Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro
THE Zanu PF leadership is up in arms against Lands, Land
Reform and
Resettlement minister Didymus Mutasa for continuing farm
disruptions and new
offer letters.
In a development which has
brought to the fore policy contradictions
in government and the ruling
party, political leaders in Mashonaland have
asked Vice-President Joseph
Msika to intervene.
The leaders, through senior politburo member
and party spokesman
Nathan Shamuyarira, have written to Msika to convey to
the presidency their
recommendations to nullify Mutasa's recent land offer
letters and illegal
farm invasions spearheaded by top army officials, the
police and senior
civil servants.
In a letter to Msika, dated
October 19 and delivered on October 25,
Shamuyarira said the Mashonaland
West political leadership, in consultation
with traditional leaders and land
committees, had recommended that the
remaining white farmers be allowed to
continue farming on the small pieces
of land still in their possession. This
is in sharp contrast to Mutasa's
position that white farmers should be
kicked off the land. A number of
farmers on the list are facing litigation
after they failed to vacate the
land as required by the law.
Last month the Zimbabwe Independent reported that the Minister of
State for
Special Affairs Responsible for Land and Resettlement Programme
Flora Bhuka
tabled before the politburo a report proposing a further
expropriation of
white commercial farms because "there were still too many
white farmers on
the land".
The report was rejected as "retrogressive".
Party sources this week said the letter from Mashonaland West had
eroded
Mutasa's political standing which has been premised on his firm grip
on land
distribution. The sources said it was also useful to note that the
letter
was sent straight to Msika and not even copied to Mutasa and Bhuka
who are
directly in charge of land reform.
The party leadership said white
farmers should be allowed to continue
producing on the smaller pieces of
land because they worked with the local
people. The letter followed an
earlier meeting with Msika at Cooksey Hall
during which the VP rebuked the
leaders for failing to deal with
land-related problems in the
province.
"In line with the policy provisions which were outlined
in the meeting
we wish to assist the governor's office in the implementation
of the
resolutions, which were made at the (meeting with Msika),"
Shamuyarira said.
The resolutions include giving of Rydings School
in Karoi back to the
community and property, including $800 million, which
was misappropriated
when the school was taken over by Mutasa's lawyer,
Gerald Mlotshwa.
Mlotshwa claimed ownership of Rydings School on
the basis of an offer
letter that allocated him Enthorpe Farm on which the
school is built.
He proceeded to appoint businessman Themba Mliswa
- Mutasa's nephew -
as chairman of the school's board of governors. The
trustees of the school
contested the takeover and wrote a petition to
President Robert Mugabe while
challenging the acquisition in court. The
court has barred Mlotshwa and
Mliswa from interfering with the
administration, assets and programmes at
the school.
The
leadership also recommended "the removal of those members of the
Zimbabwe
National Army, the police, and senior civil servants who illegally
occupied
farms in Mashonaland West province".
The politicians recommended
"the nullification of the offer letters
issued to Noma Mliswa for Summerhill
Farm, Rotina Mavhunga (the diesel n'anga)
for Baguta Extension, Brigadier
General Dube for Grande Parade and Brigadier
Mtisi for Folliot farm and
their eviction from the said farms". The
leadership recommended the removal
of Themba Mliswa from Spring Fever farm
in Karoi because of "continued
confusion he has caused and indiscipline".
Zim Independent
Shakeman
Mugari
GOVERNMENT plans to launch a second phase of the price
crackdown
specifically targeting Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed firms and
foreign-owned companies.
Some companies have already received
an ultimatum from National
Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC) chairman,
Godwills Masimirembwa, to
reduce prices of all imported basic commodities by
November 23.
Business managers were instructed to reduce the prices
or risk being
arrested.
A confidential document leaked to the
Zimbabwe Independent this week
reveals that plans for a second price blitz
are advanced for a possible
launch in the next two weeks.
The
document, compiled by the Ministry of Industry and International
Trade, is
expected to be presented to cabinet next week. Once cabinet
approves the
plan, the NIPC will, together with security agencies, launch
the
operation.
The document gives an update of the current pricing
situation and
recommends that a new crackdown be launched to deal with
"price madness".
"It is our conviction that the revolution which
was started in June
should be brought to its logical conclusion, otherwise
the government would
have set a very bad precedent by arresting people, then
release them and
leave them doing exactly what they were arrested for," the
document says.
It said there was need to deal severely with
businesspeople because
they had shown that they "will never
repent".
The document, dated November 7, recommends that government
also deals
with the ZSE which it said had "become the biggest haven of
speculators".
"Funds being invested on ZSE are not helping Zimbabwe in any
way. There is
no justification whatsoever for the mega returns obtaining on
ZSE.
"At a market capitalisation of more than $7 000 trillion, or
$7 qdrln,
ZSE is destroying any effort to fight inflation.
"This form of inflationary money is unacceptable. Government should be
able
to track the biggest speculators on the bourse and scrutinise their
motives," the document says.
"There is need for investors to
account where they got the huge funds
they are dabbling on the ZSE.
Information at hand indicates that most of
these funds are from parallel
market activities. The ZSE is also providing a
huge cash base for parallel
market activities to complete a vicious circle.
There is need to radically
review commissions and levies charged on ZSE
transactions."
The
report also recommended that government uses the Indigenisation
and Economic
Empowerment Act, which is yet to be assented to by President
Robert Mugabe,
to take over foreign companies that were allegedly increasing
prices "to
destabilise the economy".
"Once this Bill has been given the
crucial presidential assent, the
ministry will move with speed to make sure
that all companies working to
destabilise the economy are indigenised," it
says.
"We have also noted with concern that some big companies are
already
employing tactics to evade the indigenisation process by going into
mergers
with black-owned companies with a clear intention to mask the true
ownership
of their companies."
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
ZIMBABWE'S year-on-year inflation rate for October
surged to 14 840,
6% as the economic crisis continues to worsen despite
efforts to control
prices of basic goods.
This represents a 6
848,5% increase from September's 7 982,1%. The
inflation rate was 1 070% in
October last year.
According to Central Statistical Office figures
leaked to the Zimbabwe
Independent this week, month-on-month inflation,
which had temporarily eased
over the past two months because of a
controversial price blitz in June,
jumped 96,9 percentage points from 38,7%
in September to 135,6% last month.
Figures obtained yesterday
showed that annual broad money (M3) growth
continued in August, firming to
17 806,8% from 17 073,1% in July.
The growth in broad money was
largely driven by a 25 785,7% increase
in credit to the private sector,
while credit to government and public
enterprises grew by 14 504,2% and 6
418,9% respectively.
Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group economist David
Mupamhadzi said the
inflation rate reflected a failed economy.
"We are now feeling those effects of the printing of money,"
Mupamhadzi
said, adding that "the rise will fuel demands for higher wages
from workers
battling to catch up with rising prices of goods and services".
Economic consultant John Robertson said there was need for monetary
restraint and a change in economic policy to rein in inflation.
"The authorities have to appreciate that we are in a crisis and do
something
right now," said Robertson.
He projected higher inflation in the
short-term, saying prospects of a
decline were almost impossible.
Zim Independent
Constantine Chimakure/Shakeman Mugari
THE viability of
independent newspapers is under serious threat after
government this week
ordered privately-owned papers to slash their cover
prices.
The
National Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC) ordered the
Zimbabwe
Independent and the Financial Gazette to reduce prices from $600
000 to $150
000.
The Independent's sister publication, The Standard, was also
directed
to reduce its cover price. The directive comes after police
arrested the
chief executive of the Zimind Publishers, Raphel Khumalo, and
Financial
Gazette CEO Jacob Chisese last Friday on allegations of increasing
prices of
their newspapers without NIPC approval.
Khumalo and
Chisese were quizzed over the increases. They were
summoned to appear before
the NIPC at Runhare House on Monday and told to
revert to the old price of
$150 000, an amount they say cannot cover their
costs.
Khumalo
said the directive could lead to closure of the newspapers
that are already
struggling to survive because of escalating costs of fuel,
labour, ink, and
newsprint.
It currently costs about $950 000 to print a single copy
of the
Independent, he said. "A newspaper is not a basic commodity. It seems
that
when all the media laws have failed to get the newspapers closed this
new
crackdown could finally force private newspapers to shut down," Khumalo
said.
While government keeps the lid on the prices of
newspapers, other
costs that come with the printing of papers have
skyrocketed.
For instance, a printing plate that cost $1,9 million
in June is now
going for $12 million. A plate is used to transfer an image
on to newsprint.
No newspaper in Zimbabwe can function without them. Every
page uses a
separate plate for printing.
The cost of films has
also gone up drastically over the past three
months. A single roll of film
that cost $49 million in June now costs $315
million before Value Added Tax.
The films are imported from Japan. Foreign
currency is not available on the
official market.
The cost of fuel, a key input in the distribution
of newspapers, has
also gone up dramatically, tracking the US dollar. At
Monday's meeting
Khumalo and Chisese failed to reach an understanding with
NIPC chairman
Godwills Masimirembwa.
The two executives
explained to Masimirembwa that the price of $150
000 was unviable. They told
him that newspapers could be forced to shut down
because of crippling loses.
But he was indifferent to their plight.
He insisted that his
commission had only approved a $150 000 peg and
that this price should be in
operation for three months.
In approving the $150 000, the NIPC
used the state-owned Sunday Mail
as its benchmark. Privately-owned
newspapers however argued that their cost
structures were different from
those of the state-owned newspapers which get
subsidised fuel.
Privately-owned newspapers have to source fuel at $1,3 million a
litre.
State-owned papers also get a trade discount on newsprint, a
privilege that
private newspapers do not enjoy.
The renewed pressure on private
newspapers comes less than a month
after President Robert Mugabe appointed
Masimirembwa, a Herald columnist, to
chair the NIPC.
Even
before his appointment, Masimirembwa did not make a secret of his
hatred for
the Independent.
In his column on October 26, Masimirembwa included
the Independent
among "enemies of the people" for publishing an article that
Mugabe had
named Rural and Social Amenities minister Emmerson Mnangagwa,
Defence
minister Sydney Sekeramayi, Speaker of the House of Assembly John
Nkomo and
former Finance minister Simba Makoni as his possible successors,
and
suggested none of them was up to it.
"The so-called
independent media owes it to the people of Zimbabwe to
report the truth,
guided always by a desire to build our nation, and not be
an instrument in
promoting the divisive agenda of former colonial masters,"
Masimirembwa
wrote in the overheated language of the ruling party.
"If the
so-called independent media abdicates this responsibility,
then we can be
forgiven for labelling them 'enemies of the people' not
worthy of belonging
to the corpus of media houses that deserve the tag the
Fourth
Estate."
When Masimirembwa was approached recently by a reporter
from the
Independent after a press conference, he dismissed him saying:
"Read what I
think about the Independent in today's Herald. You are not a
serious
newspaper."
Zim Independent
Lucia Makamure
HOME Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi has been slapped
with a $34
trillion lawsuit for the unlawful arrest and detention of MDC and
civil
society leaders who were on their way to a meeting organised by Save
Zimbabwe Campaign at Zimbabwe Grounds on March 11.
Mohadi is
being sued in his official capacity as the Minister of Home
Affairs together
with Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri who is
responsible for the
day-to-day running of the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
There are also 17 other
defendants - all police officers - including the
officer commanding police
the Law and Order section Assistant Inspector
Musarashana Mabunda, Supt
Tavaziva and Chief Supt Taengwa, both from the law
and order section. The
three officers are being sued in their official as
well as personal
capacities.
Among the 62 people seeking compensation from the
ministry are leaders
of the two MDC factions Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara, National
Constitution Assembly chairman Lovemore Madhuku and
Sekai Holland, a senior
official in the Morgan Tsvangirai faction of the
MDC.
The opposition and civic society leaders had in August
demanded $1, 2
trillion when they filed their notice of intention to sue but
have reviewed
the compensation fee to $34 trillion in the summons they filed
to all the 19
defendants last week.
Alec Muchadehama of Mbidzo,
Muchadehama and Makoni, who is
representing Tsvangirai and company, said his
clients had no choice but to
review the damages claim because of
inflation.
"We had to review our damages claim because the figure
we had claimed
has become too little because of inflation," Muchadehama
said.
In the fresh demands, the political and civil society leaders
want $50
billion each for unlawful arrest, $100 billion each for unlawful
deprivation
of liberty, $200 billion each for assault, $60 billion each for
loss of
amenities of life, $100 billion each for contumelia, $50 billion for
future
medical expenses and $70 million for past medical
expenses.
According to the summons, the 62 were arrested on their
way to a
meeting that had been arranged by the Save Zimbabwe
Campaign.
"Our clients advise us that on March 11 2007 they
proceeded to or near
a meeting which was to be held at the Zimbabwe Grounds,
Highfield Harare.
Before they got to the venue of the meeting they were
arrested and taken to
Machipisa Police Station," read the
summons.
Tsvangirai and company are saying they did not commit any
crime by
wanting to attend the prayer meeting.
"They had not
committed any offence nor were they about to commit any
offence warranting
them to be arrested. The arrest was therefore unlawful.
After the unlawful
arrest our clients were taken to Machipisa Police
Station. At Machipisa
Police Station our clients were savagely assaulted and
tortured by the
police who were in the course and scope of their
employment," said the
summons.
According to information on the summons, Tsvangirai and
company
sustained fractures on their limbs and other bodily cuts, bruises,
blunt
trauma and several other injuries as a result of the assaults.
Zim Independent
Orirando Manwere
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) could be
losing billions of dollars
through the funding of Operation Chuma/Igolide
and Chikorokoza Chapera
amidst allegations that police are submitting
falsified gold recovery
returns to justify maintaining the operations in
which officers are
reportedly pocketing millions dollars in
allowances.
The two operations started in November last year with
the Criminal
Investigations Department's minerals section launching
Operation
Chuma/Igolide and the Duty Uniform Branch (DUB) running
Chikorokoza Chapera.
According to impeccable sources in the police
and the central bank,
senior officers administering the operations are
remitting falsified returns
to justify continuation of the operations
without corresponding gold
recoveries, arrests and prosecution of
suspects.
There is also alleged gross abuse of vehicles and fuel
allocated for
the operations by senior officers.
Officers in
the CID's minerals section who keep the records,
reportedly get $90 million
a month in allowances while their DUB
counterparts on the ground and who
work away from their stations, get $23
million a month.
This
discrepancy in allowances has, the sources say, caused animosity
between the
two police sections and morale is reportedly low among DUB
officers.
The DUB officers are reported to be operating under
difficult
conditions without adequate resources like vehicles, uniforms and
camping
tents.
However, it is the continued funding of the
operations by the central
bank that has raised eyebrows among
officers.
The officers said there were no clear checks and balances
or
corresponding exhibits and suspects for the returns that were being
submitted.
The sources said a senior central bank official in
the financial
intelligence department (name supplied) who appeared critical
of the
operations was removed at the behest of senior police
officers.
"What is happening is that CID minerals teams who claim
to be carrying
out surveillance on production at mines, are attributing
purported increased
production to their presence," said a
source.
"Mines are remitting their normal monthly returns to the
Ministry of
Mines and Fidelity Printers in terms of the Mines and Minerals
Act and the
operation teams are claiming that particular gold quantities
produced are as
a result of their surveillance. There are no tangible
exhibits in terms of
recoveries of gold that could have been hidden
elsewhere," said one of the
sources.
"A provincial minerals
team is made up of over 70 officers, and
considering that these operations
are nationwide, the RBZ has since last
year pumped out billions of dollars,"
said another source.
There were media reports recently that the RBZ
had stepped up gold
audits to plug losses in deliveries from
producers.
RBZ spokesman Tonderai Mukeredzi said he had forwarded
written
questions by the Zimbabwe Independent to the Fidelity Printers chief
executive officer three weeks ago and no response could be obtained at the
time of going to press.
Police spokesman Chief Superintendent
Oliver Mandipaka could not be
reached for comment.
The sources
said there was need for the RBZ to investigate the
operations as it could be
"pumping money down the drain".
Zim Independent
Constantine Chimakure
THE chairperson of the National Incomes
and Pricing Commission (NIPC),
Godwills Masimirembwa, is selling chickens he
rears at a farm in Harare
South above the stipulated government price, the
Zimbabwe Independent can
reveal.
Masimirembwa, who was
appointed by President Robert Mugabe to chair
the NIPC last month, is
selling a bird weighing about 2kg for $1,5 million
when the commission
gazetted the producer price at $434 567 while the
wholesale and retail
prices are $478 023 and $573 628 per kg respectively.
By selling at
$1,5 million, Masimirembwa is way above the price for a
producer.
A visit to the farm, located about 30km outside
Harare, on October 30
revealed that apart from overcharging, hygiene at the
property was
questionable. There was no slaughter house or running water for
breeding the
chickens.
Masimirembwa's workers use water from an
unprotected well for the
chickens and for their own
consumption.
Chickens ready for the market, his workers said, were
slaughtered in
an open place.
"Masimirembwa started this
chicken project in 2003. We have since then
been using a well for the
chickens and ourselves," one of the workers said.
"We have about 12 500
chicks at the moment after we slaughtered 4 500 last
week. We expect to
slaughter 5 000 next week."
The workers said Masimirembwa was
directly involved in the selling of
the chickens, adding that prospective
customers place their orders with the
NIPC boss.
"He takes the
orders. He accepts a minimum of 30 birds per order,"
another worker said.
"Our major customers are in Mbare and a restaurant in
the city (name
supplied)."
Efforts to get a comment from Masimirembwa yesterday
were fruitless.
The NIPC boss heads a government operation to
enforce price controls.
His appointment has also raised eyebrows in
the legal community given
that Masimirembwa is a blacklisted
lawyer.
According to information gathered by the Independent this
week, the
Legal Disciplinary Tribunal struck Masimirembwa off the register
of Legal
Practitioners, Notaries and Conveyancers in March 1997 for
"unprofessional
and dishonourable conduct".
He was deleted from
the register by consent.
The tribunal ruled that Masimirembwa had
failed to account adequately
or at all to clients in respect of fees he
charged for work not done or
contrary to clients' instructions.
He was also found guilty of
failing to keep proper books of accounts
and misappropriation of trust
funds.
According to The Herald of
April 4 1997, the chairperson of the
tribunal, then High Court judge,
Justice Adam, awarded the Law Society of
Zimbabwe costs of the proceedings
in terms of the High Court tariff of fees
for legal
practitioners.
Advocate Erik Morris, instructed by the society, the
newspaper
reported, submitted that Masimirembwa had shown "a serious
disregard of his
clients' interests and proper standards of competence"
expected of
professionals.
"All of these above show a serious
or reckless disregard for the
client's interest and the proper standards of
competence which should be
expected from the profession and as such tends to
bring the profession into
disrepute," Morris was quoted as
saying.
Apart from that, Masimirembwa, of then Masimirembwa &
Associates, had
failed to keep proper books of accounts and to comply with
the requirements
of bookkeeping by-laws.
He had also practised
as a legal practitioner without holding the
relevant practising
certificate.
Zim Independent
Constantine Chimakure/ Loughty Dube
BRITAIN will engage Sadc
leaders on Zimbabwe's deepening political and
economic crisis on the
sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government
(Chogm) meeting in
Kampala, Uganda, amid media reports that the former
colonial master once
considered military action in the southern African
nation.
The
three-day meeting starts on November 23.
In a question and answer
session in the UK parliament this week,
Baroness Royall of Blaisdon said the
meeting with the regional leaders would
revolve on the political situation
in Zimbabwe, with particular regard to
democratic freedoms and human
rights.
"My Lords, as Zimbabwe is no longer a member of the
Commonwealth,
those matters will not be on the formal agenda of the upcoming
Commonwealth
Heads of Government meeting in Uganda. The issue is, however,
likely to be
discussed at the margins of the meeting," Baroness Royall said.
"My noble
friend Lord Malloch-Brown, who is today (Monday) at the
Commonwealth meeting
discussing Pakistan and his ministerial colleagues,
will certainly raise the
issue in bilateral discussions with regional
leaders."
Zimbabwe pulled out of the Commonwealth December in 2003
after
indications that the club of former Britain colonies wanted to extend
the
country's suspension from the grouping on allegations of human rights
abuses, among others.
Baroness Royall said the UK would work
with civil society and Zimbabwe's
neighbours to find a solution to the
crisis.
"We also want to use the opportunity afforded by the
Commonwealth
People's Forum and the civil society organisations affiliated
to the
Commonwealth to provide the people of Zimbabwe with greater support.
We want
to work not only on the margins of Chogm, but with those other civil
society
organisations," Baroness Royall added.
Asked by Lord
Howell of Guildford whether or not it was now prudent to
look for another
candidate to spearhead talks between Zanu PF and the MDC
after Sadc's
pointman, South Africa president Thabo Mbeki, was proving "a
damp rag", the
Baroness Royall said:
"My Lords, I note the views of the noble Lord
and I understand and
share his frustration at the time that this is taking.
However, it is
important to note that President Mbeki has a task and a
timescale in which
to deliver. We must wait until the end of November before
looking for other
candidates. I am afraid that that is the situation. That
does not prevent us
having discussions with other countries in southern
Africa on the margins of
Chogm."
Zim Independent
By
Dr Alex T Magaisa
VICE-President Joice Mujuru was reported last
week to have stated
publicly that she has no intention of challenging
President Mugabe for the
presidency of both Zanu PF and
Zimbabwe.
This is hardly a source of surprise. It brings to mind an
earlier
article I wrote about the perils of pursuing change in Zanu
PF.
I made reference to the words of Machiavelli, the political
thinker of
the Renaissance era, who wrote: "It must be considered that there
is nothing
more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor
more
dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the
reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order and only
lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order ." This is
a danger that stalks would-be contenders for power in Zanu PF.
Having made his intentions clear, and captured the backing of
significant
stakeholders in Zanu PF power structures, namely war veterans,
whose leader
Jabulani Sibanda has promised a "Million Men March"; the Women's
League,
whose leader Oppah Muchinguri threatened earlier this year that she
and
fellow leaguers would resort to shedding their clothes in protest
against
any would-be challengers and the Youth League, President Mugabe has
ensured
that the fortunes of any challengers to his throne are substantially
limited.
What is probably significant about Mujuru's
announcement is first, its
timing and second, that she has had to make it at
all, particularly because
there is no clear public record of her having
declared her interest in the
presidency in the first place. Why now and not
many months before when the
rumours were rife in the media? What has changed
now that necessitates such
a public denial?
Her announcement
lends itself to the interpretation that it is an
assurance to the president
that she remains loyal, despite the rumours of
machinations on her part and
those around her. But importantly, the more
likely interpretation is that
this is a declaration as Zanu PF heads for the
extraordinary congress next
month, of her own power and position within the
party, against those that
she perceives to be the real competitors.
VP Mujuru knows, as do
her competitors, that President Mugabe will run
for the presidency in 2008
and that this is no longer a potential vacancy in
Zanu PF. Her best bet
therefore is to retain her position in the presidium.
Her words here are
clear and significant: "The presidium is made up of four
people and I am
already in the presidium. I am not going anywhere."
She couldn't be
more unequivocal. Which begs the question: Is her
position under threat and
if so from whom? This, more than her denial of her
intentions to gun for the
presidency, is the significant part. She knows
that to stand any significant
chance in the post-Mugabe era, she must remain
in the upper echelons of the
party. In order to do that, she must regain
President Mugabe's confidence
and also keep her adversaries at bay.
In this regard, her major
adversary appears to be Emmerson Mnangagwa,
who, having lost the earlier
phase of his battle against her for a position
in the presidium in 2004, has
been slowly working his way up, apparently,
regaining President Mugabe's
confidence. It is significant that by virtue of
his party position, it fell
to him to make public announcements concerning
the forthcoming extraordinary
party congress.
In doing so, he became the public face of the
party's endorsement of
President Mugabe as the sole candidate for the party.
That circumstance
created a perception of Mnangagwa as supporting Mugabe's
candidature, and
probably explains the timing of VP Mujuru's statements, in
order to equalise
their positions, notwithstanding speculation that both of
them were up to
then, seen as contenders for the presidency.
Here one sees two contenders apparently retreating simultaneously, one
probably eyeing a place in the presidium and the other keen to retain a
place in that structure. But the retreat is no more than a strategic
re-alignment, a step back, perhaps in order to launch two steps forward when
opportunity knocks in the future. This whole saga is not important because
of President Mugabe's endorsement, but because it is yet another round in
the battle between the contenders in Zanu PF, a battle whose first round
went to VP Mujuru in 2004, of which the next round is only now in
play.
Interestingly, in circumstances that seem to indicate a
latent
development in profile-building, both contenders have been claiming
their
spaces in cyberspace. There is a profile of Mnangagwa on the website
of the
Ministry of Rural Housing and Social Amenities, which he
heads.
There was a story by Clemence Manyukwe, in the Financial
Gazette
newspaper last week, which carried a dramatic title, "When the
crocodile
resurfaces". It was probably an attempt to analyse Mnangagwa's
resurgence
after the 2004 loss of opportunity to Mujuru. Coincidentally, the
profile of
Mnangagwa in Manyukwe's story is by and large a reproduction of
the
biography on the Mnangagwa's website. It appears that Manyukwe's source
for
the biographical details of Mnangagwa is very similar to the source of
the
website details, given that the information in most parts matches
verbatim
the website profile.
Nevertheless, the profile seeks
to demonstrate Mnangagwa's record in
the struggle for independence and his
achievements in his ministerial
positions since independence, including from
2000-2005 when he was Speaker
of Parliament. He lists among his achievements
the establishment of the
Judicial College, the Small Claims Court,
amendments to the Constitution and
the democratisation of the institutions
of parliament, which are described
as progressive reforms.
Perhaps what Manyukwe and fellow members of the Fourth Estate, could
do to
assist the public, instead of repeating verbatim the biographical
claims by
individuals who wish to lead the country, is to question them on
the
substance of these achievements - such as, for example the nature of the
constitutional changes, the events during those long ministerial
tenures
and the nature of democratic reforms.
That way,
the public could gain more and better information about
these candidates so
that they can be judged on their merits rather than rely
on rumour and
speculation. The aspiring leaders also benefit from such
scrutiny as they
can take the chance to respond to questions of public
interest.
On the other hand, it was recently announced that Mujuru had launched
her
own website, which ostensibly, is designed to profile her office and
provide
an opportunity for interaction with those who wish to "share
valuable ideas
with her office".
Declaring firmly that she believes that "the
party has always been and
remains supreme to government", there is an
indication that she regularly
undertakes "countrywide provincial visits
where she meets and deliberates
with local and traditional leaders". The
website also profiles her role in
the liberation struggle and the leadership
roles she has taken after
independence. Being a woman who rose from a young
age to assume a position
of national leadership, she is profiled as an
inspiration to the girl-child,
staking a claim, perhaps, to the female
constituency.
Now, both are prima facie noble efforts,
notwithstanding the
limitations of access to cyberspace by most of their
intended audience in
Zimbabwe. Yet, given the tight battles for space in the
national media, it
is not surprising that both contenders would wish to
stake claims in
cyberspace. Then again they may be efforts to build their
respective public
profiles to the international audience and attempts to
rebut or neutralise
some of the unflattering information about them that
appears in cyberspace.
Either way, it is clear that although both
have lost the present
opportunity to stake a claim for the presidency, which
appeared so near,
there is still more to come in future. What is happening
now is no more than
a tactical retreat and re-building in preparation for
tough jousting ahead.
One thing is for sure, the latent battle in
Zanu PF is not over yet.
It remains a significant plot in the script
appertaining to the national
question. The spotlight having turned away from
the presidency, the key
battle is now for the space on the penumbra of that
top post, in order to be
better positioned to strike when the opportunity
arises.
Dr Magaisa can be contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
HARARE'S water and sewerage reticulation
system is fast crumbling as
the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa)
fails to turn around the
deteriorating situation across the
country.
A survey by the Zimbabwe Independent showed that the
capital's
infrastructure is in a free-fall characterised by unavailability
of water
and raw sewage flowing in the streets posing a threat of disease
outbreaks
in overcrowded townships.
Where water was available,
much of it was being lost through burst
pipes, which residents said had gone
for months without Zinwa repairing
them.
Critics say Zinwa's
mounting problems mirror Zimbabwe's long-running
political and economic
crisis.
Swarms of flies and mosquitoes hover over raw effluent
which has
become a common sight in most high density areas.
The
excuse from Zinwa is the national shortage of fuel and the ageing
piping
system which they claim needs a complete overhaul.
The Independent
news crew discovered that it was only a question of
time before an outbreak
of disease hits Tafara-Mabvuku as residents have
resorted to drinking water
from underground streams in the suburbs. The
streams' mains sources of water
have been sewer flows and water from burst
pipes.
"This is our
third month without water in the whole of Tafara and
Mabvuku areas,"
residents association chairman Joseph Rose said.
"Residents have
dug wells along these streams to get water for their
daily use. Our fears
are that there could be an outbreak of diseases as raw
sewage from burst
pipes often flow into these streams."
Residents fetching water from
an unprotected well along one of the
streams shouted that "government must
provide water because we can't
continue getting water from the rivers as if
we are in rural areas".
A 100-metre long queue was seen at The
Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints in Tafara as residents waited to
get water from the church
borehole.
Almost all suburbs in the
capital have reported water shortages since
Zinwa took over the supply of
bulk water last year.
Rose said residents were increasingly getting
agitated by the fact
that despite Zinwa's failure to provide services, it
was increasing rates.
This week Combined Harare Residents
Association (CHRA) reiterated its
call since last year for the reversal of a
cabinet decision empowering Zinwa
to take over sewer and water services from
local authorities.
"There is ample evidence that Zinwa cannot
manage water affairs in
Zimbabwe and that it is hopelessly incompetent,"
CHRA said. "The association
continues to reject the takeover of sewer and
water services because no
substantive benefits have accrued to local
authorities in Zimbabwe since
Zinwa came on board," CHRA said. "Persistent
bickering between the City of
Harare and Zinwa over accountability to
residents in cases of quality of
water, leakages, inadequate supplies and
billing have put residents in an
unnecessary dilemma."
CHRA
said the absence of a memorandum of understanding between the
City of Harare
and Zinwa is disastrous and is a corrupt business
arrangement, which should
be rejected.
"Residents cannot be coerced to pay unreasonable,
unjustified and
unlawful water rates coming from a water body that is
unaccountable to them
but to the government," CHRA said.
Zinwa
has been increasing charges at alarming rates with residents in
most parts
of Harare receiving bills ranging from $5 million to $40 million
over the
past two months.
The association said Zinwa's increases in service
charges of over 1
600% since September 2007 are unjustified considering that
there is no
visible improvement in water supply and
administration.
Residents and business continue to be plagued by
water cuts as Zinwa
fails to meet the daily consumption of
Harare.
Raw sewage continues to find its way into water bodies in
the City of
Harare, pushing up water treatment costs which are passed on to
the
residents. Further, some chemicals are not being procured, a situation
which
poses serious health threat to residents.
"An uprising by
the residents of Harare is imminent if the current
scenario is not
addressed," CHRA said. "We demand that the City of Harare
take full
ownership of the capital's water supply and administration before
Zinwa
triggers a residents' uprising over water bills."
CHRA blamed
excessive interference by politicians in the running of
local
authorities.
Since Zinwa's takeover of water distribution and
sewerage
reticulation, even government arms such as the Comptroller and
Auditor
General, Mildred Chisi, warned that the authority had no capacity to
provide
clean water without disruptions.
The audit, which was
presented to the Public Accounts Parliamentary
Portfolio Committee last
year, said that Zinwa was failing to provide
undisrupted water supply and
water of the right quality to its customers in
small towns, growth points
and institutions because of lack of an
operational plan, failure to maintain
plant and equipment and poor record
keeping.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
THE Zimbabwe government has
admitted that it wronged white commercial
farmers when it violently evicted
them from their farms at the height of
Zanu PF-instigated land invasions in
2000.
During an International Centre for Settlement of the
Investment
Disputes arbitration hearing in Paris, France, a fortnight ago
between
government and Dutch farmers, the state did not raise objections to
farmers'
claims that it breached the Netherlands-Zimbabwe bilateral
investment treaty
and therefore was liable to all the losses and damage
incurred.
"In a rather unusual turn of events, Zimbabwe did not
raise objections
to the tribunal's jurisdiction, thus ensuring that written
and oral
arguments on the merits would proceed forthwith," said the
International
Institute for Sustainable Development newsletter, Investment
Treaty News
(ITN), dated October 30.
ITN is a reporting service
on international treaties governing
overseas business investments and on
lawsuits which arise under these
treaties, pitting foreign investors against
host governments.
The agreements have significant public policy
implications in the
areas of health, environmental protection, economic
development and
taxation.
The claimants, all Dutch nationals,
allege that their agricultural
land holdings were subjected to violent
invasion and seizure by
self-professed war veterans, culminating in their
confiscation by the state
without payment of financial
compensation.
They further allege that the Zimbabwe police failed
to provide
physical protection and security as guaranteed by the
Netherlands-Zimbabwe
bilateral investment treaty.
Giving
evidence to a tribunal in Paris, Lands and Security minister
Didymus Mutasa
said the move by the Dutch farmers to seek compensation was
in order as the
government did not honour its obligations under a
government-to-government
agreement between Zimbabwe and the Netherlands.
"The Zimbabwean
government acknowledged that certain 'deprivations'
had taken place without
payment of compensation," ITN said. "The government
insisted that this was
the 'only issue for arbitration', adding that it
would 'pay compensation in
full as and when it is able to do so', an
apparent reference to the
straitened economic situation in which the
hyperinflation-wracked country
finds itself."
Mutasa, whose European Union travel ban was
temporarily lifted to
allow him to attend the hearing, said the government
was not in a position
to compensate the farmers now.
The
farmers took their case to the Washington-based ICSID calling on
the
government to admit breaching a bilateral investment treaty with the
Netherlands.
The court is expected to present its ruling on the
amount of
compensation the farmers should receive before March next
year.
The farmers are claiming a total of US$48 million from the
Zimbabwean
government.
If the government fails to pay, the farmers
would have the right to
seize any Zimbabwe government property outside the
country including loans
from the World Bank and export
earnings.
There are an additional 50 farmers from Switzerland,
Germany and
Denmark whose lands were seized and who are also preparing to go
to the
tribunal demanding compensation. All of them come from countries that
had
similar treaties with Zimbabwe.
The developments at the
ICSID come at a time when government faces yet
another land acquisition
challenge in a case filed with the Sadc Tribunal
and set to be heard in
Windhoek next week.
The Sadc Tribunal will hear the case, the very
first, on November 20
2007 in Windhoek, Namibia in which farmer, William
Michael Campbell of Mount
Carmel Farm in Chegutu, is seeking relief for
himself, his family and all of
his employees from harassment on his farm. He
is seeking an urgent interim
interdict from such interference pending a full
hearing on the fundamental
legal issues at stake in the Zimbabwe land
seizures.
Campell is currently facing criminal charges at the
Chegutu
Magistrates' court for failing to stop farming opera-tions and faces
up to
two years in prison if convicted.
Zim Independent
Lucia Makamure/Orirando Manwere
THE
Ministry of Justice has exhausted its 2007 budgetary allocation
and will
only be able to adjust the salaries of striking magistrates,
prosecutors and
support staff in January next year, officials revealed
yesterday.
Giving oral evidence to the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on the ongoing strike
by court
personnel, the ministry's acting permanent secretary Chisingaperi
Chaitezvi
and chief magistrate Herbert Mandeya said while the PSC had
acknowledged the
need to review the salaries, it could only do so next year
due to budgetary
constraints.
However, the representatives are
said to have insisted on an immediate
adjustment or a written undertaking by
the Public Service Commission that
the adjustments would be backdated to
September this year.
Regional magistrates had their salaries
reviewed from $40 million to
over $100 million in September while those of
provincial magistrates
remained at $36 million.
Prosecutors and
magistrates earn between $16 million and $26 million
respectively, according
to sources.
Mandeya said the situation at the courts was not normal
as regional
magistrates were working extra hours to handle cases with the
help of stand
in public prosecutors from the Zimbabwe Republic
Police.
Meanwhile the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) has blamed
government's
failure to implement provisions of the Judicial Services Act
for the ongoing
strike by magistrates and prosecutors
countrywide.
Under the Judiciary Services Act, which was passed
last year, the
judiciary should be independent from the Ministry of Justice,
and should be
run by a commission which, among other things, should
determine the terms
and conditions of services.
In a telephone
interview with the Zimbabwe Independent, LSZ president
Beatrice Mtetwa said
there was need to separate the judiciary from the
Justice ministry in order
to improve conditions of services for magistrates
and
prosecutors.
"There is need to separate the judiciary from the
Ministry of Justice
so that the terms and conditions of services are set by
a commission for
professionals in the department to get reasonable
remuneration," she said.
Mtetwa described the conditions of
services of magistrates as
horrendous saying these were the main cause of
the mass exodus by
magistrates.
"Government should arrest
skills flight as we now have more
inexperienced personnel in charge of our
courts and this could compromise
justice delivery," said Mtetwa.
Zim Independent
Vincent Kahiya
SCORES of insurance companies risk forced
closure following their
failure to meet re-registration criteria set by the
Commissioner of
Insurance.
Many ailing players in the industry
which has been hit by high
inflation and poor quality business have until
the end of the month to
register with the commission that falls under the
Ministry of Finance.
The re-registration exercise followed the
amendment to the Insurance
and Pensions Act in 2004 which set up a
Commission of Insurance and
Pensions.
The Commissioner, Ninette
Mpofu, was only appointed last year.
She immediately embarked on a
re-registration exercise which should
have been concluded early this year.
However, some insurance companies have
failed to register.
Addressing the Insurance Institute of Zimbabwe annual general meeting
in
Nyanga this week, Mpofu gave chilling statistics on the registration
exercise and warned those not registered that they will soon be deemed to be
operating illegally.
Mpofu said there was a possibility of
unregistered companies being
"put under curatorship or some form of
management".
Responding to industry concerns on what would happen
to the companies
and individuals insured by unregistered companies, Mpofu
said: "Your clients
will be asking questions why you
did not
comply. You are going to lose business."
Mpofu said 67% of life
assurers were registered so far, 60%
short-term, 50% reinsurers, 17% funeral
assurers, 23% brokers and 14%
multiple agencies.
She said new
players in the sector would be required to raise capital
which conformed to
regional standards.
Mpofu said the current figures were too low.
She cited Mozambique
where capital requirements for new entrants were
between US$1,5 million and
US$ 2,5 million.
"You should
expect figures in this region," said Mpofu.
The commissioner is
this month expected to publish a list showing
registered and unregistered
insurance firms.
It is the impending publication of the list which
is causing panic in
the sector as unregistered companies which are currently
operating are
afraid of losing business.
As part of the
registration exercise, insurance companies are expected
to provide the
commissioner with their shareholding structure, management
profile, business
profile and capitalisation.
The commission also requires companies'
audited accounts. Financial
services sector sources said the requirements
were less stringent compared
to conditions set for registering a new banking
institution.
There is real worry in the insurance sector that
smaller companies
will fail to meet the required capitalisation thresholds.
Insurance firms
have been struggling to pay subscriptions to the Insurance
Institute of
Zimbabwe resulting in them being excised from the membership
list.
Company bosses who have not registered were in Nyanga this
week
privately lobbying the commissioner for an extension to put their act
together before the chop.
She encouraged smaller players in the
industry to merge to enable them
to meet registration criteria and to raise
the required capital.
Meanwhile, insurance companies raised concern
over government's thrust
forcing them to subscribe to a government paper
with a tenor of 300%.
Industry feels that the rate is too low in the
hyperinflationary environment
where independent analysts have put the figure
at above 30 000%.
Industry players have said under such
circumstances, the prescribed
assets ratio undermines the regulatory
objective to maintain industry
viability.
They urged Mpofu to
take up the issue with government.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
CASH shortages worsened this week amid
speculation that the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe was working on plans to
introduce higher denominations of
bearers' cheques.
Businessdigest understands that the central bank is finalising the
introduction of $500 000 and $1 million notes. The new bearer's cheque notes
are likely to be introduced early next month.
The denominations
below $10 000 will be scrapped, sources said.
"From the discussions
and preparation we have had so far I would say
the new bearer's notes will
come mid-December," said a central bank official
who is part of the team
working on the introduction of the new
denominations.
RBZ
governor Gideon Gono is expected to present his monetary policy
early next
month. In that policy, sources say, Gono will give an indication
of when a
new currency will come but will introduce higher denominations of
bearers'
cheques as an interim measure before the launch of Sunrise Two.
Two
weeks ago Gono said plans for a new currency had been shelved but
the market
remains sceptical about the real motive of that announcement.
The
central bank introduced a $200 000 bearer's cheque note three
months ago but
its value in both real terms and convenience has been
overtaken by events on
the inflation front.
Inflation surged to 14 840,5% for October,
increasing 6 848,5
percentage points on the September figure 7
892,5%.
As inflation continues to gallop the demand for cash has
also
increased.
For instance a litre of petrol that cost $180
000 three months ago is
now going for $1,3 million.
The
parallel market has also put pressure on the frail Zimbabwe
dollar. The
United States dollar which was going for $50 000 four months ago
is now
pegged at about $1,3 million.
This demand for cash comes as the
central bank continues to limit cash
withdrawals for individuals and
corporates. Corporates are allowed to
withdraw only $40 million while
individuals can only get $20 million a day
which is barely enough to buy 20
litres of fuel on the parallel market.
Central bank sources said
the plan was for the new denominations to
coincide with the festive season
which is normally characterised by high
cash demands.
Most
banks had run out of cash by mid-afternoon yesterday.
Genesis Bank
group economist, Brains Muchemwa, said it was surprising
that despite the
market having excess liquidity cash was not available in
banks.
"One would not expect banks to have problems in funding their cash
requirements with such excess liquidity," Muchemwa said. "The most probable
explanation could be that the Reserve Bank might be preparing to launch
Sunrise Two as it promised in October, hence reduced need to print too many
of the old bearer cheques that would need to be phased out in a month or
so."
Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group economist David Mupamhadzi
said it was
an indication of the value that the Zimbabwean dollar has lost
over the past
few months.
"Due to the current cash shortages
that we are experiencing coupled
with the continuous increase in prices, the
demand for money will continue
to increase, and a number of agents will
prefer to keep their money out of
the formal system," he said.
Mupamhadzi said the situation had been worsened by the current
shortages of
basic goods and services, which forced people to carry cash.
Most business
are now demanding cash payments. In any case the black market
does not deal
with bank transfers, cheques or plastic money.
ZB Financial
Holdings group economist, Best Doroh, said the root
problem was inflation
which meant that the demand for cash for transaction
purposes was now
high.
Kingdom Financial Holdings economist, Patrick Saziwa, said
the current
cash shortages were caused by speculation as a lot of money was
outside the
banking system.
"The Reserve Bank was not printing
enough cash to support the money
that it is dishing out
in the form
of the Basic Commodities Supply Side Intervention Facility
and other cheap
financing systems leading to a cash imbalance," Saziwa.
Zim Independent
Kuda
Chikwanda
A MASVINGO businessman has appealed to Vice-President
Joseph Msika to
help him in his loan dispute with the Infrastructural
Development Bank of
Zimbabwe (IDBZ) and Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs minister
Patrick Chinamasa.
Kudzai Mbudzi, the managing
director of Treasure Consultants (Pvt) Ltd
(TCL), a property development
firm, appealed to
Msika in August in a bid to force Chinamasa and IDBZ
to comply with
court orders that his company be paid a $150 billion buyout
price for the
TCL's 2 000-unit housing scheme in Masvingo.
The
matter arises from the fact that in 2005 IDBZ agreed to fund TCL's
Runyararo
South West housing project in Masvingo. IDBZ however failed to
fulfil its
part of the contract and gave TCL $81 billion instead of the
$90,5 billion
which the parties had agreed on.
Mbudzi said the project therefore
faced problems.
Chinamasa then appointed an administrator, Afaras
Gwaradzimba of
Global Accountants, to run TCL, arguing that the company was
insolvent.
IDBZ had agreed upon an "arbitrated and negotiated"
reconstruction
scheme to buy out TCL from the housing scheme and pay $150
billion.
Chinamasa approved the scheme and the figures which were
determined by
an independent evaluator.
In a letter dated
August 22 2007, Mbudzi accused Chinamasa and IDBZ of
"secretly" and
unlawfully placing TCL under reconstruction before seizing
the housing
scheme.
"Under normal circumstances Chinamasa should have afforded
me an
opportunity to be heard, or at least hear my own side of the story,
before
placing my company under reconstruction," said Mbudzi in a letter to
Msika.
Mbudzi, who is also the Zanu PF's secretary for information
and
publicity in Masvingo province, said TCL was not insolvent and accused
Chinamasa of refusing to engage his company to get its side of
events.
"My numerous verbal and written requests and appeals to the
Minister
and IDBZ to reverse the Reconstruction Scheme and afford me a fair
opportunity to pay whatever I owed the bank were turned down," Mbudzi
said.
Mbudzi took the matter to the High Court and won the case.
Chinamasa,
Gwaradzimba and IDBZ were the respondents.
"This
whole process up to date took a total of 11 months. When finally
IDBZ was
asked to comply with the Scheme of Reconstruction, as now ordered
by the
High Court, we are told that they have no money to pay for the
project and
would therefore not be compelled to do so, irrespective of all
the foregoing
and standing court orders at whose instance they were issued,"
Mbudzi
said.
Mbudzi also told Msika that he did not want to embarrass
government by
having the courts enforce the arbitrated reconstruction, as he
was a war
veteran and a senior Zanu PF politician.
"Your
Excellency, I am an ex-combatant and a very senior member of the
party and
would therefore not want the court (to) enforce (the) Scheme of
Reconstruction through legal means as that would tarnish the image of both
the government and the party at this critical moment on the eve of a
landmark national election."
Chinamasa could not be reached for
comment.
Mbudzi also attached copies of his court application in
the letter to
Msika.
"The cumulative effect of third
respondent's conduct, to wit, breach
of contractual commitments by each of
and/or refusing to disburse funds
timeously or scaling down applicant's
requests, resulted in delays in
completing certain phases of the project,"
read Mbudzi's court application.
Mbudzi accused IDBZ of plotting to
seize the housing project from TCL
by deliberately starving the company of
funds required to complete the
project.
"The conclusion is
therefore inescapable that the 3rd respondent
(IDBZ), from the beginning
posed and positioned itself to unilaterally
taking over the project without
paying compensation to applicant (Mbudzi),
hence its taking over direct
management of the project and also its flagrant
breach of the domestic
quasi-judicial arrangements, and in ways subvert
common business ethics at
the expense of the rights of prospective
beneficiaries of the project,"
Mbudzi said.
Zim Independent
Kuda Chikwanda
GOVERNMENT'S plans to sign Economic Partnership
Agreements (EPAs) next
month, along with other African, Caribbean and
Pacific (ACP) countries,
poses a huge threat to Zimbabwe's already battered
economy.
EPAs are a collective scheme to create free trade areas
between the
European Union (EU) and ACP member states. Once signed, they
will be
operational on January 1 2008. The agreement entails that member
countries
abolish tariffs to ensure free trade among members.
Analysts however say Zimbabwe will not be able to benefit from the
agreement
because of the current economic problems. Zimbabwean companies are
already
reeling from foreign currency shortages, an unviable exchange rates
and lack
of raw materials. Price controls, inflation and hostile operating
environment have also affected local companies. These problems, analysts
say, make it impossible for local companies to compete on the EPA
markets.
Under threat are Zimbabwe's agricultural and manufacturing
sectors
that will be forced to compete with an influx of cheaply
manufactured
European goods. This will harm local farmers, local
manufacturers and
exporters.
The parliamentary portfolio
committee on Foreign Affairs, Industry and
International Trade heard this
week that EPAs, once signed, would result in
loss of guaranteed markets. The
committee was also told that the EPAs will
lead to more unemployment, and
diminished income. .
The committee also heard that EPAs had strict
conditions attached
which Zimbabwean companies might not be able to
meet.
The EU has also been demanding "zero-for-zero" concessions,
especially
on tariffs levied on imports and exports.
These
concessions include that developing countries scrap duty of
imports from
developed nations, which would also reciprocate with a similar
move.
"We can't compete on an equal footing with the EU as we
have a smaller
economy," said Andrew Mushita, director of Community
Technology Development
Trust (CTDT), a non-governmental organisation which
deals with trade and
technology issues.
"If we cannot meet the
conditions imposed by EPAs, then it means we
cannot export," said
Mushita.
Mushita also told the parliamentary committee that
Zimbabwe would have
to contend with dumping of cheap commodities by European
producers who are
beneficiaries of subsidies from their governments and who
also use advanced
technology with better economies of scale.
He
told the committee that unless the conditionalities suited Zimbabwe's
productive environment, the country would not reap any benefits from being a
signatory to the EPAs.
CTDT legal officer Angeline
Munzara-Chawira said development had to
take the centre stage in dealing
with EPAs.
"Trade should not come first before development but
development must
always come first," she said.
Zanu PF MP for
Buhera North, William Mutomba, raised concern over the
predicament the
country faced regarding EPAs. He asked Mushita if it was
possible for
government to refuse to sign the EPAs next month.
"It seems the
disadvantages are outweighing the advantages. We seem to
have shortages of
everything," Mutomba said. "What is it we want to export?
We seem to be
making negotiations for the sake of negotiations. Do we have
any direct
benefit?"
Negotiations for EPAs started in 2002 after stinging
World Trade
Organisation criticism of the EU's non-reciprocal and
discriminating trade
agreements with developing countries.
Zimbabwe entered into the talks under the Eastern and Southern Africa
Negotiating Forum - umbrella body of the Common Market for Eastern and
Southern Africa (Comesa).
However this move is likely to also
create problems for Zimbabwe,
which is an active member of the Southern
African Development Community
(Sadc), according Masiiwa Rusare of the Trade
Centre. Sadc has its own
tariff agreements which may not be compatible with
those of the EPA.
"There will be a tendency for competing
programmes in one country. It
is difficult to implement if a country is a
member of two groupings. If
Comesa says the common external tariff is 20%
and Sadc says it is 15% it
becomes difficult to implement," Rusare
said.
Zim Independent
By
Nhlanhla Nyathi
THAT fateful day in Inyanga when the Tripartite
Negotiating Forum
(TNF) - comprising government, business and labour -
failed to agree on the
broad working modalities of the initially proposed
social contract will go
down in Zimbabwe's history as a monumental
failure.
All the participants in the TNF forum squandered a chance
of a
lifetime to facilitate an all-inclusive determination and progression
of
prices and wages for the welfare of all Zimbabweans.
The
parties in the TNF forum should have realised that dragging their
feet with
regard to such an emotive issue was bound to blow up in their
faces as
inflationary pressures remained relentless and unbearable.
Concessions should have been made by one or two parties in the TNF
forum in
the interest of forging some kind of agreement since it was obvious
that
government was not going to back down until something substantial was
done
to appease the suffering masses.
As a consequence mistrust ensued
between government and business
leading to the one-sided disastrous price
controls that have destroyed the
social fabric of the Zimbabweans as well as
sunk viable businesses.
Since the implementation of the blanket
price controls in June, which
also affected parastatals and government
institutions, basic commodities and
a significant number of other products
have disappeared from the formal
market leading to a thriving parallel
market that has become more potent and
difficult to police than
ever.
Law enforcement agencies have had a torrid time in the past
few months
bogged down with trivialities of policing a faceless black market
which can
virtually operate from anywhere. On the other hand, manufacturing
companies
have had to contend with the forceful application of the price
controls by
government through ruthless law-enforcement
agencies.
Initially because of adequate stocks normally kept by
companies as
part of their stock holding policies, the inception of price
controls did
not immediately lead to shortages of commodities in the formal
market.
It was only after a few days of uncontrolled bulk buying by
consumers
that it became apparent that stocks on the shop shelves were not
being
replenished. Companies blamed unviable pricing structures as a major
inhibiting factor disabling them from ordering raw materials required to
keep the production process going.
Zimbabweans became victims
of widespread shortages and had to learn
the art of becoming modern day
hunter and gatherers for virtually every
commodity required to sustain their
daily lives.
Going into the fifth month of the stand-off between
government and
business over the contentious price controls, it appears the
new National
Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC) chairman, Godwills
Masimirembwa, is
determined to maintain the hard-line status
quo.
The latest decree by the NIPC to devise new pricing formulae
on the
basis of converting foreign currency-denominated invoices at the
official
exchange rate is a huge blow to the business community that was
looking to
engage the NIPC in constructive ways to find lasting solutions to
the
incessant shortages.
It is an open secret that foreign
currency is scarce on the formal
market, while the parallel market that has
access to the foreign currency is
priced at a massive premium. Clearly
companies would rather not re-stock at
all if such threats keep lingering in
the horizon. No sound-minded
businessman would source currency at US$1: $1,2
million only to sell the
imported products at a discounted US$1: $30
000.
With this latest stance taken by the NIPC, the standoff is
bound to
persist for some time to come. Consumers will have to wait a bit
longer
before shop shelves can be filled up again.
Companies
will have to continue hunting for alternative survival
strategies in the
meantime to ensure their long term existence and
profitability as the local
market is unlikely to be a market of choice due
to controlled pricing
structures that have proved to lag behind real
inflation.
As
part of that process, some companies have already scaled down
production and
laid off part of their workforce, while others entered into
toll
manufacturing agreements with companies outside Zimbabwe. Unfortunately
for
Zimbabwean consumers, these alternative survival strategies disadvantage
the
local market and result in reduced supply of products.
If that is
to be the trend going forward, it is quite clear that the
price and wage
controls that resulted in forced lower fuel prices, lower
water tariffs,
lower electricity tariffs, lower labour costs and many other
forced
reductions will not benefit locals as they have been shunned by local
companies trying to avoid operating at a loss.
If toll
manufacturing is to be the survival strategy going forward as
it seems to be
so far, companies outside Zimbabwe will be the eventual
unintended
beneficiaries of the price and wage controls.
Toll manufacturing
allows local companies to use their skills, labour
and machinery for a fee
to manufacture on behalf of companies outside
Zimbabwe without investing
their own financial resources required to
purchase raw
materials.
Such a process enables local companies to continue
operating
profitably while limiting exposure to price controls and the local
market.
Although it is a good business survival strategy under the current
circumstances, toll manufacturing by its nature tends to tie up productive
capacity and time of local companies to external commitments while the local
market is starved of the same product.
The disadvantage that
arises in circumstances where there is toll
manufacturing coupled with price
and wage controls are clear.
The initial intention of price
controls was to relieve suffering
masses from high prices resulting from the
hyperinflationary environment.
This
Zim Independent
THE Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe says it will be strict on its lending
policies to commercial
banks that want to borrow from the central bank to
cover their short
positions.
In a circular to banks last week, the central bank said
it will also
be closely monitoring capitalisation levels of financial
institutions.
The central bank said banking institutions should
actively engage each
other on the interbank market to avoid resorting to the
punitive overnight
accommodation rates which are currently at 800% and 850%
for secured and
unsecured lending.
"Borrowing from the Reserve
Bank is highly discouraged and should only
be considered on a lender of last
resort basis," the central bank said in
the circular dated November
2.
"Accommodation rates should therefore be seen as policy rates
that
show the bank's unwillingness to be injecting inflationary liquidity
into
the market," added the bank.
In October the Central Bank
announced that it was using its interest
rate instrument to repel
speculative tendencies and reduce inflationary
pressures.
This
is despite the continued support to productive sectors through
concessionary
loans at 25%.
"This borrowing discipline will also be expected from
Fiscal
Authorities who should live within their set budgets." - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
By
Wellington Mbofana
A LOT has been said about South Africa's
interest in Zimbabwe or lack
of it.
In the past, it used to be
said that the Thabo Mbeki-led government
would not publicly chastise
President Robert Mugabe because of strong
liberation war ties, the ANC's
fear of a wave of labour governments in
Zambia and Zimbabwe influencing
Cosatu to challenge for power and Mbeki's
general reverence for Mugabe as an
elder statesmen.
In recent times, it has been suggested that South
Africa is now moving
with speed on Zimbabwe for fear of losing the hosting
of the 2010 World Cup
to Australia or England.
I want to argue
that South Africa's position on Zimbabwe has not
changed since attaining
independence in 1910. South Africa's involvement in
Zimbabwe, just like its
involvement all over the continent, is motivated by
economic
interests.
The African National Congress (ANC) government in South
Africa is
still very secure in power and the Congress of South African Trade
Unions
(Cosatu) is not a threat to it. Unlike the unsubstantiated claim of
Mbeki's
reverence for Mugabe, the history of the ANC's exile in Zimbabwe
reveals
that Mbeki had a hard time in Zimbabwe in the1980s as the Zanu PF
government
supported the now insignificant Pan Africanist
Congress.
During Zimbabwe's liberation struggle, Zanu's armed wing
Zanla fought
with Frelimo and not ANC's Umkhonto weSizwe which fought in
Zimbabwe with
Zapu's Zipra. The fact that Mbeki and the ANC are not shouting
about it does
not mean that they are not seeking their
comeuppance!
Zimbabwe's economic decline has been a blessing to all
its neighbours.
Zambia and Malawi, two countries that lost out on the
1950s-1960s Federation
of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, profited from Zimbabwe's
chaotic land reform as
they rushed in to recruit dispossessed but
experienced Zimbabwean white
commercial farmers.
Zimbabwe,
which once boasted a sophisticated economy and prided itself
as the
breadbasket of southern Africa, now survives on barter trade with
hitherto
poorer countries of Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi.
Further, most Sadc
countries have become alternative investment
destinations at the expense of
Zimbabwe.
South Africa has benefited the most from the Zimbabwean
crisis.
Zimbabwe was the only country in the sub-region that could
economically and
politically offer competition to South Africa.
When apartheid regime fell in 1994 the new government refused to renew
its
trade agreement with Zimbabwe. It is significant to note that the new
South
Africa rushed to enter into trade pacts with most of the other Sadc
countries!
The crisis in Zimbabwe has seen South African
corporations and
products flooding the country and the region without
competition.
"Proudly South African" products and businesses are
fast spreading
their tentacles to dominate the landscape from Cape to
Cairo.
Zimbabwean labour, both skilled and unskilled, is fuelling
the South
African economy.
South Africa now monopolises
regional tourism with most tourists
visiting southern Africa now going
through South Africa, even to visit
Victoria Falls!
When a
resolution is finally concluded, South Africa will "lead
reconstruction
efforts" in Zimbabwe. Put simply, South Africa will come and
take up
everything as is happening in Mozambique, the DRC and other
post-conflict
areas on the continent.
It is ironic that the revolutionary Zanu PF
government has managed to
deliver the country to South Africa, a feat white
Rhodesians rejected in
1922 when they voted for self-government as opposed
to becoming South Africa's
fifth province.
South Africa and
China are actually competing to be the continent's
new colonial powers.
While in the past South Africa had only one colony in
South West Africa --
now Namibia -- in the future the whole of southern and
central Africa will
be part of South Africa.
Politically, South Africa in 2007 like the
apartheid regime in the
late 1970s wields significant power over Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe now depends on
South Africa for protection on the world stage and
propping up locally.
South Africa is directly participating in
developments in the country
as demonstrated by their intelligence's
unravelling of and involvement in
coup plots, mercenaries and spy
sagas.
Both the apartheid and ANC governments have been motivated
by economic
interests in their relations with Zimbabwe.
South
Africa is guided by the dictum of no permanent friends but only
permanent
interests as she understands that power in the modern world is
located in
the economy and not waiving of fists, sloganeering, revolutionary
speeches
at world assemblies or involvement in intractable wars in foreign
lands.
The 2010 argument is a ruse. Sepp Blatter, the Fifa
president, on his
last visit to South Africa in July, which was timed to
coincide with former
president Nelson Mandela's 89th birthday, said only God
could take away the
soccer World Cup from South Africa. Chances are God has
no such plans and
South Africa can rest assured of hosting the soccer
extravaganza!
It is inconceivable to see how Zimbabwe - not violent
crime or HIV and
Aids - can be a factor in the hosting of the tournament as
the crisis is in
Zimbabwe and not South Africa.
Peter Mokaba,
the stadium closest to Zimbabwe, is more than 220km away
from the border!
World events have been held in regions engulfed by crises
before.
As presented above, in 1922 Rhodesians refused to be
provinces of
South Africa. By 2015 if not 2010, Zimbabwe like Lesotho,
Swaziland,
Botswana, Namibia and Mozambique will be a de facto province of
South
Africa. And in this case South Africa would have achieved what she has
always coveted.
Wellington Mbofana is a Harare-based
writer.
Zim Independent
By Beloved
Chiweshe
THE robbery and callous murder of Sydney Tapfumaneyi,
a final year
Business Studies student at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ)
should be wholly
blamed on UZ vice-chancellor, Levy Nyagura, the Ministry of
Higher and
Tertiary Education as well as the government for gross
negligence,
incompetence and disregard for human life.
Sydney
becomes the second student to be murdered after the eviction of
students
from the halls of residence at the UZ on July 9.
In August,
Tafirenyika Magwidi, a humanities student was murdered in
the company of two
unidentified men along Airport Road in Harare.
Tafirenyika's naked body was
found between the Catholic University in
Hatfield and the One Commando army
barracks. He had decided to walk home
after failing to secure transport.
Over 4 000 students were evicted from the
UZ campus.
The
Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu) has condemned the
eviction of
students from the halls of residence at the University of
Zimbabwe, arguing
that campus life forms an integral and vital cog of
university and college
life.
Campus life, apart from offering proximity to learning
facilities,
plays an imperative role in providing students with positive
peer pressure,
opportunities to learn from each others' experiences and
mostly much needed
security from thieves, rapists and murderers. Students on
campus
collectively present themselves with security by forming a cohesive
group
which has concern for the welfare of each other.
As if
the loss of human resources through brain drain, as trained
personnel
migrate to greener pastures is not enough, we are now seeing loss
of lives
through bloody murders such as the one in which Sydney's life was
lost.
Human life is sacred and ought to be given the respect it deserves.
It was clear that the move to evict students would have fatal
casualties.
Such shortsightedness on the part of administrators should not
be tolerated
in modern day society. For the administrators to claim that it
had not been
forecast is hypocrisy at its worst.
Sydney was among the many
students whose desire and passion for
academic excellence resulted in them
sacrificing their lives. The
unavailability of accommodation, expensive or
otherwise, has not spared
students who solely depend on their parents'
paltry salaries for survival.
It is very sad to note how uncaring
the people who are running public
office can be. Sydney had decided to
officially seek refuge at the premises
where he was currently staying in
Waterfalls.
The majority of students are living as vagrants, with
friends or with
distant relatives. Another group of students of no fixed
abode move from one
night club to the other as dusk of every given day
approaches.
Desperate female students have been taken advantage of
by financially
capacitated and morally deficient old males. Male students
have not been
spared either by older women thereby exposing the
intelligentsias of this
nation to the deadly HIV and Aids
pandemic.
The murder provides all like minded, progressive, and
forward looking
parents with an opportunity to interrogate the eviction of
students from a
moral and parental point of view. Learning that the
decomposing body of one's
son was discovered after three days is emotional
torture. Sydney's struggle
was symbolised by his death, may his soul rest in
peace.
We will not confine ourselves to discussing Sydney's case in
isolation
but will criticise, condemn and lambast the education delivery
system in the
country in its broadest sense. The rot is evident at primary
schools and
secondary schools.
Teachers have become the
laughing stock when it comes to salaries.
They are justifiably a demoralised
and demotivated lot. Add to this, the
shortage of text books which are a
vital component for any learning process.
Surely the education sector needs
an overhaul.
Human life should be dignified, I will not comment on
the death of the
Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs,
Patrick Chinamasa's
son, Chengetai, while studying in the United
States.
While we don't celebrate the death, I wish to use the life
and studies
of the minister's son to illustrate the parallel education
patterns emerging
in Zimbabwe, one for the elite which is well funded and is
beyond the reach
of many and a second system running parallel which is
underfunded and
pretends to have its
doors open to everyone when
actually it does not.
Despite ministers preaching the evils of
imperialism, they still send
their children to the same countries they
pretend to despise. The small
group of the Zanu PF elite is plundering the
country's wealth and spending
fortunes on educating their children abroad,
while convincing us that we
still have the best education delivery
system.
It's not surprising, their parents were brought about by
the same
system, were educated abroad and do not understand the needs of a
grade
seven pupil in Zhombe.
The majority of the ministers
educate their children outside Zimbabwe,
often at top universities in the
US, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Australia has already
deported eight students whose parents are senior
members of Mugabe's cabinet
and there are calls for other countries to do
the same as the government's
policies deny the majority basic education.
Hartmann House, St Georges,
Prince Edward and St Johns are among the schools
the minister's son attended
before pursuing tertiary education in the United
States. Surely there is
need for the imbalances to be addressed urgently
before an anti-apartheid
like Soweto uprising.
May the soul of the minister's son rest in
peace.
It is these disappointing and ugly events that characterise
our
learning today that prompt the many demonstrations that students embark
on,
day in day out, against a background of the escalating brutality of the
regime and its surrogate and partisan police. For those who have always been
wondering, we cannot sit idly and watch developments such as
these.
With no military and police arsenal at our disposal and our
only
strength being our capacity to harness the power of the people, we
promise
that his tragic death will not be taken lightly and as students we
will do
all that is permissible in a democratic society to protest. Only
last week
students stormed the streets of Harare protesting against the
closure of the
campus halls and the deteriorating education
delivery.
As concerned students, we are calling on government to
urgently
revisit the evictions with a sober mind in order to avoid more
deaths. There
are a number of individuals and organisations who, if
approached, are
willing to give a hand in the renovations of the halls of
residence.
It is high time the administrators and those in the
responsible
ministry and government come up with a holistic, all inclusive
and
students-centered approach to the looming humanitarian crisis at the
University of Zimbabwe. We deserve to be treated with human
dignity.
I extend my condolences to the Tapfumaneyi family.
Sydney's loss is
not only a loss for the Tapfumaneyi family but for all the
students in
Zimbabwe. We solely blame the death on President Robert Mugabe's
brutal
regime. May Sydney's soul rest in eternal peace.
Beloved Chiweshe is the Secretary General of Zinasu.
Zim Independent
Orirando Manwere
LAST week's arrest of
Attorney-General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele on
allegations of abuse of office
represents an ongoing attack on the judiciary
by the executive that started
in 2000 in a bid to undermine its integrity,
regional legal experts have
said.
Gula-Ndebele was arrested for allegedly meeting fugitive
former NMBZ
Holdings deputy managing director James Mushore who was on the
police wanted
list on allegations of externalising foreign
currency.
Gula-Ndebele is alleged to have assured the banker that
he would not
be arrested if he returned to Zimbabwe from self-imposed exile
in Britain.
The AG's arrest was, however, described by law experts
as
"unconstitutional, unprocedural and unthinkable" in any
democracy.
The experts said Gula-Ndebele's arrest calls into
question the
independence and integrity of the country's
judiciary.
In separate interviews with the Zimbabwe Independent,
legal experts
expressed concern over the government's continued interference
with the
judiciary and harassment of lawyers in the execution of their
duties.
They said the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe needed
the urgent
intervention of regional and international institutions through
concerted
efforts of all stakeholders.
Speaking on the
sidelines of a symposium on the Rule of Law, Human
Rights, Constitutionalism
and the Constitution-Making Process in the Sadc
region held in Harare last
week, Justice George Kanyeihamba, who sits on the
African Union Court on
Human and Peoples' Rights and the Supreme Court of
Uganda, said it was time
the international community responded decisively to
the Zimbabwe
crisis.
"In as much as there is respect for the so-called
sovereignty of
individual states, it has emerged that political leaders are
abusing their
offices by deliberately enacting laws and undermining
decisions of the
judiciary which has the mandate to interprete these laws,"
Kanyeihamba said.
"We have learnt with grave concern about how in
some cases the
judiciary in Zimbabwe has played its role and issued court
orders which have
been ignored by the state. The worst cases have been
reports of
intimidation, arrest and beating of lawyers in the course of
their duties.
"I feel it's time bodies likes Sadc, the AU and
United Nations organs
should respond by enforcing international standards
and statutes."
He emphasised that this could only be achieved
through continuous
empowering of the general populace through awareness
programmes by the media
and civic organisatons.
George Kegoro
of the International Commission for Jurists (Kenya), who
led a fact-finding
mission to Zimbabwe following the arrest and assault of
lawyers by police
earlier this year, said his organisation had since
submitted a report on
Zimbabwe to the African Union and the United Nations.
"Our coming
here was to show our solidarity with our counterparts in
the legal
fraternity who have been subjected to harassment by state agents,"
Kegoro
said.
"It is only through such efforts that we can push for
international
intervention. The Sadc initiative to try and resolve the
political impasse
in Zimbabwe, which is being led by South African president
Thabo Mbeki, is
one example of results of continuous lobbying.
"Although the adoption of Constitutional Amendment No 18 by the two
major
political parties has left out the civic society and the general
populace,
it is a step in the right direction towards resolving the
political problems
and the same can be done with the problems facing the
judiciary."
Professor Fredrick Ssempebwa, the past- president
of the East African
Law Society, said there was need for African states to
adopt peer review
mechanism at regional level to ensure checks and balances
on fundamental
issues.
"As long as individual states are left
to do their own thing under the
guise of so-called sovereignty and
territorial integrity, our brothers and
sisters in some countries like
Zimbabwe will continue to be on the receiving
end," said
Ssempebwa.
"The Sadc tribunal should be strengthened through
ratification by
member-states to provide checks and balances on certain
decisions by the
judiciary, which may be influenced by
politicians.
"We have an effective regional tribunal in East Africa
which can
review certain cases. This was adopted and ratified by political
leaders and
this has helped to ensure compliance by individual governments
with court
orders and providing recourse to aggrieved parties."
South African Black Lawyers Association president Bonginkosi Matshazi
said
Sadc leaders should be vigorously engaged to adopt the proposed Sadc
constitutional framework to ensure protection of the judiciary in
member-states.
"It is the abuse by politicians in crafting the
supreme laws of the
countries which has seen our friends in Zimbabwe being
subjected to
continued harassment by the executive. We need to push for a
common legal
framework on fundamental human rights, particularly the need to
uphold the
separation of powers among state institutions," said
Matshazi.
The Law Society of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights
filed a High Court application seeking an order that the Police
Commissioner
and members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police be prohibited from
hindering,
obstructing or taking any action which hinders legal
practitioners from
gaining access to their clients and carrying out their
lawful duties.
The applicants are also seeking an order that the
commissioner causes
an investigation to be conducted into the criminal
conduct of members of the
force who assaulted them and were also
contemptuous of court orders.
The two bodies are also seeking a
declaration of rights due to lawyers
under domestic and international law
which they allege were violated by the
ZRP.
With reference to
the arrest of Gula-Ndebele, University of Zimbabwe
law lecturer and National
Constitutional Assembly chairperson Lovemore
Madhuku said in terms of the
Constitution of Zimbabwe the AG had the
exclusive powers to determine
whether or not to prosecute an accused person.
He said if the
police believed Gula-Ndebele committed an offence, they
should have
instituted proceedings for his removal from office through the
president,
before arresting him.
Gula-Ndebele's arrest is believed to be
political as he is allegedly
linked to the Joice Mujuru faction of Zanu PF
which is believed to be making
efforts to wrest power from President
Mugabe.
The executive's interference with the judiciary intensified
at the
inception of the fast-track land reform programme in 2000 when
members of
the High Court and Supreme Court bench were forced to resign,
mainly due to
non-compliance with court orders by the state.
In
2002, war veterans openly attacked court decisions on applications
by former
white commercial farmers and gave judges ultimatums to resign.
Mike
Moyo, then deputy chairman of the Harare province of the Zimbabwe
National
War Veterans Association, issued a statement condemning the judges
which
read: "Time is up. The judiciary must go home or else we will chase
them and
close the courts indefinitely until President Mugabe appoints
replacements."
Chief Justice Antony Gubbay was harassed and
intimidated in his
chambers.
This was after the Supreme Court
made an order with the consent of
government acknowledging that land
resettlement through unlawful invasions
contravened property rights
enshrined in the constitution.
The conflicts eventually led to the
resignation of Chief Justice
Gubbay, Justice James Devittie, Justice Ishmael
Chatikobo and Justice
Micheal Gillespie.
In February 2005,
Justice Fergus Blackie faced a judicial inquiry for
allegedly convening what
was dubbed a kangaroo court in Nyamandlovu outside
Bulawayo at night. He set
free commercial farmers arrested hours earlier by
the police.
Blackie was suspended while a three-man tribunal was set up to
investigate
his conduct.
However, he was found not guilty of serious misconduct
and President
Mugabe later revoked his suspension and he resumed his
duties.
In September 2002, Blackie was arrested on charges of
breaching the
Prevention of Corruption Act or alternatively defeating the
course of
justice following his alleged improper handling of a case
involving a white
woman.
However, in July 2003, the state
withdrew obstruction of justice
charges against Blackie who later
resigned.
Following the resignation of previous members of the High
and Supreme
Court benches, a new team led by Chief Justice Godfrey
Chidyausiku was
appointed.
The current benches have also made a
number of rulings which have been
ignored by the police and other state
agents, making a mockery of the role
of the judiciary.
The
recent arrest and assaults of lawyers Beatrice Mtetwa, Harrison
Nkomo, Alec
Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni, among others, while in the course
of their
duties and the harassment of staff from the AG's office accused of
acceding
to bail applications by opposition MDC members has cast a dark
shadow on the
independence of the judiciary in Zimbabwe.
The award of farms to
judges has raised questions about their ability
to make impartial rulings in
cases involving land or the powers of the
state.
Zim Independent
Comment
THE National Incomes and Pricing Commission evidently
believes that by
holding down the cover price of the Zimbabwe Independent it
has contained
inflation. This week it directed that we should peg our price
at $150 000.
Sadly economics is rarely that simple. Imported fuel
is the main
driver of inflation. It tracks the US dollar. There has been no
attempt by
government to control this and other inputs used in the newspaper
business
such as newsprint, film, plates and inks.
Zimbabwe is
not a self-sufficient economy as it was at Independence in
1980. It does not
manufacture everything. We have to pay the market price
for what we
consume.
The state media by contrast is heavily subsidised. It gets
cheap fuel
for distributing its newspapers. It also enjoys a monopoly of
state
institutional support. Parastatal advertisers are required to
advertise in
its columns. So on national occasions are the army, air force,
police,
prison service and parliament, among others.
The
independent press receives no such support. We operate as a
business and
like every other business in this dysfunctional state we have
to operate in
the real world of 14 800% inflation.
Critically, not only is the
business playing field tilted against us,
we have to deal with the
depredations of a regime that sees the private
media as "the
enemy".
NIPC chair Godwills Masimirembwa has advertised his hostile
view of
the Independent in his weekly Herald column. It is therefore hardly
surprising he will use his current post to get even with the
newspaper.
"You must read my column to see what I think about you,"
he told one
of our reporters seeking an interview recently.
And, just as the Media and Information Commission was set up to punish
the
independent press, so the NIPC will be used to silence an inconvenient
critic.
Government will use the commission to do what
Masimirembwa's turgid
column can't - close us down.
For, make
no mistake, that is the intention here. If a company cannot
recover the cost
of production it will go under.
Masimirembwa says his price edicts
will have a life of three months.
That's in contrast to everything else in
Zimbabwe which has a price-life of
24 hours! As it stands our newly
designated price of $150 000 is less than a
Freezit. It is the same as a
bread roll or an egg. A toilet roll is $1
million.
This is what
happens when ruling party politicians, backed by the
police, attempt to
prescribe how businesses should operate. And then the
government hopes in
all seriousness to attract investors.
What sort of government is it
that wastes its time and public funds
determining the price of
newspapers?
The NIPC project, like all the others before it, will
fail. Very
simply price controls have not worked wherever they have been
tried,
including in this country.
Can anyone recall the litany
of alphabet agencies over the past 10
years and anything they
achieved?
Another price "blitz" is about to be launched and this
too will
compound the nation's problems rather than solve them.
In the meantime, and so long as it has breath, the Independent will
continue
to expose the ignorance and plain stupidity of a regime that long
ago lost
the plot.
That is our duty: to provide the public with news and
views that will
enable them to make an informed choice at the polls. And
that of course is
precisely what our enemies want to prevent.
Zim Independent
Joram Nyathi
THE anticlimactic mood in the political stakes as Zanu PF gets closer
to its
special congress next month gives me a feeling of having been
cheated. This
has not been helped by the distraction provided by the MDC
circus in the
past few weeks, which instead of marshalling resources for the
"final push"
in next year's synchronised elections, has been dismembering
itself.
Compared to the gladiatorial slugging between President
Thabo Mbeki
and his sacked deputy Jacob Zuma for the soul of the ANC, Zanu
PF's
succession contest is a caricature. In South Africa the ANC's Polokwane
conference will decide the fate of many men and women. There is palpable
tension across the country: will Mbeki win or will Zuma take over after the
2009 elections?
South Africans see Zuma as closer to the poor,
a preferred clone of
President Mugabe, ironically a man Cosatu would love to
hate.
Less edifying is the way the presidential contest sometimes
assumes
ethnic overtones; that despite his clear moral failures as a
national leader
Zuma is seen as a victim and being frustrated purely because
he is Zulu. To
which he responds in a populist way, using his charm and
charisma to play to
an emotional gallery where song and dance have the
better of sound
judgement.
On the other hand Mbeki gets
pilloried for being the enigmatic, aloof
philosopher king South Africa is
not yet ready for. Mbeki has also been
unfortunate in the way his presidency
has been entangled in Zimbabwe's
problems where his quiet diplomacy has
earned him the wrath of those whose
alternative approaches to similar crises
have been a disaster in Afghanistan
and Iraq and are breeding excitable
demagogues from Iran to Venezuela.
Mbeki's dealings with President
Mugabe have coloured every one of his
misjudgements, from Manto
Tshabalala-Msimang to Jackie Selebi, eliciting
intense anger from the
public, but moreso the media who see his government
as increasingly
intolerant of criticism.
That, nevertheless, doesn't distract from
the captivating engagement
by South Africans in the succession debate in the
ANC. In Zimbabwe the
debate died before even the venue of the conference was
decided. Then it was
buried when two weeks ago Zanu PF's secretary for legal
affairs Emmerson
Mnangagwa announced after the party's central committee
meeting in Harare
that the December congress was "a mere
formality".
He said the congress would focus on Constitutional
Amendment No 18
which harmonised the elections and shortened the
presidential term. So why
do state media keep referring to this charade as a
special or extraordinary
congress?
Mnangagwa said Mugabe's
candidature had been decided way back in line
with the party constitution,
itself an extraordinary disclosure to those of
us who are not initiated. So
what is the point of all the noise about the
women and youth leagues of the
party campaigning for Mugabe's endorsement as
the presidential candidate if
that's an issue decided by the Goromonzi
conference of 2004?
Why are we having war veterans led by Jabulani Sibanda traversing the
country demanding what is a fait accompli?
Another major point
not fully explained is why the venue of the
congress was moved from Chinhoyi
as initially planned, to Harare. What was
the purpose of the Chinhoyi
conference?
But the real anticlimax comes from the fact that none
of those we were
told would openly challenge Mugabe for the leadership of
Zanu PF has spoken
out. Mbeki and Zuma may sometimes be captured together,
but nobody in South
Africa is in any doubt as to who the key protagonists
are in the fight for
the top post in the ANC, with Zuma casting a dark cloud
over Mbeki.
Zuma has criminal charges pending, but he has not
allowed that to
dampen his spirit. Many are even prepared to overlook his
sexual
indiscretions, which sadly reflects just how low we set the moral bar
for
those seeking public office.
Back in Zimbabwe, those we
were told would create fireworks for Mugabe
appear to have thrown away their
gloves before the match could begin. I don't
know whether they were a
creation of the media who failed to take on a manly
form or are pretenders
who cannot stand up for their convictions. Were there
ever people in Zanu PF
who wanted to challenge Mugabe or is it the usual
fables which begin and end
with plots and witchdoctors?
This lack of certainty has fuelled
fanciful speculation and inventive
interpretations of Mugabe's body language
in the public discourse. When he
railed against the Tsholotsho declaration
which backed Mnangagwa, we were
told his preferred successor was Joice
Mujuru. Then when he made comments on
Edgar Tekere's book deemed
unflattering of Mujuru, the anointed immediately
became
Mnangagwa.
Instead of political rivalry we are given the picture of
an
overarching Mugabe influencing what happens after he leaves office -
which
leaves his anointed as his only rival for office. The difference with
the
ANC is that Zuma has a definite ideological constituency of his
own.
Finally, if it's true that the constitution is clear on who
the Zanu
PF presidential candidate in next year's election is, are we being
told that
senior party leaders who wanted to challenge Mugabe at the
December
conference don't know this simple fact? And why was the party's
information
secretary Nathan Shamuyarira allowed to run with the political
hoax in The
Voice that all four posts in the presidium would be open to
contest?
Because Zanu PF has the benefit of racing against
itself.
Zim Independent
Editor's memo
ZIMBABWE'S economic malaise can only get worse as long as
our
government continues to employ irrational policies in the forlorn hope
of
saving the economy from further decay.
Three announcements
this week aptly illustrate the depths of
hopelessness our rulers have
plumbed and it is apparent that they are not
finished yet in their quest to
ensure no recovery takes place soon.
Firstly, the chairman of the
National Incomes and Pricing Commission
Godwills Masimirembwa early in the
week announced that government was going
to embark on another price blitz to
compel retailers to comply with
controlled prices and to kill off the black
market. He also wants to ensure
that imported basket goods are priced in
tandem with the official exchange
rate. The looting gangs are limbering for
action. Remember Makro and Letombo
Spar!
Secondly, on Tuesday
it was reported that the Tripartite Negotiating
Forum was convening to
extend the protocols signed in June between
government, labour and business
who at the time committed themselves to a
social contract. The protocols
were rendered ineffectual by the price blitz
that immediately followed the
signing of the deal. This week government
announced it wants to
"operationalise" the dead protocols.
Lastly, the Economic
Development ministry was upbeat about a new
alphabet economic plan - the
Zimbabwe Economic Development Strategy (Zeds) -
to guide the economy in the
new year. Does the government believe that these
three activities can be
blended in the cauldron of bureaucracy to create
economic recovery? This is
a recipe for unmitigated failure.
Masimirembwa and his commission
believe salvation will come from the
irrationality of controls,
heavy-handedness and placing spooks to watch over
business round the clock.
The commission portrays the intimidating face of
the regime - the sort that
believes menace is a substitute for leadership.
Here we have a government
which in September admitted through its supposed
handyman, central bank
governor Gideon Gono, that price controls were not
working. Gono then
announced a fund to revitalise the manufacturing and
retail sectors which
had been ravaged by the July price blitz.
Two months later, there
are plans to put the same industry on the
torture rack again. We have
Masimirembwa wielding a hammer and Gono a spoon
of a poor diet. They both
want the ailing industry to recover quickly. It is
clear that the hammer
will do more damage on the patient compared to the
expected positive impact
of Gono's feeding scheme. Any form of blitz is a
big threat to the
efficaciousness of the concessionary funding to industry.
Does Gono have a
view on this? Is his advice to government still of any use
when horses and
chariot are driven through his project?
Amid this glaring policy
inconsistency and confusion, there is an
attempt to demonstrate a modicum of
common sense by calling social partners
in the TNF to gather and keep the
protocols alive. The purpose of the TNF is
to foster dialogue and build
bridges between the three parties. This has
nothing to do with the
destructive prescriptions coming from the pricing
commission. In fact, who
expects the TNF to be taken seriously when its
predecessor, the National
Economic Consultative Forum failed to rise above a
mere
talkshop?
The TNF in June signed protocols on prices and incomes
stabilisation;
restoration of production viability and pricing; and
management of foreign
currency. These were expected to be implemented
immediately but government
then came up with parallel processes which
rendered the agreements
redundant. What is the plan now with the TNF? It
will meet and the partners
will reaffirm their commitment to the social
contract. After that the
protocols will be mothballed to make way for the
pricing commission and its
cohorts.
Also most likely to join
the protocols in the recess of dormant plans
is the Zimbabwe Economic
Development Strategy. Chaos thrives where there is
no planning. At the
moment our rulers have decided to trash planning which
requires commitment,
discipline and foresight. This is a country run by
taskforces and
commissions, all with temporary mandates and very limited
scope. No economic
blueprint works here.
All the feverish activity by the government
has failed to address the
fundamental issues of a bloated budget deficit and
depressed capacity
utilisation in industry which are responsible for our
hyperinflation and
shortages. It is instructive that in South American
economies which came out
of hyperinflation, they had to legislate against
central banks funding the
budget deficit. No amount of sabrerattling will
rescue this economy until we
get the fundamentals right. Let's stop the
printing press and get rid of the
pricing commission for starters.
Zim Independent
MuckRaker
WE are currently witnessing a rush of politicians to justify
their
involvement in the Nomatter Tagarira affair where the young Grade III
dropout hoodwinked government officials into believing she could produce
diesel from rocks.
Mashonaland West governor Nelson Samkange
last week tried to justify
this madness on the grounds that "the government
and the president believe
in African culture, we believe in spirit
mediums".
It would be useful to know which dimension of African
culture required
governors, senior policemen and ministers to believe that
diesel can be
conjured from rocks. That a whole team of politburo taskforce
investigators
swallowed this hokum tells us all we need to know about the
intellectual
calibre of the Zanu PF leadership.
Didymus Mutasa
justified it on the grounds that everybody was
responsible for a lapse of
judgement.
"The Chinhoyi diesel hoax was not a personal expedition
by me," he
pleaded. "Rather it was a national exercise mandated by the
ruling party's
politburo and I was one of those selected to be on that
research team."
A case of the blind leading the blind!
"As a research team we did not manufacture that spirit medium. We saw
her
there."
So that's all it takes?
And how does Tobaiwa
Mudede explain his role in harbouring the girl?
Perhaps she could conjure up
ghost voters!
This wouldn't be so bad if the participants were
simple country folk.
But they are educated people occupying senior positions
in the land.
And now the same people who believe pure diesel
emanates from rocks
are telling us how to manage incomes and prices. It is
shocking.
How do we know we are not being told to cap price rises
because a n'anga
has whispered something to officials in return for $5
billion?
Samkange said if asked by state prosecutors, he would
testify against
the girl because she had taken the government for a
ride.
Was it her, Cde Samkange, or was it you and your colleagues
who took
the country for a ride? It is not the poor girl who should be in
court but
those who gave her public funds in the hope of a political
miracle.
Have you noticed how the Herald devotes its front page
to "the spirit
of unity" with the MDC but then publishes vicious attacks on
the opposition
on its opinion pages from people like Mukanya Makwiro and
Mabasa Sasa?
Why do these op-ed pages never reflect the diversity
of views that a
self-respecting public media should contain?
Those involved in the current inter-party talks should ensure that the
public media not only provides a platform for differing views but is run
professionally along non-partisan lines in a way that generates public
trust. That is certainly not the case at present.
Those
currently contributing to its columns who just spit venom and
malice should
be prepared to explain their role as President Mugabe's
cheerleaders at a
time when the country is sinking in an economic morass
caused by people who
are willing to believe diesel flows from rocks!
Bishop Trevor
Manhanga appears to be singing from the Zanu PF hymn
book as he demands the
lifting of sanctions. This comes just a week after
reports of the shooting
of MDC members on a retired army officer's farm at
Kwekwe. One died from his
injuries.
The ex-army officer and ruling-party activist was
arrested after that
incident. But who has been arrested in all the other
cases of political
violence since March? Why have the killers of Gift
Tandare and Edward
Chikomba not been brought to book? Perhaps Manhanga can
tell us?
Sanctions were imposed in response to political violence
and electoral
manipulation. When it is evident that those issues have been
resolved
sanctions will be lifted. That message must go out loud and clear
to those
who want sanctions removed but cannot win without
coercion.
Muckraker's attention was caught by a full-page
advert in the Standard
inserted by the workers of Watermount Farm. They
allege that senior
government officials on November 5 hired a gang to
violently assault the
workers causing serious injuries. They then instructed
hospitals not to
admit the injured workers so there would be no record of
the violence.
"To date some of our black brothers survive and
progress on the basis
of using the government machinery to destroy innocent
fellow blacks," the
workers said. "Public officials should act in the public
interest and not
personal interest."
They should obey the
law.
There is plenty of idle farm land elsewhere which can be
allocated to
government officials, the workers pointed out.
"The conduct of such officials is tarnishing the country
unnecessarily, both
locally and internationally," they charged.
Indeed. Now the jongwes
are coming home to roost!
Reports of rapacious officials grabbing
land regardless of court
orders are now a permanent feature of Zimbabwe's
lawless landscape.
We feel sorry for the Watermount workers. But
they were no doubt
cheering the government on when it directed land seizures
in 2000. What did
they say when Kondozi Estate was taken?
What
goes around comes around. The rule of law is there, ideally, to
protect all
Zimbabweans from over-mighty rulers. The government is behaving
like a bully
because it can get away with it. And the courts, widely seen as
suborned by
gifts of land, nod their assent.
Potential investors in
Zimbabwe should read Tafataona Mahoso's
vitriolic denunciation of the
business sector in this week's Sunday Mail. It
helpfully reveals the depth
of hostility exhibited by this regime towards
those who try to keep the
wheels of industry and commerce turning. Nobody in
their right mind would
invest in a country where business becomes the
scapegoat for a regime that
needs somebody to blame for the chaos caused by
its collective
ignorance.
We have half-baked lawyers with no business experience
attempting to
regulate prices and half-baked media professors purporting to
speak for the
people!
"There can be no business without
people," Mahoso lectures our
business editor. But he omits to tell his
readers why three million
Zimbabweans have emigrated. Those people voted
with their feet.
Mahoso blames business for failing to inventively
mobilise the
Diasporan dollar. He should ask Diasporans why they won't
invest here in the
sort of projects Mahoso thinks are laudable like
agricultural equipment.
They just want houses and luxury cars, he
suggests.
Hang on a moment. What sort of car does Mahoso drive
around in?
Deputy Minister of Economic Development Sylvester
Nguni appears to
have a realistic grasp of current events. Addressing a
pre-budget seminar in
Bulawayo last week he spelt out what was ailing the
country.
Zimbabwe was facing significant challenges such as a
decline in output
in all sectors, hyperinflation, frequent power outages and
fuel shortages,
he said. These problems, coupled with water and coal
shortages, price
distortions, brain drain and a poor transport and
telecommunications
network, have caused serious operational problems in
industry, Nguni said.
What was so remarkable about this statement
was its refreshing
honesty. There was no attempt here to blame
sanctions.
The deputy minister even said there was a need for a
policy that
ensured exporter viability and "the removal of price
misalignments on the
exchange rate". He also called for the reform and
recapitalisation of
parastatals.
This is a project that won't
fly so long as ministers interfere in the
day-to-day running of these
corporations. Air Zimbabwe is a perfect example
of a potentially profitable
company that has been wrecked by ministerial
meddling.
Nor,
sadly, will the Zimbabwe Economic Development Strategy get off
the ground.
You have to be very naïve to believe it will succeed when the
National
Economic Development Priority Programme has flopped.
What is needed
is for Gideon Gono to set targets for reducing
inflation and engage the
government and the public in a national campaign to
get the headline numbers
down.
Gono himself must first stop printing money. As it stands,
inflation
will continue to rise and the economy to dive so long as Zanu PF
fails to
address the macro-economic distortions that are causing the current
havoc.
Spain's King Juan Carlos won praise back home this week
after telling
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to "just shut up" before
storming out of an
Ibero-American summit, AFP reports.
Spain's
monarch was applauded by Spanish media for his angry reprimand
last Saturday
of Chavez, after the Venezuelan leader described a former
Spanish prime
minister as a "fascist" and launched into a wide-ranging
tirade.
"The king has put Chavez in his place in the name of
all Spaniards,"
the centrist El Mundo newspaper said, noting that it was "an
act without
precedent".
It said the monarch's rebuke was
"something that should have been said
to him (Chavez) a long time
ago".
The fireworks made for a dramatic finale to the 17th meeting
of the
heads of state and government of Spain, Portugal and their former
colonies
in the Americas, which started last Thursday, AFP
reported.
Chavez's outburst and King Juan Carlos' admonition to
"shut up" was
replayed again and again late Saturday on Spanish television
news programmes
to the delight of viewers, the news agency
reported.
Newspapers in Spain on Sunday praised the regal rebuke,
with the
right-wing press in particular relishing the outburst from the
king.
Their response is not surprising. It is always good to see
demagogues
told to "shut up" when they pontificate about the sins of others
without
mentioning their own. We need to see more of this.
The Standard has done a good job in exposing the exploitation of young
girls
by the Miss Rural pageant's organisers. Many were promised modelling
contracts.
A Chinese gentleman called Mr Wang came to take
revealing photos, we
were told. The Chinese embassy, asked about Mr Wang,
said: "There are many
Mr Wangs here."
Indeed, a bunch of
Wangers it would seem.
Zim Independent
Eric Bloch Column
IN recent months it has become fashionable to
castigate the developed
world for its alleged "poaching" of skilled persons,
be they doctors,
nurses, teachers, or others.
Alongside
vitriolic condemnation of these supposedly diabolical
actions are pronounced
contentions that the so-called poachers should
compensate the countries from
whence the skills were sourced.
The diatribe against the supposed
poaching and the demands for
compensation, have emanated primarily from
politicians but, of course, they
have been strongly supported by
state-controlled media.
The most recent such outpourings in
Zimbabwe occurred last week, when
Zimbabwe's Minister of Education, Sport
and Culture, Aeneas Chigwedere
responded to a question during question time
in the House of Assembly.
He was asked what long-term strategies
government had to arrest the
current brain drain, and consequential
shortage, of teachers in Zimbabwe.
The minister commenced his reply
by saying that "what is happening is
that teachers are being poached by our
neighbouring countries".
However, he failed to recognise that he
who will not be poached can
generally not be poached. The fish would not
rise to the bait, if the fish
were not hungry.
Zimbabwe's
skilled engineers, pharmacists, accountants, teachers,
doctors, nurses and
other skilled health-care providers, and hoteliers, as
well as almost all
others possessed of skills, have been departing Zimbabwe
in droves. Some are
doing so in response to blatant offers such as
advertisements in Zimbabwean
newspapers seeking science and mathematic
teachers.
Others
responded to advertisements in international newspapers and on
the Internet,
or merely depart Zimbabwe to seek employment opportunities
abroad.
But they do so for many reasons, comparable to the
circumstances of
the hungry fish that is irresistibly drawn to the plump and
juicy worm being
dangled before it. For some it is that they find the
political environment
untenable. The absence of any genuine democracy, and
instead a near-total
governance by dictatorship, despite the facades of
democracy, are anathema
to some to an extent that they seek other, more
genuinely free and
democratic, milieu.
This is especially so
when fundamental principles of justice are
abused, with undue violence and
brutality in the effecting of arrests,
disregard for human rights after
arrest, vicious oppression of the masses
with actions such as Operation
Murambatsvina, unhindered attacks upon
supporters of political opponents,
and the like.
Many others are driven to seeking livelihoods beyond
Zimbabwe's
borders because of the pronouncedly deteriorating sociological
environment.
Confronted with endlessly frequent, often very
prolonged,
interruptions in electricity and water supplies, frighteningly
inadequate
health care services, inclusive of hospitals not only
under-staffed, but
also under-equipped, intense scarcities of basic
commodities,
telecommunications facilities that are less effective than
smoke signals,
and massively declining education services.
There are many other reasons for the constantly growing exodus of the
skilled from Zimbabwe, but the greatest trigger of that exodus is Zimbabwe's
disastrous economic circumstances.
With the exception of a few
"fat cats", mainly politically connected,
the majority of the population is
very desperately struggling to survive on
incomes markedly below the poverty
datum line.
With real inflation being in the region of 20 000%, as
distinct from
Central Statistical Office (CSO) determination of inflation at
less than
half of that level, very few generate income that keeps pace with
the
soaring inflation.
They are becoming more and more
poverty-stricken, unaided by the
skills that they have striven to acquire
and develop.
That poverty becomes increasingly intensified as calls
upon them for
desperately needed support emanate from ever greater numbers
of their
extended families.
In his response to his questioner
in the House of Assembly, Minister
Chigwedere did not recognise this
economic consideration which impacts upon
Zimbabwe's retention of skilled
persons.
He told the House that "by improving the living and
working conditions
of the teachers, by raising their salaries to
satisfactory levels...",
Zimbabwe can reduce its tremendous loss of
educational skills.
This would certainly be so, but to a
substantial extent would have to
be accompanied by credible assurances that
the salary enhancements would be
on an ongoing basis to such an extent as
would, at the very least, maintain
lifestyle, but preferably would improve
it.
However, such assurances are unlikely to be forthcoming, and
even more
unlikely to be believed if they are given, when regard is had not
only to
government's abysmal track record of disregard for its undertakings,
but
also to the minister's further declaration to the House of Assembly that
the
retention of teachers must also be achieved "by bonding them and
preventing
them from going".
To most teachers this sends a
message of impending "slavery", for
their freedom of movement, choice of
employers, of employment, and similar
considerations would be wholly
destroyed by bonding constraints.
Undoubtedly, the minister would
justify his proposed action by
contentions that the state has paid for the
imbuing of the teaching skills
into the teachers, through state-funded
universities and educational
colleges.
However, that is only
partially so, for almost without exception
aspiring educationalists must pay
fees for their studies, or have those fees
paid for them by families. They
also devote anything from three to five
years of their lives to their
studies.
That they should then be compulsorily indentured to the
state, without
any assurance of ongoing, sustainable and equitable
remuneration is unjust,
and can only result in many dishonouring their
bonding commitments and
fleeing the country, never to return.
Zimbabwe's losses of the skilled, in innumerable disciplines, is
cataclysmic, and must be halted, but at least it conveys one partially
compensatory feature in that it provides millions in Zimbabwe with partial
living, thanks to the funding sent to them by their relations abroad, and is
indirectly probably Zimbabwe's greatest present source of foreign currency,
albeit through alternative markets and by supply of goods.
If
the brain drain is to be curbed, it is not by demands upon
neighbouring
states not to employ Zimbabweans.
It is not by specious demands for
compensation from the countries
employing the Zimbabweans. It is not by
actions of force such as bonding.
It is by restoring democracy,
respecting human and property rights,
and just and equitable
law.
It is by restoring economic wellbeing. It is by reestablishing
infrastructures that meet national needs.
Until all this is
done, nothing will halt the brain drain, or the
consequential continuing
decline of Zimbabwe.
Govt must respect the constitution
THE recent arrest of the
Attorney- General, Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, on
allegations of contravening
Section 174 (1) of the Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act Chapter
9:23 has once again shown the Zanu PF
regime's lack of appreciation and
understanding of the concepts of the rule
of law, separation of powers and
independence of the Attorney-General's
office. The action shows a contempt
and disdain for constitutional
principles and is symptomatic of a regime
that has lost its way and
direction.
While we hold no brief for
Gula-Ndebele and we express no opinion on
the correctness or otherwise of
the decision he is alleged to have made in
relation to James Mushore, our
concern as the Movement Democratic Change is
that the behaviour of the
police undermines the remaining vestiges of the
public's confidence in the
justice delivery system. Over the years we have
witnessed the battering that
the rule of law has received at the hands of
the Zanu PF regime and this
latest incident simply reinforces the point that
we must return to
constitutionalism and respect of our institutions.
While our
constitution is defective and needs a complete overhaul, it
does give some
independence to the judiciary and the Attorney- General and
in this regard
Section 76(7) of the constitution is clear and unambiguous in
that it gives
unfettered powers to the Attorney-General and it states that
he or she
"shall not be subject to the direction and control of any person
or
authority". One would therefore have expected that in the exercise of his
duties the Attorney-General is vested with discretionary powers in matters
relating to prosecutions.
In any civilised society, there are
ways of dealing with issues and if
it was felt that the Attorney-General had
exceeded the bonds of the powers
vested in him, then the proper procedures
would be to institute proceedings
for his removal instead of hauling him
before the police as a common
criminal.
Unfortunately, Zimbabwe
is neither a civilised nor a democratic
country and it would be too much to
expect the Zanu PF regime to pay any
regard to legal niceties and Zimbabwean
citizens have over the years been
victims of this high-handed approach only
for the cases to collapse due to
lack of evidence.
It is not
only members of the opposition and civil society who have
been arrested on
trumped up charges and the arrest of the Attorney-General
comes in the wake
of the acquittal of Levison Chikafu, the Manicaland area
public prosecutor.
Chikafu was not even placed on his defence and he was
cleared of all five
charges he was facing after being discharged at the
close of the state case.
He made allegations that his prosecution was
politically-motivated because
he had the courage to prosecute some high
profile individuals.
The Zanu PF regime has shown in the past that it is not comfortable
with
people who execute their duties in a professional way and it has a long
history of ignoring legal advice given to it. It was not comfortable with
the previous Attorney-General and one hopes that we are not witnessing a
situation where this is persecution and harassment related to political
differences.
We have noted that the Attorney-General's Office
Bill which went
through its first reading and received a non-adverse report
from the
Parliamentary Legal Committee has not seen the light of day and is
gathering
dust in some office somewhere and one wonders whether there is a
link
between the latest incident and the Bill.
As the MDC, we
believe that Zimbabwe can only move forward when we
have a government which
derives its mandate from the people through
elections which are held freely
and fairly under a democratic peopledriven
constitution. It is only such a
government which can observe democratic
norms and standards and respect its
institutions, the rule of law and
democracy.
Innocent
Gonese,
MDC secretary for justice,
legal and
parliamentary
affairs.
------------
'Godfathers' ruining the MDC
POLITICAL violence and godfather
politics and general impunity
threaten the stability of the MDC
today.
The "restaurant elections" in Bulawayo give us a lot of
lessons. In
fact this indispline on the part of Thokozani Khupe and Theresa
Makone
brought to the fore the existence behind the scenes of powerful
political
sponsors/godfathers to whom it seems the MDC leaders are beholden.
Why is
the Theresa Makone circus being allowed to show when its crystal
clear its
destroying the party?
Political violence it seems has
also become an accepted way of winning
elections and maintaining power.
Survey after survey underscores the
declining respect for our leaders among
party supporters. The treatment of
Lucia Matibenga helps explain why. The
methods of our leaders have left so
many people feeling disempowered and
excluded from the national project.
Our leaders are leading by
hectoring sidelining and stifling rather
than by inspiring. They want us to
believe that a leader should lead and
followers follow.
They
now believe that politics is the domain of the few to be
conducted in
corridors and behind closed doors in "restaurants". They now
believe that
power is won and lost through conspiracy. But this style of
politics,
because of the rise of mass participatory democracy, cannot work
anymore.
Democracy created with care can also perish. Democracy
cannot be
imposed, it seems. Therefore the MDC should seriously embark and
insist on
the tradition of collective leadership.
Our leaders
should seek the cooperation of actual or potential allies
of all hues and
sizes. Our leaders should always insist that their
achievements are
attributable to the collective with whom they serve.
Restaurant
coups, backbiting and godfather politics should be
discarded with the
contempt of political rubbish.
By nurturing the best of our
traditions the MDC through self-renewal,
trials and tribulations will ensure
it remains relevant to the national
project.
Frank
Matandirotya,
By e-mail.
-----------
Mpofu's
gesture vote-buying
THE Chronicle of Saturday, November 10 carried
a story about the
Minister of Industry and Commerce, Obert Mpofu, sourcing
30 tonnes of a
scarce agricultural input, maize seed, for farmers in his
constituency. He
was himself pictured standing next to a delivery lorry at
the local GMB
depot.
It is indeed good for the minister to
serve his constituency this way
but some worrying questions need answers.
First, will other MPs and senators
representing their constituencies have
similar access to similar quantities
of maize seed to benefit their
constituencies?
Second, which farmers in his constituency will
benefit from this
supply of seed? Will the minister give this seed to those
farmers for free?
If not, what criteria will he employ to select
the beneficiaries?
Obviously the farmers in question do not require the same
quantities of seed
and there must be some difference in their
treatment.
Third, what is the difference between what the minister
has done and
hoarding? The question is when commodities are this scarce, is
this the best
way of distributing those scarce resources?
Would
it not have been better to distribute this seed via the normal
channels so
that every farmer has a chance to get something to plant, even
if only
little?
Fourth, why is this coming on the eve of an election? Why
should the
public not see it as vote-buying when the minister who is seeking
re-election is seen distributing that seed to farmers who are starved of the
same?
It is my humble submission that our MPs and senators do
not have
similar access to resources, especially where these resources are
sourced by
the state using tax-payers money. In particular, MPs and senators
from the
opposition are grossly disadvantaged in this regard. I want to
guess that
Mpofu used the heavier ministerial jacket to access this
resource. Ministers
should be beyond the limited constituency interest:
indeed, they must serve
the national interest.
I find it
inappropriate that MP's and senators are expected to develop
their
constituencies mostly on their own when there are full ministries
responsible for those tasks.
This causes uneven distribution of
resources which is seen in the
marginalisation of whole constituencies and
regions, because those that are
in control will monopolise resources in the
same way Minister Mpofu has
done. In my view, commending what Mpofu has done
is applauding blatant
corruption.
MK Moyo,
Bulawayo.
-------------
'Mother of all agricultural seasons'
a pipedream
I NEVER cease to be amused when our central bank and
government
officials dub the coming agricultural season "mother of all
farming
seasons".
Obviously the assumption here is that since
the so-called new farmers
were issued with tractors, combine harvesters,
seed, fuel and fertilisers we
are going to witness a bumper
harvest.
May I humbly advise that farming takes more than equipment
and inputs
to succeed. It takes dedication, perseverance and discipline,
among other
attributes.
The tractors that were allocated to so
called "new farmers" are
already being hired out to those farmers who did
not get them on a
commercial basis. The diesel and petrol given to our new
farmers has already
found its way onto the black market. If you don't
believe me, take a drive
to farming areas like Mhangura and for $100 000 000
you can pick up a drum
of diesel without any problems.
Fertiliser is being sold for anything from $3 000 000 per bag in broad
daylight. And these are the same people being expected to produce the
"mother of all farming seasons"?
Give back the farms to their
original owners and see the whole
countryside turn green.
People do not eat political rhetoric.
Masawi
Munyanyi
By e-mail.
------------
Water is our
right
THE city of kings
has been humbled to deny its
identity and integrity of being the real
city of kings. All five of the
city's supply dams have dismally failed to
stabilise this excruciating
gloomy water situation currently in town.
It has never happened in
history that any second largest city of any
country can run for more than
four months without a drop of water, but with
Bulawayo this has become the
norm. It is really disheartening to think that
people have been forced to
live in such a decaying atmosphere. It is a
humanitarian crisis.
Is
it not our right as citizens to have access to clean water?
Anonymous,
Bulawayo.
-------------
MDC must
practise what it preaches
THE state of the Zimbabwean opposition forces
shows us that nothing
will change in Zimbabwe unless people change their
behaviour.
The situation in the ruling party shows us that nothing
will work for
Zimbabwe unless we have a win-win outcome in the next
election. There is a
strong case for reflection across the political divide
and listening to each
other. Leaders should never take people for
granted.
The on-going internal squabbles over the dissolution of
the MDC women's
Assembly and the Ephraim Tapa-led UK and Ireland leadership
has been
characterised by what other members have called abuse of
power.
The allegation of under-performance has not been
substantiated yet, at
least in the eyes of the outsiders.
However, one would have thought that if Lucia Matibenga was
under-performing
she needed to be supported by way of extra training and
performance
management. If she was corrupt then the members needed to know
and then
brought to book.
Dissolving the MDC women's assembly is tantamount
to sweeping things
under the carpet. What accountability and transparency is
the MDC government
talking about then? This is not the democracy the MDC
preaches.
It will be fair to say the performance of other various
portfolios of
the MDC have not been very impressive either, although the
usual defence
would be that, it is because of Zanu PF that certain party
organs are
failing to do their work. It is true that the same women's
assembly is
operating in the same environment of Aippa and
Posa.
The people of Zimbabwe are capable of seeing who is
indicating right
while turning left, and who is speaking their language of
hope honestly, and
more importantly who has the right track record and
experience.
It is therefore very important for the press to start
profiling these
prospective leaders and interview them so that we know what
they think,
their vision for Zimbabwe.
Everyone has got
strengths and weaknesses so respective media houses
should help us with more
information. It is not enough to report about names
without
character.
Please, the media must inform us before it is too
late.
Msekiwa Makwanya,
makwanya@yahoo.com