Zim Online
Friday 06 July 2007
By Farisai
Gonye
HARARE - Several top Zimbabwean opposition officials have received
cheaper-priced farm machinery funded by the government under its
controversial land reforms despite previously denying benefiting from a
scheme widely seen as an extension of President Robert Mugabe's network of
patronage.
Investigations by ZimOnline showed that Welshman Ncube,
secretary general of
the smaller faction of the Movement for Democratic
Change party (MDC) led by
academic Arthur Mutambara, and Bulawayo mayor
Joshua Ndabeni Ncube were
among several opposition officials to get
equipment under the scheme, even
ahead of some of Mugabe's top
lieutenants.
The two factions of the splintered (MDC) last month
spiritedly denied
benefiting from the scheme and accused the government of
cheap politicking
and of falsely including names of some of their officials
on a list of
people who were to receive state-funded farm
equipment.
The MDC - which accuses Mugabe of dishing out land, farming
inputs and fuel
to cronies - said none of their officials were
beneficiaries of the
government farm equipment scheme.
The denial by
the MDC came after political analysts criticised the
opposition party of
naively accepting favours from the government and
blindly falling prey to
Mugabe's politics of patronage.
The analysts said by accepting tractors
and other equipment from the same
government it accuses of wrongfully using
state resources to buy loyalty and
of presiding over an economic meltdown,
the MDC was surrendering its higher
moral ground to criticise Mugabe and his
ruling ZANU PF party.
But Gabriel Chaibva of the Mutambara-led MDC on
Thursday sought to downplay
the accusations of duplicity, saying there was
nothing wrong in accepting
tractors and other equipment from the government
that were meant to assist
in producing food for the country.
"We are
talking about agricultural equipment that is intended to benefit and
assist
those involved in farming. If I had access to that equipment I would
also
welcome it . . . we will continue attacking Mugabe and his murderous
regime
but we will also continue receiving those tractors and that
equipment," said
Chaibva.
While Mutambara - who had been listed among beneficiaries
promptly and
contemptuously rejected the tractor offer - Chaibva said the
Mutambara-led
MDC had in fact not taken a formal position on whether its
members could
accept farming equipment from the government.
"The
president, (Arthur Mutambara), voiced concern at being included on the
list
when he was not actively in farming. The party did not make a formal
position on the matter," said Chaibva, dismissing those criticising MDC
officials for accepting equipment from the government as mere armchair
critics.
Nelson Chamisa, spokesman of the main faction of the MDC led
by Morgan
Tsvangirai insisted that none of the faction's members had
accepted farm
machinery from the government.
He said: "The party made
a position that we would not accept that equipment
because Mugabe is using
it as a political gimmick. Those from our party who
were listed as
beneficiaries have since distanced themselves from the
equipment because
they are not farmers and they are not susceptible to
Mugabe's politics of
patronage," said Chamisa.
An overjoyed Minister of Agricultural
Engineering, Joseph Made, boasted that
some in the opposition had now seen
the wisdom of joining hands with the
government to make "our land revolution
a success."
Made said: "Some of them have realised that politicking will
not help. We
have delivered some of the equipment and they have accepted
ownership. They
have their equipment and they have joined hands with us to
make our land
revolution a success by producing food for the
nation."
According to documents in the possession of ZimOnline, Welshman
Ncube
received a Massey Ferguson tractor with engine number
8045-25L/406T137064 on
June 15. The tractor was delivered at his Uvungu
Farm/Meikles Estates.
Ncube's tractor was delivered on the same day that
former MDC legislator
Renson Gasela took delivery of Landini 8860 tractor,
serial number PLWLW
42190, at his farm in Lower Gweru.
Ndabeni-Ncube
received a Massey Ferguson 440 (SE), serial number 440-229190.
The Bulawayo
mayor also signed for several more pieces of equipment
including a Bain
standard plough, Bain T10 disc harrow and a vicon spreader,
used for wheat
planting.
Another top official of the same MDC faction Paul Themba-Nyathi
accepted on
June 26 June a Same Explorer 85 tractor, serial number
EXP855VT25066.
Most of the MDC officials were not immediately available
to comment on the
matter but Ndabeni-Ncube echoed Chaibva saying: "I am a
farmer and I welcome
any assistance that I can get to enhance my operations
and improve on this
country's food security."
Analysts say Mugabe has
managed to hang onto and consolidate power mainly
through the support of the
army and funding from the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe, which has continued to
print money to oil the veteran leader's
patronage network.
They said
by consistently loosening the purse strings, Mugabe had been able
to silence
even officials in his ruling party who say the former guerrilla
leader has
become an obstacle to any turn-around strategy in the country's
political
and economic fortunes.
Once a model economy, Zimbabwe has plunged into
deep recession, with its
real gross domestic product shrinking by around 40
percent in the last 8
years and pushing inflation to the highest in the
world at nearly 5 000
percent in May, while shortages of food, fuel and
foreign currency
persist. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 06 July 2007
By Farisai
Gonye
HARARE - The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) on Thursday
said
thousands of jobs were on the line as struggling companies downsize
operations in response to a government order to slash prices by 50
percent.
ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo said some companies had already
closed down
shop, warning that the government order on business to roll back
prices to
June 18 levels was hitting hardest the same workers who were
supposed to
benefit from lowered prices.
Matombo said: "Reports
indicate that quite a number of companies are
downsizing. Others have closed
altogether. Thousands of jobs are on the
line. The government might have to
come with more innovative ways of solving
the economic crisis.
"The
measures being implemented will only serve to worsen the plight of
ordinary
workers. Many workers have already been told of salary cuts because
non-productivity."
The government last week froze prices of all
commodities following a spate
of price hikes that had seen prices of basic
goods rising by more than 500
percent in the space of just three
weeks.
Soldiers and police, some of them armed, have since last week
raided several
shops in Harare to force owners to lower prices.
At
least 194 retailers have been arrested for defying the order to lower
prices
while President Robert Mugabe's government, which charges business is
conniving with its Western enemies to hike prices and incite popular revolt,
has said it will seize factories that stop production over
prices.
Industry Minister on Thursday reiterated threats to seize
businesses,
telling ZimOnline that the government had already set up a
company to take
over factories that close stop production because of price
controls.
"A government company is already in place to take over all
those businesses
that fail to manufacture and sell goods at the prices we
have told them to
charge," Mpofu said.
But industrialists, who spoke
on condition they were not named for fear
their firms would be targeted by
the authorities, said they had no option
but to scale down operations and
close some of their production lines until
the price ban is lifted.
A
senior executive with a food processing company in the eastern Mutare
border
city said they had already started sending workers on forced leave
with most
of the workers taking unpaid two-week breaks.
He said: "We have asked
them to check on the situation after two weeks.
There is no production going
on here hence there is no work for them. We may
eventually be forced to lay
off some of our workers if the government sticks
to its
position."
ZimOnline reporters who visited Harare's industrial sites saw
scores of
workers just milling around company premises while others huddled
around
fires to keep themselves warm in the capital's wintry
conditions.
Amod Chimene, a worker at a soap manufacturing company, said:
"Production
stopped two days ago and the warehouses are empty. We have since
been
advised to go back home and come each morning to check on
progress."
There were similar reports from the second largest city of
Bulawayo of
workers being sent home as factories quietly resist orders to
produce at a
lose.
Analysts say the government's latest effort to
keep a lid on prices was
meant to pacify angry workers ahead of general
presidential and
parliamentary elections next year but would come at a heavy
cost as this
could force some companies to shut down and force more workers
to join the
growing jobless list.
"Industry is on its knees. The
government faces the risk of crippling the
whole economy by its populist
policies and militancy on business," said John
Robertson, a Harare-based
economic consultant. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 06 July 2007
By
Hendricks Chizhanje
HARARE - The Zimbabwean government has no legal
grounds to force
manufacturers and retailers to reduce prices of basic
commodities, legal
experts said on Thursday.
Prominent Harare lawyer
Stanford Moyo said President Robert Mugabe's
embattled government had not
promulgated any legal instrument to force
manufacturers to slash
prices.
"They have not enacted any instrument to justify the price
reductions. I
have seen no legal instrument that authorises the government's
actions,"
Moyo told ZimOnline.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR) said it was improper for the
government to "just wake up" and order a
blanket ban on price increases
without gazetting any law allowing it to
carry out such actions.
"It is unprocedural and unlawful and there is no
legal basis for the
directive," said Irene Petras, the deputy director at
the ZLHR.
The lawyers said the government was only empowered to control
prices of
basic commodities such as bread, flour and maize-meal through a
statutory
instrument gazetted in 2001.
The government last week froze
prices of all commodities following a spate
of price hikes that had seen
prices of basic goods rising by more than 500
percent in the space of just
three weeks.
Soldiers and police, some of them armed, have since last
week raided several
shops in Harare to force owners to lower
prices.
The Harare authorities accuses business of conniving with its
western
enemies to hike prices and incite popular revolt against the
government.
Mugabe has since threatened to seize factories that stop
production over the
price freeze.
Police spokesperson Oliver
Mandipaka last week said he hoped the Attorney
General's office would
expedite the crafting of legal instruments to
prosecute those arrested
during the price crackdown. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 06 July 2007
By Tsungai
Murandu
HARARE - Britain says its stance on Zimbabwe has not changed,
charging that
there will be re-engagement by the international community
until there is
tangible evidence of change in policy by
Harare.
Britain has led criticism against President Robert Mugabe's
controversial
rule and mobilised its western allies to impose targeted
sanctions on the
Zimbabwean leader and his top officials to punish them for
failing to uphold
human rights, the rule of law and for stealing
elections.
The deputy head of mission at the British embassy in Harare,
Valerie
Brownridge, said the United Kingdom's stance would not immediately
change
following last week's change of guard at Number 10 Downing Street,
adding
London would continue pushing to end human rights abuses in the
southern
African country.
"We will continue to encourage reform in
Zimbabwe to end human rights
abuses, create democratic space and begin
economic stabilisation and
recovery," Brownridge said in response to
questions from ZimOnline.
There has been speculation in the past week
that the June 27 departure of
Tony Blair as British Prime Minister and his
replacement by Gordon Brown
could see an easing of frosty relations between
London and Harare.
President Robert Mugabe was the first to voice this
sentiment last week when
he said he hoped the coming in of the new British
leadership would thaw
relations between the two countries.
"We will
maintain our support for the Southern African Development Community
(SADC)'s
initiative to address the Zimbabwe crisis and the attempts to
introduce the
foundations for a free and fair election in 2008," said
Brownridge,
insisting that the British focus had always been on changing
policy, not
personalities.
Britain has clashed with the Zimbabwean government over
Harare's tainted
human rights record during the past eight
years.
Harare has in turn accused its former colonial master of reneging
on a
promise made at the Lancaster House constitutional conference that
ended a
decade long war of independence for Zimbabwe.
Mugabe blames
the outgoing Blair regime of backing out of a pact to fund
land reforms in
Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwean leader reacted to the British refusal to finance
land
redistribution by compulsorily impounding farms owned by white farmers,
telling them to approach Britain for compensation.
Brownridge said
there would be no be re-engagement by the international
community without
substantial and measurable changes in Zimbabwe's policy.
"Our concerns
about Zimbabwe are shared by many in the international
community. The
government of Zimbabwe should heed the growing demand of its
own people to
seek internal reconciliation and adopt policies that will help
restore
democracy, the rule of law and respect human rights, and end the
country's
self-inflicted economic decline," the British official said.
She insisted
that the United Kingdom was and had always been open to
engaging with
Zimbabwe and that "like many other European countries has
maintained an
embassy in Harare for that purpose".
The SADC regional grouping in March
appointed South African President Thabo
Mbeki to lead efforts to resolve
Zimbabwe's eight-year political and
economic crisis by facilitating dialogue
between Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF
party and the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party.
Mbeki is believed to have briefed SADC
leaders on the progress so far, in
behind closed door meetings on the
sidelines of the just ended African Union
summit in Accra Ghana. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 06 July 2007
By Mandlaakhenkosi
Sithole
HARARE - During the past few weeks there has been increasing talk
about a
United States of Africa.
Under normal circumstances it would
be a wonderful idea but when I look
around the continent, I really do not
feel warm about having one great ruler
and for all of us to belong to one
big country.
I have nothing against fellow Africans but I have everything
against the
chances of our children seeing their chances of getting
employment vanish
because we now have to accommodate people from other parts
of the continent.
There is a very good and valid reason why visa regimes
are applied. I know I
am one of those people who complain about failing to
get a visa to this or
that country but I think there is really nothing wrong
with a country
ensuring that scarce national resources are not squandered by
other people
who feel they have a claim over your part of the
continent.
I am even more against the issue of this African dream after
listening to
America's Rev Jesse Jackson implore our leaders to offer
inducements to
African-Americans, British Africans or anything Africans so
they can "come
home".
Call me racist or tribalist, but the only
people I want our governments to
encourage to come home are our own
nationals nothing more nothing less.
If those other Africans feel this is
their home they should just make it
here out of love and not because they
can have a better piece of the cake
than Africans already on the
continent.
Apart from the fact that I just do not want to belong to one
huge country, I
just do not think it is realistic for anyone to think we can
have one
leader, one government and actually be able to run the huge entity
efficiently.
We have enough problems such as Darfur and Mogadishu.
Why don't we solve
those and then get ambitious.
Our regional trading
blocs are struggling to make a mark on the world market
and we assume that
by hurriedly lumping ourselves together we can take on
the world?
We
have no respect for each other and shun each other's products.
It is a
wonderful thought but one that will not work. I agree with Uganda's
Yoweri
Museveni that within our regions we have similarities that hold us
together
but as a continent we have major differences.
In southern Africa we
understand each other not necessary well but we have
similar histories. If
we get married to the other regions we might not be
able to hack
it.
Remember some regions like West Africa are quite streetwise and cut
throat
when it comes to negotiating their livelihoods. Southern Africans are
more
laid back and likely to get trampled.
We can all be idealists
who believe that just because the late Kwame Nkrumah
of Ghana wanted Africa
to be the United States of Africa we should honour
him by doing that. We are
too different for it to work.
Most African countries survive on donor
funding. If we want autonomy then we
should move away from begging and get
our resources to work for us in a
transparent manner and with more
commitment.
Some people would love the idea of not having visas but in
some cases some
countries have been able to keep crime in check because of
stringent visa
requirements.
They have also been able to ensure that
their own nationalities get jobs
first before offers are made to
outsiders.
Sounds nasty but restrictions do have their use. Look at
Harare's avenues.
The locals have been driven out by people coming in from
outside who offer
rentals in foreign currency.
The advantage of
living in your own country should be the ability to get the
best of
everything over outsiders and not the other way round.
My only
consolation is that like everything else in Africa things move
slowly -
agreement is hard to come by and even my great grandchildren might
never
live to experience a United States of Africa.
Imagine some warlord
somewhere carving out a piece of Harare for themselves
because it now
belongs to every African.
How are we going to handle the issue of
resources? We already have people in
some countries waging wars because they
feel they are not partaking of the
national cake.
Coming together
will not suddenly make the whole continent rich.
Everyone will want
diamonds, gold, cocoa fields and oilfields and they would
be justified,
after all we will have become one. What a marriage that will
be!
I
need a lot of convincing about this dream because all I can see is mayhem.
Some of Africa's economies are so weak and the idea of having to take over
the burden of sharing poverty does not appeal to me.
Dear Presidents,
we are fine as we are. Just keep the African Union and
forget about having
one person and some subordinates administer the whole
continent.
Just
imagine the number of military coups we will have because we will never
agree on who should rule us. Be blessed.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu, Carole Gombakomba, Patience Rusere
& Ndimyake
Mwakalyele
Washington
05 July
2007
The Zimbabwean government's offensive against soaring prices has
run square
into the law of unintended consequences as consumers nationwide
face acute
shortages of a broad range of essential commodities and
manufactured
products.
On Thursday, Industry Minister Obert Mpofu,
chairman of a cabinet task force
formed to whip inflation, ordered businesses
to stop selling basic goods in
bulk. However, the shelves of many stores
across Zimbabwe had by then been
emptied as consumers loaded up on goods that
retailers were compelled by
police to deeply discount.
An informal
survey found that leading chain stores including TM
Supermarkets, Spar, OK
and smaller retail outlets had few goods to sell in
the wake of the buying
frenzy. Basic products such as bread, meat, cooking
oil, salt, sugar and soap
were to be found only on the black market where
they were going for
exorbitant prices.
Late Wednesday the cabinet task force summoned
business managers from a
range of economic sectors to an emergency meeting to
discuss the offensive
against price increases. Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries President
Callisto Jokonya said that ministers demanded
manufacturers maintain
production levels. Businesses asked government to
provide hard currency and
stop slinging the label of "saboteur."
Silas
Masiya, a resident of the Harare satellite town of Chitungwiza, told
reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the jobless have
benefited
from the onslaught in stores as they were able to queue up to buy
goods for
resale.
ZimSun Group Chief Executive Officer Shingi Munyeza said tourism
firms have
been ordered to slash prices but fear the sector will collapse if
pricing
chaos continues.
Some business owners said they had been
forced by police to open their shops
after hours to sell the officers large
quantities of products at low prices
they imposed.
One business man
speaking on condition of anonymity said police forced him
to open his Harare
hardware store and reduce cement prices to Z$150,000 a
bag (US$1) from Z$1.3
million. The officers then bought 800 bags of cement,
filling the trucks they
had brought. Other stores in Harare and Chitungwiza
have reported similar
incidents.
Human rights lawyer Rangu Nyamurundira told reporter Carole
Gombakomba of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that such conduct by police
represented and
abuse of their powers and violated the rights of store owners
thus
victimized.
Contacted for comment, Zimbabwe Republic Police
spokesman Oliver Mandipaka
said reports of such activity were false. Contrary
to what some business
people were told by line officers, Mandipaka said no
investigation into the
charges had been opened.
Mandipaka said the
police would continue to clampdown on profiteering
businesses.
The
state move to fight inflation by fiat has led business to contemplate
staff
cutbacks and seek wage cuts from organized labor, said the Commercial
Workers
Union of Zimbabwe, which represents retail workers.
The Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions said representatives of metalworking
companies and other
manufacturing firms have raised the possibility of
reduced wages and
retrenchment packages in the face of possible
company
closures.
Commercial Workers Union President Lucia Matibenga,
also first vice
president of the ZCTU, told reporter Patience Rusere that job
losses are in
store just as happened in the wake of the government's seizure
of farms
under land reform from 2000 on.
Economists and political
analysts say "Operation Dzikamai," or "Stay Calm"
as the government has
dubbed it, instead of controlling prices seems likely
to exacerbate the
economic crisis because authorities have not addressed its
true
causes.
Reporter Ndimyake Mwakalyele of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
sought
perspective from economist Prosper Chitambara of the Labor and
Economic
Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe, and Pedzisayi Ruhanya,
program
manager with the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, who said Harare is
returning
to old tactics.
Crikey.com.au
Date: Friday, 6
July 2007
Zimbabwean Sekai Holland was badly beaten by the foot soldiers of a
faction
within Robert Mugabe's rogue government in March this year. She
travelled to
South Africa for treatment, before flying to Australia to
continue her
rehabilitation. She is the Secretary for Policy and Research in
Zimbabwe's
democratically elected government. Here she updates Crikey on the
situation
faced by her fellow Zimbabweans.
From 11 March this
year, when we were tortured, the situation in Zimbabwe
has steadily
deteriorated. But the day Mugabe dies you will see a different
Zimbabwe
emerge almost immediately. Let me tell you why.
With torture, they have
broken our bones, but later we were told that it was
a mistake that we were
beaten up. It was a faction within Mugabe's ruling
party that was
responsible. What comfort is that, when we are all broken?
In removing
Mugabe you remove the illusion that somebody is in control. That
is a point
I have not seen reflected in the media. Mugabe is not in control.
It is
wrong to think Robert Mugabe is standing in the way. He is a sick old
man.
You've got a military power that has built itself around a sick old
man.
That's what we have in our way. Once Mugabe goes those power structures
will
crumble.
From the day Mugabe shuts his eyes dead, hopefully peacefully in
his sleep,
we know exactly what we are going to do. The opposition, civil
society, and
other citizens who are working outside the country are well
organised.
The intervention Zimbabwe needs now doesn't need to be
military in nature.
It's in the form of food, of teaching people proper
medication, of bringing
back education, and tackling the HIV problem. We
need to do this first
before we can rebuild Zimbabwe.
There are
three factors that people outside Zimbabwe are not taking into
account.
1.. People are leaving the country in huge numbers.
These are the
able-bodied, the educated, the artisans, anybody, basically,
who has a skill
or can work.
2.. HIV now infects one fifth of our
population. The people who are left
behind to look after one another are not
in any condition to do so. The
problem can only worsen under those
circumstances.
3.. Until the world wakes up to the fact that this is
country where there
is no food, no education, and health care, then we are
going to continue to
say the situation is worsening.
Reports that
there has been a significant worsening in the past few weeks
are true. It
stems from bad governance, and the total breakdown of the rule
of law. While
that gets worse, of course, these other situations get worse
as
well.
We are now being told inflation has reached 10,000%, and the
government has
ordered businesses to lower their prices. To not do so is to
risk jail. The
order came because there is no money in the country. My
household in Harare
is an example.
When we left to be flown to
South Africa on 22 March, inflation was at
3,500%. Yesterday, my sister who
lives with our family, told me she can't
find Vaseline. Vaseline is a basic
ointment used by everyone to rub on our
dry skin, especially our children.
It's not available on the shelves. There
is nothing on the shelves. When we
send them money to buy these gods, they
say to us, "Don't send us the money,
send us the commodities." But the
problem with sending the commodities is
that customs takes them and uses
them themselves.
Mens News Daily
July 5, 2007 at
9:58 pm ·
About two weeks ago Mr. Mugabe made a speech at the
funeral of a General who
died under mysterious circumstances and in it he
attacked the private sector
for raising prices in the name of regime change.
He threatened the mining
companies as well as everyone else and said that if
they did not come into
line with what the Party wanted they would be taken
over.
Since then a shadowy, totally unaccountable organisation known as
the "Joint
Operational Command" has taken up the call and last week they
summoned
senior business leaders to a meeting and instructed them to roll
back their
prices to the level they were at on the 18th June. The meeting
was held with
the Commanders of the Army, the Police, the CIO, Air Force and
the Prison
Service.
Since then all major retailers and wholesalers as
well as the majority of
manufacturers have reduced their prices to the June
18th level. Remember
prices were doubling on a weekly basis at the time with
inflation about 15
000 percent per annum. So these price reductions were
major and across the
board.
Last weekend the smaller retailers were
attacked - I am not sure we can
really call it anything else. One by one
they were approached by small
groups of officials, police and militia. The
messages were confused and
varied from store to store and group-to-group.
Some simply said they had to
reduce a limited range of 18 items to the price
levels listed, others said
it was the roll back to June 18th while others
simply said cut your prices
by 50 per cent.
No opposition or
arguments were tolerated. If the retailers resisted they
were arrested and
taken to local police stations. In other cases stores that
were closed had
their doors smashed open and prices reduced under
supervision and then the
public allowed in, buying the goods at the lower
prices. Many businesses
were faced with near riots as people scrambled for
goods. In other cases the
authorities confiscated goods, especially where
they found goods stored
behind shops.
Then they started on the fuel stations - systematically all
stations selling
fuels were visited and if they had stocks they were told to
sell at Z$60 000
a litre or else. One operator in Bulawayo refused, was
arrested and released
when his lawyers intervened, rearrested and taken to
see the senior officer
in Bulawayo who told him no resistance would be
tolerated and they then sent
the police to force him to open up and sell. He
lost Z$3 400 000 000 in 12
hours on 47 000 litres of fuel bought at Z$132
000 a litre. Today there are
long queues at all filling stations still with
stocks. I project by Monday
that there will be no fuel at all in the City,
probably in the whole
country. Worse still the fuel importers have stopped
buying foreign exchange
and halted imports. It will take weeks to get back
to "normal".
The butchers were simply told to sell "meat" at Z$90 000 a
kilogram or in
some cases Z$120 000 a kilogram - there was no explanation of
the
difference. Since the cost of beef is well above these levels, they
quickly
sold out and then closed. Today there is no butchery open in the
entire
City. Bakers are following suit - they were told to sell at Z$22 000
a loaf
and they did so but stopped buying raw materials. Today bakers are
slowly
closing down across the country.
In the milling industry
"controlled" prices are half the real cost of
production and the national
staple food, maize meal, has disappeared from
the stores. The prices of
other carbohydrate foods such as potatoes have
doubled. Rice is controlled
down to half its cost and will also be in short
supply by next week as
stocks run out.
If supermarkets are unable to restock because either they
cannot buy
products at controlled prices and sell them for a margin to cover
other
costs, or the products are just not available, then all basic needs
will
start to run out next week. For some mysterious reason one product was
specifically targeted - Mazoe Orange Juice. Its price was set at Z$120 000
for two litres and when all the dust had settled the manufacturers were give
n an approved price of Z$180 000 per unit. So if you were to buy this
product today you would have to sell it at a loss. Sugar sales from the
mills in the Lowveld are Z$15 000 a kilogram - the retail price is Z$17 000.
A mark up of 13 per cent - the fuel on collection of this product from
Chiredzi is Z$7 300 per kilogram alone.
This morning we watched a
police raid on a small "Spaza" store run by a
single women who has a teenage
son. A 7 tonne truck arrived with four police
on board, they collected all
her stocks and loaded them and then ordered her
to appear at the police
station at 14.00 hrs. The police officer in Charge
was Inspector Banda,
force number 048168 F.
There she was harangued and fined Z$40 000. Her
goods were offloaded into a
large warehouse that was full of confiscated
goods. While we watched a
well-dressed man in a new vehicle, number 807 516
J drove up and helped
himself to 4 bags of sugar. He did not sign a receipt
and drove away. The
vehicle was a make that is driven by senior police and
army officers.
While we followed this small saga being played out, we saw
truckloads of
police coming and going and more goods confiscated from small
informal
traders all over the City coming in. Its quite clear, the Party
wants to
show that inflation can be beaten and they are making the business
sector
pay the price. The people carrying out these illegal and
irresponsible
orders are rewarded for their diligence with authority to loot
the stores
they are raiding. Since the big boys in this game can defend
themselves, it
is the small people and the informal sector that suffers
most. So much for
Zanu PF socialism, or as Mugabe would put it, his personal
brand of Marxist
Leninism.
As one man said to me on the street, "Well
Eddie, at least now you know, you
do not need to campaign for MDC in March,
these people are doing it for
you." He may be right but how on earth do we
get there!
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 5th July 2007
05 July
2007
HARARE, July 6, 2007 - Joseph Mwale, the elusive Central
Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) operative, controversially embroiled in the
gruesome
murder back in 2000 of two opposition MDC activists, is now safely
ensconced
in the Zimbabwe mission in Lusaka, the Zambian
capital.
Sources in the CIO say Mwale was transferred to Lusaka last year
and has
become an official at the Zimbabwean embassy since then. Mwale's
posting in
Lusaka effectively scuttles efforts to bring the much feared
intelligence
operative to book for the alleged gruesome murder of Talent
Mabika and
Tichaona Chiminya.
The two MDC activists died in a callous
petrol-bomb attack at Murambinda
Growth Point in Manicaland as they
campaigned for their party ahead of the
2000 parliamentary elections, amid
an orgy of state-sponsored violence
targeting opposition candidates and
their supporters. "Joseph Mwale now
lives in Zambia," said one senior
operative at CIO headquarters in Harare.
"But his transfer has nothing to do
with running away from being
prosecuted."
The agent said Mwale had
nothing to fear as he was assured of immunity from
any form of prosecution
since he was performing official duties for the
State when the MDC activists
were killed. "Talk to Mutasa," said the source.
"He knows what's going on.
But I do not think Mwale's transfer is linked to
the Murambinda
case."
Efforts to obtain comment from Didymus Mutasa, the State Security
Minister
were in vain. Mutasa, a hard-line Mugabe loyalist, recently said he
was
launching a massive campaign to smoke out journalists who write for
foreign-based online publications such as The Zimbabwe Times. He has
threatened to take unspecified action against journalists identified as
being correspondents for online publications.
Efforts to bring Mwale
to book through prosecution have proved futile over
the years, amid reports
that he enjoys massive political support from top
ruling party politicians
as well as government officials. Meanwhile, Mwale's
co-accused were arrested
and brought to court. Zanu-PF activists Morris
Kainos Zimunya, Webster
Gwama, and Johnson Mudzamiri were arrested in 2004
and
prosecuted.
They were released on $5 million bail each in September 2004
by High Court
Judge, Justice Chinembiri Bhunu. Efforts by former Manicaland
prosecutor,
Levison Chikafu, to bring Mwale to justice were
frustrated.
On September 23, 2006, Chikafu wrote to the then police chief
in Manicaland
Province saying: "The accused faces a charge of murder which
was committed
in the year 2000. The docket was referred to your office with
instructions
that you arrest Joseph Mwale and bring him for initial remand."
The docket
allegedly disappeared from the police station
immediately.
Instead Chikafu was himself arrested on charges of
corruption and soliciting
bribes from suspects. His trial kicks off in
Harare next week. Since
Chikafu's unceremonious departure nothing further
has been heard of the
Mwale murder case. It now appears he quietly slipped
across the border into
neighbouring Zambia.- The Zimbabwe
Times.
Nehanda Radio: Zimbabwe's first 24 hour internet radio news
channel.
VOA
By Peter Clottey
Washington, D.C.
06
July 2007
Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
says it is not happy about the government's ongoing
voter registration
exercise ahead of next year's presidential and
parliamentary elections. The
MDC has described the exercise as "fraudulent
and opaque". It says not only
was the opposition not informed about the
exercise, but that it has also
heard of alleged malpractices during the
voter registration process.
The general secretary of the MDC, Tendai
Biti, told VOA English to Africa
reporter Peter Clottey from the capital,
Harare that President Mugabe's
government has embarked on the voter
registration exercise to pre-empt the
SADC (Southern African Development
Community) organized talks between the
government and the MDC.
"We
just get newspaper reports that they've established these mobile units
that
are going around the country registering people to vote. The process is
not
transparent. These guys just wake up one morning and they decide to get
out
this opaque process across the country. We don't know where, how and
when it
is being done. They are presuming that we are still going to use
that
voters' role, which is totally and completely malseated with
inconsistencies," he noted.
Biti said the MDC has always been opposed
to the use of the current voters
register.
"The demand that we are
making is that let's not use the voters' role; lets
do what we did in 1980,
where every Zimbabwean just voted with an ID, so
that you avoid this
completely infested voters' role. But they are going,
basically registering
the voters' role to predetermine, to pre-empt the
talks that are taking
place within the context of SADC. So it's one of the
issues that is clearly
on the table is the issue of what electoral system
you use," Biti
said.
He denied the MDC has ever asked for a new voters'
register.
"No, we have been demanding that we don't want the voters'
role.
Particularly, voters' role presided over by registrar general Tobaiwa
Mudede. We just want every Zimbabwean who is 18 years and above to vote
wherever he or she is. Whether he is in the United Kingdom, in South Africa,
in Botswana or in Zambia. And that is the only way you can totally and
genuinely respect Zimbabweans' right to vote. We did it in 1980; we can do
it again any place anytime," he pointed out.
Biti said the MDC has
suggested that if the government wanted the voters'
register to be used for
next year's elections, then the old one should be
dispensed with for a new
one.
"The second demand is that, look, if we have to use the voters'
role, then
let's start afresh. The current one that is being used is so
irredeemably
defective, you can't use it, and you would need at least five
years to clean
it. So, do away with it and we start afresh," Biti
said.
Although Biti would not comment on the SADC organized talks between
President Mugabe's government and the MDC, he said he is worried about the
slow pace of the process.
"Well, I can't talk about those talks, I'm
not allowed to talk about those
talks. But if I were any other Zimbabwean on
the street I would be concerned
about the pace and progress about those
talks because people are suffering.
As I talk to you right now, there is
nothing in the shops; inflation is
probably 22,000% in the real terms. So
people are suffering and people want
a solution to the crisis in this
country.
Zim Independent
Dumisani
Muleya
RESERVE Bank governor Gideon Gono has clashed with
government over its
crackdown on shops and supermarkets in a doomed bid to
curb spiralling
inflation.
The row has exposed cracks within
government over the arbitrary
policy - which prominent lawyers this week
described as illegal because it
has not been gazetted (see story below) - as
the economy continues to
crumble all around.
Inflation is
officially 4 500%, although economists say it is probably
double
that.
The Zanu PF politburo yesterday discussed the price blitz,
with some
officials defending it while others effectively said it was
suicidal. This
has left authorities facing a climb down and the difficult
task of cleaning
up their policy mess.
While Gono and his
technocrats are struggling to revive the economy,
President Robert Muagbe,
ministers and Zanu PF officials are pushing a
populist line targeted at
grabbing votes in next year's joint parliamentary
and presidential elections.
This has put Gono on a collision course with
Mugabe and his officials who are
desperate to win the crucial polls.
Gono on Tuesday angrily wrote
to Minister Without Portfolio Elliot
Manyika, who was acting chair of the
Cabinet Taskforce on Price Monitoring
and Stabilisation, distancing himself
from the blitz and the resultant
looting.
Gono told Manyika that
the clampdown was futile because it would not
reduce inflation. He said a
"holistic package of measures that would uplift
the general supply of goods
and services in the economy" was needed.
"I write to make
recommendations on the ongoing efforts meant to
stabilise prices in the
economy," Gono said in his letter dated July 3,
titled "Prices Reduction
Crack Team Programme".
"It is our strongest conviction that only
through a holistic framework
can we stabilise prices, without inducing
shortages in the market."
Gono's two-page letter, copied to Chief
Secretary to the President and
Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda and Minister of
Policy Implementation Webster
Shamu, said government has been ignoring advice
on how best to reduce
inflation since 2003.
Gono attached a
catalogue of policy proposals - which include the need
for fiscal discipline,
cutting down of government expenditure and reduction
of the budget deficit -
he had offered over the years, saying the
recommendations were either
half-heartedly accepted or simply ignored.
Gono has been blamed for
quasi-fiscal activities, printing money on a
large scale to fund state
operations and thus fuelling inflation, but he has
said he was acting under
orders from the top.
The letter is understood to have angered
government ministers who
think Gono wants to sabotage their price reduction
campaign. Gono himself is
said to have been riled by the crackdown which he
sees as inherently
irrational.
Mugabe and Vice-President Joseph
Msika have publicly endorsed the
current price onslaught. Manyika, a Zanu PF
commissar, and Industry and
International Trade minister Obert Mpofu,
chairman of the cabinet taskforce,
have been at the forefront of the
campaign.
Sources said Gono last week boycotted a key meeting
convened by State
Security minister Didymus Mutasa to discuss the issue in
protest against the
chaotic blitz. It is said Gono resisted efforts by Shamu
and Small to Medium
Scale Enterprises Development minister Sithembiso Nyoni,
a member of the
cabinet taskforce on prices, to get him to attend the
meeting. The meeting,
chaired by Mutasa, who is the chair of the Joint
Operations Command that
combines security service chiefs from the army,
intelligence, prisons and
police, went ahead without him.
After
the meeting, sources said, Gono wrote to Mutasa dissociating
himself from the
crackdown. It is said Gono tried to avoid a fallout with
Mugabe over the
issue by explaining to him the economic pitfalls of the
blitz.
A
top government official said yesterday technocrats have failed to
make
politicians understand their demagoguery cannot be a substitute
for
policy.
The prices campaign has now degenerated into random
and rowdy looting,
leaving shops empty and consumers stranded. As captains of
industry and
commerce warned, basic commodities have vanished from the
shelves of most
shops due to the government order for retailers to cut prices
by half.
Manufacturers cannot recover their costs of production if
government
controls prices and will therefore close down operations, a trend
that is
already evident.
Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro/Constantine Chimakure
GOVERNMENT'S current blitz to
force manufacturers and retailers to
reduce prices of goods is illegal as
there is no enabling law to legitimise
the state's actions, lawyers said
yesterday.
Describing the actions of the state as immoral, the
lawyers said the
government decision to force business to reduce prices to
June 18 levels was
irrational and should be challenged in a court of
law.
The blitz has seen government price control teams moving from
shop to
shop slashing prices. This has resulted in all basket goods
disappearing
from shelves. The accompanying mayhem prevailing at shops and
supermarkets
following the slashing of prices has also resulted in massive
looting of
goods by gangs, which appear to have inside information about
which shops
the enforcers would be visiting.
In an interview
yesterday senior Harare lawyers Sternford Moyo and
Muchadei Masunda said
government had no legal grounds to enforce a price
freeze.
"There is no legal instrument authorising the price freeze,
controls,
reduction or monitoring on the scale being implemented by the
government,"
said Moyo. "It would be very much illegal to arrest
anyone."
Another lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, described government's
actions as
immoral saying the state was forcing retailers to sell goods at a
loss. He
said government, in implementing the current blitz was not taking
into
consideration the price at which retailers were purchasing goods
from
wholesalers and manufacturers.
"You cannot prescribe things
that are practically impossible,"
Muchadehama said. "It is an immoral policy
which cannot stand the test at
law. It is not a policy in the public
interest. It's like seizing someone's
property."
He said even if
the state was to invoke the statutory instrument that
was used to prescribe
the prices of basket goods, a notional assortment, it
would find it difficult
to prosecute retailers because the instrument was
now outdated since factors
influencing production had changed.
However, Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries president Callisto
Jokonya said even in the absence of an
enabling law, business would comply
with the defective policy.
"We are aware that there is no law," said Jokonya. "There is no
statutory
instrument, but for us what is important is to engage
the
government.
"It does not make economic sense to go to court.
If we engage them in
the courts, government can wake up tomorrow and declare
a state of
emergency. What will we do?"
While business has said
it would comply, the blitz has degenerated
into an orgy of looting, throwing
the retail industry into chaos - resulting
in many shops across the country
losing billions of dollars worth of goods.
Reports from virtually
all provinces show that the government price
control units made up of the
youth militias, police, army and the Central
Intelligence Organisation are
causing havoc when they raid shops, resulting
in people scrambling for
commodities. Speculation is rife that the looting
of the goods could be
masterminded by unscrupulous members of the price
control units using hired
mobs to grab commodities and later off-load them
onto the black-market for
their personal gains.
Retailers said they were surprised by the
crowds, which immediately
gather at shops during the process of reducing
prices by the control units.
They suspect that the police and youth militias
enforcing the controls are
also involved in syndicates that immediately buy
goods in bulk once prices
are reduced.
The fashioned confusion
often deteriorates into uncontrolled commodity
grabbing resulting in goods
being damaged and some customers taking
advantage of the melée to leave
without paying.
Spokesperson of the Retailers Association of
Zimbabwe Denford Mutashu
confirmed the looting of products from supermarkets
but said he was not
aware of the involvement of the price
controllers.
"We are aware of the looting you are referring to, but
we are yet to
quantify its extent," Mutashu said. "A lot of retailers have
lost goods to
thieves who take advantage of the confusion in shops once
prices are
slashed."
In Harare a supermarket chain on Tuesday
lost billions of dollars
through looting after its employees were overwhelmed
by clients as a result
of the reduced prices. Scores of people were seen
leaving the shop in First
Street without paying for goods such as soap, salt,
rice, Mazoe and
margarine.
The shop floor was littered with
remnants of the products as some got
damaged in the stampede.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
THE ruling Zanu PF and opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
negotiators in talks facilitated by South African
President Thabo Mbeki meet
tomorrow in Pretoria to start up critical dialogue
in earnest.
After agreeing to a final agenda over two weeks ago,
Zanu PF and MDC
negotiating teams will discuss the first and most important
item on the
agenda, the constitution, sources said. The agenda for the talks
also
includes electoral, security and communication laws, and the
political
climate.
The Zanu PF politburo yesterday discussed the
proposed constitutiional
amendment for joint elections. Mbeki wants the
amendment to be part of the
talks.
Mbeki, who looks set to be
engaged on Zimbabwe for almost his entire
10-year tenure, is determined to
ensure the talks succeed for his legacy's
sake and to get rid of the trouble
spot on his doorstep.
He reported progress on the talks to the
Southern African Development
Community (Sadc) organ on politics, defence and
security chairman, Tanzanian
President Jakaya Kikwete on the sidelines of the
Africa Union summit in
Ghana earlier this week. Sadc mandated Mbeki to be the
mediator in Zimbabwe
in March. The Sadc summit in Lusaka next month is
expected to tackle the
Zimbabwe situation.
Zanu PF is
represented at the negotiating table by Justice minister
Patrick Chinamasa
and his Labour counterpart, Nicholas Goche, while the MDC
has Welshman Ncube
and Tendai Biti, supported by two other officials. South
African Local
Government minister Sydney Mufamadi chairs the talks and is
assisted by
Director-General in the Presidency, Reverend Frank Chikane, and
Mbeki's legal
advisor, Mujanku Gumbi.
Under the first item on the agenda - the
constitution - the process of
constitution-making will be discussed tomorrow.
Other issues such as the
electoral system, devolution of power,
constitutional appointments and
citizenship would also feature during the
discussion because, according to
the agenda, they fall under the constitution
item.
The electoral laws issue will focus on voter registration,
the voters'
roll, and appointment and functions of the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission and
Delimitation Commission.
The security legislation
item - which Zanu PF refused to call
"repressive laws" - only deals with the
Public Order & Security Act.
The draconian Access to
Information & Protection of Privacy Act is not
on the agenda because it
was allegedly passed in parliament by both Zanu PF
and MDC MPs. It was also
agreed that press freedom would have to be
enshrined in the expected new
constitution anyway.
The restrictive Broadcasting Services Act was
removed from security
legislation and placed on its own. Under this item,
there would be
discussion about external radio stations broadcasting into
Zimbabwe. In its
submissions to Mbeki, Zanu PF complained about the Voice of
the People which
it says is Dutch-funded, SWRA, described as
British-sponsored, and the State
Department-financed Voice of America's
Studio 7.
Government has been trying to jam the stations to prevent
them from
reaching Zimbabweans in the country. The political climate agenda
item deals
with issues like demilitarisation of state institutions, hostile
rhetoric,
use of militia, abuse of state aid and traditional chiefs,
sanctions and
land.
Sources said the talks tomorrow would
exclusively focus on
constitution-making because this is seen as the main
issue at stake. A
constitutional draft produced through informal talks
between Chinamasa and
Ncube in 2003/2004 would be the basis of the
negotiations for a new
constitution.
The unpublished
Chinamasa/Ncube draft constitution incorporates issues
from the
government-sponsored draft, which was rejected by voters at the
2000
referendum, and the National Constitutional Assembly proposals.
Zim Independent
Lucia
Makamure
THE collapse of the case of 18 Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC)
activists accused of terrorism has made it difficult for
President Robert
Mugabe to persist with his claims, first made to Southern
African
Development Community (Sadc) leaders in March, that Zimbabwe was
under siege
from the opposition party.
Addressing an emergency
Sadc summit in Tanzania, Mugabe presented an
almost 40-page dossier detailing
alleged acts of domestic terrorism by the
MDC and justifying the March 11
beating of opposition leaders.
Among acts of terrorism cited in the
document were a spate of petrol
bombings that took place in
March.
The petrol bombings resulted in the arrest of 41 MDC
activists, of
which 18 have been cleared while 17 are still in remand prison
and the rest
out on bail.
Alec Muchadehama, the lawyer
representing the activists, this week
said the case against his clients had
collapsed after the police and the
Attorney General's Office failed to set a
trial date for over three months.
In an interview this week with
the Zimbabwe Independent, Muchadehama
said the police have failed to
substantiate their claims against his
clients. He added that the case was
political.
"The arrests were political as they targeted particular
persons with
influential positions within the MDC," Muchadehama said. "They
targeted
people like legislator Paul Madzore who is the personal aide to
Morgan
Tsvangirai, Ian Makone - the MDC election strategist - and Morgan
Komichi
who is the national deputy organising secretary. The police tried at
all
costs to keep them in custody by saying the case was complicated and
more
time for investigations was needed. At one time they issued a
ministerial
certificate (against granting of bail)."
The lawyer
said the courts at one point postponed the matter after the
police indicated
they had dispatched officers to South Africa to carry
out
investigations.
"Their extra-territorial investigations were
proved false in court as
the police failed to prove that they ever went to
South Africa. We had
requested that they provide a map of the areas where
they carried out their
investigations and their passports bearing South
African visas," Muchadehama
said.
He added that the police have
been using many excuses for their
failure to come up with incriminating
evidence against his clients and this
resulted in more than 50 court
appearances by his clients.
"We have appeared in court on more than
50 times and in 36 of them, we
were applying for bail or arguing that our
clients be given a trial date or
the courts throw out the case. Our question
to the police was why they
arrested our clients before they had any evidence
to link our clients to the
offences they are being charged with," Muchadehama
said.
Muchadehama said under normal circumstances a bail
application should
either be granted or denied within 48 hours from the time
of application,
but in this case it has taken more than three months for the
MDC activists'
attorneys to get a bail application ruling.
Zim Independent
By Nobuhle
Ncube
UPON entering the gates of the University of Zimbabwe, it
is quickly
evident that the grounds are not receiving the attention that they
once got.
The grass is brown, patchy and overrun with weeds. In
areas, it has
grown up to a metre high and in others all that remains is dry
red sand.
The buildings are clad in old chipped paint and are
cracking while
window frames are reddened with rust. There is little evidence
that this
campus was once one of the most beautiful and best looked-after in
Africa.
Nobody wants to be seen speaking to a journalist
here.
The next dining hall is surrounded by shards of glass and its
roof has
collapsed. Its beams are exposed and broken while burnt furniture
lies
rotting outside the main entrance.
The walls are covered in
black soot from a fire that burned for more
than six hours, destroying the
building, according to students who were
there after student activists
allegedly set this dining hall on fire in
April.
"I won't miss
it here at all," says a student who is completing her
last year at the
university.
She expresses severe disappointment at the
deterioration of living
standards at the university.
As I enter
her residence, I am suddenly surrounded by darkness. There
is no
electricity.
"There was no water all weekend either," she
says.
The hallway floors are potholed due to missing tiles and a
layer of
dirt has compacted into the space that they used to occupy. The
bathrooms, I
discover, are the source of the pungent smell that punched my
face on
entering the room.
"We are not sure when our residence
was last cleaned," this resident
says. "So we just close our eyes and get
into the shower, hoping that we
don't
get sick."
In the male
residence the sanitation in the bathrooms is so poor that
the men no longer
use their toilets at all and have resorted to "going in
the
bushes".
At the top of the staircase, on which I trip a couple of
times because
of the darkness, I enter a room where students are watching
television
together. This small room is filled with up to 30 chairs so that
manoeuvring
around the it requires a degree of skill.
The chairs
have almost no upholstery left and are so damaged that
holes have formed
through the foam. When asked how the students manage to
sit in the chairs
without falling through, a student answers, "just lean to
the
side".
Students say that the standard of food in the dining halls
has dropped
dramatically over the past few years.
"The food is
awful here," a first-year student complains, "so I try to
avoid eating in the
dining halls if I can. We've tried complaining but
nobody
listens."
The deterioration of the university campus is affecting
academia as
well. Many students no longer use the university library because
many of its
books have been stolen and have not been replaced.
"Being a student at this university is not easy," one student told
us.
Lecturers and professors shared the same sentiments and would
not
allow me to interview them.
"I've been waiting for more than
a month to write exams," a
fourth-year student said, expressing her
frustration with the current
academic situation at the
university.
The current semester has been extended by an extra
seven weeks as a
result of the disruptions caused by strikes by the academic
staff earlier in
the year.
Over the past few years, there has
been a severe decrease in the
number of lecturers at the university from over
1 200 to just over 600.
While waiting to write their exams, the
students have been asked to
pay $1 million so that they will be allowed to
stay in their residences.
This amount is twice what they were required to pay
at the beginning of the
semester.
At Rhodes University in the
Eastern Cape of South Africa where I am
currently enrolled, the campus does
not have an official entrance but I
definitely know when I have
arrived.
There, the evergreen lawns and arches of tall trees that
shade the
paths are so striking that they are surreal - as though I've walked
into a
children's story book.
Low stone ledges surround
perfectly planned flower beds which add a
variety of colours to the already
bright green background. The sounds of
splashing water can be heard from a
fountain nearby.
Students are sitting on the grass in groups
eating, laughing and
studying in the warm sunshine of the
afternoon.
The university also has its own botanical gardens for
the purposes of
study, conservation and a beautiful venue for picnics and
society meetings.
To get into the girls' residences a security chip
is required. The
carpeted floors are constantly vacuumed by Rosemary, always
clad in her
starched blue uniform.
In the common room, girls
lounge on pink and white sofas which are all
facing a television blaring
music from MTV Base. A piano sits in the front
of the room and a pool table
at the back. A kitchen connects from the common
room where a fridge and
kettle can be used by any of the residents.
The rooms have a desk,
lamp and built-in heater. Bed linen is provided
by the university and can be
swapped for clean linen every Wednesday.
All rooms also have
Internet access. In this particular residence
there is also a connection to
the residents' own printer so that the girls
do not have to walk to computer
laboratories to print assignments.
Vacuum cleaners can be found on
every floor and there is a kitchen
upstairs equipped with a fridge, freezer
and microwave.
The dining hall for this residence always gives the
students a choice
of health food, Halaal food, vegetarian food, African food
and fast food for
every meal.
Rhodes University's library has
electronic security at the entrance
and exit. It has a full electronic
catalogue which can be accessed from the
residents' rooms and every book
borrowed is registered by an electronic
system which sends students emails
when books are overdue.
Zim Independent
Kuda Chikwanda
GOVERNMENT has planned a crackdown on a clique
of prominent black
businessmen it helped to empower over the past 15 years.
Targeted
individuals face arrest and the seizure of their businesses over the
price
war with the state which started last week.
The
industrialists who built empires with the direct and indirect
assistance of
Zanu PF are now being viewed as pushing to topple the
government by applying
economic pressure designed to cause social unrest
amongst the already
suffering populace.
The ruling party has played an instrumental
role in the acquisition of
significant stakes in a large number of companies
involved in the production
of basic commodities. They are Dairibord, Lobels,
National Foods and
Innscor.
The industrialists which have been
targeted include Dairibord's CEO
Antony Mandiwanza, Lobels CEO Burombo Mudumo
and Harambe Holdings David
Govere.
According to sources
Mandiwanza has become the prime target with Zanu
PF saying that it helped him
get control of Dairibord and farmland. He is
now seen as being at the
forefront of ruling party businessmen pushing for
the ouster of President
Robert Mugabe.
He has in the past condemned prize freezes by
government and was
particularly vocal in condemning the arrest of businessmen
last year for
charging more than the approved government prices. Mudumo was
one of the
businessmen arrested.
Govere was fired from his post
as chairman of the National Incomes and
Pricing Commission last week after
granting bakers the authority to increase
the price of bread.
Dairibord stopped production of milk on Wednesday while bread has been
in
short supply across the country. The Joint Operations Command (JOC),
a
national security taskforce, is said to have resolved last week to
arrest
the party's business elite who it viewed as not playing ball on the
issue of
reducing prices. It also plans to seize their business
empires.
JOC says the businessmen have joined forces with the two
opposition
MDC camps and external forces pushing for regime
change.
"They (government) believe these businessmen have not been
backing
government politically on the issue of prices. They think they are
trying to
use economic pressure to incite social unrest and topple
government," said
our source.
Mandiwanza and Govere were not
available for comment while Mudumo was
said to be in a meeting with his
secretary promising he would call back. He
had not done so at the time of
going to press.
Last week's unprecedented spate of price increases
was followed
hastily by an order from government that they reduce prices by
50%. Business
has reluctantly complied but shortages of basic commodities
have ensued
while some companies have closed down.
The Zimbabwe
Independent is informed that JOC will use force to get
the businessmen to
cooperate. Any failure to comply will be followed by the
seizure of the
concerned businesses and subsequent arrests of
targeted
executives.
The Cabinet Taskforce on Price Monitoring
and Stabilisation has
already received the full backing of JOC in its
campaign to have prices
reduced.
There have been cases reported
of soldiers and Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) operatives being used
to force producers and retailers to
slash their prices. JOC chairman Didymus
Mutasa who is also National
Security minister said he was unaware of any
blitz targeted at the prominent
businessmen.
"That's not true.
We are targeting everyone including Zanu PF
businessmen," Mutasa
said.
Zim Independent
Loughty Dube
ELECTIONS for the Zanu-PF Bulawayo provincial
executive hang in the
balance after it emerged that the party has been split
into two and its
leadership has further deferred elections to control the
feud within the
troubled province.
The bickering and in-house
fighting within the ruling Zanu PF Bulawayo
province has already seen 50
members of the party being suspended for
holding unsanctioned meetings in the
city.
But the delay in the election is causing more confusion in
the party
as the two feuding factions are holding clandestine meetings to
plot ahead
of the overdue elections.
It has however emerged that
the 50 suspended party members belong to a
faction understood to be led by
former provincial chairman Jabulani Sibanda,
who was dismissed from the party
for allegedly disobeying senior party
leaders from Matabeleland.
The suspended party members are accused of having boycotted a
meeting
addressed by the Zanu PF national commissar Elliot Manyika and
national
party chairman John Nkomo at the beginning of May.
The
suspended members instead held meetings at district level at the
same time
the two party leaders were addressing the provincial meeting.
Zanu
PF deputy national commissar, Richard Ndlovu, this week said
elections for
Bulawayo province will not be held soon as the party was
still
restructuring.
"The restructuring exercise is still
ongoing but I can not give you a
date as to when the elections will be held.
The dates are not tangible yet
but we are still far from elections as we only
finished the first phase of
the restructuring last week," Ndlovu
said.
He however could not be drawn on the ongoing feud in the
province only
saying "everything will be put under control
soon".
Manyika failed to conduct elections for the province in May
after the
two feuding groups clashed leading to the elections being
postponed.
The Zanu PF politburo last month recommended that the
party
restructure first before elections are held.
The Sibanda
faction is in total control of the province and sources in
the party say the
current executive led by Macloud Tshawe has no support
base in the
province.
The sources however said Tshawe's long stay in office has
been through
the support he gets from politburo members in the province who
fear that if
elections are called anytime soon the Sibanda faction would
easily win.
A fuming Nkomo confirmed the split in the party when he
addressed a
restructuring meeting at Insukamini primary school in Bulawayo
last week.
"There is only one Zanu PF led by Tshawe," said Nkomo.
"He is the
legitimate provincial executive. He is the one who reports to the
Central
Committee. Do not be misled by anyone claiming to be the real Zanu
PF."
At the same meeting Nkomo lashed out at Sibanda whom he claims
was
spreading word that he (Nkomo) had him expelled from the
party.
Nkomo has dismissed Sibanda's claims as "rubbish" and says
he was
expelled instead for disobeying the party's command.
Party sources said the politburo members were afraid that if
Sibanda's
faction wins they will have no control of the province since most
politburo
members do not see eye to eye with Sibanda's faction.
Zanu PF Bulawayo province has been trying to re-organise its
structures that
were to see a substantive committee selected last month, but
due to fighting
the issue is still to be completed.
Zim Independent
Constantine Chimakure
THE government has ordered Masvingo
governor and resident minister,
Willard Chiwewe, to surrender some of his
farms to the state after it
emerged that he allegedly violated the one-man,
one-farm policy.
A land audit by the Ministry of Lands found that
Chiwewe owned three
farms - Clipsham on the outskirts of Masvingo and Ganyani
and Penhest, both
along the Masvingo-Mutare highway.
In a recent
letter to Chiwewe, Lands minister Didymus Mutasa ordered
the resident
minister to surrender some of the properties to the government
for
resettlement.
"From the evidence we got during the land audit it
has come to our
attention that you own more than one farm," the letter reads.
"You are
therefore directed to surrender some of them since it is government
policy
that one man should have one farm."
"You, however, have
the right to argue your case in the event that you
do not agree with the
evidence we got."
Mutasa told Chiwewe, also a former permanent
secretary at Foreign
Affairs, that the government was identifying land to
resettle thousands of
people before year-end and that multiple farm owners
should surrender their
properties to the state.
Efforts to get
comment from Chiwewe over the past week were fruitless,
but the governor
recently claimed that there was a plot to destroy his
political career. He
said there were people claiming that he owns more than
one farm.
Apart from Chiwewe, sources said, several senior government officials
with
multiple farms received similar letters to surrender
surplus
properties.
Some ministers, government and ruling Zanu
PF senior officials
allegedly grabbed more than one farm during the 2000 fast
track land reform
programme.
Numerous audits have been carried
out on land ownership, but little
has been done to repossess properties from
multiple farm owners.
Zim Independent
Itai
Mushekwe
GOVERNMENT radio jamming equipment reportedly
purchased in China has
backfired, gagging its own new shortwave project,
Voice of Zimbabwe (VOZ),
sources at the station revealed to the Zimbabwe
Independent this week.
The ambitious station, set up to counter
Western broadcasts, is said
to be battling to recruit qualified personnel to
run its operations while
its few employees are still in Harare instead of
moving to Gweru where it
was due to be housed. Sources said the equipment was
believed to be made up
of three jammers installed at Thornhill, a military
airbase and government
communications centre in the Midlands.
The plan was to block a perceived negative publicity campaign from
outside
radio stations such as Voice of America (VOA) funded by the US
State
Department, SW Radio which beams from London and Dutch-funded Voice of
the
People (VOP), among others. The jamming equipment has prevented VOZ
from
starting regular operations due to the self-signal interception going on
at
the station.
Zimbabweans have been forced to listen to state
radio programming
owing to punitive broadcasting laws enacted by government.
The country has
four state-controlled radio stations operating under the
frequency
modulation (FM) radio wave band and one shortwave, VOZ, which
appears to be
suffering a stillbirth.
Government clamped down on
Capital Radio, Zimbabwe's first independent
radio station in 2000 setting the
police on the station's offices in Harare
where its equipment was
confiscated. Radio Dialogue, a community radio
station housed in Bulawayo,
has also been forcibly shut down.
"Ever since the station was
launched on May 25, it is yet to start
regular operations," a source said.
"There are no news broadcast nor a set
programming timetable. To make things
worse there are no announcers,
liberation war music occasionally plays but
fades away at different times."
Government announced two months ago
that the station would run trial
broadcasts for three weeks on 5975 kHz and
4828 kHz, but the trials were a
major flop owing to the jamming machinery
from China.
In a bid to cover the broadcasting setback both
Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Holdings (ZBH) and Information minister Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu have remained
tight-lipped on the issue and have failed to give any
explanation as to why
the touted panacea to counter Western "pirate" radio
stations is failing to
broadcast.
VOZ boss, Happison
Muchechetere who is also a war veteran yesterday
denied that the station was
experiencing technical problems. He said
government had purchased
state-of-the-art equipment for the propaganda
project. Muchechetere said
government is at war on the airwaves with
imperialists. He said the
"imperialists" will not win.
"It's a war of the airwaves and we're
not afraid," said Muchechetere.
"We know we're at war with imperialists and
they are not going to win. You
people forget that you're doing propaganda for
the white man. I'm not
ashamed that I'm doing propaganda for Zimbabweans and
for someone who
liberated this country. Hapana chirikujammer apa (There is no
jamming here).
We are not experiencing any technical problems," he
said.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
THE benchmark industrial index yesterday retreated by
20% as investors
shied away from manufacturing, consumer and retail counters
that have been
hit hard by the on-going government crackdown on retailers
and
manufacturers.
Of the 71 trading mainstream industrial
counters on the stock market,
only Seed Co recorded gains yesterday. There
were no takers for consumer
counters like OK Zimbabwe which closed at $1 000
yesterday from $1 300 on
Wednesday. Before the forced price reduction the
counter was trading at $1
500.
Innscor Africa and Dairibord
Zimbabwe did not have any offers at $70
000 and $25 000 respectively
yesterday, dropping from $85 000 and $36 000
recorded on
Wednesday.
Agro-processing company National Foods Holdings did not
trade.
Econet Wireless also found no takers following the reduction
of
tariffs yesterday at $180 000 from $245 000 on Wednesday.
Analysts said the counters led the losses in response to price cuts
and
nationalisation threats by President Robert Mugabe and Vice-President
Joseph
Msika.
Analysts said the counters could continue to trade in the
red in the
short term as companies stopped producing.
Zim Independent
Kuda
Chikwanda
GOVERNMENT'S plan to re-introduce subsidies is a
counterproductive
move likely to stoke inflation, the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) has
said.
An IMF spokesperson told businessdigest
this week that any additional
government expenditure in the form of new
subsidies on basic commodities
would increase quasi-fiscal deficits which
will stoke inflation.
The IMF said the government will have no
choice but to resort to money
printing in order to finance the subsidies.
Government last week said it was
going to introduce subsidies on basic
commodities to control price
increases. It however did not say where the
money to fund the exercise would
come from.
The government is in
a serious cash squeeze because of reduced tax
revenues caused by the economic
crisis which has forced most companies to
close shop.
A
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries report said the economy had
shrunk by
30% since the crisis started in 2000. The other main sources of
government
revenue like tobacco and mineral exports have also slumped.
"Attempting to control inflation by subsidising prices is likely to
be
counterproductive," the IMF said.
"Unless new sources of
revenues are found, these subsidies will lead
to higher fiscal deficits and
new money printing, which will further fuel
inflation and inflation
expectations."
The fund said expectations of future inflation also
played a
significant role in the inflationary spiral. It recommended that
government
tightens its fiscal budget and eliminate all quasi-fiscal
activities to
stabilise the economy.
"Other main elements would
include exchange rate unification and full
liberalisation of the exchange
regime for current international payments and
transfers, the establishment of
a strong nominal anchor, liberalisation of
price controls, and imposition of
hard budget constraints for public
enterprises," the IMF said.
Finance minister, Samuel Mumbengegwi, refused to disclose how
government
intends to finance subsidies for all basic commodities.
"Why do you
want to know? Go and tell whoever sent you that I don't
want to speak to the
(Zimbabwe) Independent," Mumbengegwi said.
Industry and
International Trade minister Obert Mpofu was said to be
out of the office all
week by his secretary.
Saddled with a domestic debt of $2,1
trillion whose interest component
at $1,5 trillion is 73% of the debt,
government has few financing options on
its hands. It will either borrow from
the private sector or to print money -
all of which is highly
inflationary.
Official inflation stands at 4 500% but the IMF last
week said the
figure was more likely 10 000%.
The strained
fiscal budget can hardly accommodate subsidies as the tax
revenue base has
shrunk in real terms. This leaves the option of printing
money.
Economic analyst, John Robertson, said government would have to resort
to the
printing press to fund the subsidies.
"There is no way of funding
without printing money. Even if government
were to try and push subsidies
into the fiscal budget, the tax revenue base
has been shrinking as fewer
people are in gainful employment. So the option
left would be to print money
to fund the fiscal budget," Robertson said.
An economist with a
local commercial bank said while subsidies were
supposed to come from the
budget, it was impossible to do so because
government was hard pressed for
funds.
"Everyone knows government is cash-strapped. The budget
deficit is
very high. Government is also battling to import food and fuel. It
is faced
with a diminished tax base. They will have to monetarise the deficit
by
printing money," he said.
Last week government froze price
increases and introduced subsidies in
the production chain as a way of
controlling spiraling prices of
commodities.
It ordered price
reductions of 50% on selected grocery items, a move
observers said was
designed to win the hearts and minds of the people ahead
of next year's
elections.
Industry players have been promised fuel at $15 000 a
litre in return
for not hiking their prices.
Government has also
resorted to repressive measures to enforce its
directive. It deployed the
army which cracked down on businesses which did
not comply with the
directive.
Soldiers descended on a cement selling outlet in Msasa,
Harare and
forcibly sold cement at $120 000 a bag instead of $1
million.
Zim Independent
By Tara
Walraven
THEIR eyes dance at the thought of the newly drawn
cash, still warm in
their pockets, preventing their wallets from closing,
weighing heavy as they
walk.
They approach the supermarkets with
expressions of hope but leave with
faces full of disappointment and despair
with shopping bags as empty as
their recently replenished
wallets.
Pensioners, mothers and youths are all performing what
appears to be a
carefully choreographed dance routine: pick up, sigh, put
down and move on.
In supermarkets across the country, the activity
along the shelves is
the same: young and old wander the aisles confused, and
baffled as the
assortment of goods $1,5 million can buy you continues to
change. The only
thing that stays the same is the fact that it is not a
lot.
With banks restricting withdrawals for individuals to $1,5
million a
day, grocery shopping has become something Zimbabweans dread. But
as prices
around the country were reduced over the weekend, the emptiness of
shopping
carts is revealing.
Just last week a 2kg packet of rice
cost $700 000 and a single
withdrawal could only buy two. Due to the new
price controls the very same
packet now costs $300 000. An extra three
packets can be bought at least
when available.
As people rush to
the shops to take advantage of the reduced prices,
the trolleys are fuller
and people try to be comforted by the illusion of
returning to the
comfortable lives of the 90s.
Back in 1981, houses were valued at
about $25 000. In 2007 these
houses cost $25 billion.
Cars were
worth $11 000 and today they cost anything above $3 billion.
Today is
"millionaires" can't afford a bicycle.
How things have changed over
the past 27 years since Independence!
A price list published by the
Bulawayo Publicity Association in
January 1981 shows that a loaf of bread
cost 30 cents, 2kg sugar 59c, a
dozen eggs 75c and 5kg maize meal 51c. A
two-piece safari suit cost $27
while a shirt could be yours for $17, 90.
Amazing isn't it that after 26
years you can't possibly give the same amounts
to a primary school kid for
pocket money.
The numbers seem
ridiculous but this is the reality in which we find
ourselves in 2007. The
figures no longer make sense at all because of
hyperinflation now believed to
be scratching 6 000%.
Remedial state policies to dock three zeros
from Zimbabwe's forlorn
currency and lately to force retailers to reduce the
prices of goods and
services have failed to keep up with the galloping
inflation.
Today, just 22 short years later from the heyday of
1985, forget about
car sales floors and estate agents. A wad of $1,5 million
notes will take
you to the supermarket and these are your options: 10 packets
of plain
biscuits or 10 tubs of Vaseline, 10kg of rice or one bottle of
Marmite,
eight tins of Heinz baked beans or four tubes of Colgate
toothpaste.
"Not even a cooking pot," sighed one shop assistant,
the price tag
reading $1,6 million.
Even tea and coffee to help
face the morning frost will consume a
significant amount of this
limit.
"Nothing, absolutely nothing," was the response shoppers
gave when
asked to describe what would be in their trolleys with the bank
limit of
$1,5 million.
Although this is not entirely true they
struggled to elaborate on what
they would be able to take home for such a
small amount of money.
Only seven years ago, it would have come as
a shock when someone
called over a million dollars "a small amount of
money".
One shopper said that she would expect to spend anything up
to $20
million in a single grocery shop. She looked undisturbed as the
numbers
rolled off her tongue.
Zimbabweans have grown very
accustomed to talking in the millions what
should be, before the three zeros
were dropped, billions. A language that
was only spoken by a few very
successful businessmen has now become the
language in the streets and
supermarkets of Zimbabwe.
Warm clothing is an obvious necessity now
that the winter months are
upon us. A very basic warm jacket to help combat
the winter chills will cost
anything from $3 million to $6 million, certainly
falling far out of the
bank allowance.
It seems we may have to
rely on the eight tins of baked beans to keep
us warm until summer. Who would
have thought baked beans would prove to be
so useful?
So, enter
a supermarket after making a withdrawal of $1,5 million and
expect to put
only the very necessary into the trolley. But who knows what
the average
trolley will contain next week? Perhaps it is only a matter of
time until
they once again seem to develop invisible holes that drain our
shopping out
of them.
Equally likely is the possibility of full trolleys, a
daily withdrawal
from the bank becoming significant once more and allowing us
to afford the
luxuries we have learnt to do without.
At the rate
things are going it seems almost believable that we could
be visiting the
estate agents next month with $1,5 million, ready to buy a
decent house, or
to the car sales floors to fetch a new car. This is all but
a
dream.
In the meantime, we can only sit and wait, performing our
now
well-practised dance in our everyday shopping, waiting for time to
reveal
all.
Zim Independent
By
Jonathan Moyo
IF there is a lesson that Elliot Manyika - the
Zanu PF national
political commissar and minister without portfolio - should
learn urgently
before going any further with his Zanu PF propaganda against
the business
community over the government's ongoing self-defeating war on
prices, it is
that because propaganda is not a substitute for policy, he
should not hold
it in his hands for too long lest it starts moving like a
deadly snake that
can strike him, his party and government to a spectacular
political demise.
Manyika hogged the media limelight this week as
acting chairman of the
Cabinet Taskforce on Price Monitoring and
Stabilisation by going berserk and
ordering parastatals and "all producers of
goods and services" in the
national economy to reverse the prices of their
products to levels obtaining
before June 18 or face arrest.
His
order was of course not entirely new as it came hot on the heels
of a similar
mind-boggling command made last week by Obert Mpofu, the
chairman of the
Cabinet Taskforce on Price Monitoring and Stabilisation, who
is also Industry
minister and deputy secretary for national security in the
Zanu PF
politburo.
Mpofu had taken his cue from President Robert Mugabe who
had earlier
in the same week shocked Zimbabweans and the international
community by
threatening to shut down, seize and nationalise companies that
did not cut
the prices of their products by half, accusing them of seeking
illegal
regime change.
Whereas Mugabe and Mpofu had targeted
private companies last week,
Manyika this week raised the stakes even higher
by including parastatals and
any other producer of goods or services in the
national economy whom he
threatened with arrest if they did not comply with
price reduction orders.
The deployment of Manyika in the senseless
price war by the Zanu PF
government, to the point of making him acting
chairman of the Cabinet
Taskforce on Price Monitoring and Stabilisation when
he is a political
commissar without portfolio in Cabinet, is understandable
but most
unfortunate.
It is understandable because Zanu PF has
since 2000 defined the
national crisis only and always in propaganda terms.
As national political
commissar responsible for the creation and maintenance
of Zanu PF grassroots
structures at cell, branch, district and provincial
levels, Manyika is a
natural source and conveyor of that
propaganda.
The reason he is minister without portfolio is to
enable him to be
salaried by taxpayers so as to sit in Cabinet in order to be
familiar with
the goings-on there on behalf of Zanu PF exclusively for
propaganda
purposes, which is all that the ruling party is now about. In
other words,
Manyika is minister without government portfolio because his
real portfolio
is Zanu PF affairs at the expense of the fiscus.
The price war against the business community, in fact against the
national
economy, is a Zanu PF affair. This is why it was most unfortunate
that the
Cabinet Taskforce on Price Monitoring and Stabilisation deployed
Manyika and
made him its acting chairman empowered to decree that all
producers of goods
and services in the national economy must slash the
prices of their products,
without reference to the cost of production, or
risk being thrown in
jail.
If the price war was a national affair beyond Zanu PF, then
Manyika
would not be involved in it to the point of taking centre stage. In
the
absence of Mpofu, another minister heading an economic ministry, and
there
are many of them around, would have been made the acting chairman
of
taskforce.
It is notable that the Finance minister and the
governor of the
Reserve Bank, who are the principal government voices on the
fiscal and
monetary management of the national economy, have thus far been
silent on
the price war.
The same goes for the Minister of
Public Service, Labour and Social
Welfare, Nicholas Goche, who chairs the
National Tripartite Forum (TNF)
which brings together the government, labour
and business all which recently
signed a social contract whose main objective
was to stabilise prices
through negotiation and dialogue.
Interestingly Zanu PF, which is not a member of the TNF, has taken the
lead
to reduce that much-heralded social contract to worthless paper. What
is
worse is that the Zanu PF-based Joint Operations Command (JOC), under
the
chairmanship of the Minister of State for National Security, Didymus
Mutasa,
has joined the fray to coordinate and lead the price war against
the
business community.
As a result, Zimbabwe now has a
law-and-order approach to the
management of the national economy reminiscent
of the collapsed command
economies in the former eastern European socialist
republics. Personnel in
the police, national intelligence and the army have
been turned overnight
into price inspectors with all the usual trappings of
corruption and
brutality.
It is only a clueless government
driven by a desperate political party
supported by a corrupt and partisan
police, national intelligence and
national army that can even entertain the
inherently foolish thought that
pricing in the national economy of a modern
society in the 21st century can
be run in an effective, efficient and
sustainable way on the basis of
commissariat commands and decrees from the
likes of Manyika.
By taking the approach it has taken, Zanu PF is
confirming to all and
sundry that it has come to the end of the road and is
now unable to govern
without resorting to nonsensical propaganda or resorting
to Gestapo tactics.
The notion that only such propaganda and tactics can
defend Zimbabwe's
sovereignty and consolidate the gains of our hard-won
national Independence
such as the recovery of our land rights is now utter
rubbish which harms the
national interest.
Notwithstanding some
lingering mistakes which are correctable, the
land reform exercise between
2000 and 2004 was rightly justified on the
grounds that it was correcting
historical injustice precipitated by
colonialism. That reasoning cannot be
applied to Mugabe's outrageous threat
to seize and monopolise private
companies, including those that belong to
black Zimbabweans - many who are
Zanu PF leaders or members - who are trying
to make ends meet under
impossible economic conditions caused by bad conduct
of national
politics.
Surely the government is aware that many companies have
closed down
resulting in untold job losses and reduced GDP, and that the
government
itself has failed to assist such companies, simply because of the
present
sad circumstances of our nation. Against this background, it boggles
the
mind how the same government imagines that it can take over companies
that
refuse to slash the prices of their products and manage to keep
those
companies operational.
It is a fact that the majority of
farms that were seized from former
white commercial farmers and reallocated
either to government institutions
or new farmers remain unproductive. It
would be catastrophic to replicate
that experience across the national
economy under the guise of preventing
alleged illegal regime change or even
under the guise of helping consumers.
The government does not need
rocket scientists to tell it that its
mindless Gestapo approach to pricing
will inevitably lead to the complete
disappearance of goods and services from
the formal market and that it will
not be able to produce those goods and
services.
Everyone can see that the government is in a dark hole.
But when you
are in such a hole, you do not continue to dig. You simply get
out of the
hole. That is what the Zanu PF government needs to do and do so
urgently: it
must get out of the dark hole it dug for itself without making
any excuses
which no longer have any takers besides those who make the
excuses.
The hole in question is political. Zimbabwe desperately
needs a
political settlement as a framework for resolving the economic
meltdown that
has brought price instability in the national economy. While
reasonable
people and patriotic Zimbabweans will have different views as to
the details
of that much needed political settlement, what is obvious is that
there is a
need for constitutional and leadership change. Without that, there
will be
no economic reform in Zimbabwe whether there is rain or
sunshine.
In the circumstances, Mugabe and the rest of the national
leadership
must stop playing silly polemical games laced with misplaced
revolutionary
heroics and start focusing on real areas of reform for our
nation to be able
to move forward. And there can be no better focus than on
the ongoing
Sadc-mandated mediation. The details of what to do are in that
mediation.
* Professor Jonathan Moyo is a political scientist and
independent MP
for Tsholotsho.
Zim Independent
Constantine Chimakure
IT may be early days in office for
British Premier Gordon Brown, but
Harare is already optimistic that improved
UK-Zimbabwe relations are on the
horizon.
Brown pledged in his
first public remarks last Wednesday that he would
do away with the "old
politics" and lead a new government with fresh
priorities.
With
the departure of Harare's bitter arch-rival Tony Blair and the
entrance of
Brown, will Britain have a radical policy shift on Zimbabwe that
could see
normal bilateral relations restored between the two countries and
probably
with the European Union (EU) and the United States as well?
"Well
he (Blair) is gone. We hope that those who come after him will
look at
Zimbabwe and the past policy and try to improve that past,"
thundered
President Robert Mugabe at the burial of national hero,
Brigadier-General
Armstrong Paul Gunda in Harare last week.
Zimbabwe hopes Brown will
lead an "era of change" and improve
relations between the two - which Harare
claims were strained by the land
reform programme while London insists the
rupture was a result of gross
human rights abuses and electoral
fraud.
Blair stands accused of reneging on the 1979 Lancaster House
agreement
on the obligation of the UK to fund land reforms in Zimbabwe and
is
perceived as an instigator of EU and US sanctions against the
country.
Political commentators and analysts this week said it was
early days
for Harare to celebrate Blair's departure from office, as Brown
was expected
to continue with UK policy on Zimbabwe, especially as there has
been no
change in Zimbabwe's delinquent behaviour.
Apart from
the UK policy, the analysts observed, Brown was also bound
by the EU common
position on Zimbabwe.
The EU common position includes targeted
sanctions that consist of a
visa ban and asset freeze on 131 named members of
the government of
Zimbabwe. It also provides for an arms
embargo.
The measures, according to the UK, do not affect ordinary
Zimbabweans,
but target the elite who underpin Mugabe's rule and implement
his policies.
British Embassy deputy head of mission and acting
spokesperson in
Harare, Valerie Brownridge, said the UK's position on
Zimbabwe would not
change as a result of Brown coming into
power.
"We will continue to encourage reform in Zimbabwe to end
human rights
abuses, create democratic space and begin economic stabilisation
and
recovery," Brownridge said in a written response to questions from
the
Zimbabwe Independent. "We will maintain our support for the Southern
African
Development Community (Sadc)'s initiative to address the Zimbabwe
crisis and
the attempts to introduce the foundations for a free and fair
election in
2008. Our focus has always been on changing policy, not
personalities."
Constitutional lawyer and National Constitutional
Assembly chairperson
Lovemore Madhuku said the government was celebrating too
soon.
"There is no way the UK is going to change its policy on
Zimbabwe," he
said. Madhuku said Brown was part and parcel of the UK cabinet
which
formulated the current policy on Zimbabwe and there was no way he
could
change it.
"Brown was Blair's close ally, he was the
Chancellor (of the
Exchequer) and their Labour party is still in power.
Brown's cabinet is more
or less the same as that of Blair. How then is Brown
going to change the
stance on Zimbabwe?" Madhuku asked.
He said
what could change is the style of governance and priorities,
but not
policies.
"The government is aware of that. Mugabe has chosen to
believe his own
propaganda that things will change with Brown. The problem in
the first
place was not Blair, but Mugabe's human rights abuse
record.
"Very soon everyone would realise that Brown will not
change anything
and I advise the government to start teaching its supporters
how to
correctly pronounce Brown's name as they will be soon at his throat,"
added
Madhuku.
Former ZimRights executive director David
Chimhini concurred with
Madhuku, adding that while it was desirable for a UK
policy shift, facts on
the ground prove otherwise.
"It will be
nice if the UK shift its policy," said Chimhini. "But I
don't see that
happening as long as the Zimbabwe government continues with
human rights
abuses and poor governance. It takes two to tango. As a country
we need to
change the way we are doing things, there is need for a
paradigm
shift."
Chimhini, the director of the Zimbabwe Civic
Education Trust, said
Zimbabwe should not expect the UK to change its stance
as long as its
concerns were not addressed.
"What we need to do
as a country is basic - respect human rights and
good governance. Once that
is in place, I am of the opinion that there won't
be problems with the UK,
the EU and the international community in changing
their policies on
Zimbabwe," he added.
Political scientist Michael Mhike said Brown
would not relent on
Zimbabwe.
"The problem with our government
is that it has personalised its
bilateral dispute with the UK. They viewed
Blair as a problem," Mhike said.
"This is a matter concerning abuse of human
rights and it has since stopped
to be a Zimbabwe-UK issue. It is now an
international case."
He said Zimbabwe needed to right its wrongs
first and see whether the
UK and international community would not play ball
with them.
In a statement last week, Information minister
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said:
"We have an open mind as a sovereign country and we
do hope Gordon Brown
will make that realisation.
"He must be
given time to organise his new cabinet, policies and
future relations with
Zimbabwe.
"We cannot instigate and say he must do this, but in the
same vein we
know he has respect for Zimbabwe."
Zim Independent
By Wilfred Mhanda
STATUTORY Instrument 64 of
2007, the Defence (War Veterans Reserve)
Regulations, established a reserve
force of the army to be known as the "war
veterans reserve".
The
motive or rationale for the establishment of the force was never
made clear
nor were the generality of the former liberation war fighters
themselves and
the public at large ever consulted on the establishment of
the
force.
This is typical of President Robert Mugabe regime's arrogant
and
authoritarian rule. Everything is decreed.
In the
circumstances, it is only fair to speculate on Mugabe's need
for a force
composed of war veterans at this point in time.
Zimbabwe is neither
at war with any neighbouring or foreign country
nor does it face any
potential military threat from anywhere let alone from
within the
region.
Even when the country was involved in wars in Mozambique
and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, the need for such a force was
never
mooted.
The interrogation of the need for a war veterans
reserve force now is
therefore pertinent.
The only potent threat
that the Mugabe regime could possibly face
today is the threat of revolt by
its disgruntled populace that has exhausted
its forbearance.
The
regime has presided over the demise of the country's economy that
has in turn
precipitated a humanitarian catastrophe of immense proportions
and wrought
untold misery and suffering, unprecedented in the
country's
history.
The majority of the country's people have
been reduced to paupers who
struggle on the lifeline of survival and
extinction year in and year out
prompting a mass exodus to neighbouring
countries and further afield.
For many, basic existence has lost
its meaning and significance.
In other words, if the Mugabe regime
is facing any threat at all, that
threat can only be the threat of revolt by
its severely repressed populace
and the former fighters are being enlisted as
foot soldiers against the same
people that they took up arms to
liberate.
To all intents and purposes, it would be the ultimate
undoing of
liberation by the supposed "liberators". Nothing could be more
diabolical
and irresponsible for the former "liberators" to do.
This would in essence put the last nail on the coffin of the already
battered
image and reputation of the former gallant fighters for liberation.
This would not be the first time that the former fighters have been
set
against the suffering masses by Mugabe, in pursuit of
"political
cleansing".
The destructive, violent and chaotic farm
invasions of the early 2000s
and the violence and anarchy that characterised
the 2000 and 2002 general
and presidential elections respectively (if one has
the audacity to term
them as such!) were conducted in their
name.
All the evil, violence, murders, deaths, torture, rape,
intimidation,
forcible displacements, expropriation and destruction of homes
and property
were ascribed to them, leaving the puppet master and his
hangers-on with
"clean hands".
The former fighters were made to
spearhead the fight against the very
same ideals that they had taken up arms
and sacrificed life, limb and
depravation for viz freedom, democracy, social
justice, human dignity and
peace.
All this was part of Mugabe's
evil design to besmirch the honour and
reputation of the former fighters so
as to alienate them from the populace
while at the same time being the
beneficiary of their misdeeds.
Mugabe and his cronies got
everything from the mayhem of the early
2000s whereas the former fighters
themselves had nothing to show after the
looting. That is called killing two
birds with one stone.
For the record, no former freedom fighter
ever got a farm from the
invasions before the year 2002 despite being
"touted" as the flag-bearers of
the invasions.
Chenjerai Hunzvi
himself died a pauper without even a single farm and
his sidekicks, Joseph
Chinotimba and others, only got them after 2002.
However, what the
former fighters as a category got from the
reprehensible and
counter-productive process was alienation from the
populace, denigration,
loss of respect and public standing in the eyes of
the nation,
notwithstanding the fact that the atrocities were perpetrated by
a minority
of rogue war veterans and notorious non-former fighters like
Hunzvi,
Chinotimba and company.
Clearly, the former fighters were
shortchanged by the wily and
evil-minded despot, Mugabe. Mugabe's dirty
tricks earned the former fighters
as a whole public scorn for the misdeeds of
a few.
No wonder many respectable former fighters, in an agonising
display of
withdrawal symptoms, are averse to publicly identifying themselves
with the
liberation war.
Mugabe has never had a heart for the
former fighters since his
ascendancy to the leadership of Zanu in January
1977 in a coup from the top.
He has always viewed them as expendable objects
in the service of his
insatiable quest for total power.
Mugabe's
desire to denigrate the former fighters stems from his desire
to tarnish them
out of the Zanu PF power equation, which now extends to
cover the issue of
his succession.
Mugabe made up his mind to succeed himself a long
time ago, and to
him, the former fighters should not entertain any thoughts
of power or
decision-making within Zanu PF.
This does not
however stop him from abusing them to perpetrate
repressive acts and in
running the state machinery. But any pretence to
power has to stop
there!
Be that as it may, it is tragic that both opposition forces
and civil
society have swallowed hook, line and sinker Mugabe's evil
stratagem to blot
the image of the former liberation war fighters to suit his
power designs.
What did Mugabe ever do for the former fighters
before they rose in
demand for justifiable compensation for their role in the
liberation
struggle?
Rather than sympathise with their demands,
the former fighters were
blamed for crashing the economy, forgetting the role
of Mugabe's looting of
parastatals since independence and his wasteful war in
the Congo.
In fact, the former fighters were expected to get
nothing while the
former Rhodesian soldiers they fought against were,
courtesy of Mugabe,
enjoying their pensions in foreign currency including Ian
Smith himself.
What an affront to the former fighters!
Rather than stopping to think and reason that it was only a minority
of the
former fighters, a sprinkling of rogue war veterans among pseudo
war
veterans, who committed atrocities against the people, they
subliminally
blanket every former fighter as being inherently
pro-Mugabe.
If the truth be told, both the opposition and civil
society harbour
greater hatred for the war veterans than for Mugabe
himself.
Rather than engage the former fighters to soul-search on
what they
fought for, they counter-pose their abhorrence for them. Rather
than view
them as co-victims of Mugabe's repressive rule, they consider them
to be
Mugabe's hardcore supporters.
Rather than courting them as
potential allies in the struggle for
democracy, they consider them to be
anti-freedom and anti-democracy forces
to be overcome.
Rather
than honouring and acknowledging their sacrifices for the
liberation of the
country, they pour derision on them condescendingly.
If the sad
truth be told, the former liberation war fighters are an
endangered species
viewed with disdain by Zanu PF politicians on the one
hand and the opposition
and civil society on the other.
It is however high time for a
paradigm shift and a reality check; it
is time to build bridges between the
former fighters and the opposition and
civil society, as they are both
victims of Mugabe's tyranny.
The unremitting suffering to which we
are all subject should help
forge indelible bonds of liberation. The fact
that there are a few misguided
former fighters, a few rotten and bad apples
among them should not override
the common denominator of shared brutal
oppression, suffering and abuse by
the dictatorial Mugabe
regime.
To the former fighters themselves, the message is: it is
high time
they abandoned the sinking "Titanic".
Their heroic
sacrifices and honour for the liberation of their country
should not be
sacrificed on the altar of expediency for short-term gains.
The
gratuities they got and the monthly pensions they receive are
neither out of
Zanu PF's benevolence nor its grace but justifiably deserved
recognition for
their sacrifices for their country.
There is need to put this in
context.
All countries that fought liberation, resistance or
patriotic wars
have a special place for their heroes in both their
institutional memory and
their national history just as we hold Mbuya
Nehanda, Lobengula, Sekuru
Kaguvi and others in eternal esteem.
This is generally expressed in material and other forms of
genuine
appreciation. The material acknowledgement in the form of pensions,
farms,
residential stands etc that former Rhodesian soldiers, black and
white,
received from the British Empire for fighting its wars is living
testimony
for this.
To this end, the former fighters need
neither be ashamed of nor be
derided for what others elsewhere would
ordinarily deserve or enjoy.
Mugabe is criminally abusing the
justifiably deserved payouts to the
former fighters as patronage to buy
support for his repressive and unpopular
rule.
All the former
fighters should be above partisan political interests
and subscribe to the
higher and lasting ideals of nation building and
unflinching defence of the
people's fundamental interests for freedom and
peace.
The former
fighters can ill-afford tying their fate and legacy to that
of the tyrannical
and repressive Mugabe regime that has done everything to
negate what they
stood and fought for.
The country is bleeding, the nation is
suffering and the time for
solidarity is now. That is the hallmark of true
patriotism.
* Wilfred Mhanda (aka Dzinashe Machingura) is a
distinguished veteran
of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war. He is a founder
member of the Zimbabwe
Liberators Platform (ZLP), an association of war
veterans.
Zim Independent
By
Crisford Chogugudza
THE Zimbabwean political puzzle is one of
the most intriguing in
contemporary African politics today.
What
started in earnest as a liberation project for disenfranchised
and brutalised
people has turned into one of the most demonic tyrannical
nightmares in
recent memory.
In 1980, when Zimbabwe obtained its independence
from Britain, there
was a lot of hope that the country would prosper and
become one of Africa's
leading economic jewels.
This was never
going to materialise courtesy of the self-proclaimed
Marxist Robert Mugabe
and his ultra-loyalists.
The fallen heroes of Zimbabwe, including
Joshua Nkomo, Herbert
Chitepo, Eddison Zvobgo, Ndabaningi Sithole, Josiah
Tongogara, Jason Moyo,
Lookout Masuku and Nikita Mangena, to name a few, must
be wondering what has
happened to the struggle they dedicated their selfless
efforts to.
If a leadership is incapable of feeding and valuing the
lives of its
own people irrespective of political affiliation, then it does
not deserve
to represent the people.
The fast-deteriorating
socio-economic status of Zimbabweans at home
today is clear testimony that
the revolution is coming to an end.
Today in Zimbabwe marks the
beginning of the end of an era for Zanu PF
and its opportunistic mantra on
land reform.
The big question is: will Zanu PF fall without a fight
and at what
cost?
Ten to 15 years following Independence in
Zimbabwe, Mugabe suddenly
changed political course and intensified his
rhetoric to the West against
the background of fast-deteriorating grassroots
support as a consequence of
years of economic malaise and political
mess.
Cronyism, corruption, suppression of the media and civil
liberties
became the order of the day. The rule of law became a luxury that
the Zanu
PF party and government could not afford.
The emotive
land issue suddenly became Mugabe's trump card against the
opposition and the
gullible peasants. His opportunistic hijacking of the
land issue cannot be
justified but nevertheless, he has used it as an
effective political tool to
reinvent himself and galvanise his dwindling
support.
It is only
in Zimbabwe the world over where ironically the
octogenarian leadership
thinks they have the capacity to extricate the
people from deep-rooted
poverty.
While the majority of Zimbabweans support land reform, not
many
support the chaotic land reform of the Zanu PF type which has brought
more
suffering than solutions.
The major beneficiaries of this
chaotic land reform are Zanu PF
bigwigs, their closest associates and zealots
of the kongonya/nhora dance
fame.
Today many Zimbabweans are
suffering in a country that once had a
tremendous economic potential to
outstage all other African countries in the
sub-Saharan region outside South
Africa.
Some analysts have said that the revival of Zimbabwe's
economy will
not be conceivable as long as Mugabe and Zanu PF are allowed to
impose their
will on powerless Zimbabweans.
The international
community including multilateral finance
institutions such as the
International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the
International Finance
Corporation and the Africa Development Bank will not
support any economy that
is run in a mafia style where the inflation rate
has reached the
stratosphere.
History has taught us that economic performance and
the standard of
life in general have improved in those African countries that
are in
transition from ultra-nationalist dictatorships to reformist
liberal
democracies.
The opposition which once had a huge
potential to change the political
landscape in Zimbabwe is gradually fading
into political oblivion.
The leaders of the fractious opposition
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) party need to get their act together,
repackage themselves and fight
elections as a united front. There is no
substitute for unity or coalition
in next year's elections.
It
appears there are miscalculated perceptions from the mainstream
MDC
(Tsvangirai) faction that it can go it alone. But the perceived Zanu
PF
demise may not work to its favour as the faction needs 30-40% support
from
the MDC (Mutambara) camp to have an effect on Zanu PF, let alone
win
elections.
Arthur Mutambara appears to have compromised his
candidature to allow
Morgan Tsvangirai to be the sole opposition presidential
candidate under the
banner of a united opposition for the sake of freedom in
Zimbabwe.
Mutambara's extra-ordinary gesture of tolerance,
flexibility and
humility can only be found in great men who put country first
before
individual as did Joshua Nkomo in 1987.
Many who attended
the Save Zimbabwe campaign rally in Dunstable, UK,
recently were surprised
that Mutambara did not address them alongside
Tsvangirai although he was in
the United Kingdom at the same time. What a
sad story.
The story
of perpetual opposition failure to dislodge Kenya's
strongman Daniel arap Moi
in the 1990s should not be forgotten.
It is a fact that the current
state of the economy will be a major
factor in galvanising a formidable
Tsvangirai/Mutambara political onslaught
which is the best strategy for
confronting Mugabe and Zanu PF at next year's
elections.
The
people of Zimbabwe will have a clear choice between starvation
and
humiliation under the moribund Zanu PF regime as opposed to hope,
revival
and prosperity under a rebranded, united MDC opposition
effort.
Under the current economic dispensation, I do not see how
Zanu PF can
win any free and fair election in Zimbabwe. They will be lucky to
get 30% of
the vote share but of course Zimbabweans know what the old man is
capable of
doing: manipulation of elections in his favour.
Some
have asked about Mugabe's position after freedom. The people of
Zimbabwe must
decide what to do with him.
There is no denying that the
beleaguered leader was instrumental in
bringing Independence and was the
power behind a lot of social successes in
Zimbabwe, including improved
education where the literacy rate is the
highest in Africa at
90,7%.
The old man needs to bargain for his future immunity in
return for
voluntarily relinquishing power sooner.
It is widely
assumed that Mugabe would want to go if he is assured of
amnesty from
prosecution for crimes against humanity. If this is true, a
deal of some sort
may need to be struck between Mugabe and the fractured
political opposition
in Zimbabwe towards that direction.
It appears Mugabe cannot
realise that he has outlived his sell-by-date
and that the people no longer
have any faith in him. He has become the
greatest liability in Zimbabwean
politics today.
Ironically, the man has become very powerful and
getting rid of him is
no mean business.
It is worrying that
removing him through democratic means (elections)
has not worked because he
manipulates the election machinery to his
advantage every time.
He has politicised and militarised virtually all social institutions
and an
election victory against him needs changes of seismic proportions
to
succeed.
Removing him by military means is not an option
either, let alone a
viable option looking at the mess that was created in
Iraq, and in any case
the generality of the African leaders and their
peaceful people would oppose
this.
The only option remaining now
for Mugabe's ouster is to negotiate with
him and his most influential
southern neighbour and ally, South Africa's
President Thabo Mbeki, that is if
2008 elections fail to achieve that
objective.
Most importantly,
if the West is prepared to build bridges with Libya,
Iran, North Korea and
Syria, I see no reason why they cannot do the same
with Zimbabwe strongman
Mugabe.
Any efforts to negotiate with Mugabe should be based on the
principle
of liberating a community in perpetual fear and without
hope.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's policy on Zimbabwe
was a
disaster of grotesque proportions and unfortunately most Western
leaders
concurred with Blair's failed foreign policy and this created a
stalemate on
peace overtures in Zimbabwe.
Hopefully, new British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown will adopt a
better, more focused, realistic and
effective foreign policy on Zimbabwe.
It is not clear whether the
current Mbeki-brokered talks between Zanu
PF and the MDC will yield any
significant results enough to change the
course of the succession debate at
State House.
The danger of not engaging Mugabe now is that more
people in Zimbabwe
will starve and die as there is no hope of him
relinquishing power like
Blair without excessive pressure.
In
the absence of new political initiatives to negotiate a political
settlement
to bring sanity and a semblance of socio-economic normality,
Zimbabweans will
have to wait until Mugabe falls dead before there can be
any real change in
Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is at a critical period of a once promising
revolution that
has dismally failed a whole generation of our
people.
* Crisford Chogugudza is a Zimbabwean writing from the
UK.
Zim Independent
Comment
WE
have over the years seen the Zanu PF government's systematic
destruction of
this country but events this week proved beyond doubt that
this regime does
not just lack good sense and foresight but has become
dangerous to its
people.
This week government's bully boys were going from shop to
shop forcing
retailers to change prices to levels even lower than those
prescribed by the
state last week. These government agents had in tow scores
of "customers"
who took advantage of the price bonanza to strip shops of
merchandise and in
some cases looting goods. The state has argued that this
exercise is meant
to benefit consumers who have struggled under a high
pricing regime.
The results of the exercise, as has been
demonstrated for the
umpteenth time, were entirely predictable. Goods have
disappeared from shop
shelves. Manufacturers have switched off the machinery
and supermarkets have
started to close down. There is no bread, sugar, salt,
margarine, meat, or
flour as goods disappear from the shelves. There were
reports of massive
retrenchments in the retail sector this week and the
manufacturers are set
to follow suit. It is shocking that a group of adult
politicians would look
at their handiwork and rub their hands with glee.
Information minister
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu even believes that this economy have
never been stronger.
By what stretch of magic?
This economy is
currently at its weakest since the recession hit five
years ago. Any
government worthy of the name should be preoccupying itself
with formulating
measures that ensure that productivity in industry and in
agriculture are
enhanced. Because we have such a poor crop of leaders, the
best they have
been able to think up under the circumstances are
retrogressive projects that
will only result in deindustrialisation. This
government has failed to come
up with prudent economic policies to ignite
economic recovery. Only last
year, the government was vending the mantras of
co-operation with the private
sector under the supposed quick-fix NEDPP
impetus. This, like other past
policies has been interred in a cemetery of
failed programmes.
As government thinks up another piece of fiction to convey to the
populace as
an economic programme, it has found it convenient to come up
with the
dim-witted plan. The current project ranks as one of the worst in a
basket
which contains farm invasions and factory occupations. In all these
instances
the government has argued that it is working for the common good.
How wrong
it has been. In the current descent into madness the lot of
Zimbabweans will
not improve simply because they are given the opportunity
to access goods at
low prices or are afforded state escort to go and loot
shops. The message
from government here is that the people should access
cheaper goods and
services even if it means the factories producing the
goods shut
down.
Where did President Mugabe learn this type of economics?
Firstly he
appoints a huge cabinet stuffed with almost half a dozen economic
ministers
holding portfolios of Finance, Economic Development,
Indigenisation,
Industry, SMEs Development, Mining and Agriculture. We want
to ask what
contribution the men who hold these offices have made to the
economic
development of this county? Their record to date has been sterile.
Their
presence does not matter anyway because this economy has been reduced
to a
caricature run by taskforces which depend on militias and not
consultation
to enforce regulations.
After bringing down
agriculture to its knees, we saw the same strategy
being implemented with the
introduction of command agriculture. Are we now
going to see soldiers running
factories like they are doing on the farms?
They have already had dress
rehearsals at parastatals. The possibility is
there.
The
government of President Mugabe is forcing itself on the people.
The only way
it can stay in power is to fight its own people. The record of
this
scandalous behaviour is there for all to see. The government has fought
white
commercial farmers and won a pyrrhic victory which saw the death
of
agriculture. It fought urban dwellers under Operation Murambatsvina
and
managed to render thousands homeless. It has also taken up the
cudgels
against civic society, the opposition and the media. Today it is
fighting
retailers and manufacturers.
These are the same
businesspeople who every year in February buy space
in newspapers to
congratulate Mugabe for his wisdom and guidance. My foot!
There is little
wisdom in the current campaign. We definitely deserve better
leadership than
this gangsterism.
Zim Independent
by Teldah
Mawarire
THIS week the circus came to town. And it was free. Or was
it?
"Price-control officers" raided supermarkets and other
retailers who
were allegedly over-charging.
It was reported that
the price of cement which had cost $1,5 million
per bag became $150 000 while
washing powder which cost over $400 000 was
reduced to $80 000
At one Harare supermarket, the chaotic scenes showed how deep we have
sunk
into the abyss. At till points, "officers" and citizens alike chose
whatever
prices they wanted and literally hit the jackpot with give-away
prices.
Warehouses were raided and goods were priced without regard to
suppliers'
cost or profit margins. The aftermath of the circus? - empty
supermarket
shelves.
With promises of more price reduction shows coming soon to
a retailer
near you, there is a huge price the economy will pay for this
policy. The
very same povo that the circus is being performed for will
eventually suffer
the consequences of local goods disappearing from the
shelves as we have
seen in the last week. Imported soap, cooking oil and so
on will surface on
the black market beyond the reach of many.
Government after wreaking havoc in the farming sector by grabbing
productive
land and dishing it out to cronies, who have zero knowledge about
commercial
farming, is now on the warpath against retailers and producers.
This method
of grab and destroy from one sector to another is not
sustainable. Soon,
there will be nothing left to grab.
By controlling prices and
railroading business people to act in line
with its populist policies,
government is only suffocating the economy.
Government must know that
sticking its incompetent and destructive fingers
into business is a sure
recipe for disaster.
The pricing policy is a ploy to win the hearts
and minds of the
restless urban dwellers. However, manufacturers and
retailers are not in the
business of votes but of operational viability. They
just pass high
production costs onto consumers. Government must leave prices
alone and
pre-occupy itself with policies that address the root cause of
high
production costs such as energy provision, mending the agricultural
sector
so that we have something to export and earn foreign currency,
restoring
relations with international financiers, doing away with
nonsensical threats
of indigenisation so that we restore investor confidence,
throwing out laws
that are a threat to property rights, and reducing its own
spending.
Two weeks back the media carried comments by Information
minister,
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu saying "Zimbabwe is in a much stronger position
now
economically and politically than ever. Events on the ground speak
for
themselves".
What events on the ground was the minister
speaking of?
Just last month the Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries published a
manufacturing survey that indicated that Zimbabwe's
manufacturing sector has
shrunk 30%. And the minister thinks this is a symbol
of economic strength!
At today's salary rates, a teacher or nurse -
both once revered
professionals - earn less than US$20 per month. Men spend
the day scrambling
for bread and mealie meal. Carrying these products in
public is now a sign
of machismo, and still the minister thinks this is
economic prosperity?
It is a miserable shame when a man or woman
goes to engage in a day's
honest work but still cannot feed themselves or
even think about clothing
and educating their children. The same government
that is the author of our
predicaments demands 45% in taxes? It's heartless
and mean.
There is no evidence of economic strength when citizens
shun their own
currency and peg all prices against other currencies. Neither
is there
prosperity when patients who are near-death are turned away at
hospitals due
to lack of drugs. We now hear of words that were rarely used in
our daily
vocabulary such as "top-up" fees for schooling and salaries.
Reports that
employees now prefer their companies to pay them grocery items
instead of
cash are telling. Such biting poverty is not characteristic of a
thriving
economy.
There is absolutely nothing successful about a
government that cannot
ensure that the most basic utilities - water and
electricity- are delivered
to the populace. Such a government has outlived
its usefulness. It is
meaningless to go to work as transport costs are beyond
the reach of many.
Something is seriously wrong when nurses at Parirenyatwa
refuse to turn up
for duty because they cannot afford bus fare. It is a
crisis.
In 1996, inflation was 16%, in 2000 it was 56% and in 2002
it raced to
139%. Now it is well over the 4 500% mark. And there is still no
end to this
mess or a sign that government has any idea how to extract the
country from
it.
The country has never been further away from
economic prosperity.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
by Vincent
Kahiya
THE government has turned up the rhetoric on the emotive
subject of
indigenisation. The indigenisation debate has been a major topic
of
political discourse in Zimbabwe for some time.
Of late
though, President Robert Mugabe has increased the ante, not
just accusing the
multinationals and white businesses of blocking black
advancement in the
economy, but also attacking black-owned businesses for
economic
sabotage.
There have been subtle threats by government on
black-owned businesses
with the latest coming from Acting President Joseph
Msika at Heroes Acre on
Monday. He accused black businessmen who have been
raising prices and
scaling down production of "taking indigenisation mudondo
(into the bush)".
He lumped these together with the usual suspects - white
business owners. He
threatened to take away their companies and give them to
blacks who are
prepared to produce.
Which black Zimbabweans by
the way? There is a real problem here
because government's actual practice in
the indigenisation game has for
years been guided by the need to create a
pliant black elite class which
remains beholden to Zanu PF. These then become
warehouses of wealth on
behalf of the system which is always keen to share in
the affluence.
In an article published in 1996, political
commentator Brian
Raftopoulos argued that Mugabe's political rhetoric then
was designed to
mobilise an increasingly disillusioned constituency. Nothing
has changed.
"However, at present, the indigenisation debate in
Zimbabwe has
reached a crisis point, divided by conflicting groups, and
presided over by
a state that is itself unclear about the indigenisation
strategy it would
like to pursue.
"Furthermore, indigenisation
as an ideology of transformation remains
proscribed by the elitist nature of
its programmatic reach. Thus, even if an
indigenisation strategy was advanced
in a more dramatic manner, structural
reform of a grossly imbalanced economy
seems unlikely in the near future,"
said Raftopoulos.
The
indigenisation lobby groups of the 1990s like the Indigenous
Business
Development Centre (IBDC) were formed with the support of state
bureaucrats
and politicians. The IBDC lobbied government for support for
state-led policy
reforms and the allocation of state resources to blacks on
preferential
terms. This included deregulation of laws and procedures
hindering black
enterprises; directives to financial institutions to finance
black
businesses; access to finance at well below market interest
rates;
preferential allocation of government contracts and markets to blacks;
land
redistribution and so on.
Their mode of lobbying was
premised on close co-operation with the
state and Zanu PF officials. In no
time senior IBDC officials became
government officials and in some cases
deputy ministers as part of the
patronage system. Rifts centred on the Zanu
PF political fault lines began
to emerge leading to a split in
IBDC.
The emergence of the Affirmative Action Group (AAG) in 1994
added
another twist to the tale of indigenisation as its leaders adopted
a
militant strategy targeted not only at white business owners but also
at
black Uncle Toms. Away from the political rhetoric the AAG strategy was
no
different from that of the IBDC.
The real test for the two
groups came when the Econet saga flared up
in 1996. The government up to the
highest office was determined to block the
licensing of Econet - even though
it was black-owned - until the Supreme
Court ruled in the company's favour.
The lobby groups resisted taking up the
Econet fight and there were elements
within the pressure groups that
actually saw it fit to fight Econet's
sponsors than support a fellow black
businessmen.
The
development and growth of Econet and other black-owned businesses,
especially
in the financial services sector, is generally opposed by Zanu PF
bigwigs who
are quick to destroy every perceived challenger to their
hegemony. The state
has over the years demonstrated that it will not
tolerate any attempts to
develop autonomous power bases in the private
sector. There is always an
exercise in place to closely monitor the
activities of black businesspeople
and in cases to invite them onto the
gravy train. Those who have obliged to
take the ride cannot get off lest
they are perceived to be sellouts or fronts
for white multinationals.
The threat to take over black-owned
businesses - highlighted in a
story elsewhere in this edition - is
government's broad plan to extend its
patronage network and parcel out
businesses to cronies. This is a dangerous
ploy that will set this economy on
a tailspin.
The World Bank, in a 1995 commentary on industrial and
financial
wealth redistribution in Zimbabwe warned: "It is important that
changes to
assets ownership are based on efficiency criteria, but there are
no
mechanisms built into the proposals so far put forward that would
ensure
that new owners of such assets would be efficient managers - an issue
which
generally the market is much better at revealing than any
administrative
mechanism. There is therefore a risk that such asset
reallocation will lead
to individuals with privileged access to
decision-makers being favoured ."
This was prophetic. The recently
gazetted Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Bill still does not address
the key concerns of efficiency but
merely offers Mugabe's cronies an
opportunity to feed at the trough of other
people's businesses.
Zim Independent
by Eric Bloch
AGRICULTURE was the
foundation of a thriving Zimbabwean economy,
providing employment for over
300 000, generating many millions of US
dollars, feeding not only the country
but also its neighbours and fuelling
commerce and industry.
So
dynamic was the agricultural sector that government cast covetous
eyes upon
it, speciously and endlessly contended that it operated upon
stolen lands
(all of Zimbabwe's rural lands without exception - even those
bought with
governmental consents under "certificates of no interest"), and
resolved to
steal those lands.
Property rights became meaningless, and were
recklessly abused by
government.
Determined to steal the lands,
and virtually all upon them, but
desirous of a façade of legality and
legitimacy, government enacted
legislation empowering it to expropriate those
lands.
And then, with great vigour, it proceeded to do so, with its
primary
focus being upon the most developed, the most viable, and the
most
successful.
It displaced the owners, drove away the skilled
labour, nepotistically
allocated the farms to the hierarchy of government and
their friends,
relatives and associates, and to those upon whose support they
depended.
Within a few years the jewel of Zimbabwe's economic crown
was almost
wholly destroyed and an inevitable by-product of that destruction
was
pronounced economic ruination, and poverty and misery for
millions.
As that poverty and misery intensified, government began
to feel its
future was becoming progressively more and more precarious,
albeit that it
could not admit to itself or others that that was so, let
alone to
acknowledge that it was its own architect of an intensifying
economic
morass, and of a potential future target of national resentment and
anger.
Therefore it concluded that, over and above denying any
culpability,
and in addition to resolutely blaming others in order to deflect
focus from
itself, it needed to be seen to be caring (allegedly) for the
distressed
Zimbabwean people, and compensating them for their
afflictions.
Moreover, if it is could do so in a manner that would
facilitate
self-enrichment for those in government, their families and
friends, that
would be a much deserved bonus.
Therefore,
government (which is its own worst enemy, with a total
inability to learn
form its mistakes, and a profound capability to repeat
them) resolved that it
should steal the other economic operations of
Zimbabwe, including mining,
commerce, industry, and virtually all else.
To that end it
repeatedly spoke of intents to "indigenise" the
economy, and within the next
few months it intends to promulgate the
Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Act, whereunder at least 51% of all
business, whether public or
private, large or small, skilled, or unskilled,
foreign or locally owned,
shall be owned by indigenous persons.
The proposed legislation is
silent as to the determination of
compensation to present owners, as to when
such compensation will be paid
(and in what currency), by when the
compensation will be payable and as to
the sources of the compensation
funding, if any, save for intended usage of
National Investment Trust funds,
the creation of an Indigenisation and
Economic Empowerment Fund, and the
prescription of levies upon businesses to
accrue to that Fund.
In other words, businesses are going to have to fund, at least to
some
extent, their own compensation. If that is not theft, what
is?
Clearly, having stolen the land, government now has no qualms
about
stealing businesses.
But government is doing one thing
markedly differently. In the case of
agriculture, it only destroyed it after
stealing the land. In the case of
commerce and industry, it is wreaking
destruction upon it before even
legislating the stealth
modalities!
For some years it has adhered rigidly to its determined
policy of
command economy, wherein almost all facets of economic activity are
dictated
by government, in contemptuous disregard for market
fundamentals.
The fact that throughout history the only successful
economies have
been those that were market-driven was, and is, totally
ignored by
government. The fact that the command economy concept has always
resulted in
total failure is contemptuously disregarded.
The
command economy failed throughout the former Soviet Union, from
1917 to 1989.
It failed in China under Mao Tse-Tung, in Cuba under Fidel
Castro, in
Argentina under Juan Peron, in Tanzania under Julius Nyerere, in
Mozambique
under Samora Machel, in Zambia under Kenneth Kaunda, in Ghana
under Kwame
Nkrumah, and wheresoever else pursued.
But this is of no concern to
the Zimbabwean government as, on the one
hand, it knows of no other manner of
governance other than by dictate and,
on the other hand, the failure of
others is seen to be of no consequence,
for it perceives itself to be
infallible and omnipotent.
Therefore, it remains determined to
continue to apply near total,
grossly excessive, and horrendously
destructive, economic constraints and
controls.
Consequently,
with inflation soaring upwards (over 4 530% per annum
according to
government, and to almost 12 000 % in reality) government has
once again
resorted to stringent price controls.
Disregarding the recently
signed Prices and Incomes Protocol, agreed
at the Tripartite Negotiating
Forum, and ignoring all the principles of a
social contract (which government
pretends should be reached and supported),
government has once again
unilaterally overridden economic and market
fundamentals.
Instead, cabinet draconically decreed, on June 28, that all prices,
whether
for goods or services, whether rentals or any other charges, may not
exceed
those being charged 10 days earlier.
It sought to justify this
action by once again (and with even greater
intensity than previously)
accusing the business sector of being
unscrupulous and of
profiteering.
The fact that that sectors' costs are raising
continuously is, as far
as government is concerned, completely irrelevant. It
is of no concern to
government that business costs have been soaring upwards,
at an exponential
pace.
Salaries and wages have necessarily
risen monthly, parastatals have
recurrently increased their charges, be they
for energy supplies (usually
erratic), telecommunications, postal services,
rail transport or others.
In like manner, and also necessarily so,
local authority charges have
been rising frequently, and very substantially.
Most of all, any and all
goods as are imported, and any and all goods and
services that have any
import content (even if only indirect) have risen very
sharply in price.
This has been an inevitable consequence of a continuing
decrease in the
availability of foreign currency, creating intensifying
reliance upon
sourcing imports, or the currency for imports, in unofficial
markets, at
high and rising costs.
As a result, business has had
only two choices, being to increase
prices or to discontinue operations, for
business cannot survive when they
operate at a loss. The price increases,
save for a few exceptions, were not
profiteering, but necessary for
survival.
However, government cannot and will not acknowledge this
for, to do
so, will be tacit admission that it has driven the economy on to
its knees.
Of course, it is also convenient for government to have
the business
community to blame, for it can no longer blame Tony Blair - he's
gone - and
Gordon Brown has yet to act or speak on Zimbabwe, so he cannot yet
be
blamed!
And someone must be blamed, for otherwise people will
recognise the
fact that the economic Armageddon that is fast approaching is
wholly as a
result of government's actions.
Therefore, it is
very convenient for government to harness business as
the scapegoat to
shoulder the blame.
As business cannot afford to sell at losses,
and as that is the
inevitability of the state's price controls, it
necessarily has to remove
the products from the shelves.
But
this too is seen by government as being Machiavellian, and
President Robert
Mugabe (at a funeral!) and the Minister of Industry and
International Trade
have threatened dire repercussions upon those who desist
from
selling.
Nationalisation is the threat, which effectively preempts
the intended
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
legislation.
So, one way or the other, government is bent upon
stealing the
businesses but, in contrast to its own actions in agriculture,
is destroying
the enterprises before stealing them, instead of
afterwards.
Clearly, despite any denials to the contrary, cabinet
is determinedly
set upon the destruction of business.
Zim Independent
MuckRaker
MUCKRAKER is following with interest the delusional attempts by
some
ruling-party politicians and their captive media to suggest that
Gordon
Brown may be more amenable to their blandishments than his
predecessor.
The government is obviously expecting much of the new
incumbent at
Number 10 Downing St. But, as must be obvious to most observers,
this is
wishful thinking.
Brown's policy towards Zimbabwe will
be determined by developments in
this country, not by some sudden realisation
by Britain's prime minister
that he needs to find an accommodation with
Harare.
He will of course be guided by public opinion in the UK and
by the
views of Britain's EU partners who would be hostile to any deal that
ignores
evidence of misrule. Opposition supporters continue to be abducted
and
beaten, court orders are ignored, land-grabs persist, and the state
media
continues to emit a toxic cloud of hate and racism directed at anyone
who
disagrees with President Mugabe's damaging policies.
With
presidential and parliamentary elections looming there is no
evidence of
reform of electoral laws, no prospect of the opposition having
access to the
public media, and no sign of attempts to curb inflation or
improve economic
management. Instead we have economic illiterates like Obert
Mpofu and Elliot
Manyika creating havoc in businesses.
Brown will therefore stick to
the UK government's policy of not
dealing with the delinquent regime in
Harare beyond humanitarian support
until there is concrete evidence of reform
and change.
Officially in Whitehall there is support for the
Sadc initiative and
Thabo Mbeki's efforts to forge a political settlement.
But privately there
is scepticism that Mugabe can be reformed.
There seems to be a willful determination in Zanu PF to make
recovery
impossible. That includes the Indigenisation and Empowerment Bill
which
appears designed to scare off investors and promote cronyism at all
levels
of the economy.
Not only is Zimbabwe badly governed, with
state abuses widespread, it
is also the victim of devastating economic
policies.
It was therefore useful to have the IMF's comments in
this paper last
week that the ad hoc measures the government is putting in
place won't work.
What is needed, the IMF said, was a package of measures
that address
macro-economic distortions in the economy. And there is no sign
of that.
Meanwhile, the government press insists that land seizures
are
"irreversible". It doesn't appear to understand that there will be
a
comprehensive audit of land distribution as part of any
political
settlement. This will most likely be the product of an
independent
commission.
Where it can be shown that individuals
abused their rank and status to
take land from farmers protected by court
orders or where there is multiple
ownership, those individuals will be
evicted.
Judges, police officers, journalists and ruling-party
officials should
get used to that prospect.
Violent and lawless
cases of land acquisition have scarred the
nation's
psyche and its
international reputation as well as benefiting the
undeserving. Any newspaper
promising its readers that land seizures are
irreversible is seriously
misleading them. Land reform is a noble project
and it should not be blighted
by Zanu PF's agrarian terror that has seen the
economy shrink by
60%.
For those who are holding out hope of a new deal from Gordon
Brown
let's
remind them of another Brown in the British cabinet, Mark
Malloch Brown. He,
as UNDP chief a few years ago, came to this country to
offer UN assistance.
But first he wanted a team of experts to see whether
this was a programme
the UNDP could support. Sadly, they said no, it's a
complete mess.
This is the man who will be advising Gordon Brown on
Zimbabwe!
Tafataona Mahoso has been complaining about
"corporate managerialism"
which he evidently thinks is part of the
international conspiracy against
Zanu PF.
In last weekend's
edition of the Sunday Mail he slammed the award of a
manager-of-the-year
prize to Dairibord, saying it didn't reflect the wishes
of "the
people".
Mahoso is quite adept at claiming the mantle of "the
people" which he
presumably dreams up from the back seat of his
chauffeur-driven 4X4.
On this occasion his beef was that the prize
should have gone to more
deserving companies like the National Railways of
Zimbabwe, the Grain
Marketing Board and Zupco. These parastatals were "trying
their best to meet
their original mandates while Dairibord is externalising
Zimbabwean milk and
making it too scarce and too expensive for the original
stakeholders, the
people of Zimbabwe," he declared.
So, they're
externalising milk now. What next? This from a whole
professor! Some free
tuition for Mahoso: Chimombe milk does not come from
workers at Dairibord.
Their anatomy is not designed for that. It comes from
a cow's udder.
Dairibord processes and packages the milk. The reason why
there is not enough
milk in the country is that there are not many cows
around. It's not that
Dairibord workers have stopped producing milk. Some
still do but for their
suckling babies and not for a professor.
The cows have disappeared
because of the state's assault on dairy
farmers under the rubric of land
reform. Also Mahoso studiously ignores the
obvious fact that corruption and
mismanagement at state-owned companies of
the sort he admires have done much
to drain the national fiscus while
providing sheltered employment for Zanu
PF's legion of incompetent managers.
That's the sort of "corporate
managerialism" that he should be
exposing to the nation in the interests of
accountability instead of
hammering one of the few companies that has slipped
the leash of its ruinous
Stalinist owners who still dream of the next
five-year plan!
We spotted a funny little story in the Sunday
News last weekend
concerning elections held for the Zimbabwe Association of
Editors.
This outfit largely represents editors in the state sector
although
the presence of one or two from the private sector enables
its
secretary-general, Willie Mponda, to claim that it is representative of
both
government and private newspapers. Indeed, he claims it represents 95%
of
editors in Zimbabwe.
This may well reflect the degree of
state ownership in Zimbabwe after
the closure of several independent
newspapers. It is nothing to boast about,
especially when one considers that
once proud publications such as Moto have
been suborned. The ZAE, we can
safely say, is one of several agencies
through which the government
manipulates the media.
For instance, when state and private-sector
editors met to discuss
unity terms two years ago the state editors refused to
join their colleagues
in the independent press in criticising Aippa as
inimical to media
development. They clearly thought it was a good
thing!
These are the same captive journalists we are being asked to
join.
If anyone wants to see the standard of journalism in the
state media
they need look no further than David Samuriwo writing in the
Herald about
Trevor Ncube on Tuesday. He can't spell (we particularly liked
"felon" for
forlorn) and appears to think our paper is called "the
Independence".
Ncube can speak for himself when the time comes to
respond to this
semi-literate hatchet job. But as an advertisement for the
cutting edge of
government thinking it speaks volumes.
Zanu PF
doesn't have a single writer of note. This is the same author,
by the way,
whose editors allowed him to make threats against British
diplomat Gillian
Dare. Beating up on women would appear to be a speciality
of these
thugs!
A good example of how state journalists not only twist
facts but
invent them was evident in yesterday's Herald report on events at
the US
Independence Day celebrations. The paper's News Editor caimed that
US
ambassador Chris Dell had been humiliated by a Foreign Affairs
official
after suggesting that the government would fall in six
months.
In fact Dell made no such claim. His speech at the US
Independence Day
celebration on Wednesday was about shared values. But,
having dwelt on
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address, Dell did say he was
surprised to hear
President Mugabe quoting Lincoln in his address to mark
Zimbabwe's
Independence Day at Rufaro Stadium in April.
"Nothing
could have underscored more clearly the difference between
what the president
claims to be and what he really is," Dell noted, "than
the irony of him
speaking those words against the backdrop of March 11, the
country's
accelerating economic collapse and the growing climate of
desperation and
oppression that characterise Zimbabwe today."
It was a speech well
received by the large audience present. But when
Foreign Affairs official
Samuel Mhango butted in uninvited to make childish
claims that Zimbabwe's
meltdown was being engineered from outside Zimbabwe,
he was received with
loud ironic laughter by many of those present. His
remarks that Zimbabwe was
providing humanitarian aid to its citizens were
greeted with even more
sustained laughter.
It was a humiliating experience for Mhango who
appeared to have no
supporters present and whose remarks went without
applause of any sort. Then
the Herald News Editor who wasn't even present but
could easily have
obtained a copy of Dell's speech invents a story that was
the diametric
opposite of what occurred!
Mhango by the way
threatened to ban ambassadors from making speeches
on their national days.
But he will find while his government has the power
to censor state
newspapers, it does not have the power to muzzle ambassadors
on their own
sovereign turf! Let's see him try.
Poor old Joseph Msika. You
can't help but feel a tad sorry for him as
he makes statements that suggest a
certain cognitive dissonance from what is
going on around him.
He told mourners at Heroes Acre that Zanu PF would not allow
"sellouts" to
"interfere with our good life".
He was referring to the prices of
goods which the state is trying to
hold down. But it was interesting to note
that he was able to refer to "the
good life" he and his ilk are having while
the country goes down the toilet.
That he is blissfully unaware of
the discrepancy in living standards
between rulers and ruled tells us more
about Zanu PF's detachment from
reality than anything else.
In a
similar vein he warned the MDC against violence, saying
petrol-bombing was a
serious offence.
"That is not an ordinary crime but
terrorism."
So is beating up Nelson Chamisa with an iron bar at
Harare Airport.
And what about the abduction, kidnapping and murder of
opposition
supporters? Is that not terrorism?
Which MDC members
have been convicted of petrol-bombing? We know of
MDC members accused of
petrol-bombing but released when the charges failed
to stand up in court. We
know of the litany of accusations made by
government officials including a
clumsy position paper that was taken to Dar
es Salaam by the president and
placed on the Home Affairs website.
It is littered with
inaccuracies including a caption describing
Australian ambassador Jon
Sheppard as Reuters correspondent Jan Raath (or
"Young Rath" as they put it
who in fact works for the Times).
We know of the silly accusations
about MDC youths training at South
African militia camps which became a
pretext for holding them in jail until
the South African authorities became
impatient with the whole improbable
story and put an end to further forays
south by Zimbabwean officials.
But Msika appears unaware of any of
these developments and proceeds to
repeat accusations that the Herald itself
long ago abandoned.
Tucked away in the Business Herald this
week was an interesting little
report on what a group of German, Austrian and
Italian journalists thought
about Zimbabwe. The first thing they complained
about was something the rest
of us have to live with: poor telecoms networks.
They weren't able to
contact their friends and relatives they
said.
Most telephones in Harare weren't working, one of the
journalists
said.
Also, they found the money very confusing. To
make matters worse
hotels wouldn't accept Visa and Mastercard, they pointed
out,or if they do
it is at the $250:US$1 rate which makes breakfast about
US$500!
Ludicrous economy
HAS anyone in or
out of government stopped to think just how ludicrous
our economy has become?
Take these examples;
* Individuals are only allowed to draw cash
from the bank the
equivalent of US$10 a day, businesses US$20;
*
It is illegal for an individual to carry enough cash to buy more
than 10
litres of fuel or 10 packets of cat meat;
* Our largest
denomination note ($100 000 bearer cheque) represents
just US$0,67. Eleven
months ago it was worth US$200;
* The $100 bearer cheque still
being used in supermarkets is worth
US$0,00067;
* A business
wishing to draw cash for wages (or anything else) has to
get permission from
the Reserve Bank and go to the bank at least twice;
* To effect
what used to be a cheque payment now needs one to go to
the bank, fill in an
RTGS form and get Reserve Bank approval;
* Account holders have to
phone their bank continuously to check on
what payments have been made by
RTGS - can't trust the payer;
* To buy, say, a motor car battery
now requires an RTGS and you cannot
access the battery until the banks have
done their thing (and if the shop
sells several, how do they know who paid
for which one). If you have a
blow-out and need a new tyre you will be
walking for a good couple of days;
* Supermarkets and wholesalers
are not allowed to keep anything in
warehouses or storerooms but have to
display all their goods on the shop
floor even if perishable or they do not
have room, otherwise they risk
arrest for hoarding;
* Butcheries
are not allowed to keep meat in their coldrooms or they
will be arrested for
hoarding;
* The minimum wage for the commercial sector is the
equivalent of just
US$5,80 and the government takes US$2,60 in
tax;
* The minimum wage for the agricultural sector does not even
buy a bar
of soap, but a Zanu PF farmer can buy a tractor on loan for less
than the
cost of a bicycle to ordinary people;
* Most domestic
workers should pay income tax as they are above the
tax threshold which
equates to US$0,67;
* Tourists get $250:US$1, so a beer will cost
them more than US$240;
* If a child sends a parent R1 000 and the
parent changes it at the
legal rate, it will not buy a loaf of bread. Traded
on the black market it
will be 20 times the minimum wage, including
allowances;
* A vendor selling single cigarettes who sells just one
packet of 20 a
day will earn more than a teacher, soldier or
policeman;
* War veterans get more money as pension than most civil
servants get
working full time.
The solution to all this is just
a realistic exchange rate and the RBZ
going back to its core
business.
AM,
Harare.
---------------
Rents are not their mandate
I
SEE from a June 28 newspaper report that, "the Cabinet
Taskforce on Price
Monitoring and Stabilisation froze all residential and
industrial rent
increases".
In addition, the Minister of Industry and
International Trade
said that the taskforce "reminds" the public that an
immediate moratorium is
imposed on rent increases of both commercial and
residential properties
pending the finalisation of appropriate regular
formulae by both commercial
and residential rent boards.
I
must be living on another planet, because I thought that there
is only a
National Incomes and Pricing Commission, not a cabinet taskforce.
I thought
that the commission can only exercise its functions by making
by-laws; that
its by-laws have no effect until they are published in a
statutory
instrument, that both sets of rent regulations are alive and well,
that there
is no moratorium on rent increases and that the National Incomes
and Pricing
Commission Act applies only to incomes and prices of goods and
services, not
rents.
M Wills,
Harare.
----------------
Lucky
Rafemoyo
NO sooner has he taken delivery of his new luxury
off-road
vehicle than he is the subject of numerous congratulatory
advertisements.
Meet new Zesa boss Ben Rafemoyo.
Next, will be a guided tour of his own substations and
control centres where
the few remaining technicians will explain to him what
he already knows, as
he nods with a newly found stately bearing.
Then there
will be pronouncements on sweeping reforms,
which will eradicate power cuts.
All responsibility for our current woes
will be cast upon the regional power
deficit and the embattled Hwange.
Naturally, this new
set of responsibilities comes with a
fresh set of perks commensurate with the
stress and strain of the new
office. If the grapevine has any credence, he
will have neither the time nor
protection to amass as many assets as the
previous incumbent. In fact his
training as an engineer will not allow him to
bring the profession into
disrepute.
However
accepting such a post at this time, raises serious
questions about his
judgement. What can he possibly do to provide Zimbabwe
with uninterrupted
power that his predecessor couldn't?
Being qualified is
not enough, in some cases it has been
shown to be a distinct disadvantage, as
two other engineers one electrical
and another civil have discovered with the
utility and with the capital city
respectively. Knowledge and training leads
to an understanding of the issues
and their
magnitude.
This realisation leads to the formulation of
action plans
and budgets, which history has shown fails to make it out of the
boardroom
door. A compliant board will quickly act to muzzle the group chief,
while
another successful power supply deal is announced with great fanfare,
with a
bewildered looking chief looking on!
Next
month or next year, you and I will read of the
disappointment of the great
chief as a result of his failure to anticipate
and meet the nation's power
requirements. But lucky him; he jumps into his
4x4 and rides into the sunset,
to await his terminal benefits, which will be
far better than the pension he
would have received for long and loyal
service.
Anonymous,
Highfield
--------------------
No sympathy for
corporates
SO now the corporates face the
risk of invasion?
Cannot say I am sorry.
Where
was their corporate and national social
responsibility at the time of farm
invasions and murders of Zanu PF
opponents?
Corporates and others who have for whatever reason
remained quiet or even
tacitly approved the Zanu PF regime will have plenty
to answer for when the
final reckoning comes - and that looks like it will
not be too far
away.
Lost
tribe,
By
e-mail.
----------------------------
Customer disregard
at Blue Lagoon
ON Monday, June 25 at about
7pm, in Blue Lagoon Food
Chain Supermarket on Lomagundi Road, I wanted to
purchase a packet of Colcom
Barbecue beef sausages, which were advertised on
their fridge for $138 000.
However at the till I
was charged $270 000. I
pointed out to three staff members (I was told that
there was no manager on
duty) that it was a legal requirment to sell a
product at the advertised
price. The staff members admitted to knowing this
and that they knew that
they were breaking the law. However they were not
prepared to adjust the
price to the advertised
price.
On Tuesday morning, out of courtesy I
phoned Blue
Lagoon and spoke to a Mr Madondo, who was the least interested in
dealing
with my complaint. He told me to send my letter to the press and put
the
phone down on me.
I ask, why the Food
Chain group allows or even
encourages their staff to break the law? What
other pricing polices do they
have that disadvantages the consumer? Why do
they feel that they can treat
consumers in this high-handed manner and get
away with it?
M
Miles,
Harare.
------------------------
Wake up to
reality
I REFER to the recently proposed
Indigenisation
Bill.
One of the many factors
to be considered by our
parliamentarians is the very urgent need to generate
much more of our own
electricity.
We have,
firstly, the very viable option of
positioning a power station at the Sengwa
coal fields, proposed many yeas
ago but rejected by government in
questionable circumstances.
The second are the
gas resources in Matabeleland.
Both will need
foreign investment and sophisticated
technology but given the new Bill how
can we possibly attract investors if
they will be faced with 51% local
participation whose sole contribution will
be Zimbabwe dollars printed by the
Reserve Bank?
Come on, Zimbabwe, let's wake up to
reality!
Pro
Patria,
Harare.
-----------------------
Let's look beyond
elections
THE article "An economic vision for
Zimbabwe: beyond
rhetoric of democracy" by Arthur Mutambara, provides
optimism about the
quality of our opposition leadership. For once the focus
was not only a
"Mugabe must go" mantra, but there was consideration of what
should be done
and where we want to be after he's
gone.
Elections are not just for the sake of
changing
leaders, ditching tyrants or bringing about democracy. Eletions
should more
importantly be about choosing a candidate or party that has a
better vision
and programme to best deliver economic prosperity and democracy
to a
country.
We all know for a fact that the
Zanu PF government
has spectacularly failed on both economic and political
fronts and one
cannot envisage the possibility of an economic turnaround from
this regime,
even if by some odd chance the British provide the funds for
land and
targeted sanctions are lifted. Kleptocracy, corruption and the
patronage
system are so much entrenched and embedded in the Zanu PF culture
and these
conditions can never be conducive to economic development by any
stretch of
imagination.
Mutambara's idea of a
small government, which has
eluded the current regime for the past 26½ years,
is the starting point for
any government whose intention is to control
recurrent expenditure, budget
deficits and
inflation.
It's also interesting to note that his
economic
vision advocates for uplifting the social standing of technically
trained
people (engineers, technicians, scientists etc). While one may be
tempted to
say this view is influenced by his own (Mutambara's) training
and
educational background, the bare truth however, is that the world
over,
technocrats hold the key to industrial or technological development
and
advancement and hence the competitive advantage for a nation. Come to
think
of it, Zimbabwe is the only country where a graduate engineer,
technician or
doctor's pay is several times less than that of, for example, a
recently
employed Reserve Bank clerk. How possibly can a country's GDP
increase in
such a situation? Or for that matter what economic development
would one
expect from a country where an uneducated street dealer is accorded
a
god-like status?
Even our children now wish
to trade books for
chikorokoza (gold panning) or spend the day at Roadport
selling foreign
currency. This is a shame.
This coming election should not only be about
defeating Zanu PF. It should be
about us putting economic development-minded
people in government. It is time
for a new generation of leaders like
Mutambara, for it is better to burden
such bold visionaries with the
difficult task of delivering the economic
revolution rather than settling
for the same tried, tired and clueless
mediocre bureaucrats or worse still,
electing people whose vision ends at
winning elections.
Don Sahayi
(Sr)
Harare.
Wall Street Journal
July 6, 2007
Thirteen
years after the end of white rule, South Africa's prosperity,
vibrant media
and civic groups, and multi-party democracy stand out. So do
its crime and
AIDS epidemics, enduring racial and class tensions, and its
(effectively)
one-party state. How the country resolves its contradictions
is one of the
keys to Africa's future.
The fight for the leadership of the ruling
African National Congress, or
ANC, gives an important clue to South Africa's
direction. Earlier this week,
battlelines were drawn between the party's
hard-left and its
business-friendly wing at a four-day policy conference. In
the former camp
stands Jacob Zuma, the party's deputy president backed by
the unions, the
Communist Party and his own Zulus. Supporters of
anyone-but-Zuma want to
keep the status quo, particularly on free-market
economics, associated with
Thabo Mbeki, who is constitutionally barred from
seeking a third term as
South Africa's President in 2009. Whoever wins the
top ANC job in December
will almost surely end up running the
country.
Not since apartheid fell has South Africa seen such uncertainty.
The
transition from Nelson Mandela to Mr. Mbeki was orderly, in line with
ANC
tradition, and their governments used the political stability to
entrench
democratic freedoms and put the economy on a growth track. (The
global boom
in resource prices helped, too.) The result: business
confidence, a slowdown
in white flight and the emergence of a black middle
class. At the
conference, Mr. Mbeki stood on his record, touting his
government's ability
"to improve the standard of living of our people on the
basis of the greater
wealth our economy will produce." Not a word from this
former Marxist about
redistribution.
Mr. Zuma's politics threaten
these gains. A former Mbeki cohort and former
Deputy President, the
charismatic politician taps into pent-up frustrations,
hinting that his
administration would push through a more aggressive grab
and redistribution
of white wealth. The ANC government has tried to derail
his career with
charges of corruption (still hovering over him) and rape
(dismissed), but he
remains a serious contender.
The appeal of his brand of politics can't be
minimized in a country where
northern European-style wealth -- concentrated
around big cities like
Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town -- co-exists with
African indigence. Nor
should it be exaggerated.
For four weeks
before the start of the policy conference, public-sector
employees struck
for higher wages. The largest strike in post-apartheid
South Africa was
called by the main trade union federation, and encouraged
by the Communists
and Mr. Zuma, in a direct challenge to the Mbeki-led ANC.
But the government
held its ground, walking away triumphant last week after
agreeing to a
moderate pay hike.
This outcome is a reminder of the ANC's inherent
conservatism. This
organization was founded in 1912 and led throughout by
professionals like
lawyers and doctors. As a nation, South Africans are
patient and disinclined
to take risks, which complicates Mr. Zuma's efforts
to take the helm. (It
leads some other observers to predict he'd turn out to
be a status quo
President.) South Africans are also well aware that their
neighbors,
Zimbabwe most dramatically of all, have been ill-served by the
kind of
populism that Mr. Zuma appears willing to
indulge.
Complicating matters is the nature of the ANC itself. While
South Africa is
today a free country, its ruling party hasn't left the
apartheid era behind.
The ANC is a secretive liberation movement that
brings, under a single roof,
both new black plutocrats and the Communists.
As one conference delegate,
quoted in Business Day, noted: "The ANC doesn't
have a left and a right.
It's the ANC of the people."
That's the
problem. A normal political party, of which the country has
several, puts
forward more or less consistent ideas to appeal to a base of
voters. South
Africa won't become a mature democracy until the ANC breaks up
into its
natural coalitions, and when race is no longer the litmus test for
higher
office. (Today, non-blacks need not apply.) But enough South
Africans --
regularly 70% in elections -- want the old ANC at the helm to
keep it
together for now.
The drawback of a one-party system is evident in the
current succession
struggle that's marked by backroom dealings and
Machiavellian manoeuvering.
At the policy conference Mr. Mbeki floated the
idea that, if asked, he might
stand for the ANC job himself to better enable
him to handpick his successor
for the Presidency. The Zuma faction shot back
with a proposal to make sure
the ANC boss must be the candidate for
President, thus automatically ruling
out Mr. Mbeki.
Nothing will be
decided for sure for another few months. A third compromise
candidate could
emerge. ANC pols-turned-tycoons Tokyo Sexwale or Cyril
Ramaphosa would
represent continuity. Someone else might not. As if a
reminder was
necessary, all this shows that the transition to free-market
democracy isn't
yet complete. It's not just South Africans who have a lot
riding on how it
turns out.
Please send any job opportunities for publication in this newsletter to:
JAG
Job Opportunities; jag@mango.zw or justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 7 June 2007)
Contracts in the DRC
Wanted: for six
month renewable contracts in the DRC, three Zimbabwean
farm managers. One
with experience in orchard and plantation crops
especially citrus and
bananas, the second with experience in row
cropping: potatoes, maize/soya,
wheat and barley and the third with
experience in dairy production. Formal
agricultural qualifications an
advantage but not a necessity.
Fluency
in Swahili preferable but not essential.
Contact:
011610073.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 7 June 2007)
Furniture Factory
Manager
Beira, Mozambique - based
A furniture
factory making a range of hardwood furniture is looking for a
production
manager.
This person will be responsible for:
Management
of the machine shop and assembly line of a hardwood
furniture
producer.
Implementation of the process of continuous
improvement within the
factory.
Production scheduling of orders and
management of all raw materials and
consumables.
Operations and the
maintenance of the equipment.
Quality management and
control.
The candidate should have experience with working with
large teams of
semi and unskilled workers. Be adaptable and creative, working
in
sometimes difficult conditions without technical support. The ability
to
make critical decisions, at times with little information, to
anticipate
problems and plan for them. The flexibility to develop
creative,
practical and realistic solutions in based on an understanding of
the
limitations of the local environment.
Experience in
production and manufacture in the timber industry
preferred, though relevant
non-timber production experience in developing
countries also an
advantage.
The candidate should be prepared to reside full time
in Mozambique full
time. Fully legal residence and work permits will be
provided.
Package in US$.
Portuguese not essential
at the start but the successful candidate would
have to learn to communicate
in the language.
Basic computer literacy an
advantage.
CV’s will be accepted until the end of June
2007, and the candidate
will be expected on I August 2007. Included in your
CV or on the covering
letter please advise what package you will be
expecting.
Please email tctdalmann@tdm.co.mz or fax +258 23 30 21
61 for an
application form.
For additional company information
see www.dalmann.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 7 June 2007)
Mature gardener
Preferably
married but without children. Traceable references required.
Accommodation on
site.
Contact G. Dartnall -
302702.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 7 June 2007)
VACANCY – ESTATE
MANAGER
Applications are invited for the position of Estate
Manager at St
George's College.
Applicants should have
mechanical experience sufficient for the
maintaining of vehicles, borehole
pumps, estate machinery and the general
supervision of the on-site workshop
and stores department.
Other duties include the maintenance of
school buildings and staff
residential accommodation, the care and
development of grounds and
gardens as well as the correct utilization of the
irrigation and water
management systems.
Applicants should
have good man management skills; the ability to
understand and converse in
both languages will be an advantage as would
basic computer
skills.
A good salary is offered, commensurate with experience,
as well as other
benefits including housing on
campus.
Interested candidates should forward CV's and contactable
references to
the Headmaster's Secretary on headsec@stgeorges.co.zw or Fax CV's
to
Harare 797648.
Closing date for applications will be the
30th June and we regret that
only short-listed candidates will receive a
response.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 14 June 2007)
Receptionist wanted
Must be young,
innovative, and computer literate. Excel spreadsheets a
must.
Good
telephone manners needed. Msasa area.
e-mail cv's to info@fourseasonsfoods.co.zw or fax
486168
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 14 June 2007)
Nursery School
Teacher
Fairly newly established nursery school in Chisipite
looking for a
qualified nursery school teacher to teach pre-school year.
Looking for
somebody who is not likely to be leaving country in near future
and
mature and professional by nature. Attractive salary on offer and
lovely
environment to work in.
Please contact Kerry-Ann on
0912
754226.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 14 June 2007)
Secretarial/Management
Position
. . . to commence soonest . . .
UK based
business needing a competent & efficient, self-motivated,
dedicated,
responsible mature person of high integrity to manage their
office in
Zimbabwe.
Required of you:-
A. Excellent Computer
Skills in -
- MSOutlook emails
- File Management
-
MSWord
- Internet
B. Good in MSExcel
C. Company
Registration procedures:
- working knowledge of
Knowledge
of LINUX an added advantage
Located in
Avondale.
Remuneration paid from UK
Assessments being
conducted by
Thomas Vallance ACIArb
Executive
Director
PARADiGM Trust(Pvt)Ltd
Trust Executives &
Administrators
Para-Legal Advisory Services
POBox HG750,
Highlands.
Tels: (B) 04-304 482, (M) 011-617 161, 0912-227
473
Emails: [paradigm@zol.co.zw],
[paradigm@mango.zw]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 14 June 2007)
Safari Camp
We are looking
for a mature person or couple to run our small 12 bed
safari camp. This
position would be ideal for a mature couple or man from
a farming
background.
Essential are staff management skills as well as able
to speak shona.
Love of wildlife and wilderness areas. Ideal candidates will
have some
animal husbandry skills in particular in relation to horses. The
camp is
situated 2 hours from Harare. There is no zesa but then again there
is
none in Harare! Good communication skills and like people also
a
requirement! Some handy man skills an advantage. Excellent package
for
right person/s.
Please contact 091 2256434 or email riding@vardensafaris.com delay
in
our replying via email may be experienced due to dial up/phone
problems.
VARDEN SAFARIS, RIDING SAFARIS - MAVURADONHA
MOUNTAINS
PO BOX BW 1714 – BORROWDALE, HARARE - ZIMBABWE
PH/FAX:
HARARE OFFICE (263) 4 861766
JANINE CELL: (263) 91 256 434
BASE CAMP
CELL: (263) 91 252 163
email: riding@vardensafaris.com, www.vardensafaris.com
WE
OPERATE IN A MALARIA FREE AREA.
WE AIM TO REPLY TO ALL EMAIL
MESSAGES WITHIN 24 HOURS - IF YOU HAVE NOT
HEARD FROM US AND ARE EXPECTING A
REPLY PLEASE RESEND YOUR EMAIL
ZIMBABWE - POSITIVELY
GOOD!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 21 June)
FINANCIAL MANAGER (ACCOUNTANT OR SENIOR
BOOKKEEPER)
* EXPERIENCE ESSENTIAL WITH SOUND KNOWLEDGE OF
COMPUTERIZED ACCOUNTING
PRACTICES TO BALANCE SHEET.
* INCUMBENT TO
HEAD A DEPARTMENT OF 3 SUBORDINATES IN A LONG
ESTABLISHED FAMILY BUSINESS
IN GRANITESIDE HARARE
TELEPHONE – GLYNIS 751704/6 OR
CELL 011 630164
EMAIL : auctions@yoafrica.co
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 28 June)
Gardener required:
Can anyone
recommend a reliable, experienced gardener? We would prefer
a mature person
who can work without much supervision. In return a good
salary is offered
along with excellent accommodation
Please phone 011 614
233
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 28 June 2007)
OXFORD IT
Phone - 309855 -
60, 3099274
cv@oxfordit.co.zw , ronald@oxfordit.co.zw
BOOKKEEPERS
-M/Only and full day positions with very good
remuneration.
PA's - M/Only or full day - always looking
for experienced ladies.
Engineer - Experience on Intel / AMD
based Servers and server equipment,
knowledge of Windows 2000/2003 Server and
UNIX an advantage and 5 years
experience minimum.
Urgent.
System Administrator - Installation linux and windows
servers, Internet
onsite Linux, Windows support, windows VOIP servers and
support, software
support, VPN, network support, computer hardware
installation and support
maybe, ISP background added advantage. Attractive
package
IBM Hardware - IBM i and or p series and x series
midrange servers, at
least two years experience, BSc/HND in Electrical
Engineering/Computer
Science or City & Guilds T4/T5 or
equivalent
Senior Software Developer - SQL Server, Crystal
Reports, VB6 & VB.Net for
financial applications. Need to be a team
player with good communication
skills. This is a demanding position with
appropriate rewards. Attractive
package
Web Hosting - At least
three years experience working as a Web developer.
Graphic
Designer - Flash, Adobe, Macromedia, HTML, Photoshop, Developing
graphics on
the
web.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 28 June)
Secretary/PA required (preferably a displaced
farmer’s wife)
An opportunity has arisen at the JAG
Trust for a secretarial/personal
assistant to the CEO. The successful
applicant must be punctual,
reliable, able to use initiative, meet deadlines,
engage in a high degree
of public relation skills and able to work as part of
a team and
independently. JAG is a small office but a fun and
challenging
environment to work in, although can be stressful at
times.
Skills required:
-
Typing
- - Minute Taking
- Diary Management for
CEO
- Knowledge of all Microsoft Office
Programs
- Good PR skills
A competitive,
inflation proofed remuneration package is offered plus a
fuel
allowance.
Interested applicants should contact the JAG Office on
04-799410 and
furnish a written application with cv via email
(justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
and jag@mango.zw) for the attention of
the
Trust’s
CEO.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 28 June)
TOBACCO MANAGER REQUIRED
URGENTLY
We urgently require the services of a Tobacco Manager
who will be
responsible for the production of a 90 ha crop. The farm is
situated in
Zimbabwe.The successful applicant will be:* Honest; * Energetic;
* Hard
working and in good health; * Dependable; and Competent and
experienced
in tobacco production.
Please revert to: agrijoe@hms.co.zw with copies of current
C.V and
references and await follow up from this
end.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 5 July 2007)
Oxford IT has number of new positions that have
come up in our books,
There is:-
Extensive travel
Excellent
pay
.Exposure to International organisation
The turnaround time is
very short, please act fast and email your cv to
ronald@oxfordit.co.zw or call on 309855
/ 60
We are looking for cvs in:
ELECTRICAL: A relevant
Apprenticeship (minimum 2 ½ years) with a
registered Electrical Company; A
Trade Test Certificate issued by The
Department of Labour.
At least 3
years experience in the field of Electrical. Equivalent of an
IE
(Installation Electrician). Be in possession of Wiring Regulations
or
Installation Rules. ( His Licence would cover 0 - 1000 volts
AC.)
PLUMBING: A relevant Apprenticeship (minimum 2 ½ years) with a
registered
Plumbing Company; A Trade Test Certificate issued by The
Department of
Labour. The ability to do all types of domestic plumbing and
the odd
commercial installation. The ability to troubleshoot blockages.
Knowledge
of the different types of piping used and their various
applications.
REEFER/A.C: A relevant Apprenticeship (minimum 2 ½ years)
with a
registered Refrigeration/Air Conditioning Company. A Trade
Test
Certificate issued by The Department of Labour. At least 2
years
experience in the repair of Carrier Transicold; Daikin; Thermo King
and
York Reefers. Knowledge on how to correctly wire and fault
find
Distribution Boards.
MECHANIC: A relevant Apprenticeship (minimum
2 ½ years) with a registered
Auto Dealer. A Trade Test Certificate issued by
The Department of Labour.
At least 3 years experience as a Petrol/Diesel
Mechanic. Fully conversant
with Injector Pump Timing, Spill Timing, engine
overhauls and braking
systems. Must have diagnostic skills with regard to
computerized systems.
Must have knowledge of Mercedes Benz, Iveco and M.A.N.
Truck Tractors.
WELDER/FABRICATOR: A relevant Apprenticeship (minimum 2 ½
years) with a
registered Welding/Fabricating Company. A Trade Test
Certificate issued
by The Department of Labour. At least 3 years experience
in Arc Welding
and Gas Welding methods. The ability to fabricate ducting and
metal
containers.
KITCHEN EQUIPMENT: A relevant Certification with a
reputable Kitchen
Equipment Supplier/Repair Company. At least 3 years
experience as a
Kitchen Equipment Technician. Extensive experience on
Berthos; Henny
Penny; Black & White Coffee Machines; Kitchen
Refrigeration; Cofrimel;
Techfrigo; Frymaster and Zanussi.
Knowledge
in the repair of Laundry Equipment; Knowledge in the repair of
Gas
Appliances.
GENERATORS: A relevant Apprenticeship (minimum 2 ½ years)
with a
registered Generator/ Heavy Equipment Plant Company. A Trade
Test
Certificate issued by The Department of Labour. At least 3
years
experience on Caterpillar; FG Wilson and Iveco generators. (60 kva -
2500
kva.) Must have extensive knowledge on all aspects of the
electronics
systems of the generator. Able to troubleshoot fault
codes.
Phone - 309855 - 60, 3099274 - cv@oxfordit.co.zw , ronald@oxfordit.co.zw
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-----------------------
(Ad
inserted 5 July 2007)
Business for Sale - South West
Queensland
Lucrative service station for sale $AU 300 000.00 -
potential for a
business migrant to Australia.
Listed on the
internet at www.eldersre.com.au.
internet id no serv4454
If you want to ask more questions about
the business please contact kerry
at sunnyholt2@bigpond.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------EMPLOYMENT
REQUIRED------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(Ad
inserted 7 June 2007)Accounting ServicesOutsource your payrolls. For
confidential payrolls produced on FDSsystem.Accounting services offered to Final
accounts.Contact : Jenny at tiger1@mweb.co.zw or
011400754.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(Ad
inserted 7 June 2007)Secretarial / Administration/ ReceptionI am a mature man
looking for Secretarial / Administration/ Receptionwith 10 years of
experience.Computer literate, good communication skills with all segments
ofZimbabwe and foreign societies. Hard working. I will consider full orpart
time engagement in any field. Well travelled having worked inalmost every
sector in the industries.Please contact me on 492 590 (Work) 0912339 438 Cell or
e-mail me at:tengarnetts@yahoo.com - Tendai Karinda
Mr------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(Ad
inserted 21 June 2007)Coffee Shop Part-Time in AugustReturning to Harare in
August looking for a part time job in a coffeeshop, restaurant, B & B in
fact anything that's fun and can keep me busyfor 3-4 days a week. Can do most
things. Please contact Merle Grantphone 00 267 7211296 or email shell@it.bw------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(Ad
inserted 28 June 2007)Mature Secretary/PA/AdministratorAvailable
ASAPReliableAble to Work without supervisionCan run an executive officeComputer
literatePhone 0912 425468 or E-mail: julietjokomo@yahoo.co.uk------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(Ad
inserted 28 July 2007)PA/Secretary37 year old lady looking for a PA/Secretary
position.Skills include:Microsoft Office Word, Excel Basic, Internet &
Email, Power poinComputer literate, good communication skills.Debtors
ClerkOverseeing Sales Representatives.Basic secretarial and reception
dutiesReconciling the cash book with cash sales of the previous
daybookingssupervise the day to day running of company houseboats and
otherAdministrative and office duties.C.V available on request.Please contact
Chere 011631546 or
499410------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------