http://www.news24.com/
2013-03-04 13:03
Harare - Zimbabwe
police have found foul play was not involved in a house
fire that killed an
opposition leader's son, state-backed media reported on
Monday.
A
12-year-old boy who is the son of Shepherd Maisiri, a regional official of
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), died last week when the hut he was
in was burned in the rural town of Headlands.
MDC supporters said the
blaze was caused by a firebomb thrown by activists
from President Robert
Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic
Front
(Zanu-PF).
"Forensic experts did their analysis combined with police
investigations and
no foul play is suspected," Charity Charamba was quoted
as saying in the
Herald newspaper.
She said the fire and explosion
could have been caused by bags of fertiliser
and a paraffin lamp inside the
hut.
"There is high probability that ammonium nitrate and tobacco
chemicals
exploded during the fire," she said.
The police did not
explain how the fire was started.
Three other children who were in the
hut at the time of the attack escaped
with injuries.
The incident
took place as the country gears for a referendum on a new
constitution on
March 16 and general elections slated for July, was
condemned by the US
embassy in Harare.
Past elections in Zimbabwe have been marred by
violence including killings,
assault and intimidation.
The violence
that gripped the country's 2008 vote left at least 200 dead,
most of them
MDC supporters.
There have been sporadic cases of violence in recent
weeks with MDC
supporters being targets.
- AFP
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona
Sibanda
4 March 2013
The mother of Christpowers Maisiri, the 12
year-old boy who died in a house
fire in Headlands last week, has criticized
the police investigation into
her son’s death.
Beauty Muungamirwa
said she totally disagrees with the police conclusion
that the fire was
caused by an explosion of tobacco chemicals and ammonium
nitrate fertiliser.
She insists it was an arson attack and that police
completely ignored what
she told them.
‘The police are lying and unfortunately they have done a
shoddy job. What
they’re doing is covering up for powerful politicians and
they know it,’ she
said.
National police spokesperson, Assistant
Commissioner Charity Charamba, said
their investigations had not established
any evidence the fire was caused by
a petrol bomb attack. Charamba added
that a paraffin lamp was recovered
close to bags of fertiliser and tobacco
chemicals in the house.
Coming down heavily on the police, Christpowers’
mother said investigators
are ignoring the fact that the fire started from
the top of the thatched
house and not inside the house.
‘I was woken
up by an explosion, and I went out to investigate not fully
dressed. The
fire was on top of the thatched house, and it spread from top
to bottom and
not as suggested by the police that it may have been caused
fertilizer and
tobacco chemicals inside the room. The fire started from
outside and it’s
clear something that started it was thrown on top of the
hut.
‘The
police assume the fire was started by a paraffin lamp inside the hut
but
those lamps were old and rusty and they didn’t have an ounce of paraffin
inside them. We have been very careful because the only light we used in the
hut was from a cellphone. My 17 year-old son James showed the police the
phone that he uses as a torch at night,’ Muungamirwa said.
She
disclosed that when the police asked her if she had any suspects in mind
she
gave them names of four people, three of whom have since fled from their
homes in the last week.
After the house fire, Christpowers’ father
Shepherd Maisiri told SW Radio
Africa that he gave the police names of
people he suspected were behind the
alleged arson attack. Two of the
suspects he mentioned were Gilbert Makura
and Isaac Dhogo.
‘If they
had no case to answer or if they were not involved with any
criminal
activity why are they running away? One of them, James Muzarabani,
actually
sold a few of his cattle and crossed the border into Mozambique,’
claimed
Muungamirwa.
http://www.herald.co.zw/
Monday, 04 March 2013
00:00
Minister Mumbengegwi bids farewell to Minister Carlsson
outside his
Munhumutapa offices this morning
Felex Share Herald
Reporter
European and United States of America observers will not be allowed
to
monitor electoral processes in Zimbabwe as long as illegal sanctions they
imposed on the country are in place, Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe
Mumbengegwi has said.
In an interview after meeting Swedish
International Development Cooperation
Minister Gunilla Carlsson in Harare
this morning, Minister Mumbengegwi said
Zimbabwe would only allow observers
from Sadc, Comesa, African Union and
other countries that were not hostile
to it.
"One cannot observe anything in a country that he is hostile to,"
he said.
"The level of hostility is measured by the relationship those
countries have
with Zimbabwe and clearly those countries that have imposed
sanctions on us
will not be here.
"To be an observer you have to be
objective and once you impose sanctions on
one party your objectivity goes
up in smoke. If you are not objective you
are not entitled to observe any
elections and that is the situation with
those Western countries."
He
said countries that have never invited Zimbabwe to observe their
elections
would also not be invited.
"I do not see why they need to be invited when
they have never invited us to
monitor theirs (elections)," he said.
"Of
course Sadc, Comesa and the AU will be here and also those countries
that
are friendly to us."
Minister Mumbengegwi said observers to monitor the
March 16 referendum had
already been invited.
"Those coming already know
and as for the elections we will only invite them
once we have an exact
date."
Turning to his meeting with Minister Carlsson, Minister
Mumbengegwi said
Zimbabweans were against the idea of EU suspending the
embargo but wanted
them to be removed unconditionally.
The EU, which
met last month to review sanctions on Zimbabwe, has said that
it would
suspend most sanctions against the country if it holds a credible
referendum
on the new constitution.
"We have taken a position that sanctions should
go without any condition and
the idea of suspending sanctions is not
acceptable to the people of
Zimbabwe," he said.
"We have done nothing
wrong and this is an issue where we differ. They are
talking of suspension
and I do not even know what suspended sanctions look
like."
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Monday, 04 March 2013 11:17
HARARE - The
British government through its Department for International
Development
(DFID) has announced $40 million of new funding to enable 89 000
vulnerable
girls in Zimbabwe to receive education over the next three years.
The
funding will also help around 350 000 other young people to improve
their
life chances.
The projects will be implemented by two civil society
organisations,
Campaign for Female Education Camfed and World Vision over
three years.
Camfed will ensure that 40 000 vulnerable girls in 24 rural
districts
receive direct support to complete four years of junior secondary
education;
over 330 000 girls and boys in rural secondary schools benefit
from
supplementary learning materials to improve their learning outcomes;
over 1
600 school-leavers are trained as para-educators to provide peer
mentoring
to girls still at school and in some cases set up
income-generating
activities; and greater uptake and use of mobile
technology to support
education planning and learning.
Camfed will
work with the publishing company Pearson Education.
Jane Rintoul, the
head of DFID in Zimbabwe said, “Women are the key to
economic growth and
investing in girls’ education is the single most
effective thing we can do
to break the cycle of poverty.”
An extra year in primary school boosts a
girl’s eventual wages by 10 to 20
percent.
An extra year of secondary
education can add 25 percent.
Girls who are educated are more likely to
marry later.
They are more likely to get themselves and their babies
immunised against
fatal diseases and those who have a secondary education
are three times less
likely to be HIV positive.
The funding is
additional to the over $100 million that DFID is providing to
support
education in Zimbabwe between 2012 and 2015 through the Education
Transition
Fund (ETF), the Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam) and an
existing
grant agreement with Camfed.
Between 2011 and 2015 the UK government
through DFID expects to provide over
$700 million of support in sectors
including health, education, wealth
creation, social protection as well as
water and sanitation.
The UK government has prioritised girls’ education
as one of the four
pillars of its Women and Girls Strategy. - Margaret
Chinowaita, Community
Affairs Editor
http://www.iol.co.za
March 4 2013 at 05:56pm
By
Reuters
File image - A malnourished child lies in his bed at a
feeding centre.
REUTERS/Antony Njuguna
Geneva - More than 6 million
people across Angola, Lesotho, Malawi and
Zimbabwe are at risk of severe
food shortages because of repeated cycles of
drought and flooding, the
global humanitarian body IFRC said on Monday.
The International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said
the crisis was
passing largely unnoticed in the outside world and its
appeals for financial
support had won limited support.
“This is a chronic crisis in which
cycles of drought and flooding are
destroying crops, livestock and safe
drinking-water supplies. People don't
have enough to eat or clean water to
drink,” said IFRC official Alexander
Matheou.
“Malaria, cholera and
diarrhoea are common,” said Matheou, the Geneva-based
body's regional
representative in southern Africa, in a statement
distributed to a news
briefing.
The IFRC said four countries were suffering particularly badly,
with 725,000
people in Lesotho - about 40 per cent of the country's
population - hit by
the crisis.
Nearly 2 million were at risk in
Malawi, more than 1.8 million in Angola,
and 1.6 million in rural areas of
Zimbabwe. In all four, rates of child
malnutrition were soaring, reaching 50
percent more than last year in some
areas.
An additional
complication, Matheou said, was the prevalence of HIV across
southern
Africa.
Some 34 percent of people around the world carrying the disease
live in the
region, and 23.2 percent of Lesotho's population were infected,
the globe's
third highest rate among adults, the IFRC official
said.
The organisation said lack of food can undermine efforts to counter
the
spread of HIV, because the sickening effect that the anti-retroviral
treatment has on an empty stomach deters many sufferers from taking
it.
“There needs to be a large-scale, well-funded, coordinated effort
between
governments, businesses and humanitarian and development agencies to
alleviate immediate suffering and support people to build economically
viable lives,” said Matheou.
An appeal to donors in October for 1 119
000 Swiss francs ($1.2 million) to
fund IFRC programmes in Lesotho had so
far brought in only 17 percent.
Another for Angola for 1 562 562 Swiss
francs had been only 4 percent met.
Appeals for Malawi and Zimbabwe in
October and December had had a better
response with 57 percent of the total
sought for Malawi, 1 025 310 Swiss
francs, and 33 percent of the 1,290,342
Swiss francs sought for Zimbabwe now
received. - Reuters
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona
Sibanda
4 March 2013
The date set for a referendum by Robert Mugabe
may be in breach of the SADC
guidelines on elections, according to
Sokwanele, a pressure group that
advocates for non-violent actions to bring
democracy, justice and freedom to
Zimbabwe.
In its Referendum Watch
bulletin issued on Sunday, Sokwanele said it
measures the (political)
parties’ performance in relation to the forthcoming
elections against the
standard set by SADC leaders in Mauritius in 2004.
The group said they
had noted that 16th March, the date chosen for the
referendum, is a breach
of SADC guidelines in line with criticisms voiced by
many.
‘The draft
document is complex and very long (172 pages); common sense
dictates that
Zimbabweans will need more than a month to first obtain a
copy, and then
peruse it, and then discuss it.
‘Furthermore, it is expected that voter
turnout will be high on polling day
making the twelve hours allocated
potentially unfeasible to allow everyone
the opportunity to vote.
The
SADC guidelines require ‘timeous announcement of the election date’
‘Voter
education’ and ‘full participation of the citizens in the political
process,’ the bulletin said.
Meanwhile COPAC says it requires more
than US$500,000 to print and
distribute additional copies of the draft
constitution before the
referendum.
COPAC co-chair Munyaradzi Paul
Mangwana told the state media that many parts
of the country were yet to
deliberate on the draft after the available
copies ran out. He said his
committee was now making frantic efforts to
secure the funds.
COPAC
only printed about 100,000 copies for a population of more than 12
million
people.
Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa told us it’s going to be
difficult
for COPAC to secure half a million dollars to print more copies of
the
draft.
‘Its difficult to imagine were they will get the money
from, considering
government has struggled to fund this process and depended
on donor agencies
to get where they are today,’ Muchemwa said.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Nomalanga Moyo
4 March
2013
The MDC has announced that it is pulling out of the COPAC-led
constitution
publicity campaigns two weeks before the country decides
whether to vote
‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a new charter.
In a move that has
been criticised by their counterparts in the coalition
government, the
Welshman Ncube-led party announced their withdrawal from the
process over
the weekend, citing unequal representation.
A statement by the party
said: “The MDC has pulled out of the COPAC
publicity campaign due to a
decision taken by MDC-T’s Douglas Mwonzora and
ZANU PF’s Munyaradzi Paul
Mangwana to exclude MDC from eight of the 10
provinces.
“It has
turned out that it was in fact a strategy to use these fora as a
platform to
attack the MDC, particularly by ZANU PF.
“As a result of this, the MDC
has pulled out from the two provinces where we
were allowed to
participate.”
The MDC is only allowed to participate in meetings in
Bulawayo and
Matabeleland South provinces.
ZANU PF’s Mangwana
confirmed to the Herald that the MDC had raised concerns
over representation
but wondered why they did not do so early on.
“All along their
representation was limited and we wonder where this lawyer
called Prof Ncube
was and why he is raising it now. We will consider the
matter if it is
genuine but they should not threaten us.
“If they want to pull out let
them do so after all their number is
insignificant,” Mangwana
said.
However MDC secretary-general Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga said
it was
not true that they were only raising the issue now, and added that
until
now, COPAC had always worked on the principle of equal
representation.
“At each given time, we would have equal representation
of the three
political parties. That was the precedent set during management
committee
meetings as well as during the outreach
process.
Misihairabwi-Mushonga also dismissed utterances by the MDC-T’s
Douglas
Mwonzora that the MDC was asking to have non-MP members added to
COPAC.
“The representation in COPAC is drawn from Members of Parliament.
In this
case the MDC only has two. MDC-T and ZANU PF have nine each,”
Mwonzora told
the Herald.
However, the MDC said they have enough MPs
to attend all the meetings, and
had indicated so to
COPAC.
Misihairabwi-Mushonga said: “When we tried to engage COPAC on the
anomaly we
were told that even if we were to bring MPs to represent us in
those
provinces, they wouldn’t be treated the same way as the MDC-T and ZANU
PF.
That is why we then took the decision to pull
out.”
Misihairabwi-Mushonga said they will continue to campaign for a
‘yes’ vote,
and were printing out copies of the draft charter to distribute
to the
people.
She said it was now doubtful they would be meeting
their COPAC counterparts
over their concerns, in view of Mangwana’s
disdainful statements that the
MDC was insignificant.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex
Bell
4 March 2013
South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has been accused
of ‘allowing’ the
destruction of the regional human rights Tribunal, by
“selfishly” standing
by while it was shut down.
The former Chief
Justice of the SADC Tribunal, Judge Ariranga Pillay, told a
seminar in South
Africa last week that Zuma, as the leader of SADC’s largest
and most
powerful state, could have done more to stop the destruction of the
court.
Pillay described how Zuma and other SADC leaders were
responsible for
hobbling the court on Robert Mugabe’s behalf, because of
that Tribunal’s
landmark ruling against Mugabe’s land grab
campaign.
The court was wholly suspended in 2010 by SADC leaders, in the
aftermath of
its ruling that the land grab was unlawful. The Tribunal had
also held
Zimbabwe in contempt of court for refusing to honour its original
ruling in
2008. The court also held the Government of Zimbabwe in breach of
the SADC
Treaty and other international legal obligations.
But
instead of taking action against Zimbabwe, SADC leaders suspended the
court
for a review of its mandate. More than two years later the court
remains
inactive. Regional justice ministers have proposed that the court
only be
reinstated with a very limited human rights mandate, which blocks
individual
access to the court.
Pillay said at the seminar last week that it was
‘ironic’ that Mugabe had
been one of the SADC leaders who had originally
established the Tribunal to
ensure the adherence of member states to the
SADC Treaty. Pillay explained
that this included Article 4 of the Treaty,
which obliges SADC leaders “to
act in accordance with human rights,
democracy and the rule of law”.
It was this article which the Tribunal
invoked when it ruled against the
Zimbabwe government.
Ben Freeth,
who, together with his father-in-law Mike Campbell, led the
landmark case
before the Tribunal in 2008, told SW Radio Africa that Pillay’s
indictment
of Zuma was “strong and correct.”
“If South Africa had spoken out and if
South Africa had moved to prevent
this, then I have no doubt that other SADC
leaders would have followed,”
Freeth said.
Mugabe meanwhile has
stated that Zimbabwe will never abide by rulings in
South African courts
that move to uphold the original Tribunal ruling.
Mugabe told the state
media last week that Zimbabwe “would not be bound” by
the decisions of South
African courts.
He was reacting to developments in the South African
Constitutional Court,
which has reserved judgement on a challenge by farmers
who lost land in
Zimbabwe. The farmers had turned to the South African
courts for help,
because Zimbabwe has refused to honour the SADC Tribunal
ruling.
The South African High Court in Pretoria in 2010 upheld the
ruling by the
Tribunal and ordered the attachment of properties owned by the
Zimbabwean
government in Cape Town to compensate the white commercial
farmers.
Zimbabwe appealed this decision and tried to block this ruling but
the
application was denied in the High Court and also in Supreme Court of
Appeal, with the latter dismissing Harare’s application with
costs.
Zimbabwe then took the matter to the Constitutional Court, arguing
that the
Supreme Court decision was in violation of international law.
Zimbabwe
lawyers have argued that a sovereign country should not be
subjected to the
processes that they are being subjected to by their
neighbour and that “a
diplomat is inviolable as much as diplomatic property
in a foreign land.”
The Court last week reserved judgement on the matter,
but the farmers have
expressed confidence that the ruling will be in their
favour.
Mugabe on the other hand has dismissed the legal attempts
stating: “In South
Africa they have certain elements outside the ANC and
cannot be controlled
by the ANC and these are elements that once upon a time
were here and were
unseated by us and have realised that in South Africa you
can go to court
and get judgements. But let them have those judgments, we
will simply ignore
them. South African courts have no jurisdiction over us
so we will simply
ignore them.”
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
4 March
2013
Community radio initiative Radio Dialogue has become the latest
group to
criticise the nationwide police crackdown on civil society, after
its
studios were raided and 180 radios were seized.
The raid happened
last Friday morning at the Hillside based Ingwe Studios, a
subsidiary of
Radio Dialogue. Armed with a search warrant police officers
seized the
wind-up radio sets and also detained the group’s programming
head, Zenzele
Ndebele. He was held for questioning for most of the day
before he was
released.
Ndebele was charged with possession of ‘smuggled’ radios, as
well as
possessing the radios without a ZBC license. He was interrogated
about the
source of the radios, which were recently declared illegal by the
police.
The countrywide police crackdown on civil society groups has
continued to
intensify in recent weeks, with raids on the premises of
different
organisations and some arrests. The police have insisted that they
are
clamping down on the distribution of ‘illegal’ radio sets, being used to
allegedly “promote hate speech”, and have been using this as the basis for
their raids.
At a press conference on Monday Radio Dialogue and the
Zimbabwe Association
of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS), issued a joint
statement and said this
crackdown violates the Global Political Agreement
(GPA) that formed the
unity government. The two groups called on the
co-Ministers of Home Affairs
to urgently intervene and stop the police
campaign.
SW Radio Africa’s Bulawayo correspondent Lionel Saungweme said
the two
groups also tried to dispel other media reports that had accused
Radio
Dialogue of being part of a “regime change agenda.”
“They were
very critical of the police action and the accusations that they
are
pursuing this (regime change) agenda, which they strongly denied. They
also
said that Zenzele (Ndebele) was interrogated by CIO officers and not
police,” Saungweme said.
Ndebele will appear in court on Tuesday.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
Monday, 04 March 2013 12:26
HARARE - Serial
political flip-flopper Jonathan Moyo has described people
questioning
Zimbabwe’s so-called biggest indigenisation deal as treacherous,
in bold
claims viewed as taking aim at President Robert Mugabe and Vice
President
Joice Mujuru.
Mugabe and Mujuru, just like the Daily News, have
questioned the
implementation of the $971 million Zimbabwe Platinum Mines
Limited
(Zimplats) indigenisation deal.
Mugabe in an interview aired
on State television to mark his 89th birthday
even went on to admit that
Indigenisation minister Saviour Kasukuwere got it
wrong when he agreed to
bond Zimbabweans to a debt with the foreign-owned
firm in exchange for
shares.
Mujuru said last week that while empowerment was good, there was
need to
guard against corrupt activities during implementation.
Three
days after Mugabe’s widely publicised negative comments about the
deal, Moyo
has come out blazing against such criticism.
Yesterday, Moyo writing in
the state media described attempts to offer
alternative solutions to the
implementation of the programme it as “cheap
propaganda”. Moyo’s accusation
is bold, given that he now sits in the
politburo of Mugabe’s Zanu
PF.
Although he has attacked Mugabe in the past, at one time describing
him as
“excessive burden” or “so unpopular he could lose to donkey”, — this
was
when he had been booted out of Zanu PF.
In his scathing attack
published in state media yesterday, Moyo equated
those sceptical of the
Zimplats deal as pursuing a “scandalous agenda”.
Interestingly Moyo’s
piece appears side by side with the interview in which
Mugabe expresses
reservations on the Zimplats deal.
“Witness how what started mid last
month as an alleged media expose of
alleged corruption in the implementation
of the Zimplats Indigenisation
Transaction has now come full circle with
growing indications that the
alleged expose is in fact nothing but a
spirited media scam that is yet to
be exposed and whose main objective is to
subvert the indigenisation policy
as a whole in the vain hope of robbing
Zanu PF of the foundation of its
revolutionary policy platform ahead of the
forthcoming make-or-break
plebiscite,” wrote Moyo.
But during his
interview, Mugabe conceded that Kasukuwere messed up.
“I suppose the
problem is on the 51 (percent) that was acquired being
regarded as a
percentage that needed to be financed by our side and being
financed by the
company itself. So problem ndiyoyo yekuti vakatipa 51
(percent) vachiti
chikwereti chatiri kukupai asi tiri kukubhadharirai
mangwana mozobhadhara
mashares iwayo. So that is the difference.
“I think that is where the
minister made a mistake. He did not quite
understand what was happening and
yet theory yedu ndeyekuti resource iyoyo
ndeyedu and that resource is our
share that is where the 51 percent comes
from,” said Mugabe.
However,
Moyo said the anomalies which came into limelight following a Daily
News
expose on February 14 was based on “nefarious political agenda against
Zanu
PF”.
“Perhaps the most shocking (fifth) development is that last Monday
on
February 25 the Anti-Corruption Commission sought to secure documents
from
Nieeb in a manner and against the background of a public scenario that
smacked of gross and intolerable corruption by the very same body that has
the constitutional responsibility of guarding against the very scourge of
corruption it exposed itself to,” said Moyo.
Moyo claims the
Anti-Corruption’s action was baseless, illegal, corrupt and
constituted
criminal abuse of duty.
The Tsholotsho North MP further says all attempts
being made by the Reserve
bank of Zimbabwe to regularise the Zimplats deal
was inappropriate and
illegal.
“In a very disappointing way, (the
third) development that is central to the
unfolding saga of orchestrated
opposition to the indigenisation reform
programme, the RBZ summoned Zimplats
last Wednesday and Thursday and abused
its institutional power to scare and
frighten the company from proceeding
with the implementation of the term
sheet it signed with Nieeb on January 11
2013,” said Moyo.
Mugabe
however, has expressed his strong views over the “shoddy work” done
by
Kasukuwere. In the process Mugabe has hauled the young over the coals —
he
suggested the Mount Darwin South legislator was dancing to the whims of
foreign nationals at the expense of the poor who own the
minerals.
According to deals signed by Kasukuwere and several miners, for
instance,
Zimbabweans will only be able to lay their hands on the actual
shareholding
until after at least 10 years after paying off their debts and
under a
much-discredited vendor financing scheme.
While several
analysts have said that locals may even fail to pay for their
shareholding
in the prescribed period, this form of financial engineering
relates to a
process where an established company lends money to an entity
seeking to buy
into it.
Under the Zimplats deal, for instance, 31 percent was issued to
National
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board (Nieeb), 10 percent
to
employees and the other 10 percent was given to Ngezi-Zvimba Community
Share
Ownership Trust.
Apparently, if the Zimbabweans fail to pay the
cash in 10 years – which is
almost certain considering Zimplats has declared
a $50 million dividend in
the past decade — they will be given 10 days
within which to pay the cash or
they will forfeit the shares.
Also,
what endangers the vendor financing deal is that Zimplats has already
posted
a staggering loss.
Zimplats registered a $6 million loss in the half year to
December 31, 2012
down from a $68, 4 million profit recorded in previous
comparable period.
Since the Daily News broke the news on February 14, it
has since emerged
that the proposed mechanism of ceding 85 percent of the
dividends to repay
the $971 million loan in 10 years is
unsustainable.
At 10 percent interest per annum, the indigenisation
parties will need to
make an annual repayment of approximately $158
million.
Mugabe, who has been in power, since the country got its
independence from
Britain 33 years ago, is using the indigenisation
programme as his last
trump card as the country gears for a watershed
election.
The former guerrilla leader, who at 89 is likely to be
contesting his last
election with indigenisation as the last ace up his
sleeve, boasts of having
brought sovereignty, empowerment and total
independence but the recent
revelations that Kasukuwere was tricked presents
a major setback. - Tendai
Kamhungira
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Monday, 04 March 2013 11:38
HARARE - Zimbabwe must grab
the opportunities being offered by the
forthcoming United Nations World
Tourism (UNWTO) general assembly in August
this year to create a brighter
future, a South Korean diplomat has said.
The tourism summit will be
co-hosted by Zimbabwe and Zambia — two countries
which share one of the
seven natural wonders of the world, Victoria Falls.
More than 5 000
delegates from around the world are expected to attend the
conference.
According to the latest UNWTO barometer, Zimbabwe is the
fifth favourite
tourism destination in Africa with 2,2 million international
arrivals.
Speaking to the Daily News, South Korean ambassador to Harare
Lew Kwang-Chul
said Zimbabwe already has the infrastructure to boost its
tourism industry.
“It is up to Zimbabwe to make most of it because it
will be good for the
future of the industry,” he said.
“There is
still room for huge improvement in terms of tourism,” Kwang-Chul
said.
The Victoria Falls Airport is also set to get a facelift ahead
of the summit
as plans are underway to refurbish the
airstrip.
Zimbabwe has already started counting down to the hosting of
what will be
one of the most esteemed summits in the country, with Tourism
minister
Walter Mzembi claiming the country is ready to host the world
event.
The world has been closely monitoring the country’s political
environment to
assess the level of political maturity after a decade of
political and
economic turmoil.
With elections on the horizon, a
peaceful general poll will set the pace for
a successful
event.
According to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), tourist
arrivals into
Zimbabwe grew marginally by 8,3 percent to 2,4 million in
2011, from 2,2
million in 2010.
The growth was attributed to the
relative stability brought about by the
formation of the coalition
government in 2009.
Most visitors to Zimbabwe in 2011 were from Africa
while only six percent
arrived from the high-spending European markets,
according to ZTA. - Bridget
Mananavire
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Nomalanga
Moyo
4 March 2013
A sports reporter with the privately-owned Daily
News newspaper was barred
from covering a charity soccer match between army
side Black Rhinos and CAPS
United on Sunday.
Blessings Mashaya, who
is accredited with the statutory body the Zimbabwe
Media Commission,
confirmed to SW Radio that military police stopped him
from entering Rufaro
stadium in Harare.
The soldiers reportedly told Mashaya that since it was
only a charity match
they were playing, they did not require media coverage,
especially from
Daily News.
“We want to make money and to make things
worse, you are from the Daily News
so it’s better for you to go back. You
are not permitted to cover this
match,” said one of the soldiers, according
to a statement issued by the
Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA).
However, reports in other sections of the Zimbabwean media
suggest that some
reporters were allowed to cover the match.
Nyasha
Nyakunu, a spokesperson for media watchdog MISA, condemned the
actions by
the army. He said that it was the duty of journalists to cover
events in the
public domain without being intimidated.
“As MISA-Zimbabwe we would like
to urge the Zimbabwe Media Commission, which
is tasked with defending media
freedom and freedom of expression, to look
into the issue,” Nyakunu
added.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Monday, 04 March 2013 11:21
HARARE - A Bulawayo
High Court judge has ordered two Zanu PF activists to
stop illegal invasion
and selling of land belonging to a war veterans’
housing group, Magamba
Echimurenga Trust.
Justice Andrew Mutema last week interdicted Clifford
Hokonya and Charles
Mpofu from invading Amsterdam Park, near Boka Tobacco
Sales Floors, on the
outskirts of Harare.
The war veterans want to
use the land to build urban houses.
In his ruling, Mutema banned the duo
from grabbing the land and interfering
in the group’s work.
“The 1st
and 2nd defendants (Hokonya and Mpofu) be and are hereby
interdicted from
alienating, selling or disposing the stands at Amsterdam
Park,
Harare.
“The defendants be and are hereby interdicted from interfering in
any way in
the affairs of the plaintiff,” reads part of the
judgment.
Allegations against the two are that, they have been allocating
and
parcelling out land at Amsterdam Park without approval from Magamba
Echimurenga Trust.
Magamba Echimurenga Trust chairperson Andrew
Ndlovu told the Daily News that
anyone who acquired land at Amsterdam Park
from the two must vacate the
place peacefully before forceful evictions
begin.
“They can approach our offices so that we can see how best we can
assist
them,” said Ndlovu. - Bryn Gumbo
http://www.africareview.com/
By KITSEPILE NYATHI in Harare | Monday, March
4 2013 at 15:54
Zimbabwe police have arrested 14 supporters of
Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for
allegedly perpetrating
acts of violence when they were stopped at a
roadblock.
The arrests on Saturday came as the inclusive government
partners accused
each other of engaging in political violence ahead of a
referendum on the
new constitution on March 16 and general election expected
in July.
Police Monday said the MDC supporters were arrested in the small
town of
Chegutu, west of Harare, while on their way to the city for Gweru
where Mr
Tsvangirai was holding a rally to drum up support for the new
constitution.
The driver of the bus they were travelling in was arrested
at the police
roadblock because his bus was allegedly ahead of the schedule
shown on his
timetable.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Paul
Nyathi said in the process, the 14
disembarked from the bus and one of them
confronted the police officers.
“They demanded that the driver be
released and one of the accused persons
snatched a police detail’s cellphone
and went back into the bus,” he said.
“Other supporters ran back into the
bus and that is when other police
details moved into the bus and the bus was
taken to the local police station
where investigations were
instituted.
“The accused are in custody at Chegutu Police Station and
investigations are
continuing.”
Mr Tsvangirai last week sent envoys
to regional capitals to lobby for an
extraordinary Southern Africa
Development Community (SADC) summit to deal
with reports of an upsurge in
cases of political violence.
This followed the death of a 12 year-old son
of an MDC activist in a
suspected arson attack in the Midlands Province last
week.
However, police have ruled out foul play in the death saying
fertiliser
stored in the grass thatched hut the family was sleeping could
have been
responsible for the fire.
President Mugabe at the weekend
also accused the MDC of attributing even
natural deaths to alleged Zanu-PF
violence.
http://www.iol.co.za/
March 4 2013 at 08:00am
By
Bloomberg
Zimbabwe might revoke the coal mining licences held by 31 local
companies,
most of which were holding them for speculation that was
discouraging
foreign investment, Deputy Mines Minister Gift Chimanikire said
on Friday.
The companies had been been ordered to come to the ministry this
week to
explain the exploration work they had carried out, he said in an
interview
in Harare. “If we don’t get any satisfactory answers, we won’t
hesitate to
withdraw those licences. Most of these people are holding on to
these grants
for speculative purposes.” He said some licensees had been
asking foreign
investors for “other things and favours, resulting in the
investors moving
on to other countries”. – Bloomberg
http://www.bdlive.co.za
BY TAWANDA KAROMBO, MARCH 03 2013,
16:29
HARARE – Foreign owned banks in Zimbabwe — including Standard
Bank owned
Stanbic Bank, Nedbank controlled MBCA Bank and the local units of
Standard
Chartered and Barclays — will not be required to cede the mandatory
51%
shareholding under contentious empowerment laws.
President Robert
Mugabe, who is pushing the contentious empowerment policy
ahead of elections
this year, said in an interview on Saturday that lower
mandatory compliance
thresholds can be negotiated for the financial services
sector.
He
however said where Zimbabwe owns the resources, especially in mining, 51%
control has to be given to black Zimbabweans. Analysts, investment fund
managers and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC have criticised the
policy saying it drives away foreign direct investments. Mr Tsvangirai has
vowed to reverse the policy if voted into power.
"For that one
(financial services sector) you can go 50/50 or you can agree
on a ratio
which is sustainable and equitable. It’s not in every case that
we must
apply the 51-49," said Mr Mugabe.
He said the principle of ceding 51%
cannot be applied "because the resource
(banking technology and
infrastructure) is not yours" as it has been brought
into the country by the
foreign banks. This week, Standard Chartered
revealed that it was committed
to continuing with its operations in
Zimbabwe.
"I believe the whole
indigenisation issue is more a case of bullying than
law, even when you have
a law that says indigenisation must happen, many of
the procedures are not
tied up and the way the act is drawn up is impossible
to carry out,"
economist John Robertson told BDlive.
Central Bank governor, Dr Gideon
Gono has led the banks’ resistance to give
away 51% shares to black
Zimbabweans. Empowerment Minister Saviour
Kasukuwere admitted last month
that he was facing stiff resistance from the
central bank in his efforts to
indigenise the banking sector.
Mr Gono and Finance Minister Tendai Biti
have argued that indigenising
foreign banks destabilises the fragile sector.
Analysts pointed out this
week that the government was bullying foreign
firms following reports that
Mr Kasukuwere bungled in the process which saw
Zimplats and other mining
companies agree to cede majority shares.
http://www.mdc.co.zw
Monday, 04 March 2013
President
Tsvangirai has raised concern over the trivialisation of the death
of
Christpowers Simbarashe Maisiri by the police and Zanu PF officials.
Chrispowers died last week in Headlands after the grass thatched hut that he
was sleeping in was set on fire by Zanu PF supporters.
However, the
police have issued a statement claiming no foul play was
suspected while the
Zanu PF leader, Robert Mugabe on Saturday scoffed at
reports that his
supporters were behind the death of Christpowers.
The State media has
also been claiming that Christpowers who was 12 years
old was mentally and
physically incapacitated a condition which they claim
was responsible for
his inability to escape from the inferno that took his
life.
The
boy’s father is the MDC Headlands district deputy Organising Secretary.
Christpowers was laid to rest at Dzikiti village in Headlands during a
sombre send off attended by thousands of mourners including President
Tsvangirai.
Those strongly suspected of the arson attack are; Gilbert
Makura, the Zanu
PF district chairperson of Village 47, Isaac Dobo, Annah
Mumbana, the Zanu
PF district chairlady and Tendai Gosho.
Speaking
through Alex Magaisa, his Secretary for Transitional Affairs on
Monday,
President Tsvangirai also raised concerns over the differential
treatment by
the police in arresting political activists.
“They are not decent to use
such language. The issue of violence should be
looked into. The manner in
which the death of Chrispowers has been handled
by both the police and state
media raises a lot of questions,” said Magaisa.
He said the MDC was
concerned by swiftness shown by the police in arresting
MDC members citing
the example of the 31 MDC members who were arrested in
2011 on false charges
of murdering a police officer in Glen View, Harare.
Five of the 31
members, Last Maengahama, a member of the National Executive,
Harare
councillor, Tungamirai Madzokere, Simon Mapanzure, the district
chairperson
for Mufakose, Rebecca Mafukeni and Yvonne Musarurwa are in
remand prison
after they were denied bail on several occasions at the High
Court.
In the meantime Zanu PF supporters who have carried out acts
of violence are
roaming free. President Tsvangirai is expected to hold a
meeting with Mugabe
over the death of Christpowers.
Meanwhile,
President Tsvangirai on Monday met with the Swedish Minister for
Development, Gunilla Carlson at his government offices.
Addressing
journalists after the meeting, Minister Carlson said Sweden was
happy with
how the country’s economy had recovered since the formation of
the inclusive
government in 2009.
“The Swedes are impressed with the recovery of the
economy. However, we
expect more reforms to be implemented before the
holding of free and fair
elections,” said Minister Carlson.
She said
Sweden hoped that the coming elections would be free and fair in
order for
the country to move on and create a conducive environment for
investment and
job creation.
A New Constitution: A New Zimbabwe. Vote YES!!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's octogenarian
leader, has complained that
he is "very lonely" now that most of his
independence-era contemporaries
have died and he is surrounded by "children"
in his Cabinet.
By Aislinn Laing, Johannesburg3:01PM GMT 04 Mar
2013
The president, who at 89 is Africa's oldest and one of its
longest-serving
leaders, lamented not being able to reminisce with
colleagues about chasing
girls and riding bicycles in the 1930s and
50s.
He said that the only person who came close to understanding was
Didymus
Mutasa, the Zanu PF secretary for administration, who is
78.
Other politicians involved in the liberation struggle with Mr Mugabe,
such
as former vice-presidents Joshua Nkomo, Joseph Msika and John Nkomo,
have
passed on.
"They are gone and those who remain, you look down
upon them because they
are young. They have not had the same experience, the
same length of life
and, therefore, the same advantage of gathering as much
knowledge and
experience as yourself," Mr Mugabe was quoted as saying in an
interview with
national broadcaster ZBC to mark his 89th birthday at the
weekend.
"And so you can't discuss with them things that happened in the
1930s or
even 1950s. You take my Cabinet as it is: there is no one I can
talk to
about how we used to approach girls or we would go to this and that
place,
riding bicycles. There are others like Mutasa. He comes close, but
others
are just children.
"You feel that loneliness. You have lost
others and sometimes you think of
it and it makes you very
lonely."
Even within his own family, Mr Mugabe struggles to find sage
advice. His
wife Grace, his former secretary, is 41 years his junior and his
only
surviving sibling, Bridgette, has been in a coma since 2010 when she
collapsed during the burial of their elder sister Sabina.
"The
consoling part of it is that, well fine, there are young ones and young
minds you can talk to," Mr Mugabe said. "You can also try to educate, you
can also try to relate a bit of history to and so on and so forth. But they
remain young ones who listen much more than they share ideas with
you."
Mr Mugabe is not the first to highlight his loneliness at the top
among
Africa's leadership. Last year, Nando's restaurant chain produced a
spoof
advertisement entitled Last Dictator Standing in which Mr Mugabe sat
alone
at a table on Christmas Day, daydreaming about water pistol fights
with
Muammar Gaddafi, the former Libyan leader, and tank rides with Uganda's
Idi
Amin.
The advertisement was pulled by the South African food
chain after a youth
group loyal to Mr Mugabe called for a boycott.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Maxwell Sibanda, Assistant
Editor
Monday, 04 March 2013 10:15
HARARE - The recent police ban on
portable shortwave radios has exposed
government’s penchant for assaulting
citizens’ freedoms at a time when the
country is preparing to hold a
constitutional referendum, analysts have
said.
Police, on February 13
announced the ban on the radios claiming that
possession and distribution of
the devices was illegal as other parties
intended “to sow seeds of
disharmony within the country especially now that
the country is about to
embark on the referendum and harmonised elections.”
The banned shortwave
radios are popular with Zimbabweans who tune in to
broadcasts by
Washington-based Studio 7 and ShortWave Radio Africa (SW
Radio).
Police ban came in the wake of raids on Non-Governmental
Organisations
(NGOs) which were suspected of distributing the devices to the
rural
communities.
But analysts told the Daily News the ban was a
direct assault on the
citizens’ liberties and was calculated to maintain
Zanu PF’s stranglehold of
the rural folk, which forms its support
base.
“It is not the gadgets (radios) that are being banned, but the
information
coming through the radios.They want people in marginalised
communities to
remain blind to new developments. They do not want them to
deliberate on the
new constitution nor the upcoming general elections,”
playwright, Cont
Mhlanga said.
Zimbabwe holds a constitutional
referendum on March 16 to decide whether to
accept or reject a new charter
seen as crucial in governing the watershed
elections expected later in the
year.
So far, the voter education has not been effective because of the
biting
financial resources which have restricted the printing of more draft
copies
of the new constitution in vernacular languages.
NCA leader
Lovemore Madhuku wants President Robert Mugabe forced to defer
the
referendum and has lodged an appeal in the Supreme Court following his
initial loss at the High Court.
“As Africans we do not respect our
culture and ethics as a people and to the
politicians they do not mean
anything. They always look after their freedoms
while denying the weaker
their freedoms as well,” said Mhlanga.
He said while the politicians and
the rich enjoyed flashy cars listening to
Japanese radios, it was grossly
unjust to deny the poor rural folk their
right to listen to these shortwave
radios.
“They say the poor cannot listen to radio because they may get
informed and
enlightened about events happening in their own country, but
what is
broadcasting all about? It is about people having choices, choices
of what
to listen to,” says the playwright.
“Is it a crime for people
to prefer foreign-based radio stations than local
ones?” he
asked.
Ironically, the colonial government of Ian Smith was also
notorious for
hunting and arresting blacks found listening to Zanu PF’s
liberation
movement radio station, The Voice of Zimbabwe which was meant to
boost
morale among the fighters and urge people to unite and keep the fight
alive.
Freedom fighters and rural folks updated themselves by listening
to portable
radios.
The Voice of Zimbabwe, like Studio 7 and SW
Radio, was operated underground
from neighbouring Mozambique, where the
freedom fighters had their
headquarters.
Studio 7 and SW Radio
Africa, are popular with rural communities as they
give them updates on the
political front — the violence, intimidation and
murders of political
opponents.
Interestingly, Zanu PF officials have participated in
programmes aired by
the so-called “pirate” radio stations as they try to
manage the truth
getting to communities.
These radios are cranked by
hand to generate energy and are handy; can be
carried to the fields and even
to the grazing lands.
Police suspect these radios were imported illegally
into the country and
that distributors did not pay tax to revenue-collection
authorities.
Interestingly, they claim those listening have not paid
listeners’ licences
to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
(ZBC).
ZBC, however, has not been known to confiscate radios whose owners
have not
paid listener’s licences.
On Friday detectives and
intelligence officers stormed the offices of Radio
Dialogue, in Bulawayo and
confiscated 180 shortwave radios as it continued
with its clampdown on civic
society groups suspected of distributing them.
Radio Dialogue production
manager Zenzele Ndebele will appear in court today
(Monday March
4).
Leading human rights lawyer, Kucaca Phulu who is representing
Ndebele, said
his client had initially been charged with possession of
smuggled goods in
contravention of section.182 of the Customs & Exercise
Act but has been
slapped with a further charge of possession of a radio
receiver without a
valid ZBC licence in contravention of section.38 of the
Broadcasting
Services Act.
Stanley Kwenda, the provincial chairperson
of MISA Harare advocacy committee
says the ban on radios is a deliberate
assault on freedom of expression.
“It is a move calculated to cow the
masses and limit their access to
information. It is sad that it comes at a
time when we thought we are going
to have a constitutional charter that
would safeguard these rights,” said
Kwenda.
Raisedon Baya, a theatre
director who has been holding plays in marginalised
areas said portable
radios are vital for quick information and updates.
“Sometimes newspapers
get there when the news or information is stale but
radios churn out quick
updates and are current. They are very vital if we
want an informed
electorate or citizenry. I believe it is more about trying
to control
information.
“It is also an attempt of monopolising the information that
reaches the
grassroots,” said Baya.
Police has vowed to continue with
seizures of these radios, raising fears of
a crackdown against civil society
groups and rights defenders as well as the
general populace.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
Monday, 04 March 2013
15:06
HARARE - The revolution promised a just, equal, free, prosperous,
inclusive,
and transparent dispensation.
After reading Jonathan
Moyo’s latest contribution to the debate on
indigenisation in an article
entitled: “Cheap attempts to scuttle
indigenisation” published by the Sunday
Mail dated March 3, 2013 one gets
the distinct impression that he wants to
scuttle debate on a matter that
raises fundamental ideological, legal, and
policy issues.
It is significant that President Robert Mugabe, the leader
of the party that
Moyo purportedly speaks on behalf of holds different views
from him on how
the indigenisation programme ought to be framed, financed
and executed.
Moyo as a legislator would be aware that Zimbabwe is a
republic and that
holding divergent and even contradictory views is healthy
for democracy.
Although independence could never be expected to produce a
collective let
alone individual roadmap to a better life, what it did was to
free the mind
so that people could take ownership of their destinies
underpinned by an
administration that respects their sovereignty, creativity
and
responsibility.
What does Moyo take the people of Zimbabwe
for?
Evidently, he has failed to disclose his interest in the Zimplats
Indigenisation Transaction (ZIT) and the contractual basis of the role of
“spin doctor” that he seems to have assumed.
Mugabe, who remains the
leader of Zanu PF should ordinarily be the face of
the party and also the
government on this chosen key personal legacy subject
of indigenisation and
black empowerment.
To Mugabe there is a direct link between the
indigenisation programme and
the liberation struggle and it is obvious that
he wants to be remembered for
doing this right.
He has not accepted
that the choices and actions of his government have
played any role in
increasing poverty, inequality and unemployment rather he
believes that
colonial history has and continues to be the injury to be
cured through
state intervention.
To this end, the content and context of the
indigenisation programme takes a
national and strategic character that
cannot be trivialised in a bid to
protect undisclosed narrow and sectional
interest.
The need for advisory services in any transaction cannot be
understated.
Even financially illiterate persons would know that the
difference between a
businessman and a politician is that a businessman
cannot force
customers/clients to purchase goods and services supplied
voluntarily
whereas the government served by politicians has the power to
collect other
people’s incomes as taxes and there is no goods return
policy.
If one does not like a state actor after elections, one has to
constitutionally wait until the next election to act.
In terms of
business, if a seller supplies one with a defective product, one
can
immediately seek remedies not available in real time to ordinary
citizens
against rotten state actors.
Against this backdrop, any programme
implemented by the state and its actors
has to be accountable to the people
from whom income is derived on
involuntary basis.
The National
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board (Nieeb) is an
organ of state
and, therefore, when it procures services from the public
including
Brainworks it should be subject to the same rules that apply to
other
vendors.
The facts of the ZI transaction need to be exposed not with a
view to
demonising any of the actors but to live up to the promise of the
revolution
that Moyo played a part in.
It is the relationship between
Brainworks and the Nieeb that is at issue.
How did Brainworks get
connected to the Nieeb?
Were other service providers given the same
opportunity?
By adding my voice and face to the debate, I have been
privileged to receive
from an anonymous source the key documents that allow
me to debate
intelligently with Moyo and hopefully add value to the
transformation
project.
The first document that has to form the
starting point in any informed
debate on this matter has to be the Advisory
and Mandate Letter dated June
8, 2012 as shown below:
As shown above,
the letter was originated by Brainworks and addressed to Mr.
Wellington
Zengeza. It would appear from the reference BCM/NIEEB/001 that
it was the
first formal contact between the contracting parties and more
importantly
that the mandate was not specific to any transaction but would
guide the
relationship between NIEEB and Brainworks.
Moyo, a former minister, would
know better that state institutions before
engaging any contractor would
need to know what they are looking to purchase
and then invite the public to
make proposals yet in this case it would
appear that it is Brainworks that
has the intellectual property on what
needs to happen.
The first
paragraph of any letter reveals a lot like the first step of any
journey.
Moyo makes the point that the ZI transaction has not been
completed
forgetting that even attempted murder is a crime.
In this
case, it is common cause that Brainworks got a boarding pass on a
journey
whose destination was known.
No other company was given an opportunity to
be on the plane.
The contents of the first paragraph are set out
below:
It is clear from the above that the letter to a government agency
was
preceded by conversations and not a Request for Proposals (RFP)
suggesting
that only the people engaged in the conversation knew of the
agenda to
acquire shares in non-compliant companies.
The compliance
function was never meant to be outsourced yet the
implications of this
letter is that the Nieeb was failing to execute its
mandate requiring the
service of a “messiah” in the form of Brainworks.
Given the political
context of the indigenisation programme one would expect
Brainworks to be
partisan in the same manner that Moyo’s DNA functions yet
there is no
evidence that Brainworks is one of Zanu PF’s brain trusts.
The brains at
work appear to be motivated less by ideology but what can be
financially
gained from a government facilitated transaction.
The second paragraph
provides more details as follows:
It is Brainworks that writes its own
mandate script and not the other way
around. The role envisaged by
Brainworks is clear and so is the identity of
the client.
It is the
contents of the third paragraph below that raise some troubling
questions.
Who verbally appointed Brainworks?
I am sure that
all revolutionary heroes buried at the national shrine will
be turning in
their graves after learning that the government they fought so
hard to
create is engaging with the public in this clumsy and opaque manner.
It
is evident that before this letter was written that Brainworks was
already
in the plan playing its part in a journey supposedly of the people
to the
promised land of plenty and equity.
The author of the letter discloses to
Zengeza that Brainworks was already
discharging services to seven companies
including Zimplats without a formal
mandate.
The true purpose of the
letter becomes evident in paragraph 4 below:
This letter was written not
by NIEEB as to be expected but by a service
provider to formalise
appointments already made verbally on the mandates and
to cover future
unspecified mandates.
If this is not generally corrupt then Moyo may wish
to define the meaning of
corruption that Mugabe talks about without any
visible evidence.
The reaction of Moyo would seem to suggest that this is
now the modus
operandi of the people’s government otherwise if the same
action was
overseen by a politically undesirable person, he would be the
first one to
make the loudest noise.
Hypocrisy is related to politics
but not to the extent of defending this
kind of shoddy and blatant abuse of
the state by a few connected souls.
Moyo would be aware that the said
mandate letter was signed and, therefore,
concluded to make the allegation
that nothing is completed in so far as the
role of Brainworks
nonsensical.
The remuneration of Brainworks has been a subject of debate,
however, as set
out below, it is clear what the company stood to make
without competing to
get into the plane.
It would not take a genius
to compute the income that Brainworks stands to
make from this self-serving
mandate.
The signed term sheet contains the key numbers required to make
the
computation.
In addition to the above, Brainworks stands to
pocket more money from the
deal as follows:
I have no doubt that Moyo
has reviewed the mandate letter and will agree
with me that the following
extract raises more troubling questions that need
to be addressed in the
public interest.
Although Brainworks signed the letter on June 8, 2012,
it was only
counter-signed by the CEO of Nieeb on September 20, 2012 and not
by Zengeza
to whom the letter was addressed in the first place.
It
would appear that between June 8 and September 20, 2012, Brainworks was
at
work without any formal relationship with Nieeb.
Who on earth authorised
this?
Who was aware of this untenable state of affairs?
The
corporate governance issues that emerge from this letter need to be
addressed.
How does Nieeb conduct its affairs?
What is the
role of the board, if any, in this matter?
Already, the Chairperson of
Nieeb, Nyambuya, has defended this transaction.
Perhaps he and not Moyo
may wish to shed some light of his state of
knowledge on the circumstances
leading to the engagement of Brainworks and
what was promised to the company
and by whom for the company to commence
work without going through any
transparent and open process that the
revolution promised to all. - Mutumwa
Mawere
http://blogs.ft.com
Mar 4, 2013 3:47pm by Irene
Madongo
Zimbabwe’s beleaguered indigenisation policy has been dealt
several big
blows in the last few days. Alleged corruption, arguments over
deal fees,
calls for a parliamentary probe – and to top it all, even
president Robert
Mugabe criticising the process.
The controversial
black empowerment policy, which forces foreign firms to
divest 51 per cent
of equity to locals, is one of Mugabe and his party,
Zanu-PF’s key
strategies. But is it falling apart?
In a dramatic turn on Friday Mugabe
finally admitted that Saviour
Kasukuwere, the Indigenisation minister, has
blundered over the much-touted
Zimplats deal announced in
January.
Under the agreement, Impala Platinum (Implats) agreed to sell a
majority
stake in its Zimbabwe unit to local blacks for $971m, facilitating
the
transaction through vendor financing at an interest rate of 10 per cent
per
year.
Mugabe said: “That is the problem, they gave us 51 per cent
saying that it
is a loan that we are giving you, and we are paying for you
in advance and
then you can pay us back tomorrow.
“I think that is
where our minister made a mistake. He did not quite
understand what was
happening, and yet our theory is that the resource is
ours and that resource
is our share, that is where the 51 per cent comes
from.”
It seems
that it has finally dawned on Mugabe that the policy may on the
surface be
about empowering black people, but actually has lumbered them
with a vast
bill.
Also on Friday Zimplats was given 30 days notice to appeal an order
from
Mugabe directing the firm give up 28,000 hectares of ground containing
platinum reserves.
The company has become embroiled in another row –
refusing to pay a $17m
consultation fee slapped on it by Brainworks, an
advisory company involved
in the $971m Implats deal. On Friday, Implats
spokesman Bob Gilmour told
beyondbrics that “Brainworks was contracted by
the NIEEB [National
Indigenisation & Economic Empowerment Board], so
that is for them, and not
for us. Zimplats [Implats Zimbabwean unit] will
not be paying the bill.” It
also issued a statement on its
website.
Zimplats refused to pay the bill saying it did not engage
Brainworks to act
as advisors to the government hence it could not be
expected to pay.
Observers questioned the sense in Brainworks’ demands –
Masimba Kuchera, an
economic analyst said: “It’s like telling someone that
they should pay the
transfer costs of a house that you’ve forcibly taken
away from them.”
.
Other problems abound. Last week Zimbabwe’s Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
called for a parliamentary probe into alleged
corruption in the handing of
empowerment deals for several companies. And on
Friday it was announced that
Zimbabwe’s Anti-Corruption Commission has
officially launched an
investigation into the deals.
There have also
been reports of wrangling over community share ownership
trusts funds, which
are contributed by companies that have complied with
indigenisation laws and
are meant to benefit local communities. The
Indigenisation authorities have
denied the allegations.
Kasukuwere has recently insisted that the policy is
working and benefiting
Zimbabweans, stating two months ago that the
programme’s sovereign wealth
fund stood at $4bn.
But Harare-based
economic analyst John Robertson says: “The dollars [claimed
to be] in the
fund are not dollars, they are shares that are said to have a
market value
of that much. Whether you would actually get that much if you
put them on
the market is a huge question, but it is not in the form of
money.”
“Most of the claims that companies have complied with
indigenisation demands
are exaggerations propagated by the indigenisation
ministry,” he added.
With all this going on, what is the fate of the
beleaguered policy? Zimbabwe
holds a constitutional referendum in two weeks’
time and has an election
coming up later in the year. Mugabe is in no mood
to back down on what is
perceived to be one of his party’s key election
ploys, and recently said he
will stick with the policy.
Zimbabwean
Analyst Lance Mambondiani said: “As a model for economic growth,
the
indigenisation model is rooted in Communist nostalgia. The assumption
that
in any economy anywhere in the world everyone and anyone can be an
owner of
a company is patently dishonest.”
Kuchera said: “In the short term they
will try and protect it but won’t have
those grandstand announcements. I
think Zanu-PF has nothing else to offer
and they will try to save at least
the idea in the short term”.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T
would ditch the policy, saying it
deters badly-needed foreign investment for
the cash-strapped country. It
says it will review the policy if it comes
wins the impending elections. But
even this may not be easy..
“The
policy is already law, it’s unlikely that it will be repealed even if
the
MDC were to come into power. In its economic policy, the party proposes
a
review of policy to make it a lot more consultative. Like the land policy,
it is difficult to reverse the changes already done,” says
Mambondiani.
Beyondbrics asked for comment from Kasukuwere and National
Indigenisation
and Economic Empowerment Board, but they did not respond at
time of
publication.
Despite the Zimbabwean economy’s spectacular collapse in the wake of the violent land invasions of 2000, the destruction of property rights and the demise of the rule of law, the country still has the irrefutable potential to recover its thriving economic status.
Ben Freeth MBE, executive director of the Mike Campbell Foundation, and Professor Craig Richardson, a U.S. economist who specializes in property rights and the Zimbabwean economy, will speak at the event.
They will contend that the imperatives for economic recovery and growth are enabling laws and policies, as well as the restoration of property rights.
They also believe that the chronic, widespread poverty can only be addressed when the country’s diverse resources – including its agricultural potential and mineral wealth - are utilised productively for the benefit of the entire nation.
Richardson’s theme, “Why do property rights matter? The case of Zimbabwe”, will demonstrate how property titles unlock financial capital, which can flow to a multitude of different areas and not only alleviate poverty and hunger, but create wealth and a better life for all.
He will contend that although the Zimbabwean economy is currently believed to be growing faster than most other economies, this is off a very low base - and that the artificial nature of its reported economic growth is dependent on massive infusions of foreign aid.
With the current conflict that remains on the land delaying any sustainable recovery of the agricultural sector, Richardson will propose possible solutions.
The third speaker, Gillian Higgins, is a London-based barrister from the chambers of 9 Bedford Row. She is a founding member of the International Criminal Law Bureau and the Director of ARC, a project concerned with the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Higgins, who has extensive experience in international criminal law and human rights law, will discuss issues related to justice and accountability. This will help to break the culture of impunity so prevalent in countries such as Zimbabwe, and which causes much suffering and stifles progress.
These issues are particularly relevant with Zimbabwe being in another election year.
The programme will include messages from the foundation’s two patrons: Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, and the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu.
Archbishop Tutu has spoken out forthrightly on the gross human rights abuses and rule of law infringements in Zimbabwe, while Dr John Sentamu has described the existence of dictatorship and oppression as an affront to God, humanity and the principles of democracy and the Rule of Law.
In December 2012, Zimbabwe was ranked as one of the world’s worst performers in upholding the rule of law by the World Justice Project, which covered 97 countries.
Tickets cost £15 and the programme is from 7pm to 9pm on Thursday March 7. Doors open at 6pm and there is a cash bar available before and after the event.
To make a booking, log onto the Mike Campbell Foundation website: www.mikecampbellfoundation.com or contact Claire Freeth: phone: +44 (0)1795 842 341, e-mail: info@mikecampbellfoundation.com