Zim Independent
Dumisani
Muleya
SUPER-RICH illegal gold barons - who have practically
taken over the
mining of the precious mineral and are salting away millions
of United
States dollars in offshore bank accounts - are now running scared
as the
police net closes in on them.
Police and mining sources
said this week the gold magnates, who
include influential politicians,
ministers, MPs and business tycoons, were
quaking in their boots as law
enforcement agents intensify their crackdown
on illegal mining
activities.
Government has also enlisted the services of Israeli
consultants to
fight the underworld gold barons who operate like the mafia.
The looting of
different sorts of precious minerals by politicians and their
syndicates is
rampant in Zimbabwe.
Although no one has had the
guts to name them so far, gold dealers are
said to be feeling the heat. The
ongoing police blitz has put them under
intense pressure and they have of
late been scrambling to stash their
millions in offshore bank accounts as
they fear their funds could be
impounded.
Sources said most of
the illegal gold proceeds are squirrelled away in
South African and overseas
banks, this at a time when the country is reeling
from chronic shortages of
foreign currency and critical imports such as
fuel, electricity, food,
spares, chemicals, drugs, and inputs.
Sources said a police raid on
a workshop in a Kwekwe industrial area
last year, not made public, showed
the gold barons were well-organised.
At least $250 million, modern
equipment for melting gold concentrates,
purification and elution, 315 gold
bangles which had been fabricated, 600
grammes of gold concentrate for
fabrication, gold amalgamation barrels used
for the separation of gold from
gold concentrate amalgam, and 70 000 litres
of fuel were
confiscated.
The fuel consignment was bought from South Africa
using illicit gold
proceeds.
Investigations by the Zimbabwe
Independent, which included visits to
the places where illegal gold mining
is rampant, clearly show that most of
the gold lords and their syndicates
include powerful politicians.
Verification of their names is still underway
and these will be revealed
soon.
Last week a group of
small-scale miners told a parliamentary portfolio
committee on mines,
environment and tourism that top politicians were deeply
involved in
unlawful gold extraction and smuggling.
Members of the Gold Miners'
Association of Zimbabwe, however, said
they could not risk naming the
"untouchable" politicians because "you will
be killed as soon as you expose
them".
Prior to this, Police Deputy Commissioner Godwin Matanga had
told the
same parliamentary committee that MPs were involved in illegal gold
mining
but ministers were interfering with investigations. Since last year
police
have been investigating and clamping down on illegal gold mining
syndicates.
Although small-scale miners and Matanga have refused to
disclose the
names of top politicians involved in illegal gold dealing,
police officers
and miners interviewed this week threatened to spill the
beans.
"We are going to catch up with them, name and shame them.
They can run
but they cannot hide," a police source said this week. "They
are now running
scared because they can see that the net is closing in on
them."
More than 100 illegal gold panners - who largely deal with
big mining
houses and small-scale producers on behalf of the "untouchable"
gold
barons - have been arrested. However, police have only been picking up
small
fish. They appear scared of the big shots.
"Part of the
problem is that some police officers are not only afraid
of the politicians,
but are also corrupt. They either work with the
politicians who deal in gold
or accept bribes from them," a source said.
Zim Independent
CELLULAR phone service providers have virtually cut access to
international calls because of unsustainable tariffs, dealing a further blow
to the crumbling service industry in the country.
As the
economy continues to deteriorate the telecommunications sector
has of late
been offering a shoddy service which has been blamed on failure
to access
foreign currency and red-tape at the Post and Telecommunications
Regulatory
Authority which determines tariffs.
Failure to connect to other
countries, especially South Africa, is
likely to affect businesses,
including travellers and SME traders who rely
on cellphones to communicate
with suppliers and markets in the region.
Telecommunications
Operators Association chairman Douglas Mboweni
yesterday confirmed the
"impending suspension" of calls saying Zimbabwe had
become a net-payer of
foreign currency to foreign operators as subscribers
were taking advantage
of the cheap tariffs to make calls abroad thereby
clogging international
links.
He said an assessment of calling patterns has shown that
people were
spending as long as three hours a day on international
calls.
This week however it was virtually impossible to make
international
calls from a cellphone as networks were not processing
calls.
"Every time a subscriber makes an international call, local
operators
are billed for the call by the foreign operator on which the call
was
received, and the local operator, be it Econet, Net*One or Telecel, is
required to pay the international firm in foreign exchange for this call,"
said Mboweni who is Econet CEO. "We normally
pay for these calls
from money we receive from other operators for
calls to
Zimbabwe."
"We have however observed during the last few months
that due to the
low tariffs we charge, some people have naturally taken
advantage of this
situation and are making very long international calls,
some lasting as long
as three hours a day," he said.
He said
this practice had now created a situation where outgoing
traffic had
increased dramatically, and as a result, the outgoing links to
international
destinations were invariably congested. This situation, he
said, was
unsustainably increasing local operators' foreign
currency obligations
to their foreign counterparts.
Mboweni said the industry had
notified the relevant authorities of the
need to charge a viable termination
rate for international calls to maximise
foreign currency earnings of the
telecommunications industry. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro
MASSIVE price escalations are looming for virtually all
basic goods
and services as government hurtles to scrap subsidies from most
essential
commodities.
The scrapping of subsidies, set to
trigger a wave of fresh price
increases across the board, is reportedly
meant to remove pricing
distortions cited by Reserve Bank governor Gideon
Gono in his monetary
policy statement two weeks ago.
Government
this week increased the selling price of maize from the
Grain Marketing
Board (GMB) to millers by over 9 500% in a move that will
push the price of
the staple maize-meal to unaffordable levels. The price of
maize to millers
jumped from $600/tonne to $58 000 on Wednesday.
The GMB also
silently removed subsidies on wheat, forcing millers to
raise a 50kg bag of
flour from $12 000 to $33 000 two weeks ago. The
increase resulted in bakers
demanding an increase in the price of bread from
the current $825 to $1
800.
Government has in recent weeks arrested businessmen for
increasing
prices of goods without approval.
The double-dealing
exposes confusion and lack of a policy framework to
deal with the economic
meltdown the country is experiencing.
Previously, government was
buying maize from farmers at $52 500/tonne,
and selling it to the millers
for $600/tonne.
Millers projected that a 10kg bag of mealie-meal,
currently priced at
$800, would jump to around $4 000.
Earlier
in the week transport operators warned commuters to brace
themselves for a
sharp increase in transport costs as government had agreed
in principle to a
fare hike following the removal of subsidies on fuel.
Fuel on the
black market is ranging between $4 500 and $5 000 per
litre while government
was selling it to transporters and farmers at $330.
Operators are proposing
fares that cushion them against the ever-rising fuel
prices and spare
parts.
A trip into town from Chitungwiza, currently pegged at $2
000, would
rise to $5 000, while fares for shorter distances such as
Houghton Park and
Glen Norah to town currently at $1 500, would go up to $4
000.
Gono said the distortions had created a haven of corruption as
millers
and other unscrupulous businessmen made mountains of wealth through
re-trading the same grain obtained from the GMB whilst farmers found it more
profitable to trade fuel on the parallel market instead of producing
crops.
Observers said the lifting of subsidies would soon be
extended to
other utilities and services provided by parastatals where there
have been
startling unsustainable price distortions. The scrapping of
subsidies is
anticipated to push up prices of virtually
everything.
Gono blamed the lower-than-cost-of-service-delivery
pricing in the
municipalities and other public utilities for crippling the
economy. He said
the parastatals were to be allowed to operate within
parameters that make
economic sense.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Ndlela
ZIMBABWE lurches towards bread shortages after
producers this week
threatened to stop baking with effect from today, saying
they had incurred a
cumulative loss of close to $70 billion since
January.
The move could spell disaster for consumers, already
grappling with
shortages of other basic commodities like cooking oil and
sugar.
Reports suggested there were already bread shortages in
Bulawayo and
these were spreading to other towns and cities around the
country.
The shortages have pushed bread to the black market, where
it is
selling for $3 000 per loaf against the official price of
$825.
The National Bakers Association (NBA) convened a meeting on
Wednesday
at which members vowed to cease all bread production today, saying
they were
"no longer in a position to continue" because of government price
controls,
a source who attended the meeting told the Zimbabwe
Independent.
Stakeholders who attended the meeting said bakers were
angry over
Industry and International Trade minister Obert Mpofu's failure
to table
their demands for a price hike at cabinet. The price has not been
reviewed
since December.
They said despite Mpofu being
furnished with a cost build-up analysis
for making a loaf of bread, he had
refused to acknowledge that the bakers
were incurring losses.
The source suggested that Mpofu was afraid of confronting cabinet
colleagues
with proposals for a review of bread prices.
"The minister has been
hesitant to present our case to cabinet," an
industry player
said.
Industry sources said inputs to produce a standard loaf stood
at over
$1 700 per loaf when the selling prices was $825. This had resulted
in
bakers incurring huge losses.
"Many bakers have closed
down," an industry player said, indicating
that NBA's membership had dropped
from nearly 700 members "to just over 300
due to closures".
"People should understand that it's not the bakers that initiate price
increases; they merely respond to increases from other quarters,
particularly the raw materials," one baker said.
"The current
problem was triggered by government when it silently
removed subsidies on
wheat to millers. The costs were forwarded to the
bakers who were however
not allowed to pass the cost on to consumers," an
executive with one
confectionery company said.
The acting chairman of the NBA, Vincent
Mangoma, yesterday refused to
talk about issues discussed at the
association's meeting, but dismissed
reports that bakers had threatened to
stop bread production.
Zim Independent
Lucia Makamure
SOPHIA Kaodza will always remember
Friday, July 15 2005 as one of the
most dreadful moments in her life when
she lost the place she fondly called
home in Mbare.
Armed
police came with bulldozers and razed her shack which took her
five years
and all her life's savings to complete.
The shack was deemed an
illegal structure that had to be demolished as
government unleashed the
police in a clean up exercise code-named Operation
Murambatsvina.
Sophia is one of an estimated 700 000 people
left homeless after the
blitz that transformed many of the victims into
instant beggars.
The government has long disputed the figure of
those left homeless but
today the evidence is becoming too obvious to hide.
The victims who were
promised housing under Operation Garikai are still
homeless. They have taken
to begging on the streets for
sustenance.
Today Sophia prowls Samora Machel and Leopold Takawira
Avenues holding
her sick baby begging for alms.
She is among a
new breed of tramps found in the streets of Harare.
And their
numbers are growing by the day.
Unlike ordinary street kids who
roam around the streets because they
have no place to call home, Sophia has
a home at Hopley Farm.
But the streets became her source of
survival after her husband got
arrested for stealing at his
workplace.
"My husband was arrested when I was still pregnant so I
had to find
ways of earning money," says Sophia.
"I realised
that sitting at home and crying over my misery was not
going to put food on
the table for me and my child. I searched for a job but
could not find any
so I decided to come to this spot," she said.
"Every morning I come
to this spot and beg from as early as 7 am and
leave around 5 pm. On a good
day I take home $10 000 which I use to buy
food," she said.
The
Zimbabwe Independent found out that Sophia uses her sickly baby to
gain
compassion from passersby.
"I have to bring my sick baby with me as
his condition is likely to
make passersby feel sorry for us. Only yesterday
a businesswoman who saw us
felt sorry for us and gave me a bottle of
paraffin and some money to buy
bread," she said.
The baby in
question is four month old Fatima Sithole whose body is
covered in scabies
and has to endure the scorching heat of a February
afternoon so that her
mother can get money.
Ten-year-old Tatenda of Epworth and his
grandmother are also surviving
from begging.
He dropped out of
school when his parents died and his grandmother
cannot afford to pay his
school fees.
"I lost my parents in 2005 and from that time I have
been living with
my grandmother," Tatenda said.
"I wake up very
early every morning so that I get to my usual spot
before 7:30am as that is
the time when many people are going to work," he
said.
To
attract public sympathy, Tatenda has entered a partnership with a
mother who
gives him her small baby to strap on my back.
"When passersby see
us they feel sorry for the baby and me and often
give generous donations. At
the end of the day I share my alms with the baby's
mother and take my share
home to my old grandmother."
A random survey of people on the
streets indicates mixed feelings
about begging.
People who
spoke to the Independent said the economic situation in the
country was to
blame for reducing decent people to beggars.
"I do not blame these
destitutes. At least they are begging instead of
stealing," said Edith
Mangwanda of Glen View suburb.
Jonathan Musoro of Glen Norah
condemned the use of children as a form
of child abuse.
"These
people want money without working for it. The responsible
authorities have
to do something about this because we cannot have young
children begging
instead of going to school," he said.
Duduzile Moyo, the director
of Streets Ahead, a welfare organisation,
said making children beggars was
unacceptable.
"They are teaching these children to earn a living
through begging
instead of working," Moyo said.
She said it was
because begging was an easy way of earning money that
the number of people
coming from home to beg was growing by the day.
Moyo said that the
Department of Social Welfare should get more
involved in some of the
organisation's programmes.
"Some of these kids come to our drop-in
centre for toilet and bathroom
facilities and our fear is that they will get
used to life on the streets
and may never return home."
Harare
City Council spokesperson Percy Toriro said council had
realised the issue
of destitute people needed a holistic solution. He said
council was trying
to engage stakeholders in order to come up with a
comprehensive and
sustainable programme.
"We have realised that simply chasing people
away from the streets
does not solve the problem as they keep coming
back."
The economic decline in the country has left more than 75%
of the
population unemployed and many are being forced to beg in order to
survive.
Zim Independent
Loughty Dube recently in Lupane
WHEN it became apparent that
death was staring him in the face after
constant visits from soldiers who
accused every villager in the area of
harbouring "dissidents", Lucas Khumalo
sneaked out of his hut in the dead of
night and escaped to neighbouring
Zambia via the Victoria Falls border post
leaving behind his
family.
They were not so lucky.
When rumour spread
that the soldiers were planning to round up
villagers for punishment on
allegations of feeding dissidents Khumalo's
wife, Hleziphi, felt enough was
enough and together with her two daughters,
daughter-in-law, and two
grandchildren packed their clothes and headed
towards Kabela village, 40
kilometres away, where her husband had relatives.
But they did not
get far. As they were cutting through the forest they
met a group of
soldiers. All six were made to lie down and instantly came
under a hail of
bullets from the soldiers. Five of the family members died
on the spot. But
five-year-old Nhlanhla who was shot in the stomach
survived.
After playing dead for a while Nhlanhla crawled until he was rescued
by
villagers who took him to hospital.
When the soldiers returned they
shoved all the seven members of the
Khumalo family into an anthill and
covered the mass grave with shrubs. That
was in 1983.
Nhlanhla,
now 29 years old, lived to tell the tale, albeit
reluctantly.
"The grave over there is where my mother, my grandmother, my two aunts
and
my young sister are buried," said Nhlanhla. "Whenever I walk through the
bush, I get nightmares when I remember the day," he said.
The
Khumalos are part of thousands of families in Matabeleland and the
Midlands
who had relatives butchered by a military crack unit that killed
over 20 000
unarmed civilians including women and children during the 1980s
disturbances
referred to as the Gukurahundi era.
The events occurred in the St
Paul's area of Lupane, one of the three
districts worst affected by the
atrocities in April 1983.
The other two districts are Tsholotsho
and Matopo. The three districts
are littered with mass graves of people
murdered by the North Korean-trained
Fifth Brigade.
At St
Paul's secondary school, about 43 kilometres from Lupane centre,
a monument
erected by Roman Catholic priests in the school grounds reminds
villagers of
the sad events that occurred there 24 years ago.
On a fine Sunday
morning a group of teachers were rounded up and lined
against the wall after
they were accused of supporting dissidents. A verdict
was reached without
delay and they were condemned to their death by
shooting. The villagers who
watched the horror were forced to dig a mass
grave where all the 20 teachers
were buried.
The horrific tales of the period have created emotive
debate as
government would rather look the other way while survivors and
victims are
still looking for justice. Tsholotsho MP Jonathan Moyo has
decided to mark
this sad episode by sponsoring a Gukurahundi Memorial Bill
that he intends
to table before parliament. This has divided the leadership
in Matabeleland
with some backing the Bill while others say it will reopen
old wounds.
The proposed Bill has caused consternation in
government circles with
the official media labelling Moyo an opportunist
seeking cheap publicity by
bringing the issue before
parliament.
The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP)
compiled a report
in 1997 outlining the atrocities carried out by the Fifth
Brigade but the
Catholic bishops refused to make the report public. The CCJP
and their
research partners, the Legal Resources Foundation, went ahead and
published
it.
Moyo's Bill seeks to criminalise denial of the
existence of
Gukurahundi and to also record what transpired during the
period.
The Bill will also set provisions for the compensation of
those
affected by the genocide.
However, it emerged this week
that there are divisions amongst leaders
in Matabeleland over the Bill with
those close to government arguing that
the issue has been resolved while
others are arguing that the healing
process can only take place after
official acknowledgement of the
atrocities.
A former Zipra
cadre and now Alderman of the city of Bulawayo, Charles
Mpofu, said he
supports the Bill because it will reveal what transpired
during the
Gukurahundi period and expose how evil Zanu PF is as a political
party.
"We in Matabeleland fully support the Gukurahundi
Memorial Bill which
Jonathan Moyo is pushing in parliament," said Mpofu. "It
is a great idea
that will help the affected people to get compensation. It
should have been
put forward a long time ago," he said.
Zanu PF
national chairman and Speaker of Parliament, John Nkomo, has
however said
bringing up the issue will open healing wounds and attacked
Moyo as a bitter
person after he was fired as Information minister.
"The issue of
Gukurahundi was resolved when we signed the Unity Accord
and it should be
left like it is. There is no need to open healing wounds,"
Nkomo
said.
President Mugabe has acknowledged the Matabeleland
disturbances but
has refused to apologise for the genocide which he has only
referred to as
"a moment of madness".
Former PF-Zapu supremo,
Dumiso Dabengwa, supported Nkomo and said the
Gukurahundi issue was resolved
amicably when the two feuding parties united
in 1987.
"There is
need for people to be careful when dealing with that issue
because it is
very sensitive," said Dabengwa. "People died but there was a
resolution and
that is why President Mugabe passed a resolution that there
should be an
amnesty for those who were involved in those atrocities,"
Dabengwa
said.
Paul Siwela, the leader of Zapu, said the idea of tabling a
Bill
before parliament was noble but said it was important for the people of
Matabeleland to see the draft Bill before it goes to
parliament.
Bulawayo political activist Jethro Mpofu, said the Bill
was welcome.
"The Bill is welcome and long overdue to the long
suffering people of
Matabeleland. The Bill will open a can of worms over
what happened during
that time and the new generation should know the
truth," Mpofu said.
Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro
THE Zimbabwe National Army has abandoned its Operation
Maguta project
at the controversial Kondozi Estate in Odzi after failing to
recover
equipment reportedly looted by government ministers, thus paralysing
operations and efforts to resuscitate the former horticultural exporting
concern.
The military took over the farm following the
Agricultural and Rural
Development Authority (Arda)'s failure to breathe
back life into the
enterprise expropriated by the state under the land
reform programme three
years ago.
The army could not irrigate
the wilting maize crop on the farm because
water pumps and other irrigation
facilities had been vandalised or taken
away in 2004.
Realising
that it had bungled on Kondozi and that attempts to revive
the enterprise
were failing dismally, government tried to lure back the
former Kondozi
owners. But they turned down the offer demanding that all
looted equipment
be returned before they could consider coming back.
Former Kondozi
majority shareholder Edwin Moyo confirmed that they
could not go back to the
estate considering the level of vandalism that had
taken place on the
farm.
"We opted to move to Cashel Valley instead of going back to
Kondozi,"
Moyo said.
"We moved onto Cashel Valley in July last
year and started exporting
in October of the same year. Currently six tonnes
of fresh produce are being
exported monthly to European markets and there is
tremendous potential to
increase production," he said.
Moyo
said the Cashel Valley venture had the capacity to expand more
than Kondozi
in both hectarage and output because of the huge number of
small-scale
farmers as outgrowers.
"Our projection for the Cashel Valley
project is that at full capacity
we would have 450 hectares under different
crops earning around US$20
million annually, compared to Kondozi's 224
hectares which had an annual
turnover of US$15 million," he
said.
The seizure of Kondozi divided the Zanu PF leadership with
several
ministers who included Joseph Made and Christopher Mushohwe
initially said
to have taken over the lucrative property.
The
ministers only relented after Vice-President Joseph Msika spoke
out against
the take-over. Kondozi was later allocated to Arda, then to the
army. Now it
has been given to Mushohwe.
Observers have blamed the failure to
revive the project to massive
looting of equipment and mismanagement. Five
ministers were fingered in the
looting of Kondozi farm equipment, hampering
its efforts to fully utilise
the land.
The violent seizure of
Kondozi farm by Zanu PF through Arda and the
closure of the horticultural
concern adversely affected the company's
financiers, Barclays-Fincor,
Zimbank-Syfrets, and the African Banking
Corporation which together had
invested about $37 billion in the project.
When Kondozi was invaded
it lost billions of dollars' worth of
equipment which included 48 tractors,
four Scania trucks, five UD trucks,
several T35 trucks and 26 motorbikes.
Tonnes of fertiliser and chemicals
were also lost.
Even when
equipped with a High Court order, Barclays failed to
repossess the farming
equipment at Kondozi due to political meddling.
Zim Independent
Loughty
Dube
The Bulawayo city council - battling a takeover bid for its
water
supply infrastructure by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa)
- is
awaiting an executive committee meeting decision to approve the
recycling of
city water in a move to save dwindling supplies.
The council has already awarded a tender to a private company,
Masiyephambili Water Company, to purify the water before sending it to
consumers.
The decision to reclaim water comes at a time when
council has
decommissioned two dams - Umzingwane and Lower Ncema - due to
dwindling
water levels.
Bulawayo council public relations
manager, Phathisa Nyathi, confirmed
that the city would soon begin recycling
water.
"The issue will first have to go to the executive committee
of council
to make a decision," said Nyathi. "According to our original
plan, the
programme of recycling water should have begun in March this year
but with
the confusion that has been brought on by Zinwa, we will have to
wait,"
Nyathi said.
He said there was nothing wrong with
recycled water as Johannesburg
and London were also recycling their
water.
However, the decision on whether to go ahead or shelve the
project
will depend on the success of Zinwa's bid to run the city's water
supply
infrastructure.
This week, Zanu PF's provincial
co-ordinating committee, which
includes members of the central committee and
the politburo, defied a
government directive over the water takeover
issue.
Party members were unanimous that Zinwa should not be
allowed to take
over water and referred the matter to the central committee
and cabinet for
further deliberations.
The issue of the
takeover of Bulawayo's water supplies by Zinwa has
been raised at politburo
level and has caused a lot of anger in Bulawayo.
The Zanu PF
Secretary for Information and Publicity in Bulawayo,
Effort Nkomo, confirmed
that the party wanted the council to be allowed to
continue with water
provision in the city.
"There was no consultation on this issue
from government and we are
saying the government is there because of the
people so they should listen
to the people," Nkomo said.
"The
politburo will have to listen to input from the party in Bulawayo
and the
minister (of Water Development) was told all that at the meeting,"
he
said.
The council last week sent a document to government
protesting the
water takeover.
The council document projected
that council would lose close to $40
billion if Zinwa was allowed to take
over water supplies. The council
implored government to allow it to continue
with water provision while Zinwa
maintained its role of bulk water
supplies.
"To date the division of functions between Zinwa and the
city council
has worked well as the former provides bulk water and the
latter
reticulates. We have no quarrel with Zinwa but we have problems with
their
track record," says the letter sent to government last week.
Zim Independent
Ray Matikinye
SENIOR police officers and politicians are
alleged to have ganged up
to mine gold illegally in the gold-rich Patchway
and Chakari gold reef near
Kadoma, prompting a probe by the police internal
investigations unit into
activities of a gold smuggling syndicate
involved.
Sources say a syndicate comprising politicians and state
officials has
blossomed in the area despite a blitz on illegal gold mining
activities
launched last November ostensibly "to bring sanity into the
mining sector".
On Thursday a team from the police unit visited
Kadoma to probe the
goings-on.
A staff officer in the
department on Wednesday this week confirmed the
visit to the Zimbabwe
Independent but could not shed light on the team's
findings. He said the
leader of the investigating team, Chief of Staff
(Internal Investigation)
Senior Assistant Commissioner Moyo, had gone to
Chiredzi and would only be
back in the office on Monday.
Police spokesman Inspector Oliver
Mandipaka, however, denied the visit
by a police team.
"There
is nothing like that," Mandipaka said.
On being told that a staff
officer in the investigations unit had
confirmed the visit, Mandipaka said:
"Perhaps you are speculating that a
probe team visited Kadoma.
As I said earlier, there is nothing of that sort."
A fortnight ago,
deputy Police Commissioner Godwin Matanga accused
senators, MPs and other
politicians of abetting illegal gold mining and
smuggling that the on-going
Operation Chikorokoza Chapera seeks to curb.
"Some of the MPs and
senators are implicated in this illegal mining
and smuggling.
They have something illegal to protect and try to interfere with
police
work," Matanga told a parliamentary committee on Mines, Environment
and
Tourism.
In response to Bikita West legislator, Claudius Makova,
who had asked
whether politicians and MPs were involved in illegal mining
activities,
Matanga said: "Yes," without naming names.
MP for
Kadoma West, Zacharia Ziyambi, pleaded with the police to lift
their embargo
on mining activities in his constituency, saying it had
disadvantaged
registered miners.
The police have justified the blitz "to bring
sanity and discipline in
the mining sector" according to officer commanding
the operation, Assistant
Commissioner Charles Mufandaedza.
He
said people accusing the police of high-handedness in dealing with
illegal
miners were making those claims "with dirty hands".
"It is a
standard practice worldwide to cordon and secure an area with
precious
minerals," Mufandaedza said, in response to Ziyambi who had pleaded
with
police to allow some closed mines to resume operations.
"Some of
the people who accuse police of high-handedness in dealing
with illegal
mining activities do so with "dirty hands", Mufandaedza said.
But
sources said this week police and CIO operatives in the mining
town have
taken the closure of several gold milling companies who had no
valid
environmental impact assessment reports to mine the gold clandestinely
and
export it illegally through Zambia.
Sources say a syndicate
comprising politicians and state officials has
blossomed in the area despite
a blitz on illegal gold mining activities
launched last November ostensibly
"to bring sanity into the mining sector".
On Thursday a team from
the police unit visited Kadoma to probe the
goings-on.
A staff
officer in the department on Wednesday this week confirmed the
visit to the
Zimbabwe Independent but could not shed light on the team's
findings. He
said the leader of the investigating team, Chief of Staff
(Internal
Investigation) Senior Assistant Commissioner Moyo, had gone to
Chiredzi and
would only be back in the office on Monday.
Police spokesman
Inspector Oliver Mandipaka, however, denied the visit
by a police
team.
"There is nothing like that," Mandipaka said.
On
being told that a staff officer in the investigations unit had
confirmed the
visit, Mandipaka said: "Perhaps you are speculating that a
probe team
visited Kadoma.
As I said earlier, there is nothing of that
sort."
A fortnight ago, deputy Police Commissioner Godwin Matanga
accused
senators, MPs and other politicians of abetting illegal gold mining
and
smuggling that the on-going Operation Chikorokoza Chapera seeks to
curb.
"Some of the MPs and senators are implicated in this illegal
mining
and smuggling.
They have something illegal to protect
and try to interfere with
police work," Matanga told a parliamentary
committee on Mines, Environment
and Tourism.
In response to
Bikita West legislator, Claudius Makova, who had asked
whether politicians
and MPs were involved in illegal mining activities,
Matanga said: "Yes,"
without naming names.
MP for Kadoma West, Zacharia Ziyambi, pleaded
with the police to lift
their embargo on mining activities in his
constituency, saying it had
disadvantaged registered miners.
The police have justified the blitz "to bring sanity and discipline in
the
mining sector" according to officer commanding the operation, Assistant
Commissioner Charles Mufandaedza.
He said people accusing the
police of high-handedness in dealing with
illegal miners were making those
claims "with dirty hands".
"It is a standard practice worldwide to
cordon and secure an area with
precious minerals," Mufandaedza said, in
response to Ziyambi who had pleaded
with police to allow some closed mines
to resume operations.
"Some of the people who accuse police of
high-handedness in dealing
with illegal mining activities do so with "dirty
hands", Mufandaedza said.
But sources said this week police and CIO
operatives in the mining
town have taken the closure of several gold milling
companies who had no
valid environmental impact assessment reports to mine
the gold clandestinely
and export it illegally through Zambia.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
POLITICAL
parties contesting the Chiredzi South by-election scheduled
for this weekend
are promising the impoverished electorate heaven on earth
in a bid to win
the hearts and minds of villagers in the remote
drought-stricken
district.
Zanu PF is promising infrastructure development in the
forgotten
constituency while other parties have urged the electorate to
reject the
violence and marginalisation they have experienced under the
ruling party
over the past 26 years.
The Chiredzi South seat
fell vacant late last year following the death
of Zanu PF legislator Aaron
Baloyi.
Zanu PF candidate Kallisto Gwanetsa will fight it out with
Immaculate
Makondo (MDC-Tsvangirai), Nehemiah Zenamwe (MDC-Mutambara) and
Savious
Chauke of United Peoples' Party (UPP).
Chiredzi
district is among the least-developed areas in the country.
The contesting
parties are promising to turn around the fortunes of the area
with Zanu PF
leading the pack despite having held the constituency for the
past 26
years.
Gwanetsa is understood to be promising to build dip-tanks,
sink
boreholes, resuscitate irrigation schemes and improve communication
networks.
Critics have questioned whether the promises are
genuine or political
rhetoric designed to win the election.
The
road network in the constituency is in a dilapidated state with
the bridge
across Runde River yet to be repaired after Cyclone Eline damaged
it in
2000. People use boats to cross the river.
Sources in Chiredzi said
Zanu PF had even stepped up its bid to retain
the constituency and flooded
the constituency with grain.
"Government vehicles have over the
past week been moving tonnes of
grain and other foodstuffs to the
constituency, raising suspicion that it
might be used for political
purposes," a source said.
"The food is being taken to growth points
such as Chikombedzi,
Malipati, Chilonga and other small business centres
where distribution is
done."
Reports coming in claim that many
people seen going to MDC rallies are
being denied the right to purchase food
in their areas.
Zanu PF is also accused of using traditional
leaders to intimidate the
electorate to vote for the ruling party
candidate.
Two weeks ago, president of the Zimbabwe's Council of
Chiefs, Chief
Fortune Charumbira, ordered traditional leaders in rural
Chiredzi to deny
state-supplied food aid to opposition supporters.
Charumbira told a rally in
the constituency that chiefs had also been
instructed to campaign for the
ruling party.
"We have advised
all chiefs in Chiredzi South to campaign for the
ruling party," said
Charumbira. "We have also ordered them that they should
consider only Zanu
PF supporters on programmes initiated by the government.
We cannot afford to
continue feeding the enemy because they are sell-outs."
Villagers
from Chiredzi and opposition officials said chiefs were
ordering supporters
of the MDC and UPP to denounce their parties first
before they could get
food aid. Traditional leaders wield immense influence
in rural
areas.
Not to be outdone, opposition parties are blaming the
continued
marginalisation and underdevelopment of the constituency on Zanu
PF's
misrule.
"Our participation in the Chiredzi by-election is
part of the broader
struggle to deliver the country back to the people,"
MDC-Tsvangirai faction
spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.
"Our
message to the people of Chiredzi is 'let us put a full-stop to
Zanu PF's
ugly dispensation of violence, turmoil and total disregard of the
ordinary
person'.
"We are encouraging them to vote for a leadership that is
not only
visible when it's time for an election but a leadership that is
accountable
and always available to listen to their concerns."
Chamisa said hunger and underdevelopment were not a once-off problem
in the
area so people should not be fooled by food handouts and short-term
projects
designed only for election times.
"We are promising the people of
Chiredzi an encompassing approach that
would see a concerted effort on
developmental projects to ensure that the
constituency develops together
with the rest of the country," he said.
MDC-Mutambara faction
spokesman Gabriel Chaibva said his party was the
party of the future with a
proven record of democracy hence it was
encouraging the people in Chiredzi
to vote for the future.
"Participation in Chiredzi is simply an
entrenchment of a democratic
process as we prepare for the future as a
government," Chaibva said.
"Our message to the whole country and
Chiredzi South constituency in
particular is that start now to create the
future you want for this
country."
UPP coordinator Antony
Pedzisa said his party was not promising the
electorate "honey when there
are no bees".
"Chiredzi people have been marginalised for too long
so they need a
leader whom they interact with on a day-to-day basis;
understanding their
concerns. We are providing such a candidate," Pedzisa
said.
"Chiredzi people are disgruntled because Zanu PF has never
represented
them. The purpose of our participation in this election is to
show that
people are tired of Zanu PF's failure to provide practical
solutions."
Pedzisa said he was encouraging his party to provide
the electorate
with practical alternatives.
"These people have
a culture which someone needs to understand before
you can represent them.
It is that understanding which we will use to our
advantage," he
said.
Zim Independent
THE
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) faction led by
Morgan
Tsvangirai will today go to court to fight police attempts to ban its
leader's launch of his 2008 presidential election campaign on Sunday at
Zimbabwe Grounds.
Efforts to prevent Tsvangirai's rally follows
the arrest of 284 women
who staged anti-government protests on Tuesday in
Harare and Bulawayo. At
least 15 students were also arrested on the same day
for demonstrations
against the government.
There is mounting
social discontent and unrest in Zimbabwe due to the
current political and
economic crisis. The country is rocked by a chain of
sit-ins and strikes by
doctors, nurses and teachers over low salaries and
poor working conditions.
Nearly 200 000 civil servants have threatened to go
on strike today.
Government claims the strikes are political.
Fearing the Sunday
rally could be a platform for Tsvangirai to
instigate mass anti-government
protests, police have invoked Posa to block
the gathering. Tsvangirai and
Arthur Mutambara, who leads the other MDC
camp, have threatened a nationwide
campaign of defiance against President
Robert Mugabe's regime.
Mugabe said last week opposition leaders threatening to oust him from
power
were "deranged". He said he would crush the protests.
Tsvangirai's
is trying to launch his presidential election campaign
for the scheduled
2008 poll despite evidence Mugabe wants to extend his term
of office by two
more years to 2010.
Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the Tsvangirai
faction, said yesterday
they would pursue every avenue to ensure the rally
goes ahead.
"The police are busy trying to cancel our rally but we
are going ahead
whether they like it or
not. We are not under any
obligation to stop campaigning because Zanu
PF does not want us to do so,"
he said.
Chamisa said Tsvangirai would launch his presidential bid,
while at
the same time pushing for constitutional reforms to ensure that the
election
is fought on new electoral rules. The MDC has in the past accused
Zanu PF of
rigging elections.
"Entering into elections under
the same electoral rules and political
conditions will yield the similar
rigged outcomes as we saw in the 2000
parliamentary and 2002 presidential
elections. We need to change the
situation to ensure free and fair
elections."
Mugabe is currently working hard to amend the
constitution to postpone
the 2008 presidential election to 2010 despite
stiff internal resistance.
Zim Independent
FOLLOWING European Union pressure on France not to invite President
Robert
Mugabe to attend the Africa-France summit in Cannes this week, trade
unionists in Europe have now turned up pressure on Portugal not to invite
Zimbabwe to the EU-Africa Summit to be held in Lisbon in April.
In an unprecedented move this week, three main French trade union
federations called on their government to uphold the EU sanctions regime and
bar President Mugabe from the summit or face action on the streets of
Cannes.
Now trade unionists have focused their attention on
Portugal which
hosts the EU-Africa Summit in April.
The trade
unions in statements this week warned Portugal against
inviting
Zimbabwe.
"As the crisis in Zimbabwe worsens on a daily basis, the
lead taken by
the French trade union movement has shown that no EU country
should be a
haven for Mugabe and his brutal regime, and that no EU leader
will again get
away with sanctions-busting," they said. "As this campaign
grows we hope it
will ensure that Portugal doesn't even consider issuing an
invitation."
The pressure from the trade unions, which work closely
with political
parties in Europe, particularly the Socialist and Communist
parties, is
likely to further isolate Zimbabwe which has been busy peddling
the myth
that there are European countries which are sympathetic to its
cause.
The EU is scheduled to meet on Monday to extend targeted
sanctions
against Zimbabwean officials by another year. The sanctions list
is also
likely to include new names following last week's cabinet
reshuffle.
Meanwhile, a senior French diplomat in Harare has said
his country
stands in solidarity with the EU's travel ban on President
Robert Mugabe and
his top lieutenants.
Deputy French ambassador
to Zimbabwe, Stephane Toulet, said on
Wednesday that France was in full
support of the EU stance on Zimbabwe,
contrary to state media reports
suggesting that it appeared keen to lobby
for the relaxation of
sanctions.
"France, which is a founding member of the EU, fully
supports the EU
common position issued by the European Council in Brussels,
including the
stance on Zimbabwe," said Toulet.
"The common
position is reviewed every year by the European Council in
Brussels in the
light of developments in Zimbabwe. The European Council will
therefore take
the decision on the renewal of the travel ban in the next few
days. This
embassy cannot anticipate that decision."
While France has in the
past tried to open dialogue with Mugabe, there
is now a reluctance in Paris
to be seen embracing a failing state, observers
say.
The EU is
widely expected to extend its targeted sanctions on Monday
when the European
Council meets to review developments that have transpired
in Zimbabwe over
the past year.
French president Jacques Chirac invited Mugabe to
Paris for the same
summit in 2003 in a move that sparked outrage from
Britain and other EU
members.
Other EU members have banned
Mugabe and his top aides from venturing
into Western capitals or conducting
business in their countries over
Zimbabwe's electoral fraud, human rights
violations and repressive
legislation.
Mugabe banned an EU
mission from observing the 2002 presidential
election.
Apart
from the EU, the United States has also moved to tighten the
screws on
ruling party officials it accuses of blocking democratic processes
under the
Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act. Government has
blamed the EU
and American targeted sanctions for the country's economic
collapse. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Ndlela
RESERVE Bank governor
Gideon Gono's crusade for a social contract has
failed to win the backing of
President Robert Mugabe's cabinet, raising
fears it could crumble and force
Gono into drastic policy measures in March,
businessdigest learnt this
week.
Sources indicated that there was growing resistance from
Mugabe's
cabinet to the proposal, and various government ministers were
cringing from
buying into several targets Gono had prescribed for them under
a holistic
turnaround package announced in a monetary policy presentation
two weeks
ago.
Mugabe, who backs Gono's proposals, was
reportedly swinging between
opposition and support because of increasing
concerns of the possibility of
calls to address issues of governance and
alleged human rights violations by
his government that might arise from
discussions of a social contract
between social partners.
Sources indicated that intense bickering around the issue, which has
been
convoluted by a succession battle between feuding camps in Mugabe's
cabinet,
had resulted in Mugabe sidelining Nicholas Goche, the Minister of
Public
Service, Labour and Social Welfare who should traditionally spearhead
the
campaign for the social contract.
Goche is reportedly aligned to a
faction led by retired General
Solomon Mujuru, husband to Vice-President
Joice Mujuru. The other faction is
reportedly led by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the
Minister of Rural Housing and
Social Amenities.
Plans for the
social contract were now being handled directly by
Mugabe's office under the
supervision of Misheck Sibanda, the Chief
Secretary to the President and
Cabinet.
Sources said Sibanda had already appointed Mike Bimha, the
past-president of the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz) and
Lancester Museka, the permanent secretary in Goche's ministry, to constitute
a sub-committee expected to champion negotiations for a social
contract.
"We're amazed at their way of doing things," a source in
the business
community familiar with the developments said, indicating that
no
consultations around the issue of starting discussions for a social
contract
had been made with representatives of business and
labour.
Labour is represented by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU)
whose president, Lovemore Matombo, said yesterday they had not
yet been
approached on the issue.
Business is represented by
Emcoz, whose president, Johnson Manyakara,
could not be contacted for
comment yesterday.
Gono has suggested the inclusion of churches,
non-governmental
organisations and the diplomatic community in the
establishment of a social
contract.
Sources said government
ministers were angry with Gono's prescriptions
to ministries, saying any
suggestion for ministerial targets should have
been made in private
consultations rather than through a monetary policy
statement.
"There's certainly no buy-in from government ministers," a source
confirmed
to businessdigest.
He confirmed reports swirling in the market
suggesting that cabinet
perceived Gono's prescription of targets to
ministries as "supervision of
ministries by the governor, giving ministers
directives" which he said was
being widely viewed as confirming reports of
Gono's ambitions for a prime
ministerial position under constitutional
reforms suggested by Mugabe to
harmonise presidential and parliamentary
elections.
Sources indicated that Gono, who was increasingly
growing agitated by
opposition from Mugabe's cabinet, could surprise the
market with severe
policy measures that could even go against the grain of
political thinking
within the ruling party to rescue his score card in the
face of escalating
inflation which this week touched an all-time high of 1
593,6% year-on-year.
"We feel he might move if central government
does not move. Gono is a
creature of habit; if he sees no movement from
central government, he'll
move himself," a market watcher closely following
the developments said.
Zim Independent
Shame
Makoshori
THE Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI)
yesterday made a veiled
rejection of suggestions for a price freeze, saying
input costs are likely
to continue rising because of foreign currency
shortages.
The CZI statement, issued through a published press
release, suggested
growing hostilities from members over their leadership's
endorsement of
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono's monetary policy statement
calling for a
social pact with economic stakeholders.
"CZI
supports the concept of a social contract but not a blanket price
and wage
freeze," the CZI said in the statement.
"Even if every company in
Zimbabwe froze prices and wages voluntarily,
it would be faced with input
costs that continue to rise because of foreign
currency
shortages."
Businessdigest understands that the CZI leadership had
faced a barrage
of criticism from its members on its position regarding the
monetary policy
which denounced devaluation and called for a prize freeze
under holistic
economic reform proposals.
The CZI statement,
addressed to members and the general public, said
misconceptions had "arisen
from people's misinterpretation of the January
2007 monetary policy
statement" which "correctly identifies distortions as
'the real millstone
around our economy'".
"CZI fully endorses the view that only a
holistic approach that deals
with all major issues can succeed in turning
our economy around," CZI said,
but warned that a proposed social contract
would "not cure inflation" and
that "only dealing with fundamental causes
will cure inflation".
"A social contract can only assist once the
major causes of inflation
have been dealt with. A price and wage freeze in
the absence of dealing with
the fundamental causes of inflation will only
accelerate the decline of the
Zimbabwean economy and make it more difficult
for Zimbabwe to turn around
its economy," the group said.
CZI
president Callisto Jokonya, had thrown his weight behind Gono's
proposals
for a price freeze, discounting concerns from the press that CZI
members
were opposed to such proposals.
Zim Independent
By Admire Mavolwane
PARAGRAPH 9.1 of the
monetary policy statement announced recently
reads: "Resolution of the
current socio-economic crisis will require nothing
short of a full package,
made up of well sequenced, simultaneous adjustment
actions across the board;
in government; at the central bank; in the
financial sector; in the private
sector; by labour, civic society; NGOs,
embassies and International
Organisations, here at home as well as our
embassies abroad."
This paragraph sets the tone for what currently has become the most
discussed issue, the social contract. In introducing it, the RBZ governor
termed it a Prices and Income Restraint Social Contract, and its first step
is a transitional freeze of all prices; wages; salaries; fees; etc for an
initial period of four months.
According to academics and
philosophers, normative social contracts
like the one proposed are by their
nature both an admission that the nation
is in a bad state and proof of
fallibility of those who thought they could
individually influence the
course of history.
Rousseau in his 1762 thesis argued that a social
contract is meant to
respond to the sorry state of affairs and to remedy the
social and moral
ills that have been produced by developments in society.
The basic premise
of a social contract is that although we ought not to
ignore history or the
causes of the problems we face; the problems -
challenges - must be resolved
through our capacity to choose and our
knowledge of how we ought to live.
Conceptually the idea social
contract in itself is a noble idea except
that, as many have argued, local
conditions are not ripe for a successful
implementation of one. As the
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI)
recently pointed out in a press,
or is it position statement; a social
contract does not and will not
eliminate the number one enemy: inflation.
Neither will it result in a
sudden torrential inflow of foreign currency,
nor will it put an end to the
real and imagined causes of inflation.
The organisation further
elaborated that while it supports the
concept, it is not of like mind when
it comes to a freeze of prices and
wages. It is of the opinion that "a
social contract can only assist once the
major causes of inflation have been
dealt with". A price and wage freeze in
the absence of dealing with the
fundamental causes of inflation will only
accelerate the decline of the
Zimbabwean economy and make it more difficult
for Zimbabwe to turn around
its economy, CZI states with guarded finality.
This is probably the
first official reaction by one of the "social
partners". There has been a
deafening silence from the "crucial" social
partner, government, on its
willingness or lack of it to enter into the
social contract. With February
14 marking the half way mark of the period in
which the central bank had
proposed that partners hammer out the details of
the contract, it would
appear that there will be no social contract.
But one cannot rule
out the price and wage freeze, though, because as
far as one can read into
it, certain quarters are agitating for the freeze
without the contract. In
other words, to them the social contract is not a
necessary condition for a
price freeze but a price freeze could be a
necessary condition for a social
contract.
In a social contract, like any other contract, each of
the parties has
reason to honour his/her responsibilities under the terms of
the contract
either on account of his/her agreement to do so, or, perhaps,
on account of
its being reasonable that he/she do so. For the CZI, the
rationalistic side
of the social contract is missing. In other words the
reasonability of the
whole exercise is being questioned.
Away
from the contentious social contract, resourceful cross border
traders have
in the meantime engaged in their own contract with African
Distillers
Limited (Afdis) the terms of which are very simple. Afdis
supplies the
product, and they export it. It is a win-win situation with the
"exporters"
eking out a living whilst Afdis's distillery runs at full
throttle.
For the six months to December 2006, Afdis volumes
went up by 22% on
the back of buoyant demand from imbibers and exporters as
well as improved
spirit supplies. With unit sales on the go, a certain
amount of latitude to
increase prices was gained, and consequently fully
exploited. The end result
was a growth in revenues of 2 074% to
$7,6
billion.
On the back of strict overhead controls and
replacement cost pricing
strategies, operating margins increased from 44% to
66%. Concomitantly,
operating profits grew by 3 179% to $5 billion. After
accounting for net
finance income of $29 million and a tax provision of $1,6
billion,
attributable earnings of $3,4 billion were realised.
This represents a return of 2 782% over the comparative period. Going
forward, management expects exports to South Africa to alleviate foreign
currency shortages. On the other hand, the supply of bottles will be a key
concern. Not surprising as the bottles exported informally rarely find their
way back into the country for recycling.
Apex, on the other
hand, released a fairly tepid set of results for
the full year to October
31, 2006 reflecting a sales growth of a
sub-inflation 984% to $3,9 billion.
Volumes continued southward bound whilst
erratic supplies of coke from
Hwange Colliery and sharp increases in pig
iron from Ziscosteel compounded
the group's woes.
Operating profits rose by 1 291% to $1,6 billion
as a result of
improved efficiencies and economies of scale emanating from
an expanded
foundry division. Also benefiting from the attainment of
critical mass were
operating margins which increased by eight percentage
points to 41%.
The interest expense bill ballooned to $227 million
as more borrowings
were accessed in order to meet increased working capital
requirements at
Zimcast. Income from associate Gulliver, of $65 million, in
no small way
contributed to the 2 625% leap in attributable profits. In
number terms a
bottom line of $763 million was achieved.
Being
a manufacturer, the outlook is not promising for Apex but
management remain
unfazed. The group pledges to continue managing costs and
the volume drop
whilst at the same time exploring new opportunities and
other ways of
enhancing shareholder value.
We salute this never say die attitude
but will the share price do the
same?
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
GROWERS of tobacco are pushing
for an early opening of the tobacco
auction floors, fearing rampant
inflation could wipe off profits should the
harvested crop stay in the barns
for too long.
Growers who spoke to businessdigest said they crop
had been harvested
between November and December last year.
As
a result, they said it was illogical to keep the harvested tobacco
until the
opening of floors in April because of rising interest rates on
loans secured
to finance tobacco growing.
Most of the tobacco crop is
irrigated.
The growers said input costs had soared unabated, with
the cost of
fertiliser and chemicals having gone up 75% since
December.
They fear surging input costs could curtail preparations
for the next
season if they failed to buy the inputs early.
Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association (ZTGA) president Julius Ngorima
said
stakeholders had agreed to have floors opened early because of the rate
at
which the local currency was losing value and the continuous increase of
inputs.
"Once a farmer harvests his crop, the next thing they
want is to sell
their crop, to prepare for the next farming season," Ngorima
said.
"They need money to pay back loans whose interest is rising.
Input
costs are rising weekly and so will be preparation of the land for the
next
season," Ngorima said.
About 13 300 hectares of irrigated
tobacco has been harvested so far.
Seedlings for irrigated tobacco are
normally planted in June. Transplanting
is done in September, while
harvesting in carried out in December.
The Tobacco Industry
Marketing Board has already agreed to an early
opening of the tobacco
auction floors.
Floors will open March 14, TIMB said.
Bookings for delivery are expected a week before floors open.
The
early opening of the auction floors comes at a time when the
central bank
was proposing zero balance foreign currency accounts for
tobacco growers
with local banks.
Negotiations between tobacco growers and the
bankers are said to have
already commenced.
The zero balance
foreign currency accounts will allow growers, who are
now expected to retain
15% of their earnings in foreign currency, to open
the accounts without a
deposit.
TIMB deputy general manager Godfrey Buka said growers
wanted to sell
their crop early so that they could pay off their debts in
time before
accruing interest.
"Growers as well as merchants
want to recover their money now before
it is eroded by hyper-inflation,"
said Buka.
According to ZTGA a total of 40 000 hectares of tobacco
was planted
this season, out of the targeted 80 000 hectares. The low
hectarage was due
to the shortage of essential inputs such as fertiliser and
diesel for
tillage equipment.
Tobacco production in Zimbabwe
has declined by a total of 170,63
million kg between 2000 and 2006, from an
all-time high of 236,13 million kg
recorded in 2000 to 55,5 million kg last
year.
The average price last year was US$1,99 per kg.
Ngorima said a significant number of farmers had prepared seed beds
for
transplanting, but the shortage of inputs and financial resources had
restricted them from planting more tobacco during the season.
He said it was unlikely the 70 million kg target would be achieved
during
the current season.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
GOVERNMENT'S domestic debt has risen to a new high of
$195,1 billion
after marginally declining to $175,7 billion in January from
a previous
all-time high of $178 billion reached in December last
year.
Statistics from the Reserve Bank this week showed that the
domestic
debt stock, which consists of government stocks, treasury bills and
central
bank advances, had risen by $19,5 billion inside a month to $195,
176
billion by the second day of this month.
The central bank's
advances to government, which amounted to $72,5
billion on January 2, had
declined to $26,3 billion on February 2, with
treasury bills accounting for
$59,1 billion and interest amounting to $114,9
billion.
Outstanding government stocks amounted to $2,1 billion, up on the
January
figure of $1,6 billion.
Economic analysts warned that accelerating
inflation was likely to
push government domestic debt to new record levels
every month.
The budget deficit out-turn for last year was expected
to reach over
20% of Gross Domestic Product. (GDP).
This
excludes quasi-fiscal operations, which pushed the budget deficit
to over
60% in 2005.
The budget deficit, excluding quasi-fiscal operation,
was 3% in 2005.
The absence of foreign financing was also likely to
affect domestic
debt level, commentators said.
Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono acknowledged during his monetary
policy presentation
there was need to control government debt.
"The increased borrowing
had tied up a high percentage of the nation's
savings. The country's
domestic debt could continue to soar due to the
necessity to fund various
imports such as electricity and sourcing money to
buy foreign currency,"
Gono said. Gono said Zimbabwe's treasury and monetary
authorities and the
private sector had to engage in active discussions over
ring-fencing the
debt and coming up with innovative instruments of dealing
with the entire
outstanding domestic debt in line with a proposed social
contract.
Last year, government borrowed aggressively from the
local market to
finance a huge budget deficit, stoking inflation, which this
week touched an
all-time high of1 593,6% year-on-year.
Analysts
said high interest rates had also swelled government debt,
forcing a major
restructuring of debt last year from short term to long term
debt.
The restructuring exercise, they said, had little
prospects of success
because of the market's lack of appetite for long term
investments.
"High interest rates would continue to be a burden on
the fiscus. The
debt would continue to soar during the year due to the
necessity to fund
various imports such as electricity, fuel and food," a
bank economist told
businessdigest.
Zim Independent
Shame
Makoshori
ZIMBABWE National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC)
executives last week came
under fire from journalists who blamed them for
the escalating economic
crisis in the country through abetting government's
mismanagement by their
silence.
The journalists said business
had been complicit with government by
not taking a strong position on
critical issues like interest and exchange
rates.
At a
discussion with journalists held just before a press conference
condemning
the arrest of two prominent millers for allegedly increasing
wheat prices
illegally, the ZNCC executives got caught up in a heated debate
with
business journalists who queried why they had suddenly come out in full
support of central bank governor Gideon Gono for not devaluing the dollar
when they were agitating for a drastic devaluation in private
discussions.
Prior to the announcement of the monetary policy by
Gono, ZNCC and
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries leaders had called for a
drastic
devaluation of the local currency, saying the skewed exchange rate
regime
had left exporters in the lurch and affected the viability of the
tourism
industry.
Surprisingly, they swung to full support for
Gono when he refused to
devalue, saying devaluation would not result in
"planeloads" of foreign
currency coming into the country.
This
was a double standard, the scribes said.
"In public you pretend to
be agreeing with government yet when we talk
to you in private most of you
will be
complaining that government and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
policies are not conducive for operations," a journalist
charged.
"Why are you so timid and confused. You keep quiet when
government
prescribes wrong policies instead of frankly telling them that
the policies
would not work," he said.
"Government is justified
in arresting your members because you have
kept quiet when wrong policies
were suggested, and you are now crying foul
because you have been arrested,"
another journalist charged.
"A minister takes over a farm belonging
to a company and you keep
quiet. But when there are shortages of produce
that company grows, and you
increase prices, they arrest you and you start
crying instead of pointing
out that these problems are emanating from
government actions," said another
journalist.
He added: "You
have contributed to the downfall of this economy
because you seem to be
undermining your influence to change policies."
ZNCC president Mara
Hativagone, who had initially defended the actions
of business, arguing that
they could not change the situation overnight,
looked to her deputy Obert
Sibanda and whispered "vana havanzwe ava".
But Luxon Zembe, the
past president for the ZNCC who remains its
executive member, was to tell
the journalists later: "You have given us good
feedback and we will consider
that in our discussions."
Zembe was apparently given a thumbs up by
the journalists who said he
had been the "only forthright member giving more
objective analysis of
government policies" among a new crop of hypocritical
business leaders.
Zim Independent
Shame Makoshori
MEASURES barring unqualified
consultants from operating as agents for
investors seeking registration of
companies have failed to stop the
practice, amid reports qualified
consultants were charging exorbitant fees
for services.
The
Registrar of Companies invoked laws barring unqualified
individuals from
practising as consultants in the registration of companies
last year,
although these had been practising before.
Officials from the
registrar said the move had been prompted by an
increasing number of pseudo
consultants who had made the office of the
registrar too busy and turned it
into a hive of illegal business deals.
Most of the unqualified
consultants were also reportedly fuelling
corruption at the registrar's
office through payments to officers for speedy
processing of their
applications.
About 75% of the consultants were not qualified to
carry out
consultancy work.
Information obtained by
businessdigest indicates that the registrar
now required consultants to have
professional qualifications like the
Chartered Institute of Secretaries and
Administrators (CIS), the Association
of Chartered Certified Accountants
(ACCA) among other business
qualifications.
The consultants are
also compelled to be members of professional
organisations to qualify as
consultants.
Chief Registrar, Fidelis Maredza, confirmed the new
requirements,
adding that practising lawyers were also allowed to work as
consultants in
the registration of companies.
The registration
of companies has become a lucrative enterprise in
Zimbabwe due to high
unemployment levels of 80% which have forced many
people to resort to
self-employment, in the process registering companies to
enable them to open
bank accounts and trade with other companies.
Consultants who spoke
to businessdigest indicated that demand for
services in the registration of
companies was high.
The cost of registering a company ranged
between $50 000 and $65 000
with the smaller consultancy firms, but the cost
of buying a shelf company
was lower.
Several of the consultancy
firms had an average 50 shelf companies.
Industry sources said
there were still hundreds of illegal consultants
still practising, and most
were being abetted by officials in the registrar's
department.
"Others act as if they would be registering their own companies when
they
will be consulting. Officials at the registrar of companies know them
but
they keep entertaining them," a source said.
Maredza said it was
difficult to completely eradicate unqualified
consultants, but said
stringent registration requirements by his office
meant that no unqualified
individuals were registered to deal directly with
the Registrar of
Companies.
He said those who dealt directly with the registrar
without the
necessary qualifications were assumed to be doing the
registration of their
own companies.
"We assume that there will
be individuals registering their own
companies, that is allowed. But if we
find out that they are consulting
without the right qualifications we will
call the police because they would
be violating the law," Maredza
said.
"It is difficult to find out until someone brings this to our
attention," he said.
The rest would be shelf
companies.
Maredza said they had about 60 qualified consultants on
their books.
Between 20 000 and 25 000 companies are registered
annually, he said.
It takes an average of three weeks for a company
registration to be
approved after satisfying the requirements of the
registrar of companies.
But approved consultants complained that
scores of the disqualified
agents still thronging the registrar's office
were circumventing procedures
working in cahoots with some officials to jump
queues and register companies
in three or four days at high fees.
Zim Independent
Pindai
Dube
FALCON Gold of Zimbabwe (Falgold) is not ready to open its
closed gold
mine because of an unprofitable gold pricing regime in the
country, an
executive told businessdigest last week.
Falgold
financial director, Gary Perrotti, said the gold mining firm
was not
expecting to open Venice Mine in Kadoma soon because of low price
and
delayed payments for deliveries by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ).
"We are not going to open Venice Mine soon.the gold prices
are very
low and it is difficult for us to stay in business," said
Perrotti.
"As gold producers we were expecting the RBZ governor to
do something
but he came up with nothing and currently the gold price stands
at $16 000
per gram and it is not even enough for us to break-even," said
Perotti.
Besides the closed Venice Mine in Kadoma, Falgold also
runs Dalny Mine
in Chakari and Golden Quarry Mine in Shurugwi.
Venice mine was closed in 2002 and left hundreds of workers
jobless.
Perrotti said delayed payments for gold deliveries had
affected
Falghold's operations to the extent of threatening the mining
company's
viability.
Fidelity Printers and Refineries, a
subsidiary of the RBZ is the sole
buyer of gold produced in
Zimbabwe.
Businessdigest reported last week that Fidelity had
outstanding
payments for gold deliveries made in December and November,
although the
central bank had paid close to US$10 million for outstanding
payments for
deliveries made between August and November.
Gold
producers had expected a review of gold prices when Gono
presented his
monetary policy statement a fortnight ago.
Zim Independent
Pindai Dube
THE Forestry Commission has engaged the police and
the revenue
authority to curb the rampant export of raw or unprocessed
timber,
businessdigest established this week.
The export of raw
timber is outlawed through Statutory Instrument 112
of 2001 which amended
the Forestry Act of 1996.
Sources said that the country was losing
potential foreign currency
revenue through the illegal export of raw
timber.
Forestry officials said neighbouring countries were buying
large
amounts of unprocessed timber from Zimbabwe for
a song which
they later resold in the country and exorbitant prices.
Businessdigest established that the Forestry Commission, which
regulates the
forestry industry, was now working together with the Zimbabwe
Republic
Police (ZRP) and the Zimbabwe revenue Authority (Zimra) to curb the
illegal
exports.
Forestry Commission general manager, Darlington Duwa, said
they were
"tightening screws" around the export of raw timber, adding that a
truck-load of raw timber had been impounded last week by Zimra.
"This is because timber processing companies preferred to export
unfinished,
raw, hard wood timber, which is not allowed in this country as
spelt out in
the Forestry Act. This results in the timber industry and the
country losing
a lot of foreign currency because the timber they export is
actually
classified as raw material and is sold at a low cost," said Duwa
Timber processing companies were exporting raw or unprocessed timber
to
offset processing, labour and time costs in a bid to make quick profits,
a
market source indicated.
According to the Forestry Act, timber
processing companies are only
allowed to export processed hardwood, referred
to as "decking timber", which
fetches higher prices on the outside
market.
Duwa added: "We are facing problems with local companies
who are
selling this raw timber as decking timber. Timber producers export
semi-processed timber as they feel that the whole process would take them
more time and labour."
As a result, Duwa said, this has
impacted negatively on the industry
and employees in the sector who were
being laid off since they had been made
redundant because of the
system.
Zim Independent
Shame
Makoshori
MONEY Transfer Agencies (MTAs), who were last week
reportedly strapped
for hard currency, this week said they had built up
significant cash piles
for payment to transfer recipients wishing to get
their money in foreign
currency.
Businessdigest reported last
week that MTAs had been scrambling for
hard currency to pay recipients of
foreign cash.
Some foreign currency recipients had for over two
weeks not received
cash sent through the MTAs as they battled to raise the
foreign currency in
a strapped market.
The hardest hit clients
were those receiving their money through
transfer agencies without links to
formal banking institutions dealing in
foreign currency.
But
market sources said this week most of the MTAs were awash with
foreign
currency and there were few problems in making payouts transfer
recipients.
A central bank official said there had been a boom
in transactions
through the formal banking system since central bank
governor Gideon Gono
directed that transfer recipients could receive their
money in foreign
currency.
"There has been a significant
increase in the number of foreign
currency of transactions. (Money is coming
from) Zimbabweans in various
parts of the world," a central bank official
told businessdigest.
Some Zimbabweans were sending money to
relatives through the normal
banking channels, but transfers through this
channel were taking up to three
days before recipients could access their
money.
MTAs can give recipients their money within minutes of a
transfer
being initiated by the sending agency.
Gono said two
weeks ago that recipients of transfers from the Diaspora
could receive their
money in foreign currency "without limitations", saying
this was meant to
promote the free flow of foreign currency in the economy.
"This
way, stakeholders with relatives abroad, who to this point were
shunning the
safe, legal, authorised dealers and money transfer avenues of
receiving
funds can now transact through the formal system," Gono said.
Before the policy announcement, most transfers were taking place on
the
informal market, with allegations some of the foreign currency was not
even
coming into the country.
People were evading the official MTAs
because they were receiving
their money in local currency at an official
exchange rate of $250 to a US
unit.
Money sent through the
unofficial channels was fetching $5 000 per US
dollar.
Business
was brisk at Stanbic and NMB Bank. Both banks have
partnerships with
international agency MoneyGram.
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
BUSINESS leaders last week finally woke up from
their long slumber
when they reacted angrily to the arrest of two colleagues
for allegedly
increasing the price of their commodities without government
approval.
They were responding to the arrests of Mike Manga of Blue
Ribbon
Industries and Ian Kind of National Foods who have since been charged
with
increasing the price of flour without government approval. In fact, the
two
had simply sought permission to raise the price and were yet to do
so.
In a statement quite rare for its frankness, Zimbabwe National
Chamber
of Commerce (ZNCC) president Mara Hativagone said the business body
"strongly condemned the arrests of the managers as it is too high-handed and
unwarranted".
The immediate past-president of the organisation
Luxon Zembe was
equally forthright, saying the arrests showed that
government was not acting
in good faith with the business
sector.
"We have come to a stage where we are saying this
(harassment) has to
stop," Zembe said.
But in their dismay at
the state's heavy handedness, one could not
help but feel that not only had
the leaders woken up to reality too late,
but they were responding to
symptoms of a poisoned environment that they
could have avoided had they
taken a bold stance from the onset.
It was a cry too late and there
are very slim chances that government
will relent from prosecuting the
business leaders.
It was unfortunate however that instead of taking
that opportunity to
tell government home-truths about the real causes of the
economic collapse,
the ZNCC leadership once again spiced their statement
with the same
apologetic undertones in their dealings with the state. It was
clear that
although they were unhappy with the arrests, they were being
careful not to
antagonise their cosy relationship with the
authorities.
Apart from that expression of concern by Hativagone
and what Zembe
said after questions from journalists, the rest was the same
timid account
of how they were prepared to work with government and their
commitment to
the proposed social contract. Part of the statement described
the arrests as
"unfortunate and regrettable" adding that they did not augur
well for the
proposed social contract.
Beyond that, the
statement was silent on the fact that the arrests
were a clear sign that
government did not have any real interest in a social
contract nor did it
have any interest in restoring investor confidence,
either local or
foreign.
It did not tell government that business was operating in
a toxic
environment and that its actions would make the situation
worse.
They were conspicuous by their silence on the fundamental
issues such
as the rule of law and the need for a conducive political
environment where
business would operate profitably without the state trying
to impose price
controls, a policy that has failed everywhere it has been
tried - including
here.
Analysts say business' response to the
arrests is coming too late when
government has already entrenched a culture
of aggression against the
business sector.
They point to the
arrest and eventual conviction of Lobels Bakeries
managing director Burombo
Mudumo for increasing the price of bread last
year. There are genuine fears
in the market that the crackdown on the
business community will continue for
as along as the sector does not take a
strong position against government to
stop the repression.
Judging by their timid attitude when dealing
with government, it is
highly unlikely that business will stand up to
protect their interests. For
seven years, business leaders have stood by and
watched while government
destroyed the economy through its damaging policies
like land seizures and
price controls. They have stood by arms akimbo while
government harassed
fellow business people.
Economic consultant
Daniel Ndlela said it was shocking that business
had since 2000 pretended
that all was well when the economy was burning.
"For as long as
they are silent, businesses will continue to be
victims of a vicious state,"
said Ndlela. "They will eventually pay for
their cosy relationship with the
government."
It seems they are paying already.
Perhaps
the main reason business leaders are completely unable to
criticise
government is that they have become trapped in the web of
patronage and
clientelism that political leaders have elevated to a national
policy.
They have bought into Zanu PF's warped definition of
patriotism which
encourages silence on national issues.
The
result is that the leaders and their organisations become
concerned with
being politically correct instead of protecting their
interests and those of
the country. It's no longer about the economy and
business but the farm in
Norton, Marondera and Macheke.
Most business leaders including
those of listed companies are
beneficiaries of the land reform and are
therefore too compromised to
criticise government policies.
That is why they remained mum when companies like Ariston, Interfresh,
Border Timbers, Triangle and Hippo Valley were losing their farms to
invaders and with them key export markets. They were silent when companies
like Zimsun and Rainbow Tourism Group's farms were invaded. The reason is
not difficult to find: they were beneficiaries of the state pillaging of
private property.
The issue is not that they didn't deserve the
farms but that they
certainly used their political connections to get land
especially in the
prime areas. The fact that they were collaborating with
government means
that they are equally culpable in the random vandalism of
other businesses.
"They are now faced with a situation where
government is making their
businesses unviable by damaging the economy but
they are too compromised to
speak," Ndlela said.
This culture
of patronage has also manifested itself through the
allocation of farming
inputs and concessionary loans from which the business
leaders have
benefited.
It has become a common but embarrassing sight to see the
leaders
falling over each other to shower praise on the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe
(RBZ) governor Gideon Gono after every monetary policy statement
even if
some of the decisions hurt their businesses.
The best
they can say is that "the governor tried his best under
difficult
conditions". They dare not mention that by "difficult conditions"
they mean
government policies.
In private, the same leaders are vocal about
the damage that
government policies like price controls, fixed exchange
rates and the land
reform have dealt on the economy.
Dairibord
for example, cannot get enough milk because dairy farms have
been invaded
and looted.
The latest case of this ambivalence came from the
Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries president Calisto Jokonya who was in
the media a few
weeks before the monetary policy pushing for
devaluation.
Jokonya told the Independent that devaluation was long
overdue. It is
therefore surprising that the CZI did not include this issue
in the final
recommendations given to Gono for inclusion in his monetary
policy. The
document signed by Jokonya mentions nothing about devaluation.
This is
despite the fact that the majority of CZI members are bleeding from
the
effects of the overvalued Zimbabwean dollar.
After failing
to get devaluation from government, they turn the heat
on the same consumers
who have sustained their companies for years.
An economist with the
Labour and Economic Development Research
Institute of Zimbabwe, Prosper
Chitambara, said businesses were "paying for
joining the unholy alliance
with government in the first place".
"The relationship is too
comfortable especially at this time when
government policies are threatening
the very existence of business,"
Chitambara said.
Zim Independent
By Martin Tarusenga
WE are living in an economic environment
where the buying power of any
cash that you stand to receive at a later date
or time loses that power by
the hour.
It is the order of the
day that a short-term loan of $30 000 that you
advanced to a friend or
relative, capable of buying two items of a commodity
in the morning, will
buy only one item of this same commodity or sometimes
none at all when it is
returned later on in the day.
Your salary or wage pegged at $80
000, enough for 20 return bus trips
to work at the beginning of the month,
can buy you only 10 such trips when
your employer gets round to paying you
the same amount; that your rental
earnings from your residential property
investment pegged at $200 000
capable of supporting half of your family
groceries at the beginning of the
month, can support only a quarter of the
same groceries by the end of the
month.
The list is almost
endless, but to summarise, it's just not worth one's
while to form contracts
that pay you money at a later date, whether they are
formal contracts as in
a lease agreement or informal, unless in the latter
regard you have
committed to help the other party to the deal.
Shame Makoshori's
article, "Hourly price hikes on the way, analysts
warn" (Zimbabwe
Independent, February 9-15), confirms this forming pattern
in the loss of
buying power of your money.
But such contracts are unavoidable.
They are an intrinsic way of doing
things in any given economy, of course
all things being equal.
For how else can an employer remunerate you
for a job well done over a
month or week: hourly, daily? No, that's
impractical.
How else can a tenant pay you for use of your
residential property:
hourly, daily? No, impractical again.
Other than through borrowing from a friend or relative or through your
bank
current account, how else can one meet short-term cash requirements,
for
example, on the untimely death of a family member, or when you need to
top
up family groceries mid-month when there was an unexpected higher than
normal consumption?
But then the Catch-22 is that in any one of
these cash returning or
cash providing methods someone loses out big time in
this hyperinflationary
environment.
It is therefore clearly
imperative and urgent that we devise and adopt
new ways of forming contracts
that return us money at a later date such that
this returned money can still
buy us the same volumes of commodities that it
could buy when we formed the
agreement earlier.
Clearly the solution lies in tying the amount
that you stand to
receive at the specified later date to the rate, speed or
frequency with
which prices of commodities are increasing. In our case this
speed is
approaching "hourly" price increases! And by fairly huge
jumps.
The trick lies in estimating by how much the price of the
commodities
that you will buy with this money to be received later will have
increased,
taking into account the frequency of price increases and the
amount of
increases at each change.
If, for instance, the price
of a commodity changes weekly by say $1
000 each week, then the total
increase in a month of four weeks will be $4
000. This in fact is the buying
power that you will have lost on any money
that you are holding or you stand
to receive for the purposes of buying this
particular
commodity.
You will need to do this for all the items that you
expect to buy in
order to aggregate that buying power that you will lose on
the items that
you expect to buy - some kind a feat!
If we are
going to calculate the loss of buying power in the manner
suggested above,
the estimation can very quickly become a headache. For one,
you could never
be sure exactly what you will buy and, for the other, the
computations can
become intractable if you get the information and data
necessary in the very
first place.
But don't worry; this in fact is the realm of index
construction, the
construction in question being inflation index
construction. Indices that
can closely match your purposes abound, and you
could use these with some
adjustments so they match your
purposes.
Your choice of the index that is appropriate for your
purposes will
depend on the consumption bracket of commodities that you buy
from week to
week, and from month to month.
You may not be sure
exactly what you will buy, but you will however be
certain of your broad
consumption bracket, eg two heads of cabbage, 20
emergency taxi trips, 2kg
brisket etc. This can easily give you a feel of
how prices for this basket
of commodities increases in a day, a week, a
month, etc.
That's
the basket 'sense' of goods that financial engineers and
economists talk
about in reference to inflation index construction - so now
you can easily
assess whether this basket and the inflation index derived
thereof works for
you.
This feel in turn can point to an index that roughly increases
in a
similar manner to prices of commodities in your basket. An exchange
rate of
some currency could in fact serve as a proxy to this index. As
already
mentioned you will need to make appropriate adjustments to the index
to suit
your purposes.
Having chosen and adjusted your index,
it is an easy matter to fix the
amount that the other party should pay you
so you will still be able to buy
the same volume of goods as when you
entered into the agreement.
Note that from an investment
perspective you might want to charge some
interest on loans advanced for
having afforded the other party use of your
money - that's up to
you!
Back to hyperinflation, there are two main ways in which you
can fix
the money that stands to be returned to you such that it maintains
at least
the buying power.
You could fix it in terms of money
unit value terms at the time and
date of agreeing on the contract, so on pay
back date you notionally get
units of money whose buying power is referenced
to the buying power
prevailing on the day of the original
agreement.
Alternatively you could increase the money that you are
advancing in
line with the way in which your chosen index is increasing, so
on pay back
date you get an amount of money equal to the sum of the
initially advanced
amount and an increased amount reflecting the buying
power that has been
lost.
The first approach is what is
referred to as keeping your money in
constant real terms - it is a notional
money unit of account which
indirectly refers to the volume of goods that
could be bought at the date of
agreeing. The money returned should still be
able to buy the same volume of
goods.
The second approach is a
matter of common sense if the notion of the
inflation index has been
appreciated.
Each method has it merits and demerits, but they all
certainly cushion
buying power of your returns. The merits/demerits can be
classified into
ease of computing, ease of accounting, appeal to common
sense and hence
practicality, availability of data and effectiveness in
meeting the
objective of cushioning the buying power.
Don't let
anyone bluff you into entering any term contracts without
inflation
protection clauses.
Avoid losing your hard-earned money through the
vicious workings of
hyperinflation. Organise your money inflows and outflows
to be linked to
appropriate inflation index, be it pensions receipts or
contributions,
premiums on insurance policies, your salary etc.
Always ask your pension manager, your investment manager, stockbroker,
your
insurance agent how the money promised to you under these products will
be
protected from inflation. At the very least they must guarantee and
commit,
ideally in writing, to return any money that you entrust with them
with the
buying power that it had at the time entering the agreement.
Yes,
if your pension fund manager or insurance company is not already
doing this
to the $10 000 worth insurance premium monies you entrusted with
him many
years ago for the purposes of buying you a house and when this
money could
buy a house or secure you a deposit of the same house, get them
to do
so.
* Tarusenga is principal consultant with Systemics
Consulting.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
By Vincent Kahiya
TWO key
issues last week, albeit happening outside our borders, should
have removed
the scales from the eyes of our leaders on what needs to be
done to this
economy.
Chinese President Hu Jintao was in the region where he
signed economic
deals in South Africa, Zambia and Namibia.
He
avoided Zimbabwe for reasons that have not yet been given official
explanation. Then Britain announced a US$550 million aid package to Malawi,
which has also benefited from International Monetary Fund debt relief
because of the country's commitment to reform and fighting
corruption.
China and Britain are both involved with President
Mugabe's Zimbabwe;
the former as a bosom buddy and the latter as the enemy
responsible for all
the country's woes. Zimbabwe has watched both friend and
foe co-operating
with other regional countries in arrangements that have
created employment
and wealth.
Birthday Boy Mugabe and his
cheerleaders do not seem to notice the
developments around them. President
Mugabe is shouting louder than any of
his brethren in the region in support
of China's expansionist designs in
Africa but gets nothing for his
bluster.
He has remained cocooned in a defeatist paradigm that
romanticises
relations with the East and abhors the West. That makes him
feel good of
course but then inflation is 1 600%.
In 2003
during a visit to Singapore when he opened a trade fair there,
he basked in
the glow of this romanticism.
"The age-old reflex and tradition of
exporting to Europe, which we
seek to challenge through this initiative,
will be at veritable odds against
this endeavour. We need to vindicate it by
showing continuous trade and just
rewards," he said.
"The fiery
and beautifully multi-coloured entrepreneurial spirit of
the tiger surely
connects so well with the awesome roar of the African lion
in a way destined
to make a mark on the world."
This is the problem with President
Mugabe today. He is aware of the
attraction presented by the stripes of a
tiger. It is a beautiful animal.
To counterbalance this, he sees
himself as a lion - perhaps one
roaring menacingly from deep within its
territory and scaring away would-be
investors!
There was more
idealism from our lion; this time yearning for real
romance.
"It is clear we have to look at each other, at ourselves, to develop
markets
and to build investments," he said.
"Until now, we had very modest
results to show in this wished-for
relationship, where the prospective
lovers share the same bed but enjoy
different dreams." Hmm.
That's X-rated stuff but at the same time very prophetic too by
President
Mugabe. I will not venture to ask what exactly the lion dreams
about when it
is in the clutches of the tiger but I can hazard a guess the
king of the
jungle wakes up in the dead of night dripping cold sweat.
But
President Mugabe felt at the time that time was nigh for the
relationship to
be fruitful.
"It would appear now that the time is ripe and this
initiative ignites
what promises to be the way and direction of future
business," he said.
This country will not readily enjoy the
benefits of tying up with the
East as long as our rulers fail to master one
very key concept that is
common in any serious investor whether from the
East or from the West.
Productivity and high performance have
become directly linked to good
governance, an ideal to which Zimbabwe is yet
to commit itself.
Gone are the Cold War days when African countries
could afford to sit
back and hope to receive handouts from eastern Europe on
the back of
allegiance to leftist ideals.
President Mugabe's
government - it appears -suddenly decided to look
East in order to
demonstrate its disgust with the West. The new groom
however appears warm in
public but a bit frigid in bed hence he avoided this
particular "small
house" during his roaming last week.
Zim Independent
Muckraker
LIKE the state we were equally "incensed" by the
refusal of "three
senior government officials" to have their statements
recorded by police as
part of evidence in a corruption case involving two
civil servants in
Harare.
The Herald reported on Monday that
Science and Technology deputy
minister Patrick Zhuwawo, Harare governor
David Karimanzira and Harare
Commission chair Sekesai Makwavarara were
stonewalling.
Prosecutor Obi Mabahwana told the court that the
corruption trial of
Harare provincial administrator Justin Chivavaya and
Harare West district
administrator Nelson Mawomo could not begin because the
"three senior
officials" were withholding key evidence.
The two
council administrators are accused of corruptly allocating 415
residential
stands and houses at Whitecliff Farm. The prosecutor said
Karimanzira's
evidence was particularly vital as he authorised the
distribution of the
stands and attended the occasion when the houses were
allocated.
Then came the gem: "This is the third time the state
has complained
about the conduct of the three politicians" over the
case.
This is the same government that has been posturing about
fighting
corruption and has set up a whole ministry now sounding completely
helpless
in dealing with what can only be described as an attempt to defeat
the
course of justice.
We were immediately reminded of Zisco.
Paul Mangwana who had promised
to arrest ministers and MPs involved in that
looting frenzy must have sighed
heavily when he was moved before he could
embarrass himself.
Contrast this arrogant behaviour of "senior
officials" with the
swiftness with which the police arrested nearly 30 000
"illegal" gold
panners under Chikorokoza Chapera two weeks ago and you know
we have one law
for the poor and another for fat politicians. Is this the
way to fight
corruption Mr President?
A cartoon in the
Herald on Friday showed two MDC candidates fighting
it out ahead of the
Chiredzi by-election. It was obviously designed to
emphasise divisions in
the opposition ranks.
Nothing wrong there. The MDC needs to be
lampooned for its inability
to see the importance of unity in confronting
the dictatorship.
But the Herald, needless to say, is unable to
expose the divisions in
government's ranks. Just as Reserve Bank governor
Gideon Gono is declaring
the importance of a social contract to rescue the
country from collapse, the
police are arresting the country's top millers
whose participation is
fundamental to the success of the project. The
millers were guilty of
nothing more than seeking ministerial approval to
raise prices.
Whoever is behind this persecution evidently opposes
recovery. That is
because we now have a kleptocratic leadership that has an
investment in the
status quo. But it was good to hear the ZNCC finally
finding its voice.
"It does not augur well for mutual and
constructive dialogue between
the key stakeholders in the economy," the
ZNCC's Mara Hativagone politely
pointed out.
"They were
arrested despite the fact they never increased prices," she
said. "We wonder
why government rushes to have business leaders arrested for
no good
cause."
Hativagone accused the government of double standards.
State-run
institutions were effecting huge price increases without
consultation yet
there had been no arrests, she noted.
Somebody
writing to the Herald as "Pachedu", obviously an imposter,
claims that "only
an unpatriotic and opportunistic opposition bent on
exploiting the suffering
of the people for political ends will ignore the
governor's call for the
closing of ranks, so that all citizens work together
for the good of the
nation".
Why doesn't he tell that to the wreckers who are ordering
the arrests
of businessmen trying to recover their costs; those in
government who have
set their faces against national dialogue or
re-engagement with the
international community?
By the way,
have you noticed how quiet the Consumer Council of
Zimbabwe has been over
the arrests and over the ZBH licence hikes? A bought
organisation if ever
there was one!
Nothing more clearly signals the regime's
determination to thwart Gono's
social contract project than the latest
cabinet line-up. We see here not
only a forest of deadwood but individuals
who have failed in the past and
are determined to fail again.
Samuel Mumbengegwi at Finance will do nothing to support Gono's
attempts to
re-engage with the Bretton Woods institutions. Instead he will
engage in the
stale hope that the regime's problems can be solved by looking
East.
Along with his colleagues, he failed to notice that the
Chinese
president gave Zimbabwe a wide berth on his recent African tour.
That's
because while rhetoric about solidarity sounds good, it doesn't
satisfy
economic needs.
China wants to see Zimbabwe's private
sector partner Chinese firms. It
wants corporate partnerships across the
board. How can that happen in
Zimbabwe where the corporate sector is under
constant attack?
Our leaders simply don't get it. China is looking
West for trade and
investment. Africa will supply the minerals.
But even for that to work there has to be a healthy relationship
between the
state and business and properly maintained infrastructure. As in
South
Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and Namibia where Hu Jintao went.
And
how can President Mugabe be serious in entrusting agricultural
recovery to
Joseph Made who has got his growth projections wrong on just
about every
occasion and who presided over the demechanisation of Zimbabwean
agriculture? How many tractors were there in 2000 and how many are there
now?
The answer to all this is very simple. Mugabe wants people
who reflect
his own octogenarian prejudices and beliefs. If that means a
cabinet which
cannot solve profound structural problems or help the
president to see the
light then so be it. That is the price we pay for
allowing one individual to
think he is indispensable; that he needs just a
few more years to go on
getting it wrong!
At least with Herbert
Murerwa we had an intelligent and sophisticated
Finance minister who was
respected abroad. The same is true of Simba Makoni.
But they have gone,
unable to make their mark upon policy. Instead we have a
chorus of yes-men
who see the damage all around them but prefer to believe
it is someone
else's doing. The ignorant and the dishonest are all that is
left.
The crisis that they refuse to address is unfolding
all around us. The
official inflation rate at 1 593,6% is bad enough but the
real rate of 3
000% is scary. This paper carried last week the views of
economists that
prices would change daily soon and then hourly. There are
shades of Weimar
Germany here, but no sign of the wheelbarrows
yet!
And still there is no plan to combat the scourge. Nothing
business or
the public can recognise or endorse.
Instead
billions will be spent celebrating the birthday of the author
of our misery
and lining up to pledge their loyalty will be state
corporations like TelOne
that cannot connect us to Bulawayo let alone South
Africa; the Zimbabwe
Prison Services where conditions, as exposed by Judge
President Rita Makarau
are appalling; the GMB which, as exposed by Gono, has
presided over massive
distortions in the buying and selling of grain; and
other patriotic "public"
companies that have made a signal contribution to
national
collapse.
But at least there is a dawning recognition of where
Zimbabwe's
problems start and finish. Mugabe is no longer afforded a
platform to engage
in populist demagoguery at the AU, and when he does so at
the UN the only
person applauding is Hugo Chavez, who for some mysterious
reason doesn't
seem to want to come here bearing gifts!
The
French who for so long have been wringing their hands and saying
"where have
sanctions got us?" now concede their diplomacy hasn't got us
anywhere
either.
This week's announcement that Mugabe has not been invited
to the
Franco-African summit in Cannes is a huge setback for the regime and
a
recognition that Zimbabwe's few remaining friends in European capitals can
no longer help.
An unambiguous signal has been sent that
blatant misrule and human
rights violations cannot be tolerated. Nothing has
changed since Paris in
2003.
Which is why remarks this week by
Greek ambassador Dimitri
Alexandrakis are puzzling. Accompanying visiting
Greek Orthodox patriarch
Teodoro II to Zimbabwe House, Alexandrakis said
Greece would work to improve
relations with Zimbabwe despite the EU's common
position.
He said there was a difference between EU policy and the
reality on
the ground and he hoped that "future events" would "favour
Zimbabwe".
What reality on the ground? A day after Alexandrakis
made these
remarks police were firing teargas at Woza women seeking social
justice in
the centre of Harare. Since 2003 Posa has been used
indiscriminately to
break up civic protests. Trade union leaders have been
assaulted in
detention. And those responsible for political killings
continue to walk
free.
As this newspaper has pointed out in a
series of articles over the
past few weeks, Joseph Mwale, wanted in
connection with the murder of MDC
activists Talent Mabika and Tichaona
Chiminya, roams free, as do the killers
of David Stevens and Martin Olds and
his mother.
Why is the Greek ambassador ignorant of these facts, or
if not
ignorant why does he suggest Greece doesn't give a damn about human
rights?
We all hope "future events" will "favour" Zimbabwe. But
what does the
record say? And how likely is it that President Mugabe will
lend himself to
dialogue?
We suspect Pope Teodoro is an agent
of Greek diplomacy. Let's see how
far he gets.
He was full
of praise for Zimbabwe, a rarity these days when friends
are few and far
between.
"Zimbabwe is the diamond of Africa," enthused His Holiness
after
meeting President Mugabe. As if to extend the import of the diamond
metaphor, the Pope could only "wish prosperity and joy" to the people of
Zimbabwe.
The obstacle to that dream stood beside him like a
shadow and, without
turning to face our nemesis, the pontiff nevertheless
hit the nail on the
head: "There is a lot of future for Zimbabwe."
Amen.
Zim Independent
By Eric Bloch
THE Zimbabwean population
is progressively and distressingly rapidly
becoming emaciated. More and more
of the oppressed Zimbabwean people
resemble the millions that suffered
extreme malnutrition in the despicable
Nazi concentration death camps of the
Second World War, or the
scarcecrow-like famished populace of Darfur.
Despite recurrent, vociferous
government denials, there is little doubt that
hundreds, if not thousands,
are perishing weekly, as a direct consequence of
under-nourishment,
compounded by an inability to access requisite
healthcare. Even more are
suffering intensely, struggling to survive on
gleanings from rubbish bins
and refuse heaps or, at best, on one inadequate
meal each day.
In the immediate post-Independence era, Zimbabwe
fast became renowned
for its dynamic improvement of the well-being of its
inhabitants. The
economy, which had been severely contracted during the
period of the
Liberation War and the Rhodesian UDI, grew dramatically,
fuelled by very
considerable international aid, by substantial domestic and
foreign
investment, and by dynamic, vigorous, constructive governmental
policies.
Numbers in formal employment increased markedly, concurrently with
very
considerable informal sector development. Agricultural output increased
exponentially, mining operations expanded considerably, there was great
development in the tourism sector, and manufacturing developed and grew
tremendously. As a result, numbers in employment rose spectacularly and,
although still of relatively limited substance, there was a significant rise
in per capita income. A direct consequence of these developments, reinforced
by most impressive enhancement of health services, was that over a period of
ten years the average life expectancy of Zimbabweans more than doubled, and
yet since 1990s the average life expectancy level has fallen to below that
prevailing in 1980!
The tragedy is that the appalling
deterioration in the living
circumstances of most Zimbabweans is not due to
uncontrollable
circumstances, to acts of God, to the ravages of nature, or
the consequences
of fate. The pronounced poverty that is now near endemic in
Zimbabwe has
undeniably been occasioned by government, and is being
intensified and
exacerbated by government's arrogant rejection of
culpability, its continued
pursuit of destructive policies, and its rigid
resistance to any changes of
policy which are either recommended by others
(for none can know better than
government itself!), or which could be
construed as an admission that
prevailing and past polices were erroneous
and ill-advised.
First and foremost, government destroyed
agriculture, which was
Zimbabwe's economic foundation. Twenty years ago,
Zimbabwe was the region's
grain-basket, feeding not only its own population,
but providing much of the
maize needs of its neighbours. Today, its maize
production is less than half
of the national need, and only a little more
than a third of its previous
production. Twenty years ago, agriculture
provided employment to over 300
000 workers. They and their families
represented more than a quarter of
Zimbabwe's population, and their
livelihoods were fully provided for. Today,
there are less than 50 000 farm
workers, and their incomes are well below
the Poverty Datum Line.
Agriculture of yesteryear was Zimbabwe's greatest
generator of foreign
exchange. Today that generation is comparatively
minimal, with tobacco
production only a quarter of previous levels, the
national herd shrunk by
two-thirds, and sugar, coffee, and tea production
sharply
reduced.
The decline of agriculture is primarily due to the
foolhardy, racist
and negative land reform, redistribution and resettlement
polices of
government. None can credibly dispute that there was a great need
for land
reform, but government could not have pursued it more destructively
even if
it had been its intent to destroy. And government exacerbated the
ruination
of agriculture by a blatant disregard for the fundamental
principles of law,
order, justice and equity, and by gross mismanagement (as
evidenced by
repeated non-timeous availability of agricultural
inputs).
Government's creation of extreme, widespread, poverty has
not,
however, been restricted to its disastrous agricultural policies. It
has
been destructive in countless ways. Probably the foremost of all is that
not
only has government been the primary trigger of extreme hyperinflation,
presently at the highest levels prevailing anywhere in the world, and
soaring endlessly upwards, but that government is doing nothing constructive
to contain the inflation. The magnitude of Zimbabwean inflation, which is
fast collapsing all economic sectors, and is the biggest trigger of the
nationwide poverty, is almost entirely the fault of government. It is
government that continuously incurs untenably high, unsustainable deficits,
making no attempts whatsoever to curb its expenditures (as evidenced yet
again last week when once again the President increased the number of
Ministers and Deputy Ministers, with concomitant support infrastructures,
notwithstanding that Zimbabwe has more Ministers and Deputy Ministers than
almost any other country, even though it has a population of little more
than eleven million). It is government that has fuelled excessive,
highly-inflationary, printing of money.
Government is also the
culprit for the massive fall in manufacturing
productivity, for its rigid
resistance to realistic exchange rate adjustment
has almost totally
destroyed export viability. And it is government that has
fuelled the highly
inflationary alternative (parallel and black) currency
markets, not only by
the creation of foreign currency shortages due to its
destruction of export
operations, but also by its alienation of the
international community, and
consequential marked absence of balance of
payments support, lines of
credit, developmental aid, and foreign direct
investment.
As
ever greater volumes of imports have to be funded through the
alternative
markets, exchange rates surge upwards, intensively increasing
the costs of
imports, and therefore fuelling intense increases in inflation.
(Illustrative of this inflationary disaster, the street price of petrol has
risen from $2 300 per litre to $4 800 per litre in less than two months!).
With falling volumes of production, and increased costs of imports, commerce
and industry has no alternative other than major, ongoing, price increases,
or closure of the business, and this is wholly the fault of
government.
Yet another very great stimulant of inflation, and
therefore economic
decline and of growing poverty, is the intense extent of
corruption that
prevails in both the public and private sectors. Government
has long claimed
intent to contain corruption energetically, but as yet
there has been
virtually no delivery other than talk. The number of
prosecutions can
virtually be counted on one hand and, significantly appear
to have been only
of those who have fallen from political favour.
Notwithstanding
constitutional provisions for the containment of corruption,
and
notwithstanding the existence, for a considerable period of time, of a
Minister of State for State Enterprises, Anti-Monopolies and
Anti-Corruption, real actions to minimise corruption are few and far
between. The costs of corruption are gargantuan, are inevitably recovered in
prices in instances of private sector corruption, and are part of the
gigantic state deficits in instances of public sector corruption, and thus
are major contributions to inflation.
Government is also one of
the biggest drivers of the black market. By
dogmatically persisting with its
policies of price controls, it destroys
viable industrial and commercial
operations, causing intense product
shortages, which in turn creates vast
demand within the black markets, where
prices are not controlled, and are
very substantially greater than the
prices decreed by government. Those
prices are not recognised in the
Consumer Price Index and, therefore in
official inflation data, but are
nevertheless intensely inflationary, adding
further to the woes of the
poverty-stricken Zimbabweans.
Recently government has stimulated the black markets even further. Its
greatly excessive heavy-handedness enforcement of its destructive price
controls, with numerous arrests of executives, and irrationally severe
prosecutions, is motivating the disappearance of essential commodities from
the shelves, rather than that they be sold at a loss, thereby increasing
black market demand, is inducing many to consider closure of their
businesses (to the prejudice of employees, other stakeholders, and the
decimated economy), and is yet another deterrent to investment.
Starvation is reigning supreme in Zimbabwe, and almost wholly because
of
government's obdurate refusal to recognise that it is the primary cause
thereof, and of Zimbabwe's near-total collapse, and its consequential
failure to abandon its devastating policies, and instead pursue constructive
ones.
Zim Independent
Comment
ANOTHER glaring anomaly that is encouraging and deepening
the
continued diversion of precious minerals and foreign exchange into the
wasteful hands of parallel markets is the total insignificance of and
inconsistencies in some of the penalties against economic crimes," said
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono in his latest monetary policy statement on
January 31.
His prescription was predictable: "Until and unless
the deterrent
framework is put in place and is consistent across the board,
the country
risks continuing to engage in disruptive and unwieldy
'cat-and-mouse' brawls
with perpetrators of economic crimes to no avail or
benefit to the country."
We resisted the initial impulse to comment
on this faulty diagnosis
because there were other more valuable political
observations that the
governor made, such as the need for a political
settlement in the country.
Now we notice that the same refrain on derisory
penalties has been taken up
by members of parliament.
Unfortunately, Gono is wrong both in his diagnosis and his
prescription just
as he was when he popularised the myth that inflation is
the country's
number one enemy. We also recall in 2005 the governor's appeal
to government
to build more jails in order to reduce criminal behaviour in
society. There
is no scientific evidence of that anywhere in the world.
It might
be true that there are senior government officials who change
their foreign
currency on the black market out of greed. But their behaviour
is consistent
with everyone's quest to achieve maximum profit from their
financial
transaction. Nobody wants to be arrested and therefore the
question of
"deterrent penalties" does not arise.
On the other hand, for the
majority of Zimbabweans who receive funds
from their relatives in the
diaspora, the parallel market is as much a
matter of commonsense as it is a
matter of survival. The official exchange
rate of $250 to the United States
dollar is a sick joke even for the most
patriotic Zimbabwean.
We were therefore alarmed this week when the parliamentary committee
on
Foreign Affairs, Industry and International Trade chaired by Enock
Porusingazi adopted Gono's defective approach in addressing the issue of
rising prices of basic commodities.
Without bothering to look
at the supply side of production,
Porusingazi said retailers continued to
hike prices of goods because the
penalties for doing so were no
deterrent.
His comments followed the recent arrest of business
leaders for
seeking to increase the price of bread, which government
unilaterally
controls without paying attention to production costs and the
sustainability
of the enterprise. The committee recommended stiffer
sentences for offenders
as the solution.
This is nothing short
of self-serving populism that has in the past
tended to hurt more those it
purported to protect. We have noticed in the
past that such controls lead to
food shortages and people end up paying more
for the same quantities on the
black market.
Official red-tape does not help matters either. When
manufacturers
apply for a price review bureaucrats behave as though the
world has come to
a standstill while they ponder their responses. By the
time an increase is
granted the price would have become totally inadequate
to cover costs, let
alone break even.
At the current inflation
rate of around 1 600% business cannot wait
for more than a week for a
government response. Business people respond to
the demands of the
environment under which they operate yet government
appears to have remained
in the lackadaisical mode of the plentiful '80s. It
can't be business as
usual anymore.
As with Gono and his hopeless battle against
inflation, price controls
only address symptoms of a deep-seated malady. A
recent survey by the
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries revealed that most
companies were
operating at around 30% of capacity due to lack of foreign
currency to
import raw materials, lack of fuel or intermittent power
supplies.
What government needs to do is to create a conducive
environment for
companies to increase productivity. Blaming business for
doing what is
rational for their enterprises to remain operational and
preserve the few
remaining jobs and pay taxes is shortsighted in the
extreme. It is to put
politics before the economy, a mentality that has
become the hallmark of
Zanu PF's culture of self-preservation and a major
cause of the economy's
decline.
Zim Independent
Candid Comment
By Dumisani Muleya
OBVIOUSLY choreographed
indignation by President Robert Mugabe and his
supporters in response to
former Zanu PF secretary-general Edgar Tekere's
autobiography, A Lifetime of
Struggle, has exposed the rage of political
dinosaurs acting as thought
police.
Since Tekere's top-selling book was released in January,
there has
been a frenzied campaign by agents of thought repression to
discredit it.
However, the campaign has failed in a dramatic way. Instead of
discouraging
people from reading the book, it has only succeeded in
marketing the
memoirs.
The crusade against Tekere reached a
crescendo two weeks ago when
Mugabe himself reportedly led the charge in a
politburo meeting. Insiders
say Mugabe complained that Tekere "distorted"
the history of the liberation
struggle (as if he is the custodian and only
authority on it) and had been
attacking him in public.
Many
politburo members were said to have been indifferent to the
protest,
although Mugabe loyalists were angry on his behalf.
Subsequently,
the Zanu PF mouthpiece, The Voice, reported the
politburo resolved to expel
Tekere who was readmitted to the party only last
year after his initial
expulsion in 1988. Tekere says Mugabe was at the
forefront of his dismissal
in 1988.
Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira, subject of criticism
in the
book, came out in The Voice railing against Tekere, saying he had
made
"frequent attacks on the personality of the president" - as if that
were a
hanging offence - and also shown "disloyalty and denigration of the
party
leadership".
The fury against Tekere for merely writing
his autobiography - no
matter how flawed it may be - has left many observers
wondering what this
hullabaloo all about.
The claim is Tekere
has distorted the history of the liberation
struggle which some Zanu PF
elements clearly think is their monopoly.
It is not explained how
exactly he did this, except that he allegedly
said he was responsible for
elevating Mugabe to power.
Of course, in the book Tekere does not
say this, beyond that he moved
a motion in Kwekwe Prison in 1973 for the
ousting of former Zanu leader
Ndabaningi Sithole after he was dealt with by
Special Branch operatives and
later changed course from the confrontational
to the negotiation path.
Tekere says Mugabe was reluctant to take
over from Sithole just as he
had been reluctant to join Zanu's precursor,
the National Democratic Party,
in 1961.
The book - a welcome
addition to our political literature despite its
flaws - deals with, among
many other things, Mugabe's political case-history
and personal life. It
also illuminates dark corners of the struggle,
including the cold and
calculated savagery by both sides in the liberation
war.
The
book portrays Mugabe as a somewhat reluctant and unenthusiastic
leader who
rose to power via political coups and counter-coups, as well as a
conspiracy
of historical events. Mugabe comes out as an accident of history.
Tekere's memoirs also seek to debunk myths about Mugabe and depicts
him as a
dubious revolutionary who at one time following the Chomoio
bombings asked
whether it was "worth it" to continue fighting.
The book says
Mugabe failed to carry himself like a soldier by
refusing to wear combat
gear even if it was provided to him and also engage
in serious military
training. Instead, he preferred donning Western suits
all the time, the book
says, including when he was inspecting dead bodies of
fallen
comrades!
Mugabe is also painted as an untrustworthy leader whom
neither Samora
Machel nor Josiah Tongogara had confidence in. Tekere points
out Mugabe was
excluded from strategic meetings by Machel. He says at one
time Tongogara
described him as a "sell-out".
Against this
background, official anger against Tekere is
understandable. This explains
the ongoing spirited campaign against the
book.
This is not to
say his book is not flawless - far from it. It has
serious structural
weaknesses, questionable disclosures and ironically shows
why Tekere himself
would not have been a good leader.
One cannot fail to detect a
tinge of bitterness in Tekere's account of
Mugabe. Tekere also demonstrates
smoldering resentment of Zapu and its
leader Joshua Nkomo and the late
vice-president Simon Muzenda whom he
describes as a
"bootlicker".
By contrast, Tekere shows great respect for
Tongogara, Solomon Mujuru,
his wife Joice, whom he describes as the
"founding mother of the armed
struggle", and other Zanla
commanders.
Whatever criticisms we might have of the book, we must
remember it's
an autobiography. It's Tekere's personal account of the
liberation struggle.
It represents only his corner of
experience.
As the publisher rightly said, autobiographies,
although useful in
some cases, may sometimes have "convenient and expedient
interpretations of
one's experiences and interactions".
There
is clearly that element in Tekere's account. Its subjective
dimensions and
the pride and prejudice of the author border at times on
narcissism.
However, the book gives valuable insights into
Tekere's life and the
politics of the era. If Tekere's contemporaries are
unhappy with the book,
they should write their own.
Wrong doc to cure Zim's economic ills
THE recent monetary policy
and the new cabinet left the country with
no hope of an improvement to the
economic crisis besetting our country in
the immediate future.
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, in his statement chose to do
nothing and
laid the blame on Zanu PF and government.
While there is consensus
that Zanu PF and government are the root
causes of our economic crisis, the
deepening economic crisis that we see
today has simply been caused by the
RBZ.
The governor no doubt wants to see a quick economic turnaround
but his
biggest challenge is himself. He simply lacks depth and
foresight.
Gono is the wrong doctor to cure the economic ills of
this country. He
has made numerous miscalculations and blunders on policy
matters which none
of his predecessors would ever have contemplated for a
split second.
It is his incapacity to conceptualise the effects of
his action or
lack of action that has downgraded our economy from an
out-patient to one
confined to the intensive care unit.
The
corruption and distortions that he highlighted in his monetary
statement are
merely a manifestation of the wrong diagnosis and
prescriptions that he has
been administering to our economy. This is amid
mounting evidence and advice
that was tabled before him which he chose to
ignore, calling his critics cry
babies, prophets of doom, detractors etc.
Besides dabbling in
quasi-fiscal activities, some of Gono's blunders
include:
*
Printing money to pay the IMF when the fund viewed our economic
problems as
political; and
* Distorted and unmanageable interest rate regimes,
allowing one to
borrow at 50% from Agribank to invest in OMO bills at 550%
or
inflation-indexed bonds at 1 200%+.
In his statement, Gono
picked out, among others, Zesa, GMB and Noczim
for charging sub-economic
prices for their services and goods.
Former Zesa executive
chairman, Sydney Gata, fought battles with Gono
for tariff increases for
more than three years but Gono used his political
clout to block
him.
Gono also castigated the GMB for price disparities, but where
does the
GMB get its money from? Is it not Gono who prints it under
instructions from
the Ministry of Finance? Why did he not challenge
this?
Even government-controlled newspapers exposed this anomaly on
several
occasions. There is nothing wrong at all with the pricing mechanism
used by
Noczim for fuel. Gono has the price build-up on his desk and very
well knows
that to get the price right all he needs to do is adjust the
exchange rate.
It is for this same reason that gold miners and
panners are resorting
to smuggling and risking arrest than take their gold
to Fidelity. The onus
to stabilise this economy rests on the
governor.
Ther need for political will and support does not stop
the RBZ from
cleaning its house. This alone would halt the roller-coaster
fall of our
economy.
To talk of price and wage freezes and a
social contract is a
non-starter at this stage. Gono should know
better.
What we have is a patient bleeding to death, and before we
can talk of
complicated surgical procedures, let's get the basics right
first. To wait
for the so-called holistic approach from Zanu PF and the new
cabinet is like
waiting for a drunken surgeon to get sober before attending
to our patient.
Gono should for the sake of the country devalue the
local currency.
Our main source of forex, like tobacco farmers, are crying
and
disillusioned. The longer we wait the less forex that is made available
and
the greater the shortage which leads to a higher rate on the parallel
market
and the more expensive goods and services get, and up goes inflation,
our
number one enemy.
On the other hand productivity levels
drop and companies close while
Zimra's revenue from duties and import taxes
suffer, meaning no money to
increase the doctors' wages and a return to the
printing press. Yet still we
blame the Ministry of Finance!
The
chain reaction is long, what does it take for Gono to see this?
He
should seek advice from the likes of Leonard Tsumba, Elisha
Mushayakarara
and Kombo Moyana.
Tendai Manhanga,
Harare.
--------
Shabbily treated by British
Airways
By M Cox
WHEN I flew from Harare to Europe
on December 24, my two suitcases did
not arrive.
On my return
to Harare on January 10, I assumed that British Airways
would assist me in
locating them, but only received a semi-literate,
incorrectly spelt e-mail
referring me to the lost luggage section at Harare
Airport and a note
saying, whilst they regretted my lost baggage, they hoped
when I flew with
British Airways in the future I would not have the same
problem!
Mysteriously, Fedex later contacted me advising that
one of my
suit-cases had been located. Zimra released it on payment of $25
000 though
how Fedex got involved, I will never know!
The other
piece of luggage is still missing and I can't get any
response from British
Airways both in the UK and Harare, or the lost luggage
section at Harare
Airport.
Now Fedex say the weight shown on the weigh bill was a
mistake and
should have been in pounds and not kgs!
Strange!
I was under the impression that airlines reimbursed
customers whose
luggage they either lost or mislaid, but this apparently
does not apply to
British Airways.
I feel I was shabbily
treated as one pays a considerable sum in
foreign currency to travel on an
airline and in return expects a fair deal.
* M Cox writes from
Harare.
A spokesperson for British Airways' Harare office
responds:
We understand that both items of missing baggage have now
been found
and returned to Mrs Cox and hope this settles the
matter.
However, we apologise most sincerely for the problems
experienced by
her and other customers during the extended period of baggage
handling
problems at Heathrow Airport.
We know how frustrating
this can be and sincerely regret problems
experienced during that time. We
also understand that our customer relations
personnel in London were in
communication with Mrs Cox, as was our airport
office.
With
regard to the customs duties, we are unable to offer payment
towards customs
duties charged to our passengers.
--------------
Zifa men
should shape up or ship out
FAILURE by the perennial under-achievers at
Zifa to bankroll the trip
to Maseru, Lesotho, should be condemned in the
strongest of terms.
Does anyone need to be a robotics scientist to
understand that the
match was of paramount significance?
Coach
Charles Mhlauri now has a mammoth task ahead because of their
administrative
failures. The match had a bearing on our 2010 World Cup
campaign. Why should
officials at Zifa choose to run around like headless
chickens at the
eleventh hour?
It seems the men at Zifa have reached intellectual
menopause.
Bickering day-in day-out and having a Tsikamutanda
(witch-hunting)
approach to administrative issues does us no good. They have
irredeemably
failed and appear to be devoid of visionary leadership that is
vital to the
prosperity of soccer.
How could officials at Zifa
fail to learn from what transpired during
disturbances at the aborted
Shooting Stars/Dynamos match to avert the ugly
scene witnessed last
Wednesday?
When shall these men stop running football like a tuck
shop? I feel
the time is now propitious for the authorities at the relevant
ministry to
launch a forensic audit of the real state of affairs and modus
operandi at
Zifa.
Zifa has been doing the nation a huge
disservice since time immemorial
and there is need for an urgent paradigm
shift and ideological redefinition.
They have to be told in no
uncertain terms that they have to shape up
or ship out. Otherwise any
prospects of the Warriors gracing the soccer
jamboree in 2010 are sheer
hogwash.
Herbert Kazonda,
Bindura.
------------------
Averse to giving Moyo a
voice
I AM in total opposition to Jonathan Moyo being given space
in
the Zimbabwe Independent to express his views.
This
evil practitioner of the greatest of double standards
should limit himself
to writing for that "proponent of truth and
integrity" - the
Herald.
Moyo is a disgrace to himself and Zimbabwe and an
enemy of press
freedom, a Judas who long ago sold his soul for 30 pieces of
silver!
Shut up Jonathan, your opinions are not worth the
paper they're
written on. May you one day rot in hell with your "Dear
Leader".
Charles Cochrane,
Auckland,
New Zealand.
-----------------
Under
Zanu PF, contract unworkable
By Don
Sahayi
THERE is no doubt that Zimbabweans urgently
want a
workable solution from whoever, that would release us from the
economic,
social and political predicament we are
in.
However, by suggesting that business, labour and
civic
society enter into some social contract with the chief culprit and
bully -
the Zanu PF government - Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono is surely
being
insincere.
For the record, President Robert
Mugabe's government has
over the years consistently and dismally failed to
revive the economy.
Why then should our time be wasted
in allowing it to
attempt to fail for the umpteenth
time?
Only a morally-challenged Zanu PF kleptomaniac or
a
mentally-challenged person would believe that the proposed social contract
under the Zanu PF regime will provide a panacea to our economic
disaster.
We all know from our history that the
previous tripartite
negotiations yielded little or
nothing.
Involvement of the Zanu PF government in a
social contract
will only transform such a contract into a "social
contrast".
A total change of government, preceded by a
new
people-driven constitution and free and fair elections is the
only
solution.
Any other devious
attempts to buy time for this regime
such as the "social contrast" and
recycling of deadwood should be dismissed
with the contempt they
deserve.
With the lowest paid civil servant reportedly
earning $30
000, one should not be surprised by the high level of corruption
in
government.
What surprises many of us is the
existence of many state
departments and ministries such as Anti-corruption
whose main contribution
has been to increase government's recurrent
expenditure, thereby gobbling
funds that should be paid to deserving civil
servants like teachers and
doctors.
Why should
civil servants accept a wage freeze for three
months when inflation is not
frozen for the same period?
As an economically-battered
populace, our contribution in
support of civil servants and the betterment
of our country's governance is
to raise the tempo of the Defiance and Save
Zimbabwe campaigns.
We will fight for the presidential
poll to be held in the
stipulated 2008 and fight for a new people-driven
constitution. That is
where our only hope lies!
*
Don Sahayi (Senior) writes from Harare.