Zim Independent
Shakeman
Mugari
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe yesterday introduced a $50
000 bearer's
cheque, further confirming that its plans to launch a new
currency have
collapsed.
The new denominations include a $5 000
bearer cheque which could have
been launched out of a realisation that the
current $1 000 was no longer
useful.
The bearer's cheques
expire in July this year. The introduction of the
new denomination of
bearer's cheque is a clear indication that Sunrise Part
2 which Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono recently said was
imminent is now in
tatters.
The new denominations come hard on the heels of a spate of
price
increases triggered by business fears that government could freeze
prices
under a proposed social contract involving labour, capital and
government.
The Zimbabwe dollar has also plunged on the black
market, ironically
the major source of foreign currency for individuals and
companies, to about
$7 500 to the United States dollar as shortages continue
to bite.
The failure of Sunrise 2 leaves the central bank stuck
with the new
currency which it printed at a huge cost last year but cannot
be introduced
because of galloping inflation.
The currency was
printed in Germany from July to December at a cost of
£16,5 million. It was
based on the RBZ's inflation predictions of two digits
of between 20% and
35%. Inflation is currently hovering around
1 593,6% but indications
are that it will continue to climb.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono told
the Zimbabwe Independent three weeks ago
that the currency was "coming
sooner rather than later".
Indications are however the plans for a
new currency have gone up in
smoke with all the prerequisites for its
introduction having crumbled.
Inflation, the major factor that the
central bank was banking on, is
heading for the 2 000% mark.
Zim Independent
ZIMBABWE Defence Industries (ZDI) CEO Tshinga Dube's son was last week
arrested by police with consignments of diamonds and gold worth millions of
dollars as government battles to crack down on high-profile syndicates of
precious mineral dealers.
The arrest of Dube's son is likely to
open a Pandora's box on the
illegal mining activities of ministers, MPs and
top public servants who are
said to be the major dealers in the booming
illicit minerals trade.
President Robert Mugabe said last week
ministers and influential
officials were involved in the underworld
operations. The police have also
said ministers and MPs are
involved.
Police sources yesterday said Mthulisi Dube (24) was
arrested last
Friday evening at his father's home at 20 Metcalf Road,
Greendale, Harare,
after a raid by law enforcement agents acting on a
tip-off. The police, who
also arrested another key suspect, Nyasha Takunda
Mudenge, an Air Force of
Zimbabwe officer, found 764 diamond pieces worth
$49 553 427 and 7,42
grammes of gold valued at $98 560.
Another
suspect, Charles Makanga, was also arrested in the process.
The three
suspects appeared at the Harare magistrates' court on Wednesday
and Dube was
granted $2 million bail to March 28. Bail conditions for the
other two
suspects were not readily available.
Police spokesman Wayne
Bvudzijena said he was not aware of the case
and referred the Zimbabwe
Independent to Inspector Banda at police
headquarters who deals with mineral
matters. She said she was not aware of
the charges. But top police sources
said the ZDI chief's son was arrested in
a major swoop on illegal dealers
across the capital.
Efforts to get comment from Tshinga Dube, a
retired army colonel, were
unsuccessful yesterday. His home telephone number
went unanswered the whole
day.
Police were said to have removed
everybody from the house and cordoned
it off. When the Independent visited
the property yesterday there were
people hanging around outside, but
repeated calls to the house established
there was no one inside picking up
the phone.
Dube, who was at the helm when ZDI was in 1997
entangled in a weapons
hijacking scandal after a Sri Lankan separatist
movement, the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam, seized arms destined for the
state, has been cited in
a number of shady minerals deals, especially during
the Democratic Republic
of Congo war between 1998 and 2002.
Last year the High Court heard DRC president Joseph Kabila and Dube
had been
involved in a DRC diamond mining concern through Dube & Associates
which
is registered in the Great Lakes country.
Dube has also been involved
in military-run companies exploiting
mostly diamonds in the
DRC.
A United Nations report, Final Report of the Panel of Experts
on the
Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth
of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, produced five years ago, names Dube
among
senior government officials and army officers accused of exploiting
minerals
in the Congo.
"In June 2002, the panel learned of a
secret new ZDF diamond mining
operation in Kalobo in Kasai Occidental run by
Dube & Associates.
"This company is linked, according to
banking documents, through
Colonel Tshinga Dube of ZDI to the Ukrainian
diamond and arms dealer Leonid
Minim, who currently faces smuggling charges
in Italy," the report says.
"The diamond mining operations have been
conducted in great secrecy."
The report also names the then Justice
minister Emmerson Mnangagwa,
who was in charge of DRC operations, former
Zimbabwe Defence Forces chief
General Vitalis Zvinavashe, Defence minister
Sydney Sekeramayi and senior
army officers. They have denied the
allegations. - Staff Writers.
Zim Independent
Ray
Matikinye
A SOCIAL contract between government, labour and
employers scheduled
to have come into effect yesterday, failed to take off,
suggesting there is
no shared vision in the country on the way
forward.
Labour and business only started talks with government for
a wage and
price freeze yeterday amid doubts a deal would be struck to
sabilise
inflation and rescue the country from economic
collapse.
The contract was proposed as a panacea to Zimbabwe's
mounting economic
woes.
Economists and social commentators have
criticised the proposed deal
as another attempt by government to buy itself
a new lease of life.
They doubt that the programme will lift
Zimbabwe out of its current
economic crisis, citing a raft of missing
ingredients needed before a
successful rollout.
A social
contract as proposed by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono in
his January
monetary policy statement, they say, will not work in a
dictatorship or
without public buy-in.
It proposed a freeze on wages and prices as
a step towards containing
hyperinflation, blamed as a primer for the
economic meltdown.
Economist John Robertson said Gono proposed the
social contract under
the illusion that the international community would
bring in foreign
currency, fund the contract by purchasing parastatals and
be willing to
reschedule the US$4 billion arrears Zimbabwe owes
international financiers.
"It adds up to absolutely nothing,"
Robertson said.
"Fixing salaries will persuade workers to think
they are enjoying a
constant standard of living but price freezes will lead
to severe shortages.
Manufacturers will simply supply the black market to
recoup what they
speculate would be the prices charged for foreign currency
on the black
market for their next stock of goods," he said.
Robertson said experience had shown that price controls have a reverse
effect of fuelling higher prices charged by informal market operators when
goods become available.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
president, Lovemore Matombo, said
government needed to address issues of
democracy, respect for all parties,
and accept freedoms that society ought
to enjoy for the contract to work.
"It will not work in a
dictatorship or a tyranny. It can only work in
a post-conflict situation
where there is a shared vision," Matombo told a
meeting organised by
Zimbabawe Lawyers for Human Rights on Wednesday.
Matombo said in
any arrangement necessary for dialogue, it was not
government alone that was
intransigent but employers need to change their
attitudes as
well.
"Capital has not changed its attitude. Business's attitude
has not
changed and still retains pre-Independence practices which serve its
purposes," Matombo said.
Matombo said lack of respect manifests
itself when police intervene in
labour disputes.
A tripartite
agreement cobbled together seven years ago under the
auspices of the TNF is
gathering dust because employers argue they cannot
link minimum wages to the
poverty datum line unless labour guarantees
increased
production.
But labour counter-argues that increased production can
only be
guaranteed under conditions where there are raw materials, most of
which
depend on availability of foreign currency over which they have no
control.
Social activist Joy Mabenge of the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and
Development doubted the social contract's success saying the whole programme
was based on coercion without the consent of the contracting
partners.
"People are not like robots. They don't behave like
robots that can be
programmed to respond to certain instructions
immediately."
Zim Independent
Lucia
Makamure
THE opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
will next week
file a legal challenge to the Electoral Act and the Zimbabwe
Electoral
Commission Act at the Supreme Court.
Innocent Gonese,
the party's secretary for legal affairs, confirmed
the legal challenge
yesterday although he said it was too early to go into
detail about
it.
Information to hand shows that the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC
formation
has sought legal opinion from Obert Gutu of law firm Gutu &
Chikowero
Attorneys as they prepare for their court battle.
"We
are going to file legal challenge with the Supreme Court in a few
days' time
and Obert Gutu, who has been helping us with the legal challenge
draft, will
be representing us," Gonese said.
Documents with the Zimbabwe
Independent indicate that the MDC will
challenge Section 3 of the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission Act.
The section states that the chairperson
of the commission is to be
directly appointed by the president from a list
of seven candidates selected
by a Parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules
and Orders.
MDC lawyers will argue that Section 3 of the Act gives
too much power
to the president in the appointment of members of the
commission. It argues
that the chairperson of the commission should appear
before a special
committee of parliament for hearings on his or her
suitability for
appointment.
The opposition party also wants
other members of the commission to
undergo similar vetting processes "to
ensure that the president will not
resort to the use of patronage in the
appointments of not only the
chairperson but other members of ZEC
also".
The registrar-general's office currently has the
responsibility of
compiling the voters' roll and registering of
voters.
Gonese said there was lack of transparency and independence
as far as
the Electoral Commission was concerned. The party will challenge
Section
4(1) (b) of the Act which empowers the registrar-general to compile
the
voters' roll. The party will argue that the RG should not be in charge
of
the voters' roll since he has nothing to do with elections. The party
feels
the task of registering voters and compiling the voters' roll should
be done
by the commission.
The party is also concerned with the
involvement of the national army
and police in the registration of voters,
compilation of voters' roll and
registers, voter education as well as the
actual running of elections.
The MDC will argue that from past
experience it has seen the
involvement of the army and the police resulting
in the intimidation of
voters and in some cases, violence.
It
has also made recommendations for the introduction of an
independent audit
of elections.
The party will call for the auditing of all election
by an independent
firm as was done in South Africa and other countries. It
is also wants
representatives of all contesting parties to be present at the
command
centre on the day when results are announced.
Nelson
Chamisa, the secretary for Information and Publicity, confirmed
the
challenge was the party's decision.
"This was a party decision and
we shall be filing the papers very soon
but I cannot tell you more details
now."
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
TIME is running out for Zimbabwe's opposition
political parties which
are demanding that next year's presidential election
be held under a new
constitution to ensure that it is free and
fair.
The two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) factions - the
major
complainants against the current constitution - are yet to organise
themselves into a force strong enough to pressure the Zanu PF government to
reform the constitution before the 2008 poll.
For its part,
government has either deliberately ignored the
persistent calls for
constitutional reform or merely dismissed them as not
urgent.
With less than a year to go to the scheduled presidential election,
government has not moved an inch to reform defective electoral laws or
repeal repressive legislation like the Public Order and Security Act which
it has relied on as a tool of repression.
The political
environment is still poisoned by the existence of laws
like Posa, the Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and a
severely emasculated
judiciary. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission - the body
which overseas the
elections - is embedded with the government both in its
leadership and in
its operations.
Analysts say the signs that the election will be
disorderly are
already starting to show. Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede
told a
parliamentary portfolio a fortnight ago that his office was not ready
for
the election next year because of lack of funds.
That means
thousands of school leavers who have attained the age of
majority since the
2005 parliamentary election cannot vote because they don't
have national
identity cards which are required for voter registration.
The
voters' roll is likely to be in tatters by March next year when
the
presidential election is due.
Given these negative factors and
government's lack of interest in
clearing them, there is fear among
opposition parties and observers that
next year's election might not be
different from the previous disputed
polls. The last two general elections
(2000 and 2005) and the presidential
poll (2002) were marred by violence,
allegations of vote-rigging and massive
intimidation. The legitimacy crisis
that resulted from those polls has
continued to haunt the
country.
The political environment which made it possible for Zanu
PF to
achieve the disputed victories still remain, analysts say. In some
cases the
situation has worsened.
There are very slim chances
that there will be a new constitution by
2008. Leaders from both factions of
the MDC believe government is keen to go
ahead with the election under the
current constitution because it serves
Zanu PF's cause.
The
danger, analysts say, is that another disputed poll will push the
country
over the cliff. Welshman Ncube, the secretary-general of the MDC
Arthur
Mutambara-faction, said it was futile to hold an election under the
current
constitution.
"We believe it is futile to have an election under
the current
constitution because the results are a forgone conclusion,"
Ncube said. "We
need a new constitution. We need to repeal the array of
repressive laws that
Zanu PF uses to its advantage if this country is to
avoid the disastrous
effects of another disputed election."
The
need for a new constitution has become urgent especially in the
wake of
government's recent ban on rallies in Harare. Although the official
government explanation is that the ban was a response to the violence that
erupted in Highfield after a banned MDC rally last week, sources said the
decision was made earlier as a preemptive measure against a potential revolt
made imminent by the massive discontent among ordinary people.
But apart from revealing the overwhelming fear, analysts say the bans
show
that government is resorting to the same laws which civic groups and
the
opposition say should be repealed if elections are to be free and
fair.
Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the Morgan
Tsvangirai-faction, said
unless pressured it was highly unlikely that
government would agree to a new
constitution.
"The current
constitution is clearly a useful tool for Zanu PF, that
is why they are
hostile to the idea of a new one," Biti said.
He said given its
way, government would want to keep its weapons of
political repression and
vote-rigging like Posa, Aippa and embedded
electoral bodies.
"This government knows that a new constitution will ensure free and
fair
election and Zanu PF cannot stand a chance in such a situation."
Other key aspects requisite for a level political playing field
include
allowing foreign observers into the country and lifting of the
blanket of
political fear that currently pervades the rural areas.
What is
clear though is that Zimbabwe cannot risk holding another
election under the
current conditions. But can the opposition get both a
constitution and an
election next year?
The MDC factions say they will accept pushing
the election to a later
date only if there is an agreed time line for the
purpose of having a new
constitution.
"We can push them forward
only if it is for the purpose of coming up
with a new constitution,"
Biti
said.
Ncube said the most important issue at the
moment was not an election
but a new constitution which set the ground rules
for a free and fair poll.
Perhaps the biggest challenge faced by
the oppositions and civic
organisations is how they will get the reluctant
government to even start
discussing a new constitution. National
Constitutional Assembly chairman
Lovemore Madhuku said all civic groups and
opposition parties should brace
themselves for a fight to force government
to accept a new constitution.
"It depends on the pressure that we
mount now, otherwise this
government will not give in to our demands
easily," Madhuku said.
He said there were already constitutional
drafts that had been worked
on that just needed fine-tuning and broader
consultation with the people.
"Most of the groundwork has been done. What is
needed is for government to
get involved so that the process moves ahead,"
he said.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has
upped the ante in his succession battle by
intensifying attacks on
Vice-President Joice Mujuru in Gweru last weekend,
saying she has wrecked
her chances of taking over from him.
Zanu PF sources said Mugabe on
Saturday raised the succession stakes
after telling senior party leaders in
the Midlands that Mujuru had ruined
her prospects by associating herself
with a dirty campaign to denigrate and
stampede him out of
power.
The sources said Mugabe told senior party leaders, who
included
politburo, central committee and provincial executive members,
ahead of
birthday celebrations at Mkoba stadium, the Mujuru faction was
trying to
damage his reputation and force him out by all sorts of means,
including
biographies.
Mujuru's rival, Emmerson Mnangagwa, was
present at the briefing, but
she was absent as it was officially claimed she
was preparing for exams,
while her husband arrived late for the
celebrations. The Mujuru bloc is said
to be furious over Mugabe's
remarks.
Mugabe has accused former Zanu PF secretary-general Edgar
Tekere and
prominent publisher Ibbo Mandaza, of trying to use Tekere's
controversial
autobiography, Tekere - A Lifetime of Struggle, to undermine
him while in
the process promoting Mujuru's presidential bid. He has also
said Mujuru and
her allies have "lost the plot" by trying to gain power
through such
politics of intrigue.
Mugabe seems to have been
angered by the Mujuru group's move to thwart
his 2010 election bid - now
almost dead in the water -- and Tekere's attack
on his liberation struggle
credentials. The state media is trying hard to
identify some silver lining
to Mugabe's disastrous legacy. Furthermore, the
president apparently resents
growing internal pressure, largely from Mujuru's
camp, for him to quit now
or in March 2008.
Mugabe's indignation at the Mujuru camp is likely
to pour fuel on the
succession fires threatening to engulf the ruling party.
The president has
publicly admitted deep divisions in Zanu PF and warned his
party would
almost certainly disintegrate were he to leave now.
Analysts say this is a realistic assessment of the state of the party
because Zanu PF could indeed break up along regional and ethnic fault lines
after Mugabe. His remarks are also of course self-serving.
The
weekend attack on Mujuru in Gweru followed Mugabe's assault on her
last week
in his birthday broadcast interview heavily censored by ZBC
managers and
state information gatekeepers who feared it would fuel Zanu PF
infighting.
They have been proved right.
The ruling party has two main
factions, one led by retired army
commander General Solomon Mujuru and the
other by senior party official
Mnangagwa, engaged in a power struggle over
Mugabe's job.
Mujuru, Mnangagwa and Reserve Bank governor Gideon
Gono are widely
seen as the frontrunners.
Observers say Mugabe
is keeping Zanu PF factions at each other's
throats- a divide-and-rule
strategy - to hang onto power.
But sources said the Mnangagwa
faction was thrilled by Mugabe's
weekend attack on Mujuru which appeared to
signal renewed confidence in them
and reopened a window of opportunity for
their leader who has suffered a
series of defeats in the party and in
general elections since 1999.
Sources said the Mnangagwa camp has
held several meetings to assess
the impact of Mugabe's remarks on the
succession debate.
The Mujuru faction was said to have been shocked
by Mugabe's latest
outburst. They viewed the remarks, sources said, as a
brutal kick in the
teeth by the leader who openly backed their candidate in
the run-up to the
party's 2004 congress.
Although Mnangagwa had
the support of the majority of provinces in
2004, he was defeated by Mujuru
after Mugabe intervened on her side in the
wake of the Tsholotsho incident.
The Mnangagwa faction was accused of
plotting to oust Mugabe after hosting a
politically-charged prize-giving
ceremony in Tsholotsho.
However, things now appear to have changed dramatically. Mugabe seems
to
have turned against Mujuru and is firing at will on their faction. His
edited statements last week suggest a new succession plan might be on the
table. As if to validate his claims of a plot to force him out, Zanu PF
supporters were spotted at his birthday on Saturday displaying intriguing
posters, one which read: "Succession politics, not ouster politics
please!"
Despite mounting political pressure, the Mujuru faction
has vowed to
fight back with a vengeance. Senior leaders of the camp said
this week they
would work to recover lost ground. "We are going to fight
back, no doubt
about it, make no mistake," one leading faction member said.
"The battle is
on and it's far from over."
While the Mnangagwa
group has lost a number of senior members who felt
betrayed by their leader
during the Tsholotsho saga, the Mujuru camp has
also of late suffered a
series of setbacks. Apart from Mugabe's damaging
remarks about them, the
faction's strategic member in government, former
Finance minister Herbert
Murerwa was recently fired from cabinet. In fact,
the cabinet reshuffle in a
number of ways weakened the Mujuru camp.
The removal of deputy
Finance minister David Chapfika and his
subsequent posting to Agriculture,
for instance, left Treasury in the hands
of Mujuru's rivals: Mnangagwa and
Gono. New Finance minister Samuel
Mumbengegwi is well-disposed towards
Mnangagwa's camp, although he is more
of a Mugabe loyalist.
Prior to all this, late last year former Agriculture permanent
secretary
Simon Pazvakavambwa, a staunch Mujuru ally, was booted out for
insulting
Gono.
Although Mnangagwa's faction did not benefit anything
directly from
this, the events represented setbacks for the Mujuru camp
which had until
last year seemed to be on an unstoppable march towards State
House.
With the Mnangagwa faction heading towards recovery from the
2004
defeat, the explosive Zanu PF succession race is still on and wide
open.
Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro
THE Social Dimensions Fund (SDF) meant to provide safety
nets for
vulnerable members of society is a shambles as the Ministry of
Public
Service, Labour and Social Welfare has failed to account for money
injected
into the fund since 1991.
The Comptroller and
Auditor-General's report to the Public Accounts
Portfolio Committee says the
ministry has never produced accounts for the
SDF funds from its
inception.
The SDF fund was established in 1991 through a
constitutional
amendment to provide safety nets and retraining for employees
retrenched
during the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme.
Information to hand shows that the World Bank and the United Nations
Population Fund, initially the principal donors for the fund, terminated
their support in 2000 citing lack of accountability and government's failure
to repay loans.
More than $430 million was sunk into the fund
to finance mitigating
projects and programmes.
However,
ministry officials fleeced the fund, ignoring the minister's
directive to
stop any disbursements until discussions with the Finance
ministry on the
issue were concluded.
"The Comptroller and Auditor-General informed
the committee that due
to absence of records an amount of $48 853 863
expended on schools and
examination fees in 1998 could not be
substantiated," the committee
presentation said.
Documents also
show that SDF director Godfrey Mhishi pocketed $2
million purportedly for
fuel reimbursement, while the fund paid out $1,6
billion to an unnamed payee
in August 2006.
"The committee is concerned about the manner in
which the SDF has been
administered. Since 1999 no accounts have been
submitted to the Comptroller
and Auditor-General for audit for seven years,"
the report said.
Giving evidence to the Public Accounts Portfolio
committee last week,
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister
Nicholas Goche said he
gave a directive in December 2005 that no further
disbursements should be
made from the fund until his discussions with the
Ministry of Finance were
concluded.
But information before the
committee indicated that money was moving
in and out of the account as late
as October 2006.
Sources in the committee said Goche promised to
investigate all the
transactions that took place after the ban and to deal
with the involved
people.
The sources said Goche told the
committee that the SDF last held a
board meeting in 2001 and since his
coming into office in 2005, he had not
called a board meeting.
The source said Goche was planning to transfer the fund to the
Ministry of
Small and Medium Enterprises and had since held discussions with
Minister
Sthembiso Nyoni on the issue.
Documents to hand show that the SDF
was investing some of the money it
received as grants and loans on the money
market. The fund lost substantial
amounts of money when the ENG was closed
in 2004.
"Since not all resources can be used immediately, SDF
sought and was
given authority by treasury to invest monies that would not
be for immediate
use," reads a report to the portfolio committee dated
February 14 this year.
Zim Independent
GOVERNMENT
is dragging the country into the past through its policies
at a time when
the African continent is full of success stories, a top
European Union (EU)
envoy has charged.
British ambassador to Zimbabwe, Andrew Pocock,
said in a recent
in-house embassy publication, Britain and Zimbabwe, that
the nation's life
expectancy had dropped to levels reminiscent of Britain's
industrial
revolution in the 18th century.
"Although progress
has been slower in Africa, there is no shortage of
success stories across
the continent, sadly, not here in Zimbabwe," said
Pocock.
"Here, the trend is the opposite. From a position of relative
prosperity,
and infrastructural, educational, health and agricultural
achievement,
Zimbabwe is accelerating into the past as a matter of
government
policy.
"In statistical terms, as it heads back to pre-modern
levels, life
expectancy in Zimbabwe has fallen by one year for every year
since 1980."
Pocock said the sad truth about worsening poverty and
lack of progress
towards the millennium development goals were problems
mainly limited to the
few countries which continue to live under either
conflict or gross
misgovernment.
He said the way forward was
for governments to embrace a market
economy and to respect property
rights.
"Policies which do not encourage investment actively
destroy it,"
Pocock said. "Global capital will not be courted by policies
which erode
value," he said.
The British ambassador said
Zimbabwe's economic recession had nothing
to do with the so-called regime
change agenda or illusionary economic
sanctions, which President Mugabe has
blamed for ruining economic turnaround
efforts by his
administration.
"This has nothing to do with alleged plots against
Zimbabwean
sovereignty or non-existent economic sanctions. Denying the law
of gravity
will not stop you falling off a cliff. Why should denying
economic laws be
different?"
Pocock said Zimbabwe was not a
victim of international malevolence as
it had received over £500 million
from Britain since Independence. He said
humanitarian assistance should not
be necessary but government was denying
itself and its people the benefits
of development and partnership. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Itai
Mushekwe
THE United States this week issued Senate President
Edna Madzongwe
with a visa to attend the third annual meeting of Women
Speakers of
Parliament at the United Nations headquarters in New York, which
began
yesterday and ends today.
The visa contains a 25-mile
radius restriction.
Madzongwe is on the US sanctions list which
prohibits her from
travelling to that country. Under the UN headquarters
agreement, the US
government is obliged to issue visas for official travel
to the UN even
though a visa holder is blacklisted under its sanctions
regime. However,
they are prohibited from venturing beyond the stipulated
radius.
Madzongwe is attending the meeting together with opposition
legislator
for Makokoba, Thokozani Khupe, but unlike Khupe, Madzongwe will
be confined
to New York City and environs.
If she violates the
restriction she can be deported.
"I can confirm to you that the
president of the senate was issued with
a visitor's visa with a 25-mile
radius restriction. This means she cannot
travel beyond this area," said a
US embassy official in Harare.
The meeting, running under the theme
"The Role of women speakers of
parliament in protecting and empowering the
girl child - the next
generation", is organised by the Inter-Parliamentary
Union (IPU).
It coincides with the 51st session of the Commission
on the Status of
Women that is taking place at the same venue. The UNDP
Thematic Democratic
Governance Trust Fund financed the trip. Women and
children were among the
estimated 700 000 people who lost their homes and
livelihoods under the
government's Operation Murambatsvina in 2005.
Zim Independent
Itai
Mushekwe
THE television monopoly of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Holdings could
soon end following an announcement by a new pan-African
satellite television
station GTV that it intends to set up shop in Zimbabwe
by mid-year.
The television channel, a subsidiary of South
Africa-based Gateway
Communications, said it was going to roll out its
services to people who
have been unable to afford satellite subscription
services, thus being
limited to national free-to-air television
channels.
Apart from Zimbabwe, GTV is also set to penetrate other
African
markets, which include Malawi, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania and
Kenya.
The revelation comes at a time when government has
maintained solid
gatekeeping of the broadcasting sector. It has maintained
the loss-making
ZBC's monopoly through the Broadcasting Services Act
(BSA).
The law was crafted under the stewardship of former
Information
minister, Jonathan Moyo.
The legislation set up a
statutory broadcasting regulatory body, the
Broadcasting Authority of
Zimbabwe (BAZ), which is tasked with issuing
licences.
Newly
appointed Information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu on Wednesday
appeared
determined to see a new broadcaster coming into the arena.
He told
the Zimbabwe Independent in an interview that government had
liberalised the
airwaves and had no problems with new stations setting up
shop as long as
they met the broadcasting legislative requirements of the
country.
"There is no policy shift here," said
Ndlovu.
"Government has already liberalised the broadcasting and
telecommunications sectors. If they qualify they will operate and once the
Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe approves them it is fine they can
operate.
"We can't have a situation whereby any Tom and Jack
are allowed to
broadcast without qualifying for a licence."
Ndlovu said he was working for reconciliation between the government
and
media as the current hostility was not in the best interests of the
nation.
"I'm trying to build bridges so that the government and
media can work
together. There's no need for confrontation. I have just gone
into the
ministry so I'm still operating on existing policy."
In a statement released last week, Gateway Communications president,
Julian
McIntyre said GTV would provide a unique bouquet of international and
local
entertainment content at a competitive subscription rate.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Ndlela
ZIMBABWE'S vulnerable currency was this week
battling to find a bottom
on the parallel foreign currency market which last
week broke open on
unprecedented demand for hard currency and concerns the
central bank was
losing its battle against swelling inflation.
Inflation surged to an all-time high of 1 593,6% year-on-year in
January and
is expected to breach 1 700% in February on the back of
unprecedented price
hikes stoked by commodity prices trailing at the
parallel market
rate.
Dealers said demand for foreign currency was profound on
renewed
uncertainty over Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono's next policy
action
after his proposals for a social contract went up in smoke due to
sustained
resistance from President Robert Mugabe's cabinet and key
stakeholders.
Market watchers said the introduction of a $50 000
bearer cheque by
Gono this week had sparked fears monetary authorities had
given up faith in
their campaign to defend the beleaguered
currency.
The embattled local unit touched $7 500 to the greenback
after
plunging to $6 600 to the US dollar last week, from a rate of nearly
$5 000
in January.
It plumbed fresh depths again this week
against the British pound,
moving from around $11 000 a pound sterling to
$15 000. The British pound
rate had been at $7 000 in January.
The local unit was yesterday trading at $1 100 against the South
African
rand, from $880 reached last week. The feeble Zimbabwe dollar opened
the
year trading at $350 per rand and had plummeted to $600 to the rand in
January.
It had opened the year trading at $3 000 and $5 000 to
the greenback
and British pound respectively.
Zimbabwe is
currently battling an acute foreign currency shortage that
has stoked severe
fuel shortages and disrupted normal economic activities.
Gono in
January refused to devalue the local unit, saying devaluation
was unlikely
to result in "planeloads" of foreign currency into the country.
Eight
devaluations since he assumed office had failed to give any spark to
the
distressed foreign currency market, he said.
Gono last devalued the
local currency on the official interbank market
to $250 against the
greenback in July, from $101 to the US unit.
Inflows on the formal
market have been dismally low as a result of the
unrealistic exchange
rate.
Independent economists project Zimbabwe's embattled
currency's fair
value to end the year at a rate of $16 588,73 to the US
dollar on the back
of surging inflation expected to breach 5 000%
year-on-year this year.
The fair value is the realistic value of
the currency taking into
account inflation differentials between Zimbabwe
and its trading partner
countries.
It is not necessarily the
official exchange rate.
The parallel market rate could reach over
$20 000 to the US unit on
the parallel market this year.
The
parallel foreign currency market has been declared illegal and
several
companies and individuals have in the past two years been hauled
before the
courts for trading foreign currency on the unofficial market.
However, it has continued to flourish despite outrage from government
and
the central bank governor.
Zim Independent
ZIMBABWE'S
major banks were this week reportedly reviewing their
portfolios on fears of
a rate hike by the central bank after its proposed
social contract failed to
take off yesterday.
Market sources said most banks had detected
increased default risk on
bank borrowings and were moving to curtail losses
on their books on any rate
hike.
"We're stress testing all our
facilities at higher interest rates," a
bank analyst told
businessdigest.
Market sources said the failure of the proposed
social contract had
raised the spectre of a rate hike by Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono,
expected to take radical policy measures this week to
rescue his score card,
marred by surging inflation which touched an all-time
high of 1 593,6%
year-on-year for January and is expected to soar to fresh
highs on February
figures.Gono kept interest rates unchanged when he
presented his monetary
policy statement on January 31, maintaining the key
accommodation rates for
secured and unsecured lending to banks at 500% and
600% respectively, but
indicated that the central bank's interest rate
policy would be guided by
inflation developments and outlook.
Although government projected inflation to decline to 350% by
year-end, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected an average
inflation rate of 4
278,8% this year.
A bank economist said there was a very high
default risk across all
sectors of the economy because of adverse
macroeconomic conditions.
A rate hike was likely to push bankers
into "selective lending on
targeted sectors", he said, warning that most
economic sub sectors would
remain depressed this year and probably push most
banks
away from their core lending business.
"We're likely
to see a review of interest rates this month," a dealer
said yesterday.
"This will probably be done during the course of open market
operations by
the central bank as indicated by Gono in January," the dealer
said.
Zimbabwe's economy has incurred a cumulative 40% decline
in gross
domestic product (GDP) since 1999.
Government projects
the economy to grow marginally by between 0,5% and
1% this year, but
independent analysts project negative growth of between
3,5% and
5,5%.
It is likely that Gono will unveil a raft of other measures
as he
battles to improve his score card, dented by soaring
inflation.
In his monetary policy statement, Gono said experience
had "amply
demonstrated that singular application of traditional monetary
policy tools,
such as interest rates, in the absence of concerted, holistic,
well
sequenced policy packages will only serve to throw the productive
sectors
deeper into stagnation - low capacity utilisation co-existing with
high
inflation. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
ZIMBABWE has witnessed a spate
of unprecedented price increases for
most goods and services after the
proposed social contract by Reserve Bank
Governor Gideon Gono in his latest
monetary policy presented on January 31.
Many retailers defended
the increases, saying they were doing so to
cushion their businesses against
losses should government freeze price
increases under a social contract
which was expected to be in place
yesterday.
Gono said the
price freeze would run from March 1 to June 30 "after
which social partners
will renew the need for mutually agreed realignments".
Captains of
industry told businessdigest negotiations for the
formulation of the social
contract had not yet started and that price
increases made out of feared
losses arising from the proposed price freeze
were not
justified.
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president,
Callisto
Jokonya, said negotiations for a social contract had not yet
started.
"No price freeze would be effective on the said date.
There is no
formulation for the social contract as negotiations are yet to
start,"
Jokonya said.
"The proposed price freeze is part of a
holistic package of measures
to be agreed upon by all stakeholders and not
an isolated factor," said
Jokonya.
On what CZI was doing to
educate members raising prices weekly,
Jokonya said while the organisation
did not condone the culture of price
increases, shortages of foreign
currency and rising operational costs had
negatively impacted on industrial
viability.
A price survey conducted by businessdigest last week
showed basic
commodities prices had gone up by an average of 300% since
January.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) president,
Marah
Hativagone, said the proposed price freeze had induced speculative
tendencies in the country resulting in prices being unreasonably adjusted
upwards.
"Consideration of various protocols are underway and
the basis for the
social contract will be the Kadoma Declaration of 2001,"
Hativagone said.
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe chairman, Philip
Bvumbe alleged
speculative tendencies by the business community, maintaining
that such
conduct was likely to become common if government failed to
establishment
the Prices and Incomes Commission.
"Certainly, we
are worried by businesses that are only out to
profiteer in an environment
where consumers' disposable incomes have
severely been eroded by steep
inflation," Bvumbe said.
Bvumbe said if the business community
continued to hike prices
arbitrarily, the country was likely to plunge into
anarchy.
Bvumbe said the country needed to establish the Prices
Commission
quickly, but said their plea with legislators had "fallen on deaf
ears".
"As the CCZ, we have no statutory powers to bring realistic
pricing
models into the market, and, obviously, there is no way we can
compel
businesses to reduce their prices. What we can only do is to advocate
fair
pricing, which in this instance would not help anyone. Effectively,
this
means consumers are left at the mercy of retailers and producers,"
Bvumbe
said.
Zim Independent
Shame Makoshori
A VISIT by members of the
Organisation of Eastern and Caribbean States
(OECS) this week is unlikely to
result in deals, a delegation member told
businessdigest, indicating that a
comprehensive study of the country's
economic policies was likely to
determine any investment decisions by the
islanders.
Martin
Lawrence, a member of the delegation which was hosted by the
Zimbabwe Allied
Banking Group, Business Network International and the
Zimbabwe Tourism
Authority, said the visit was "an information gathering
exercise". Members
of the delegation were expected to make reports to their
respective
principals before any investments decisions were taken.
"There are
several factors that we will explore before we make a
decision on which
areas to invest in," Laurence told local business
executives at a meeting in
Harare.
Lawrence said: "As foreign investors we will be looking at
certain
guidelines. For instance if an investor has the capacity to invest
75% into
a project but the laws restrict him to 25%, he might not be willing
to
invest."
He said the delegation, consisting of businessmen
from the islands of
St Kitts & Nevis and Antigua, would thoroughly study
the country's
investment policies before embarking any investments in the
troubled
southern African country, currently facing its worst economic
crisis in
history.
The country's policies would also determine
the quantum of capital
companies from the Caribbean would inject into the
investment-sapped country
as well as the tenure of investment for any
planned projects.
Indications were that the failure to repatriate
profits by foreign
investors was likely to bother the OECS members, and
probably scuttle any
prospects of definite investment commitments, a
delegation member indicated.
Laurence also expressed concern over
the restive mood among
Zimbabweans, saying this made the country a high risk
investment
destination.
"We will also go to the streets to
observe the ordinary people and see
if they are happy because if we are
sitting here we only get to hear the
views of business executives," Lawrence
said.
Zimbabwe is currently grappling hyperinflation and acute
foreign
currency shortages that have disrupted the normal functioning of all
economic activities in the country.
Productivity is at its
lowest level since independence in 1980, and
this has triggered economy-wide
shortages of basic food commodities that
have led to social discontent which
government has battled to contain
through heavy handed intervention by state
security agencies.
The inflation rate is currently at a record high
of 1 593,6%
year-on-year, and independent forecasts for the year-end
inflation rate are
at between 4 000% and 5 000%.
Government
projects inflation to end the year at a rate of between
350% and
400%.
The economic woes have triggered a host of problems for the
business
community, battling crippling cash flow problems due to weekly
escalation of
prices. Led by the ABI Group of companies, a multi-sectoral
concern with
investment tentacles spanning the financial services sector,
property,
tourism, insurance and others, the Caribbean delegation indicated
particular
interest in the mining, manufacturing and agricultural
sectors.
A raft of pending laws earmarked to force foreign-owned
companies to
cede significant stakes to indigenous business people have
scared foreign
investors away from the country.
UN statistics
indicate that foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows
into Zimbabwe dropped
from US$26 million in 2002 to US$9 million in 2004 as
a result of the
deteriorating investment climate.
Reserve Bank governor last month
indicated that the pending laws had
created anxiety in the business
community and should be legislated quickly
so that investors became clear
about government intentions regarding black
economic
empowerment.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Ndlela
THE International Monetary
Fund (IMF) executive made no decision on
the contentious issue of restoring
Zimbabwe's voting and related rights, but
"expressed deep concern over the
deteriorating economic and social
conditions" in the country and called for
payment of outstanding arrears.
The call is likely to intensify
pressure on the foreign-currency
strapped country to repay its debts to the
Bretton Woods institution after
surviving membership expulsion in February
last year by paying outstanding
arrears to the IMF's General Resources
Account (GRA).
Zimbabwe had hoped the IMF would move to restore its
membership rights
after payment of arrears to the GRA but was stunned after
a March executive
board meeting voted to retain the suspension of the
country's voting rights
as well as rights to IMF resources.
This had soured relations between the IMF and President Robert Mugabe's
regime, which subsequently blocked a planned annual Article IV Consultation
visit by an IMF team, insisting its membership with the Bretton Woods
institution was only nominal because of the absence of membership
rights.
Article IV Consultations are carried out on all IMF members
annually.
An IMF mission had finally been allowed into the country
in December
following a visit by the IMF executive director for Africa,
Peter Gakunu,
who had sought a high-level meeting with President Robert
Mugabe to discuss
Zimbabwe's frosty relations with the IMF.
The
issue of Zimbabwe's membership rights is understood to have been
discussed
at that meeting, whose details have not been made public.
The IMF
executive board met last Friday to consider issues related to
Zimbabwe's
outstanding arrears to the Poverty Reduction and Growth
Facility-Exogenous
Shocks Facility (PRGF-ESF) Trust.
The Board also considered the
sanctions, including the suspension of
voting and related rights that had
been imposed on Zimbabwe with respect to
its arrears to the IMF's GRA, which
were settled in full in February 2006.
"With respect to the
suspension of Zimbabwe's voting and related
rights, the Board made no
decision and agreed to return to the issue at a
later date," a statement
issued soon after the meeting said.
"With regard to Zimbabwe's
outstanding arrears to the PRGF-ESF Trust,
the board expressed deep concern
over the deteriorating economic and social
conditions and regretted that the
authorities have not undertaken the
policies recommended by the IMF. The
board also noted that Zimbabwe's
payments towards settlement of its PRGF-ESF
arrears have been minimal and
that its arrears to the Trust have further
increased," the IMF statement
said.
The board urged Zimbabwean
authorities "to decisively address the
ongoing economic crisis by
immediately implementing a comprehensive
stabilisation package comprising
several mutually reinforcing actions
centered on fiscal tightening
(including transferring the quasi-fiscal
activities carried out by the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to the budget) and
price and exchange regime
liberalisation".
It also called for fundamental structural reforms,
including public
enterprise and civil service reforms, strengthened property
rights and
improvements in governance.
"In light of Zimbabwe's
deteriorating policy performance and payments
to the IMF, the board kept in
place the decisions previously taken to
address Zimbabwe's arrears to the
PRGF-ESF Trust - the declaration of
noncooperation, the suspension of
technical assistance, and the removal of
Zimbabwe from the list of
PRGF-ESF-eligible countries. The board urged
Zimbabwe to resolve its
remaining arrears to the PRGF-ESF Trust promptly,
and agreed that it will
again consider Zimbabwe's arrears to the Trust in
six months", the IMF said
in a statement.
Zimbabwe would have required a 70% weighted vote of
the IMF xecutive
board to restore its voting rights and eligibility to use
resources of the
Fund because it took a similar vote margin to suspend the
country's voting
and related rights with the IMF.
This is in
line with various amendments in the Articles of Agreement
between the IMF
and its members.
Zimbabwe cleared its overdue financial obligations
to the IMF's GRA in
February last year, but still remained with substantial
arrears amounting to
US$119 million under the PRGF-ESF Trust.
The figure has since ballooned to US$129 million.
While the
clearance of its arrears under the GRA facility removed the
basis for
Zimbabwe's compulsory withdrawal from the fund, the country
remained
suspended from exercising its voting rights and rights to IMF
resources as a
member of the Bretton Woods institution.
The IMF board had declared
in September 2001 that Zimbabwe was
ineligible to use the general resources
of the IMF, and removed the country
from the list of countries eligible to
borrow resources under the PRGF.
The IMF board noted: "Zimbabwe has
been in continuous arrears to the
IMF since February 2001 and is the only
case of protracted arrears to the
PRGF-ESF Trust, which currently amount to
SDR 86 million (about US$129
million)."
Zim Independent
Pindai Dube
WHEAT farmers have failed to meet
production targets for the current
season, a situation likely to force the
country to import the product to
curtail acute bread shortages.
The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) said farmers only managed to produce
150 000
metric tonnes for the 2006/07 season against a target of 220 000
metric
tones. GMB acting chief executive officer Colonel Samuel Muvuti said
farmers
failed to meet wheat production targets because of power outages,
fuel
shortages and lack of equipment.
"Its true the wheat farmers failed
to meet the targeted wheat
production target of 220 000 tonnes for the
2000/07 season due to serious
electricity outages and lack of equipments
like combine harvesters," said
Muvuti.
He added: "In fact, I
have to state that all the inputs were not
available leading the farmers
producing only 150 000 tonnes which is not
enough to sustain the bakery
industry."
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president, Wilson
Nyabonda, said the
failure to meet target was mainly attributed to power
outages and late
delivery of inputs. "The failure by wheat farmers was
mainly attributed to
power outages and late delivery of farming inputs
therefore there were low
yields," said Nyabonda.
Zim Independent
Vincent
Kahiya
THE message coming out of government and the police on
the fight
against corruption is not only convoluted but also betrays a
bureaucratic
reluctance to deal with the problem.
Official
pronouncements on the strategy to fight corruption and what
form it should
take have left various state bodies paralysed.
The Anti-Corruption
Commission and the police both appear too
constipated to act. The highest
political office however has the laxative
which it is reluctant to
administer.
This week, the government announced that it was
carrying out a
baseline survey to determine the level of corruption in the
country. The
very act of carrying out the survey reveals a government that
is seeking
confirmation of a phenomenon that it is already aware of. At a
training
workshop for reporters covering corruption two years ago, a senior
official
in the Anti-Corruption ministry, Patrick Machaya, announced
government's
intention to come up with a baseline study of corruption in
Zimbabwe.
He said government wanted its own study to debunk the
myth that had
been created by international anti-corruption bodies like
Transparency
International, which ranked Zimbabwe among the most corrupt
countries in the
world. That is fact and does not require an expensive
study.
It is undeniable that corruption has become a problem in
Zimbabwe
without necessarily trying to compare it with trends in the region.
The fact
that Zimbabwe championed the authoring of the Sadc Anti-Corruption
Protocol,
has a ministry dedicated to fighting the scourge and that the
executive --
at the highest level - is aware of the problem should have
given the country
a foot in the door in fighting graft.
This
has not happened and in fact, government in its perennial
confusionist mode,
at first adopted a hostile demeanour when responding to
those who accused
senior politicians of corruption. This was unhelpful and
formed a bulwark
against any attempts to cleanse the country of the blight.
This
stance has of late been dropped to usher in a new phase where
President
Mugabe has openly admitted that there is corruption among his
closest
comrades. And suddenly the whole leadership of the party - perchance
including those corrupt to the core - has picked up the presidential hymn
sheet and are singing in unison.
In his recent televised
birthday interview, President Mugabe spoke
about corruption in his party as
if the officials were up for felonious
Oscars. The disappointing anti-climax
to his mini-plot was failure to name
names.
As said earlier,
President Mugabe's officials tend to ape their leader
with exacting
precision. They have also spoken about corruption but are
afraid of naming
names. Industry minister Obert Mpofu - currently on trial
before parliament
on allegations of lying under oath - told parliament late
last year that
fellow ministers and MPs had looted the bedraggled
Ziscosteel. He later
tried to withdraw the statement and is now in trouble
for it.
Anti-Corruption minister Paul Mangwana last year promised to bring to
book
corrupt leaders but nothing has come to pass. Instead, he disappointed
the
nation again when he attempted to defend those we named as having
benefited
from the rot at Zisco.
He said there was nothing wrong with Zisco
paying airfares for
ministers or even donating money to Zanu PF and
financing Vice President
Joice Mujuru's bash. This was all the more shocking
coming from a minister
entrusted with fighting corruption.
Deputy police commissioner Godwin Matanga last month said he had names
of
corrupt government officials involved in gold smuggling. He did not
provide
names. A Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe official Mirirai Chiremba was also
disappointing when he evicted journalists from a parliamentary committee
meeting where he was set to give evidence on illegalities in gold mining
because he was going to name names. Committee member Tsitsi Muzenda came out
of the meeting to say that Chiremba had not provided any names. She knew
exactly what she was doing.
Then at the weekend police
commissioner Augustine Chihuri weighed in
with his contribution to the maze
of confusion. He almost accused members of
the public of not coming forward
with names. He said police needed tangible
evidence before arresting
anyone.
This is the same commissioner whose police arrested bankers
on the
flimsiest of evidence three years ago. The same government and police
who,
with the backing of the central bank, worked overtime to prove that
errant
bankers were responsible for the collapse of the economy. They even
enacted
a law to allow police to detain suspects for 21 days without taking
them to
court to facilitate investigation.
The same level of
enthusiasm has been missing when dealing with the
corruption in diamond and
gold mining, and the stripping of state assets at
Ziscosteel. The reason for
this lethargy is obvious.
The Zanu PF camaraderie is at play here.
The government's vigour has
been diluted even though RBZ governor Gideon
Gono says the country is losing
over US$40 million weekly from illegal
smuggling of precious metals. This
should have spurred the government to act
but instead, there are now
ready-made excuses for not arresting culprits -
there is scant evidence,
investigations are in progress, revealing names
will destabilise the
country, etc.
The catch is no one in
government will name names as long as the
president speaks about corruption
in riddles. His charges are looking for
his green light to work, which is
the tragedy of our time.
When bankers were accused of plotting to
bring down this economy, the
president was very liberal with names of the
perceived culprits and all arms
of government followed suit in
condemnation.
Going forward, the onus is on President Mugabe to
demonstrate that he
is committed to the fight by not only naming the
culprits and ensuring they
are prosecuted but by also removing them from
government. That he has kept
in his government politicians whom he says have
avariciously accumulated
wealth, reduces the fight to a circus.
The only reason he can continue keeping the gold and diamond smugglers
in
his government is because he feels that they are serving a useful
purpose -
to continue to steal from the nation of course. The president is
now using
the false anti-corruption crusade to try and cleanse his image by
heaping
the blame on supposed errant lieutenants. He is part of the problem
and
cannot run away from it.
Worse still, what is the value to the
nation of President Mugabe
giving hints to the criminals by saying he is
aware of the individuals
involved in illegalities? By doing so, is he not
giving them a head-start
against law enforcers?
In the
meantime, the culprits are busy laundering their ill-gotten
wealth or
"regularising" their act. One day the thieves will be brought to
book but
there will be very little evidence to support prosecution. The
felons will
walk scot-free largely because of bureaucracy wrought by Zanu PF
comradeship. Who is protecting the crooks here?
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
THE ban on political rallies
and a crackdown on opposition and civic
groups in the past fortnight could
spark a wave of civil disobedience as
people seek to express
themselves.
Observers have warned that the government crackdown
could scuttle the
proposed social contract involving government, labour and
employers.
Government last week invoked the Public Order and
Security Act (Posa)
to ban all political rallies and public activities for
three months as it
seeks to paralyse growing discontent among hard-pressed
Zimbabweans reeling
under severe economic hardships.
The ban,
which first targeted Mbare and Harare South before it was
extended to the
rest of the city, belies government's fears of potential
disturbances.
A spate of strikes which kicked off with an
unresolved doctors' strike
in December last year and further rumblings from
disgruntled army, police
and civil servants over eroding incomes have
connived to cause panic in
government circles.
Observers said
the prohibition of political gatherings was decided
upon by the Joint
Operations Command, a forum for army, police and
intelligence commanders
where security matters are discussed.
Their current priority is to
avert a national revolt. The decision was
taken two weeks ago before
disturbances erupted in Harare following a
cancelled MDC rally at Zimbabwe
Grounds in Highfield.
Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi said the
decision was taken due to
the " volatile situation prevailing in the
country".
Police have attributed the ban to lack of manpower to
provide security
at rallies.
Given the fact that the minister
has no right to issue blanket bans,
the opposition took identical decisions
to defy the illegal banning of their
meetings, whilst launching challenges
against the ban in the High Court.
Political commentators have read
the government's action as a clear
statement that it will not tolerate
political dissent. They say the ban on
political activities effectively puts
Zimbabwe "under a state of emergency -
to maintain the state of
affairs".
Otto Saki of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said
the
development reminded those who lived in the colonial era that repression
was
not confined to the white man.
"By arbitrarily banning
peaceful political protest and rallies,
government has for all practical
purposes declared a state of emergency,"
Saki said.
"If you
leave people no room to express themselves, the only option
would be for
them to explode. The bans have taken away the lawful means of
expression
which could lead the country to degenerate into a lawless
jungle."
Saki said government was deliberately violating the
rule of law, which
it is obliged to guarantee, making people lose confidence
in the law
enforcement agents.
"The custodians of the law are
openly violating it through defying
court orders," Saki said.
"A case in point is Morgan Tsvangirai's aborted Zimbabwe Grounds
rally.
Chief Superintendent Todd Jangara had in court on the eve of the
rally
agreed that his charges would not interfere but proceeded to do the
opposite
the next day."
Saki said government's behaviour would push people
into defiance
campaigns, seeking to assert their rights without even
applying for
clearance.
Political analyst John Makumbe said
this was the action of a desperate
government, nervous that there could be
an uprising by an increasingly
impoverished people.
"The
government is not afraid of civic groups or political parties,"
Makumbe, a
political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, said.
"They are afraid of the disenchantment within the army, the civil
service
and the ordinary person frustrated by the current hardships. This is
a
preemptive strategy to deal with a potential uprising instigated by these
groups, which have hitherto been backing them."
He said people
would not be deterred from their struggle for freedom
to express
themselves.
Makumbe was quick to point out that the development had
dealt a severe
blow to government's social contract initiative before it
comes on stream.
"You do not antagonise groups that you would need
to participate in
your project because that defeats the whole purpose of
dialogue and shoots
the plan down," he said.
"You do not arrest
business people, beat up opposition leaders and
civic groups and then expect
to call the same people to the negotiating
table."
Tsvangirai
in his address to diplomats last week spoke of a rebellious
mood, which has
a potential of bursting into spontaneous street protest.
He said
people were being pushed physically by the state apparatus of
repression,
while their material well-being was daily eroded by the
deteriorating
economy.
"There is now a clear mood of rebellion among
Zimbabweans," Tsvangirai
told diplomats. "There is now open defiance of
violent autocratic authority
and people have now reached the limits of their
suffering and are no longer
prepared to suffer silently."
Tsvangirai spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the arrests and the banning
of
public meetings and demonstrations are the last gasps of the
regime.
"We shall remain resolute in our quest to achieve our
vision of a new
Zimbabwe. These terror tactics are just the terminal signs
of a tyranny in
its last days, Chamisa said.
"This government
is now in panic mode. The regime is afraid of its own
people who are now
peacefully expressing their discontent in large numbers
throughout the
country."
Chamisa said the MDC believed that no amount of
harassment would
dampen the spirit of change that has gripped the
nation.
Intimidation and autocratic antics will not, he added,
stand between
the people and their vision for a new Zimbabwe.
He said repressive measures being put in place by the government would
only
strengthen the people's resolve to fight tyranny and to help shape a
new
Zimbabwe of democracy, freedom and prosperity.
"The regime's
barbaric terror tactics will not in any way postpone the
inevitable demise
of dictatorship. We shall not be intimidated," Chamisa
said.
Zim Independent
By Max
Hastings
IF Tony Blair had wanted to sponsor a military
adventure that would
have played brilliantly with the British middle class,
instead of sending
the army to Afghanistan and Iraq he would have dispatched
it to Zimbabwe.
In Hartlepool and Hemel Hempstead, there was never
much spleen against
the Taliban or Saddam Hussein. A great many people,
however, hate Robert
Mugabe.
This is, of course, the fruit of
his persecution of the shrinking band
of white farmers in his country - our
own kith and kin, to use a phrase that
became familiar during the 14 years
of Ian Smith's illegal white regime in
Rhodesia.
Confiscations
of land, casual violence and murders perpetrated by
Mugabe's thugs continue
to provoke British outrage even when they are
commonplace.
Peter Godwin's new memoir, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, documents in
the
most vivid fashion the experience of a nation in thrall to a monster as
wicked and depraved as was Papa Doc in Haiti or Idi Amin in
Uganda.
Godwin was raised in the old Rhodesia, lost a sister to
white
"friendly fire" in its civil war, and as a journalist has since
reported on
Zimbabwe's descent into hell.
He portrays the
shrunken white community, now clinging to the country
by its fingernails.
His own elderly parents spent their last years in
poverty, fear, and
squalor, harassed by Mugabe's dreaded "war vets",
watching the
disintegration of the society they had known for half a
century.
Amid their misery, Godwin learned for the first time
that his father
was not a British immigrant, but instead a Polish Jew, most
of whose
relations perished in the gas chambers before he reinvented himself
in
Rhodesia. Having escaped from one outcast purgatory in his youth, the old
man endured a second such experience as he died.
Godwin's tale
is profoundly moving, partly because it is written
without sentimentality.
Though he focuses upon Mugabe's white victims, he
knows that millions of
black Zimbabweans are worse off.
Yet the world does nothing.
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa
continues to treat Mugabe as an ally,
not least because many of his own
voters applaud Zimbabwe's land
confiscations and, indeed, the ruthless
treatment of its white rump. As a
hero of the "freedom struggle", Mugabe is
inviolate.
The
tragedy of Zimbabwe makes some of us search our own consciences,
back to the
years of white supremacy. I was among visiting correspondents
who reported
the guerilla war, until I was deported by the Smith government
in
1976.
Some British acquaintances with long memories say to me
today: "Don't
you feel pretty stupid, when you see what Mugabe has done? You
were one of
the silly ***** who thought his thugs were freedom
fighters."
Yes, we did. Like most of my colleagues, I reported from
Rhodesia 30
years ago in an almost permanent state of rage. We saw a smug,
ruthless
white minority, beer guts contained with difficulty inside blazers
with RAF
crests, proclaiming themselves the guardians of civilisation in the
heart of
Africa.
They killed carelessly, tortured freely, and
exploited censorship to
conceal their worst excesses. The city dwellers,
patrons of Meikles Hotel
bar, were the worst, because they were the most
hypocritical. Fervent
supporters of "good old Smithy", many took care not to
expose their necks,
preferring to "kill Kruger with (their) mouths", as
Kipling had put it 70
years earlier.
The farmers commanded much
greater respect. They were brave people,
enduring much peril behind barbed
wire on their remote acres, taking to the
bush in uniform without complaint
as police or army reservists.
I spent many nights at their
firesides, arguing the toss about their
cause. They were uncomprehending of
how I, an ex-public schoolboy whose
great-uncle was president of the
Rhodesian Tobacco Growers' Association,
could lack sympathy for them - was,
frankly, a traitor to my caste.
I told them they should recognise
that they were utterly alone. They
were disbelieving. The American and
British governments would never abandon
them to a black communist rabble,
they said.
They flourished letters from cousin Charlie in Tunbridge
Wells, urging
them to keep up the good work, saying that his local Rotary
club was right
behind them. Maybe, I said, but not a manjack of them in
Tunbridge Wells
will get off his bottom and help you.
They
could not believe that "the munts", "the indigenous", as they
called the
black population, could militarily defeat them: "They even lay
their bloody
landmines upside down."
Determined to fight to the last ditch, they
did so. Only when the
Portuguese quit Mozambique, the South African
apartheid regime withdrew its
support, and the country was on its knees
militarily and economically, did
the Smith regime quit.
By
then, there had been far too much death and bitterness for
reconciliation. I
thought those white farmers who stayed on after Mugabe
assumed power in 1980
crazy - though not as crazy as newcomers, who bought
land as recently as a
decade ago.
Their answer was, of course: "Where else do we go? We
belong here. We
are Africans, too."
It remains a source of deep
grievance to many white people born in the
continent that their black
neighbours and rulers will not accept them on
their own terms.
Because I was one of those who passionately opposed the white regime
and
supported black majority rule, I often ask myself whether I bear a
minuscule
share of responsibility for Mugabe.
Reading Godwin's tale of
tragedy, of misgovernment on an epic scale,
it is difficult to deny that
whatever black Rhodesians endured under Smith
is less than they have
suffered under Mugabe.
Godwin quotes an observation familiar in
modern Africa, that the two
great tragedies to befall the continent were:
the coming of white people;
and their departure before creating new
institutions capable of sustaining
themselves, to replace those that they
had destroyed.
Many of us always acknowledged that majority rule
would be fraught
with problems. Yet nothing can make those who saw white
minority rule in its
naked ugliness lament its passing.
I
cannot bring myself to feel profound pity for Peter Godwin's white
Zimbabweans, decent people though some of them are. Their exclusion was
ordained a generation ago, by their own leaders' folly and
savagery.
Compassion is overwhelmingly due to black Zimbabwe, which
neither
white guns nor white butter can save from the monsters who are the
legacy of
the Europeans' brief sojourn in Africa. - The Guardian.
Zim Independent
By Alex
Magaisa
THOSE that often watch closely each step and speech by
President
Robert Mugabe must have had their hands full in the last two
weeks, what
with two interviews in the state media on the occasion of his
83rd birthday,
an essentially private affair that over the years has been
magnified and
represented as a national event.
Often
characterised by pomp and feasting, it is out of sync with and
insensitive
to the conspicuous poverty of the nation.
The reported statements
and the behaviour of those around Mugabe have
sparked a flurry of
speculation in relation to the succession issue in Zanu
PF and the
consequences for Zimbabwe. What, therefore, if any, can be
gleaned from the
president's recent statements?
While there has been a rush to give
all manner of interpretations, I
think it is important to understand the
context in which the statements have
been made because the purpose and
strategy may not be as appearances
suggest.
I do not think that
events in Zanu PF are as simple and
straightforward as they have been
interpreted and, importantly, it is quite
possible that the continuing
uncertainty and speculation over the succession
question may well be part of
an orchestrated scenario designed to purchase
time both for the leadership
and the party.
The first significant aspect, assuming that the
report is correct, is
that the ZBC interview was heavily edited in such a
manner that key
statements that would have yielded revelations about the
president's
supposedly raw thoughts and feelings regarding the succession
issue and the
central characters involved were omitted.
Now, it
is normal journalistic practice to edit material but the
suggestion in the
reports appears to be that the editing was so extensive
that it resulted in
the removal of key material that would have been of
major public interest,
revealing as it is said to have done the president's
views on the major
characters involved in the succession drama.
Instead of shedding
light onto the issues, the interviews have
therefore enhanced the mystery,
uncertainty and speculation. The analysis
therefore has to start from the
unfortunate position where everything
remains shrouded in
mystery.
This presents a critical question as to whether, in fact,
it was
always the object of the whole exercise, that is, to enhance the
uncertainty
and speculation about the succession issue, leaving the aspiring
princes and
princesses with little clues as to what the reigning king really
thinks
about the future.
The cynical might suggest that there
is, in fact, method in the
madness that appears to be obtaining in Zanu PF.
The view is that, by
speaking in tongues that are difficult to grasp with
any measure of
certainty, the vultures circling over the presidency are kept
sufficiently
unaware and unsure and therefore at an adequately safe
distance.
This is because the more they are certain about the
preferred choice,
the more the pressure for the president's departure
increases. The result of
the uncertainty and speculation is that the battle
remains, at least for
now, between the factional leaders and their
constituents, leaving for the
moment sufficient breathing space for
Mugabe.
If the president feels strongly that the interviews did not
accurately
portray his views, he of course has plenty platforms to state the
very same
things that are reported to have been edited from of the
interview.
If he named and shamed individuals whose tactics he
disapproves of, he
can always do so publicly without the aid of television
cameras. That this
has not happened has simply heightened speculation, some
of which may be
attractive to those within and outside Zanu PF who see
opportunities but may
well be wide of the mark.
In this
respect, I respectfully suggest that some of the literal
interpretations of
his statements appear to have missed the point.
For example, in
trying to justify the proposed harmonisation of the
2008 presidential and
2010 parliamentary elections, Mugabe reacted to the
resistance by arguing
that it was not because he wants to extend his term as
has been suggested
but, more significantly, he suggested that he could
always stand again for
the presidency in 2008 and win another six-year term.
He did
mention the MDC but, with respect, it must be recalled that it
is not only
the opposition that is against the election harmonisation
scheme. This
scheme has faced criticism and rejection from some powerful
groups in his
party, as evidenced by the Zanu PF Goromonzi congress where,
for example,
Mashonaland East province reportedly refused to endorse it.
In
making the suggestion that he could stand again next year, Mugabe
may, in
fact, be speaking not to the MDC but to his own ambitious comrades
in Zanu
PF who are singing a different tune on that point.
He may be saying
to them that even if they reject the harmonisation
plan, there is nothing to
stop him from running again on the Zanu PF ticket,
which would effectively
derail their immediate plans.
It is interesting in this regard that
Mugabe refers in glowing terms
to the Zanu PF youth and women's leagues,
powerful constituencies in his
party, and is disparaging about what he calls
the "main wing" - presumably
the leadership.
He is probably
saying to his comrades, "you can stand against me in
the party and I will
win" and therefore "I remain the kingmaker".
The thesis that the
confusion and uncertainty is carefully
orchestrated is evident from the
vacillation between the so-called preferred
candidates of Mugabe in the past
few years.
There was a time, not so long ago, when it was said that
the most
favoured heir was Emmerson Mnangagwa. But when it came to the
replacement of
the late Vice President Muzenda in 2004, Mugabe appeared to
openly support
Joice Mujuru, which derailed Mnangagwa's
ascendancy.
Indeed, barely three months ago, interpretations of
Mugabe's speech at
the Goromonzi congress suggested that he was unhappy with
Mnangagwa when
Mugabe verbally chastised those in the leadership who were
fighting battles
in courts of law. Mnangagwa had reportedly commenced legal
action for
defamation against John Nkomo, the Zanu PF chairman, also a
presidential
aspirant.
Incidentally, Mnangagwa had taken
umbrage at statements allegedly made
by Nkomo to the effect that Mnangagwa
had been involved in the infamous
Tsholotsho Declaration in 2004, a
euphemism for the event at which it was
suggested that some party leaders
were plotting in favour of Mnangagwa to
block the rise of Mujuru to become
vice-president.
Taking into account the reports that Mugabe was
least pleased with
Mnangagwa and the circumstances surrounding the
catapulting of Mujuru to VP
at his expense, it must therefore be an amazing
turnaround in the
preferences of the president and indeed Mnangagwa's
fortunes to now suggest
that he is once again the preferred choice. I may be
off the mark, but I
find it too simplistic to be true.
In any
event, when she ascended to the presidium, Mugabe appeared to
champion
Mujuru's presidential aspirations by suggesting that if someone is
fit to
become VP, there was no limit to higher ambitions. If he was so
confident to
suggest it hardly three years ago, what has changed that has
suddenly caused
him to shun that possibility as has been reported?
There could be
another way to look at it: was it a game cleverly
played to put Mujuru in a
position of power to gauge her capacity and the
extent of her ambition or
the ambition of those around her? Was it a move,
cunningly orchestrated in
order to hoodwink those around her into the false
belief of comfort and
security that she was the favoured one?
These are difficult
questions which cannot be answered with certainty
but nonetheless crop up as
we try to comprehend what appears to be a change
in the relationship in the
presidium of both Zanu PF and Zimbabwe.
Mugabe spoke, almost
resignedly, about the calibre of his lieutenants
for engaging in corrupt
activities and personal aggrandisement. Yet he
appeared to be powerless in
relation to them.
He is the president and ministers serve at his
pleasure. So if he
knows they are doing the wrong thing, why has he not
dismissed them? What
kind of power do they hold over him that even when he
knows their misdeeds
and poor performance he does not seem to have the power
to get rid of them?
The statements conjured up images of a father
trying desperately to
make his family understand him, desperately trying to
retain a measure of
control over family members who have gone out of
control, but is quite
unsure how and whether they still respect his
decisions.
* Dr Alex Magaisa is a Zimbabwean lawyer based in the
UK.
Zim Independent
Comment
WHEN Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono
proposed a social
contract in his January monetary policy statement to
rescue the country from
an economic recession, now in its seventh year but
whose tell-tale signs
became evident much earlier, he forgot that the issue
of legitimacy
surrounding President Robert Mugabe's regime had to be
addressed first.
The reason for this is that under the social
contract theory,
government has to be the enforcer of the
contract.
Essentially, the social contract theory is an argument
that government
is necessary because it is in the interests of all citizens,
who are,
however, essentially free, interacting under laws meant to produce
a happy
life for all instead of anarchy. Its essence is that society and the
state
agree on a mutually-reinforcing relationship. The government has to
derive
its authority and power from the consent of the
governed.
The social contract gives a people a way to distinguish a
good law
from a bad one, tells them what sort of behaviour ought to be
considered
criminal, and establishes limits on the way government can use
its power to
hurt and punish its citizens.
Mugabe's government
fails on every detail of a social contract, and
this is precisely the reason
why Gono's project totters on the brink of
collapse, assuming the process to
come up with the social contract had been
initiated.
Firstly,
the growing disillusionment in the country points to a
glaring lack of
confidence in the government, and various electoral disputes
by the
opposition over rigged elections cast doubt over the legitimacy of
the
incumbent regime - its power and authority are not derived from the
governed.
Besides, government has, since a constitutional
referendum for a new
constitution which it lost against the backdrop of
increasing social
upheaval, put in place several bad laws that have
criminalised all sorts of
social and economic behaviour in a clearly
authoritarian manner.
Public protests have been banned and people
have been restricted from
expressing their views publicly on issues related
to Mugabe's regime and how
it has run the country's economy. Many have been
arrested, tortured and
brutalised for daring to stand up against the
injustices of the regime.
Business people have been arrested for
increasing commodity prices to
remain in business, while the independent
press has been beleaguered by the
state and its security agents for carrying
messages different from those
purveyed by the establishment.
Almost everything done by Zimbabweans to earn an honest living has
been
criminalised, but ruling party and government bigwigs and their cronies
have
plundered the economy with reckless abandon without apprehension from
Mugabe's regime.
This has left many citizens in no doubt that
Mugabe's government is
not "in the interests of all citizens".
In his monetary policy statement that called for a social contract,
Gono
recognised the evil presented by the skewed policies of his principals,
but
skirted forthright criticism by calling for the removal of price
distortions
in order to start "decriminalising Zimbabweans".
"The deep-rooted
distortions currently prevailing in the economy are
making it virtually
impossible for the average citizen to earn a living
strictly and entirely
through ways that are fully compliant with the laid
down laws and
regulations," Gono said in his monetary policy statement.
Such laws
and regulations, Gono said, should be removed and the
central bank, itself a
partner to policies that have resulted in the
incarceration of bankers and
informal market players, would "restrict our
surveillance roles strictly on
matters relating to banking sector prudence,
exchange control affairs as
well as anti-money laundering".
This, Gono said, would deepen "the
virtuous drive to promote mutual
trust and confidence" in the
economy.
But that view, while laudable, is narrow and timid. Mugabe
needs to
completely overhaul all laws that have criminalised free speech,
public
protests, and criticism of his regime for policies that have pushed
the
country to its worst economic crisis since Independence in
1980.
He needs to deal with all delinquent elements within his
regime that
have plundered the economy and impoverished the
nation.
This is partly the reason why proposed parties to the
social contract
are saying government needs to adopt the Kadoma Declaration
which calls on
government to move away from interference in commerce and
industry, to
respect the rule of law and promote good governance and human
rights.
Only then will people be prepared to go through the pain of
a
comprehensive package to turn around the economy under a social
contract.
Zim Independent
Candid Comment
By Joram Nyathi
IN last week's
column I alluded to the launch of a survey to research
on the extent and
definition of corruption in Zimbabwe. That nebulous idea
has coalesced into
the Baseline Survey on Corruption which will gobble a
whopping US$800 000.
That is enough to purchase 54 Nissan Sentras for the
striking junior
doctors. That money would help Tobaiwa Mudede reduce the
backlog on passport
applications or sort out the voters' roll in readiness
for next year's
presidential election.
What is interesting is that the government
doesn't have the money.
State media reports say government will provide
US$450 000. And then ask the
African Capacity Building Foundation to
"provide" part of the remaining
US$350 000.
Anti-Corruption
minister Samuel Undenge said at the launch of the
survey that corruption was
like a moving target, "changing shapes in
response to various economic and
political solutions and situations". It was
therefore necessary, he said, in
the fight against corruption, to find
solutions based on "scientific
empirical data". He didn't bother to define
corruption even though he said
Zimbabweans in the diaspora would also be
consulted as "they had been
affected" by it.
The survey will cover the country's 120
constituencies over its
eight-month duration.
This is one
project I won't hesitate to call an insult to the ordinary
Zimbabwean.
First, Zimbabwe already has an anti-corruption
ministry, suggesting
that there was a perceived need to focus on the
scourge. Why the need for a
definition now?
Second, there were
many anti-corruption adverts on radio and
television for much of last year,
again reminding Zimbabweans of the cancer.
The implication is that people
know what corruption is and can therefore
identify it.
Third,
there have been numerous cases of high-profile corruption that
have
evaporated into thin air when people expected serious action. Everybody
in
government knows who got subsidised fuel, seed, fertiliser and tractors
that
were meant to boost production on the acquired farms but which ended up
on
the black market for a quick buck. The situation is not helped by a
president who has all the information about who is involved in illegal
diamonds, gold, emeralds and fuel dealings but will not name
them.
To me the issue is not about insulting Zimbabweans with
definitions
and feigned ignorance. Transparency International Zimbabwe can
come in handy
here.
The simplest definition of corruption is
the exploitation of one's
position in an organisation or of one's political
influence for personal
gain. Instead of company or national resources being
used for the benefit of
the organisation or the nation, they benefit the
individual and his
immediate family at the expense of all. That was the case
with fuel,
fertiliser, seed, tractors, diamonds, gold and emeralds. All
those are
national resources in which individuals have used their political
influence
or connections for self-enrichment.
Zimbabweans know
all this and know it is corruption. It doesn't call
for a US$800 000
definition from impoverished citizens or ivory-tower
intellectuals feeding
from a dunghill of corruption and political patronage.
Nobody
needed special definitions to expose the Willowgate vehicle
scandal in as
much as we don't need any definition to know there are big
names involved in
the smuggling of precious minerals out of the country and
that this is
illegal. The Reserve Bank has said as much. Small-scale miners
have said so.
The police have confirmed it.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono this week
told the parliamentary portfolio
committee on Defence and Home Affairs that
the country was losing between
US$40 million and US$50 million every week
through the smuggling of gold and
diamonds out of the country. I don't
believe these are idle figures or that
all this is the work of small men who
don't even have equipment.
To me, the solution lies in three key
areas. The first is the
political will to root out endemic corruption.
People need confidence and
faith that political leaders are prepared to
fight corruption. This can only
come from the way powerful members of
society engaged in illicit activities
are treated, not from the way the
powerless are victimized. Lack of action
breeds cynicism and lures more
players into the game.
Second, the whistleblower's fund should be
revived, together with
secret suggestion boxes where the public can drop in
tips in both government
and the private sector.
Third,
whistleblowers need to be assured of their secrecy when they
provide vital
leads or information. They must be guaranteed protection. A
definition of
corruption does not help a whistleblower feel safe when a
whole president
and a parliamentary committee are afraid to name and shame.
Last,
government would do the nation a lot of service if part of the
US$800 000
was used to train state security agents, investigators and
prosecutors to
identify white-collar crime. This should also cover the
training of
investigative journalists to help expose the culprits.
However, all
these actions will come to naught in a situation where
poor journalists and
law enforcement agents must sell their souls to
survive. It means the rich
and powerful can always buy their way into
obscurity while the law chases
after illegal panners and foreign currency
dealers.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
By Vincent Kahiya
IT is common
for African leaders to claim to possess magical powers.
It cannot be denied
that ancient cultural practices have continued to take
centre stage in
policy formation and the general conduct of African heads of
state.
The idea of culture, for long ignored in the larger
planning and
interpretation of many African policy issues, is becoming the
final
determining factor in Africa's existence, critics of new-order
programmes
such as Nepad would say.
But this adherence to
traditional norms can degenerate into
irrationality which breeds a sense of
invincibility in leaders who have
become semi-deities.
Cameroonian social scientist Daniel Etounga-Manguelle, writing in the
book
Culture Matters - How Values Shape Human Progress, underlines the "high
cost
of irrationalism spewed by the African culture".
"A society in
which magic and witchcraft flourish today is a sick
society ruled by
tension, fear, and moral disorder. Sorcery is a costly
mechanism for
managing conflict and preserving the status quo, which is,
importantly, what
African culture is about. Therefore, is not witchcraft a
mirror reflecting
the state of our societies?"
Etounga-Manguelle's project came to
mind this week after reading of
the expulsion of Zimbabwean diplomat and UN
resident representative Dr
Fadzai Gwaradzimba from the Gambia following her
comments casting doubts on
President Yahya Jammeh's ability to cure HIV and
Aids.
Gwaradzimba was given 48 hours to leave the Gambia for boldly
stating
there was no scientific proof to back President Jammeh's herbal
treatment of
the global scourge. She warned that President Jammeh's
purported cure could
only encourage risky behaviour thereby worsening
Africa's fight against the
disease.
"To date, no cure for Aids
has been announced internationally and,
once a person has been infected with
the Aids virus, he or she remains
infected for life," she noted, urging
people living with the virus to stick
to life-prolonging anti-retroviral
treatments.
It would be unfair perhaps to accuse Jammeh and his
league of modern
African leaders of practising witchcraft but his claim to
cure HIV and Aids
is the stuff for magicians. Jammeh's magical cure consists
of the Holy Quran
and seven leaves. He has declared that his concoction
works.
"Whatever you do, there are bound to be sceptics, but I can
tell you
my method is foolproof," President Jammeh has declared. "Mine is
not an
argument, mine is a proof. It is a declaration. I can cure Aids and I
will."
There is a dangerous streak in President Jammeh's shocking
behaviour
that runs through a number of African leaders who head failed
states. They
oftentimes come up with shocking policy pronouncements which
are not only
outright silly but usually subject their countries to
international
ridicule. In their poisonous adventures, the leaders are
usually supported
at the shoulder by ministers and experts who dump their
entire professional
credo for the sake of solidarity with their
leader.
Jammeh is supported in this inane agenda by his Health
minister Dr
Tamsir Mbowe who is responsible for registering patients coming
to the
president's clinic. The sad part of trickery is that there are people
in the
Gambia who actually believe in Jammeh's curative powers largely
because he
has positioned himself not just as a head of state but also as an
omnipotent
oracle who cannot be faulted.
One would expect
Jammeh's fellow African leaders who have been
preaching the African
Renaissance in political leadership to immediately
condemn the leader's
conduct. But that is asking too much from them because
a lot of them are
also deeply engaged in various forms of voodooist
practices to cure their
countries of economic collapse, war, poverty, hunger
and so on.
While Jammeh could have gone overboard by being the first ever head of
state
or government to make such an awkward claim, he is not much different
from
his peer in Niger who rejected food aid when his subjects were starving
or
the Sudanese leader who denies there is a genocide in Darfur.
Only
last week, our own dear leader was on television to tell us the
economy was
not sinking but declining. These are leaders who think that they
are making
a difference to the poor state of their countries. They believe
that the
situation in their countries cannot improve without them on the
throne. They
then devise ways to help.
In our case, our ruler has ordered the
printing of money as a magic
cure. When basic commonsense denotes that this
is the last thing that is
required in this economy, the printing press has
been kept busy to this day.
Where will government get money to finance the
increments given to civil
servants last week without resorting to printing
more notes?
While Jammeh has the Quran and seven leaves, we have a
failed party
manifesto and a printing press.
Zim Independent
Muckraker
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's 83rd birthday has been
treated abroad to the
press it deserves: as a tasteless display of
extravagance in the midst of a
sea of poverty. "Mugabe feasts as his people
starve," was one news agency
heading.
The London Sunday Times
carried a story pointing out that the sum
collected for his birthday bash in
Gweru would have been worth £150 000 when
Zanu PF officials started
collecting money for the event in December, but by
last weekend it was down
to £23 000, so fast is the currency falling in
value.
The
Sunday Times continued: "Giant cakes had been baked and thousands
of
children wearing red sashes were bussed in to the stadium where,
according
to the state-controlled Herald newspaper, they would 'interact
with
political leaders and role models that would inspire them to serve
their
country with decorum'. The 'role models' turned up in an array of
luxury
vehicles. They were the same party officials whom Mugabe, in a rare
moment
of realism, had described in an interview last week as 'ambitious,
corrupt
cheats trying to drive him out'."
The rest of the international
media adopted a similar perspective in
portraying the birthday party as
reflecting Mugabe's cognitive dissonance;
failing to understand the extent
of the desolation his policies have
spawned.
But we liked the
Herald picture of him receiving the stuffed
crocodile. The obvious question:
Why wasn't it a live one? Why does
everything at Zimbabwe House have to be
stuffed? Now there's an idea!
Minister of State for Policy
Implementation Webster Shamu said the
croc reflected the president's
cultural roots. We thought it had more to do
with outlook!
Shamu said the animal "symbolised maturity, distilled and accumulated
wisdom
and majestic authority - attributes that have been characteristic of
the
president's leadership."
This fawning statement wins Muckraker's
Bootlicker of the Year Award.
Even though there are 10 months left, we are
sure nobody will match it. Not
even Noczim and the GMB.
The
only excuse Shamu might offer is that he was devastated at not
getting the
Information portfolio in the recent cabinet reshuffle and is
determined to
get noticed next time around.
Still with crocodiles, we were
interested to note Nathaniel Manheru's
rebuke to Edgar Tekere for issuing
writs to his detractors.
"Amazing how a word warrior is himself
terrified by words," Manheru
notes. "I mean it is as foolish as a soldier in
a war suing an opposite
number for pointing a gun at him."
We
are inclined to agree. But what happened to that $15 billion suit
Manheru's
author lodged against the Independent last year? At least
following his
self-confessed ATM encounter we no longer have to worry about
problems of
identity!
Campion Mereki, a regular letter writer to the Herald,
says that the
world over the office of the head of state and government is a
venerated one
that should not be abused. Even the Canadian prime minister's
office is held
in very high esteem, he notes.
This follows a
Canadian advisory to its nationals visiting Zimbabwe
not to denigrate
President Mugabe.
Mereki has evidently never read a Canadian
newspaper. Nor has he seen
US newspaper cartoons of President Bush! It is
completely untrue to suggest
that the world over heads of state are held in
high regard. In functioning
democracies heads of state are subject to
scrutiny and lampooning, or
satirical comment, which reminds them they serve
the people instead of
lording it over them.
In Zimbabwe the
head of state attacks his opponents and then hides
behind a wall of
protective laws when he is criticised in the same vein. Is
Mereki unaware of
people who have been prosecuted for merely suggesting
Mugabe's regime is
worse than Ian Smith's? There is not a jail large enough
to hold
all the people who believe that today.
What planet has Mugabe
been living on prior to his 83rd birthday? He
reportedly "took a swipe at
some members of the business community who are
deliberately fuelling
inflation through corruption, dishonesty and greed",
saying they were
conniving with imperial powers bent on regime change.
This was all
designed to foment social unrest, he suggested.
Is that the
perception of the public, that businessmen were
deliberately fuelling
inflation? Or is it the public perception that the
printing of money and
runaway state expenditure are fuelling inflation?
Mugabe appears
unaware of exactly who is to blame for poor fiscal
management. Have police
chiefs not recently referred to corruption by
ministers and MPs? Why is the
state powerless to act against those involved
in illicit gold and diamond
dealing?
Mugabe should stop looking for scapegoats among
businessmen struggling
to recover their ever-rising costs and instead worry
about the underlying
causes of inflation for which he is directly
responsible.
The machinations of the business community were
meant to "create an
impression that the government is failing to implement
sound economic
policies", Mugabe claimed.
Does it really
require business leaders to create the impression that
the government is
failing to implement sound economic policies? Isn't that a
widely held view,
shared by investors and the IMF? And aren't Mugabe's
disastrous land
seizures, bloated ministries, and collapsing parastatals at
the root of the
country's problems?
For how long can he get away with blaming
others? As for regime
change, that is something everybody in this country
yearns for except
perhaps a small self-indulgent coterie around
him.
It is terrible to think that the obstinacy of one man is
blocking
recovery and progress. Why should he go on denying the nation the
opportunity of change? And those in the state media that insist on
publishing his facile pronouncements without challenge are part of the
problem. That includes media mercenaries like Obi Egbuna who are hired to
attack Zimbabweans seeking change.
By the way, we can't wait to
hear Barack Obama's response to Egbuna's
request for solidarity with
Mugabe!
Meanwhile, the state media reports Mugabe as saying EU
sanctions were
put in place because "we repossessed our land". In fact they
were a response
to the expulsion of EU election monitoring head Pierre
Schori in 2002. But
the lies go on unchallenged.
The IMF
last week extended the suspension of financial and technical
assistance to
Zimbabwe. According to Munyaradzi Huni, the IMF could not
report fairly on
Zimbabwe as its hands were tied by forces beyond its
control.
The moment we read that bit we knew we were set on a wild goose chase
after
some conspiracy theory. Predictably, the British and American
governments
were to blame for this bad turn of events, Huni made us know.
This was
despite Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono making it clear that the
outcome
of the IMF executive board was self-evident since nothing had
changed since
March last year.
The IMF, just like everybody else keen to speak
the truth, has said
Zimbabwe's problems are mainly political rather than
economic. It has
complained about price controls, the chaotic farm invasions
and the erosion
of property rights. These are problems of our own making, as
Gono himself
acknowledged. It's got nothing to do with the British or the
Americans. That
Huni keeps repeating this self-serving political lie will
not turn it into
fact.
Gono pointed out in his latest monetary
policy statement on January 31
that what Zimbabwe needed was a political
settlement, not tinkering with
symptoms of a deep-seated
crisis.
He said as much again to Huni in the Sunday Mail when he
pointed out:
"The IMF will not come to direct us to be more united as a
people, the IMF
will not come and police Marange diamonds and stop them from
being smuggled
out, the IMF is not going to come and stop farm vandalism,
disturbances or
tell us to be more productive at our farms, the IMF will not
come and solve
our corruption problems in high places nor will the IMF come
and stop abuse
of Noczim fuel."
Apparently the truth hurts for
Huni. Now is the time for introspection
instead of casting around for
non-existent enemies, Cde Huni.
President Mugabe apparently
remains an inscrutable enigma for both the
opposition and his party
supporters. None can discern what his next move
will be.
Speaking soon after his recent cabinet reshuffle, he said there were
young
appointees who were still deputies "but sooner or later they will be
able to
take over from the old ones".
"We are preparing the ground for the
future, and they, too, will
prepare the ground for the future and so on," he
said.
This must have sounded reassuring to the naïve, that there
was room
for succession in the Zanu PF leadership. But suspicions should
have been
aroused why Mugabe would be thinking of grooming deputy ministers
to "take
over from the old ones" when he should be leaving office at the end
of his
term next year.
There was also an opportunity to ask him
whether his own deputies did
not deserve a shot at the top job, if not, why
he was keeping them. All that
went unexplained until his birthday interview
last week.
Mugabe attacked those plotting to assume the presidency
"through
biographies". The only way to State House, he said, was through the
people
via a congress. When asked directly whether people could debate his
succession, Mugabe glared at his interlocutor, telling him squarely: "There
are no vacancies because I am still there ka, pane vacancy, iwe urikuiona
vacancy yacho?"
It shows you how tenaciously the battle for
2010 will be fought.
Why does Infrastructure Development
minister Munacho Mutezo think that
his portfolio is so important that local
authorities should just acquiesce
in his demands to control water works in
all urban centres? At a strategic
workshop in Harare last Thursday he
attacked local authorities for
politicising Zinwa's takeover of water in
towns and cities. This is what he
expects the local authorities to
do.
"Some councils including those of Gwanda, Karoi and Victoria
Falls,
had already surrendered water supply to Zinwa before the cabinet
directive,"
he said. Mutezo's assertion is emblematic of Zanu PF's
philosophy of
grabbing every asset in sight, notwithstanding the party's
poor record of
service.
Mutezo came face to face with this
incompetence at the Zesa National
Training Centre in Belvedere where the
"strategic" workshop was being held.
The entrance to the centre was
strategically flooded with treated water
which was gushing out of a
distribution point.
Zinwa board chairman Willie Muringani told the
workshop Zinwa was
already working on rectifying the problem. What a poor
showing Willie!
When commitment to the job at hand called - that is
ensuring the leak
was plugged - the minister and Zinwa bosses retreated to
the safety of the
lecture room. We bet there was bottled water on the tables
and not Zinwa's
sewage-flavoured brew from Lake Chivero.
President Thabo Mbeki is in denial about the extent of crime in South
Africa, we are told. This is reflected in the official media where it is
played down. But following the mugging of five SABC staff at Zoo Lake last
weekend the reality may be sinking in. They were robbed of their
cellphones.
Adding to the rollcall, CNN's Jeff Koinange and his
pregnant wife were
robbed at gunpoint outside the Metal Box office tower,
which is right next
to the Milpark Garden Court Hotel at 7:45 on Saturday
morning.
Some South Africans are evidently in training for
2010!
Finally, in our mystery relations series, we note from
the Chronicle
that Filabusi GMB manager is Mrs Clara Langa. She was
explaining maize
delivery in the district. "Also present at the function was
MP for Insiza
Cde Andrew Langa", we were told.
Zim Independent
By Eric Bloch
FOR more than
16 years government has talked of energetic
privatisation of parastatals.
Programmes of privatisation were
characteristics of the 1991 Economic
Structural Adjustment Programme (Esap),
of the 1996 Economic Development
Programme, of the 2000 Millennium Economic
Programme, of the 2006 National
Economic Development Priority Progamme
(NEDPP), as well as of many of
Zimbabwe's annual budget statements.
However, the reality of
insignificant performance has repeatedly given
the lie to government's
declared intents, for the only substantive
privatisations that have occurred
(and with great success!) were those of
Dairibord (now Dairibord Zimbabwe
Ltd), the Cotton Company (now Cotton
Company of Zimbabwe Ltd), the Rainbow
Tourism Group (now Rainbow Tourism
Group Ltd), Zimbabwe Reinsurance Company
Ltd, and the Commercial Bank of
Zimbabwe (now CBZ Bank Ltd).
These five privatisations were overwhelming successes which should
have
motivated and incentivised government to proceed with its declared
intents
of many more, but that has not been so.
In a supplement to the
January monetary policy review statement, the
governor of the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe (RBZ), Gideon Gono noted:
"Governments across the world are
involved in business enterprise and wealth
creation activities", but he also
noted that this was generally "in
partnership with the private sector", and
that there is "considerable
variation in the scope and scale of government
involvement in the production
and marketing of goods and services from
country to country".
However, he also stated: "Most governments
have significantly scaled
down on direct business enterprise, preferring to
concentrate on the core
government business of providing social welfare
services such as health and
education, as well as national security, peace
and stability".
In making this statement, the governor recognised
that the reduction
by governments of their involvement in direct business
enterprises "has been
achieved mainly through extensive divesture and public
enterprises reforms'',
in many sub-Saharan African economies and other parts
of the world.
In contradistinction, the government has a
continuing, intense
involvement in business, extended to all major areas of
economic activity,
including industry through the Industrial Development
Corporation (IDC),
mining through the Minerals Marketing Corporation of
Zimbabwe (MMCZ) and the
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, agriculture
through the
Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) and various
agricultural
marketing bodies such as the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), Cold
Storage
Company (CSC) and the Agricultural Marketing Authority, in transport
via Air
Zimbabwe, National Railways of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe United
Passenger
Company (Zupco), energy and fuel via the Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply
Authority (Zesa) and the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim),
communications and allied activities, through Tel*One, Net*One, Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings, Zimbabwe Newspapers (via the Mass Media Trust), and
innumerable others.
The RBZ supplement very validly recognises
that there can be
highly-positive benefits from privatisation, and therefore
very credibly
argues that "there is need to review the current range of
public enterprises
and government shareholding in different sectors of the
economy, with a view
to unlocking value through undertaking further
privatisation and disposal of
targeted shareholdings".
It
contends: "Through this strategy, the country would stand to
benefit, not
only from relieved burden on the fiscal budget, but also
through the
effective defence of the external value of the Zimbabwean dollar
on the back
of the foreign exchange to be raised through privatisation."
In
that regard, the supplement records that "increased foreign
exchange inflows
could be realised through the participation of foreign
investors in joint
ventures and strategic partnerships. The improved foreign
direct investment
inflows, coupled with increased access to offshore lines
of credit would
avail more foreign exchange resources, critical for economic
recovery and
sustained growth and employment".
Of great significance is the
contention of the supplement that
"privatisation is expected to improve
efficiency and productivity of
privatised entities. Efficiency will be
promoted through several means,
which include introduction and enhancement
of value-addition.
Further efficiency gains are realised through
commercially driven
structures, free from civil service rigidities, and
further that "the
engagement of private strategic partners is also likely to
bring much-needed
expertise and leads to diffusion of technology," which
would, according to
the governor, "significantly improve efficiency of those
enterprises, as
well as increasing capacity utilisation".
He
further argues that "technology transfer would underpin factory
refurbishment and increase productivity".
The governor
understandably voiced concern that "over the years, many
parastatals have
continued to impose a significant burden on the fiscus",
and that this "has
undermined the quick turnaround of the economy."
In
contradistinction, the governor stated that "privatisation is also
aimed at
relieving financial and administrative burden from government in
undertaking, maintaining and supervising public entities."
The
governor therefore suggested that a policy of privatisation is
"designed to
relinquish management to the private sector and allow
government to
concentrate on traditional functions such as facilitating
growth, welfare
distribution objectives and maintaining peace, security, law
and order,
thereby resulting in decreased budget deficits", and would halt
the fiscal
drain by parastatals.
In particular, the governor emphasised that
"privatisation provides
opportunities for the private sector to expand its
role in economic
productivity and development. The commercial project
orientation of the
private sector provides impetus for further growth.
through higher
efficiency gains and profits deployment while government
obtains additional
revenue to finance other socio-economic development
initiatives.
"Privativisation also improves capacity utilisation,
thereby enhancing
economic growth. Most public enterprises are currently
operating below 40%,
which is directly retarding the capacity of the private
sector to grow."
Having argued authoritatively that privatisation
conveys very great
benefits, including greater economic productivity and
development, enhanced
efficiency, lesser burden upon the fiscus, and greater
fiscal inflows,
foreign exchange generation, accessing of technological
developments, and
much else, the governor concluded that Zimbabwe's
privatisation policy needs
to be implemented within the broader national
economic recovery policy
framework, supported by other complementary
policies, such as the creation
of a more private sector friendly investment
climate, through the removal of
all distortions and price
controls.
"Therefore, in recognition of the positive contribution
of
privatisation," the governor stressed that "there is need to review the
current range of public enterprises and government shareholding in different
sectors of the economy".
Regrettably, government's records of
heeding advice that is good, but
which it does not like, is abysmal. Over
the years it has demonstrated a
great ability to disregard such advice or,
at best, to accord it much talk,
but no action.
As great as the
benefits of constructive, far-ranging privatisation of
most of Zimbabwe's
parastatals would be, history yields little hope that
government will now,
albeit belatedly, do that so rightly urged by the
governor of the RBZ, and
as would be so economically beneficial.
Government is usually very
able to "talk the talk", but not able to
"walk the talk". But one can always
hope for a transformation!
Some hope for deprived Zimbabwe citizens
By LL Petho
THE article by Tichaona Shorai "Mudede won't learn", (Zimbabwe
Independent,
February 16), prompted me to give an update to my fellow
citizens on the
class action on citizenship.
In 2002, I obtained permission from
the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe to
bring a class action in terms of the Class
Actions Act (Chapter 8:17) in
order to protect the citizenship of
Zimbabweans who belong to the following
classes of people:
*
All persons born in Zimbabwe;
* One or both of whose parents were
born in a foreign country; and
those
* Who have never applied
for and/or obtained a foreign citizenship.
What I am seeking from
the court is an order that all persons in these
classes did not have to, and
do not have to renounce any potential foreign
citizenship which they may or
may not be entitled to.
I am also seeking an order that all persons
in these classes have all
the rights and obligations of full Zimbabwe
citizenship and that they be
entitled to hold Zimbabwe
passports.
One of the requirements sought by the court to launch
this class
action is that I broadcast notices about it on Radio Zimbabwe.
Unfortunately, the ZBC refused to broadcast these notices and I had to
return to the court to obtain an order against the ZBC, which I succeeded in
getting. This has resulted in more than three years' delay.
Now
I am trying to gather the funds to pay the ZBC to broadcast the
notices so
that the class action can commence.
I believe that over a million
Zimbabwean citizens fall within this
class action and its successful
conclusion will not only secure their
birthright as citizens of Zimbabwe,
but also restore their associated rights
and dignity.
* LL
Petho writes from Harare.
-------------
Media at
beck and call of evil masters
I AM neither a renowned columnist
nor recognised analyst, but I
am depressed to say some of our media houses
and their journalists are
driven by self-centred, hidden agendas that have
nothing to do with national
interests.
On February 19,
having followed the build-up to the weekend, I
woke up with an urge to go
online and read news from my beloved motherland.
I browsed
through all the online newspapers that I know:
NewZimbabwe, ZimOnline,
Zimdaily, The Zimbabwe Times, and the Herald.
I noted that
all newspapers, save for one, carried a similar
lead story: the slide of
Zimbabwe into a police state where the police
disobey and disregard High
Court orders with impunity.
One publication said three people
were feared dead following
clashes with the police while one revealed that
some senior MDC officials
had to hide in a "nearby maize field" as the "riot
police" and the Green
Bombers tore into everyone seen walking in the
streets.
I also read that some worshippers had their Sunday
service
disrupted as chaos spilt into the church from the streets. The
Herald tried
to twist the cause of the violent running battles in
Highfield.
I noted with interest that one of the "big online"
publications
chose to travel to remote south-eastern Zimbabwe - Chiredzi -
for its lead
story, "While Mugabe celebrates Mutambara receives yellow
card".
I was particularly baffled by its celebrations at the
wide gap
between votes garnered by the winner and the losing candidates. It
declared
"...the people of Chiredzi South sent a clear signal to the
Mutambara
faction" .
Surely, if this vote is anything to
go by, then it means the
same people (or their vote) sent a clear message
that Zanu PF has the
support of the people of Chiredzi.
It states though that the result was pre-determined. If so, how
then can we
be sure the results for the Mutambara faction were correct? Were
they
determined by the people of Chiredzi, or pre-determined?
Unless one is involved, one cannot know which figures were
pre-determined
and which were determined by the people through the ballot.
Since October 12 2005, I have been bothered by what I see as an
obsession by
some online publications to delight in the creation or
sustenance of tribal
or regional divisions in Zimbabwe.
The publications hate one
opposition leader not because of his
beliefs or vision for Zimbabwe, but
because, according to them (editors and
reporters), he joined the wrong
opposition.
I think pro-nationalist Zimbabweans (editors
included) should
write in a manner that unites people regardless of tribe,
race and political
affiliation.
I hate the deliberate
hostility displayed towards Mutambara
while turning a blind eye to other
opposition leaders' weaknesses and
shortcomings. If not checked, these same
editors will create for us another
Mugabe in Tsvangirai the same way they
made Mugabe what he is today in the
1980s.
I imagine a
short pot-bellied editor/owner of a newspaper who
like his former master
shares the same past, stained by "a moment of
madness" in the
1980s.
I imagine when one is worried by their past they would
rather
hear people say "let by-gones be by-gones" not because they embrace
that,
but because chances are that people will forget and move
on.
Someone probably realises that should Mugabe go and
Tsvangirai
or Mutambara take over, and there is freedom of speech, it'll be
payback
time. No more awards. It'll be time to face the music. They probably
realise
that unless the suppression of freedom of speech for a certain
region is
sustained, it'll open the Pandora's box.
I
dread the wrath this article may stir but my spirit cannot be
broken. It's
clear to me that to some, the focus of the headlines was not on
Zanu PF
against the opposition in Chiredzi, neither was it between
Tsvangirai and
Mutambara, nor Mugabe versus the people of Zimbabwe, but a
phase of history
- the 1980s - of which they are a critical part and from
which they seek to
divorce themselves and their contributions, and hope to
re-write history
that's so far clearly engraved in the minds of the people
of
Zimbabwe.
Can they run and hide forever? I
wonder!
Mina Thabani kaBaba,
UK.
-----------------
Tsvangirai
should lecture armed forces
IT was with a mixture of
sadness and hope that I read
about the riots in
Highfield.
Sadness at the police brutality and
disregard of the High
Court ruling concerning the MDC rally, and hope about
Zimbabweans'
willingness to take their destiny and lives into their own
hands.
After all, we as Zimbabweans have been leaving
our destiny
to the fat cats for far too long.
My
only appeal is for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to take
every opportunity he
can to address the armed forces directly.
He had a good
one at the Zimbabwe Grounds to appeal to the
humanity of the police officers
as Zimbabweans and family men first and
foremost than as police
officers.
They may be brutal, but how many of them are
behaving the
way they are out of choice?
Appeal to
them to think of their country and families.
Remind them that they can help
effect change. In fact, they are the key to
change.
All they have to do is let the masses proceed with their
constitutionally-awarded right to protest and show their
displeasure.
Remind them that the people in general,
and the MDC in
particular, will back them. In future they will have no cause
to fear and be
ashamed of their actions when change
comes.
The message might take a while but it will sink
in
eventually. After all, the police are human.
Sitheni Bwanya,
Gaborone
--------------
Tide of revolution
unstoppable
THE ban on rallies is a ploy to disrupt
the
struggle.
Ian smith did it in Rhodesia,
PW Botha tried it in
South Africa, Mobutu Sese Seko in Congo, and other
dictators tried and
failed in other parts of the
continent.
Laurent Kabila, a puppet of President
Mugabe, was
shot dead by his own aide. You can never stop the tide of
revolution. Those
who support such regimes should
rethink.
Mhofu-Machichiri
Gandavaroi,
nhetetariro@yahoo.co.uk
--------------
Mugabe no angel amid this
strife
THE letter by Casper Shumba "I wish you
many
more happy years, president", in a recent issue of the the Herald
refers.
Shumba writes: "You (President
Robert Mugabe)
made Zimbabwe a leader and not a passenger in Africa and the
world...
Critics may not like it but there will never be a Zimbabwe without
you. I
don't believe you are an angel but surely you have done so much for
your
people... Happy Birthday!"
Is
there any reason to believe President
Mugabe could be an "angel" in this
hour of need?
I do not want to believe that
Satan dispatched
our current president although it would be wise to learn
more about Shumba's
very interesting
proposition.
Brotherhood,
Harare
-------------
Luggage here, but
?
IT is with great relief and happiness that I
report the safe return of my lost luggage; the locks removed, the case
opened and various presents ripped open and the clothing bundled
back.
I have been advised by the London
office that,
and I quote: "If you had any expenses while your luggage was
delayed ...
send details to BA Baggage Claims Harare" etc and in a further
letter: "It
is not possible to settle claims from every customer from our UK
office, we
can settle your claim locally". How about that! At what rate one
may ask!
The whole matter is becoming academic as I have been unable to
elicit any
response from BA apart from the reply "Shabbily treated by
British Airways",
(Zimbabwe Independent, February
16).
Future BA travellers fear not: "Your
luggage
is missing - we are delighted to inform you that you will be
compensated in
Zim dollars, as you will appreciate we want to encourage
travellers to use
our airline!"
Mary
Cox, Borrowdale, Harare.
------------
Opposition's obduracy an obstacle
to
prosperity
THERE is no doubt that we are
all desperate
and want to see our country
prosper.
Nevertheless, while we search
desperately for
a solution, and naturally expect government to provide
direction as we
always should, we have to accept that the ultimate
responsibility for
creating political stability and economic prosperity
(especially capacity to
produce) lies with the ordinary
people.
We cannot all be central bank
governors, let
alone presidents.
The
political issue that needs to be resolved
is the intransigence of the
opposition clinging to an imaginary political
victory that was an issue
nearly five years ago, and the European Union's
sanctions that arose as
retaliation for the land-grab, itself a proper and
fitting punishment for
the advocates and perpetrators of the "Bush
War".
It is a fitting punishment that land
was
justifiably taken away due to the mode of its expropriation in the first
place.
Yet the same section of the
community
continues to blackmail the society in company with the EU, rather
than focus
on re-building the nation in company with government, which may
be
constituted in any form - de facto or de
jure.
In the meantime, the MDC is embarking
on yet
another more distracting path for national unity - a presidential
campaign.
Are they serious?
No!
If this drive fails (and don't be
fooled to
believe it is a "final push" rather than sheer posturing to
deceive the
nation) and then followed by the presidential campaign that
might be pushed
to 2010, who is going to look a confirmed and permanent
loser? What will the
opposition do
then?
Mordecai Mutiswa
Betera,
West Midlands,
UK.
-----------------
Open letter to
President Pohamba
By F ya
Nangoloh
I AM writing on my own
behalf and that of
all my human rights colleagues and many voiceless
Namibians and Zimbabweans
both in this country and in
Zimbabwe.
Mr President, the reason for
this letter is
to both formally and directly inform you and thereby obtain
your
understanding of our intention to register (last Wednesday) our outrage
about the unacceptable human rights, humanitarian and political situation
prevailing in the Republic of
Zimbabwe.
The rationale behind this open
letter is not
to embarrass Your Excellency and your
administration.
The people of Zimbabwe 's
oppressor is the
government of Zimbabwe under the leadership of President
Robert Gabriel
Mugabe who arrived in Namibia on Tuesday on a three-day state
visit.
Needless to say, the situation in
Zimbabwe
is outrageous and unacceptable inter alia because human rights
groups and
labour unions are under siege, the independent print and
electronic media
have been banned, peaceful political activity, if any at
all, have been
severely restricted, and the rule of law and the independence
of the
judiciary have been undermined and are virtually
non-existent.
An 80% unemployment rate
and an inflation
rate of nearly 1 600% have exacerbated hunger, poverty,
homelessness and
disease, which are on the increase in
Zimbabwe.
Mr President, due to this state
of affairs,
for which President Mugabe's government is held directly
responsible, more
than five million Zimbabweans have fled their country
since 2000 alone.
Following President
Mugabe's 2005 Operation
Murambatsvina, more than 700 000 Zimbabweans were
left homeless. Yet this
situation did not deter him from marking his 83rd
birthday with lavish,
luxurious and insensitive
celebrations.
As we know Your Excellency,
you personally
also do not agree with, nor accept the situation prevailing
in Zimbabwe.
But we also understand that,
as Namibian
head of state, you have the duty to receive President
Mugabe.
We are therefore appealing to
you, Mr
President, in your personal discussions, to impress upon President
Mugabe
that the situation in Zimbabwe is totally unacceptable, and should be
brought soonest to normalcy.
On our
part, together with other civil
society colleagues, we register our
strongest disapproval of the human
rights, humanitarian and political
situation obtaining in Zimbabwe and
express our solidarity with the
oppressed people.
* F ya Nangoloh is
executive director of
NSHR, a Namibian human rights organisation.