http://www.nation.co.ke
By KITSEPILE NYATHI NATION Correspondent
Posted
Wednesday, December 8 2010 at 19:52
Zimbabwe’s legislators have
threatened to block the passage of the country’s
2011 budget if they are not
given at least US$200 000 (Sh16m) each for their
constituencies.
The
Members of Parliament (MPs) are also demanding that Finance Minister
Tendai
Biti sets aside funds to pay them at least $3000 (Sh240,000) in
salaries a
month.
Currently, the legislators’ earn an average of $400 a month and
the latest
demands come in the wake of threats by the MPs that they would
demand
compensation if their terms are cut short to pave way for elections
expected
next year.
President Robert Mugabe is insisting on early
elections two years after he
formed a unity government with his former
rivals, which means the
legislators cannot serve their five year terms that
end in 2012.
The legislators who early this year also demanded luxury
vehicles every year
for use in their constituencies claim that they are the
lowest paid in the
region.
“The budget has continued to show its ugly
face by putting civil servants
and MPs into abject poverty under the pretext
that the country is poor,”
said Mr Paddy Zhanda who chairs the parliamentary
portfolio committee on
budget and finance.
“This attitude cannot be
allowed to continue as it perpetuates corruption
and has a negative impact
on this country.” Last month, Zimbabwe’s Finance
Minister Tendai Biti
proposed a $3,2 billion budget for 2011.
Out of that budget, $1, 4
billion was set aside for civil service
remuneration which was almost twice
the $773 million allocated in this year’s
budget.
But for the budget
to be adopted it has to be first approved by the MPs
before it is taken to
the Senate.
Meanwhile, the Senate has resumed sitting a month after it
was forced to
adjourn indefinitely following protests by members of Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s party over the presence of provincial governors
who were
unilaterally appointed by President Mugabe.
Mr Tsvangirai
has since challenged the appointments in court and South
African President
Jacob Zuma has also tried to help end the impasse.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
08
December 2010
West Africa has dismissed unity government proposals,
favoured by the
Southern African Development Community (SADC), as a bad
idea, demonstrating
how the regional bloc should have handled Zimbabwe’s
stolen election.
The West African bloc ECOWAS has officially recognised
Alassane Ouattara as
the Ivory Coast’s president-elect, after a disputed
poll with the country’s
decade long leader Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo has defied
international demands
to step down and yield to Ouattara. He has instead
been sworn in for a new
term as Ivorian president with the backing of the
military, even though the
electoral commission said the winner was
Ouattara.
ECOWAS’ acting President, Nigerian leader Goodluck Jonathan,
has now warned
against efforts to forge a deal between the rivals, as was
done in Zimbabwe
and Kenya in recent years.
“We’ve seen that these
governments of national unity ... it doesn’t really
work. Elections have
been declared, somebody has won, so he (Gbagbo) has to
hand over,” Jonathan
said.
The Nigerian leader also announced that the Ivory Coast has been
suspended
from the regional bloc, in a move that critics hope will isolate
Gbagbo and
his grip on power.
The stalemate in the Ivory Coast has
raised tensions in the country,
prompting the African Union (AU) to send
former South African president
Thabo Mbeki to mediate. Mbeki was the former
mediator in Zimbabwe’s
political crisis and in 2008 helped craft the
coalition deal that formed the
current unity government. That arrangement
has been slammed as nothing more
than a convenient political life-line for
Robert Mugabe, who declared
himself the winner of the farcical one-man run
off poll that followed the
2008 disputed presidential vote.
MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who now wields almost no power as Prime
Minister
in the unity pact, this week said a coalition government in the
Ivory Coast
would set a bad example to other African countries.
“I’m sure that will
be the solution again - have a coalition as a solution.
They already have a
template for it. It is called ‘go through the back door
and still retain the
power that you lost through the mandate of the people’,”
Tsvangirai told the
Reuters news service in an interview.
“The unfortunate thing is that we
are seeing this repetition of people
losing an election and want(ing) to
come back to restore their power
position through the back door. It is not
different from Kenya, it is not
different from Zimbabwe, now we have got
Ivory Coast,” he said.
Mugabe on the other hand has sent a congratulatory
message to Gbagbo.
ECOWAS’ position has been widely welcomed and
supported, with commentators
saying it is exactly how SADC should have dealt
with Zimbabwe’s political
stalemate. SADC has faced intense criticism for
allowing Mugabe to remain in
power, despite losing the elections in 2008 to
Tsvangirai. Analysts have
said this tacit support for Mugabe is a serious
threat to the entire region,
because of the open dismissal of the will of
the people.
Zimbabwean political analyst Professor John Makumbe said on
Wednesday that
ECOWAS’ position is admirable, and demonstrates clearly that
SADC “is just a
toothless bulldog.” He said this contrast between how the
two regional blocs
deal with stolen elections should be a serious lesson to
SADC. But he
expressed concern than SADC “does not have the capacity to
learn.”
“If you look at the dictatorships in Southern Africa, you will
see it is the
DNA of former liberation movements not to give up power, no
matter what,”
Makumbe said.
The analyst added that he hoped the
strong West African attitude will also
develop at the AU.
“I would
like to see the AU adopt this attitude, and maybe someone can
develop a code
of conduct that ECOWAS, and most definitely SADC, has to
abide by,” Makumbe
said.
He added: “We can only hope that some of ECOWAS’ success can rub
off.”
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
08 December
2010
The Indian Government’s Union Ministry of Commerce has moved to stop
its
country from importing controversial diamonds from Zimbabwe, amid
growing
pressure for international traders to shun stones from the
country.
India has asked jewellery exporters and traders to bide their
time until a
solution of Zimbabwe’s trade future is resolved. Currently
Zimbabwe’s
diamonds are still effectively barred from international trade,
because the
watchdog Kimberley Process (KP) is still to decide on whether to
give
Zimbabwean exports the green light.
The Indian government’s
decision is a major setback to the country’s diamond
conglomerate, the Surat
Rough Diamond Sourcing India Limited (SRSDIL), which
signed a deal amounting
to US$1.2 billion per year, to import rough diamonds
from Zimbabwe. Recent
diamond auctions in Zimbabwe, the first since the
country was barred from
trade last year, saw a high number of Indian buyers.
Zimbabwe was barred
by the KP over human rights abuses at the Chiadzwa
alluvial diamond fields,
and the auctions earlier this year were part of
efforts to bring the country
in line with international standards. But the
KP has not made a unanimous
decision on Zimbabwe yet, because of ongoing
reports of abuses at
Chiadzwa.
The Mines Ministry has since threatened to sell its diamonds
without KP
approval and recently the KP appointed monitor to Zimbabwe, Abbey
Chikane,
unilaterally certified Chiadzwa stones for sale. As a result,
another
auction, featuring mainly Indian buyers, went ahead last month. The
KP has
since publicly dismissed Chikane’s efforts to certify the stones
without
approval, and has asked member states not to accept Zimbabwean
diamonds.
The KP is still reportedly negotiating an agreement with the
Mines Ministry,
which continues to make it clear that it has no intention of
adhering to the
KP’s limits. Mines and Mining Development secretary Thankful
Musukutwa
reportedly told a visiting Norwegian delegation this week that
trade would
not be stopped by NGOs and “other hostile nations.” Musukutwa
said that
while Zimbabwe has had “a few problems” with the KP, “we have
worked our way
up and we are very compliant.”
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
08 December
2010
The army bomb disposal unit was called to the University of Zimbabwe
on
Monday, after unidentified people petrol bombed an Isuzu KB twincab
truck,
belonging to the pro Vice Chancellor, Professor Chipo
Dyanda.
A student, who preferred to be called Mayibuye, told SW Radio
Africa they
heard a blast emanating from the administration block and went
there to see
what had happened. He says they saw Professor Dyanda’s vehicle
on fire and
the speculation was that disgruntled students had petrol-bombed
it.
Mayibuye says a white van, believed to be from the bomb disposal
unit, was
parked near the scene of the blast. He says he and other students
nearby
were briefly detained and made to sit on the floor because they had
passed
through a cordon police had made using string.
“There were
police carrying guns and something like 7 military personnel
carrying guns,’
Mayibuye said. Only last Friday there was a heavy police
presence on the
campus, as authorities anticipated massive student protests
over exorbitant
tuition and exam fees that have seen the majority unable to
register.
In the run-up to the police deployment unnamed activists
had distributed
leaflets announcing what they called ‘2 December Judgment’
on UZ
authorities, including Vice Chancellor Professor Levi Nyagura, whom
they
accused of mismanagement.
‘Issues in contention at the college
include, the removing of students from
lectures, exams and university
facilities, like the library, over non-
payment of fees, leading to
subsequent non registration and the failure to
open halls of residence for
four years now, despite the resolution of water
problems originally cited as
the reason for closing them,’ Mayibuye told us.
Students are also furious
they have to fork out US$6 every semester for ID
cards being produced by a
private company (Identity Systems International)
who were allegedly given
the tender under dodgy circumstances. With an
estimated student population
of 10,000 the company is making US$60 000 a
semester – something that is
also infuriating the students.
It does not help that the UZ has not had a
Students Representative Council
(SRC) for 4 years now, after authorities
banned it. Activists say the petrol
bombing incident is the result of there
being no communication channel
between students and those running the
university.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Guthrie Munyuki
Wednesday, 08
December 2010 17:13
HARARE -The National Constitutional Assembly
(NCA) has intensified its
campaign against political violence targeting
women by engaging SADC rights
groups in an attempt to force President Robert
Mugabe and his allies to
allow non violent campaigns in future
elections.
On Friday, the raging civic society group will launch the
Together Against
Political Violence in Johannesburg, to mark the
collaboration with selected
regional groups involved in the fight against
human rights violations and
political violence.
The meeting, set for
Constitution Hill, The Women’s Jail in Braamfontein,
will be attended by
exiled Zimbabweans living in South Africa and other
rights
groups.
NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku said: “There has been violence in
Zimbabwe
during elections and that violence will continue to be used. Our
aim is to
tell the outside world that we are oppressed and expose the
viciousness of
the regime here.”
An arch critic of Mugabe, Madhuku
said there was no disguising the fact that
the octogenarian leader and his
aides in Zanu PF had forced themselves on
people in the last election whose
disputed results led to the formation of
an inclusive
government.
“This initiative will strengthen our activism. There is value
in telling the
world that we are oppressed rather than limiting our concerns
here. There
are immense benefits in engaging people on the ground both at
home and the
region,” Madhuku told the Daily News.
The University of
Zimbabwe Public Law lecturer who bears scars from
state-sponsored violence
said the NCA will engage the three main political
parties in their campaigns
but will not be limited to their responses.
Madhuku was among a group of
eminent politicians and civic society leaders
who were bludgeoned by
security agents on 11 March 2007 in Highfield during
a prayer march
organised under the banner of Save Zimbabwe, a campaign
fronted by civic
society groups.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy Arthur
Mutambara were among
the people savagely assaulted by rifle-wielding
security agents who
violently broke down the meeting at Machipisa shopping
centre.
Gift Tandare, an MDC activist and cobbler, was shot and killed in
cold blood
during the march whilst journalist, Edward Chikomba, who filmed
the assault
of Tsvangirai, was abducted at his Glen View home and found dead
three days
later in Mapinga near Banket.
“We would like to see a
cessation of violence against the people, especially
women who have borne
the brunt of political violence in recent years. There
are no guarantees
that the impending election would not be violent.
“It is important for us
to join progressive groups in the region and
strengthen our activism in this
area. Violence has been used in Zimbabwe
against struggling people and this
is a campaign to say we are oppressed but
will protest against this
oppression,” said Madhuku.
The NCA joins hands with People Opposing Women
Abuse (POWA), One in Campaign
Nine Campaign, Khulumani, Zimbabwe Solidarity
Forum, Global Zimbabwe Forum,
MDC Veteran Activists and Forum of Congolese
Organisation in South Africa
(FOCAS), who will give solidarity
messages.
Madhuku said the campaign seeks among other things to tap into
the regional
experience to address the scourge of political violence by
raising
awareness, building support structures, name and shame perpetrators
as well
as capacitating women and communities at large to deal with the
scourge at
two levels: prevention and support for victims.
He said
the campaign, which coincides with the UN 16 Days of Women’s
Activism, is a
follow up to a report based on a survey conducted by the
Research and
Advocacy Unity (RAU) on the statistics of various human rights
violations
perpetrated on the female members of the NCA.
The report captures human
rights violations perpetrated against NCA females
members from 2000 to
2008.
According to the report 75 per cent women reported that they had
been active
political activists, 41 per cent of these reported being
arrested, with
29per cent having been arrested twice.
Thirty-five
percent of those arrested were intimidated during arrest, whilst
46 per cent
reported that the worst treatment came from police officers.
Nine per cent
reported having their young children detained with them.
Madhuku said
that the anti violence campaign is now a reality and that
despite all these
violations the NCA will remain committed in the fight for
a new people
driven constitution that upholds and respects the rights of
women.
http://www.radiovop.com/
08/12/2010 10:51:00
Magunje, December 08, 2010 -
Army recruitment officers barred some youths
who had applied to be
considered as members of the army accusing them of
being aliens although
they were born in Zimbabwe and have never lived
elsewhere.
According
to sources who attended weekend recruitment at Magunje's 2.3
Infantry
battalion, situated about 35 kilometres south of Karoi town, some
aspiring
soldiers were barred because 'their parents are not Zimbabweans
originally'.
Some of these youths recently graduated from Tengwe
national youth programme
and had been promised jobs.
'It’s
embarrassing that they assured us that we will be considered first to
join
any Government department but we were barred because we were told we
were
aliens' said one disgruntled youth from Mjinga area. He declined to be
named
for fear of victimisation.
Recruitment officers led by one Captain
Dzumbunu could not be reached for
comment. Nearly 600 aspiring soldiers
were taken in for the january intake
although the army had targeted to
recruit 1000 people.
http://www.radiovop.com/
08/12/2010
12:27:00
Bulawayo-December 8 2010- The Ministry of Education, Sport,
Arts and Culture
has banned all political parties in the country from using
school premises
for political rallies and meetings , ahead of the
forthcoming elections.
Speaking about the state of education in Zimbabwe
during a meeting jointly
organized by Radio Dialogue and The Zimbabwe
Independent in Bulawayo on
Wednesday , the Minister of Education , Sport ,
Arts and Culture, David
Coltart said his ministry will no longer allow
political parties to use
school premises to hold meetings with political
inclinations.
“We have banned political from using school premises for
political parties.
The ministry is going to enforce this ban in the run up
to the forthcoming
elections and any future elections,” said Coltart. The
minister stressed
that schools are educational institutions which should be
solely used for
purposes of education.
Coltart said his ministry is
greatly concerned about incidences of teachers
who are being intimidated by
political activists of certain political
parties especially in the rural
areas.
“The ministry recently intervened in a matter where some teachers
in
Chiweshe in Mashonaland central who had returned to their schools after
fleeing the area during the run up the 2008 elections were being threatened
with violence. We have a similar case in Rushinga where teachers are being
intimidated. I
have even told cabinet that this harassment of innocent
teachers should
stop, “said the minister.
Coltart said qualified
teachers were the most people affected by political
violence.
During
the run up to March 2008 harmonized elections most schools in the
rural
areas were used by Zanu (PF) militias and war veterans as opposition
torture
bases. Some of the Zanu (PF) militia were camping at the schools,
resulting
in scores of teachers fleeing their areas in fear of violence.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona Sibanda
8
December 2010
The MDC-T appointed ambassador to Australia, Jacqueline
Zwambila, has
returned to her posting in Canberra Australia, after she was
recalled
recently for debriefing in Harare.
Zwambila was facing
allegations that she stripped in front of male embassy
staff, accusations
she has vehemently denied. The Ministry of Foreign
Affairs has now recalled
the three male staffers because they’ve completed
their required four year
terms at the mission.
‘Ambassador Zwambila had a meeting today
(Wednesday) with the Foreign
Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, to
explain in detail what was
happening at the embassy because of persistent
squabbles between her and
junior staff,’ a source told us.
The three
male staffers are reportedly all loyal to ZANU PF, while the
ambassador is
one of five diplomats appointed around the world from the MDC.
The other
four are Hebson Makuvise, Ambassador to Germany; Hilda Mafudze,
the former
MDC MP for Manyame constituency, was posted to Sudan; Khumbulani
Mabed is in
Nigeria; Trudy Stevenson from the MDC-M is Ambassador to
Senegal.
While the other four ambassadors have good working
relationships with their
junior staff members, it was not the same for
Zwambila in Canberra, where
the male staffers were hostile and went on a
sustained campaign to discredit
her.
‘The relationship between the
Ambassador and her staff was irretrievably
broken down by persistent leaks
from inside the embassy that sought to
undermine and discredit her. Most of
these leaks eventually found their way
into the state media, a situation
which infuriated her. This led to a heated
confrontation with the male
staffers,’ the source added.
After this confrontation the three staffers,
Moses Chikanyairo, Givemore
Nyanzou and Felix Nyamupinga (husband to ZANU PF
MP for Goromonzi, Biata
Beatrice Nyamupinga) dispatched a note to Harare
accusing the Ambassador of
stripping in front of them.
Former
diplomat and academic, Clifford Mashiri, said it had happened before
that
intelligence officers, disguised as counsellors, had undermined their
ambassadors.
‘If there is rivalry or animosity between the ambassador
and his staff you
will get a lot of this infighting. In the case of the
Australian mission you
have staff that are loyal to two separate political
parties, which makes it
difficult for them to co-exist,’ Mashiri
said.
Mashiri said it is common practice for diplomats to be recalled for
a
debriefing if there are serious issues raised from the embassy. He said at
times the host country may discreetly push for the diplomats to be recalled
if they are facing allegations that end up in the public domain. Those
facing more serious offences, like espionage, may end up being expelled by
the host country.
In the case of the Australian debacle, the ministry
responded by recalling
the Ambassador and ordered her and the male staffers
to compile reports of
the incident.
‘What came out from the reports
was clear that it was a case of the male
staffers’ words versus the
Ambassador’s. In hindsight, they gave the
ambassador the benefit of doubt as
the most senior diplomat at the embassy.
‘After her meeting with Joey
Bimha, the permanent secretary last week, it
was decided the Ambassador
should go back to her post but not before meeting
with Mumbengegwi today
(Wednesday),’ our source said.
Mumbengegwi reportedly read Zwambila the
riot act, warning her to be careful
in her future conduct. He also told her
the ministry would be sending a team
of new diplomats to
Canberra.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Stanley Gama, News Editor
Wednesday, 08
December 2010 17:31
HARARE - As the Wikileaks saga continues to
unfold, the whistle blowing
website has revealed that Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni believes that
President Robert Mugabe was a failure who had
become an embarrassment to the
continent.
Leaked “secret”
documents from the United States state department show that
Museveni
believes Mugabe is responsible for Zimbabwe’s political crisis due
to his
lack of understanding of economics.
Museveni also said Mugabe was in the
habit of snubbing fellow leaders from
the African continent claiming that
they are too young to advise him.
Newly released information on the
Wikileaks website shows that Museveni
revealed this to former US assistant
Secretary for African Affairs, Jendayi
Frazer when they met in Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas in 2008.
“Museveni thought Zimbabwe’s faltering
economy and Mugabe’s poor
understanding of the private sector were at the
root of Zimbabwe’s political
problems. He said a discussion of the economy
would provide an entry point
to tell Mugabe that he has failed and is
embarrassing liberation leaders.
“He noted that Mugabe is unwilling to
take calls from most African leaders
saying they are not his age-mates,”
said Mugabe in the 2008 discussion with
Frazer. She subsequently wrote a
report of the meeting for the US state
department, most of which has been
hacked by Wikileaks and is being
published through the internet. Museveni’s
attack on Mugabe’s lack of
economics knowledge flies in the face of the
veteran leaders’ degrees in
economics.
Mugabe, who has in the past
claimed to be a close ally of Museveni, is
likely to be shocked by the
views, and with more Wikileaks of the nearly
3000 cables on Zimbabwe still
to be released, the 86-year-old leader is
likely to discover more African
leaders who despise him in private.
Museveni and Frazer also spoke about
the period in 2008 when Zimbabwe was
preparing for the presidential run-off.
Mugabe went on to contest alone in
the run-off after Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai pulled out due to
excessive violence perpetrated by Zanu PF
against his supporters.
The election was widely condemned by the
international community including
Southern African Development Community
(SADC)and the African Union.
The lack of legitimacy that followed forced
African leaders to push for an
inclusive government in
Zimbabwe.
Museveni was attending his son’s graduation from the US Army
Command and
General Staff College in 2008 when he met Frazer.
It was
soon after the March 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections in
which
Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe, but according to the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC), the votes were not enough to push Mugabe out of power.
They spoke about the impending run-off in which Mugabe told Museveni that he
was confident of winning.
“Museveni told Frazer that he spoke to
the Zimbabwean President Mugabe by
telephone after the first round of
elections. During his call, Mugabe told
Museveni he was confident he would
win in the second round of elections.
“Mugabe told Museveni he did not
want election monitors from countries that
were “hostile” to Zimbabwe, but
wouldn’t mind observers from other
countries. Frazer thought thousands of
monitors were necessary, especially
in rural areas, to encourage people to
vote.
“ Frazer advised Museveni that she would ask the U.S. Ambassador in
Zimbabwe
how many elections monitors he believes are needed,” reveals
Wikileaks.
South African Minister of International Relations, Maite
Nkoana-Mashabane is
also quoted in the sensational Wikileaks cables
describing Mugabe as a
“crazy old man.”
Cables sent to the State
Department by former US ambassador to Zimbabwe,
Christopher Dell describe
Tsvangirai as a flawed figure, not readily open to
advice, indecisive and
with questionable judgment in selecting those around
him.
Dell also
dismissed Welshman Ncube of the breakaway MDC as a divisive
element.
http://www.voanews.com
President
Robert Mugabe reiterated this weekend that he does not want to
extend the
life of the unity government beyond February, when it will have
been in
place for two years
Blessing Zulu, Sandra Nyaira & Brenda Moyo 07
December 2010
imbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said the
country's elections
cannot be held in June 2011 as demanded by President
Robert Mugabe, saying
that before a new ballot is organized a revised
constitution must be in
place with electoral reforms.
Mr. Tsvangirai
made the statement in an interview with Reuters on the
margins of the
so-called European Development Days conference.
"It is not possible to
have elections in June next year because we need to
have a referendum
first," Tsvangirai told a reporter for the news agency.
"I don't think at
the moment you can conduct an election," he said.
Tsvangirai warned that a
premature election could leave the country back
where it was in 2008
following an election marred by compilation delays and
anomalies and often
deadly violence.
|
Mr. Mugabe reiterated this weekend that he does not
want to extend the life
of the unity government beyond February, when it
will have been in place for
two years. His ZANU-PF party has vowed to hold
elections with or without a
new constitution.
But Mr. Tsvangirai said
that before polls can be held there must be a
referendum on the new
constitution, a road map to elections and an end to
violence.
"When
the police, army, militia, war veterans are used to intimidate,
coerce, and
cause torture and death to the people, that is the kind of
violence we need
to contain," Mr. Tsvangirai said.
In his keynote address to the
development event the Zimbabwean prime
minister also called for a global
campaign to ensure free and fair elections
in Zimbabwe.
Mr.
Tsvangirai deplored the tendency in Africa for presidential incumbents
to
refuse to accept the outcome of elections, as seen this week in Ivory
Coast.
But ZANU-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo dismissed Mr. Tsvangirari’s
comments,
saying that only President Mugabe has the power to call
elections.
Responding, spokesman Nelson Chamisa of Mr. Tsvangirai’s
Movement for
Democratic Change formation said Gumbo was misleading
himself.
In Harare, meanwhile, the parliamentary select committee in
charge of
constitutional revision also flagged a new hurdle to elections,
saying
constitutional revision is on hold until it can find US$6 million to
pay
bills from the public outreach phase.
Committee Co-Chairman
Douglas Mwonzora said it won’t be possible for the
country to hold new
elections in 2011 under a new constitution.
Mwonzora told VOA Studio 7
reporter Sandra Nyaira that his commmittee has
spent more than a month on
hold due to financial obstacles, so a draft of
the new constitution is
unlikely to be ready until March 2011 with a
referendum possible in June or
July.
International donors have refused to add funding to allow the
committee to
pay its debts to those who worked on or provided services to
the outreach
campaign, he said, adding that the government has not been
forthcoming with
funds either.
Mwonzora said the government must fund
the constitution-making process so
drafting the new document and submitting
it to the people can happen in the
next six months.
Elsewhere, the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions called for the nation to
vote next year
only to elect a new president, arguing that the 2008 general
elections were
less problematic than was balloting for the executive post.
It said there is
no point incurring the considerable costs of running
another general
election so soon.
ZCTU Deputy Secretary General Japhet Moyo told VOA
Studio 7 reporter Brenda
Moyo that a presidential ballot can readily be
organized at any time.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by The Maine Campus
Wednesday,
08 December 2010 12:22
MAINE, USA – The upcoming 2011 national elections
in Zimbabwe could usher in
a fresh wave of politically motivated violence
worse than in 2008, warns
Jestina Mukoko(pictured), director of political
violence watchdog Zimbabwe
Peace Project (ZPP).
Two representatives from
the ZPP are now based in each electoral
constituency to monitor and report
on acts of violence alleged to have
political motivations.
In 2008, the
ZPP recorded a peak of 6,288 attacks related to the election.
Mukoko herself
was abducted and tortured by secret police agents. The BBC
reported that she
was held for 21 days and charged with “attempting to
recruit people for
military training to try to overthrow the government”.
“Children were not
spared in this violence,” she said. “We have seen
children being assaulted
as a way of getting back at their activist
parents.”
She showed numerous
images depicting the horrifying results of an
unfavourable encounter with
the secret police. One showed the bleeding face
of a man who had been
attacked at Harare airport and another depicted the
back of a man covered
with pockmarks caused by burning plastic being dropped
on his
back.
Despite the national government’s slow response and her own abduction
experience, Mukoko believes peace and healing are attainable goals. She said
individuals on both sides of the attacks – victims and perpetrators alike –
can only reach these goals if the truth is exposed.
She compared the
current political climate to a cut that has not been
treated and has been
left hidden beneath a bandage instead.
“The wound is still festering beneath
that covering,” she said, adding, “I
believe that my abductors need to be
healed.”
Going into the 2011 election, Mukoko said she is worried that
resurgence in
the number of attacks will discourage citizens from speaking
their minds and
prompt them to vote for Mugabe to avoid
persecution.
Mukoko has been serving as the 2010 Human Rights Fellow at the
Oak Institute
for the Study of International Human Rights at Colby College
in the USA and
will return to Zimbabwe next month to begin readying ZPP
staff for the
elections.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Written by TREVOR GRUNDY
Tuesday, 07 December 2010
17:09
LONDON - The best-selling author and world famous journalist
Christopher
Hitchens has told the BBC and The Observer that one of his big
regrets in
life was not utterly condemning the Zimbabwean dictator Robert
Mugabe and
failing to tell the world about that man’s capacity for
fanaticism and
absolutism.
In an interview with The Observer on 21
November the author of “God is not
Great” and one of the world’s best known
atheists said that as he battles
with life threatening cancer, a major
regret was remaining silent and not
publicly condemning Robert Mugabe who he
met in the 1970s, first in 1977 and
then as Rhodesia edged its way forward
to Zimbabwe after the Lancaster House
Conference in London in December
1979.
He said that his long silence about the Zimbabwean leader’s misdeeds,
which
include the slaughter of anything between 20,000 to 30,000 men, women
and
children in Matabeleland and the Midlands from 1983 to 1987 made him
wince.
“More than wince,” he told the newspaper. “I met him a couple of time
and I
knew that he had a terrible capacity for fanaticism and absolutism and
I
didn’t say as much about that as I should have done. If I ask myself about
why I didn’t, I’m sure the answer is because I didn’t want to give
ammunition to the other side.”
British born Hitchens lives in America
where he has become a naturalized
citizen. Following the publication of his
best selling book “God is not
Great” two years ago, Hitchens became an
overnight sensation in America.
But in June this year, he was told by doctors
that he has cancer of the
oesophagus and probably has only a few years to
live. In a half hour
interview with Jeremy Paxman (BBC Two, 29 November,
2010) he repeated his
regret about not condemning Mugabe earlier.
But his
condemnation was earlier than some, who still stick to rusty and
worn-out
guns by repeating in print the convenient Zanu (PF) legend that at
heart
Robert Mugabe is a misunderstood English-aping gentleman who wants his
young
men to play cricket.
In April 2008 Hitchens wrote about his surprise and his
regret that Thabo
Mbeki had failed so badly to bring Mugabe to heel or
condemn the despot
openly for his destruction of the economy.
He said:
”Since meeting Mugabe in 1977 in exile and again in 1979 and later,
I must
have sat through several dozen ‘what went wrong‘ discussions. There
are
those who say that his sadism and self-destructive paranoia are a
delayed
result of his own incarceration. There are those who attribute it to
the
death of his lovely Ghanaian wife, Sally, in 1992 (after which, it must
be
admitted, he never was the same). There are those who speculate that his
obsession with homosexuality and vice – which was one of the first symptoms
of his breakdown – is an aspect of his old-school missionary Catholicism.
Then, of course there were all those years of fervent admiration for the
Cultural Revolution in China and the even more purist system of Kim il-Sung
and Kim Jon-il. None of these are, or were, particularly good signs But I
have a theory of my very own: I believe that Mugabe was also driven in to a
permanent rage by the adulation heaped internationally on Nelson Mandela, an
accolade of praise and recognition that he felt was more properly due to
him. And, harbouring this grievance, he decided to denude his own unhappy
country of anything that might remind anybody of Mandela’s legacy.”
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Written by Tony Saxon
Wednesday,
08 December 2010 10:00
MUTARE – A bigger section of war veterans in
Manicaland have said that they
are tired of being used to help the party win
elections and then forgotten
forgotten by Zanu (PF) and have demanded to
face President Robert Mugabe
(pictured) directly at the forthcoming
congress.
The 11th Zanu (PF) National Congress will be held in Mutare
from December 15
to18.
“As war veterans in Manicaland we have agreed
that we should be given the
floor to say out everything. Some of us have not
been given the chance to
talk important issues pertaining to our status as
war veterans. We have
already held a caucus meeting and we agreed that we
will say out views and
concerns effecting the war veterans.
“All
along some provincial leaders have been blocking the chance for us to
meet
the President. We were surprised to see that we were omitted in some
important meetings and there were some tactics employed to avoid us. Now
that the President will be here, we will talk to him,” said a war veteran
based in Mutare.
War veterans in Manicaland have been affected by power
struggles for some
time. One group reportedly belongs to James Chitakatira
while the other one
is said to be aligned to James Kaunye.
There is
another group of war veterans that is said to be aligned to
Vladimir Mukada
– a group that is more popular than the other two.
Information available
reveals that a large number of war veterans have vowed
to vote for the
opposition in the event that the elections are held next
year if their
demands are not solved at the congress.
The war veterans have accused
Mugabe of “forgetting” them.
“Mugabe is rewarding selected senior civil
servants and chiefs with hefty
salaries and perks as a token of
appreciation. But, he forgets that we
fought the war and liberated this
country. I think the President (Mugabe) is
being misled by some people who
claim to be war veterans. True war veterans
are there and we know them and
they are now quiet because they are tired of
being used.
“Their
silence means a lot and this is why we have been seeing Zanu (PF)
losing
grip by each election. This (conference) is a platform where we want
to tell
him (Mugabe) the truth.
An angry war veteran who identified himself as
Cde Ground Force Mhungu said:
“We are tired of being used. We have been
promised many things but it seems
that we are being forgotten. We have tried
to raise the issue through our
leadership but nothing has
materialized.
“All what we are saying is Zimbabwe should have a section
where all war
veterans should be rewarded and have special consideration.
Mugabe is only
rewarding few selected war veterans like army brigadiers and
police senior
commissioners whom he is providing with 4x4s pick up trucks,
good houses and
perks. We are all equal and we should be treated equally.
Otherwise we
fought better battles than those who are enjoying life in Zanu
(PF),” said
Cde Ground Force.
“They only want us to attend their
rallies and vote them into power. Do we
vote with empty stomachs? Do we
attend their rallies and meetings with empty
stomachs?” asked another war
veteran.
Impeccable sources have said that Zanu (PF) has lost a bigger
number of war
veterans in recent elections considering the outcomes of the
elections.
The war veterans further said that Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai has
already won the hearts of many and Mugabe should revise his
tactics to avoid
further humiliation in the forthcoming
elections.
“Tsvangirai knows that Zanu (PF) is full of cowards. War
veterans are
destitutes and we are leading a life full of hell. They have
completely
forgotten us. I do not have anything to show as a war veteran. We
have
become a laughing stock in our areas. So this is the chance for us to
have
our say. Enough is enough,” said Ground Force with a voice that was
full of
emotions.
Some war veterans in Manicaland have threatened to
back PM Tsvangirai for
president if their concerns are not addressed
immediately.
In one of his rallies at Sakubva stadium at Sakubva stadium
in August
Tsvangirai said war veterans gave their loyalty to the cause of
the
liberation of the country and they have only remembered Zanu (PF) as the
party for liberation for 30 years.
“But the truth is that the war
veterans are among the most exploited of our
people. Their courage is no
defence against the devastation brought by the
dictatorship. If the war
veterans want to know what the government could
have done for them, they
need to look at other nations of the world.
“In those countries war
veterans are loved and respected by all the people.
War veterans are
represented in cabinet honoured for their services and
helped with medical
care, housing and education for their children,” said
Tsvangirai amid
applause from the gathering.
He added that the war veterans had been
neglected for 30 years and they were
not getting any younger. An MDC
government would establish a national trust
fund to aid them, he said.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Tony Saxon
Wednesday, 08 December 2010
09:44
MUTARE – Traditional leaders in Manicaland intend to use the
congress to
register their concerns over political interference by
politicians in their
respective areas of operation.
Speaking at a
briefing for traditional leaders and heads of security ahead
of the congress
last week, the chiefs did not mince their words on what they
perceived as
“killing the party in Manicaland”.
They said their powers had been
usurped by “overzealous” Zanu (PF)
politicians who were causing deep
divisions and confusion.
Chief Chiduku, who is also a member of the
Senate said: “There should be no
interference in our political activities.
There are some politicians who
think that they are bigger than our
tradition. They are the ones that are
causing serious problems in our areas.
They do not even respect us and this
has contributed immensely to the demise
of the party in the province.”
He added that some chiefs were being
assaulted because of the politicians
who have assumed too much power. The
chiefs said the congress would be the
best platform to tell Mugabe the truth
of what is happening on the ground.
The chiefs accused outgoing
Manicaland governor Christopher Mushowe of
misleading Mugabe on the real
situation. They said they were afraid to voice
their concerns as they were
threatened by some senior politicians who are
said to be very close to
Mugabe.
Patrick Chinamasa, Joseph Made and Didymus Mutasa were named as
the senior
politicians who were undermining the importance of the chiefs and
causing
problems in the party in the province.
Acting Chief
Musikavanhu in Chipinge district said: “There are some leaders
who literally
own the party. Their word is a command and people on the
ground are not
happy at all. We want the President to know of this. We have
some leaders
who have a tendency of lying to the electorate and this has led
to the party
to lose supporters.”
The chiefs reiterated that they would tell Mugabe
the true situation on the
ground.
“We want to tell him (Mugabe) what
is on the ground. These senior
politicians are not telling him the truth. We
live with the public out there
and we know what they want. They have been
chasing away NGOs that have been
giving food aid and paying school fees to
the poor rural people. This is
going to work against us in any election
because the people will vote with
the stomach,” said another
chief.
“Violence and intimidation of people will never work. President
Mugabe
should persuade the people again and try to work other smart and
clean
strategies to win back the hearts of the people and he should work
with us
closely because we know the concerns of our people,” he
added.
The chiefs admitted that Mugabe was facing a serious challenge
from
Tsvangirai and said Mugabe should revisit the drawing board and make
people-driven policies if he wanted the majority vote back.
http://www.businessday.co.za
The DA says it will do everything in its
power to have Zimbabwean president
Robert Mugabe face the ICC.
WYNDHAM
HARTLEY
Published: 2010/12/08 06:33:02 AM
CAPE TOWN — The Democratic
Alliance (DA) has vowed to use every diplomatic
and international instrument
available to have Zimbabwe’s President Robert
Mugabe charged for crimes
against humanity in the International Criminal
Court (ICC).
This was
one of the measures listed during a DA press conference to announce
a
five-point plan to break the political impasse in Zimbabwe as Mr Mugabe
continues to flout the conditions agreed to in the Global Political
Agreement that led to the present unity government.
DA parliamentary
leader Athol Trollip and MPs Wilmot James and Kenneth Mubu
released a
document stating that while Mr Mugabe is still involved in
Zimbabwe’s
politics, free and fair elections are not possible.
Dr James said there
was enough evidence of "a cumulative mass of atrocities"
to take the matter
to the ICC. SA could do this, but this remained unlikely,
and that meant
other means had to be found.
Two options would be for another signatory
to the Rome Statute (which
created the court) to prefer charges against Mr
Mugabe in the ICC, or for a
big power such as the US to apply to the United
Nations to do the same.
Dr James said that while the chances of
successfully getting Mr Mugabe
before the court were "slim", this did not
mean "we should not try". He said
at the very least such an attempt would
get the masses of evidence against
Mr Mugabe and Zanu (PF) into the global
domain.
"The DA will … exert legal and political pressure on Zimbabwe
itself. Until
President Robert Mugabe is removed from politics, possibly
through an
amnesty agreement for him and his henchmen, free and fair
elections cannot
be staged."
Mr Trollip said that in analysing
Zimbabwe’s politics and economy, "one must
therefore remain mindful that the
South African government, driven by the
misguided foreign policy agenda of
the ANC, helped to change a defeated
President Robert Mugabe’s political
fortunes".
For reasons of national and regional importance, the ANC
government could
not be allowed to continue with its tacit support of Mr
Mugabe’s attempts to
undermine political progress in Zimbabwe.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
06 December
2010
Hundreds of Bulawayo residents packed the Large City Hall on Sunday
to
interact with several cabinet ministers in the coalition government, who
are
also based in the city.
The Social Accountability Conference,
hosted by the Bulawayo Progressive
Residents Association (BPRA), gave
residents the chance to hear Education
Minister David Coltart, Waters
Resources Minister Sam Sipepa Nkomo and State
Enterprises Minister Gorden
Moyo, among others.
Speaking to SW Radio Africa on Tuesday, Rodrick
Fayayo the coordinator of
the BPRA, said the conference provided a useful
opportunity for residents to
seek clarification on various government
policies. Additionally it provided
the association with a platform to lobby
ministers on issues affecting their
members. He said the initiative was all
about promoting ‘local democracy’
and they believed ‘leaders must be
accountable to the electorate.’
For example residents asked Moyo about
the growing number of military people
in the parastatals under his ministry.
The MDC-T minister said when he took
the position the generals were already
in place and it was proving difficult
to remove them. He said they were
pushing for reforms, to block situations
where one person sits on several
boards, as was the case with most of the
retired military
personnel.
Coltart on the other hand was asked to explain his ministry’s
policy on
incentives for teachers. He said the incentives scheme, where
parents pay
teachers a supplementary allowance, was necessary to avoid a
situation where
teachers go on strike. The scheme has been criticized for
dividing teachers
in schools which have incentives and those that do
not.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article
by James Mombe Wednesday 08 December
2010
JOHANNESBURG -- President Jacob Zuma has been a poor
mediator in Zimbabwe
who has achieved far less than his predecessor Thabo
Mbeki, South Africa’s
official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party
said on Tuesday.
In a scathing attack on Zuma’s rather lukewarm handling
of the Zimbabwe
crisis, DA parliamentary leader Athol Trolip described the
South African
President as meek and pandering to President Robert
Mugabe.
Trolip accused Zuma, who is the Southern African Development
Community
(SADC)’s official mediator in the Zimbabwe inter-party dialogue,
of standing
idle in the face of Mugabe’s refusal to meet his obligations
under a power
sharing agreement with Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
The DA politician said Zuma’s failure to pressure Mugabe to
end political
violence and human rights abuses was tantamount to endorsing
the Zimbabwean
strongman’s repressive tendencies.
“Zuma has done an
about turn on what his position was prior to his election
and he is (now)
pandering to Robert Mugabe,” Trolip said, referring to Zuma’s
stance before
assuming the South African presidency which had appeared to
favour a more
robust policy towards Zimbabwe as opposed to Mbeki’s ‘quite
diplomacy’
approach that refrained from publicly criticising Mugabe.
“There is no
indication that he has done anything more than Mbeki. In fact
there is every
indication that he has done less,” said Trolip, who also
disclosed that he
would be traveling to Zimbabwe early next year on a
fact-finding
mission.
The ever-fragile Harare unity government was rocked by serious
divisions
after Mugabe in October appointed provincial governors without
consulting
Tsvangirai, the latest in a chain of senior public appointments
unilaterally
made by the President in violation of the power sharing
agreement officially
known as the global political agreement
(GPA).
The GPA – that gave birth to the Harare unity government -- and a
constitutional amendment enacted to cement the political agreement require
the President to consult the Prime Minister before making senior public
appointments.
But Mugabe has flagrantly ignored this clause of the
agreement unilaterally
appointing -- in addition to governors -- his allies
to key positions such
as attorney general, central bank governor, court
judges and ambassadors.
Talk of new elections next year by Mugabe and
Tsvangirai to end their
marriage of convenience that insiders say is
increasingly becoming a hostile
affair has further stoked up tensions in
Zimbabwe in recent weeks.
Zuma and SADC are pushing the Zimbabwean
parties to agree a roadmap to
elections that will ensure the vote is free
and fair and all contests will
accept the outcome.
The election
roadmap includes adopting a new constitution, drawing up a
fresh voters’
roll, ending political violence and passing of new electoral
rules by
Parliament.
But none of the measures have been implemented and analysts say
there isn’t
enough time between now and mid next year -- when Mugabe says
Zimbabwe must
go to polls – to carry out the reforms. -- ZimOnline
http://www.businessday.co.za/
Calls made for extended deadline for work, study
permits, writes Tintswalo
Baloyi
TINSWALO BALOYI
Published: 2010/12/08
06:33:01 AM
THE three-month timeline set by the Department of Home
Affairs to provide
well over 2-million Zimbabweans applying for South
African work and study
permits is unrealistic and unachievable.
With
only 23 days before the deadline, the department has to date assisted
only
6000 Zimbabweans wishing to work or study in SA.
Organisations
representing Zimbabweans in SA — there are said to be well
over 3-million
Zimbabweans in the country — have vehemently dismissed the
department’s
cut-off date as practically "impossible". They are requesting a
six-month
extension for Zimbabweans to get their paperwork in order .
Human rights
lawyer and Zimbabwe Exiles Forum executive director Gabriel
Shumba says that
both the Department of Home Affairs and the Zimbabwean
embassy have failed
to cope with the flood of applicants.
"Since the beginning of the
project, the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum has been
agitating for an extension of
the deadline.
"This is because the timeline of three months to serve over
a million people
is simply unrealistic and unachievable," Mr Shumba
says.
"The major constraints have been that there is no adequate
infrastructure to
service applicants, especially those on the
farms.
"The second major hurdle is the Zimbabwean government, which has
no capacity
or willingness to make passports and other documents available
on time.
"Thirdly, employers need more assurance than has already been
given that
they will be extended an amnesty if they had employed clandestine
Zimbabweans. Thus, simple maths will tell you that if you serve about 5000
people per day, you will need at least six- and-a-half months to process a
million people, assuming they all have the required documents," Mr Shumba
says.
There are at least 2,5-million Zimbabweans living in SA, he
says, and about
1,5-million of them need documentation from their homeland
to meet the
requirements of the Department of Home Affairs.
The
chairman of the Zimbabwe Diaspora Civil Societies Organisations, Sox
Chikohwero, says home affairs offices around the country are executing their
duties "below par", assisting fewer than 500 Zimbabwean permit applicants a
day.
By his calculations, if the department did not manage to
accelerate its
processes, only 30000 Zimbabweans will have sorted out their
paperwork by
December 31.
"Many people will be left in the cold. We
are appealing to both the
Department of Home Affairs and the Zimbabwe
embassy to extend their deadline
by six months," says Mr
Chikohwero.
However, home affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa says he does
not believe
there are up to 3-million Zimbabweans living in SA. He says some
people are
claiming there are more than 5-million of them in the
country.
"We have also noted that many Zimbabweans only go to Marabastad
home affairs
office and the one located in Harrison Street,
Johannesburg.
"My message to Zimbabweans is, please go to any nearest
home affairs office
and they will serve you," Mr Mamoepa
says.
Zimbabwe’s consul director- general, Chris Mapanga, says his
embassy is
being inundated with requests for paperwork, by more than 2000
people a day.
"All Zimbabwean nationals who have applied for passports
will be able to
apply for (South African) permits whenever the passport
comes through, even
after December 31," Mr Mapanga says.
"All
Zimbabwean nationals who qualify for permits but have not yet applied
due to
document problems such as birth certificates, IDs, or citizenship
cards, are
urged to register with the consulate offices before December 31.
"Once
registered, they can then apply for a passport and permits whenever
their
documents are ready."
With all the knowledge that you have accrued in your fields of
financial and economical expertise, I still find it hard to read and digest your
articles and views. Regrettably I am normally left thinking, “Is that it? Is
that the best idea they have?” Whilst criticism comes easy, feasible solutions
to the current economic problems clearly do not. I’ve read your very generic
advice, but haven’t seen the details, or the nuts and bolts issues so to say. I
myself am not an economist, so I am not an expert on the matter. But every
article that I have read from the “experts” does not seem to address the core
problem of
Of course, in our case it doesn’t help when the government embarks on
policies which were quite detrimental to the economy at the time, i.e. ESAP, the
war in the DRC, the one-time un-budgeted payment to the War Vets, the poorly
executed yet much needed land reform. While some policies were quite justified,
it’s the way they were implemented that proved disastrous. Ideas have always
been aplenty, but the problem has always been in implementation. With the land
reform, the state effectively made itself the custodians for the land in
The problem here is not the ownership (property rights) of the land
but the access to capital for the ordinary man. The relocated farmer does not
have access to capital, and herein lays the fatal flaw of capitalism in its
current state.
Before my father passed away in 1997, he wrote a book called
“Capitalism of the Masses” in which he put forward his ideas on what was wrong
with the Zimbabwean economy at the time (in 1993 believe it or not) and how it
would eventually collapse if we did not address the pending crisis. Well, he was
right! It is tragic that at the time, other people did not have this kind of
foresight. I never quite understood what my father was going on about at the
time. He was continuously criticising the government, which let’s be honest, at
the time a good 99,9% of the population thought was doing a fantastic job. That
is until I recently re-read a book he wrote called “Capitalism of the Masses”.
This book is essentially an analysis of the Zimbabwean economy in the 80’s
through to the 90’s and what was being done wrong and how the economy could have
been saved from impending disaster by turning it around by adopting “Capitalism
of the Masses”. Now “Capitalism of the Masses” is not a new or radical idea, it
was first proposed by Louis Kelso and Mortimer Adler
and called "Binary Economics"; also see their
book The Capitalist
Manifesto (1958).
Not being an economist, I decided to familiarise myself with the
terminology, concepts and ideas behind microeconomics (which deals with
economics of consumers/households/individual firms) and macroeconomics (which is
the branch of economics that studies the overall working of a national economy).
Now please take into account the fact that I actually did OK in my “A”-level
maths and also went on do Mechanical Engineering at the UZ before continuing my
engineering studies in the
The real point that I am trying to make is that
Let me start off with a quote
“No man can become largely rich by his
personal toil, but only by discovery of some method of taxing the labour of
others.” Ruskin
How did Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and company become billionaires in
one lifetime, without somehow exploiting the labour of others? Well quite
frankly it's impossible.
Binary economics is best explained with a simple example. Let's take
commercial farmer Jones who owns a few thousand hectares of prime commercial
farm in
Let us make another supposition that the government gives the same
100 workers a non-interest loan of $1 million or $10,000 per worker to buy
inputs, seed etc and purchase tractors and other farm equipment. Let’s say these
are non-interest individual loans repaid at $1,000 per year over 10 years. A
small administration fee could be charged, but this is not necessary. These
farmers work collectively on the farm and earn the same profits as Farmer Jones
described above. So the profits would be $520,000 (*Note:- $100,000 on wages not
included here) divided by 100 workers or $5,200 per worker.
So each worker now has $5,200 to continue with their farming
operations and to pay back the loan. They also have enough to save and make
further investments. Let’s suppose that the government takes a bold step and
cuts the tax rate to 20% and legislates the other 20% as mandatory savings (i.e.
previous 40% tax broken down into 20% tax + 20% savings). The 20% savings is
deposited into the central/reserve bank where it can be used by government for
further investments and start up capital for other enterprises on the same
basis. Also note that the savings proposed will naturally earn a % interest for
each of the 100 farmers.
So the 100 farmers now each pay back $1,000 of the loan for that
year. They decide to increase their output the next year and invest $300,000 for
inputs, or $3,000 each. So from the net profit of $5,200 that each farmer
received, now subtract the $1,000 loan and the $3,000 for inputs. This means
that each of the 100 farmers is left with $1,000 as disposable income. Remember
that the 100 farmers already have savings in the bank which are also earning
interest and will accumulate over the years. 20% legislated savings of the
$700,000 comes to $140,000 between 100 farmers or $1,400 for each farmer for the
first year.
Just to recap this second scenario, the 100 farmers now have $1,000
disposable income, $1,400 in savings and have already invested $3,000 in next
year’s harvest for an increased output. Compare this to the $1,000 that they
would have had from working for Farmer Jones which will not allow them to save,
not allow them invest in next years season and generally leave them living from
hand to mouth without accumulating wealth. Any sane person will see that there
is something fundamentally wrong with the current set up where only those with
the capital are the only ones who can have access to more capital, i.e.
capitalism of the few.
From the example that I gave previously, my question is, for any
“free-market” economy, is it better to have one farmer with a profit of $420,000
to himself, or is it more fair and just for 100 farmers to share such a profit.
You see if this profit is shared between these 100 farmers they can
accumulate savings, capital and will diversify the spending/buying power.
Now let me try and expand further on what I call diverse
spending/buying power. The other advantage not mentioned previously, is that a
100 different people (families) are more likely to spend their disposable income
on a 100 different sets of things, providing a diverse customer base and
inadvertently diversifying the market economy further. Diversity in a customer
base lends itself to a more competitive and innovative market to suit the needs
of the varied customers.
I must admit however, that the past governments did try to implement
binary economics, whether this was deliberately or inadvertently, I can only
hazard a guess. They relocated land (the means of production) and provided free
inputs and machinery under their mechanisation programme. Again, good idea, poor
implementation and the end results can be seen today. They should not have given
away the inputs and machinery; they should have provided loans for the purchase
of these items in order to recuperate their investment. Although Land reform has
not been a total failure, it certainly has not been the success that was hoped
for. Maybe it will just take longer than expected, who knows. It did destroy a
strong agricultural base which was mainly owned by 4000 or so commercial
farmers, however it also transferred the means of production to a needy landless
“povo”. Recent studies have shown that although there was a clear system of
patronage, as is to be expected, there were a large number of ordinary people
who benefitted from the land reform. The tobacco output for this year is a clear
indication of some kind of recovery in the agricultural sector; however the
maize crop yields are still too low. It is clear, and understandable, that more
farmers are taking up tobacco farming, but not enough is being done to increase
maize and other crop production. How many of these new tobacco farmers switched
from maize to tobacco? How can more farmers be encouraged and supported to
increase maize production? Should the Zim government subsidise certain crops for
protectionism as in the EU and
“War – the trade of barbarians, and the art of bringing the greatest
physical force to bear on a single point.” Napoleon.
The Japanese realised that the secret of success in any human
endeavour lies in “the art of bringing
the greatest physical force to bear on a single point”, or more correctly,
on the strategically most important single point. As capital is the strategically “greatest
physical force”, they brought this down to bear by investing in heavy industry,
mass production, and human capital. They restructured their education system to
have more engineers and technically inclined human capital that would be able to
deliver higher labour productivity on their capital investment in heavy
industries and mass production.
It was an efficient and effective allocation of resources to maximise
labour productivity per person that led to
To clarify this, take the example of farm workers on a farm and a
factory worker in some heavy machinery plant. The amount of hours and labour
that a farm worker will put in to produce some type of crop and the profit from
the sale of this particular crop, pales in comparison to the amount of hours and
labour that a factory worker will put in and the profit earned from the sale of
this heavy machinery.
As a point of reference, below is a table taken from
Manufacturing: Machinery
|
(9.39%) productivity growth rate |
Manufacturing: Iron and Steel |
(9.38%) productivity growth rate |
Manufacturing: Petrochem/Coal Products |
(8.95%) productivity growth rate |
Manufacturing: Chemicals
|
(7.87%) productivity growth rate |
Manufacturing: Combined
|
(6.78%) productivity growth rate
|
Mining and Manufacturing
|
(6.78%) productivity growth rate
|
All industries
|
(6.73%) productivity growth rate
|
Public Utilities Electricity/Gas |
(5.59%) productivity growth rate
|
Manufacturing: Pulp/Paper/Allied Products |
(5.58%) productivity growth rate |
Mining
|
(5.03%) productivity growth rate |
Manufacturing: Ceramics/Stone/Clay |
(4.98%) productivity growth rate |
Manufacturing: Textiles |
(4.63%) productivity growth rate |
Manufacturing: Rubber Products |
(4.61%) productivity growth rate |
Mining: Coal/Ignite |
(4.59%) productivity growth rate |
Manufacturing: Foodstuff/Tobacco |
(2.01%) productivity growth
rate |
The Japanese have shown the world that the secret of success in
industrial and commercial development is not natural resources but the
development of brain and brawn towards its perfect form, that is, development of
high-level skills, craftsmanship and capabilities to harness available world
science and technology combined with a sustained quest for deepest knowledge
through research and development. This development of manpower resources is
prioritised and targeted towards industrial sectors with the highest labour
productivity at any point in time as these are the industries that contribute
more to maximisation of income per capita and consumption. This is one of the
capital applications and manpower development philosophy that guides the
Capitalism of the masses or binary economics. There are times in economics when
abstract logic must give way to cold economic reality.
Please note that Binary Economics does not seek to redistribute
wealth by taking the property of others, it is a strategy to economically
empower everyone by democratising the right to capital for everyone. Binary
economics is not the current “Capitalism of the few’, nor is it the
retrogressive and detrimental Socialism/Communism which is in fact
“povertisation” of the many. Although we should all be equally treated as human
beings, we are not equal in our abilities and some people work harder than
others and should be rewarded likewise. Binary economics will allow wealth
distribution to follow the “
The 51% indigenisation law is not new to
My suggestion to the government is instead of having companies ceding
51% to a few capitalist “indigenous”/”ingenuous” Zimbabweans of the AAG (i.e.
only a few well connected individuals with the necessary capital), they should
legislate ESOPs (Employee Stock
Ownership Plans), and oblige companies with values of over $500,000 to sell
their shares to their employees (mostly indigenous). This will take away the
obvious racial connotations yet achieve the ends by different and more just
means. Where will the employees get the cash from to buy shares? The government
could use tax-cuts as capital to fund the employees to buy their shares in ESOPs. For example if a company is
worth $500,000, and generates say $100,000 in gross profit per year, instead of
taxing it 40%, the government could provide an incentive tax-cut of say 20%.
This tax-cut of 20% would then be lent to the employees to buy shares. After
only 5 years, the employees would own a sizeable share of the company. For
cash-strapped companies, they could also offer their employees shares in lieu of
wage increases. There are many more inventive and innovative ways of providing
capital to employees to start their own investments which I will leave to the
more able. Again, it’s just an idea, but let’s see if it can be
implemented.
Most of the sectors in the Zimbabwean economy are already indigenised
to a large extent; the main problem is what I have stressed earlier, that this
indigenisation is not broad-based but limited to only a few individuals with
capital.
In brief, the sector by sector analysis shows the
following:
Agricultural sector
– whilst the farming part of the sector is generally indigenised, the agro-based
industries need to have more indigenous representation. I would suggest the
method previously explained to achieve this.
Manufacturing Sector – is largely foreign owned, with white Zimbabweans owning the larger part of the manufacturing
sector in terms of number of companies, turnover and fixed assets.
Mining Sector – is also largely foreign owned (75%), a look at the dominance over our platinum of Implats/Zimplats which
is a South African subsidiary should be a cause of great concern. They have been
the biggest investor in
Financial Sector – is largely indigenised (75%). But again, it is not a broad-based
indigenisation. Is it better to have one Banking mogul or would it not be fairer
for the bank employees to own shares in the bank and also generate income from
their investments and accumulate capital?
Health Sector – Government owns 70% of the health sector facilities.
Telecommunications Sector – This is largely indigenised with government controlling a large
share of this sector. Again the majority of the wealth is in the hands of Strive
and company.
Construction Sector – The construction sector has been assisted through a deliberate
policy by Government to promote indigenous players. The awarding of contracts to
indigenous companies has assisted the industry to benefit. About 60% of
registered indigenous building contractors are in the low capacity categories
and cannot bid for projects exceeding $33 million. In terms of numbers,
indigenous companies make up about 88% of the companies in this sector; they are
dominated by non-indigenous players both in terms of value and market share.
Through the Government’s affirmative action programme issued in 1993, Contracts
in the B to G category are awarded to indigenous firms and there is a 10%
preferential treatment weight in favour of indigenous firms in respect of huge
contracts in the A category.
Tourism Sector - Non-indigenous investors currently dominate the tourism sector
while indigenous players constitute a small group of investors. Indigenous
investors account for 35% of the sector’s contribution to GDP. To date a
sizeable number of indigenous operators have entered into sub-sectors such as
tour operators, safari operators, lodges and guesthouses. As part of efforts to
support indigenisation, the majority of hunting concessions in the National
Parks and Wildlife Management Authority areas have been awarded to indigenous
people. The Authority is also involved in the training of hunters and guides.
Game Safaris, under the Forestry Commission has adopted similar strategies to
those of the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority in empowering
indigenous people.
Transport sector - Indigenous transport operators dominate the rural conventional
omnibus and metered taxis but only control 25% of freight hauling. The railway
sub-sector is 100% state owned through the National Railways of Zimbabwe
(NRZ).
Indigenous aircraft operators own about 5% of the aircraft fleet
while non-indigenous operators own about 83% of the fleet. The balance of 12% is
owned by the state.
Energy sector - is dominated by state owned agencies such as Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply Authority (ZESA) Holdings for electricity, National Oil Company of
Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) for petroleum fuel and Hwange Colliery Company for
coal
Services sector – Is largely indigenised, Indigenous businesses in this sector
include Chartered Accounting firms, Architects, Associations of Zimbabwe
Consultants, Law Society of Zimbabwe and Small Scale Service providers
affiliated to Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC). Indigenous women
dominate the small and informal sector businesses. The funeral sub-sector has
also seen more indigenous participation due to the increasing mortality
rate.
It is clear from the above that the most labour productive sectors of
the economy have not been indigenised i.e. Manufacturing and Mining Sector and the government needs
to concentrate on these sectors as a starting point for the legislation of
ESOPS. Power to ALL the
people, not just a few!
Again I reiterate, the problem is not that we have foreigners who own
all the businesses, the problem is that the ordinary local man does not have
access to capital to start up their own business and compete with the
foreigners. A binary system democratizes access to credit as an indispensible
social means to enable everyone to acquire this private capital. Everyone
becomes a capitalist in the sense that they would have access to credit to
invest (not just for consumption) and generate earnings, not only from their
labour, but also from their capital investment.
Binary economics is already at work in the world in the form of
Mohammed Yunus’s Micro-crediting for which he won the Nobel Prize. The difference
between Mohammed Yunus and his predecessors, who came up with the idea (Kelso),
is that Mohammed Yunus put the theory of binary economics into practice and
showed its true benefits and practicality. The other example of binary economics
in today’s modern world can be found in the
The other problem that the government has, of course, is the high formal unemployment rate. How do you
create formal jobs in a country like
I would really like some input from our learned economists
Professor Steve Hanke, John Robertson and Eric Bloch on this topic.
At this moment in time, the Zimbabwean government does not have the required
capital to take up binary economics as a macro and micro economic policy. But if
they were to be bold, and take up the idea, they could at least begin to put the
institutions in place.
As stated earlier,
Another way of raising capital is by cutting the government
expenditure. We all know that our current over-bloated government is draining
the country of much need capital resources to invest in our economic recovery.
Although I'm stating the obvious, this suggestion will fall on deaf ears, but I
will reiterate it as I have in previous articles. Government should cut the
number of ministries and have a maximum of 9 ministries. It should also cut the
number of civil servants. This will mean temporary unemployment for some, but
the overall objective is to create highly productive employment for more by
investing in industrialisation.
On the topic of government, why do we need multi-party politics? Ko
ari kuti chii ko muface uyuu, you might ask. But my point is, multi-party
politics is a Western phenomenon which has been shoved down our throats. In
The point of government has always been to serve the people, and up
until now this just has not happened. I am of the view that the government
should be run by competent people. There should be elections for the president
who will be our leader and run the country. We should not have ministers but
what I call CEO-Ministers for the different departments of governments. There
should be an independent authority for hiring and firing these CEO-Ministers on
merit, job qualifications, competence and service delivery. The CEO-ministers
should effectively be a bunch of competent CEO’s with years of experience in
their respective fields. The truth is 95% of the ministers we have in place
right now are not suitable for the jobs they are doing. There are exceptions
like Tendai Biti, who looks like he can do any job, and Elton Mangoma, the rest
leave a lot to be desired. CEO-Ministers should be chosen on job-based
experience, i.e. the Minister of Finance and Economics should have a proven
track record of having worked in micro and macro economics/finance. The
day-to-day running of the Government should be left to properly qualified
people, the competent decision makers, not the current set up that we have where
just because someone has a superior hierarchy in their political party they take
up a more important ministry. This is ridiculous, nonsensical, ludicrous,
without using more superlatives it just does not work. Forget the GPA/GNU
implementation or non-implementation it is the atual structure of govenrment
which is hindering economic progress. Let policy makers make their policies, but
the each ministry should be run like an efficient and effective business with
the qualified CEO-Minister equally hireable and fireable. We need to have a lean
civil service.
I would suggest that the government basically consist of an elected
President, the rigorously vetted CEO-Ministers who would head the 9 ministries
running them as a profitable business, 59 elected representatives each from one
of Zimbabwe’s 59 districts and of course the Chiefs. This will make up our
national government, or national “Dare” who essentially represent the
people and formulate policies and run local district affairs. All the other
tiers of governors, senators and mayors etc should be done away with. These are
an imported Western format who are a drain on the fiscus without contributing
much. Does it really matter whether the representative elected from each
district belongs to a political party for our bread and butter issues? When we
need a bridge, hospital or school to be built, when we have pollution from a
local factory, these district representatives will be the people we elect to
push our local district/community agendas in government, if not it should be
enshrined in our constitution that we are able to call back these
representatives at any given time and replace them with someone who can get the
job done. We want our elected representatives to be afraid of the consequences
of not pushing our agenda in government. We do not want a representative who has
contempt for us and thinks that they are doing us favours just by being in our
presence, this is not democracy. We want accountability. What we have at the
moment clearly does not work and should be corrected in the new constitution. I
reiterate that we need to do away with multi-party politics which often divides
and ruins African countries in particular. We need a democracy closer to the
people.
My apologies for making this article too long, but knowledge, like
the internet, should be free for everyone.
Written by Clive Samvura Jnr
E-mail contact: cliveks1@yahoo.co.uk