Playfuls, Romania
10:53 AM, February 22nd 2007
by Playfuls Team
China has
given Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe a luxury coach for his 83rd
birthday,
the official Herald reported Thursday.
The coach, meant for the use of
Mugabe's family, was presented to the
president by the Chinese ambassador to
Zimbabwe, Yuan Nansheng on Wednesday.
Shunned by many Western countries
over alleged rights abuses, Zimbabwe has
strengthened its ties with China, a
country Mugabe describes as Zimbabwe's
"all-weather friend."
Zimbabwe
has been purchasing engine kits from China to fit to old Zimbabwean
bus
shells. Mugabe's government last year said it will import more than 250
buses from China.
Mugabe's coach was designed by China's First Auto
Works (FAW), the company
that is also supplying buses to Zimbabwe's
state-run ZUPCO bus company.
The longtime Zimbabwean leader was born on
February 21, 1924 and has
indicated his intention to stay in power for an
extra two years.
© 2007 DPA
IOL
February 22 2007 at
01:23AM
Harare - Teachers from Zimbabwe's public primary and
secondary schools
went on strike on Wednesday, joining job boycotts by
government workers
demanding better pay in the crisis-hit southern African
country.
The president of the main Zimbabwe Teachers Association
(Zimta),
Tendai Chikowore, told Reuters the union had resolved to begin a
job boycott
after failing to agree on new salaries with President Robert
Mugabe's
government.
"Teachers are on strike... They are out,
countrywide," she said. Zimta
is the largest teachers union, representing 56
000 of Zimbabwe's 90 000
teachers.
Chikowore, who also chairs
the umbrella body for all government
workers' unions, said a meeting to be
held with government later on
Wednesday would determine if more civil
servants would join in the job
boycott.
Members
of a smaller militant union allied to the opposition went on
strike early
this month to push for a ZIM$450 000 monthly salary - $1 800 at
the official
exchange rate but just $90 on the black market - double what
the government
is offering.
Some Harare schools visited by Reuters were empty by
mid-morning, with
only a few officials roaming around.
A school
headmistress said she ordered students to return home after
the teachers
walked out.
The teachers join doctors and some nurses who walked
out of government
hospitals late last year in protest against low
pay.
Political tension has been rising in the country as workers
battle
shortages of food and fuel, and galloping inflation, which at about 1
600
percent is the highest in the world.
Zimbabwe police on
Wednesday imposed a three-month ban on rallies and
protests in some volatile
Harare townships following weekend clashes between
armed riot squads and
opposition supporters in one of the districts.
Analysts have said
the rapidly rising cost of living could trigger a
wave of anti-government
protests against Mugabe, 83 and Zimbabwe's ruler
since independence from
Britain in 1980.
FinGaz
Chris Muronzi Staff
Reporter
THE economy is not "sinking as such", President Robert Mugabe
has said, as
he gave an insight into why he dropped Herbert Murerwa as
Finance Minister
and also revealed he would not support any further rate
hikes.
Speaking in a televised interview on Tuesday night to mark his
83rd
Birthday, the President said Murerwa had backed a high interest rate
policy
to deal with runaway inflation. But President Mugabe said he had
opposed
this stance on the grounds that it made money expensive for ordinary
people.
In response to his interviewer's suggestion that the economy, hit by
world
record inflation of nearly 1600 percent, was sinking, President Mugabe
responded: "No, the economy is not sinking as such. The word sink is a bit
too devastating in its connotation. If you choose to call that the sinking
of the economy, well, that's your choice, but I will say yes, it (inflation)
causes a declining standard of living especially for the average
person."
He revealed disagreements with Murerwa on how to handle
rates.
"You should not rely on interest rates all the time to control
inflation.
You make money expensive for the poor man on the street who wants
to buy
fertilizer, for example. If they are production companies, they will
have no
choice but to pass the cost to customers, and thereby pushing
inflation up
again. This is where we differed with the former finance
minister. It can't
be rates all the time."
Last week, in a separate
interview with The Herald, the President said
Murerwa had resisted pressure
to borrow money to fund the building
infrastructure.
However, it is
President Mugabe's rare views on interest rates that will
interest the
markets. Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono last effected a rate
hike in
October last year, having slashed rates on July 31 in a major
reversal of
his previous support for high rates. Until that rate cut, in
which rates
came down from 800 percent to 300 percent, Gono had been on a
prolific round
of rate hikes, lifting the accommodation rate - his main
policy rate - from
90 percent in January 2005 to 900 percent by the time he
decided to change
course.
While raising rates, Gono had argued low rates were providing cheap
money
that he regarded as fuel for a speculative culture that he saw in
black
market activity for foreign currency and strong demand for
shares.
Although the President refuses to use the word "sink" in describing
the
state of the economy, it is estimated that the economy has shrunk over
50
percent over the past six years. The World Bank says it is the fastest
declining economy outside a war zone.
FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi News
Editor
IN his first public comment on the diamond fever gripping
Zimbabwe,
President Robert Mugabe has charged that the key players in the
controversial precious stones saga are the same figures behind machinations
to nudge him from office.
In an interview with state television on
Tuesday, the President said he
disapproved of senior members of his party
being involved in the diamond
trade, saying it was an industry where
"suspicion could easily be raised".
"They joined (diamond mining) openly,
they said yes, we have shares. But you
see, it is the sense of doing it,
kuti unozosvika pakuita izvozvo uri member
yePolitburo, kunobatana nemabhunu
arikutsvaga mari, zvamboita sei (How do
you become involved in this sort of
thing when you are a Politburo member,
partnering white businessmen,
why)?"
Although no names were mentioned, Solomon Mujuru is the only Politburo
member known publicly to have an interest in diamonds. Mujuru's Khupukile
Investments holds a significant stake in River Ranch Limited, on whose board
the former army general sits.
Mujuru's legal counsel at River Ranch
Limited is George Smith, a retired
judge who served under both Ian Smith and
President Mugabe as cabinet
secretary. Smith was appointed to the bench in
1984, and was the only white
judge left on the bench when he retired in
2003.
Said the President: "People must
be circumspect. What business can
you actually do? You see, there are
certain businesses that expose you to
temptation. Mining of gold and mining
of diamonds is different from mining
chrome and copper or iron; diamonds can
be sold on the parallel market, on
the streets.so why go into those
(businesses) where suspicion can be raised
that you are a dealer?"
Explaining that those next in line to assume his post
were "deficient" in
terms of honesty, President Mugabe, displaying an
apparent growing distrust
of those touted as frontrunners in the race to
succeed him, said: "What it
has done (succession), goodness me, is to let
out, I don't know what to call
them, people, ambitious people going in this
direction. Each and every
individual in the upper echelons is now looking at
himself kuti ndinezenge
ndiripapi, ndoita sei, ndoita sei (wondering how to
position themselves,
asking themselves what do I do, what do I do)?"
The
President's anxiety over his succession seems to stem mainly from the
vast
commercial interests of those closest to him.
He said: "It's in regard to the
issue of honesty that I find many of them
deficient. I don't want to work
with people who cheat and who think they
should belong to every company that
makes money; or who would want those in
business to give them money for
nothing.Hamuzivi kuti ndini shefu pano? Dai
muchipota muchindipa, ndini
ndinoita kuti zvinhu zvifambe (Don't you know I
am the Chef here. For a fee,
I'll make things happen).that is what is doing
us down. There are very few
honest people. It's a terrible situation.
"There is far too great a
propensity, at the moment, for accumulating
wealth, in an avaricious manner
too and people don't know the bounds. How
far to go in trying to enrich
oneself."
While President Mugabe will win measured praise for his public
admission of
the existence of rampant corruption and smuggling among "the
higher
echelons" of his party, his remarks will also amplify criticism that
his
government has shown no real commitment to fighting
sleaze.
Parliament recently failed to get small-scale miners to name top
officials
driving the illegal trade in minerals, the same officials that the
President
has now also declined to name and shame.
University of Zimbabwe
political analyst Eldred Masunungure said the
President's continual rebuking
of his potential successors was a strategy to
prime Zimbabweans for his
remaining in office longer.
"He is laying the ground for the public to
prepare for that reality, that he
intends to stay on at State House for a
long time," Masunungure said.
"(Joice) Mujuru may now not be strategically
placed. The import of Mugabe's
diamond story will be to further marginalise
Mujuru. He may be giving an
indication, in a roundabout way, where his
preferences lie, or, at least,
where they no longer lie."
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief Political
Reporter
AS Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan
Tsvangirai's convoy
rolled into Highfield shortly after noon on Sunday,
there were scenes
evocative of strife-torn Palestine.
Squads of riot
police, armed to the teeth with automatic rifles and tear-gas
canisters,
crisscrossed the township on foot and in open trucks.
In what appeared at
first to be a normal show of force, a technique law
enforcers all over the
world use for deterrence, at least six grey
Israeli-made water cannon
tankers roared through the streets of the
high-density suburb at break-neck
speed, although at that time there were no
signs of trouble from MDC
supporters making their way to Zimbabwe Grounds.
This is the same venue to
which President Mugabe made a triumphant return
from Mozambique 28 years ago
to address a massive crowd of ecstatic
supporters.
But since the
formation of the main opposition MDC in September 1999, this
open space has
become a popular venue for rallies for the President's
opponents.
They
came on foot and on bicycles, eager to see Tsvangirai launch what he
says is
his presidential campaign for 2008.
But this was not to be.
As Tsvangirai
alighted from his red armoured Isuzu truck and tried to make
his way to the
entrance of the venue - with an enthusiastic crowd in tow -
he was
confronted by a squad of riot police brandishing their rifles
menacingly.
"We have orders not to allow you inside the stadium,"
bellowed one young
officer, weapon at the ready, blocking Tsvangirai's
path.
Tsvangirai, armed with a High Court order issued the previous day
allowing
the MDC to hold the rally, asked the officer, who repeatedly
fidgeted with
his rifle, to clear the way.
But the officer, barely
glancing at the piece of paper, would have none of
it.
"I know you have
the order. We read about it in the newspapers. But these
are instructions
from above. There's nothing we can do. Please go," the
officer
ordered.
Seeing his converging supporters getting restive Tsvangirai
announced that
he would drive back to Southerton Police Station, a few
kilometres from
Zimbabwe Grounds, to seek clarification.
It was later
established that Chief Superintendent Thomson Jangara was in
charge at the
police station. He too did not pay any attention to the court
order.
After about half an hour, and with the crowd calmly waiting
outside the
stadium, the MDC leader returned to announce: "I have been
denied permission
(to proceed with the rally). Go back home peacefully. But
the struggle
continues." His convoy made a U-turn and headed back into town
via Machipisa
Shopping Centre.
Slowly, the crowd began to disperse. But
then, the police sprung into
action.
Openly enthusiastic police officers,
who had waited for years to put the
water cannons into action, sprayed jets
of pressurised water on the
dispersing crowd. Police details on foot, not to
be outdone, fired tear-gas
at the fleeing crowds.
Then the dogs were
unleashed while some officers wantonly lashed out at the
crowd. This
reporter witnessed one resident being beaten with the butt of a
rifle.
Not to be outdone, the Green Bombers - youth militia from ZANU PF
training
centres - charged into the grounds, wielding whips and boots.
Within
minutes, the retreating MDC supporters and residents of the suburb
responded, hurling all manner of missiles - stones, sticks and bricks - at
the charging police and militias, holding them back briefly.
But the
cannon tankers gave the police the upper hand
"This water can immobilise you
for a good 30 minutes," remarked one resident
as he took to his heels.
At
this stage most of Highfield was engulfed in fury and smoke from burning
debris and tear-gas. The injured scurried for cover into nearby maize
fields, homes and a church.
One thing was clear; the police had once
again defied the country's
judiciary to indulge in their favourite pastime -
brutalising citizens.
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda
Staff Reporter
HUMAN rights groups in Namibia have vowed to give
President Robert Mugabe a
torrid time when he visits the country on
Wednesday next week.
Activists have organised protest marches to express
their opposition to the
way the President has reacted to growing unrest in
Zimbabwe.
Although President Mugabe, a close friend of Namibia's founding
President
Sam Nujoma, still enjoys a measure of popularity in the former
South African
protectorate, he will face a hostile reception from human
rights activists
who are determined to drive the message of protest
home.
"We will wave placards through the streets of Windhoek to show
solidarity
with the oppressed people of Zimbabwe by the Mugabe regime. We
will also
present a petition at the Zimbabwean Embassy and our message to
Mugabe will
be that he must go. We will tell him that he must go back home
and that he
is not welcome here. Human rights have no boundaries, a
violation in
Zimbabwe is just the same as one in Namibia," said Dorcas
Philemon, the
Media Liaison officer at the National Society for Human Rights
(NSHR) by
telephone from Windhoek.
"He is ever screaming about Tony Blair
and George Bush but we can't see any
progress on his side. Instead we are
seeing widespread human rights
violations."
President Mugabe is also
likely to be confronted by the gay lobby, which has
hounded him around the
world since he described homosexuals and lesbians as
being "worse than dogs
and pigs."
"We are going to demonstrate jointly with other human rights
groups to show
Mugabe that we are very unhappy with what is happening in
Zimbabwe. We will
tell him to step down," said Ian Swartz, director of
Namibian gay group
Rainbow Project.
"We will also ask him to restore
democracy and a human rights culture to the
country."
Reports from
Windhoek claim that a senior Namibian government official
confided to the
Independent Foreign Service that President Mugabe's visit to
Namibia could
be in preparation for his departure from office. But the
Zimbabwean leader
who had previously hinted at 2008 as his departure date,
has gone back on
his word and has since told members of his party jostling
to succeed him
that there are no vacancies.
A senior journalist at a newspaper in Namibia
suggested the visit might be
in connection with an aid package for Zimbabwe
from China, whose President
Hu Jintao visited Namibia recently.
President
Mugabe's visit next week will be his first since Nujoma stepped
down two
years ago. During Nujoma's reign, President Mugabe was a regular
visitor to
Namibia, where a street and hospital are named after him. Nujoma
retains
significant political clout, and has been rumoured to be considering
a
return to power.
. . . did he, or did he not say?
HARARE -
ZIMBABWE, whose seizure of white-owned farms seven years ago
devastated the
economy, could nationalise diamond mining.
The government will take control
of the industry after allegations of
smuggling from the country's mines and
a diamond rush in the eastern
Zimbabwe. "Only government will mine
diamonds,'' Mugabe said. Diamonds will
fall into a "special category,'' he
added.
But Rio Tinto, joint owner of Murowa diamond mine, said it did not
believe
the comments pertained to its mine, a spokesman said.
Mugabe has
repeatedly threatened to seize mining assets in the country that
has the
world's second-biggest platinum and chrome deposits after South
Africa. He
did not, however, mention Rio Tinto.
"The word nationalise wasn't used,''
said Nick Cobban, spokesman for Rio
Tinto. Mugabe said he would
"monopolise'' industry.
Andrew Cranswick, CEO of African Consolidated
Resources Plc (ACR), said in
an interview yesterday: "If the state takeover
of diamond mines is passed
into law, it will destroy diamond exploration in
this country.''
RioZim stock closed unchanged at $9 000 on the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange
yesterday.
"We don't believe there has been a change in
policy,'' Cobban added. "We
believe (the comments) were made specifically
about the situation in the
east of the country.''
David Murangari, CEO of
Zimbabwe's Chamber of Mines, said: "We are studying
the situation and will
discuss it with the mining industry if that's really
government's intention,
but currently there is no law that specifies certain
minerals can be mined
only by the government."
Zimbabwe's government in December evicted ACR from
Marange, a deposit to
which the UK company had the rights, after a diamond
find there prompted
thousands of informal miners to converge on the area.
The area has now been
cordoned off and handed to the state-run Zimbabwe
Mining Development Corp.
"I've never believed in nationalisation and as a
citizen of Zimbabwe I'd say
it's a mistake,'' Cranswick said. "As a mining
explorer, well, we'll have to
review the whole country if this becomes a
legal reality.'' - Bloomberg
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe
Staff Reporter
Industry and International Trade Mnister Obert Mpofu has
loosened his grip
on Ziscosteel after the company's board and management
complained to a
parliamentary portfolio committee of being sidelined
.
The board and management told the Foreign Affairs, Industry and Trade
Portfolio Committee that they were kept in the dark when Global Steel was
roped in through a management contract.
Mpofu faces an uncertain future
following the instituting of contempt of
parliament charges against him at
the instigation of the portfolio
committee, for allegedly lying under oath.
He is yet to give his side of the
story. The parliamentary privileges
committee probing the minister's conduct
has postponed scheduled hearings
twice since the beginning of the year.
Appearing before the portfolio
committee on Tuesday, ZISCO board chairman
David Murangari said this time,
members had been briefed about a potential
investor, MCC of China, who had
since visited the Zisco plant in Redcliff.
This would enable the board to
scrutinise the latest deal.
"Recently we had MCC from China who are
interested. We are waiting for their
response. We are waiting to receive
their proposals so that we look at them
as a board," Murangari said.
The
board was "not waiting for the ministry to tell us what to do" Murangari
retorted when asked by MDC Dzivaresekwa MP Edwin Mushoriwa if they were
waiting for directives from cabinet.
Murangari painted a grim picture of
the state of affairs at the steel maker,
which has not recorded any
production so far this year and is saddled with a
domestic debt of $7
billion. It also owes US$222 million in foreign
obligations.
Murangari
declined to comment on allegations that influential individuals
had
illegally accessed foreign currency from ZISCO in the form of travel
allowances and other expenses.
"With all due respect, I think our board
cannot comment because we did not
have sight of the report," he
said.
Acting committee chairperson, ZANU PF Senator Clarissa Muchengeti, who
was
visibly uncomfortable with questions about the looting of ZISCO, closed
the
meeting after only two MPs had asked questions with others itching to
raise
more issues.
Asked earlier about a number of recent ZISCO
advertisements to identify
candidates for senior posts, Murangari said the
company was replacing
employees whose contracts had expired and in some
instances it was looking
for people with technical expertise.
"There are
engineers with no engineering qualification. There are people who
were just
promoted (with no requisite qualifications)," he said.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
THE
International Monetary Fund (IMF) board holds a meeting tomorrow to
discuss
Zimbabwe's overdue financial obligations to the fund and vote on
whether to
restore the country's voting rights.
The IMF website says the meeting's
agenda will be the report of the last
Article IV Consultation in 2006,
overdue financial obligations under the
PRGF-ESF fund, restoration of voting
and related rights. Zimbabwe's central
bank paid US$120 million to clear
arrears under the General Resources Fund
last year, staving off expulsion at
the IMF's last meeting last March.
However, the country still owes US$129.5
million.
It is unlikely the IMF will grant any new aid to Zimbabwe or restore
its
voting rights, suspended over the country's failure to clear arrears. An
IMF
team that visited Zimbabwe in December last year released a statement
that
showed no change in its view of Zimbabwe.
"Progress on structural
reforms has been limited and uncertainty over
property rights continues to
depress investor confidence," the IMF mission
said, repeating previous calls
for broader economic and political reforms in
Zimbabwe.
The IMF's
warnings have however fallen on deaf ears. President Robert Mugabe
told the
ZBC this week that former Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa had been
sacked
for his opposition to continued government borrowing.
At its last visit, the
IMF had backed Murerwa's call to end the central bank's
extra fiscal
activities, although it again said there were no signs of real
reforms.
The IMF wants to see the floating of the exchange rate and the
end of all
controls on pricing, but government has resisted both
demands.
The IMF sees Zimbabwe's economy contracting 4.7 percent this year, a
further
slide from 5.1 percent last year. The IMF also forecasts inflation
to
average 4 278 percent this year.
Zimbabwe, however, insists it will
manage positive real GDP growth of 0.5-1
percent this year, while slowing
inflation - at a record 1593.6 percent in
January - to 400-500 percent by
December.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff Reporter
MINES
and Mining Development Minister Amos Midzi faces imprisonment after
Bubye
Minerals filed a contempt of court application this week against him,
seeking his imprisonment for 21 days over his alleged issuance of a grant to
rivals River Ranch Limited in breach of a court order.
Bubye Minerals
is embroiled in an ownership wrangle with River Ranch Limited
over River
Ranch diamond mine in Beitbridge.
Bubye lawyer Terrence Hussein said in his
court application that Midzi was
in contempt of a March 2006 High Court
ruling delivered by Justice Joseph
Musakwa interdicting him from
"adjudicating upon, cancelling or in any way
interfering with cession of
special grant 1278 to applicant" pending legal
settlement of the
dispute.
According to papers filed in the High Court on Tuesday this week,
Bubye
charges that Midzi reissued the special grant to River Ranch, in
violation
of the Musakwa order. The court application does not, however, say
when
exactly Midzi re-issued the special grant to River Ranch.
The
company added that Midzi's conduct had hurt the country's reputation in
respect to observance of the rule of law, and has the effect of destroying
investor confidence in the country's legal system.
"If Mr Midzi's conduct
is not controlled by this honourable court, it would
see Zimbabwe diamonds
being banned internationally. This is not in the
interests of our nation.
Furthermore, Mr Midzi, who is a government
Minister, must be seen by the
public, both nationally and internationally,
to be upholding the rule of
law," part of the court application reads.
Bubye said they were seeking a
court order of "personal attachment and
committal to prison of the
respondent (Midzi) for a period of 21 days."
Midzi is in a precarious
position after the Attorney General barred him from
adjudicating in the
diamond dispute on the grounds that judge Musakwa's
order was still in force
following Bubye's appeal against an earlier ruling
by Justice Lawrence
Kamocha favourable to River Ranch Limited
"At common law, an appeal suspends
the operation of a decision which forms
the subject of an appeal. Unless a
contra provision is given in the Mines
and Minerals Act, that should be the
position," the AG said in a January 17
letter to Midzi.
Bubye Minerals
added on Midzi: "The Minister's conduct in this dispute,
which is of his
making, shows a serious lack of impartially on his part, and
brings into
question his ability to administer the provisions of the Mines
and Minerals
Act, and the Kimberly Process certification Scheme."
Midzi becomes the second
minister this year to face contempt proceedings
after the contempt of
Parliament probe against Industry and International
Trade minister Obert
Mpofu.
FinGaz
Zhean Gwaze
Staff Reporter
INSOLVENT Zesa Holdings has failed to pay its workers a
400 percent pay rise
agreed to by the parties during arbitration and is
reportedly trying to
borrow funds to pay the new
salaries.
Arbitrators awarded Zesa workers a 400 percent increment with
effect from
January.
The new salary scales were agreed to after a
protracted dispute between the
workforce and the power utility which sparked
a nationwide strike last
month.
Zesa has offered to stagger the January
back pay between March and April,
but this has angered the workers.
Zesa
Workers Union general secretary Ian Munjoma confirmed the new dispute
to The
Financial Gazette yesterday, and said the union had already written
to
management expressing its opposition to the proposal.
"We want management to
follow what the arbitrators said," he said.
The 400 percent salary hike saw
the lowest paid worker at Zesa getting a
basic monthly salary of $116 000,
up from $23 000.
This would rise to $231 000 when allowances were added.
A
source said earlier in the week that Zesa, desperate to avert another
strike, had considered the drastic measure of mortgaging its head office to
fund the salary bill and other mounting costs.
Zesa last year generated
$26 billion against an expenditure of $66 billion,
incurring a deficit of
$34 billion, which, with interest had ballooned to
$105 billion by the
beginning of last month.
An audit report by Kudenga and Company last year
said there was "doubt on
the ability of the group to continue operating as a
going concern."
Zesa management blames the company's cash constraints on a
low tariff
regime, which it says cannot sustain operations.
Zesa produces
electricity at $90 a kilowatt and charges consumers $6 per
kilowatt.
The
Zimbabwe Electricity Regulatory Commission is expected to announce new
tariffs soon, despite fears that the proposed steep tariff increases would
further stoke inflation.
FinGaz
Zhean Gwaze Staff
Reporter
THE dispute over farm wages which has remained unresolved for
the last three
months because employers have continued to hold out against
demands for $70
000 monthly earnings has now been referred for
arbitration.
The General Agriculture Plantation Workers Union (GAPWUZ),
which represents
more than 200 000 farm and plantation workers, said it had
failed to reach
an agreement with employers, who are only offering $16 000
per month, which
is double the $8 000 most labourers are currently
earning.
Wage adjustments in the sector are effected on a quarterly basis,
and the
last increment was in September. Negotiations for a pay increment
have been
ongoing since December last year.
GAPWUZ secretary general
Gertrude Hambira said this week she was preparing
documents needed for the
arbitration process.
Farm workers have complained of being short-changed in
an industry which
contributes 18.5 percent to the gross domestic product
(GDP) and provides
more than 60 percent of the raw materials required for
the manufacturing
sector. The workers say their paltry earnings fall far
short of meeting
basic requirements. Central Statistical Office (CSO)
figures show that the
poverty datum line (PDL) stood at $566 400 in
January.
The protracted wage dispute is an additional threat to already bleak
prospects for improved productivity this farming season.
New farmers
allocated land under Zimbabwe's controversial land reform
programme are the
employers of the majority of the poorly paid workers. The
plight of the farm
employees has been debated in Parliament, with
legislators noting that poor
wages detracted from the gains of the land
reform programme and hampered the
revival of the economy.
More than 3 000 previously white-owned commercial
farms were allocated to
landless blacks ostensibly to correct a historical
imbalance that resulted
in the best land being reserved for whites while
cramping blacks on poor
soils. However, resettled farmers have failed to pay
decent wages, resulting
in many farm workers opting for gold panning.
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Staff
Reporter
GOVERNMENT plans to dissolve the current Air Zimbabwe board, led
by Mike
Bimha, after it fell out with Transport and Communications Minister
Chris
Mushowe over the appointment of Peter Chikumba as the airline's new
chief
executive officer.
The board is believed to have recommended
the appointment of Oscar Madombwe
as the substantive CEO to fill the
position left by Tendai Mahachi.
Madombwe had acted as head of the airline
since Mahachi was sacked in 2005
after supplies of Jet A1 fuel at Air
Zimbabwe dried up, leading to the
embarrassing cancellation of domestic,
regional and international flights,
leaving hundreds of passengers
stranded.
The board had recommended that Madombwe continue in the position in
a
substantive capacity as he was already implementing the much-hyped
turnaround programme, but Mushowe over-ruled the board.
Said a source:
"The minister wants the board to be reshuffled because he
believes there
won't be a cordial working relationship between Mr Chikumba
and the board
because it was in the first place strongly against his
appointment."
At
the time the airline intensified its hunt for a new CEO last year,
Mushowe,
in a show of his opposition to Madombwe's intended appointment,
suspended
him after he hired Middle East Airlines to ferry stranded
passengers from
London. That suspension was, however, overturned by the
board.
The tussle
between Mushowe and the board, seen as having substantial
political clout,
came to a head late last year when Mushowe attempted to
veto a steep fare
rise by Air Zimbabwe on its key Harare-London and
Harare-Beijing routes. The
rift widened after Air Zimbabwe cancelled all its
flights to London due to
an unpaid debt to the Agency for the Safety of Air
Navigation in Africa and
Madagascar (ASCENA).
The minister was also angered after an embarrassing menu
mix-up during one
of President Mugabe's overseas trips.
FinGaz
Stanley KwendaStaff
Reporter
PETER Chikumba, the new Air Zimbabwe
boss, at first
sight appears a busy bee, exuding energy and in a hurry to
put things in
order at the embattled national
airline.
And with his robust approach, it seems a
case of so
far so good for the new man at the helm of Air
Zimbabwe.
"My mandate is clear. I am here to turn
around the
business as part of the broader economic turnaround programme,"
said
Chikumba, with his back to a new Olevia plasma television set in his
spacious office at the Harare International
Airport.
Chikumba says he likes working his path in a
very
clear manner and wants to do it in a unique
fashion.
"I am a technocrat. I believe we have to
change the
working culture at Air Zimbabwe. In my philosophy of turning
around
(companies), the people culture is important. The customer dictates
where we
should go. You can buy new planes, but that will not work if we are
not
changing the culture," says Chikumba.
If you
do not like the bookish way of doing things,
then Chikumba is not your
man.
He has a penchant for referencing, and he
intermittently makes rounds to his bookshelf during the interview to make
sure that his point is driven home.
"You will
never be an expert
in everything to do with aviation.
We have agreed on
the need to build and support professional teams and
building leaders of
integrity within the airline," Chikumba
says.
Asked how he would implement his turnaround
programme without unnecessarily stepping on political toes, a feat that a
series of previous CEOs have failed to achieve, he says: "I have said let's
create an understanding between stakeholders. That is to say 'what
is
the role of the management, board and government
in
this turnaround?'"
Despite the saviour tag
that he carries into Air
Zim, an alleged fraud case at Air Namibia has
blighted his grand entry.
"I was interviewed for this
job seven months ago and
I got it. Since then, I have never spoken. Ask
yourself why. I am clean on
this one, my references have been checked, and
if I had a case to answer,
why would I have been given the job? Are you
saying that Zimbabwe is
prepared to compromise its integrity and employ a
criminal or is this how
we want to be portrayed as a
country," says
Chikumba, with some emotion.
"From
my Christian background, I am convinced that
the truth will be served at the
right time. I am even prepared to sponsor
airline tickets for anyone who
genuinely thinks that I have a case to answer
to go and investigate in
Namibia."
Chikumba is married to Theresa, who is of
Ethiopian
origin, and the couple has two daughters, both of whom are pilots.
The
first, Elizabeth (25) is flying Ethiopian Airways, while Mariamawit (21)
is
at pilot school in Port Elizabeth, South
Africa.
"My family is the inspiration behind all that
I do,"
said Chikumba.
But he might just need much
more than his family
inspiration to turn around Air Zimbabwe. Probably his
"Can the African skies
be safe" citation might give him the impetus he
needs; unless he misplaces
it on his treasured
bookshelf.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Business
Reporter
A NEW economic plan that the government intends to introduce to
calm an
increasingly restive populace will be called the Zimbabwe Economic
Development Strategy (ZEDS) and will run for four years, The Financial
Gazette can reveal.
The blueprint, which will be unveiled during this
year, will be anchored on
cooperation between the public sector, private
sector, the civil society and
development partners, and will run for four
years from 2008 to 2012. It will
be the first in a series of medium term
development strategies the
government hopes could arrest the nine year old
economic crisis, marked by
world record inflation.
An outline of the
draft document seen by The Financial Gazette shows that
the economic plan,
largely lifted from the Vision 2020 document that was
mooted seven years
ago, goes beyond achieving macro-economic variables such
as a stable
exchange rate and lowering inflation to include social,
political, cultural
and environmental aspects. The document now incorporates
recent
socio-economic developments and claims to be consistent with the
Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), which should be attained by 2015.
The Ministry of
Economic Development will be the lead agency in overseeing
progress on the
implementation and monitoring of the new economic plan. The
Ministry will in
turn report to the Zimbabwe National Security Council
(ZNSC), which will be
the supreme decision making body in terms of the
overall coordination and
monitoring of the implementation of short and
medium term economic
plans.
The new economic plan will add to more than six previous blueprints
that
government touted as ultimate solutions to the economic crisis. Critics
say
government has never seriously sought to implement any of the economic
plans.
Some of the previous plans include the Zimbabwe Programme for
Economic
Stabilisation and Transformation (Zimprest), the Millennium
Economic
Recovery Plan (Merp), the ten point economic plan, the National
Economic
Recovery Plan (Nerp) and the Economic Structural Adjustment
Programme
(Esap), the current plan, the National Economic Development
Priority
Programme (NEDPP).
FinGaz
Personal
Glimpses with Mavis Makuni
THE police can never be accused of having been
eager to see the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) rally that was
scheduled to be held at Zimbabwe
Grounds in Highfield last Sunday go
ahead.
The disturbances that ensued after the rally "failed to take off",
as the
public media has intriguingly reported, were therefore a
self-fulfilling
prophecy. It is almost as if the police wanted to make sure
violence erupted
to prove themselves right and have a reason to make
arrests.
Before the day of the rally, the police had left no stone unturned
in their
quest to prevent the Morgan Tsvangirai faction of the MDC from
launching its
presidential campaign for the still uncertain 2008 elections.
They had
resorted to invoking the repressive Public Order and Security Act
(POSA),
which enables them to practice voodoo law enforcement. The draconian
POSA
empowers the police to gaze into a crystal ball, so to speak, to decree
that
violence will take place before it actually erupts. This clairvoyance
enables the police to decide which public gatherings and events should be
thwarted before they even begin because of the existence of "reasonable
grounds" for them to believe the proceedings will lead to public
disorder.
It was on the basis of this extra sensory perception (ESP) that
they
scuttled an earlier rally that was to be held by the Arthur Mutambara
faction of the opposition party in Bulawayo after the group had decided to
defy a police ban. The Tsvangirai faction took the matter to court and was
granted an order by Justice Anne-Marie Gowora to go ahead with its rally.
The question which begs an answer and which the police are not explaining is
what caused the rally to "fail to take off". They have also not said why MDC
secretary general, Tendai Biti was arrested outside the High Court in Harare
during the hearing of the MDC faction's urgent application in Justice
Gowora's chambers. From these unexplained events it is clear that the
opposition can simply not win. The Mutambara faction's plans to hold a rally
in Bulawayo were scupered ostensibly because the group defied a police ban
but Biti's faction was similarly penalised for doing the right thing -
seeking and getting judicial redress.
In an affidavit opposing the MDC's
urgent High Court application, the
Officer Commanding Harare South district,
Thomsen Teddie Jangara is reported
to have cited depleted police manpower
and the "violent tendencies" of MDC
supporters as reasons for banning the
holding of its rally in Highfield. But
it must be pointed out that the
police have no right to act against any
group on the basis of subjective
perceptions of tendencies before an offence
is actually committed. The tenet
that a person is considered innocent until
proven guilty should apply to
groups as much as it does to individuals.
Jangara should be disabused of the
erroneous notion that the people should
be deprived of their right to
assemble because of a feigned manpower
shortage in the police force. I say
feigned because when the police defied
the High Court order for the MDC to
go ahead with its rally at Zimbabwe
Grounds, they were out in full force to
throw tear gas and engage in running
battles. Where did the manpower
suddenly come from?
This no-win scenario for the opposition is reminiscent of
the recent arrest
of business executives for committing the cardinal sin of
writing to the
relevant ministry seeking authorisation to review the price
of commodities
their companies supply to the market. What kind of police
force does this
country have for these contradictions to be considered
normal? How can the
police be considered to be doing their work
professionally if doing the
right thing and doing the wrong thing both lead
to arrest as shown in the
case of the MDC factions and the industrialists?
An analysis of police
dealings with opposition parties and civil rights
groups shows that rather
than act to quell already discernible disturbances,
the police in fact
provoke the violence that they then attribute to these
groups.
This was the case in September last year when the police thwarted
planned
demonstrations that were to be staged in the urban centres by the
Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). The police stopped the protest
marches
before they even began in Harare for example, by sealing off roads
and
streets leading into the city centre. The only violence that occurred
was
that allegedly perpetrated by the police force against the leaders and
members of the ZCTU, many of whom sustained serious injuries while they were
in police custody. From the above, it is clear that each time they clash
with opposition groups, the police are not on a mission to quell
disturbances but to crush dissent. It is for this reason that Zimbabwean
police are incapable of employing acceptable crowd control methods and
techniques that for example, enabled law enforcers in other countries to
handle the massive demonstrations that preceded the invasion of Iraq in
2003.
That Zimbabwe has become a police state is underscored by the
readiness of
the trigger-happy law enforcement agents to resort to brutality
similar to
that unleashed by the Chinese army when massive protests
paralysed Tiananmen
Square in Beijing in 1989. The Zimbabwean police force
has shown itself in
the past to be biased and to be ready only to serve the
interests of the
ruling party. This unprofessionalism has resulted in the
police interpreting
and enforcing the law selectively and thus turning a
blind eye to offences
perpetrated by members of the ruling party. The police
have never been known
to use their clairvoyance to predict the imminence of
violence ahead of
rallies and other events organised by ZANU PF. The result
is that no ruling
party rallies and gatherings are ever prohibited.
Such
police dereliction of duty and lack of professionalism has reached
alarming
levels if a disclosure by President Robert Mugabe is to be
believed. In his
interview with Tazzen Mandizvidza of ZBH/ZBC to mark his
83rd birthday shown
on television on Tuesday, the head of state explained
why the leader of the
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), Lovemore
Madhuku has regular run-ins
with the police resulting in his arrest. This,
the President said, was
because Madhuku deliberately set himself up to be
arrested as a way to
attract donor funding. All he apparently does is sit or
stand where the
police can see him and bingo, he is under arrest.
Zimbabweans have every
reason to be very worried and afraid if this is how
the police force
determines who to arrest and for what reason.
FinGaz
Africa File with
Mavis Makuni
Mavis Makuni
Own Correspondent
Could
Nigeria, which is considered one of the most corrupt countries in
Africa
lead the way in tackling the rampant scourge in the public sector?
Press
reports indicate that Nigeria's anti-corruption squad has publicly
declared
130 candidates wishing to contest the general elections to be held
in April
unfit to hold public office. The candidates deemed by the Economic
and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to be too "unclean" to seek election
ironically include Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who has parted ways with
the head of state, Olusegun Obasanjo and his People's Democratic
Party.
"It's advisory but we expect them to take action. If they don't, the
parties
stand to lose when these people are prosecuted as they will be",
said a
spokesman for EFCC after the commission had distributed lists with
names of
the banned candidates to all political parties. Ironically, the
highest
number of blacklisted candidates are members of the ruling People's
Democratic Party. Thirty-five are from the All Nigeria People's Party and
the Action Congress has the lowest number with 27.
Not unexpectedly,
there has been an outcry over the EFCC move from
opposition parties, which
view the blacklisting of candidates as an
underhand ploy by the ruling party
to gain an unfair advantage over the
rest. The opposition groups have
questioned the neutrality of the EFCC,
which was set up by Obasanjo in 2003.
"EFCC cannot surreptitiously turn
itself into the investigator, prosecutor,
juror and executioner just to
justify the dangerous wish of a presidency
that has turned itself into a
full dictatorship." The opposition groups have
charged that in banning
candidates, the commission has targeted those who
pose the most serious
challenge to Obasanjo. They claimed that the
commission included only
lightweights from the People's Democratic Party on
the black list to give a
veneer of impartiality. The most serious bone of
contention, however, is
that those who have been banned from seeking office
have not been told what
their crimes are and whether the EFCC conducted
proper investigations to
reach its conclusions Serious allegations of
corruption and financial
impropriety have been levelled against Obasanjo
himself but these have never
been properly investigated. The Nigerian
opposition parties' skepticism over
the sudden official determination to
tackle corruption ahead of an election
is not unfounded.
Incumbent
presidents in Africa are well known for resorting to underhand
machinations
to thwart the political ambitions of opponents they perceive as
posing a
serious threat to their tenure. The "dirty tricks" resorted to by
incumbents
who are not ready to countenance the possibility of passing on
the
leadership baton have revolved around political harassment and
persecution
of ambitious "upstarts" with the temerity to think they could
fill the great
men's shoes.
Examples abound of opposition presidential aspirants who have
had obstacles
of all kinds placed in their way. Ugandan opposition
politician Kizza
Besigye endured such an ordeal after incumbent president
Yoweri Museveni,
who had already been at the helm for 20 years, forced an
amendment to the
constitution to allow himself an extra term of office. In
the run-up to
subsequent presidential elections last year, Museveni ordered
Besiyege's
arrest on trumped up treason charges. These were only dropped
when he no
longer had a chance to make up for lost time on the campaign
trail.
Naturally Besiyege lost the election and his party rejected the poll
results
which handed victory to Museveni. The leader of the Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai once had treason
charges hanging
over his head for more than three years. Obasanjo resorted
to similar
tactics when he tried to have his country's constitution amended
to allow
him to seek a third term in office.
The plan was eventually
emphatically rejected by Nigeria's National
Assembly. But before the
decisive rejection of the bill that would have
allowed him to run for a
third term in office, Obasanjo had already embarked
on a campaign to
discredit his potential strongest challenger, Abubakar by
portraying him as
a weakling who was unfit to take over as head of state.
Obasanjo took to
making disparaging remarks about Abubakar's unsuitability
to succeed him as
president of Africa's most populous state and the world's
eighth largest
exporter of crude oil. Those who accused Obasanjo of
harassing and
persecuting his deputy as a way to eliminate him as a
challenger in the
presidential polls will see Abubakar's blacklisting by the
EFCC as the
culmination of these political machinations.
President Thabo Mbeki of South
Africa has also accused of waving the red
card of corruption to eliminate
his deputy, Jacob Zuma from contention as a
candidate for the presidency in
2010.However, the difference between Mbeki's
decision to sack his deputy and
the approaches adopted by some of his peers
on the Continent is that South
Africa has been consistent in dealing
decisively with corruption. It has not
waited for a looming election to
bring officials accused of impropriety to
book but has tackled cases as they
were exposed.
FinGaz
Phillip
Chichoni
Cash flow planning is difficult enough in a low inflation
environment. This
is especially so for entrepreneurs and small business
owners without a
strong background in accounting or financial
management.
The importance of cash flow planning cannot be over
emphasized. Cash is the
lifeblood of every business. A business can survive
for years while making
losses. However, a cash crisis can cripple or even
obliterate a business in
a matter of weeks. This is so because in business
no one likes to lose
money. When you start showing signs of struggling to
pay for your supplies,
expenses or debts, your trading partners will panic.
Your creditors will
demand immediate payment, the bank may remove the
overdraft facility, or
call up any outstanding loans and your suppliers will
demand cash upfront.
It will seem like no one will be interested in helping
you when your cash
flows have hit the skids. In fact, no wants to lend money
to someone who is
broke. They fear that you may not be able to pay it
back.
It is therefore very important to plan your cash flows and avoid
unforeseen
cash flow crises. Every new business owner needs to understand
how the cash
moves in his business.
The Basics
Cash flow planning
for a small business basically involves analysing your
cash receipts and
payments over a period of time. The first step is to know
what makes up your
cash flow. Your sales are not necessarily cash, until
your clients have
paid, which could be some days or months from when you
make your sale. Your
cash flow analysis will therefore include only actual
cash received.
Similarly, you will include all payments made, both expenses
and those
payments of a capital nature. One common error usually occurs when
preparing
the cash flow plan from the projected or past income statement.
Things like
the purchase of machinery or vehicles may leave the income
statement showing
a profit, while the bank account may have no money. Net
profit is not
necessarily cash in the bank.
Certain cash flow items never show up in an
income statement while other
cash flow items will show up there but in
different periods and in different
amounts. So what you will find is that
your income statement will not show
you what happened to your cash flow.
Why? Because your cash flow is made up
of more than just profit and loss. It
also is affected by:
n Accounts receivable
n Inventory
n Accounts
payable
n Capital expenditures
n Borrowings and debt service
n Other
"timing" differences
That's why you can't look at your income statement
and see what happened to
your cash during the month. Profit and loss is only
one component of your
cash flow. You should have a clear picture of how each
of the other areas
affected your cash flow each month in order to
understand, and take control
of, your cash flow.
Hyperinflation
Challenges
High levels of inflation present a different complication to cash
flow
planning. Under hyperinflationary conditions, prices rise rapidly and
the
currency loses its value. It becomes difficult to predict the prices of
your
inputs over the coming months. As an example, compare your wage bill,
or
your fuel bill, between February 2006 and this month. Very few people
could
have managed to estimate the level of the rise in the prices of
inputs.
So, is it worth planning when your predictions would come out wrong
all the
same?
How To Plan
Difficult as it might be, planning will help
you manage your cash flows
better in a hyperinflationary environment. To be
of use, planning will have
to be done differently. You will need to review
your cash flow plan more
frequently. As soon as you have the latest prices,
the whole cash flow plan
for the year must be adjusted to take these changes
into effect. Your whole
business plan will also need to change so as to take
the changing
environment into account.
As an example, since holding money
that is constantly losing value is
wasteful, you may need to invest all
excess funds into non-monetary assets,
such as raw materials or trading
stocks. A cash flow plan will let you know
how much excess cash you will
have over the coming periods. With that
knowledge, you can invest in
inventory just enough funds without heading
into a cash flow crisis.
Cash
flow planning will enable you to take preventive action when you
foresee a
cash crunch coming. Measures that you may take to avoid running
out of cash
include reducing credit terms to your customers, holding less
inventory, and
cutting down on expenses. You can also arrange loan or
overdraft facilities
while you still have cash and financiers are still
willing to let you
borrow. As I said before, waiting until you have hit the
skids before taking
remedial action may cripple you permanently. Cash flow
planning helps you to
see any coming crunches and allow you to take
preventive action.
The
final benefit of cash flow planning lies in the process itself. If your
planning process is methodical, organised and involves all the key people,
it will help you think of all the factors that can affect your cash flows.
This will enable you to adopt business and financial management practices
that will give your business the maximum possible benefit.
Phillip
Chichoni is a business planning and financial management advisor and
can be
contacted at:
chichonip@yahoo.com.
FinGaz
Comment
WE will be the first
to admit that separating fact from fiction can be a
tall order where
Zimbabwean politics, known for its grotesque distortion of
the truth, is
concerned.
Thus from a face-value judgement, it would be difficult to say
who, between
the MDC supporters and the police, provoked the orgy of
violence that ensued
at the foiled High Court of Zimbabwe-sanctioned MDC
rally at Zimbabwe
Grounds in Highfield, Harare. Accusations and
counter-accusations are flying
from both sides clearly bent on
political-point scoring.
We hold no brief for either the MDC or the ruling
ZANU PF. But in the court
of public opinion, police had always been
hell-bent on banning the
opposition political party's rally. Before the High
Court order, police had
denied the MDC permission to hold the ill-fated
rally, citing lack of
adequate manpower to maintain law and order during the
gathering.
According to both Bothwell Mugariri and Wayne Bvudzijena, the two
senior
police officers quoted by the media over the weekend, the security
concerns
arose after the police, in their collective wisdom, concluded that
the MDC
was not capable of controlling its members during public gatherings.
They
cited MDC-organised violent demonstrations that had taken place in the
Harare a couple of days earlier.
Mugariri reportedly said that even if
the MDC approached the High Court,
which it eventually did and successfully
had the rally sanctioned, the
police would appeal against such a decision.
Put simply, the police would go
to the ends of the earth to stop the
rally.
Now, we have repeatedly advocated zero tolerance for political
violence for
we know only too well the trauma and permanent emotional scars
suffered by
those who have been unfortunate enough to come face to face with
the
dangerous political zealotry in its starkest form - its sheer brutality
and
purposeless sadism that has seen scores of people meeting abrupt, brutal
and
tragic deaths. Thus we are on record saying, time without number, that
bigoted political attack dogs who maim, rape, kill or destroy somebody's
property because they hold political views that are different from their own
are denying others the freedom of choice and association and do not
therefore deserve that freedom themselves. Which is why we say, even now,
that if the police genuinely had security concerns, then they, by all means,
should be applauded.
But there increasingly is a hollow ring to the
explanation by the police,
which initially might have appeared ostensible.
Indeed the threadbare and
platitudinous explanation, which has been exposed
for what it is - window
dressing for the public's benefit - does not help
their case. It was sheer
double-talk! This is particularly more so given
that the police cited the
specious and spurious excuse of lack of adequate
manpower to maintain law
and order during the rally. But in the same breath
they said, in connection
with a threatened civil servants' job action: "We
will arrest anyone who
takes part in an illegal demonstration. Police have
the capacity to deal
with any kind of situation as it is adequately
resourced . . . "
Do the police have adequate resources or not? If the force
is "adequately
resourced" why then was the MDC rally banned on the pretext
of lack of
manpower? If nothing else, the police's contradictory statements
cited above
show that the banning of the MDC rally had very little, if
anything, to do
with lack of adequate manpower. It had everything to do with
the frightening
insanity of intimidation and systematic bullying of
political opponents
through the stifling of democratic space. This tends to
give credence to
reports that the violence in Highfield erupted after the
police blocked a
rally sanctioned by a competent court of law.
But is
this what happens in a politically mature society in which people are
supposed to be allowed to organise freely on the basis of their political
convictions, a society where holding different political views does not earn
you hostility and hatred, a free society in which every citizen enjoys
personal freedom including political freedom to which every citizen should
have an inviolable right? Does a law-based state overrule decisions of a
competent court of law? Are government critics who say there is no rule of
law in Zimbabwe wrong?
Can't agree more with Chakaodza
EDITOR - I can't agree more with
Bornwell Chakaodza's sentiments in his
article in The Financial Gazette of
February 15 2007 titled "Open letter to
President Mugabe". I admire such
unbiased writing and it's high time every
Zimbabwean rises above party
politics.
People should be united regardless of their race, tribe, religious
or
political affiliation. Let us forget about historical atrocities
perpetrated
by the current or previous governments and concentrate on the
problems
bedevilling our country at the moment.
It is the duty of every
Zimbabwean, from the leaders right down to the
ordinary citizens, to pull
our nation from the quick sand in which it is
sinking. In the interest of
our Zimbabwe let those that need to resign do so
now, and they must be
assured of their safety.
Eddie
United Kingdom
------------
I
was there when it happened
EDITOR - The atmosphere was tense
and saturated with sadness as if the whole
land was in mourning. Events
moved at a tremendous speed and people acted
with a general sense of urgency
as if to compete with time which was running
ahead of them.
After having
attended a morning church service with my friends, we agreed
that we had to
spend the greater part of the day attending the MDC star
rally that was
scheduled to be held at Zimbabwe Grounds, Highfield on
Sunday, February 18
2007. Our resolve was given meaning by the fact that
after church we read
the headlines in the Standard which established beyond
argument that the MDC
had been allowed to go ahead with the planned rally.
There were roadblocks
along the way and commuters at one time had to
disembark to allow for
searches. I knew all was not well. I asked myself and
those who were with me
in the commuter omnibus what the purpose of the
roadblocks was but I got no
satisfactory answer.
On reaching Zimbabwe Grounds, I received the greatest
shock of my life and
up to now I am yet to recover from the trauma that I
went through at that
moment. There was nobody at the venue of the rally save
for the barricaded
entrance that was being manned by heavily armed police. I
was scared and so
was everyone. We could not drop there (at the entrance)
because it was clear
those manning the entrance didn't want to let in a
single being. It is for
this reason that we proceeded to the shopping centre
where we met thousands
of angry opposition supporters who had been denied
access to the venue by an
overzealous partisan police force.
The battle
lines had been drawn and what was left was for the warring
parties to start
fighting. The police force denied people the right to
freedom of movement,
association and expression. This explains why we have
always maintained that
there is no rule of law in the country. That there is
no respect for human
rights is evident especially when considering the
outlandish and nightmarish
manner in which the partisan police force reacted
to hungry, poor and
unarmed citizens.
The police were however all over the place urging
opposition supporters to
return home. A number of threats were issued and
these included beatings,
arrests but the most horrific of them all - firing
live ammunition! "Vapfana
tinokurovai nelive ammunition", declared a man who
was in plain clothes.
People had to run for life. Who wouldn't? The paradox
lies in the fact that
those who were supposed to side with the suffering
masses were instead
consolidating tyranny in Zimbabwe.
Our brothers,
sisters, fathers and mothers in the police force sold out the
struggle on
Sunday. Who in his right mind does not understand Morgan
Tsvangirai's
characteristic charisma? The people are behind you Morgan.
That the rally
could not be held because of insufficient manpower is a
blatant lie that
should be treated with the contempt it deserves. The
manpower that was
present on Sunday was a clear indication that the
desperate regime enjoys
the support of the uniformed forces. Zimbabwe is now
a military
junta.
Mutsa Murenje
Harare
---------
The real cause of Zim's
problems
EDITOR - If we go back to the agreement that brought
about our so-called
independence you find that it is the root cause of our
problems. In 1980, we
did not get our independence but what we got was a
deal to let the blacks
think that they were in control.
You cannot think
of how we got our independence without weeping. President
Mugabe and company
agreed to a deal that gave them a false sense of being in
power. They did
not control the destiny of our country and up to now do not
control it. You
can only control something when you can influence events.
Ask him if he had
full control of the economy in 1980. Ask him if he had
full control of the
legislature in 1980. Ask him if he could decide whom we
should trade with in
1980. Ask him if he had complete people's vote in 1980.
Now that he is trying
to change the situation and take full control he is
going to suffer as he
does not have the power to do so.
Unfortunately he needs to go back to the
parties that brokered the deal and
negotiate for whatever he is looking for.
Negotiating with the MDC will not
help because they were not there. If he
wants to change any part of the
original deal that brought him into "power"
then the rules are simple - go
back and re-negotiate. It's foolish to think
that we are independent.We are
still under colonial rule, only that we have
some say as to who should
listen to what the master says and who should
carry out the master's wishes.
Sorry Comrades but that's the truth of the
matter. If you are in doubt
please listen to Bob Marley's song Zimbabwe and
if you have time treat
yourself to the whole album.
Pasi
United
Kingdom
----------------
Porusingazi must dig much
deeper
EDITOR - Allow me to point out to Foreign Affairs,
Industry and
International Trade Parliamentary Portfolio Committee
chairperson Enoch
Porusingazi that the cooking oil which he claims is
flooding the parallel
market is not locally manufactured.
In an interview
published in a local daily on February 5 2007 he indicated
that his
committee will be visiting companies which manufacture cooking oil
to find
out why there is a shortage of the commodity in shops, when the same
commodity is available on the illegal market.
As is the case with such
investigations by other parliamentary portfolio
committees, the reasons
remain the same - no foreign currency to buy raw
materials, price controls,
persistent arrest of top executives of companies
when they raise prices to
break even and an unfair trading environment.
I think it is wise to first act
on the other parliametary portfolio
committee findings because the
Porusingazi's committee is most likely to get
exactly the same findings and
sit on them without any action being taken.
Please note that the illegal
market is not only flooded with cooking oil,
but with other basic
commodities which are not locally manufactured but are
reasonably cheaper
than locally manufactured goods.
Lewis Gadimu
Masvingo