Reuters
Sun 15 Jul
2007, 8:58 GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government will this week
enforce an
indefinite price freeze in a bid to rein in runaway inflation
that has
ravaged consumers and increased political tensions, official media
reported
on Sunday.
President Robert Mugabe's government has ordered
a roll back of all prices
to June 18 levels after accusing businesses of
unjustified increases and has
formed a crack team that includes the police
and military, to enforce the
directive.
Desperate consumers, used to
daily price increases, have cheered the price
cuts and embarked on buying
sprees that have left most shop shelves empty.
The initial freeze was
meant to last until August 1 but the
government-owned Sunday Mail reported
that the government had finalised a
statute to be published this week to
extend the price cuts indefinitely.
Zimbabwe is grappling with a severe
economic crisis marked by inflation
above 4,500 percent, rising unemployment
and shortages of foreign currency,
fuel and food.
Last week the
Central Statistical Office said it may stop publishing
inflation data., a
move viewed by analysts as aimed at shielding the
government from criticism
of its failure to control soaring prices.
The government has set profit
margins from producers to wholesalers at 5
percent and at 10 percent for
wholesalers to retailers. But basic goods like
maize-meal, sugar and cooking
oil have disappeared from shelves as suppliers
cut
production.
Economists said this would accelerate Zimbabwe's economic
decline as
businesses would not be able to sustain production at a
loss.
Mugabe has threatened to seize and nationalise companies he accuses
of
hiking prices without justification as part of a Western plot to topple
his
government.
More than 2,000 business people and companies have
been arrested and fined
while over 100 public commuter vehicles have been
impounded for overpricing.
Mugabe, in power since independence from
Britain in 1980, denies charges he
has run down a once prosperous economy
and instead accuses the West of
sabotage as punishment for handing
white-owned commercial farms to landless
blacks.
International Herald Tribune
The Associated
PressPublished: July 15, 2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Outgoing U.S.
Ambassador Christopher Dell ended his
three-year term in Zimbabwe at the
weekend, leaving the citizens of the
troubled southern African country with
a parting shot that "things will
change soon."
Dell, an outspoken
critic of President Robert Mugabe's human and democratic
rights record, left
on Saturday and headed to his next post in Afghanistan.
State television
showed its news crew pursuing Dell through the Harare
airport complex on
Saturday.
Dell told the sole broadcaster's diplomatic correspondent
Judith Makwanya
that he urged Zimbabweans to "keep the faith. Things will
change soon."
Dell has predicted total economic collapse in Zimbabwe by
the end of the
year and said in one farewell interview with an independent
newspaper last
month that the government was "doing regime change to itself"
through
economic mismanagement and a crackdown on prices.
The
government has accused Western nations of backing a political and
economic
campaign for "regime change" to try to oust longtime ruler Mugabe,
83.
State television said Dell's mission to bring down Mugabe was left
unaccomplished and he left the country a humiliated man.
Zimbabweans
are bracing themselves for another week of economic strife as
Western
governments warned their nationals against traveling to the southern
African
nation and urged those already here to avoid visiting the
countryside and
tourist attractions.
Price cuts of at least 50 percent ordered by the
government on June 26 in an
attempt to curb rampant inflation have led to
acute food shortages and near
riots as cheaper goods went on
sale.
Orders to slash the price of gasoline to less than half the import
cost saw
buses taken out of service and chaos on commuter routes is expected
to
worsen at the start of the working week Monday.
The United States
warned of state-sponsored violence and said the price
crackdown raised
security concerns.
In a July 12 advisory, the U.S. State Department asked
Americans in Zimbabwe
to minimize travel and, where practical, avoid public
places and gatherings.
"In light of current circumstances, U.S. citizens
are advised to consider
the risk before traveling to Zimbabwe at this time,"
the advisory said.
An Australian government advisory issued Wednesday
said rapidly worsening
economic conditions could lead to civil unrest "at
any time," affecting
visitors to the famed northwestern Victoria Falls
resort and nature
preserves.
The Australian Department of Foreign
Affairs warned some 700 of its
nationals living and working in Zimbabwe that
the security situation could
"deteriorate quickly and without
warning."
It said in the absence of the rule of law there was a high
level of criminal
activity and economic conditions could lead to civil
unrest.
Meanwhile, the South African government Sunday dismissed as
untrue weekend
media reports on the collapse of talks with Zimbabwe in a
rare comment on
the process to mediate an end to the crisis.
"Nothing
is further from the truth," Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie
Mamoepa said in
a statement issued from India.
President Thabo Mbeki has been mandated by
the Southern African Development
Community to head talks between the
Zimbabwean government and the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change. The
South African government has requested a
media blackout on the
process.
The Sunday Times reported that Mugabe had dumped Mbeki as a
mediator and
ordered his two key negotiators, Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas
Goche, to
boycott negotiations that were supposed to resume in Pretoria this
week.
Mamoepa, in the statement, rejected this as a "falsehood" and said
the
facilitation process "remains on course".
"There is no shred of
truth in the suggestion that Mugabe has spurned the
SADC-led facilitation
process," he said.
However, Mamoepa confirmed that the ZANU-PF delegation
"could not attend the
scheduled discussions in Pretoria this week due to
prior engagements" and
that they had tendered an apology to the South
African government.
"In this regard, efforts are under way to set a new
date for the
facilitation talks in which the ZANU-PF delegation will
attend," he said in
the statement.
The MDC was not immediately
available for comment.
In Harare, Sunday churchgoers lined up for hours
at bus stops. Many
scrambled aboard open trucks and private cars. Bus
operators said subsidized
gas offered by the government either ran out or
attracted chaotic jams of
honking minibus taxis, also waiting for hours at
designated gas stations.
Shelves in stores remained bare of cornmeal,
bread, meat and other staples.
Shoppers swarmed into a suburban supermarket
after word spread by mobile
phone that it received a delivery of a few dozen
loaves of bread Sunday.
Caller congestion has almost collapsed already
overburdened cell phone
services after the government ordered the country's
three networks to reduce
their charges.
Another supermarket filled
out empty shelves Sunday with bundles of firewood
normally sold by vendors
on the street during daily power outages in the
worst economic crisis since
independence in 1980.
The state Sunday Mail newspaper, a government
mouthpiece, described the
shopping spree for cheaper goods as "Christmas in
July" for impoverished
victims of overcharging and profiteering by
businesses.
But it acknowledged many shoppers were panic buying in bulk
in uncertainty
over the resupply of goods to shops.
Nearly 2,000
business executives, managers, traders bus operators have been
arrested and
fined for defying the June 26 edict on prices.
Shoppers have stampeded
through clothing and shoe stores as well as food
shops. Harare's South
African controlled Makro Mega Store was overwhelmed
Thursday by shoppers who
carried away television sets and other electrical
appliances for a third of
the listed price.
Witnesses said state-of-the-art plasma TVs went for as
little as 10 million
Zimbabwe dollars (US$660; ?490 at the near defunct
official exchange rate,
or US$75; ?55 at the dominant black market exchange
rate.)
From The Weekender (SA), 14 July
Harare correspondent
Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe has reportedly dumped President Thabo
Mbeki as mediator in the
inter-party talks between his ruling Zanu PF and
the main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), in an
unprecedented attack on South
African diplomacy. The move puts Mugabe on a
collision course with Southern
African Development Community (SADC) leaders
ahead of their summit in Zambia
next month. SADC leaders tasked Mbeki in
March to mediate the Zimbabwe
situation. Prior to that, he had been a
self-appointed mediator since 2000
without much success. Sources in Harare
said on Friday that Mugabe had now
ordered his party to disengage from the
talks, aimed at resolving Zimbabwe's
political and economic problems under
Mbeki's facilitation, and negotiate
directly with the MDC. After agreeing to
a final agenda last month, Zanu PF
and MDC negotiating teams were expected
to discuss the constitution, sources
said. The decision to withdraw from the
talks was taken last Friday after a
meeting of Zimbabwe's Joint Operations
Command (JOC), which includes the
army, intelligence and police, and led to
Zanu PF negotiators Patrick
Chinamasa's and Nicholas Goche's failure to
pitch up at a meeting with the
MDC last Saturday. Sources in Harare said
that after missing the talks ,
Chinamasa and Goche had met MDC negotiators,
Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti,
in Harare on Tuesday. This seriously
undermines Mbeki's role as mediator and
leaves SADC in a quandary about what
do with Mugabe. MDC Treasurer Roy
Bennett denied knowledge of the direct
talks , saying that he knew Biti had
not attended such a meeting.
Sources said that the JOC had met Mugabe
last week and it was resolved that
Zanu PF would disengage from the talks
under Mbeki's mediation as it was
felt the talks would lead to the weakening
of the government and a possible
Zanu PF defeat in next year's parliamentary
and presidential elections. The
sources said that the JOC decision was taken
hours before the Zanu PF's
politburo, central committee and national
consultative assembly meeting last
Friday, during which Mugabe emphasised
there was no need for a new
constitution, effectively repudiating the agenda
for talks with the MDC. The
constitution is the first and most important
item on the mediation talks'
agenda which was finalised last month. The
agenda also includes electoral,
security and communication laws, and the
political climate. Since Mbeki was
appointed mediator, Mugabe has
consistently rejected calls for a new
constitution and the decision to
withdraw from the mediation talks is the
clearest indication yet that the
Zimbabwean leader does not want to
co-operate with the South African
president. SA's mediation team, which
includes Local Government Minister
Sydney Mufamadi who chairs the talks,
director-general in the Presidency Rev
Frank Chikane and Mbeki's legal
advisor, Mojanku Gumbi, was kept waiting
when Mugabe's negotiators failed to
arrive. It was later agreed that the
negotiators would travel to Pretoria on
Saturday evening for rescheduled
talks on Sunday, which they also failed to
attend. Zanu PF did not give any
reasons for not attending .
This has put Mbeki in a tight spot on how
to proceed as constitutional
reform is widely seen as central in resolving
the Zimbabwean crisis. He is
determined to ensure the talks succeed for his
legacy's sake and to get rid
of a festering trouble spot on his doorstep.
Mbeki is also under pressure at
home and from abroad to effect change in the
beleaguered neighbouring
country. The forthcoming SADC summit in Lusaka is
expected to tackle
Zimbabwe's problems, and is likely to be a heated affair
after Mugabe's
decision to dump Mbeki as mediator. MDC President Morgan
Tsvangirai said on
Friday he was surprised at the news. South African
foreign affairs spokesman
Ronnie Mamoepa said he was unaware of any such
developments regarding SA's
mediation role.
Monsters and Critics
Jul 15, 2007, 11:59 GMT
Johannesburg/Harare -
The South African government on Sunday dismissed
reports that Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe was boycotting mediation
efforts aimed at resolving
the dire crisis in his country.
The Johannesburg-based Sunday Times
newspaper had reported that talks due to
take place between Zimbabwe's
ruling and opposition parties in Pretoria last
week, had collapsed in the
absence of members of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF
party.
The newspaper,
quoted senior South African officials, saying Mugabe had
taken the decision
to boycott the talks on July 7 and had ordered ZANU-PF
negotiators to
boycott the meeting.
But the South African government on Sunday,
dismissed the report as untrue.
'The ZANU-PF delegation could not attend
the scheduled discussions in
Pretoria this week due to prior engagements and
for this they tendered an
apology to the South African government,' Foreign
Affairs spokesman Ronnie
Mamoepa said.
The Sunday Times had said
South African officials were trying to rescue the
situation following the
ZANU-PF pull out from talks. South Africa has for
years weathered strong
criticism for its quiet diplomacy approach toward its
northern
neighbour.
In March South African President Thabo Mbeki was asked by the
Southern
African Development Community (SADC) to seek a political solution
for the
ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe, a former model African
state has in the last seven years slipped
deeper into political and economic
turmoil that has already driven about a
third of the population into
exile.
With inflation at more than 4,500 percent and unemployment of
around 80 per
cent, experts say, the country under Mugabe's leadership for
the last 27
years, is on the brink of collapse.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche
Presse-Agentur
Reuters
Sun 15
Jul 2007, 15:37 GMT
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE, July 15
(Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader on Sunday
warned of further
turmoil if President Robert Mugabe rigs presidential and
parliamentary
elections next March, but pledged to continue pursuing talks
with ruling
ZANU-PF party.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
asserts Mugabe and
ZANU-PF have stolen past elections since 2000 and that
this is the root of
Zimbabwe's long-running political and economic
crisis.
The MDC has in the past suggested it may boycott next year's
elections if
there is no new constitution to guarantee a fair vote and has
put the issue
on the agenda of regional talks led by South African President
Thabo Mbeki.
"If Mugabe steals again the next elections it will be a
death sentence for
this country," Morgan Tsvangirai, the main MDC leader
told thousands of
supporters at a rally in the town of Chitungwiza, 30 km
south of Harare.
Mugabe dismisses the opposition's charges of vote
rigging and says the
economy has been sabotaged by his Western foes, led by
Britain. Inflation,
the highest in the world, has rocketed above 4,500
percent and four in five
adults are jobless.
In 2000 the MDC came
closest to unseating Mugabe when it won 57 of the 120
contested seats but
has seen its fortunes wane due to infighting and what
political analysts say
is a sustained crackdown on its structures by the
government.
Tsvangirai again criticised Mugabe's government proposed
constitutional
which will expand the two Houses of Parliament and give
parliament,
dominated by ZANU-PF, the right to nominate a president if
Mugabe retires or
is incapacitated.
Current provisions require that
presidential elections be held after three
months.
The MDC says a new
constitution tops the agenda of the Southern African
Development Community
initiated talks and that the amendments were in bad
faith.
"We are
not sure if Mugabe is serious about the talks. Mugabe is part of the
problem
but he is also part of the solution," said Tsvangirai, adding that
the MDC
would not only rely on the talks to resolve the country's crisis. He
did not
elaborate.
Tsvangirai said a blanket price freeze imposed by the
government, which has
sparked shortages of basic foodstuffs like maize-meal,
cooking oil and
sugar, was meant to divert attention from the eight-year
economic crisis.
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©
AP
2007-07-15 01:48:23 -
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - Olympic
champion Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe won two
swimming gold medals Friday at
the All Africa Games and was denied a silver
when her team was disqualified
from the 4x100-meter relay.
Coventry won the 100-meter backstroke by setting
a new All Africa Games
record of 1 minute, 1.28 seconds. She then won the
800-meter freestyle in
8:43.89, another games record.
Coventry went
straight back in the pool to swim the last leg of the
freestyle relay for
Zimbabwe in the final race of the day. She advanced from
fifth place to
second, only to see her team disqualified for a false start
on the third
leg.
South Africa won the relay in 3:56.05, with Egypt in second and Tunisia
third.
«It's been a great competition so far. The pool's great, the crowd
is very
loud, I have the whole Zimbabwean team upstairs screaming and
yelling for me
so that always helps,» said Coventry, who also won the
400-meter medley
Wednesday.
In men's swimming, South Africa claimed two
more gold medals, bringing the
team's total haul of swimming golds to 12
over the first three days of the
games. Cameron Van der Burgh won the
50-meter breaststroke while George Du
Rand claimed a comfortable victory in
the 200-meter backstroke.
«I knew I was going to swim pretty fast, I've just
come back from Europe and
I've been swimming a solid time,» said Van der
Burgh, who also won the
100-meter breaststroke Wednesday. «Knowing that
you're swimming for your
country, you always give it your all and to do as
well as I've done so far,
I'm extremely happy.
Algeria won gold and
silver in the men's 100-meter freestyle, with Salim
Iles setting a new games
record with 49.38. Nabil Kebbab was second and
Kenyan Jason Dunford
third.
In other events, South Africa's Daryl Impey won the 150-kilometer
(93-mile)
cycling road race in 3 hours, 48.51 minutes, ahead of Ertitrea's
Fricalsi
Oebasay and Rafaa Chetoui of Tunisia.
In judo, Algeria won three
gold medals and one bronze, bringing the host
nation's total medal count in
the sport to 16.
The All Africa Games run until July 23. Some 8,000 athletes
are competing in
27 sports.
Mail and Guardian
Godfrey Marawanyika | Harare, Zimbabwe
15
July 2007 09:34
Skyrocketing inflation, erratic power
supplies, a skills
shortage and a dearth of foreign exchange have combined
to ensure Zimbabwe
is missing out on a global boom in gold
prices.
While global prices for gold hit a new record high in
May, the
potential benefits for manufacturers and miners are being rapidly
eroded by
the collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar.
Instead,
the mining firms are nervously waiting to see if
Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe carries out his threats to nationalise
companies that he says are
allowing precious metals to be smuggled out of
the country as part of a
Western-inspired plot to topple his beleaguered
regime.
"It's like a vicious circle as we are not benefiting from these
high
international prices," said Mark Verden, CEO of the Zimbabwe Chamber of
Mines. "The problems we have are so many. Some of our gold miners have not
been paid since November last year and yet they need to import most of their
raw materials."
The world price for gold now stands at
about $655 an ounce, only
slightly down on the record of $688 an ounce that
was recorded in May.
But while the increase has led to a rise
in profits elsewhere,
Zimbabwean firms have found themselves out of pocket
as they can only sell
their product at a fraction of the market price to the
government. Only 60%
of the money they receive in return is paid in hard
currency, while the
balance comes in the increasingly worthless local
Zimbabwean dollar.
For example, when the central bank sells
gold to the
international market, it is paid $650 per ounce, yet local
producers receive
just $62,34 an ounce from the
authorities.
Overall gold production in Zimbabwe is this year
expected to
drop to about 8 700kg from 11 354kg last year, a far cry from 27
000kg
produced in the industry heyday in 1989.
Eric
Kahari, chairperson of the mining house Rio Zim, said that
while 2007 has
been good in dollar terms, he is concerned that the company
has not been
paid for its gold since November last year by the central
bank.
"This has created considerable cash-flow constraints
for your
companies with a number of projects having to be deferred and
creditor
obligations being breached," Kahari said in a statement to
shareholders.
Low exploration
Although the
Southern African country is endowed with vast
reserves of minerals such as
palladium, chrome, platinum, gold, diamonds,
copper, coal and nickel,
exploration activity has declined in recent years.
On top of
the economic downturn, the industry has also had to
grapple with a fall in
capacity that is being caused by a lack of parts and
power and then
exacerbated by a skills shortage.
A report by the
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries last month
showed companies were
operating at a third of their capacity, with
confederation president
Callisto Jokonya lamenting that Zimbabwe had
"de-industrialised
ourselves".
Power cuts lasting several hours are now
commonplace and
companies find it almost impossible these days to either
afford or find
spare parts for their ageing machinery.
The Chamber of Mines said the fall in activity is particularly
damaging when
rival countries are reaping the rewards of the high metal
prices.
"This low level of exploration was of great
concern to the
mining sector especially at a time when other countries were
experiencing
high-level exploration and development activity resulting from
high metal
prices," the chamber said in its annual
report.
"No exclusive prospecting orders were approved during
the last
three years, the reason being that government was insisting on
inclusion of
black empowerment in exploration activities," it added in
reference to a
government Bill that will give the indigenous blacks a 51%
majority stake in
all public-owned companies.
Under
current laws, locals are entitled to a 15% stake in
foreign-owned mining
ventures, but there have been few takers. The proposed
new Bill is set to
affect multi-nationals including Bindura Nickel
Corporation and Rio
Zim.
Collen Gura, CEO of Metallon Gold, whose firm
contributes 52% of
the country's output, said that while the business is no
longer turning in a
profit, producers can also not afford simply to shut up
shop until the
economic situation improves.
"The cost of
restructuring once you close is great, as you risk
having your equipment
cracking or completely breaking down," he said. "Right
now it is more
profitable to be a supplier of goods than to be a miner." --
Sapa-AFP
Monsters and Critics
Jul 15, 2007, 14:43 GMT
Harare/Johannesburg - A prominent
Zimbabwean rights group on Sunday
expressed its utter disgust with President
Robert Mugabe's ongoing blitz on
prices, which has emptied shops and led to
dire warnings of massive
shortages.
In a statement, the Zimbabwe
Human Rights Association (ZimRights) said the
blitz was irrational and
defied all logic.
The group said the campaign, which has seen teams of
police and price
inspectors raiding stores throughout Zimbabwe as they
enforce a blanket
half-price slash on goods, would only make the crisis in
the
hyperinflation-hit country even worse.
The goods on which prices
have been slashed have found their way onto the
black market as only those
with ready cash have grabbed them from shops,
ZimRights said.
The
group pointed out that commuters were now stranded as transport
operators,
forced to charge unviable fares, were simply withdrawing their
services.
ZimRights said the price blitz was similar to the invasions
of thousands of
white-owned farms in 2000 and beyond, and the slum
clearances of 2005, which
together left hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans
homeless and jobless.
The price blitz, which began late last month, has
sparked a huge
controversy.
Government supporters, including
state-owned media, have insisted the
authorities were trying to protect
innocent consumers from unscrupulous
businessmen, who hiked
prices.
The official Sunday Mail headlined one of its articles, Christmas
in July
for Harare, and interviewed shoppers excited that they had managed
to
procure previously unaffordable breakfast cereal at knockdown
prices.
But stories abound of businesses forced to sell clothes, fuel and
electrical
goods at far less than half price to well-dressed and moneyed
customers who
had apparently got wind of the shop raids before they
happened.
At least 11 people, some of them policemen, have been arrested
so far for
masquerading as price inspectors and forcing shops to sell goods
at
knock-down prices.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Monsters and Critics
Jul 15, 2007, 10:55 GMT
Harare/Johannesburg - Seven
more people, including a government official,
have been arrested in Zimbabwe
for allegedly looting goods from shops and
outlets amid a countrywide blitz
on prices, reports said Sunday.
Colin Mungate, an information ministry
official, was arrested in the capital
on Thursday for allegedly forcing a
branch of Agrifoods - a stock feed
company - to stay open so his relatives
could buy products at knock-down
prices, said the official Sunday
Mail.
Seven other people were arrested in the second city of Bulawayo on
Saturday
for masquerading as government price inspectors and forcing an
electronics
company, TV Sales and Hire, to slash prices.
The seven
are all expected to appear in court on Monday facing charges of
impersonation and corruption, a police spokesman said. It is a serious
offence that attracts a jail sentence of up to two years, he
said.
Last week, four policemen were arrested in Harare and Bulawayo also
for
posing as officials enforcing a two-week old government campaign to
force
shops and businesses to slash prices by as much as half.
The
price blitz has seen shops and supermarkets quickly emptied of goods,
leaving shelves bare of basics like sugar, cooking oil, bread and meat. Fuel
stations have also run dry.
Retailers - battling inflation of more
than 4,500 percent - warn they will
not be able to restock. More than 2,000
shop owners and company officials
have been arrested and many of them fined
for defying the governments
directive to reduce prices.
© 2007 dpa -
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
IOL
July 15
2007 at 11:57AM
By Eleanor Momberg
Zimbabwean
pensioners living in South Africa are surviving on
handouts.
Foreign pension payments, policy payouts and inter-country money
transfers
were stopped by the Zimbabwean government in March 2003.
Pensioners
living outside Zimbabwe have not received a cent of their
hard-earned
pension money for four years.
This week, the Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply Commission informed its
pensioners that the fund had been wrapped up,
because it could not afford to
pay pensioners, largely because of
hyper-inflation.
The pensioners were asked to choose between having
the money paid out,
or to "nominate a family member or a friend" in Zimbabwe
to whom their money
could be donated. Alternatively, they were advised to
spend the money on a
plane ticket and to "come and visit"
Zimbabwe.
Betty - a pensioner, 74, living in Britain
who did not want to give
her surname - said her pension payout from the
electricity supplier would be
Z$99,1-million - the equivalent of just more
than R2 700. Quentin Gibson,
chairperson of the Flame Lily Foundation of the
Rhodesia Association of SA,
said many former Zimbabweans were living from
hand to mouth.
"Some are saved from total starvation by drawing a
South African
old-age pension."
The foundation's website
reported that a number of pensioners had
managed to get some money out of
Zimbabwe, and continued to receive pensions
without any problems under a
deal with the pensions office, until
cross-border payments were banned by
the Zimbabwe government.
How many were destitute was unclear,
because they did not advertise
their situation, said Gibson and Leon Jacobs,
chairperson of the M'dala
Trust based in the Western Cape.
Jacobs said thousands of former Rhodesians/ Zimbabweans in South
Africa had
not received their pensions since 2003.
Many were being cared for
by friends and family, but a number were
almost totally destitute. The
M'dala Trust was formed after Jacobs, who also
lost his pension, heard of
the plight of pensioners worse off than he.
This
article was originally published on page 6 of Tribune on July 15,
2007
The Zimbabwean
(15-07-07)
HARARE
THOUSANDS of Zimbabwean workers on Friday walked to and
from work as the
reality of the chaotic blitz by government struck hard
following the pulling
out of service by the majority of commuter transport
providers.
Government caused mayhem in the transport sector on Thursday
by arresting
many operators and impounding their vehicles allegedly for
failing to heed
its calls to reduce fares.
The Zanu (PF) regime has
ordered fares to be slashed by between 100% and
200% and claimed that it is
proving subsidized fuel to commuter operators.
However, the fuel is
nowhere to be found leaving the commuter operators to
continue sourcing the
commodity from the thriving black market.
Government last week ruled that
fuel prices must be pegged at $55 000 per
litre and $60 000 per litre for
diesel and petrol respectively whilst on the
black market both are selling
for about $300 000 per litre and above.
"We walked in the morning because
there was not transport and we are having
to walk again because of the same
situation," Crispen Chiutsi told CAJ News
on Friday evening whilst taking
off from the city centre on foot after work.
Chiutsi stays in Glen View
high density suburb, about 18 kilometres from the
city centre where he works
in a bank.
Transport and Communications minister Chris Mushowe said the
subsidized fuel
is being made available.
"We hope to see the
situation improving because the fuel from government is
expected to flood
the market soon," he said.
Commuter operators have remained defiant and
showed determination to stand
their ground in the face of heavy handedness
and intimidation by government.
"They can arrest, we will simply stop
operating because we are saying the
only way we can reduce prices to levels
stipulated by government is when we
get the promised fuel," an operator
said.
"There is no way we are going to charge the reduced fares when we
are buying
fuel from the black market."
The same situation has
affected long distance travelers as bus operators are
either parking their
vehicles or continuously charging fares higher than
government dictated ones
because of the same reason of getting fuel from the
black market- CAJ
News.
SABC
July 15, 2007,
11:45
Mathatha Tsedu, the City Press editor-in-chief, says says South
Africa is
benefiting from Zimbabwe's skills drain. Many Zimbabwean have
migrated, most
of them to neighbouring South Africa, as their country's
economy
deteriorates.
Last week Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the foreign
affairs minister, said the
worsening economic situation in Zimbabwe would
have dire consequences for
South Africa.
President Thabo Mbeki has
maintained that the influx of Zimbabweans to South
Africa is
inevitable.
Tsedu says this is a huge benefit for South Africa, which is
struggling with
a shortage of skills.
"When the minister of education
was saying she needed maths (teachers) and
scientists, there was an
organisation here in South Africa of Zimbabwean
teachers who are in exile.
Who said they can meet that quota that the
minister wants. If you go into
the banking sector into all sorts of areas,
whether it is in the catering
industry and hospitality industry. There are
Zimbabwean's who are very
skilled, who are helping this country meets it's
skill
shortages."
News24
15/07/2007 13:56 - (SA)
Siyabulela
Qoza
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe would need a "simultaneous package of
political
reform, currency revaluation, foreign investment and restoration
of goods
and services - primarily, food importation" to pull herself out of
the
economic crisis she is in, says Pan African Advisory Services chief
executive Iraj Abedian.
He said such a package couldn?t be
implemented piecemeal but given what is
happening in Zimbabwe, this is
unlikely to happen in the short term, as the
government is unlikely to agree
to political reform.
"What is happening in Zimbabwe does not make
political or economic sense. It
is financial suicide that is worse than what
we have seen in times of war,"
he said.
Zimbabwean police were this
week arresting business people who were not
following government orders to
cut the prices of basic commodities and fuel
by half.
The price
freeze led to panic buying, which left shelves across the country
empty.
Analysts say the price controls left businesses unprofitable because
they
were forced to sell their stock at lower than what they paid for it.
As a
result, they do not expect the shelves to be stocked any time
soon.
Bail-out talks
Abedian said the price controls, supply
shortages and inflation did not
leave much room for further constructive
engagement and it is impossible for
the region, which will have to
accommodate Zimbabwean refugees, to help.
"When someone is sleep-walking
towards a wall, you can help them. But if
someone jumps off a cliff, then
the gravitational force of price controls,
supply shortages and inflation
takes over and there is little you can do,"
he said.
As the crisis
deepens, Zimbabwe is believed to be talking to countries and
institutions to
raise $2.5bn (R17.4bn) to help stabilise the economy.
It is believed that
the Zimbabwe government is talking to South Africa about
the
bail-out.
Last month during a state visit to Tripoli, President Robert
Mugabe was
reported to have held meetings with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi
about a
$2bn loan.
"The bigger question is: What are the Zimbabwean
government offering
potential lenders in return for their assistance?" asked
Yvonne Mhango,
economist at Standard Bank.
"They may be mortgaging
the country's natural resources. One of the most
important conditions for
advancing loans is a guarantee that the money will
be
returned."
'Enough is enough'
She said the Zimbabwean government
is forced to look for loans because
foreign reserves have been severely
constrained by the economic slowdown,
closure of credit lines and declining
tax revenues.
Abedian said he would be surprised if there was any lender
advancing credit
to Zimbabwe.
He said Israel, which underwent a war,
had to change governments and revalue
its currency before being able to
manage inflation.
Mhango said any recovery plan would be painful for
Zimbabwe and the region.
She said it was unlikely that the Zimbabwean
government would accept a
proposal to peg the Zim dollar to the
rand.
"Pegging the Zim dollar to the rand implies giving control of the
central
bank to South Africa. Mugabe is unlikely to give up the sovereignty
of the
central bank," said Mhango.
She said it was unlikely that
South African authorities would consider
allowing the pegging of the two
currencies without the financial indicators
converging.
Abedian added
that Zimbabwean Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono's attack on
the government
policy this week represented the first sign that some people
within the top
echelons are finally saying "enough is enough".
Dear All
Thought I would drop you all a quick line to let you
know despite what you
are hearing at this point - we are still alive!! I did
start writing to you
all on the 25 June - being six months since xmas, but
time got away from me
and of course so much has happened since
then.
As it is your home too, I am sure you are all watching the
news and
following the story - IT'S WILD!! Price's are slashed, does not
matter what
you paid for the goods, you are forced to sell for the price the
police are
telling you. Hope you dont need school shoes cos Bata was told
that shoes
for $3-$4million will be sold for $300,000 - and you cannot get
near a shop
entrance - guess bata wont be around much longer! I stopped
smoking Madison
when they went to $800,00 a carton (NO- not stopped smoking,
just smoked
something much cheaper!) This week Peter bought me 2 cartons of
Madison at
$300,000ea! This was not from BAT cos they were not trading!
Yesterday
Jaggers were told to mark their computers and T.V.'s down to
$10mill (R570)
and $20mill (R1140) respectively - I have just been told their
is a queue of
about 200 people outside the shop - guess they are not all
there for the
"bargains"!!!!
Of course with this comes the
arrests. Last night was Peter Chase, Marti
Coghlan, Hilton Solomon, an old
coloured lady from Chitrens - to name just a
few that I heard of. I believe
Hilton's was over the price of spaghetti -
which I believe he has marked at
the correct price, but as you are picked up
a 5pm there is nothing a lawyer
or anybody else can do till today - and
believe me, it is freezing cold here
at night so can only imagine what the
hell they went through last
night.
We have two "task force" groups doing the rounds. One is
the police the
other "war vets"and "green bombers" - you do not want the
later! They
travel around with their "following", inspect your shop and
store room, tell
you what price your goods will sell for, then bring in their
"buyers". They
are having a field day - will they think it is so cool next
week when there
is nothing to buy or they cant afford the black market
price?? The horror
stories are endless. I recon I could write a book in a
week about this - of
course there will be no way of printing
it!
The powers that be have not really thought this through I
dont think. What
will happen at the end of next month when it comes time to
pay VAT?
Consider this: You bought stock high - paid high VAT, sold at half
the
price you bought for - now half the VAT, on top of this you have a hugh
loss
on your books and now they OWE YOU money!! And they are not getting
money
in??? To add insult to injury, they moved the tax bands so you dont
pay so
much PAYE either!!!
There are some I dont feel sorry
for - I'm relieved my cell phone had to
take back their 1000% increase - it
was hurting!! And medical aid, cos we
were paying more and getting less, and
when they did pay the "less" it was
worthless anyway - so why
bother??
Along with this there is NO fuel. I had a few coupons
for sale, but its
hard to collect cos the garage hardly ever has power and
when they do
everyone with coupons rushes there, which forms a queue, which
attracts
attention, which brings the task force back, which shuts them down -
and so
it goes, round and round and round!!!
Anyway, its
exciting times. I think this is great - now is the time. If I
get in to
trouble I'll send out an S.O.S. - PLEASE SEND FOOD! Pray for us,
and when it
is all over - which is looking very soon now, I'll see you all
at for a drink
under our beautiful African sky BACK AT HOME!!!
Until them, take
care and god bless,
xx
What should we do about
Zimbabwe? The beloved country is rapidly sliding
into oblivion. There is a
crisis unfolding. I feel like weeping as I shake
my head in utter disbelief
at the way things are unfolding. Like a migraine
headache, a word keeps on
throbbing in my head day and night. The word is
atrophy. Atrophy, atrophy,
atrophy, it goes on and on. Why? Zimbabwe is in
an advanced state of
atrophying (wasting away).
Government in Africa.
What government in
Africa?
Government is a group of decadent gangsters, opportunists, cronies,
crooks
and scoundrels. The instruments of the state are used to advance
their own
economic interests. Politics does not include the poor suppressed
masses -
the politics of exclusion. The people are there to be fleeced and
used as a
vehicle to self enrichment and aggrandizement.
Unfortunately,
most African states are turned into personal properties of
the ruling
elites. To quote one of my learned friends “The country and the
party is the
president’s project.”
Infrastructure has been decaying and crumbling in
our eyes. Roads, schools,
and telecommunications systems are in shambles.
Schools are without
teachers. Hospitals do not have doctors and nurses.
Farms do not have
farmers. Censorship is rife. Citizens are scared of
persecution and
detention. Arbitrary seizures of property are the norm.
Corruption is the
day to day mode of business conduct. Tyranny continuously
plagues the
African states.
Zimbabwe is in decay like a grain of
wheat, sorghum, rappoko or maize seed.
When we bury seed in the ground (as a
process of planting), the seed decays.
Out of the decay, a new plant, a new
life will sprout. At this juncture,
Zimbabwe is in that state of decay. For
things to get better in Zimbabwe, it
shall get worse, unbearable. Tears
shall flow. Blood shall flow. People will
starve to death. The homeless will
increase in numbers. Hunger shall prevail
to a scale never seen in Zimbabwe
before.
That’s the process of the decay – atrophy. Unfortunately
political atrophy
is a process which can take a long time. The only good
thing out of this
political atrophy is the birth of a new life, a new
nation. We, the huddled
masses are the catalyst that can quicken it.
However, have we already sown
the seed in Zimbabwe? Are we still
contemplating which seed to plant? Do we
have quality seed to plant? Do we
have the courage to plant a new seed? Is
the (political) ground ready for
planting? Is the season ready? All these
questions need answers. Getting the
answers is a painful process. It is
painful because we are the agents of
change. It is even more painful because
we are already in pain. CRY MY
BELOVED COUNTRY.
Tendai Hamadziripi Kwari
IOL
July
15 2007 at 04:20PM
By Basildon Peta and Eleanor
Momberg
"At the rate at which they are flocking in, I think there
will soon be
very few people left in Zimbabwe and nothing left of us," says
one Limpopo
farmer.
He sums up the fears of South African
businessmen, especially game
farmers living along the border between the two
countries, who say they are
bearing the brunt of the increasing influx of
illegal Zimbabwean immigrants
fleeing President Robert Mugabe's
misrule.
While the South African government is underplaying the
influx in the
wake of Zimbabwe's economic collapse, the farmers have no
doubt that the
numbers are increasing.
"They [the
government] probably fear to offend Mugabe by admitting
that his people are
fleeing him," says one.
He says irate farmers have been in contact
with the top brass of the
military and police in Musina to voice concerns
about increased crime,
allegedly linked to the increasing numbers of
Zimbabweans jumping the
border, but to no avail.
Farmers
interviewed declined to be identified in print, saying they
still have to
work with the authorities. They claim that the local police
and military
privately acknowledge that between 3 000 and 4 000 Zimbabweans
are jumping
the border every day.
That would represent illegal inflows of at
least 100 000 people
monthly, far higher than the official estimates of
between 20 000 to 40 000
a month.
Verifying the figures is
difficult because the "human tsunami", as one
farmer puts it, is hitting
South Africa at night.
Night border crossings are being organised
by criminal bands,
popularly known as Magumaguma (Scavengers), for high
fees. They have been
known to shoot at police and soldiers.
Maggie Sotyu, the chairperson of the parliamentary cluster on peace
and
stability, visited the Beitbridge border post this week with members of
her
committee. She described illegal immigration as "unbelievable".
"Fences are being torn apart and there is a serious lack of staff to
ward
off illegal migration, particularly in the army and police," she
said.
Most of the violent crime here is allegedly linked to the
Magumaguma,
who are said to turn on the illegals they are supposed to be
helping -
raping women, robbing them and sometimes killing
them.
The farmers allege that deserting soldiers from the Zimbabwe
National
Army have joined the ranks of the Magumaguma, smuggling weapons
such as
AK-47s into the country.
They say some game farms and
lodges have been attacked and robbed of
guns, vehicles and even heavy
equipment, such as pumps and motors.
The farmers say a solution
would be to switch on the electric fence
that runs between the two other
fences along the border. But they say local
politicians have told them that
such a move would be inhuman.
"They (politicians) say they can't
erect a Great Wall of China nor
switch on the electric fence. We have been
abandoned to our own devices,"
says one farmer.
South African
government officials declined to comment on the
situation. A group of senior
police officers was in Musina this week,
however, to review the border
control situation.
The South African government will not be opening
refugee camps to deal
with an influx of Zimbabweans, says Jackie Mashapu of
the department of home
affairs.
This despite the fact that the
department has deported 1 000 illegal
Zimbabwean nationals from the Lindela
repatriation facility and 5 000 from
the direct deportation operation in
Musina in the past 10 days.
Mashapu says that South Africa's
booming economy and laws regarding
asylum make it an attractive option for
many people from the rest of the
continent and beyond. Most of these people
are economic migrants and not
fleeing persecution.
The exact
number of illegal Zimbabweans in South Africa is not known
because no formal
research has been done on the matter. But researchers said
this week that
there were as many as six million illegal immigrants from all
over Africa
living in South Africa.
Loren Landau, a research director at the
forced migration studies
programme at Wits University, says there is no
definitive source for the
number of Zimbabweans entering South Africa. But
he says estimates of 3
million Zimbabweans in South Africa are "radically
inflated".
South Africa, he says, is not prepared for any kind of
humanitarian
crisis.
"If 100 000 Zimbabweans come here next
month, the government will not
be able to handle it. There are no
co-ordinating agencies to ensure that
people have access to healthcare, food
and other services."
This article was originally
published on page 1 of Sunday Independent
on July 15, 2007
From The Sunday Times (SA), 15 July
Harare correspondent
An
advertisement in the classified section of Friday's government daily
mouthpiece reads: "Twenty kilogram of prime beef in exchange for your 20
litres of fuel." Down the column another reads: "One drum of fuel for your
cow." With the critical shortage of all commodities sparked by President
Robert Mugabe's directive to the business sector to reduce their prices, the
majority of Zimbabweans have resorted to bartering in desperate attempts to
beat the shortage blues. Adverts to exchange elusive commodities such as
fuel, cooking oil, meat, sugar and salt are now a common feature in the
government and the small but vibrant private media. Not to be outdone,
landlords in some townships of Harare are now demanding groceries instead of
cash, because the Zimbabwe dollar is worthless. For a one-room home in
Highfields, one of Zimbabwe's oldest and most politically volatile
townships, landlords are demanding one litre of cooking oil, which in the
flourishing parallel market costs about 600000, while others are demanding
meat, salt and sugar.
For Farai Madzikatire, a primary school
teacher, dried fish has become the
daily relish for his family of five as he
battles everyday to find meat. "We
last ate meat two weeks ago," said
Madzikatire, as he stood on Friday in a
long and winding queue of weary
Hararians waiting outside a Chinese- run
grocer to buy pieces of chicken. "I
don't think even during [Ian] Smith
[former Rhodesian prime minister] things
were this bad," said Madzikatire.
On Wednesday, Mugabe cancelled the
licences of all private abattoirs after
they failed to supply butcheries and
supermarkets with meat and other meat
products after orders to sell their
products at half their normal prices. In
the high-density suburbs, according
to Madzikatire, enterprising butchers
were selling rabbits and other
wildlife as alternatives for meat-loving
Zimbabweans, but at very
prohibitive black market rates. Jacob Zuze, a bank
executive , said he has
left his car at his suburban home after struggling
for days to acquire fuel.
"At first it was embarrassing typing [walking] to
work with the povo, b ut I
am now one of them. We share jokes about the
country as we trudge to
work."
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
By Jack Markowitz
FOR THE
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Too bad Tony
O'Reilly's economics lesson didn't take.
O'Reilly is a former chairman
of H.J. Heinz Co. who retired in 1997.
Nearly 20 years ago he held a
"tutorial," as he called it, with Robert
Mugabe, president of
Zimbabwe.
In those days, Mugabe seemed teachable. And more
presidential. But he
has held office for 27 years now, and while foreigners
deferentially call
him "Mr. President," Mr. Dictator is what they have to be
thinking.
O'Reilly tried to sell him on the virtues of free
enterprise at a time
when Heinz was setting up a plant in the African
heartland. Zimbabwe had
promise then, with roots in private property on a
continent where new black
leaders were hooked on socialism. Too bad. The
profit engine works so much
better to improve people's incomes, jobs, and
living standards.
As the former British colony of Rhodesia,
Zimbabwe was able to feed
its own population and even to export. It could
earn foreign exchange. But
that was under white rule. Colonialism had to
go.
The question was, would prosperity go with it? Or would Zimbabwe's
new
leaders be able to bring a revolutionized nation into the world without
messing up?
Heinz did its part. It took a 51 percent interest
in a food processing
plant with the government as 49 percent partner. The
"Michigan bean" was
introduced, the bean that makes baked beans. It's a
grocery shelf staple
almost everywhere, so why not in Africa, where no year
goes by without a
starvation scandal?
Heinz would buy from
local farmers, who'd have a nearby regular
customer, good for both
sides.
Such was the message O'Reilly told reporters in Pittsburgh
that he
tried to convey to Mugabe. Maybe it made an impression. Briefly. But
the
Marxist pattern of top-down government control never really let up.
White
farming families were terrorized or dispossessed, private property
trampled.
The results were predictably chaotic.
The Heinz
operation did grow to 500 or 600 workers -- where it
amazingly holds to this
day, producing not beans but sauces and other
products under the Olivine
label.
But the national currency has plunged and inflation is
horrendous, in
part to pay for food that Zimbabweans now have to import.
Last year, Heinz
joined a growing list of multinationals taking write-downs
on its Zimbabwe
assets. The company continues to "monitor" its investment,
it says, and
"review strategic alternatives."
Add new negatives
to monitor. Mugabe recently laid down a law that all
businesses have to cut
prices by as much as 50 percent. They face seizure if
they don't. "Price
inspectors" raid stores, warehouses, service stations.
Some businesses have
just closed. And poor people have stampeded stores to
buy up what they
can.
This hopeless way to fight inflation won cheers, however, from
a
public plaza crowd, maybe the only crowd, that Mr. Mugabe can still count
on: war veterans and his ruling party's militiamen. Pity the policy that
requires such approval.
Retired business editor Jack
Markowitz writes Sundays and Thursdays.
E-mail him at jmarkowitz@tribweb.com.
News24
15/07/2007 13:38 -
(SA)
ZB du Toit
Pretoria - A well-known Free State farmer is suing
the South African
government for about R80m in damages he suffered from the
collapse of his
farming interests in Zimbabwe.
Crawford von Abo of
Bothaville wants the Pretoria High Court to force the
government to
institute international arbitration to win back his interests
in Zimbabwe.
If not, the government must pay for his losses.
Von Abo argues that the
government failed to provide him with diplomatic
protection, his
constitutional right.
The government, President Thabo Mbeki and the
ministers of foreign affairs
and trade and industry are the first, second,
third and fourth respondents
in the suit.
In court papers, Von Abo
labels the reaction of Mbeki and other government
officials on his repeated
calls for help as "unreasonable, "evasive",
"passive", improper", "sluggish"
and "in bad faith".
Von Abo alleges that his losses amount to R80m since
the government of
President Robert Mugabe five years ago started to
repossess his farms.
The Free State farmer argues that he bought his
first farm in Zimbabwe in
the early 1950s and since then continuously
reinvested his profits in that
country.
He is asking the court now to
order the government to ratify a treaty
whereby disputes could be referred
to a body of the World Bank, the
International Centre for the Settlement of
Investment Disputes (ICSID).
Although the South African Law Commission
already six years ago strongly
recommended the government gave the ICSID
legal status, it is yet to be
done.
Von Abo relies among other things
on a ruling of the Constitutional Court in
2004 over a number of South
Africans then being held in a prison in Harare.
In the ruling by then Chief
Justice Arthur Chaskalson, the court found that
the government had a
constitutional obligation to protect the rights of its
citizens
abroad.
Meanwhile, South Africans increasingly had to feel the brunt of
the
worsening political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe.
In the last
two weeks, the stream of desperate Zimbabwean refugees into
South Africa had
increased dramatically. This after the number of refugees
from Zimbabwe in
the last financial year increased by more than half a
million compared with
the previous year.
In the past week, border towns like Musina had seen a
massive flood of
Zimbabweans who crossed the border for basic
goods.
In the latest onslaught, Mugabe's government on Friday placed a
ban on the
import of groceries for resale from neighbouring
countries.
"It looks like he wants to make sure we die," a shop owner
told journalists.
Many shops ran out of goods after Mugabe earlier
ordered all prices be
slashed by half. In a blitz to enforce the decree,
more than a thousand
business people and shop managers, including that of
South African-owned
shops, had been arrested.
Accra Daily Mail
A United States of Africa
By Franklin Cudjoe | Posted: Monday, July 16,
2007
The African Union summit here has issued a road-map to a
federation of
African States (Accra Declaration) without mentioning a single
idea on
political or economic freedom for African citizens.
Continental
union was the founding principle of the original Organisation of
African
Unity but it never stood a chance. African leaders refuse to face up
to
their own or their neighbours' failures, whilst preventing ordinary
Africans
from using their ingenuity to build their own future.
We heard much at
the AU last week of lofty ideals of unity, not least from
Libyan dictator
Muammar Ghaddafi, yet nothing of any use on the real
disasters of Zimbabwe,
Darfur, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Other
continental failures such as
corruption and election-rigging did not even
feature on the agenda--although
these remain the real unifying features of
Africa.
Above all, there
was not a whisper about property rights, the rule of law
and economic
freedoms that would allow Africans to emulate the growth of
Asian countries
such as Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea that were as poor
as we were at
independence in the 1960s. Even the growth records of South
Africa,
Mauritius and Botswana are ignored as being somehow exceptional
instead of
being acknowledged as the result of sound economic policies.
Positions at
the AU are divided between the so-called "gradualists," who
believe that
individual countries should first strive to build working
economies and
integrate them through regional blocs, and the "radicals," who
believe a
supra-national authority would lead to unity.
Neither side, however, is
talking about the real issue of economics--and
freedom for Africans to raise
themselves out of poverty, unshackled from
State serfdom.
The
life-changing power of trade has been demonstrated historically and not
just
in the West. At the height of their glory, many pre-colonial African
states
and empires found trade to be a better way to prosperity than through
conquests.
Gold was shipped from Wangara in the Upper Niger across
the Sahara desert to
Taghaza, in Western Sahara, in exchange for salt, and
to Egypt for ceramics,
silks and other Asian and European goods. The old
Ghana Empire controlled
much of the trans-Sahara trade in copper and ivory.
At Great Zimbabwe, gold
was traded for Chinese pottery and glass. From
Nigeria, leather and iron
goods were traded throughout West
Africa.
Today, Africa has lost that ability to trade and as a result,
many
conspiracy theories abound for its backwardness. Regardless, the blame
game
ignores the devil within: the internal and regional barriers that
hobble
trade, making tariffs within Africa far higher than any tariff
barriers by
outside blocs. There are even politicians, bureaucrats and many
aid
activists who argue that these tariffs make essential contributions to
government revenue--meaning that government offices are more important than
citizens or the economy.
Opponents of US Free Trade Agreements (FTA)
or European Union Economic
Partnership Agreements (EPA) say these would
allow cheap imports and send
the already tottering African economies into
collapse. They have no thought
for the consumers who would benefit from
cheap imports or the producers who
could export regionally and
internationally. They think only of maintaining
government power and
protecting industries (usually run by government
cronies).
The real
consequence of these anti-development policies would keep the
African farmer
at subsistence level and keep our economies agrarian.
Tragically, these
barriers and that backwardness excuse African leaders from
building the
necessary infrastructure needed to open up the continent to
free
trade.
Tariffs in rich countries have fallen by 84% in the last two
decades to
about 3.9%--yet tariff barriers in Africa have only declined by
20% to a
still massive average of 17.7%. Of course, other, non-tariff,
protectionism
in the poorest African countries is four times greater than in
rich
countries.
So the issue here is not remote ideals of regional or
continental unity that
might, by some undefined and unprecedented magic,
lift Africans out of
poverty. The real issue is the lack of practical and
everyday economic
freedom that would allow Africans to lift themselves out
of poverty, with
well-defined and historically-proven policies.
The
beauty of sound economic policies is that they take effect within very
few
years, as in South Africa and Botswana, unlike fancy political notions,
such
as Ghaddafi's oft-delayed union with Egypt. But leaders who can talk of
unity while ignoring the carnage in Darfur and the tyranny in Zimbabwe can
very easily ignore regional economic barriers.
Our future will not be
built by ideology and fine concepts: these are what
have kept Africans back
when hundreds of millions in Asia were building a
better life. Our growth
and prosperity depends on proven common sense and
freeing the economic
shackles that still enslave us.
Franklin Cudjoe is Executive Director of
IMANI: Center for Policy and
Education, a Ghanaian think-tank dedicated to
researching economic trends
for the benefit of business, government and
civil society. Send him an email
at franklin(at)imanighana.org and join
IMANI's summer University seminar at
www.imaniseminars.com
Cricinfo staff
July 12,
2007
Tatenda Taibu's return to the Zimbabwe cricket team is almost
complete after
he was included in a select side for two four-day matches
against India A at
home.
Cricinfo revealed last month that Taibu's
comeback was imminent, although he
was recently quoted saying his lawyers
were still in negotiation with
Zimbabwe Cricket, possibly over outstanding
payments still owed to him by
the board.
The former captain however
will now play under the current leader, Prosper
Utseya.
Wicketkeeper
Brendan Taylor was also named in the side although he is yet to
return from
England, and may miss the first four-dayer at Harare Sports
Club. Sean
Williams, who is recovering from an injury which kept him out of
training
for six weeks, was also included.
Allrounder Keith Dabengwa meanwhile
misses out on selection, but will
captain the A side on a tour of South
Africa at the same time the Select
will be facing India A. The batsmen Chamu
Chibhabha has also been relegated
to the A side, where the only other senior
players are the pace bowler,
Blessing Mahwire, and the former Zimbabwe A
captain, Alester Maregwede.
Zimbabwe Select Prosper Utseya (capt)
Terry Duffin, Tatenda Taibu, Vusi
Sibanda, Brendan Taylor (wk), Hamilton
Masakadza, Sean Williams, Stuart
Matsikenyeri, Tino Mawoyo, Elton
Chigumbura, Graeme Cremer, Ed Rainsford,
Chris Mpofu, Gary Brent, Trevor
Garwe, Tawanda Mupariwa.
Zimbabwe A Keith Dabengwa (cpat) Chamu
Chibhabha, Eric Chauluka, Tafadzwa
Kamungozi, Bornaparte Mujuru, Forster
Mutizwa, Alester Maregwede, Regis
Chakabva, Alois Tichana, Taurai
Muzarabani, Prosper Tsvanhu, Timycen Maruma,
Admire Manyumwa, Tendai
Chisoro, Blessing Mahwire, Patient Charumbira.
© Cricinfo