Source: International
Monetary Fund (IMF) Date: 26 Mar 2009 An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Vitaliy Karamenko visited
Zimbabwe during March 9-24, 2009 to conduct Article IV consultation discussions.
The mission would like to thank the authorities for productive discussions and
warm hospitality. At the end of the mission, Vitaliy Karamenko, Mission Chief for Zimbabwe
issued the following statement: "A steep decline in economic activity and public services contributed to a
significant deterioration in the humanitarian situation in 2008. Economic
disruptions caused by hyperinflation and a further significant deterioration in
the business climate led to an estimated 14 percent fall in real GDP in 2008, on
top of the 40 percent cumulative decline during 2000-07. Poverty and
unemployment have risen sharply. "Against the backdrop of the acute economic and humanitarian crisis, the
recently formed government of national unity prepared a short-term emergency
recovery program. This program focuses on macroeconomic policy and supply-side
measures aimed at achieving low inflation, arresting economic decline, and
improving social conditions. "The mission welcomes the authorities' commitment to eliminate quasi-fiscal
activities and implement cash budgeting (i.e., matching monthly expenditure to
monthly revenue) in 2009. To ensure an improvement in the delivery of public
services, the government would need to mobilize significant donor financial
support and contain the wage bill. "The credibility of the government's commitment to fiscal discipline is
reinforced by the adoption of the multiple currency system because under such a
system it is not possible to monetize the budget deficit. To facilitate
transactions and improve credit availability, there is an urgent need to attune
the payments system and banking supervision to the needs of the multiple
currency system. "Accountability and transparency of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) should
be strengthened. Moreover, the RBZ should refrain from quasi-fiscal operations
and focus on core central bank activities. "Regarding structural reforms, a number of positive steps that are in line
with previous IMF recommendations have already been implemented, including price
liberalization, the removal of surrender requirements and most exchange
restrictions on current account transactions, the imposition of hard budget
constraints on parastatal enterprises, and the elimination of the Grain
Marketing Board monopoly. Going forward, strengthening the investment climate,
ensuring protection of property rights, and maintaining wages at competitive
levels will be essential for increasing domestic and foreign investment."
Press Release No.09/93
http://www.voanews.com
By
Studio 7 Staff
Washington
26 March 2009
On the
heels of a fairly severe International Monetary Fund statement
earlier this
week saying Zimbabwe would have to establish a track record of
"sound policy
implementation" and other credentials to obtain new financing,
an IMF
mission to the country has issued a surprisingly encouraging report
of its
own citing "positive steps...already implemented."
The earlier statement
declared: "Technical and financial assistance from the
IMF will depend on
establishing a track record of sound policy
implementation, donor support
and a resolution of overdue financial
obligations to official creditors,
including the IMF." That seemed to dash
cold water on hopes in Zimbabwe for
rapid progress toward new credits for a
turnaround.
The latest
statement indicated Zimbabwe has taken steps on the path toward
reintegration in the international financial system and, potentially, new
loans for reconstruction.
An early test of Zimbabwe's credibility
will come on Monday when leaders of
the Southern African Development
Community will consider a US$2 billion loan
package for Harare.
Such
bilateral loans are important because they will allow Harare to settle
arrears to the IMF and other multilateral lenders on its external debt of
some US$5.25 billion.
The IMF mission led by Vitaliy Karamenko was in
the country from March 9 to
24 for so-called Article IV consultations to
assess economic conditions and
the country's policy response. The mission
chief issued a statement Thursday
reporting among other details an estimated
14% decline in gross domestic
product in 2008 on top of a 40% drop from 2000
to 2007.
"Poverty and unemployment have risen sharply," the statement
said,
understating the case if anything as more than half of Zimbabweans
need food
aid to survive and 90% are jobless.
With the country in an
"acute" economic and humanitarian crisis, it said,
the recently formed unity
government prepared a near-term recovery program
focused on "macroeconomic
policy and supply-side measures aimed at achieving
low inflation, arresting
economic decline, and improving social conditions."
The mission praised the
new government's "commitment to eliminate" central
bank funding of
operations and to limiting spending to revenues.
"The credibility of the
government's commitment to fiscal discipline is
reinforced by the adoption
of the multiple currency system," said the
mission report, referring to the
decision to allow U.S. dollars, South
African rand and other currencies to
circulate alongside the essentially
worthless Zimbabwe dollar for use by
consumers and businesses.
Dollarization has not only quelled
hyperinflation which ran at a staggering
rate measured in the quadrillions
or more percent, but prices have actually
declined in recent
months.
But, "To facilitate transactions and improve credit availability,
there is
an urgent need to attune the payments system and banking
supervision to the
needs of the multiple currency system," the mission's
statement said.
"Accountability and transparency of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe should be
strengthened," it added in a circumspect comment
regarding the institution
some have described as the world's worst central
bank.
"Regarding structural reforms," the statement continued, "a number
of
positive steps that are in line with previous IMF recommendations have
already been implemented, including price liberalization, the removal of
[foreign exchange] surrender requirements and most exchange restrictions on
current account transactions, the imposition of hard budget constraints on
parastatal enterprises, and the elimination of the Grain Marketing Board
monopoly."
It added: "Going forward, strengthening the investment
climate, ensuring
protection of property rights, and maintaining wages at
competitive levels
will be essential for increasing domestic and foreign
investment."
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Africa News
Mar 26,
2009, 22:08 GMT
Harare - Expectations that decades of violent
repression meted out by
President Robert Mugabe's henchmen would end with
the creation of the new
coalition government have been bitterly
disappointed, a leading local
human-rights body said
Thursday.
Instead, 'not much has changed yet' to the 'almost inherent
Zimbabwean
culture of political victimization and discrimination,' said the
Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO forum in its latest report.
It catalogued
'continued heavy handedness' by police in handling peaceful
protests, the
upsurge in invasions of white-owned farms and the forced
evictions of
farmers, and the 'selective arrests' of supporters of new Prime
Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai's supporters in incidents where they had clashed
with
backers of Mugabe's ZANU(PF) party.
The report cited the blanket amnesty
for perpetrators of 'the gruesome
crimes' committed by Mugabe's supporters
in the bloody campaign for Mugabe's
re-election in June 2008, and the arrest
of Roy Bennett, the white ex-farmer
appointed by Tsvangirai to be a deputy
minister.
Most of the incidents occurred after Tsvangirai, the leader of
the former
opposition Movement for Democratic Change, was inaugurated as
prime minister
on February 12, ushering in the new government partnered with
Mugabe, it
said.
'The swearing-in of the prime minister ... created
optimism for a new
political dispensation,' it said, but it did not bring an
end to repression.
In a series of demonstrations, protesters - one with
an appointment with the
new MDC education minister to hand over a petition
over the collapse of the
education system - were 'unlawfully arrested,' and
many of them assaulted.
Observers say that the continuation of the
violence and repression is the
key reason for Western governments' refusals
to help finance the bankrupt
new government's desperate attempts to restore
Zimbabwe's economy, shattered
after years of misrule by
Mugabe.
Western leaders have said that they want to see far-reaching
reforms in
human rights before they contribute toward the 5 billion US
dollars the
government says it needs to rebuild ruined
infrastructure.
Bennett's arrest on allegations of plotting insurgency
contravened 'the
spirit and the letter' of the agreement setting up the
coalition government,
the report said. Bennett was arrested after a month in
jail on the orders of
the Supreme Court.
The harassment of the white
farmers was 'in complete disregard' of a ruling
last year by a regional
Southern African court, which ordered the Zimbabwe
government to protect the
rights of the farmers and denounced as 'racist'
their persecution since the
start of Mugabe's notorious 'land reform
programme,' which has left scarcely
400 of the original 5,000 farmers still
on their land.
Mugabe on
Wednesday said there were 'no invasions,' but that white farmers
were
'resisting' attempts to evict them so that their land could be given to
landless blacks. Human-rights bodies say the farmers' land has instead been
parcelled out to members of Mugabe's ruling clique and his family, and
millions of hectares of once productive land now lies fallow.
http://www.voanews.com
By Patience
Rusere
Washington
26 March 2009
The latest
round of seizures of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe comes at an
awkward time
for the national unity government that is trying to raise funds
from
international donors to overhaul the country's economy, infrastructure
and
society at large.
President Robert Mugabe has encouraged the commercial
farm takeovers as the
final phase of the land reform program he launched in
2000. But such
seizures, though relatively small in number compared with the
initial phases
of the often-violent fast-track land redistribution drive,
have hobbled
Finance Minister Tendai Biti as he lobbies for donor
support.
Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, which ruled from independence in
1980 until
losing its majority in parliament in last year's general
elections, is
governing in an uneasy partnership with the Movement for
Democratic Change
of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Besides holding the
Finance portfolio,
Biti is secretary general of Mr. Tsvangirai's MDC
formation.
Critics say the seizures prove at least one side of the Harare
government
does not respect the rule of law while the violence associated
with such
takeovers violates human rights.
Some 200 mostly white
farmers have been turned off their land and in some
cases
beaten.
Some said the invasions are engineered by those who want to
scuttle the
unity government. But other observers say Mr. Mugabe has
relaunched land
reform in a bid to activate his base in anticipation of the
next general
election which some see in no more than two years.
For a
closer look at the political ramifications of the land seizures,
reporter
Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe spoke with political
analyst
Rejoice Ngwenya and Commercial Farmers Union of Zimbabwe President
Trevor
Gifford.
Gifford said the farm invasions are instigated by what he
describes as
"greedy" elements who do not want the country to advance.
http://www.voanews.com
By Chris
Gande
Washington DC
26 March
2009
Zimbabwe's teachers have threatened to go on strike
when the next school
term begins in May, saying the government has not
fulfilled its promise to
pay them and all other state workers US$100 a month
as a supplement to
local-currency salaries.
Banks have converted
Zimbabwe dollar accounts into hard-currency accounts,
but have told
customers they lack the U.S. dollar notes to distribute on
government
orders.
Labor sources said some banks are offering South African rand or
Botswanan
pula instead, but at exchange rates which take a big bite out of
the US$100
supplement.
National Coordinator Enoch Paradzayi of the
Progressive Teachers Union told
reporter Chris Gande of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that the government has
made deposits into the accounts of
teachers, but banks cannot fulfill the
commitment with cash.
http://www.herald.co.zw
Friday,
March 27, 2009
By Walter
Muchinguri
GOVERNMENT has set up a team comprising two ministers and the
State
Enterprises Restructuring Agency to carry out a cost benefit on all
parastatals to assess their suitability for privatisation or
commercialisation, as Government steps up efforts to mobilise funding for
its operations.
The team comprises of Finance Minister Tendai Biti
and the Minister of State
Enterprises and Parastatals, Joel Gabbuza Gabuza
and SERA officials.
Speaking after their first meeting on Wednesday,
Minister Biti said they had
been given two weeks to come up with a
comprehensive report on the
parastatals, which they would present to
cabinet.
"We will be taking a scientific approach in order to come up
with a detailed
report that we will present to cabinet," he said.
The
exercise comes at a time Government has recently unveiled a US$1 billion
budget and the Short-term Emergency Recovery Programme that will require
US$5 billion.
In his budget review statement, Minister Biti noted
that the funding of the
budget, Sterp and the crafting of a new constitution
would require
significant external financial resources, which could only be
realised
through serious engagement of international partners.
These
include World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the African
Development
Bank.
He however noted that while this engagement was underway it was
important to
consider the disposal or rationalisation of the country's
'Silverware' such
as parastatals.
This is particularly important as
Government has been struggling to realise
much revenue in the absence of
significant inflows from taxes such as Pay As
You Earn and Value-Added
Tax.
For instance out of a budget assumption of revenues of US$1,7
billion which
averages US$140 million a month, revenue realisations for
February and the
first half of this month were US$25 million and US$30
million respectively.
The commercialisation and privatisation of
parastatals started in the early
1990s but since then only a few companies
have been privatised.
These included CBZ Bank, Dairibord, the Cotton
Company of Zimbabwe, Zimre
and Rainbow Tourism Group.
The
privatisation of these former parastatals transformed them into very
profitable entities that are competing favourably in the
market.
Government however still holds 100 percent shareholding in the
National
Railways of Zimbabwe, Zesa Holdings, Cold Storage Company, Air
Zimbabwe and
the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe.
Others include the
Industrial Development Corporation, TelOne, NetOne, The
Zimbabwe Mining
Development Corporation, Minerals Marketing Corporation of
Zimbabwe and the
Zimbabwe National Water Authority.
Efforts to privatise some of these,
which continue to be a drain on the
fiscus, has not yielded any fruit to
date.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=14058
March 26, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - Newly appointed Information Communication
Technology (ICT)
Minister, Nelson Chamisa, faces major challenges
ahead.
Zimbabwe has once again ranked among the lowest on the list of the
world's
information technology-compliant countries, according to the Global
Information Technology Report (GITR) 2008-2009 released by the World
Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe, which is now run by a
coalition government established last month
scored 2.49 points to earn the
ranking of 132 out of a total of 134
countries that were surveyed for the
WEF's Networked Readiness Index, which
measures the range of factors that
affect a country's ability to harness
information technologies for economic
competitiveness and development.
Zimbabwe only managed to outpace Timor
Leste, also known as East Timor
ranked 133 and war-torn Chad, which anchored
the rankings at 134.
Chamisa said last week that a national website on
Zimbabwe must be urgently
created if Zimbabwe is to be put back on the world
map.
"We are very much behind in terms of ICT provision in this country
and we
want to be seen as an able government," he said.
Chamisa said
his ministry faced huge challenges.
"Statistically, Zimbabwe is probably
lowest in terms of tele-density," he
said.
While Zimbabwe wallowed
among the worst rankings this week neighbouring
Botswana was ranked at
77.
Tunisia, which was listed 38th with 4.34 points emerged as the
foremost
African country on the index followed by Mauritius which was ranked
51 and
South Africa at 52.
While Zimbabwe ranked dismally in the
technology readiness Denmark and
Sweden once again led the rankings followed
by the United States which is up
one position, thus confirming its
pre-eminence in networked readiness in the
current times of economic
slowdown.
Singapore and Switzerland ranked fourth and fifth respectively
and the other
Nordic countries together with the Netherlands and Canada
complete the top
10.
The GITR report underlines that good education
fundamentals and high levels
of technological readiness and innovation are
essential engines of growth
needed to overcome the current economic
crisis.
"The development story of the most networked countries in the
world,
including the Nordic countries, Singapore and the United States among
others, has owed much to a consistent focus in the national agenda on
education excellence, innovation and an extensive ICT access. This success
stands as a reminder for leaders in both the public and private sectors not
to lose focus on ICT as an important enabler of growth and competitiveness
in times of crisis," said Irene Mia, senior economist of the Global
Competitiveness Network at the WEF and co-editor of the report.
The
GITR report, which is produced by the WEF in cooperation with INSEAD,
the
leading international business school, and is sponsored by Cisco Systems
remains the world's most comprehensive and authoritative international
assessment of the impact of ICT on the development process and the
competitiveness of nations.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=14062
March 26, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange resumed trade today
with only one
counter trading.
Only Apex Corporation traded after all
the other counters' offers found no
takers as the equities market in now
trading in US dollars.
Interfin, the only active counter, bought 3 026
Apex shares at 1 US cent
during the trade.
More than half of the 78
listed counters were offering prices between 1 cent
and 5 cents. The prices
were however all less that 0, 70 cents when trade
stopped on November 20
last year.
ZSE chief executive Emmanuel Munyukwi said he was happy that
trade had
resumed and that some outstanding issues would be addressed while
trade was
active.
"It is a positive move. There are still some
outstanding issues which we
hope will be addressed as shares change hands,"
said Munyukwi.
Trading was brought to a halt on the ZSE on November 20
after Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono discovered that banks
were using fraudulent
cheques to artificially inflate share
prices.
As trade resumed yesterday a brokerage fee of 2 percent was
agreed for
purchases, as the Ministry of Finance said it wanted to boost
tax, although
brokers wanted 1 percent.
Stamp duty was agreed at 0, 5
percent while Value added Tax would be 15
percent of brokerage
fee.
Fungibility was restored for all dual listed counters and a letter
to that
effect was on its way to the Reserve Bank.
Trade on the
bourse is now supposed to be backed by a letter of confirmation
from a bank
chief executive officer.
The Zimbabwe stock market had over the past two
years been the preferred
investment vehicle as it offered returns which were
above inflation.
While the country's economy was crumbling, the
Zimbabwean share speculator
was earning returns above inflation, keeping up
much better than ordinary
citizens on the street.
Most shares were
gaining by over 50 000 percent in one day. This jump in
share prices was in
excess of increases in consumer prices which averaged 10
000 daily during
the same period.
Events that stimulates Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - a
country's wealth,
will growth inevitably drives stock prices up, and any
event that hurts GDP
growth pulls stocks prices down.
The opposite
was, however, happening in Zimbabwe, share prices were rising
while the
economy continued to collapse.
Economic analysts said excess growth in
money supply was giving a wrong
impression to investors who used the Stock
Exchange as a barometer for
Zimbabwe's economic performance.
The
country has been suffering from catastrophic economic and political
policies, largely blamed President Robert Mugabe's government. The only
means for government to fund itself has been to print bank notes.
The
stock market had become a prime beneficiary of any monetary expansion.
Fresh
money enters the economy first through banks and other financial
entities
that may invest it in shares, or lend it to others who buy shares.
Thus
stock prices rise above prices of food and other investment vehicles
and
will outperform them as long as this monetary process is allowed to
continue.
http://www.voanews.com
By
Marvellous Mhlanga-Nyahuye
Washington
26 March
2009
Longsuffering residents of Zimbabwe's capital,
Harare, may anticipate
gradual and incremental improvements in public water
supplies as municipal
authorities spend more than US$10 million on
purification chemicals and
equipment repairs, a senior city official said
Thursday.
Harare Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Chiroto said US$10 million
received from the
Finance Ministry plus funds from international donors is
being spent on
water purification chemicals and repairs to the capital's
dilapidated water
distribution system.
Chiroto said the improvements
should help reduce the incidence of cholera in
the capital and in the
high-density suburbs or townships that have been hit
hard by the epidemic.
Some have gone without running water for months at a
time over the past two
years.
The World Health Organization said 4,082 have died of cholera in
Zimbabwe
since the disease took hold in August 2008, with 93,046 cases
recorded
through Wednesday.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Simplicious Chirinda
Friday 27 March 2009
HARARE - HARARE - Zimbabwe's
cash-strapped national airline has passed a
rigorous international safety
audit conducted in 2007, a top official at the
airline has said.
Air
Zimbabwe chief executive officer Peter Chikumba said that the cash
strapped
national carrier passed the International Air Transport Association
(IATA)
Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) despite a host of operational
problems it is
facing.
"Air Zimbabwe passed the internationally recognized IOSA test and
we have
received the certification from IATA to confirm this," said
Chikumba, adding
that the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure
Development would soon
make an official announcement on the
development.
"The test is carried out every two years and I have worked
at IATA and this
is a confidence booster for our airline as we have left no
stone unturned to
maintain our established safety record."
IOSA is a
comprehensive review of eight operational aspects of the
international
aviation industry. It examines airlines' organisation and
management, flight
operations, cabin operations, aircraft engineering and
maintenance,
operations control and flight dispatch, aircraft ground
handling, cargo
operations as well as operational security.
In 2007, a team from IATA
came to Zimbabwe to carry out an audit on the
airline. If Air Zimbabwe had
failed the test, it would have been classified
as an unsafe airline and
banned from flying to various destinations.
The results of the audit
however come at a time when the airline has hit
rock bottom levels
characterised by frequent flight cancellations, delays,
safety hiccups and a
general decline in standards.
A shortage of foreign currency to buy
spares for repairs, years of
under-funding, mismanagement and downright
corruption have crippled Air
Zimbabwe which was at one time one of Africa's
premier airlines.
Starved of cash for re-equipment, Air Zimbabwe uses
mostly obsolete
technology and equipment while nearly all its long haul
planes are between
18 and 22 years old. The airline requires at least US$1
million from the
treasury to keep it afloat. - ZimOnline
http://www.herald.co.zw
Friday,
March 27, 2009
Herald
Reporter
THE outrage over high passport, birth and death certificate fees
has spilled
into Parliament with MPs demanding that these be reduced to make
them
affordable to all citizens.
An urgent adult passport currently
costs US$670, that of a child below 12
years US$400 while one requires US$50
for an emergency travel document. To
renew a passport, one must part with
US$400.
Countries that insist on cost-recovery fees tend to charge in the
range of
US$60 to US$100 for passports.
Birth certificates for
children below six years are issued free of charge in
terms of Statutory
Instrument 110A of 2000 and so are initial national
identity documents.
Replacement of these costs US$25.
On Wednesday, Uzumba House of Assembly
Member Simbaneuta Mudarikwa (Zanu-PF)
sought clarification from Home Affairs
Co-Minister Giles Mutsekwa as to why
the cost of essential documents like
passports and death certificates was
beyond the reach of many
people.
The legislator said the cost of acquiring a death certificate now
exceeded
that of buying a coffin.
Mwenezi East Member Kudakwashe
Bhasikiti (Zanu-PF) said it was every citizen's
right to have a passport and
challenged the Ministry of Home Affairs, under
which the Registrar-General's
Office falls, to devise other ways of
generating income than depending on
passport fee increases.
In response, Minister Mutsekwa said Government
was aware that fees for
essential documents like passports were beyond the
reach of ordinary
Zimbabweans and was in the process of reviewing
them.
Minister Mutsekwa would not state when the fees would be reviewed
or by what
percentage.
Passport fees in Zimbabwe rank among the
highest in the world.
In South Africa, the most expensive passport costs
R352 (or about US$35,20).
On the other hand, in Canada an adult passport
with 43 pages costs US$73 and
the standard processing time is two weeks.
There is no taxpayer subsidy for
this passport, the holder having to pay the
whole cost of producing the
passport.
A Canadian passport for
children aged between three and 15 costs US$31 while
that for children under
the age of three is pegged at US$19.
5 hours ago
MAPUTO (AFP)
- Flooding has cut off food supplies to 4,000 people in
northwestern
Mozambique, as swelling rivers and a strong tropical storm
raise fears of
severe weather emergencies, state media said on Thursday.
"At this moment
all our teams, including marine officials, the Red Cross,
the government,
health, we're all prepared to face this storm," Antonio
Duarte, an official
from the central coast district of Pebane, told TVM
television.
The
station reported that food aid would be needed in Cuamba, in the
northwestern Niassa province, where the Lurio river basin has swollen under
heavy rains that have been pounding the southern Africa region for
weeks.
"We're monitoring it," said Duarte adding that rains over the past
weekend
damaged hundreds of houses and left three people injured in
Pebane.
Flooding in the upper Zambezi river basin has already displaced
hundreds of
thousands in Angola, Namibia and Zambia, the United Nations
reports.
The deluge has jeopardized food security in the southern African
region and
raised the threat of cholera and malaria outbreaks.
As the
flood waters travel downstream, officials in Mozambique are nervously
watching their own stretch of the Zambezi basin.
Last year, heavy
rains in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi caused flash flooding
in Mozambique
that displaced tens of thousands of people and destroyed
almost 100,000
hectares of crops.
Emergency officials in Mozambique are also monitoring
tropical storm Izilda,
which meteorologists say is gaining strength in the
Mozambique Channel.
Mozambique is no stranger to weather-related
disasters. In 2000-2001 about
700 people were killed in one of the country's
worst floods when torrential
rains hit the southeastern African
country.
March 26, 2009
With Conrad Nyamutata
Gabbuza, Joel Gabuza (MDC), Minister of Water Resources and
Development
Joel Gabbuza was born on September 10, 1967 at Kalima in the Binga District of Matebeleland North province. He is married with four children.
He is the MP for Binga South representing the Morgan Tsvangirai-led Movement for Democratic Change, of which he was a founding member in 1999.
Gabbuza holds a BSc (General) degree in Geology and Geography from the University of Zimbabwe. He says he is the holder of a diploma in photography and a certificate in house wiring and building design and drawing.
Before joining politics, he was a teacher and a lecturer at a number of government schools and private colleges.
Gabbuza was instrumental in the formation of the College Teachers Association. He is also the founder and chairman of the Binga Development Association.
He has been a member of the MDC National Executive Council since
2000, as well as treasurer in the party’s Matebeleland North provincial executive.
Gabbuza was first elected to Parliament at age 23 in 2000 for representing Binga Constituency and re-elected five years later. He was then appointed the MDC shadow Minister of Mines and Energy.
During the parliamentary term starting in 2005 Gabbuza was the chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Mines, Energy, Environment and Tourism.
In March 2008, he was elected MP for Binga South after Binga was split into two constituencies.
Gabbuza was a late inclusion in the MDC line-up of ministers in the coalition government. He was brought in after the party dropped the name of its policy advisor Eddie Cross from the list at the last minute.
Mnangagwa, Emmerson Dambudzo (Zanu-PF) - Minister of Defence
Emmerson Mnangagwa, one of Zimbabwe’s most powerful politicians, was born on September 15, 1942. He is married.
A lawyer by profession, his early education started at Lundi Primary School in Zvishavane.
He then went to Zambia where he completed his primary school education and attended secondary school. Mnangagwa is said to have completed his ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels through correspondence courses while in prison back in the then Rhodesia. He then enrolled for a law degree. In 1972 he sat for his final LLB examinations with the University of London.
In 1975, he studied for his post-graduate LLB degree and after he successfully completed his law studies, he served his articles with a law firm set up by Enoch Dumbutshena, who would be Zimbabwe’s first black chief justice.
Long before then he had become involved in politics, first as a member of the United National Independence Party (UNIP) in Zambia. He later joined ZAPU. He was sent to Egypt for training in 1963, and later aligned himself with ZANU at its formation later that year.
He became one of the first ZANLA cadres to undergo military training in the People’s Republic of China also in 1963. He entered Rhodesia in 1964.
In August that year, his group blew up a locomotive near Fort Victoria, now Masvingo. Mnangagwa was arrested in January 1965, tried and convicted for the bombing.
However, he escaped the mandatory death sentence by a whisker because he was under age. He served a ten-year sentence.
In 1977 he left legal practice in Zambia and proceeded to Mozambique, where he joined the ZANU Central Committee. He was appointed chief of security, working in the office of Zanla commander, Josiah Tongogara, whose sister he was married to.
Apart from a stint as Speaker of Parliament, Mnangagwa has been a government minister since his return to Zimbabwe at independence in 1980.
His first portfolio was as Minister of State Security. Mnangagwa served as Minister of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs between 1988 and 2000.
While he exudes power, Mnangagwa has twice proved not to be a popular politician in his Kwekwe Constituency. He suffered humiliating defeat in the 2000 parliamentary election in Kwekwe Central. The campaign in that constituency was bitter.
The winner Blessing Chebundo of the MDC narrowly escaped death when the Zanu-PF youths who had abducted him and doused him with petrol were unable to light a match. Chebundo won the election while in hiding
Mnangagwa was then appointed Speaker of Parliament.
After he again lost the parliamentary election in 2005, Mnangagwa was appointed a non-constituency MP and Minister of Rural Housing and Social Amenities. His demotion to a minor portfolio specially created for him fuelled speculation that he was being punished by President Robert Mugabe for harbouring presidential ambitions.
But his appointment to the powerful post of Minister of Defence in the coalition government created in February 2009 has renewed speculation he might still be President Robert Mugabe’s favoured heir-apparent.
Mnangagwa is widely regarded as leading one of two powerful factions vying for control of Zanu-PF. The other is led by former army commander Solomon Mujuru, husband of Vice President Joice Mujuru.
Regarded as one of the wealthiest politicians in Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa has close business links with Colonel Lionel Dyck, an officer from the old Rhodesian Army.
Dyck founded MineTech International, a landmine clearance company which secured lucrative contracts from the Zimbabwe government to clear landmines in Zimbabwe border areas after the war. A UK-based company, Exploration Logistics Group, has since acquired full ownership of MineTech International.
Mnangagwa was Zanu-PF secretary for finance until 2002 and later became secretary for administration. As secretary for finance he controlled Zanu-PF’s extensive businesses empire under the holding company, Zidco.
Mnangagwa enjoyed a close relationship with Jayant Joshi, the managing director of Zidco and his brother Manharlal Chunibal Joshi, who also sat on the company’s board. The Joshi brothers fled to the United Kingdom when Zanu-PF instituted an investigation into the financial affairs of Zidco in 2004.
Attempts at previous Zanu-PF congresses to get Mnangagwa to divulge the financial status of Zidco had failed although he did reveal in 1992 that Zanu-PF’s assets were then worth a staggering Z$486 million.
In 2002, Mnangagwa was implicated in a shady deal involving money laundering and the trading of blood diamonds from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
An article in the Spanish daily newspaper, El Pais, named Mnangagwa and international financier Thamer Said Ahmed al Shanfari, the son of a former oil minister in Omani, as having connived to guarantee the safe passage of illegal cash and diamonds through Harare International Airport by circumventing customs.
The United Nations Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC reported that Mnangagwa and Zimbabwe Defence Force Commander General Vitalis Zvinavashe, now late, had enriched themselves from the country’s mineral assets under the pretext of arrangements set up to repay Zimbabwe for military services. Zimbabwe deployed troops to the DRC in 1997 to support President Laurent Kabila against foreign-backed rebel forces.
Various reports have appeared in the media linking Mnangagwa and wealthy business entrepreneur John Bredenkamp in ventures in the DRC.
Mnangagwa’s name has been linked to other allegations of corruption including the taking of bribes during the construction of Harare International Airport in the late 1990s.
Mnangagwa was recently reported to have teamed up with President Mugabe and a wealthy business magnate, Billy Rautenbach, to form a business partnership that acquired more than 60 000 hectares of land to grow sugarcane in Zimbabwe’s Lowveld.
Tomorrow: Paurina Gwanyanya (MDC); Kembo Mohadi (Zanu-PF)
http://www.herald.co.zw
Friday,
March 27, 2009
Bulawayo
Bureau
IN what could turn out to be a big scandal, Zimbabwe Revenue
Authority
officers in Bulawayo are demanding R500 to issue tax clearance
certificates
to new companies, despite the fact that the service is for
free.
The officers have gone as far as giving clients an account number
into which
they should deposit the money.
The officers, operating
from the third floor of Mhlahlandlela Government
Complex, are asking for
R500, P500 or US$50 to process the certificates.
Investigations by our
Bulawayo Bureau this week revealed that the officers
give clients a tax
number without the certificate and only release the
document when the money
has been paid.
Zimbabwean law bars a company from trading formally
without a tax
certificate. Not having one effectively stops an organisation
from
transacting with big companies or legally supplying bulk
orders.
A number of people called the Bulawayo Bureau on Tuesday when
they
discovered they had been fleeced.
"A Mrs Ncube attended to me
and when she said I should pay, I thought it was
part of the procedure.
After paying, I got shocked when a friend told me
there was no charge for
getting a certificate," said a man, who asked not to
be
named.
Another man who also asked not to be named said a Mr Mudzingwa at
Mhlahlandlela gave him a CBZ account number when he said he did not have
money on him to pay.
"Mr Mudzingwa gave me Account Number
01222381360032 at CBZ and said the
account name was Commissioner
General.
"He gave me my tax number but said the certificate could only be
released
when the full amount had been paid. I am yet to pay so I do not
have a
certificate, which means I cannot start trading legally," said the
man.
He said he suspected scores more could have fallen prey to the
corrupt
officials at Zimra .
Posing as a businessman, our Bulawayo
Bureau called Client Services at Zimra
Mhlahlandlela pretending to be a
customer who had forgotten the number and
was promptly given the same CBZ
account number at the reception, giving rise
to speculation that many people
were involved in the scam.
At the Zimra main offices, at the corner of
8th Avenue and Fort Street, our
bureau was emphatically told that tax
clearance certificates were issued for
free.
"There is no charge for
getting a tax certificate. Unless the law changed
within the last few hours
and we have not yet been informed about the
change, it is free," said a
woman at the reception.
In a telephone interview from Harare, the Zimra
chief loss control officer
Mr Peter Paradza said they would institute
investigations into the matter.
"We do not charge anything to issue tax
clearances. If anyone has been doing
that, we welcome any details so that we
can conduct our investigations and
bring the culprits to book," he said.
3 hours
ago
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Some lie awkwardly splayed on the stairs while
others
sleep in a neat row outside a church in Johannesburg from where
Zimbabwean
refugees will soon find themselves having to relocate
again.
The Methodist Church, in the city centre, has long been a popular
destination for thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing their country's political
and economic woes and more recently a devastating cholera crisis.
The
sheer numbers of refugees spilling out of the church as government
closed
down a camp in the border town of Musina, has now led local
politicians to
home in on the church for contravening city bylaws.
"The church and the
surrounding area all are now overcrowded," said Bishop
Paul
Verryn.
Desperate Zimbabweans seeking medical care or those running away
from the
country's harsh economic conditions still flock into South Africa,
despite
the formation of a unity government in their country in
February.
The new government is expected to work together to revive the
economy
brought to its knees by years of political turmoil -- characterised
by food,
fuel and cash shortages.
Government was this week in the
process of moving the refugees to six
different sites around the city and
Verryn said Thursday the United Nations
refugee agency had profiled and
interviewed 1,800 Zimbabweans.
He said while those conducting interviews
had been gentle, and residents
would still be able to use the building's
many skills training programmes,
the nuances of the trauma experienced by
constant movement were
underestimated.
"It is very very unsettling
and for some people very traumatic. They see
themselves as objects. Somebody
described them as a coke bottle: you pick
them up and put them down in
another place," said Verryn.
This week the non-governmental organisation
Lawyers for Human Rights sought
to declare unlawful an immigrant detention
centre at a military base in
Musina that deports up to 15,000 people a
month.
"For much of last year there were no toilet facilities and there
are still
no beds or enough food for detainees to eat," spokeswoman Kaajal
Ramjathan-Keogh said in a statement.
"Children are also kept in these
conditions before being deported back to
Zimbabwe to either face the
humanitarian catastrophe in that country or risk
the dangerous walk across
the Limpopo River back to South Africa."
Deteriorating conditions where
horrific stories of rape and abuse abound
have caused government to clamp
down on places of refuge and set up more
formal centres.
For those
who do make it to Johannesburg, the church is often a first stop,
and a
welcome place to rest after a long day searching for work.
For refugees
such as Kennedy Mayerwa, it is the hope of regaining a sense of
normality
that spurs them on.
"What I want is...I only want to have my own house,
my own space where I can
stay and my job for myself," he told
AFP.
While a next door mall puts up spiked fences to keep out sleeping
refugees,
and local businesses complain about urine and litter at their
front door,
lying where they are not wanted is still preferable to what lies
at home.
"There was no good life in Zimbabwe. There's no food, no jobs --
even if you
go to school," said a man identified only as Onward.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/
March
27 2009
Fragile hope is returning to Harare. Some
supermarket shelves are filling up
again and a start has been made on
shifting the rat-infested rubbish that
has been building up in the streets
for five years. Periodically, even the
moribund telephone system flickers
into life. The cholera epidemic is
finally waning. Zimbabwe has been a
byword for bad news for so long that
even the faintest note of optimism
feels like tempting providence.
What has changed, apart from the
appointment of the optimistically named
"unity" government of President
Robert Mugabe and his old adversary, Morgan
Tsvangirai? The main answer
seems to be the final abandonment of the useless
Zimbabwe dollar, after
inflation exceeded 230 million percent. Its
replacement by the US dollar has
brought a measure of economic stability and
prices are starting to fall,
bringing the price of staple foods back into
the reach of some of the
millions of Zimbabweans on the verge of starvation.
It is the payment of
public service workers in the American currency that is
responsible for the
partial resumption of services. Teachers are back in the
classroom, for
now.
However, this is a partial and temporary solution. For those not
lucky
enough to have been paid in foreign currency or subsidised by any of
the
three million Zimbabweans to have fled abroad, life continues to be
unbearable. And nobody knows whether the government has enough funds to pay
public- sector salaries again this month.
The International Monetary
Fund has made it clear that it will not help
Zimbabwe until it has cleared
its debts and started implementing sound
policies. It is hard to see where
the money is going to come from. Only 100
white farmers are left from around
4000 and most of their land, allocated to
black settlers, is lying
uncultivated. More than 90% of the population is
unemployed.
Western
donors are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They, too, want
evidence
that a democratic government is operational and economic reforms
are in
place, and are reluctant to do anything that might be seen as
perpetuating
Mugabe's rule. But without foreign aid many risk starvation and
the
faltering progress seen since the start of the year could grind to a
halt.
If Susan Tsvangirai's death is to leave a lasting legacy, it
must be one of
unity. Her husband was back at his desk this week. Robert
Mugabe appears
ready to set aside his brutal vendetta against him, and Mr
Tsvangirai seems
prepared to accept his rival's condolences at face
value.
Until recently aid would have been purloined or squandered but now
the new
Prime Minister needs help to save his country and relieve its
suffering. The
Australian government has recently resumed aid and Tanzania,
once Zimbabwe's
fiercest critic, is now begging for the outside world to
come to the rescue
of its stricken neighbour. Ultimately, Mugabe must be
brought to justice for
his crimes but today a bigger priority is to help
revive this ruined state.
http://www.hararetribune.com
Thursday, 26 March
2009 19:20
Letters
I am a student at the University of Zimbabwe and would
like to congratulate
the people's project, the MDC - not really for getting
into the government
but rather for making a giant leap towards realising our
dream of a
democratic prosperous Zimbabwe.
No matter how inconvenient
and problematic the MDC's marriage with Zanu PF
may be, the fact is that the
MDC now has the advantage of being in a
position to dismantle the
dictatorship and steer Zimbabwe towards a peaceful
democratic transition
from within the government.
Achieving this from outside the government
has clearly proved impossible.
Former student leaders such as Tendai Biti,
the Minister of Finance and
Nelson Chamisa, the Minister of Information and
Communication Technology,
are now government ministers.
As
students, we have endured extreme repression aggravated by the extreme
economic meltdown, coupled with the total abandonment of all the safety nets
meant to cushion students from the harsh economic
predicament.
Having been in the trenches with the MDC for a long time
and now having
people who understand our situation in positions of
authority, there are
certain things that students expect from the MDC's
presence in government.
Firstly, the junta-style administration of
state universities needs to stop
immediately. The legal and political
framework which gives university
vice-chancellors leverage to exercise
arbitrary powers should be dismantled
as a matter of urgency and replaced
with a student-centred and
student-friendly framework.
Secondly, the
state must rededicate itself to its duty to provide
substantial financial
support to students in institutions of higher and
tertiary
learning.
Our Minister of Finance, Biti, went through his
stone-throwing days at the
University of Zimbabwe on a full stomach and
received a substantial
government grant. On the other hand, we, the students
of today have
witnessed the commodification of education, which has made our
burden much
more gruesome.
I trust that the people's party (and not
the inclusive government) is aware
of our legitimate
expectation.
Relevant
University of Zimbabwe
Mount Pleasant,
Harare.
http://www.nehandaradio.com
26 March 2009
By Dewa Mavhinga
Since
the swearing in ceremony of the Prime Minister, his 2 deputies and
ministers
some weeks ago l have been asking myself the question: Are we in a
new
Zimbabwe yet? The answer eludes me still.
My hope, and l am sure many
Zimbabweans and other well wishers shared this
hope too, was that the
consummation of the inclusive government would be the
ushering in of a new
era characterized by a bold paradigm shift on the part
of government and a
fresh and new way of doing things.
In other words, with an inclusive
government it cannot be business as usual.
I desperately wanted to feel the
winds of change blowing across the country,
and to see the change with my
own eyes.
It was with a heavy heart, but not entirely unexpected, that it
dawned on me
that a new dawn has not come to Zimbabwe. Only minuscule and
purely cosmetic
changes have taken place; there has been no paradigm shift
on the part of
ZANU-PF and certainly there is nothing tangible to reflect a
change of heart
and attitudes on the part of ZANU-PF.
Robert Mugabe
and company has simply made a little room for the MDC to
squeeze in at the
table without making any alterations to the menu. Those,
like me, who
expected ZANU-PF to suddenly embrace accountability, human
rights and other
democratic values were met with the a rude reality that its
business as
usual for ZANU-PF and that all newcomers to the business of
government will
learn the ropes at the feet of ZANU-PF.
It appears ZANU-PF has stood on
the shores of the river of change, and,
instead of crossing over to the land
of transparency, good governance and
democracy; ZANU-PF has beckoned to MDC
to cross over to its side of the
river which is blighted with corruption,
lawlessness and repression.
As soon as the inclusive government came into
being ZANU-PF promptly began
vomiting on the agreement. State Agents, no,
State thugs really, had the
audacity to abduct Deputy Minister of
Agriculture designate, Roy Bennet and
incarcerate him on trump-up charges.
Despite a High Court ruling by Justice
Karwi granting Bennet bail, one
Prisons Assistant Commissioner Albert
Mandimika flatly refused to release
Bennet.
What more, Robert Mugabe at his birthday Party in Chinhoyi
declared that
farm invasions are not over until the last remaining white
farmers leave
their farms. These events provide conclusive evidence to those
in doubt that
we are certainly not in a new Zimbabwe. We are definitely in
Mugabe's old
Zimbabwe where human rights and democracy are anathema. We are
still in a
dictatorship where human rights defenders are threatened with
extinction.
That MDC is now part of government so far makes little
difference. They have
not demonstrated to observers that they will not take
crap from Mugabe and
his cronies. They are yet to demonstrate that they
wield some power, beyond
merely talking about it. I challenge the MDC to
take decisive measures and
to stand up to ZANU-PF and demand that ZANU-PF
stops this nonsense. I urge
the MDC to be open and transparency and resist
ZANU-PF's way of doing
things. This is only way to ensure we make a clean
break with the past.
The MDC cannot be preoccupied with saving the so
called inclusive government
to the point of making concession after
concession to ZANU-PF. Morgan
Tsvangirai and his team must stand solidly and
firmly on principle and
refuse to move an inch from principle. If the
government of national unity
will collapse because Morgan insists on respect
for human rights - so be it.
A warning to Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai is this: Do not give ZANU-PF
any quota, if you give ZANU-PF your
hand they will want your whole arm. In
the twinkling of an eye, ZANU-PF will
swallow you whole. MDC remember your
slogan and promise to bring about
change; and please deliver the change we
need in Zimbabwe. Chinja
Maitiro!
Dewa Mavhinga is a human rights lawyer and a regular columnist
on Nehanda
Radio with 'Reflections with Dewa'