Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 20th March
2006.
A political Party is very similar in structure and
function to a tree.
The soil in which it is planted is the people of the
country and its roots
are the structures it establishes to represent the
interests of the
communities among which it functions. The stem of the tree
is its leadership
and the branches represent the roots of the Party in the
public eye - the
Congress, its main decision making organs and
Executive.
There are a number of things about trees that we must
bear in mind -
they can be killed by any number of things - termites getting
at the roots,
storm damage, drought and simply old age. Pruning also often
stimulates
them - many only bear fruit if they are pruned on a regular
basis. But they
all need water, good soil and heat to thrive.
It's like that in Zimbabwe. Our political trees have grown up and
thrived
for a while and then died. The political structures that dominated
in the
Rhodesian era - the long period of government under the tutelage of
Godfrey
Huggins, then the Rhodesian Front under Ian Smith. Zapu and then its
offshoot - Zanu and more recently the emergence and decline of Zanu
PF.
My son has a huge Erythrina abyssinica in his garden that has
suddenly
died. It showed no real sign of distress until a huge part of the
tree
suddenly died and had to be cut down and then the whole tree followed.
Zanu
PF is in the process of dying - its roots are shrinking, it is unable
to get
its membership to renew their pledges of loyalty and the people have
withdrawn their support. You can fight this sort of thing, but the reality
is that there is not much you can do about it and when it happens - the
final fall is fast and total. Look at the fate of the Rhodesian Front and
Zapu, look at the fate of the old Nationalist Party in South Africa; they
virtually no longer exist yet at one time they were giants in the forest,
towering above the others.
In the case of the MDC we have had
some storm damage. A wind blew up
from South Africa and ripped a large
branch out of the side of the main stem
of the MDC tree. It has left an ugly
scar and will take a long time to heal.
In fact it will probably affect the
long-term shape of the tree and its
appearance. But the issue that confronts
us in Zimbabwe and especially those
of us, who are in the opposition, is
which section of the tree retained its
links with the roots of the
MDC.
Well, both sections have had their Congress's and I think we
have the
right now to say that the main stem of the Party and 95 per cent of
its root
structure, were left standing with Morgan Tsvangirai. The branch
that broke
ranks with Morgan over the Senate issue are in reality simply a
broken
branch that now lies on the ground without sufficient root structure
to
sustain its mass or deliver any fruit to its members. It will either die
or
become firewood - like Zanu PF or it will simply lie there on the forest
floor a crippled and broken branch of the original MDC.
The MDC
Congress this past weekend attracted nearly 20 000 delegates
and others who
tried to secure accreditation to attend on Saturday and
Sunday. In the end,
15 000 delegates were accredited and when proceeding
opened on time on
Saturday - the Chairman got up to speak at exactly 10.00
hours, the stadium
was packed to the roof and the doors with an enthusiastic
crowd from every
corner of the country. The 12 Provincial delegations sat in
blocks and it
was an impressive sight to see the response when each was
asked to identify
themselves.
They came on foot, by train and by bus and mini taxi.
The great
majority were simple rural farmers and urban workers. Their over
riding
concerns were to be there to show their continued support for the MDC
and
its leadership under Morgan Tsvangirai. I was not invited to the
Congress of
the break away faction (even though I was technically a member
of their
National Executive and Council) but I played a small role in the
Congress
held in Harare. What I saw and felt there was the spirit of the MDC
-
vibrant, energetic and democratic - almost to a fault.
In an
amazing way we were able to pay for Congress, we rented the
Stadium, brought
in professional caterers (at Morgan's insistence) and were
able to
accommodate people all over the City. On Sunday we got all the
Provincial
Treasurers together and asked them how much money they needed to
get home -
we then went to a location in the City where we had what money
was available
and we were able to pay out 95 per cent of what was asked
for - astonishing
when you know that we had no support from any major donors
and our State
funding was arbitrarily handed over to the break away group in
time for
their Congress.
We adopted the reports tabled at Congress - also a
much-revised
constitution for the Party - an outstanding job done by a team
under Tendi
Biti. We also adopted a revised policy statement and the report
of the
disciplinary committee. The leaders of the break away group were
expelled
from the MDC with Morgan saying that this was a great loss as these
were
some of the key players in the formation of the Party and its many
achievements.
On Sunday we carried out another accreditation
process and then voted
for our leadership. The outcome was as follows: M
Tsvangirai; President, T
Khupe; Vice President, I Matongo; Chairman, L Moyo;
Vice Chairperson,
Secretary General; T Biti, Deputy; T Mashakada, Organising
Secretary; E
Mudzuri, Deputy; D Komiche, Party Spokesperson; N Chamisa,
Treasurer
General; R Bennett.
This is a strong team -
disappointing that there is only one woman in
the line up - an ongoing
problem in the MDC. We will try to correct that in
the rest of the Executive
and National Council. But there are three
Matabeleland representatives -
both the Chairpersons of Matabeleland South
and North were elected to
national posts.
The President called for a winter of discontent and
dissidence leading
to a new Constitution for the country and a new
democratic beginning. The
Congress was the start of that process and we are
now into the
implementation phase. I expect real action this time and there
is, for the
first time, going to be a confrontation. I wish it were
otherwise but we no
longer have any choice. Perhaps when we get to start
pushing that old tree
called Zanu PF, we will find that it is so rotten
underground that it just
falls over - we just have to watch out for
collateral damage.
Reuters, 20 March
Harare - Zimbabwe police raided the provincial offices
of a splinter faction
of the country's opposition party, looking for arms
and subversive material,
a party official said on Monday. The raid in
Zimbabwe's second city of
Bulawayo follows official allegations of plots
against President Robert
Mugabe, whose 26-year rule is being challenged by
the divided opposition.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) has split into two
feuding groups over tactics against Mugabe.
Founding leader Morgan
Tsvangirai called at the weekend for mass protests
against the veteran
president. The official said the targeted office
belonged to a faction led
by MDC vice-president Gibson Sibanda and
secretary-general Welshman Ncube.
It broke ranks with Tsvangirai and elected
a former student activist, Arthur
Mutambara, as its leader. Police spent the
night at the party's offices in
Bulawayo and mounted a search on Monday,
Maxwell Zimuto, the faction's head
of information, told Reuters from the
city. "I can confirm that police are
here as I speak ... they have a search
warrant to look for arms of war and
any subversive material," Zimuto said.
Police could not immediately comment
on Monday.
The opposition
accuses Mugabe's government of using security laws to stamp
down on
opponents trying to end his long rule since independence from
Britain in
1980. Early this month seven people, including an opposition
legislator,
were charged with a plot to assassinate Mugabe and destabilise
the country,
but the state dropped the charges against six of them last
week. The
authorities said they had discovered an arms cache in the eastern
town of
Mutare at the home of a former policeman in Rhodesia - Zimbabwe's
name
before independence - which they said was to be used against senior
officials. Tsvangirai won re-election as head of his MDC faction on Sunday
and called in an address to 15,000 congress delegates for a "cold season of
peaceful democratic resistance" against Mugabe's rule. He said only
sustained mass protests could overcome what he called government brutality.
There has been no immediate government reaction to Tsvangirai's call, but
the authorities have routinely deployed security forces to crush political
protests.
Zim Online
Tue 21 March 2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe State Security
Minister Didymus Mutasa has warned
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and
his supporters that the government
will crush any mass protests against
President Robert Mugabe.
Then tough-talking Mutasa - who two weeks
ago warned that the
government may resort to physically eliminating
opponents - said the
government was closely monitoring Tsvangirai after the
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party leader last weekend told
Zimbabweans to ready
themselves for popular protests to press the government
to embrace
democracy.
"We are watching them closely. We heard
his (Tsvangirai) threats and
we hope they will just end as threats but if
they start destroying things
then they will see us," Mutasa told ZimOnline
adding that if Tsvangirai and
the MDC wanted war with the government, then
it was more than ready for
them.
"If they want
a fight then we are more than ready to hit back harder,"
said Mutasa, who is
probably the most powerful minister in Mugabe's Cabinet.
As
security minister, Mutasa oversees the government's dreaded spy
Central
Intelligence Organisation that is accused of terrorising the
opposition. He
is also in charge of the government's chaotic land reforms
and food aid
distribution.
Addressing the more than 15 000 delegates at the
MDC's congress last
weekend, Tsvangirai said his party had lost faith in
elections as a
democratic tool to change the government because Mugabe and
his ruling ZANU
PF party always rig polls.
Tsvangirai said he
was ready to lead Zimbabweans "from the front" in
mass protests against
Mugabe's government until democracy was restored in
the
country.
With its strong support in urban areas, the MDC is best
placed to
organise streets protests against the government.
But
political analysts say the MDC is at the moment too weakened to
confront the
government and its army in the streets after the opposition
party split into
two rival political parties.
Besides the Tsvangirai-led MDC - that
is widely seen as the main rival
to Mugabe's ZANU PF party - there is
another faction of the opposition party
that also calls itself the MDC and
is led by former student activist Arthur
Mutambara.
Calls in
the past by Tsvangirai and his MDC for mass revolt have
fizzled out with
only a handful of people heeding such calls while the army
and police have
always been more than ready to prevent people from taking to
the streets
against the government. But analysts and observers say
Zimbabwe - in the
grip of its worst ever economic crisis that has seen
shortages of literally
every basic survival commodity from fuel to food,
electricity and with
inflation beyond 700 percent - may just be ripe for a
revolution. -
ZimOnline.
Zim Online
Tue 21 March 2006
MASVINGO - Traditional healers in
Zimbabwe's southern Masvingo
province have called on the government to allow
them to visit public
hospitals to administer herbs to patients who are
otherwise not getting much
help from the state institutions because of a
shortage of medicines.
An acute foreign currency shortage has seen
state hospitals without
essential medical drugs which are imported. In many
cases, public hospitals
can only give patients ordinary pain killers and
this when the HIV/AIDS
pandemic is wrecking havoc in the country, killing at
least 2 000 people
every week.
"Our forefathers used to treat
several ailments using traditional
medicine and we believe the same can be
done today," said Daniel Dambakuwa,
the spokesman of the Masvingo chapter of
the Zimbabwe National Traditional
Healers Association
(ZINATHA).
Dambakuwa said his association had formally approached
the Ministry of
Health, which runs public hospitals, to be allowed access to
the health
facilities and were awaiting response from the
ministry.
"Many people are dying because the country has run short
of essential
drugs . we want to do this not for financial gain but to save
human life,"
said the traditional healer.
Health Minister David
Parirenyatwa could not be immediately reached
for comment on the matter. But
Parirenyatwa, himself a medical doctor, has
in the past castigated some
members of ZINATHA for administering toxic and
untested substances to
patients.
Although admitting traditional medicine could be helpful
to
Zimbabweans especially in remote rural areas, Parirenyatwa however
insists
that there is need for thorough research into the medicine before it
could
be freely allowed in hospitals.
The Zimbabwe government
has no foreign currency to import critically
needed medicines, fuel,
electricity and food.
Critics blame the foreign currency and
economic crisis on repression
and wrong economic policies by President
Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU
PF party, in power since independence from
Britain 25 years ago.
The veteran President denies the charge and
instead blames Zimbabwe's
problems on economic sabotage by Western countries
he says are out to fix
his government for seizing land from white farmers
and giving it over to
landless blacks. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tue 21 March 2006
BULAWAYO - The leader of a breakaway
faction of Zimbabwe's main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
party Arthur Mutambara says
President Robert Mugabe's government must pay
compensation to families of
people killed by the army in the Matabeleland
and Midlands provinces during
the early 80s.
At least 20 000
people, most of them innocent civilians, were killed
by the army's North
Korean-trained 5th Brigade sent into Matabeleland and
Midlands to quell an
armed rebellion in the two southern provinces against
Mugabe's
rule.
The victims of the army campaign were mostly from the
minority Ndebele
tribe that is the largest ethnic group in the two provinces
and were accused
of backing the dissidents.
Addressing his
party's supporters at White City stadium in Bulawayo at
the weekend,
Mutambara said there was need for an apology for the
Matabeleland and
Midlands killings also known as the Gukurahundi atrocities
after the
codename the army gave its operation in the two provinces.
"There
should be an apology for the Gukurahundi killings and that
should be
followed by full compensation to all those who lost loved ones and
those
orphaned during the period and all this will allow a process of
national
healing," Mutambara said to thunderous applause from his audience
most of
whom who lost relatives during the killings.
Mugabe, who later
united with his political rivals in Matabeleland to
end the armed
insurrection and the killings, has admitted the army crackdown
was wrong and
called it "an act of madness".
But the veteran President, who is
Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe
Defence Forces, has refused to take full
and personal responsibility or to
apologise for the army killings. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tue 21
March 2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe immigration officials at the weekend
deported two
Netherlands Trade Union Federation officials who were visiting
the country
to meet with their counterparts at the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions
(ZCTU).
ZCTU information officer Mlamuleli
Sibanda said junior immigration
officials at Harare International Airport
had initially permitted the Dutch
trade unionists to enter Zimbabwe but this
was reversed by a senior official
who ordered that the foreign labour
officials be detained while awaiting the
next flight out of
Zimbabwe.
Sibanda said: "ZCTU is equally worried by the detention
of the
Netherlands Trade Union officials because all immigration formalities
had
been completed when they were approached by an immigration officer who
claimed to be in charge of the afternoon shift and gave his name as Charles
Dube. No reasons were given for their detention."
The ZCTU
official told ZimOnline that the Dutch trade unionists were
later put on a
British Airways flight to South Africa.
The Harare administration has
since last year banned several
international trade union leaders from
visiting Zimbabwe.
The government last year deported a delegation
from the Congress of
South African Trade Unions who were in Zimbabwe to meet
the ZCTU and to
assess conditions in the crisis-hit country. -
ZimOnline
Reuters
Mon Mar 20, 2006 1:31 PM GMT
By Cris
Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) - Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has
dramatically
raised the stakes by calling for mass protests against
President Robert
Mugabe that could determine both his own and Zimbabwe's
future, analysts
say.
Tsvangirai, who was re-elected president of the
main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) on Sunday, warned
Mugabe, in power since
independence from Britain in 1980, that his long rule
was coming to an end.
He urged Zimbabweans to save money and stock up
food ahead of a "cold season
of peaceful democratic resistance."
He
told cheering supporters that "the dictator must brace himself for a
long,
bustling winter across the country."
Political analysts said Tsvangirai's
tough statements raised not only his
profile as Mugabe's main challenger,
but also the stakes on which he will be
judged in the coming
months.
"Tsvangirai has set big targets, and if ... the MDC delivers on
this
programme of sustained mass action Mugabe is going to feel the
pressure,"
said Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of political pressure group
National
Constitutional Assembly.
Madhuku said he believed
co-ordinated and peaceful demonstrations across
Zimbabwe could force Mugabe
to agree to talks about the crisis in the
southern African
country.
"If it happens, and I think it is possible, this is going to
determine
Zimbabwe's political future in the next year or so," Madhuku
added.
But John Makumbe, a political commentator and a critic of Mugabe,
said
Tsvangirai could run into trouble as the government often uses tough
policing to keep the opposition in check.
"Mugabe and ZANU-PF are
given to intransigence, so their initial reaction is
likely to be the use of
force, intimidation and arrests," he said.
"Tsvangirai is talking about
peaceful demonstrations but the government has
always responded with
violence so obviously we may get into a period of
chaos," Makumbe
added.
But if the protests turn out to be massive, he said the government
may
accept demands including the drafting of a new constitution which the
opposition says is needed to guarantee free and fair
elections.
ECONOMY INCREASES FRUSTRATION
Political analysts say
although Zimbabweans have largely been cowed by
Mugabe's tactics of
routinely deploying riot police to crush street
protests, a crumbling
economy has increased public frustration with the
government.
The
country is wrestling with shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency,
as
well as with unemployment of over 70 percent and the highest inflation
rate
in the world.
Tsvangirai -- a former trade union leader who has been at
the helm of the
MDC since its formation six years ago -- is largely regarded
as Mugabe's
biggest challenge.
But some analysts say the 54-year-old
politician has been outflanked by
Mugabe, 82, whom he and the West accuses
of rigging three major elections
since 2000 to remain in
power.
Analysts say Tsvangirai has probably adopted his risky "mass
action" drive
out of frustration with the electoral process and a judiciary
system that
has not settled his poll challenges.
Mugabe, who co-led
Zimbabwe's war for independence in the 1970s, holds
Tsvangirai in contempt,
dismissing him as a "pathetic puppet" of former
colonial power Britain unfit
to rule the country.
Leading political commentator Eldred Masunungure
said Tsvangirai's political
reputation would be severely damaged if his
protest plan fails to get off
the ground.
"There is obvious
frustration with the political and economic environment,
but such a
programme will need good organisational skills, courage and
self-drive," he
said.
"He has put his reputation on the line and it has to work because
it could
damage his standing," he added.
Tsvangirai -- buoyed by a
large turnout at the weekend congress of his MDC
faction -- spoke in
confident terms about his plans to lead anti-government
protests.
"From today, fellow Zimbabweans, kindly save a penny and
stock up where
possible," he said. "A storm is on the horizon."
IOL
March 20
2006 at 11:21AM
Harare - Zimbabwe is losing much of its staple
maize to smuggling to
neighbouring countries, compounding five years of
shortages in the former
breadbasket, the official Herald newspaper reported
on Monday.
Once a net exporter of grain to southern Africa,
Zimbabwe has suffered
food shortages as the farming sector has struggled
with drought and
disruptions linked to President Robert Mugabe's
controversial seizures of
white-owned farms for landless
blacks.
Gershom Pasi, head of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, said
smuggling
of maize was frustrating government efforts to feed the
country.
"While our government has put in place initiatives to
import enough
grain to feed the nation using the scarce foreign currency
resources, a few
unscrupulous individuals who are bent on lining their own
pockets are busy
smuggling maize-meal... into neighbouring countries," Pasi
was quoted as
saying.
"One only has to cross our
borders to see piles of Zimbabwean
maize-meal and other basic commodities in
abundance yet our shops are
experiencing acute artificial shortages of some
of these basic goods," he
said.
The central bank says Zimbabwe
imported $135-million of grain in 2005
to plug a food deficit that has left
an estimated 4,3 million Zimbabweans in
need of food aid until at least the
beginning of the April harvest.
Last Friday the Commercial Farmers'
Union - whose members were
targeted in the government's drive to forcibly
redistribute white-owned land
to blacks - said Zimbabwe expected another
poor maize harvest of 795 000
tons against domestic needs of about 1,8
million tons.
The latest forecast from the United States Department
of Agriculture's
(USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service sees a maize harvest
this season of 900
000 tons, up from 550 000 last year but still well short
of national needs.
Mugabe's government has not yet put out any crop
forecasts for the
current November-April season, but last month state media
said a dry spell
in various parts of the country was likely to reduce
yields.
Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from
Britain in
1980, denies critics' charges that his policies have wrecked the
once
promising economy, and in turn accuses opponents of his land reforms of
sabotaging the economy.
(1) That the Party reaffirms its commitment to
establishing democratic change in Zimbabwe through peaceful and democratic
means.
(2) That the Party reaffirms its identity as a social
democratic, social liberation movement whose core values are social justice,
democracy, equality, transparency, liberty, freedom and
accountability.
(3) Acknowledging the serious structural
economic crisis, absence of jobs, high inflation, collapsed industrial and
agricultural output, huge budget deficit and a serious macroeconomic crisis, it
is resolved to comprehensively address the crisis through the party’s RESTART
programme.
(4) Noting the subjective, chaotic, uneven and
unequal land reform programme, it is resolved to deal with the land question
once and for all through an independent Land Commission that will address the
crisis on principles of need and ability, underpinned by compliance with the
rule of law.
(5) Noting the high levels of HIV/Aids, the huge
food deficit, the collapse of the public health and the public transport system,
Congress resolves through the RESTART programme to comprehensively address the
social crisis of the failed state.
(6) Acknowledging the
criminalization, militarization, personalization and privatization of the
dictatorial state, the corruption of the judiciary, the public services and all
other arms of the State, Congress resolves to put the issue and demand for a new
people-driven Constitution at the forefront of the struggle for change by the
working people of Zimbabwe.
(7) Acknowledging the depth of the
national crisis, and the need for a united and popular front, Congress resolves
that the party will work with civic like minded civic and political
organizations in pursuit of the agenda for change.
(8) Noting
the complete failure of the electoral process in Zimbabwe and the futility of
pursuing an exclusive electoral struggle, the party resolves to engage in
peaceful democratic confrontation and resistance to the regime.
(9) Acknowledging the fragmented nature of the broad
democratic movement, civic society, the churches and the opposition, Congress
resolves to work for the unity of all genuine cadres to the
struggle.
Signed
By:
---------------------------------------
The National
Chairman 19th March
2006
worldpress.org
Eugene Soros
Harare, Zimbabwe
March 19, 2006
At the
center of a debate in Zimbabwe is a memoir by Fay Chung, "Reliving
the
Second Chimurenga," which draws on her memories of Zimbabwe's struggle
for
liberation. To some, it is bold, candid and brave, to others,
inaccurate,
judgmental of the opposition and uncritical of the present
political
establishment in Zimbabwe.
In the book, Hung narrates her origins among
the tiny Chinese minority in
Rhodesia, her early radicalization, her
participation in the liberation
struggle and her tenure at the Zimbabwean
Ministry of Education. She details
the role of education in the Zimbabwean
refugee camps of Zambia and
Mozambique both in preparing for independence
during the 1970's and in its
consolidation in the 1980's. Her book concludes
with an assessment of events
until the end of 2004.
The most
compelling sections of the memoir are not about education, a
portfolio Chung
has long been associated with, but about the Zanu-PF's
formative years. It
is awe striking to read descriptions of dissenting views
in the party and of
how they were dealt with. Apparently, the author seemed
unfazed by the
events and measured the responses as successes in terms of
loyalty.
Her account is not an unembellished apology for the ruling
party. She can be
explicit and frank about the party's corruption, violence
and misrule both
in and out of power. However, she is consistently
dismissive of the
alternatives. This includes other possible leaders like
Sithole and Joshua
Nkomo in the 1970's and the Movement for Democratic
Change's more recent
challenge to one-party rule. Despite everything, she
considers the recent
land seizures legitimate and rational in essentials
(although poorly
executed), a return to the basic objectives of the
liberation struggle.
The book has riled many Zimbabweans. Judging by the
responses the book
attracted at its recent launch in Harare, readers are
questioning some of
its details: that there was rampant homosexuality in the
township in the
70's, that then ZANU leader Herbert Chitepo was an ally of
Ian Smith (prime
minister of Rhodesia before 1980), and that there was a
mass exodus of ZIPA
members to join ZANU during the détente
period.
"I think there are some details and issues the book raises which
lack facts
and are inaccurate," says Wilfred Mhanda, a war veteran. He is
director of
the Zimbabwe Liberators Platform, which was formed by war vets
in 2000 in
protest at the anarchy that accompanied the farm
seizures.
Mhanda says the arrests of ZIPA members in Mozambique in 1977
were ordered
by Robert G. Mugabe, not by Josiah Tongogara as the book
claims, when Mugabe
persuaded his host President Samora Machel that his own
ZANLA commanders
were plotting against him.
Mhanda, a one-time ZANLA
commander, spent six months in jail in Mozambique,
when he and 50 other
commanders were arrested. He was later transferred to a
detention camp,
where he spent another two years. The ZANLA commanders were
finally released
after a representative of the British Labor Party took up
their
case.
Margaret Dongo, a war veteran who later opposed Mugabe's rule,
lauds Chung
efforts to publish a memoir that highlights details of the
war.
The book is a wake-up call to us who have been on the front to
correct our
history," says Dongo.
Chung avows that the drive to write
the memoir was prompted by the fact that
no has dared to write about the
history of the war, a fact that has only
left children today wondering what
really happened during the liberation
struggle era. (A notable exception:
"Echoing Silences," a novel by Alexander
Kanengoni.)
Chung grew up in
a Chinese family in what was then Rhodesia in the 1950's
and 60's. She
studied education and literature, and became a lecturer at the
University of
Zambia in the early 1970's. In Zambia, she joined the Zimbabwe
National
Union (ZANU), and took part in the radicalization of the
nationalist
uprising, which led to Zimbabwe's independence in 1980. In the
1980, she
worked in various capacities in the Ministry of Education. She was
Chief of
the Education Cluster at UNICEF 1993-98, and the first director of
the
UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa
1998-2003.
Her memoirs give an inside view of the divisions within
ZANU during the late
1970's. She witnessed the change of leadership from
Sithole to Mugabe,
experienced the tensions between politicians and military
leaders, as well
as the rise and fall of the vashandi movement, which tried
to change the
direction of ZANU in a more socialist direction. She also
reflects on the
on-going crisis in Zimbabwe. She regrets the violence of the
past, but is
critical of the new democratic opposition and supports Robert
Mugabe's
"Third Chimurenga" as a return to the objectives of land reform and
economic
justice, which she sees as the "heart blood" of the liberation
struggle.
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
COLUMN
March 20, 2006
Posted to the web March 20,
2006
John Legat
Johannesburg
THE potential to make five to 10
times your investment in dollar terms on
the Zimbabwean stock market is a
beguiling prospect for investors with an
enduring belief in the potential of
SA's northern neighbour.
A key question -- other than when? -- is what
changes are needed before
long-term possibilities become bankable profits.
Won't it take years of help
on a massive scale from donors and international
institutions? Perhaps
not -- if developments in East Africa are any guide to
the huge strides that
become possible once deregulation sets in.
"We
don't need the International Monetary Fund, thanks. We're in good
shape."
That's been the message for some time from Kenya, a country that is
powering
ahead along with neighbours Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.
Fair and
peaceful elections took place in December 2002 when President
Daniel arap
Moi, in power since 1978, stood down. Chosen successor Uhuru
Kenyatta failed
to win a mandate and Mwai Kibaki, leader of the opposition
grouping, the
National Rainbow Coalition, became president on an
anticorruption and
pro-reform ticket.
Moi began economic reform in the 1990s -- exchange
controls went in 1995 --
but corruption and lack of transparency kept
foreign money away. In the five
years to the end of 2002, the economy
struggled to top 1% growth, incredibly
low for a developing
country.
Today, the economy is pumping, with growth likely to exceed 5%
in 2005, well
ahead of budget.
Tourist arr-ivals are up 31% year on
year. Kenya Airways was privatised in
the mid-1990s when KLM took a stake in
what used to be a small airline. Now
it has three brand new Boeing 777s, six
767s and 10 737s. The national
carrier flies all over Africa as well as to
Turkey, the Middle East, India
and Asia, plus London and
Amsterdam.
Expansion is imminent at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta
Airport.
Tourists spur growth in beds, lodges, hotels and employment. The
influx also
means more foreign exchange and foreign
investment.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, together with
Fairmont Hotels,
has just paid $35m for the Lonhro Hotels' portfolio in
Kenya -- with its 439
rooms/tents, including the Norfolk Hotel, Mount Kenya
Safari Lodge, Aberdare
Country Club and various safari lodges. A further
$25m will be spent
refurbishing and rebranding the hotels.
In
October, Kenya and Uganda effectively privatised their railways by
selling a
25-year concession to invest in and manage them.
The concession was won
by a South African company, Rift Valley Railways,
which will provide new
railway stock and infrastructure. In the next five
years, the company plans
to spend $25m in Kenya and $15m in Uganda.
An estimated 6000 out of a
workforce of 9000 will be retired early. The
World Bank will help finance
the pensions and redundancy programme. Kenya
Railways' existing debt will be
wiped out over 25 years by the con-cession
and World Bank
payments.
The private sector is overjoyed at the prospect of transport
cost savings
from efficient railways. Road infrastructure will also be saved
from the
battering it takes as heavy trucks cart the likes of cement from
Mombasa to
the Highlands and Uganda. The Port of Mombasa is also likely to
be
privatised at some point. In Tanzania, Dar es Salaam harbour is now
managed
by Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa, putting pressure on Kenya to sort
out
Mombasa.
Kenya's stronger-than-expected economic growth has
resulted in tax revenues
exceeding budget by an estimated 30-billion Kenyan
shillings this year, in
effect wiping out the government's planned fiscal
deficit.
Inflation in September dropped to 4,3% thanks in part to the
strength in a
Kenyan shilling that has risen from 77 to the US dollar at the
beginning of
the year to 74 in November.
Since the 2002 elections,
the stock market has performed strongly off a low
base.
The blue-chip
East African Breweries has risen six times in US dollar terms,
taking into
account dividends, bonus issues and a rising share price. It is
now valued
at $1,25bn.
Barclays Bank has a large presence in Kenya. With a
price-to-earnings ratio
of around 12, it is valued at $680m. In contrast,
Barclays Zim-babwe is
valued at $65m.
Bamburi Cement, majority owned
by Lafarge and valued at $670m, is about to
significantly expand its plant.
Current capacity is 2,5-million tons.
Lafarge's subsidiary in Zimbabwe,
Circle Cement, has capacity of 450000 tons
and is valued at
$10m.
Next March, the government will be selling 30% of the state power
generating
business KenGen on to the exchange in a move which may absorb
$120m from the
market. Government will use the funds raised to invest into
geothermal
energy sources.
Any visitor to Kenya can sense the
dynamism and feelings of optimism. Good
rains have ensured a large maize
crop, so optimism extends to rural areas as
well as the cities.
In
downtown Nairobi, the city council is cleaning the streets, repainting
the
kerbs and encouraging property owners to smarten up their
buildings.
Further afield, many Kenyan companies are looking to invest in
Rwanda, which
hopes to join the East African Community next year. There is
talk of a
common currency and more political integration. The Tanzanian
economy is
growing at 7% and Uganda's at more than 6%.
The lessons of
East Africa's success are plain to see -- even from Zimbabwe.
Legat is CE
of Imara Asset Management Zimbabwe and lead fund manager of
Imara's African
Opportunities investment fund.
Resource Investor
By Ayanda Shezi
20 Mar 2006 at 11:29 AM EST
HARARE
(Business Day) -- Zimbabwe's Chamber of Mines, representing 200
mining
houses in the country, said last week that the proposed amendments to
the
Minerals and Mines Act would effectively kill off investment needed to
keep
mines open.
This comes after news that the Zimbabwean government wants to
take a 51%
stake in some of the mines, a move that the chamber said amounted
to
nationalisation and a step backwards for
mining.
The world's second-biggest platinum miner, Impala
Platinum (Implats)
[JSE:IMPO], which has an 86.7% stake in Zimplats
[ASX:ZIM], confirmed on
Friday that it had met Zimbabwean government
officials last week.
The meeting, the company said in a statement,
between Implats CEO Keith
Rumble and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and
senior members of his
government, was to discuss the recently announced
cabinet-approved draft
proposal relating to ownership of the Zimbabwean
platinum industry.
The discussions were "open and frank" and the draft
proposal was still in
progress.
"Investors will be forced to withhold
capital expenditure for maintenance
and development work, partly because
financial institutions will no longer
offer the investors foreign exchange
loan facilities as the investors will
no longer have controlling interest,"
said a letter from the chamber to the
government. With only 49% of the
shares paid for and without access to loan
funds, most mining companies
would have insufficient capital to sustain
operations, the chamber
said.
This month Mines Minister Amos Midzi rattled the industry when he
announced
that Mugabe's cabinet had approved changes to the mining law "to
indigenise
51% in some instances, of all foreign- owned
companies".
The chamber said: "In instances such as Zambia and Tanzania,
after embarking
on nationalisation policies and subsequent stagnation of the
mining
industry, policies were reversed to make private investment the key
to
exploration and mining investments without direct participation of
governments."
The changes were expected to be presented to parliament
for final approval
before July, said Midzi.
The move to take control
of the mines comes against the background of an
economic crisis that has
left the government in a cash crunch as Zimbabweans
struggle with rising
poverty, sky-high unem-ployment and severe shortages.
The mining sector
is a key pillar of the Zimbabwean economy, earning $626
million last year,
representing 44% of the country's total foreign currency
revenues.
Shortly after news emerged about the proposal, Implats'
chief financial
officer David Brown said its unit in the country, Zimplats
Ltd, had a
special mining lease that he hoped would override any amended
law.
Zimbabwe, holding the world's richest platinum deposits after South
Africa,
is the main area of future growth for Implats.
Together,
South Africa and Zimbabwe hold about 90% of the world's known
platinum
reserves.
An analyst said yesterday that AngloPlat would feel the impact
of the
proposal less severely than Implats, for example, as its platinum
mine Unki
was still at the project stage and was expected to achieve its
first
production only in 2008. With Reuters and Sapa
IFEX canada (International Freedom of Expression eXchange)
(MISA/IFEX) - The Associated Newspapers of
Zimbabwe's (ANZ) legal battle to
be granted an operating licence has taken a
new twist, with the Minister of
Information Dr. Tichaona Jokonya now
expected to decide the publishing
company's fate.
This comes in
the wake of reports that the chairman of the
government-controlled Media and
Information Commission (MIC), Dr. Tafataona
Mahoso, admitted that a High
Court ruling barred the MIC from involvement in
the ANZ case.
On 8
February 2006, High Court judge Justice Rita Makarau ruled that Mahoso
was
biased against ANZ, publishers of the banned "Daily News" and "Daily
News on
Sunday". Makarau ruled that the MIC board's impartiality was tainted
by the
proven bias of its chairman, barring all members of the MIC from
involvement
in the consideration of ANZ's application.
The weekly "Financial Gazette"
reported in its 16 March edition that Mahoso
had since conceded that the
judgment barred them from determining the ANZ
application. This shifts the
resolution of the matter to Minister Jokonya.
The minister, as the
appointing authority, can appoint a special board to
determine the
application or can instruct the MIC secretariat to issue a
certificate of
registration.
The ANZ management has already written to the minister
appealing for his
intervention. ANZ legal adviser Mordecai Mahlangu,
however, expressed
disappointment that the minister had not yet responded to
their letters of
appeal, written on 22 February and 13 March.
"We are
distressed by this. We are all patriots and would like this matter
to be
resolved in the best interests of the country," said Mahlangu.
IFEX canada (International Freedom of Expression eXchange)
(MISA/IFEX) - The Zimbabwean government has
drafted a bill that would permit
the surveillance of telephone and e-mail
communications while making it
compulsory for service providers to install
the enabling equipment on behalf
of the state.
The proposed law,
the Interception of Communications Bill 2006, seeks to
empower the chief of
defence intelligence, the director-general of the
Central Intelligence
Organisation, the Commissioner of Police and the
Commissioner General of the
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to intercept
telephonic, e-mail and cellphone
messages.
The bill would also empower state agencies to open mail being
conveyed
through the post and through licensed courier service
providers.
This bill has been drafted despite a Supreme Court ruling in
2004 which
declared unconstitutional Sections 98 and 103 of the Posts and
Telecommunications (PTC) Act because they violated Section 20 of the
Constitution. Section 20 guarantees freedom of expression and freedom to
receive and impart ideas without interference.
The bill stipulates
that operators of telecommunications services will be
compelled to install
software and hardware to enable the interception and
storage of information,
as directed by the state.
March
20, 2006.
By Andnetwork .com
ZIMBABWE will require a
70% weighted vote of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board
to restore its voting rights and
eligibility to use resources of the fund, a
senior IMF official revealed.
This is because it took a similar
vote margin to suspend the country's
voting and related rights with the IMF,
Thomas Dawson, the IMF external
relations director, said last
week.
"It took a 70% weighted vote of the executive board to
suspend the
voting rights. It similarly takes a 70% weighted vote of the
executive board
to restore the voting rights," Dawson said.
State media reports last week charged that the United States and the
United
Kingdom had abused their voting powers to "settle scores with
Zimbabwe" by
maintaining sanctions on the country. Finance minister Herbert
Murerwa and
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono attended the IMF executive
board meeting
in Washington, DC.
Dawson said Zimbabwe had simply failed to garner
enough votes to
restore its rights with the IMF in line with "various
amendments in the
Articles of Agreement".
"There was no such
70% majority. That is the fact of what happened,
and I am sure we will
continue to be in contact with the authorities in
Zimbabwe as they deal with
a very difficult situation, and we think, you
know, it needs careful
attention and some serious policy (decisions),"
Dawson said.
Zimbabwe, which faced expulsion from the IMF due to accumulated
arrears,
cleared its financial obligations to the IMF's General Resources
Account
(GRA) in February, but still remained with arrears amounting to
US$119
million under a separate facility, the fund said in a statement
yesterday.
While the clearance of its arrears under the GRA
facility removed the
basis for its compulsory withdrawal from the fund,
Zimbabwe remained
suspended from exercising its voting rights as a member of
the Bretton Woods
institution.
The executive board, which met
on Wednesday last week to consider
Zimbabwe's cooperation with the fund on
policies and payments, as well as
the remaining sanctions and remedial
measures relating to its arrears, voted
to maintain the sanctions and the
country's ineligibility to use IMF funds.
Zimbabwe had expected the
suspensions to be lifted, creating an avenue
to secure lines of credit to
support its precarious balance-of-payments
position.
The IMF
board declared in September 2001 that Zimbabwe was ineligible
to use the
general resources of the IMF, and removed the country from a list
of
countries eligible to borrow resources.
Source : The Zimbabwe
Idependent
March 20, 2006
By albert mazhale
Beit-Bridge (AND) Zimbabwe`s Home Affairs
minister Kembo Mohadi has
been forced out of Highway farm in Beit-Bridge
after the Land Audit
committee exposed that he posessed more than one farm,
in breach of
Governments' Land policy of 'one-man-one-farm'
The
minister also owns the citrus-rich Nottingham Farm in the vast
terrains of
the border town which produces oranges for export.
Highly-placed
sources who confided in AND revealed that Mohadi had
registered the two
properties under his name but used his wifes' national
identity number to
acquire Highway farm.
This, he did to mislead Land officers into
believing that there were
two different Kembo Mohadis, the sources said.
However, the Land auditors
currently investigating multiple farm owners
discovered the anomaly and
ordered the minister to surrender one of the
properties. Mohadi opted to
stay at Nottingham were he is said to be making
good business through the
sale of oranges. Contacted for comment the
Beit-bridge legislator vehemently
denied ever owning two prooperties
simulteneously.
In a related incident a deputy minister's son has also
been kicked out
of a plot at Cleverland farm for under utilising
it.
Leslie, son to Abedinico Ncube, deputy minister of labour and
social
welfare is said to have never set foot on his land since acquiring it
in
2001. President Robert Mugabe is on record criticising government
officials
for multiple farm ownership. He has urged them to stick to the
"one man-one
farm" policy. Once perceived as Africas' bread-basket, Zimbabwe
is currently
reeling under severe food shortages resulting from recurrent
droughts and
the government`s land acquisition that slashed commercial
forming by over 50
percent.
Beit-Bridge (AND)
March 20, 2006
By Nothando Zainab Migogo
Johannesburg
(AND) With over 70% of the skilled and professional
labour-force out of the
country, will Zimbabwe ever be able to rebuild
itself to its former
glory?
The past decade has seen thousands of Zimbabweans migrating
from their
country of birth, heading south, west and north of the
country.
South to South Africa, north mainly to the United Kingdom
and west to
Botswana.
The economic crisis in Zimbabwe,
stemming from the complex and bizarre
political happenings that have
characterized the country over the past
decade, has transformed what was
once the economic and political shining
star of Southern Africa into a
politically unstable, socially inept and
economically dead
zone.
An estimated 70% of the economically active adult population
has
emigrated from the country, leaving a severe vacuum in the worlds of
academia and business.
A sizeable portion of the population
remaining in the country is
unemployed, relying sometimes solely on funds
sent by relatives living
outside the country, medical care is unaffordable
and the country's
exorbitant inflation figures have earned it a place in the
2006 Guinness
Book of World Records for having the worlds highest inflation
rate.
With the majority of two whole generations out of the
country,
Zimbabwe is a country consisting mainly of the very old and the
very young,
most looking to daughters, sons, mother, fathers, brothers and
sisters
living outside the country.
In a report entitled
"Between a Rock and a Hard Place", compiled by
the Zimbabwe Torture Victims
Project, a survey of 236 Zimbabweans living in
Gauteng, South Africa was
conducted; with the average age of the respondents
being 28.
199 or 84% of the respondents said that they were supporting between
one and
fifteen people in Zimbabwe.
A study, undertaken by the
Scientific and Industrial Research and
Development Centre (SIRDC), under
contract from the National Economic and
Consultative Forum, concluded that
the sectors most affected by the country's
brain drain were health and
education, with most health professionals
heading for the United
Kingdom.
According to the study, "An examination of the professions
of those
who are leaving the country shows that a sizeable proportion of
them are
doctors, teachers and nurses. In fact, the health care sector is
the most
affected. Many are leaving because health care and education
spending cuts
across the board have denied them a place to stay and work in
Zimbabwe".
With no foreseeable improvement in the economic
situation, the
question that remains to be answered is will the young (and
not so young)
Zimbabwean professionals who have begun building their lives
in other
countries, started families in those countries and have reconciled
themselves with their new identities and lifestyles ever return to fill the
void they left behind?
Will Zimbabweans, skilled or
semi-skilled, automatically return to
Zimbabwe once there is political
reform, a catalyst for economic redress, or
will they choose to stay in
their "new" home countries?
In a survey by the Southern African
Migration Project (SAMP) of
skilled black Zimbabweans showed that 51% of
those surveyed had the
intention of emigrating from Zimbabwe indefinitely or
permanently.
This staggering figure raises the concern that the
political and
economic crises in Zimbabwe has caused the more severe, long
term crisis of
losing intellectual and professional talent
forever.
How will Zimbabwe regain its former glory without any of
the skilled
labour that it was once so famous for?
Whilst
the brain drain continues keep the economy under chains and the
bad economy
continues to chase away more professionals, Zimbabwe seems to
move further
and further away from a workable solution.
And whilst the general
sentiment had all along been that people would
not return "until things got
better", its now seems that even if things
should get better, many may still
not return.
New lifestyles, inter-marriage and establishment of
secure communities
have reduced the burning desire for skilled Zimbabweans
to return home. And
this is a crisis Zimbabwe is still yet to fully
experience.
Johannesburg (AND)