http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Tobias Manyuchi Saturday 16 October
2010
HARARE - India's Surat Rough Diamond Sourcing Limited has asked
Zimbabwe to
supply it with US$100 million worth of gemstones from its
controversial
Marange mines.
SRDSIL sources rough stones for India's
diamond cutting industry the biggest
in the world.
In a letter handed
to Zimbabwe Mines Minister Obert Mpofu, SRDSIL
chairman Ashit Mehta also
offered to train Zimbabwe artisans in cutting and
polishing as well as
provide the country with technical assistance in
exchange for the rough
supply.
"We request minister Mpofu and the government of Zimbabwe to
facilitate the
supply of rough diamonds, on a regular monthly basis, to the
tune of $100
million, which will be on an annual basis of $1.2 billion of
run of mine
goods," Mehta said during the minister's visit to
SRDSIL.
Mehta added that he hopes to gain a reply from the minister
during a visit
to Zimbabwe by members of the Surat diamond industry from
October 20-22.
Mpofu was taken on a whirlwind trip through Surat, which
included stops at
six of the city's major cutting and polishing factories.
Thousands of
diamond workers lined the streets to greet the minister and his
entourage.
The Kimberley Process (KP) approved the sale of a portion of
Marange goods
in August and September, much of which went to Indian
buyers.
However, further sales have been withheld pending a KP review
mission report
to be discussed at the organisation's plenary in Jerusalem in
November.
A number of KP members, in particular the U.S., Australia and
Canada, along
with the civil society component of the KP, remain opposed to
sales of
Marange diamonds because of concerns over human rights conditions
at the
mines. -- ZimOnline.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Correspondent Saturday 16
October 2010
HARARE -- More than half of nearly 12 000 blacks
allocated medium sized
farms under President Robert Mugabe's controversial
land redistribution
programme are locked up in disputes with the former
white owners mostly over
infrastructure and equipment, according to a
government land audit report
The report dated March 26, 2008 and one of
several such reports prepared by
Mugabe's previous government also
acknowledges that thousands of workers of
former white commercial farms have
not benefited from the farm reforms, with
several thousands of the
ex-labourers left without jobs or land.
Under the chaotic and often blood
reforms the medium-sized or A2 model farms
are supposed to engage in
commercial farming and absorb tens of thousands of
workers from former
white-owned commercial farms. A1 model farms are
smallholder plots in either
villages or on self-contained units.
"There are a total of 6355 disputes
amongst the 11 857 beneficiaries who
were audited and found to have taken up
their A2 plots across the country's
eight provinces," said the report shown
to ZimOnline this week.
The document titled "Consolidated National A2
Land Audit Report", which was
prepared by the old Ministry of Lands said
most of the disputes are over
farm infrastructure such as water sources,
fencing, houses and other farm
structures which are either immovable or
former owners were prohibited form
taking away with them on the promise that
they would be compensated for the
property.
Mugabe, who has refused
to pay white farmers for land he says was stolen
from blacks in the first
place, has also not compensated the farmers for
infrastructure and other
improvements on the land despite promising to do
so - or in cases where
compensation was offered it was way below market
rates.
Giving more
evidence of the suffering caused Mugabe's skewed land reforms
the report
said thousands of black farm labourers who enjoyed steady
employment and
income under their former white employers were not allocated
land and are
jobless.
Some have become squatters on the new A2 farms but refuse to
work for the
cash-strapped new farmers who cannot afford to pay
wages.
"A total of 15 086 former farm workers who are not employed by the
A2
beneficiaries but are residing on 674 A2 plots were found during the
audit,"
the report said.
Mugabe's land reforms are blamed for
plunging once self sufficient Zimbabwe
into food shortages after the veteran
leader failed to provide funds and
skills training to black peasants
resettled on former white farms to
maintain production.
Poor
performance in agricultural had far reaching consequences as hundreds
of
thousands of people lost jobs, while the manufacturing sector, starved of
inputs from the key sector, virtually collapsed.
The coalition
government has promised fresh land reforms that are more
orderly but to date
has failed to carry out a land audit that is critical to
any programme to
rectify the damage caused by Mugabe's violent farm
redistribution
programme.
The administration has also failed to stop Mugabe's supporters
in the army
and from his ZANU PF party from seizing more land from the
country's few
remaining white commercial farmers. - ZimOnline.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010 21:21
PRIME MINISTER
Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy Thokozani Khupe this week
boycotted
cabinet, as South African President Jacob Zuma's mediation team
arrived in
Harare to intervene in renewed clashes between President Robert
Mugabe and
the premier.
Tsvangirai's move, which came against a backdrop of
resurging political
tensions in the shaky inclusive government over
outstanding Global Political
Agreement (GPA) issues, has intensified the
power struggle between Mugabe
and himself.
Informed sources said
Tsvangirai is still seething over Mugabe's unilateral
decision to appoint
new governors recently and that this had influenced his
decision not to go
to cabinet on Wednesday. Tsvangirai is also angry over
Mugabe's other
arbitrary appointments, which he says have triggered a
constitutional
crisis. Cabinet met on Wednesday as Mugabe was away attending
an
African-Arab summit in Libya.
Tsvangirai and Khupe stayed
away from the cabinet meeting and chose to
attend a social cluster gathering
in Nyanga, although MDC-T ministers
attended cabinet.
Luke
Tamborinyoka, Tsvangirai's spokesman, confirmed his boss did not attend
cabinet.
"The prime minister did not attend cabinet on Wednesday
because he was
attending a social cluster meeting in Nyanga," Tamborinyoka
said.
Sources insisted Tsvangirai and Khupe, who heads the social
cluster,
boycotted cabinet because of the current wrangling in
government.
Although the premier and his deputy had planned to attend
the Nyanga meeting
earlier as they thought cabinet would be on Tuesday as
usual, official
sources said their action was a rebuff to Mugabe because
they could have
changed plans if they really wanted to attend
cabinet.
MDC-T ministers last year boycotted cabinet after a
stand-off on GPA issues,
particularly the dispute over the swearing-in of
Roy Bennett as deputy
Agriculture minister, which led Tsvangirai and his
ministers to withdraw
from government.
Tsvangirai wrote to Zuma
last Thursday, saying he was "disappointed" by
Mugabe's actions. His letter
covered "outstanding GPA issues, GPA
implementation matrix, GPA periodic
review mechanism, constitution-making
process, roadmap to the next elections
and security sector re-alignment".
Apart from governors, Mugabe has
also of late made arbitrary appointments of
ambassadors, judges and the
Police Service Commission, a move which the
prime minister said was
"unconstitutional and unlawful" as he was not
consulted as required by the
constitution.
Sources said Tsvangirai and his party were now fed-up
with Mugabe's actions
and were prepared to fight back, setting the stage for
a bruising political
battle ahead.
Tsvangirai's series of letters
to Mugabe, Zuma, United Nations
secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon, European
Union Commission president Jose
Manuel Barroso, Swedish Prime Minister
Frederick Reinfedt and Chief Justice
Godfrey Chidyausiku revealed his anger
over the issue.
In his letter to Mugabe, Tsvangirai told the
president his appointments were
"unconstitutional, null and void". In a
separate letter to Zuma, Tsvangirai
said he was "extremely concerned" about
Mugabe's actions and urged Sadc to
intervene.
Tsvangirai told
Senate President Edna Madzongwe that Mugabe's extension of
governors' terms
of office was "illegal and unconstitutional". To Barroso,
Tsvangirai said
Mugabe's appointment of ambassadors, was "unconstitutional,
null and
void."
Sources said the run-ins between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, which
reached a
fever pitch last week, were behind the premier's boycott of
cabinet.
"Tsvangirai and Khupe boycotted cabinet because they were
furious over
Mugabe's unilateral appointments. That was a sign of anger and
protest," a
senior government official said. "The situation in government is
very tense
and it's difficult for them to even talk to Mugabe about anything
since
their heated meeting last week on Monday."
Mugabe,
Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara held a tense
meeting
last week on Monday at which the president said he had extended the
terms of
office for governors. Tsvangirai reportedly reacted furiously,
while
Mutambara was gutted.
That sparked off a chain of events, starting
with Tsvangirai summoning his
MDC-T national executive for an emergency
meeting on Thursday last week.
Soon after that meeting he held a press
conference, rejecting Mugabe's
appointments which he described as "rank
madness and utterly nonsensical".
The following day after the press
conference, Tsvangirai escalated his fight
with Mugabe with a hard-hitting
letter to the president in which he told him
his appointments were
"unconstitutional, null and void".
Tsvangirai's letter was copied to
Zuma, Mutambara and Madzongwe. In a bid to
intensify pressure on Mugabe,
Tsvangirai also wrote separately to Zuma, Ban
Ki-Moon, Barroso, Reinfedt and
Berlusconi, mainly over the issue of
ambassadors. The premier also wrote to
Chidyausiku over judges.
This has created a political crisis, which
this week forced Zuma, the
mediator in Zimbabwe's stalemate, to dispatch his
mediation team, comprising
Charles Nqakula, Mac Maharaj and Lindiwe Zulu, to
Harare to intervene.
Zuma's team met Mugabe and Tsvangirai on
Wednesday night. It was also
expected to meet Mutambara over the current
wrangling in government.
Mugabe reportedly told Zuma's team there was
nothing wrong with what he was
doing because the constitution overrode the
GPA.
He insisted, according to informed official sources, he had not
breached the
constitution in making all the appointments, claiming he had
only redeployed
ambassadors, extended terms of sitting governors and
appointed judges in
terms of the constitution.
It is said
Mugabe argued he is not supposed to consult Tsvangirai on
governors and
judges. Zanu PF's position is that the GPA is not the
constitution, although
the constitution was amended to incorporate the GPA.
Tsvangirai told
the Zuma team that Mugabe was violating the constitution
willy-nilly and
tearing apart the GPA. Sources said Mugabe's actions were
unconstitutional
because he had made "key appointments" without
consultation. Tsvangirai
considers the appointment of ambassadors, governors
and judges as key
appointments.
It is said he complained that since the Sadc summit in
Windhoek in August
which gave the GPA parties a 30-day deadline to wrap
outstanding issues,
nothing had moved due to Mugabe's resistance. The
premier indicated Zuma and
other Sadc leaders, as well as stakeholders, must
intervene to rein-in
Mugabe and restore constitutional order in the country.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
21:16
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe yesterday said elections would be held by
mid next
year as the inclusive government cannot be extended by more than
six months
after its expiry in February 2011.
He said he could
not stomach a prolonged extension of the shaky unity
government, accusing
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of being a sellout.
Addressing a
Zanu PF youth league meeting in Harare, Mugabe said the
constitution-making
process should be fast-tracked to pave way for early
elections, saying his
partner in the coalition pact, Tsvangirai was being
used by Western
governments to remove him from power.
Mugabe explained that
the inclusive government will end in February and it
can only be extended by
not more than six months to allow the writing of a
new governance charter,
an indication that Zimbabweans may go to the polls
between July and
August.
This is the first time Mugabe has come out clearly and given
a timeframe of
when Zimbabweans were likely to go for elections, despite
pressure from the
business community asking the inclusive government for a
longer period to
stabilise the economy. Mugabe reportedly ordered Finance
minister Tendai
Biti to budget $200 million for a referendum and
elections.
Erstwhile rivals, Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed the
inclusive government in
February last year following the signing of the
Global Political Agreement
in September 2008.
“The
constitution-making process has to be accelerated because the life of
this
creature (inclusive government) is only two years,” said Mugabe.
“It started
in February last year and in February next year, it must end. It
would have
lived its full life and it will not be extended by more than six
months or a
year.”
“After a referendum then we have elections by mid next year. I
don’t see any
reason why we shouldn’t have elections next
year.”
Mugabe described as “foolish and stupid” Tsvangirai’s decision
to write to
parliament, the judiciary and several countries calling on them
to disregard
unilateral public appointments made by the 86-year-old
leader.
Mugabe recently re-appointed 10 provincial governors and
appointed judges
and ambassadors without consulting the Prime Minister as
required by the
GPA. Tsvangirai then attacked the President, saying the
appointments showed
Mugabe’s “rank madness”.
Mugabe told
journalists after the youth league meeting that he re-appointed
governors in
accordance with the law and had no obligation to consult
Tsvangirai.
”The MDC complaints are nonsensical because the
governors were re-appointed
as provided by the law.”
He shot down
Tsvangirai’s claims that the constitution-making process was
“messy”
following violent clashes in Chitungwiza and Mbare which resulted in
the
suspension of the outreach process in the capital, arguing the process
was
smooth.
Mugabe accused Tsvangirai of toeing the line set by Europeans
and Americans,
the countries he said had imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Mugabe and top
aide were slapped with a travel ban and asset freeze over
gross human rights
violations and electoral manipulation.
“Some
of the things that Tsvangirai does are stupid and foolish,” said
Mugabe. “He
relies on Europeans to get advice. That’s why we need to have
elections to
end this inclusive government,” he said.
“The MDC runs to Europeans
and Americans if we have our differences.
Tsvangirai told British, French,
Belgian and US ambassadors that I refused
to appoint his governors. We are
not sellouts; who are those white people
Tsvangirai runs to.”
He
said Tsvangirai should depend on Sadc and the African Union if he has
complaints about the inclusive government. But, observers note, Tsvangirai
also wrote to Sadc facilitator, South African president Jacob Zuma,
highlighting Mugabe’s violation of the GPA.
Mugabe told his
supporters to prepare for the polls. He predicted a win
against Tsvangirai
who pipped him to the post in March 2008, although the PM
did not garner
enough votes to declare him an outright winner.
He advised the youths
to desist from political violence, which the MDC-T
says left 200 supporters
dead and thousands injured in June 2008’s sham
presidential run-off. Mugabe
also accused MDC-T for failing to come up with
policies to turnaround the
economic fortunes of the country.
“The MDC-T only says Mugabe must
go, Zanu PF must go; they want a regime
change agenda in line with their
imperialists’ bosses but they have nothing
to offer. Who are they to say
Mugabe must go?” he said.
Since the inception of MDC in 1999,
Tsvangirai has pushed to remove Mugabe
from power but the country’s ruler
for 30 years has been accused of rigging
elections and intimidating
political opponents to stay in power. The rivals
have met twice, in 2002 and
2008, in presidential elections.
“Tsvangirai tell us where you were
when Zanu PF was fighting for the
liberation of the country. So who are you
to tell me to go? Who are you to
say I should go,” Mugabe told his cheering
youth league members.
Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai have indicated
several times that elections were
imminent next year while the other
inclusive government partner Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara has
campaigned against the polls. Mutambara and
civil society say electoral and
democratic reforms should precede the
plebiscite.
Brian
Chitemba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
21:15
CABINET has approved a new Corporate Governance Framework (CGF)
that will
among other reforms compel state-owned enterprises to submit
annual audited
reports to government, a minister has said.
This
development is likely to affect state-owned enterprises that have kept
a
tight lid on their financials for years.
Gorden Moyo, State Enterprises and
Parastatals minister said cabinet on
Wednesday gave the green light to
proposals seeking more accountability and
effective governance of
state-owned companies.
Moyo said the framework will be launched later this
year.
The new measures if implemented would bring more scrutiny to CEOs of
parastatals who have in the past been criticised for milking perennial
loss-making entities through hefty and unsustainable remuneration
packages.
Moyo has since his appointment as State Enterprises minister blamed
poor
corporate governance at state enterprises for slowing down economic
recovery. Government this year projects an 8,1% Gross Domestic Growth on the
back of a rebound in agriculture.
The minister said the new modus
operandi for state enterprises seek to
increase to 40%, the contribution of
parastatals to the GDP, a figure that
almost matches the contribution of the
entire mining sector to the economy.
Business organisations also blame
beleaguered state-owned utilities such as
Zesa and local authorities
responsible for water provision for retarding
economic turnaround.
"I am
glad to announce that the government of Zimbabwe as of yesterday,
Wednesday
the 13th October, approved a corporate governance framework for
state
enterprises and parastatals," Moyo said.
"The CGF will be implemented in
tandem with relevant Acts of Parliament
governing state enterprises and
parastatals and also the Companies Act, as
it is complimentary. It is the
conviction of the government, that the
corporate government framework will
create a new management culture and
paradigm for our SEPs and improve the
development of the economy as a
whole."
According to a draft document of
the corporate governance framework,
financial statements of a state
enterprise or parastatal shall be audited
annually by the Comptroller and
Auditor-General or a nominee from that
office.
The policy document is
also expected to bring to finality controversial
appointments of CEOs. The
minister however failed to disclose what
government had decided on the
remuneration of CEOs.
"The board shall appoint the MD/CEO/GM/DG and other
designated posts on a
renewable performance- related contract in
consultation with the responsible
minister and in accordance with provisions
of the enabling legislation,"
reads the seventh draft of the CGF.
"The
board secretary shall circulate to members materials such as financial
reports, relevant committee minutes and other background materials fourteen
days before scheduled meetings and during months when the board is not
scheduled to meet."
On disclosure of interest, the CGF recommended that
heads of state
enterprises must disclose in writing to the board, the
responsible minister
and the Minister of State Enterprises any connection
with the state
enterprise or parastatal (or any related company) shares,
debentures or any
changes in respect of those particulars
prescribed.
"Every director shall withdraw from proceedings of the board or
committee
when a matter in which he/she has an interest is considered,
unless the
other members decide that the member's direct or indirect
interest in the
matter is trivial or irrelevant".
Loans made directly or
indirectly to non-executive directors, according to
the draft document, are
prohibited unless the granting of loans is the core
business of the entity
and subject to the rules and procedures applicable to
the granting of such
loans.
Bernard Mpofu
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
21:14
TWO companies under the directorship of a National Social Security
Authority
(NSSA) board member allegedly accessed a US$3 million loan without
following
procedures. The authority was also prejudiced of more than US$2,6
million in
underhand transactions, a report compiled by the Comptroller and
Auditor-Genera’s office has shown.
The report, prepared in August this
year covering the year ending December
31 2009 and subsequent events to
March 2010, revealed that there was no
evidence to show that board members,
executive management and personnel in
the investments sections declared
their interests in structured deals which
were undertaken by the
authority.
“Loans amounting to over US$3 million were accessed by two
companies that
were under the directorship of one of the board members who
was also
chairman of the risk and investment committee,” reads part of the
report,
which is now before NSSA general manager James Matiza.
“The
investment settlement supervisor had a close relationship with MMC, the
stock-broking company which the authority engaged to purchase Star Africa
shares. The shares were purchased at a price that was higher than the price
quoted at the stock exchange and the authority suffered a loss of US$1,6
million from the transaction.”
The report added that the authority paid
US$1 million more for the purchase
of Dominion House, than the US$2 million
that Bard Real Estate had advised
them to offer for the property. There was
further controversy over the
purchase of the property as another company,
Sunbeach, was suing NSSA for
agent’s fees arguing that they had linked the
authority with the seller of
Dominion House.
Management at NSSA, in
response to the issue of failing to declare an
interest, defended their
position saying all investments in structured deals
were done following the
authority’s procedure manual which stated that “all
investment deals under
US$5 million were treated as money market deals that
do not require MIC or
BIC (investment committees) or full board involvement”.
The report also
stated that when NSSA purchased Ballantyne Company in August
last year for
US$2,2 million, they received 10 000 shares, a third of the
total
shareholding, meaning that they had bought unquoted shares for US$220
each.
“In the agreement of sale, the current shareholder of 20 000
shares, would
continue to hold these shares as redeemable preference shares,
but the
conditions, period and the price at which the shares were to be
redeemed
were not stated,” reads the report.
“The transaction was not
carried out in a transparent manner in that what
the committee approved is
not what the authority acquired. The reason for
the change in the item might
have been to avoid capital gains tax. Hence
where the authority is part of
the transaction that has tax avoidance there
is a risk of exposure to
penalties and reputation risk.”
The office of the Comptroller and
Auditor-General recommended that the
transaction be further
investigated.
In their response to the allegations that the purchase of the
Ballantyne
company was not done appropriately, the management said it was
not correct
to say the 20 000 shares would continue to be held as redeemable
shares.
“Indeed the authorised shares were 30 000 and 20 000 issued shares
were
converted into redeemable preference shares and these remained with the
then
shareholder,” said the management. “NSSA purchased 10 000 shares which
were
subsequently issued.”
The management at the social security
authority said the shares were
redeemed in August last year with no
financial loss to NSSA.
The report also observed that the authority entered
into structured deals
with unregistered companies including a US$3 million
collaterised deposit
in July last year at a rate of 3% per month when the
market rates were above
this figure.
The interest rates were negotiated
with ReNaissance Merchant Bank through
its associate ReNaissance Trading and
it was meant for the importation of
wheat.
Importation of wheat was
expected to increase capacity utilisation of
industry, resulting in
employment creation which would translate into
increased levy contributions
to NSSA.
“I however observed that ReNaissance Trading was not a registered
company
although the name was reserved at the Registrar of Companies,” reads
the
auditors report. “There was no evidence to support that NSSA checked
this as
part of their analysis. NSSA did not also check the subsequent
importation
and delivery of wheat, since this was the motivation behind the
deal and
also to safeguard its reputation by not financing speculative
tendencies.”
Management rationalised on the interest rates saying during the
first few
months of dollarisation, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe directed
that banks
should quote London Inter Bank Operating Rate plus 1 to 6%
depending on the
consumer.
“This resulted in most banks quoting flat
rates or rate per month as opposed
to the usually rates per annum,” argued
the management.
However, the management in its defence, was mum on the
registration of
ReNaissance Trading.
NSSA was also accused of a weak
underwriting arrangement in December last
year when it agreed to
sub-underwrite CFX rights issue.
The authority entered the agreement before
the acceptance of agreement was
signed and it was only inked two months
later after funds had already been
deposited as commitment.
“The
sub-underwriting agreement states the return and the nature of
instrument to
be obtained,” the report said. “Hence it was important that
the agreement be
signed first before the release of funds. The authority was
not also aware
of the underwriting fees income receivable until April 23,
2010 when
external audit made inquiry of the income accrued from the deal.”
It said the
decision to sub-underwrite CFX’s rights issue was not supported
by technical
and fundamental analysis of CFX that had a history of losses
but a mere
instruction to purchase shares by the executives.
Matiza could not be reached
at the time of going to print last night on what
course of action NSSA would
take to remedy the issues raised in the audit.
Leonard
Makombe
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010 21:13
HUMAN rights
activists have slammed parliament’s slow pace in passing
legislation that
will open up the democratic space as set out in the Global
Political
Agreement (GPA).
The activists gave an example of the Public Order and
Security Act (Posa)
Amendment Bill, which has been on the order paper since
February; amendments
to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy
Act (Aippa) and the
deregulation of the electronic media, particularly
broadcasting.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights director Irene Petras said
the development
was disappointing and called the parties represented in
parliament to be
more responsible.
“It is disappointing; there have been
a limited number of Bills that have
been brought before the House,” Petras
said. “There has been no movement on
laws that improve the democratisation
agenda. A lot of work still needs to
be done if parliament is to meet its
legislative agenda. All parties have to
take responsibility.”
According
to President Robert Mugabe, the other Bills expected in this
session are the
Electoral Amendment Bill, which will give effect to the
electoral reforms
negotiated by the GPA negotiators and approved by the
three party
principals, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Amendment Bill,
Referendums
Amendment Bill and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill,
which spells
out the powers and functions of the commission.
The House of Assembly
adjourned this week to next Tuesday without debate
while the Senate also
adjourned to November 9 after sitting for a record 15
minutes on Tuesday
saying they wanted to give the lower house time to
deliberate and complete
passage of Bills before it.
Besides the customary financial bills, parliament
has so far passed
legislation that enables the Inclusive government to
work.
It passed constitutional amendment 19 that created the office of the
Prime-Minister and its two deputies and Constitutional commissions. It also
passed the National Security Council Act that created a new security board
that was meant to replace the Joint Operations Command.
Pedzisai Ruhanya,
Crisis Coalition Zimbabwe programmes manager, said the
ushering in of an
inclusive government in February 2009 has killed
parliamentary democracy in
the country.
He said: “There is no parliament in Zimbabwe. The inclusive
government
destroyed the role of the House. There are no longer any robust
debates
because of the inclusive government. One can say there is no longer
parliamentary democracy, but executive dictatorship.”
On the other hand,
Trevor Maisiri, African Reform Institute director, said
parliament has
become a casualty of political grandstanding by leaders
wishing to score
political points.
“The legislative agenda has been overtaken by political
expediency and
grandstanding. Both Zanu PF and MDC-T are posturing for
elections,” Maisri
said. “It seems they are only keen at dislodging each
other from power.
These moves are meant to deliberately delay the
legislative agenda for
democratisation.”
He added that MDC-T was failing
to realise Zanu PF’s duplicity by playing
along with the foot-dragging of
the legislative agenda.
“MDC is failing to read that Zanu PF is delaying
parliament from sitting and
passing new laws by its deliberate disruptive
actions during the
constitutional outreach programmes. Zanu PF would want it
to drag out and it
is unfortunate that MDC is playing along,” Maisiri
said.
Ruhanya, however, argues that the elections talk is just imaginary in
the
political players’ minds.
“GPA is not clear what happens after it
expires. We are certain of one
thing, that parliament’s term ends in 2013.
We have not seen any election
preparations from electoral bodies charged
with running elections in the
country so far about when is the next
election. Thus everything else is
therefore speculative,” he argued.
The
Prime-minister’s spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka, said Morgan Tsvangirai
as
the leader of government business in parliament remains committed to the
democratisation agenda.
“The prime-minister has always been an advocate
and proponent of democracy.
It is unfortunate that the pace is slow and he
wishes everything could move
faster. He remains passionate about the
democratisation agenda,”
Tamborinyoka said. “Parliament had been slowed down
by the constitutional
review process and once that is out of the way, pace
in passing legislation
will be increased.”
Paidamoyo Muzulu
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010 21:12
A HARARE
magistrate has accused the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)
Florence
Ziyambi of abusing the courts by bringing a frivolous case against
a law
officer in the Attorney-General's Office, which could have been dealt
with
internally.
In passing judgment in a case in which a senior law officer at
the AG's
office, Sibanengi Ncube, was accused of criminal abuse of office
recently,
Harare Magistrate William Bhila said the case only amounted to
misconduct.
"I do not know how this can be elevated to a criminal offence,"
said Bhila
when acquitting Ncube. "Those who proffer charges like these are
abusing
this particular section of the code (Criminal Law (Codification and
Reform)
Act)."
Ncube was accused of criminal abuse of office when he
advised a prosecutor,
Tichafa Mabhengere, in Beitbridge to consent to bail
in an application by
Hardson Mhlanga who was facing kidnapping
charges.
In consenting to bail, Ncube argued that Mhlanga was a suitable
candidate
while Ziyambi disagreed.
Ncube's defence lawyer, Admire Rubaya
of Nyamushaya, Kasuso & Rubaya Legal
Practitioners, argued that Ziyambi
was abusing the criminal justice system
as she sought to legislate her
directives to be law to the extent that if
one violated them, they would be
tried criminally.
Bhila also castigated the witnesses who were brought by the
state in the
case. Edmore Muzamba, a law officer at the AG's office,
Ziyambi, and Michael
Mugabe, former head of the Economic Section in the AG's
office, now
stationed in Mutare, were among the witnesses who were called by
the state.
Bhila said Muzamba was a "non committed man," who was "generally
unhelpful
to the state".
In their closing submission, the state accused
Ncube of trying to undermine
the authority of Ziyambi.
"Here we see a law
officer who is rebellious to the establishment, in
particular the leadership
of Mrs Ziyambi as the DPP," said the state. "Here
again we see a law officer
who is a law unto himself who defiantly told the
court that 'on the
assumption of prosecution, I was to prosecute any case
inclusive of
entertaining bail application. I have done it several times
over.'"
Rubaya accused Ziyambi of lying.
"Once she displays a penchant
for lying, it presents this honourable court
with a problem of knowing where
the lies start and end," said Rubaya. "It
casts her entire evidence in doubt
so much that to convict on its basis will
be an injustice."
Rubaya argued
it was clear from Ncube's testimony that there was bad blood
between Ziyambi
and him.
"The court is urged to frown at such conduct by a person of such
authority
who for all intents and purposes would leave no stone unturned to
have the
accused convicted and sing the blues accompanied with a
conviction," argued
Rubaya.
From the submissions made by the defence,
Ziyambi consulted the Chief Law
Officer, Martha Cheda, in the middle of the
night and was briefed about the
case and came up with a verbal directive to
Cheda and the prosecutors at
Beitbridge.
Ziyambi alleged that she had
also received an anonymous call alleging
corruption by Beitbridge
prosecutors but investigations yielded no results.
"It boggles one's mind
whether the decision to oppose bail was based on
alleged facts as told to
the DPP by Mrs Cheda or the opposition to bail was
based on the nocturnal
anonymous call," said Rubaya.
"It is clear, it was based on the nocturnal
anonymous call because
Mabhengere clearly told the court that on the
particular day, he had failed
to send the state papers to Cheda because the
fax was not functional and if
the alleged facts from Cheda were as told by
Mabhengere to this honourable
court then the decision to oppose bail was not
based on facts and the law
but on the nocturnal anonymous call as put to the
witness during cross
examination."
Leonard Makombe
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
21:10
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe who declared that interment at the National
Heroes
Acre is for Zanu PF members only, is failing to adequately look after
families of the heroes, whose surviving spouses get a monthly allowance of
$26 and $5 per child below 18 years.
In a response to questions from the
Zimbabwe Independent this week,
Secretary for the Ministry of Labour and
Social Services, Lancaster Museka,
said in addition to the monthly
allowances, government pays school fees of
up to $270 per term per child in
primary and secondary schools and $405 for
tertiary education.
He said
the ministry was currently providing allowances for 500 widows and
200
children under the National Heroes Dependants Fund
“The widows are getting
$26 monthly allowance and $5 for the children below
the age of 18,” Museka
said. “The National Heroes Dependants Fund pays for
school fees for fallen
heroes’ children. Currently, the children that are in
primary and secondary
have a school fees allocation of $270 per term and
exam fees. Those in
universities (tertiary education) get a semester
allocation of $405. In
cases of health problems the department of social
welfare services assists
the dependants with an Assisted Medical Treatment
Order. With this order
they can access treatment in government hospitals.”
Analysts and some heroes’
relatives said the amounts were too low
considering the sacrifices the
heroes made for the country and the mileage
Zanu PF gets using their
names.
Museka admitted the money was too little, saying this has at times
prompted
complaints from the beneficiaries.
“Complaints will always come
but currently there hasn’t been much that can
be done as the economy is
recovering from a meltdown which saw most of the
social services being
affected,” he added. “Efforts are being made to
improve the monthly
allowances of the dependants to a reasonable rate.”
Recently, the wife of
national hero Josiah Tongogara, Angeline, met Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai seeking assistance.
She ranted at journalists saying that: “My
husband died 30 years ago. Why
did you not bother to find out how I am
surviving? Do I not have a right to
visit these offices?”
Angeline is
reported to have complained in the past about government’s
failure to
adequately look after her family despite her husband having
played a
critical role in the liberation of Zimbabwe.
However, Museka said with what
the ministry was doing, it would be unfair to
say they have been neglecting
the families of the heroes, but admitted that
the rates for their monthly
allowance should be revised.
“From the above, one cannot say that they are
being neglected but rather the
rates for the monthly allowances have to be
improved to meet daily needs of
the dependants. This will be done as the
economy improves,” he said.
In a statement earlier this year, MDC-T expressed
dismay on how some
dependants are forgotten after the death of their
spouses. They gave an
example of the late Ntombiyelanga Takawira, the wife
of the late national
hero Leopold, whom they said died a pauper in January
this year and was
conveniently conferred national hero as a last
resort.
Wongai Zhangazha
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
21:10
THE Ministry of Agriculture is still to return more than US$21 000
meant for
the Agricultural Revolving Fund that it misappropriated and used
for
minister Joseph Made's business cards and hotel bill, as most ministries
applied for condonation from treasury for misapplication of funds, vehicles
and fuel.
More than a year after the Comptroller and Auditor-General
Mildred Chiri
exposed gross misappropriation of state resources by ministers
and their
deputies, and irregularities and inadequacies in the payroll
administration,
many ministries noted the recommendations but have taken no
action to
address the issues.
The report - a special audit on ministerial
accounts by Chiri - for the
first quarter of 2009 financial year - the also
highlighted unlawful
recruitment of over 10 000 youths.
Chiri recommended
that the ministries return the money, fuel and vehicles,
among other things,
that they used for projects not assigned or authorised
and once returned,
the funds were to be applied to the services for which
they were
established.
But a year-on, some ministries are still to fully comply with
the
recommendations, with many applying for condonation.
A document
complied of the ministries' response to Chiri's recommendations
for the
Zimbabwe Independent this week shows that the Ministry of
Agriculture is yet
to reimburse $21 738 meant for the Agricultural Revolving
Fund.
"The
revolving fund has not yet been reimbursed by the ministry. What the
ministry has done is to write to the Ministry of Finance seeking condonation
of this expenditure. Ministry of Finance has not yet responded to this
request," reads the report.
The Ministry of Youth Development that was
singled out as the worst case of
abusing government recruitment procedures
when it employed 10 277 youths
between May 2008 and June 2008 without the
existence of posts in the
ministry's establishment tried to regularise the
employment of the youths,
but this was yet to be approved.
According to
Chiri's 2009 Special Audit report, the youths were deployed
throughout the
country as ward officers, which was a violation of a treasury
instruction
that stated "no officer shall be appointed unless an appropriate
vacancy
exists on the authorised establishment and no unestablished officer
shall be
appointed for specific work unless adequate provision has been made
for the
purpose".
"The Ministry (Youth) applied for condonation of salary expenditure
incurred
arising from the employment of 10 277 ward youth officers from May
2008.
However it is yet to be granted together with the treasury concurrence
for
the creation of an additional 13 950 youth officers," Chiri said was the
ministry's response.
According to the report, all duplicated payees from
the youth ministry who
were 458 on the payroll were removed and the payment
of salaries through the
imprest accounts was stopped.
"Reconciliation was
done and all the uncollected salaries in the imprest
accounts were receipted
into the exchequer account," read the report.
The Ministry of Water was said
to have not made any formal response to
recommendations that seven vehicles
involved in an accident be investigated
and that a full departmental
investigation be undertaken to ensure that the
claims made for fuel are
genuine and are a proper charge to public funds.
Former Transport Minister
Christopher Mushohwe, his deputy Hubert Nyanhongo
and their permanent
secretary allocated themselves three cars each. Chiri
said they have since
managed to get authority for the acquisition of the
motor vehicles.
Chiri
said the collection of rentals at government properties by the
Ministry of
Public Works had not improved and that tenants, especially civil
servants,
have not been paying rent from 2006
"The collection of rentals has not yet
improved," noted Chiri. "However, we
are told that the Ministry's Valuation
and Estates management department is
in the process of coming up with lease
agreements for all tenants occupying
government commercial
properties.
"The functions of collecting rentals from residential properties
has been
moved to the Ministry of National Housing who are mandated to
maintain the
tenant ledgers. Indications from the Ministry of public works
point to the
fact that these rentals are not being collected since the
salaries of civil
servants have remained depressed."
The Ministry of
Public Service that was reported in the 2009 report that it
neither recorded
in the vehicle register nor in the donations register a
total of 14 vehicles
donated to the ministry by the Reserve Bank in 2008 and
it also failed to
produce vehicle registration papers to the auditors and is
said to be still
working on doing that.
"Generally I am really happy and satisfied with the
outcome of our findings
of this report because ministers have gone out of
their way to try to
implement our recommendations and we are still in the
process of trying to
verify what they have said they have done. I think this
is a good
development and I wish it could continue into 2010 and beyond,"
she said.
Chiri said the only challenge they faced in following up on
ministries was
the breakdown of computerised accounting
software.
Wongai Zhangazha
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
21:09
ZANU PF is directing state resources to neutralise the MDC in its
quest to
win a majority in the next election, a leading economic commentator
has
alleged.
Speaking at an Institute for Security Studies (ISS) seminar
held in Pretoria
last week, John Robertson said Zanu PF intended to silence
the MDC led by
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and reverse the popularity
the party had
gained.
“(President) Robert Mugabe’s health appears to have
made this a more urgent
objective, the belief being that the security of
Zanu PF officials depends
on Mugabe being re-elected and then before
standing down, nominating a
successor who will look after their interests,”
Robertson said. “As a sense
of urgency has gripped the party in recent weeks
because of the president’s
health, many Zimbabweans are bracing themselves
for this unknown event and
for an electioneering onslaught that will follow
as Zanu PF tries to stamp
its authority on the entire population.”
Mugabe
has repeatedly denied being in poor health.
Tsvangirai recently said he had
agreed with Mugabe to hold elections next
year under a new
constitution.
Robertson, speaking at the seminar held under the theme
“Whither Zimbabwe”,
said the means by which Zanu PF was planning to
neutralise and eliminate the
opposition were discussed and debated in
various circles.
“Some point to the deployment of police throughout the
country, some to the
recruitment drives for youth militia and some to the
forced attendance at
indoctrination meetings in rural villages,” he said.
“All the images
conjured up point to all too familiar recurrences of
collectivised violence
and intimidation, again accompanied by promises of
much more punishment to
follow if the community dares to oppose the
party.”
Robertson added that there was an “unpalatable probability” that the
next
elections could be held under the existing constitution which would be
a
violation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), which states that a new
supreme law should be in place before another plebiscite.
“Zanu PF has
already been accused of being in breach of this agreement (GPA)
so often
that another breach is thought unlikely to worry them,” he said.
“However,
anxiety that the international recognition of a Zanu PF election
win might
be withheld is said to be prompting the party to contrive an
emergency of
some kind in the hope that this incident might amount to an
acceptable
excuse.”
Robertson added that Zanu PF was deliberately undermining the MDC’s
efforts
to improve the country’s economy as a way of discrediting the former
opposition party ahead of the next elections.
“Part of Zanu PF’s election
plan appears to be based on the certainty of
failures as proof of MDC’s
incompetence and therefore, on claiming Zanu PF
to be the voters’ only
acceptable option,” he said.
This was done, Robertson added, to revive Zanu
PF, which is likely to be
routed in a free and fair election as shown by a
recent opinion poll.
Zanu PF officials who tried to force communities to sing
their tune during
the constitutional outreach programmes were also shown
resentment, Robertson
added.
Speaking at the same seminar, former Swedish
ambassador to Zimbabwe Sten
Rylander said Zimbabwe should not rush to have
elections next year.
He said: “A lot of focus is on forthcoming elections in
Zimbabwe — when and
how? The general feeling among us external partners — to
a very large extent
also shared by Sadc and South Africa, I believe — is
that there should be no
rush for quick elections.
“It would be better and
less dangerous to lay a good and solid foundation in
the form of a new
constitution and necessary electoral reforms — and then go
for elections
with international supervision. Hopefully Sadc through the
South African
facilitation team can help establish a roadmap for a good
continued process
leading up to credible and democratic elections late next
year or in
2012.”
He lamented the country’s weak economy.
“The production is not even
near what it used to be some 10-15 years ago.
This job has to be done
through a revitalised private sector and through
investments,” Rylander
said. “The international community can do something,
but not cover up for
this enormous loss of productive capacity.”
He said some “formidable”
problems were standing in the way for a dynamic
private sector recovery,
among them, the uncertainty surrounding minerals
and diamonds due to lack of
transparency and accountability and the
proceedings within the Kimberley
Process; and the failure to carry out a
land audit and promote growth in the
agriculture sector, the mainstay of the
economy. — Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010 20:15
GOVERNMENT
has hired KPMG to audit Air Zimbabwe amid allegations that the
airline was
prejudiced of about US$2,5 million.
The audit started on Tuesday, three years
after the last financial accounts
inspection.
This is taking place at a
time when some of the airline's board members are
reportedly pushing for
ouster of chief executive officer Peter Chikumba.
Chikumba this week declined
to comment on the goings on at the airline and
referred questions to board
chair Jonathan Kadzura.
Kadzura confirmed to businessdigest on Wednesday that
KPMG was auditing the
airline and that management could not account for
US$2,4 million.
The audit, sources said, was ordered by the comptroller and
auditor-general's
office after questions were raised on how the airline
procures spares, fuel
and services planes, funds salaries, and manages its
borrowings and mounting
debt currently at US$50 million. Questions were also
raised on the airline's
labour dispute with about 400 workers it intended to
retrench.
The sources said the audit was also meant to ensure that Air
Zimbabwe come
up to date with statutory requirements.
Chikumba, the
sources said, was being accused by some board members of
mismanagement and
they were pushing for his ouster. The sources said the
board members wanted
former acting CEO Oscar Madombwe to bounce back in a
substantive
capacity.
Kadzura declined to comment on the moves to fire Chikumba.
"If I
comment on everything that is said about Air Zimbabwe every week,
surely we
will lose our focus and objective of reviving the national
airlines,"
Kadzura said.
Chikumba was last week re-elected chairman of the Airline
Association of
Southern Africa at its AGM in Swaziland.
Insiders said
while the national airline has been beset by viability
problems for the past
10 years due to inadequate foreign currency, the
introduction of
multicurrency payment system increased the rate at which
accounts where
failing to balance.
They also claimed that another pilots' strike was
looming. Pilots went on
strike last month demanding payment of their
allowances. The airline managed
to pay 50% of what it owed them.
Aviation
sources said the airline was struggling because it embarked on
cost-cutting
measures which have seen Air Zimbabwe pulling out of several
lucrative
routes such as Harare-DRC, Harare-Dar-es-Salaam, Harare-Lilongwe
and
Harare-Nairobi.
They believe such cost-cutting measures should have been
complemented by
other strategies to salvage and maintain the market
share.
Market analysts said the airline had lost out on potential investors
or
meaningful investment due to their failure to produce up to date audited
financial accounts.
Air Zimbabwe and other parastatals in the country are
facing serious
challenges related to public accountability as a result of
poor business
culture, which has been compounded by the economic challenges
the country
had faced over the past decade.
An official from Air Zimbabwe
told businessdigest this week that: "Greed,
egoism and the need to make
quick money is still very rampant at Air
Zimbabwe. This compromises service
delivery, hence accountability if people
have to assess whether there is
anything to benefit them personally before
they perform some of their
duties. Accountability suffers because of
leakages and mediocre service
delivery."
Air Zimbabwe's attempts to go regional in partnerships with Air
Malawi, Air
Mauritius, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya have come to naught.
It
is also alleged that these partnerships have been aborted on claims that
some of the airlines were not performing although it was realised later that
more foreign currency earnings could have been earned from such
partnerships.
Paul Nyakazeya
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October
2010 20:15
EURASIAN Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), the Kazakhstan
based group
which bought the Central African Mining and Exploration Company
(Camec) last
year, plans to pour in US$250 million for platinum extraction
along the
Great Dyke.
Camec has a 60% interest in Bokai Platinum which
intends to mine the metal
along the mineral rich belt that runs along the
middle of the country. The
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC)
owns the remaining stake and
the joint venture company is known as Todal
Investments.
ENRC, listed both in Kazakhstan and London, last week announced
that they
were interested in the platinum venture.
The company, which has
been operating since 1991, has a thriving
international business with yearly
revenue in excess of US$6,8 billion,
capital expenditure of around US$1,3
billion in 2008 and over 65 000
employees.
It is anticipated that the
first phase of the mining venture, which would
gobble US$250 million, would
see a production rate of up to 160 000 ounces
in the initial stages and
around 400 000 when fully implemented.
Jim Cochrane, the ENRC executive
director, was last week quoted saying: "The
Bokai platinum project is one of
the best projects in the industry. It's
shallow, the grades are not bad, and
it is right down at the bottom of the
cost curve. We are determined to
develop the project as soon as possible and
continue working towards being
able to take it forward."
ENRC, while domiciled in a country that is not very
popular for investment,
has been very active in the past year taking over
mines and other interests
in Africa and Latin America. This has seen the
company adding copper and
cobalt production to its growing list of
interests.
In April this year, ENRC bought a 12,2% stake in South Africa's
Northam
Platinum from majority owner Mvelaphanda Resource.
ENRC comprises
five divisions - exploration, mining, processing, power
generation and
logistics and marketing.
A feasibility study carried out last year showed
that there was significant
resource at Bokai.
The feasibility study also
showed a mineral resource of 10.69 million ounces
of 4E (four elements -
platinum, gold, palladium and rhodium) were present.
When completed, Bokai
could be the second best undeveloped platinum project
in the junior mining
sector with respect to projected returns.
It was also reported that Bokai
would go into production by 2012, with
construction on the mine likely to
begin this year.
Leonard Makombe
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010 20:08
TENSION
between central bank governor Gideon Gono and the bank's board
vice-chairman
Charles Kuwaza has reportedly shifted from the boardroom to
shop-floor
workers amid reports that the bank's employees are disgruntled by
the
board's delay in approving a pay rise.
Sources at the central bank said
morale
reached rock bottom at the apex bank following this week's
postponement of a
meeting that was scheduled to discuss salary increments
for the bank's
employees.
The sources said workers expressed frustration
at the workers committee
feedback meeting on Monday, saying they suspect
board members aligned to
Kuwaza were opposing salary increments at the
financially-beleaguered
central bank.
The workers, who have for the past
19 months been receiving US$150 in
monthly allowances, last month reportedly
won Gono's backing on a proposed
minimum salary of US$1 000.
The central
bank chief, according to sources, advised the committee to
increase the
minimum salary to US$1 000 from the US$800 that was proposed by
the workers
committee for the lowest paid clerical worker.
Kuwaza has in recent months
clashed with Gono over the running of the bank
saying the bank workers
should be conservative and workers should "tighten
their belts" until an
investigation into the bank's debt is undertaken.
Gono in July this year said
the central bank contributed US$1,2 billion of
the country's US$6,4 billion
external debt and payment arrears.
The salary negotiations are also
coinciding with the bank's plans to lay off
85% of its 2 600 staff
compliment. The retrenchment of staff came after the
gazetting of amendments
to the Reserve Bank Act which streamlined the bank's
operations to managing
monetary policy, monitoring the banking industry and
to act as a lender of
last resort.
At the height of hyperinflation, the bank employed scores of
people who were
assigned to its supra-ministerial interventions. The job
cuts have, however,
been delayed due to lack of funds for retrenchment
packages.
Kuwaza, who also chairs the banks audit and oversight committee, is
reportedly pushing for massive reforms at the bank.
Among some of the
reforms being pushed by the former secretary of treasury
is an audit into
the bank's involvement in quasi-fiscal activities and how
the now worthless
Zimbabwe dollars were printed during Gono's seven-year
tenure.
"Workers
this week expressed disgruntlement at the works council when they
walked out
of Monday's feedback meeting without closing with a prayer as per
tradition," the source said.
"They felt that the sharp differences
between the governor and the vice
chairman of the board are delaying
negotiations for salary increment. The
disgruntlement intensified when the
board said it would meet the workers
committee on October 26, six days after
pay day. This was widely seen as a
delaying tactic."
However papers in
possession of the Zimbabwe Independent show that Reserve
Bank workers
committee chairman Wilton Mugabe in recent written
correspondence to the
bank's employees said salary negotiations had begun
"in earnest" at the
works council and the deliberations were "in progress".
"On behalf of the
rest of staff and my own behalf, I would like to thank the
Bank and the
governor in particular for availing second term fees for staff's
children,"
Mugabe wrote.
Despite efforts by the bank to pay school fees for employees'
dependents, it
is understood that failure to assist workers who are
currently studying has
also stirred resentment.
When reached for comment,
Kuwaza referred questions to the bank's
spokesperson.
Kuwaza said: "I do
not know about that. Anyway why don't you talk to the
bank's spokesperson. I
don't talk to the press and I'm not the bank's
spokesperson. I don't operate
that way."
Questions sent to bank spokesperson Kumbirai Nhongo on Wednesday
were not
replied to at the time of going to press.
Meanwhile, Gono in
August asked Finance minister Tendai Biti to intervene in
the growing feud
with Kuwaza.
Bernard Mpofu
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
20:02
THE Zimbabwe School of Mines (ZSM) in Bulawayo is exploring
business
linkages with regional and local mining houses to ensure the
institution
churns out quality graduates.
ZSM is a leading technical
mining training institute in the region.
The chief executive officer of the
training institute, Dzingirai Tusai,
speaking at a graduation ceremony last
Friday said: "ZSM is in talks with
Sekhukhune FET College of South Africa,
Moatize School of Mines (Mozambique)
and Lupane State University.
"New
partnership initiatives that are on the design stage include Moatize
School
of Mines in the Tete Province of Mozambique. Exchange visits will
start in
the first quarter of 2011."
On new courses, Tusai revealed that from next
year the institute would offer
a certificate in petroleum geology coal bed
methane through distance
learning, mine ventilation and mining courses for
non mining executives like
bankers, accountants, insurers and
actuaries.
He urged mining houses to second personnel for the courses.
The
introduction of a course on petroleum geology coal bed methane comes at
a
time when government is planning to invest US$450 million in the
development
of a coal bed methane gas project in Lupane.
The development of the project
with a capacity to produce 300 megawatts of
power is expected to take place
within the next two years.
According to government's three-year
Macro-economic Policy and Budget
Framework covering 2010 to 2012, apart from
generating power, the project
would also include gas field exploration,
construction of a power station
and a pipeline.
Over and above the gas
output, the coal bed methane project is expected to
benefit industry through
raw materials to manufacture by-products such as
stock-feed, fertilisers and
petro-chemicals.
The Lupane coal bed methane gas project was granted national
project status
by government in 2007, which made it a priority.
The
granting of the national project status was expected to pave way for the
release of funds to determine if the gas resource in the area was
mineable.
The mining school is also offering water tests for various mines,
laboratory
scale test works on mineral processing techniques, crushing and
milling and
hiring equipment to mines.
Speaking at the same occasion, the
chief executive officer of the Chamber of
Mines of Zimbabwe Chris Hokonya
said due to a critical shortage of skilled
mining personnel, the institute
should thrive to produce quality graduates
"to cater for the needs of the
industry".
Lack of skilled miners, according to Hokonya, is resulting in
direct loss of
production and lack of exploration capacity to continuously
develop mining
operations.
"The decline in professional and technical
skills was further disguised to
some extent by the virtual collapse of the
mining industry in 2008 where
virtually all mines (with the exception of
three) ceased production,"
Hokonya said. "But the fortunes of the mining
industry have now changed with
the new policies implemented after February
2009."
Nqobile Bhebhe
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
20:01
RITESH Anand is a global fund manager with more than 12 years
experience in
investment. After working for Wellcome Trust in the UK,
arguably the second
largest medical research endowment in the world, Anand
this year formed
Invisticus Investment Management, a company with business
interests in
Africa. Senior Business Reporter Bernard Mpofu this week spoke
to Anand on
his business interests in Zimbabwe. Below are excerpts from the
interview.
Mpofu: Why did you decide to come back to Zimbabwe?
Anand: I
decided to leave Wellcome and return home to Zimbabwe to focus on
investment
opportunities that encourage foreign direct investment through
the global
network I developed.
Mpofu: What opportunities do you see in
Zimbabwe?
Anand: There are tremendous opportunities in three key areas -
mining,
tourism and agriculture.
Mpofu: Why these three?
Anand:
Zimbabwe has tremendous natural resources with over 40 minerals.
Mining is
also a sector that has had little investment in the last decade.
There has
been little exploration. When you look at the world today, the
world is
running short of commodities. Demand from emerging markets like
India and
China continues to drive demand for natural resources. I think
China itself
accounts for about 50% of incremental growth in demand for many
of the
minerals. Africa has the largest untapped resources and that is why
mining
and Zimbabwe is well-placed for growing demand for key minerals like
gold,
chrome, coal and platinum.
Mpofu: And tourism?
Anand: There has been
little investment in the sector. I think some capital
has to be injected
into existing hotels to make them world class because
tourists who visit our
attractions should be given a world class service.
Mpofu: Agriculture and
ownership of land continues to be an emotive issue 10
years after the land
reform exercise. Are investors ready to invest in this
sector and
why?
Anand: The world is in short of food. Food security is an issue. Africa
has
about 22% of the world's arable land, but it has certainly not produced
yields anywhere near that of Latin America and the United States yet it has
tremendous fertile land. I think there are opportunities because food
security is a global issue. In Zimbabwe we have a lot of small scale
farmers. It's exactly the same thing as mining where that isn't really
effective.
Mpofu: So would you consider investing in commercial
farming?
Anand: I don't know what the right model is. All I'm really saying
is that
the world needs food so Zimbabwe has to find a way of capitalising
on that
growing demand especially from the Middle East. The Middle East as
you know
is a desert and you have seen a lot of inward investment in
Mozambique
specifically from the Middle East with a view of securing for the
next two
or three decades. A lot of my themes are multi-decade.
Mpofu:
Why are investors reluctant to invest in small-tier stocks on the
ZSE?
Anand: Warren Buffet has a great quote - "don't invest in bad
business
because they are cheap." You must invest in business that has
quality
management and a dominant market share. When you look at the 70
listed
companies on the ZSE, I would say 15-20 of these are investible. The
rest
are actually US$1 million market cap companies. I don't want to quote
specific companies but really those companies should be private companies.
Those companies either need to recapitalise or modernise and attract
investment and be prepared to dilute (ownership) or they go private. The
reality is that we are now living in a global village and I can invest in
Zambia or Nigeria. Banks in Nigeria are trading at six times price per
earning and growing at 20% with 140 million where inflation is low, currency
is stable and growth is between 4 and 8%, there is no reason to invest in
Zimbabwe. So people need to realise that investors have choices. Zimbabwe is
however attractive in the sense that it is sort of a value opportunity.
Businesses are pretty distressed so you can buy companies at a very low
valuation but I think companies sometimes are a bit unrealistic about their
value.
Mpofu: Is there capital on the local market to
undertake those
proposals that you have alluded
to?
Anand: I think the flip side to this
is that Zimbabwe needs to change its
image - foreign perception is still
negative. Unless and until that
perception changes it's quite difficult for
companies to attract capital. If
you look at the manufacturing sector in
Zimbabwe, that sector has been
decimated by hyperinflation. They are using
equipment that is 50 years old
at best. They haven't really invested in
those companies, so where is the
value? Local companies haven't been quick
to respond to dollarisation and
that is my biggest criticism. Companies have
to re-calibrate. Zimbabwe is
operating at around 30% capacity but companies
still have 100% of their
labour. They have to downsize labour force to
reflect where demand and
supply stands. As demand increases and the economy
recovers, they you employ
more.
Mpofu: What is your take on
indigenisation regulations currently in place?
Anand: I think the principle
of empowerment is broadly acceptable. I think
the issue of Zimbabwe is the
law as it stands today. What people fail to
realise is that if you sell say
51% Stanbic Bank or Barclays, it's no longer
Barclays because you have
effectively given up control. So have regulations
scared away investors?
Yes! The market lost US$1 billion and you can
attribute a significant
portion of that to indigenisation regulations and if
you speak to
stockbrokers they will tell you that many foreign investors
that were
investing on the market prior to the regulations were announced
disappeared.
The issue I have with the policy is that it is ambiguous and it
lacks
clarity and transparency.
Mpofu: Sectoral committees were set up after the
initial controversial
regulations were gazetted. Do these committees
address the concerns that
you have raised?
Anand: The amendments are a
step towards providing transparency but we are
not yet there. Should we not
have set up the sector committees to debate
this before the regulations were
announced in the first place. Investors
dislike uncertainty, if they
perceive that the law is subjective, arbitrary
or uncertain, money will not
come. The current legislative regime is highly
uncertain.
Mpofu: Is the
8,1% GDP growth projected by government achievable?
Anand: GDP numbers are
slightly misleading in Zimbabwe. The reason I say
this is that there is a
very significant informal economy in Zimbabwe. So
what we are measuring (in
Zimbabwe) is just the formal economy and whether
it would grow by 8%. I
don't know, it maybe true. The numbers I look for are
mobile subscribers,
beverage consumption and bank deposits. These areas have
grown by two to
three times. I think this economy will grow by more than
8,1%.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
19:58
RECENTLY, I was in Namibia. Those familiar with Namibia will affirm
that
when you need to purchase some wares or goodies the South African rand
(ZAR)
is readily accepted. However, for change you get Namibian dollars
and/or
cents. Something that costs 1 Namibian dollar (N$) can be bought for
1 ZAR.
If you happen to have a few N$ remaining and per chance attempt to
use N$ to
buy in South Africa (SA), people would just stare at you as if you
had
smoked something.
The foregoing vignette sums up the workings of the
Rand Monetary Union (RMU)
albeit in simplistic terms. Namibia, Lesotho and
Swaziland (Naleswa) are
part of a special arrangement with SA called the
RMU. Under the RMU, each of
the Naleswa countries has its own national
currency. Naleswa's currencies
are pegged at an exchange rate of 1:1 with
the ZAR. Technically, this does
not hold when one desires to buy the rands.
The banks will charge a
commission, rendering parity academic. The rand can
be used within the
Naleswa countries alongside the national currencies.
However, Naleswa
national currencies cannot be used as legal tender in
SA.
One might query the relevance of HR's pre-occupation with issues that are
purely economic in nature and seemingly distant for that matter. Evolving
thinking suggests that HR professionals are business people first and HR
professionals second. As such HR needs to look through strategy. This
entails peeling a few more layers to get a handle on the current and
evolving business context, Sadc geopolitics included. As Maxwell puts it,
leaders see before it happens; and when it happens they see bigger and
better than others.
Should Zimbabwe settle on joining the RMU and become
part of an economic
foursome I will call Zinaleswa, what labour scenarios
are likely to pan out?
Foreign currency dynamics involving the rand provide a
suite of economic
outcomes that assist in deciphering the probable impact of
Zimbabwe joining
the RMU.
SA policy on the rand exchange rate is hotly
debated. The rand is known to
be very unstable, yaw-yawing by as much as 20%
in a single year. What is
worrying is that SA economists cannot put a finger
on why the rand gyrates
so wildly.
Dancing in the neighbourhood of ZAR:
US$=7, the rand is considered
uncomfortably strong. Loud calls by the
influential Congress of South
African Trade Unions (Cosatu) to weaken the
rand hand a poser for policy
makers. Cosatu sees a rate of ZAR: US$=10
ideal. Cosatu, latching onto the
Dutch disease argument insist that
maintaining a rand strong will result in
job losses. The Dutch disease is an
economic phenomenon whereby a
strengthening currency causes exports to
become less competitive. In 1959,
the discovery of oil in the Netherlands
caused the country's currency to
appreciate (foreign investors pouring money
into Netherlands) resulting in
Netherlands' then export-oriented
manufacturing industry declining.
How does this apply to the SA economy? It
should be borne in mind that under
the RMU foreign currency decisions by SA
have a contagion effect. The SA
economy is largely driven by mining. A
significant number of workers are
employed in the mines. Major minerals such
as platinum, gold and diamonds
are exported. A strong rand makes exports
pricey, thereby slashing export
revenues for the mining sector. With reduced
revenues mining is handed the
perfect excuse to retrench workers citing
viability problems.
Tourism likewise is similarly affected. Had Zimbabwe
been part of the RMU,
how would we be reacting to Cosatu's agitation for
devaluing the rand?
Interestingly, Zimbabwe would in all likelihood
sympathise with Cosatu's
call. Zimbabwe like SA depends heavily on mining.
Tourism in Zimbabwe's
halcyon days was a key foreign currency generator.
Making it cheaper for
overseas tourists to visit Zimbabwe courtesy of a
weakened rand is likely to
be more than welcome.
By preserving jobs in
mining and tourism on the back of a battered rand, by
extension the Zim
dollar, Zimbabwe labour under the prospective Zinaleswa
may buy into
Cosatu's agenda.
If Cosatu's push for rand weakening finds no takers, then
Zimbabwe would
find itself without levers to weaken its currency as that
decision would be
the preserve of Pretoria. In fact, some leading SA
economists are opposed to
a pummel-the-rand policy arguing that the
structural weaknesses inherent in
the SA economy are the fountain of SA's
poor export competitiveness.
Relatively high labour costs and expensive
power are cited as culprits.
Not everyone would benefit from a walloped
rand.
Industries that are heavily dependent on imports would have to contend
with
rising import costs. We import most of our vehicles and a bashed rand
can
translate into a clobbered motor industry, thanks to soaring import
costs.
These costs will simply be off-loaded to the consumer. Unlike SA
which makes
a variety of models and brands of cars locally, a hammered rand
might boost
car export sales, leaving local car prices largely
unchanged.
As a country we import fuel and when the rand is intentionally
clobbered the
price of petrol and other fuels sky-rockets. This will feed
into the prices
of basic commodities. An open secret within SA economic
circles is that for
every ten rand cents of depreciation against the US
dollar, 5 rand cents is
added to the price of basic fuel. Equally, matters
will not be helped by a
possible spike in wheat import costs. A well
accessible fact is that we do
not produce enough wheat to meet local demand.
Maybe the argument would be
that it is far better to bewail rising transport
fares and bread prices than
having no job at all. Well, as for exorbitant
cars, who cares? - the
well-heeled can afford such wheels, leftists might
argue.
Should the SA Reserve Bank choose to intervene by lowering interest
rates,
calculated to tame foreign investors' appetite for the rand, then the
rand
might weaken. Such an intervention is a double-edged sword: lower
interest
rates can stoke inflation by stimulating credit expansion. If
under the RMU
Zimbabwe would still be importing food from SA, then our food
prices will
spike.
In all honesty, the rising cost of living, feeding off
imported inflation is
likely to sour industrial relations as workers clamour
for cost of living
adjustments.
With a strong rand, organised labour
agitates. Labour's wishes granted, and
inflation stoked, pay rise becomes
labour's new byword. This will be an
omnipresent reality HR must budget for
under the RMU.
The RMU can benefit Zimbabwe if Zimbabwe and SA's foreign
currency policies
coincide. However, ANC policy choices (or is it Zim's
policy choices?) may
cause divergence from time to time.
Share
your views on this matter at brettchulu@consultant.com This
e-mail
address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled
to
view it .
Brett Chulu
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
19:55
CONSUMER lending has re-emerged and financial institutions are
racing to
position themselves to benefit from this profitable business. The
Zimbabwe
Independent chief business reporter Paul Nyakazeya this week spoke
to Oxlink
Capital (Pvt) Ltd CEO Brains Muchemwa about the cost of money in
Zimbabwe,
consumer lending and micro finance institutions.
Nyakazeya:
There has been a dearth in consumer lending in this country over
the last
decade. What is the situation now?
Muchemwa: Many financial institutions are
going into consumer lending,
giving loans to individuals and small traders.
I should say that this
segment is slowly taking a prominent share on banks
and micro finance
institutions (MFI) balance sheets.
Nyakazeya: What is
the value of consumer lending in this country?
Muchemwa: Any model that
allows households to bring forward future
consumption and smoothen the
consumption is the most growth-accelerating
model that any economy would
want and considering our fragile economic
conditions, banks and MFI are
providing the much needed relief and are
indeed acting as a catalyst to the
much desired growth that Zimbabwe needs
today, albeit on a small scale due
to the seed capital and liquidity
constraints.
Nyakazeya: There is debate
about whether Zimbabwe is over-banked or not?
What is your take on
this?
Muchemwa: All the important parameters that can be objectively used to
measure whether the country is over-banked or not, such as branch density,
competition levels or accessibility of credit point, Zimbabwe is still far
from being over banked, at least from my opinion. There is still huge scope
for more financial institutions to enter into the market, only that the new
entrants need to have strong capital bases to appreciate the huge
opportunities.
Nyakazeya: Recently, the Reserve Bank has been castigating
banks for not
fairly compensating depositors. Is it fair that banks are not
giving
reasonable interest rates to depositors?
Muchemwa: Sorry I cannot
answer that one, the Bankers Association of
Zimbabwe should give you a fair
response.
Nyakazeya: What are the major risks that justify MFIs to charge
high rates?
Muchemwa: Like I alluded to, the major risks relate to
unpredictable
cash-flows. MFI’s usually finance individuals, SMEs, small
traders whose
cash-flows are unstable. You lend money to a small trader and
tomorrow they
tell you a funeral befell the family and they ended up using
the money.
And they have no capacity to repay. Either they require a fresh
loan to get
back to business or they are done for good. Crossborder traders
equally tell
you they would have lost their stuff at the border, etc. Some
salaried
borrowers do not get their full salaries and others don’t get them
at all!
Funny enough most of these borrowers are over-borrowed. The absence
of a
credit reference bureau creates an avenue where borrowers take
advantage of
information asymmetry and usually exploit the market to benefit
unfairly.
And until such a time that we have a comprehensive credit
reference bureau,
the risks remain pronounced and that will reflect on the
rates being charged
for loans.
Nyakazeya: MFIs are well known for taking
people’s security with some
allegedly losing their properties. There is a
lot of debate surrounding
this. What are your views?
Muchemwa: I do not
understand why debate should be on that issue. The issues
are so clear.
Banks have even more rigorous security requirements than MFIs,
only that
people cannot get loans from banks so they are at times not
informed about
the lending process. Most criminals that would ordinarily rob
banks, for
fear of not wanting to be shot by police, turn to Micro Finance
Institutions
thinking they will make away easily with money without having
to be chased.
Unfortunately there is nothing like that in the world. People
have to
exhibit high civil responsibility, and indeed most of the steps
taken by
MFI’s in requesting security would be to safeguard themselves
against
speculators, fraudsters and rogue elements that believe money is
free. And
these are the fraudulent elements of the borrowing community would
wish to
label micro-lenders in bad light.
Only those with limited knowledge of how to
apportion losses between lenders
and borrowers fall for the unfortunate
story that Micro Finance Institutions
are there to grab people’s assets.
Which banks or lenders in this country
give out money without asking for
security or guarantees? If you know of
any, please let me
know.
Nyakazeya: What is the future of consumer lending in this
country?
Muchemwa: Currently disposable incomes are very low and that affects
the
efficiency and vibrancy of the consumer lending segment. However, there
are
excellent prospects. As the economy grows, so do the incomes of
households
in general and that speak of a bright future in consumer lending.
Look at
the developed world, for example, consumer lending is the in-thing
and the
global financial crisis we experienced recently was due to consumer
lending
models going bad.
That tells the importance of consumer lending
in the bigger picture. Indeed
economies revolve around production and
consumption. And there can’t be
meaningful consumption without strong
consumer demand. Important lessons
should be learnt upon looking at the
importance of strong domestic demand in
China, India South Africa and other
countries with strong internal growth
driven model. Just in South Africa,
consumer loans are over 48% of total
loans and advances by banks. This gives
us a picture of the road ahead and
the potential.
Nyakazeya: What do you
say to people who say micro-finance companies
reap-off people? What are the
current rates being charged by MFIs and are
they justified?
Muchemwa: It
all depends who qualifies the justification and on what basis.
MFIs are
charging anything above 5% -25% per month and this is quite high
from a
nominal perspective. However, considering that MFIs in Zimbabwe are
taking
the riskiest segment of borrowers that the mainstream banks are
shunning,
the charges are fair, and indeed understand equally that unlike
banks, MFIs
don’t take deposits and their losses hit them right to the core
unlike banks
that can get deposits and leverage on the same. So I should say
the pricing
reflects on the excessive credit risk for the riskiest segment
in the market
that even banks don’t want to touch. Go to Zambia today.
Notwithstanding
that Zambia stabilised long ago, their MFIs charge between
10-20% per month.
Isn’t that outrageous?
In Tanzania you are looking at 6-8% per month.
Botswana tops 6% per month,
whilst South Africa, notwithstanding having one
of the most efficient
financial markets in Africa, is sitting on around $300
billion bank deposits
and a loan to deposit ratio of almost 100%, charges
around 4% per month. In
short, if you evaluate Zimbabwe in the regional
context with the right level
of information upon factoring the excessive
credit risks, etc, in this
country, the charges are not too wild as many
would want to portray. It is
important to understand that globally
micro-finance is a US$40 billion
industry that exhibit varying charges from
Asia to Africa, and that debate
about the high interest rates charged by
MFIs has existed since the 1970 on
why the poor are charged the highest.
Look here, portraying MFIs charges in
Zimbabwe as out of this world is not
different from portraying the image out
there that Zimbabwe is a jungle and
if you invest you lose all your money,
which image is unfair, biased and
exaggerated.
Nyakazeya: What should be done to ensure that the cost of money
is not
expensive in Zimbabwe?
Muchemwa: Liquidity in the country has to
improve, and indeed the economy
needs to generate more exports and, among
other things, put up a good
investment case to lure and retain FDI (foreign
direct investment). Equally,
the interbank market needs sufficient
instruments such as TBs (treasury
bills), lender of last resort
functionality, etc, to ensure that liquidity
flows with much
ease.
Nyakazeya: Any advice to borrowers?
Muchemwa: My advice is that
always borrow responsibly.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010 20:46
THE
national heroes status has lost legitimacy due to the Zanu PF
nomenklatura
making it their private preserve.
The question lingering on many minds is
whether the National Heroes' Acre is
still a national asset or a Zanu PF
shrine.
Mugabe's recent outburst at the burial of the late Zanu PF national
deputy
commissar Ephraim Masawi that the national heroes acre was solely for
Zanu
PF members who participated in the liberation struggle has angered many
Zimbabweans and those who fought in the liberation struggle.
For the
first time ever, the family of national hero, the late former
Matabeleland
North governor, Welshman Mabhena, rejected Zanu PF's honour to
bury him at
the national shrine preferring instead to lay him to rest at
Lady Stanley
Cemetery in Bulawayo.
Political analysts pointed out that the rejection by
the Mabhena family
shows that the honour, credibility and respect, which was
once attached to
the national hero's status, is now gone.
Sapes Trust
executive director Ibbo Mandaza said the Mabhena issue has
exposed Mugabe's
reckless statement regarding the importance of the shrine.
He said Mugabe
should not equate the national heroes' acre to a Zanu PF
shrine.
"The
mistake was made by Mugabe after saying the shrine was a Zanu PF place.
It's
embarrassing because now they have egg on their face following Mabhena's
rejection to be buried at the acre," he said.
Matabeleland Civic Society
Consortium (MCSC) applauded the Mabhena family
for resisting Zanu PF's
attempts to bury the former PF-Zapu
secretary-general at the National Heroes
Acre.
"A hero's status is not conferred by a party but it's supposed to be an
individual earning and it doesn't matter where someone is buried," said MCSC
spokesman Dumisani Nkomo. "Mugabe said it's a Zanu PF shrine, so people
should not be worried about that anymore. It has lost its meaning,
credibility, and status because we have some people without proper
credentials who were buried at the heroes' acre."
Nkomo said the heroes'
acre was maintained by tax-payers' money, therefore
Mugabe should be
accountable to the masses instead of privatising the state
property. The
department of National Museums and Monuments manages the
heroes' acres
around the country.
Other analysts said Mabhena did not decline to be a
national hero but he
declined to be chosen by Zanu PF which has turned the
heroes' acre into a
burial place for Mugabe's clique.
London-based lawyer
Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa said: "He refused to share his
final resting place
with people whose own lifetime careers were defined by
the extent to which
they persecuted defenceless citizens and stole from
them."
"The status
quo with regards to the conferring of hero status just reflects
victor
justice and the power of political hegemony in Zimbabwe which is not
only
wrong, unjust and unfair but is also dangerous as it creates a cyclic
spiral
of politically defined heroes and villains depending on the existing
political hegemony at a given time."
Mutyambizi-Dewa said Zanu PF has
failed to live above politics when
entrusted with issues of national
importance and has caused widespread
cynicism on national day
celebrations.
He noted that most of the people currently in Zanu PF fail to
be heroes
because they cannot pass the consistency test.
"The problem in
Zimbabwe has always been of a ruling party that failed to
redefine itself as
a governing party and this also explains why people
opposed to them are not
heroes. However there comes a time when people must
disregard them and
declare their own heroes with or without Zanu PF," said
Mutyambizi-Dewa.
Analysts said they believed the depiction of national
heroes is lop-sided in
favour of Mugabe's Zanu-PF, neglecting other pivotal
players in the
liberation struggle, who criticised the President.
There
are a number of luminaries including former Zipra commander Lookout
Masuku,
Zanu founder Ndabaningi Sithole, and veteran nationalist James
Chikerema who
were denied the national hero's status after crossing Mugabe.
But the mention
of national heroes like Cain Nkala, Border Gezi and Sabina
Mugabe, analysts
say let-slip Mugabe's intentional manipulation and
distortion of the
country's history.
This week, Zanu PF blundered after declaring the wife of
late national hero
Air Chief Marshal Josiah Tungamirai, Pamela, a liberation
war heroine. The
party's women's league and Harare province led fierce
criticism against Zanu
PF, saying she deserved to be buried at the National
Heroes Acre.
Trevor Maisiri, the executive director of a Harare based
politics
think-tank, African Reform Institute (AR), said Mugabe's party was
diverting
from the principles of the liberation struggle in honouring
national icons.
"Many (Zanu PF officials) are embroiled in activities for
self economic
empowerment even through unbecoming means. Some have lost the
morality that
the liberation struggle principles sought to promote. Others
have lost the
service to the people, yet others have lost their own
foundational identity
that motivated them to go out there and be liberators
of the nation," he
said.
"Such disparities will cause many potential
heroes-acre-destined comrades to
turn down the accord. This will all be
because the fundamentals of the
liberation struggle have been lost and some
of the people at the shrine may
really not be reflective of the virginity of
the original intention,
motivation, principles, values and integrity of the
liberation war."
Maisiri criticised Zanu PF for claiming ownership of the
history of Zimbabwe's
struggle when it is known that a group of people do
not define the history
of a nation. He said Mugabe and his allies have
created notions that the
liberation struggle has been privatised, excluding
the rest of Zimbabweans.
Even political parties to the inclusive government,
MDC-T and MDC-M have
attacked Mugabe for monopolising the selection of
national heroes when it is
underpinned in the Global Political Agreement
that the parties should
consult. In protest, MDC-T and MDC-M boycotted the
burial of Masawi last
month but attended the burial of Mabhena at Lady
Stanley Cemetery in
Bulawayo on Saturday.
The MDC formations were angered
by Mugabe's refusal to confer the hero's
status on the late National Healing
co-Minister Gibson Sibanda.
Other political parties say council should be
given powers to build national
heroes' acres where icons will be buried
without involving Zanu PF.
Zapu spokesman Methuseli Moyo, said it was
embarrassing for Mugabe to
declare Mabhena a national hero, when he fired
him as governor in 2000.
Brian Chitemba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
20:44
WELSHMAN Mabhena achieved in death what he had failed to achieve in
life. He
paid back in full the humiliation heaped upon him in
2000.
Punished for speaking out on the underdevelopment of Matabeleland, he
was
stripped of his rank as governor of Matabeleland North.
Now, 10 years
later, he has settled the score.
President Robert Mugabe was just days
earlier pontificating on who could and
could not be laid to rest at Heroes
Acre. Only Zanu PF cadres qualified, he
ruled. That in essence meant the
clique around him. But with Mabhena there
appeared to be a relaxation of
this rigid posture. It was clear that any
refusal to recognise Mabhena’s
contribution to the nation’s freedom would
provoke very real outrage in
Matabeleland, especially when only days earlier
Ephraim Masawi had been laid
to rest at the national shrine.
So Mabhena was proclaimed a national hero.
But then the Mabhena family
intervened. “Not so fast,” they told Zanu PF.
Our father and brother made it
abundantly clear before his death that he did
not wish to rest “alongside
thieves and crooks”. Anyway, he was no longer a
member of Zanu PF, they
declared, making it impossible for him to
qualify.
And nothing could move them. A number of Zanu PF luminaries were
dispatched
to change the family’s collective mind. “There are some from
government that
came here to try and arm-twist us into agreeing to bury our
father in
Harare,” his brother Norman said.
“We have resisted that
attempt.”
So Zanu PF was rebuffed. The Sunday Mail tried to make the best
of a bad job
by splashing John Nkomo’s photograph on its front page paying
his respects.
But he was one of those sent packing a few days earlier. And
none of the
commentaries in the official press mentioned Mabhena’s detention
at Eiffel
Flats by Mugabe’s government in the early 1980s. Instead they all
mentioned
his detention by Ian Smith’s government in the 1970s.
By trying
to maintain an iron grip on the “heroic” process, Zanu PF opened
up some
dangerous fissures. For instance, do members of the current Zapu
qualify? It
appears that decisions of state like this are made on the tarmac
at Harare
airport.
In the Mabhena case the partisan weakness of the system has been
exposed for
all to see. Can you imagine, Saviour Kasukuwere sitting in a
politburo
meeting to determine Mabehena’s status when he wasn’t even born in
the
period under discussion.
Mugabe would have been better advised to
establish, in keeping with the GPA,
a bipartisan system that recognised the
contributions of all, not –– as in
some cases –– the dubious credentials of
a few.
And what an irony when a real hero prefers to be buried in a cemetery
named
after the wife of a colonial governor rather than a North Korean
monstrosity.
Judith Todd in her autobiography, Through the Darkness,
refers to a senior
CIO officer named Tekere who was based at Kadoma. He had
been in charge of
Mabhena during Mabhena’s detention at Eiffel Flats. When
Mabhena became
Matabeleland North governor, Tekere was at the same time
promoted to head
the CIO in Bulawayo where he had to report to
Mabhena.
“Mabhena…,” Todd writes, “had suffered under Tekere while detained
at
Eiffel Flats. When I heard of their new relationship, I asked Governor
Mabhena: ‘How can you bear it’? Welshman Mabhena looked at me with a still,
steady, delighted grin. After a few seconds he answered my question with
another. ‘Shouldn’t you be asking: ‘How can he bear it’?”
What is
happening at the Passport Office? Why should applicants sleep there
in order
to obtain the necessary forms? Is this an attempt to limit the
number of
people applying?
The Registrar-General, who has been in the news recently for
all the wrong
reasons, should at least make it easier for people to obtain
the forms. Only
200 forms are issued a day.
Following a report in NewsDay
this week, Deputy Transport minister Tichaona
Mudzingwa has called for an
investigation into the way application forms are
corruptly distributed in
the early hours.
He saw for himself forms being distributed for cash to those
who had jumped
the queue.
But there shouldn’t be such queues in the first
place at 3:00 in the
morning. Those forms should be available to all
applicants when they need
them in office hours.
The deputy minister is
right in describing Tobaiwa Mudede’s office as guilty
of incompetence. We
want to see those forms oozing from under his door.
Media minister
Webster Shamu has said the government will not deny anyone
the right to
access information of their choice.
“We are the ones who brought freedom and
Independence,” he told the Sunday
Mail...so why would we not allow our
people to enjoy that?”
What’s the answer? Why does the state persist in
bringing charges against
journalists whose only crime has been to cause
discomfort to powerful
personalities?
Several journalists from our
newspapers continue to face charges under the
Criminal Law (Codification and
Reform) Act.
Zanu PF may have brought Independence to Zimbabwe. But press
freedom is
something we had to fight for in the teeth of resistance from
that party.
Is Shamu aware of the fate of Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto in
1999? They
were brutally tortured. Is he aware of the threats made against
the Standard
by President Mugabe when the judiciary complained about
contempt of court by
state officials?
But putting aside those very
serious matters, there was some humour in Shamu’s
interview.
“We are
preparing our people to become good broadcasters,” he said. “They
must learn
from ZBC.”
At which point we could hear our building shake with
laughter.
Congratulations to Liu Xiaobo on his Nobel Peace Prize. The
Chinese
dissidents are a brave lot and deserve recognition. They stand very
simply
for democracy and human rights, something the repressive regime in
Beijing
denies to its people.
Liu dedicated his award to the victims of
the Tiananmen Square massacre of
1989.
The Chinese government described
the award as “an obscenity”, presumably
meaning that it feels the same way
about democracy and human rights.
Perhaps if it had kept quiet fewer people
would know about the award!
Meanwhile, next door the so-called Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea was
demonstrating democracy North Korean-style as
a chubby youngster appeared at
a military parade to indicate that one day
soon he will be assuming the
mantle of power from his father. Educated in
Switzerland he likes fast cars
and the Western lifestyle, we are
told.
All very democratic you understand!
The Sadc presidential
triumvirate that had been due to visit Washington to
ask President Barack
Obama to drop sanctions will not now be going,
Muckraker understands. The
Americans have said nothing would be gained from
such a visit and that
Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson spelt out
the difficulties when
he met Elton Mangoma’s team. Anyway, Obama has a very
tight schedule and
it’s not clear when the Sadc leaders could be fitted in.
This is inevitable.
Sadc, headed by executive director Tomaz Salomao acts
like a cheerleader for
Mugabe. He has also been condescending to Tsvangirai
telling him how he
should address Sadc leaders.
“The MDC has to learn how we do business in
Sadc,” he pompously admonished
when asked about a letter of complaint sent
to his office.
More seriously, Mugabe’s unilateral appointment of provincial
governors
drives a coach and horses through the GPA.
America’s message to
the Sadc leaders is the same as the EU’s. Adhere to the
GPA terms, abandon
political violence and uphold the rule of law. Until that
happens sanctions
will remain.
Which bits of the above does Jacob Zuma, Rupiah Banda, and
Hifikepunye
Pohamba not understand?
Readers have responded with fury
to the new regulations governing imported
vehicles. And so they should. This
is another inconvenience for ordinary
folk. But what we should be asking is
who benefits from this? You can bet
somebody somewhere down the line stands
to make money. Converting a vehicle
from left to right-hand drive is not
difficult for a trained mechanic, we
are told. So watch this space.
And
by the way, who benefited from the number plate changes?
Finally, in a
welcome reproduction of our story of August 13 on the
disappearing proceeds
from gold and diamonds at the ZMDC, matched by some
very rich executives,
the Herald carried the same story on Tuesday. It
should also have borrowed
our picture of ZMDC CEO Dominic Mubayiwa’s mansion
in Borrowdale.
That
would illustrate the way parastatal chefs are promoting empowerment!
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
20:40
AS the years 2001 to 2007 went by, even those Zimbabweans who had
never been
introduced to the subject of economics, became aware of the word
inflation.
Whether employed or unemployed, in formal or informal sector
business
operations, agriculturally active, living in high-density or low
density
areas, or otherwise, all Zimbabweans became increasingly conscious
of this
"creature" impairing their lives. Economists, through the media, and
elsewhere, stated that inflation was a general increase of prices and a fall
in the purchasing value of money. The public at large more succinctly
summarised inflation as being "everything costs more" or, having regard to
cause and effect, considered inflation to mean hardship, suffering and
distress.
In 2008 Zimbabweans progressively became aware of a related
word -
hyperinflation. Over the preceding seven years most goods and
services
available in the country had almost continuously risen in prices,
the levels
of annual inflation were consistently at double-digit levels. At
no time in
those years had, until near the end of the period, aggregate
prices doubled,
which would have been three-digit inflation. But, in 2008,
prices went
berserk. Initially, prices were being revised up monthly, then
weekly,
thereafter daily, and by the later part of 2008 prices were
escalating even
more rapidly than hourly. In fact, the cost of goods was
soaring upwards so
fast that, upon entering a supermarket, a shopper would
be motivated to run
up and down the aisles in order to reach the cash till
before prices went up
again, albeit that the price increases generally
applied to a limited number
of products, for most supermarkets emulated
Mother Hubbard's cupboard - most
of the shelves were bare!.
The
magnitude, and rapidity, of the prices was so great that by July 2008,
the
then Central Statistics Office became unable to compute the rate of
inflation, but by the end of that year the annualised inflation rate could
not credibly be considered to be less than billions, if not trillions, per
cent. Some economists state that hyperinflation exists when inflation is in
excess of 50% in any year, whilst others place it at 100% or greater per
annum, and yet others apply different criteria, but the commonality is that
aggregate prices are soaring upwards at a considerable pace.
In Europe
and the US economists have recently been using what is tantamount
to a new
word in the economic vocabulary, that word being "biflation". In
the main
those economists contend that inflation and deflation is occurring
simultaneously, deflation being the reverse of the concept of inflation.
Effectively, deflation is a general decrease in prices and a consequential
rise in the purchasing value of money. But the word "biflation", being
increasingly used by economists, and particularly so on websites and on
economic blogs, is defined as being inflation and deflation occurring
simultaneously. The natural reaction is that that cannot be, but the users
of the word contend otherwise, claiming that whilst some prices can be
rising, others can simultaneously be falling. By way of example, they cite
price escalations on commodities that are traded within global markets, such
as oil and cotton, whilst prices are falling on items generally traded on
credit -- in view of curtailment of credit resources causing diminished
market demand - such as experienced over the last two years in the US on
homes and automobiles.
In 2010 Zimbabwe has undoubtedly experienced, and
is continuing to
experience inflation. Charges by parastatals in general,
and by Zesa and
TelOne in particular, and tariffs of local authorities, have
reduced, albeit
not adequately so. On the other hand, prices of various
goods have risen,
and in some instances very sharply so. This has
especially been the case in
respect of goods emanating from South Africa,
almost wholly driven by the
very marked firming of the rand. Less than a
year ago the exchange rate of
the rand approximated ZAR10:US$1, and now the
dollar is only worth a little
less than seven rand. In effect, this has
increased the cost of South
African goods by about 30%, and has also caused
sharp increases in the price
of those Zimbabwean manufactured goods as
include South African
manufacturing inputs. Various basic commodity food
stuffs, such as maize
meal, are necessarily being imported, due to the
grievous inadequacy of
Zimbabwean agricultural production, and have
similarly been victims of the
strengthening of the South African
currency.
Thus, despite various services and other charges having declined,
and
hopefully continuing to do so (for indisputably some of those charges
continue to be excessive), Zimbabwe is once again experiencing inflation.
Based upon the data of the Zimbabwe National Statistics Office, annualised
inflation in January, 2010 was a negative 4,8% (in other words, almost 5%
deflation), whilst by May, 2010 real inflation was marginally over 6%.
Since then inflation has again declined, being 3,6% in August, 2010. So,
whilst Zimbabwe has been enjoying some deflation of many services charges
and prices of goods, it has concurrently been sustaining inflation on other
items. In other words, Zimbabwe is experiencing
biflation!
Notwithstanding that that is the case, Zimbabweans should be
heartened by
the transition from inflation at almost unmeasurable levels of
billions, or
trillions per cent, to relatively minuscule inflation of less
than 4%. But
the reality is that very few have such reaction. More than
four fifths of
the population continue to struggle on incomes very markedly
below the
poverty datum line, being the minimum income needed for
self-sustenance
without endangering health, and are therefore only conscious
of the
instances where prices rise, and not those where they fall, for each
price
rise impairs their wellbeing. Moreover, those who have been
receiving, and
are receiving, regular income, in the main did not experience
income
increases commensurate with the levels of hyperinflation that
formerly
prevailed. They were, therefore, so whipped and beaten by that
hyperinflation that they became oblivious to any positive changes, and can
only recognise those that are negative. Consequently, Zimbabwean consumer
morale remains exceptionally low, with cognisance only of inflation, and not
biflation.
Eric Bloch
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010 20:32
WHEN
the MDC-T signed the Global Political Agreement (GPA) they hoped to
tame
President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF, but two years on they have
realised
they are riding a tiger.
The MDC-T agreed to the GPA, hoping to rehabilitate
Zanu PF and at the same
time elbow the former ruling party out of power, but
realism has since set
in and Mugabe has proved impervious to
influence.
Last week, MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai opened up to the
public, saying
when he signed the GPA, he was prepared to work with Mugabe
to allow him to
address the mistakes of the past and help him "rebuild his
legacy".
Tsvangirai said there were many sceptics, advising against working
with
Mugabe, questioning the president's sincerity, integrity and ability to
respect an agreement with anyone.
"I was prepared to work with Mr Mugabe
to allow him to address the mistakes
of the past, and to help him to rebuild
his legacy," Tsvangirai said. "This
is why, despite the challenges that I
have faced in working with him, I have
repeatedly said that whilst our
relationship was not perfect, it was
workable. This was meant to encourage
Mr Mugabe to right the wrongs of the
past," he said.
"However, the events
of the past few months have left me sorely disappointed
in Mr Mugabe and in
his betrayal of the confidence that I and many
Zimbabweans have personally
invested in him."
Many people are now asking whether Tsvangirai was naïve or
strategic when he
decided to sit next to his yesteryear enemies and
tormentors, hoping that
they would start respecting and abiding by the
principles of democracy.
Mugabe has appointed judges, ambassadors, the
Attorney-General, the governor
of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, and just two
weeks ago he reappointed
provincial governors without consulting Tsvangirai,
which the MDC leader
said was in blatant violation of the
constitution.
Tsvangirai has proposed a blend of strategies to reverse the
unilateral
decisions made by Mugabe and while the success or failure of this
move is
yet to be tested, observers question why the MDC entered the
agreement in
the first place.
Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni, a professor in the
Department of Development Studies
at the University of South Africa, said
the GPA was meant to solve problems
obtaining in the country.
"The GPA is
a product of a terrible political logjam where those who had
popular support
and won elections on 29 March 2008 could not be allowed by
those who lost
elections but had a monopoly of the means of violence to
ascend to power,"
said Ndlovu-Gatsheni. "But those in control of the means
of violence lacked
legitimacy. Violence proved to be an inadequate means of
retaining power.
Something had to be done to return Zimbabwe to some level
of normalcy within
a situation where ordinary citizens were suffering all
sorts of
depravities."
Ndlovu-Gatsheni said the two MDC formations had always been
very sceptical
of Zanu PF and the same was true of Zanu PF's attitude
towards MDC.
"Trust was never there from the beginning," he said. "Therefore
I cannot say
MDC was naive. Something had to be done to break the stalemate.
MDC entered
the inclusive Government knowing very well that it was another
terrain of
struggle."
Another analyst, Ibbo Mandaza, who is also a
publisher, said the MDC was
battered into the agreement in the first
place.
"The MDC was under pressure both at home and within the region and
this
drove them into the GPA," said Mandaza who is also a former top civil
servant. "The problem is that the MDC did not look at the finer details of
the agreement. For example the dual executives, where there is an executive
President and an executive Prime Minister."
Mandaza said what Zanu PF was
doing was to exploit the weakness in the GPA
and the party's spin doctors
were doing so by referring to President Mugabe
as the Head of State and
Government and Commander in Chief of the Defence
Forces.
University of
Zimbabwe's Economic History Department lecturer Kudakwashe
Chitofiri said
there was no other option for the MDC prior to signing the
GNU.
"However,
it is now up to Sadc (Southern African Development Community) to
assist in
solving the issues," said Chitofiri.
Analysts added that Zanu PF, the largest
beneficiary of the GPA, was
capitalising on the loopholes in the agreement
and was unlikely to make
further concessions.
"Zanu PF entered (into the
GPA) in order to buy time and relaunch itself
from political death - the
Lazarus moment (a resurrection moment) as
Professor Jonathan Moyo put it,"
said Ndlovu. "MDC has tried every trick in
the book to gain more
concessions, but Zanu PF is adamant as conceding more
concessions to MDC is
tantamount to Zanu PF giving power to MDC. It is a
tricky situation
involving the struggles over the control of the state that
began with the
jostling over ministerial positions."
Mandaza concurred saying the GPA was a
reflection of the balance of forces
and it saved Zanu PF.
"It gave Zanu
PF a new lease of life," said Mandaza. "The GPA also gave
Zimbabweans a
respite from the economic problems they were facing as well as
the
violence."
Ndlovu-Gatsheni added that apart from being the greatest
beneficiary of the
GPA, Zanu PF also forced MDC formations to speak its
language.
"It has managed to make the sanctions look like the only cause of
the
Zimbabwe crisis," he said.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni said as a way forward, it
was important that both Zanu PF
and MDC put national interests before
partisan interests.
"This means there must create an ideal environment for
free and fair
elections that will restore political legitimacy in Zimbabwe,"
said Ndlovu.
"Those who will lose must be good losers and concede defeat and
allow a
legitimate government to run the country. Those who will win
elections must
also be good winners able to take into account fears of
losers and
expectations of winners, fears of previous perpetrators of
violence and
victims' cries."
While elections could be the best way
forward, it is still hazy as to when
they could be held.
Mandaza said he
doubted elections could be held soon saying the best bet was
in 2013 once a
measure of healing had taken place.
Leonard Makombe
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010 21:02
HE was bold,
kind and hardworking, but most importantly one of the best
journalists
Zimbabwe has produced.
That was Edwin Dube, my friend for many years and
former colleague at the
Chronicle, who died in a car crash on Monday night —
the latest victim of
the death traps our local roads, which have claimed so
many lives, have
become.
The outpouring of grief — from those who knew
him personally and through his
work — is fitting tribute to a life
fruitfully lived! He will always be
missed and never forgotten by many of
us.
Just a few hours after his life was cut short, those who knew him from
all
corners of the globe took to social networking sites to express their
grief
and find communion with other Zimbabweans who felt his warmth and
kindness.
So many colleagues have poured out their emotions, but perhaps the
most
fitting epitaph for Edwin would be a short and simple message left on
Facebook by local journalist Gift Phiri.
“Edwin was a fantastic guy,”
Phiri said. “He loved everyone. He slaughtered
a beast for journalists
attending a Misa workshop recently free of charge.
His generosity was
unparalleled. Go well brother.”
An undeniable weakness of most journalists is
their obvious lack of
entrepreneurial ambition, a permanent lack of desire
to see beyond their
monthly pay cheque. Edwin used every opportunity to
discourage this and in
that regard led by example.
By the time of his
death, he owned a thriving bottle store in Bulawayo as
well as the popular
Drive Inn Leisure Centre – venue of some of the most
memorable music
concerts held in the city in recent years. He was involved
in cattle
ranching, and had his own house and car, among other properties.
My nightmare
began on Tuesday morning when I got a shocking short email from
an old
colleague at the Chronicle, Limukani Ncube, which said: “Edwin Dube
has
died.”
You want to think it’s a sick joke but you know it isn’t, and your
most
immediate reaction is: “Oh My God, why?”
A socialite and dedicated
journalist, it was hard not to like Edwin.
“Chubby”, as we called him
because he was stout, died a few months after
being appointed Deputy Editor
of the country’s leading business weekly, the
Zimbabwe Independent. While at
the Chronicle, he was continually frustrated
by the limitations of
state-controlled journalism as he always wanted to
freely express his
mind.
Edwin will forever be remembered as an ambitious journalist who from
his
early years as a young reporter fresh from journalism school, fixed his
eyes
on the horizon, looked forward, and did not falter.
And as editor of
the Trends magazine, a sister publication to the Chronicle,
he achieved 80
000 monthly sales, a feat which many editors can only dream
of.
But in
the end he left the Chronicle as the shackles of state-control
tightened and
when he needed a new challenge.
When I asked him recently how he was coping
in Harare, before he relocated
his family, he complained of “too much
travelling up and down” but he
reiterated that he was happy at the
Independent as “promotion was done on
merit, not on patronage”.
I knew
Edwin’s mother very well, and regarded her as my mother also. When
Edwin was
in the United Kingdom, after receiving a Chevening Scholarship to
read for
an MA degree at Cardiff University, Wales, I found myself playing
Edwin’s
role in his family.
While studying fulltime in Wales, he also secured himself
a full-time job,
and helped his mother back in Bulawayo to set up a
financial company in his
name.
The financial company was the stepping
stone, and Edwin never stopped
chasing the dream of financial independence.
Business was his passion, but
journalism was his life.
It would be
selfish for me to take all the time and space remembering Edwin
without
giving others a chance:
Dr Clayton Peel, former assistant editor of the
Chronicle, now an academic
at Oxford, was part of the decision to employ
both myself and Edwin. He
said: “Dube was a resilient and dependable
journalist, an asset to any
newspaper. He raised the bar on the news desk at
the Chronicle and I
considered him best suited for the most challenging
assignments because of
his grasp of the issues, his succinct style of
writing, and his dogged yet
even-tempered demeanour when facing
resistance.
“He achieved much, and still had much to achieve, and I deeply
regret his
passing as premature. It has robbed us of his talents, his
personality, his
wit, and most important of all because this is an area of
need in our
country today, his leadership. The journalism fraternity, and
Zimbabwe as a
whole, is poorer today without Edwin Dube.”
Clemence
Marijeni, the former Chronicle sports editor now at Birmingham
University
studying law, said: “I am so saddened. Imagine, Edwin organised
my
bachelor’s party when I got married last month in Bulawayo on the eve of
my
wedding. Despite telling them that I would not be able to attend it, they
continued with the bachelor’s party late into the night.
“We were in the
Mass Communication class of 1993-1995 together. Edwin
distinguished himself
as an intelligent student and he emerged as one of the
top students of our
class. He was one of a few students who decided to study
journalism not
because they had failed to go to university but because that
is what he
seemed to have been ordained to do.
“He did achieve the A level grades to go
to university but instead chose to
study journalism at Harare Polytechnic.
This explains why even in later life
he remained a journalist despite
running a successful business venture.
“He was a fearless and outspoken
student with a sense of humour. He was very
opinionated and always stood his
ground on issues.”
Edwin will be buried today at West Park Cemetery,
Bulawayo. Go well “Tycoon
Chubby!"
Admore Tshuma is a former
Chronicle journalist who is studying for a
doctoral degree in transitional
justice in the UK.
By Admore Tshuma
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
21:01
AFTER having watched a documentary on the life and times of Mobutu
Sese
Seko - former Zaire president - I couldn't help but notice the striking
similarities between Zaire under his leadership and Zimbabwe under President
Robert Mugabe. While there can be no debate on the fact that Mugabe came to
power on account of his role in the liberation struggle against colonial
rule, the same cannot be said of the former. Mobutu plotted, in collusion
with the US Central Intelligence Agency and the Belgian authorities, to
remove a democratically elected government of Patrice Lumumba who he
brutally executed to take the reins of power.
That issue aside, it is
instructive to note that soon after attaining power,
Mobutu set about
crushing any dissent through military means. This, of
course, was mirrored
in Zimbabwe by the crushing of dissent in the
Matabeleland and Midlands
provinces in the early 1980s.
Under Mobutu's rule civil liberties were
brutally suppressed as exemplified
in the forced conscription of university
students into the Zairian army
after they had demonstrated against the
government and the imprisonment of
the student leaders. In Zimbabwe, a state
of emergency remained in force
until 1990 which allowed the government to
use the full force of the law on
all those deemed to be enemies of the
state. A number of politicians and
activists were jailed and tortured for
daring to hold a different view from
that of the government. Names like
Dumiso Dabengwa, Welshman Mabhena and
Lookout Masuku come to
mind.
Mobutu's party - the Popular Movement of the Revolution - was brazen in
instituting a one-party state political system whereby at election time he
would run against himself and then have massive celebrations for his
"victory". Whilst in Zimbabwe the one-party state system was suggested but
not enforced. Zimbabwe was ruled as a de facto one-party state for many
years. When Edgar Tekere's Zimbabwe Unity Movement entered the political
fray, it was given a mortal blow by Zanu PF.
Again much like Mugabe,
Mobutu pardoned his political adversaries from the
jail terms they were
serving for daring to stand up to him and in the
process attempted to
portray himself to his countrymen and to the rest of
the world as a
peacemaker and nation-builder. He co-opted some of the
"rebels" into his
party as a way to bring closure to the unending violence
perpetrated
against them. In 1987 pretty much the same thing happened in
Zimbabwe with
the signing of the Unity Accord that saw PF Zapu being
compelled to merge
with Zanu PF to curb the violent campaign carried out
against them and their
supporters.
Mugabe also seems to share Mobutu's weakness for pushing his luck
when logic
dictates otherwise. When Laurent Kabila and his army had all but
taken
Kinshasa and African leaders, including former South African president
Nelson Mandela, brought the two to the negotiating table, Mobutu remained
intransigent, and tried to turn the course of events which clearly indicated
that his reign was on the decline and that a negotiated settlement would be
the only route to a dignified exit.
This can be mirrored in Mugabe's
behaviour in his relentless pursuit to
upstage his coalition government
colleagues by making unilateral decisions
that serve to soil the letter and
spirit of the Global Political Agreement.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
recently admitted that he had "defended
President Mugabe at my own cost
politically" with the hope that he might do
things differently.
Whilst
some might accuse Tsvangirai of political naïveté, it remains true
that this
inclusive government was and still is an opportunity for Mugabe to
salvage
something from his tattered political legacy and lend himself a more
dignified exit from the political stage.
Whether he wants to admit it or
not, the exit for him is much nearer than it
is further away and he would
have bequeathed himself well with the people of
Zimbabwe, albeit at the end
of his career, if he were to put aside petty
politicking and put Zimbabwe
first.
Ngoni Muzofa is a sub-editor with the Zimbabwe
Independent.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
21:00
ONE would have been forgiven for thinking, at the signing of the
Global
Political Agreement (GPA) two years ago, that it was the end of
history for
the country as the struggle over ideologies between Zanu PF and
the MDC was
coming to an end.
Just like Francis Fukuyama wrongly
predicted in his seminal article "The end
of history and the last man" when
the cold war ended, it was wrong to
conclude in Zimbabwe the struggle over
ideologies had come to an end.
In fact, if it were the end of history, then
it was the beginning of
nonsense which the country has lived with over the
past 25 months.
When the GPA was signed in September 2008, two diametrically
opposed
ideologies converged barring the fact that they are mutually
exclusive.
One thought the differences would be patched up and all would work
in unison
in the second republic.
Zanu PF, riding on the wave of
exhausted nationalism and populist policies
which cost them an election
where a two thirds majority in the previous
parliament was cut to less than
half, and on the other hand the two MDCs
buoyed by a victory in the last
election came to the table with a
neo-liberal and social democratic
agenda.
Many thought leaders who had appended their signatures on the GPA
would be
rational actors who would put national interest ahead of selfish
ends. This,
it has to be pointed out, was a hope dipped in idealism as the
leaders were
not rational after all as they seized the moment to
restrategise.
The signing of the GPA ushered in a Machiavellian moment where
there was,
behind the arrases, a war of one against all. It was a zero-sum
struggle
between the different ideologies. On paper, the two mutually
exclusive
ideologies appeared to work. However, despite the plastic, photo
shoot
smiles that we were subjected to, there were signs things were not
working.
The economy failed to take off, the outstanding issues pertaining to
the
implementation of the GPA continued to accumulate and Zimbabwe failed to
reclaim its position in the world. This was evident in the standpoints
President Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy Arthur
Mutambara took when addressing various forums at home and abroad. It was
clearly evident that there was no ideological congruence.
Now, the façade
has worn off with the passage of time and last week
Tsvangirai made a
confession that all was not well in the inner circles of
the
state.
Questions now arise on where the country got it wrong.
The blending
of the two sides, one that had the votes but not the power and
those with
the power and not the votes, was a recipe for chaos and this has
been the
case ever since.
An analysis of the politics of the GPA and ultimately the
government of
national unity shows that power and ideology are central to
all the
strategies.
The analysis of who gets what, when, how, why and
where was and still is
central to the whole political arrangement. This
would feed into the
ideologies of the respective political party. It also
assisted in answering
the question of justice, order, conflict, legitimacy,
accountability,
obligation and decision making which have also been central
to the country
after the turn of the century.
With the assistance of
hindsight, it would not be unfair to conclude that
the ideological conflict
in the shaky political arrangement has been
unhealthy and is the beginning
and end of the country's problems.
Until there is common ground in terms of
ideas that constitute the country's
goals, expectations and actions - a
national ideology of some sort, then
there can be no moving out of the
wood.
The nation will have to wait until a time when the president will
consult
the premier on issues and not take advantage of technicalities which
give
him some nominal power to make appointments. Constitutions are made by
people for people, and in the spirit of honouring the letter and spirit of
the GPA, Mugabe should have consulted his partners in government. That much
must be evident to even the most obtuse observers.
For as long as these
spats continue, Zimbabwe's rebirth will continue to be
a still-born affair
and we will all lose out in the end.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 October 2010
20:59
ZESA announced this week that it had switched off Hwange Power
Station in
order to attend to technical problems. By removing the thermal
power station
from the national grid, the state-owned power company
effectively cut off by
a quarter the installed capacity in the generation
sector.
In countries where power generation is taken seriously, this would
have
elicited loud protestations from industrialists and domestic consumers
who
would start to count their losses and contemplate disruptions to their
lives. But here the loss of generation at Hwange passes as another glitch in
Zesa's saga of bumbling. Industry has resigned itself to either using
generators or simply waiting for power to be restored. We have become so
used to shoddy service delivery from Zesa that the management of the power c
ompany and government no longer appear to care about improving service
delivery.
The situation at Zesa has continued to degenerate and there is
a real danger
that generation would one day fail altogether. We are heading
that way
because the problems at Zesa at the moment are much larger than the
malfunctioning turbines at Hwange or the antiquated-but-still-working
machinery at Kariba. The technical challenges have been compounded by
debilitating structural faults in the organisational strata of Zesa which
have remained uncorrected from the time government toyed with the idea of
unbundling the parastatal into six companies which all made monumental
losses.
The government in its wisdom then decided to reverse the
unbundling process
to ensure that the parastatal concentrated on its core
business. But this
has not improved efficiencies. With each passing day the
problems at Zesa
have continued to mount on the watch of the inclusive
government which has
set economic recovery as one its core undertakings; an
apparent dichotomy.
A recent report commissioned by the World Bank on public
expenditure says
the problems in the power sector are three dimensional.
There is a chronic
shortage of electricity, that is to say generation is
always lower than
consumption. Second, the state enterprise's generation,
transmission and
distribution assets are in a poor state. Acquisition of
spares, and critical
repairs have over the years been deferred resulting in
facilities falling
into a state of disrepair. Last, the parastatal has been
in a precarious
financial position for a long time. This parlous state of
affairs has had a
major knock on the power production with a perpetual
deficit of above 500
megawatts out of an installed capacity of 1960
megawatts. Load-shedding has
therefore become core-business for Zesa.
In
such a scenario, one would think that the inclusive government would
apply
itself fully and in an astute way to ameliorate the infrastructure and
improve power output. We are not talking about building new power stations
but to ensure government makes the most of what is to hand. This yearned-for
judiciousness is missing and in its place, state imprudence has only made
the situation worse. The state of affairs at Hwange is a case in
point.
The thermal power plant which went cold this week requires 9 000
tonnes of
coal a month at full capacity. But the major producer of coal,
Hwange
Colliery Company, is working at 35% capacity due to capital
constraints.
Therefore, even when the thermal plant is mechanically sound,
output would
always be prejudiced by coal shortages.
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM - No..zw with "For
Open Letter
Forum" in the subject line.
To subscribe/unsubscribe to
the JAG mailing list, please email:
jag@mango.zw with subject line "subscribe" or
"unsubscribe".
=================================================
1.
Cathy Buckle - Tea, cricket and the truth
2. Deon Theron - response to
battle weary farmer letter
3. response to the Battle weary farmer
letter
4. Battle Weary Farmer's response to above
letters
=================================================
1.
Cathy Buckle - Tea, cricket and the truth
Dear Jag
When South
Africas Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu turned 79 this week
and announced he
was retiring from public life, I felt very sad for
Zimbabwe. Desmond Tutu has
been an earnest, dedicated and unflagging
supporter of the ordinary people of
Zimbabwe. Throughout the last decade
he has been consistently outspoken about
the abuses inflicted on
Zimbabweans by their own leaders. Time and time again
when all other
African leaders were struck dumb, Desmond Tutu raised his
voice for
ordinary people.
In 2002 when legislation curtailing freedom
of speech, movement and
association was introduced, Desmond Tutu was
interviewed on the BBC.
He strongly criticised Mr Mugabe and said
Zimbabwe was: On the slippery
slope of perdition. Most of us had to look the
word up in our
dictionaries to find that it was a religious term referring to
eternal
death and damnation.
When South African election observers
came to Zimbabwe and their cars
were stoned by militant Zanu PF youths, they
witnessed at first hand an
atmosphere laden with violence, intimidation and
extreme harassment. The
head of the South African observer mission was jeered
and laughed at by
journalists when he went on to say that Zimbabwes elections
had been:
legitimate. Again Archbishop Tutu stepped
forward: I am
deeply, deeply, deeply distressed that our country could be
among those who
say the election was legitimate or free and fair when we
are claiming to be
adherents to democracy.
Five years later, in 2007, African leaders were
still dumb struck and
tip-toeing around the bloodshed, hunger and chaos
tearing Zimbabwe apart
but Desmond Tutu was not afraid of upsetting the old
boys club.
He and Madeline Albright, the previous US Secretary of State,
published a
joint article in the Washington Post. They appealed, not to the
world,
but to Africa, saying:
Given Mugabe's consistent unwillingness
to respect the legitimate
complaints of his people, this is not the time for
silent diplomacy.
This is the time to speak out. It is especially
important that members of
the African Union and Southern African Development
Community (SADC) raise
their voices, for they have the most influence and can
hardly be accused
of interventionism.
Later that same year Archbishop
Tutu used the International Day of Peace
to again cry out for Zimbabwe. He
spoke about the harassment of political
opponents, detentions without trial
and torture and said :
It must stop now.
He closed his speech
saying: We are one family, the human family, God's
family. Zimbabwe's plight
is all of our plight. To ignore its suffering
is to condone it.
Honest
and forthright, Tutus unique combination of empathy, humility and
humour will
be sorely missed in Zimbabwe. We wish him well as he turns
his time to
reading, writing, praying and thinking; and to drinking lots
of tea and
watching cricket on television.
As one of the loudest voices for ordinary
Zimbabweans falls quiet, there
is hope that at last, another has returned.
MDC Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai has finally made a statement about yet
more breaches of the
power sharing agreement. Mr Tsvangirai said that all
along he had been:
prepared for the sake of our country to sit alongside my
yesteryears
enemies and tormentors to rebuild a stable and democratic
country. But
now he said, the re-appointment by Mr Mugabe, on a Sunday, of
Zanu PF
governors was one breach too many. He said that with immediate effect
the
MDC will refuse to recognize unilateral appointments that have been
made
by Mr Mugabe including the Attorney General, The Reserve Bank
Governor,
10 Provincial Governors, 5 Judges, 6 Ambassadors and the
Police
Commission. The PM said the continued refusal to swear in Roy Bennett
as
Deputy Agriculture Minister was a personal vendetta and part of a
racist
agenda.
The Prime Minister will do well to pick up where
Desmond Tutu has left
off and raise his voice for us, the ordinary people.
Until next time,
thanks for reading, love
Cathy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.
Deon Theron - response to battle weary farmer letter
Dear Battle Weary
Farmer
Most of us are Battle Weary Farmers just like you.
Over a
period of 28 years I bought 3 farms. I was listed for the first
time in 1997,
and violently lost the first of my three farms (with
everything on it) in
2000 with many people ending up in hospital. By
2008 I had lost all 3
farms and most of our possesions. Currently I am
farming on a section of my
mothers farm. I have been spending precious
money fighting for my rights in
the Magistrate's Court (over 40
times), High Court (3 times) and in the
SADC Tribunal as the 1st
Intervener in the Campbell Case. I have spent days
in jail on two
seperate occasions, and as I write to you the thugs cut our
locks with
bolt cutters and moved into the house yesterday. My mother, wife
and I
are locked out and now staying in Harae.
I have a High Court
Interdict (after an urgent application) barring them
from being on the farm,
yet to no effect as the police were present
during this illegal house
breaking and entry. I have just submitted
papers for contempt of the High
Court Ruling.
Battle weary? Broke? Lost nearly everything? Sure. I've
been fighting
for13 years now, gatvol, but refuse to give up.
Maybe
you are right. My wife agrees with you that I have a dire lack of
cranial
horsepower for not giving up but rather getting involved to see
if I can make
a difference, especially for those older folk who are no
longer able to fight
for themselves. However - if I lack grey matter, are
you clever (or brave) by
writing anonymous emails, focussing on the past
and cussing rather than
contributing?
We have spent a month - not 6 months - travelling the
country, visiting
farmers and ex farmers wherever they are to get their input
on what they
want us to do on their behalf. Most farmers associations do not
operate
anymore, therefore we have a choice - go and consult, or do our
own
thing. Which do you think is the better?
The reason I brought an
Independent Consultant in to speak to members and
ex members alone, was to
ensure that members could participate without
being influenced by
anyone.
I would like to invite you to spend a week with us at the Union.
You can
move freely from office to office, from meeting to meeting, from
court
case to court case and from old age home to old age home to see what
we
do. My only request would be that you spend every day all day with one
of
us for the full week. Maybe battle weary will gain new meaning for
you,
because as in farming, there is no knock off time. Fighting day in
and
day out for yourself is one thing - putting the rebuilding of your
own
life on hold and fighting day in and day out on behalf of yourself
and
4500 others, is pretty tough.
You are right, other initiatives
have been launched and failed, but if
that is your motivation for not doing
anything, then you are a loser.
How can you say we fall short on the
democratic side when we travel the
country, engage farmers and ex farmers for
their input? If you had the
balls to put your own interests on hold, step
forward and represent ALL
present and past CFU farmers - what would you
do?
As far as the 'missing funds' go. Farmers were informed at Congress.
It
happened two years ago during hyperinflation (before I took over), and
I
am trying to clear up all outstanding issues at the Union. It
has
allways been in the accounts that are audited by Deloittes. Some of
the money
has been recovered from the lady accountant, and the case for
the recovery of
the balance is now with the High Court.
One thing I have never done in my
life is beg. Nor will I steep so low as
President of the CFU. If you do not
believe in our motto of 'give me my
farm or give me my money,' then please -
do not support us. If
you are that tipe of person, then by all means -
have a free ride. When
you see us winning legal battles, attaching houses or
other assets, or
moving closer to obtaining compensation, I am sure you will
stand closer.
We are not at a loss as to what farmers want. Some want to
farm, others
want their money. However, it would have been arrogant of me as
President
to say 'I know what the farmers want. I don't have
to
consult them, but merely do what I think.' We have consulted them,
got
their approval, and together we will defeat the enemy that has not
only
robbed us of our livelyhoods, but also robbed some families of
their
loved ones.
Obviously you do not support us. I have no problem
with that. Please do
not be negative and critisize from the pavilion.
Hopefully you are an
active supporter of JAG, so please - put your money
where your mouth is.
Put your hand in your pocket and support JAG
financially, or support John
by sacrificing some of your time to assist where
you can. Whether CFU or
JAG - we both need money, manpower and support from
those that believe in
what we are doing.
You seem bitter against CFU.
Most of us were badly hurt and rightly or
wrongly felt let down at some
stage. We can sit back and howl like a
jackal, wallowing in the past, or
remain positive and get involved in
making a difference in the present and
future.
Lets pick ourselves up, look forward, focus on what we want,
support
those that we believe can assist us in getting what we want, and move
on.
If we keep on looking back and blaming others for what happened to us,
we
lose focus of the real battle that is taking place and become
sidetracked
(like a brawl on the rugby field), and this often allows the
enemy to
score points.
We are all battle weary farmers, but by
refusing to give up and
continuing the fight, the battle is not over. If we
stop fighting we have
lost, as no one else is going to fight on our behalf.
By uniting and
seeking our wisdom, courage and strength from God we increase
our
chances of success.
In life you either make dust or you stay
behind and eat dust.
A battle weary farmer.
Deon
Theron
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.
Response to the Battle weary farmer letter
Dear Jag
Since the
inception of your Open Letter Forum, I have quietly sat and
both read and
listened to the debate published on your forum. Some have
been useful and
certainly served a purpose, others well quite frankly
have been abusive,
humiliating and bordering on defamation of character
especially when it
pertains to the Commercial Farmers Union and its
leadership.
Your
latest article dated 7 October 2010, article 2, written by a battle
weary
farmer made me decide that enough is enough and hence my response.
I
wonder if you would be so kind as to publish my views on your
forum.
Firstly let me start off by informing the readers that I am a CFU
member.
I was also a big supporter of Jag that is until the wheels fell
off
within Jag. Issues of corruption, assault, fraud, misuse of
membership
subscriptions and donor funding as well as a very vindictive
Chief
Executive Officer just to name a few began to surface.
Now let's
turn to CFU. Unfortunately the anonymous writer in your
article makes certain
allegations about money that disappeared and was
dealt in-house, the doubling
of licence fees and the now expert that is
being called in to hear the views
of farmers.
It is very clear that the battle weary farmer was not at the
recently
held CFU Congress this year. If he was he would have noticed that
a
report was given to all delegates and farmers present on the
disappearing
of money and what steps had been implemented. Furthermore, the
money was
accounted for in the set of audited financial statements by Ernst
and
Young. If my memory serves me correct, I recall the newly
appointed
Trustee for the Union, Mr Henderson, also talking to Congress on
this
issue.
On the issue of the licence fee, well if battle weary
farmer was there he
would have noticed that actually CFUs proposal was much
lower and that
another proposal came from the floor to increase the licence
fees and
that by a show of hands was unanimously supported.
Once again
a resolution was put forward on the expert to tour the country
and listen to
the farmer's views and come forward with suggestions
on how CFU should move
forward. Once again this was unanimously supported
by delegates and farmers
present.
So now I come to my message. I am starting to get sick and tired
of every
Tom, Dick and Harry having a say at CFU or the leadership or the way
CFU
is going. Rather get your facts correct and even better, first
sweep
your own doorstep before criticising others.
At least CFU has
been honest with the membership and it's Council
out there. As a previous Jag
member I can recall sitting at a Jag AGM and
the lies, blame and cover up of
unaccounted and unaudited finances
dominated proceedings.
To the CFU
hierarchy my message is simple. It is a thankless job you guys
at the top
have. The personal sacrifices you have made at the cost of
your families and
businesses go unnoticed. The sacrifices you make when
going into court so
that all farmers out there can benefit is
appreciated. The constant threat of
being prosecuted and persecuted for
what you believe in is applauded. Your
resolve to continue finding a
solution in the current impasse, your ability
to open doors to high
offices in the country, regionally and internationally
and to negotiate
on my behalf is outstanding.
To Jag I beg to ask the
question, what are you doing other than to give a
platform (open letter
forum) for others to criticise. What negotiations
and court appearances are
you making on behalf of the farmer?
In March 2010 seven of the executive
members of Jag resigned. Three
staff members joined them and today the staff
and the executive members
are all either employed by CFU or sit on the ARAC
executive committee.
Surely the man in the street must ask why this
happened.
I believe all is not rosy in Jag today and that is why I seized
to
continue my membership with Jag.
Thank you CFU, I will continue to
support you. To both current and
previous leadership and staff in CFU, thank
you on a job well done.
A VERY ANNOYED CFU
MEMBER!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.
Battle Weary Farmer's response to above letters
Firstly, to the VERY
ANNOYED CFU MEMBER, most assuredly a lady and quite
possibly a member of
staff at CFU by her inside knowledge of every Tom,
Dick and Harry, who sounds
petulant, distraught and confused, have a cup
of tea Duckie, sit on the
verandah, and leave this to the big boys.......
Just one point though
before you have a 'turn' - and you opened the door
wide open with this one -
the seven members of the JAG General Committee
did not resign, there was a
resounding membership VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE
in them. I am told that when
the meeting in November last year was
arranged, at the Chairman's insistence,
it was agreed that whoever lost
the vote of confidence, would immediately
resign, so resign they did, but
not by choice. There were serious
allegations of a hidden agenda,
proven by minutes of previous JAGMA meetings
held, when the then
Chairman, Dennis Pascall, confirmed JAG would amalgamate
with CFU and
'disappear', all behind memberships' back.
So please, get
your story straight before making unfounded accusations,
and I do agree with
you entirely, the ordinary man in the street must
have been questioning from
day one, why those seven members crossed the
floor to CFU in the blink of an
eye. Note - I have been to JAG, read
the minutes of the meeting in question
to verify my view of events. The
attempted hostile takeover of JAG did
appear to be aided and abetted by
CFU, as witnessed by this crossing of the
floor to CFU.
You also refer to issues of corruption, assault, fraud,
misuse of funds
with JAG. Blatant defamation little lady, be very careful
here unless
you have proof, given the absence of any substantiated evidence
at the
time, and afterwards. Is the CFU now flinging
unsubstantiated
accusations against the JAG CEO? This is demeaning to us
all - I could
retaliate with reminders of a missive sent out late last year,
apparently
with substantiated evidence against one of your new 'recruits',
but I
will not lower myself to your level.
What should be happening is
CFU, JAG and other farming groups working
closely together, cohesively
meshed, for the good of all farmers, talking
and working together instead of
these vicious attacks.
TO CFU PRESIDENT, DEON THERON
I am saddened
to read of your personal plight at present, more so because
it is like an
echo from years ago, not only for me, but thousands of
other farmers. I too
spent time in jail. I too have box files full of
court orders, interdicts,
contempt charges, eviction of settlers order,
and all else, and have not put
a foot on my farm for many years.
It will be a refreshing change if you
are able to make a difference -
despite assurances to the contrary, a leopard
does not change its spots
....howling like a jackal, please Mr. President,
you can do better than
that.....
Democratically challenged? I see
things simply, please correct me if I
am wrong - my understanding is that
farmers used to be represented both
through their own commodity associations,
on or through their regional
representatives - democratic - then factor in
the President's Council
which has the power to veto any Council decision, and
any semblance of
democracy goes right out of the window. Today, it would
seem to be even
worse, the majority of farmers are displaced/off their farms,
defunct
farmers associations, and even regional representation
structures
nonexistent. Commodity associations now hold vastly
disproportionate
voting sway on CFU Council. FIT was introduced onto
Council
representing displaced farmers who outnumber CFU members, and they
were
given a commodity association's one vote. Farmers are now a commodity
-
I ask you - and equally disposable it appears? It is hardly
surprising
that farmers are distrusting and distressed about the
disproportionate
representation and lack of democracy. Given the timing of
CFU's latest
initiative alongside the demise of the few remaining farmers, it
is
understandable when displaced farmers question CFU's very belated
motives
for any apparent change. This latest initiative involving the use
of an
independent Expert, only highlights the total lack of democratic
process
within CFU at the moment. The fact that it is happening this late
in
the game is equally alarming to most farmers. Why now, why didn't
this
happen ten years ago when it would have made all the difference
-
expediency at its best?
It is not a question of having "the balls"
to put my own interests aside
and step forward to represent all - memory
fades for so many so very
quickly - where were CFU eight to ten years ago in
the fight for
what was right? Where were CFU when we farmers needed help,
and the
first question on the phone was, what receipt number covered
our
membership subscription? Where were CFU when farm situation
reports
were withdrawn as too distressing and divisive? Where were CFU
when
The Farmer magazine was strategically shut down, press conferences
never
held and injustices never legally challenged? And please don't tell
me
to look forward and not backwards....wiser men than you and I have
said,
learn from your mistakes, experience talks....I could go on and
on.
There is understandably little trust left between farmers today
and
CFU. We have heard the talk so many times, but seldom seen the
walk.
Your explanation as to the misappropriated funds at CFU is
accepted.
You are right, I am not a fan of CFU, but fair is fair, I like
so many
other farmers, have always given the CFU the benefit of the doubt,
and
every time you all come up smelling the same.
I made one single
reference to JAG - this is not a competition, nobody
questions that JAG has
been standing with us from the beginning, who
started the legal action for
farmers, who funded these cases
(Quinell....etc) whose commitment has never
wavered, who has been there
for farmers in crisis situations, who has walked
the straight line since
inception....does anyone see the difference here?
What should be
happening is CFU-JAG and other groups talking and working
together for
the good of everyone, instead of this continual
backstabbing.
JAG would appear to have gone through a difficult time with
the unfounded
accusations from those on the General Committee who were
effectively
stood down. Financial investigations funded by JAG donors have
come up
with no evidence of any fraud. For the record, nobody has been
dragging
up the past, playing the blame game, we would all just like it
clear
exactly where we are headed and who is driving the train/bus.......I
lose
track of the vehicle CFU are currently using.
So please, continue
with your euphoric voyage, a little late in my
opinion but then who are we
farmers to have an opinion, when even CFU
cannot make an informed decision
without yet another expert.
Furthermore, I think attention should be
drawn to the fact that this is
not the first initiative to come out of CFU
(goal setting and canvassing
the farmers for a way forward). This is not
groundbreaking stuff - I
seem to remember similar exercises on a number of
occasions
(Amalinda-Gecko) These previous initiatives brought all farming
groups
together to forge an inclusive way forward with all
parties
participating. I also remember CFU agreeing, and then going it
alone
again with no real policy or plan. This latest exercise would
appear
to be exclusive of other groups, and from experience, bound to fail
once
again.
I have done some homework, JAG membership is around 800 -
SACFA
membership around 200, what is CFU current membership, and ARAC, but
no
matter how you shift the numbers, CFU certainly does not represent
the
majority of farmers, so please do not presume that you hold the
mandate
for farmers.
In closing, I attach a letter written by Ben
Freeth to the JAG Open
Letter Forum, six weeks prior to the CFU Congress.
He very eloquently
addressed the contentious issues surrounding CFU back
then, in the
unwavering hope that these issues would be addressed at Congress
- no
such luck....
BATTLE WEARY
FARMER
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ATTACHED
letter from Ben Freeth
Dear Jag
In reference to Mr. Robinsons
letter, there is a strange irony in the
fact that there has been considerable
recognition for our little fight
from Mount Carmel Farm for the farmer and
farm worker community all over
the world; and yet I still remain suspended
from the Commercial Farmers
Union nearly 8 years later without, amongst
everything else, even having
got my leave pay yet!
Mr. Dave Joubert in
his excellent letter talks of the CFU past; and it is
not by coincidence that
all the former appeasement Presidents remain
amongst the 5 percent of farmers
still farming [Nick Swanapoel, Doug
Taylor-Freeme, Colin Cloete]. The vast
majority of their members lost
everything. That is how dictatorships
work.
If the new leadership of the CFU is really serious about creating
a
united future there are various things I believe it needs to do:
1.
Apologise unreservedly to God and the members and former members who
built
the Union for not standing up against tyranny and for just simply
doing what
their evil political masters told them to do by: a/refusing to
protect
members by taking unjust and ungodly laws to court b/refusing to
publicise
evil and injustice through the CFU closing down of sit-reps,
the farmer
magazine, other reports and for not having press conferences
or putting out
robust statements condemning the injustices taking place
against farmers and
farm workers. c/treating people like myself who
believe in standing for
justice like criminals. The CFU leadership did
not make "mistakes." They
had a clear appeasement strategy that allowed
their members along with over 2
million farm workers get yoked under a
dictatorship of evil
oppression.
2. Produce a clear CFU policy document with a clear legal
strategy on
compensation, restitution and accountability [under international
law not
Zimbabwean law] and the rebuilding of agriculture on Godly
foundations so
that we all know what we would be signing up for if we joined
the Union.
This policy and strategy needs to be accompanied by a
clear,
implementable plan with achievable and measurable goals and time
lines
where applicable.
3. Change the CFU constitution so that it is
more difficult for there to
be a repeat performance in the future where a few
ZANU PF connected
farmers on council or on the side lines of council have
been able to
dictate who the leaders of the Union are and what the policy of
the Union
should be.
4. Make every effort to meet with and discuss
common policy and actions
with SACFA and other organisations so that farmer
and farm worker
organisations can go forward with a united front.
If
farmers and ex farmers see these four concrete actions outlined above
get
implemented expeditiously ahead of the CFU congress in just over a
month's
time, we will see the Union and us all moving forward.
Until then I am
afraid scepticism and mistrust will remain the order of
the day.
Yours
sincerely,
Ben Freeth
(Zim)
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All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the
submitters,
and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice for
Agriculture.
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