http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 09 December 2011 08:37
Dumisani
Muleya
THE faction led by Vice-President Joice Mujuru is coming under
growing
pressure in the succession race from a rival camp headed by Defence
minister
and politburo heavyweight EmmersonMnangagwa, as the Zanu PF
conference which
opened yesterday in Bulawayo unfolds amid ominous political
uncertainty
surrounding President Robert Mugabe’s rapidly fading rule.
Extensive
briefings of the Zimbabwe Independent by Zanu PF delegates at the
conference
showed Mujuru’s faction is coming under intensifying challenge by
the
Mnangagwa group which now wants to go for the jugular to prevail over
its
opponents to succeed Mugabe.
Although Mugabe remains in
charge of the party, faction leaders believe they
have to look beyond
him.
Since delegates arrived in Bulawayo on Wednesday, Zanu PF
faction leaders
have been holding secret meetings, mainly under the cover of
darkness,
inside their hotel rooms and other private venues to strategise
how to
outmanoeuvre each other. The rival leaders have also been jostling
for
Mugabe’s attention to win favours and consolidate their
positions.
The Independent has also received credible reports of
dirty tricks being
employed at the conference with some top Zanu PF
officials, including
Mnangagwa, having had their hotel rooms bugged by
security agents loyal to
their rivals. One senior official reportedly went
to complain to Mugabe at
State House in Bulawayo on Wednesday night that his
room was wired with
listening devices and other gadgets.
“The
succession battle is getting vicious and dirty,” a senior Zanu PF
politburo
official said. “But things will get worse after this conference.
The endgame
will be brutal and nasty.”
Although Zanu PF, riddled with
factionalism and infighting, has two main
camps, there are several other
smaller cliques, defined by regions,
ethnicity and other common interests,
operating within and across the main
blocs.
Senior Zanu PF
officials said this week as part of the Mnangagwa faction’s
strategy to
seize control of the party, Mujuru is now personally targeted
for removal.
The Mnangagwa group still wants to replace Mujuru with Zanu PF
Women’s
League head Oppah Muchinguri as it tried but failed to do during
the 2009
congress. The Mnangagwa faction is also reportedly plotting the
removal of
Nicholas Goche and Webster Shamu as heads of security and the
commissariat
departments in the politburo. The politburo, sources said,
might be
reshuffled ahead of elections.
“The factional battles are
intensifying in the party. While it appears here
at the conference that
there is harmony and unity, the reality is that below
the surface there is a
lot happening,” another politburo member said. “The
Mnangagwa faction is
fighting back viciously after its defeat during the
2009 congress. They are
now going for Mai Mujuru herself and other senior
members of the camp like
Goche and Shamu, particularly now after the death
of (retired army
commander) General (Solomon) Mujuru,” another politburo
member
said.
“We told you months back that this power struggle is going to
be rough.
There will be blood on the floor.”
The senior officials
also said the succession battle would be further
fuelled by the fight
between the two factions for several vacancies in the
politburo following
the deaths of Ephraim Masawi (deputy national
commissar), David Karimanzira
(secretary for finance), General Mujuru
(committee member), and Khantibai
Patel (committee member).
The succession fight is also currently
playing out fiercely in Mashonaland
West where former acting Zanu PF
provincial chairman John Mafa is set to
battle it out for the chairmanship
with deputy ministers Reuben Marumahoko
of Regional Integration and
International Co-operation, supported by Shamu,
and Walter Chidhakwa of
State Enterprises and Parastatals. Chidakwa used to
be supported by Local
Government minister Ignatius Chombo, a senior
politburo
member.
Mafa, reportedly backed by controversial tycoon Philip
Chiyangwa, himself a
former Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial chair, is
linked to the
Mnangagwga faction, while the other two are connected to the
Mujuru camp.
Sources said the Mnangagwa faction was now taking full
advantage of the
death of General Mujuru to force the Mujuru faction to lose
political ground
and retreat.
“There was a question whether the
death of Mujuru would affect his faction
or not. Now it’s becoming
increasingly clear it has already started
weakening the group because Mai
Mujuru and senior members of the camp like
Sydney Sekeramayi, who has his
own ambitions, have not risen to the
challenge,” a source
said.
“However, the truth is that even if Mnangagwa is on the
ascendancy, the
party is still deeply divided over the succession issue. The
Mujuru camp
still has some advantages although the security services chiefs
are now
mainly with Mnangagwa.”
The sources said Mnangagwa has
consolidated his support base and now enjoys
the backing of senior Joint
Operations Command members like Zimbabwe Defence
Forces commander General
Constantine Chiwenga, Police Commissioner-General
Augustine Chihuri and Air
Force of Zimbabwe Air Marshal Perence Shiri. The
sources said Central
Intelligence Organisation boss Happyton Bonyongwe
remains aligned to the
Mujuru faction.
The fight back by the Mnangagwa faction is a recovery
bid after its defeat
during the 2009 congress. The Mujuru faction heavily
defeated the Mnangagwa
camp during the congress, raising hope that
Vice-President Mujuru would take
over from Mugabe.
Officials say
the escalation of the power struggles within Zanu PF would
intensify the
internal strife in the already deeply-divided party after the
ongoing
Bulawayo conference.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 09 December 2011
08:35
Faith Zaba
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has demanded elections
next year and threatened to
undermine the constitution-making process if the
draft constitution does not
include Zanu PF’s position. In a Zanu PF central
committee report tabled at
the party’s national conference yesterday, Mugabe
said the conference should
send a clear message that elections must be held
in 2012 without fail.
“The GNU has become a drag on our nation. It
must give way to an elected
administration that is free to govern
unhindered, free to pursue definite
policies for the betterment of our
people,” Mugabe said.
“It must also make it very clear that Zanu PF
reserves the right to
dissociate itself from a draft constitution which
seeks to undermine the
cardinal goals of our national liberation struggle
and our national culture
and values.”
Zanu PF wants to retain a
powerful executive president with vast unchecked
powers as proposed in the
Kariba draft constitution.
The Zanu PF position paper makes it clear that the
land reform programme is
irreversible and wants the constitution to promote
indigenisation and
empowerment. It calls for the prohibition of
homosexuality and same sex
marriages.
Mugabe also stressed the
need to end violence saying votes could only be won
through good policies
and programmes.
“The conference must pronounce itself and take a firm stand
against
political violence. It must disavow violence in any form, in order
to send a
clear message that violence will not be condoned and has no place
in our
politics and in our country.”
The report also revealed
that Zanu PF was broke and continued to rely on
overdrafts from
banks.
Zanu PF’s main sources of revenue for 2011 were membership fees and
subscriptions.
For the year 2011, the finance department reported
an expenditure of US$6
229 397 and an income of US$4 094
853.
“Meetings were held with the business community, focusing on
strategies to
address the economic challenges faced by industry and a number
of policy
measures have been taken in response to this, notably in unpacking
the
indigenisation and empowerment programme and its implementation
methodology,” said the report.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 09 December 2011 08:33
Faith
Zaba
SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma’s ANC party has promised to send
a team
of strategists to assist Zanu PF come up with an effective campaign
strategy
that would ensure victory for President Robert Mugabe in elections
expected
either next year or in 2013. This, observers said, would complicate
Zuma’s
mediation role in Zimbabwe and raise questions of whether he could be
an
honest broker if the ANC was assisting one of the parties in the
conflict.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe (pictured) told the
Zanu PF 12th
National People’s Conference in Bulawayo yesterday that his
party wanted
Zanu PF to win the next elections.
“It is important
for Zanu PF to regain lost ground and continue to represent
the aspirations
of the people of Zimbabwe,” said Mantashe.
“If we want to share experiences
on campaigning and messaging during
elections, we must do so well ahead of
the elections so that the parties
involved can have time to adjust the
experiences to their own strategies. We
will send campaign strategy teams to
work with you; this will be the best
way to celebrate the centenary of the
ANC in January 2012.”
The three political parties in the inclusive
government –– the two MDC
formations and Zanu PF –– have gone on a full
throttle campaign to woo
voters ahead of the all-important
elections.
While Zanu PF has come up with strategies targeting
churches, the youth,
businesspeople, women, communal farmers and urban
dwellers to win the
general elections, the MDC formations have been holding
campaign rallies
across the country.
Zanu PF has intensified its
campaign in rural areas through making donations
to schools and villages.
Parallel to government efforts to provide
agricultural inputs in rural
areas, Zanu PF has a scheme of its own,
targeting communal
farmers.
Asked what he meant by giving technical support to Zanu PF
in the next
election, Mantashe told the Zimbabwe Independent that the ANC
was committed
to assisting Mugabe win elections as a leader of a “sister”
liberation
movement.
“We have committed ourselves to supporting
Zanu PF because as liberation
movements, we are under pressure all the time
because people think
liberation movements in southern Africa are too strong
and they must be
weakened. So it is our responsibility to counter that so
that liberation
movements continue to represent the aspirations of the
people of our
countries,” he said.
On whether such support would
not compromise Zuma’s role as a mediator in
Zimbabwe’s political crisis,
Mantashe said the ANC was assisting Zanu PF as
a sister liberation movement,
while Zuma was playing his role as a Sadc
mediator.
“These are
government to government relations and Zuma is working under the
auspices of
Sadc and (the) ANC is a different animal altogether. We are not
going to
lock ourselves in a room because Sadc has given power to the
president of
South Africa. (The) ANC must interact with some of the sister
parties in the
region,” he said.
Mantashe said his party would continue to support
Zanu PF because the MDC-T
was not a liberation party.
“The
reality of the matter is that we don’t need permission from other
parties.When we talk to the MDC, they know the relation which is there. They
are not a former liberation party.We also talk to them and we don’t ask for
permission from Zanu PF when we do. They can’t expect us to get clearance to
engage with former liberation movements, it would be presumptuous of
them.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 09 December 2011 08:24
Brian
Chitemba
ZANU PF wants an early election to bury the inclusive government
because it
has “overstayed” and has started preparing for the polls with its
primaries
expected early next year. The party’s national chairman Simon
Khaya Moyo
told thousands of delegates at the ongoing Zanu PF 12th annual
conference in
Bulawayo yesterday that the wobbly coalition pact signed by
President Robert
Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai “must be
accorded an appropriate
burial” through elections.
Zanu PF has
been pushing for elections but Sadc, MDC-T and civil society
want critical
reforms to be implemented before the plebiscite.
The polls are now widely
expected next year after the adoption of a new
constitution. Moyo said the
conference was a defining moment since it was
the last before Zimbabweans
cast their ballot.
The primary elections rules, the former diplomat
said, would be announced
soon, without elaborating, but sources said the
party polls are likely in
the first quarter of 2012.
“We must
prepare ourselves to win resoundingly in the next elections because
we don’t
want the inclusive government,” said Moyo.
As the party is seeking to
regain lost support in Matabeleland, it seems
there is a strategy to use the
industrial flight and marginalisation of the
region to lure back the
electorate which has been overwhelmingly voting
MDC-T and MDC. Since 2000,
Zanu PF has struggled to win a constituency in
Matabeleland and several
former ruling party officials have joined Zapu and
the MDC
formations.
Bulawayo governor Cain Mathema blamed the delayed release
of the US$40
million Distressed and Marginalised Areas Fund on Finance
minister Tendai
Biti and Industry minister Welshman Ncube, in a clear
statement to rubbish
the MDC-T and MDC. The parties have been fighting for
control of the fund,
in what critics say would be used to bolster political
mileage of the
politicians.
He further claimed that the closure
of Bulawayo companies was as a result of
the sanctions imposed on Mugabe and
his inner circle by the West. Mathema
said Bulawayo required US$1 billion
for economic recovery and development.
“What I know is that company
closures in Bulawayo and everywhere else in
Zimbabwe are a result of illegal
sanctions imposed on the country by the MDC
and its foreign creators and
handlers with the intention that workers and
their families would blame
President Mugabe and Zanu PF and then vote him
and his party out of power,”
said Mathema.
The Zimbabwe Council of Chiefs president Fortune
Charumbira said the
traditional leaders would work tirelessly to ensure a
Zanu PF victory in the
next polls. He advised Zanu PF candidates to select
candidates with close
relations with chiefs and other traditional leaders as
well as war veterans.
“Chiefs are responsible for distributing maize seed
donated by the president
and no one should complain. The seed distribution
is a Zanu PF programme,”
he said.
Mugabe and his Zanu PF cabal
are also using maize seed to hoodwink the rural
electorate to rally behind
them and the farming inputs are distributed upon
production of a membership
card.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 09 December 2011
08:12
Dumisani Muleya
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe —probably attending
his last Zanu PF conference to
be endorsed as presidential candidate —
yesterday opened his party’s annual
gathering in Bulawayo with a challenge
to bury ghosts of the past and win
back votes in the volatile south-western
region, while securing his legacy.
Delegates at the ongoing conference and
critics say while the gathering
would be on the surface uneventful, it was
in some respects a crucial
occasion at which Mugabe had a perfect
opportunity, not only to bury some of
the ghosts of the past which have
haunted the nation for far too long, but
also exorcise
them.
Mugabe, who has dominated the Zimbabwean political landscape
like a Colossus
for over a generation, faces the problematic task of
confronting issues
which have cost him and his party support in Matabeleland
and other parts of
the country.
Matabeleland provinces, which
have deserted Mugabe and Zanu PF practically
en bloc since 2000, would be
the main political battleground in the next
election. All political parties
desperately want to gain control of the
region which has become the power
broker since the emergence of the MDC in
1999. Since losing Matabeleland, a
hotbed of opposition politics, and now
other regions, Mugabe and Zanu PF
have struggled to win national elections.
By contrast, the MDC formations,
mainly the MDC-T, has thrived in its
original power
base.
Given the venue of the conference, issues affecting
Matabeleland loomed
large during the official opening yesterday as Zanu PF
tried to find ways of
addressing simmering complaints of systematic
exclusion and marginalisation
in the region ahead of
elections.
Apart from marginalisation, Mugabe and Zanu PF have to
tackle the explosive
issue of Gukurahundi which provokes anger and
bitterness among voters in
Matabeleland. At the centre of Zanu PF’s dramatic
decline in the region has
been these two issues linked to national problems
which have resulted in
Mugabe’s first round defeat by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai in 2008 and
his party losing control of parliament. Leadership
and policy failures, as
well as human rights abuses and corruption, have
contributed to their
unpopularity.
Bulawayo governor Cain
Mathema, who welcomed delegates to the conference,
went to great lengths
yesterday trying to deal with heightening ethnic
tensions, stoked by
complaints of marginalisation, by seizing on the issue
of the $40 million
fund to revive the country’s second largest city.
“Bulawayo was
deliberately selected nationally as the first targeted
economic zone towards
the revival and further development of its economy
that has been subjected
to illegal economic sanctions imposed on the country
by the West and its
local proxies like the MDC,” Mathema said.
“The Minister of Finance
Tendai Biti and the Minister of Industry and
Commerce Welshman Ncube are
playing soccer with the US$40 million for
distressed companies and new ones,
especially the new micro, small, medium
and large business enterprises. His
Excellency, RG Mugabe, appointed a
cabinet committee early this year to find
a solution for the economic
challenges faced by Bulawayo businesses, workers
and families.”
Directly confronting the sensitive issue of complaints
of marginalisation,
Mathema said tribalism was being used by the “enemy”,
referring to Western
countries, to divide the nation.
“The enemy
we are facing today uses all sorts of tools and weapons to keep
Zimbabwe
under its control,” Mathema said. “And one such tool is that of
ethnicity,
the age-old tool of tribalism which is meant to keep the opposite
side in
continuous conflict against itself,” he said.
“These days comrades,
the enemy has been singing and dancing about the
marginalisation of
Matabeleland, even to the extent of saying Shona people
are taking companies
away from Bulawayo to Harare.
“Personally, I know of no company owned
by Shona people that has been
relocated to Harare or elsewhere from
Bulawayo. I know of no company at all
that has been taken to Harare from
Bulawayo or from any part of
Matabeleland. What I know is that there are at
least 87 companies that
closed in Bulawayo leaving at least 20 000 workers
without jobs but these
companies did not go to Harare. And these companies
are not owned by Shona
people…What I know is that company closures in
Bulawayo and everywhere else
in Zimbabwe are a result of illegal sanctions
imposed on the country by the
MDC and its foreign creators and handlers with
the intention that workers
blame President Mugabe and Zanu PF and then vote
him and his party out of
power.”
However, Mathema avoided the
issue of Gukurahundi which Mugabe is under
pressure to tackle by the close
of conference. Senior Zanu PF delegates said
Mugabe was in a tricky
situation over the issue as ignoring it would further
alienate voters in the
region and dealing with it could open an explosive
can of
worms.
“Given that this conference is in Bulawayo, it poses serious
challenges to
us about how to handle local and national issues affecting the
people ahead
of elections. Locally, I mean here in Matabeleland, there are
grievances
which we have to deal with separately if we need the people to
vote for us
and one of them is the issue of marginalisation. Mathema has
dealt with
that,” a senior Zanu PF politburo member attending the conference
said.
“Now the remaining task is to find a way of addressing the
Gukurahundi
issue, but that one could not be handled by Mathema or any other
official.
It’s an issue of the presidium. We really don’t know whether the
president
will say something about it or not when he closes the conference
but we need
to manage that issue because it is continuously being used by
Tsvangirai and
Ncube to wins votes. Only last weekend Tsvangirai was in
Plumtree at
Dingumuzi stadium and he spoke unequivocally about Gukurahundi
trying to
manipulate the issue to get votes. The president has said it was a
‘moment
of madness’ but we now need to move beyond that to address the issue
practically and close that chapter.”
Another official said: “I
think as Zanu PF we should put in motion a
national process, like the
national healing initiative, to address not just
Gukurahundi but all other
wrongs of the past.”
This leaves Mugabe facing the challenge at the
conference of whether to
confront the Gukurahundi issue head-on or continue
to duck it as he has
always done.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 December 2011
17:45
Wongai Zhangazha
DEPUTY Prime-Minister Arthur Mutambara last
week moved to reinvent his
political fortunes by co-opting new standing
committee members to his MDC
faction leadership following the split in the
party in February. Mutambara,
who was president of the smaller MDC faction,
split from the Welshman
Ncube-led faction after declining to stand for the
leadership of the party.
The Mutambara MDC said the newly appointed
national executive would replace
those the party “expelled” for being linked
with Ncube’s faction and the
“illegitimate” February 11 2011
meeting.
Prominent among those co-opted include Deputy Speaker of
Parliament
Nomalanga Mzilikazi Khumalo, who was appointed as deputy
president.
Maxwell Zimuto was named secretary-general, Beauty Kerr Mthetwa
treasurer,
Robson Mashiri national organising secretary, Morgan Changamire
party
spokesperson and Tsitsi Dangarembga director of
elections.
However, the appointments have been criticised as an abuse
of the MDC
constitution as appointments can only be done at a national
congress.
According to the MDC constitution, Provision 5.4.3 the president,
deputy
president, national chairperson, secretary-general and deputy
secretary-general, treasurer and the deputy treasurer-general shall be
elected from the nominations made by provinces directly into their positions
by congress in such a manner that at least two of their number shall be
women.
But Zimuto said the appointments were not in violation of
the constitution
as there is a provision that allowed for appointments of
the national
executive in the event of death or resignation.
He
said the provision stated that “in the event of the death or resignation
of
any other member of the national executive committee, the national
council
shall elect a person to act in that capacity pending the next
national
conference”.
In the meantime, Zimuto said the appointees would hold
the positions until
the party’s national congress on a date yet to be
determined.
“We would love to hold the congress as soon as possible but there
is a
pending court case,” said Zimuto. “At the moment our plans are vested
by the
court case.
This is not the first time we have done this.
If you recall well at a
national congress in 2006 Gabriel Chaibva resignedas
did AbednicoBhebhe and
were replaced. This is just a similar
case.”
MDC-N spokesperson Kurauone Chihwai said his party was not
“worried or
shaken” by the defections since they saw it as a Zanu PF project
meant to
cause confusion.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 December 2011
17:40
Paidamoyo Muzulu
THE arrest of Media Monitoring Project of
Zimbabwe (MMPZ) officials has
ignited renewed fears of a media crackdown by
state security agents on civil
society and journalists as the country braces
for an election next year or
in 2013.
MMPZ director Andrew Moyse, Fadzai
December, Molly Chimhanda and Gilbert
Mabusa were arrested this week on
charges of breaching the Public Order and
Security Act (Posa) for allegedly
distributing subversive material.
December, Chimhanda, and Mabusa were
arrested in Gwanda.
The arrests come hard on the heels of independent
journalists’ arrest for
criminal defamation within a
month.
The Standard editor Nevanji Madanhire and his reporter
Nqaba Matshazi were
arrested on charges of receiving or being in possession
of stolen GreenCard
Medical Aid financial documents.
The medical
aid company is owned by central bank governor Gideon Gono’s
advisor,
Munyaradzi Kereke.
The editor of the Daily News Stanley Gama and reporter
Xolisani Ncube were
arrested last Friday in connection with a story they
wrote about Local
Government minister Ignatius Chombo’s
wealth.
Madanhire and Matshazi were remanded out of custody on a $100
bail each,
while Gama and Ncube were released after giving warned and
cautioned
statements to the police.
Police went on this week to
raid MMPZ offices in Harare and confiscated
digital video discs (DVDs) which
they alleged contain information on
Gukurahundi. MMPZ director Andy Moyse
was detained in connection with the
allegations.
Civil society
organisations have expressed concern at the media crackdown by
state
security agents saying it was aimed at stifling democracy in the
country
ahead of elections.
The Zimbabwe Crisis Coalition said: “The arrests
signalled the beginning of
a crackdown on the media and civic activists
similar to those that have
preceded past elections. Journalists must be
allowed to do their work
without hindrance from law enforcement
agents.”
The Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe said the arrests
were a signal that
the state is ready to trample on people’s
freedoms.
“It is VMCZ’s strong conviction that the laws being used to
charge the four
MMPZ leaders and employees are patently undemocratic and
undermine the right
of all citizens to freedom of expression as well as that
of the freedom to
assemble,” VMCZ said in a statement.
The issue
about media freedom, plurality and diversity has conveniently been
put aside
by the coalition government as it prepares for elections.
Lawyer and
media analyst Chris Mhikewrote on the MMPZ discussion forum:
“With elections
getting nearer and nearer, the pro-democracy players are
losing more and
more ground in the inclusive government as the regime is
getting too thirsty
again for blood.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 December 2011
17:38
Paidamoyo Muzulu
EMBATTLED business mogul Mutumwa Mawere
this week approached the British and
South African governments to help him
reclaim his SMMH company which was put
under state administrator Afaras
Gwaradzimba under the State Indebted and
Reconstruction Act in 2004.
Mawere’s diplomatic manoeuvre is contained in a
letter dated December 7 2011
by his lawyers Kyle Attorneys to British
ambassador to Zimbabwe Deborah
Bronnert which was also copied to the South
African
embassy.
Mawere said the Zimbabwean government acted illegally by
granting its laws
extra-territorial powers since SMMH was a British
registered company and
could not be arbitrarily taken over without involving
British courts.
SMMH owns the now defunct Shabanie and Mashaba mines
and their associate
companies in Zimbabwe and Zambia.
“We believe
that a prima facie case exists for your intervention as the
affected
companies are domiciled in the UK. It may very well be the case
that other
foreign registered companies may not be aware of the implications
of the
legislation and we, therefore, look to your intervention to ensure
that the
information is disseminated to all interested parties as a
precedent has
already been created,” wrote Kyle.
Mawere believes that working with
the British government would expose
Zimbabwe’s deliberate lack of respect
for property rights.
“We are hopeful that working together we will be able to
expose the toxic
legislation and more significantly the complicity of the
Zimbabwean
judiciary in undermining the rule of law and property
rights.”
The Zimbabwe Supreme Court this year ruled the
Reconstruction Act
constitutional by a vote of four to one. The dissenting
judgment by retired
Justice Wilson Sandura is still to be released. The
ruling had a net effect
of legalising the state’s actions in
retrospect.
Mawere’s lawyers argue that the Act is a danger to
foreign investment in
Zimbabwe and no company was safe as a precedent had
been set.
“We believe that the existence of the legislation threatens all
foreign
interests in Zimbabwe. Accordingly, please feel free to circulate
the
correspondence to other embassies and interested parties so that they
are
informed about the risks of doing business in Zimbabwe. If it can
happen to
two English companies then surely no one is safe,” the lawyers
argued.
Mawere’s battle with the state has been long and bruising
with the parties
slugging it out in courts in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia
and the UK. The
battle has also been taken to Zimbabwe’s parliament with the
embattled
businessman seeking a repeal of the Reconstruction Act or
amendment to
sections that gave it extra-territorial powers.
“You
will note in the submissions to the Speaker that the effect of the
Reconstruction legislation is to place companies registered and governed
under UK laws under the control of an administrator appointed in terms of
Zimbabwean law and in so-doing give the Zimbabwean legislation
extra-territorial application,” the lawyers said.
The SMMH saga
has played out differently in many quarters including
political
establishment. At one point Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor
Gideon Gono
advised President Robert Mugabe to restore ownership of SMMH to
Mawere.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 December 2011
17:37
Herbert Moyo
MDC-T deputy spokesperson and Bulawayo East MP
Tabitha Khumalo (pictured)
said there was no way the government could wish
away the contentious
Gukurahundi issue without addressing real concerns of
survivors who continue
to feel the psychological and material effects of the
atrocities. The
country’s two-year old coalition government has not drawn
any conclusive
position on how to deal with thousands of distressed families
affected by
the worst post-colonial state violence to afflict
Zimbabwe.
Khumalo told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that
besides the thousands
of deaths caused by the covert operations of the
notorious North
Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, a chain of other social ills
have also
continued to haunt survivors and offsprings of the victims in the
two
Matabeleland provinces as well as some parts of Midlands where the crack
troops operated.
She said some survivors and children of victims
lacked identity documents
and could therefore not register marriages, births
or deaths. Without such
documentation, Khumalo said it was impossible for
these Gukurahundi victims
to find a job, access public health services,
enrol in school, open a bank
account or even own property.
This
situation had created a generation of stateless people who lived in a
state
of permanent uncertainty in the country.
“There is a perception that
Ndebeles don’t want to go to school and they are
only interested in
illegally crossing into South Africa to take up demeaning
menial jobs,” said
Khumalo. “How can you go to school without proper
documentation,” she
asked.
“One of the legacies ofGukurahundiis that a whole generation
of people have
no proper documentation because their parents were killed and
government
would not issue them documents without witnesses or evidence of
the deaths
of their parents. All legal procedures on the acquisition of IDs
shouldbe
suspended and Gukurahundi victims must be registered without
questions being
asked,” she said.
She called for the setting up
of mobile registration teams to issue
registration documents to children of
victims whom she claimed could not get
such documents resulting in them
failing to access important services,
including education where birth
certificates are a prerequisite for
enrolment and writing of public
examinations.
Khumalo demanded other interventions such as the
construction of schools,
financial compensation in the affected provinces
and affirmative action in
the country’s tertiary
institutions.
The government and Zanu PF officials have repeatedly
refused to entertain
any public discussion and calls for compensation for
victims of the conflict
which President Robert Mugabe described as a “moment
of madness”.
Government set up a commission of inquiry in 1983 headed
by Justice
Simplisius Chihambakwe, but its findings were never made public.
However,
the government rejected the findings of the Catholic Commission for
Justice
and Peace (CCJP) which concluded that over 20 000 victims were
killed during
the disturbances.
The CCJP report recommended a
national reconciliation process, proper burial
for the victims and
compensation packages for those affected, with
accelerated development for
the affected regions.
Zanu PF rejected these recommendations saying
the entire chapter ended at
the stroke of the pens of Mugabe and Joshua
Nkomo when they signed their
unity accord in December 1987.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 December 2011 16:24
Martin
Plaut
IN 2000 President Robert Mugabe launched Zimbabwe’s controversial
fast-track
land reforms, seizing the majority of the 4 500 farms held by
mostly white
commercial farmers. More than a decade on, while some of the
new farmers are
doing well, others have found that if they cross the ruling
party, they face
losing their new land. Shadrack Rwafa stands outside the
home he has built.
He is one of Zimbabwe’s 170 000 new farmers, the proud
owner of Land Hunger
Farm.
A short, muscular man, he has worked
hard to grow crops on this dry,
unforgiving soil, which used to be a cattle
ranch.
It took two months just to dig the well, and he is proud of the clean,
fresh
water it produces.
“It’s like milk,” he tells the
BBC.
Rwafa is no ordinary farmer.
He is a war veteran who fought
against the white minority rule which ended
in 1980, when Mugabe replaced
Ian Smith as the country’s leader.
In the intervening years he has been a
sculptor, painter and miner.
But after Mugabe inaugurated the Fast
Track Land Reform Programme in 2000,
Rwafa saw his chance.
He joined the
invasion of a white-owned farm in the area in the south-east
of the
country.
Many of the commercial farms were seized violently, but Rwafa says
his case
was different.
“We didn’t just come without talking to the then
farm owner.
“We asked ‘can we share the land’ and that’s how we came
here,” says Rwafa.
“He accepted and there was no violence at this
place.
“We even helped him to put his sheep on the truck and he left
us some
fertilisers and we parted nicely.”
The farm is the fulfilment of
his life-long dream. Today he grows peanuts,
beans and maize and says his
life has improved dramatically.
A ranch that once raised cattle has been
split into 252 separate units, each
farmed by a family growing a range of
crops as well as raising some cattle.
Rwafa says it is far more productive
than it was when it was commercially
farmed.
The farm’s former owner was
not available for comment.
The progress of Rwafa and his fellow new
farmers in Masvingo Province has
been recorded by a 10-year research
project, conducted by the Institute of
Development Studies at Sussex
University, which followed 400 new farmers.
It is one of a number of
studies which challenge popular perceptions that
Zimbabwe’s land reform
programme has been an unmitigated disaster.
The Sussex University study does,
however, accept that the process has had
setbacks.
Only just over
a third of the new farmers are doing well, about a fifth are
supplementing
their income by other means, and the rest are struggling, are
not using the
land for active production, or have given up altogether.
Even this sober view
is challenged.
Economic consultant John Robertson suggests that
agricultural output is only
around 50% of the level it was before the land
invasions began in 2000.
“Most of the new people involved who are farming the
land that was
confiscated from the large-scale farmers are producing enough
for themselves
and not much more,” says Robertson.
Land invasions
have not ended.
Just as we were visiting new farmers like Rwafa, a
white farmer lost the
land he was born on. He did not want his name to be
mentioned — the whole
issue is too politically sensitive — but he seemed
almost resigned to what
had taken place.
If you display your
loyalty to the ruling party, you will get a free piece
of land. If you show
any disloyalty to the party... you’ll lose it.”
“You didn’t have to
be a genius to work out that we weren’t going to be
there for the rest of
our lives.
“One supposes they could stop it now, but I think they do
not want to see a
white on the land, and don’t need to see any whites left,”
he says, more in
sorrow than anger.
Robertson believes the entire
land redistribution exercise was meant to
create a system of patronage,
through a pool of voters who were dependent on
the ruling Zanu PF
party.
“If you display your loyalty to the ruling party, you will get
a free piece
of land. If you show any disloyalty to the party, guess what…
you’ll lose
it,” he says.
Not even high-ranking Zanu PF members are
necessarily secure. Tracy
Mutinhiri, deputy minister of labour and social
welfare, was also a
beneficiary of land reform, with one of the biggest
farms in the country.
Then she was accused of getting too close to
the MDC-T, the former
opposition, which is now in an uneasy government of
national unity with
Mugabe’s party.
“When we got into the
inclusive government, I wanted to work with everybody.
That’s how it
started: building up and building up, and then one day they
decided to come
and invade my farm,” says Mutinhiri. “If it could happen to
me, it could
happen to anybody else.”
But the real losers in this process
have
been the 500 000 workers who were once employed on the commercial
farms.
Many were seen as potential MDC supporters, and were therefore not
allocated
any of the redistributed land.
The BBC spoke to some of these workers
who were too fearful to be named.
“Sometimes we are getting by on
just US$10 a month,” says one woman, a
former farm worker, now living in a
disused tobacco barn.
The farm workers’ official minimum wage is US$44 per
month.
“We are really suffering, and we don’t know how we’re going to
live.
“This land reform must be reversed, and maybe our life can
change.”
Mugabe’s land reform has had a mixed outcome, with at least
as many farm
workers losing their livelihoods as there are new farmers
working their own
land.
The country is also now a net food
importer where it once exported grain to
the region. — BBCOnline.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 December 2011 16:11
‘ANALYSTS
hail war crimes verdict against Blair, Bush,” the Herald declared
last week.
And who were these “analysts”? The usual gang of Zanu PF
spokesmen. They
were “hailing” the verdict of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes
Tribunal set up by
President Mugabe’s friend, former Malaysian PM Mahathir
Mohamad. Most people
haven’t heard of it.
Tony Blair, by the way, is Middle East envoy for
the UN, EU, US and Russia.
Not exactly the “disgraced” ex-PM Zanu PF likes
to portray!
Interestingly, not long after the Herald had finished promoting
the
little-known war crimes tribunal, Bush was in Lusaka having a cordial
lunch
with President Michael Sata. This was in connection with charity work
by
the former US first couple.
A day after his lunch with Bush,
Sata met President Mugabe for talks at
Livingstone. Details of their
discussions were not disclosed but newspapers
reported that Mugabe had hoped
to ask Sata personally to make an appearance
at the current Zanu PF
conference. This would have boosted President Mugabe’s
standing. But despite
claims by the party that Sata had never been invited
in the first place, his
non-appearance must have been a huge disappointment.
The
Sunday Mail’s business section last weekend carried a piece on the
return of
German high-tech hardware group Bosch. It claimed the company had
pulled out
a few years ago “under a barrage of sanctions”.
So are there no sanctions
now?
And what about Grace’s state-of-the art dairy? Sanctions were no
obstacle to
that purchase!
Meanwhile the president has been “lashing out”
at Biti’s budget claiming it
gave a false picture, “full of hope but
difficult to implement”. He told the
Zanu PF central committee that Biti’s
figures were meant to generate hope.
“That is a false picture because
those figures will not be met at the end,”
he said.
Any of this sound
familiar? Has the president never promised agricultural
renewal andthen
failed to deliver?
In the same edition of the Herald there was an article
headed “Farmers hail
2010 budget”. The article said farmers welcomed the
2012 budget saying it
demonstrated the government’s commitment to fund
agricultural activities.
By the way, there seems to be a lot of
“hailing” going on in the Herald. Is
this a Third Reich
publication?
Still with contradictions, the Herald of
November 10 carried a report by
General Constantine Chiwenga saying
sanctions had “brought untold suffering”
to Zimbabwe. The Business Herald of
the same day gave details of a
significant rise in US/Zimbabwe
trade.
The Herald of November 7 and several issues thereafter carried
narrow-page
ads headlined “make some noise this November. Shout it loud,
sanctions must
go”.
The ads were flighted by yet another Zanu PF shadowy
outfit called “Zimbabwe
is right”. But the sponsors didn’t seem to know the
difference between
November and December! They were still shouting for
November in December.
Chiwenga’s remarks to Sadc officers
at the National Defence College didn’t
seem exactly riveting. He spoke
predictably of the need to “jealously guard
against recolonisation and
exploitation of our God-given natural resources”,
something Zanu PF
politicians are required to say in their public
pronouncements.
“These sanctions,” he said, “have brought untold
suffering to our people who
despite the harsh economic conditions have
remained resilient in their quest
to defend and protect their sovereign
birthright which undoubtedly is the
land and everything associated with
it.”
Chiwenga is the recipient of a Master’s degree in International
Relations,
we gather from ZDF ads carried last weekend congratulating him on
his award.
If the South African and Sadc officers present would welcome a
glimpse into
what happens to a country when the army is politicised, they
need look no
further than Zimbabwe.
At the same time Moeletsi
Mbeki contributed a troubling insight into South
Africa’s future under Jacob
Zuma in the pages of this newspaper last Friday.
Visiting South African
General Soli Shoke’s desire to share ideas with
Zimbabwe was therefore well
appreciated. Chiwenga should read Mbeki’s
article as well if he seeks
enlightenment.
We were sorry to see Nando’s being forced
to withdraw their TV commercial
which poked fun at President Mugabe. The
tongue-in-cheek ad entitled “Last
dictator standing” showed him sitting
alone at Christmas dreaming of happier
days with companions such as Muammar
Gaddafi and Idi Amin.
It was inoffensive except to the zealots in Zanu PF.
Chipangano had
threatened Nando’s outlets.
Nando’s in South
Africa has been flighting a whole range of satirical ads in
recent months
without too much objection. But in Zimbabwe Zanu PF thugs have
made threats
following this particular release. Pulling the ad was “a
prudent step to
take in a volatile climate”, the fastfood chain said.
Chipangano threatened
“punitive action” if it continued.
Musekiwa Kumbula, corporate affairs
director at Innscor Africa who hold the
Nando’s franchise in Zimbabwe, said
the ad was insensitive and in poor
taste. We thought it tasted rather
good!
Ray Kaukonde, a prominent businessman and major shareholder at
Innscor
Africa, said “The ad denigrated President Mugabe and is a violation
of
business ethics and is in total disregard of African
values.”
Muckraker believes robust satire is part and parcel of democratic
behaviour.
Instead of entertaining threats from Zanu PF gangs and affiliated
businessmen Nando’s should stand up to bullying. And Zimbabweans who regard
the spicy Portuguese chicken as among their favourite dishes are free to
suspend consumption until Nando’s finds its
cojones!
Irony, as usual, is always lost on Jonathan Moyo
when he makes diatribes
against those he deems his political opponents at
that point in time. In a
recent article attacking Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai over the Locadia
Tembo issue, Moyo ventured into the terrain of
political prostitution.
“Promiscuity is very dangerous, be it political or
sexual,” Moyo stated.
“A promiscuous politician or promiscuous sexual
partner cannot be trusted.
And a would-be leader who, like Morgan
Tsvangirai, is both politically and
sexually promiscuous is double trouble.
Yet trust is the essence and thus
the bedrock not only of political
leadership but also of sexual relations
including marriage.
“The
bottom line on both counts is that there’s now monumental evidence
which
proves beyond any reasonable doubt that Tsvangirai cannot be trusted.
You
can trust him at your own peril.”
This is coming from Moyo who had
described Mugabe’s continued rule as “a
fatal danger to the public interest
of Zimbabweans”. In the same article,
Moyo goes on to state
that:
“(That) Mugabe must now go is thus no longer a dismissible
opposition slogan
but a strategic necessity that desperately needs urgent
legal and
constitutional action by Mugabe himself well ahead of the
presidential
election scheduled for March 2008 in order to safeguard
Zimbabwe’s national
interest, security and sovereignty.”
Fast-forward to
2011 and Moyo is now singing a different tune.
“Mugabe remains the only
person who talks to the people and who talks the
indigenous talk. We are
better off with him than the others,” Moyo now says.
As we said, the irony is
always lost.
Muckraker was amused by the antics of Zanu
PF activists in the UK led by
George Shire, Lloyd Msipa and Laurence
Mzembi.
The Zimbabwean reports that the activists had said, last week, that
they
were going to present a petition to UK Premier David Cameron calling
for an
end to the “vicious neo-colonialist, racist, destructive and
ineffective,
illegal sanctions which have deprived Zimbabweans of
electricity and water,
destroyed agriculture, caused potholes, prevented
drugs reaching the sick
and the supply of spares for ambulances and caused
the drought and floods”.
Phew! What a mouthful.
If they are
“ineffective” as they claim, why are they protesting we wonder?
And what are
they doing hiding in the UK? What sort of solidarity is that?
However,
reports The Zimbabwean, the petition had only managed to amass 51
signatures. As a result, this had delayed the planned march from Lancaster
House. In any case, the place near 10 Downing Street set aside for
demonstrations was occupied by Yemenis celebrating the ousting of the
despised President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Talk about going against the
current. As we always say these cadres should
leave the “thieving
neo-colonialists” of Britain and come back “home” to
enjoy the fruits of
their party’s policies.
ZBC reports that the Zimbabwe’s
Ex-Political Prisoners, Detainees and
Restrictees Association (ZEPPDRA)
Harare province “has joined other
provinces in rallying behind the Head of
State and Government and
Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces,
President Robert Mugabe
as their candidate for the harmonised elections
scheduled for next year”.
In a statement on Tuesday, the eve of the Zanu-PF
Annual National People’s
conference ZEPPDRA vice chairman Harare province,
Benjamin Chakauya said the
president is a strong defender of African
sovereignty and has the “tenacity”
to repulse the West’s machinations
against the country.
Funny how these dubiously named organisations
only spring up at Zanu PF
conferences or the president’s birthday. Meanwhile
ZBC reports that “Zanu PF
supporters expect the conference to come up with
resolutions that will
transform the socio-economic and political landscape
of the country ahead of
the anticipated elections next year”.
Funny, Zanu
PF couldn’t do any of these things over the past 30 years but
now wants us
to believe it can get them done in a flash! No wonder nobody
believes a word
they say.
We were interested to read in Business Day that
the South African Supreme
Court of Appeal has ruled that President Jacob
Zuma’s appointment of Menzi
Simelane as director of public prosecutions was
unconstitutional and
invalid.
Muckraker drew attention to this matter
several months ago.
The court set aside Simelane’s appointment as
national director of public
prosecutions on the grounds that Zuma had made
“material errors of fact and
law in the process leading up to his
appointment”.
“We have reason to believe that Zuma did not give due regard to
Mr Simelane’s
experience, conscientiousness and integrity when making the
appointment,”
the court said.
If there were question marks over
his fitness for office, the court said,
there had to be a satisfactory
process to clear up any allegations against
him.
Zuma failed on both
these scores, Justice Navsa said. He ignored the
findings of the Ginwala
report, regarding her findings as irrelevant.
“In failing to take the Ginwala
enquiry into account,” the court declared,
“the president took a decision in
respect of which he ignored relevant
considerations. By doing so he
misconstrued his powers and acted
irrationally.
“I accept that the
president must have a multitude of daily duties and is a
very busy man,”
Justice Navsa said.
“However, when he is dealing with an office as important
as that of the
national director of public prosecutions time should be taken
to get it
right.”
Finally Bulgaria’s soccer soap
opera took a fresh twist on Monday when Prime
Minister Boyko Borisov (52)
urged organisers to get rid of the country’s
player of the year poll ––
after he spectacularly won.
Flamboyant Borisov, who sometimes plays as a
forward for third division
Vitosha Bistritsa, triumphed in the fans’ poll
after collecting 44% of the
votes with Manchester United striker Dimitar
Berbatov coming second with
24%.
Bulgaria’s national team and domestic
clubs were heavily criticised by local
media and fans after a poor year in
European competition, reports the BBC.
Still, how bad can the Bulgarian
players be to be beaten by a 52 year old
politician?
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 December 2011
16:09
MEDIA reports state that the Governor of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ)
Gideon Gono has suggested that the prevailing multi-currency
system be
restructured by replacing the United States dollar with the
Chinese yuan.
He is said to justify this recommendation on the grounds of
the volatility
and weakness that has characterised the US dollar since the
almost global
financial recessions of the last few years, and the sharply
contrasting
strength of the yuan. He further suggested that the currency
change would
enhance Zimbabwe’s trade with China, consistent with Zimbabwe’s
“Look East”
policy.
General reaction to Gono’s proposal has been
very negative, compounding the
widely-held critical views (very pronouncedly
unjustified!) of Gono and the
RBZ. Most of the criticisms are
ill-considered and unfounded, but no one
gets everything right. Gono and the
RBZ should seriously reconsider their
proposal that Zimbabwe adopts the yuan
into its multi-currency basket while
removing the US
dollar.
Despite the great strength of China’s currency, to a
major extent China
transacts its international trade in US dollars. It must
also be borne in
mind that Zimbabwe presently has relatively limited access
to the yuan, its
principal currency inflows being the South African rand and
US dollar and,
save for export earnings on sales of diverse minerals and
tobacco, Zimbabwe
is not able to generate significant inflows of the Chinese
currency.
This is especially so because South Africa is Zimbabwe’s
principal trading
partner for imports and exports and this is attributable
to regional
collaboration, proximity of the Zimbabwean and South African
markets.In
addition, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Zimbabwe has for
many decades
emanated from South Africa, resulting in strongly forged links
between the
two countries.
Moreover, despite there being few
authoritative statistics on the extent of
currency inflows into Zimbabwe
from the country’s nationals now residing in
the diaspora, it is
indisputable that one of the greatest sources of foreign
currency receipts
into Zimbabwe are those Zimbabwean nationals abroad, and
almost all of them
remit the funds in South African rands, US dollars and
British
pounds.
Adopting the yuan as a financial currency will
significantly diminish the
value of these fund transfers to Zimbabweans, who
would in many instances
need to resort to converting the received currency
into the yuan.
The proposal is also flawed in that, whilst it is
desirable and necessary
for Zimbabwe to maximise its international trade
links and attendant trade
volumes, there are grave doubts as to the merits
of Zimbabwe intensifying
those links with China to an extent that it becomes
almost wholly dependent
upon China.
There are innumerable
examples, worldwide of China gaining near-total
domination of economies,
thanks to its wealth and its trade controls created
by developing pronounced
dependencies of those economies upon China.
Zimbabwe should pursue increased
trade and investment links with China, but
not to an extent that accords
China near-total control, directly or
indirectly, over the Zimbabwean
economy.
Already China has achieved that to a significant extent
in respect of
Zimbabwe’s textile and clothing sectors, to the great
prejudice of the
continuance of operations of those industrial enterprises.
Furthermore,
although China makes many outstanding products of exceptionally
high
quality, under-developed and developing economies are recipients of
China’s
rejects and manufactured seconds.
Zimbabwe in general,
and Gono in particular, must also not lose sight of the
fact that the law of
gravity (what goes up must come down) is also
analogously pertinent to
currencies. All currencies have a tendency to
fluctuate, driven by diverse
circumstances, and at some time or other, it is
inevitable that this will
also happen to the yuan. A decline in the value of
the yuan can be
occasioned by some future ill-considered and negative
Chinese policy
decisions, by rises in the value of other currencies, or by
unfortunate acts
of God and nature (although, for China’s sake, one hopes
that the latter
does not occur).
Thus, however beneficial it may presently appear
to be for Zimbabwe to
strengthen its currency linkage to the yuan, that
could well be
counterproductive and negative in future. Similarly,
currencies that
Zimbabwe is presently most closely linked to can rise or
fall in value from
time to time, and undoubtedly will do so. Therefore,
placing primary
Zimbabwean currency linkage to the yuan, and thereby
diminishing its linkage
to other currencies, may well yield medium or
long-term negative results.
It is also of critical importance that
Zimbabwe does not, yet again, erode
both domestic and international
confidence by precipitously resorting to
major changes in currency
policies. The harm done over the years with the
fluctuations and
restructuring of Zimbabwe’s former currency, effected
recurrently, totally
demoralised most of the population, enterprises,
investors, and others.
They motivated pronounced distrust in the currency,
in the banking system,
and in the RBZ.
Slowly, confidence is being restored, thanks to the
multi-currency system
introduced in 2009, although for a long time there was
widespread scepticism
as to continuance of that system. Fortunately,
several repeated statements
by government and, in particular, Finance
minister Tendai Biti, that the
system will remain in force until at the
least proven ongoing economic
stability has been attained has slowly been
restoring confidence, although
not yet fully so.
On the
strength of those statements, there is a progressive growth in
restored
belief in the security of banking operations, and in retention of
value in
currencies held by the populace. This would be negated by varying
the
composition of the multi-currency system, believed to remain in force
until
at least 2014, based on the official statements that the measure of
economic
stability having obtained would be at least two successive years of
substantive economic growth.
Gono’s recommendation of a move from
the US dollar to the yuan is also
jeopardising a revival of confidence in
the RBZ. Although almost entirely
the widespread criticisms of and contempt
for the RBZ were driven not by
ill-considered and damaging RBZ policies, but
by numerous disastrous actions
which the RBZ was forced by government to
pursue, this latest suggestion
undermines any immediate prospects of
recovery of confidence in the Central
Bank.
Most of all, that
loss of confidence will be experienced by those who have
sustained major
currency losses in recent years as a result of Zimbabwean
currency
instability, repeated policy changes, and non-accessibility to
lawfully-owned funds not released by the RBZ and banks.
These and
other factors are strong grounds for Zimbabwe voicing an emphatic
“No” to
the yuan being the future foundation of the multicurrency system in
lieu of
the US dollar.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 December 2011
16:03
Paidamoyo Muzulu
WILL Bulawayo live up to the literal
meaning of its name –– a place of
killing –– at the ongoing Zanu PF
mini-congress at the Zimbabwe
International Trade Fair ahead of possible
elections next year? Will this
“mini-congress” finally solve Zanu PF’s
succession quandary which has dogged
the party for the past decade? Are some
dreams likely to turn into
nightmares, and will new leaders emerge with more
power than the usual
suspects?
President Robert Mugabe heightened
the expectation of leadership renewal
last week while addressing a central
committee meeting by suggesting that
the ongoing conference would be a
“mini-congress”.
“It is a critical meeting which we should prepare
for adequately since it’s
the last conference before the elections,” Mugabe
told his party’s central
committee. “For that reason the conference more or
less has the status of a
congress because of the matters we are going to be
seized with.”
Mugabe’s line of thinking fits perfectly with the strategy and
scheme Zanu
PF think tanks and analysts, such as Jonathan Moyo (pictured),
have been
advocating for.
Moyo has devoted acres of space in his
opinion pieces in the Sunday Mail to
call for the party to deal with the
succession issue, including the poignant
article on “Generation
40”.
It remains to be seen if Mugabe and the presidium will be swayed
by such
pleas and allow the so-called “Generation 40”to seize the initiative
and
force the succession issue onto the agenda.
The issue of
which camp wrests control of the party between the Emmerson
Mnangagwa and
Joice Mujuru-led factions should finally be laid to rest by
the end of the
gathering tomorrow.
The call for leadership renewal has reached a
crescendo within the party.
Leaked cables from the whistleblower website
WikiLeaks proved beyond doubt
that some senior Zanu PF leaders are worried
by the lack of succession
planning or any leadership renewal
strategy.
This has fuelled and intensified factionalism within the
party as each
faction tries to outwit the other in a bid to replace
Mugabe.
For years Mnangagwa had looked like the undisputed front
runner, but his
manoeuvres to secure the party’s vice-presidency fell flat
in 2004 and
claimed the scalps of six provincial chairpersons. Mujuru
emerged triumphant
on a gender card.
Will the Mnangagwa camp this
time finally secure Mugabe’s blessing ahead of
Mujuru, particularly in light
of damning revelations that her late husband
was behind Simba Makoni’s
presidential candidacy in 2008, or will new dark
horses
emerge?
However, political analysts strongly believe Zanu PF is not
ready to tackle
the emotive and overstayed succession issue.
Sapes Trust
director Ibbo Mandaza said: “There will hardly be any discussion
on
leadership renewal. That issue can be only be tackled by a proper
congress.”
Political observer Joy Mabenge concurred with Mandaza
saying the “Generation
40” had so much to do before they could raise the
matter at the next
congress.
“The party is not ready to renew its
leadership,” said Mabenge. “The
so-called posts up for grabs are posts to
the politburo to be filled by
appointees. This will involve cooption of
members to the politburo to fill
vacancies left open by the
deceased.”
Mabenge said leadership renewal could only be done at a
congress and not a
conference despite the hullabaloo from certain party
leaders.
“The Generation 40 led by Jonathan Moyo will have to wait for the
next
congress. They will have to work extremely hard to gain ground and
refine
their tactics to improve on their previous attempt now infamously
called the
Tsholotsho Declaration that fell flat on its
face.”
The political analysts agree that Zanu PF can only strengthen
itself by
clearly spelling out its leadership renewal or succession
strategy, which
had become one of its well-known
liabilities.
Mugabe’s old age and fears around his deteriorating
health following several
flights to Singapore this year has been of major
concern to those within and
without the party.
Mugabe’s influence
and Zanu PF’s performance have been waning over the years
culminating in its
defeat in the 2008 elections.
Endorsing Mugabe at the age of 88 as its
candidate for the next elections
would be a huge political
risk.
It remains to be seen whether the former liberation movement
can sail
through its current turbulence without changing
guard.
Whatever happens, the Bulawayo conference would remain etched
in the annals
of history as a missed opportunity or the turning-point for
Zanu PF’s
fortunes as it plans to regain lost political ground.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 December 2011
15:54
Tafirenyika Makunike
I HAVE gone through Zimbabwe’s 2012
budget a couple of times and
unfortunately I do not see enough indications
of key levers that will propel
us to the desired heights.
Metaphorically,
Zimbabwe is like a dingy that has been rowing backwards on
autopilot along
the Zambezi before suddenly coming to life and speeding full
throttle right
ahead. It picks up speed and we jump up and down with
delight. Forward is
good, at last Zimbabwe is making progress!
But as the dingy
glides down the Zambezi, have we defined the destination?
By when should we
get there? What speed do we need to travel at to get to
our destination in
the given time line. Should we even be on the Zambezi, or
we should have
considered the Limpopo to take us where we have to go?
A 9% growth
may sound good but it is coming off a very low base. Even
Mozambique, when
it came out of the civil war with Renamo, mustered a couple
of 10% growth
rates per annum. If the economy is coming from the bottom,
getting to the
top requires consistent growth for long periods.
When the unity
government was formed we all celebrated and felt we should
give the new
government time to sort things out. We have given them enough
time to do so.
Now is the time to move ahead with a proper plan.
Where do we want to
see Zimbabwe 10-20 years from now? This is what should
drive our budgeting
and planning. If we all put our heads together, it is
possible to get
Zimbabwe in the middle income league in 20 years’ time.
The present
is important, but it is certainly not more important than the
future.
Unfortunately, our budgeting, like the biblical Esau, is seized by
the needs
of the present day stomachs, particularly of the underfed civil
servants.
With 63% of our budget going towards salaries of government
workers, future
personnel allocations need to be based on increased
productivity of the work
force.
Unfortunately, we are dealing with politicians with a
shelf-life of about
five years. To get where we need to go, we require
politicians who think
outside the box with a vision beyond the next
election. Democracy alone will
not sort out what is required in Zimbabwe. If
it was enough, then we would
not have witnessed the calamitous debt levels
in Greece, Italy, Spain,
Portugal and Ireland as all these countries
regularly have elections. We
should not make democracy a decoy of what we
have to and must do. In
reality, communist China is giving a better guidance
on how to sustain and
manage annual growth around 10% for more than 10
years.
There are aspects of the budget that are commendable, such as
the
agricultural support starting with the US$45million Subsidised
Agriculture
Inputs Support Scheme which included the US$8,1 million inputs
facility for
100 000 vulnerable farmers and US$50,2 million towards grain
procurement for
the GMB with the intention of building up the Strategic
Grain Reserve up to
the stipulated 946 000 tonnes.
The US$16,6
million towards research and extension services, the US$20,3
million
communal farmers subsidised agriculture, the US$17 million A1, small
scale
commercial, resettled and A2 farmers support facility and the US$30
million
grain input swap facility are also positives.
There is space for a
committed private sector to be involved such as the Old
Mutual supported
US$30 million youth empowerment fund, and the proposed
US$20 million which
has been provided by Stanbic Bank for the Jobs Fund. The
Distressed and
Marginalised Areas Fund (DiMAF), a five-year collaborative
facility with a
seed capital of US$40 million from government and Old Mutual
Zimbabwe, of
which both parties are contributing US$20 million each, is a
good example of
public-private partnership.
While the minister spoke of
“re-formalisation of the economy through
deliberate awards of contracts to
competitive and deserving SMEs, as well as
promotion of business links with
large corporate firms for outsourcing and
sub-contracting, that way
promoting the empowerment programme”, there does
not seems to be resources
to support this.
The minister identified development clusters such as
diamond processing,
cutting and polishing; soft and hard wood cluster;
resources base; livestock
cluster; cotton, sugar and ethanol clusters; iron
ore cluster; energy and
hydrocarbon clusters; gold; tourism cluster and
offshore financial hub; and
horticultural hub. Without resources, this
sounds like a lot of hot air.
If we facilitate Hwange 7 and 8
construction at the cost of US$1 billion,
and expansion of Kariba South at
an estimated cost of US$400m resulting in
additional 900 MW, then we will
have power to support the start of
meaningful economic growth. If an
investor is found for Lupane’s coal bed
methane gas reserves which are
estimated to produce about 300 MW, and a
concerted effort is taken on Gokwe
North, then our power needs are catered
for.
It is a shame that
mining royalties amounted to a paltry US$44,1 million,
compared to sales of
US$1,7 billion. I support Biti’s proposal to increase
the royalty on gold
and platinum from 4,5% and 5% to 7% and 10%. There is
nothing to apologise
for as this is the trend across the whole world.
Australia has been
running rings around BHP and Rio Tinto to extract more
from their mining
profits. Investors may throw their toys around but sooner
rather than later
they will calm down when they realise that platinum is
largely under the
ground of south Africa, Zimbabwe and Russia.
If we analyse the
revenue, it is clear we are not getting enough direct
taxation. The gap
between the formal and informal economy has widened.
Unfortunately, the
budget does not signal sufficient strategic intent to
create an environment
to support new enterprises development.
Tafirenyika Makunike is the
chairman and founder of
Nepachem (www.nepachem.co.za), an enterprise
development and consulting
company. — Newzimbabwe.com.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 December 2011
15:47
Dzikamai Bere
SOCIETIES emerging from a legacy of massive
human rights violations are torn
between fear and hope. What must be done
with the ugly past? Should it be
confronted, or should it be buried
forever? This is the challenge that
confronts Zimbabwe’s coalition
government as it prepares for the next
election. Is Zimbabwe ready to
confront the question of truth? The Standard
of May 1 reported that
President Robert Mugabe had “pledged” to set up a
team to look into
Gukurahundi (Midlands and Matabeleland atrocities) and map
the way forward.
This is yet to happen.
Gukurahundi still stands out as the worst of
the many atrocities committed
by the government or people acting with its
blessings in independent
Zimbabwe. There have been many discussions around
Gukurahundi and other
atrocities in Zimbabwe.
In March 2010, Zanu
PF MPs walked out of parliament after their colleagues
from the MDC-T
proposed an investigation into the Matabeleland atrocities.
In the same
month, the Zimbabwe Republic Police in Bulawayo shut down an
exhibition on
Gukurahundi by artist Owen Maseko. Maseko was arrested and
spent the weekend
in cells. In November 2010, war veterans’ leader Joseph
Chinotimba demanded
that minister David Coltart apologises for calling
Gukurahundi“genocide”.
Zimbabwe’s coalition government is
mandated to ensure democratisation and
economic stability. One of the
things that have occupied the thoughts of
the Zimbabwean people is the need
to recover the truth of what happened in
our past as a way of building
sustainable peace.
The intellectual discourse is flooded with
theories on dealing with the
past. In February 2009, the Organ on National
Healing, Reconciliation and
Integration was formed with the mandate to
advice government properly on how
to deal with the past. The Organ has
remained largely unknown to its
constituency, ignorant of its mandate and
its ministers discordant in
matters of policy regarding national
healing.
Civil society has tried to fill in the gap.
The Law
Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) as part of its contribution to the
constitution-making process in Zimbabwe produced its model constitution
towards the end of 2010. In this model, LSZ addresses the issue of truth
and suggests the creation of a commission to recover the truth and
facilitate reconciliation.
In August 2011, the Zimbabwe Human
Rights NGO Forum published the findings
of a nationwide survey on
transitional justice. According to the report, 83%
of the respondents
believe that victims of political violence should be
rehabilitated through
counselling, reparations, prosecution of perpetrators,
truth recovery and
apologies from the perpetrators. In short, the people are
saying, “Let’s
deal with it!”
Many sectors have made similar recommendations both
locally and
internationally. The government has responded by accusing those
pushing for
truth recovery of trying to turn back the clock or “opening old
wounds”. Is
it? Maybe.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Chairperson of
the South African Truth and
Reconciliation Commission (TRC), writes in the
foreword to the TRC Report:
“However painful the experience, the wounds of
the past must not be allowed
to fester. They must be opened. They must be
cleansed. And balm must be
poured on them so they can
heal.
This is not to be obsessed with the past. It is to take
care that the past
is properly dealt with for the sake of the
future.”
There are no illusions about the achievements of the South African
TRC or
any other truth commission. Since the formation of the first truth
commission in Uganda in 1974, over 45 truth commissions have been instituted
the world over in an attempt to recover the truth and foster reconciliation.
There are thousands of disillusioned victims who have no kind words for
these commissions. However, the achievements cannot be ignored. Their
failures are nowhere outside the realms of humanity.
What we can
learn from all these efforts at recovering the truth, especially
from our
southern neighbours, is that there are times in the history of a
society
when men and women have to be brave enough to confront the question
of
truth, truthfully. It takes courage and determination; and that was the
magic of Nelson Mandela. He confronted it.
Since the 1990s, there
seem to have been an explosion of the search for
truth. Individuals and
societies hunger for truth. The world has moved
along this overwhelming
demand for truth. The generations are anxious. It
is part of the global
transition from repression towards more accountable
and transparent
governance. This world movement is difficult to ignore.
On March 24
2011, the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon
launched the
International Day for the Right to the Truth of Victims of
Gross Human
Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. On September
29 2011,
the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution (A/HRC/18/L22)
providing for
the appointment of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of
truth,
justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence. Truth
commissions
have been set up in Brazil, Sri-Lanka, and the Ivory Coast, to
mention but a
few. In the process, international law is taking the same
complexion,
international and regional courts are becoming less tolerant of
those who
block the rights of victims to know the truth.
The impact of truth
commissions is much more than recovering a record of the
past and making
recommendations. It is a recovery of humanity itself by
allowing societies
to reflect collectively on the choices they made in the
past. It is
retracing our memory to find out where exactly we lost our
soul.
Commissions are facilitating participation of societies in governance
in a
more consultative, engaging and transparent manner. Democracy is
evolving
rapidly. It is not just about open debate; it is also about
community
dialogue. It is not just about the casting of ballots after five
years and
thereafter let politicians decide what happens to our everyday
life.
Governments are challenged to open wide the windows and
doors to allow for
more citizen participation in what happens every day.
With this growing
movement of participative governance, which will soon
intensify with the
setting up of a UN working group on the question of
truth, can Zimbabwe
continue to shy away from the truth? What is at
stake?
Opening up the Pandora’s box is more than just a question of
truth and
memory. It is a matter of increased citizen involvement in
governance. Our
future is too important to be left to spin doctors.
Zimbabwe is lagging
behind; its leaders are going against the tide of
history. We must now open
the doors and confront critical questions,
including the question of truth.
Dzikamai Bere works for a local
human rights organisation. He writes in
an individual capacity. Email:
dzikamaibere@gmail.com / blog
www.dzikamaibere.blogspot.com.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 08 December 2011 16:34
Africa
Report
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party opened its annual
conference
yesterday in Bulawayo with the contentious succession issue
absent from the
agenda. Mugabe (87), who has been at the helm of Zanu PF
since the mid-1970s
is expected to be endorsed as the first secretary and
presidential candidate
for future elections. However, though not on the
official agenda, the
succession debate is the elephant in the living room
and is set to dominate
discussions on the sidelines.
Despite
widespread consensus among senior party officials that Mugabe should
retire
before the next elections, fear of the unknown has prevented them
from
tackling the issue head-on. The reality is most people want the
president to
retire but no one has the courage to break the ice on that
issue.
It is reported that Mugabe suffers from prostate cancer
and many expected
him to use this meeting to anoint a successor. The Zanu PF
constitution says
one of the powers and a function of the conference is to
declare the
president of the party elected at congress as the party’s
candidate.
Congresses are held every five years, with the last one having
being held in
2009.
Since Mugabe was elected at the party’s last
congress, he remains its
presidential candidate until the next scheduled
congress in 2014, unless an
extraordinary congress is convened to remove
him. But for now senior party
officials say they are stuck with Mugabe, whom
they fear will be a liability
at the next elections.
Leaked
WikiLeaks cables, which dominated political discourse earlier this
year, are
also not on the agenda. It was expected that Mugabe would use the
occasion
to crack the whip on party members that confided in American envoys
that
they wanted him out. The WikiLeaks cables reveal that Mugabe’s possible
successors, including vice-president Joyce Mujuru, had clandestine meetings
with US diplomats where Mugabe’s weaknesses were discussed.
Party
chairman, Simon Khaya Moyo, said the conference was non-elective and
was
aimed at gearing up for the forthcoming elections, adding that they
expected
6 000 people to attend.
“It’s a defining conference bearing in mind
the fact that this is the last
major meeting before the holding of
elections,” he said.
Moyo says the gathering would be “introspective
in terms of how the party
has performed since last year as we prepare for
polling next year”.
If Zimbabwe holds presidential elections next
year and if Mugabe is
re-elected, he could go on to become the oldest ever
serving African
president. He would be 93 in 2017 at the end of his next
five-year term in
office. . — www.theafricareport.com.