http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
By The Independent on August 11, 2012
in News
Herbert Moyo
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is likely to cut a lonely
figure at the Sadc summit
in Maputo, Mozambique, next week following the
death of his key regional
ally, Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika in
April and the lack of strong
allies within the region.
Mutharika strongly
backed Mugabe and his death seems to have further eroded
Mugabe’s already
depleted support in Sadc, leaving Zambian President Michael
Sata as his only
all-weather friend.
Mutharika’s successor Joyce Banda has ditched the
politics of solidarity
pursued by Mutharika and embarked on a major drive to
mend ties with the
international community, especially the
West.
She has also taken a number of bold steps to steer the
country’s ailing
economy into donor-friendly waters.
In a
radical departure from her country’s previous stance, Banda quickly
broke
ranks by refusing to bow to the African Union’s condition that
Sudanese
President Omar al-Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal
Court (ICC)
on charges of genocide and war crimes, should attend the
continental body’s
meeting in Lilongwe last month.
Ironically, Bashir had been given a
red carpet welcome by wa Mutharika at a
regional trade summit in December
last year.
With the “close partnership and brotherly bonds” that
Mugabe enjoyed with
Malawi and other regional leaders gone, MDC-T leader and
Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai has embarked on a diplomatic charm
offensive to persuade
regional leaders to call for full implementation of
all GPA reforms.
Tsvangirai met Banda on the sidelines of a book
launch in Johannesburg last
week. Bolstered by the meeting, Tsvangirai
embarked on a tour, meeting
incoming Sadc chairman and Mozambique President
Armando Guebuza on
Wednesday, and the bloc’s incoming troika chairman
Tanzanian President
Jakaya Kikwete yesterday. He was also set to meet
Namibian President
Hifikepunye Pohamba.
Political commentator
Blessing Vava said Mugabe no longer exerted the same
influence nor enjoyed
the support of regional leaders as before and it is
not surprising Banda had
warmed to Tsvangirai, given her pro-Western stance.
Vava said Botswana
President Ian Khama and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma were
certainly no allies
of Mugabe who could not even count on the support of DRC
President Joseph
Kabila, or Angola’s Jose Eduardo dos Santos whom he helped
during the
countries’ civil wars.
Dos Santos is closer to Zuma than any Sadc
leader.
“Despite the support Mugabe rendered to his late father
(Laurent Kabila),
Joseph Kabila has clearly chosen to do business with South
Africa. It’s also
been several years since Kabila was in Zimbabwe,” said
Vava.
Kabila appears to be neutral and does not always attend Sadc
summits.
South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi and Namibia
are the
countries that hold sway in Sadc, while the likes of Mauritius,
Swaziland,
Lesotho and the Seychelles are inclined to go with the
majority.
While Mugabe is isolated in Sadc and internationally,
Tsvangirai has been
hogging the regional and international
limelight.
The premier was recently in Japan, Australia and New
Zealand. Prior to that
he visited China.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
By The Independent on August 11, 2012 in
News
Tendai Marima
THE battle between Acting Finance Minister Gorden
Moyo and state security
agents over the control of the upcoming national
population census — which
is critical to the next elections — has brought to
the fore the problematic
role of mainly the military in civilian matters,
especially concerning
political and electoral processes.
Informed
sources said security forces want to control the census to
determine its
outcome in line with Zanu PF’s electoral agenda. The census is
important to
elections because it would show the new population figure and
distribution
pattern, hence it correlates to the voters’ roll, the
delimitation of
constituency boundaries and the number of rural and urban
seats, among other
key electoral determinants.
After a number of twists and turns,
characterised by chaos triggered by
security forces, Moyo announced
yesterday the process would kick off at
midnight on August 17/18. At a press
conference yesterday, he said continued
interference by security forces had
forced government to indefinitely
suspend training and registration although
the census kick off-date remains
the same.
“The census count should
commence at midnight August 17/18 2012. This date
has remained fixed since
1982 and should remain so following international
best practice,” Moyo said.
“However, the training of enumerators has not
proceeded smoothly due to
constant disruptions. This has necessitated the
rescheduling of the
training timetable, but bearing in mind that the census
night will remain
17/18 August 2012.”
Moyo said government also decided that no
training would take place until
further notice. He said only those people
who were recruited through the
formal structures set up by ZimStat and who
met the set criteria would
attend training when it resumes.
“The
population census is critical for national development hence it is
important
that reliable and accurate data are obtained. We therefore urge
all
stakeholders and members of the public to give the enumerators maximum
cooperation,” Moyo said.
It is understood that the rescheduling
of the training programme for
enumerators means that all personnel involved
in the census programme will
have to work over the Heroes and Defence Forces
holidays on Monday and
Tuesday, respectively.
Although Moyo on
Wednesday said President Robert Mugabe’s office had sent
out an urgent
circular to all relevant ministries informing them of the
cabinet decision
this week to remove about 10 000 army, police and Central
Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) officers from the census, there was no
compliance
yesterday.
The census — which has now become a theatre of political
battles — was
expected to have started on Tuesday but Moyo suspended the
process on Monday
evening due to the involvement of 10 000 members of the
security forces
among the 30 000 enumerators who are, traditionally, mostly
school teachers.
This triggered scenes of fury and chaos at census centres
across the country
as soldiers tried to force their way into the process by
disrupting the
exercise. Failing to get their way, security forces resorted
to locking up
census stations, prompting an intervention by
cabinet.
However, by yesterday police and other security agents were
still defying
the directive sent from the Office of the President and
Cabinet on
Wednesday. Moyo said it was now up to Mugabe, as the
commander-in-chief, to
rein in the security forces.
Visits by the
Zimbabwe Independent to two census stations, Girl’s High
School and Queen
Elizabeth High School in the capital, confirmed
registration scheduled to
begin Thursday after being suspended on Monday was
not taking place. One
grounds staff member at Girl’s High School said: “The
police came here in
the morning and said there’ll be no registration until
further
notice.”
Another one said: “They said we did not have letters for the census
to start
from the Central Census Office”. Moyo later confirmed training has
been
suspended indefinitely.
Induction of enumerators has been
disrupted across the country with reports
of armed anti-riot police invading
centres in Bulawayo, Beitbridge, Mutare,
Nyanga and Chitungwiza, chasing
away civil servants hired for the census.
Asked for clarification on the
matter, police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena
said he was aware of cabinet’s
directive but was not at liberty to comment
because the matter was still
under discussion. “I can’t discuss the issue
because it’s still being
considered by cabinet,” he said.
Although the census is essentially a
civilian issue, the army and other
security operatives have been jostling to
invade the process which is
crucial to elections.
In an effort to
stop Zanu PF’s mass recruitment of thousands of soldiers,
police and CIO
agents as enumerators, Moyo also wrote to Minister of
Defence, Emmerson
Mnangagwa and Minister of State Security, Sydney
Sekeramayi.
In a
similar letter to Mnangagwa and Sekeramayi, copied to chief secretary
to the
president and cabinet, Moyo appealed to the two security ministers to
ensure
security personnel keep their numbers to a minimum.
“A decision was
made today (Tuesday) that the number of security forces in
the 2012
population census exercise from the highest supervisory level down
to the
lowest level — that of the enumerator will be limited to 1571,” said
Moyo.
“I therefore request your maximum support in conveying this
information to
the security forces that fall under your portfolio.”
Communicating
the cabinet decision, Information minister Webster Shamu said
on Tuesday the
job of collecting demographic data was normally a teacher’s
job while state
security performed peacekeeping functions and provided first
aid
assistance.
Teachers have expressed anger at the interference in
their traditional duty
by security forces as they stood to earn US$800 for
the 10-day process.
The United Nations recommends that countries should
conduct a census every
10 years. This period allows for the capture of
changes in structure and
movement of populations.
Census provides
information essential to government for policy-making,
planning and
administration. It provides important data for the analysis
and appraisal
of the changing patterns of rural/urban movement, geographical
distribution
of the population and decision-making processes of the private
sector.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
By The Independent on August 11, 2012 in
News
Wongai Zhangazha
A CIVIL society delegation lobbying for a
tougher stance against President
Robert Mugabe for his refusal to implement
agreed reforms ahead of next week’s
Sadc summit in Maputo was given a last
minute snub by President Jakaya
Kikwete’s officials.
Tanzania takes over
chairmanship of the Sadc Troika on Politics, Defence and
Security at the
summit and the delegation representing eight Zimbabwean
civil society groups
was hoping to secure a meeting with Kikwete’s top
officials to lobby for
their position to be raised at the meeting.
The delegation held
meetings with Tanzanian non-governmental organisations,
the media and the
main opposition Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo, but
came a cropper when
it sought a meeting with government officials.
Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition director MacDonald Lewanika, part of the
delegation, said they had
failed to meet government because they sent their
request
late.
“The downside of the meetings was partly our fault because we
failed to tell
government officials in time,” said Lewanika. “However, we
are still to meet
government officials tomorrow (yesterday). We are having
meetings with the
Tanzanian ambassador and other ambassadors from the
region.”
Lewanika said the delegation told Tanzania MPs and NGOs that
Zimbabwe’s
reform process was being stalled by lack of sincerity on the
part of Zanu
PF in the engagement process.
He said they also
urged Tanzania to push for Zimbabwe to abide by the recent
Supreme Court
ruling that by-elections be held in vacant constituencies.
Meanwhile,
regional civil society organisations met in Maputo this week
ahead of the
summit lobbying the Sadc Tribunal to keep its human rights
mandate.
The meetings were organised by the Sadc Council of
Non-Governmental
Organisations, the Southern Africa Trade Union
Co-ordination Council, the
Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern
Africa, and the 8th Southern
Africa Civil Society Forum.
The
organisations raised fears that Sadc leaders may decide to strip the
tribunal of its rights jurisdiction, striking a “serious blow to citizens of
the region and to hopes for economic growth and
development”.
Zimbabwe is opposed to the Sadc Tribunal after it ruled
in favour of 78
former white commercial farmers whose land was compulsorily
expropriated
during the chaotic land reform programme.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
By The Independent on August 10, 2012 in
Politics
Brian Chitemba
MDC-T Bulawayo senior officials are
jostling for parliamentary
constituencies ahead of the next national
elections with provincial chairman
and non-constituency MP, Gorden Moyo,
eyeing the Bulawayo East seat held by
former party deputy national
spokesperson Thabitha Khumalo.
But Khumalo has vowed to fight fiercely to
keep her seat.
According to party insiders Khumalo, who is under fire
and was recently axed
as deputy party spokesperson, would be ousted from her
seat as part of a
wider fight between her and Deputy Prime Minister
Thokozani Khupe.
Khupe, who enjoys close ties with Moyo, is
reportedly orchestrating the plot
to remove Khumalo, who challenged her for
the party’s vice-presidency at
last year’s congress.
Moyo, also State
Enterprises minister, is seeking a parliamentary seat to
secure his
political career since he was handpicked by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai
from civil society where he headed Bulawayo Agenda. He initially
worked in
Tsvangirai’s office.
Moyo needs a seat to be appointed to cabinet
after the coalition
arrangement, should the latest draft finally be adopted
into the country’s
new constitution.
Apart from Khumalo, insiders said
Pelandaba MP Samuel Sandla Khumalo is also
likely to be removed to make way
for close Khupe ally and current Bulawayo
Central MP, Dorcas Sibanda. Khupe
is seeking a “safe” seat after a spate of
defections by party officials in
her Makokoba constituency.
About 200 MDC-T officials reportedly
crossed the floor to join the Welshman
Ncube-led MDC, accusing Khupe of
dictatorship, but Khupe dismissed the
defections as propaganda by Ncube and
Zanu PF to discredit her ahead of
elections.
Contacted for
comment, Khumalo said she was not aware of any plot to remove
her from the
Bulawayo East seat, but warned conspirators that: “I am ready
to die for my
seat.”
The MDC-T is set to announce a raft of primary election guidelines,
some of
which are seen by juniors as a plot to ring-fence top officials in
danger of
losing primary polls.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
By The Independent on August 11, 2012 in
Politics
Staff Writer
THE Zanu PF Masvingo provincial executive
has moved to defy the politburo by
seeking to co-opt the party’s readmitted
former chairman Daniel Shumba into
its structures ahead of the next
elections.
Shumba was expelled eight years ago for his role in the Tsholotsho
debacle
seen as an attempted “palace coup”.
Although the
politburo recently lifted Shumba’s expulsion he remains banned
from holding
office for five years.
“Nothing will stop Shumba or anyone else from
holding a post because we are
in the process of rebuilding the party,” said
Zanu PF Masvingo provincial
chairman Lovemore Matuke.
“We lost
the last election and we can’t afford to lose this time around, so
having
Shumba is to the party’s advantage.”
However, party spokesperson
Rugare Gumbo insisted the rules would not be
changed to accommodate
Shumba.
“Our position is clear. Shumba has been readmitted but he has
to wait for
five years before he holds any position in the party. He was
readmitted as
an ordinary member of the party and we do not make
exceptions,” said Gumbo.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
By The Independent on August 11, 2012 in
Politics
Staff Writer
SOUTH African Communist Party
general-secretary and Higher Education
minister Blade Nzimande has called on
former regional liberation movements
in power to adapt and find new
solutions to today’s problems instead of
dwelling on the liberation
struggle.
Former liberation movements in Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa
are
battling to remain in power amid growing discontent among the new
generation
over failure to offer solutions to contemporary
problems.
Zambia’s liberation movement Unip has already lost power
and is on the brink
of extinction. The same applies to Malawi Congress
Party. Kanu is battling
to win back power in Kenya.
MPLA in
Angola, CCM in Tanzania, the ANC in South Africa, the Botswana
National
Party and Zanu PF are surviving although facing problems.
“We cannot
continue to use past glory to seek relevance today,” said
Nzimande in
remarks that will resonate in Zimbabwe.
“The values and goals of the
liberation struggle are still as valid as they
were then, but they are
lacking the power to rally all forces for
development as during the
liberation struggles.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
By The Independent on August 11, 2012
in Opinion
The Muckracker
AT last, a “no going back” statement we
can all support. Leslie Gwindi,
Harare city council’s public relations
manager, vowed the council would
continue with its operation to prevent
arbitrary structures going up in the
suburbs.
“There is no going back on
demolishing illegal car sales yards in the city,”
he told the press. “But we
are told there are youths who have now come in to
stop this (the
demolitions).”
Then, equally surprising, Local Government minister
Ignatious Chombo backed
the city’s efforts, making clear people could not
take the law into their
own hands.
One of those advocating
precisely that was Harare Zanu PF provincial youth
chairman Jim
Kunaka.
He declared his outfit would fight to stop the council
operation. It
transpired that he was a council employee. “I don’t care
whether it was a
council resolution or not, I will stand to fight them,” he
declared.
This development has also irked the “pressure” group Zimbabwe
Entrepreneurs
Youth Action Group which has accused the city council of
“disempowering” the
youth.
So how do we explain this
changable behaviour?
Very simply! Zanu PF was seriously damaged by
the revelations of its role
in support of Chipangano –– by this newspaper
among others. That was the
sort of publicity Zanu PF could do without at
this juncture with an election
pending.
Which explains Didymus Mutasa’s
dressing down of Amos Midzi followed by
Chombo’s intervention against
Kunaka’s antics.
The former ruling party has clearly received
instructions to appear to be
the party of the rule of law. Kunaka was
emblematic of its lawlessness. Here
was somebody who was determined to lose
the party votes. It wasn’t just
defiance he was advocating but violence as
well.
Not helping matters in all this was the police. Spokesperson
Chief Inspector
James Sabau said the police would only act if council
obtained permission
from the courts.
“We can only assist when
they have a court order and in the absence of that
there is nothing we can
do to help,” he is quoted as saying.
Is this correct? That the police
need a court order to uphold the law and
cannot do so without such an
order?
The nation has been waiting to hear the outcome of the
politburo
deliberations on the Copac draft.
Among the contested
areas we are told are “national objectives and
foundations and the
significance of the liberation struggle”.
That is good and proper.
Any such discussion should include the way in which
the central tenets of
the liberation struggle have been hijacked by a
post-liberation aristocracy
which is intent upon empowering itself at the
expense of the people as a
whole. That should go in.
We were surprised to hear of an outfit
called the Centre for Economic and
Leadership Development which awarded
Vice-President Joice Mujuru the
“Distinguished African Amazon Award” in
Bindura recently, according to the
Sunday Mail.
The award
recognises the contribution of women who have excelled in their
professional
life and made a difference in the lives of other women.
VP Mujuru was seated
between Senate President Edna Madzongwe and Oppah
Muchinguri.
We
were rather surprised to hear of this organisation, an NGO, which is
committed to addressing the challenges faced by vulnerable women. But then
all was made clear.
“The event was organised by the Zanu PF
Women’s League,” the Sunday Mail
reported.”
OK. But “Amazons”
usually refers to mythical female giant warriors of South
America. We are
not sure that any of the ladies mentioned above qualify!
Outgoing US
ambassador, Charles Ray, recently criticised his government for
“not doing
much” to improve relations with Zimbabwe.
“I can never say I received
100% support from my government,” he told the
press. “They could have done
more to improve relations with Zimbabwe.”
He expected to be greeted
by guns on his arrival at the airport to take up
his post following negative
briefings in Washington.
You can tell this was his last posting! But
whatever the case, ambassadors
should not snipe at their own governments.
They are here to explain their
country’s policy, not subvert
it.
Many Zimbabweans would have approved the US’s strong stance on
Zimbabwe. And
it was up to Congress to change policy, not
ambassadors!
President Mugabe has told guests at a state dinner in
Lusaka that sanctions
were meaningless.
Mugabe sang from his
tired sanctions hymn sheet, saying they were meant to
stop the seizures of
land from white farmers for redistribution to landless
blacks.
Ironically he went on to accuse former US President
George W Bush of being a
“shameless liar” together with former British
premier Tony Blair.
According to the Herald, President Mugabe said
“the recent behaviour of the
authors of debilitating restrictions clearly
show that they are failing to
garner the moral courage to accept that
Zimbabwe has moved on and that their
sanctions which were never justified in
the first place should be removed
without precondition”.
Zambia
Reports states that Mugabe found a not-so captive audience while
addressing
journalists after a meeting with former Zambian President Kenneth
Kaunda.
With a combined age of 176 years, it was no surprise the
two would dwell on
issues of the past rather than the
present.
Mugabe’s broadsides at Western nations were, however, met
with a flurry of
sceptical questions from unimpressed journalists in
attendance, prompting
Kaunda to interject and defend Mugabe.
“I
have said this and I have told you that no one should demonise Comrade
Mugabe. This man had an agreement with Margaret Thatcher over the land in
Zimbabwe,” Kaunda said.
Clearly the old and tired line no longer
has any takers.
If the sanctions were meaningless, why did his party
hawk around a petition
which called for the removal of the sanctions
regime?
Don’t we recall Senator Aguy leading the campaign in London
to have
sanctions dealt a mortal blow in the courts? What happened to
that?
This reminds us of the decision to leave the Commonwealth. The regime
in
2003 pulled out all the stops to prevent Zimbabwe’s continued suspension,
and then when that didn’t work they announced they didn’t want to remain a
member anyway.
It was a good example of diplomatic
pique.
We now have a situation where Zanu PF committed itself to a
reform process
and is now trying to change that process because it doesn’t
like the
outcome.
The two MDCs meanwhile are enjoying the
spectacle of the former ruling party
tearing itself apart because its
members can’t understand that when you
negotiate an agreement on
constitutional basics, you can’t then run away
because you think you made a
mistake.
The negotiating process was clearly laid down, and it was
understood that
while the parties wouldn’t be able to agree on everything,
the outcome would
be the best they could get. It would not be possible for
one party to change
things arbitrarily just because it perceived a setback
for its mandarins.
Can you imagine trying to put such specious
language as “national objectives
and foundations, the significance of the
liberation struggle” into a
constitution when there are about 12 million
different interpretations of
those things?
Zanu PF believes such
nationalist posturing is a vote-winner. The Herald
claims Morgan Tsvangirai
has been “attacking African nationalists”.
In reality the electorate
is sick and tired of pseudo-nationalists claiming
the mantle of genuine
liberators. It didn’t work the last time –– nobody
bought the message –– so
why do they think it will work this time?
How do we explain the
photo-opportunity given to the press by the appearance
of Robert Mugabe Jnr
at a function in Harare last weekend.
Wearing a python-decorated dinner
jacket and a black shirt, the tall
hazel-eyed son of Zimbabwe’s first couple
made his first official appearance
at the Miss Global International held at
the Rainbow Towers on Saturday
night.
We are not entirely sure what Miss
Global International does but Robert Jnr
(Tino) was the guest of honour at
the function.
He looked relaxed and suave in front of the cameras.
But what exactly was he
doing there? Perhaps Dad has relented on the
succession issue after all.
For all those Zimbabweans bored by the
Mnangagwa vs Mujuru saga, the
emergence of young Robert provides a candidate
who is non-political and
happy to stand in for his ageing father. If not
now, then perhaps being
groomed for some future appointment?
All
very mysterious. But mark Muckraker’s words, very soon he will be in
election mode handing out bags of mealie-meal and denouncing
sanctions.
Fame comes at a price and it won’t be long before he
is put to work.
We do know one thing. Those girls pictured at the
Rainbow Towers were as
tall and leggy as he is! A dab hand with the
basketball we gather.
The last time we suggested him as a possible
successor –– in a cartoon
standing in a line-up at the airport –– he was
whisked from public view not
to be seen again. Until now that
is!
Perhaps now it is felt that he can fulfil a long awaited mission.
Let’s see.
Finally the internet on Monday was abuzz with details of US
Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton’s trip to Malawi.
However,
this time the focus wasn’t on politics.
After holding bilateral talks
with President Joyce Banda, Clinton was given
a stinging farewell ––
literally– when a swarm of bees descended on her
entourage at Kamuzu
International Airport.
The Nyasa Times reports that Clinton was
forced to run for cover and buzzed
off to Johannesburg where she was
assailed by nothing more uncomfortable
than several inches of snow!
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
By The Independent on August 11, 2012 in
Opinion
Eric Bloch
FOR many decades Zimbabwe’s key national sports
were football, rugby and
cricket, but for the past 10 years the country’s
national sport has
progressively become deep-seated criticism of the
country’s banking sector
in general, and of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) in particular. So
passionate has this sport become that even when the
key players (banks,
building societies, micro-finance and other financial
institutions, the RBZ
and Governor Gideon Gono) do what the spectators
desire them to, they are
berated and alleged to be at
fault.
Indisputably, much of the financial sector was grossly
under-capitalised in
relation to stability and security levels that could
justly be required of
them.
Frequently, many of the
institutions were mismanaged; certain loans made
most irresponsibly and
often to undeserving relations. Oversight of their
operations and conduct by
the authorities had to be markedly intensified.
So great were banking
sector ills that in 2004, shortly after he became
governor, Gono urgently
focused on addressing the ills. The RBZ imposed
recuperative curatorship
upon nine financial institutions as Barbican Bank,
CFX Merchant Bank,
Intermarket Banking Corporation, Intermarket Building
Society, Intermarket
Discount House, Royal Bank, Time Bank, and Trust Bank.
A further
three — Barbican Asset Management, Century Discount House and
Rapid Discount
House — were placed under liquidation. A year later, First
National
Building Society was also placed under final liquidation.
At the same
time, RBZ intensified monitoring financial institutions
through the
introduction of detailed measures to deal with
financially-troubled
institutions; the measures were incorporated in a
policy known as the
Troubled Bank Resolution Framework. Despite these and
other RBZ measures,
the circumstances of many of the banks and other
financial institutions
progressively became very strained and increasingly
insecure, especially
beteween 2006 and 2008. During that period, Zimbabwe’s
hyperinflation soared
to record levels. The consequences were manifold,
having negative
repercussions on the financial sector.
On the one hand, the public
became increasingly reluctant to place their
funds into the custody of
financial institutions as the money would lose
value. This severely impacted
upon operational resources available to the
financial
institutions.
The massive hyperinflation increased the operational
resources needed by
commercial enterprises which — with their own funding
progressively becoming
more inadequate to bankroll operations — constantly
sought greater
facilities from bankers and other financiers. Consequently,
more and more
banks, building societies, discount houses and micro-finance
lenders, became
increasingly under-capitalised, rendering them vulnerable to
collapse.
Moreover, in the constrained economy over those years,
the financial sector
irrefutably comprised too many entities to assure
stability and security of
operations, a scenario that still prevails. As at
July 31, the date of the
RBZ’s half-yearly monetary policy statement,
Zimbabwe had 213 entities in
the financial sector, there being 25 banking
institutions, 16 asset
management companies, and 172 microfinance
institutions.
The over-population of Zimbabwe’s financial sector is
clearly apparent when
comparison is drawn with other countries. South
Africa has 32 banks to
service a population of over 50 million; its Gross
Domestic Product exceeds
US$408 billion. Zimbabwe currently has 25 banks to
service approximately
13,5 million people, and has a GDP of US$10,07
billion. Malawi, with a
similar-sized population and a GDP of US$12,98
billion, has 12 banks, whilst
Namibia, with a GDP of US$14,6 billion
functions with only five banks.
Clearly, Zimbabwe is overbanked,
intensifying the vulnerability of banking
sector institutions.
In
its continuing vigilance to ensure stability and security of the
financial
sector, the RBZ has on several occasions prescribed increased
capitalisation
levels, and did so yet again in the recent monetary policy
statement. Gono
has stipulated that, on a phased basis between December 31
2012 and June 30
2014, commercial banks must increase their capital from a
minimum of US$12,5
million to US$100 million, which level must also be
attained by merchant
banks, their presently prescribed minimum being US$10
million.
Building Societies’ minimum capital must be
increased from US$10 million to
US$80 million, whilst Finance and Discount
Houses must increase from US$7,5
million to US$60 million, and microfinance
banks must raise capital from
US$1 million to US$5 million.
These
prescribed levels have understandably provoked a furore in the
financial
sector, with most institutions fearing a complete inability to
comply,
thereby potentially being confronted with forced closure.
Their
concerns are well justified, for the combination of years of investor
and
public disillusionment with the sector, compounded by the fact that the
economy continues to struggle (notwithstanding some marginal growth since
2009), renders the prospects of sourcing the prescribed capital from the
investment market fairly remote. The ability to raise the additional
capital is also restricted by reluctance of foreign shareholders in some of
the banks to effect any further capitalisation of their Zimbabwean
enterprises because of the ongoing determination of the Indigenisation
ministry to reduce non-indigenous shareholding to minority status not
exceeding 49%. A further negative factor in attaining the capitalisation
levels is that public confidence in the banking sector continues to be
extremely low, thus minimising deposits with the sector and therefore the
extent of operations.
The RBZ was not oblivious to the
capitalisation constraints, but has
reiterated that one potential solution
would be the merger and consolidation
of institutions to achieve enhanced
capitalisation and concurrently reduce
overbanking. It has also continued
to emphasise the foolhardiness of
indigenisation requirements while pressing
for realism and constructive
pursuit of national interests. However,
despite the sound stance, the RBZ
remains the recipient of endless criticism
especially directed at Gono. This
disregards the fact that capitalisation
requirements were approved by the
board of directors of RBZ, and not
unilaterally imposed by Gono.
Nevertheless, the difficulty in
accessing sufficient capital injection
within the prescribed period, and the
limited extent to which viable mergers
can be achieved, suggests compromise
by the RBZ on the time periods and
extent of prescribed capital levels may
be necessary.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
By The Independent on August 11, 2012 in
Opinion
ZIMBABWEAN sport is generally comatose at the moment. What is the
problem?
Is it the athletes, the coaches, administrators or sheer bad
luck?
Performances in virtually all sporting disciplines have been abysmal,
plunging fans into a permanent state of despondency.
Local sport
is generally in disarray and witnessing systemic failure has
probably
affected the national psyche. Maybe our psychologists should
research to
determine how national morale is affected each time our flag
bearers fail to
deliver.
Poor preparations have always let us down and each time
administrators fail
to learn from previous mistakes. It’s now inexcusable
and someone must take
the blame and punishment for the repeated
failures.
Sport is no longer just a game, but a source of national
pride with the
potential to foster national cohesion, as witnessed in
several countries
during major tournaments. It can also be a lucrative
venture.
During the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa, political,
cultural and
social differences were put aside as people united to support
their national
team Bafana Bafana. Their flag became a symbol of unity, a
rallying point.
Why does our government not see the opportunity to
cement national cohesion
and the pride sport offers? The major problem is
that sport in Zimbabwe is
run “like a dictatorship” by people who have been
at the helm for many
years, but are clueless on how to rescue it from the
abyss it has been in
for years.
Athletes train in extremely poor
conditions and once seriously injured,
there is a high likelihood their
careers are over. Fitness is essential in
sport, but local sportspersons are
not monitored scientifically as is common
across the world. There is neither
proper medical care nor diet plans in
place.
Several rugby
players like Tendai Mtawarira, Tonderai Chavhanga, Brian
Mujati, Bobby
Skinstad and David Pocock changed nationalities when they
could no longer
stand the indifference, greed, selfishness and ineptitude of
local
administrators. They have gone on to represent their adopted countries
with
distinction.
Where are our administrators, and what is government
doing to stem the tide?
It’s clear our administrators have no capacity to
raise funds and unless the
Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture
comes up with a funding
model, our teams will continue being a national
embarrassment.
Minister David Coltart has lambasted Zifa for its
shambolic handling of
national teams, but has his ministry given the
association money to
extricate itself from the financial morass? A national
team is a national
project and not the responsibility of individual
associations. Once a
national flag is attached to any sport, it becomes a
national project, so
government must be involved.
It’s amazing
that the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee and Coltart expected
swimming queen
Kirsty Coventry to win a medal at the London Olympics as if
they helped in
her preparations.
Coventry performed very well considering she got no
assistance from ZOC and
government. At the Beijing Olympics, Coventry swam
through the chaos of ZOC
to gold and three silver medals. That is true
patriotism, not sloganeering.
It seems the days of teaching children
competitive team sports as a way to
improve fitness and develop teamwork
skills are over. School sports are dead
and physical education is no longer
taught in most schools.
Coltart must initiate a policy shift to
ensure sport is back in the school
curricula to instill discipline and
pride. Sporting facilities in schools
ranging from fields, gyms and swimming
pools are in a state of disrepair.
Community swimming pools are virtually
abandoned and memories of spending
afternoons in community pools continue to
fade.
Even the Olympic-size Chitungwiza Aquatic Complex pool, built
for the
All-Africa Games, lies derelict and has now become more famous for
live
music band performances and church services than for swimming.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
By The Independent on August 10, 2012 in
Politics
Brian Chitemba
AS Zimbabweans commemorate Heroes Day on
Monday, prospects and risks faced
by women during the liberation struggle
should be brought to the fore to pay
special attention to the role they
played at various levels of the war.
Women played a key role in liberation
movements across Africa, particularly
in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
For
instance, on August 9 1956, at least 20 000 women in South Africa —
which
celebrated Women’s Day yesterday — marched from various regions to the
apartheid capital of Pretoria. They represented a cross-section of women who
resided and worked in both urban and rural areas of the country.
It was
the women-initiated struggle against the pass laws that sparked a
broad-based mass movement during the 1950s. The major demand of the women’s
march on Pretoria was the abolishment of the pass laws that controlled the
movement of Africans inside their own country.
Besides South Africa,
women played pioneering roles in other liberation
struggles across Africa,
including Zimbabwe.
That is partly why the African Union has declared 2010
the beginning of the
“Decade of Women — 2010-2020” on the
continent.
Women played key roles during Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle.
While some
women were rewarded with high positions and the trappings of
office after
the struggle, others who suffered traumatic experiences —
including sexual
abuse — during the struggle, were abandoned.
From the
1960s to the late 1970s, Zanla and Zipra guerrillas fought a
protracted bush
war against the colonial regime of Ian Smith, culminating in
Independence in
1980. But the guerrilla war fought with limited resources
was characterised
by abuses, some which still haunt female ex-combatants up
to this day. Apart
from having to duck bullets, some women suffered all
sorts of
abuses.
Besides, female ex-combatants were largely overlooked when former
guerrilla
armies were integrated into the newly-constituted Zimbabwe
National Army in
1980.
The experiences of women during Zimbabwe’s
struggle were so far best
captured by the controversial film, Flame,
released in 1995. The first
feature film made in Zimbabwe about the
country’s war of liberation, Flame
stirred controversy. It presented stories
of pain, violence, bitterness and
a history of broken promises.
Directed
by Ingrid Sinclair, the film tells the story of two women who
joined the
struggle for Independence.
“This story of two friends is one of many,”
narrates Liberty, the film’s
central character, conjuring up images of the
many women who left their
families and schools to travel for days on foot,
sometimes without water and
food, before reaching refugee and training
camps.
Flame offered a story that had not been told publicly in Zimbabwe,
allowing
the younger generation to see for themselves the many sides of the
struggle
and giving those who survived the war an opportunity to celebrate
their
achievements and commiserate their losses.
Not much has been
written about female combatants’ experiences in the war or
about their
treatment since. While some women have denied stories of rape
and abuse,
others, including Freedom Nyambuya, one of the more outspoken
female
ex-combatants, maintain that they were raped. Nyambuya is on record
as
saying it is time Zimbabwe accepts this truth of what really happened
during
the war.
Whatever the truth, what is clear is that the pain of war lingers.
Time has
not healed the scars of war among the women of the
struggle.
Former Zanu PF MP Irene Zindi said although contribution towards
the country’s
Independence was not based on gender, ill-treatment of women
was
commonplace. She said despite her participation in the war with fellow
guerrillas like Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Constantine
Chiwenga, former Attorney-General Sobusa Gula Ndebele and the late Josiah
Tungamirai, she has been abandoned.
Zindi said she quit the army as a
sergeant in 1983 out of frustration while
her close friend Catherine
Garanewako died after attaining the rank of
captain. The highest ranking
female soldier ever was Brigadier-General
Gertrude Mutasa, who retired from
the army earlier this year. Most serving
female officers occupy the rank of
captain.
“We were trained and fought alongside the men during the war, but
after
Independence it was only men who were handsomely rewarded,” Zindi told
the
Zimbabwe Independent this week. “The question is where are the women who
suffered and endured traumatic experiences in Zambia, Mozambique and
Tanzania? The plight of women remains unaddressed.”
Although she was not
personally sexually abused, Zindi says abuses were
rampant, including
sexually aggravated offences.
“Most of the female war veterans are suffering
in remote rural areas and are
even embarrassed to come and speak out,” Zindi
said.
In her book Re-Living The Second Chimurenga: Memoirs of Zimbabwe’s
Liberation Struggle, former Education minister, Fay Chung, highlighted how
thousands of young women guerrillas were used as sex slaves by
commanders.
She writes about the systematic abuse of women by their male
superiors,
notwithstanding their efforts to resist their
demands.
According to the book, female fighters were expected to act as “warm
blankets” for male commanders. Chung argues the primary grievance of women
fighters was ill-treatment by male soldiers.
Another former Zanu PF
legislator Vivian Mwashita also poured her heart out
over the harsh
liberation war days. She said at the height of the war, she
contemplated
fleeing from the front at the Zimbabwe-Mozambique and Zambia
border, but “I
had nowhere to run to”. Mwashita, who operated under the
command of Air
Force commander Air Marshal Perence Shiri, bemoaned lack of
opportunities
for former female ex-combatants.
“I joined the struggle at a tender age, but
I soldiered on despite numerous
challenges and abuses during the war
although now we have been left out,”
she said.
Zanu PF Women League boss
Oppah Muchinguri said women were “manipulated” by
commanders and were still
suffering oppression in a male-dominated society.
Zindi also said women had
to endure going without sufficient clothes and
sanitary wear.
“We lived
like animals. The experiences are still fresh in our minds and
this
continued side-lining of women needs to be addressed,” she said.
“I vividly
remember at Nyadzonya camp in Mozambique during the war after we
had gone
for a week without food, how male soldiers would grab all the food
from
females and run away. We would then be left to starve. It was a
do-or-die
situation.”
Women are also complaining that most of those declared heroes and
buried at
the Heroes Acre are mostly men despite that thousands of women
played key
roles during the struggle. Mainly spouses of male heroes are
buried at the
Heroes Acre.
Out of the thousands of women who participated
in the struggle, only a few
such as Vice-President Joice Mujuru and former
ministers like Muchinguri
have risen to the top. Some like Margaret Dongo
have been sidelined for
being outspoken. Others like Thenjiwe Lesabe were
denied their places at the
Heroes Acre for expressing political dissent
within Zanu PF.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
By The Independent on August 11, 2012 in
Opinion
Stewart Chabwinja
NEXT Monday and Tuesday the nation is
expected to mark the Heroes and
Defence Forces holidays, very important
dates on our national calendar.
“Expected”, in that for many of those
supposed to celebrate the lives of our
heroes and heroines, dead or alive,
will use the days for totally different
activities for reasons ranging from
indifference to strong antipathy. The
reason is not hard to find: instead of
being a national rallying point the
issue of national heroes has needlessly
become emotive and deeply divisive.
Much of the blame lies squarely with
Zanu PF which has arrogated itself the
exclusive authority to define the
term “national hero”, and declare who
should be bestowed such
status.
Zanu PF’s parochial insistence that fundamentally only those
that
contributed to the national liberation struggle of the 1960s and 1970s,
and
who have remained consistent servants of the party qualify relegates the
concept of national hero to a party charade. That is why Zanu PF’s
intransigent unilateralism on the issue remains an outstanding GPA issue,
and national commemorations and burials at the National Heroes Acre — now
something of a misnomer — have occasionally been boycotted by parties in the
unity government, creating needless polarisation.
It is hardly
surprising we will be having parallel commemorations over the
heroes
holidays. Only last weekend, the MDC-T and Zanu Ndonga joined hands
to
honour the late Zanu founder Ndabaningi Sithole in Chipinge, while other
such events are planned to honour those deemed heroes but have been given
short shrift by Zanu PF.
For the record, Sithole was founding
leader of Zanu in 1963 when the party
was formed in Highfield, Harare, but
fell out of favour with President
Robert Mugabe and others. After
Independence, Sithole, like Joshua Nkomo,
went into self-imposed exile
fearing for his life.
Sithole is by no means alone in getting the
Zanu PF cold shoulder. Several
others widely considered to be national hero
material, among whose ranks are
the country’s first president Canaan Banana,
prominent academic and lawyer
Walter Kamba, and Thenjiwe Lesabe, have met
similar fate.
The politburo denied Lesabe — a former Zapu stalwart,
Zanu PF Women’s
League chairperson and cabinet minister — national heroine
status, her
unpardonable sin being “she was no longer a member of Zanu PF;
she had
crossed over to Zapu”, according to Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare
Gumbo.
Zanu PF’s duplicity and double standards, presided over by the
‘politburo
club’, have seen some denied national hero status on the basis
of, for
instance, sexual orientation while those accused of corruption,
looting of
war victims funds and orchestrating deadly political violence
were granted
hero status.
Contrary to the self-serving, romantic
and sanitised impression of a hero
created by Zanu PF mainly through the
state media, heroes are no saints and
have their peculiar weaknesses. What
sets them apart are their courageous
and noble qualities. Thus heroes are
not heroic all of the time — except
maybe in
Hollywood!
Fortunately, Zimbabweans do not need Zanu PF’s
communist-style politburo
say-so on who their genuine heroes are. Which is
why in 2010 the bitter
family of former governor for Matabeleland North
Welshman Mabhena rebuffed
efforts by Mugabe’s emissary to persuade them to
release the body of Mabhena
for burial at the National Heroes’ Acre in
Harare. A family spokesperson
said then: “My brother told us before he died
that he did not want to be
buried at the National Heroes’ Acre. He was very
clear that he would not
want to be buried alongside thieves and
crooks!”
In fact, Mugabe confirmed last year that Heroes Acre was a
members-only
club, when in an address at the shrine he bluntly told other
political
parties to build their own shrines.
But other parties
need not build their own club shrines. What is required is
to revisit the
national hero concept with a view to emerging with an
all-encompassing and
unifying concept of national heroes far divorced from
political party
affiliation, loyalty and bigotry. Only then will a truly
national roll of
heroes emerge.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
By The Independent on August 11, 2012 in Opinion
SADC
leaders will once again be meeting for their annual summit in Maputo,
Mozambique, on Friday and Saturday next week to assess the political and
security situation in the region and take necessary measures to address
issues which need regional attention.
Although Zimbabwe will not
officially be on the agenda, there is no doubt it
will be discussed since
Sadc Troika chair, South African President Jacob
Zuma, who is also the
regional bloc’s facilitator on the country’s political
dialogue, will give
an update report on the situation.
The troika report will then be
tabled before the summit for debate and
adoption. That way Zimbabwe is
technically on the agenda.
This is basically what happened when Sadc
leaders met for their
extraordinary session in Luanda, Angola, on June
1.
Of course, besides Zimbabwe, Sadc leaders will grapple with the
situation in
Madagascar and the DRC — perennial trouble spots in the region.
Lesotho has
fallen off the agenda after holding what Sadc described as
“peaceful, free
and fair” National Assembly elections on May
26.
However, it is the Zimbabwe situation which has been dominating
the Sadc
agenda for over a decade now. Time has come for regional leaders to
make the
final push to resolve the issue once and for all.
What
is needed in Zimbabwe is to ensure the political parties in government
implement the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and the attendant roadmap and
reforms to create conditions for free and fair elections next year by or
after June.The only way Zimbabwe can break the current stalemate, triggered
by disputed election results and associated political violence and
intimidation, is through credible and peaceful elections to usher in a
democratic, legitimate government.
It is common cause governments
need legitimacy in relatively free societies.
They need to gain and hold the
consent of the governed. Winning free and
fair elections is one way to gain
legitimacy. And thereafter leaders can
consolidate that legitimacy through
good governance and delivery.
Clearly, a bad government like the one
we have had under President Robert
Mugabe since 1980 ends up being unpopular
and hanging on to power through
brute force. Because of this, Zimbabwe has
lost more than 10 years of
development and progress due to endless political
conflict. Now Zimbabweans,
with the help of Sadc and the international
community, need to resolve this
impasse and restore a legitimate government
which will ensure peace,
stability, economic recovery and
growth.
The country needs time out to start focusing on rebuilding
democratic
institutions and restoring the rule of law, business confidence,
investment,
and development, not going round in circles handcuffed to the
past while the
world moves on. So much time has been wasted in
counterproductive and in
many respects pointless political battles, largely
fuelled by Zanu PF and
Mugabe’s refusal to relinquish power even in the face
of popular rejection.
Brutality, coercion, vote-rigging and patronage
have been ruthlessly
employed by Mugabe to prevent inevitable change. This
is what the initially
promising Zimbabwean national project after 1980 has
deteriorated to.
Mugabe’s disastrous legacy — no matter how hard he
might try — is now
irredeemable, especially given the unceasing trail of
tsunami-like
destruction he continues to inflict on the nation and is bound
to leave
behind. The only way Mugabe can redeem himself is if he seizes the
current
constitution-making opportunity to resolve his succession issue and
allow
the nation to move on, either by becoming a ceremonial head of state
or
quitting to avoid a disastrous ending.
If Mugabe does not want
to take the initiative to rescue himself and his
legacy, Sadc and other
stakeholders need to help Zimbabweans create an
environment for free and
fair elections so that people can elect a
government of their choice,
whether Zanu PF, MDC-T or whatever.
Sadc leaders were spot-on in June
when they brought back on track the
internal political processes which were
being derailed by Mugabe and his
diehards. The leaders demanded in Luanda
that political parties to the GPA
must finalise the draft constitution
(unfortunately flawed and shoddy) and
subject it to a referendum thereafter
before elections. Sadc leaders must
be firm.
