Moves made to ensure Mugabe is in full charge

http://thecitizen.co.tz

Sunday, 19 August 2012 14:14

By Kitsepile Nyathi
The Citizen Correspondent

Harare. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party has made a raft of
amendments to the country’s draft constitution to restore the president’s
powers.

A draft produced by a cross parliamentary committee last month had diluted
President Mugabe’s powers and compelled him to name a successor.

That document had already been approved by Zanu-PF’s ruling coalition
partners who have vowed to reject the new amendments.

State media on Friday said the party’s amendments explicitly banned same sex
marriages and dual citizenship.
The original draft was silent on homosexuality and provided for dual
citizenship.

Zanu-PF also wants a proposal that presidential candidates must appoint
running mates scrapped and allow winners to choose their vice presidents.

The proposal was seen as a way of forcing President Mugabe, in power since
1980, to name a successor in the next elections.

South African President Jacob Zuma who visited Harare Wednesday ahead of a
heads of state SADC summit in Mozambique noted that the disagreements over
the new constitution had the potential to derail preparations for fresh
elections.

Zanu-PF spokesperson Mr Rugare Gumbo said his party was looking forward to
SADC bringing together the three governing parties on the constitution
making process. “We expect SADC to take a decision compelling the political
parties in government to complete the constitutional making process and see
it through to the referendum, “ he said.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said amending the draft would be a
violation of his power sharing agreement with President Mugabe.

"It has been decided that the matter would be re-visited at the summit,” he
said after meeting President Zuma.
"Clause 6 of the 19th Amendment doesn’t give veto power to the principals
(on the draft constitution).
"Principals cannot veto what Copac (Parliament Constitutional Select
Committee) has done.”

The impasse has put pressure on President Zuma to act after Zimbabwe was
given 12 months to prepare for elections by SADC in June.

The South African leader is SADC’s mediator in Zimbabwe’s long drawn
political impasse.

Zim’s constitution ‘a done deal’ for MDC

http://www.iol.co.za

August 19 2012 at 02:33pm
By Paul Fauvet

Maputo - Zimbabwean Finance Minister Tendai Biti told reporters yesterday in
Maputo, where he is attending the summit of the Southern African Development
Community (SADC), that the new impasse over the Zimbabwean constitution is
entirely the responsibility of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF.

Earlier in the week SADC Executive Secretary Tomas Salomao was optimistic
that the new constitution had been agreed to by all parties in Zimbabwe and
could go to a referendum in October, thus paving the way for general
elections next year.

But that timetable has been thrown into uncertainty by Zanu-PF’s demand for
further amendments. Biti, who is also general secretary of the main faction
of the Movement for Democratic change (MDC), led by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai, told the Mozambique News Agency that, as far as both MDC
factions are concerned, the constitution was a done deal.

“Three years were spent discussing the constitution,” he pointed out, and
the two MDCs did not accept Zanu-PF reopening those discussions. “When the
Zanu-PF team negotiated with the MDCs, we assumed they had the authority
from their party to do so”.

Biti insisted that the constitution could not be amended here and there,
because it all hung together as a coherent whole. He was unsure what the
SADC summit could do to unblock this latest impasse.

Both MDCs wanted the referendum on the constitution to take place in
October, Biti said.

If there was no longer agreement with Zanu-PF, perhaps the simplest thing to
do would be to put both texts before the Zimbabwean electorate – the text
agreed by negotiators of all three parties and the one Zanu-PF is now
writing on its own.

Meanwhile, southern African leaders were yesterday mulling over presidential
elections in Madagascar that would exclude the two main rivals, strongman
Andry Rajoelina and ousted Marc Ravalomanana, a mediator told Sapa-AFP.

Seychelles Foreign Minister Jean-Paul Adams said the SADC summit was
discussing the proposal to end a stand-off between the two rivals that has
stalled elections in the troubled country.

Neither side has yet reacted to the SADC proposals. The 15-nation bloc
suspended Madagascar in 2009 after Rajoelina toppled Ravalomanana.

The question of Ravolomanana’s return from exile in SA has been the main
stumbling block to the holding of elections to end the three-year crisis on
Africa’s largest island.

Rajoelina says Ravalomanana should be prevented, at all costs, from
returning home. He was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment over the
killing of 36 protesters by presidential guards during unrest in 2009, and
faces life in prison with hard labour if he returns.

Adam said SADC was working on a plan to ensure peace and security should
Ravalomanana go home.

The Seychelles has in recent weeks hosted two failed mediation attempts to
get the two leaders to patch up their differences.

Mauritius Foreign Minister Arvin Boolell said the peace plan signed by the
feuding sides in September last year under the auspices of SADC had to be
respected. - Independent Foreign Service

SADC applauds Zuma's Zim mediation

http://www.sanews.gov.za

Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System
Date: 19 Aug 2012

--------------------

By Chris Bathembu

Maputo - Regional leaders who convened for the SADC summit in Maputo have
heaped praise on South Africa's President Jacob Zuma for his mediation to
the Zimbabwean political impasse.

The two-day Heads of State Summit which ended in Maputo on Saturday elected
Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete as the new chairperson of the regional
body's Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation. This effectively
makes Kikwete the new facilitator in Zimbabwe at a time that the country is
about to hold a referendum on a new constitution.

The summit adopted Zuma's report on Zimbabwe and said it noted progress in
the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed by
Zimbabwean politicians in 2008. It urged signatories to the GPA to develop a
road map with timelines that were guided by the requirements necessary for
the adoption of the new constitution. Zuma had to leave the summit early on
Friday due to a domestic problem in South Africa.

Kikwete said: "We are grateful to South Africa and President Zuma for
steering the affairs of the organ so well in the past year...we will surely
build on the good work he and other members of the troika organ have done".

He said the new members of the Troika will work with Zimbabweans in ensuring
that all the necessary institutions were in place to allow for the adoption
of that country's new constitution, a process SADC wants to see completed in
a few months.

Zimbabwean leaders have also been urged to work with a SADC appointed
facilitator to iron out any challenges with regard to the constitution and
its implementation ahead of the June 2013 deadline, "bearing in mind the
timeframes and the necessity to hold free and fair elections".

"Summit resolved that if there are any difficulties with regards to the
constitution and implementation of agreements, the facilitator should be
called up to engage with the parties and assist them to resolve such
issues".

On Madagascar, SADC called on Malagasy political players to implement the
road map agreed to in Luanda last year and to create a favourable condition
for free and fair elections. - SAnews.gov.za

Zim in Danger of Having No Electronic Media Coverage in 2015

http://www.radiovop.com/

Harare, August 19, 2012 - Zimbabwe is at risk of not meeting International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) 2015 deadline by which all countries under
the United Nations should have migrated from analogue to digital
broadcasting.

This might result in the country not being able to receive or send out
television and radio signals.

The Acting Chief Executive officer of TransMedia, Rufaro Zaranyika told a
media conference organised by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
on Friday in Harare that the country will meet the ITU deadline.

Apart from the ITU deadline Zimbabwe is also lagging behind the SADC
2013deadline by which regional countries should have migrated from analogue
to the digital platform.

“As it is at the moment if we don’t get government support, it’s very
unlikely that we will be able to meet the SADC 2013 deadline and the 2015
ITU deadline,” said Zaranyika.

“The switch is compulsory and any country which decides not to migrate will
not be protected from signal interference from other countries as ITU will
not be able to protect its signals. It is also a possibility that we might
experience a media blackout if we don’t digitalise.”

The TransMedia official said currently the country has only managed to
source some of the required digital transmitters which will arrive in the
country in October. This, he said, only represents less than 5 percent of
the work that needs to be done before the SADC and ITU deadlines.

He said TransMedia which offers broadcasting infrastructural services in the
country requires an initial amount of $ 30 million dollars to set up digital
transmitters only yet it was only allocated $ 5 million from the current
national budget which was further cut to$ 2 million when the Minister of
Finance Tendai Biti moved to austerity measures in his last mid-term
budgetary review.

Zimbabwe Discovers New Diamond Deposits

http://ewn.co.za/

Eyewitness News | 4 hours ago HARARE - New diamond deposits have reportedly
been discovered in Zimbabwe's Eastern Chimanimani Mountains and the gems
could be as good as those found in the infamous Chiadzwa fields.

President Robert Mugabe's side of the coalition government has picked the
companies currently mining in Chiadzwa and there are fears these new
deposits will be claimed by Zanu-PF.

Zimbabwe is now the world’s fifth largest diamond producer, according to the
Kimberly Process.

Experts say because the gems are found in a same geological structure as in
Chiadzwa, they are likely to be of similar quality.

The Standard newspaper says a Russian company already involved in gold
mining in Zimbabwe has partnered with a local mining company and will go
into full diamond mining in Chimanimani by the end of 2012.

However, the Movement for Democratic Change’s Deputy Secretary for Mines
Pearson Mungofa says the new diamonds are not being properly accounted for.

Mpofu upbeat over diamond prospects

http://www.newzimbabwe.com

19/08/2012 00:00:00
by Business Reporter

MINES Minister Obert Mpofu has maintained that Zimbabwe is set to dominate
the global diamond market after Kimberly Process (KP) noted a marginal
increase in output and said the country was now the fifth biggest producer
of the gems in the world.

A recent KP report said the country produced 8,5 million carats in 2011, up
0.7 percent compared to 2010, making Zimbabwe the fifth biggest diamond
producer after Russia, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo and
Canada.

Commenting on the report Mpofu said: “We were recently given certification
by the KP (to export diamonds), but we have already shaken the world market
both in terms of pro­duction and demand.

“Our gems are a force to reckon with. If we had not been hindered in selling
our diamonds in the past years by the West, we could be one of the top
countries in the world in terms of dia­mond production.”

Speaking after the KP lifted a ban on the export of diamonds from Marange,
Mpofu said Zimbabwe would no longer need to beg for assistance from donors
adding the country could expect a US$2 billion boost to its annual budget
from the gems.

But his upbeat assessment contrasts with complains by Finance Minister
Tendai Biti that the country was not benefiting from the diamonds and hints
that proceeds were being diverted from the treasury.

Biti recently cut his 2012 national budget by 10 percent saying very little
of the US$600 million promised from diamond revenues had been remitted to
treasury.

However, Mpofu said Zimbabwe was being forced to sell its gems at below
market prices because of concerns over their legal status after the United
States imposed sanctions on some of the companies operating at Marange.

“In 2011, Zimbabwe exported its goods at a price of US$54,31 per carat,
though their book price was US$56,01 per carat,” the KP report said.

“This confirms the previously published reports citing some sources to the
effect that because of an unclear legal status of diamonds coming from
Zimbabwe, this country sold them low to get at least some money.”
Mpofu said the country could not optimise benefits from its gems because of
sanctions imposed by the West.

“If you look at the price of our diamonds captured in the KP report, one can
easily see that we are selling the diamonds at a low price as a result of
the sanctions that have been imposed on our diamond compa­nies,” he said.

“It has become difficult for our diamond-producing companies in Chiadzwa to
sell their gems despite the KP certification.”

Zimbabwe church orders doctor out of the country

By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press – 4 hours ago

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Officials of the Salvation Army in Zimbabwe said
Sunday they have given a Canadian doctor 48 hours to leave the southern
African nation after he was fired from a mission hospital.

Dr. Paul Thistle's departure was moved forward from Sept. 1 after villagers
incited violence at the medical facility on Thursday to demand his
reinstatement, said Vinece Chigariro, head of the church group in Zimbabwe.
Thistle was the chief medical officer at the Howard hospital about 80
kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Harare. After 16 years at the mission,
Thistle had clashed with church leaders over fund raising for the hospital
and local aid projects.

He said the order to leave was "not a legal decision" by Zimbabwean
immigration or police authorities.

Twelve people were arrested after Thursday's unrest and eight nurses were
held for questioning on allegations of incitement to violence.

"The nurses are people who treat and care for the victims of trauma and
don't create it," Thistle said.

Chigariro said Thistle had challenged church leaders and he was being
reassigned "for the good of the church." Ordained Salvation Army officers
"sign a covenant with God and make an undertaking to be loyal to the church
leadership," she said.

Thistle told The Associated Press on Sunday he will leave Zimbabwe after
conferring with his Zimbabwean family members. He is married to a Zimbabwean
nurse.

He left the mission Saturday. Disruptions at the hospital, including a heavy
police presence since Thursday, have left the facility running at about one
quarter of its capacity, he said. Patients were transferred to other
facilities unable to treat them adequately, he said.

"People are suffering and dying and the church doesn't care. I can live a
safe life in Canada but the professional staff we have worked with for
nearly 20 years are suffering now too. That's not right," said Thistle, a
fluent speaker of the local Shona language who was born in Scarborough in
Canada and qualified as a doctor at the Toronto university.

His work at the hospital and his far reaching programs to treat AIDS
sufferers in the impoverished Chiweshe district have won accolades from
medical professionals in Zimbabwe and worldwide.

The popular and well-loved physician was carried shoulder high by villagers
during a week of dispute over his future. Community elders said they wanted
him to stay.

"The people have spoken but they have been overruled," he said.

Thistle said he differed with church leaders over donor aid and some private
donor funding and project materials for the mission went unaccounted for.

"I don't want to tarnish the name of the Salvation Army worldwide, but we
have a crisis in the church leadership in Zimbabwe," he said.

Defected Ex-Senator says Welshman Arrogant Loser

http://www.radiovop.com

Bulawayo, August 19,2012 ---Former smaller MDC Senator for
Lobengula-Magwegwe Thabiso Ndlovu, who announced his defection to MDC-T last
Friday described his party leader Welshman Ncube as an “arrogant loser”
saying the party will not win a single parliamentary seat in next elections.

Ndlovu who was also smaller MDC’s Bulawayo provincial secretary for defence
and security told journalists in Bulawayo that Ncube’s party is already
crumbling because of divisions.

“The reason why I have decided to leave Welshman’s party and join MDC-T is
because that man has destroyed it. He runs the party like his personally
tuck-shop and is very arrogant. He is a blinded tribalist who also runs the
party on ethnicity.

"Actually Welshman is the reason why the original united MDC crumbled; we
have four MDCs right now because of him. At first he pushed out Morgan
Tsvangirai from united MDC.

“After that he pushed out Job Sikhala, Arthur Mutambara, Abdnenico Bhebhe,
NjabulisoMguni, and Norman Mpofu among others from his party. He doesn’t
listen to anybody and if his party wins a single parliamentary seat next
election it will be a great miracle,” said Ndlovu.

Ndlovu was smaller MDC Senator for Lobengula- Magwewe from 2005 to 2008. He
lost his senatorial seat to the late MDC-T’s Gladys Gombami-Dube.
Gombami–Dube succumbed to bird- flu in December last year.

Ncube was elected as the smaller MDC president in 2011, replacing Mutambara.

Tsvangirai and Ncube are also former allies who launched the united MDC in
1999 with the former becoming the President whilst the later becoming the
Secretary General of the party.

Last year Ncube once described Tsvangirai as a useless leader who has
betrayed Zimbabweans by allowing the powers bestowed upon him upon signing
the Global Political Agreement (GPA) to slip away to President Robert
Mugabe.

The vibrant united MDC party split in 2005 over strategy and participation
in Senate elections held that year.

Malema demands Zuma resignation over massacre

http://www.newzimbabwe.com

19/08/2012 00:00:00
by SAPA

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa must resign
following the death of mineworkers at Lonmin's Marikana operations, in the
North West, expelled ANC Youth League president Julius Malema said on
Saturday.

"President Zuma decided over the massacre of our people, he must step down."

Malema was speaking in Wonderkop where around 34 people were killed in a
clash between police on Thursday.

He said Mthethwa must also resign because the police shot people under his
command.

"He must resign because he failed in executing his duties."

Malema told the crowd that the police were supposed to protect them and not
kill them.

Stand firm

"It has never happened before that so many people were killed in a single
day and it became normal," he said.

Malema, who pledged his support for the striking mineworkers urged them not
to retreat and to stand firm on their demand for a R12 500 salary.

He said the reason the police shot at the people was because they were
protecting the interest of ANC NEC member, Cyril Ramaphosa, who healleged
owned shares in Lonmin.

"Lonmin had a high political connection that is why our people were killed.
They were killed to protect the shares of Cyril Ramaphosa," he said.

He told the gathering that it was amazing that Ramaphosa was able to buy a
buffalo for R18m but could not pay them the R12'500 they were demanding.

Earlier Saturaday, the Shanduka Group, which was formed by Ramaphosa,
pledged R2m for the burial of scores of people killed in the Lonmin clashes.

No president

Malema said one reason why he called for the resignation of President Zuma
was that he failed in his duty to protect the citizens of the country.

"When you were killed, Zuma was still in the country. He decided to go to
Maputo, Mozambique and once he was there he was advised that he made a wrong
decision. That is why he returned to the country yesterday [Friday]."

He told the crowd that if they were asked who is the president of the
country, they should say they do not have a president.

"I don't have a president. Zuma is not a president."

He called on the mineworkers to form a militant union that would represent
their interests.

He said that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was no longer a union
that represented the interests of the workers but interested in making more
money.

Peaceful crowd

"NUM is not a union, it's a company. They hold shares in mining companies,
that is why when there are problems in the mines they are the first to sell
out the workers."

The crowd dispersed peacefully after Malema's address.

A total of 34 people were killed in a shootout that erupted near the mine
when police tried to disperse striking miners.

More than 78 people were injured. Another 10 people had by then been killed
in the violent protests at the mine over the past week.

More than hitches – Zimbabwe Vigil Diary: 18th August 2012

Discussion: Property Rights & the Draft Constitution, Wed 22 August, 5.30-7pm

Zuma must keep eyes on the ball

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/

August 19, 2012 in Comment

SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma’s much-anticipated visit to Zimbabwe ––
his first official visit since 2010 –– was auspicious in many respects as
the country enters the home stretch towards holding credible elections to
elect a government of the people’s choice. The meetings he held with unity
government principals and political leaders on Wednesday were in preparation
for the Sadc troika meeting and main summit scheduled to start yesterday and
today, respectively, in Maputo, Mozambique.
Zuma arrived at a time when the constitution-making process, a major
signpost to the polls for the Government of National Unity (GNU) which has
lurched from one crisis to the next since its formation in 2009, has hit
more turbulence, with Zanu PF and MDC formations poles apart on the next
move after the belated production of a draft constitution. While the MDC
formations insist the draft is final and must proceed to the second
all-stakeholders conference and referendum without changes, Zanu PF was
until yesterday making wholesale amendments to the document.

It is a measure of the deep-seated feuding and disparate interests within
the so-called unity government that despite being two years behind schedule
and gobbling up US$45 million, the constitution-making process appears no
nearer to conclusion than when it began three years ago.

Soon after separately meeting GNU principals on Wednesday in Harare, Zuma
expressed satisfaction at the progress made by the parties so far in
implementing the Global Political Agreement (GPA) –– which he has indeed
done several times before –– but conceded there were still “hitches”
requiring ironing out if the agreement is to be fully consummated. The fact
of the matter is that the GPA will not be anywhere near full implementation
before elections. And the sooner those holding hopes to the contrary,
especially the MDC formations, accept this the better for all concerned.
Thanks largely to Zanu PF’s intransigence and duplicity, the hybrid
government is woefully short of time to make good a yawning GPA
implementation deficit. It is inconceivable that most of the outstanding
agreed-to reforms will be fast-tracked and implemented to make a material
difference to the Zimbabwean environment before elections.

Therein lies the priority imperative: Zuma must henceforth ensure that the
parties to the GNU focus on those deliverables that would guarantee a free
and fair election –– the ultimate objective of the GPA, but an elusive goal
since Independence in 1980. Indeed Zimbabwe has registered a modicum of
success in some GPA key result areas that include “restoration of economic
stability and growth”, “sanctions and measures”, “respect for national
institutions and events” and “freedom of assembly and association”. Others,
such as “national youth service” and “external interference”, though
important, can always be revisited later to allow partners in the coalition
government to expend more effort towards ensuring no-one would be able to
steal the forthcoming crucial elections and hence the nation’s hopes and
aspirations.

So for Zuma and Sadc — the guarantors of the GPA –– political consensus is
the name of the game. Pressure must be ratcheted up in Maputo to ensure that
the unity government protagonists find common ground and reach consensus on
the way forward, in such a way that none of the parties feels shortchanged.
A major shortcoming of facilitation efforts thus far is the impression that
Zanu PF clearly holds the whip hand, to the extent of making unilateral
decisions within the GNU and thumbing its nose at GPA provisions. Zanu PF’s
overhauling of the latest draft smacks of another attempt to ride roughshod
over coalition partners. And Mugabe’s claims to reporters that the GPA was
progressing well should be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt, given
his failed strident calls for early elections, and description of the GNU
as “dysfunctional” and a “creature” that had outlived its welcome.

As Sadc deliberates the perennial Zimbabwean question, it should keep its
eyes on the ball to ensure that no foul play derails long-suffering
Zimbabweans from their goal of undisputed polls. It must keep alive to the
fact that the unity government arose after Zanu PF launched a violent
presidential campaign after losing its parliamentary majority. Thus Sadc
must use the tried-and tested carrot and stick method to ensure that through
give-and-take, the crucial constitution-making process moves from the
carousel it’s currently stuck in, and heads for the finishing line. Obscure
election roadmaps and equally hazy GPA implementation matrixes will just not
work again; for Zuma and Sadc the way forward is to focus on free, fair and
credible elections.

Eric Bloch Column:The Blame-Biti game ill-advised

http://www.theindependent.co.zw/

August 19, 2012 in Opinion

Eric Bloch

THE national sport with the greatest following is undoubtedly the Blame-Biti
game. Politicians, workers in commerce and industry and in other economic
sectors are all involved, but the most ardent of the game’s supporters are
those in the public service. Scathing, castigatory and virulent criticisms
of Zimbabwe’s Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, are now common.
Indisputably, those most vocal are government employees (usually known as
the public service or civil service, notwithstanding that many of them are
disdainfully dismissive of the public’s interests, and all too many are
unaware of the term “civil”). They are continuously blame Biti for not
giving them substantive salary increases. Incontrovertibly, most of them
are seriously underpaid, receiving salaries significantly below the poverty
datum line (PDL) –– the minimum required for the health and wellbeing of
their families and dependants.

However, in their pursuit of the Blame-Biti game, they completely disregard
that their opponent is severely constrained in meeting their income demands;
for he cannot pay that which he does not have. Football and rugby cannot be
played without a ball, cricket cannot be played without wickets; similarly
public service salaries cannot be increased without money, or equivalent
alternative resources. Biti’s ministry is devoid of the required financial
resources; the funds received are used for other purposes, many of which are
of even greater importance to Zimbabwe than the increase of incomes of civil
servants.

No matter how convincingly civil servants are leading contestants in the
Blame-Biti game, there are many other exceptionally adept players. The
majority of Zimbabweans blame Biti for his alleged failure to reverse the
high costs of living that Zimbabweans are experiencing. In so doing, they
disregard the skills that he successfully applied in almost totally halting
the hyperinflation that afflicted them in 2008. At that time, prices rose
so rapidly they exceeded the highest levels of inflation ever experienced
anywhere in the world. Prices were soaring upwards at such a pace that, by
November 2008, they were rising between the time of entry into a shop to
reaching the cashier’s desk.

Within a few months of Biti becoming Finance minister, inflation had
declined to single digit levels. However, that has not satisfied Biti’s
opponents, for they contend he should have brought about deflation. That he
could not bring about deflation without other teammates playing their role
is contemptuously ignored.

Other Biti-bashers include co-ministers in the government of so-called
“national unity”. They seek to win the game by deploring his failure to
meet their demands for funding education, healthcare and other services, and
for long overdue infrastructural rehabilitation, refurbishment, and
development. Although none can play football without the ball, they believe
Biti should pay salaries without having the money.

Others blame Biti by virtually condemning him for the excessive expenditures
of his ministerial colleagues on endless international trips, luxurious new
motorcades and other unnecessary government spending. In criticising him for
the profligacy of others, they ignore the extent to which his hands are tied
to ensure that he cannot control the spendthrifts; they also ignore his
recurrent calls for an end to unnecessary expenditure.

Although many play the Blame-Biti game by identifying and using expenditures
which he should incur and fails to, and those which should not be incurred
but which his colleagues do, there are some who effectively identify Biti’s
actions of commission and omission –– albeit they are fairly few. Foremost
of such actions is his imposition of oppressive taxation on below-PDL
incomes of many Zimbabweans taxpayers. This intensifies workers’ suffering
and distress.

Their expenditures within the economy are consequently more constrained to
the prejudice of the viability of commerce and industry. There is thus
minimisation of inflows of value added tax, customs duties and surtax, and
excise duties, into the emaciated national treasury.

Thus those that play the Blame-Biti game do so by blaming him for actions he
has had to take, for others which he cannot take without the requisite
funds, and for the profligate misdeeds of others. A few play the game more
legitimately by confining the blame to his actions or inactions.

Editor ‘s Memo:Mugabe speech dramatic irony writ large

http://www.theindependent.co.zw

August 19, 2012 in Opinion

Dumisani Muleya

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe on Monday delivered an attention-grabbing yet
controversial and problematic Heroes Day speech in which he warned that
youth unemployment posed a potential threat to national security and
stability.
Effectively he cast his speech within a broad political and socio-economic
context with the unmistakable although tacit allusions to the Arab Spring
causes and consequences.

Sadc leaders have at their meetings made more unambiguous references to the
North African and Middle East situations, alluding to implications for
Zimbabwe.

The Arab Spring swept through Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Civil
uprisings –– spearheaded by largely unemployed youths armed with social
media tools –– also erupted in other countries. Syria is currently burning
after catching the viral contagion.

Zimbabwe almost caught the virus when militant political and civic activist
Munyaradzi Gwisai and others were arrested and convicted for plotting
similar protests to topple Mugabe.

The Arab protests shared a lot of things in common, some of which can be
correlated to the situation in Zimbabwe. The revolts were generally based on
civil resistance in sustained campaigns involving mass demonstrations,
protests, rallies and strikes. The use of social media was key in organising
and coordinating communication in the face of brutal state repression and
censorship.

This brings us back to Mugabe’s remarks about unemployed youths and the
threat they pose to “national peace and stability” –– a coded reference to
the danger the suffering youths constitute to his rule, which remains intact
at the core despite having been shaken to its foundation during the past
decade of political turmoil and upheaval, mainly in 2008 at the zenith of
the economic meltdown, unemployment and resultant instability.

But before tackling Mugabe’s statements, it is important to recall and point
out the numerous factors and catalysts of the Arab uprisings which still
reverberate around the world. The variables at play included dictatorships,
which were mostly precarious, fearful and thus lethal in their subsequent
panicky repression, economic decline, human rights abuses, corruption,
unemployment and poverty.

“Youth unemployment and under-employment present one of the biggest
challenges facing the nation,” Mugabe paradoxically said, “which if not
addressed is a potential threat to national peace and stability. We do not
need to be reminded that economic stabilisation and sustainable growth
cannot be achieved unless there is peace in the country.”

Therein lies the problem. First, Mugabe spoke worrisomely as if to exculpate
himself from the issue of youth unemployment and attendant problems like
they were conditions which were either inherently natural to the economy or
imposed on the country by some external force beyond his control.
Mugabe was unwilling or unable to make a connection between his leadership
and policy choices and the issue of massive youth unemployment. The problem
is not the youths and joblessness, but economic failure caused by his
disastrous policies.

Second, when Mugabe said youth pose “a potential threat to national peace
and stability”, he simply meant they are a danger to his rule and survival.
In other words, his remarks were not just a mere observation but also a
veiled threat that any uprising by disgruntled youths would be brutally
crushed.
Third and most importantly, Mugabe, in his abjuration of reality, failed to
acknowledge youth unemployment and the potential revolt it may cause are
part and parcel of his checkered legacy which includes economic devastation,
political divisions and polarisation, and of course unemployment and
poverty, mainly among the youths.

So when Mugabe warned Zimbabwe’s widespread youth unemployment could trigger
political unrest as he insincerely called for an end to political violence,
he was spot on, but did so without any sense of irony.

Hypocrisy and deceit were written all over his remarks which only helped to
betray deep-seated insecurity about the current explosive conditions,
especially regarding the youth, which, strangely though, he did not seem to
realise cannot be divorced from his failed rule and legacy. The context is
his leadership and policy failures. The global environment and external
circumstances –– including his favourite excuse of sanctions –– are just
exogenous factors.
What will Mugabe and Zanu PF be remembered for? Undeniably, when the current
popular anger and misery subside, some credit will still be due to Mugabe
and his party for their role in the liberation struggle and some
achievements here and there after Independence, but the reality is youth
unemployment and concomitant problems are hallmarks of his failed rule and
legacy.

After all, his regime has used and dumped youths as political storm-troopers
after promising them jobs and indigenisation incentives never delivered. So
for these reasons, if no other, Mugabe’s disingenuous speech was simply a
dramatic irony writ large.

A letter from the diaspora

Friday August 17th 2012
The Zimbabwe Independent last weekend took the occasion of Heroes Day to
ask what about the women fighters? Were they not also heroes? In contrast,
Wilfrid Mhanda, himself a war veteran, decries the whole concept of ‘hero’
status and points out that everyone was a hero in the struggle that finally
brought an end to Rhodesia and ushered in Zimbabwe. The whole question of
‘Hero’ status is now just used for political patronage, Mhanda maintains and
the truth of his remarks was clearly demonstrated by Robert Mugabe’s
speeches over the two days of the Heroes and Defence Forces holiday. He
never fails to use this occasion to sound off about his pet hates: the west
and the whites.
It was revealed this week that over one third of Zimbabwean children under
five years of age are suffering from malnutrition and 15.000 are at risk of
dying from the condition. It is not always realised that malnutrition in
childhood may result in irreparable damage to a child’s physical and mental
development. Not only is the food situation desperate across the country,
there is a desperate shortage of fresh water too. In Buhera the World Food
Programme has appealed for $87 million to avert starvation. And, as Mugabe
was speaking at the National Stadium, Harare itself was in the grip of a
water crisis. At the other end of the country in Tsholotsho after 32 years
of Zanu PF rule not a single borehole has been dug. The people there – and
in many rural areas - are drinking unsafe river water with all the attendant
dangers of water-borne diseases. The president said nothing of these
matters, preferring to concentrate on the issue of political violence in the
country and urging the virtue of tolerance. Very laudable you might think
but we have heard it all before from Mugabe’s lips and it has not changed
his followers’ behaviour. Moving on to the issue of Zanu PF’s clenched fist,
Mugabe denied that it was a symbol of violence; it was he said “the punch
that knocked them (the whites) down.” As always, Mugabe chose this occasion
to remind his audience of his own heroic status in the battle against
colonialism. We have heard that all before too but it was his remark on the
day after Heroes and Defence Forces that got me seething - and quite a few
other women I should think!
Mugabe was launching this year’s census operation and he began by referring
back to 2002 which had revealed what he called a ‘miserable’ reading of 11.6
million people. Of course, he made no reference to the exodus that took
place in 2000 after his disastrous ‘land reform’ began. Between 4 and
5million Zimbabweans are believed to have left the country but instead the
86 year old chose to tell the female members of his audience,
“We want more children Give us more children you women. Why are you
refusing to get pregnant? Why were you given bellies? No, no don’t refuse.”
I wonder if Mugabe’s wife was sitting on the podium as her husband uttered
these arrogant and insulting words? I can’t believe that any woman,
whatever her political beliefs, would find it acceptable to be lectured by
an 86 year old man on her right to control her own fertility. Quite apart
from the male chauvinism it demonstrates, Mugabe’s remark shows crass
insensitivity to the economic crisis that is currently gripping the country.
Telling women to have more children at this time is to condemn them to years
of struggle to pay school fees, buy uniforms and text books, not to mention
feeding and clothing them. The Women’s Movement across the world has fought
for women’s right to control their own fertility and along comes an 86 year
old man and tells them, in effect, that it is their duty to have more
children in order to boost the country’s declining population. Mugabe
clearly has not grasped the fact that the millions of Zimbabweans who have
chosen to live outside Zimbabwe do so precisely because they do not want to
be ruled by him. Like the musician, Thomas Mapfumo, many of them say they
will never return to Zimbabwe while Mugabe remains in power.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle, Pauline Henson.