Lawyers lay siege to farm Agustine Mukaro/Gift
Phiri INFORMATION minister Jonathan Moyo's legal counsel Johannes Tomana and
two colleagues - Wilson Manase and Joseph Mandizha, are allegedly blocking
the movement of 120 tonnes of seed maize from a farm they were offered in
September under government's sullied land reform programme.
Tomana,
Manase and Mandizha moved onto Maryland Farm in the Darwendale/Trelawney
area on September 19 this year, evicted the white commercial farmer and
allegedly seized his equipment and personal belongings.
On the
property there are also 90 tonnes of grain, 500 head of cattle, 97 sheep,
eight race horses and farming equipment. The seed and grain were due to be
delivered to Seed Co and the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) when the three
lawyers moved in.
Speaking to the Zimbabwe Independent yesterday, the
evicted farmer, Pieter Gertenbach, said the lawyers prevented him moving his
produce and equipment.
"We are still making frantic efforts to
deliver the seed and grain to the marketing authorities," Gertenbach
said.
"We have been barred from getting to the farm which means that
we can't move our property and equipment valued at not less than $5
billion." Gertenbach said the 1 300-hectare farm was diversified and
highly-productive.
"Other than producing seed maize, we were also
engaged in seed tobacco, flowers for export, horse breeding as well as
cattle and sheep," he said.
Tomana yesterday said he moved on to the farm
after the expiry of a notice of compulsory
acquisition.
"Gertenbach was served with a Section 8 (notice),"
Tomana said. "His continued occupation became a violation of Section 8 and
then he was served with a Section 9.
"I was offered the farm. And
at the time I moved in, he had taken flight. I never seized anything and my
movement on to the farm was procedural," he said.
He denied that
he was blocking the movement of any crops from the farm.
"Did he tell you
that he has just finished moving his tobacco to the auction floor? Now he
has been moving his seed maize," said Tomana.
Gertenbach however
maintained the three lawyers were helping themselves to household goods from
the three farmhouses.
"They have broken into the farmhouses and
looted all household goods, including food and furniture," he
said.
He said the lawyers had divided the farm into three plots and
allocated themselves a house each.
The lawyers have also been
accused of denying the animals, which include chickens, access to food and
water. The animals were only rescued through the intervention of the Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).
SPCA national
executive Merylin Harrison confirmed having visited the farm twice in the
past week.
"Poultry and sheep were locked up in a building for two
days without food or water," Harrison said. "I insisted that I would not
leave the property before they set the animals free. On my second visit to
the farm the animals were being looked after."
Gono misled public Chris Goko/Shakeman
Mugari RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono knew months ago
that several distressed banks were beyond redemption and put in place
contingency measures to form a new banking group, Zimbabwe Allied Banking
Group (ZABG), out of their ashes.
Despite his repeated assurances
that no bank would collapse, information gleaned from central bank sources
shows that the RBZ had been planning months ago to form the ZABG by merging
collapsed banks. Gono last month told a parliamentary portfolio committee
that no bank would fold but information to hand indicates that by then he
was already taking steps to form the new special purpose vehicle
(SPV).
The SPV will warehouse government shares in the new group
which is likely to emerge from seven closed banks, which include Trust,
Royal, Barbican, Intermarket, Time, Rapid and First National Building
Society.
The RBZ last Friday announced the registration of ZABG and
another SPV company, Allied Financial Services (AFS), through the takeover
of shelf companies Tidestock Investments and Cobsdale Trading (Pvt) Ltd
respectively.
Ellen Cherai and Orippa Mawire of Network Secretarial
Services (NNS), which registered the two companies, confirmed that the firms
were registered between July and August.
They also confirmed that
they were in the process of changing the companies' names to Alliance
Financial Services Ltd and ZABG.
While investigations by the Zimbabwe
Independent found no ostensible link between the founders of the two
hitherto-insignificant companies and the central bank, last Friday's legal
notices disclosed a connection.
The legal notices published in the
press announced Tidestock and Cobsdale's intention to change their names to
assume the names of the two RBZ SPVs.
Authoritative banking sector
sources said the plan was hatched some three months ago, suggesting that
Gono anticipated current bankruptcies.
Gono is said to have discussed
with stakeholders the formation of ZABG along the lines of South Africa's
Amalgamated Banks of South Africa (Absa) which controls the Jewel
Bank.
Gono has been under pressure over his assurances that the
closed banks would not collapse despite evidence that their balance sheets
were in parlous positions. Some critics have charged that he might have
misled the public when he insisted that the banking sector was largely
stable when seven financial institutions were subsequently shut
down.
Most of the closed banks, especially Trust, have hugely
negative balance sheets. Their liabilities far outstrip the value of their
assets.
Gono sank about $500 billion in a bid to save the collapsing
banks, in vain.
Now he will need $2 trillion to capitalise ZABG, an
amount which represents 25% of the national budget.
More trouble for Moyo Dumisani Muleya INFORMATION
minister Jonathan Moyo was this week in trouble over the state media's
attack on South African President Thabo Mbeki for allegedly pandering to the
whims of Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Moyo's department was blamed for giving its tacit
approval, if not instigating the criticism.
Official sources said
Moyo was struggling to disentangle himself from the problem after President
Robert Mugabe slammed the Herald over a feature last Friday that cast
aspersions on Mbeki's involvement in the Zimbabwe crisis.
This came
as Zanu PF last week adopted regulations which bar members who have not been
in the party for five consecutive years from holding national positions.
This was seen as aimed at newcomers like Moyo and others who desperately
want to be elected MPs. Moyo, an appointed legislator, is trying to become
an elected Zanu PF MP in Tsholotsho.
Mugabe's anger with Moyo's
department follows recent clashes involving the Information minister and
senior colleagues such as Vice-President Joseph Msika, Special Affairs and
Land Reform minister John Nkomo, and Zanu PF spokesman Nathan
Shamuyarira.
A senior government official yesterday said there was
"mounting grave concern" over Moyo's perceived hostile working relationship
with colleagues.
"Moyo is under immense pressure over these issues
because we are now gravely concerned about his conduct," a senior government
official told the Independent.
Efforts to get comment from Moyo
failed yesterday as he first dropped and then did not pick up
calls.
Sources said photocopies of an article in the
government-controlled Sunday Mail's current edition, written by the
columnist operating under the pseudonym Lowani Ndlovu, were distributed in
cabinet.
The motive for the move was not clear but some suspect it
was designed to extricate Moyo after Mugabe heard his explanations on the
Mbeki issue.
The Sunday Mail article was written by someone who
pretended to be worried about Moyo's reaction last Saturday to the
controversial Herald feature, which was thought to have been authored by a
government spin-doctor.
Moyo's official response to the Herald
feature, clearly triggered by Mugabe's ire, said Mbeki's involvement in
Zimbabwe was "open, honest, and above board".
In what was seen as
a bid to find a scapegoat his department attacked the Herald for being
"negative, disrespectful, and even antagonistic" towards
Mbeki.
The Herald feature was described as replete with "damaging
falsehoods, imputations, innuendoes and unfair comments".
But the
Sunday Mail columnist, who has not hesitated to take pot shots at ministers
like Nkomo, tried to defend criticism of Mbeki, saying if it was "fair game"
to criticise Mugabe in the South African press why was it not okay to do the
same with Mbeki?
Bennett appeals for release Gift Phiri THE lawyer
representing jailed opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
legislator Roy Bennett, Advocate Eric Matinenga, has filed an urgent chamber
application in the High Court seeking his release.
The ruling Zanu PF
last week used its majority in parliament to impose a one-year jail term
with hard labour on the Chimanimani MP for shoving Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa during a debate on May 18.
The Zanu PF-dominated
parliamentary privileges committee recommended, after investigation, that
Bennett be sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, with three months suspended
on condition of good behaviour.
An attempt by the MDC to challenge
the committee's report in court was blocked by the Speaker of parliament,
Emmerson Mnangagwa, who issued an order in terms of the Privileges,
Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act barring the courts from hearing
Bennett's case.
"As you are aware we made an application seeking to
bar presentation of the report in parliament but that application was
refused by Judge (Yunus) Omerjee on the basis that the Speaker had issued a
certificate," Matinenga said.
"An appeal has now been noted
against the judgement by Judge Omerjee. In addition to noting of appeal, I
have also filed an urgent application with the High Court that Mr Bennett be
released from prison pending the determination of the appeal against Judge
Omerjee's judgement."
Matinenga said he had also instituted review
proceedings against the parliamentary findings of contempt and the sentence
imposed.
"We are also in the process of approaching the Supreme Court
to seek the determination as to whether the exercise of the judiciary
function by parliament in a manner that it did, is constitutional,"
Matinenga said. "We are waiting to argue the application before a judge of
the court."
Bennett pushed Chinamasa to the floor after extreme
provocation. Chinamasa referred to Bennett's ancestors as "murderers and
thieves" who stole Zimbabwe's land from blacks. Bennett is the first MP to
be jailed for contempt of parliament outside the judicial process.
Mugabe silent on Bush re-election Gift Phiri/Dumisani
Muleya ZIMBABWE yesterday refused to say whether or not President Robert
Mugabe would congratulate United States President George Bush on his
re-election on Wednesday, as mixed reactions to the poll in the world's only
superpower continued to flow in.
Government spokesman George Charamba
said President Mugabe had not yet commented on Bush's
re-election.
Charamba's initial reaction was that Bush's re-election had
nothing to do with Zimbabwe.
"What has Mr Bush's win got to do
with the Zimbabwe government?" Charamba asked. "We will do something in
terms of international diplomacy. The Zimbabwe government will do what
happens in the world of diplomacy. We have our schedule. That is going to be
done."
Charamba said it was encouraging that losers in the US
election accepted defeat with "grace and dignity".
"Losers in
America lose with their grace and dignity, not some characters who think
courts can compensate for lack of popular win," he said.
Mugabe has
since his own controversial re-election in 2002 blasted Bush's initial
election in 2000, which was marred by controversy in
Florida.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader
Morgan Tsvangirai challenged Mugabe's re-election in the courts. Tsvangirai
described Mugabe's re-election as "daylight robbery". The case is still in
the courts.
While Zimbabwe dithered over how to react, neighbouring
South Africa made its position on Bush's re-election clear. In a carefully
worded statement, President Thabo Mbeki congratulated Bush on his victory
but included a thinly-veiled criticism of American foreign
policy.
"The United States election has run its dramatic course and
President Bush will be serving a second term. The government and people of
South Africa, in wishing him well, will fervently hope for greater world
stability and peace under his leadership of the United States," he
said.
"We look forward to renewed support for, and interest in,
Africa and the developing world, reform of world institutions and an era of
multilateralism marked by a concerted drive to deal decisively with the
challenge of poverty and underdevelopment. Senator (John) Kerry ran a good
campaign. We congratulate him too."
Bush won with 274 electoral
college votes and a majority of 3,7 million popular votes over his opponent
in an election even the losers conceded was free and fair. Kerry phoned Bush
to concede defeat and Bush congratulated him for giving a good run for his
money.
MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi said: "The MDC will work with
any country that is supportive of the democratic aspirations of the people
of Zimbabwe."
South Africa's University of Witwatersrand
international relations analyst Professor John Stremlau said while other
leaders scrambled to condemn Bush's re-election, Mbeki's relationship with
the American president was "professional and
statesmanlike".
Although Mbeki has always criticised American foreign
policy and its negative impact on global peace, he has avoided
counterproductive vitriol associated with anti-American
leaders.
The outcome has been welcomed by Russia's Vladimir Putin and
Uganda's Yoweri Museveni. But while France's Jacques Chirac called to
congratulate Bush, his countrymen and many others in Western Europe greeted
the news with dismay as a result of the Iraq conflict and abrogation of the
Kyoto protocol.
Tsvangirai resumes regional briefings Itai
Dzamara MOVEMENT for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai left
the country on Wednesday on an ongoing tour to brief Southern African
Development Community (Sadc) leaders on the political situation in
Zimbabwe.
MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi yesterday said Tsvangirai
would meet all Sadc leaders.
"He is visiting countries as a way
of raising awareness on the issue of elections in this country," Nyathi
said. "These visits are at the invitation of the Sadc leaders who want to
know the situation regarding the implementation of the Sadc protocol. The
president (Tsvangirai) is going to articulate our position that there is no
commitment by Zanu PF towards implementing the
protocol."
President Robert Mugabe joined other regional leaders in
adopting the Sadc protocol on the conduct of elections in August at a summit
in Mauritius.
Tsvangirai was expected to meet recently re-elected
Botswana President Festus Mogae in Gaborone today before meeting President
Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique in Maputo.
Mogae has been critical
of Mugabe's policies in the past and recently said Zimbabwe's problems
reflected "a crisis of governance".
Tsvangirai launched his regional
diplomatic initiative two weeks ago after his acquittal last month on
treason charges based on allegations that he wanted to assassinate Mugabe
and stage a military coup.
He first met President Thabo Mbeki of
South Africa before meeting Mauritian leader Paul Berenger, the current
chairman of Sadc.
Tsvangirai reportedly told Mbeki and Berenger that
Mugabe was not implementing electoral reforms as required under the Sadc
guidelines and principles on the conduct of democratic elections. He said
there was too little time for adequate preparation before the election in
March and called for a postponement, a call which Mugabe and his Foreign
Affairs minister Stan Mudenge have scoffed at.
The MDC leader is
also expected to tell Sadc leaders that Mugabe's government continues its
political repression and human rights abuses, citing the NGO Bill currently
before parliament.
Ex-Zapu chefs shun primaries Loughty Dube AS Zanu
PF primary elections beckon countrywide, almost the entire senior former
Zapu leadership has opted out of the race to represent the party in
parliament next year.
About three-quarters of the former Zapu
leadership that stood on a Zanu PF ticket in the last parliamentary
elections before being routed by the opposition MDC in 2000, have either
opted out of the race or have not indicated their intention to contest the
seats they lost in the previous election.
Zanu PF only won two
seats out of a possible 23 in Matabeleland in the 2000 parliamentary
election that nearly ended the party's 20-year grip on power.
Senior
Zapu leaders who have announced that they will not contest the primaries and
ultimately the parliamentary elections include Simon Khaya Moyo, John Nkomo,
Dumiso Dabengwa, Callistus Ndlovu, Angeline Masuku, Cain Mathema, Thenjiwe
Lesabe and Vice President Joseph Msika.
Dabengwa two weeks ago said
he has retired from active politics and will not contest any positions in
the party but will help the party if invited to do so.
A week
later Moyo, who is now Zimbabwe's ambassador in Pretoria, announced that he
had no intention of trying to reclaim the Bulilima-Mangwe South seat he lost
in 2000. However, other senior former Zapu politicians have not made their
intentions clear.
The Zimbabwe Liberators Peace Initiative said the
pull-out indicated that they did not enjoy any support in
Matabeleland.
Over 30 grilled in Zanu PF's anti-graft
crusade Dumisani Muleya THE ruling Zanu PF conducted more than 30
interviews with its top members and business executives in a bid to unearth
mismanagement in its chain of failed companies, a report on the probe
shows.
The report says Zanu PF's politburo investigation committee
quizzed the party's secretary for administration, Emmerson Mnangagwa,
secretary for security Nicholas Goche, senior party officials Sydney
Sekeramayi, Didymus Mutasa, Enos Chikowore, Frederick Shava, and managers of
companies that it has interests in.
It says Mnangagwa was
interviewed twice because he has for many years presided over the ruling
party's business empire which is riddled with mismanagement and
corruption.
Mnangagwa was grilled over the findings at a politburo
meeting on October 20. Senior Zanu PF insiders accuse him of running down or
failing to adequately supervise the companies.
He was also
quizzed over the escape of key directors in Zanu PF companies, Manharlal
Chiunilal and Jayant Chiunilal Joshi and Dipak Pandya. The Joshi brothers
and Pandya fled the country in April shortly after the probe
began.
The investigating team also interviewed managers at Treger
Holdings, Zidco Holdings, Catercraft (Pvt) Ltd, Fibrolite (Pvt) Ltd,
Zimbabwe Grain Bag and First Banking Corporation, in which Zanu PF has
interests.
Zanu PF also has significant interests in Mike Appel,
Zidlee Enterprises, and the Southern Africa Re-Insurance company. It had
interests in NamZim, Ottawa Building, National Blankets and Woolworths.
M&S Syndicate Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned Zanu PF investment vehicle, holds
equities in these companies on behalf of the party.
The probe
team comprised chairman David Karimanzira, retired General Solomon Mujuru,
Obert Mpofu, Simba Makoni and Thoko Mathuthu.
It was tasked to verify
and evaluate the party's investments, asset base, capacity utilisation and
performance, and the levels of production and receipts.
The team
was also mandated to verify "the purposes for investments, targets for
investments, company structures and procedures for reporting, and the
accounting system".
It wrote letters to the management of seven
companies, in which Zanu PF has interests, asking for all relevant documents
such as financial statements, annual reports, shareholders' agreements,
memorandums and articles of association, board meeting minutes, and records
of returns.
Mnangagwa, the investigation report says, told the
committee most of the Zanu PF investments were difficult to verify because
there were no records.
This exposed him to sharp criticism in the
politburo and within the party.
Goche said although he was an M&S
Syndicate board member in 2001, he "never received any invitation to attend
board meetings".
The report says Chikowore, who worked with the Zanu
PF companies since 1980, said he was not aware of how Zanu PF shares in
National Blankets and Woolworths were disposed of.
Frederick
Shava, who chaired Zidco from 1980 to 1998, said dividends were not declared
because they were used to buy shares in other companies.
He spoke on
issues to do with business ethics, accountability, and declaration of
dividends.
Sekeramayi, the longest-serving official in Zidco,
narrated the company's history but did not reveal much on its activities..
Mutasa spoke on the issue of the Joshi brothers.
MEPs seek to bar Kangai Gift Phiri EUROPEAN Union
parliamentarians (MEPs) yesterday resolved to keep Zanu PF politburo member
Kumbirai Kangai out of parliamentary talks with African, Caribbean and
Pacific (ACP) states in the Netherlands later this month, it has
emerged.
Weekend talks between the host government and MEPs failed to
settle differences and a last-ditch attempt to bridge the divide was set for
today, two weeks ahead of the opening of the six-day EU/ACP Joint
Parliamentary Assembly meeting in the Hague.
Kangai is number 22
on a list of 95 associates of President Robert Mugabe banned from travelling
to the EU under the targeted sanctions regime.
His attendance at the
meeting set for November 20-25 could spark a walk-out by MEPs, the
co-spokesman on Foreign Affairs and Human Rights in the European Parliament
Geoffrey van Orden said in a telephone interview from Brussels
yesterday.
"We are making representations to the Dutch government not
to give a visa to Mr Kangai," Van Orden said. "It would be quite wrong for
politicians such as ourselves to sit down in a meeting with a banned
individual.
He is completely barred from attending the meeting. It
would be an act of utmost hypocrisy for politicians concerned about the
political and human rights situation in Zimbabwe to have any dealings with
Mugabe's henchmen that have been specifically banned from travel to the EU
by the EU."
Zanu PF secretary for external affairs Didymus Mutasa on
Wednesday night said the MEP's argument was "absolutely
preposterous".
"Comrade Kangai will be attending that meeting in his
capacity as a member of parliament," Mutasa said. "The argument that Kangai
is on the sanctions list and should therefore not travel to the EU/ACP
meeting is absolutely preposterous. As a democratic institution they have
been saying they want equal voices but they are not giving the same
opportunities to Zanu PF."
Van Orden said a weekend meeting with the
Dutch Foreign Affairs minister Bernard Bot failed to resolve the dispute. He
said Bot was arguing that the Belgian government wanted to waive the ban on
the grounds that the ACP is subject to multilateral agreements conferring
privileges and immunities.
The MEPs were due to meet Bot again this
morning to resolve the issue. Human rights groups also protested to Bot as
news filtered through that Kangai had applied for a visa, although he has
not yet been granted one.
Zimbabwe Watch, a human rights group based in
Holland fired off an angry letter to the Foreign Affairs
chief.
"This application is nothing more than a provocation by the
Zimbabwean government to ridicule the sanctions regulations," Zimbabwe Watch
coordinator Wiep Bassie wrote to Bot. "At previous international EU/ACP
Joint Parliamentary Assemblies, exceptions have been made. There have had
disastrous consequences for the progress of the meetings. We would strongly
call upon you to take the EU policy seriously, and not allow Mr Kangai to
enter the Netherlands."
This is not the first time that Kangai
has stirred controversy in the EU/ACP. Two months ago, Kangai was barred
from attending an EU/ACP meeting in Brussels after defying the travel
bans.
Parallel market's undying spirit Staff
Writer RESERVE Bank officials have found a convenient Trojan horse to devalue
the local currency without provoking President Robert Mugabe's ire. They
merely raise the diaspora rate of exchange to remove the lustre from the
black market.
Their efforts have often come
short.
Sibonile Moyo sits on a make-shift stool fashioned from a
disused metal crate, a length of lace cloth material spread over her lap,
ready to wrap it round her head into a neat, flat-topped turban. Behind her
are rows of neatly arranged cosmetics in faded packages and motley trinkets
that appear to have remained unsold for ages.
Moyo is among
scores of women who stand to lose business if police continue their
crackdown on informal foreign currency dealers.
The white lace turban
is now an identity tag for women who depend on exchanging foreign currency
on the streets of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, for a
living.
"If police continue like this we are all finished," Moyo
bemoans. As a single mother she fears losing her only means of providing for
her family.
Scores of women have moved to Bulawayo's Lobengula Street
and Fifth Avenue from towns and cities around the country, swelling the
numbers of informal foreign currency dealers who prowl the city's streets in
search of customers.
They have gotten used to scouring the
pavements along a section now commonly referred to as "The World Bank",
discreetly asking whoever they think intends to exchange the local currency
into pula, rand, pounds sterling or greenbacks, or vice
versa.
Past police blitzes on black market forex dealers, which
threatened to send Moyo and those of her ilk's "business" over the edge,
have not dampened the women's determination.
Police spokesman
Inspector Smile Dube said police would "not rest until we stop their
operations".
He said police were now aware that forex dealers had
changed their style of operating. "We will get to the bottom of it all,"
said Dube.
An Anti-Money Laundering Act provides for the police to
search persons they suspect of holding large amounts of cash without a
warrant in cases of emergency. The regulations have done little to
discourage informal foreign currency traders who continue doing their
business, spurred by the lucrative exchange deals.
The
introduction of large $20 000 "bearer cheques" after Zimbabwe experienced
the worst ever cash crunch last year has enabled the women to conceal large
amounts in smaller pouches that are hard to detect.
Such is the
magnetism of informal forex trading for the women that at one time Reserve
Bank governor Gideon Gono disguised himself at flea markets in Bulawayo and
Victoria Falls to see for himself what it is that emboldens them to take
risks to defy the law.
"We have provided an essential service for
those that work in Botswana and South Africa coming on holidays, but the
police do not recognise that. Instead they arrest us and confiscate our
money, blaming us for the shortage of foreign currency," complained 33-year
old Zodwa Muraisi.
"It is a cat and mouse game here. To succeed, one
always has to keep a step ahead of the authorities," Muraisi says mimicking
a popular ad-line from a major commercial bank.
The central bank
announced last week a new exchange rate of $6 200 to the American dollar,
11% higher than the previous benchmark of $5 600. Informal traders offer up
to $8 000.
Stringent monetary measures to curb forex leakages and
shore up dwindling official reserves have failed to staunch illegal dealings
on the parallel market.
Economists hailed the steps taken by the
central bank and predicted the measures would "destroy" the thriving illegal
foreign currency market largely blamed for stoking hard currency shortages
and negatively impacting on the economy.
But economic commentator
Eric Bloch says unless the measures taken by the central bank are reinforced
by political commitment on the part of government on exchange rates, the
informal market will continue to thrive.
Eddie Cross, the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change economic advisor, scoffed at the central
bank's ineffectual efforts to stamp out informal foreign currency
dealing.
He said the current practices of attempting to manage and
manipulate exchange rates would not work. "The only real market arbiter
remains the street - dangerous, illegal and inefficient," Cross
said.
For Moyo and Muraisi the informal currency market has been a
steady means of earning a living and they vow to continue.
"We
offer customers better rates than the banks. That is why people prefer to
deal with us than the banks," boasted Muraisi.
Bulawayo council to quiz Mujuru Loughty Dube THE
Bulawayo city council, concerned about stagnation in the construction of the
much-awaited Gwayi-Shangani dam, wants a meeting with Water Resources
minister Joyce Mujuru to explain the lack of movement on the first phase of
the ambitious water project.
The council's Future Water Supplies and
Water Action Committee at its meeting last month recommended that the
minister be called to Bulawayo to address councillors on the
issue.
The councillors said the Bulawayo council was a key
stakeholder in the project despite efforts by government and the
Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust (MZWT) to sideline the local
authority.
Contributing during the committee's debate Alderman
Charles Mpofu suggested that Mujuru be invited as a matter of urgency to
explain to the council the fate of the stalled project.
The idea
to draw water from the Zambezi River on the border with Zambia to
drought-prone Matabeleland was first mooted in 1923 and has been deferred by
successive governments, citing costs. The Zanu PF government has always
brought up the issue each time it faces a critical election in which
Matabeleland is a major factor.
Bulawayo executive mayor Japhet
Ndabeni Ncube confirmed to the Zimbabwe Independent this week that council
wanted the minister to discuss with councillors the status of the whole
project.
"This is a courtesy invitation to the minister to come and
brief councillors on the progress and status of the project since the
government through the Zimbabwe National Water Authority is now in charge of
the project. We want to know where council stands," Ncube
said.
"We want the minister to inform us officially that the
government is now in charge of the project and also brief us on what happens
to organisations that bought shares in the MZWT over a decade ago," said
Ncube.
The Bulawayo council is the designated implementer of the
project. Government at the beginning of the year announced that it had taken
over implementation of the project and released about $2 billion to
kick-start it.
Chombo appointees gobble millions at Town
House Augustine Mukaro THE five-member James Kurasha committee running
Harare City Council is milking ratepayers of over $50 million a month in
payments and allowances.
Senior officials at Town House said members of
the committee, handpicked by Local Government minister Ignatious Chombo,
were being paid $10 million each as salaries plus fuel and cellphone
allowances. Committee members have also been exempted from paying rates to
council.
"A single committee member's salary could pay 45
councillors' allowances for three months," officials said.
As of
August when MDC councillors were forced to resign en masse they were getting
a paltry $70 000 each a month.
There are also reports that council
spent $300 million repairing the official mayoral Mercedes Benz which acting
Harare mayor Sekesai Makwavarara has taken possession of.
It
becomes her second official vehicle since Makwavarara seized the reins at
Town House last year. The other vehicle is a state-of-the-art Toyota Hilux
twincab she acquired less than a year ago.
The revelations come
at a time when council has struggled to pay workers over the past three
months.
The Kurasha committee is made up of Zanu PF top
functionaries, Tony Gara and Tendai Savanhu. Other members are Harare
provincial administrator Chahuruva and a Mr Makanda.
Officials
said Chombo was in the process of appointing more members to the
committee.
The committee is running the affairs of Harare despite
Chombo's claims that there is no such commission.
Chombo
transferred authority to run Harare from Movement for Democratic Change
councillors to the ruling party through the appointment of a monitoring
committee.
Gara is a former mayor of Harare, former deputy Minister
of Local Government and 2000 losing candidate for Mbare East.
Another congress, the same Zanu PF Gift Phiri THE
ruling Zanu PF will next month hold its congress amidst growing concerns
about President Robert Mugabe's continued hold on power despite his policy
failures.
Analysts say no one in Zanu PF has the courage to tell
Mugabe that he has failed and should hand the baton to a
successor.
They say it is unlikely that anyone will raise the issue
of Mugabe's long overdue grip on power against a background of economic and
political crises, which have been Zimbabwe's key destabilising
factor.
"It is highly unlikely that anyone in the ruling party would
tell Mugabe to go if past experience is anything to go by," said political
analyst Professor Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, an opposition Movement for
Democratic Change advisor.
"Mugabe runs his party with an iron
fist. There is no independent policy on issues of succession. He has got
total control. Zanu PF does not function as a democratic organisation but a
totalitarian one."
The congress, scheduled to be held at the Harare
International Conference Centre during the first week of December, is
expected to endorse Mugabe as the leader and adopt a motion confirming the
forthcoming legislative polls as an "anti-Blair" election during which the
ruling party is expected to "bury" the "British sponsored MDC".The congress
is also expected to map out strategies for the election next
March.
As is the norm at Zanu PF congresses, there will be
endorsement of candidates for the party's presidency - comprising the
president and his two deputies, and the party's national chairman.The
party's Women and Youth Leagues held their congresses recently and confirmed
Mugabe as their leader. This ensured that Mugabe won't be challenged at
congress.
The Women's League also resolved to push for the election
of a woman for vice president at the forthcoming congress. While Joyce
Mujuru has been put up as woman candidate for the vice presidency, there are
other contestants as well. Powerful administration secretary, Emmerson
Mnangagwa, has been touted as the most likely candidate.
But his
candidacy could be contested by national chairman John Nkomo, who not only
has support in Matabeleland, but also enjoys the support of party members
opposed to Mnangagwa. Mugabe is also expected to make new politburo
appointments.
The commissariat wing of the party is likely to be
broadened with two new deputy secretaries being appointed to coordinate with
the secretary. The existing politburo team of 38 is expected to be expanded
to allow other relatively junior members to take positions on the
sub-committees to be created by Mugabe.
Currently there are 22
full secretaries in the politburo.
Deputy Information and publicity
secretary Jonathan Moyo will, apart from coordinating the information
department, head a new politburo sub-committee of a combined external,
information and commissariat desk, it is expected. Another sub-committee on
transport and security will be placed under Nicholas Goche as the party
restructures itself ahead of the legislative polls.
However,
Mugabe's position will remain unchanged despite the crisis gripping the
country.
"Political thugs have been unleashed on the electorate in
the name of campaigning," Brian Kagoro of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
said.
"Scores of people have been killed in this murderous campaign.
Mugabe's regime has seized productive private farms. Court rulings seeking
to end this anarchy have been contemptuously ignored."
Kagoro
said Mugabe launched his fast-track land redistribution programme to buy the
votes of an angry nation baying for his blood.
Not only did Mugabe
refuse to obey his own government's laws to implement the land reforms
constitutionally, Kagoro said, he told the entire international community
which had been ready to fund the scheme to literally "go to
hell".
His actions capped a remarkable 20 years in power during which
he, more than anyone else in his administration, drove the economy to its
knees, he said.
Analysts said Mugabe has used unworkable policies to
antagonise both local and foreign investors. They noted that mass poverty
and record joblessness are problems currently pervading a nation that once
prided itself as a beacon of hope for Africa.
Now, as the fallout
from his economic failures threatens to bury him politically, Mugabe has
dramatically risen to cow the nation with whatever ammunition he has in the
hope that he can somehow change his fortunes.
"Mugabe must go and he
must go now," constitutional law expert Dr Lovemore Madhuku said. "He has
become a clear and present danger to himself and the whole
nation."
Madhuku however said there was no one in Zanu PF with the
capacity to take over from Mugabe. He said Mugabe was actually an asset to
Zanu PF and a liability to the nation.
Sugar production hits new lows Own
Correspondent HITCHING a lift from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city,
to the sugarcane-growing town of Chiredzi in the south-eastern Lowveld at
odd hours used to be easy as pie for commuters who turned up their noses at
the sole, unreliable goods train service.
Not so
anymore.
Hitchhikers have to draw on all their patience and
desperately hope the unmistakable drone of a huge truck will drift their
way. The long-haulage trucks that used to deliver unrefined sugar regularly
from the cane mills at Triangle and Hippo Valley Estates to the refinery in
the city are no longer as common as in the past.
The change of
fortune for odd-hour commuters illustrates how the production of sugarcane
and delivery from the cane fields has been severely curtailed by
state-sponsored invasions on commercial sugar properties in the
Lowveld.
Close to 180 so-called new farmers have settled themselves
on Hippo Valley Estates, allocating themselves plots ranging in size from 20
to 60 hectares.
More than 140 others have seized land elsewhere on the
sugar estates on plots whose sizes appear largely dependent on the political
status of the individual. Some allegedly own multiple plots, among them MPs,
a deputy minister, bureaucrats, policemen, and parastatal
officials.
Many resettled farmers initially basked in the glory of
harvesting a crop that they neither planted nor produced. Even so, they
failed to cope with harvesting the cane in fields they seized owing to
little or no expertise, no transport of their own and insufficient capital
in spite of huge loans availed by a commercial bank.
This year
production is projected to slump from a peak of 772 739 tonnes to 219 100
tonnes.
According to the Zimbabwe Cane Farmers Association 772 739
tonnes of sugarcane were produced before the seizures in 2002 from 6 928
hectares.
But because of a 440% decrease in hectarage, a mere 148 723
metric tonnes are expected from ZCFA members in the 2004
season.
And although resettled farmers seized a huge chunk of land
spanning 5 350 hectares previously cropped by contract growers, production
is set to decline by 210% to 219 100 tonnes this year compared to
2002.
Dispossessed growers argue that the manner in which the land
acquisition programme was executed does not increase overall output by
expanding the production of sugarcane, and thus sugar and eventually the
economy.
Instead, it is a re-allocation of existing resources by a clutch
of influential people to a handful of client beneficiaries.
"What
is clear is that settlers have all been favoured with political patronage,"
one of the white contract growers, who preferred to remain unnamed for fear
of victimisation, told the Zimbabwe Independent.
In many instances
those tasked with land allocation, mainly senior civil servants, are
themselves the major beneficiaries.
He said senior sugar estate
staffers and their wives, shopkeepers, teachers, and the ruling party
faithful have also arbitrarily profited, as has a handful of emergent and
successful black businessmen.
Agricultural experts say the total
value of all white commercial cane farmers' crop would have raked in $13,5
billion. The commercial white farmers at Hippo Valley Estates would normally
produce $10,15 billion of this figure.
Yet Hippo Valley is
presently producing only 60% of its mill's output due to the roller coaster
disruption on the cane fields that has had a knock-on effect on its own
deliveries, they add.
And the irregular deliveries to the refinery
have rebounded to haunt odd-hour commuters along the Bulawayo-Chiredzi
highway.
"In the past, one was assured of transport without any
hassles any time of the day," bemoans Anita Mhukahuru, a cross border trader
who buys items in Botswana for resale in Chiredzi. "There is little sugar to
deliver and less traffic along this highway to Chiredzi."
Hippo
Valley Sugar Estate was initiated in the late 1950s in concert with the
Mauritian Development Corporation. The Mauritians provided a sugar mill,
technologists to erect and run it, and expertise for the cane fields.
Pioneer growers cleared virgin bush, prepared land, constructed canals and
other infrastructure to transform the erstwhile inhospitable, tsetse fly
infested tracts of land into lush cane fields.
The first 50
out-growers were recruited from people with adequate agricultural expertise
who had sufficient funds to stand financially independent on their own and
pay for their own development without being a burden to the
state.
Five decades later, a new breed of itinerant cane farmers
threaten to unhinge Zimbabwe's sugar industry alongside its prime citrus
fruit export sector.
From 1995, after intermittent droughts in
the previous three years, the sugar industry started to prosper, but high
interest rates and the beginning of the collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar in
1997 bred a steep decline in the industry's financial
fortunes.
Prices were kept artificially low enabling members of the
ruling elite to buy cheap sugar and export it illegally to neighbouring
countries.
At the peak of the land invasions, 60 000 tonnes were
reportedly smuggled to Mozambique and a further 10 000 tonnes to Namibia and
elsewhere, all representing 17% of domestic needs resulting in a national
shortage of sugar on shop shelves in 2002.
"White commercial cane
farmers tried to accommodate resettled cane farmers on a separate project of
4 500 hectares and offered their expertise to run the project for up to five
years. As soon as they had learnt the ropes, the resettled farmers would
cast off on their own," according to the ZCFA.
If the recommendations
were taken up, it would create wealth for a wider circle of participants,
expanding the sugar industry and benefiting more entrepreneurs. It could
bring about an expansion in the sugar industry, ultimately to the advantage
of the country's economy.
But Masvingo provincial governor Josaya
Hungwe and his lands committee rejected the proposal.
"It
appeared the prospect of reaping someone else's standing cane crop was a far
more gratifying proposition to look forward to," the association said.
Gono's hard task - wish and reality Shakeman
Mugari
LAST week Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono presented
his third quarter monetary review statement which analysts said was a mixed
bag of wishful thinking about an economic "turnaround" and modest progress
on the inflation front. Analysts say Gono obviously attempted to
overstate his success in fighting inflation and downplay his failures in the
banking sector and exchange rate management - both central to the economy's
recovery. The analysts say they are beginning to see a sense of
self-righteousness in the governor's remarks as indicated by his growing
hostility to criticism. It is generally agreed that Gono's measures have
stabilised the inflation rate, which according to recent figures has slowed
down to 251% from a high of 623% in January. This means that prices of basic
commodities and services are no longer going up as rapidly as last
year. Gono has done well in reining in inflation - the rate at which prices
increase - which was eating away at the economic and social fabric of the
country. Inflation is further expected to decline from the current level
to between 150% and 160%. Gono has said next year inflation is projected to
fall to double digits and single digits by the end of his current tenure in
2008. Analysts say this would be a commendable achievement given that
inflation was wreaking havoc throughout the economy. Gono has brought a
degree of discipline to the financial sector which had become a haven of
speculative deals which added no value to the economy. He has also been firm
in tackling poor corporate governance, entrenched corruption, mismanagement
and speculative investment. Gono introduced a strict monetary policy regime
last December which he used to clean up the banking sector. Several banks
and asset management companies were used as conduits for speculative
activities by bankers later netted for unethical and corrupt business
practices. Gono also introduced stringent licensing requirements to ensure
solid institutions were in place. He slashed the number of asset management
companies from around 70 to about 31. About nine asset management companies
have since closed shop. The RBZ has made sure that banks stick to their core
business instead of investing in fixed assets and using depositors' funds
for speculative purposes. There are also new minimum capital requirements
for commercial banks, which mean that only financially solid investors are
able to get a banking licence. Commercial banks will now be required to have
$10 billion capital adequacy, merchant banks $7,5 billion and building
societies $5 billion to get licensed. There has also been an improvement
in foreign currency inflows through the Homelink initiative launched earlier
this year. Gono said last week that export earnings received in the first
nine months of the year amounted to US$1,2 billion compared to US$250
million for the same period last year. Gono could also lay claim to have been
instrumental in halting the downward spiral of productive firms through the
productive sector facility which, he says, has saved a lot of companies from
collapse although critics say this has placed many companies in a debt
trap. The measure has also been criticised as highly inflationary because
money is doled out at a concessionary lending rate of 50%, which is not
sustainable in the long run. So far the government has pumped in more than
$2 trillion under the PSF in an effort to boost productivity. But that
appears to be as far as Gono's successes go. The other chapters expose
errors of judgement and simple inability to come up with effective policy
measures to resolve the litany of problems in the economy. Gono also doesn't
appear to know much about the records of countries like China, Malaysia and
Germany. While he has managed to bring down inflation largely through the
fixing of the exchange rate, he has been unable to deal with the exchange
rate problem that has hurt exporters and put some of them out of business.
Gono clearly underestimated the crisis in the banking sector. Now he has
wasted billions in taxpayers' money trying to rescue banking shells from
collapse. This has been confirmed by his proposal to form the Zimbabwe
Allied Banking Group, which is an admission of failure to save banks that he
repeatedly claimed would not be closed. Observers say the governor has
also shown that he has no lasting solution to the foreign currency
shortages, which has forced many exporting companies to close shop. He also
seems to have developed cold feet on interest-rate policy, which he admits
is unsustainable. Critics further note Gono's increasing paranoia about
criticism and his inability to influence fiscal policy, which has continued
to scuttle his other policies. MDC MP Tendai Biti, who is also the
party's secretary for economic affairs, says in as much as the bankers
contributed to their own demise, Gono's reluctance to make a bold move on
the troubled banks has worsened the situation. "The banking crisis itself
was precipitated by the new governor when he first came into office in
December 2003," Biti said. "He poured money into badly run banks and gave
them three months to put their houses in order. But the process was allowed
to drag on for 10 months during which time seven banks were put under
curatorship. This explains the current mayhem." Realising that his initial
policies had failed, Gono last week announced that the government would take
over the troubled banks by turning their debt into equity. Under his
ambitious ZABG, cobbled along the same lines as South Africa's Absa, the
government will be the majority shareholder. Creditors and depositors would
also be forced to turn their debt into equity. "The measures (ZABG) he now
proposes are an admission of defeat. In converting the huge debts of the
troubled banks into equity, he is using public funds to buy out his failure
and is compromising the future independence of the Reserve Bank," Biti
said. "At the same time, he is forcing creditors and depositors in the failed
banks to share the pain by requiring them to be shareholders in the special
purpose vehicle. Who in their right mind would choose to have shares in a
polyglot amalgam of failed banks?" The issue of the stagnant exchange
rate could be seen as the hallmark of Gono's failure to address issues that
affect the economy. For the past six months the fragile Zimbabwean dollar
has been trading at around $5 600 to the United States dollar. During the
same period the parallel market rate has jumped to as high as $8 000 against
the greenback. Last week Gono came up with a classical denial when he said
that the parallel market was being driven by counterfeit US dollars. "We
would not be influenced by a market that is based on counterfeits. There are
some big companies that are trading in counterfeits," said Gono in response
to questions from this paper. Economic commentator John Robertson said Gono
was only pursuing red herrings to divert attention from the real issue at
stake. "It is not true that counterfeits are the root cause of the parallel
market. The problem is the widening gap between the parallel market rate and
the controlled auction rate," Robertson said. He said the parallel market
was flourishing because the auction rate was too low. Most companies that
fail to access funds from the official market go to the black market. "It
is not true that foreign currency generation has improved - it is just that
there is more money coming through the official market. The auction shows
that there is not enough forex to go around. Scarcity is driving the black
market," Robertson said. Over the past three months 87% of the bids on the
auction market were rejected. The auction has managed to supply US$100
million against a demand of about US$500 million. The announcement
banning all platinum producers from holding offshore accounts also spells
doom for the mining sector, which was the only stable industry. The
governor has also maintained that he is not interested in politics even
though it is clear that he would need political will from the ruling party
if his policies are to succeed. Analysts say Gono's success is heavily
dependent on the resolution of the political crisis in the country.
Politicians continue to scuttle his initiatives with their
statements. Legal Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa indicated government's
line of thinking when he said Zimbabwean abroad would not be allowed to
vote. Analysts say this is one of the policy contradictions that Gono has to
clarify if his Homelink scheme and investment confidence are to be received
by people in the diaspora. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions president
Lovemore Matombo says the governor's policies would only succeed if the
political situation changes for the better. "Gono should stop pretending
that his policies are not influenced by the politics of this country. He
knows that Zanu PF is scuttling his efforts but he wants to continue
pandering to the whims of the politicians," Matombo said. In his newly
found fame, which has been boosted by the state media, Gono has started to
be hostile not only to questions but also criticism. During the presentation
of the review last week he brushed aside questions from the Independent on
the economy. "Gono is really a dreamer. He admires his own thoughts and that
is dangerous for the country," Matombo said. "We saw at the breakfast
meeting on Friday last week how businesspeople were jostling to shower
praise on him. And he loves it," Matombo said.
Gono must do better than this IS it
not generally agreed that President Mugabe's decision to make huge,
unbudgeted payouts to war veterans in 1997 was a major factor in the
collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar and the economic tailspin that
followed? On that black Friday in November, Mugabe doled out $50 000
gratuities and $2 500 monthly pensions to each of the veterans of Zimbabwe's
1970s liberation war without batting an eyelid about where the funds would
come from. What followed was an economic implosion whose effects we are yet
to recover from. The crocodiles supposed to be managing our economy have
evidently not learnt a thing from that debacle seven years ago. The
government will soon be awarding war collaborators and former detainees
goodies - ostensibly in recognition of their alleged role in the liberation
war which ended a quarter of a decade ago. This will kill the economy and no
one could have put it more candidly than Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono
in his third quarter monetary policy review last Thursday when he spoke
about the need to avoid unplanned payments. Gono warned that his
inflation target of 150% by December would be missed if the government
embarked on a spendfest. "This (falling inflation rate) should be bolstered
through containment of expenditure levels to budgeted thresholds, avoidance
of supplementary budgets and avoiding awards of unplanned benevolent or
gratuity payments that are unrelated to the current production activities or
real economic growth," he said. His warning is instructive and confirms
what we have always averred: that his wirtshaftswunder (economic miracle) is
susceptible to the vagaries of predatory politics in Zimbabwe. Gono's plan
will not escape this test as government, desperate to buy support ahead of
the parliamentary election in March, becomes blind to elementary economic
principles. There are dangers lurking on the road to recovery. These hazards
will continue to ensnare Gono's polices and scuttle agricultural growth
which he expected to notch 28% next year. He expects mining to recover 7,5%
while manufacturing and tourism are also expected to register positive
growth. Gono takes credit for slowing down price increases and his efforts
to ensure the little foreign currency available is managed judiciously to
cater for essential imports. He has also tried to sort out the mess in
the banking sector and channelled resources to the productive sectors such
as mining, manufacturing and agriculture. He has to build investor
confidence, mend fences with bilateral and multilateral donors and keep
business alive but does not have total control over his recovery programme.
Gono's plan has to fit into President Mugabe's grand plan, which is not
necessarily premised on fiscal and monetary prudence. Control is the key
motivation. As a student of Germany's wirtshaftswunder of the 1950s and 60s,
he should know that federal chancellor Konrad Adenauer's post-war government
swept away as many unnecessary regulatory controls as possible. The German
economy between 1951 and 1960 doubled in size. Ludwig Erhard, Director of
Economic Administration in post-war Germany - who later became federal
chancellor - believed that "only under a free market economy can an
individual find true freedom. Only a free society and free economy will
deliver the wealth needed for humane social policies and
programmes". Government in Zimbabwe is taking no notice of its damaging
interventions in the economy, just as it won't take any notice of its own
Inter-Ministerial Taskforce on Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection
Agreements tasked to ensure that no foreign investment agreements are
violated. Gono in his statement said foreign investors should be protected
from "obstructive practices by untoward elements of society - individuals or
groups". Did Gono mean Agriculture minister Joseph Made who has listed for
compulsory acquisition foreign-owned agro-processing concerns in the
south-eastern Lowveld and in the Eastern Highlands? Gono said he was
"heartened" by the formation of the Inter-Ministerial Committee. But what do
the South Africans, Indonesians and Germans have to say about their lost
investments? He spoke of the need to hasten the completion of the land
reform exercise in terms of the Utete Land Commission Report. Over a year
after the tabling of the report, most of its recommendations have not been
implemented, especially security of tenure and protection of investments.
The greatest threat to the agricultural recovery plan is the Ministry of
Agriculture itself. What will Gono do to deal with the Made-made disaster in
commercial agriculture? The fact that Gono acknowledges the impediment in the
way raises a new challenge for him. He now has to mend the economy while at
the same time persuading errant politicians not to drive a coach and horses
through his programme. This is an exigent task at a time when the penchant
for populism is high among politicians. Those who have tried to walk that
perilous path have either given up or were sucked into the morass of
populist politics. Last Thursday, Gono said the foreign currency black market
was being fuelled by individuals and corporates dealing in fake US dollars.
This extraordinary disclosure showed poor judgement. As economists were
quick to point out, there is no basis for the claim. It is a transparent red
herring. We hope the governor has not fallen into the clutches of Zanu PF
political spin mandarins. If his credibility is to survive he will have to
do better than this.
Prolonged lip service to
privatisation WITH very great fanfare, in late 1990 and early 1991, the
government announced its Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (Esap) and
after implementing the programme very half-heartedly and, therefore, most
ineffectually for the first three years, it then belatedly and successfully
pursued the blueprint with some commitment and success. Over the three
years from mid-1994 to mid-1997, Zimbabwe's economy experienced some
significant recovery and growth. However, there were two key elements of the
programme which still did not receive the necessary commitment, and instead
were to a significant extent only accorded superficial lip service. A key
element which received very half-hearted attention from the government was
the privatisation of parastatals. The programme envisaged governmental
disinvestment from all parastatals as were of a commercial, industrial or
like economic nature. At the time, most parastatals were functioning
inefficiently and recurrently incurring great losses. In addition, they were
perceived to be riddled with corruption, although at that time the
government did not acknowledge that to be the case. The parastatals were
not fully satisfying the needs of the economy, let alone being able to
service greater needs as the economy expanded and grew. At the same time,
infrastructural development by the government was severely constrained by an
insufficiency of state finances. It was therefore an important element of
Esap that parastatals be privatised - in whole or in part - in order to
attain strategic partners who would ensure effective operations and their
adequate capitalisation. The privatisation proceeds would yield
developmental funding for the government and relieve it of debt. But,
despite these declared intents and expected results, there was little real
inclination on the part of the government to pursue privatisation, for that
would deprive politicians of perceived control of key economic drivers, and
would reduce the empires of permanent secretaries and others in the public
service. In 1998, which was two years later than scheduled, the government
launched the successor to Esap - the Zimbabwe Programme of Economic and
Social Transformation (Zimprest). To a very great degree that programme
encompassed the fundamentals of Esap, and expanded them. Among those
fundamentals was the privatisation of parastatals. However, Zimprest was to
prove to be a virtual non-event, and in line with very limited adherence to
most of the principles of that programme, once again there was little
direction of parastatal privatisation, although the government did bring
into being the Privatisation Agency of Zimbabwe (PAZ). The PAZ sought to
pursue privatisation energetically, and had some initial successes, only
thereafter to be frustrated by governmental ambivalence and
lethargy. Zimprest was succeeded by the Millennium Economic
Reconstruction Programme (Merp) which, to a very major extent, was a rehash
of both Esap and Zimprest, although it also had new components founded upon
the then pronounced interest of the government being the land acquisition,
resettlement and redistribution programme - subsequently referred to as land
reform. Four years later, there is still no evidence of implementation of
Merp, including its declared intent, as per the predecessor programme, to
privatise parastatals. It must be acknowledged that there have been a few
highly successful privatisations, although none of them have occurred in the
last few years. Among the successful privatisations were the Commercial
Bank of Zimbabwe (now known as the Jewel Bank), Dairibord, Cotton Company of
Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Reinsurance Company and Rainbow Tourism Group. With
the great success of those privatisations, which saw all those ventures
become markedly customer-care-conscious and profitable, with greater
efficiency and productivity than ever achieved when under state control, it
is astounding that the last three years or so have sustained a total drought
of privatisations. Instead, there are frequent ministerial statements
opposed to privatisation and a determination of the government not to relax
its controls over entities that are essential to the economy but which are,
in the main, ailing in the extreme. That this be so could be condoned and
understood if the parastatals were operating effectively and in the best
interests of the consumers and of the economy as a whole. It could be
even more condoned and understood if, in addition, the government had the
resources to capitalise the parastatals adequately, so that they were not
overburdened and doomed to fail as a result of gargantuan borrowings and
unsustainable burdens of financing costs, over and above their other
deficiencies, and if the government did not require trillions of dollars for
essential infrastructural development and retirement of debt. But none of
those characteristics apply and therefore the prolonged failure of the
government to adhere to its own programmes must be condemned. That
condemnation is reinforced by the manner in which some of the most vital
parastatals conduct their affairs. First and foremost is that only a week
ago the Minister of State for State Enterprises and Parastatals, Rugare
Gumbo, said that many of the parastatals were heavily contaminated with
corruption. On the balance of probabilities, he is presumably very right in
this assertion. But if that is so, what is the government doing about it?
After all, seven years ago we heard a similar ministerial statement, and
again Zimbabwe was told approximately four years ago that there is extensive
corruption in certain parastatals. Perhaps, instead of witch-hunting
private enterprises who resorted to parallel market dealings to keep their
businesses operational, their personnel employed and export income flowing,
the authorities should prioritise in-depth investigations into, and
prosecution of, those who are major economic saboteurs by robbing government
and the populace blind through corrupt practices in certain
parastatals. At the same time, when one of the economy's greatest enemies is
inflation, being strenuously combated by the governor of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe, it must be of immense concern that various parastatals are
currently raising their charges to an extent markedly greater than
prevailing inflation. For example, Tel*One has increased its charges twice in
the last six months, its most recent increase being in excess of 400%. And
it has the temerity to do so at the very time that its services have reached
their lowest ever ebb. Similarly, Zimpost's charges have soared to levels
where the law of diminishing returns applies. So great have the charges
become that more and more are resorting to e-mail and telefax
communications, even though the latter is associated with endless
transmission frustrations. If the government is genuinely consumer-conscious,
if it genuinely wishes parastatals to operate efficiently, if it has a real
intent of debt reduction and of its infrastructural development, it should
cease all lip service to privatisation and instead should enable PAZ to
fulfil its mandate without fear or obstruction.
DID the Herald go overboard this time round? Did it allow its
"Features Writer" to go over the top in his attack of South African
president Thabo Mbeki last Friday? The paper got itself berated by the
Information department in what commentators said was a case of Professor
Jonathan Moyo attacking himself in his various disguises. The features
writer on Friday claimed Mbeki was turning his back on Zanu PF and
consorting with MDC sellouts by agreeing to meet opposition officials and
the party's president Morgan Tsvangirai. It said "there were growing fears
that these meetings were promoting the MDC's image abroad at the expense of
Zanu PF". Going by Jonathan Moyo's daily vituperation against the whole world
in the state media, we are surprised that he would wish his party any image
other than what he has earned it. Not to mention the worry about the party's
image abroad "when the people who matter are Zimbabwean voters". The
"Features Writer" was made to recant on Saturday under the guise of a
"Herald Reporter" when readers were told Mbeki's involvement in the
"Zimbabwean issue" had always been "open, honest and above board". Why was
there suddenly an "issue" when Moyo's department has always denied that
there is a crisis in Zimbabwe? "Whereas government would want the media
to operate in an environment of freedom, it expects the media to be accurate
and informed . . . to avoid damaging falsehoods, imputations, innuendoes and
unfair comments," Moyo's department warned the Herald. The veil of
secrecy was pierced when The Voice reported that President Mugabe had
attacked the Herald for not knowing "our friends and foes". The assertion
that senior Zanu PF officials have in the past complained against the Herald
being used to attack "certain political figures" was a hint pointing to the
hand of Lowani Ndlovu as the "Features Writer" who penned the original
attack on Mbeki. Lowani, as readers know, thinks, writes and reasons exactly
like Professor Jonathan Moyo. Which explains why the charade could not be
sustained beyond a certain point. Thus it was that on Sunday Lowani Ndlovu
was made to "attack" Jonathan Moyo's "attack" on the Herald for "attacking"
Thabo Mbeki. While the Herald on Saturday merely quoted a statement by the
Department of Information, Lowani knew it had been written by Professor
Moyo. Lowani told us there were "no sacred cows whose pronouncements and
actions are beyond questioning". That could refer to either Mbeki or Mugabe
or both. "Not just Zimbabweans but also Sadc has a right to debate Mbeki's
interest and involvement in the Zimbabwean question and all views on the
matter should be put on the table," raved Lowani defiantly in the same
manner he has gone about attacking "certain political figures for personal
gratification", to quote The Voice. Has Zanu PF created for itself a
Frankenstein monster?
MDC MP for Chimanimani Roy Bennett has been tried
and jailed. Government has denied that the decision to jail the legislator
was in any way political. We can leave that to the conscience of the
speakers - Paul Mangwana and Stan Mudenge. Both claimed the evil deed
called for a deterrent custodial sentence. Mudenge told his Non-Aligned
Movement colleagues in Harare on Monday that the attack on Patrick Chinamasa
and Didymus Mutasa by Bennett in parliament was brutal. "It was barbaric law
of the jungle, back to the stone age," declared Mudenge with a straight
face. "It was essential that a deterrent sentence be imposed." The fact
that Bennett was also accused of not apologising soon enough for the alleged
offence only aggravates the impression of vindictiveness. Muckraker's
verdict is one of a man "more sinned against than sinning". And why was
Mutasa, who boasted of kicking Bennett "very hard", not made an example of?
Where is the precedent of violently defending a comrade in parliament?
Two-faced justice! Mudenge claimed the behaviour by Bennett had no precedent
anywhere in the world. This is conveniently true if you choose to ignore
Taiwan where MPs will not brook the arrogant nonsense that we endure
everyday in the name of sovereignty and how we should be forever grateful
for being liberated from colonial rule when what we urgently need is freedom
from Zanu PF tyranny, mendacity and hunger. And Roy Bennett was not
"trying to run away". He was keeping an appointment with his lawyers at
Johannesburg airport and returning the same day. As his arrest took place
before the parliamentary vote to jail him it will be interesting to see if
the charge of defeating the course of justice stands up in
court.
Muckraker is getting irritated by Tendai Chari's so-called media
analysis in the Sunday Mirror, which increasingly looks like a joint effort
with Tazzen Mandizvidza of Media Watch. It is easy to understand Tazzen's
predicament, his intellectual limitations notwithstanding. He is a ZBH
employee and therefore doesn't enjoy the latitude that Chari should
ordinarily enjoy were he not embedded at ZBH and beholden to his former
lecturer Rino Zhuwarara. This week he attacked the Zimbabwe Independent for
leading with a story he claimed had appeared in the Financial Gazette on
Tsvangirai's trial verdict. His callow mind was "boggled" that a few weeks
back the Independent had "imposed a blackout" on the MDC's "boycott of all
future elections" after the story appeared in other papers. "Why the same
principle did not apply on the treason trial story then boggles the mind,"
said Chari, sounding thoroughly boggled. Pity the students if the head is so
thick. We don't want to give his column the respectability it does not
deserve by wasting too much time on it, or to reduce ourselves to his
fawning level which lacks the intellectual rigour and honesty that an
analysis requires. Who at the Independent imposed a blackout on the so-called
boycott story? Is he being honest in claiming that the MDC said it was
"boycotting" all future elections unconditionally? Has he been following the
MDC's 15-point demand on fair elections and Sadc's guidelines and principles
on the same issue? This is what the MDC statement said: "The MDC will not
participate in elections until the political space has been opened up and a
legal, institutional and administrative framework for elections has been
established that harnesses acceptable levels of transparency and fairness in
the electoral process. For this to happen, the government needs to combine a
comprehensive reform of Zimbabwe's electoral framework with significant
political reforms." Not nearly the same thing. We expect a difference
between a university media lecturer and Munyaradzi Huni. Unfortunately in
Chari we are asking for what is politically and intellectually
unattainable.
President Mugabe claimed last weekend that Western powers
were inspiring conflict in developing countries by creating political
impasses which afford them a pretext for interference. Western powers
indicated "a real determination", Mugabe said, "to play registrar, returning
officer, polling agent, monitor and observer all at once". But aren't
these precisely the functions he is accused of usurping in 2002? No wonder he
is irritated. Other people are muscling in on territory he has come to
regard as his own. Referring to the Mauritius electoral guidelines, Mugabe
declared "these standards are not a manifesto for the West or for a bankrupt
opposition. They are ours." So Mugabe sees the Sadc guidelines as
belonging to his party, not all players in the electoral process as was
intended at Grande Baie? Only "invited observers" would have a right to
observe the poll, Mugabe added. In other words invitations to observe the
election will be made not by an independent electoral body tasked to manage
the poll but by a government that is a party to the election. Do we need
any further evidence that Zanu PF has hijacked the Sadc protocol to suit its
own partisan needs? As for Mugabe's assertion that the US will not have its
own elections, which took place this week, monitored or observed, he should
not mislead gullible folk. Hundreds of election observers were invited to
the US to follow the poll. He knows that perfectly well.
Muckraker
was intrigued by a front-page article in the Herald on Monday reporting that
at least 6 000 ex-political prisoners, detainees and restrictees will be
rewarded for their contribution to the liberation struggle. This follows
passage of a Bill extending to the former political prisoners the sort of
benefits awarded to war veterans in 1997. Some reports put the amounts to be
handed out at $10 million a person. The Bill "sailed through" parliament last
Thursday, the same day Gideon Gono told the nation in his third quarter
statement that we should guard against "unplanned benevolent or gratuity
payments that are unrelated to current production activities or real
economic growth". We were told in the Herald report that dishonest conduct by
applicants will constitute an offence. A person will be liable to refund any
form of assistance they are not entitled to. Now why should we believe
that dishonest conduct by such applicants will be treated any differently to
dishonest conduct by those who fleeced the War Victims Compensation Fund?
What has happened to those who the Chidyausiku Commission found had
benefited unduly from the fund? Have they been made to repay those amounts
or were they, as we suspect, written off? As for China and Malaysia, which
Gono admires so much, their progress in the past decade owes much to
investor-friendly policies and political stability - the very opposite of
Zimbabwe. Ask Zimplats what delayed their planned investment package that was
about to be announced before the president opened his mouth on 50%
equity!
The official media has been telling the nation for some months
now that President Mugabe's "bold stance" on the land issue and relations
with Britain have earned him the respect of Africa. So how do we explain the
expulsion of Africa's largest trade union organisation from Zimbabwe and the
vicious tirades that followed? The answer is obvious. Cosatu was about to
expose Mugabe's claims as hollow. Here is a trade union organisation that,
unlike the Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions, is nobody's puppet. Attempts
in our state media to describe it as Blair's instrument are so plainly
stupid that nobody is taking them seriously. Cosatu has for years been the
authentic voice of South Africa's black workers. And it has been in the
forefront of the democratisation struggle, both before and after 1994. It is
rigidly opposed to Western imperialism. Its visit to Zimbabwe was
therefore highly significant. This was manifestly not the EU or the "white
Commonwealth". Its report would, we can be fairly sure, have exposed the
repression that workers and civics in Zimbabwe experience on a daily basis.
Mugabe's claims to be the champion of Africa's landless masses would have
been seen for what they really are - populist demagoguery. He has
effectively pauperised the nation he rules with an iron fist. That much the
world already knows. Cosatu was expected to report what it saw, albeit with
an occasional coating of liberationist indulgence. But by evicting the Cosatu
delegation, the government has signalled its fear of the truth. South
Africans will draw their own conclusions. They have been in the forefront of
the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe since the Hwange campaign of 1967
when Umkhonto fought alongside Zapu. They have every right to comment on
events here since they are keeping the country afloat.
Now we have
Botswana being assailed by government spokesmen and half-baked academics
whose credentials are still unknown. Former BDP cabinet minister Patrick
Balopi, who is reported to have described President Mugabe as "a greedy
leader who does not have the interests of his people at heart", is the
latest target of state vitriol. What seems to have added salt to the wound is
the support Balopi has received within his own party. BDP executive
secretary Botsala Ntuane told the Botswana media that Balopi was "within his
rights". Not reported were his remarks that Botswana MPs are allowed to be
similarly outspoken about their own leaders. Attempts by Zimbabwean
embassy officials in Gaborone to bully the Botswana government in the same
way their Minister of Information allowed himself to be bullied when he came
here a few months ago don't appear to have succeeded this time. So apart
from Zimbabwean officials who now find themselves having to defend President
Mugabe on a full-time basis, who else is "slamming" Botswana? "Political
analyst" Dr William Nhara, the failed politician who now appears to be
singing for another seat to lose. He made the significant revelation that it
will be another 10 years before agriculture recovers from Mugabe's land
reform programme. This comes after it took whites 48 years "to get the issue
of agriculture right in this country". We are not sure where he is
getting his figures from. Perhaps Joseph Made! Zimbabwe was way ahead of
Botswana in health, infrastructure and social services, Nhara maintained.
Botswana was a village by comparison. Which doesn't explain why thousands of
Zimbabweans have flooded Village Botswana looking for jobs. Botswana's per
capita GDP overtook Zimbabwe's years ago. It is rich, not because of
diamonds as Nhara implies, but because it encourages investment and provides
an example of a well-managed economy. It also promotes racial
tolerance. Zimbabwe's ambassador to Botswana, Phelekezela Mphoko, said she
was aware criticism of Mugabe was a lucrative undertaking and "as a result
political clowns and intellectual parasites who have nothing to offer beyond
parroting designed options, surfaced". Which is where Nhara came in, we
suppose!
Dear Sir, THE
latest example of a gross miscarriage of justice in Zimbabwe is surely the
jailing of MDC legislator Roy Bennett ("Bennett goes to jail", Zimbabwe
Independent. October 29).
The vote by all Zanu PF parliamentarians
present to send this brave and loyal Zimbabwean to jail is an absolute
disgrace. No one with an ounce of humanity, or the semblance of a
conscience, could have voted to impose such a punishment on a man who has
suffered such extreme provocation for so long.
Zanu PF need not worry
about not having enough women in parliament. It should worry more that there
is not a single "man" in its parliamentary ranks. Was it Margaret Dongo who
described them all as "Mugabe's wives?"
Bennett's agricultural
achievements, his work for and support of his rural constituency and his
brave struggle for a better Zimbabwe make him a genuine post-Independence
hero - far more so than those who sent him to jail.
Let Bennett know
that he has the admiration, thoughts and prayers of the millions of
Zimbabweans who genuinely love their country.
That such a hero
languishes in jail is an indictment of not only those directly responsible
for sending him to jail, but of all of us who silently and cowardly go about
our daily business whilst so many heroes - many of them unknown - suffer on
our behalf.
That so many murderers, rapists, thieves and other
enemies of civilised society live freely and often comfortably in our midst
only adds to the injustice of the suffering that Zanu PF inflicts on genuine
heroes.
Let the cowardly "silent majority" remember not to cry foul
when their turn comes.
Dear Sir, NOW that
Roy Bennett has been given a jail sentence for an unprecedented simple
common assault, we would like to know what the MDC is going to
do?
Bennett has done so much for Africans and the MDC and perhaps it is
about time they showed their discontent? A start would be for the MDC to
boycott parliament, but we need action if they want us to take them
seriously.
It is appalling that someone can be jailed for a first
offence under extreme provocation when the maximum penalty should be a minor
fine.
ALLOW me space in your newspaper to present some little known
and understood facts about the coming new world order which was announced by
former United States president George Bush at the start of the first Gulf
War in 1990.
Politicians in first world countries often refer to the
coming new world order (NWO) which, simply put, means the globalisation of
the world on the political, economic and religious fronts.
They
often speak about this using esoteric language, thus denying ordinary people
the ability to fully understand their intentions.
The NWO advocates
will ultimately implement a one world political system which will operate
from a major city somewhere in Europe where there will be a global economy
and a one world religious system, ie the much-talked about ecumenical
church.
I would now like to digress from the above to a subject that
Zimbabweans eat, sleep and walk with - politics.
Let me say here
and now that the presidents and prime ministers of world powers do have
hidden agendas as I believe any person will not be too hard pushed to
discover for himself.
Elements of our paranoid leadership keep
babbling on about our hard-won Independence, our sovereignty and the fact
that we will never be a colony again. They keep on accusing the World Bank
and the IMF of having ulterior motives for Zimbabwe. They might be right -
but not for the reasons they think.
The IMF and World Bank are
just two of the "1 000 points of light" President Bush spoke about at the
same time he announced the coming NWO.
The "1 000 points of light" he
mentioned are the various organisations and institutions that are slowly and
insidiously doing the groundwork for the NWO.
Any country whose
government does not conform to this agenda will ultimately be brought down
by whatever means the NWO people see fit.
President Mugabe and Zanu
PF are bucking the NWO and will ultimately be brought down by these people
whether they like it or not as was Ian Smith and Rhodesia.
We are
all pawns in a game - they had better believe it. They should forget about
their obsession with UK premier Tony Blair because there is something far,
far bigger than Blair involved here.
So comrades, enjoy your gravy
trains, mansions and fancy cars while they last because you will soon be
gone as will the government of any other country which bucks the NWO
agenda.
Trust me, you are ultimately going to be humbled as
"Independence" gives way to "Inter-dependence" and the only "sovereignty"
the world will be experiencing in the future will be on a global basis and
the only "colony" will be a global one.
Colonial law Vincent Kahiya ON
Monday, four journalists from the Zimbabwe Independent, including myself,
had our application to be removed from remand turned down. It was argued
that the objections our legal team had raised would be best contested at
trial.
Our objections were that we had been arbitrarily deprived of
our liberty, both by detention and repeated court appearances, over a story
whose substance the state does not contest.
The story concerned
the use of an Air Zimbabwe aircraft by President Mugabe at the beginning of
the year for his holiday in the Far East.
When we appear again on
January 10, it will be exactly one year since we were picked up by the CID
on the orders of Information minister Jonathan Moyo and incarcerated for a
weekend. At the time Moyo described our story as "blasphemous". We were
charged with criminal defamation, a colonial legal relic struck down in most
former British colonies as incompatible with democratic
practice.
Ghana and Sri Lanka are the latest countries to dispense
with what was designed in Whitehall as an instrument of colonial governments
to suppress nationalist voices, particularly in the press.
That
it has been resurrected by Mugabe's increasingly paranoid regime, boasting
of sovereignty but finding colonial measures handy, should not surprise any
of us. At the same time journalists who want to see greater accountability
by those who rule us should welcome this opportunity to expose the regime's
structural shortcomings. Here is a prosecution that is aimed at preventing
public scrutiny of President Mugabe's use of public
resources.
Mugabe, let us remind ourselves, is not simply the
head of state. He is the head of a government with a shocking record of
squandering public funds and the head of a political party that believes the
country owes it a living.
Zanu PF's record of running down its own
companies is currently the subject of an internal investigation, details of
which were reported in the Independent last week.
Air Zimbabwe is
a public company that taxpayers are on a regular basis asked to keep in
business. It is by all accounts a poorly-managed company. It has a record of
providing aircraft for Mugabe's use and for inconveniencing passengers in
the process. It loses money hand over fist. It is therefore a matter of
legitimate public interest how its fleet is managed.
By accusing the
Independent of criminal defamation, the state is signalling not only its
repressive political agenda but also its refusal to be accountable to the
public.
But it is doing more than that. The intention is to tie the
paper up in costly legal red tape, and prevent it from functioning normally.
How else do we explain seven court appearances over 10 months when the state
was unable to produce a case against us? Then when our lawyers announced
their application to have us taken off remand because there clearly wasn't a
case, the state in the space of five hours announced that it had found
one.
The docket had just been handed into the Attorney-General's Office,
we were told.
This is political harassment by any definition. And
we are not alone in facing it. The same thing - spurious and vexatious
charges - is being thrown at MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The aim is the
same: to paralyse normal activity.
In our case we were fortunate
that the court declined to entertain the state's request that we surrender
our passports and report to the police weekly. The court also slashed our
bail requirement.
While we are by no means optimistic of final
success given the political nature of the case, we are very confident that
we are guilty of no more than holding Mugabe and Air Zimbabwe up to public
scrutiny - of embarrassing them in other words.
Politicians,
companies and institutions supported from the national purse have a duty to
explain how national resources are used. Newspapers must ensure those
explanations are publicised. And professional apologists who believe it is
blasphemy for political leaders to be treated this way need to be exposed to
the public scorn they deserve.
Never let it be said again that
President Mugabe is unafraid of criticism. This case has put paid to that
fiction. He cannot be sued for defamation whatever he says about his
opponents. But he can hide behind colonial laws like this when it suits
him.
Let me assure readers that whatever the intentions of the state
in bringing this threadbare case against us, we will continue to crusade for
public accountability by those who rule us because the nation requires it.
People have every right to know how their funds are used.
And we
will also campaign against laws that are designed to silence criticism of
those who aspire to occupy public office. We therefore look forward to our
day in court. At least it will afford us a good platform ahead of the
election.
Is Gono another alien from space? By Rejoice
Ngwenya BEFORE the great political transformation of 1999, I had lurched onto
the cargo hold of the gravy train aptly named "The Unconstitutional
Commission" as part of the grateful band of middle-aged naifs who really
thought this noble but misdirected civic duty was an act of intellectual
honour.
I sunk my teeth in public consultations that enlightened me on
the perception of typical Zimbabweans.
As expected, the good work
of us foot soldiers fell into the nimble hands of Patrick Chinamasa, Ben
Hlatshwayo, Godfrey Chidyausiku and Jonathan Moyo, whose systematic
adulteration of people's views - applied with surgical precision -- left
honest popular opinion a mere carcass of the real thing. The rest is
history.
But the juice in my story is the first encounter with one
Gideon Gono, the bubbly, hardworking bank executive in my committee who
diligently studied all our raw scripts and dutifully submitted them for
higher-level scrutiny. I sensed the man was destined for
stardom.
Even before the commercial banking bubble was making
headlines, Gono's own institution was declaring unprecedented profits backed
with rapid expansion in all major cities, small towns and dusty growth
points. This had to be the man of the decade!
Then he graduates
from the first-class of the gravy train to join the exclusive cockpit of the
"Great Gravy Plane" - the masters of high altitude flypast and self-delusion
- and all hell breaks loose.
Gono's quantum leap from a bank
managerial position to one of planetary, de facto minister of finance defies
all aviation logic. The magnitude and altitude of partisan rhetoric he has
mastered and churned out in the few months of his terrestrial reign beats
all human imagination.
Look, I'm not much of an economist, banker or
fiscal guru, but I can tell politicised hogwash from any angle, especially
where it is dispensed with a high-pressure pump. I am a mere civic society
activist whose life hovers between the poverty datum line and the fringes of
modern day slavery, but figures no longer fool or excite me. Especially
those from suspect, patronising sources.
Let us look at the
facts.
First, monetary policy is accepted as a function of the governor
of the central bank, while fiscal matters should be left to the responsible
minister of finance. But right now I am at a loss as to what Gono is up to
straying on all matters of trade, industry, local government and
transport.
My submission is that monetary policy indeed has
far-reaching implications on all sorts of macro-economic situations, but
when a Reserve Bank governor assumes this larger-than-life, all-encompassing
stature of a know-it-all superhuman, there is a vital missing link in the
puzzle of good national governance.
If my memory serves me right,
the eras of Richard Wilde, Kombo Moyana and Leonard Tsumba - some of which
registered high economic growths, monetary and fiscal stability - were
characterised not only with modest public statements, but also respect for
professional boundaries.
I do not remember any highly publicised,
high-profile "quarterly monetary policy statements" other than traditional
glossy RBZ reports.
Second, a 700% to 200% inflation rate reduction
in 12 months means nothing to my young sister in Gokwe. In December 2003,
she could not visit me in Harare, or buy enough bread for her large family.
Next Christmas, the situation will be worse for her, because the bread will
probably be costing $5 000 per loaf and a one-way trip to Harare is unlikely
to be less than $60 000 - that is if there is diesel.
And Gono is
still talking!
At one time, Zimbabwe was exporting all sorts of things -
baked beans, gold, steel, maize, clothes, leather, flowers, milk and so on.
Affretair was always air-bound and one could encounter a convoy of cargo
carrier trucks snaking from Glen Norah to Ngundu Halt. I guess that is why I
could walk to my bank, buy travellers' cheques and wander around Hillbrow
totally self-sufficient.
Since Gono ascended the glitzy monetary
policy throne, I cannot even remember when my passport was last stamped in
the back pages. I usually spend time observing events around the Roadport,
watching in awe as Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri's BMX cops pick
unidentifiable falling objects from beneath their bikes!
In any
case, a routine trip to Harare's expensive international airport is
empirical proof that Zimbabwe now exports more humans to England than Gorée
Island ever did in its heyday.
And Gono is - you guessed right -
still talking!
Number three, all my friends and relatives in England have
already warned me against selling their British pound to anyone or any
institution that gives less than $15 000 per unit. My insistence that it is
an illegal exercise has all but gotten me a long free-market economy
lecture. They have stopped sending me anything. Homelink! Home
what?
Fourth, Gono's paymaster, President Robert Mugabe, will finance
his agrarian revolution and 2005 election with "our own" bearer cheques. In
between, there are bits and pieces of expenditures like Chinese fighter
planes, army Prados, payouts to mujibhas and ex-detainees, civil servants'
bonuses, chiefs' cars and so forth.
Now, will this not cause a
huge, unmanageable budget deficit? What will this do to interest rates and
inflation?
Gono has the answer, of course!
At Christmas 2003,
it took me one week to secure 40 litres of petrol. I only got to Bulawayo
because of driving gingerly like a monk. This year's Christmas, I will
remain confined to my monastery because there is no way in hell I will
afford to purchase a litre for $3 800 - if the petrol is there.
By
the way, as I wrote this, five service stations within a 10-kilometre radius
of my monastery had neither petrol nor diesel. It's only this week that
Willard Manungo told the nation that Gono's "turnaround" had flooded the
market with fuel. It's just that, he claimed, Zimbabweans are too daft to
notice!
Two hours before on the same day we had no electricity in our
home - or tap water - and Gono's CD called Asingabvume Irombe is topping the
charts on Mars. Who can silence him, when he is that far from planet earth?
Another alien from space, I guess!
Rejoice Ngwenya is civic
society activist based in Harare.
Wheels of justice are not intact By Otto Saki THE
recent acquittal of opposition Movement for Democratic Change president
Morgan Tsvangirai of high treason charges has led certain quarters within
the country and more significantly some parts of the international community
to believe that there is rule of law in Zimbabwe, and that the wheels of
justice are intact.
This notion is misplaced in light of the current
state of the country insofar as the administration of justice is concerned
and in particular the upholding of the rule of law. For the benefit of some
who might not have an appreciation of this concept, the rule of law in
simple parlance does not mean the rule of men.
But in terms of
the development of the theory it signifies the existence of a system of
rules, where the judiciary is independent, judicial decisions are made
according to legal standards rather than undirected considerations of
fairness, the right to fair trial in which the due process of law or
procedural safeguards are observed, access to courts, equality before the
law, supremacy of the law which entails that no man is above the law,
restrictions on the exercise of discretionary powers, and laws which are
prospective and not retrospective.
But of the few mentioned
above, an analysis of the extent of adherence to the same by the Zimbabwean
government is laughable and the acquittal of Tsvangirai will never signify
the existence of the rule of law or that the wheels of justice are still
intact in Zimbabwe.
The supremacy of the law dictates that all
individuals and the government are subject to the law and no one is above
the law. In Zimbabwe this notion seems to be applicable to a certain class:
while some are persistently subject to the law, others are thoroughly
immune. There is no doubt that laws are being applied selectively to the
extent that a certain class of people always find themselves in brushes with
the "law".
There should be a distinction between laws, executive
administration and prerogative powers but this seems to be non-existent in
our situation.
Individuals masquerading as administrative bodies have
acquired enormous powers, which has ultimately undermined the effective
observance of the rule of law, and have abused their "mandate". This can be
said of bodies such as the Media and Information Commission whose partiality
and composition have been questioned in the Administrative
Court.
There are no restrictions on the exercise of discretion by
some ministries with regards to certain Acts of parliament such as the
Ministry of Information with regards to the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act, and also the Ministry of Home Affairs and the
police in enforcing the Public Order and Security Act.
The
concept of justice has ceased to exist; the executive has usurped the role
of the judiciary and the legislature on many counts and has taken it to be
its mandate to make laws which are fundamentally flawed and gravely
unconstitutional.
Instead of exercising what is termed
commutative justice that aims at the correction of pre-existing rights,
which seeks to give back what has been taken away with adequate
compensation, we are now practising distributive justice. The latter aims at
distributing wealth according to egalitarian schemes, creation of new rights
in accordance with ideologies, prejudices or subjective opinions of
individual bureaucrats or members of tribunals who make decisions, while
powerful pressure and interest groups influence the making of those
decisions.
In such instances the law is particularised and rendered
uncertain thus undermining the foundations of justice and
liberty.
When it comes to issues of access to justice in Zimbabwe and the
rule of law one cannot avoid but make reference to the manner in which the
judiciary is handling matters relating to fundamental rights, the inordinate
delays in the handing down of decisions and further the nature of the
decisions that are rendered.
The judiciary in Zimbabwe has of
late been challenged in the dispensation of its mandate, whether it's by
design or not in particular with regards to disputes arising from human
rights-related issues. The failure to guarantee access to speedy and
effective redress of perceived violation of constitutional and human rights
and the failure by the judiciary to pronounce heavily on the violations is
more than just undermining the rule of law but a pointer to its
non-existence.
Due to the non-availability of local remedies,
citizens have to resort to international tribunals and courts and this
illustrates the ineffectiveness of the judiciary in providing effective
remedies, for where there is a right there should be a
remedy.
Access to justice and the rule of law does not only entail
filing a case with the courts and that's it. Once the case is heard, there
is a legitimate expectation that the court will address all issues arising
and not dwell on procedural technicalities which are of no direct bearing on
the case.
In our context, the Supreme Court has set a worrying
pre-cedent of obeying any Act of parliament before challenging it. In this
instance it has given the legislature unfettered powers of enacting all
sorts of despicable Acts and a cushion to the legislature that they will not
be challenged at least before the Act is obeyed.
Principles of
the rule of law mandate the judiciary and the courts in particular to say
what the law is and in terms of our constitution, to rule all laws that are
contrary to the constitution null and void. The judiciary claims the
ultimate capacity to decide what the law is.
Public confidence
demands that the judiciary respect the rule of law, above all. So to say
that there is rule of law and that the wheels of justice are intact because
of the acquittal of Tsvangirai is misdirected for there is more to the rule
of law than the acquittal of the leader of an opposition
party.
After all, it is a trend in Zimbabwean politics that a
leader of the opposition should be arraigned before the courts for high
treason when the charges are minifestly spurious.
In an
environment where the rule of law is observed, the state does not have to
enact laws that operate retrospectively and criminalise acts which were not
an offence when they were committed. More than often such laws destroy
certainty and are vindictive and arbitrary.
The rule of law
entails that the government in cases where the courts decide contrary to its
notion of justice should obey the very same judgements and not refuse to
enforce court orders. And when judges or magistrates decide against the
government there is no reason why men wearing dark glasses should haunt and
force them to flee the country.
There are many instances of the
government failing to obey court orders on frivolous and unfounded notions
of state security and interests - the recent deportation of the delegation
from the Congress of South African Trade Unions speaks volumes about the
rule of law in Zimbabwe. I wonder what those across the border will say on
this issue.
The matter of Roy Bennett is tragic for those who have
suggested that there is rule of law in Zimbabwe. A history of the case will
show that Bennett had been subjected to all sorts of relentless attacks from
the government. The courts had ruled on numerous occasions that the
government should not proceed to acquire his estate. In an act of defiance
they proceeded, in open contempt of the court orders.
Now that
Bennett floored the minister responsible for the proper functioning of the
courts, he has become a case study of retributive justice.
Further to
their decision to incarcerate the MP for a year, the Speaker of Parliament
with unparalleled zeal and gusto made certain rulings under the Privileges,
Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act which bars the courts from hearing
the appeal by Bennett.
The constitution of Zimbabwe guarantees the
right to appeal, the international instruments that Zimbabwe has ratified
provide for the same right and it has never been tolerated in any
democracies that the right to appeal is derogated under any
situations.
The rule of law is premised on the notion that there is
separation of powers between the arms of state - the judiciary, the
executive and the legislature - and encroaching into the domain of the other
will only lead to confusion and legal disorder as is the current situation
in Zimbabwe and a total disintegration of the rule of law.
The
work for the restoration of rule of law in Zimbabwe takes more than the
acquittal of the opposition leader and for ordinary Zimbabweans it might
mean nothing, as they are yet to enjoy the fruits of the so-called intact
wheels of justice and the rule of law.
Otto Saki is project
lawyer with the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and a research fellow at
the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa.
Tsvangirai's acquittal opens new dangers By Brian
Raftopoulos THE news of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leader Morgan Tsvangirai's acquittal on the charge of treason two weeks ago
has been hailed as a step forward in the quagmire that is Zimbabwean
politics.
It was certainly welcome relief in what is otherwise a
political terrain of sustained demoralisation. The case itself was based on
suspect evidence, and a rebarbative state witness who became an
embarrassment even to the state itself.
Information minister
Jonathan Moyo proclaimed that the judgement "confounds, exposes and shames
those merchants of lies and falsehoods.always given to maligning and
denigrating Zimbabwe as undemocratic and without an independent
judiciary".
It would be a mistake, however, to regard this judgement
as a reversal of the politics of repression that characterises
Zimbabwe.
Firstly, the judgement does not detract from the immense
damage that has been inflicted on the judiciary by the executive since 2000.
The combination of highly politicised judicial appointments at the highest
levels, executive disregard of court rulings and the continuous use of the
judiciary and police to undermine the opposition and the civic movement have
played a decisive role in shaping the current political
terrain.
Secondly, the state has shown little additional indication
that it is willing to open up political space in the country. The major
pillars of repressive legislation, namely the severe controls on information
dissemination and freedom of association, remain in place. Recently both the
ministers of Information and Legal Affairs have reiterated the government's
refusal to allow the opposition access to the public media on the basis that
the MDC is not a loyal opposition.
This characterisation of the
MDC is consistent with the declaration that the 2005 general election will
be an "anti-Blair" election. The implications of such a discursive assault
are that the MDC is not a national entity and therefore not entitled to
speak on national issues. The ruling party has set the parameters of
national legitimacy and in so doing has unilaterally delineated the
boundaries of what is acceptable in the political arena.
A further
message of such state censure is that those parties that fall outside such a
selective definition of the "national" must accept to be dealt with by any
means necessary. This language of selective citizenship has marked the
authoritarian nationalism of the ruling party and there are indications of
its infectiousness in other countries in the region.
In the light of
such prevailing conditions it is necessary to read the positive judgement in
the case of Tsvangirai extremely cautiously.
It is now clear that the
Mugabe regime needs a "legitimate" outcome from the 2005 election, and to
that purpose has instituted some minimal election reforms that it argues are
in accordance with the Mauritius guidelines on minimal standards. An
international acceptance of the 2005 election would serve as a launching pad
for the ruling party's return to the international
community.
Thus far President Robert Mugabe has retained the
support of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and the African
Union and there is little to assume that such support will not remain in
place until next year.
Certainly there is a general position in the
region that the 2005 election could serve as the means to resolve the
Zimbabwean crisis, even if such a resolution takes place at the level of
form rather than substantive content. South African President Thabo Mbeki
appears to favour such a denouement for his policy of quiet
diplomacy.
Thus Sadc will certainly be pushing the MDC to take part
in next year's election, and there are indications that sections of the
European Union favour such a course as well, if only to get Zimbabwe off the
international agenda.
The purported election reforms, combined
with the favourable court judgement of the opposition leader, will thus be
used as evidence of goodwill from the ruling party, and a strong push for
the opposition to enter the 2005 electoral race.
In the current
political environment, in which so much damage has been done to the
political process, a decision by the opposition to oblige such pressures
will more than likely lead to a major defeat of the MDC. In the event of
such an outcome the Sadc minimum standards will have been used to ratify an
authoritarian regime in the name of the interests of Zimbabwe and the
region, and Mbeki will have walked the tightrope of maintaining African
legitimacy while remaining the "pointman" of the West. The major victim of
such a process will be the struggles for democratisation not only in
Zimbabwe but in the region.
*Brian Raftopoulos is associate
professor of development studies, IDS, University of Zimbabwe.