There have been more concerns raised that the results of last
month’s constitutional referendum could have been rigged, in what some
observers and analysts believe is a ‘test run’ for the general
elections.
The referendum results announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) have been questioned by many observers who have said the
huge turnout reported by ZEC does not add up to the actual experience of the
day. Civil society groups and some political parties have also said the
results do not match up to their own research.
The MDC-T’s
secretary-general, Tendai Biti, said recently that that according to his
party’s own research, the referendum figures were “tweaked” by between 10
and 15%. According to Biti, less than the 3.3 million votes announced by ZEC
were actually cast. Speaking at a public discussion in Harare, Biti
expressed the MDC-T’s doubts over the ZEC figures.
“There is a 10 to 15%
variance between ZEC’s figures and those collated by our own team of agents
who covered all the polling stations nationally,” said Biti. The MDC-T
however has not released its own figures.
The party’s Treasurer General
Roy Bennett told SW Radio Africa last week that the discrepancies indicate
‘rigging;’ in what he said was a test run by ZANU PF ahead of the general
elections. Bennett said that the ZEC figures cannot be accurate, because of
the “general voter apathy that was experienced on the day.”
This same
apathy has been reported by UK based Zimbabwean activist Ephraim Tapa, who
was in Zimbabwe for an undercover fact finding mission during the
referendum. Tapa, who fled Zimbabwe in 2002 after being abducted and
tortured, said the ZEC results are “of serious concern.”
“A day
before the referendum I got to talk to a young man in his mid-twenties in
Mwenezi, Masvingo. He told me that he and the wider community had never seen
the draft constitution let alone read it and that they had been ordered to
vote ‘Yes’ by ZEC. Apart from ZEC they had seen no one else. He said he
would not be voting for something he was not sure of. These sentiments were
echoed by almost everyone I spoke to,” Tapa told SW Radio
Africa.
Tapa also visited a number of polling stations on the day of the
referendum and reported that there was widespread voter
apathy.
“Short queues formed in the mid-morning and by the afternoon
hardly any were left. In the following days I was able to ask several
households how many people had voted in the referendum and results indicated
widespread apathy. They stated that they couldn’t vote for something that
they were not privy to,” Tapa said.
He explained that people around
the country are “silent” about politics, because they are afraid of a repeat
of the violence experienced in 2008.
“There is silence and there is fear.
2008 with all its violence and everything about it, that’s what is in their
minds. It means that there is no need for ZANU PF to beat up people this
year because people still have fear in them. 2008 did a lot of
damage
Zimbabwe is a cowed nation that is trapped and what is happening
now is that all political players are colluding to normalise a very abnormal
situation,” Tapa said.
MDC-T provincial chairman for Bulawayo Gorden Moyo has not been
‘ditched’ by his party, contrary to press reports.
State media
claimed several heavyweights, including Moyo and national youth chairperson
Solomon Madzore, had been “sidelined by their national council” from
contesting in the MDC-T primaries because their respective constituencies
are reserved for female candidates.
In a full list seen by SW Radio
Africa showing the approved and disqualified candidates, not only is Moyo
endorsed but he is running uncontested in Bulawayo’s Makokoba constituency.
This is after deputy party president Thokozani Khupe chose not apply to
retain her seat, preferring to wait for the proportional representation of
60 seats reserved for women as provided for in the draft
constitution.
Madzore will contest in the Dzivarasekwa primaries after
the current MP Evelyn Masaiti chose to go for the proportional
representation seats.
Moyo, who is also the Minister of State Enterprises
and Parastatals, confirmed he was the only candidate in the Makokoba
constituency and is now waiting for the party’s confirmation exercise for
sitting legislators to begin sometime this month.
“Contrary to the
sewage and the trash that is flowing out of the Herald newspaper this man
was endorsed by the national council of our movement, as the candidate for
Makokoba constituency,” Moyo told SW Radio Africa.
The minister said he
was appointed the caretaker MP for Makokoba in 2009 following Khupe’s
elevation to become the Deputy Prime Minister in the inclusive
government.
“Therefore Makokoba is not a female constituency. I am not
female. I am a man. I have all the tools of a man,” Moyo
revealed.
Out of the 1000 candidates approved to contest at primary level
there are at least 35 current parliamentarians who are not being challenged,
but will go through a confirmation exercise conducted by their respective
district councils.
Those who will go through confirmation include
Ministers Tendai Biti, Elton Mangoma, Nelson Chamisa, Tapiwa Mashakada,
Jameson Timba, Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo and party spokesman
Douglas Mwonzora.
They will automatically skip the primary elections, if
confirmed, and become the MDC-T candidates for the forthcoming general
elections. However, the current MPs will be subjected to primaries if they
fail to get a two thirds majority via this vetting
process.
Disgruntled members accuse the leadership of giving special
treatment to some party heavyweights by not putting them through
primaries.
In Manicaland, scores of placard carrying MDC-T protesters
demonstrated on Saturday against the disqualification of Regai Tsunga from
the Mutasa South primary elections. Tsunga was challenging former Mutare
Mayor Misheck Kagurabadza. The former mayor is one of those unchallenged
candidates waiting for confirmation.
Some of the posters by the
protesters read: “Let the people decide, don’t impose candidates,” and “We
do not want another ZANU PF within our party. We want
democracy.”
Party spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora reportedly said Tsunga
was disqualified because he had organized a golf tournament at Hillside Golf
Course in Mutare, where he is the chairman, to celebrate President Mugabe’s
birthday.
200 people were disqualified for not having been members of the
party among other reasons. But the former opposition party is accused of
‘double standards’ after endorsing individuals like ex- ZANU PF Deputy
Minister of Labour Tracy Mutinhiri who only joined the MDC-T in
2011.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara has been
abandoned by five lawmakers he saved from losing their seats in parliament
after they were expelled by the MDC led by Welshman Ncube last
year.
The five including Deputy Speaker of Parliament Nomalanga Khumalo
(Umzingwane) had been accused of supporting the Tsvangirai led party but
Mutambara insisted they belonged to his faction.
This new development
means a significant number of legislators who had won the 2008 elections on
a Mutambara-MDC/Ncube-MDC ticket have now crossed over to the Tsvangirai
camp. This includes three legislators who were challenging President Robert
Mugabe in the High Court to hold by-elections after they were fired by the
Ncube camp.
Ncube-MDC spokesperson Nhlanhla Dube said the MPs were fired
because they violated the party’s constitution and because they were
“sleeping with the enemy.”
He said: “We started galvanizing party
support and having people working in those constituencies in readiness to
take over the role of MP if they should be elected in the next elections. So
we didn’t fire them and then go back to sleep.”
“We fired them so
that the toxic toxins that they were emitting in the political space, when
they were supposed to represent our party, was stopped – so that our
political party can start to function on the basis of principle, on the
basis of truth and on the basis of the party’s value system,” Dube said.
DEPUTY Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara has been abandoned by
the five legislators he protected from losing their Parliamentary seats
after they were sacked by the MDC party last year.
Nomalanga Khumalo
(Umzingwane), Maxwell Dube (Tsholotsho South), Thandeko Mnkandla (Gwanda
North) and Senators Dalumuzi Khumalo (Lupane) and Kembo Dube (Umzingwane)
were sacked from the Welshman Ncube-led MDC last year over alleged links
with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC-T.
But Mutambara – who has
been fighting Ncube in the courts over the leadership of the MDC – saved the
legislators from losing their seats by claiming they belonged to his
party.
The deputy premier wrote to Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo
and Senate President Edna Madzongwe advising them to disregard attempts by
Ncube to have the MPs dismissed for allegedly crossing the floor, insisting
they belonged to his faction.
And now, the legislators have
apparently thanked him by registering to contest in the MDC-T’s primary
elections.
Kembo Dube confirmed the development saying: “If you are
sacked you knock somewhere else until the door opens.” Joubert Mudzumwe,
who chairs Mutambara’s faction, said he was not aware the MPs had jumped
ship and told the Herald: “I don’t know about it since we have not yet been
advised. In fact, we think they are still our MPs.
“In actual fact we
will be meeting soon as the national council to consider the applications
for people who are interested in representing us. We regard those MPs as our
candidates in the constituencies they are in.”
However, MDC-T spokesman,
Douglas Mwonzora, said the party’s national council had since endorsed the
MPs’ applications.
“It is true they applied to stand on MDC-T tickets and
the national council accepted their applications,” said Mwonzora. “They
want to represent the MDC-T in the constituencies that they are currently
holding except for Dalumuzi Khumalo who is a Senator but has expressed
interest to stand in Lupane East as a House of Assembly Member.
“Senator
Kembo Dube said he wanted to be a Senator so it was also accepted. We are
treating these cadres as sitting MPs so they will be subjected to a
confirmation exercise then after that primary elections.”
WASHINGTON DC — Air Zimbabwe has resumed daily
national and regional flights after suspending flights two years ago
following threats by creditors to impound planes over a $150
debt.
Air Zimbabwe chief executive Innocent Mavhunga was quoted by the
Zimbabwe Inter-Africa News Agency as saying the airline resumed flights to
Victoria Falls and Bulawayo last Friday and Johannesburg flights
Monday.
Mavhunga said the flights would cater for travellers visiting the
Zimbabwe International Trade Fair starting in two weeks.
He said the
daily flights will continue even after the 5-day annual trade event
ends.
Reacting to reports that the national airline has resumed daily
flights, Victoria Falls mayor Nkosilathi Jiyane said he hopes the flights
will boost tourism in the resort town.
Sources told VOA that an Air
Zimbabwe Boeing 737 with a capacity of 200 passengers, which left Harare for
Johannesburg on Monday morning and was set to return that evening, had 30
passengers.
The struggling airline, revealed earlier this year that it
needed at least $50 million to resume full international
operations.
The national airline has been servicing domestic routes three
times a week since April last year. International flights are still
grounded.
A Bulawayo magistrate on Tuesday granted bail to 21 members of a
youth lobby group arrested on Monday on allegations of holding an
unsanctioned protest.
Magistrate Mberewere released the youth activists
on condition that they do not interfere with police investigations and also
ordered them to report to designated police stations every Friday until they
return to court on April 23rd.
This followed prosecutor Jeremiah
Mutsindikwa’s submissions that the police needed time to complete their
probe, and the accused would interfere with investigations if
released.
Arguing for bail, human rights lawyer Nosimilo Chainaiwa told
the packed courtroom that her clients should be presumed innocent until
proven guilty.
It is understood that the police had initially wanted to
charge all the 21, who include two women, with breaching security laws.
However, this was later changed to a ‘criminal nuisance’ charge for 19 of
the 21.
Group spokesperson Mqondisi Moyo and Busani Sibindi were singled
out as the ringleaders and charged under the Public Order and Security
Act.
The youth groups, protesting under the banner of the Mthwakazi Youth
Joint Resolution, were demonstrating against the hiring policy of the
national energy supplier, ZESA.
The youths accuse the ZESA
authorities in Bulawayo of only hiring staff from Mashonaland and not from
Matebeleland. They were arrested while making their way from Emganwini
residential suburb to the offices of ZESA, where they intended to hand in a
petition, and detained overnight at Bulawayo Central Police
Station.
According to Ray Ncube, a member of one of the participating
groups called FOZAPU, the police accused the group of holding a protest
without seeking clearance, as is required under the country’s harsh security
laws.
SW Radio Africa correspondent Lionel Saungweme, who attended the
court hearing, said the 21 were also warned not to engage in any activities
linked to Monday’s demonstrations against ZESA.
Saungweme said
although the 21 were arrested, it was clear from the large number of
sympathisers who turned up at the magistrates’ court that the issues raised
by the protesters resonated with many of the city’s residents.
Suspected infighting in ZANU PF has continued to
intensify, with the arrest of a key ally of Emmerson
Mnangagwa’s.
Mike Madiro, ZANU PF’s recently suspended Manicaland
chairman, appeared in court on Monday charged with stealing cattle donated
to President Robert Mugabe. Madiro his colleague Dorothy Mabika are accused
of ‘stealing’ 10 cows donated by a Chipinge farmer for Mugabe’s birthday
celebrations last year.
They were released on $150 bail ahead of
their trial, which is set to begin on April 22nd.
Madiro was
suspended by the party in February together with four other senior ZANU PF
members, following allegations of fraud, corruption, theft, embezzlement and
dishonesty. The five are alleged to have misappropriated $700,000 collected
from diamond mining companies at Chiadzwa, on the pretext it was meant for
party activities.
But the targeting of Mdiro is being viewed by some as a
plot engineered to weaken Defence Minister Mnangagwa’s presidential
ambitions.
Madiro is a lifelong ally of Mnangagwa who worked under the
ZANU PF strongman for 15 years as Director of Finance, at the party
headquarters in Harare.
President Robert Mugabe arrived in Nairobi Monday ahead of Tuesday’s
inauguration of Uhuru Kenyatta as Kenya’s president.
Kenyatta, who is
facing charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against
humanity over his alleged role in the 2007 election violence, was voted by
record numbers early last month.
The son of Kenya’s founding president,
replaced President Mwai Kibaki in the polls to defeat Raila Odinga, a critic
of Mugabe and a close ally of Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai, who this week was in the United Kingdom on a
private visit, was a guest of honour at Odinga’s party congress in Nairobi
early this year.
Kenyatta vowed to promote economic development, peace
and unity at a swearing in ceremony attended by several Heads of State and
Government, including Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan
at the Moi International Sports Center.
89 year old Mugabe, who has
been in power since independence in 1980, was accompanied by his wife Grace
and other senior Government officials.
51 year old Kenyatta is Kenya’s
fourth president and is the first President to lead the country under a
post-independence constitution. International rights group Human Rights
Watch called on the country’s leadership to cooperate with the ICC and to
uphold their promise to attend their trials.
Tuesday, 09 April 2013 11:20 MASVINGO -
Fears of a fresh cholera outbreak have gripped Masvingo, where some
residents have gone up to four days without running water.
Masvingo
City’s high density suburbs of Mucheke, Rujeko, Majange and Runyararo West
are most affected. Desperate residents are now relying on unprotected sources
for drinking water while many are relieving themselves in nearby bushes and
by the roadside.
“We want to know why we have gone for close to a
week without water,” fumed William Gandu, a Mucheke resident. “We are paying
our bills and we expect uninterrupted supply of water yet we continue to be
cut off. The situation is bad,” he said.
The country’s oldest urban
set up has been grappling with a severe water crisis because of collapsing
infrastructure, which is failing to cope with a booming
population.
Residents say the situation is particularly worrying because
of their past experiences with disease outbreaks.
“We do not want our
children to succumb to cholera but we fear that is where we are headed
because of this inept council. People are now using the streets to relieve
themselves and this could lead to the outbreak of dangerous diseases. We
want water now or we will take action against the city fathers,” Rotina
Mawoyo, another resident, said.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC
runs the council.
Mayor Femias Chakabuda said the water rationing was due
to maintenance work at the city water plant. “This is not a crisis at
all,” Chakabuda said.
“We advised residents of this water rationing. We
actually went there physically on a tour to all suburbs informing them that
we will be having maintenance work at the pump to clean our systems for 48
hours and the situation is under control. So I urge residents to calm down,”
Chakabuda said.
But residents denied ever being alerted about the
water rationing that has gone beyond 48 hours.
Chakabuda said the
water rationing has been prolonged after a water pipe burst during the
maintenance work.
He said water shortages affecting the city will soon be
a thing of the past after council received a $45 million lifeline from a
Chinese company for the construction of a new water plant.
The city
council is currently pumping 24 mega litres to over 100 000 residents who
require about 60 mega litres daily.
The old pump is failing to meet the
supply hence the need to construct a new pump. — Godfrey Mtimba
HARARE — The High Court on Monday ruled that the
life of parliament ends on June 29, clearing the way for President Robert
Mugabe to declare the dates of fresh elections.
Judge president
George Chiweshe, delivering his full judgment today in a case in which
President Mugabe had sought to be excused from complying with a court order
forcing him to declare the date of by-elections in three Matabeleland
parliamentary constituencies namely Nakyi South, Lupane East and Bulilima
East, said the life of the current parliament was coming to an end on that
day.
Judge Chiweshe said forcing President Mugabe to set dates for those
by-elections in those three constituencies and other vacant seats
countrywide was tantamount to wasting taxpayers’ money.
He said those
who would be elected could be in office for only two weeks if procedures of
calling for such an election in terms of the Electoral Act were to be
followed before the expiry of the life of the current
parliament.
Chiweshe said because the lifespan of parliament is 5 years,
the term of office of the current parliament ends on 29 June since President
Mugabe was sworn in 29 June 2008, adding that fresh elections are now
imminent.
The judge said lawyers representing Abednico Bhebhe, Njabuliso
Mguni and Norman Mpofu, who lost their parliamentary seats following their
expulsion from the MDC formation of professor Welshman Ncube, failed to
convince him that the life of parliament can be extended by a four months
within which the president would be required to proclaim the dates of
elections.
Justice Chiweshe said the extension could only be done during
a state of emergency or when the country is involved in a
war.
President Mugabe had approached the court seeking to be excused from
complying with an order compelling him to declare dates of by-elections in
the three constituencies by March 31.
Comment fromCrisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition: Our Justice system may have gone to the
dogs. This became a very distinct reality when in 2001, our Chief Justice then,
Anthony Gubbay was forced into early retirement, to be replaced by what some
argued, was a more politically pliable one, in the form our current Chief
Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku.
Over the course of the last decade, the
lack of independence and impartiality of the Judiciary, has been a major part of
the democratic deficits that have been flagged in Zimbabwe. The argument has
been made that the Judiciary in Zimbabwe since then ceased to be impartial, and
became a willing political tool, with the purging of the bench between 2000 and
2002.
The purge was followed by the promotion
and insertion of at least five new judges thought to be politically pliable to
the executive, and this thinking is further fortified by the “ illegal” and
unilateral appointment of several High Court judges in December 2012. The
appointments are argued to have been “illegal” and “ unilateral” in that the
appointments were made without the Prime Minister being consulted, and without
giving his consent, as is required by law, and as assented to by the governing
authorities under the Global Political Agreement (GPA) of 15 September
2008.
These developments, amongst other
matters, have led, especially on matters of rights and politics, to an almost
total mistrust of the judicial system, and a lack of faith in the ability of the
courts to be fair and just in the conduct of their
business.
As we head towards a critical election, and given the polarized
nature of our polity, it is not completely unforeseeable that the result of the
next election maybe decided by the courts. In light of this, one cannot be
faulted for thinking that the persecution, and vilification of Justice Hungwe,
may be meant as an example, calculated to ensure that if that becomes a reality,
the High Court and Supreme Court are manned by benches which are either
malleable and can do the bidding of ZANU Pf. It seems also clear, that if
malleability is not achieved, at the very least there will be sufficient fear
planted in them through being shown that, if you do not tow the correct
political line, you will be forced off the bench.
The targeting of Justice Hungwe ensures that the already low
justice bank, reaches new depths of bankruptcy. In my opinion, in the case of
the sustained attacks on Justice Hungwe, there is nothing but prejudice and
political interest, and that if these are removed, there will be nothing
left.
A cursory search of judgments passed by Justice Hungwe on cases in
which the state has had a political or economic interest, and his submissions
and opinions on Independence of the Country (He is an ex-Combatant),
independence of the War veterans Association (of which he was first President)
and Independence of the Judiciary, will show that these sentiments have not been
met with approval by those who believe that all these should be malleable tools
in the hands of ZANU PF.
It is perhaps this more than anything
else that may be suggested, that Justice Hungwe has found himself in the cross
hairs of the partisan public media which has turned him into ZANU PF’s enemy No.
1.
As a born free, one wonders how this
model citizen, who fought in our struggle for independence and freedom, had a
career sterling enough as a lawyer to be appointed a judge, feels as he is
sanctioned by some of his peers who were on the opposite side of the liberation
struggle. It is common cause that some on the bench served as Members of
Parliament and Ministers in Colonial Rhodesia, and Muzorewa’s short lived
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia government.
But everyone has a past, and without
seeking to malign the Judiciary, it is not beyond imagining, that it is possible
that, because of the huge debt of gratitude that such people owe to ZANU PF,
they may be over paying the debt through perpetuating a hostage crisis, in which
political interests hold the judiciary hostage.
After all, it was the current Chief
Justice who chaired the Constitutional Commission from 2000, which had its draft
constitution rejected after the Chief Justice, then Chairman, allowed the
President to make 238 Executive Edits to the draft constitution. It is the same
Chief justice, who from his current station, hurriedly swore in President Mugabe
after the June 29 2008 electoral non-event, which everyone agreed could not
qualify as a credible election, forcing the same President to get into a GNU
with the two MDCs.
We hear that Justice Hungwe was summoned
before the Chief Justice and Judge President, which is as it should be under the
circumstances. But it seems there is a Judicial Dynasty, which consists of a
triumvirate of the The Chief Justice, the Judge President and the Chairperson of
ZEC, meant to deal with the electoral question. Zimbabweans would remember,
especially as we head for an Election, that the Judge President George Chiweshe,
is former chairperson of ZEC who for over a month, withheld the Presidential
Election results of March 2008. The Judge President then was the ZEC Chairperson
now, Justice Rita Makarau. The ZEC Chair in 2008, in a fantastic display of
improved capacity delivered Presidential Results within 48 hours after the June
29 Run Off, leading to the stated hurried Swearing In of the President by Chief
Justice Chidyausiku. Everyone has a past, and sometimes the past is best
forgotten, but current form, where the Judiciary is concerned forces one to
think back, to see if there is no pattern emerging.
Even Professor Jonathan Moyo, cannot
fault the theory that, if as evidence shows, the Hegemony in the Judiciary holds
itself in service to a Political party and Leader, that they would then try to
exterminate those who don’t serve their interests, even with the help of the
Professor.
Given the foregoing, it is very clear to
me, that a lynch mob is being assembled and egged on by the State controlled
media, for Justice Hungwe. The reasons for the lynching have more to do with
Politics than Jurisprudence. The Political lynching of Justice Hungwe proves,
what has always been argued, that the Judiciary is held captive by Political
interests, and is far from independent, when looked at collectively. Given the
damage that has already been done, this “judicial assassination” of Justice
Hungwe, is only going to further lessen peoples’ faith and trust in the Justice
delivery system.
In the Final analysis, every right
thinking Zimbabwean agrees with the Law Society’s sentiments on the matter, that
the Judiciary and Judicial actions are not beyond scrutiny, but that such
scrutiny should be “measured, tempered and based on fact and Law”. This however
is not the case in the case of Justice Hungwe. There is nothing but prejudice
and political interest in this case, if the prejudice and political interest are
removed, you are left with nothing.
Justice Hungwe, through doing his job
properly, impartially and independently, has earned the ire of powerful enemies
and players. He however can rest assured that, most Zimbabweans understand that
the attacks on him are a perfidy, that his cause is just, and supported by the
people. Who by any measure are more important and powerful than any number of
Ministers of Government put together, especially with election season
beckoning.
The fight for judicial independence is
not Hungwe’s alone, it is ours, and as we head for elections, this backlash
against the impartiality and professionalism by Justice Hungwe, will face the
backlash to the backlash, this time from millions of
Zimbabweans.
We welcome your comments on articles in the Zimbabwe Land
Series. Please visit http://www.sokwanele.com/zimbabwelandseries
to leave comments, view other comments left on the papers, find links to
downloadable versions of all papers in PDF format, and read background
information about the authors.
By
Mandivamba Rukuni, a discussion paper in the Zimbabwe Land
Series
In this
9th of 12 articles, I address the need to broaden and deepen the
rural financial services sector, so as to ratchet up seasonal and development
finance for agriculture. I will offer a pathway to a vibrant rural banking and
base this on establishing a regulated but active land market.
The need for
broader and deeper rural financial services
Zimbabwe's
agricultural sector needs stronger financial markets: broader – reaching more
customers – and deeper – offering more products. The role of financing for
farmers, and especially for smallholders and family farms has not been given the
attention it deserves. A few commercial agricultural commodities such as
tobacco, cotton and soya beans have grown through contract farming as the main
financing tool. While contract farming continues to offer opportunities, it has
some challenges and the tool is not appropriate for many other commodities
requiring finance. There is a need to scale up the successful contract farming
models, and there is even more need for ambitious innovation, and for addressing
the strategic issues girding the systemic and sustainable development of a
vibrant rural financial services sector. The sector requires that breadth and
depth to include micro-finance, com mercial, merchant, investment and
development banking, credit guarantee schemes, private equity funds, as well as
social venture capital financing, among others.
I will argue
for a Land Bank in this article and link this to the need to establish a Land
Acquisition Compensation Fund that I alluded to in an earlier article, as an
important step in rehabilitating the sector.
Before I go
into that I just want to argue for 'catalytic' financing. Catalytic finance
basically refers to targeted investment finance that leverages other investment
finance, either because the initial investment removes an impediment or provides
a missing infrastructure, or leads to desirable policy and/or regulatory reform.
Catalytic finance is possible across public, private, and donor investments and
this type of finance is now required in Zimbabwe in order to unlock greater
volumes of "patient" money from the commercial banks into various parts of the
agriculture, food and manufacturing value chain. Such patient money is needed
for investment of a medium to long-term nature which is currently missing. I
believe that at this point in time, public funds and donor funds into the
agricultural sector should take the more catalytic route, where these public
investments are targeted at stimu lating more private investment by commercial
banks, farmers and agri-businesses.
Financing
smallholders has special challenges
The banking
sector in Zimbabwe has limited understanding of smallholder farmers; and
smallholder farmers have a limited history of dealing with large commercial
banks. The traditional support to smallholders from state banks (Agribank) and
parastatals has shrunk and that may be the case for some time. This means that
in order for commercial banks to reach more rural clients, there is a lot of
learning and education required on both sides. What is now needed is proper
financial intermediation offering viable savings and lending products to the
rural population. It can longer be the traditional 'credit' supply models which
have seen rural households with limited savings products that suit their
situation. With dollarization, it is now feasible to increase domestic savings
in rural areas. There is also anecdotal evidence that dollarization has also
improved supply response for beef cattle by smallholder farmers. This is
significant given the historical poor supply-response by the same clientele, and
understandably so given that cattle continue to be one of the very reliable
forms of savings in rural areas. With dollarization banks need to be more
creative in offering competitive savings products to this discerning population.
This should increase volumes of domestic savings and increase supply of loan
finance.
The need for
a full range of rural finance
Traditionally,
for the agricultural sector to enjoy the full range of financial products this
requires 3 categories of finance:
Short-term
(seasonal) finance for inputs and working capital;
Medium-term
finance 2-5 years (for machinery, irrigation infrastructure, etc)
Long-term
finance 6-25 years (for land acquisition, dams, etc.).
Today banks
are struggling to provide support in all the 3 categories. By the late 1980s the
financial sector was already providing very limited medium to long term
financing for agriculture. Because medium to long term financing of agriculture
is only viable at low levels of interest and low levels of inflation, this
explains further why medium to long-term financing practically disappeared as
the Zimbabwe dollar devalued and as inflation spiralled. Over the years, the
macroeconomic instabilities eroded the capacity of banks to provide such
capital. After dollarization in 2009, prospects for short term finance started
improving, but the banking sector has been unable to attract low cost and longer
term lines of credit.
The
combination of the insecure land rights and poor liquidity in the market has
compounded the challenges of farming as a business, for both small and large
farmers. The Banking Act requires commercial banks to collect either collateral
security for all commercial loans or, if the bank makes an unsecured loan, then
the bank must set aside loan loss reserves equal to 100% of the loan. For the
later, Banks have no liquidity to make such provisions and in any case a bank is
unlikely to go that route except for highly profitable deals. Currently farming
is not that profitable anyway, mainly because of cheaper imports including
illegal imports that dampen local prices. Zimbabwe’s borders are too porous. And
with no tradable land rights, farmers and banks have no way forward. The
micro–finance sector which could possibly loan smallholder farmers has shrunk
considerably and is unable to offer financial products to farmers. In
conclusion, there is hardly a rural financial services sector to talk about, and
this means that rehabilitating the land and agriculture sector will take a long
time under the present scenario.
The need for
a Land Bank
Mine is one of
several proposals out there trying to find a way of stimulating the re-growth of
rural financial services. I have indicated what the end result ought to be in
terms of institutions and products spanning short to long term. The strategic
issue therefore is figuring out the pathway and steps to follow given that it is
not possible to achieve all in the short term. The end result is vibrant rural
banking and a vibrant agricultural land market. The starting point is to find
ways of increasing investment into agricultural production and into land
development. With the provision of a Land Commission in the new Constitution my
suggestion is that the Commission embarks on establishing a Land Bank as well as
a Land Acquisition Compensation Fund. The two have to be completely independent
but strategically, the success of one depends on the other.
The Commission
does not require loads of cash to establish a land bank, rather since all land
settled under the land resettlement programmes is technically state land, it
follows that all leases and permits for this land qualify to go on the Land
Bank’s balance sheet. Initially, all Offer Letters, Permits and 99-Year leases
should be considered negotiable instruments, but only through the Land Bank
which in turn will rely on the Commission to sanction and confirm that those
individuals trading do qualify under the respective conditions of resettlement.
For instance, anyone holding an Offer Letter and occupying A2 land and now
wishes to go out of farming could offer to sell the Offer Letter to the Land
Bank, then the Land Bank could sell and transfer the rights to another deserving
and qualifying candidate. This is a win-win proposition since the value of the
Offer Letter is expected to reflect the value of improvements since occupation.
Similar provisions can be offered for A1 and Old Resettlement land permits. This
regulated and restricted market allows for a ‘learning by doing approach’ by
both government and farmers, and the process can be improved based on
experience. The Land Bank will be able to raise some income by charging a
commission and administration fees on these transactions. My guess is that once
these transactions gather momentum, the Land Bank can start using its balance
sheet to acquire appropriate lines of credit for medium to long term financing.
The bank will be able to start lending for land and irrigation development, farm
infrastructure, and machinery purchase.
Enter the Land
Acquisition Compensation Fund. The initial target is to finance compensation for
improvements for the land acquired from white farmers under the Fast Track Land
Reform Programme. In a previous article I laid out in detail how Treasury could
provide seed finance for the fund, say $30 million dollars. The fund will then
attract other funding. Holders of A2 land will contribute towards the purchase
of farm improvements they acquired through annuity payments into the fund. The
land bank will also be able to levy transactions on Offer Letters and 99-Year
leases and transfer proceeds into the fund. Development Banks could support the
process by investing in either the Land Bank or the Fund directly depending on
how the deals are structured to meet the stated objectives. Donors could
contribute to the fund directly by identifying land occupied by deserving A1
farmers and supporting these poor farmers to compensate for the acquired
land.
The
establishment of a Land Bank and a Compensation Fund is the initial step in
resolving the outstanding compensation issue while at the same time leveraging
medium to long-term finance for agriculture. Prospects for productivity and
competitiveness will improve, other conditions being equal. This opens up
prospects for commercial banks responding to short-term financial need of
farmers and agri-business.
Need for
pragmatism
There is
universal agreement that agricultural productivity and competitiveness has to
grow again as the surest means for food security and growing the economy. What
is not agreed in the political governmental discourse is how to rehabilitate the
sector so that productivity grows again. Farmers need finance to produce and
market. Those farmers or landholders who wish to leave farming and go into other
businesses need a way of disposing the land to new farmers. These processes of
a) mobilizing finance from the banks; b) farming productively and profitably;
and c) processes allowing farmers to leave and some to come in, all add to
increasing efficiency of the sector. These processes can be regulated either
by:1) the ‘state’ or 2) by the ‘market’; and 3) there is always the third way of
a ‘regulated’ market. I have argued for a regulated market to start with as a
practical way of addressing the ideological divide and as a pragmatic process of
learning by doing. There is need to be creative and innovative and do things
that have not been done before.
The discourse
so far has been a purely ideological one with no pragmatic offerings. The
loudest voices are of the ‘state fundamentalists’ and the ‘market
fundamentalists’. The former arguing that giving more secure rights to
individuals and families will not only result in the reversal of the land reform
program, but also that the state needs more options to redistribute land in the
future. The later argue that privately negotiable land rights are the only way
to rehabilitate the sector. In theory, and given the right investments and
capabilities, both systems are workable in the long run. Unfortunately for
Zimbabwe, both state administrative capabilities and market efficiencies are too
low to solve the problem. For instance, the state has failed to manage the 8,000
odd leases comprising the Small Scale Commercial sector. Adding another 18,000
odd leases under A2 is an obvious administ rative burden. On the other hand the
banking sector is too limited in its capacity to finance this sector especially
the predominant group of smallholder commercial farmers.
Conclusion
A1 land, in my
opinion, is where land policy should really open up to a regulated land market
and this is good for the financial markets because the land is in small parcels,
making it easier to transact and also making it a more competitive market. I
believe that A1 landowners will be the most vibrant and most diverse commercial
force in Zimbabwe’s rural areas. The farmers are already more responsive to
market signals than A2 and large scale farmers. These farmers won’t be stuck
inflexibly to a few commodities as with large-scale farmers. The A1 farmers will
do much more if given a more conducive land rights regime. These farmers will
form the new frontline commercial suppliers of manufacturing sector, especially
raw materials for food, beverage, textile and other manufactured products. Given
the chances that the financial services sector will also grow with a growing
rural economy, if follows th at these farmers will invest more in
pre-processing, farm machinery, pre-processing facilities, and so on, as the
sector creates more and better quality jobs, increasing household incomes - all
adding up to family wealth creation, economic growth, employment creation, food
security, and resilience against natural and man-made disasters.
Papers published so far in this
series:
All papers in the Zimbabwe Land Series are available in PDF
format from our document library (http://www.sokwanele.com/biblio).
Download today's paper by clicking
on this link. Comments may be left on this and previous papers by visiting
our site.
Zimbabwe Land
Series: Introduction (Sokwanele, 5 April 2012)
Why the land
issue continues to define Zimbabwe's past present and future (Rukuni, 5 April
2012)
Land Policy
in Zimbabwe: A Framework for Discussion Papers (Doré, 10 April 2012)
Land as a
'racial' issue and the lost opportunities to resolve the matter (Rukuni, 13
April 2012
The
Nationalist Narrative and Land Policy in Zimbabwe (Doré, 4 May 2012)
My
perspective on the on-going preparations for a national land audit (Rukuni, 21
May 2012)
The Poverty
Trap - The Economics Of Communal Land Use (Doré, 5 June 2012)
Changing the
rules of the resettlement game: The descent from developmental to predatory
state (Doré, 18 June 2012)
The
significance of land compensation for rehabilitation of Zimbabwe's land sector
(Rukuni, 2 July 2012)
Why Zimbabwe
needs to maintain a multi-form land tenure system (Rukuni, 17 July 2012)
A Law Unto
Themselves (Part I) : Making and Breaking the Laws of the Land (Doré, 1 August
2012)
A Law Unto
Themselves (Part II) : The Rulings and Dissolution of the SADC Tribunal (Doré, 3
August 2012)
Re-framing
the Wildlife Based Land Reform Programmes in Zimbabwe (Rukuni, 3 October
2012)
Myths,
Reality and The Inconvenient Truth about Zimbabwe's Land Resettlement Programme
(Doré, 13 November 2012)
Structural
transformation and the primacy of smallholder agriculture moving on (Rukuni, 5
December 2012)
Land, the
Environment, the Constitution, and the Advancement of Zimbabwean Society
(Rukuni, 17 December 2012)
Good faith:
Zimbabwe's obligations under international law to acquire land and pay just
compensation (Doré, 29 January 2013)
The Good, The
Bad, and The Unworthy: Zimbabwe's Draft Constitution and its Implications for
Land Policy (Doré, 9 March 2013)
Broadening
and Deepening Rural Financial Services and Land Banking (Rukuni, 8 April
2012)
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