http://www.voanews.com
By
Marvellous Mhlanga-Nyahuye and Blessing Zulu
Washington
28
April 2009
Zimbabwe Finance Minister Tendai Biti was to head
home Tuesday from
Washington after a week of meetings aimed at securing
funds for the
country's reconstruction.
Before leaving, he told VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that he was pleased with
his reception by the U.S.
administration and sees the potential for a
meaningful
relationship.
Reporter Marvellous Mhlanga-Nyahuye caught up with Biti on
the sidelines of
a forum on Monday sponsored by the National Endowment For
Democracy and
Freedom House, and he noted a "historic" change in
U.S.-Zimbabwean relations
from glacial to cordial.
In Harare,
meanwhile, trench warfare between Biti and Reserve Bank Governor
Gideon Gono
continued as Gono responded to calls for an audit of his
institution with
publication of a 20-page supplement in the state-controlled
Herald newspaper
addressing issues such as his recent attempted distribution
of vehicles to
members of parliament.
Biti told the cabinet last week that the central
banker was running a
parallel government through the continuation of
so-called quasi-fiscal
operations.
In his Herald broadside, Biti
urged Zimbabweans and parliament in particular
to scrutinize Biti's recently
proposed 2009 budget, alleging "alien"
influences.
Gono also accused
Biti of being "very petty and needlessly controversial" by
ordering him to
surrender to the Finance Ministry the vehicles he had
proposed to loan to
lawmakers.
Sources in the former ruling ZANU-PF party of President Robert
Mugabe warned
that Biti is playing with fire in taking aim at Gono, who he
has said must
be removed from office.
Biti in an interview Tuesday
with VOA rejected Gono's charge that there is a
foreign hand in the budget.
VOA was unable to reach Gono for comment on the
controversy.
Economist Godfrey Kanyenze, director of the Labor and
Economic Development
Institute of Zimbabwe, told reporter Blessing Zulu of
VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that Gono is caught in a time warp as
dollarization has deprived
him of the power to print money.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Andrew Moyo
Wednesday 29 April 2009
HARARE - Zimbabwe's labour movement
on Tuesday called for an independent
commission to lead the drafting of a
new constitution for the country,
rejecting plans by the government for
Parliament to spearhead the writing of
the governance charter.
The
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said it could not trust
politicians
with the writing of the new constitution and vowed to mobilise
workers to
reject any proposed new constitution drafted by Parliament in a
referendum
scheduled for next year.
"We say no to a Parliament-driven constitution.
We will campaign for a "no
vote" against that (proposed new) constitution,"
ZCTU president Lovemore
Matombo told journalists in Harare.
The ZCTU
is the latest major civic society grouping to oppose plans by the
power-sharing government of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai to use Parliament to draft a new constitution for
Zimbabwe.
The country's largest constitutional lobby group, National
Constitutional
Assembly (NCA) and the Zimbabwe National Students Union have
all spoken
against the government's constitution reform process.
The
NCA that nine years ago successfully mobilised for the rejection of a
proposed a draft constitution sponsored by President Robert Mugabe and his
ruling ZANU PF party says it has already begun mobilising Zimbabweans to
reject any draft constitution produced by the unity government.
The
ZCTU and the NCA worked with then opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
and
his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party to defeat the government
draft constitution in 2000.
The MDC that later split into two
formations is now part of the unity
government with Mugabe's ZANU PF and
backs the government-led constitutional
reform process.
Matombo said
the ZCTU - which gave birth to the MDC - met Tsvangirai last
week but the
Prime Minister told the union he would take their demand for an
a
independent constitutional commission to Cabinet.
"We had a meeting with
the Prime Minister on Wednesday (last week) and we
said the constitution
must be headed by an independent organisation. He said
they are going to
discuss it in Cabinet," the ZCTU leader said.
Speaker of Parliament
Lovemore Moyo has appointed a 25-member committee of
legislators drawn from
ZANU PF and the two formations of the MDC that will
oversee the drafting of
the country's new constitution.
Moyo, from the Tsvangirai-led MDC
formation, said the committee would drive
the writing of the new
constitution over the next 18 months as outlined
under a power-sharing
agreement signed by Zimbabwe's three main political
parties last
year.
The Speaker said apart from lawmakers, more people drawn from
business,
students, rights groups, churches, media, women's groups, labour
and farmers
among others shall be tasked to assist the parliamentary select
committee
that will however have final say in the drafting of the new
constitution.
Moyo said the draft constitution would be put before the
electorate in a
referendum expected in July next year and if approved by
Zimbabweans will
then be brought before Parliament for
enactment.
Once a new constitution is in place, the power-sharing
government is
expected to then call fresh parliamentary, presidential and
local government
elections.
Zimbabwe is currently governed under the
1979 Constitution agreed at the
Lancaster House talks in London.
The
constitution has been amended 19 times since the country's independence
in
1980 and critics say the changes have only helped to entrench Mugabe and
ZANU PF's stranglehold on power. - ZimOnline
http://www.voanews.com
By Peta
Thornycroft
Harare
28 April 2009
There has been a
major controversy in Zimbabwe's inclusive government about
the culpability
of the central bank in the collapse of the economy. The
Movement for
Democratic Change party believes that the central bank mainly
served the
Zanu PF party elite, and has abused its position as monetary
authority.
Even before the unity government was sworn in two
months ago, the MDC
demanded that central bank governor Gideon Gono be
replaced.
They accuse him of illegally usurping functions from the
ministry of finance
and squandering precious foreign currency on President
Robert Mugabe's
clique.
This became an issue at the cabinet meeting
last week. Mr Mugabe said the
MDC's allegations about Gono were an attempt
to review his administration's
performance prior to the formation of the
unity government.
Economist John Robertson says he doubts whether Gono or
others will be held
responsible.
"The government or the reserve bank
actually legalized the process that
allowed them to transfer funds," he
said. "So they would argue, I believe,
that the legalities of these things
are not to be questioned in that they
gave them themesleves the legal right
to do them, now the big problem here
is the fact that these issues in the
end might be trivialities that are
preventing them debating much more
mportant much urgent issues that the
country should be
considering."
When Gono's five year term expired last November, Mr Mugabe
immediately
reappointed him. When MDC finance minister Tendai Biti and
others from the
MDC came to office they found the economic situation was
even worse than
they expected.
Gono, whose statements are regularly
printed in full by the pro Zanu PF
Herald newspaper, issued a statement last
week which listed hundreds of
imported vehicles handed over to the Zanu PF
administration.
He has also admitted taking, without permission, at least
$1.5 billion from
exporter's and humanitarian agency's foreign bank accounts
held in Zimbabwe.
He said this was to keep the country going.
He
handed out many millions of dollars of agricultural equipemnt mostly to
Zanu
PF leaders and supporters ahead of last year's general election, won by
the
MDC.
Gono has said the inclusive government should let bygones be
bygones.
"Gono's contribution was that he lengthened the decline process
by a couple
of years. I think if had not done what he did, the country would
have
succumbed to the incredibly bad policy decisions some years ago," said
Robertson. "But he found ways of printing money. Now that it has collapsed
we are totally bankrupt whereas before we would have least been in a
position to bring about a recovery with what we had left."
Robertson
says that many people allege there were two exchange rates during
Gono's
period at the central bank, one for Zanu PF and one for the rest of
the
population.
The reserve bank together with the government, run by the
ministry of
finance in this respect, legalized a process that gave special
privileges to
individuals, and the most important was the exchange
rate.
Robertson said privileged people could buy foreign currency for a
fraction
of what it cost ordinary people. He said this allowed the elite to
buy
assets, such as luxury vehicles and materials to build enormous houses
for
the same amount of money as ordinary people would spend on a loaf of
bread.
Robertson said until the central bank was managed professonally
and
fundamental issues of governance, such as respect for property rights,
were
back in place, he doubted whether the inclusive government would be
able to
attract investment or raise international loans to rebuild bankrupt
Zimbabwe.
http://www.thetimes.co.za
Moses Mudzwiti Published:Apr 29,
2009
Zimbabwe
to pay back with fertiliser
ZIMBABWE'S cash-strapped government has
revealed that it owes tobacco
farmers millions of dollars it siphoned out of
their accounts without their
authority.
a.. The
country's beleaguered central bank governor, Gideon Gono, revealed
in a huge
advert that he had spent US$18-million destined for accounts
belonging to
tobacco growers.
Wheat farmers are owed about
US$2-million.
The central bank has already admitted spending more
than US$30-million
belonging to gold mines.
Gono, who is under
pressure to step down, said on Monday through an advert
that the Zimbabwe
government was paying back the farmers with bags of
fertiliser.
"Those wheat and tobacco farmers who are owed money
by government through
the Reserve Bank, are being repaid in the most direct
way of supporting
their current season's production activities," said
Gono.
Last week Gono came under fire from Finance Minister Tendai
Biti for
borrowing billions of US dollars from international banks without
authority.
Biti wants Gono's conduct investigated, but President
Robert Mugabe has
blocked the move.
Since then Gono has placed
huge adverts in state owned newspapers,
explaining what he has done with the
money.
From buying cars for ministers and MPs to funding dubious
farming schemes,
Gono has laid it bare for the public to see.
The
unusual stance by the insular government comes amid rising tension
between
Gono and his boss, Biti.
Influential members of Mugabe's Zanu-PF
party have hailed Gono as a
"sanctions buster."
Speculation is
rife that Gono will be relieved of his position.
http://www.voanews.com
By
Gibbs Dube
Washington
28 April 2009
Some Zimbabwe
teachers have resolved not to return to work when the new
school term begins
next Tuesday, demanding that the government pay them more
than the US$100
per month they are currently receiving not that the Zimbabwe
dollar has gone
out of use.
The strike resolution emerged at the the Zimbabwe Teachers
Association's
annual conference in Bulawayo, which was addressed by the
Education Minister
David Coltart. He said he would relay the teachers'
demands to the cabinet.
The teachers are asking for at least US$200 a month
- though they say they
need US$500 in order to make ends meet.
ZIMTA
President Tendai Chikowore told reporter Gibbs Dube of VOA's Studio 7
for
Zimbabwe that teachers, like most parents, cannot afford to pay their
own
children's school fees.
Zimbabwe's schools were closed for much of 2008
and the early part of 2009
as teachers went out on strike or simply could
not get to their jobs on what
they were paid.
Meanwhile, headmasters
of state primary schools say nearly all parents are
applying for the
exemption from paying school fees which Coltart recently
announced.
President Paul Ngwenya of the National Association of
Primary School
Headmasters said there are fears the scheme could be abused,
plunging
schools into a fiscal crisis.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
Posted to the web: 28/04/2009
23:54:13
RAISED fees demanded by most public schools are illegal, Education
Minister
David Coltart said Tuesday as he prepared to fix new fees limits
for the
second term which opens on May 5.
Cabinet met on Tuesday to
discuss proposals by the National Education
Advisory Board on ways to
improve Zimbabwe's primary and secondary
education, including fixing
affordable fees and establishing a "means test"
system for parents who
cannot afford the fees.
In March, Coltart set out fees for the first
term, with a ceiling of US$150
per term for primary schools and US$280 for
secondary education.
But letters sent out by schools ahead of the second
term have shown a
dramatic rise in fees. Bulawayo's Founders High School
pegged fees for the
second term at US$500 including levies, while Mzingwane
High School in
Matabeleland South fixed fees at US$360.
Coltart said:
"We are announcing new fees shortly and parents should wait
for that
announcement, and all public schools should be guided
accordingly."
Coltart has recently admitted that a majority of families
in the country
cannot afford the fees being charged. He recommended that
schools should
allow pupils to pay in instalments, and where the parents
have no income,
headmasters have been directed to carry out a "means test"
to decide if
qualifying students should get a free education.
The
entire Zimbabwe civil service receives monthly allowances of US$100, and
unions say the fees being charged by schools are way above their members'
earnings.
Coltart gave no indication if the new fees would be
reduced, as he forecast
in March, or an increase from the last
term.
National Education Advisory Board secretary Trudy Stevenson said
some
schools were smuggling fees increases through levies which are not
regulated
by the government.
"There seems to be no control over
levies, of course it is meant to be the
parents that control levy and how it
is spent, but many parents don't
exercise their right to have a say in the
amount to be paid, and a solution
is greater participation by parents to
ensure their voices are heard," she
said.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=15912
April 28, 2009
Geoffrey
Nyarota
BUHERA (The Zimbabwe Mail) - Three people have been arrested in
Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's village in Buhera, bringing to 13 the
total
number of villagers arrested so far in connection with acts of alleged
arson
and
politically motivated violence in the area during the
burial of Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's late wife.
Manicaland police
spokesperson Inspector Brian Makomeke confirmed the arrest
of the 13 and
said the net would soon close in on those who are currently on
the
run.
He said the 13 were likely to appear in court soon to face charges
under the
Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act, for malicious damage to
property.
Meanwhile, the police have since released the Deputy Mayor of the
City of
Mutare, Councillor Admire Mukorera, who was arrested early Saturday.
No
formal charges were brought against him.
Mukorera was picked up by
police around three in the morning and spent the
whole day assisting with
investigations.
It is suspected that the Deputy Mayor is the owner of one
of the vehicles
used to ferry the 13 arrested people to Village Six, where
they torched 12
huts.
The Deputy Mayor was released after clarifying
that his vehicle was being
driven by another person on that particular
day.
That person is now said to be on the run.
The arrested
villagers, all believed to be members of the MDC led by
Tsvangirai burnt
houses and livestock and beat up people for their alleged
allegiance to
Zanu-PF.
Some agricultural equipment acquired under the mechanisation
programme, such
as scotch carts and a tractor, were also burnt.
http://www.kcna.co.jp/
calendar>>April 28. 2009 Juche 98
Pyongyang,
April 28 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium
of the DPRK
Supreme People's Assembly, will soon visit South Africa to
attend the
inaugural ceremony of the President of the country.
He will also
visit Zimbabwe.
http://www.businessday.co.za
29
April 2009
SURE
KAMHUNGA
Companies
Editor
MINING group African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) yesterday said it had
registered
a company in neighbouring Zimbabwe to scout for investment
opportunities in
coal and platinum mining.
ARM joins a growing list
of international mining firms from Europe, Russia
and China eyeing the
country's rich mineral resources.
ARM head of investor relations
Monique Swartz said the company, led by
billionaire Patrice Motsepe, was
"excited" about the opportunities in
Zimbabwe, which is slowly emerging from
more than a decade of economic
mismanagement.
The interim unity
government has identified mining as one of the key sectors
that investors
would be encouraged to enter either in partnership with local
firms or by
starting greenfield projects.
"I can confirm that our interest in
Zimbabwe to date relates to coal and
platinum. ARM remains excited about the
opportunities in Zimbabwe, it being
a resource-rich country," she
said.
ARM had already held preliminary discussions with the country's
mining
ministry and its chamber of mines and concluded that there was
"mutual
interest".
Motsepe recently led a high-powered 22-member
delegation of South African
companies who were on an exploratory mission to
search for possible
investments.
The delegation included
representatives from mining, banking, construction,
retail and textile firms
and its trip was carried out under the umbrella of
Business Unity South
Africa.
Swartz said ARM was unable to say when it would be making
concrete decisions
about investing in Zimbabwe, which is reputed to hold the
second-largest
platinum deposits (after SA), and is endowed with rich
deposits of gold and
coal.
"We have to follow the formal
procedures in Zimbabwe. And within ARM, we
also have our official procedures
for making any investment, that also take
time. Both of these processes
would vary depending upon the nature of the
investment. What we can
guarantee is that we will make a public announcement
at the appropriate
time," she said.
kamhungas@bdfm.co.za
http://www.businessday.co.za
29
April 2009
LESLEY
STONES
Information
Technology Editor
MTN has confirmed that it is eager to enter Zimbabwe,
and may make its move
by taking control of the existing mobile operator,
Telecel.
Africa's cellular giant has taken the unusual step of declaring
its interest
ahead of firming up any precise moves by exhibiting at the
Zimbabwe
International Trade Fair in Bulawayo this week.
Spokeswoman
Nozipho January-Bardill said yesterday plans were still
preliminary, but
operating in Zimbabwe was definitely high on the agenda.
"We have always
said we are looking for value-enhancing opportunities, and
Zimbabwe presents
us with one," she said. "Zimbabwe is our neighbour sitting
there waiting.
The government is embarking on a reinvention of itself and
has opened up to
South African companies to go in and operate there."
Asked if MTN was
most likely to enter through an acquisition or if a new
licence might be
issued, January-Bardill said: "It's not an answer I can
give right now. We
will see what is available. Some governments are very
slow at opening up
completely, and don't always tell you exactly what they
are doing, so we
will see once things are clearer."
Sceptics may fear that Zimbabwe is too
volatile or its population too poor
for phone calls, but MTN confounded
critics with its success in Nigeria and
Iran.
Analyst Richard Hurst
of research house IDCNews welcomed the news. "It makes
a hell of a lot of
sense to go in now. The market is at rock bottom, but
there is massive
opportunity for someone like MTN," he said.
"MTN is very good at managing
risk whether it's political or otherwise, and
they are right to prepare for
change in Zimbabwe."
The country is already served by three mobile
networks: Econet and Telecel
and government-owned NetOne. Hurst believes
MTN's most obvious route is to
buy the 60% of Telecel owned by the Egyptian
operator Orascom. The other 40%
is owned by the Empowerment Corporation of
Zimbabwe.
"Orascom has hinted that it would like to get out because it
wants to
concentrate on north Africa and the Middle East. With three mobile
operators
already in place, I think it's going to go in through an
acquisition rather
than a new licence."
January-Bardill said
exhibiting at the trade fair had let MTN raise its
visibility and had shown
people the services it could offer.
The degree of competition in Zimbabwe
was not a problem, she said, as
cellphone penetration was still low and MTN
was accustomed to entering
emerging markets against several
rivals.
"MTN has taken risks in much poorer countries and from what we
are seeing
there seems to be a commitment to grow and redevelop the
economy,"
January-Bardill said.
Zimbabwe's Sunday Business newspaper
said existing operators had failed to
serve the market well, leaving it with
one of the worst communication
networks in the region, a concern for
businesses, which complained that they
paid way above the regional average
for calls.
SIM cards could cost $10, but were rarely available on the
formal market so
customers often paid up to $50 on the black market, the
newspaper said.
stonesl@bdfm.co.za
April 29, 2009
A rhino after the horn has been hacked off.
By Owen Chikari
MASVINGO – The Zimbabwe National Army has deployed troops at the country’s sanctuaries as it emerged that the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (CITES) is mulling a censure of Harare for allegedly allowing the loss of over 80 rhinos in less than 12 months.Zimbabwe has lost the endangered rhino species to poachers as the Department of National Parks and Wildlife battles to curb the illegal killing of animals in the country’s national parks and conservancies.
Parks and wildlife officials yesterday said that they had sought the assistance of the army in order to prevent the extinction of some endangered species through poaching.
“We have deployed troops to each sanctuary especially the Hwange and Gonarezhou national parks”, said an official with the department. He requested anonymity as he has no authority to speak to the press.
“We have been battling to curb the illegal killing of animals as it has emerged that poachers are well equipped and doing (controlling them on our own) alone had become difficult”.
The director-general in the Department of Parks and Wildlife Morris Mutsambiwa has confirmed that Harare risks being censured by CITES for allegedly losing several animals species through poaching in a very short period of time.
“We risk being censured by CITES because we have lost over 80 rhinos in less than 12 months which is a very big number,” said Mutsambiwa.
National Parks is the agency of government responsible for managing Zimbabwe’s nine main public parks and the wildlife throughout the country, including the ownership of all black rhino whether on government or private land. The country’s main parks are Nyanga Chimanimani, Chizarira, Gonarezhou, Hwange, Kazuma Pan, Mana Pools, Matusadona and Zambezi.
Under CITES countries that are signatories to the convention have to meet certain standards among them protecting endangered species to ensure that they do not face extinction.
According to Mutsambiwa rampant poaching in the country’s sanctuaries has made it difficult for Harare to meet some of CITES’s conditions.
In a desperate attempt to stop the killing of rhino by poachers in Zimbabwe, a dehorning policy was introduced by National Parks and Wildlife Management. Unfortunately, this policy has been a failure as poachers continued to kill the de-horned animals.
Meanwhile, the department has taken over the care of a pride of 16 of lions at Lions Farm 20 kilometres east of Masvingo city. The owner of the property Mike Sparrow was recently forced to evacuate by suspected war veterans.
Sparrow who is believed to have fled to South Africa abandoned the lion project after being harassed by the suspected war veterans. One of them has since moved into his farm house.
The animals were left for weeks without care as the invaders did not know how to handle them.
The Minister of Environment and natural resources Francis Nhema has already instructed the department to take over the lion project.
http://www.herald.co.zw/
Wednesday,
April 29, 2009
Bindura
Bureau
THE scarcity of foreign currency in some rural areas has forced
service
providers and villagers to resort to barter trade in conducting
business.
In Guruve District, clinics are demanding payment in kind after
realising
villagers did not have foreign currency.
Zimbabwe recently
adopted the use of multiple currencies as a way of reining
in inflation and
ensuring stability in the economy. Clinics in Guruve have
been forced to
shift to barter trade as a form of payment for patients
seeking treatment
but do not have foreign currency.
Patients interviewed at clinics said
they were paying consultation fees in
the form of beans, salt, soap and
sometimes chickens.
Mr Peter Nyanga, whose wife was being attended to at
Ruyamuro Clinic, said
he paid eight cups of sugar beans after failing to
raise the required US$1.
"My wife suffered from malaria and I took her to
Ruyamuro Clinic for
treatment. After failing to pay the US$1, we negotiated
to pay in the form
of beans, which I did," said Mr Nyanga.
Another
villager, who only identified himself as Muzika, said he was given
an option
of paying in the form of salt, sugar beans or laundry soap. He
applauded
this new development, saying it was convenient to patients.
http://www.herald.co.zw
Wednesday,
April 29, 2009
HR.
The $50 billion note
continues to circulate in Harare where it is being used
as change in
commuter omnibuses and by vegetable and biscuit vendors.
The note is
being used as change in most omnibuses which charge US 50 cents
or 5 rand or
Z$3 trillion in $50 billion notes.
Kombi conductors and the vendors also
accept the $50 billion notes as
payment.
Kombi conductors and vendors
accept only the $50 billion note while all
other denominations in the local
currency have since been retired.
Following the legalisation of multiple
currencies in the economy early this
year, small change has remained a
problem, a situation that has forced
business to either persuade customers
to pick up small items such as sweets
in lieu of cash.
The note is,
however, no longer accepted as legal tender in other urban
areas.
Government has suspended the local currency for the next 12
months after
which the Cabinet Economic Cluster says a decision would be
made when to
re-introduce the national currency.
The cluster is made
up of the ministries of Finance, Economic Planning and
Investment Promotion,
Industry and International Trade and Regional
Integration and International
Co-operation.
At least US$13 million is required to mop up Zimbabwe
dollars held with
banks. - HR.
http://www.zimeye.org/?p=4234
By Moses Muchemwa
Published: April 29,
2009
Bulawayo - ONLY 400 exhibitors out of an anticipated 1
000 are
participating at this year's edition of the Zimbabwe International
Trade
Fair which gets underway today.
ZITF general manager Daniel
Chigaru revealed to the ZimEye that only 10
African countries are taking
part as the international community keeps
shying away from
Zimbabwe.
"We have a total of 10 countries taking part at this year's
Trade Fair.
However, I cannot precisely give accurate numbers of companies
from
individual countries that will participate at the Trade Fair because
some of
them are still coming, even at the moment."
This year's
exhibition will run from 28 April to 2 May and is being held
under the theme
"Golden Opportunity for Dynamic Takeoff".
Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai is expected to officially open the annual
International Business
Conference that runs concurrently with ZITF on
Wednesday.
Speakers to
address the business conference include Finance Minister Tendai
Biti,
Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi, Mines and Mining Development Minister
Obert
Mpofu, Regional Integration and International Co-operation Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga, Information and Communication Technology Minister
Nelson Chamisa, Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Deputy Minister
Dr Samuel Undenge, and Welshman Ncube, the Industry and Commerce
Minister.
http://www.voanews.com
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
28
April 2009
A Dutch think tank says Western donor nations should
complement their "smart
sanctions" imposed on Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe and hundreds of his
supporters with what it calls "smart support" to
help the unity government
deliver critical services.
The Netherlands
Institute for Multiparty Democracy said the world should not
punish all of
the members of Zimbabwe's new government for the policies of
the previous
administration of President Robert Mugabe even though Mr.
Mugabe remains
head of state within a power-sharing arrangement negotiated
following
violence-tainted 2008 elections.
Institute for Multiparty Democracy Chief
Executive Roel Von Meijenfeldt told
reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that Zimbabweans
have suffered enough.
Zimbabwe's Standard writes in an editorial: IT is hard to believe the Government of National Unity shares a commitment to
media reform seven months after declaring a desire to ungag the media. The September 15, 2008 Global Political Agreement commits the new
administration to freedom of expression and communication, arguing that it
recognises the importance of the right to freedom of expression and the role of
the media in a multi-party democracy. The real reason for the cancellation was that the government was alarmed that
it was not in control of the agenda. The government’s response to the cancelled March conference came last week.
The venue has been changed, first to Nyanga and then again to Kariba, and the
topics are no longer those that had been put forward at last month’s aborted
meeting. Above all there was no consultation with media practitioners from the
private sector. But that is not what’s so alarming about the forthcoming media indaba. It is
the fact that the government has packed the conference with people with known
sympathies to Zanu PF. Some of the figures featuring in the programme have a pathological hatred for
the private media; others presided over the decimation of The Daily News, The
Daily News on Sunday, The Tribune, Business Tribune, The Weekly Times, Joy
Television and Capital Radio. They also sponsored legislation that makes Zimbabwe one of the most difficult
terrains for local and foreign journalists to operate in. Therefore their
commitment to media reform can only be to ensure preservation of the status quo.
Some have displayed open hostility to the private media. Kariba is unlikely to see them transform. There appears to be a multi-faceted strategy: to hijack the conference
agenda; to ensure that the large numbers of people with pro-Zanu PF sympathies
dominate the proceedings and therefore successfully muzzle voices from the
private media; and to commit journalists from the private sector to a
pre-determined outcome that leaves measures such as Aippa largely intact. They will be used to lend a patina of legitimacy to an outcome that in effect
subverts what independent journalism stands for. The Kariba conference will take place against a background of the arrest,
imprisonment and release of Jestina Mukoko, Shadreck Anderson and recently two
journalists from the state-run Bulawayo Chronicle. Edward Chikomba was not so
lucky. He was found dead. Journalists who are courageous enough to practise professionally have been
rewarded with arrests, jail sentences, or worse. Not a voice was heard from
those who now seek to commandeer the media reform agenda except perhaps to
justify state depredations. As it stands, the proposed conference offers no real prospect of media
freedom but instead enables the usual suspects to perpetuate state control.
That, let it be recorded, represents yet another violation of the global
political agreement. * This editorial appeared in The Standard on 25 April.
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
The planned Zimbabwean conference on media reform seems
headed for disaster, having been packed with Zanu-PFsympathisers and people
involved in the Zanu-PF government's crackdown on the media, writes The
Standard in an editorial. The agenda has been hicjacked, and the event is
unlikely to bring any improvements to the media dispensation.
The Prime Minister and his party have
repeatedly stressed their commitment to a free media environment.
But the
more things change, the more they appear to stay the same. Five weeks ago,
hard-line elements in government at the last minute cancelled a media reform
workshop that was due to be held in Harare from March 27-29.
(London) - International donors should not resume development aid to Zimbabwe until the ZANU-PF element in the power-sharing government ends its ongoing rights abuses and backs serious reforms, Human Rights Watch said today. This week, the new government's finance minister, Tendai Biti, is in the United Kingdom to ask the British government for direct financial support.
"Humanitarian aid that focuses on the needs of Zimbabwe's most vulnerable should continue," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "But donor governments such as the UK should not release development aid until there are irreversible changes on human rights, the rule of law, and accountability."
Police intimidation and arrests of activists are ongoing, and supporters of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) - the longtime ruling party and member of the new power-sharing government - continue to violently invade commercial farms. The government also includes two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). All three have made clear commitments to end abuses, but pro-ZANU-PF police and prosecuting authorities continue to conduct politically motivated prosecutions of political opponents and have failed to investigate allegations of torture.
For example, on April 21, 2009, police violently broke up a peaceful protest at Masvingo State University and arrested at least 23 students. The students spent three days in custody. Most were released without charge. One student, Courage Ngwarai, remains in custody facing charges allegedly arising from a demonstration organized in 2007.
On April 20, police re-arrested two MDC activists, Ghandi Mudzingwa and Kisimusi Dhlamini, though a High Court judge had granted them bail. The two activists were abducted by state agents in November and December 2008 and allege that they were repeatedly tortured. Police are also reported to be looking for a freelance journalist, Anderson Shadreck Manyere, who was also granted bail by the High Court on similar charges. Seven other MDC and human rights activists abducted after the three parties signed the Global Political Agreement on September 15, 2008, are still missing and their whereabouts remain unknown. The "disappeared" are: Gwenzi Kahiya, Ephraim Mabeka, Lovemore Machokoto, Charles Muzza, Edmore Vangirayi, Graham Matehwa, and Peter Munyanyi.
Since January, ZANU-PF supporters and militia have violently invaded commercial farms and harassed commercial farmers, resulting in the displacement of hundreds of farm workers. On April 21, police shot and wounded two farm workers from Stockdale Farm in Chegutu, about 100 kilometers west of Harare. The state authorities continue to do nothing concrete to prevent these attacks or to offer meaningful redress to the victims.
The power-sharing government has also made no attempt to repeal or substantially amend repressive laws such as the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which have in the past been used by ZANU-PF to harass political opponents and human rights activists. Media restrictions, such as tightly controlled access to the country for foreign media, remain in place.
"Until the new government takes bold, irreversible steps to end human rights abuses and carry out major legislative reforms, the international community should continue to withhold longer-term development aid and maintain its targeted sanctions," Gagnon said.
In the short term, Human Rights Watch called on the power-sharing government to:
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=15928
April 29, 2009
By Greg
Mills
ZIMBABWE'S economy is in a parlous state. Per capita income has
halved
since 1997. Once the second-largest economy after South Africa in the
region, it is now the third-smallest, after Swaziland and
Lesotho.
Exports and employment have more than halved - the UN calculates
that just 6
percent of the workforce is in formal employment now. Seventy
percent of the
population is in urgent need of food assistance.
With
a current account deficit of 27 percent last year, gross international
reserves amounted to US$6 million (R53.85 million) at the end of that year,
while external debt was $5.9 billion.
Budget revenue fell from 25
percent of gross domestic product (GDP) at $1
billion in 2005 to $133
million last year, causing, in the International
Monetary Fund's words, "an
almost complete collapse in the provision of
public services".
As if
all this is not enough, the politics are fraught and fragile at best.
The
government of national unity (GNU) has two principal actors: one that
ransacked the state to the point of bankruptcy and record hyperinflation,
with the presidency, security chiefs, and the 2 00-strong reserve bank at
the centre of these activities; the other a reform-minded and post-colonial
liberation movement. Both are reluctant partners in a shotgun
marriage.
If the first Zimbabwean challenge is to ensure short-term
liquidity and end
hyperinflation - as detailed in good bits of the GNU's
short-term economic
recovery programme - the second is political: to
strengthen rights and
institutions without endorsing bad practices. The
programme rightly focuses
on the short-term challenges to increase the
chance of political stability.
De facto dollarisation and randisation in
February, ridding the country of
the worthless Zimbabwean dollar, has
stabilised the economy, tilting the
balance of political power at least
temporarily to the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) - not least since it
holds the purse strings for the
250 000 civil servants, who are all now paid
$100 per month. Stability
depends on maintaining economic momentum - thereby
isolating those who may
wish for the GNU's demise.
As the end of the
first 100 days of the unity government fast approaches
next month, what are
the policy options?
Stability demands the MDC-led economics team meets
two other interrelated
needs: dealing with donors and articulating an
economic vision.
Donors offer the most ready source of funding liquidity.
Finance Minister
Tendai Biti needs $25 million monthly just to pay the civil
service stipend.
Yet his current receipts amount to little more than $30
million, mainly from
customs and VAT.
But the donors face a difficult
conundrum: how to support the MDC reformers
with scarce cash, without
endorsing the past bad practices and
anti-democratic behaviour of
Zanu-PF?
Hence the current donor preference for humanitarian assistance
and carefully
circumscribed programmatic financing, rather than budget
support, not least
because their constituents would not stomach lending
succour to the regime
of President Robert Mugabe.
From the government
vantage point, dealing productively with donors also has
a technical
dimension: acquiring the necessary expertise to assist, for
example, with
arrears and debt rescheduling. More importantly, beyond the
initial
stability phase, it demands ensuring the government and not the
donors set
the agenda.
One way to avoid the usual problem of the donor tail wagging
the government
dog is for the government to accept donor funding only for
those projects
that create hard (physical) and soft (education and health)
infrastructure.
And the Ministry of Finance alone should identify priority
projects.
All of the projects need clear, identifiable and tangible
outcomes and
benchmarks - not just the usual workshops, seminars,
consultants' papers,
and studies.
The second aspect requires
recognition that Zimbabwe's dramatic collapse
from the mid-1990s is the
result not just of the violent seizure of
productive farmland since 2000 but
even more the result of the
uncompetitive, antiquated, overregulated,
protectionist and isolated
economic model that has existed for more than 40
years.
However, a moratorium on land grabs might regain donor confidence
by helping
regain faith in the rule of law, especially for property
rights.
In summary, if the economy is not to lurch from crisis to stasis
and back
again, Zimbabwe has to become less expensive and more competitive -
in
productivity, trade and currency.
A programme to achieve this
would help to solve the inherent problems of a
GNU - that it is weak,
fractious and inevitably short-lived.
There is a need to deliver against
a clearly stated, longer-term vision,
which addresses the realities rather
than what veteran Zimbabwean economist
Tony Hawkins describes as the "myths"
of Zimbabwe.
One myth is that Zimbabwe was once a regional bread-basket
(South Africa
was, Zimbabwe was not). Another myth is that per capita income
has been
declining only from the mid-1990s, when in fact it has been
dropping
steadily since the mid-1960s.
A third big myth is that it is
just a question of hitting the rewind button
to return the country to its
old prosperity, where the reality is that it
will never be the same again,
given the extent of entrepreneurial, social
and institutional
decay.
The government should also quash rumours that it intends
introducing a new
local currency in the foreseeable future.
Because
of Zimbabwe's history of hyperinflation, foreign currency holders
will be
discouraged from investing until such a currency is introduced if
they think
it is imminent.
One way around this question is to propose a referendum
be held on the
reintroduction of the national currency within the year when
Zimbabwe's
annual GDP per capita exceeds $5 000.
For the moment,
Zanu-PF has no option but to go along with the MDC-led
economic changes.
Even if Zanu-PF were now to destroy the GNU, it would
simply be the dog that
has caught the car; it would face intractable
economic difficulties, with
little means to deal with them.
At the same time, there is a danger that
ZanuPF is behaving itself
(relatively speaking) only until international
resources start flowing, at
which point the bickering will start in force
and real splits will
re-emerge. Recovery and reform is thus likely to be
fraught with both
victories and defeats.
In short, the challenge for
the GNU is first to ensure currency stability
and liquidity, to maintain
political and social cohesion and steadiness, and
then to articulate a
vision of a dynamic and competitive Zimbabwe that would
not lurch, again,
into economic stagnation and crisis.
( Greg Mills heads the
Johannesburg-based Brenthurst Foundation and has just
been in Zimbabwe.)