Zim Online
Tue 15 August
2006
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe has run out of maize-meal, its main staple
food,
in yet another sign of a deepening crisis in the southern African
country.
In a stark reminder of how the gains of independence from
Britain 26
years ago were fast eroding away, Zimbabweans woke up on Monday
to celebrate
Heroes Day holiday held in commemoration of fallen heroes of
the liberation
struggle, but with shops empty of maize-meal.
The chairman of the Zimbabwe Grain Millers Association (ZGMA) that
groups
private milling firms, Thembinkosi Ndlovu, said the countrywide
shortage of
maize-meal was because the state-owned Grain Marketing Board
(GMB) had not
supplied maize to millers because it did not have any in
stock.
The corruption-riddled GMB is the only one permitted by law to trade
in
maize which is ground into maize-meal, the daily food of more than 90
percent of the 12 million Zimbabweans.
Ndlovu
said: "There is a crisis, I can confirm that there is no
mealie-meal around
the country and millers are currently not getting any
(maize)
supplies."
Former army colonel Samuel Muvuti, put in charge of the
GMB by
President Robert Mugabe, could not be reached for comment on the
maize
shortage.
Both Muvuti and Mugabe have since the beginning
of the year claimed
that the GMB would collect enough maize from farmers
after a bumper harvest
from the 2005/06 farming season. They estimated that
Zimbabwe would harvest
1.8 million tonnes, enough for national annual
consumption.
But local farming experts and international food
relief agencies have
disputed the government's figures saying Zimbabwe was
likely to harvest
around 800 000 tonnes of maize after a shortage seed and
fertilizer crippled
planting operations despite the country having received
good rains.
The maize shortfall was visible in shops visited by
ZimOnline
correspondents in Bulawayo and outlying areas, all of which did
not have
maize-meal in stock.
Most shops in Harare and other
cities in the north of the country, the
main maize-producing belt, also did
not have maize-meal having last received
supplies from millers more than two
weeks ago.
Zimbabwe has grappled food shortages since Mugabe began
seizing
productive farms from whites for redistribution to landless blacks
six years
ago.
The farm seizures slashed food production by
more than 60 percent
while also quickening Zimbabwe's economic collapse, to
leave the once food
exporting country dependent on food aid from
international donors for
survival. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tue 15 August 2006
HARARE - Mereki shopping centre, a
popular spot for revellers in the
working class suburb of Warren Park in
Harare, is unusually quiet for a
Friday night.
In fact, the
place looks virtually deserted. The few people, all seem
to be nursing the
very first pints of beer they bought since arriving here
almost an hour
ago.
On a "normal" Friday night, Mereki shopping centre would have
been
teeming with people seeking a temporary escape from Zimbabwe's severe
six-year old economic crisis.
But a shock hike in the price of
beer announced by the Zimbabwean
government last month has virtually emptied
most night spots, including
those at Mereki, of revellers.
A
pint of beer now costs a cool Z$220 000 (Z$220 under recent
redenomination
of Zimbabwe's currency) up from $150 000 it used to cost last
month.
"Business has been very low over the past three weeks.
We have had
very few sales since the latest round of price
increases.
"Previously, people would get used to the new prices
after about three
days and they start flocking back to the pubs, but not
this time round,"
said Peter Sandiresi, a barman at a night-spot at
Mereki.
Zimbabweans are struggling under a severe economic crisis
most critics
blame on repression and wrong economic policies by President
Robert Mugabe
particularly his seizure of white-owned land for
redistribution to landless
blacks six years ago.
The economic
crisis has seen inflation shooting to 993.6 percent, one
of the highest in
the world outside a war zone. Food, fuel and essential
medicines are also in
short supply.
No wonder that for most Zimbabweans, the cure to
their worries lay in
the bottle.
But last month's hike in the
price of beer left seems to have taken
away the only safe way for most
Zimbabweans to bury their sorrows, forcing
many to resort to other not so
innocent means to find solace.
Marijuana, known in the local Shona
language as mbanje, and a local
brew known as kachasu and which is banned
under the law, are now in vogue,
because they are not only cheap but pack a
potent kick.
Sandiresi said bar owners at Mereki have also recorded
high sales on
spirits, popularly known in Harare's street lingo as the "take
me quick".
The bitter and cheap spirits all have one thing in
common - an
excessively high alcohol content.
Police
spokesperson, Inspector Memory Pamire, confirmed that the use
of illegal
drugs such as marijuana had gone up in Harare but said the police
would step
up raids on black-market traders selling the illegal brews and
drugs.
"We continue to raid these selling points every week.
New kachasu
selling points have sprouted in Hatcliffe extension, Borrowdale,
Hatfield
and Mbare (all suburbs of Harare) but we continue to snuff them
out.
"We are also arresting marijuana vendors who have been on the
increase
in the past few weeks," she said.
For example, three
weeks ago, police in Harare arrested three people
for possessing 30
kilogrammes of marijuana with an estimated street value of
Z$3 billion ($3
million under the new currency).
The three, who were on their way
to Epworth, a settlement on Harare's
eastern border, confessed that they had
acquired the drug from Mozambique
for sale in the poor suburb where they
already had a loyal base of
customers.
Admire Mangisi, a social
sciences lecturer at Mutare University, said
in times of national crisis,
beer consumption increases as people sought
ways of reducing stress
levels.
"Obviously a significant part of the population is turning
to
dangerous drugs and illicit brews. In times of economic crisis most
people
are able to avoid nervous breakdowns when they resort to alcohol to
cope
with economic hardships," said Mangisi.
But with the
recent hike in the price of beer the graph is only going
up on consumption
of marijuana and illicit brews such as kachasu, a
distilled gin generally
thought to contain anything between 10 to 70 percent
pure alcohol and whose
effects on the health of consumers are neither
documented nor
known.
Perhaps one could try guessing what sort of side effects
kachasu might
have on drinkers by looking at some of the ingredients used to
make the
potent brew - they include any of the following and more:
fertilizer,
washing soap powder, acid collected from old batteries, brown
sugar and
water. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tue
15 August 2006
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe on Monday urged
blacks to produce
food on farms seized from whites saying his government was
tired of "begging
for food", the first time the Zimbabwean leader has
admitted a link between
his controversial land reforms and food shortages in
the country.
Addressing thousands of supporters gathered to
commemorate fallen
heroes of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war, Mugabe said:
"If farming is not
in your blood, switch to what you are good at. We want
those with land to
use it. We don't want to keep begging for
food."
Zimbabwe has grappled severe food shortages since Mugabe
began seizing
land from whites six years ago for redistribution to landless
backs in what
he said was a mission to correct a colonial and unfair land
tenure system
that reserved more than 75 percent of the best land for whites
while blacks
were crammed on infertile and arid soils.
But most
of the farms seized from whites remain idle because new black
owners, most
of them senior officials of Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party and
government,
would rather spend time in cities than out on the land.
Failure by
Mugabe's government to support black peasants allocated
former white farms
with inputs and skills training to maintain production
has also contributed
to food output dropping by about 60 percent since the
farm seizures
began.
Mugabe used both threats and persuasion to try and coax new
black
farmers to work the land, warning those who fail to heed his call to
up food
production that the government would repossess farms from them. He
said:
"Those with land should use it to prove they were interested in
farming in
the first place. Those who can't produce, be warned, we will take
the land
back.
"We now need to distinguish capable and
committed farmers from holders
of land who are mere chancers and who should
be made to seek opportunities
elsewhere."
The Zimbabwean leader
also hit out at corruption in high places both
in the government and the
private sector which he said was hindering
attempts to resuscitate the
economy.
"These economic saboteurs and enemies of our
economic-turnaround
strategies should take heed that we are determined to
fight the scourge of
corruption and do honour to the integrity and dignity
of our nation," Mugabe
said.
Zimbabwe's food shortage has been
compounded by an economic crisis
that picked up pace after Mugabe began his
farm seizure programme in 2000.
The economic crisis has spawned
shortages of electricity, essential
medical drugs, fuel, hard cash and just
about every basic survival
commodity, while inflation is the highest in the
world at 993.6 percent.
But Mugabe warned the main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) party not to hold mass protests against
his rule, saying all
Zimbabweans should instead plough their energies into
helping the government
turn around the dying economy.
The MDC
says it will mobilise Zimbabweans onto the streets to demand
that Mugabe
steps aside to pave way for a transitional government that shall
be tasked
to lead the writing of a new constitution and organise fresh
elections under
international supervision.
The veteran President, who has in the
past deployed soldiers and
police to quell dissent, has however vowed not to
allow a Ukraine-style
uprising against his rule, telling MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai mass
protests against the government would be a "dice with
death". - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tue 15 August
2006
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe police commissioner Augustine Chihuri has
banned
police officers, who are among some of the lowest paid civil servants
in the
country, from enjoying free rides on public buses.
Police officers in Zimbabwe did not pay bus fares when travelling on
official duty.
In a strongly worded internal memo to all police
stations at the
weekend, Chihuri ordered all police officers to pay the
required fares on
public transport or face tough disciplinary
measures.
"Please be advised that with immediate effect, police
officers who
board CMED (Central Mechanical Equipment Department) vehicles
or any other
buses requiring payment while on duty or otherwise will have to
pay the
required bus fare.
"Free rides are banned forthwith and
disciplinary action will be taken
against those who defy this order," read
part of the signal.
Police spokesman, Wayne Bvudzijena, said the
order came after
transport operators complained to the police that they were
being harassed
at roadblocks for overloading after police officers squeezed
themselves into
buses.
"We have been receiving numerous
complaints from bus operators that
some of our officers did not want to pay
for their journeys. The clinging on
bus doors by some of our junior members
had become an eyesore.
"We also hope that since the officers will
now be paying, they will
also help stamp out the problem of overcharging by
bus operators,"
Bvudzijena said.
Police officers are among some
of the lowest paid civil servants in
Zimbabwe earning salaries of around
Z$25 million a month against a poverty
datum line of about Z$68
million.
The ban has however irked junior police officers who said
the move by
Chihuri smacked of sheer cruelty and showed that their bosses
were out of
touch with the economic realities in the country.
"The problem is that they (bosses) are only sitting in their offices,
issuing out such evil instructions while we toil out here.
"They do not care at all about our welfare because they enjoy company
vehicles and free fuel," fumed a constable in Bulawayo who refused to be
named for fear of victimisation. - ZimOnline
IOL
August 14
2006 at 01:03PM
Zimbabwe has splashed about R24-million on buying
320 luxury vehicles
for middle-ranking police officers, Zim Online reported
on Monday.
It quoted "authoritative" sources as saying the
government was
planning to spend another R60-million on cars for military
and secret
service officers.
President Robert Mugabe authorised
the latest vehicle purchase, the
sources said.
This came barely
two months after the government spent a substantial
amount on cars for the
army and police - on advice from the Joint Operations
Command
(JOC).
The JOC is made up of security chiefs from the army, air
force,
Central Intelligence Organisation, police and prison
service.
This body complained earlier in the year to Mugabe over
what it
described as "pathetic working conditions" for middle officers
across the
security apparatus.
It recommended
urgent action to quell disgruntlement among middle
officers by improving
their pay and service conditions.
Spokespersons for the police and
army were not immediately available
to comment on the matter.
State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa said the government was working
to
improve the welfare of security forces, though he refused to specifically
discuss the vehicle purchases.
He added: "We are aware that the
opposition and like-minded people are
always quick to discourage an
improvement on the welfare of security
people." - Sapa
Reuters
Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:49am
ET
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe on Monday warned
opponents not to hold anti-government
protests, saying they should instead
support efforts to end an eight-year
economic recession.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) early this year
called for street protests to force out Mugabe, who
has ruled the southern
African country since it gained independence from
Britain in 1980.
The MDC said unrest was driven by anger over the world's
highest inflation
rate of around 1,000 percent, unemployment of more than 70
percent and
shortages of fuel, food and foreign currency. The opposition
blames the
crisis on the government.
Mugabe in April vowed to
crush any protests.
"Let them be reminded that we will not brook any of their
illegal challenges
to lawful authority in their quest for cheap publicity,"
he told thousands
on Monday at a gathering to honor veterans of Zimbabwe's
1970s liberation
war.
"Instead of calling for illegal sanctions that
have hurt our ordinary
people, the so-called opposition should play a more
responsible role that is
supportive of national development."
Mugabe
accuses Britain of leading a Western onslaught against Harare as
punishment
for the government's seizures of white-owned farms for blacks. He
has
branded opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his opposition MDC
puppets
of the West.
"(We) should continue to sternly chastise the misguided
political elements
in our midst, who with brazen impudence, have turned
themselves into active
accomplices of foreign-sponsored conspiracies against
their motherland, all
for the love of pieces of silver," Mugabe
said.
The 82-year-old leader said the economy had weathered sanctions by
Britain,
the United States and other Western nations and would rebound in
step with
improved agricultural output and the support of African and Asian
countries.
"Let me ... thank all our international partners for
supporting us in
various ways through a time of undeserved ostracism and
unjustified smear
campaigns orchestrated by the Blair and Bush regimes,"
Mugabe said.
"With their support we have withstood the sanctions
hardships and managed to
begin the positive turnaround of our
economy."
Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk more than 40 percent in eight
years, and
thousands have fled to South Africa and other countries for
work.
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
14 August 2006 12:57
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday hit out at
corruption in the
country after reports said security had been boosted
around the central bank
governor because of his unpopular anti-corruption
drive.
In a speech to mark Heroes' Day, Mugabe told thousands of
supporters in
Harare that wrongful self-enrichment will not be allowed to go
unpunished.
"These economic saboteurs and enemies of our
economic-turnaround
strategies should take heed that we are determined to
fight the scourge of
corruption and do honour to the integrity and dignity
of our nation," he
said.
Mugabe's threats come as private
media reported that security
had been tightened around Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono
following his controversial monetary
reforms.
On July 31, Gono unveiled new banknotes and said
everyone had
three weeks to bank limited amounts of old cash in a bid to
clamp down on
money speculators and black-market traders.
But his reforms are reported to be hitting the pockets of some
high-ranking
officials, and some want him dead, The Standard reported on
Sunday.
Gono is now the second-most protected man after
Mugabe, the
paper quoted an unnamed source as saying.
Monday's event at a national shrine for dead former nationalists
and
independence-war fighters saw supporters holding up placards that read:
"Where did you get those trillions?" and "No to money
laundering."
Zimbabwe's rate of inflation is close to 1 000%
and there is a
booming black market in scarce fuel and foreign currency as
well as other
basic commodities. -- Sapa-dpa
Mail and Guardian
Percy Zvomuya
13 August 2006 11:59
In
the same week that Zimbabwe's Vice-President Joice Mujuru was
in
Bloemfontein to attend the launch of the Progressive Women's Movement of
South Africa -- which aims to build on the point of view that women's rights
are also human rights -- 63 women, arrested on February 14, appeared in
court in Zimbabwe for "marching in the streets and handing out
roses".
Speaking at the launch, South African Foreign
Minister Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma said: "We have to forge alliances with men
who understand that
there is no justice for anyone if there is no justice
for women."
The 63 are part of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise
(Woza) movement
whose leader Jenni Williams has been arrested 27 times in
the past two
years.
"We were also arrested for
demonstrating against the
skyrocketing of school fees in May," Williams
said, adding that under Mujuru
"we have not seen any relief. We have seen
the situation getting worse and
worse."
Mujuru is seen as
President Robert Mugabe's candidate to succeed
him when he retires in
2008.
Lawyer Beatrice Mthetwa, who is representing the 63,
said that
when members of Woza were arrested they had their "bras and
underwear taken
away" and some spent days "without sanitary wear". She
bemoaned a situation
where women "cannot even march down the
street".
On Mujuru's work for female emancipation, Mthetwa
quipped: "She
has done a lot, but for Zanu-PF women." When Mujuru was
appointed in
December 2004 she committed herself to promoting women's
interests.
Movement for Democratic Change MP Priscilla
Misihairambwi-Mushonga said one of the saddest ironies in the struggle for
the empowerment of women in Zimbabwe is that the livelihoods of women were
systematically and brutally destroyed by a state with a female
vice-president.
Operation Murambatsvina, an exercise that
was launched in May
last year, saw the destruction of the informal sector,
dominated by women,
in the name of ridding the country of filth. "If she had
an occasion to
stand up for women this was the occasion but she did not,"
said
Misihairambwi-Mushonga.
Zimbabwean women are
sleeping in the open, at bus and rail
stations in neighbouring countries,
and are bringing foreign currency into
the country. In spite of this, said
Misihairambwi-Mushonga, these women were
indecently searched by members of
the National Youth Service at the country's
ports of
entry.
"Every month in my constituency, a young girl is not
going to
school for five days because she is having her period," she
said.
Because of the high cost of sanitary pads and tampons
women have
resorted to using leaves and newspaper. Earlier this year the
Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions collected 12-million sanitary pads for
distribution
in Zimbabwe. The congress was unable to bring them into the
country, though,
as the Revenue Authority refused to waive a US$7 000 duty
because the
congress is not registered as a charitable
organisation.
East African, Kenya
Money expires and the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which can hardly cope with
demand, has allowed
Zimbabweans to continue using the expired notes. JOHN
MBARIA
reports
IT IS A THURSDAY EVENING and I am holding a fifty-thousand dollar
note which
reads that I should use it "on or before 31st December 2006." So,
I have
less than six months to use the money. But I am yet to find anything
that
costs 50,000 Zimbabwe dollars in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest
city.
As I scour the streets window shopping, I realise most items -
clothing,
kitchen ware, groceries and hardware - have price tags reading
hundreds of
thousands to millions of Zim dollars.
I soon realise that
at, best, the note can buy me two sweets from one of the
city's
supermarkets. Later, I decide to call somebody in Nairobi and end up
using a
whopping 1.2 million Zim dollars, with each minute costing me Zim
$200,000.
Welcome to Bulawayo, where everyone is a millionaire but
few can afford a
decent meal in a restaurant. This is a city of many
contrasts; wide
Europe-styled streets which tell a story of past economic
wellbeing and
residents wishing to use up their money before it
expires.
The well-planned streets are a stark contrast with the current
tough
economic realities in the country, occasioned by a hyper-inflation
rate of
1,200 per cent. Most people walk to work; the only fleet of coaches
that
served the airport, was withdrawn by its owners for more lucrative
routes.
On the way to Masvingo region, along the Beit-Bridge road that
links
Zimbabwe with South Africa, the country's infrastructure again
impresses me;
the wide, well maintained roads are a far cry from East
African cities.
In Bulawayo, long queues at automated teller machines
(ATM) and inside
banking halls suggest a run on the banks as nobody wants to
hold deposits
whose value plummets by the second.
Money expires here,
but the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe can hardly cope with
the extraordinary
demand for the notes and has therefore allowed Zimbabweans
to continue using
the expired notes. The biggest denomination is a green
100,000 Zim-dollar
note which was first issued on June 1 and is officially
meant to expire on
December 31st.
A ride between Bulawayo and Harare costs more than a
million Zim dollars in
creaky old buses while a sweet costs 25,000 Zim
dollars and a decent meal
1.4 million Zim dollars. But there were few buses
on the road to Masvingo
Province.
We had to cover close to 40
kilometres to Eskotini Centre where the first
bus, one, creaking up the hill
emitting a thick cloud of smoke, came to the
rescue. We came to the
Zvishavane mining area, famous for its asbestos
mines.
Although
Zimbabweans admit they are going through a tough time under the
economic
sanctions occasioned by President Robert Mugabe's land reforms,
they say the
media has blown the situation - "a worthy price for total
emancipation" to
some - out of proportion. The Malawians seem to support the
reforms with
President Bingu wa Mutharika recently commissioning a
48-kilometre road
named after Mugabe, whom he termed an "African hero."
HOWEVER, SOME
ZIMBABWEANS feel the land reforms have messed up an otherwise
"orderly
economy," when the government kicked out settler farmers and
brought in
"peasants who do not understand modern-day farming."
The settlers
occupied as much as 70 per cent of the best lands mainly in
Mashonaland and
their eviction is considered by some as the only way for the
African economy
to thrive. The government has recently resumed land
allocations, with
President Mugabe inviting those in need of land to apply
for it
"immediately."
Previously, the allocations had been stopped to allow for
a government audit
of the programme, an indication perhaps that there may
have been a rethink
over the reforms.
The West retaliated by imposing
economic sanctions, which have hit the
country hard, although President
Mugabe and his government have somehow
managed to keep the country going
while regularly handing stinging
criticisms to the
"Anglo-Saxons."
Prolonged droughts, especially in the semi arid southern
region, which have
resulted in the drying of rivers, have compounded the
tough economic
realities in the country.
Perhaps feeling that nature
had ganged up with the West against his regime,
President Mugabe was
recently reported in the media as urging traditional
chiefs to stage prayer
and cleansing ceremonies (called bira in the local
language) to ask the
ancestors for their intercession against social evils.
He said the, biras
held last year had resulted in bumper harvests and a
measure of grain
security this year.
As the masses try to cope with the situation, the
government has taken over
their lives, controlling nearly all aspects of the
economy - ranging from
the prices of basic commodities to the flow of
foreign currency and the
exchange rate.
But the hyperinflation has
seen raw material and consumer prices soaring by
the day.
Consumers
and producers have found a way round the price controls by
cheating on
weights and measures' regulations and bribing inspectors to look
the other
way as a blackmarket thrives for both commodities and money
alike.
By
Tichaona Sibanda
14 August 2006
Robert Mugabe on Monday
led thousands of his Zanu (PF) supporters to
honour the country's fallen
heroes and not surprisingly took the opportunity
to tell the nation how the
country's economy was turning around.
In an address to the nation
from Heroes Acre in Harare Mugabe dwelt at
length on the way the economy was
being 'turned around' as a result of new
policy guidelines set in place by
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono.
MDC's Harare provincial chairman
Morgan Femai said as usual
'Zimbabweans had to endure lie after lie' from
the embattled leader of the
Zanu (PF) regime during his Heroes day
speech.
'The man is a liar. He kept repeating lies that his
government had
arrested economic saboteurs, that they had arrested cattle
rustlers and that
the land redistribution exercise was almost complete
meaning the country
will have plenty of food from the farmers. These are all
lies and everyone
now knows the man is a liar,' said Femai.
Femai added that Mugabe did not even mention how his government will
deal
with the constant power blackouts, water cuts and how they are going to
deal
with imminent bread shortages.
On Saturday an international
organisation that monitors food supply
trends warned that the country faces
severe bread shortages this year
predicting the wheat harvest will fall
below 35 percent of the national
requirements.
In its latest
report for July the United States-based Famine Early
Warning Systems Network
(FEWSNET), said Zimbabwe will harvest about 135 000
metric tonnes of wheat,
higher than last year's 120 000 metric tonnes. But
the harvest will still
fall short as it will only be enough to cover about
34 percent of the
country's national requirements.
'Wheat production for 2006 is
expected to be about 135 000 metric
tonnes, which is 13 percent higher than
the 2005 production level of about
120 000 MT. The 2006 production still
falls far short of national
requirements estimated to be around 400 000 MT,'
read part of the report.
The food monitoring agency also warned
that rising costs of food will
also impact negatively on the food security
situation of most households in
the
country.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
Business Day
Dianna
Games
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ZIMBABWEAN
business people are like cowardly drunks who would rather weep
into their
beers than confront the bully who has pushed them off their bar
stools, a
Zimbabwe columnist asserted recently.
This invective arose from
businessmen attending the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries congress
publicly praising the government for the new
economic policies unleashed
this month, while privately bemoaning the state
of the economy resulting
from the very same government's past policies.
Zimbabwe businesses
(and South African companies operating in Zimbabwe, it
has to be said) have
been silent on the issue of government repression, poor
governance and
destructive economic policies.
Business aversion to visibly
ratcheting up pressure for change appears to be
based on three central
platforms - fear, self-interest and survival.
In a country run by a
government bent on total control and political
survival at all costs, it is
easiest to keep your head down.
But many business people are
profiting from the weird economy, particularly
those with links to the
current government. This has been a deterrent to
reform, helping to defy the
notion that economic crisis would eventually
herald political change in
Zimbabwe.
This is not unusual. Many businesses in Africa and
elsewhere flourish as a
result of government patronage. But in Zimbabwe now,
the stakes are high.
The country has been described as having the
fastest-shrinking economy in
the world - but the elite is getting wealthier.
Mansions mushroom in Harare's
suburbs and increasing numbers of flashy cars
ply the streets even as
poverty worsens and unemployment
rises.
As the formal sector shrinks, companies are becoming more
reliant on
government business and contracts, making any criticism of policy
certain
economic suicide.
Even close cronies of President Robert
Mugabe who have fallen foul of him
have ended up in exile or with their
businesses in tatters. The closer you
are to power, the more information the
authorities have on you - to be used
when politically
expedient.
Equally, there are many companies going about their
business and holding the
line in anticipation of change.
The new
policies announced by reserve bank governor Gideon Gono on July 31
have,
while providing relief in some quarters, shaken up business.
In
addition to the devaluation of the currency, the Zimbabwe dollar has been
revalued to remove three zeros, making the figures more palatable and the
notes easier to manage. (Previously the largest note, Z$100000, did not buy
a loaf of bread.)
Gono gave Zimbabweans just three weeks to
exchange their old notes for the
new ones reflecting the revalued currency.
This is intended to flush out all
those escaping the tax net by hoarding
cash or who have become rich by
illegal means, such as black market
foreign-currency deals.
People having more than stipulated amounts,
who cannot account for the
source of the funds and provide tax clearance for
it, will have the money
confiscated and will be prosecuted if it was taken
outside the country.
The stock exchange and retail markets are
booming as people try to shed
their "excess" currency, which, in real terms,
is not more than a few
hundred US dollars.
In recent years,
Zimbabwe has become a cash economy, partly because surging
inflation has
negated savings and many people survive - and profit
handsomely - by trading
on the black market and keeping the proceeds in
cash, often to escape
detection by the authorities.
Gono's new "turnaround strategy" - the
latest of many - aims to smash the
black market and formalise the economy.
Of course, it comes with the usual
dose of threats, intimidation and arrests
so beloved of the government.
Time frames for compliance are tight.
Companies, already struggling with
hyperinflationary accounting, are now
being forced to reformat all their
documents, accounts, assets and
transactions to take the new measures into
account.
But
unhappiness among some businessmen goes a lot deeper than that. Last
week,
one of Gono's farms was set alight and a gang of armed men in smart
cars
stormed his flower project in Harare.
The political motive behind the
new policies is not entirely clear. Is it
really a plan to clean up the
economy, thereby reducing pressure on Mugabe
and shoring up support for the
status quo?
Or is it yet another Machiavellian plot to deal with
those politically
connected "fat cats" who are getting too rich and too
powerful for the
president's tastes - with everyone else caught in the
"crossfire"?
Games is director of Africa@Work, a research and publishing
company.
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
14 August 2006
As the women in South Africa
celebrated the 50th anniversary of their
historic march against
discriminatory laws last week, 63 women in Zimbabwe
appeared in court facing
charges for distributing roses on Valentine's Day.
Their lawyer Beatrice
Mtetwa said on Monday the idea that handing out
flowers is a crime is
astounding on its own. But in Zimbabwe doing just that
landed the Women of
Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) in jail for 4 days under inhumane
conditions. The
state claims they were participating in an activity likely
to cause
obstruction and a breach of peace. Judgement will be handed down on
August
28th.
Mtetwa said each woman testified individually to give their
own
version of events because many of them were innocent passers-by who were
caught up in the police raid. One woman testified that she has been using
crutches for years and could barely walk so she could not have been part of
any demonstration.
On February 14th about 200 WOZA women took
to the streets of Harare
and Bulawayo to give out roses for Valentines Day.
Police descended on them
arresting 63 and detaining them for 4 days during
which their bras and
underwear are reported to have been taken. They were
also denied sanitary
pads by the police.
Every year in August
the WOZA women organise what they call
Sheroes Day, which is their
National Assembly. This year they kept the
location secret for the event
which took place from 11th to 14th August.
We have been unable to
reach the WOZA officials for an update as to
how it all went but they
expected approximately 300 WOZA members to attend
and many invited guests
and observers.
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
13 August 2006
Press Statement
The MDC legislator for Mpopoma/Pelandaba, Milton Gwetu and four
other MDC
officials including a 75-year-old woman were arrested yesterday by
the
Bulawayo police and were detained over night at Nkulumane police
station,
before being transferred this afternoon to Bulawayo Central for
further
detention. Those arrested are, Hon Milton Gwetu, the MP for Mpopoma/
Pelanda
and Vice Chairperson for Bulawayo Province, Litshe Keswa, the
councilor for
ward 24 Nketa and Bulawayo South Constituency Chairperson,
Ndaniso Mpande,
Bulawayo South Constituency Chairperson of the Youth
Assembly, 75 year old
Mrs Alitia Moyo, Bulawayo South Constituency
Chairperson of the Women's
Assembly and owner of the house that is alleged
to have been used for the
meeting and Andreas Nkomo, councilor for ward 6
Nketa and Vice Chairperson
for Bulawayo South Constituency.
The five
were arrested under (POSA) for allegedly holding an illegal
meeting at Mrs.
Moyo's house. Incidentally, Hon Gwetu and the other three
officials had
visited Mrs. Moyo who has not been well. The five were
arrested outside Mrs.
Moyo's house as they were leaving. They were accused
by the police of having
been holding an illegal meeting.
MDC condemns such flagrant violation of
the rights of unsuspecting citizens
to associate. It is shocking and
disgusting that the police shamelessly
dragged a 75 year old ailing woman to
the cells on the flimsy allegation
that she hosted an unauthorized meeting
in her home. For the record, Mrs
Moyo had received colleagues in her home,
who had come to console her during
the ill state of her health.
When
people tell the world that Zimbabweans are being denied freedom of
association and that Zimbabwe is a nation under siege as a result of state
promoted pieces of legislation such as POSA and AIPPA, this is exactly what
they mean. No society is expected to enjoy peace and tranquility under
legislations such as POSA and AIPPA. MDC calls for the immediate repeal of
both.
Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga
MDC Deputy Secretary
General
.
Comment from The Financial Mail (SA), 4 August
By Tony Hawkins
Slashing three zeros off the value of
the local currency, devaluing the
exchange rate by 60% and cutting interest
rates by two-thirds smack more of
panic than sound economic policy. But as
his options foreclosed, these
measures are what Zimbabwe Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono was forced to
implement this week. In fairness to Gono,
the issue of new "bearer cheques"
with the face value of Z$1 for every Z$1
000 of existing currency makes
sense for facilitating day-to-day
transactions and avoiding computer system
overload, especially at financial
institutions. But there is a huge
downside - the arrangements are both
complicated and seemingly unworkable.
Poorly educated rural people will
battle to adapt. The authorities
themselves started off on the wrong foot,
promising that the new notes would
be available on Tuesday, which was not
the case in many banks. The
three-week changeover period (until August 21)
is so clouded with ambiguity
that bankers warn that an already confused
situation will become even more
so as policy changes are made on the lam
when problems arise.
Critics say that during this period holders of
"excess" currency will have
ample time to launder the funds buying goods,
investing in different bank
accounts and making temporary arrangements with
friends and family.
Individuals are allowed to deposit up to Z$100m (roughly
R1 200 at the
ruling parallel market exchange rate), while companies may
deposit up to
Z$5bn. Any currency held in excess of those amounts must go
into new
"anti-money-laundering zero-coupon bonds" for at least two years.
During
that period depositors will need to explain how they accumulated
"excess"
currency and, if need be, provide tax documentation. Police and
youth
militia are staffing airports and border posts with instructions to
confiscate amounts in excess of Z$5m brought into the country. The central
bank believes that Z$35 trillion (about 30% of the total money supply) is
held in neighbouring countries. This is impossible to believe. Who would
want to hold Zimbabwe dollars in SA, where they cannot be used and where
they depreciate daily? The authorities hope they will be able to "sterilise"
large sums of this "illegal" currency whose removal from circulation will
reduce money supply and inflation.
The 60% devaluation of the
interbank (official) exchange rate to Z$250 (new
currency) to the US dollar
from Z$1 012 has been criticised as inadequate by
exporters. The parallel
market rate is now Z$500-Z$550, meaning that anyone
with access to foreign
currency will use unofficial rather than official
channels. The governor
sugared the pill for exporters somewhat by marginally
improving the
proportion of foreign currency earnings they can keep in their
foreign
currency accounts to 75% from 70%, and abolishing the 30-day
deadline on
usage of such funds. But a small-scale gold miner with the
choice of selling
to the Reserve Bank at the Z$250 exchange rate or dealing
unofficially at
over Z$500 is likely to stick with the informal sector, as a
result of which
gold deliveries, down by a third so far this year, will
continue to decline.
Gono hopes that lower interest rates and reduced
statutory reserve ratios
for banks will mean increased private sector
borrowing and higher output and
exports. But this cheap money approach -
interest rates of 300% against
inflation of almost 1 200% - has been tried
repeatedly, without
success.
When finance minister Herbert Murerwa announced a hugely
inflationary
supplementary budget last week that would take the budget
deficit to 24% of
GDP from a previously forecast 4,6%, he promised
anti-inflationary measures
in the monetary policy statement. That did not
happen - indeed, the very
opposite, with Gono not only loosening monetary
policy and devaluing the
exchange rate but also unveiling plans to step up
government lending. The
10% surge in stock market prices in one trading
session on Monday - taking
the increase over the past month to 109% - looks
to be a precursor of even
faster inflation, especially in 2007, and more
devaluation. Hardly
surprising, then, that one investment analyst predicts
that Gono will have
to "revisit" his policies sooner rather than later. Few
analysts expect any
of the changes to reverse the country's economic
decline. Gono spoke bravely
of "Project Sunrise - a new beginning", but the
policies are little
different from those implemented when he first took over
as governor in
December 2003. The stark reality remains that economic
recovery in Zimbabwe
depends on a political settlement that reopens the door
to foreign capital.
As long as Robert Mugabe rules the country, that is not
going to happen.
From the Zimbabwe Vigil - Report on
Meeting on Way Forward for Zimbabwean
Asylum Seekers held on Friday,
11/08/06
In a show of unity, Zimbabweans representing various groups
agreed on a
delegation to discuss the asylum situation with the Home
Office. The
meeting on Friday, 11th August in London was attended by
representatives of
the Vigil, the Zimbabwe Association, the Zimbabwe Action
Group, the Zimbabwe
Community Association, Free-Zim Youth and the MDC.
Representatives of
several MDC branches were there sitting amicably with a
sister from the
Mutambara group.
Harris Nyatsanza, who initiated the
project, was chosen to be part of the
three person delegation to the Home
Office. The other members were Ephraim
Tapa, chair of the MDC Central
London Branch, and Yvonne Mahlunge, a
well-known lawyer. Another lawyer,
Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa of the Vigil
would assist and two others were chosen
as reserves in case the Home Office
objects to any of the delegates. They
are Lucia Dube of the Zimbabwe
Community Association and Faith Nyamuti of
MDC Banbury Branch.
The meeting was attended by Fazil Kawani of the
Refugee Council who will
facilitate the Home Office meeting, as he did with
a similar approach on
behalf of Zimbabweans last year. He said the Home
Office must be made to
understand that the situation in Zimbabwe continues
to worsen.
The delegation will have a meeting before going to the Home
Office, but they
were given broad guidelines by the gathering. It was felt
that the main
focus should be on protecting people who were in fear of their
lives should
they be forced back. Others, who had perhaps only become
politically active
in exile, should be strongly supported. Some asylum
seekers, whose cases
had been badly represented by dodgy lawyers must be
allowed new hearings.
While there was general sympathy for Zimbabwean
economic migrants, there was
criticism that all too few of them had been
active in the struggle on behalf
of their more unfortunate compatriots back
home.
Yvonne, for instance, said it couldn't be denied that the British
asylum
system had been abused, since the test case started there had been
many more
asylum applications by people climbing on the bandwagon. She said
the
Zimbabwean protest movement in the UK did not have the necessary
critical
mass to influence government decisions: not enough people, for
instance,
attended the Vigil. It was also pointed out from the floor that
the Home
Office knows that many Zimbabweans come and go to Zimbabwe. It was
essential to be honest. A ban on sending back Zimbabweans should not include
supporters of Zanu-PF and other nationals pretending to be Zimbabweans. It
was suggested that the delegation should offer to help the Home Office in
weeding out bogus asylum claims.
Ephraim Tapa, who chaired the
meeting, expressed sadness that some people
who had complained about lack of
inclusion had not in the end turned up for
the meeting despite repeated
invitations. The meeting ended with a decision
to discuss the way forward,
such as a street demonstration, at a report back
meeting after the Home
Office talks.
Vigil co-ordinator
The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe
Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00
to protest against gross violations of
human rights by the current regime in
Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Toridza Ngoma
HARARE -
ZIMBABWEANS around the country today take some time off to
commemorate
Heroes Day but for millions in the country, like Independence
Day, the day
has lost its shine and meaning as they struggle to make ends
meet.
Gone are the days when almost in every suburb and village
in the
country, cows, goats and chicken were slaughtered in ceremonies that
brought
the young and old together as they remembered the heroes that made
independence possible resulting in the birth of a new Zimbabwe in 1980.
Grinding poverty has led to the communities neglecting to commemorate such
days they once viewed as sacred.
A survey of ordinary
Zimbabweans by zimjournalists.com in some of the
major cities revealed most
of the people would rather be doing something
else than going to gather at
various stadiums around the country to
commemorate heroes day.
"I salute the heroes that fought so hard so that I could enjoy the
freedoms
that I have today but then we have not totally achieved what they
set out to
do. Infact, we have gone back and lost the ground we had
covered," said
Gift Guchu of Mabvuku.
"I will remember the heroes in my own home.
It is important that we do
remember and salute them but I wish some of our
true heroes were here today.
Maybe we would not be suffering as much as we
are. I am sure that the heroes
lying in Chimoio, Nyadzonia and other places
are turning in their graves,
especially when they see how the country has
been turned upside down by
their colleagues."
His colleague,
Arthur Mutare said Zimbabweans all over the world
should take some time out
to remember the heroes of the country's 1970s
liberation war that ended
colonial rule.
"We are suffering today in the country that they
helped to set free
from the white colonial rulers yes but today we must set
aside that
suffering and our differences and thank them for the huge
sacrifices that
they made for us. Let us go out and sing and dance in their
honour," said
Mutare.
Said Mirriam Mwanza of Mufakose high
density suburb: "I surely do not
have time to sit around and go to the
Heroes Acre to remember the heroes. I
have to run around and earn a living
for my extended family. I am going to
get the bus with my colleagues to go
to Botswana overnight so we can buy and
sell and feed our families. Those
within the government can afford to go and
listen to speeches but if the
truth be told, we are suffering because of
some of the people we only
yesterday called our heroes. It is very painful."
"I gave my life
to the Zanu PF party and supported it but now I'm a
heartbroken woman. I
work hard but do not get a just salary so I have to
supplement by doing
cross-border trading because things have gone so wrong
and so bad in our
country. Yes heroes day is special but if they can see
from wherever they
are, the heroes of yesteryear should see the havoc that
has been wreaked
upon us by our man-made tsunami," Mwanza said in jest.
At the
station where Mwanza was set to catch her bus to Botswana,
hundreds of other
cross-border traders could be seen waiting for their turn
to board coaches
to Botswana and South Africa.
"The holiday has made it easy for
people like me to travel overnight,
shop and come back to work on
Wednesday," said Tracy Muchena. "We have no
time to rest. When we get to the
border there would be thousands of us
Zimbabweans trying to cross the border
so we can buy and sell. You also see
hundreds of others who are being
brought back into Zimbabwe for trying to
cross the border into neighbouring
South Africa or Botswana illegally. So
much for the land of milk and honey
that the heroes died for"
In Mutare, Selina Mwatse said: "This is
one of the provinces that
suffered the most during the liberation struggle.
I feel things have changed
and the majority of us now support the opposition
MDC because Zanu PF has
failed us but that does not mean that we should not
commemorate Heroes day.
We should because it defines where we are coming
from and where we want to
go."
Marco Zenda of Masvingo told
zimbabwejournalists.com that it was a
fact that the Zanu PF government had
brought untold suffering onto the
masses in Zimbabwe and that the day was
largely seen as its day.
"We need as Zimbabweans to understand that
Zanu PF must not monopolise
the day, it belongs to all of us in our
different persuasions. Those who
read or have satellite television can tell
you of how the politicians in
democracies like the United Kingdom come
together to commemorate and
celebrate their war veterans. Today is the day
we leave our differences at
the door, remember our heroes and take stock,"
he said.
In Bulawayo, Nkululeko Sibanda said it was sad that for
so many years
now Zimbabwe was commemorating Heroes Day under a government
that he said
did not fully represent the wishes of the
majority.
"We are being ruled by people who have turned, to quote
Gideon Gono,
from being heroes into bloodsuckers because they wave their
liberation war
credentials at us," he said. "Today is a very important day
that we should
all remember and take seriously but then when people have
been suffering for
so long, you cannot blame them for lacking any
interest."
Anna Moto, who lives on the outskirts of Harare said:
"Regardless of
what people say, people like me will go to the Heroes Acre to
enjoy
ourselves and remember our fallen heroes. They died for you and me and
so we
must remember their selflessness. Let us be grateful for once and
those who
want to fight our party Zanu PF, they can go ahead and do so since
they have
the heroes to thank for the freedoms that they are enjoying
today."
President Robert Mugabe is set to address people at the
national
shrine while governors will officiate at provincial
ceremonies.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Toridza Ngoma
HARARE - Chitambo
Farm, once ranked alongside the likes of Kondozi
Farm in Odzi District, has
been totally ruined by the Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) which
seized the farm from its white owner in October
2004.
Before it
was seized from its owner - a Portuguese national known to
our source only
as Mr Jardim - the farm used to be one of the most
successful farming
ventures in Zimbabwe, supplying vegetables to the likes
of Favco, Interfresh
and a host of other local and international
supermarkets. It also used to
export beef, wine and horticultural products
to Europe.
According to our source who works for the CIO, Jardim was evicted from
his
800-hectare farm, situated on the outskirts of Harare in Mazowe District
like a criminal. He was not even given enough time to pack all his personal
belongings.
The farmer was not allowed to take even a single
item of farming
equipment. He left behind all his cattle, thousands of pigs,
goats, sheep
and poultry. He even left some of his cellars full of
wine.
The seizure of the farm was allegedly spearheaded by the
CIO's deputy
director general, Mernard Muzariri, Tichaona Hwacha, the
assistant director
for planning and
co-ordination and a certain
Kanengoni who is the assistant director
for special
projects. His
young brother Alexander Kanengoni, a Provincial
Intelligence Officer who is
currently the editor of the Mirror newspaper,
was also said to be involved.
The three are said to have looted most of the
farm equipment before auditors
were called onto the farm which is now known
as New Valley
Farm.
This included tractors, irrigation equipment, borehole
engines,
fertilisers and crop chemicals. Thieves also helped themselves to
small
items such as electric motors which could be carried easily, since
there
wasn't adequate security soon after the farm was taken
over.
"Out of the 10 boreholes on the farm, only two were left
intact, while
the rest had their engines or other components stolen," said
the source.
The New Valley Farm has been run down and has been
overgrown by grass.
It is now mostly bush. While still under Jardim, 300
hectares were for
grazing, while the remaining 500 hectares were under crops
which included
maize, wheat, sunflower, grapes, citrus fruits and a wide
variety of
vegetables. Today, only 20 hectares are being
cultivated.
"When the CIO moved in, the first thing they did was to
drink all the
wine from the cellars, eat the chickens, sell meat that was in
the cold
rooms, poach fish from all the five dams and sell all the crops and
livestock, with most of the proceeds going into individuals' pockets," said
our source.
Two and a half hectares of grape fields have since
been neglected, and
the wooden wine cellars are falling apart from lack of
maintenance and
attack by rats. Ten huge deep freezers are just lying idle,
so are seven big
cold rooms which used to store beef, pork, other meat
products as well as
other perishable products. Hundreds of pig kraals are
lying idle.
Early this year, the Pig Industry Board approached the
CIO, asking for
permission to rent the kraals so that they could continue
with production,
but they were denied permission.
"What is
happening is shameful. They cannot even repair the shade that
used to
protect the deep freezers from the sun and the rain, and they are
now dusty
and rusty. The engines for the cold rooms are also exposed and are
rotting
from neglect," the source said.
Last year the CIO borrowed tractors
from President Robert Mugabe's
nearby Iron
Mask Farm to plough on
New Valley Farm since all its tractors, except
only two, had been looted. Of
the two, only one is working. The tractors
from Iron Mask Farm ploughed 100
hectares, after which the CIO is said to
have asked for a planter from the
same farm. Mugabe is said to have refused
to give them a planter, saying
they were being too dependent.
The CIO then hired 100 people to
plant maize with hoes, and they
managed to plant only 20 hectares, leaving
the rest to lie fallow. When it
matured, the maize from the 20 hectares was
piled while still in its husks,
and is still to be shelled. The farm no
longer has a shelling machine since
it was stolen, as was the planter. The
maize is now being eaten by termites
and other insects, and if something is
not done soon, most of it could be
destroyed.
This year, the
CIO's attempt at winter cropping turned into a complete
disaster at the
farm. They could not plant wheat because the irrigation
infrastructure was
totally destroyed. "With their we-know-it-all attitude,
in May they just
decided to plant butternuts, cucumbers, white pumpkins,
baby mallows and
tomatoes in the open, and they were all wiped out by
frost," said the
source.
Earlier this year, five hectares of beans and peas were
destroyed
after they applied athrazine, a chemical which destroys weeds in
cereal
fields, but should not be applied on legumes. After the destruction
of the
first crops they ploughed and again planted beans and peas. These
were again
destroyed as legumes cannot be grown on soil to which athrazine
has been
applied, until after at least 18 months.
Meanwhile,
the farm continues to receive requests for certain imports
from overseas
organisations that are unaware of the fate of this once highly
productive
farm. Its fate was never reported in the media since the farmer
decided to
leave quietly.
Efforts to get a comment from the CIO operatives were
fruitless
Vanguard, Nigeria
By Joseph Erunke
Posted to the Web:
Monday, August 14, 2006
LAFIA- NASARAWA State
House of Assemly has given Governor
Abdullahi Adamu the green light to
allocate land to white Zimbabwean
farmers and guarantee them a loan of
billion naira to embark on farming
of international
standard.
Governor Adamu had earlier this year presented a
bill before the
state house of assembly, to guarantee the farmers the amount
from the United
Bank for Africa to embark on large scale farming in the
state .
He had already provided land for twenty of the
farmers who are
in Nigeria under the auspices of African Commercial
Farmers(ACF), in Panda
Development Area of the state.
The bill which was last week deliberated upon by the state
lawmakers,had
earlier suffered a setback when members were sharply divided
on the
initiative of the state government. Some law makers argued that it
was a
good gesture to develop agriculture in the state while some said the
money
should be channelled towards projects that would not only directly
better
the lots of the youths in the state but empower them
economically.
They had revisited the issue last week when the
state government
followed up the matter with a letter requesting them to act
fast so as to
guarantee the farmers the said loan.
After
a heated debate, the legislators resolved that the state
government be given
authority to guarantee the loan from UBA '' in view of
the fact that, in
such a serious business, there is always a Memorandum Of
Understandind
(MOU) to protect the interest and well being of all partners
involved,
particularly, that of the state''.
The speaker of the House,
Alhaji Ogoshi Onawo who spoke on the
issue expressed optimism that
technocrats and all those involved in the
negotiation would never
compromise the interest of the state, even as he
requested that a copy of
the memorandum when fully implemented, be issued
to the House to enable
them monitor the farmers.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Bill Saidi
NOBODY is born to
be a thief. But a genius? Albert Einstein was a
genius, although one
biographer has said he didn't excel at maths.
What about Werner von
Broun or Toscanini? Or even our own Augustine
Musarurwa?
There
are more thieves in Zimbabwe today than there were before 2000.
There are
more cases of adultery, more break-ups of marriages and, generally
speaking,
more people suffering from trauma of one kind or another - than
since
independence.
You read of wives battering their husbands - - or vice
versa - more
than you did before 2000.
Not all of it can be
blamed on what I call eGonomics. Certainly, the
government of President
Robert Mugabe must take most of the flak.
Everything began to unravel
in 2000. In bringing in Gideon Gono as
this Knight in Shining Armour who
would smite the dragon that was inflation
a la St George, Mugabe hoped to
put behind him the blunders which had led to
this, his greatest crisis since
Gukurahundi.
The dragon is still breathing fire and shows no signs
of lying down
and dying. It is Gono who is showing signs of wear and tear.
Even the
government is in tatters, the pretence of still going strong
notwithstanding.
The case in which the Minister of Justice,
Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs, being heard in a Rusape court, is one of
the clearest indications
that this government could be on its last
legs.
Patrick Chinamasa and others will protest that the case, in fact,
is
an indication of how robustly the government supports the rule of law -
the
government's Top Lawyer is not above the law, they will say,
smugly.
In that case, what will be next - Mugabe himself appearing
in court to
answer a charge of having rigged the 2002 presidential
election?
That would be the day, wouldn't it?
At the bottom of
all this is the disastrous state of the economy. The
truth is that the
government, which alone is responsible for this mess,
ought to have been
kicked out in the 2005 parliamentary election.
As we now know, the
opposition managed to give Zanu PF a new lease of
life by committing
political hara-kiri. It has still not covered from that
trauma to this
day.
Since 2000, and particularly since Gono started implementing his
hare-brained programme of restoring to a semblance of equilibrium an economy
battered severely for years by a self-absorbed political party, Zanu PF,
many people in Zimbabwe have turned to crime, some of it petty, but much of
it grand larceny.
Among the petty criminals are domestic
workers, who will steal the
household cutlery and claim it was lost in the
dustbin by the kids. Others
will steal the napkins and claim thieves stole
them off the clothesline - so
desperate are they.
The big-time
thieves steal everything - from top-of-the-line Mercedes
Benz saloons to
family heirlooms stored in safes in houses protected by so
many gadgets they
themselves could fetch billions (not revalued) on the
black
market.
The number of people arrested as they tried to smuggle
billions of
soon-to-be-worthless bearer cheques in or out of the country
suggests very
strongly that this country is crawling with crooks of all
kinds.
These are people who, before 2000, probably prayed before they
went to
bed, went to church every Sunday and scolded their children for
watching
some of the trashy films on TV. Today, they may still go to church,
but only
if they know they could make a killing among some of the foreign
currency-seeking worshippers.
The Zimbabwean syndrome is
heavily discernible in the people's
reaction to government blunders: they
will adapt rather than work tirelessly
to kick the government out.
Admittedly, some people do spend time and energy in trying to plan a
legitimate way in which to rid the country of a government so incurably
corrupt and inefficient tough laws have been promulgated to deal
specifically with them - both the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) were
designed for that purpose.
In theory, with the laws now in
place, there is not a chance of an
opposition party winning a free and fair
election in Zimbabwe for the
foreseeable future.
In many ways,
Zimbabwe resembles the situation in Cuba. There may be
opposition to the
reign of Fidel Castro but there is not a chance in a
million years of it
winning an election in that communist-ruled island.
When Castro
fell ill late last month and had to undergo an operation,
there was panic.
His brother, Raoul, was appointed to run things while
Castro
recovered.
George W. Bush - never the most subtle or diplomatic
president the
United States has ever had - made the rather predictable
comment that he
hoped the people of Cuba would turn to democracy -
presumably, as it
appeared that Castro was unlikely to resume his presidency
ever again.
My suspicion is that if Mugabe was ever in Castro's
position, Bush
would make the same comment.
There would probably be
more Zimbabweans wishing for a definite change
than there are in Cuba today,
wishing the same. Castro has been in the
saddle since 1959, since marching
into Havana from the Sierra Maestra
mountains, as the dictator Fulgencio
Batista fled the country,
Ian Smith, the last white prime minister
of the country, did not flee,
largely because Mugabe did not march into what
was then Salisbury at the
head of the guerrillas who had won
independence.
The lesson of Cuba is in the danger of letting one man
rule a country
for so long. Yugoslavia, under Josip Broz Tito, fell into
bloody chaos after
his death. If Mugabe insists that he will be around until
Mother Nature or
Father Time decide he must leave, we could be in for a
similarly long period
of disorder.
Last week I mentioned the
lengthy reigns of Felix Houphouet-Boigny
and Mobutu Sese Seko in Cote
d'Voire and the Democratic Republic of the
Congo respectively.
The
former is still in turmoil. The DRC held elections recently but
nobody
expects its troubles to be over after the results are announced - if
they
are announced. Many people have been killed in both countries, which
gained
independence in 1960.
The standard excuse for all the trouble is to
blame the colonialists.
In some respects, the culpability of the French and
Belgian governments
respectively is massive. They had little interest in
giving to the
indigenous people the same independence that they themselves
had enjoyed for
centuries.
All they wanted were the natural
resources of the countries. They were
outraged when the natives demanded
independence and killed many who
protested too vigorously.
The
scenario was the same in Zimbabwe. What has not been sufficiently
debated in
Africa is why independence has usually been followed by bloody
chaos, as in
Zimbabwe, with Gukurahundi.
Greed has been cited as a potent cause for
the civil strife that has
followed independence. Certainly, in Zimbabwe,
greed for both political
power and material wealth could be cited as
powerful causes of the bloody
conflict in which 20 000 were killed, among
them women and children.
South Africa remains a beacon of hope in
this respect. Mangosuthu
Buthelezi, who was in the headlines with his
Inkatha movement shortly after
the first democratic elections in that
country, has not been heard of
recently.
Some cynics say he was
bought off with a cabinet post. Yet it was
worth the price for the
ANC-Cosatu alliance to pay to keep the peace and let
South Africa spend its
first ten years of independence in relative
tranquillity.
Unfortunately, not many African countries entered independence with a
Nelson
Mandela at the helm. Tanzania was fortunate to have Mwalimu Julius
Nyerere.
The country owes much of the peace it has enjoyed since
independence in 1961
to his tutelage. There could be just one blot: for
years, until he stood
down as president, Nyerere pursued economic and
political policies which
failed to end poverty in his vast country. His
successors, without
exception, did not alter course drastically and it is
only in recent years
that an opposition party has emerged which stands a
good chance of
challenging Chama Cha Mapinduzi.
Nyerere was fascinated by the
Chinese political and economic policies.
He went on to experiment with them,
but discovered too late that Tanzania
was not China, culturally or
historically - there had never been a "Long
March" during Tanganyika's
struggle for independence from the British.
Today, Zimbabwe, with
its "Look East" policy, may be tempted to
experiment with the Chinese
formula for political and economic development.
A recent visit by a
group from the Chinese Communist Party ended with
Zanu PF's national
political commissar, Elliot Manyika, announcing that his
party intended to
set up an ideological institution on the same lines as the
ones set up by
the Chinese Communist Party.
Unless the non-Zanu PF segment of the
population of Zimbabwe decides
that this country has seen enough privation
under this party, all the woes
that Nyerere wreaked on the people of
Tanzania before he quit in surrender
will be unleashed upon us.