FinGaz
Dumisani Ndlela Business
Editor
Mugabe’s grip on power stokes fissures
IN an unexpected reversal of
political fortunes, it could be ZANU PF rather
than the erstwhile divided
Movement for Democratic Change that goes into the
March elections in
disarray after it has emerged that a spilt could be
imminent within the
ruling party owing to growing fissures stoked by
President Robert Mugabe’s
unyielding grip on power.
The split, likely to be the worst to ravage the
party since a guerrilla
war-era break up, which resulted in President Mugabe
taking over as leader
from the late Ndabaningi Sithole after grave
differences emerged over the
direction of the war of liberation, has set
alarm bells ringing among
security agents, who are digging for clues.
The
Financial Gazette is reliably informed that the powerful Joint
Operations
Command, which is composed of high-ranking officers from the
military, the
intelligence services and the police, has started scrutinising
information
on the issue, although sources said suspicions ran deep among
members
because of factional alliances.
Impeccable sources revealed this week that a
cabal of President Mugabe’s
inner circle, largely consisting of reformists
disillusioned by the status
quo, has joined hands with key players in the
fractious opposition party,
the MDC, and could launch a united challenge
against ZANU-PF in the 2008
harmonised elections.
They said the only
sticky point had been the choice of the candidate to face
President Mugabe
in the presidential race and how the united party would
constitute its
government in the event of winning the polls.
The initiative to unite
reformists in ZANU PF and key opposition players in
the MDC factions led by
Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara is reportedly
being driven by three
Zimbabwean business executives, one of whom is a
former Cabinet minister now
domiciled abroad.
The other is a renowned academic who was closely associated
with President
Mugabe’s government as a key adviser during the formative
years of his
government.
The Financial Gazette can neither name the
figures behind the initiative,
nor the politicians from both ZANU PF and the
MDC who are involved, for
legal reasons.
But the list of names made
available to this newspaper shows that the plan,
which is supported by key
opposition figures, involves kingmakers from both
ZANU PF and the two MDC
factions.
The initiative is understood to have the support of key
international
financial institutions that are disillusioned by the country’s
current
economic meltdown and the failure of the opposition to unseat
President
Mugabe from power.
Despite the economic ruin blamed on ZANU-PF,
which has been in power for the
past 28 years, successive opposition parties
could not dislodge President
Mugabe’s government partly because of the unity
that prevailed in the ruling
party.
But the forces that bound the party
together were weakened after President
Mugabe moved to crush dissent ahead
of the 2004 congress when a faction
linked to former ZANU-PF secretary for
administration, Emmerson Mnangagwa
attempted to block Joice Mujuru’s
ascendancy to the Presidium.
Six provincial chairmen including Daniel Shumba
who now leads the United
People’s Party and Jabulani Sibanda, whose
resurgence has raffled the
feathers of the old guard in Matabeleland, were
suspended from the party
over the so- called Tsholotsho Declaration.
More
political intrigue was to follow in the run-up to the ZANU-PF special
congress held last month when President Mugabe’s loyalists pre-empted
attempts to elect a new leader by endorsing the ageing Zimbabwean leader as
the party’s presidential candidate.
President Mugabe, who ruthlessly
dealt with alleged detractors during the
Tsholotsho debacle, however, took
no steps to discipline those involved.
“The people driving the initiative are
using structures in both ZANU PF and
the two MDC factions and the split
could occur anytime soon,” a source said.
President Mugabe’s intelligence
operatives are said to have already started
“sniffing around” for clues on
the development.
The veteran nationalist is said to be “dealing diligently”
with the matter
and could take unspecified action once he resumes work after
his annual
leave in Asia.
It was not immediately clear if this would
entail the dismissal of certain
Cabinet members linked to the development,
but sources discounted the
possibility of any action that would “potentially
play into the hands of his
detractors”.
The suspension of Attorney
General, Sobuza Gula Ndebele, an ex-officio
member of the cabinet, could
indicate the manner in which he is likely to
deal with the issue, a source
suggested.
Ndebele was suspended pending investigations into allegations that
he
privately met former NMBZ Holdings executive, James Mushore, when he knew
the banker was on the police wanted list.
Ndebele is reportedly aligned
to a powerful faction within ZANU PF with
strong links to the
military.
Reports last year indicated that a faction within the ruling party
had
scuttled President Mugabe’s bid for endorsement at the 2006 ZANU PF
conference, at which he had sought backing for proposals to harmonise the
country’s presidential and parliamentary elections this year, as well as
make the legislature an electoral college responsible for the appointment of
a presidential successor should the incumbent decide to retire during his
term.
FinGaz
Zhean Gwaze
Staff Reporter
JABULANI Sibanda will be readmitted into ZANU PF this
month, three years
after the controversial war veterans leader was suspended
from the party for
alleged insubordination and indiscipline.
The
maverick war veteran, who stirred a hornet’s nest at the party’s special
congress in December, is likely to bounce back in time for him to contest
ZANU-PF primaries, most likely in a constituency in Bulawayo.
There are
fears however, that Sibanda’s re-admission could cause the ZANU-PF
old guard
in Matabeleland to pull out of the shaky Unity Accord signed in
1987 to end
bitter internal strife that saw over 20,000 people mainly from
Matabeleland
and the Midlands being massacred.
The war veterans leader was suspended in
2004 on allegations he had
mobilised the boisterous former freedom fighters
against Vice-President
Joseph Msika.
He was also found guilty of
attempting to influence the make-up of the party’s
top leadership by
frustrating the appointment of Joice Mujuru to the post of
Vice-President.
Sibanda appealed twice against his expulsion from the
party but the ZANU-PF
national disciplinary committee chaired by John Nkomo,
could not finalise
his case.
Nkomo, who is also the ZANU PF national
chairman, was not immediately
available for comment yesterday.
“It is
almost a foregone conclusion that his (Sibanda) suspension will be
overturned this month-end,” said a highly placed ZANU-PF source. “He is
wanted basically to oil the party’s campaign machinery in Matabeleland. We
know what he can do. We all saw it for ourselves in the run-up to the
special congress,” added the source.
Last year, President Robert Mugabe
roped in Sibanda to spearhead his
re-election campaign, culminating in his
endorsement during the ZANU PF
extraordinary congress last month.
The
climax of Sibanda’s solidarity marches, which were meant to secure
backing
for President Mugabe’s candidacy in the March elections was the
so-called
Million Man-Woman March. The event upset the ZANU-PF leadership in
Matabeleland, which regarded Sibanda’s antics as a bid to curry favour with
President Mugabe.
The special congress almost degenerated into a fiasco
towards the end after
Nkomo and Msika threatened to walk out after Sibanda,
who had been barred
from addressing the delegates, was invited to the podium
by his deputy,
Joseph Chinotimba.
The incident created a scene that
embarrassed President Mugabe, who was
obliged to exert his authority to
cover up the factionalism that threatened
to manifest itself in full view of
the world and the party faithful.
ZANU-PF insiders said President Mugabe has
a soft spot for Sibanda whom he
views as an emerging leader with the
charisma needed to win over
Matabeleland from the opposition.
Nkomo,
Msika and Dumiso Dabengwa, the former ZIPRA intelligence supremo,
have
previously threatened to withdraw from the 1987 Unity Accord over
President
Mugabe’s decision to let Sibanda lead his campaign.
None of the former ZAPU
big guns attended Sibanda’s sideshows, leading to a
taunt by him that they
were like “leaves in a whirlwind”.
Sibanda has blamed Nkomo for delaying the
hearing of his appeal to the
Central Committee and to congress.
He has
vowed to pursue the appeal until justice is delivered.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Political
Editor
THE British Embassy in Harare granted David Butau a visa in 2004,
which the
fugitive ZANU-PF legislator used recently to flee to the United
Kingdom The
Financial Gazette can reveal.
It also emerged this week
that the Guruve North Member of Parliament, who is
wanted by the police on
allegations of contravening exchange control
regulations, flew to the UK
through OR Tambo International Airport in South
Africa.
Ironically,
despite his influence in the country's body politic, Butau is
not among the
150 ruling party officials banned from travelling or
transacting in
Europe.
A spokesperson for the British Embassy confirmed that Butau had a
valid visa
to visit the UK and that he was not on the European Union (EU)
targeted
sanctions list.
The EU slapped President Robert Mugabe and his
ruling elite with targeted
sanctions over the haphazard land reform
programme and disputed election
results.
"David Butau MP is not on the EU
visa ban list," said Keith Scott, British
Embassy spokesperson. "He has a
valid UK visitor visa, which was issued in
2004."
Butau is the chief
executive officer of Dande Holdings, which has
significant interests in
agriculture.
Sources said the businessman fled to London after getting wind
of his
imminent arrest and got a friend back home to fool the police by
sending
text messages from his mobile phone.
Convinced that the
legislator would hand himself in for questioning after
the festive season,
police took their time before sealing exit points and by
the time they
issued a warrant for his arrest Butau was safely in London.
State media say
Butau, who is linked to Vice President Joice Mujuru's camp,
is wanted in
connection with the payment of about 537 000 pounds for
tractors made from
an offshore account in the Channel Islands.
The payments were allegedly made
by two cheques on November 11, 2007 to
Michigan Tractors. The money was
allegedly withdrawn from Butau's personal
account with HSBC Bank Channel
Islands Branch.
While Butau has not commented on specific allegations, he has
denied any
wrongdoing in an interview with the state-run Sunday Mail.
He
told the weekly that he was afraid of rotting in jail but promised to
return
to Zimbabwe as soon as documents and details absolving him of any
wrongdoing
were forwarded to the relevant authorities.
A Harare man linked to companies
involving Butau on Monday pleaded guilty to
charges of illegally dealing in
foreign currency involving more than $2,1
trillion.
According to court
documents, Joseph Manjoro, a finance and administration
executive with
Clarion Insurance, was contracted by Flatwater Investments to
source foreign
currency from individuals and the diaspora to procure
tractors for the
Reserve Bank for the government's Agricultural
Mechanisation
Programme.
Manjoro allegedly transferred some of the money to companies
linked to
Butau, Squareaxe, which received $575 billion through its ZB Bank
account
while Nyamasoka Farm received $262,5 billion through CBZ
Bank.
The transfers are suspected to have been for the foreign currency he
bought.
President Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba, this week accused
Britain of
harbouring criminals fleeing from Zimbabwe.
"The criminals
follow the sponsor," Charamba was quoted as saying.
"Increasingly, it's
becoming apparent that we are no longer talking about
mere economic crime,
we are talking about economic subversion that has the
blessings of foreign
interests. When you follow the footsteps of criminals
and indicted persons
this suggests a new geography of crime, which connects
Zimbabwe to Britain,
Australia, the United States and New Zealand. And it so
happens that these
are exactly the same countries, which take a negative
stance against
Zimbabwe's politics of land reform," he said.
Reserve Bank governor, Gideon
Gono, has accused officials in ZANU PF and the
government of fuelling the
black market where the world’s major trading
currencies are readily
available.
Gono went as far as inviting legislators to summon him to
Parliament to
disclose the names of ZANU PF, business and government
officials he
described as cash barons behind black market dealings.
FinGaz
Charles Rukuni Bureau
Chief
BULAWAYO — Parliamentary and presidential elections are only weeks
away. But
ZANU-PF heavyweights from Bulawayo must be dreading them because
they could
spell the end of their political careers.
Politburo
members and Cabinet ministers from the city have not won any
parliamentary
seats since the formation of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) nearly a decade ago but have up to now survived on
President Robert
Mugabe’s patronage.
Under the previous constitutional provisions the
president appointed 10
non-constituency members of the lower house and six
senators.
Those who have benefited under this dispensation include party
chairman John
Nkomo, Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, Small and
Medium Enterprises
Minister Sithembiso Nyoni and politburo member Dumiso
Dabengwa, who, though
out of government, is considered the most powerful
person in the former ZAPU
after Vice-President Joseph Msika.
President
Mugabe’s powers have now been trimmed. He now only appoints five
senators
but no longer appoints any members of the House of Assembly.
Observers say
the political careers of the politburo members and ministers
now hang in the
balance, as they will have to find constituencies of their
own. But they
stand virtually no chance of winning because the city is a
stronghold of the
MDC.
To make matters worse, all four were said to be in the wrong camp as
they
were thought to be among those who were against the endorsement of
President
Mugabe as the presidential candidate in this year’s elections.
They are all
outspoken critics of war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda who
is
spearheading President Mugabe’s re-election campaign.
War veterans
from Bulawayo, who have won all party provincial elections
since the death
of former vice-president Joshua Nkomo, have been at
loggerheads with the
senior party officials because they believe the senior
officials want to
impose executives of their own.
Executives led by war veterans have
invariably been dissolved and have never
completed their terms.
Last year
Bulawayo province was the last to elect a substantive provincial
executive,
only days before the special congress, because of bickering
between two
factions - Petition, loyal to politburo members and Ghodhi to
war
veterans.
Though the Petition faction won at the end of the day, the war
veterans
scored a major victory when President Mugabe was endorsed.
The
two sides have differed mostly over tactics for the survival of the
party in
Matabeleland where the majority of the people are against President
Mugabe
and have shifted their allegiance to the MDC. War veterans insist
there
should be a new leadership that is loyal to the ruling ZANU-PF and
should be
completely divorced from the former ZAPU.
They also argue that the
Gukurahundi issue, which saw thousands of civilians
killed in Matabeleland
and the Midlands, should be buried for good as it is
only being used to
divide the nation.
The old guard, however, is reported to be still harbouring
thoughts that
since ZANU-PF was a merger of two parties — ZANU-PF and ZAPU —
and President
Mugabe’s ZANU-PF has been in power since; it is now ZAPU’s
turn to take
over.
“Their day of reckoning is fast approaching,” one war
veteran said. “Up to
now they have been shielded by President Mugabe. Now
they must show whether
they have the support of the people or not. If they
lose the elections, that
could be their end. We are not going to rest
because the party congress is
not far off. It will be held next year. We
want to make sure no one derails
the party this time.”
Civil society
activist and executive director of Bulawayo agenda Gorden Moyo
believes that
it is a foregone conclusion that President Mugabe will win the
presidential
elections. He has already made sure of that by bulldozing his
way over the
opposition, which is increasingly giving in to various
amendments railroaded
through parliament to save face.
Moyo, however, says President Mugabe’s
victory would be hollow if he is not
able to turn around the country’s
ailing economy, now in its eighth year of
recession. President Mugabe is
desperate for a way out and is likely to
ditch his lieutenants from Bulawayo
because they are now excess baggage.
Instead, he might incorporate the
opposition and form a government of
national unity to legitimise his
government.
“Word on the grapevine is that (President) Mugabe might opt for a
government
of national unity that will take in both leaders of the
opposition MDC,”
Moyo said. “One could be elevated to vice-president and the
other to
president of the senate.”
President Mugabe could then call for
an end to economic sanctions, which
though allegedly targeted at
individuals, have done untold damage to the
economy.
Moyo said the three
contending parties were closer to agreement than most
people thought. His
argument seems to be backed by recent events, which have
seen Constitutional
Amendment Number 18, which allows for a smoother
succession and increases
both sizes of the house and senate sailing through
with support from the
opposition.
The opposition did not stand in the way of amendments to the
Public Order
and Security Act, the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act
and the Broadcasting Services Act.
Finding a political and
economic solution to the country’s problems would be
the icing on the cake
for President Mugabe’s 28-year reign and would allow
him to retire with
dignity.
FinGaz
Shame Makoshori Staff
Reporter
Pledges to support ‘labour-friendly’ candidates from across the
divide
ZIMBABWE’S main labour body, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU)
this week said it had resolved to throw its full weight behind
“labour
friendly” candidates in parliamentary and senate elections scheduled
for
this year.
The ZCTU said it would back the candidates in order to
influence the
enactment of friendly policies to benefit the country’s
embattled workers.
The majority of Zimbabwe’s workers, who are heavily taxed,
earn incomes far
below the poverty datum line.
“We resolved to support
labour friendly people, whether they are from
ZANU-PF or the Movement for
Democratic Change, to be elected as MPs (Members
of Parliament) because we
want labour friendly laws,” Wellington Chibebe,
the ZCTU secretary general,
said.
Chibebe told The Financial Gazette that trade unionists had agreed at a
strategic meeting in December that Zimbabwe should follow the example of
other countries that have supported the election of politicians sympathetic
to the cause of workers.
“Some countries have followed this route. We
have seen that there are some
untouchable politicians who are both MPs and
business people. When they are
in parliament they don’t promote the welfare
of workers but they come up
with unfriendly policies,” Chibebe said.
Last
year, the ZCTU declared it was high time everyone, including the
country’s
ruling elite and employers, bore the brunt of the escalating
economic
crisis, which has hitherto only affected the poor.
“Time is high to share the
effects of the economic meltdown. It is also time
to disclose executives’
perks,” Chibebe recently told a gathering of
business executives in the
capital.
“You live and swim in luxury, paying selected workers in foreign
currency.
This will create serious labour relations problems because it is
discrimination. Managers become Americans while workers remain Zimbabweans,
rural Zimbabweans for that matter. How can we have a situation where you
earn $1 billion but someone is earning $50 million? Five kilogrammes of meat
cost $50 million,” Chibebe charged.
He expressed grave concern over the
country’s tax regime.
“The highest tax is 47 percent, NSSA three percent,
AIDS Levy three percent
and VAT 17 percent, leaving workers with only 30
percent. Business is lucky
because you are only taxed 30 percent tax. We
have seen that business and
government’s attitude is the same. As we speak,
Zimbabwe’s wages are equal
to 1975 levels. That is why we have adopted the
polepole (go slow). If you
have never heard about it ask government,”
Chibebe said.
In South Africa the Congress of South African Trade Unions
(COSATU) has been
influential in the election of Jacob Zuma as the leader of
the ruling
African National Congress, strategically positioning him as the
next
president of that country.
But unlike the ZCTU, COSATU holds more
clout in that workers overwhelmingly
support most of its job actions.
The
ZCTU’s influence has been diluted by perennial clashes with the
government,
which sees it as advancing the interests of the MDC.
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Staff Reporter
IN a move smacking of unbridled
self-interest, Senate President and ZANU-PF
Politburo member, Edna
Madzongwe,wants the Minister of Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs,
Patrick Chinamasa to address the on-going magistrate’s
strike to allow
outstanding land cases before the courts to be concluded.
Madzongwe asked
the Minister of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, Didymus
Mutasa at a
meeting held last month at Makombe government offices to
convince Chinamasa
to address the grievances that sparked the magistrates’
strike so that land
cases before the courts could be finalised and those
holding offer letters
could occupy farms and start producing.
Madzongwe has a vested interest in
the matter because she wants to take over
Stockdale Farm owned by Richard
Thomas Etheridge, who was granted a
spoliation order by the High Court in
November barring her from interfering
with operations at the
farm.
Madzongwe wants the courts to expedite the finalisation of land cases
so
that she can take over Stockdale farm.
Madzongwe asked Mutasa at the
same meeting if offer letters issued to
individuals wishing to occupy
disputed farms would be nullified.
She said the drawn-out strike by
magistrates was “affecting those who want
to move onto the farms and
produce.”
The Senate President insisted that the Ministry of Lands, Land
Reform and
Resettlement engage the Attorney General and persuade him to
expedite these
court cases so that new beneficiaries can occupy farms in
time for the
farming season.
The Ministry of Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs does not, however,
appear to be in a position to
tackle the industrial action after telling the
striking magistrates that
there would be no pay increases to match their
demands because government
could not afford to pay such salary scales.
The magistrates are demanding
salaries of more than $100 million per month
FinGaz
Charles Rukuni Bureau
Chief
BULAWAYO — The country's second largest city is still experiencing
water
problems, this time not because the dams are empty but because the
local
authority does not have enough chemicals to treat the
water.
Council spokesman Pathisa Nyathi said the city's supply dams had
received
significant inflows but supplies were sometimes cut because of a
shortage of
water treatment chemicals.
"We were not supplying water,
particularly to the eastern suburbs, from
Friday last week until New Year's
day because we had run out of aluminium
sulphate," Nyathi said.
He said
six chemicals were used to purify the water but the council had not
been
able to access one of these.
He said the main constraint was the price the
council must pay for the
outstanding chemical as the local authority's
regular supplier would only
reopen later this month after shutting down for
the festive season.
"Our regular supplier was charging us $541 000 a kg but
we are currently
being charged just over $5 million a kg," Nyathi
said.
He said the council had been bailed out by a local conglomerate, which
purchased 30 tonnes of aluminium sulphate but this was only enough for six
days.
Nyathi said normally the council stockpiles the chemical so that it
has
sufficient supplies during the festive period when the major supplier
does
not operate during the annual shutdown. This time, however, the council
had
not been able to build up any stocks because of the delays, first by the
government and then by the pricing commission, in approving its
supplementary budget. The budget was only approved in November.
Nyathi
said while it is the western suburbs that are usually worst affected,
this
time it was the eastern suburbs that were hardest hit because supplies
to
the western suburbs were augmented by 4 000 cubic metres per day from the
Nyamandlovu acquifer.
He stressed that although the supply situation had
improved, water rationing
was still in force.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Political
Editor
Talks between the ruling ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic
Change
(MDC) have reached a deadlock over what MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai,
describes as the ruling party's backtracking on critical issues agreed under
the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mediation initiative led
by President Thabo Mbeki.
MDC insiders said yesterday that Mbeki had
been informed of the impasse.
"There is a deadlock ," said Nelson Chamisa,
the spokesman for the
Tsvangirai MDC faction. His counterpart in the Arthur
Mutambara camp,
Gabriel Chaibva, however declined to shed any light on the
issue. "I can't
comment on the talks," he said.
Tendai Biti and Welshman
Ncube, the opposition negotiators in the SADC
initiative and Patrick
Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche, the ZANU-PF pointmen ,
were not available to
comment as their respective offices said they were
still on holiday.
But
in his New Year message to the people of Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai said the
talks
were deadlocked over two main sticking points : the need for a
transitional
constitution and an election date.
"An unhelpful development has begun to
creep in and we are deadlocked on key
issues that should enable us to cross
the bridge into a new era," said
Tsvangirai.
"In spite of the mess we are
forced to live with today, ZANU-PF has begun to
backtrack on some of these
agreed points and is going it alone."
President Mugabe has rejected demands
for a new people-driven constitution,
claiming that the opposition lost the
chance when it campaign against a new
constitution during the February 2000
referendum.
At the ZANU-PF special congress in December last year President
Mugabe
announced that harmonised elections would be held in March "without
fail."
But Tsvangirai said it was too soon to hold presidential, senate and
local
government elections on a single day in March as there were still
outstanding issues to thrash out such as the state of the voters roll, the
composition of the electoral commission and the role of international
observers in the polls.
"They want to force an election in March with
cosmetic reforms and still rig
the outcome through a flawed process. That
will not happen," he said, adding
that more work was needed to put the
voters' rolls in order and normalise
the "historically" disputed electoral
management system before any
legitimate election, with a legitimate result,
could take place.
"We maintain that an election is impossible in the next 100
days, in March
2008. We agreed on the need for an independent electoral
commission whose
task is to register voters, delimit constituencies, bar the
military and the
police from direct involvement in elections and run the
entire election."
Tsvangirai said the opposition settled on the transitional
constitution
following assurances that the agreement would be implemented
before the next
election.
"But ZANU-PF is now against the spirit and
content of that agreement,
insisting instead that the transitional
constitution can only be implemented
after the election. This is
unacceptable," he said.
Tsvangirai said the pace at which the transitional
constitution was to be
implemented would determined the election
date.
"If we are serious about Zimbabwe's future and an election whose
process and
result are endorsed by all political players and the people of
Zimbabwe,
then we have to follow correct protocols and procedures."
He
said the transitional constitution already agreed to was essential in
that
it would give the country and political actors enough time to set up
the
requisite infrastructure for a sound electoral management system, codes
for
good governance and a human rights regimen before the polls.
He said some key
factors were necessary to spur confidence, redirect the
people towards a
national solution, regenerate hope and rally the nation to
unite in handling
the national crisis.
"As things stand today,(President) Robert Mugabe and
ZANU-PF are merely
stringing us along , when on the ground they are already
moving ahead with
their plan: selectively picking up points of agreement and
shoving them on
the country in a piece-meal manner to present a picture of
reform, at home
and in SADC."
Tsvangirai said President Mugabe intended
to mislead SADC into believing
that a lasting political solution was on the
cards.
Tsvangirai said if the deadlock could not be broken, the opposition
had
other options to force ZANU-PF to implement the outstanding issues from
the
Mbeki initiative..
"The year 2008 provides us with abundant
opportunities for a permanent
solution to the national crisis," he said.
FinGaz
The Financial
Gazette asked key industrial players what they thought about
the country’s
economic prospects in 2008. Here are their views:
Callisto
Jokonya,
President, Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries
"If you ask from
the dead you receive death and if you ask from the living
you receive
life.
Jesus is life, the way and the truth. 2008 belongs to Jesus. Politics
and
business in 2008 has to be done according to what Jesus said and if we
do
that we will succeed.
“If we do not seek oneness centered on the fear
of God we will fail.
"We did not perform well as a country in 2007. We had
more major drawbacks
than before. But as a country I think we have learnt
from our mistakes.
“The private sector made mistakes, the government made
mistakes. Now the
question might be which mistakes did we make? These were
the incoherent
policies, which had nothing to do with what is on the
ground.
“For example, we tried to stop the parallel market but it became
worse. We
tried to stop the increases in the price of goods and services but
prices
shot up.
“What needs to be done is simple and
straightforward.
“The private sector and government have to move together and
formulate
policies that conform with what is happening on the
ground."
Chipo Mtasa CEO, Rainbow Tourism Group and
president,
Zimbabwe Council for Tourism:
"The good thing is the increase in the number
of tourist arrivals as
reflected by statistics from private
companies.
“We are also excited by the interest that has been shown by
government in
the tourism industry, especially the introduction of the
Tourism Development
Fund.
“We remain positive that things are beginning
to happen in the tourism
industry, even though the arrivals have been
concentrated in the Victoria
Falls region.
“Because of the upcoming World
Cup, major investors are likely to take firm
positions.
“There could be a
lot of positive developments starting in 2008. What we
need to do is have
more airlines coming into Zimbabwe.
“The pulling out of the British Airways
was really a low point for us."
Paul Matamisa CEO, Zimbabwe Council for
Tourism:
"We are very positive. The tourism industry together with the
Zimbabwe
Tourism Authority and the government have invested well on the
product. We
feel it is now time for us to reap the benefits of that
investment.
"It is time for us to grow as an industry. It is time to expand.
Remember
there is the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
“The scouts will
soon be coming to southern Africa to see what preparations
we have made here
and to recommend, which countries’ football teams can camp
in.
"We have
suffered tremendously since 2000. What we must now do is to look at
things
that take us to 2010.
“If I say 2010 I mean we should not just look at the
World Cup tournament.
Investment must look beyond 2010.
“What will happen
in 2025 for example when we decide to host the World Cup
ourselves? When we
have an opportunity like this we must thoroughly
capitalise on it.
"What
we must really look at is our infrastructure. For the roads it is no
longer
a matter of patching them up but completely resurfacing them.
“The
Harare-Beigtbridge Road, a key link that brings foreign tourists and
goods
into the country is too narrow.
“The dualisation process must be speeded up.
The same must be done with the
Harare-Bulawayo and the Harare-Mutare Road.
That is an important road that
links the country with the ports in Beira and
Maputo.
“We are told expansion of the Bulawayo Airport is now 80 percent
complete
but 80 percent does not mean 100 percent."
Douglas
Verden,
CEO Chamber of Mines:
"It is not going to be a good year at all.
We listened to the Minister of
Finance (Samuel Mumbengegwi) but we do not
agree with what he said.
“Unless there are fundamental changes it is going to
be impossible to meet
(gold production) targets unless the exchange rate is
sorted out and the
issue of payments especially for gold mines is
addressed."
Wellington Chibebe,
Secretary general, Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions:
"The year 2008 will be more difficult than 2007.
“This is
because towards the end of 2007 the political leadership, including
the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, had run out of ideas.
“Instead of resolving real
issues they are busy chasing after individuals."
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Staff
Reporter
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has pulled off a number of spectacular
political
tricks to survive as head of state for 28 years.
One of his
most famous tactics is to deny any responsibility for the decade
of economic
crisis the country has struggled under.
The difficulties are all due to
sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the
European Union (EU) and the United
States is the government mantra.
Europe slapped targeted sanctions on
government and ruling party officials
after Zimbabwe threw out EU elections
monitor, Pierre Schori, in 2002, a
year after the US enacted the Zimbabwe
Democracy and Economic Recovery Act.
The sanctions target top ruling ZANU PF
officials, their businesses and
companies and individuals associated with
the ruling party.
Under the embargo, state officials are barred from
travelling to the US,
Europe and Australia unless they are on official
United Nations business.
The assets of those on the sanctions list are
supposed to be frozen,
although no property has yet been seized.
The
rationale for the imposition of targeted sanctions was to force the
Zimbabwean government to reform.
But they are now said to be achieving
the opposite.
As the prospects for Zimbabwe’s economic recovery continue to
decline, these
sanctions seem to be squeezing life out of the ordinary
person, and
hardening the government’s position.
“These sanctions,
whether smart or dirty, are definitely worsening the
people’s suffering,”
Godwills Masimirembwa, a pro-ZANU PF commentator who
heads the national
pricing commission, said in what has become the standard
official
response.
To what extent the prevailing economic crisis can be attributed to
the
sanctions is a topic that sparks heated debate among
Zimbabweans.
Critics accuse President Mugabe’s government of trying to hide
behind the
finger and using sanctions to mask its glaring
incompetence.
They said much of the suffering visiting Zimbabweans today are
a result of
government’s policy failures and its angry-mob-economic
policies.
Critics cite the example of the agrarian reforms, which saw
inexperienced
and poorly funded black farmers replace about 3 500 white
commercial farmers
who were behind the regional bread basked tag earned by
the country prior
the emotive land reforms of 2000. Since then, agricultural
production, which
anchors the country’s economy, has suffered a heavy
knock.
The controversial price controls of July 2007 when businesses were
forced to
slash prices by half are yet another example of government’s
self-inflicted
economic ruin.
The controls have seen products disappear
from the supermarket shelves.
“Every policy has intended and unintended
consequences. The sanctions have
had unintended consequences for the
ordinary person. They are, however, also
having an effect on the targeted
people. They were never meant to impoverish
the targeted individuals but
mainly to embarrass and humiliate,” said
University of Zimbabwe political
scientist Eldred Masunungure.
“Zimbabwean political leaders are suffering the
psychological effect of the
sanctions. A case in point is the EU-Africa
summit, whose attendance should
be automatic for a state leader like
(President) Mugabe. To have his
attendance put to debate was surely
embarrassing.”
There have been increasing calls for the softening of the
Western stance on
Zimbabwe, even from avowed ZANU PF critics.
The Crisis
Group International recently called for the lifting of sanctions
as one
possible way of resolving the crisis.
But Western attitudes seem entrenched.
In September last year, the
Australian government began deporting the
children of Zimbabwean officials
studying in that country.
This riled the
ruling ZANU PF elite, that one of them confronted opposition
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai to accuse him of being responsible for the
Australians’
decision.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono, in his monetary
policy
presentation in Octoberlast year, said the sanctions were like a
blunt
instrument hurting large numbers of people who are not the intended
target.
He said Zimbabwe’s balance of payments position has deteriorated
significantly since 2000 because of the combined effects of inadequate
export performance and reduced capital inflows.
As a result, Zimbabwe’s
foreign exchange reserves declined from US$830
million in 1996, representing
three months import cover, to less than one
month’s cover by 2006.
Health
and education are among some of Zimbabwe’s critical sectors that have
been
hardest hit.
Western donors suspended funding for social programmes that are
supposed to
benefit the poor. To make matters worse, Zimbabwe has been
struggling to get
funding for its AIDS response programmes from the Global
Fund to fight
malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS.
“Zimbabwe’s applications for
grants for HIV/AIDS programmes were rejected
for unspecified reasons.
Consequently, Zimbabwe was unable to expand and
roll out anti-retroviral
drug distribution programmes to rural areas,” Gono
said.
Gono himself was
barred from travelling to the UK in August.
But political analyst John
Makumbe said despite hurting the ordinary person,
sanctions were serving
their purpose.
“They are hitting the right target. I know two ministers who
could not
attend their daughters’ weddings because of the travel ban. They
were really
hurt and despite their statements to the contrary, you can see
them fuming
at London. (President) Mugabe is now talking to the MDC
(Movement for
Democratic Change), something he once vowed never to
do.”
The US insists the sanctions it has imposed are not meant to hurt
ordinary
Zimbabweans.
“Unlike, for instance, South Africa under the
apartheid regime, the US does
not have generalised sanctions against
Zimbabwe. The US sanctions list
targets the roughly 170 individuals most
responsible for the demise of
Zimbabwe’s democracy and its prosperity,” said
Paul Engelstad, public
affairs officer at the US Embassy in Harare.
The
US would continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Zimbabweans, he
said.
In September last year, the American government said it was looking
for ways
to tighten existing sanctions and was considering, among other
things,
revoking student visas and expelling dozens of children of
government
officials studying in that country.
But it seems it is the
Zimbabwe government that is winning the propaganda
battle over sanctions, as
shown by the criticism of the embargo by the
Southern African Development
Community.
Aware of this regional sentiment, ZANU PF has made a demand for
the MDC to
call for the lifting of sanctions one of the conditions for the
conducting
of talks between the two parties.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
THE cash
crisis persisted this week despite the central bank scrapping plans
to
demonetise the $200 000 denomination notes and injecting an additional
$33
trillion into the banking system.
Lengthy banking queues remained a
common feature at all banking halls, with
the bigger institutions,
particularly Barclays Bank (Zimbabwe), being the
hardest hit.
Some banks
had however, started feeding notes into their ATMs, easing
pressure in the
banking halls where restive clients vowed to keep their
money due to
increasing difficulties faced in withdrawing their money for
urgent
commitments.
But cash from the ATMs was quickly getting spent because of the
huge demand.
An earlier drawback in the Real Time Gross Settlement System
(RTGS), an
electronic payment system now commonly used to beat the cash
crunch, was
cleared after bankers said the central bank had acknowledged it
was causing
more inconvenience to depositors and hence resulting in
increased pressure
for hard notes.
Banks had started requesting a number
of details for all RTGS payments,
including invoices for recipients of
payments.
“That glitch has been cleared,” a source told The Financial
Gazette,
indicating that RTGS payments were now being processed “without
questions
being asked”.
“Banking should be about convenience and the
governor understood that,” the
source said.
Central bank governor Gideon
Gono said the $200 000 note, which he had said
would cease to be legal
tender by mid night on the last day of 2007, had
been re-instated and would
remain legal tender.
When he announced the phasing out of the $200 000 notes,
which he said was
the anchor note for cash barons fuelling the black market,
Gono introduced
$750,000, $500,000 and $250,000 notes.
Gono said the bulk
of the country’s currency was outside the banking system.
He said $65
trillion of the $67 trillion the central bank had injected into
the economy
was unaccounted for in the banking sector.
It was not clear how much of that
money had been brought back into the
formal banking system before the
reversal of the planned phase out, but Gono
indicated that daily deposits
with banks had increased during the phase out
period, “with most high volume
cash handlers in the commercial chain once
again being visible on the
deposit counters”.
He remarked: “This lent credence to the central bank’s
earlier point that
some sections of the business community were culpable in
aggravating the
cash shortages through hoarding cash, later selling it
outside the formal
banking system.”
FinGaz
Comment
AFTER years of
extreme hardships, Zimbabweans are entering the current year
with a lot of
anticipation. From whichever angle one looks at, the past 12
months, in
particular, have been the worst in the history of the country.
The World
Bank, which controls the financial levers in third world
economies, has been
candid in its assessment of the crisis that has dimmed
prospects for what
could have been “the Jewel of Africa” when the
Washington-based lender said
Zimbabwe’s economic woes were unprecedented for
a country not at war.
The
International Crisis Group also weighed in, ominously likening the
eight-year-long recession to that of the Democratic Republic of Congo at the
end of Mobutu Sese Seko’s iron-fisted rule, which lasted for 32
years.
Not even under Ian Smith’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence did
the
country go through such excruciating economic shocks, which have reduced
the
once-prosperous nation into a basket case.
Under the circumstances,
it is only natural that Zimbabweans from all walks
of life would want to
forget in a flash the experiences of the past and
remain hopeful that the
“land of milk and honey” they were promised during
the protracted struggle
for independence would become a reality anytime
soon.
Grievious crimes
have been committed against the country’s economy, spawning
the current
crisis that has pauperised 80 percent of the country’s
population.
Gideon
Gono, the Reserve Bank governor on Monday wished the current rains
would
wash away all the wrongs pushing farther his dream of reviving the
economy.
True, it is everyone’s wish that 2008 would mark a return to
prosperity.
But a new beginning would require that those vested with the
powers to
manage the country’s affairs get real – first, by correctly
diagnosing
Zimbabwe’s problems and avoiding half-measures.
Incorrect
diagnosis of the ills that have seen the country being ranked
along Somalia
and Chad, according to the failed states index, can result in
wrong
solutions being prescribed to remedy the situation, as has happened in
the
past.
For as long as the powers-that-be are in denial, blaming everyone else
except themselves for sabotaging the economy, the next 11 months might be
equally gruelling for the country.
There has been so much finger pointing
in the past and inaction on the part
of those who should be in the forefront
of implementing government
programmes.
And yet the cancer of corruption,
which can be traced back to top
politicians and civil servants, who are
taking advantage of arbitrage
opportunities, has been left to devour all the
gains achieved in
industrialising the country’s agro-based economy.
The
politics of the country has been one big animal standing out like a sore
thumb in efforts to resuscitate the waning economic fortunes.
Politicians
from rival ZANU-PF camps and from the opposition are competing
to throw
spanners in the works for cheap political gain, disregarding the
plight of
the people whom they must serve.
Politics has had an overbearing influence
over economic matters and because
of the huge weight placed on it;
confidence in the economy has been blown
out of the window as evidenced by
the drying up of foreign investments.
Not even the Zimbabweans themselves
have the confidence in their own country
hence the country is fast being
reduced into a warehouse economy.
The symptoms of this lack of confidence are
there for all too see with
inflation having topped 24,000 percent. Four out
of five Zimbabweans are out
of employment with a quarter of the country’s
population now living in the
diaspora in search for greener
pastures.
Critical sectors such as health and education are in a state of
collapse,
paralysed by the shortages of drugs and equipment caused by poor
funding.
The next two months are unlikely to result in any policy shift, as
the
ruling party is likely to forge ahead with its disastrous populist
policies
to win the March elections at all cost.
Despite committing
themselves to the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) talks both
factions of the Movement for Democratic Change appear
determined to
frustrate ZANU-PF machinations to legitimise its rule disputed
in previous
elections.
The SADC effort is already in danger, more so with chief
negotiator
President Thabo Mbeki’s political future in jeopardy after losing
the
African National Congress presidency to his rival Jacob Zuma in
December.
The fact that the cash shortages have failed to respond to the
RBZ’s recent
interventions shows how entrenched and stubborn the economic
misalignments
have become and the grim months lying ahead.
With the
excessive heavy rains destroying crops in some parts of the country
and
threatening to reduce yields, the future is not looking good.
But all hope
should not be lost though. After the March elections, whichever
party is
voted into office will need to set the tone for economic revival
and the
starting point will be to restore confidence in the economy.
FinGaz
Mavis
Makuni
One of the enduring images of the invasion of Iraq by America and
its allies
in 2003 is of the country’s minister of information, Mohammed
Saeed al-Sahaf’s
reality-defying antics during his daily media
briefings.
Clad in military fatigues, the diminutive propagandist became
one of the
most recognisable figures to global television audiences because
of the
outrageous statements he made about the war, which were designed to
portray
the complete opposite of what was happening.
Although the aim was
to project Iraq and its despotic leader Saddam Hussein
as infallible and
invincible, the minister only managed to make a caricature
of himself.
Against a background of advancing American tanks, maybe only 100
metres from
where he would be holding forth and the sound of gun shots
piercing the air,
“Comical Ali” as Saeed al-Sahaf came to be known, would
declare: “There are
no American infidels in Baghdad. Never.”
For going to such unusual lengths to
deny reality, Saeed al-Sahaf was
regarded as the funniest man in the world
and was named “Stupidest person in
the world” at the annual World Stupdity
Awards in Canada. He richly deserved
the accolade for such statements as:
“They fled. The American louts fled.
Indeed concerning the fighting waged by
the heroes of the Arab Socialist
Baath Party yesterday, one amazing thing
really is the cowardice of American
soldiers. We had not anticipated this.”
Asked in the later stages of the
conflict: “Is Saddam Hussein still alive?”,
he snarled, “I will only answer
reasonable questions”.
The only reason on
whose basis Saeed al-Sahaf could be excused for his
extravagant fabrications
and exaggerations was that he was operating in a
war situation. But what
excuse does South Africa’s deputy defence minister,
Mluleki George, who has
been nicknamed “comical Ali” by the media have, for
a similar refusal to
read the writing on the wall regarding South African
president Thabo Mbeki’s
unpopularity?. George is reported by the South
African media to have been
Mbeki’s main lobbyist prior to the ANC conference
in Polokwane a fortnight
ago, which proved to be the South African President’s
Waterloo when he was
heavily defeated by Jacob Zuma in the battle to head
the ruling party.
George was responsible for raising false hopes that
despite an unmistakable
tsunami of anti-Mbeki sentiment blowing from
provincial structures in the
run-up to the conference, things would turn
around and he would prevail in
Polokwane.
Like a true “comical Ali”, George was undaunted when the
inevitable happened
and Mbeki and members of his administration were booted
out of the ANC
National Executive Committee en masse. He told the Sunday
Times after Mbeki’s
humiliation; “The leadership is saying ‘thanks for the
support.’ They are
not demoralised. We know these things happen in the
struggle.” Just as Saeed
al-Sahaf continued insisting that Iraq would not
fall apart while scurrying
for cover from American bombs exploding overhead,
George denied the evidence
of his own eyes in the hour of Mbeki’s ouster as
ANC president. “What
worried me is that after the results were announced ,
you still found people
singing those (pro-Zuma songs). It was unfortunate
but we will march
forward,” the Sunday Times quoted him as saying.
After
seven straight years of government by propaganda in this country,
which
began with the arrival on the political scene of a certain learned
professor
in 2000, Zimbabweans are well aware that we have our own “comical
Ali’s”
whose aim is to befuddle the nation by assaulting our senses with
endless
spin, outright fabrications and incomprehensible actions. Some of
these
tactics almost border on the crude methods used by the Gestapo to
break down
resistance among prisoners.
Zimbabweans have been reduced to a condition of
helplessness in which the
powers-that-be now have absolute powers to do as
they please and damn the
consequences. Zimbabwe is not at war as far as
everyone can tell, but we
have been bombarded with a torrent of rhetoric on
how this country has
defeated the British and their American cousins. The
latest victory against
Britain was proclaimed after the European
Union-African Summit in Lisbon
last month.
But with ordinary Zimbabweans
continuing to fight a losing battle against
hyperinflation and a host of
other politically-created odds stacked against
them, it is impossible to see
what purpose these “conquests” serve. They
neither reduce poverty,
unemployment and food shortages nor revive collapsed
institutions such as
schools, universities and hospitals, which are all in a
state of
dilapidation. Very few Zimbabweans can claim to have spent this
festive
season feeling like citizens of a winning nation.
They cannot help but feel
that while the government records “victories” in
its phantom wars with
foreign powers, the casualties are ordinary
Zimbabweans back home. It is
doubtful that ordinary Britons and Americans
are experiencing any
repercussions as a result of their countries’ supposed
defeat by
Zimbabwe.
In the Zimbabwean context, these fights with external powers are a
case of
outright self-flagellation. They do not provide any solutions to
problems
and felt needs at home. They simply highlight how personal whim and
the
refusal to face realities have replaced recognized and acceptable
governmental and institutional practice.
The monetary authorities have
often warned of unintended consequences in
“wars” the government has waged
against some perceived enemies and alleged
economic saboteurs. However, the
confusion that surrounded the possession,
withdrawal and banking of $200 000
bearer cheques over the last two weeks
turned into a war that extinguished
the spirit of Christmas throughout the
country.
That is because in
declaring war against the ‘cash barons’ who were said to
be hoarding the
money, the central bank aimed its slings and arrows at the
masses who were
supposed to be the main beneficiaries of the intervention.
Confusion reigned
for more than a week as the povo were exhorted to
surrender all the $200 000
notes in their possession so that they could get
the new $250 000, $500 000
and $750 000 denominations. The trouble was,
banks did not have enough of
the new notes and thousands of people either
left empty-handed or were
saddled with the same old $200 000 notes after
languishing in queues for
hours. Bitter questions were asked as to why the
cash-strapped masses were
required to surrender their “peanuts” when it was
the fat cats who were
supposed to have stashed away the bulk of the $65
trillion that had vanished
from circulation.
And then after all this hullabaloo, an announcement was
made on Monday, the
deadline for surrendering the notes, that the $200 000
bearer cheques would
continue to be legal tender after all. Throughout that
last day people who
were unaware of the new development spent their $200 000
notes in
supermarkets on items they did not even need just so that they
could put the
money to some use. Most of these people had saved the money at
great
personal sacrifice to pay fees and related expenses when schools
re-open in
just over a week’s time. And now they are back to square
one.
Was the central bank’s crackdown a victory or a farce? Saeed al-Sahaf’s
Zimbabwean counterparts will definitely emulate the man who declared, as
defeat became more and more inevitable in Baghdad : “Faltering forces of
infidels cannot just enter a country of 26 million people and lay besiege
(sic) to them.They are the ones who will find themselves under siege.” In
Zimbabwe, unfortunately , it is the masses who always find themselves at the
mercy of the establishment.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
The market has been once again plunged into a quandary due to
the lack of
official inflation statistics as accountants started laying the
groundwork
for the preparation of December year-end results.
The
Central Statistical Office (CSO), the government agency that compiles
inflation data, has not released inflation figures since August, when the
rate crossed the 8 000 percent mark.
It made a similar decision earlier
this year when it stopped announcing
inflation figures for May, June and
July, plunging the economy into chaos
until a last minute announcement of
the figures by the central bank to allow
financial institutions to compile
inflation adjusted statements for the June
half-year period.
News agency
reports quoted the CSO’s acting director Moffat Nyoni in
November saying
they were not ready to release inflation figures for October
because
commodity shortages had affected the collection and calculation
process.
“I am afraid the figures are not yet ready, and they may not be
available
for a while,” Nyoni said.
“We have some problems – a computing
problem – in that we have to find a
formula of measuring prices of goods,
some of which are not available on the
(formal) market and which are in
short supply in the economy,” he said.
Business executives, accountants and
individual investors rely on inflation
figures to deal with escalating
budgets.
Most business’ budgets are inflation-linked and the decision to
withhold
inflation figures has plunged them into a planning
chaos.
Companies with December year-ends are likely to find it difficult to
comply
with a Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) requirement to produce inflation
adjusted financial results, as there are no official inflation statistics
for October, November and December.
Moreover, the performance of the
companies has traditionally been judged by
how much earnings and profits had
overtaken average inflation during the
reporting period.
Accountants
could be forced to ignore the requirement for inflation
adjustment of
financial results, although this would be unlikely without
authority from
regulatory authorities.
The absence of official inflation statistics presents
accountants with
difficulties in implementing International Accounting
Standard 29, which
states that in a hyperinflationary economy financial
statements should be
based on inflation-adjusted figures rather than
historical cost figures,
which in a hyperinflationary situation are held to
be misleading.
Implementation of the standard has proved controversial in
Zimbabwe, where
at last year’s Institue of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe
(ICAZ) winter
school some delegates questioned the rationale for
inflation-adjusted
figures when some companies that were surviving and even
thriving were, in
terms of inflation-adjusted figures, running at a
loss.
However, ICAZ, which is a member of the International Federation of
Accountants, the body that issues the international standards, has thrown
its weight behind compliance with the standard. It believes not only that
compliance with all International Financial Reporting Standards is important
but also that inflation-adjusted figures more accurately reflect reality in
Zimbabwe’s present high inflation environment than historical cost figures.
FinGaz
Shame
Makoshori Staff Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S tourism industry has been hard hit by
the flight of qualified
personnel and general workers who have joined
teachers, nurses, doctors,
mining industry technicians and other
professionals fleeing the country’s
escalating economic crisis.
The
brain drain has been instigated by the massive decline in the quality of
life caused by collapsing real incomes, high taxation, shortages of basic
commodities, shrinking freedoms and rights, pessimistic views about the
future and poor policies that have destroyed the middle class, analysts
said.
In a recent interview with The Financial Gazette, Zimbabwe Council
for
Tourism (ZCT) president Chipo Mtasa said the brain drain had reached
alarming levels in the sector and captains were scrounging around for
elusive solutions.
Mtasa, who is also the chief executive officer of the
Rainbow Tourism Group
(RTG) said the ultimate solution to the staff crisis
would be for government
to extend the Skills Retention Fund unveiled by the
central bank last year
to the leisure industry.
Private sector statistics
indicated that occupancy rates in hotels had
increased from less than 20
percent in 2005 to between 28 and 35 percent in
2007.
But Mtasa said the
flight of professionals could reverse the gains.
“We are losing trained
people,” Mtasa told The Financial Gazette.
“I think the Skills Retention Fund
should be extended to the tourism
industry,” she said, adding that contrary
to industry perceptions, the
fleeing workers were not only seeking refugee
status in neighbouring South
Africa but across the world.
“It is not only
in South Africa (where they are going), they are going
everywhere,” she told
this newspaper.
She could not immediately provide figures but industry
estimates indicate
that at least 10 000 professional guides, managers, chefs
and front office
personnel and other workers had left the country to take up
employment in
Mozambique, Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya
and other
African countries registering buoyant tourist arrivals.
Others
have migrated to the west.
An estimated 3,1 million Zimbabweans are believed
to be working in other
countries with 37 percent of them in the United
Kingdom, 35 percent in
Botswana, five percent in South Africa while 3,4
percent are estimated to be
residing in Canada.
Independent figures
indicated that about 25 percent of these professionals
were in the medical
field, 26 percent were teachers, 23 percent were
engineers while 17 percent
were accountants.
Of these, 62 percent of them resigned from their jobs while
38 percent did
not resign, and 62 percent had indicated that they were
prepared to return
to Zimbabwe should the worsening economic situation
improve.
Abut 40 000 mining industry professionals are estimated to have fled
in the
past decade.
Make cash crisis history, use e-commerce
EDITOR — I wonder
why we scratch our heads trying to solve the cash
shortages. The solution
lies in e-commerce.
Most countries now use credit cards to avert the issue of
money laundering.
Who needs to carry trunk-loads of useless cash when you
can just use a
credit card for shopping?
Some countries even accept
credit card payments to pay taxes! Don't try to
fool us with this hullabaloo
about cash shortages. Tava kukuzivai maitiro
enyu (we now know you fully
well).
Banks (including the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe) are responsible for the
cash
crisis and they want this problem to continue. On my short visit to OK
supermarket, I once used my VISA card, and guess what, I was charged at the
official exchange rate!
Baba Kudzi
Harare
-----------
The
whole nation is on a travel ban
EDITOR — Western countries
preach a lot about human rights and freedoms,
including freedom to travel,
but what is happening at their embassies when
people seek to apply for visas
for their parents and siblings is not in line
with this.
I am a citizen
of Zimbabwe with permanent residence in the United States,
but my mother who
is in her late 70's was denied a visa to pay me a visit.
She was told
verbally that she was “too old” to be granted a visa.
My sister wanted to
come over for a holiday with her children but a visa was
only granted to her
and her youngest son on appeal. Her three teenage
children were denied visas
the reason being: "We are not satisfied you will
come back to Zimbabwe given
the economic situation in Zimbabwe".
I have friends who are American citizens
and their parents are still of
working age yet they have also been denied
visas. I have also heard of
numerous similar cases.
We are being
subjected to serious emotional and financial stress by
embassies of Western
countries operating in Zimbabwe yet we are legal
citizens/residents. It
would only be fair to state openly if there are
justifiable reasons for
denying a person a visa on the basis of age than to
accept people's
application fees only to turn them down. Age is something
that does not need
to be verified through an interview.
Most people are going through
unnecessary appeal processes and forking out
substantial fees, which are at
the same level as the original application
fees. It looks like the whole
visa application process is meant to raise
funds for these embassies without
regard to genuine and fair vetting of
applications.
I pray that the
authorities will look into this issue because as it is any
person living
legally in these countries risks being denied a visa should
he/she decide on
retiring in Zimbabwe and later apply for a visa to visit
children who will
be citizens of these western countries.
We would cherish having our mothers
or siblings pay us a visit. I am married
with two children. It's very
difficult for us to find a month or so to take
a reasonable vacation to
Zimbabwe as often as we would want due to work
commitments and other
pressures.
Because most of our parents in Zimbabwe are not working, it is
easier to
facilitate their travel to the United States. It is also
advantageous,
financially, to have my mother or mother in law come on a
US$2,000 ticket as
opposed to the four of us spending US$8,000 to fly to
Zimbabwe.
I appreciate that there is an economic crisis in Zimbabwe and some
people
would want to come and stay here illegally, but then each case should
be
considered on its own merits.
The visa regulations should also be
reviewed with the view to placing the
onus on the foreign origin
citizen/resident to make sure his/her relatives
do not violate their visa
requirements by staying illegally. If need be,
these foreign origin
citizens/residents should report those who abuse their
visa requirements to
immigration authorities or else run the risk of loosing
their
citizenship/residency status.
Industry should also be put under pressure not
to employ personnel without
work permits to eliminate any possibility of
foreigners wanting to stay in
host countries illegally.
Tamupeyi
Mupinyuri
United States
-------------
Open letter to Tobaiwa
Mudede
EDITOR—I was born in Zimbabwe in 1975 to a Zimbabwean
mother after my father
had emigrated from Malawi.
Naturally, I had
thought I was Zimbabwean by birth. I was, however, shocked
when I went to
apply for a passport at the Registrar General's Office to be
told that I
needed to apply for Zimbabwean citizenship before obtaining a
passport as I
was considered a Malawian.
I went to the Malawian embassy only to be told I
was not a Malawian as I am
over 18. Please may the Attorney General's Office
explain this, as we,
Zimbabwean-born children of Malawian origin, are
confused. We don't know
where we belong.
Thank
you.
Confused
Kudakwashe
Chilemba
Harare
------------
Zuma could just be what the doc
ordered
EDITOR — South Africa's “Quiet Diplomacy” has been an
otiose strategy to a
festering crisis in Zimbabwe. '
“Zimbabwe is an
autonomous country”, has been the usual mantra.
“Non-interference” has been
the founding ideology, while hundreds of
thousands of Zimbabweans scale
border fences in search of a better life.
They scale the fences because their
passports were withdrawn for
commiserating with the West, so we hear. Living
in Zimbabwe has become a
risky endeavour, although it is much safer than
escaping to the United
Kingdom where the Zimbabwean authorities are quick to
brand you a ‘sell-out’
and then make you lose your passport, if not your
nationality.
Prolonged mediation, on the part of President Thabo Mbeki and
indecision in
the negotiation process have created a feeling of déjà vu
among all
Zimbabweans. We still hold placards on empty stomachs pleading,
'Mbeki, help
us!'
The Southern African Development Community remains in
deafening silence
despite such a naked crisis in Zimbabwe where arbitrary
arrests and police
brutality continue to characterise the country's body
politic.
Diplomats, delegates, cohorts and Cassandras came to Zimbabwe and
saw the
grim reality, yet then as now, they simply stand by and
watch.
Human rights lawyers have been incarcerated in undisclosed locations.
Draconian laws were enacted to replace repressive Rhodesian laws. Our
friends, sitting in cafes in Johannesburg, South Africa think 'it's a
Zimbabwean problem,' yet they should be asking over and over again, 'Mbeki,
where are you?'
The current deadlock in the mediation efforts is not just
about (President)
Mugabe. It is about the generality of Zimbabweans, the
poor and the
hopeless. It is about the credibility of Zimbabwe, as South
Africa's partner
in the region. But Mbeki is turning a deaf ear to our
reverberant cry for
mercy, peace and piety. He is turning a blind eye at our
scars from
brutality and today he's staring at a Presidential
defeat.
Zuma's victory in Polokwane is apocalyptic; it is indicial of a new
beginning. It signifies that the hour has come to move beyond simple
rhetoric and act.
Negotiations between ZANU-PF and both factions of the
Movement for
Democratic Change have not yielded an acceptable compromise.
Like "Quiet
Diplomacy", they have failed Zimbabweans. The country has no
food,
electricity, cash, political space, drugs, sanity and many
more.
Time is running out. In a few months to come our country will witness
another curious plebiscite. Yet our electoral laws have neither been
amended, nor repealed.
A spectre of another episode of state-orchestrated
violence is looming. As
Zimbabweans, we need a saviour to take us to a new
landscape.
As a populist, a man of the people, Zuma might help us out of this
quagmire.
Innocent Kadungure
Ottawa,
Canada
-------------
Another blow to democracy
EDITOR — We
wish to express our deep concern over the continued lack of
respect for the
fundamental freedoms of association, assembly, and
expression by holders of
public office in Zimbabwe.
The recent gazetting and subsequent
fast-tracking of the Public Order and
Security Amendment Bill, the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy
Amendment Bill and the Broadcasting
Services Amendment Bill by members of
both Houses of Parliament evidences a
worrying and flagrant lack of respect
for processes allowing public input
and scrutiny of legislation, which
affects the Zimbabwean public.
This,
in turn, greatly undermines democratic space, and the promotion and
protection of human rights in the country.
While it is noted that several
amendments have been made, which may, if
correctly implemented, relieve a
fraction of the repression against human
rights defenders, the amendments
are far from satisfactory and in most
instances are merely
cosmetic.
Further, the fact that the Bills were drafted, presented and passed
without
any input from stakeholders within civil society and the generality
of the
public reinforces the illegitimacy of the legislative process as well
as the
legislation itself, and strengthens the perception of broader society
that
the political party dialogue, which led to agreements being reached on
such
legislation continues to be a non-transparent process, which deny civil
society and fundamental stakeholders the opportunity to scrutinise any
agreements reached, ensure that fundamental issues are properly addressed
and hold the parties accountable to the affected public.
Detailed
analyses of the various Bills are currently being finalised and
will be made
available publicly. However, it is our preliminary view that
the amendments
do not substantively address the concerns of those who have
been most
affected by the clampdown on freedom of expression, association
and assembly
and they fail to address fundamental concerns, which have been
in the public
domain for as long as the legislation itself has been in
operation.
They
also fail to take into account regional and international standards to
which
Zimbabwe has bound itself and which it is obliged to promote, respect,
ensure and fulfil.
We consider this a missed opportunity to involve all
stakeholders and ensure
that substantive, far-reaching and acceptable
amendments were made to such
insidious legislation, which could have had a
substantive effect on ensuring
a satisfactory electoral environment in the
run up to the 2008 polls and
beyond.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights