of Zimbabwe since
the
Constitutional Referendum loss in February 2000, the farm invasions and
the
lawlessness associated with it, as well as the subsequent disputed
elections
in 2000, 2002, 2005 and the circus in the local government system
administered by Ignatious Chombo, with the connivance of Zanu PF and
therefore the executive arm of the government, are matters urgent enough to
call for a thorough and broad-based constitutional reform process in the
country.
Beyond the urgent need for a democratic
constitutional
framework, Zimbabwe requires a regime change of its political
culture in
both the ruling Zanu PF and resistance movements such as the two
factions of
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as well as civil
society
organisations.
A combination of the above issues
has created the current
political and economic crisis that Zimbabwe will
remain trapped in until it
extricates itself through a democratically
established supreme law of the
land that will lay the foundation of a
democratic society founded on law and
order and not on the rule of the "dear
leader" as is the situation in the
country.
Scholars who
study institutions have concerned themselves with
the problem of ensuring
that the exercise of power by government officials,
which is essential to
the realisation of societal values, should be
controlled so that it should
not be destructive of the values it was
intended to promote. It is in this
light that most modern constitutional
debates have always linked the idea of
constitutionalism with the use and
abuse of power both in theory and in
practice. From a historical
perspective, it has been argued that the concept
of constitutionalism has
been a reaction against the concentration of power
that accompanied the
consolidation of modern states, and in Africa it has to
do with the
post-colonial administration that sought to consolidate its
power after
independence, Zimbabwe included.
The need for
constitutions to restrain the powers of the
executive or the governing
authority could be further understood from the
creation of the United
Nations Charter in 1945 and the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights in
1948 which fundamentally were created to protect and
promote the rights of
both nations and individuals following the devastation
caused by the Second
World War where Adolf Hitler and his likes violated the
human rights of
those who opposed his authoritarian rule.
A new
constitutional dispensation in Zimbabwe should seek to
have executive
restraint apart from having independent institutions such as
the legislative
and the judicial arms of the state. Zimbabwe currently has
an imperial
executive arm with sweeping powers and accountable to itself.
The head of
state, the executive president, is answerable to himself and
there are no
constitutional safeguards to control the abuses associated with
that office.
This scenario has led to other arms of the state to be
appendages to the
executive to the extent that the president indirectly runs
the judiciary by
using his proxies to appoint judges to the bench. The
result is that the
country's judiciary, especially the High Court and
Supreme Court, are now
packed with political appointees with no capacity to
make independent
rulings against the executive arm of the state.
The
independence of the judiciary especially at the level of the
Supreme Court
should be seen by making robust judgements against the
powerful in society
especially the government. If the judiciary fails to
make such judgements in
a troubled country such as Zimbabwe, then that
judiciary cannot be regarded
as independent.
Since the Constitutional Referendum fiasco in
2000, the farm
invasions and the violence associated with the elections in
2000, 2002 and
2005 and the current state-sponsored violence against people
demonstrating
for constitutional reform and other issues such as the
sky-rocketing cost of
education and poor remuneration in the country, it has
become even more
clear that dialogue based on a new constitutional order is
the way forward
out of the crisis in the country. The electoral disputes and
the
institutions put in place to administer the elections have been exposed
for
lacking constitutional independence to run their own affairs without
interference from the incumbent government of Zanu PF. As a result,
processes administered by the Registrar-General, the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC), all run by the government, would not in the eyes of
Zimbabweans produce legitimate electoral processes and outcomes. The only
way is to create independent electoral institutions that are not
administered by civil servants and serving or former soldiers in order to
have a democratic electoral process and outcome. So far, Zanu PF has refused
and cheats itself by saying these institutions packed by its supporters are
impartial.
It is a circus of greatest proportions to
posit that ZEC under
Justice George Chiweshe, the war veteran and former
soldier, is independent.
Assuming that ZEC was independent, then the
question to ask is why is it
silent about the failure to hold elections in
Harare to choose the local
authority's leadership? The situation becomes sad
when Chombo through Zanu
PF is allowed to fire elected officials and appoint
Zanu PF people as
commissioners while refusing to hold elections. Recently
Zimbabweans
witnessed Zanu PF's Harare province passing a vote of no
confidence in
Sekesai Makwavarara, a clear indication that commissioners are
serving the
interests of Zanu PF. Having lost the elections and fearing to
lose again,
Zanu PF refuses to have elections in Harare and administers the
affairs of
the capital through the back door.
It is
therefore imperative to have a democratic constitution
that clearly outlines
the role of the executive in local government in order
to deal with the
chaos currently prevailing in Zimbabwe and benefiting
losers such as Zanu
PF.
In order to have a constitution in both theory and
practice,
Zimbabweans starting with Zanu PF need to change their political
culture so
that it entails the ethos of democratic governance. Critically
Zanu PF needs
to dismantle its infrastructure of violence such as the Border
Gezi militias
and de-militarise state institutions and that the repressive
state
institutions such as the army, the police and the Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) should not be involved in party political matters. There
should be a culture of political tolerance and Zanu PF needs
to cultivate that among its supporters.
Zanu PF followers
should know that it is lawful to differ on
political grounds and legitimate
to disobey, criticise or demonstrate
against a government failing to deliver
on its electoral promises or against
state-sponsored violence. They should
be told about the sacrosanct nature of
the constitution and other legitimate
and democratic laws of the state but
not the Public Order and Security Act
and the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act. These should be
lawfully defied.
Political culture is important because
without it, even the best
of constitutions will not work. For instance for
the past six years, Zanu PF
violated even that bad constitution that it has
amended 17 times. It has
violated property rights enshrined in the
constitution. It went further to
violate other rights such as the right to
freedom of expression, banning
newspapers such as the Daily News and the
Tribune. Zanu PF went further to
violate its own constitution when in
November 2004 its politburo amended its
constitution outside its congress
and without the authority of its central
committee in its bid to elevate
Vice-President Joice Mujuru to the second
vice-president of the party. This
is the political culture that needs to be
changed because it becomes
difficult for Zanu PF to respect the national
constitution when it
disrespects its own.
In my view it's the duty of all
political players and civic
society organisations to make sure that
Zimbabweans understand that for a
constitution to have meaning, it must have
people who respect it. This calls
for national programmes of education in
schools, churches and communities on
political tolerance.
This brings me to the current dispute in the MDC where the two
factions are
accusing each other of violence. It is a shame that such a huge
democratic
resistance organisation finds itself in such a situation. MDC
leaders should
occupy the moral high ground and condemn violence and other
illegitimate
political practices by its members. However, in accusing each
other of
violence the two factions should understand the divisive nature of
Zanu PF.
They should work together to identify the source of the violence
and if it
is not inspired by Zanu PF then they should deal with it
thoroughly.
The attack against Trudy Stevenson in Harare
and that of Temba
Sibanda who lost his eye in Bulawayo are the worst things
to happen in a
party fighting a regime that has "degrees in violence". Both
Stevenson and
Sibanda have the right to differ with anyone and carry out
their political
activities without fear. This is the freedom that most
Zimbabweans want to
reclaim from Zanu PF, otherwise the new constitution and
the new Zimbabwe we
want will be doomed if people emulate Zanu PF's medieval
political tactics.
* Ruhanya studies at the University of
Essex in the UK.
Zim Independent
By Mfandaidza Hove
IN the
article "Local currency set to lose three digits",
(Zimbabwe Independent,
July 21), it was reported that the government plans
to eliminate zeros from
the local currency following suggestions reportedly
made by the Institute of
Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe.
In the same paper, Eric
Bloch, in his column, supports the move
and argues that "the interim
solution is to eliminate the zeros, as has been
done over the years by many
other countries, including Italy, Brazil and
Argentina. Most recently, and
very close to home, Mozambique has done so,
only a few weeks
ago".
He goes further to state: "Mozambique has demonstrated
a
capacity to apply a practical, viable solution to a critical, economically
debilitating problem. Zimbabwe needs to do likewise, and to do so promptly
and dynamically, with total disregard for misplaced,
ego-preservation-related fears that doing so can be construed as admission
of economic failure or mismanagement."
Whilst it is true
that Mozambique recently eliminated the zeros
from its old currency, the
metical (MZM), Bloch's article is not only
misleading the public, but is
also mischievous.
The reason for this is that Bloch omitted
to inform his readers
that the political economy of Mozambique prior to the
decision to eliminate
the zeros, was and remains radically different from
that of Zimbabwe.
Since the introduction of a new
constitution leading to
multi-party democracy in Mozambique in 1990, the
country has enjoyed
political stability and has experienced sustained
economic growth since
1993.
Between 1993 and 1999, the
economy grew at an average rate of
6,7%, and between 1997 and 1999, the
country's economy grew at an even
greater rate averaging more than
10%.
Although the devastating floods of 2000 slowed down
economic
growth to 2,1%, a full recovery was achieved in 2001 when the
growth rate
was14,8%. Since that year, Mozambique's economy has maintained
an average
annual growth of 7%, and is expected to continue this expansion
by between
7% and 10% for the next five years.
This
growth has been achieved through prudent macro-economic
policies against the
backdrop of a stable political environment that has
resulted in significant
improvements in the country's national integrity to
a level now regarded as
internationally acceptable. This has made it
possible to introduce
impressive economic reforms, particularly regarding
the privatisation of
state-owned enterprises, reduction in customs duties
and the much-needed
streamlining of customs management. Considerable reforms
have also been
introduced to the Commercial Code, the judiciary and civil
service.
In addition, tight monetary controls coupled
with sound reforms
of the financial sector resulted in the reduction of
inflation from 70% in
1994 to less than 5% from 1998 to
1999.
Inflation has continued to maintain falling trends
although the
floods of 2000 temporarily increased it to 13% by 2003. The
country's
currency has also gained significantly against major currencies -
from a
loss of 50% of its value against the United States dollar since
December
2000, it stabilised in 2001 and has remained steady at about MZM24
000 to
US$1. The decision to eliminate the zeros has resulted in a
conversion rate
of MZM27 to US$1.
It is against this
background of a growing, and well-managed
economy with a low inflation rate
that Mozambique took the decision to
remove the zeros from its currency. In
contrast, the Zimbabwe economy has
shrunk by about 44% since 1998, and is
expected to deteriorate by as much as
6% this year. Such a decline is
unprecedented in peacetime, and might even
be worse than the average
declines during recent civil wars in countries
such as Ivory Coast, the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sierra
Leone.
Of
special concern to Zimbabweans now is that, because inflation
is still so
high, we will have to repeat this exercise of removing zeros
again and
again. The need to do this will stop only when we have brought
inflation
under control.
Further negative trends in Zimbabwe are also
reflected by the
gross domestic product per capita that has fallen from
US$880 in 1999 to
less than US$400, and is forecast to shrink to US$350 by
the end of 2006.
Unemployment is over 80% and the budget
deficit is at least 60%
of the gross domestic product when the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe's illegal
quasi-fiscal activities are, as they should be, taken
into account.
These are some of the omissions that Bloch
made. Consequently,
it would not be unfair to describe his article as
irresponsible, mischievous
and almost reckless.
It is
interesting to note that a contributor to the paper's
opinion columns, RES
Cook, commenting on Bloch's earlier contributions,
asks: "Really Mr Bloch,
what dreamland do you inhabit? You certainly cannot
be living in the land
inhabited by the vast majority of suffering and
struggling
Zimbabweans."
A decision to eliminate the zeros from the
Zimbabwean currency
will not address the severe economic meltdown that the
country is
experiencing. The causes of this decline are, of course,
self-inflicted and
include the economic consequences of the unbudgeted
payments to war veterans
in 1997, the costly military adventures in the DRC
in 1998, the land-grab
exercise since 2000 and unprecedented levels of
corruption in the public
sector. The "stolen" elections of 2000, 2002 and
2005 have earned the
country the pariah status that it now has in the
international community of
nations.
Consequently, until
political legitimacy is restored through
free and fair elections on the
basis of a new, people-driven constitution,
the country will remain a "rogue
state" and no one will have any business
dealings with
us.
* Mfandaidza Hove is MDC secretary for economic
affairs.
Zim Independent
Comment
IT is salutary
that government has acknowledged the pivotal role
of agriculture in
Zimbabwe's economic recovery, but dismaying that President
Mugabe believes
such recovery can be attained on the basis of a shortsighted
selection of
who to deal with in the international community.
Speaking at
the opening of the second session of parliament on
Tuesday, President Mugabe
put agriculture at the centre of economic
recovery, emphasising the need for
timely delivery of inputs, security of
tenure and the need for stability on
the farms.
In this regard, he promised firm action against
those causing
havoc on newly-acquired farms by either vandalising equipment
or destroying
infrastructure.
These activities are no
less detrimental to Zimbabwe's food
self-sufficiency than corruption is to
the administration of justice and the
well-being of the financial services
sector.
If only there was sufficient political will to deal
resolutely
with corruption and malfeasance.
Mugabe
observed when he addressed his party's central committee
two weeks ago that
what was needed to revive agriculture were skills, money
and labour. "Not
everyone can be a farmer," it finally dawned on him.
The
least we can say is that a major Operation Murambatsvina is
required on the
farms before people can take government seriously about what
needs to be
done. Productivity cannot be enhanced by looking for scapegoats
such as
Western sanctions and transitory droughts. Time must finally come
when
people should tell each other some home truths. That time is
now.
We fear that these good intentions cannot be achieved by
a
sorely divided nation. Without a comprehensive political settlement, it is
hard to see how government hopes to marshal the nation's abundant talent and
resources for the common good. There can never be an outright winner in
Zimbabwe's current badly polarised political environment, not even by an
over-exuberant opposition trying to tap into the groundswell of a
disenchanted nation. Is this the legacy that Mugabe wants to bequeath to
this country?
A quick political settlement will help us
lure back the talent
and skills of our sons and daughters scattered across
the globe because of
economic and political problems at home. Every year
Zimbabwe spends billions
of dollars training manpower in various skills that
we lose to other
countries because of bad policies. Developed nations that
have more
resources than ourselves save millions from the pool of cheap
labour and
skills that we lose.
It is the skills more
than the trickle of American dollars and
British pounds that we need to get
this country out of this malaise. It is
the goodwill of everybody that we
need to get international aid, debt relief
and national development. The
recovery of the economies of Zambia, Malawi
and Mozambique in recent years
demonstrates just how important foreign
direct investment and debt
cancellation can be to a poor country's
development.
Zimbabwe needs to harness all its resources - material and
human - to
produce and sell goods in the best markets across the globe. It
was in this
regard, we presume, that the president called on parliament to
ratify the
revised Cotonou agreement that regulates trade regimes between
Europe and
African, Caribbean and Pacific nations.
But we fail to see
how this can be achieved in the face of the
current political standoff
between Zimbabwe and the European Union. It
matters very little that we
choose to call that dispute a bilateral issue
between Zimbabwe and Britain.
Those countries act as a bloc and consider an
injury to one as an injury to
all.
Similarly, we have lost a great deal in textile trade
concessions under the Agoa arrangements with the United States. We don't
doubt that inroads have been made in finding new markets in the Far East.
The normal tendency is for nations to work on principles of aggregates, not
substitution, to expand their markets and negotiate favourable trade
deals.
In this regard our "Look East" policy has been
informed by
bigotry as if that part of the world is eager to cut special
deals with us
as a nation.
Our cotton, our minerals, our
tobacco and our processed products
must be sold to the best bidders to the
benefit of the nation. We should
work to reconcile Zimbabwe to the community
of nations. There is no doubt
that we have more to lose by our isolation
than can ever be made up for by
cutting minute trade agreements in the East.
Shortages of power, fuel, drugs
and balance of payments support bear
testimony to this dire state.
It is the holistic,
all-embracing vision that we found missing
from the president's address.
Piecemeal policy initiatives with no mass
appeal only invite cynicism from
business and other stakeholders. No
leadership that is serious can afford
that.
Zim Independent
Candid Comment
By Joram
Nyathi
I HAVE followed with interest Violet Gonda's
interviews with
Welshman Ncube, Lovemore Madhuku and Tendai Biti on her SW
Radio Africa's
Hot Seat programme. Last week's installment was especially
revealing on the
sticking points between the two MDC
factions.
Gonda sought a clarification on the stalemate.
Ncube's response
was simple: violence, the constitution and respect for
majority decisions.
These were the issues that culminated in the split of
October 12 and still
keep them apart.
I found Biti's
response most disconcerting to say the least. He
went off at a tangent of
evasion and stonewalling, talking about "resonating
with the masses", as if
he had never heard about the violence in his party.
He was not going to
exhaust himself on issues of violence when people were
hungry, wanted drugs,
could not afford school fees for their children and
were tired of Mugabe, he
said. He said the MDC was "not set up by the genius
of individuals" but by
ordinary people who wanted "a democratic
confrontation with the
regime".
With due respect, this is obfuscation of the worst
sort. Are we
saying hungry and sick people should be subjected to terror
attacks in the
name of fighting Mugabe?
We all know that
fiendish fascists like Adolf Hitler and Benito
Mussolini committed their
atrocities in the name of the people and they had
their apologists and
philosophers. The leader is supposed to set the moral
compass for his
followers, not for him to shirk responsibility and principle
in order to
"resonate" with the people. I couldn't understand why Biti found
it so hard
to denounce violence as a tool of the camp that he represents.
Which amounts
to a tacit endorsement.
Instead he said he was focusing on
the "bigger picture", as if
that noble goal was exclusive of principles,
fair play and respect for human
rights.
We have heard
similar demagoguery from Mugabe that Zimbabweans
don't want a new
constitution, human rights and the like but food, drugs,
transport and
education for their children. It is as if human rights and a
better standard
of living are mutually exclusive.
Issues of violence can't be
peripheral in a struggle where Zanu
PF's alleged big crime is violence
against members of the opposition. Least
of all should we tolerate a culture
of impunity for perpetrators of
violence. It is simply giving hostage to
fortune and Zanu PF will make
maximum political capital of it, albeit to a
very sceptical audience.
Tolerance for "small" crimes starts
as an aberration before it
becomes endemic in the party. That is how
corruption, nepotism, tribalism,
cronyism and political patronage have
become so pervasive in all facets of
life in Zimbabwe. Those fighting for
democracy have a chance to demonstrate
that they are better than Zanu
PF.
While Zanu PF violence can be traced back to the nature
of
guerilla warfare during the liberation struggle, I cannot understand why
we
can't transcend that stage 26 years into Independence. What Biti calls
"the
fundamental process of turning the dream of a new Zimbabwe into a
reality"
cannot be achieved using the methods of the tyranny we seek to
destroy. This
can only lead to a "false revolution" where the new leaders
are no more than
an accident of time and space instead of principled
statesmen.
We insisted on the MDC looking at the "bigger
picture" in its
internecine fight when we thought the causes of the split
were frivolous. It
has turned out that they are structural and a number of
political
opportunists and financial refugees are finding it safer to hide
in a crowd
than stand up for the principles of the original MDC. There is no
one who
has a monopoly on this bigger picture and that picture is not
exclusive of
principles and personal integrity. Ranting aloud against Mugabe
is no more
confrontational or more effective than so-called "quiet
diplomacy". Citing a
litany of Zimbabwe's problems is not the same as
resolving them. It is
merely playing to the gallery. Even Mugabe can do
that. Any villager will
tell you what he wants. So what?
The other big disease afflicting opposition politicians the same
way it has
afflicted Zanu PF since Independence is the growing culture of
denial. In
the case of the murderous attack on Trudy Stevenson, a few
apologists for
violence went so far as to claim Arthur Mutambara's camp was
trying to gain
political mileage. The least one can say is that this is most
callous. It is
callousness informed by ignorance and selfishness - that such
a thing will
never happen to me.
In his letter to Mugabe that we have
serialised over the past
three weeks, Joshua Nkomo revealed that in 1983
seven Catholic priests wrote
a pastoral letter condemning the dastardly
"excesses" of the Fifth Brigade
during Gukurahundi in Matabeleland North.
The response from Zanu PF
spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira was that this was
"contrived propaganda".
That propaganda turned out to be "an act of madness"
that cost 20 000
innocent lives while their compatriots who were cheering
Mugabe on thought
it would never happen to them. Indeed we all thought the
madness had been
cured until it manifested itself as Operation Murambatsvina
last year. Then
it had been shorn of ethnicity or regional trappings. But we
are fast
relapsing into the same ethnic divisions with no
content.
I have no doubt that people like Biti can do better.
As a
lawyer, his answer to Gonda's question on the use of violence was a
simple
yes or no. You cannot afford to be ambivalent and to equivocate on
basic
matters of principle of you are a political leader.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
By Vincent
Kahiya
PERU went through its worst inflation between 1984 and
1990. The
highest denomination in 1984 was 50 000 Soles De Oro. By 1985, it
was 500
000.
In 1985 the country initiated currency
reforms which saw the
introduction of the Intis, a single unit which was
exchanged for 1 000 Soles
De Oro. In 1986, the highest denomination was 1
000 Intis before a
stratospheric rise to 5 000 000 Intis by 1990. There was
more currency
reform in 1991 which created the Nuevo Sol exchanged for 1 000
000 Intis.
The overall impact of hyperinflation was that 1 Nuevo Sol was
equivalent to
1 000 000 000 pre-1985 Soles De Oro.
In
Mexico, President Carlos Salina de Gortari in 1993 responded
to the
inflation in his country by stripping three zeros from the peso to
create
the nuevo peso (new peso). The parity was $1 000 = N$1. The
transition was
done in three years from January 1993 to January 1996, when
the word "nuevo"
was removed from the currency, returning it to the peso.
The parity that
followed was N$1 = $1.
Confusion was avoided by making the
"nuevo peso" currency almost
identical to the old peso. Both of them
circulated at the same time. Later
all currency that only said "peso" was
removed from circulation. The Banco
de Mexico (Bank of Mexico) then issued a
new currency with new graphics,
also under the "nuevo peso". These were
followed by the current almost
identical peso currency.
Closer to home, Angola went through a period of horrific
inflationary spikes
from 1991 to 1995. In early 1991, the highest
denomination was 50 000
kwanzas. By 1994, it was 500 000 kwanzas. In the
1995 currency reform, 1
kwanza reajustado was exchanged for 1 000 kwanzas.
The highest denomination
in 1995 was 5 000 000 kwanzas reajustados. In the
1999 currency reform, 1
new kwanza was exchanged for 1 000 000 kwanzas
reajustados.
The overall impact of hyperinflation in
Angola during the period
led to: 1 new kwanza = 1 000 000 000 pre-1991
kwanzas. Zimbabwe, the holder
of the dubious distinction of having the
highest inflation in the world, has
started toying with the idea of currency
reform with the central bank
inviting submissions on how to deal with the
havoc hyperinflation has
wreaked on the Zimbabwe dollar.
The most telling submissions on this subject have come from the
Institute of
Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ) who have proposed the
introduction
of the kilo-dollar to ease the load on cash purchasers of goods
and services
and to breathe life back into failing accounting systems. The
ICAZ proposals
for currency reform on paper mirror the route taken by Peru,
Argentina and
Mexico of stripping zeros from the currency. The reforms in
the three
countries were carried under different rafts of measures to
mitigate the
effects in hyperinflation and to promote economic recovery,
hence the
varying degrees of success.
The Argentine experiment worked
because of President Salina de
Gortari's commitment to reform. Those reforms
resulted in efficiency gains,
a greater openness of the investment framework
and closer integration into
the world economy. Thus currency reform was
underpinned by economic reform
and a quest to expand
trade.
The same was not the case in Peru and Angola where
inflation
remained high as economic reforms failed.
Zimbabwe's economic fundamentals today are a major threat to any
quest to
rehabilitate our currency, especially when President Mugabe
believes that a
key role of the Reserve Bank is to print money in times of
emergencies,
notwithstanding the resultant inflationary spur.
He told a
luncheon for MPs on Tuesday that the US printed money
when the (George) Bush
administration sent troops to Iraq. The significance
of the US example was
baffling because whatever the Americans printed, if
ever they did, remains
tradable the world over including here. Can the same
be said of our
currency?
President Mugabe's message on Tuesday was that the
government
would order the printing of more notes again if it feels there is
need to do
so.
Currency reforms in Zimbabwe are at the
mercy of populist
policies fashioned to score political points against
opponents at the
expense of national progress. Dropping zeros on our
currency as proposed by
ICAZ, if adopted, could be the beginning of a
process of far-reaching reform
which can become disastrous if not
accompanied by prudent reforms
underwritten by huge foreign currency
injections. The examples of Peru and
Angola mentioned above demonstrate
that.
My major fear is the RBZ being hurried by government
into
effecting the reforms without not only consulting adequately and
weighing
the efficacy of doing so, but before adequately educating the
public that
overnight they have ceased to be "millionaires" with the
introduction of the
kilo-dollar. The education campaign should start now. So
should the reforms
without which the whole project is doomed.
Zim Independent
Muckraker
IT must have been obvious to all but the
most gullible of
commentators that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan did not
tell President
Mugabe that he would use his office to get sanctions lifted.
Why? Because
the sanctions had nothing to do with the UN and Annan was in no
position to
give undertakings about matters that did not concern
him.
Sanctions are a matter for those imposing them and Annan
would
not have wanted to add to his problems just ahead of his retirement by
lobbying on behalf of President Mugabe in Washington and the EU's 25
capitals - a doomed mission if ever there was one!
Annan's office last week confirmed to this paper that he gave no
such
assurance. Yet Caesar Zvayi proceeded to hold a "conversation" with
Kumbirai
Kangai based on the false premise that Annan would "work to have
the
sanctions lifted". Kangai, who should know better, said the "efforts
were
welcome".
What do we have here: a journalist and a politician
who have
bought the government's spin without stopping to consider how
unlikely it
was.
Politicians have a vested interest in
marketing a certain
viewpoint. We have no doubt Annan was polite in his chat
with Mugabe in the
lobby of a Banjul hotel. But it is the duty of
journalists to apply a
measure of scepticism regarding what they are told
lest they make fools of
themselves.
While we are
about it, this may be a useful opportunity to deal
with a persistent lie
that Zanu PF spokesmen peddle.
"The Labour government refused
to honour its obligations to fund
land reform," Kangai told Zvayi, who
looked as if he would swallow anything,
"and we responded by taking land
from their kith and kin." He was then
invited to wax indignant over the
Clare Short letter.
Kangai must be aware that Britain gave
£44 million for land
reform in the 1980s and 90s, money that wasn't always
wisely spent. The
Labour government, when it came to power, set aside £36
million to fulfil
its obligations under the 1998 land donors accord with the
Zimbabwe
government. The only condition they attached was that the UNDP
should
certify any proposed land reform programme as viable and designed to
alleviate poverty.
In the event the Zimbabwe government
proceeded with a programme
of land seizures that a UNDP technical team
subsequently said was not
viable.
Only in a state where
the flow of information is strictly
controlled could these facts be ignored
by a journalist and a politician in
a newspaper
interview!
Kangai demonstrated the cognitive dissonance that
is becoming
the hallmark of his party when he suggested that if Britain
insists the
dispute with Zimbabwe is not a bilateral one, then it should
"step aside and
let us engage the EU to remove the sanctions they misled the
EU to impose".
This coming, in all seriousness, from the
ruling party's
secretary for external relations. How well informed is
he?
He was also allowed to get away with an easy question
about
Taiwan instead of a more challenging one about Tibet. Why does that
country
remain a Chinese colony (with Han Chinese literally colonising it by
the
day) and why doesn't Zanu PF care?
He was however
asked a good question about China using Zimbabwe
as a market for its goods
and not as an equal trading partner. But he
quickly wriggled off that hook
by claiming trade was mutual.
"Our trade is bilateral," he
clai-med. "The Chinese get tobacco
from us and a few other things; we also
get a few other things from China."
So there you have
it!
Perhaps the most frequently deployed accusation
against the
foreign press is that they have tarnished Zimbabwe's image and
that this in
turn is keeping tourists away. The expression "negative
perceptions" is
invariably used.
In this context consider
the events of last week. A handful of
civic activists marched with banners
to Town House to protest deteriorating
service delivery in the capital. They
are set upon by riot police, assaulted
and arrested. Two journalists
covering the event are also detained.
We must remember in all
this that Harare is run by a
state-appointed commission headed by an
unpopular stooge "mayor" instead of
by councillors and a mayor elected by
the city's residents.
The attack on the peaceful
demonstration was reported around the
world. Protesting against service
delivery is considered a basic right in
most capitals except perhaps
Beijing, Pyongyang and Havana. The response was
an over-reaction that makes
Zimbabwe look like a brutal police state.
When somebody from
the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority next naively
proposes a "turnaround" strategy
for the tourist industry, he should be
reminded of this episode and the
impact it has on "perceptions" of the
country. Police wielding batons and
teargas against a handful of peaceful
protestors doesn't play well, even in
the Chinese press.
Why were people detained in police cells
for exercising a
constitutional right to free expression? Why has the
judiciary failed to
uphold that right when Posa clearly stipulates that
police need to be
informed of a demonstration, not asked for permission? Why
were journalists
held long after they had produced their press
cards?
So long as Zimbabwe remains a country in which free
expression
is trampled on and people are detained for exercising their civic
rights, it
will get the reputation it deserves.
Muckraker has been trying to follow events at Iron Mask Farm in
Mazowe. The
farm was seized from its elderly but productive owners in 2002.
The state
media told us it would be handed over to a charity for street kids
under the
patronage of First Lady Grace Mugabe, with Gideon Gono as chairman
of the
board of trustees.
But that was the last we heard of it.
Nobody ever saw the street
kids. But somebody collected cheques for the
produce. Then last week Grace
Mugabe's spokesman said there would be a
groundbreaking ceremony at the
weekend, which duly took place on
Sunday.
What explains the four-year delay? And why are there
twice as
many street kids in Harare today than there were when the farm was
seized
but none appear to be finding their way to Mazowe?
We also don't understand why it was necessary for the government
to take a
farm that was the product of a couple's life's work and give it to
a charity
whose work would not be necessary if the state had fulfilled its
primary
obligation to care for its people.
We were however impressed
by the dexterity of the president in
linking the Iron Mask scheme to the
UN's Millennium Development Goals. This
at a time when a growing number of
children are dropping out of school
because their parents cannot afford to
keep them there and standards of
living have plunged to pre-1953
levels.
You have to admit, government is good at spending
money. It has
splashed $400 billion on luxury vehicles for members of the
anti-corruption
commission. What we liked in this report was Minister Paul
Mangwana's
remarks.
"Do you want them to walk on foot?"
he asked. "Are you sure they
should be pedestrians?"
Perhaps Mangwana should be asked why the commissioners who
include Eric
Harid (chair), Johannes Tomana, Kuziwa Nyamwanza, Retired
Brigadier Elasto
Madzingira, Alice Nkomo, and Rungano Wutaunashe, don't
already have cars?
Whatever the case, this example of state extravagance is
an inauspicious
start to the commission's work.
A fuel allowance we could
understand but $44 billion each for
new vehicles! That works out at US$444
000 each at the official rate.
What we know is that the
commission is struggling to obtain a
secretariat and a departmental head.
But in Zimbabwe cars always come first!
Members of the senate are demanding
all-terrain vehicles, we gather.
The commission will have a
formidable task. RBZ governor Gideon
Gono, speaking to journalists last
week, said corruption spurred by
selfishness had now become the Number 1
enemy, rather than targeted
sanctions imposed by the international
community.
"Corruption has become a millstone around our
necks," he said.
"It's worse than the sanctions."
"Some
were benefiting from the situation," he pointed out, "a
few in positions of
authority."
Surely not!
We were
intrigued by Alexander Kanengoni's piece in the Sunday
Mirror headed
"Several hours with Mugabe". This was the occasion when Mugabe
admitted he
was "very worried" about the economy, and then blamed the
problems on
everybody else.
Readers will recall Muckraker commenting last
week on the
absence of challenging questions during this curious
get-together. Kanengoni
describes the session as an "interview". But he
doesn't say what questions
he asked!
Later it turned into
a three-hour "conversation", we are told.
But still we weren't told what was
asked. And these were journalists!
We did like the bit,
however, about the Iranian president's
speech in Banjul being cut short by a
breakdown in the public address
system. And about an uncle telling the young
Robert, stuck up a tree, to get
down the same way he got
up.
Isn't that what the nation is telling him
now?
But we should curse Zinedine Zidane who lost Zimbabwe a
fine
deal. Mugabe supported Italy during the World Cup final while his son
Bellarmine (9) supported France. If France won, the youngster wagered his
father, they would trade places, he to Munhumutapa Building to become
president and the old man to Hartmann House to become a primary school
pupil.
It was an exit made in heaven - and then Zidane
blew it (or is
it Bleu it?).
Now we may understand why
young Chatunga wanted to leave
Hartmann House. His father is refusing to pay
his school fees because they
are too expensive! According to a London-based
website he told the school
authorities he could not pay over $100 million
when his other son, Robert
jr, required only $25 million at
Kutama.
Congratulations to Victoria Ruzvidzo for her
company-spo-nsored
trip to Dubai. She "discovered" that most Zimbabweans
travelling to Dubai
buy "trinkets" such as clothes, power generators, food,
television sets,
toys and chocolates, among other items. Her view was that
the "billions of
dollars in foreign currency" could have been used to buy
spare parts for Air
Zimbabwe or to import fuel or power.
Muckraker has lots of sympathy for Victoria's patriotic
journalism, that is
provided she is able to answer a few questions honestly.
What useful items
did she bring back herself from her trip? Did she buy the
$258 million
ticket or was it sponsored by the state-run airline? Is she
aware that most
of the expensive "trinkets" are purchased by well-heeled
government
employees and those in the ruling party who can afford them?
Those are the people who can still afford toys and chocolates
and luxury
vehicles. How many ordinary Zimbabweans can afford a Mercedes
Benz S600? Yet
we see them all around the capital.
Victoria must have also
been miffed that people prefer imported
clothes when our flea markets are
full of zhing-zhongs from China. She is
also missing something. A short trip
into the industrial areas will show
Victoria that there is very little
manufacturing going on. The formal sector
is severely crippled and
Zimbabweans are forced to spend millions of dollars
importing cooking oil,
soap and toothpaste when our own workers are being
laid off. We are fuelling
an industrial boom in neighbouring countries while
our own economy is
shrinking. That's how dangerously shaky our sovereignty
has become,
underpinned by empty slogans and blind journalism.
We
were surprised to read in the Herald that government had
"resumed" land
allocations. We weren't aware that there had been a temporary
halt to the
chaos of offers and withdrawal of letters.
What we found
interesting was the admission by President Mugabe
of a bitter home truth -
not everyone is a farmer. If this obvious fact had
been appreciated from the
beginning there would have been no need for the
destruction called
"fast-track" because it would have been possible to
identify people who had
an interest in farming and allocate them land.
Mugabe told
chiefs and other traditional leaders in Kariba last
week that land uptake in
the seven years since 1999 was only 40%. He said
people got land on the
basis of "ambition" alone, which was not good enough.
"You
need capability, money and labour. Not everyone can be a
farmer," he
said.
Does one need to be a rocket scientist to know that? It
appears
the chickens are coming home to roost.
Finally, Muckraker loved the story doing the rounds that Gideon
Gono asked
to resign. The president agreed on condition that he restored
inflation to
where it was when he came into office.
Zim Independent
By Eric
Bloch
A FEW weeks ago, the Minister for State Security and Land Reform,
Didymus
Mutasa, met with a large group of dispossessed farmers in
Chiredzi.
The meeting took place fairly soon after Zimbabwe had, very
belatedly,
acknowledged liability to various foreign nationals, in terms of
Bilateral
Investment Protection and Promotion Agreements (BIPPAs), for
compensation in
respect of farms expropriated by the State.
The
farmers were seeking clarification as to government's compensatory
intents,
and as to the extent, if at all, that any of them would have an
opportunity
to resume farming.
The many reports that emanated from those who attended
the meeting were in
accord that the minister was extremely
belligerent.
Apparently he stated acrimoniously that "if it was up to me
I would never
have signed a single bilateral agreement because foreign
investors just come
and take Zimbabwe's assets, and give Zimbabwe nothing in
return". He
continued by advising the evicted farmers that, to all intents
and purposes,
they should "get your money and leave Zimbabwe". (This
conflicts with recent
governmental statements that white farmers were
welcome "as long as they
regarded black farmers as equals", stated only a
month ago by President
Mugabe when speaking in Matabeleland South, and that
such farmers should
apply for 99-year leases).
The minister's
statements of negative perceptions of foreign investment also
conflict
diametrically with the much governmentally lauded National Economic
Development Priority Programme (NEDPP), and with the president's greatly
heralded "Look East" policy. A most pronounced element of NEDPP is the
promotion, motivation and solicitation of foreign investment. Investment
missions were despatched to China, South Korea, Russia, the Middle East, and
elsewhere. Statements of joy in the state-controlled media have trumpeted
forth of the growing interest in investing in Zimbabwe being displayed by
leading Canadian mining houses, South African investors, and many others. Is
the honourable Minister trying to undermine the NEDPP-driven investment
drive? Surely not!
And his contention that foreign investors merely
take Zimbabwe's assets and
give nothing in return, is devoid of even a
"smithereen" of substance. Of
course, any investor, foreign or domestic,
wants to benefit from his
investment. Why should he place his capital at
risk, politically,
economically, or otherwise, if he is not to realise
something for doing so?
To expect that of an investor would be naivety in
the extreme. But to
suggest that there is no quid pro quo between investor
and Zimbabwe is even
more naïve.
The foreign investors inject greatly
needed foreign exchange and technology
transfer to Zimbabwe, and very often
expand Zimbabwe's international
markets. Their investment generates
employment for Zimbabweans. That
employment is of critical importance, for
more than 80% of Zimbabwe's
employable population is without formal sector
employment.
And the investment invariably stimulates much downstream
benefit to the
Zimbabwean economy. Many inputs of goods and services are
sourced from
within the economy. In numerous instances the new investment is
strongly
export-related, yielding vital inflows of foreign exchange. In
other
instances the new investment is import-substitutory, thereby reducing
foreign exchange needs. The earnings of the employees of the investment
venture are expended within the economy.
Those earnings, and the
investment profits, attract taxation for the
near-empty coffers of the
fiscus. The extent of benefits to Zimbabwe of
constructive foreign
investment is vast, but the minister denies their
existence, and does not
welcome foreign investors. How can he justify a
stance which is so at
variance with the official policy of a government of
which he is a senior
member?
Of course, the minister is not alone is discouraging foreign
investment. A
major field for investment is the mining sector, but investor
uncertainty as
to investment security in that sector is immense. For several
years
government, in general, and the president and the Minister of Mines in
particular, have made statements that government will enforce black economic
empowerment within the mining industry. Few, if any, foreign investors are
opposed to the principle of substantive indigenous ownership in mining. In
fact, most welcome it. But they do want to know the basis thereof. Will the
indigenous Zimbabwean participation be governmental, or private sector? Very
few are enamoured by any prospect of the former, for they are conscious of
the wide-ranging parastatal mismanagement that has long prevailed in
Zimbabwe.
Similarly, will the co-investment by Zimbabweans be
equitably funded by
them, or is the foreign investor expected to provide all
the capital, and
then forfeit much of it?
Having witnessed the
vehement opposition of government to payment of
compensation for farm lands,
and the tardiness and inadequacies of
compensation for farm improvements and
moveables, there is an inevitable
fear that like inequities and injustices
will apply to acquisition of equity
in mining ventures under an
indigenisation policy. And the investor wants to
know whether the policy
will be motivational and facilitational, or
authoritarian and mandatory,
over what period of time will compensation be
forthcoming, and what security
will be accorded the investor on that
investment which he is permitted to
retain.
In like manner, the investor also needs to know the extent that
the
operations of the investment entity will be subject to economic
regulation,
and the extent to which Zimbabwe's presently grossly
over-regulated economy
will be deregulated. If an investor places his
capital, his skills and his
energies at risk, he wants to be the master of
his investment's destiny,
instead of that destiny being subject to the whims
and fancies of a
government which has, for 26 years, demonstrated great
volatility. Zimbabwe
is dragging its feet in formalising its mining sector
indigenisation
policies, and needs urgently to enunciate an authoritative,
constructive,
investment-conducive, policy.
If Zimbabwe wants to
discourage investment, and assure the continuing
decline of its economy, it
must continue to alienate the foreign investors,
be castigating of those
investors' motives, be reluctant and delinquent in
honouring BIPPAs,
minimise investment security, and make statements such as
that attributed to
the minster at the Chiredzi farmers' meeting.
If, on the other hand, it
genuinely wants investment, instead of
non-forthcoming Far Eastern largesse,
it must do exactly the reverse of such
measures, and convincingly
demonstrate that foreign investment is welcome.