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 prosp