Zim Independent
Dumisani
Muleya
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has reportedly named four top
Zanu PF
officials as his possible successors in a recent conversation with
South
African President Thabo Mbeki.
Reports this week indicate
that Mugabe two weeks ago spoke to Mbeki
about the ongoing talks between the
ruling Zanu PF and the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change to resolve
the country's worsening situation
and in the process delved into his
leadership succession.
The reports say Mugabe noted that there were
four serious candidates
to succeed him, senior Zanu PF politburo members
Emmerson Mnangagwa, John
Nkomo, Sydney Sekeramayi and Simba
Makoni.
The notable omissions from Mugabe's list are Vice-President
Joice
Mujuru and Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, both widely touted as
potential successors. Mujuru, whom Mugabe during the Zanu PF congress in
2004 publicly anointed as the next president, has fallen out with her boss
over internal squabbles.
The president's spokesman George
Charamba exploded yesterday when
asked to clarify reports that his boss had
indicated to Mbeki potential
successors.
"Don't waste my time
on such speculation and rumour-mongering," he
said angrily. "I want serious
journalistic enquiries, don't waste my time on
such issues. You can go and
write what you want."
Earlier, Charamba had refused to discuss with
another Independent
reporter his recent controversial briefing to state
editors which has irked
senior government officials, including his superior,
Information minister
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu.
The briefing - which
touched on intensifying infighting and deepening
divisions in government and
the ruling Zanu PF - sent shockwaves through the
party and angered officials
who are now loudly complaining behind the
scenes.
The reports
said Mbeki asked if it was possible for Mugabe to indicate
who his successor
would be so that South Africa and other countries could
help to facilitate a
smooth transition and support that person to prepare
for future
responsibilities. The reports say Mbeki wanted to know if there
were no
credible successors to Mugabe in Zanu PF and he was told that there
were.
Gono's name continues to crop up during debates on who
will take over
from Mugabe.
Mnangagwa and Nkomo were in 2004
named by Zanu PF spokesman Nathan
Shamuyarira as possible successors to
Mugabe in an interview with a South
African journalist. The Independent
published the recorded details of the
interview, although Shamuyarira tried
in vain to deny it.
The reports say Mugabe said Mnangagwa could be
his successor but was
unpopular with the voters and so was Nkomo. The two
are not elected
officials. Mnangagwa was defeated in the past two general
elections by the
MDC, while Nkomo has avoided elections apparently in fear
of defeat. It is
further claimed Mugabe said although there were people who
want Makoni to
take over from him, the problem was that he had failed in
previous
government assignments.
The succession story doing the
rounds in the corridors of power
further says Mugabe said Sekeramayi was his
preferred choice because he was
cool, calm and collected, but if he advanced
his name in the party there
would be outrage because he has no grip on the
shifting dynamics of
leadership in the party. In the end, it is understood,
Mugabe indicated that
was why he has to stand as the Zanu PF presidential
candidate in next year's
polls to hold the party together.
Mugabe has publicly said that he needs to remain as the Zanu PF leader
to
prevent his divided party from disintegration due to factionalism and
infighting. The power struggles in Zanu PF are intensifying ahead of the
party's extraordinary congress in December, a stage-managed elective
assembly.
Zim Independent
THE
ruling Zanu PF and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
have
agreed on a draft constitution which emerged from ongoing talks to
resolve
Zimbabwe's crisis, it has been confirmed.
The final draft
constitution - a product of intense negotiations by
the two parties both in
Zimbabwe and South Africa - was signed by Zanu PF
negotiators Patrick
Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche, and MDC delegates Welshman
Ncube and Tendai
Biti, as well as the South African mediator and chairman
Sydney Mufamadi on
a houseboat provided by the state at Kariba on September
30. The event was
described as "cheerful".
However, Zanu PF and the MDC have not yet
agreed on changes to the
electoral laws, security legislation, and media
restrictions. The parties
are still haggling over these issues, sources
said, as time runs out before
elections next March.
The talks,
expected to formally end on October 30, are now way behind
schedule.
Negotiations will now resume on October 29 and run up to November
2. More
meetings will be held after that.
"We have agreed on the new draft
constitution, but we have not reached
an agreement on the electoral laws,
security legislation, and media laws
because the issues at stake are
complicated and there are disagreements," a
source said. "We haven't
discussed the political climate. There is some
progress but there are also
hurdles on the way."The deadline will now
certainly expire with an agreement
only on one item on the agenda, the
constitution. The other remaining four
agenda items are not yet settled. The
negotiators are now also discussing an
economic rescue package to bail out
the crumbling economy. Donors met two
weeks ago in the Netherlands to
discuss aid for Zimbabwe tied to
talks.
Sources said the new draft constitution, a hybrid document
from three
different drafts - the government-sponsored draft of 2000, the
National
Constitutional Assembly's draft, and the Zanu PF/MDC document of
2003/2004 -
would be taken to the negotiators' principals and their parties
for approval
soon.
After that it would then be implemented in
terms of agreed
transitional mechanisms if endorsed. Negotiators have been
discussing
transitional procedures in the event that their principals and
parties
approve the draft. Chinamasa is expected to brief a Zanu PF
politburo
meeting on progress in the talks so far on Wednesday next week.
MDC
delegates are expected to also brief their party soon.
Sources said the talks are now at a critical stage because the new
draft
will either be endorsed or rejected by the parties and their leaders.
The
2003/2004 Chinamasa/Ncube draft was rejected by the parties.
This
is where the real problem lies, sources said. The Zanu PF
politburo, chaired
by President Robert Mugabe, on September 5 took a
position that although
they should make concessions in the negotiations,
they would not agree to a
new constitution, especially before the elections.
MDC leaders have been
claiming there would be a new constitution before the
polls.
Zanu PF also resolved that it would make a few insignificant
concessions
which would not affect its grip on power and disturb its
preparations for
the elections in March next year.
Evidence that Zanu PF is now
playing games with the MDC mounted this
week when the ruling party asked for
the postponement of talks ahead of the
deadline. In reaction, the MDC is now
threatening to pull out of talks if
repression - as shown by sweeping
arrests of opposition activists this
week - continues. MDC leaders now say
that Zanu PF is negotiating in bad
faith, something they were in denial
about only a few weeks ago. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Constantine
Chimakure/ Loughty Dube
A FACTION of war veterans opposed to
the return to Zanu PF of Jabulani
Sibanda has demanded to meet
Vice-President Joseph Msika and party chairman
John Nkomo, among others,
amid reports that the ex-combatants leader's case
will be top of the agenda
of the politburo meeting on Wednesday.
Sibanda was expelled from
Zanu PF in 2004, but bounced back under
unclear circumstances to spearhead
President Robert Mugabe's campaign to be
endorsed as the ruling party's 2008
presidential candidate.
In a letter dated October 10 to Msika,
Nkomo and war veterans board
vice-chairperson Dumiso Dabengwa, the
ex-combatants' re-organising committee
chairperson Andrew Ndlovu and
Bulawayo ex-freedom fighters committee
secretary, a T Dube, said the former
Zapu heavyweights should explain how
Sibanda bounced back into the
party.
"After meeting as a committee and consulting with other
provinces we
felt the situation is highly sensitive and needs a political
solution
through meeting with Vice-President Msika and Zanu PF national
chairman
Nkomo," wrote the war veterans.
"We also wish and pray
that the war veterans board be present at such
(a) meeting to shed light on
programmes of the war veterans."
The Ndlovu and Dube faction claim
that allowing expelled individuals
like Sibanda to spearhead Mugabe's
campaign was a violation of Zanu PF's
constitution and
protocol.
"It is felt that even the security of the presidium and
the party at
large is compromised," reads the letter. "We feel that the
Unity Accord
itself (between Zanu PF and PF Zapu) is threatened if the
expelled elements
who are bent on confusing the party leadership are allowed
to thrive and
organise support in the name of the party."
It
was not clear from the letter when the war veterans wanted to meet
Msika,
Nkomo and their board.
However, the Zimbabwe Independent is
reliably informed that the
Sibanda issue will be high on the agenda of the
politburo and would be
explosive.
Sources said Sibanda was
brought back into Zanu PF by a camp of the
party led by Rural and Social
Amenities minister Emmerson Mnangagwa to drum
up support for Mugabe ahead of
Zanu PF's extra-ordinary congress.
"We expect the politburo meeting
to be explosive given that the party
leadership is divided on Sibanda," a
source in the politburo said. "It is
now common knowledge that Nkomo and
Msika don't want Sibanda back in the
party, while Mugabe's position is not
clear."
Msika and Nkomo have publicly ostracised Sibanda and
ordered him to
stop campaigning for Mugabe because he was expelled from Zanu
PF.
However, Sibanda continues to organise "solidarity marches"
throughout
the country drumming up support for the ageing
Mugabe.
The sources said Sibanda was roped in to scuttle plans by
another camp
in Zanu PF led by retired army general Solomon Mujuru that want
Mugabe to
step down and be succeeded by Vice-President Joice
Mujuru.
Sibanda was expelled from the party for his alleged
participation in
the Tsholotsho Declaration reportedly meant by the
Mnangagwa faction to
re-arrange the presidium.
Apart from the
Sibanda issue, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa would
update the politburo
on the ongoing Sadc-sanctioned talks between Zanu PF
and both formations of
the MDC.
Chinamasa and Labour minister Nicholas Goche represent
Zanu PF in the
talks, with the MDC having its secretary-generals Welshman
Ncube and Tendai
Biti as its negotiators.
South African
President Thabo Mbeki is mediating the talks.
Zanu PF and the MDC
have so far agreed on Constitution of Zimbabwe
Amendment No18 under the
auspices of the talks and the proposed law has
since been passed by
parliament and now awaits presidential assent.
Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro
LARGE swathes of Harare have been in darkness since
Tuesday as Zesa's
ability to generate and import power has plummeted due to
failure to service
debts and foreign currency shortages.
Two
thirds of the city is thought to be without power causing massive
losses of
refrigerated food, something most households can least afford to
sacrifice.
The power outages which hit the greater part of the
low-density
suburbs, including the Avenues and northern and eastern suburbs,
were
worsened by vandalism of distribution cables which the state-owned
utility
cannot replace because it is broke.
The outages, which
had been mainly restricted to residential suburbs
this week spilled into the
city centre bringing to a standstill operations
at the Passport Office and
private hospitals while business at suburban
shopping centres has been badly
affected.
The loss of power had by yesterday started affecting
water supply in
parts of the northern suburbs as booster pumps could not
function. A source
at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals said the giant
institution, the country's
largest referral centre, did not have power on
Tuesday resulting in the
postponement of operations. Operations at the
Avenues Clinic and Baines
Avenue Maternity Hospital were also adversely
affected by the power loss.
Embassies and United Nations agencies offices in
the Belgravia and Alexandra
Park areas were also without power.
Zesa faults department has told consumers in Braeside, Cranborne,
Eastlea
and Hatfield that it may take a "few weeks" to replace vandalised
transformers and cables. Old people's homes in the areas affected were also
hard hit. Many such homes forbid the use of candles or gas for safety
reasons.
Internet service provider Mweb - based in Avondale -
yesterday
informed its clients that it was cutting off browsers at night as
the
company could no longer afford to run its diesel generator at
night.
Zesa's official explanation has been that an increase in
theft of
cables and vandalism of substations has resulted in a number of
substations
catching fire at a rate which the power utility cannot cope
with.
However, sources within the power utility said equipment
breakdowns
and theft problems were minor factors. The current shortages,
they said,
were mainly due to problems caused by reduction of generation
capacity and
reduced imports due to unpaid debts. They said instead of
increasing
electricity generation capacity, Zesa was closing some of its
thermal power
stations because of its failure to procure spare parts due to
lack of
foreign currency.
"Over the past two months Hwange
Thermal Power Station has not been
generating any electricity," a source
said.
Mozambique last month reduced power exports to Zimbabwe
citing unpaid
debts. The supplies to Zimbabwe were reduced from 300
megawatts to 195
megawatts over a staggering debt of US$35 million, forcing
Zesa Holdings to
increase load-shedding by 50 %.
Zesa acting
spokesperson Shepherd Mandizvidza on September 29
confirmed the debt has
resulted in the reduction of power supplies from
Mozambican power utility
Hydroelectrica de Cahora Bassa.
Mandizvidza on that occasion said
Zesa had engaged HCB of Mozambique
with a request to access
300MW,
up from 150MW. In
principle the deal was agreed on but is currently
being thwarted by
the increasing debt, now over US$35 million.
Zimbabwe imports 40% of its power needs: 100 megawatts are from the
Democratic Republic of Congo, 300 megawatts from Mozambique and up to 450
and 300 megawatts from South Africa and Zambia respectively.
Power supplies have become erratic with blackouts lasting more than 10
hours. Families are unable to cook or bathe and perishable goods are being
lost to the crisis at a time when Zimbabweans are running short of money and
food.
As of yesterday Zesa officials were saying the blackouts
may persist
into next week.
Zim Independent
Orirando Manwere
THE High Court is set to hear an application
by the Law Society of
Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and seven
individual lawyers
seeking an order prohibiting the Commissioner of Police
and members of the
Zimbabwe Republic Police from hindering legal
practitioners from gaining
access to their clients and carrying out their
lawful duties.
The applicants are, among other things, are also
seeking an order that
Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri should cause an
investigation to be
conducted into the criminal conduct of members of the
ZRP who earlier this
year assaulted lawyers in the course of their duties
and were contemptuous
of court orders.
The two bodies are also
seeking a declaration of rights due to lawyers
under domestic and
international law which they allege were violated by the
ZRP.
Chihuri and Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi are cited as first and
second
respondents respectively in the application filed by Sternford Moyo
of
Scanlen & Holderness on behalf of the two bodies and seven lawyers who
were allegedly assaulted by the police.
The respondents failed
to file opposing papers within the time
provided for in the rules of the
High Court and were consequently barred.
This meant that they could
not be heard by the court except in an
application to lift the
bar.
The applicants then set the matter down for a default judgment
on
September 12 but the respondents on that day filed an application for
removal of the bar.
Moyo said the matter was thus postponed by
consent to allow for the
application for removal of the bar to be considered
after which the
respondents would file their opposition papers to allow for
the matter to be
argued on its merits.
He said the High Court
was yet to set a date to hear the arguments and
he was also yet to receive
the opposition papers from the respondents.
The court application
arises from the alleged assault of lawyers by
police in March and May this
year.
According to court papers to hand, lawyers Beatrice Mtetwa,
Colin
Kahuni, Tinoziva Bere, Mordecai Pilate Mahlangu, and Peter Carnegie
Lloyd
were assaulted following a peaceful demonstration to protest against
the
alleged earlier assault on fellow lawyers Alec Muchadehama, Andrew
Makoni
and Harrison Nkomo by police while in the course of carrying out
their
duties.
On March 13, Makoni served a court order at the
offices of the
Criminal Investigation Department's Law and Order Section
where one
Assistant Commissioner Musarashana Mabunda is alleged to have
contemptuously
torn the court order into pieces, squeezed the pieces into a
ball and threw
it at his face.
Mabunda allegedly further
threatened Makoni.
On March 11, Nkomo was allegedly assaulted with
a baton stick by
police officers at Machipisa police station in Harare where
he had gone to
enquire about the whereabouts of his clients - members of the
Movement for
Democratic Change who had been arrested.
This
prompted other lawyers to meet outside the High Court building
along Samora
Machel Avenue on May 8 to discuss the arrest of their
counterparts.
While at that meeting, they were ordered by
members of the ZRP to
disperse.
As they dispersed, a number of
them were assaulted.
A group of lawyers, including Mtetwa, the
President of the Law Society
of Zimbabwe, were unlawfully bundled into a
truck, taken to an open place in
Eastlea, ordered to lie on their stomachs
and were severely assaulted.
A number of them sustained serious
injuries necessitating treatment at
a Harare hospital.
In the
founding affidavit the applicants argued that the ZRP does not
acknowledge
its obligation to ensure that lawyers are able to discharge
their functions
and assemble and associate without physical attacks,
harassment and
intimidation.
"The Zimbabwe Republic Police does not appreciate or
accept the right
of members of the Law Society, as a professional body, to
collective freedom
of expression and assembly, particularly the right to
gather and discuss the
law, administration of justice and the promotion
advancement and protection
of human rights.
"Members of the
Zimbabwe Republic Police do not appreciate or accept
that they are not
entitled to regulate or disperse meetings of the Law
Society of Zimbabwe, a
professional body incorporated in terms of an Act of
Parliament," reads part
of the affidavit.
Zim Independent
by
Loughty Dube
THE police on Friday evening gave the Minister of
Information and
Publicity Sikhanyiso Ndlovu a taste of his own government's
repressive laws
after they cancelled the premiere of a play where he was
supposed to have
been the guest of honour.
Ndlovu was invited
to the launch of the controversial play Overthrown
and was supposed to
address the audience before the premiere of the play but
failed to officiate
after police cancelled the activities for the evening.
Ndlovu was
also expected to meet the actors backstage but by the time
he arrived at the
venue of the play police had already dispersed people who
had come to
watch.
Police who arrived at Amakhosi before Ndlovu's arrival had
told
organisers of the event that they should have sought permission from
the
authorities to stage the play under the Public Order and Security Act
(Posa).
Overthrown was written by Stanley Makuwe and directed
by Cont Mhlanga.
The play is about the economic and political
situation affecting the
country and kicks off with corpses in a mortuary
that complain about the
delays in their burials.
The corpses
blame the president for all their problems and decide if
the living are
failing to deal with him then they will assassinate him.
The
corpses march to State House and manage to assassinate the
president.
Mhlanga said police had cleared them to go ahead
with the play and was
shocked to be told on Friday evening that the play
would not go ahead.
Mhlanga said police from the Law and Order
section had attended
rehearsals of the play the entire week and had said
they had no problem with
the contents.
"It is surprising that
the police on Friday evening came with a
changed story because we were
cleared by police on Monday and even during
the rehearsals we had senior
police officers who watched the rehearsals of
the play and they had
indicated that the play could go ahead as there was
nothing offensive about
the play," Mhlanga said.
He said the police however later on
apologised and alleged there was a
communication breakdown among themselves
over the cancellation of the show.
"The police later said the play
was meant to go ahead and they said
there was a communication breakdown
among themselves, so we have to look at
another date for staging the show,"
Mhlanga said.
When contacted for comment on why the police
cancelled the show Ndlovu
said police had informed him that a section of the
crowd at the venue was
becoming riotous and for security reasons the police
said they had to cancel
the show.
"The police told me that
there was a problem with a section of the
crowd so they had to cancel the
play for security reasons but the organisers
have understood that and they
have told me that that they will reschedule
the play because as government
we accept criticism as long as it is
constructive we do not block people
from expressing themselves," he said.
Overthrown becomes the third
theatre production to be blocked in
Bulawayo after police stopped the
premiere of The Good President in June
this year and Everyday Soldiers
produced by Mhlanga and Raisedon Baya
respectively .
The play
however is expected to go ahead this week on Saturday after
police
apologised to Ndlovu and said there was a communication breakdown
over the
matter.
But Mhlanga in his weekly e-mail communications said the
decision by
the police had left the minister embarrassed.
"The
police moved in at Amakhosi Theatre to close down the play
Overthrown by
Stanley Makuwe at 6.30 in the evening leaving the Minister of
Information
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu embarrassed. He arrived at 7.15pm to find that
his
audience and the artists that he had come to engage with had been
dispersed
by Officer Mabhunu of Mzilikazi Police station."
According to
Mhlanga, in his own words Mabhunu said: "Mhlanga I was
sent by my bosses
that I should come and tell you that the play must not
play."
Zim Independent
Kuda Chikwanda in Berlin, Germany
A UNITED Nations
(UN) representative in Germany has urged European
leaders to stop avoiding
President Robert Mugabe and engage him in dialogue
as this would guarantee
poverty eradication in Zimbabwe.
UN Millennium Campaign
representative in Germany Renée Ernst said the
current stance of piling
pressure on Mugabe was only serving to make more
Zimbabweans suffer while
the 83-year-old leader revelled in the luxury of
benefits accorded to him as
head of state.
"We have to talk to him, we can only solve problems
by talking to
leaders like Mugabe," Ernst said. "I believe in diplomacy. I
know that it is
the people who are suffering right now. Mugabe has his own
resources, he has
his pockets full and he will not starve but unfortunately
it is the people
who are starving right now."
Ernst was
speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the UN-organised
campaign
against poverty.
She encouraged Western leaders to engage to
reevaluate their position
on Zimbabwe.
Ernst said the global
community had reached the halfway mark in terms
of time required to attain
the UN's eight Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs).
"We should
spare no effort to achieve these goals. Time is running
out, we have reached
the halfway mark in terms of time but poverty has not
been halved. We should
evaluate our support to non-governmental
organisations (NGO's) which help
the people," she said.
The Berlin event was held at 100 different
locations across Germany as
over 90 countries worldwide commemorated the day
by mobilising people to
gather and speak out against poverty and
inequality.
Ernst said there was nothing the UN could do to force
the Mugabe
administration to meet set UN MDG targets.
"We
cannot enforce anything. Zimbabwe is a special case, it is a place
I would
almost equate with places engaged in war right now," Ernst said. "We
can try
and put pressure as the UN but I hope it's only a matter of time
before a
guy like him (Mugabe) stops his awful policies of abusing his
people. Surely
Zimbabwe is not doing its (MDG) work."
The global body set eight
millennium development goals to be reached
by 2015.
They are
the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; achieving
universal primary
education; promoting gender equality and empowerment of
women; reducing
child mortality; combating HIV and Aids, malaria and other
diseases;
ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global
partnership
for development.
Last year the Stand up, speak out campaign saw
23,5 million people
standing up and demanding an end to poverty and thus
setting a new world
record. It is held annually on October 16 and
17.
Zim Independent
Constantine Chimakure
THE Anglican Church's
Province of Central Africa has expelled the
bishop of Harare, Nolbert
Kunonga, and declared his post vacant after he
withdrew the diocese from the
province alleging rampant homosexuality in the
church.
In a
letter to the controversial Kunonga on Tuesday, the Dean of the
Province of
Central Africa and also bishop of Northern Zambia, Albert Chama,
said he
would soon appoint a vicar-general to act as the head of the church
in the
capital.
The province is made up of Anglican churches in Zambia,
Botswana,
Malawi and Zimbabwe.
Chama told Kunonga - a staunch
Zanu PF supporter - that his purported
withdrawal of the diocese from the
province was "unconstitutional and
un-canonical" as it was tantamount to
"altering the structure and the
essence" of the church.
"Consequently the heading of your letter stating 'formal withdrawal of
the
Diocese of Harare from the Province of Central Africa' is unacceptable
and
misleading," Chama wrote. "We, however, as the Dean of the Province of
Central Africa accept and acknowledge that you and some of your supporters
have by notice of your letter severed relationship with the Province of
Central Africa."
On September 21, Kunonga wrote to the former
Archbishop of Central
Africa, Bernard Malango, saying he was withdrawing the
Diocese of Harare
from the province.
"I declare that the See of
Harare is with immediate effect vacant and
in accordance with Canon 14 (1) I
shall be appointing a vicar-general to
hold office whilst the necessary
steps are taken for the holding of an
elective assembly to elect the next
bishop of the Diocese of Harare," Chama
told Kunonga.
He said
Kunonga should hand over the church's property to the
vicar-general to be
announced in due course.
The Province of Central Africa last week
filed an urgent High Court
application to compel Kunonga to surrender the
church's property and divest
himself of the rights of being a signatory to
the Diocese of Harare's bank
accounts and investments.
But
Kunonga in his answering affidavit said the matter should not be
heard in a
secular court, but must go through an ecclesiastical trial.
Meanwhile, the Anglican Council of Zimbabwe (ACZ) in pastoral letter
on
Tuesday denied that homosexuality was rife in the church as alleged by
Kunonga and the bishop of Manicaland Elson Jakazi.
"The
Province of Central Africa upholds Lambeth Conference 1998
Resolution 1.10
which rejects homosexual practice as incompatible with
scriptures and calls
upon the faithful to minister pastorally and
sensitively to all irrespective
of sexual orientation," reads the pastoral
letter signed by ACZ chairperson,
Bishop Godfrey Tawonezvi.
He said Kunonga and Jakazi's allegations
were grossly exaggerated and
baseless.
"Mudslinging is taking
place and hurtful comments are being said about
certain bishops," Tawonezvi
added.
However, the Province of Central Africa is yet to take
action against
Jakazi.
Kunonga's predicament was triggered by
his letter of September 21 to
Archbishop Malango withdrawing the Diocese of
Harare from the congregation
alleging that the church was failing to censure
some bishops involved in
homosexuality. Malango has since
retired.
Bishop Jakazi reportedly also threatened to withdraw the
diocese from
the province on the same grounds raised by
Kunonga.
"Our communion has been guided by nothing else than the
moral doctrine
of Christ, which was one based on the premise that we hold
primary the
fundamental canons of faith which are indeed in the sacred
scriptures,"
wrote Kunonga. "It is our fear and reverence of these that made
us to
seriously weigh our susceptibility when faced with a threat of
compromise
and breach of the said in the face of what our province was and
is facing
now, homosexuality."
Kunonga said homosexuality had
become an issue in the church, adding
that unlike what members of the Synod
and Episcopal bench wanted people to
believe, it was not a "matter of
desktop" contemplation, but a matter of
"faith and conscience".
"Knowing very well your own position against homosexuality, it is
frightening to us the level of advances this scourge has reached and it is
fast coming as you are retiring. This has urged us to pull out as a
diocese," Kunonga said.
He wrote that the diocese was worried
by the position taken by Bishop
Trevor Mwamba of Botswana regarding the
issue of homosexuality and its
damaging implications on the province.
Kunonga alleged that Mwamba had made
a number of public statements since
June 2006 sympathetic to homosexuality
and the Diocese of Harare had
"refused to be represented by him and will not
accept him as a
diocese".
Mwamba responded promptly to Mutasa's letter in his
capacity as a
bishop of the Province of Central Africa and a
lawyer.
He advised Mutasa that as far as the constitution and
canons of the
province were concerned all property in the province belonged
to the
Province of Central Africa.
Mwamba said a diocese
seeking to break away would alter the
combination of the Province of Central
Africa. He said alteration of the
province could only be possible under the
church's fundamental declarations.
Mwamba wrote that there would be
need for a proposed amendment, which
would have to be provisionally approved
by the provincial synod having been
okayed by the synod of each diocese in
the province and confirmed by the
provincial synod by a two-thirds majority
of those present.
The outcome would have to be endorsed by the
Archbishop of Canterbury
as not affecting the terms of the communion between
the Province of Central
Africa, the Church of England and the rest of the
Anglican Communion.
"This has not been the case with the Diocese of
Harare," Mwamba
averred. "The decision taken by the bishop of Harare is
tantamount to a
schism."
He said the next logical thing for
Kunonga to do was to resign from
the church.
On October 1, the
retired Bishop of Manicaland Sebastian Bakare wrote
to Chama saying the
issue of homosexuality raised by Kunonga and Jakazi
never arose in the
church.
"The fact that the issue of homosexuality has never been an
issue or a
topic of discussion in the congregations of the diocese makes one
assume
that it was a mere smokescreen for a hidden agenda, namely to form a
new
province together with the Diocese of Harare for reasons best known to
themselves," Bakare wrote.
Zim Independent
PORTLAND Holdings
Limited (PHL), a subsidiary of Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange listed Pretoria
Portland Cement (PPC), could shut down due to lack
of raw materials. The
company does not also have the foreign currency to
import spares for some of
its plant equipment.
The situation at PHL's worsened in June after
government ordered
businesses to reduce prices.
Government
pegged the price of a bag of cement at $170 000 at a time
when the actual
price was around $1,5 million.
Investigations by businessdigest
revealed that the company was
battling with lack of clinker, an important
raw material used in the
production of cement.
Scores of
workers quit last month after the company slashed their
wages to reduce
production costs.
The company cut the wages from between $6 million
and $7 million to
between $3 million and $4 million.
Colleen
Bawn Mine, the company's main supplier of clinker, is also
facing serious
viability problems.
The mine is understood to be exporting the
little clinker it is
producing at the moment.
No comment could
be obtained from the PHL managing director Trevor
Bernard. His secretary
said he was too busy to attend to journalists.
"I am sorry Mr
Bernard is in a meeting and he doesn't have time to
attend to journalists on
that issue," said the secretary before hanging up.
PHL workers
committee chairman, Saviors Mbedzi, confirmed that more
than a hundred
skilled workers quit last month over low salaries. He said
most of the
workers had been absorbed by construction companies in South
Africa which is
preparing for the 2010 World Cup. He said production at the
company has been
reduced drastically.
"After the salary cuts and with no sign that
the situation might
improve, scores of workers left workers for South Africa
to joined several
construction companies that are building stadiums and
other facilities in
preparation for the 2010 World Cup," Mbedzi said. -
Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Shakeman
Mugari
THE Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group (ZABG) has recommended
that criminal
charges be laid against group treasurer, Andy Hodges, who quit
last month
following the discovery of a questionable transaction that he
tried to push
through the bank for alleged personal gain.
Hodges resigned on September 24 after it was discovered that he was
allegedly using the bank systems to make margins on foreign currency
transactions between clients under the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)'s
twinning arrangement.
"The bank believes that criminal charges
should be laid against Hodges
because these are serious allegations of fraud
and parallel market
dealings," said a source in the bank.
The
RBZ is currently carrying out an investigation and is expected to
make a
decision anytime soon. businessdigest however understands that ZABG
has
since written to the central bank recommending criminal proceeding. In
the
letter to the central bank, ZABG, said there were valid grounds to
proceed
with criminal charges because the case involved both fraud and
parallel
market dealings.
It said the fraud arose from the fact that Hodges
had given the
clients varied foreign exchange rates in order to make a
profit from the
transaction. It said Hodges had betrayed the trust bestowed
in him by both
the bank and its clients.
It is alleged that
Hodges used a parallel market rate of US$1:$300 000
in the transaction
between a locally owned mining company and a small firm
which wanted the
funds to import agricultural equipment under government's
mechanisation
programme.
Internal investigations have since established that
Hodges, who had
negotiated the twinning arrangement, was going to make a
"profit" of $4
billion dollars out of the transaction.
The deal
was worth $70 billion. An amount of $66 billion was going to
be transferred
into the account of the mining company while the remainder
would go to
Hodges' account. Both accounts are held at ZABG.
Last week Hodges,
who had been with ZABG since its formation,
vehemently denied that he had
been forced to resign insisting he quit for
personal reasons. "I'm not at
liberty to reveal reasons for my resignation.
Just know that I resigned for
personal reasons, nothing more."
businessdigest can also reveal
that the decision to recommend criminal
charges was reached after further
investigations discovered that apart from
the $70 billion deal that
eventually forced him to resign, Hodges had made
an equally questionable
transaction in August.
The probe found that Hodges allegedly pushed
through a deal worth $75
billion dollars using a parallel market rate of
US$1:$250 000 in August.
That deal involved the sale of US$300 000 between
the same companies that
were part of the $70 billion deal.
The
twinning arrangement involves partnering exporting and importing
companies
for easy foreign currency management and distribution.
The twinning
arrangement can be used when a company needs to buy raw
materials, fuel and
payment of debts. All transactions under the twinning
arrangement should be
approved by the central bank and done at the official
exchange
rate.
"The other problem is that it would seem that both
transactions were
properly approved by the central bank," the source
said.
Although ZABG was not prejudiced, its bosses were concerned
that
Hodges, who ran a strategic division in the bank, was using his
position to
negotiate parallel deals that put the institution at
risk.
The bank is also concerned that Hodges had used its systems
to push
through a personal deal.
Zim Independent
Jesilyn
Dendere
THE recent price reviews announced by the National
Incomes and Prices
Commission (NIPC) are not enough to encourage
manufacturers to produce more
commodities to reduce the current shortages, a
local business organisation
has said.
The Harare Chamber of
Commerce, a member of the Zimbabwe National
Chamber of Commerce, said the
profit margins approved by NIPC were out of
sync with the inflation
figures.
Latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show
that
year-on-year inflation went up to 7892,1% for September .
"NIPC has caused shortage of goods in shops," said Oswell Binha,
chairman of
the Harare Chamber of Commerce.
Binha said the shortage of basic
commodities is likely to persist
unless prices are raised to viable
levels.
"We need to have policies that go hand-in-hand with the
inflation."
"For example, the margins that were given, are they
enough to kick
start business and how are they going to restore productivity
that has been
affected by the price controls? A margin that is viable should
be put in
place within a given timeframe."
Binha blamed the
current shortages on government's failure to
implement sound economic
policies that encourage production. He predicted
that price controls will
continue to have a devastating effect on the
economy and the supply
chain.
Binha said government was focusing on enforcement rather
than
consulting business before implementing policies.
"During
the recent price controls, literally all state resources were
deployed to
enforce these policies," said Binha.
"As an example, the monetary
policy statements have declared Zimbabwe's
runaway inflation as enemy number
one but there is no matching deployment of
combat resources and drastic
action to deal with this enemy." He said there
was nothing positive about
the NIPC.
Binha said there was an urgent need to create a business
environment
that enabled determination of prices by supply and demand
forces. On the
Indigenisation and Empowerment bill, Binha said although its
intentions were
noble the timing was wrong.
"Why does it have
to be done now when the country is on its knees?"
He said the Bill
was weak because it gave the impression that it seeks
distribute rather that
create wealth.
"It's more important to create wealth rather than
distributing the
little that is left. The Indigenisation Bill is also likely
to affect
activity on the stock exchange.
"It is possible that
by the time it is implemented, there may not be
anything on the shelves. The
government needs to invest in the education of
this Bill."
Although the Bill refers to formation of an Investment Trust it's
funding
and modalities still lacked clarity, Binha said.
"As an example, we
have been singing the Look East tune, inviting the
Chinese to invest in
Zimbabwe. How will you explain this Bill to them
without reinforcing the
negative country perception?"
Zim Independent
Ranganayi Makwata
IN a recent article in The
Herald, which on further reading turned out
to be an extract from the recent
monetary policy statement, the mining
sector was said to have eclipsed all
other sectors in terms of foreign
currency generation during the first eight
months of 2007. Of the total
export receipts for the period amounting to
US$1,4 billion, US$550,9
million, up from US$467,4 million achieved in the
same period last year,
came from mining. The figure could have been higher
had "errant" elements in
the sector stopped, or at least reduced the
quantities of minerals they
allegedly smuggled out of the country. Players
in the industry have always
denied this allegation. Instead they attribute
the slow export growth to
non-payment of foreign currency with respect to
gold deliveries dating back
to November last year by the RBZ and
interruption of production due to power
cuts among other operational
problems.
Internationally, metal prices in general, and gold and
platinum prices
in particular are unrelentingly setting new record highs.
The spot price of
gold rose as high as US$749,30 a troy ounce recently, its
highest since
January 1980. And analysts are forecasting it to breach
US$800/0z before the
end of the year. The price of platinum, a metal used
mainly in jewellery and
auto production, is also on a steep ascendancy
hitting a record US$1 409 per
our ounce on the back of increased demand from
China, Japan and India.
Interestingly, in typical scenario of one class of
investors benefiting from
another's woes, the spike in prices of metals is
largely due to the meltdown
of the US dollar as sub prime mortgage problems
which hit the US recently
look far from over. Firming international oil
prices, brought about by the
geopolitical tension in the Middle East also
have a fair share of influence
on metal prices.
Demand for gold
has strengthened further to an extent that central
banks such as that in
Argentina, which used to sell their gold stocks, are
now net buyers amid
fears of a recession in the US. Traders of commodity
futures are mainly
taking long positions in gold and platinum in
anticipation of further rises
in prices, while mining houses' thrust of
expanding production appear to
have been given new impetus by the firming
prices. Investors seem to have
engaged in an 'enjoy-it-while-it-lasts' mode
without giving thought to the
lesson learnt in the past, from, say, the
dotcom era or the sub prime
mortgage boom, that what goes up will eventually
have to come down, in the
process claiming a few casualties.
For a country known to have the
second largest platinum reserves in
the world after South Africa and an
array of exploitable mineral resources,
Zimbabwe was well placed to be among
the major beneficiaries of the
commodity price boom. The pity is that it
does not seem that the benefits
will accrue soon. Currently, the future of
mining houses in the country is
under an ominous pall of uncertainty, with
the recently passed Indigenous
Economic Empowerment Bill, yet to be assented
to by the president, further
fraying nerves in the sector. Most of these
companies have serious expansion
plans which will not be implemented because
they are unsure of their future
in Zimbabwe. Pessimism remains high despite
the calls by the governor of the
central bank for rational implementation of
the empowerment programme to
yield a win-win situation. Equally, his recent
generosity, culminating in
various incentives being availed to the sector,
though having been much
lauded, is not likely to do much in repairing the
damaged confidence.
Notwithstanding the uncertainties in the
industry, stock market
investors have recently shown increased interest in
resource counters. It is
not clear, however, whether the excitement was
ignited by firming
international prices, or the expectation and subsequent
announcement of
incentives by the central bank, or both. Metal shares
typically run ahead of
metal prices in a bull market because their earnings
leverage off it. What
has happened now is that since September 28 the mining
index has been racing
ahead of the industrial index in terms of point
levels, itself a first since
the 1967 base year for calculation of ZSE
indices.
While industrials lost a massive US$140 million of their
market
capitalisation between December 31 2006 and October 16, using the Old
Mutual
Implied rate for the respective dates of $2,401/US$ and $770,369/US$,
the
mining index, consisting of only five counters namely Bindura, Falgold,
Halogen, Hwange Colliery and RioZim, has amassed US$66 million over the same
period. It is important to stress at this point that the bigger chunk, if
not all of these gains were realised from mid September to
date.
What these gains mean is that investors who made a decision
to be
overweight in mining counters have made a real return (forget about
the
inflation measure, we are talking about US$) of 31% since the beginning
of
the year. This is a good return in any language regardless of which part
of
the world one is domiciled.
First on the podium among the
mining counters is gold producer Falgold
whose US$ market capitalisation
went up a whopping 490% to US$31,7 million
from a humble US$6,5 million.
Hwange Colliery came a surprising second,
gaining 1 771% to US$35,7 million
over the same period despite unconvincing
interim results to 30 June 2007.
These saw profit after tax being booked at
a negative $46,6 billion amid
concern of aged fleet, and cash flow
challenges. However, one would argue
that Hwange's challenges are not
peculiar but cut across the entire industry
with huge recapitalisation
requirements, unfortunately in the elusive hard
currency, being needed
urgently.
Recently, Lonrho is reported
to have acquired 60% of Celsys and 100%
of little known Millpal for a
whopping US$5,45 million, which would equate
to 5% of either Bindura or
RioZim, resource companies with more definable
assets. No wonder, economist
Stigler once said: "Our understanding of
economic life will be incomplete if
we do not systematically take account of
the cold winds of
ignorance."
Zim Independent
Shakeman
Mugari
THOMAS Muchera is a motor mechanic at a local garage in
town. His job
is to repair and service vehicles.
His salary has
always been far less than what he needs to get through
the
month.
To supplement his meagre wages, Muchero used to steal
hammers,
spanners and other tools from the workshop to sell.
Unfortunately he was not the only one who was using this "plan" to
survive
because eventually the cases of missing tools increased dramatically
until
the managers decided they had to do something.
Three months ago his
employers installed a security system to stop the
pilfering of tools thus
cutting Muchero off from his major source of income.
He had to make another
plan to survive.
It didn't take him long to realise that he could
make more money if he
stole the garage's clients. This form of thieving is
hard to detect because
it benefits the clients too. Who would not want a
good service for less?
Ask Muchero how much it costs to service a
vehicle at the garage and
you will get obscene figures punctuated with
allegations that the managers
there have a bad habit of making huge mark-ups
on spares like plugs and
filters. Then he will deliver the killer punch that
he is sure will scare
off every car owner: "My friend these people (his
employers) will charge you
for oil they have not changed and they will drain
your fuel to sell on the
black market." Muchero will deliver this message
with a straight face.
Luckily he has the solution to the problem.
"Instead of bringing your
car here to be charged an arm and a leg why don't
you buy the spares
somewhere in town and I will do the servicing for half
the price. I will
come to your home."
This deal is negotiated
right on the customer counter of the garage.
It's a deal mutually beneficial
to both parties but it's done to the
detriment of the company.
Muchero represents the thousands of Zimbabwean workers who have
resorted to
eking out a living through such unorthodox means.
To them the
office has been transformed into a place where they do
their deals using
company resources.
It is difficult to imagine that there is a
worker in Zimbabwe who is
not engaged in some sinister activity or other to
survive.
Politicians believe that Zimbabweans are resilient and
innovative. The
truth is that most Zimbabweans have neither of those
attributes in the true
sense of the words. They are surviving on
thieving.
Human resources expert Memory Nguwi believes that as the
economic
crisis worsens, most workers are spending less and less time on the
core
business of their companies. He estimates that on average, workers are
spending 70% of their time on personal deals in order to supplement their
incomes.
"Most workers are stealing time from their companies,"
Nguwi says.
"Half the time they are using company phones to do their own
deals.
Sometimes they are chasing their personal debts using company
vehicles.
"The result is that productivity suffers but at the end
of the month
the same workers expect a full salary. At times they are
pushing for salary
increases."
People are running their own
businesses from their employer's offices,
said Nguwi.
There are
others more daring in their survival plans.
Take for example,
Nathan Marombe, who is employed as a barman in
Budiriro where he earns $7
million a month. This amount is obviously not
enough to feed Marombe's
family of five let alone sustain his long list of
girlfriends.
It's difficult to understand why Marombe continues to hang in there
unless
you have some insights into his own plan. On busy nights Marombe will
stock
part of the fridge with his own beers for sale to patrons. His trick
is to
ensure that his beers are the coldest at any time. By the time the bar
owner
comes for cash collection in the morning Marombe would have done his
maths
and made off with huge earnings from his deal. The rentals, rates and
power
bills are paid for by the bar owner who also has to hand a pay cheque
to
Marombe every month.
"This guy doesn't pay me well so I have
decided to run my own little
bar from his bar," said Marombe who claims to
have been doing this for six
months now.
On bad days he makes a
profit of $4 million but when the bar is packed
like on Fridays he makes
about $8 million. "It varies from day to day but it's
enough to get me
by."
Last week he did not have the money to buy his own liquor so
he sold
four crates belonging to the bar owner. He then used the proceeds to
replace
the stock but pocketed the profits.
"When the owner
came I told him that volumes were not moving because
it was almost
mid-month. He believed it," Marombe said proudly.
These survival
plans are found in almost every sector of the economy.
Workers in the retail
sector take advantage of the controlled prices to
hoard commodities to sell
on the parallel market.
The allocation in most supermarkets is
normally one loaf per person
but with a good "tip" to the till operator the
limit can be pushed to as
much as a dozen loaves.
Others are
plainly corrupt. A good deal with a till operator and
receipt checker can
see a customer leaving the shop with some unpaid goods.
It sounds like an
old trick too common to fall for but it does happen.
"It's simple.
If you know you are going to buy groceries worth $30
million all you have to
do is to pay the till operator and guard $5 million.
At the till you will
pay $15 million. In the end you would have paid $20
million for groceries
worthy $30 million," a till operator told this
reporter over a drink. Things
seem to going on well for him. "I used to
really struggle when I started
working but now I am wise."
The word "wise" means tricking the
company that gave him his first job
when he came from Zhombe, his rural
home, in 2003.
Those in the public sector also make plans. Donald
Murisi's net
salary, at least until the recent review, was 10 times short of
the income
he needs to feed his family of four.
He required $22
million to get through the month but his net salary as
a clerk at the
Companies Registry Office was about $3 million.
"My salary is too
little so I have to make a plan," Murisi said. When
Murisi says he will make
a plan he is not talking about the obvious project
of rearing chickens to
supplement his meagre earnings. No. His plan is at
his workplace. It
includes using his government offices to get clients who
want to register
companies. He will refer the potential clients to his
partners who operate a
company registration firm in town for a share of the
profits. Sometimes he
"fast-tracks" applications for company registration
for a fee. When things
are really bad, Murisi can be paid to "misplace"
files by people whose
companies are under investigation from the police or
media.
Murisi's plan is made possible by the use of company offices, faxes,
computers and phones. Technically speaking that amounts to stealing
government resources.
This practice is rampant in most
government departments and it hinges
on the self-justification by the
workers that if the government does not pay
them enough they will use its
resources to make a living.
Tariro Varidza from the passport office
looks like an innocent civil
servant struggling to make a living until you
ask her about the process of
getting a passport.
She will tell
the person how an application can take as long as two
years to go through.
She will then offer her own system which is more
efficient and faster but
not necessarily transparent. That also comes with a
fee of
course.
This is how Zimbabweans everywhere get by. And it is a sad
consequence
of a mismanaged economy.
Zim Independent
Pindai Dube
MOST companies in Bulawayo have
been forced to either retrench workers
or scale down operations because of
the crippling water shortage in the
city.
A recent survey by
the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA), a
government investment body,
revealed that Bulawayo companies are operating
below 40% of their capacity
because of the water crisis.
The survey found that although the
city was losing investment
opportunities because of the other economic
problems water shortages were
the main reason why investors continue to shun
the city as an investment
destination.
Zimbabwe National
Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) national vice president,
Obert Sibanda, said the
situation in the city was now desperate as many
companies were now
considering relocating to other areas.
"Most companies, especially
those in the manufacturing and
construction sectors, are scaling down
operations due to water shortages
while some have retrenched their workers,"
said Sibanda who is also the
chief executive officer of Reliance Holdings, a
construction company based
in Bulawayo. "The situation is deteriorating and
there is no solution in
sight."
Bulawayo, the hub of economic
activity in the southern half of the
country, has battled with perennial
water problems for more than two
decades. The Matabeleland Zambezi Water
Project (MZWP) which the business
community had pinned their hopes on has
failed to take off due to lack of
funding.
Analysts say judging
by the progress so far, it is highly unlikely
that the project will be
completed any time soon.
A few weeks ago a Chinese company, Chinese
International Water
Electrical (CIWE), contracted by the government to
construct the
Gwayi-Shangani Dam pulled out after the government reneged on
contractual
agreements.
Gwayi-Shangani Dam is the main
component of the MZWP project which
involves the construction of a 450km
pipeline to bring water to Bulawayo.
The project was initially proposed as
far back as 1912.
"The water crisis in Bulawayo will continue for
as long as government
does not give enough funding. Companies will continue
to suffer and very
soon many people will lose their jobs," said a senior
official in the
Bulawayo city council.
"Water shortage is one
of the reasons why Bulawayo is not developing
at the moment. Local investors
continue to shun the city because of the
water shortages."
CIWE
also pulled out of a contract to lay a 32km pipeline linking
Mtshabezi Dam
to Umzingwane Dam, a short-term solution to the biting water
crisis.
National Blankets managing director, Jeremy Musgrave,
said the water
shortages have crippled their operations forcing the company
to reduce its
working hours. This means less productivity.
"The
city's water situation has crippled our operations and sometimes
we reduce
the number of our working hours forcing our workers to go home
because there
will be no work for them to do" said Musgrave.
Delta Corporation
corporate affairs manager, George Mutendadzamera,
said the critical water
shortages in Bulawayo had forced the company to
sometimes stop
production.
"Municipal water is not available in Bulawayo to make
some of our
products like coke. We can't use borehole water to make coke
hence we are on
several occasions forced to stop production because of lack
of water," said
Mutendadzamera.
A local consortium of private
companies in the city recently made an
ambitious proposal to help the
industrial areas that are currently receiving
water three times a week.
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industry (CZI) board
member and Matabeleland
Chamber of Industry (MCI) chairman, Dumisani Sibanda
said companies were
also having weekly meetings with the Bulawayo City
Council to map the way
forward regarding the water shortages in a bid to
avert collapse of some
companies.
"Most companies affected by the water shortages in
Bulawayo have come
together and are meeting the city council officials every
week to map the
way forward regarding water shortages so that they can keep
production
going," said Sibanda. Bulawayo has five supply dams but three of
them have
already been decommissioned because of low water
levels.
The city consumes 150 000 cubic metres of water per day but
according
to the city council only 69 000 cubic metres are currently being
pumped per
day. Boreholes which have been providing the city's water needs
have dried
up. While huge companies are scaling down, the crisis has given
birth to a
new form of businesses. Enterprising youths are now selling water
to
desperate resident. Ten litres of water cost about $50 000. While this
might
have created a source of income for some desperate people, the real
drivers
of the economy, which is the productive sector, continues to take a
battering from the crisis.
Analysts say the only way out of the
crisis is for government to
complete the Zambezi water project. The problem
though is that the cost of
the project has since ballooned to US$600 million
- a figure way beyond
government's means.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
FIGUES released by the Central Statistical Office
(CSO) this week show
that the crackdown on prices has failed to curb
inflation as government had
anticipated. The numbers show that inflation has
started galloping again
with the year-on-year rate for September reaching a
new all time high of 7
892,1% gaining 1 389,3 percentage points on the
August rate of 6 592,8%.
The month-on-month inflation rate was
38,7% gaining 26,9 percentage
points from the August rate of
11,8%.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation stood at 7 759%
down 149,1
percentage points from 7 908,1% recorded in August. Non-food
inflation was
at 8 096,7% which is 1 112,8 percentage points up from 5
983,9%.
"Year-on-year food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation
stood at 7
759%, 149 percentage points down from the August 2007 figure of 7
908,1%,
while non-food inflation was 8 096,7% from the August figure of
5,983.9
percent," the CSO said. "The month-on-month rate of inflation rose
by 38%,
triggered by new economic measures which were put in place to
mitigate
against the widespread food shortages which had crippled the
country," said
the CSO.
It said the September Food Poverty Line
for a family of five stood at
$7,5 million, up 65% on a monthly basis and 18
446,6% on an annual basis
while Total Consumption Line for an average of
five persons stood at $22,6
million during the same month.
The
country's inflation rate opened the year at 1 593,6% before
increasing to 1
729,9%, 2 200,2% and 3 713,9% respectively in February,
March and
April.
The figure rose further to 4 530%, 7251,1% and 7 634,8% in
May, June
and July before declining for the second time since March 2005 to
6 592,8%
in August.
Analysts say the trend is likely to
continue on the back of excessive
money printing and food
shortages.
"Most commodities are found on the black market where
they are sold at
exorbitant prices. It does not need an expert to see that
the inflation rate
is actually higher if you use the black market prices at
which most people
are getting the commodities," said an economist with a
local commercial
bank.
Zim Independent
By Allister
Sparks
IT is with some reluctance that I take issue with my
friend and fellow
journalist Trevor Ncube on a matter concerning Zimbabwe,
of which he is a
deeply concerned citizen. But I cannot let his argument,
set out in an
article in his own newspapers, the Mail & Guardian and the
Zimbabwe
Independent, go unchallenged that personal economic sanctions
Western
countries have imposed on key members of the Mugabe administration
have
contributed to the mess in Zimbabwe.
The essence of
Ncube's argument is that these sanctions have not only
achieved nothing but
have been counter-productive. Firstly, because they
have estranged those
countries diplomatically from the Zimbabwean government
and so diminished
their ability to influence it; and secondly, because they
have enabled
President Robert Mugabe to blame the sanctions, rather than his
own
policies, for Zimbabwe's catastrophic decline.
Ncube says
opposition and civic society groups in Zimbabwe have found
it difficult to
rebut that line of argument by Mugabe.
Moreover, "Many on the
African continent regard the sanctions as a
white racist response to land
reform in Zimbabwe."
Ncube suggests this is why bodies such as the
Southern African
Development Community (Sadc) and the African Union (AU)
have found it
difficult to criticise Mugabe and his policies publicly,
"because they fear
being seen as supporting the Western sanctions, that are
undeniably
affecting ordinary people, or as puppets of the
West".
I find this line of argument, to blame Western sanctions for
the
African countries' complicit silence in the face of Mugabe's multiple
crimes
against humanity, disingenuous.
It may well be, as Ncube
suggests, that these African leaders are
afraid to be seen criticising one
of their own who has become a tyrant. But
who is at fault here; the Western
leaders who are denouncing the tyrant or
the African leaders who are too
scared to raise their voices?
Does ethnic solidarity require
tolerance of tyranny because they are
your people doing the bad things? Ask
that of Beyers Naude or Braam Fischer
or the thousands of other white South
Africans who stood up against
apartheid.
There is a deep and
ongoing problem here that has been damaging Africa
since the earliest days
of independence, and finding pathetic excuses and
scapegoats will not
rectify it. African leaders must summon the courage to
challenge the
delinquent leaders among them. Until they do, Africa as a
whole will not
acquire the respect it deserves in the international
community.
Mugabe is not the only African leader to benefit from this kind of
racial
protectionism. The most notorious was of course Idi Amin, the
"Butcher of
Uganda," who ruled over that hapless land for eight years in the
1970s,
during which he ran a regime characterised by monstrous human rights
abuses.
Never once was he criticised by his fellow African
leaders, who not
only tolerated his atrocities but allowed him to host a
summit meeting of
the Organisation of African Unity in 1975 and become head
of the OAU -
resulting in the travesty of Amin's Uganda being appointed to
the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Amin was
eventually toppled only because he tried to annex a piece of
neighbouring
Tanzania, causing President Julius Nyerere to send in his army
and overthrow
him. Referring to the Amin phenomenon after his retirement,
Nyerere made the
observation that Africa's greatest single weakness was its
failure to
confront such tyrants among its own ranks.
Sadly his reprimand has
gone unheeded.
There was the thuggish Sani Abacha, who ruled over
Nigeria for 13
years from 1985. Not only did Abacha loot his country of some
US$4 billion,
he had hundreds of political opponents executed and
imprisoned. His
atrocities reached a climax with the execution of the Ogoni
activist and
poet, Ken Saro-Wiwa, which resulted in Nigeria being suspended
from the
Commonwealth.
President Nelson Mandela, to his credit,
played a role in bringing
about that suspension with a powerful denunciation
of Abacha at the
Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in Auckland - but
later I was to
hear Deputy President Thabo Mbeki offer a veiled defence of
the tyrant in an
address in Johannesburg.
There were others,
too - Mobutu Sese Seko, the kleptocratic ruler of
the Democratic Republic of
Congo (which he called Zaire) for 32 years,
Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who ruled
and plundered the Central African Republic
from 1966 to 1974.
None was ever criticised by his fellow African leaders. As Vaclav
Havel once
said, he had encountered two types of people during his long
years as a
fighter for human rights, a prisoner and eventually Czech
president. There
were "those with the soul of a collaborationist and those
who were
comfortable denying authority."
By their silence, Africa's leaders
have made themselves collaborators
with their continent's tyrants. To blame
that silence, that timidity, on
Western sanctions is a shameful
cop-out.
Ncube contends that Western policies of sanctions,
criticism and
isolation have not achieved anything, and that may be so. But
I refuse to
accept that a political leader who has been responsible for the
murder of at
least 20 000 political opponents in the 1980s, who continues to
beat up,
imprison and even kill anyone who dares oppose him, who has brought
his
country down from glowing promise to dire poverty in a handful of years,
destroyed the principle of property rights so as to shatter its economy and
plunge it into the world's worst inflation rate, who has driven a quarter of
his population into economic exile and bulldozed hundreds of thousands of
its poorest urban dwellers into oblivion with his Operation Murambatsvina,
should get away without a word or gesture of criticism from any
quarter.
Tyranny cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. And if the
African
leaders won't challenge it, someone else must.
Nor do I
accept that there was nothing more effective African leaders
could have done
about Mugabe other than "quiet diplomacy". Ncube says he
doesn't think there
is any discerning observer who believes South Africa
supports Mugabe's
policies. Maybe not. But Mugabe has used Africa's silence,
and especially
Mbeki's, in a massive propaganda campaign to tell his own
people that the
whole of Africa is on his side in his heroic struggle
against the
imperialist West - and that is what has saved him so far.
Had
Africa, and especially the frontline states of Sadc, raised their
voices in
unison to tell him publicly that what he was doing was
unacceptable; I doubt
he would have survived it.
At the very least, they could have
warned Mugabe last March, when he
began his latest campaign of beating up
opposition supporters and throwing
them in jail, that if he didn't stop such
an obvious attempt to cripple the
opposition, they would not validate his
coming election or recognise his new
government. That he would then be
heading an illegitimate regime in their
eyes.
Don't tell me
that wouldn't have had a salutary effect on him.
But they lacked
the courage even for that.
* Sparks is a veteran SA-based
journalist.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
FARMERS have continued to
challenge the controversial Land Acquisition
Act seeking to make government
comply with its own laws concerning the right
to seek recourse to the courts
and its obligation to pay fair and timely
compensation for the improvements
on acquired properties. They are also
insisting that the government observes
constitutional provisions barring
racial discrimination.
The
farmers - who have challenged the government in both local and
international
courts - said in all their challenges they have raised the
three issues
which have most marred the land reform programme.
John Worswick,
chairman of Justice for Agriculture (JAG), a militant
wing of white
commercial farmers who lost their land, said the farmers are
demanding the
return of the rule of law, property rights and timely
compensation in terms
of damages and improvements.
JAG has filed hundreds of court
challenges against the government, in
some cases winning, but the state
ignored the judgments.
"We have challenged government in all local
courts demanding a return
to the rule of law and reinstatement of property
rights so that we can go
back to our farms without interference," Worswick
said.
"We are demanding compensation in terms of damages to the
farms, loss
of profit during the time when we were disturbed from
production,
deprivation of our homes and sources of income. We want
government to pay
for relocation costs of both the farmers and their
workers."
He said there should be a meaningful resettlement
programme driven by
the need for land without politicisation.
"A meaningful land reform that empowers people with title is necessary
for
both commercial and communal farming."
Worswick said the farmers
were geared to take government to
international courts.
"We are
already at the Sadc Tribunal with one case," he said. "We
would soon be
taking other cases to the African Union before proceeding to
the
International Court in Rome and in The Hague."
Worswick said the
violations the farmers were raising were exactly the
same as those raised by
the Dutch nationals in their case at the
International Centre for the
Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in
Washington in 2005. The farmers
are demanding that government uphold
Bilateral Investment Promotion and
Protection Agreements (Bippas). Under the
agreement, government had promised
to pay full compensation to Dutch
nationals in the event of a dispute
arising out of an investment in
Zimbabwe.
Ben Freeth - who has
challenged government's land acquisition
programme from the magistrates
courts to the High Court, Supreme Court and
is now in the process of taking
his case to the Sadc Tribunal - said the
acquisition violated the
Constitution of Zimbabwe and many other regional
and international charters
and protocols which Zimbabwe ratified.
"We are seeking a
declaration that the failure by the government to
comply with its own laws
concerning the obligation to promptly and without
unreasonable delay pay
compensation for the improvements on applicants'
property is a violation of
the Sadc Treaty principles, terms, conditions and
objectives," Freeth said
in court papers submitted to the Tribunal. "The
denial of compensation and
timing of payment for improvements is
demonstrably unfair, irrational,
manifestly unreasonable and offends Article
4 of the Sadc
Treaty."
He said the farmers are also seeking to interdict
government from
compulsorily acquiring farms without recourse to the due
process of law as
promulgated in Constitutional Amendment 17, a development
directly at
variance with the principles, terms, conditions and objectives
of the Sadc
Treaty.
Freeth said the amendment removed the
rights of the aggrieved to equal
treatment before the law; the right to a
fair hearing before an independent
court or tribunal; the right not to be
discriminated against because of race
or place of origin; the right to
protection of property; and the right to
receive prompt, fair and adequate
compensation concerning an expropriation
of property by the
state.
"The provisions of Section 16(9b) of the Constitution in
terms of
which it is specifically enacted that nothing in Section 16 of the
Constitution of Zimbabwe shall affect or derogate from any obligation
assumed by the state in terms of any convention, treaty or agreement acceded
to, concluded or executed by or under the authority of the President with
one or more foreign states or governments or international
organisations."
Freeth said he was seeking a "declarator" that in
its effect and
implementation, the identification of white farmers only is
racially
discriminatory and therefore invalid.
He said this
contention was based on the facts that from the year
2000, the process of
acquiring land for resettlement purposes by the
government was directed
solely at so-called white persons, regardless of any
other factors such as
their proper use of the land, their contribution to
the national economy,
their citizenship, their length of residence in
Zimbabwe or any factor other
than the colour of their skin.
The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU)
says it would continue to engage
the government despite loss of court
cases.
CFU vice president Deon Theron said at the weekend that the
CFU would
continue negotiations with the government on behalf of its
members.
"As CFU we will encourage our members that we keep on
engaging with
the government and look for ways in which we can put these
cases to
finality," said Theron.
"We don't want to get tied up
in individual cases but we want to find
ways of breaking the impasse and
make sure that we reach a compromise with
government."
The last
remaining white farmers now face an uncertain future after
Chegutu
magistrate Tinashe Ndokera last week ruled that those still on
targeted
farms after a September 30 deadline to vacate the properties were
in breach
of the law.
Any white farmer still on his land would be deemed to
be trespassing
on state property, resulting in a number of farmers being
taken to court
last week charged with defying the government order to vacate
their
properties. The CFU has over the years tried to engage the government
over
the takeover of farms without success.
The government has
since the beginning of the year given conflicting
signals on the fate of
remaining white farmers, with some officials saying
they would be allowed to
stay and others saying they would be evicted.
Nonetheless,
evictions have continued sporadically.
This has often led to
contradictory statements from Vice-President
Joseph Msika and Lands and Land
Reform Minister Didymus Mutasa, with the
latter insisting that no white
farmers would be allowed on the land after
December 31.
Msika
has without success told Mutasa to stop new farm seizures,
arguing that
chasing away the few white farmers left in the country was not
helpful to
the agriculture sector or food security and was no longer in sync
with the
popular mood in the ruling Zanu PF.
Zim Independent
By
Innocent Gonese
THE withdrawal of criminal charges against all
but one of the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) members and workers who
were arrested on
trumped-up charges during the months of March and April has
clearly exposed
the Zanu PF government for what it is - a cruel, heartless
and tyrannical
regime.
The arrests were carried out in a blaze
of publicity and the detainees
branded as terrorists. Graphic details were
given of the crimes allegedly
committed by the "terrorists" including the
petrol-bombing of police
stations, a Zanu PF office, training in banditry,
sabotage and terrorism at
the MDC offices and in South Africa and attempted
murder.
The public media went into a frenzy in condemning the MDC
and accusing
it of causing mayhem and a reign of terror and yet not a single
person had
been convicted of any of the allegations levelled against
them.
Among the MDC officials arrested were Morgan Komichi, the
deputy
organising secretary and a member of the standing committees, Ian
Makone,
the secretary for elections, Paul Madzore, the MP for Glen View and
organising secretary for Harare province, and staff members Dennis Murira,
Luke Tamborinyoka, Kudakwashe
Matibiri, Brighton Matimba and
Zebediah Juaba.
All the arrested people were subjected to severe
assaults and torture
by police officers calculated to induce
confessions.
In particular, Komichi, Makone, Mabika and Katsande
went through
harrowing experiences. It is simply through the grace of God
that these
people are still alive. They were all remanded in custody when it
was
evident that the police had grossly violated their rights. They were
unwilling guests at our overcrowded, filthy and uninhabitable prisons which
are straight out of hell.
What is most tragic about all this is
that the Zanu PF regime knew all
along that the detainees had no case to
answer. The purpose of the arrests
was simply to justify the crackdown on a
legitimate political opposition
whose only crime was to take a stand against
dictatorship, tyranny and
oppression. The state case hinged upon a
fictitious person called Peter
Chidodana, whom it failed to produce after
being ordered to do so by the
court.
The police, not satisfied
with their unlawful and high handed methods
against the arrested persons,
went on to arrest the legal practitioners
representing the accused persons
namely Alec Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni,
on spurious charges to frustrate
the efforts of the detainees to regain
their freedom. The criminal charges
against the lawyers were without
substance and the state was simply abusing
the legal process to achieve its
objectives of frustrating the accused
persons.
The state deliberately violated the rights of the accused
from the
outset, denying them legal representation, access to food and
medical
treatment and disobeying court orders. This is unfortunately not the
first
time that it has happened but is part of a grand scheme to browbeat
the
people of Zimbabwe into submission. The Cain Nkala murder case is
instructive when the state case crumbled like a deck of cards when it
emerged that the video evidence which was displayed on ZTV amidst much
fanfare was in fact wrongfully and unlawfully obtained.
The MDC
activists have lost several months of their lives. They were
deprived of
their freedom. They were subjected to savage and inhuman
treatment. Their
families were subjected to untold anguish and suffering.
But the regime knew
all along that they were not guilty of any wrongdoing.
The charges against
them have been withdrawn before plea and the state may
proceed against them
by way of summons. But we know that this will not
happen because the state
does not have an iota of evidence against them.
The Zanu PF
government has simply done this because it thinks that it
will get away with
it. While the government press devoted acres of space in
its newspapers and
hours of prime television time on ZTV to cover the
arrests and court
appearances of the MDC members, when it comes to the
dropping of the charges
there is deafening silence from the state media.
No screaming
headlines this time about the state case which is now as
dead as a dodo. We
challenge the state media to give equal coverage to the
withdrawal of the
charges which virtually amounts to an acquittal.
The Zanu PF regime
lied to Sadc in Dar es Salaam, they lied to
parliament and they lied to the
people of Zimbabwe that the MDC harboured
terrorists.
Now that
the cases have died a natural death, the only act of
terrorism which turns
out to have taken place was the brutal assault,
illegal detention and the
torture of MDC members who spent months in prison
for no good
reason.
The MDC condemns the actions of the police and state
agencies
responsible for the abuse of innocent citizens to achieve selfish
political
gains. Apart from the $4 trillion that our members are demanding
in damages
from the state, we demand the immediate investigation of the
heinous acts of
torture against the detainees and the consequent prosecution
of individual
police officers and state security agents involved in the
same.
The culture of impunity in our state institutions must come
to an end.
Zimbabwe must uphold the rule of law and not just pay lip service
to the
ideals of the liberation struggle. We believe that the time has come
to put
a stop to this madness. We call upon the regime to accept that
fundamental
human rights and freedoms are universal and inviolable. The
regime must
ratify the United Nations Convention against
Torture.
Legal proceedings for damages against the Minister of Home
Affairs and
the responsible officers have been commenced and the law will
have to take
its
course.
* Innocent Gonese is MDC
secretary for justice, legal and
parliamentary affairs.
Zim Independent
By
Obert Gutu
THE Southern African Development Community (Sadc)
Parliamentary Forum
is an organ that was formed by member states. It has its
own constitution
that spells out its basic structures and
composition.
The mission statement of the Sadc Parliamentary Forum
is to bring
about convergence of economic, political and social values in
Sadc and thus
help create an appropriate environment for deeper regional
cooperation and
integration through popular participation.
The
main purpose of the forum therefore is to strengthen the
implementation
capacity of Sadc by involving the representatives of the
peoples. The forum
is a regional parliamentary structure for capacity
building within
Sadc.
This emanates from the underlining Sadc notion of maintaining
a stable
and peaceful atmosphere within the whole region. This can only be
done
through regular consultations and collective engagement to manage
regional
conflicts as and when they arise.
The formation of the
Forum is thus a milestone development towards
regional parliamentary
integration. The noble idea is also to foster a
culture of parliamentary
democracy within the region.
However, the main problem with Sadc,
as is indeed the main problem
with the African Union itself, is that there
are numerous high-sounding
notions and protocols on paper whose practical
implementation leaves a lot
to be desired.
As Africans, we are
always good at "workshopping" and attending
numerous summits as well as
drafting numerous protocols. When it comes to
the implementation of these
protocols, as Africans, we have dismally failed
to walk the
talk.
Within Sadc are found some of the world's most intolerant and
undemocratic regimes. These are regimes where genuine parliamentary
democracy is not practised or observed. These regimes consider parliament as
a mere rubberstamping body; playing to the whims and fantasies of an
all-powerful executive.
All member states of Sadc have however
joined the Sadc Parliamentary
Forum which sets out to:
*
promote respect for the rule of law and individual rights and
freedoms,
including the promotion and development of cooperation in the
economic field
in the Sadc region based on the principle of equity and
mutual
benefit;
* promote peace, democracy, security and stability on the
basis of
collective responsibility and support the development of permanent
conflict
resolution mechanisms in the Sadc sub-region and strengthen
regional
solidarity and building a sense of common destiny among the peoples
of Sadc;
and
* promote dialogue and cooperation among member
states on
socio-economic development issues to enhance economic
welfare.
I will be the first person to admit that the goals of the
Forum are
quite visionary and altruistic. My humble view, however, is that
Sadc is
nothing but a glorified talkshop. Sadc leaders are notorious for
embracing
solidarity among themselves with very little or no regard for the
interests
of the majority of their subjects.
To Sadc leaders,
genuine parliamentary democracy and regional economic
integration are
deliberately subordinated to the selfish political interests
of the rulers.
Sadc leaders are very quick to close ranks as soon as a
fellow leader is
called upon to account for his or her acts of misrule. They
are quick to cry
foul and complain that their "sovereignty" is under attack
from Western
imperialists. What hogwash!
Sadc leaders have to wake up and smell
the coffee! They have to
embrace genuine political and regional economic
integration if we are to
compete with similar regional bodies in various
parts of the world.
Sadc leaders should address genuine issues such
as:
* the extreme xenophobia with which non-South Africans,
particularly
Zimbabweans, are generally treated when they visit other Sadc
countries such
as South Africa and Botswana. For instance, Zimbabweans are
routinely
detained in inhuman holding facilitates such as Lindela, from
where they are
deported in humiliating and degrading circumstances. Surely,
this type of
treatment is hardly in keeping with the letter and spirit of
the Sadc
protocol;
* member countries within Sadc often engage
in what one may call
backbiting and selfish policies. For example, South
African businesspeople
have literally taken up all the lucrative business
deals in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo leaving out Zimbabwe which
bore the brunt of holding
apiece the Kabila regime.
My argument
is that within Sadc, there is a general lack of goodwill
and mutual trust.
Our leaders say one thing in public, amid pomp and
ceremony, but they
proceed to do exactly the opposite!
Little wonder, therefore, that
the Sadc region remains a hotbed of
political and socio-economic strife in
countries such as Zimbabwe, the DRC
and to some extent
Swaziland.
Sadc leaders are expected to go beyond the mere
formation of the
parliamentary forum. What Sadc needs is real and effective
regional
parliamentary integration.
But first and foremost, the
Sadc region and indeed Africa as whole as
represented by the African Union
must rid itself of dictatorial and
autocratic governance. One cannot talk of
parliamentary democracy on a
regional scale when that has not yet been
established on a national level.
Can the government please explain
why, so far, it has refused to
sanction the visits by two teams of
legislators from the EU-ACP
Parliamentary Forum as well as from the
Pan-African Parliament?
Poverty and human suffering continue to
plague the Sadc region and
indeed the whole of sub-Saharan Africa mainly
because of poor governance.
Sadc leaders and indeed all African leaders
should be reminded that they can
never achieve regional political and
socio-economic stability in the face of
rampant corruption, human rights
abuses, political intolerance and mass
poverty.
Africans should
stand up and refuse to be misgoverned forever. Africa
should refuse to be
poor.
* Obert Gutu is a lawyer based in Harare. He can be contacted
on
gutulaw@mweb.co.zw
Zim Independent
MuckRaker
ARE things getting so desperate that the state media is
now describing
children as "buyers and exhibitors" at the just-ended
Zimbabwe International
Travel Expo?
A front-page picture in
Monday's Herald purported to show "buyers and
exhibitors winding up
business" at the Travel Expo on Sunday. The "buyers
and exhibitors" in this
case appeared to be four children.
Couldn't the photographer have
found a few more people somewhere?
Still with tourism, we were
fascinated to see a Herald report saying
Zimbabwe was trying to "lure" a
number of airlines into operating routes to
Harare. Don't we recall the
paper's cartoonist Innocent Mpofu celebrating
British Airways' departure
because it left Air Zimbabwe as the sole operator
on the Harare-London
route?
Just a little too quick off the mark, it would
seem.
Organisers of the Big Five concert on Saturday evening got
their money's
worth by inviting Botswana pretender Vee to
perform.
The tiny performer's dancers lived up to the feral
reputation of the
big five by getting into "must" on stage. Muckraker is
reliably informed
that foreign buyers trooped out of the Conference Centre
auditorium after
the group's antics. That was enough game viewing for one
evening!
We see Herald columnist Reason Wafawarova is now
pursuing his
sponsored war against the MDC from a yahoo.co.uk address. Does
this mean he
is no longer hiding in Australia?
Whatever the
case, he has the cheek to call Morgan Tsvangirai a
"semi-illiterate (sic)
trade unionist-turned politician" and anyone who
follows him "quiet (sic)
naïve".
Wherever in the comfortable West Wafawarova has decided to
settle, it
is obviously in a glass house from where he thinks he can safely
throw
stones. We just can't understand how such a super-patriot would want
to
remain in self-imposed exile when there is a revolution to be fought back
home!
It is interesting to see how the state has been taking
advantage of
the current inter-party talks to head off investigations into
its human
rights record, but uses its control of the public media to hammer
the
opposition with the help of people like Wafawarova who won't live
here.
Jabulani Sibanda has been conducting a series of
demonstrations by war
veterans in support of President Mugabe's candidacy in
next year's
presidential poll. This has raised the ire of the Zapu old guard
in Bulawayo
who see him as trespassing on their turf.
The last
time they looked he was no longer a member of the party
having got into a
spot of bother in 2004 and now suddenly he is holding
aloft a banner,
blessed we are told by the president himself, proclaiming
the need for a
revolutionary spirit. All very curious.
But Muckraker's interest is
more to do with policy than turf wars.
What exactly is it that Sibanda
thinks Mugabe has to offer the nation with
another term? What will he
achieve that he has not been able to achieve to
date?
Will he
stabilise prices; will he improve productivity on the land;
will he secure
foreign investment and enhance GDP; will he create jobs; will
he win back
donor support; will he run a successful economy?
If Mugabe hasn't
been able to do any of these things since he was last
"elected", why does
Sibanda think he will do them now?
All those war veterans who are
running around waving their fists in
support of Mugabe should explain why
they want to make this country poorer
than it already is.
Why
don't they want us to have bread and milk and jobs and schools?
Why do they
want to condemn us to a life of poverty and shortages?
Perhaps
Sibanda could explain.
And still on the subject of war vets,
has Joseph Chinotimba ever
explained how he became so rich so quickly in the
employment of the City of
Harare? Would it be possible for us to access
council files under Aippa?
Come to think of it, has anybody ever
accessed anything under Aippa?
What public good does this dubious
legislation serve? All it does is empower
the state to close newspapers! And
isn't it unbelievable that in the 28th
year of Independence Zimbabwe still
only has one TV channel - and a very
inadequate one at that.
A
few weeks ago Newshour reported on the forthcoming EU/AU meeting in
Lisbon
as a meeting between the EU and the ACP (African, Caribbean and
Pacific)
countries. This distortion continued throughout the bulletin with
no apology
or correction the next day.
In the same bulletin they attempted to
wheel in Godwills Masimirembwa
for an expert view. Sadly the sound chose
that moment to play truant so all
we saw was Godwills silently mouthing at
the camera. Perhaps he was
providing a definition of "struck
off".
We shall never know.
Muckraker was
interested to read the lead story in The Voice this week
which was headed
"Congress agenda set". It was all about Didymus Mutasa
sending out
invitations.
The report told us the extraordinary congress was due
to take place
"in the first week of December". Muckraker's information is
that the
congress will take place from December 12 to December 14. The
important
part, when resolutions are adopted, will take place towards the
end.
This is known to senior Zanu PF luminaries. The Zimbabwe
Independent
gave the dates in its front-page stories last week. Yet nobody
told the
editor of The Voice who is obliged to refer to "the first week of
December".
What is the use of a party newspaper if it can't convey
news to its
members?
Somebody should ask Tafataona Mahoso
about such emasculated
journalism. He has been raving against Gordon Brown
and the Commonwealth in
his column in The Voice.
"For Mr Brown
and his government President Robert Mugabe and his
ministers shall never be
allowed to visit any white country because they
dared to reclaim land for
the African majority of Zimbabwe which British
settlers here had stolen,"
Mahoso fatuously asserts.
He refers to Britain's "dwindling
economic fortunes" even though it
has one of the fastest growing economies
in the G8. And he says there is
much to learn from Zimbabwe's "well-timed
withdrawal" from the Commonwealth
in 2003 which became "a Commonwealth of
shame".
"It is the common shame of having been colonised and
brutalised by
racist Britain which qualified and selected the majority of
nations to
become members of the Commonwealth."
He seems
unaware that all the members had a choice at independence
whether to join or
not. Some such as Burma decided not to. Others such as
South Africa in 1961
were booted out.
But Mahoso's version of events, including
Zimbabwe's withdrawal, have
been distorted to suit the current theology.
Let's bear in mind that
Zimbabwe's membership was suspended following
political violence and
electoral manipulation in 2002.
The
Commonwealth observer mission made up of many different nations
and headed
by former Nigerian head of state Abdulsalam Abubakar found that
the exercise
fell well short of democratic standards.
The regime's spokesmen
then tried to pretend that the report was not
really Abubakar's work but
emanated from Commonwealth secretary-general Don
McKinnon. This forced
Abubakar to issue a statement pointing out that he
stood fully behind the
report. But this didn't stop Zimbabwean government
spokesmen from continuing
to lie about it.
As for Mahoso's claim of a "well-timed withdrawal"
from the
organisation in 2003, this, as official spokesmen say, should be
"treated
with the contempt it deserves".
President Mugabe made
every effort to secure attendance at the Abuja
summit and his ministers and
diplomats lobbied hard for Zimbabwe's
suspension to be lifted. They
desperately wanted to remain a member. But the
other nations present from
the Caribbean, South-East Asia and the Pacific
agreed with Australian Prime
Minister John Howard that in the absence of any
change of attitude in Harare
it would be difficult to justify Zimbabwe's
readmission.
What
seems to have incensed Mahoso is that many African states joined
the rest of
the "club" in arguing against the lifting of Zimbabwe's
suspension. It was
indeed a moment of shame - for Zimbabwe, not the
Commonwealth.
Mahoso did provide some useful commentary in
his usually turgid Voice
column.
The following elements were
evident in the war in Iraq, he suggests.
"Racist brutality and bigotry.the
cultivation of open public hatred against
a whole people, theft and pillage
for self-enrichment .all justified through
lies upon lies which are daily
broadcast to the whole world."
But couldn't we say the same thing
about Zanu PF rule which Mahoso
seeks to justify? Are those not precisely
the elements that have led to the
sanctions his regime so bitterly resents?
Yet they go on churning out a diet
of "open public hatred" while seeking to
justify "theft and pillage for
self-enrichment", all "justified through lies
upon lies".
We thank the media professor for bringing that little
anomaly to our
attention. And we look forward to having the above confirmed
at Congress, on
whatever date they decide to disclose to their captive
media.
We were pleased to see the MDC has finally found its
voice. The party
issued a statement this week pointing out that the regime
had intensified
its violent crackdown against MDC activists and other
pro-democracy groups
despite the current inter-party talks. It cited the
arrest of Woza women who
had been conducting a peaceful
protest.
It also reported that police had summoned MDC Harare
provincial
organising secretary Paul Madzore in an apparent attempt to
prevent the
party holding rallies.
"Senior police and
intelligence officers summoned Hon Madzore to
Harare Central Police
Station," the MDC said this week, "alleging that
speakers at an MDC rally in
Glen Norah on Sunday had preached hate and
insulted police officers. The
police also said they took exception to calls
by the speakers at the rally
for the people to note down the names of police
officers who are involved in
human rights abuses."
So the public are not allowed to record the
names of officers who
assault them? There are a number of cases currently
being brought before the
courts by MDC officials who were severely assaulted
at police stations in
March. Are they now required to abandon those
cases?
"The MDC is dismayed by Zanu PF's disdain of the
Sadc-initiated talks
that are aimed at finding common ground between the
regime and the
opposition," the MDC statement says. "While the MDC and Zanu
PF are engaged
in dialogue in Pretoria, the regime has continued to hound
our supporters,
brutally assaulting and attacking them against the spirit of
the dialogue
process. We continue to receive disturbing reports from across
the country
of violence against our supporters as well as Zanu PF's
continued abuse of
food as a political weapon."
Since the
dialogue process started, the MDC says, police have turned
down 103
opposition rallies while Zanu PF's "solidarity marches" continue to
take
place throughout the country without any police interference.
"The
people of Zimbabwe are resilient against a regime that continues
to harass
and assault them when it has a constitutional mandate to protect
them," the
MDC said.
What is becoming clear is that Zanu PF wants the
respectability
offered by an agreement between the main parties but at the
same time wants
to continue assaulting and intimidating its opponents so it
can "win" an
election. It is unable to see that having it both ways is
unacceptable.
Let's hope this point is firmly made when it is time
for the
negotiators to discuss the political climate. Currently the climate
remains
hot and cloudy!
TA CEO Karikoga Kaseke continues to
use the language of Zanu PF but
then can't understand why tourists are
reluctant to come here.
"Because of the barbaric onslaught on
Zimbabwe in the past six weeks
by some countries in the West led by the
United Kingdom, a good number of
our buyers from those markets have
withdrawn their participation at this
year's Travel Expo," he was quoted as
saying recently.
"We don't care, it's their own funeral, they are
drinking poison," he
added, in a distinctly unwelcoming tone.
Kaseke must make up his mind. Is he to provide a professional service
to the
tourism sector or is he just a government apparatchik mouthing its
foolish
mantras? Let's spell it out for him in a way that he understands:
There will
be no tourism inflows so long as Zanu PF pursues a racist agenda
on the
land, attacks opposition supporters and adopts policies that will
damage the
economy. That is the unpalatable fact he needs to get a handle
on.
Can you imagine a government planning to lure soccer
supporters by
building hotels and other facilities ahead of 2010 when it
can't even
provide a minimal supply of water and electricity to
towns.
Zim Independent
By Eric Bloch
WITHIN the next
fortnight parliament will be engaging in nationwide
pre-budget consultative
seminars in anticipation of the forthcoming 2008
budget.
Concurrently, the Ministry of Finance (or is it the Ministry of
Never-ending
Spending?) will be seeking inputs from diverse sectors of
society in general
and of the economically active community.
The budget will have to
address innumerable factors, ranging from
revenue generation for the state
to fiscal policies required to restore life
to an extremely distressed
economy, from debt-servicing to national
expenditures and much
else.
But foremost, the ensuing year's budget must, albeit very
belatedly,
encompass everything that fiscal policies can do to contain
Zimbabwe's
gargantuan, catastrophic, hyperinflation.
Government
has consistently stated that that is Zimbabwe's greatest
enemy (although it
is probably only the second greatest, for the greatest
must surely be
government itself), and if that is so, then it is incumbent
upon government
effectively to contain and defeat the enemy.
Admittedly, the
elimination of hyperinflation cannot be solely
addressed by government, for
certain of the inflationary factors are neither
occasioned by government, or
within its means to combat them. But, even
though it would be vigorously
denied by government, the reality is that it
is the primary cause of the
crippling hyperinflation that afflicts Zimbabwe,
and that in addition
thereto, it is within government's means to address
most of the other
inflationary factors.
Zimbabwe's immense inflation is a result of
many different
circumstances, but incontrovertibly one of the greatest is
the magnitude of
government's spending far beyond its means.
This is not a new development, but one that has been progressively
developing over years, with government demonstrating total, irresponsible
lack of concern for the consequences of its gross profligacy, for the vastly
escalating quantum of its fiscal deficits and for its horrifically
increasing debts and concomitant burden of debt-servicing.
Government has been reckless in its endless recourse to unsustainable
printing of money and for its recurrent foisting upon the central bank of
quasi-fiscal activities (the most recent being the agricultural
mechanisation programme, with a very high proportion of the largesse of free
equipment issues being to the already wealthy, to those with favourable
political connections, and to those who will not avail themselves of the
productive capabilities of the gifted machinery, but will merely hold it for
so long as necessary until it is "safe" to dispose thereof).
Most of all, in its pursuit of its spending addiction, government
callously
disregards the pronounced inflation that occasions.
Government
defends itself by contentions that it only spends that
which it has to, for
the essentials of the operations of the state and the
wellbeing of its
people, but those contentions are devoid of credibility,
and there is much
expenditure that could cease without any prejudice, save
perhaps to some of
the recipients of the monies expended.
This needs to be a key,
primary focus of the Ministry of Finance, and
of the parliamentarians in the
forthcoming consultation engagements.
Space constraints do not
permit for all the opportunities of
expenditure reductions to be addressed,
but the following are some of the
many that should be fundamental to the
2008 budget. Among the greatest of
the expenditures incurred by government
is the vast interest that is payable
upon the continuously upward surging
debt. But the interest burden would,
obviously, be considerably reduced if
government would dispose of the
parastatals and would apply the sale
proceeds to the settlement of debt.
It is not the role of
government to be in business - its role is to
govern! Moreover, hardly ever
has any government been as effective and
successful in the conduct of
business than is the private sector.
It is long-overdue for
government to dispose of its business interests
in transport (Air Zimbabwe,
National Railways of Zimbabwe and Zupco), in
communications (TelOne and
NetOne), the media (ZBC, ZTV and Zimbabwe
Newspapers), mining (such as
Wankie Colliery), manufacturing (through the
numerous ventures of the
Industrial Development Corporation) and much else.
The populace
would benefit from undoubtedly enhanced operations of the
enterprises,
including those that are operating viably and successfully, and
governmental
debts could be markedly reduced, thereby reducing the ongoing
interest
charges upon the fiscus.
Another very major expenditure is that
incurred on maintaining an
excessively great defence infrastructure. Bearing
in mind that Zimbabwe is
at peace with all its neighbours and that its only
war is an economic one,
the grossly excessive size of the armed forces is
incomprehensible, unless
government perceives that as its only security of
retention of power!
Trillions of dollars are expended annually (to
a significantly greater
extent than expenditures on health services and
education!) upon the army
and air force, which do little other than
ceremonial performances at the
opening of parliament, of agricultural and
trade shows and the like, save
for involvement in enforcing foolhardy price
controls, and assuming
governmental functions through the Joint Operations
Command.
Surely it is time to trim the Ministry of Defence and its
underlying
arms, and thereby help win the only war that Zimbabwe is actually
engaged
in.
Other trimming is also vastly
necessary.
With a population of little more than 11 million, how
can Zimbabwe
justify having over 50 ministers and deputy ministers as well
as nine
provincial governors (who are resident ministers)? Each has a major
support
infrastructure of secretaries, administrative and finance officers
and other
personnel, large suites of offices, fleets of motor vehicles,
housing and
much else at an immense cost to the fiscus and, therefore, to
the taxpayer,
and contributing to the governmentally fuelled
hyperinflation.
Zimbabwe's ministerial set-up is very much greater
than that of most
developed, first-world countries, with considerably larger
populations.
Blatantly, the Zimbabwean ministerial structure is naught but
"jobs for the
boys" irrespective of the fiscal and ancillary negative
consequences.
Of course, government perceives as essential
expenditure that which is
likely to preserve support for itself, and
facilitate its retention of
power, irrespective of the prejudice and
suffering that may result for the
masses.
Undoubtedly that was
the motivation for the recent announcement of new
houses for all of
Zimbabwe's traditional chiefs, and for the distribution to
the same chiefs,
only a few months ago, of new, executive-style motor
vehicles.
Presumably that too was the principal motivation for the very costly
and
unaffordable distribution of farm machinery and equipment, even if that
distribution was window-dressed and disguised as being targeted to enhance
agricultural production.
One must also ponder whether the
president is at such pronounced risk
that it is necessary that wheresoever
he travels he requires escorts many
times in number those required by the
majority of the world's heads of
state. One must hope that that is not so
but, if it is not, how can the
attendant costs be justified?
Zimbabwe could also save much expenditure, and foreign currency
outlays, if
it would close many of its embassies, consulates and like
offices around the
world. Could not one embassy in Brussels and one in
London cover the
entirety of Europe, with similar centralisation of
diplomatic representation
in many other parts of the world? In like manner,
would not Zimbabwe's
straitened circumstances justify far fewer governmental
travels
abroad?
These are but a very few of the many opportunities
available for
expenditure curtailment, without prejudice to the population,
yielding
massive economic benefits, including inflation reduction. But
government's
will to spend is without bounds. It is a profligate par
excellence, and
therefore such constructive budgetary measures are unlikely
in the extreme.
Zim Independent
Candid Comment
By Dumisani Muleya
IT has been
interesting to follow the National Congress of the
governing Communist Party
of China at a time when here at home we are
anxiously waiting for the ruling
Zanu PF's extraordinary congress in
December.
In the media we
are waiting for the Zanu PF congress with
bated-breath, not because we think
anything useful to national development
will come out of it but largely
because it offers a string of good copy for
the press. Breathtaking
political drama and high-sounding nothings more
often than not accompany
such Zanu PF meetings and newspapers like pouncing
on that to make
attention-grabbing headlines.
At a national level, the Zanu PF
congress is only good as a barometer
of the direction of politics and to
gauge whether our collective misery
under the current fossilised regime's
suffocating rule will soon be over or
not.
Otherwise, besides
this, Zanu PF gatherings are of no use to the
country.
Things
appear to be rather different in China, a country Zanu PF likes
aping, even
if it does it very badly and hasn't succeeded in emulating.
Although Chinese President Hu Jintao, party general secretary and head
of
the military, only managed to promise incremental political reforms in
China
as the country struggles to break free from the shackles of residual
Maoist
authoritarianism, his opening address in Beijing at the Great Hall of
the
People on Monday on the economy was progressive. It was very different
from
what we often get and will almost certainly hear from President Robert
Mugabe in his address to his party's congress.
Hu avoided
demagoguery and sabre-rattling, although he made remarks
seen as populist
grandstanding in a bid to appease the masses in view of the
widening gap
between the rich and poor. His focus was largely on his
scientific
development concept.
"We must adopt an enlightened approach to
development that results in
expanded production, a better life, and sound
ecological and environmental
conditions," Hu said. "China is going through a
wide-ranging and deep-going
transformation," Hu told 2 200 party
delegates.
He promised to address social problems, environmental
degradation and
rampant corruption. Hu spoke extensively about his
"scientific view of
development", a set of lofty, albeit vague principles
which he says are the
basis of a coordinated economic, social and political
development.
Hu said the party now wants to increase "per capita
GDP" instead of
the overall Gross Domestic Product between now and 2012 when
his term of
office expires. This was widely interpreted as a significant
policy shift to
address growing inequalities and alleviate
poverty.
Hu's address is radically different from what you can get
from Mugabe
and Zanu PF at congress. Where Hu proffers economic vision,
Mugabe offers
political heroics. Perhaps that's why Hu did not come to
Zimbabwe when he
visited Africa. Where the Communist Party provides workable
policies, Zanu
PF comes up with scorched-earth policies.
No
serious debate and sound economic policies emerge from Zanu PF
congresses,
except "grab and run" strategies to plunder the economy. Corrupt
and
incompetent party officials are not just left without being held to
account,
but are tolerated and given room to enjoy their loot. Some of them
are even
rewarded with top positions!
Zanu PF, full of mandarins who consult
witchdoctors as opposed to
modernisers guided by enlightened science, is
still caught up in frozen
ideological philosophies. It has no credible
guiding philosophy, except poor
imitations of failed dogmatic
models.
This frozen thinking and lack of dynamism results in the
same policies
and the same mistakes being repeated over and over again,
predictably with
the same disastrous outcomes.
The other
notable difference between the Communist Party of China and
Zanu PF is that
in China the congress results in major changes in leading
party organs,
including the politburo and central committee. The Chinese
party will
elevate younger members that will form the "fifth generation from
2012-2022"
of Chinese leaders to the politburo. The old guard will be
retired to pave
way for younger leaders and new thinking.
A Communist Party
congress is a significant event in Chinese politics
although it nominally
decides the new leadership. While the congress
formally elects new leaders,
in practice positions are negotiated before the
meeting and congress does
not function as a deliberative assembly.
But since the mid-1980s
the Communist Party has tried to maintain a
smooth and orderly leadership
succession process and avoid a cult of
personality, by having major
leadership changes every 10 years.
In Zanu PF top leaders are not
removed - except by divine
intervention - and policies are not changed even
if they have proved to be a
disaster. For instance, Mugabe has been at the
helm of Zanu PF for 30
years - since 1977 - and wants to hang on and his
party supports this. The
Communist Party no longer does this.
Currently debate in Zanu PF ahead of congress is not about policies
and
leadership renewal, but endorsing Mugabe - despite his calamitous rule -
to
contest next year's presidential election and defending his catastrophic
legacy. It's an absolutely bankrupt debate.
The poverty of good
leadership, sound policies and even common sense
in Zanu PF is frightening.
This explains why we are in such deep trouble.
Why can't Zanu PF learn from
its once unreconstructed but now reforming
Chinese ally?
Zim Independent
Comment
ZIMBABWE marked the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
on
Wednesday with power cuts and water shortages. From a self-sufficient
middle-income country just 10 years ago, Zimbabwe is today an impoverished
low-income country where even the most basic services have collapsed.
Hospitals and clinics barely function, the nation's flagship University of
Zimbabwe can no longer offer full-time teaching or adequate accommodation,
and inflation at 8 000% this week has eroded the incomes of workers across a
spectrum of health services, education and industry.
Against
this appalling background, President Mugabe in all seriousness
thinks he has
the answers to the country's problems while various support
groups,
oblivious to the misery his policies have spawned, demonstrate on
his
behalf. Why they think the people of this country want a continuation of
hardship and the certain prospect of further decline is difficult to
tell.
War veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda has been leading
demonstrations
in support of Mugabe but is unable to explain which part of
the president's
record he wants to see repeated.
Ten years ago,
before Mugabe gave generous handouts to war veterans
that the fiscus could
not sustain, Zimbabwe cultivated and exported a range
of products that
earned foreign exchange. That in turn meant we could
comfortably import
power and fuel.
Now, with tobacco under siege and horticulture all
but destroyed the
country no longer has the means to earn forex. And
tourists don't want to
come to a country where the president and his
ministers wage war against
minorities.
Without forex the
country can't pay for power or fuel. That explains
the steady collapse of
electricity supplies to urban centres. Large swathes
of Harare have been in
darkness this week amidst reports that Zesa cannot
pay its bills. This is
disastrous for industry and demoralising for the
public at large. But it is
a sign of things to come.
In Bulawayo, which has suffered a severe
water shortage, Zanu PF is
preparing to elect a provincial leadership. The
war veterans have thrown
their weight behind Mugabe but the local provincial
heavyweights have
withheld their endorsement.
Of interest here
is the way in which Sibanda and his cohorts have
driven a coach and horses
through the Unity Accord openly denouncing the
Zapu old guard which regards
the region as its fiefdom. Mugabe no doubt
feels his barons haven't
delivered since 2000 and need shaking up. This is
the way they do things in
the ruling party!
Whatever the case, Zanu PF's internecine
struggles are a sideshow.
What matters is the country's plunge into poverty.
That is the direct
product of misgovernance at every level. By printing
money and spending it
hand over fist to propitiate key sectors Zanu PF has
become the chief
generator of hyperinflation. And just when the country
needed foreign
investment most, the government has embarked upon what one
South African
commentator last week described as "extreme policy options" in
the field of
indigenisation.
Zimbabwe has become "a laboratory
for bad policy in Southern Africa",
he said, something our neighbours have
finally woken up to.
In most countries, if the government was
offering more shortages,
unemployment and hardship the public would revolt
at the polls. But in
Zimbabwe the national discourse is tightly controlled
by a suborned public
media which very simply lies about the cause of our
national condition. In
these circumstances the public cannot make an
informed choice at the ballot
box.
Unless there is a sea change
in our political climate we are condemned
to more of the same. That is the
tragedy Zimbabwe faces today. And nobody
seems to be able to do anything
about it. Instead, thanks to the naivety of
the Portuguese, Mugabe will be
allowed to strut upon the international stage
in Lisbon on December 8, where
he will make a number of misleading claims,
and then return to a hero's
welcome at his party's extraordinary congress on
December 12-14. After that
we will live in darkness and fear.
As veteran South African
journalist Allister Sparks points out in our
columns today, this is what
happens when dictators are indulged by their
regional colleagues and
cowardice rules at home and abroad.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
By Vincent Kahiya
WHEN negotiations between
the MDC and Zanu PF commenced in April we
warned at the time that the
opposition was giving away too many concessions.
We also advised the MDC
that this could in the end come back to haunt the
opposition in the event
that talks fail to move the quest for political
settlement
forward.
Dialogue between the two parties has not collapsed (yet).
But word
coming out of the MDC leadership is pointing to the possibility of
the
dialogue breaking down or at least Zanu PF refusing to honour pledges it
has
made to date.
This week MDC information secretary Nelson
Chamisa released a
statement in which he accused Zanu PF of "working hard to
shrink the
democratic space of ordinary Zimbabweans which Sadc, through the
South
Africa-brokered talks, is working hard to expand".
Nothing has changed. "The MDC is dismayed by Zanu PF's disdain of the
Sadc-initiated talks that are aimed at finding common ground between the
regime and the opposition," said Chamisa.
"While the MDC and
Zanu PF are engaged in dialogue in Pretoria, the
regime has continued to
hound our supporters; brutally assaulting and
attacking them against the
spirit of the dialogue process. We continue to
receive disturbing reports
from across the country of violence against our
supporters as well as Zanu
PF's continued abuse of food as a political
weapon."
Chamisa's
office last week circulated on the Internet pictures of
badly scalded
buttocks of an MDC official allegedly beaten by soldiers in
Masvingo.
The picture evoked memories of the run-up to the 2002
presidential
poll when Zanu PF supporters used torture to cow opposition
supporters.
Chamisa this week implored Zanu PF "to revise (really!)
its behaviour
to show its sincerity in the talks".
Fat chance!
What can the MDC do to the obdurate Zanu PF if government
backtracks on its
promises to amend the Public Order and Security Act (Posa)
which is key to
allowing the opposition to canvass support without the
current raft of
inhibitions in place? Or perhaps Zanu PF can agree with the
opposition to
tipex the offending clauses in the Act but then Zanu PF being
the party it
is can still elect to completely disregard the letter of the
law and
continue to unleash the police on demonstrators or simply deny the
opposition the opportunity to campaign freely. In this case, what can the
opposition do to make the Zanu PF government "revise its
behaviour"?
Here is the demure MDC pleading with the devil to cut
his horns and
probably lose his identity altogether. Not so
fast.
The opposition could have agreed with Zanu PF negotiators to
amend
Posa but creating the level playing field before the election as
envisaged
by talks broker Thabo Mbeki requires political commitment which
the ruling
party is not willing to practise at the moment.
Welcoming the appointment of Mbeki as broker in April Morgan
Tsvangirai told
a press conference in Harare that the South African leader
should begin the
process by asking Mugabe to stop all hostilities against
opposition
activists before outlining a time framework for the talks.
Levelling the political playing field is a major task that not only
involves
amending legislation but more importantly changing the psyche of
the police,
the army and the intelligence who have all been ground in the
dogma designed
to fight the opposition's supposed regime change agenda. It
involves
dismantling heavily politicised institutions such as the police Law
and
Order section, riot police and youth militias who are ready to pounce on
the
opposition at the behest of politicians.
All this requires a
statement from President Mugabe decriminalising
the opposition and
refraining from making inflammatory comments akin to
those he uttered after
the assault on Tsvangirai and other senior party
officials in March. Zanu PF
in other words needs a cultural change.
The MDC agreed with Zanu PF
on a timeframe and outline of the talks
without securing a commitment that
violence would cease.
But it is business as usual for Zanu PF which
has already started
limbering up for greater violent activity.
The government - by allowing the war veterans to march freely in all
provincial capitals while at the same time denying the opposition the
opportunity to hold rallies - has already set the tenor for the 2008
election campaign. Coupled with this, there has of late been a fresh
crackdown on opposition supporters, civic groups and students who have been
arrested at the slightest hint of dissent.
In the face of this
latest form of adversity, Chamisa offered words of
comfort and
encouragement. "The people are resilient against violence and
repression,"
he said.
"They want to start afresh. They have seen enough violence
in the past
seven years and they do not want to walk the same road again.
The people of
Zimbabwe are prepared to make a bold statement against a
regime that thrives
on violence, thuggery and intimidation."
What bold statement in the absence of prudent leadership?
As things
stand today, the opposition is trapped. It cannot walk out
of the talks it
endorsed and placed so much faith in.
Any walk-out should be
accompanied by bold action to move the process
of change forward. At the
moment there is no Plan B known to the party's
supporters in the event of
talks collapsing.
What dialogue can the MDC say it's engaged in if
there is no end to
violence and repression? An end to state-sponsored
violence should be the
MDC's line in the sand. But they seem unable to say
so.
Zinwa, stay away from Byo
WE note that the Bulawayo City Council took a
stand against the Zinwa
take-over of water and sewer services from the
control of the city council.
We also note that the city council wrote and
appealed to the relevant
ministries and requested a change of decision on
the issue. And we finally
note the government through the Ministry of Local
Government has given an
order that the Bulawayo City Council must comply
with the Zinwa take-over.
As the MDC, we strongly condemn this
take-over. The people of Bulawayo
made representations against the take-over
for reasons that have to do with
Zinwa's failure to deliver services where
they have taken over.
As a party we condemn the Zinwa take-over and
continue to support both
the Bulawayo City Council's stated position and the
stand taken by the
people of Bulawayo who elected the current MDC
council.
Zinwa's track record is one of failure to deliver clean
and reliable
water to residents of all the local authorities where it has
commandeered
these water services. Taking over water reticulation from such
an
efficiently run council like that of Bulawayo is a
travesty.
GJ Sibanda,
MDC deputy
president.
---------
Price controls have brought nothing
but suffering
ALLOW me to express my great fear towards our policy
makers in the
manner in which they have destroyed our economy and dignity as
human beings.
Price controls have left shelves empty, the owners
cannot bring new
orders because they fear suffering the losses they did when
the pricing
madness began.
It is a shame to our nation which
was once the bread-basket of Africa.
It is believed that in every shop there
is a security agent employed by the
force of the government not at the will
of the owner. Price controls were
never meant to address the situation of
prices, which were going up on daily
basis, but to fix the owners as they
are believed to be in support of the
opposition.
By so doing
they have promoted the black market because every basic
need is found on the
street and these people are not even arrested.
So what was the
purpose of the price controls? To make people suffer
more? To cause more
businesses to shut down or to buy people's votes? Only
God
knows.
Preaching what we do not practise - greed, selfishness and
self-centredness has destroyed our beautiful Zimbabwe. God forbid! Open the
eyes of our policy makers so that they can see how they destroyed our trust
and hope in the development of our nation.
Think of all the
skilled people who have left, the deterioration of
our education, of our
health delivery system to mention a few. Each day
bears a burden upon the
mothers of this nation as they think of where they
can get food to feed
their children. Price controls have brought pain upon
our lives as ordinary
citizens of this nation.
MPA,
Bulawayo.
-------------
What the Zanu PF congress means for
us all
THE article by Trevor Ncube titled "Opportunities out of Zim
crisis"
published in your newspaper (Zimbabwe Independent (October 5-11)
makes
interesting reading. I sincerely hope that articles like that will
help to
stimulate debate on Zanu PF's succession issue because whatever
happens at
their congress in December could ultimately have a positive or
negative
effect on the future of our country.
Negative effect
in the sense that if the congress elects the wrong
person as the party's
flag bearer in next year's harmonised presidential,
parliamentary and local
government elections, the status quo in terms of the
country's dire economic
situation and relations with the outside world is
likely to remain the
same.
A positive effect is only possible if the party elects
someone who can
help to restore Zimbabwe's battered image and bring back
investor
confidence. Ideally, this person should be untainted and without
blemish.
That person should also have a cross-cutting appeal in and outside
the party
and most importantly should be able to command the respect of the
armed
forces.
Admittedly, the inter-party rivalry within the
ruling party which pits
the Mnangagwa and Mujuru factions against each other
presents a real threat
to the stability of the party. With such a scenario
beckoning, the emergence
of a compromise candidate becomes a real
possibility.
The question is who will that person be? Names like
Simba Makoni, and
rightly so, have been suggested as dark horses in the
succession race. The
fact that he has a cross- cutting appeal puts him in
good stead to be
considered for the top post.
My own view,
which is contestable, is that Sydney Sekeramayi is the
real dark horse and
could emerge as the compromise candidate.
What sets him apart from
the rest of the crowd is the fact that he has
remained one of President
Mugabe's trusted lieutenants since Independence.
He is one of the
few remaining ministers that has served the
government continuously in
various capacities since 1980. Among the
ministries he has headed are
Health, State Security and Defence and one can
safely assume that he
commands the respect of the armed forces and that the
generals would have no
problem in saluting him.
His only blemish is that Zimbabwe got
involved in the DRC when he was
the Minister of Defence. He also does not
come across as being controversial
and maybe to his credit he has not been
linked,at least publicly, with any
of the competing factions in the ruling
party.
Ncube's article also addresses the issue of the ineptitude
of the MDC
as an opposition outfit and how it cannot be trusted to form a
government
because of its alleged links with Western imperialist
forces.
In any event, when an opposition party fails to dislodge
the ruling
party at the first attempt the chances of ever doing so tend to
diminish
with each passing year.
In this regard, the MDC should
try to reinvent itself, perhaps, by
assuming a new identity which will
create excitement amongst the people. The
idea is to have a party that does
not have the stigma of always being
associated with Western
governments.
Which brings me to the point that an effective
opposition party will,
in more cases than not, always emerge from the ranks
of the ruling party.
In Zambia, for instance, the MMD emerged from
the labour union which
had close links with the UNIP government. Taking
advantage of the euphoria
they had created, the MMD contested in Zambia's
first multi-party elections
and defeated UNIP at the first
attempt.
In Malawi, the UDF was formed by individuals who were at
one time or
the other members of the MCP. The UDF contested in Malawi's
first
multi-party elections and managed to defeat the MCP at the first
attempt.
Coming back home, nothing much can be said about the
current crop of
leaders in Zanu PF. They cannot stand up and challenge
President Mugabe on
any issue.
Their very existence depends on
the president's kindness, this is why
he continues to rest in the comfort
that he is not dealing with amadoda
sibili (real men). This gives him the
carte blanche to do as he pleases.
N Mawema,
Mandara, Harare.
-----------
In memory of Learnmore
Jongwe
By Asher Mutsengi
ON October 23 2002, the
nation awoke to the news that Learnmore Jongwe
has passed on while in the
hands of the state. I was struck deep with
solemnity.
No
informed person could well deny that Jongwe was probably the most
spectacular spokesperson in the history of Zimbabwe's politics.
Like Moses before him, he had the task of leading a people to freedom,
the
task of healing the festering wounds of a nation's man-made flaws.
Like Moses he never lived to see the promised land. But he pointed the
way
for us - a land no longer torn asunder with intolerance, tyranny, ethnic
strife and poverty.
A land in which strength is defined not by
the capacity to wage
violence but by the determination to forge peace - a
land in which all
Zimbabweans come together in true patriotic pride. We have
not yet arrived
at this longed for place, but he passed on the
torch.
I remember not one moment of tragedy, but a short life of
great
purpose and achievement.
May it impress upon all of us
that the greatest homage we can pay to
Jongwe and all those who have paid
with their lives in the struggle for
democracy in Zimbabwe, is to work
together for a society based on the
principles of justice and true democracy
to which he dedicated his life.
* Mutsengi writes from
Canada.