ZIMBABWE CONSERVATION TASK FORCE
2nd July 2006
HWANGE
UPDATE
Since September last year, we have been concentrating on solving
the
problems in Hwange National Park. With the help of various donors
including
the Hwange Conservation Society (UK) and the SAVE Foundation of
Australia
and the assistance of Friends of Hwange, WEZ and National Parks,
we hope to
have the park fully operational by the end of July this year.
This is an
ongoing project and we will continue to try and raise funds for
fuel for the
water pumps etc. In order to avoid a repetition of last year's
water crisis,
we need to supply 10 000 litres of diesel per month to the
park to keep the
pans full of water. Any assistance towards this will be
greatly appreciated.
POACHING INTENSIFIES
In the past few weeks,
we have received several alarming reports of fish and
wildlife poaching
around the country. With the current economic situation
and the levels of
unemployment, the poaching is intensifying and has reached
crisis
proportions. With the fuel shortages, National Parks are unable to
carry out
anti poaching patrols so the poachers are free to go about their
business in
broad daylight.
In the Sanyati Gorge in Kariba there are dozens of
poachers netting fish
illegally and even offering to sell their catches to
anyone passing by. They
make their boats from the bark of the large trees at
the water's edge which
are perching and nesting sites for the Fish Eagle. A
colleague reported
counting more than 30 trees that had been stripped of
their bark on both
sides of the gorge. This problem is threefold - the
poachers are killing the
fish, destroying the vegetation and depriving the
Fish Eagle of their homes.
Whilst we sympathize with the local people who
are trying to make money any
way they can in a floundering economy, we can't
allow this to continue.
In the Mana Pools area in the Zambezi, Zambian
poachers are netting fish
openly at all times of the day. Zimbabwean safari
operators have tried to
carry out their own anti poaching patrols but had to
stop because they were
being stoned from the Zambian side. We have alerted
the Zambian Ministry of
Wildlife and Environment and asked them to please
mobilize their police anti
poaching units to try and contain the
problem.
In the past year, we have lost several black rhino to poachers
and we have
been receiving reports of intensified poaching in the Chisarira
Game
Reserve.
National Parks, the police and the Lake Captain in
Kariba are extremely
concerned about the situation. They would desperately
like to do something
about it but are unable to effectively control the
poaching because of the
lack of fuel. We have many people who are prepared
to assist the authorities
with anti poaching patrols. Residents in Kariba
and Mana Pools are keen to
set up anti poaching units but fuel is required.
We are appealing to anyone
who can help. It is very important that we tackle
this problem immediately
so if anyone would like to assist, please contact
us - contact details are
below.
ILLEGAL HUNTING CONTINUES
The
notorious Out of Africa Safaris who have been banned from hunting in
Zimbabwe are still hunting here undeterred. They have changed their name and
are hunting with certain unscrupulous Zimbabwean and South Africa safari
companies in the Matetsi area.
Although hunting has been banned in
the Hwange area, we are still getting
reports of illegal hunting taking
place in the Railway Farm area near Hwange
Safari Lodge. It is suspected
that senior government officials are involved.
Johnny
Rodrigues
Chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force
Phone 263 4
336710
Fax 263 4 339065
Mobile 263 11 603
213
Email galorand@mweb.co.zw
www.zctf.mweb.co.zw
www.zimbabwe-art.com
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
05 July
2006
A British Foreign Office official said Wednesday that
mediation between
Britain and Zimbabwe was not required, as Harare's
problems were of its own
making and did not arise from a bilateral dispute.
The comments suggested
that the diplomatic initiative launched by President
Robert Mugabe this
weekend at an African Union summit, with Tanzanian
ex-president Benjamin
Mkapa as mediator, might be a
non-starter.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the British official
said the
cancellation of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan's visit
to
Zimbabwe was regrettable, as Annan could have highlighted international
community concerns about the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans, as well as the
need for the government of Zimbabwe to undertake economic and political
reforms.
The official said Britain has always been willing to respond
positively to
any real commitment to sustainable reform in Zimbabwe, but
that the U.K. has
seen no evidence of such intentions coming from Mr. Mugabe
and his
government. He added that any mediation or rapprochement needed to
take
place first between the Mugabe government and the people it proposed to
represent, because the government was responsible for the country's
problems. However, he said Britain remained willing to talk to anyone
interested finding a solution to the country's internal
crisis.
President Mugabe maintains that the country's crisis stems from
unfinished
business with Britain over land reform following independence.
But the UK
official said London has always recognized the need for an
equitable
redistribution of land, and was ready to help, so long as it was
done
legally and fairly to benefit all parts of society.
For
perspective on the looming impasse, Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe turned to Dewa Mavhinga, a human rights lawyer based at Essex
University in England.
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
05 July
2006
Zimbabwean human rights groups Wednesday condemned the
attack this weekend
in the Mabvuku district of Harare on officials of the
Movement for
Democratic Change faction led by Arthur Mutambara.
The
Human Rights NGO Forum, which assembles 16 rights advocacy groups,
denounced
what it called a "savage and barbaric attack," urging that all
political
parties respect "democratic processes and the constitutional
entitlements of
the people." The human rights umbrella group urged
authorities to prosecute
the perpetrators.
Reports also said Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust
Director David Chimhini has
announced plans to probe the attack, which left
the parliamentarian for
Harare North, Trudy Stevenson, with serious
injuries. Three other members
of the Mutambara faction were also hurt by
assailants wielding machetes,
clubs and stones.
Police spokesman
Wayne Bvudzijena said he was unable to comment on the
official investigation
into the incident in the MDC stronghold.
The MDC faction led by party
founding president Morgan Tsvangirai has
announced its own internal
investigation, and stated that it does not engage
in or condone
violence.
Parliamentarian Stevenson, released from Harare's Avenues
Clinic late
Wednesday, said she consult her lawyers about the incident. She
gave Studio
7 reporter Carole Gombakomba an account of the attack by about a
dozen
people which took place as Stevenson and several colleagues departed
from a
political meeting.
A spokesman for Tsvangirai, William Bango,
disputed Stevenson's allegation
that differences on political violence led
to the MDC split in October 2005.
IOL
July 06
2006 at 12:28AM
Harare - A white Zimbabwean opposition lawmaker,
discharged with deep
wounds from a private clinic on Wednesday after
claiming she was attacked by
militant youths of a rival faction, said her
assailants wanted "to kill me
right there".
"They (assailants)
were obviously after me. We were in a car and we
could not run away as
bricks and stones started coming through the windows,"
Trudy Stevenson, 61,
said, describing the incident that took place on
Sunday.
"They
were throwing boulders and they kept saying Trudy, Trudy, get
out of the
vehicle or else we will kill you."
"We were terrified out our
skins. They kept shouting my name and it
was obvious it was me they were
after," Stevenson added, her head completely
covered in bandages and her arm
in plaster.
'It was obvious it was me they were
after'
"They attacked me because I am known better since I am a member
of
parliament. I was in the enemy territory, it was considered I was
encroaching (on) their territory," Stevenson, an MP for Harare north, said
at a press conference.
She said her attackers belonged to a
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) faction loyal to opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai.
She said there was "no doubt" as to the identity
of the attackers,
since "the youths in Mabvuko were able to identify seven
of them".
The MDC split late last year after Tsvangirai refused to
participate
in the election of a new Senate.
"The split in the
party was really about violence and not the senate
elections," said
Stevenson, a member of a faction led by former student
leader Arthur
Mutambara.
The MDC was founded in 1999 by Tsvangirai, a former
trade unionist. It
made major gains in the 2000 parliamentary elections and
now occupies 41 of
120 seats in the Zimbabwean parliament.
Tsvangirai's camp has distanced itself from the attack, saying there
was no
evidence that linked it to the incident. - Sapa-AFP
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Bill Saidi
STATISTICS
prepared by bona fide statisticians, without any ulterior
motives or any axe
to grind, are generally speaking, reliable.
Yet, statistics, like books
of accounts, can also be cooked.
In Zimbabwe, everything can now
be cooked to fake the image of a
government tottering on the brink of
collapse.
One statistic which not even the brightest wunderkind in
the
government factory producing fake statistics cannot cook is this: more
Zimbabweans have drowned crossing the Limpopo River than South
Africans.
The Zimbabweans have been trying to cross into South
Africa because of
the economic crisis in their own country.
To list
the statistics which confirm this crisis would be very
depressing. One vital
one is that people are now dying younger than they
used to, before
2000.
If people in South Africa are facing a similar predicament,
it cannot
possibly be because of an economic crisis in their country. It
could be
because there are too many guns in the country, most of them owned
illegally
by citizens who inherited a disregard for every law in the statute
books
from the long, brutal era of apartheid.
Zimbabwe's crisis
has been attributed, by its phony, boot-licking
statisticians, solely to the
so-called sanctions imposed, illegally it is
aid, by the West.
These statisticians choose to ignore much of the humanitarian aid so
publicly given to Zimbabwe by the same countries which are said to be
applying sanctions. If the sanctions were total, there would be no aid of
any kind flowing into Zimbabwe from the West.
The argument is
made, ad nauseam, that it is not the mismanagement of
the economy by a
government obsessed with remaining in power under any
circumstances which
has led to the Zimdollar being the most worthless
currency in the
region.
From the government's point of view, even that has been
caused by the
sanctions. This comes from a government, which in 1997, paid
out unbudgeted
billions to war veterans, triggering a weakening of the
Zimdollar which
plunged the economy into the red, almost
immediately.
Some statisticians, the bona fide ones this time,
believe the economy
has still not recovered from that Black
Friday.
This is also a self-absorbed regime which has ignored
advice from
abroad and from local economists to reduce the size of the
government.
According to most experts this country could be run with half
the number of
civil servants, half the army and half the police force it is
using today.
Mostly for political reasons, the government wants
everything to be
big. The statistics also tell us that the bigger the
government the greater
the incidence of corruption.
President
Robert Mugabe, recently at the African Union summit in
Bangul in The Gambia,
seems to have concluded a deal in which Benjamin
Mkapa, the former president
of Tanzania, will try and convince the West,
particularly the British prime
minister, Tony Blair, that their sanctions
are hurting the people of
Zimbabwe and must be dropped.
So far, no-one has mentioned what
Blair and his colleagues are to be
given in return for dropping the
sanctions. As far as Mugabe is concerned,
they deserve nothing for
that.
Upon his return from Banjul, Mugabe bubbled with customary
Zanu PF
braggadocio. He told us that Kofi Annan had told him that he had
agreed to
complement Mkapa's efforts on Zimbabwe. Mugabe said Annan had
rejected
suggestions that the British and the West were using him to deal
with the
Zimbabwe issue.
Annan told him he had only suggested
he could only use his good
offices for the task.
Mugabe gave
the unmistakable impression he had got his way - as usual.
Yet what
most people must know is that a "rescue plan" is underway
now. What might
complicate Mkapa's task is now to gratify Mugabe's whims.
The
presidents of South Africa and Nigeria, respectively Thabo Mbeki
and
Olusegun Obasanjo are aware of these. In their attempts to forge a
dialogue
between Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) THEY
HIT THIS BRICK WALL: Mugabe wanted the MDC leaders to repent.
In
fact, this became the virtual theme song of the future of the
talks: the MDC
leaders needed to repent before the talks continued.
What it meant
was that the MDC had nothing more with which to
negotiate: their seats in
Parliament, indicating massive public support for
their political platform,
would count for nothing: only Zanu PF's programme
would count.
At one time, Mugabe also demanded that they acknowledge that he was
President of the Republic. In essence, this would elevate his status during
the talks.
No longer would he be the leader of a political
party seeking an
accommodation with another political party. No, he was now
acting in his
capacity as the president of the republic.
Morgan
Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, would be just another citizen of
the republic,
seeking an accommodation with his president.
What if, for the sake of
argument, Mugabe asked Mkapa to tell Blair
that he would not enter into any
talks with the British until they
"repented".
Repentance would
presumably entail an open admission that they had
made a blunder and were
now seeking his forgiveness.
There is not a hope in hell of that
happening - of Blair capitulating.
His constituency would not stand for
it.
Yet Mugabe could then turn around and say: "You see? They are
not
reasonable people, these British!"
Or is Mugabe playing
hard ball because of the recent events
surrounding two former heads of state
- Charles Taylor and Hissene Habre of
Chad?
Taylor is now in
The Netherlands, awaiting trial for human rights
violations. He was
president of Liberia during the bloody civil war in
neighbouring Sierra
Leone. He is said to have aided Foday Sanko, the butcher
who led the rebel
troops. He gave them weapons in exchange for diamonds.
Then there
is the case of Habre, overthrown as Chadian leader in 1990.
He has lived in
exile and prosperity in Senegal, which is now to try him for
human rights
violations. The AU endorsed this action at the Summit in
Banjul.
The host, President Yahya Jamme, was another soldier
turned
politician. He overthrew the civilian government of Sir Dawda Jawara
who had
been in power for 25 years.
It may be difficult for
many people in Zimbabwe to believe but there
is a growing sentiment here
that the last thing on Mugabe's mind, in his
dealings with the so-called
peacemakers is a genuine plan to rescue Zimbabwe
from the economic quagmire
into which he plunged it.
"His primary objective is to save his
political bacon."
To the true Zanu PF supporters, Mugabe has little
or nothing to
apologise for. In fact, they see him as deserving the people's
gratitude,
particularly over the land reform programme.
To
them, the drowning of young citizens in the crocodile-infested
Limpopo River
has little or nothing to do with Mugabe's leadership. "It's
the sanctions,
in case you are wondering," they say.
Ben Mkapa is an intelligent
politician, whose mentor was Mwalimu
Julius Nyerere, the first president of
Tanzania, and one of the African
leaders, along with Kenneth Kaunda of
Zambia, without whom the liberation
struggle in southern Africa, would not
have started and succeeded.
Quite often, people have accused Mkapa
of being in such awe of Mugabe,
the hero of the liberation struggle they
believe he has deliberately glossed
over the fatal flaws in the man's
character as a leader - his intolerance of
dissent, his ruthless reaction to
adversity and his single-minded
determination to have his way.
Joachim Chissano, the former president of Mozambique, backed off from
a
mediating role between Zanu PF and the MDC, as initiated by Obasanjo, for
the same reason: only if there was a guarantee that Mugabe would come our on
top would any talks even begin.
If Mkapa, who is older than
Thabo Mbeki, does not shake off his idol
worship of the old man, he too
could come a cropper.
Ultimately, it is the people of Zimbabwe who must
determine what will
happen to Mugabe.
Whatever he has done to
their country has affected each one of them.
What remains is for
the people to ensure that Mugabe knows this and
cannot hope to get away with
it. They could always remind him of Charles
Taylor and Hissene
Habre.
Moreover, since Mugabe has recently started consorting with
church
leaders there has to be a question over his Maker's decision on his
fate.
If he asks others to repent, isn't it time he too took up
that option?
There can be no guarantee that He will forgive him for the
20 000
souls lost in Gukurahundi.
by Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 4th July
2006
There is a great deal wrong in Africa. The continent has the
highest
ratio of internally displaced people in the world, we generate more
refugees
than any other continent, and we are poorer now than we were before
independence.
We are the Aids capital of the globe and our life
expectancies are
retreating on a scale seldom seen in history.
Why?
It's not for lack of resources - we have those in abundance
and if we
rated Africa on the basis of population to its natural resource
base we
would find ourselves at the top of the log. It's not for a lack of
energy -
we are now a major producer and exporter of oil, we have vast
reserves of
coal and hydroelectric potential to light the continent for
decades to come.
It's not for a lack of aid from richer countries - many
States in Africa
draw up to half their annual budgets from donors in the
West. Per capita we
are one of the largest recipients of aid in the history
of the world
The reason for all these problems lies not in our
history nor in the
predation of industrial economies, it lies in our
leadership.
No better example of this could be found than the
latest meeting of
African Heads of State in the Gambia. This leadership
summit of the African
Union was expected to yield new consensus on Darfur,
condemnation of human
rights abuse in a number of countries, including
Zimbabwe and the adoption
of a Democracy Charter for the continent. On the
sidelines it was expected
to yield a breakthrough in the crisis in
Zimbabwe.
Instead we have the spectacle of the Heads of State
rejecting the
Democracy Charter, refusing to face up to the genocidal
activities of the
government of the Sudan and complete failure to come to
grips with the
crisis in Zimbabwe. A two-year-old report on human rights
abuse is again
deferred at the request of the perpetrators. I despair and so
do many others
who hold the welfare of Africa and its people's
dear.
Of particular concern to us is of course the complete failure
to come
to grips with the Zimbabwean crisis. Here is a prime example of the
failure
of leadership in Africa. The most educated government on the
continent, one
that came to power 26 years ago with such hope and promise
has swept the
rule of law aside, corrupted the whole democratic system and
deliberately
and systematically destroyed a functioning and relatively
efficient and
competitive African economy.
This regime, led by
Mr. Mugabe who struts the AU stage like a Pharaoh,
has seen the life
expectancy of its people decline by half in ten years,
seen its economic
output slashed by half and its exports by two thirds and
reduced the value
of its currency to a tiny fraction of its value. A third
of its people have
fled the country as refugees and another third are
effectively internally
displaced. A million people will leave the country
this year as the human
tide continues to swell and all State institutions -
especially those of
health and education are simply disintegrating in front
of our
eyes.
Many argue that we have gone beyond the point of no return.
That we
are destined to become another Somalia or Congo. There is absolutely
no
expectation here that the present leadership can address these mammoth
problems and perhaps turn the tide of disaster and despair. When Rhodesia
and South Africa presented a similar outlook to the world, because it
involved white leadership of predominantly black countries, the oppressed
peoples of these countries could rely on the solidarity of the OAU and the
"Front Line States" for their well being and future prospects. They could
rely on a world community that would not hesitate to impose mandatory global
trade sanctions on tiny Rhodesia and global sanction of the regime in
Pretoria.
When the final crunch came and change became
essential for the
prospects of the people of these two countries, the global
community
rallied - first behind Henry Kissinger and P W Botha to remove Ian
Smith
from power and then
12 years later behind Margaret Thatcher,
to force F W de Klerk to
accept reality and begin the process of closure on
40 years of Apartheid. In
neither instance was domestic pressure and
resistance the primary reason for
the act, which brought closure to these
regimes.
Now that we have an African Head of State behaving in a
similar manner
and also destroying his country on the alter of his ego and
avarice, no one
is willing to take up the cudgel and come to the rescue of
the ordinary
citizen held captive by the Zanu PF regime. Not Mr. Mbeki, not
Kofi Annan,
not the AU or the "Front Line States" who have so much at stake.
Instead
they shrink back into a defensive huddle knowing full well that they
are
often just as guilty as Mr. Mugabe when it comes to failure of their
leadership responsibilities.
The decision by Annan was
especially difficult to comprehend - he
knows the facts, he has 6 months to
go and does not need the votes of Africa
to win another term and he has the
authority and the support of the major
nations to do something useful for
once. But no, he ducks the issue, blandly
tucks Zimbabwe and it's suffering
people into a Tanzanian cubbyhole and
walks away. I hope he enjoys his hard
currency pension while we pay the
price of his failure to lead.
Well at least that clears the air for us - we now know we are alone in
this
struggle and that we must liberate ourselves or face disaster in every
way.
We have ourselves and our faith in God. In the latter respect
we are
one of the most Christian countries in the world. This gives us the
appearance of docility that is deceptive. I always said it took a great deal
of provocation to get the people in Zimbabwe to finally confront the
situation here in 1970.
Well now perhaps we are there again.
Only this time we are really
standing alone. Nothing wrong with that - the
Bible promises that "they that
wait upon the Lord, will not grow weary". We
will not quit this struggle, we
will not give in and in the end our struggle
will produce a better
government than we have now - one which will look to
the interests of our
people and not their own. A government that will
restore our basic rights
and freedoms and allow us to work and play in the
land of our birth. A
leadership that will respect our democratic right to
choose our leaders and
to dismiss them when they do not act in our best
interests.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
FinGaz
Hama Saburi
Mediator to insist on
exit plan as precondition
BENJAMIN Mkapa - the former Tanzanian president
confirmed on Sunday as
mediator in Zimbabwe's political crisis - could pull
the rug from under
President Robert Mugabe's feet by insisting on an exit
plan as a
pre-condition to resolving the diplomatic standoff between London
and
Harare. A close ally of President Mugabe, Mkapa is the latest in a
string of
statesmen to seek an end to the political mayhem that has spawned
a
full-blown economic crisis characterised by five-digit inflation, falling
industrial production, joblessness and abject poverty ravaging close to 90
percent of the population.
Despite publicly shying away from any form
of condemnation against Harare's
human rights record, diplomatic sources
said the 68-year-old former
president is under pressure to silence critics
who question whether he is
his own man or in President Mugabe's
pocket.
Mkapa, they said, could also be keen to eclipse other African
luminaries
such as Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria
and
Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique who all failed to bring about a thaw in
the
frosty relations between Zimbabwe and its former colonial master. It
would
be a master stroke for Mkapa to find the solution that has eluded all
the
others.
Yet others say in endorsing the former Tanzanian leader as
the mediator in
the conflict over the weekend, United Nations (UN)
secretary-general Kofi
Annan had been hoodwinked and out-manoeuvred by
President Mugabe who may
want to buy time ahead of his retirement in
2008.
They say with Annan leaving office towards the end of the year and a
new UN
boss needing enough time to settle down, the crafty Zimbabwean leader
would
have ample breathing space to sort out the tricky succession issue
that has
divided his ruling party.
Annan, seen as the last hope in
international efforts to resolve the
Zimbabwean crisis, called off
his
planned visit to Harare after meeting President Mugabe in Banjul on the
sidelines of the 7th African Union (AU) Summit. The UN boss accepted
Harare's
proposal to pave way for Mkapa as mediator.
Civic and opposition
groups have reacted angrily to Annan's withdrawal from
the mediation
initiative, with the main Movement for Democratic Change
questioning the
ability and capacity of President Mugabe in appointing a
mediator in a
situation where he is a major actor.
"Mkapa is clever enough to know that the
Zimbabwe- an crisis would be
untenable for as long as there is no
breakthrough with Britain," said one
diplomat. "The crux of the matter is
that nothing short of democratic
reforms to address issues of legitimacy
would be entertained. In this regard
a timetable to Mugabe's retirement
would do the trick," added the diplomat.
Lovemore Madhuku, the National
Constitutional Assembly leader, said it was
misplaced optimism for anyone to
think Annan would resolve the Zimbabwean
crisis. It was also wrong, he said,
to think Zimbabwe's problems can be
wished away by bringing President Mugabe
and Tony Blair, the British
premier, to the negotiating table as if the
country's problems were a result
of the land issue and outside interference,
as alleged by the ZANU PF
government.
"It is misleading to say Mkapa is a
mediator, in fact he is Mugabe's
ambassador who will provide more energy to
Mugabe's parochial view that land
is at the centre of the crisis," he said.
"There is need to understand
issues on Zimbabwe and be able to deal with
them correctly," he added.
South Africa was this week confident the UN boss
would keep an eye on
Zimbabwe. SABC quoted Aziz Pahad, the deputy foreign
affairs minister saying
Annan has committed himself to helping Zimbabwe and
will assist the mediator
"to carry out his work.'
During his two-year
tenure as head of the Tanzanian government, Mkapa's
broad policies won the
support of the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund and resulted
in the cancellation of some of that country's
foreign debts.
Joseph
Kurebga, a political analyst, said Mkapa commands the confidence of
both
Britain and Zimbabwe since he comes from a stable political environment
with
a mature democracy where presidential terms have been strictly limited
to
two terms.
Kurebga however, said Mkapa would be effective for as long he
doesn't play
out his intervention in the public domain.
"Mugabe takes
great exception to people who play to the public gallery. He
would prefer
humble engagement," said Kurebga who added that demanding a
timeframe from
President Mugabe would kill off the talks.
"It is bad politics. There should
be no preconditions to dialogue," he said.
"Privately, that will be the
issue, but it should not be known openly as the
basis of the talks," he
added.
MDC secretary for international relations Eliphas Mukonoweshuro said:
"Principles of natural justice and common sense dictate that one cannot be
an umpire and wicketkeeper in the same game. Clearly, in our view, if the UN
accepts the need and obligation of a point person then it, as an
international body, must appoint its own mediator."
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
THE
United Nations (UN) is hopeful that former Tanzanian leader Benjamin
Mkapa
could succeed in nudging President Robert Mugabe towards a negotiated
political settlement with the rival Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
which has been riven by a bitter internal feud.
Marie Okabe, the
deputy spokesperson for Kofi Annan, said the UN
secretary-general - under
fire for cancelling his trip to Harare after
meeting with President Mugabe
in Gambia on Sunday - would not have thrown
his full weight behind Mkapa "if
he didn't feel that the mediator could
provide energy to the
process".
Okabe had been asked whether the world body was "abandoning" its
efforts to
provide a conduit between the Zimbabwean government and
opposition groups.
Talks between the MDC and the ruling ZANU PF collapsed in
May 2002 after the
leader of the main opposition party, Morgan Tsvangirai
dragged the veteran
Zimbabwean leader to court following a hotly disputed
presidential poll.
President Mugabe (82), insisted he would not talk to the
MDC, which has
split into two factions, unless it acknowledged he was the
legitimate head
of state.
Church leaders and other respected emissaries,
including former Mozambican
president Joaquim Chissano, have also tried to
break the costly four-year
political impasse without success. Chissano, who
was the best man at
President Mugabe's wedding to his second wife Grace in
1995, said officials
in Harare told him such talks were not necessary
"because it is an internal
problem that they can handle through the
democratic institutions in
Zimbabwe."
In remarks published on the UN
website, Okabe stressed that all Annan wants
to see is an end to the
humanitarian suffering on the ground.
"Asked whether the UN would have
contact with Mkapa, the spokeswoman said
she was sure it would. She stressed
that Mkapa was not a UN mediator, but
worked independently of the United
Nations," reads part of the remarks.
FinGaz
Nelson
Banya
THE ZANU PF Harare province has demanded an explanation from Local
Government Minister Ignatius Chombo over his defence of the beleaguered
chairperson of the commission of the city, Sekesayi Makwavarara.
The
ZANU PF spokesperson in Harare, William Nhara, said the Harare province
would not change its position on Makwavarara, who was lambasted by the
party's
central committee members from Harare for lacking 'leadership
qualities.'
"Until the province has been told by the Minister what is good
about her and
what she has been able to deliver, our stance remains the
same. Nothing has
changed," Nhara said, adding that Chombo's response to the
party's
statement, through the press, "does not make Makwavarara any
better."
After hounding the city's first elected executive mayor, Elias
Mudzuri, out
of office, ZANU PF now stands divided over who should preside
over the
affairs of the capital city.
Insiders this week said the battle
had nothing to do with service delivery,
but everything to do with powerful
factions seeking to position themselves
for lucrative back-scratching
deals.
The ZANU PF Harare central committee members last week broke the
façade of
cohesion at Town House despite a simmering feud between
Makwavarara, the
chairperson of the commission foisted on the city when
Mudzuri was
controversially booted out, and ousted town clerk Nomutsa
Chideya.
"She has undermined and demeaned the position of the party in Harare
and not
being a member of the party herself, she cannot expect any further
cooperation from the residents and ZANU PF in Harare. The meeting has been
saddened and shocked by the continued circumvention of council tender
procedures and misuse of council funds.
"While not defending the
interests of any person in the council, the meeting
is worried by the
fallout and irreparable damage being wrought on Harare by
Sekesayi
Makwavarara," the stinging statement said.
Although the ZANU PF bigwigs in
Harare said their attack on Makwavarara was
driven by nothing other than
concern over deteriorating service delivery,
sources privy to the frenzied
behind-the-scenes manoeuvres say Tendai
Savanhu, a ruling party stalwart in
Harare and the only commissioner who did
not assent to Chideya's dismissal
by Makwavarara a fortnight ago, was the
instigator.
Savanhu, however,
promptly switched his phone off when contacted by this
newspaper
yesterday.
Chideya was also not giving anything away, referring all enquiries
to acting
chamber secretary Ottilia Dangwa.
"She is the one handling my
case," Chideya said. Dangwa, however, declined
to comment, and Mukarati
Muvengwa, the city's public relations executive
said council could not
comment on the issue.
"Because the matter involves a high-ranking member of
council, only the
minister and the mayor are authorised to speak on the
matter," Muvengwa
said.
Sources said while Savanhu, who deputises for
Makwavarara on the commission,
had long agitated for her ouster, matters
came to a head when she suspended
Chideya.
"Chideya and Savanhu were
close as the town clerk was doing Savanhu's
bidding. So he felt he was
losing the turf war when Makwavara booted Chideya
out, that's why he sought
to use the province to pressurise Makwavarara," a
source, who declined to be
named, said.
This week Chombo, who re-appointed the Makwavarara commission
last month
saying it was doing a good job, appeared to dare Savanhu to speak
out on the
council fracas.
"I will hear it from Savanhu. I will wait,"
Chombo was quoted in a state
daily. The report also said Chombo, who has
defended the much-maligned
Makwavarara at every turn, chided Nhara, the ZANU
PF Harare provincial
executive's spokesperson for failing to observe
protocol.
Chombo was apparently stung by a veiled reference in the ZANU PF
statement
to his implied complicity in the Town House melee.
". . .
anyone so interested in protecting Sekesayi Makwavarara can transfer
her to
another willing city as Harare will henceforth not cooperate with her
in any
undertaking.
"Central committee members of the Harare province remain
dismayed at the
consequences and the "I-don't-care-attitude" adopted by
certain individuals
who should be standing by the party."
FinGaz
Zhean Gwaze
A NEW Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) board is likely to be announced
next week along
with the fate of the Tafataona Mahoso-led Media and
Information Commission
(MIC) board, whose term of office expired on June 30.
Bright Matonga, the
Deputy Information Minister, said ministry officials
would meet to appraise
acting minister Paul Mangwana on outstanding issues
and possibly agree on
the way forward.
"We will issue a statement very soon. We are just coming
from a funeral and
we will meet next week to map the way forward on the ZBH
restructuring, MIC
and other issues in the ministry," he said.
The death
of Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya has stalled the
restructuring of
the public broadcaster, whose board was dissolved last
month. Jokonya was
also yet to decide on the future of the MIC board ruled
to have been biased
in the handling of the Daily News case.
Matonga however, said the ministry
would adopt Jokonya's vision on ZBH,
which has since been whittled down to
two operating units.
Speculation is rife that there could be new faces in the
MIC board, which
has presided over the closure of four
newspapers.
Although viewed as the media hangman due to his perceived heavy
handedness
against the private media, Mahoso is likely to be retained as
Matonga
recently gave him a pat on the back when he said the MIC boss had
done a
"wonderful job and has government support."
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda
THE police
yesterday quizzed and briefly detained opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) MP Willas Madzimure for allegedly inciting people to
gear
themselves up for imminent mass protests the opposition has planned, in
what
critics said was part of a new government drive against opponents of
President Robert Mugabe.
Madzimure, the Member of Parliament for
Kambuzuma was taken in for
questioning yesterday morning at the Harare
Central Police station by the
Law and Order Unit.
The police quizzed him
and recorded a warned and cautioned statement on the
statements he allegedly
made at a rally held in Dzivarasekwa in early last
month. The police allege
that Madzimure encouraged vendors to beat up law
enforcement agents if they
tried to arrest them and also encouraged
residents of the suburb to
participate in mass demonstrations the party
intends to roll out to protest
the country's deepening economic and
political crisis.
Madzimure told The
Financial Gazette that the police accused him of
violating the Public Order
and Security Act (POSA), which prohibits citizens
from organising protests
and denigrating President Mugabe.
He was only released late yesterday after
spending the whole day under
interrogation.
State security agents have in
the past selectively applied security laws
against opposition
politicians.
FinGaz
Kumbirai
Mafunda
AIR Zimbabwe's former chief executive officer Tendai Mahachi, who
was
jettisoned late last year when the airline grounded its fleet due to a
fuel
crisis, has formally ended his association with the troubled national
flag
carrier after getting a golden handshake, reported to be about $55
billion.
Mahachi's contract still had one and half years to run when it was
terminated.
The Mike Bimha chaired board suspended Mahachi together
with Tendai Mujuru,
the divisional director for finance and company
secretary in November 2005
after the national airline grounded its entire
fleet because of a critical
shortage of fuel.
Mahachi, who crafted a
turnaround strategy for the equally troubled Harare
City Council, was
fingered alongside Mujuru for the embarrassing flight
disruption.
Informed sources at the national carrier told The Financial
Gazette this
week that Mahachi, who joined Air Zimbabwe in 2005 to spearhead
the
turnaround of the troubled airline, approached the airline's board with
the
intention to terminate his contract. They said Mahachi surrendered his
official vehicle, a Mercedes Benz ML last month.
"It was Mahachi who set
out to terminate his employment," said the sources.
Air Zimbabwe board member
Luxon Zembe, who chairs the human resources
committee, yesterday confirmed
that Mahachi had
severed ties with
the airline.
"We agreed to part ways
amicably," said Zembe, who could not be drawn to
confirm the value of the
severance package. "It is one of the best cases in
parastatals where we
resolved the termination of employment without legal
battles. That is the
philosophy of the new board," he added.
Mahachi had taken over from Rambai
Chingwena who left the national airline
in 2004.
The sources disclosed
that the Air Zimbabwe board has also offered to
terminate Mujuru's contract.
Yesterday Zembe said of Mujuru. "We can't
discuss that because it is still
under discussion."
Following the termination of Mahachi's employment contract
the national
airline this week began hunting for a new group chief executive
officer and
a group finance and corporate services director to spearhead its
turnaround
programme.
Captain Oscar Madombwe has since the suspension of
Mahachi been heading the
national airline in an acting capacity.
"The
process of filling the group CEO's post is now in motion," Zembe said.
Air
Zimbabwe, which for years has been battered by successive years of
maladministration, has failed to turn around its fortunes.
It has the
highest turnover of chief
executives among Zimbabwe's parastatals. Only last
week one of its Morden
Ark (MA60) aircraft acquired from China burst its
tyres upon making an
emergency landing after being forced to abort a flight
when its engine
developed a fault.
Apart from owing creditors billions of
dollars, the airline late last year
broke aviation records by cruising more
than 6 000 kilometres with a lone
passenger in its maiden trip to Dubai.
FinGaz
Kumbirai
Mafunda
ZIMBABWE'S hopes of breathing life into the economy suffered yet
another
setback after the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz), one
of the
key partners in the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF), refused to
pay wages
and salaries indexed to the Poverty Datum Line (PDL).
While
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and the government said
it was
vital that the PDL be a factor to determine wages, business shot down
the
proposal saying the ability to pay, productivity and the levels of
inflation
should be taken into consideration before pegging PDL indexed
wages and
salaries.
The (TNF) kicked off in January amid optimism that it would come up
with
solutions to the country's deepening economic
crisis.
Representatives of government, labour and business appeared close to
signing
the Prices and Incomes Stabilisation Protocol to curb runaway
inflation and
rejuvenate the country's comatose economy when deliberations
hit a deadlock
in May after Emcoz, refused to award workers wages and
salaries indexed to
the PDL.
The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) has
estimated PDL at $60 million.
Emcoz chief executive officer John Mufukare
told The Financial Gazette this
week that his organisation is still
consulting labour and the government,
the two other key allies in the
tripartite forum.
" We are undertaking bipartite consultations and we are
talking to the
workers at bipartite level," said Mufukare. However, ZCTU
secretary-general
Wellington Chibebe whose organisation has threatened to
roll out mass
protests over business's refusal to pay real wages and
salaries yesterday
refuted Mufukare's claims on consultations.
"We don't
bank on bipartisan discussion," said the militant Chibebe. "Those
are
consultations which can not be binding," he said.
The ZCTU says employers
must pay salaries that can cushion the ravages of
hyper inflation, which is
marked by high rental prices, and food prices or
face nationwide
protests.
FinGaz
Nelson
Banya
SEVERAL ruling party officials, including deputy chairman Isaiah
Shumba,
from the volatile Masvingo province have been suspended as tension,
which
has been simmering in the province since the Tsholotsho debacle in
2004,
erupted last weekend. Although officials declined to comment on the
issue,
party insiders revealed that the provincial executive, led by
Indigenisation
and Empowerment Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi, held
disciplinary hearings on
Sunday where Shumba and other politicians from the
province were suspended
for allegedly undermining the party by aligning
themselves with former
chairman Daniel Shumba, who has now launched his own
United People's Party
(UPP).
Also suspended were Philemon Maramba,
the ruling party's councillor for Ward
3 in Chivi, Saunders Magwiza (Ward 2,
Chivi) and Phillip Hungwe, who is
reportedly related to former provincial
governor Josiah Hungwe.
Several councillors from Chivi and Mwenezi were also
purged, while
Mumbengegwi's nemesis, Enita Maziriri, who embarrassed the
minister in
primaries for the Chivi North House of Assembly seat last year,
was rapped
for working against the party in last November's senate
elections.
Shumba yesterday declined to comment on the matter.
"I have no
comment. I think the right thing is for you to talk to the
provincial
chairman or (political commissar Dzikamai) Mavhaire," Shumba, who
is the
deputy Minister of Education, Sport and Culture, said.
Mavhaire was equally
non-committal.
"Who told you that? Ask the chairman. You think I'm a fool who
just talks? I'm
astute, my brother," an audibly offended Mavhaire
thundered.
The ruling party's senior leadership in Masvingo has been sharply
divided
and is still smarting from the effects of the Tsholotsho debacle
when the
then Shumba-led provincial executive threw its weight behind
Emmerson
Mnangagwa, the former ZANU PF secretary for administration, in the
divisive
battle with Joice Mujuru to replace the late Simon Muzenda as vice
president.
Mujuru eventually prevailed and the party's provincial
structures have been
purged of officials who did not back her
candidature.
Although Mumbengegwi could not be reached yesterday, his
executive is
expected to recommend the suspension of Isaiah Shumba and
others for periods
ranging from three to five years.
The Masvingo
provincial executive is reported to have resolved to make an
announcement
once the national disciplinary committee, chaired by ZANU PF
national
chairman John Nkomo, has ratified the decision to suspend the
officials.
Nkomo was also not available to comment.
FinGaz
Nelson Banya
THE Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe (RBZ) this week reduced statutory reserve
ratios for banks by
2.5 percentage points and reviewed, upwards, the yield
on punitive special
Treasury Bills, in a move aimed at softening conditions
on the money market,
where huge deficits threaten to put the skids under
several
banks.
This is the second time the central bank has reduced the statutory
ratios
and the development coincides with strong market speculation that a
major
listed bank was on the verge of issuing a profit warning that could
send
shivers in the market.
Statutory reserve ratios for commercial and
merchant banks have, with effect
from July 3, been reduced to 47.5 percent,
down from 50 percent, while the
ratio for discount houses is now at 37.5
percent, down from 40 percent. The
bank reduced the ratios from 60 percent
to 50 percent for commercial and
merchant banks and from 45 percent to 40
percent for discount houses on June
19.
The yield on the special TBs has
been hiked from 200 percent to 375 percent,
backdated to April 1, in a move
that is expected to provide a measure of
relief primarily to the bigger
banks that hold huge chunks of that paper.
A bank executive told The
Financial Gazette yesterday that although the
statutory reserve rebates had
not immediately improved liquidity in the
market as they were converted to
365-day CPI-linked TBs, they had improved
banks' asset returns in the
books.
Banks have been under duress since late February when the central bank
began
mopping up funds in the market through aggressive open market
operations.
Given that banks had to lodge as much as 60 cents for every
dollar in
deposits with the central bank, many were distressed by the
resultant
liquidity crunch and were forced to access the central bank's
expensive
overnight funds, with rates touching 850 percent at one
time.
Analysts expect below par results and, in some cases, catastrophic
figures,
from the sector in the first half of the year.
FinGaz
IN a most intriguing revelation, Local Government, Public
Works and Urban
Development Minister Ignatius Chombo this week unwittingly
turned over the
stone that brought to light what we have known all along but
which he and
his colleagues in ZANU PF have spiritedly but unconvincingly
denied.
And that is the fact that his excesses at Harare City Council
have nothing
to do with the façade of altruism he displays. It has
everything to do with
ZANU PF's obsession with reasserting its influence in
the capital city where
its political star is on the wane. If in doubt, check
this telling statement
from the minister, which puts everything into a
perspective that justifies
why some say politics has no soul:
". . . I
think Nhara is a very senior person in the party who should know
all the
protocols. He should not make statements in papers but must either
approach
me as the appointing authority or approach the person on the
commission who
represents the party interests, who, in these circumstances
is Cde Tendai
Savanhu . . .", said a patently angry Chombo who has no
cultural or
political limits to his bullying approach.
My foot! Did the minister say it
loud enough to hear it himself? I wonder
because even Chombo, with his
proclivity to meddle in municipal affairs
driven by his obsession with
political intrigue and gamesmanship without any
modicum of democratic
decision-making, should surely know where to draw the
line. If it was meant
to be a joke, then Chombo must have an off-the-wall
sense of humour where he
is the only one laughing.
The minister, who is incuriously passive in his
pursuit of the greater good
in Harare but intensely aggressive in turf
battles with the popularly
elected Movement For Democratic Change (MDC)
municipal councillors, made the
statement quoted earlier on in The Herald of
Monday this week. He sought to
dismiss assertions by William Nhara, of the
ZANU PF Harare province, that
the chairperson of the Commission running the
affairs of the City of Harare,
Sekesai Makwavarara has failed and has now
become a liability to the ruling
party.
Whether there is a serious
internal disagreement within ZANU PF over the
suitability of the incumbent
as mayor or Makwavarara has cost ZANU PF votes
in Harare is the least of my
problems. What worries me to no end though is
what Chombo, who is not
embarrassed to say things that shock or annoy people
revealingly said:
".
. . I will hear it from Savanhu. I will wait. In the meantime we are
expecting the city to deliver . . . " as he darkly hinted that Makwavarara
would be reappointed, implying that she has acquitted herself with
distinction although the state of service delivery in Harare would drive a
coach and horses through such claims.
So, it is only what ZANU PF
loyalists like Savanhu will say that will move
the minister? What about what
the Harare residents have been saying all
these years through their umbrella
body, the Combined Harare Residents
Association (CHRA)? Or is Chombo, who is
the author of the deepening crisis
in Harare, saying that he is not
accountable to the citizens of Harare but
to Savanhu (read ZANU PF)? If so,
isn't this a blatant violation of the
social and political contracts between
a people and their government?
As with most things in life, timing is
everything. But this seems lost on
the politically deceptive Chombo,
especially as his reckless utterances come
at a time when the municipality
of Harare has gone to the dogs.
And come to think of it, how revealing could
one get? The interests of ZANU
PF, the party that lost the Harare municipal
elections in March 2002 after
being rejected by the residents are
represented in the hand-picked
commission imposed on the municipality after
the popularly elected council
was shown the door by Chombo? Which other
political party or interest group
has its interests being represented in the
Commission? The MDC won 44 of the
45 wards in the council elections held in
Harare in March 2002. And ZANU PF
won one! Who is representing MDC's
interests on the commission? Who
represents the interests of the residents
of Harare now after those they
voted into office were removed from Town
House? Why is the government acting
in the interest of one political party
(ZANU PF) and not as an instrument of
balancing different socio-economic
groups? Are these the actions of a
responsible, transparent and accountable
government?
Since this has nothing to do with a popular mandate from the
residents of
the city after Elias Mudzuri, the first popularly elected
executive mayor
supposedly failed to turn around the operations of the city,
what has
political party representation got to do with it? I thought that
when it
comes to choosing people to spearhead the turnaround of the
operations of
the city, it had something to do with the appointment of
competent people
with the imagination, sincerity, seriousness, depth,
clarity of thinking and
strategic vision instead of some politically pliable
men upon whom the Lord
conferred wet spaghetti instead of backbones and are
susceptible to
political bribery.
Does Makwavarara fit the bill? Has she
done any better job than the deposed
popularly elected mayor Mudzuri?
Hardly! If anything, the situation has
deteriorated further. Makwavarara,
for whom Chombo has a soft spot, has
become part of the problem at Town
House. And it's a mystery that this does
not prick the conscience of the
minister, who in his warped reasoning thinks
that the appointment of
Makwavarara was a master-stroke.
But in the court of public opinion, she is a
human cancer whose malignance
can only be killed by killing the host. She
should be given the boot.
Removing her and her commissioners would be a
quantum leap towards the
elusive but much-hoped-for turnaround of the
operations of the city.
It is true that an old broom knows all the corners.
But the broom at Town
House is not only straining on a rigid political leash
and partisan
obligations but it has lost most of its bristles, if ever it
had them.
Cynics could not have put it any better. The mayorship is too big
a job for
Makwavarara. It is like Mother Superior marrying Hugh Hefner of
Playboy.
Thus the minister's gaffe which makes prospects for the long
yearned-for-turnaround rather grim, should provide the clearest public view
on how the ZANU PF government opposes certain local authorities, not because
of their failures but because they simply want to get their men or is it
women in. It is just crazy.
That the thick skin runs interference for
Makwavarara is an open secret.
They are as thick as thieves those two. But
where will this political
madness end, especially when Chombo continues to
speak glowingly of the
Makwavarara-led commission which seems to be stymied
by the
government-ordered chaos even at a time when the smell of death and
decay
hangs over the city? Does the minister have a strategy as regards the
problems of Harare? Most likely not if what the residents of the city have
been put through over the years is anything to go by. It would seem to me,
as exemplified by his antics not only in Harare but Mutare too, that the
minister is always after the scalps of those that try to get things moving.
Thus, it will take years to recover what Harare has lost in the political
storms brewed by Chombo's monstrous injustice.
e-mail: gg@fingaz.co.zw
FinGaz
Mavis Makuni
LEAVE us
alone to make a mess of things but as soon as we are in trouble you
have an
obligation to help us! It has not been said in those exact words but
that
seems to be the message from Africa ahead of a meeting in Rabat next
week
between ministers from 60 African states and representatives of the
European
Union.
According to press reports, the aim of the meeting, which begins
on Monday,
is to formulate a strategy to tackle the problem of illegal
African
immigrants who regularly risk their lives in a bid to reach Europe
and find
a better way of life.
Images shown on television of men, women
and children packed like sardines
in flimsy fishing boats are reminiscent of
the era of the "boat people" in
the 1970s when refugees from trouble spots
in Asia wandered aimlessly in
unsafe vessels on the high seas because of
untenable political situations in
their home countries.
The main
organiser of the Africa-EU meeting to be held in the Moroccan
capital,
Youssef Amrani, a senior official from the country's foreign
ministry, said
the gathering would be the first global initiative to tackle
the problem of
uncontrolled immigration in a collaborative manner by
countries inundated by
floods of new arrivals and the nations of origin of
the illegal
immigrants.
African states will appeal for more development aid from the EU
to promote
job creation initiatives in those countries where local
conditions are
leaving young people no option but to leave in droves to seek
a better life
in Europe.
"Without giving a priority to development in
Africa, there will be no
solution or end to illegal migration. Synergies
between the EU, the United
Nations and other countries and international
bodies are needed to focus
efforts on Africa's economic development," Amrani
is quoted as telling the
press. This meeting will take place barely a week
after the AU summit held
in Banjul last weekend which did not have the issue
on its agenda. But it is
abundantly clear that the problem of millions of
Africans preferring to
desert their home countries to live in the diaspora
is among the pertinent
issues that should embarrass the heads of state and
galvanise them into
action.
But alas, the AU and its forerunner, the
Organisation of African Union (OAU)
are notorious for articulating
high-sounding ideals on paper but failing
dismally when it comes to
commitment and political will to tackle problems
affecting African
populations directly and practically.
African leaders' table-thumbing,
self-righteous indignation against foreign
interference in the internal
affairs of member states has not been matched
by a determination to address
the issues that attract negative publicity and
cause international outcries.
The heads of state have, for example, not been
honest enough to ask
themselves why the conditions in their countries are
not conducive enough to
convince young Africans and the millions of
professionals now working in the
West to remain at home and contribute to
national development.
The
economic development of Africa that the EU is to be asked to fund at the
meeting in Rabat will remain elusive as long as leaders are not committed to
promoting democratic governance and abolishing dictatorships. At this year's
summit, the AU flaunted its new-found friendship with countries like Iran
and Venezuela whose presidents, Mahmoud Ahadnejad and Hugo Chavez were
special guests. The AU leaders however know that the millions of disgruntled
Africans deserting their homelands make a beeline for the West rather than
other developing countries governed by repressive regimes. As a result,
these countries do not have much to offer in the way of economic aid and
other assistance.
This year's summit proved once more that whenever they
meet, African heads
of state prefer to discuss 'prestige' issues that do not
focus on pressing
governance and human rights issues that impact negatively
on large sections
of various African populations.
AU summits tend to be
mere talkfests where the leaders meet to stroke each
other's egos and fend
off scrutiny of each other's sins of commission and
omission, with respect
to the manner in which they govern their people. As
was the case last year,
one of the main items on the AU Summit agenda in
Banjul was the reform of
the United Nations Security Council, which cannot
be considered a priority
issue.
The committee tasked to handle the matter has not made any headway and
therefore the item goes into the organisation's bursting file of pending
issues that it never gets round to tackling. The only time the AU seems
ready to act decisively and aggressively is when it needs to prevent an
embarrassing item pertaining to one of its member states from being included
on its agenda.
This was seen in the run-up to last year's summit when the
continental body
threw out a report on the human rights situation in
Zimbabwe prepared by the
African Commission on Human and People's Rights
(ACHPR) on the basis of
technicalities and procedural flaws.
The Council
of Ministers, which deliberated before the arrival of the heads
of state in
Khartoum last year, announced it had sent the report back to the
ACHPR
because of irregularities and procedural flaws. These included charges
that
the report was a replica of an earlier version that had been rejected
at an
AU Summit in Addis Ababa in 2004 and that the report called on the
heads of
state to act on an adverse United Nations report on the
controversial
demolition of dwellings the Zimbabwean government embarked on
last year. The
summit refused to tackle the humanitarian issues arising from
the clean-up
exercise and the questions raised about Zimbabwe's human rights
record after
accusing the ACHPR of not taking the reports through the
relevant stages - a
convenient but dishonest way of ducking responsibility!
Following the
extradition of former warlord Charles Taylor for trial on war
crimes and
crimes against humanity and the subsequent transfer of his trial
to The
Hague, some leaders have complained that the former Liberian leader
was
betrayed by both his successor Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and his former
host,
Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria where Taylor lived in exile before his
arrest
earlier this year. But their annoyance over the fact an essentially
African
issue is to be handled by "foreigners" is hypocritical in view of
the
inertia that has afflicted the AU with respect to the outstanding cases
of
other leaders accused of similar abuses and crimes against humanity.
The
leaders gathered in Banjul for example made no moves to address issues
pertaining to former dictators Hissene Habre of Chad and Mengistu Haile
Mari-am of Ethiopia who have both been accused of ge-nocide and other human
rights violations. But these same heads of state who chose to say nothing
about these outstanding cases would be the first to cry foul if outsiders
drew attention to their failure to act.
FinGaz
Chris
Muronzi
CONTROVERSIAL British tycoon, Nicholas Van Hoogstraten sparked
drama during
a Hwange Colliery Company annual general meeting (AGM) last
week after he
tabled a motion to oust the company's audit committee
chairman.
The businessman, who holds 34 percent of the company's stock,
is strongly
opposed to a blockbuster rights issue that seeks to raise $2
trillion in
fresh capital. He accuses Ternard Kwashirai, the audit committee
chairman,
of "misdirecting the board and management" on the issue.
Last
week, Van Hoogstraten moved a motion at the AGM for Kwashirai's ouster,
despite the fact that the astute asset manager represents a different
shareholder on the Hwange board.
The tycoon's efforts, however, fell
flat, as Kwashirai polled substantial
votes in a secret ballot to retain his
board seat.
"Nick said Kwashirai single-handedly campaigned for a rights
issue and did
not have the support of the government for the capital raising
programme.
Nick has always said that he wanted the company to source
offshore loans but
country risk and perception issues have not worked in the
company's favour,"
said a source who attended the AGM.
Van Hoogstraten
last year derailed a proposed $2 trillion rights issue at
the company but
government, which has over 38 percent in the colliery
company backed the
capital raising programme, which management says is
crucial for the
company's survival.
Hwange says it needs US$80 million to continue with
expansion work at its
three main underground shafts and fund other projects
within the mining
group.
Van Hoogstraten has been splashing billions on
equity on the local exchange
over the years and reportedly holds close to
nine percent in NMB.
Early this year he also tried to oust RTG executives
after a fallout over
that company's rights issue.
FinGaz
Comment
IT is not out of character for the ruling
ZANU PF government to
take the politics of patronage to a whole new
disgusting level.
More-often-than-not it does not see beyond narrow
political interests.
But the repeated yet unpopular and
widely criticised
reappointment of the incompetent Sekesai Makwavarara as
the chairperson of
the commission running the affairs of the City of Harare
is perhaps the
central paradox of Zimbabwean politics.
Or is
the media over-dramatising the decaying of the City of
Harare? That is the
question for more reasons than one. We will explain. It
is almost next to
impossible to pick up a newspaper - any newspaper
including those many think
are sitting in the sewer because of their
editorials characterised by
malevolence and mendacity - and not read horror
stories about the
accelerating deterioration of service delivery in Harare
and the ever
present need to arrest the decline.
The tenor of the stories,
which resonates with the public
feeling is that: Makwavarara is a deadweight
on the operations of the City
of Harare and what she knows about civic
matters can fit on the back of
postage stamp. She must therefore go. That is
the consensus. Yet she keeps
her plum job. And she probably will until the
cows come home, if what Local
Government Minister Ignatius Chombo was quoted
as having said on Monday this
week and has not yet been denied, is anything
to go by. Forget the rights of
the people. Who remembers these when a system
collapses?
Whatever hold Makwavarara has over Chombo beats us. It
is
incomprehensible. But could there be any worse arrogance and more
profound
contempt and disdain for the people of Harare than that shown by
Chombo when
he said:
". . . So far we have done what we think
is the best for the
city and we are awaiting to re-appoint the commission
when the time is ripe
or when we see it necessary . . ."
In
short, Chombo was saying to hell with the hue and cry raised
by the
residents of Harare who wear the shoe and therefore know and how it
pinches
over Makwavarara's monumental failure. The universal pandemic of
despair is
inconsequential and she is here to stay. Now, if that is not
sticking the
middle finger right in the face of the residents of Harare we
don't what
is.
Which planet has the minister - whose political behaviour at
Town House is a sad reflection of the gap between Zimbabwe's stated
democratisation intentions and what should be its values on one hand and the
anti-democratic nature of some senior politicians in ZANU PF - just arrived
from? How in all honesty could he possibly imply that Makwavarara's
commission has done its job and therefore deserves to have its term
extended? What can the political chameleon, Makwavarara do in the extended
six months that she failed to do over the past three years since Harare's
first popularly elected mayor Elias Mudzuri was hounded out of office by
Chombo?
In any case, the situation in the capital
deteriorated further
under Makwavarara, who owes her allegiance to no one
but Chombo who imposed
her on the municipality of Harare. The capital is now
a city of rivers of
raw sewage, mountains of uncollected garbage, unlit
streets and collapsing
infrastructure, among others as the
government-appointed commission spends
most of its time discussing fire
prevention when the house is already on
fire. So why does the minister seem
to think that everyone else except him
is wrong on Makwavarara who, by some
cruel twist of fate or strange streak
of political fortune, found herself at
the helm of the capital city?
Wouldn't he see the justice of it
all when Harare residents,
disillusioned by the ZANU PF charlatans imposed
on the capital city
following Chombo's ruinous political interference, say
that he is directly
responsible for the imminent collapse of the erstwhile
sunshine city?
We said it in our editorial of May 18, 2006 titled
It's Chombo's
Fault and we will say it again. Chombo not only sees the
problems besetting
Harare through the wrong end of a municipal drainpipe but
his meddling,
which has raised eyebrows and coughs of disapproval from a
wide
cross-section of the Zimbabwean community will have drastic long-term
consequences borne, not by the government but by the residents of the City
of Harare. Unfortunately Chombo doesn't seem to care because if he did, he
would not hesitate to take the terminally ill horse to the back of the barn
and pull the trigger. That is why he continues to defend the
indefensible!
Don't ignore real issues behind the MDC split
EDITOR - The article by
one Geoff Nyarota entitled, "Serious politics,
educated elite and related
matters " cannot go unchallenged. Nyarota chooses
to ignore issues that
really led to the MDC split. He knows that the real
issue is not education
but growing authoritarianism and promotion of
violence by one Morgan
Tsvangirai.
It is unfortunate that Nyarota still chooses to promote
tribalism and petty
issues at the expense of real issues. For sometime now,
Nyarota has been
allowed to write about Mthwakazi, tried to distance himself
from
Gukurahundi, insulted Welshman Ncube, Trevor Ncube, Sibanda and other
Ndebele people.
For the record, Geoff, people who have worked tirelessly
to unite the
feuding MDC factions have told us the real MDC story. And I am
not talking
of David Coltart here. Nyarota has never commented on the
growing
dictatorship within the MDC but chooses to portray the Mutambara
faction as
an ethnic project. Why? Because he does not only have an axe to
grind with
Ncube but has issues with the Ndebele people.
Just like a
white American will not wish to see a black man rule the US, he
will work
hard to ensure that Ndebele people do not hold significant
leadership
positions in Zimbabwe, no matter how good they are. I think it's
high time
this fellow tells us why he works so hard to fan tribalism.
Does he want
another Gukurahundi so that people can forget what he did? It
is a tragedy
of African politics that masses are allowed to be swayed by
such senseless
writing.
As young Zimbabweans, we are taught to respect old people and that
old
people do not lie, but just check what Nyarota, Tsvangirai, President
Mugabe, Moyo and other elders tell to you. Nyarota, for example, lies for
tribal purposes. As a regular writer in your paper Nyarota should try to be
unbiased and not fan tribalism. We want a united Zimbabwe where leaders will
not be chosen on the basis of their tribal origin but on their capabilities.
It is true that as a leader Tsvangirai has his shortcomings but because
people are desperate for change they will even follow a baboon if it
promises to bring change. Tsvangirai or his bootlickers like Nyarota should
not fool themselves.
In Rwanda, they said "never again" and we want the
same for Zimbabwe. I
challenge brother Nyarota to read what Brian
Raftopoulos wrote about the MDC
split and then tell the nation what he
thinks. As an elderly Zimbabwe, he
should also teach the youth values of
unity and not ethnic hatred.
Proudly
Zimbabwean
Harare
---------
Who needs such a police
force?
EDITOR - I read this extract from a paper circulating in
Zimbabwe: "The
Zimbabwe government itself is conceding liability for the
perpetration of
gross human rights violations. The Forum said it would send
its report to
the United Nations to press for further action against
government."
Police were cited as the most common perpetrators. "People
in detention are
generally at a much greater risk of abuse unless there are
extremely strong
safeguards in place governing the process of detaining
people," reads the
report. "People in custody are likely to be beaten
irrespective of their
alleged crime, political or criminal, and are commonly
subjected to
falanga - the excruciatingly painful practice of beating the
soles of the
feet, which leaves little obvious bruising." Police had
"adopted torture as
a means to eliciting confessions on a widespread basis",
the report says.
Harare Central police station has been cited as the worst
station where
people have suffered severe torture.
At first, I thought
that this was another of the usual exaggerations by yet
another NGO until I
saw a police officer at Mzilikazi Police Station in
Bulawao beating up two
young ladies in full view of his colleagues and the
public. This incident
took place on June 29, 2006 at precisely 1350hrs in
the charge office.
I
had gone there with my school-leaver daughter to get her certificates
stamped. Funny enough, my daughter wants to join the ZRP and what she saw
that day shocked her, to say the least.
I distinctly heard a
plain-clothes officer refer to the thug as "Marabishi"
as the terrified
girls were led up the stairs to a first floor office.
Once inside the office,
whose windows face towards 6th Avenue Extension, and
in full view of other
officers in the courtyard, Marabishi slapped and
kicked the two hapless
girls and at the same time hurling insults at the top
of his voice. The fact
that Marabishi had started slapping and kicking the
girls right there in the
charge office showed me that this is normal
procedure at Mzilikazi Police
Station. And to think that not even one police
officer, including the female
officers present, lifted a finger in defence
of the two poor girls is
appalling.
Not suprisingly, my daughter no longer wants to join the
force.
Victor Z. Mtau
Bulawayo
------------
Shumba is no war
vet
EDITOR - Please get your facts right. Daniel Shumba is a
mere former soldier
and not a war veteran as far as the war of liberation
for Zimbabwe is
concerned.
He is just a young boy and was wearing nappies
when the war was being
fought.
Charlot
Bandah
Harare
-----------
Intermarket and Finhold deal -
misconceptions
EDITOR - I have read in you paper on a number of times
where journalists
mention that Finhold acquired Intermarket and has majority
shareholding of
78 percent. I would like to refute that statement as a
concerned investor in
Zimbabwe. Finhold does not hold majority shareholding
in Intermarket. They
are just pushing themselves onto Intermarket.
In
Finhold's financial results published in March (under the Accounting
Judgements Section), Elisha Mushayakarara said: "During the period under
review the Group increased its shareholding in an unlisted third party from
7 percent to 10.86 percent following a restructure of that company's balance
sheet. The Group then concluded a Management Service Agreement in terms of
which the Group assumed management control effective from the 1st of August
2005 pending finalisation of an agreement of sale of a majority
shareholder's
stake to the Group. Whilst negotiations are still progressing,
management
has accounted for the cost of the shares under
'investments'".
It can clearly be seen from this statement that Finhold is
hoping and
trusting that the RBZ will dispose of its majority shareholding
to itself,
sidelining all other investors who might be
interested.
Therefore, journalists must not be hoodwinked by Finhold's
actions to think
that it has majority shareholding in Intermarket. They
don't. If good
corporate governance princles are to be followed, Finhold
should have waited
for the consummation of the transaction before heavily
involving themsleves
in the operations of the Intermarket
Group.
Concerned Investor
Harare
----------
Of ZBH changes and
SA satellite television
EDITOR - Debate is raging on about the
shutting down of South African
satellite TV to make it inaccessible to
Zimba-bweans and also about the
circus at ZBH. What do you get? A strong
resistance from the public who have
already voiced concern on the closure as
a sheer waste of time.
Tichaona Jokonya's successor must make it a
prerogative to find out the real
reason why Zimbabweans prefer SABC instead
of their own ZBH transmissions.
The ZANU PF poisonous glib propagandists must
not interfere with the
restructuring exercise otherwise we will have more
satellite dishes than we
have already. It's a chance that has been given to
Jokonya's successor to
make and give the viewer first preference than the
misused identity and
sovereignty hogwash that we continue to
hear.
Walter Manamike
Harare
---------
Sagit closure: Where
is justice?
EDITOR - On March 2 2006, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) closed Sagit
Finance House on the basis that money was "siphoned' out
of the company in
pursuit of non-banking activities".
Further, the
RBZ cited non-performing insider loans as having been granted,
among other
reasons.
The closure threw onto the streets around 100 people. On March 3,
RBZ
officials formally announced the closure and ordered staff to go home
and to
leave their contact details so that they could be contacted in due
course.
More than three months later, neither the RBZ nor the company's
executives
has made any announcement over the fate of the employees. No
contact has
been made with staff. Employees were last paid in
February.
Though employment contracts have not been formally terminated,
employees
have, for all intents and purposes, lost their jobs. No process
seems to
bind the employer to meet contractual obligations with the
employees. These
are the employees who created the company's wealth and, in
my view, who were
the greatest asset of the company, which have been thrown
down the storm
drain.
The economic hardships facing Zimbabweans today,
even for those that take
home a salary at the end of each month, need no
introduction. One can
imagine what the situation is to those that wake up
the next morning and
simply find themselves without a job. Needless to say,
the effect of this
action has been felt beyond just the 100 or so employees.
These are people
that have families and relatives to feed and support. This
action also came
at a time when parents and guardians were due to find
school fees for the
second term bearing in mind that schools, under pressure
from the
ever-escalating costs, had hiked fees dramatically. My own children
went
back to school without fees because someone siphoned money out of a
company
from where I earned a living!
The RBZ did not say who siphoned
the money but I am sure they know. The mind
boggles why such people - who
have caused immense suffering to so many
innocent people - are allowed to
enjoy not only their ill-gotten wealth, but
also their freedom. Where is
justice here?
They can put regular meals on their tables and send their
children to
expensive elite schools, I can't; they drive around in their
luxurious cars;
I pound the streets of Harare on foot in search of a job
that is more and
more difficult to find. Again, where is justice in all
this?
A provisional liquidator was appointed and only God knows the outcome
of
that process. The holding company, which would be expected to give policy
directions for the group and to support its subsidiaries, suddenly became
non-operational following the closure of its finance house. The silence from
its executives is puzzling.
The report by an independent panel in the
Trust and Royal appeals case made
very interesting reading. It stated in a
number of areas that, without the
creation of ZABG, all former employees of
the two banks would have lost
their jobs, and as a result, their
livelihoods.
Very well, but are former employees of Sagit any lesser human
beings than
their counterparts in the two banks? Is it alright to throw
former Sagit
employees on the streets without notice or compensation on one
hand and
safeguard former Trust and Royal banks' employees on the other? Is
it
alright that many families are made to suffer as a result of the greed of
a
few and the inconsistent application of the law? Where is
justice?
During the banking crisis of 2004 many bank executives were
persecuted by
the same RBZ for these very same transgressions and a lot of
them had to
flee the country and abandon their businesses and families. What
has
happened to the missionary zeal with which the RBZ tried to clean up the
financial services sector then? What is special about those that have
plundered Sagit that they are still allowed to roam around freely?
If the
RBZ is going to apply the law selectively as seems to be the case
here, then
I know one fact - there is God out there who sees and knows all.
I may not
be around to see him pass judgment, but if I had the power to
judge, the
perpetrators of this evil in Sagit would be gone for a very long
time - not
only to prison but also to eternal hell.
Aggrieved former
employee
Harare
Business Day
Brian
Latham
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bloomberg
TOBACCO
prices in Zimbabwe, the world's fifth-biggest producer of the top
grade of
the crop, jumped 62% at auction on good leaf quality, the Zimbabwe
Tobacco
Association said yesterday.
Prices rose to an average of $2,07/kg in the
45 days to June 28, from $1,28
in the same period last year, the
Harare-based body said.
The price, which rose 6,7% from the previous five
days of sales, reached a
high of $2,14 on June 28 at Tobacco Sales Floors,
the world's biggest
tobacco auction floor.
The rise was the first in
three weeks of sales.
"Leaf quality continues to range from good to
excellent and buyers are
responding to that quality," Tafumiswa Sigauke, an
analyst at the
association, said from Harare.
The association
represents most of the country's tobacco growers.
Production of
Zimbabwean tobacco, which competes with the US for quality,
has slumped
since 2000 - the year President Robert Mugabe began seizing
white-owned
farms for distribution to blacks who had been deprived of land
during
colonial rule.
Zimbabwe has earned $50m from flue-cured tobacco sales
this year, the
state-controlled Herald reported yesterday.
The
country has sold 12196920kg of tobacco since sales began May 3, 18% less
than in the same period last year.
Tobacco wastage, the
amount of the crop rejected by merchants or withdrawn
by growers
dissatisfied with prices, was 13%, the same level as in the
previous five
days of sales.
Wastage accounted for 14% of the crop this time last
year.
Zimbabwe would probably produce 50-million to 60-million kilograms
of
tobacco this year, compared with 74-million kilograms last year, the
association said.
It blames the fall in production on shortages of
finance and inputs such as
fertilisers available to small-scale farmers
resettled on former white-owned
land.