The Telegraph
By Sebastien
Berger
Last Updated: 12:06am BST 24/07/2007
The lone box
of washing powder on a Zimbabwean supermarket shelf was
an object lesson in
economics.
President Robert Mugabe's government has set prices for
sugar, flour,
cooking oil and meat below the cost of production. So there
are gaping
spaces under the signs for those goods.
"Everything
is stopping," said an illegal money changer, explaining
the sudden fall in
demand for foreign currency and the rising value of the
Zimbabwean
dollar.
While Mr Mugabe seems to be ignorant of the basics of
economy, the
regime appears to be preparing to seize firms in the same way
that it
destroyed the country's commercial agriculture by confiscating
White-owned
farms.
Businessmen describe the price-control
policy as "organised looting"
and say the ruling Zanu-PF party has embarked
on a "scorched earth"
programme.
The prospects for almost all
ordinary Zimbabweans - those not
connected to Zanu-PF - are dire. Basic
commodities are available only after
queueing for hours, and life expectancy
is the lowest on earth.
Despite their desperation, the overwhelming
sentiment, is one of
resignation and resentment, expressed with quiet
dignity. The opposition is
divided and there is no expectation of an
uprising.
The washing powder in the Bulawayo store exposed the
effects of the
government's measures against hyperinflation, last said to be
4,530 per cent
before publication of the figures was stopped.
The manager said inspectors visited the store every morning to ensure
official prices are being followed.
"With the situation now we
don't have any stock," he said. "The basic
things you are not going to get.
I don't know when we're going to get them
or if we're going to get them.
People don't have raw materials to supply.
Basically it's useless for me to
go to a wholesaler.
"If nobody's going to make money for them to
survive, then what's the
point of producing anything?
"The
things that are not available are the things people want and
need - chicken
and flour. Ninety per cent of the stock we have got is things
we can't eat.
You can't eat washing powder and toilet cleaner.
" We can't even
close our doors. They say if we close our doors they
are going to
nationalise us, so we are sitting on a time bomb."
He was being
only too realistic. Addressing businessmen in Bulawayo,
Obert Mpofu, the
chief of the price-control programme, said a defunct state
firm "is now
being reactivated with a view to making it a vehicle to acquire
especially
trading companies".
"All we are saying is come forward and let us
talk," he said. "If you
think there is a miracle that will remove this
government and bring
something better, you should be kidding. We do not want
you to leave your
business, but should you force us, you will [do
so].
"Once we take over a company, we retain all the staff and
bring a
manager. All we get rid of is the owner."
The
likelihood is that seized businesses, like the White-owned farms,
will be
handed out to cronies who will asset-strip and destroy them as going
concerns.
With Zanu-PF members having "bought" cars and
flat-screen televisions
at give-away prices from managers facing arrest if
they do not comply, it is
also pressing forward with plans to make the
national oil company Noczim the
only retailer of fuel.
A
proposal to require permits to import food has been suspended
pending
"consultations", but not cancelled. The opportunities for huge
black-market
profits and control over the distribution of commodities such
as petrol and
foodstuffs, are immense.
A current banking advertisement in
Zimbabwe has the slogan: "Today we
may look the same but tomorrow one of us
has to take charge." However, the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
is split into rival factions.
With Mr Mugabe making clear he
intends to die in office, leading
figures admit the best hope for change is
an internal coup within Zanu-PF.
Moses Mzila-Ndlovu, MDC MP for
Bulilima and the shadow foreign
secretary, said Zanu-PF's crushing of
opposition, particularly the massacres
of tens of thousands of people in
Matabeleland in the 1980s, had left an
indelible mark on the national
psyche.
"They have stamped it into the minds of the people that
Robert Mugabe
is indestructible, that Mugabe is irreplaceable, that Mugabe
is Zanu-PF,
Zanu-PF is here to stay and Zanu-PF is Zimbabwe. If you don't
believe this
you will be defeated and that means you are defeated
already.
"That fear that he has been rubbing into the minds of the
Zimbabwean
people accounts for the failure of the people to stand up to
him."
In Midlands province, a stone-carver who is lucky to sell one
piece a
fortnight said: "Here, we are very poor. We are suffering because of
."
He paused, holding up a single finger, before saying: "One
man.
"We put our faith in God. We hope God will save us."
Zim Online
Tuesday 24 July 2007
By Regerai
Marwezu
MASVINGO - At least 1 000 villagers occupying Samba ranch in the
southern
Chiredzi district are facing eviction after President Robert
Mugabe's
government admitted that they were occupying the property
illegally.
In a classic illustration of the chaos rocking the
government's land reform
programme, the villagers will be evicted to pave
way for Masvingo
businessman Moses Chingwena.
The Harare authorities
say Chingwena bought the property before the
government sanctioned the
violent seizure of white farms in 2000.
In addition to the Samba
evictions, the government is also forging ahead
with plans to remove about
750 families from Gonarezhou national park to
pave way for the giant
Transfrontier national park in the province.
Harare says it will also
remove villagers who occupied Chikore farm, 20
kilometres south of Masvingo,
that is owned by Higher Education Minister
Stan Mudenge.
Masvingo
provincial governor Willard Chiwewe confirmed the looming
evictions.
"It is true that those in Samba ranch will have to go
because we later
realised that the farm had been bought by Mr Chingwena
after we resettled
people there.
"We will also remove all those
currently occupying conservancies and
black-owned properties. We are looking
at about 3 500 people who have to be
evicted before the onset of the rainy
season," said Chiwewe.
Contacted for comment on Monday, State Security
Minister Didymus Mutasa, who
is also in charge of the government's land
reforms, said the evictions will
go ahead as planned.
"If the
provincial land committee has seen that these people have to move,
they have
to do so. We have to admit as government that the land reform was
chaotic
and we want to formalise everything now," said Mutasa, who has
fiercely
defended the land reforms.
Only about 600 out of the about 4 500 white
farmers are still on their
properties in Zimbabwe following the government's
violent land reform
programme.
The land reforms destroyed Zimbabwe's
key agriculture sector resulting in
most people depending on food handouts
from international food aid agencies
over the past seven years.
But
Mugabe has defended the land programme saying the land reforms were
necessary to correct historical imbalances in land allocation that had seen
the best farmland being owned by minority whites.
The main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party and major
western governments
have also accused Mugabe of parceling out farms to his
senior ruling ZANU PF
officials and military officers at the expense of
landless villagers, a
charge Mugabe denies. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 24 July 2007
Own
Correspondent
HARARE - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai on Monday said
his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party
would attend the opening of
Parliament by President Robert Mugabe today to
help foster a conducive
environment for dialogue with the
government.
Tsvangirai urged Mugabe to reciprocate the good will gesture
from the
opposition by calling off plans by his ruling ZANU PF party to use
its
absolute majority in Parliament to unilaterally amend Zimbabwe's
constitution to allow for the holding of presidential and parliamentary
elections next year.
ZANU PF and the MDC are in talks under South
African mediation aimed at
finding a solution to Zimbabwe's long running
political and economic crisis.
"That dialogue, although fraught with
difficulties and challenges, has in
fact commenced. As a gesture of our bona
fide belief in this dialogue, I
have duly instructed our MPs (Members
Parliament) to attend the official
opening of Parliament on 24 July 2007,"
Tsvangirai said in a statement.
The talks - seen by many analysts as
probably the last chance to save
Zimbabwe from total collapse - are in
danger of failing because ZANU PF
refuses to discuss constitutional reforms
with the opposition, insisting it
will press ahead with plans to
unilaterally amend the constitution.
Constitutional Amendment Bill No.
18. that is already before Parliament
will, in addition to harmonising
elections, also empower the House to elect
a successor to Mugabe in the
event that he dies or steps down.
The MDC says the amendment is a ploy by
Mugabe - who will extend his rule to
33 years if he is re-elected next year
and finishes the five-year
presidential term - to hang on to power for
life.
The opposition party insists the South African-led talks that are
also being
supported by the regional Southern African Development Community
should lead
to the promulgation of a new and democratic constitution that
will guarantee
free and fair polls in 2008.
Tsvangirai said: "It is
my sincere hope that ZANU PF and President Robert
Mugabe will also show
restraint and maturity. In this regard, the withdrawal
of Constitutional
Amendment No 18 that is currently awaiting its first
reading in the Lower
House will be a good and decisive confidence-building
measure."
The
opposition leader also called on Mugabe to act to end political violence
and
to order the release of MDC activists held by the police under what the
opposition party claims are trumped up charges.
Mugabe's spokesman
George Charamba was not immediately available for comment
on the matter.
However, political analysts say they expect ZANU PF to change
the
constitution to allow it the opportunity to appoint the 83-year old
leader's
successor - in the event he leaves office -without having to face
the
electorate.
Tsvangirai, who now leads the larger faction of the MDC after
the party
split in 2005, narrowly lost to Mugabe in a violence-marred
presidential
poll in 2002.
Tsvangirai maintains the veteran President
cheated him of victory. He and
his MDC party previously boycotted state
functions including the opening of
Parliament presided over by Mugabe who
they say has no legitimate mandate to
occupy the office of
president.
Zimbabwe, which was once an economic model for Africa has
plunged into
political and economic crisis in the last seven years due to
what critics
say are Mugabe's controversial policies such as seizing
white-owned
commercial farms to give to blacks.
The crisis is seen in
the world's highest inflation rate of nearly 5 000
percent, 80 percent
unemployment and acute shortages of food, fuel and
foreign
currency.
Mugabe - who once boasted that no one could have managed
Zimbabwe's economy
better than him - denies ruining the country and blames
the economic
meltdown on what he calls sabotage by Western powers who are
angry over his
often violent programme to hand out white-owned farms to
blacks. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 24 July 2007
By Ntando
Ncube
JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's main opposition Democratic Alliance
(DA) party
on Monday said there has been a dramatic increase in the number
of
Zimbabweans streaming into the country as economic conditions worsen in
the
troubled southern African country.
In a statement released to the
media yesterday, the DA said the South
African police working along the
border with Zimbabwe had "completely lost
control of the situation" as
thousands of Zimbabweans cross into the
country.
"What is abundantly
clear is that there has been a dramatic increase in
people coming to South
Africa illegally and legally.
"Around 6 000 legal immigrants have been
streaming through Beitbridge a day
which is a 100 percent increase since 1
July (2007)," said the statement.
The DA said President Thabo Mbeki's
government must quickly acknowledge the
"growing disaster" on South Africa's
borders warning of a serious
humanitarian crisis as the eight-year economic
crisis in Zimbabwe
deteriorates further.
Last week, the DA urged the
government to set up refugee camps along the
border to deal with the growing
influx of Zimbabweans fleeing hunger and
political persecution at
home.
The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) as well as the South African
authorities
sharply criticised the call saying placing Zimbabweans into
refugee camps
would stigmatise and violate the rights of the
people.
Meanwhile, the ZEF urged the South African government to
investigate
allegations of gross human rights abuses perpetrated by home
affairs
officials on desperate Zimbabwean asylum seekers.
The Forum,
which promotes and defends the interests and rights of Zimbabwean
asylum
seekers, alleged that Home Affairs officials at Marabastad refugee
reception
centre in Pretoria were demanding bribes from asylum seekers of
around 500
rand per individual.
"ZEF is deeply concerned by the human rights
conditions of the immigrants
who are currently seeking asylum at the
Department of Home Affairs Office
(Marabastad Branch), located in Pretoria,"
ZEF director and human rights
lawyer, Gabriel Shumba said in the
report.
"We call on the South African government and your department . .
. to
respect and fulfill your obligations to assist refugees in accordance
with
International Refugees Laws, to which South Africa has acceded," said
Shumba. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday
24 July 2007
By Nigel Hangarume
HARARE - Former
Zimbabwe skipper Tatenda Taibu is expected to mark his
return to
international cricket today after he was named in the side to face
India A
in a four-day match at Harare Sports Club.
The 24-year-old player turned
his back on national duty about two years ago
following differences with
Zimbabwe Cricket officials as well as alleged
threats on his
family.
Taibu's return is likely to give Zimbabwe's youthful side a major
boost as
they come up against a strong India A, captained by Mohammed Kaif
who played
at this year's ICC Cricket World Cup in West Indies.
"If
there is one player who is likely to surprise people with runs, it's
Taibu,"
Zimbabwe manager Givemore Makoni said. "He has been working hard and
batting
for hours because I think he knows people will be watching him on
his
return."
Zimbabwe will also pin their hopes on skipper Prosper Utseya,
Hamilton
Masakadza, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Vusi Sibanda and Gary
Brent.
The home side will be desperate to win the two-match series as
they bid to
regain their Test status, which they gave up for the second time
in as many
years in January last year as they struggled to come up with a
competitive
team.
India A manager TC Matthew said his players were
also eager to impress in
this tour to boost their chances of making their
senior national side.
"The tour will definitely give us exposure,"
Matthew said. "Many of these
players are going to play for India. It is only
a matter of time.
"The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul
Dravid and Anil Kumble
are nearing the end of their prime. This team is the
next India team."
He added: "Zimbabwe is playing these games in
preparation for returning to
Test cricket so it is going to be good
experience for you as well. The India
board is always helping countries like
Zimbabwe and Kenya and the Associate
countries and will continue doing so,"
he pointed out.
The second and final four-day match between Zimbabwe and
India A is set for
Bulawayo's Queens Sports Club next week. - ZimOnline
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
23 July
2007
With general elections just eight months away, senior
politicians in
Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party are expressing displeasure
over the
government's continued delay in formally requesting humanitarian
food aid
from the international community.
United Nations food
agencies say more than 4 million Zimbabweans could need
food by early next
year. About 2 million will face hunger in the next three
months. Many of the
likely recipients are in rural areas traditionally
dominated by the ruling
party but which will be hotly contested by the
opposition in the forthcoming
balloting.
Governors and senior politicians in the most affected
provinces -
Matabeleland North and South, Midlands and Masvingo - where
families could
run out of food as early as next month have urged the
government to formally
ask for food assistance.
An acute water crisis
and sanitation breakdowns with sewage flowing in the
streets of Harare,
Bulawayo and other towns are exacerbating the general
crisis.
But
President Robert Mugabe, backed by State Security Minister Didymus
Mutasa
and the Joint Operation Command comprising officials from the
uniformed and
security services, remains adamant his government will not
"beg for food" as
he put it.
However, as in previous years, Harare has given international
humanitarian
officials to understand that it would not reject food
assistance that may be
proffered.
The president has instructed
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono to raise
funds to import maize - the
country's staple - and tasked Agriculture
Minister Rugare Gumbo and Mutasa
to negotiate for food from Malawi, Zambia
and South
Africa.
Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo said Harare wants another food
survey
though the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and World
Food
Program in conjunction with the government itself just produced
one.
The state monopoly Grain Marketing Board, which did its own survey,
said it
is only looking for 500,000 tonnes of maize from the most recent
harvest,
well short of the 2 million tonnes Zimbabwe needs. Zambia has
provided
100,000 tonnes of maize and the purchase of another 400,000 tonnes
has been
agreed with Malawi.
Spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs of the United
Nations Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs told reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that even without a formal
appeal from Harare, her office and
others will continue to canvass for donor
contributions to feed the
Zimbabwean people.
Cape Town-based
political analyst Glen Mupani, meanwhile, said the
government's refusal to
ask for food in the face of a humanitarian crisis is
politically driven.
Mail and Guardian
Chris McGreal
23 July 2007
11:59
Togara Sanyatwe was buried in the West Park cemetery on
the edge
of Bulawayo at 83 years of age. The headstone reveals nothing more
about his
life, but he would already have been considered an elder of his
community at
the time those who now lie around him were being
born.
They include Zah Zah Ngwenya, who was just 28 at the
time of her
death on the same day as Sanyatwe. A little further on lies
Mabutho Njini,
who died a fortnight shy of his 46th birthday, but he still
enjoyed more
years than Norah Manyati, who barely made it past
30.
Their graves sit at the beginning of a narrow road
running
through the newest part of the cemetery. Its length is a chronicle
of
Zimbabwe's surging death rate and plummeting life expectancy as political
crisis and economic collapse have fused with rampant Aids to transform the
graveyards from resting places for the elderly at the end of a full life to
the premature final stop for a generation barely out of
youth.
In Bulawayo, the cemeteries are filled to the point
where there
is now pressure to put two corpses in each
grave.
Women in Zimbabwe live an average of 34 years and men
manage
just three years more, half of the life expectancy of little more
than a
decade ago. Prince Handina didn't even make that. He died at 20. Plan
Ndebele, in the neighbouring grave, made it to 39.
The
pair are buried just after the road passes the walled and
padlocked Muslim
cemetery. Here the graves begin in January 2004. The
numbers buried each
month are already rising, their ages dropping and the
plots squeezed closer
together.
A little further down the road, among the graves of
2005 and
2006, granite headstones, decorated with pictures, fond messages or
biblical
quotations, increasingly give way to black metal plates hand
painted with
white lettering that tell no more than a name and dates of
birth and death.
It is one more sign of the growing poverty as Zimbabweans
struggle to
survive.
Not far away is the children's
cemetery, packed with bodies of
those who did not live long enough to go to
school.
At the far end of the road, where there is almost no
more room
to spare, the recent arrivals are easy to spot. Multicoloured
plastic
flowers adorn the freshly turned earth mounds that are almost on top
of each
other.
Odian Ncube is digging a new grave in
front of the last resting
place of Sibonginkosi Dube, who was buried last
week at the age of 30.
"We have enough for two more rows of
graves before we reach the
road," he said. "Maybe they will find room
somewhere else. Perhaps this
whole city will be a
graveyard."
President Robert Mugabe's destruction of his own
economy as he
fights to hold on to power -- with inflation running above 4
500%, power and
water cuts a daily reality, shops rapidly emptying of food
and the grain
harvest expected to fail yet again after the seizure of
white-owned farms
and drought -- has played a large part in the surging
number of deaths.
Millions are underfed, weakening immune
systems and leading to
Aids. Few can afford the drugs to treat the illnesses
that the disease
brings on, even if the medicines are available which,
increasingly, they are
not.
Many of the country's doctors
and nurses have left for South
Africa or Europe.
The
World Health Organisation estimates that that lethal
combination is claiming
3 500 lives a week in the former British colony. The
World Food Programme
says four million Zimbabweans, one-third of the
population, will need food
aid this year.
Ncube's team of diggers is making four to five
new graves each
day, and that is just in one corner of one cemetery. "We
work harder now.
There are many many more. Look, you can see it's different.
Over there the
graves are like they used to be, a certain distance apart.
Now we put them
almost on top of each other," he said.
Many of the dead are laid to rest in cardboard coffins or cloth
bags. Ncube
says some people come in and bury their relatives at night in
the graves dug
during the day because they cannot afford the funerals or the
ubiquitous
burial societies, a savings club that provides a decent funeral
for the dead
if nothing for the surviving family.
The number of burials in
Bulawayo is rising by about 20% each
month. The mayor, Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube,
says the time has come when people
will have to be buried one on top of the
other or not at all. He wants the
city's residents to accept two bodies in a
grave or cremation, a social
taboo for many.
"It is very
real. In most cases we run away from facing
reality," he told a council
meeting last week. "It is incumbent upon us to
go and spread the message on
cremation and the burying in the same grave,
and at the same time continue
with the fight against Aids."
Another councillor, Amen Mpofu,
said the real problem was not
how to bury the dead but how to save the
living. "I think the most important
question we should ask ourselves as we
discuss this is why are people dying
at this rate? I think this is what we
should zero in on," he said. -- ©
Guardian News & Media Ltd
2007
Africa Renewal (United
Nations)
23 July 2007
Posted to the web 23 July 2007
Gumisai
Mutume
The warnings are grim. Cape Verde may lose 80 per cent of its
import
revenues. Three-quarters of Ghana's industry may collapse. And
African
countries could end up even more dependent on trade with Europe than
with
each other. Such worries about the possible impact of ongoing "free
trade"
negotiations between Europe and its former colonies in Africa, the
Caribbean
and Pacific (ACP) are beginning to galvanize public debate in the
region.
African governments, policy analysts, regional economic groups
and civil
society organizations are increasingly speaking with one voice:
the Economic
Partnership Agreements (EPAs) now being hammered out between
Europe and the
ACP countries must be significantly modified to safeguard
those countries'
prospects for development.
"If the EPAs are
signed as they are, it will be suicide and death for
farmers," Jules Zongo,
national president of Burkina Faso's regional
chambers of agriculture,
declared at a protest march and rally of 2,000
farmers in that country's
capital, Ouagadougou, in December. Several months
earlier, civil society
organizations rallied in Senegal, as part of a global
Stop EPA campaign, to
demand that their government not sign the agreements
unless significant
changes are made.
African leaders have taken note of such calls. When
heads of state from
throughout West Africa converged on Ouagadougou for a
summit meeting in
January 2007, Burkina's President Blaise Compaoré affirmed
that the
"legitimate concerns" of farmers and other producers must be
considered in
any trade talks with the European Union (EU).
Among
other venues, opposition to the EPAs also featured at the World Social
Forum
in Nairobi, Kenya, in January, at which tens of thousands of civil
society
representatives chanted and carried signs declaring: "Fight
poverty... Say
no to EPAs." In April, the Africa Youth Coalition Against
Hunger mobilized
more than 1,000 activists from 20 countries in the Gambia
to launch a "big
noise campaign" to stimulate public debate on the proposed
agreements.
Beyond the concrete impact that the new agreements may
ultimately have on
people's lives, the negotiations are attracting wider
attention for another
reason: they began at a time when talks to further
liberalize global trade,
under the so-called Doha round of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), seemed
stalled.
One factor in the indefinite
suspension of the Doha round last year was the
reluctance of richer
countries to liberalize their agricultural sectors,
while at the same time
they insisted that developing nations open their own
economies even further
to products from the North. Some analysts regard the
EPA negotiations as an
attempt by the more powerful EU to extend to its
weaker ACP trading
partners, through a different forum, agreements that it
could not obtain at
the WTO. The 27 countries of the EU have a combined
gross domestic product
of US$14 bn, while 39 of the 79 ACP nations are among
the world's least
developed countries (LDCs).
New scenario
Although the Doha round
talks have bogged down, earlier changes at the WTO
have already seriously
affected the nature of the EU's relations with the
ACP countries. From 1975
to 1994, the EU and ACP shared special development
cooperation arrangements
through a series of five-year agreements,
originally known as the Lomé
Conventions. Through those agreements, the EU
granted trade preferences to
ACP exports, without requiring similar
treatment for EU products in ACP
markets.
The so-called Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, which
concluded in 1994,
adopted new rules requiring parties to regional trade
agreements to
eliminate duties and other restrictive regulations on
"substantially all the
trade" among them. But for some regions application
of the rules was
postponed, as the WTO, which emerged from the Uruguay talks
in 1995, agreed
to a special exception allowing the EU to maintain
"non-reciprocal"
preferences for ACP exporters until December
2007.
With the WTO deadline in mind, in 2000 the two groups signed a new
cooperation accord known as the Cotonou Agreement, covering aid, trade and
political cooperation. Its aim was to "facilitate the economic and political
integration of the ACP countries into a liberalized world market." Its
framers also envisaged the conclusion of negotiations on EPAs or other
alternative trade arrangements by the start of 2008, to comply with WTO
rules. Initial talks on the EPAs began in 2002.
Some developing
countries now fear that the EU's approach to such EPAs will
oblige them to
remove trade protections so quickly and to such an extent
that the
development of their own industries will be harmed. "At no point in
time was
an EPA as a free trade agreement the first choice for the ACP,"
says
Mauritius' ambassador to the EU, Sutiawan Gunessee. "It was not. But we
had
no alternative."
According to Zimbabwean Trade Minister Obert Mpofu, any
new trade agreements
should reinforce, not undermine, "the development of
our economies,
employment generation, wealth creation for our people and
ultimately poverty
reduction."
Ending dependency?
In contrast,
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson views the EPAs as
beneficial. He
argues that they will shift the relationship between the EU
and Africa from
one of dependency on tariff preferences to one that promotes
business
competitiveness. After 30 years of preferential market access,
African
countries still export a limited range of basic commodities, he
points out.
"Most of these are sold at lower prices than they were 20 years
ago. This is
not sustainable. It certainly isn't sustainable development."
Countered
Nigerian Commerce Minister Aliyu Modibo Umar: "If 30 years of
non-reciprocal
free market access into the EU did not improve the economic
situation of the
ACP, how can a reciprocal trading arrangement achieve
anything better?"
Instead, he argues, simply liberalizing trade will
"further widen the gap
between the two [blocs] and probably destroy the
little development that
some ACP countries have managed to achieve over the
past
years."
Unloading grain at the port of Dakar, Senegal: Africa worries
that Europe is
trying to bring in new trade issues that have not been agreed
at the World
Trade Organization.
Hard choices
Under the type
of EPAs currently proposed by the EU, ACP countries would
eventually have to
liberalize 80-90 per cent of their trade with the
regional bloc in order to
gain duty-free access to European markets. That
would allow ACP countries to
use tariffs to protect only a small portion of
their products from
competition with European goods.
To stay within that narrow band,
governments would have to make some hard
choices, notes Oxfam in a 2006
report, Unequal Partners. They could choose,
for example, to maintain
tariffs on valuable revenue-raising imports such as
cars and electronics,
protect staple foods such as maize, exempt a few
existing industries from
competition or retain the ability to support future
industrial
development.
Fiscal losses
In the short term, lifting tariffs on
European goods would deprive many
governments of an important source of
fiscal revenue. "Many countries would
lose the valuable income they earn
from tariff duties," notes Mr. Godfrey
Kanyenze of the Labour and Economic
Development Institute of Zimbabwe. Until
countries are able to diversify
their revenue bases - often a long process -
they could be confronted with
national budget deficits, possibly leading to
lower spending on education,
health care, poverty reduction and social
security.
A 2002 study by
the Common Market for East and Southern Africa, a regional
trade bloc, found
that if all EU imports entered that region duty-free,
governments would lose
about 25 per cent of their trade taxes and about 6
per cent of total tax
revenue. Another study, by Germany's Hamburg Institute
of International
Economics, estimated that declines in import duties in
countries of the
Economic Community of West African States would range from
the equivalent of
$2.2 mn in Guinea-Bissau to $487.8 mn in Nigeria. The
decline would be
sharpest in Cape Verde, where 80 per cent of import
revenues are likely to
be lost. If no adjustments on spending were made,
Cape Verde and the Gambia
would incur budget deficits of 4.1 and 3.5 per
cent
respectively.
Such "doomsday" predictions need to be treated with
caution, responds EU
Trade Commissioner Mandelson. "If we look closely, most
studies are highly
theoretical," he argues. "They assume immediate and
complete liberalization,
and ignore the economic benefits of reform."
According to Mr. Mandelson, the
EU and ACP can negotiate the timing and
phasing of tariff reductions to
guard against any sharp drops in government
income.
The commissioner adds that while some "transitional protection"
may be
necessary, the aim should be to reduce protection to encourage local
industries to become more competitive. Over time, ACP countries will need to
adapt their economies to compete with the rest of the world.
'Back
door' issues
In principle, the central objective of the Cotonou Agreement
is poverty
reduction. Both parties agree that whatever arrangements are
negotiated,
they should foster development in the ACP countries. But they
differ on what
policies would best serve that purpose, echoing debates that
previously
unfolded within the WTO.
The EU, for example, is proposing
that ACP countries adopt stringent rules
to protect foreign investment,
promote domestic competition and increase
transparency in government
procurement procedures. Similar proposals - known
as the "Singapore issues"
after the WTO ministerial meeting at which they
were first raised - were
blocked by developing countries, which feared the
rules would hinder their
ability to use trade policy to promote development
(see Africa Renewal,
January 2004).
But rich countries, following their failure to introduce
such issues into
WTO agreements, are now trying to insert them into
multilateral and
bilateral agreements as conditions for aid or loans, notes
Mr. Irungu
Houghton of Kenya, a pan-Africa policy analyst for Oxfam. EPAs
are one part
of this broader effort to bring the Singapore issues in through
"the back
door," he argues.
In several countries, Mr. Houghton told
Africa Renewal, "there is intense
pressure to open up procurement processes
for public contracts and supplies
to non-indigenous suppliers, who because
of their international reach are
able to produce those goods at a much lower
cost than local contractors."
Such a liberalization of procurement would
take away one of the few tools
governments have traditionally used to
promote local industry - that is,
favouring domestic companies ahead of
foreign ones.
Mr. Houghton notes that similar changes in government
procurement policies
are also appearing in Country Assistance Strategies -
documents that spell
out loan conditions from the continent's main lender,
the World Bank.
The implications of adopting all the Singapore issues in
Africa have not
been fully studied. But policy analysts agree that simply
implementing new
laws to enact the reforms will by itself be costly. Oxfam
estimates that
rewriting domestic laws and changing business procedures in
each of the 16
areas of reform agreed under the Uruguay Round would cost an
average country
$2.5 mn.
The European Commission (the secretariat of
the EU) insists, however, that
there will be "no EPA without investment
rules and full reciprocity." The
commission argues that "the EPAs are, at
root, about putting progressive
trade policy into practice," by reducing bad
business practices hindering
investment in Africa.
'A field of
ruins'
But opposition is mounting to the EPAs, as currently envisaged by
the EU. In
2004 civil society organizations from across the world rallied in
London to
launch a Stop EPAs campaign. The campaigners charge that in their
current
form EPAs are essentially narrow "free trade" agreements intended to
further
liberalize the markets of ACP countries. They cite examples of
earlier trade
liberalization measures. In 1986 Côte d'Ivoire cut tariffs by
40 per cent,
resulting in massive layoffs in the chemical, textile, footwear
and
automobile assembly industries. Senegal lost one-third of manufacturing
jobs
between 1985 and 1990 after reducing tariffs from 165 per cent to 90
per
cent. The campaigners are calling for EU-ACP trade relations that
support
the weaker partners' pursuit of economic development.
The
organizations endorsing the campaign include the Economic Justice
Network in
South Africa, Third World Network-Africa in Ghana, Civil Society
Trade
Network of Zambia, Action Aid and Oxfam International. In a number of
African countries, including Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and
Senegal, thousands of farmers, workers and civil society activists have
staged public protests against the perceived consequences of EPAs.
In
April, West African business representatives also voiced alarm. Meeting
in
Dakar under the auspices of the regional chamber of commerce of the
eight-country West African Economic and Monetary Union, they affirmed their
readiness to become more competitive in global markets, but not to enter
into competition "with unequal arms." Commenting specifically on the EPAs,
Mr. Iddi Ango, president of the regional chamber, said that "if we open up
our countries, given the current state of our enterprises, it will not be an
opportunity, but a disaster, a field of ruins."
Mr. Ibrahim Akalbila,
national coordinator of the Ghana Trade and Livelihood
Coalition, comprising
civil society and farmers' groups in that country,
cites the high domestic
subsidies that many European governments continue to
provide their
producers, allowing European products to undersell producers
in poor
developing countries. "Whether it is tomatoes and rice, textiles or
iron
rods," he said in April, "cheap imports, illegally dumped into our
markets,
are destroying whole areas of economic activity, and with it, the
lives of
millions."
'EPA light'
Some European analysts acknowledge the
validity of the ACP criticisms. But
they also note that the EU faces a
dilemma: how to reconcile the special
status of the ACP group with its
obligations to the WTO.
One possible solution, they suggest, is for the
EU to accept an agreement
that is only as reciprocal as necessary to meet
WTO requirements, while
leaving the ACP countries some room to safeguard
their domestic markets and
industries. The European Centre for Development
Policy Management, an
independent foundation funded by a number of European
governments, proposes
the adoption of an "EPA light."
Such an
arrangement would initially require ACP countries to open up their
markets
only enough to comply with WTO rules. They would liberalize just
50-60 per
cent of their EU trade over a long transitional period of 20 years
or more,
while the EU would continue to grant full market access to all ACP
countries. During the transition, the EU also would support the building of
viable industries in ACP countries.
Along similar lines, the UN
Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) argues that
the primary focus of EPAs
over an initial 12-year period should be to
strengthen intra-African trade,
to help local industries first become more
competitive with their African
counterparts. Only after this period, notes
the Addis Ababa-based ECA,
should EPAs then consider opening African
economies to EU competition. And
even then, tariff reductions should be
phased in gradually, to allow
countries time to adjust to the rigours of
global
markets.
Alternative options
If ACP countries ultimately decide
not to sign EPAs, there are a number of
other options they could pursue. At
the Cotonou meeting in 2000, the EU
agreed that if EPAs were not accepted,
it would propose "alternative
possibilities, in order to provide these
countries with a new framework for
trade which is equivalent to their
existing situation and in conformity with
WTO rules." A country, however,
would first have to reject an EPA before
work could begin on an
alternative.
One such option would be to develop new trade arrangements
agreeable to both
sides. For example, notes Action Aid, the EU could
continue offering ACP
countries preferential access to European markets
while allowing them to
protect their vital industries or cut tariffs in ways
that do not jeopardize
their economic development goals. But such provisions
would require changes
to current WTO rules on regional trade agreements.
With the Cotonou deadline
looming and the Doha round talks still suspended,
that option seems
unlikely.
Therefore, both parties may have to rely
on existing trade regimes. One of
these is the Generalized System of
Preferences (GSP): nonreciprocal
market-access schemes open to all
developing countries that meet certain
standards in human and labour rights,
environmental protection and good
governance.
Nations classified as
least developed countries - 39 out of the 77 countries
currently taking part
in the EPA negotiations - could benefit from one of
the variants within the
GSP framework, the "Everything But Arms" initiative.
It grants LDCs
nonreciprocal duty-free and quota-free access to the EU for
all goods except
arms and munitions.
Non-LDCs could also decide to seek GSP treatment, but
they would not be
eligible for full duty-free access to the EU market.
Moreover, GSP
arrangements are narrower in scope than EPAs or the current
ACP-EU
agreement, since they cover only market access. Unlike the Lomé or
Cotonou
agreements, they do not include any development assistance, in the
form of
either financial aid or technical cooperation. GSP rules are also
considered
more restrictive and onerous than those of the Lomé/Cotonou
agreements:
hence the reluctance of ACP countries to rely solely on
them.
The European Commission acknowledges that the GSP alternative would
be a
"second best" solution, from the development perspective of the ACP
countries. A GSP arrangement is not negotiated, like a contract. The EU
would design it and offer it on its own terms, and could amend or suspend it
at any time. The products covered would not include all those of interest to
ACP countries. And if an ACP country were to develop a new product not on
the list, that item would be excluded.
Some civil society
organizations argue that in a worst-case scenario, GSPs
could be used as a
starting framework for a new trade arrangement, but with
their flaws
corrected to provide both market access and development
assistance to ACP
countries.
Because of the controversy, the British Parliament held public
consultations
on the EPAs in 2005. Subsequently, its parliamentary committee
on
international development recommended that the UK push the EU to ensure
that
alternatives for non-LDC ACP states guarantee the same level of market
access as the Lomé arrangements. "Development," it concluded, "should be
integral to any trade options presented to the ACP, even when they are not
the first choice of the EU."
VOA
By Netsai Mlilo, Carole Gombakomba & Jonga
Kandemiiri
Bulawayo and Washington
23 July
2007
The founding president of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement
for Democratic
Change is campaigning for president in the election coming up
in March 2008
telling voters the ruling ZANU-PF party has run out of ideas
on how to
revive the economy.
Tsvangirai said the government's drive
to force down prices, which has
emptied store shelves and virtually halted
domestic production of food and
other essential goods, showed that ZANU-PF
is a party whose time has come
and gone.
Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of
one faction of the divided MDC, told a campaign
rally in Bulawayo on Sunday
that it is time Zimbabweans from all walks of
life united to remove
President Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF from power to end
their
suffering.
Correspondent Netsai Mlilo reported from
Bulawayo.
Elsewhere, the nongovernmental Zimbabwe Election Support
Network said it
intends to file a complaint with the Office of the Registrar
General
alleging "irregularities" in the government's ongoing mobile voter
registration drive.
The independent election monitoring body said
some would-be first-time
voters have been unable to register to vote though
they managed to obtain
identity cards.
ZESN said residents of
Matebeleland and Lower Gweru have complained that
mobile registration
vehicles are deployed for a "ridiculously" short time.
It said the
registration teams were deployed at the Kawondera and Dzikamidzi
primary
schools in Zvimba for just one day, making "a mockery of what should
be a
noble exercise".
But spokesman Utoile Silaigwana of the state Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission
told the government-controlled Herald newspaper that
mobile voter
registration was meant to give "every citizen a chance to
acquire national
documentation and to be registered" as a voter. Silaigwana
said the
commission is urging all Zimbabweans to visit their local
registration
centers before the exercise ends on August 17.
ZESN
program manager Tsungai Kokerai told reporter, Carole Gombakomba of
VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that not everyone is able to register to vote
next
year.
In other political news, the Tsvangirai MDC faction said its
members of
parliament will attend the opening of the assembly on Tuesday,
breaking with
a recent policy of boycotting such events at which President
Robert Mugabe
presides.
The statement said the Tsvangirai formation
decided to attend in
consideration of ongoing crisis talks mediated by South
African President
Thabo Mbeki.
Mr. Mugabe is to officially open
parliament's last session before next year's
general election, and will
deliver his state of the nation address.
Secretary General Tendai Biti of
the Tsvangirai MDC faction told reporter
Jonga Kandemiiri that his party
duly respects the efforts of President Mbeki
and the Southern African
Development Community to bring about a negotiated
end to the
crisis.
Spokesman Gabriel Chaibva of the MDC faction led by Arthur
Mutambara said
party members will be at parliament in force, adding that it
would be
inconsistent to boycott the opening of parliament when faction
members
attend ordinary sessions.
This Day, Nigeria
By Eromosele
Abiodun, 07.24.2007
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) Chief Executive, Mr
Emmanuel Munyukwi, might
be forced to eat humble pie following his spirited
defence of the
unparalleled growth of the local market.
Last November,
the ZSE boss rejected out of hand accusations that the local
bourse had
become a haven for speculators arguing the equities' key
function, among
others, was to help companies grow and raise capital.
But eight months down
the line, there is a general consensus that runaway
stock prices are out of
sync with declining economic activity.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Dr
Gideon Gono is one of those who
believes the ZSE is a major source of
distortions in the economy.
This is because only the stock market and a few
other speculative trades are
sitting comfortably ahead of
inflation.
Investigations by the Herald Business this week reveal that the
bull run
that has characterised the ZSE since last year has been driven by
speculation more than anything else.
Equity analysts were also agreed
that the ZSE's unprecedented growth this
year was by and large aided by
speculative buying.
In other words, stock market patterns since January have
closely shadowed
the foreign currency parallel market, turning it another
black market of
sorts, albeit one sanctioned by law.
While there is
nothing wrong with buying shares to hedge against inflation
because one has
to make a small profit, premiums reported on certain shares,
particularly
Old Mutual and cement maker PPC, have surprisingly defied
economic
fundamentals, analysts said.
"On a broad scale, I think it made a lot of
sense for investors with excess
cash to speculate on equities," explained a
stockbroker with New Africa
Securities.
Nyasa Times, Malawi
Nyakuchena
Ganda on 23 July, 2007 14:35:00
Looking at the demeanor of the Malawi
President Bingu wa Mutharika on Sunday
at Masintha ground, I could see the
tell tale `trolls' of Mugabe the
dictator. Indeed Mutharika has shown the
whole world that he is not a
classicist when it comes to aligning himself
with one of the most notorious
dictators in Africa next to late Idi Amin. He
seems less mindful of the
acidic outgrowth such unholy alliances
yield.
At Masintha, I saw a man in desperation unknowingly manipulated by
the king
of jungle politics in Zimbabwe and miserably turn himself into a
scarecrow.
Surely, the political pimp did his job well much to the detriment
of Malawi.
It goes without saying that gaining the cooperation of other
governments to
develop economic links and corporation is a reasonable
foreign policy
objective.
But what Mutharika seems to forget with
enormous promptness is that by
identifying himself with the Zimbabwean
dictator, he is fundamentally
condoning the abuse of human rights of
Zimbabweans and fellow Malawians who
are resident in that
country.
What is very puzzling is the fact that all the negative
predictions about
his trip to Zimbabwe have come to pass. It's unfortunate
that Malawians
have to suffer just because Mugabe is running this country by
remote
control. There are so many Malawians who married Zimbabweans but
have never
hawked themselves to the devil.
The moment Bingu took to
stage one could see a man who was ready to divulge
what the "political
gigolo" across the Zambezi had pumped into his head. No
wonder he provoked a
huge public outcry. Such a speech was not befitting a
leader facing the
current political and constitutional crisis.
Due to his overwhelming lack
of social skills, the bogeyman's 'trolls' were
not that hard to detect if
you knew what to look for. He lambasted the
opposition and shamelessly
declared that he is going to dissolve parliament
if the budget doesn't get
approved.
It is apparent that the Mutharika is so alarmingly oblivious to
anyone or
anything but himself and his bevy of drug addicts in cabinet, and
thus
behaves in a way that makes you shudder with embarrassment.
All
the crazy ranting was unnecessary. He needs to be statesmanlike and not
reduce himself to the very pedestrian game his misguided squalor followers
are playing. The nation needs unity and not a cocktail of threats and
confrontations. We all know what Muluzi said when he was coming from his
vacation. He did not even need to talk about it.
This inappropriate
behavior is just a front to foment civil war in Malawi.
We do not need so
much emphasis on the unfounded allegations of under the
table opposition
tactics or prevention of every twisted opposition maneuver,
but rather need
maturity and patience from our Mutharika - a greater
capacity to respond and
to bounce back from seemingly hopeless situations.
If parliament is
dissolved, it will not in any way spare the ruthless and
irresponsible
political traitors who are now facing the chop in Parliament.
If he does
not fear elections, then why is he poaching riff-ruff like
Nicholas Dausi
and harboring the notorious goons in his retrogressive party?
Why is he
clinging to the likes of Hetherwick Ntaba for political survival?
Why should
it surprise the Mutharika when Tembo meets Muluzi? Is it not the
fact that
both are in the opposition and understand the need to discuss
political
strategies? These two great politicians did not in any way query
him when
he went to meet Mugabe? Although we know that each and every sane
leader is
shunning the Zimbabwe murderer.
We all have seen how Dr Muluzi and Hon
John Tembo have cleverly and
generously left wriggle room for some toadying,
for this power-hungry
government. In essence the opposition has just
extracted a quid pro quo that
Section 65 and the budget must be deliberated
together.