http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February 2010
18:00
STATE security agents and Zanu PF hardliners are stoking the
on-going strike
by civil servants in an effort to wreck the fragile
inclusive government,
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) has
alleged. The claims come
after reports that state security agents, Zanu PF
officials and traditional
leaders in rural areas were last week urging civil
servants to join the
crippling strike.
MDC-T spokesperson Nelson
Chamisa said there were “third force elements”
that were politicising the
strike by civil servants for political mileage at
the expense of national
development.
He said while the MDC-T, which has its origins in the
labour movement,
understands and appreciates the plight of workers, it was
concerned about
the Zanu PF hand and the use of the state security
apparatus.
Chamisa said Zanu PF was taking advantage of the current
plight of workers
to portray the MDC-T as having failed to improve the lives
of ordinary
Zimbabweans since the formation of the inclusive government a
year ago.
“We note with concern the politicisation of a genuine
plight of civil
servants by our colleagues in Zanu PF,” Chamisa
said.
“The matter has since migrated from being a purely labour issue
to a
political matter, which is unfortunate.”
He said Zanu PF
through the state media was blaming the MDC-T for failing to
stop the
on-going strike although both parties were part of the Government
of
National Unity.
Chamisa said if diamonds from Chiadzwa in Manicaland
province were not being
looted by some Zanu PF politicians, Zimbabwe would
manage to pay all civil
servants with revenue generated from their
sale.
Zanu PF deputy spokesperson Ephraim Masawi said he could not
comment on the
issue as the party was restructuring.
“Just wait
and see who will be the next spokesperson for the party.
“I might be
moving from my current position,” he said. Indeed he was. He is
in the
commissariat.
Zanu PF was preparing to choose new members of its
politburo on Friday, when
Masawi spoke.
Chamisa said Zanu PF’s
hand in the strike was also evidenced by the
organisations aligned to the
former ruling party who were castigating the
MDC-T over the job action
through the state media.
The Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions last
week blamed MDC-T for failing
to award salaries to civil
servants.
The state media has also accused Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai of
“reneging” on his promises made on February 11 last year when
he became
Prime Minister to pay wages in US dollars.
In some parts of
the country, the MDC-T said, traditional chiefs loyal to
Zanu PF were
threatening those who had turned up for duty, instructing them
to stay at
home until further notice.
MDC-T Manicaland provincial spokesperson
Pishai Muchauraya said some
traditional chiefs in Mutare West were also
threatening teachers who were on
duty last week.
“We have
information that traditional chiefs in Bocha area in Mutare West
are
threatening teachers so that they join the strike,” Muchauraya
said.
Last week prison officers in Harare told The Standard that they
were
surprised when they got orders from their superiors to attend a civil
servants’ meeting, where they resolved to go on strike.
The
officers said they were told to attend the rally in plain
clothes.
“We had never heard or seen senior officers in the prison
services
encouraging workers to go on strike,” said a prison officer who
preferred
anonymity. “Of course, they also need money but this was
unprecedented.”
Efforts to get a comment from ZPS spokesperson
Elizabeth Banda were
unsuccessful.
Eyewitnesses last week said
there was pandemonium at several schools in
Highfield on Wednesday after a
group of uniformed soldiers “passed through”
Mhofu Primary
School.
Teachers and pupils ran for cover fearing the soldiers had
come to beat them
up because they were teaching while other civil servants
were on strike.
A senior teacher at the school confirmed the
commotion.
“There was commotion here after reports that soldiers were
beating up
teachers at Mhizha but when we tried to find out we discovered
that it was
just a rumour,” said a senior teacher at the
school.
However, some parents and pupils at Mhizha insisted that
soldiers had been
present at the school.
Several schools in
Highfield including Mhizha and Chengu primary schools
sent pupils home after
reports that soldiers were instructing teachers to
join the
strike.
Army spokesperson Colonel Overson Mugwizi professed ignorance
of the
incident but promised to investigate.
“I am hearing it for
the first time and we are going to investigate,”
Mugwizi
said.
“It could be other people who were hiding under the name of
soldiers to make
teachers and other people join the
strike.”
Earlier in the day, a Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta)
truck had been
sighted at the schools urging teachers to join the
strike.
Zimta has been calling on teachers to join the industrial
action.
Civil servants began the strike a fortnight ago, demanding
that their wages
be increased from $150 to at least $630.
The
government has said it does not have the money to meet demands by civil
servants.
Efforts to get a comment from civil servants’ union
leaders were fruitless
as they were said to be away drumming up support for
the strike.
On Friday they were in Mutare.
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February 2010
18:43
CIVIL society groups tracking the performance of the unity
government say
the one-year-old marriage of convenience has not delivered on
its promises.
Zanu PF’s President Robert Mugabe and leaders of MDC
formations Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara
re-ignited hopes among Zimbabweans that their long suffering could
be a
thing of the past when they joined forces in February last
year.
But the Civil Society Monitoring Mechanism (Cisomm) in a report
released on
Friday said the coalition had failed to resolve the land
question,
transitional justice, human rights and institutional
reform.
Progress on the drafting of a new constitution, a key result
area for the
transitional government has also been very
slow.
Cisomm says instead the unity government has become a
“talk-shop”.
Although acknowledging, the improvements on the economic
front, the groups
said there were too many unresolved issues impeding
progress.
One of the major concerns was the continued harassment of
human rights
defenders and political activists by the police as well as the
selective
application of the rule of law.
Cisomm also expressed
concern on the lack of independence of the judiciary
and the “continued
persecution of human rights defenders by Attorney-General
Johannes
Tomana”.
On media reform, the groups said although the Zimbabwe Media
Commission had
been constituted, the media environment is still not
free.
Dzimbabwe Chimbga, the Cissom chairman, said the inclusive
government had
lost focus.
“By and large we can say that most of
the targets and benchmarks the
government of national unity set out to do
have not been met,” he said.
“The main issue for us is in Article 6
of the GPA which provides for the
writing of a new constitution.
“That
process has been slowed down with a lot of problems and is well behind
the
time frames set out in the agreement.”
Chimbga said bickering by the
coalition partners had affected policy making.
Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition director McDonald Lewanika said the Joint
Monitoring Committee
(Jomic) — an interparty organ set up to ensure
adherence to the GPA — had
also failed dismally.
However, Economic Planning and Investment
Promotion Minister Elton Mangoma
who attended the launch said the assessment
was very harsh.
Mangoma, who is one of the MDC-T negotiators in the
failing talks with Zanu
PF and MDC, accused the groups of speaking from a
comfort zone.
He described the unity government as a “breath of fresh
air to many of our
supporters who were under attack in the rural
areas”.
BY BERTHA SHOKO
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February
2010 18:42
MUTARE - Zanu PF Manicaland chairman, Mike Madiro's double
standards over
the land issue were exposed after he tried to blame white
farmers for the
chaos in the province's commercial farming areas. Madiro,
who recently
evicted more than 30 families from his farm, was told to stop
the blame game
at a Joint Monitroing and Implementation Committee (Jomic)
meeting in Mutare
on Sunday as his "hands were not clean".
The
newly elected Zanu PF chairman looked shocked after MDC-T Manicaland
chairman Patrick Chitaka rapped him for being a
hypocrite.
Chitaka said Madiro had caused a lot of suffering to many
people he evicted
from his farm.
Some of the families evicted had
worked on the farm for years before Madiro
took over from a white commercial
farmer, Charles de Kock.
Madiro had told the highly-charged meeting
that white commercial farmers
were to blame for the chaos in farming areas
as they were denying genuine
new farmers the opportunity to move onto the
land.
He charged that the white farmers were trying to drive the
landless people
in the country into perpetual poverty.
"White
farmers are using delaying tactics when it comes to the issue of land
and
the new farmers are impatient, that is why you are seeing the chaos and
the
alleged invasions in the farming areas," Madiro said.
However, Madiro
could not finish his statement as his voice was drowned out
in boos from
participants at the meeting meant to reconcile the country's
major political
parties.
Chitaka did not have kind words for Madiro, accusing him of
hypocrisy after
he evicted landless families from his farm. Madiro dumped
the more than 30
families on the roadside along the Mutare-Harare highway
near Odzi late last
year.
Chitaka was given the platform to speak
after Madiro. He said the Zanu PF
chairman was one of the people to blame
for the chaos on farms.
"You are also to blame for the chaos
(because) you evicted more than 30
families from your farm and dumped them
on the roadside without food or
anything," Chitaka said to applause from
people who attended the meeting.
"You are the last person to try to show
sympathy."
The families who were evicted had homes set on fire and
were stranded for
months in the open along the Mutare-Harare
road.
At least 52 children were also victims of the
eviction.
Wilton Farm was seized from De Kock at the height of the
chaotic farm
invasions.
De Kock was a major producer of baby
corn, wheat, maize, soya beans, and
tobacco, mostly for the export market.
He was also cattle rancher.
BY JOHN MAKURA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February 2010
18:29
MEDIA groups have described the arrest last week of distributors of
The
Zimbabwean newspaper as demonstration of the unity government's
insincerity
about media reforms.
On Friday, publisher and editor of
The Zimbabwean newspaper, Wilf Mbanga,
said two directors of Adquest - their
new distributors - were arrested on
February 10 and charged with
contravening the Criminal Law (Codification and
Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23,
which criminalises the publication of "falsehoods
prejudicial to the
state".
The previous day, said Mbanga, three Adquest drivers
had been arrested and
taken to the Law and Order Section at Harare Central,
where they were
separated and questioned for three hours.
"They
were made to sign statements and were then released, without charge,"
he
said. Police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka yesterday said he was still
to
get information on the incidents.
But Mbanga confirmed the arrest of
Barnabas Madzimure and Fortune Mutandiro.
He said the two were
charged with writing and publishing false statements in
the newspaper's
January 10 edition, under the headline Mnangagwa plots fight
back: talk of
new splinter group.
The "false" statements were about an alleged
meeting of some Zanu PF
officials in Gweru on Christmas Day last
year.
"The charge is, with all due respect, ludicrous and is in my
view calculated
to harass and intimidate the distributors of the newspaper,"
Mbanga said.
He said Madzimure and Mutandiro had nothing to do with the
distribution of
the newspaper of January 10. At the time, Mbanga said, the
paper was
distributed by Publications Distributors.
Adquest only
started distributing the paper on January 14.
"This is not consistent
with the press freedom promised by the government of
national unity," Mbanga
said.
Nhlanhla Ngwenya, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa)
Zimbabwe
chapter director, said the incident betrays the government's lack
of
commitment to media reforms.
"The whole incident exposes the
fallacy of media reform rhetoric," Ngwenya
said.
"It reminds all
of us that we are still stuck in the old mode of intolerance
of alternative
sources of information.
"It shows that all this talk about media
reforms is just mere politicking."
Co-ordinator of the Media
Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) Andrew Moyse
said the incident shows
the government's lack of commitment to media
reforms.
"It just shows
the lack of sincerity this government has about reforms.
"It exposes
the vindictiveness of the people in government and their
determination to
hang on to all sources of information," Moyse said.
Last month, a
correspondent for The Zimbabwean newspaper, Stanley Kwenda,
fled the country
claiming that he had been threatened with death by a senior
police
officer.
Mbanga said the police action had all the trademarks of the
era of media
persecution that characterised Professor Jonathan Moyo's tenure
as Minister
of Information when several newspapers were banned and
journalists harassed
and arrested.
BY VUSUMUZI SIFILE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February 2010 18:07
IT is
enough to unsettle most people to imagine receiving as many as 1 000
text
messages on their mobile phone every day. And when the messages so
received
are exactly on the same subject, the ensuing discomfiture can be
shattering.
This is the "torture" the co-chairpersons of the
Constitution Parliamentary
Committee (Copac) face for allegedly ignoring
demands by women for a 50-50
representation on committees spearheading the
revision of the country's
supreme law.
Women's Coalition of
Zimbabwe (WCoZ) - an umbrella body of women's groups in
the country - last
week took the campaign to cyberspace through the launch
of a "Text 'Em
Campaign."
The coalition is urging people to send short messages
(SMS) to three Copac
co-chairpersons, Paul Mangwana (Zanu PF), Douglas
Mwonzora (MDC-T) and
Edward Mkhosi (MDC) voicing their
displeasure.
"The committee promised us that they would put in place
systems to ensure
that there is a 50-50 representation between men and women
in the process,"
WCoZ national co-ordinator Netsai Mushonga
said.
"Since this is not happening, we have resolved to text the
co-chairpersons
asking them what happened to their
promises."
Women's organisations and female legislators last month
petitioned Copac
demanding the inclusion of women in influential committees
leading the
process.
Women, Gender and Community Development
minister Olivia Muchena said
committees and outreach teams leading the
process were gender biased.
WCoZ published Mangwana, Mwonzora and
Mukhosi's telephone numbers to
kickstart the campaign.
They want
each of them to receive at least 1 000 messages a day from
different
phones.
"In dismissing our petition, Mwonzora labelled it a Zanu PF
agenda aimed at
derailing the process," Mushonga said. "What we are seeing
here are men from
Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC conniving to exclude women in this
process."
Copac's management committee has one woman out of 10 while
the steering
committee and the select committee have three out of 10 and
nine out of 25
respectively.
The gender disparities have also
been noted in the chairpersons of the
thematic committees and their
deputies.
Of the seven chairs from Zanu PF, only one is a woman. The
MDC-T seconded
three women out of seven chairpersons, while the MDC's two
chairpersons are
men.
Political parties also influenced the
selection of civil society
representatives to deputise thematic committee
chairpersons.
Of the seven deputies seconded by Zanu PF, only two are
women while MDC-T
and MDC seconded four out of seven and none out of two
respectively.
While Mkhosi was unreachable for comment, Mangwana and
Mwonzora said the
women's campaign could be in vain as they were
misdirecting their concerns.
"Our policy as Copac is indeed 50% but
we do not select these
representatives," Mangwana said. "It is the political
parties and the civic
groups which seconded people to us.
"We did
our best as far as advocating for equal representation but the
stakeholders
brought something else and we as Copac had no powers to reject
what was
brought to us.
"The women should be talking to the stakeholders as
Copac will not be able
to change these things."
Mangwana said
some of the problems lay with society as women could not be
found among such
groups as priests or pastors, for example.
Mwonzora said Copac
actually scored high in as far as including women in the
process was
concerned.
"Copac made sure that all the female parliamentarians
participate in this
process but they are only 18% of the total legislators
so that reality made
it impossible for us to achieve 50% as we could not
blow up the figures for
them," Mwonzora said.
"Women have a very
good case of under-representation but the source is not
Copac but their
political parties.
He said women were also under-represented in most
civic groups'
decision-making positions and this had a direct impact on the
names
forwarded to Copac.
Mushonga said women were not letting up
on their campaign and would continue
sending the messages.
But Mwonzora
described them as a "nuisance aimed at disturbing me, my peace
and my
business".
However, it seems the campaign was off to a poor start
with Mangwana saying
he was yet to receive any message and Mwonzora
confirming receiving two.
BY JENNIFER DUBE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February 2010 18:05
BULAWAYO - A
short-term water project aimed at alleviating the already
biting water
shortage in Zimbabwe's second largestcity has taken off, two
years after it
stalled due to funding constraints
But the laying of a pipeline from the
Mtshabezi Dam in Matabeleland South is
underfunded by more than US$18
million. The pipeline will link the idle dam
estimated to be 99% full to
Bulawayo's fast diminishing water sources that
are also located in
Matabeleland South.
Water Resources Development and Management
Minister, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, on
Thursday said the money released by the
government a fortnight ago would
only cover a quarter of the
project.
"The estimated total project cost for works under the
contract is US$25
million," Nkomo said in an interview.
"The
project was allocated US$7 million in the 2010 national budget leaving
a
deficit of US$18 million.
"The Finance ministry recently gave us part
of the US$7 million and the
money was used to buy pipes for the project that
cover about two
kilometers."
The inadequate funding means that
there would be no quick-fix to the city's
water shortages that are
escalating even before the end of the rainy season.
Council announced
two weeks ago that it will soon stop pumping water from
two of its four
supply dams because they were running dry.
According to the latest
council report, the supply dams are 50,84 % full and
would last for 14
months.
"The supply dams are currently pegged at 50.84% representing
a depletion
period of 14 months. . .raw water network has been designed such
that should
the depletion period be lower than 21 months, the city should
engage in
water usage restrictions" reads part of the Future Water Supplies
and Water
Action report.
Bulawayo's old suburbs of Magwegwe and
Makokoba have been facing serious
water shortages since last
year.
"We are now used to this situation where we only get water for
about an hour
at midnight," said Enesia Sibanda, a mother of two from Old
Magwegwe.
"It's only by God's grace that we have not been affected by
cholera because
sewage also flows into our homes since sewer pipes are
always bursting."
Council blames sewer pipe bursts and water
shortages on piping and sewer
systems which need urgent
rehabilitation.
A feasibility study conducted by the Bulawayo
Sewerage Task Force (BSTF)
last year revealed that council needs about US$20
million to replace the
aged sewer systems.
Another report by the
local authority's Municipal Procurement Board said a
further US$10 000 is
required urgently to rehabilitate the water treatment
plants to ease water
shortages.
Bulawayo mayor, Thaba Moyo confirmed water and sewerage
flow problems at the
city's old suburbs emanate from aged water treatment
plants and sewerage
systems.
But he referred The Standard to
Engineer Job Ndebele who said he needed
authority from the town clerk's
office.
Nesisa Mpofu, the BCC senior public relations officer,
demanded questions on
the matter to be emailed to her office on
Thursday.
But she had not responded by end of day on
Friday.
The government says the only solution to the region's
perennial water
shortages is the renamed National Matabeleland Zambezi Water
Project.
However, critics say the project that was first mooted in
1912 will not be
completed in time to save Bulawayo.
BY
NQOBANI NDLOVU
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February 2010 18:04
THE loss-making
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) is smarting from
"questionable
leakages" of fuel in transit, in what insiders said was an
indication of
corruption. Some of the fuel, which is lost through leakages
during storage
at service stations, is significantly higher than accepted
industry
variances, a senior official admitted last week. The leakages have
seen the
company recording revenue losses in "thousands of US dollars".
The
problem is widespread at all new Noczim service stations.
In one such
example on August 6 last year, a truck destined for a Noczim
service station
in Kwekwe was loaded with 29 759 litres of fuel.
Initial
reconciliations at off-loading confirmed that 59 litres of petrol
had been
lost along the way, but further checks established that 1 120
litres could
not be accounted for after the fuel had been off-loaded into
the service
station tanks.
But in a development that has raised the suspicions of
some Noczim insiders,
the reconciliations for the month of August last year
did not take note of
the loss.
An internal memo dated November
12, 2009 said Kwekwe service station alone
had recorded losses amounting to
7 507 litres of petrol from 23 deliveries.
Similar losses were recorded in
Gweru, where 7 723 litres of diesel and 4
471 litres of petrol were lost in
17 deliveries.
Noczim director of Marketing and Distribution, Krispen
Mashange although
confirming that investigations had been launched after a
realisation that
the Kwekwe loss was "abnormal as it exceeded the industry
acceptable
tolerance levels of +/-0.5%," said the problem had been traced to
the
"calibration" of new service stations.
Mashange said the
problem was "common at our new service stations that have
not yet gone
through re-calibration".
However a memo seen by The Standard dated
September 2, 2009 says: "The
losses incurred are not consistent. Of the 17
losses recorded only three
appeared reasonable."
Despite calls
from within the company for the matter to be thoroughly
investigated, no
arrests have been instituted.
BY VUSUMUZI SIFILE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February 2010
13:51
THE International Organisation for Migration last week gave the
government
communication equipment that is set to improve the response to
disease
outbreaks in remote areas. Zimbabwe is currently battling with
outbreaks of
cholera and measles that have claimed thousands of lives
throughout the
country.
The donation, funded by the European Commission
Humanitarian Aid Department
(ECHO) is part of a broader project on Cholera
Emergency Surveillance and
Response in border areas including Hurungwe,
Mbire, Mt. Darwin, Mudzi,
Mutare, Chipinge, Chimanimani and Chiredzi.
The
equipment will be used to bridge the communication gap between rural
health
centres and district hospitals.
One of the major challenges encountered
during the August 2008 - July 2009
cholera outbreak that claimed over 4 000
lives was inadequate communication,
IOM said.
"This resulted in slow
reporting, slow responses, and diminished capacity at
the rural health
facility level to respond and treat cases, due to the
difficulty of relaying
their supply needs to the district level," the IOM
said in a
statement.
"Revitalizing the radio communication system will improve
surveillance and
reporting capacity, while providing a longer term solution
to the current
communication gaps."
The project would also help in the
provision of supplies and human resource
support, construction of pit
latrines at border posts with poor water,
sanitation and hygiene
infrastructure.
The ECHO support will also provide cholera case management
refresher
training for primary health care staff as well as training for
members of
the community and leaders on health and hygiene
promotion.
Speaking at a ceremony to hand over the equipment on Monday, IOM
chief of
mission Marcelo Pisani said their intervention sought to support
the
activities of the Migration Health Unit.
The unit supports emergency
health interventions targeting migrant
populations.
"This equipment will
not only help strengthen emergency response efforts at
the district level,
but also serve as a step towards rebuilding the country's
national disease
surveillance system, improving communication in 10 border
posts and
approximately 50 health centres throughout eight border area
districts,"
said Pisani.
"As high population mobility has the potential to lead to wide
spread
transmission of certain infectious diseases, it is therefore
essential to
incorporate strong public health interventions targeting this
vulnerable
population into the overall national strategy in order to
mitigate potential
risks and to allow for efficient and effective response
and control efforts
addressing the emergence of diseases of public health
concern."
Pisani said his organisation was committed to safe internal and
external
migration of people.
In the past decade, Zimbabwe has
experienced a huge influx of people seeking
greener pastures in neighbouring
countries.
Pisani said the "irregular migrants" and other mobile populations
tend to be
overlooked in the surveillance for communicable diseases and
chronic
conditions.
Health and Child Welfare Welfare minister, Henry
Madzorera who received the
donation said although the health delivery system
was on the road to
recovery, it still needed support from donors.
"Our
health delivery system is no longer in coma. It came out of the coma,
the
intensive care unit, and it is now out of hospital," said Madzorera.
"But it
remains in high dependency unit. We still have some areas that we
still need
to work on such as effective reduction of epidemiology diseases
and
improving primary health care system."
He said the government had managed the
current cholera outbreak better than
in 2008 because of improvements in the
health sector and support from
donors.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February 2010 13:49
A
four-member delegation from Tanzania is in Zimbabwe to study how the
country
administers the Aids levy. Zimbabwe has used the National Aids Trust
Fund
(NATF) - funded through the levy that came into place in 2000 to
implement
one of the most successful campaigns against the pandemic.
The Tanzaanian
delegation, being hosted by the National Aids Council (NAC),
arrived on
Sunday and has held a series of consultative meetings with NAC,
Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority, ministries of Finance and Health and Child
Welfare, the
Zimbabwe Aids Network (ZAN), the Zimbabwe Business Council on
Aids (ZBCA),
among other Aids service organisations.
The East African country is exploring
ways to broaden its domestic funding
for its HIV and Aids programmes and is
consulting Southern African Community
(Sadc) countries that have developed
their own home grown interventions.
Tanzania Aids Commission director of
finance, administration and resource
mobilization Bengt Issa heads the
delegation.
The delegation also has Beldon Chaula, a principal research
officer in the
Tanzanian Revenue Authority, Tadeo Augustine, a Policy
analyst in the
Tanzanian ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs and Deo
Mulalemwa, an
independent consultant.
Issa said the study would help them
develop sustainable domestic funding
mechanisms to reduce their dependence
on donor funding.
"We have huge funding gaps in our HIV and Aids response,"
she said.
"Ninety five percent of our funding is from donors and we feel this
is not
sustainable.
"We need to explore ways in which we can harness
local resources and that is
the reason why we are visiting Zimbabwe to learn
how the Aids Levy, which
has been documented as a best regional practice by
Sadc, has been
administered and also look at the impact it has made."
The
delegation had closed door meetings with the National Aids Council
management, the Aids and TB Unit under the ministry of Health and Child
Welfare, ZAN and ZBCA.
The delegation also visited health institutions in
Mashonaland Central to
appreciate the impact of HIV and Aids in a rural
environment.
The visit by the Tanzanians comes at a time when Zimbabwe, which
also has
huge funding gaps and is dependent on donor support-particularly
from the
Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria and the Expanded Support
Programme
(ESP), is exploring the possibility of collecting the Aids Levy
through the
Value Added Tax system.
Under the current dispensation, only
people in formal employment and the
corporate sector contribute three
percent of taxable income on Pay AS You
Earn and Corporate Tax
respectively.
Fifty percent statutorily goes towards treatment while the
other half covers
costs for other interventions.
Nothing is being
harnessed from the informal sector where huge transactions
occur.
This
has left a small fraction of the population, which is not well paid,
bearing
the burden of the pandemic.
The Aids Levy, which is the only domestic source
of revenue for the HIV and
Aids response, is thus expected to fund
prevention, treatment, care and
support and mitigation programmes,
coordination, administration, monitoring
and evaluation, among other
emerging needs.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February 2010 12:55
THE honeymoon
could soon be over for top earning parastatal bosses following
moves by
government to review their salaries against the performance of the
loss-making companies.
Government is desperate to pacify civil servants
who downed tools last
Friday protesting against poor pay.
The crippling
strike has thrown the spotlight on some utilities who pay
their employees as
much as US$5 000 a month.
Civil servants are also demanding that the
government must force Zesa,
TelOne and municipalities to reduce their
tariffs.
Professor Welshman Ncube, the Minister of Industry and
Commerce last week
said government was working towards reviewing the tariff
and salary
structures at state enterprises to lessen the burden on industry
and
ordinary Zimbabweans.
Ncube said "it does not make any sense"
for utilities to continue charging
Zimbabweans earning poor salaries
exorbitant amounts to finance their top
officials' hefty
salaries.
"The government has directed that there ought to be a
general review of
tariff structures used by some utilities,"said Ncube who
was officiating at
a ceremony to commission a Bakers' Inn plant in
Harare.
"Some of these utilities, for example, electricity are a
major cost driver
in industry operations.
"Entities such as Zesa
and Hwange have salary structures, which have no
relationship with their
operations.
"How can they pay themselves salaries of $4 000 and $5
000 in an economy
such as ours and pass the cost to people who earn
$100?
"That doesn't make sense, which is why we feel there must be a
rationalisation of some of these things."
Ncube said government was
concerned about high charges levelled by local
authorities as well as
electricity and water utilities, adding that these
were behind industrial
unrests which could reverse positive developments
recorded since the
formation of the inclusive government.
Civil servants want their
salaries raised from a minimum of US$120 a month
to
US$630.
National Bakers' Association (NBA) president Brumwel Bushu
conceded that low
salaries for ordinary workers were affecting sectors like
the baking
industry.
"We want government support in terms of
accessing long-term financing.
"We are also asking the government to
ensure that our consumers access
money, otherwise our products will not get
to people's homes," Bushu said.
Striking civil servants have
expressed concern that their counterparts at
parastatals are drawing better
salaries.
"While as government we have no desire to attempt any price
control, we have
a responsibility to ensure that those who provide these
services do so in a
way that makes sense, pegging tarrifs at reasonable
levels," Ncube said.
Zesa chief executive Ben Rafemoyo said he was
"not comfortable to discuss
this issue with the press" because there had not
been any official
communication to that effect.
"It is indeed a
very important subject which I believe can best be debated
in a formal way,"
Rafemoyo said.
"I hope our principals will create room for people to
sit down and discuss
so that any points of misinformation are explained and
also that any
decisions taken will not affect the economy at
large.
"Sub-optimum tariffs as was in the past will negatively impact on
operations
and the country's capacity to attract
investment."
Ncube urged employees in both private and state entities
to be patient with
their employers as they try to improve their revenue
generation capacity.
"We are painfully aware as government of the
challenges that remain.
"The capacity of industry to pay wages is greatly
constrained, and that of
government is even more constrained, since the
government does not produce
anything," he said.
"Industry needs
time to re-equip, to re-establish itself.
"The government also needs time to
do all the things it is enjoined to do.
"We must all acknowledge that the
situation is improving by the day."
He congratulated Bakers' Inn on
its latest achievement and urged other
companies to follow suit as efforts
to fully revive the economy continue.
The bread maker on Wednesday
officially launched its US$1.4 million plant in
Harare as part of its
project to increase production to 225 000 loaves a day
countrywide.
A similar line was installed in Bulawayo on the same
day and is expected to
be officially launched in April.
A third plant
will be installed in Harare by June this year.
BY JENNIFER DUBE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February 2010 12:52
DIRECTORS of
Time Bank have sought intervention of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ)
governor Gideon Gono to help them re-open the institution.
They accuse the
banks’ registrar of frustrating their efforts to re-open the
bank after it
successfully challenged the cancellation of its licence.
Time Bank
was placed under curatorship in 2004 and had its licence cancelled
by banks’
registrar Norman Mataruka in 2006.
The Administrative Court then gave
the bank a life-line by validating its
licence last August.
In a February
5 letter to Gono Time Bank alleged that Mataruka is
frustrating the
implementation of Gono’s directives for the bank to re-open.
“It is
sad that close to four months down the road none of the things that
you
asked Mr Mataruka to do has been done, yet on our side as Time Bank, we
have
prepared and presented a time-framed business plan, which unfortunately
Mr
Mataruka literally threw out, without taking into account your
directive,”
wrote Takura Tande, Time Bank’s managing director.
“Our
understanding, Mr Governor, was that we mutually chose to avoid
wrangles at
the courts, by recognising the already existing court order
which validated
Time Bank’s licence.”
Tande said RBZ had taken a decision of
constructive reconciliation so that
the sector moves as a team but said all
the “this spirit is being frustrated
day in day out by your Mr Mataruka, who
now seems to be taking a mysterious
personal line of attack on Time
Bank”.
Tande proposed that RBZ allows Time Bank “to continue carrying
out limited
banking services whilst the ongoing delicate negotiations with
our new
partners are concluded to beef up the bank’s capital base”.
“In
the spirit of progressive reconciliation, we are also appealing that you
formally present those commitments of support that you gave us verbally in
respect of moratorium on statutory reserve payments and a grace period on
capitalisation,” Tande wrote.
This month the bank said it was
offering personal loans to civil servants in
preparation for full banking
services once they had resolved their matters
with the
regulator.
Tande told Gono that they had advised the registrar about
their intended
banking services before flighting adverts in
newspapers.
Tande was unavailable for comment.
Contacted
for comment, Munyaradzi Kereke, Gono’s advisor said: “We are
having very
cordial and progressive discussions with the relevant
stakeholders of Time
Bank.
“However, it would be ill-advised for the regulator to pre-empt
those
discussions in public.”
The development at Time Bank is a
serious blow on RBZ’s efforts to make
peace with players in the banking
sector.
RBZ has said that Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group (ZABG) will
be returned to
its previous owners.
ZABG is a merger of three failed
banks: Trust, Royal and Barbican.
Last year, Time Bank successfully
applied for a restoration of its operating
licence at the Administrative
Court.
In his landmark ruling last August, AC president Herbert
Mandeya criticised
then Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa’s decision to
support Mataruka in
de–registering Time Bank without giving its owners ample
time to respond to
the allegations.
The court ruled that the
registrar had failed to comply with the Banking Act
which says that
cancellation of a licence cannot be effected until the
period within which
an appeal may be lodged has elapsed or unless the
banking institution had
consented to its cancellation.
“Having notified the curator (Tinashe
Rwodzi) on May17, 2006 of his
(Mataruka) intention to cancel Time Bank’s
registration, the registrar
should have, in accordance with section 14
(3)(a)(i), waited for 30 days –
the period within which an appeal may be
lodged with the minister in terms
of section 73 (2)(a) – before canceling
Time Bank’s registration.
“Instead, the registrar cancelled Time
Bank’s registration after a mere two
days,” the judge said.
The
court said that “had the minister (respondent) properly applied his mind
to
what the registrar did against the statutory requirements set out in
sections 14(1), (2) and (3) of the Banking Act… he would not have confirmed
what the registrar did”.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February 2010 12:49
THE tourism
sector is projected to grow by 10% this year underpinned by
heavy investment
to renew the product, Tourism and Hospitality Minister
Walter Mzembi said on
Friday.
For the past 10 years, the sector had not witnessed major investments
as the
political and economic crisis took its toll on the
industry.
The formation of the inclusive government last year brought
in stability
into the sector but the product needs a major overhaul to
compete with the
best in the region.
Mzembi told stakeholders
that at the beginning of 2009, the tourism industry
was declining but by the
close of the year, the industry had registered a 4%
growth.
".the
growth phase must be underpinned by a stimulus package. We need
investment
in order to grow," he said.
Mzembi spoke as the industry is
undergoing fine-tuning ahead of this week's
tourism investment
summit.
The meeting, Africa investor Pan African Tourism Investment Summit,
runs
from tomorrow up to Wednesday and brings together international
authorities
involved in commercialising legacy projects from previous World
Cups and
major sporting events with investors, project promoters and city
planning
officials.
Mzembi said 10 cabinet ministers from Africa
will grace the summit as well
as a number of financial institutions that are
expected to offer lines of
credit to the industry.
Local
financial institutions are not offering long terms loans due to
liquidity
constraints leaving businesses to scout for money across the
borders.
This week's summit is a the brainchild of last year's
stakeholders meeting
that resolved that for growth to be achieved in the
industry there is need
for a stimulus package to provide the much needed
capital to renew the
tourism product.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February
2010 12:41
THE European Union (EU) has scaled up efforts to rehabilitate
Zimbabwe's
battered agricultural sector through the announcement of a 9.2
million Euro
(US$13 million) funding scheme to assist smallholder communal
farmers with
inputs and extensions services.
While maintaining
restrictive measures against President Robert Mugabe and
his inner circle,
senior EU officials said the bloc would now concentrate on
programmes that
directly benefit ordinary citizens.
Head of the EU Delegation in
Zimbabwe Xavier Marchal said the new scheme,
which will run over the years
from 2010 to 2012 was inspired by their
conviction that "the stabilisation
and eventual rehabilitation of the
agricultural sector in Zimbabwe is
crucial to its economic revival".
"Agriculture is a critical
dimension of economic recovery," said Marchal in
a speech read on his behalf
at the launch of the fund in Harare on Thursday.
"Moving away from a
narrow humanitarian perspective, reviving agricultural
production is central
to rebuilding food and livelihood security, thereby
avoiding Zimbabwe's
dependency on large scale food importation.
"This new project is part
of the EU policy aiming at moving this country
from food aid to food
security, helping to build self-reliance at
smallholder
level."
However, Marchal pointed out that their goodwill to ordinary
Zimbabweans was
still "implemented in line with EU restricted policy towards
Zimbabwe".
EU food security co-ordinator for Zimbabwe, Pierre-Luc
Vanhaeverbeke, said
despite the sanctions, they won't abandon
Zimbabweans.
"This is an up-scaling of what we have been doing over
the years in
Zimbabwe, it is of direct benefit to the population of
Zimbabwe.
"We are not going to abandon the population of Zimbabwe,"
Vanhaeverbeke
said.
The funds, to be disbursed through the United
Nations' Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO), will see an additional 80
000 households across the
country getting assistance in terms of
inputs.
In the 2009/2010 farming season, about 176 000 smallholder
farmers
nationwide received inputs from under the EU Food
Facility.
The scheme targets mostly farmers who use conservation
agricultural methods
which require minimum tillage.
Conservation
agriculture, which has transformed food production in countries
like Malawi,
Zambia and Mozambique, is widely recommended in Zimbabwe.
The
multiple benefits, according to the FAO and those supporting the idea,
include increased yields, efficient use of seeds and fertiliser, water
harvesting and preservation of the environment.
The FAO
representative for Zimbabwe, Gaoju Han said the fund will go a long
way in
improving agricultural productivity in Zimbabwe, which was almost
grounded
by the government's chaotic land reform exercise.
"Under this new
facility, FAO will work towards the improvement of
agricultural productivity
in Zimbabwe and to reduce the dependency of
vulnerable communities on
humanitarian assistance," Han said.
The money will be used to
purchase such inputs as fertiliser and seed, as
well as supporting training
of farmers and extension work.
"FAO will contribute to the
production, analysis and dissemination of
agricultural and food security
information to the benefit of decision makers
in the various fields of
humanitarian, policy and private sectors," added
Han.
Although
critics have blamed the government's often violent land
redistribution
exercise for the collapse of agricultural output, Permanent
Secretary in the
Ministry of Agriculture, Ngoni Masoka said their major
challenge was lack of
resources.
He ducked questions on the volatile exercise, saying it
fell under the
Ministry of Lands and Resettlement.
"We need resources;
issues of resources need to be addressed. In terms of
planning we are always
far ahead than other countries in the region, but
issues of resources are a
major hindrance," Masoka said.
Under its Global Food Security
programme, the EU has contributed more than
$170 million to agricultural
development in Zimbabwe.
The bloc also provides funding for
agriculture, health, education, human
rights and governance.
The
government, through Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, has already
admitted
that the food situation is very bleak this year, and has
recommended the
importation of 500 000 tonnes of maize.
BY VUSUMUZI SIFILE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February
2010 12:37
THE Commissioner of Insurance, Manett Mpofu says players in
the industry
would be "immoral" if they fail to honour their obligations to
policyholders.
Mpofu's remarks came against a background of reports that
policyholders were
being told to start all over again as their contributions
were eroded by the
hyperinflation of 2007-2008.
"We are aware of
the turbulent environment we are emerging from but it would
border on the
immoral side to simply tell policyholders that their money
paid as premiums
over a number of years simply disappeared into thin air,"
she
said.
Mpofu was the guest of honour at a function last Friday where
Nyaradzo
Funeral Assurance awarded certificates to 178 policyholders with
paid up
policies.
Nyaradzo became the first company to achieve
such a feat since independence.
Besides making insurance firms
respect the contracts entered into with
policyholders, Mpofu's remarks will
force policyholders to demand their
dues.
Mpofu said the recovery
of the insurance industry hinges on companies
meeting their end of the
bargain.
"If we are perceived to be reneging on our promises, then the
recovery and
restoration of confidence we are hoping for in our industry
will simply
remain a pipe dream," she said.
In the
hyperinflationary period of 2008, a number of firms were demanding
fuel
coupons as premiums.
But following the introduction of multi-currencies last
year, a number of
funeral assurance companies were telling policyholders to
start afresh.
Observers say in the era of multiple currencies,
insurance firms should live
by the covenants entered between them and
policyholders.
Other than the confidence crisis dogging the sector,
the insurance industry
is also suffering from low disposable incomes, which
has seen policies being
regarded as a luxury.
But with capacity
utilisation peaking up in industries, analysts see an
uptake in policies by
companies and individuals.
Zimbabwe's economic decline over the past
few years have resulted in a slow
down in economic activity, low industrial
capacity utilisation,
undercapitalised business operations, high
unemployment, and therefore
suppressed demand for goods and
services.
As a result of the economic depression, the first half of
2009 has seen most
insurance customers deliberately opting to limit their
spending on insurance
to only their strategic assets, at minimum levels of
cover.
The awarding of the certificates means that policyholders will
no longer pay
monthly premiums.
Phillip Mataranyika, the Nyaradzo
chief executive officer, said the company
had lived up to its commitment
made when it opened its doors to the public
in 2001: living up to its
promises.
Mpofu said funeral companies should take a leaf from
Nyaradzo and avoid
treating clients as commodities.
She said the
companies must show compassion.
The insurance sector spent the better
part of 2007-2008 locked in government
bonds giving returns of 340% per
annum at a time annual inflation had
breezed part 231 million
%.
Prescribed asset ratio is the proportion that long and short-term
insurance
companies are required by law to invest in government guaranteed
bonds and
Treasury Bills whose interest rates are generally
unattractive
The prescribed assets ratios were waived in July last
year to give the
industry breathing space and build the base to underwrite
more business.
In his 2010 budget, Finance Minister Tendai Biti
reintroduced the prescribed
assets ratio citing the improvement in the
economic environment.
Pension funds are supposed to have 7.5% of
their portfolio in government
bonds while long term and short term insurance
companies should invest 7.5%
and five percent respectively.
Mpofu
said the insurance and pension industry should support government and
business to raise funds through investing in prescribed
assets.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February 2010
12:32
A myth has been residential among the blacks in Zimbabwe that black
business
persons do not plan for the continuity of their enterprises after
they die.
It is further believed that the blacks' entrepreneurial family
background is
most unfavourable for the business sustenance because members
of an
entrepreneurial family have negative experiences of endless
economically
precarious entrepreneurial work.
Do black
entrepreneurs have a business succession plan? Is the common
negative
cultural assumption that a known succession plan (among family
members) is a
recipe for the death of the owner/founder true?
According to Grant Thorton
LLB Management Series: "Ninety percent of all
businesses in Canada are
family-oriented yet succession of these businesses
often just happens rather
than being planned. Some 70% of family-run
businesses never make it to the
second generation and 90% never see a third
generation despite the genuine
desire by most owners to see continuation in
the family."
The
state of affairs needs to be verified in the Zimbabwean environment. One
of
the beneficiaries of political independence in 1980 was the black family
in
Zimbabwe. The black family businesses have encountered difficulties such
as
rising global competition, high taxes and harsh economic and financial
problems as was experienced by the ethnic Korean population in the
US.
Other challenges include the complexities of family business
dynamics such
as ownership, succession, family harmony and
solidarity.
Zimbabwe does not have much prior research on family
business dynamics.
Approximately 80% of the businesses in Zimbabwe are
classified as family
businesses and are mainly small to medium
sized.
Family businesses are increasingly becoming the dominant form
of business
enterprise in developed and developing economies where they play
a pivotal
role in the economic and social spheres. Their number is bound to
grow
greatly in the near future as a result of the rationalisation process
taking
place in many corporations in the country as well as the gospel of
black
empowerment preached by the government.
The stagnation
and harsh economic environment affecting Zimbabwe's formal
sector to create
new jobs is forcing people to be enterprising. Family
businesses are and can
offer great opportunities for economic growth.
Do these black family
businesses have a succession plan for sustenance once
the founder/owner is
gone? Researchers emphasise the role that past
experiences in business plays
in creating low rates of business ownership
among blacks. They identify lack
of black traditions in business enterprise
as a major cause of low levels of
black ownership. The lack of black
traditions in business argument relies on
a strong generation old link in
business ownership. The link may be strong
due to the transmission of
general business or managerial experience in
family owned businesses, the
inheritance of family businesses and the
correlation among family members in
preference for entrepreneurial
activities. Other researchers support the
assertion that the probability of
self-employment is substantially higher
among the children of the
self-employed.
The survival and longevity of the black family
business is cause for concern
if it must be a major contributor to the
social and economic well being.
International research has estimated that
only 14% of family businesses make
it beyond the third generation. In South
Africa only one in four family
businesses survived to the second generation
while one in 10 makes it to the
third generation. The cost of business
failure has adversely affected the
social and economic growth in Zimbabwe.
The high failure rate among first
and second generation family businesses is
attributed to the inability to
manage ownership and
succession.
The key steps to ensure a successful succession
transfer plan are:
commitment to pre-planning; awareness of potential
issues; knowledge from
informed advisors and communication to all interested
parties.
In a study carried out in Zimbabwe's 10 provinces to
identify how far
succession strategies have been implemented by the black
family businesses,
variables such as: Personal and Estate Profile; Business
Financial analysis;
Family and Business Mission Statements; Business
Strategic Plan; Wealth
Enhancement; Successor analysis; Successor
Development; Advisor
Co-ordination; Quarterbacking and Board of Directors
were identified as key
to business succession.
The study involved
organising a family succession retreat for five family
businesses to discuss
the passing of a business from one generation to the
next. The retreats were
to be attended by all mature family members involved
or not involved in the
business, including in-laws. Some of the issues dealt
with included: passing
of the torch; estate and transfer taxes; future
income for parents; fairness
and equality for family members who are in
business and outside and stages
in succession to the business.
The study revealed that 60% of the
respondents were engaged in wholesale and
retail. Only 20% of the families
were engaged in manufacturing while 60% and
20% were engaged in farming and
food services respectively. Zimbabwe has
recently gone through a land reform
programme hence most of the people in
other businesses are also involved in
farming since they have benefited from
the government land reform
programme.
Almost all the businesses were owned by sole proprietors
while a fifth were
owned by a corporation/company. Ninety five percent of
the respondents were
male while only 5% were female. Half of the respondents
were aged between
50-59 years while a quarter were aged between 40-49
years.
Fifteen percent of the respondents were aged between 60-69
years while only
10% were in the 30-39 age bracket. All business revealed
that they had
family members participating in operations of the business.
Over 80% of the
businesses were first generation except 15% which was second
generation. The
bulk of the business owners had attained Grade I to Form VI
education level;
25% (Diploma); 25% (University Degree) and 10% (Post
Graduate Diploma).
Regarding the first succession strategy on
Personal and Estate Profile,
almost half of the respondents indicated that
they had gathered all the
important information they needed to prepare an
estate and succession plan.
Slightly over half had not gathered the
information for some aspects on
succession for they did not know what
information to collect for the Estate
profile. Ninety percent indicated that
the family knew where the important
documents were in the event of an
emergency hence helping balance competing
family and business
needs.
On business financial analysis, 90% of the respondents
indicated that the
business financial statements were open to family
members. The statements
were discussed with a view to grow interest in the
family members who are
outside to participate in business. However, 10% of
the old generation black
businesspersons expressed fear that once family
members knew that the
business was doing well, it would spell danger to
their lives. Further
investigations revealed that this is true in polygamous
families.
Ninety five percent of the respondents indicated that they
had talked about
the goals, mission, values and objectives of the business
but had not
written them down. The mission statements/white paper described
the family's
vision, values and acted as a multi-generational collaboration
exercise that
could be used as a framework for determining the future
business and family
policies alignment. Only 5% had a written down white
paper containing the
mission statements.
Sixty percent of the
businesses that responded had been assisted to come up
with a business
strategic and implementation plan that determined which
family members could
rise to the challenge of successful entrepreneurship
and business
management. The business strength, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats had
been clearly laid down. Forty percent did not think a
business strategic
plan was necessary though.
Seventy percent of the respondents
indicated that the business owner had not
planned for the retirement and
future of the business and self. Only 40%
scouted for a successor in or
outside the family while 60% indicated that
they preferred their own family
member to inherit the business irrespective
of having interest or not. Sixty
percent of the successors were hand-picked
by the owner and given on the job
training while 40% had gone through a
period of formal and apprenticeship
training in business succession.
Stewardship was considered the most
essential quality of a good successor.
A majority of the respondents
stated that they assumed an advisory role on
retirement. It took them
between three and five years to adjust to a pending
retirement, let go off
the business and fully develop external interests.
Seventy percent of the
respondents kept advisor reports and documents for
future reference. While
monthly progress reports were given sometimes, a
quarter of the respondents
said that they saw no need of getting monthly
reports once advice had been
given. Almost half of the respondents held a
Board of Directors meeting
while over half consulted family members only
when there was
need.
The black family business in Zimbabwe especially in the young
generation
category is making great effort at succession planning. Failure
to plan
succession is a recipe of failure to business continuity. There is a
possibility the owner might fail to retire when he/she is due. The owner
owes it to the family to create a realistic and workable succession plan.
Strengths and weaknesses of the successor must be identified. Provision and
development of skills is necessary. Ownership and management transfers are
conscious acts of intentions. A tough and pragmatic decision as to which
family member if any, can continue to run the business successfully has to
be made.
The successful continuation of a business requires
objective decision-making
by all family members and a commitment to develop
personal goals within the
family business structure. Old generation business
persons fear to disclose
information about the business operations, but the
majority of the young and
first generation entrepreneurs have spurned the
cultural belief that once
you disclose information about your riches then
you are dead. Lack of past
experience in business management and ownership
is fast being overcome.
Black family business owners are making a conscious
effort to ensure that
they plan for succession in their
businesses.
In order for family-owned businesses to be successful
members must
communicate rationally and objectively. The characteristics of
each family
or potential successor must be identified. The qualities should
include
commitment to the business. There should be constant dialogue
between the
advisor and the business. Follow up strategies to obtain buy-in
for family
objectives must be made. Accountability goals and task timeliness
for all
parties in the succession process must be
developed.
Failure to utilise family council may lead to delayed
decision of who takes
over. That is devastating to the business-especially
in the event of death,
where the business can end up in limbo due to
probate. The founder should
meet and discuss with the family to determine
who has the desire, skills and
vision warranting taking over the business.
Ways to share wealth and ensure
ramification of extended family such as
spouses should be examined. - The
African Executive.
* Katazo C
Mbetu is Executive Dean, Midlands State University, Gweru,
Zimbabwe.
By Katazo C. Mbetu
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February
2010 17:50
THERE is an evident trajectory of change marked by the
democratic sever from
patterns of political authority in Zimbabwe signified
on February 11, 2009.
This break was marked by the formation of an
inclusive government, which is
made up of a tripartite alliance of Zanu PF,
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC-T) - led by Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC
headed by Arthur Mutambara.
However, a nuanced interpretation of the
transition confirms a teleological
proposition that the transitional phase
of democratisation is a period of
great political
uncertainty.
Sketching back the contours of history from Chile to South
Africa and from
Nicaragua to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
scientists observed
that transitions are often complex and fragile. Building
dams against
reverse waves is the top priority for democratic actors in a
transition.
In Zimbabwe, the fragmented and fluid new institutional
context, where
authoritarian elites skeptically co-exist with democratic
actors in the
hybrid governance system confirms the uncertain nature of most
post-conflict
or post-authoritarian transitions.
More to the point,
the "loiter and linger strategy" evident in Zanu PF and
manifesting itself
in political bickering and culminating in recurrent
institutional immobilism
in the governmental structures and other
transitional institutions such as
COPAC, JOMIC and National Security Council
is not surprising at
all.
It is a deliberate attempt by hardliners in Zanu PF to frustrate
democratic
reforms, delay elections and postpone their relegation to
permanent
political irrelevance. It happened in DRC in 2004, and we continue
to
observe it in Madagascar, Kenya and Guinea.
Uncertainty and
confidence crisis is prevalent in all democratic
battlefields ranging from
political to economic reform processes.
The constitutional reform
exercise is way behind the original schedule and
the official
reschedule.
The outreach phase was supposed to start soon after first
all-stakeholders
conference held from July12-13, 2009 but lack of financial
resources,
directionality, coherence, co-ordination and political will has
stalled this
critical stage of constitutional reform process.
The
National Security Council has only met twice and the parallel Joint
Operations Command is still holding regular meetings, contrary to the letter
and tenor of the GPA.
Further, the National Economic Council, an
important legislative board
mandated to provide strategic oversight on the
economic stabilisation and
growth trajectory is at risk of suffering a
stillbirth. The rule of law,
which is the corner-stone for macro-economic
stabilisation, is still a
dream.
Further, Zanu PF announced in
the state media on January 28, 2009 that there
will be no more concessions
in the on-going talks.
The hard-line position of Zanu PF is
opportunistically predicated on the
recent statements by the United Kingdom
Foreign Secretary, David Miliband,
to the effect that MDC-T will be their
lodestar in the removal of smart
sanctions imposed on the authoritarian
elites mainly from or strategically
linked to Zanu PF.
This is
despite the fact that the conditions which led to the imposition of
the
restrictive measures are still there.
In Zanu PF, it has been difficult
transforming the psychology of liberation
struggles into that of democratic
consciousness. Farm invasions and
harassment of democratic actors are the
order of the day. State media is
proving to be impervious to democratic
pressures.
Zimbabwe's transition posit a phase whereby the former
ruling party is in
firm control of state power with the former opposition
parties coming in
largely as junior partners. To this end, the erosion of
authoritarianism and
construction of democracy will take longer than
anticipated.
An analysis of the transition so far shows that the
hardliners in Zanu PF
will continue to make outrageous demands, such as "we
will make more
concessions when sanctions have been removed" only to resist
the winds of
change blowing across the country. To them, authoritarian
regression or
democratic reversal is the endgame of the transition, and not
free and fair
elections.
However, in the words of the late
Professor Masipula Sithole, Zanu PF has
reached its levels of incompetence
and the law of diminishing returns has
irreversibly set into motion.
Further, authoritarianism is a pathology
against which democratic actors
rebel. Nothing is permanent except change.
Democratic forces continue
to question the democratic legitimacy of the
inclusive government since it
was not elected by the people.
The authority of the hybrid regime is only
appreciated by the democratic
actors only to the extent that it leads the
country into a free and fair
election, which produces uncontested outcome.
The Zimbabwe transition is not
permanent and an exit point is
inevitable.
So Zimbabweans must charter this territory of effective
institutional and
cultural reforms for real change.
The
democratic forces should start to seriously advocate for minimum
electoral
conditions to be met before the breakthrough post-conflict
election,
tentatively scheduled for 2011 - after the adoption of a new
democratic
constitution. Some of the key pre-elections democratic tenets are
as
follows:
a) Promoting constitutionalism and rule of law to
guarantee fairness and
openness in electoral matters. No society can claim
to be free or democratic
without strict adherence to the rule of law.
Dictators and authoritarian
regimes abandon the rule of law at the first
opportunity and resort to
brazen power politics leading to all manner of
excesses. This is why former
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower observed:
"The clearest way to show what
the rule of law means to us in everyday life
is to recall what has happened
when there is no rule of law."
b)
Strengthening of civic society organizations to act as purveyors of
democratic practices and values in the Zimbabwean body politic.
c)
Establishment and institutionalisation of an effective electoral
infrastructure, which will guarantee a credible election and concomitantly
inauguration and expansion of a democratic authority in Zimbabwe. In more
concrete terms there is need for genuine electoral reform, media reforms,
security sector reforms and judiciary reforms as a practical way of
addressing the legislative, constitutive and ecological factors in the
context of a post-settlement election, where fear, mistrust and suspicion
will be a common place. As President Barack Obama said to the parliament of
Ghana: "In the 21st century, capable, reliable, and transparent institutions
are the key to success - strong parliaments and honest police forces,
independent judges and journalists, a vibrant private sector, and civil
society."
d) Eradicating material poverty of people, which often
promotes electoral
clientelism and servitude. Elections will count for
little in an atmosphere
of crippling poverty, want and despair.
e)
Addressing the crisis of accumulation in Zimbabwe, this makes the
capture of
state power a priceless political project, for which all tactics
fair and
foul are permissible. This will include demilitarisation of
politics in the
country.
f) Invitation of regional and international observers and
monitors to
ensure that the next election is in conformity with the
Mauritius Sadc
guidelines on the conduct of elections and other
international standards and
norms.
BY WASHINGTON KATEMA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February
2010 17:41
THE timing of gazetting regulations under the Indigenization
and Economic
Empowerment Act of 2008 calling for foreign investors to cede
51% of their
investment to "indigenous people" is most perplexing and
appears hurried.
Last month the government gazetted the Indigenisation and
Economic
Empowerment (General) Regulations 2010 which say that by mid-April
all
businesses must give the state details on the racial composition of
their
shareholdings. The move drew swift responses from partners in
government and
a panicky industry.
The directive wants companies
to put a majority of their shares in the hands
of "indigenous" Zimbabwean
blacks. It calls for completion of the exercise
within five
years.
Under the new rules the government will determine what stake
in an
enterprise must be ceded to "indigenous" Zimbabweans. Companies
missing the
deadline face up to five years in jail.
The timing is
perplexing because it comes soon after Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai
returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,
where he faced
international investors unsettled about whether to put their
money in
Zimbabwe. After his assurances the regulations would appear a slap
in the
Prime Minister's face.
It is a move that seems to undercut efforts at
reviving the economy.
There was a swift and trenchant response from
the Prime Minister saying
neither he nor the cabinet were shown the
regulations before they were
gazetted. The regulations "were published
without due process as detailed in
the Constitution and are therefore null
and void" he shot back.
The Prime Minister's office through a press
statement said the regulations
were null and void because the rules were
published without "discussion or
authorisation by the
cabinet".
This is the second discordant development in government in
as many weeks.
The first was a directive to ministers and permanent
secretaries to report
directly to Vice-Presidents instead of the Prime
Minister.
This directive has fortunately since been withdrawn but not
before exposing
the fragile nature of the inclusive government and the
contesting centres of
power.
It is not just the Prime Minister
who fired off an irate response. Industry
swiftly registered its alarm,
begging the question: who then was "consulted
widely" prior to gazetting the
regulations and whether due consideration was
given to concerns from the
international investor community.
The urgency with which these
measures have to be implemented suggests the
"land grab model" is being
applied to businesses possibly to secure Zanu PF's
interests - vote-buying
of the powerful elite clique - and support for its
election war chest ahead
of next year's polls.
Since 2008 the government had done little to
indicate its intent on
enforcing the regulations.
However this
recent development could prove counter-productive because it
risks
portraying Zimbabwe as a dodgy investment destination.
It is curious
that the same ministry which clandestinely recruited 13 000
Zanu PF youths
onto the government payroll, should again and so soon be
linked to this
unilateral, and controversial regulations.
This would appear a
deliberate attempt to undermine the country and its
people at a time when
Zimbabwe desperately needs foreign direct investment.
The suspicion
is that Zanu PF is creating a new theatre for abuse by its
"loot-ocracy".
The beneficiaries, as under the land reform, will not be
ordinary men and
women, but those politically-connected to Zanu PF bigwigs.
There is need
to stay or reverse the regulations. Otherwise the inclusive
government has
scored a major own goal.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February 2010
17:38
FOR some weeks the press has been regaled with reports about
President Jacob
Zuma's recent marriage, his fifth, and the recent birth of
his daughter out
of wedlock, his twentieth child. This is a familiar story
in Zimbabwe too,
where many rich and powerful men do indulge in both
polygamy and
promiscuity. Generally these rich men are involved with girls
and women from
poorer families.
These girls and women, and often
their families as well, welcome their
liaison with rich and powerful men.
This is their opportunity to improve
their financial and social position in
the world.
Many poor men also indulge in both polygamy and
promiscuity, as having many
"wives" may be seen as a prestigious status
symbol. Some people think this
is good, as it is part of our "traditional
culture". Others think it is very
bad, as it is fuelling the spread of HIV
and Aids.
This is a good time for all of us to examine this "traditional
culture".
Culture does develop according to the needs of the people, of
society and of
the times.
Clinging to an inherited culture may be
good or bad, as a cultural trait may
be progressive or it may be
retrogressive. There are many aspects of
Zimbabwean culture which are
wonderfully progressive.
There is no doubt that polygamy and
promiscuity remain prestigious status
symbols for men in
Zimbabwe.
Having more than one wife is still taken as a symbol of wealth
and power by
some Zimbabweans, both men and women.
A man may be
admired for having many wives, particularly if they are
beautiful and
talented. They are objects of admiration and envy. However, a
woman who is
promiscuous is not praised.
She is regarded as a shameful person, a
disgraceful person, a sinful person,
a despised person, and even a criminal
person.
Yet sexually transmitted diseases, including the much feared
HIV/Aids, are
spread by promiscuity, whether of men or of women. Why should
men be praised
for promiscuity, and women be condemned for the same
behaviour? Should the
rules of society not be more equitable?
In
traditional societies everywhere, marriage was used as a way of cementing
social relations.
It is a well known phenomenon that the kings and
queens of Europe are
related to each other, as marriage formed social cement
which united the
different nations.
The same thing happened in
Africa, where a king or chief would marry a wife
from every clan or from
every district, in this way ensuring that the nation
or the ethnic group
remained closely bound together by blood. This is common
in all feudal
societies.
Modern societies are larger than the small kingdoms of the
Middle Ages in
Europe and Africa.
So the idea of linking polygamy to
national and tribal unity can no longer
be utilised as a good reason for its
continuation.
Citizenship in the modern world is not due to the fact
that everyone is a
blood relation. Unity in today's world can no longer be
based on marriage or
polygamy.
Thus African polygamy can be seen as a
hangover from the Middle Ages which
does not serve the same purposes, social
unity, that it served then.
In fact, it can be said that perhaps polygamy
today serves social disunity.
Yet there must be important social and
economic considerations for its
continuation in modern Zimbabwe and modern
Africa.
For the poor, obviously it is economically and socially
useful for a poor
family to become linked up with a rich and powerful
family.
Since more than three quarters of the population are poor, it is
not
surprising that there is a lot of energy spent by girls and women, often
backed up by their families, to become involved with rich and powerful men.
Hence the thousands of small houses.
Is a girl or woman who goes
for marriage and polygamy for economic reasons
equal to a maid
servant?
Should society recognise the status of the wife or girl friend
in the "small
house"? And is the man who marries what is called a "trophy
wife", that is a
wife whom he can show off, rather like how he shows off his
fine Mercedes
Benz, treating his wife like a prize possession rather than
like a human
being?
Is polygamy good or bad for society? Why do we
condemn a prostitute for
selling her body for money when other women may be
praised for doing the
same thing through "small houses"? Is polygamy good
for society? Are the
known sexual practices of President Zuma good for
society, for example?
In Zimbabwe, it is a well known fact that many
women who are "small houses"
may in fact entertain a number of other
"husbands" or boyfriends.
This is generally economic necessity, as they
may find it difficult to
survive with only one source of income. It is
unusual to find the many
wives being absolutely faithful to their shared
husband.
It is difficult for the husband to police them all, especially
when they
number a dozen or a hundred. Thus the idea that the many "small
houses" are
faithful is happy fiction, but problematic in
reality.
The women who seek such positions are many, and they are of
all ages and all
social classes.
What are their values? What are the
values of Zimbabwean society as a
whole? Is the current high level of
corruption not linked to the need to
support many wives, many "small
houses", and a few dozen children? Can a
Big Chef really afford to support
all these people without some form of
corruption?
A responsible
father of say three wives and twenty children needs a pretty
high income,
not possible when you are earning the minimum wage or even a
ministerial
salary. How to do it? How is it done?
BY FAY CHUNG
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 13 February
2010 17:34
ONE afternoon, just over a decade ago, a young man sat across
the table in
my office at a Harare law firm. He had been sent down by one of
my
colleagues, who being higher up the food chain probably did not have much
time to deal with small clients of this young man’s type. This particular
client was a young white man.
I certainly hadn’t had dealings with
his kind before.
I wondered what he thought of me — young and green as I
certainly looked.
I have to admit I was quite eager to make an
impression.
There was the added incentive to impress the boss,
too.
As it happened, things went well over the next few weeks and I had
secured
for myself a satisfied customer.
So satisfied, in fact that
he returned the next day, holding a bunch of
files, which he placed on the
table and discussions commenced. He explained
that he was starting a new
business but wanted a lawyer to look after
certain aspects of his
work.
He had recently incorporated a company and his principal line
of business
was selling mobile phones and lines for a mobile phone company.
It was a
pretty competitive environment in those early days — the days of
the large
mobile phones which were derisively referred to as zvidhina
(bricks), on
account of their size.
In those days, the mobile
phone was a status symbol. It announced one’s
arrival, as it were. My new
client satisfied the who is who’s desire to be
seen with these bricks and
other accessories.
But not everyone who wanted the new phones had the
means. They got them
anyway, on credit, which they still could not
pay.
So my client wanted me to pursue them. Essentially, he wanted me to
be his
debt collector.
Now, debt collection is not a particularly
exciting line of legal practice.
In any event, the bulk of the work I did
for the state-owned company that I
have already referred to was largely
collection of debts from customers who
had failed to meet their payment
obligations.
Most of them were ancient debts — the circumstances of which
went some
significant way to demonstrate how state companies had been sucked
to near
death by those who were supposed to look after them who turned out
to be
parasites.
Over the next few weeks, the files trickled in,
evidence of customers who
don’t like to pay their dues. Then he came again
and said he wanted to
register some trade marks.
Now this was more
high profile work in the field of intellectual property.
The only problem
was that this line of work was carried out by a specific
department in the
firm so the best I could do was to pass him on to my
colleagues. I did so,
with much reluctance.
I am not sure how that piece of business went
on.
A few months later I called him to say I had been awarded a
scholarship for
postgraduate studies in Britain and I was due to leave the
firm in late
1999. We agreed that his custom would be handled by a colleague
who was in
line to replace me. He wished me good fortune.
That
young man went on to build one of the most successful technology
businesses
in Zimbabwe. It is listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and
remains one of
the most vibrant companies in the country.
The moral of the story is
that human ingenuity knows no bounds and if
allowed freedom, it can flourish
to everyone’s benefit.
If you place barriers, you stifle innovation and
ultimately, you
disadvantage all those who are potential beneficiaries —
employees,
suppliers, customers, etc. In other words, you kill off the goose
that lays
the golden eggs.
It is against this background that I
have observed with some concern the new
rules introduced by government
ostensibly to promote indigenisation of large
companies operating in
Zimbabwe.
It is not because I am against the principle of empowerment,
especially of
formerly disadvantaged people, given the context of colonial
experience
which tended to be exclusionary.
Rather, it is because the
law potentially creates a moral hazard and fails
to properly take into
account the nature of the problem they are trying to
resolve.
Far
from being a tool for empowerment, it is likely to create incentives for
lethargy and rent-seeking behaviour.
The moral hazard is that you
create a generation that believes that you can
benefit from the efforts of
others — that having property or a stake in a
company alone is the key to
success.
Wealth creation is a result of many factors but importantly, you
have to
possess the equipment to make property work.
In other words,
you need knowledge, ability and drive. It creates a nation
of consumers and
not creators of wealth.
To my mind, Zimbabwe does not have a shortage
of black men and women who at
some point or another have done well in
business.
You only have to look at the transport industry to see the
potential there
has been from an historical viewpoint.
Yet, by and
large, after experiencing enormous bouts of success in the short
term, most
of the bus companies have failed to survive their original
founders.
Something certainly is wrong somewhere, in the business
model pursued by
these businessmen or indeed in the general governance of
the businesses.
To return to the example of my client: he built his
technology company and
then listed it on the stock exchange to raise more
capital to fund growth.
True his ownership became diluted but it ensured
that the company could
survive him, passing into new hands through exchange
of shares from time to
time.
If government truly wants to empower
people it needs to make an honest
assessment as to why many of the so-called
indigenous businesses do not
survive their founders.
In my view,
the greatest form of empowerment is to provide a facility for
business
knowledge and skills. The informal sector is awash with young,
innovative
minds and hard-working hands.
But how come these businesses remain in the
informal sector — carried on
kuSiya-So in Mbare? Why can’t they transform
into fully fledged formal
businesses employing people, paying taxes,
etc?
There are reasons why they cannot transform and instead of
advocating the
seizure of existing companies government simply needs to
identify the
challenges faced by the informal industrialists and create
avenues to
empower them — provision of micro-finance, business knowledge
through
training, etc.
Giving people stakes in companies simply to
meet the 51% rule is not going
to cure the business knowledge deficit that
has seen many indigenous
business fail to live up to the rigours of the
market.
A man does not have to be given half a share of the fish that
someone has
already caught — rather, it is better to give him the equipment
to enable
him to catch his own fish.
As I observe the
developments I can’t help but think of the contrast between
my two clients a
decade ago that I have referred to above: one a large
state-owned with great
potential but generally run down and in a comatose
state and the other, a
fresh, young company that was only finding its feet.
The state company
has remained in a coma since then; the parasites still
sucking from it
annually, as they have always done.
The young man’s company has grown in
leaps and bounds — it is now listed on
the ZSE, employs hundreds and has a
future to look forward to.
Yet, the makers of the new law want the
company built by that young man to
cede 51% control to so-called indigenous
people because its owner is not
indigenous enough; whilst the lifeless state
company which basically lives
off taxpayers’ funds remains in the hands of
vampires.
Quite frankly, it’s ridiculous and an insult to the many
ordinary
Zimbabweans who respect hard work and would rather be given a
facility to
grow their own rather than a chance to free-ride on others’
efforts.
The government had better focus on helping people acquire
knowledge on
running business. Otherwise one day we’ll wake up and there
will be no 51%
rule to enforce because there probably won’t be any decent
company to
enforce it against.
Alex Magaisa is based at, Kent Law
School, the University of Kent and can be
contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk
MDC hopes to use
global spotlight on South Africa to ensure Robert Mugabe
runs a fair and
non-violent poll
* Alex Duval Smith, Africa
correspondent
* The Observer, Sunday 14 February
2010
Opponents of President Robert Mugabe have demanded early
elections in
Zimbabwe, timed to coincide with the World Cup being staged in
neighbouring
South Africa.
The demand by the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) came as talks to
extend the lifespan of the year-old unity
government ended in deadlock last
week.
The MDC hopes that the media
focus on the region will raise the possibility
of staging free and fair
elections. High-ranking figures in the party, whose
leader Morgan Tsvangirai
was sworn in as prime minister a year ago, said
South Africa's desire to
host a successful World Cup depended on peace in
the region. "The spotlight
of the world will be on them. They do not want
trouble up the road," said a
senior MDC official who declined to be named.
Tsvangirai was touring
drought-hit Matabeleland in the south of the country
yesterday, but his
finance minister, Tendai Biti, said relations with
Mugabe's Zimbabwe African
National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) were at
an all-time low: "Zanu-PF
cannot continue to urinate on us. They have no
right to continue abusing the
people of Zimbabwe. If there is an
irretrievable breakdown then one must
accept the reality of divorce."
Elections in 2008 were marred by
widespread state-sponsored violence and up
to 200 deaths. After the MDC won
a slim parliamentary majority in March,
Tsvangirai pulled out of the June
presidential runoff against Mugabe because
of the high death toll.
A
South African mediation process led to the creation of the temporary
"unity
government", tasked with drawing up a new constitution and organising
elections. But in the past year, Tsvangirai's authority has continually been
undermined by Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980.
Biti denied
that staging early elections was risky: "We will win elections
in Zimbabwe
yesterday, today or tomorrow." He also said the elections would
be free from
violence: "South Africa and the Southern African Development
Community
(SADC) are guarantors of our global political agreement and they
know that
an election is the logical exit from that agreement."
Mugabe told
Zanu-PF's congress in December to prepare for elections soon,
but few
expected them before next year. Speculation now centres on elections
taking
place in April, even though there are huge questions about the state
of the
electoral roll and where the loyalty of the police and armed forces
will
lie.
Biti said the MDC would prefer the unity government to see through
its
mandate of drafting a new constitution, ahead of elections, but added
that
"more than anything else the people of Zimbabwe want real
change".
The finance minister is credited with transforming the country's
economy in
the past year by scrapping the Zimbabwe dollar, which for 10
years had been
printed at will by central bank governor Gideon Gono, causing
record
inflation.
Biti has also restarted part of the economy by
arranging for teachers,
government ministers, soldiers, doctors and nurses
to be paid monthly
salaries of up to US$250 (£160). However, the rural poor
are dependent on
barter and restiveness is setting in: last week civil
servants went on
strike claiming they need $700 a month (£450) to
survive.
Meanwhile, the junta surrounding Mugabe has continued to enrich
itself from
mining operations and business arrangements with a small number
of cowboy
entrepreneurs who are evading international
sanctions.
Indications that on Tuesday the European Union (EU) will drop
some sanctions
against businesses linked to the regime have left Mugabe
unimpressed. The
foreign secretary, David Miliband, told the Commons last
month that
sanctions would be lifted in a "calibrated way". But Mugabe - who
since 2002
has been under an EU travel and asset freeze which now extends to
nearly 180
other officials - wants faster action. In the past year, it has
become clear
that his motivation for swearing in Tsvangirai was to use him
to lobby the
EU on sanctions.
Opponents of Mugabe who are hoping for
an early election had expected South
African president Jacob Zuma to arrive
in Zimbabwe this weekend to make the
announcement. Last Wednesday, a South
African facilitation team sent by Zuma
left Harare after two days of
fruitless talks, giving no date for a return
visit.
Zuma's spokesman,
Vincent Magwenya, said yesterday that the president was
playing golf and
would be tied up on internal government business in Cape
Town until
Wednesday at least.
Zuma is due to visit Britain next month. He would
like to see progress on
Zimbabwe but any move towards elections would risk
attracting unwanted focus
on the region ahead of the World Cup kick-off on
11 June. Already, South
Africa is home to an estimated three million
Zimbabwean refugees and a
violent election could spark a new
exodus.
Magwenya denied knowledge of any planned election. He said: "We
would like
to see Zimbabwe heading towards an election but there are
outstanding
matters. We would prefer a less confrontational environment.
Zuma has
emphasised that the parties do not have any other option than to
continue
engaging, regardless of their differences."
He said that, in
the event of an election, it would be for the SADC, rather
than South
Africa, to decide on how to ensure a free and fair poll.
In 2008, SADC
observers judged the controversial election to have been "free
and
fair".
http://www.zimeye.org/?p=13277
By Moses
Muchemwa
Published: February 13, 2010
GWERU - Gweru
General Hospital patients' wards have been operating without
running water
for the past three years as the underground pipes have
developed numerous
leaks and need to be replaced.
The hospital's matron, Elizabeth Gonzo
revealed that the hospital was using
buckets to supply water to the
wards.
"Most of the pipes that are supposed to bring water to the wards
are leaking
because they are too old and need to the
replaced.
"Members of staff are therefore using buckets to supply water
to the wards,"
she said.
Gonzo said the bins that were donated Friday
will not be used to put litter
but will instead be used as water containers
for the wards.
"We had limited water containers so wards were sharing the
containers. Now
that we have these additional water containers, each ward
will have its own
container where patients can easily access water," she
said.
Lack of running water supply revelation comes at a time when
doctors at the
same hospital watched two Siamese twins die because Zimbabwe
has no medical
expertise "to deal with such situations", as revealed by New
Zimbabwe.com
earlier in the week and amid reports of cholera outbreak in
Beitbridge area.
From The Scotsman (UK), 13 February
By Jane Fields in Harare
White
people will no longer be able to open hairdressers, advertising
agencies or
bakeries in Zimbabwe under black empowerment regulations hastily
signed into
law by president Robert Mugabe's side of the government. Morgan
Tsvangirai,
Mr Mugabe's estranged prime minister, described the new law as
"null and
void" because he had not been consulted. But analysts say he will
likely be
unable to reverse it. The Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
Regulations force executives of white-owned companies with assets of more
than £320,000 to commit to hand over 51 per cent of their shares to black
Zimbabweans within 75 days of 1 March – or face five years in jail. The
executives cannot choose their new shareholders: they must pick from a
database set up by the empowerment ministry, headed by former secret service
operative Saviour Kasukuwere, who has vast business interests of his own.
"This says to investors: Don't you dare come here," said political analyst
John Makumbe, of the University of Zimbabwe.
The new regulations
will affect several London-listed banks and mines:
Barclays Bank and Old
Mutual have a significant presence in Zimbabwe. The
law also sets out an
impressive list of traditionally lucrative smaller
sectors now reserved for
black Zimbabweans. Among the "sectors reserved
against foreign investment"
are hairdressers, beauty salons, employment and
advertising agencies and
bakeries. Whites and foreigners will no longer be
allowed to open estate
agencies or valet services, nor will they be allowed
to engage in the retail
trade or grow cash crops. "This comes down to loot
and pillage," a
Tsvangirai aide said. "It disqualifies a lot of black-owned
foreign
companies, including ones from South Africa, which shows it has
nothing to
do with black empowerment. They (Mr Mugabe's Zanu PF party] just
want things
for free like the farms."
Mr Tsvangirai, the head of the former
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party, met Mr Mugabe to
register his disapproval of the new
law. The 84-year-old president made the
astonishing claim that he "knew
nothing about it". The regulations were
passed by the Zanu PF-dominated
parliament in 2007 but put on ice, leading
many to believe they'd been
permanently shelved. They were quietly published
last Friday, exactly a
decade since Mr Mugabe launched a violence-riddled
land reform programme
that has turfed about 4,000 white farmers off their
land and seen Zimbabwe's
agricultural production plummet. The first white
farm invasions were in
February 2000. South African lawyer Willie Spies, who
has fought to protect
white farmers from Mr Mugabe's land grab said: "The
new development calls
for more drastic measures by the South African
government to assist its
citizens affected by Mugabe's controversial
policies."
Mr Tsvangirai said: "The regulations would have scared off
foreign
investors, already jittery about Zimbabwe, as well as
disenfranchising
citizens." Only this month the former opposition leader
assured the World
Economic Forum in Davos that "confidence has returned" to
Zimbabwe's
battered economy. Analysts said the regulations represented
another slap in
the face for the premier from his rival, who has been
bolstered by South
African president Jacob Zuma's recent taking of sides
during negotiations to
revive a stalled unity deal signed in September 2008.
Mr Zuma told Mr
Tsvangirai he should be "more flexible" in what looked like
a plea for the
MDC leader to drop his demand that Mr Mugabe's central bank
governor and
attorney general be replaced. Mr Mugabe insists he will make no
concessions
until western sanctions on him and 200 close associates are
removed.
Zimbabweans are akin to Plato's “Allegory of the Cave”, a people
dwelling in
a dark cave analogy: a group of people living in a dark cave
chained all of
their lives and facing a blank wall. The only form of
activity they see are
shadows projected on the wall by objects passing in
front of a fire behind
them. The people in Zimbabwe are not seeing reality
but only a shadowy
representation of it.
As in Zimbabwe, the people
deep inside of a dark cave have begun to believe
whatever the government and
ZANU (PF) tells them is true. The few brave men
and women who have escaped
from this vortex of propaganda, and have seen the
real democratic world, are
struggling to come back to the dark cave. They
have seen life as it truly is
and not as how it is said to be by Mugabe and
his peddlers of
misinformation.
The most successful economies and democratic societies
thrive on tolerance
and cultural pluralism, are not homogeneous, but embrace
diversity. These
progressive societies reward work with wealth and encourage
entrepreneurialship which invariably creates businesses that are a source of
vitality. There is honour in achievement and work. Economies are driven by
citizens who only invest their hard-earned capital and impart their skills
when guaranteed that their property, civil liberties, and business rights
are protected by unbendable laws cast in stone.
ZANU (PF) criers have
gone hoarse, bleating the mantra that sanctions hurt
the ordinary masses and
must be removed as a condition for the land audit to
occur and for
outstanding issues on the Global Political Agreement (GPA) to
be resolved.
The shutdown of extra-terrestrial radio stations, which give
dissenting
voices a platform, has now been thrown in as a pre-condition for
ZANU (PF)
to adhere to the rule of law. It is no coincidence that the mere
suggestion
of an election triggers a response that is tantamount to callous
food
depravation for poor rural voters. ZANU (PF) and its ministers have
unilaterally sanctioned the rural poor for political
expediency.
Joseph Made, the Minister of Agriculture, announced through
the government
tabloid Manica Post, that the government has banned food
handouts by
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO). This heartless directive
affects two
million starving villagers whose crops failed due to the
bungling government
failing to supply fertiliser, seeds, and draught power
on time. Or was it
deliberate? ZANU (PF) is now introducing the Juche (North
Korean) style
food-for-work programme and if its past programmes are the
barometer, a ZANU
(PF) card and voter registration card are prerequisites
for food aid.
Skilled exiled Zimbabweans who eventually want to return
from the Diaspora
will find it difficult to function in a dark cave again.
The leaders of the
dark cave will prosecute anyone inside the cave who does
not believe that
what they are told is true.
After independence, the
international community and the populace were first
told that the killing of
innocent civilians in Matebeleland during
Gukurahundi was an internal
operation against armed bandits known as
dissidents. 20 000 innocent women
and children of Ndebele ethnicity were
brutally murdered by men led by
Robert Mugabe.
A decade later, Mugabe announced that land from whites
would be taken and
given to landless peasants in order to redress a colonial
imbalance.
Instead, land was taken from white farmers and given only to ZANU
(PF)
officials, with Mugabe grabbing as many as twelve farms for his family.
The
few handpicked smallholder farmers who support ZANU (PF) received plots
that
are predominantly in marginal agricultural regions.
The
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, announced by Kasukuwere, a
minister responsible for the dreaded youth militia, is now in place to
strip, not only from whites, but Asians (maIndiya) and other non-indigenous
business owners, of their companies. Mugabe is embarking on his
winner-take-all campaign to reward his loyal followers, whom he relies upon
to buttress his unpopular regime.
If, as a nation we are to split
hairs over what constitutes an indigenous
citizen, then Mugabe’s disputed
foreign parentage becomes a genuine topic
for national debate. It is
glaringly obvious to any anthropologist or
genealogy novice that Mugabe’s
nephews with last names like Zhuwao are of
Mozambican origin (Machukunda),
and yet are in the forefront of
dispossessing genuine Zimbabweans of their
birthrights.
Zimbabweans must understand that a vindictive law that makes
a wealthy
person poor, will never reverse poverty—nor make the indigent
prosperous.
The credulous Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leadership, which should
never have abandoned its own democratic policies
and popular stratagem of
removing tyranny via the ballot, has been
outmaneuvered by a cunning
dictator. Mugabe is now stronger, thanks to the
political immaturity,
gullibility, naivety and avariciousness of the MDC
leadership-“Makateyewa
nedovi segonzo”- lured to a trap with peanut butter
like a mouse.
The MDC leadership is being treated like mushrooms in the
Government of
National Unity (GNU). Mushrooms are kept in the dark fed cow
manure and
grow only to be eaten later by the same persons who were feeding
them bovine
excrement.
Soon it will be difficult for real
revolutionaries to distinguish friend
from foe, as the MDC leadership’s
posture is a clone of that of the tyrants.
They now enthusiastically sing
from the same verse of the same hymn.
The few fearless and probing
persons with the gumption to seek the truth,
have sneaked out of the dark
cave and discovered a different world in which
people live with plenty of
light, freedom and contentment. The time has
arrived to enlighten and free
the rest of the people still yoked to the
prehistoric and abusive leadership
of the cave.
Phil Matibe – www.madhingabucketboy.com