The ZIMBABWE Situation
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Mugabe
and Tsvangirai disagree on Chihuri’s re-appointment
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona Sibanda
7 February
2012
The two main principals to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) have
failed
to agree on the appointment of a new police commissioner-general to
take
over from Augustine Chihuri, whose contract expired last
week.
Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai met in the
capital on
Monday and their discussions on the issue reportedly came to a
stalemate. SW
Radio Africa is reliably informed the talks broke down when
Mugabe proposed
that Chihuri’s term in office be extended.
Without
Tsvangirai’s full backing for Chihuri’s reappointment, the
principals
resolved to bring in Deputy Prime Minister, Arthur Mutambara, to
seek his
opinion on the matter. The three principals are set to meet on
Wednesday and
according to sources, might vote on the issue if they remain
at
loggerheads.
It is believed Tsvangirai and the MDC formation led by
Welshman Ncube want a
neutral personality within the police force to take
over from Chihuri. Both
MDC formations accuse Chihuri of using the force to
prop-up Mugabe and his
ZANU PF party.
According to the GPA, such
senior appointments are to be done by Mugabe with
the full consultation of
coalition government partners.
MDC-T’s deputy minister of Justice, Obert
Gutu, on Tuesday told SW Radio
Africa that for Mugabe to go ahead and make a
key appointment without
securing the consent or agreement of Tsvangirai
would be an attack on the
constitution of Zimbabwe.
“In other words,
it would be unconstitutional, irregular and unlawful. This
is a matter that
the constitution of Zimbabwe states. We all know that the
GPA has been
captured as part and parcel of the constitution of Zimbabwe,”
Gutu
said.
He added: “To be specific, changes brought in with constitution
amendment
Act number 19, make it clear that on key appointments, the
President is
obliged to consult his partners in government.”
The
deputy minister said pronouncements to the contrary by Mugabe’s henchmen
were a complete misdirection of both facts and law.
“What I’m talking
about here is an issue of what the constitution of
Zimbabwe says and not
what the President or Prime Minister wishes to be
done,” the minister
explained.
Top
issues put on hold as PM, Mugabe meet
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Everson Mushava, Staff
Writer
Tuesday, 07 February 2012 11:23
HARARE - Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe met
yesterday but
deliberations on problems bedevilling the inclusive government
were put on
hold until tomorrow when they meet again.
Tsvangirai’s spokesperson, Luke
Tamborinyoka said the meeting between the
two rival leaders lasted an hour
and added that deliberations on prime
issues could not be
concluded.
“They (Mugabe and Tsvangirai) will meet tomorrow to finish
their
deliberations on the various issues that are affecting the country.
This
time Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara will attend the meeting,”
Tamborinyoka said.
Yesterday’s meeting was expected to tackle several
issues, chief among them
elections and the expiry of police commissioner
general Augustine Chihuri’s
term of office last week.
Tsvangirai was
expected to bring to the table several matters including
violence,
outstanding issues on the Global Political Agreement (GPA),
appointments to
senior positions in government and elections.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai had
last met mid-December last year.
Mugabe was away on his official annual
leave and only started work last
Wednesday while Tsvangirai was also on
leave.
Last Friday, the meeting of principals for a National Security
council (NSC)
meeting also failed to take place because Tsvangirai had a
nagging ankle.
The meeting will now be held in March.
“The two
discussed several issues and since they are still to meet to
finalise their
discussions, I cannot tell you the outcome of today
(yesterday)’s meeting
yet,” Tamborinyoka told the Daily News yesterday.
New on the agenda was
leakages of confidential correspondence between
principals, according to
Tamborinyoka.
On Sunday, a letter by Tsvangirai to Mugabe about
yesterday’s meeting was
leaked to the state media purporting that the
premier was for the idea of
early elections.
According to
Tamborinyoka, yesterday’s meeting came when there had been
disturbing
developments in the country, with Zanu PF clamouring for early
elections
without necessary reforms.
Zanu PF, at the just ended 12th people’s
congress in Bulawayo in December
last year said elections will be conducted
this year with or without
reforms.
The MDC on the other hand had said
no one in the GPA could unilaterally call
for elections.
The MDC said
elections were process driven and will be held only after the
environment is
conducive for free and fair polls.
Tamborinyoka yesterday said the
premier remained hopeful that tomorrow’s
meeting will yield positive
results.
“We are hopeful that all issues, including the issue of
elections will be
discussed and agreed on.”
Storm
over leaked Tsvangirai memo
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
VENERANDA LANGA/ ELIAS MAMBO 11 hours 10
minutes ago
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Office yesterday
accused the State media
of breaching the Official Secrets Act after it
published a letter the MDC-T
leader wrote to President Robert
Mugabe.
Tsvangirai wrote to Mugabe calling on the principals in the
inclusive
government to address outstanding issues ahead of their meeting
yesterday.
But the letter was published by the State-controlled Sunday
Mail with the
paper alleging that it was authored by Western
“agents”.
Jameson Timba, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s
Office, said
although the correspondence was authentic, its publication was
in breach of
the Official Secrets Act and Cabinet rules.
“Indeed the
letter in question was delivered to the President on Friday and
such
correspondence is governed by the Official Secrets Act and the rules of
Cabinet, which means the only people who can publish it are the President
and the Prime Minister,” he said.
“The publication of that memorandum
was against the law and in conflict with
known Cabinet
rules.
“If
they were to publish that information, it would have been proper if they
had
waited for the President or the Prime Minister to make it public
information.”
But Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba defended The
Sunday Mail and
accused officials from the PM’s Office of leaking the
memorandum. He claimed
the letter had not been delivered to
Mugabe.
“Who breached the Official Secrets Act — is it the newspaper
which published
the document or the people who leaked it? In the first
place, nothing came
to the President and he did not receive anything from
the PM.
“One cannot breach confidentiality on something that does not
exist and, as
things stand, there was no dispatch from the PM to the
President,” Charamba
said.
“The PM should be wary of his staff who
are betraying his trust and
confidentiality.”
Meanwhile, Mugabe and
Tsvangirai met for an hour yesterday where they
discussed a number of
outstanding issues, including the contentious
re-appointment of Police
Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri.
Sources said the two met for
close to an hour and resolved to meet again
tomorrow this time with Deputy
Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.
Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Luke
Tamborinyoka and Charamba refused to give
details about what the two
principals discussed.
In his letter, Tsvangirai called for the creation
of a conducive environment
for free and fair elections because, according to
him, the inclusive
government had become dysfunctional. - NewsDay
Police
assault WOZA members at peaceful march in Bulawayo
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
07 February 2012
Riot police in Bulawayo on Tuesday
disrupted a protest march by the Women
and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA)
pressure group, assaulting members with
baton sticks and making several
arrests.
WOZA had planned a peaceful protest march through Bulawayo
streets, to start
commemorations marking their 10th
anniversary.
“With my own eyes I saw police come with baton sticks and
start bashing the
women as they always do,” SW Radio Africa correspondent
Lionel Saungweme
reported after the Tuesday incident. He witnessed at least
five arrests,
including WOZA member Silibaziso Nzima.
According to
Saungweme, police trucks descended on the group as they reached
the offices
of the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC),
where they
were to deliver a copy of their demands, which they want
forwarded to
Zimbabwe’s principal leaders.
WOZA, founded by coordinator Jenni Williams
and the late activist Sheba
Dube, have complained to JOMIC about the ill
treatment and arrests of their
members by the police. The group is demanding
that the principals address
the issue.
According to a statement by
WOZA, four protest groups were meant to begin
marching from separate
locations then converge at the JOMIC offices.
Tuesday’s arrests confirm the
group’s insistence that they are denied their
right to freedom of assembly
and freedom of speech.
Williams and fellow WOZA coordinator Magodonga
Mahlangu are currently facing
kidnap charges, even though the alleged
victims testified that they were
never abducted by WOZA members,
contradicting statements produced by the
police in court.
Woza's
Jenni Williams Arrested
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) leader
Jennifer Williams was on Today
arrested at the Joint Operations, Monitoring
and Implementation Committee
(JOMIC) offices in
Bulawayo.
07.02.1205:21pm
by Zwanai Sithole Harare
She was
arrested after members of the organisation had marched through the
city’s
streets to mark the beginning of its 10th Anniversary Commemorations.
Riot
police descended on Williams and the demonstrators at the Jomic offices
along Leopold Takawira Street where the members were following up on
presentations made to Jomic last year regarding treatment of its members by
the police.
“We expected Jomic to deliver to the principals the copy
of the demands. The
environment under which we work is not friendly to human
rights defenders
.Our members continue to be arrested ,tortured and
persecuted by police
offices,” reads one of the placards which being carried
by one of the
demonstrators. The demonstrators were also carrying red
roses.
“Woza members use Valentines Day to campaign for love to overcome
hate. The
red rose shows our message of love,” reads another poster .
Williams and
other three Woza members were wisked away in a police truck and
taken to
Central police.
Teachers
report interrogation by CIOs over elections
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
07 February 2012
Teachers who served as polling agents
and presiding officers during
elections were routinely questioned by
security agents after the polls,
while a vetting process before the
elections qualified only those considered
“politically correct” by ZANU PF.
This is according to findings in a survey
by the main teachers
union.
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) told journalists
in Harare
on Tuesday that they interviewed 1,152 teachers about their
experiences with
elections in the years 2002 and 2008.
Programmes
officer Oswald Madziva told SW Radio Africa that the survey was
conducted to
add some “statistical value” to the facts that are already well
known about
teachers’ experiences during elections.
Madziva said the interrogations
were conducted by a four-member panel headed
by “district inspectors”. The
victims said they could not identify the other
three panel members but
suspected them to be “security details”, who asked
why ZANU PF had lost at
their polling stations.
“79% of the respondents were forced to attend
political rallies, some held
during work time and having far reaching
effects on education. Another 24%
reported having been displaced from their
work stations and communities,”
Madziva explained.
The PTUZ also
collected statistics on the perpetrators of violence against
teachers.
Madziva said 25% of the teachers surveyed had experienced violence
directly,
with 27% of the perpetrators known as war vets, 24% youth militia
and 20%
intelligence agents.
“We found that fellow teachers, including
headmasters and district education
officers, constituted 4% of the
perpetrators of violence against teachers.
Secondly school development
committee members also committed acts of
violence against teachers,
particularly in rural areas,” Madziva stressed.
He added that these two
new revelations made the survey even more valuable
and the PTUZ intends to
distribute the report to SADC (as the guarantors of
the Global Political
Agreement), the United Nations Security Council,
Education International and
the International Labour Organization. Madziva
said they would also
distribute the report to local structures, including
Zimbabwe’s legislators
and the leaders of all political parties.
Mazoe
Families Evicted To Pave Way For The Mugabes
http://www.radiovop.com
Mazowe, February 07,
2012 - Zimbabwean police on Monday evicted some new
farmers in Mazowe in
Mashonaland Central province to pave way for the
expansion of some farming
activities for the country’s first family, the
Mugabe’s.
Informed
sources told Radio VOP that several families were evicted by armed
police
from their farming plots which they were allocated under the chaotic
land
reform programme. The new farmers and their families were evicted from
Arnold farm and Mbuya Nehanda farm in Manzou area in Mazowe, about 20
kilometres outside Harare.
Police armed with truncheons and dogs
evicted the new farmers and dumped
them in Concession in the same province
to allow President Robert Mugabe and
his wife Grace and their family to set
up a game
park and a cattle breeding project at the two
farms.
However, the new farmers are reportedly resisting the evictions
and some of
them indicated that they were not willing to relocate to
Concession because
of the poor soils at the farm where they are being moved
to.
The families have also protested at the timing of the evictions which
come
at a time when their crops are reaching ripening stage.
This is
not the first time that the Mugabe’s have been accused of evicting
new
farmers from their plots.
In 2009, some families were ordered to vacate a
farm in the rich Mazowe
farming area to make way for the expansion of the
first family’s orphanage.
The Mugabe’s have been linked to several farms
in the country that were
grabbed from white commercial farmers during the
chaotic land reform
programme. In 2008, High Court Judge Justice Ben
Hlatshwayo lost a farm to
the Mugabe’s whose firm Gushungo Holdings seized a
farm which had been
occupied by the former university lecturer.
Zuma
steps up Zim pressure
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Gift Phiri, Senior Writer
Tuesday, 07 February
2012 15:07
HARARE - SADC’s point man in the Zimbabwe dialogue
President Jacob Zuma of
South Africa will step up pressure on the troubled
inclusive government to
finalise the election roadmap.
Zuma’s foreign
chief Lindiwe Zulu admitted that momentum in the Zimbabwe
facilitation had
been lost.
She said this was due to preparations for SA’s ruling African
National
Congress’ (ANC) centenary celebrations and the African Union (AU)
Summit
held in Addis Ababa last week but indicated that focus was back on
Zimbabwe.
Zulu’s briefing paper presented to the SALO conference in
Johannesburg last
week acknowledged that there was little progress at the
Sadc-brokered
negotiations, as tension was rising and hopelessness weighing
in as Zimbabwe’s
FROM P1
fragile coalition totters on the brink of
collapse.
But Zulu expressed hope that 2012 will be a better year for
Zimbabwe than
2011 and said Zimbabwe’s Global Political Agreement (GPA)
negotiators from
the three political parties had finalised their report on
implementation and
outstanding issues and have presented the report to the
facilitation team
and Zuma.
“The next step now is for the facilitator
to have a working meeting with
Zimbabwe’s political principals to discuss
and resolve the outstanding
issues,” Zulu said, without stating when exactly
Zuma was expected in
Harare.
Her mobile was unavailable for further
comment yesterday.
Zuma, a scheming and smooth political operator, is
coming to Zimbabwe in a
last-ditch bid to try to save his northern neighbour
from deepening chaos.
Zulu noted at the SALO conference that all the
political parties had agreed
to and signed the election roadmap — but the
challenge remains that of
implementation of agreed positions.
There
were three issues where there were still sharp differences at the
election
roadmap talks, the partisanship of the service chiefs, ridding the
Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (Zec) secretariat of Zanu PF cronies and
intelligence
operatives and a stop to violence.
Zulu re-asserted Sadc’s commitment to
the need to remove violence in
Zimbabwe and to promote peace.
She
said the role of the facilitation team in Zimbabwe was “to ensure that
the
people of Zimbabwe — who deserve better — go for genuinely free
elections to
elect the leaders they want without any fear of violence.”
“Ultimately,
Zimbabweans have to go to elections, but the environment for
those elections
must be conducive,” Zulu said.
She reiterated that the country could not
be allowed to slip back to the
2008-style election characterised by
abductions and killings of MDC
supporters that followed Mugabe’s devastating
electoral defeat.
Zulu praised the Joint Monitoring and Implementation
Committee (Jomic) for
ensuring that all the three political principals,
President Robert Mugabe,
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube
issue joint statements
denouncing violence — but added that “speaking
against violence is one
thing, and putting it into practice
another.”
An uneasy truce has been holding in Zimbabwe after convening of
an
inter-party violence indaba national executives of Zimbabwe’s three
ruling
coalition partners on November 11 last year, with Mugabe’s Zanu PF
and the
two MDC parties stating their intentions to co-exist
peacefully.
Zulu said Pretoria will now turn up the diplomatic pressure
on Harare to
abide by the GPA and an election roadmap plan.
Zulu said
the facilitation team was strongly supporting the establishment of
democratic electoral institutions not only for the present, but for the
future — “to benefit future generations.”
She spoke amid escalating
internal wrangling over the election timetable
whose uncertainty is now
being fuelled by Mugabe’s advanced age and
suspicions of waning
health.
Officials in Zanu PF jockeying to succeed him are on a war of
attrition that
is spilling out into the open.
Hardliners in Zanu PF,
including the service chiefs, have reportedly vowed
to turn down demands by
the two MDCs for more reforms ahead of a fresh poll.
Tendai Biti,
secretary-general of the MDC has said his party will boycott
any election
held this year without reforms, and the smaller MDC is also
holding out for
more reforms.
Zulu said the date for Zimbabwe’s next elections is not for
the facilitation
team to decide, but is “up to the people of Zimbabwe and
the political
parties in Zimbabwe.”
“All the facilitation team has to
do is to make sure conditions for
non-violent, free and fair elections are
right and the environment is
conducive,” she said.
As the ruling
coalition parties wrangle, there is widespread apprehension
that the window
for enacting reforms is fast closing, as the next general
election draws
near.
Health Ministry Warns of Potential for Further Outbreaks of
Typhoid
http://www.voanews.com
06 February
2012
Deputy Health Minister Douglas Mombeshora said the council should
have taken
more useful steps such as cleaning up the streets of the densely
populated
suburbs affected, and enforcing sanitary by-laws
Tatenda
Gumbo & Sylvia Manika | Washington/Harare
The Zimbabwean
government said Monday that the current rash of typhoid
outbreaks is under
control – but warned that the disease could surge again
in a few
weeks.
Deputy Health Minister Douglas Mombeshora, speaking to reporters
in the
Mashonaland West provincial capital of Chinhoyi, said those infected
can go
for up to three weeks without showing symptoms – spreading the
disease to
others during that period.
Mombeshora criticized the
measures taken by the Harare City Council to curb
typhoid, such as the mass
closure of food stands across the city.
The deputy minister said said the
council should have taken more useful
steps such as cleaning up the streets
of the densely populated suburbs
affected, and enforcing sanitary by-laws.
He added that the council did not
promptly notify the government.
As
of late last week, more than 1,500 people had been treated for typhoid.
An
updated figure could not be obtained as calls to the Ministry of Health
were
not picked up.
Kuwadzana Councillor Gilford Mandere said the local
government is taking
measures to curb the spread of the disease and create
conditions for healthy
living and commerce.
In other health news, the
global financial and economic crisis has raised
concerns of donor fatigue
amid turmoil in the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria,
whose director was recently replaced amid dire
funding
projections.
In Zimbabwe, the National Aids Council says it collected
about US$25 million
last year, a 20 percent gain over 2010. But activists
say they still wonder
if the National Aids Council is being creative enough
when reaching out to
potential donors.
CCZ:
cost of living up 5 percent
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
07/02/2012 00:00:00
by Business
Reporter
THE cost of living for a low income family of six increased
5.7 percent last
month to about US$577 according to the Consumer Council of
Zimbabwe (CCZ).
In a statement Monday, the consumer lobby group said low
income families now
needed US$576.69 to survive, up from US$545.35 in
December.
Soaring transport costs, rentals, water, electricity, health and
education
expenses were largely behind the increase.
“The increase is
(largely) attributed to the raise in rentals which is
USD180.00 from
USD150.00 per month (USD60.00 per room) for the month of
January,” the CCZ
said.
“It is (however) anticipated that in the compilation of the
February (price)
basket, rentals will revert back to the December rate as
per the directive
of the Minister of National Housing and Social Amenities
Giles Mutsekwa,”
the consumer body said.
The CCZ said the weakening
of the United States dollar against the South
African Rand had also resulted
in an upward pressure on prices.
The rand is up more than six percent on
the greenback so far this year,
partly reversing some of last year's sharp
losses when investors bailed out
of risky assets spooked by concerns over
the US economy and the impact of a
debt crisis bedeviling some European
countries.
Zimbabwe ditched the local dollar in preference for more
stable foreign
currencies in 2009 with the South African unit and the
greenback being the
most widely used.
Most basic commodities are also
largely imported from South Africa as local
companies struggle to recover
from a decade-long recession.
However the South African unit eased nearly
2 percent against the dollar on
Monday and the CCZ said it was concerned
that local pricing did not reflect
that change.
“Retailers are quick
to increase prices when the Rand strengthens against
the dollar and yet they
ignore when it is the other way round,” the
organisation said.
The
CCZ said locally produced basic commodities were beginning to make it
back
on the shelves but not in large enough quantities to inspire consumer
confidence.
“CCZ will continue to monitor the situation closely and
continue to advocate
for fairer and affordable rate and price,” the
organisation said.
Former
Zim football chef Rushwaya charged over match fixing
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
07 February 2012
Henrietta Rushwaya, former chief
executive officer of the Zimbabwe Football
Association (ZIFA), was on Monday
slapped with bribery and corruption
charges related to a match fixing scam
that has engulfed many players on the
national team.
Rushwaya, who
insists she is innocent, was arrested last week and released
on US$500 bail
Monday by Harare Magistrate Anita Tshuma, who ordered her to
return to court
on February 20 to stand trial. She was also instructed not
to interfere with
ongoing investigations and report to the police every
fortnight.
The
former ZIFA chef joined a long list of football players, journalists and
officials who were implicated in the so-called ‘Asiagate’ scandal involving
matches played between 2007 and 2009. A group of 80 players were suspended
by ZIFA last week following an internal probe.
It is alleged that
huge bribes were paid to those involved to cover up the
fact that Zimbabwe’s
national team was deliberately losing matches hosted in
Asia, as part of a
betting scam run by agents of Raj Perumal. The
Singaporean is in jail in
Finland over similar betting charges.
The suspensions and charges stem
from a report produced by a four member
committee led by ZIFA Vice
President, Ndumiso Gumede. The report concluded
that Zimbabwe lost matches
to Syria and Thailand in an alleged betting scam
four years
ago.
National coach Norman Mapeza and assistant Joey Antipas were among
those
suspended last week. The list also includes Ovidy Karuru, who plays
for U.S.
Boulogne in France and South African based players including Thomas
Sweswe
and Willard Katsande of Johannesburg’s Kaizer Chiefs.
The ZIFA
report recommended that players should be dealt with leniently
because not
all of them knew the games were fixed. But FIFA chief Sepp
Blatter, during a
visit to Harare last year, warned that players and
officials found guilty
would face life bans.
10
Zimbabweans die in horror crash inside South Africa
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona
Sibanda
7 February 2012
Ten people believed to be Zimbabweans died on
Tuesday morning after a
horrific crash involving a Kombi and a truck in
Limpopo, South Africa. 16
others were left injured, two of them
seriously.
Police said the Kombi was travelling from Pretoria to Zimbabwe
while the
truck, which crossed the border from Zimbabwe, was headed towards
Polokwane.
The crash happened along the busy N1 highway near Bandelierkop
outside
Makhado, according to police spokesperson, Maano Sadiki.
The
South African national broadcaster, the SABC reported that traffic was
brought to a halt for four hours following the accident. The SABC quoted
police as saying the truck veered into the oncoming traffic and collided
head-on with the Kombi. Both drivers of the two vehicles died on the spot.
Eight of those who died were men, while one woman and one young boy also
died.
By late afternoon, health authorities were considering
airlifting two of the
critically injured survivors to Polokwane hospital.
One of them is a
pregnant woman.
“We are worried about two who are
critically injured especially the one who
is pregnant and doctors are doing
what they can to stabilize her…as for now
we are observing them to make sure
they get well,’ the SABC quoted Sadiki
saying.
The injured were taken
to Elim and the Louis Trichardt Memorial hospitals.
Police say they are in a
process of informing families of the deceased and
other next of kin.
Zim’s
failure to ratify AU Convention disappointing
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Bridget Mananavire, Staff
Writer
Tuesday, 07 February 2012 11:12
HARARE - Zimbabwe's failure
to ratify the African Union (AU) Convention on
Democracy, Elections and
Governance betrays its intentions on good
governance especially in the face
of elections, legal experts and political
analysts have said.
The
convention, to come into force for states which are part to it on
February
15 following its recent ratification by Cameroon, gives the AU
power to take
action in case of an unconstitutional change of government in
one of its
member states.
Ratifying the Charter by Zimbabwe would have meant in
principle that the
citizens, through the government, can easily seek
recourse on disputed
elections through avenues provided by the AU and its
subsidiaries, experts
said.
Acting director of programmes, democracy,
and governance of the Institute
for a Democratic Alternative for Zimbabwe
(Idazim), Joy Mabenge said
Zimbabwe’s failure to ratify, let alone sign the
convention shows the irony
associated with Zimbabwe’s current complex
transitional process.
“On one hand, there is commitment by the three main
political parties
through the Global Political Agreement (GPA) for
democratic reforms towards
a free, fair and undisputed election. Yet the
country cannot even append a
signature to binding treaties that ensure that
there is adherence to the
promotion of democracy, free and fair elections
and good governance,” he
said.
Mabenge added: “The GPA, itself a
product of a disputed, violence ridden
election, is meant to deliver a free
and fair election, with Southern Africa
Development Committee (Sadc) and the
AU as guarantors of not only the
implementation of articles and clauses of
the GPA but its logical
conclusion — a free and fair election.”
The
Convention was adopted by the AU heads of state and government on
January
30, 2007 and has now been signed by 38 out of 54 African states, but
ratified by only 15.
Zimbabwe has neither signed and ratified, nor
acceded to the Convention.
Lawyer and former Deputy Minister of Justice,
Jessie Majome said it is
worrying that Zimbabwe has not ratified the
instrument as everything about
it is in good faith.
“It is appalling
and a disgrace that Zimbabwe has not ratified such a
critical instrument. It
is an important charter whose implementation would
promote peace for
political transition and good governance,” Majome said.
“Moreover, the
standards have been set from an African perception, there is
no excuse why
Zimbabwe as an Afrocentric country would shun from it,” she
said, adding
that it raises posture for Africa which has been regarded as a
politically
unstable continent.
Since last year, there have been serious political
clashes in most African
countries and beyond, leading to civilian riots and
violent clashes that
have led to the toppling of some long time
leaders.
The unrests started in Tunisia and spread to other Arab nations
like Egypt
and Libya.
Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo is now facing war
crimes charges, murder and
rape at the International Criminal Court. To add
to the list is also Darfur
and Madagascar.
Analysts said
interestingly the Charter is the only international convention
that dares to
take up the sensitive issue of democracy while other treaties
prefer to
stick to human rights principles or anti-corruption measures.
Furthermore
they said it is a lost opportunity for peace loving Zimbabweans
who want
their country to remain relevant and active in regional and
international
politics through commitment to such conventions.
However, former
ambassador to China, Chris Mutsvangwa said ratifying it
would be opening up
to the influence of foreign powers’ ideals of democracy.
“No foreign
governance will come and influence African governments, and
there is nothing
more I can comment on that,” he said.
Zimbabwe expects 15% rise in tobacco output
(AFP) – 4 hours
ago
HARARE — Zimbabwe's tobacco output is expected to increase by nearly
15
percent this year to reach 150,000 tonnes, an official said on Tuesday,
predicting good returns for farmers.
"The target for this year is 150
million kilogrammes," Monica Chinamasa,
chairwoman of the Tobacco Industry
and Marketing Board told lawmakers ahead
of the start of the tobacco selling
season next week.
The board's chief executive Andrew Matibiri said
farmers would benefit from
the slump in output in Brazil and the United
States due to floods, with the
market about 5-10 percent short of
tobacco.
"This year is going to be favourable for growers," Matibiri
said.
Last year's output was at 131 million kilogrammes.
Tobacco
is Zimbabwe's major foreign currency earner, accounting for more
that 50
percent of agricultural exports.
Output is slowly improving, following a
decline prompted by President Robert
Mugabe's land reforms which he said
were meant to address colonial
imbalances between white landowners and the
black majority.
Govt
needs $62 million for loans, grants
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Everson Mushava, Staff
Writer
Tuesday, 07 February 2012 11:17
HARARE - Government needs
an extra $62 million this year to finance loans
and grants to students in
local universities and colleges satisfactorily, a
cabinet minister has
said.
Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Stan Mudenge said at the
moment,
government together with the corporate world raised only $55 million
against
a national requirement of $117 million, creating a shortfall of $62
million.
Mudenge was appearing before a parliamentary committee on higher
education,
science and technology on the progress made with regards to the
reintroduction of the grant loan system.
“In the 2012 budget,
government pledged $25 million to the grant scheme and
the $30 million
raised by Zimbank and Barclays Bank will be used for the
loan
scheme.
“Zimbabwe has over 86 000 students in universities and colleges,
excluding
students from agricultural colleges. Of that number, the available
resources
can only finance about 39 000 students. What will I do with the
remaining 42
000? Should I turn them away?” asked Mudenge.
He said it
was a right of every Zimbabwean student to get grants and loans
to finance
their education but since the money was not available, his
ministry had
ordered colleges and universities not to send students away
with the hope
that government will pay their dues to the institutions.
“We owe
universities over $41 million and the figure will continue growing
as the
money released by treasury is not enough. To date, treasury has only
released $9 million. Government has no money but we have to finance about
100 000 students on cadetship,” Mudenge said.
Mudenge said it
remained government’s responsibility to ensure that all
students are
financed.
“These (students) are sons and daughters of our civil servants.
Where the
hell do you think they will get the money to pay for their tuition
fees at
these universities and colleges? The policy of government is that we
will
pay whatever we owe the institutions and the student should not be send
away,” Mudenge said.
People, Mudenge said, should understand that the
country has no money and
there is nowhere the minister of Finance will get
the money but it will
remain government’s commitment that all students get
tertiary education.
In apparent reference to the Presidential Scholarship
Fund (PSF), when asked
why the government was spending millions of money on
students studying
abroad while failing to fund students in local
universities, Mudenge said
the PSF was not administered by his ministry and
would not answer questions
on it.
Mudenge said Zimbabwe was
progressing well in sustaining the cadetship
scheme after it almost
collapsed during the country’s economic meltdown in
2006 and by last year
about 64 percent of the students were on the
programme.
“Other
countries, even first world countries like Britain are failing to
fund
student education and female students have resorted to prostitution to
supplement their budgets. I am proud to say that we are at least doing
something,” said Mudenge.
According to Mudenge, the student grants
and loan scheme started in 1957
when the University Of Zimbabwe was opened.
By then, only 12 percent were
blacks.
The programme was expanded in
1972 through a British Grant Effort with the
World University Services to
increase the number of African students on the
scheme.
At
independence in 1980 about 1000 African students were on the scheme which
was later adopted by President Robert Mugabe’s government until today.
End
Zesa monopoly — Zerc
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Business Writer
Tuesday, 07 February 2012
11:32
HARARE - Zimbabwe should licence independent power producers to
end Zesa
Holding’s dominance, Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zerc)
chairman
Canada Malunga says.
Malunga told a Parliamentary portfolio
committee on mines and energy that
competition would allow an improvement in
utility services and meet the
country’s growing electricity
demands.
Zerc licensed five various independent power producers, but
their combined
production remains too low to influence the power
sector.
“At the moment we have one large producer and transmitter (so) in
as much as
you may want to crack a huge whip it’s difficult,” Malunga
said.
Operations at Zesa have continued to take a nose-dive with load
shedding
increasing whilst the company’s debtor’s book continues to
balloon.
Zesa’s debtors’ book is currently in excess of $500 million, an
equivalent
of seven months of its total revenue according to
Malunga.
Government institutions account for about $19 million of the
debtors.
“What is worrying is that they are not able to collect that
money,” he said.
“There are also leakages and one of the issues which we
are fully backing is
the issue of installing prepaid meters.”
He
said Zerc was willing to partner with the Zimbabwe Investment Authority
in
trying to secure investments in power generation.
However, international
investors have also adopted a wait-and-see attitude
on Zimbabwe given
President Robert Mugabe’s persistent call for elections
and the ongoing
indigenisation exercise which compels all foreign owned
firms to give at
least 51 percent shareholding to Zimbabwean locals.
“Our intent is not to
frustrate investors, we actually want to attract them”
said Malunga, adding
that there are always concerns of expropriation arising
from the
Indigenisation Act.
“Finance Minister (Tendai) Biti said in his budget
there is need for policy
stability and political stability. In the event
that we put a new tariff, to
what extent is it protected from being
overturned.”
Malunga said there was need for assistance from the Finance
ministry with
respect to guaranteeing tax and other financial
incentives.
The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industry has approached the
courts seeking a
review of Zesa’s 37 percent tariff hike in September last
saying it was
unsustainable.
The industry body also argued Zesa has
effected the new charges without
consulting industry.
Mutare
residents demand answers over Mayor’s suspension
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona
Sibanda
7 February 2012
Residents in Mutare have petitioned the MDC-T
to explain the suspension of
Mayor Brian James by the Local Government
minister Ignatius Chombo.
James was elected councilor for ward 12 of the
eastern border city on an
MDC-T ticket and was subsequently chosen as Mayor
by the councilors
following the 2008 harmonized elections.
But two
weeks ago he was suspended by Chombo for alleged misconduct. The
MDC-T
described the suspension as ‘ridiculous’ and threatened to disregard
Chombo’s action.
MDC-T spokesman for Manicaland, Pishai Muchauraya
told SW Radio Africa on
Tuesday that James was suspended for fighting
corruption and that over 20
000 people in Mutare have since signed a
petition calling for his
reinstatement.
“We are a people’s party and
we have a majority in council and therefore
obliged to explain the
circumstances that led to suspension of the Mayor,”
Muchauraya
said.
He added: “We have scheduled a feedback meeting at Sakubva stadium
this
Saturday were everyone who resides in Mutare is welcome to
attend.”
The MDC-T MP for Makoni South reiterated that James’suspension
was an effort
to allow corruption to rear its ugly head in the
City.
“Like what our national spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said, the
suspension of
the Mayor is illegal and unreasonable. It deprives the people
of Mutare of a
mayor whose policies were people-centered,” he
said.
The MDC-T says that that James was suspended by Chombo, a ZANU PF
minister
after he raised over 20 irregularities in the financial affairs of
the city
to the Town Clerk, Obert Muzawazi.
In a letter dated 10
October 2011, the Mayor wrote to the Town Clerk
highlighting these
irregularities and the need for investigations in order
to make corrective
measures to protect the city and its ratepayers.
The letter reads: “It
has come to my attention and that of the councilors
that there are a number
of serious irregularities taking place in respect of
the council’s financial
affairs which may possibly be fraudulent and
prejudicial to the city of
Mutare.”
Muchauraya added that Chombo’s actions can be perceived as
pre-emptive
because he allegedly owns many properties in the City, many of
which could
have been corruptly purchased.
Certified
Polished Diamond Prices Fall 1% in January
http://www.diamonds.net/
Rapaport Issues January Research
Report: Treading Carefully
Feb 7, 2012 5:53 AM
RAPAPORT... Press
Release, February 7, 2012, New York: Certified polished
diamond prices fell
slightly in the first month of 2012. Cautious trading
activity is expected
to continue as polished buyers are waiting for clearer
signs of stability
before making large volume purchases. Mining companies,
manufacturers,
wholesalers and retailers are carefully monitoring their
inventories but an
oversupply of rough from Zimbabwe is throwing the market
out of
balance.
The RapNet Diamond Index (RAPI™) for 1.00-carat polished
diamonds fell 1
percent to 95.95 in January. RAPI for 0.30-carat diamonds
declined 3.9
percent to 15.48 and RAPI for 0.50-carat diamonds rose 0.3
percent to 34.49.
RAPI for 3.00-carat diamonds fell 0.3 percent to
350.82.
Rough prices at tender were relatively stable during the month.
ALROSA cut
its prices in January while De Beers Diamond Trading Company
(DTC)
maintained high values on its boxes by adjusting assortments in its
supply.
DTC boxes are trading on the secondary market at low
premiums.
Zimbabwe has ramped up production at the four concessions in
the Marange
fields to more than 1 million carats per month. The influx of
these goods is
expected to impact prices in the short term, particularly for
low color, low
quality rough. Inventories of rough are expected to grow and
liquidity in
the cutting centers may tighten as manufacturers hold on to the
rough as
long as polished demand remains subdued.
Rapaport stresses
that the Marange goods are illegal to trade in the U.S.
and the Europe
Union. Rapaport maintains its ban on Marange goods on
RapNet – Rapaport
Diamond Trading Network.
According to the just-released Rapaport Research
Report, Treading Carefully,
the influx of a significant volume of Zimbabwe
rough in the market may
destabilize the current market equilibrium, while
economic uncertainties
continue to instill caution in the diamond trade.
Trading levels are
expected to remain flat in the first quarter as it
remains unclear whether
Far East and U.S. buyers will replenish inventories
during the first quarter
or delay their purchases until they gain confidence
that prices have
stabilized.
1.5 million carats on the block at Zimbabwe
diamond auction
Up to 1.5 million
carats worth of diamonds are being auctioned this week by companies allowed to
mine the controversial Marange diamond fields in Zimbabwe.
New Zimbabwe
reports that one Chinese company, Anjin Investments, will
tender about half a million carats while another, Diamond Mining Corporation,
will offer up 400,000:
Two other
companies, Mbada Diamonds and Marange Resources, are each expected to put about
350,000 carats up for the auction which will likely attract rough dealers and
merchants from India and Israel.
Zimbabwe is
expected to realize about US$46 million from the auction.
MINING.com reported at the
end of June the seemingly unilateral decision by the chairman of the
Kimberly Process, the international diamond trade watchdog, to allow Zimbabwe
to resume diamond exports has been rejected by among others the United States,
Canada and Israel.
However, New
Zimbabwe reports that verification by third-party monitors in December and
January concluded that mining operations in the area were compliant with KP
standards.
The article also
notes that Zimbabwe diamonds, at $40 a carat, are cheap compared to other
countries selling the gems at $100 a carat, which is attracting interest from
the world’s largest diamond cutting and polishing centre in Surat,
India.
Zimbabwe is set to become
the world’s leading producer, with an expected volume of 40m carats per year worth
some $2bn annually from the rich deposits in Chiadzwa and
Marange.
The troubled
country, emerging from years of hyperinflation and political turmoil, was
however barred from selling diamonds because of alleged human rights violations
and has built up a stockpile worth $4bn–$5bn.
New
KP chair urged to clarify Zim position
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
07 February
2012
The New KP Chair Gillian Milovanovic, who is from the US, is
the first
American and first female representative to take over the rolling
chairmanship of the monitoring body. She takes over from Mathieu Yamba from
the DRC, who faced criticism last year for appearing to push for Zimbabwe’s
clearance to resume sales despite minimum standards not being
met.
This pressure, in the form of multiple unilateral decisions by Yamba
and
ongoing threats from Zimbabwe’s government to start selling its diamonds
without clearance, eventually led to the KP giving Zim diamonds the green
light for export.
This decision was widely criticised for ‘letting
Zimbabwe’s government off
the hook’, and led to a key civil society member
of the KP quitting the
body. The group, Global Witness, said last year it
was leaving the scheme
because of the KP’s failure to fulfill its mandate in
preventing the trade
in conflict diamonds.
The Zim government has
insisted the local diamond trade is meeting
international standards and has
repeatedly dismissed claims that Chiadzwa
diamonds are not conflict
free.
But the country has been at the centre of serious debate over the
definition
of conflict diamonds, after it was suspended from trade in 2009
over serious
human rights concerns. These concerns stemmed from the deaths
of a hundreds
of illegal diamond panners at the controversial Chiadzwa
alluvial fields,
where in 2008 the then ZANU PF led government launched a
military led clean
up operation.
Since then, there have been ongoing
reports of military led abuses,
including forced labour and dog attacks on
villagers. At the same time,
there has been rampant smuggling from the area,
leading to millions of
dollars in diamonds going missing. Human Rights Watch
and Global Witness
both reported that top ZANU PF officials were the leading
beneficiaries of
this illicit trade.
Regardless of these ongoing
reports, the KP still gave Zimbabwe the green
light to resume exporting last
year, after a two year deadlock on the
country’s trade future. The only
restrictions now on the diamond trade are
in the form of targeted
restrictive measures, after the US added two
Chiadzwa based diamonds firms
to its sanctions list against Zimbabwe last
year.
The KP chair, who
is also from the US, is now under pressure to clarify her
position,
particularly after stating last week that the “only” conflict
diamonds the
KP is aware of are from Cote d’Ivoire.
“At the present moment, I am told,
the only country whose diamonds are
fitting within the definition of
conflict diamonds is Cote d’Ivoire. And
that represents, overall, far less
than one percent of all diamonds,”
Milovanovic told a teleconference with
journalists last week.
Ambassador Milovanovic, who assumed the KP chair a
fortnight ago, also
hinted there could be need to redefine what constitutes
conflict diamonds.
“I would say that overall, yes; the organisation is
looking, for example, at
its core objectives and core definitions. That
would include the definition
of conflict diamonds….. The goal, certainly, is
to look at, is there a need
to make some changes,” Milovanovic
said.
Political analyst Clifford Mashiri, who has been a vocal support of
civil
society in the Zimbabwe diamonds debate, told SW Radio Africa on
Tuesday
that the new KP chair must prioritise a new definition of conflict
diamonds.
“Zimbabwe diamonds are quite clearly conflictual and, many
would say,
bloodied. Clearly the KP and civil society need to reach an
agreement then
on the way forward,” he explained.
Service
Chiefs appointments: Tomana disingenuous
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
07/02/2012
00:00:00
by Derek Matyszak
THE Commanders of the Defence
Forces and the Commissioner-General of Police
are appointedby the President
both under the provisions of the Constitution
and in terms of Acts of
Parliament.
The Constitution provides that the appointments are made “by the
President
after consultationwith such person or authority as may be
prescribed by or
under an Act of Parliament.”
Relevant Acts of
Parliament (the Defence Act and Police Act) set out the
manner ofappointment
and persons or bodies to be consulted.
Since the advent of Zimbabwe’s
Inclusive Government, and for so long as such
“unity” government subsists,
an important addendum has been added to these
provisions. Article 20.1.3(p)
of Schedule 8 to the Constitution (which
overrides any provisions elsewhere
in the Constitution to the contrary)
requires that any key appointment made
by the President under and in terms
of the Constitution, or made by the
President in terms of or under any Act
of Parliament, be made only after the
consent of the Prime Minister has been
first secured.
The
appointments of the Service Chiefs, being made both under and in terms
of
the Constitution and Acts of Parliament, thus fall squarely within the
requirements of Article 20.1.3(p).
Article 20.1.3(p) reads as
follows:
The President in consultation with the Prime Minister, makes key
appointments the President is required to make under and in terms of the
Constitution or any Act of Parliament.
“In consultation” is
specifically defined in the Constitution to mean: that
the person required
to consult before arriving at a decision arrives at the
decision after
securing the agreement or consent of the person so consulted
(Section 115(1)
of the Constitution).
This provision is in contrast to the meaning to be
accorded to “after
consultation” with which means that the person required
to consult before
arriving at a decision makes the consultation but is not
bound by the advice
or opinion given by the person so consulted. The
distinction follows
precedent in South African case law).
In sum then,
this means that the Prime Minister’s consent is required before
any of these
appointments are made.
Zimbabwe’s Attorney-General, Johannes Tomana, has
threatened to arrest
anyone who claims that this is the case, maintaining
that the legal position
is otherwise. Tomana’s argument is that the
requirement to gain the Prime
Minister’s consent pertains only to
appointments and not re-appointments,
stating that Police
Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri’s case:
“is about reappointment,
not appointment. The GPA deals with appointments.
The GPA uses specific
language, it refers to appointments and not
reappointments and the issues
considered in appointments are very different
from those that are considered
in reappointment.”
However, the Attorney-General argument is disingenuous
for two reasons.
Firstly, he has deliberately referred only to the GPA (the
Global Political
Agreement, the name by which the Inter-Party Political
Agreement signed
between the main political players in Zimbabwe on 15th
September 2008 is
commonly known).
This part of the GPA has been
incorporated into Schedule 8 of the
Constitution. The President’s obligation
to gain the Prime Minister’s
consent is thus not merely an undertaking in
terms of the GPA, it is, more
importantly, a constitutional
requirement.
Secondly (and perhaps the reason why the AG was anxious to
avoid mentioning
that the obligation to gain the Prime Minister’s consent is
a constitutional
imperative), Tomana’s argument is disingenuous because it
deliberately
ignores the clear provisions of section 113(5) of the
Constitution to the
following effect:
In this Constitution, unless the
context otherwise requires, a reference to
the power to appoint a person to
any public office shall be construed as
including a reference to the like
power—
(a) to reappoint him to that office;
(b) to appoint him on
promotion or transfer to that office;
(c) to appoint him to act in that
office;
(d) to fix and vary his conditions of service in that
office
Accordingly, the reference to the provision in Schedule 8 of the
Constitution, relating to the appointment of the Commissioner-General (and
the other service chiefs), applies equally to the reappointment of the
Commissioner-General (and other service chiefs).
Article 20.1.3(p) thus
applies to both appointments and reappointments.
It is not without irony
and significant that the Attorney-General was also
appointed unilaterally by
President Mugabe, in violation of the same
provision of the GPA.
The
legislature seems to have thought it undesirable that a
Commissioner-General
of Police hold office for an extended period, and that
it is preferable that
a person in such a key and sensitive post be limited,
in the normal course
of events, to only one term. The term of office of the
Commissioner-General
is thus a maximum of four years. This then is intended
to be the general
position, with departure from this stipulation only in
exceptional
circumstances.
Thus, the four year period may be renewed yearly for no
more than 12 months
at a time, if the President believes this to be in the
“public interest”.
Chihuri has held this position since 1991 and the
President thus must have
deemed his reappointment “to be in the public
interest” on 16 occasions. It
is unlikely that this accords with the
intention of the legislature.
Furthermore, the Commissioner-General has
made statements in the past which
give the impression that he intends to
carry out his duties in the interests
of only one section of Zimbabwean
society and not in the public interest
generally, declaring:
"Many people
say I am Zanu PF. Today, I would like to make it public that I
support Zanu
PF because it is the ruling party. If any other party comes to
power, I will
resign and let those who support it take over.”
It is precisely to
prevent such perceptions of partisanship that the Police
Act prohibits
police officers from actively participating in politics, and
they are thus
enjoined to maintain a clear division between their duties as
police
officers and their political affiliations and sympathies.
A member is
regarded as in breach of this injunction if he or she joins or
associates
himself or herself with a political organisation; canvasses any
person in
support of, or otherwise actively assists, a political
organisation;
displays or wears political regalia; attends a political
meeting or assembly
when wearing the uniform of the Police Force or any part
of such uniform
likely to identify him or her as a Regular Force member
unless as part of
his or her duties; asks questions from the floor at a
political meeting;
publishes views of a political character or causes them
to be published in
any manner or media; or does any other act whereby the
public or any member
thereof might reasonably be induced to identify him or
her with a political
organisation.
This requirement of the Police Act seems to have escaped
the current
Commissioner-General and in itself indicates that his
reappointment cannot
be in the public interest. Many believe that that the
Commissioner-General’s
conduct has been entirely consistent with this
declaration of partisanship.
The considerations applying to a term limit
for the Commissioner-General of
Police do not apply to the Commanders in the
Armed Services, who are
appointed for terms of four years, which are
renewable for the same period
without limit.
The current Commanders
were promoted to their current positions in January
or February 2008,
following the death of Vitalis Zvinavashe, then Commander
of the Defence
Forces, in December of 2007. Neither the provisions of the
Constitution or
GPA under discussion here were in force at that time.
There is little
doubt that President Robert Mugabe will proceed to renew
these appointments
without complying with the constitutional requirement of
securing the
agreement or consent of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
In the past, he
has violated this constitutional requirement by unilaterally
appointing and
promoting judges, in the appointment of Provincial Governors,
and the
transfer of ambassadors to different stations.
The MDCs will no doubt
complain about the manner in which the Service Chiefs
are reappointed and
the issue will be added to the many other “toxic issues”
still to be
resolved by the parties to the GPA. Zanu PF will also
undoubtedly point to
the MDCs’ complaint as constituting evidence that the
“Unity Government” is
not working.
However, as with many people who return items in the belief
that they are
dysfunctional, the problem lies in the perverse and stubborn
refusal to read
and follow the user instructions – in this instance the
provisions of the
GPA and Constitution.
Derek Matyszak is a Senior
Researcher for the Research and Advocacy Unit
Youth
leadership training in Zimbabwe
http://www.kubatanablogs.net/kubatana/?p=7837
FES Youth Leadership
Training
Deadline: 5 March 2012
The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES)
Zimbabwe, a non-profit making,
public-interest institution, is offering
leadership training for young
adults. The training will target young leaders
with proven social and
political interests and abilities from political
parties, trade unions and
youth organizations. Women are particularly
encouraged to apply. The
training shall provide young leaders from the full
political spectrum of
Zimbabwe with leadership skills and the opportunity
for political
networking. This process will run for about 8 months. FES will
meet the cost
of the actual training for the selected participants while any
other
associated costs will have to be borne by the participants. No sitting
allowances or per diems will be paid. Interested candidates should fulfill
the following criteria:
1. Between 20-35 years of age
2. Team
player
3. Proven political and social interests
4. Ability for political
analysis and knowledge of political developments in
the country
5. Be
part of the programme throughout the whole training period
Please send
your CV, and half a page justification why you should
participate in the
training to the following email address:
info@fes-zimbabwe.org
The Role of the Private Sector and Trade Opportunities in the Revival of Matabeleland – A SWOT Analysis
Presentation made by SACFA
to the Economic Co-operation and Food Security Sector of the Delegation of the
European Union to the Republic of Zimbabwe – 31 January
2012.
Good Afternoon to you all,
Ladies and Gentlemen. My name is
Christopher Jarrett, Chairman of the Southern African Commercial Farmers
Alliance, an organisation representing the views of most commercial farmers in
Matabeleland and not a few elsewhere in Zimbabwe. Since being expelled from my farm in
Nyamandhlovu in 2002 I have had some considerable time to ponder upon the
remarkable decline in the economic fortunes of this country’s Private
Sector. My views are shared by those
that SACFA represents.
What we are about to
present may be regarded as seditious by a few of those here having regard to the
Distribution List which we were sent.
This List includes representatives of the past and the present
government. Public pronouncements
continue to portray the Fast Track Land Reform Programme as an intelligent and
successful policy and it is of concern that there has been no real contrary view
by any of the new coalition partners in government. The Fast Track Land Reform Programme has not
been successful, and what we have to say will show unequivocally how deeply it
has impacted on the Private Sector. To
this day the policy impedes that sector’s ability to operate effectively. Revival of trade is linked to and dependent
upon rebuilding a healthy and productive Private Sector. This is to be the focus of our presentation.
We need to engage our minds
and examine why it is that a country not at war has suffered such a catastrophic
economic decline; why it is that Zimbabwe is now regarded as the third poorest
country in the world and the second most difficult place to establish and carry
out an economic endeavour. We trust that
what we have to say will be taken in the spirit it is given – there is an urgent
need to put an end to this stalemate which with rare exceptions continues to
impoverish us all.
Without wasting time on a
lengthy detailed history of what happened and what the effects were let me
summarise briefly: -
Agriculture was the largest
sector of the economy and vital in keeping downstream segments in vibrant good
health. Forced acquisitions of
commercial farmland resulted in its destruction. Not only was large scale commercial
agriculture ruined but steep declines in the agricultural output of the communal
sector came about as a result of the severing of vitally important but largely
unseen linkages between the two divisions.
The sharp drop in the production of food and other crops resulted in a
substantial shrinkage in export earnings.
This in turn led to the country
being unable to service its debt; its credit rating collapsed; lines of credit
were withdrawn and suppliers demanded cash up front.
The collapse of agriculture
caused an economic “cascade failure” and progressively the rest of the economy
failed. Tourism, mining, commerce,
industry and electricity generation all followed in agriculture’s
footsteps. Tax revenues tumbled and this
revenue shortfall led to government frantically increasing borrowings from the
markets.
Government brought in
unrealistic fixed exchange rates and when these did not stem the slide in the
value of our currency they added price controls into this poisonous economic
concoction. In order to profess
adherence to normal economic practice they pegged interest rates at minimal
levels. This was a pretense mechanism to
themselves and lenders of an ability to service their ballooning debt. These rates being seen by the market as
unattractive they had to force all institutions with any funds (pension funds,
banks etc.) to lend to them at these marginal rates.
This forced lending at
negative interest rates contributed to the erosion of the commercial banking
sector’s working capital and that of the pension funds. Coupled with inflation the capital resources
of the Private Sector were well on the way to being wiped out entirely. The Reserve Bank accelerated this wipe out by
helping themselves to all foreign currency in private bank accounts. In an
effort to dress this theft as a normal commercial transaction they replaced the
forex with rapidly depreciating Zimbabwe dollars calculated at laughable
official exchange rates. Credit balances
were not allowed to be withdrawn from the banks in cash so as to preclude the
owners from repurchasing their hard currency on the streets.
When the country’s
resources were effectively exhausted no discernible attempt was made to reverse
the policies which had so obviously failed.
Instead it was decided to source alternative fictitious capital to on
lend to government enabling them to continue down their ill-chosen path. The Reserve Bank resorted to printing money
in vast quantities. This plethora of
local currency funded strange initiatives designed to repair the productivity in
agriculture and industry which they had just ruined by the procedures outlined
above. This money also found its way on
to the streets where it was used to buy some of the hard currencies needed by
government.
Sustained excessive use of
the currency printing presses brought about hyper-inflation and the total
collapse of our currency. Just prior to
the extinction of the Zimbabwe dollar the value of our currency was halving in
slightly over 24 hours.
Twenty five noughts were
officially removed from our currency by the Reserve Bank and we finally had a
note denominated One Hundred Trillion Zimbabwe Dollars (100 followed by twelve
noughts). This note was initially worth
about US$7 but soon lost all its value.
So the only conclusion that can be reached is that the destruction of
agriculture through the Fast Track Land Reform Programme removed 39 noughts off
our money and left us all penniless. Do
you not agree that if you took 39 noughts off the fortune of the richest man in
the world, Bill Gates, he too would have no money left?
Current propaganda would
have us believe that it was not the self inflicted stupidity of government
actions that brought about our economic demise but “illegal sanctions”. What I have sketched above clearly
demonstrates that official policy was entirely to blame. No bank lends to such
clients and shuns any dealings with those practising such irrational
policies.
We now come to the meat of
the matter. How are we going to fix this
mess so that the Private Sector can again fill its core role of generating
employment whilst at the same time generating wealth for all and taxes to fund
an insolvent government?
It has taken many years of
recession but slowly some in government are arriving at conclusions and measures
they believe will tackle the heart of the problem and get the economy going
again. They however seem reluctant to
grasp firmly and state the obvious. They
skirt around the perimeter and use verbal gymnastics so as to incorporate some
sort of accommodation with plainly failed government policies.
Agriculture holds the key
to Zimbabwe’s recovery. In 2002 the
value of production from commercial agriculture was some US$3.4 billion growing
at about 10% per annum. This would bring
its contribution in 2012 to US$8.82 billion.
Put another way commercial agriculture alone would have added US$63.02
billion to the country’s GDP from 2002 to 2012.
Instead we have had a pitiful contribution under the Fast Track Land
Reform Programme. GDP generated has been
unable to service and repay the national debt.
We must face up to it that
neither government nor anyone else has the depth of finance necessary to
bankroll annually an agricultural system structurally incapable of funding
itself. Commercial agriculture used to
fund itself through a robust and powerful banking sector using title to the land
as collateral. This funding did not cost
the taxpayer anything.
Now we have a crass system
where very little can be produced except from beneficiaries’ limited own
resources. The taxpayer through
government is thus obliged to provide finance for inputs most of which funding
is never recovered. Those who benefit
from these hand outs have no binding obligation to pay. There is no sanction such as loss of security
of tenure lurking in the wings should these so-called “loans” not be
repaid. There is no need to repay
because there is no effective recourse and this adds to our collective
impoverishment as our taxes are wasted.
It is no coincidence that
the five richest countries in Africa were those which had freehold title, and in
the case of Botswana which only has about 4% freehold, they have proper long
term leases over vast areas which are tradeable. These oblige government to pay full value for
any improvements made should the Botswana government cancel or decide not to
renew a lease. Political leaders
throughout the African continent have progressively and systematically set about
destroying secure title and in so doing have made economic progress for their
citizens very much more difficult. In
other words this policy has been designed to keep the general population poor
and subservient and no threat to the status quo. The Far East, although having different
standards of tenure looks forward, not back to their colonial era. They have prospered mightily.
The agricultural industry
has to establish mechanisms to fund itself.
This demands the security of title to the land; that is secure and
inviolate property rights. We in SACFA
have made it clear that we do not just promote and sponsor these conditions in
order to restore our own rights but we believe they should be extended into the
Communal Areas. The economic factors
that underscored and supported commercial agriculture’s ability to generate
wealth will do the same for all communal land farmers once put in place. What is more they will confer numerous new
economic alternatives and opportunities to communal land dwellers many of whom
would prefer to trade their rural rights for a dwelling with secure tenure in
the cities.
Under the present system
those attempting to farm both on commercial farmland and in the Communal Areas
are crippled by a lack of finance for their operations. They cannot borrow because they have no real
property right in the land they farm which otherwise could secure their
borrowings. Farm land is no longer used
as collateral. The banks too are
hamstrung and illiquid partly because that vast store of wealth used by bankers
in the past to multiply their liquidity - the underlying capital tied up in
commercial farmland - now has no economic value.
Politicians are starting to
advocate that those on the land must be given secure tenure. What they do not realise is that this is
impossible whilst the owner still holds ownership and proof thereof in the form
of his title deeds. Government being
quite unable to service the interest on the national debt, let alone repay any
of the capital, is clearly incapable of compensating owners in order to take
over their real rights in the land. No
one can transfer a right which they do not possess.
A number of us joined with
Mike Campbell in the SADC Tribunal to contest the ongoing seizures of our
properties and lack of payment of compensation to those whose farms had already
been taken. The Tribunal ruled that
Constitutional Amendment 17 which supposedly authorised the wholesale
nationalization of commercial farms was illegal in that it breached this
country’s obligations under the SADC Treaty.
The Tribunal also ruled that those who had already had their property
taken must be fairly compensated.
Public International Law
(the law applied by the SADC Tribunal and other international courts) is quite
clear on what fair compensation comprises.
Furthermore, when it came to the refusal of government to pay
compensation for the land itself, the Tribunal stated that no state can hide
behind domestic law to evade their international obligations. To legitimately obtain title to the
commercial farms, government will have to put the owners in the same position
they would have been in had the expropriations not taken place.
International law defines
that this means compensation for the land; the improvements; the disturbance
losses being moveables, consequential losses and loss of income up to the date
that Constitutional Amendment 17 took effect on 14 September 2005. Finally, this compensation was due and
payable when the expropriations took place.
At the very latest it should have been paid when Amendment 17 came into
force. Compensation was never paid. Because it was not, there is now interest
accruing on the debt day by day and this is what makes a solution all the more
pressing.
In order to establish
exactly what types of damages, compensation and interest were due by the
Zimbabwe government under international law comprehensive loss documents were
drawn up for the three farmers who had been awarded “fair compensation” by the
Tribunal. These were submitted to
Windhoek for the Tribunal’s ruling. The
Tribunal notwithstanding its first six month’s suspension was obliged and
entitled to hear this application as a pending matter. These pending matters were not affected by
the terms of the suspension. Deviously
the application was never heard because the SADC Secretariat saw fit to sabotage
the Tribunal’s workings. They did this
by refusing the funding for the Tribunal Judges who are scattered around the
SADC Region to travel to Windhoek to hear the case.
It was clear to all from a
perusal of the loss documents that however the Tribunal decided to rule on this
compensation application the national debt of the Zimbabwe government was about to increase by
a factor of several times.
To solve this problem, the
SADC Summit chose not to enforce the terms of the SADC Treaty. Instead they decided to shut down its
policeman, the Tribunal, which had had the temerity to rule against one of
them. Other contrary rulings were
ominously already in the pipeline. Of
such things is expedience made and the ramifications are wide.
That was not the end of the
matter – the argument that closure of the Tribunal breached the Treaty simply
went another rung up the ladder. It is
now before the African Commission in Banjul, the Gambia. No doubt if justice is not properly dispensed
there by the African Commission of Human and Peoples Rights it will head upwards
yet further elsewhere. The point to
digest is that the land seizure problem is not going away with the passage of
time. It is impossible to confiscate
people’s property without fair compensation being paid. There are numerous examples of countries
which have tried going down this same route, but there is not one country to our
knowledge which has managed to hold on to the spoils.
We continue to see the
ramifications of large scale property seizures which even now are ongoing. Zimbabwe wallows economically. No investor willingly takes his money to a
destination where he knows he will lose it.
Economic laws were not invented of late by Zimbabwe politicians running
this country. They have been built up
over centuries and any country breaking these rules does so at its peril. Zimbabwe is busy learning this hard
lesson.
So we shall have to face up
to reality. It was the seizures of land
that initiated the economic collapse in this country and to get the country up
and running again and confidence back we will have to deal with them. Neither this government, nor any future
successor will be capable of paying fair compensation for the assets
expropriated. It is no good trying to
fool ourselves by pretending the bankrupt government who took the properties
need only under Zimbabwe domestic law pay a highly discounted sum for
improvements as and when things may get better.
Perhaps the best government
can do is to mitigate their losses by returning seized land and go cap in hand
to rich donors for grants to assist in the restoration of productive
capacity. This would include resources
to finance the granting of title to the communal lands as the EU has done for
Namibia. A government unable to pay its
current interest bill is surely irrational should it persist in its insane
desire to farm the entire country. A
government that refuses to acknowledge such obvious limitations will doubtless
continue to suffer under “illegal sanctions” until it gets its thought processes
in order.
May we point out to your
august delegation, and we must thank you for coming to our city of Bulawayo in
the heart of Matabeleland, that whilst this denial of reality continues we need
your ongoing assistance. The make
believe that things are heading in the right direction has continued far too
long. We need you never to condone the
continued denial of human rights by this government both in regard to commercial
farmers, their largely voiceless workers and everyone else. We need you to continue to apply pressure on
our administration that this artificial state of play ends and that normal
enterprise by the Private Sector is allowed to return and function
unimpeded. You should not deal normally
with a government which breaches international law, international treaties and
norms, disregards international judgements and continues to believe that crimes
against humanity have no consequences.
The Private Sector will
never thrive whilst denial of property rights continues. Qualifications that rights will only be
respected under conditions that require allegiance to a particular political
party will not suffice.
Sanctions actually need
more muscle to jolt minds back to reality.
The World Bank and IMF need your influence to convince them that to
assist Zimbabwe now or in the future with developmental aid whilst denial of
property rights and lack of the rule of law persists is immoral if not
criminal. Nor should the EU consider
funding those in possession of other people’s property. We head towards a new election which using
present rules will sadly be as lethal as the last. Gukurahundi and successors need no
repeat. We will be in need of effective
peacekeepers.
Here is a plea from us all;
please do not prop up the present system in any way. Do not deal with this government on the basis
that there is a cheap shortcut to the resolution of the real issues. Please adhere to the underlying
principles. Otherwise this will only
perpetuate the Private Sector’s sojourn in the doldrums. Rather help by bringing the ongoing stalemate
to an end.
As to the future, we are
often asked what plan we have when reality is faced and sane, sensible policies
are implemented. SACFA is of the belief
that market forces must be allowed to operate unfettered. A study we have done in Nyamandhlovu shows
that already by 1993 33% of all commercial farms had been bought by black owners
or had been sold to government on a willing seller, willing buyer basis for
resettlement. CSC and Forestry own 27%
of the district and white ownership was down to 40%. This trend accelerated thereafter. There was thus no need for government to
interfere in an orderly process.
Government’s core function is simply to establish the environment under
which the Private Sector can operate efficiently.
The Fast Track Land Reform
Programme was the primary source of all our economic woes; it cannot succeed as
it stands because it is structurally flawed; its failures will have to be
faced. Your Delegation seeks
recommendations for a regional economic strategy and partnership avenues for
development partners and twinning arrangements.
We are of the view that until and unless property rights are addressed
the Private Sector will not revive.
Consequently a further regional strategy is not possible now, nor is
there a sound basis for development partners and twinning arrangements.
Bulawayo,
30 January
2012.