Zim Independent
Dumisani
Muleya
TWO government ministers have been cited in a confidential Reserve
Bank
report on the collapse of Time Bank ahead of an expected criminal trial
of
the bank's directors on charges of fraud involving $440
billion.
Environment and Tourism minister Francis Nhema and Water
Resources minister
Munacho Mutezo are named in the Reserve Bank document,
titled Report on
Failed Banking Institutions, as among prominent
beneficiaries of loans which
partly led to the collapse of the bank. The
document says the
Attorney-General's Office has indicated that a criminal
trial of the bank's
shareholders and directors "will commence in the first
term of 2006".
"Indirect and direct loans to the chairman of the
board Mr Mutezo (of
Authentic Engineering) and Mr FD Nhema (of Streisand)
comprised 60% and 22%
respectively of the bank's capital," the report says.
Mutezo is a former
Time Bank chairman.
"These facilities were not
performing and represented a potential loss to
the bank. Mr Nhema also sat
on the boards of two financial institutions
which gave rise to potential for
conflict of interest."
The report - which covers the bank's entire
history and problems leading to
its closure - further links Nhema and senior
bank officials to what it says
was a "fraudulent" transaction in the saga
characterised by a mixture of
creative accounting, manipulation, fraud and
externalisation of foreign
currency.
"In October 1999, the
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) received a
report by Hackleton
Investments (Pvt) Ltd trading as Crown Securities in
which Time Bank and
some senior officers had acted in concert with Streisand
Securities, Francis
Dunstan Nhema, Torongo Hieronymor Torongo, and Austin
Chenai Nhema to
defraud Crown Securities of an amount of $34 268 586,31
(which was a lot of
money then)," it states.
The report says Time Bank shut down in
October 27 2004 due to a "chronic
liquidity crisis" and a "well-orchestrated
and calculated intricate web of
related company transactions designed to
conceal fraudulent activities".
"Time Bank has over the years
perfected the art of creative accounting and
fraudulent misrepresentation,
characterised by chronic insider manipulation
of fictitious assets, and
fraudulent land schemes," it notes.
Time Bank directors and senior
employees, it says, operated a chain of
identified companies which
over-borrowed from the bank leading to its
closure. They were specified on
January 14 2005. The Zimbabwe Independent
will provide more details on the
companies in due course.
Time Bank CEO Chris Tande, chairman Humphrey
Malumo, executive director Ken
Chikonzo, company secretary Killian Kapaso,
directors Anderson Ncube,
Kwaziso Bosha and Onias Gumbo, were arrested on
fraud charges on October 27
2004, the same day the bank was placed under
curatorship. They all deny the
charges and are out on bail.
The
report says "most problems" at Time "centred around Tande and his close
associates". It says Tande was forced to resign from Stanbic Bank "due to
fraudulent activities involving a non-resident company known as Chinese
Complant" and was thus unfit to be CEO. The report says Tande staffed the
bank with relatives who could not question his decisions.
Time
Bank's original main shareholders included Time Bank Investment Company
(Pvt) Ltd, owned by Time Bank Holdings, which held a 92,5% stake, Time Bank
staff (6,2%) and Local Authorities Pension Fund 1,3%).
Later the
shareholders became Tande with 25%, John Mwarumba 25%, Bosha 25%
and Pamela
Matingo 25%.
Against a backdrop of these issues, the report states,
monetary authorities
made complaints to the police "for criminal charges to
be laid against the
directors/shareholders for their role in the collapse of
the institution,
acts of fraud and externalisation of foreign
currency".
"The matter is under the consideration of the
Attorney-General's Office, who
has indicated that criminal trial will
commence in the first term of 2006,"
it says.
Zim Independent
Dumisani
Ndlela
A VISITING International Monetary Fund (IMF) team left the country
yesterday
after pressing government to undertake major policy reforms to
turn around
the economy.
The IMF delegation demanded commitment from
government to an immediate halt
to farm invasions, which it said were
hampering Zimbabwe's efforts to
normalise relations with the international
community, a source indicated.
The IMF team expressed grave concern
over fiscal ineptitude, the
deteriorating humanitarian crisis as well as
resurgent inflationary
pressures in the economy.
Sources said
yesterday the IMF urged government to urgently privatise public
enterprises,
which it said were bleeding the fiscus. Rising money supply
growth as a
result of increased money printing last year had impacted
negatively on the
fight against inflation, leading to a deterioration of the
macroeconomic
situation, the team said.
Finance minister Herbert Murerwa said
yesterday government had undertaken to
"step up policy reforms, as well as
ensuring that Zimbabwe is fully paid up
on the IMF's General Resources
Account arrears".
The IMF team is expected to release a statement
next week after approval
from the IMF management in
Washington.
"There were serious concerns over government's operation
driving out
urbanites from slums (Operation Murambatsvina), the looming food
shortages
and continued land invasions. The IMF team felt the humanitarian
crisis
would have a significant impact on the fiscus," a source
said.
The IMF has recommended fundamental structural reforms over the
medium term
which it said were essential to ensure a stable and efficient
financial
system.
It also recommended an increase in the role of
markets in the pricing of
commodities, public enterprises reforms, putting
fiscal accounts on a strong
medium-term footing, an improvement in
agricultural productivity and a
reduction of arrears.
The team
noted that past recommendations had not been met, save for
government's
battle to clear outstanding arrears against the backdrop of a
worsening
foreign currency crunch.
It said government had not taken any steps
to reform the civil service. In
September, Zimbabwe paid a surprise US$120
million - more than a third of
its outstanding debt - to the IMF, a payment
that earned it a six-month
reprieve. An additional US$15 million was paid a
month later, followed by
another US$15 million payment in
January.
Sources indicated yesterday that it was unlikely the team
would recommend
Zimbabwe's expulsion from the IMF, but hinted that policy
reforms, which
will be crucial to the board's determination of the country's
continued
membership, were lagging behind.
"It's unlikely
Zimbabwe will be kicked out of the IMF, but there are serious
worries that
there have been no signs of stability in the economy," a source
told the
Zimbabwe Independent yesterday.
Murerwa said government would step up
policy reforms, a position indicating
solemn fears by the Harare
administration that the issue might constrain its
chances to survive censor
by the board, expected to review Zimbabwe's
situation in March. Zimbabwe
escaped membership expulsion after being given
a six-month reprieve by the
IMF board at its last meeting in September.
Murerwa said concern had
been raised by the IMF mission on the issue of
exchange controls,
particularly the recent directive by the Reserve Bank
that the exchange rate
movement should be volume-based.
"With regards to Zimbabwe's payments
to the IMF, the IMF mission welcomes
the country's modest efforts, but
underscored the need for policy
consolidation so as to minimise the
inadvertent squeeze on the economy
arising from arrear payments," Murerwa
noted.
Zim Independent
THE Reserve Bank has
set up an independent panel to conduct an inquiry and
assess the closure and
amalgamation of three banks into the Zimbabwe Allied
Banking Group (ZABG).
The panel chaired by retired Justice George Smith is
investigating what
transpired before the closure of Trust, Royal and
Barbican banks and how
they were put under the management of a curator
before being merged into
ZABG. This comes in the wake of growing protests by
shareholders of the
collapsed banks that central bank authorities were
biased and heavy-handed
in the way they handled the situation. Zimbabwe
Independent news editor,
Dumisani Muleya, looks into the findings of the
official investigations into
the collapse of the three banks. This week he
starts with Trust
Bank.
A confidential central bank document, titled Report on the Failed
Banking
Institutions, obtained from government says Trust Bank collapsed due
to a
critical liquidity crisis, weak auditing and poor accounting systems,
high
reputation risk, engagement in non-banking activities in violation of
the
Banking Act and structural flaws.
It also cites the role of a
high interest regime, fraud, the lack of records
on structured finance
deals, insider loans, poor asset and liability
management, and shady deals
in foreign currency as reasons behind Trust's
shutting down.
The
report says Trust began operations in 1996 as a merchant bank before it
converted its licence to trade as a commercial bank in 2000. The bank was
wholly-owned by Trust Holdings Ltd.
Trust Bank's top 10
shareholders included First Mutual Life Assurance of
Zimbabwe, Trust
Employees Share Ownership, NRZ Contributory Pension Fund,
Ludham Investments
(Pvt) Ltd, Zesa Pension Fund, Wilta Investments (Pvt)
Ltd, where the bank's
former MD William Nyemba has an interest, Old Mutual
Life Assurance Company
of Zimbabwe, Mining Pension Fund, Communications and
Allied Industries, and
Datvest Nominees (Pvt) Ltd.
The report says investigations into Trust
started on September 30 1998. Five
examinations in a row revealed a gradual
deterioration in the bank. The
first one showed although the bank was
"satisfactory", its 10 largest
borrowers comprised 67% of the total loan
book, signaling concentration.
The second examination in 2000 showed the
bank was in a "fair condition" and
noted it needed to tackle weaknesses in
treasury and risk management as well
as high exposure to Kimberworth,
Wildale and GMB Investments.
In 2002, it was found that the bank's
liquidity had deteriorated
significantly. The following year the situation
had worsened.
The bank was reeling from daily shortages of between
$13 billion and $16
billion and survived on central bank overnight
accommodation. In December
2003, the shortages deteriorated to about $100
billion on a daily basis,
forcing central bank authorities to demand daily
and weekly updates on
liquidity.
Internal audits raised concerns
of fraud and primitive accumulation by bank
employees and a myriad of
irregularities. External auditors raised a number
of problems like the risk
posed to the bank by the high interest rate
regime.
As a result
another probe was instituted by Camelsa Chartered Accountants
and it
established a gap of $110 billion against the bank's own projection
of a $70
billion shortage.
The bank was also found to be involved in
non-banking activities through TMB
Nominees. Disbursements to TMB amounted
to $23,8 billion as at December 31
2003. It also showed loans given to group
companies of $17,6 billion. There
were also non-performing loans to
subsidiaries, including funding of the
strategic alliance between First
Mutual and Trust Holdings at about $6,8
billion.
"Massive
withdrawals, restricted rollovers and insignificant deposits were
causing a
widening gap," the report says. "To attract deposits the bank was
offering
850% per annum. However, large depositors demanded security which
the bank
did not have and increased reputation risk."
The report says from
there it got worse. "The liquidity problems worsened in
January 2004 and
culminated in a run on the bank," it says. "To avert a
systemic crisis, the
bank was granted liquidity support on condition of
restructuring its
operations." The bank's directors were then "asked" to
resign.
The bank was issued a corrective order on January 13 2004
to overhaul its
operations, discontinue unlawful activities, restrict
payment of dividends,
and sort out other problems. A supervisor for the bank
was appointed on
January 20 2004.
"Apart from restructuring the
board and senior management, the bank remained
in a critical condition. The
financial condition worsened due to huge
funding costs and the resultant
operating losses," the report says.
"Various merger initiatives,
notably with MBCA, failed to sail through
largely as a result of the extent
of the capital deficit and RBZ debt."
The report says the bank's
position dramatically deteriorated by 42% from
$801 billion to $1,14
trillion as at July 31 2004.
"The bank was factually and technically
insolvent," it observes. "This was
attributable to huge losses stemming from
poor asset quality coupled with
failure to repay the Troubled Bank
Fund."
The bank was also involved in shady foreign currency deals. A
report by BCA
Consulting (Pvt) Ltd revealed there was a net debit of 346 556
Euro to a
Commerz account in August 2004. "Significant foreign currency
amounts were
debited to Trust Bank's nostro accounts yet there are no
corresponding
credits in the bank's ledger," the RBZ report states. "A total
of R1 445
921,64, P27 201, 57, Euro 706 059,69 and US$703 476, 50 could not
be
accounted for."
It says some of the money was transferred from
Trust's First Rand account in
South Africa to the local bank's former
directors Nyemba (R107 531,60) and
Chris Goromonzi (R45
277,20).
There was also controversy over a $961 180 261 cheque paid
to NDH. The money
was said to have later been distributed to the bank's
former directors
apparently on Nyemba's instructions. About $106 293 987 was
paid to Luapa
Holdings where Goromonzi is a director.
At least
$214 992 809 was paid to Wilta where Nyemba is a director. It says
$84 446
950 and $800 million were paid from Trust to Uzben Enterprises and
Transtobac where former Trust director Nyevero Nhlupo was a director and
shareholder. Another $800 million was also paid to Transtobac in which
another former Trust director, Phillip Dhliwayo was also a
director.
Against this background, the report notes, "it was quite
apparent that
market solutions had failed to address deep-rooted structural
anomalies at
the bank".
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
AN army
takeover of Kondozi farm in Odzi to resuscitate the former
horticultural
exporting concern has taken the spring out the surrounding
community's
stride.
The military takeover followed failure by the Agricultural and
Rural
Development Authority (Arda) to breathe life back into the enterprise
expropriated by the state under the controversial land reform programme two
years ago.
A visit to the farm by the Zimbabwe Independent on
Tuesday revealed that the
uniformed forces moved onto the farm at the
beginning of the wet season and
have turned the former fresh produce and
flowers fields into maize plots in
government's new effort to boost
production under Operation Maguta.
The army is understood to have
also taken over Arda Transau adjacent to
Kondozi.
Go into Kondozi
farm's catchment area and chances are great you will agonise
over
commonplace dereliction and neglect. And the most striking feature is a
Chinese manufactured military Dofeng vehicle carrying soldiers - some in
military fatigues and others in overalls - going to the
fields.
But the best way to enter the 224-hectare property is
sneaking in to avoid
upsetting soldiers who treat every visitor with
suspicion, quite aware that
he might expose government's dog-in-the-manger
attitude used to seize the
property from former owners.
A tour of
some of the fields that used to be cropped under state-of-the-art
irrigation
equipment shows that everything has been ransacked to make way
for maize
planting. Small patches of maize have already been planted with
the earliest
at the tasselling stage.
The business complex, which once housed
world-class packaging equipment, is
now derelict with all the equipment
looted. Weeds have overgrown the
building, showing that the empty
pack-sheds, storage facilities and dispatch
halls have not been used for
some time now.
There is virtually nothing happening at the business
complex, the erstwhile
hub of activities at the farm.
Besides
planting maize at Kondozi farm, the army is planting sorghum for
former
outgrowers along the road from the Harare-Mutare highway to Odzi
business
centre.
One of the contract growers said he had entered into an
agreement whereby
government would work on the farm and share the produce
with the owner.
"The army promised us a third of the crop harvested
and they retain the
remainder for using our land," the outgrower
said.
He said he accepted the offer because even if the crop failed
he was not
going to lose anything.
But shop owners at Odzi
business centre are beginning to feel the costs.
Business has slumped due
to reduced clientele because most of the workers
rendered jobless no longer
have regular incomes.
"Since the takeover of Kondozi, business has
diminished and a number of
small operators have been forced to close shop,"
a businessman at the centre
said. "The only hotel at the shopping centre has
closed down because it
relied solely on renting-out rooms to Kondozi
workers," he added.
One of the former Kondozi employees likened the
farm invasion to cutting off
the Odzi populace's
lifeline.
"People have reverted to gold panning and poaching fish
from Osborne Dam,"
the former worker said.
Acquired under
controversial circumstances in 2003, Kondozi was one of
Zimbabwe's largest
horticultural exporting firms with markets in Europe and
South Africa. The
property was registered as an Export Processing Zone with
an annual turnover
of US$15 million and employing 5 000 people.
Former owners of Kondozi
have since established similar fresh produce
exporting ventures in
Mozambique and Zambia.
Dozens of white farmers evicted from Zimbabwe
farmlands have settled all
over Africa including countries like Zambia,
Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania
and as further afield as Australia and
Nigeria.
Zim Independent
Loughty Dube
AN acute maize
meal shortage has hit Bulawayo and surrounding areas as
millers have not
been supplied with grain over a long period.
Almost all supermarkets in
the region have not been supplied with the
commodity for over three weeks as
it is reported that the importation of
grain from South Africa has been slow
due to poor weather conditions
prevailing in the region.
An
official with the miller's association said about seven wagon loads of
maize
worth billions of dollars imported from South Africa was condemned
after it
was exposed to rain three weeks ago.
The chairman of the National
Millers Association, Thembinkosi Ndlovu said
there were problems caused by
the current incessant rains which slowed down
the transportation of
maize.
"The weather is quite bad and some maize that was brought into
the country
was found to be rotten after it was exposed to rain and seven
wagons of
maize were thrown away," he said.
"As a result of this
set-back, we now have this crisis," said Ndlovu.
He added that due to
the rains, the loading of the commodity in South Africa
was taking long, as
it was necessary to use water-proof material to cover
the
maize.
"There is need to ensure that there are no openings for water
to come
through into the maize and that takes a long time. People need to
understand
that this is what is causing the shortages," Ndlovu
said.
Efforts to contact GMB chairman, Retired Colonel Samuel Muvuti,
were
fruitless as his mobile phone was not being answered.
A
survey conducted by the Zimbabwe Independent this week indicated that a
lot
of shops and supermarkets around the city of Bulawayo have gone for more
than three weeks without being supplied with mealie-meal.
A
manager in one supermarket in the city centre said they had not been
supplied with mealie-meal as the millers had indicated that they were also
not getting any maize from the GMB.
Zimbabwe, once Africa's
breadbasket, now imports most of its grain from
South Africa after the
ill-fated land reform forced commercial farmers off
productive land.
Production levels have since then plummeted.
Bulawayo executive
mayor, Japhet Ndabeni Ncube, said the government should
move in quickly "to
avert a disaster of great magnitude since people have
nothing to
eat".
Ncube said people affected by HIV and Aids and orphans were
heavily exposed
to the mealie-meal shortages.
"The concerns are
great in the city," said Ncube. "Two days ago I visited
Aids orphans in the
high-density areas and the families had nothing to eat.
I promised to bring
them a bag of mealie-meal but I have not yet found any,"
Ncube said.
Zim Independent
Itai Mushekwe
MAVERICK veteran nationalist,
Edgar Tekere, has poured cold water on
the ruling Zanu PF party's claim of
having readmitted him to its ranks 18
years after he was banished to the
political wastelands.
Tekere on Wednesday told Zimbabwe Independent
in a telephone interview
that despite state media hype about his so-called
"comeback", the issue was
still to be finalised. Confusion over his rebound
rages on with the
Mutare-based controversial politician also appearing to be
dazed.
Tekere said he was not aware of any developments
pertaining to his
readmission into the party, which he founded decades ago
alongside President
Robert Mugabe and the late Eddison Zvobgo. "What I know
is that the
Manicaland province has forwarded recommendations to the party
for my
readmittance."
Tekere, a former secretary-general of
Zanu PF, said he was still
waiting for an official confirmation from the
party. He said people would
soon find out about his official standing once
Zanu PF finalises the issue.
Zim Independent
Dumisani
Muleya
ZIMBABWE Mirror Newspapers group CEO and editor-in-chief Ibbo Mandaza
has
set conditions for exit talks with the company's board members fighting
to
push him out of the publishing house taken over by the state intelligence
service.
This follows a letter written on January 10 by Gula-Ndebele
& Partners,
lawyers representing Mirror board chair Jonathan Kadzura and
his deputy John
Marangwanda, proposing new exit talks with
Mandaza.
The letter to Mandaza's attorneys, Mandizha & Company,
proposed fresh talks
to find an "exit avenue" for the Mirror boss who has
confirmed that the
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) has taken over
the company he
founded in 1997. Mandaza has described Mirror directors
fighting to push him
out as "CIO fronts".
"On a different note
and purely on a without prejudice basis, we wish to
inquire whether your
client is still inclined to engaging in discussions
with a view to finding
an exit avenue from the Mirror group for your
client," the letter from
Gula-Ndebele & Partners said.
"Indications from our clients are
that there would be no harm in exploring
that line. Please be guided
accordingly and we also await your earliest
indications."
However, Mandaza's lawyers responded on Tuesday
giving preconditions to
dialogue. They said Kadzura and his colleagues must
first respect last
month's court order which lifted Mandaza's October
suspension from the
Mirror, pay him outstanding salaries and benefits, and
retract certain
defamatory statements made against him.
"We
advise, without prejudice that our client remains prepared to negotiate
a
mutually acceptable exit," Mandaza's attorneys said.
"As our client's
offer has been on the table since (and as set out in his
letter of December
21 2005), onus is on your client to respond to it. In
doing so, your client
will have to take steps to cleanse our client's name
by fully and
unequivocally withdrawing the defamatory statements made
against our client
in both the print and electronic media. In that regard we
advise that our
client has instructed us to sue yourselves should they fail
to take such
steps."
Mandaza's lawyers also said they had "good reason" to doubt
Kadzura and his
associates' intentions. "Furthermore, our client has good
reason to doubt
your client's sincerity. The practical and simple
consequence of the
existing court order is plain enough," the attorney
said.
"Yet in spite of its clarity, your clients continue to refuse
to pay what is
due to our client as management fees, salary and benefits.
Please be so kind
as to ensure that, without any further delay, our client
is paid in full."
Mandaza's exit offer proposes a valuation of the
company and a resale of the
70% shareholding of the Mirror to Unique World
Investments and Zistanbal
Investments which claim to already control 70% of
the firm.
"Unique and Zistanbal will pay the requisite purchase price
based on the
current valuation to be undertaken immediately by a firm of
accountants to
be mutually agreed upon by the three parties of the Mirror
group," Mandaza's
proposal says.
It also says this will take into
account the $924 million paid by Unique and
Zistanbal "plus the interest
thereof, calculated on the basis of the dates
on which the monies were
variously disbursed in the period August 2003 to
late January 2004 and the
applicable interest rates thereof".
The letter by Kadzura's lawyers
was in response to earlier letters written
on January 6 and 9 by Mandaza's
lawyers complaining of a memo at the Mirror
which they said amounted to
contempt of court. The memo, which gave new
rules on how employees must
conduct themselves, came in the wake of the
December 19 court order which
directed Kadzura and others not to interfere
with Mandaza's return to the
company.
Last month's court order was a confirmation of an earlier
court ruling which
lifted Mandaza's suspension from the Mirror. The High
Court last week said
Mandaza's court application to have Mirror directors
jailed for contempt of
court was not urgent. The Mirror boss' lawyers are,
however, filing a new
contempt of court application on an urgent
basis.
Mandaza said this week he had not gone back to the Mirror
because he did not
want to put workers in a conundrum of having to "choose
to be either loyal
to me or the CIO".
He said: "I hope one day I
will go back and put the Mirror on track when
there is no longer any need
for employees to choose between me and the CIO."
Zim Independent
Shakeman
Mugari
THE owners of Watermount, a farm which constitutes Time Bank's biggest
asset
and key to its reopening, have appealed to Vice-President Joseph Msika
to
help fend off an invasion of the property by senior government
officials.
A letter of appeal has been copied to Mashonaland East
provincial governor
Ray Kaukonde whom sources say has promised to deal with
the issue.
The farm, earmarked for development of a $1,4 trillion
housing project
crucial to the reopening of the bank which was closed in
2004, is being
invaded by officials from Didymus Mutasa's Ministry of Lands,
Land Reform
and Resettlement.
The group, led by Petronella
Kagonye, who is the chief lands officer in the
ministry, has been trying to
wrestle the farm from its owners for the past
three weeks.
The
group includes a Stanley Kagonye who is father to Petronella and Cephas
Hodzi, who works in Mutasa's office. Others eyeing the farm are Alvin
Musengezi, a senior officer in the police, Constance Chigwamba who is the
secretary to the Public Service Commission and a Charles
Machoba.
The six claim that they were given offer letters by
Mutasa.
In their letter, Watermount directors pleaded with Msika and
Kaukonde to
intervene to save their farm which they said held the key to
Time Bank's
reopening.
Twenty developers who plan to build houses
at Watermount are heavily
borrowed to Time Bank and the land is bonded to
the bank. Its takeover would
scuttle Time's chances of
reopening.
"The 20 people borrowed $320 billion from Time Bank to
develop a housing
programme on this land and these loans with interest have
grown to more than
$640 billion and the farm is heavily mortgaged to the
bank for more than
$320 billion to support the loans for this housing
scheme," said Watermount
in the letter dated January 23.
The
directors said the land takeover had not been sanctioned by Kaukonde and
had
not followed proper channels. "This land grab by the above-named
individuals
was not sanctioned by the governor of Mashonaland East,
Honourable R
Kaukonde and his provincial land reform and resettlement
committee," said
the directors in the letter.
They also accused Kagonye of using her
position in the Lands ministry to
expropriate the farm to benefit her
relatives and friends.
"Your Excellency, this is not true and these
lies (that the farm is not
black-owned) were coming from an officer
(Kagonye) who wanted to have
herself, her father (Stanley) and four of her
friends resettled there."
The directors also alleged that the six
were boasting that they had been
promised funds by the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe to kick-start their
agricultural projects on the
farm.
"Worse still, these six people have been allocated plots
elsewhere under the
land reform programme, yet they still want to take some
more land from other
black people who actually borrowed money to purchase
the farm."
Court documents in possession of the Zimbabwe Independent
show that members
of the group invading Watermount were allocated land two
years ago in the
same province.
The papers say Petronella Kagonye
owns a 125-hectare farm number 8-11 at The
Glebe Farm in Goromonzi, a few
kilometres away from Watermount. Stanley
Kagonye owns plot number 4 (66 ha)
at Chinyika Farm in Goromonzi. The
documents show that Chigwamba was
allocated plot number 5 (121 ha) at
Miegunyah Farm in Mazoe while Hodzi has
plot number 1 (485ha) at Lyne Farm
in Goromonzi.
Zim Independent
Eric Chiriga
THE
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) has started its US$200
million
coal mine project, paving way for the refurbishment of the Hwange
Thermal
Power Station by Chinese investors.
The power utility, whose core
business is electricity generation, has
already invited tenders from China,
South Africa and India for exploration
work at its two coal fields, Western
and Sinamatela, which it was offered by
government last year to fulfill the
financing requirements of a deal with
Chinese investors.
"The
coal mining project has just started with the floating of a tender in
China,
South Africa and India for a detailed geological survey at our two
coalfields," Obert Nyatanga, Zesa's corporate affairs general manager, told
businessdigest.
"We expect the cost of the mining venture to be
between US$100 million and
US$200 million," he said.
Nyatanga
said the survey was necessary to enable them to produce a mining
development
plan based on the quantities and quality of the coal
underground. The survey
would also determine the type of mining method to be
employed in the
venture.
The survey and design stages are expected to take close to
nine months.
Nyatanga said the size of the mine, the number of workers
and cost of
running it would only be known after the mining development plan
and design
stages were complete.
"It is also at this stage that
we will know the total capital investment
required for maximum capacity
operation of the mine," he said.
Asked why Zesa was diverting from
core business into mining, Nyatanga said
the venture was an integral part of
Zesa's power generation business.
Zesa operates five power stations, four
of them coal-fired. Therefore,
Nyatanga said, the power stations needed
enough coal to operate at maximum
capacity. He said it was important to have
direct control of the coal price
and supplies as it affects the cost of
electricity.
"The new coalfields are designed to supply enough coal
to the expanded
Hwange Power Station and the existing generation stations so
that Zesa will
not blame anybody for failure to make enough coal deliveries
to their power
stations."
Nyatanga said every project Zesa
undertook had to be justified and approved
by the shareholder - the
government.
"Any investment venture (including operational issues) is
vetted by
government as the shareholder," he said.
Zesa and other
coal users have been facing problems getting adequate
supplies from Hwange
Colliery Company, the country's sole producer.
Asked for comment over
the ownership dispute surrounding the two coal
claims, Nyatanga said: "There
is no dispute between Zesa and Hwange Colliery
regarding the ownership of
the coalfields," he said.
He said all coalfields in Zimbabwe were
owned by the government which in
turn gives authority and licence to an
applicant to utilise state
coalfields. In this case, government selected
Zesa to exploit Western and
Sinamatella coalfields.
Zim Independent
Eric Chiriga
AN
information technology (IT) system that was expected to cost the National
Social Security Authority (NSSA) a mere $40 billion last year will now cost
a staggering $400 billion, a senior executive told
businessdigest.
NSSA acting general manager, Amon Takawira, said the
national pension fund
initially contracted an Irish firm to install the IT
system last year but
left without completing the job because of non-payment.
The Irish firm, IT
Design, wanted to be paid in foreign currency which NSSA
failed to raise.
"Last year, the project was supposed to cost us about
$40 billion but now,
because of the rise in costs due to inflation, it will
cost at least $400
billion," Takawira said.
The IT system will
now be installed by Professional Computing Services in
partnership with
Integra, a local IT firm, and Vision Global Solutions, a
developer of
business management solutions.
"The companies are co-developing the
software and hardware with NSSA staff
and we expect the installation of the
new system to be completed by August,"
Takawira said.
Takawaira
said Professional Computing Services was awarded the contract
after winning
a government tender.
NSSA, whose contributions are enforced on all
employees through a statutory
instrument, last month increased employee
contributions by 567% and is
planning to introduce a compulsory health
insurance scheme.
The increase will see employees forking out $150
000 in monthly
contributions from $22 500. The authority has investments
worth billions of
dollars in various sectors of the economy.
Zim Independent
Eric
Chiriga
THE government has designated Tourism Development Zones (TDZ) to
hasten
development of the tourism sector.
Tourism minister, Francis
Nhema, said the government had designated the
Great Zimbabwe and its
surroundings, Chiredzi, Gonarezhou National Park and
the
Beitbridge-Shashe-Limpopo area for development of TDZs.
"To
fast-track tourism development in specific areas that will have been
identified to have the potential, government has come up with the concept of
Tourism Development Zones," Nhema said during an EU-Sadc Tourism Investment
Partnership Promotion workshop last month.
Under the TDZ
facility, a number of incentives will be provided by the
government. These
include tax holidays and duty exemption on goods imported
by an investor for
use in the TDZs.
Nhema, who also called for foreign investors to
participate in the
development of TDZs, said there were vast investment
opportunities in the
national parks, tourist resort areas and communal
areas.
"Realising that the world investment climate remains
challenging due to the
global events that negatively impact on tourism, the
government of Zimbabwe
is encouraging partnerships between Zimbabweans and
foreign investors," he
said.
Recently, Nhema announced that the
government had set aside $190 billion to
renovate lodges in the Gonarezhou
and Hwange national parks.
He said $100 billion and $90 billion had
been disbursed as capital for
refurbishments of lodge facilities in
Gonarezhou and Hwange respectively.
The money will be used for, among
other things, fuel procurement and
infrastructure development to keep up
with international hospitality
standards.
Zimbabwe is battling to
revive its tourism sector, battered by perception
problems emanating from
reports of human rights abuses in the country.
According to figures
released by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, the tourism
sector experienced a
27% decline in arrivals in the third quarter of 2005.
Arrivals from
China declined by 89% in the third quarter.While 13 100
tourist arrivals
were recorded between July and September 2004, only 1 389
Chinese tourists
came to Zimbabwe during the same period last year.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
A SHORTAGE of carbonated soft drinks is looming in the country amid
reports
industrial conglomerate Delta Corporation's beverages manufacturing
division
has not secured concentrates since the beginning of the year.
Concentrates
are used in the manufacture of soft drinks.
The group
has been unable to raise foreign currency for the procurement of
concentrates, traditionally sourced from South Africa and
Swaziland.
Delta Corporation's corporate affairs manager, George
Mutendadzamera,
confirmed the problem, saying the shortage of foreign
currency had affected
the group's capacity to buy the
concentrates.
"The negative effects, on business, of the foreign
currency challenges
facing the country are well-documented and together with
everyone else,
Delta has not been spared," Mutendadzamera told
businessdigest.
"As you will no doubt appreciate, importation and
production patterns are
determined by market demand for the products and
will accordingly vary from
time to time," said
Mutendadzamera.
Businessdigest understands that Delta requires
foreign currency to meet more
than half of its operations.
Last
year, inconsistent supply of concentrates from Swaziland and South
Africa
forced Delta management to reassign the majority of its staff at the
affected arm to other divisions.
Delta's other divisions are
beverage manufacturing and distribution, lager
beer business and traditional
beer business.
"The supply of concentrates to manufacture soft drinks
has not been
consistent," a source in the beverages division
said.
"This year none have arrived. Business volumes at this division
were very
low and becoming a burden to the company. It was against this
background
that contract workers were dropped at the beginning of the year.
There were
about 100 contract workers," the source
indicated.
"This was done to accommodate permanent workers from
carbonated soft drinks
in other divisions. Initially they had been sent on
forced leave for five
days. Only a few workers were left at the affected
arm. Our chief executive
last week left the country to try and sort out the
problem," the source
said.
Mutendadzamera said staff redeployment was
a routine exercise.
"In the normal course of business, and on an
ongoing basis, we review our
manning levels and assign staff to suit the
needs of our operations.
"We will continue to face similar challenges
which will affect our
businesses and we are ready to face them,"
Mutendadzamera said.
An insider said the impact of the concentrates
shortages would start being
felt after a month as the group was currently
relying on carry-over stocks
from last year.
The carbonated soft
drinks division bottles carbonated soft drinks and has
two bottling plants
in Harare and Bulawayo.
Manufactured soft drinks include Coca-Cola,
Diet coke, Coke light, Fanta,
Sparletta, Sprite and Schweppes.
Zim Independent
By Admire
Mavolwane
IN a cricket Test match, there can come a time when the batting
side decides
that it has accumulated enough runs to be able to win and it
prematurely
terminates its own innings. The side is then said to have
declared and the
opponents are given the opportunity to start chasing the
target.
In January 2005, the industrial index rose by 87,3%, a return
only surpassed
by the 121,9% achieved in October. Thus in January 2006 the
bulls were
chasing the target set in the previous year, and how successful
they have
been. A monthly gain of 145% is surely a record and way ahead of
the closest
competitor, the US dollar, which is rumoured to have devalued by
approximately 58% on the parallel market, from 95 000 to 150 000 and 17% on
the Interbank market. The South African Rand is said to have fared "much
better" moving from $14 000 to $30 000, a return of 114%.
The
late bloomers APEX, TA, GULLIVER, TSL and NTS stole the show with gains
ranging from 863,0% to 533,3%. With the exception of TA, the rest could be
said to have finally woken from their slumber. But in the case of the odd
ball, the market seems to be applauding the intended disposal of Sable
Chemicals. In the good old days the 51% owned subsidiary - accounted for as
an associate as TA has no management control - used to be the foremost
contributor to earnings, but it has lately turned villain dragging down the
group through losses.
The chairman Shingi Mutasa wrote a detailed
analysis of the fertiliser
situation in the country and the state of affairs
at Sable Industries in the
2004 annual report which can be used as a
standard reference point of how
things can go wrong. Pricing remains a
sticky issue and is still under
negotiation. If the government pays the
right price for the asset and the
resultant proceeds are profitably
redeployed elsewhere it would be for the
better, appears to be the verdict
of the market.
It is rather ironic that the government through price
controls caused the
losses at Sable and now wants to buy it off the current
owners. Judging by
the governor's incisive supplement on parastatals and
local authorities,
what are the chances of the government doing a better
job.
It is somewhat contradictory that in one breath, the governor
supports the
creation of yet another parastatal and in the next details the
depth of the
holes that all these creatures have dug in the fiscal pitch. He
held out
little hope, however, that any of them would soon be in a position
to
declare that they had accumulated more than enough losses. Certainly,
there
seems next to no immediate possibility of any parastatal heads
voluntarily
announcing their retirement and letting somebody else come to
the wicket who
might start making a positive contribution to the side as
would be expected
of a private sector player.
Without major
changes in the ways that public enterprises currently operate
there seems
little or no prospect of most of them meeting the basic
requirements of the
Parastatals and Local Authorities Reorientation
Programme and thus playing
the part required of them in supporting a supply
response for the economy. A
couple of examples from the relevant supplement
amply illustrate
this.
It would seem that Zesa sells a unit of power at an average 16%
of its cost
of production. Little wonder therefore that the utility has had
insufficient
funds even for replacement investment so that it is currently
generating
only 49% of total power requirements and is compelled to purchase
the
balance from foreigners to meet its commitments.
The
"commercialised" National Railways last year moved only about 65% of the
tonnage required and only one third of the traffic it had hauled two years
ago. Only 37% of its locomotives are operational and if those that are
underpowered are excluded, the proportion of working locomotives falls to
below 30% of its fleet. Less than 43% of its wagon fleet is in service and
this is only 40% of the traffic requirements.
Remember, the much
publicised, dismissal of the board on allegations of
failing to implement
the 'strategic turnaround programme'. The public still
awaits a report of
how well the new broom has swept the corners and progress
made on the
turnaround since then. Also the impact of the "freedom train" on
profitability has not been made public.
The scenario at the
national carrier Air Zimbabwe defies logic to say the
least.
At
Ziscosteel, average monthly steel production is less than half the level
required to break even. It is pertinent to note that one after the other
many foreign investors have looked at the company and walked away. One
wonders what they see, that we are not seeing which makes them never look
back.
Such situations would just not be tolerated in the private
sector. They
could not continue for long without closure of the business.
The profoundly
disturbing feature is not just the unbusinesslike nature of
operations, but
that they are allowed to continue indefinitely on the basis
of public sector
financial support, much of it emanating from outside the
control of the
national budget.
This makes a mockery of the
figures presented to Parliament by the Minister
of Finance just two months
ago. Again, information from the fourth Monetary
Policy Supplement eerily
puts it into perspective.
While the budget estimates appear to
provide $3,5 trillion under various
heads for direct support to agriculture,
the supplement states that $7
trillion is being made available to the sector
under the Agricultural Sector
Productivity Enhancement
Facility.
Even allowing for some overlapping, it is clear that public
sector spending
on agriculture is very much higher than indicated in the
budget and that the
deficit will inevitably be much higher than the $4,5
trillion indicated in
the estimates. If Zesa alone made a loss of $8
trillion, what does the
actual figure of the budget deficit come to if one
adds losses from the
other state utilities and those incurred by the central
bank on quasi-fiscal
subsidies?
The implications of this for
money supply growth and inflation are
profoundly disturbing particularly as
the hoped for supply response is
unlikely to materialise to anything like
the extent intended.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
Vincent
Kahiya
I WAS awestruck by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono's description of
the
state of Zimbabwe when he presented his monetary policy statement last
week.
Often caught in the exuberance of his expression and a quest to
paint
horror, which he can't avoid doing considering the parlous state of
the
economy, Gono gave a thought-provoking metaphor about what we should do
to
get the economy ticking again.
He has given a lot of these
illustrations in previous statements but
unfortunately, the sound bites are
often excluded from the official
blockbuster speech handed to journalists
and those who attend the quarterly
pilgrimage at the RBZ building. Last week
Gono's litany of corrupt practices
in government was missing from the
official statement. But this nugget found
its way into
print.
"Naturally, as with every opportunity, equally true is the
fact that the
country is standing on the edge of a cliff which threatens to
take us
downhill if we do not move boldly forward with speed to address most
our
shortcomings."
Picture this, you are standing on the edge of
a cliff, trembling and
sweating as you contemplate the drop. You struggle to
pull back, clutching
at everything conceivable for support but the gale
behind you is
unrelenting. It wants to send you down into the abyss. Then a
voice behind
you instructs magisterially: "Move boldly forward with speed".
As a good
patriot, you obey the order. AAAGH!!
Those who want to
run commandist economies have often given such
instructions with very
obvious devastating consequences in the end. That is
why the economy is at
the bottom of the precipice and those who are on the
brink are being ordered
to jump.
Our avid reader Peter Thompson sent me this note on Gono's
advice: "I
suppose to a large extent it depends upon which direction one is
facing when
standing upon the edge of a cliff. You could be facing the way
in which you
have just come or to either side of your direction or, as is
implied in
Gono's statement, we are looking out over the edge of the
cliff.
"If it is this last direction, moving boldly forward is
foolhardy, as we
will undoubtedly fall off the cliff. The only people I know
who willingly
jump off a cliff are those intent on suicide or adrenaline
junkies with
parachutes or para-gliders. The latter two have some form of
safety device
to ensure a soft or safe landing whereas the former is only
interested in
death!
"I have no doubt that Gono is right about
moving forward, but I am not sure
that we are facing in the right direction,
as which way is forward and does
anyone know?"
Aptly
captured.
The people are confused. There no clear picture of where
forward is. We have
been told forward was the gung-ho tactics of invading
farms and factories.
We have been told it is fighting our enemy Tony
Blair.
Technocrats have pointed the nation towards price controls and
other state
interventions in industrial activity. That has now been
dropped.
We were told the economy would turn around because hundreds
of billions of
dollars of cheap money had been pumped into the private
sector and
parastatals. This has not worked. We were told banks were
sabotaging the
economy and fuelling inflation. The bad apples were closed
down immediately.
This has not worked because inflation is still among the
highest in the
world at 585% in December and is still heading
north.
Gono is not a dare-me-game cheerleader or coach, the sort that
would proffer
expert advice to youngsters in the art of driving off a cliff
edge.
I witnessed adults in Ridgeview sometime last year offering
advice to
youths - high on illegal substances - to drive towards each other
at high
speed in a game called dare-me. These wacky coaches wanted something
dramatic to happen, like a near miss or worse still, witness a voluntary
head-on collision.
The youths disappointed their coaches and fans.
The cars stopped miles
apart - about three metres of each other. Lives and
limbs were saved.
With the Zimbabwean economy, lives and limbs have
already been lost.
The truck was driven off the cliff six years ago when
war veterans and Zanu
PF hoodlums invaded farms, looted farm equipment and
turned productive
farmland into barren tracks dominated by rickety huts and
a few bony cattle.
Experts entrusted to put right the economy are
standing at the edge of the
cliff contemplating what to do. Do they jump in
to try and see if there is
anything to salvage from the dark hole or they
back off and find other ways
of sustenance? The order is for the salvage
team to "move boldly forward
with speed".
Someone should lead by
example in this exercise. Let's see the brave
governor and his bosses
jumping in first because this is not a game anymore.
No parachutes
please!
Zim Independent
By Chido
Makunike
IN response to being as oppressed as we are in Zimbabwe, we have
developed
various coping mechanisms which include skirting around important
issues
instead of taking them on directly.
The number of words and
actions that are considered to be threatening to the
ruling regime keeps
rising as it becomes more afraid and insecure. So to try
to avoid getting
into trouble, we have learned to talk around issues, rather
than hone in on
their essence.
One result of this is that we get very easily
side-tracked about what the
issue under discussion is exactly. Because of
this natural protective
reaction to having one's free space threatened and
reduced so dramatically
by a brutal ruling authority, we frequently deceive
ourselves into paying
more importance to side issues than to the central
ones.
It might seem at first that this malady would only afflict the
oppressed,
but in reality it affects the oppressors every bit as much as
their victims,
and perhaps even more so.
Statements and
declarations are made without much effort being put into
pursuing where they
logically lead. This is how we end up with a regime as
deluded as that of
President Mugabe's about the true state of the nation,
the genesis of its
problems and what to do about them.
Let us take some examples of the
recent statements of senior Mugabe regime
members to illustrate what I am
talking about.
He may be completely inept at the nuts and bolts of
running a modern nation,
but President Mugabe likes to imagine himself as
somewhat of a roving world
statesman, taking every opportunity to
pontificate about some issue of
international import. Recently, he held
forte on the issue of the UN
Security Council seats for
Africa.
Africa must demand rather than beg for the two permanent
seats it is
"entitled to", President Mugabe is reported to have said to his
African
Union colleagues in Sudan.
He then went on to whine about
the historical humiliation of Africa, using
that as one of the
justifications for the demand of the seats.
Excuse me Mr Mugabe, but
in the world of real-politik that we live in,
nations and blocs can only
make "demands" from a position of strength. For
your "demand" to have any
persuasive effect, you must be in a position to
say "do/give me this or we
will do this in retaliation to get our way."
I'm sorry to tell you
this Sir, but Africa under rulers such as yourself,
has no such trump-card
because you have squandered the last several decades
of Independence,
resulting in Africa being ever weaker relative to other
continents. The
current world currency of "demanding" anything is economic
or military
power, and Africa does not count on either score.
As for moral
authority suggested by his reference to the historical
"humiliation" of
Africa, people like him have also used up much of Africa's
moral capital by
being as vicious on Africans as the colonial powers of
yester-year.
Even if the rest of the world agreed with the logic
of President Mugabe's
argument about the Security Council or any other
issue, those arguments are
neutralised by his low standing in the world. All
his detractors have to do
is to point at the state of the country he rules
and say: "who would listen
to the arguments of a man like that, who has
managed the amazing feat of
snatching poverty, decline and failure out of a
jewel of a country like
Zimbabwe." Case closed, forget your "demands" and go
home.
And suppose Africa won its two seats, what would it do with
them that would
make any difference to you and me or the world? How do you
enforce your veto
power from a point of such weakness?
With no
currency to make the world take you seriously, those seats would
mean
absolutely nothing except perhaps provide yet another forum for those
who
enjoy showing off their speech-reading skills.
Do not delude yourself
by putting the cart before the horse. Zimbabwe and
Africa must put their
house in order before they will be listened to and
taken seriously. It
cannot be the other way around.
Every few months the visit of a few
IMF officials gets us all excited.
Officials run around to look for hard
currency to pay IMF arrears and
hopefully stave off expulsion from that
body. Passionate
pseudo-nationalistic editorials are written about how the
"IMF done Zimbabwe
wrong" in one or another way.
More people from
all over the world ideological spectrum are questioning the
role of the
controversial IMF in developing countries. I will leave that
subject for
another day.
But for the purposes of how self-delusional the regime
that rules Zimbabwe
is, look at how brilliantly the IMF outsmarts that
regime every time. They
string them along as they coax more of the money
owed to them out of the
regime. That regime tells itself that if it pays up
it may then be able to
borrow more from the IMF and other international
lenders. The IMF is quite
happy to have the regime tell itself this and
never comes right out to say:
"no way in hell would we advance any more
money to such an economically and
politically illiterate
regime."
It seems incredible to me that any officials in the Mugabe
regime can really
believe that given the prevailing environment in Zimbabwe,
any lender would
advance us any meaningful credit. This is self-delusion at
its most
insidious.
The process of trying to limit what
Zimbabweans think and say aggressively
began by the notorious Jonathan Moyo
continues apace under Tafataona Mahoso,
George Charamba and other regime
apparatchiks.
The media and free expression in general continue to
suffer at the hands of
these officials.
Central banker Gideon
Gono recently joined the chorus of regime members who
blame the country's
many woes on the media. But what does this tell us about
the success of
clamping down on freedom of thought and expression then? The
regime
"controls" the thinking and talking space more today than it has ever
done,
and yet its reputation is even more in the dog house than it has ever
been.
Would this not suggest that trying to control the thinking space in
this
modern age is not only difficult to impossible, but is
counter-productive?
Are there any regime members who are smart
enough to see this and make
reversing this a central pillar of getting the
country back on track?
But once you reach a certain level of
self-delusion, nothing is as clear and
obvious as it is when one is in a
normal state of being.
"But wait a minute Makunike, in all your
reactionary arguments against the
gallant, revolutionary Mugabe you fail to
factor in the Western sanctions
imposed on Zimbabwe." Let us take this
argument at face value and say that
the sanctions that are in place are the
cause, rather than the effect of the
situation in the country. But instead
of whining and using them as an excuse
for helplessness, should we not
"demand" to know what the "revolutionary"
government is doing to get around
them? Of what use to us are these claimed
"revolutionary" credentials if
they do not include economic
counter-insurgency for the benefit of the
people?
I thought part of the cachet and romanticism of being a
"revolutionary" was
in being able to show an ability to thwart more powerful
enemies, not merely
constantly whining that they are plotting against
you.
Being able to fool oneself about reality is not strength. Quite
unwittingly,
the astonishing ineptitude of the regime of President Mugabe
shows this
truth to the whole world, ever reducing it in stature and
influence, and
giving a historical example of how to ruin a
nation.
* Chido Makunike is Zimbabwean writer based in Senegal.
Zim Independent
By Rejoice
Ngwenya
THE single resolution I made this year is to reclaim my individual
liberty,
because if one is not free, he or she cannot participate in the
liberation
of others. But why do I feel enslaved even after 25 years of
Independence,
you might ask?
I will get back to that. First, the myth
surrounding the Gushungo totem has
to be clarified.
I have not
consulted the so-called gurus of traditional totems at our local
university,
but next time you bump into the likes of Vimbai Chivaura, Claude
Mararike
and Aeneas Chigwedere, confirm this Gushungo assertion with
them.
Just like my father, I grew up with a "Gushungo" label.
Ironically, the
Ngwenya, Mukwena or Mokoena are known to have roots either
in Swaziland or
Lesotho.
My ageing father recalls that the clan
came to Zimbabwe together with white
men as scotch-cart drivers
(chemutengures) in the 1890s, then settled
somewhere in the Buhera area
where perhaps the totem Gushungo was coined.
Through time, they
rediscovered their ilk in the Kezi and Bulilimamangwe
areas, before
establishing an urban stronghold in Bulawayo.
My grandfather was a
soldier in the First World War. He was rewarded with a
farm in the Zowa area
not far from Chegutu, where my father was born.
My father went on to
attend school and underwent teacher training and
married at Solusi in the
mid-forties before being deployed and eventually
settling in
Shurugwi.
Apparently, I also understand my grandmother was from the
"royal" Nhema
family, although that lineage is yet to be
substantiated.
Anyway, being of Ndebele origin, but born in the
Midlands, meant that I
spoke siNdebele at home and studied chiShona in
school at all levels.
Infact, I was so good at the Shona language that as
a mere 15-year-old, I
penned two to three exercise books full of a short
story called Ngozi
muMuzinda (trouble in the king's homestead), which,
together with my valued
Jimi Hendrix collection, disappeared in the mêlée of
the liberation war.
So when people ask: "Are you Ndebele or Shona?" I
stumble for an answer,
because although my mother is pure Ndebele from
Lupane, my grandmother was
pure Karanga from Nhema.
Ironically,
most or all of my mother's relatives settled in Botswana,
eRamagkwebana a
few kilometres from the Plumtree Border post, hence my
appreciative
knowledge of Tswana, Shona and of course, the little KiSwahili
that I picked
up in exile at college in Nairobi.
As it is, half of our family of
eight has been sent into economic exile in
the diaspora. That leaves me and
three elderly sisters to bite the dust in
Zimbabwe.
However, I am
here to stay and fight for my liberty against a dictatorship
perpetrated by.
another Gushungo!
I first heard that President Robert Mugabe is a
Gushungo by (former deputy
Local Government minister) Tony Gara during the
vicious 2000 parliamentary
election.
I met him in Mbare on a
routine inspection of polling stations at Stodart
Hall as part of my duties
with the then Electoral Supervisory Commission,
tasked with shadowing the
late commissioner, Elaine Raftopoulos, who had
asked for an "intelligent"
assistant.
Although Gara did not explain the Ngwenya connection in
Mugabe, I soon
delved into reading a bit about the man's background, but
could not trace
the president's Ndebele lineage, apart from common knowledge
that he at one
time or another stayed and worked at Hope Fountain
mission.
But if the story that his father went to South Africa in the
1920s is
anything to go by, it explains why he grew up using his mother's
family
name.
However, his Ngwenya lineage received a bit of credence
when, in the late
1980s or early 1990s, the president visited a relative's
grave in Soweto
which some people claimed was engraved with a Ngwenya
name.
Therefore if this is true, it explains why Gara said to me: "Saka
uri
Gushungo sesuwoka, iwe!" (You are of the Gushungo totem, like
us).
I will be difficult to contain this year because like my "uncle"
Bob and our
late vicious and heartless king Tshaka Zulu, I am hardening with
age.
President Mugabe and his friends fought tooth and nail to
liberate us from
colonial bondage in grand style - using guns and stones.
They fought for
equal opportunities, universal suffrage, non-discrimination,
and access to
health, wealth and education - fringe benefits we enjoyed only
up to 1984.
It has been a Mach Three downward spiral ever since.
These days, only Zanu
PF supporters meet, demonstrate and vote freely. Only
Zanu PF has serious
access to a highly-monopolised broadcast
system.
If you express opinions other than those of the ruling party,
you are
branded all sorts of derogatory names. Mugabe loves democracy, but
resents
fair political competition. If he lets us operate our own broadcast
stations, stops controlling the registration of newspapers, allows us to
meet freely and debate, then we will feel really free.
The man
has too much power that he uses to appoint totally incompetent
ministers and
countless commissions. Central and local governance has
collapsed, resulting
in terrible infrastructure and epidemics.
Only him and a few of his
colleagues are wealthy, while the rest of us
struggle under the yoke of
poverty and yet he claims we are free. Those
Africans around us who are free
don't come for shopping in Zimbabwe - they
come for pleasure. Freedom brings
wealth and sophistication while poverty
breeds crime, disease and turns one
into a spectacle.
If we were really free, professionals would not be
escaping to the diaspora.
If we were free, we would not be lying prostrate
on the ground, begging
(South African president) Thabo Mbeki to remove visa
requirements for
Zimbabweans.
If we were free, every one of us
would afford basic health, leisure and
education. If we were free, "retired"
colonels would not be managing
parastatals and commissions.
If we
were free, each province would have its own private radio station and
newspaper, aeroplanes would be flying in and out of Zimbabwe full of
tourists and fuel would be flowing in all service stations at affordable
rates.
If we were free, there would be clean water in Tafara,
decent housing in
Dangamvura and no nightly electricity power outages in
Zimre Park.
Had we been free, property rights and access to justice
would be respected.
If we were really free, Gushungo - the ruling one, I
mean - would have
retired from politics in 1990.
Is President
Mugabe therefore, himself not free to retire or he is not sure
of his
freedom after retirement? Knowing Gushungos, I think he does not give
anyone
around him a morsel of a chance to say anything about his
retirement.
My own father who had been sickly since I was 10 years
old, was only forced
into retirement because he could not walk. His late
brother forcibly took
over our grandfather's Zowa farm from my father
despite not appearing
anywhere in the title deeds.
If the Swazis
have any Ngwenya blood in them, it explains King Mswati's
taste for power
and women. The Sotho have not fared any better either, with
politics having
been once resolved by military invasion. What is it with us
Gushungos?
Perhaps it is something one can term heartless
self-esteem. Unlike the
Dhewas whose idle boasts yield nothing other than
rhetoric, the Sokos who
talk of past victories or Godhlwayos whose only
claim to fame is colour of
the skin, Gushungos think one way and act the
exact opposite.
My best bet is that all the global emissaries sent to
pick Mugabe's brain
are convinced the man is a democrat. But it's what he
then does after that,
that swings their perception of him. To him, elections
every five years are
a test of a healthy democracy, never mind the
intimidation, the rigging or
change of rules on election eve. In typical
Gushungo fashion, he thinks it
is the others who do not
understand.
In any civilisation, society or human gathering, age
plays a role in
delivery.
On February 21, the president will be
82.
Gushungos have sharp, alert minds, but at that age, we waffle a
lot. My dad
is 84, but reads and studies his Bible like a young
man.
His commentaries are logical and the analyses is rational, but
place him in
a position to take a serious decision - you are stretching it
too far.
My humble advice to "Uncle" Bob: "Gushungo, zvaitwa,
zvakwana chizororai."
(Gushungo, it has been done, it is enough, please go
and rest." Otherwise,
we face a ngozi muMuzinda (vengeance in the
family)!
* Rejoice Ngwenya is a Harare-based writer.
Zim Independent
By Phillip
Pasirayi
THERE have been innumerable postulations regarding the origins of
the
Zimbabwean crisis, but what is startling is the Zanu PF government's
denial
of responsibility and blaming of the British, the Americans, the
independent
press, non-governmental organisations, the Movement for
Democratic Change,
churches and the human rights activists who, according to
Justice minister,
Patrick Chinamasa, gallivant throughout the world to
portray a negative
image of the government and the country.
Another
school of thought that has been maintained is that the current
crisis has
nothing to do with the massive human rights violations in
Zimbabwe, but that
the crisis is a result of the vagaries of nature such as
the years of
successive droughts and floods that have hit the country in the
past.
Government has maintained that it is a victim of hostile
propaganda from the
West and that this crusade is led by the former colonial
master - Britain -
who uses her influence in the European Union and the
Commonwealth to
ostracise the Zanu PF leadership.
The solution to
the current political and economic crisis has been given as
consolidating
the gains of Independence under the auspices of the so-called
Third
Chimurenga and developing a deliberate policy that has since been
adopted by
all "Zanunised" state institutions such as the public media, the
police, the
army, national youth service institutions and some tertiary
colleges.
Some ideologues who are part of the ruling elite, their
chief being head of
the Media and Information Commission (MIC), Tafataona
Mahoso, have invoked
the rhetoric of empty pan-Africanism and applauded the
adoption of the "Look
East" policy by government and the subsequent
bilateral and multilateral
ties on trade, tourism, communications,
technology and social
and cultural exchange being concluded with
countries like China and Iran.
In an article entitled, "Organised,
exaggerated pseudo-crisis", (the Sunday
Mail, January 29), Mahoso refuted
the existence of a crisis situation in
Zimbabwe and instead apportioned
blame on organisations such as the Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition and Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO Forum for dramatising
events in the country with an idea to
create the crisis.
Such is the extent of the crisis that has engulfed
our country as epitomised
in senior pro-government academics like Mahoso
openly declaring their
partisan conduct through lengthy
articles.
People like Mahoso easily believe their lies that there is
no crisis in the
country because they are part of the crumbling system.
Mahoso does not see
the crisis because he is chauffer-driven in a new
government-issued SUV
while taxpayers pay for his fuel, security and
cellphone allowances.
Contrary to the wayward claims that the issue
at stake in Zimbabwe is about
sovereignty (in the sense that sovereignty is
narrowly-defined by Zanu PF),
the culture of impunity, coupled with
ineptitude, corruption and the abusive
state institutions, are largely the
causes of the economic and political
crisis.
Claims to
sovereignty do not make sense for a country such as ours that has
control
over its economic and political affairs and is not ruled by an alien
imperial power or force. If the problem is about sovereignty, as Zanu PF
wants us to believe, then it is Zanu PF that is denying Zimbabweans both
their economic and political sovereignty, and not some imagined foreign
power working covertly through the MDC to effect an imagined regime
change.
Successful black entrepreneurs like Mutumwa Mawere, Strive
Masiyiwa, Nigel
Chanakira, among others, are victims of this denial of
economic sovereignty
as much as fired former Harare Executive Mayor,
Engineer Elias Mudzuri,
Misheck Shoko, (Chitungwiza) and Misheck Kagurabadza
(Mutare) and the
thousands of people who elected them into
office.
Contrary to what we are told by the Zanu PF mouthpieces - the
Herald and the
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings - the ruling party is the
chief culprit in
frustrating the people's desire to express and enjoy their
economic and
political sovereignty.
According to Alistair
McConnachie (2003), sovereignty means authority over
one's own existence and
this can apply to the individual, the community and
the nation -
state.
It is by no coincidence that Zanu PF emphasises state
sovereignty, though
out of context, than individual sovereignty, because the
latter means the
people are empowered economically and politically, and can
freely go about
their day-to-day business without undue interference from
government.
This is obviously a fallacy in Zimbabwe where those that
work hard are
punished for doing so and those that loot are rewarded through
multiple
farms, appointment to the cabinet and other top posts in the public
service.
Through the enactment of draconian pieces of legislation such as
the Public
Order and Security Act (Posa), the Access to Information and
Protection of
Privacy Act (Aippa), the Non-Governmental Organisations Bill,
Constitutional
Amendment No 17 and creating such monstrous institutions such
as the Media
and Information Commission (MIC), Zanu PF has rendered the
country a pariah
state that can no longer be part of the international
community that
respects the rule of law and recognises citizens'
rights.
Despite denials from the ruling class, the human agency
factor has
contributed a great deal to the fall of Zimbabwe from the once
revered
country whose education was once the best not only in southern
Africa but
internationally, whose health system has irretrievably broken
down and
social security has collapsed.
Sheer inefficiency,
ineptitude, incompetence and the fact that public
servants take comfort in
being members of the ruling party and know that
they have political
"protection" even if they underperform, is what has led
to the failed state
that Zimbabwe has become today.
In article entitled, "Africa's Mess,
Mugabe's Mayhem", (Foreign Affairs, Vol
79, No 5, October-September 2000),
Robert I Rotberg, an eminent scholar and
director of the Programme on
Intra-State Conflict at Harvard's John F
Kennedy School of Government, says
this of President Mugabe: "Kleptocratic,
patrimonial leaders like President
Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, give Africa a
bad name, plunge its peoples into
poverty and despair and incite civil wars
and bitter ethnic conflict. They
are the ones largely responsible for
declining GDP levels, food scarcities,
rising infant-mortality rates,
soaring budget deficits, human rights abuses,
breaches of the rule of law."
The reason why Zimbabwe is even being
condemned by such pan-African
institutions as the African Commission on
Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR),
is because of the realisation of the
human rights and development nexus, and
that such behaviour as subjecting
defenceless citizens to torture and other
forms of inhumane and degrading
treatment is no longer admissible in the
international realm.
In
the international community, which is ideally a community of civilised
nations, barbaric acts such as shutting down newspapers, torture of civil
and political rights activists and confiscation of passports belonging to
government critics and expelling elected mayors on flimsy allegations
compels the international community to invoke sanctions as a way of reining
in on errant members.
Zimbabwe today is a strong candidate for a
failed state except only for the
absence of a civil war. The collapse of
infrastructure, the level of
politicisation of state institutions such as
the judiciary, the police and
the army, shortage of basic commodities, the
critical shortage of fuel and a
totally ineffectual public transport system
have exposed government's lack
of capacity to deliver social and economic
services to the citizenry.
When the people elect a government they
expect it to provide, or at least
create an enabling environment that makes
it easier for them to access
drugs, education, social amenities and other
goods and services to enhance
their lives. If a government fails to deliver
on these critical issues, then
the electorate is under no obligation to pay
allegiance to it.
Two years back, I had an argument with a University
of Zimbabwe lecturer in
international politics, who argued that Zimbabwe
cannot be considered a
failed state because central government is still
intact and can still make
laws.
My point of disputation to this
was not the existence of central government.
The existence of the
Zimbabwean government is enhanced through coercive
tactics and not by the
will of the people and even if it does exist, it has
no capacity to deal
with the socio-economic challenges that the country is
facing.
The number of potholes on our roads can assist us to
ascertain whether or
not we can qualify Zimbabwe as a failed state. It has
become dangerous to
drive in Zimbabwe, not only because of potholes, but
also because of
dysfunctional traffic lights.
Instead of blaming
our woes on the British who through the Department of
International
Development (DFID) are helping the country mitigate some of
its challenges,
and the US that funds the bulk of community-based and
national development
projects through USAid, our government must be
conciliatory, rather than
resemble the proverbial housefly that is stupid to
follow the corpse into
the grave.
In its present form, the government cannot be expected to
genuinely deal
with the problems haunting the country and re-engage the
international
community not only because of lack of capacity, but because of
the world's
scepticism about President Mugabe and his government. Some might
want to
ask: Re-engaging which international community when President Mugabe
enjoys
support from countries like China?
The "Look East" policy
has opened new havens for the most corrupt amongst
the Zanu PF rank and file
who have abused the few opportunities such as the
Tractor Purchase
Scheme.
On the other hand, Zimbabweans have had to put up with
sub-standard and
cheap products, derisively known as zhing-zhongs that have
rendered the
local fabric and textile industry redundant.
The
human factor is a big factor in explaining the crisis which has reached
fever-pitch levels. It is unlikely that the situation will improve because
of the rains that we have received this year. If corruption, human rights
abuses, ineptitude and arrogance of the political leadership remain the
system through which Zanu PF chooses to govern, then we are poised for
further problems.
* Phillip Pasirayi is a UK-based human rights,
international relations and
governance research fellow.
Zim Independent
Candid Comment with
Joram Nyathi
"IN our wide-ranging consultations with stakeholders across the
board we
have come to realise a common thread of unanimity on the
unfortunate fact
that as Zimbabweans we have become our worst enemies
through our thoughts,
speeches and deeds," said Reserve Bank governor Gideon
Gono in his monetary
statement last week.
He noted that as a people
we are "fast losing our integrity and sense of
economic justice and
fairness".
Gono called on the authorities to come up with a national
Code of Conduct
and Ethics that would hopefully jog our conscience in times
of lapses. He
did go further, however, calling for an amnesty for "all those
who may have
erred and strayed economically in the past so that a new
beginning can be
worked out".
"Time has come to give back
confidence to our people, to decriminalise them,
give them self-worthy,
self-respect and greater economic space and freedom,"
he
said.
There is no denying Gono's diagnosis about Zimbabweans posing
greater harm
to themselves than any enemy, real or imagined, internal or
external.
The problem is that we don't know who is meant by
"stakeholders". Does he
mean what he describes elsewhere as "our
principals", those given to
speaking with a forked tongue? Does he mean
business and labour or does he
mean civic society and the ordinary
people?
All these groups have different opinions about what needs to
be done and the
cause of our woes.
In his consultations he would
have discovered that the biggest "common
thread" was an overwhelming sense
of negativity across all sections of
society. What he may not have
discovered is the complete rupture between the
corrupt rich and the petty
lot of the poor majority.
What has become evident is the social
dislocation caused by high-level
corruption that is apparently fuelled by
impunity. The spirit of community
is gone: there is no sense of community or
shared values except an
indeterminate desire for change - any
change.
The so-called stakeholders are an eclectic group of corrupt
influence-peddlers, speculators or beneficiaries of the government's ever
widening system of patronage. These are the people opposed to change because
they want to protect their ill-attained privileges. A majority of them have
benefited from looting state assets or stripping companies for personal
gain. They are venal double-dealers who would have problems accounting to
the people for their overnight fairytale to riches.
Their greed
knows no fellow comrades and the party has become a cloak under
which the
most heinous economic crimes are committed. They are involved in
the looting
of farms, illegal sale of foreign currency, fuel and mealie-meal
and run no
recognisable business.
The reason why Gono's appeal to their
conscience and a sense of the
commonweal falls on deaf ears is because this
lot is solely dependent on the
establishment for its survival - politically
and economically. They are a
pathetic caricature of the propertied
capitalist bourgeoisie they fancy
themselves to be and hence cannot stand
out as a class. In fact, they are
happy to prey on each
other.
They have set themselves at loggerheads with the poor who feel
cheated not
only of the promises of Independence in terms of wealth but also
by an
electoral system that has failed to bring about peaceful change. It is
this
disillusionment that has destroyed all sense of community and fuels
greed
and unhealthy self-interest that Gono condemns.
Instead of
looking at the national interest, everybody now thinks they can
do it alone
by stealing from their employer. This theft ranges from fuel and
company
tools to white-collar crime in the banking sector. Nobody wants to
be left
out even where there is a clear risk of being caught.
This brings me
to the governor's appeal for an amnesty for most of the
banking executives
who fled the country after they were accused of breaches
of foreign exchange
regulations and misuse of company assets.
Most of these were real
entrepreneurs who didn't need party cards or a
political godfather to get
by. The reason most of them breached the law was
because the environment
dictated it and as entrepreneurs they had to
survive. What with inflation
running at over 600% and the country without
foreign currency to talk
of?
Gono is aware that these people have the skills the country needs
for its
economic revival. We have to look beyond petty vindictiveness and
consider
the well-being of the nation, is his message. It is time to restore
confidence in our people, to give them "economic space and
freedom".
But you can be sure that there won't be any amnesty soon,
given that their
financial and economic independence is a moral slap in the
face for the
politically-correct who reap where they did not sow. Moreover,
a number of
the exiled entrepreneurs have already started something else and
are
powering ahead wherever they are.
Gono knows all this and
wishes they were doing all that back home. But it
will take some convincing,
given the overall disenchantment with a system
that ruined their dreams and
cannot guarantee the security of their persons
and
property.
Combined with this group of entrepreneurs are people who
left the country
for reasons such as political insecurity and the search for
better
opportunities anywhere their talents are valued and well-rewarded.
Each one
in their individual way thinks they are fighting for political
change and a
better Zimbabwe.
Gono knows why his Homelink project
wasn't such a huge success. It doesn't
mean people are not sending money
back home. It doesn't mean they don't have
money either. They are simply not
happy with their motherland being reduced
to a basket case, a laughing stock
of the international community when they
know things could be
better.
In a nutshell, the government has lost the goodwill of its
people at home
and abroad. That can only make the job of economic recovery
that much
harder.
To win the economic battle, we must first
defeat the enemy within - greed,
selfishness, deceitfulness and a shameless
leadership.
Sometimes one can't help feeling sorry for Gono given the
sincerity of his
intentions and the hopelessness of their attainment. But
his cause cannot be
helped by joining the bandwagon of those accusing the
media and imaginary
sanctions for the poor state of economy and
corruption.
Media didn't launch Operation Murambatsvina. Media don't
cause fuel or
fertiliser shortages. Media don't have foreign currency or
gold to smuggle
out of the country.
By shifting the blame, Gono
runs the risk of creating an alibi for the real
enemies of Zimbabwe.
Zim Independent
Shakeman
Mugari
RESERVE Bank governor, Gideon Gono, last week made a spirited
attempt to
bolster government's propaganda by blaming the economic spiral on
the media
and sanctions.
In a typical Zanu PF refrain, Gono said the
media and sanctions were some of
the major causes of the gripping crisis
that Zimbabwe now finds itself in.
But analysts say Gono is only playing
the blame game by avoiding relevant
causes of the crisis.
In his
monetary policy statement, Gono said the country's balance of payment
position had worsened because of the sanctions.
"Adverse publicity,
coupled with punitive measures by some foreign
governments, multilateral
institutions, as well as some private sector
entities have worked to
constrain the policy options available to the
country, which in effect has
worked to worsen the socio-economic
environment, with the poor and the
vulnerable groups being the hardest hit,"
Gono said.
Although
accepting disruptions on the farms, he lashed out at the media for
being a
"penal tool" in tarnishing Zimbabwe's image abroad.
"The land reform
programme has been misunderstood by the world due to bad
publicity and
calculated distortion of facts on the ground," said Gono in
his
statement.
Gono said the media had undermined investor confidence, saying
that Western
sanctions had seen Zimbabwe's balance of payment worsen since
1998.
He said sanctions had limited government's alternatives to
manoeuvre in the
monetary, fiscal, structural and exchange rate policies,
Gono said.
But analysts note that the collapse of the economy had nothing
to do with
the media and sanctions but policies which government has
implemented over
the past 25 years.
They say that sanctions came
about as a result of government's reckless
actions and are only targeted at
the leadership.
After lambasting the media and the imposition of
sanctions Gono made a
change again, concluding with a statement analysts say
is at the core of
Zimbabwe's economic woes.
Gono hit the nail on the
head when he said: "Policy consistency; respect for
private property rights;
investment protection, a zero tolerance to
lawlessness and corruption as
well as full implementation of set
socio-economic programmes are also vital
steps that all Zimbabweans must
take to heart as a tool against the adverse
wave that is increasingly
putting the country under
siege."
Ironically, it is the same things that the media have been
highlighting for
the past eight years.
Gono seems to believe that if
there were no sanctions and media "adversity"
the economy would get itself
back on the rails and the Zimbabwe dollar
recoup its lost value.
But
the truth remains that with or without sanctions the country was
inevitably
going to collapse because of government's destructive policies
which
constricted the agricultural and manufacturing sectors.
Analysts say it
is government's lawlessness, disregard of property rights
and interference
in the judiciary that have scared away investors.
It is the state's abuse
of its power to harass political opponents, the
propensity to rig elections
and muzzle the press that have plunged the
economy to a level that has
earned the country the notoriety of having the
highest inflation rate in the
world.
Zimbabwe was always going to crash as long as it allowed
corruption and
political patronage to run the country, analysts
said.
While Gono harps on "economic saboteurs", sanctions and the media,
he seems
to forget that it is his principals who have been plundering the
country's
wealth over the past 25 years.
While it is true the
problems worsened in the past half decade, the economy
started showing signs
of decline as early as 1981, a year after Independence
despite the ruling
elite inheriting a vibrant economy.
Mugabe's government took over a
country with a functioning power system,
roads, health infrastructure and
stable currency.
Rhodesia had survived 15 year of real sanctions, not the
current nominal
sanctions targeted only at the leadership.
Research
shows that even before the targeted sanctions that government is
livid
about, the value of the dollar had started nose-diving.
The precipitous
fall of the dollar is a function of government policies of
printing more
money to fund its expenditure.
Research clearly indicates that
government's extravagancy started way back
in 1980 even though it
accelerated in the 90s on the back of a costly war in
the Democratic
Republic of Congo as well as the ill-advised gratuities to
the war veterans
in 1997.
In 1978, in the midst of the liberation struggle, the United
States dollar
was equal to 0,68 Rhodesian cents and by 1980 it was around
0,68 cents.
Seventeen years down the line the Zimbabwe dollar was still
respectable at
$8,26 against the US dollar. The parallel market which is
wrecking havoc in
the economy started rearing its ugly head in 1995, about
seven years before
the so-called British and American
sanctions.
While the dollar was trading at $8,26:US$1 on the official
market, the black
market was at $8,85:US1.
Analysts said Gono was
misinforming the nation about sanctions. While he
wants to give the
impression of a country under siege, it is a fact that the
sanctions are
targeted at Mugabe and his cronies. Zimbabwe is allowed to
import or export
to the same countries that Gono says have imposed sanctions
on
us.
Economist John Robertson said it was not true that the country was
under
sanctions. "It's not true that this country is under sanctions. They
are
trying to shift the blame but they know what the problem is," Robertson
said.
He said Zimbabwe was still allowed to do business with any
country
especially those that the government says are hostile. The West
which the
government blames is still our major trading partners.
The
investor apathy that Gono blames on the media is a result of government's
policies. "It is government policies and not media reports that scare away
investors," said Robertson.
Exchange rate history
This table
shows the historical value of one U.S. Dollar in Zimbabwe
Dollars:
Date Official Rate Free / Parallel Rate
1978 R$0,6788
(Apr) n/a
1980 R$0,68 (Mar) n/a
1982 0,8925 to 0.9140
(Dec)
1983 0,96135 (Jan) up to 3.18 (July)
1994 6,82 (Jan) 8,36
(Oct)
1995 8,26 (Jan) 8,85 (Oct)
1996 9,13 (Jan) 10,52
(Oct)
1997 10,50 (Jan) 12,00 (Jan); 25.00 (Nov)
1998 18,00 (Jan)
16,65 (Jun); 19.00 (Jul); 23,50; rates unified 1998 (Dec)
1999 36,23
(Jan) 38,30 (Sep)
2000 38 (Jan) 56 to 62 (Jul); 65 to 70
(Aug.)
2001 55 70 (Jan); 340 (Dec)
2002 55 380 (Jan); 1400
(Dec)
2003 55 (Jan); 824 (Feb) 1400 (Jan); 6000 (Nov)
2004 824
(Jan 1); 4196 (Jan 12) to 5730 (Dec) 5500 (Jan 1) to 6000 (Dec)
2005 5
730 (Jan); 6 200 (Mar); 9 000 (May); 10 800 (Jul 18); 17 600 (July
25); 6
400 (Jan); 14 000 (Mar); 20 000 (May); 25 000 (Jul 18); 45 000 24 500
(Aug
25); 26 003 (Sept); 26 003 (Oct) (Jul 25); 45 000 (Aug 25); 75 000
(Sept);
80 000 to 100 000 (Oct)
2005 60 000 (Nov); 84 588 (Dec 30) 90 000 (Nov);
96 000 (Dec 30)
2006 85 158 (Jan 3); 99 202 (Jan 24) 100 000 (Jan 6); 106
050 (Jan 19); 125
000 to 150 000 (Jan 25)
Zim Independent
By Eric
Bloch
UNTIL the late 1990s, the Zimbabwean government proudly asserted
its
membership of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It waxed eloquently
on
the policies and activities of the IMF and unhesitatingly availed
Zimbabwe
of IMF funding, both by way of balance of payments support and by
way of the
concessional interest poverty reduction and growth
facility.
To a major extent, Zimbabwe's oft-expressed appreciation of the
IMF and its
policies was driven by a rapacious hunger for funding, but to
some not
insignificant extent, it was also because the IMF did not publicly
voice
criticisms of any of Zimbabwe's economic and other policies, of its
fiscal
management (or mismanagement), or of its monetary systems and their
management.
But, when the Zimbabwean government set the country upon
a path of
self-destruction and pursued that path with increasing vigour, the
IMF was
bound to advise the government against its foolhardy, apocalyptic
measures.
However, those advices were not well received, and were cavalierly
dismissed
as naught but anti-government bias.
Suddenly, after 17
years of pretended admiration for the IMF and cooperation
with that
organisation, the government could only speak ill of it. Setting
the
example, President Robert Mugabe caustically rejected all the
well-intended
advices of the IMF, and increasingly contended that Zimbabwe
could
successfully "go it alone", without IMF monies and
advices.
Unhesitatingly, the president's myriad of sycophants played the
same tune,
and were very soon strongly supported in their vilification of
the IMF by
the state-controlled media, which has demonstrated an immense and
unending
ability to change its opinions according to the whims of its
masters.
Over the last seven years the Zimbabwean economy has plummeted
to its lowest
levels, inconceivably worse than even the greatest opponents
of the
government could have anticipated. This is almost wholly due to the
endlessly damaging acts of commission and omission by the Zimbabwean
government.
Progressively, government has destroyed agriculture which
was the very
foundation of the economy, demolished much of the industrial
economy, caused
overwhelming contraction of tourism and stagnation of most
of the mining
sector. Concurrently, government has impoverished the state's
coffers
through profligate spending of immense magnitude, with very little
of the
expenditures being nationally beneficial.
There were endless
fiscal outflows for luxurious motor vehicles,
non-required military aircraft
and numerous unnecessary ministries, only to
assure "jobs for the boys" and
their ongoing support and the like.
Corruption abounded, unimpeded by the
state, despite numerous protestations
by government of its intent to quash
corruption.
Civil servants were under-remunerated, with consequential
demoralisation and
demotivation, resulting in the inevitable decline of
efficiency within the
public sector. Parastatals become ever more
ineffectual, increasing
millstones to be supported by the insolvent fiscus
and the gross domestic
product (GDP) has shrunk dramatically, while the
state's deficit surged both
in real terms and as a percentage of
GDP.
The IMF would have been in default of its duties and obligations to
members,
in terms of the Bretton Woods agreement and the IMF constitution,
if it had
not advised Zimbabwe of the devastatingly negative and adverse
economic,
fiscal and monetary policies being pursued, of the inevitably
catastrophic
consequences, and of alternative and more constructive policies
that should
be considered and implemented.
However, to a government
with a deep-seated belief in its own omnipotence,
those advices were
unpalatable in the extreme, and therefore unhesitatingly
and abusively
rejected.
Those rejections were strongly supported by unfounded, mythical
contentions
that Zimbabwe was the victim of a British and American-led
conspiracy
against Zimbabwe's ruling party, that Britain had a profound
desire to
recolonise Zimbabwe, and that Britain, the US and their allies
were
deliberately undermining the Zimbabwean economy with diverse
strategies,
including non-existent economic sanctions.
As the economy
continued on its endless collapse, government became less and
less able to
service its international debt in general, and its indebtedness
to the IMF
in particular. Being unable to admit to its default, and to its
inability to
honour its obligations, the Zimbabwean government intensified
its
outpourings of vitriol against the IMF. Remarkably, that body
demonstrated
immense maturity, diplomatically disregarding most of the
slights and abuse,
and continuing to fulfil its constitutional obligations
to
Zimbabwe.
However, as payment default continued, the IMF had no
alternative in terms
of its constitution, but to suspend or terminate
Zimbabwe's membership. It
considerately took the lesser alternative, but
that did not prevent
intensified Zimbabwean embitteredness, evidenced by
constant government
outbursts against the IMF and strongly supported by
invective from the
state-controlled media.
Then the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) got a new governor. He was very
aware that Zimbabwean
international creditworthiness, being a prerequisite
for lines of credit and
for foreign direct investment, required that
Zimbabwe resume payment of
overdue foreign debt as expeditiously as
possible, and restore harmonious
relationships with the international
monetary community, including the
IMF.
In his first and subsequent monetary policy statements, he placed
great
emphasis upon the need for Zimbabwe to demonstrate its unlimited
intent to
honour all its debt obligations. He also worked assiduously to
repair the
damaged bridges between Zimbabwe and the IMF, interacting with
the IMF
regularly, and facilitating that body's compliance with its
constitutional
obligations of annual evaluation of member state's economies.
Progressively,
with the exception only of the president of Zimbabwe, the
poisonous attacks
by the Zimbabwean government and its media
diminished.
Then in mid-2005 an international hype developed ahead of the
September 2005
meetings of the IMF board of directors and the IMF annual
general meeting
shortly thereafter. Suddenly there was widespread
speculation that, because
of its arrears in debt settlement, Zimbabwe would
be expelled from the IMF.
The likelihood of expulsion was remote in the
extreme, for 85% of all votes
at the annual general meeting would be
required for expulsion. Even the
great voting power of the US, the United
Kingdom and other major members of
the G8 would not suffice to bring about
the termination of Zimbabwe's
membership.
Reactive to that hype,
Zimbabwe's state-controlled media eulogised and
rejoiced when expulsion did
not occur, making great play on the commendable
and considerable reductions
of debt that Zimbabwe had achieved shortly prior
to the meetings. Suddenly
the insinuations were that not only was all well
between Zimbabwe and the
IMF, but that Zimbabwean membership of the IMF was
beneficial, and of
importance, to Zimbabwe.
However, that change in attitude was
short-lived. Only four months later an
IMF team arrived in Zimbabwe on a
scheduled visit, to carry out its
constitutional Article IV evaluation. Only
a week prior to the team's
arrival, there was very clear evidence of
continuing Zimbabwean economic
collapse.
Annual inflation had soared
to above 585% in December 2005 (and expected to
exceed 800% by March 2006)
and had escalated the poverty datum line to over
$17 million for a family of
six, more than five times the minimum wage
level.
Shortages of basic
commodities were becoming increasingly pronounced and
government contentions
of economic turnaround were hyperbole, fable and
fantasy.
Rapidly,
the upper echelons of government and its propaganda resources
realised that
no matter how commendably Zimbabwe is striving to address its
debt
obligations, and in spite of the fact that, albeit belatedly, some
economic
deregulation required for an economic transformation had been
embarked upon,
the IMF team would inevitably form some very negative
opinions of much of
the state of the economy and of the policies responsible
for that state.
Even if the IMF evaluation gives appropriate recognition to
the few positive
developments of recent months, it must also express concern
on some
appallingly continued policies.
Recognising this, with its endemic
paranoia of unwanted actions by, and
criticisms from the IMF, the propaganda
machine went rapidly into motion.
Within days of the arrival of the IMF
team, the state-controlled media cited
an "impeccable" but unnamed source
alleging outright, and through
implication and insinuation, that the IMF
evaluation was predetermined prior
to the team's arrival, and would be
condemnatory.
Realising that Zimbabwe cannot attribute such condemnation
to IMF
castigation of the country's debt servicing, the state-media is now
striving
to suggest that the IMF, and those it represents, "tend to shift
goal posts
when it suits them". This has no credence, because the past IMF
criticisms
were founded not only upon Zimbabwe's debt arrears, but also upon
its fiscal
and monetary policies.
That does not disturb the media,
for it believes that pre-emptive
disinformation, sufficiently reiterated,
becomes accepted as fact. So it is
allowing its IMF paranoia to place in
jeopardy the relationships of Zimbabwe
with the IMF.
Zim Independent
Muckraker
WE liked the
story in the Sunday Mail on parastatals "draining national
resources". The
story said despite receiving $3,1 trillion from the Reserve
Bank, service
delivery was still woefully shoddy.
The reporters wondered aloud why
parastatals like TelOne, Zesa, Air Zimbabwe
and the National Oil Company of
Zimbabwe were making losses "when they are
monopolies in their lines of
business"? But that is the answer gentlemen.
Business monopoly means lack of
competition which in turn breeds complacency
and sloppiness.
In fact,
as if the writers were half-asleep, they had earlier given us an
explanation
as to why most of the parastatals could not deliver.
"Parastatals have been
characterised by massive corruption, and financial
losses, poor financial
accountability and management systems, poor corporate
governance,
incompetent management and above all a poor pricing structure,"
they
wrote.
So what good did they expect to come out of such
organisations?
It would help a lot if Gideon Gono knew about these basics
in parastatals.
No amount of money will make any difference so long as
incompetence and
corruption dominate at the top.
Munyaradzi Huni also
needs to appreciate the truth about why Zimbabwe's
economy has deteriorated
so badly in the past few years. Despite Gono's
claims that it is because of
so-called sanctions, his own assessment reveals
that the collapse started
well before the targeted sanctions that were
imposed in 2002.
In his
monetary statement last week Gono indicated that the balance of
payment
deficit had already deteriorated in 1997 from US$21 million to
US$740
million "due to poor export performance, high import demand and
reduced
capital inflows".
As we all know, there was no Tony Blair then and no
sanctions.
Gono also explained the cause of the growing deficit in the
capital account
as resulting from "perceived country risk by both
multilateral and bilateral
creditors. As a result, Zimbabwean companies are
finding it extremely
difficult to access offshore lines of credit because of
the perceived
country risk," said Gono.
The truth is that a country
that can go for more than five years without
resolving a man-made political
and economic crisis does not want to be taken
seriously by other nations.
Add to that the threat to property rights posed
by abhorrent legislation
such as the Constitutional Amendment 17 Act which
usurps the jurisdiction of
the courts and the risk ceases to be a matter of
perception. It is has
become a stark reality which we only ignore at our own
peril.
It is
also surprising that in choosing to blame everyone else except
ourselves, we
tend to believe that the so-called sanctions have had a more
devastating
impact on the economy than the collapse of agriculture which we
claim to be
the backbone of the same economy.
Dr Tafataona Mahoso is refusing to face
the reality of our situation. Nobody
doubts that the former Harare Polytech
media lecturer does read a lot. But
he runs the risk of superimposing
far-fetched scenarios on Zimbabwe.
This week was a classic one. After
reading some book titled The Media and
the Politics of Crisis, the good
doctor plucked out this quotation: "The
tendency is therefore for the (mass)
media to seek out a crisis where it
does not exist, and to obscure the
actual forces of change that threaten
corporate media privilege along with
entrenched social privilege in general.
Paradoxically, this means that the
media will tend to pay more attention to
a fabricated crisis than to one
which can stake a material claim to
reality."
He appeared to have
problems finding local examples of this deception. It is
when a whole state
media and the political leadership devote acres of space
to attacking Tony
Blair and George Bush as the cause of our crisis when
everybody else can
clearly see that it's all to do with poor governance.
The litany of
problems with the parastatals are a microcosm of the nation. A
crisis
doesn't cease to be one merely because we choose to call it a
challenge.
Let's adopt a bit of what Gono called "Operation tell the truth"
and
everything else will follow.
We hear civil servants this month got their
payslips with a strange message.
They were told to shun corruption. The
message didn't say whether poorly
paid civil servants were deemed the worst
offenders. But Muckraker finds
this a mockery considering the pittance that
they get for salaries.
Add to that injury an insult from newly
rehabilitated Masvingo's Zanu PF
political commissar Dzikamai Mavhaire who
threatened to fire civil servants
who don't support Zanu PF. He allegedly
told a meeting in Mucheke suburb
that those who were not happy to work for
government should quit.
"It is abominable and demeaning to note that
where Zanu PF faces political
resistance, it is because of civil servants in
the locality," declared the
new senator.
We wonder how he discovered
the civil servants' treachery and under what law
he is going to fire
them.
Obviously his political comeback is giving him an immeasurable
sense of
grandeur beyond the call of his post. What law compels all civil
servants to
be members of the ruling party? Is that the latest qualification
we wonder?
When he made his "Mugabe must go" statement, was this not a show
of
political resistance to Zanu PF? Which civil servants was he working
with?
Also coming from Masvingo are reports that the provincial governor
Willard
Chiwewe has ordered an end to the current wave of farm invasions.
The Herald
reports Chiwewe as telling top government officials in the town
that the
"days of illegal land occupation have since passed".
"The
days of jambanja (violence) ended in 2001," Chiwewe said. "Illegal land
occupation in the province should end and law enforcement agents should make
sure that people do not put the law into their own hands."
We found
Chiwewe's statement remarkable for two reasons. Firstly, that
government
knows the invasions to have been illegal and secondly that this
illegal
process should have ended way back in 2001.
Why has government not acted
all this time? Is it not because government is
itself wavering that more of
its officials continue disrupting production?
Late last year State Security
minister Didymus Mutasa even threatened to
seize businesses that were
perceived as against government policies.
But even discounting these
evident contradictions, Chiwewe has a long way to
go to make "law
enforcement agents" do their duty. Reports carried in the
media over the
past two months suggest that one of the people spearheading
the jambanja to
seize private farming equipment in his province is the head
of the police
force, one tigress named Loveness Ndanga.
We wonder how she is going to
reconcile her conflicting roles.
If you want to see how some journalists
put words into mouths of those they
purport to be "highly placed sources"
you need to look no further than
Munyaradzi Huni's opinion piece in the
Sunday Mail headlined "IMF shifts
goalposts".
Huni claimed
"impeccable sources" had told him the IMF was no longer
concerned about
Zimbabwe's arrears but with fiscal and monetary policies.
This, he said, was
part of the IMF's shifting goalposts.
"Right now we hear that the IMF is
shifting its position saying its strained
relations with Zimbabwe were not
caused by the country's failure to pay back
the money it borrowed but the
country's fiscal and monetary policies. This
shift in position is worrying,"
the alleged source told Huni.
Huni's sources went on to allege that the
IMF was going to write a negative
report focusing on issues that were not
part of their original concerns. We
doubt that Huni's sources know anything
about the IMF's operations.
If the sources don't know about the IMF, it
leaves Huni as the writer and
source of the story. What that means is that
Huni is not only an ignorant
source but also a lazy journalist.
A
look at IMF reports since 1995 shows that they have always been concerned
about the fiscal and monetary policies. Had Huni not been lazy he would have
noted that the IMF's Article IV is not a debt-chasing team. They visit
member countries to check the progress on policy issues - both fiscal and
monetary.
After all they already know what Zimbabwe owes
them.
The IMF has told Zimbabwe over the years to remove price controls,
stop
printing money, reduce government debt and stop interfering with the
foreign
exchange.
In their reports, the debt issue does not take more
than a paragraph. At
most they point out that Zimbabwe is lagging
behind.
But Huni made every effort to show the reader that he was the
chief source
of the story. Instead of asking questions, Huni was busy
feeding the sources
with information and inciting them to support his story.
"If, as you say,
the authorities intend to clear the country's arrears
before end of next
month . . ," said one of the sources.
So it's Huni
leading his sources to make comments about their feelings and
not what they
know. And why is it a discovery that the country intends to
clear its
arrears before this month when it's a matter of public record
after Gono
said it?
Huni said the so-called sources told him the IMF team had
already started
writing a report on Zimbabwe. Now, what is extraordinary
about that? The IMF
does not rely on hearsay but on facts and figures from
government. It is
Gono and Herbert Murerwa who give them that information.
That is why they
have been able to forecast the inflation rate far more
accurately than Gono.
Lastly, Zimdaily reported President Mugabe sobbing
"uncontrollably" at the
graveside of the late Sally Mugabe at the Heroes
Acre on Friday. It claimed
he had to be "hushed" by a relative of the late
Sally's, Patricia Imbeah
Bekele, who led the Ghanaian delegation.
We
may not have witnessed the scene but there is no doubt the publication
makes
a valiant effort not to be taken seriously. Unless they know something
we
don't about his private life.
Zim Independent
Comment
ELECTRICITY
supply monopoly Zesa has long ceased to care about the plight of
its
consumers who are getting erratic power supplies. We recall a time when
Zesa
would flight adverts in the press to warn consumers of impending power
supply disruptions as part of load-shedding or to carry our routine
maintenance.
All that is history now. There is now no need to warn
consumers that
electricity supplies will be interrupted. This is almost to
say that
consumers should identify Zesa with power outages. It is now part
of its
core business. Warning consumers of impending power cuts is telling
them the
obvious.
But consumers have been calling us to express their
disgust at being
switched off for long periods without warning. A caller
from Rutenga in
Masvingo Province said Zesa had been switching off power in
the area for as
long as six hours daily.
This is the story at most
rural service centres. In cities and towns certain
localities like Ashdown
Park and Mabvuku in Harare have become notorious for
power cuts. There are
many who did not enjoy the Africa Cup of Nations
matches because they did
not have electricity. There is a correlation
between deteriorating service
delivery and poor customer care.
Zesa's fall to the current levels is
all-embarrassing. It is the same sort
of decay that has permeated the whole
organisation from its senior managers,
through to its technicians and staff
in banking halls. Technicians now
demand fuel for them to come and repair
faults.
There are all the signs that the situation will deteriorate
further as a
serious regional power shortage looms next year. But government
has instead
in the past five years embarked on an expensive rural
electrification
programme when there are insufficient generators to send
power through
grids. This expensive project, crafted to endear the
government with the
rural electorate, has failed to trigger any significant
development in rural
areas. It is still the same old grocery shops, bottle
stores, butcheries and
grinding mills.
The rural electrification
programme is a monumental disaster for a Zesa that
does not have sufficient
generation capacity to power all homes it has
connecting onto the national
grid.
This week press reports said government's energy plan required US$3
billion
to build new powerplants and ancillary facilities. This is all there
is to
the plan, a document which would be discussed for many years without
anything being done as demand for power continues to outstrip supply.
Zimbabwe will soon not be able to import power because exporters are
anticipating increased demand in their respective countries. It is good to
think big but reality should caution ambition. Zimbabwe needs
help.
Zimbabwe needs hard currency and it needs to attract foreign
investors to
develop power generation plants. The current behaviour of
government runs
contrary to a state requiring help. The government has
worked to create as
many enemies as possible in the name of sovereignty. And
where it has sought
to create friendships, the benefits to the nation are
questionable. Reality
should sink in that we are a poor country dying for
balance of payment
support and foreign direct investment for infrastructural
development. Basic
economics denotes that foreign direct investment and
development of
infrastructure are major drivers to reduce employment and
ultimately create
wealth.
Thousands of jobs would be created if there
was money to build the
Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project, dualise all trunk
roads, construct
Kunzwi Dam and implement the Batoka Gorge project. The
money is not there
because of our bad politics.
Other countries in
the region faced with a similar problems are working on
solutions. They are
expanding existing generation plants and putting up new
ones. Zimbabwe has
plans on the table and no money to develop them. The
result is more darkness
in the years to come. Could someone other than Zesa
and the Zanu PF
government show us the light?
Andrew Meldrum in
Pretoria
Friday February 3, 2006
The Guardian
Zimbabweans,
already facing inflation of more than 580%, yesterday began
using a new
Z$50,000 note - only to discover that it was not quite enough to
buy a loaf
of bread.
The new top denomination note is worth only about 50 US cents (28p)
in a
nation where people are used to paying for goods with thick wads of
notes,
called bricks, and carrying backpacks and suitcases stuffed with
currency to
do simple grocery shopping.
"People are complaining about
this new note. They say the cheapest price of
everything will go up to
Z$50,000," said Harare factory worker Iddah
Mandaza. "We all know this new
note is not the solution to our economic
problems."
An average
Zimbabwean family now needs Z$16.6m ($166) a month to survive and
even with
a $50,000 note, that adds up to a lot of paper. And the problem is
going to
get worse as inflation is expected to hit 800% in March, according
to the
state central bank.
"We are all millionaires now, but we can't afford to
feed our families,"
said Mrs Mandaza.
In six years Zimbabwe's economy
has contracted over 40%, as a result largely
of President Robert Mugabe's
policies, and economists say the decline in
Zimbabwe's once healthy economy
is unprecedented for a country that is not
at war.
Zim Daily
Friday, February 03 2006 @ 12:05 AM GMT
Contributed by:
correspondent
THE Agriculture Sector Productive Enhancement
Facility (ASPEF)
introduced by the central bank in May last year under the
Post-Elections and
Drought Mitigation Monetary Policy Framework has so far
disbursed $5,59
trillion. Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono last week said a
total of 2 647
applicants had benefited from the
facility.
"A cumulative amount of $5,59 trillion had been
disbursed to 2
647 applicants through commercial and merchant banks under
ASPEF as at 31
December 2005," Gono said. The central bank governor said $1
trillion
allocated for other crops and Livestock Facility under ASPEF had
been
exhausted resulting in funds initially allocated for other facilities
being
diverted for its use. "The $1 trillion allocated for Other Crops and
Livestock Facility has been exhausted, thus, funds initially allocated for
other facilities where the take up rate has been low have been diverted to
this facilities," said Gono.
"This is because major crops
like tobacco, cotton and maize,
some of require expensive inputs, are
financed under the Other Crops and
Livestock Facility," Gono
said.
He said the major uptake of the funds under the ASPEF,
Other
Crop and Livestock Facility has been a result of major crops such as
tobacco, cotton and maize being financed under the facility. Under the ASPEF
facility $812,77 billion was allocated for irrigation support, $158,80
billion was allocated for dairy support,$395,43 for beef cattle
support,$335,36 billion for poultry and piggery,$361,34 for the
horticultural sector ,$415,55 for export support while the highest total of
$3,115 trillion was allocated for Other Crops and Live
stock.
The disclosure of funds disbursed by the central bank
so far
comes after the facility has been amended on numerous occasions with
issues
of the tenure of the loans being increased from the initial 18 months
to the
current 36 months. Other amendments included the extension of the
expiry
date of the facility from the set date of 30 June 2006 to the revised
date
of 30 June 2008.
Zim Daily
Friday, February 03 2006 @ 12:04 AM GMT
Contributed by: makushalondon
By Makusha
Mugabe
Newzimbabwe.com has for the last week been running
commentary by
MDC spokesman Hon. Nelson Chamisa responding to the Zimbabwe
Independent's
attack on President Morgan Tsvangirai's leadership. It is run
alongside the
Independent Editor Vincent Kahiya's response to it. It is
clear that the
only reason Hon. Chamisa's statement was published in
newzim.com was so that
they could get a chance to publish Kahiya's
misinformed defense of his
publisher's seeming tribalistic
tendencies.
I pointed this out in an opinion I submitted to
newzim.com, but,
not surprisingly according to some newzim.com observers,
the opinion was not
published. I followed it up with e-mail to the editor to
find out whether
they were still planning to publish it, but I did not
receive the courtesy
of a reply. I have therefore reluctantly asked the
editor of Zimdaily.com to
publish the letter that newzim.com would not
publish. Reluctantly because it
is only fair-play in publishing to let all
readers who read one side, get to
read the other side too. Anyway here it
is.
Vincent Kahiya Poses More Danger to the
Independent Than Chamisa
to MDC
By Makusha
Mugabe
To the Editor, newzimbabwe.com. May I come to the
support of
Hon. Nelson Chamisa who seems to be now in newzim.com's sights,
so much so
that newzim has gone to look for stories and editorial published
elsewhere,
like the Independent, just to be able to cut him down. None of
your own
readers have written to you expressing this opinion about the
respectable MP
Chamisa, but you found it worthwhile to go and reprint an
attack on him from
the Independent, then softened the blow with a rebuttal
from him, also
reprinted from the Independent.
Cutting to
the chase: Hon. Chamisa's sin seems to be that of
pointing out that the
Independent seems to have an agenda against the MDC
leadership following
their editorial comment: "Tsvangirai a merchant of
confusion". Hon Chamisa
correctly pointed out that before publishing that
comment the Publisher of
the Independent himself, Trevor Ncube, had tagged
his name to the so called
Third Way, which was the intellectual
justification for forming parties
other than the MDC and Zanu (PF).
The Third Way already has
two babies the UPP and UPM, - one
planned, the other not - but both still
gasping for their first breath of
air in the choking environment created by
Zanu (PF). The environment is not
conducive to the birth or growth of any
political party, but the MDC had
been defying these odds, until the
secretary general decided to stab his
president in the back. MDC no longer
wanted to participate in elections,
following all the frustrations and open
rigging that took place. Does anyone
still remember when Mudede reported
numbers who voted for Zanu (PF) being
more than the total number of people
who voted! Nothing has come of the
minimum conditions which were set for
democratic elections to take place and
endorsed by other SADC countries in
the Mauritius process.
And finally the MDC had gone to great
lengths to argue in
Parliament against the constitutional amendment which
created the senate,
but before the wounds from its imposition by Zanu (PF)
had healed was being
asked to participate in the election. The president,
who is the conscience
of the party, who has the pulse of the party members
who elected him,
expressed ambivalence about it and, instead of working this
out through
further consultative processes in the party, the secretary
general took this
as an opportunity to pull the rug from under his
president. Trevor Ncube,
whose independent newspapers we had all come to
rely on, weighed in on the
side of the secretary general and proclaimed
Tsvangirai unfit to be
president - as if there was a standard. Hon. Chamisa
correctly observed that
since then the editorial stance of the Independent
has been anything but
independent.
Its refusal to accept
even the court's ruling that Tsvangirai is
the legitimate party leader -
despite the secretary general being a senior
partner in a law firm and
therefore having the upper hand in legal
fire-power - legitimately led Hon.
Chamisa to conclude that there was
another force at work - tribalism was
clouding the Independent's independent
judgement. Otherwise why would the
Publisher risk the popularity of his
newspaper to support Jonathan Moyo
whose laws are threatening the
Independent itself today and refuse to even
investigate allegations that
have been made about Welshman Ncube benefitting
from a grabbed farm and
having his house guarded by Republic
Police?
Hon. Chamisa asks direct questions which the
Independent, if it
was edited by an independent editor, would have taken as
leads to potential
scoops, e.g. the ownership of farms, the absence on a
crucial day for voting
against the constitutional amendment, the secret
meetings with the CIO, and
the school fees allegations.
Surely an editor would have said let me go after these scoops
and increase
my readership, but the Independent has chosen to defend its
position and
threaten the MDC with no coverage. That is what the Independent
Editor's
"Grow Up.." comment was all about; a threat, trying to intimidate
the MDC
information department into begging for positive coverage. I advise
Vincent
Kahiya and all the other armchair advisers to keep their advice to
Hon
Chamisa about his role as party spokesman until they have experienced
discipline of belonging to a political party - which I believe is the
highest form of expression of commitment to ensuring political change
through superior ideas.
The media can play a positive or
negative role in this, but
never a decisive role; in fact it can be ignored
completely if it is seen to
be biased and unfaithful - which makes Kahiya
more of a danger to the
Independent than Chamisa to the MDC. His extensive
quoting of an interview
with Tsvangirai only demonstrates that Tsvangirai
tried, even back then, to
shield the party against bad publicity, denying a
rift, denying tribalism.
Does Kahiya really expect any political leader to
say yes there is tribalism
in our party?
But now that the
tribalists have played their hand and come
unstuck we can talk about it.
While I support all the calls by civic leaders
and students for unity in the
MDC, will it really be possible when we have
leaders who talk of a separate
state of Matebeleland or of federalism - even
while you are still trying to
fight one common enemy. Will it be really
possible when you have
factionalist who use the kind of language we heard
from Job Sikhala. He may
be excused for his ignorance that talking of
someone's mother is tantamount
to a declaration of war, but there were very
senior members of the MDC
present who were cheering while he was saying
these things. So maybe they
should all become irrelevant. President
Tsvangirai never denied that we
tried to talk to Zanu PF and seek a solution
while we still believed Mugabe
had the interests of the people of Zimbabwe
at heart. That process is now
abandoned because, as we can see from
continued hardships, continued
looting, continued land-grabs and continued
throwing of poor people out in
the cold, the only force operating in Zanu
(PF) is greed.
So MDC abandoned negotiations, and no-one ever authorised Ncube
to go and
negotiate with Zanu (PF) after that. Then likes of Kahiya from
their comfort
of their uptown buildings have the nerve to ask, so when is
the insurrection
or where is are mass demonstrations? My simple answer on
behalf of Hon.
Chamisa that is it takes organising, it takes planning, it
takes sacrifice,
it needs everyone to be involved, including Kahiya and all
Zimbabwean
journalists - not for them to stand on the sidelines and
commentate like
Evans Mambara at a DeMbare match.
It is up to you Mr Kahiya;
you can sit and wait for the
"democratic resistance" until the cows come
home or you can be part of the
change - but not through UPP and UPM. That
would be taking us backwards
rather than forward. Yes there is need for new
strategies and tactics and we
won't take people to the streets so that they
are killed by the military.
Maybe a day will come when the military will
declare that we won't fire on
our own brothers, mothers and uncles or that
we will join you to rescue the
motherland!
Your attempt,
Mr Kahiya, to play off MDC spokespersons against
each other shows a level of
desperation and manipulation of trust that I did
not expect of you. Did you
really expect the President's spokesman or the
President to have vetted Hon
Chamisa's writing to the Independent Opinion
column? What would be the point
of appointing him party spokesman?
Please focus on the
objective. Focus on what is happening on the
ground. Inform people about the
preparations for congress and what they can
do to be part of change, so that
we can all finally get rid of this
dictatorship which is our common enemy.
And finally no matter what your
opinion about Hon. Chamisa or any MP is, do
give them their due respected
because they were elected by a constituency.
That is why everyone else calls
them Honourable MP...
makushalondonatyahoo.co.uk
Zim Daily
Friday, February 03 2006 @ 12:03 AM GMT
Contributed by: correspondent
An average Zimbabwean household
now requires Z$21 million to
meet basic needs, the country's Consumer
Council has said. In its latest
estimates, CCZ said inflation, which topped
585.8 percent last December,
continued to drive the cost of living, with an
average household now
requiring no less than $21 million to meet basic
commodities and services in
a month.
The requirements for
an average family of six members will now
require $21 million, up from last
December's basket of $16million
representing an increase of 31.25%. The CCZ
was expected to have announced
the new consumer basket on Monday but is
still to do so. The expected
increase in the basket comes against the
backdrop of a projected surge in
inflation, which, according to the central
bank could reach 800% in March.
Salaries have failed to keep up with the
galloping inflation, thus eroding
disposable incomes. The rising breadline
is expected to be driven higher up
by increases in the prices of basic
commodities such as cooking oil, sugar,
mealie- meal and
bread.
Zim Daily
Friday,
February 03 2006 @ 12:02 AM GMT
Contributed by:
correspondent
In a move aimed at mollifying the world lender,
Zimbabwe this
week made a further US$5 million payment to the IMF in a
effort to reduce
its arrears to the institution under the general resources
account. However,
this payment has been made while the IMF is still probing
the source of
funds which the country has been paying the
institution.
In the past fortnight, Zimbabwe has made two
payments to the
Bretton Woods Institution of US$2,5 million and US$15
million ahead of the
IMF visit. A five member IMF delegation, led by
Sharmini Coorey, arrived in
the country last week for routine Article IV
consultations and held a series
of meetings various central bank and
government officials.
The IMF team had meetings with Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe governor
(RBZ) Gideon Gono, Minister of Finance Herbert
Murerwa, Minister of Economic
Development Rugare Gumbo and other top
government and central bank officials
in which they discussed issues of
foreign currency flows and internal
reserves among others. Zimbabwe has made
payments amounting to US$155
million bu t still owes the lending institution
US$125 million under the
poverty reduction and growth facility
account.
Zimbabwe was in September last year, granted a stay
of execution
after the IMF postponed for six months its recommendation to
have the
country expelled from the fund. In March, the IMF executive will
meet to
consider the compulsory withdrawal of Zimbabwe from the IMF.
Compulsory
withdrawal is the last step in a series of measures that the IMF
applies to
members that fail to meet its obligations under the Articles of
Agreement.
The country's authorities have promised to settle all its arrears
by
December t his year.
Reuters
Fri Feb
3, 2006 4:03 AM GMT
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED
NATIONS (Reuters) - Proposals for a long-awaited UN Human Rights
Council
call for 45 members and beefed up standards for any nation wanting a
seat on
the new body, according to a draft resolution circulated on
Thursday.
World leaders agreed at a UN summit in September to create
a new body to
replace the 53-member Geneva-based Human Rights Commission,
known for giving
seats to countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe and blocking
criticism of
rights abusers.
The aim of the 191-member General
Assembly is to approve the document by
February 15 so that the new council,
which will also sit in Geneva, is ready
to take over from the commission
that is to have its final session,
beginning in mid-March.
The draft,
which is subject to revision, was drawn up by UN Ambassadors
Ricardo Alberto
Arias of Panama and Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa,
appointed by Assembly
President Jan Eliasson to canvass members and produce
a compromise
document.
U.S. envoys said they were still studying the proposals. U.S.
Ambassador
John Bolton said he had "opinions" but would not disclose
them.
Still undecided is whether a candidate would be elected by a
two-thirds or a
simple majority. The United States and the Europeans wanted
a two-thirds
vote, which would make it easier for them to stop a nation from
getting a
seat in the 191-member General Assembly, dominated by developing
countries.
New are criteria for membership in the council. They include
"candidates
contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights," a
ban on
nations with gross rights violations and those countries faulted for
rights
abuses by UN bodies.
But it is still unclear who would make
this determination.
Geographic representation is clearly spelled out: 12
from Africa, 13 from
Asia, 5 from Eastern Europe, 8 from Latin America and
the Caribbean and 7
from Western Europe, the United States, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand.
But it says nations would not be eligible for
immediate re-election after
two consecutive three-year terms, a provision
the United States is bound to
oppose.
All nations elected to the
council would be subject to a "universal periodic
review mechanism" on their
human rights record during their term of
membership.
Peggy Hicks, the
global advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, called the
resolution and
its insistence on standards a "major advance" and a "real
improvement" from
previous drafts.
But she told Reuters the New York-based group advocated
a two-thirds vote by
the General Assembly.
"We need the two-thirds
vote for the real improvement we are looking for.
What it will do is to
ensure that the worst abusers don't gain seats," Hicks
said.
The
draft also calls for the council to meet regularly throughout the year,
schedule at least three sessions, one of them for no less than 10 weeks. The
current Geneva commission meets only six weeks a year.
It says the
first election should be held on May 9 and the first meeting of
the council
to be convened on June 16.
Angola Press
Harare, Zimbabwe, 02/02- Agriculture officials in Zimbabwe
Tuesday reported
the country was experiencing a devastating outbreak of
armyworms in a key
farming province near the capital Harare, threatening the
season`s crop
harvest.
According to the officials, the insects have
destroyed vast swathes of crops
in the country.
A Department of
Agriculture and Extension Services official, Nyeverwai Gono,
said the
outbreak in Mashonaland East Province was first detected in
December in one
district, and the armyworms had since spread to all of the
region`s nine
districts.
The pests have destroyed maize, sorghum and Soya beans, and
were proving
difficult to control due to lack of pesticides and other
chemicals.
"The outbreak was first detected in late December in Uzumba
Maramba Pfungwe
District in areas around Chikowa Village and Chiunze, where
about nine
hectares of maize and sorghum were affected. From there the
armyworms spread
to other parts of the province," Gono said.
She said
an estimated 329 hectares of crops in the province were under
threat from
the armyworms, which devour leaves, leaving the crop to die.
The outbreak
in Mashonaland East, one of the country`s prime farming
regions, is the
latest in a series of similar armyworm attacks this year,
prompting worries
crop yields might be affected negatively.