President Thabo
Mbeki's much criticised delicate foreign policy on Zimbabwe goes under a
litmus test with the powerful and militant Congress of South African Trade
Unions (Cosatu) positioning itself to aggressively push the South African
leader to force President Robert Mugabe, currently balancing on a political
knife-edge, from power and call for an interim government as a precursor for
the ushering in of new political dispensation.
The move by the
South African labour union, a key ally of the ruling African National Union
(ANC) during the liberation of the country, was unanimously agreed on May 28
and 29, at a meeting convened in Johannesburg to actively support calls by
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and other stakeholders, "for an
interim government in Zimbabwe and the drafting of a new constitution on the
basis of which fresh elections should be conducted"
Before the
ink is even dry on the paper on which its resolution is written, Cosatu is
already mobilising its Northern Province affiliates to organise mass
demonstrations around the Beitbridge area to highlight the plight of the
Zimbabwean people.
The Northern Province lies just after the
Limpopo River which borders Zimbabwe and South Africa, its biggest trading
partner. One Cosatu official said the dates for the demonstrations were yet
to be fixed as "we are waiting for some issues to be addressed from there
(Zimbabwe)" without elaborating. The demonstrations are set to spill-over
into Zimbabwe.
According to confidential information obtained by
this paper, Cosatu's leadership resolved at their Johannesburg meeting that
they would shortly be sending a fact-finding mission into Zimbabwe comprising
of all its affiliates, before cracking its whip on Mbeki to deal with
Zimbabwe's crisis and force a re-run of Zimbabwe's presidential election.
This follows their meeting with the ZCTU in Johannesburg last
month.
"I can confirm that Cosatu met President Mbeki last month
and they talked about Zimbabwe, where the President explained his positions",
said the South African presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo. He however
professed ignorance over the planned demonstrations scheduled for the
Northern Province.
George Charamba, the permanent secretary in
the Department of Information and Publicity in the President's Office and his
boss, Jonathan Moyo were both said to be out of the office
yesterday.
Willard Chiwewe, responsible for Special Affairs in the
President's office said, " People protesting against their governments, I
don't think that is consistent with their Pan Africanist position. Instead
Cosatu could learn a lot from the solidarity that European Union or American
labour organisations have. They will be out of the way of the Pan Africanist
view which President Mbeki has been doing"
Sources from
Johannesburg indicated that Zimbabwe's issue, which had been simmering under
within the ANC's ruling block, could boil over, exposing that the alliance
has not been singing from the same song sheet over efforts to curtail a
long-standing crisis in Zimbabwe.
President Mbeki has come in for a
flak over his silent diplomacy at a time there has been a chorus for a
radical push to effect a regime change in Zimbabwe.
Calls for
megaphone diplomacy and decisive action on Zimbabwe come at a time when there
is an ill-feeling within both the ruling Zanu PF and the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) over each party's sincerity in the aborted talks to
find a negotiated settlement to the country's still unfolding crisis. The
protagonists of the negotiated settlement felt that the political impasse is
a millstone around the country' neck.
While it is widely believed
that a negotiated settlement could avert further trauma so far suffered by
Zimbabweans in the country's increasingly violent political divide, both the
MDC and Zanu PF, led by what observers feel are the country's biggest
political egos, Morgan Tsvangirai and President Mugabe respectively, have
been playing hardball.
President Mugabe under whose stewardship the
economy has collapsed into a recessionary heap has all along been exploiting
the power of incumbency, and always reminds his critics that his ruling Zanu
PF fought for the liberation struggle.
The MDC however argues
that although the war of liberation was important, it is now of the past and
will not be a rallying point for the future. Given the sweeping nature of the
economic melt-down, the MDC has been tapping into a deep well of
disenchantment of Zimbabweans frustrated with social
depravation.
The decision by Cosatu, which was taken by its
executive committee, is expected to break the crucial alliance between
Mbeki's government and Cosatu. Cosatu's leadership is intent on taking Mbeki
hostage over his quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe, which has been widely
criticised as ineffective in dealing with the country's political and
economic crisis.
"Cosatu will lobby the South African government to
pressurise President Mugabe..to accede to the demands by trade union movement
for democracy, restoration of rule of law and free political activity,"
the Cosatu executive declared in minutes obtained by The Financial
Gazette.
The Cosatu executive said it had a "historical
duty" to help find a solution to Zimbabwe's problems and ensure democracy and
free political activity.
Cosatu confirmed their position on the
planned demonstrations on Tuesday this week.
"This will not in
any way affect our relationship with the ANC at all. I believe President
Mbeki is arguing for the same political settlement in Zimbabwe. So our stance
will not affect our relationship with the government since we are working for
the same solutions", said Patrick Craven, a Cosatu spokesman who could not
however say when the planned demonstrations would take place.
"The resolution that was taken by Cosatu was a result of our meeting with
them last month. After the meeting that's when they came with that position
and I must say we are very much humbled by their response since we come from
the family of both regional and international labour unions", said Wellington
Chibhebhe, the seretary general of the ZCTU.
ZIMBABWE,
which was early this month suspended from the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), is expected to benefit from the fund’s US$315 million injection into a
regional tourism project, a South African tourism operator said.
The funding will help transform Zimbabwe’s tourism infrastructure, and could
be a major boost to the country’s tourism industry, which has experienced a
serious slump in international arrivals due to an unstable economic and
political environment.
Kenneth Small told The Financial Gazette
during the re-launch of the Elephant Hills Intercontinental Hotel in Victoria
Falls last week that the southern African region would get US$250 million in
resort projects in the next five years.
The funding will come
from the World Bank and IMF and will help in transforming resort
areas.
"The project will see one million jobs being created in the
tourism industry and this will go a long way towards promoting black
empowerment programmes," he said.
Small said that US$115 million
would be used for the establishment of 10 transfrontier parks in the next
five years.
Currently, there is the Kruger Transfrontier Park
encompassing Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Mozambique
has already received US$20 million from the joint IMF/World Bank
initiative.
Zimsun Leisure chief executive officer, Shingi Munyeza,
said the project would see a major uplifting of the local tourism sector,
which is experiencing a slump because of political instability and the
economic crisis.
The projects will also see an increase in
tourist arrivals from two million to 6.5 million a year and the introduction
of 60 charter flights by 2010.
Zimsun group chairman, Eben
Makonese, said the government has also been offering export incentives that
will help in sustaining the project.
THE government has
directed National Foods Limited to destroy all the genetically modified (GMO)
maize at the firm’s plant in Bulawayo.
Livestock producers say the
grain which is to be destroyed could be used as stock-feed to save cattle in
a region where nearly 50 000 cattle have perished in Matabeleland South alone
due to the drought.
The Financial Gazette is informed that since
Monday, a total of about 3 000 tonnes of the GMO maize had by yesterday been
dumped in several disused mine shafts at Turk Mine. This has disappointed
cattle farmers, many of them peasants battling to source
stock-feed.
National Foods last year won a multi-million dollar
World Food Porgramme (WFP) contract to mill 13 000 tonnes of GMO maize meal
to feed hungry Zimbabweans.
Obert Mpofu, the governor and
resident minister of Matabeleland North, confirmed in an interview that the
government had directed that the GMO maize be destroyed. Mpofu said the state
felt the residue was not even fit as stock feed.
"It’s an
agreement between us (government), and National Foods.
"The GMO
maize is being milled in a quarantined place as per the agreement reached
between us and the two parties in the deal. We will not allow that stuff to
be carelessly disposed off. GMO foods are not good for us Africans," said
Mpofu.
President Robert Mugabe reluctantly allowed WFP and other
relief agencies to distribute GMO maize meal owing to serious food shortages
caused by poor harvests blamed on the drought and the chaotic land
reform.
About six million people in Zimbabwe are dependent on
the food-hand-outs mainly from WFP.
Farmers that spoke to this
newspaper queried the government’s decision not to allow the farmers to
acquire the destroyed GMO maize to feed cattle, ostriches and other
livestock.
Ian Kind, the managing director of National Foods, could
not immediately comment yesterday as he was said to be attending
several meetings.
Sources at National Foods told this newspaper
that the maize was being transported to the disused mine shafts at Turk Mine
by 10 30-tonner trucks.
"There is a local firm that won the
contract to move and dispose the stuff. The government does not want it to be
fed to cattle or for it to leak into fields," said a National Foods
official.
"The government allowed WFP to feed hungry villagers with
GMO maize meal, why not allow us to feed our dying cattle with the maize
which is very good stuff for the animals. If the people are eating GMO maize,
why not the cattle," a farmer from Turk Mine who witnessed the dumping of the
GMO maize told this newspaper.
Mpofu expressed concern that
farmers were now aware where the maize was being dumped.
"In
fact we wanted it to be a secret. I am surprised that they have discovered
it. No-one except the authorities is supposed to know where the stuff is
being destroyed because we don’t want to contaminate our beef or fields,"
said the governor.
"People might abuse the stuff and then we are in
trouble. We don’t like these GMO foods and we are not alone in this in
Africa," he said.
The refusal by the government to allow farmers to
use GMO maize as stock feed comes at time when the price of stock feed has
gone up by 40 percent.
A 50-kilogrammes bag of cattle feed now
costs $9 847 compared to $7 000 a bag two weeks ago.
Zambia has
refused relief agencies to ship in GMO maize.
A DRASTIC interest rate cut that could
see lending rates plunging to around 30 percent is on cards, in what would
mark a drastic shift in monetary policy.
Treasury sources said
the central bank, which had been pushing for interest rates reflective of the
level of inflation, was under pressure to reign in lending rates that are
creeping towards 100 percent.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is
now mulling slashing the Repo Rate, which is reflective of the cost of money
accessed from the bank. At the last tender, the rate was around 56
percent.
A repo is conducted through the normal tender system,
whereby institutions offer to sell Treasury Bills (TBs) back to the RBZ on
the basis that they would repurchase them the following day.
It
is a way of getting overnight cover through the use of TB holdings as opposed
to merely borrowing.
By lowering the rate, banks would gradually
cascade their lending rates downwards.
"Much of the pressure is
coming from politicians who are concerned that resettled farmers could fail
the nation if they don’t access cheap funds.
"You are aware,
that most of the farmers are already failing to access funds raised from
agribonds and cheap loans provided to exporters and the productive sectors,"
said a treasury source.
The source said: "The current interest rate
regime is unsustainable. There is no economy that can take-off with interest
rates as high as 100 percent."
Last year, outgoing RBZ governor,
Leonard Tsumba, said the bank would pursue a dual interest rate
policy.
Under the new policy, low interest rates were applied on
export and productive sectors with non-essential or consumptive borrowing
attracting market determined rates.
Tsumba was hoping that low
interest rates would stimulate economic growth, while market-determined rates
would discourage speculative borrowing.
The economic meltdown
has however, continued and so has consumptive spending.
In the
absence of the economic recovery trust fund that should have been established
before March this year, activity in industry has
remained depressed.
The trust was expected to boost production
in industry.
A reduction in interest rates would spur activity on
the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, which has been on a bull-run despite the
depressing economic outlook.
Investor interest on the money
market would shrink because of negative returns.
The
construction sector would also pick up as more and more people would start to
access loans.
A reduction in interest rate would also lessen the
burden on borrowers, particularly those on mortgage. — Staff Reporter
Beleaguered workers allege corruption at
commission
Nelson Banya 6/26/03 10:10:12 AM (GMT
+2)
MORALE at the Forestry Commission is reported to have reached
its lowest ebb following allegations of corruption, mismanagement,
and profligacy leveled against the top management by workers at the
strategic parastatal.
The workers have also complained of
what they termed "harassment at the hands of the commission’s general
manager, Enos Shumba."
Workers at the parastatal, which has been
hit by a spate of resignations, have since written to Environment and Tourism
Minister, Francis Nhema, to register their displeasure at how the commission
is being run.
"We as employees of the Forestry Commission have
tried to raise the irregularities within the organisation to both the
chairman and the board but it has become clear that the chairman has decided
to ignore our concerns.
"This has led to frustration and a drop
in the overall morale in the organisation, which is evidenced by the recent
spate of resignations. We are now raising the same issues with you, our
minister, because we feel only you can correct the rot," reads the letter to
the minister, which was left unsigned for fear of reprisals.
Nhema was yet to respond to the workers’ letter, dated May 9 2003, by the
time of going to press and efforts to seek his comments proved
futile.
The workers wrote to FC chairman, Langford Chitsike last
year to complain about several issues bedeviling the organisation, but did
not get any response, prompting them to seek the minister’s
intervention.
Problems at the commission have reportedly led to the
resignation of five senior managers since late last year to date, as
frustration took its toll, the workers alleged.
Contacted for
comment, Chitsike dismissed the workers’ allegations, saying if there were
any grievances against management, workers knew the proper communication
channels.
"You have to be mindful of the fact that some people take
pleasure in creating things, but we are always prepared to listen and the
workers know that I have sent out a communique asking them to come out in the
open if they have any grievances.
"There is no question of
victimisation by management because as a board, that is why we are here and
have committees at board and management level to deal with problems, although
we will always let management run the affairs of the commission without
undermining their authority.
"You talk about letters, which had no
addresses and are unsigned, which makes it difficult to communicate with
people who are not prepared to come out in the open in spite of our
preparedness to listen and address their concerns," Chitsike
said.
He professed ignorance at any resignations from the
commission, saying that he only knew of suspensions pending investigations of
some officers.
Efforts to contact commission general manager Enos
Shumba failed as he was said to be locked in a meeting with senior Forestry
Commission management.
Complaints against preferential treatment
of workers mounted following last August’s advance of a R25 000 (about $ 175
000 at the time) medical loan to a junior worker linked to a senior manager,
when the rest of the workers could access medical loans not exceeding $10
000.
The worker in question has since left the commission’s employ
without repaying the loan, workers alleged.
It is also alleged
that the commission acted in contravention of the country’s exchange control
regulations by sanctioning the repair of a commission vehicle assigned to one
senior manager in Francistown, Botswana, at a cost of P27 000, with the
payment being effected following a misrepresentation to the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe.
"We would like to add that we are aware that the foreign
currency to pay for the vehicle was applied for using the reason that the
vehicle had broken down in Francistown on official duty — a total lie," the
workers wrote to the Chitsike.
It is believed the truck was
ferried to Botswana for the repairs.
Workers also accused
management of circumventing tender procedures in the procurement of computer
technology for the commission at a price significantly higher than that
prevailing in the market at the time.
Corruption and mismanagement
of state enterprises have been blamed for persistently draining the fiscus
instead of boosting revenue, in spite of operating in strategic areas of the
economy with virtual monopoly status.
The trend looks set to
persist, as the government has virtually shelved the privatisation of state
enterprises
THE High Court
yesterday registered Michael Hellens, a top South African lawyer who will
represent former High Court judge, retired Justice Fergus Blackie, in the
case in which the retired judge is facing corruption charges.
Justice Lavender Makoni granted temporal permission for Hellens to practice
law in Zimbabwe as he defends Justice Blackie, arrested in September last
year, in a criminal trial which opens at magistrates court next
week.
Blackie, who retired from the bench last July, faces charges
of defeating or obstructing the course of justice, or alternatively
breaching the Prevention of Corruption Act arising from his alleged
"unprocedural" handling of an appeal by a woman convicted of stealing some
money from her employer.
Blackie is alleged to have committed
the offence when he quashed an effective one-year jail term imposed by the
magistrates court on the woman, Tara White, without the concurrence of
Justice Rita Makarau, with whom he had heard the appeal.
Blackie
made headlines in July last year when, in his last case on the bench, he
convicted Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa on two charges of contempt of
court and sentenced him to a three-month jail term and a $50
000 fine.
Chinamasa appealed against both conviction and
sentence on the basis that he was out of the country when his trial took
place and the High Court ordered a fresh trial, but the trial has not yet
taken off.
Contempt of court charges against Chinamasa arose from
his criticism of a six-month jail term imposed by Justice Mahomed Adam in
1999 on three Americans found in illegal possession of arms.
Chinamasa, then as the country’s attorney general, described the sentence as
too lenient to induce a sense of shock.
PRESIDENT Robert
Mugabe, whose political career has been shaken by social unrest triggered by
poor economic performance, is unlikely to throw in the towel before helping
his party regain lost ground during the 2005 parliamentary
elections. The result of the election, which is only about two years
away, would have a big influence on the political future of the ageing ZANU
PF leader, who has been living like an outcast since winning the disputed
presidential election last year.
In the past, Mugabe has hinted
that he was ready to step down after wrapping up the catastrophic land reform
exercise that has reduced Zimbabwe from being the region’s bread-basket into
almost a net importer of agricultural commodities.
The land
reform, which has been followed by two audits so far and sentiment by Mugabe
that he would quit, are turning out to be a political gimmick.
Political analysts said there was no way the former bush war leader, who has
been at the helm of ZANU PF for nearly three decades, could call it a day
just about a year and a half before a key election.
The 2005
parliamentary election could have serious effects on his revolutionary
party.
"I don’t think he is likely to step down in the near future
until he get the assurance that his party is in a sound position to win any
election in the future.
"My own prognosis is that Mugabe will
not go until he is satisfied that his party has regained its vibrancy and
relevance — even in urban areas — that it is in a position to win any
election, be it presidential, parliamentary or council after he is gone,"
University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer, Eldred Masunungure
said.
Speculation has been rife since late last year that Mugabe
was not eager to complete his six-year presidential term that he won in a
disputed March 2002 election.
So strong has been the speculation
that it has even drowned sporadic denials issued in the government media by
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.
Although Mugabe’s departure
could be good for the country and the southern African region, which is
beginning to feel the contagious effects of his misrule, there is the
downside that needs to be managed properly.
Any immediate departure
by the 79-year-old leader could have cathartic effects on his party and this
could jeopardise its campaign to regain lost political ground.
All roads seem to
lead towards a baptism of fire for the ZANU PF candidate who will vie for the
presidency when President Robert Mugabe finally decides to let go his grip on
power.
The ruling party’s poor record as well as our current
leader’s shadow are likely to hand him a rough ride in his attempt to journey
to State House.
Conscious of a trend where former heads of state
are made to account for their past role, Mugabe is likely to opt for a man
with soiled hands so as to make any future prosecution
impossible.
Considering present day Zimbabwean politics, such a
person will most likely come from the party’s inner circle, a circle of men
and women who stand accused of presiding over the destruction of a
once-promising nation.
It is in that same circle where people who
have been declared unwelcome in most capitals around the globe can be found.
What this means is that his appeal to the outside world will be compromised
as most will perceive him in accordance with the "smart" sanctions he
faces.
The sanctions, which virtually signify an entry of one’s
name in a particular country’s black book, will act as a badge of shame, a
badge licensing the world to take a dim view of him.
Suspicious
of any traits rubbing off from Mugabe, the world is also likely to maintain a
distance until it is convinced that the individual is not only pre-occupied
with winning elections, but also has the capacity to break away from ZANU
PF’s terrible ways.
Reception from Zimbabwe’s voters is not likely
to be any better. A replay of Kenya’s recent elections seems to be on the
cards. A political novice not versed in Kenya’s underworld of graft, Uhuru
Kenyatta lost all the same because of his connection with Moi.
People sensed that the former KANU leader might have continued to pull the
strings from his retirement home. And Mugabe is no different from Daniel arap
Moi. So any signs that Mugabe may want to control from behind will
only result in his successor’s rejection.
But in Zimbabwe’s case
the jingle goes much deeper than that of East Africa because the candidate
will be coming from the dreaded ZANU PF.
People are not likely to
forget soon that it was under the ruling party that a lot of sad things
happened to Zimbabwe: lifetime savings were eroded, democracy was suspended
and alarm bells ignored.
Secrecy was exalted, lying was perfected
and criminals roamed free. Hard workers migrated, activists exiled and
professionals forced out. Again and again the ravages went on. Corruption
reached its peak, hatred reached dizzy heights and propaganda became the
highlight. In all that madness children starved, youths lost hope and adults
suffered.
But under such conditions can it be said there is totally
no hope for any future ZANU PF candidate? It appears as if that depends on
that individual’s preparedness to make heavy compensations for his party’s
past blunders.
It should be appreciated that Zimbabwe’s problems
are of gigantic proportions, yet they require simple answers. Like an onion,
they are layered but as is the case with the same onion; it is easy to get to
their core.
They only need a leader who is a path-breaking
individual and the ruling party ought to know that. The individual must be
prepared to branch off from the present system which fails to realise that
opposition political leaders are spokesmen for a huge chunk of our Zimbabwean
citizens.
The present route of antagonising each other has only led
the country to the wilderness. Zimbabwe will be best served if it does not
have politicians who damn the consequences just because they know they have
the prowess to survive under harsh conditions.
A Mikhail
Gorbachev, minus his unnecessary mistakes, might prove to be the calibre of
an individual to take over the reins in the ruling party only for the reason
of preventing the country from going beyond redemption.
It will not
only be in the party’s interests, but it will also be in the national
interests; for it will prevent prolonged political friction. Faced with a
defining moment in their country’s history, the hardliners and geriatrics in
Russia’s Communist Party saw the need to pass on the baton to a younger man
less tied to an empty ideology.
Whether he later won or lost,
others still consider him a hero because he saw the need for a nation of free
people. After all what more can Zimbabwe want except its own versions of
Perestroika and Glasnost.
The Great Uncle, in his accustomed wisdom,
finally decided to dissolve the ZESA board at a rally in rural Matabeleland
over the weekend. Yes, here in Zimbabwe if you do not follow the Great
Uncle’s perorations at party rallies, at the Heroes Acre and at the Harare
International Airport, you miss out a lot because all important policy
announcements are made at such events.
But the Great uncle did
not tell the nation whether his brother-in-law Sydney Gata who had arrogated
to himself God’s powers at ZESA would also be clearing his drawers to make
way for new brooms.
Zimbabweans reeling from power-cuts have every
reason to wish him well in his future endeavours. To every pig comes his
Martinmas!
If the Great Uncle was so impressed with Gata’s
performance, no one would begrudge him if he would second this Gata fellow to
turn around his collapsing pig project at his Kutama home.
The
reason the Uncle gave for dissolving the board was that there were serious
disagreements which had stalled the all important rural electrification
programme.
Surely there were bound to be disagreement on a board
chaired by someone who thought and acted like he had a private line to God.
More importantly, there were bound to be serious disagreements if there were
some right-minded people on this board because there is no worse madness
than taking power from productive sectors of the economy to pottering
rural chiefs in exchange for their people’s votes. Talk about economic
sabotage?
After all the noise about Justice Ben Hlatshwayo’s right
to occupy this farm in Mashonaland West, CZ is of the opinion that wherever
possible, judges should strive to stay clear of controversies because in the
event of some people getting aggrieved, they should confidently turn to our
courts. This becomes a bit awkward when a member of the judiciary is involved
in the wrangle.
In our tradition, it is taboo for a woman to
nurse a baby and be pregnant at the same time.
There are dozens
of other farms that are equally good that the good farmer-cum-judge could
have moved to while Made and the farm owner sorted each other out, unless he
had an interest in the farmhouse itself or any such other readily available
infrastructure.
It is also important to note that on some of these
controversial farms, some war veterans and people like our own national
physical fitness trainer Themba Mliswa may lose their tempers and end up
beating people. If the honourable judge would be caught in the cross fire and
get beaten thoroughly, the Press will simply report that a High Court Judge
was beaten thoroughly, and this would not be good for his
office.
The great fisherman
After a busy week
excoriating soccer supporters for not doing enough to support the national
team, making generous sponsorships, and finally coming to the rescue of the
national team by sky-jacking an Air Zimbabwe plane to take the stranded team
to Mali, over and above his routine duties, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe
was surely tired.
He decided to go to the resort town of Kariba to
chill out with his family and at the same time do the other thing he knows
best — fishing.
For about four hours, the family was in tears as
the cussed boat started playing yo-yo right in the middle of the lake. We
just hope there was a small radio on the capsizing boat to give his family
the consoling "Rambai makashinga" jingles to keep them from losing any more
hope. Anyway, that is what songs are for. They are there to cushion us when
we sit on the hard bench called suffering.
More
counterparts
CZ is angry with Dr Made. Our "counterparts" from
Mozambique were here this week and he was not given the chance he previously
requested to take them around and show them what the "successful" new farmers
are doing with the land.
He would have taken the delegation no
further than the farms owned by his colleagues at Herald House, to see for
themselves what A2 models farmers are doing.
Hopefully the
Cde-Dr will not hog the next delegation of "counterparts" that comes in the
country to see for themselves what we are good at.
Most new farmers won’t benefit from Arab bank
project
Staff Reporter 6/26/03 9:43:24 AM (GMT
+2)
THE bulk of newly resettled farmers would be left out in
the disbursement of the US$5 million ($4.12 billion) facility advanced by
an Arab bank to the Agricultural Bank of Zimbabwe (Agribank).
Analysts said the criteria that would be used in disbursing the much-needed
funds marginalise most farmers settled under the controversial land
reform.
The facility is only open to net exporters, while
repayments would be made in United States dollars.
Most newly
resettled farmers grow crops for domestic consumption hence they are not net
exporters.
They also lack the capacity to access foreign currency
unless they get government’s support.
Unfortunately, it is the
new farmers who require cheap funding to buy inputs and agricultural
equipment.
The Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa
(BADEA), threw a lifeline to Agribank recently, when it extended the
facility.
Private entrepreneurs in the agricultural and food
processing sectors would be the main beneficiaries.
In a
statement, Agribank said that as a condition to qualify for the fund, only
projects substantially owned by Zimbabwean citizens would
be considered.
Borrowers can access a minimum of US$50 000,
which is $41.2 million on the inter-bank rate.
The bank will
finance 10 percent of the required loan, while the BADEA would contribute
about 50 percent of the total project. The beneficiaries would meet the
balance.
The loan capital that will be entered in the bank’s books
and loan covenants will be made available to beneficiaries in US
dollars.
All applicants will subject to a processing fee of $100
000.
In addition, establishment fees will be at one percent of
the principal amount.
The under-capitalised Agribank has a
non-performing loan book, owing to its exposure to commercial farmers
displaced by the government’s controversial land redistribution
exercise.
THE tobacco industry,
already facing dwindling production levels caused by the haphazard land
reform, could be headed for total collapse because of poor prices, industry
players said last week.
Farmers attending the Zimbabwe Tobacco
Association (ZTA) annual congress, which ended in Harare last week said
prices fetched from the three auction floors were too low in Zimbabwe dollar
terms because of the skewed exchange rate.
Industry players are
virtually subsidising the tobacco industry because returns cannot match
rising production costs.
"Tobacco cannot sustain the subsidy. ZTA
should take all possible measures to avoid the imminent destruction of the
Zimbabwe tobacco growing industry," said Duncan Miller, ZTA
president.
Miller said Zimbabwe is expected to produce 85 million
kg of tobacco in the next farming season, compared to 168 million kg produced
last season.
Tobacco farmers at the 43rd ZTA annual congress were
unanimous that sustainable solutions would be required to avert the
industry’s collapse.
Output, which has fallen drastically
because of the controversial land reform, could further plunge into a deep
hole if the government maintains the exchange rate at current
levels.
Farmers are paying nearly $2500 for every United States
dollar sourced on the parallel market yet their receipts are liquidated at
$824 to the greenback.
"We resolved that the ZTA lobby the
relevant authorities to ensure that funds are made available to procure
direct crop inputs such as fertiliser, fuel and chemicals," said Silas
Magomo, a representative of tobacco growers in Mashonaland Central.
Many factors are at
present indicating that President Robert Mugabe is now too exhausted to
endure another day in the office. The wear and tear of being head of a
deteriorating state is set to catch up with him sooner rather than
later.
The many national and international wars he is battling in
are not the kind a human being of flesh and blood can sustain for long.
Sadly, some of the wars are against the wrong people and the wrong
systems.
Mugabe knows, better than any of us, that his time is up.
He can be compared to an AIDS victim who has lived with and fought against
HIV since the late 90s but now the virus is taking its toll and the victim
knows better than the doctor, that his days are numbered.
But
just like an AIDS victim, the old man never wants to go down in mortification
and shame. He does not want to be stigmatised and entirely blamed for his
shortcomings and those of the nation.
This is why Mugabe reacted
ruthlessly towards the MDC’s ‘final push’. Deep down he is clamouring to step
down but he does not want to go in disgrace and distress.
It is
evident now that the hyperbolic slogan, "the land is the economy and the
economy is the land" has finally been exposed for the
malfunctionary propaganda that it is.
Even though we now have
the land, our economy remains a laboratory test-tube example that land
without good governance renders a state inhabitable.
This
explains why we are now being coaxed to endure hardships through the anthem
of "Rambai Makashinga."
The effect of Mugabe’s prolonged
reign is that it has made him a devil in the eyes of the ordinary Zimbabweans
because he has presided over an inflationary climate that has eroded their
hard-earned savings and rendered a simple personal budget a thing of the
past.
The greatest economic crisis in Zimbabwe today is boisterous
inflation that, like a wild fire on a windy day, is totally out of
control.
The situation, which is Mugabe’s greatest undoing at the
moment, is reminiscent of Germany’s grotesque hyperinflation of 1923, when
a wheelbarrow full of money could not buy a newspaper, making it cheaper
to wrap vegetables in bank notes than newspaper.
Those who had
taken a 20-year insurance policy in 1903 and had made the payments faithfully
only managed to buy a loaf of bread with the money when the policy matured in
1923.
A student at Freiburg University ordered a cup of coffee at a
cafe. The price on the menu was 5 000 marks. He had two cups. When the bill
came, it was for 14 000 marks.
"If you want to save money," he
was told, "and you want two cups of coffee, you should order them both at the
same time."
We also have probably heard the story about the workers
being paid every few hours, and of the workman who took a wheelbarrow full of
paper money to the store to buy bread. He parked it outside (after all, who
would bother stealing it?) while he went in to see if any bread was
available. When he came out, he found the money dumped on the ground, and
the wheelbarrow stolen!
The mark was finally revalued on
December 1, 1923 at the rate of 1 000 000 000 000 old marks to one new mark,
or one trillion to one.
When I was a history student in high
school, the 1923 German situation seemed to me like the figment of some
bizarre Jewish historian’s hallucinations — little did I know that exactly 80
years after the German catastrophe, my homeland would be singing the
blues.
It’s not surprising these days that as one picks a commodity
from the supermarket shelf, an attendant follows behind changing the price
such that the next time one wants to buy the same commodity, it would have
most probably doubled in price.
I had the opportunity to go down
South last weekend and I should confess that buying something that had a
price tag for one unit of the currency was so exciting. With just R500 a
Zimbabwean can have a weekend of a lifetime in South Africa.
It’s a pity Mugabe is feeding the country to the sharks by blindly holding
onto power until kingdom come. The crisis of having Mugabe at the helm of a
smouldering nation is that it will allow capitalists to manipulate the
situation knowing that fingers will always be pointed at State
House.
We will never know the level of corruption, let alone the
extent of the black market as long as Mugabe is President. The real culprits
will only be exposed when they can no longer point a finger at
Mugabe.
Mugabe must just give Zimbabwe a chance to start afresh
while it still can. It’s unfortunate that we made Mugabe what he is
today.
No one is born a dictator. Dictators are manufactured. We
never seriously criticised him where we knew he could have acted better. We
took long to earnestly censure him hence he amassed so much power that it
will take nothing short of persuasion to do away with his runaway
megalomania.
Someone, anyone especially within the ruling party in
1995 at least, should have advised that Mugabe’s time was up but instead no
one dared to and now we must be cognisant of the fact that Mugabe might never
leave office voluntarily if we do not guarantee his safe exit.
He needs to be assured that he will not meet the fate of others before him
such as Milosevic, Chiluba, Mussolini, Nicolae Ceausescu, Mobutu Sese Seko,
Suharto and the rest of them.
They say power corrupts and absolute
power corrupts absolutely. And for Mugabe, a man of many caps, the cap of
absolute power seems to fit perfectly.
Zimbabwe is a ship lost
at sea and only a change in the captaincy will save us from being wrecked in
the economic and political storm.
For the good of the nation, the
cases against both Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai must be dropped to enable
dialogue to commence.
Mugabe needs to be persuaded to allow someone
else, not necessarily Tsvangirai, to take the wheel lest we all perish at
sea.