The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
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“Iraq today has become a
vast inferno created by blatant and completely illegal and defiant acts of
aggression by the United States, Britain and their allies. We are now being
coerced to accept and believe that a new political-cum-religious doctrine has
arisen, namely that ‘there is but one political god, George Bush, and Tony Blair
is his prophet’.” President Mugabe in a speech on Iraq at the United Nations
General Assembly.
“The regime pulled out its last card, but nothing has come of it: whites,
land, puppets, price controls, media controls, intolerance, nationalism,
anti-corruption, cosmetic electoral reforms, nothing.” MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai, commenting on the current Zimbabwe crisis.
“(Information Minister Jonathan) Moyo is a ranting and shallow minded
propagandist who has sapped the moral authority of the president.” Ugandan David
Nyekorach-Matsanga after being barred from entering Zimbabwe.
“We want to leave this meeting with an agreement. If you refuse to
cooperate we can take you to the army barracks and detain you and you will see
what will happen. I have fought 45 battles since I was 17 years old and I have
never lost. This one is just a cup of tea and we can solve it within a matter of
minutes.” Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Constantine Chiwenga
threatening striking doctors at a meeting in January.
“Young man you must not waste my time asking irrelevant questions. Be
direct and straight to the point.” Chinhoyi Zanu PF MP Philip Chiyangwa to chief
law officer Joseph Jagada during his cross-examination on his links with the
collapsed ENG Capital Asset Management.
“The accreditation (of journalists) is not, therefore, a mere formality. If
it were, why would it need the minister (of Information)’s approval?” Supreme
Court judge Justice Wilson Sandura in a dissenting judgement in the Aippa
challenge by Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe.
“(British Prime Minister) Tony Blair has said Africa is a scar on the
conscience of the world. Mugabe is a scar on the face of Africa. He is one of
the grotesque tyrants of the planet, and the sooner we can get rid of him the
better.” Irish rock star-turned poverty campaigner Bob Geldof on the launch of
Live Aid, a fund to counter human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
“Come rain, come sunshine, there is no going back on Kondozi.” Information
minister Jonathan Moyo on the seizure of Kondozi Farm by government.
“I haven’t lost to anyone. How can I lose to those immoral little boys.”
Vice-President Joseph Msika reacting to reports that he had lost the battle to
save Kondozi Farm from seizure to Jonathan Moyo.
“It is appalling to see a country engaged in acts of self-destruction with
(Reserve Bank governor Gideon) Gono exerting more energy in hounding individuals
— as if he was a police commissioner — than working on economic recovery. Sound
economic policies can never be substituted with a display of venom and arresting
individuals.” Self-exiled tycoon Mutumwa Mawere after being arrested in South
Africa for alleged externalisation of foreign currency.
“If true, the government must explain why it funded such a luxury for a
political head reputed to be a dictator.” Malaysian opposition leader Paham
Cumarasamy urging an investigation into how former premier Mahathir Mohamad
“donated” construction material for President Mugabe’s Borrowdale home.
“Yes, I restrained him from beating up a member of parliament. You don’t
just wait there when a mad man is charging at you. It’s true, I kicked him very
hard. What’s wrong with that?” Anti-Corruption minister Didymus Mutasa
commenting on the fracas in parliament involving Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa and MDC legislator Roy Bennett.
“Murungu wenyu uyu ndinomurova, ndibatei (I will beat up this white man of
yours, can someone please restrain me),” Minister without Portfolio Elliot
Manyika during the Bennett scuffle in parliament.
“It is the view of the coalition that the proposed amendments to Aippa
would not make it a good law. It’s like applying lipstick to a frog.” Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition commenting on the amendments to Section 40 and 83 of Aippa.
“Zanu PF has come a long way and at different times it has had infiltrators
and people planted within — the fifth columnists — but they have always been
flushed out.” Zanu PF chairman John Nkomo warning ruling party officials on the
multiple farm allocation row.
“They are going to face the severest punishment available in our statutes,
including capital punishment.” Foreign Affairs minister Stan Mudenge after the
capture of 70 “mercenaries” at the Harare International Airport.
“Ironically Zimbabwe cannot even beam its ZBC to Victoria Falls for
tourists to see or the Herald to be read in Tsholotsho where the infamous
homosexual gay rant comes from.” Nyekorach-Matsanga in reaction to Jonathan
Moyo’s accusations that he organised the exclusive interview for Sky News with
Mugabe.
“Personally, I don’t use condoms, they are so inconvenient, one has to
fumble and stop, particularly when you are drunk. They are not the best
protection against Aids.” Dr Timothy Stamps, one time long serving Health
minister in an interview with Zanu PF mouthpiece, The Voice.
“If they are an illegal entity, the police would have arrested them by
now,” Zimbabwe International Book Fair executive director Samuel Matsangaise
reacting to controversy about the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe exhibiting at
the Book Fair.
“It’s my prayer that President Mugabe should live longer to deliver us to
the promised land.” Zanu PF-aligned Reverend Obediah Musindo at the opening of
the recent Zanu PF congress.
“Mugabe go? Go where? He should rule even if it means he is walking with
the aid of a walking stick. He is the father of our nation; he is entitled to
rule us forever.” Vice-President Joseph Msika on suggestions President Mugabe
should step down.
“I am calling for attitudinal change within our newly resettled farmers.
Under the regime of Ian Smith and up to 1999, 4 000 white farmers produced
enough food for the nation and had more left over for export. Today, after the
land reform programme, there are over 12 000 farmers (A2) but they are failing
to do what their predecessors did.” Enos Chikowore reporting on the dismal
production on Zimbabwe’s grabbed farms.
“It is a crime to conceive the exit of the head of state. I love my leader
and I am committed to him. I would love him to continue (to rule) until death.”
Zanu PF secretary for administration Emmerson Mnangagwa responding to whether he
would like to be president.
“Media should report correctly on the Unity Accord. (But) I don’t believe all
media should speak with one voice.” Zanu PF party chair John Nkomo speaking
ahead of Unity Day on December 22.
“No bank will collapse.” Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono in
September. |
Mugabe’s yes-men HOW have our rulers been administering Zimbabwe this year? Let’s take a look at the performance of some of the main actors. Largely clueless at
problem-solving, pays more attention to growing dissension in his party caused
by overstaying in his position. Seems enraged British prime minister Tony Blair
completely ignores his rantings and insults.
Thought he was using Jonathan Moyo, not knowing Moyo also fooled and used him
for his own ends.
Increasingly despotic, out of step with regional leaders and democratic
trends. Seems incapable of taking responsibility for anything, has a long list
of people and causes to blame for everything.
Increasing cases of citizens dragged to court for making disparaging remarks
about him indicative of reduced respect, and paranoia and pettiness of the
system to even prosecute such cases. Hardships continue under him but he is so
out of touch he thinks the nation is thriving instead. Sound and fury about
corruption was nothing but a gimmick to steer attention away from his failures.
Zero.
Joseph Msika, vice-president. Really doesn’t do anything that makes any
difference to the nation. Spends all his time trying to sound and act tough to
compensate for how he lost face and influence when Mugabe undermined him earlier
this year by allowing some youngish ministers to humiliate him over policy
issues, confirming his powerlessness. Zero.
Samuel Mumbengegwi, Industry and International Trade. Thinks the way to
carry oneself as a minister is to try to intimidate everybody by glaring and
always looking glum. Old-school bureaucrat from whom no new ideas can be
expected, just sort of sits there in his position. Zero.
Jonathan Moyo, propaganda. Brilliantly ran rings around Mugabe for the last
several years, gaining unprecedented power to almost rival Mugabe’s before his
characteristic overzealousness tripped him up in the last few months.
But was able to make the isolated and poorly informed Mugabe a hostage to his
world view, not seeing that bludgeoning and silencing opponents did not mean
winning them over. Is so much like Mugabe it was inevitable they would
eventually fall out. Dangerous and full of hate but also a real comic.
Needs help of several kinds. Two out of 10 for his entertainment value and
for sheer nerve.
Chris Mushohwe, Transport and Communication.
Made a lot of noise about reforming struggling parastatals under his ministry
when first appointed but predictably nothing happened. Believes in parcelling
out money to maintain voter loyalty. Not much sign of leadership qualities, but
sheepishly led to possible slaughter in Tsholotsho by the crafty and ambitious
Jonathan Moyo.
Rambling explanation in the Herald of why he went to the infamous Tsholotsho
meeting was fatuous and embarrassing, he should have found other ways of
grovelling to Mugabe for his political life. Zero.
Paul Mangwana, Labour and Social Welfare. Rough around the edges, has none
of the finesse one would hope for in a minister but under Mugabe that is not
necessarily a disadvantage. No ministerial achievements associated with him.
Zero.
Patrick Chinamasa, Justice. Rule of law continues to take a hard knock
under him, being applied so selectively the expression is almost meaningless.
Considers his job to be to limit citizens’ freedoms. A Mugabe yes-man, no
dangerous independent thoughts can be expected from him.
Some Zanu PF provinces played a practical joke by proposing him as a
candidate for party chairmanship, a move that was predictably scorned by the
rest of the party. Likes to talk and act tough but wilts under strong challenge.
Weak, hopeless. Zero.
David Parirenyatwa, Health. One of the few ministers who have remained
largely professional despite strong peer pressure to spew polemics.
Health services continue to suffer like everything else from the widespread
destruction of the country but Parirenyatwa is active and hands-on, making the
best of a bad situation. Six.
Herbert Murerwa, Higher Education. Safe sort of minister who does not get
involved in any major scandals but no major innovations either. One of the few
ministers who generally personally conduct themselves like gentlemen in a regime
over-run with hooligans from top to bottom, may have to eventually account for
how he justified being a long-serving member of such a government. Four.
Didymus Mutasa, Anti-corruption. Notorious old warlord greatly feared in
the Makoni area for terrorism against political opponents, recently rewarded for
it with a briefcase ministry by his long-term pal Mugabe. Made a few tough
sounding statements soon after appointment then disappeared from view.
Washed up, a spent force who only leads a do-nothing “ministry” by virtue of
being a Mugabe crony. Highly-placed crooks in government and elsewhere can rest
quite easy knowing nothing will happen to them. Zero.
Kembo Mohadi, Home Affairs. Non-achiever now given to making threats
against political opponents in his panic at the possibility of being dislodged
from the sweet gravy train. Has failed to be an advocate for more resources for
the police force that falls under him and to make them an enlightened modern
protection force for all citizens, rather than a tool of the ruling party. Zero.
Ignatious Chombo, Local Government. Spent all his time the last few years
thwarting the will of Harare residents by undermining overwhelmingly elected MDC
city council in countless crude ways. In his spare time he threatens chiefs to
put pressure on their people to vote “correctly”.
Crudely unsubtle for a minister, but enthusiastic and obedient; assured of
long tenure and prosperity under Mugabe. Zero.
I could go on but I am getting increasingly depressed as I write this. There
really aren’t any brilliant performers in Mugabe’s cabinet and I would merely be
repeating myself to bother to rate the others. There is talk of another cabinet
reshuffle soon but as long as Mugabe is at the head of any new-look cabinet, get
set for more decline, more fear, more hate, more repression and more misery!
*Chido Makunike is a Harare-based writer. |
SCORES of white Zimbabwean farmers dispossessed of their farms under the government’s controversial land reforms have turned to countries in the region and beyond for sustenance, their union says.
Dozens have invested in
farming in neighbouring Zambia and Mozambique, while others are preparing to
settle in Nigeria.
Others have been invited to grow food for workers at mines in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC).
“These are business decisions relating to being able to economically sustain
their lives,” said Doug Taylor-Freeme, president of the Commercial Farmers’
Union (CFU).
“Obviously the first choice for the farmers is that they would like to
continue farming in Zimbabwe, but as time goes past they have to look after
their families and educate their children.
“That is why they tend to drift into other countries,” Taylor-Freeme said in
an interview.
Thousands of white Zimbabweans have been driven from their farms since 2000
when President Mugabe instituted a policy of seizing and redistributing prime
agricultural land to black people.
Taylor-Freeme said a number of countries are interested in Zimbabwean farmers
investing in their countries.
“There are a number of countries that have contacted us to say they would
like our expertise to help develop their agriculture,” he said. “The farmers are
creating branches of their businesses throughout Africa with the hope that one
day they will be able to invest back home.”
“The sad thing is that these are countries that used to be worried about the
competition that Zimbabwe used to provide,” he added.
Taylor-Freeme, who was recently elected co-vice president of the Southern
African Confederation of Agricultural Unions, said among other countries that
have expressed interest in Zimbabwean farmers are Ethiopia, Angola, Malawi,
Uganda and Tanzania.
Authorities in Nigeria’s central Kwara State have allocated 1 000ha of
farmland to each of 15 Zimbabwean farmers on 25-year leases. The farmers will
move in as soon as the infrastructure is in place.
A Nigerian government official said early this month that the Zimbabweans
will carry out “irrigation farming and not conventional farming. This allows
them to begin their farming any time they are ready.”
Of about 4 500 large-scale commercial farmers operating in Zimbabwe four
years ago, about 600 white farmers now remain in Zimbabwe and own just 3% of the
country’s land.
The 4 500 white farmers used to own a third of the country’s land, including
70% of prime farmland, before the government launched its reform programme in
February 2000. — Sapa-AFP.
IN a desperate move to cover up huge food deficits likely to hit the country at the beginning of next year, government has landed 14 550 tonnes of maize and wheat through South Africa, the Zimbabwe Independent has established.
Information provided by
South African Grain Information Services (Sagis) shows that between November and
last week government brought into the country 8 408 tonnes of maize and 6 142
tonnes of wheat. The wheat is from Argentina.
Sources at the Grain Marketing Board and Sagis said last month government
submitted orders for the purchase of about 300 000 tonnes of maize from South
Africa to cover the deficit at the beginning of 2005.
Sagis said South African maize exports had risen to a five-week high last
week because of demand from Zimbabwe.
“Last week South Africa shipped 5 060 tonnes of white maize to Zimbabwe,”
Sagis said. “In the week before Zimbabwe had imported 6 530 tonnes of maize from
South Africa.”
GMB chief executive Samuel Muvuti on Tuesday confirmed that his organisation
was importing maize.
“The issue of importing grain has been unnecessarily made newsworthy by some
sections of the media,” Muvuti said. “Actually we should be applauded for
importing maize. A lot of countries are importing maize.”
Muvuti was addressing journalists during a GMB media reception dinner in
Harare. Earlier on Muvuti had insisted that the grain being brought into the
country was ordered during drought periods.
Sources said government was secretly buying maize from South Africa through a
US$700 million credit line extended by US firm Sentry Financial International
and giant tobacco dealer, Dimon Incorporated, in July.
The first order of white maize sourced under the deal landed in Bulawayo in
August from South Africa. The quantities involved in the whole deal could not be
ascertained at the time of going to press.
Sources in Bulawayo said rail wagons belonging to Spoornet, South Africa’s
state-owned rail service, were moving the white maize to GMB silos.
The landed cost of maize from South Africa is estimated to be US$185 per
tonne.
It is believed that a United States firm will source about 200 000 tonnes of
white maize from South Africa’s Free State province.
Zimbabwe requires 1,8 million tonnes of maize for annual consumption plus 500
000 tonnes for strategic reserves. Government has until recently insisted that
there was a bumper maize harvest of 2,4 million tonnes. A parliamentary
portfolio committee on lands and agriculture exposed this to be untrue.
I WISH Taurai Mushambi who wrote the article “Thumbs up for diaspora housing scheme”, (Zimbabwe Independent, December 17), could do a bit of research on the earnings of most Zimbabweans in the UK.
The jobs that they do in
the care homes and shops and as packers in industry pay the minimum wages
(£4,85/hour) which may rise to £5,05/hour but can rarely go above £7/hour unless
one works in London.
For him to suggest that £1 175 could be half or even a quarter of monthly
earnings is very misleading.
Salaries for senior 1 therapists working in the National Health Service for
example, range from £23 265 to £27 770 per annum. There are no allowances to
augment the salary. Tax is 22% while national insurance is 12,5% on earnings of
£2 215/month.
A therapist will thus take home about £1 600 from which he will pay rent
(+/-£600), council tax (+/-£100) and utility bills (+/-£200).
The money left for food, insurance, clothes, sending people back home, petrol
for the car and mobile phone calls is £700. By the end of the month the person
is in the red.
In a nutshell, I do no think that many people in the diaspora, at least in
the UK, will afford the mortgage repayments in five years, not by any stretch of
the imagination.
If the same sort of reasoning was in the minds of the people who crafted the
scheme, they got most of it, if not all, wrong.
Duncan Mbadzo,
UK.
YOUR article “Thumbs up for diaspora housing scheme”, (Zimbabwe Independent, December 17), by Taurai Mushambi contains such gross inaccuracies that despite the disclaimer at the end, I think it would be unfair for your readers to accept it as resembling anything close to the truth.
I am not sure if the
Homelink Housing Development Scheme is as popular as the article suggests. The
article asserts that a monthly repayment of £1 175 represents only a quarter of
what most people in the UK earn.
It further alleges that with such repayments, the scheme offers Zimbabweans
abroad “a cheap source of financing”.
A figure of £1 000 represents a monthly net salary for an average person in
the UK. A quick search on the Internet will show that a teacher or a nurse, for
example, earns an annual salary of £18 000, which translates to £1 500 per month
before tax and other deductions. Even with a second job most people still will
not earn a net salary of £1 600.
I hope I am not engaging in a game of figures by losing the essence of the
report.
If the scheme is as popular as the report claims, then I think the rates
should be competitive. There is no point in offering an exchange rate of $11
000/GBP when the parallel market rate is way above that.
Much as people would love to contribute to the development of the country
through such innovative schemes as the HHDS, I do not think people will be lured
into schemes that would leave them worse off. It does not need a mathematical
genius to work out that it would be better to save the required money in cash
over five years, and buy the house in cash instead.
I always depend on you (Independent) to give accurate and reliable
information and respect you for giving the government credit when it deserves
it. In this instance, however, I think you got it wrong and I think you owe an
apology to your readers.
I hate to entertain the idea that your reporters too have become willing
tools to be used by the oppressive and unpopular regime to distort the truth and
twist facts in a vain attempt to gain some credibility in the minds of
right-thinking Zimbabweans.
I believe you are smarter than your colleagues at the state-controlled
newspapers.
Hudson Taivo,
United Kingdom.
THE Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) warns teachers that there are some dubious elements in our midst that seem to be championing the cause of teachers yet in actual effect, are swindling teachers of their hard-earned money.
They are moving around the
country promising teachers heaven on earth, yet in reality their promises are
illusionary and aimed at hoodwinking teachers who, for so long a time, have
remained victims of government’s intransigence.
There are people like the eccentric self-styled commander of farm invasions,
Joseph Chinotimba, a man of abundant and bogus war credentials, who is
spearheading a housing scheme which, among other things, seeks to provide
housing to teachers.
Firstly, people like Chinotimba, whose political career is presently in the
intensive care unit owing to his escapades in the volatile Tsholotsho
constituency, cannot lead such an initiative because he is dependent on
unwavering patronage which he now lacks.
Zanu PF is purely an entity that is held together by loyalty, patronage and
force. The housing project that he so proudly brags about is derived only from
patronage. Even the president does not have a housing cooperative under his
name, what more of political nonentities like Chinotimba.
The other dubious element who purports to help teachers is the self-ordained
God’s prophet, Reverend Obadiah Musindo. He is also involved in clandestine and
irregular investment crusades with teachers whom he promises housing.
PTUZ welcomes the efforts by these men who should join the rest of the
teachers in their fight for a living wage that can enable them to afford decent
housing. They need salaries that sustain the basic needs of a skilled worker in
Zimbabwe, which is not the case at the present moment, and is precisely the
reason why they fall prey to this kind of politicking.
Raymond Majongwe,
General Secretary, PTUZ,
Harare.
PRESIDENT Mugabe is scared of the fate which befell Nikita Khruschev of the former Soviet Union.
In order for Khruschev to
resign “gracefully”, power vultures within the Communist Party simply removed
the people surrounding him. This worked perfectly well and in 1964 he became the
first and only Soviet leader to resign, leaving the Soviet Union intact unlike
Mikhail Gorbarchev who perished together with the Soviet Union.
President Mugabe is obviously being informed accordingly by his intelligence
personnel. Jonathan Moyo is however still insisting that the Tsholotsho
gathering was nothing more than a simple prize-giving gathering.
Patrick Chinamasa and others have already acknowledged the Tsholotsho plot
and apologised whilst Emmerson Mnangagwa has blamed Moyo whom he and the
suspended provincial chairpersons have hinted could be forging ahead with “an
unknown” agenda.
Moreover, Moyo used tax-payers’ funds to hire a plane to the “illegal”
meeting and could go the Chris Kuruneri way if the victorious party chefs from
the Joyce Mujuru camp think that the computers he dished out had “imperialist
links”.
It has been accepted that indeed money changed hands at the Tsholotsho
gathering.
You might ask why the provincial chairmen were suspended?
Unknown to most people, the real power (I mean the legal power according to
the constitution of Zanu PF) lies in the four-member presidium and the central
committee.
The politburo is only a secretariat of the central committee which comprises
delegates from all provinces. The supreme influence lies in the whims of the
provincial chairmen. They are often asked for their views at every meeting of
the central committee (remember sometime in the early 90s, Kumbirai Kangai
resigned from the politburo to become Manicaland provincial chairperson when he
appeared a favourite successor to President Mugabe).
However, if there was no intimidation and threats within Zanu PF, anyone
could successfully challenge any decision of the politburo when it acts without
authority from the central committee.
With the central committee being the only gathering with the power to legally
fire a person, President Mugabe acted swiftly to suspend the six chairpersons
(as this was already a majority out of the 10 chairpersons) meaning that
Mnangagwa, Moyo, Chinamasa, Jabulani Sibanda and their Tsholotsho friends had
done their homework well.
With the presidium now comprising his chosen lieutenants and the rebel
majority chairpersons suspended, Mugabe can now have a peaceful sleep
Those claiming ignorance of the Moyo-Mnangagwa agenda of the meeting might be
telling the truth.
People loyal to President Mugabe (the Joseph Chinotimbas, Josaya Hungwes etc)
flocked to Tsholotsho with the hope of inviting Moyo to their respective
constituencies with some computers to donate to gain support. Some really
attended the “prize-giving” ceremony with honest hearts but are now paying the
prize. Kwaheri/Icho.
Denford Moyo,
UK.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) Farmers, many of them black Zimbabweans resettled on formerly white-owned properties, have so far plowed and prepared only one fourth of the land available for planting for next year's food harvests, the state media reported Thursday.
Local Government Minister Ignatious Chombo, head of a panel state officials reviewing land preparations, said slightly less than 2.4 million acres out of an estimated 9.6 million acres have been tilled during current seasonal rains.
He blamed the slow pace of preparation on shortages of fertilizer, other inputs, tractors and mechanical equipment and urged farmers to set up tillage cooperatives to utilize more manual labor and animal-drawn plows, the state Herald reported.
The newspaper quoted Shadreck Mlambo, head of research and extension services in the agriculture ministry, saying tillage lagged far behind its targets for the time of year.
``And time is fast running out,'' he said.
The government has acknowledged that a fleet of state-owned tractors used to help impoverished farmers has been hit by continuous breakdowns and shortages of spare parts.
Of 700 tractors deployed by one government agency, only 304 were still operating.
Farmers have also suffered acute shortages of gasoline.
Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, was plunged into its worst political and economic crisis after President Robert Mugabe's government began seizing more than 5,000 of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to blacks and ruling party officials in 2000.
The often-violent land reform program, combined with erratic rains, have crippled the nation's agriculture-based economy.
Inflation is running at 149 percent, the highest in the world.
The government argues redistribution of land was needed to correct colonial-era injustices in land ownership by the descendants of mostly British settlers.
Government officials routinely insist the program has not affected food production and the country has grown a surplus this year. But United Nations estimates put the expected total harvest this year at around 1 million tons of grain, mostly the corn staple, that is about half the country's needs.
Last year, nearly half of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people needed food aid.
A U.N.-led assessment group estimates that as many as 5 million Zimbabweans will need help again before the next harvest begins in March.
THE magician’s trick is to misdirect the attention of the audience in one direction while the real deception takes place elsewhere. The politics of the Zanu PF congress 2004 has been a great deal like the magician’s misdirection.
For while the nation has
fixed its gaze on the leadership struggles in the ruling party, seemingly amazed
at the elevation of a woman to the position of vice-president, the temporary
demise of a once-favoured heir apparent, and the predictable descent of an
over-ambitious Information minister, the structures of authoritarian rule remain
in place in Zimbabwe’s politics.
The consolidation of the “old guard” cannot conceal the repressive political
structures it has put in place since 2000, with the help of the very mafikizolos
it has now sought to discipline for their political hubris.
This is not the first time that the old guard has re-asserted its leadership
in the ruling party. After the internecine struggles in Zanu in the 1970s,
President Robert Mugabe and his comrades quickly sidelined the young Zipa cadres
and from 1977 consolidated their own leadership. The difference with the current
generational and regional struggles in the ruling party is that time is now
against the old guard.
Thus the recent outcome of the succession battle appears to be more of a
holding operation than a long-term resolution. The problem of leadership
regeneration and regional balance in Zanu PF remains a very serious problem for
the party.
Jonathan Moyo may be extreme but he is not exceptional in the ruling party.
The selective tradition of liberation history that has become an essential
ingredient of the cement of the ruling party’s edifice must continue to exclude
and demonise “others”, both within and outside the ruling party, in order to
reproduce its privileged status. The dauphin may be temporarily out of favour,
but the political soil that gave rise to such a political figure continues to
provide fertile ground for such abominations.
The pathology of authoritarian nationalism that characterises Zanu PF cannot
be transformed by the top-down manipulation of the presidium. This requires a
much deeper democratic transformation of relations between the state and its
citizenry.
The fact that there has been so much excitement about the apparent changes in
Zanu PF at the expense of substantive content is a symptom of the broader
marginalisation of Zimbabweans from popular politics. The media obsession with
the positional shifts in the ruling party is indicative of the return to narrow
repressive state politics and the grossly reduced status of vibrant civic
participation.
The ruling party and its intellectuals prefer the critical citizens of this
country to conduct their politics vicariously by cheering on the various
factions of a party that has shown little but contempt for demands for public
accountability. This is the obscene post-colonial politics of neutering citizens
through the transformation of a robust politics of critique into desperate
grasping for the lesser evil. Once the citizenry slip into this role of
cheerleaders to intra-party struggles, the broader contours of the authoritarian
project tend to be lost from sight.
Thus the biggest tragedy of the 2005 election is likely to be the absence of
a critical public debate and the growing loss of confidence in political
participation. This will have been the result of a series of repressive
legislative interventions, the illegalisation of critical civic forces, the
continued threat of state violence and the loss of confidence in the ability to
speak from alternative political positions because of Zanu PF’s comprehensive
labelling of dissenting voices as treasonous.
These are the features that form the basis of the much-vaunted leadership
changes in the ruling party, and which are likely to define the political
culture of Zimbabwe for the foreseeable future.
The greatly demonised opposition and civic movement have contributed
immensely to the political culture of Zimbabwe. A new generation of human
rights activists, lawyers, trade unionists and intellectuals have since the
1990s demanded that issues of individual human and civic rights be discussed
alongside economic rights questions. Without discussing the close
interrelationship of these questions the authoritarian hand of the state can
often be felt behind the seemingly benign discussions of “development”.
These activists placed the problem of citizenship at the centre of the
political debate and initiated the most wide-ranging discussion on
constitutionalism that Zimbabweans have ever experienced. Through this
discussion the state was forced to engage its citizenry in a national debate
about accountability and legitimacy, even if in the end the outcome of the
national debate was a subversion of national demands for the sake of political
survival.
Trade unionists, much rebuked and patronised by the post-colonial state,
demanded and established their autonomy from state control, and set in motion a
major process of forging a new political identity based on the challenges of
post-colonial citizenship. In total these fresh political developments cleared
the ground for a renewed dialogue that both respected the legacies of the
liberation struggles, and sought to ensure that the politics of liberation did
not become a licence for indefinite authoritarian rule.
That debate has since 2000 been cut short and both the opposition and the
civic movement no longer have any illusions about the central liberation agenda
on offer, namely the consolidation of elite political and economic control
through the modality of a coercive nationalism. In one form or another this has
been the agenda of nationalist movements worldwide and therefore we should not
be surprised at such an agenda.
However, it is clear that because of the narrow basis of this agenda, the
gross lack of accountability that has been its defining feature, and the
repressive politics that constitute its practice, the opposition to such an
agenda will not disappear.
The state has used several forms of intervention to strike down the
opposition and will no doubt continue to do so. Zimbabwe’s ruling party cannot
tolerate political diversity unless it is prescribed by the narrow limits set
down by Zanu PF’s own definition of patriotism.
It is this reality that Zimbabweans must understand as they await the
difficult decision by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on
whether or not to participate in the 2005 election. A decision either way will
have severe costs, and there are no easy solutions to this dilemma.
Uppermost in the minds of the MDC leadership is likely to be the safety of
its members, and the realisation that there is now only a minute chance that the
conditions for next year’s election will allow for anything approaching a free
and fair poll. Whatever decision is made on this question, the political and
intellectual challenges of the post-2005 election period must be faced clearly
and realistically.
*Brian Raftopoulos is Associate Professor at the University of Zimbabwe’s
Institute for Development Studies. Zim Independent
THE Zimbabwe United Passenger Company has started taking delivery of 40 Isuzu conventional buses from Kenya’s General Motors East Africa at a total cost of $16,9 billion.
The first batch of 11
buses is expected in the country on December 28 with another delivery of up to
30 vehicles expected between next month and February.
It is the second time Zupco has purchased buses from General Motors. Earlier
this year, the passenger company took delivery of 100 Isuzu minibuses with a
capacity of 33 passengers from the Kenyan company.
The passenger company has made several bids to acquire 250 new buses this
year but failed to raise more than $150 billion demanded by three companies
awarded the tender.
It also awarded yet another tender in November for the supply of 150
conventional buses to replenish Zupco’s heavily depleted fleet to four companies
— Scania SA (30), W Damher (40), Pioneer Motor Corporation (40) and Gift
Investments (40).
The government tender board, which receives tenders on behalf of procuring
government departments, has invited Scania South Africa and DaimlerChrysler to
participate in the 150 conventional-bus tender.
For the 250-bus tender awarded in August, most of the $150 billion would be
paid to foreign suppliers in hard currency for body kits and components.
The three companies — Deven Engineering (Pvt) Ltd, W Dahmer and Zimbabwe
Motor Distributors (Pvt) Ltd, were awarded the tender by the state procurement
board to supply the buses.
Deven and ZMD were to supply 40 Mercedes Benz 1722 model buses apiece, each
costing $644 million and $590 million respectively while W Dahmer would supply
170 Scania F94 buses at $610 451 050 each.
The three companies that were awarded the tender asked to be paid between 50%
and 80% upfront, which Zupco has failed to raise.
It is now feared the local companies might not meet the deadline for the
supply of the buses. At least 150 buses were to be delivered by September 30 and
the remaining 100 by December 31.
The supply by General Motors is in line with Zupco procurement committee’s
recommendations. The committee had unanimously agreed to award the tender to
Gift Investments, importing from General Motors. — Staff Writer.
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) says its November transfer of SMM Holdings Ltd (SMM)’s $30 billion loan from Financial Holdings Ltd (Finhold)’s books to its register was in line with protection of “classified strategic investments”.
Although bank spokesman
Lovemore Chitapi would not explain how the central bank had assumed Syfrets
Corporate and Merchant Bank’s credit facility with SMM, a senior official said
they considered the asbestos concern as key to foreign cash generation and
national employment.
“The transfer was done in the feeling that the asbestos company was a
strategic investment which has always enjoyed special (financial) dispensations
right from the time it changed ownership,” said the official in reference to the
US$60 million state guarantee given to Mutumwa Mawere when he bought out Turner
and Newall plc.
About two years ago, the government reissued support linked to the KBC Bank
loan and which issue was administered through the Minerals Marketing Corporation
of Zimbabwe (MMCZ).
While RBZ officials said they took over the SMM debt on “solid detection”
that the Africa Resources Ltd-owned company “had no capacity to repay”, SMM
principals say they fully repaid the offshore funds — on which the sovereign
guarantee was procured two years ago.
The loan translocation, SMM shareholders argue, was therefore irregular in
that it was done after management structures were incapacitated by the
appointment of an administrator at the company.
Arafas Gwaradzimba was appointed administrator as the government raised
stakes in its fight with Mawere over allegations that he failed to repatriate
$300 billion worth of foreign currency derived from his asbestos interests.
Mawere has since launched lawsuits to counter threats to his broad-ranging
commercial interests in Zimbabwe and the latest RBZ turn comes on the back of a
directive to Syfrets that the RBZ had since involved itself in the loan issue.
The order, carried in early November, was given by Winnie Mushipe, head of
the productive sector facility (PSF).
The onslaught also comes at a time Legal Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa,
who appointed Gwaradzimba, has ratcheted up pressure on SMM, telling a local
newspaper last week that there was no let up on the company.
Protagonists, in the meantime, say the entire SMM debacle traversed
constitutionally given reclamation processes of distressed businesses, notably
member-driven voluntary wind ups of insolvent companies, court and creditor
sanctioned shut downs of business.
They said it was not only curious that Finhold was not the complainant, but
that Syfrets has “no right of transferring the debt to third parties”.
“The state itself is not in the business of lending money,” said a
representative of one of the core group of SMM owners.
“If the government is the complainant, how does a creditor then take over a
company when due process (wind down) has not been followed through the courts?
“Enterprises are liable to legal obligations in properly-constituted
scenarios and where people respect structures,” he said.
“At any day, the state can backdate a company’s indebtedness and this
serious expropriation of property rights is being done without regard to
legal procedures,” said the representative.
He said the government’s reconstruction drive contained deadly implications
on investment prospects.
CENTRAL African Building Society (Cabs), Zimbabwe’s largest mortgage lender, says it held nearly $800 million worth of United States Agency for International Development (USAid) housing funds as of June 30.
Ambrose Matika, the bank’s
head of mortgage operations, told businessdigest that the money was mainly made
up of accumulated interest on unused funds.
Out of the $128 million allocated to it and which money it had to match, Cabs
lent $258 million out of the blended total plus interest, he added.
“Pending disbursement, the USAid funds earn interest at the prevailing
negotiated certificate of deposit rate (general commercial paper investment),
which is capitalised,” Matika said recently.
“As at June 30 2004, Cabs had $778 million on the USAid account, mainly made
up of… interest on undisbursed funds as utilisation… has largely come to a stand
still due to inhibitive salary ceilings that have been set for the scheme from
time to time,” he added.
The bank, wholly owned by Anglo-South African insurer Old Mutual, is part of
a consortium of local building societies mandated by the country’s Finance
ministry to distribute millions worth of mortgage funds under the
donor-supported public/private sector housing programme.
Key beneficiaries of the USAid facility include the 50-house Pumula South
project in Zimbabwe’s second largest city of Bulawayo.
Project Management Turnkey is the hand behind Pumula’s development and
notices taken out last week indicate that work to wind down the housing project
is on-going.
Cabs recorded a 300% growth in mortgage advances and in anticipation of
further advances in the wake of company strategies to circumvent statutory
subscriptions, disbursed $43,3 billion to June 30.
Of the sum, $33,3 billion was loaned out on the security of residential
properties, while $5,4 billion was given on commercial and industrial
properties. While a number of people benefited from the current USAid-linked
projects, Matika expressed concern at the low wage ceilings of eligible communal
groups, who are essentially low-income earners.
Although construction activitywas “very low” and Cabs did not finance any new
bulk schemes except for existent projects, the bank spent about 10% of the near
$40 billion on erecting new buildings.The bank classifies existing properties as
those embodying existent and fully developed buildings.
Matika, however, noted that despite the “generally perceived affordability
limitations”, there are people with “high enough incomes” who qualify for loans
at the current high interest rates of 100% plus.
Some of these groups include high-income earners who are essentially
executives and other professionals in receipt of very high salaries.
Employer-assisted property buyers, meaning those enjoying company subsidies
and charged lower interest rates with the company topping up the difference also
join a narrowing group of people still managing to secure loans.Loan upgrading,
the Cabs executive said, is also a common feature these days and this entails
selling one’s property in order to lower borrowing amounts for re-financing of
new properties.
Noted Matika: “I must point out though that due to affordability limitations
some of these executives and professionals are lowering their area preferences
and borrowing to purchase properties in denser areas.”
He also said some self-employed people have been able to “credibly prove”
their ability to repay mortgage loans and have, therefore, expanded the group of
Zimbabweans accessing loans. Corporate borrowers have also been making the grade
and this is basically on the back of audited financial accounts and projections
of good earnings.
THE country’s tobacco players next year expect to sell at least 85 million kg under the dual marketing system, which starts in April.
Although there is an
increased output of the golden leaf, the anticipated production is still less
than the Vision 160 plan, an ambitious project drafted by the Zimbabwe Tobacco
Association (ZTA), the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the government which hopes
to push production of the golden leaf to 160 million kg next year.
Last year Zimbabwe produced 81 million kg of the golden leaf.
Already merchants, growers and the ZTA have set the tentative selling season
for next year’s production for April 5. The date was arrived at at a meeting on
Thursday last week.
Rodney Ambrose, ZTA chief executive officer, this week confirmed the date for
the new marketing season.
“What we have tentatively agreed on is that the auction floors open on April
5 under the dual marketing season,” he said.
“We are to get an early start of the selling season because of the expected
increase in output.”
Zimbabwe this year exported 30,7 million kg less tobacco when compared to the
same period last year, figures provided by the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board
(TIMB) have revealed.
Latest figures indicate that to-date, Zimbabwe has exported 64,3 million kg
of the golden leaf. At this time last year, the country had exported 95 million
kg.
From the exported 64,3 million kg, the country has earned US$207,5 million.
Zimbabwe exports its tobacco mostly to China and the European Union.
Ambrose said that although this year’s crop is smaller, there were hopes that
next year the industry would rebound.
“We came up with Vision 160. Although it is just a vision we hope that we
will be able to meet the target,” he said.
“Although there were some delays in the disbursements of money that was
availed to Agribank and TIMB some farmers who had already prepared their
seedbeds managed to access funds.”
The government and the central bank this year availed $200 billion for
tobacco production which was only availed five months after the normal seed-bed
preparation period.
“It’s better than not getting anything at the end of the day,” said Ambrose.
Tobacco production has been in a free-fall since President Robert Mugabe
began a violent seizure of commercial farms in 2000.
LISTED Econet Wireless Holdings (EWH) intends using part of the US$14 million (about $86 billion) windfall from the 14% sale of its Mascom Wireless stake to group associate Econet Wireless Group (EWG) in expanding wholly-owned Econet Wireless Zimbabwe (EWZ)’s network capacity and notching 500 000 subscribers.
Company officials
indicated this week that foreign cash from the minority-sale of stakes in EWG’s
fellow Botswana firm, Mascom, would be used towards importing essential
equipment for EWZ’s expansion before the end of 2005.
The deal, emerging the largest in the history of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange,
smashes another record set by Econet itself a year ago when the Harare company
bought the same shares from its founder Strive Masiyiwa in an all-paper
transaction.
However, shareholders are set to approve the transaction — first hinted on
December 10 — at a combined annual and extraordinary general meeting at the end
of the month.
Masiyiwa’s US$1,4 million investment in Gaborone’s largest general services
mobile (GSM) operator in 1997 was probably the most successful cross-border
investment the telecoms mogul made when he was still living in Zimbabwe.
To date, the Botswana cellular venture has yielded more than US$16 million
for the Zimbabwean economy.
EWZ, currently overwhelmed by demand for its services due to inadequate
capacity attached to foreign currency shortages to procure network equipment,
hopes to further consolidate its already dominant market position as the
country’s largest telecommunications firm.
Meanwhile, Econet has issued a circular to shareholders, with a proposal to
consolidate its share register in a bid to reduce costs arising from
hyperinflation.
The share buy-back proposals are also scheduled for approval at the December
31 meeting at its Harare head office. — Staff Writer.