http://www.herald.co.zw
Monday, 01 April 2013 00:00
Hebert
Zharare Political Editor
Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs
Minister Eric Matinenga torched a
storm over the weekend as it emerged that
changes were made to the draft
constitution which was gazetted last
week.
Legally no changes should be made to the draft and Minister
Matinenga is on
record confirming this. Where any changes are countenanced,
they can only be
effected during the first reading of the Constitutional
Bill in Parliament.
What raised eyebrows is the fact that the
surreptitious changes dovetail
with Mr Matinenga’s party agenda to defer
harmonised elections to way after
the demise of Parliament which is
midnight, June 29.
Among the scandalous changes were amendments to
Schedule Six Part 2 of the
Constitutional Bill which relates to the holding
of Parliamentary elections
following the expiry of the current
Parliament.
The changes effectively nullify clause 158 of the
Constitutional Bill which
stipulates, under 158(1)(a), that “a general
election must be held so that
polling takes place not more than 30 days
before the expiry of the five-year
period (of the life of Parliament)
specified in section 143”. The tenure of
the Seventh Parliament ends at
midnight on June 29 by which time a new
Parliament should have been
elected.
The changes, that were reportedly made by some members of the
Copac
management committee, were effected through alterations to Part 2 of
Schedule Six of the gazetted draft under section1(e) that reads “this
schedule together with Chapter 7, relating to elections, except Sections
158, 160 and 161’’ shall come into operation on publication
day.
Eyebrows were raised over the inclusion of sections 160 (number of
constituencies and wards) and 161 (delimitation of electoral boundaries)
which the experts said was immaterial as they will not be affected by the
amendments since they are covered by subsequent provisions and putting them
alongside Section 158 was diversionary.
Minister Matinenga confirmed the
changes last night and defended them saying
they were
necessary.
“What was changed does not deal with what is happening now,
but the future.
The life of the current Parliament ends in June and we
cannot have a
constitution that says the elections should be held on June 29
. . . That is
why these corrections were made,” he
said.
Constitutional law expert and National Constitutional Assembly
chairman
Professor Lovemore Madhuku said changing the contents of the draft
constitution without the consent of President Mugabe and Zimbabweans who
endorsed the draft was wrong.
“I am aware that they have made a
number of changes to the draft
constitution. These people are capable of
doing anything. It’s wrong, they
were supposed to go to Parliament with a
document they put to referendum.
They are completely wrong,” he
said.
Prof Madhuku said the answer to the resultant mess was
political.
“The person who matters in this case is the President. He is
the one who
told them to take the draft constitution to the people and what
goes to
Parliament is what came from the people. So the person who should
deal with
that is the President. If Parliament continues to debate that
document, it
will be debating a wrong draft constitution. Some people have
to take them
to court,” he said.
A senior member of the Law Society
of Zimbabwe who declined to be named for
professional reasons, said what was
done was illegal and could be challenged
in the courts.
“This is a
blatant attack on the will of the people expressed in the
referendum and a
shocking abuse of the Global Political Agreement and
Parliament, which is
the only body with the authority to make amendments
after the
referendum.
“(Minister) Matinenga’s suspension of Clause 158 through the
back door is
corrupt in that it is specifically designed to pre-empt the
holding of the
elections before the expiry of the term of the current
Parliament at
midnight 29 June. The argument that this has been done because
there is no
time is not only false, but it is also sinister because its
application is
selective and is only limited to Clause 158 and not the whole
of Chapter 7,
let along the other Chapters which will come into effect
together with
Schedule Six on the date of publication of the new
Constitution.
“The inclusion of Clauses 160 and 161 is pure-trickery
because clause 5 of
Schedule Six makes it clear that existing constituency
boundaries will be
maintained as there would be no new delimitation of
constituencies,” the LSZ
member said.
Legal experts said the changes
had the effect of killing current debate that
the elections should be held
before June 29 as Section 158 that provides for
that would immediately fall
away.
What is surprising about the changes, the experts said, was that
they sought
to pre-empt the two applications made by President Mugabe in the
High Court
seeking an extension of the March 31 by-election deadline to June
29 by
which time harmonised elections should have been held.
The
application was deferred to Wednesday after Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai
filed an application to be included as a respondent in the
proceedings.
The MDC formations are pushing for the election to be held
by October, and
Mr Tsvangirai’s application was seen to be an attempt to buy
time pursuant
to that objective.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
March 31, 2013 in News
THE recent arrest of human
rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa on what is widely
viewed as “flimsy” charges,
appears to have backfired on Zanu PF and the
security sector, analysts have
said.
BY PATRICE MAKOVA
They said the arrests have put Zimbabwe
back on the international spotlight
with renewed calls for security sector
reforms ahead of the forthcoming
elections.
Mtetwa was released by
the High Court last week after spending eight days in
jail for allegedly
obstructing justice.
She was arrested at the home of Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai’s director
of research and policy, Thabani
Mpofu.
Prosecutors said she shouted at the police officers and took
photographs of
them as they searched the house.
Mpofu himself and
three other communication staffers in Tsvangirai’s office
endured 10 days in
prison after they were arrested on charges of illegally
compiling
information on high-level corruption.
Political analyst, Thabani Nyoni
said it took the arrest of Mtetwa for the
international community and other
political parties in the country to
realise that all was not well in the
country.
He said the arrest came at a time when a crackdown on civil
society was
either being brushed aside or not being taken
seriously.
Nyoni said Mtetwa’s arrest came when everyone else was
celebrating the
peaceful environment that prevailed during the
constitutional referendum, a
yardstick which was going to be used to predict
the manner in which the
forthcoming elections would be held.
The
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) spokesperson said after the
referendum,
there was a perception that Zimbabwe was now a “done deal”, but
all that had
now changed.
“The security sector got excited and crossed the line. The
arrest of Mtetwa
has brought a lot of international condemnation with many
people now
realising that the situation is not conducive for elections,” he
said.
Mtetwa’s bail hearing attracted US human rights lobbyist Kerry
Kennedy, a
niece of former US President John Kennedy.
This has irked
Zanu PF officials who for strange reasons now threaten Mtetwa
with
deportation.
American film, stage and television actress, Alfre Ette
Woodard was also
present at the hearing together with Kerry, daughter of
Robert F Kennedy.
Several human rights organisations also wrote to
President Mugabe
complaining about the detention of Mtetwa.
These
include Zimbabwe Watch, Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, Lawyers for
Lawyers
and European Democratic Lawyers.
Nyoni said while Zanu PF has been
pushing for South African President, Jacob
Zuma to take a laid-back approach
to the Zimbabwean crisis, the Sadc
facilitator had now realised that
something was seriously amiss in the
country.
“The impression now is
that it will be disastrous to hold elections under
the current conditions.
Zuma is now insisting on the implementation of
critical reforms before
elections,” he said.
The CiZC spokesperson said it was interesting to
note that the arrest of
Mtetwa had now led to the “persecution” of the
judiciary, particularly High
Court judge, Charles Hungwe.
“Mtetwa was
granted bail by the High Court but she was not released in a
clear contempt
of court,” he said. “Zanu PF is now persecuting Justice
Hungwe. Things not
related to the case are now being brought up to discredit
the
judge.”
Nyoni said the attack on democracy activists only helped to show
that the
security sector was still partisan and that there was no due
process of the
law.
He said this now justified the need for Sadc to
send an early team to
monitor the watershed elections.
‘Lawyer’s
incarceration bad for Zim’s foreign image’
Political analyst, George
Makoni said the international outcry generated by
Mtetwa’s arrest puts “an
egg on the face” of President Robert Mugabe and
Zanu PF considering their
grip on the judiciary and police.
He accused Mugabe of using the police and
the judiciary against the letter
and spirit of the Global Political
Agreement (GPA).
Makoni said the crackdown “rubbished” the credit which
had been given to the
inclusive government, in conducting a non-violent
plebiscite.
“It is also an advantage to the MDCs in the sense that it is
an eye-opener,”
he said. “It gives them more room to fight such things. It
also gives them
more sympathy in the sense that these attacks are synonymous
to a disabled
person being bashed by an able-bodied person.”
Another
analyst, Ernest Mudzengi said the MDCs were powerless to act as they
were
given less influential posts in the inclusive government.
Mudzengi was of
the opinion that the MDCs should have bargained for some of
their members to
be given top civil service positions.
“The GPA was never in their [MDCs]
favour,” he said. “The GPA puts the MDCs
in a position that it cannot
control arms such as the police.”
Mudzengi said the crackdown on
democracy activists was now putting question
marks on the readiness of
Zimbabwe to hold free and fair elections and the
commitment of Zanu PF to
such a process.
But Nyoni said the MDCs were also to blame for the current
predicament as
they had become unwitting accomplices to Zanu PF
machinations.
He said for some time now, the MDCs have been largely quiet
while similar
crackdowns were taking place, including the incarceration of
29 Glen View
MDC-T youth assembly members for almost a year.
“What we
are hearing is him [Tsvangirai] defending questionable appointments
of
Justice Rita Makarau as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairperson and
Jacob Mudenda as the Human Rights Commission boss. It now appears there is
little difference between Zanu PF and the MDCs.”
Zanu pf firing
warning shots, says analyst
Gift Mambipiri, a political analyst, was of
the view that the recent
crackdown was part of the “grand strategy” by some
political players to use
force whenever elections were on the
horizon.
He said the crackdown, which began with civil society leaders a
few months
ago, would likely continue until election day.
“Whereas in
2008 the ordinary people were beaten to conform to the wishes of
a political
party”, Mambipiri said, “this time around fear will be instilled
into their
heads and hearts through the crackdown on the pro-democracy
leaders the
ordinary people have thought are beyond the reach of the violent
groups.
Once the leaders are arrested and persecuted, the message to get to
the
ordinary citizen is: if gold can rust, what of iron?”
http://www.voazimbabwe.com
Tatenda
Gumbo
01.04.2013
WASHINGTON — The Harare City Council is warning
residents against drinking
untreated water as fresh cases of typhoid have
been recorded in the past two
weeks.
The city has been struggling to
eliminate typhoid and other water borne
diseases as it tries to revamp the
former sunshine city’s crumbling water
system.
The city’s Health
Services Departments reported 36 new cases of typhoid in
recent weeks in
Mabvuku and Mbare. City fathers said even water from
boreholes should be
treated.
The health ministry says 6,839 people have been affected by the
outbreak
since 2011 countrywide.
VOA reporter Tatenda Gumbo spoke to
Dr. Portia Manangazira head of the
Health Ministry’s Disease Control
Department, who said Zimbabwe has failed
to eliminate typhoid due to a
number of issues that include failure by the
authorities to provide clean
water to residents.
“For us in Zimbabwe, one case of typhoid, one case of
cholera is an
outbreak, it's an issue of major concern that this outbreak
has not abated,"
said Manangazira, adding that "whatever initiated the
outbreak has not been
dealt with adequately."
Residents are
encouraged to througly boil drinking water before use, or to
use chlorine to
treat water.
http://nehandaradio.com
on April 1, 2013 at 5:31
pm
By Paidamoyo Chipunza
HARARE – Nine more people
died in separate road accidents countrywide
between Saturday and yesterday,
bringing the Easter Holidays death toll to
42, almost double the deaths
recorded same time last year.
Easter death toll hits 42 in
Zimbabwe
Police spokesperson Superintendent Paul Nyathi yesterday said 23
people died
during the same period last year.
Of this year’s deaths,
the Midlands and Manicaland recorded nine each, seven
in Mashonaland East,
five in Harare, Matabeleland South, Masvingo and
Mashonaland East provinces
recorded three deaths each while Mashonaland West
had two deaths and
Matabeleland North had one. No death was recorded in
Bulawayo
City.
Supt Nyathi said since last Thursday, a total of 351 accidents
occurred from
which 166 people were injured against 150 people in 2012. He
said last year
206 accidents were recorded throughout the country. Police
also impounded 90
private vehicles for defects and issued 6 438 tickets for
traffic offences.
Supt Nyathi said speeding, inattention or misjudgment,
overtaking errors,
reversing errors and turning errors were among the major
causes of the
accidents.
“We encourage motorists to exercise caution
as they are driving. They should
consider the plight of other travellers
thus pedestrians, passengers and
other motorists,” said Supt
Phiri.
Transport operators also took advantage of increased demand and
raised their
fares. On Good Friday, a trip from Harare to Mutare was charged
US$20 up
from US$7 while passengers had to fork out between US$15 and US$20
for a
trip from the capital to Nyamapanda. The trip usually costs US$8. The
bus
fare for the Harare-Bulawayo route went up from US$10 to
US$20.
“We encourage passengers who will have been charged exorbitant
fares
especially during holidays to report the matter to police officers at
roadblocks,” said Supt Nyathi.
“We are monitoring the situation and
where we come across operators who are
flouting road regulations the law
will take its course. Besides checking
that public vehicles are not carrying
excess passengers and flouting other
road regulations, we will also be
checking whether these operators are
operating in terms of their road
permits accompanied by fare tables which
are approved by the Ministry of
Local Government, Urban and Rural
Development.”
Police have launched
campaigns to reduce road carnage and some law
enforcement agents would
continue to clampdown on owners of defective
vehicles and those violating
road regulations.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
March 31, 2013 in
International
AS Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Africa last week,
Zimbabwe could
only longingly stand-by as the country was not on the Chinese
leader’s
itinerary.
Report by Nqaba Matshazi
Xi is the second
leader to give Zimbabwe the wide berth, raising questions
whether the
country’s much vaunted Look East Policy was anything more than
empty
rhetoric.
In Tanzania and the Congo, Xi spoke about trade and business
deals between
those countries and China, subjects that Zimbabwe is desperate
to engage
just about anyone on.
But Harrie Esterhuys, a research
analyst at the Centre for Chinese Studies
at Stellenbosch University, says
this should not be considered a snub for
Zimbabwe, as the new Chinese leader
was only visiting three countries on the
continent.
“Important
countries such as Angola were also not included in the recent
visit,”
Esterhuys explained. “Thus it should not be seen as China snubbing
Zimbabwe
by not having it on [Xi’s] first international itinerary.”
He said
Zimbabwe and China already had strong relations and continued to
sign trade
agreements, despite allegations of human rights abuses and too
much should
not be read into the itinerary.
Bilateral trade between the two countries
reached US$750m in the first 10
months of last year with Zimbabwe enjoying a
trade surplus of US$112m.
China has risen to become Zimbabwe’s third
largest trading partner after
South Africa and the European
Union.
However, Esterhuys said Zimbabwe should work on reducing
corruption and
instability if it wanted to continue attracting Chinese
investment.
“To attract investment, including Chinese investment,
Zimbabwe should
continue the process of stabilising the country, reducing
corruption and
strengthening security for foreign businesses,” he
said.
“Threats of nationalisation and continued politicising of the
economy will
continue to hinder trust in the Zimbabwean economy, scaring
away foreign
investment.”
Esterhuys warned that China, despite not
involving itself in other countries’
internal politics, was beginning to
withhold investment in unstable
countries and this is where Zimbabwe could
come unstuck.
“Economies where risk, including political risk is high,
will increasingly
find it hard to attract investment, including Chinese
investment.
“It should not be assumed that China will continue its
relationship with
Zimbabwe with no thought of Zimbabwe’s international
reputation.
The Chinese government, even though it does not involve
itself in national
politics of other countries, has become more averse to
possible political
embarrassment originating from countries that it has
dealings with,” he
explained.
Mafaro Gunduza, a professor in business
ethics, agreed with the view, saying
Zimbabwe and China already had several
agreements and Xi might not have
snubbed Zimbabwe.
“Zimbabwe and
China have enough bilateral trade and diplomatic agreements,
it is not
necessary for their [China] president to visit,” he said.
“Zimbabwe is
already in their hands and they are now looking for newer
markets.”
Gunduza said instead of worrying about the Chinese leader’s
trip, Zimbabwe
should concentrate on improving its negotiating skills so as
to get a
win-win situation from their trade deals with China.
“Our
negotiators are not intelligent, the trade deals are skewed in favour
of
China,” he said.
Gunduza and Esterhuys concurred that it was not only
Zimbabwe looking East,
but that the whole world had developed that policy in
some way.
http://www.bernama.com
HARARE, Zimbabwe, April 1 (Bernama)-- At least US$51 million
is required to
recapitalise the country's strategic grain reserve,
information from the
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development
Ministry indicates.
The strategic grain reserve is stocks of grain held
in reserve intentionally
by government programmes for the purpose of meeting
future domestic and
international needs, Zimbabwe's news agency New Ziana
reported.
"The strategic grain reserve requires US$51 million. Source of
funding has
been identified and presented to the Ministry of Finance for
finalisation,"
it said.
The funding is targeted at silo
rehabilitation which will gobble US$31
million while US$13 million will be
channeled towards establishment of a
logistics fleet and US$7 million going
towards development of ICT
infrastructure.
The Grain Marketing Board
(GMB) has said that it is targeting to build
strategic grain reserves
amounting to 250,000 metric tonnes this year.
The parastatal has on many
occasions failed to pay farmers timeously for
grain delivered to its
depots.
Government has since taken steps to privatise the GMB to help
revive its
fortunes and liberalize grain marketing.
Prior to that,
GMB had legal monopoly over trade in strategic grains such as
maize and
wheat.
-- BERNAMA
http://www.voazimbabwe.com
Gibbs
Dube
01.04.2013
WASHINGTON DC — Some Bulawayo and Harare residents say
they are confused by
the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority’s pre-paid
meter billing system.
They fear they are being overcharged by the state
entity, which is
struggling to settle a $500 million debt.
A number
of consumers told VOA Studio 7 that the billing system is so
complicated
that it is difficult to know how much electricity they are
buying. As a
result, some have stopped cooking traditional foods that need a
lot of time
to prepare, as they cannot be sure they will have exhausted
their pre-paid
units before they’ve finished cooking.
One area of confusion is the basic
cost of a unit of electricity.According
to ZESA, pre-paid meter users pay 2
cents per unit for the first 50
kilowatts while those who consume between 51
and 300 kilowatts are charged
11 cents per unit. Anything above 300
kilowatts attracts a charge of 15
cents per unit. The flat ZESA tariff is
being replaced nationwide by the
prepaid meter system.
But Ambrose
Sibindi of the Bulawayo Progressive Residents’ Association said
some
residents recently spent $30 to obtain 292 units, but others received
only
190 units for the same amount.
Mr. Sibindi said he has received many
complaints about this and other areas
of confusion.
Harare Ward 13
councillor Peter Moyo said the problems may be linked to ZESA’s
attempts to
recover debts from residents.
The $500 million ZESA debt accrued due to a
decade-long economic downturn
which eased after the adoption of multiple
foreign currencies in 2009.
Energy Minister Elton Mangoma said ZESA and
the government are aware of
people’s concerns.
http://www.herald.co.zw
Monday, 01 April 2013
00:00
Michael Chideme Municipal Reporter
The Zimbabwe
National Road Authority has acquired 40 state-of-the-art
graders to be
distributed to rural councils for maintenance of gravel roads
ahead of the
harmonised elections.
Most of the rural feeder roads are not
accessible due to neglect.
This comes after Local Government, Rural and
Urban Development Minister
Ignatius Chombo, also implored the local
authorities to commit enough money
for road maintenance ahead of the polls
expected before June 29.
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of a
US$300 000 pothole patching
machine at Machipisa Shopping Centre in Harare
last Thursday, Zinara chief
executive Mr Frank Chitukutuku said the graders
would be distributed to the
respective councils this month.
He said
another road patching machine was expected to be delivered to
Bulawayo
soon.
Mr Chitukutuku said most of the rural roads were inaccessible during
the
just ended referendum “delaying the dispatch of voting material and the
acquittal of voting results.”
Mr Chitukutuku said Zinara was
concentrating on capacitating local
authorities after realising that
financial disbursements to the same were
used to hire either expensive road
equipment, pay salaries or go towards
recurrent
expenditure.
Transport, Communications and Infrastructure Development
Minister Nicholas
Goche, said some councils were failing to access Zinara
funds and assistance
because they could not account for earlier
disbursements.
Commending the graders, Minister Goche said Government
intended to minimise
the hiring of expensive plant and equipment.
“A
number of graders for all rural district councils are in transit. We are
very excited to be doing this work from funds from Zinara,” he
said.
Zinara is using the levies it collects from road users to buy the
equipment.
These include fuel levy, transit fees, vehicle licences and
overload fees.
Minister Chombo who received the pothole machine on behalf of
Harare City,
said failure by the local authority to put the equipment to
good use would
result in “heads rolling”.
He said had councils not
resorted to hiring plant and equipment, they would
have been able to buy
their own pieces of equipment. However, he understood
the difficult
conditions under which most local authorities operated.
He said for urban
centres, most industries had closed down hence they were
not paying rates
and levies.
Minister Chombo said unemployment had also contributed to the
failure by
residents to pay their bills.
He thanked Minister Goche
whose ministry oversees the Zinara operations for
availing the various
pieces of equipment to councils.
Said Minister Chombo; “In the sphere of
roads, may I take this opportunity
to remind councils that they need to take
all necessary measures to ensure
total access to all areas of their
jurisdiction.
“This is critical given that we are approaching a general
election and we
need to ensure that all polling stations are
accessible.”
Minister Chombo said his ministry was working with Zinara to
“mobilise
funding for the flood damaged roads”.
Repairing damaged
roads would ensure farmers were able to take their produce
to
markets.
Minister Chombo said while Government appreciated “veritable
efforts” that
local authorities continued to make in terms of service
delivery, he was
dismayed that a number of centres experienced water borne
diseases.
He said budgets for local authorities for 2013 were approved,
implying that
all councils were now charging the approved Government rates
for their
services and goods.
“The onus is now on the various service
users to pay up in order to provide
the revenue for continued and improved
provision of services,” he said.
http://www.waste-management-world.com
By Thupeyo
Muleya
The Beitbridge town council needs at least US$3
million to complete the
outstanding water and sanitation projects that would
ensure enough water
supplies in the border town, an official has
said.
Beitbridge Town secretary Dr Sipho Singo said this during a meeting
of the
Disaster Management Committee involving Zimbabwe and South Africa. He
said
part of the money would be used to rehabilitate and upgrade the whole
sewer
reticulation system.
More reservoir tanks would be made
available for water storage.
Dr Singo said they had just completed
implementing the us$2,3 million World
Bank-funded Emergency Water and
Sanitation project which had seen the
management of solid waste improving by
90 percent and water supply
increasing in most suburbs in the
town.
The programme mainly focused on rehabilitation of water and
sanitation
facilities, sewer reticulation, infrastructure and effective
solid waste
management.
The Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa)
is presently pumping a third
of the daily requirement of water.
The
town requires an average of 15 000 cubic metres of water per day to
supply a
population of 40 000 people.
"We are very grateful to the World Bank for
the funding which has seen us
addressing some of our challenges in terms of
water and sanitation and solid
waste management," Dr Sibanda
said.
The bank, he said, had also shown an interest in funding the local
authority's future capital projects.
Dr Singo said they were also
looking forward to the completion of a new
water treatment plant which is
being constructed by Zinwa and funded by
central Government.
"Our
water pumping and storage has greatly improved following an
intervention by
the central Government and World Bank, though as a local
authority we still
need more money to ensure that we have total coverage in
terms of water
supply.
"We are also looking forward to the completion of another water
treatment
plant by Zinwa and believe that by the end of this year we will
have enough
water for our town."
At least 40 boreholes have been
drilled in the town to augment water
supplies.
These, he said, were
being monitored around the clock for any breakdowns.
"The provision of
clean water and solid waste management are very critical
components as we
seek to develop the town in the shortest possible time," he
said.
It
is also understood that a serious shortage of funds is affecting the
construction of the 63km Zhovhe Beitbridge canal that is expected to
alleviate water woes.
The project is also expected to turn the 63km
stretch into a greenbelt
through the setting up of irrigation schemes and
other horticulture
projects.
http://www.herald.co.zw
Monday, 01 April 2013
00:00
Golden Sibanda Senior Business Reporter
INDUSTRY and
Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube says there are no sticking
issues to the
transfer of mining rights to Essar Global, which acquired a 60
percent stake
in Ziscosteel from Government.
The US$750 million deal appeared
to be on the rocks following reservations
from the Ministry of Mines and
Mining Development that Essar had acquired
most of Zimbabwe’s iron ore
mining rights, held by Buchwa Iron Ore Mining
Company for a
pittance.
According to Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Developement
Gift
Chimanikire the rights, an estimated 32 billion tonnes of iron ore,
would
not be given away for a “bowl of soup”.
There were also
concerns that sanctioning the deal in its original form
would result in a
monopoly in iron ore similar to one seen in platinum
industry, which has
created problems for Government.
Parties to the deal had principally
agreed on the mega investment back in
March 2011 which included the sale of
Ziscosteel and iron ore mining concern
Bimco, but to date the steel giant
remains closed.
Senior officials from the Ministry of Mines and Mining
Development earlier
confirmed that they would not allow the transfer of all
Bimco mining rights
to Essar Global as that would create
monopoly.
But Minister Ncube last week said it was only a matter of time
before
Government transferred the mining and prospecting rights over Ripple
Creek
and Mwanesi Range to the Indian steel giant.
“As far as I know
there are no sticking points because all the matters are
covered by specific
Cabinet resolutions, the mining claims; whether it is on
the Ripple Creek or
Buchwa - they agreed they have already written letters
for the transfer of
those.
“Whether it is for the prospecting licences to Mwanesi (Range),
Cabinet
directed that this be done and it is a question of sequencing, the
Ministry
of Mines and Mining Development has been saying that in the
implementation
process you need to have completed steps A, B, C before you
actually get
the prospecting licences,” said Minister Ncube.
He said
that a Cabinet office constituted by the various ministries
including
Industry, Mines and Essar was leading a committee of senior
officials tasked
to ensure the required formalities were completed.
“We hope that very
soon in the next few days or weeks we can actually
conclude everything, but
there are no sticking issues, it is bureaucratic,
procedural issues that
have to be complied with,” he said.
But it is understood questions had
been asked how Essar could be given
exclusive rights to most of Zimbabwe’s
known deposits of iron ore held by
Bimco.
Government relinquished its
shares in both Ziscosteel and iron ore mining
concern Bimco in which it
would hold a mere 20 percent shareholding.
Concerns were further raised
as it emerged that Essar planned to export some
of the iron ore using a
pipeline that it would build connecting Mwanesi in
Chivhu and the Mozambican
port of Beira.
As such, it was felt that Essar Global’s motivation to
invest in Ziscosteel
was not to revive the mothballed former steel making
giant, but access to
iron ore.
This, in some quarters, is thought to be
the case considering that
Ziscosteel, with installed capacity of only one
million tonnes per annum,
would be only, but a minute proportion of the
Indian conglomerate’s global
steelmaking operations, which churn out in
excess of 14 million tonnes
annually.
http://www.espncricinfo.com
Firdose Moonda
April 1,
2013
Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) is set to announce former international
Andy Waller as
the new national coach. Waller will begin the job ahead of
the home series
against Bangladesh, which begins on April 17. He was the
preferred candidate
from a shortlist that included assistant coach Stephen
Mangongo and current
batting coach Grant Flower.
The fate of the rest
of Zimbabwe's support staff is not known, ESPNcricinfo
has learned. Bowling
coach Heath Streak has not been informed whether his
contract, which expired
yesterday, will be renewed and he is not part of
preparations for the series
against Bangladesh. Neither Streak nor Flower
traveled with the team on
their recent visit to the West Indies because of a
change to ZC's policy on
touring parties.
Waller held the role previously, in 2009, when he was
coaching manager of
Zimbabwe. He had also been in charge of Namibia and the
Mid-West Rhinos
franchise. His first task will be to reinvigorate the
players, as Zimbabwe
prepare to host an international side for the first
time in 18 months. They
play Bangladesh in two Tests in Harare, followed by
three ODIs and two
Twenty20s, all in Bulawayo. Bangladesh just completed a
tour of Sri Lanka,
where they shared the ODI series and lost the Tests and
the only T20.
Zimbabwe lost all seven matches they played in the
Caribbean, which was Alan
Butcher's last series as coach. The lead up to the
tour had been marred by
controversy. Apart from the decision to leave Streak
and Flower at home,
there was also an intense debate between ZC and the
country's sports
ministry about a new regulation concerning the composition
of selection
committees.
In its first proposal, the ministry wanted
all selectors to be former
internationals, and because the Zimbabwe coach is
also a selector it would
have ruled out someone like Mangongo. The
regulation has been relaxed but it
would have had no bearing on the
appointment of Waller, who represented
Zimbabwe in two Tests and 39 ODIs
between 1987 and 1997.
Waller will succeed Butcher, who took over in
March 2011 and oversaw
Zimbabwe's return to Test cricket later that year,
but they could not
sustain their positive start. After beating Bangladesh in
a one-off Test and
an ODI series, Zimbabwe lost at home to Pakistan and New
Zealand, were badly
beaten in New Zealand and then had a break for a full
year before touring
West Indies.
http://www.politicsweb.co.za
Eddie Cross
01 April 2013
Eddie
Cross says indicators point to an extraordinary resurgence of economic
activity
The Economic Collapse of Zimbabwe and the
Aftermath
In 1997 Zimbabwe came to another major turning point in its
turbulent
economic and political history. The country was very tense, food
riots had
broken out and six people were shot by the security forces with
live
ammunition, veterans of the liberation war were agitating for
reparations
and threatening action. The State responded with a Z$3,5 billion
(US$1
billion) payment to 60 000 veterans and suddenly our relative
stability in
economic terms was shattered. The local currency crashed to
12:1 against the
US dollar and a long drawn out economic collapse
began.
This first step was followed in 1998 when the Government committed
itself to
aid Kabila in his fight in the Congo, dispatching 11 000 troops
and heavy
fighting equipment to the Congo at a cost of over US$1 million per
day.
Then, when the ruling Party was nearly defeated by the MDC in the
elections
in 2000, the State began the systematic destruction of the
commercial
farming sector in order to neutralize their political
influence.
They completely underestimated the impact of these measures
seeing only the
potential for short term gains and easy plunder. Given the
nature of the
Zimbabwe economy, the action taken against some 4000 white
commercial
farmers had far reaching economic implications. Other sectors of
the economy
dependent on commercial agriculture began to contract and the
attack on
property rights and the rule of law undermined investor
confidence.
As a direct result Zimbabwe began a dramatic and extended
slide into chaos
and collapse. Over the next decade the GDP declined from
nearly $9 billion
in 1997 to US$4,7 billion in 2008. Exports fell by two
thirds and income per
capita, despite a massive reduction in population due
to migration and
abnormal deaths, fell to nearly US$1 per day, one of the
lowest in the
world.
All social indicators followed suit - by 2008
nearly 70 per cent of the
population was living on food aid supplied by the
major donor States led by
the USA, maternal mortality rose to the highest in
the world, child
mortality rose in tandem. Life expectancy, at over 60 years
before
Independence in 1980, fell to 34/37 years. By 2008 all State
controlled
schools, Universities and Colleges as well as nearly all State
clinics and
hospitals, were virtually dysfunctional and closed. Education
standards -
once the pride of the Nation, disintegrated and literacy rates
for the young
fell dramatically.
From 1980 to 1997 the budget deficit
had ranged about 9 per cent and was
well above what could be sustained.
Public debt at US$700 million in 1980
rose to over US$10 billion. Spurred by
the expanding quasi fiscal activities
of the Reserve Bank who thought they
could print money ad nauseam, rose to
completely unsustainable levels and
inflation soared to reach 250 million
per cent in 2008, prices doubling
every few hours. All savings and bank
balances were wiped out, a billion
Zimbabwe dollars would not buy a loaf of
bread.
Populations faced
with such chaotic conditions and totally delinquent
governments have always
taken steps to protect themselves. Zimbabweans were
no different. They had
been there before when the Rhodesian government had
declared independence in
1965 and suddenly everyone had to look after
themselves and business had to
"make a plan". Survival was the priority for
everyone and that is just what
happened. How else do people survive such a
holocaust?
The result was
that people stopped using the banks, stopped using the local
currency except
when it suited them. They stopped paying their taxes and
declaring their
incomes, they went underground in economic terms. Gold sales
fell to very
low levels at just 900 kilograms in 2008 when just ten years
before we had
been the 6th largest producer in the world.
Breaking the law became the
norm rather than the exception and eventually,
despite the fact that the
State continued to hold sway over the country and
on paper controlled almost
all aspects of life, in reality they controlled
very little and in February
2009 the State declared bankruptcy and abandoned
all pretext that it was in
charge and simply let go. They adopted the US
currency as the main means of
exchange and after 100 years of exchange and
import controls they adopted a
market system that was the most free in the
world.
The immediate
response by the population and the economic system was
absolutely
astonishing. In days, after a decade of shortages and fuel
rationing, fuel
was in free supply, in weeks the prices declined to world
market levels and
have stayed there. In weeks supermarket shelves and
wholesalers were full to
bursting with every possible product. You could buy
anything you needed or
wanted when just a short time before we had been
forced to buy bread and
other basics in neighboring countries.
The response in the public sphere
was no less astonishing - in 2008 total
tax revenues had been less than
US$300 million. These trebled in 2009, then
doubled again in 2010, in 2010
State revenues exceeded US$2,7 billion and
this year we expect revenues to
exceed US$4 billion. Just as dramatic,
exports rose from US$1,3 billion in
2008 to US$5 billion in 2012.
Imports soared to US$8,3 billion in the
same year. What was going on, where
did all this economic activity come
from? The IMF and the World Bank
struggled to make sense of the data and in
my own view failed dismally.
Craig Richardson of the USA tried in a broad
sheet titled "Why is the
Zimbabwe Economy Growing so Fast". He talked of IMF
inflows as one possible
explanation - there have been no such inflows and
global assistance to
Zimbabwe has, if anything declined in the past four
years as the
humanitarian crisis has receded.
No, the reason is quite
simple, Zimbabweans came out of the rubble of their
personal lives and shook
off the dust of decades of controls and started
doing in public what they
had been doing for years in private. Gold
production soared after the State
lifted a monopoly on buying the stuff and
producers were able to get a world
market price on the street and in public.
Cash foreign exchange - for
many years a criminal offence - simply appeared
from everywhere, no
borrowings were needed to pay for imports or local
services. The huge import
deficit of over US$3 billion was a third of the
IMF estimate of formal
sector GDP - an impossibly high figure.
My own view is that economists
have yet again failed to recognise the size
of the informal sector in
countries like Zimbabwe. They fail to appreciate
its sophistication and
reach. It also fails to recognise the magnitude of
unrecorded economic
activity - foreign trade and the magnitude of activities
such as the Marange
diamond discovery and small scale gold mining. We
understand that more cash
changes hands outside the banking sector than
transacts within the banks.
People here no longer trust the Banks and formal
financial sector
institutions.
My own estimate of the real GDP in Zimbabwe is double the
official
estimates; there is simply no other explanation of either the size
of real
tax collections or imports. These are all cash transactions that
have their
roots in the real economy as against the formal economy. Just
imagine what
this country could do if it had a half decent government that
would accept
that it is a facilitator and not a player. Just imagine what we
could do if
we could force all enterprise to behave in a totally transparent
and
accountable manner? That is the stark choice facing all Zimbabweans in
the
upcoming elections.
Eddie Cross is MDC MP for Bulawayo South.
This article first appeared on his
website www.eddiecross.africanherd.com
