This might be of interest. The ICC response to the article below is:
"The ICC welcomed the decision of the Sports and Recreation Ministry to appoint an interim committee to run ZC and we also accepted as a sensible step the decision of ZC to step back from Test cricket later that same month. Such a decision allows the country's young players to develop away from the extreme pressure of that level while, at the same time, affording the administration the opportunity to resolve several key issues facing it. Those issues include the completion of a new constitution and an independent audit of its finances.
"We will continue to monitor the progress of ZC to address these issues but it is not the ICC's role to interfere in the running of the administration of a Member, although we will, as always, be happy to offer any assistance if requested to do so by that administration."
Here is the article:-
Former board president slams Chingoka regime
Cricinfo staff
June 6, 2006
Dave Ellman-Brown, the former president and later chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Cricket Union, has added his voice to those criticising the current Zimbabwe cricket leadership which opponents claim has taken the game to the blink of oblivion.
Ellman-Brown, who is now the re-branded ZC life-president, said the game in Zimbabwe has continued to sink since the interim board was given the reins in January.
"I am extremely disappointed with what has happened since the SRC decided to appoint an interim committee which had question marks," he Cricinfo. "Now they have disbanded old provinces and set-up new ten ones. I don't believe what happened was legal. The provinces are affiliated to ZC but they are independent associations with their own assets. But by the stroke of a pen ZC, went ahead and disbanded them. We are still to see genuine forensic audit of Mashonaland. We won't see that because they no longer exist. That to me is very depressing."
Ellman-Brown expressed reservations about the source of funding for the new provinces at a time the national association is in a deep financial crisis. "Who's going to fund these provinces? Where is the money going to come from? I can't see it."
He said the former administrators had not been consulted by the Peter Chingoka-leadership since the problems in cricket worsened. "I have never been consulted by Chingoka," he remarked. "We've asked if we could meet with him to discuss matters of general concern. He refused to meet us. We were worried about matters of general issues, about the captaincy, about players leaving, and about other issues. It was in the best interest of cricket why we wanted to see him."
Ellman-Brown added that if the present leadership stays on for two more months, he believes Zimbabwean cricket will be damaged beyond restructuring.
"I believe they have been successful in destroying the game in Zimbabwe. You can't blame it on anything. You can't say its racism. You can't say its elitism. You can't say all those people who have left, both black and white, do not have genuine grievances."
The elimination process by ZC, Ellman-Brown said, had reached a point of no return. "ZC is just manipulating so that they will have people around them who won't criticize them. Anyone with different views to Chingoka and Bvute will go. I do not think the ICC has been strong enough. They have to step in and put corrective measures."
Ellman-Brown also slammed the new format which will domestic cricket run from January to the penultimate months of the year. "In the southern hemisphere, we play in summer. In winter we tour, or players go overseas. For what good reason has this format been introduced?"
He concluded: "I think this regime has got to disappear. They no longer have the respect of anyone. The sponsors have deserted them. In our days we had a lot of corporate support because the sponsors believed in the administration. Cricket is in the hands of people who are not worthy administrators."
newzimbabwe.com
By Lebo
Nkatazo
Last updated: 06/07/2006 14:49:24
SEKESAI Makwavarara and her
fellow commissioners running the Harare City Council are set to get the boot
when their term of office expires Friday, New Zimbabwe.com has learnt.
After
presiding over a period marred by unprecedented poor service delivery, the
commissioners have become "sitting ducks" and the government will have no
justification keeping them, sources said Wednesday.
Sources said
Makwavarara’s tenure would not be extended on the strength of her extravagance
that saw her moving into the controversial mayoral mansion despite a court
injunction obtained by former mayor Elias Mudzuri.
Makwavarara who has been
unusually targeted for criticism by the state-run Herald newspaper has also made
demands for billions of dollars to furnish the mansion as well as splashing
millions of dollars on groceries without getting the commission’s
approval.
Makwavarara's commission has also been placed under probe by the
anti Corruption Commission.
Zanu PF insiders said Local Government Minister
Ignatius Chombo intends to give the top Harare post to perennial Zanu PF
election loser and politburo member Tendai Savanhu.
They, however, added that
the ruling party’s two rival factions, one loyal to Vice President Joice Mujuru
and the other to Emmerson Mnangagwa were pushing for their favoured
candidates.
Elections for Harare were supposed to be held this year, but
Chombo last year announced that they would now be held in 2007. Opposition
officials say Zanu PF fears defeat in Harare, a major opposition
stronghold.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) recently announced the
opening of the inspection of the voters roll for Kadoma and Chitungwiza mayoral
elections but was mum on Harare.
Christian Science Monitor
The average life span for Zimbabweans has declined sharply in recent
years, according to a recent report.
By Ryan Truscott | Contributor to The
Christian Science Monitor
MUTARE, ZIMBABWE – Brian Mutenda is an
energetic 30-year-old with a vision.
He wants to establish a flea market on
the outskirts of his home city of Mutare, on Zimbabwe's border with
Mozambique.
The best thing about his flea market project is that it
won't take years to set up.
"A flea market is not a long-term thing," he
explains. "Anything that would take me three, four, or five years [to establish]
- I'm not very comfortable with, because at the back of the mind you say: 'At
40, I'll be no more.' "
Life is short here, and that's official.
According
to the 2006 World Health Report, published recently by the World Health
Organization (WHO), Zimbabwean men on average can expect to live only to age 37.
In the past 12 months, life expectancy for women plummeted by two years to 34,
the shortest in the world.
Behind the statistics is a grim tale of AIDS,
financial hardship, and stress. But it wasn't always this way in what was once
one of the most prosperous countries on the continent. Between 1970 and 1975,
Zimbabweans could expect to live to the age of 56. The sharp decline in life
expectancy has drastically changed the outlook and aspirations of people
here.
As a teenager, Mutenda dreamed of being "a managing director, or a
company executive. I dreamed of myself in a high-backed chair," he says.
But
now he and his friends are only too aware their lives might soon be over. So
they plan accordingly.
"With all my friends, this is the trend. Those who had
money or those who had parents who are well-off, they have decided to buy
[liquor] stores so that they will have quick cash."
The low life expectancy
has a host of negative effects on Zimbabwean society, says Eldred Masunungure,
the executive director of the Harare-based Mass Public Opinion Institute.
He
says young people are less committed to the companies they work for.
"Why
invest energy in the development and growth of an organization you're not likely
to be a part of in 14 years' time?" he asks.
Older people can remember when
things were different. Retired teacher Gilbert Rondozai, 79, says he believes a
rise in crime and promiscuity is a result of young people's lack of
hope.
"Everybody says they can't control the young. They're drunks and
promiscuous. And crime. It was never known in my growing-up time that you'd have
burglar bars over your windows," he says.
Mr. Rondozai's father lived to age
110. Six of his nine siblings are still alive.
"We lived long compared to
today," says Rondozai. For young people now, it's "live today, live tomorrow,
what happens after that is of no consequence," he says.
The World Health
Report says the decline is mainly due to the effects of a devastating HIV/AIDS
pandemic, which kills more than 3,000 people here every week.
But Mr.
Masunungure says that growing poverty may also play a part. "Dealing with
poverty is the government's responsibility," he says. But "government is
broke."
Once-thriving Zimbabwe is battling its worst-ever economic crisis.
Inflation topped 1,000 percent in April, and has gone up since. Fuel is in short
supply. So are medical drugs, machinery supplies, and foreign currency. Shoppers
are now used to seeing food prices go up nearly every day.
But there are
glimmers of hope.
In the working-class town of Chitungwiza, the Girl Child
Network Trust is working with young women to help them build longer
lives.
Zimbabwean girls up to the age of 18 are highly vulnerable to HIV
infection because they fall victim to sexual abuse, and early marriages, and
they lack knowledge about their rights, says Betty Makoni, the director of the
group, which oversees 350 clubs countrywide with a combined membership of
20,000. The clubs meet regularly to discuss self-empowerment strategies.
Schoolgirls are taught to stand up for their rights - and hopefully, avoid HIV
infection.
"The more we empower them, the more they speak out," explains Ms.
Makoni. "If we don't start with this girl, the woman we're talking about will be
lost."
The Herald
(Harare)
June 8, 2006
Posted to the web June 8, 2006
Harare
A
Parliamentary portfolio committee on Health and Child Welfare has questioned the
competence of nurses being trained today.
In a report submitted to the Senate
on Tuesday, a member of the committee Makonde-Chinhoyi Senator Douglas
Mombeshora (Zanu-PF) said the numerous challenges faced by nurse training
institutions impacted negatively on the country's health delivery system.
Mechanisms need to be put in place so that malpractices in the recruitment
process were curbed.
"The pass rate of students in (nursing) programmes is
declining. This can be attributed to the non-conducive learning environment and
lack of basics for effective learning. "The irregularities in the recruitment
and selection process also contribute to the drop in pass rates," he said. The
committee found that laid down criteria and guidelines on recruitment were not
being followed and corruption was rampant in the recruitment process.
The
corrupt recruiters were mainly some Government officials, politicians, church
administrators and at times some personnel from hospital management. Cde
Mombeshora said the committee visited Marond era Provincial Hospital, Nyadire,
All Souls and Bonda mission hospitals where it was confirmed that inadequate
financial and human resources were affecting the institutions' operations. "They
receive very little in grants from the Government such that the nurse training
schools become a burden. The staffing situation is not pleasing as well. Most
institutions operate at half or less of the staff establishment," said Cde
Mombeshora.
Besides being overworked, he said, the clinical tutors and
instructors were not happy with their conditions of service, particularly those
in the rural areas. "They do not have fixed pay dates and do not enjoy other
benefits such as housing and car loans like their counterparts in Government,"
Cde Mombeshora said.
The Herald (Harare)
June
8, 2006
Posted to the web June 8, 2006
Harare
Harare City Council has
run out of TB drugs while stocks of other drugs are low.
The health
department needs at least $22 billion every month to purchase drugs and maintain
its clinics and hospitals. But treasury is not releasing the money despite
requests to prioritise health. Chairperson of Harare Commission Ms Sekesayi
Makwavarara and town clerk Mr Nomutsa Chideya yesterday toured Beatrice
Infectious Diseases Hospital to acquaint themselves with operations at the
health institution.
So critical is the situation that the city is
contemplating reintroducing the TB injection, which was discarded some years ago
after the introduction of the Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS).
An official in the health department said TB drugs have to be administered as a
full course and giving them as single doses would be counter productive.
Ms
Makwavarara and Mr Chideya were shown empty drug storerooms and were informed
about the critical situation in the city's health department. The acting
director of health services, Dr Stanley Mungofa, confirmed the sho rtage of the
drugs when he briefed Ms Sekesayi Makwavarara. "There are no TB drugs. We might
have to reintroduce the injection because some of the drugs are not available,"
he said. Journalists were also shown storerooms with empty cabinets. The section
that normally carries the TB drugs was empty although just a few of the drugs
were seen in the wards.
The Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr
Edwin Muguti, also confirmed the shortage of the drugs. "The drugs are in short
supply. Harare was given the drugs. We are expecting more soon," he said.
Officials told The Herald the Ministry of Health made available a few drugs
after repeated requests by council. The drugs that were supplied are inadequate
to cater for all the council's clinics and two hospitals. Harare caters for the
largest number of TB patients in Zimbabwe. Dr Mungofa said because of the high
numbers of TB patients, the hospital was running out of space to keep patients
records. Dr Mungofa said at least 80 percent of TB patients were HIV positive.
The Herald
(Harare)
June 8, 2006
Posted to the web June 8, 2006
Tawanda
Chigwaza
Harare
The cost of living for a family of six for the month of
May surged to $49,1 million, up by 19,5 percent from the April figure of $41
million, according to statistics released by the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe
(CCZ) yesterday.
The CCZ said notable increase were recorded in water and
electricity which rose by 185,9 percent, transport costs which rose by 66,7
percent, salt by 51 percent, health by 40 percent while the price of white sugar
went up by 34 percent, margarine by 18,3 percent. Vegetables and rent increased
by 17,9 percent and 16,7 percent respectively over the survey period.
The
consumer watchdog also observed a visible improvement in the supply of roller
meal as maize has started trickling into the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depots
countrywide and this might have resulted in the continued decline in the price
of roller meal on the market. In April the price decreased by 22,2 percent,
going down by a further 9,2 percent in May. "The cost of vegetables continues to
increase owing to the shortages of local products like onions and tomatoes of
which only imported substitutes are available," said CCZ.
The CCZ also
observed that the cost of drugs has been on the increase and this could be link
ed to the 40,8 percent increase in the cost of the health component of the
basket. Last month saw widespread increases in rentals, impacting negatively on
consumers as some of the costs are now beyond the reach of the average worker.
"The supply of sugar continues to be erratic and this continues to push its
price up each time it is available on the market," said the consumer watchdog.
"The biggest shift in the month of May was recorded in the water and electricity
cost component of the basket. Water shortages for most consumers ballooned owing
to the tariff increase at the beginning of the month," said CCZ.
The
CCZ calls for the respective authorities to clarify the situation as consumers
are still in the dark on which authority is responsible for water billing system
and the correct tariffs. "Many consumers have received huge water bills to which
they seek clarity on. Electricity tariffs were increased as of the beginning of
June, hence consumers are urged to conserve the electricity in order to avoid
huge bills at the end of the month," said CCZ. According to the consumer
watchdog, a casual comparison of shopfloor wages and the Poverty Datum Line
reflects that some consumers are now forced to forgo some basic food and
non-food items owing to the high costs thus compromising their
livelihoods.
"Employers are therefore called upon to give their workers
salaries that take cognisance of the cost of living. CCZ continues to advocate
for the meeting of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) parties and we also
call on every Zimbabwean to rally behind the National Economic Development
Priority Programme (NEDPP) for the betterment of the economic situation," added
the consumer watchdog. Surveys for the consumer basket are conducted twice a
month while the basket is calculated by averaging the prices of goods in retail
outlets across the country.
In view of rising inflation, the CCZ continues to
urge consumers to exercise their right to choose and in tensify their search for
affordable commodities or cheaper substitutes.
The Zimbabwean
BY VIOLET GONDA
HARARE -
As the world responded with horror to shocking pictures of last year's Operation
Murambatsvina released by Amnesty International last week, Mike Davies,
chairperson of the Combined Harare Residents and Ratepayers Association reported
that some of the victims of last year's so-called clean up exercise were being
evicted again.
"Armed ZRP details evicted a group of about 30 squatters
living near Glen Norah on the banks of Mukuvisi. These are people who had been
displaced after Murambatsvina and had erected a makeshift habitat. They were
given two hours notice to get out and the police said they were coming back to
burn down those structures," he said. "There are also some dwelling/formal
structures in Mbare where people are being evicted as well. So Murambatsvina is
by no means over." The news comes in the wake of satellite images providing the
clearest possible evidence to date of the devastating impact of the Zimbabwean
government's policy of house demolitions. Amnesty International released images
taken before and after Murambatsvina to show the wholesale destruction of Porta
Farm, a large informal settlement just outside Harare and home to nearly 10 000
people. More than 850 structures were destroyed. At least 2.4 million people
were affected by the operation. Most of them were dumped in remote rural areas
while others are still eking out a miserable existence in squalid holding camps
like Hopely Farm. Human rights groups, lawyers and church groups are denied
little or no access to these holding camps. - SW Radio Africa
The Zimbabwean
BY SIBANENGI
DUBE
JOHANNESBURG - Givemore Chari's hopes to graduate with an accounting
degree in 2007 are now shattered after constant persecution by Zanu (PF) forced
him to leave Zimbabwe.
The 23 year-old Student leader of Bindura University
is now squatting with friends in the rough and populous high density suburbs of
Yeoville in South Africa, after escaping from his captors, he suspects to be
members of the dreaded Secret State operatives. Chari is just one of the many
brilliant Zimbabweans whose lives were disturbed by the political turmoil
playing itself out in Zimbabwe. "I jumped out of a brown moving vehicle after my
captors turned into a bush. They had apparently told me that they were going to
kill me. I out-sprinted them because they were drunk since they have been
drinking beer all the way from Bindura until Mazowe road where I jumped out of
the car," said Chari during an interview. Chari told The Zimbabwean that members
of the CIO had beaten his father and mother, Eliah and Vidah Mpaso this week in
an effort to force them to reveal where he was hiding.
"I heard from my
contacts in Zimbabwe that my family is being visited and tortured everyday, but
they are not aware of my whereabouts," said Chari. Chari said his problems
started after he attended a Zimbabwe National Student Union (Zinasu) meeting in
Harare where a resolution to carry out mass actions against hiking of fees was
reached. He said the student leaders' initial cardinal sin was to remove
president Robert Mugabe's portrait from the venue of the meeting. "Zinasu
leadership believes that Mugabe is not the legitimate leader of Zimbabwe and
holding a meeting in a room with his portrait hanging on the wall was against
our conscience and we removed and handed it over to the people who were cleaning
the premises," said Chira. Chira said he was shocked when the entire executive
was rounded and taken to Rhodesville police station soon after the meeting where
the police unsuccessfully tried to charge them with stealing Mugabe's portrait.
"But when the portrait was found in possession of the cleaners they still
continued to detain us until our lawyers secured our release in the early hours
of the following morning," said Chirwa. Though young Chirwa is now away from his
persecutor, he however remains an angry man. Chirwa is bitter that his
colleagues who were arrested on the day he escaped were still in detention and
being tortured for allegedly bombing the university premises.
The young
leader however said members of the CIO bombed the commerce building, which went
up in smoke.
"Tests carried out found that the building was bombed by a real
bomber and where would students get explosives of that magnitude? Charges Chira.
Chira, a self-confessed zealot of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is
also worried about his education. "I am not regretting anything about my clashes
with the regime, but all I now need to pursue my education and finish my degree.
My biggest hurdle now is finance," said Chira. Anyone who is willing to assist
Chira with money to continue with his education in South Africa can contact
Tawanda Mswazie on +27 (0)763233723.
Zimbabwe Independent
9 June 2006
Muckraker
IT has been encouraging to read the almost
universal outrage in the South African media over the decision by that country’s
Home Affairs department to refuse asylum to Roy Bennett and his farm-workers.
“Despite the blatant human rights violations taking place in Zimbabwe —
the systematic persecution of political opposition, of civil society and of the
remaining vestiges of an independent media — South Africa’s Home Affairs
essentially says this is not so,” wrote Nicole Fritz, director of the Southern
Africa Litigation Centre, in the Star last weekend.
“You have to hand it
to the officials of the Home Affairs department: they appear to make no attempt
to disguise their bad faith with any pretence at credible
justification.”
Fritz in particular slams the department’s claim that
Zimbabwe has an independent judiciary on the basis of Morgan Tsvangirai’s
acquittal on treason charges.
“No single case,” she says, “and certainly
not one which drew fierce international attention and pressure, as Tsvangirai’s
did, can be a convincing affirmation of the credibility of a country’s justice
system. Were the Home Affairs officials more concerned to appear competent, they
could have done a better job representing Zimbabwe’s judicial system as one able
to deliver fair and impartial outcomes. Quite apart from Tsvangirai’s case,
there are, in fact, a number of Zimbabwean cases that have upheld human rights.
Only recently, for example, in a bail application brought by a number of
individuals who had allegedly conspired with Bennett in a plot connected with
the discovery of an arms cache, the presiding judge observed that several of
them claimed they were tortured by security officers and induced into falsely
implicating Bennett and another MDC MP, Giles Mutsekwa.
“That some
Zimbabwean judges continue to issue rights-enforcing judgements, despite the
inhospitable environment in which they find themselves, is testimony to their
own personal courage and conviction in the principles of rule of law. But the
integrity of a justice system cannot rely on the good offices of a few. It must
depend on the credibility of the institutions that support it.
“With many
of the country’s judges thought to have been given confiscated farms — their
only tenure, the president’s continued pleasure — and the prospect of forced
removal from office, like previous Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay, judges are as
(if not more) likely to respond from fear or favour as they are from considered
judicial principle. In any event, even if the court system was completely
credible in Zimbabwe, that clearly isn’t, even for the most uninformed observer,
the chief complaint.
“Time and again, court orders are ignored or
blatantly defied by the Zimbabwean state and its law-enforcing agents. That has
clearly been the case with the court-granted interdicts against the government’s
recent Operation Murambatsvina and in respect of the occupation of farms.
“But if South Africa’s Home Affairs shows itself to be short of the
facts when it instructs Bennett to place his faith in the courts of Zimbabwe,”
Fritz says, “it invites ridicule when it requires of his ex-farmworkers that
they should have reported their alleged persecution at the hands of Zimbabwe’s
law-enforcing agents to those selfsame agents. At best, this refusal to grant
asylum to Bennett and his workers demonstrates incompetence on the part of Home
Affairs and an inability to appreciate what the situation in Zimbabwe is really
like.”
In case anyone was in any doubt about that situation, we had the
“commander-in-chief of farm invasions” complaining bitterly in the Herald last
week about the US embassy’s refusal to issue visas to individuals who are
responsible “for actions that threaten Zimbabwe’s democratic institutions”.
Which included him.
Joseph Chinotimba, who signed himself “war veteran
and proud Zimbabwean” in an open letter addressed to Dan Mozena, director of the
Office of Southern African Affairs in the US State Department, wanted to know
“what exactly have we done?”
He evidently has very limited powers of
recollection. There were threats made against Chief Justice Gubbay at his
chambers which the government did nothing to control, abuse of municipal office,
the shooting of an opposition supporter in Glen Norah, the occupation of
productive farms on the city’s periphery, and the establishment of a trade union
body aimed at neutralising the authentic voice of workers.
Apart perhaps
from Hitler Hunzvi, nobody’s career is more emblematic of the assault on civic
institutions than Chinotimba’s in the early years of the decade. We still don’t
know who in the upper echelons of the City of Harare authorised the municipal
policeman’s depredations but one day that person will be held to
account.
Chinotimba said he wanted it put on record that in response to
the targeting of their leaders by the US, war veterans would not “continue
sitting back on our laurels”. If this treatment continued, “then we will loose
(sic) our tamper (sic) as Zimbabweans”.
“If you want to treat us by the
back of the palm, then we will also treat you by the back of the palm,” he
warned menacingly.
We are sure the Americans are quaking in their boots!
Let it be noted that the last time Chinotimba purported to speak for
Zimbabweans, in a Highfield by-election, he was decisively rejected.
President Mugabe continues to provide evidence of delusional leadership. He
thinks church leaders should not “unnecessarily” criticise
government.
The government was always ready for dialogue to resolve
differences, he said.
When was the last time government listened to
anybody? Have they listened to business leaders on economic management issues?
Have they listened to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on
issues of governance? Have they listened to church leaders on the trauma caused
by Gukurahundi or Operation Murambatsvina? Have they listened to the courts on
rulings made regarding property rights?
Who will decide whether criticism
is “necessary” or not? Isn’t it the same people who have a vested interest in
ensuring that criticism is suppressed? If anybody wants to test Mugabe’s
sincerity they need go no further than ZBC which daily fails to provide any
evidence of national dialogue despite being publicly-owned.
Muckraker was
gobsmacked last Friday to see Information minister Tichaona Jokonya saying he
had told the Voice of America that the removal of sanctions was key to setting
up a Mugabe/Annan summit.
This is all a bit confusing. Not so long ago
we were told that sanctions were having no significant effect on Zimbabwe’s
economy. Then that sanctions were responsible for all our woes without
exception. Now we are being told that we can’t talk to the UN secretary-general
without their removal!
Several points need clarifying here. It is true
that US legislation prevents the IMF from extending balance-of-payments support.
But why is Zimbabwe dependent on the IMF when it is supposed to be a sovereign
state?
In fact, the IMF is declining to extend balance-of-payments
support because Zimbabwe has not met any of the conditions, particularly those
regarding economic reform, which have been raised in every visit by IMF staff.
In other words, it is not the Americans blocking IMF support, even though they
can, it is the IMF itself operating in terms of its mandate.
That point
has been blurred by the isolationists in our midst. As for the lifting of
sanctions, that is not the business of the UN. They would have to be lifted by
the US president acting in terms of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery
Act (which by the way had no input whatsoever from Jesse Helms or the MDC), or,
in Europe, by the EU commission.
The problem with sanctions is that,
contrary to the claims of Zimbabwe’s state propagandists, they are altogether
legal and will need very specific revocation measures by their authors if they
are to be lifted. Annan does not have a magic wand. And Ibrahim Gambari, if he
is eventually allowed in to negotiate an agenda for talks, will make this
abundantly clear. Zanu PF got us into this fix. Now it must get us
out!
That includes UN involvement in recovery and reconstruction
following Murambatsvina. Annan will not want to see Garikai houses or any other
Potemkin Village displays. He will be guided by the Tibaijuka Report. The sooner
the authorities here get used to that the better.
We were amused by
Swedish ambassador Sten Rylander’s remarks on his national day this week. His
wife has now joined him in Harare. He described her as his “spirit medium” who
will protect him from “spin-doctors” and other “dangers you are sometimes
confronted with here in Zimbabwe”. He repeatedly referred to the need for
change.
We were pleased to see our colleagues from the state media
present to capture Rylander and Foreign Affairs Secretary, Ambassador Joey
Bimha, toasting better times — which sadly are not just around the corner.
A
good example of sunshine journalism was evident on Tuesday when the spin-doctors
at the Herald discovered a two-week old story saying President Jacques Chirac
had praised Bolivian land reforms. They managed to slip in a line suggesting
Bolivia’s land reforms were similar to Zimbabwe’s.
But any similarity
with Zimbabwe was in the eye of the beholder. President Evo Morales came to
power in free and democratic elections. Bolivia’s land reform programme will
help the poor. It will not be used to reward VIP cronies such as police chiefs
and judges.
We had “a Zimbabwean political analyst” fatuously telling us
that no one questioned Bolivia’s land reforms because the landowners facing
expropriation were non-Caucasian.
In fact the land-owning class in
Bolivia is of largely Hispanic descent. But the important point to note here is
that the group of emergent leftist South American leaders have been careful not
to associate themselves with Zimbabwe’s chaotic and often violent land grabs.
The story said Morales had nationalised Bolivia’s natural gas and petroleum
industry, to which the spineless “political analyst” remarked that no one was
“questioning the correctness” of Bolivia’s land reforms as happened in Zimbabwe.
A few things are wrong here. There are many countries that have
nationalised what they call strategic industries, including Britain under
Margaret Thatcher. So long as that is done according to the law and in the
public interest, it is an issue of national consensus.
Secondly, it would
be difficult to prove the “correctness” of Zimbabwe’s land reform in the wake of
the poverty it has spawned. Essentially, the Harare 1998 donors’ conference
stressed that one of the key aims of land reform was to alleviate poverty and
empower the poor. None of that is evident on the ground.
Third, the
Herald tried to hide the truth from itself and its readers by burying it in the
belly of the article. Morales launched the land reform programme by distributing
“state-owned land” to the poor. Thousands of the beneficiaries were immediately
given title so that they could borrow money to use the land productively. Six
years down the line Zanu PF mandarins are still seizing land and very few
beneficiaries of that corrupt process have title. The 99-year leases have
remained a pipedream.
Fourth, the Associated Press story which the Herald
drew on made it clear that none of the land distributed to the poor in Bolivia
had been confiscated from large landholders. “But the government says it will
eventually seize and redistribute privately-owned land that is unproductive, was
obtained illegally or is being used for speculation.”
If somebody cannot
see the glaring difference between these undertakings and Zimbabwe’s anarchic
process they need to have their heads looked into immediately before they cause
serious danger to themselves.
We are in trouble when propaganda is pursued
for its own sake.
The other story playing big was about the emergence of
so-called “illegal grain buyers” on the market. The paper claimed these buyers
were “intercepting” farmers before they delivered their grain at GMB depots and
buying it at a higher price. A cursory look at the details showed there was
nothing like interception of grain.
Those interviewed by the paper
stated that they were getting more for their grain and they didn’t have to incur
onerous transport costs taking the grain to GMB depots.
Some of the grain
producers said they incurred extra costs because the GMB often rejected their
grain for alleged high moisture content, forcing them to transport it back home
when they desperately need the money. In the end they sold their produce to the
nearest highest bidder.
Need we ask which transaction makes economic
sense? What that means of course is that government will be very much off target
with its grain projections because of the bungling GMB in addition to Joseph
Made’s nutty estimates.
Zimbabwe Independent
9 June 2006
Eric Bloch Column
By Eric Bloch
THE Tripartite Negotiating
Forum (TNF) was created to facilitate constructive and productive dialogue
between government, the private sector and labour on issues of common concern
with a view to arriving at agreements between those parties which would
effectively address those concerns.
Over a period of about three
years, the TNF has functioned on a “start, stop, start, stop” basis where
innumerable meetings have been held between the negotiating partners, but no
meaningful agreements have been reached.
Almost all of the deliberations
have been focused upon concluding a prices and incomes stabilisation protocol
(otherwise known as a social contract), perceived to be an important and
conducive element of attaining a substantive economic recovery.
However, despite the very extensive, if intermittent, negotiations
within the TNF, a social contract has not been concluded and, at different
stages, each of the negotiating parties has blamed one or other of the
participants for frustrating attainment of an accord.
Although a social
contract is not a magical cure-all for Zimbabwe’s very many and intensive
economic ills, it would create an enabling environment for economic
transformation, and would contribute in a substantial manner to achieving that
transformation. In essence, a social contract is one wherein all the contracting
parties agree that there be an almost absolute freeze on prices, wages,
governmental service charges and taxes.
Commerce and industry would not,
during the continuance of the social contract, increase prices for goods and
services. While that price freeze continues, salaries and wages would remain
fixed and unchanged, as would all charges and taxes by government, parastatals
and local authorities.
The only exception to the standstill in prices,
wages and charges would be that they would increase to the extent that factors
external of Zimbabwe necessitate increases, such as when there is an escalation
in fuel costs as a result of an international rise in crude oil prices, or when
exchange rate movements cause increases in landed costs of imports. In such
instances, prices would be permitted to increase appropriately, with
correspondingly commensurate increases in wages and in governmental and
parastatal charges.
Save for such permissible adjustment to prices, wages
and charges, all would be frozen for an agreed period of time. Such a social
contract would not bring about an instantaneous economic metamorphosis, but
would be greatly facilitative of change. That is because, although there are
many causes of inflation, one of the greatest is inflation itself.
When collective bargaining negotiations on wage increases are entered
into, the labour negotiators generally consider that the minimum of wage
increases must be to the extent that, since the preceding wage increase,
purchasing power of workers has been eroded by inflation. And, when the wages
are increased, be it to the extent of compensating for prior inflation, or to a
greater extent, the employers necessarily have to increase prices to recover the
additional wages, thereby fuelling yet further inflation.
In like
manner, most landlords regularly adjust rentals to the extent, at the least, of
inflation sustained since the previous rent review, and in consequence the
tenants of industrial or commercial properties increase prices in order to fund
the increased rentals, while the increases also have inflationary impacts upon
the tenants of residential properties.
And all other inflationary
impacts upon commerce and industry have similar repercussive effects. Be they
cost increases in respect of electricity, transport, telecommunication, bank
charges or any of the myriad of other expenditure components of business, those
increases must be passed on to customers, whomsoever they may be, and ultimately
become constituents of the inflation burden upon consumers.
The
unavoidable need of producers, distributors and all others within the economic
chain to pass on cost escalations is a very major fuellant of inflation and
repeats itself endlessly, resulting in a continuous inflation spiral.
This can only be effectively halted by a social contract, as evidenced
in Germany in 1924 (when inflation soared upwards at such a horrific pace that
employers resorted to paying salaries and wages twice daily, so as to enable
employees to spend their earnings before their buying power diminished further).
A social contract was a key element of Roosevelt’s 1933 “New Deal” to
end the Great Depression, which he successfully achieved. And social contracts
enabled the economic recoveries of the countries that constituted the former
Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Israel in the late 1970s, of Bolivia in 1981,
and more recently of Mexico and Argentina, among very many
others.
Inflation is not the only one of Zimbabwe’s disastrous economic
circumstances, but it is a very major one and, to some extent, is a contributant
to many of the other very negative circumstances. Inflation is a significant
factor in Zimbabwe’s diminishing export market competitiveness, and therefore a
trigger of diminished productivity in the manufacturing sector, resulting in
increasing unemployment.
The reducing extent of exports results in
intensifying foreign currency shortages, further worsening the economy and
contributing to the markedly declining infrastructure of energy generation, rail
and air services, roads, telecommunications, health services, and much else.
And the continuing hyperinflation is a major influencing factor driving
Zimbabwe’s pronounced “brain drain”, which has seen more of Zimbabwe’s skilled
living and working in the diaspora than in Zimbabwe. These are but a few of the
economic ailments which are caused, or worsened, by inflation.
Therefore,
if a social contract were to be reached in the TNF, it would be a strong plank
in a platform for economic recovery. It would ensure that instead of NEDPP
standing for National Extreme Destitution and Poverty Programme, it could be the
National Economic Development Priority Programme, which it claims to be, but
cannot possibly be until, among many other prerequisites, inflation is set upon
a path of genuine containment, instead of being only governmental wishful
thinking and self-delusion.
It would create an environment wherein
other economic remedial measures could then be pursued with conviction and
intent, including reformation of land reform, belated compliance with Bilateral
Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements, restoration of justice, law and
order and respect for human rights, and consequential re-establishment of
constructive and harmonious international relationships, resulting in
investment, trade development support.
For these to be pursued, there
needs to be a genuine will for change and recognition of faults, so that those
faults can be addressed, but such will can be dramatically reinforced by the
enabling environment created by a social contract.
Regrettably, however,
once again the TNF has been in deadlock. The most recent “deal-breaker” has been
the demand by labour that the social contract must be preceded by an increase in
minimum wages to a level equating with the poverty datum line (PDL), and those
wages must be maintained at whatsoever the PDL may be at any time.
Private sector enterprise accepted this demand, in principle, but wished
it to be qualified by a limitation, being the extent of ability to pay. This
has been unacceptable to labour, which is unfortunate and unrealistic in the
extreme.
None can credibly argue that it is unreasonable for labour to
wish to earn at, or above, the PDL, and one must be sympathetic to labour for
the immense hardships imposed by the present economic
environment.
However, the labour negotiators overlook that, in the
average family which exists on or below the PDL, there are normally at least two
income earners, albeit that one may be in the informal sector, and earning less
that the other. But, therefore, if the principal income earner earns, say, 65%
of PDL, the income of the other income earner is likely to raise the combined
income to, or above the PDL.
More importantly, the labour negotiators
are evidencing a gross disregard for the fact that if wages are at levels beyond
the employer’s ability to pay, and if it is mandatory that they are paid at such
levels, then the failure of the employer’s business is assured, the employees
become unemployed, and then have no income. An inadequate income is better than
no income, and the labour negotiators need to recognise that.
In
addition, as inflation declines as a result of a social contract, and as the
economy progressively recovers, so the lot of the workers will improve.
Resisting the very necessary qualifications sought by private enterprise
prevents conclusion of a social contract, inhibits economic recovery, worsens
the plight of labour and is therefore against the best interests of the workers.
Zimbabwe Independent
9 June 2006
Candid Comment
Joram Nyathi
PLANS by government to register all
political parties in Zimbabwe show not only that we have irresponsible leaders,
but also that there is a sinister motive to this measure. They are irresponsible
because they betray misplaced priorities.
In a crisis such as we face in
Zimbabwe, people expect government to be working to alleviate their suffering.
It is hard to see how registering political parties for whatever reason can be a
priority for any government that feels anything but contempt for those who voted
it into power.
There is a sinister motive too.
Although the
recommendation was first mooted by a supposedly independent electoral body last
year, there is no question about the influence behind it. Much like the
registration of media houses and the accreditation of journalists, it is Zanu PF
that sets the ground rules and determines who gets registered under its own
conditions.
The same paranoid mind that conceived legislation like Aippa
and Posa is evidently at work once again.
There is nothing edifying in
telling us that registration of political parties will rid the country of “rogue
parties”.
Who defines and classifies rogue parties? Hasn’t the Zanu PF
regime been condemned as a rogue state itself?
State Security minister
Didymus Mutasa was quoted as saying the registration would separate “serious
parties from pretenders”.
His reference to parties that champion
“foreign interests” has a familiar ring. It doesn’t augur well for democracy in
the country when ministers pick and choose which parties should be registered on
the spurious grounds of “national outlook”.
There is no hiding the fact
that the purpose of the planned law is to shield Zanu PF from competition for
the hearts and minds of a disgruntled populace. The idea is also to intimidate
the opposition so that it behaves the way Zanu PF dictates, instead of being
robust and critical for fear of deregistration.
Whether a party is
serious or not or “national” in outlook should never be the business of
government to decide.
It is the democratic right of the owner who founds
it and that of the voter to reject it based on its programmes.
Political
parties are voluntary associations and government has no business screening them
for voters. This is a flagrant violation of the Sadc electoral
protocol.
It is shocking that the Electoral Supervisory Commission made
the registration of political parties one of its recommendations ahead of
protests against an uneven playing field and a voters’ roll described by
opposition parties as a shambles. It claimed shamelessly that lack of
registration had led to the emergence of “non-descript” parties “with little
content and no standing, let alone sustainability”.
Why then should a
government that wants to be taken seriously preoccupy itself with nondescript
formations in the midst of a debilitating national crisis?
The reasons
lie elsewhere. Just as in the case of newspapers, there is money to be made
through registration fees. A more sinister requirement is that parties would
have to show their sources of funds and traceable addresses for these sources.
Contrary to Mutasa’s claims about stopping saboteurs and fighting
foreign
interests, the motive is clearly to intimidate voters and to punish businesses
that support the so-called “rogue parties”. It is to starve opposition political
parties of financial assistance by labelling those who support them as
unpatriotic or agents of imperialists.
The Political Parties (Finance)
Act outlaws foreign funding for political parties. We all know that this piece
of legislation became necessary once it became clear the ruling party was losing
friends across the globe while the opposition MDC was receiving a deluge in
inverse proportion to Zanu PF’s waning popularity at home. That element of
jealousy has not gone away, it is now called “national security”.
It is
hard for instance to see how the mere registration of a political party will
enable government to discern that party’s “intentions”. What intentions could a
political party have except seeking political office? Has replacing the
incompetent Zanu PF now become a treasonous undertaking?
Already I can
imagine a group of Zanu PF mandarins sitting down to list the criteria for a
party to be registered:
* It must be nationalistic;
* It must defend
Zimbabwe’s sovereignty against Western imperialism;
* It should be
Pan-Africanist;
* It must have liberation war credentials; and
* Its
leaders must be war veterans and therefore card-carrying members of Zanu
PF.
At best this is what is called enlightened self-interest by Zanu PF.
At worst it is a determined attempt to curtail our civil liberties and the right
to make free choices of who should rule this country.
Democracy demands
that parties seek votes from the people by forming and advertising their
programmes. Why should this right be taken away from voters through a partisan
legislative process of amending the constitution?
Where does government
get the locus standi to interpose itself between those seeking political office
and the voters, unless such leaders and would-be parties have been convicted of
criminal behaviour by a competent court of law?
I hope that should such a
Bill be drafted and brought before parliament, our representatives will chew it
and spit it into the Indian Ocean.
Zimbabwe Independent
9 June 2006
DOZENS of Zimbabwean companies have relocated to
neighbouring Botswana, perceived as the region’s most investor-friendly country,
while inflation in Zimbabwe is expected to hit record levels before the end of
the year as the economy continues its downward spiral.
Zimbabwean-run
small- and medium-scale business, such as bus and truck operators, funeral
parlours, vehicle repair shops and sawmills, have mushroomed in the northern
city of Francistown and the satellite towns of Tati and Tonota to the south of
it, all near Botswana’s border with Zimbabwe.
The steady influx of
Zimbabweans, reportedly up to 125 000 a month since the country launched its
chaotic fast-track land reform programme in 2000, has created tension between
the two countries, with Botswana blaming the immigrants for increased crime.
Botswana flogs people who cross its borders illegally, which has not helped
defuse the situation, despite years of talks between the two governments.
Botswana has clarified that it does not single out Zimbabweans, as corporal
punishment is legal and applied to anyone breaking rules.
However, in
2004 it pointed out that 26 214 Zimbabweans were involved in criminal activities
in Botswana. “There is a clear correlation between the increases in the rise of
crime in Botswana with the presence of illegal immigrants, most of who are from
Zimbabwe,” the government said in a statement.
Described by the
International Monetary Fund as one of the fastest growing economies in the world
over the past three decades, Botswana has opened its doors to skilled
Zimbabweans and businesses, while less cumbersome bureaucratic procedures and
low taxes have lured Zimbabwean businesses to set up shop across the border,
within easy access of operations back home. According to popular assessment,
there are two kinds of Zimbabwean businessmen in Botswana: optimists and
realists.
The optimists keep their businesses in Zimbabwe operational
because they believe the crisis will end and they will be able to go back; the
realists have shut down their Zimbabwean operations and relocated to Botswana
because they think the government is neither serious nor honest about tackling
the socioeconomic emergency in the country.
“Anyone who allows a
crippling crisis of the Zimbabwean proportion to roll on for six years is not
serious, and they cannot be sincere. That is why I think it is more practical to
prepare for a long stay in the diaspora,” said Mkhululi Bhebhe, a Zimbabwean
businessmen living in Botswana.
Unable to cope with crippling shortages
of foreign currency and fuel that drove the cost of inputs beyond reach, migrant
businessmen said moving was a question of survival. Among them was Thulani
Sibanda, owner of a bus and truck company, who established a cross-border
operation as a result of the foreign currency and fuel crises.
“Two
things combined to push me out (of Zimbabwe),” Sibanda told Irin. “The fuel
crisis worsened so much that for one week my trucks remained on the fuel queues.
I had the foreign currency to buy fuel then, but government laws banned private
operators from sourcing their own fuel – I could have been arrested for dealing
in fuel in the black market.
“So I realised that I was incapacitated by
the laws governing the business environment . . . I started relocating my trucks
to Botswana, got registered and moved into Francistown.”
He said his
Botswana business operations had been profitable enough to enable him to
maintain a fleet of 10 buses that were still operating in Zimbabwe. Botswana’s
business-friendly tax regime and immigration laws, which allow migrants to take
up citizenship after working and living there for five years, have helped.
“In Zimbabwe, nowadays, companies make losses, not profits. Because of a
stringent tax regime and a highly regulated foreign currency system, they pay
more taxes than their annual earnings. Across all the sectors companies are
retrenching or scaling down, if not closing shop altogether,” he added.
Construction companies have also taken advantage of Botswana’s
business-friendly climate. “The death of the construction industry (in Zimbabwe)
almost killed us by extension, but when we looked across the border we saw the
sector growing and came here to set up as suppliers. I can safely say what we
were doing in Zimbabwe now looks like child play, because we are now making very
good business,” said one manager.
The going has been so good that the
Forestry Company of Zimbabwe-Botswana (FCZ-Botswana), an offshoot of the
Forestry Company, the parastatal charged with managing state forests and wood
products in Zimbabwe, has also relocated to the neighbouring country. Irin was
unable to contact the company, which has also posted profits, for details.
Although most Zimbabwean professionals complain of growing xenophobia,
businessmen appear unaffected.
“To the best of my knowledge, there is
indeed a group of locals who believe that local construction or transport
tenders, for example, should be given to local companies. The same is being said
about jobs in the mines, where we are told there are too many Zimbabwean and
underqualified South African technicians at the expense of locals. But that has
not really affected the way tenders are given, because they are still being won
by the best bidders,” said Bhebhe.
However, Zimbabweans working in
Francistown told Irin about a growing tendency towards xenophobia by the local
population.
Besides competition for jobs, the latest outbreak of
foot-and-mouth disease linked to Zimbabwe, has aggravated the situation. A
shortage of dipping chemicals, the break-up of large commercial farms and the
resultant loss of fencing allowed the disease to spread from Zimbabwe to
Botswana, causing Botswana’s export beef industry, already limping after
successive droughts and a series of disease epidemics in recent years, to
collapse.
“Being a Zimbabwean here is not easy. The people hate us
because they say we take their jobs, although they hate doing most of the menial
jobs we do. Those without valid travel documents can be employed on the promise
of payment, which may, in fact, be delivery to the local police station as soon
as the job is done,” said Charles Nkonjeni, a Zimbabwean graduate in
Bostwana.
“They say we should go back to Zimbabwe and vote Mugabe out,
yet they know that Zimbabwe does not hold presidential elections every day.
These days we are also being blamed for causing the death of many Batswana
cattle, because the recent foot-and-mouth disease outbreak has been traced back
to Zimbabwe. Judging by the importance of cattle among the Batswana, I think the
hatred has a strong motive and could be genuine,” he added.
Although the
government itself has employed over 100 Zimbabwean nationals, a public outcry
against hiring foreigners bore fruit last year when Botswana announced that it
would not be renewing the permits of those working as teachers and drivers and
would probe the hiring of artisans in the mining sector.
However, local
residents stressed that only certain Zimbabweans were unwelcome.
“Illegal immigrants are the same (as criminals), because the thieves
often turn out to be undocumented people: because they are undocumented, they
can break the law and escape to Zimbabwe,” said Letsile Silaigwana, a civil
servant in Francistown. “We just hate the criminals, as we believe they also do
in Zimbabwe.”
Many Batswana interviewed by Irin admitted that the
abusive exploitation of desperate Zimbabwean job-seekers was a growing problem
which they strongly condemned.
“To be honest, almost everyone here knows
of a Zimbabwean who was abused one way or the other. The most common method is
giving them a huge job, like weeding the fields, and promising them good pay.
When the job is done, the employer just calls the police and reports that they
have seen an illegal immigrant. The police then ask them to detain the person
until they come, from there they are deported without ever getting their pay,”
said Kefilwe Molefhabangwe, a businesswoman in Tonota.
“First, they
cannot complain because they are illegal, and secondly they have no work permit,
and therefore no right to work in the country. It has been done by far too many
people, and I also believe that this unfair treatment is the cause of many
serious attacks when the Zimbabweans come back to exact revenge for the abuse,
and they often do,” she commented.
Rampant stock-theft along the common
border, and low-intensity feuds over cattle grazing and watering have all
aggravated relations. The thieves are blamed for cutting big holes into many
sections of the new electric fence erected as a livestock disease-control
measure.
The rustlers have caused havoc on both sides by stealing cattle
from Botswana and selling them in Zimbabwe and vice-versa. Although they deny
it, Batswana butchery operators in rural areas near the border are accused of
abetting the thefts by buying stolen Zimbabwean stock at give-away prices.
Not many large-scale Zimbabwean farmers have relocated to Botswana,
which is mostly arid and more suitable for ranching.
Botswana’s
President Festus Mogae was among the few African leaders critical of the
Zimbabwe situation, but has since adopted the more low-key approach of trying to
engage with the government. The unfolding crisis in Zimbabwe has had a ripple
effect on the region’s economy, but perhaps the most serious consequence has
been the brain-drain and the flow of much-needed investment from the crippled
country.
Economist Tony Hawkins, of the University of Zimbabwe, pointed
out recently that between 1995 and 2000 — before the crisis — the Southern
Africa Development Community region, excluding South Africa, grew at less than
4% a year. Since 2000 it has grown at over 11% annually, underlining Zimbabwe’s
relative insignificance. — Irin.
Zimbabwe Independent
9 June 2006
Comment
T
LAST week, President Mugabe was taken to
the Zimplats mining complex in Ngezi where he got a tacit reminder of the
benefits of foreign investment and big business’ contributions to community
development.
The president saw a US$19 million road that the mining giant
built in the area, a power line constructed and handed to Zesa, workers’ houses,
and a water reticulation system. The company has also built a police station,
expanded a school and put up a fibre optic line and ancillary equipment in the
area.
This exhibition of a functioning mini-economy in Mashonaland West
was in stark contrast to the pervasive gloom in the rest of the economy. From
the seat of government in Harare, the president and his colleagues in Zanu PF
have told us that foreign-owned mining firms are milking the economy and that
locals are not benefiting from the exploitation of mineral resources, hence the
need to amend mining legislation to ensure locals benefit. President Mugabe has
proposed legislation that will see foreign-owned mining firms ceding 50% of
their stake to indigenous players or government. The legislation has not yet
been tabled before parliament but Mugabe, after touring the Zimplats plant,
started proposing “amendments” to a law that is yet to see the light of day.
Mugabe told investors at Zimplats that they should not be “frightened”
by the proposed legislation because the law only seeks to ensure the miners
“plough back into communities they operate in” which he commended Zimplats for
having already done.
“So do not dread us…We are not there to take that
which is not ours,” Mugabe promised.
There is a problem here. What sort
of statute would give such guarantees to investors? In fact, it would be an
administrative nightmare to legislate the thresholds of ownership structures
based on companies’ corporate social responsibility programmes.
But more
importantly, it would be naïve for would-be investors in the mining sector and
those already doing business here to derive comfort from the presidential
assurances. Government’s history of deception and outright dishonesty should
provide a warning.At the inception of the land reform programme in 2000,
government assured the world that land reform was all about fairness and
equitable distribution of wealth. Agriculture minister Joseph Made said the
criteria for expropriation was derelict or underutilised land, land under
multiple ownership, foreign-owned land (land owned by foreigners for holiday or
speculative purposes), and land adjacent to highly-congested communal areas.
Coffee, tea, sugarcane and timber plantations were exempted. Farms
belonging to church organisations, missions and wildlife conservancies were also
exempt as were lands under bilateral agreements with investors. Made said since
commercial farmland adjacent to communal areas was a top priority, “in those
rare cases where a white commercial farmer only had a single farm … government
would acquire the farm but in return the owner was invited to choose any other
property that the government had already acquired and the owner could relocate
there at government’s expense”.
President Mugabe, in an article published
in New African magazine in September 2002, said: “We shall always welcome and
respect loyal citizens or residents who co-operate with government and respect
our policies and decisions. Many farmers have relocated in compliance with our
one-farmer, one-farm policy. No farmer has been rendered landless on this
principle. Only the greedy ones are complaining.”
Can there be any
greater dishonesty, looking at the state of affairs in the farming
sector?
There are agro-industrial firms like Hippo Valley Estates whose
land is being expropriated despite its huge investment in infrastructure and
social services in Chiredzi. Kondozi Estate, at the heart of development in
Odzi, which employed more that 5 000 workers, was expropriated, looted and run
into the ground. Business has come to a jolting halt in agricultural towns and
service centres which once thrived on well-organised commercial agriculture.
Disinvestment in the mining sector would be a major blow.
Remember this
Mugabe warning to farmers in his New African article: “We cannot allow those who
plot our ruin to continue to make rich pickings here. Let the hostility of their
actions turn into the costs they deserve.”
Like white commercial farmers
who opposed chaotic land reform, mining firms which will stand up to oppose the
legislation could easily be branded hostile and made to face the “costs they
deserve”.
There is every reason to be afraid. And no room whatsoever for
the investor confidence which we are told is key to economic recovery.
Zimbabwe Independent
9 June 2006
Clemence Manyukwe
THE Associated Newspapers
of Zimbabwe (ANZ) says Information minister Tichaona Jokonya has the power to
appoint an ad hoc committee to deal with its registration after the Media and
Information Commission (MIC) was disqualified by the courts due to perceived
bias.
The ANZ, publishers of the closed Daily News and Daily News on
Sunday, said this in court papers in response to a filing by
Jokonya.
Jokonya said in papers he had filed earlier that he was unable
to appoint another committee in line with a court judgement as the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa) did not provide for that.
The minister said the media law would have to be amended first before he
could do so.
Jokonya and the MIC are the first and second respondents
while the ANZ is the sole applicant in an application where it seeks to be
deemed registered by the court.
In court documents, ANZ’s acting chief
executive officer, John Gambanga, said Jokonya could appoint a committee because
the MIC as presently constituted was an ad hoc committee that was appointed for
a six-month term after the expiry of its statutory three years in
office.
“I do not accept that second respondent is disabled from
appointing another membership of the first respondent ad hoc or otherwise to
deal with this matter,” said Gambanga. “Effectively the current membership of
the first respondent is ad hoc in that its term of office has in fact expired
and was only extended for a limited period.”
He said Jokonya and the
MIC’s conduct had left the ANZ to conclude that they wanted to ensure that “the
Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday are never ever printed and published in
Zimbabwe”.
He also said claims that Aippa needed to be amended first to
comply with a directive to constitute another body not tainted by bias was an
attempt to ensure that the matter was not urgently resolved.
“The
government of Zimbabwe has on many occasions resorted to the Presidential Powers
(Temporary Measures) Act to urgently amend or create legislation whenever it
wished,” Gambanga said.
Zimbabwe Independent
9 June 2006
By Chris Mhike
TOO often, too many politicians have declared that
politics should be exclusive to politicians. The church has been specifically
blacklisted as one of many societal institutions without a place in national
politics.
President Robert Mugabe has been one of the most vociferous
proponents of that fallacious theory.
Recently, as he met with prelates
at State House, the president reminded the church that it should refrain from
politics. He denounced church leaders “who wear political robes”.
A few
years ago, at the consecration of Harare’s Catholic Archbishop, the Rt Rev
Robert Ndlovu, the president openly declared that politics was out-of-bounds for
the church.
Politicians have also proclaimed that non-governmental
organisations, diplomats, teachers and numerous other organisations and
individuals should stay away from the politics of the nation.
But why
should politicians monopolise politics? Why should certain organisational and
individual citizens be excluded from political activity? Why shouldn’t the
church delve into political issues?
To date, politicians have not
proffered any cogent answers to these questions.
Here, “the church”
refers to all institutionalised forms of religion, or the collective body of all
Christians. Most denominations in that collective body are, for instance,
capable of suing or being sued, hence their legal personality. The church as a
body is also, in a spiritual sense, a person.
Being a person in civic or
legal terms, the church, as is the case with all other citizens, has, or should
therefore have, as much right as any in-office or out-of-office politician, to
be part of the political processes and political moments of the
nation.
“Politics” is not an easy term to define. But on the basis of
common observation, some of the basic features of politics include the
formation, direction and administration of states and other societal units. The
political decisions, policies and programmes designed by reigning politicians to
this end affect all citizens, including the church.
Politics could also
be defined to include any activity concerned with the acquisition of
governmental or political power over citizens. The power so acquired is
exercised over all, including the church.
The term also includes
opinions, principles or sympathies with respect to politics. It is therefore
“politics” when one expresses his/her opinion about how the country should be
governed.
Politicians who advocate the exclusion of the church from
politics have not specified the part of politics that the church should shun.
They have not justified their desire to monopolise politics and thereby exclude
the church.
Of the numerous grounds that should justify the involvement
of the church in national politics, three are worthy of accentuation. The first
is judicial, the second theological, and the third dogmatic. That arrangement of
the arguments is not necessarily in any order of importance.
Judicially,
or at law, there are various legal instruments that grant citizens the right to
participate in politics. Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Constitution of
Zimbabwe, among numerous instruments, citizens are entitled to take part in the
politics of the nation.
As already proposed, the church should be
considered as a citizen fit to take part in the politics that affect it.
Because it is also affected by national politics, the church is entitled
to make reference to politics. It follows, under the principles of natural
justice, that persons who are affected by particular decisions or processes
should be allowed to have a say in the subject decisions or processes.
Further, if the inhibition by politicians upon the church’s role in
politics includes a bar to the church’s right to hold and express opinions, such
inhibition becomes undemocratic and unconstitutional as far as it takes away the
church’s freedom to hold opinions and its freedom of expression.
It is
true that rights and freedoms ought to be accompanied by responsibilities. In
their expression of opinions about the political situation, citizens and the
church must remain truthful and sincere. Indeed, truth and sincerity are
consistent with Christianity.
In the theological sense, it seems clear
from scripture that the original source of politics and political power is
divine.
At the genesis of the world, the Creator vested mankind with
dominion, authority or power over the elements of earth. Dominance, authority,
power, management, and governance, as they were instituted at creation, are all
very closely related to politics.
As human history progresses from
creation towards the days of Christ, God develops the concept of governance. He
goes as far as defining the parameters of appropriate governance.
The
book of Isaiah states that persons in government should “rule with integrity”.
It says “national leaders (must) govern with justice . . . Their eyes and ears
will be open to the needs of the people . . . they will act with understanding
and will say what they mean.” There is God Himself in politics.
Most
ruling politicians in this country claim to be rooted in the politics of
liberation and freedom. The cornerstone of the Christian faith, Jesus Christ
himself, was, like his Father, political. Christ indubitably installed an agenda
for liberation and freedom. He was revolutionary not just in spiritual respects,
but also politically.
The redemptive process had commenced in the Old
Testament days, with the liberation of Israel from a repressive government, or
rogue regime of Egypt. Moses’ leadership in liberating Israel from Pharaoh’s
political state was both spiritual and political.
Christ’s incarnation
from the divine heavenly state into human form was part of the plan to bring
about fullness to human life — so that mankind could realise “life in its
fullness”. A full life must be full, complete with spiritual, political,
economic and other existential ingredients.
Does it therefore not follow
that if the impediment to the completeness of the life that God desires for the
world is economic, then the church, politicians, and all other concerned
citizens ought to attend to such economic maladies, in accordance with their
respective abilities and capacities?
Is it not sensible that when the
impediment is political, then the church, politicians and all other concerned
citizens ought to attend to the political disorders! The church must be capable
of coming up with such economic, political and other relevant
solutions.
Indeed, religion, which is the church’s core business, is not
inimical to economics, politics, or any other study or sphere of human
existence.
As scripture and contemporary human experience reveal, God
was, and is political. The church may therefore as well be so. Indeed, should
the church fail to be progressively political as Christ was, and fail to be part
of the practical solution to the world’s woes, then it faces the danger of
extinction, or non-relevance.
Allan Boesak once said: “African churches
all too often cling to a pietistic, other worldly religiosity which has no
bearing on the present situation in the world, not only denying the Lordship of
Christ, but forgetting that it is the kind of theology that justified slavery
and oppression right through history to the present.”
Measure the
validity of that statement against words of clergymen who, after a few hours at
State House recently, said: “We found that we (the church and government) are
just one. We know we have a government that we must support.”
Despite all
the callousness of Operation Murambatsvina and the subsequent human suffering
that was witnessed by all who cared to open their eyes; and despite the
monumental waste of erstwhile productive farmland, the reverends still claim
that “the church fully supports the government and its members are also in need
of land”.
Scripture shows that when people are unnecessarily impoverished
and oppressed, the church assumes the prophetic role of speaking out against the
perpetrators of the misery. Such prophetic action is almost invariably taken to
be political conduct by politicians.
In such situations, the church is
left with the choice of answering either the call to prophecy or the whims of
politicians.
Dogma refers to the official teaching, doctrine or ideology
of the church. As stated earlier, the president subscribes to the “no politics
for the church” movement. Because he worships in the Catholic Church, the
dogmatic justification for the involvement of the church in politics is herein
drawn from the teaching of that Catholic Church.
In its social teaching,
the Catholic Church describes politics as an “honourable” or “noble” profession.
Although its clergy are barred from active party politics so that they devote
all their time to God’s work, and to avoid partisan divisions, individual
members of the church may join and participate in political parties of their
choice, subject to their Catholic principles.
While the clergy may not
partake in party politics, they are not barred from making statements that may
have a bearing on the politics of the day. The late Archbishop Oscar Romero was
assassinated by politicians in El Salvador because he spoke out for the poor and
the down-trodden. Today the church honours him.
For judicial,
theological and dogmatic reasons, therefore the church should continue to find
its voice in politics.
Society and posterity will have a special place
for that which challenges a blundering and unjust political system. Rise up
church, rise up!
* Chris Mhike is a Harare-based lawyer.
Zimbabwe Independent
9 June 2006
By Paul Themba Nyathi
THOSE who are not familiar with Zimbabwe’s
violent politics, on reading some of the vitriolic and hysterical articles in
the press about Arthur Mutambara would be forgiven for concluding that the man
must have committed a political crime punishable only by death.
What
crime has Mutambara committed to provoke so much anger and animosity? His crime
was to do what free men and women the world over do daily. He chose to stand for
office in an opposition group of his preference.
In a country where 26
years of Zanu PF thuggery and political intolerance exacts a heavy price for
political activism, we are witnessing, sadly, a manifestation of this same
culture within opposition ranks.
As if denying Mutambara the right to
choose the side he prefers to work with in his fight against Zanu PF’s tyranny
is not enough, we are also witnessing the resurgence of an ethnic-based
nationalism that bodes ill for our country.
Some of the problems in the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are located both in Zanu PF’s succession
debacle and in its battle to destroy the MDC.
Over the last five years,
the state media has presented an increasingly racist and ethnic interpretation
of history and the present. Sadly, within the structures and functioning of MDC
itself, this had an impact. Certain individuals within the MDC became determined
to split the party rather than see a challenge to a tribal clique of people
involved in the Zanu PF succession race who were determined to control the MDC.
The supporters of Emmerson Mnangagwa, who are upset by what they
consider unfair treatment in the succession stakes, are agitating for an ethnic
awakening unprecedented in the political history of the country.
Similarly, within certain elements of the MDC, tribal discourse has
taken hold: it seems Mutambara’s sin of daring to choose his own democratic
space is compounded by the fact that he is seen as siding with an ethnic
minority.
For six years we worked patiently within the MDC to try and
manage the destructive divisions of ethnicity. The Bulawayo congress this year
resulted in a national executive that is ethnically and regionally balanced,
with strong and recognised leadership from all parts of the nation, in order to
build a sense of national oneness that has never been achieved under the rule of
Zanu PF.
In contrast, the other congress in Harare produced an
executive that reflects the ethnic anger that drove the MDC to split.
One is amazed by the line-up of Mutambara’s attackers. Is it possible to
imagine that civic leaders, whose core mission should be to promote pluralistic
discourse in society at large, would be at the forefront of attacking Mutambara
for making a choice that is his birthright and entitlement? We hear reckless
pronouncements from civic leaders who should know better suggesting that Morgan
Tsvangirai is the only possible legitimate leader for the MDC.
In Africa,
the tendency to treat specific individuals in the political arena as cult heroes
or demigods who can do no wrong is the scourge of the continent, and Zimbabwe
has been no exception. It is this tendency that has littered Africa with
thousands of mass graves, and the progress in some of our neighbouring countries
towards limited terms of political office and greater accountability is to be
applauded.
At the heart of the MDC constitution and principles has been
the concept of accountability and of decentralised power within the leadership
to try and avoid this sort of destructive cultism. However, large elements in
the media — and civil society — are now portraying Tsvangirai as an
“untouchable” in the Zanu PF succession race, who is to be protected at all
costs.
This unfortunately has also had the effect of mobilising
Tsvangirai’s thugs against those perceived to be trespassing in his terrain.
Morgan Femai, chairman of Harare province in the Tsvangirai faction, recently
made a public statement about “uprooting” and “stamping out” Mutambara’s group
before dealing with President Robert Mugabe.
Such comments are
reminiscent of phrases we are more used to hearing from Mugabe — such as
Gukurahundi: up to 20 000 civilians were “washed away” like chaff in the 1980s.
After the 1985 election, Mugabe instructed his supporters to “weed their
garden”: scores of Zapu supporters in Harare and elsewhere were murdered.
Where are the voices of human rights defenders warning against the use
of such inflammatory and evocative rhetoric by the Tsvangirai faction? Very few
voices have raised themselves publicly to condemn the intra-party violence
instigated by Tsvangirai’s thugs who include senior party officials. Rather, it
seems Mutambara and his supporters are the obstacle and must be maligned,
distorted, insulted and demeaned.
Among the vocal Mutambara critics are
those who in the past six years did not dare open their mouths or put pen to
paper in opposition to Zanu PF and Mugabe. Suddenly these elements are crawling
out of their cowardly holes to attack Mutambara and his leadership. They have
suddenly found this cost-free courage to malign people who have an impeccable
record in the fight against tyranny.
In our 1970s collective struggle
against white minority rule in this country, we were all obsessed,
understandably so, with the urge to get rid of colonial rule. We spent far less
energy defining the post-colonial state that would meet our collective
aspirations.
Unfortunately, Mugabe and Zanu PF crafted the state for us,
while too many of us stood by and let him establish himself as absolute
dictator. Twenty-six years later, a ruined country stands as an indictment to
our collective dereliction of duty. But we believe that we have learnt something
and will not repeat our mistakes.
Those of us who stood in support of
the MDC’s constitution on October 12 2005 did so as a result of the strong
conviction that no country builds a sustainable democracy on a foundation of
impunity characterised by deliberate violations of the constitution and
promotion of violent behaviour in political activity.
We were chided for
our principled stand. We were told that we were wrong because Tsvangirai had the
people behind him. What has happened to moral leadership? This lynch mob
mentality suggests that rules, regulations and party structures should give way
to the crowd out there. We reject that notion.
The Mutambara group has
been criticised for taking part in the Budiriro by-election. Did we not know
that Tsvangirai would trounce him? Why is he interfering with Tsvangirai’s
opposition business? Mutambara should stick to robotics. The mob says Tsvangirai
can do no wrong.
Even though the Tsvangirai congress resolved not to
participate in elections, resolutions are made to be violated as long as the
people agree. Even though the MDC national council voted in June 2005 to suspend
Emmanuel Chisvuure from holding office for two years because of his perceived
violent and destructive role within the party, the people presumably wanted him
as their Budiriro candidate — and he now sits in parliament.
Who cares
about accountability and process? What matters is what the people want. The
people as referred to by Tsvangirai appear to be a very fickle lot. According to
him at his March congress, the people wanted a winter of discontent. Now, by
June they do not want mass action, but a negotiated settlement.
Those
of us who supported the Budiriro by-election did so aware of the obstacles
ahead. Yes, we knew we were likely to be badly defeated in Budiriro, but that
did not prevent us from participation. We do not believe that one participates
only in those elections one is sure of winning. The outcome, disappointing as it
was, has offered us some valuable lessons and insight into what lies ahead for
this country.
In our view, the future of this country can be
realistically built on the moral rectitude and resolve of 504 decent voters who
refused to succumb to the exhortations not to vote for that “Ndebele party”.
They resisted intimidation, rejected misinformation, overcame the discomfort of
not being part of the crowd out there. Such people should not be betrayed by
hiding them behind some cowardly bush for fear of being defeated.
We are
in the midst of a protracted struggle to ensure a future Zimbabwe built on the
principles and values of a democracy free from intimidation and violence; this
fact seems to be lost on the short-termists who are unable to see beyond current
numbers at rallies. This plays into the hands of the Tsvangirai faction, who are
not being pressured by their supporters to provide a programme of substance, and
who have in their national executive people who have been named as responsible
for violence within the party.
Tsvangirai is now spearheading the
aspirations of a particularly angry and frustrated group of people. They have
openly stated that they will do everything in their power to make sure that
Mutambara and his supporters are not an obstacle.
They have calculated
that Zanu PF has sufficiently wounded itself as a result of the succession race
and can therefore be overcome — even though the Budiriro results show Tsvangirai
can only poll less than half of the votes, even in this stronghold, than he has
polled before. The voter turnout of around 25% for this by-election was hardly
more than the turnout for the senatorial elections last year, which were widely
condemned for low turnout.
South African papers last week quoted
Tsvangirai as accusing President Thabo Mbeki of preferring stability in Zimbabwe
to change. However, change in our view does not preclude stability.
We
believe in change that has content. That change is about deepening the democracy
in Zimbabwe. This must inevitably lead to an improved quality of life. Positive
processes occur sustainably where they are bound by a good constitution, and
governed by a broad, consultative leadership.
One destructive Mugabe is
enough for Zimbabwe: the future requires a leadership that is above ethnicity,
that will be guided by a broad range of colleagues, that will respect the rights
of all Zimbabweans to retain their dignity, and that will uphold accountability
for the actions of the past, the present and the future.
* Paul Themba
Nyathi is MDC director of elections (Mutambara faction) writing in his personal
capacity.
Zimbabwe Independent
9 June 2006
CONTROVERSIAL tycoon John Breden-kamp has become the latest victim of
Zanu PF’s depredations following raids on his business empire this week after a
major fallout with ruling party heavyweights fighting to succeed President
Robert Mugabe, it has been learnt.
Sources said Bredenkamp had clashed
with Zanu PF leaders, including his erstwhile ally Emmerson Mnangagwa, over
mineral deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The situation
was worsened by links to one of Zanu PF’s factions battling to win a
long-running succession struggle. Bredenkamp was cited as a financier of the
Mnangagwa faction despite the recent fallout in a report allegedly compiled for
Mugabe by former State Security minister Nicholas Goche in the wake of the
Tsholotsho affair in November 2004.
It was alleged he had provided
billions of dollars to fund Mnangagwa’s campaign to become vice-president and
eventually succeed Mugabe. Although Bredenkamp has denied the claims, senior
Zanu PF officials, in particular from the faction led by retired army commander,
General Solomon Mujuru, continue to view him with suspicion.
The magnate
also had a high-profile clash with Mnangagwa — the politician who made the
businessman’s return to Zimbabwe in 1982 possible — over mineral concessions in
the DRC. Mugabe is said to have been invariably suspicious of him after his role
in propping up the Smith regime through sanctions-busting measures.
This
situation, sources said, left Bredenkamp vulnerable to political attacks by
warring Zanu PF officials who feel he has now outlived his usefulness in their
power play. Insiders say this week’s raid on his companies reflects a loss of
support in the party underlined by efforts to seize his businesses the same way
South African-based local businessman Mutumwa Mawere lost his empire.
Zanu PF appears to be uncomfortable with businessmen who make their
fortune outside their patronage network or those who use it to make money and
then try to play clean.
Bredenkamp, a controversial international
investor rated the United Kingdom’s 33rd richest citizen in 2003, was raided on
Monday by police seeking to investigate cases said to be linked to economic
sabotage. This reportedly involved the flouting of exchange control
regulations.
He is also being investigated for carrying a Zimbabwean
passport, another from South Africa and a third from the
Netherlands.
Breco Group, Bredenkamp’s investment vehicle, confirmed in a
statement yesterday that the tycoon left Zimbabwe on Tuesday. They however
denied that he had fled the country as reported in the government media on
Wednesday. The statement said he had “left for South Africa on a pre-arranged
visit to his medical practitioners following which he departed to the United
Kingdom for a business trip”.
Bredenkamp’s association with Zanu PF and
in particular Mnangagwa dates back to the 1980s. Mnangagwa, then State Security
minister in the early 1980s, and Mugabe’s first press secretary, Costa Pafitis,
now corporate and public affairs director of Breco, negotiated Bredenkamp’s
return to Zimbabwe in 1982 after he was declared persona non grata at
Independence in 1980 for helping to sustain the Smith regime by
sanctions-busting. The return was granted on condition that he would invest in
Zimbabwe.
He proceeded to donate funds towards the construction of the
Zanu PF headquarters. Mnangagwa and Bredenkamp became close as a result until
the acrimonious DRC fallout.
Once involved with the financial affairs of
the Rhodesian Defence Forces, Bredenkamp was involved in sanctions-busting in
return for a highly lucrative concession to export tobacco from Rhodesia. He
went on to turn his company, Casalee, into a multi-million pound empire with
offices around the world, including Windsor in the UK.
Casalee’s business
dealings were often rocked by controversy. In the early 1990s, Casalee acted as
an intermediary in the sale of anti-personnel mines to Iraq. At the height of
the fuel crisis in 2000, Bredenkamp, through a company called Zimalzam, offered
to provide fuel by rail from South Africa. The deal went sour and led to a
flurry of allegations of deliberately inflated tenders.
Bredenkamp told
the Zimbabwe Independent in 2004 he did not give Mnangagwa any money towards his
campaign to become vice-president. Mnangagwa has also said Bredenkamp did not
fund him. He said he only received gifts at his daughter’s wedding held at the
tycoon’s Borrowdale Brooke Golf Course in October 2004.
Sources said
Mnangagwa fell out with Bredenkamp after the Zanu PF politician assisted another
local controversial businessman, Billy Rautenbach, to retain cobalt and copper
mining concessions in the DRC in 2001.
Rautenbach, founder of transport
giant Wheels of Africa, is now said to have replaced Bredenkamp as Mnangagwa’s
confidant. Sources said the money, which according to Zanu PF chairman John
Nkomo “exchanged hands” in Tsholotsho, came from “DRC quarters”. — Staff Writers
Zimbabwe Independent
9 June 2006
Editor's Memo
Vincent Kahiya
I AM back from my short but very eventful
break during which fuel went up from $200 000 to close to $300 000 a litre, the
RBZ introduced a new $100 000 bill and promised to unleash even larger
denominations. The price of a loaf of bread went up “illegally” to $135 000 from
$85 000 and the cost of urban transport also went up “illegally” to $80 000
trip. Boarding schools doubled school fees “illegally”, rentals went up and so
did municipal rates and charges.
Our rulers who have been waving the
NEDPP as the panacea to our predicament have continued to find it difficult to
explain the current cycle of poverty. This week Industry and International Trade
minister Obert Mpofu was telling us the hike in the bread price was “illegal”
because government had not given it the go-ahead.
He said it was
“mischievous” for bakers to say production costs had gone up because the price
of wheat had not gone up. The Ministry of Transport has also told us the new
kombi fares are illegal because they have not been sanctioned by
government.
When bread went up “illegally” in February Mpofu was on hand
to produce the threat. “We have already assigned police officers and inspectors
to visit those bakeries and supermarkets that are charging between $65 000 and
$70 000 for a loaf,” he said.
“Government allowed the bakery industry to
increase the price of bread to $44 000 and that is the price we recognise. Any
other price increases are illegal and we will take the perpetrators to task.”
Nothing of course happened to the perpetrators. The price of bread did
not come down because of this imperiously feeble threat.
Mpofu’s
statement this week is a carbon copy of the threat he issued in February and in
his heart of hearts he does not expect the bakers to reduce the price.
Bereft of reason is the minister’s belief that the price of bread can
only go up when wheat prices go up. The minister is aware that diesel has gone
up, phone tariffs have skyrocketed to the extent that $100 000 now gives
cellphone users two minutes airtime! Electricity tariffs have gone up and
companies’ wage bills have at least doubled since the last hike in bread price.
Mpofu I am sure remembers his counterparts in government urging industry
to give workers huge salary increases to match the “hefty” 300% increments
awarded to civil servants in May.
And so it is illegal for industry to
absorb the additional costs by increasing the price of bread? Perhaps yes,
because Gideon Gono’s master stroke, the $100 000 bill, cannot buy a loaf of
bread, or a pint of milk. It cannot even buy a pen!
Mpofu and his
colleagues have to realise that measures to mitigate inflationary pressures,
including price controls, interfere with the free working of the economy. No
government regulation can take account of all the complex changes that occur
within different industries. Prices of some goods may be falling while those of
others are rising; such changes often reflect differences in production costs.
The straitjacket of controls prevents the economy from adjusting to such changes
in relative costs.
During World War II the US government in its quest to
organise the economy towards military goals introduced price controls. Consumers
were given coupons entitling them to buy limited amounts of essential goods to
make sure that everyone got a fair share. When controls were discontinued after
the war, prices rose rapidly for several years because of the excess purchasing
power that had accumulated in consumers’ savings. But inflation in the US never
exceeded 15% in any single year — modest compared to our 1 042%.
Hugh
Rockoff, professor of economics at Rutgers University in New Jersey, says
“restrictive monetary policy is the operation that cures inflation, and price
and wage controls are the anesthesia that suppresses the pain”. But ours is a
very sick economy and the illness has been exacerbated by too many operations
carried out on the patient by incompetent surgeons in total disregard of
convention.
This is where the illegality started Obert. This nation is
powered by illegality. Where would industry be without the forex black market?
Where did Gono source the forex he bought with the $46 trillion he printed last
year? Is government not the chief distributor of fuel that finds its way onto
the black market?
The government has raised the spectre of illegality.
Now it must live with it.
Zimbabwe Independent
9 June 2006
Loughty Dube
THE British ambassador to Zimbabwe,
Andrew Pocock, says he is quietly exploring whether there is any room for the
normalisation of relations between Britain and Zimbabwe.
Addressing
British citizens and civic leaders in Bulawayo this week, Pocock said for
relations between Harare and the international community to normalise, the
country should correct its policies first.
“What I am trying to do at
the moment is to explore quietly whether there is room to improve relations with
the Zimbabwe government and we are committed to normalising relations with
Zimbabwe. That commitment will remain,” Pocock said.
The British envoy
however said whether there were chances of normalising relations between the two
countries or not, the Zimbabwean government needed to get its policies right.
Writing in the latest edition of Britain and Zimbabwe, published by the British
embassy, ahead of his visit to Bulawayo, Pocock said Zimbabwe was at a
crossroads.
“If it continues to take its current course it will put
itself beyond rescue,” he said. “But Zimbabwe has a choice. It can change track,
change policies and give its people the life, prospects and future they
deserve.”
But time was not on Zimbabwe’s side, he pointed out. Policy
needed to evolve in a new direction. Only the Zimbabwe government could make the
choice.
“It can be done,” Pocock said, “and is being done in other
African countries.” He pointed to the success of Tanzania and
Rwanda.
“Both are current examples of African countries demonstrating
that it is possible to have economically sustainable, market-friendly policies,
and to work in close and fruitful cooperation with international donors, while
those policies remain wholly-owned and driven by African governments and their
people,” the ambassador said.
“Sovereignty and cooperation are not
mutually exclusive.”
On helping ordinary Zimbabweans, Pocock said the
British government would this year avail £35 million for supporting orphans,
food aid for three million Zimbabweans and to fund areas of
HIV/Aids.
“During last year’s G-8 meeting in Gleneagles in Scotland a
billion pound development aid facility for Africa was unveiled and it is sad
that Zimbabwe at the moment is not eligible to access the funds,” Pocock
said.
President Mugabe has said his government was prepared to build
bridges with the British government. He challenged Pocock to visit the rest of
the country to see “the real” situation in Zimbabwe.
“I took the
challenge from President Mugabe to see the real Zimbabwe and that is why I am
here in Bulawayo, to see the real Zimbabwe,” Pocock said.
Zimbabwe Independent
9 June 2006
Dumisani Muleya
SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki has
relaunched his diplomatic offensive to engage President Robert Mugabe in a bid
to resolve Zimbabwe’s escalating political and economic crisis, it emerged
yesterday.
Mbeki’s initiative comes at a time when Mugabe is under
mounting pressure from several fronts, including the United Nations, local
diplomats and churches, to give a firm timetable for his departure to pave way
for the reconstruction of the country shattered by years of misrule.
A
report by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank run by
retired statesmen, this week said Zimbabwe’s multi-faceted problems had left
Mugabe’s regime “increasingly desperate and dangerous”.
This, it said,
was a recipe for disaster in a country that has virtually lost political
direction and was hurtling towards a failed state. The report said the
international community needed to intervene to prevent possible instability and
violence.
Official sources said Mbeki — who has been battling for six
years to find a negotiated settlement in Zimbabwe — yesterday dispatched his
Intelligence Services minister Ronnie Kasrils to meet State Security minister
Didymus Mutasa for talks on a possible summit between their two
leaders.
Sources said Kasrils flew into Harare on a private jet shortly
after midday accompanied by a high-powered delegation comprising South Africa’s
National Intelligence Agency (NIA) chief Manala Manzini and South African Secret
Service (Sass) boss Dennis Hilton. NIA deals with internal intelligence while
Sass focuses on foreign intelligence.
After meeting officials from his
embassy in Harare, Kasrils is said to have gone into a meeting with Mutasa for
discussions on the state of affairs in both countries and their relations.
Sources said the main issue on the agenda was to arrange a summit between Mugabe
and Mbeki to address the local crisis.
The two ministers, who resolved
the spy saga deadlock between the two countries last year, had dinner last night
at a local hotel. Kasrils returns home this morning.
An official source
said the need for Mugabe to meet Mbeki had become urgent in view of the
accelerating national decline and strained relations between the two leaders
following a number of rebuffs from Mugabe.
South African ministers have
of late been pointing out the need to resolve the local crisis to prevent a
regional contagion. Mugabe in February suggested Mbeki must “keep away” from
Zimbabwe. Mbeki’s spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga yesterday said he was not aware
of plans for a meeting between his boss and Mugabe. “I’m not aware of that,” he
said when contacted for comment.
Sources said Mbeki recently sent
Kasrils to London to meet government officials and intelligence chiefs before
his visit three weeks ago to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Mbeki and
Blair have met twice this year to discuss the local problem.
South
African Intelligence Services ministry spokesperson Loran Daniels said she would
“check” on Kasrils’ visit to Harare. “I have to check on that issue. Are you not
able to check on your side, while I check this side?” she said. Efforts to
contact Mutasa were unsuccessful.
Mbeki said in London three weeks ago he
was hoping UN secretary-general Kofi Annan’s expected visit would sort out the
crisis. Annan is preparing to come to Harare despite Mugabe’s attempt to block
him to prevent Zimbabwe becoming a UN Security Council issue. Last week the UN
boss recalled the world body’s ambassador to Harare, Agostinho Zacarias, for
consultations over the issue.
A team of local diplomats and a think-tank
have already secured the services of former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa
to mediate between Mugabe and Blair. Mugabe has said he wants to “build bridges”
with Blair.
Tanzania is sending a new ambassador to Harare as part of
its strategy to help resolve the issue.
British ambassador to Harare
Andrew Pocock said this week he has been “quietly exploring for room” to improve
strained relations between Harare and London. Blair has given clear conditions
for talks with Mugabe including a timetable for Mugabe’s departure and political
reform.
Zimbabwe Independent
9 June 2006
Shakeman Mugari
THE current assault on the mining
sector manifested by the threats of nationalisation and mortgaging of minerals
is likely to undermine one of Zimbabwe’s few remaining vibrant economic sectors.
Remarks last week by central bank governor Gideon Gono that “the country
will continue to leverage minerals” poses a renewed threat to the mining sector,
coming on the back of ominous statements by government officials and President
Robert Mugabe.
Few people took Transport and Communications minister
Chris Mushohwe’s statement earlier in the year seriously when he hinted that
government would “take over mines as it did with the land”.
Analysts say
remarks by Gono are another way of saying Zimbabwe will mortgage minerals for
economic essentials such as foreign currency that are in critical short
supply.
Gono said government would continue to use minerals including
those still embedded underground as security to get lines of credit to meet
pressing needs.
“Zimbabwe has over 40 minerals and we should leverage
these minerals, even if they are still in the ground, to get value,” Gono said
at the signing of a US$50 million fuel deal with French bank, BNP
Paribas.
The deal -with the French is the first with a major European
institution in many years, with Bindura Nickel Corporation providing part of its
product as collateral.
This raised alarm that government could mortgage
mineral resources to secure lines of credit to prolong its stay in power.
A similar deal with Malaysians involving Hwange power station raised
national outrage a few years ago.
Government has of late been flaunting
the country’s platinum and touting unverified uranium reserves as bargaining
chips for economic aid and investment.
The plan, analysts say, is to get
a short-term rescue package to save the economy from its current gridlock.
Such deals, they say, signal that Zimbabwe is now completely isolated
from the international community both politically and economically.
The
fuel-for-nickel deal comes barely three months after the government announced
plans to take over a 51% stake in mines.
The decision has triggered
speculation that mining companies, fearful of the security of their assets,
could be buying their way out of the proposed takeovers by pledging their
minerals as security for government’s credits.
Bindura said it had
participated in the deal as part of its service to the country and good
citizenry — a statement that analysts say was a thinly-veiled admission that the
company had succumbed to pressure.
There are now fears that other mining
companies could follow suit as part of strategic positioning ahead of
implementation of the proposed law.
Analysts say mortgaging minerals
illustrates that government has run out of ideas to save the sinking economy
that has been hemorrhaging for the past seven years due to government’s populist
policies.
“We are yet to see how that will happen but from the look of
things, they want to get instant value even from areas that have been prospected
and claims,” said an economist with a local financial institution.
After
failing to get the anticipated aid from politically-friendly countries like
China or Russia, Zimbabwe is now planning to pawn its minerals to get lines of
credit.
The Russians and Chinese are reported to have been keen to enter
Zimbabwe’s mining sector although their concerns over the country’s
international risk profile are similar to those of other investors.
While other countries have in the past swapped their commodities in
advance to fund current expenditure, the bid by Zimbabwe is borne out of
desperation to save an economy hurtling towards collapse.
But analysts
warn that such deals are short-term measures that will not save the economy
unless there are broader economic reforms underpinned by a change in the
political mindset of the nation’s leaders. On a broader scale, the scheme amply
demonstrates that international financial organisations have lost faith in
Zimbabwe’s creditworthiness.
It is a serious indictment of Mugabe who
has in the past said Zimbabwe did not need assistance from Western countries.
Since the fall-out with the West, Zimbabwe has not received any
significant lines of credit from Western institutions. It has been cut off from
the International Monetary Fund (IMF), one of its major sources of credit before
the crisis started six years ago over anarchic land reforms.
Eager to be
seen to be doing something about the economic crisis, Mugabe seems to have
turned to using minerals as collateral, which economists say threatens a sector
that contributes 4% to national wealth.
Mining has been the only industry
that has witnessed growth in the past six years.
Although Mugabe has
tried to allay fears of the land invasion-style takeovers, control and leverage,
as Gono said, will include even minerals that have not been mined.
An
economist with a local commercial bank said government was desperate, hence its
bid to “sell fish still in the river”.
Political commentator Takura
Zhangazha said bartering minerals was an indication that the ailing economy was
now an albatross round the government’s neck as it battles to undo the impact of
its damaging policies.
“It’s a sign of failure. It’s coming out clear
that the economic problems have boxed this regime into a corner,” Zhangazha
said.
“But they will soon realise that mortgaging state resources is not
only a short-term measure but also a destructive one.”
He said while the
deal might bring fuel for a few days, the root causes of the country’s problems
would remain.
“It’s politics that has caused this international
isolation. Unless the political crisis is resolved, the economy will continue to
bleed and we will hop from one short-term deal to another,” said Zhangazha.
Apart from the short-term nature of the deals, it will also not
translate into sustained foreign currency inflows.
Zimbabwe has over the
past six years systematically destroyed its foreign currency generating sectors
like agriculture, manufacturing and tourism. Foreign currency income has shrunk
from a high of about US$3 billion to about US$1,8 million in the same period.
Agricultural production has slumped on the back of reduced tobacco and
horticulture output owing mainly to the allocation of land to cronies without an
inkling of commercial farming.
The production of tobacco, a prime
foreign currency-generating crop, has plunged from a peak of about 200 million
kg in 2000 to about 50 million kg expected this year.
Price controls
imposed by government ostensibly to “protect the poor consumers” have
constricted expansion in the manufacturing sector.
A long-term solution
to these problems, analysts say, does not lie in pawning away national assets
but a complete revival of the key sectors.
The problem though is that
government has not been able to address key issues crucial to the revival of the
sector.
Economist John Robertson said government could come up with many
such deals but it would not ensure investment unless there was stability and
property rights were secured.
“They need to restore property rights,
correct governance issues and stability to revive these sectors,” Robertson
said.
Government is however still to guarantee security of tenure in the
agriculture sector. The land reform that Mugabe declared ended in August 2002
has continued to this day with fresh farm invasions and new offer letters in the
Lowveld.
Robertson said there was a danger Zimbabwe could end up tying
itself to expensive lines of credit out of desperation. The mortgaging of state
assets is not a new practice in Zimbabwe.
The Zanu-PF government has in
the past entered such deals with Libya as part of its efforts to secure fuel. As
part of that deal, the Libyans got a stake in CBZ and the Rainbow Tourism Group.