http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Politics
PRESIDENT
Robert Mugabe’s backdoor political manoeuvres to use the High
Court to
stampede the country into early elections by or on June 29 were
thwarted
this week after he was forced to abandon his application following
court
action by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and media spotlight on the
issue.
Report by Owen Gagare
Mugabe and his loyalists
desperately want polls by June as fears mount the
89-year-old leader –– who
recently admitted aging complications and
attendant frailty were taking
their toll on him –– might struggle to sustain
rigorous election campaigns
if polls are further delayed.
Inside sources say although the initial
fears were Mugabe would be sabotaged
in his re-election bid by fierce
internal Zanu PF strife and his raging
succession battles, the main problem
is turning out to be the timing of the
elections, and age and ill-health
problems.
Zanu PF has since 2010 been anxiously demanding early elections
to avoid
Mugabe’s age and health being issues during elections, informed
party
insiders say.
“The issue is here is that Zanu PF fears are
mounting over the timing of
elections as this has a serious bearing on
Mugabe’s capacity to sustain
demanding elections campaigns,” a senior Zanu
PF official said.
“The more we delay elections the more out candidates
get frailer because he
getting old by the day. At we are lucky that the
issue of factionalism and
succession have not exploded as we widely
feared.”
As elections delay, Zanu PF is increasingly sweating over the
timing of
polls, especially as Mugabe continues to hint he is now frail due
to “wear
and tear”.
Through Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa,
Mugabe took advantage of a
Matabeleland by-elections to file an urgent
application seeking to be
excused from proclaiming election dates in three
constituencies “on
condition that the applicant ensures that harmonised
elections are held by
June 29 2013”.
Chinamasa argued
constitutionally, the life of parliament ends on June 29 by
which date
general elections must be held. “That the applicant (Mugabe) be
and is
hereby excused from performance of the order granted in case No 11222
of
2012 provided that harmonised elections are held on or before June 29
2013,”
the application said.
The move, however, triggered a political storm as
it was seen as a
calculating bid to circumvent the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) which
states Mugabe should proclaim election dates in
consultation with Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
It was also
viewed as an attempt to stampede the country into elections
without fully
implementing the GPA and the election roadmap – which includes
crucial
democratic reforms – as insisted on by Sadc.
In the wake of Mugabe’s
application, Tsvangirai made his own application
last Thursday opposing the
demand to give him Mugabe more room on
by-election dates proclamation “on
condition that harmonised elections are
held by June 29 2013”.
After
Mugabe’s hidden political agenda was exposed by the Zimbabwe
Independent
last week, Deputy Attorney-General Prince Machaya, representing
the
president, on Wednesday revealed his client was abandoning his initial
application for an interim relief and doing away with demands general
elections be held by or on June 29.
Machaya indicated his client’s
application was now centred on the
feasibility of conducting by-elections in
June if parliament is dissolved
around the same time.
Mugabe’s U-turn
means elections are now most likely to be held after June
29, a worrying
development for an already besieged Zanu PF which has for
years been
concerned about Mugabe’s worsening frailty.
The MDC formations and Sadc
are pushing for elections to be held later than
June 29 to allow for
adequate time to synchronise existing legislation, such
as the Electoral
Act, with the new constitution as well as implement key
provisions of the
elections roadmap to ensure credible polls.
Mugabe has however been
steadfastly insisting polls, since 2011 and now is
demanding at the cut-off
date. His spokesman George Charamba has said his
boss wants polls by June 29
as going beyond that would tantamount to
“constitutional
indiscipline”.
Senior Zanu PF officials, however, said the real reason
for the push for
early polls is the fear that further delays would work
against the party
given that Mugabe may not be able to withstand the rigours
of a tough
presidential election campaign due to lack of stamina and
endurance. “This
is precisely the reason why we want polls yesterday,” said
a politburo
member.
“Actually June 29 is too late for us. We would
have wanted to have held the
elections by as early as 2011. We have been
pushing and pushing for
elections because we are cognisant of the fact that
one of our major
weaknesses is our candidate’s age.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in
Politics
COPAC’S management committee has deferred the adoption of
Section 158 of the
new draft constitution which would have required the
country to hold general
elections “not more than 30 days” before June 29,
thwarting President Robert
Mugabe’s latest poll strategy.
Owen
Gagare/Paidamoyo Muzulu
The management committee’s move effectively
blocked a loophole which could
have been exploited by Mugabe to have
elections held by June 29 at all
costs.
The committee met at the
Copac offices in Milton Park, Harare, on Tuesday
and agreed to defer the
section which deals with timing of elections until
2018.
MDC director
of policy and research Qhubani Moyo chaired the meeting, which
was also
attended by his MDC colleague Paul Themba Nyathi, Defence minister
Emmerson
Mnangagwa, Transport minister Nicholas Goche and Copac
co-chairpersons Paul
Mangwana of Zanu PF and Douglas Mwonzora of MDC-T as
well as Finance
minister Tendai Biti and Constitutional Affairs minister
Eric
Matinenga.
The parties, however, failed to agree on Zanu PF’s request to
scrap the
requirement for a 30-day voter registration period which the party
wanted so
as to expedite the process for the holding of
elections.
They also disagreed over a proposed amendment to accommodate
the Office of
the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, resulting in
a deadlock
that may further delay elections.
The changes to the
draft, two days before it was gazetted, were initially
noted in a memorandum
dated March 20 2013 from Constitutional and
Parliamentary Affairs permanent
secretary Virginia Mabhiza to Matinenga.
The memorandum was also copied
to the Law Reviser.
Mabhiza argued it was not practicable to bring into
effect some of the new
electoral changes encapsulated in the draft on the
day the president
gazettes the new constitution.
Section 158(1a)
reads: “A general election must be held so that polling
takes place not more
than 30 days before the expiry of the five-year period
specified in Section
143.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Politics
JUSTICE minister Patrick
Chinamasa was this week roasted by Stephen Sackur
on the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)’s Hard Talk programme where he
struggled to
defend Zanu PF and President Robert Mugabe’s land seizures
under the
controversial land reform programme.
Report by Herbert Moyo
A
visibly angry Chinamasa buckled under the barrage of questions on Zanu PF’s
political repression, including the banning of independent radio stations,
intimidation of judges and violent land seizures which have seen party
officials, including Mugabe helping themselves to numerous
farms.
“You should ask yourself why only these countries (Britain, USA
and Canada)
are criticising Zanu PF; why them alone?” protested
Chinamasa.
“The answer is that they still want to regard us as their
colony.”
Asked by Sackur how many farms Mugabe and his family owns, Chinamasa
said:
“To be honest I dont know.”
Mugabe’s family reportedly own more
than 10 farms directly or indirectly,
and only this January, First Lady
Grace grabbed the 1 600 hectares of
agro-producer Interfresh’s Mazowe Citrus
Estate in Mashonaland Central.
Interfresh said Grace took a portion of
its estate, which represents 46% of
Mazowe Citrus Estate’s total arable
land, 30% of its budgeted revenue for
the 2013 financial year and 52% of the
value of immovable and biological
assets.
In addition, Mashonaland
Central governor Martin Dinha promised the Mugabe
family more land should
they want to expand their family projects.
“We offered you land and we
will continue to offer you land for other
projects if you want it,” Dinha
said at the official opening of the Amai
Mugabe Junior School in Mazowe in
February.
Questioned by Sackur about Mugabe’s continued leadership of
Zanu PF and the
country despite his old age and failing health, Chinamasa
said the Mugabe
issue was a problem for his party and country to
solve.
Chinamasa said he has “no (guilty) conscience” after grabbing a
farm in
Headlands from Richard Yates who was forced to relocate to
Australia.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Politics
SOME
aspiring MDC-T parliamentary candidates are calling on party supporters
to
vote only for individuals who originally come from their constituencies
in
the imminent primaries that are set to be keenly contested.
Staff
Writer
Jostling for the right to represent the party is threatening to
further
widen factional cracks. The party’s Mashonaland West provincial
chairperson
Japhet Karemba was recently suspended on maladministration
charges and
replaced by Chitungwiza senator James Makore in an acting
capacity.
A party insider confirmed the discord triggered by the
appointment of Makore
as Mashonaland West acting chairperson.
“The
party brought an outsider, Makore, to lead us in the province in order
to
bring factionalism under control,” said the insider.
“Since the last
congress the party is divided into two camps known as
Zvipani and Zvinguruve
controlled by (secretary-general) Tendai Biti and
(national executive
member) Elias Mudzuri respectively.”
A bruising battle is expected in
Manicaland where provincial spokesperson
and MP for Makoni South Pishai
Muchauraya is being challenged by veteran
journalist Geoffrey Nyarota. The
battle has assumed deeply tribal
connotations after Nyarota reportedly
insinuated Muchauraya, a Ndau, should
seek a seat in Chipinge instead of
Makoni because it is inhabited by the
Maungwe, a Manyika dialect.
All
MPs elected in 2008 from Mashonaland West province; Edward Musumbu
(Norton),
Stewart Garadhi (Chinhoyi), Cleopas Machacha (Kariba) and Takalani
Matibe
(Chegutu) are being challenged.
Matibe is reportedly facing the stiffest
challenge from provincial party
member Ernest Mudimu who previously
contested and lost the Zvimba North seat
against Zanu PF’s Ignatius
Chombo.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Politics
PANIC over Zanu
PF’s uncertain prospects for victory in the impending
do-or-die elections
forced President Robert Mugabe this week to cancel a
routine politburo
meeting slated for Wednesday, preferring instead to meet
the party’s highly
influential commissariat department to fine-tune its
campaign
strategy.
Report by Elias Mambo
Sources said politburo members
were only told of the meeting’s cancellation
when they were already in
Harare.
The sources said there is so much anxiety over the next elections
that
Mugabe felt compelled to cancel the highly anticipated politburo
meeting
called to set rules for primary elections, arguing that it was more
important to sharpen the party’s campaign strategies to ensure it retained
the presidency and regained the parliamentary majority it lost in
2008.
“For more than six hours discussions centred on voter registration,
voter
education and mobilisation of support based on the results of the
just -ended referendum,” the source said.
“The commissariat was
ordered to go out in full force and aggressively
mobilise party supporters
to register to vote and ensure the results of the
referendum are translated
into an election triumph.”
Zanu PF believes that most people who voted
for the draft constitution in
the recent referendum are from their
traditional rural strongholds, and has
been suggesting in the
state-controlled media that this heralds a landslide
victory in the coming
elections to end the shaky unity government.
According to the sources,
Mugabe reportedly challenged the commissariat to
ensure that those who
turned up for the referendum in the party’s rural
strongholds are registered
to vote in the harmonised elections.
More than three million people voted
in the referendum with the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (Zec) figures
showing the majority of ballots were cast
in the three Mashonaland
provinces, Manicaland and Masvingo.
Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo
confirmed the commissariat meeting saying
it was aimed at updating the
party’s leadership on election preparedness.
“We met the commissariat to
check on our preparedness as elections are
around the corner,” Gumbo
said.
“We also discussed issues to do with voter registration and voter
education
because a serious party that wants to win elections must motivate
its
supporters to register to vote.”
Zanu PF has been accused of
manipulating the voters’ roll in previous
elections to rig
ballots.
The party continues to resist calls to clean the voters’ roll or
to
implement a biometric voter registration system.
Reports say Zanu
PF has been setting up informal voter registration centres
around the
country in an effort to register its supporters ahead of the
crucial
polls.
Sources claim party supporters are being driven to the centres en
masse
where their names and identity particulars are recorded for onward
transmission to the local registrar-general’s office for registration as
voters.
The Zanu PF commissariat department has been reinforced by
retired Air
Vice-Marshal Henry Muchena and former CIO director-internal
Sydney
Nyanhongo, among others.
The security sector, particularly the
military, has played a significant
role in the political and electoral
affairs of Zimbabwe since Independence
and is often cited as the reason
Mugabe has managed to retain power.
The visibility and influence of the
military has risen over the years to
current levels of dominance and control
over civilian affairs.
The militarisation of Zanu PF has disturbed senior
party leaders who believe
the increasing number of people with security
backgrounds occupying high
positions could destabilise the party and
alienate it from voters.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Politics
THE Zimbabwe
Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) set up under the Government of
National Unity
(GNU) to investigate human rights abuses is yet to start
operating even as
the coalition’s five-year term draws to a close on June
29.
Report by
Herbert Moyo
Newly appointed ZHRC chairperson Jacob Mudenda said in an
interview with the
Zimbabwe Independent in Bulawayo on Tuesday his
commission was still in
limbo, but expressed confidence would commence work
from the beginning of
next month as significant headway has been made in
recruiting more
commissioners to ensure a quorum.
“We are still not
fully constituted at the moment so whatever we do will be
null and void but
two more commissioners will be coming on board,” said
Mudenda.
“The
two were selected among many applicants and have appeared before the
Standing Rules and Orders Committee of parliament. It is now up to minister
(of Justice Patrick) Chinamasa to finalise the appointments as well as
secure funding.”
For operational efficiency, Mudenda said ZHRC would
divide the country into
operational zones with a Harare regional office to
cater for the country’s
five northern provinces while a Bulawayo office
would be set up to cover the
other five southern provinces including
Matabeleland, Masvingo and Midlands.
Mudenda said the commission will
come up with a full mode of operation in
consultation with key stakeholders
from political parties and “the whole
gamut of civil society, including
churches and non-governmental
organisations”.
ZHRC has its work cut
out as it has come under criticism from various
quarters for sitting idly by
while human rights violations, especially by
political parties, continue as
elections draw closer.
Reg Austin, the former chairperson of ZHRC
resigned from his post on
December 16, 2012 claiming, among other things,
that “the establishment of
the ZHRC has been a tale of unreadiness, delay,
lack of commitment and
serious focus” on the part of government.
“The
ZHRC Act effectively grants the executive (Chinamasa) a wide
discretion,
today and in future to silence the commission on the grounds
that its
investigation of a complaint may prejudice defence, external
relations,
internal security or economic interests of the state,” said
Austin.
Brian Raftopolous, a senior research mentor at the University
of Western
Cape, said Zanu PF was “hindering the workings of ZHRC as well as
the Joint
Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic)”.
While
expressing concern at Zimbabwe’s deteriorating political environment,
Sadc
executive secretary Tomaz Salomão recently lambasted the below-par
performances of commissions established under the Global Political Agreement
(GPA) signed by Zanu PF and the MDC formations in 2008.
“It is not so
much an issue of impediments that have come their way, but
rather more a
question of attitude,” Salomão in reference commissions, which
include the
ZHCR, and Jomic. “They can do better and they know they can. We
told them
and I think they understand that they need to perform better.”
In the
past month the country has witnessed an upsurge in political
violence,
crackdown on civil society organisations and the arrest of MDC
party
staffers, raising fears of imminent descent into the 2008- like
bloodbath.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Politics
ZANU PF
chairpersons have been ordered to vigorously rehabilitate shambolic
party
structures and mobilise support ahead of make-or-break elections later
this
year if the party is to emerge victorious.
Report by Brian
Chitemba
The 10 provincial chairpersons last week met Zanu PF national
chairperson
Simon Khaya Moyo, secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa
and women’s
affairs secretary Oppah Muchinguri, among other party
heavyweights, at the
party headquarters in Harare to map out a strategy to
lure voters.
Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo confirmed the meeting
although he
downplayed the gathering “as one of the regular meetings between
chairpersons and the national chairperson as well as other party
leaders”.
Gumbo said the meeting centred on an informal audit of the
party’s
structures around the country as part of wider preparations for
elections.
But sources who attended the meeting said Khaya Moyo, Mutasa
and Muchinguri
did not mince their words in directing the chairpersons to
ensure effective
strategies are implemented to wins elections and regain
lost power.
Party insiders said the chairpersons and Zanu PF leaders
discussed ways of
guaranteeing a “landslide” victory with the chairpersons
calling for the
speedy implementation of the indigenisation
policy.
“The chairpersons were unanimous that implementation of the
empowerment
policy would immensely benefit the party,” said one senior Zanu
PF official.
“The chairpersons also agreed that the indigenisation policy
should benefit
the grassroots, not just the elite.”
President Robert
Mugabe is aggressively pushing for elections by June 29
although his
coalition partners want polls to be delayed to allow
implementation of
democratic reforms as outlined in the Global Political
Agreement — precursor
to the unity government — including
aligning existing laws to the draft
governance charter approved in a March
16 referendum.
Law pundits
argue that parliament could be dissolved by June 29, giving
Mugabe four
months from the date of dissolution of parliament to call for
elections in
terms of Section 3 of the current constitution.
Zanu PF fears Mugabe’s
advanced age and poor health may severely
disadvantage the party if
elections are held later this year because he now
lacks the stamina to
embark on a rigorous campaign trail.
In August last year a delegation of
Zanu PF chairpersons led by Matabeleland
North chairperson Sithokozile
Mathuthu visited China where they underwent
rigorous training on election
strategy.
After the trip, the chairpersons held meetings in their
respective provinces
to impart the knowledge they had acquired.
The
chairpersons’ visit was a follow-up to a trip by a Communist Party of
China
(CPC) delegation in June 2012 which met politburo, central committee
and
district coordinating committee members.
The CPC advised Zanu PF to
address relevant issues facing the
electorate,saying the party would only be
electable if its policies dealt
with problems dogging the masses.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Politics
SINCE
Independence in 1980 Zimbabwe’s national elections have to varying
extents
been characterised by intimidation and violence, with alarming
statistics on
those displaced, maimed or killed due to political brutality.
Report by
Paidamoyo Muzulu
The majority of the violence victims have been
supporters of the opposition
parties to the country’s former ruling party,
Zanu PF, which enjoys overt
support from the security apparatus and controls
instruments of coercion.
The MDC-T blamed Zanu PF for the murder of over
200 of its supporters in the
run-up to the presidential poll run-off of June
2008, which MDC-T leader,
current Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew
from citing widespread
violent attacks on his supporters.
The
security sector is blamed for the bloody run-off campaign that saved
President Robert Mugabe’s political career after suffering an historic first
round defeat to Tsvangirai.
Although the three main political
parties, Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC formed a
tripartite coalition government in
February 2009 after signing the Global
Political Agreement (GPA) brokered by
Sadc in 2008, the spectre of violence
continues to hover over the country’s
political landscape ahead of the
imminent general elections.
However,
last month’s referendum on the new draft constitution was peaceful,
not
least because it was not really a contest as the unity government
partners
jointly campaigned for the “Yes” vote as the draft was a product of
their
political horse-trading.
This has raised hopes among locals and the
international community that the
coming polls could be peaceful.
But
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec)’s figures showing slightly over
3,3
million voted — a national record — in the plebiscite, has raised
eyebrows
amid suspicions Zanu PF is honing new tactics to steal the vote in
elections
expected later this year.
Political analysts say it is difficult to
account for the high turnout since
the referendum outcome was never in
doubt.
They also pointed to the lack of queues at polling stations as
evidence the
figures were inflated.
These suspicions have renewed
lingering questions over the credibility of
Zec, criticised for releasing
presidential election results after about a
five-week delay in
2008.
Furthermore, the MDC-T alleges Zec is staffed by state security
agents loyal
to Mugabe although Tsvangirai recently gave the body a clean
bill of health.
Analysts say Zanu PF is likely to adopt some new
sophisticated means of
coercing the electorate and manipulating the
elections as opposed to overt
violence since the party desperately wants
legitimacy and acceptability
after the polls.
MDC-T secretary-general
Tendai Biti said last week at a Sapes Trust debate
on the referendum results
Zanu PF was changing its approach.
He said Zanu PF was now acting like a
“sophisticated dictatorship” ready to
deploy new and subtle ways to
manipulate the will of the people in the
elections rather than do so through
its traditional heavy-handed tactics.
Harare-based political analyst
Charles Mangongera said Zanu PF would not
openly resort to brutal means to
cow the electorate although political
violence remains a handy tool and an
option.
“I think Zanu PF is planning a harvest of fear from the 2008
terror
campaign,” said Mangongera. “We are not going to witness overt
intimidation
and violence as it will use a more subtle approach underpinned
by a credible
threat of violence.”
Commentator Rashweat Mukundu said
Zimbabwe would probably hold a fairly
peaceful election although violence
and intimidation would still remain a
key part of Zanu PF’s strategy. “Zanu
PF would want to appease Sadc by
holding peaceful elections,” said
Mukundu.
“However, communities are being regimented and the few who fall
out of line
will be dealt with either through violence or threats of
violence. The
rigging machinery will be far more sophisticated than crude as
it had been
in the past.”
There are also fears Zanu PF could
manipulate the voter registration
process, with rural dwellers in perceived
party strongholds registering to
vote easily compared to their urban
counterparts. New urban voters have to
provide proof of residence, which is
difficult to get if one does not own a
property.
The voters’ roll
could also be used to manipulate the outcome.
Development specialist
Maxwell Saungweme was sceptical about the chances of
peaceful elections in
Zimbabwe, saying the spectre of violence was still
looming as Zanu PF is
desperate to maintain its liberation power structure.
“Based on the few
cases of violence during the just-ended referendum and the
recent arrests of
(lawyer) Beatrice Mtetwa and MDC-T staffers, just a day
after a seemingly
peaceful referendum, one wonders who is actually in
control and whether the
people behind those arrests have peaceful elections
in mind,” he
said.
“It’s likely that the forces behind those arrests don’t want to see
peaceful
elections and they will therefore try to shatter any hopes of free
and fair
elections.”
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition director Macdonald
Lewanika said perpetrators
of violence needed to be held to account if
Zimbabwe was to end impunity and
have any chance of peaceful
elections.
“In order for us to have peaceful elections, those who act in
a manner that
is anathema to peace must pay the price,” Lewanika said. “As
of now, there
is no accountability or punishment of perpetrators of
violence, unless they
are from the MDC formations.”
Analysts say
despite Mugabe’s calls for an end to political violence, the
situation on
the ground still remains potentially explosive, given that the
perpetrators
of violence and those who manipulate elections are still there.
In
reality nothing has changed despite the semblance of stability following
a
recent relatively peaceful constitution referendum.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Politics
FOR the past
four years Zanu PF has unsuccessfully tried to railroad
Zimbabwe into early
elections to end the life of the unity government
without implementation of
critical reforms as stipulated in the Global
Political Agreement
(GPA).
Elias Mambo
President Robert Mugabe, increasingly battling
advanced age and poor health,
wanted elections as early as 2010 – just a
year after the formation of a
shaky coalition government – when he could
still cope with the punishing
demands of tough election
campaigns.
Mugabe’s incessant calls for elections, repeatedly endorsed
annually at his
party’s national conferences, have failed to stampede the
nation into early
polls without implementation of the agreed roadmap amid
resistance from Sadc
and the MDC formations – Zanu PF’s uneasy bedfellow in
the coalition
government.
The MDC parties are only too wary that
polls without reforms would maintain
the electoral playing field heavily
tilted in Zanu PF’s favour, raising the
possibility of another disputed
election and the perpetuation of the current
political stalemate.
In
its desperate bid for early polls, Zanu PF has gone as far as claiming
the
unity government was a two-year agreement and thus elections were long
overdue, despite the GPA lacking a sunset clause.
Mugabe has even
ironically claimed the unity government was an illegal
arrangement and a
subversion of the people’s will, hence early elections
were vital as that
would allow people to choose their leaders.
The GPA, basis of the
coalition government, was signed after Mugabe lost the
first round of
polling to MDC-T leader, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who
was later
forced to withdraw from the run-off due to political violence and
intimidation.
Mugabe’s frantic anxiety over early elections was also
evident when he
threatened to expel Sadc facilitator, South African
President Jacob Zuma’s
facilitation team in February after it kept on
pressing Zanu PF to adhere to
the GPA and implement attendant
reforms.
Zuma’s team had riled Zanu PF by persistently pushing for
implementation of
the roadmap before elections, while the former ruling
party wanted polls
held early with some of the party’s bigwigs suggesting
reforms could come
after voting.
Zanu PF has steadfastly dismissed
calls for the reforms which among other
things include the electoral, media
and security sector issues, deriding
them as “cheap talk from electoral
cowards”.
As part of that campaign Mugabe and his loyalists alleged the
unity
government was a dysfunctional “creature”, without any sense of irony
as the
previous Zanu PF regimes drove the country to near collapse amid
political
and economic problems.
Mugabe’s most recent attempts to fix
election dates favourable to his party
and himself through the High Court
backdoor manouevres, reported in the last
issue of the Zimbabwe Independent,
by way of securing an order declaring
polls be held by or on June 29 in an
ongoing by-elections case shows he is
sweating over his uncertain political
fate.
Mugabe and his Zanu PF officials have been strenuously lobbying for
elections to be held by June 29, citing constitutional and legal grounds –
dismissed by their political rivals and lawyers as politically
expedient.
In response to Mugabe’s court strategy, Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai
filed an urgent application saying Mugabe’s move was tantamount
to calling
for elections through the backdoor without consulting other
coalition
government partners.
Although he later withdrew his
application, Tsvangirai had argued June
elections would not be feasible as
the country still needed to implement all
agreed electoral reforms before
they could agree on a suitable date for the
polls.
Zanu PF insiders
say Mugabe and his loyalists now desperately want polls by
June as fears
mount the 89-year old leader, who recently made a veiled
admission to
growing senility and frailty, might struggle to sustain
rigorous election
campaigns.
In terms of the GPA and elections roadmap, Mugabe is required
to proclaim
election dates in consultation with Tsvangirai although this
would need to
be aligned with the coming in of a new constitution under
which polls would
be held.
Brian Raftopoulos, a senior research
mentor at the University of Western
Cape, said Zanu PF was never committed
to reforms to usher in a democratic
dispensation.
“Zanu PF has never
sought genuine reforms towards a democratic dispensation
but only agreed to
form a coalition government with the intention of
regrouping and
consolidating after plunging to the nadir of legitimacy after
the 2008
electoral defeat,” Raftopoulos said.
Zimbabwe Democracy Institute director
Pedzisai Ruhanya said Mugabe and his
party used the GPA and coalition to get
respite while resisting reforms
before elections.
“Zanu PF is trying
to force elections without reforms. They are trying to
circumvent the Sadc
roadmap but this has not worked because regional leaders
have remained firm
on their stance that reforms must precede elections,” he
said.
“By
taking the court route Zanu PF may achieve its objective and may only
implement minimum reforms to do with the electoral process so that it does
not ruffle Sadc’s feathers because it needs legitimacy if it wins the next
elections.”
In a bid to ensure conditions are conducive ahead of
elections, Sadc
resolved to deploy its troika team to beef up the Joint
Monitoring and
Implementation Committee to ensure full implementation of the
GPA. However,
Zanu PF has consistently blocked the team, arguing that
Zimbabwe was a
sovereign state and its presence amounted to internal
inteference.
Last month Zanu PF practically declared war on Sadc by
refusing to allow the
facilitation team and troika representatives to work
with the GPA parties
through Jomic.
A meeting between the
facilitation team, Jomic and the troika
representatives collapsed amid
fierce clashes which signalled the resurgence
of open political tensions
ahead of elections.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in News
GOVERNMENT has
formed a United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO)
Corporate
Resources Mobilisation Trust to bolster shaky preparations for the
conference which have been hit by serious funding problems as Treasury has
failed to release the promised US$6,5 million to finance the event scheduled
for August 24 – 29 at Victoria Falls.
UNWTO general assembly
preparations have been rocked by internal government
divisions with Tourism
minister Walter Mzembi reportedly at loggerheads with
the Zimbabwe Tourism
Authority (ZTA) chief executive Karikoga Kaseke over
fundraising and
logistical issues.
The two’s clashes have triggered widespread
accusations part of the US$2,5
million Mbada Diamonds has pledged for
funding might have been diverted for
other purposes.
Mbada Diamonds
has promised US$2,5 million to fund conference. It will pay
for the opening
ceremony and the official welcome dinner at Victoria Falls
Hotel. The
company has so far released US$600 000.
However, disbursement of funds
was temporarily suspended owing to internal
government conflicts although
the issue has since been resolved.
According to well-placed sources,
police had started investigations into the
issue but meetings between Mzembi
and President Robert Mugabe and Police
Commissioner General Augustine
Chihuri cleared the matter as no funds were
abused.
This resulted in
the President’s Office writing to Mbada Diamonds last month
“clearing the
air” on the issue.
On March 18, deputy chief secretary in the Office of
the President and
Cabinet, retired Colonel Christian Katsande, wrote a
letter to Mbada chief
executive Patience Khumalo informing her the issue was
resolved.
The letter also announced the inclusion of an inter-ministerial
committee in
the Corporates Resources Mobilisation Trust (CRMT) aimed at
assisting the
necessary mobilisation of resources for the hosting of the
UNWTO general
assembly.
Katsande’s letter said government had
resolved the CRMT stands as was
originally conceptualised by Mzembi with its
members comprising Herbert
Nkala as chairman, Susanna Kuhudzayi, Obadiah
Mazombwe, Obert Francis
Munyaradzi and Wendy Chingeya Mandizira, among
others.
“This Trust has been enlarged and will henceforth carry
representatives from
the inter-ministerial committee, and government has
since seconded Dr Judith
Kateera, permanent secretary in the Vice
President’s office and Mrs Margaret
Sangarwe, the permanent secretary in the
Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality
Industry, as trustees, in addition to
the minister’s own appointees,” reads
the letter.
“The trust deed,
with an enlarged board of trustees has since been lodged;
some members will
represent interests of the private sector. The trust will
retain Africa
Conventions, represented by Mr Aaron Mushoriwa and Susan
Makombe as fund
managers and ex-officio board members of the trust.”
Government said the
authority to leverage use of the UNWTO logo and the
associated brand
collateral remains reposed in Mzembi as per UNWTO statutes.
“The minister
will invite interested corporates shortly to complete the
requisite
paperwork for submission to the UNWTO. In the meantime, we hope
the above
clears the air for Mbada Diamonds to continue its collaboration
with the
ministry and its fund managers as originally envisaged,” the letter
reads.
The objectives of the reviewed CRMT as stated in the revised
UNWTO Deed of
Donation and Trust are to oversee the management of resources
mobilised by
the consultants appointed by the minister “for purposes of
resource
mobilisation to assist the funding of preparations” for and hosting
of the
UNWTO summit to be jointly hosted by Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The
CRMT would work to assist in the raising of awareness of the summit and
its
potential benefits to the tourism industry, communities as well as the
economy in general.
Minister extends begging bowl to
diplomats
TOURISM minister Walter Mzembi has extended his begging bowl to
Harare-based
foreign diplomats in an effort to raise enough money to fund
the co-hosting
of the upcoming United Nations World Tourism Organisation
(UNWTO) general
assembly.
Mzembi last week met more than 40 diplomats and
heads of specialised
agencies accredited to Zimbabwe to seek financial,
material, moral and
technical support to make the global premier tourism
event between August 24
and 29 in Victoria Falls a “uniquely African
experience”.
Most African diplomats present at the meeting pledged support
leaving Mzembi
relieved.
“China has already confirmed it will be
providing a state-of-the-art PA
system for the event while Senegal and
Nigeria said they will be sponsoring
their big artistes to perform,” said
Mzembi.
Mzembi said about 1 200 hectares of prime virgin land would be set
aside for
potential investors in a bid to modernise Victoria Falls
town.
Representatives from the Egyptian embassy pledged their support for the
event citing the resumption of flights to Harare by EgyptAir as evidence of
their commitment to help Zimbabwe.
The tourism ministry needs about US$12
million to fund the event at which
about 4 000 delegates are
expected.
Government promised US$6,5 million but Treasury has not released
the money
due to financial constraints. Mzembi has now resorted to corporate
funding.
Mzembi also hinted government infighting was threatening the
smooth
preparations of the conference.
“What would be critical though
is that like what happens in your own
democracies, you budget for our
differences, in as much as they are a source
of potential derivation of
travel warnings. Package them for what they are
to your governments, that
is, for debate, campaigning or positioning,” he
said.
“After all is
said and done, notwithstanding elections, we all look back and
say we are
Zimbabweans first and foremost and politicians second. The
national interest
and identity is supreme,” said Mzembi.
Mzembi said Zimbabwe was ready to host
the UNWTO event and Air Zimbabwe
(AirZim) is expected to increase domestic
flight frequency and carry
visitors to Victoria Falls.
Permanent
secretary in the Ministry of Transport Munesu Munodawafa said
AirZim would
have daily flights to Victoria Falls by May and introduce
flights from
Johannesburg to Victoria Falls, as well as direct flights from
Harare to
Victoria Falls by the time the general assembly is held.
“By that time, I
am 99% sure we will have added new aircraft to our current
fleet,”
Munodawafa said.
He said work on the Victoria Falls runway would resume
next week and would
be completed in time for the mega event.
A joint
Zimbabwe-Zambia website would be set up to provide updates and other
information pertaining to the UNWTO summit.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in News
ZIMBABWEAN
women are forced to walk many kilometers in search of water,
healthcare and
food.
Report by Wongai Zhangazha
Physical, sexual and emotional
abuses are reportedly on the increase, with
many perpetrators, especially in
politically-motivated cases, going
scot-free.
Limited access to
education, unequal job opportunities and lack of
representation in politics
and decision-making positions are challenges
facing the majority of
Zimbabwean women.
These are some of the reasons for the hype by women’s
organisations and
government officials over the new constitution, widely
endorsed as “a
victory for women”.
But does the new constitution
really address the plight of Zimbabwean women?
A recent survey by the
Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance says women
in Zimbabwe still lag
behind their male counterparts in critical areas such
as education, economic
empowerment and the advancement of their rights.
In a report titled Sadc
Gender Protocol 2012 Barometer: Zimbabwe, the
regional gender body points
out Zimbabwe has allocated meagre resources
towards achieving gender parity,
hence its low ranking despite government
boasting of making considerable
strides in developing a normative framework
to advance women’s status and
rights as citizens.
“Less than 1% of the allocations in the 2012 national
budget are for
advancing gender equality and women’s rights,” read part the
report.
Social critics say the quantam of represantation of women is not
necessarily
about quantity, but about their contribution to the quality of
their
lives –– an issue which even women serving in cabinet or parliament
have
failed to effectively address.
Interestingly, women interviewed
by this paper during the referendum did not
seem to know much about clauses
to do with their rights but were well versed
in one of the constitution’s
most prominent provisions which set a limit of
two five-year terms for the
presidency.
According to the Zimbabwe Women’s Lawyers Association, the
new constitution,
among other things, establishes a Constitutional Court and
Gender and
Equality Commission aimed at dealing with women’s rights, and
ensuring
customary laws and practices that infringe on women’s rights are
invalidated.
Government has an obligation to take steps to prevent
domestic violence and
the new constitution provides individuals the right to
protection from
domestic and any form of violence.
It also provides
for equality at work in relation to promotion, paid
maternity leave and
family healthcare.
It also promotes equality in marriage and gender
balance in distribution of
agricultural land, and gender balance on the Land
Commission, among other
things.
However, critics say the primary
beneficiaries of most provisions in the new
constitution are not the
ordinary women of Zimbabwe but the elitist class.
Blessing Vava of the
National Constitutional Assembly said: “There isn’t
much benefit for women
in the new constitution; instead they should have
taken the quota from the
existing 210 constituencies rather than adding 60
extra seats. It shows they
were not genuine in real empowerment and equality
for women.
“Also
for any woman to be considered for the 60 seats, she has to belong to
a
political party because the allocation will be on the basis of
proportional
representation and the system promotes patronage and we will
end up having
girlfriends of the political leaders being appointed.”
Vava said the
Gender Commission was most likely not going to be of much use
just like
other commissions.
“It does not help. It won’t be independent because
ultimately it is the
president who will have a say in the appointment of the
so-called gender
commission,” he said.
An activist working for a
women’s organisation who preferred anonymity
admitted that although they
campaigned for a “Yes” vote in the
constitutional referendum, there were
chapters they were not satisfied with.
“If we look at the quota of 60
seats, it is those women that are involved in
the three political parties
that will be the immediate beneficiaries of the
constitution and not
ordinary women,” said the activist.
“Furthermore, increasing the quantity
of female MPs does not necessarily
translate to improvement in parliament’s
ability to deal with women’s issues
and challenges in relation to government
policy.
The plight of women is not necessarily about the quantam of
represantation,
but about the quality of the lives of the majority of women,
issues which
even the women serving either in cabinet or parliament have
failed to
address. So it is not about their numbers in parliament or
cabinet, but
ability to provide leadership,” she said.
On the Gender
Commission, the activist said it was not about setting up a
commission but
about what the commission would do, and whether it will have
an enabling
act, among other things.
“Unfortunately given the politicised and
undemocratic nature of the
appointments of commissions, there is limited
reason to assume such a
commission will have the desired impact.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Business
AS the corporate
reporting season for the financial year ended December 31
2012 draws to an
end, the spotlight has been firmly focused on Zimbabwe’s
banks, with
analysts saying the recently-published results by this key
sector indicate
it is largely on solid ground despite the country’s economic
challenges.
Clive Mphambela
With almost all the banks having
published their trading results for the
past year, most have reported
profits. However, alarm bells are being raised
by analysts, with some
concerns on the sustainability of banks’
profitability given recent and
pending developments in the sector.
The concern stems from the fact that
while banks generally grew their net
interest income (NII), the bulk of
their profits in 2012 came from
non-funded sources, indicating they were
still driving their business models
on the basis of account maintenance
fees.
Transaction commissions, commissions and arrangement fees on loans
and
advances, as well as trading margins on foreign exchange, have remained
largely subdued, with cash withdrawal fees dominating banks’ income
lines.
For instance, according to Barclays Bank’s results for 2012, non-
funded
income(NFI) totalled US$30 million, with account ledger fees
amounting to
US$8,9 million, while US$8,3 million was earned from cash
withdrawal fees.
Income earned from other fees and commissions was a further
US$7,8 million.
A similar pattern emerges across most of the large banks,
where NFI
outstripped income from lending activities. MBCA Bank raked in
US$11,1
million in NFI, versus US$10,5 million in NII.
Stanbic Bank
had NFI of US$40 million compared to US$32 million in net
interest earnings.
Standard Chartered Bank made US$48,3 million from
non-funded activities,
with the bank earning net interest income of US$18
million for the year
under review.
Whilst throughout the world banks are expected to earn
their lion’s share of
income from lending and other forms of financial
intermediation, banks in
Zimbabwe have adopted business models where
non-funded income should at
least cover a bank’s overhead operating costs on
a sustainable basis.
The view is lending is inherently risky and involves
the deployment of
capital.
Interest rates are also variable over
time, so that interest income is also
subject to high variability from
factors beyond a bank’s control. In order
to minimise risk of loss and to
increase predictability of income, banks
rely on non- funded income streams
which come predominantly from sources
within their own control.
Last
week, Bankers Association of Zimbabwe president,George Guvamatanga
(pictured) pointed out that banks would lose about US$40 million owing to
the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by industry players early this
year.
However, financial analysts think Guvamatanga may have
downplayed the
potential impact of the measures on banks’ overall income
going forward.
Analysts named the upward review of the minimum regulatory
capital
thresholds for all banks announced by the RBZ late last year, the
MoU
concluded by the banks aimed at their self-regulation on bank charges on
certain classes of accounts, the capping of lending rates, as well as the
directive by the Reserve Bank for banks to target at least 30% of their
lending at SMEs, as areas of concern.
Virtually all the reporting
institutions acknowledged that the macro trading
environment has been stable
since the advent of dollarisation in 2009.
However , they have all lamented
the country’s declining economic growth
rate as well as the deepening
liquidity crisis, fuelled mainly by the
country’s failure to rein in
imports.
Ritesh Anand, chief executive of Invictus Capital Securities
Zimbabwe, a
securities dealing and research firm, said the banking sector
remained
attractive despite the identified setbacks.
“We think that
banks overall are very attractive. We particularly like FBC,
CBZ and NMB,
but there are others which are also attractive.
Our first impression of
the banks’ results for 2012, without a deeper
analysis, is that performance
was generally good. However, we are also aware
of key adverse developments
whose impact we are still assessing, that is,
the reduction in the level of
bank charges on accounts below US$800 as well
as the cap on lending interest
rates,” Anand said.
In addition to these concerns, analysts have also
said the recent directive
by the central bank for banks to target a minimum
30% of their loan
portfolios for SMEs will have consequences for credit
quality and impact
overall credit availability as this was a form of
directed lending.
However, although Guvamatanga last week said these
directives would not have
a big impact on bank profitability, Anand believed
the long-term effects of
these measures might be more profound.
“We look
at the example of Royal Bank, which had over 2000 accounts below
US$500
dollars. If this is the trend amongst the banks, then one stands to
worry,”
Anand added.
In a statement attached to its results, NMBZ, the holding
company for NMB
Bank, said the announced measures would have a pronounced
effect on banks’
profitability.
NMBZ made a net profit after tax of
US$7 million during the year under
review but anticipates that US$26 million
in new lines of credit secured
towards the end of last year will have a
positive impact on earnings, given
the bank is now able to underwrite more
lending business.
Managing Director of MMC Capital, a Research and
Investment firm, Edward
Mapokotera, said his company’s preliminary view of
the banking sector
results was that while they were positive, they outlined
emerging risks.
He said MMC’s concern was with emerging technologies
potentially having a
negative impact on bank earnings if they do not adapt,
adopt and respond to
competitive challenges coming on the back of emerging
technologies.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Business
TELECOMMUNICATIONs tariff
increases across the board loom after government
announced plans to increase
licence fees for operators with effect from June
this year.
Report by
Fidelity Mhlanga
Finance minister Tendai Biti announced recently that
licence fees for
telecoms operators were set to increase from US$100 million
to US$180
million in a move analysts said was a desperate ploy to tap extra
money for
polls.
With the telecommunications companies operating in
the country yet to
receive formal communication on the looming fee hikes, it
has emerged the
new system would trigger a subsequent rise in
tarrifs.
In a recent interview with businessdigest, Telecel Zimbabwe
general manager,
Angeline Vere, said should the mooted licence renewal fees
be gazzetted,
customers would most likely bear the consequences through
tariff increases.
“In the event that the licence renewal fees are
regularised and formalised
in this current form, this will undoubtedly have
a negative impact on
tariffs where some of the costs will be passed on to
consumers,” Vere said.
Telecommunications companies are sceptical about
the proposed hike and
believe a more sustainable and realistic method to
promote viability of the
sector is possible and should be sought.
The
new regime is believed to be retrogressive and probably not the best way
to
recoup the investments and as such, a more practical licensing regime was
required.
Vere echoed sentiments that telecoms operators need a
licence regime that
allows them to expand their networks, increase and
diversify their services,
making them affordable to consumers.
“One
that balances the enablement of network capacitating and service
provision
with affordability will be welcome.” she said
Other operators were wary to
pre judge the issues. Probed for its views on
the matter, Econet said it had
no comment.
Government-owned Netone’s licence is due for renewal mid next
year. Netone
has also not commented.However, Postal and Telecommunication
Regulatory
Authority of Zimbabwe Deputy director-general, Alfred Chirisa,
acknowledged
there was a review in the telecommunications sector licensing
fees, but
declined to divulge information on the likely impact of the new
regime on
consumers.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Opinion
THE outcome of the
March 16 constitutional referendum has created a
political buzz of
unsubstantiated claims of extrapolated victory by certain
political players,
mainly Zanu PF, despite the fact that citizens were not
voting for specific
parties and the fluidity and distortive nature of the
applicable statistics
and voting patterns.
Opinion by Pedzisai Ruhanya
What seems clear
from the huge voter turnout, bar any possibilities of
ballot stuffing, was
the swirling desire to end this transitional
arrangement and begin a new
political order through credible, free and fair
elections, starting with the
adoption of the new draft constitution as a
signifier to a democratic
future.
Such a desire and political momentum for change and hope is less
associated
with supporters of an incumbent regime that has benefited from an
undemocratic political and electoral system over the years.
These
huge numbers are largely of people who want to break with the past
authoritarian system and chart a new democratic future for the
country.
Histories of political transitions, especially those in which
citizens yearn
to break from a political past of massive human rights
violations and
undemocratic governance systems run by unaccountable
executive incumbents,
largely show citizens do not turn freely in huge
numbers to retain a
repressive regime.
This prognosis is mainly
explained by the huge jump in voters in the two
major cities of Harare and
Bulawayo and other parts of rural Zimbabwe.
Citizens in these cities made
up of the working class, students and the
unemployed cannot turn out in huge
numbers to endorse a repressive regime
largely responsible for the economic
failure the country has been grappling
with for over a decade.
Not to
mention the plethora of human rights violations associated with
President
Robert Mugabe’s regime. Surely, Zimbabweans cannot turn out in
huge numbers
to endorse such a norm-violating regime.
In the March 2008 presidential
election, 315 447 voted in Harare and 517 458
voted in the March 16
referendum, while 97 236 people voted in Bulawayo
during the 2008 poll and
131 064 in the referendum.
There was therefore an increase of 202 011 and
33 915 in Harare and Bualwayo
respectively during the referendum. This huge
leap in turnout in these
cities, if replicated and increased in the coming
general elections, has the
capacity to wipe out the numbers in the so-called
strongholds of Zanu PF.
However, it should be noted that during the
referendum, it was easy to vote
and the country was one constituent, among
many other enabling factors.
The referendum results tell us that the
highest increase in voter turnout
between 2008 and the referendum was
recorded in Harare (64%). Similarly, an
analysis of the preliminary data
from the 2012 census shows there are 1 147
715 people eligible to vote in
Harare, but of these only 517 458 voted in
the referendum.
In
Bulawayo, there are 358 654 people eligible to vote but only 131 151
voted
in the referendum, 36% of potential voters.
This data shows us there is a
huge pool of people who should be urged to
both register and vote in the
next elections.
Against this background, should this craving to
participate in electoral
processes shown in the referendum in urban centres
and the countryside
replicate itself in the coming elections, there is
little chance of Mugabe
defeating MDC-T leader, Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
In the March 2008 election, Tsvangirai won the first round of
the
presidential election with 1 195 562 against Mugabe’s 1 079 730
votes.
This was despite the fact that Tsvangirai only carried the popular
vote in
Harare, Bulawayo, Manicaland and Matabeleland North with Mugabe
winning in
Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central and
narrowly in
Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland South.
Mugabe’s
narrow victories, which were by less than 15 000 votes per
province, were
wiped out by resounding victories by Tsvangirai in Harare and
Bulawayo.
Apart from demonstrating that Harare and Bulawayo are very
influential in
the presidential election matrix, this also nullifies the
flawed analysis
that rural areas are necessarily Zanu PF and Mugabe
strongholds.
This
claim is a myth of the old political testament of Zimbabwean politics.
The
new political testament and the reality is that Mugabe no longer has
strongholds to talk about.
If they exist, they are mainly due to the
margin of terror that the next
elections must eliminate through a robust
Sadc and African Union monitoring
and observation process.
However,
the best political insurance against fear becoming a decisive
factor is the
critical need for democratic forces to unite in the coming
defining
poll.
Evidence shows Mugabe (89) looks tired, old and therefore not
attractive to
the majority of largely young voters for another five-year
term which will
end when he would be 94. Above all, he presides over an
incorrigibly corrupt
and predatory political oligarchy currently involved in
a co-ordinated
crackdown on human rights activists and trampling of civil
and political
liberties.
Most significantly, if one analyses the
March 2008 presidential election, it
would be observed that Simba Makoni of
Mavambo/ Kusile/ Dawn polled 204 000
votes. It’s clear that these people
largely voted against Mugabe, although
maybe not persuaded enough to vote
for Tsvangirai.
If these votes are harnessed and added to the vote for
change — which means
against Mugabe — claims of exclusive Zanu PF
strongholds become a nullity or
a fallacy actually.
If Tsvangirai
negotiates and builds a coalition against Mugabe, the
incumbent will mainly
be isolated to the three Mashonaland provinces as his
real but uncertain
strongholds. His vote then becomes purely an ethnic, not
national
mandate.
For this reason and moving forward, it is clear Tsvangirai,
Welshman Ncube,
Dumiso Dabengwa and Makoni must unite as a matter of
political necessity and
urgency in the next watershed elections. If they do
that Zanu PF will
thoroughly lose the elections.
Ncube is
particularly important in that the majority of votes that Makoni
got in 2008
were in areas where his candidates won in the parliamentary and
local
government elections.
Mugabe and Zanu PF’s fate will be further sealed if
the leadership of the
MDC parties and the National Constitutional Assembly
(NCA), as well as other
democratic civic forces, come up with an electoral
pact.
The 6% who rejected the draft constitution, that were mobilised by
the NCA
and its partners, could be crucial if the MDC parties close ranks
with these
agents of change. In this scenario, unfounded claims by Zanu PF
that the
referendum result reflects its potential electoral victory ahead
could
simply prove delusional.
New evidence in electoral studies
suggests the repetition of electoral
processes, even if flawed or
manipulated as has been the norm in Zimbabwe,
can result in
democratisation.
There is truth in this if one were to examine empirical
evidence on Zimbabwe’s
electoral history since 1980.
The February
2000 constitutional referendum defeat of Zanu PF, the close
shave general
elections of June 2000, where Zanu PF narrowly won through the
margin of
terror and the defeat of Mugabe by Tsvangirai in the first round
of the
March 2008 presidential election, the regime’s loss of a
parliamentary
majority the same year and its vanquishing in local government
elections
since 2000, prove that even in circumstances of political
repression and
electoral malpractices continued elections can result in the
eventual
downfall of the incumbent regime.
However, it should be cautioned that this
outcome — of winning elections in
manipulated circumstances — is not
inevitable.
But if the democratic opposition and civic actors in Zimbabwe
unite, they
would be in a much better position to defeat Mugabe and his
party and secure
change.
Ruhanya is director of the Zimbabwe Democracy
Institute.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Opinion
SINCE Independence in
1980 Zimbabwe’s general elections have frequently been
dogged by controversy
and accusations of violence and intimidation.
The Zimbabwe Independent
Opinion
The idea of fair play and a level playing field is alien to Zanu
PF.
Right now the biggest public row in Zimbabwe is when general elections
should be held.
President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF are determined to
force elections by
June 29 — before full implementation of the elections
roadmap.
What is so magical about June 29 that Mugabe and Zanu PF now
seem to have
locked their fate to it? Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa
recently said he
will not entertain the holding of elections after June 29
unless
“circumstances beyond my control happen”.
“We have a deadline
to meet (June 29) and we have to abide by what the law
says. The simple fact
is that we are not overflowing into July or any day
further than the expiry
of the constitutional term of parliament,” he said.
Why does Chinamasa
think Zimbabweans must entertain his idea of holding
elections on a date of
his choice even if it is not feasible?
Current set-down processes, such
as the ongoing constitution-making and
stalled reform agenda which his party
has been resisting since the formation
of the coalition government in 2009,
will actually determine the timeframe
for polls, not Chinamasa or
Mugabe.
No one disputes that parliament’s five-year term automatically
expires on
June 29, but the constitution does not say elections should be
held on that
very day.
There is a constitutional provision of four
months within which elections
must be held — meaning that Zimbabwe has up to
the end of October to hold
the decisive polls in terms of the current
constitution, although the new
constitution will kick in.
Chinamasa
knows elections cannot be held on June 29 because all processes
currently in
motion would not have fully run their course. General elections
are
different from a referendum and require greater preparations.
For
example, a compulsory voter education programme has to be conducted by
the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission countrywide before elections.
The argument
over issues like the Joint Monitoring and Implementation
Committee is a mere
diversionary tactic. The real issue is about reforms,
which Zanu PF has been
resisting, while the two MDC formations have been
inexplicably relaxing
their demands.
The MDC parties seem to have fallen asleep on the job.
There was a time they
strongly insisted on implementation of all agreed
reforms under the Global
Political Agreement, including the election
roadmap, but it is now Sadc
raising these issues more than them.
Sadc
has rejected the June election timeframe, arguing the roadmap would
determine poll dates. What are the MDC parties doing about political
violence and the presence of soldiers in villages where they are reportedly
convening illegal political meetings and campaigning for Zanu PF?
The
sooner the MDC leaders keep their eyes on the ball and Mugabe and Zanu
PF
officials realise that election dates can only be fixed by consensus as
determined by the roadmap, the better for the country.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Opinion
CURRENT problems
and mounting political pressure on Zimbabwean High Court
judge Justice
Charles Hungwe over somewhat vague charges, although evidently
triggered by
his role in the recent controversy over the Anti-Corruption
Commission’s
threat to raid three cabinet ministers on graft allegations and
the granting
of bail to human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, are not
surprising at
all.
Editor’s Memo by Dumisani Muleya
Following the anti-graft
body’s botched search warrant bid and Mtetwa’s bail
uproar in which Hungwe
was involved, there has been systematic pressure on
him via a hostile state
media negative publicity campaign.
Inevitably, the judge has now been
thrown into the eye of a storm over two
matters he allegedly mishandled
involving a house sale wrangle and murder
case ruling.
While the
state media has been roped in to tarnish Hungwe’s reputation,
probably in
the process cause an official investigation and dismissal, it is
clear the
forces of darkness are at work.
Whatever the facts about these issues and
Hungwe’s role in them, the
campaign against him is all too
familiar.
It falls within an established clumsy but systematic pattern of
harassment
and purges of judges considered officially
undesirable.
This has been happening since 2000 when the country
descended into political
and economic turmoil amid President Robert Mugabe
and Zanu PF’s disastrous
policy and leadership failures, which spawned the
emergence of the MDC and a
stalemate after a series of disputed election
results.
The judiciary in general and judges in particular have provided
an
interesting, albeit frequently controversial, subject matter for debate
and
study by lawyers and other professionals.
Over the years,
Zimbabwe’s judges have been “in danger for their talents” as
CF Forsyth once
wrote in reference to the South African situation during
apartheid.
Forsyth’s book In Danger for Their Talents examines the
attitude of the
apartheid regime towards the judiciary and how some judges
collaborated with
the system, while others resisted its dictates, as well as
the rewards and
punishment thereof respectively.
Like during
apartheid, in Zimbabwe, judges, among other sections of society,
have been
under fire since 2000.
More than 10 top judges, including former chief
justice Anthony Gubbay and
others viewed in official circles as disobliging
and obstinate, were forced
to resign or simply hounded out.
The
attack on the judiciary is part of wider repression in the
country.
Purged judges were replaced with those seen as in sync with the
zeitgeist
(thinking or spirit of the time).
To make matters worse,
judges were later given some dubious largesse by the
executive, including
property and gifts outside their normal remuneration
packages, sparking an
outcry they had been compromised.
Then there is a problem of corruption
within the judiciary undermining the
criminal justice system. As former High
Court judge Michael Gillespie once
said: “Manipulation of court rolls;
selective prosecution; and packing of
the bench of superior courts are
outrageous techniques which provide
repressive governments with an
opportunity to subvert the law.”
The current constitution enshrines the
rule of law. Without constitutional
limits on the exercise of power and the
rule of law, then you have an
executive wielding wide, discretionary and
arbitrary powers — in other
words, a vile dictatorship.
This can
drive a country back to the premises of primitive ages and
barbarism.
Zanu PF is systematically disintegrating the judiciary and
rule of law.
By attacking judges and ignoring court orders, while
crumbling the rule of
law and promoting impunity, the party has left
Zimbabwe on the brink of
being a lawless failed state.
You cannot
have a functional democracy without independent judges. Gubbay
put it this
way: “The bedrock of a constitutional democracy is an
independent
judiciary.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in
Opinion
Lovemore Madhuku is clearly still inconsolable following the
constitutional
referendum with the state media ever eager to provide him
with a shoulder to
cry on.
Opinion by MuckRacker
Even
Nathaniel Manheru, who prior to the referendum had laid into Madhuku
for his
“No” vote campaign, has become surprisingly magnanimous.
“His (Madhuku)
NCA lost the referendum vote dismally,” Manheru stated. “But
it won a
numerical validation to what it had surmised all along, namely that
there is
room for a viable third party, outside Zanu PF and the two MDCs.”
And
much to the state mandarins’ delight, who have now made him into a
useful
idiot of sorts, Madhuku has returned the favour in kind by attacking
his
erstwhile allies, the MDC-T and Western donors.
Madhuku, whose National
Constitutional Assembly is a beneficiary of Western
donor support, seems to
have suddenly realised that his benefactors are “not
interested in any open
democratic dispensation in Zimbabwe”.
The NCA, Madhuku went on, had made
mistakes by relying on Western donors for
funding and from now onwards they
would work with donors with their “eyes
wide open”.
Rather late in
the day!
No permanent friends
‘The mistake we made was to think
that this was going to continue,” lamented
Madhuku. “They (Western donors)
will tell you today that they are supporting
an open democracy but that is
only if it is in their interests to do so.”
We are sure the referendum
would only have been credible if Cde Madhuku says
so.
His utterances
reflect either shocking naivety or an attempt to be
disingenuous. He surely
can’t expect us to believe he thought Western donor
support was divorced
from interests of the governments from which it came!
And for him to come
to this “realisation” now when his coalition is on the
ropes is unlikely to
earn him much sympathy.
Now that his fortunes –– and relevance –– are fast
waning, Madhuku seems to
be finding strange bedfellows.
As they say
there are no permanent friends, only permanent interests. We
wouldn’t be
surprised if Madhuku ends up in Zanu PF considering he is fast
mastering the
party’s usual refrain: blame it all on the West.
Ominous
pattern
There is an important aspect of the national discourse
surrounding elections
that nobody has really explored. What happens if the
MDC-T loses? What sort
of society will we have?
Given their
performance in recent weeks, that is a real possibility. We
described Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai a while ago as asleep at the
wheel. It was
evident the party was failing to register its supporters in
sufficient
numbers or push its democratic agenda. It was in many respects
moribund.
So we have the predictable pattern of recent years in which
the MDC-T wins
the urban vote and Zanu PF retains its rural fiefdom.
It
is of course not as simple as that. Zanu PF may win a majority of votes
but
can only do so through rigging and terror.
It is already doing this by
broadcasting a barrage of crude propaganda,
manipulating the state media and
engineering a crackdown on civil society.
This will not be a democratic
election by any stretch of the imagination.
Ask Beatrice Mtetwa or Jestina
Mukoko. The regime suppresses dissenting
voices by locking up its
critics.
Status quo ante
In a democratic election voters are able
to make an informed choice by
having access to a variety of views. A country
with only two or three state
broadcasters and a virtual ban on any
independent participants doesn’t
qualify.
But we are already seeing
the so-called Friends of Zimbabwe and other
sympathisers preparing to say it
was largely a free and fail poll. They
ignored Mtetwa’s arrest.
That
is where we are heading. OK, so the likes of Douglas Nyikayaramba are
still
blacklisted by the EU. So is Didymus Mutasa.
Yet those responsible for
killing Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mbika in 2000
walk scot
free.
Nothing has been done to apprehend their killers. That is the old
Zimbabwe
that has found its way into the new.
When David Coltart’s
election agent, Patrick Nabanyama, disappeared his body
was never
found.
However, the body of war veterans leader Cain Nkala was found and
leading
MDC members were prosecuted. President Mugabe called them
terrorists.
Justice George Chiweshe declined to extend bail to Fletcher
Dulini-Ncube and
others despite their compliance with conditions so they
remained
incarcerated for a year. They were subsequently
acquitted.
Anti-graft under fire
More recently we have seen how,
as soon as the new anti-graft commission
targets the rich and powerful, it
is subject to harassment and retaliation
by the media of the ancien
regime.
What we are seeing is an unseemly battle for control. There has
been no
attempt to fashion a values-based document, but rather a bid to
maintain the
post-liberation power structure. Compare our narrow exclusivist
draft
constitution imposed largely by Zanu PF and South Africa’s broad-based
inclusivist frame which arises from a genuine accommodation.
This
returns us to square one. Zanu PF columnists will claim this is an
attempt
to anticipate an MDC-T loss. That the MDC parties are, by
circulating human
rights dossiers and other claims, preparing the ground for
defeat.
In
fact, the emphasis is rather different. Zimbabwe is entering a new
constitutional era without fully or properly embracing democratic
values.
Every attempt to change our national attitude has been thwarted
by Zanu PF
which wants to keep things very much as they are.
It is a
shoddy and unedifying model, one in which arrests persist and the
reactionary clique remains in power.
Another false
start
Meanwhile, we never hear what the MDC-T stands for. All those
enthusiastic
young people with open palms at Tsvangirai’s rallies? They are
not voters!
Indicative of the fascist order if Zanu PF wins is the
exclusion of whites
from the agricultural sector. Here we have a brand new
constitution
supposedly based on human rights, but whites with extensive
farming skills
will be unable to own farms or other agricultural property,
exposing the
racist dimension inserted by the old order in the new
document.
The public will see little of this because the state’s failure
to undertake
a land audit will allow those who have seized land improperly
or own
multiple farms to keep their ill-gotten gains.
Starting its life
on this flawed basis will focus attention on the
shortcomings of the basic
law and dissipate much of the enthusiasm that went
into its
gestation.
Nkala’s latest regret
Finally Zanu founding member,
Enos Nkala, who was recently admitted at Mater
Dei Hospital in Bulawayo
can’t seem to stop waxing lyrical about President
Mugabe since the two have
become bosom buddies again.
Following a phone call from Mugabe inquiring
after his health, Nkala
expressed happiness for getting the opportunity to
speak to the president.
“A prayer from you is much more than any other
prayer,” Nkala gushed. “It is
wonderful to hear your voice.”
Nkala
now regrets saying all those nasty words about Mugabe after being
“overwhelmed by his love and friendliness”. Nkala said in August 2010
Mugabe’s
oratory skills deceived nationalists –– including himself –– into
believing
he was a good leader.
“We deceived ourselves and listened
to the manner in which he (Mugabe)
articulated issues, so we got carried
away into believing that he was a
leader,” Nkala said. “I regretted later on
(after forming Zanu as a
breakaway from Zapu led by Joshua Nkomo) that
myself, Maurice Nyagumbo and
Edgar Tekere removed Ndabaningi Sithole from
the position of president of
the party and put Mugabe in.”
“Robert
(Mugabe) is a first-class intellectual but lacks administrative
ability,”
Nkala said in 2010. “He is a talker but not a leader. He should be
teaching
at a university, not leading the country,” he said.
Goodness, how things
change!
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Opinion
ONE thing
that is consistent with the dark forces in Zanu PF is their dogged
persistence in their political game plan of destabilising prevailing order
to create chaos in the country so that they plot survival from the resultant
turmoil.
Column by Qhubani Moyo
Renewed attempts by a small
but powerful clique in Zanu PF, which fears
President Robert Mugabe’s days
are numbered, are underway to run a
topsy-turvy and violent elections
campaign as part of this wider plan to
take advantage of calculated chaos to
retain its party in government.
This hardline cabal hopes to achieve this
either by running a scotched-earth
campaign spearheaded by a brutal state
security apparatus which wants to
retain Mugabe in power as a captive leader
who will be remote-controlled by
ambitious elements in the Joint Operations
Command (Joc) or creating so much
chaos that post-election events and
arising new circumstances cannot be
ignored as part of the solution to the
Zimbabwean question.
This Joc-based group, which secured the June 2008
presidential election
run-off through a campaign of violence and
intimidation before imposing
Mugabe as the civilian authority when in fact
he is a product of a
quasi-military operation, has seen that in current
electoral matrix Zanu PF
will not win any free and fair elections and is
therefore resorting to the
“chaos theory” whose outcomes are of course
unpredictable.
This has been shown by their repeated attempts to disrupt
the Global
Political Agreement (GPA) implementation, render the inclusive
government
dysfunctional, defy Sadc resolutions on Zimbabwe, disregard the
elections
roadmap, collapse the constitution-making process, undermine the
Joint
Monitoring and Implementation Committee and now create chaos through
unrealistic election dates demands.
These architects of organised
political disorder are now pushing
relentlessly for elections by or on June
29 using all sorts of unfounded and
flawed legalistic arguments that have no
validity at law or logic, quite
apart from the fact that their feverish
demands are self-serving and not in
the national interest.
The same
brokers of terror, well- known for their contempt of the
constitution, laws
and the rule of law — indeed democracy — suddenly want to
play custodians of
the constitution by insisting on “compliance” with the
June 29 “due date” of
the elections when clearly all they want is to
manipulate Mugabe’s old age
and problems in Zanu PF in pursuit of
preservation of narrow clique or
individual interests.
It is without doubt that these elements in Zanu PF,
who thrive on conditions
of political instability and in a state of flux,
were seriously opposed to
the new constitution and ran a spirited campaign
to collapse the process
again in pursuit of parochial interests.
They
have always lobbied using an agitated approach and scare tactics for
early
elections since 2010 even though it was evident such sort of polls
would be
disputed again and Zimbabwe would remain locked in a political
stalemate and
concomitant economic decline.
Fortunately, their strategy has not worked
so far although they have clearly
not given up in trying to impose premature
elections based on a new
constitution — after failing to stop the
constitution-making process —
tailored to suit their factional political
interests.
Now that the new constitution will be the supreme law of the
land soon,
their new approach is to ensure it remains on paper without full
or
effective implementation because if it changes the conditions for
elections,
they would not survive.
The best way for them is to ensure
elections are held immediately before the
full implementation of political
reforms, including a new constitution, and
reconstruction of democratic
state institutions, particularly those dealing
with electoral
issues.
This will enable them to run the elections on the basis of old
compromised
institutions and their tried and tested machinery of violence
used since
1980.
This is perhaps one of the symbolic reasons why they
want elections by or on
June 29 as this would revive painful memories of the
June 2008 presidential
election run-off, the ghost of stolen elections and
fear — sadistic and
callous tools in their campaign kit.
On this
point alone the dreadful reminiscences associated with the June 2008
bloodbath will manage to re-activate the fear factor and
coercion.
However, Zimbabweans, progressive Africans and the
international community
in its collectivity must not allow this country to
be plunged into chaos
again by power-hungry Joc commanders and their
surrogates. Because of the
history of electoral violence in June 2000 and
June 2008, elections must be
avoided in June as a sign of sensitivity and
empathy with those who suffered
or died from political brutality in the
seemingly jinxed month of June.
Beyond symbolism, the reality is that it
is practically impossible to hold
elections by or on June 29 given the
situation on the ground.
We have always maintained since 2010 that
elections can only be
realistically held in September or October 2013. The
new constitution
approved by the referendum on March 16 will be introduced
in parliament for
debate when it reconvenes on May 7.
Given that the
constitution is a product of an agreement of the parties, it
certainly will
sail through, but there are certain processes which cannot be
avoided like
voter registration, election dates proclamation provisions and
aligning
clauses of the Electoral Act to the new constitution, while
managing the
transition from the old to the new constitution.
What that means is
Mugabe might only assent to the Constitutional Bill
passed by parliament
sometime in mid-May to pave way for important processes
like aligning
legislation to the constitution.
This will be followed by intensive voter
registration provided for in the
new constitution.
This means the
process will take us to sometime in the third week of June
and this is
assuming funds for these processes are readily available. Only
then can the
president make a proclamation for election dates, and
everything being
equal, it will take us to the first week of July.
Thereafter polling
should be done at least 30 days after nomination of
candidates or 14 days
after proclamation of election dates, which will be
around August, the
period the country will host the United Nations World
Tourism Organisation
general assembly.
So that stretches the political and electoral processes
further, showing the
most realistic date for the holding of elections will
be sometime in
September.
Election dates should be determined by
processes and consensus, not chaotic
impositions and associated narrow party
political or individual interests.
Moyo is the director of policy and
research in the MDC led by Professor
Welshman Ncube. E-mail: mdcpolicyguru@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
April 5, 2013 in Opinion
Last week the
World Economic Forum (WEF) accorded Zimbabwe a rating of 118
out of 140
countries, in assessing the country’s attractiveness and
competitiveness in
the fields of travel and tourism.
Column by Eric Bloch
WEF says
Zimbabwe is a victim of negative perception on the part of
potential
tourists, who have concerns for their safety and security–
critical factors
that influence tourists’ choices of destinations.
On the issue of safety
and security, Zimbabwe attained a rating of 120, out
of the assessed 140
countries.
At any time, such adverse tourist perspectives are very
negative, for
tourism is a major factor in the development and growth of
Zimbabwe’s
economy, especially given that in August when the country
(together with
Zambia) will be hosting the United Nations World Tourism
Organisation
(UNWTO) General Assembly.
The poor rating also runs
counter to a recent forecast by the Minister of
Tourism, Walter Mzembi, that
Zimbabwe will be the second fastest growing
travel and tourism economy in
the world, only China attaining even greater
growth.
The Minister
projected that over the period 2010 to 2020 Zimbabwe will
attain an average
annual growth rate of 8,7%.
It is indisputable Zimbabwe has key resources
to attain, and even exceed,
the minister’s forecast, and a markedly higher
international rating as a
desirable tourist destination.
Its tourism
attractions are so considerable and extensive that space does
not permit
listing all of them in this column, but they include the
spectacular
Victoria Falls, and the innumerable enjoyable activities in
their proximity,
some of the finest wild life game reserves and parks in
Africa, the Matopos
Hills, Great Zimbabwe, Khami and other ruins, the
immense beauty of
Chimanimani, Vumba and Nyanga, Lake Kariba (and especially
its sunsets, and
its wildlife viewing opportunities), fine Natural History
Museum situated in
Bulawayo, the National Gallery in Harare and Bulawayo,
traditional tribal
dancing, diverse arts and crafts as well as numerous
hotels, lodges, caravan
parks and camping grounds.
With all this to offer, it is difficult to
think why Zimbabwe has such a
negative international tourism rating. The
general tendancy is to attribute
the inadequacy of Zimbabwean tourism
patronage to the economic recession in
the United States in 2008, and
beyond, and the subsequent recession in most
of the European Union
(EU).
It cannot be denied those recessions impacted severely and
adversely on the
extent of international tourism, but that does not explain
why Zimbabwe is
rated so poorly in tourism surveys undertaken during, and
post, the
recessions.
The reality is that, for diverse reasons, many
who enjoy tourism are deeply
concerned with the state of Zimbabwe as a
tourism destination. These
concerns are many, including:
Perceptions
that Zimbabwe is not a safe tourist destination.Those
perceptions are mainly
founded on the prolonged political instability
prevailing in the country for
many years, the frequency of violence in rural
areas (more often than not
politically driven), the perceived absence of
substantive efforts by
government and the police to contain such violence
and to ensure law and
order;
The excessive numbers of police roadblocks on national highways,
necessitating frustrating delays for the tourists who are recurrently
subjected to demands for production of licences, fire extinguishers, and red
triangles.
Virtually no tourist objects to such enforced stops and
examinations, but
they become resentful when this is repeated often. The
resentment of the
tourists is intensified when, all too often, the
“inquisitions” are
accompanied by demands for bribes;
Prolonged
delays at Border Posts while the tourists await slow processing of
their
entry into or departure from Zimbabwe, coupled with endless demands
from
touts, and beggars can surely not be conducive to tourism.
Moreover, they
often have considerable delays when visa-issuing officials
refuse visa fees
in certain currencies (such as the British Pound), despite
such currencies
being included in Zimbabwe’s multi-currency monetary system;
The ongoing,
limited flights of the beleaguered Air Zimbabwe compounded by
many
cancellations or delays, provoking deep seated concerns of many
tourists
that miss onward flight connections;
Inadequate service delivery by
Zimbabwean parastatals, and especially so in
respect of energy and water
supplies severely impair the expectations and
needs of potential
tourists.
Endless harassment of tourists by beggars desperately seeking
donations and
unceasingly badgering the tourists with appeals for
money;
Excessively, and exaggeratedly, negative international media
coverage of
Zimbabwe’s circumstances, in general, and of the prolonged,
adverse
political as well as law and order circumstances, further colouring
perceptions of tourists on the desirability of Zimbabwe as a
destination;
The recurrent virulent and confrontational diatribes among
of Zimbabwe’s
political hierarchy against the international community,
rendering potential
tourists fearful of unjust harassment should they visit
Zimbabwe;
These are but some of the factors which prevent Zimbabwe from
enjoying the
considerable benefits that could flow from the potentially
massive tourist
arrivals.
While not all of the impediments to
substantial tourism growth can be fully
addressed by government, most of
them could be effectively resolved, if only
authorities had a firm resolve
to recognise, and eliminate, these problems.
If government would seriously
do so, Zimbabwe would enjoy a tourism
turnaround even greater than forecast
by Mzembi, and that would be a major
stimulant to the
economy.
