FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi News Editor
Top ZANU PF
officials' firms lose lucrative airport security contracts
AT least three
security companies with links to ZANU PF officials have been
stripped of
lucrative contracts to provide airport security services after
the Joint
Operations Command (JOC), which consists of senior government and
security
figures, raised concerns that the firms could have been used by top
politicians to facilitate the smuggling of minerals through Harare
International Airport.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon
Gono said recently that
smuggling is costing Zimbabwe US$50 million every
week.
The JOC, comprising military, intelligence and government officials,
met on
Thursday, February 22, and resolved to banish all private firms from
airport
security and replace them with a special police squad.
Sources
say Security Minister Didymus Mutasa chaired the meeting, which was
also
attended by Transport and Communications Minister Christopher Mushowe,
Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and Home Affairs Minister Kembo
Mohadi. A change in security provision arrangements was effected the
following day, Friday, February 23, when police details were deployed to
take over all airport security
However, the JOC's decision has, once
again, stoked factional hostilities
within ZANU PF. This is because most of
the security companies that have
been dropped are owned by at least two
figures with reported links to Vice
President Joice Mujuru's faction, some
of whose alleged members have known
interests in mining.
A Financial
Gazette investigation this week identified two of the security
firms as
Catiss Security and Professional Security. It was established from
Company
Registry records that Professional Security lists, among its
directors, Ray
Joseph Kaukonde, the Mashonaland East governor who is
perceived as an ally
of Mujuru.
No official information was available on Catiss Security. However,
ruling
party sources say Claudius Makova, ZANU PF MP for Bikita West, owns
the
company. Makova was unavailable for comment.
Another of the security
firms, Coin Security, has been traced to Karikoga
Kaseke, the former head of
the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ)
and current chief executive
officer of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA).
Kaseke confirmed previous
ownership of the company, which had enjoyed a
contract to supply security
services to Catercraft, the state-owned company
that supplies on-board meals
for Air Zimbabwe. This raises obvious questions
of conflict of interest. But
Kaseke says he has since sold the company to
his younger brother.
The
Financial Gazette this week visited the airport, where sources - senior
security and ground personnel - revealed widespread smuggling, which they
euphemistically referred to as "facilitation".
"There is a network. It
starts from some very big people, people we see on
TV, to ordinary handlers
and customs people. Everybody gets a piece," an
official said. "It is
nothing complicated. Couriers, sometimes security
companies, arrive with
stuff, and everybody knows the routine. They know
which handlers to target
and which points to avoid through the chain (of
clearing goods). That guy
was just unlucky. He's obviously a small timer and
he didn't follow the
right channels."
The official was referring to William Nhara, Principal
Director in the
Office of the Minister Without Portfolio, arrested last
Thursday while
allegedly trying to help a Lebanese business partner smuggle
diamonds past
customs.
According to one source, apart from gold and
gemstones, other contraband,
including cigarettes, is brazenly routed
through airport security. "We don't
mind what it is. This is just
facilitation."
However, this paper's investigations established that although
many other
goods are smuggled, the "facilitators" place a high premium on
handling gold
and other minerals. "Facilitating a few boxes of cigarettes or
bottles of
brandy pays a bit. But if somebody wants to sneak through
emeralds, for
example, they must pay between US$5 000 and US$7 000. But this
can go up
depending on the size of the parcel and on what airline (it is
being
loaded)."
Private security companies, these sources suggest, were
merely part of
organised "syndicates" of influential figures running a
thriving smuggling
business.
The airport officials also described how
several empty buildings within the
airport complex - neglected over the
years because of declining business -
are being used as "private cargo
areas" for top smugglers, which the
officials freely named during the visit.
Minerals and other contraband are
stored in the buildings "if conditions
(for their export) are not right."
The officials however denied The
Financial Gazette access to these areas,
only pointing out a single,
barricaded, run-down building. They then
insisted on escorting this reporter
back to the car park.
Last week, sources reported that the JOC had discussed
airport security
after Zambian police seized 121kg of gold from a Zimbabwean
man at Lusaka
International Airport as he allegedly tried to smuggle the
precious mineral
to the United Arab Emirates. The gold, worth US$2.6
million, is Zambia's
largest ever illegal gold haul.
Source now say
sections of the JOC believe the man, Ernest Moore, has "links
to top
political figures" in Zimbabwe. Moore allegedly carried forged
documents to
export the gold. However, it was impossible to establish his
alleged links
to local politicians.
Police have been on a campaign to curb the smuggling of
minerals since last
year. However, critics say the operation, in which over
40 000 illegal gold
miners have been arrested, has targeted only small-time
dealers while
avoiding top politicians believed to be behind increased
gemstone and gold
trafficking. While deputy Police Commissioner Godwin
Matanga has told a
parliamentary committee that he is aware of the
involvement of senior
government officials in smuggling, Nhara is the
highest ranking government
official to be charged so far.
Last week,
police searched the home of Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI)
managing
director, Tshinga Dube, and arrested his son for illegal possession
of gems.
He is out on bail.
Government blames smuggling for falling gold deliveries to
Fidelity, the
country's sole buyer of gold. But mining executives say the
decline has more
to do with the economic crisis depressing production and
restricting
exploration than smuggling.
FinGaz
Nkululeko Sibanda Staff
Reporter
THE Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) will record a $60
billion
deficit this year if the government does not lift a cap on water and
sewage
reticulation tariffs for Harare, an official at the parastatal
says.
The official, who spoke anonymously said the authority would not be
able to
recover lost revenue if the government took too long to approve a
tariff
review.
The source said the Ministry of Water Resources and
Infrastructural
Develop-ment had been informed of an urgent need to raise
tariffs, but had
not yet responded to ZINWA's request.
"In terms of
estimates that were made at the beginning of the year, the
annual income in
case we are allowed to increase tariffs, stands at about
$78 billion for the
Harare area alone.
"We also worked out the annual income against the current
structure and we
discovered that all we can raise is $18 billion and that
leaves us with a
deficit of plus $60 billion," the senior official
said.
ZINWA has applied for permission to treble tariffs.
"If the
government agrees to our proposal, residents will pay at least $15
000 per
month for both water and sewer reticulation, while industrial
properties
will be expected to pay at least $40 000 per month," he added.
The ZINWA
official said the authority was in dire need of foreign currency
to import
plant and machinery to replace ageing infrastructure.
"(We estimate that) 35
percent of the water in Lake Chivero, one of Harare's
major supply dams, is
pure sewage that has been discharged into the water
system because there is
lack of proper treatment of the effluent."
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Staff
Reporter
YOUNG Martha Jonhera has secured a place at one of America's top
universities and under normal circumstances, she should be on cloud nine
because a bright future is ahead of her.
But she does not have a
passport and will lose this once in a lifetime
opportunity if she does not
get one by the end of this week. She must be in
the United States by the end
of this month, but given the problems at the
Registrar-General's Office, her
chances of getting the document are nil.
For Jonhera, this is like a death
sentence.
"I am shattered. I don't know what to do now. I will never get a
chance like
this again," she moans.
"I see very few opportunities for me
in this country. Besides, there is no
more conducive learning environment to
talk of, so for me not getting a
passport this week is a straight death
sentence."
On this particular day, Jonhera is grim-faced and stands
motionless against
a wall at Makombe Building, the Registrar-General's (R-G)
passport office in
Harare. Her mind is in turmoil as she tries to think of
possible
alternatives. But she has no allusions about the paucity of
options.
Despite having a wad of 1000-dollar notes, a bundle of papers and
two
passport-sized photos ready, a chasm still stands between Jonhera and
her
dream to acquire a world-class university education.
Jonhera is not
alone in this predicament. She is just one of hundreds of
young Zimbabweans
who have had to forfeit opportunities to study at foreign
universities
because of the unavailability of passports. Tales are told of
what a
Herculean task it has become to get a passport.
As if to confirm the gravity
of the passport crisis, it was reported this
week that 390 students due to
study at South African universities under the
Presidential Scholarship
Programme may have their dreams shattered too if
they do not get travel
documents. Anxious to avoid the consequences of
embarrassing the President,
the R-G's Office was this week making frantic
efforts to speed up the
processing of the students' passports and identity
documents.
The R-G's
office stopped accepting new applications last year because of a
crippling
shortage of foreign currency needed to import the special paper
used to make
passports. As a result, the R-G's office now only issues
Emergency Travel
Documents (ETDs), which can only be used in the Southern
African Development
Community (SADC) region.
Jonhera says she first applied for a passport in
August 2005. But, almost
two years later, all she has is a collection of
receipts. Under normal
circumstances before the crisis began, an emergency
passport application
would be processed in 24 hours, while normal
applications did not take more
than three months .
For many trying to
escape the economic crisis prevailing in Zimbabwe the
green book is perhaps
the only gateway to a meaningful life.
Despite official explanations, many
Zimbabweans still cannot understand why
passports have become so
elusive.
Peter Chekai of Budiriro thinks it has to do with much more than
just the
shortage of materials. "I think the government has something up its
sleeve.
The government is trying to stem the movement of people to other
countries,"
he says.
Those wishing to travel have to give a valid reason
in order to get the
temporary six-month ETD. Usually a signed letter of
invitation and other
documents are required.
"But should we travel only
when there is an emergency? Are we not supposed
to visit our relatives for
more than six months?" asks Chekai.
And as if to add insult to injury, a
notice staring down on the long queues
of passport seekers at Makombe
Buildings announces an increase in passport
fees.
"The
Registrar-General's Department has increased passport fees with effect
from
12/01/2007 as follows," the notice reads.
An ordinary passport application
now costs $15 000 up from $2 500 while the
fee for an executive passport is
now $100 000 up from $25 000. An ETD costs
$5 000. Home Affairs Minister
Kembo Mohadi was recently quoted as saying
passports are being processed,
but the situation on the ground is that only
ETDs are being
issued.
Scenes at the passport office show that Zimbabwe's youths no longer
see a
future at home. Teenagers with at least one parent who is of foreign
descent
swarm the Citizenship Office every day in a bid to renounce their
Zimbabwean
citizenship. This enables them to get foreign passports, which
are easier to
come by than Zimbabwean travel documents.
Others apply for
passports from abroad. It costs US$70 to get an ordinary
passport, an
applicant has to cough up US$100 for an urgent dispensation.
When asked when
processing of passports would resume, officials at Makombe
Buildings claim
they are as much in the dark as the rest of Zimbabweans. "We
are not sure,
maybe April," says an official.
Those who applied for passports in August
2005 are being asked to check for
them at the end of this month.
FinGaz
Charles Rukuni Bureau
Chief
BULAWAYO - The people of Bulawayo can shout, boo, whine or even
invoke
bitter memories of Gukurahundi - the 1980s massacres in Matabeleland
and the
Midlands that left more than 20 000 dead - but the government will
not back
down on its plan to take over water supplies in the country's
second largest
city.
This was made abundantly clear by Water
Resources Minister Munacho Mutezo
last Friday at a meeting organised by the
Zimbabwe National Water Authority
(ZINWA) and the Bulawayo Press
Club.
Mutezo, who at one time had to seek protection from club chairman Edwin
Dube - the editor of Trends magazine - after some rowdy elements started
booing and shouting profanities about Gukurahundi, said his ministry was
already implementing the plan but was holding discussions with stakeholders
so that it could incorporate their views.
He said ZINWA, which would take
over the water supplies, would work closely
with the Bulawayo City Council
during the transitional period and would
enter into revenue sharing with the
council.
The council is against the takeover because water contributes 40
percent of
its revenue. The profits from water are also used to fund other
projects
like housing, health and education.
Mutezo said this was
precisely one of the reasons why the government had
decided to take over
because councils were misusing the easy revenue they
obtained from water and
were not reinvesting the money to improve water
supplies and
infrastructure.
ZINWA is taking over water supplies in all urban centres in
the country but
it met stiff opposition from Bulawayo where ordinary
citizens and
politicians closed ranks to fight against the takeover.
The
Bulawayo United Residents Association said it would seek the help of
former
ZAPU politicians and now ZANU-PF politburo members such as
vice-President
Joseph Msika, party chairman John Nkomo and Dumiso Dabengwa,
to get
government to change its decision.
Mutezo's speech dashed these hopes. He
made it clear that the government was
going ahead with the takeover and was
now only explaining the
"misunderstandings and apprehensions" people
had.
Mutezo last week toured Matabeleland North and South to explain the
takeover
and introduce the staff of ZINWA which the local authorities will
be working
with.
FinGaz
Zhean Gwaze
Staff Reporter
THE government says applications by evicted commercial
farmers to return to
their farms will be processed on a case-by-case basis,
a move farmers say
perpetuates the uncertainty surrounding land
reform.
In a letter last Friday to the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU),
the main
representative body of the farmers, Agriculture Permanent Secretary
Ngoni
Masoka said provincial and district land committees would process the
farmers' applications before submitting them to the ministry for
approval.
More than 700 commercial farmers have applied for offer letters or
permission to farm over the past four years.
Emily Crookes, spokesperson
for the CFU, said the union hoped that in
assessing the applications, the
government would stick to the ministry's
stated guidelines that productive
farmers would be given priority.
"There is need to address the issue as a
matter of urgency as farmers are
busy on their farms, and are looking
forward to the start of the winter
cropping season," Crookes
said.
Zimbabwe's food production has plummeted since the beginning of the
land
reform exercise under which thousands of white-owned farms were seized
for
redistribution to the landless black majority, ostensibly to correct
colonial land imbalances.
The land invasions have often been violent, but
the CFU says of late the
situation on the farms has been relatively
quiet.
However, in a note to members this week, Justice for Agriculture, a
radical
splinter farmers' group, reported a foiled attempt to take over the
property
of prominent member Ben Freeth.
Confusion persists on the status
of the land reform programme, with some
sections of government saying the
exercise is over while others have vowed
to press on with evictions until
the last white farmer is ejected.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Reporter
NGOs
clash with UN over Human Rights Commission
THE National Association of
Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO) has once
again spurned renewed
attempts by the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) to broker
consultative discussions on the establishment of a national
human rights
commission, which faltered last year.
Influential rights and
pro-democracy groups told The Financial Gazette this
week that the UNDP had
revived attempts to broker talks to discuss the
setting up of the
controversial human rights commission this month by
lobbying individual
rights and civic groups.
But NANGO, an umbrella body of non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) this
week maintained that it will not take part in the
consultations unless the
government first repeals harsh and repressive
security laws, which are
stifling its members' operations in
Zimbabawe.
"Several organisations have so far been approached to endorse and
support
the commission as well as to attend an upcoming meeting and NANGO
would like
to advise that its position on not attending any consultations on
the
commission until efforts are made towards meeting pre-conditions,
stands,"
reads part of a statement sent this week to NANGO
affiliates.
NANGO spokesperson Fambai Ngirandi, said there was no basis for
discussing
the setting up of a rights commission when there was no letup in
the
government's suppression of people's rights. Ngirandi who deplored the
UNDP's
bullying tactics in trying to broker the meeting cited last month's
clampdown on an opposition rally and the subsequent banning of rallies and
demonstrations saying this infringed on the freedom of association and
assembly.
"There hasn't been an honest broker in place. It is not the
UNDP's role to
support the government in imposing a human rights commission.
Day in and day
out the government is attacking us and they can't respect our
very
existence," said Ngirandi.
Authoritative civic groups and
constitutional reform activists have
previously criticised the plans to
establish a national human rights
commission, which were initiated last year
saying the government is not
qualified to monitor human rights issues
because some state institutions and
authorities have been implicated in
human rights violations over the past
seven years.
Rights groups say the
human rights commission should only be a product of a
holistic
constitutional reform process aimed at entrenching democracy and
human
rights in the country.
This month's proposed meeting is the latest in a
series of attempts to bring
rights groups and the government to the
negotiating table following the
collapse last year of consultations to set
up the contentious rights
commission.
Zimbabwe's failure to uphold the
rule of law and to address a widening human
rights deficit has invited
targeted travel and economic sanctions on
President Robert Mugabe and his
lieutenants by western governments. Human
rights watchdogs have in recent
years ranked Zimbababwe among countries with
the worst records for abusing
human rights through lawlessness, restrictive
laws and bad governance, a
charge, which the government denies.
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Staff
Reporter
A ZIMBABWEAN academic, Professor Mandivamba Rukuni, is tipped to
take over
the reins at the World Food Programme (WFP), following the
departure of
James Morris, who stepped down last year.
Morris was the
WFP Executive Director and special United Nations
Humanitarian Envoy in
Southern Africa.
According to WFP spokesperson, Michael Huggins, the
Zimbabwean's name
emerged during a meeting of the organisation's 36- member
board held in
Rome a week ago.
"The WFP executive board met last week in
Rome and a Zimbabwean name came up
for consideration, and I understand that
there was discussion on it. The
board meets and decides what it wants, so I
wouldn't know," said Huggins by
telephone from Johannesburg.
Rukuni seems
to be the frontrunner. He is the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Programme Director
for Africa and is based in Pretoria. The Financial
Gazette was unable to
reach him
Rukuni, a renowned international nutritionist, holds a Ph.D from
the
University of Zimbabwe (UZ) and a
Masters degree in Tropical
Agricultural Development from the University of
Reading
(Pennsylvania).
Before joining the W.K.Kellogg Foundation, he was Professor
of Agricultural
Economics at UZ and a visiting professor at Michigan State
University. He
has also consulted for the World Bank, USAID, CIDA, Ford
Foundation and
CIMMYT among other organisations.
If he takes over the
reins at WFP, he would be responsible for the world's
largest food aid
organisation, which is currently feeding over 100 million
people in 81
countries.
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda
Staff Reporter
ZIMBABWE was placed close to the bottom of the World
Economic Forum's latest
Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI),
hurt by the economic
crisis, negative world perception and a distorted
pricing system.
Zimbabwe came 107 out of a total of 124 countries
included in the survey,
used by tourists as a measure of the best tourist
destinations.
The annual competitiveness report measures factors and policies
that make it
attractive to develop the travel and tourism sector in
different countries.
"The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report aims to
explore factors and
policies driving travel and tourism competitiveness
worldwide," said
Jennifer Blank, a senior economist at the WEF's Global
Competitive Network.
The report examines issues crucial to tourism, such as
policy rules and
regulations, environmental regulations, safety and
security, health and
hygiene, prioritisation of travel and tourism, air
transport, tourism ICT,
road infrastructure, national tourism perception and
price competitiveness
in the travel and tourism industry.
Over 11 000
business leaders from 125 countries were polled.
In Zimbabwe, the University
of Zimbabwe Graduate School of Management was
cited as a
partner.
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), which has been leading efforts to
revive
the country's battered tourism industry, said it was not aware of the
global
index when approached for its reaction.
Switzerland leads the
index, followed by Austria and Germany. Tunisia got
the nod as Africa's
tourism paradise, the highest placed African country at
number 35. It was
closely followed by Mauritius at number 39 and Egypt at
58.
South Africa
was placed number 62, a lowly position tourism experts there
attribute to
crime. Zambia, Namibia and Botswana, which have benefited from
the breakdown
of tourism in Zimbabwe, were placed at number 94, 73 and 70,
respectively.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff
Reporter
THE Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara), the state
body
responsible for raising funds for road maintenance and construction,
has
applied for government approval to double the fuel levy.
Zinara
chief executive Francis Hwekwete told the parliamentary portfolio
committee
on transport and communications this week his group wants the levy
increased
from the current five percent of the landed fuel to 10 percent.
"We are
making efforts to see if they can be increased. The Ministry of
Finance said
we can increase the fuel (levy) to 10 percent and that would
increase our
revenue. We are currently talking to the Ministry of Energy,"
Hwekwete
said.
He said insufficient funds, a result of low levies, were hampering
efforts
to raise money for road construction.
During the same hearing,
the Ministry of Transport and Communications
Permanent Secretary, George
Mlilo, said Treasury was scuttling the
development of roads by holding on to
foreign currency collected from
tollgates at the country's border
posts.
Mlilo said his Ministry had approached the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority
(Zimra) to collect levies on their behalf on the understanding that it would
be directly passed to them. However, Treasury insisted all proceeds be
deposited with it instead.
Mlilo, who said that he was now "desperate"
for the release of the money,
said he could not trust his own staff to
collect the forex on behalf of his
Ministry.
"The rightful collector of
public funds is Zimra. I could post my boys there
but they would fill their
pockets every night," Mlilo said.
Mlilo also accused the committee of
disrupting progress by opposing the
construction of tollgates, which had
received cabinet approval.
However, committee chair Leo Mugabe said his
committee only stepped in after
the Ministry of Local Government had
indicated it was concerned that
tollgates were being constructed within the
city of Harare.
"There is nowhere in the world where tollgates are
constructed in the middle
of the city," Mugabe said.
FinGaz
Chris Muronzi Staff
Reporter
THE sharp fall of the dollar through February and steep price
hikes ahead of
the anticipated implementation of a prize freeze will have
pushed inflation
to new records over 1700 percent, economists forecast this
week.
The Central Statistical Office (CSO) is expected to release
February
inflation figures either tomorrow or Monday.
According to a
Financial Gazette poll of analysts and economists this week,
the market
expects annual inflation to come in at a range between 1700
percent and 1900
percent.
The poll returned an average forecast of 1769 percent.
The Fingaz
poll last month recorded its most pessimistic forecast at 1595
percent.
The actual figure came out only two percentage points lower,
showing
inflation had risen faster than expected.
A keenly watched part
of the new data will be the month-on-month rise.
Inflation rose at 45.4
percent month-on-month in January, its second fastest
monthly rise, but is
expected to beat the all time high of 47.0 percent set
last July.
ZB Bank
chief economist Best Doroh sees inflation surging, fuelled by
speculative
increases in prices of basic goods and services ahead of the
proposed social
contract, which under the central bank's initial
recommendation should have
been agreed last week.
"My forecast for February 2007 is 1737 percent, on the
back of speculative
increases in prices of most goods and services, ahead of
the adoption or
expected implementation of the social contract. In addition,
import costs
for most importers and manufacturers rose sharply in February
2007, as the
Zimbabwe dollar weakened significantly on the parallel market.
Naturally,
such costs were passed onto the consumer in the form of high
prices for
goods and services," said Doroh.
The Zimdollar broke $8000:USD
last week, a big drop from $3000 early last
month.
A research firm
forecasts February inflation at 1971 percent, while another
analyst gave
more conservative forecasts of 1850 percent.
ZABG group economist David
Mupamhadzi says inflation will remain on an
upward trend, and he also blamed
price hikes ahead of the anticipated
"social contract", energy and Zimdollar
weakness.
He sees inflation ending the first quarter at 3000-3500
percent.
"Production costs will also rise as a result of the weakening of the
Zim
dollar. Generally the outlook remains bearish for inflation and this
will
affect production going forward," said Mupamhadzi.
But one economist
quipped: "If I had up-to-date official figures on money
supply from the RBZ,
at least for December 2006, I guess my forecasting
would be even
better."
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief
Political Reporter
THE deepening economic crisis and the impact of
Western sanctions on the
personal business interests of key ZANU PF
officials will draw feuding
factions of the ruling party together to push
for President Robert Mugabe's
retirement, an international political
think-tank has said.
Describing the current political situation in
Zimbabwe as being similar to
the one that prevailed in the final days of
Mobutu Sese Seko's then Zaire,
the International Crisis Group believes a
realistic chance has begun to
emerge for the resolution of the crisis. The
Brussels-based ICG believes the
resolution could be achieved through the
retirement of President Mugabe, a
power-sharing agreement, a new
constitution and elections. President
Mugabe's government, which views the
ICG as pro-Western has always accused
the West of pushing for regime
change.
In a report entitled "Zimbabwe: An End to the Stalemate" released on
Monday,
the group said: "Both factions of the divided Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) opposition and powerful elements of the Zimbabwe
African National
Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) party support the concept
in outline."
The think-tank said although ZANU PF liberals were pressing for
the
President's retirement in 12 months, when his current term expires,
radicals
sought to extend his tenure to 2010 by way of a constitutional
amendment to
harmonise presidential and legislative elections in that
year.
"Increased pressure and intervention including from the regional
organisation, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the
West, in the run-up to the mid-year parliamentary session, could lead to a
new political order, but concessions to ZANU PF should only be made in
exchange for true restoration of democracy. The economic meltdown, as well
as the bite of European Union (EU) and US targeted sanctions, is pushing
ZANU PF towards change, since business interests of key officials are
suffering," it said.
ICG claims that ZANU PF is split over the succession
issue but President
Mugabe's long established divide-and-rule tactics had
started to backfire,
as the two main factions were coming together in a bid
to prevent him from
remaining in power beyond his current term.
"A deal
that merely removed Mugabe while in effect maintaining the political
status
quo by keeping ZANU PF in power would be no change at all. The
situation is
reminiscent of the last stages of Mobutu's reign in the Congo,
" ICG
observed.
The economy would prove to be President Mugabe's toughest
challenge.
"Salaries of the security services and civil servants alike are
mostly below
the poverty line. Economic issues, discontent among underpaid
police and
troops and the increasing willingness of opposition parties and
civil
society to protest in the streets all increase the risk of sudden
major
violence. The desire to remove Mugabe within the year provides a rare
rallying point that cuts across partisan affiliations, and ethnic and
regional identities. Opposition party leaders are keeping lines of
communication open with the ZANU PF dissidents while preparing for a
non-violent campaign to demand immediate constitutional reform."
The
think-tank said the MDC's credibility and effectiveness, however, would
continue to be severely compromised unless rival faction leaders Morgan
Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara unite.
SADC governments, which for long
had been reluctant to press President
Mugabe, now privately acknowledged
they wanted him out to pave the way for
what ICG describes as a "moderate"
ZANU PF government.
"Without applying public pressure, the SADC troika is
quietly beginning to
explore ways to negotiate a retirement package for the
President while
persuading the West to relax pressures. Mugabe's exit,
however, should be
only the starting point. Zimbabwe needs a more radical
change to get back on
its feet. The West should both maintain pressure at
this crucial point and
increase support for democratic forces but also be
more precise about the
conditions for lifting sanctions and ending
isolation. SADC, the EU and the
US should adopt a joint strategy with a
clear sequence of benchmarks leading
to a genuinely democratic process for
which removal of sanctions and
resumption of international aid to government
institutions could be used at
the appropriate time as incentives."
ICG
said consultations were needed now to get such a strategy in place by
July,
when Parliament is expected to make crucial decisions either on the
harmonisation of elections or on a transition. It urges the government and
ZANU PF to abandon plans to extend President Mugabe's term beyond its
expiration in March 2008 and support SADC-led negotiations to implement an
exit strategy for him no later than that date.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff
Reporter
IN an unusual twist to a criminal case yet to be finalised,
William Nhara,
the Principal Director in the Ministry Without Portfolio and
ZANU PF Harare
Province spokesperson, has sent a letter to President Robert
Mugabe
apologising for his involvement in diamond smuggling.
Harare
area prosecutor Tawanda Zvekare disclosed Nhara's unusual move
yesterday
during the accused's bail application before Harare provincial
magistrate
Mishrod Guvamombe.
Nhara (46) was arrested on Thursday on charges of trying
to smuggle diamonds
weighing 10 773.85 carats, valued at $33 million (US$130
000 at the official
rate). He also faces charges of trying to bribe the
police.
The state opposed the bail application of Nhara's co-accused,
Tonderai
Simbarashe (23) and Lebanese national, Carole El Martini (36) who
are facing
charges of illegally possessing diamonds, smuggling and bribing
police
officers, on grounds that they would abscond and interfere with state
witnesses. Nhara, Simbarashe and El Martini were all denied bail and
remanded to March 21, 2007.
The state said it needed more time for
further investigations, particularly
to consult an expert to determine the
type of the seized diamonds.
The accused persons are suspected to be part of
an international syndicate
involv-
ing a Zimbabwean inSouth Africa, and
more Lebanese nationals who are still
at large.
"A letter was written (by
Nhara) apologising to the President. The fact that
he wrote that letter
shows that his hands are not clean," Zvekare said.
"It is only those who are
well connected that are able to involve themselves
in such crimes. This is
not the kind of crime that every Tom, Dick and Harry
can be involved
in."
Nhara is said to have offered police details US$700 as a bribe after
receiving US$4 500 from Simbarashe for the purpose.
The prosecutor
described the three accused persons as economic saboteurs who
were depriving
Zimbabwe of foreign currency.
Nhara's lawyer, Chris Venturas said as a
government official, it would be
impossible for his client to flee either to
Europe or the United States
because of targeted travel sanctions imposed on
senior government officials.
Venturas argued that Nhara would be extradited
if he absconded to any
Southern Africa Development Community (SADC)
country.
"His ability to abscond is seriously undermined. By association with
government, he cannot travel to Europe or the United States," Venturas
said.
He said Nhara suffered from a kidney ailment and was on prescribed
medication.
Nhara was a high ranking government official, a ZANU PF
spokesperson as well
as the ruling party's shadow MP for Harare Central, and
this meant he could
be easily recognised if he tried to escape, Ventura
said.
The state argued that if Simbarashe was released on bail, he would
interfere
with witnesses as he was "a young man already involved with large
sums of
money".
El Martini's lawyer, Steve Chibune, denied the state's
submission that his
client could easily escape as she was of no fixed abode
and staying
temporarily in a hotel. He said a Lebanese national living in
Belvedere had
offered to accommodate her if she was granted bail.
"I
implore the court to impose the most stringent conditions that have ever
visited anyone so that the state can have some sleep," the lawyer
said.
FinGaz
Economic Viewpoint
with James Jowa
AS Zimbabwe continues to battle against inflation, the
question that needs
to be asked is what triggered the inflationary spiral
and what should be
done to bring price stability.
Inflation can
simply be defined as sustained increase in the general level
of prices for
goods and services, measured as a percentage increase. There
are two related
variations of inflation - hyperinflation and stagflation.
Hyperinflation is
usually rapid inflation and in extreme cases can lead to
the breakdown of a
nation's monetary system. Stagflation is the combination
of high
unemployment and economic stagnation with inflation.
The Zimbabwean,
inflation at 1 594 percent year-on-year for the month of
January 2007, seems
to break new records every month. It remains the world's
highest, far
exceeding those of countries at war or facing civil strife such
as Iraq,
Somalia, Afghanistan, Chad and the Sudan.
Zimbabwe can be best described as
being in a stagflation situation where
economic decline has been accompanied
by massive unemployment, productivity
decline and hyperinflation.
The
high inflation emanates from a decline in the country's productive
capacity
leading to demand-pull inflation, a situation that can be described
as "too
much money chasing too few goods". It has also been created through
increases in the cost of production which generates what is known as
cost-push inflation. In more general terms, government policies that
increase demand without increasing supply or that restrict supply or
decrease productivity, are inflationary. These policies must bear the blame
for the rising prices, loss of purchasing power, slow or nonexistent
productivity growth, capital flight, stagnant capitalisation or
decapitalisation.
On the supply side, the single major factor that
contributed to economic
decline and stagflation in Zimbabwe has been the
fast-track land reform
programme. The programme, initiated by the government
in 2000, led to a
significant decline in agricultural productivity and
output. Out of more
than 4 000 large scale white-owned commercial farms,
only an estimated 400
remain in production. The result of the takeover of
the farms has been a
decline in agricultural output by at least 60 percent
of the pre-land reform
period.
The decline in agricultural supplies
destroyed linkages that the
agricultural sector had with other key sectors.
The manufacturing sector,
especially its agro-processing sub-sector, became
starved of critical raw
materials. It is estimated that more than 60 percent
of agricultural output
used to be absorbed by the country's manufacturing
sector prior to the
fast-track land reform initiative.
As a result of the
agriculture sector decline, manufacturing enterprises
have had to import
production inputs, ballooning the national import bill
and further putting
pressure on the country's foreign exchange reserves.
On the other hand, the
manufacturing sector used to supply 20 percent of its
output to the
agricultural sector in the form of farm machinery, fertilisers
and
chemicals. Industries dealing in farm inputs faced reduced demand and
serious viability problems.
Apart from land reform another supply factor
that has contributed to
stagflation has been adverse weather conditions,
especially the 2002
drought.
The flight of capital, reduction in exports
and suspension of balance of
payments support by key bilateral and
multilateral institutions following
the political uncertainties during the
beginning of the decade have resulted
in severe balance of payments
problems. The resulting foreign exchange
shortages have led to the erosion
of the external value of the Zimbabwe
dollar and the emergence of the
foreign exchange parallel market and
consequently increased cost of imported
inputs.
On the demand side, high money supply growth has been a major source
of
inflation. The growth in money supply to levels above 1 000 percent is
largely a result of high government spending. Increased government spending
has been necessitated by the need to service a rising domestic debt, salary
increases for civil servants to cushion them from the impact of inflation
and an increase in size of government. The size of government has grown
after the introduction of the Senate, new government ministries and
departments.
In a bid to deal with the inflation problem the authorities
have introduced
administrative measures such as price controls. This
approach has seen
prices of basic products such as bread, milk, cooking oil,
sugar and mealie
meal being determined through the Ministry of Industry and
International
Trade. This is also the approach being advocated by the
Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe in its latest endeavours to revive the collapsed
Tripartite
Negotiating Forum discussions.
Price controls are initially
pleasant, but ultimately have a multitude of
ill effects. They allow demand
to remain high and deter production
increases. They lead to gross
distortions in economic and financial flows
that materially and cumulatively
reduce the economy's productive efficiency.
They inhibit investment -
leading to stagnant capital growth. Maintenance of
affected assets may be
rendered impractical - leading to decapitalisation.
The government has also
offered cheap credit to the productive sectors in a
bid to stimulate supply.
However, because of low investor confidence and
lack of requisite productive
skills, the impact of this credit on the
economy has been
insignificant.
As a way forward adequate attention should be focused at
measures that
stimulate the supply side of the economy. Given the deep
nature of the
problems, this process will require significant political will
if it is to
generate the desired results.
As a starting point, there is
need to enhance the confidence of existing and
potential investors. This
would imply the enactment of structures that
guarantee the respect and
protection of private property rights. In this
regard, the rule of law
should be re-established and the process should
start by a revision of the
country's constitution to re-enact the checks and
balances necessary for
democratic governance.
To follow this process should be a revision of laws
that violate fundamental
freedoms and the holding of free and fair elections
that should steer a new
political dispensation. It is only after the
establishment of an enabling
political, social and economic environment that
the country will be able to
attract balance of payments support, reverse the
brain drain, enhance
productive capacity, stimulate employment, increase
supply, stabilise the
exchange rate and move out of stagflation.
James
Jowa is a member of the Zimbabwe Economic Society. These articles are
coordinated by Lovemore Kadenge and he can be contacted on e-mail
lovemore.kadenge@gmail.com or on
cell number 091980016
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior
Business Reporter
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe says he is optimistic his
latest economic plan will
end the country's economic crisis despite already
having sanctioned more
than half a dozen previous blueprints that all
failed.
In a foreword for government's latest economic recovery plan, the
Zimbabwe
Economic Development Strategy (ZEDS), the President says the new
plan - a
rehash of the Vision 2020 document - was a response to "changes in
the
environment".
"Government has reviewed and updated the Vision 2020 -
Long Term Economic
Transformation Strategies Document, which was formulated
in 2000. The
objective of the review and update is to take into account the
changes in
the environment and to improve the coordination of the
formulation and
implementation of Short, Medium and Long Term Policies,
Programmes and
National Budgets," reads part of President Mugabe's
preamble.
"The updated Vision 2020 Document gives us an opportunity to
mobilise all
our financial and human resources as we strive to strengthen
unity, peace
and democracy in order to build a strong and prosperous
Zimbabwe with high
moral values by the year 2020. As President, I am
committed to ensure that
this Vision and all that it represents be
translated into concrete actions
that will transform the lives of all
Zimbabweans. I commend Vision 2020 to
the nation and people of Zimbabwe who
should draw inspiration from it in
their various spheres of life."
The
new economic plan claims to go beyond achieving macro-economic variables
such as a steady exchange rate and taming inflation, to include political,
cultural and social aspects.
Although the Ministry of Economic
Development will be the lead agency of the
new plan, sources say the
ministry will report to the Zimbabwe National
Security Council, a body
headed by President Mugabe and comprising security
chiefs and cabinet
ministers.
ZEDS is the eighth such blueprint since independence.
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Staff
Reporter
THE Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) has begun "vetting"
senior Air
Zimbabwe technicians and engineers, in an exercise ostensibly
aimed at
halting the flight of experienced key staff from the national
airline,
sources say.
Under the exercise, aircraft technicians and
engineers are being called in
weekly for "impromptu interviews" at Hardwicke
House, which houses the
secret service.
The interviews reportedly began
after plans by engineers to leave the
national airline en masse for the
Ethiopian Airways were leaked to
government. No comment was, however,
available from Ethiopian Airways.
According to sources, an average of three
engineers are taken in for
"vetting" each week.
"An anonymous lady makes
the now infamous phone call and the engineers are
selected randomly. So far,
about 13 engineers have gone through the
interviews," said the source. "The
engineers are asked a variety of
questions related to family, friends,
personal history and political parties
that they voted for in the last
elections."
Each worker was asked to bring five copies each of their ID,
passport pages,
birth and educational certificates. At the interviews,
questions asked are
as to why an employee wants to leave for greener
pastures, and how they
think working conditions at the embattled airline
could be improved.
New Air Zimbabwe CEO Peter Chikumba, when asked to comment
on the matter,
said: "I cannot say anything on that matter because it is not
within my
mandate. I think the answer is at Hardwicke House, since these are
security
issues. If it was being done within the confines of Air Zimbabwe
premises, I
would have been able to give you a straight answer."
Air
Zimbabwe spokesman David Mwenga said he was unaware of any such
interviews.
But an Air Zimbabwe official said the reported inquest
recalled a 1996
incident in which cables were removed from an aircraft. The
case was never
successfully pinned on the engineers, but the airline
suffered a massive
exodus of skilled personal after the incident, forcing it
to recruit 15
South African engineers.
FinGaz
CITRUSDAL, SA
-Soft-drink companies use it by the tonne, natural health
devotees swear by
it and it forms part of secret recipes for French perfume
despite having a
bouquet similar to cat's urine.
The South African herb buchu is now
so valuable it is attracting poachers.
They are not deterred by the remote
mountain slopes where it grows,
sometimes clear-cutting entire stands of the
metre-high shrub.
"Buchu is very lucrative," said Hedley Peter who farms in
the Cederberg
mountains north of Cape Town where buchu grows wild. "In the
last two
seasons about 200,000 rand (US$26,600) worth of buchu was
stolen.
"A guy just has to hop across the fence and collect one bag, and it's
like
1,000 rand," said Peter whose farm is accessible from a highway that
runs
from Cape Town to the Namibian border.
Distilling companies that
extract essential oils from the herb, which has
green leaves and tiny white
flowers, pay farmers about 40 rand a kilo for
buchu.
The oils help
enhance fruit flavours, particularly blackcurrant, making them
ideal for
soft drinks, and "it's used by the fragrance houses," says Lindsey
Chicken,
whose family owns a distilling business that processes buchu.
The herb is
said to have medicinal qualities, a reputation that dates back
in South
Africa to the 17th century when Khoi tribesmen passed on their
knowledge of
buchu to Dutch settlers.
The growing use of buchu in medicine in European
society and as a source of
income for South Africa's early farmers prompted
the British governor of the
Cape Colony in 1824 to ban its
destruction.
Nowadays, Betucare Science and Technology (Pty) Ltd. markets a
buchu-containing health product called Betucare, which it bills as an
antiseptic and a diuretic that can be used to treat everything from
arthritis to pre-menstrual syndrome.
Until recently most buchu was
harvested from wild plants, but the profits to
be made have prompted scores
of farmers to begin cultivating the shrub in
irrigated fields in the
Cederberg and elsewhere in South Africa .
Mounting cultivation has cut the
price of buchu and thefts have been
curtailed by anti-poaching campaigns,
mostly carried out by ex-soldiers.
Mannetjies du Plessis, spokesman for
distilling firm Grassroots group, said
South Africa was now producing about
600 tonnes of buchu a year, a figure
likely to increase by 25 percent
annually for the next four to five years.
Buchu producers are even eyeing the
world's giant soft drink producers,
including Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo
Inc.
"The whole world is turning to natural organic products," Les Abrahams
said.
"Coke and Pepsi would use buchu, but we don't have enough volume to
supply
what they would need."
Despite growing markets in France, Germany,
Britain, Switzerland and the
United States, there is no getting round the
fact the wild version of the
herb has a very pungent aroma.
"When you
have a pick-up truck full of workers who have been cutting buchu,
it smells
like a cat has done its business in there," said Cara Abrahams,
who farms
with her husband Les in the Cederberg region. -Reuters
FinGaz
The Geoff Nyarota Column
I HAVE just finished reading Edgar
Zivanai Tekere's "best-seller", A
Lifetime of Struggle.
What I
have crafted here is by no means a review of the book. I don't
believe that
it would be entirely appropriate for me to write one. I would
certainly be
accused of sinister motivation if I reviewed a book that was
published a few
months after my own title Against the Grain, Memoirs of a
Zimbabwean
Newsman.
On ethnic grounds, I am most reluctant to write a review of A
Lifetime of
Struggle. I am of the Makoni clan in the eastern districts of
Zimbabwe.
Tekere's mother was, in the words of her illustrious son, a Makoni
princess,
a muzvare, as the daughters of our clan are proudly called.
It
is with a very heavy heart that I find myself in a professional situation
where I have no option but to discharge, as Tekere's sekuru or uncle, the
onerous task of ventilating very pertinent issues pertaining to some claims
of mysterious income that he makes. I believe I do this in both the public
and the national interest.
Tekere's claims of multiple funding by
well-wishers and benefactors during
periods of hardship and adversity is so
shrouded in mystery that I feel a
strong urge to unravel the puzzle.
The
fact that, as an investigative journalist, my stock-in-trade is to
unravel
mysteries augments my misfortune in this case. After going through
my
muzukuru's most sensational revelations, I decided I could not stand by
and
watch while he makes certain preposterous claims that have the potential
to
even undermine the credibility of the entire clan of his sekurus.
I,
therefore, write with profound apologies to my muzukuru in an effort to
set
records straight from my vantage point on the periphery of some of the
events that Tekere delves into.
I had the honour to meet Tekere at the
time of Zimbabwe's independence soon
after he returned from his eventful
sojourn in the Republic Mozambique from
where the Zimbabwe African National
Liberation Army (Zanla) waged its
campaign of insurgency against the
Rhodesian Front government of rebel
leader, Ian Smith.
I had the honour
to accompany, along with Tekere, the late Chief Rekayi
Tangwena when he
travelled back to Nyafaru, up in the misty mountains of
Nyanga, to meet his
Tangwena people after an absence of five years, while
participating in the
liberation struggle.
I drove Tangwena from Harare down to Nyanga in a Herald
Mazda 323. He
transferred into Tekere's majestic Jaguar XJ6 at Troutbeck Inn
while I drove
behind as we negotiated the steep and twisting road for the
rest of the
journey to Nyafaru. This was a momentous and extremely happy
occasion for
both the Tangwena people and their visitors, especially
Tekere.
As Editor-in-Chief of The Daily News I visited Mutare and spent an
afternoon
with Tekere in his home in the suburb of Greenside in 2002. This
was at a
time when many had dismissed him as a political spent force - and
worse. He
fell short of restoring my faith in him as the firebrand
politician I had
met in Nyanga 12 years earlier. I was, however, impressed
by his generally
humble demeanour and by his very modest existence. He spoke
of the hardship
he was undergoing, which was self-evident, both from his
appearance and from
his disposition.
There was absolutely nothing about
Tekere that day to suggest it and I spent
the afternoon blissfully unaware
that I was in the company of a
multi-millionaire. He spoke so passionately
and so convincingly about penury
and the hardship of his existence I even
made a small donation myself.
Millionaires were rare in Zimbabwe those days.
This was of course before the
period when even beggars on the street often
became millionaires, thanks to
runaway inflation.
In his own printed and
published words Tekere says of one of Zimbabwe's
early indigenous
millionaires, the eccentric tycoon, Roger Boka, now late,
that he received
from him, starting in 1988, "monthly cash payments, none
amounting to less
than Z$800,000.00, which was a goodly sum in those days".
In 1992 fellow
journalist, Tonic Sakaike, now also late, and I registered a
publishing
company as the first step towards the launch of a newspaper. We
then
canvassed the business community for potential investors in our
newspaper
project. Among the entrepreneurs we approached was the same Boka,
who showed
interest in our project but said the best he could do was make a
donation.
He signed a cheque for the then princely sum of $2 000.00 and
handed it over
to our project, much to our genuine delight. We thanked Boka
profusely for
such rare generosity.
Little did we know that four years earlier Boka had
routinely deposited
cheques amounting to $800 000.00 every month into the
account of Tekere,
starting soon after the latter was dismissed from ZANU PF
for his principled
stand against corruption.
Tekere speaks fondly of
another sponsor, one Abdulatief Parker, a Cape Town
businessman who settled
in Harare, and with whom the politician says he
struck a
relationship.
"At one time Laatief (sic) opened an account in my name at a
local bank,
into which he deposited Z$500,000.00 every month for a period of
three
years," Tekere says.
From this benefactor alone Tekere received a
cool $18 million, at least.
Then there was Jonathan Kadzura. The managing
director of Rural Industrial
Development (Pvt) Ltd, trading as Pamberi
Marketing, Kadzura was the first
person to be prosecuted for corruption
following the exposure of the
Willowgate Scandal by The Chronicle. He
pleaded guilty to selling four
Toyota Cressidas for figures far beyond the
controlled price. His source of
vehicles was the late senior Manicaland
politician and government minister,
Maurice Nyagumbo, who committed suicide
as a result of the exposure of his
involvement in the scandal by The
Chronicle and subsequent humiliation by
the Sandura Commission.
Kadzura
told Mutare magistrate Philip Drazdik that Pamberi Marketing was
experiencing serious cash-flow problems at the time when he sold the
vehicles at grossly inflated prices. Drazdik convicted Kadzura,
nevertheless.
Now Tekere has the temerity to cause to be recorded for
posterity with
regard to the same Kadzura that, "between 1986 and 1987 he
would pay
Z$1,200,000.00 into my bank account every month".
That's
another cool $28 800 000.00 paid into the Tekere account between the
provident years of 1986 and 1989. I am not making up these amounts, merely
adding them up. After Drazdik found Kadzura guilty he fined him a total of
$9 500, apart from the $75 000.00 he was ordered to refund to those he had
over-charged on vehicles. This certainly did not leave Kadzura with much
spare cash to donate to any charity. If my assessment is wrong Kadzura can
always vindicate both Tekere and himself by explaining for the benefit of
the public from where he obtained the millions he allegedly deposited into
Tekere's account every month.
In 1988, at the height of the Willowgate
Scandal the factory price of a new
Toyota Cressida was $27 657.00. For the
amount of $1,2 million, which
Kadzura dutifully and mysteriously deposited
into his bank account, Tekere
could have purchased 43 brand new Toyota
Cressidas every month. Kadzura was
convicted of making an illegal profit of
$75 000.00 on four Cressidas, which
he was asked to refund.
The salary of
a government minister at the time was a total of $24 000.00 a
year.
Apart
from the obvious ridiculousness of Tekere's claim, an obvious question
arises. Assuming Pamberi Marketing, despite the cash flow problems
encountered, was raking in so much in profits, why would Kadzura be so
extremely generous as to pay $1.2 million to Tekere every month?
For the
record Tekere says Mutare businessmen, Enoch and Farai Musabaeka,
who are
father and son, also made unspecified but regular deposits into his
account.
So did politician Ephraim Masawi. Apparently he still does from
time to
time. Retired General Solomon Tapfumaneyi Mujuru, who is now linked
to
Tekere in the current ZANU PF succession battles, was another benefactor,
making deposits from time to time into the account. The retired soldier is
the husband of Vice President Joice Mujuru, who aspires to be President of
Zimbabwe.
The line-up of depositors into the Tekere account reads like a
"Who-is-who?"
of Zimbabwe's political and corporate establishments. Reserve
Bank governor,
Gideon Gono apparently made a donation of $500 000.00 but his
contribution
was made at a time when many citizens now carried that kind of
money in
their pocket.
Perplexingly, Tekere continued through the years
to accept, possibly after
much solicitation, further bounty from his
benefactors. With all these
millions in his bank account, Tekere continued
to pose or to portray himself
as destitute, thus attracting even more
astoundingly generous donations.
Astute observers would characterise such
conduct as deceitful or outright
fraudulent.
A revelation that is glaring
by its absence from Tekere's text is what
happened to this vast largesse.
Did he spend it? Did he invest it? Or did
he, like a latter-day Robin Hood,
steal the wealth of the corrupt to
redistribute it among the impoverished
masses?
A possible explanation is that the funds could have been channelled
into
funding the activities of his political party, the Zimbabwe Unity
Movement.
But in A Lifetime of Struggle Tekere is brutally candid in
describing all
facets of his eventful life and would certainly have said so,
had these
funds been donations to ZUM. In any case, ZUM would have easily
attracted
its own funding, not that there is anything to show now for the
fact that
any huge sums of money ever found their way into the coffers of
that
short-lived party.
Tekere will probably try to wriggle out of these
huge sums by suggesting
that he converted all figures to values at the time
of writing. But why
would he do that? If this was indeed the case, then
Tekere still has to
explain why he cited unconverted donations of $2 000.00
and $3 000.00,
alongside the breathtaking contributions made by Latief,
Kadzura and Boka.
Tekere does not make this explanation in his text and, in
any case, normal
practice would be to cite the 1988 value (with the 2006
value in brackets).
"When I was sacked from the Party, his concern mounted,
and I would find
that my rates had been paid, in credit. I would receive
monthly cash
payments, none amounting to less than Z$800,000.00, which was a
goodly sum
in those days."
These are the unequivocal words of
Tekere.
Failure by Tekere to provide satisfactory or convincing answers to
all these
burning questions will merely serve to endorse a growing
perception that he
has an idiosyncratic relationship with the truth. This
trait has so far
escaped media scrutiny only because Zimbabwe's journalists
have a weakness
of their own. They tend to hunt in packs like wolves, with
little latitude
in their professional conduct for independence of thought or
enterprise.
As of now, Tekere is the flavour of the month in our section of
the media
and he can get away with murder, as long as he is seen to
undermine the
perceived common enemy of the people of Zimbabwe, Robert
Mugabe. Meanwhile,
it is a cruel paradox that while, with cavalier disdain,
he speaks ill of
Nyagumbo throughout his book, Tekere apparently owes his
very existence to
Kadzura, who owes his prosperity to Nyagumbo, who
unfortunately is not
available to defend himself.
One is left wondering,
however, who else in ZANU PF has raked in millions in
cash and kind from
Zimbabwe's business and farming communities, both white
and black, since
independence in circumstances similar to those described at
length by
Tekere. He certainly could not have been the only one to exploit
his
political position for grotesque self-enrichment, which included
donations
of houses and powerful Jaguars.
At one point he owned three of the luxury
sedans, including two donated to
him in one week.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube,
Stanley Kwenda and Synodia Bhasera
BLOODIED baskets, shoes, pieces of
clothing, broken CDs, spectacles and
mobile phones were yesterday still
strewn along the deadly level crossing at
Kirkman Road where a horrific
crash claimed 35 lives early on Tuesday.
"The baskets are a symbol of
hard work," said Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman
of the main camp of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), as opposition
politicians, including
party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, and journalists
toured the site of the
horrific crash yesterday.
Pointing at debris at the crossing where a
25-seater commuter omnibus,
overloaded with over 60 passengers, crashed into
a locomotive near Sanganayi
Inn, Chamisa added: "Those who died are the core
of the country's
workforce."
A sombre atmosphere greeted Tsvangirai and
his entourage as residents of the
poor suburb battled to come to terms with
the loss of many lives in one
single Tuesday morning. The majority of those
who perished, the residents
told The Financial Gazette, were breadwinners
who eked out a living by
selling vegetables.
"God has forsaken us," said
a relative of Daniel Musiringofa, a security
guard who perished in the
crash. Musiringofa leaves behind two wives and
four children.
A tour of
the homes of the bereaved revealed most had been paupers. Some
lived in
plastic shacks, while others' places of abode were simple pole and
dagga
huts.
"It's a sad, tragic situation from the point of view of all
Zimbabweans,
especially because of the manner in these accidents have been
occurring.
There are causes, from the point of view of the driver, and also
because of
the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ). There are safety
measures that must
be followed. Sadly, they are not being observed," said
Tsvangirai.
"Accidents do not just come, they are a manifestation of the
plight of these
poor people. They are forced to scramble for survival. We
should ask why
anyone would leave their home at 5am."
For a moment
yesterday, funeral proceedings stopped as mourners joined
Tsvangirai's
convoy as he visited several of the mourning families.
Tsvangirai also
visited and offered his condolences to the family of a
prominent
Dzvivarasekwa war veteran and ZANU PF supporter who lost his wife
in the
accident.
"The accident was declared a national disaster, but mourners got
peanuts
compared to what an individual spent for a birthday party. It really
is a
shame," said an elderly man, emerging from his wooden cabin.
The
government on Tuesday declared the accident a national disaster and
offered
a $100 000, a 100kg of maize meal, a coffin, a blanket and transport
to the
burial site to each of the bereaved families. But The Financial
Gazette
established during the visit that the government had by yesterday
only given
each family a 50kg bag of maize meal.
One of the dead, Stephen Ndungwa, was
on his way to work in the Graniteside
industry area. He was a breadwinner
and has left a wife and three young
children.
Good Choko, a survivor, a
tenant at Ndungwa's house, gave his testimony.
"I was sitting in the middle
of the bus, and I saw the train coming. I knew
we were in trouble. The next
I heard was a big bang and people's bodies all
over me. Up to now, I cannot
believe what I saw," said Choko.
And just a stone's throw from Choko's humble
dwellings, Elizabeth Chitsike
Munemo left behind three children and Betty
Zuze also left behind three
children
FinGaz
Comment
LIES in all
shapes and sizes have gone forth unchallenged in the state media
where
highly charged rhetoric about the supposed success of the land reform
exercise has been substituted for informed and reasoned
analysis.
Zimbabwe and a highly sceptical international community have
been served a
daily diet of fawning coverage of government and ruling ZANU
PF officials
invariably engaged in an orgy of self-congratulation on the
"resounding
success" of the land reform exercise. A visitor from Mars would
think
Zimbabwe boasts food self-sufficiency.
Yet nothing could be further
from the truth. And even the ruling ZANU PF
politicians who talk in cavalier
fashion about the deep-seated problems in
agriculture know it. The sad fact
is that the country's food security
situation is as dangerously precarious
as ever. Thus Zimbabwe, the erstwhile
regional bread-basket has been reduced
to a perennial grain deficit country.
And for the umpteenth time, the United
Nations, which in the past has played
an inestimable role in averting human
crises of catastrophic proportions in
Zimbabwe, has just appealed for US$62
million for the 2007 food aid
requirements in the country. The UN and other
international aid agencies
have over the past six years always been in the
eye of the storm when hunger
and famine stalked Zimbabwe.
The world
body's latest appeal comes at a time when the United States
Department of
Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA) has darkly
hinted at the
spectre of yet another poor harvest in the current season. It
said Zimbabwe,
which requires 1.8 million tonnes of maize to meet its annual
domestic
consumption, will only realise just 850 000 tonnes. All this means
is that
Zimbabwe has once again failed to produce enough of the staple crop
and
continued grain imports are inevitable.
The USDA, which government apologists
have in the past accused of
dramatising Zimbabwe's crisis situation, blamed
this on the weather and
input shortages. And the former must have been sweet
music to a government
which over the years, hardly behaving as though it has
nothing to hide, has
always blamed intermittent droughts, ad nauseam, for
the savage slump in
agricultural production.
But we are not going to read
much into the issue of the increasingly
unpredictable rainfall pattern.
Drought, whose impact could have been
minimised if only government had
realised that in irrigation infrastructure
lies the future of agriculture
and thereby planned ahead, is not a new
phenomenon in Zimbabwe. Thus drought
or no drought, the country should be
able to feed itself. And that more than
a quarter of century after
independence, drought is still being blamed for
the failure of the country's
agriculture, is not only emblematic of
everything wrong with the way the
land reform initiative was handled but a
damning indictment of the
government too. For all we know, since the
government embarked on the
chaotic and disruptive land reform initiative,
even in the years that Mother
Nature has not sent its worst, the story has
been the same old sad one of
failed harvests supposedly due to unpredictable
weather as the Zimbabwean
authorities sought to hide a multitude of sins.
The 2005/06 farming season
is a case in point.
Thus the back-to-the-land
idealism, which saw the launch of so many
small-scale agricultural schemes,
faces the spectre of failure because of
the government's strategic mistakes.
The mistakes, which the government has
refused to acknowledge, have fed
through into the sub-optimal utilisation of
land resulting from crippling
shortages of seed, fertiliser, tillage
facilities and fuel, all of which
have blighted successive agricultural
seasons. Most of the so-called new
farmers have been hamstrung by a
psychology of impotence and pessimism
against a background of these biting
input shortages. And in 2005, the last
year for which figures are available,
the government, which provides data
that are barely trusted and which are
often referred to in jest as
"guestimates", begrudgingly admitted that only
44 percent of the land
allocated under the land reform initiative was under
productive use. And we
have no reason to believe that the situation has
changed for the better. If
anything, agriculture is going to hell in a
handcart. The evidence is there
for all to see in the shrunken state of what
was once the engine that
powered the erstwhile reassuringly resilient
economy.
That the land
reform initiative, which for practical purposes Zimbabweans
and the
international community should accept as a fait accompli, has
slipped on so
many banana skins, has everything to do with government's
upside-down
priorities informed by political expediency. It failed to take
into
consideration what we have in the past referred to as the country's
implementation capacity and affordability of the initiative when it embarked
on its land reform exercise. Hence the crippling input shortages and the
sorry state of the agricultural sector (read economy), which has hit
historic contraction.
FinGaz
Matters Legal with Vote
Muza
A FEW weeks ago, the High Court delivered a judgment whose effect
was to
confirm undoubtedly that urban municipalities and other local
authorities
have a legal obligation to keep roads under a good state of
repair.
In this ruling, the Harare City Council (read commission, since
strictly
speaking there is no council to talk about) was ordered to pay
prominent
banker Pindie Nyandoro damages after her luxury car suffered
mechanical
damage after hitting a huge pothole.
This article seeks to
investigate or assess the correctness of this judgment
and most importantly,
through drawing comparisons with the South African
legal position.
It
would appear that within certain sections of the legal and insurance
fraternities, misunderstandings and confusion abound about the seemingly
trivial but otherwise important subject of liability arising from non-repair
of roads.
Almost on a daily basis, road users not only in the capital
city, but
outlying cities, towns and growth points are exposing their
vehicles to
danger because navigating some of our roads has become an
extremely odious
task. A great number of these roads are so infested with
potholes that
driving through them is worse than driving through a potato
field.
As a result, tyres are quickly worn out, vehicle suspensions need
constant
repair, shocks require regular replacement, all at a huge cost to
the road
user. In other aggravated cases, some vehicles have had to be
immobilised
due to extensive damage resulting from hitting potholes. This is
without
doubt causing a lot of hardship to motorists.
In this
contribution, I am indebted to a kind reader in the insurance
business who
passed on to me an opinion that was given to his organisation
by his lawyers
concerning the issue of whether or not municipalities have an
obligation at
law to maintain roads.
This opinion, very compelling as it is, placed
complete reliance on the
South African law and little endeavour appeared to
have been made to
investigate thoroughly local jurisprudence on this
contentious matter.
Reliance was placed on the somewhat old South African
case of Moulang -vs-
Port Elizabeth Municipality 1958 (2) SA 518 in which it
was held that
municipalities that have permissive powers in respect of
construction and
maintenance of roads are not by statute required to keep
them in repair and
are not liable for damage caused by the mere omission to
construct or repair
them. This is a general immunity, but the court went on
to give instances
when a municipality may be liable for damages.
Thus
where a new danger or source of danger has been introduced, or where
repair
work has been done negligently, or where dangerous excavations are
done then
liability cannot be escaped.
The South Africa court also reasoned that the
danger posed by a pothole is
no different from that by a dangerously parked
car, or other road
obstructions.
Accordingly, a motorist is bound to
avoid hazards that he sees or which are
capable of being seen in good time
by a driver keeping a proper look out.
Therefore, if a pothole is clearly
visible during the hours of daylight, and
because he is not keeping a proper
lookout, a motorist causes an accident as
a result of an impact with the
pothole, then he has only himself to blame.
Similarly, where a motorist knows
about the existence of a pothole on a
particular stretch of road because he
uses that road on a daily basis, he
cannot drive heedlessly and after an
accident seek to place blame elsewhere
instead of himself. This to me
appears to be quite a compelling argument,
and given a proper opportunity
our courts might adopt the same position.
I doubt if our High Court's
judgment ventilated these several issues in the
manner done by the South
African courts. I am constrained in that my
knowledge about this judgment
does not go beyond what I read in the press.
Much as I may not be privy to
the full reason behind the ruling, I feel that
what I gleaned from media
reports will not do much harm to my attempt to
critique this ruling. I hope
I am not doing so at the risk of being labelled
a reckless armchair
critic.
I thoroughly foraged through our own Urban Councils Act (Chapter
29:15) to
see if I could find any helpful provisions regarding this
contentious
subject. I discovered that among the many powers that urban
councils have,
there exists specific powers to "renovate, keep in repair,
improve, develop,
alter and maintain any roads . . . under the control of
the council".
This provision is found under the section dealing with general
powers of
councils. Important to note is the fact that the Act makes
reference to
"powers" and not "duties" of councils. Further, the exercise of
these powers
is, according to my interpretation, understood from the
construction of the
entire Act. Therefore these powers are obligatory and
not mandatory. Thus
much as municipalities have powers to "renovate, keep in
repair, improve,
develop, alter and maintain roads", they do not have a
compelling duty to do
so. In my view therefore, our statutory law does not
impose a general duty
on municipalities to ensure that potholes are covered,
but rather urban
councils may if they so wish, repair roads.
If my
reasoning is correct; that I believe finds support from a fair and
proper
interpretation of the Act, then the legislature may have to introduce
an
amendment specifically imposing a duty on these councils to repair and
maintain roads. It would appear therefore that the local High Court was not
furnished with sufficient legal arguments, particularly by the lawyers for
the Harare City Council to adequately assess the merits of Pindie Nyandoro's
claim.
I wonder what legal authorities, if any, were used by both
litigants to
justify their positions. In the absence of proper legal
justification,
perhaps in the nature of the judicial precedent and statutory
provision
stated above, I am left to believe that Justice Hungwe's ruling is
potentially erroneous, with grave consequences to many urban councils which
face the real possibility of multiple pothole related claims.
Of course
all this is to the detriment of ratepayers since their money is
not paid to
meet legal claims, but to improve services and enhance their
welfare.
lVote Muza is a legal practitioner with Gutu and Chikowero Legal
Practitioners. He can be contacted on Email:
gutulaw@mweb.co.zw
Website: www.gutulaw.co.zw
The pain of being oppressed by your own
people
EDITOR - I stand to be corrected but we all seem to be
agreeing on one
fact - lying as to who we are. We keep on making this
mistake and have this
illusion that we are independent. This has got to
everyone's head including
the police and all the so-called political
parties.
My dear Zimbabwean friends, let's wake up and smell the coffee. If
we are
independent and hence can determine our own future, why is that we do
not
have the future? Is it because we cannot plan or is it that we have no
capacity to plan?
We seem to be going around in circles over issues that
we thought should be
history. Why is it that after our so-called
independence, the police still
have the final word in who can or cannot hold
a rally?
It's painful to be oppressed but even more painful to be oppressed
by your
own. We need to grow up and start allowing people to be free and say
their
mind out as this is the only way we can see where we are going. Being
independant does not mean that you abuse your power and assume you are the
only one with brains.
True liberators will never be oppressors. So
Comrades, let's be realistic
about what we have been aiming for since the
launch of the chimurenga -
masimba kuvanhu kwete
kumusangano.
Pasi
United Kingdom
------------
An independent
audit of NSSA should be done
EDITOR - The statement by the
general manager of the National Social
Security Authority (NSSA) to a
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee that
placing an advertisement or taking a
time slot with ZBH would render NSSA
"broke" should be of extreme concern to
the millions of Zimbabweans who fund
this parastatal in hopes of getting
some return on retirement, or on other
forms of demise.
Rumblings on the
streets that not all is well at NSSA would now seem
confirmed, and of even
more concern now is the proposed compulsory medical
health scheme to be
administered by them. Heaven help patients and doctors
alike.
Maybe the
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee should demand an independent
audit, for
public consumption, of this publicly funded organisation,
detailing income,
expenditure and other mis-appropriations.
Brian
Jackson
Harare
-----------
TNF has failed
completely
EDITOR - In my opinion the Tripartite Negotiating
Forum has completely
failed to take off for the past 18 months or
so.
What's there now that shows that there is a possibility of a mutual
understanding on the tripartite table?
I think going the legislative
route is the most definite answer to our
problems of declining productivity
and spiralling prices. Some of the
parties in the TNF are not serious and
they take the whole process like a
joke. They just do not care. The sooner
we realise that it has taken an
unnecessarily long period to get the economy
on its rails the better.
Otherwise, we will be in the same quandary for the
next hameno years.
Sort It Out
Harare
-----------
We're racing
with the devil
EDITOR - When I come across a Zimbabwean
anywhere in South Africa, no matter
how wealthy or poor that person is, and
I ask why the person is here I
always receive the same response: "Everything
will be all right, but how
long should we wait?"
Nowadays in Zimbabwe,
there is segregation. If you are not a ZANU PF member
you are an enemy of
the country. On the other hand, everybody alse sneers at
the Zimbabwean
government. This is terrible for my countrymen and I ask you
to unite in
this kind of situation.
We are in a race with the devil himself but at the
end the people of God
will rejoice if we are patient.
The so-called
Zimbabwean intellectuals who are in power are suffocating
their own people
and are a disgrace to the nation. How are we going to
return the erstwhile
bread-basket of Africa to its former glory? Nowadays a
desert is better than
Zimbabwe in terms of tourism and economic matters.
In terms of suffering and
hardships, we have had enough. Now is the time for
the knowledgeable people
to take over and the luxury lovers to step aside.
Aaron Dube
South
Africa