http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January 2009
20:28
THE Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC is now demanding that
the police, army
and Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) be placed under
the effective
control of parties to the inclusive government agreement after
the security
apparatus has of late been used to target MDC members and human
rights
activists.
This comes amid reports from South
Africa - where the MDC-T is holding
a strategic meeting - that the party was
seriously contemplating a walk-out
of the power-sharing talks if outstanding
issues arising from the September
15 2008 pact were not immediately
resolved.
President Robert Mugabe, Tsvangirai and the leader of
the smaller
formation of the MDC, Arthur Mutambara, last September agreed to
form a
power-sharing government, sparking hope Zimbabwe could finally emerge
from a
decade-long crisis.
But the agreement brokered by
former South African President Thabo
Mbeki immediately stalled with Mugabe
and Tsvangirai haggling over control
of key ministries.
In
a letter to Sadc chairperson and also South African president,
Kgalema
Motlanthe, Tsvangirai accused the police, CIO and army of
undermining the
implementation of the global political agreement.
He said in
other countries that have undergone transition, security
organs were the
first to appreciate the need for change of direction.
"This has
not been the case in Zimbabwe," Tsvangirai wrote on December
29. "Given the
fact that our national institutions (police, CIO, army) have
been
selectively used to target MDC and other activists it is only
imperative
that these security apparatus be placed under the effective
control of
parties to the agreement. In effect, the CIO as well as elements
of the army
such as military intelligence have become actively involved in
undermining
this agreement."
Under the disputed allocation of ministerial
portfolios, Mugabe was to
take charge of the army and the CIO and co-manage
the police under the
Ministry of Home Affairs with
Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai's letter came after Mugabe last month
invited him to return
home from his self-imposed exile in Botswana and be
sworn in as prime
minister, but the MDC leader spurned the offer and
insisted he would not
join the unity government until the dispute over
ministerial posts had been
resolved.
The opposition leader
also wrote to Mugabe on December 28 last year
complaining about the actions
of state security organs.
"In view of past and recent events
where our members have been
subjected to abductions and torture by the state
security organs (police,
CIO and army), it is imperative that these
institutions be controlled by all
parties to the agreement," Tsvangirai told
Mugabe. "Of particular concern is
the role of the security apparatus in
actively undermining the agreement. We
have therefore lost the little
confidence and trust in you being solely in
charge of any security
apparatus."
He said the construction and composition of the
National Security
Council was of utmost significance to his
party.
"Legislation regarding the operations, control and
funding of the
security services by the National Security Council has to be
enacted prior
to the formation of the inclusive government," Tsvangirai told
Mugabe.
In the letter to Motlanthe, Tsvangirai complained that
Mugabe and Zanu
PF had committed with impunity a number of breaches, which
undermined
confidence in the formation of the unity government.
He cited the abductions and torture of his party activists and
individuals
from civil society and "fabricated allegations of banditry
training"
against the MDC-T as some of the breaches of the all-inclusive
deal.
Tsvangirai said ministerial portfolios remained
inequitably allocated
and that Mugabe had unilaterally appointed provincial
governors, central
bank governor Gideon Gono and Attorney-General Johannes
Tomana and that
there was still no agreement on the constitutive composition
of the National
Security Council.
Tsvangirai said: "In
giving legislative effect to the global political
agreement, the 19th
(Constitutional) Amendment redefines the roles and
powers of the president,
prime minister and cabinet when they discharge
their executive
authority.
"Cde President, I believe you have previously
correctly stated that:
'Both President-designate Mugabe and Prime
Minister-designate Tsvangirai
need to be sworn in to give effect to their
positions, otherwise no one
derives any legitimacy without
it'.
"I therefore find the letter by Mr Mugabe in reference to
my
appointment to be both unprocedural and prejudicial to the relationship
between the president and prime minister."
Tsvangirai
suggested that the only way forward to save the unity
government deal would
be for Motlanthe to convene a confidential meeting
between him and
Mugabe.
Motlanthe, the opposition leader said, should be the
mediator because
the MDC-T's relationship with Mbeki has "irretrievably
broken down".
"In view of the foregoing, I respectfully submit
that the only way
forward, given the divergent views of approach to the
formation of the
inclusive government, would be to convene a confidential
meeting in South
Africa between Mr Mugabe and myself under your chairmanship
in order to
hammer out all the outstanding issues before parliament can
discuss and pass
the 19th Amendment which will form the legal authority of
the global
political agreement," Tsvangirai wrote.
Mugabe
has since said he would appoint a new cabinet by the end of
next month and
already met Mutambara and deliberated on the formation of a
new
government.
Mutambara reportedly told Mugabe that his party
would not be party to
a government which did not include
Tsvangirai.
Meanwhile, reports from Johannesburg confirm that
the MDC has been
meeting since Wednesday to decide whether to continue with
power-sharing
negotiations with Mugabe.
Sources in the
party said Tsvangirai was under increasing pressure to
abandon the talks and
press for fresh presidential elections under
international
supervision.
BY CONSTANTINE CHIMAKURE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January 2009
20:23
THE Supreme Court will on January 22 decide the fate
of the
all-inclusive government deal between the country's three main
political
parties after the leader of the minority Zimbabwe People's Party
(ZPP),
Justin Chiota, sought the nullification of last March's presidential
poll.
Chiota's application came after the Supreme Court
ruled on August 1
2008 that his disqualification by the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC)
from contesting the presidential election was
illegal.
The ZEC had barred Chiota and the president of the
United People's
Party, Daniel Shumba, from the election for allegedly filing
their
nomination papers out of time.
In a notice of
hearing, the Supreme Court said Chiota's application
will be determined on
January 22.
Chiota, an advocate and businessman, wants the
court to declare null
and void the March election and order a fresh poll
within 90 days; and also
to bar and interdict President Robert Mugabe and
the leaders of the two MDC
formations, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara, from proceeding with
talks to constitute an inclusive
government.
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara signed a unity
deal on September 15
2008.
The deal is yet to be consummated with
Zanu PF and the MDC-T still
haggling on how to share power
equitably.
ZEC chairman George Chiweshe, Mugabe, Tsvangirai and
independent
presidential candidates in the March poll, Simba Makoni and
Langton
Towungana, were cited as respondents in Chiota's
application.
Chiota wants an order declaring that "the holding
of the election for
the office of the President of Zimbabwe on the 29th
March 2008 is null and
void and is hereby set aside".
The
draft order being sought by Chiota says: "It is declared that the
subsequent
announcement of the results of the said election, the holding of
the run-off
on the 27th June 2008, the declaration of the 2nd respondent
(Mugabe) as the
winner thereof and his subsequent swearing in and assumption
of office is
null and void and is hereby set aside."
The ZPP president wants
the court to declare equally void the holding
of talks between the three
main parties to constitute a new government based
on the results of the
March and June elections.
"The 2nd, 3rd, and 6th (Mugabe,
Tsvangirai and Mutambara) respondents
be and hereby (are) barred and
interdicted from proceeding with the ongoing
talks meant to constitute a
government for the Republic of Zimbabwe," reads
the draft order Chiota is
seeking.
Lawyers said Chiota was in good stead to win the case
given that the
Supreme Court ruled last year
that he should have
contested the presidential election.
Chief Justice Godfrey
Chidyausiku said the refusal to accept Shumba
and Chiota's nomination papers
by the ZEC was unlawful in terms of the
country's election
law.
Chief Justice Chidyausiku said in terms of Section 46 (7)
of the
Electoral Act a candidate who is within the nomination court at close
of
business was entitled to have his nomination papers accepted by the court
and no one was arguing that they were not in the court.
Shumba and Chiota argued that the refusal by the Nomination Court to
accept
their papers violated their rights to freedom of expression and
association,
which are protected by the country's supreme law.
But the ZEC sought to
dismiss the constitutional case by the two
leaders as frivolous and
vexatious saying it was improperly before the
court.
BY
CONSTANTINE CHIMAKURE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January
2009 20:21
THE smaller formation of the MDC headed by Arthur Mutambara
this week
insisted that it will not be party to a government of national
unity that
excludes the Morgan Tsvangirai faction.
Speculation has been rife in political circles that Mutambara and
President
Robert Mugabe would form a government without the MDC-T after the
robotics
professor recently suggested that Tsvangirai was a puppet of
Britain and the
United States.
Mutambara recently met Mugabe and deliberated on
the need for the
urgent formation of an inclusive
government.
The 84-year-old Mugabe said a new government would
be in place by the
end of next month.
Edwin Mushoriwa, the
spokesperson of the Mutambara faction, told the
Zimbabwe Independent that
his party still stood by its position that it will
only enter into an
all-inclusive government involving all the three
political
parties.
"Our position has not changed. The agreement signed by
the political
leaders clearly indicates that it can only be consummated when
all the three
political parties are involved," Mushoriwa said. "There has
been talk that
President Mugabe has reached an agreement to form a
government with
Mutambara, but that is not true."
He said
the party was agreed with some of the demands Tsvangirai wants
to be met
before the new government is appointed.
Mushoriwa further
dismissed claims in some sections of the local media
that Mutambara and
Mugabe would share ministerial portfolios initially
allocated to
Tsvangirai.
"The allegations are false and there is no way that
could happen. The
all inclusive government will only become effective once
Constitutional
Amendment Number 19 has been passed and the amendment is the
one that
creates the posts of Prime Minister and his deputies. How will
Mutambara
become a deputy without the Prime Minister?" Mushoriwa asked.
"There are two
options - either the Bill passes through parliament and the
posts are
created or the Bill is rejected and the posts are not created and
there will
be no inclusive government to talk about."
Zimbabwe has been without an effective government since the March 2008
harmonised elections, which failed to produce a clear presidential election
winner between Mugabe and Tsvangirai resulting in a run-off on June
27.
Tsvangirai pulled out of the race citing violence against
his
supporters, but the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission went ahead with the
one-man poll which Mugabe won by over 85%.
The run-off was
widely condemned as a sham, prompting Sadc and the
African Union to force
Mugabe to enter into talks with Tsvangirai and
Mutambara for power
sharing.
A deal was clinched last September, but immediately
ran into problems
over allocation of key ministerial portfolios and other
key government
posts.
BY LOUGHTY DUBE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January 2009 18:14
SERIOUS divisions have reportedly rocked former Finance Minister Simba
Makoni's political movement over allocation of resources and the failure to
immediately transform the movement into a fully-fledged
party.
Impeccable sources in Makoni's Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn
movement said
trouble has been simmering since October last year when the
former Zanu PF
politburo member was accused by his provincial executives of
retarding
progress in launching the political party.
According to sources the executives, led by the three Matabeleland
provinces, nearly revolted against Makoni during a meeting of the national
coordinating committee in Harare on October 27.
"The
executives accused Makoni of slowing progress in transforming the
movement,"
a senior founding member of the movement said. "They accused him
of being
too academic in launching the party.
The meeting was tense with
provinces telling Makoni point blank that
they were prepared to walk away
from the movement and form a party
independent of him."
The
sources said the party - to be known as the National Alliance for
Democracy
- was supposed to be launched in August last year, but Makoni
continued to
postpone its inception arguing that there was need to come up
with a sound
constitution and policies.
Apart from accusing Makoni of
delaying the launch of the party, the
provinces reportedly accused him of
refusing to distribute vehicles donated
to the movement before the March 29
presidential elections.
Makoni contested the March 29
presidential election as an independent
candidate against President Robert
Mugabe, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and
an independent contender Langton
Towungana.
He came out a distant third in the election in which
Tsvangirai
out-polled Mugabe, but failed to garner the 50 plus one vote
percent to
assume the presidency.
Makoni, the sources said,
was of the opinion that the near- revolt
against him was being orchestrated
by the movement's convener Ibbo Mandaza
and national mobilisation
coordinator Kudzai Mbudzi.
Mandaza and Mbudzi, the sources
said, were accused by Makoni during
the meeting of allegedly influencing the
provinces to turn against him.
This week, Mbudzi declined to
comment on the problems in the movement,
while efforts to speak to Mandaza
and Makoni were in vain.
"I am not at liberty to discuss what
is happening in the movement,"
Mbudzi said. "Speak to Makoni and
Ibbo."
Before the latest upheavals, the three Matabeleland
provinces had
threatened to pull out of Makoni's movement. Bulawayo,
Matabeleland North
and South provinces wrote to Makoni threatening to quit
over the way the
movement was being run.
In a letter to
Makoni, the inter-provincial steering committee said it
was dismayed by the
manner in which its contributions to the formation of
the party had been
handled by the Harare office.
"We would like to remind you that
we are equal human beings and that
we were ill-treated for a long time under
similar circumstances, and cannot
live to repeat this," the letter
said.
"We have seen the superiority complex displayed by
individuals at 'the
head office' which is run like a family outfit and are
very unhappy to be
part of this, and particularly detest the arrogance, lack
of foresight and
leadership that has so far been
displayed."
The letter warned that failure by the Mavambo head
office to deal with
issues of concern raised by the steering committee could
lead to the
severing of ties.
"We request audience with you
(Makoni) before the national
consultative conference to discuss the issues
(stated in the letter). If
this is not possible, we shall have no option but
to announce (an) immediate
suspension of the relationship between ourselves
and the head office and we
shall proceed with the development of the party
in the direction and pace
that we feel shall be beneficial to our
supporters," added the letter. -
Staff Writer.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January 2009 18:11
HEAVILY armed soldiers and state security agents at the weekend
reportedly
raided an outdoor adventure camp in Ruwa on suspicion that it was
a military
training base for bandits intending to topple President Robert
Mugabe.
Sources told the Zimbabwe Independent that a large
team comprising
police officers, Central Intelligence Organisation agents,
Air Force of
Zimbabwe personnel and military police descended on Kudu Creek
camp in
armoured vehicles with a helicopter hovering
overhead.
"It was a full-scale military exercise," one observer
noted.
The camp is known for training boy scouts and young
Christian groups
in adventure activities and personal
development.
The team of security agents, the sources said,
arrested the campsite
owner John Naested and two white farmers - Angus
Thompson and Brian Baxter -
who live close by.
Naested
reportedly served in the Rhodesian army.
A close friend of
Naested told the Independent that it was strange
that the security forces
mistook the camp for a military training ground.
He said: "The
place is just a small holding that runs between Ruwa and
Arcturus road.
Naested runs the place like a leadership training course for
high school
students. School children from a number of schools come for
camps in
leadership training courses. Even local schools send their students
for
training. There are many outdoor activities. It is just an outward bound
centre."
He said a large military contingent raided the
Kudu Creek camp on
Sunday.
"I am informed that Naested and
the other two white farmers were
picked up at 1am. I am not sure where they
were taken to, but it is
suspected that they were split up possibly between
Borrowdale and Highlands
police stations," the friend said.
Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena yesterday said he was not
informed of
the raid.
"I am not aware of such an incident," Bvudzijena
said.
The government last year claimed that the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led MDC
was recruiting youths for military training in Botswana
with the aim of
ousting Mugabe from power.
More than 40 MDC
and human rights activists have since been arrested
in connection with the
alleged planned banditry activities.
Zimbabwe Peace Project
director Jestina Mukoko was abducted by state
agents and spent 19 days in
solitary confinement before being charged for
allegedly recruiting bandits
to oust the Zanu PF government.
BY WONGAI ZHANGAZHA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January 2009
17:49
STATE secret service agents allegedly assaulted, tortured and
detained
human rights activist Jestina Mukoko in solitary confinement for 19
days to
coerce her to admit recruiting youths for military training in
Botswana to
dislodge President Robert Mugabe from power.
In
an affidavit lodged with the High Court narrating events that took
place
after Mukoko was abducted in the early hours of December 3 from her
Norton
home, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) director said her captors
wanted to
link her to the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC.
The government
claims that the MDC is recruiting youths to undergo
military training in
Botswana in a move orchestrated to topple Mugabe.
Minister of
State for National Security Didymus Mutasa has since
admitted in the High
Court that Mukoko was in the custody of the Central
Intelligence
Organisation (CIO).
In the damning affidavit, Mukoko claimed
she was kidnapped by six men
and a woman who did not identify themselves and
was denied access to her
spectacles and prevented from
dressing.
"I was not wearing anything other than a night
dress," she said. "I
had no undergarments and other personal and medical
requirements."
The former television news anchor alleged that
she was forced by the
state spies into a Mazda Familia vehicle and ordered
to lie low on the seat
of the car.
"Immediately a woollen
jersey was put across my face, covering my
eyes, nose and mouth (and) as a
result I had problems breathing and almost
suffocated," Mukoko
said.
She said the vehicle drove off in what she suspected to
be the Harare
direction for about 40 minutes before reaching its
destination.
By then, Mukoko claimed, she was
disoriented.
She said a woman among the CIO operatives gave her
a pair of plastic
sandals and a dress and was kept for an hour before being
taken to an
interrogation room.
In the room, Mukoko said, a
female agent asked her male compatriots to
leave and provided her with
underwear.
"I could not see the outside world through the
windows. I was not
allowed to look outside," she alleged. "Every time that I
wanted to use the
ablutions, I had to knock for a lengthy time and someone
would come and had
to cover my eyes with a blindfold and lead me to the
toilet."
Mukoko alleged that on the first day of the kidnapping
she was
interrogated by five men and a woman who wanted to know more about
the ZPP,
its board members, founding organisations of the project and where
it was
located.
"Soon thereafter the line of questioning
changed and I was now being
accused of recruiting youths to undergo some
form of military training and
links with people at Harvest House (MDC
headquarters). I denied the
allegations."
The beatings then
started.
"Firstly I was assaulted underneath my feet with a
rubber-like object
which was at least one metre long and flexible, while
seated on the floor.
Later I was told to raise my feet onto a table and the
other people in the
room started to assault me underneath my feet," Mukoko
alleged. "This
assault lasted for at least five to six minutes. They took a
break and then
continued again with the beatings."
Mukoko
said she was further interrogated and asked if she knew of a
police officer,
Ricardo Washeni, who visited ZPP offices late last year.
She
said she replied in the affirmative and told the CIO operatives
that she
referred Washeni to Broderick Takawira, a ZPP official.
Mukoko
said that she was also asked about the people she knew at the
MDC.
The interrogators allegedly took a break and returned
a few hours
later and "were all visibly drunk", and some of them started
assaulting her
and at the same time grilling her, she said.
Mukoko said she was questioned about her connections with the
Counselling
Services Unit and in particular Fidelis Mudimu, a nurse at the
unit.
Mudimu was also accused of recruiting youths for
military training.
On December 6 Mukoko said her captors
provided her with new
undergarments and sanitary pads before she was
blindfolded and bundled into
a car and driven for about two hours to an
unknown destination.
At that destination, about 10 people who
were introduced to her as law
officers interrogated her.
One of the interrogators, Mukoko alleged, told her that she was going
to
suffer and had to make a choice of either becoming a state witness in the
military training case or "become extinct" as no prosecutions would take
place.
The ZPP boss said she was also grilled on her
meeting with the
Elders - former United Nations secretary-general Kofi
Annan, ex-United
States president Jimmy Carter, and children's ambassador
Graca Machel - in
South Africa in November.
The Elders were
barred from entering Zimbabwe on a humanitarian
mission by the government
and ended up meeting political parties and civic
organisations in South
Africa to get an appreciation of the humanitarian
crisis in the
country.
Mukoko claimed that the interrogators told her that
they were not
bound by the law stipulating that any accused person should
appear in court
within 48 hours of his or her arrest.
After
the gruelling encounter with the interrogators, Mukoko was
returned to the
detention room and kept in solitary confinement until
December 8 when she
learnt that Takawira and another employee of the ZPP,
Pascal Gonzo, were
also abducted and were being interrogated.
The same day, Mukoko
claimed, she was questioned and told that one of
her officers at ZPP had
confessed that Mudimu worked with the organisation.
Five days
later, Mukoko said she was asked to sign a statement, which
among other
things, narrated the ZPP staff retreat to Botswana, including
the names of
individuals they met in the country.
"The interrogators also
compelled me to disclose in the statement all
the names of the board members
of ZPP and staff members. I listed all. The
last part of the statement
wanted me to agree to knowing and recruiting this
ex-police officer Ricardo
Washeni (which) I denied," Mukoko said.
She claimed that at
that point one of the interrogators went out of
the room and returned with
gravel which he spread onto the floor and asked
her to pull up her clothes
and kneel on the gravel.
"The interrogations continued whilst I
was kneeling on the gravel,"
Mukoko alleged.
On December
14, a medical doctor examined Mukoko after she had
complained that her
allergies were getting worse. She was also further
interrogated on the ZPP
retreat to Botswana and her connection to Mudimu.
She claimed
that she was forced to give evidence on camera.
Eight days
later, Mukoko's captors handed her over to the police Law
and Order
section's Chief Superintendent Magwenzi at Braeside Police Station
before
she was blindfolded and driven to Highlands Police Station and later
Matapi.
On December 23 the police recorded a warned and
cautioned statement
from her on camera and she was told for the first time
that she was facing
charges of attempting to recruit people for military
training.
She was later taken to her Norton home where the
police searched for
her laptop and after failing to find it, seized an old
computer, audio tapes
from her past work as a journalist and computer
information storage disks.
For the first time in 21 days she
saw members of her family.
The following day she was taken to
court and charged with eight other
MDC activists.
Her
lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, then approached the High Court and
Justice Yunus
Omerjee ordered the immediate release of Mukoko and her
co-defendants on the
basis of a previous court order declaring their
detention for more than 48
hours illegal.
The state appealed against Omerjee's order to
the Supreme Court and
Mukoko and her co-accused were kept in
custody.
On Tuesday, Mukoko lodged an urgent application in the
Supreme Court
challenging the constitutionality of her continued detention
on charges of
plotting to overthrow the government.
BY
CONSTANTINE CHIMAKURE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January
2009 17:45
BRIAN Towanda sits with his wife on a sofa counting down the
days to
January 15 - the day his spouse's gynaecologist said she would
deliver their
first child.
Not even the political stalemate
between President Robert Mugabe and
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai on the
formation of a unity government, the
cholera epidemic and food shortages can
drown Towanda's excitement.
"Very soon I am going to be a
father!" he declares excitedly.
As he looks at his wife's huge
tummy, he smiles wondering who the baby
whom they have already named Chido
would look like - him or his wife.
Their wish is to have the
baby delivered at a private clinic that they
believe has the requisite
resources - medicines, hospital equipment and
experienced staff - but the
idea of not having foreign currency to meet the
bill dampens his joyous
fantasies.
Towanda, an accountant, bemoans that he cannot
afford to give his
unborn child the best treatment he had wished
for.
In December he was paid through his bank $34 billion plus
a 20-litre
fuel coupon which he sold at US$15.
When he consulted a
private hospital in the Avenues, Harare, Towanda
was asked to fork out
US$500 as a maternity registering fee.
The figures send shivers
down his spine. He wondered what the
Goodwills Masimirembwa-led National
Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC)
was doing to keep prices of goods and
services in check.
Towanda decided to register his wife with a
public hospital, the Mbuya
Nehanda Maternity wing at Parirenyatwa, which was
last year closed for a
while due to shortages of resources like drugs,
equipment and staff.
The hospital reopened recently after
non-governmental organisations
chipped in with funds and after it was given
the green light by government
to charge in foreign
currency.
Towanda was told to pay US$300 as registration fees
and for delivery
of his wife - an amount he can hardly
afford.
Charging in foreign currency in public health
institutions will worsen
the plight of the poor.
Health
minister David Parirenyatwa said the government had allowed
public hospitals
and clinics to give patients the option to pay in foreign
currency if they
so wished. He said this did not mean the health
institutions were no longer
accepting local currency.
"What we have said is that our
patients should continue paying in
local currency, but in the event that
they opt for foreign currency, we are
to go by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
regulations," Parirenyatwa said. "The
idea is meant to facilitate a smooth
flow of services while the patient
receives treatment from the health care
provider."
However, in reality the hospitals are not interested
in local
currency.
Towanda prays that his wife has a normal
birth with no complications
that would result in a prolonged stay at the
hospital as charges are roughly
pegged at US$70 per night for
admissions.
He hopes that the baby will not be born through a
caesarian operation
as that would require an extra US$150.
At least he is assured that his baby will not be premature as it would
have
resulted in him forking out US$5 daily for the use of an
incubator.
A recent visit to Parirenyatwa by the Zimbabwe
Independent showed no
signs of improvement in health
delivery.
Long grass has become a common feature outside the
hospital - an
indication that caretakers have long since abandoned the
place. Fears are
high that the unkempt hospital grounds have become breeding
areas for
mosquitoes.
There is now little activity at the
hospital that used to be very
busy.
Noticeable were dark
corridors with no lighting as well as dirty
floors and dumped bed linen in
some wards. One would be forgiven for
likening the situation to a scene from
a horror movie. It is very rare to
bump into a nurse, more so a doctor, in
the corridors of the hospital.
At Mbuya Nehanda the tiles that
used to be bright and clean have lost
their lustre while some of the
hospital bed linen is no longer suitable for
use.
Zimbabwe
Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) chairman
Douglas Gwatidzo
said paying in foreign currency at government hospitals
showed that the
government no longer had confidence in the local currency.
"The
reason why the government made that announcement is that people
were finding
it difficult to get the Zimbabwe dollar, however the
announcement to me
shows that there is now a gradual acceptance of no
confidence in our local
currency," Gwatidzo said. "It's a pity that
Zimbabweans are made to suffer
as the foreign currency is beyond the reach
of many. Life is going to be
difficult. We have not seen the worst. As long
as there is no manpower there
is no health delivery system."
Meanwhile, Unicef this week said
as long as there is no urgent move to
guarantee availability of safe water,
sewage reticulation and refuse
removal, the cholera epidemic was not going
to disappear any time soon no
matter the efforts put in place so
far.
Unicef information officer Tsitsi Singizi said latest
statistics show
that cholera has claimed over 1700 lives since its outbreak
in August last
year. More than 34 300 cases of the epidemic were also
recorded.
Fifty-nine deaths and 731 new cases of cholera have been
reported
since Monday.
She said: "The cholera situation in
Zimbabwe remains dire. We continue
receiving reports of fresh cases and the
fatality rate is still high at 5%,
more than the internationally accepted
threshold.
"Yet we are also happy that coordinated efforts are
beginning to yield
results as cases and deaths go down in some affected
areas."
International agencies like Oxfam - with partners Mercy
Corps,
Africare, Practical Action, Zimpro, Lead Trust, DachiCare and
Christian
Development Aid - have deployed engineers, public health
promoters, gender
and HIV specialists to seven provinces where they are
responding to the
cholera crisis.
An Oxfam spokesperson
said assessments of water quality conducted by
the organisation in Norton,
Chegutu and Kadoma indicated that 75% of water
samples from unprotected
wells were contaminated with faecal coliforms.
The spokesperson
said: "The degree of contamination is highest in
Maridale and Joburg suburbs
of Norton where the population draws water from
wells and use a pit latrine
system. Results of the analysis are being used
to chlorinate water sources
at the respective locations."
The organisation has so far
reached almost 250 000 people with hygiene
promotion messages and
distributed hygiene kits to 37 147.
Apart from constructing and
rehabilitating a number of boreholes,
Oxfam has delivered 245 000 cubic
meters of water to Chitungwiza, Mbare,
Budiriro and Glen View to ensure that
communities and Cholera Treatment
Centres in those areas have access to
clean and safe water.
The Zimbabwe Red Cross Society has sent
emergency disaster kits to
hard-hit areas like Karoi and Kariba.
Some parts of Karoi are said to have gone without power for two weeks
and
this has greatly affected the water supply in the small town.
Magunje growth point and Bikita are some of the rural areas that have
been
hard hit by cholera and need immediate attention.
BY WONGAI
ZHANGAZHA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January 2009
18:36
THE stiffest challenge the Zimbabwean government will face this
year
is achieving the main objective of "restoration of economic stability
and
growth" in an economy which has shrunk by 60% within a
decade.
The country's long and uninterrupted period of economic
decline is set
to persist this year as hope for an all-inclusive government,
which is
expected to form a platform for economic recovery, seems to be
fading with
both the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations and
Zanu PF to
blame.
Over the past 10 years the economy has
been cruising in reverse gear
courtesy of skewed economic and political
policies.
The immediate economic challenges facing the country
are companies
failing to open, corruption, price distortions, dollarisation
and foreign
currency shortages.
Zimbabwe, the spirit of
whose citizens has been shackled by
shortsighted economic policies, appears
to be travelling on the highway to
disaster.
With an
inflation rate estimated to be more than 10 times the official
231 million %
and financial chaos at both government and street level, the
local currency
has become a joke to many Zimbabweans.
Economic analysts say
opening new business in Zimbabwe would be
extremely difficult, as it
required foreign currency which is not readily
available on the
market.
In November last year Zimbabwe was ranked 153 out of
178 countries in
a 2008 World Bank report on "Doing Business" which looks at
how regulatory
environments influence the operations of
business.
It was ranked lower than war-torn spots such as Iraq,
Sudan, the West
Bank and Gaza which were placed 142nd, 144th, and 118th
respectively.
The report analysed 10 stages of a business's
life which were starting
a business, dealing with licences, employing
workers, registering property,
getting credit, protecting investors, paying
taxes, trading across borders,
enforcing contracts and closing a
business.
The 10 indicators, which are used to analyse economic
outcome and
identifying reforms that have been successful and why, are then
factored
into the main index, "Ease of Doing Business" in which Zimbabwe has
fared
badly.
On starting a business, Zimbabwe was placed at
position 143rd, proving
that the regulatory environment governing the entry
of new businesses was
burdensome, according to the report. The ranking could
drop further if there
is no visible economic turnaround.
Zimbabwe's rank on the index of protecting investors was 107 and
according
to the report, this means the country has poor corporate
governance
practices, high corruption and weak internal systems in most
companies.
"To document the protections investors have,
Doing Business measures
how countries regulate a standard case of
self-dealing - use of corporate
assets for personal gain," the report
stated.
Independent economist John Robertson said Zimbabwe's
economic revival
depends on formation of a unity
government.
"We should not expect much if the country's two
political parties do
not find common ground. It is a tall order for the new
government, which
among other things will be faced with a cocktail of
problems in trying to
restore property rights, boost production in all
sectors of the economy,
increase foreign currency inflows and have assess to
balance of payment and
revive all the service sectors," said
Robertson.
Robertson said nothing could be achieved if Zanu PF
wanted new
elections, which requires a lot of money which government did not
have.
Economist Brain Muchemwa said the year had started on a
bad note.
"There is a lot of confusion, from the political
front, business,
health and the education system. The situation on the
ground does not
inspire confidence or hope in any investors. The economy is
now dollarised
and only those companies and individuals who can access
foreign currency
will survive," Muchemwa said.
If the unity
government is to materialise, MDC will come in to a
government which is
virtually broke and heavily indebted with a foreign debt
of over US$6
billion and a domestic debt nearing US$20 quadrillion.
The domestic
debt figure means every Zimbabwean is personally indebted
to the tune of
about $142,8 billion.
According to the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries, the
manufacturing sector is operating below 30% and all
major sectors of the
economy are depressed.
The Zimbabwean
dollar is projected to continue losing value against
major currencies as
there is no production to back up economic policies.
There is
also going to be a problem of price controls and distortions,
and the
relevance of organisations like the National Incomes and Pricing
Commission
(NIPC).
Zimbabwe's currency is now worthless from
hyperinflation, its
financial institutions in total disarray while its
world-class farming
estates lie idle and tourism infrastructure is grossly
underutilised.
Inflation shows no sign of declining. With
inflation at 4% it takes 18
years for a currency to lose half of its value,
using the rule 72
recommended by the International Monetary
Fund.
At 100 000% it takes about nine hours and 20 minutes for
$100 to lose
half its value.
And with inflation at 231
million %, if you delay your shopping by
half an hour you have effectively
lost 90% of the value of your money.
This means if one goes out
to buy a loaf of bread and is 10 cents
short, by the time they rush home to
collect the 10 cents and return to the
shop, the price of bread will
probably have increased nearly four times.
As all structures
continue to decline there is likely to be an
increase in corruption this
year.
Zimbabwe was last year ranked as the 14th most corrupt
nation out of
180 countries surveyed by Transparency International (TI) due
to the
breakdown of formal procedures and structures at most institutions
that are
operating in an unstable economic environment.
TI
Corruption Perception Index (CPI) measures the perceived levels of
public
sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index,
drawing on
different expert and business surveys.
The 2008 CPI scores 180
countries (the same number as the 2007 CPI) on
a scale from zero (highly
corrupt) to 10 (highly clean).
Zimbabwe, which was ranked 166th
had a score of 1,8 on the CPI scale,
indicating that the country was slowly
heading towards the highly corrupt
level.
The country's
confidence level was ranked between 1,5 to 2,7 out of
the possible 10
marks.
Commenting on strengthening oversight and accountability
on Zimbabwe's
rating, TI chairperson, Huguette Labelle said whether in high
or low-income
countries, the challenge of reining in corruption requires
functioning
societal and governmental institutions.
"Poorer
countries are often plagued by corrupt judiciaries and
ineffective
parliamentary oversight. Wealthy countries, on the other hand,
show evidence
of insufficient regulation of the private sector, in terms of
addressing
overseas bribery by their countries, and weak oversight of
financial
institutions and transactions," said Labelle.
"Stemming
corruption requires strong oversight through parliaments,
law enforcement,
independent media and a vibrant civil society," Labelle
said.
BY PAUL NYAKAZEYA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January 2009
18:33
MONEY stands out as one of the most ancient inventions in the
history
of mankind.
Although it has assumed many forms
since then, its purpose remains
unchanged: to facilitate convenience in
transacting.
Prior to its use, societies depended largely on
the physical exchange
of commodities. The main weakness of this system,
known as barter, was that
it called for a double coincidence of
wants.
Anything that is generally accepted as payment for goods
and services
can be called money. To economists, for something to be called
money it
should act as a medium of exchange, unit of account and store of
value.
However, our local currency has in recent times rapidly lost all of
these
attributes.
Over the past year, the nation has had to
transact using different
modes of payments. The ever changing monetary
system has prompted many calls
for the use of a more stable foreign
currency, preferably rands or US
dollars. Dollarisation, as it is called,
has its problems but the obtaining
dearth of confidence in the Zim dollar
justify adopting it. (We will explore
the concept of dollarisation in our
next article)
In early 2008, goods and services sold in the
formal market were being
paid for in Zim dollars using electronic transfers,
cheques and cash.
Informally, nonetheless, some transactions were already
being consummated in
foreign currency. The suspension of electronic money
transfers, on
allegations of system abuse by foreign currency dealers, saw
the business
transaction model changing to simply cheques and
cash.
The lifting of the suspension failed to make up for the
lost
confidence in the use of electronic money. Already most economic agents
were
opting for cash and foreign currency to cheques and
transfers.
At the same time barter trade became rife. The most
common commodity
used in barter arrangements was fuel coupons. Schools,
especially those that
are privately run, demanded fees in fuel
coupons.
Some manufacturers and suppliers only accepted payment
in coupons. As
the coupons became increasingly acceptable, some employers
began to
remunerate their workers in fuel coupons. This temporarily provided
some
relief to the weary workers because they would sell fuel coupons for US
dollars or use them as payment for goods and services. Initially, the
coupons were quite valuable.
A litre was being redeemed for
as much as US$1.50 implying that a 20
litre coupon would fetch US$30. Few
coupons would cover monthly basics
because then goods and services were
still reasonably priced in US dollars.
Coupon prices hastily came off as a
result of the global slump in oil prices
and the increasing volume of fuel
coupons in the market. The benefits of
holding fuel coupons, outside
fuelling the cars, quickly vanished as their
values in hard currency terms
plunged.
Already there are worries, negligible though for now,
that there could
be more coupons than the fuel in the country. This, if it
is true, will
impact negatively on the fuel coupon "monetary" system.
Remember the same
fate which hit the gold standard after it was discovered
that there were
more promissory notes than gold to back them. Many were left
with worthless
pieces of paper.
These concerns, together
with the approval of some merchants to sell
commodities for foreign currency
is prompting growing advocacy for the full
dollarisation of the economy.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January 2009 18:29
SEVERAL banks have opened the new year under severe stress amid
reports of
numerous branch closures and job cuts reportedly triggered by the
near
full-dollarisation of the bartered economy.
Information
gathered revealed that at least five banking institutions
have scaled down
operations in frantic efforts to save their institutions
from the
unprecedented economic meltdown.
The crisis in the financial
sector has, according to bank officials,
hit most leasing and loan finance
employees hard.
Banking sources told businessdigest that
Barclays Bank has retrenched
workers while Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group
(ZABG) has suspended its casual
workers. FBC Bank, sources said, could soon
close most of its branches
outside Harare's central business
district.
ZB Bank has reportedly stopped ferrying workers to
and from work after
citing viability problems.
"This could be the
most challenging year for the financial sector,"
said a senior bank
official. "There are no savings in local currency and
foreign exchange is
scarce.
Introducing policy on complete dollarisation of the economy
could save
banks in the short term. This will not disfranchise government as
some
critics would argue - taxes would be paid in forex."
Apart from the viability problems, morale at most banks is low after
the
financial institutions failed to pay workers in hard currency.
The sources said banking institutions could fail to survive the
current
"over banked" environment that has rendered local financial
institutions
incapable of financing the foreign currency starved
manufacturing
sector.
Independent statistics indicated that bank assets value
continue to
decline in real terms, sliding to an estimated US$50 million
last year from
US$300 million in 2007.
This development,
according to a report compiled by an independent
financial company KM
Financial Solutions, could discourage exporting
companies from increasing
export growth resulting in a sharp decline in
foreign currency
reserves.
"A number of exporting companies are currently unable
to access funds
from their foreign currency accounts within time scales they
require.
This would in turn result in low confidence in the banking
system,"
reads the report. With no lines of credit in place, virtually all
banks
would fail to finance operations of blue chip companies like Econet
whose
operations demand significant amounts of hard
currency.
With inflation now estimated at over a billion
percent, bank deposits
largely from companies and individuals will continue
to diminish, relegating
the local currency to
worthlessness.
Bankers Association President John Mangudya
confirmed that most banks
were struggling to operate although would not
disclose financial
institutions currently in trouble.
"I
cannot comment on behalf on other banks," Mangudya said. "I am
still trying
to get the finer details of the banking sector but like any
other sector,
banks are going through a difficult moment.
The panacea to
Zimbabwe's problems is production. We are in a survival
mode that is
characterised by cost containment."
These problems, according
to analysts, could restrict new players from
joining the financial
sector.
Last year, TN Bank and Tetrad shelved plans to open a
commercial and
merchant bank respectively over unclear
reasons.
The Reserve Bank stipulated at least US$12,5 million
(commercial
banks) and US$10 million (merchant banks) in hard currency for
statutory
capital requirements.
The widespread circulation
of foreign currency in the market has
eroded confidence in the banking
sector and if measures are not taken to
correct to the situation, the
banking sector is headed for collapse in the
not too distant
future.
This comes after revelations from the banking sector
that the Reserve
Bank had turned down an application by most banks to charge
for services
such as chequebook fees and account operational costs in
foreign currency.
The move is however likely to sound the death
knell on the banking
sector as it would be difficult to sustain
operations.
"We applied to charge for some services in foreign
currency as
suppliers of cheque books, stationery and suppliers of services
to banks are
charging in forex but the Reserve bank turned down the
application," said
one bank official speaking on condition of
anonymity.
John Robertson, a local economist says the small
banks are already
feeling the pinch as they try to survive the "sick"
economic climate and are
unlikely to survive.
He predicted
that only the big banks would survive whilst the new ones
will be forced
into mergers, subsequently leading to the closure of some
bank
branches.
"The big banks will not be affected that much because
they have other
revenue bases. Some of them own properties in and outside
the country so
they still have the revenues even when people stop depositing
their money,
Robertson said.
Eric Bloch, another local
economist says despite the unofficial
dollarisation of the economy, the
banking sector is going to pull through
because only a few companies have
access to the foreign currency and the
majority of them still deposit their
local currency into the banks.
"The banks are still active
because most companies don't have access
to foreign currency, so they are
still using the banks," said Bloch.
He also predicted that the
government would be forced to dollarise the
economy "soon", and that would
give a lifeline to the banks as they also
join the foreign currency
craze.
"It's inevitable. The government has no choice but to
dollarise the
economy and it won't be long before we see rands and United
States dollars
in the banks," Bloch said. "The Minister of Health and Child
Welfare
recently announced that all state hospitals and clinics should
accept
foreign currency as a way of payment and that's legitimizing
dollarisation".
Most of Zimbabwe's financial transactions, from
multi-national
transactions down to small transactions in the market are
being carried out
in the US dollar, the rand or the pula.
BY
BERNARD MPOFU AND HENRY MHARA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January 2009
18:25
THE impasse on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) has spilled into
2009
with stockbrokers now advocating for the local bourse to be dollarised
as
investigations of alleged insider trading continue.
According to information to hand the stock broking community this week
advocated for the stock market to be dollarised so that it reflects the true
economic picture of the country and value of counters.
The
stock market last resumed normal trade on November 17 after
Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono read the riot act to banks that were using
fraudulent
cheques to artificially inflate share prices.
The halt
intensified after the country's Securities Commission ordered
stockbrokers
to submit audited financial reports of their net worth by the
end of
December 2008.
The commission warned broking firms they would
be closed if they
failed to meet the deadline.
Contacted
for comment ZSE chief executive Emmanuel Munyukwi could not
shed much light
saying normal trade would resume when investigation on
various issues was
complete and other demand looked into.
"There are still
investigations being done (on the stock market) We do
not have an exact date
as to when normal trade would resume, there are also
other demands that are
being looked into," said Munyukwi.
Trades on the bourse are now
supposed to be backed by a letter of
confirmation from a bank chief
executive officer, something which Kingdom
Bank said would prove difficult
to implement as CEOs already have their
hands full at the
moment.
ZSE said it had observed acts of insider trading on the
local bourse
which has caused some counters to inflate, depress or cause
fluctuation of
shares.
In a statement to the Reserve Bank
and Ministry of Finance signed by
Munyukwi and chairman Seti Shumba, the
local bourse said it was
investigating all reported cases as it was a
serious offence.
"The ZSE committee has also observed with
concern that there are some
relatively large institutions which have
capacity and strategic
macroeconomic information which is used to inflate,
depress or cause
fluctuations in the prices of securities in breach of the
Securities Act
(Chapter 24:25) Section 96 (2)," said ZSE.
"This is considered a very serious offence and will be subjected to
investigation in order to determine complicity under the securities Act,"
the stock exchange said.
The ZSE committee said it had not
yet ruled on the issue of defaulting
members that were revealed by the
Reserve Bank last year.
"It (activities on the stock market)
was simultaneously escalated to
the public domain as the report was being
brought to the attention of the
committee," the ZSE said.
The ZSE said the procedures as prescribed in Rule 11.01 for bringing
this
issue, as well as other complaints about members, has not been varied
or
waived.
"The ZSE committee has a primary duty to appraise the
discovered
evidence and then set out to prove the breach. The committee must
then
follow procedures as laid down in rules 11.01-11.12," said the
ZSE.
The stock exchange committee said it would consider the
question of
final re-admission of any defaulter in two different classes
according to
rule 11.12 namely:
(i) Cases of failure arising
from default of clients or from other
circumstances where no bad faith or
breach of the rules and usage of the
exchange has been
practiced.
(ii) Cases marked by indiscretion and by failure to
exercise
reasonable caution on the part of the defaulter.
"The ZSE
Committee will examine any such evidence provided in
investigating the
matter through normal channels," the ZSE said.
The stock
exchange committee also said it will call for all
participants to be
subjected to interviews regarding the circumstances of
the alleged breach
and weigh the evidence to establish the underlying
motives for suspicious
conduct and behaviour by the members as innocent,
negligent or
fraudulent.
"The quality of the evidence must be such that it
is admissible in
open court so as to provide a successful prosecution and
ultimate conviction
if the need arises," the ZSE said.
The
committee said it shall ensure that the rules of natural justice
are applied
and observed by taking all reasonable steps to ensure that every
person
whose interests are likely to be affected by the exercise of the
functions
is given adequate opportunity to make representations in pursuit
of fairness
and any probabilistic outcomes in terms of the rules.
Commenting on
purchasing and settlement risk, the ZSE said a precedent
was observed in the
current difficulties in which bank cheques were
dishonoured.
"This put the entire market at risk as there
was no longer any
guarantee, even by the designated authorities in the bank
that their own
paper and what they have signed for can be rendered
disabled.
Therefore no other paper will be acceptable to
stockbrokers for the
purchase of shares," said the ZSE.
The stock
market was the safest form of investment last year, as they
were looking at
value creation and convenience of investment.
The economy is
now dollarised, and many companies no longer sell by
cheques or RTGS, and
are demanding the scarce cash and foreign currency.
Hence the goods market
is not easily a tenable alternative for households
and corporates with
excess cash balances.
Therefore anyone with Zimbabwe dollars
was faced with options of the
money market with negative real returns, the
property market that needs
loads of money to enter or the convenient local
bourse. That is why the
stock market was the preferred option.
BY PAUL NYAKAZEYA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January 2009
18:22
MINEWORKERS have threatened to down tools should they receive
their
next salary in local currency, a development that could aggravate the
crisis in the country's major foreign currency earner.
Associated Mineworkers Union of Zimbabwe president, Tinago Ruzive told
businessdigest yesterday that mine workers will hold showdown talks with the
Chamber of Mines on Thursday where they will table their demand for all
mineworkers to be paid in United States dollars.
"We are
meeting with the Chamber of Mines of the 15th (January) and
are
strategising how to convince them to pay workers in US dollars," said
Ruzive.
"Mineworkers are reeling in poverty and are
starving because they are
being paid in local currency when almost
everything is being charged in US
dollars. The situation is quite bad. If we
are not paid in United States
dollars, we will go on a collective job
action," he said.
Ruzive however declined to disclose the
figures they will be asking
for when they meet the Chamber of
Mines.
The mining industry has over the past five years been
reeling under
serious constraints, mainly in the gold sector because of the
Reserve Bank's
failure to pay for gold delivered through its subsidiairy
Fidelity Printers
since 2007.
The Reserve Bank is said to
owe goldminers at least US$30 million
backdated to 2007. The situation is
so dire that one producer told
businessdigest this week that they had
delivered less than two and half
tonnes of gold last year.
Ruzive said that although they understood that the mining industry was
going
through a difficult time, miners deserved to earn a decent wage and
be able
to come to work.
Should miners go on strike, they will join
teachers and nurses who
have not reported for duty since late last year
paralysing the health and
education sectors.
A mining
industry player said that while they sympathised with the
plight of workers,
their demands could not be met given the crisis in the
mining sector adding
that the ultimatum was irrational.
He pointed out that with
mining companies having scaled down their
operations this ultimatum would
only bring about the total collapse of the
industry.
Meanwhile employers are set to meet the Reserve Bank governor Gideon
Gono
next week in a bid to be granted permission to pay workers in foreign
currency.
Miners said they were worried that while the
Zimbabwe dollar was the
legal tender, it was no longer being accepted for
commercial purposes.
They argued that if they were to retain
staff to sustain operations,
workers needed to be paid in foreign
currency.
The growing chorus for salaries to be paid in foreign
currency was
prompted by the near total dollarisation of the economy where
most goods and
services are now being charged in hard currency. This has
made the local
currency virtually worthless.
The
dollarisation of the economy was instigated by the decision of the
Reserve
Bank to license a number of service providers and retail outlets to
sell in
foreign currency under the Foreign Exchange Licensed Wholesalers and
Retail
Shops programme.
BY KUDZAI KUWAZA
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January 2009 18:20
ZIMBABWE'S capital Harare used to be considered the world's most
expensive
city for foreigners by the London-based human resources consultant
ECA
International, but the human resources company stopped including
Zimbabwe in
the ranking because of spiralling inflation there.
Harare, in
principle still remained the most expensive city in the
world.
With Zimbabwe now in a league of its own, Angola's
capital Luanda is
now ranked the world's most expensive place for foreigners
followed by
Tokyo, ECA International said on Wednesday.
Josephine Woolley the public relations director for ECA based her
comments
on a recent survey by the consultant which compares a basket of 125
consumer
goods and services commonly purchased by expatriates in more than
270
locations.
She said long delays at Luanda's port and damaged
infrastructure
caused by an almost three-decade long war continued to
inflate the price of
goods and services typically used by foreigners in the
oil-and-mineral rich
nation.
"Luanda is still suffering
from the aftermath of 27 years of war. It
remains dangerous, is difficult to
move around safely, and it is hard to
source goods of a reasonable standard
there because of a damaged
infrastructure," she told
Reuters.
"These factors, along with inflation, have driven up
the cost of
living, making it increasingly expensive for
expatriates."
The end of the war in 2002 led to an investment
boom by China and some
Western nations which has helped turn Angola into one
of the world's fastest
growing economies. The boom also helped push prices
to record highs.
Despite a recent sharp drop in world food
prices, a litre of imported
milk can cost $3 while the rent of a small
two-bedroom apartment can easily
fetch $7 000 a month in a city that was
built for 500 000 but is home to
over five million people.
Analysts expect the cost of living in Luanda to remain high. The
economy is
forecast to grow 11.8% in 2009 and inflation to remain above 10%,
government
estimates show.
"Prices of goods for expatriates should remain
high due to strong
demand," said Ricardo Gazel, a senior economist at the
World Bank in Angola,
noting the bottleneck at Luanda's
port.
Angola, which rivals Nigeria as sub-Saharan Africa's
biggest oil
producer, was a major food exporter before a civil war
devastated its
agricultural sector as well as its roads, bridges and
communications.
Woolley said the Japanese capital had risen up
the ranks in terms of
prices in the past year.
"A strong
yen has made Tokyo the second-most expensive city in the
world, up from 13th
position a year ago," she said. -- fin24.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January 2009
17:39
RIGHTS activist Jestina Mukoko, who together with dozens of
opposition
members is facing treason charges, has filed an affidavit in
court detailing
the inhuman treatment meted out to her by state security
agents.
Mukoko in her affidavit said she was abducted from her
Norton home on
December 3 by six men and one woman and taken to an unknown
destination
where she was tortured and interrogated by state security agents
for
allegedly recruiting youths to undergo military training in
Botswana.
She was also interrogated about the alleged
involvement of the
Zimbabwe Peace Project in recruiting youths and funding
their military
training.
She said she was blindfolded,
repeatedly assaulted and tortured
underneath her feet during her 19 days of
abduction. She was handed over to
the police on December 22 and charges of
banditry were brought against her.
Despite her apparent trauma, she has been
denied medical treatment and
courts have not been helpful in upholding her
right to freedom in the
absence of credible evidence against
her.
We note with disgust that there appears to be a trend in
which torture
and abductions have become routine practices by our security
forces in the
execution of their duty.
It is even more
disturbing to note that complaints which have been
lodged in the courts have
not, with the notable exception of Justice
Omerjee, received due attention
from the judiciary which has a mandate to
safeguard the Constitution and
civil liberties.
Our government has over the years seen it fit
to act outside the
Constitution in cases involving security matters. But the
state's obligation
to protect liberties should be sacrosanct, as averred by
human rights lawyer
Beatrice Mtetwa.
"If anybody has
committed an offence the law is very clear - the
Constitution must not be
suspended because there are state security issues.
"No law
allows anybody to grab a suspect in their night clothes and
take them to an
undisclosed location and spend weeks without your family,
lawyers or courts
knowing where you are," said Mtetwa.
The condoning of such
state excesses has created a culture of impunity
where the state is no
longer embarrassed to bring to court suspects with
swollen faces and others
limping due to beatings inflicted on the soles of
their feet, a well-known
torture known as the falanga.
The abduction and alleged torture
of Mukoko and other activists is an
emblematic and sad reminder of the dark
side of the Zanu PF regime which now
appears impervious to criticism
stemming from rights abuses.
It places Zimbabwe in a club of rogue
states which routinely resort to
torture and other acts of brutality as
measures of coercive control over a
disenchanted population.
The Zimbabwe government has not ratified the United Nations Convention
against Torture even though parliament voted to ratify it.
In any event, whether Zimbabwe is a signatory of the UN Convention
against
Torture or not, torture remains a crime under international law and
must be
frowned upon by the judiciary which has a duty to not only prompt an
investigation into suspected cases but to speak out against such
excesses.
These alleged actions contravene Section 15 of the
Constitution of
Zimbabwe which outlaws torture. Section 15 (1) states: "No
person shall be
subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading punishment
or other such
treatment."
Zimbabwe under international law
has an obligation to criminalise and
to prosecute all acts of torture,
including any act that constitutes
complicity or participation in torture.
International law states failure to
prevent torture carried out by
subordinates may entail criminal
responsibility.
The
government has an obligation to continue to act within the
confines of the
law notwithstanding the gravity of the case it is
prosecuting. And the
judiciary has an obligation to uphold the basic rights
of Zimbabweans to
freedom instead of swallowing the far-fetched claims of a
state that has
repeatedly seen its treason cases collapse.
The incarceration
of MDC officials in Bulawayo seven years ago on
charges connected to the
death of Cain Nkala is one of the more shocking
cases of judicial inaction
in the face of fabricated charges.
Justice Sandra Mungwira, to her
lasting credit, eventually ordered
their acquittal when it became obvious
they should not have been arrested in
the first place.
The
absence of real political will to implement this very basic tenet
of the law
- the assumption of innocence - has brought us to this sad state
of affairs
where suspects disappear for weeks only to be brought to court
bearing marks
of abuse at the hand of the state.
And the production by the state
of a certificate to say national
security interests are at stake should be
taken with a pinch of salt. The
state is not a disinterested
party.
The latest case has exploded any pretensions by this
regime that it
respects the rule of law. This is a loud declaration that
Zimbabwe is well
and truly a rogue state in which nobody is safe and the
absence of a robust
judiciary is taking its toll on civil rights.
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January
2009 17:35
THIS year started with no hope of an immediate
implementation of the
global political agreement signed between President
Robert Mugabe and the
leaders of the two MDC formations, Morgan Tsvangirai
and Arthur Mutambara,
on September 15 last year.
Tsvangirai
has declined to be sworn in as prime minister of the
envisaged inclusive
government insisting that there are outstanding issues
before the agreement
can be consummated.
Among the sticking issues, according to
Tsvangirai, are the
ministerial portfolio allocations, appointment of
provincial governors and
the constitutive nature of the proposed national
security council. He is
also concerned about the abduction, torture and
illegal detention of his
members.
Tsvangirai's refusal to
take the oath of office has promoted
speculation in the official media that
the opposition leader and his party
intend to walk out of the agreement in
the hope that the economy will plunge
into chaos, forcing Mugabe to
quit.
The MDC-T's leaders will meet in South Africa at the
weekend to decide
whether or not to enter the inclusive government, but it
may be difficult
for Tsvangirai to walk out of an agreement that he is party
to, despite
growing international disillusionment with Mugabe's performance
since the
pact was signed.
His only option is to push Zanu
PF into a corner where they would have
to agree to new elections under
international supervision so he can get the
chance to beat Mugabe once and
for all.
Sadc has betrayed the people of Zimbabwe by failing to
stand up to
Mugabe's delinquency after the sham June 27 presidential
election run-off
that eventually led to the signing of the shaky unity
government pact.
Equally, Tsvangirai and Mutambara have also been
maladroit in so far
as the events leading up to the signing of the pact are
concerned.
It was up to Tsvangirai and Mutambara and their
respective formations
to formulate a united position and decide on who
should be the principal in
any engagement with Mugabe and Zanu
PF.
A divided opposition to Mugabe was always going to be good
news to
Zanu PF.
It would be wrong to claim that Mugabe was
responsible for the
opposition not getting its act together both before and
after the March 29
elections.
Mutambara chose not to
participate in the presidential election and
ordinarily he should be
excluded from any discussions dealing with the
allocation of executive
power, and yet he now finds himself a player - and a
critical one for that
matter - in the contentious issues that remain.
Sadc and the
mediator in the Zimbabwean crisis, former South African
president Thabo
Mbeki, had no choice but to listen to the voices of Zimbabwe's
opposition
leaders and regrettably there seems to be no trust among them.
Mugabe, being
the incumbent, is the beneficiary.
Mutambara and his formation
seem satisfied that the current outcome is
what the country needs. The MDC-T
disagrees.
Because of the results of the parliamentary
election, an opportunity
was created for a re-interpretation of what the
people of Zimbabwe wanted to
see: an executive reflecting the parliamentary
results or an executive
coming from the direct presidential election
results.
When people voted on March 29 they surely had no idea
that a vote for
a parliamentary representative would end up being
manipulated as a vote for
who should be head of state.
By
craftily investing in the terms of reference for the global
political
agreement, it was possible for Sadc and Mugabe to box MDC-T into a
corner to
the extent that very soon Tsvangirai would acquire the reputation
of a
spoiler. Yet his party won both the presidential first-round poll and
the
parliamentary contest. Mugabe only won the second round through an orgy
of
violence.
By signing the inclusive government deal, MDC-T must
accept
responsibility for creating this absurd outcome that now sees Mugabe
taking
the moral high ground.
The pact is framed on the basis
that Tsvangirai will never assume
unfettered executive power as long as
Mugabe is alive. All he can hope for
is being a prime minister under Mugabe.
Mutambara appears to be happy with
such an outcome, as he knows that if
Tsvangirai were to assume unfettered
executive powers he would not be a
beneficiary.
For self-interest, the outcome on the table suits
Mugabe and
Mutambara.
The real betrayal of Zimbabweans lies
in the nature and composition of
the opposition forces. Given the current
stalemate, Mugabe and Mutambara on
the surface have the majority but lack
the legitimacy.
The inclusive government deal is the only route
for Mugabe to restore
any residual legitimacy even among his own colleagues
in Sadc and the AU.
They can now claim that the deal has the endorsement of
not only the three
players, including Tsvangirai, but Sadc as well. It is a
signed document as
is the Constitutional Amendment Bill.
The bottom line is that Tsvangirai cannot walk out of the pact. But he
should at least tell the country what his position is.
BY
CONSTANTINE CHIMAKURE
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January 2009
16:54
ZIMBABWE'S government is justifiably renowned for its failure to
do
anything whatsoever timeously. Its reputation for tardiness is
undoubtedly
merited, for it has unfailingly always done too little, too late
(save and
except for its all too frequent, ill-considered, nationally
destructive
actions.
Those it invariably does
precipitously, without due consideration, and
when the appalling unforeseen
consequences develop, it unhesitatingly
attributes responsibility and blame
to others. With its deep-seated
convictions of omnipotence and
infallibility, it cannot conceive of
self-culpability).
With its unfettered ability to fail to do anything when it should be
done,
it must be taken for granted that on New Year's Eve, when
traditionally one
should resolve upon positive and constructive actions for
the year ahead,
government failed to do so.
However, there is some substance to the
old and trite maxim "Better
late than never", and therefore there is still
opportunity for government to
make its 2009 resolutions.
The first of those resolutions should be a collective one for all in
government, and that is to act wholly and exclusively in the best interests
of Zimbabwe and its people, which would be diametrically opposite to all
that it has done heretofore.
Although it would vigorously deny
it, each and every action of
government over the last 10 years has been
politically motivated, the
objective being perpetuation of absolute control
of Zimbabwe, or intent on
self-benefit of those in government or
nepotistically connected to them, or
founded upon distorted, self-effacing
misconceptions as to the causes of
Zimbabwean ills.
But
there are many other resolutions which, if government genuinely
cares for
those that it "governs", should be made. Space constraints
preclude
itemising all, but to aid those who deceptively believe that they
are the
democratically elected rulers of Zimbabwe, some of their 2009
resolutions
which should now be made are:
His Excellency President Robert
Mugabe, who recently publicly declared
that "Zimbabwe is mine!" should
forthwith recognise that Zimbabwe belongs to
all Zimbabweans, irrespective
of political affiliation, race, tribe, gender,
and that (as is the case in
all countries with viable economies),
non-Zimbabwean investors are also
welcome, will not be prejudiced or
oppressed, and their investments will be
protected.
The Commissioner General of the Zimbabwe Republic
Police (ZRP),
Augustine Chihuri, should resolve that police will always
honour and respect
determinations of Zimbabwean courts, including orders for
the immediate
release of persons in police custody; that there will be
intensive efforts
to contain the fast-growing tendency of the traffic police
to extort foreign
currency bribes, with equally intensive efforts to ensure
that the police do
not resort to beatings and assault upon anyone, and in
particular, upon
those perceived to be opponents of
government.
ZRP's reputation has been grievously tarnished by a
minority who
increasingly pursue the public with corrupt demands and threats
and, on
occasion, brutality. The 2009 resolution must be to strive to
restore the
ZRP's past repute.
The Minister of Industry and
International Trade, Obert Mpofu, needs
to resolve that economic regulation
is counterproductive and destructive
when pursued to excess; deregulation
should be the prevailing policy, the
failures of excessive command economy
policies having been a primary
contributor to Zimbabwe's near-total economic
collapse.
The scathing dismissal of "textbook economics" initiated
by the
president but echoed by many ministerial sycophants not only
overlooks that
some have considerable substance, but also that those
economics have had
innumerable proven successes.
The
Minister of State for Security and Land, Didymus Mutasa needs a
multitude of
resolutions including that he, and the government he
represents, will from
now onwards have unequivocal respect for property
rights and bilateral
agreements.
He should resolve to dispose of the racist chip on his
shoulder
against all non-black farmers, and recognize that Zimbabwe has more
than
enough land to accommodate those of all races who have a genuine wish
to
work the land productively, matched by requisite agricultural skill. And
he
must resolve to recognise determinations of regional tribunals and
courts,
for Zimbabwean membership of regional entities is spurious if it
self-selectively ignores the agreed legal infrastructures.
Zimbabwe's Minister of Foreign Affairs should resolve that 2009 will
herald
a new era in which Zimbabwe will strive to reconcile with many of the
international community that it has unhesitatingly alienated and
rebuffed.
Without in any manner being subservient to others, but
founded upon
equality, Zimbabwe must become a reciprocally cooperative
member of the
international community, containing its tendency for
vituperative
castigation and misplaced attribution to others of blame for
that which
Zimbabwe has afflicted upon itself.
Zimbabwe's
near-failed "Look East Policy" needs to be replaced with a
"Look North,
South, East and West Policy", founded upon harmonious
communication and
collaboration.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)'s resolutions
for 2009 must include
real determination and intent to make good, speedily,
the funds diverted
from exporters' and others' Foreign Currency Accounts,
stated to be "loans"
to RBZ although the "lenders" were given no
determination whether or not to
make such loans, and virtually no terms and
conditions of the loans such as
repayment periods, interest rates and
security have been given by the
borrower that unilaterally availed itself of
the foreign currency resources.
Similarly, it must be resolved that
from now onwards all payments due
by the RBZ to gold producers and tobacco
growers will be timeously made,
that exchange control bureaucracy will be
eradicated and all applications
and submissions speedily
processed.
The cabinet needs to resolve that its profligate
spending will cease
forthwith, with state expenditure being intensively
contained to levels
within available means, and targeted towards the
nation's most critical and
essential needs.
A very positive
first step would be for the cabinet to recommend to,
and urge, the
president, to restructure the cabinet to a much smaller size,
with a
concomitant reduction in the Zimbabwe monolithic governmental
structure.
Concurrently, the cabinet should resolve that it
will now urgently
pursue public/private partnerships, bringing about
meaningful privatisation
of Zimbabwe's plethora of parastatals, almost all
of which are
under-capitalised, have derelict and failing infrastructures
and markedly
fail to meet the needs of the country.
Most of
all, the cabinet resolution should be that from now on its
focus will be
upon effective deeds instead of fruitless talks, and that
forthwith it will
put the Zimbabwean people and their wellbeing foremost and
above all
else.
These are but a few of the governmental New Year
resolutions that
would transform Zimbabwe and accord it the glory and
success it could so
easily have were government to have the will and
resolve. Past performance
suggests that there is little prospect of such a
spectacular governmental
transformation, and yet self-preservation may
finally provoke government to
resolve upon that which is
needed.
BY ERIC BLOCH
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January 2009
16:48
President Mugabe has embarked upon his annual holiday, we are
told. Or
"retreat" as it is now called. Just when we thought there was no
going back!
Vice-President Joseph Msika will be acting
president.
Let's hope this means less of that noisy motorcade
which guzzles up
the nation's scarce fuel resources while abusing motorists
who get in its
way.
Muckraker has been told that the
vehicles in the motorcade, headed by
Zim 1, get filled up at the Reserve
Bank, not the CMED. Gideon Gono, who is
in charge of national forex
procurement, makes sure our leaders are properly
looked after. He doesn't
stand there holding the fuel pipe himself but you
can be sure he knows what
each vehicle gets.
The problem is the source of this largesse
is, like everything else,
in sharp decline.
Zimplats, which
provides the bank with hard currency, is a victim of
the global downturn.
The market for platinum is shrinking. New projects in
Selous have been
shelved as revenue dries up. This means less money for
Gono.
But does it mean less for the president's motorcade,
that
advertisement for all that is extravagant and arrogant in our
midst?
We seriously doubt it. Something will be found to keep
those wheels
turning even if Gono has to dig into his piggy bank. It just
means less for
everybody else.
Meanwhile, Muckraker is
seeking confirmation of where young Bona is
studying. We think it is Hong
Kong which combines a British education with
Chinese protection. But it
could be a neighbouring state.
A Hong Kong education does not
come cheap, we are told. And then there
are the costs of accommodation and
close security. It may mean another call
on Gideon's
pipeline!
We were intrigued by remarks made by Nathaniel
Manheru in the Herald
edition of December 27.
Firstly it was
interesting to note that his elder brother's
"inquisitive brood", who he
describes as serving him "a few hard balls"
(tough questions), are all
living in the diaspora. Clearly Manheru's
patriotic appeals cut no ice
within his own family! And nor, it would seem,
have they persuaded South
Africa's new leadership that Zimbabwe is the
victim of a Western
conspiracy.
President Mugabe had been vindicated in his
portrayal of the MDC's
Morgan Tsvangirai as a minor player in the regional
scheme of things, we are
told. The British are the real key to success, not
their surrogates.
Manheru writes for a captive press, one that
is not remotely a
"public" entity despite its claims, and which conceals
news it finds
unpalatable.
So it may be useful for the
public to know exactly what views the
South African leadership have been
expressing of late.
Firstly we had President Kgalema Motlanthe
telling the press at Union
Buildings on December 17 that he didn't believe
Zimbabwe's far-fetched
stories about the MDC engaging in terrorist training
in Botswana.
"We do not believe that," he said. "We do not
think there is any
substance to the allegation. But of course the Zimbabwean
authorities would
cite an explosion at a police station and that kind of
stuff to actually
claim the government of Botswana could train the MDC
cadres."
So clearly Zimbabwe's official line doesn't extend
beyond the Limpopo,
whatever Manheru might think.
Then we
had Jacob Zuma speaking recently on the subject of Zimbabwe.
He said the
situation here was "utterly untenable".
And in remarks to the ANC's
national executive committee calculated to
cause mortification in the ranks
of Zimbabwe's sclerotic leadership, Zuma
said in as much as he could no
longer call defectors to the recently
launched Congress of the People (Cope)
"comrades", he could also not call
Zimbabwe's ruling party and its leaders
"comrades".
That was a hugely significant admission, given Zanu
PF's claims to
have persuaded the South Africans of the righteousness of
their cause, but
one the Herald swept under its copious
carpet.
The NEC statement that followed Zuma's address was
equally forthright.
"The reported cases of abductions and
detentions without trial (in
Zimbabwe) test the very fabric of the
liberation we fought for in this
region of Africa," it
said.
Again, this went unreported in the official press despite
the obvious
fact it was of interest to Zimbabweans.
These
few examples last month show the extent to which the state media
is abusing
its daily monopoly.
And have you noticed how contributors from
Canada and Australia are
dominating the commentary columns of the Herald?
The government press seems
to have run out of local contributors, although
we can't wait to see what
dividends the British Council's lavish sponsorship
of Olly Maruma produces!
And what will it take to get Reason
Wafawarova to step foot in this
country? None of these ultra-patriots show
any inclination to actually come
home. Australia is much more comfortable.
And you can say what you like
about the government there without being
abducted.
Meanwhile, South Africa's Sunday Times published
an editorial on
December 28 that might also be of interest to our readers.
The pain South
Africans went through in 2008 was nothing compared to what
was, and still
is, happening in neighbouring Zimbabwe, the editor
wrote.
"The dictatorial habits of ageing despot Robert Mugabe
have pushed
that country to the edge of the precipice. Zimbabwe is a
collapsed state.
"What pained us most is the role played by
South Africa under the
mediation of Mbeki. The irony is that while Mbeki
sought to shape his
presidency on the principle of African renewal, he did
the opposite by
ensuring that the Harare dictator clung to power through
brute force."
It was also interesting to note George Charamba's
claim that he could
not comment on Nicholas Goche's meeting with Sydney
Mufamadi in South Africa
recently "as that was a party issue while I am a
government spokesperson".
But that doesn't stop him styling
himself as "Comrade" in the Herald
and wearing ruling-party regalia at Zanu
PF functions! So why has he
suddenly decided to make a distinction between
government and party? Who has
said what?
Econet's
"smart business partna-ship" is proving less than smart for
the cellular
company's customers.
On New Year's Eve, arguably the busiest day of the
year in terms of
cellular traffic as people send greetings to each other,
Econet's system
went offline for most of the day and then resurfaced as a US
dollar
business.
Some customers were informed of the
changeover but many weren't.
Customers holding Business Partna
access cards which they had bought
for $50 million found they now contained
just a few (US) cents, although it
has to be said the conversion rate wasn't
too bad.
Econet, which boasts it is "inspired to change your
world", certainly
changed many people's lives by creating havoc in the
telecoms sector over
the New Year. Many customers without US dollars were
seriously disadvantaged
by not being able to seek help from their companies,
closed for the holiday.
"Scratching off the panel implies total
acceptance of the Business
Partna terms and conditions", the access cards
say.
Surely, that applies as much to Econet as it does to the
customer? Why
could Econet not wait until the nation was back at work on
Monday before
depriving them of their means of communication? How
user-friendly is that?
Their access cards state clearly "use
before 31.12.2009".
By the way, subscribers on the 023
(Telecel) network are able to
access other people's cellphones in the region
and overseas, a service not
available to 0912 (Econet)
customers.
Do you recall all those puff pieces in the local
press about Econet
rolling-out new networks? A golden dawn beckoned for
subscribers, we were
led to believe.
We said at the time
cellular companies should first improve their
existing service before
expanding their networks, but nobody listened.
Econet should
undertake a survey of customer perceptions of the
company's service after
the New Year's Eve debacle. It could be instructive.
Meanwhile, amidst collapsing service delivery in all sectors of the
economy,
the collapse of the nation's postal service has gone unnoticed.
Do you remember those postmen on bicycles who provided a reliable
service
for so long? Now that delivery has been farmed out to a motorised
outfit the
whole system has broken down with the predictable excuse of "no
fuel".
Christmas cards have gone missing as have bank
statements and other
documents. Anything coming from South Africa or
overseas most likely won't
be delivered for several weeks. As soon as they
built the international
sorting office on the Airport Road mail delivery
began to grind to a halt.
Reliable postal delivery was
something we took for granted for so
long. Not any more! Here we have
another parastatal hiking charges but
failing to provide a basic
service.
Part of President Mugabe's leave will be spent outside
Zimbabwe, we
are told by the state media.
George Charamba, wearing
his government hat, told the Sunday Mail:
"This is more of a retreat than an
actual leave.
The president is very busy reflecting on new
structures that are
needed to deal with the economic sanctions against
Zimbabwe as well as
working on structures of an inclusive government which
must come soon."
Yes, but will he be doing this from a beach in
Malaysia or a farm in
Zvimba? And why does he think he can introduce new
structures to deal with
sanctions when none of his other counter-measures
have worked?
Getting rid of all that dead wood in cabinet may help. But
any attempt
to bring in another truckload from his own party could be fatal
to the
nation's health.
We also note in passing that the
state is only "rolling out" its
"national awareness campaign" now, more than
three weeks after Mugabe said
cholera had been "arrested". This hardly
smacks of decisive governance.
And should everybody in Tuesday's
front-page Herald pic be grinning
for the cameras when this is such a
serious matter? The current toll stands
at 1 732, over double what it was on
December 11 when Mugabe said the
disease has been brought under
control.
Zanu PF's propagandists have meanwhile been asking
why a presidential
run-off in Ghana was acceptable in Western eyes and not
in Zimbabwe?
The answer couldn't be more obvious. The run-off
in Ghana was seamless
and peaceful. Candidates were able to debate issues on
TV in a forthright
and vigorous way -- indeed some would say too vigorous at
times.
There were no abductions or murders of opposition
activists. There
were no "no-go" areas for opposition candidates. There was
a large measure
of confidence in the work of the electoral supervisory
commission which
released results promptly. Senior military personnel did
not make dangerous
political pronouncements while the police were seen as
mostly impartial as
were the courts.
That's why Ghana's
election attracted relatively little attention. The
Ghanaian election in no
way "mirrored" the election in Zimbabwe, as Caesar
Zvayi would have us
believe. The run-off in Zimbabwe was described as a
"sham" not just by
"Westerners" but by all who witnessed it. That is why the
region has
prevented Mugabe from forming a government on his own, as if he
won!
Is it appropriate for the editor of the Herald to
permit
correspondence in the paper's "Letters" column that describes
Tsvangirai as
"immoral, corrupt and obnoxiously repugnant"?
Is this the sort of language which should be encouraged in our public
press?
Does it promote democratic diversity or simply place national
discourse in
the gutter?
Can you imagine the battery of legislation that
would be wheeled out
if anybody described Mugabe in those terms in the back
seat of a commuter
omnibus? The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act
would be immediately
brought into play.
There is no such
law in Ghana. And the candidates in the recent
election said very much what
they liked about each other.
Finally, can Arthur Mutambara
please enlighten us as to when and where
Jendayi Frazer made the comments he
attributes to her regarding Tsvangirai?
("Inconvenient truths about the West
and Zimbabwe"). The Herald published
excerpts from the article on Monday.
Muckraker has the full text.
The US embassy can find no trace
of the remarks. And the language used
seems unlikely. We would hate to think
he is just making it up as he goes
along.
And there are of
course no invasion plans beyond the fevered
imaginings of certain prelates
and prime ministers. As it is, Mutambara
gives a hostage to fortune which
the usual jackals were quick to pounce on.
In particular it
would have been helpful if the Herald had published
his remarks on what
might happen if the clamour for Mugabe to go became a
reality. What is it
the Chinese say about being careful what you wish for
because it may come
true?
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com
Thursday, 08 January
2009 16:42
WHEN President Mugabe bellowed "pasi ne MDC" at his party's
conference
in Bindura last month, he merely confirmed our worst fears: that
his
keenness on seeing the success of a unitary government with the MDC had
worn
thin.
The damning slogan is reserved for his enemies,
opponents and elements
which he regards as undesirable. Tsvangirai and his
MDC party have always
been regarded as undesirable appendages of
imperialists.
The tone Mugabe set in Bindura has erased any hopes
of a workable
political settlement with the opposition and with it, 2009 can
turn out to
be even more of an annus horribilis than 2008 as long as the
gulf between
Zanu PF and the MDC is not bridged.
That rift
has opened even wider amid state allegations that the MDC is
fomenting armed
rebellion to topple the ageing strongman. The pieces have
started to come
together.
Mugabe has started to wheel out the evidence of MDC
"treason".
Zimbabwe Peace Project director Jestina Mukoko and dozens of MDC
abducted by
state functionaries last year now stand accused of plotting to
topple the
government.
The state is also alleging that the
activists were culpable in the
bombing of police stations and railway lines
late last year. This is
notwithstanding statements by police
Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri
that the bombings were an inside
job.
Here is wily Mugabe playing victim again. And when he is
in this mode,
he is at his most dangerous. He will now use this phony state
of siege to
justify drastic action against the opposition.
We
recall the Cain Nkala saga in which the MDC was portrayed as a
murderous
party and then Tsvangirai's treason trial which both collapsed in
court. The
incidents were both designed to weaken the MDC while at the same
time
diverting attention away from the failure of the Zanu PF
administration.
It is not surprising therefore that Mugabe
has launched an assault on
the opposition while at the same time putting up
a façade of a magnanimous
and charitable leader extending an invitation to
the opposition to ride on
his threadbare wagon. He knows the futility of
riding alone.
He wants to ride with a weakened Tsvangirai. That
way, he thinks he is
guaranteed gaining the ascendancy which he failed to
win through the ballot
box.
But gaining legitimacy is a
different kettle of fish. And in the event
of an early election, Mugabe
knows that his chances would perhaps be
brighter against a traumatised
MDC.
In its current state, the opposition has already started
to display
sure signs of weakness. Tsvangirai and most senior leaders of the
party are
outside the country - they say to organise - but arguably in
exile.
The current Jestina Mukoko saga is most likely to keep the
leaders
away. Meanwhile the party cannot properly organise on the ground.
State
agents have launched activities to destabilise the party at all
levels.
Tsvangirai's MDC appears rudderless at the moment. It
should be said
that the MDC leadership is playing right into Zanu PF's grand
plot.
The party is weakening with each passing day that Tsvangirai
and his
colleagues stay out of the country.
Conditions on the
ground now point to two possible outcomes.
A weakened MDC could be
dragged into the unity government kicking and
screaming by the strong arm of
the state. The terrorist plot would be used
as the stick to force
compliance. In this scenario, the party would cede
powers to Zanu PF and
reverse gains garnered from the March polls.
The second
possible outcome is a frustrated MDC walking out of the
dialogue with Zanu
PF and refusing to support the passage of Amendment
Number 19 when the Bill
is brought to parliament later this month.
Mugabe would then
dissolve parliament and call for fresh polls. As
long as Tsvangirai stays
away, it would be a huge task for him and his party
to win. He cannot rely
on public discontent alone to upstage Mugabe in an
election. He is required
here to lead his party.
The two scenarios are both favourable
to Mugabe who is still more than
determined to hang on to power despite his
inability to rescue the country
from the morass he has created. Mugabe's
continued occupation of the throne
is manifestly not the tonic required to
put right this economy.
The agreement between the two parties
was the best option available
for Zimbabwe but that opportunity is fast
waning. In South Africa this
weekend the MDC leadership is scheduled to
deliberate on a way forward.
They have two clear options: to bite
the bullet and join Mugabe in a
government that is abusing power and
accusing the party of treason or to
tear up the agreement with Zanu PF and
face an election in which they will
be at a profound disadvantage. Both
options carry serious risks for
Tsvangirai. But that is the nature of
politics. It is time to demonstrate
leadership.
BY VINCENT
KAHIYA