http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012 10:17
Faith
Zaba
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is battling to thwart an internal Zanu PF
plot
playing out within Copac, which also involves the other two parties,
MDC-T
and MDC-N, designed to deliver a “technical knock-out blow” against
him by a
joint force drawn from a cross-section of rivals straddling the
three main
political organisations.
Mugabe, who recently survived efforts
to knock him out of the next
presidential election through term and age
limits, is now cracking down on
Copac and those behind the plot to oust him
in a bid to halt them in their
tracks. Copac officials are now under
pressure to fast-track the
constitution-making process and deliver a draft
before it is given to the
management committee and then principals. It will
also go back to the
parties for final approval. The draft would then be
taken to an
all-stakeholders’ conference, parliament, referendum and
parliament again
for adoption.
However, sources say the danger
is that Mugabe and his party could block the
draft at any one of these
stages unless they get a constitution they want.
Sources said Mugabe
fears that there is a group linked to the Emmerson
Mnangagwa faction and
which includes Zanu PF Copac co-chair Paul Mangwana
pulling out all the
stops to delay the process and elections deep into next
year, thus knocking
him out on age and health grounds. It is now generally
accepted in Zanu PF
that if elections were to be held next year,
particularly during the last
quarter, it would not feasible or practically
possible to field Mugabe as a
winning candidate.
Sensing danger, Mugabe has awakened up the reality
that his own party
members want him to go and is fiercely hitting back,
throwing a monkey
wrench in their works.
Mugabe showed he was not
aware of the plot and raised the political stakes
during last week’s Zanu PF
politburo meeting where he demanded
a speedy conclusion to the
constitution-making process. He went to the
extent of re-activating his team
which includes Zanu PF negotiators Patrick
Chinamsa and Nichoals Goche and
secretary for legal affairs, Mnangagwa, and
other members of the technical
committee to bring finality to the
constitution-making
process.
Politburo insiders told the Zimbabwe Independent this week
Mugabe put his
foot down at the meeting after Mangwana told the politburo
Copac was still
deadlocked and needed time resolve the “parked” issues by
consensus.
Insiders said Mangwana’s indicated the process would take even
longer than
was previously anticipated.
Politburo members said
Mugabe saw this as a deliberate ploy by a certain
section in Zanu PF,
aligned to both factions led by Vice-President Joice
Mujuru and Mnangagwa,
who want to use the constitution-making process to
delay elections to next
year and eliminate him from the race.
Mugabe (88) and his close allies drawn
from the politburo and the Joint
Military Command (JOC) want elections as
soon as possible but mainly this
year without fail, with or without a new
constitution.
Mugabe told the Central Committee meeting last week
Zimbabwe would go for a
referendum in May, failure of which it would revert
to the Lancaster House
Constitution and hold elections before the end of the
year.
“Let’s conclude the process, whether we agree or disagree. The
dance we have
had for the past four years is over. Let us have an election
and end this
animal called inclusive government,” Mugabe said adding that
“their days are
numbered and one should expect that by May we have a
referendum that should
give us the way forward”.
He also charged:
“I am told that there are some among us who do not want
elections this year.
If they are there, they must go and join the MDC).”
Party insiders said
Mugabe made it very clear at the politburo meeting that
he would not
tolerate any further delays in the constitution-making process.
“By stalling
the constitution-making process and thereby delaying the
elections, they
want to give Mugabe a technical knockout blow. They want to
delay elections
until next year so that it becomes unworkable for Mugabe to
stand as the
party candidate,” a senior politburo member said.
“The Mnangagwa
faction is mainly behind this. They are trying to use the
constitution-making process to force debate on the succession issue.
President Mugabe has now seen through their plan and is now fighting them
head-on.”
Copac was given until yesterday to hand over the report
of the co-chairs on
the draft constitution to the management committee, made
up of the three
negotiating teams. The team of negotiators – Goche and
Chinamasa, Tendai
Biti and Mangoma from MDC-T and Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga and Moses
Mzila-Ndlovu of MDC-N – were given 14 days
to conclude the process and hand
over the final draft to the three party
principals.
They met yesterday and made little progress on the major
contentious. The
three parties have failed to agree on the structure of
government,
devolution of power and dual citizenship. Zanu PF last resolved
last week at
its politburo meeting not to move an inch, especially on
devolution. The MDC
parties have also vowed not to compromise, leaving Copac
facing collapse, a
situation which suits Mugabe.
A member of the
management committee told the Independent soon after their
meeting: “There
has been no movement on the key issues. No one is
compromising on devolution
of power and dual citizenship. Our next meeting
is next week on Tuesday,” he
said.
Zanu PF has set up a team which includes Chinamasa, Goche,
Mnangagwa and a
five-member technical team to handle the constitution-making
process.
Members of the technical team include senior politburo member
Jonathan Moyo,
former Matabeleland North MP and chair Jacob Mudenda,
Broadcasting Authority
of Zimbabwe (BAZ) chairperson Tafataona Mahoso,
Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation chairman Goodwills Masimirembwa and
author Alexander Kanengoni.
The team will prepare a draft and
highlight disputed issue before handing it
over to the principals. Mugabe is
said to have now taken the Copac process
by the scruff of the neck to
prevent being pushed out.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012 10:16
Faith
Zaba/Brian Chitemba
ZANU PF chairman Simon Khaya Moyo and Mines minister
Obert Mpofu last week
went for each other’s throats at a stormy politburo
session over the party’s
factional and succession battles.
The battle
between the two Zanu PF stalwarts comes amid fierce infighting
over
succession within the party.
The fight for control and dominance has
now shifted to Matabeleland where
turf battles are raging all over the
region. The situation deteriorated
after Moyo and Mpofu, the party’s
national secretary for economic affairs,
last week exchanged harsh words
during the politburo meeting in a battle for
control of the Matabeleland
region and position themselves to succeed
ailing Vice-President John Nkomo.
The Moyo and Mpofu clashes fall within the
Mugabe succession
matrix.
Politburo insiders said the war of words started when Moyo
took a swipe at
Mpofu, accusing him of causing problems.
Moyo,
the sources said, accused Mpofu of trying to impose candidates ahead
of
elections. A fuming Moyo chastised Mpofu for “randomly” changing the
provincial leadership without consultation.
Mpofu, who is
building a fortune and political empire in the region, was
also accused of
spearheading the sacking of former Matabeleland North
chairman Zenzo Ncube
before he appointed his close associate Zwelitsha
Masuku as acting chair.
But Moyo then fired Masuku and replaced him with
Headman Moyo, who was also
booted out for associating with Mpofu. He was
replaced by Governor
Sithokozile Mathuthu, Mpofu’s longtime rival. Bulawayo
chairperson Isaac
Dakamela, a close ally of Mpofu, was sacked recently.
Moyo’s
accusation did not go down well with Mpofu, who hit back at Moyo
saying he
had failed to win elections. Moyo is not elected. Apart from
Mpofu, Kembo
Mohadi, Sithembiso Nyoni and Jonathan Moyo are also Zanu PF MPs
in the
region where the party risks being wiped out.
Sources said Mpofu
accused Moyo of influencing state media to tarnish his
image while the
chairman accused the minister of doing the same. Politburo
members were said
to have been stunned by the confrontation.
Mugabe had to intervene in
the fracas and ordered the two politicians to
close ranks ahead of
make-or-break elections.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012 10:15
AS
general elections approach, senior MDC-T MPs are opting out of their
urban
constituencies in the face of fierce competition by up and coming
leaders in
primary elections expected in June.
MDC-T insiders revealed this week that
some MDC-T bigwigs, who include
national organising secretary Nelson
Chamisa, Sekai Holland, Elias Mudzuri,
deputy chairman Morgan Komichi and
Piniel Denga are opting out of urban
constituencies being hounded by new
contestants.
Sources said the primaries would be hotly-contested with
aspiring candidates
in the urban constituencies accusing the sitting MPs of
failing to deliver
despite having been there for a long time.
“I
can confirm that there will be stiff internal primary contests and as a
result we are seeing an exodus by senior MDC-T leaders running away for
safer havens in rural constituencies where they are well-known as courageous
individuals who have managed to wrestle power from Zanu PF,” said one top
official.
Of late MDC-T has been torn apart by infighting as
witnessed at a Marondera
rally that turned violent. Before its congress last
year, the party was
rocked by internal strife and violence. Investigations
into the incidents
are underway.
Violence broke out at an MDC-T
rally in Marondera where the party’s
provincial chairman for Mashonaland
East, Denga was severely assaulted by
party youths before his vehicle ran
over two supporters as he attempted to
flee the venue. Several supporters
were seriously injured, some sustaining
broken limbs, and hospitalised in
Harare and Marondera.
Chamisa could neither confirm nor deny that he
is eyeing his rural Gutu seat
but only said he is “a village boy” who loves
visiting his rural area,
referring to his frequent weekend visits to
Gutu.
Sources also claim that there is a growing chorus in MDC-T
circles
concerning MPs who are now going for their fourth
terms.
Komichi confirmed that he is ready to contest in his rural
home, Sanyati, to
wrestle the seat from Zanu PF. “That is true, I will be
contesting in
Sanyati and I am ready for the internal primary elections and
we are putting
systems in place so that these elections are run smoothly,”
he said.
Sekai Holland has been busy in Mberengwa South where she has
been donating
maize seed, bicycles and groceries.
Warren Park
legislator, Elias Mudzuri, has also shown interest in his Zaka
home area,
opting out of a stiff primary election in his constituency.
Denga,
who is also Mbare MP, said he is being forced to dump his
constituency by
the pro-Zanu PF youth militia-group, Chipangano which has
turned Mbare
township into a no-go area.
“I am not willing to leave the city but
my constituency has become a no-go
area. I was recently banned from Mbare
and beaten up by Zanu PF youths. I
cannot even supervise my CDF projects. If
I walk alone I will be beaten up
just like a criminal by those people,”
Denga said.
Insiders also said there were serious divisions in the
MDC-T over when
primary elections should be held, with some senior members
saying they
should be in June.
“There is a push from a certain
group of individuals who want an early
election so contenders get less time
to campaign,” said the source.
Sources said as the primaries
approach, there could be more MDC-T officials
running for rural constituency
cover, creating opportunities for new
contestants and a new crop of MPs for
the party which would be battling to
maintain its urban stranglehold against
Zanu PF that has been wiped out of
towns and pushed back to the rural areas.
MDC-N would also be fighting to
pick up urban seats. –– Staff Writer.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012 10:14
Elias
Mambo
THE controversial promotion of Douglas Nyikayaramba by President
Robert
Mugabe last year from Brigadier-General to Major-General has come to
haunt
the military amid claims of divisions within the army as some quarters
complain that better qualified officers were overlooked for
promotion.
Nyikayaramba, who commanded the Three Infantry Brigade in
Manicaland prior
to his elevation, has been at the centre of controversy and
criticised for
often overstepping his role in the barracks and actively
dabbling in
partisan party politics.
His behaviour and remarks
have come to symbolise what the MDC-T and MDC-N
parties in government view
as a problematic role of the military in local
politics.
Sources
confirmed to the Zimbabwe Independent that there is a criterion for
promotion in the defence forces which is not being adhered to. Appointments
in the military are now said to be partly based on political considerations
instead of merit
“First there must be a vacancy in the rank
structure and officers vying for
the post should have gone for promotion
examinations,” said the source.
“Issues of paramount importance also include
seniority, professionalism and
in the case of a major-general, a course in
command and staff is mandatory,”
said the source.
However, the
sources said there were a number of irregularities being viewed
with
suspicion in the military in Nyikayaramba’s case.
They said officers
like Brigadier-Generals Herbert Chingono and Fidelis
Satuku, who are under
investigations for alleged WikiLeaks disclosures, are
better qualified and
should have been promoted ahead of Nyikayaramba.
For example,
Chingono was the last Zimbabwe National Army commander to train
at the US
National Defence University under the International Military
Education and
Training programme in 1999, while Satuku received his military
training in
Britain.
The two commanders are said to be highly respected in
military circles and
the Nyikayaramba promotion has complicated the
situation.
The sources said the way Nyikayaramba was promoted had
been problematic to
his colleagues. “Preceding his appointment, he had
declared his partisanship
position which warrants a disciplinary action
before a court martial and a
cause for disillusionment in the military,”
said the source.
At one point, Nyikayaramba was involved in the
constitution-making process
and has called for Mugabe to be “president for
life” and demanded that
“elections be held this year (2011) to ensure
political stability in the
country”.
He also proclaimed that “I
am in Zanu PF and Zanu PF is in me and you can’t
change that”.
He
has also made several statements intimating that the MDC would never rule
Zimbabwe.
National Housing minister and MDC-T secretary for
defence Giles Mutsekiwa,
who is also a former army colonel, confirmed the
disgruntlement in the
barracks over Nyikayaramba’s promotion.
“A
lot of people in the military are expressing disgruntlement over this
issue,” said Mutsekwa. “However, it is the president who is
commander-in-chief of the defence forces who promotes, especially on
appointments such as brigadier going upwards. However, in this case the
promotion was a reward for Nyikayaramba’s constant attacks on the MDC-T
president Morgan Tsvangirai,” he said.
Mutsekiwa said besides the
utterances by Nyikayaramba, the appointment,
which was made during the
current lifespan of the inclusive government, was
not in tandem with the
Global Political Agreement.
“This appointment did not go in line with
the GPA which stipulates that
military practices be conducted in a manner
that ensures that no political
or other form of favouritism is practiced,”
said Mutsekiwa.
Efforts to get comment from Zimbabwe National Army
spokesman Colonel Overson
Mugwisi were unsuccessful
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012
10:12
Paidamoyo Muzulu
GOVERNMENT is considering a cocktail of
measures to tackle staggering
inter-parastatal debts amounting to US$600
million by directing Treasury to
deduct arrears from the individual
companies’ 2012 budget allocations.
Should this proposal be endorsed by
cabinet, Treasury would be empowered to
address inter-parastatal debts by
deducting money which one parastatal owes
another from its budget
allocation.
Currently all budget allocations are deposited into each
parastatal’s
account, leaving them to offset their individual debts but
because of the
high defaulting rate, some entities are now technically
insolvent.
Among the entities which are bankrupt or battling to stay
afloat are Air
Zimbabwe (AirZim), National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ),
mobile operator
NetOne, fixed line operator TelOne, Cold Storage Company
(CSC), Grain
Marketing Board (GMB), Zupco and Zesa.
There are
about 82 state-owned entities, most of which are struggling or
technically
insolvent.
The inter-parastatal debt problem has a contagion effect
on other
state-owned companies and the country’s fragile recovery after a
decade of
economic meltdown. Without parastatal reforms and efficiency, the
economy
will continue to suffer.
The choking debts were
accumulated due to a myriad of poor policies, among
them government
interference, mismanagement and failure to adapt to the new
multi-currency
monetary regime.
Government was warned earlier this year that the
huge inter-parastatal debt
level was generating negative spillover effects
on the whole economy
dominated by the state enterprises which used to be the
locomotives of
growth and employment creation.
According to a
comprehensive 13-page document dated February 2012, outlining
the extent of
the problem, the inter-parastatal debt stood at US$458 639 932
as at
September 31, 2011. During this period, various ministries and
government
departments owed parastatals a staggering US$107 million.
The report
assesses the effects of the performance of the state enterprises
and
proposes recommendations to the Council of Ministers and cabinet on how
to
deal with the issue.
The document proposes recommendations that are
expected to form the basis of
the envisaged comprehensive and
stakeholder-driven Inter-Parastatal Debt
Strategy.
The document
further recommends that cabinet issues a directive to
ministries and
departments to pay off their debts immediately. It also wants
cabinet to
instruct Treasury to pay directly to the owed state enterprises
by deducting
the money from the ministries and departments’ 2012 budget
allocation.
State Enterprises minister Gorden Moyo (pictured left)
confirmed government
was discussing how parastatals could liquidate their
debts to make them
attractive to investors during the government’s
privatisation drive.
Privatisation of parastatals has been partly stalled by
their debt profile
and general state of affairs.
“We are
currently discussing on the strategy to find a method of settling
the debts
between and among the parastatals and other outside creditors,”
said
Moyo.
Moyo did not go into details about the strategies his ministry
would adopt
to resolve the debt crisis in which most parastatals find
themselves in.
However, the document claims the parastatals debt problem was
mainly due to
customers’ failure to pay, weak debt-recovery mechanisms,
failure to comply
with agreed payment schedules and decade-long adverse
macroeconomic
conditions until 2009. It says price controls before 2009 made
it difficult
for parastatals to make payments to suppliers.
The
document also lists the introduction of multicurrency without any
recapitalisation from the shareholder, non-compliance to good corporate
governance, imprudent policies and weak internal control measures and
government directives as some of the major challenges affecting parastatal
debts.
It indicates the transition to the multicurrency system
eroded parastatals’
bank balances that could have been used to make payments
to suppliers.
The debt situation has also affected the 10 parastatals
which the coalition
government has earmarked for privatisation since its
formation in February
2009. The 10 companies include Air Zimbabwe, NetOne,
TelOne, POSB, GMB, CSC,
Agribank, Zesa, NRZ and Ziscosteel. Not much
progress has been made to
privatise these entities, except for Ziscosteel
whose deal is at an advanced
stage albeit still uncertain.
These
10 companies have a combined debt of US$32 million among themselves.
AirZim
and NRZ owe other parastatals US$51, 9 million and US$26, 4 million
respectively.
The briefing paper proposes possible strategies
that include direct payment
of debts by Treasury to owed companies, debt
service/product swap, debt
off-setting, phased debt retirement, moral
suasion, disconnect/non-supply,
government taking over the debts and
development of a secondary market for
debt.
Debt service/ product
swap refers to the parastatals paying each other by
providing service to
each other for free to pay off debts. For example, this
arrangement may see
TelOne giving Zesa free telephone services in exchange
for electricity
bills.
The creation of a secondary market for debt would see the
government create
tradable instruments (bonds) that would have a specified
interest and
redemption date to raise capital to retire the current
debts.
Some parastatals like Zinwa, NetOne, TelOne and ZETDC (Zesa)
have adopted
the disconnecting debt collection strategy and cutting supply
to non-paying
state owned enterprises.
However, according to the
paper the strategy has its own weaknesses, among
them the potential to send
the indebted companies going into liquidation.
“This debt recovery strategy
has worked positively in some cases with the
defaulting parastatals making
immediate plans to settle their debts,” the
paper says, “This option is
however detrimental to the operations of
state-owned enterprises whose
supplies are disconnected.”
The white-paper observes most of these
state-owned enterprises failing to
pay for utilities are in dire financial
problems and disconnections will not
make them settle these debts, but will
further negatively affect their
operations and probability to default on
more obligations and, in the worst
case, be forced to wind up
operations.
Most of the parastatals have experienced severe capacity
utilisation
challenges, lack of capitalisation and trying to adjust to the
new
dollarisation era. It has become very difficult for the companies to
restore
viability and settle their debts.
The report warns:
“Given the current financial positions of these two
entities (AirZim and
NRZ), it is unlikely that they will be able to settle
their debts in the
foreseeable future.”
The government has taken over AirZim’s US$140
million debt and ring-fenced
it so as to give the proposed new state airline
a clean slate to start from.
The inter-parastatal debt and the contagion
pose a serious threat to
economic recovery.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012 10:11
Brian
Chitemba
SINCE 1980 the Matabeleland has have lagged behind in
development, creating
deep seated social discontent among people in the
region which accuses
President Robert Mugabe’s regime of marginalising
it.
The three arms of the government –– the executive, legislature and
judiciary –– are all housed in Harare and there is nothing to show that
Bulawayo is the country’s second largest city.
Unlike in South
Africa where the seat of government is in the capital
Pretoria while the
legislature is in Cape Town and the Supreme Court of
Appeals is in
Bloemfontein, all critical government departments in Zimbabwe
are located in
Harare. Johannesburg is South Africa’s commercial hub.
But everything
is so centralised in Zimbabwe that it is almost impossible to
get anything
done if one lives outside Harare.
It is in this vein that Industry
and Commerce minister and MDC president,
Welshman Ncube, is seeking to
change the status quo and have Bulawayo
declared Zimbabwe’s legislative
capital.
Ncube, who is also a law professor, told the Zimbabwe
Independent this week
that his proposal to have parliament relocated to
Bulawayo was feasible
because the inclusive government already had plans to
construct a new
parliamentary building to accommodate the House of Assembly
and its 210 MPs
as well as the upper house senate and its 93
members.
The Chinese government had agreed to help build the new
parliament building
at a cost of US$10 million in the Kopje area in the
capital and Ncube is
arguing that instead of erecting the new structure in
the capital, Bulawayo
was a better option because of socio-economic and
political benefits likely
to cascade to the region.
He said
relocating parliament to Bulawayo would boost the confidence of
Matabeleland people in the system who have been complaining of unfulfilled
promises and perceived marginalisation.
Underdevelopment and
seeming marginalisation have resulted in the formation
of some radical
groups such as the Mthwakazi Liberation Front which
advocates for secession
of Matabeleland from the rest of the country.
Ncube also believes
that moving parliament to Matabeleland would bring
members of the executive
closer to problems that have sparked complaints in
the region over the
years.
“We want the ministers to be in Matabeleland where people talk
about
marginalisation and de-industrialisation so that they appreciate the
challenges, said Ncube.
He said construction of a new parliament
in Bulawayo would create jobs to
absorb thousands of unemployed youths while
the parliamentary budget through
accommodation and food costs would directly
benefit the Matabeleland food,
hotel and transport
sectors.
“There will be more economic and political activity since
Bulawayo is always
quiet,” Ncube said.
Political commentator and
activist Rodrick Fayayo said relocating parliament
to Bulawayo was feasible
and the only thing needed was the political will.
Fayayo concurred with Ncube
that if parliament relocated to Bulawayo,
business would be revived while
other critical offices such as foreign
embassies may be encouraged to have
sub-offices in the city.
“Indeed with the closure and flight of
industries, it provides a basis for
the reindustrialisation of the city,”
said Fayayo. “A lot of young men and
women who have no jobs shall be
absorbed by the massive construction.
Anybody who opposes that opposes the
livelihood of the people of the region
and that is untenable,” Fayayo
said.
Habakkuk Trust chief executive officer Dumisani Nkomo said it
was not a bad
idea to move parliament to Bulawayo because in other countries
the
legislature was not necessarily in the capital.
“It would be
expensive but could generate more economic activity in Bulawayo
as a result
of more parliamentary activities,” said Nkomo. “People will also
have access
to decision-makers but of course the initial cost will be very
high,” he
said.
Political analyst Blessing Vava said if resources permitted, it
puts to rest
the notion that everything should be conducted in Harare while
for the
people of Bulawayo it would help in having ownership of important
national
institutions that have a direct impact on their everyday
lives.
“The notion that laws are made in Harare is wrong because
Zimbabwe is not
Harare or vice-versa,” said Vava. “It will somehow bring
infrastructural
development to the region, boost in hotels, employment
creation to the
locals and a boost in tourism,” he said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012
10:10
THE Zimbabwe Healthcare Trust (ZHCT), which was been tasked with
overseeing
the re-opening of former Vice-President Joshua Nkomo’s Ekusileni
Medical
Centre, has come under fire for failing to mobilise US$80 million to
revive
the facility.
The hospital was a brainchild of Nkomo and was
closed in 2004 afteronly
three months of being opened after failing to meet
minimum standards
required by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare for a
medical centre.
The ZHCT chaired by Vice-President John Nkomo
comprises deputy chairperson
Dr Daud Dube, the late VP Nkomo’s daughter
Thandiwe, the National University
of Science and Technology’s Professor
Lindela Ndlovu and Zanu PF politburo
member Joshua Malinga.
It
has led efforts to re-open the medical facility for over a decade in vain
as
the massive health institution located in the Hillside suburb of Bulawayo
remains a white elephant.
According to Ekusileni Medical Centre
confidential documents compiled by the
Zimbabwe Leadership Forum (Zimlef)and
made available to the Zimbabwe
Independent, the ZHCT said it required US$80
million to operationalise the
institution over the next two
years.
Once in operation, the hospital would run 23 departments and
157 beds which
will increase to 265 on completion. However, US$7 million is
required to
upgrade the hospital and US$30 million going towards purchasing
of critical
equipment. The hospital also requires a staff complement of over
1 000,
which includes nurses, consultants, secretaries and
physicians.
Efforts to resuscitate the hospital have been derailed by
the ZHCT board’s
poor meeting attendances and recurring and unplanned
deficits.
The board has been accused of failing to communicate with
the executive
director while other board members are accused of
back-biting.
The documents also show that Ekusileni Medical Centre
owed US$1,3 million in
unpaid operational costs recorded in
2004.
At a meeting held at the hospital on March 24, Thandiwe Nkomo
demanded
financial results showing the outstanding amounts and indicating
the
previous board led by the late former Vice-President Joseph Msika
cleared
the arrears.
Zimlef said there have been challenges
securing adequate funding to open the
facility and run it.
It
said activity within the trust was slow, leading to a degree of apathy
amongst the trustees as well as other stake holders.
Other
challenges blamed for lack of progress at Ekusileni, as noted by
Zimlef, are
underfunding of the public healthcare sector, perennial water
problems in
Bulawayo, skills flight and the economic meltdown that gripped
Zimbabwe
before 2009.
Repeated efforts to get a comment from VP Nkomo and Dube
were unsuccessful.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012
10:10
Staff Reporter
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is set to
confront President Robert Mugabe
over the snub by Zanu PF ministers who
boycotted the special Council of
Ministers indaba on indigenisation on
Tuesday.
This comes in the wake of reports that some Zanu PF hardliners
mobilised to
avoid the meeting, saying Tsvangirai wanted to take advantage
of Mugabe’s
absence to chair cabinet through the back
door.
Mugabe is presently in Singapore allegedly to “oversee” his
daughter Bona’s
preparatory work for postgraduate
studies.
Tsvangirai’s spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka yesterday confirmed
that the
premier would not take the boycott lightly and is set to raise it
with
Mugabe when he returns next week.
“Obviously the prime
minister will raise this with the president in their
next meeting,” said
Tamborinyoka.
Sources said Zanu PF hardliners opposed to Tsvangirai
and who want the
coalition to collapse orchestrated the boycott which was
communicated to
ministers by Media Information and Publicity minister
Webster Shamu.
“What is clear is that these people caucused and came
up with this
position,” said the source. “Infact, Shamu is said to have
called a number
of Zanu PF ministers informing them of the position that led
to the
boycott.”
However, Shamu yesterday dismissed the
allegations, asking: “You want me to
respond to gossip?”
Shamu
has already set himself on a collision course with Tsvangirai by
repeatedly
refusing to implement media reforms agreed to by the principals
to the
Global Political Agreement (GPA) and communicated to him through the
chief
secretary to president and cabinet, Misheck Sibanda.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012
10:08
Gamma Mudarikiri
GOVERNMENT has again threatened to seize
another 900 hectares of land from
Glenara Estates wholly owned by the listed
agriculture company, CFI
Holdings.
This comes soon after another threat
early this year where the government
had indicated it would acquire 400
hectares for resettlement from the same
estate which is a hub of the
company’s poultry and cropping business.
The acquisition will see the
estate losing 1 300 hectares out of a total of
2 200 hectares which company
CEO Steve Kuipa says will negatively affect
the group across all its
business divisions.
Other business divisions of the group include
Suncrest Chickens, Hubbard
Zimbabwe, Crest Breeders, Agrifoods, Vetco, and
Agrimix, whose operations
Kuipa said were directly linked to the Glenara
Estate.
Kuipa said the company’s expansion project to increase its
poultry unit
to 60 000 broilers per cycle would also be incalculably
disturbed as the
area the government is eyeing is where the water source
for the project
and chicken runs are located.
The company
invested US$2 million in the project to construct
environmentally-controlled
houses with a capacity to hold 40 000 birds.
The structures after
completion will reduce the poultry mortality rate to
below 5%, which
currently is 10%. At the moment, CFI is using open-sided
facilities.
Kuipa said his company borrowed US$3,8 million from PTA Bank,
which was to
be paid over five years for the project.
The
remaining US$1,4 million of the borrowed money will be spent on
upgrading
the Victoria Foods plant, while the US$400 000 will go towards
upgrading
Hubbard hatchery in Beatrice.
The estate also has 714 hectares under
commercial maize, 270 hectares under
soya beans, 33 hectares under seed
maize and 50 hectares under sugar beans.
Mashonaland Central governor
Advocate Martin Dinha, however, said he would
engage government to
consider acquiring less than 500 hectares as the
estate was one of the
most viable and sustainable remaining agriculture
structures in the
country.
Dinha said the government plan on the estate was to
give individuals 20
hectares of land on a contractual basis which would
see them contributing
to the production estate.
The governor
said the expansion of Harare residential area towards
Mashonaland Central
was threatening agriculture as it continues to reduce
productive farming
land in the area.
“As Mashonaland Central we don’t see any rationale
in Harare residential
areas expanding towards us to disturb sustainable
agriculture structures
like Glenara Estates. City authorities must consider
vertical expansion,”
Dina said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012 10:06
Wongai
Zhangazha
THERE have been increasing reports of violence with members of
the police
force apparently mobilising citizens to protect themselves
against
“enemies” of the state as the country gears for elections.
Arson
attacks have already been reported against MDC-T activists in Bikita,
Masvingo Province.
Human rights organisations also reported
increasing intimidation of
villagers in various areas which include Chakari
in Mashonaland West and
Gokwe- Gumunyu in the Midlands. Soldiers based at
Gokwe Centre are
reportedly involved in instilling fear in residents ahead
of anticipated
polls.
According to witnesses, three police
officers at Highlands police station
addressed about 20 people at the
weekend inside the police yard on the
preparedness of the
elections.
One of the officers was holding a clip board with the name
T Matanga.
The source, however, could not establish whether the
ordinary citizens were
members of the Neighbourhood Watch
Committees.
It is understood that the officers who addressed the
civilians told them
that they must know their “enemies” in the
area.
“They were told that you must be Zanu PF otherwise you cannot
serve someone
you don’t like. They were told to read the Herald and be up to
date with
what is happening and if they were ever seen reading privately
owned
newspapers they would also be viewed as enemies,” said the
source.
Harare province police spokesperson Inspector James Sabau
expressed
ignorance over the issue but said they would investigate the
matter.
The source said the people were also told that they were
going to be
instrumental before and after the elections and that they must
be vigilant
and know their enemies.
No date has yet been set for
elections, but President Robert Mugabe, during
his address to the party’s
central committee last week, indicated that the
dates for polls could be
announced in May. This has been rejected by the MDC
formations who have
insisted on reforms as agreed on in the Global Political
Agreement before
elections can be held.
Tension is reportedly also building up in
Sanyati.
Traner Ruzvidzo, the MDC-T Political Liaison officer for
Jomic in the
Midlands, told the Independent that tensions were now very high
in the area.
Ruzvidzo says she assisted victims of political violence in
Mashonaland West
Province and there were clear signs that Zanu PF supporters
on the ground
were already preparing for elections.
In one
incident on the evening of March 27, MDC-T organising secretary for
Sanyati
Reuben Banda was attacked by about six suspected Zanu PF supporters
in
Sechuru.
Before the attack, Banda had attended a party training
leadership meeting.
His attackers cited his involvement at the meeting as
one of the reasons for
beating him.
“They started beating Banda
accusing him of planning to create bombs at the
meeting they had on March
26 that was based on training leadership. They
hit him with an iron bar in
the head and this was at Nyarude business
centre,” said
Ruzvidzo.
She said on the same day the Zanu PF activists led by war
veteran Aneas
Mapfumo went to Madzivaenzou area where they attacked an MDC-T
activist,
Amos Zhou at his home.
She said the assailants attacked
Zhou with an axe and this affected his hip
and backbone.
Ruzvidzo
claimed that the same group proceeded to another MDC-T supporter,
Josiah
Shumba’s home where they wanted to take him to a base in the same
area for
harassment and torture.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012 10:04
Wongai
Zhangazha
THE sight of withering maize crop of uneven height along the
Gutu-Masvingo
road is striking. Subsistence communal farmers have seen their
optimism and
hopes of a good harvest gradually fade giving way to despair as
they watched
their maize crop wilt into a complete write off.
Not that
it’s anything new in these areas surrounding districts like Gutu,
Bikita,
Zaka and Chivi located in one of the most drought-prone geographical
regions
of the country, but 2012 has been worse and there are fears it might
deteriorate to catastrophic levels of the 1992 drought.
In 1992,
the country experienced a severe drought resulting in human and
livestock
fatalities.
Climatically, these area falls under natural region III.
Natural regions in
Zimbabwe’s context are areas delineated on the basis of
soil type, rainfall
and other climatic factors.
The drought and
hunger stalking the country has forced cabinet to form a
committee to deal
with the issue and food security at a national level.
The looming
food crisis has several causes. Besides drought, there is the
issue of lack
of productivity following the land reform programme and
government policy
failures in agriculture.
Since the 2000 land seizures Zimbabwe has
been surviving on food imports and
donations. At the height of Zimbabwe’s
economic and political crisis in
2008, aid agencies estimated that at least
five million Zimbabweans — almost
half the country’s population — survived
on food aid.
Although the government has an uneasy relationship with
the Western
countries over limited sanctions imposed on targeted individuals
and
companies, there is a “gentlemen’s agreement” in which President Robert
Mugabe’s regime allows aid agencies to distribute food to avert mass
starvation.
Even though the economy has shown signs of recovery
since the establishment
of the coalition government, a major drought is
threatening to expose the
fragile nature of the country’s economic recovery
and food security. Like on
previous occasions, the inclusive government is
reacting to the consequences
instead of planning ahead.
In the
Mutoko District of Mashonaland East, most crops have wilted due to
moisture
stress and, in most areas, the crops are a complete write-off.
Most
farmers had applied for compound D fertiliser but this was followed by
a
long period of dry weather, resulting in most crops failing. Communal
farmers in the Nyamuzuwe, Kawazva and Charehwa areas area have given up on
their crop.
Estimates show that at least half a million
Zimbabweans would require food
aid but the number could be higher as the
cost of the drought is still being
counted.
While the inclusive
government is preoccupied with election issues, millions
of people,
especially in the rural areas, face severe famine.
With most
countries in the region unable to export maize amid reports that a
third of
the national maize crop is a write-off while 55 000 tonnes of maize
were
destroyed because of poor storage at the Grain Marketing Board,
Zimbabwe is
clearly facing hunger
Agriculture and Mechanisation minister Joseph
Made recently warned that
hundreds of thousands of people were facing
starvation due to the drought
which has resulted in poor yields after vast
tracks of maize failed. He said
according to the final crop assessment by
government, about 500 000 hectares
of maize crop is a write-off due to poor
rains.
Zimbabwe Farmers Union executive director Paul Zakariya
recently said the
outlook for the 2011/2012 agricultural season was not
encouraging.
“Chiefly, most farmers failed to access inputs through
the support scheme
launched by government. There was an acute shortage of AN
fertiliser on the
market. Resultantly, most farmers lost a significant
portion of their crop.
The situation was worsened by the late onset of
rains,” Zakariya said.
The unpredictability of the rainy season
continues to stifle the full
potential of local farmers. Owing to these
challenges, hectarage for this
season has significantly gone down, and that
in turn would lead to reduced
yields.
Against that background,
government only provided US$226 million to
agriculture this year while the
sector requires an estimated US$2 billion
each season if it is to realise
its full potential.”
However, Commercial Farmers Union president
Charles Taffs said poor planning
by both government and farmers resulted in
the looming food shortages.
“It is more than just a drought. The
agriculture policy is not conducive to
production. The problems on the land
whether big or small is that farmers do
not have security hence they cannot
put money into such business. There is
no planning or investment. People
don’t plan for this agricultural season.
They wait for government handouts,”
he said.
“The situation this year is that the planting season was
done up to December
of which if you plant maize after the 15th of December
don’t expect to get
much yields. The southern part of the country has always
been known as not
the best area for maize seeds and it usually experiences
erratic rainfalls
and there is nothing new about that. If you are a serious
farmer, use
irrigation to mitigate that; plant early to cover the dry spell,
but if you
don’t own the land you cannot do that,” he said.
Debay
Tadesse of the Institute for Security Studies — African Conflict
Prevention
and Risk Analysis Programme last week told African
parliamentarians in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, at an inter-parliamentary
dialogue organised by the
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, that variability in the
weather patterns as a
result of climate change has had major implications
for pastoralist
livelihoods and security.
Tadesse said: “Threats from climate change,
particularly persistent drought,
have devastating consequences. The overall
effect is that climate change
will fuel existing conflicts over depleting
resources, especially where
access to those resources is
scarce.”
Unless government makes decisive interventions, achieving
the first
objective of the Millennium Development Goals (eradication of
extreme
poverty and hunger) will be frustrated by changes in rainfall
patterns which
threaten crop production and food security.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012 10:02
Tendai
Marima
THE Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) announced that
three
tollgates would be built along the Plumtree-Mutare highway over the
next
three years. Two permanent gates would be constructed between Bulawayo
and
Harare while a third is set for Ruwa.
Toll roads are found in many
countries. The way they are funded and operated
may differ from country to
country. Some of these toll roads are privately
owned and operated. Others
are owned by the government. Some of the
government-owned toll roads are
privately operated.
Some toll roads are managed under such systems as
the Build-Operate-Transfer
(BOT) model Private companies build the roads and
are given a limited
franchise. Ownership is transferred to the government
when the franchise
expires. Throughout the world, this type of arrangement
is common. The BOT
system is a fairly new concept which however is gaining
ground.
Given that the system requires vehicles to stop or slow down,
manual toll
collection wastes time and raises motor vehicle operating costs,
government
should be using the money efficiently to reward citizens by
investing in the
road network, not ripping them off.
However, in
Zimbabwe, tollgate levies are among the most abused public
funds. Revenue
theft is rampant because it is comparatively easy to steal as
has been shown
by stories in the media.
According to Zinara spokesman Augustine
Moyo, when the first of these
“state-of-the-art” structures is completed in
September this year, toll fees
would be increased.
Moyo claimed
higher charges were necessary to generate more revenue for
reconstruction of
the US$206 million highway, but if history is anything to
go by, whatever
Zinara is set to earn is likely to be diverted to finance
non-road related
expenses.
If the “state-of-the-art” structures work well they will
ensure toll roads
gain popularity, especially if improved technology is
introduced. In
Zimbabwe, toll roads still require a toll collector and
drivers to stop to
pay, resulting in delays and congestion in some cases,
which defeats the
purpose of a toll road in the first
place.
However, in other parts of the world technology has improved
toll collection
to where drivers do not have to stop. The most popular is
electronic toll
collection. This is usually where some electronic tag on the
vehicle denotes
which car went through the electronic toll booth and how
much the driver
should be billed. Another technological advance with toll
roads are sensors
that can determine how many cars are using the toll road
and the time it
takes to get from one destination to the
next.
This can let drivers know how traffic conditions are on the
toll road, and
more importantly, in the cases where a toll road uses
congestion pricing,
determine the toll fee.
Widely used toll
roads can financially operate autonomously, so even if the
government is
having a budget problem and money needs to be saved and
funding cut, toll
roads, unlike free highways, will still have funding and
therefore can still
be maintained, improved, and even expanded.
Despite all this, a
number of critics still contend that toll roads do not
benefit drivers and
citizens. One criticism they have is that toll fees are
expensive,
particularly when people cannot see the benefit by ways of
filling potholes
and improving the quality of roads.
In 2010, six months after toll
gates were introduced, the Department of
Roads blew US$2 million buying
computer equipment and vehicle repairs in
Mashonaland West and
Matabeleland.
Without authorisation from parliament, the ministry
diverted funds for its
own benefit rather than fixing dilapidated roads
which have caused many
fatal accidents. In July of the same year, the
Mid-Year Fiscal Review showed
most of the US$15 million intended for
nationwide road repairs went to Zanu
PF’s political strongholds in
Mashonaland West and Central, which includes
Zvimba — President Robert
Mugabe’s rural home.
Using public funds as a political tool to curry
favour with one section of
the electorate while short-changing other areas
is a clear abuse of power
and the root cause of regionalism, but to the
corrupt authoritarians running
Zimbabwe, it’s a survival
strategy.
The recent exemption of 250 chiefs from paying tollgate
charges is another
tactic by Zanu PF to control traditional leaders ahead of
elections. The
issue was part of political negotiations which ushered in the
inclusive
government.
Although the news of chiefs being exempt
from paying fees was hailed as a
“victory”, the amendment to the Toll Roads
Regulations 2012 endorses an
unhelpful sense of entitlement and ownership
felt by the Chiefs Council.
In an interview with a local weekly, president of
the Council of Chiefs
Fortune Charumbira declared: “Status of chiefs is not
questionable. They are
the owners of the country.”
This is misleading.
Zimbabwe belongs to all who live in it, but greedy
privilege and populist
benefits are how inherited and elected leaderships
have established their
authority in this country.
In a socialist democracy, which Zimbabwe aspires
to be, everyone should pay
their way, but under a corrupt patronage system,
chefs get free-loading and
the people foot the bill.
At present, Zinara
earns an average of US$17 million a year from toll fees,
which ranges from
US$1 for an average car to US$5 for haulage trucks.
Further hikes would not
go down well with over-taxed and impoverished
motorists.
In the
past, Zinara has been forced to back down after frequent commuters in
areas
surrounding Harare protested at having to pay each and every time they
drove
into the capital.
In a separate case, residents in Bulawayo won a
rare victory against the
government which was ordered to move the toll gate
outside the city and stop
charging motorists to travel to and from
home.
From their inception, toll gates were never popular and
although the
government initiative was meant to raise funds for road
improvement, there
is little to show for it.
Three years since
their introduction, there are more stories of how public
officials abuse
funds and how Zinara loses millions through corruption,
rather than the
actual benefit these concrete pillars have given the
country.
Potholes continue to multiply at an alarming rate and
US$2 billion is needed
to modernise the country’s crumbling road
infrastructure, but bad governance
and volatile politics, as well as failure
to service debts, have been a big
deterrent for international lenders like
the African Development Bank, which
has funded Zimbabwe’s road programmes
before.
Improving Zimbabwe’s highways would boost regional trade and
foreign
investment, particularly at border towns like Beitbridge, the
busiest inland
point of entry in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Plumtree, but
instead, leadership
and policy failures have undermined development of
infrastructure.
With the elections looming, there is a frightening
possibility toll gates
fees would be diverted from improving the road
network to funding political
events. So toll gate fees could be more than
just a gripe from motorists,
but an issue of public national debate.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012
11:40
SOUTH Africa’s Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) president Mangosuthu
Buthelezi
said recently he was “stuck between the devil and a hard place”,
and that it
would be “cowardly” of him now to leave the party he had
founded, when it
was in difficulties, reports BusinessDay.
This is
despite the fact that the IFP has been bleeding support since 1994,
losing
control of 30 municipalities in the last local government election in
KwaZulu-Natal, a province it once led.
“No person who has built a
house runs away if that house has started to
burn,” opined Buthelezi.
He
said he had considered stepping down on previous occasions, but each time
the party had “asked that he remain”. The idea that he was clinging to power
“is nonsense”, he added.
Buthelezi said alleged rifts between the
party and the IFP Youth Brigade “do
not exist”. He also said there were a
few disaffected young people who were
“spreading lies about the
party”.
BusinessDay cites political analyst, Daniel Silke, who
observed that the IFP
had become “somewhat of a personality cult” around its
leader, who had
failed to address the succession issue “over an extended
period of time”.
Where have we heard this before?
Clearly
we are not short of geriatric party leaders in cloud cuckoo land,
who
believe they are the alpha and omega of their parties.
Buthelezi believes he
can stem the IFP’s slide into political obscurity by
remaining in power,
something he has failed to do for the past 20 years.
Albert Einstein once
said insanity is doing the same thing over and over
again and expecting
different results.
That will still not deter Cde Buthelezi, we are
sure.
A cartoon in the Herald on Monday
caught our attention. It referred to the
forthcoming Zim/EU reengagement
talks. Two negotiators, one from Zimbabwe,
the other from the EU, are
depicted as exchanging views. The Zimbabwe
negotiator, in reference to news
a few days earlier that Zim/EU trade had
doubled, asked: “Without the
restrictive measures wouldn’t it quadruple?”
Innocent Mpofu, in his
cartoons, likes to portray white people as having
long pointed noses. In
European folklore it is those who are economic with
the truth who are
portrayed as possessing long noses.
We saw the headline last Friday
about trade doubling but came to a different
conclusion. Why is the Zimbabwe
government constantly bleating about
sanctions having undermined the economy
when trade between the 27-member
bloc and Zimbabwe has grown so
dramatically? Have they been lying to us all
this time?
The
answer is of course a big Yes!
Another whopper appeared on Friday. It
was a government statement saying
“Food woes, land reform
absolved”.
Acting Minister of Women’s Affairs,Gender and Community
Development
Sithembiso Nyoni was speaking at a conference in Dubai. She said
that
shortages were a result of droughts. Maize production had actually
increased
as a result of the land reform, she
claimed.
What is the Joint Command and
Staff Course that we are told Herald deputy
editor Caesar Zvayi and ZBC
general manager (programing) Allan Chiweshe
attended on the role of the
media in nation-building? Sounds rather sinister
to us. And why do we need
to know the staff course is No 25? What is the
significance of No
25?
Equally sinister was a statement by George Charamba that “media
organisations can indeed undermine freedom of expression which is why their
protection under the constitution must be conditional”.
“Media
organisations need to be regulated as they have the capacity to
injure
freedom of expression,” Charamba was reported as saying.
What
hogwash! The country needs protection from the predatory gang around
Mugabe,
not the other way around. Who has inflicted injury on society in the
recent
past? Certainly not the media. Anybody remember Mark Chavunduka and
Ray
Choto?
Transmedia chairman Dr Paul
Chimedza said his outfit was preparing for
community radio stations across
the country.
“We realised that lack of transmission creates a
vacuum,” he said, “and that
vacuum will be filled by pirate stations that
are hostile to the country,”
he said.
“People will end up listening to
pirate stations not because they love them
but because there will be no
option,” Chimedza said.
Yes, partly true. But there are also ZBC’s lies and
propaganda that make
people sick.
Chimedza should tell the whole
story.
Although they received substantial funding from the
government, they had
devised other ways of making money, Chimedza
said.
Yes, Zanu PF always finds new ways of making money.
The last
time we saw Charamba at a staff course he was pulling faces to make
the
audience laugh.
When one of the speakers complained that Charamba was
getting more time than
others, some pip squeak from ZTV declared that “Mr
Charamba is welcome to
have my time”.
Truly
pathetic.
Meanwhile Information
Communication Technology minister Nelson Chamisa gave
Zanu PF apologists a
good run for their money in waxing lyrical about
President Mugabe’s
“visionary” leadership, the Herald reports.
“The President has
provided leadership from the cockpit and we are prepared
to be the
passengers,” Chamisa gushed.
Speaking at the launch of the National
e-Learning Programme at Chogugudza
Primary School in Goromonzi, Chamisa said
President Mugabe’s “wisdom makes
sure the plane does not
crash”.
If his stunned listeners thought the MDC-T National
Organising secretary had
extolled President Mugabe enough, they got another
think coming.
In presenting an Apple iPad to President Mugabe, Chamisa stated
that: “When
Moses descended from Mount Sinai, he had with him two tablets
that had the
10 Commandments, however, today, your Excellency; we will
provide you with
one tablet.”
“This tablet,” Chamisa went on to
say, “will ensure that you are wiser than
all the kings we have
known.”
We know Cde Chamisa is prone to bouts of capriciousness but
this is
ridiculous. We are sure even Cde Webster Shamu, of the “President
Mugabe is
Cremora” fame, would really feel
outdone.
NewsDay reports that
Chief Svosve has been accused of firing gunshots in an
apparent attempt to
scare away a villager, Noel Nhire, following a dispute
over a piece of land
at Ashlyns Farm in Wedza.
In an urgent chamber application at the
High Court, Nhire accused Chief
Svosve, born Weston Zvenyika Kuwandikira, of
always firing gunshots to scare
him away and sending youths to disrupt his
farming operations.
“The respondent is always sending youths to
unlawfully evict me from my
lawfully resettled piece of land,” Nhire told
the court. “He is always
firing gunshots to scare away the applicant (Nhire)
such that the applicant
is now in danger.”
Nhire also accused
Chief Svosve of holding political rallies denouncing the
former and
influencing villagers to revolt against him.
This comes in the wake of
demands, by chiefs, for guns so that they could
“protect
themselves”.
Chiefs’ council vice president, Chief Mtshana Khumalo,
had recently said
they wanted guns to “assist villagers in the event that
there are wild
animals troubling them”.
We had asked why they
would want to usurp the role of the wildlife rangers
or even the police.
Maybe the “wild animals” they were referring to were of
another
kind!
The face of Harare is set
to change, we are told, following amendments to
local development plans
approving mixed land use. Mixed land use means
allowing commercial uses such
as offices, restaurants and banks, the Herald
tells us.
The
changes are aimed at bringing services closer to the people, it says.
The
changes are a response to demand as people had already started invading
residential areas and setting up offices.
City director of urban
planning, Psychology Chiwanga presides over these
changes. The Arundel local
plan, for example seeks the expansion of the
suburban shopping centre and to
integrate it with the surrounding
residential area.
“The plan
will see the conversion of surrounding properties into commercial
use such
as shops, restaurants, and offices”.
This is a disaster waiting to
happen. Arundel is hardly a hop, skip and jump
from the city centre. And
areas that are closer to town have seen the
ungainly conversion of private
properties into offices and restaurants
without any consultation with
neighbours. Indeed, it would be interesting to
know if Chiwanga has said No
to any applicant. Press reports have placed him
as close to Zanu-PF and it
would be instructive to know if this change to
urban sprawl has anything to
do with Zanu PF’s election
campaign.
A car sales yard has
been set up across the road from Prince Edward School
and kombis now
traverse the green space between the school and Cleveland Rd
in Milton Park.
NewsDay carried a story recently on a widow who had leased a
property on
Cleveland Rd to a former councillor, Charles Nyachowe, who is
refusing to
leave the house. He is a former special interests councillor
appointed by
Ignatious Chombo. He now runs a money-lending outfit called
Vantage
Microfinance Banking Ltd.
His business has led to a dramatic increase
in traffic in Cleveland Rd.
Most modern cities are desirable
locations because they are properly planned
and by-laws are enforced. Harare
is headed in the opposite direction.
Chiwanga needs to understand that
allowing anybody to set up business
anywhere is not progressive. It is
likely to end up as a free-for-all.
Cleveland Rd is emblematic of the
problem.
Do you support President
Mugabe and would you wear clothing advertising your
preference? If so, then
you should wear something from the Gushungo fashion
label.
“We
want everyone who is patriotic to wear the brand,” Justin Matenda who
heads
the outfitters told the Sunday Times.
“In Mugabe’s honour as a
revolutionary, cultural icon, social leader and
president par excellence, we
decided we needed to take this up,” he said.
This reveals a worrying
lack of marketing skills, something the company
boasts of. How many people
in Harare would want the world to know they
endorse Mugabe as a cultural
icon?
“In honouring our president we thought why not introduce
something that will
outlive him and even our own generation,” Matenda
said.
Does he mean we have to put up with this “patriotic” display
into kingdom
come? We thought it was just an election gimmick!
We
have only spotted one T-shirt so far and the wearer said he had been
given
it.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012
11:39
THIS column has, on several occasions, addressed the necessity for
the
pursuit of indigenisation and economic empowerment. The need for the
economic empowerment of the greater majority of Zimbabweans, is without
doubt a noble cause. However, doing so necessitates a virile economic
environment and that, in turn, is contingent upon good and sound national
governance.
Tragically, Government repeatedly functions in
contemptuous disregard for
such governance, constantly jeopardising economic
development, hindering
real and effective indigenisation, and wide-ranging
economic advancement.
Instead, it achieves ever greater poverty for most
Zimbabweans, to an extent
that many lives are
endangered.
Prerequisites for the much needed economic growth and
well-being of the
people, is that Zimbabwe be a recipient of considerable
foreign investment,
technology transfer from abroad, lines of credit, and
ready access to
international markets. However, despite frequent statements
that foreign
investment is welcome, and will be secure, Government
legislates to the
contrary.
From the onset of Government’s
programme to promote indigenisation and
economic empowerment, with the
enactment of legislation in 2008, Government
has been insistent that
Zimbabweans be given at least 51% of every mine
which has a net worth of US1
and of every other enterprise having a net
value of U$500 000. That
insistence is very contemptuous of investment
funding and other necessary
inputs by foreign investors.
The prescribed investors are
Sovereign Wealth Fund, a Youth Development Fund
and Community Share Trusts,
all of which are wholly unable to fund their
acquisition of equity in the
economic ventures. In rigidly pursuing this
policy of indigenous
participation, Government obtusely disregards the fact
that very few foreign
investors are willing to provide the majority of a
venture’s funding,
technology, and other needs, whilst being denied
authority and control of
the venture and its operations. Provision of the
needs of an enterprise,
while being denied authority over the usage of such
needs, is untenable for
almost all investors.
Not only are such indigenisation and economic
empowerment policies anathema
to foreign investors,but also to banks and
other financial institutions from
which lines of credit are sought. Other
Governmental policies and statements
exacerbate the reluctance to invest and
to provide the needed operational
resources.
A few weeks ago,
President Mugabe made a statement that foreign investors
need not fear for
the security of their investments, and that foreign
investment into Zimbabwe
is welcome. In total contradiction to those
Presidential assurances, last
week the Minister of Youth Development,
Indigenisation and Empowerment
emphatically stated that no compensation was
to be paid to foreign mining
sector investors in respect of the investors’
underlying natural resources,
such as the under-ground ore reserves of
mining ventures.
He
made that policy statement with unmitigated disregard for the
considerable
expenditures of investors in prospecting for the mineral
reserves,
supplying the necessary expertise to do so, and the capital
expenditures
incurred in accessing those mineral reserves. He also
disregarded that
mining enterprises pay for registration of claims ,mining
licences, and
substantial royalties to Government for all minerals mined by
the
enterprises. In addition to those payments they are also liable for
income
taxes on their profits, and withthholding taxes on any distributions
of
those profits.
Not only do the mines pay so heavily for the mined
resources, but they are
also a major source of employment, (very greatly
needed in Zimbabwe) where
unemployment in the formal sector is less than 13%
of the employable
population. Moreover, mining favourably impacts upon the
downstream
economy. All of these factors are obliquely ignored by the
Minister and
many of those in Government. Such disregard gravely deters
foreign
investors, deprives Zimbabwe of much of the desperately needed
economic
recovery and growth, and is in blatant conflict with
internationally-binding
agreements to which Zimbabwe is a
party.
Zimbabwe has entered into numerous Bilateral Investment
Promotion and
Protection Agreements (BIPPAs), recent ones being with South
Africa and
Botswana. Those agreements were dogmatically ignored and
breached, when
Zimbabwe embarked on its programme of land acquisition and
resettlement.
By his authoritarian declaration that no
compensation for mineral resources
will be paid for the enforced
disinvestment of non-indigenous investors in
the mining sector, the Minister
is effectively stating that the BIPPAs are,
and will be, ignored and
breached. This is a further major deterrent to the
desperately needed
foreign investment into the mining sector. It is also a
discouraging,
counter-productive and deterrent to non-indigenous investment
in other
economic sectors.
The Governmental stance of enforced indigenisation
and economic empowerment,
on totally unjust and inequitably prescribed
terms, is endlessly
intensifying, with an insane failure to pursue the
much-needed economic
indigenisation in a constructive, nationally beneficial
manner, is steadily
driving investors away, thereby endangering economic
recovery, and
undermining the indigenisation and empowerment objectives.
The Government
is becoming increasingly beserk in its pursuance of the
indigenisation and
empowerment programme.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012
11:30
THERE may be much that is shiny and new in Angola, but 10 years
after the
end of the war many ghosts remain, as Louise Redvers of the BBC
reports
below.
IT is a milestone that at one time few would have thought
possible.
Yesterday, Angola marked a decade since the end of the 27-year
civil war
which devastated the country, claiming countless lives and
displacing
millions.
The conflict involved three different
liberation movements and saw
intervention from the former Soviet Union,
Cuba, the United States and
apartheid South Africa.
How times
have changed. Today Angola can now boast of a booming
economy —forecast to
grow 12% this year — and a growing regional and
international diplomatic
profile.
Foreign investors are flocking to Angola hoping to share in
the boom times.”
Angola’s physical transformation since the end of the war
has also been
immense.
Oil revenues and associated Chinese loans
have bankrolled an ambitious
national reconstruction programme of roads,
airports, bridges, hospitals and
schools. In the sprawling cities, where the
war-weary sought refuge during
the height of the conflict, urban slums are
being given a facelift. And
once productive agricultural fields are now
being cleared of landmines ready
for replanting; industries like cotton and
coffee are being revived and old
copper, iron and gold mines are being
re-opened for prospection.
Meanwhile, foreign investors are flocking
to Angola hoping to share in the
boom times and Luanda’s tiny Fourth of
February airport is overwhelmed by
new flights coming from across Africa as
well as Europe, Asia and the Middle
East.
African success story?
The president of nearly 33 years, Jose Eduardo dos
Santos, and his MPLA
party remain the dominant power in the country, having
claimed a military
victory over rivals Unita following the death of rebel
leader Jonas Savimbi
in February 2002.
Senior members of the MPLA — which won an 82%
majority in the 2008
legislative election, the second in Angola’s history —
have a tight grip
over all aspects of the country’s economy and both state
and private media
are heavily biased in the government’s
favour.
On paper, and in the view of the ruling party, Angola is an
African success
story — an example of how a war-torn nation can rebuild
itself in peace.
In fact Dos Santos sees himself as a regional elder and this
year holds the
presidency of the Southern African Development Community
(Sadc) and the
Community of Portuguese Language Countries.
Angola
is now even helping to rescue its former colonial power, Portugal,
which has
been hit hard by the Eurozone crisis and is selling off state and
private
assets to raise cash. But scratch below the surface and the picture
is less
pretty.
Despite the country’s rapid economic growth — rated as faster
than China’s
during the past decade — it is estimated that up to half the
country still
live on less than US$2 a day.
There may be vast new
housing estates with neat gardens and swimming pools
springing up around the
country, but for the majority of Angolans, home is a
shared bed in an
unpaved, overcrowded slum with limited access to running
water, sanitation
or electricity.
Unemployment remains stubbornly high and despite huge
investments, the
roll-out of mass education is yet to yield tangible
benefits. Health
services also remain severely limited. This is due to a
lack of skilled
professionals as well as pervasive
corruption.
Rates of child mortality have decreased significantly
since the end of the
war, but one in five youngsters still die before their
fifth birthday and
the country remains near the bottom of the United Nations
Human Development
Index, ranked 148 out of 187 countries.
“In 10
years of peace the government has not delivered a true peace dividend
to the
Angolan people,” says Paula Roque, a political analyst and Angolan
expert at
Oxford University.
“It makes no sense that Angola should continue
with the level of poverty we
are seeing when there is so much money coming
from oil.”
But for Roque the issue goes deeper than poverty
alleviation. She questions
just how peaceful and reconciled Angola really is
when the ruling party has,
since the end of the war, silenced all narratives
except its own and imposed
on the population what she calls a “superficial
society”.
It is true that Angola’s school-taught official history
belongs to the MPLA,
as do the nation’s symbols like its flag and national
anthem.
Pearce, who has interviewed former soldiers in central
Angola, points out
that integration and reconciliation appears to be very
much on the MPLA’s
terms.
Roque adds: “There has been no conciliated
narrative about the war or Angola’s
past. It is still struggling to define
who it is and there’s very serious
discontent at many
levels.”
This discontent showed its face last year when a group of
young Angolans
staged rare protests against the government and called for
the resignation
of the president, who vies with Teodoro Obiang Nguema of
Equatorial Guinea
for the unenviable title of Africa’s longest-serving
leader. Although small
in size and quickly put down by Angola’s notoriously
tough police force, the
demonstrations revealed a free-thinking new
generation which is not afraid
of the MPLA or scarred by war
experiences.
The party reacted by accusing those involved of trying
to destroy the peace
process and promote “national
insurrection”.
State media was filled with religious leaders calling
for peace to be
restored and political figures condemning what they said
were “acts of
criminal insubordination” that threatened the country’s
stability. Roque
suggests that the MPLA has actually taken “ownership” of
the country’s
relative peace as a commodity, and is fiercely protective of
it.
There is growing consensus, however, that it is the ruling party
itself
which is increasingly unstable, unsure of how to deal with this new
wave of
criticism which challenges its hegemony and threatens its access to
state
resources.
Angola is scheduled to go to the polls later
this year. There is little
doubt the MPLA will win.
This is as
much down to the weakness of the opposition as to the ruling
party’s likely
manipulation of the voting process. But it is what follows
next that is
critical.
“There are cracks appearing in the MPLA’s system of
governance and I truly
believe that change is coming to Angola,” says
Roque.
“There are many ghosts and all are the ingredients for a palace coup.
We
have to hope the change will come through dialogue and not violence.” —
BBCOnline.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012
11:28
Brian Chitemba
MATABELELAND has been widely described as a
political hotbed in recent years
due to social discontent and long-running
clashes among Zanu PF
heavyweights in what has now exploded into a full
scale factional war.
The situation is made worse by the fact that the party
is battling to win
back the hearts of the electorate which has shifted en
masse to the MDC
formations in the last 12 years. Since 1980, Matabeleland
region, across
which the original PF Zapu swept all the seats in 1985 during
its last stand
against Zanu PF in the middle of civil strife and grisly
civilian massacres,
has always been a cauldron of disgruntlement and
restlessness.
There was temporary respite however in the region after
Zapu emerged with
Zanu in 1987 following the killings in the Midlands and
south-western
region.
But when the MDC was formed in 1999, Matabeleland
led the revolt against
Zanu PF and became the launching pad and power base
of the MDC.
Up to now, the MDC parties have a stranglehold on the
Matabeleland region
where President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF are viewed by
many with contempt
and derision.
In the next elections, the
Matabeleland region would be critical as it would
hold the balance between
the two main parties, Zanu PF and the MDC-T. With
the MDC-N fighting for
survival and hoping to pick some seats there,
elections in the region would
be fiercely contested.
The explosive situation in the region is made
worse by Zanu PF infighting.
An intra-party war in Zanu PF broke out in
Matabeleland North in December
last year after acting provincial chairperson
Zwelitsha Masuku was suspended
for alleged incompetence and replaced by
former chairperson Headman Moyo.
Moyo was subsequently removed two weeks ago
and replaced by Matabeleland
North governor Sithokozile
Mathuthu.
Party insiders said Masuku was Mines minister Obert Mpofu’s
blue-eyed boy.
His sacking was orchestrated by party national chairman Simon
Khaya Moyo as
battle for control of the party in the region escalated. Khaya
Moyo and
Mpofu ferociously clashed over the issue during Zanu PF’s tense
politburo
meeting last week. The fight was said to have shaken and even
embarrassed
senior politburo members who watched in disbelief as the
Matabeleland
bigwigs slugged it out.
Political observers said the
infighting was likely to reach fever-pitch as
elections drew closer, but all
the squabbling was a clear reflection of the
burning succession debate on
who will eventually replace Mugabe even though
Moyo and Mpofu are fighting
to replace Vice-President John Nkomo. The
broader picture is Mugabe’s
succession issue.
Factional wars further intensified in Bulawayo a
fortnight ago when
provincial chairperson Isaac Dakamela was ousted by the
party’s provincial
coordinating committee.
His sacking followed a
week of heated exchanges between Dakamela and
regional heavyweights,
including Matabeleland South governor Angeline
Masuku, politburo members
Absalom Sikhosana, Joshua Malinga and Eunice
Sandi-Moyo over the selection
of special councillors. Special councillors
are selected by Local Government
minister Ignatius Chombo to complement
skills and competencies lacking in
local authorities.
Dakamela is believed to be closely linked to
Mpofu and politburo member
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu. Ndlovu fought in Dakamela’s
corner and managed to get his
suspension lifted.
Political
analyst Pedzisai Ruhanya said the confusion in the Matabeleland
provinces
was a microcosm of broader infighting within Zanu PF. He said the
ongoing
battle for the control of Matabeleland was not about the people on
the
ground, but about factionalism and succession.
Ruhanya, a PhD
candidate at the Communication and Media Research Institute,
University of
Westminster, London, said unless Zanu PF decisively addressed
its succession
problem by tackling Mugabe and his cabal’s sunset leadership,
the factional
wars would stalk the party to its political grave.
“Relative to the
specific provincial squabbles, it is a clear sign that Zanu
PF will lose
more voters and seats in that divided scenario,” said Ruhanya.
“The call for
elections by (Jonathan) Moyo and company could ultimately be
the call for
him to retire depending on what the factional calculations
are. These
squabbles are all over the place in Zanu PF provinces. It’s a
reflection of
the state of the party as a whole,” Ruhanya said.
Zanu PF is deeply
divided between factions led by Defence minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa and
Vice-President Joice Mujuru who have been leading the race to
succeed
Mugabe.
Political analyst and Crisis Coalition in Zimbabwe regional
coordinator,
Dewa Mavhinga, said the Matabeleland suspensions pointed to a
full-scale
factional war within Zanu PF, as well as desperate attempts by
the party
long rejected by the people in that region to keep a foothold
there.
He said the problem with Zanu PF was not the individuals in
leadership, but
its insensitivity to the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans.
Mavhinga noted that
since 1980, the people of Matabeleland had been fed on
empty promises,
pointing to the much delayed Matabeleland Zambezi Water
Project and several
other infrastructural projects that would have cured the
perennial water
woes for the region.
As a result, discontent over
the continued marginalisation continues to
grow. The Matabeleland leadership
has come under fire for failing to address
the continued marginalisation of
the region by Mugabe and his regime.
But the criticism of leaders
such as Nkomo and Khaya Moyo has not helped
since they fiercely defended
themselves, claiming the people from
Matabeleland were lazy and cry babies,
remarks which have provoked further
anger against Zanu PF in the
region.
Bulawayo-based political and economic commentator Godwill
Phiri said the
current infighting stalking Zanu PF was worsened by the
failure of the party’s
old guard to win elections in the
region.
Phiri said they were only surviving on the goodwill of Mugabe
who appoints
them into influential positions to save the Unity Accord of
1987 which
collapsed PF Zapu into Zanu PF.
Zanu PF secretary for
administration Didymus Mutasa pleaded ignorance on the
raging infighting
threatening to split the party in Matabeleland. “I am not
aware of the
suspensions of chairpersons in Matabeleland,” said Mutasa.
Mutasa’s
dearth of information on the goings on in Zanu PF reflects a lack
of
harmony and cohesion in the party as it gears up for a bruising fight in
the
next elections that could be its Waterloo.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012 11:24
Pedzisai
Ruhanya
CALLS to have by-elections in the 28 vacant parliamentary and
senatorial
seats before the general elections in Zimbabwe being advanced by
organic
intellectuals in Zanu PF led by Jonathan Moyo (pictured right) need
to be
interrogated in the bigger scheme of things, and the broader
underlying
trends and electoral stratagems of the regime.
By organic
intellectuals I mean those intellectuals who work as agents of
class
projects, in this case the ruling elite of Zanu PF. These are partisan
intellectuals who take positions and sides. Such intellectuals usually lose
their academic fibre and professionalism by trying to serve partisan
political interests.
The critical role of such intellectuals
locally is to advance the position
of the ruling class facing collapse,
barring the use of systematic violence,
intimidation and
coercion.
What these Zanu PF regime intellectuals and their handlers
fail to
appreciate is the argument that of all different types of regimes
that have
emerged in the course of history — from monarchies and
aristocracies to
religious theocracies, to fascist and communist
dictatorships — thus far the
only form of government that has survived
intact has been liberal
democracy, notwithstanding its
imperfections.
Democratic theorists such as Francis Fukuyama further
argue that for a large
part of the world there is currently no ideology with
the pretentions to
universality that is in a position to challenge liberal
democracy, and no
universal principle of legitimacy other than the
sovereignty of the people.
Respect for the sovereign will of the
people that is exercised through
credible electoral processes and outcomes
should be the guiding principle in
resolving the current problems in
Zimbabwe. The current transitional
arrangement in Zimbabwe must be seized
with such ideas.
However, the call to have by-elections by Zanu PF
hardliners is an attempt
to defy the socialisation of human rights and
democratic reforms in our body
politic ahead of the general elections. It is
also any attempt by the regime’s
criminal cabal to test some of its
strategies ahead of decisive elections.
During the course of the
inclusive government which came after Zanu PF’s
historic electoral defeat in
rural and urban areas during the March 2008
polls, as well as the first
presidential poll loss by President Robert
Mugabe since Independence in
1980, the regime has been re-aligning its
strategies and tactics ahead of
the next elections.
At the level of political method, the organic
intellectuals in Zanu PF
working with the coercive elements in the security
establishment would want
to gauge whether the use of violence would produce
the results as it did in
the June 2008 presidential election run-off. Never
mind the illegitimacy of
that electoral sham that brought about Mugabe’s
disputed victory.
Ahead of elections in which the regime knows only
too well that it has
little chance of winning if polls were to be free and
fair, a method should
be devised to win by hook or crook. The by-elections
would be a testing
ground for those coercive or fraudulent
methods.
There is political precedence and empirical evidence to back
this. Ahead of
the June 2000 elections, Zimbabwe held a constitutional
referendum in
February 2 000 in which the combined forces of the political
opposition and
civic groups under the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)
defeated the
Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku-led Constitutional Commission’s
draft promoted,
wholly or at least in part, by Zanu PF, although it must be
said some in the
party also sabotaged the process.
After that
defeat, the first for Zanu PF in a national plebiscite, Mugabe
postponed the
elections that were meant for March 2000 to June 2000 and all
hell broke
loose in both rural and urban Zimbabwe as the regime sought to
regain lost
ground through violence sanctioned and funded by the state, and
led by the
security apparatus.
However, even then the margin of victory for Zanu
PF in the June poll was
very narrow. Zanu PF got 62 seats, the MDC 57, while
Zanu (Ndonga) led by
the late veteran nationalist Reverend Ndabaningi
Sithole got one in a
national assembly of 150 elected
MPs.
Analysing Zanu PF’s narrow victory, the late academic and
political
scientist Professor Masipula Sithole said the “margin of terror”
made the
difference. The same could be argued in the 2008 elections. The
regime
resorted to its tried and tested method — the margin of terror, not
error!
After Mugabe lost to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in the
first round of
the March 2008 presidential poll, he unleashed violence to
retain power.
Interestingly both violent elections in 2000 and 2008
were run in June. It
would not be surprising to hear the criminal cabal in
Zanu PF calling for
elections in the same month for psychological reasons
this year.
The other bigger picture that the Zanu PF organic
intellectuals and
political strategists have in mind is to test the resolve
of Sadc and the
AU — the guarantors of the Global Political Agreement —
ahead of the main
elections.
A muted response by Sadc, AU and the
rest of the international community to
electoral malpractices and
resistance to reform will encourage Zanu PF to
rig the next elections and
even use violence. This could explain the
resurgence of vigilante groups
such as Chipangano.
Going to a critical poll without this empirical
understanding and experience
would surprise the regime as was the case in
March 2008 when they woke up to
an electoral defeat at all levels of
governance, and had to resort to
stone-age political methods to remain in
power. The regime could also use
this opportunity to see how the MDC
formations perform and whether their
involvement in government has boosted
their chances of victory or not.
This sounds a plausible argument
given a situation where Zanu PF and the MDC
formations could be supporting
the constitutional referendum together
against civic opponents of the
negotiated document whose sponsors are
claiming it was people-driven when it
was not.
It could also be a way to judge whether misguided policies
of the regime
such as the indigenisation policy gradually becoming a
Zanufication of the
economy through expropriation more than anything else,
have national appeal.
It has been argued that for the last decade
Zanu PF has invested heavily in
recruiting organic intellectuals to
articulate and mobilise support through
its vote-catching projects such as
the land reform programme and
indigenisation.
This is one aspect
on which the MDC formations have been outfoxed by Zanu
PF. However, despite
all this Mugabe and his party lost the last elections
and are likely to
lose again.
Ruhanya is a PhD candidate, Communication and Media
Research Institute,
University of Westminster. Email: p.ruhanya@my.westminster.ac.uk
.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012 12:11
INDIGENISATION minister
Saviour Kasukuwere last week delivered disclosures
on government’s strategy
regarding the transfer of shares in companies that
have been forced to cede
equity under the emotive empowerment programme.
The minister was quoted by
this paper declaring that government would not
pay for shares grabbed from
the indigenised companies, a dangerous
proposition indeed.
“We
will not pay for the resources,” said Kasukuwere. “This will apply to
all
companies and is not just confined to platinum mines. We are converting
mineral resources in the ground in exchange for equity in mines. Where we
are going to have shareholding, we are not going to pay,” he
said.
Kasukuwere’s announcement can be dismissed as populist
posturing because his
sentiments on compensation do not necessarily
represent government policy.
But this –– coming from a party that has a
history of grabbing without
recompense –– will have a chilling effect on
investors. They will see
Zimbabwe as entering a dangerous phase of the
empowerment process in which
equity grabbers are lining up to snatch and
run. It’s a break-and-enter
strategy –– now targeted at
banks.
Zimbabwe last year gazetted legislation providing for the
transfer of
foreign-owned assets to Zimbabwean companies. The notice did not
however
clarify whether the shareholdings handed over by foreign investors
would be
paid for or whether expropriation of assets was on the
cards.
A number of large corporates including Zimplats and Mimosa
have agreed to
surrender part of their shareholdings in a plan which
includes community
share ownership schemes and giving equity to the
Indigenisation Board.
Analysts have pointed out that pressure that has been
exerted on these big
players is most likely going to force smaller players
to lend themselves to
this dubious plan of partial
nationalisation.
If government succeeds in resisting compensating
Implats, the whole deal
would be tantamount to expropriation or
nationalisation by another name.
However, goverment has all along been
saying it would pay fair value for the
equities surrendered to it by
foreign-owned companies. The rules of the game
seem to be shifting every now
and then and that makes the whole situation a
lot worse.
What has
not helped matters is the absence of a clear policy statement from
the
government of national unity on the transfer of the shares and who is
expected to benefit from the equity. The absence of a predictable policy
position on the issue was further exposed last week in Johannesburg at the
Fossil Fuel Foundation conference convened to discuss investment in the coal
sector.
At the conference Chamber of Mines economist David
Matyanga told investors
that Zimbabwe’s indigenisation law stipulated that
the state would not be
the shareholder, “but there will be designated
agents”. He said the transfer
of those shares would be at market value. This
is the local mining sector’s
reading of the policy. This position is also
shared by Finance minister
Tendai Biti but his cabinet colleagues believe
otherwise.
At a press conference on Monday Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai pointed out
that the indigenisation policy continued to affect
many sectors of the
economy and the mixed messages from government had not
helped matters. “The
fact is that you cannot have a Ministry of Investment
Promotion while at the
same time appearing to have adopted a policy that
does not in any way
promote investment in the country,” he
said.
His quest to convene a special Council of Ministers meeting on
Tuesday to
deal with this issue fell flat on its face after Zanu PF minister
boycotted
the session. There is discord in the GNU over this very critical
issue and
amid these mixed messages the surest outcome is deliberate chaos
which will
only help the looting gang whose interpretation of the
indigenisation is
nationalisation.
The same foggy policy path
during the chaotic execution of the land reform
programme blocked fair value
compensation to dispossessed farmers as laws
were changed arbitrarily to
avoid paying for improvements. The result was
large scale plunder of farm
machinery and fixtures, and of course hunger and
starvation. That we are
heading this way again with the rest of the economy
is too ghastly to
contemplate.
This government has inflicted huge damage on this
economy through disastrous
leadership and policy failures which have ruined
the country.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012
12:09
WHEN the GPA was signed in 2008, it was envisaged parties involved
would use
the breathing space created to restore peace and stability after a
decade of
a state of flux due to a political stalemate over disputed
elections
outcomes and the devastating economic meltdown, while introducing
comprehensive reforms to create conditions for free and fair
elections.
It was a transitional arrangement which came in the
aftermath of the bloody
June 2008 presidential election run-off in which
President Robert Mugabe and
his Zanu PF –– battling for survival amid fears
of being held to account for
their excesses in power if they were defeated
outright –– unleashed a
shocking wave of violence and brutality to remain
ensconced at the helm.
The general understanding of the parties,
informed by the GPA and the
circumstances of its genesis, as well as events
during the preceding decade
of turmoil that posed a serious existential
threat to Zimbabwe, was
elections would be held after a new constitution had
been adopted.
The parties had a choice to use the already agreed
Kariba draft. Zanu PF
wanted the Kariba draft, saying it was part of the
deal. The MDC-T, under
pressure from civil society, changed its approach and
demanded a
“people-driven” constitution.
However, the trouble was
the MDC-T resisted demands by civil society to have
an inclusive process.
This led to clashes between the MDC-T and civic
groups.
At the
time, as a newspaper, we warned the MDC parties that, by refusing to
include
other various interest groups in the process, they were running the
risk of
hopping into bed with Zanu PF alone and getting a raw deal in the
end. We
argued the problem with a process driven by the three GPA parties ––
which
represent a narrow section of society –– was that it would not capture
the
full spectrum of people’s views and that in any case Zanu PF was playing
dirty games and would manipulate the outcome unless checks and balances were
in-built.
But MDC-T officials mainly and their surrogate civil
groups claimed it was
better to embrace a flawed process and get a new
constitution and then make
improvements afterwards. They further claimed,
rather naively, Zanu PF would
not renege on its promises because the GPA was
binding and its guarantors ––
Sadc and the AU –– as well as the facilitator
President Jacob Zuma would not
allow it.
We, however, warned that
whatever their argument, the MDC-T mainly was
embarking on a dangerous game
like running with the bulls. Many analysts at
the time, including Professor
Jonathan Moyo and Professor Lovemore Madhuku,
argued, albeit for different
reasons, the process was flawed because it was
not inclusive. The outcome,
they said, would also be equally flawed.
Most critics suggested a
constitutional or constituent assembly, which would
balance the interests of
the people and political parties, to spearhead the
process but were
rebuffed. We insisted the difficulty was that after or
during periods of
conflict, parties may not really represent the people, and
their role and
influence may be a problem issue in constitution-making
because political
parties have interests as parties, and politicians as
politicians.
But no one listened. Now the chickens are coming
home to roost. Predictably,
Mugabe and Zanu PF have treacherously changed
course. The MDC parties have
now been reduced to merely reacting to Mugabe’s
manoeuvres to stall or
manipulate the constitution-making process to suit
his electoral agenda.
As things stand, transition and reform are
stalled. Mugabe and his party,
running rings around the MDC parties, remain
in denial, fighting a rearguard
battle to short-circuit or manipulate the
process to suit their elections
agenda. Profound deficits remain in GPA
implementation and prospects of
securing comprehensive reforms before the
elections are very remote.
Opportunities to build a foundation for
sustainable political and economic
recovery are consistently undermined.
Violence and repression are pressing
concerns; the police appear unwilling
or unable to provide effective
deterrence or remedy and the expectation of a
more proactive engagement by
Sadc is fading.
Mugabe and Zanu PF,
which retains the dominant role in power relations, seem
to be succeeding in
frustrating implementation of the GPA and now the
constitution-making
process before early elections.
An elections endgame was the main
objective in the GPA. But now the real
question is: When will elections be
held and under what conditions given
that the reform agenda has ground to a
halt?
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 April 2012
12:08
Dingilizwe Ntuli
STATISTICS indicate that the government
only had 14 efficiently run and
profitable parastatals at Independence in
1980. However, that figure has
dramatically gone down and almost all the
existing 76 state entities are
operating at a serious deficit with a
ballooning debt running into millions
of dollars.
Among the 14
viable parastatals the government inherited at Independence was
the flagship
carrier Air Zimbabwe, which had replaced Air Rhodesia. Since
its inception
in 1967, Air Rhodesia had operated profitably despite
comprehensive UN
sanctions.
With the advent of Independence, the newly reconstituted
Air Zimbabwe was
expected to expand its operations since new lucrative
markets were now open
for exploitation. However, soon after 1981 the
national airline started to
register deficits in spite of the new routes
open to it.
This resulted in it relying heavily on state subsidies to
survive, and since
then, the flagship carrier has hardly made any profit. It
continued to bleed
the national fiscus until it was eventually permanently
grounded last month
bringing 32 years of disastrous operations to a halt. At
the time of its
shut down, the national airline had a debt of more than
US$140 million and
virtually had no operational aircraft after all but one
of its aging five
planes had been grounded because of a lack of spare
parts.
AirZim finally came to journey’s end last month when the
government
announced its shutdown. Although a new company to run a new
airline has been
established, no one knows when it will start flying since
no private
investors have been forthcoming as most are jittery about
investing in an
entity in which the government is the majority
shareholder.
The AirZim disaster is just the latest in a long list of
failed parastatals.
Ziscosteel, Zupco, National Railways of Zimbabwe,
Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply Authority, Noczim, Cold Storage Company, Grain
Marketing Board and
the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority, among
others, are
dysfunctional and either technically insolvent or facing
collapse.
They are all victims of rampant corruption, poor
corporate governance,
mismanagement of financial resources, and lack of
clear policy direction.
The monopolies these parastatals have enjoyed since
Independence have been
of no help and have instead helped in destroying the
economy through
numerous bailouts from depleted state coffers for them to
remain afloat.
It is also disturbing that some government officials,
particularly
ministers, ran most of these parastatals as personal fiefdoms
by handpicking
their highly incompetent cronies to manage the entities for
purposes of
patronage.
No sooner had these managers been
appointed than they began lining their
pockets. For example, Ziscosteel was
the main foreign currency earner before
Independence, but incompetent
management rendered its main furnace derelict
for years resulting in the
company shutting down. The closing down of
Ziscosteel did not only affect
the town of Redcliff next to Kwekwe where it
is located, but other towns
linked by the railway line from the steel-maker
such as Bulawayo and Hwange.
Bulawayo was worst affected since most
industrial companies dependent on
steel for survival were shutdown throwing
thousands of workers into the
streets.
Most of these parastatals have also been negatively affected
by the
non-constitution of boards and too many people acting in senior
positions.
As long as corporate governance is not adhered to in the running
of these
entities, parastatals will continue to be used as gravy trains at
the
expense of the overburdened and suffering taxpayer and the economy.