http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009 20:43
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, together
with
the vice-presidents and deputy prime ministers, on Thursday held a
crisis
meeting in Harare which failed to resolve outstanding issues of the
global
political agreement.
Impeccable sources said the meeting was held
to resolve a series of
issues fuelling divisions within the inclusive
government.
The sources said Mugabe, Tsvangirai, vice-presidents
Joseph Msika and
Joice Mujuru, and deputy prime ministers Thokozani Khupe
and Arthur
Mutambara held an urgent meeting to deal with the issues which
have created
tensions within the government.
Thursday's
gathering followed a volatile cabinet meeting on Wednesday
where it became
clear that outstanding issues could not be left unresolved
for long without
risking internal paralysis.
The sources said the meeting dwelt on
reports of farming disruptions
throughout the country which have resulted in
Tsvangirai appointing a
ministerial team headed by Mutambara to probe the
matter.
"The deliberations on outstanding issues were adjourned to
Monday,"
one of the sources said.
The source said "all
outstanding issues were considered but were not
comprehensively dealt
with".
The meeting, the source said, brought to the fore the
differences on
fundamental issues between Zanu PF and the MDC formations,
especially on the
distribution of power.
The meeting - prompted
by power struggles in the unity government and
a range of unresolved issues
now deteriorating into open conflict - was a
litmus test for the coalition
regime's ability to weather the gathering
storm.
Failure to
resolve issues in dispute, analysts said, could leave the
unity government
further weakened and divided, signalling the beginning of
an unravelling
process which could eventually lead to collapse.
Information
Communication Technology minister Nelson Chamisa is
reportedly on the verge
of resigning over the seizure of the department of
telecommunications from
his ministry.
The outcome of yesterday's meeting was expected to
determine whether
or not Chamisa would quit, sources said. Leaders have
however been anxious
to avoid this fallout which might destabilise the
government and trigger
more unceremonious departures.
Chamisa
is said to have indicated in his consultations with Tsvangirai
and Mutambara
that he would go unless his ministry was left intact.
He was only
prepared to compromise if his ministry was combined with
Transport and then
co-chairing as in Home Affairs was introduced, sources
said.
Chamisa is also said to be prepared to stay if only the administration
of
the Interception of Telecommunications Act was removed from his ministry,
leaving the original portfolio as it was.
The fight over the
telecoms department is fuelled by Mugabe and his
allies' need to administer
the Interception of Telecommunications Act which
enables government to
intercept and record individual and corporate
communications.
Their desire to keep on spying on citizens mainly for self-serving
political
agendas is said to be the driving force behind the fight for the
telecoms
portfolio. It has been described as a snooper's charter.
Mugabe and
his allies are claiming that telecoms is not part of
Chamisa's ministry.
They say it should have gone to Information, Media and
Publicity.
Chamisa is saying this was not the original
arrangement when the
ministries were gazetted last year.
The
dispute around Information Communication Technology and telecoms
recently
seized from his portfolio and transferred to Transport and
Infrastructure
Development without mutual concurrence among parties in
government was said
to have raised the problems in cabinet.
Sources said Chamisa
recently wrote to Khupe when she was acting prime
minister in Tsvangirai's
absence after the death of his wife Susan asking
her to resolve the issue of
his ministry urgently.
They said Khupe then issued an internal
government memo saying Chamisa's
ministry would remain intact and the matter
was now closed.
Sources said this riled Mugabe who summoned Khupe
and Mutambara to an
urgent meeting where he declared he was unilaterally
transferring the
telecoms department to Transport and Infrastructure which
is headed by
former State Security minister Nicholas Goche.
Sources said this issue was top of the agenda for the meeting. Other
matters
which were discussed included the unresolved issue of governors,
permanent
secretaries and diplomats.
In terms of the political agreement
which led to this inclusive
government, Mugabe can only make senior
government appointments in
consultation and concurrence with the other
leaders, Tsvangirai, Msika,
Mujuru, Khupe and Mutambara.
Sources said the leaders were also expected to tackle the contentious
and
controversial dispute around the continued detention of MDC
activists.
When he came into office in February Tsvangirai promised
to secure his
supporters' release immediately but this has not
happened.
The issue of deputy Agriculture minister Roy Bennett's
controversial
arrest and release was also expected to come up in the context
of Mugabe's
refusal to swear him in, sources said.
Sadc leaders
in Swaziland last month said Bennett must be sworn-in,
but that has not yet
been done either.
The leaders were further expected to confront the
issue of political
and economic reforms focusing on the rule of law, human
rights and
democratic deficits.
The continued land invasions
had become a thorny issue and Tsvangirai
has also been tested over it after
recently promising to crack down on
farm-grabbers.
Land
invasions - a manifestation of continued lawlessness, and
prosecution of the
few remaining white farmers - has of late been featuring
prominently in
government discussions. Sadc urged government during the
summit in
Swaziland to deal with the problem.
The Joint Monitoring and
Implementation Committee, which was mandated
to supervise implementation of
the political agreement, has been receiving
many reports on land invasions
and other violations of the accord.
BY DUMISANI MULEYA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009 20:44
PARLIAMENTARIANS from the MDC-T have rebelled against party leader
Morgan
Tsvangirai's decree that they should not accept vehicles distributed
by
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono.
Sources in the central bank and
the MDC-T told the Zimbabwe
Independent that at least 25 MPs from the party
have since received the
vehicles.
Among the MPs who received
the vehicles are Marvellous Khumalo (St
Mary's), Amos Chibaya (Mkoba),
Prince Matibe (Chegutu West), Jeffryson
Chitando (Masvingo Central) and
Brian Tshuma (Hwange Central).
The defiance by the lawmakers,
sources said, had triggered generalised
infighting between the MPs, the
leadership and MDC-T civic supporters who
accuse the party of joining the
Zanu PF gravy train.
Yesterday, the MDC-T in a statement said it
did not have any report
that its MPs had collected vehicles from the central
bank.
"If there is any that have done that (collected vehicles),
then they
have acted against the party position. Their case will be brought
before the
national executive and the national council and these party
organs will take
a final decision on the matter," the statement
said.
Tsvangirai last Thursday held an emergency meeting with MPs
from his
party and ordered them not to accept the central bank vehicles. He
warned
them of disciplinary action.
The day before, his deputy
Thokozani Khupe had held an explosive
meeting with the legislators who
rejected her order not to accept the
vehicles.
"Khupe last
Wednesday told us that the party had reached a position on
the issue of cars
and that none of their members were going to accept the
offer," one of the
legislators said. "Some MPs openly complained and said
the decision was not
fair and made it clear that they were prepared to break
away from the
party."
This, the sources said, prompted Tsvangirai to call for an
emergency
meeting where he read them the riot act.
"We were
shocked when Tsvangirai said the party was going to stand by
its position on
the issue of cars and threatened to expel anyone who
accepted the offer.
Some MPs once again threatened to split from the party,"
another source
said.
"The prime minister said he was going to call a national
executive
meeting and inform it that some MPs wanted to break away from the
party
because of the issue of cars as the party was going to stand by its
position."
During the same meeting, the sources said,
Tsvangirai also barred the
lawmakers from attending a National
Constitutional Assembly luncheon the
same day in retaliation for the NCA's
decision to snub a stakeholders'
conference addressed by the prime minister
last month.
Tshuma and three other lawmakers from the MDC attended
the luncheon.
Last Thursday Gono held a meeting with MPs who
further asked him to
offer them second-hand vehicles.
The central
bank then decided to release the vehicles in batches.
The first
batch had 50 vehicles - 18 Isuzu KB300s, five Isuzu KB250s,
10 Mazda 2500s,
five Mazda BT50s, two Mitsubishi Colts, two Mitsubishi
L200s, two Toyota
Vigos, one Nissan HB and five Nissan Wolfs.
According to the MDC-T,
the issue of MPs' vehicles should be handled
by parliament's Vehicle Loan
Scheme.
"We have not heard that parliament is no longer handling
this scheme
to the extent that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe could once again
become a
central player in dishing out largesse when the government is now
agreed
that the central bank should not engage in quasi-fiscal activities,"
the
party said.
"It is disturbing to note that the RBZ
continues to abuse itself by
continuing to engage itself in quasi-fiscal
operations when such operations
should migrate to the government through the
Ministry of Finance. Engaging
in distribution of capital products is in
itself a quasi-fiscal activity."
BY LUCIA MAKAMURE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009
20:40
THE revived PF Zapu will not have elections for a substantive
leadership when it convenes its special congress next month, the Zimbabwe
Independent learnt this week.
The party initially indicated
that it would hold a congress where a
substantive leadership would be
elected, but has now decided that the main
agenda of the congress is to
endorse the decision to break away from Zanu
PF.
PF Zapu
interim spokesperson, Smile Dube, confirmed that the congress
will not
choose a new leadership but will officially adopt the pullout from
Zanu
PF.
"The special congress will be held as from May 8 up to May 10
and the
special congress will essentially make official the pull-out from
Zanu PF,"
Dube said. "It is a special congress because when PF Zapu joined
Zanu PF
there was a special congress."
He said PF Zapu's
revival would be in phases.
"The first phase will be to hold the
special congress and endorse the
pull-out from Zanu PF and the next phase
will be to write to Zanu PF to
inform them of the pullout, while the third
stage will be to regain PF Zapu
properties and finally we will hold a
congress to elect a substantive party
leadership," Dube said.
PF Zapu members have intensified efforts to recover properties that
were
confiscated by the government in the early 1980s.
The properties,
which were run by Nitram Holdings, include buildings
such as Magnet House,
the regional headquarters of the Central Intelligence
Organisation, Davies
Hall which houses Zanu PF regional offices, Castle Arms
Motel, and several
companies and farms.
The properties were purchased through
contributions by former Zipra
fighters from their 1980-demobilisation
payouts.
After the unity accord in 1987, President Robert Mugabe
refused to
hand back the PF Zapu properties seized in 1982 during the height
of
Gukurahundi in Matabeleland and Midlands.
In 2004, Zanu PF
claimed the properties had been returned to PF Zapu,
but this was denied by
its former leaders who said the properties were in
the hands of third
parties linked to the ruling party.
BY LOUGHTY DUBE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009
20:13
THE boardroom wrangle at Dande Capital Holdings (Dande) this week
took
a new twist with chief executive officer Danisa Mhlanga writing to axed
chairman David Butau questioning his authority to convene an extraordinary
general meeting of shareholders on April 20.
In a letter dated
April 14, Mhlanga wants the former Guruve North
lawmaker to provide share
certificates to prove that together with other
"convening shareholders" of
the meeting, they hold 55% equity in Dande.
Mhlanga also said Butau
in his notice of the extraordinary general
meeting did not list the names of
the other convening shareholders and their
equity in the firm.
The chief executive officer said this omission "accidental or not" was
unfortunate considering the importance of the meeting.
"We
kindly request copies of the share certificates which substantiate
the
conveners' purported shareholding of 55%," Mhlanga said in the letter.
"We
request in advance the list of the convening shareholders and their
respective shareholding in the company, which you 'accidentally' omitted
from the text of your notice."
The boardroom wrangle at Dande
erupted when High Court judge Justice
Lavender Makoni on February 4 granted
an application by Mhlanga directors,
Evison Musanjeya, Wilfred Hlanguyo and
Decent Chitsungo for Butau's ouster
from the company's board of directors
for absenting himself from its
meetings in excess of six months without
permission.
Butau's brother, Grey, was barred from interfering in
the running of
the company.
The ruling also confirmed that
Mhlanga, Musanjeya, Hlanguyo and
Chitsungo were the legitimate directors of
the company.
Butau fled Zimbabwe in December 2007 when police said
they intended to
question him in connection with dealings in foreign
currency on the black
market.
He only returned to the country
last month to launch a legal fight to
regain control of Dande.
He is currently on bail on allegations of attempted fraud, fraud and
violation of the Exchange Control Act and Exchange Control
Regulations.
In a notice convening the extraordinary general
meeting, Butau said
the current board of Dande must be reconstituted by
firing Mhlanga,
Musanjeya, Chitsungo and Hlanguyo.
A
reconstituted board made up of Butau as chairman and Tapera Mavura
and
George Chikupo would be appointed during the meeting, wrote the former
Guruve North MP.
Butau said he put up the notice on behalf of
shareholders holding
55,2% of the issued share capital of the
company.
He said the convening shareholders were of the view that
there was
general plundering of company assets and an attempt to take over
the
ownership of the firm by members of the board of directors in manner
that
was inconsistent with their mandate. - Staff Writer.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009
20:13
THE Ministry of Public Service has embarked on a nationwide audit
to
establish the actual number of civil servants and to fish out "ghost"
workers in a bid to control a ballooning wage bill.
The
move to audit the civil service comes at a time when there are
reports that
thousands of youths employed by Zanu PF countrywide were on
government's
payroll.
Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, Public Service minister, confirmed
the six-week
audit to determine the state of the public
service.
"We are in the process of conducting a service-wide audit
to establish
the number of civil servants in the public service because when
the economy
was not performing, many civil servants left in a non-formal
manner while a
few left formally," Mukonoweshuro told the Zimbabwe
Independent this week.
"The audit will establish the strength of
the civil service."
He said the results of the audit would be used
to determine the wage
bill in the face of measures to revive the country's
economy.
Mukonoweshuro said the audit would be completed in May and
a report
would be forwarded to him and government in June.
"The
audit will be completed by end of May and in June, we expect to
have a
report that will reveal the actual number of civil servants we have
in the
country. All this will be done to ensure that we have control of the
wage
bill as we attempt to revive the economy," he said.
Turning to
assertions that Zanu PF youths were on government payroll,
Mukonoweshuro
said he had received reports to that effect and the audit
sought to expose
ghost workers.
"The audit will address such issues," he said. "We
have heard such
reports that Zanu PF militias are on the government payroll
and as long as
there is no such evidence that cannot be
official."
He added that the audit would also probe allegations of
government
workers employed unprocedurally.
A fortnight ago,
Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment
minister Savious
Kasukuwere was taken to task in parliament on reports that
Zanu PF graduates
of the National Youth Programme were on the government
payroll.
In response, Kasukuwere denied that the youths were doing work for
Zanu PF
but said they were on national duty and were paid from state
coffers.
His response, however, prompted legislators to call
for an
investigation to establish how many Zanu PF youths were on the
government
payroll.
It has also emerged that thousands of
government workers who left the
country several years ago in search of
greener pastures were still on the
government payroll.
BY
LOUGHTY DUBE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009
20:13
CHAOS marred Bulawayo police promotion examinations last Saturday
after examination papers were reportedly leaked leading to the arrest of 12
police officers.
The examinations are held annually and are
used to promote officers to
higher positions. Bulawayo police spokesperson
Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo
could not be reached for comment, while national
spokesperson Wayne
Bvudzijena said investigations into the leakage of the
examination papers
were underway.
Constables who pass the tests
are promoted to the rank of sergeant
while sergeants are lifted to the
position of assistant inspector.
Constables wrote their promotion
examinations on March 28 while the
sergeants wrote theirs on April
6.
Authoritative police sources told the Zimbabwe Independent that
the
promotion tests were marred by chaos after police officers were found
with
examination papers before the sitting date.
The sources
said the question papers, printed at the Police General
Headquarters in
Harare, were being sold for US$10 for 10 questions. The
whole test consists
of 50 questions.
"Twelve police officers were arrested following
the examination papers
leak and they are still being held at the Bulawayo
Central Police Station,"
one of the sources said.
Despite the
discovery of the leak, the sources added, the examinations
went ahead
regardless.
"The examinations were not called off much to the anger
of other
police officers who were forced to write under protest since they
never had
access to the test papers and who have since launched a complaint
to senior
police officers for a nullification of the results," another
source said.
BY HENRY MHARA AND NQOBANI NDLOVU
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009
15:44
ZIMBABWE civil society's argument for a "people-driven"
constitution
making process is weak and instead they should play the role of
a watchdog
to ensure that the procedure does not serve the interests of
political
parties in the inclusive government, political analysts have
said.
The constitution-making process went into motion at the
weekend with
the selection of a 25-member parliamentary committee to steer
the drafting
of the country's new supreme law in the next 18 months in terms
of
provisions of the global political agreement (GPA).
President Robert Mugabe and the leaders of the two MDC formations,
Morgan
Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, signed the GPA last September that
led to
the formation of an inclusive government on February 13.
The
setting up of the committee saw the National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA)
-- a grouping of civil organisations and political parties --
launching a
campaign on Wednesday against the constitution-making process,
arguing that
it was "parliamentary-driven, not people-driven".
The NCA said
Zimbabweans should reject the process through
demonstrations throughout the
country.
But political analysts said despite denials from the NCA, the
constitution-making process outlined in the GPA was
people-driven.
According to the GPA, the constitutional committee
will appoint
sub-committees composed of lawmakers and representatives of
civil society,
but the committee will have a final say in the crafting of
the draft
constitution.
It states that the committee should
convene an "all-stakeholders"
conference within three months after its
appointment.
The public consultation process, the pact reads,
should be completed
no later than four months after the stakeholders'
conference.
"The draft constitution shall be tabled within three
months of
completion of the public consultation process to a second
all-stakeholders
conference," reads the GPA.
"The draft
constitution and the accompanying report shall be tabled
before parliament
within one month of the second all-stakeholders
conference."
The draft and the accompanying report would then be debated and if
necessary
amended in parliament within one month, before it is gazetted and
a
referendum conducted within three months.
In the event that the
draft is approved in the referendum, it shall be
gazetted within a month of
the date of the plebiscite and should be
introduced in parliament not later
than a month after the expiration of a
period of 30 days from the date of
the gazetting.
This process, the political analysts argued, would
be people-driven,
but the NCA, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
and the Zimbabwe
National Students Union have said it is defective and would
lead to a faulty
constitution.
NCA national chairperson
Lovemore Madhuku said there was pretence in
the GPA that the process would
be people-driven.
"They want to pretend that it is people-driven
and will work with the
civic society at sub-committee level," Madhuku said.
"Clearly, that is what
we can call parliament-driven process. Politicians
must not decide for us
the making of a new constitution."
He
said the committee announced by Speaker of the House of Assembly on
Sunday,
Lovemeore Moyo, was not independent.
"The people in the committee
are loyalists. Not every member of
parliament is credible and how can 25
members be chosen out of a parliament
with more than 300 people?" Madhuku
asked. "Some of them are also in the
executive who will listen to the Kariba
document which I like to call 'the
Biti and Chinamasa draft'. These guys are
the ones who are pushing for this
document."
He added that the
NCA would oppose the process under the theme "Take
Charge".
ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo recently denounced the process as
flawed.
"It is merely an act of consolidation of power taking
us back to the
era of one-party states. Constitution-making processes are
algebraic in
nature. If you don't get the formulae right, then you won't get
the answer
right," he said.
But University of Zimbabwe
political science lecturer Eldred
Masunungure said even in history there was
nothing like a people-driven
constitutional process because someone had to
spearhead it.
Masunungure said: "I don't understand what a
people-driven
constitution is. Even if the NCA are to lead the constitution
process, it
would be a civil society-driven constitution and not a people's
constitution
in some quarters.
"There is no constitution that
is ever mass-driven, it is always the
elite who have to lead. The critical
issue will be the extent to which the
elite will be able to work with the
mass genuinely."
He said even at the bottom class of the society it
is always the elite
who will lead.
"Even in a people-driven
revolution there is always someone who will
lead. The question that needs to
be answered is who are the people, and the
nearest you can come to the
people's voice is parliament unless you question
the authenticity of the
MPs," Masunungure argued.
"The duty of the civil society now is to
ensure that the process of
the new constitution should not end in
parliament. It should play the role
of a watchdog to oversee that parliament
goes back to the people who elected
them. It should be an eagle eye on what
these parliamentarians are doing."
The professor said the GPA was
clear that the constitutional committee
should work with the
people.
"It is very erroneous for any critic to say the process should
be on
any basis other than parliament. Let us not confuse people-driven with
mob-driven," Masunungure said. "The bottom line is that the process must be
all inclusive and involve anyone who wants to be involved."
He
said the NCA's chances to campaign positively for the rejection of
the draft
constitution at a referendum would be zero given that it would be
fighting a
process with the support of two of the country's biggest
political parties
-- Zanu PF and the MDC-Tsvangirai.
British-based Zimbabwean lawyer
Alex Magaisa supported the NCA stance
and was adamant that a people-driven
constitution must be created through
"active involvement and participation"
of the public.
He said for the constitutional committee to be
representative it
should have comprised people nominated by key
stakeholders, among others,
parliament, civic society organisations and the
business community.
"People must not only be involved in making it,
it must be seen that
they are involved and they must feel that they are
involved," Magaisa
argued.
"We know from experience that
constitution-making cannot be left to
politicians alone, especially
politicians who are trying to accommodate each
other within the structures
of power.
There is a clear conflict of interest in that they
already have the
power and they have very little incentives to curtail that
power. You need
others who are not within the structures of power to balance
the process."
BY WONGAI ZHANGAZHA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009
19:43
CAMELSA, a firm of Chartered Accountants - which unearthed fraud
which
could have cost Premier Finance Group the holding company of Premier
Bank
Corporation (PBC) US$369 000 - said there was no evidence of a
reconciliation on the total foreign currency received as commission (5%) on
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) financing facility
agreement.
Camelsa said reconciliation should be made on the 5%
foreign currency
commission income from the Reserve Bank financing facility
agreement to
ensure all commission due has been received.
The
PBC was last year contracted by the Reserve Bank to mobilise
foreign
currency from tobacco and cotton merchants on its behalf and to
receive a
commission of 5%.
PBC mobilised and forwarded a cumulative amount
of about US$ 5,2
million to the Reserve Bank under this scheme.
However, since the 5% foreign currency commission income was recorded
in the
system in local currency there were no reconciliations of foreign
currency,
actually received. Camelsa was unable to determine whether the
bank received
its commission in full or not.
"In the absence of reconciliations,
all we can tell with certainty is
the total foreign currency raised for the
Reserve Bank and not whether the
commission recognised is consistent with
that amount," Camelsa said.
"A reconciliation of the total
commission received in foreign currency
terms could not be availed for audit
verification," the audit said.
The audit said the risk created by
this development could lead to;
l Failure by the bank to fully
account for all commission due to it on
the Reserve Bank facility
transactions;
l Financial loss due to fraud and errors going
undetected;
l Failure to support claims with documentary evidence
in the event of
disputes between the bank and the RBZ being referred for
compulsory
arbitration and;
l A repeat of failure to recover
commission as experienced in the
previous year on transactions of a similar
nature.
The audit recommended that management should ensure that
there were
reconciliations of foreign currency commission received and
recognised by
the bank and the 5% commission due in terms of the facility
agreement.
"The finance department should ensure reconciliations of
the foreign
currency that should have been received by the bank are done
from the time
this facility agreement was entered into," the auditors
said.
The audit said there were inadequate follow-up procedures on
outstanding foreign currency receipts.
"There should be formal
follow-up procedures to ensure that foreign
currency receipts owing by
customers are fully accounted for," the audit
said.
"Our review
of the issues raised in the June half-year audit revealed
minimal progress
had been made towards recovering foreign currency due to
the bank from
several clients," Camelsa said.
Representations from PBC's risk
manager indicated significant amounts
of foreign currency were still
outstanding.
The audit said the work subsequently performed by the
internal audit
department refutes the notion of coupons having been received
from Twinleigh
in lieu of foreign currency owing by them.
"There is no evidence that files have been opened on any of the cases
or
that formal correspondence has been entered into between the bank and the
respective clients. The recoverability of these receipts is increasingly
doubtful as time passes," said the audit.
The audit said this
created a risk of financial loss if the amounts
prove to be
irrecoverable.
Camelsa said this could also result in penalties
being imposed for
non-compliance with Reserve Bank directives and
guidelines.
"Management should put in place sufficient follow-up
procedures to
ensure the (PBC) bank gets full restitution when it is owed by
clients.
"When the follow-up procedures fail to provide recourse,
outstanding
cases should be handed over by the financial markets department
to the legal
department for litigation," the audit said.
Businessdigest understands that follow up letters have since been sent
to
clients to invoke settlement and the matter has also been handed over to
the
legal department.
The audit said foreign currency loans were being
advanced to clients
without due regard to their current operating
environment.
The bank issued foreign currency loans to two
companies, namely,
Turnall Holdings and Gutsai Stores.
"None of
these companies repaid their loans on maturity. In the case
of Gutsai the
full amount was subsequently paid.
Turnall still had not repaid the
loan at the time of audit. The reason
given by Turnall Holdings in their
letter requesting roll over dated January
16, was that "sales have not gone
according to the plan due to the slowdown
in activities of the construction
industry", the audit said.
BY PAUL NYAKAZEYA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009
19:42
THE Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) has recommended that Econet
Wireless
reconvene an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) called by the
company last
month to seek shareholder approval for a transaction to speed
up its network
expansion.
Econet called the meeting to seek
shareholder approval for a US$94
million credit from Econet Wireless Group
to fund the next phase of its
expansion plans.
Old Mutual and
other allied top shareholders opposed the move, and
have contested the
published results which were in favour of the
transaction.
The
dissenting shareholders approached the ZSE seeking a reversal of
the vote.
In a letter to Econet this week, the ZSE committee said a way to
settle the
dispute would be to reconvene the meeting.
It said: "The Zimbabwe
Stock Exchange has received complaints from
certain shareholders that the
manner in which the poll was conducted and the
scrutineering process were
flawed and the ex post facto attempts to rectify
the process were
defective.
"The Committee of the ZSE has deliberated on the issue
and it is the
view that the irregularities surrounding the poll are so
serious as to
vitiate the entire process."
Asked to comment
yesterday Econet corporate communications manager
Ranga Mberi said: "Econet
has given the ZSE our response on the matter and
we are therefore unable to
comment further."
Old Mutual is questioning the actions of Econet
regarding conduct of
the poll.
The controversy surrounding
Econet Wireless' EGM last month is the
culmination of years of bitter
corporate battle between two of the Zimbabwe
Stock Exchange's largest
investors.
Old Mutual and Econet have been feuding for several
years now. Last
year, their feud broke out into an ugly fight when Old
Mutual tried in vain
to reverse the merger of Kingdom and
Meikles.
The two giants are also known to be at opposing ends of
the battle for
KMAL, with Old Mutual backing John Moxon and his associates.
Econet is the
single largest shareholder in KMAL.
The
long-running battle between these two corporate giants also
follows after
Econet's decision to acquire, together with Renaissance, a
controlling stake
in FML, Old Mutual's largest competitor in the life
business.
The EGM which started at 10 am turned into a marathon that lasted
until 7pm
after Old Mutual and a group of foreign shareholders demanded a
secret poll
based on the number of shares held by each member present.
The
shareholders also raised conflict of interest issues relating to
chairman
Tawanda Nyambirai's role in the transaction. Nyambirai will step
down at the
next AGM.
With EWG and TSMI, who between them have more than 50%,
unable to vote
because of conflict of interest provisions, Old Mutual had
hoped that its
own shareholding of about 12%, and that of the other allied
shareholders,
would be enough to vote down the deal.
After the
poll had been conducted, the vote in favour of the
transaction was still
much greater than that mustered by Old Mutual and its
supporters.
Controversy erupted after Nyambirai said Old Mutual
was not eligible
to vote, because it had emerged that some of the
institutions and investors
they claimed to represent as an asset manager had
not given them authority
to vote on their behalf.
When
shareholders and analysts arrived at the EGM they did not receive
the
results of the EGM. It was only after the request of a poll by some
shareholders following a question and answer session that the complexion of
the EGM changed and the role of the auditors, Deloitte & Touche, became
relevant as scrutineers to the voting process.
Mainly because a
poll is a democratic process provided for in the
Companies Act, the decision
to hold the voting process by poll was passed by
shareholders at the
meeting.
At the time the poll was called for, the auditors made it
clear that
because they had not been forewarned that a poll would be
conducted, they
needed time to prepare the serialised ballot papers for
voting by
shareholders present at the EGM and time to verify names of
shareholders and
shareholding held by shareholders as per the register from
First Transfer
Secretaries.
For those shareholders who were not
present, their proxy forms
previously submitted to the company secretary
prior to the meeting would
stand in favour of the nominated proxies and
still participate in the voting
process through their nominated
proxies.
BY PAUL NYAKAZEYA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009 19:22
IT is now two months after trading resumed on the stock market and
activity
still remains largely uninspiring.
The euphoria that characterised
the final stages of trading in Zim
dollars is gone and is unlikely to come
back as long as the greenback is the
transacting currency.
There are few US dollars in the country for basic needs let alone
investing.
Most local investors are liquidating shares to cover daily
expenses.
New money is only coming into the market in dribs and
drabs, contrary
to the earlier notion that foreign investors will flood the
exchange with
dollars and rand.
To date, only US$5,8 million
worth of shares have changed hands. Not
all that amount represents new money
coming to the market.
A significant part came from Old Mutual
switches whereby investors
sold their Old Mutual shares with the proceeds
used in buying other shares.
Since fungibility had been suspended,
until two weeks ago, the Old
Mutual shares were sold on the local market at
much lower prices than on
other exchanges.
Investors, pressed
to raise US dollars to meet daily running expenses,
ignored the glaring
price disparities, selling the Old Mutual shares on the
Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange for almost half the price on the Johannesburg
Securities
Exchange.
After the announcement that fungibility had been
restored, the share
price quickly adjusted to parity levels.
Coincidentally, the value of trades slowly improved after the Reserve
Bank
allowed local shareholders to uplift their Old Mutual shares for sale
in
offshore markets.
The actual movement of shares has not officially
begun up to now
amidst reports that the transfer secretaries have not been
told how the
process will work. Nonetheless, daily turnover has been
improving gradually
from the initial amount of US$30.
The daily
average turnover since the market dollarised is at US$153
885.
A record turnover of US$717 000 recorded on April 14 was buttressed by
a
special bargain of 460 069 Econet shares that changed hands at
US$1.
A number of brokers have confided that their buy orders are
steadily
increasing while the selling pressure, although prevalent, has
subsided.
While it is too early to be more optimistic about the
events on the
market, the improvement in turnover if it persists, will
undoubtedly inspire
confidence.
Under normal circumstances, the
average annual turnover for the
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange is US$200m on a
market capitalisation of US$2,5
billion.
This translates to
about US$800 000 a day. Although the current daily
average is only US$154
000, it is important to note that it is mainly
because of very low values
realised in the early days.
In recent days the market has been
turning over about US$400 000 a day
while the market capitalisation has been
gradually increasing from below
US$1.4 billion in February to the current
US$1,9 billion.
This translates to an annualised turnover to market
cap (liquidity)
ratio of almost 20% which is much higher than the 10%
average during the
good old days.
Outside the Johannesburg
Securities Exchange, all the other regional
bourses are synonymous with low
liquidity with Zambia and Malawi going for
weeks without recording any
trade.
The only exception and possibly a mirror of the ZSE is the
Stock
Exchange of Mauritius with a nine-year average liquidity ratio of
6,5%.
Last year the turnover to market cap ratio was 10,48%. On the
Lusaka
Stock exchange, only 3% of the market cap was traded in after
improving from
0,66% and 1,55% in 2006 and 2007
correspondingly.
The Nairobi Stock Exchange which is regarded as
the powerhouse in East
Africa is even worse at 0,27%.
The gradual
increase in liquidity is coming at a time the market is
debating whether or
not there are more than enough stockbroking firms in the
country.
There are about 21 stockbroking companies in the
country.
Other regional markets, the size of Zimbabwe, have fewer
than five
stockbrokers which is reasonable given the low liquidity
ratios.
Unless the liquidity on the ZSE rises dramatically, a
number of these
institutions are unlikely to survive until
year-end.
The struggle for survival is not limited to them alone
but cuts across
all the sectors of the economy. The stockbrokers can
possibly argue that
whatever would sink them would also threaten the
existence of many others in
the country.
No one is really
safe.
BY KUMBIRAI MAKWEMBERE AND RANGA MAKWATA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April
2009 19:18
CENTRAL African Building Society (CABS) mortgage loans
during the
financial year ending December 31 2008 were nothing in real terms
as sellers
sought foreign currency while the society could only lend in
local currency.
In a statement accompanying its financial results
CABS said there were
limited property developments funded by the building
society due to
hyperinflation.
The period under review saw the
increased use of foreign currency
which apart from property and the stock
market was the safest form of
investment in the hyperinflationary
environment.
"Mortgage lending was not meaningful in this period
because of the
hyperinflation," said CABS chairman Leonard Tsumba. "Sellers
sought for
foreign currency, while the society could only lend in local
currency."
Those who qualified for the loans could not buy or build
any property
as no one was willing to trade in local currency. The 'burning
phenomenon'
which mushroomed last year also made the mortgages which were
transferred
into individual accounts worthless.
CABS said the
deterioration of the economic and operational climates
in which it operated
reached unprecedented levels during the second half of
the period under
review.
"This situation raised serious operational challenges for
the society.
Dollarisation took effect and much business activity shifted to
the informal
sector. Financial volatility and unpredictability characterised
the market
place, making strategic and long-term planning nearly
impossible," said
Tsumba.
The society however managed its
liquidity position well over the
period under review in spite of the absence
of short-term financial
instruments in the market and challenges posed by a
volatile market.
CABS becomes the latest victim of the official
dollarisation of the
economy which brought back to the spotlight the
soundness of banks and their
role in the long drawn out economic
crisis.
The country's biggest building society and mortgage lender
in February
last week closed 37 branches around the country; 22 from
Mashonaland, four
from Matabeleland, five in Midlands and six from
Manicaland.
CABS head of retail banking Mike Finnigan said the closure
of the
branches was due to the unfavourable economic environment.
"We will still be operating a contact centre at our head office for
any
queries you may have," Finnigan said.
The closure of the 37 branches
could slow down property developments
due to delays in mortgage processing
as the country's economy is poised for
a turnaround.
"We hope
that in the future we will be able to return to normal
business of providing
you with full banking services," Finnigan said.
There has been a
halt in the construction industry owing to the cash
squeeze that has hit
companies and individuals alike. Building societies at
one time had frozen
granting mortgage loans.
FBC Building Society and Beverley have
started to offer mortgage
financing on a limited basis.
The
economic slowdown and the shortage of foreign currency have
impacted on the
construction of high-rise buildings and residential
properties.
The country's macro-economic conditions have had a negative bearing on
the
soundness of banks faced with contraction in the economy and the
challenges
of unrealistic exchange rates and interest rates.
Presenting his
monetary policy statement of the year on February 2,
Reserve Bank Governor
Gideon Gono said with the use of multiple currencies,
banks should come up
with strategies that will ensure that they will not be
affected by any
liquidity crisis to avoid curatorship.
BY PAUL NYAKAZEYA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009
17:46
METALLON Gold Zimbabwe is set to receive a US$8,5 million
injection
from local banks as it seeks to resume operations by the end of
this month.
The country's largest gold mining producer has not been
producing the
precious metal due to financial constraints caused by the
Reserve Bank's
failure to pay for the gold sent to its subsidiary Fidelity
Printers and
Refineries.
"We have been promised a total of
US$8,5 million by some local banks.
Although inadequate it will go a long
way in resolving our problem,"
Metallon Gold Zimbabwe group chief executive
officer Collen Gura told
businessdigest.
Gura said although the
banks currently did not have the funds to lend
to companies, negotiations
for them to acquire funds from their offshore
partners were at an advanced
stage. Gura said that they had engaged with
their suppliers to persuade them
to open lines of credit as they resuscitate
operations.
"We
have also approached some of our key suppliers and sensitised them
on the
need for them to release goods to the group before they are paid
for," he
said.
"With the exception of a few, we are warmly surprised that
they fully
understand our predicament and have agreed to give us their full
support.
This move is expected to augment bank funding," Gura
said.
He said that they were encouraged by these developments and
aim to
reopen at least two of their mines by the end of the
month.
Gura said the group led by their principals in South Africa,
had for
some time been engaged in negotiations with off-shore financial
institutions
for additional capital equipment funding.
Although
it is said to have been a very slow process hampered by the
current
world-wide economic recession, Metallon were confident that they
would
eventually secure off-shore funding to resume full production.
"The
current world wide economic recession has not spared
international financial
institutions, instead they are the most affected.
Progress on this front has
been painstakingly slow. We however remain
hopeful that this will yield the
desired results," Gura said.
The success of this initiative, Gura
said, is expected to revitalise
their operations, rebuild capacity to
producing at their former levels as
well as restore employee morale. He said
that although they needed US$10
million to kick start operations and
re-equip all their mines, they could
start their two main mines Hull and
Shamva with a budget of US$6 million.
Gura added that since the two
mine constitute 66% of the group's
production and close to 95% of the
group's cash flow, it would make economic
sense for them to start with these
two mines and roll out the other three
later using their own
cash.
Metallon Gold Zimbabwe produces nearly half of the country's
gold and
operates five mines -- Hull, Shamva, Redwing, Arcturus and Mazowe
mines.
BY KUDZAI KUWAZA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009
16:51
GOVERNMENT'S attempts to improve efficiency and restore
confidence in
the banking sector by relaunching the Real Time Gross
Settlement system and
Auto Teller Machines (ATM) could hit a brick wall as
banks' deposits are
said to have declined by over 70% since last
year.
Economists this week said banks could struggle to dispense
cash from
ATMs as foreign currency was not circulating in the formal
sector.
They also said banks' access to "clean notes" could be a
challenge as
most notes in circulation were soiled and could jam the
machines.
Kingdom Financial Holdings group economist, Witness
Chinyama, told
businessdigest on Wednesday that banks would face operational
challenges in
the short-term.
"The issue of old notes in
circulation which has been a subject of
discussion this week would be
addressed by banks themselves. Some people
think old notes are not
compatible with the machines," Chinyama said.
"It is my
understanding that banks would have to order new notes from
their respective
corresponding banks whether in New York or London to
address that issue," he
said.
"Our Reserve Bank is now out of the equation. It cannot issue
foreign
currency to local banks. Once they are deposited by clients, banks
send old
notes to their respective corresponding banks in exchange for new
notes,"
Chinyama said.
Zimbabwe has a number of commercial
banks with foreign roots,
including Stanbic, Standard Chartered, African
Banking Corporation, Barclays
and MBCA.
Chinyama said under the
current arrangement, local banks now act as
mere branches of their parent
foreign holders.
Premier Banking Corporation has become the first
local financial
institution to enable its ATMs to dispense foreign
currency.
The bank's clients can now access a minimum of US$1 and a
maximum of
US$500 from ATMs located in Harare and Bulawayo.
Former Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president, Luxon Zembe
said the
Reserve Bank had to engage respective centrals banks to get new
notes.
"The challenge with the Reserve Bank is to engage the
respective
central banks for local banks to get new notes," Zembe
said.
Zembe said with the South African rand there would be no
problems in
accessing new notes.
"Judging by the relationship
that exists between the two countries
(Zimbabwe and South Africa) accessing
the rand would not be much of a
problem. The volume of trade is high between
the two countries. But with the
American dollar it might be difficult," said
Zembe.
Zembe said it was important at this stage for the Reserve
Bank to open
dialogue with the Fed.
Independent economist John
Robertson said while the ATM system was
welcome the system was
unsustainable.
"The amount of foreign currency in circulation,
particularly US
dollars, cannot sustain the system for a long period. There
is little money
in circulation or going to the banks as there are few
deposits," he said.
Robertson said the available US dollars were
being used by traders to
re-stock and import goods.
Economists
however questioned the need for the RTGS system under a
multi-currency
regime where transactions do not require huge volumes of
money.
The RTGS is usually effective in a hyperinflationary environment.
Minister of Finance Tendai Biti said the introduction of RTGS and ATMs
would
only be using the US dollar.
"We are doing this in order to generate
efficiency in the economy by
allowing our settlement system to use United
States dollars," he said.
Restoration of the inter-bank transfer
systems, which had become
dysfunctional because of the hyperinflationary
environment that was
prevailing in the country, came as a result of an
agreement that was reached
between the Finance ministry, Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe and the Bankers
Association of Zimbabwe.
The Finance
minister said the move would also encourage the use of
plastic money,
thereby partly addressing the problem of limited supplies of
foreign
currency in the economy.
"We have to move towards the regime of
plastic money and debit cards
and so the restoration of ZimSwitch is very
critical," said Biti.
BY NQOBILE BHEBHE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009
16:49
ZIMNAT Lion's appetite for mergers could stand out as the most
viable
option to recapitalise the insurance company amid ongoing
negotiations to
strengthen the balance sheet, businessdigest has
gathered.
A cautionary statement issued last month by the Zimnat
board advised
shareholders to keep their stocks close to their chest pending
finalisation
of an anticipated deal that could have "material impact" to the
company's
fortunes.
Despite keeping a tight lid on the nature
of the ongoing negotiations,
analysts have predicted that this might be a
capital injection option given
the prevailing economic conditions and the
under-capitalisation of financial
institutions, including insurance
companies.
"Shareholders are hereby advised that Zimnat Lion
Insurance Company
Ltd has entered negotiations which may have material
impact on the company
and therefore shareholders are therefore advised to
exercise caution in
trading of their shares," said the company
board.
For the past five years insurance companies had been making
most of
their revenue from stock market investment instead of their core
business of
underwriting.
Analysts contend that the revenue
generated from the currently
lukewarm stock market might not be sufficient
to recapitalise the listed
concern.
Zimnat Lion has a market
capitalisation of at least US$2,2 million.
But an urgent need to
focus on its core business would demand more
capital, which the local bourse
might not generate.
Analysts have predicted that severe foreign
currency shortages on the
domestic market would rule out possibilities of a
rights issue.
Another option that Zimnat has would be a buyout of
minority
shareholders by the cash rich parent company, TA Holdings, which
has an
estimated 85% stake.
Again pursuing on this path could
result in regulatory constraints
from Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.
Market analysts said TA Holdings was in violation of stock exchange
regulations restricting a majority shareholder from exceeding 70% of issued
shares. On the other hand, this deal could be a board decision that could
correct this anomaly.
Efforts to get comment from company
secretary Anthony Makonese on the
progress of the negotiations were
fruitless.
The anticipated deal follows 2005 negotiations between
insurance giant
AIG and TA Holdings, which led to the subsequent merger
between Zimnat Lion
and AIG Zimbabwe.
Before this merger,
Zimnat Insurance Company had merged with Lion of
Zimbabwe. The resultant
entity, Zimnat Lion Insurance Company was listed on
the ZSE in 2001
resulting in a relatively stronger balance sheet and
improved underwriting
capacity.
BY BERNARD MPOFU
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009
20:12
THE work of the 25-member select committee on the controversial
Kariba
draft constitution that was launched by Parliament last Sunday risks
failure
principally if not only because the process is neither
people-centred nor
people-driven.
Indeed, the Kariba
constitution-making process now underway is worse
than all previous
constitution-making processes, including those undertaken
by the
Constitutional Commission in 1999 and the NCA in 2001, such that it
cannot
be rationally explained or defended in the name of the people even by
its
most reckless proponents.
There's no prize for guessing why this is
so. While many Zimbabweans
would readily agree that it is great to have the
tasty bream and tiger fish
along with the utility of electricity from
wonderful Kariba, most would
certainly not accept, as the fundamental law of
the land, a boat-driven
constitution drafted by three lawyers from Zanu PF
and the two MDC
formations supervised by a big brother from south of the
Limpopo.
It is therefore politicide that the penniless coalition
government,
through Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs minister Eric
Matinenga, is
pressing ahead with the Kariba draft under a manifestly flawed
constitution-making process.
To understand this, there is a
need to first appreciate what is
manifestly wrong with the Kariba
process.
This is important because there are some weak minds in the
government
who are beginning to believe their lie that the opposition to the
Kariba
process is reflexively coming from the usual malcontents whose
business is
just to oppose the government.
Apart from the fact
that the coalition government has no money to fund
the Kariba process and is
embarrassing the nation by begging from donors who
are reluctant to even
provide food and medical assistance, the one thing
that is particularly
wrong with this process is that for the first time
since Independence, we
have a constitution-making agenda that starts with,
and is based on, a
secret draft.
Indeed, the September 15, 2008 Interparty Political
Agreement between
Zanu PF and the two MDC formations specifically refers to
the Kariba draft,
which has never been made public, as the starting point of
the new
constitution-making process.
This is why it is most
fitting to describe the work of the
parliamentary select committee as the
Kariba process.
Matinenga has been at pains to argue that the
Kariba draft of the
three political parties in the coalition government and
who dominate
parliament is "only a reference point" and that therefore
starting with the
Kariba draft does not take away that people will remain
free to support the
draft or to oppose it.
Unfortunately
Matinenga and those who take his view miss the point
that supporting or
opposing a done constitution-making deal is not freedom
at all.
Freedom in matters as fundamental as the first law of the land does
not come
from the government but is God-given and is thus natural to every
human
being.
The freedom that Zimbabweans need and deserve when it comes
to the
making of their constitution, which is the fundamental law of their
land, is
to make that constitution from point zero on the basis of their
open-ended
but shared history, geography, culture, values, hopes and
aspirations and
not on the basis of a draft produced by three self-indulgent
political
parties with vested temporary interests that are by definition
narrow and
possibly misplaced if not altogether wrong.
The
Kariba process launched by parliament last Sunday is neither
people-centred
nor people-driven, and is therefore manifestly flawed and
objectionable
because it is based on a preconceived draft that it wishes to
use as a
reference point for the public to support or oppose or even amend.
That is totally unacceptable. In 1999 the government could have very
well
given the Constitutional Commission a draft to use as a reference point
but
that would have been absurd because the only reference point needed in
any
democratic constitution-making process is the people, not a draft from
any
self-appointed section of the society.
What this means is that the
Kariba process is without doubt worse than
the 1999 process of the
Constitutional Commission which was good enough to
start with an open-ended
process that led to the production of a draft only
after and not before the
fact.
The draft of the Constitutional Commission was rejected in
the
referendum on grounds that it did not fully encompass the views that the
people gave to the Commission.
There was no argument that the
Commission failed to fully gather the
views of the people. Against this
background, it is difficult to understand
why the coalition government has
chosen a flawed process that is worse than
our previous national experience
through the Constitutional Commission.
The only way to purge this
is for the coalition government to
categorically throw out the Kariba draft
as of no use or relevance
whatsoever.
The process must start
from scratch and not from a boat in Kariba. In
any event, nothing would be
lost because the Kariba draft remains a secret
document that has been seen
only by a select few in the three ruling
parties.
Minister
Matinenga should perish the thought that he can get away with
a secret
document smuggled in as a reference point for a democratic
constitution-making process.
Then there is the all-important
question of whether or not parliament,
through a select committee, is the
appropriate forum for making a new
democratic constitution.
The
honest answer is no and there are numerous examples from the
civilised
democratic world to support it.
Again, our history has lessons on
this. In 1999 the national consensus
was that parliament, which then was
dominated by Zanu PF with 147 members,
was not the appropriate forum to
spearhead the making of a new democratic
constitution.
The
government then argued in vain to have a process led by a select
committee
of parliament.
The Constitutional Commission was set up as an
improvement on an
inherently flawed parliamentary process.
The
only way to remedy the inappropriateness of a parliamentary
process is to
create an elected Constituent Assembly or to have a body
similar to but
better than the 1999 Constitutional Commission whose
composition, method of
work and draft were far better than the 25-member,
chairmanless, select
committee that has been set up to push through an
inferior and still secret
Kariba draft constitution that is dead in the
water.
*Jonathan
Moyo is MP for Tsholotsho North.
BY JONATHAN MOYO
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009
15:39
IN the aftermath of the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement
on
December 21 1979 in London Bishop Abel Muzorewa is reported to have
predicted that if by "some terrible miracle" his party lost, "Zimbabwe would
be finished as far as freedom and democracy and economic development are
concerned".
A few months later, in March 1980, when the results
of Zimbabwe's
first post-colonial election were announced, showing victory
for Zanu PF,
the late Joshua Nkomo expressed his disappointment thus: "You
give them one
man one vote and look what they do with it."
One
can easily tell that the veteran politician meant that the voters
had
blundered in voting into power the winning party.
Ian Smith, the
last colonial ruler of the country, in part refused for
a long time to hand
over power to the black majority population on the
argument that doing so
would plunge the country into ruin due to bad
governance.
Smith
has been discredited on many fronts as a diehard racist, and
dwelling on his
argument might diminish the weight of the Muzorewa and Nkomo
predictions.
African leaders in many other parts of the African
continent have over
the years illustrated that even black people can govern
well.
There still will be a lot to say, even without making
reference to
Smith. One question that would however remain relevant
notwithstanding its
origin would be whether Zimbabwe prospered or plunged
into dismal failure in
the post-Independence era. The answer has nothing to
do with race.
One could have argued at the time that the
disparaging statements by
Muzorewa and Nkomo were made out of frustration,
and by people who had a
bone to chew with Zanu PF.
Yet, looking
at the mess that Zimbabwe finds herself in 29 years on,
it is easy to
decipher the prophetic tone in the subject statements.
Fortunately
for some and unfortunately for others, the miracle did
happen. Bishop
Muzorewa lost the election. What followed is the subject of
his
prophecy.
As for freedom, the story was not so bad for most parts
of the country
in the early years of Independence.
In his first
television address to the nation, the Prime Minister
Robert Mugabe said:
"There is no intention on our part to use our majority
to victimise the
minority. We will ensure there is a place for everyone in
the
country."
Even the emblem of the new government included freedom as
a basic
tenet on the motto section: "unity, freedom, work." Yes, we do now
enjoy
many freedoms that were hard to come by in the pre-Independence
period.
Significantly, we can write critically in the opinion
columns and for
most of the times get away without any trouble. Once in a
while, scribes and
authors of opinion pieces do get into trouble, as was the
case when
Professor Arthur Mutambara, now deputy prime minister, was dragged
to court
along with the Standard newspaper over an opinion piece that he had
written.
One of the freedoms often spoken about by local
politicians is the
freedom to walk in First Street in Harare and to drink
bottled beer, which
freedoms were largely absent in Salisbury for
Africans.
The importance of such freedoms remains arguable, but the
fact is that
they are "new" freedoms that were brought about by the struggle
for
Independence, and they matter for a number of citizens.
Was
Muzorewa wrong then in predicting the end of freedom? Well,
notwithstanding
the gains made, a lot remains unachieved in the field of
freedom.
There are hundreds of citizens who endured physical
harm, starvation,
arrests and some even lost lives for belonging to the
"wrong party" as
recently as 2008.
Twenty-nine years on, the
majority of Zimbabweans still do not have
the freedom of choosing the
television station they would like to watch, or
the radio station to tune in
to, thanks to the monopolies that have been
maintained in the media sector
over the three decades of post-colonial rule.
And as for democracy,
the election reports about the last national
election in Zimbabwe speak for
themselves. The report of the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission on the June 2008
presidential election run-off is yet
to be made public, but the stories
about citizens whose arms were chopped
off long-sleeve or short-sleeve style
still haunt the memories of those
"with hearts".
The reason
behind Morgan Tsvangirai's withdrawal from the run-off
election was in the
main the violence that characterised the election
campaign leading to the
so-called election.
The basis for political power for any
democratic government should be
the unquestionable and clear mandate from
the people governed, empowering
that governed to rule.
Under
the current regime, the Government of National Unity (GNU) that
reigns, the
exercise of political power is not derived from a democratic
process.
Zimbabweans have not voted for governance through a compromise
arrangement.
Some of the political players holding the reins of
power have created
conditions that have made the holding of free and fair
elections impossible.
The 1980 elections were held under the
spotlight of international
scrutiny, without limits as to who could, and who
could not, monitor
elections.
Yet Zimbabwe's current electoral
system has become so "African" it
could not be subjected to the scrutiny of
certain international bodies.
Zimbabwe has become so "African" even
international figures like Koffi
Annan, Jimmy Carter and Graca Machel are
not welcome to carry out
humanitarian work in the country.
Whereas the founding prime minister of the independent nation declared
that
there would be "a place for everyone in the country", today white
Zimbabweans and any other whites have no place on the farms.
One wonders about what the majority race, and the majority tribe have
done
to the minorities.
Then the third aspect of Muzorewa's
prophecy, the economy, is another
painful subject to discuss. On April 18
1980 the Zimbabwean dollar was at
par with the British pound, and twice as
strong as the US dollar. The South
African rand was outside the range of
comparison.
Twenty-nine years later, just before Independence Day,
the Sunday Mail
carried the headline: "Zim dollar shelved".
The
lead story went on to state that: "The government has shelved
plans to
re-introduce the Zimbabwe dollar for at least a year to allow the
use of
multiple currencies to stabilise the local currency."
This means
that the local currency that was so strong at Independence
has given up the
ghost. The old bishop's prophecy has been fulfilled.
The reasons
behind the fulfilment of Muzorewa's predictions make
another whole different
discussion. What we have done with the one man one
vote that we earned in
1980, with the Independence that was won after such a
bloody and gallant
fight, is not something that we can quite be proud of as
a
nation.
Not many nations in their right mind would follow
Zimbabwe's example
of governance, economics or politics.
If I
must make my own prediction today, I should say: "If by some
miracle the
rulers of Zimbabwe were to restore the electoral practice of one
man one
vote in the strict and sincere sense, Zimbabweans would be wiser and
restore
the country to the place of pride that the nation once stood at on
April 18
1980."
Long live Zimbabwe!
*Chris Mhike is a lawyer
practising in Harare.
BY CHRIS MHIKE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16
April 2009 15:26
ZIMBABWE'S so-called inclusive government has not yet
been in office
for even 100 days, and therefore some of the progress to
transform Zimbabwe
and bring it to the glory long-awaited by a population
which has suffered
for a prolonged time is both heartening and
commendable.
That however cannot detract from the fact that
progress constitutes
only the first very tentative steps along a lengthy
recovery path, but there
is a very old and trite saying that "every journey
begins with a single
step".
Yet the inclusive government has
already gone beyond that, taking many
necessary, albeit sometimes tentative,
steps.
Some of those positive steps include:
*A
constructive review, and modification, of the 2009 national budget.
Of
especial significance was the declared determination to curb the state's
profligate spending which has been a fiscal characteristic for too long.
Minister Tendai Biti was very credibly outspoken that government must live
within its means, saying that government should only "eat that which it
gathers".
*Realistic recognition that the Zimbabwean dollar had
become a
currency pariah, unacceptable to many. Instead of endless mouthings
of the
past that Zimbabwe could not, and would not, surrender its
"sovereignty",
practicality came to the fore.
The establishment
of a multi-currency environment was legitimised by
the Minister of Finance,
and by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), with the
Zimbabwean dollar being
declared moribund or temporarily dead. To a major
extent this had been the
prevailing reality for some months although, with a
limited number of
exceptions, unlawfully so.
According legitimacy to the situation on
the ground restored some
credibility to the operations of the economy, and
was a major factor in the
elimination of many commodity scarcities, and the
consequential pronounced
reduction in inflation.
*An awareness,
previously oft denied, that a prerequisite of
Zimbabwean economic recovery
was reconciliation with the international
community, and considerable
funding support from that community.
That awareness resulted in a
near total cessation of governmental
outpourings of vituperative, vitriolic
attacks against the international
community and, instead, near pleadings for
reconciliation and financial
support.
Although, as yet, such
support has been relatively minimal (with the
exception of some considerable
humanitarian aid), some aid has already been
forthcoming, including a little
assistance in governmental payment of
educational and health care
salaries.
Concurrently, there has been some significant progress in
improving
the previously very constrained relationships with international
bodies such
as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In
contrast to the very negative annual evaluation reports of the IMF
in
preceding years, the March 2009 evaluation mission issued a surprisingly
upbeat report (although it inevitably also voiced some
concerns).
It stated that "a number of positive steps that are in
line with
previous IMF recommendations have already been implemented,
including price
liberalisation, the removal of foreign exchange surrender
requirements and
most exchange restrictions on current account transactions,
the imposition
of hard budget constraints on parastatal enterprises, and the
elimination of
the Grain Marketing Board monopoly".
The mission
also praised the new government's commitment to eliminate
central bank
funding of operations, and stated "the credibility of the
government's
commitment to fiscal discipline is reinforced by the adoption
of the
multiple currency system".
*The discontinuance of all RBZ
involvement in quasi-fiscal operations,
government belatedly assuming
responsibility for that which should be
executed by it, instead of being
imposed upon the RBZ.
That imposition, over the preceding almost
five years devastated RBZ
credibility, hindered its pursuit of its core
obligation, and severely
fuelled inflation.
*RBZ's extensive
relaxation of exchange controls, its restoration of
Foreign Currency
Accounts (FCAs) retention and management to the private
sector banking
entities, concurrently with discontinuance of mandatory
foreign exchange
surrenders, at specious exchange rates, which had severely
restricted
exporter viability.
*Wide-ranging economic deregulation: first
phases of decentralisation
and minimisation of state controls, including the
immediate restoration to
urban local authorities of control and management
of water procurement,
purification and distribution.
*Declared
intents to vigorously contain corruption in both public and
private
sectors.]
These are but a few of the extensive, positive changes
and
declarations of intent initiated or voiced by the new inclusive
government,
within a very short passage of time since it came into
being.
However, despite these highly commendable developments,
there have
also been a few very marked and disturbing, potentially damaging,
contradictions.
The inclusive government has stated very
categorically that although
land reform is irreversible, nevertheless it
would from now be implemented
effectively, equitably and
constructively.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said
emphatically that all land
redistribution must be in accordance with the
law, and that farm invasions
must cease forthwith, any such invasions
constituting acts of theft that
would be justly dealt with.
Nevertheless invasions continued, despite spurious governmental
denials (for
evidence on the ground of such invasions is irrefutable), and
as yet, there
have been no signs of preventive or punitive actions.
Concurrently,
although without specific reference to, or authorisation
of farm invasions,
President Mugabe impliedly or tacitly appeared to condone
them, with
outspoken reiteration that the land reform is an absolute which
will not be
reversed, and that all land, without exception, must vest in
Zimbabweans
(and insinuating that such Zimbabweans must be black).
On the other
hand, last week more than 20 white farmers in the
Midlands province received
offer letters which would enable land allocations
to them.
If
agriculture is to be restored to its former productive state, and
if
investors are to feel assured of ongoing respect for property rights and,
therefore, of investment security, these contradictions must cease. Land
reform must be implemented without racialistic undertones, peacefully and
fairly, and with full recognition and respect for Bilateral Investment
Promotion and Protection Agreements.
Yet another contribution
is that not only does government claim
determination to eliminate inflation,
but also to motivate and facilitate
investment, but concurrently it
radically raises various of its charges to
prohibitive levels (such as the
excessive fees now payable to the Registrar
of Companies), and it fails to
motivate its parastatals and local
authorities to charge fair and reasonable
tariffs (reasonably aligned to
those prevailing elsewhere in the
region).
The crossed and conflicting messages of these, and other
statements
and actions are major retardants to a comprehensive and
expeditious economic
recovery, and need to be very speedily, effectively and
constructively
addressed by government.
BY ERIC BLOCH
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April
2009 17:15
ZIMBABWE is at a crossroads. Nowhere is this crisis of
nationhood more
evident than in the current debate on how to come up with a
new
constitution.
There is already conflict between politicians
and civic society groups
over the process. Parliament has set up a select
committee to spearhead the
process.
Civic society, led by the
National Constitutional Assembly, is not
happy about the role allocated to
it and says the process is not
representative of the people.
Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo said the process was sufficiently
representative as parliamentarians represent the people.
This
is the view of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs minister
Eric
Matinenga of the MDC-T. Both major political parties, Zanu PF and the
MDC-T,
have an equal number on the select committee.
Civic society wants
an independent chairperson of the select
committee, the appointment of civil
society and/or independent individuals
to be chairpersons of sub-committees,
and an independent person to chair the
all-stakeholders'
conference.
The NCA in particular, as represented by its chairman
Lovemore
Madhuku, says: "We have demanded that the process should be
people-driven."
His organisation has already taken a position, an
unhealthy one in our
opinion at this early stage of the process: "We are
campaigning for a no
vote," Madhuku is quoted as telling the
media.
"We will repeat what happened in 1999. We are saying no to a
defective
constitution that is born out of a defective process
altogether."
We have no problem with the NCA and civic society
organisations
exercising their watchdog role in the constitution-making
process.
Nor do we think that they are wrong in demanding a direct
role for
themselves in the process. That is what democracy all is
about.
But in challenging the "representativeness" of the select
committee,
we feel the NCA and its civic society partners have overstepped
their
mandate. At the very least they are questioning the legitimacy of
parliament.
Zimbabwe is a parliamentary democracy, whatever its
faults. That means
members of parliament represent the people, unless it can
be demonstrated
that those members on the select committee were improperly
selected. Thus we
don't see what the objection is there.
The
overrated concept of "people-driven" is beginning to ring hollow.
It seeks to take us back to the classic, primitive definition of
democracy
in which all men must come together under a tree and vote for a
new
constitution.
This is impossible if that is what Madhuku & Co
are calling for. It is
a gigantic deception. If the people are not
represented by their elected
members of parliament, then how does Madhuku
propose to represent them?
We would hate to assume that the NCA has
grown so arrogant to believe
that it alone represents the
people.
Beyond that, it is another deception for the NCA and its
partners to
talk about the constitution as if Zimbabweans were trying to
reinvent the
wheel in which all the technical and engineering skills are
vested in the
NCA.
There is nothing "new" about any
constitution in the 21st Century.
At the end of the day, it is a
patchwork of what already exists except
that in this case, the NCA objects
to anything done by Patrick Chinamasa and
Tendai Biti.
In this
connection, what worries us more is the content of the NCA's
"no" campaign.
Since they have already adopted a position before there is a
draft, what are
they going to tell "the people"?
The NCA is telling us that it is
going to repeat the lie of 1999 about
the current constitution if it doesn't
get a seat on the high table as the
arbiter of choice.
What is
an "independent" chairperson to whom there will be no
objection in Zimbabwe?
Certainly not the NCA which vacillates between
neutrality and an opposition
party without a constituency.
If the NCA had been able to define
and maintain its neutral role, its
protestations about a new constitution
would easily command authority.
It lost that moral high ground a
long time back and is now no more
than a sore loser in the political
game.
We have been through this debate before.
Madhuku and
partners will not have forgotten "the Zimbabwe we want"
document. He is
reviving exactly the same tired arguments where the
objection is to the
"who" and not "what". Who drafted the constitution and
not what its contents
are.
Zimbabwe is in this mess in part because those who should
provide
leadership are failing. The "new" constitution should encapsulate
the
Zimbabwe we want, not what Madhuku and Co want.
With the
formation of the GNU there is a vacancy for an opposition
political party.
Perhaps the NCA can seize the moment and tell us what they
envisage.
They can then gauge their prospects. It's 10 years
since the MDC did
it.
Now it could be their turn.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April 2009 17:14
ZIMBABWEANS and outside observers are
constantly amazed by how often
history repeats itself in
Zimbabwe.
Many of the events that we recently witnessed,
for example after the
March 2008 elections, during and after the
presidential re-run in June 2008,
are a repetition of history.
Didn't the same thing happen during each election since Independence?
Didn't
the same thing happen under Gukurahundi?
Another repetition under
Murambatsvina?
Didn't the same thing happen in the Rhodesian days?
Those of us who
lived under Rhodesia, ie half the population of Zimbabwe
today, will
remember exactly the same things happening in the 1960s and
1970s: African
nationalists were captured, tortured, killed.
Their families were pauperised, harassed and destroyed.
It will be
a tragedy if we continue to repeat this sad history in the
future.
It is essential that we analyse and interrogate our
propensity to
repeat our tragic history so self-righteously, in the process
destroying
many of the good things we also managed to build up since
Independence.
Our glorious achievements in the first decade and a
half after
Independence, such as education, health, clean water supply, good
roads,
have been reversed in the last decade.
During that
decade we concentrated on destroying each other. We
totally forgot that it
was our responsibility to build the nation. Instead
we were intent on
self-destruction.
The main reason for this repetition of tragedy is
our failure to
address our inheritance: we accepted what we gained from the
Rhodesians
uncritically, resulting in the preservation of many of the
institutions,
laws and regulations which characterised the colonial
system.
Our mantra was: "What Ian Smith did, we can do too."
Indeed in some
ways we did "better" - we refined the systems of violence,
torture and
pauperisation.
Our analysis also was a repetition
of the past: we blamed all our
failures on Bush, Blair and Brown. This is
the only analysis we have: all
our problems are caused by outsiders,
imperialists, and their agents. It is
as if we had and have no
responsibilities.
What did we do about it? We condemned them, and
killed their "agents",
identified as anybody or any grouping that dared to
criticise what was
happening in Zimbabwe.
Clearly we have had a
very irresponsible form of governance, where
those responsible for
governance repeated the past unhesitatingly, whilst
taking no responsibility
for what they created or neglected.
We must move away from the
analysis which blames personalities for all
our problems: these problems
were there before Independence, and they are
still here.
They
will continue to be here in the future. Whatever personalities
gain power
in the future, they will have to overcome these problems rather
than blaming
each other, killing each other.
All this violence and killings have
not brought Zimbabwe any
solutions. Instead Zimbabwe has been plunged into
an abyss.
We need to transform the way we do things. The unity
agreement
between Zanu PF and the two MDCs presents Zimbabwe with a
wonderful
opportunity to review our colonial past, its values, principles,
structures
and institutions.
We should stop repeating the same
mistakes. We should move forward.
We should only preserve those parts of
the colonial past which are good, and
we should now discard the bad things
which caused us so much suffering
before Independence, and have continued to
cause us so much suffering after
Independence.
Zimbabwe's
political problems have both historical and contemporary
roots.
Historically, the political framework, analysis and values were
inherited
from the colonial political values and systems.
Into this potent
mixture we added the political values and systems of
the liberation
struggle. The liberation movements aspired to a nationalist,
socialist
future.
Most nationalist leaders envisaged a takeover of the
country's
institutions by the black majority, without a major systems
change. In
general it can be said that whilst the rhetoric was very
radical, the
reality was that the colonial system remained
intact.
Zimbabwe was praised by all for the peaceful transition
which enabled
the colonial system to remain intact.
But it is
this very same "peaceful transition" that has created the
problems we face
today.
The contemporary roots comprise changes which have taken
place
worldwide and in Zimbabwe itself, affecting the political scene
profoundly.
These include the strengthening of regional groupings,
in the case of
Zimbabwe, with particular emphasis on Sadc; the development
of a more global
economy and culture as a result of the improvement in the
means of
communication and the development of better information
technologies such as
television, video, DVDs, internet, etc; and the greater
emphasis on human
rights.
The increase in the population from
7˝ million to 14 million meant
that young people, most of whom had no
experience of the liberation
struggle, were soon to become the
majority.
Many of these young people had little appreciation of the
colonial
traumas suffered by their parents and grandparents.
However, since the economy failed to double, it meant that most of
these
young people would not be able to find employment.
With the higher
level of education came a more critical approach
towards decision makers:
the young tended to question decisions being made
by their authoritarian
elders.
In particular they were highly critical of the fact that
they were
left without prospects of employment after receiving a good
education.
Thus the higher educational levels brought about a
generation that was
much more critical of the post-Independence
government.
lFay Chung was based in Mozambique during the
liberation war and later
became Minister of Education.
BY FAY
CHUNG
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16
April 2009 17:08
THE inclusive government's Organ on National Healing
and
Reconciliation chaired by Minister John Nkomo commenced its work last
week
with its main mandate having been clearly spelt out in last September's
global political agreement (GPA).
Under the GPA the parties to
the unity government agreed to promote
equality, national healing, cohesion
and unity and this would be done
through, among other things, "the setting
up of a mechanism to properly
advise on what measures might be necessary and
practicable" to achieve the
intended goals "in respect of victims of pre-
and post-Independence
political conflicts".
This resulted in
the inception of the Organ on National Healing and
Reconciliation -- a
tripartite platform with representatives at ministerial
level drawn from the
three political parties in the inclusive government.
Nkomo and his organ's
main challenge is to deal with the level of impunity
the country tolerated
after Independence if genuine national healing and
reconciliation is to be
achieved.
Numerous media reports since the formation of the
inclusive government
on February 13 claimed that Zanu PF hardliners and
generals who were in
charge of President Robert Mugabe's bloody June 27 2008
presidential run-off
campaign were angling for amnesty for their evil
deeds.
Like perpetrators of atrocities in the Midlands and
Matabeleland in
the early 1980s, the hardliners, the media reports
suggested, wanted a
blanket amnesty -- no truth revealed, no questions
asked!
But if Zimbabwe is to have national healing and
reconciliation the
truth must come out and this can only be achieved through
a process
underpinned by the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation
Commission
(TRC).
It must be a multi-stakeholder- driven
approach with an independent
panel to ensure impartiality and public
confidence.
The first step in national healing is the establishment
of the truth
through a TRC, followed by justice discharged by an independent
tribunal
consistent with the constitution of the country.
Amnesty should be considered as an incentive to revelation of the
truth. In
some areas there would be need for restorative justice where
damages
(quantifiable) have been inflicted.
In other cases, you may need
retributive justice to discourage other
people from engaging in similar
activities.
The basic thing is that a victim wants to identify who
committed the
wrongs; the victim also wants to know that the person admits
and accepts
that what they did was wrong.
Then, of course there
are issues about what to do with the perpetrator
of the wrongs. Some victims
will be keen to ensure that the person is
punished which can be desirable
because it deters others from doing the same
things in future. Others may
want to be compensated for loss of life or
limb.
Retributive
and restorative justices have their merits and demerits
and there has to be
proper consideration with a view to moving the country
forward amidst the
specific circumstances that the nation finds itself in.
The state
should belong to citizens and should not be used to oppress
and undermine
the rights of citizens.
Where it is established that the state has
erred then it is important
that the state makes good on the injury
caused.
Nothing can ever change the past and, therefore, it is
important to
adopt a positive attitude to progress. The three parties to the
unity
government should be hailed for agreeing that the national healing and
reconciliation process should deal with pre- and post-Independence
conflicts.
The Matabeleland atrocities -- which claimed over 20
000 lives --
should be revisited because memory is a critical factor in
national healing.
You cannot sweep things under the carpet. People
will never forget and
because of that they will always feel the pain unless
their problem has been
given adequate attention.
The
Matabeleland atrocities are a sore point in the national memory
and things
can never be properly settled until that deep wound is healed.
But
having said that, some will suggest Nkomo's organ should go back
and deal
with other outstanding issues -- like the many atrocities committed
by all
sides during the liberation struggle.
They will argue you have to
consider the wrongs committed against
various groups of people during the
colonial era because, as we have seen
with the land issue, this memory
continues to spur others in the direction
of recovery but when mixed with
politics it becomes injurious to otherwise
innocent souls.
In a
paper titled "Justice and peace in Zimbabwe --transitional
justice options"
published last year by the Institute for Security Studies,
international
lawyers Max du Plessis and Jolyon Ford argued that if a TRC is
established
in Zimbabwe, the commission ought to be given power to grant
conditional
amnesty from prosecution according to fixed criteria, albeit
avoiding
blanket amnesties and not precluding criminal prosecutions.
The two
authors said the commission would need to confront the
difficult political
and legal issues of the past amnesties and pardons given
at various periods
in post-Independence Zimbabwe.
"Amnesty from prosecution is often,
as in South Africa's TRC, the main
incentive for revealing the truth," the
document read.
"It is a legitimate option in transitional societies
and may be a
political necessity. Considered waiver of punishment can also
be a powerful
signal of the authority of a new dispensation."
However, amnesty in my view, should be limited to individuals who make
full
disclosure of their wrong-doings, show visible remorse that serves the
interests of people affected, such as community service, reparation, a
public apology, or other signs of contrition.
BY CONSTANTINE
CHIMAKURE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Thursday, 16 April
2009 16:55
'THE farm disturbances and the wanton arrests of farmers are
not only
a threat to food security but to the goodwill that the
international
community had started to extend to the inclusive
government."
That statement by the MDC-T reflects the views of all
those who wish
the unity government well but who remain concerned that the
rogue elements
leading the land occupations represent all that is delinquent
and
unacceptable in the old order.
Western diplomats say
Zimbabwe will get no help from them while
President Mugabe continues to
dispossess productive commercial farmers who
could be the anchor to turn
around Zimbabwe's failed farming industry - when
half the population is
getting Western food aid.
It is ridiculous to say the occupations
are legal because the
perpetrators carry offer letters from people like
Didymus Mutasa or because
the land in question is state land.
What matters is that the occupations are racist and violent. Farm
workers
who have bravely resisted the attacks on the farms have been
brutally
assaulted by Zanu PF thugs.
While the MDC-T's statement is welcome
as an expression of the danger
the country faces in tolerating such
lawlessness, the party in government
has not gone far enough to restore the
rule of law.
As our editor pointed out last week, Giles Mutsekwa
has spent too much
time propitiating his Zanu PF colleague at the Home
Affairs ministry than
ensuring people are not deprived of their right to
liberty.
It is not sufficient to say his ministry condemns the use
of torture.
Those responsible must be prosecuted and farmers, whose only
offence is to
have produced food for the nation, should be
released.
Those invading farms may indeed be in possession of a
piece of paper,
many of dubious provenance, but their victims should not be
denied the right
of redress through the courts.
Arthur
Mutambara, who has said some useful things about the country's
image
recently, has at the same time become part of the problem with his "no
going
back" remarks.
Land reform may indeed be irreversible. But does
that mean the tiny
handful of white farmers remaining on the land should be
chased off by
well-connected predators who are employing gangs of thugs? Why
doesn't
Mutambara use his voice to defend the rights of all to
land?
Mutambara is among those demanding that the West lift
sanctions. Yet
he is sensible enough to know there is little prospect of
that happening so
long as violence and lawlessness persist.
Has
he made that clear to his colleagues in Zanu PF whose language he
appears to
echo? Does "no going back" include multiple farm-owners?
Something that is missing in this debate is the unanimous stance of
donors
meeting in Washington last month that the unity government must meet
its own
objectives set out in the September global agreement.
That is not
happening. The unity government is loud on rhetoric and
quiet on delivery.
Let's have less demagoguery on "no going back" and more
policies that
promote productivity.
After all, wasn't the whole purpose of the
Sadc-led mediation to put
Zimbabwe's economy back on a firm
footing?
When the Sadc finance ministers meet their counterparts in
Europe and
North America to secure the lifting of sanctions they will be
asked why they
have said nothing to Zimbabwe's rulers about land grabs,
violence and
lawlessness.
They will look very lame as they try
to suggest it is all the fault of
white farmers clinging to their
land.
Holding on to your land in Europe and North America is not an
offence.
Nor is seeking redress through the courts and expecting to be given
a fair
hearing!
If you read the government press over the past
few weeks you will have
been given the firm impression that the Chegutu
farmers currently facing
conviction were committing a serious offence by
expecting the courts to give
them a fair hearing.
And the abuse
meted out to them for exercising their right to appeal
to the Windhoek
tribunal tells its own story.
As Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
pointed out at the Victoria Falls
retreat two weeks ago, it is a fact that
lawlessness is an affront to
economic development.
Zimbabwe
will never succeed in an environment where property rights
and human rights
are non-existent.
Those who think Tsvangirai can rescue them from
sanctions while they
go on depriving citizens of their rights need to think
again.
The Sadc mission is heading nowhere at present.
Muckraker is surprised to note comments made last week by Prof
Welshman
Ncube in the course of an interview with SW Radio Africa.
Replying
to a point raised by Violet Gonda on media reform, he said
that remarks by
Muckraker in the Zimbabwe Independent "bordered on hate
speak
(sic)".
"There are of course, still exceptions particularly among
some of the
columnists," he said of those who had not embraced the new
order. "Those we
are talking about (are) Cabinet Files (Fingaz), Muckraker
and so forth and
so on, who still resort to unnecessarily combative, if I
may say, and
sometimes bordering on hate speak and abusive language. But by
and large
there is considerable improvement."
This is of course
pompous patronising nonsense. What has Muckraker
said that gave such offence
to the prickly professor?
We don't know. Ncube didn't attempt, and
wasn't asked, to substantiate
his serious claim.
But here is a
possible candidate. On April 3 we referred to remarks
published in the
Herald on March 31 in which Ncube appeared to suggest that
land occupations
were the result of people unreasonably hanging on to land.
"We
indicated to Sadc," he was reported as saying, "that Jomic had
been
investigating this issue (land invasions) and that there are a variety
of
things that had happened. One is the issue of people whose land was
acquired
refusing to leave the land."
Muckraker suggested that "Welshman
Ncube should avoid damaging his
party's reputation by attempting to explain
away these vicious attacks as
resulting from people unreasonably hanging on
to land. At least that was the
Herald version."
We are sure
readers will agree that nothing in those comments bordered
on "hate speak".
Is Ncube so pompous that he regards such things as a case
of lčse
majesté?
Or perhaps he felt the need to come to the defence of
Mutambara who we
have raked in the past for his boisterous behaviour? In
which case Mutambara
should be well able to look after himself.
So here's the challenge: Exactly what remarks by Muckraker does Ncube
think
bordered on hate speech?
We would hate to think Welshman is such a
sensitive soul that he can't
put up with robust criticism in this
column.
The latest statement from Ncube, carried in the Sunday
News, reads as
follows: "He denied any form of farm invasions but hinted
there are a number
of anomalies in the farms which the media had
misunderstood as invasions."
There you have it. It's all the fault
of the media!
Having said that, we welcome his reported remarks
this week that the
parties should have reached a common position on land
tenure within three
months. Let's hope that doesn't leave too much land in
the possession of
politicians, service chiefs, judges and
journalists!
Muckraker would like to express solidarity with those
of our
colleagues in the government press in Bulawayo charged with criminal
defamation. We will not go into the details of those charges.
But it might be worth recalling that at our meeting with staff from
the
state media a couple of years ago nothing we could say would coax them
into
criticising Aippa, also part of the state's armoury.
What would you
do to help if any of us were arrested and charged under
the Act, we
asked?
Nothing, was the response. We found it very difficult in the
circumstances to form an umbrella body for editors. They went ahead and
formed their own muzzled outfit.
Now, not even their own papers
are able to speak up for them. But we
will.
And here's the
irony.
Criminal defamation is a colonial law designed a century ago
to
suppress nationalist voices. James Chikerema was prosecuted under its
broad
ambit for calling Native Affairs minister Patrick Fletcher a
thief.
It has no place in a modern democracy. In Commonwealth
countries like
Canada, most of the Caribbean, and South-East Asia it has
been repealed.
The charges come just as ministers are planning a
conference on media
reform to guide legislative changes. For many years we
have put Aippa at the
top of that agenda. But let's not forget that residue
of empire lurking in
the shadows. It must also go!
Finally
we were amused to see that the Minister of Transport Nicholas
Goche has
"gone back" on toll fees the day after his ministry had authorised
Zimra to
start fleecing the motoring public. The Herald published a Comment
headed
"Motorists must pay up".
On Wednesday Goche decided motorists
shouldn't have to pay up - just
yet. Apparently they haven't erected a
single toll booth.
Goche recently said money collected from the
tollgates will be used to
maintain roads and will not be used for other
means.
So what happened to proceeds from the road tax that
motorists pay for
the upkeep of roads? And the carbon tax? What happened to
those funds that
we were told on their introduction would be
solely
dedicated to the upkeep of roads?
Sadly this all happened too
quickly for the Herald to prepare another
editorial headed "No going back on
tollgates".
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/
Make Scholarship Honourable, Excellency!
Thursday, 16 April 2009
17:08
I WISH to reiterate my displeasure to the Algerian Ambassador to
Zimbabwe, Ali Mokrani at the pathetic plight being endured by Zimbabwean
students in Algeria.
I will make no apologies at all for the
letter I wrote recently
complaining of the tragedy that has befallen our
fellow Zimbabwean children
studying in your country, especially when I had
to literally travel to South
Africa last week to send money to your country
via Western Union to my
sister-in-law who is studying there and is under my
guardianship.
As of this week, the Zimbabwean students studying in
your country were
surviving on handouts from their Zambian counterparts thus
I strongly
believe it is cheap diplomatic gloss for you to frivolously
exonerate your
country from a clear neglect of scholarship students who are
supposed to
look up to you for better welfare and protection.
While you might have neatly tucked away the abuse of our citizens in
your
country over the years and enjoyed a phoney clean slate of unreported
incidents; I fear you have been trivially negligent and complacent with the
last student intake and unless you rectify the situation immediately, a
scribbled denial to the media will never salvage the Zimbabwean students
studying in your country from the "dire straits" and "desperate situation"
they unfortunately find themselves in today.
Furthermore, Your
Excellency, it is extremely depressing for you to
imprudently insinuate that
a Zimbabwean scholarship student in your country,
is capable of
failing!
Are you sure that, a Zimbabwean, of all students, who is
on
scholarship for that matter, is capable of failing? I think you need to
check the international intelligence and literacy records regarding
Zimbabweans in the academia.
I suggest you address the
situation of Zimbabwean scholarship students
in your country as a matter of
urgency instead of campaigning for more
Zimbabwean students to apply for
your controversial scholarship programme
when you already have too much on
your plate.
I have benefited from a scholarship programme myself
and as far as I
am concerned being on scholarship does not mean that we have
to end up
redefining the rules of engagement in the media like
this.
A scholarship is honourable; make it just so Your
Excellency.
Vukani Madoda,
Harare.
---------
Education Sector Under Threat
Thursday, 16 April 2009 16:55
THE education sector in Zimbabwe has not
developed at all over the
years and it continues to crumble.
The Beam and cadetship schemes propounded by the government do not
have
funding support and have thereby been rendered useless.
Students
cannot afford to pay the tuition fees stated by the
government. What we
would prefer as students is a loan scheme in which we
would pay back our
fees after the completion of our studies. We also demand
that the tuition
fees we are supposed to pay be reasonable.
As students we supported
change in the March 29 elections hoping that
MDC would reform the education
sector. We are not pleased at all by the way
the MDC is dining with Zanu PF
and seems to be dancing to its tune.
We wonder if the Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is concerned about
the education sector. For
instance the University of Zimbabwe is closed and
students are not even
aware when the institution will be reopened.
We are yet to see what the
all-inclusive government has done for
students.
Even if the MDC
is now part of the government we will not hesitate to
go to the streets. As
students we do not have permanent friends but
permanent
interests.
Worried Student,
----------
ICT
Ministry Straightforward Issue
Thursday, 16 April 2009
16:15
THE dispute between Zanu PF and the MDCs over the content of the
ICT
ministry led by Nelson Chamisa is a sheer waste of time and energy and
certainly one that does not require arbitration because the answer is in the
dictionary.
The issue simply requires President Robert Mugabe's
advisors to visit
the free encyclopedia, Wikipedia for the definition of
information
communication technology (ICT).
Minister Chamisa
can draw comfort from the fact that one of his
principals, Deputy Prime
Minister Mutambara is a rocket science professor
who is more than capable of
educating President Mugabe on ICT.
According to the free
encyclopedia, Wikipedia the term is sometimes
used in preference to
information technology (IT), particularly in two
communities: education and
government.
In the common usage it is often assumed that ICT is
synonymous with
IT; ICT in fact encompasses any medium to record information
(magnetic
disk/tape, optical disks (CD/DVD), flash memory etc and arguably
also paper
records); technology for broadcasting information -- radio,
television; and
technology for communicating through voice and sound or
images --
microphone, camera, loudspeaker, telephone to cellular
phones.
ICT includes the wide variety of computing hardware (PCs,
servers,
mainframes, networked storage), the rapidly developing personal
hardware
market comprising mobile phones, personal devices, MP3 players, and
much
more; the full gamut of application software from the smallest
home-developed spreadsheet to the largest enterprise packages and online
software services; and the hardware and software needed to operate networks
for transmission of information, again ranging from a home network to the
largest global private networks operated by major commercial enterprises
and, of course, the internet.
Thus, "ICT" makes more explicit
that technologies such as broadcasting
and wireless mobile
telecommunications are included.
The above definition makes it
clear what ICT is and what it is not.
The current unnecessary dispute over
the ICT ministry gives credence to the
MDC's concern that some of the
ministries were created to give the MDC
useless posts.
However,
as the late Eddison Zvobgo observed, you do not reduce great
minds by giving
them small or meaningless tasks.
The controversy has some
unintended consequences by drawing attention
to the ICT ministry: this will
help to raise the profile and a better
understanding of the ICT ministry
because people might not have understood
what it entails.
Political Analyst,
Harare.
--------------
Reform of
Prison System Essential
Thursday, 16 April 2009 15:56
THE
nation's courts have the power to take away a man's liberty and
the prisons
are duty bound to take him into custody. However, the prisons
have a
responsibility for his welfare.
If -- as seems to be the case --
prisons cannot feed the inmates then
the justice department should make use
of alternative modes of punishment.
In respect of remand prisoners,
magistrates or judges should make use
of bail or otherwise insist that
police and prosecutors finalise cases in
good time.
They cannot
refuse bail when prisons are already overcrowded.
In the event of a
death occurring in a prison this must be
investigated and any or all
culpable persons brought to justice and in the
event of multiple deaths the
prison authorities must be accountable as well
as the Minister for
Justice.
The Minister of Justice should be aware that prison
conditions are
unacceptable and that prisons are overcrowded. There can be
no excuses for
the present position.
It is in the interests of
every MP to ensure that prisoners are
adequately looked after. Anybody from
any party could fall foul of the law
whether he is an MP, a friend or a
constituent. They should enact such
legislation as soon as
possible.
It is time that the general public are made aware of
their rights and
the media devoted some space to educating people on their
rights.
W Peters,
United Kingdom.
----------
Zimbabwe Independent SMS
Thursday,
16 April 2009 17:02
WE have to acknowledge that as a nation our
fortunes are down
but we should all tell ourselves that we will rise again
soon.
Let's not listen to those amongst us who blame
all our problems
on foreigners. All of us did ourselves wrong one way or the
other but let's
all go back to work to rebuild this nation. It will be hard
no doubt but it
has to be done.
Roy
Rukambe.
WHEN will the issues of the appointment of
provincial governors,
permanent secretaries, ambassadors and the release of
political prisoners be
addressed by the "all inclusive
government"?
The MDC should be careful lest it becomes an
extension of Zanu
PF's lies. Morgan Tsvangirai and his team should wake up
before they are
destroyed.
T Munyanyi,
Harare.
WHY did Morgan Tsvangirai not fire Paradzai Zimondi
over the
appalling conditions in the nation's prisons?
Jailbird.
ROBERT Mugabe appears desperate to rope Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai into his corner as he struggles to shrug off
targeted sanctions
imposed on him by the US and her
allies.
My advice to both our leaders is to first ensure that
there is
rule of law and the administration of justice on the home front
before
asking for clemency.
Gochai
Henyu.
ROBERT Mugabe must go! We are sick and tired of him.
Chaos on
the farms must stop otherwise no money will come from the
West.
Nan.
THE GNU must be serious with the
implementation of the GPA. The
first thing to be attended to is resettling
and compensating those displaced
by political violence.
For instance my home was destroyed and torched and there has
been no
recourse for that.
Observer.
CIVIC society
groups were complaining about the size of the GNU.
Now they are also
complaining over the proposed constitution-making process.
They want to start with consultations from the grassroots which
is very
expensive. Is it not better to use the NCA draft, the Kariba draft
and the
people's views gathered in 1999?
They want to prolong the
process in order to continue to enjoy
donor funds.
Nkulumani,
Mutare.
WE hope that envisaged reforms in the media sector
take shape
and the airways are freed with many players able to
operate.
Dollar for three.
POLITICIANS
must lead by example by paying their bills, debts
and taxes for us to follow
suit.
Observer.
FROM his apparently
conciliatory statements Tendai Biti would
have us believe that Gideon Gono
did no wrong in his tenure at the RBZ.
Next he will be
blaming all our troubles on the "illegal"
sanctions. So who messed up then?
Who slept on the job? They must watch
television's The Weakest
Link.
It never fails to deliver the real
culprit.
Muckabout.
DAVID Coltart should
clarify on the issue of the payment of
Ordinary and Advanced Level
examiners. Some subjects remain unpaid for.
We hear the donor
has abruptly stopped payment. Zimsec employees
are not cooperative when we
try to make inquiries.
Abused marker,
Chinhoyi.
I AM a teacher with three kids of school-going age.
We stay in
the low density suburbs and I need over US$ 400 to pay for their
first term
school fees. What about next term?
Concerned
Parent.
IS it logical for the UZ to charge US$350 for a
Diploma in
Education transcript when a teacher gets a US$100 monthly
allowance? GNU
must seriously reconsider this.
Impoverished.
ZESA recently announced the times for
load-shedding in the
Herald but surprisingly some areas are not experiencing
power cuts as much
as others, especially in Highfield.
Some areas are getting more power cuts than others. Responsible
authorities
should look into the matter and ensure that the scheduled times
are
followed.
Zvanyanya.
CRANBORNE suburb in
Harare has been without water for the last
four months. This has never
happened before.
How are we supposed to wash our bodies, cook
our food and flush
our toilets? I urge the responsible authorities to act
with speed for they
will be judged by their ability to address the needs of
the people.
A Tuso.
WE are losing out on
important calls that cut off midway because
of Econet's network failures in
Harare! Do they still need foreign currency?
This is daylight
robbery.
Robbed, Harare.
SULUMANI Chimbetu
should know that he is still very far from
being described as the "maestro"
as his father was.
Fan.