Zim Online
Monday 06 November
2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe is experiencing a
fresh wave of price increases as
the local currency nosedives on a thriving
black market while manufacturers
suffer escalating financing costs, hitting
hard consumers already grappling
with a deep recession.
The
southern African nation once boasted one of the continent's model
economies
during the early years of independence but critics blame President
Robert
Mugabe's 26-year-old rule for plunging the country into serious
political
and economic chaos.
Economic analysts said the soaring prices have
all but ended Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe's efforts to put brakes on rampaging
inflation - the
highest in the world at more than 1 000 percent - and put a
damper on any
prospects of economic recovery.
"We have this
surging demand for foreign currency from companies and
even from parastatals
all seeking to buy raw materials on the parallel
market and we have seen the
exchange rate going up on this market, which has
the effect of increasing
prices," Harare consultant economist John Robertson
told
ZimOnline.
Crunch foreign currency shortages, along with food and
fuel shortages,
have continued to dramatise a seven-year economic recession
that has also
spawned an unemployment rate of above 80 percent and rising
poverty levels.
Analysts said as the central bank moves to tighten
operations in the
financial sector by mopping up excess liquidity, interest
rates have begun
spiralling, increasing manufacturers' costs of doing
business.
"Obviously the manufacturer would have to pass on the
costs to
consumers but also let's not forget the wage pressures that
producers face
and in the end we very well know that this creates a vicious
inflationary
cycle," Robertson said.
The analysts said
consumers should none-the-less brace for more
increases before year-end as
state-owned utilities start to adjust to market
prices for their services
after the central bank announced it was halting
subsidies to the
companies.
Central bank governor Gideon Gono, who has been tasked
by Mugabe to
change Zimbabwe's economic fortunes - and famous for his
"failure is not an
option" catch phrase - has branded inflation the
country's chief enemy.
Analysts agree with Gono but say the central banker
looks surely to fail to
tame the inflation monster.
Last
Thursday, ZESA Holdings was allowed to hike electricity tariffs
by up to 270
percent, a move likely to fuel inflation. Commuter bus fares
rose
33
percent last week, the second such hefty increase in a month,
forcing
many workers to walk to work while others have resorted to cycling
to work.
Some municipalities have hiked service charges by more
than 100
percent, while others are proposing even larger increases in a bid
to pare
their losses and raise the quality of services.
Consumers continue to suffer in silence as manufacturers have resorted
to
quietly hiking prices of basic commodities almost on a weekly basis,
justifying it on the sliding Zimbabwe dollar on the black market, where the
bulk of forex is traded.
"The pricing model being used now is
basically influenced by the
exchange rate and to a certain extent the
interest rate. Companies have to
borrow to either buy foreign currency on
the black market or to finance
their operations, so naturally the impact on
prices is quite significant,"
James Jowa, an economist with a Harare
financial services firm said.
The Zimbabwe dollar is artificially
pegged at $250 to the United
States unit but very few can access it at that
price, forcing many to buy
greenbacks on the black market at over $1 700.
The central bank has not
given any hints of devaluing the
dollar.
But a 500 percent fare hike by state-owned Air Zimbabwe
last month
gave a glimpse of how parastatals are battling to price their
services. The
airfare increase showed the national carrier had used a rate
of $1 500 to
the greenback, an admission that the official rate was
unsustainable.
The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe's (CCZ) monthly
budget for a family
of six has risen 26.4 percent to $141 706 in October on
the back of
increases in health services and food prices.
Salaries have however continued to lag behind the price increases,
with a
government employee - the majority of employees work for the
government -
grossing $30 000 every month, almost five times less than the
CCZ monthly
budget.
Analysts say if Zimbabwe is to successfully tame inflation,
it needs
to address food shortages, which have stalked the country since
2001.
Although Mugabe blames the shortages on drought, critics say
disruptions caused by the government's chaotic and often violent land
reforms have resulted in the food shortages.
Food accounts for
a third of the consumer price index basket used to
calculate inflation.
Analysts expect inflation to quicken when the Central
Statistical Office
releases its October data later in the week. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 06 November
2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe Police Commissioner
Augustine Chihuri has barred
about 150 junior officers from taking part in
lucrative peacekeeping duties
in Kosovo because of their "questionable
loyalty" to President Robert Mugabe's
government.
The Zimbabwe
Republic Police (ZRP) has over the past years been
sending officers to
Kosovo and other troubled regions of the world on United
Nations (UN)
peace-keeping missions and where the poorly paid officers get
handsome
UN-set wages.
Apart from Kosovo, the ZRP also has officers deployed
in Liberia,
Sudan and East Timor.
Sources within the police say
Chihuri last week ordered the Police
Internal Security Intelligence (PISI)
to weed out junior officers suspected
of backing the main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.
"I have lost interest
in working for people who want to put me on the
forefront in defending the
government but do not care about my welfare.
"I also regret using
my hard earned cash in participating in a process
that views my services
with suspicion," said a police officer who refused to
be
named who
was among those barred from taking up the Kosovo assignment.
The
police officers paid $20 000 to have their applications to be
posted to
Kosovo considered.
The source said Chihuri had privately expressed
displeasure in
deploying junior officers on the lucrative duties because
"they have a
questionable level of loyalty to the government."
Chihuri is also said to have warned officers during pre-deployment
briefings
not to make any negative statements about Zimbabwe while abroad.
Zimbabwe,
which at independence from Britain in 1980 had one of Africa's
most
brilliant economies, is in the grip of a bitter economic meltdown,
critics
blame on mismanagement by Mugabe.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena
however denied the selection process
for officers to be deployed abroad was
biased against individuals suspected
of being sympathetic to the
MDC.
Bvudzijena said: "We select our officers on merit and those
who
finally make it to the duties are people whom we are confident will
represent the interests of the country in the best way
possible.
"Those who feel they have been treated unfairly are free
to present
their concerns and reasons would be given to them as to why they
do not
qualify."
Chihuri has in the past openly backed Mugabe's
ruling ZANU PF party
and threatened to expel any police officers backing the
MDC.
Human rights groups accuse the Zimbabwean government of
weeding out
opposition supporters from the police force and replacing them
with pliant
brainwashed youths from the controversial national service
programme. -
ZimOnline
Independent Catholic News
BULAWAYO - 6 November 2006
Bishop Pius Ncube of
Bulawayo has endorsed the new joint ecumenical
publication 'The Zimbabwe We
Want: Towards a National Vision', issued by the
main Christian Churches last
week.
The Archbishop was speaking on SW Radio Africa with journalist
Violet Gonda,
last week with Bishop Trevor Manhanga of the Evangelical
Fellowship of
Zimbabwe and Bishop Levee Kadenge of the Christian
Alliance.
Describing the document as "Rushed" Archbishop Ncube said:
"Well I just
thought 'OK, half a loaf is better than nothing'. If we could
get peace
initiatives going and we settle the problems for the people of
Zimbabwe and
people return to normalcy and live happy lives. Zimbabweans are
desperate;
we are looking for every possible way. So we are saying if this
document can
be a road map towards peace then perhaps half a loaf is better
than
nothing.:
He said he hoped it would be taken seriously by the
government, who had up
to now been "feathering their own nests' rather than
considering the needs
of the people.'
To hear the full interview or
see a transcript visit:
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
Washington Times
By Arnold Beichman
November
5, 2006
Let not your eyes go MEGA ("my eyes glaze over") on me as
I recite some
eye-popping statistics about the continent of Africa. In fact
when you read
this report you'll ask: "Why, for heaven's sake, is Africa
South of the
Sahara (SSH) the world's Number One Basket Case?" (Obviously,
the African
tragedy stops at the border of South Africa, which has a
successful economy
and the stirrings of a successful democracy.)
Look, here is what is below ground in the African continent: 90 percent
of
the world's cobalt; 90 percent of its platinum; 50 percent of its gold;
98
percent of its chromium; 64 percent of its manganese, one-third of its
uranium. Africa is rich in diamonds. And get this: Africa has more oil
reserves than all of North America.
Great, wonderful. So why is
Africa SSH the world's Number One Basket
Case?
It would be a logical
fallacy to ascribe a single causal explanation for
Africa SSH but there
could be a hierarchy of causes. At the top of the list,
I would put
corruption among African elites as a major reason why Africa SSH
has become
a latterday Death Valley. One simple corroborative example:
Zimbabwe, a
one-time land of milk and honey, is now an abyss of tyranny and
starvation,
except, of course, for dictator Robert Mugabe, his family and
friends.
Says Professor George Ayittey, a native of Ghana, an
economist at the
American University in Washington, D.C.:
"Africa has
been totally mismanaged and misruled in the past decade.
Nobody wants to
talk about that because of political correctness. But
Africa's begging bowl
leaks, horribly."
And how it leaks. The African Union's own estimate,
according to Peter
Goodspeed of the Toronto National Post, loses $148
billion a year to
corruption. While Prime Minister Tony Blair wants to
increase aid to Africa
by an extra $25 billion a year, British taxpayers are
unaware of the grand
larceny being committed by crooked African
leaders.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria last
year said
that a series of Nigerian military dictators had squandered --
hold your
hat -- $500 billion, a sum equivalent to all Western aid to Africa
in the
past four decades. In Kenya, $4 billion disappeared during the
presidency of
Daniel Arap Moi's 24 years in power. This is how the National
Post describes
the Kenya larceny:
"The country's Central Bank was
looted, money was stolen by making
fictitious payments on foreign debt,
kickbacks were collected on all public
contracts and when that didn't supply
enough cash, politicians awarded
themselves phony contracts."
And all
this looting was going on in a country with 70 percent
unemployment and
while nearly two-thirds of Kenya's population of almost 30
million were
living below the poverty line. Said Tunde Obadina, economics
editor of
Africa Today magazine:
"The failure of democracy and economic development
in Africa are due to
a large part to the scramble for wealth by predator
elites who have
dominated African politics since independence.... Africa's
tragedy is not
that its nations are poor. That is a condition that is a
product of history.
The tragedy is that it lacks ruling classes that are
committed to overcoming
the state of poverty."
But that's not all of
the problem. Says Jerome Pope, director of
Transparency
International:
"The international banks, the western businessmen
who bribe to get the
contract, those who are in cahoots with all the
millionaires, they are all
up to their eyeballs in what is taking place.
When it comes to moral
standing, everybody belongs in the gutter
together."
Africa SSH is poor, its people starving, its children
malnourished and
unschooled -- but there's cash on the barrelhead for guns
and bullets, for
civil wars, tribal-ethnic wars, territorial wars. Is it
possible, as a
Nigerian newspaper editor once wrote, that Africa was better
off under
colonialism?
Someday one hopes Africa will come into its
own. But when?
Arnold Beichman, a research fellow at the Hoover
Institution, Stanford
University, is a columnist for The Washington
Times.
The Guardian
Sunday
November 5, 2006 5:16 AM
By JOE McDONALD
Associated Press
Writer
BEIJING (AP) - China is launching a sweeping effort to expand its
access to
Africa's oil and markets, pledging billions of dollars in aid and
loans.
Chinese entrepreneurs on Sunday signed deals with African governments
and
firms worth $1.9 billion, state media reported.
Some 16 deals
were signed at the conclusion of a conference of Chinese and
African
entrepreneurs on the sidelines of a two-day forum in Beijing
attended by
dozens of African leaders, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
African
leaders at the forum said they welcomed Chinese investment and
business
ties, but Beijing also faces criticism that it is treating Africa
like a
colonial territory and supports regimes with poor human rights
records.
President Hu Jintao pledged to double China's aid to Africa
from its 2006
level by 2009. Speaking at the conference's opening ceremony
Saturday, he
promised $3 billion in loans, $2 billion in export credits and
a $5 billion
fund to encourage Chinese investment in Africa.
It was
not immediately clear if the government's promised $5 billion
investment
fund played a role in the deals announced Sunday.
``Chinese assistance to
Africa is sincere, unselfish and has no strings
attached,'' Premier Wen
Jiabao said at the gathering of Chinese and African
entrepreneurs.
Possibly reacting to criticism that China's aid to
Africa might fuel human
rights abuses or corruption, Wen promised to ensure
that projects are
``open, just, fair and transparent.''
The event
included heads of state from 35 of the 53 African nations and top
officials
from 13 others - one of the largest such gatherings in history.
China's
trade with Africa soared to $39.7 billion last year, four times its
2000
level, according to Wen. He called for efforts to boost that to $100
billion
by 2020 and promised to open China's markets wider to African
exports.
China's state oil companies are expanding in Africa, signing
deals in
Nigeria, Angola, Sudan and elsewhere. Manufacturers are trying to
expand
exports to African markets.
Human rights activists accuse
China of supporting governments such as Sudan
and Zimbabwe that are accused
of chronic abuses. African business groups
complain about poor treatment by
Chinese companies and competition from a
flood of low-cost
imports.
But a succession of African leaders who spoke Saturday said they
want closer
commercial ties with China and hope to learn from its
two-decade-old boom as
they try to reduce poverty.
``Chinese
companies can become key players by investing in our development
processes,'' said President Paul Kagame of Rwanda.
Hu said Beijing
also will forgive debts owed by the poorest African
countries and grant more
of their goods tariff-free import status.
China will train 15,000 African
professionals, build schools, hospitals and
anti-malaria clinics, send
agriculture experts and youth volunteers to
Africa and build a new
conference center for the African Union, Hu said.
He said China would
double the number of scholarships given to African
students to 4,000 by
2009.
At a banquet Saturday, Hu invoked the shared history of colonialism
in China
and Africa and their struggle with poverty.
``The Chinese
people rejoice at the achievements made by the African
people,'' he said.
``The Chinese people will continue to provide assistance
and support to
African people in an effort to achieve common development.''
The New
York-based group Human Rights Watch appealed to Beijing on Saturday
to be
judicious in giving aid. It called on Chinese leaders to avoid giving
Sudan
assistance that might fuel the Darfur conflict and to stop supplying
Zimbabwe with electronic surveillance and Internet-censoring
technology.
``Africans do not need another external power enabling
abusive regimes,''
the group said in a statement.
World Bank
President Paul Wolfowitz accused Chinese banks last month of
ignoring human
rights and environmental standards in Africa. He warned that
their surge in
lending could fuel corruption and debt burdens.
This weekend's conference
was a major prestige event for China's communist
leadership.
The
capital was hung with banners welcoming the African leaders. The
government
called on residents to avoid driving to keep streets clear for
their
motorcades.
On Saturday, state television showed Chinese surgeons working
in African
hospitals, a Kenyan stadium paid for by Beijing, and Chinese and
African
students dancing together.
Reuters
Sun 5 Nov 2006 2:47:12
GMT
By Lindsay Beck
BEIJING, Nov 5 (Reuters) - When workers rioted at
a Chinese-owned copper
mine in Zambia, it symbolised the worst of China's
deepening relationship
with Africa.
China, it seemed, was going after
the continent's natural resources to feed
its own booming economy, handing
out grants and loans to ease entry for its
companies and blind to standards
of human rights and governance.
But as Beijing hosts 48 African leaders
for a summit aimed at deepening
trade and political ties, both the best and
worst of its engagement are on
display: investment that is fuelling the
highest growth in decades in parts
of Africa, but also its friendship with
countries like Zimbabwe and Sudan.
Critics say China has ignored
corruption and rights abuses and undermined
international efforts to isolate
rogue regimes.
However, analysts also say China's investment is giving a
much-needed boost
to African economies otherwise largely ignored by Western
investors.
"Unlike some other countries, China is working to help Africa
restore
infrastructure, such as roads and bridges destroyed by wars. Those
are
essential for the entire economic recovery," said Chu Tianshu, a
development
economist at the Southwestern University of Finance and
Economics in
Chengdu.
In Angola, ravaged by three decades of civil
war, China was criticised after
Luanda turned down an IMF loan in favour of
a package of oil-backed loans
and credit from Beijing worth more than $3
billion that came with far fewer
strings attached.
But while it let
Angola escape IMF monitoring intended to curb graft, China
was also praised
for tackling reconstruction needs in a country few other
investors would
touch.
"They were the only ones on the horizon that were willing to come
in," Paul
Hare, head of the U.S.-Angola Chamber of Commerce, said at an
American
Enterprise Institute event in Washington.
The pay-off for
China? Angola this year surpassed Saudi Arabia to become its
largest
supplier of crude oil.
RESPONDING TO CONCERNS
There also are signs
that China's engagement in Africa is beginning to
respond to local
concerns.
China pledged to voluntarily cap clothing exports to South
Africa amid fears
its goods were stifling local industry, and in the face of
criticism that
its projects were staffed only with Chinese workers, it is
beginning to hire
more nationals.
Then there was the mining unrest in
Zambia.
"Zambia was a big wake-up," said Chris Alden of the London School
of
Economic and Political Science.
"Where African leaders take these
issues to the Chinese and do so
emphatically, I think the Chinese have
demonstrated generally that they've
been pretty responsive," he
said.
In an interview with China's official Xinhua news agency, State
Councillor
Tang Jiaxuan recognised the concerns.
"China appreciates
the concern of some African countries on trade deficits
and textiles and is
taking measures and working with the countries concerned
to resolve them,"
he said.
But he also stressed the growing export market for Africa that
China's boom
has created.
Rights groups counter that China's
engagement with any and all is preventing
the development of better
governance in Africa.
"Africans do not need another external power
enabling abusive regimes --
they need all powers, including China, to place
human rights at the centre
of their policies," Sophie Richardson, deputy
Asia director at Human Rights
Watch, said in a
statement.
Particularly scrutinised has been China's relationship with
Sudan, from
which it imported more than 14 million barrels of oil this year,
and to
which it sells arms that activists say are fuelling the conflict in
Darfur.
But analysts also point out that China has been shut out of
legitimate oil
deals elsewhere, citing political opposition that forced
state-owned oil
giant CNOOC to withdraw a bid to buy U.S. producer
Unocal.
BIGGER PIE
Still others argue that China's engagement is
not feeding Africa's growth,
but threatening it with loans that could
undermine recent debt forgiveness
and investments that contribute to
environmental destruction and poor labour
standards.
For African
leaders themselves, China, which in 30 years grew from a poor,
isolated
state into the world's fourth-largest economy, is an inspiring
model.
"The idea is that we share something with China and not with
our other
partners -- not with the United States, not with Japan -- which is
the fact
that we belong to the same group of countries, developing
countries," said
Aly Houssam el-Hefny, Egypt's ambassador to
China.
And with trade between Africa and China projected at $50 billion
this year,
up from about $11 billion in 2000, there are bound to be rewards
for the
continent's economies.
"It's like trade between any two
trading partners -- some industries are
going to expand and some will
shrink," said Chu, the development economist.
But, she added: "Overall,
the pie is getting bigger." (Additional reporting
by Paul Eckert in
Washington and Ben Blanchard in Beijing)
Xinhua
www.chinaview.cn
2006-11-05 20:57:03
HARARE, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwe
Tourism Authority
(ZTA)would continue targeting the Middle East in its
tourism marketing drive
as the market has the potential to raise revenue
levels for the sector,
state media reported on Sunday.
The
state news agency New Ziana quoted the authority's chief
executive Karikoga
Kaseke as saying that they had made inroads into the
market which would
likely result in increased numbers.
Tourists from the Middle
East, especially those from the United
Arab Emirates, are well known high
spenders who travel in low numbers.
Kaseke said the Authority's
strategy to capture a share of that
market was being guided by the principle
of low volume, high value.
"Even if we have low numbers in
terms of visitors and manage to
raise our target earnings, we are happy.
Tourism at the end of the day is
about earning foreign currency and not
necessarily the number of tourists
who visit," he said.
He
said as a result of the Authority's initiatives, a number of
buyers from the
Middle East also attended the International Travel Expo held
in the capital
last month.
Meanwhile, Kaseke said the tourism sector was
confident of
realizing its set target of 300 million U.S. dollars this year,
taking into
consideration increased activity in the sector.
Next year, the sector would be looking at raising at least 500
million U.S.
dollars with the ultimate objective of increasing earnings to 2
billion U.S.
dollars annually by 2010.
With rekindled interest in the
country's tourism, the tourism
sector hopes to contribute meaningfully and
increase contributions to the
gross domestic product.
In
the first three quarters of the year, tourist arrivals
increased by about 45
percent, a sure sign that the marketing initiatives by
various players in
the tourism sector are bearing fruit.
International media
criticism of the government's land reform
programs and designation of the
country as an unsafe tourist destination had
negatively impacted on tourist
arrivals in the last five years.
The government is focusing its
attention on tourism because of its
quick turnaround potential and strategic
role in economic revival
The tourism industry contributes six
percent to the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) and 10 percent of the country's
total foreign currency
earnings.
At its peak in 1998,
tourism accounted for eight percent of gross
domestic product, 12. 5 percent
of formal employment and about 11 percent of
foreign exchange
earnings.
Editor: Pliny Han