Sunday Times, SA
Sunday Times Foreign
Desk Published:Dec 22,
2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
People
in Zimbabwe are just trying to survive, with little thought of
celebrations.
With only his coat for protection from the
driving rain, Kuda Rombera
huddles into the cold, muddy
pavement.
Alternately lying down and squatting for some respite, the
primary school
teacher patiently counts down the hours to 8am.
For it
will signal the opening of Stanbic Bank — and, with luck, provide him
with a
solution to his Christmas nightmare.
“I must be the first bird or else I
might not be able to travel,” says the
36-year-old father of four of his
decision to camp outside the bank on
Wednesday night. “I have decided to
hibernate at my rural home because in
town things are
unbearable.”
What Rombera needs is simple: to withdraw some of his own,
hard-earned
savings to prepare for Christmas.
But in today’s Zimbabwe
— a Zimbabwe battered by Monopoly money thanks to
record inflation, empty
supermarkets and blackouts — Rombera, like millions
of others, is finding it
a mission impossible.
Repeated trips to the bank — including one on
Tuesday that came to nought
when the bank ran out of cash — failed to net
Rombera the Z50-million he
needs for transport to his rural home in
Masvingo, about 350km from Harare.
Hence his desperate decision to camp
outside the bank.
“I can’t afford spending the holidays here in town
where there are shortages
of everything and, apart from that, things are
expensive. At least in the
rural areas people are not fancy,” he
says.
Rombera says the Z50- million he wants to withdraw — the maximum he
can —
will just be enough to cover his and his children’s Z10-million-a-
head
tickets for the trip to Masvingo.
His wife, Edna, is already
there, having made the trek when schools closed
in the first week of
December.
But other than the comfort of home, this is not a Christmas
that Rombera is
looking forward to.
There will be no new clothes,
groceries or Christmas presents for anyone —
let alone his four
children.
For this, cash shortages are not to blame, but the general
economic
hardships facing the country.
“I have a goat at home. This
is what I will slaughter for my family,” says
Rombera. “Christmas is now
just a name. We can’t celebrate with this
suffering.”
Rombera,
who supplements his meagre monthly salary of about 24- million by
selling
sweets to pupils at his school, says he will hawk some grain he has
been
storing since the last harvest to fund his family’s return trip.
It is
all a far cry from Christmases past.
Eight years ago, he spent the
festive season wining and dining with
colleagues in Harare. This year, he
will spend his time tilling his family’s
plot as it provides an additional
source of food and income.
But by far the worst is knowing that the magic
of Christmas has forever been
destroyed for his children.
“My kids
know that they have to forego new clothes and other goods they used
to enjoy
about eight years ago when things were normal,” he says
sadly.
Next to Rombera, Cecilia Mafu, a municipal
police officer with the Harare
City Council, is in slightly better spirits
despite her country’s fraught
circumstances.
She sarcastically
suggests that the authorities should have postponed
Christmas.
Mafu,
who earns 20- million a month, is queueing for money for last-minute
shopping. She says that while she cannot afford to shop at department stores
, she intends going to Mbare Musika Market , which sells second-hand
clothing mostly from Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo , to
buy jeans for her three boys.
Mafu is still scratching her head as to
where to get food for her Christmas
dinner.
“ God knows where I will
get the basics, but I hope to get some economy beef
from a back-yard butcher
in our township,” she says.
With chicken costing up to Z10-million a
bird, Mafu is not expecting to lay
on a feast, just enough to provide her
family with a square meal of sadza,
meat and green
vegetables.
While Mafu is talking, a smartly dressed passer-by loudly
decries the
misrule that has destroyed the joy of Christmas.
“What we
need,” she intones, “ is political change. Now we are being made to
forego
Christmas because of politics.”
Two kilometres from the bank queue,
Gabriel Shoko is jostling with about
1000 others as he tries to find a way
into TM Supermarket .
“I heard there was bread and joined the queue,”
says the 25-year old
accountant with a merchant bank. “I might be able to
bag a few items for
Christmas.
“We are now like hunters and
gatherers.”
Usually Shoko hosts a party on New Year’s Eve, but 2008 will
be ushering in
more than the new year for the accountant.
“I think I
will work at my small plot planting trees for firewood for resale
in Harare.
Remember there is no electricity in most townships.”
Another person who
has had to change her plans is Ntombizodwa Sibanda, a
financial services
manager . She has shelved plans to visit her family in
Bulawayo because of
the water shortages crippling the city.
“I could not imagine spending the
whole festive season in Bulawayo without
bathing,” says Sibanda. “I am stuck
in the capital. At least there is water
here.”
Water. And
lights.
For the ever-prepared Sibanda has also stocked up on enough
candles to avoid
having to spend Christmas in the dark. Electricity is out
for about 20 hours
every day in the cities due to Zimbabwe’s inability to
afford to buy all the
electricity it needs .
“The fridge was long
switched off, so I don’t have to worry about that,”
says Sibanda. “ I have
enough candles and dried food to keep me going for a
week.”
Zim Standard
By Ndamu Sandu and Jennifer
Dube
RESERVE Bank governor, Gideon Gono was labelled the
biggest economic
saboteur, as thousands of Zimbabweans yesterday endured a
nightmarish start
to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays in long queues
for cash.
The cash crisis, in its second month, continued unabated
yesterday
with account holders failing to access their money.
"Gono is clearly the biggest saboteur of Zimbabwe’s economy," said
Elton
Mangoma, the economics affairs secretary of the Morgan Tsvangirai
formation
of the Movement for Democratic Change.
"Gono is simply playing
politics with a serious national crisis that
needs immediate attention from
a central bank governor who takes the people’s
suffering seriously," he
said.
For over a month, Gono has been quiet, while the cash crisis
worsened,
only to respond with chaotic measures that failed to solve the
problem,
Mangoma said.
Gono on Thursday introduced new bearer
cheques — $250 000, $500 000
and $750 000 — as a stop gap
measure.
But a snap survey by The Standard showed that despite the
new measure,
most banks still had no money to give to their clients
yesterday.
At Kingdom Bank’s First Street branch clients sat
cross-legged on the
floor, waiting for cash to arrive from the central
bank.
A visibly angry account holder said she had no choice but to
wait as
she had no food at home.
"I have been at the bank since
5AM and it is already now 4PM . . . I
have to get money otherwise my family
will starve," she said.
The MDC, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions and economists, all
said the cash crisis was ample evidence that the
RBZ had failed in its
mandate to provide liquidity.
"This whole
crisis shows lack of leadership . . . our leadership has
gone on holiday,"
ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibebe said.
The critics said it
was "very cruel" of Gono to plunge the ordinary
people into the crisis in a
miscalculated move "to fix" people whose
identity he knew.
In a
televised interview on Wednesday, Gono said of the $67 trillion
in
circulation, the RBZ could only account for $2 trillion, leaving the
remainder in the hands of cash barons, among them top politicians and
businesspeople.
"I know three quarters of them but professional
ethics do not allow me
to name them...If challenged I would name them," Gono
said.
But Chibebe said the governor could afford to dilly-dally
because the
politicians were not being affected by the crisis.
"I am yet to see any minister queuing (for cash). The powers-that-be,
including President Robert Mugabe, were never affected by this
crisis....they can afford RTGs and can even swipe," said the ZCTU chief.
"Our society is extremely cruel to the ordinary people...they are the ones
who were affected by his inaction".
Critics said blaming cash
barons was a diversionary tactic designed to
mask the incompetence of the
central bank.
"There is no money from the so-called barons because
if the money was
there, the parallel market would be booming," said Dr
Daniel Ndlela, head of
an economic consultancy firm. "This fellow (Gono) is
not only heartless, but
he does not understand who he is punishing. The
people in the queues are not
barons."
Mangoma added: "The
people are not failing to access their cash
because of the cash barons but
because of Gono’s policies which have eroded
people’s confidence in the
banking system in this country.
"No reasonable person would put
their money into a bank when they know
they will fail to access it the
following day."
Ndlela said Zimbabweans could be in for more
suffering "as long as we
have a poet" for a central banker.
"He
has totally failed. If he had a bit of professionalism and dignity
he should
have resigned a long time ago," he said.
Against all odds, ZBH’s FM
station at 8AM yesterday declared Gono, its
"Personality of the
Week".
But very few people shared State-owned network’s adulation
of the
central bank czar.
"I have been to four shops in
Avondale," said a Mabelreign parent, who
said she and her children were
determined to vote in next year’s elections.
"They will not accept cheques.
I cannot get cash from the banks. If I use
commuter buses, will they accept
cheques? I am completely fed up. We have
had no water for a week now, and I
am expected to put up with this crisis?"
Analysts say Gono should
have removed zeros again to enable business
to cope. But Gono said on
Wednesday that businesses that failed to cope with
the zeros on their
computers should go manual in what analysts say was
ahistorical.
"The governor is simply taking the nation back to
the Stone Age and he
seems to take delight in making the people suffer,"
Mangoma said.
Gono was roundly criticised for failing to give
people enough time and
adequate publicity before introducing his stop-gap
strategy.
Introducing the new bearer notes, Gono announced he was
"demonitising"
the $200 000 note with effect from 1 January. He said this
was a measure to
punish the barons who seemed to favour the
note.
But calculations by The Standard make a mockery of Gono’s
claims.
The $67 trillion Gono claims to be in circulation could
have been
eroded by inflation, which at 14 000% is the highest in the
world.
Assuming that the money was shared equally among the 12
million
population, each citizen, including the newly-born babies, would get
less
than $6 million each and that could hardly buy three square
meals!
Zim Standard
By our
staff
AN economic meltdown characterised by shortages of goods
and cash has
made this Christmas holiday grim for many.
Previously, Christmas triggered a frenzy of shopping and partying in
cities
and towns. This is now history. Most Zimbabweans now grapple with a
recession that has plunged them into grinding poverty.
A snap
survey by The Standard last week found many had resigned
themselves to a 25
December without much merrymaking this year.
Many could not buy
groceries because there was not enough cash in the
banks. Food World, OK
Zimbabwe, and Friendly supermarkets, among others, had
long queues of
sullen-faced citizens trying to buy the few items they
managed to find using
their ATM cards.
"Although we are using ATM cards the things we
used to take as
additional luxuries —— sweets for children and biscuits —
are too expensive.
And it’s sad that in these shops you cannot find sugar,
cooking oil, flour,
salt and rice. They make the festive season . . .
festive," lamented Chipo
Dzikiti of Harare.
Others couldn’t
afford the goods, most now priced beyond their reach.
They long abandoned
the purchase of Christmas clothes.
At an Edgars Store in Harare, a
frustrated sales person summed up the
crisis.
"There is no
business. People are shunning the shops. Maybe if they
could still buy
clothes on account . . . In any case we don’t have many
clothes in stock,
compared with other years. The price controls dismantled
our
shop."
Many Zimbabweans travel to rural areas during this holiday.
But said
Seven Mteiwa of Masvingo last week: "Even though the past years
have been
difficult, I made it a point to visit my rural home in Mwenezi,
with all my
family. This year it’s impossible. Where do I get the
cash?"
Others had cash, but there was no transport.
Timothy Mhandu was at Mucheke bus terminus: "As an indigenous
businessperson, for me the cash crisis was not a major problem since I do
not bank my money. All the same, I can’t visit my in-laws in Bindura because
of the prevailing transport problems. Yesterday I couldn’t get a bus to
Harare."
Traditionally, terminuses such as Mbare Musika,
Renkini and Mucheke
would be swarming with would-be travellers.
This year, even the touts confirmed business was tough. There were
fewer
buses than before because of the fuel shortage.
It’s also a hard
time for beer guzzlers. Both opaque and lager beers
now cost so much
imbibers get a hangover just contemplating their thirsty
plight.
"At $3 million a quart, clear beer has become stuff for
the rich,"
Piwai Mhiripiri said, as he quaffed opaque beer at Parktown shops
in
Waterfalls.
"With these cash shortages, I doubt we will
still be able to buy
opaque beer by Christmas," he said. A two-litre packet
of Chibuku now costs
$1m: the average civil servant can exhaust his entire
monthly salary with 20
litres.
"This is by far the worst
Christmas that the country is going to have
in many years," said Norman
Sibanda, a teacher on $15 million a month
salary. "Things are too expensive.
To be merry, I would require over $120
million, about eight times my
salary,"
Sibanda has failed to access his pay from his building
society.
The Governor of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono, on
Wednesday
announced a new family of bearer cheques and promised the cash
crisis would
soon be over.
But on Friday there was still not
enough cash to go around. In Harare,
on Saturday, every bank had queues
stretching along the pavement outside.
Zim Standard
BY WALTER
MARWIZI
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has apparently put his
divided faction in
order as the countdown for the March 2008 elections
begins.
The process began over a week ago when Tsvangirai chaired a
national
council meeting in Harare where issues threatening the party’s
cohesion were
finally tackled.
At this meeting, the divisive
women’s assembly issue was finally
tabled for discussion and a compromise
reached.
Since 3 November discussion on the matter had been
deferred until
chairperson Lovemore Moyo had presented his
report.
The report was on what transpired in Bulawayo where Theresa
Makone was
elected head of the women’s assembly, replacing Lucia
Matibenga.
Matibenga, a trade unionist, was dismissed by the
standing committee
chaired by Tsvangirai a few months ago, triggering a wave
of disgruntlement
among the party’s membership.
Senior
officials openly disagreed with Tsvangirai over the way the
constitution had
been flouted.
Party insiders said Tsvangirai impressed officials at
the national
council meeting last Sunday when he acknowledged the issue
needed to be
resolved.
The council achieved a balancing act
which could re-energise the
membership as the faction prepares for a
full-scale campaign for the March
2008 elections.
Matibenga was
invited to become a member of the powerful national
executive and at the
same time agreed that Makone’s executive remain in
place as an interim
executive.
The Makone executive would remain in that capacity until
an
extraordinary congress is held in June next year.
Party
insiders said officials against Makone’s ascendancy to the helm
of the
women’s assembly agreed to this arrangement on the basis that it was
too
late to hold another congress which would again prove to be
divisive.
"The focus now should be to unite the party and
concentrate all
energies on fighting Zanu PF," said a senior party
official.
A statement issued by party spokesperson, Nelson Chamisa
confirmed
this.
"Every member of the Party moves ahead and
accepts the need to move
forward as a united entity," Chamisa
said.
The compromise averted a potential clash with the Zimbabwe
Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU).
Unhappy with the way
Matibenga, the first Vice-President of the trade
union, had been treated the
ZCTU’s women’s advisory council had declared
that "an injury to one women is
an injury to us all".
ZCTU president, Lovemore Matombo, confirmed
to The Standard three
weeks ago that there was concern in the labour
movement over Matibenga’s
sacking.
A senior party official said
yesterday: "I am happy to say this is a
balancing act which makes everyone a
winner, Tsvangirai, Matibenga and
Makone. It could mean that the party
focuses on the forthcoming elections."
Zim Standard
By
Nqobani Ndlovu
BULAWAYO — Boarding and day schools have started
luring teachers with
incentives, including free food handouts, after
realising the government was
out of its depth, financially.
In
advertisements in newspapers in the past few weeks schools have
offered
teachers free transport to and from work, payment of tuition fees
for their
children, and payment of water and electricity bills, apart from
the
food.
There are also performance-related allowances and retention
allowances.
Among secondary boarding schools offering the
incentives are Manama,
Mtshabezi, Empandeni and Minda, all in Matabeleland
South.
The schools have all been hard hit by the staff exodus to
South Africa
where Zimbabwean teachers are in great demand. There are
reports that
Limpopo province alone requires as many as
5 000
teachers next year.
No comment could be obtained from Aeneas
Chigwedere, the Minister of
Education, Sport and Culture.
Raymond Majongwe, the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ)
secretary general told The Standard on Thursday that boarding schools were
now offering incentives as a "way of containing an exodus of
teachers".
"That is the only way boarding schools can retain
teachers since the
government is turning a blind eye to their grievances,"
Majongwe said.
According to estimates by PTUZ over 25 000 teachers
quit the
profession this year alone in frustration over low
salaries.
But Majongwe said his union did not encourage schools to
offer
incentives to teachers.
"As a trade union, we are totally
against such a system as schools
should not subsidize the plight of teachers
on behalf of the government.
That responsibility should be shouldered by the
government. It creates
slaves and servants out of teachers and forgoes
professionalism."
There are also fears that poor schools may not be
able to attract
teachers. Among these will be schools in rural and
resettlement areas where
teachers can hardly get chalk.
Already, teachers are headed for confrontation with government over
their
demand for a
1 500% salary increment from next month, when schools open
for the
first term of 2008. They want their salaries increased to $310
million a
month, up from below $15 million.
Zim Standard
By Nqobani
Ndlovu
BULAWAYO — Police have refused to offer any financial
assistance to a
Bulawayo family whose son suffered internal head injuries
after being struck
by a police vehicle earlier this month.
Blessed Chiranga (9), was admitted at the Mpilo Hospital for eight
days
after the accident in Entumbane on 9 December.
The boy was walking
by the roadside when a police vehicle veered off
the road and struck him.
The driver of the vehicle lost control in unclear
circumstances.
Marry Chiranga, the boy’s mother, told The
Standard that her son was
in a coma for a week after the
accident.
Her family, she said, was battling to raise about $400
million for a
brain scan and medication.
"My son was far away
from the road when a police vehicle veered off
the road and hit him. My son
could not talk for six days after the accident.
But the police said they had
no money to assist me with medical bills after
the accident," Chiranga
said.
"They are now saying my son is to blame for the accident yet
the
opposite is true."
The Standard learnt that the police
vehicle which struck the boy was
being driven by Inspector Silethulile
Ncube.
Insiders at the Bulawayo Central Police Station said the
statement
recorded at the scene of the accident had
disappeared.
Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Mandlenkosi
Moyo refused to
comment on the matter on Thursday.
But Wayne
Bvudzijena, the police spokesperson on Thursday said the
police would
investigate the matter.
Meanwhile the family of Misheck Gumbo (31),
allegedly shot to death by
the police for drinking at an unlicensed drinking
place is demanding $30
billion as compensation.
Police did not
assist the family with funeral arrangements. They
shifted the blame on the
deceased arguing that he was shot after challenging
his arrest.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
CORRESPONDENT
CHINHOYI — Two female Cuban medical doctors
working at Chinhoyi
provincial hospital were arrested last week for
allegedly stealing from a
local supermarket.
Chinhoyi police
records identify the doctors as Dayenerius Luaces (40)
and Maria Issabel
Ramirez (38).
The pair are alleged have gone into TM Supermarket
last week at around
3PM and taken body lotion and bathing soap valued at
$11.6m and $13.9m
respectively.
They stuffed the goods into
their handbags, according to police
records. But a TM security officer in
plain clothes, Tenboy Nakoma,
reportedly saw them and waited until they
walked out of the shop without
paying.
He then approached the
pair in the company of managers and a uniformed
security guard. They were
searched and the stolen goods recovered, the
report notes.
The
two were handed over to police at Chinhoyi central station where
the case
was recorded.
The two are yet to be brought to court.
"The police want to consult their superiors," said an officer aware of
the
case, "on whether or not they can proceed to prosecute the pair for
theft
(shoplifting) as defined under Section 113 of the Criminal Law
(Codification
& Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23."
He said the police wanted to
establish if the doctors, seconded to
Chinhoyi under an agreement between
the governments of Zimbabwe and Cuba,
did not enjoy diplomatic
immunity.
The Cuban government has come to Zimbabwe’s rescue as the
health
sector has in recent years been plagued by a massive brain drain of
doctors,
nurses and other medical specialists, fleeing low pay and appalling
working
conditions.
Most have found economic refuge in South
Africa, Botswana, the United
Kingdom and the United States. A number have
found jobs in
non-English-speaking countries in Europe.
This is
not the first time allegations of misconduct have been
levelled against
Cuban doctors at the hospital. Recently they were named in
a racket
involving the loss of hospital computers.
A Congolese expatriate
doctor was named in a syndicate involving the
theft of drugs at the
hospital.
Hospital administrators were not immediately available
for comment.
Zim Standard
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s
former president
Nelson Mandela has praised Jacob Zuma, the newly elected
leader of the
ruling African National Congress (ANC), as a man who could
unify the divided
party.
In a message of congratulations,
Mandela said: "Our experience of
Comrade Zuma is of a person and leader who
is inclusive in his approach, a
unifier and one who values reconciliation
and collective leadership.
"We have no doubt that he will bring
those well-known characteristics
to his task of leading our organisation,"
he was quoted as saying by the
Saturday Star newspaper.
Mandela
urged the divided ANC to rally behind Zuma.
Zuma ousted President
Thabo Mbeki as party leader after their intense
rivalry divided the party,
which has ruled South Africa since the end of
apartheid in
1994.
Before the election, Mandela who decided not to endorse one
candidate
or to attend the conference, said divisions within the party race
were
saddening.
He said it was inevitable the results of the
elections would be
interpreted by some "as an overwhelming victory for one
camp or faction over
another".
Mandela’s spokeswoman on Friday
dismissed rumours that former
president’s health has taken a turn for the
worse.
Zelda la Grange said her office had been flooded with
inquiries.
"Rumours have again surfaced about Mandela’s well-being.
Mandela is in
the former Transkei (his hometown in the Eastern Cape
Province) where he is
enjoying the festive season with his family," SAPA
quoted her as saying.
"He is due back in Johannesburg only towards
the end of January." —
Reuters.
Zim Standard
By Nqobani
Ndlovu
BULAWAYO — A lid over the liberation war status of
controversial war
veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda was blown off by former
Zipra supremo
Dumiso Dabengwa on Friday.
The Zanu PF politburo
member said Sibanda was not an ex-combatant as
he did not fight in any
war.
Sibanda has spearheaded marches in support of President Robert
Mugabe.
At the recent Zanu PF extraordinary congress he sought to
address
delegates in his capacity as a leader of former freedom fighters,
sparking a
backlash from Mugabe who virtually dressed him down.
"Sibanda is not a war veteran," Dabengwa told the Bulawayo Press Club
last
week.
"He did not participate in any war. He trained in Angola but
we could
not integrate him into the army because he was poorly trained and
not fit to
participate in any war."
Dabengwa, the former
intelligence chief of Zipra, Zapu’s military
wing, said after Sibanda could
not be integrated into the army, he was sent
back for further
training.
Dabengwa said Sibanda only came back "at a time when the
army was
being demobilized as we were headed for the Lancaster House peace
talks. He
therefore did not participate in any war."
Asked to
comment, Sibanda said he would respond at a later date. "What
does Dabengwa
want from me? I am not going to respond to those allegations
today."
Asked why he had not disclosed Sibanda’s status before,
Dabengwa said,
without elaborating: "That’s immaterial."
Sibanda’s status was effectively elevated within Zanu PF through his
recent
preferential treatment by Mugabe.
Dabengwa said attempts to bring
Sibanda back into the party through
the back door threatened the 1987 Unity
Accord between PF Zapu and Zanu PF.
"Some attempts by the
leadership to try and bring back Jabulani are
threatening the Unity Accord,"
he said.
Dabengwa and his old-guard PF Zapu colleagues have
threatened to pull
out of the unity pact over Mugabe’s decision to let
Sibanda lead his
re-election campaign. At the Zanu PF congress, Mugabe
dressed down Sibanda
to pacify the likes of Vice-President Joseph Msika and
Zanu PF national
chairman, John Nkomo.
Sibanda was one of the
six provincial chairpersons suspended from Zanu
PF after being accused of
throwing their weight behind Rural Housing
Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa to
block Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s
ascendancy to the ruling party’s
Presidium.
Zim Standard
BY WALTER
MARWIZI
BOTH Zanu PF and the MDC ignored the input of journalists
as they
rushed through Parliament amendments to the Access to Information
and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), it emerged last week.
The amendments were passed in line with agreements reached at the
talks
brokered by South Africa.
Patrick Chinamasa, the Minister of
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs, said the bills had to be
fast-tracked, together with three others,
the Public Order ad Security Act,
Broadcasting Services Act and the
Electoral Laws Amendment Act in order to
pave the way for harmonised polls
next March.
The Zanu PF and
MDC negotiating teams agreed to amend the laws in an
effort to ensure a
level playing field in the election. These laws have been
considered
draconian and out of synchronisation with SADC norms and
guidelines on the
conduct of democratic elections.
But as the two parties rushed the
bills through Parliament on Tuesday
night, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights noted: "They missed an
opportunity to involve all stakeholders and
ensure that substantive,
far-reaching and acceptable amendments were made to
such insidious
legislation which could have had a substantive effect in
ensuring a
satisfactory electoral environment in the run-up to the 2008
polls and
beyond."
In the case of AIPPA, both parties failed to
get an input from the
media professionals directly affected by the
bill.
This left Zimbabwean journalists, who should have been the
first to
celebrate amendments to AIPPA, largely disappointed.
The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists which represents 98% of practising
journalists was not given a chance to make an input into the
bill.
ZUJ president Matthew Takaona said the union was "extremely
disturbed"
by the fact that none of the negotiators saw it fit to consult
stakeholders
in order to come up with amendments "owned rather than imposed
on the media
industry".
There was also no attempt to consult
the Zimbabwe National Editors’
Forum, the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe, Misa
Zimbabwe and other media-related
organisations that have lobbied for the
amendments to AIPPA.
This piece of legislation has been used by the
government to shut down
private newspapers.
Notable among them
was The Daily News and its sister paper The Daily
News on Sunday. The Media
and Information Commission (MIC) also restricted
the operations of
journalists by denying journalists licences.
Determined to get rid
of the MIC which has been described as "the
media hangman", journalists and
other stakeholders have worked hard for the
past three years to establish a
voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe. They
hoped their own organisation would
replace the statutory MIC, once AIPPA was
amended.
The MCZ has
a code of conduct which governs the operations of
journalists. The code was
endorsed by all journalists and other stakeholders
this year.
But both Zanu PF and MDC negotiators ignored the pressing need for a
voluntary organisation and proposed the establishment of another statutory
body, the Zimbabwe Media Commission, which would replace the Tafataona
Mahoso-led MIC.
Misa Zimbabwe, which made an analysis of the
bill, said nothing would
change as the MIC would simply be renamed the ZMC.
It would remain with its
"vicious spots".
"Misa dismisses the
proposed amendments as amounting to applying
lipstick on a frog," said
Loughty Dube, the chairperson of Misa Zimbabwe.
He said the
commission would still be tasked with functions of media
regulation,
registration of mass media and accrediting journalists. Members
of this body
would be appointed by the President, though drawn from a list
prepared by
the Parliamentary Committee on Standing Orders.
Iden Wetherell, the
chairperson of Zinef, said the government had to
do more to show that it was
genuinely concerned with addressing the concerns
of
journalists.
"Following amendment of Aippa, the Zimbabwe National
Editors Forum
calls upon government to demonstrate its sincerity by
appointing credible
representatives of journalists to the Zimbabwe Media
Commission and
readmitting to the country without condition Zimbabwean
journalists
currently living in exile and all foreign correspondents
including those
expelled from Zimbabwe since 2000, many on spurious
grounds," Wetherell
said.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
said fast-tracking bills showed
a worrying and flagrant lack of respect for
processes allowing public input
and scrutiny of legislation which affects
the Zimbabwean public.
"This, in turn, greatly undermines the
democratic space, and the
promotion and protection of human rights in the
country," said the
organisation.
Zim Standard
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
THE 1987 Unity Accord came under threat at the
recent Zanu PF
extraordinary congress when PF Zapu old guard, fiercely
opposed to war
veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda, nearly walked out of the
meeting,
political analysts said last week.
Despite being
suspended from Zanu PF for his role in what was later
dubbed The Tsholotsho
Declaration, Sibanda wanted to address the congress,
openly defying Zanu PF
national chairman John Nkomo.
In defiance of senior party
officials, Sibanda recently spearheaded
President Robert Mugabe’s
confirmation at the Congress by organising the
"Million-Men" march in Harare
and others across the country.
In the same spirit of defiance, he
probably thought he would again
prevail over the old guard at the congress
where his supporters chanted:
"Jabu! Jabu! Jabu!" as they urged him to
address the meeting.
Vice-President Joseph Msika and Information
and Publicity Minister
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu threatened to leave as he marched
towards the podium.
Msika is the former Vice-President of PF
Zapu.
Noticing the gravity of the situation, Mugabe virtually leapt
to his
feet to intervene. He then rebuked the war veterans: "I cannot lead a
party
which misbehaves like this. We respect our war veterans but they
should be
disciplined."
Ironically, the incident took place a
few days before Unity Day, which
commemorates the Unity Accord, signed by
Mugabe’s Zanu PF and the late Dr
Joshua Nkomo of PF Zapu in December
1987.
It gave Nkomo a place in the government, freed some of the
"dissidents" and brought a formal end to the violence of
Gukurahundi.
Msika, Nkomo, Ndlovu and Dumiso Dabengwa are the few
remaining PF Zapu
pillars of the Unity Accord.
A senior PF Zapu
member, who requested anonymity, said the walkout
would have meant the
"death" of the Unity Accord.
"Definitely, it would have been
the
end. Who would want to be part to a Unity Accord where you are
treated
as inferior? PF-Zapu leaders are very sensitive about the issue of
unity and
Mugabe knows that," he said.
Even political
commentator, Professor John Makumbe concurred, saying
the Unity Accord would
have collapsed had the PF Zapu old guard walked out
of the congress.
Makumbe, a University of Zimbabwe political science
lecturer, believes the
PF-Zapu old guard could have "walked into" the Mujuru
camp or to the MDC,
forming a coalition against Mugabe.
"It was going to look very bad.
And, those guys were going to gang up
and campaign against Zanu PF in
Matabeleland region," he said.
Another University of Zimbabwe
political scientist, Eldred
Masunungure, says the Sibanda incident nearly
tore Zanu PF apart along the
traditional fault-lines which manifested
themselves before the Unity Accord.
"It has deepened suspicion
about who is using who in the unity. There
is suspicion, not far from the
surface, that Zanu PF got the lion’s share
and wants to use its advantage to
boot out the PF Zapu’s old guard,"
Masunungure said.
Mugabe, he
said, wants to use the "generational divide" within the
former PF Zapu
members to sideline the old guard while bringing in the young
Turks, who
seem to support his every move.
"Mugabe wants to elbow them out of
the political equation. But the
Dabengwas, Nkomos and the Msikas are very
alert about that, and they are
very sensitive to it," Masunungure
said.
But Ndlovu said they never wanted to walk out but wanted to
help calm
the situation. "We stood up because we wanted to calm the
situation. As
senior leadership we would not do that — walk out," said
Ndlovu. "The whole
thing has nothing to do with the Unity
Accord."
Msika and Nkomo could not be reached for
comment.
Makumbe said Mugabe "used" Sibanda and threw him back into
the
wilderness.
"He used him and then flushed him down like
toilet paper. He (Sibanda)
deserves it because he sold his soul to Mugabe,"
Makumbe said.
But Sibanda denied being used, saying he voluntarily
campaigned for
Mugabe. He said he was entitled to speak at the congress
because he was
accredited as a war veterans’ leader and in any case "I
appealed against the
suspension".
He said the threatened
walk-out had no bearing on the Unity Accord
"because it does not depend on
individuals".
"Ndabaningi Sithole helped form Zanu but when he went
astray he was
booted out. James Chikerema was among the first people who
started the
liberation struggle but the same happened to him. So what is so
special
about these ones?" said Sibanda.
The war veteran leader
said he foresaw all "politically-minded
carrions" being booted out at the
2009 Zanu PF congress.
But Ndlovu insisted that Sibanda was not
supposed to address the
meeting as he was still on suspension.
"It was a party congress. A congress of the party that suspended him
and not
a war veterans meeting so he was not supposed to be near the high
table."
Makumbe said the MDC could take advantage of the
political squabbles
in Zanu PF Matabeleland to extend its lead in the
region.
"If they were organised, they would have used the situation
to their
advantage to get more people to their side," he said.
The MDC enjoys popular support in Matabeleland region because people
there
have not forgotten the brutality they endured during the Gukurahundi.
Zim Standard
By Bertha Shoko,
recently in South
Africa
MOSES Ncube was 19 years old in
2000 when he jumped the border into
South Africa, with his two older
brothers; Themba and Vulindlela, and two of
his childhood
friends.
Moses had just finished writing the Ordinary Level
examinations and
was not sure what the future really held for him and
decided to join his two
brothers who were going job-hunting in SA.
Seven years down the road, Moses is 26, running a small flea market in
central Johannesburg. He and his brothers set it up as a small business
venture.
Moses speaks with much sadness in his voice that his
brothers died
"ngomkhuhlane wakulezinsuku" (this disease of nowadays) They
were both
buried "back home".
"Themba died in 2004, then Vuli
(short for Vulindela) died last year.
I was really devastated," says Moses,
"I didn’t know who would take care of
me in
this foreign land after
they died.
"When my brothers were ill, I felt very hopeless because
they didn’t
want to go to hospital as they feared they would be deported.
During their
illness, a popular Sangoma (traditional healer) in Soweto
treated them but
his medicines didn’t work."
Moses said both
his brother wanted to buried in Zimbabwe and he made
the trips for the
purpose, bribing officials all the way because they were
illegal
immigrants.
Moses recalls: "Themba died two days after we arrived
home and Vuli
died a week after I had also come back home with
him."
Moses’s and his brothers’ stories are nothing unique to
Zimbabweans
living without proper papers in SA. Many illegal immigrants are
not
accessing public treatment services
because they are afraid the
health workers will have them deported.
Health experts in SA say
the situation is a cause for concern for them
and are now working hard to
specifically target illegal immigrants in their
various HIV/Aids
interventions.
According to Dr Shanil Naidoo who works at the
University of
Witswatersrand’s Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit,
many people
choose to go back home and die than seek treatment in SA because
they fear
deportation.
Speaking at a recent training
workshop for African journalists HIV and
Aids reporters at the Nelson
Mandela Foundation, Dr Naidoo said public
health institutions did not ask
anyone if they were in the country legally
or not.
He said:
"Illegal immigrants should take advantage of this loophole in
the SA public
health system and come forward for VCT; if they are HIV
positive and
need ARVs; they can also get these drugs free. They
should get rid of the "I
will go back home and die" mentality because gone
are the days when HIV was
not a manageable condition.
"We are very worried about the large
number of illegal immigrants who
are not accessing treatment, especially HIV
treatment because this draws our
intervention efforts
backwards."
There at least 5.5 million people living with HIV in
SA, according to
the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and Aids
(UNAIDS).
Another health expert, Lauren Ankelowitz said she was
"very concerned"
about the low uptake of health services by illegal
immigrants in
Johannesburg.
Ankelowitz said in response to this
problem she and other
non-governmental organisations in SA came up with the
idea of a "Wellness
Centre" in Hillbrow (which has a high population of
illegal immigrants,
particularly Zimbabweans).
The clinic is
known as Lefelo la Tlhokomelo which houses more than 30
non-governmental
organisations offering health services such as VCT and post
test support
groups.
Said Ankelowitz: "We are targeting the illegal immigrant
population in
SA especially in this Hillbrow area of Johannesburg. We want
them to come
forward without fear of being prosecuted." The International
Organisation
for Migration estimates that there are more than two million
Zimbabweans
living and working in SA, many of who have escaped the economic
hardships in
the country.
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
THE government and civil servants representatives have
reached a
deadlock over negotiations for salary increments, setting the
stage for a
potentially bruising confrontation at the beginning of the New
Year.
Sources privy to the negotiations this week said the civil
servants
want a salary of $250 million for the least paid worker but the
government
made it clear that it could not pay that amount.
On
average, civil servants earn $15 million, barely enough to buy a
two-litre
bottle of cooking oil. They have to scrounge the whole month for
money for
rentals and transport from friends and relatives.
The Civil Service
Staff Association Apex Council, a body which
represents all employees of
government, the sources said, is planning to
down tools if government fails
to reconsider its position.
"It appears we are heading for a nasty
confrontation," said one
teacher, "because both parties are reluctant to
change their positions. The
government says it can’t give us that much but
it’s also not saying how much
it is prepared to give us. We will not agree
to anything below $250
million."
The chairperson of the APEX
Council, Tendai Chikowore, declined to
confirm there was a deadlock but said
negotiations were still underway.
"It’s not true that we failed to
agree but we presented our position
and government did the same. But we
can’t proceed without seeking a fresh
mandate from the people and government
representatives have also gone back
for further consultations with officials
who make final decisions," she
said. Chikowore disputed the $250 million
figure but could not say how much
the civil servants were
demanding.
Public Service Commission (PSC) chairman Dr Mariyawanda
Nzuwah could
not be reached for comment last week.
Teachers
aligned to the militant Progressive Teachers’ Union of
Zimbabwe (PTUZ) are
demanding a salary of $310 million. They plan to down
tools in January if
their demands are not met.
PTUZ said they would start mobilizing
for a crippling nation-wide
strike once the government had failed to respond
to its request.
Its secretary-general, Raymond Majongwe said: "The
government is being
inconsiderate by paying teachers criminal salaries. The
wave is building up
and they will not be able to stop it this
time."
He said on average, teachers earn $15 million a
month.
Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta) chief executive
officer Peter
Mabhande confirmed that salary negotiations with government
were underway.
Zim Standard
BY GODREY
MUTIMBA
MASVINGO — Police in Masvingo have alleged that Chief
Fortune
Charumbira is interfering with their duties.
Charumbira
is the president of the Chief’s Council and a Zanu PF
senator.
Officers at Masvingo central police station alleged in interviews with
The
Standard Charumbira recently instructed the officer in charge at
Masvingo
rural police station to release two suspects.
The suspects,
reported to be his relatives, were arrested in his area
after an outbreak of
violence related to a long-standing Charumbira
chieftainship
wrangle.
There has been a simmering dispute between Charumbira and
the Bere
family over the chieftainship since his installation.
The Bere family does not recognise Charumbira as the legitimate chief.
They
have accused him of using his political influence to secure the throne,
an
accusation which the chief denies.
Sources in the area said the two
rival camps were involved in clashes
which resulted in a number of
arrests.
Phenias Konde, his father Alfred, Lovemore Diza and Linos
Bere were
arrested after their involvement in bloody clashes over the
chieftainship.
The Standard heard that after the arrest of the four
villagers, Chief
Charumbira then ordered the police at Masvingo rural to
release his
sympathizers, the Kondes, leaving their two rivals in police
cells where
they are still detained.
An officer stationed at
Masvingo rural police station said Charumbira
visited them after hearing
that his men were arrested after a fight with
rivals from the Bere
clan.
"We were reprimanded by Charumbira for arresting his
relatives and he
ordered us to release them immediately," said a police
officer, who declined
to be named
"The chief is now acting as
if he is now the officer-in-charge at our
police station as he is now
deciding who should be arrested and who should
not."
Charumbira
has on several occasions clashed with police officers who
accuse him of
interfering with their duties.
Police spokesperson for Masvingo
province, Inspector Fibion Nyambo
declined to comment.
Approached for a comment, Charumbira could only say, "I doubt that"
before
turning off his mobile phone.
Zim Standard
By Jennifer
Dube
THE year 2007 is winding up and for Zimbabweans, it was
yet another in
which the government failed to bail them out of the
seven-year economic
meltdown, sent down a slippery slope, with the 2000 land
seizures being
blamed.
Presenting his 2006 monetary policy
statement on 31 January this year,
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon
Gono said the government, business
and labour were going to turn around the
economy by working together under a
so-called social contract.
". . . a well thought out Prices and Incomes Restraint Social Contract
is an
effective and credible basis upon which a strong foundation for rapid
dis-inflation, economic recovery, growth and development can be
established," Gono said then.
While Tripartite Negotiating
Forum patron Minister of Public Service,
Labour and Social Welfare Nicholas
Goche refused to comment on the fruits of
the over-publicised concept ,
labour representatives could not be reached
for comment and business
conceded the forum had failed the nation.
TNF is the negotiating
body for the three social partners.
"The performance of the economy
was this year very bad," said
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries president
Callisto Jokonya. "The TNF
failed to deliver any of the goals set under the
social contract."
He said among other indicators of the failure of
the social contract,
was the continued rise of the inflation rate, while the
parallel market rate
also increased unabated.
"Goods
disappeared from the shelves," he said. "There was the issue of
price
control and increased levels of corruption, as the governor himself
recently
acknowledged."
While Gono had proposed a four-month freeze on all
prices, wages,
salaries, fees, interest rates, municipal charges and all
other forms of
tariffs and rates in the economy, most of these things
continued to rise for
the greater part of the year.
More ironic
was the fact that most of the increases gained momentum
towards March, the
proposed start date for the social contract which also
failed to take off on
the proposed date as partners failed to agree on some
of its
tenets.
A string of talkshops among the partners culminated in the
signing of
three protocols on 1 June
While the largest labour
representative, the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions only signed the
Incomes and Pricing Stabilisation Protocol,
other partners also signed the
Protocol on Restoration of Production
Viability and one on Mobilisation,
Pricing and Management of Foreign
Currency.
Among other
deliverables, the partners agreed to reduce inflation to
25%by the end of
this year and bring the government budget deficit down to
10 percent of the
Gross Domestic Product.
It was envisaged that foreign currency
would be brought back onto the
formal market while the livelihood of the
majority of the population would
improve significantly before
year-end.
But Zimbabwe continued to maintain its position as the
country with
the world’s highest inflation rate and is closing the year with
a record 14
840% inflation figure as announced by the Consumer Council of
Zimbabwe in
October.
The International Monetary Fund estimated
that the country’s budget
deficit will this year rise to more than 75% as
the government continued to
spend money it did not have.
The
economy continued to maintain an estimated below two-weeks import
cover,
which meant that the foreign currency available in the official
channels was
hardly enough to cover two weeks’ imports.
While labour largely
took a back-seat in the blame-game which seemed
to be the major achievement
of the TNF, a wide rift seemed to open between
the other two partners as the
government continuously singled out business
as the wrong link in the
turnaround attempts.
The suspicion culminated in a price blitz in
June, a few weeks after
the signing ceremony, heralded in the state media as
"a landmark
demonstration of unity of purpose in stabilising the
economy".
The "un-intended" consequences of the blitz continue to
date as most
basic commodities which it chased out of the official market
are yet to
return to the shelves.
Jokonya said the intention to
turn around the economy was there but
partners differed on implementation
strategies.
He said most of the policies which were put in place
did not address
the real problem of the economy.
"We all know
what needs to be done but never seemed to agree on how to
tackle the
problem," he said. "We hope 2008 will be the year of the Lord
whereby
business runs according to Christly standards and government also
operates
on Christly standards; that way, we will be united in one purpose."
He said there was need to establish convergence between the government
and
business if the economy was to do better next year.
"If you have a
problem and you want it to be solved, you go to the
person who you know can
best solve that problem," he said. "The best
solution of our economy lies
with business people and the government needs
to engage them and must never
treat them as enemies."
He said the government should next year
treat business with more
respect and dignity than before, while consulting
and engaging them as its
partners.
Zim Standard
BY NDAMU
SANDU
THE curtain on a tumultuous 2007 comes down next week,
leaving in its
wake joy, pain and torture written on the countenances of
Zimbabweans who
had mixed feelings on their "New Year
resolutions"
Standardbusiness relives the year:
The
joy...
In January, CBZ finally went through the red by completing
the
purchase of Beverley, the country’s second largest building
society.
CBZ Holdings paid $1.8 billion to complete the takeover.
In total, CBZ
paid £3.75 million in addition to £18 000 in administration
fees.
In May, Econet dialled up foreign investors by offering
shareholding
in return for a US$30 million injection for network
expansion.
The expansion programme would lift network capacity to
1.2 million
from the current 800 000. Zimsun will also go the Econet way, if
current
negotiations are successful.
Econet increased its stake
in FML to 21.73% while two weeks ago it
bought a controlling stake in Mutare
Bottling Company.
Zimsun will offer shareholding to foreign
investors in return for
capital to be used in its expansion programme in
East, West and Southern
Africa.
In a mega deal of the year
Kingdom Financial Holdings Limited, Meikles
Africa Limited, Tanganda and
Cotton Printers announced that they would merge
to form Kingdom Meikles
Africa Limited- the largest capitalized stock on the
Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange.
Nigel Chanakira will head the new entity with John Moxon
as the
chairman. Chanakira told Standardbusiness that a Wall Street listing
is a
rallying cry for "Team Kingdom"
Winds of change swept
through parastatals when substantive heads were
appointed in the first step
to bring the state enterprises on a better keel.
Amod Takawira’s seven-year
reign as acting general manager of the National
Social Security Authority
finally came to an end after the board appointed
James Matiza as substantive
head.
At the Grain Marketing Board, former top cop Albert Mandizha
was
appointed substantive head, replacing Samuel Muvuti who had been acting
head
for the past three years.
Captain Oscar Madombwe missed
the plane again after Dr. Peter Chikumba
was appointed substantive group CEO
of troubled Air Zimbabwe.
Then as a surprise, LonZim made a
surprise buy with US$5.45 million in
Celsys. Then last week Sinosteel
Corporation reportedly bought a 67 percent
stake in Zimasco, a significant
investment since the "Look East" policy was
enunciated.
The
pain..
Zimbabwe continued to score lowly on international
rankings,
highlighting the seriousness of the crisis which the World Bank
said is
unprecedented in a country not at war.
Zimbabwe was
regarded as one of the worst destinations for prospective
businesses in
Southern Africa, according to a "Doing Business 2008" report.
The report, a
co-publication of the World Bank and the International Finance
Corporation,
ranked Zimbabwe 152 out of 178 countries used in the survey.
Economic Freedom of the World: 2007 Annual Report, done by the Fraser
Institute, placed Zimbabwe at the anchor of the table of economic freedom in
the 141countries used in the survey.
The ranking was spot on,
moreso, with the takeover of foreign owned
firms proposed by the
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill. The
Bill, which awaits
President Robert Mugabe’s assent to become law gives
Zimbabweans 51 percent
shareholding in all foreign-owned firms operating in
the country. This drew
the ire of foreign-owned banks that told a
parliamentary portfolio committee
that such a move was inimical to
attracting Foreign Direct
Investment.
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment minister Paul
Mangwana said at
the time that foreign banks unhappy with the arrangement
"can pack and go"
Central bank chief Gideon Gono allayed the banks’
fears when he
announced that those movers of indigenisation should stay away
from the
sensitive and delicate financial sector.
And in a sad
development for tourism, two airlines severed their ties
with Zimbabwe,
citing high fuel costs. British Airways ended direct flights
to Zimbabwe in
October while Zambian Airways pulled out last month.
The pull-out
piled pressure on Air Zim to deliver. But the troubled
airline has been
scoring own goals. One flight turn-back after another has
raised serious
questions about the safety of the airline at a time Zimbabwe
is preparing
for an avalanche of tourists ahead of the 2010 soccer World Cup
in South
Africa.
Global Steel Holdings Limited (GSHL), the Indian firm given
control of
Ziscosteel on a silver platter before leaving in a huff, were bad
after all,
says a report by a parliamentary portfolio
committee.
A report do prepared by the parliamentary portfolio
committee on
Foreign Affairs, Industry and International Trade unearthed
starling
revelations that the Indian firm had instructed Ziscosteel
suppliers to
inflate prices that would have milked the steelmaker of
billions of dollars,
had it sailed through. The trillion dollar question is:
was due diligence
carried out in the first place before the selection of
GSHL?
"GSHL is reported to be facing a lawsuit for improper conduct
in
Texas, USA for receiving the concession to run Nigeria’s Ajaoukuta Steel
Company Limited, with allegations of corruption and bribery cited," the
portfolio committee said.
Despite praises being showered on the
Look East policy, Zimbabwe
posted a trade deficit of US$189 million in the
first six months of 2007
against China, the price of a costly marriage of
convenience founded on
Harare’s quest for friendship and Beijing’s search
for cheap raw materials.
Zimbabwe’s exports to China were only
US$16 million, compared with
US$205 million in imports
The
torture...
In June the nation woke up to the monster called Cabinet
Taskforce on
Price Monitoring that directed businesses to slash the prices
of all goods
and services by half. It was state sponsored looting as
shoppers went on a
spree aided by the Taskforce that monitored the sale of
goods.
Over 100 of company executives were not spared and they were
arrested
for defying the directive. It became a joke that even touts could
afford to
buy beer in a five-star hotel and fight too disturbing the peace
enjoyed by
tourists that had defied the odds by coming into
Zimbabwe.
It was clear from the edict that someone wasn’t sober up.
Gono warned
that the measure was like the ill-advised invasion of Iraq as it
was being
done without an exit strategy but it fell on deaf ears. When the
Taskforce
finally saw the light there were no winners: shelves were empty
and it will
take some time to plug the holes. Companies that are reputed for
not paying
its workers found a dead give away excuse and are smiling all the
way to the
bank queues.
RBZ came up with a facility, the Basic
Commodity Supply Side
Intervention that offers cheap loans to businesses for
restocking which
analysts have said that it is prone to abuse like other
similar facilities
introduced before.
And it got even uglier as
the year staggered to a close. On notes is
written a line: Pay the bearer on
demand. You go to the bank and there is no
money. It cannot happen anywhere
else in the world except Zimbabwe which is
begging an entry into the Guiness
Book of Records.
The reason given by monetary authorities that cash
barons were holding
onto the currency is hard to sell just like selling a
deep freezer to an
Eskimo. Although Gono introduced a new family of bearer
cheques, they were
not readily available even on the day they were supposed
to be launched.
Former US Ambassador Christopher Dell raised the
ire of government in
June when he said that inflation would 1.5 million
percent and that the
economy would collapse in six months. As has become the
norm, apologists and
those who are angry on behalf of the government
dismissed Dell as a prophet
of doom.
Without money in the
banks, the economy is on its knees, I hear one
whispering.
As
the year draws to a close we don’t know the inflation figures. The
reason:
the Central Statistical Office (CSO) can’t find goods on the shelves
to
calculate the figures. This is the same CSO that said in April that
results
were delayed because computers were attacked by a virus. Yes, it is
the same
organisation that said last year that unemployment is at 9 percent.
With
these excuses and inventions Moffat Nyoni and his team should try
fiction
writing!
As the year ends can someone clamour "Failure is not an
option"
slogan?
It’s like an army major assuring his troops
that although everyone who
has gone before them has been killed, they must
fight on and will
undoubtedly take the hilltop before sunset!
I
bet with my last dollar, which I cannot even withdraw now, that
there are
still some people who believe next year things will be OK. These
same
believe the sun will be rising all the time without setting!
Zim Standard
NDAMU SANDU
AIR Zimbabwe board erred in skipping Oscar Madombwe for the post of
substantive group CEO post as he had turned around the fortunes of the
troubled airline in an acting capacity, a report by a parliamentary
portfolio committee shows.
In a report presented to Parliament
on Wednesday, the committee on
Transport and Communications said that such
oversight had affected the
fortunes of the airline. The report said the
airline had recorded an
operating loss of US$10.97 million against a target
loss of US$9.97 million
in the six months to June which could not be
attributed to uneconomic yields
and low passenger uplifts.
"Whilst the explanation given was that this was due to uneconomic
yields and
low passenger uplifts, the committee is of the opinion that there
was an
oversight in the appointment of some personnel in some key areas,"
the
committee said.
It added: "For instance, the committee cannot
understand why the Air
Zimbabwe board could not appoint the officer who
served the airline in an
acting capacity as Group Chief Executive Officer
and managed to produce an
operating profit and improved standards at the
airline during his stint."
In February Air Zimbabwe appointed Dr
Peter Chikumba as substantive
group CEO of the airline taking over from
Madombwe who had been in an acting
capacity since 2005. Madombwe was
supposed to revert to his old post as head
of National Handling Services, a
subsidiary of Air Zimbabwe group but said
he wanted a more challenging job,
Air Zimbabwe board chairman Mike Bimha
said in October.
Bimha
told the committee the board had reached an "amicable" agreement
with
Madombwe that he goes on a sabbatical after which his future with the
troubled airline would be decided.
The veteran pilot has been
on an indefinite leave since 1 September
2007, prompting the committee to
investigate his fate. A sub- committee
chaired by Chitungwiza Senator Forbes
Magadu was appointed in October to
look into the case. The subcommittee has
Harare Central MP Murisi Zwizwai,
Mutoko Senator Edmund Jacob and Chikomba
MP Musekiwa Chiurayi.
Under Madombwe’s reign at Air Zimbabwe the
airline posted its first
profit in 10 years: $554 million in December and
$389 million in January.
Zim Standard
Comment
FOR the past six weeks Zimbabweans placed hopes
of an end to the
on-going cash crisis on the introduction of what they
believed was a new
currency. When eventually it was introduced last
Thursday, it brought
neither relief nor the new currency. In fact, for most
the new family of
bearer cheques were strangers.
The sum total
of the cash fiasco has been to put a damper on the
festive season. With
financial institutions only able to give out limited
amounts — the
equivalent of two litres of fuel at the beginning of last
week.
Most people, therefore, spent their time queuing to get cash that
could not
cover most of their basic needs. For the first time in the history
of this
country, the tills have not been ringing this Christmas.
What is
clear is that by first ignoring the cash crisis and then
decreeing a change
when the new bearer cheques were not in place, the
Reserve Bank has created
a negative effect on what is normally the busiest
trading period for both
the retail and manufacturing sectors. This coming on
the back of the price
blitz means the majority of the shops have fewer
stocks this
Christmas.
For the first time in years the impact of the "January
disease" will
not be as severe as during previous periods.
With
little money available and retail outlets not accepting cheques
or credit
facilities, families will spend less. This results in a vicious
circle:
Fewer tills ringing mean less revenue for shops and consequently
reduced tax
for government coffers.
It is difficult to gauge the extent of the
intended positive impact of
the introduction of new bearer cheques. What is
certain is that we can be
sure that it was a significant reflection of the
deepening crisis.
What is perplexing is that despite the
government’s assertions on
knowledge of alleged "cash barons", it is
impotent to move against this
small clique that is allegedly responsible for
the crisis that has blighted
the majority of law-abiding
Zimbabweans.
Failure by the government to act against this mafia
has contributed to
the growing belief that either those making the most
noise are the ones
guilty, or worse still that "cash barons" are a figment
of the central bank’s
imagination. Just what this whole drama is or was
intended to achieve is
difficult to see.
If "cash barons" are a
reality and, as alleged, preferred the $200 000
bearer cheques, what’s to
stop them preferring the $500 000 and $750 000
cheques? What is clear is
that we are very far from the Promised Land – that
is what the continued
obsession with the regimen of bearer cheques says
unequivocally.
The same dearth of policy alternatives was amply
demonstrated at the
just-ended extraordinary congress of the ruling party.
How a continuation of
the status quo will lead to any improvement in the
suffering this country
has witnessed over the recent past baffles the mind.
The reason for all
these experiments is that both the ruling party and the
government have
completely run out of ideas. If any evidence is needed it is
in someone
distributing seed this far into the farming season.
Zim Standard
sundayopinion by Bill
Saidi
BOB Woodward was recently interviewed on the radio, 35 years
after he
and Carl Bernstein did the business now known as The Watergate
Scandal.
Woodward, speaking of journalism in the United States
today, opined
there was not enough "digging" being done before stories were
published,
aired or screened.
Woodward and Bernstein remain
icons, even among non-US scribes. Ben
Bradlee, the legendary managing editor
of The Washington Post newspaper, who
guided them, is still
revered.
In 2004, on a visit to the newspaper’s offices in
Washington D.C, we
were shown his office, which remained unoccupied,
although he had long
retired, but pops in once in a while.
In
Africa, it has always been argued that no newspaper could equal, in
its
enormous political impact, the work of the US newspaper: the resignation
of
a president.
Willowgate, associated with Geoff Nyarota’s tenure as
editor of The
Chronicle in Bulawayo, might have led to tragic developments;
Maurice
Nyagumbo’s suicide and Frederick Shava’s brief spell in jail, come
to mind.
But President Robert Mugabe did not resign. At no time had
he been
compelled, like President Richard Nixon, to make the public
statement: "I’m
a not a crook!"
In Africa, the story of
journalism in a nutshell begins thus: In
almost every country which
confronted colonialism and, after much bloodshed,
sent it fleeing, its tail
between its legs, a group of journalists can be
counted among the struggle’s
unsung heroes.
They were both indigenous and foreign. But after
independence, the new
rulers, now possessed of an insatiable, sanctimonious
self-righteousness
steeped in self-preservation, despised the
journalists.
If they didn’t join the new rulers in a religion of
commitment to
selfish wealth-creation, the journalists were treated like
vagabonds.
If they dared to probe the probity of the new rulers,
they risked
worse, even death. The accusation was worse than upsetting the
applecart of
the new rulers’ pursuit of self-aggrandizement.
Often, it was equated with treason. If the retribution could not be
cloaked
in suitably worded legalese, all subtlety was abandoned and the
person was
dispatched, with gory haste, to Kingdom Come.
Freedom of
expression, in which the nationalists and the journalists
were allies during
the struggle, was circumscribed after independence. Words
such as
Disloyalty, Lack of Patriotism and Treason were used to describe
journalists
who insisted on questioning the direction in which the new
governments were
headed.
One of the most traumatic experiences for such journalists
was the
open invitation by the governments for them "to spy for your
country".
In a number of countries — among them Zimbabwe — owing to
the
notoriously paltry pay for journalists, some weak-kneed scribes
succumbed to
the blandishments. They used an old adage to justify the
treachery: "A man
(or woman) has to do what they’ve got to do."
If they did it only for the money they would be treated as worthless
curs.
But some did worse, using it to avenge some unspecified wrong done to
them
by fellow journalists. They invented transgressions for which the
victims
were then severely punished by the state.
Yet the facts on the
ground today suggest most journalists have
remained steadfast in their
determination and commitment "to do the right
thing", by their readers and
listeners: tell them the truth, warts and all.
Incidentally, we
must salute the journalists in South Africa, black
and white. The result of
the ANC presidential election was a vindication for
them. They were never
deliberately malicious to Thabo Mbeki, as alleged by
some overzealous ANC
hacks. Mbeki dug his own grave.
It remains for us in Zimbabwe to
gird our loins for the struggle
ahead. Our digging has not been thorough
enough. Most of our work on the
cash crisis has lacked depth. Gideon Gono
has been allowed far too much
leeway. He has been allowed to get away, if
not with a certain variety of
homicide, then with almost the equivalent in
political mayhem.
As we go into the elections, much, much digging
must be done. What has
gone wrong? Why is this country in such a deep hole
of stinking human
manure? It’s not enough to blame it on Zanu PF and Mugabe.
Why have they
been allowed to get away with it, to hold a farcical congress
in which the
platitudes came thick and fast, except for the faux pas
committed by
Jabulani Sibanda?
The journalist who appreciates
the role played by others of his
profession when the enemy was colonialism
and the allies were the
nationalists must know only a fresh commitment to
Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe for
which so many died, is worth such a
sacrifice.
As someone said after the circus of the congress: "This
is not their
Zimbabwe. It belongs to us all."
saidib@standard.co.zw
Zim Standard
sundayview by Tajudeen
Abdul-Raheem
THE ANC, South Africa’s
ruling party, and the oldest Liberation
movement on the continent, ended its
controversial Congress and predictably
elected former Vice-President, Jacob
Zuma, as their leader which ipso facto
will make him the Presidential
candidate of the Party in General elections
due in 2009. He defeated his
former boss and current President of South
Africa, Thabo Mbeki.
Only those who have not been following the battles closely enough or
those
hoping against hope could have expected a different outcome. Some of
us have
been so consumed by our own ideological prejudices, sense of
"decency" and
"what is proper" that we ignored the national and local
dynamics of the
power play. I am not sure how many people apart from
President Mbeki’s most
loyal worshippers and groupies, inside South Africa
are weeping for Mbeki
getting his comeuppance. Even some of the more honest
and less sheepish of
his admirers had not been sure of his wisdom in
pursuing his third term bid
to the floor of the congress but they were all
sidelined for not following
the whim of the "great leader".
Outside of South Africa there may
even be fewer people bothered by his
defeat but more anxiety about what Zuma
Presidency may mean given all that
people believe they know about (mostly
unpalatable in polite circles).
President Mbeki is one of those
leaders that many find it difficult to
warm to. He is first and foremost an
intellectual and he never misses any
instance to let you know that. He takes
himself so seriously that he is
generally perceived as being
arrogant.
Not long ago I was involved in trying to set up a Panel
of Heads of
state to interface with CSO in an AU pre-Summit programme. Mbeki
was one of
the leaders we had invited. Another Head of State we had invited
refused to
accept our invitation because he said he could not share a
platform with
Mbeki whom he accused of always talking down to
him.
His intellectual aloofness, statist managerial style and
authoritarian
technocracy (except where his loyalists are concerned) combine
to make him
at best, respected but never quite loved either within the ANC
or outside of
it.
Thabo must have calculated that since he
could not match Madiba, the
Saint, therefore his best option was to become a
Philosopher King.
Unfortunately he exaggerated this claim and needlessly
engaged himself in
unnecessary debates and controversies which may have been
more suited for
academic faculties than the Presidency. Even when his
general critique and
arguments were correct, his penchant for having the
last say and even
overstating his case unnecessarily lose him
support.
The most famous of course is his view on HIV/Aids. His
linking Aids to
poverty was correct. He ruffled not a few feathers in the
HIV/Aids industry
and advocacy and forced consideration of other factors
instead of just
treating HIV/Aids as a Medical condition. He should have
stopped there. But
that’s not Thabo "Mr. know All" Mbeki’s style. He
proceeded to turn himself
into a Medical scientist and prey to all kinds of
"alternative science"
forums to prove himself right.
Subsequently he became notorious internationally and nationally as a
figure
of both scorn and ridicule as an Aids denialist! It reached
ridiculous
levels of people becoming so fearful to mention HIV/Aids in case
it is
misconstrued as an attack on the President. The President of any
country is
not elected to be chairman of a faculty or head of a debating
club. He or
she is in office to deliver on bread and butter issues to the
citizens.
But Thabo thinks that his intellectual force alone
(reinforced by
state powers) will win all arguments and cow his opponents.
He does not
accept defeat or admit where and when he is wrong. He just finds
ways of
continuing the debate at any opportunity.
This
arrogance he shares with his fellow Third way fraud of a leader,
one Tony
Blair, thankfully now banished to the debris of Israeli impunity in
the
Middle East.
The same arrogance that forced a previously grateful
Labour party,
fearfully loyal MPs and an adoring nation (never have they
seen such a
likeable Labour Leader) to get rid of Blair is finally showing
Thabo the
exit door in South African politics.
Zuma is just the
beneficiary of a groundswell of opposition to the
President’s
authoritarianism, intellectual and political intimidation of
opponents and
delusions of invincibility. Those who are concentrating on the
many
weaknesses of Zuma are missing this point. People hate Thabo more than
they
like Zuma. In a bizarre way Thabo’s attacks on Zuma have lionized the
man
just like Obasanjo’s attacks on his Deputy, Atiku Abubakar, dubiously
turned
the man into a hero among the many forces opposed to Obasanjo’s sad
term
elongation.
It was not that some of the charges against Atiku were
not true but
the politics of the persecution made many people to overlook
them. This is
the same with Zuma.
But beyond the personalities
involved there are many important lessons
to learn from President Thabo
Mbeki’s defeat.
One, it is indeed true that all politics is local.
It is the ANC
members and later the ordinary voters of South Africa who are
the employers
of Thabo and Zuma no matter what anyone thinks of both of
them.
Two, a democratic process may not necessarily produce a
democratic
outcome or the best candidate may not even win but the essence of
a
democratic processs include the right of free peoples to make their own
mistakes with a certainty that they can correct them, if and when necessary
in a democratic way.
Three, Leaders do not own the party,
government or country.
Four, mere intellect alone does not make one
a good/popular leader
otherwise Trotsky would have defeated Stalin; Al Gore
would have obliterated
George Bush and probably save the US from global
hatred and the World
unnecessary escalation of every conflict to
terrorism.
Five, in many African countries there is always this
argument about
"illiterates" in political contests. We do not mind
"illiterates" voting for
us "the educated" but somehow we are not willing to
accept that they can
vote for themselves too. Because Zuma did not possess
higher formal
qualifications Mbeki’s people disparage him as an
"illiterate". This man was
ANC’s Chief of Intelligence inside the country.
He was elected
Vice-President of the party and the country. Is the ANC so
cynical a party
to elect an illiterate? Why do we attack illiterates in a
situation like
ours where still many of our citizens do not possess even the
little
education that Zuma has?
Six, in the specific case of
South Africa, the Thabo-Zuma axis betrays
an ideological schism within the
ANC between those for whom liberation has
delivered prosperity
(unfortunately a minority) and those left outside the
rainbow (the
majority); conflict between those who remained at home and
those relatively
better educated/privileged returnees from outside; but also
growing
discontent about historical ethno-regional imbalances within the
movement
and the country. The class struggle is alive even if consumerism
and neo
liberal hegemonic discourse may be disguising or distorting it.
Zuma is part of the unravellling of the post apartheid narratives that
made
Mandela , a man of all seasons , meaning to the oppressors and the
oppressed
whatever was comfortable to them and Thabo’s neo liberalist
fantasy of there
being room for evrybody through the unequal market in a
society in which
first world cohabits with fourth, jaw by jowl.
One final lesson for
all African leaders is that the era of tinkering
with party processes and
constitution of the country is winding down across
the continent. People
want leaders with limited terms who retire to do other
things for the
country, the continent and the world instead of just finding
ways of hanging
on. It is a victory for democracy.
I am sure many Africans would
have wished that their ruling parties
are real /vibrant political parties
like the ANC where the wish of the
people rather than the personal will of
self-appointed cabals decides who
gets what,when and how.
As the succession battles raged in the past three years I used to
deflate
the ebulient optimism of some of my ex-comrades, now bourgeois and
new rich
of South Africa by observing that since their first President was a
saint
and the second one is a philosopher king , the next one will be
something
that rhymes with weep! For their sake and ours I really hope I am
not
right.
Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is deputy director, UN
Millennium Campaign,
based in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes this column in his
personal capacity as a
Pan-Africanist.
Zim Standard
THE idea
of monitoring
and observing elections has become an integral part of
democratic practice.
The holding of consistent, timely, free and fair
elections which are subject
to observation by local, regional and
international groups and individuals
has come to be quintessential to
democratic practice and good governance.
Even where elections are
anticipated to be bad, free or fair, there is need
for impartial
individuals, groups or organisations who would give an
independent
assessment of the electoral process.
Election monitoring refers to
the systematic observation over a period
of time prior to, and after an
election process, to assess different aspects
of the electoral process in
order to provide an independent evaluation of
its fairness. It is mainly
done by local groups who often have the mandate
to promptly intervene where
cases of fraud or other practices inimical to
free and fair electoral
practice do occur. Observation, on the other hand,
is slightly different
from monitoring on the basis that observers do not
have the right to
intervene and correct things where they are convinced
electoral activities
are not consistent with fair practice. For the purposes
of this article,
however, observation would refer to both monitoring and
observing.
Election observation has a lot of advantages that it
affords an
electoral process. It has the potential to enhance the integrity
of election
processes, by deterring and exposing irregularities and fraud
and by
providing recommendations for improving electoral processes. It can
promote
public confidence, as warranted, promote electoral participation and
mitigate the potential for election-related conflict. It can also provide
legitimacy to the electoral process and outcome. As such, countries holding
elections should ensure that election observation mandates are availed to
interested groups to make certain that the process is not shrouded in
secrecy or any other murky dealings that might compromise the credibility of
the election process.
Elections, whether they are anticipated
to be free and fair, are
subject to scrutiny, thus there is need for
countries holding the elections
to make provisions that allow for local,
regional and international
long-term observers to observe the electoral
process. Free and fair
elections in countries such as Lesotho and South
Africa, among other
countries, have always attracted observers both
nationally and
internationally. The SADC Guidelines and Principles governing
democratic
elections, particularly section 7.8, note the rationale of
deploying
observers as to "ensure transparency and integrity of the entire
electoral
process." Section 7.8 states that the member country holding
elections
should,
"Ensure the transparency and integrity of the
entire electoral process
by facilitating the deployment of representatives
of political parties and
individual candidates at polling and counting
stations and by accrediting
national and/other
observers/monitors"
There are several things that observers look
for in an election. They
assess the adequacy and availability of the human
resources and specialised
skills within the Electoral Management Body (EMB)
staff and where further
training is needed, they assess whether election
commission members have
received standardized training at all levels of the
election administration.
They also look at issues such as
whether the election administration
has a realistic understanding of and
adequate means to meet the material
requirements for an efficient process.
They also assess the political
environment, before, during and after
elections among a host of other
election-related issues that might impact on
the freeness or fairness of an
election or lack thereof. In this article,
however, ZESN would not be
looking at what the long-term observer should
look out for but would address
the issues of who should be invited to
observe the elections, the issue of
the timing of the invitation, the
accreditation of the observers and the
provisions for a post- election
follow-up observation process.
Invitation
The issue of
who should be invited to observe the elections in
Zimbabwe is a contentious
one with government practice, in the past, being
to cherry-pick observers
who are likely to produce favourable reports on the
electoral process. While
there could be some arguments, albeit suspicious,
about the need to invite
observers from outside the country and leave others
out, all interested
groups in Zimbabwe should be allowed a chance to observe
the elections if
they so wish. According to section 2.1.1 of the SADC
Principles and
Guidelines for Democratic elections, member states are
expected to ensure
full participation of the citizens in the political
process. It is our
argument that full participation in the electoral process
by citizens also
entails affording them the right to observe and or monitor
electoral
processes in their country.
Article 13 (1) of the African
Charter on Human and People’s Rights
(ACHPR) to which Zimbabwe is signatory
further vindicates our call for any
observer group or individual interested
in observing the election to be
accredited for the purposes of observing the
elections. Article 13 (1)
provides that: " Every citizen shall have the
right to participate freely in
the government of his country, either
directly or through freely chosen
representatives in accordance with the
provisions of the law". It is our
call therefore that all citizens, citizens
groups, be it the media,
non-governmental organisations, civil society in
its broad sense, be allowed
to observe the elections if they so
wish.
It is also important, for the purposes of transparency,
that observers
from without observe our elections. These could be from the
region, SADC, or
international observer groups under the auspices of
different organisations
who might feel interested in observing our electoral
process.
In the 2005 parliamentary elections unfortunately, a
lot of observer
missions were denied a chance to observe our elections
because the
government, either did not invite them, or denied their requests
to be
accredited to observe the elections. From Southern Africa notable
absentees
were: Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary
Forum;
Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA); Congress of South
African
Trade Unions (COSATU); Southern African Trade Union Co-ordination
Council
(SATUCC) and South African Council of Churches (SACC). The Carter
Centre,
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and
the
International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) were also among
the
groups denied invitations. Most of these observer groups have observed
elections in various countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Mauritius and
Namibia and their coming to Zimbabwe was not unique.
However,
their denial of invitation raised unnecessary suspicion
against the
government of Zimbabwe which could have been avoided had they
been invited.
The fact that they were denied invitations, to some, meant
there were things
the government was hiding and such suspicion impact on the
credibility of an
election.
Foreign Missions excluded from observing the polls
included, the
Commonwealth, notably Britain, the European Union, the United
States of
America and Australia. The foreign missions invited included the
African
Union (AU), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) – led
by South
African Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, the Common
Market for
Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Non-Aligned Movement,
the United
Nations, the South African Parliamentary Mission and the South
African
Government Observer Mission. There were also some liberation
movements that
were invited. Among these were South Africa’s African
National Congress
(ANC), Tanzania’s Chama Chama Pinduzi and Mozambique’s
Frelimo.
What is evident in the lists of those invited and not,
that I have
outlined above is that the majority, if not all of the observer
groups, that
were invited are organisations, which directly or indirectly,
enjoy some
cordial relationships with the government (read ruling party). On
the other
hand, those perceived to be enemies of the government were not
invited.
This is true of Britain and the European Union because of
the "smart
sanctions" against top government officials in Zimbabwe, a case
that has
built acrimonious relations between the targeted officials and the
various
bodies and governments enforcing the sanctions. In the case of
Britain, the
relationship between Tony Blair and Harare was so acrimonious
that the
elections in Zimbabwe were code-named "anti-Blair" elections. The
exclusion
of Britain from the observer groups invited was, therefore, not
very
surprising.
Judging from the 2005 experience, bilateral
relationships affect the
working relationship between government and foreign
parties that might be
interested in observing the elections, thus the task
of inviting the
observers should not be left to government whose discretion
on who to invite
or not might be influence by the nature of bilateral
relationships existing
between it and the part to be invited.
There is, therefore, need for a truly independent electoral management
body
to be tasked with inviting observers, accrediting them and running the
whole
electoral process. Governments, its ministers or any participant in
the
election, should not be given the job of either inviting or accrediting
the
observers.
Apart from the issue of who should be invited, there is
the issue of
when the long-term observer groups should be allowed to start
observing the
elections. The SADC Principles and Guidelines require that the
long-term
observers should be invited at least 90 days before Election Day
while the
deployment should be done at least two weeks before
voting.
The time allowed before the election should be long enough
to allow
for the observers to assess the run-in to the election and amble
enough to
enable the observers to make judgements on issues related to voter
registration, the delimitation of constituencies, campaign by political
parties in addition to the actual voting processes on election day. The
observers should also be invited long before Election Day to allow for amble
time for accreditation and acclimatisation.
When to
exit
The issue of when the observer missions should move is
dependent on a
lot of things related to the way the election results are
received. In an
election where the result is disputed, as was the case with
our 2002
presidential election, there might be need for the observer mission
to delay
its departure to monitor the post-election period.
Where petitions have been lodged with the courts, the period within
which
such petitions could be resolved gives guidelines on whether the
observer
groups will have to stay longer or move out forthwith. As is the
case in
Zimbabwe now, after the Electoral Court was deemed to be illegally
constituted, electoral petitions might take forever to be resolved, and in
such instances, there is no reasonable need for the observer mission to wait
until the electoral disputes are resolved.
However, under
normal circumstances, observer missions should be
allowed sufficient time to
assess the post-election period, and where
necessary, should be given enough
time to observe electoral dispute
resolution processes—thus there is also
the question of the need for the
disputes to be expeditiously
resolved.
Since election observer missions help in giving an
electoral process
credibility and transparency, it is incumbent upon EMBs,
governments and all
parties in an electoral process to ensure they open up
the process to public
scrutiny by allowing observers to witness the
electoral processes. There is
also need to be expeditious in inviting and
accrediting the observers if
credible electoral processes are to be
observed.
Produced by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network.
Comments on this
article are welcome on zesn@africaonline.co.zw
Angered by brutality against students
WE are not only angered but
shocked by the level of intolerance
exhibited by our fellow men and women.
Students are mourning the death of
freedom of expression and respect of
human rights.
How can students be battered by 15 overzealous army
officials and
about six National Railways of Zimbabwe policemen when they
were simply
asking the station manager why the train was late?
It’s a pity that the students were armed only with their books and
pens.
Students are not only victimized at colleges but even in the
public.
The students showed great bravery and level of maturity in
adversity.
It’s shocking that there is freedom of speech and no freedom
after speech in
Zimbabwe.
We are going to have a horrible
Christmas with no food, as the shops
are empty, and there is no money as
there is a cash shortage
This year the government has achieved one
thing: victimising students.
The Ministry of Higher and Tertiary
Education has accomplished nothing
that has been designed to change the
lives of students. Lecturers are
fleeing. Come 2008 we will still be
demanding our academic freedoms and we
will not be deterred by the violence
exhibited by the perpetrators of human
rights abuses.
Richard Bhebhe
Bulawayo.
------------
Fed up with
Zesa excuses
ZESA has become so adept at the art of passing the buck
each time
consumers approach it for explanations for poor
service.
On Sunday afternoon five houses in Marlborough lost power.
It took us
more than three days to get through the Zesa fault lines. Tuesday
was met
with all manner of excuses: I realised Zesa has a stock of responses
to
consumers queries depending on the mood of the person answering the phone
although they say they are no longer load-shedding.
We
discovered later that the cause was a fallen tree branch and one
would think
this would be easy to deal with? Not for Zesa! There was a tall
yarn about
foreign currency etc. But that was not the cause. Why doesn’t
Mavis
Chidzonga’s Zimbabwe Electricity Regulatory Commission approve
reasonable
tariffs — we can’t continue to run a country this way, or isn’t
she
affected?
In the dark
Harare.
--------
No more AirZim travel for me
LAST Friday while
travelling from
Johannesburg, SA, on Air Zimbabwe Flight UM 362, we were due
to board at
2045 hours through Gate A22. At 1900 hours this changed to Gate
A6. Just
before boarding, it was changed to 2200 hours. Later this was again
changed
to 2225 hours and yet again from Gate A14.
No official
bothered to explain to the passengers just what was going
on. Later, we were
informed the aircraft had been to the DRC and that the
runway lights had
malfunctioned. We arrived in Harare the following day.
Air
Zimbabwe’s motto is: A commitment to excellence. If this is what
they mean,
they can keep it. They have lost my business to competition. I
believe in
value for my money.
I M Migrating
Harare.