Zim Independent
AS starvation
stalks the country, the government has turned to the army in a
bid to revive
an agricultural sector ruined by the chaotic and often violent
land reform
programme.
This comes as a parliamentary portfolio committee slammed
government for
poor planning in the agricultural
sector.
High-level official sources said government would soon launch
Operation
Taguta/Sisuthi to avert looming starvation. The operation - to be
run by the
army, police, prisons, and intelligence service - was expected to
kick off
on November 7 but is running behind schedule.
The
initiative, a clear admission of failure by the government, will be
headed
by Agriculture minister Joseph Made, widely blamed for misleading the
country on food stocks, while Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi will be his
deputy. Made said yesterday he was not aware of the programme, while
Sekeramayi was not reachable for comment.
Sources said the
project was conceived at the Joint Operations Command
(JOC), which brings
together the army, police, prisons and the intelligence
service, and has now
been finalised.
Meetings have been held between the project promoters
and officials from the
Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda)
and the Agricultural
Research and Extension Services (Arex).
The
army, Arda and Arex are currently identifying farms to spearhead the
project. Farms which are under-utilised are the main targets. Sources said
the JOC would supervise the operation, which effectively militarises
agriculture and bears the hallmarks of Stalinist agricultural
planning.
Central bank governor Gideon Gono said in May command
agriculture was
coming.
"Command agriculture seeks to optimise
output by requiring a minimum output
of food or export crops, and is central
to agriculture as well as general
economic recovery," Gono said
then.
This was in the face of evidence of spreading starvation which
is no longer
just affecting vulnerable social groups, but also the army
itself. Soldiers
have reportedly been sent on leave to save on food
supplies, and some
barracks have been partially closed.
A report
compiled by the parliamentary portfolio committee on lands, land
reform and
resettlement, which recently assessed the level of preparedness
for the
2005/6 agriculture season, said government had failed to raise the
needed
$15 trillion to fund the command agriculture project.
It said the
Agriculture ministry and Treasury lacked the capacity to
"bankroll the
programme to the tune of $14,9 trillion due to other pressing
priorities".
"Hence as late as September, Treasury had still not
committed itself to
funding the programme."
Government had
targeted farmers to produce 2,3 million tonnes of maize, 90
000 tonnes of
tobacco, 49 500 tonnes of maize seed, 210 000 tonnes of
cotton, 750 000
tonnes of horticultural crops, and 8 250 tonnes of tea.
The report
said these targets were not going to be met due to lack of money
and poor
planning.
"This ambitious programme by government, though it looks
noble on paper,
seems to be a still-birth," the parliamentary report said.
"Agriculture
stakeholders including farmers unions expressed ignorance on
the command
agriculture model.
"Your committee failed to
understand how government could formulate and
implement a programme of such
magnitude without consulting key stakeholders
in the agricultural sector.
The gap between government-set targets and the
available stocks of inputs
points to a serious lack of proper planning by
government bureaucrats." -
Staff Writers.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
MOVEMENT for
Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai said yesterday
his party
will resolve its infighting at its congress early next year.
He said the
party would emerge stronger from the conflict which centres on
the senate
election on November 26.
Tsvangirai said the congress, set for
February month-end, would deal with
the ongoing strife and map a way
forward. "Congress, which is coming in
February, will sort out this crisis.
The issue of leadership renewal and
cohesion and the current situation will
be resolved by the people,"
Tsvangirai said in an interview at his
Strathaven home in Harare.
"The MDC will survive beyond this crisis.
It's just a temporary setback. You
must understand the party is going
through a process of self-renewal but it
will emerge stronger with or
without the same leaders."
The MDC is fighting a war of attrition
between camps led by Tsvangirai and
another by secretary-general Welshman
Ncube over the pending senate
election. Tsvangirai's faction is pushing for
a boycott of the poll, while
the Ncube group is campaigning for
participation.
Tsvangirai said preparations for congress were going
on well. He said if the
Ncube camp boycotted congress the event would go
ahead regardless.
"Congress will go ahead. We are not going to be
hamstrung by divisions over
senate. The people will elect a new leadership
and that leadership will have
to move the party beyond this crisis," he
said.
"We have to embark on a strategy of democratic resistance. The
strategic
decision I took as party leader to boycott the senate election was
precisely
designed to keep the party on track.
He conceded that
the party leadership had lost the bigger picture of the
national crisis in
the heat of differences over senate elections. He said he
had gone through
similar situations in the past and hoped the MDC power
struggles would end
soon.
"We are going through a period of turbulence and we have to
survive this
situation because the real struggle still lies ahead. The
regime has not
been defeated and this infighting gives it a breathing
space," he said.
"All parties go through a period of turbulence, look
at the ANC in South
Africa, Zanu PF, the ruling parties in Malawi and Kenya.
They have internal
problems but the challenge is how to deal with such
issues when they arise.
I think the MDC has adequate and strong mechanisms
to deal with its own
problems."
Told that the MDC had failed to
dislodge the incumbent regime in the past
and now appears even less able to
do so, Tsvangirai said: "We know our
strengths, our weaknesses and our
capacities."
He denied allegations of "willfully violating" the
constitution, being a
dictator, a tribalist and running a mafia-style youth
militia to attack
colleagues - all charges levelled in recent weeks by the
opposing faction.
Zim Independent
OPPOSITION Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) deputy leader
Gibson Sibanda
did not call for an independent state for the
Ndebele-speaking people, party
spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi has
said.
Nyathi said the story published in a local newspaper last week was
not only
false but also a "reckless and dangerous propaganda attempt to use
tribalism
as an instrument of political mobilisation".
"Not only
is this allegation untrue, it also appears to be a deliberate
attempt by the
newspaper to fan ethnic tensions in the MDC and the country
as a whole,"
Nyathi said.
"Zimbabweans do not want political leaders who play the
ethnic card to
advance a parochial political agenda. Propaganda of this sort
will take
Zimbabwe down the path of chaos, suffering and
misery."
The Daily Mirror last Tuesday carried a story, headlined
"Sibanda calls for
Ndebele state", claiming the MDC deputy leader had at a
rally the previous
week said: "Ndebeles can only exercise sovereignty
through creating their
state (like) Lesotho, which is an independent state
in South Africa and it
is not politically wrong to have the state of
Matabeleland inside Zimbabwe."
The MDC said the Daily Mirror story
was a "careless and irresponsible
propaganda stunt premised on the flawed
assumption that the majority of
Zimbabweans are gullible consumers of
calculated but transparent lies".
A senior MDC official said there
was no Mirror reporter at the MDC meeting
in Nkayi where Sibanda allegedly
made the remarks.
"It was not a rally but a district meeting. There
was certainly no
journalist there. The only strangers were police and CIO
officers who
insisted on being present because the meeting had not been
cleared by the
police," the official said.
"What happened was
that an MDC district member asked a question about
problems in the party and
power devolution. Sibanda answered saying there
was a need to resolve
problems in the party. On devolution, he simply quoted
the MDC constitution
and interpreted that in Ndebele."
The MDC official said Sibanda read
out Article 3, Section 3.3 (b) of the MDC
constitution, which says: "The MDC
shall seek the mandate of the people to
govern the country and work for an
open democracy in which national
government is accountable to the people
through the devolution of power and
decision-making to the provinces and
local institutions and structures."
Another official said: "This is
what Sibanda said and not those fabricated
remarks. I think the police or
CIO officers at the meeting gave the story to
the Mirror. We have checked
with the paper, the story was not written by any
of their journalists. It's
fiction."
A column in the government-controlled Herald written by an
anonymous author,
Nathaniel Manheru but often ascribed to presidential
spokesman George
Charamba, seized on the opportunity to lecture the paper's
readers on
Ndebele history, while effectively in denial about the existence
of an
Ndebele society in Zimbabwe.
The Herald recently published
a story claiming MDC official Victor Moyo had
said opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai would not be allowed in Bulawayo
because it was "Ndebele
territory". Moyo has dismissed the assertion as a
fabrication. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
THE
Commercial Arbitration Centre will on Monday start hearings into the
suspension of the Zimbabwe Mirror Group of Newspapers CEO and
editor-in-chief Ibbo Mandaza.
Mandaza's lawyer Joseph Mandizha
confirmed yesterday November 21 has been
set as the date of the start of the
hearing expected to look into a number
of issues.
"The hearing
has been set for Monday next week at the Harare Club. It will
look into the
propriety of Dr Mandaza's suspension and once you focus on
that it
necessarily leads into whether those behind his suspension had the
power to
do so and other related issues," Mandizha said.
The hearing will be
chaired by former chief justice Anthony Gubbay. Gubbay
will be assisted by
former Institute of Chartered Accountants president,
David Vincent, and
chairman of the Institute of Directors of Zimbabwe, Much
Masunda.
The hearing follows High Court judge Bharat Patel's
recommendation that a
panel, chaired by a retired judge, be set up to hear
and determine the
"propriety" of Mandaza's suspension.
Mandaza
was recently suspended from the Mirror by disputed group chair
Jonathan
Kadzura and his deputy John Marangwanda in the wake of the
disclosures about
the takeover of the Mirror titles, the Daily Mirror and
the Sunday Mirror,
by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) using
public
funds.
Kadzura and Marangwanda said Mandaza's suspension had followed
a Ernst &
Young forensic audit report, but did not specify the nature of
the report's
findings.
Mandaza and two Mirror board members,
Ambassador Buzwani Mothobi and Amy
Tsanga, have dismissed suggestions of any
wrongdoing on the part of the
suspended Mirror boss.
Mandizha
said Gubbay would also look into the Mirror shareholding issue. The
CIO
effectively controls 70% of the Mirror and Mandaza 30%.
Although the
CIO has approved a proposal which says Mandaza's equity has
already been
taken over by themselves, Mandaza contests he is still legally
a shareholder
until such a time when all issues in dispute have been sorted
out. He also
argues he is still the guarantor of all company loans and
debts.
Mandaza has proposed an evaluation of the company so that
he can resell the
70% to the intelligence service and his own 30% to a
consortium of local
tycoons waiting in the wings for the stake. However, the
CIO want to have
Mandaza's 30% sold to their existing shelf companies which
are shareholders.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
CHITUNGWIZA mayor Misheck Shoko has accused Zanu PF
man of plotting his
ouster from council to cover up their corruption. A loan
of over $2,5
billion for sewerage upgrading was abused, he says.
In
an interview with the Zimbabwe Independent this week, Shoko said the loan
was made available by the Reserve Bank in March to upgrade the collapsing
sewerage system in the St Mary's and Zengeza.
The money was
handed over to the then MP for Zengeza Christopher Chigumba
but was not used
for its intended purpose when he lost the March
parliamentary
election.
Shoko said when he asked what the sewerage loan was used
for, Local
Government minister Ignatious Chombo started accusing him of
maladministration and failure to provide services.
"The situation
in Chitungwiza has become complicated because Zanu PF people
want to cover
up their fraudulent activities by removing me from office,"
Shoko
said.
"Chigumba and other Zanu PF leaders abused the sewerage
upgrading loan money
availed by RBZ. To clear myself, I have taken the case
to the police.
"Last week, council officials including the acting town
clerk were called
for questioning by the police and it is just a question of
time before we
see them getting arrested."
Shoko said Chigumba
was pushing for his ouster so that he could arm-twist
council into
connecting water and sewerage to his housing cooperative.
"I turned
down Chigumba's application to connect water and sewerage to his
Zano Remba
housing cooperative because the construction was not approved by
the council
from the outset," Shoko said.
"Now he is under pressure from people
to complete the project."
Chigumba built more than 200 housing units in
the Unit L area, popularly
known as Zano Remba Housing
Cooperative.
Some of the houses that were built under the same
initiative by the MP were
demolished in the urban slum clearance blitz
launched by the government in
May.
Shoko said the motive behind
appointing a district administrator, Godfrey
Tanyanyiwa, was to frustrate
him into leaving council.
"I am still in charge of council affairs,"
Shoko said. "The appointment of
the DA has nothing to do with council daily
operations. He was brought in to
monitor our operations and facilitate where
we have difficulties."
Shoko said the Chitungwiza problems had
nothing to do with administration
but the national economic crisis and
political interference from central
government.
"Chitungwiza is
one of the few local authorities with the capacity to deal
with sewerage and
refuse collection problems but the main stumbling block is
the
unavailability of fuel and spares to keep our fleet on the road.
"We
have been paying for our fuel supplies but Zanu PF officials have been
blocking the deliveries to us. It's time to stop political mudslinging and
work with the reality."
Shoko dismissed claims by government that
it has given $5 billion to
Chitungwiza saying that this was part of the debt
they were owed.
Chitungwiza has been experiencing water shortages for
the past two months
due to rationing by the Zimbabwe National Water
Authority, while refuse is
piling up as a result of the current fuel crisis
in the country.
Zim Independent
Godfrey
Marawanyika
GOVERNMENT has instructed the Attorney-General's office and the
Chief
Magistrate's office to stop handling all pending land issues following
the
gazetting of the Constitutional Amendment (No 17) Act.
Secretary
for Justice, David Mangota, issued the directive on September 28.
But
legal experts have said the directive is an example of government
interfering with the judiciary.
The instruction was given to
Attorney-General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, Chief
Magistrate Herbert Mandeya and
the senior administrative court president
Andrew Mutema.
In the
circular issued to the trio, Mangota expressed concern why the courts
were
still entertaining the land issues.
"The Constitution of Zimbabwe
Amendment (No 17) took away the courts'
jurisdiction of hearing matters
which are related to the acquisition of land
by the state," Mangota
said.
"The courts retained jurisdiction to hear and determine upon
matters which
pertain to compensation for improvements only," he
said.
"Reports which reach my office seem to suggest that some of
your officers
are still entertaining cases on matters which relate to the
acquisition of
land. I should, in my view of the foregoing, be grateful if
you would kindly
issue minutes clarifying the position on this matter to
your subordinates."
The amendment was passed in September. But it has
yet to be legally tested.
Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa said he
was not aware of the directive
since Mangota had issued it.
"Talk
to Mangota. He is the one who wrote that circular so he knows
everything."
Mangota could not be reached for
comment.
The circular does not clarify how the issue of legal costs
will be
addressed.
Law Society of Zimbabwe president Joseph James
differed with Mangota's
circular on matters relating to land, saying they
could still be entertained
by the courts.
"I do not share his
position," James said.
"Matters of jurisdiction are to be decided by
the courts, and not outside
the courts. Just as it is right for one of the
litigants to raise the issue
of lack of jurisdiction as a defence, it is
equally the right of one of the
parties to advance his case, and explain why
the recent amendment cannot bar
a court from hearing his
case."
James said a party might argue that the land in question is
not agricultural
land.
"In any event, the constitutionality of
Amendment No 17 is still to be
tested," he said.
"I assume that
judicial officers will exercise their judicial discretion and
decide upon
the issue of jurisdiction on a case by case basis."
Zim Independent
Ray Matikinye
WHOEVER coined
the phrase "Land is the economy and the economy is the land"
had the genius
of a lyricist to state the obvious but not enough of it to
foretell the
damage that would unravel the economy because of government's
twisted
agrarian policies.
"Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy and will
anchor the country's
economic transformation," Economic Development
minister, Rugare Gumbo, said
on Wednesday at a pre-budget consultative
dialogue in Harare. "The 2006
national budget should therefore focus on
increasing production."
But a series of policy shifts involving
powerful bureaucrats have converged
to worsen agricultural problems for an
already weakened economy, a
parliamentary portfolio committee report on the
state of agriculture in
Zimbabwe reveals.
Stakeholders in the
agricultural sector bemoan the steady decline in
agricultural production in
the past five years due to a number of factors,
chief among them a severe
shortage of foreign currency, fuel and
sub-economic producer
prices.
The net effect of these constrictions to the sector,
according to the
report, is that crop yields will be reduced considerably if
something is not
done immediately.
Politicians have tended to
apply gloss to the sector and even exaggerated
production figures to mask
the reality of a failed land appropriation
programme.
For
instance, while seed producers project a 20 000-tonne shortfall in seed
requirements which need to be imported at a cost of US$35 million, Ministry
of Agriculture officials claim there is enough seed to cater for the summer
crop.
"The information about the availability of inputs for the
summer crop is
quite confusing," the parliamentary committee
said.
"Such conflicting situations will have serious ramifications on
planning and
production." Seed houses need foreign currency to import spares
to refurbish
machinery and bolster capacity to meet demand. Their efforts to
secure hard
currency on the auction floors have been
unsuccessful.
That is not all.
Fertiliser companies have
failed to secure foreign currency to import potash
and ammonia needed for
production.
The report says companies complained that they had to
scale down operations
at a critical time, considering the crucial role their
product plays in
agriculture. One company had to close its plant in Msasa
owing to failure to
secure foreign currency, while those operating had to
resort to producing
non-potash fertiliser that compromises
yields.
A proposed programme which entailed setting up production
targets for
strategic crops has failed to attract takers.
In a
bid to meet basic minimum production requirements, government came up
with
an ambitious target-oriented model dubbed "Command Agriculture", where
each
of the 10 provinces would select 200 farmers apiece to participate in
the
scheme.
The farmers were expected to produce food security crops,
livestock, and
industrial and export crops over a targeted 1,9 million
hectares with a
projected production of 8,5 million tonnes of various crops
at an estimated
cost of $14, 7 trillion.
Treasury could not
bankroll the project, while farmers and other
stakeholders said they were
ignorant of the Command Agriculture model,
neither were they consulted on
the issue.
"The gap between government-set targets and the available
stock of inputs
points to a serious lack of planning by government
bureaucrats," the report
says.
More importantly, a total of 33
firms, or about a fifth of Zimbabwe's export
companies, have closed shop
during the first six months of the year due to
the economic crisis and land
seizures, according to a government agency.
Of these, 12 agricultural
firms stopped operating after their farms were
acquired by the government
under the land reform programme, the Export
Processing Zone Authority of
Zimbabwe said in a recent report.
"Twelve companies stopped
operations after the farms they were operating on
were taken for
redistribution. An additional 12 companies have closed shop
citing, among
other things, unfavourable foreign exchange rate and loss of
international
markets as Zimbabwe is considered a risk country to do
business with," said
the report.
The company closures resulted in a loss of export revenue
totalling about
$17,6 million, according to the report.
Close to
7 000 jobs were lost due to the closures in the export sector,
which employs
26 000 people.
Zim Independent
AN ambitious
plan by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to prop up declining
agricultural
production by doling out billions of dollars for the sector has
backfired,
forcing the central bank to garnish the Ministry of Agriculture
to recover
the funds.
The RBZ has garnished the ministry for funds advanced to
government to
finance an agricultural input programme at the launch of the
land reform
five years ago.
In the past four years government has
poured nearly $118 billion into
agriculture to boost
production.
The central bank splashed out billions of additional
dollars in a vain
effort to ensure its widely-condemned land appropriation
programme was a
success.
Ministry of Agriculture officials
informed a parliamentary portfolio
committee on agricultural preparedness a
fortnight ago that the action taken
by the central bank to foreclose on the
loan funds had never been explained
at the onset of the
programme.
Officials in the ministry told the committee that the
agricultural input
programme was not explained to the farmers, most of whom
mistook the credit
scheme for government largesse.
The committee
said government needs to educate resettled farmers on the
input scheme and
inculcate in them a culture of self-reliance.
Failure by the ministry
to repay funds has forced RBZ to stop allocating
fresh funds for the 2005
agricultural season, at a time when there is a
severe shortage of
fertilisers, seed and fuel to run tillage units.
The central bank has
advised the ministry to raise money from the open
market where interest
rates have soared to 300% due to inflationary
pressure.
The
committee said farmers were now reluctant to borrow from yet another
scheme,
the Agricultural Sector Productivity Enhancement Facility citing
fears of
sinking deeper into debt.
The RBZ initially charged 5% interest on
loans under the scheme but reviewed
the rates to 20% midstream. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
THE Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has released a
damning report on how
government failed to comply with the African
Commission on Human and
Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) recommendations to stop
widespread human rights
violations in the country.
The report
coincides with the African Commission meeting in Banjul, Gambia,
next week,
which is expected to discuss the human rights situation in
Zimbabwe.
An ACHPR fact-finding mission which visited the country
in June 2002
concluded that there was enough evidence of human rights
violations in
Zimbabwe and that government could not wash its hands of
responsibility for
all the incidents.
The mission, which was led
by the vice-chairperson of the commission,
Jainaba Johm, recommended that
Zimbabwe engages mediators to resume
dialogue, repeal inhibitive
legislations, ensure independence of the
judiciary, avoid politicisation of
the police and promote a climate
conducive to freedom of
expression.
The ACHPR report was adopted by the African Commission in
January this year.
The NGO Forum then undertook an audit of the
recommendations to monitor
government's compliance. Its report, titled Facts
and Fictions, exposes
unwillingness by government and its agencies to comply
with the
recommendations, especially on national dialogue and
reconciliation.
The report says it is manifestly evident that instead
of attempting to
implement the recommendations of the fact finding mission
of June 2002 in
order to create an environment conducive to freedom of
expression in
Zimbabwe, the government has strengthened repressive laws and
taken action
that has had exactly the opposite effect.
The report
says even after publication of the ACHPR report, government has
failed to
implement recommendations on the independence of the judiciary and
enforcement of court rulings.
"There have been five high-profile
cases in which various arms of
government, including the executive, three
ministries, a statutory body,
local authorities and the police, have failed
to comply with court orders,"
the report says.
"This
non-compliance reflects a continuing trend by government and state
institutions of failing to effect rulings by the judiciary, thus reinforcing
the perception of a continuing breakdown of the rule of law, failure to
respect the principle of separation of powers, and the impunity of state
institutions."
The five cases include government's rejection of
an Electoral Court ruling
nullifying the results of the nomination court for
the Chimanimani
constituency in which the judge said the presiding officer
had unlawfully
refused to accept the nomination papers for Roy Bennett.
Elections for the
constituency were postponed pending fresh nominations, a
move which was
denounced by President Mugabe.
"The president of
Zimbabwe attacked the decision of the court at a public
briefing with
provincial, government and party leaders at Gaza High School
in Chipinge,
describing it as "absolute nonsense" and said it should be
ignored.
The Forum says government has taken no steps to repeal
or amend national
laws which are repressive.
"Aippa remains
operational and continues to be implemented in a selective
manner to stifle
the free dissemination of information and free speech
within Zimbabwe,
especially through the private media," the report says.
The
Constitutional Amendment (No 17) Act passed recently makes wide-ranging
intrusions into basic human rights guaranteed under the constitution of
Zimbabwe, as well as various international human rights instruments to which
Zimbabwe is a state party, it said.
The Forum report comes at a
time when government faces a grilling at the
African Commission meeting in
Gambia next week where civic organisations
will present a shadow human
rights report exposing rampant and deliberate
rights violations perpetrated
by government over the past five years.
Zimbabwe, which last
presented a human rights report to the commission in
1996, decided to do so
again nine years later, in a move civic groups
described as a desperate
attempt to defuse mounting pressure and growing
isolation. The ACHPR
requires governments to submit reports to the
commission
bi-annually.
The government report glosses over critical issues which
plunged the country
into the current economic morass and fails to
acknowledge the current
economic recession. It skates around virtually all
the negative incidents
that the country went through, including the violence
that accompanied the
land reform programme and all the three elections held
over the past five
years. The government report is also silent on the
widely-condemned
Operation Murambatsvina which left over 700 000 people
homeless and without
sources of livelihood. Government mentions in passing
Operation Garikai
without giving any background as to why it had to embark
on the nationwide
housing construction programme.
The civil
society audit exposes government's unwillingness to uphold its
primary
responsibility to promote, protect and secure human rights.
It
highlights numerous challenges that Zimbabwe has faced since the last
state
report to the commission of 1996, including political and economic
instability since 2000, the involvement of state security agents in most of
the violent activities since the formation of the opposition MDC and the
banning of newspapers.
"Approximately 300 people have died as a
result of political and
land-invasion related violence and rapes, assaults,
kidnappings and torture
have occurred throughout the period," the report
says.
The perpetrators of these crimes have been identified mainly as
state agents
including the army, police and the central intelligence
organisation as well
as ruling party militia and opposition party
supporters.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
Vincent Kahiya
PRESIDENT
Mugabe was in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, this week to attend the
World
Summit on Information Society (WSIS). It is one of those bland events
where
leaders spend hours discussing ideals and not achievables. For our
dear
leader, though, any platform to display political machismo is grabbed
with
both hands.
Sometimes it is good to have President Mugabe at such talk-
shops because
his animated speeches usually stand out - not necessarily for
positive
reasons but mainly as a departure from the mostly banal
interventions of
other world leaders who manage to stay
awake.
This is the sort of summit where heads of state usually offer
generic
contributions, all pointing to the fact that the great potential of
Internet
technology should spread to the developing world. President Mugabe
offers a
bit of fun and his salvos against unmissable targets Blair and Bush
offer
useful insights which are sometimes lost in the adulation of fawning
state
media and the Mugabe fan club in the third world.
I recall
one such useful observation by President Mugabe at a plenary
session of the
WSIS in Geneva, Switzerland, two years ago. Part of the
presidential address
included this passage which I will quote unabridged:
'Long after we
have talked about the need for information and communication
technologies as
tools with which to contrive the information society, we are
soon to
discover that receivers and computers are powered by electricity
which is
unavailable in a typical third world village. Long after we have
talked
about connectivity, we are soon to discover that most platforms for
electronic communication need basic telecommunication infrastructure which
does not exist in a typical African village.
"What is worse, we
will discover, much to our dismay, that the poor villager
we wish to turn
into a fitting citizen for our information society is in
many instances
unable to read and write. Where we are lucky to find the
villager literate
and numerate, we soon discover that he or she is not
looking for a computer
terminal but for a morsel of food; an antibiotic to
save his dying child; a
piece of land on which to eke out an existence; in
short, looking for a
humane society that guarantees him food, health,
shelter and
education.
"Zimbabwe's own ICT efforts have thus been directed at
developing Zimbabwe's
society as a whole in areas of education, health where
the HIV/Aids pandemic
remains a problem in both elementary and advanced
skills development, as
indeed in building a high-level awareness of the
people's basic rights."
This was well put. But it is important to
also remind readers that a year
after President Mugabe made this
all-important observation, he embarked on a
campaign trail for the 2005
general election during which he donated
hundreds of computers to rural
schools which did not have books, chairs and
desks, let alone electricity
and a telephone.
The children who were made to cheer the computer
donations did not have
three square meals a day. As the president donated
computers, there were no
drugs at rural clinics and ambulances were grounded
due to a shortage of
either spare parts or fuel - sometimes
both.
To use the wise words from the president, the child who sat for
the whole
day in the sun waiting for his arrival was not looking for a
computer
terminal but for morsels of food and for a "humane society that
guarantees
him food, health, shelter and education". How cruel can the world
be?
Children crying every morning for food get computers
instead.
It is trite that the computer donation blitz was President
Mugabe's pet
project. Remember this statement in March when he donated
computers in
Highfield?
"It is a personal initiative that I
embarked on and I have been assisted by
several well-wishers like Reserve
Bank governor Gideon Gono." That's humane?
Whatever the intention
was, the nation is yet to reap the benefits of the
donations. We now hear
press reports of the computers being stolen, that
there are no qualified
teachers to train kids on how to use the machines and
there is no software
to load onto the computers.
Meanwhile the rural kids are as hungry as
ever and the digital divide
continues to widen. This is not surprising
because the digital divide can
never be bridged through half-hearted
measures like our mode of computer
donations. As for shelter, the
destructive trail of Operation Murambatsvina
will be with us for a long
time.
It is a truism that developing countries with the greatest
Internet access
have high rates of literacy, education, political freedom
and service-based
economies - as well as technology infrastructure. Zimbabwe
is lacking
immensely on the latter three aspects.
This is the
reason Zimbabwe cannot be called a mature democracy by the
simple act of
setting up the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission or establishing
an upper house
of parliament. This approach is simply orderly autocracy via
piecemeal
institutional modification. We await the package from Tunis.
Zim Independent
Darlington
Majonga
THE Zimbabwe cricket crisis has sucked in central bank governor
Gideon Gono,
who has launched a probe into allegations of irregular foreign
currency
dealings at Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC).
Gono last week summoned
ZC chairman Peter Chingoka and managing director
Ozias Bvute to explain how
the union has repatriated the foreign currency
earned from television rights
as well as lucrative sponsorship deals.
The Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe's Financial Intelligence, Inspectorate and
Evaluation Unit raided
ZC offices last Thursday and searched for hard cash
before picking up
Chingoka and Bvute for questioning.
Chingoka yesterday said they were
cooperating with the RBZ investigators.
"We have had some very
constructive meetings with RBZ officials," Chingoka
said. "ZC will continue
to cooperate fully with the RBZ officials as they
guide us in ensuring
compliance with their requirements."
Although Chingoka could not shed
light on the investigations, Gono
reportedly descended on ZC after
disgruntled provincial chairmen compiled a
dossier suggesting shady
financial transactions at the cricket body.
Bvute confirmed their
discussions with the RBZ unit centred on the
allegations raised by the
chairmen, but could not get into the details.
"We've not been
arrested. We held a meeting to clarify issues and get
guidance from the
exchange control authorities," Bvute said.
The RBZ yesterday also
refused to discuss the probe but did not deny
summoning the ZC
officials.
"It is not our practice as a central bank to disclose
whether interactions
with Zimbabwe Cricket are of a consultative,
investigative or of a social
nature," RBZ spokesman Kumbirai Nhongo told the
Zimbabwe Independent.
"However, we wish to advise that apart from the
supervision and surveillance
of banks, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has an
arm that looks into the
economic behaviours of various
players."
The provincial cricket chairmen in their dossier wanted to
know how ZC was
repatriating its forex from offshore accounts. They also
wanted to know
whether Chingoka had repatriated a £50 000 honorarium he was
paid last year
"according to exchange control regulations".
The
dossier also queried rumours that a female ZC employee had allegedly
disappeared with US$75 000, raising suspicions the union might have been
stashing hard cash at its offices in contravention of Zimbabwe's tough
exchange control regulations.
Chingoka dismissed the allegations
as "financial mudslinging (that) appears
to be the final strategy in the
anti-ZC destabilisation campaign". He
however said he was ready for an
audit.
However, indications late yesterday were that ZC would once
again fail to
convene a board meeting scheduled for tomorrow where Chingoka
intended to
respond to the chairmen's concerns.
"We have not
received favourable responses to our desire to hold a meeting
tomorrow,"
Bvute said. "We have not shied away from answering their
queries."
Zim Independent
ONE of
the biggest technological developments in satellite television in
recent
years has come to Zimbabwe, and is poised to revolutionise the way
viewers
enjoy their digital satellite television (DStv) experience.
As a first
for Africa, the personal video recorder (PRV) has been launched
in Zimbabwe
and other countries across the continent, offering a wide range
of
additional services to DStv viewers and creating a hi-tech means of
enhancing television viewing. Also known as a digital dual-view video
recorder or digital personal video recorder, the new device replaces exiting
single-view and dual-view decoders and facilitates recording of television
programmes to a hard disk in digital format.
Said Multi-Choice
Zimbabwe marketing manager, Kirsty Brien: "The PVR has
been internationally
successful and has just been released to wide acclaim
in South Africa. Its
release in Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa is likely to
be equally
well-received by DStv viewers and will greatly enhance their
enjoyment of
the DStv experience."
As with the dual view decoders, viewers will be
able to watch two channels
simultaneously in two environments, but with PVR
they will at the same time
be able to record from either of the two channels
being watched or from a
third channel. The PVR also records up to 80 hours
of programming to its
hard drive and enables viewers to pause live
television and return to where
they left off when they restart. Instant
replays will be possible, a superb
feature for sports programmes in
particular while for recorded content
features include fast forward pause
rewind and slow motion.
Using the electronic programme guide, viewers
can set recording dates and
times in advance, which, for example, makes it
possible to record a series
of programmes in sequence over a period of time.
Bookmarks can be activated,
so that in a recorded programme viewers can
later return to the same spot at
which viewing stopped or they an revisit a
favoured part or sequence. Old
format VCRs are made redundant by the radial
new smart technology and
user-friendliness of the PVR, which can record
programmes to the exact
second of start and finish.
The PVR helps
the television equipment 'to think', enabling viewers to gain
enormous
benefits from having access to more than 50 TV channels on the DStv
bouquet," said Brien.
"The PVR will be sold in Zimbabwe by DAE
Communications and through the
MultiChoice accredited installers network,
with the essential back-up of
after-sales service from qualified and
authorised technicians."
Brien added that the new PVR will be above
$60 million.
The PVRs are based on the latest international
technology and have been
developed by Multichoice Africa and its technical
partner UEC of South
Africa.
The PVR unit comes with a unique new
multi-functional remote control device
that can also be used to control
television sets and home theatre or music
systems. - Own Correspondent.
Zim Independent
Godfrey
Marawanyika
GOVERNMENT is contemplating an Empowerment Act that will make it
mandatory
for companies that are either winding up their operations or
merging to
ensure 50% of the shares go to indigenous
entrepreneurs.
The Act will compel companies to give 50% of their tenders
for services or
the supply of goods to indigenous companies. For instance, a
mining company
will be required to buy 50% of its supplies from
indigenous-owned companies.
The same will apply to out-sourced
services such as security or auditing.
In a document titled Revised
Policy Framework for Indigenisation of the
Economy, drawn up by the
Department of Indigenisation and Empowerment, there
will be need to amend
current legislation that impedes indigenisation
efforts.
"The
legislation should direct all companies and individuals to do business
with
a minimum of 50% of indigenous entities in respect of service provided
and
goods supplied," reads the document.
The Act will also make it
mandatory for government to allocate a 50% stake
to indigenous groups when
it commercialises or privatises state companies.
"Government itself
should arrange to secure or procure 75% of its goods and
services from
indigenous firms," it says. "For example, government should be
expected to
deal with indigenous banks, engage indigenous accounting firms,
etc."
The policy document was signed by the late Minister of
State for
Indigenisation and Empowerment, Josiah Tungamirai.
The
document cites the Liquor Licensing Act, the Mines and Minerals Act,
Income
Tax Act, Manpower Planning and Development Act, Urban Councils Act,
Shop
Licences Act and the Banking Act among pieces of legislation that that
need
to be re-examined to speed up black economic empowerment.
"When
making adjustments to the above legislation, care should be exercised
to
ensure continued competitiveness, productivity and therefore viability of
both the new and existing companies," says the document.
Zimbabwe has
had numerous pressure groups since independence agitating for
the
empowerment of previously disadvantaged Zimbabweans.
The Affirmative
Action Group shot to prominence in the early 1990s led by
Phillip Chiyangwa
to facilitate the entry of black Zimbabweans into the
mainstream
economy.
Before that there was the Indigenous Business Development
Centre, once led
by businessman Ben Mucheche.
There is also the
Indigenous Business Women's Organisation (IBWO) led by
Jane
Mutasa.
The common thread among all the groups was on the need for
clear government
guidelines and a legal framework on how to achieve their
objectives.
Analysts are already advising caution, fearing that the
proposed empowerment
schemes would be done along political lines as happened
with the current
land reform that has turned out to be a poisoned chalice
for its authors.
"Although on paper it's a good suggestion, some
people will be awarded
contracts on the basis of party affiliation as has
happened in the past.
That is how Mutumwa Mawere purchased Shabanie Mashaba
Mines through a
government guarantee," an analyst said.
"But now
that his relations with government have soured his SMM is under
virtual
government control. The partnerships only work for a certain period
of time
to achieve a good political image."
The government is also proposing
an Empowerment Charter to ensure
transparency in the award of the contracts
to indigenous entrepreneurs.
The Charter will provide a framework for the
empowerment of "historically
disadvantaged Zimbabweans".
The Act
seeks to assist indigenous entrepreneurs by offering economic
incentives
like tax concessions to those companies which give contracts to
indigenous
businesses.
Zim Independent
THE history of empowerment in
Zimbabwe is littered with examples of failure.
Where they have sailed
through, the empowerment deals have created elites
who became super-rich at
the expense of the majority. These skewed policies
have served to confuse
investors.
For example there is confusion in the mining sector as to how
much should be
allocated to indigenous groups in mining ventures. While
President Robert
Mugabe insists that local business people must be given 50%
in mining
ventures, the Finance minister, Herbert Murerwa, is on record
saying that
30% should be set aside for locals.
However, the
National Investment Centre (NIC) has a 40% figure on its
website and
pamphlets marketing Zimbabwe as an investment destination. Since
the
government proposal, last year, that locals should hold at least a 15%
empowerment stake in all mining concerns, no indigenous consortium has
successfully acquired any stake.
Zimplats has offered a 15%
empowerment stake to Nkululeko Rusununguko Mining
Company (NRMC), a local
consortium which has however failed to pay for the
shareholding. Anglo
American Corporation Zimbabwe (AmZim) is also offering a
15-20% empowerment
stake in its billion-dollar Unki Platinum Project but the
company has not
come up with an empowerment partner for more than a year
now.
The
land reform, which government cites as the hallmark of its economic
empowerment, has become a national disaster. Production has slumped to the
lowest levels. Before that United Merchant Bank headed by the late
empowerment guru Roger Boka collapsed due to serious financial
improprieties.
Locally-owned banks like Trust, Royal and Barbican
have since been taken
over by government. Government is currently finalising
the take-over of
Shabani Mashava Mine (SMM) which is owned by Mutumwa
Mawere. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Itai Mushekwe
SWEDEN will next year increase its humanitarian
assistance to Zimbabwe by
over US$2 million, but none of this aid will go
towards government's housing
project Operation Garikai/ Hlalani
Kuhle.
Operation Garikai is largely seen as a cosmetic project which
President
Robert Mugabe undertook to cover up the destruction caused by the
widely-condemned Operation Murambatsvina which robbed over 700 000 people of
their shelters and sources of livelihood.
Göran Engstrand,
Minister for Development Co-operation at the Embassy of
Sweden in Harare,
revealed the aid package during a tour of the Swedish
International
Development Agency (Sida)-funded child rights projects in
Murehwa last
week.
Sida earlier this year approved 20 million Swedish kroner to
fund
development projects in Zimbabwe.
"Admittedly, most of the
allocation will be targeted at those affected by
the recent Operation
Murambatsvina through NGOs and multilateral agencies,"
said Engstrand. We
will also not lose sight of some of the ongoing work
benefiting over two
million children throughout Zimbabwe.
"Consequently, some of the
support will boost the support already received
by organisations dealing
with child rights such as Sahrit, the Scripture
Union and the Farm Orphan
Support Trust," he said.
Engstrand refuted recent claims by state
media that "Sweden was also looking
at how best it would assist in Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle Phase Two
(housing programme) that government
launched".
"This is not correct. The correct position is that we will
continue working
with NGOs and other multilateral agencies to alleviate the
plight of those
affected by Operation Murambatsvina," said
Engstrand.
Sweden's humanitarian support is funnelled through
multilateral agencies and
non-governmental organisations.
Last
month Japan chipped in with a 150 million yen (US$1,3 million) aid
package
for the purchase of 3 600 tonnes of maize to help Zimbabweans
affected by
food shortages.
Sweden's refusal to support Operation Garikai comes
on the back of United
Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan's criticism of
President Mugabe for
rejecting international aid to help thousands of people
facing starvation
and homelessness.
The plight of the homeless is
set to worsen with the onset of the rainy
season. The slum clearance
exercise that began in May left many informal
settlers in the cold during
winter.
Government is trapped in a Catch-22 situation as Operation
Garikai struggles
to complete 200 000 housing units countrywide with few
resources on the
ground. This seems to suggest it will fail to meet the
December target it
set itself.
Zim Independent
Godfrey
Marawanyika
BUSINESS leaders this week bared their teeth and snarled at
government's
economic policy confusion at a pre-budget conference held on
Wednesday.
For the first time, business leaders stopped their
double-speak and
praise-singing to launch a scathing attack on government
for destroying the
economy. Zimbabwe's business leaders are well known for
singing praise to
the government in public while attacking its policies in
private. Some chief
executives have complained to newspapers, especially the
Independent, for
quoting them criticising the government and the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ).
There is often a wave of fear among
business leaders who ironically feel the
heat of the economic problems as
they battle to keep their companies afloat.
But on Wednesday that
prevarication was gone.
With rare but brutal frankness the business
leaders took off their gloves
and lambasted the government at a pre-budget
seminar organised by the
National Economic Consultative Forum
(NECF.)
Former president of Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries
Kumbirai Katsande
said Zimbabweans were their own worst enemies. "As we sit
right here I do
not hear any senior government official condemning the farm
invasions which
are taking place across the country. Maybe only with the
exception of Gideon
Gono.
"It's criminal when we do not do what
we are supposed to do," Katsande said.
The meeting was attended by
Economic Development minister Rugare Gumbo,
Finance minister Herbert
Murerwa, two permanent secretaries, Andrew Bvumbe
and George Mlilo, and
other senior government officials.
Deputy Finance minister David Chapfika
also attended the meeting.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce
(ZNCC) president Luxon Zembe said real
patriots should go beyond party
politics.
He implored government to take decisive action on the visa
requirements on
Zimbabweans by the South African government.
"A
government messenger does not need a visa to go to South Africa, but Joe
Mtizwa, the chief executive officer of our very own conglomerate, would have
to go and queue for a visa at the South African embassy," Zembe
said.
Zembe also questioned why government was afraid of liberalising
the economy
and restoring international relations. "Truly patriotic people
are not Zanu
PF or MDC but the question is whether Zanu PF people are
patriotic as they
claim to be?"
Concerns were also raised over
the sorry state of the agriculture sector at
a time when the RBZ had poured
trillions of dollars into the sector. NECF
chairman Robbie Mupawose said he
was worried that government had failed to
announce producer prices
early.
"We are now in November and the central bank governor has put
in trillions
of dollars to finance the agriculture sector but we are still
to see the
deliverables," Mupawose said.
"Command agriculture
does not solve our problems. Command systems do not
solve anything. We are
in serious problems. I don't know why we hide from
some of these basic
facts."
Under siege from the executives Murerwa could only say he
"had tried to
identify some of the critical challenges that require
attention through the
national budget".
"More importantly, the
economy needs right policy prescriptions that promote
sustainable growth,
that is brought about by increased investment, exports,
value addition,
public-private partnership and increased employment
opportunities and
overall productivity of all economic sectors," Murerwa
said.
"Price distortions are currently constraining the budget as
well as
adversely affecting the operations of most public enterprises. It
will be
necessary that we remove all price distortions and target subsidies
to
vulnerable groups."
Gumbo however maintained government's
defensive stance, reminding the
delegates that the country was under
sanctions.
"We are under siege of targeted sanctions," said Gumbo,
parroting the
self-serving government line.
"Let's not be
simplistic about these things and move beyond these text book
materials. We
are operating under extremely difficult conditions."
But Mupawose was
not intimidated.
"I often question what we are doing about these
sanctions," he said.
"Surely, sanctions can be circumvented. We are
suffering from the
consequences of our own actions," he said. Despite the
tense atmosphere, the
meeting also had its lighter moments.
Black
empowerment activist Keith Guzah said it was necessary for business
leaders
to be enrolled for National Youth Service programmes.
"Maybe we need
a Border Gezi adult literacy programme because of lack of
patriotism amongst
some of our business leaders," he said.
Former Finance minister Simba
Makoni advised both government and the
business leaders to have clarity of
policies.
"Even if Zimbabwe is looking east, whilst east is looking
west, there is
need for clarity in our policies," Makoni
said.
"Today we are for individual enterprise, and tomorrow we are
for collective
enterprise. We all know what has to be
addressed."
The budget will be presented on December 1.
Zim Independent
Godfrey
Marawanyika
ABOUT 60% of the funds government allocated to the agricultural
sector
disappeared before they reached the farmers, a parliamentary report
has
said. The report, compiled by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on
Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, revealed that about $70,8 billion of
the $118 billon that government had set aside to fund the agricultural
inputs cannot be accounted for.
The report follows the committee's
July fact-finding mission on the State of
Preparedness by the Agricultural
Sector for the 2005/2006 summer crop.
According to the report,
between 2000 and 2005 the government has availed
$118 billion to finance the
agricultural sector. "Farmers representatives
also alleged that only 40% of
funds availed by the government to the
agriculture sector reached farmers on
the ground," the report said.
"As a result, the funding channelled to
agriculture for the last five years
has not made any significant impact on
turning around the fortunes of the
sector. Stakeholders are urged to revise
its financing strategies and come
up with appropriate and comprehensive
financing models in order to achieve
desired results."
The
committee chaired by Walter Mzembi, the MP for Masvingo South, said the
current summer season was no better than previous seasons due to limited
stocks of inputs and foreign currency shortages.
The committee
found that lack of a clear financing models, coupled with the
late release
of funds and bottlenecks experienced by farmers at lending
institutions were
a major hindrance to full agricultural recovery.
The central bank has
since come up with a successor facility to the
Productive Sector Facility
(PSF) known as the Agricultural Sector
Productivity Enhancement Facility
(ASPEF).
Farmers' representative organisations expressed reservations
about the ASPEF
arrangement.
"They (farmers) said they would sink
deeper into debt as they were already
reeling under the 50% interest rate,"
the report said.
"This financing model was a short-term measure with
a repayment period put
at six months. As a result, those farmers that
ventured into 12-month cycle
crops could not pay back the loans at the
stipulated time. At the expiry of
the repayment period, the RBZ immediately
applied commercial interest rates
of 300% to loans drawn from the
PSF."
The committee received oral evidence from Ministry of
Agriculture permanent
secretary, Simon Pazvakavambwa, and Stuart Hargreaves,
principal director
for livestock and veterinary services.
The
committee also received inputs from Agribank head Sam Malaba, central
bank
governor Gideon Gono, Noczim director Zvinechimwe Churu and farmers
representatives and seed houses.
According to the report,
government under its command agriculture model, was
working on a target of 1
500 000 hectares to produce 2 250 00 tonnes of
maize at a cost of $5,967
trillion.
But the report says the gap between government's targets
and the available
stocks of inputs points to a serious lack of planning at
state level.
"It is your committee's considered view that this lack of
coordinated
approach will not yield the desired results," the report
said.
The committee comprises chiefs and MPs namely Chief Show Bushu,
Chief George
Chimombe, Joel Gabbuza, Shuvai Mhofa, Aqualinah Katsande,
Sabina Mugabe,
Edward Mkhosi, Margaret Pote and Gilbert Shoko.
Zim Independent
I HAVE the
daily heartbreak of driving along Lomagundi Road where, in the
past few
weeks, over 70 trees have been cut down in the 2km between Harare
Drive and
the cattle pens.
I eventually established that it was the Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply
Authority doing the damage but the manager of Zesa
Westgate was very quick
to quote me the regulations: "No trees within 6,5
metres of a power line."
Despite my protestations, it would appear
irrelevant that none of them
actually touched the power line or were even
likely to do it in the next 10
years. They must come down en masse, thereby
creating a dreadful impression
of wanton destruction to those few foreign
visitors that we have travelling
to Kariba.
I have a few
questions for Zesa:
Why, if you are so concerned about branches
touching the cables and the
potential threat to power supply, have you not
cut down the only thing that
does touch them, the very large bougainvillea,
500 metres after the Westgate
roundabout, into which the cable disappears on
one side only to re-emerge on
the other?
Could it be that it is
much more difficult and thorny for comfort and
doesn't have the side benefit
of free timber afterwards? You have cut down
everything else for at least a
kilometre before and after this bush!
Why are you so concerned about
"regulations" concerning overhead power
cables, when you completely ignore
those regulations regarding demarcating
and protecting the public from the
gaping holes you leave on the verges of
roads when you do "temporary
repairs"?
There are three within 100 metres of my flat in Kensington.
Two have been
there for over a year now and the third was dug five weeks
ago.
Your workmen managed to erect four "branches" that could only be
described
as twigs, around which they wrapped some red tape. This pathetic
effort
lasted less than 24 hours before everything fell over and the hole is
now
completely unprotected just like the other two.
The danger to
the public and the potential for being sued for negligence
must surely
increase dramatically once the rains come.
Why does Zesa not
prioritise the jobs it has to do, and employ some common
sense at the same
time?
Concerned Citizen,
Harare.
Zim Independent
AS a Zimbabwean, I'm
not sure when the government will threaten to expel me.
Unlike United States
ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell, I have no
other home. But speak I
shall.
The threats to expel Dell show the duplicity that characterises
the Zanu PF
leadership, especially President Robert Mugabe.
The
reaction to Dell's criticism exposes Mugabe's hypocrisy. He is allowed
to
say all sorts of things against others - George Bush and Tony Blair, for
example - but he feels offended when others express their views about him or
his government.
Mugabe is old enough to be my grandfather, but
I'm sure when someone
criticises me or speaks negatively of me, I would not
react in such a
deceptive way. I must say Mugabe has really gone bananas
with age.
He naively believes attacking Bush and Blair will gain him
international
support and recognition in other countries. I remember him
proudly telling
the CNN that he is popular among the masses in South Africa
and Africa in
general. This is the foolhardiness of an old
man.
Okay, does his popularity bring petrol home?
If other
leaders praise him for his outbursts, he should know that they now
consider
him a political tool when it comes to international politics. They
are using
him to advance their cause because they are intelligent enough to
know that
if they say the wrong things against world powers, their economies
and
people would suffer.
Mugabe should just shut up. He can't keep
insulting young and admirable -
many Zimbabweans admire Bush and Blair - men
who do not even respond to his
hypocritic speeches.
Have you
forgotten the saying "never argue with a mad man, people may not
notice the
difference"? That's what Blair and Bush are always telling
themselves after
his speeches.
By the way, Mr Mugabe, please stop calling us your
people because we don't
belong to you.
Clinton
Sitshela,
Harare.
Zim Independent
IT is interesting to note that
the government talks of sabotage when ills
besetting Zimbabwe squarely lie
with them. Take for example the shortage of
staple maize in the country. Is
it an issue of poor planning or drought?
The white farmers foresaw the
impending drought of 1992 and resorted to
irrigation of early maize fields -
only to be described a decade later by
Agriculture minister Joseph Made as
saboteurs and racists who wanted to
resist the land reform.
Right
now an enterprise of growing maize for sale to the Grain Marketing
Board
(GMB) is a farce (Zimbabwe Independent, October 14). Maize needs heavy
topdressing but the commodity is not there.
What will happen to
the yield then? The floor price being offered by GMB
cannot cover even
transport costs. Yet drought is blamed.
The people in Vice-President
Joice Mujuru's constituency face starvation.
To make matters worse,
the government is adding another burden by
introducing a senate. Payment for
the mujibhas is due in January. The next
move will be the payment of the
chiefs in foreign currency to enable them to
buy fuel!
Andrew
Katiza,
Bindura.
Zim Independent
l
JUST
thought I should share a crazy scene with you and anyone else bothered
to
read this.
On October 28, my wife and I went to Five Avenue Spar
(Athienitis) to buy a
couple of things on our way home. Among the few things
were a few slices of
honey-glazed ham.
The ham was priced at $500
000/kg and the slices we got were worth $220 000.
At the till, I noticed the
total for all the goods was more than I had
anticipated. On double-checking
I saw that the ham was now worth $308 000.
I asked the till operator
how this could be, when the price on the pack was
clearly marked $220 000.
She then said: "The price probably went up while
you were walking to the
till."
I know things are far from good in Zimbabwe, but that was the
most absurd
excuse I have ever heard for daylight robbery. She called a
supervisor who
at first started by basically saying there was nothing he
could do. Pressed
further he said it was such a process to change the price
that we were going
to be there for a long time.
He then tried to
take off with the ham - I suspect to re-pack it - to which
I refused. He was
suggesting he needed the whole pack to change the price
and I was
maintaining he only needed the price tag. Seeing I was not budging
he then
took the tag, and hey presto he was back in all of four minutes.
Like
I said, things are far from good in Zimbabwe, but is it possible for a
price
to change during the couple of minutes it takes to walk from the deli
to the
till or these shops are just putting different prices on the shelf to
those
they are charging at the till? If you do not double-check each and
every
item you will get ripped off!
Peter Chiware,
Harare.
Zim Independent
RECENTLY I drove to
Mazvikadei Dam, situated just north of Banket. To my
horror, vast tracks of
once wooded lands had been stumped clean by Chinese
atop
bulldozers.
Why this entire bush-clearing while acres upon acres of
cleared land remain
unused? The latter being after all the very best lands,
once upon a time
farmed commercially and denied to the
people.
Through your paper, I ask the following
questions:
* If no diesel is available to plough and harvest
liberated land, why are we
allowing the use of this precious liquid to open
more unnecessary land?
* If no diesel is available to ferry coal from
Hwange for tobacco curing,
why are the Chinese burning all these thousands
of stumped trees of many
years? One of these stumped trees would suffice a
Zimbabwean family a whole
week to cook its food.
* If previously
farmers chose not to cultivate these areas, could it be that
they had deemed
these soils not desirable to culture?
* Having undermined our
country's commercial traders, are these very Chinese
now going to be left to
do the same to our agricultural sector?
* Could both the relevant
ministers of Agriculture and Environment please
enlighten the nation on this
costly and unnecessary destruction?
Pointing
Fingers,
Harare.
Zim Independent
THE fight between the two MDC factions over participation in
the forthcoming
senatorial election is no longer over principles. The fight
has just turned
too personal, much to the marvel of Zanu PF, which is
enjoying the
mudslinging by people who should be fighting for entrenchment
of democratic
values in Zimbabwe.
We have read in the state media
about factions belonging to the so-called
"academics" and the so-called
"trade unionists" and we thought it was all
propaganda but it seems that the
truth is out for all to see.
We have Job Sikhala calling the party
president a "goblin" and saying "mai
vako" to whoever wants to remove him
from the party. Those words are not
words of principle but words of anger
and dislike to a person who should be
your leader.
On the other
hand, we hear of Isaac Matongo accusing the pro-senate camp of
trying to
"murder" the party president during Morgan Tsvangirai's treason
trial last
year. This is not entirely true because Tsvangirai himself was
careless in
putting trust in everybody he met and claimed to believe in his
vision and
that of the MDC.
Paul Themba Nyathi has also been very ruthless in
his statements. Since the
beginning of the problems facing the MDC, this man
has been sending the most
inflammatory statements of the two camps. He
forgets he is the party's
spokesman and equates Tsvangirai to the state
president in being a
"dictator".
He doesn't even see that he is
also behaving no better than Jonathan Moyo,
who left a legacy of splashing
reckless inflammatory statements when he was
Minister of Information. He
should learn to forgive and Tsvangirai of all
people is mortal and also
makes mistakes.
Nyathi should be more diplomatic in his statements as
this can save his
political life.
When the senate elections are
over and if the two factions iron out their
differences, cleansing time
won't spare these lesser officials. Tsvangirai
needs Ncube and Sibanda the
same way Ncube and Sibanda need Tsvangirai for a
more focused
MDC.
The truth is that Tsvangirai flouted the party constitution and
will not win
the case in any fair court of law. He should be able to swallow
his pride
and say he erred when he vetoed the MDC national council decision
on October
12. He should have engaged his colleagues and tried to convince
them about
not going into the senatorial elections.
Now we hear
Tsvangirai wants to change the party constitution to suit
himself. Instead
of changing the constitution to give himself "more powers"
he should give
the people power by going back to the grassroots if leaders
are in a
stalemate.
He argues that senatorial elections are a waste of money
and a senate is
worthless in the current Zimbabwean set-up. Then the
question is: why is he
going around convincing MDC supporters only not to
participate in the
senatorial elections and leaving out Zanu PF
supporters?
On the other hand, the Ncube faction has the constitution
on their side but
are they certain that they have the people at heart? They
too should have
put on hold personal glory and asked themselves whether they
were supposed
to go ahead and campaign for senate seats after "winning" the
national
council vote or they should have gone back to the people on the way
forward.
Is it because Tsvangirai is too "dull" to believe in the
people's support?
The Ncube faction may be full of educated people but they
alienate
themselves from the people by thinking that they are too educated.
They
forget that Zanu PF and PF Zapu won the liberation struggle by having
managed to pull the masses to their side.
Can't they learn from
Abel Muzorewa's demise? He lost it because he thought
people fancy
intelligent ideas like ministerial posts for blacks without
total
independence.
No, people want real politics that will deliver them
from the abject poverty
they are in today. They can only be liberated
through politics and not the
constitution.
Yes a constitution is
important but it should serve the people and not the
leaders' interests
only. Eddison Zvobgo said about the 1987 amended
constitution that "the same
document can be executed in 70 different ways".
Even the MDC
constitution must please the people and protect the people and
not the
leaders. So before they became too bigheaded about a legal document
and
isolating senatorial elections to a few districts of the country, this
faction should have sought a national mandate for participation or risk
turning the MDC into a district party like Zanu (Ndonga) and Egypt
Dzinemunenzva's African National Party.
Stop washing your dirty
linen in public!
Madhanzi,
Chiredzi.
Zim Independent
MOST Zimbabweans -- both
urban and rural - welcomed the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) when it
arrived on the political scene in 1999. Of
course Zanu PF then went on to
intimidate all people to "rein in the
dissidents".
This it
successfully did because Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF have defeated the
MDC in
all presidential and parliamentary elections since the opposition
party's
inception.
However, even then in the presidential election of 2002,
41% of the
electorate supported the MDC despite the violence perpetrated
against them.
That was a significant figure because the atrocities unleashed
against MDC
supporters have never been seen on a national scale in this
country.
The people saw in the MDC a change to the inept,
undemocratic and corrupt
leadership of the past 19 years.
Six
years after the party was formed we have a sad scenario where the leader
of
the party has refused to uphold democratic principles because a decision
went against him. This is his undoing because that is what posterity will
now remember Morgan Tsvangirai for.
What he has done is aligning
himself to the Zanu PF/Mugabe ideology that
does not accept dissenting views
- a sad turn of events for one who was held
in such high
esteem.
Recently the leader of the oldest democracy in the world,
Tony Blair, lost a
vote in parliament that he invested his personal
authority in. A vote that
he personally drove but saw about 48 of his own
MPs voting against him.
Blair did not say that he did not care if the
party split. He took on the
collective democratic responsibility that says
even if I'm in the right and
they are wrong, if the majority has spoken then
let it be. If one has failed
to convince the people, then let it
be.
Blair did not say that because the majority of the "dissidents"
were
Scottish or Welsh, there's a tribal agenda. No, he respected the will
of the
people, even though he went on to publicly declare that those who had
voted
against his plan were "out of touch with the will of the
people".
Blair said "he would rather lose and be right than win and
be wrong". Wow!
Going on further with the example of Blair, his
defeat has sparked what
analysts are calling a leadership question. Since
this is Blair's first
defeat, is it time for him to leave the leadership of
the party? One defeat
and his future is in jeopardy.
The MDC
under Tsvangirai has suffered three national defeats - a
presidential poll
and two parliamentary elections - and soon a senate
election. It is time to
seriously consider replacing Tsvangirai.
The MDC president has become
a liability to the party. We are all very
disappointed with you Tsvangirai,
not because you stood for what was right,
but because of your undemocratic
tendencies. That is your legacy - emulating
Mugabe in his quest to create a
society of subservience.
Dave King,
Harare.
Zim Independent
By Bill
Saidi
AROUND this time last year, I was at Old Trafford, the Theatre of
Dreams,
watching Wayne Rooney score a briliant goal against Southampton.
Thirty
years earlier, I had watched George Best mesmerise the Liverpool
defence in
a game they drew 1-1 with their perennial rivals.
For that
game, I was in the VIP section at Old Trafford, a guest of my
favourite
club.
Last year, I was in the terraces, courtesy of a ticket offered
to me by a
colleague.
I was in Manchester to make a modest
contribution to Visions of Zimbabwe, an
exhibition at the Manchester City
Gallery, featuring such famous Zimbabwean
artists as Voti Thebe, Tapfuma
Gutsa, Berry Bickle, David Brazier,
Chikonzero Chazunguza, Alice Tavaya and
Chaz Maviyane-Davies.
I was one of three journalists taking part in the
exhibition, with an
improvised shebeen den, which I said was popular as a
meeting place for
journalists and politicians in the 1960s, when nationalist
organisations
were banned.
It had genuine 60s furniture, an old
radiogram and the music of the Dark
City Sisters, from my own record
library.
It was a hit with many visitors to the
exhibition.
The other journalists were Grace Mutandwa, formerly of
the Financial
Gazette, and Andrew Meldrum, correspondent of The Guardian who
had been
based in Harare for 22 years, until his deportation a few months
earlier.
My contribution in the catalogue of the exhibition was on
the plight of the
journalist in Zimbabwe. It was a rather personalised
account of a career in
the trenches, beginning with my induction as a cadet
reporter at the African
Daily News in 1957, and almost ending with the
shut-down of The Daily News
in 2003.
The exhibition was put
together by Raphael Chikukwa, who wrote in his
introduction to the
catalogue: "When words fail, art speaks."
Most of the pieces were
critical of a Zimbabwe in real turmoil, with itself,
with the rest of the
world - almost - and with its unfulfilled promises of
freedom after
independence from colonial rule.
There were controversial photographs
by a former colleague at the Daily
News, Tsvangirai Mukwazhi, some of which
we had published. They illustrated,
in stark, graphic detail how the
promises of 1980 had been ignored by Zanu
PF.
All the
participants had to fend off questions from the local media about
the
presumed danger of returninng to our homeland after taking part in an
exhibition so critical of the government of President Robert
Mugabe.
Most of us said we had no hesitation in returning home.
"Would we not be
bundled off to prison as soon as we landed at the airport?"
we were asked.
To be sure, among the visitors to the exhibition, in
the heart of
Manchester, were people from the Zimbabwean embassy, disguised
either as
indigent Zimbabwean exiles anxious for any handouts or news from
home, or as
journalists from the thriving black-conscienceness media in the
UK.
At the time, it did not occur to me that the government would
worry about us
to the extent of actually arresting us on our
return.
Months later, of course, the government announced there would
be a new law
under which citizens who travelled abroad and spouted criticism
of the
government would have their passports withdrawn.
I should
be thankful for small mercies, it would seem.
I doubt that any
vigorous campaign will be launched to force the government
to abandon this
heartless assault on the freedom of the citizen to travel.
Recently, I have
come to the sad conclusion that we Zimbabweans really don't
deserve
democracy. Certainly, we don't deserve a free press. Although most
of us
fought colonialism to bring democracy to our country, once
Independence was
achieved, we lacked the cojones to fight for that democracy
and even for a
free press.
This may sound farcical, but I am always reminded of an
old reggae hit by
Third World: "Now that we have found love, what are we
gonna do with it."
For "love" substitute "Independence". Since 1980,
the government has
trampled recklessly on the people's fundamental rights
without so much as a
whimper from the citizens. There is much evidence that
we lack the courage
to stand up to the government when it introduces such
legislation as the
Public Order and Security Act (Posa), the Access to
Information and
Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa), and the Constitutional
Amendment No 17
which created the monster called the senate - a glorified
junkyard for
disused politicians.
Since I am naturally concerned
with the rights of the journalist, I want to
refer to a recent attack on the
media by the governor of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe, Gideon
Gono.
In his latest quarterly monetary review, the most strident he
has delivered
so far, he chastised the media for joining the alleged enemies
of the state.
In short, he assailed their tendency of not accentuating the
positive in the
now headless-chicken turnaround programme.
Not
once did he acknowledge that, as facts are sacred to journalists,
accentuating the positive is possible and plausible only when the facts do
so.
If they don't, the journalist who creates a positive spin in
the absence of
the facts knows what his colleagues call
him.
There is a chasmitic difference between journalism and public
relations,
although there are people, particularly politicians and civil
servants, who
tend to confuse the two for their nefarious
purposes.
Gono, as the typical "establishment praise-singer" he has
become, would not
acknowledge that the media in Zimbabwe is under siege. He
would not mention
the ban on four newspapers: the Daily News, the Daily News
on Sunday, the
Tribune and the Weekly Times. He spoke as if the media
landscape was
perfectly normal.
The jackboot of Aippa has
squashed the life out of newspapers. There is a
tight rope around the necks
of all editors and reporters. One small mistake
and that rope could be
tightened enough to squeeze the life out of them.
Gono is not alone
in viewing the media landscape with equanimity. A recent
workshop on the
fight against HIV and Aids featured activists advising
journalists on how to
be more effective in their coverage of the pandemic.
Not one of them
decried the absence of four soldiers in the fight - the
newspaper banned
under Aippa.
Not one of them would acknowledge that under Aippa a
journalist could be
jailed for five years if, in the opinion of the
custodians of that law, he
had published a "falsehood" relating to the
campaign against HIV/Aids.
Not many people appealing to the media to
do this or that acknowledge that
since Independence, journalists have been
terrorised by this government. Not
many mention the terrible fate of Willie
Musarurwa, an outstanding defender
of the country's right to Independence
and the right of the people to enjoy
that Independence to the
full.
Hardly any of them mention the name of Mark Chavunduka, a young
man in his
30s, who may have died of natural causes, but like Musarurwa, had
been
thoroughly traumatised by the government terror campaign against
journalists.
Citizens who know that the fight against colonialism
was waged so
relentlessly because they too wanted to enjoy the freedoms
enshrined in the
United Nations Charter are silent when those same rights
are trampled
underfoot with breathtaking impunity by the
government.
The same citizens will not raise a hue and cry when the
government
promulgates laws such as Posa and the Constitutional Amendment
Act No 17.
In the late 1980s, before the tenth anniversary of
Independence, Edgar
Tekere complained that "Democracy was in the intensive
care unit." His
outrage led him to speak out so loudly against the
government Zanu PF
expelled him from its ranks. When I read he had been
picked as a Zanu PF
candidate for the senate election, I was alarmed. I have
known the man for
more than 30 years and I wondered what had happened to
him.
When it was announced he had been "dropped", I was massively
relieved.
Zimbabwean democracy, by now, is not only in the intensive
care unit but has
challenged the most qualified physicians in the world to
help it evince even
a spark of life.
The men and women in charge
of Zimbabwe can be described as inveterate party
animals. To celebrate the
Silver Jubilee of Independence, they pulled out
all the
stops.
Later, it was publicly acknowledged that the government had
spent so much
foreign currency during this bash there was not enough left
over to buy any
more fuel.
So, in planning the celebrations, the
government sat down and decided that
even if it meant there would be no
money left over to buy fuel, this shindig
had to be the biggest since
1980.
And that is how it happened. Nobody raised a finger in protest.
How do such
people deserve democracy? Or a free press?
* Bill
Saidi is editor of the banned Daily News on Sunday
Zim Independent
By Brilliant
Mhlanga
FOLLOWING what has now become the daily diet of Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) politics, one wonders whether the party will ever go
back to
ideals of democracy they always purported to purvey.
The MDC
leadership is busy on a massive crusade of name-calling. I challenge
all
well-meaning Zimbabweans to revisit the terms used in this pejorative
process of name-calling and unwarranted behaviour. Imagine some one being
labelled a "goblin", then the other being referred to as "smelly", while he
retorts and describes the other as having suffered from
"diarrhoea".
The question that quickly comes to mind is: do
Zimbabweans really need this
diatribe?
We have had enough,
ranging from the comic Vice President Joseph Msika to
the recently hilarious
head of state, President Mugabe. We definitely do not
expect the opposition
to expose us to this kind of foul language. One
wonders whether this is the
kind of democracy they were going to display had
they ascended into power in
2002. This is not only cantankerous but serves
to show MDC's lack of
political maturity.
I submit the argument that the MDC has departed
from its original founding
principles, therefore has become questionable and
thoroughly lacks
plausibility. What we are seeing is in fact enough for us
to know that MDC
has never had any founding principles. They also never had
an ideology. If
they at least had some principles, we would expect the
echelons to arrest
this ugly face they are showing.
Morgan
Tsvangirai's failure to bring together his mad house and the
subsequent
spill over is enough for the nation to realise the bankruptcy of
political
leadership and extreme levels of political mediocrity. It even
confirms the
hollow fallacy associated with the attempt to see MDC as having
had founding
principles. A party whose formation is primarily rooted on the
anger of the
masses does not last.
One major truth is that anger cannot and will
never be substituted for a
political principle. A principle should be
closely linked to the ideological
motivation of the party, together with the
wisdom of forestalling such
ludicrous behaviour in the event that there are
setbacks in the future. The
solid foundation on which any meaningful group
of people base their future
focus and the course of action which follows
thereafter, leading to the
ultimate taking of power from the ruling party
must be guided by a strong
principle and political will.
The
major founding principle should be people first. Of course not the Zanu
PF
warped way of seeking political fortunes for the ruling thugs, who later
turn against the same people they purport to be representing and destroy
their source of livelihood. That is not anywhere close to a political
principle.
The MDC's political weaknesses are not different from
that of Zanu PF. Maybe
the only difference is that Zanu PF is enjoying the
benefits associated with
incumbency. Both parties have a culture of
political patronage, a serious
disease Zimbabweans must shun, if change is
to visit us any time soon.
Patronage is a serious mustard seed for
disaster. The verbal slurring
currently enveloping the MDC is a result of
the works of political patronage
which the leadership inculcated. They
created a "nearer to thee my God"
character of a president, who now wallows
in political sanctity never to be
paralleled. This political creation has
led to the failure of all MDC
structures and now that he is being
challenged, any form of challenge is
seen as lack of respect for the
leadership which must be decisively dealt
with, in the Zanu PF political
style - mudslinging. This is what usually
happens when people create a
political figurehead and make him believe his
role has to equal Mugabe's
patronage in order to offset him. Zimbabwe does
not even need another
Mugabe. It does not want anyone who seeks to equal
Mugabe, but an
institutional overhaul.
To avoid political patronage, it must be
clearly laid down as a principle
that no one is more equal than others. It
must also be clearly stated that
the constitution is the supreme law of the
land. Respect for the party
constitution cannot be over-emphasised. Zimbabwe
does not need patronage any
more. We now need a leader who will undertake to
operate within his
constitutional mandate. This implies that Zimbabwe still
has to go through a
rigorous constitutional reform. The impetus for a new
constitution is due to
the untrustworthy nature of human beings. And so
because we don't trust any
human being, let alone a big entity like MDC, we
enact constitutional
frameworks to ensure that the continued participation
of the masses in
fashioning the democracy they want is not curtailed. This
ideal has failed
in the MDC, the leadership has done everything they can to
disturb their
organisational structures. The masses are very doubtful they
can trust the
MDC with national structures.
I therefore conclude
that Zimbabwe no longer needs thr MDC. In my view, Zanu
PF is better off
with the MDC for an opposition party than is the ordinary
Zimbabwean. In
fact, Zanu PF badly needs the MDC at this stage; they are
even better off
with Tsvangirai as the leader with his headstrong ways. The
existence of the
MDC serves to indirectly install Zanu PF's illegitimate
regime and its
continued hold on power. The MDC is by all means proving to
be politically
hopeless and serving as a Zanu PF plant in the broader
Zimbabwean politics
meant to impede other political players from taking the
stage and obviously
unseating the ruling party.
This madness must not be allowed to
continue for long. Otherwise people
cannot afford to hide behind silence and
blame it on these opposition
leaders. Yes, these leaders are wrong, but it
is the duty of responsible
citizens to remind leaders of whatever kind that
they are from the people.
For now the wrongs of the leadership are conjured
up by our sins of silently
watching when they embark on acts of
madness.
* Brilliant Mhlanga is a human rights activist.
Zim Independent
A TICKLISH quip
about the late Ugandan leader Idi Dada Amin instructing his
army commander
to go and shoot inflation on sight if he ever came across him
for the havoc
it was causing among the civilian population should have
resonance among
Zimbabwe's monetary authorities.
Runaway inflation, rated among the highest
in the world, has thrown
Zimbabweans into the league of paupers with more
that 80% of the population
living way below the poverty datum line.
The
economic scourge has also eroded disposable incomes while national
savings
have been wiped out, killing whatever remained of the culture of
saving
among the populace.
Millions of Zimbabweans have been reduced to a
hand-to-mouth existence,
without any hope about the future
The country's
working population can no longer afford the benchmark of US$1
a day -
equivalent to about $60 000 on the official market and approximately
$100
000 on the parallel market.
According to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, a
basket of goods for a
family of six last month cost $11,9 million from $9,6
million in September.
A majority of workers in Zimbabwe earn far less than
that a month.
A good barometer of how bad things have gone in a country once
touted as
having the greatest potential for growth at Independence in 1980
is a
comparison of what one could buy in relation to the value of the local
currency now.
The price of bread, a basic commodity, is now about $40
000, enough to buy a
house in the leafy Greendale suburb of Harare in the
1980s.
The price of bread doubled less than a month ago from $22 000 a loaf.
Prices
of most brands of mealie-meal have gone up tenfold over the last
month and
experts say the surge is likely to intensify as national food
stocks shrink.
Last week, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) announced an
increase in the
year-on-year inflation by 51,2 percentage points to 411%,
further dampening
any hope of salvation through the much-touted economic
turnaround.
The CSO said the October annual inflation rate, a key economic
indicator,
was 411% after increasing from September's rate of
359,8%.
"This means that on average goods and services normally purchased by
households for final use in Zimbabwe were 5,11 times as expensive in October
2005 as they had been 12 months before, in October 2004," the CSO
said.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono has shifted his inflation
forecasts for year-end from between 20-35% earlier this year to between
35-50% and later to 50-80% before recently climbing down again to settle for
280-300%.
In his monetary policy last month, Gono all but admitted
failure to rein in
inflation as he appeared to be losing the war against an
unrelenting
economic decline.
But he put on a brave face insisting that
"failure is not an option" even
though all social and economic indicators
seem to conspire against his
public pronouncements.
Year-on-year
inflation rose from 265% in August to 359% in September before
climbing to
411% last month.
In a report last month, the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) said inflation
would rise above 400% by year-end.
Non-food
inflation accounted for 414,7%, a 23,3 percentage points increase
on the
September figure of 391,4%, while food and non-alcoholic beverages
inflation
was 407,5%, a 99,3 percentage points rise on last month's rate.
On a
year-on-year basis, items that recorded the highest increases in prices
were
bicycles, postal services and hairdressing salons.
By comparison, on a
month-on-month basis regional airfares, electricity
charges and railway
fares recorded the highest increases.
The continued rise in inflation appears
to reflect a deepening economic
crisis although government officials have
been talking about an upturn since
last year.
The country has been
buffeted by foreign currency shortages that
have in turn spawned severe fuel,
power, drug and spare parts shortages.
The IMF said Zimbabwe's economy would
shrink by 7% this year, after a 4%
contraction last year and 10,5% in
2003.
The central bank claims the economy will grow by 2-2,5% even though it
cannot support its assertions with credible evidence.
While Gono insists
that the inflation rate will be within the 280-300% range
by December and
decelerate in the first quarter of next year, economists
forecast the rate
to hit 600% by February.
They say the increase in inflation has killed the
nation's spirit of saving,
will worsen labour disputes, widen the gap
between rich and poor and make
Zimbabwe an unattractive investment
destination.
Disposable incomes have been completely eroded and the
population cannot
make any savings for a rainy day.
Economic analyst John
Robertson said the gap between the rich and the poor
would widen because
interest rates offered on savings only benefited those
with large amounts of
money.
"People with ordinary savings are being robbed of their money as its
value
is eroded by inflation which cannot be compensated by interest
earnings,"
Robertson said.
He said labour disputes were also going to
worsen, as employees demand more
frequent salary reviews against dwindling
company revenues.
Civil servants, who now constitute more than 50% of the
workforce in the
country, were last awarded a salary increment in January
when inflation was
around 123%.
Robertson said it would be difficult for
employers to give salary increments
that match inflation as they are also
exploited through a poor exchange
rate, foreign currency shortages and an
exporters' tax of 20%.
"We are receiving no foreign direct investment,"
Robertson said.
Foreign direct investment is one of the major economic
drivers of developing
nations. Zimbabwe has not received significant
external investment over the
past five years due to poor governance and lack
of the rule of law.
Investors have shied away from Zimbabwe because of its
unstable political
and economic conditions.
Instead, major investors in
the country like BHP and Lonrho have closed down
operations and several
others have relocated to neighbouring countries that
offer better
prospects.
Falcon Gold, once one of the largest gold producers in the
country, has
threatened to close down due to high operational
costs.
According to a Platinum and Palladium 2005 survey by London-based
GFMS,
Zimbabwe's costs of mining platinum shot up by 55% last year, making
it one
of the most expensive places to mine in the world.
Robertson said
unlike Malaysia that is always touted as an example to
emulate, the Zimbabwe
government lacks discipline and cannot take difficult
political
decisions.
Explaining his government's experiences in economic empowerment at
the
Sheraton in Harare last week, former Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir
Mohamad, said his government did not randomly seize farms and companies that
were in the hands of neocolonialists but managed to achieve what Zimbabwe is
trying to do without upsetting the applecart.
Unlike Zimbabwe which
acquired land haphazardly from white commercial
farmers, Mohamad said his
government initiated resettlement schemes on land
that was not occupied to
build local capacity.
He said the Malaysian government did not nationalise
companies that were
foreign-controlled but waited until a time when they had
enough money,
formed a company and started buying shares in the companies
and ultimately
became majority shareholders.
He said his country wanted
foreign companies to continue operating
profitably and above all made
foreign investors feel safe in Malaysia.
Local companies are operating under
a heavy burden of taxes, foreign
currency scarcity and high interest rates
which translate into a high cost
of borrowing against controlled prices of
basic commodities.
Zim Independent
Eric Bloch Column
THE seemingly endless decline of the Zimbabwean economy since
1997, and the
consequential continuing intensification of hardships for ever
greater
numbers, has resulted in almost all of the population desperately
craving
change. In turn, the yearning for economic transformation has
resulted in
the population moving constantly from one crisis of expectations
to another,
anxiously striving to grasp some hope that the long-awaited
economic upturn
will be triggered into being.
That is driven by
government's ceaseless assurances that an economic
metamorphosis is
imminent, notwithstanding that time after time those
assurances have proved
to be baseless and naught but empty words. So
desirous is the populace for
the critically needed change to the distraught
economy that despite all
government's past promises and predictions of
economic transformation having
proved to be unfounded, nevertheless each
time there is to be any
governmental announcement of an economic nature,
there is a surge of
expectations.
That was the characteristic of most of Zimbabwe prior to the
Reserve Bank's
third quarter monetary policy statement, presented by
governor Gideon Gono
on October 20, but no matter how substantive some of
its measures, overnight
economic revival could not materialise, and has not
done so.
However, another potentially significant economic policy event now
lies
ahead, being the presentation to parliament (and thereafter to the
unnecessarily created, and unjustifiably costly, senate) of Zimbabwe's 2006
budget by the Minister of Finance, Herbert Murerwa. He will be tabling that
Budget in Parliament in less than a fortnight's time, on December 1, and
subsequently, on a yet to be determined date, to the senate, and rapidly
more and more Zimbabweans are speculating upon its likely contents, their
desperation fuelling their hopes for a budget which will constructively
reform the economy and ease the lot of the distressed majority. But, at the
same time, the numerous past crises of expectation failed to deliver, and
therefore the present crisis of expectations is muted by a growing
pre-conviction that the budget will, in practice, be a non-event.
In
particular, there is a justifiably widespread belief that although
Minister
Murerwa undoubtedly knows what is necessary to be done, he will yet
again be
prevented from doing the necessary because governmental ideologies
and
political objectives will, as heretofore, override national
need.
Interestingly, whilst in prior years there has been extensive
pre-Budget
consultation between the Ministry of Finance and numerous
representative
bodies of diverse economic sectors, the recent run-up to the
Budget has not
only included such consultations, but also interactions with
"the
man-on-the-street". Undoubtedly the minister has been given far
greater
insight than in the past into the public's needs and expectations,
but there
is widespread scepticism that he will be able to react
substantively to that
insight, for political dogmatism of his masters will
inevitably override the
best interests of the poverty-stricken
masses.
From a taxation point-of-view, the two most prevalent "demands" are
that
the taxation thresholds and bands be realistically adjusted, and that
in
similar vein the tax credits and allowances be meaningfully increased.
At
the present time, employees pay income tax on monthly income in excess of
$1,5 million, at rates moving upwards from 20% to a ceiling of 40% on income
in excess of $9 million per month. Inflation having pushed the Poverty Datum
Line (PDL) for a family of six to over $12 million, such taxation is
untenable. How can it conceivably be justified to exact tax on an income of
only an eighth of PDL, and to apply a maximum, horrendous rate of 40% on
income above three-quarters of PDL?
It is unconscionable to extort such
tax from the poor! Moreover, much of
the niggardly remaining after-tax
income of the oppressed taxpayer then
disappears in direct taxes, such as
17,5% value added tax (Vat) on much of
the spending of those remnants of
income, Customs Duties built into product
prices, and the like. Allowing
for the probability of two income earners in
poor families, the minimum tax
threshold should be $6 million per month, but
more justly at least $8
million per month, and even that does not give
recognition to the inevitable
inflation over the year ahead.
Similarly, tax credits and allowances require
radical review. How on earth
can government justify limiting tax credits
for blind persons, mentally and
physically disabled, and the elderly to an
amount equating to less than ten
loaves of bread per annum? It is as
unreasonable, and verging on the unjust,
to limit the tax deduction for
pension contributions to a niggardly $1 440
000.
But modification of
Zimbabwean taxation should not relate only to impacts
upon the poor. Very
correctly, a year ago Murerwa motivated a change to
allowances for capital
gains tax, intending that the tax should apply to
actual gains, as distinct
from the notional gains occasioned by inflation.
But, having fairly
prescribed that each year's allowance should equate to
that year's
inflation, the legislation was (and still is) vague and capable
of
misinterpretation, in that Zimra restricts the allowances to each year's
inflation without applying the compounding effect that in fact pertains to
inflation. Equity dictates that this should be rectified (with
retrospective effect).
In his 2005 budget statement, Minister Murerwa was
emphatic that further
representations for Vat exemptions and zero-ratings
would not be
entertained. However, economic circumstances dictate that he
should
reconsider that stance. In particular, medical and educational
services
should not be Vat exempt, but should be zero-rated. By so doing,
health
services providers and educationalists can recover Vat paid by them
on goods
and services, claiming those payments as input tax. In that event
they would
not have to treat the Vat they pay as operating costs which they
must
recover in the fees that they must charge. So many Zimbabweans can no
longer afford health services, and are calamitously embattled in trying to
fund their children's education. Government can give a little alleviation to
them by zero-rating health and education.
Of overriding concern is that
the 2006 budget should demonstrate a real
intent by government to cut its
spending markedly. The magnitude of
government's over-spend, year after
year, and its resultant recourse to
gargantuan borrowings, has been one of
the greatest contributants to the
intense hyperinflation that has plagued
Zimbabwe. Government needs to move
towards a balanced budget, and to
adherence to that budget. It is all very
well that it talks of reducing the
swollen public service, but with 80% of
civil servants being nurses,
doctors, teachers and the like, the extent of
possible reduction is
limited.
Moreover, unless the reduction is achieved by natural attrition, the
retrenchment packages will be crippling. Public service reduction must be
pursued, but so should cut-backs in Defence spending, in supporting an
excessive number of embassies abroad, in endless trips by monstrously large
delegations, in huge cavalcades and the like. Zimbabwe must swallow its
pride and accept food aid, instead, of funding massive imports from
debt.
Government should also reconsider, yet again, its position on the
privatisation of parastatals. Not only would the economy benefit from the
efficiencies and greater productivity generally forthcoming from
privatisation (as proven in innumerable instances in the United Kingdom,
much of mainland Europe, USA, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia and
elsewhere), but government would be progressively relieved of debt and
guarantees, and in some instances would generate revenue inflows from the
disposals of assets.
Most of all, the 2006 budget statement needs to
evidence a genuine intent of
government to be investment facilitative. That
would be a major factor in
achieving the so long desired and greatly needed
economic turnaround. It
would strengthen the taxation base, by the creation
of more taxable
entities, expansion of existing ones. It would create
employment, resulting
in more domestic trade. That facilitation must
include evidence of a real
intent to honour Bilateral Investment Promotion
and Protection Agreements
(BIPPAs), to enter into further double taxation
treaties, creation of
meaningful investment incentives, reconciliation with
the international
community, and providing investment protection guarantee
insurance through
internationally-recognised facilities (such as the World
Bank's MIGA
facility).
The crisis of expectations exists, but weakened by
little hope that the
expectations will be met.
Zim Independent
Comment
HAVING witnessed the rich irony of President Mugabe addressing
meetings on
food security in Harare and Rome, we were last week treated to
the equally
ludicrous spectacle of him addressing regional leaders on
democracy.
"Democracy (in developing countries) is still under the great
burden of
trying to prove itself to Europe," he told a gathering of the
Southern
African International Dialogue in Maseru. Zimbabwe would stand firm
in
refusing to have its elections unfairly judged by Britain, he
said.
The list is a bit longer than that. In fact the only countries that
will be
permitted to judge elections in Zimbabwe are those that can be
guaranteed to
ignore rigging such as China, Russia, the AU and Sadc.
But
the incongruities did not stop there. The assembled leaders, who
included
Mugabe's old pal Dr Mahathir Mohamad, former prime minister of
Malaysia,
proceeded to lecture the press on its role in society. They even
found some
fool, calling himself a "former Western journalist", to stand up
and say he
was very sorry for "things we have not done right".
His name was Andrew
Taussig, for the record.
Then we had a litany of complaints from these
unaccountable leaders about
how they had been treated at the hands of the
media. Lesotho premier
Pakalitha Mosisili said journalists "could even
disrespect elders and
leaders in their reports".
Surely not! Actually
treating these self-important, self-imposed,
self-serving creatures to the
scrutiny they deserve? Did any of the
reporters present, for instance, ask
what goodies Mahathir had brought along
for the Mugabe family home?
We
recall him encountering embarrassing questions from opposition MPs in the
Malaysian parliament when he donated timber to Mugabe.
Then we had
George Charamba telling stories. He claimed that Western
journalists were
trained "in the context of national values which inculcated
in them the need
to defend national interests".
What examples can he give of such training?
Did he experience such
"inculcation" when he was the beneficiary of a
British scholarship?
Has he ever read any articles by Gary Younge or Polly
Toynbee in the
Guardian? Is he unaware that significant segments of the
British media are
loudly opposed to Britain's role in Iraq? Can you imagine
anybody at the
Herald daring to criticise Zimbabwe's role in the
Congo?
The most notable thing about the Southern African International
Dialogue is
this yawning chasm between rhetoric and reality. Here is an
organisation
based on the concept of smart partnerships between governments
and the
private sector. Mugabe is able to fly to Lesotho to pontificate on
the need
for such cooperation when his ministers such as Didymus Mutasa and
Chris
Mushohwe are busy threatening farms and businesses with
seizure.
While Mugabe was at SAID in Maseru, state-sponsored raiders were
plundering
farms in Mwenezi of tractors and irrigation equipment, the
product of years
of investment.
How smart was that? And the state media
here needs to be educated on how
self-sufficient Malaysia was when it
rejected IMF prescriptions in 1998. Its
leaders had built it into a dynamic
modern economy, the very opposite of
Zimbabwe whose leaders have reduced it
to a basket case dependent upon
international charity.
This is what the
Sunday Mail's Munyaradzi Huni, who invariably appears
anxious for somebody
to worship, had to say on Zimbabwe's predicament: "The
country's economic
turnaround programme seems to have gone off the rails,
but great statesmen
like Dr Mahathir know that 'failure is not an option'."
And that's the best
he can do!
Meanwhile, the conviction of former finance minister and
deputy prime
minister Anwar Ibrahim, seen as a political threat to Mahathir,
was
overturned by the country's federal court in September 2004, nearly a
year
after Mahathir's departure from office.
Anwar had been charged with
sexual assault but, in a ruling that will sound
familiar to Zimbabweans, the
state's key witness proved unreliable and was
described as a police
accomplice.
He claimed the assault had taken place in an apartment block that
had not
been built at the time. The original trial court allowed him to
change his
evidence. In so doing it had misdirected itself, the federal
court ruled.
Anwar's release from prison six years to the day since his
dismissal from
government was greeted with jubilation by his supporters. His
continued
detention had become an embarrassment to the government of Dr
Abdullah
Badawi who has attempted to put some distance between himself and
the
22-year rule of his autocratic predecessor, news agencies
reported.
"You've got to recognise the fact that his predecessor wouldn't
have made
this judgement possible," Anwar told reporters after his
release.
No wonder Zimbabwean officials are saying "Dr M" has much to teach
us!
The president's nephew, Leo Mugabe, has been much in the news of
late. But
it's not the sort of publicity he would want.
He is accused of
reselling subsidised flour across the country's borders in
what many in the
ruling party may call private enterprise. What interested
us were reports
that at the time of his detention Leo complained bitterly
that Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights had not taken the slightest interest
in his
case.
"Where are all the human rights lawyers?" he was heard to
complain.
And his wife Veronica couldn't understand why Leo had been singled
out when
commodities trading was very much a family business!
Is
Harare town clerk Nomutsa Chideya a card-carrying member of Zanu PF? You
would certainly think so from his remarks about the Combined Harare
Residents Association. He described them as "people who get foreign funding
and want to please their masters by making unnecessary noise.
"They
should not use opposition parties to attack the operations of local
authorities but should learn to take up ownership of the city," he was
reported as saying in the Sunday Mail Metro.
"What we expect from
residents with the city at heart is to look at all
fundamentals and find a
possible way forward."
He certainly hasn't found a way forward despite being
kept in style by
ratepayers over a number of years. We recall that house in
Milton Park. And
what sort of arrogance is it that a paid official tells
Harare residents
what he expects of them?
This is what happens when long
years of service to the regime leads
functionaries to conclude that they can
say - and do - what they like.
What has Chideya done to improve water
supplies, road conditions, street
lighting and refuse disposal? How does the
city look now compared to when he
first took office?
Official arrogance
and non-performance are very much a part of Zimbabwean
public life. The two
seem to go together!
Mr Chideya, get off your backside and achieve something
for Harare before
you lecture ratepayers on what they should or should not
be doing. And who
believes for one minute that "networking" with Russia is
going to produce
anything, as you seem to think?
Chideya said he placed
adverts in newspapers about the supplementary budget
because the city only
had nine commissioners who did not have the capacity
to visit all
residential areas to hold consultations.
Why does he think anybody wants to
see these incompetent Zanu PF stooges?
The residents want the return of
their elected council and they want it now.
Hopefully, when democracy is
restored the first thing the elected council
will do is booting Chideya
out.
By the way, how much is that Milton Park house costing and who is paying
for
it?
Congratulations to the Harare commission and the Zimbabwe
National Water
Authority for their inimitable diligence. After years of
painstaking inquiry
this week their efforts were handsomely rewarded.
The
Sunday Mail Metro reports that the commission and Zinwa have discovered
that
the city's "perennial water problems" are due to "poor infrastructure"
at
water treatment plants. This made it "impossible" to pump water
efficiently,
the paper reported. This had left many residential areas
without water for
weeks on end.
Adding further to our enlightenment on the city's water
problems, Chideya
discovered that the increased number of residents was
"putting a lot of
pressure on reservoirs".
After this miraculous
discovery can we expect to see an improvement in
service delivery? Can we
expect an apology or a reinstatement of Harare
executive mayor Elias
Mudzuri, falsely accused by Ignatious Chombo of
mismanagement of council
affairs?
Meanwhile, unlike the Herald, we were not surprised by the
conspiracy of
silence by both the Harare commission and Chitungwiza council
on the
outbreak of dysentery in the two cities. The paper said the two
councils had
an ethical and legal responsibility of keeping their residents
informed of
health risks.
There could be three possible explanations why
they couldn't be bothered. It's
the first time in many years that we have
heard somebody raising issues of
ethics in Zanu PF operations. So perhaps
that word is not in their
vocabulary. Secondly, both commissions can't have
a legal obligation towards
residents who didn't elect them. Their first
obligation is to the minister
who appointed them.
The more probable
reason for the silence is the culture of denial in
government. They don't
want to admit that their master is failing to run the
two cities.
Surely
the Herald hasn't forgotten that such simple home truths nearly cost
Bulawayo mayor Japhet Ncube his job when he said several residents had
starved to death in the city. President Mugabe went so far as to ask
Archbishop Pius Ncube to produce the bodies of the deceased.
So who would
want to be called a saboteur and a puppet of the West by
exposing such
inconvenient truths?
Finally, will somebody please pay for some spelling
lessons for the
president. He says he can't spell Dell. But he can spell
hell.
The reason he can spell hell is that he uses it all the time. "Practice
makes perfect". Everyone can go there, he thinks. But Dell is a bit more
problematic because the president hasn't come across it before.
Muckraker
is sure that with a bit more use our very educated leader will get
a grip on
it. The US ambassador must provide the homework for this
presidential
self-improvement exercise by speaking out more often.
Other words the
president has difficulty with are democracy, rule-of-law,
good governance
and economic recovery. But being a slow learner he is
unlikely to grasp
these before 2008.
* In our edition of October 7 we referred to a report
on ZimOnline that
Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa had taken a second
wife. The report
claimed this had caused complications with his first
wife.
Chinamasa's lawyers have since written to say that the report is false
and
tarnishes their client's "good name, fame, reputation and
esteem".
This is a matter we believe the minister should take up with
ZimOnline. But
in the meantime we are happy to publish an apology as
requested by him if he
feels his good name, fame, reputation and esteem have
suffered as a result
of the reference to the report in this column.
IOL
November 18
2005 at 12:02AM
The intelligence ministers of South Africa and
Zimbabwe took exception
to a reporter's question on human rights at the
signing of a bilateral
agreement in Cape Town on Thursday.
Zimbabwean minister Dydimus Mutasa called on defence and security
officials
from both Zimbabwe and South Africa to pray for the forgiveness of
the
journalist, who accused Zimbabwe of human rights abuses.
It arose
during the signing of two agreements between South Africa and
Zimbabwe in
which they agreed to establish a joint commission of defence and
security
and for Zimbabwe's flying instructors to train South African Air
Force
pilots.
The journalist asked intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils
how South
Africa, with a "good human rights track record", could sign
agreements with
Zimbabwe, who was said to have a "poor human rights
record".
A clearly embarrassed Kasrils immediately
apologised for the
journalist's question. But Mutasa said the question was
to be expected.
"I just want to say that he (the reporter) doesn't
have to apologise
to us and that perhaps the best (is) that all of us here
should agree to say
to our honourable reporter is simply, to pray for
him.
"Lord forgive him for he does not know what he is saying,"
Mutasa said
at the inaugural meeting of the South Africa/Zimbabwe joint
permanent
commission on defence and security.
"The liberation
struggle was much more painful than the insults we are
getting from some of
these misguided creatures," Mutasa said.
Kasrils berated the
media.
"I find it rather insulting that you (the reporter) should
level such
a question here at us with this delegation from
Zimbabwe.
"I apologise to them that they have to sit here on an
historic
occasion when we have signed two agreements which are so important
to the
security, stability, the development of both our peoples and
countries,"
Kasrils said.
He stated South Africa was committed
to working with its neighbours
and with Zimbabwe.
"They have
very daunting challenges. They are very frank about the
kind of problems
they have to deal with.
"We agree with them fully when they situate
those problems within a
context related to the colonial status of Zimbabwe,
which for so many years
had the name Rhodesia thrust upon
them."
The question was bound to come, Zimbabwe's deputy home
affairs
minister Sydney Sekeremayi told the gathering.
"All our
lives... was dedicated to fighting for freedom and it's an
insult to say we
are abusing or violating human rights." - Sapa