http://www.voanews.com
By Jonga
Kandemiiri
Washington
23 March 2009
Zimbabwean
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, in Durban, South Africa, on
"compassionate
leave" following the death of his wife in a March 6 highway
accident, was
due back in Harare Tuesday to attend a number of high-level
meetings
including one with ministers from both sides of the unity
government to
discuss continued farm invasions and violence.
The British-based
Zimbabwean newspaper reported that following complaints
lodged by the
Commercial Farmers Union with Tsvangirai's office, a meeting
was set this
week with the co-ministers of Home Affairs, Kembo Mohadi of
ZANU-PF and and
Giles Mutsekwa of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic
Change, as well as
Defense Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, National Security
Minister Sydney
Sekeremai and other top security officials.
MDC sources confirmed the
meeting of the key ministers on land issues had
been set.
President
Robert Mugabe has encouraged the takeovers of white-owned
commercial farms
of which there just a few hundred left after a decade of
tumultuous land
reform, but Tsvangirai has said the invasions destabilize
agriculture and
repel foreign donors and investors.
Minister of State Gordon Moyo in the
office of the prime minister confirmed
in an interview with reporter Brenda
Moyo of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
that the farm invasions are of great
concern and a meeting has been called
this week, but declined to offer
details.
The Home Affairs ministers have also been summoned to the House
of Assembly
this week to discuss allegations that the police have been
torturing
suspects.
Human rights and political activists, in
particular from the Tsvangirai MDC
formation, have charged that the police
are using torture to extract
information or confessions.
Co-Home
Affairs Minister Giles Mutsekwa of the Tsvangirai MDC formation told
reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that he will
respond to House questions because the nation should know what his ministry
is doing about alleged torture.
http://www.voanews.com
By Patience
Rusere
Washington
23 March 2009
The cholera
epidemic that has ravaged Zimbabwe since late last year is
slowing
significantly, a report issued by the World Health Organization
says.
A weekly situation report dated March 20 said 2,076 new cases
of cholera
were reported in the week ending March 14, compared with 3,800
cases in the
previous reporting week and some 8,000 new cases on a weekly
basis in early
February.
The WHO said new cases have declined in all
areas of the country except
Harare, the capital, where a recent disruption
of public water supplies led
to a resurgence.
Despite this generally
encouraging trend, the union representing farm
workers said a wave of
takeovers of white-owned commercial farms has
exacerbated the epidemic in
areas affected by the latest phase of the
land-reform program launched in
2000.
Spokesman Tapiwa Ziviri of the General Agricultural and Plantation
Workers
Union of Zimbabwe says that Chegutu in Mashonaland West province has
been
seriously affected in this way, as has Mashonaland East
province.
Ziviri told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that
cholera spreads on many farms because sanitation is poor and
farm workers
lack access to health care.
Clear signs of change needed before they are lifted, says James McGee
By Charles W. Corey, Staff Writer
Washington - There is "no reason and no way" the United States is going to lift sanctions anytime soon against Zimbabwe without some "very, very clear indication that the country's new unity government is moving in the right direction," says U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe James D. McGee.
In a March 23 interview with America.gov, McGee said Zimbabwe's new unity government must move to embrace established, internationally recognized human rights principles.
Until that takes place, he said, the United States is "just not going to lift these sanctions. We have individual sanctions and we have sanctions against parastatals." Both types of sanctions, he said, "are there for a reason" because certain people and entities have been using the country for their own enrichment.
"The people of Zimbabwe -
their needs are not being met. ... We have looked at it very carefully. The
situation ... remains the same. So until we do see some change, the sanctions
are going to stay in place," he said.
A TIME OF OPPORTUNITY
McGee said now is a time of opportunity with regard to Zimbabwe. "We in the Western donor community need to step up and look at ways to assist the people of Zimbabwe in their time of need. But I think the key players will be the Southern African Development Community [SADC] and the African Union [AU]. As the guarantor of this government of national unity, SADC needs to step up to the plate and ensure that both sides [of the unity government] are living up to the intent and letter of this unity government."
McGee described Zimbabwe's current unity government as a "very imperfect union. We have two political parties occupying or attempting to occupy one government and there are fits [periods of inactivity] and there are starts [periods of activity]. I think maybe there are more fits than there are starts in this particular arrangement." (See "United States Cautiously Welcomes Zimbabwean Unity Government ( http://www.america.gov/st/democracy-english/2009/February/20090211155454esnamfuak0.5756494.html?CP.rss=true ).")
"Each political party has a number of ministries that they control, a prime minister [Morgan Tsvangirai] who is trying to exert his power, and then you have the president, Robert Mugabe, still trying to exert all of his power. So it is a very imperfect union right now.
"Things are not working as well as they could," McGee said. "As we sit here today, there are still farm invasions that are taking place in Zimbabwe, there are still political activists in prison. We have at least 13 people we have no idea where they are - they have been missing for months. And we have been hoping that these folks are safe somewhere, but there has been no indication of where these people are. ... So it is still business as usual that is exactly what is happening, and we need to see some change."
What the United States is looking for, he said, is a new constitution in Zimbabwe within 18 months and a new election within 24 months. "That is key - free and fair elections in Zimbabwe within 24 months would be an absolute key to anything that does happen positively in this country."
A TIME OF
HOPE
McGee said that "for the first time in the political history of modern Zimbabwe ... there is hope. The elections last year, as imperfect as they were, we saw 57 [percent] to 60 percent of the Zimbabwean people voting against the Mugabe government. What they were voting against were the failed policies and programs of ZANU-PF [Mugabe's political party] and the Robert Mugabe government. If we go back just recently in Zimbabwean history, you will see that in 1995, Zimbabwe had a higher literacy rate than the United States ... and as recently as 2002, Zimbabwe was a net food exporter ... to other countries that were experiencing food shortages. Today it is the exact opposite."
On the health front, McGee said the cholera epidemic that has been plaguing Zimbabwe for the past several months is "somewhat under control." He added, however, that 80,000 people have been affected and more than 4,000 people have died. This he attributed to a "total collapse and failure of the health care system in Zimbabwe" under Mugabe's leadership.
The United States government has provided more than $6.8 million to help the people of Zimbabwe battle the cholera epidemic and more than $264 million in humanitarian assistance since October 2007 to help Zimbabweans in their ongoing health and food crisis. (See "Zimbabwe to Receive $6.2 Million from U.S. Aid Agency ( http://www.america.gov/st/health-english/2008/December/20081211161620lcnirellep0.8917505.html ).")
McGee praised Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his team for saying: "'No matter what may happen, we are in this for the duration. We are going to stay the course and make this work no matter what.'
"If there is one thing I have learned about Morgan Tsvangirai," he said, "it is that he is a tough man. He is a man who is willing to give up his personal freedom, his personal safety to ensure that things get done in his country. His vision is for a Zimbabwe that is productive, a Zimbabwe that takes care of the needs of his citizens."
McGee concluded with a message to Zimbabweans around the world: "Go home. We need you."
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)
http://www.businessday.co.za
24
March 2009
'
DUMISANI
MULEYA
Harare Correspondent
HIGH-ranking hardline elements within
Zimbabwe's military and members of the
Zanu (PF) old guard are resisting
political reforms and inevitable change,
minutes of a meeting involving
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) members say.
The
minutes say this resistance would see Zimbabwe soon entering a perilous
stretch which might derail its recently formed inclusive
government.
The document, dated March 17 and circulated among MDC
members after a
meeting between the party's treasurer Roy Bennett and
colleagues last week
in Mutare, warns that military officers doggedly
opposed to the recently
formed unity government were a threat to the
transitional arrangement.
It says Bennett, who is also agriculture
deputy minister, was disappointed
that he was arrested upon his return to
Zimbabwe in February after his exile
to SA because President Kgalema
Motlanthe had promised he would not be
arraigned on allegations of plotting
against President Robert Mugabe's
government.
Bennett spent two
months in detention after being arrested on allegations he
and his party say
are politically contrived and false.
The minutes also say the
transition period between now and the adoption of
the new constitution would
be dangerous. "A new constitution is being drawn
up which will take 18
months. This will be put to a referendum and if it's a
yes vote result,
elections will follow in 90 days," the document says.
"The present
situation is regarded as a very uncomfortable marriage between
the MDC and
Zanu (PF). There is a lot of resistance to change and the
military are
trying all the dirty tricks in the book to derail the process,"
the document
says.
It carries a menacing warning that Zimbabwe could be heading
for
instability.
"Within three months, Zimbabwe is going to enter the
most dangerous period
of its history. This will be while the military and
Zanu (PF) are being
weaned off the gravy train as they plan their final
attack in an effort to
ward off the inevitable MDC involvement and
takeover," the minutes say.
No hardline senior army officers are
named in the minutes of the meeting,
which focused on the political
situation in the country.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said
there were "parallel forces
mounting residual resistance" to change. But
these "dark forces of
resistance" would not be allowed to derail the unity
government.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said on Monday he was not
aware of Bennett's
meeting with colleagues, but it was normal that his party
members would have
meetings at various levels and places when pressing
issues arose.
"I'm not aware of that, but our members meet all the time.
"People meet to
discuss different issues. That is normal and there is
nothing wrong with
it."
The document says despite resistance
to change, structures that propped up
Mugabe would soon be dismantled to
facilitate political and economic
reforms.
"There is a feeling of
hope amid the MDC in that Zanu (PF) realises the game
is up," the document
says.
It gives an example of a senior unnamed official in the
agriculture ministry
who was recently appointed by Mugabe but had since
allegedly "crossed the
floor".
It says Reserve Bank governor
Gideon Gono "is just as good as gone" and that
Attorney-General Johannes
Tomana might also go.
The MDC has been demanding that Mugabe remove Gono
and Tomana. Mugabe has
refused to relinquish them.
"The Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe is to be dismantled as it is/was the source of
funds for
Zanu (PF)," it says. "Gono has been sidelined."
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=13855
March 23, 2009
By
Raymond Maingire
HARARE - Former aid to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai,
Gandhi Mudzingwa
and six of his co-accused are set to face trial for
terrorism in three
months' time, at the end of June.
The state
revealed Monday that the accused persons, who include freelance
photo
journalist Andrison Manyere, are due to go on trial on June 29.
The group
stands accused of committing last year's bombings on two Harare
police
stations and a railway line near Harare's satellite town of Norton,
40km
away.
But during Monday's court session, the defence, led by Alec
Muchadehama
resisted attempts by the state to further remand the matter to
April 30.
This was after Tawanda Zvekare, who represented the state, had
asked for
more time to prepare the indictments of the accused, which contain
a summary
of the case and that of the state witnesses.
Zvekare
contends the charges against the accused persons are too "serious
and
complex" and he would accordingly need time to prepare for trial.
"The
gravity of the case ought to justify these delays," said Zvekare.
He said
the state was short of stationery to prepare what he said were
"voluminous"
presentations.
But the defence says the state should not be allowed to
continue to buy time
in the matter, arguing that the state has no evidence
against the accused
persons.
He says the court should refuse to grant
any fresh application for further
remand by the state so that the latter can
be taught a lesson to respect
human rights.
"The state has been given
adequate time to do its investigations and prepare
the indictments,
including the time during which they were torturing them,"
he
said.
The human rights lawyer challenged the state to show cause it would
be
prejudiced if it were to proceed by way of summons.
"The lives of
the accused persons are at a standstill because of these silly
charges," he
said.
"It is grossly unfair for the accused persons to keep demanding to
be tried.
It cannot be held against the accused persons that the state has
no
stationery. This is a clear manifestation that the state has no case
against
them."
But Zvekare dismissed the claims by the
defence.
"The relief being sought that the court should refuse the
accused persons
further remand so that the state can be taught a lesson is
mischievous,"
said Zvekare.
"We are talking about real events which
did happen. Police stations were
indeed bombed. We do not have to lose
sight of these realities.
"Those horrific acts constitute acts of terror
which can never be
trivialized as silly charges as has been sought by the
defence. That is why
the High Court gave stringent conditions."
After
Monday's court sitting, presiding magistrate, Memory Chagwiza
adjourned
proceedings to Tuesday morning, a time when she would pass
judgement on the
matter.
Meanwhile, the state agreed to alter the reporting conditions of
the accused
persons to three times a week.
With the exception of
Mudzingwa, Kisimusi Dhlamini and Manyere who are still
in custody, the other
accused persons were recently released on US$600.
They were also asked to
report twice a day at their nearest police stations,
among other
conditions.
Mudzingwa was abducted by nine gunmen who arrived in six
vehicles in the
Msasa area of Harare on December 8.
Eyewitnesses at
the scene of the incident said Mudzingwa, who was talking to
a relative at
the time, was shoved into a Mazda 626 sedan, which drove off
towards the
city centre. He became the 18th MDC or civil rights activist to
be abducted
over a period of one and a half months.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=13849
March 23, 2009
By Owen
Chikari
MASVINGO - Masvingo governor Titus Maluleke has clashed with
so-called war
veterans over a farm in Chiredzi after he allegedly deployed
soldiers to
forcibly remove one member of the group who had occupied the
farmhouse.
Charles Magomo, described as a Zanu-PF supporter, has since
been demoted
from an existence in the lap of luxury in the farmhouse to
living in the
farm workers' compound. Meanwhile, the governor is reported to
be seeking
legal action to evict the whole group from the farm
altogether.
Members of the group claim to be former fighters for the
liberation of
Zimbabwe in 1980. Many of the people who have occupied
commercial farms
since the land invasions started in 2000 claim to be war
veterans.
However, many are mere Zanu-PF supporters, some too young to
have
participated in the struggle for independence. They have taken
advantage of
a chaotic land redistribution programme to enrich
themselves.
At the centre of the wrangle over Farm 21 in Chiredzi is the
eight-bedroom
mansion which Magomo occupied until the military evicted him,
acting on
behalf of the governor. The mansion is the centrepiece of
homestead which
features a number of grass thatched chalets.
Magomo
says when he was initially ordered by Maluleke to move out of the
farmhouse,
he defied the governor's order.
"The governor then deployed soldiers to
come and evict me from the
farmhouse," said Magomo. "Now I live in the farm
workers' compound.
"We are not going to leave this property because it
was allocated to us and
for the governor to just come and use his political
muscle to evict us is
very unfortunate."
The rest of the occupiers
live elsewhere on the farm. They have rallied
together and vowed to remain
on the property, arguing that the land was
formally allocated to
them.
The Zanu-PF supporters say they will "fight the governor to the
bitter end".
They say Maluleke has since sought an eviction order against
them.
"Initially he wanted us to move out of the farmhouse which we did
and now he
wants us to leave the farm altogether," said one of the
governor's
adversaries.
"We are not going to move out and we have
since petitioned the Minister of
Agriculture to come to our
rescue."
According to sources, the governor also wants to take the farm
equipment
left behind by the former commercial farmer. Among the equipment
are two
tractors and a combine harvester.
The Zimbabwe Times could
not establish the name of the former owner of Farm
21 before Maluleke and
the war veterans started fighting over it.
On Monday Maluleke said over
the phone, "I am away at the moment but I will
give you my side of the story
once I am back."
Maluleke is the second Masvingo governor to engage in a
tug-of-war with war
veterans over a farm and farm equipment.
Former
provincial governor Willard Chiwewe clashed with farm invaders in
2006 over
a farmhouse in Clipsham suburb on the outskirts of Masvingo city.
Chiwewe
eventually emerged victorious. Not only did he take over the
property; he
also turned it into the governor's official residence.
But when his term
of office expired Chiwewe simply refused to vacate the
gubernatorial
residence.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own
Correspondent Tuesday 24 March 2009
MUTARE - Home Affairs
Minister Giles Mutsekwa has promised to bring to
justice a top state
security agent accused of murdering two opposition
activists nine years ago,
broaching a highly sensitive subject with
potential to shake Zimbabwe's
fragile unity government to its foundations.
Mutsekwa, from Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party and co-Home
Affairs Minister with
Kembo Mohadi of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF
party in a power-sharing
government formed last month, said he would
personally ensure secret agent
Joseph Mwale is prosecuted for allegedly
murdering the
activists.
"It's an issue that has to be dealt with," Mutsekwa told
ZimOnline in Mutare
city at the weekend. "We must make sure that he (Mwale)
faces justice," he
said.
Mwale is accused of petrol-bombing a vehicle
carrying two members of the
then opposition MDC party, Talent Mabika and
Tichaona Chiminya, in the
run-up to the 2000 general election that was
controversially won by ZANU PF.
The MDC activists died because of the
bombing but Mwale, who is a senior
member of the state's spy Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and
remains employed by the secret agency,
has never faced trial for murdering
the activists despite a court order for
his arrest and prosecution.
Former High Court Judge James Devittie
recommended in 2001 that Mwale face
trial for the murder of Chiminya and
Mabika, with the judge noting that
there was strong possibility that CIO
agent would be convicted.
Tsvangirai wrote to the Attorney General's
office in April 2006 requesting
the department to ensure Mwale was brought
to court for trial. However, this
was all to no avail amid reports that
senior ZANU PF politicians and top
security commanders were shielding Mwale
from justice.
Mutsekwa said although he was not aware of Mwale's
whereabouts he was
confident the police would be able to apprehend him.
"People say he is in
Nyanga but others say he frequents Buhera," said
Mutsekwa.
He did not explain how he was going to ensure the police - some
of who stand
accused of violating human rights - were going to act against
Mwale after
years of dilly-dallying on the matter.
It also remains to
be seen whether Attorney General Johannes Tomana, a ZANU
PF supporter, is
willing to prosecute Mwale. In terms of the Constitution,
Tomana does not
take orders from government ministers or anyone on who to
prosecute.
But any attempt to go after Mwale is going to unsettle
many in ZANU PF and
in the security establishment, while bringing to the
fore the sensitive and
divisive issue of how to achieve national healing
while ensuring those who
violated human rights are brought to justice
following formation of the
unity government.
While Mugabe, Tsvangirai
and Arthur Mutambara, who heads a smaller formation
of the MDC, have agreed
on power sharing they have not agreed on what to do
with those mostly in the
security forces and war veterans accused of
committing human rights abuses
and other crimes.
A committee of senior ministers drawn up from ZANU PF
and the two MDC
formations to promote national healing and reconciliation
has not said how
exactly it intends to go about the process.
Although
most of the world began to focus on Mugabe's controversial human
rights
record over the past 10 years, the Zimbabwean leader is accused of
violating
human rights just a few years into independence from Britain in
1980.
For example, more than 20 000 innocent civilians from the
Ndebele ethnic
minority were reportedly killed in the early 80s during a
bloody
counter-insurgency drive by the army in the southern Matabeleland and
Midlands provinces.
Mugabe - who some say personally ordered
deployment of the army's North
Korean-trained 5th Brigade in Matabeleland
and Midlands ostensibly to stop
an armed insurrection against his rule - has
called the killings an "act of
madness".
But the 85-year-old leader
has never personally accepted responsibility for
the civilian murders or
formally apologised. He has not yielded to calls by
human rights activists
for his government to compensate victims of the
brutal army operation or
Gukurahundi as it is more commonly known among
Zimbabweans.
Zimbabwe
witnessed some of the worst political violence last year after a
parliamentary election that was won by the MDC while Tsvangirai defeated
Mugabe in a parallel presidential poll but with fewer votes to avoid a
second run-off ballot.
In a bid to ensure Mugabe regained the upper
hand in the second round vote,
ZANU PF militia, war veterans and state
security agents unleashed an orgy of
violence and terror across the country,
especially in rural areas many of
which virtually became no-go areas for the
opposition.
Tsvangirai later withdrew from the June 27 run-off election
because of
violence that he says killed about 200 of his supporters and
displaced
thousands of others.
Mugabe won the vote uncontested in a
ballot that African observers denounced
as a shame and Western governments
refused to recognize forcing the veteran
leader to agree to form a
power-sharing government with Tsvangirai and
Mutambara. - ZimOnline
http://www.news24.com
23/03/2009 22:17 - (SA)
Johannesburg - As many as
2 600 Zimbabwean refugees were queuing outside the
Central Methodist Church
in downtown Johannesburg on Monday night to be
interviewed and registered by
the UNHCR - though not all of them may know
it.
"The question is are
the people who are going to be interviewed... will they
know why they are
being interviewed," said UN High Commissioner for
Refugees' senior
registering officer Andrew Hopkins.
On Saturday, refugees living in the
church were given tokens as they left
the building.
Hopkins said the
plan had been to inform them, as they left, of what the
tokens were
for.
But this resulted in a crush around the door as people were eager to
leave
and explanations from aid workers took too long.
Hopkins said
Bishop Paul Verryn, who has opened his church to the refugees,
decided to
hand out the tokens without explanation to avoid a potentially
dangerous
situation around the exit.
Few instructions
In all 2 533 tokens
were handed out, with few instructions about what they
were for. The result
was gathered en masse outside.
A few thousand Zimbabweans, many without
tokens or knowledge of what was
happening had come to the Church from all
over Johannesburg.
Some had heard that Home Affairs was handing out
asylum papers, others had
literally no idea what awaited them
inside.
Peace Nandu came because he heard there were asylum papers to be
had. He has
been working as a teacher at a private college and lives in
Malvern.
"They said they were giving asylum papers to Zimbabwean
nationals," said
Nandu.
Who "they" are is not clear. What is clear
that for many of those queuing,
following rumours and vague instructions
have become second nature.
Hopkins acknowledges that many are at the
church due to a "pull-in effect"
where the presence of aid workers draw in
extra refugees seeking help.
He says that is why the tokens were issued.
Only those with them will be
served by
UNHCR.
'Vulnerabilities'
Hopkins said that 60 Home Affairs and
local government employees were taking
details from the approximately 2 600
refugees in the church to identify who
they were, their "vulnerabilities" as
well as whether any of them had any
skills.
On Saturday, MEC for
local government Qedana Mahlangu told reporters that
six buildings in
Johannesburg had been chosen for refugees and that those in
the church might
be moved out.
Hopkins said there probably would not be enough space at
the alternative
sites for all those at and around the church.
"I
don't think we're looking at a total migration of the people. There's no
way
we could move all the people," said Hopkins.
Some of those in the queue
said they would not leave the church, even if
they were offered
alternatives.
Charlene Mudiwa has been living inside the church for three
months. She has
worked as a waitress to support family members back
home.
Xenophobia
Mudiwa says that if the church were closed to
refugees she would choose to
go back to Zimbabwe rather than risk a move to
an unknown location in
Johannesburg.
"I don't think it would be
safe," said Mudiwa. She added that when the
xenophobic attacks occurred in
May last year, the church remained untouched,
"they [the rioters] were
afraid to come here," she said.
"If there's another incident like that
one [in May], [the new locations] are
going to be the first place they
come."
Hopkins estimated that only between 200 and 300 of them would be
served on
Monday night. Registration was being hindered by the church's
layout.
"It would be great if we had a perfect environment to do
registration, but
we don't live in a perfect world," said Hopkins.
He
added that setting up the processing area was rushed and that there was
pressure to deal with the situation quickly.
"I know it looks like
chaos, but we're getting better," he said.
- SAPA
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Ntando
Ncube Tuesday 24 March 2009
JOHANNESBURG - South African
authorities have offered a building in central
Johannesburg to house about
half of Zimbabwean refugees and asylum seekers
residing at the Central
Methodist church in Johannesburg, a senior clergyman
told ZimOnline on
Monday.
The refugees are facing an uncertain future after a law firm
filed papers
with the high court to have about 3 500 refugees and asylum
seekers evicted
from the Johannesburg Central Methodist church premises
because they were
polluting the area and affecting adjacent
businesses.
"Yes the local government has located some building around to
move some of
them (refugees) who are here but the buildings are temporary
only for three
months. Today we are going to view if they are suitable for
people to be
living in," said Paul Verryn, the Methodist Bishop of
Johannesburg.
He added: "Of course I can say I am happy with this move
but we need to see
how it is going to work. It will be up to them (refugees)
those who want to
go can go".
Gauteng provincial local government
minister Qedani Dorothy Mahlangu on
Saturday said six sites had been
identified across the province which could
house the refugees for three
months.
She said the government would negotiate with the refugees about
the move and
no one would be forced to leave the church.
"We have
been able to identify several places within Gauteng that can house
the
foreign nationals who are currently residing at the church. This will
therefore enable the church to reduce the overcrowding that has happened
there and priority will be given to those who are sleeping in the
streets."
Pitje Group of Lawyers, who occupy a building adjacent to the
Methodist
church, have filed papers with the Johannesburg High Court to have
the
refugees and asylum seekers, mainly Zimbabweans, evicted from the
premises
leading to the stop gap measure by the Gauteng
authorities.
However church authorities criticised the short-term
arrangement saying a
permanent solution is what is needed.
"I don't
think this idea works as long as it is temporary," church elder,
Linnet
Sibiyane said, adding: "This situation needs the local government and
the
church to come up with a strong, permanent and lasting solution. This is
very clear that their idea is going to cause more frustrations to the
refugees. They are just trapping the refugees after three months they will
be homeless again."
The law firm wants them moved on allegations that
the refugees were
committing crime, creating a health hazard and making the
firm lose business
as a result of the filth at the church premises adjacent
to their building.
Most of the refugees at the Johannesburg Central
Methodist church are
Zimbabweans who have run away from both political and
socio-economic crises
the southern African nation has suffered over the past
decade.
Once a model African economy, Zimbabwe is in the grip of an
unprecedented
economic and humanitarian crisis marked by the world's highest
inflation of
231 million percent as of last July, acute shortages of
essential
commodities and deepening poverty, amid a cholera epidemic that
has infected
more than 90 000 people and killed more than 4 000
others.
A unity government formed by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and
President
Robert Mugabe last month has raised hopes Zimbabwe could finally
end years
of decline to regain its former status as a regional breadbasket.
-
ZimOnline
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=13864
March 23, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - Time Bank Zimbabwe Limited, which was suddenly
closed by the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in mysterious circumstances in 2004,
has demanded
its trading licence back from the central bank, so far without
success.The
banks executives say clients have waited for more than four
years to reclaim
valuables which are held in the bank's vault, as a
result.
Time Bank, which was set up in 1997, was closed by the RBZ in
September 2004
under a so-called financial sector clean-up on allegations
that it was
insolvent. The banks directors have staunchly denied this
allegation, saying
their bank has never been insolvent.
Financial
sector sources have alleged to The Zimbabwe Times that the RBZ
lied about
the financial position of Time Bank and that RBZ governor Gideon
Gono closed
the bank without actually taking steps to verity its financial
position.
Gono has said Time Bank was placed under curatorship because the
directors
diverted funds amounting to a staggering Z$440 billion to their
personal
use.
Time Bank challenged the curatorship in the courts in 2004. The case
is
still pending in the Administrative Court four years later. The legal
proceedings principally sought to reverse the curatorship by invoking the
yet to be tested Administrative Justice Act (AJA).
Measures by the
Resrve Bank to incorporate Time Bank in the Zimbabwe Allied
Banking Group
(ZABG) were halted as a result, pending the outcome of the
court
application. The outcome still remains pending.
Other banks that were
closed at the same time as Time Bank on charges that
they had become
insolvent have all had their trading licences reinstated.
The Zimbabwe Times
can reveal that some of the banks which had their
cancelled licences
reinstated have close links to the political
establishment.
They
include banks such as the ZABG, CFX, Genesis which is alleged to be
linked
to Youth Minister Saviour Kasukuwere, Premier Bank linked to troubled
politician David Butau, who was nabbed by the police on arrival from exile
two weeks ago, and NDH which is allegedly linked to Defence Minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Time Bank has suffered "extreme punishment"
according to financial sector
sources because it challenged its closure in
the courts, and there was
allegedly a vendetta against the
directors.
After the end of the controversial curatorship and the
disputable
cancellation of Time Bank's licence in 2006, the bank's directors
have
reached a stalemate with the RBZ which has refused to perform a normal
handover/takeover of the bank. Our sources allege that Gono wants to cover
up the unjustifiable closure of the bank by refusing to perform a formal
handover-takeover.
"The RBZ wants to do a symbolic handover or to
hand the bank back to the
directors and shareholders without verifying the
contents of the bank,
something which is totally against banking
regulations," said a well placed
source.
The Zimbabwe Times has been
told that Time Bank was closed due to a dispute
dating back to the days of
previous central bank governor Leonard Tsumba.
The dispute is over a
US$15million credit line extended to Time Bank from
the PTA and an American
Bank in 1999. The US$15m was disbursed via the
central bank.
It is
now alleged that because of certain "administrative inefficiency," the
RBZ
charged 70 percent interest on the US$15m credit line to Time Bank
instead
of the statutory 7 percent charged on credit lines with a foreign
currency
component. Time Bank then refused to pay 70 percent interest to the
RBZ
leading the central bank to terminate the Time Bank account by
force.
When Gono took arrived at the central bank as governor, he
reportedly did
not bother to get to the root of the problem, and instead
hastily moved to
cancel the bank's licence, saying Time Bank was insolvent.
The hasty
decision was made on the basis of the 70 percent accrued interest
on the
US$15 million reflecting in the central bank's books.
Gono put
Time Bank under curatorship at the height of his so-called
financial sector
clean-up in 2004.
He then appointed his alleged protégé, Tinashe Rwodzi,
as Time Bank curator.
High level sources allege that Gono then connived with
the curator not to
audit Time Bank and to cover up its unjustifiable
closure.
The Zimbabwe Times understands Gono now wants to effect a
symbolic handover
of Time Bank by merely handing over keys across the table
away from the bank's
premises, without verifying the contents of the
institution. Such process
lacks both accountability and transparency and, so
officials say, this shows
that Gono is attempting either to hide something
or to entrap Time Bank.
The RBZ has also reportedly refused to have Time
Bank's assets verified by
an independent auditor.
"Our clients have
waited for more than four years to access their title
deeds, documents and
other valuables in Time Bank," said a statement issued
to The Zimbabwe Times
by the board of Time Bank. "In the interest of the
public we shall be making
a further approach to the Reserve Bank for the
normal handover/takeover to
take place. We therefore appeal to our clients
and stakeholders to be
patient. Our struggle for justice continues. Time
will tell."
The
Zimbabwe Times requested for an interview with the central bank governor
over this and other issues last week. A response is still
awaited.
Time Bank has reiterated that it was "very solvent" and was able
to pay in
full all its depositors, known creditors, staff salaries and
retrenchment
packages.
"In other words, Time Bank has cleared all
known liabilities, thereby
demonstrating that it was solvent," said the
statement from the board. "We
are ready to resume business once the normal
handover is done."
http://www.voanews.com
By Marvellous
Mhlanga-Nyahuye
Washington
23 March
2009
Following World Water Day on Sunday and a summit on
water in Zimbabwe held
late last week, Water and Sanitation Minister Sam
Sipepa Nkomo said Monday
that he is determined to provide safe drinking
water to all Zimbabweans
despite funding challenges.
Nkomo told
reporter Marvellous Mhlanga-Nyahuye of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that he
was pleased with the results of a water summit on Friday in
Bulawayo and has
called a follow-up meeting Wednesday to advance the
campaign to restore safe
water service.
The breakdown of municipal water systems under the
management of the
Zimbabwe National Water Authority was a major contributing
factor in the
deadly cholera epidemic which has claimed more than 4,000
lives in the
country since it too hold in August 2008.
http://www.earthtimes.org
Posted : Tue, 24
Mar 2009 02:35:55 GMT
Author : DPA
Hong Kong -
Hong Kong lawmakers and human rights activists on
Tuesday called for the
wife of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to be
banned from the city after
she was granted diplomatic immunity over an
alleged assault. Grace Mugabe,
43, escaped prosecution for allegedly
attacking a British photographer who
took pictures of her on a shopping trip
to Hong Kong in
January.
The ruling that she enjoyed diplomatic immunity was
greeted with
fury by some legislators and human rights activists who
demanded a full
explanation from the Department of Justice and urged to ban
Grace Mugabe
from returning to the city of 7 million.
Photographer Richard Jones, 42, claims he was repeatedly hit by
Grace Mugabe
in the January 15 assault and left with cuts on his face from a
diamond ring
she was wearing.
The assault took place while Grace Mugabe
and her entourage were
on a luxury Asian holiday reportedly funded by 92,000
US dollars withdrawn
from the Harare central bank by her husband, at a time
her home country is
suffering hyperinflation, widespread poverty and
continued political turmoil
following Robert Mugabe's apparent loss of the
2008 presidential elections.
Speaking on the government-run
radio station RTHK, human rights
activist Law Yuk-kai on Tuesday demanded a
full explanation on why immunity
was extended.
He
questioned whether she was entitled when on a private
shopping visit to the
city, where her daughter Bona is a university student
and she and her
husband have reportedly bought a 5-million-US-dollar home.
"We need to do something about it," he said. "They [the
Department of
Justice] should give out what information they have in hand to
the Hong Kong
public," he said.
Some legislators also called to ban Grace
Mugabe from entering
Hong Kong. "Is there nothing we can do?" pro-democracy
lawmaker Audrey Eu
said in Tuesday's South China Morning
Post.
"Even though she has diplomatic immunity and cannot be
arrested,
at least we can refuse to let someone who has committed a crime in
Hong Kong
visit again."
In a statement on Sunday, Hong
Kong's Department of Justice
cited mainland China's regulations on
diplomatic immunity, saying they
applied to Hong Kong as
well.
"We have ascertained that ... Grace Mugabe is not
liable to
arrest or detention and enjoys immunity from criminal
jurisdiction," it
said.
A spokesman declined to clarify
whether Grace Mugabe had
requested diplomatic immunity or it had been
granted automatically.
The decision comes despite a police
report which, according to
sources, concluded there was enough evidence to
prosecute Grace Mugabe for
the alleged assault, which was seen by two
independent witnesses.
http://www.hararetribune.com
Monday, 23 March 2009
19:08
Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai
Prime Minister
c/o Dr.
Machivenyika Mapuranga
Zimbabwean Ambassador to the United States
1608
New Hampshire Ave.
Washington, DC 20009
USA
cc:
President Robert Mugabe, Finance Minister Mr. Tendai Biti
Dear
Prime Minister:
We have learned with alarm and concern that the Editor of
the Bulawayo
Chronicle, Brezhnev Malaba, a reporter on his staff, Nduduzo
Tshuma, and
Zimpapers Bulawayo branch General Manager Sithembile Ncube, have
been
charged with criminal defamation and breaches of the Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act over a news article published last month that
exposed allegations of corruption at the GrainMarketing Board
(GMB).
The criminal defamation charge, according to reports in the
Chronicle,
relates to a reference in the story to an unidentified ":senior
police
officer'' being "the protector'' of the GMB manager. The offences
under the
Criminal Law Act are under a section which deals with the
publication of
"falsehoods'' and Section 30 that deals with "bringing
disaffection'' to the
police.
Criminal defamation and criminal
offences relating to the publication of
"falsehoods'' or which result in
"disaffection'' of the police are
discredited in established democracies and
have no place in a country such
as Zimbabwe which strives to be counted as a
democracy.
In any case, the report published by the Chronicle does not by
any stretch
fall under such highly questionable laws. Nor have the police
initiated an
investigation into the serious allegations of corruption
contained in the
story which quotes millers accusing GMB official of
diverting maize supplies
to the black market while cheating hungry villagers
by offering a few bags
of grain in exchange for livestock.
It seems
that in charging the newspaper's staff the police are taking
"legal'' action
against the newspaper to punish it for what has been
published and to
prevent more details of corruption allegations from being
exposed.
Shortly after taking office, you committed your government
to review unjust
media laws which have stifled freedom of expression and the
operation of a
free media in Zimbabwe. We have also noted with approval the
special
emphasis your government's new (March 2009) Short Term Emergency
Recovery
Programme (STERP) has given to the essential need for media freedom
and
freedom of expression to be pursued in the country's recovery -listed in
the
introduction to the programme as a key priority, second only to the
Constitution and constitution-making processes.
Our view is that the
extra-judicial conduct of the Bulawayo police against
the Chronicle's editor
and staff clearly violates STERP in relation to the
media. The conduct of
the police is highly damaging to the new government in
Zimbabwe -- and to
your efforts to find solutions to your country's ills.
We believe that
unless the spurious charges against the editor and his staff
are withdrawn
immediately, people will question the new Zimbabwe
government's dedication
to its professed intentions as outlined in STERP.
The bona fides of the new
government are at stake.
We make this earnest appeal that your government
institute an immediate
inquiry into the conduct of the Bulawayo police
against the Chronicle and a
further probe into the allegations raised by the
Chronicle story into the
operations of the GMB, while immediately
withdrawing the unfounded charges
against the paper.
We are copying
this letter to President Robert Mugabe because we believe
that he, too, will
recognise the dangers the actions of the Bulawayo police
pose for the new
government, particularly in view of his recent appeal to
"friends of
Zimbabwe'' to come to its aid. Actions like the police conduct
against the
Chronicle could well serve as justifications for continuation of
sanctions
against Zimbabwe by the European Union and the United
States.
Respectfully,
E. Markham Bench
Executive
Director
World Press Freedom Committee
CC: To the members
of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom
Organizations:
Committee to Protect Journalists
Inter American
Press Association
International Association of
Broadcasting
International Federation of the Periodical
Press
International Press Institute
North American Broadcasters
Association
World Association of Newspapers
World Press Freedom
Committee
-----
World Press Freedom
Committee
11690-C Sunrise Valley Dr.
Reston, VA 20191,
USA
Tel: (703) 715-9811
Fax: (703) 620-6790
Website: www.wpfc.org
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=13820
March 23, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - The trial of Chinoona Mwanda (35), the driver of
the truck that was
involved in an accident with the vehicle of Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
early this month, causing the death of his wife
Susan, was on Monday
deferred to April 20, 2008.
Lawyer Chris Mhike,
who is defending Mwanda, told The Zimbabwe Times Monday
the trial did not
take off as the state had advised it was not yet ready to
place the accused
on trial.
"The state said it was not yet ready with the state papers,"
Mhike said.
"The state papers incorporate the witnesses' statements, the
diagram of the
scene of the accident and any other relevant
papers."
Mwanda, who is charged with culpable homicide, had on Monday
appeared before
Chivhu magistrate, Reuben Mukavhi on his second
remand.
Charges against him arise out of the March 6 road traffic
accident more than
80km south of Harare in which Mwanda who was driving a
Nissan UD truck, hit
Tsvangirai's Toyota Land Cruiser causing it to roll
three times before
landing on its roof.
The truck, said to be owned
by the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) was
heading in the opposite direction.
The late Mrs Tsvangirai, who was
sitting on the right hand side where the
impact occurred, died instantly as
a result of injuries sustained in the
accident. She was buried at the
Tsvangirai's rural home in Buhera District,
their destination at the time of
the accident.
Despite subsequent attempts by Tsvangirai to calm down
tempers among MDC
supporters by stating that the tragic incident was a
genuine accident, the
controversy surrounding the cause of the accident
continues to rage.
Mwanda, who denies the charges against him, blames the
poor state of the
road which he says caused him to swerve.
He was
early this month indicted on a culpable homicide charge before being
granted
Z$100 bail.
Among other bail conditions, Mwanda was ordered not to
interfere with
witnesses and to remain at his given residential address
until the matter is
finalized.
He was also ordered to surrender his
passport with the clerk of court at
Chivhu Magistrates Court as well as to
report every Monday and Friday at the
police station nearest to his place of
residence.
http://www.politicsweb.co.za
Eddie Cross
23 March
2009
Eddie Cross writes that SA is turning a blind eye to continuing
abuses,
while failing to assist the unity govt
I have often said
that the only country in the world that has the power, and
therefore the
responsibility, to get Zimbabwe out of the crisis it is in, is
South Africa.
The reasons are geopolitical and easily demonstrated. It is
the failure of
South Africa to exercise that responsibility with the
effective use of power
that has resulted in this country becoming what it
is - a failed
State.
If we go back to the start of the real collapse in 2000, South
African
leadership knew full well what the government was doing in Zimbabwe
and its
implications. This was clearly revealed in the Mbeki memorandum of
2002
which argued that Zanu should stop the farm invasions and human rights
abuse, not because it was the right thing to do, but because these actions
might lead to the collapse of the economy, international isolation and the
loss of power by the 'Party of the Revolution', Zanu PF. For eight years,
South Africa used its regional and international influence, not to protect
the rights of the Zimbabwe people or to foster the interests of the country
and the region as a whole, but to prevent the MDC coming to power. What
Mbeki called 'negating the Chiluba factor'.
This policy was
perpetuated right through to the end of 2008 and was
instrumental in not
only denying the MDC its legitimate claim to power after
the March
elections, but to 15 months of tortuous negotiations, facilitated
by South
Africa on a totally partisan basis and resulting finally in forcing
MDC into
a shotgun marriage with Zanu PF and the Mutambara group. These
negotiations
were characterised throughout by a stance that pitted MDC
against all three
groups at the talks - South Africa, Zanu and the Mutambara
Group. Having
forced the consummation of the marriage, the South Africans
proposed that
both the AU and the SADC, even though neither organ has any
leverage inside
Zimbabwe, would 'guarantee' the deal.
South Africa is also unique in its
knowledge of the Zimbabweans situation.
After early failures in
intelligence, the South Africans have built an
intelligence network in
Zimbabwe that is second to none. They have
infiltrated the CIO and now
monitor every move and every initiative by the
various parties involved.
They know what the real results of successive
elections have been, they know
the relative strengths of the MDC and Zanu
PF, and they know what Zanu is
doing to thwart the efforts of the
transitional government. Ignorance is no
excuse.
So here we are, almost exactly one month into the SADC/SA
brokered deal.
Still no movement on any of the issues accepted at the last
SADC summit as
being matters to be sorted out in order for the new
government to make
progress. Still no movement on the Governors, no movement
on the question of
Permanent Secretaries, no movement on the recall of
Ambassadors and new
appointments. Still no movement on the positions of
Attorney General or the
Reserve Bank Governor.
The farm invasions
have actually intensified and spread to urban areas where
smallholdings are
being taken over by force. The use of the legal system to
intimidate and
cripple the MDC and Civil Society has continued - we still
have eleven
abductees missing and several still in Prison on trumped up
charges. No
progress on the absurd allegations by the former regime that
Botswana was
engaged in training military insurgents even though these
allegations are
directly linked to the treason charges against MDC
leadership in the new
government.
Now to crown it all, the region is withholding critically
needed economic
assistance to the new government. In recognition of the
reality that only
the region can assist us with our essential financial
needs at short notice,
the new government lost no time in defining and
presenting its needs to the
South African government. All they got in return
was sympathy and the
organisation of a larger group under the SADC to
consider the requested
package. Still no visible progress.
Just how
critical the situation is, was clearly revealed last week when
Tendai Biti,
the new Finance Minister introduced a revised budget. He stated
that in the
first two months of the year, total revenue to the State had
amounted to
US$36 million. Simply to meet essential basic needs and pay much
reduced
salaries to State employees will cost about US$100 million a month,
so we
were able to meet a mere 20 per cent of this from our own resources.
Revenues are unlikely to recover for at least six months and we desperately
needed the US$500 million we requested for budget support until our own
revenues were able to take up the slack. South Africa not only denied us any
sort of support, but also was instrumental in blocking any aid from any
other SADC states. A feeble plea to the so-called 'rich' nations for
assistance to the new government was the best they could muster.
Even
in respect to the appeal for a US$1,5 billion line of credit on
commercial
terms for private sector funding has not materialized though this
would be
petty cash to South Africa let alone the SADC States as a whole.
What value
is the so called 'guarantee' given by the SADC States if they
cannot enforce
compliance with the deal negotiated and signed and cannot
provide even the
minimum financial support requested?
For our part, I think the Zimbabwean
people have been superb and disciplined
in the way they have handled
themselves over the past decade. In spite of
all the provocation they have
never turned to violence, even when it would
have been totally justified. In
February the Civil Service (236 000 people)
went back to work after the
payment of a paltry US$100 a month allowance to
each employee. In March the
State was unable to improve on this because the
resources were simply not
available. I think the reaction of teachers,
doctors and nurses and all the
others, has been just incredible. Their
reward from their brother states in
the region has been to send them away
empty handed, to return to their
shattered homes where there is no food or
other essentials.
Not only
to send them away empty handed, but also to turn a blind eye to the
continuing human rights abuse, violations of the State controlled media and
the flagrant violation of private assets. Even this past weekend South
Africa was unable to get their Zimbabwean counterparts to sign up to an
investment protection agreement that has been pending for years.
It
is a mystery to me as to why regional leaders behave in this way. We can
excuse ignorance but there is none, we can even excuse poverty, but the
resources to help would only make a small impact on their collective
resources. We might even excuse them if they themselves were living under
tyrannies and were denied the basic freedoms that we have been denied, but
they actually claim to be democratic states with a reputation for freedom
and security. So what is their excuse? I am afraid they have none. For this
I think they fully deserve the opprobrium that their inaction and failure is
bringing upon them from a watching world.
Eddie Cross is MP for
Bulawayo South and the MDC's Policy Coordinator. This
article first appeared
on his website http://www.eddiecross.africanherd.com/
http://www.nehandaradio.com/
24 March 2009
Finance Minister
Tendai Biti said in his budget presentation that Mugabe's
government
survived on beer and cigarettes for revenue. With the coalition
government
launching a new blue-print for economic recovery SW Radio Africa
journalist
Lance Guma moderates a panel discussion on the plan's chance of
success.
Businessmen Mutumwa Mawere and Gilbert Muponda, who were both
hounded out of
the country, are joined by economic analyst Lance
Mambondiani.
Lance:
Hello Zimbabwe and welcome to another edition of Behind the
Headlines. This
week government formally launched a new economic blue print
which will lay
out the coalition governments plans to revive the economy.
The 121 page
document has been titled Short Term Emergency Recovery
Programme: Setting
Zimbabwe Moving Again. To help in analyzing this I have a
very high powered
panel in businessmen Mutumwa Mawere, Gilbert Muponda
(former ENG director)
and economic analyst based in the United Kingdom,
Lance Mambondiani.
Gentlemen thank you for joining me on Behind the
Headlines.
Let's
start with you Mr. Mawere. You have probably had the chance to glance
through this recovery programme, officially launched today (Thursday). First
impressions, what do you make of this?
Mawere: I haven't had much
time to review the document so my comments will
just be restricted to what
maybe the country requires to take off. What are
the key ingredients the
country would need to move forward, not specifically
addressed to the
contents of the document.
Lance: Let me just point out how this plan is
being marketed. They are
marketing it as an attempt to control the country's
hyper-inflation,
negative growth, massive currency devaluation, low
productive capacity, loss
of jobs, food shortages, poverty and massive
de-industrialization. That's
quite a lot, is it achievable in the short term
Mr. Mawere?
Mawere: I think in the short term you need confidence and if
you believe in
the change that has taken place in Zimbabwe, that the
inclusive government
can provide the ambassadorial role that the country
requires, so that people
look more, not just as a short term but as a short
term as a bridging block
to a medium and long term. But right now there are
many issues that have to
be addressed before the economy itself is now
externalized. You effectively
can use foreign currency to be able to
transact in the local economy.
So you can buy goods and services across
the border and the impact on the
domestic economy where the capacity
utilization is low is devastating. So
effectively the current regime
encourages the export of jobs and also the
export of opportunities and you
have to be in a market that allows you to
generate valuable currency and
Zimbabwe has no printing capacity for US
dollars or any other currency, so
invariably you will have to have access to
that currency and the only way to
do so is either to sell your time which
means you vote with your feet or you
need to sell goods and services
denominated in currency which means you need
to produce the goods.
The agriculture sector is challenged the mining
sector is challenged, not
just by the domestic fundamentals but by the
global fundamentals. So the
timing could be better to start anything and
when you start with a
foundation that is slippery anything is possible. It
maybe a short walk to
maybe another collapse. So I'm not too sure what you
can do in a slippery
slope when there is no firm investment in putting a
firm foundation that is
required for growth and development. And I would
like to believe that even
the Minister of Finance is not satisfied that the
inclusive government is
really focused on allowing citizens to take
ownership of the process going
forward.
Lance: Now talking about the
new Finance Minister on Wednesday Biti
complained that Mugabe's government
is running on taxes and duties paid on
beer and cigarettes. Coming to you
Mr. Muponda it's very clear for things to
work we need money to come from
somewhere, where is that money going to come
from.
Muponda: Thank you
Lance. Just to cover a bit of an overall picture. Whilst
we appreciate what
the GNU is doing, the starting point would have been to
hold or host an
all-stakeholder conference where basically you invite any
player who feels
they have some contribution to make and who is expected to
make some
contribution towards the recovery of Zimbabwe. This would include
the
donors, the banks, the people in the Diaspora, the business, the
exporters,
the importers basically everyone who is got a stake in the
Zimbabwean
economy to attend that conference.
The purpose of that conference would
be to build confidence that we have a
vision that is a shared national
vision and we expect various players to
assist. And then the players will
contribute whatever ideas they have and to
feel they have bought into the
programme and they have been part and parcel
of structuring the proposal
such that they would support it naturally. But
what has been happening is
that we have a piecemeal approach were various
bodies are being approached
to chip in here and there.
That might close the gaps here and there but
in the long run it's going to
create problems because at the end of the day
the money that you are talking
about has to come from somewhere and in a
consistent fashion. That's how
confidence is built. Confidence is built by
making sure that the process is
transparent and people are being engaged
genuinely so and this gives the
signal that we are in a new Zimbabwe, we are
changing and we are moving
forward in a progressive way.
Lance: Is
this maybe because Zimbabwe is or was a collapsed state and you
have to
start from somewhere which is why maybe they are using words like
Short Term
Recovery Programme?
Muponda: Ya but you can imagine we had elections a
year ago right. So people
knew that this day would come. We have been
talking about a GNU for the last
6 months. I think the deal was signed last
year in September. So people, all
the major players knew that a day like
this would come. That's why you see
sometimes we over-emphasize the
political developments in the country
ignoring the economic part of it.
Because whilst the politics was taking
place, the negotiations of who is
going to be Prime Minister, who is going
to be President, people were also
supposed to be preparing for that
conference such that when the deal is
signed then the conference is ready to
take place that would have cleared a
lot of hurdles for the country I think.
Mambondiani: I think just to add
on what Gilbert has just said Lance. The
concept of a social contract is
something that I think has been discussed
quite widely in the media. It was
even raised by the Reserve Bank governor
at some point and I think it is
something that needs to be put back on the
table to make it all inclusive. I
think everyone agrees that the task of
reviving the Zimbabwean economy
cannot be abdicated to one agent as before.
It cannot be done by the Reserve
Bank alone, it cannot be done by the
Minister of Finance alone, neither by
businesses or banks. It has to be done
in an all inclusive process that
brings everybody onto the table and build
like Mr. Mutumwa was saying a
culture of trust. You cannot empower
businesses to return or improve the
productivity if business does not trust
the government or if business is in
conflict with some of the tasks that
government is
implementing.
Lance: But then the clear problem will be, if we are
talking about issues of
trust. A major problem will be the respect for
property rights. The
lawlessness that we are seeing in some parts of the
country, how harmful is
that Mr. Mambondiani?
Mambondiani: I think it
is harmful but because we are where we are at like
Mawere says, we all knew
this was a process and we all knew we had arrived
at a level which property
rights were not being respected in Zimbabwe. I
think you just need to look
at the examples of appropriation of companies by
using dubious legislation.
Mr. Mawere is a living example of that but if you
look at all those examples
leading up to this point. We all agree something
had to be done. And the
document that you are referring to, Biti's document
seeks to redress some of
those issues. Whether they will in fact be
redressed is another matter. But
he talks about re-building confidence, the
respect of the rule of law and
make sure that property rights are respected.
I think those are important
building blocks.
Lance: OK working on that then, Mr. Mawere being a very
good example of
property rights. Let's ask Mr. Mawere what do you make of
that. Is that not
a key ingredient towards restoring investor confidence in
the country and
building from there?
Mawere: I see one of the
pioneers Gilbert Muponda is missing in the report
and yet he was the first
one to be targeted by Gono, ENG and I would have
thought that Minister Biti
would start trying to understand what happened...
if Gono by targeting
institutions like ENG and other individuals, one would
have expected that
after five, six years the economy would be doing better.
But if you have the
minds of people like Muponda outside the country and
then you say you are
starting, I'm not too sure what that means? But this is
the tragedy that we
always try to imagine a Zimbabwe that is programmed by
the state not the
individuals who make it.
And if you take the totality of the individuals
its not lack of brains but
right now everybody is expecting ministers to
think for the country to come
up with a plan of action. But imagine the
confidence if you look at the name
like James Makamba, where is he? You are
starting he is missing in action.
You look at Vingirai (Nicholas) I'm not
sure whether he is there or not? So
when you look at confidence building and
after all these years we still don't
know what was the problem with
institutions like ENG?
We still have Tich Mataz being imprisoned being a
director of a company
doing business with the Reserve Bank. Imagine you do
business with the
Reserve Bank and the deal goes sour. The Reserve Bank
doesn't go and use
legal channels that you would expect. While Minister Biti
is there the
Reserve Bank goes to the police. And while you are on remand
you have to
figure out how to pay the money and this is the best way of debt
collection
and nothing much has changed. Butau (David) came back in good
faith after
having traded with an agent of the Reserve Bank and then he
finds himself
exposed financially.
So even with dollarization, how
sustainable is it? Tomorrow Gono can wake up
and change the rules again and
say now we know who has dollars and who doesn't
have. So those with dollars
are criminals and those without are the good
guys and then go ahead and
start to target, so I would say the key thing is
that there can be no
country that can be above the people who have to make
it work and if those
building blocks are missing then we will always have
Gilbert in Canada or
Makamba in Europe where he can seek sanctuary. At least
he sleeps and wakes
up knowing that remand prison is remand prison.
Lance: That does it for
the first part of this panel discussion. Tune in
next week for the
conclusion of Part 2.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/
March
24, 2009
Nicholas Sengoba
Recently a correspondent asked an interesting
question. "If as is said that
corruption is a cancer that slowly but surely
eats away the heart and soul
of a society, why is it that the more corrupt a
government is, the higher
its chances of staying in power much
longer?"
Then she gave examples; Mobutu's Zaire, Omar Bongo's Gabon,
Mugabe's
Zimbabwe, Moi's Kenya, Museveni's Uganda etc. before concluding
that the
logical thing was for such countries is to crumble under the weight
of their
own inefficiency.
The rather naďve assumption here is that
citizens who are affected by the
absence of social services eaten away by
corruption will at most rise up and
kick the government out of power or at
least vote it out of office.
Before mulling over this question that helps
broaden the understanding of
corruption as a tool of governance, there are
some striking observations.
Besides these countries not being democracies
worth mentioning, they are
endowed with enormous natural and human resources
yet they are home to
hordes to some of the poorest people on earth whose
affinity to accept bad
leadership is overwhelmingly high.
Corrupt
governments thrive very favourably in this environment because
corruption
per se is not an end result of failure by a government that has
tried all it
can to deliver; it is the sum total of deliberate actions meant
for
empowering the leaders by creating a wide gap between them and the
vastly
impoverished and deprived mass of ordinary citizens.
The economic
equation here sees to it that an economy is crudely placed in
the hands of a
few individuals who easily and fraudulently access public
finance with
impunity while the majority are pushed onto the fringes barely
surviving and
desperately waiting for hand outs by being "nice" to those who
rob them
masquerading as their leaders.
A small but influential clique of
individuals emerges with the top most
leader (President, King or Prime
Minister) impressing mainly two important
facts upon the privileged ruling
class that first he is the source of their
wealth. Secondly, that in the
interest of protecting their possessions, it
is important that he (the
Supreme leader) is protected and remains in charge
for as long as
possible.
In other words, working in the President's interest is the same
as working
for one's own concerns and vice versa.
That then sets off
the blatant thievery. Reprimanding the corrupt becomes
the equivalent of
"working against the President."
It is this attitude that once prompted
Uganda's Prime Minister Prof. Apolo
Robin Nsibambi to caution the ruling
party's MPs who sit on oversight
committees of Parliament not to be "too
harsh" on corrupt government
officials when they appear before them because
it "spoils" the name of the
government and jeopardises government
programmes.
But it is what happens to the victims of corruption (the ones
who may not
access drugs, or whose children receive shambolic education
because someone
high up has pocketed the money intended for the same) that
is even more
fundamental in this set up.
These people are ever
desperate, sick, tired, hungry, frustrated and angry;
conditions which make
them grateful for merely existing to the next poor
meal and next day if it
comes. They are physically weak and carry crushed
spirits leaving them no
time to spare to effectively understand their plight
and hold those that
subjugate them accountable.
Another small group that would be of use, the
elite are equally powerless
for the reason that most of them are employees
also known as "corporates."
Since the major part of the economy in these
sorts of corrupt countries is
either controlled by privileged government
supporters or by pampered foreign
investors, it is easy to muzzle most of
the workforce and keep them in check
by simply calling on their employer to
sack of demote them.
The self employed on the other hand are in no better
position either.
Because these economies are small it is possible to trace
those that they
deal with and threaten them with sanctions.
One of
the most common examples of this is seen in private and independent
newspapers that are often described as "anti-government."
Several
public and even private businesses which claim to be apolitical are
reluctant to place adverts in such papers for fear of being seen as
supporting "the government's enemies." For this reason many stories even in
the public domain are either watered down or never see the light of
day.
So the next time you hear a minister presenting another anti
corruption bill
in Parliament to add onto the long list of laws that have
miserably failed
to fight the vice, take him seriously at your own risk and
peril. There is
such a thing as playing to the gallery. The only way an
inept ruling clique
also known as a government can stay on top of you for
long is by robbing you
and leaving you with nothing.
nicholassengoba@yahoo.com
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=13832
March 23, 2009
By Tendai
Dumbutshena
SOON after Zimbabwe's independence in 1980 it became taboo to
criticize the
new government led by Robert Mugabe.
Intellectuals,
academics, journalists and other opinion makers shirked
their
responsibility to subject Mugabe's government to critical scrutiny.
The
liberation heroes had carte blanche to do as they pleased.
As a result, a
culture of unaccountability, impunity and entitlement took
firm root.
Incipient signs of rot were ignored. Evidence of megalomania,
corruption,
ineptitude and hubris was dismissed. It was this climate of mass
adulation
of the new rulers that allowed the Gukurahundi massacres of the
1980s in
Matebeleland and parts of the Midlands to be carried out with
hardly a
murmur of protest from Zimbabweans.
Faced with a mass conspiracy of
silence the victims' cries of pain and
anguish were inaudible. The new
rulers could do no wrong. They were
infallible. Their victims were the
culprits. That was Zimbabwe in the 1980s.
A French philosopher once said
that tyrants put shackles on sleepy men.
Mugabe certainly shackled sleepy
Zimbabweans. They only woke up from a deep
slumber in the 1990s when
economic hardships impacted on their lives.
The IMF/World Bank imposed
Economic Structural Economic Programme (ESAP),
put an end to an era of food
and other subsidies. Zimbabwe was made to
swallow the bitter medicine of
ESAP following the fiscal profligacy of the
1980s which drove it into the
arms of the IMF and World Bank. Zimbabweans
demanded political freedoms and
accountability from their rulers. When these
demands led to the formation of
the MDC in 1999 and posed an electoral
threat to Zanu-PF the following year,
all hell broke loose.
It triggered a series of developments that led
Zimbabwe to its current state
of penury and lawlessness.
There are
those who wish to repeat the mistakes of the 1980s by placing this
new
inclusive government above criticism. They argue that it should be given
a
chance to succeed. Those who incessantly criticize it like this columnist
are dismissed as unhelpful doomsayers. Obvious shortcomings of the inclusive
government must be ignored. Naďve optimism must prevail. Let bygones be
bygones. Mugabe has turned a new leaf. He now only wants what is best for
Zimbabwe. All the international community must do is give money to this
government and all will be well. Those who doubt this are
anti-Zimbabwe.
Western countries that remain skeptical are unrepentant
racists and
colonialists who only want to plunder Zimbabwe's unequalled
mineral wealth.
Their man, Morgan Tsvangirai, is now Prime Minister. What
more do they want?
They should lift sanctions and give money to new Finance
Minister Tendai
Biti to hand over to Mugabe and Reserve bank Governor Gideon
Gono. After
all, Biti, once one of Mugabe's most strident critics, can
testify to his
new boss' reincarnation as a modern day democrat and advocate
of the free
market.
Last Thursday the government, amid much fanfare,
launched its Short Term
Emergency Recovery Programme (STERP). It was a
wonderful occasion for Mugabe
to address the concerns of major donor Western
nations and institutions. He
could have used the opportunity to convince
critical skeptics that his
government was irrevocably committed to the
restoration of the rule of law,
human rights, civil liberties and media
freedom. He could have announced a
time frame for a road map to free and
fair elections. Instead he called for
a lifting of " cruel and unwarranted
sanctions" strongly implying that his
government did no wrong.
In
other words his government need not address any of the issues raised by
Western governments. They must simply bail him out because he gave jobs to
Tsvangirai and other MDC leaders.
The voluminous statement launching
STERP does make reference to the need to
address international concerns
about political reforms and human rights. It
makes a commitment to do so.
This is not good enough. The Global Political
Agreement(GPA) and Memorandum
of Understanding(MOU) that preceded it made
similar commitments. Seven
months after the signing of the two documents
nothing has been
done.
After the signing of GPA MDC members and civil society activists
were
abducted, tortured and imprisoned. All, including those on bail, still
face
trumped-up charges. At least seven are still missing since their
abduction
in October last year, a full month after the signing of the GPA.
The media
still remains shackled.
Major news organizations from
countries expected to finance Zimbabwe's
economic recovery remain banned
from working in the country. No one is
protected from arbitrary arrest and
imprisonment. The criminal justice
system is still manipulated through the
ministry of justice. Farm invasions
continue with the active encouragement
of Mugabe himself because they are
so central to his strategy to mobilise
rural support for Zanu-PF.
Repressive laws like the Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA) and the Public Order and Security
Act(POSA), still remain on the
statute books. All three parties to the
agreement - Zanu-PF and the two
factions of the MDC - have total control of
Parliament. Why do they not
repeal these laws and enact political reform?
Why is there a delay on all
matters pertaining to political reforms and
human rights? Why is there an
emphasis on the lifting of sanctions and
financial aid to the exclusion of
democratic reforms?
The response of
the United States government to Mugabe's call for the
lifting of sanctions
was correct. A US State Department statement said: "
We have not yet seen
sufficient evidence from the government of Zimbabwe
that they are firmly and
irrevocably on a path to inclusive and effective
government as well as
respect for human rights and the rule of law."
Denmark's Minister for
International Cooperation and Development, Ulla
Tornaes, expressed similar
sentiments during a visit to Zimbabwe last week.
These are not concerns
shared among foreigners only.
A thoughtful article last Friday in the
weekly 'Zimbabwe Independent' posed
this question on behalf of potential
foreign donors and investors: " Why
are you coming to us for money when the
rule of law has not been restored by
your government and court rulings are
routinely ignored? How for instance
can an investor feel secure in a country
where the president denounces
regional court rulings as 'nonsense' because
they do not suit his political
agenda?"
Only concrete action on
issues pertaining to governance will do. Empty
words, whether spoken or
written , will not suffice. The necessary laws must
be passed to democratize
Zimbabwe and make it a free society. The MDC, whose
mandate at its founding
congress in 1999 was to effect democratic change in
Zimbabwe should not
allow itself to be cynically used by Mugabe, It should
not be reduced to
Mugabe's international public relations officers and fund
raisers. They
should not be sucked into Mugabe's phony war against the West.
No single
American, Belgian, German or Briton has been killed, tortured,
abducted,
imprisoned, or displaced by Mugabe's regime. No single Westerner
lives as a
destitute in Zimbabwe's neighbouring countries. Mugabe's war is
against his
own people whom he denies the right to freely elect their
government.
Zimbabwe needs a comprehensive financial assistance
package to get it out of
the deep hole Mugabe dug it into. While immediate
humanitarian assistance
should and is being rendered, it certainly is not
the solution.
Zimbabwe's productive economic capacity must be fully
restored within a
context of a fundamental and irrevocable commitment to
political freedoms,
human and property rights, and the rule of law.
Zimbabweans must live in a
free society.
If the current inclusive
government is not able to deliver this let the
devil take it.
By
Robert Ndlovu - San Jose - USA.
March 20, 2009.
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is an umbrella term that includes all technologies for the manipulation and communication of information.
Recently the Minister of ICT, Hon Nelson Chamisa announced a need for a national website, in order to put Zimbabwe back on the global map. He was speaking to ICT stake holders in Harare recently. It was an important stance by the Hon Minister in so far as top level awareness that something needs to be done to bridge the digital divide in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe already has thousands of websites that are either hosted locally in Zimbabwe or outside the country. So it’s not so much about the need of a national website per se but rather a broader surgical approach to the ICT challenges that we face.
The digital divide or gap is set to widen even further if we don’t take it upon ourselves to come up with specific solutions for our specific challenges.
Problem resolution at this level, calls for a sober, firm and accurate understanding the variance between what is on the ground and what needs to be achieved. Any half baked attempts to address the digital divide or gap will not only waste resources and opportunities but literally take the nation a few decades backwards in terms of development.
A sound ICT policy impacts all sectors of the country from the economy through health right up to mining and farming.
In this article I will offer a bird’s eye view of key issues that impact and affect digitalization efforts. Hopefully this will help the ICT leadership clarify, categorize and prioritize delivery mechanisms.
Zimbabwe just like most African countries basically faces a number of hurdles in order to roll out effective computing technologies to the general population. Rollout issues and challenges do include but not limited to;
- cost of computers and equipment
-inadequate access technologies (data & voice)
-inadequate electricity
-poor national & international bandwidth
-regulation and licensing
- Censorship and control
-brain drain & lack skilled manpower & I.T. certifications
-poorly designed and optimized websites
-egov
In this article I address some key elements that affect internet penetration and telephone usage. You will note that the main factors that affect telephony also affect data communications. ICT has challenges in both the data and voice arenas. When we talk about bridging the digital divide we seek to reduce or eliminate entry barriers that the people face in both data and voice. A number of terms will be used loosely in both areas.
It is important however, for the ICT ministry to be able to dissect and separate common issues and independent issues that affect data and voice. This approach is necessary so that the issues are addressed at a root cause level. We seek to deal with the root problem like inadequate infrastructure manifested symptomatically as congestion or slow connections. Voice and data networks are fast converging and this calls for a smart unified communications approach whose success hinges on reliable, fast and robust network infrastructure.
Internet Access
In Zimbabwe just like most African countries most people who access the internet do so via Cyber cafes, colleges, varsities, work place an some at home. The limiting factors are basically cost and unavailability. Most urban dwellers either can’t afford it or the ISPs serving them are out of capacity as discussed further below. There are people who own farms who could easily afford it, but can not do so from where they are because there is no network coverage of one form or the other in their area.
As a result internet penetration is very low due to a number of issues. One of ICT’s core tasks is to help present operators unclog their stuffed networks and also adopting the concept of cyber cafes for many communities whose chance of using a computer or accessing the internet are next to none.
Donating computers to schools is great. More could be done in the form of setting up computer centers at libraries, district offices, ALL colleges using the cyber café approach. This has the advantage of also spinning some business to the struggling ISPs.
Hopes are hinged on the 3G data access. All I can say for now is that we hope Econet will not make it an elite service for the business brass. Last year when I was in J’oburg I was pretty impressed about how easy it is to connect to the internet MTN’s 3G using a USB dongle with a 3G capable SIM card. Because right now in Zimbabwe before we even have 3G, is it possible to walk to a distribution shop and buy a SIM card ?
Telephone Access
Teledensity is a metric that is used to broadly estimate the number telephone lines per 100 individuls. Presently Zimbabwe has a teledensity of about 3 .This means that there are about 3 telephone lines per 100 people. This figure heavily depends on the accuracy of the actual number of telephone lines divided by the total population.
Now this is a very tricky estimation as millions of Zimbabweans have left the country while mobile operators have availed more lines. The teledensity metric has been used as an indicator of economic development or governance.
Current voice providers include Telone , NetOne , Econet , Telecel. Now wireless usage in Zimbabwe has indeed enabled many people a means of communication. Wireless growth rate is highest in Africa because cellular phones offer any one within coverage range an equal opportunity to communicate. At this stage Zimbabwe has serious complications that basically point to a collapsed economy. Cellular operators have managed just to stay afloat in a very un-business like environment. This has made it impossible for the operators to increase both capacity and coverage at a time when spares and maintenance were made in hard currency whilst end users were paying in a currency that long lost its value.
Stabilization of the economy should allow cellular companies to increase their coverage to more areas.
Cost of computers, equipment and
software
Computer and internet penetration is very low in Zimbabwe due to the cost of owning a PC or MAC and the cost of having an internet connection .What is needed in this area is for the stake holders to identify equipment manufactures that can supply Zimbabwean market PCs in bulk and at competitive rates. Secondly in most developed nations people throw away their PCs just to get a new one. Most of these PCs are recyclable easily and the Ministry can setup collection centers in the US and UK to pick these PCs – clean them up and store them in a container before shipping them to Zimbabwe. This is already being done in Kenya and Ghana.
Thirdly the ministry should encourage local companies to team up with PC manufactures and open up assembly plants in Zimbabwe. This should be one of ICT’s long term plan and has bankable off shoot benefits like job creation , local availability of PCs , generation of forex through exports and generation of revenue for the state via the taxman. The more people have access to PCs whether publicly via schools , libraries or internet cafes the better. One way of doing this is availing mobile digital libraries. Take an old ZUPCO bus. Refurbish it , install like 30 computers in the bus and pull a diesel powered generator at the back. These mobile libraries are used in Rwanda to visit remote areas with no PC access.
Windows based software is generally pricy because of licensing fees. The ICT ministry must encourage and even fund open source software initiatives in Zimbabwe. This literally means that refurbished computers that are shipped into Zimbabwe can run on free BUT extremely loaded Linux based like uBuntu.Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. uBuntu comes loaded with thousands of FREE open software applications like word processing , spreadsheets , presentations , databases , web servers , email servers , fax servers , call centers , phone billing , internet café billing , hotel reservation , project management , programming tools , educational and scientific software and many more.
Cost of software as a stumbling block in ICT development can not be used as an excuse.
Electricity
All ICT gadgets use electricity to function. Inadequate power generation and unreliable transmission and distribution capacity has a direct impact on ICT development strategies. This means that there can be no meaningful digital revolution if there is no electricity full stop. This calls for an elevated sense of urgency to resuscitate and improve power generation, transmission and distribution capacity. It is too obvious that Zimbabwe has to look explore and improve the present forms of power generation methods that may include but NOT limited to water , solar , wind , biogas and even nuclear energy.
Mail servers , web servers , routers , switches , base stations etc all need electricity to operate. So before we even worry about creation of a national website , it is necessary that we have adequate electricity to power the servers that will serve the web pages !
If people can not access the website because the hosting ISP has experienced a power outage, then our problems are a lot wider and complex to be solved by having a national website.
Now erratic power supplies has made life horrible for ALL telcos or ISPs as they are forced to install alternative power sources mainly diesel powered generators. This has pushed operation costs for all companies to go up. Not with standing that the diesel in question was at one stage scarce and only available via the black market. This is one of the many problems that have pushed the price of the service as soon as use of forex was officially approved.
Access technologies
Lack or unavailability of telecommunications infrastructure makes it difficult for remote areas to access e-services like the internet or even basic email. Some farmers can afford PCs but how are they can not access the internet because either the telephone infrastructure is inexistent, broken down or unreliable in their areas. This points back directly to telco providers ComeOne ,Telone, Econet, NetOne, Telecel, Transmedia, Powertel, Africom, Ecoweb, ZOL, Mweb and Telecontract just to mention the main players. It is very tough for these fellows to maintain their network infrastructure because of overheads like electricity for plants and base stations.
That aside , there is need for Zimbabwe to pursue more rigorous wireless last mile connection technologies like Wi-Max , Wi-Fi , 3G , CDMA etc. Already Powertel and Telone are involved in CDMA rollouts in and around Harare. The access technologies are further discusses under sub heading Broadband below.
National & International
Bandwidth
Not withstanding the limited access technologies available by remote stations to access e-resources , there is the question of available national and international bandwidth.
Your connection speed to you ISP might be 56k but the speed with which you access local and international websites will solely depend on the available capacity on the network you are connecting to. It means that to pull a page from Harare ISP will depend on the traffic congestion between your access point to the web server which heavily relies on the number of connections made to that site. Failure to connect to you ISP might be caused by total capacity of the access network to handle your call. This is a national bandwidth issue. Zimbabwe has limited access points and this literally means a lot of people are competing to gain access to a thin pipe. I am sure you know how frustrating it is to try and drive your new BMW in a very congested road with pot holes!
To access emails from the web you will send a request via your ISP who will in turn forward your request to your email hosting service. Now the issue of contentions comes into the picture again with internationally hosted sites. You have to compete with other users from your ISP and other ISPs to access websites via the international gateway that maybe a satellite dish in Mazowe! So international access bottleneck add to the other national bandwidth whores caused by few POPs (point of presence).
What is needed then is an increase in access points and using thicker bandwidth pipes between these POPs. Between main centers Zimbabwe uses fibre optics as the back bone. Also satellite alone can not meet Zimbabwe bandwidth needs.
ICT must look into ways of connecting via fibre to the undersea cable in the Indian Ocean. The cables at the sea connect to the rest of the world at lightning speed. Why fibre? Fibre has a higher carrying capacity. A fair comparison between using copper wires and fibre would be comparing a wheel barrow to a “gonyeti” to carry 100 tons of sand.
In a nutshell ICT needs to do some audit of both the national and international bandwidth info. This audit will point out major bottlenecks that choke Internet usage in Zimbabwe. The solution after the audit should include amongst other things the following fibre network links:
- Harare to Mutare to provide a link the Indian Ocean under sea cables in Beira.I am reliably informed that AfriCom is doing this project already.
- Bulawayo to Beitbridge to provide high speed link to SA fibre network. South Africa is Zimbabwe’s largest trading partner
Having multiple gateways will assure and ensure that Zimbabwe does not experience total black out associated with network failure. Investing in fibre optics today is not an option but a must/
Broadband Access
To address the slow speed and low bandwidth challenges that Zimbabwe faces , all efforts MUST point into the availing of broadband access.
The term broadband commonly refers to high-speed Internet access. Technically this refers to data transmission rates of at least 200 kilobits per second. When you connect to your ISP you have to values that you deal with , download speed (down stream) and upload speed (up stream).As the names suggest , down streams refers to the data transfer rate when you are pulling resources from the internet to you PC like downloading email, downloading software , listening to music or watching a video from Youtube.
Up stream refers to the data transfer rates when you are pushing or publishing content from you PC to the Internet. Examples here including sending email , posting your profile to Facebook and publishing your website.
Pull and push. In general most internet users pull that push to the internet and as a result the rates of downstream rates are higher than up stream rates.
Broadband allows a higher data transfer rates than dial up rates .An interesting comparison would be that of trying to empty a 200L drum full of water using a hosepipe or a drinking straw!
Types of broadband
technologies
The term broadband describes the data transfer rates but does not describe the under lying technology (physical and data link layer) used to achieve high data transfer rates. The main broadband technologies are briefly summarized below.
- DSL (Digital Subscriber Line ) is a wireline transmission technology that transmits data faster over traditional copper telephone lines already installed to homes and businesses.
- Coaxial cable make use of cable modem service enables cable operators to provide broadband using the same coaxial cables that provide cable TV
- Fibre optic technology converts electrical signals carrying data to light and sends the light through transparent glass fibres about the diameter of a human hair.
- Wi-Max , Worldwide Inter-operability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology that provides wireless transmission of data using a variety of transmission modes, from point-to-multipoint links to portable and fully mobile internet access. The technology provides up to 72 Mbit/s symmetric broadband speeds without the need for cables. This is the way to go especially for metropolitans. The technology is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard (also called Broadband Wireless Access).
- 3G networks are wide-area cellular telephone networks that evolved to incorporate high-speed Internet access. Theoretically data rates approach 14.4 Mbps down stream and 5.8Mbps up stream. Econet already has the 3G license in Zimbabwe and we await its delivery. The other 3G license was granted to Powertel using CDMA .This service is only limited to Harare/
- CDMA – Wireless land lines using Wireless Local Loop 450 MHz system used as last mile connection by Telone in the wake of copper cable thefts and shortage. Only available in Harare , Chitungwiza & Ruwa.
- Satellite broadband is another form of wireless broadband, also useful for serving remote or sparsely populated areas .This technology basically uses satellite dishes pointed to the sky to connect to a geo-stationery satellite orbiting above the earth.
- Broadband over Powerline (BPL) is the delivery of broadband over the existing low and medium voltage electric power distribution network.
Broadband is always on.Does not block phone lines and no need to reconnect to network after logging off.
Summarily connection bottlenecks exist at an access level , national bandwidth level before you even look at the international portion of the game. What we need is a bottom up approach and not top to bottom approach.
So after rolling broadband access architecture, the national network connecting to the international network MUST not act as a bottle neck.
A typical scenario in most African countries is that you can use Wi-Fi to connect your laptop to your access point at 54 Mbps ! WOW that’s a lot ! Nope.If the connection from your ISP to the internet is 56kbps then your broadband connection speed to your access point is NULL & VOID.
Regulation
/Monopoly/Licensing
Most African governments really put a tight lid when it comes to regulation of telecommunications and media. That alone is a major obstacle in reducing the digital divide. For some strange reason or another most African governments via the regulatory bodies tend to become an obstacle to innovation and development. Part of the fear is unfounded in that some authorities fear that opening up the telecommunications will either threaten government owned establishments or also fear of not being able to control information flow.
Of course this is insane. Only those who do evils stuff should be worried about a liberal telecommunications environment. Naturally national security is a top priority for the regulation body. I must mention of that of late POTRAZ has indeed tried to catch up with reality as I am aware that a few more companies have been granted different licenses to operate different technologies in data, voice and wireless arenas like Econet doing 3G and AfriCom getting engaged in VoIP.
Considering that some of the operators who have monopolies have failed to meet their service obligations to provide reliable and affordable communications, ICT ministry should explore ways of allowing smart partnerships between ISPs with local authorities/communities to provide telco service for their areas. For instance if the wireless company can not afford to put a base station in my home area Jambezi or Lower Gweru , smaller operators must be allowed to run and own base station in an area and share the profit with the back bone operator. What I mean is at a district center, small operators will install a base station, a data link and a power generator if need be. Then connect to the big operators switch via Wi-Max or microwave. These small operators can’t afford to do a national rollout so they can manage to setup their own base stations for their respective areas and then connect to the main carrier. How the revenue from that base station is shared can then be worked out. These are the ideas that ICT should be researching and establishing their viability potential.
Telone, Powertel and Transmedia
These 3 companies enjoy unmatched monopolies based on their origins or parenting company namely PTC , Zesa and ZBC. These 3 companies have a combined capacity to reach all corners of Zimbabwe by virtue of their infrastructural inheritance for both data and voice.
The ICT ministry must carry out very thorough performance audits these seasonal failures. It is an open secret that their failure is mainly due to political meddling and interference which makes them operate more like social clubs than companies.
Despite their failure for years to provide, adequate telephone services, electricity, radio and TV services these companies have moved into the Internet market with, remarkable speed.
It is clear why NRZ has not conceived a Telco business unit based on their own data network for the rail system? Well Transtel would be a great idea but likely to be plagued by the same virus that affects its other 3 cousins.
Licensing and external
investment.
The issue of regulation will not be complete if no mention is made of the prohibitive nature of the licensing fees in the range of several million US dollars. What makes it even more complicated is that should one wish to partner with a foreign investor, the imposition of fixed percentages for local ownership stake makes this really look like a circus. Which sane investor is interested in investing in an environment where he /she are expected to invest more dollars but get the minority share? 51 % local sounds really attractive and nationally correct since Indigenization is the core agenda of empowering locals.
That however does not mean replacing common sense with hollow pride which has so far worked negatively against Zimbabwe.
Pride alone has never fed any nation.
802.11 – Wi-Fi
It appears that the ruling in the 90s to ban or restrict use ISM frequencies 2.4 GHz and 5Hgz was not meant to protect scientific equipment used in hospitals from interference but a strategic move to monopolize the bandwidth to Transmedia. It is the national broadcaster of television, radio and Internet access services in Zimbabwe on the afore mentioned frequencies. So one wonders what suddenly happened to hospital equipment protection.
Transmedia owns and operates all terrestrial broadcast infrastructures and as a new strategic business unit of ZBC it bridged VHF and IP so as to tap into wireless access.
Because of monopoly of this frequency band, wireless broadband has not grown as expected. I doubt if Transmedia has more than 800 customers with their tower located at Pockets Hill with no line of sight complication?
The ICT ministry together with POTRAZ must revisit the maximum power levels for Access Points to allow other players to beam data and voice over using 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz (Wi-Fi). This will go a long way in enabling ISPs to connect more people using wireless broadband. Right now ISPs are trapped between a rock and a hard place as their last mile connection solution is limited to mainly to twisted copper wires since both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz are locked down to one provider Transmedia.
Voice over Internet Protocol
(VoIP)
Voice over IP is still a grey area in Zimbabwe. Obviously its success depends on reliable network infrastructure. With 3G on its way, POTRAZ should allow people to connect over IP and make calls. Also a smart combination of wi-max and wi-fi can bring voice to many people that presently have NO hope of getting a Telone line via copper or wireless CDMA.
Businesses and organizations might be forced to install a satellite dishes and then use their IP connectivity for both data and voice and by pass the national operators because they can’t get service from them!
Besides the obvious use of VoIP for voice , other spin offs can be realized in Zimbabwe like the deployment of call centers .This allows local companies to generate employment for the local community , generate scarce forex and revenue for the state in taxes. I used to think that this was common sense but it appears common sense is not so common. Presently most favored call center destination for call centers are India, Malasyia, Philiphines and of late Kenya and South Africa – thanks to their open VoIP policy.
VoIP opens so many avenues of communication between end users. For instance through use of open source PBX like Freeswitch, one can easily provide free voicemail mail service. This is how it works. A Linux server running a PBX is a capability of creating infinite user extensions. So a particular user can sign up and be assigned an extension say 600244 and a PIN code – 9561.Now this user will have to call an access number say 011 800 600 to check and or send voicemails. If he does NOT have a personal phone this user can still use any phone just to retrieve his messages from the system. So in short this person can advertise whatever business he is in and then specify his details as “Please call me on 011 800 600 ext 600244”. Callers will be greeted by an interactive voice response system that will ask them if they want (1) to check messages or (2) to send a message to another user.
Brain Drain & Skilled
Manpower
The effect of brain drain on the digital revolution is obvious. As the country continues to lose more and more skilled and trained personnel, it becomes difficult for the nation to move forward in an attempt to turn around the economy. This applies to all sectors of the economy and not just ICT. The GNU should be creative enough and try and lure skilled personnel back by coming up with a well thought out “come back home schemes”. I am talking about highly trained professionals from all walks of life. Trust me there thousands of Zimbabweans inside & outside the country prepared to help rebuild the country.
The question of patriotism comes up. “Ask what you can do for Zimbabwe and not what Zimbabwe can do for you?
That’s fair enough.
Trust me most skilled professionals would not mind an incentive in the form of some small piece of land somewhere in Mvurwi or Insiza. If we expect to lure patriotic professionals to leave their well paying jobs at Cisco or Microsoft or BT and join the ICT in Zimbabwe. Patriotism is a two headed beast.
ICT training &
Certification
ICT training and development has not been spared the economic wrath that affects the whole country. As part of a long term plan Zimbabwe ICT must look into establishing more ICT based institutes and academies as part of the digital empowerment plan. Software programming is particularly one area in which ICT must look. Writing a computer code requires very few resources other than a computer and programming knowledge of certain languages like C++ , Java , Python , Perl etc.
What is needed is that the ministry of ICT at a government level must travel to India and strike deals to have Indian programmers to come and train students at various training academies mentioned.
Software is a great product that is easily exported. This is where the Hon Minister should be setting his eyes as a long term plan. There is need to promote establishment of MORE academies that can provide ICT certifications that include but NOT limited to A + , N+ , Security + , Linux + , Cisco etc.
Web Presence, Promotion and
Optimization
Designing and placing a website on the internet is very simple and straight forward.
But what matters is whether the website has been designed properly and optimized well so that it is searchable on the internet. People use search engines to look for information, products and services. A poorly developed website will affect that website’s visibility on the internet. Most search engines like Google , Yahoo , MSN and Dogpile use various algorithms to rank websites. But key making our website visible includes search engine optimization .This involves items like :
- using certain key words in your website title and header and also depends on the
- number and quality of links on your web page
- the actual content and relevance of your web pages
- registering your website with different search engines
Linking out to other websites and have them linked back to you is useful in making your website visible on the internet.
A good website must be able to retain visitors and even encourage future visits. A good website must not only disseminate information to its visitors but must be able to call the visitors to action .Like “click here to subscribe for free reports” or “click here to place a donation “ or click here to get a call back from us” or “enter your cell phone here to receive promotional info via SMS” etc etc.This makes the website interactive and not static.
Website Standards
Zimbabweans are a very tech savvy people. You don’t need to look far. Zimbabweans based both in Zimbabwe and outside run fairly successful websites ranging from news and media through money and shipping services right up to digital telephony services. News websites dominate the number of websites ran by Zimbabweans on the internet.
Since Zimbabwe government ministries and departments already have dozens of websites that are hardly searchable on the web, the ICT ministry must come up with a minimum standard guideline for website deployment.
Different ministries and departments do run their different websites, but some minimum quality standard or benchmark MUST be created by ICT ministry .If you look at the different Zimbabwe government websites, you will see varying designs which are not up to scratch if I could be generous with my comments. What is needed is a compliance standard that is set up by ICT.
Hats off to the webmasters who have managed to setup theses websites with little or NO training and resources. What needs to be done is to come up with a government website policy that clearly sets standards of design technique, layout, interactivity, promotion and optimization.
eGovernment
In 2005 an ICT Steering committee produced a detailed 124 page eReadiness report. This report sponsored by UNDP, covered almost all aspects of e-readiness like:
- eAgriculture
- eCommerce
- eEducation
- eMining
- eHealth
- eGovernance
- eGovernment
- eManufacturing
- eTourism
Summary
The ICT Ministry must start by studying the eReadiness survey report (2005) and use it as a spring board to kick start the digital dream. The report is detailed and thorough but might need to be updated in order to keep abreast with current ICT realities on the ground.
Then the ICT Ministry must put together a team/board by pooling together highly skilled, competent and experienced individuals just as the Education Minister did. The Hon Education Minister Mr.David Coltart is a lawyer by profession and made a smart decision of putting together board of education experts to execute the technical aspects of the challenges facing Education in Zimbabwe. This approach could be used by all GNU Ministers so that the best brains, hands and hearts are pooled together to achieve a common purpose.
I must mention here that I deliberately did NOT discuss previous efforts by the government to censor, control and intercept internet and voice traffic in the spirit of the inclusive government.
Comments, corrections, questions and requests most welcome.
Ndlovu [AT]
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{ Robert Ndlovu is an ICT consultant based in San Jose - USA}