http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 06 July 2012 10:54
Faith Zaba
AS
the Zanu PF succession battle continues smouldering, Defence minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa’s attempt to strengthen his presidential bid has suffered
a huge knock after Vice-President Joice Mujuru and hardliners in the party
aligned to the powerful Joint Operations Command (JOC) influenced President
Robert Mugabe to disband District Co-ordinating Committees
(DCCs).
Investigations by the Zimbabwe Independent reveal several cliques
in Zanu PF
and big hitters in JOC, which brings together army, police and
intelligence
chiefs, aligned to Mujuru’s faction, lobbied Mugabe to abolish
DCCs after it
became apparent the Mnangagwa faction had gained control of
most provinces.
Some JOC hardliners and senior party
officials also wanted the DCCs to be
disbanded for their own self-interest.
Those in JOC not supporting Mujuru
wanted the structures dissolved to
reinforce the security forces’ grip on
Zanu PF as the DCCs were making that
difficult, while some individuals, like
Matabeleland North provincial
governor Thokozile Mathuthu — who actually
made the proposal to abolish the
DCCs — did it for self-preservation.
Mathuthu was battling fellow
politburo member, Obert Mpofu, who wanted to
push her out of the provincial
structures using his allies who controlled
the DCCs in the
province.
“There are many reasons why the DCCs were disbanded,” a
source said.
“People had a convergence or confluence of interests on
the issue. What
actually happened was that after the secretary for the
commissariat (Webster
Shamu) had presented his report on DCCs, saying the
problem had been sorted
out, Mathuthu took the stage and condemned the
structures before suggesting
they must be dissolved. She got a round of
applause and from there it was
one way — the resolution to disband the
structures followed.”
While the Mujuru faction had done its own
lobbying, there were individuals
and forces fighting for DCCs to be
dissolved for different reasons than
stemming Mnangagwa’s ascendancy. In
fact, some Zanu PF heavyweight had been
pushing for their dissolution months
ago, mainly in May when an internal
proposal was made.
However,
Mathuthu, who moved the motion, and Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, who
seconded it,
are both Mujuru allies.
Party insiders said the plan to have the DCC
elections nullified and the
structures abolished was well-orchestrated and
by the time the issue was
discussed in the politburo meeting, Mugabe was
already on board.
Mugabe told the Central Committee last Friday: “As
we discussed the matter,
we decided that the Central Committee should look
at the issue of the DCCs
and we came to the conclusion that they are serving
a divisive process. They
are an organ which must go.
“The
politburo came to the conclusion that DCCs must be repealed. A
recommendation would be made to the Central Committee so that it could
remove the organ called the DCC from the party,” he said adding that “we are
worried the DCC has become a weapon used to divide the
party”.
The Mujuru faction took advantage of the fact that Mnangagwa
was not at the
politburo meeting as he was in China, while Mujuru herself
was around
although she later left the meeting when Shamu was presenting his
report on
the state of the party and contentious DCC elections. Mnangagwa
was also not
there during the recent extraordinary politburo meeting where
Mujuru lashed
out at his faction.
A senior politburo member said:
“The whole thing was well-planned. The idea
to have DCC elections nullified
and disband the structures originated from
the Mujuru faction after they
realised they had lost in most provinces,
including in Amai Mujuru’s
backyard, Mashonaland Central.”
“It is interesting that the matter
was discussed when Mnangagwa was not in
the meeting and obviously there was
no one from his camp who could speak out
against disbanding
DCCs.”
Influential top army commanders and police chiefs campaigning
for Zanu PF in
Manicaland Province, who are said to be sympathetic to
Mujuru, had
reportedly submitted a dossier to Mugabe recommending that DCCs
be
disbanded.
The dossier was said to have been authored by a
team led by deputy police
commissioner-general Godwin Matanga which included
Major-General Martin
Chedondo, Air Vice-Marshal Shebba Brighton
Shumbayaonda, Brigadier-General
Herbert Chingono, Brigadier-General Mike
Sango, 3 Brigade commander
Brigadier-General Eliah Bandama and members of
the provincial Joint
Operations Command (JOC).
A top Zanu PF
official in Manicaland said: “Deputy commissioner-general
Matanga submitted
a huge dossier to the president on DCCs in Manicaland.
They spoke very
strongly about the need to disband DCCs from party
structures, arguing that
some party bigwigs were manipulating the DCCs to
gain control of the
grassroot structures.”
The commissariat department, headed by retired
Air Vice-Marshal Henry
Muchena and former Central Intelligence Organisation
director-internal,
Sydney Nyanhongo, accused of running an elaborate smear
campaign against
Mnangagwa, also pushed for the nullification of the
DCCs.
The disbandment of DCCs came amid intense infighting in the
districts as the
tussling between the two main factions fighting for control
of strategic
party structures to pave way for their candidate to take over
from Mugabe in
the next Zanu PF congress in 2014.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 06 July 2012 10:47
Tendai
Marima
BARELY a fortnight after the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s
departure
from Zimbabwe after its annual Article IV consultation visit where
it warned
of the “destabilising effects” of indigenisation on the banking
sector, the
battle for foreign-owned banks has intensified, with Finance
minister Tendai
Biti yesterday emphatically declaring the latest
empowerment regulations “a
nullity”.
In General Notice 280 of 2012,
gazetted last Friday, Youth Development,
Indigenisation and Empowerment
minister Saviour Kasukuwere laid down rules
for the implementation of
indigenisation in nine sectors which include,
finance, tourism, education
and sport, arts, entertainment and culture,
engineering and construction,
energy services, telecommunications, transport
and the motor
industry.
The gazette gave all foreign-owned banks with a
minimum net value of $1 a
year to increase indigenous shareholding to at
least 51%.
However, Biti said this was unlawful.
“The
regulations are a nullity. They are void ab initio (invalid from the
outset),” Biti told the Zimbabwe Independent yesterday. “The law is very
clear. There has got to be sectoral consultations and thresholds. The
financial sector is sui generis (unique or special), so we need to be
careful about how to proceed, otherwise we destabilise the economy. Those
regulations are void; they are of no legal effect, an absolute nullity. In
any case, if you indigenise a bank what are you indigenising? A building or
computers?”
Economic analyst Professor Tony Hawkins has also been
quoted as saying:
“What is being indigenised? Is it money or brand names?
The truth of the
matter is that the majority of Zimbabwe’s banks are already
indigenised.”
The battle for the fate of foreign banks has also
escalated the fight
between Kasukuwere and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
governor Gideon Gono.
Kasukuwere wants to seize foreign banks, while Gono
says that would be
destabilising to the economy. Biti and the IMF have also
warned of the
negative consequences of grabbing banks.
Outraged
by Kasukuwere’s latest move, Gono on Wednesday stepped up attacks
on the
minister (Kasukuwere) over the issue.
“We regard the regulations
gazetted as devoid of detail and rationality as
they are contradictory in
many respects with existing laws in the country
such as the Banking Act and
the RBZ Act,” Gono said.
“Both the RBZ and the Banking Acts have not
been amended to exclude the RBZ
from final responsibility of running
Zimbabwe’s financial sector.Gono
suggested government needed to be careful
about Kasukuwere and National
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board
chairman David Chapfika, as
they are associated with bank
collapses.
“The fact that the two main proponents (apparently
Chapfika and Kasukuwere)
of the recent illogical moves have presided over
the failure of their two
banks before, namely Unibank and Genesis
(respectively), calls for Solomonic
wisdom on the part of Zimbabwe’s
population and leadership,” he said.
“Ordinarily, anyone who was near
a failed bank is not a fit and proper
person to deal with banking matters or
to ever own, run or talk about the
ownership of a bank again until cleared
by the central bank; this is a
universal practice.
“As the
Reserve Bank, we repeat our earlier invitation to any Zimbabwean
wishing to
start a bank to come forward with their application and we will
give them a
licence to join the sector at 100% ownership, rather than waste
money taking
over other people’s banks,” Gono said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 06 July 2012 10:53
CONTROVERSIAL army
commander Major-General Douglas Nyikayaramba stunned top
Zanu PF, military
and government officials last weekend when he declared
Marondera West MP,
retired Brigadier Ambrose Mutinhiri,would succeed
President Robert
Mugabe.
Deafening descended on Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander Constantine
Chiwenga’s homestead in Hwedza when Nyikayaramba made the declaration on
Saturday.
Nyikayaramba was interjected at a memorial by a visibly
irate Zanu PF
national commissar, Webster Shamu,who said the “joke” was not
funny and
should never be repeated. Shamu reminded Nyikayaramba, a loose
cannon, there
was no vacancy for the post of president, as Mugabe was still
in charge. —
Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 06 July 2012 10:52
ZANU PF resolved
to amend the party’s constitution last week apparently to
deal with Defence
minister Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ambitions to succeed
President Robert Mugabe
ahead of his bitter rival Vice-President Joice
Mujuru. This follows his
seizure of the District Co-ordinating Committee
(DCC) structures after
recent internal elections, in a move which shows the
2004 “Tsholotsho ghost”
is still haunting the party.
The Mnangagwa faction was poised to take firm
control of the provinces
through the DCC structures after winning in most
areas against the Mujuru
faction. Controlling the DCCs would have enabled
him to influence the
provinces and central committee and politburo as well
as congress, meaning
they were of strategic importance on
succession.
The DCC polls were, however, tarnished by acrimony,
protests over
intimidation, vote-buying, flawed voters’ rolls and ballot
rigging, forcing
Mugabe to publicly denounce factions and their leaders
saying they were
destroying the party.
As infighting, fuelled by
succession battles, spread across party
structures, Zanu PF was recently
forced to hold an extraordinary politburo
meeting to deal with the issue. In
that meeting, Mujuru breathed fire and
vowed to crack down on those opposed
to her leadership. The politburo met
again last week on Wednesday and
resolved to dissolve the DCCs after it
became clear Zanu PF would approach
the next elections deeply divided,
risking losing elections and sabotaging
Mugabe’s prospects of re-election
like in 2008.
Zanu PF secretary
for administration Didymus Mutasa said the DCCs were
disbanded because they
were being used by those fighting to succeed Mugabe
and had resultantly
become destabilising.
After suffering defeat in DCC elections in its
own backyard, Mashonaland
Central, and in most of the other provinces, the
Mujuru faction resorted to
the same strategy it used in 2004 to stop
Mnangagwa when it proposed,
through the Women’s League, an amendment to the
party constitution to
stipulate that one of the vice-presidents should be a
woman. This was done
after it became apparent Mnangagwa had the support of
seven out of 10
provinces, giving him enough nominations to take up the
position of
vice-president.
The party constitution was
subsequently amended to state that one of the
vice-presidents had to be a
woman, effectively knocking Mnangagwa out of the
race. The amendment then
also meant the only way Mnangagwa could be
vice-president was if the late
vice-president Joseph Msika had resigned or
lost the
nominations.
Mnangagwa’s faction tried to fight back by fielding the
late Women’s League
chairperson, Thenjiwe Lesabe against Msika, but she
lost. — Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 06 July 2012
10:47
CHIEF Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku has reserved judgment in the case
in which
President Robert Mugabe is challenging a Bulawayo High Court
decision passed
by Justice Nicholas Ndou in October last year directing him
to gazette a
date for by-elections in Nkayi South, Bulilima East and Lupane
East.
The three constituencies fell vacant after legislators Abednico Bhebhe,
Njabuliso Mguni and Norman Mpofu were dismissed from Welshman Ncube’s MDC
formation which resulted in them losing their parliamentary
seats.
However Chidyausiku dismissed Mugabe’s argument that there was
no money to
hold by-elections in the three constituencies.
The
case was heard before Supreme Court judges Chidyausiku, Vernanda
Ziyambi,
Paddington Garwe, Anne-Mary Gowora and Yunus Omerjee.
According to
provision 39 (2) of the Electoral Act, the president shall
within a period
of 14 days after he or she has been notified of this section
publish a
notice in the Gazette ordering a new election to fill the
vacancy.
Chidyausiku said: “Why should we accept that there is no
money. Is money
needed for the publishing of the Gazette? What the Act
requires from him
(Mugabe) is very simple, to publish in the Gazette. It
does not say you need
to see if resources are available. You have to
persuade us that in the
context of this Act the word ‘shall’ does not have
any ordinary meaning.” —
Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 06 July 2012 10:40
ZIMBABWE’S
external debt overhang is now estimated at US$10,7 billion and,
at 111% of
GDP, has become an impediment to external sustainability,
according to an
IMF report seen by the Independent.
This debt overhang was as at end of 2011,
with the equivalent of 59% of GDP
being arrears.
The fund warned
of a financing gap before any measures of around US$838
million for the year
2012, a development it said needed an urgent policy
response. This is
because projections of a balanced budget for 2012 made by
Finance minister
Tendai Biti last year are now in doubt due to revenue
shortfalls and
expenditure overruns.
The IMF projected a total revenue shortfall of
US$640 million as total
revenue collection in the first five months of 2012
was US$200 million lower
than anticipated, mainly due to low diamond
dividends.
The report was compiled by an IMF team headed by Alfredo
Cuevas and
comprising Murna Morgan, Christian Henn, Eliza Lis and Futoshi
Narita, which
visited Harare from June 13-27 to conduct routine Article IV
consultations
with the country’s authorities.
The fund strongly
cautioned against government’s collateralisation of
mineral revenues to
access more debt.
Meanwhile TN Holdings’ shareholders have approved
the demerger of TN Bank
from the holdings company, which will see telecoms
company Econet get a 45%
stake in the bank. All shareholders voted for the
resolution, which comes at
a US$20 million cost to Econet. Chief executive
Tawanda Nyambirai said the
bank will take advantage of Econet’s strength and
stability with products
such as Ecocash expected to be key drivers of growth
going forward. — Staff
Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 06 July 2012 10:39
SERIOUS
infighting has rocked Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition over the Global
Advocacy
Campaign (GAC) project which the organisation is spearheading for
the MDC-T
to ensure the next elections are free and fair.
The internal strife started
after the youth committee passed a vote of no
confidence in the
organisation’s chairperson Okay Machisa, accusing him of
incompetence.
The youth membership is said to be resisting the
GAC, alleging that only a
few individuals namely Machisa and the
organisation’s director, McDonald
Lewanika, want to impose the project on
them.
Youth committee chairperson Wellington Zindove yesterday said
there was a
lot of mismanagement in the organisation and that he feared
Crisis Coalition
was abandoning its core business.
Zindove said:
“When we met last month there were a lot of issues thrown
around and one of
them was that people wanted more information on the Global
Advocacy
Campaign. The general membership feels that the GAC must be stopped
until
certain issues are cleared.”
Sources within civil society said there
were serious divisions among members
of the Crisis Coalition with some
alleging corruption and abuse of resources
and power.
The
coalition’s spokesperson Thabani Nyoni yesterday dismissed allegations
that
there was a crisis in the organisation.
“When the coalition was set
up people knew there would be situations where
members would disagree and it
does not amount to a crisis,” said Nyoni.
“The coalition has mechanisms to
deal with differences and those mechanisms
do not include going to the
press. Once that happens, there will be a
communication breakdown.” — Staff
Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 06 July 2012 10:38
Faith
Zaba
POLITICAL tensions are running high in the faction-riddled Zanu PF
over the
militarisation of the commissariat where officials with security
backgrounds
are accused of forming parallel structures resembling those of
the politburo
to undermine the role of certain party bigwigs, while propping
up others as
part of President Robert Mugabe’s simmering succession
battle.
The militarisation of the commissariat, brought under direct control
of
security sector actors, has rattled senior party leaders who now feel the
increasing number of retired soldiers, police and intelligence officers
occupying influential positions in Zanu PF could end up destabilising the
party while further alienating it from voters.
Former Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO), police and army officers are
gradually
tightening their grip on Zanu PF. The commissariat is now driven
by security
forces, fronted by retired Air Vice-Marshal Henry Muchena and
former CIO
director-internal Sydney Nyanhongo, who were Zanla guerillas
during the
liberation struggle. Party structures are also teeming with
cadres from
security backgrounds.
Zanu PF insiders told the Zimbabwe Independent
this week that when Muchena
took over the commissariat in 2010, he set up
his own structures similar to
those of the politburo dominated by retired
CIO, police and army officers.
While Webster Shamu is the party’s
national commissar, Muchena and his team
have virtually taken over and are
running the show. This has opened the
floodgates for people with security
experience to come to the party, some
demanding to be candidates in the next
elections. Muchena’s structures are
accused of fuelling infighting as they
are being used to support certain
factions and candidates, insiders
say.
“The commissariat under Muchena is being accused of supporting
certain
factions and candidates, particularly the (Vice-President Joice)
Mujuru
faction,” said a party insider. “When the new commissariat took over,
it got
rid of people who were working with (the late Elliot) Manyika. The
top 10
posts are now held by securocrats. It seems they have created
parallel
structures similar to those of the politburo, and this has angered
the party’s
leadership — people are certainly not happy with
that.”
The situation has been worsened by the circulation last week
of a report,
which purportedly emanates from within the CIO, saying Muchena
and his team
are working to undermine Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The report,
seen by the Independent, has caused ructions within Zanu PF as
it (report)
heightened suspicions about the activities of Muchena and his
group.
The report suggests the Muchena group has embarked on a
well-planned smear
campaign against Mnangagwa, using state institutions to
investigate him for
alleged corruption and discredit him to damage his
presidential ambitions.
Top Zanu PF officials and war veterans
strongly believe a group of
securocrats, including those in the
commissariat, were trying to push their
own political agenda by campaigning
for certain individuals in Mujuru’s camp
during the disbanded district
coordinating committee (DCC) elections.
The DCC polls unleashed a
wave of internal strife within Zanu PF as the
Mujuru and Mnangagwa factions
went head to head battling for control of the
structures which were
abolished last week following demonstrations in
provinces against imposition
of candidates, vote buying, fraudulent voters’
rolls and ballot rigging.
Mugabe also complained publicly that factional
leaders and their supporters
were destroying (his) party.
“One such case was when securocrats
unsuccessfully campaigned for Jonathan
Kadzura’s candidature in
Zimunya-Marange district. Kadzura is a close ally
of Muchena and Nyanhongo,”
a source said. “Muchena and Nyanhongo are working
with a team of army
officers — code named ‘Boys On Leave’ — who are
scattered around the country
tasked with overhauling party structures which
Shamu described as
shambolic
in 2010. Their main task is to revive the crumbling party
structures ahead
of elections.”
However, in a bid to contain the
rampant infighting, the Zanu PF politburo
last week cancelled the DCC
elections and dissolved the divisive structures
seen as key in determining
who controls the party and eventually succeeds
Mugabe.
Besides
securocrats in the Zanu PF commissariat, army generals and top
police
chiefs, some of whom want to be candidates in the next elections,
have taken
over Zanu PF’s preparatory poll campaigns across the country and
have been
demanding party leaders include them in all their meetings.
Top army
officers campaigning in Manicaland include Major-General Martin
Chedondo,
Air Vice-Marshal Shebba Brighton Shumbayaonda, Brigadier-General
Herbert
Chingo, Brigadier-General Mike Sango, 3 Brigade Commander
Brigadier-General
Eliah Bandama, and members of the provincial Joint
Operations Command (JOC).
Police Deputy Commissioner General Godwin Matanga
heads the
team.
JOC, which brings together army, police and intelligence
chiefs, is the
force behind Mugabe and Zanu PF, especially during
elections.
The army has proved loyal to Mugabe and effectively
carries out political
tasks on his behalf and has been pivotal in keeping
him in power during the
2002 and 2008 elections, although its role in
politics and elections has
been significant since 1980.
The
politburo resolved following the March 2008 elections, after the party
lost
control of parliament and Mugabe was defeated in the first round of
polling,
to use a more “warlike” strategy to win elections. The military was
thus
heavily involved in the bloodyJune 2008 presidential election runoff
between
Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai which was marred by
widespread
violence and killings.
The army practically played a commissariat
role for Zanu PF to save Mugabe
from outright defeat after he had lost the
first round of polling. Army
commanders have of late become even more vocal
in their support for Zanu PF
and Mugabe, while denouncing his rivals.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012
18:03
Brian Chitemba/Herbert Moyo
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai
has rebuked senior officials for violating
the party’s rules leading to
defections of over 80 members in Bulawayo’s
Makokoba
constituency.
Tsvangirai, who is also Prime Minister, last Friday
summoned the party’s
Bulawayo leadership to the provincial headquarters,
where he lambasted them
for frustrating members who subsequently defected to
the MDC led by Welshman
Ncube. Tsvangirai and Ncube’s parties are fighting
for the control of
Bulawayo and other regions in the next
elections.
Some officials who attended the meeting told the
Zimbabwe Independent
Tsvangirai was in a “no-nonsense mood” and sharply
castigated the leadership
for frustrating the party’s efforts to mobilise
support.
The officials said Tsvangirai asked them to write anonymous
letters
highlighting problems rocking Bulawayo province after it emerged
that
members were disgruntled over “imposition of branch and district
members by
senior party members, which triggered the Makokoba
defections”.
“The PM warned that he would not tolerate senior
officials behaving like
they own the party, which was formed with the
support of the masses,” said
one official.
The tense meeting was
attended by Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe,
(Tsvangirai’s
second-in-command), organising secretary Nelson Chamisa, MPs,
senators and
provincial executive committee members.
MDC-T deputy spokesperson
Thabitha Khumalo confirmed Tsvangirai lashed out
at his aides, but declined
to elaborate.
“The president (Tsvangirai) and Chamisa addressed the
issues which are
affecting supporters, especially (those) which forced
defectors to ditch the
party,” said Khumalo. “However, I cannot go into
details of the meeting.”
Tsvangirai was also furious at top officials
who were fingered in the
violence that rocked MDC-T in the run-up to the
2011 congress held in
Bulawayo. The senior officials were named in a report
by a commission of
inquiry which investigated the clashes.
Senior
MDC-T officials in Bulawayo have, however, said the defections were a
case
of chickens coming home to roost, after Tsvangirai repeatedly ignored
pleas
from members to rein-in Khupe and her supporters in Bulawayo.
The
officials said Tsvangirai was warned in 2007 in meetings and through
affidavits and petitions written by disgruntled party members to censure
Khupe and her ally, Dorcas Sibanda, for flouting party procedures in
elections within the MDC-T’s Bulawayo East structures.
Khupe
stands accused of dictatorship and tribalism — charges which she
denies — in
Bulawayo province with officials alleging she replaced all Shona
party
activists in the Bulawayo East district party structures with
Ndebeles.
“We implore you to reprimand Miss Khupe and Miss
Sibanda and show us as
members of the party and the world at large that the
MDC still holds up the
original manifesto which held corruption in all forms
as despicable and
inimical to democracy,” reads a 2008 petition addressed to
Tsvangirai,
signed by the party’s Bulawayo East
structures.
Swithern Chirwodza, in charge of policy and research in
the party’s
Bulawayo province, in 2007 wrote a letter of complaint after
being assaulted
by Dixon Mohammed and Themba Moyo, allegedly at the
instigation of Khupe and
Sibanda, at a meeting to deal with internal
problems.
Mohammed and Moyo each paid Z$40 000 in admission of
guilt fines at Bulawayo
Central Police Station under case number
CR96.11.2007.
When contacted, Chirwodza declined to comment insisting
he could only do so
after clearance from the national
executive.
Khupe referred all questions to Bulawayo provincial
chairperson, Gorden
Moyo, who dismissed the allegations saying they had a
“Zanu PF odour”.
“I’m convinced that those people who rushed to you
with such claims are not
genuine members of our party of excellence,” said
Moyo. “It is the work of
those who are afraid of the vice-president (Khupe)
who beat them in
elections and has been outstanding in her party and
national contribution.”
Moyo denied reports that Khupe had been
singled out in the MDC-T findings on
intra-party violence, saying the report
had not even been discussed, let
alone seen by senior party officials. He
also denied reports of defections.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012
18:02
Wongai Zhangazha
THE Grain Marketing Board (GMB) is facing
accusations by a civil society
monitoring organisation of distributing
rotten maize to villagers hard-hit
by drought mainly in Chinhoyi, Mhangura
and Banket.
A recent report released for the period January to March 2012 by
Civil
Society Monitoring Mechanism (Cisomm), a group of non-governmental
organisations dedicated to monitoring and evaluating implementation of the
Global Political Agreement, said although the humanitarian situation in the
country had stabilised, there were key vulnerabilities that still need to be
addressed.
“Villagers in Chinhoyi, Mhangura and Banket, who are
going through a lean
spell, have found themselves the unfortunate recipients
of the maize which
the GMB said in November had deteriorated due to poor
storage at its 44
depots and silos,” reads the report.
The dry,
damaged maize classified as “top grade” and bought at US$285 per
tonne last
year has been written off and is now being sold as stock feed to
cattle
farmers at an average price of US$175 a tonne, the report further
says.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012 18:02
WHILE most of the 200
recommendations made by Zanu PF to the
constitution-making process have been
dealt with, negotiators are still
battling with some issues, particularly
the creation of a constitutional
court.
Zanu PF made a series of
recommendations, some of which would fundamentally
change the document. Most
of its demands are geared towards preserving the
current imperial presidency
and institutional arrangements.
Some of the demands include that the
military should be allowed to play an
active part in national politics; the
president should appoint commissions
without parliamentary approval; there
should be no constitutional court as
demanded by the people, but a
“division” of the Supreme Court; there should
not be devolution of power to
the provinces; executive authority must only
vest in the president and the
president shall not be answerable to
parliament on deployment of troops,
among other things.
But a compromise has been reached on most of the
issues except mainly on the
consitutional court, according to
negotiators.
Zanu PF is demanding the proposed constitutional court
must be deleted from
the draft and replaced with “constitutional division of
the Supreme Court”
in a move seen as designed to retain its control of the
judiciary. — Staff
Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012 18:00
ZANU PF has been
accused of crippling the functions of the Joint Monitoring
and
Implementation Committee (Jomic) by not sending representatives to the
organ’s meetings and activities countrywide.
Jomic co-chairperson
Thabitha Khumalo said this week Zanu PF has been
boycotting
meetings.
“Zanu PF has destabilised Jomic because they still want to
perpetrate
violence ahead of the elections,” said Khumalo. “I can confirm
that Zanu PF
has not been attending meetings and it’s a sad development
because it
becomes difficult to address issues raised by the people. It’s
pure sabotage
if one of the parties is not there.”
However, Zanu
PF Jomic co-chairperson Oppah Muchinguri said chaos erupted in
Mashonaland
Central after the two MDC formations refused to accept a
representative
seconded by her party’s provincial chairperson, Dickson
Mafios, when he was
away on business.
She said Zanu PF would not entertain MDC-T
officials who insult Mugabe. Zanu
PF Matabeleland South chairperson Andrew
Langa recently boycotted a Jomic
meeting over remarks about
Mugabe.
“We are yet to meet and finalise problems in provinces as
Jomic leadership.
But we question the sincerity of MDC representatives who
are always
complaining,” said Muchinguri. — Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012
17:57
Paidamoyo Muzulu
JUSTICE minister Patrick Chinamasa is set
to railroad the Electoral Act
Amendment Bill (EAAB) and Zimbabwe Human
Rights Commission Bill (ZHRCB)
through parliament next week after cabinet
agreed on Monday that the
proposed laws should be passed as part of Global
Political Agreement (GPA)
reforms.
The cabinet meeting, which was
brought forward by a day to accommodate
President Robert Mugabe’s medical
check-up trip to Singapore, decided to
bring finality to legislative reforms
as stipulated by the GPA before Sadc
facilitator South African President
Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team jets in
next week.
The
cabinet decision comes hot on the heels of the Luanda Sadc summit which
exhorted the coalition government to urgently complete the draft
constitution, legislative reforms and elections roadmap before the holding
of new polls. The summit also urged GPA parties to fully implement agreed
issues.
Industry and Commerce minister Welshman Ncube confirmed
this in an interview
with the Zimbabwe Independent this week, saying his
party would support both
bills when Chinamasa steers them through parliament
next week since they
have never had any objections to them.
“We
have no problem with both bills because they were negotiated and agreed
to
at the negotiators’ forum,” Ncube said. “Our position has always been
consistent that we should stick to the deal we signed during
negotiations.”
Ncube, who is also MDC president, last week said
elections were likely to be
held by September next year, a position he has
been insisting on since last
year.
While Ncube says parties
agreed on electoral reforms, the MDC-T – which
initially agreed to the
electoral amendments, has raised an objection
demanding that the proposed
laws should not contain a clause calling for the
creation of a polling
station-based voters’ roll and a cut-off date on
investigations of rights
abuses by the Human Rights Commission.
The EAAB proposes to establish
a polling- station-specific voters’ roll
while the ZHRCB bars the commission
from investigating atrocities committed
before February 13,
2008.
This exonerates President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF from
liability for
atrocities committed during the 1982 - 1987 Gukurahundi era,
and bloody
elections held in 2000, 2002 and 2008, among
others.
United Nations human rights commissioner Navi Pillay, who was
recently in
Zimbabwe, urged the parties to finalise these issues, mainly the
Human
Rights Commission. She said it was better for the commission not to
work in
retrospect, but also noted past human rights violations could be
investigated differently.
However, on polling station-based
voters’ register the MDC-T argues the
clause could further increase
election-related violence as it becomes easier
for Zanu PF and its militias
to follow up on how people voted at a
particular polling
station.
But MDC-T national executive committee member said this week
the party would
now support the bills, albeit with reservations. “Since Sadc
insisted that
the two bills should be dealt with urgently, we will
participate in their
passing,” the member said. “However, legislators from
Matabeleland are
bitter.”
The climb down by the MDC-T comes after
Sadc and Pillay urged the GPA
parties to set aside their endless disputes
and move ahead to pass the
bills.
The polls roadmap, including the two
bills and draft constitution, are the
three main outstanding GPA issues
which would pave way for elections once
implemented.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012
17:57
Nqobile Bhebhe
OUTGOING United States ambassador Charles Ray
has said his country’s
government would not prescribe trading partners to
Zimbabwe as it would be
risky to have “exclusive business relations with a
single country”.
Ray was responding to questions from the Zimbabwe
Independent on what the US
thought of Zimbabwe’s “resources for arms” deal
with Russia which would
ostensibly see the country being supplied with
military helicopters and
other hardware in exchange for platinum mining
claims.
“It’s not for my government to decide or disagree on business
arrangements
which this country (Zimbabwe) should make with any country,”
said Ray.
“Russia is a sovereign country and if Zimbabwe wants to
make deals with
them, who are we to say they should not,” Ray asked, saying
it would be a
mistake for the country to put its investment trust on one
source.
Ray ends his three-year tour of duty at the end of the
month.
A report carried by the Russian Kommersant business daily and
online
publications said officials from the former superpower visited
Zimbabwe in
April and all but secured an inter-governmental agreement on
stimulating
investment and defence, under which a state corporation, Russian
Technologies, would supply military helicopters in exchange for mineral
rights to platinum deposits in Darwendale.
The reports said
Ruschrome Mining, a company jointly owned by Zimbabwe and
the Russian
government’s Centre for Business Cooperation with Foreign
Countries,
received a 25-year licence for the exploration and development of
platinum
deposits.
However, checks by the Independent with Russian diplomats
in Harare
indicated the military helicopters in question may actually be old
ones
which had been taken for repairs, in the world’s largest country in
terms of
surface area.
Reports say the Darwendale mining area
which has attracted the Russians’
interest in the mineral-rich Great Dyke
has platinum reserves as well as
other valuable metals such as gold, nickel,
copper and palladium, among
others.
A mining executive confirmed
last week the Russians’ visit in April but
warned a major sticking point
could however be differences in valuation of
the resource between government
and the Russians.
He said the Russians wanted government to take into
consideration
investment, financing and operating costs to extract and
process the mineral
in evaluating the deal.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012
17:53
Paidamoyo Muzulu
ZIMBABWE seems to have shot itself in the
foot once again following the
publication of controversial indigenisation
regulations which threaten to
deal the country’s recovering tourism industry
a body blow.
Indigenisation and Empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere last
Friday
published the contentious General Notice 280 of 2012 in the
Government
Gazette, directing companies investing in the tourism industry to
comply
with the damaging Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act which
compels
businesses to surrender a 51% shareholding to indigenous people
within a
year.
Zanu PF politicians and their local business
cronies are pushing for the
expropriation of foreign-owned companies under
the guise of a selective
indigenisation and empowerment
policy.
While the campaign is hurting business, it is feared the
latest regulations
threaten investment in tourism and the successful hosting
of the 2013 United
Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) general
assembly to be co-hosted
by Zimbabwe and Zambia in Victoria Falls and
Livingstone, a major
opportunity to revive the sector.
Government
has already ruined commercial agriculture and is undermining
finance and
banking, mining, manufacturing and other sectors of the economy
through its
indigenisation policy widely seen as mostly benefitting
political bigwigs
and the well-connected in Zanu PF.
Kasukuwere’s latest indigenisation
push is likely to scare away potential
investors, particularly when it comes
to construction of the proposed
Victoria Falls Convention Centre and other
infrastructure ahead of the UNWTO
assembly to be held from August 24 to 29
next year.
The event is expected to spur infrastructure development
and tourism growth
in Zimbabwe, but the heavy involvement of China in the
preparations has
raised fears the country will mortgage more resources to
the Asian giant.
Zimbabwe does not have the financial resources to
build a convention centre,
upgrade the Victoria Falls and Harare
International airports, improve health
and hotel facilities, upgrade border
posts and invest in power
infrastructure and dualisation of
roads.
Critically, the national flag carrier, Air Zimbabwe, has
virtually collapsed
and something needs to be done about it if the UNWTO
event is to be a
success. With the troubled Air Zimbabwe almost grounded,
the country would
have to depend on foreign airlines to fly the expected
delegates and
tourists.
Tourism minister Walter Mzembi told
parliament a fortnight ago that China
was providing much of the funding for
the conference.
“We have signed a concessional loan agreement of
US$150 million with China
Eximbank (Export and Import Bank) for the
expansion and refurbishment of
Victoria Falls Airport,” said Mzembi. “This
would allow big long haul
planes to fly directly to the resort
town.”
However, Mzembi neither disclosed the conditions of the loan
nor gave
indications as to when the loan deal would be brought before
parliament for
ratification.
China, which seems exempt from
indigenisation laws, has been heavily
involved in funding most of the
country’s current infrastructural projects
such as the Harare-Norton road
dualisation, construction of dams
countrywide, the National Defence College
and building of a new hotel
adjacent to the National Sports
Stadium.
In return, Zimbabwe has mortgaged some of its mineral wealth
like the
Marange diamond fields, platinum resources along the Great Dyke and
vast
amounts of gold and chrome mining claims.
Zimbabwe is
currently in election mode ahead of polls likely just before or
after the
UNWTO event, and Mzembi warned parliament a violent campaign would
cost the
country dearly.
“In Zimbabwe, the need to maintain the current peace
and security cannot be
over emphasised. Without peace and stability, we can
kiss goodbye to any
hopes we may be entertaining of a tourism boom,
including the hosting of the
UNTWO General Assembly in 2013,” Mzembi
said.
The indigenisation regulations affecting tourism are likely to
achieve
exactly what Mzembi fears — undermining the tourism sector which was
almost
decimated by the political and economic crisis between 2000 and 2009.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012 17:40
STARTING
this week, the Zimbabwe Independent, which has been investigating
the
goings-on at Marange diamond fields for years now, will be running the
latest Global Witness report, Financing a Parallel Government?, which makes
interesting revelations about Chiadzwa.
The report by Global Witness, a
UK-based non-governmental organisation which
campaigns against natural
resource-related conflict, corruption and
associated environmental and human
rights abuses, sheds light on activities
unfolding at Marange diamond
fields, detailing who is involved and the
intricate networks comprising the
Chinese and Zimbabwe’s security forces,
the army, police and intelligence
services, dealing in diamonds, cotton and
property sectors. The report
follows:
Executive Summary
This report reveals how
Zimbabwe’s feared secret police, the Central
Intelligence Organisation
(CIO), appears to have received off-budget
financing from Sam Pa, a
businessman based in Hong Kong; and how members of
the CIO are directors of
a group of companies, Sino Zimbabwe Development,
registered in Zimbabwe,
Singapore and the British Virgin Islands.
Several well-informed
sources have told Global Witness Sam Pa (AKA Antonio
Famtosonghiu Sampo
Menezes, Xu Jinghua and Sam King) holds leadership
positions in a network of
companies known as the Queensway syndicate. The
syndicate was the subject of
a detailed study by the Economist in 2011. This
study concluded that
syndicate has a track record of opaque “resources for
infrastructure” deals
across sub-Saharan Africa.
Despite the official sounding names of its
companies, such as China
International Fund and Africa Development
Corporation, the syndicate is
largely owned by private Hong Kong business
interests.
Until recently some of the key companies, such as China
Sonangol
International Ltd, were also partly controlled by a leading Angolan
politician, Manuel Vicente, the former head of Angola’s state oil company
Sonangol. Finally, the Economist highlighted that two companies in the
syndicate, China Sonangol International (S) Pte Ltd and CIF Singapore Pte
Ltd, are noted for an ethically dubious deal with the Guinean military junta
in 2009, signed just weeks after security forces killed over 150 protestors
and raped over 100 women in a stadium.
This briefing extends the
Economist’s analysis of the Queensway syndicate’s
activities in Zimbabwe.
Several reliable sources within the secret police
have passed information to
Global Witness demonstrating how Sam Pa appears
to have provided a
significant sum of money, said by one CIO document seen
by Global Witness to
be $100 million, to the CIO. The same sources,
corroborated by another
source with firsthand knowledge of the deal, also
describe how Sam Pa
provided 200 Nissan pick-up trucks to the CIO. In
return, Sam Pa received
diamonds and accessed business opportunities in the
cotton and property
development sectors.
We also use company registry records and sources
within the secret police to
identify three Zimbabwean directors (Gift
Kalisto Machengete, Pritchard Zhou
and Masimba Ignatius Kamba) of Sino
Zimbabwe Development in Zimbabwe,
Singapore and the British Virgin Islands
who are members of the CIO, and
which we therefore believe to be companies
which are controlled in part by
members of the Zimbabwean secret police.
Global Witness invited Sam Pa and
the directors of Sino Zimbabwe Development
to comment on our findings, and
they have not done so.
There are
three reasons why these developments are of concern. In this
document we
refer to ‘Sino Zimbabwe Development’ as shorthand for three
companies: Sino
Zimbabwe Development (Pvt) Ltd, registered in Zimbabwe; Sino
Zimbabwe
Development (Pte) Ltd, registered in Singapore, and Strong Achieve
Holdings
Ltd, registered in the British Virgin Islands. In the Zimbabwean
media and
other public sources there are also occasional references to Sino
Zimbabwe
Holdings (Pvt) Ltd and Sino Zimbabwe Cotton Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, but
there is
no record of these companies at the Zimbabwean company register.
We
have been informed by reliable sources that these unregistered companies
are
in effect the same company as Sino Zimbabwe Development (Pvt) Ltd ––
assertions backed by the fact that Jimmy Zerenie, a known director of Sino
Zimbabwe Development (Pvt) Ltd, represented Sino Zimbabwe Holdings (Pvt) Ltd
in the media during a cotton dispute in 2010.
Finally it should
be noted that “Sino Zimbabwe Development” is unrelated to
other companies
with similar names: Sino Zim Cement Company (SZCC),
registered in Zimbabwe,
and Sino-Zim Mining Corporation Ltd and Sino-Zim
Mining Resource Company
Ltd, both registered in Hong Kong.
In this document any reference to
“Sino Zimbabwe” or “Sino Zimbabwe
Development” should be taken to mean
companies with connections to the
Queensway syndicate rather than SZCC,
Sino-Zim Mining Corporation Ltd or
Sino-Zim Mining Resource Company
Ltd.
First, by its very nature any off-budget financing for the
secret police
undermines democratic processes and institutions in Zimbabwe.
Off-budget
funding subverts civilian and democratic control of the CIO, and
allows the
secret police to set, and fund, its own
agenda.
Second, Sam Pa’s likely financial support for the CIO may
undermine
Zimbabwean democracy more directly.
According to two
sources, one senior Zimbabwean government official and one
source within the
CIO, the secret police is engaged in “Operation Spiderweb”,
covert
activities designed to discredit senior figures from the opposition
Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) including Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangarai,
Finance minister Tendai Biti, and Industry minister Welshman
Ncube.
According to the single source within the CIO Sam Pa’s money was
allocated
specifically to Operation Spiderweb.
However, by their very nature,
such claims about secret intelligence
agencies are difficult to verify and
should be treated with caution.
Third, members of the CIO have been
repeatedly identified as perpetrators of
violence in the recent past, and
therefore Sam Pa’s apparent material
assistance may fund future human rights
abuses in the run up to the
forthcoming election.
Anjin is likely
part-owned and part-controlled by the Ministry of Defence.
This
report also revisits earlier Global Witness research into a large
diamond
mining company, Anjin Investments (Pvt) Ltd. Our last report
established the
partial control exercised by figures from the Zimbabwean
military, police
and Ministry of Defence over the firm’s executive board.
This current
briefing reports the results of research into Anjin’s
ownership. Zimbabwean
company records reveal that a senior military lawyer
in the Ministry of
Defence holds 50% of Anjin’s shares.
Together with factors such as
the presence of the Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry of Defence on
Anjin’s executive board, these company records have
led Global Witness to
conclude that half of a large diamond-mining company
is likely part-owned
and part-controlled by the Ministry of Defence,
military and police. (To be
continued)
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012
17:23
Paidamoyo Muzulu
THE mafia may enjoy an image romanticised
by blockbuster movies such as
Sopranos and The Godfather, but in real life
they are reportedly Italy’s
biggest business with an annual turnover of €140
billion, according to a
report released in January by that country’s
business group Confesercenti.
The report also claims that with about
€65 billion in cash, the mafia is
more liquid than any other Italian
bank.
Extortion, coercion and blackmail are the biggest sources of
revenue for
these organised criminal gangs who routinely intimidate
businesses and for
those who refuse to co-operate, violence and cold-blooded
murder are handy
tools in the mafia’s gory toolbox.
Although
intimidation and violence are not common in the Zimbabwean business
environment, blackmail and murky multi-million dollar mining deals involving
shadowy Chinese and Russian business networks could signal the increasing
foothold of shady underworld criminal webs in local business and political
circles.
With the discovery of diamonds and other minerals, there
are so many
Chinese, Russian, Israeli and Lebanese networks — which overlap
and are
intertwined in many areas — doing business, mainly gangland-style,
while
siphoning and salting away the proceeds of corrupt transactions
offshore.
The involvement of the Zimbabwean military and other
security networks in
the underworld deals seems to be aiding and abetting
the looting, especially
of the Marange diamond fields.
As a
result, proceeds from the sale of diamonds from the rich Chiadzwa
fields
remain largely unaccounted for, at least according to Finance
minister
Tendai Biti who has lately been complaining diamond proceeds fall
short of
revenue projections.
A recent report on Zimbabwe by Global Witness,
titled Financing a Parallel
Government in Zimbabwe?, exposes the military’s
dodgy involvement in diamond
mining at Chiadzwa.
The military
seems to be working closely with the Chinese mainly involved in
Marange and
Russians in mining deals where there is no transparency and
accountability.
The Russians are involved in diamond mining at Charleswood
Estates in
Chimanimani, as well as exploring and mining diamonds and
platinum along the
mineral-rich Great Dyke.
Charleswood Estates were seized from MDC-T
treasurer Roy Bennett by
government.
International media reports
have linked Russians to the supply of military
hardware to Zimbabwe in
return for minerals. The Chinese are also said to be
doing the
same.
The Chinese have invested in Zimbabwe through Sino-Zimbabwe
Development, a
company registered in Zimbabwe, Singapore and the British
Virgin Islands,
although it has now ceased operations in
Marange.
According to Global Witness, Sino-Zimbabwe is owned by a
shadowy Chinese
character, Sam Pa — who also uses the aliases Antonio
Famtosonghiu Sampo
Menezes, Xu Jinghua and Sam King — and Zimbabwe’s dreaded
spy agency, the
Central Intelligence Organisation.
Pa controls
companies generally known as the Queensway syndicate. The
Queensway
syndicate is a shadowy Hong Kong-based syndicate accused of a
range of
crimes including corruption, profiteering with African natural
resources
while breaking terms of licence agreements, fuelling conflicts,
interfering
with elections, illegally trafficking diamonds and, less
plausibly, being a
secret arm of the Chinese government.
Global Witness says
Sino-Zimbabwe is involved in diamond mining, cotton and
property sectors.
Among the properties Sino-Zimbabwe owns are Livingstone
House, Gecko Gardens
Hotel, the Pangolin Lodge and Imba Matombo Lodge — all
located in
Harare.
Another prominent figure in Sino-Zimbabwe is Russian-Israeli
diamond magnate
Lev Leviev, renowned as the world’s biggest cutter and
polisher of diamonds.
In 2010, Mines and Mining Development minister
Obert Mpofu admitted certain
officials associated with Mbada and Canadile —
the two companies he
personally approved to joint-venture with government to
mine diamonds in
Chiadzwa — had “questionable records”.
He told a
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy this was
normal as it
was “virtually impossible to find reputable partners in the
diamond
industry”.
Mpofu’s admission provided an insight into the otherwise
increasingly murky
world of joint ventures in Zimbabwe.
Mbada is
a joint venture between the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation
and
Grandwell Holdings, a company registered in Mauritius and a subsidiary
of
New Reclamation Group (Reclaim), a South African scrap metal-recycling
company.
The corporate ownership and shareholder structure of
Mbada and Canadile
remains largely cloaked in mystery.
Canadile is now
defunct.
Until 2011, Grandwell was wholly-owned by Reclaim. In the
last financial
year, 25% of Mbada was passed on to a third party,
Transfrontier, which has
an opaque company structure shrouded in secrecy.
The beneficial owners of
Transfrontier are unknown.
The fact that
Mbada, Transfrontier and associated companies are in places
with zero rates
of corporate tax such as Mauritius, Hong Kong, British
Virgin Islands and
Dubai, raises questions on where these firms pay their
taxes and whether
these arrangements are good deals for Zimbabwe.
In 2010, Zimbabwe
blacklisted Core Mining shareholders and directors from
the country for
their alleged involvement in corruption, bribes and fraud at
Marange. The
blacklisted individuals include Robert van der Merwe, Yehuda
Licht, Arnold
Neil Lange, Subithry Naidoo, Kuberin Packrisamy, Marco
Chiotti, Minesh
Bungwadeen, Viken Arslanian, Komalin Packirisamy,
Vejayanakumar Pickirisamy,
Adrian Taylor and Allan John Sawyer.
Political analysts say the
emergence of shadowy organisations and dodgy
characters does not augur well
for Zimbabwe’s economic development and
democracy.
Media Centre
director Earnest Mudzengi said diamonds could eventually have
disastrous
consequences for Zimbabwe.
“This is a potentially disastrous
development that, if not checked, may take
us to the extremes of a failed
state. Remember what happened in Sierra
Leone, Somalia and such other
states?” Mudzengi said.
“We may end up on the fringes of warlordism
if this orgy of unrestrained
looting, unprofessional and unethical behaviour
is not nipped in the bud.”
South African-based analyst Ricky Mukonza said
these developments are
symptomatic of the sanctions-busting activities
similar to those of the
Rhodesian era, and they only profit a few brave and
risky merchants.
“The primary motive for a regime facing sanctions is
survival and for the
dealers, it’s money. Because of the high risks
involved, they make huge
profits. So the events in Marange are nothing new
but something that
emanated from the sanctions period,” he
said.
Another political analyst Jonathan Gandari concurred, saying
the mafia are a
danger to the state as has been witnessed in
Mexico.
“The mafia and corruption are cousins,” said
Gandari.
“The emergence of the mafia should not only be frowned at,
but be nipped in
the bud because it is a cancer on the soul of society.
Mafia has ruined
countries like Mexico beyond repair.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012 15:57
Peter
Gambara
THE current impasse between cotton growers and ginners has seen
disagreeing
parties point fingers at each other as the marketing season
progresses
without the crop being sold. Cotton growers in the 1980s were
respectable
farmers as they got good returns from cotton and were able to
buy basic
farming implements like ploughs, cultivators and scotch-carts,
while sending
their children to boarding schools.
What has gone wrong as
they can no longer afford this, why is there so much
fighting over the
producer price and why are cotton farmers living in
abject
poverty?
Cotton is produced by 300 000 small-scale farmers from the
drier parts of
the country like Gokwe, Chiredzi, Sanyati, Mutoko, Mudzi,
Muzarabani and
Mount Darwin. It is a drought tolerant crop and farmers are
able to realise
reasonable yields even during drought. The crop is a low
feeder compared to
other traditional crops like maize. Most farmers apply a
bag of compound L
and another bag of top dressing fertiliser per hectare and
expect to harvest
about 700 kgs. But cotton is a labour-intensive crop as it
is handpicked.
There has been debate over whether the current basic
package is adequate or
not and ginners have since come up with other
packages that provide more
fertilisers and expect a higher yield per
hectare. The issue of improved
varieties has often been discussed as there
are indications that some time
back the country produced some improved
cotton varieties but sold the
technology.
During the 1980s,
cotton was a controlled crop and the Cotton Marketing
Board (CMB) had a
monopoly over its marketing. CMB was privatised together
with other
marketing boards like Dairy Marketing Board and Cold Storage
Commission with
the advent of economic reforms in the 1990s.
The lack of competition
then meant CMB was in control of the situation as
regards the inputs scheme,
buying the crop and payment to farmers. The
liberalisation of the market has
since seen the emergence of 14 players in
the industry. Since this
deregulation, there was a manifestation of
fly-by-night players, mainly from
the Asian region, who would come into the
country at marketing time and
entice farmers sponsored by other players to
sell the crop to
them.
This led local ginners to persuade government to come up
with Statutory
Instrument (SI) 142 of 2009, which essentially prohibits any
buyer who has
not sponsored any farmer from buying the crop. It also
established the
Cotton Marketing Technical Committee that falls under the
Ministry of
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development and is
made up of
ginners’ representatives, representatives from the four farmers’
unions, as
well as other stakeholders who use cotton products like oil
expressers.
Over the years the local ginners/merchants have formed a
grouping under
Cotton Ginners Association of Zimbabwe (CGA) that operates
under a
secretariat. That secretariat makes sure all contracted farmers are
registered with CGA and no farmer gets inputs (double- dips) from more than
one ginner, and only those who have sponsored the growing of the crop are
allowed to buy it. CGA has also established common input distribution and
buying points in the cotton growing areas.
Cotton lint is traded
on the Liverpool market and the prevailing prices have
a bearing on the
producer price in the cotton growing regions of the world.
When the prices
on the Liverpool market falls, there is definitely a
knock-on-effect on the
cotton producer prices world wide. In order to reach
a producer price, the
local ginners and growers have agreed on a formula.
The formula takes
into consideration factors like the prevailing Liverpool
market prices, the
cost of growing the crop and the ginning costs, among
other things. Ginners
provide the cost of ginning, whilst growers provide
the cost of production.
This year the two parties got deadlocked over these
two figures, with
growers accusing ginners of having inflated their ginning
cost whilst
ginners also questioned the cost of production.
When the two parties
agree on a producer price, they also agree on prices
for grades A to D. When
a farmer delivers his/her cotton to a buying point,
he/she is paid using the
lowest grade, D, as there are no grading facilities
at these buying points.
The cotton is then moved to a grading facility where
it is given a grade and
the farmer then gets a supplementary payment, which
is the difference
between grade D (what was paid at collection point) and
the final
grade.
There are provisions in SI 142 of 2009 for independent
graders to be used in
cases of disputes. Previously ginners would also pay a
bonus at the end of
the marketing season to their growers if they reaped a
“windfall” in their
marketing of the crop. Growers have complained some
ginners have not paid
the top-up prices after grading and very few, if any,
ginners have paid a
bonus in the past few years.
The row over the
producer price dates back to 2010 when world price started
falling.
Government had to intervene to set the price then. Due to disasters
in some
cotton growing areas during 2011, the world price shot up to around
2,34
pounds per kg, resulting in local farmers being paid about US85 cents
/kg,
which was almost double what had been paid the previous season.
This
year the Liverpool price fell to a low of 0,69 pounds per kg, leading
to
ginners offering a producer price of about US29 cents/kg for grade
D.
Producer price negotiations are normally held under the auspice of
Agricultural Marketing Authority and the parties will only refer the matter
to the minister of agriculture after failing to agree. When they refer the
matter to the minister, they also include all the relevant facts like the
prevailing Liverpool price index, the ginning as well as cost of production.
They also give recommendations for the ministers
consideration.
This year, after the deadlock, they referred the
matter to the minister and
also recommended he considers paying a “subsidy”
over and above what the
ginners/merchants were able to pay. The minister
refused this recommendation
and instead proceeded to issue a statutory
instrument declaring the crop to
be a controlled product.
Once a
crop has been declared a controlled product, its marketing becomes
controlled by a body given the responsibility. You will recall that maize
and wheat used to be controlled products up until 2009 when government
liberalised their marketing. Anyone who wanted these products then had to
approach the Grain Marketing Board, which had the sole right to buy from
farmers.
One of the most contentious issues in this country has
been policy flip-flop
by government. Government previously allowed the
trading of maize and wheat
on the open market and that saw the setting up of
Zimace, a market-based
commodity exchange which sadly is no
more.
Today a lot of market proponents are saying we should bring
back the
commodity exchange in order to stabilise the marketing of maize and
wheat.
What exactly do we want as a country; do we want government to meddle
in
marketing, or do we want government to simply be a facilitator, more like
what happens in tobacco marketing?
Tobacco Industry and Marketing
Board licenses auction floors and contractors
to buy the crop but also acts
as the referee in cases of dispute. The
marketing of tobacco in this country
provides an example of how agricultural
marketing should be handled. The
prices provide an incentive to farmers to
grow the crop and the area planted
has been steadily increasing over the
years. It is simple market economics:
provide the platform and let market
forces determine
prices.
Government has previously tried to intervene in tobacco
marketing with
disastrous results. Due to the stability that exists in the
tobacco sector,
contractors are increasingly willing to contract farmers.
More than 50% of
the tobacco crop is now contract-farmed and this has helped
liquidity in the
local market.
The cotton industry is one of
those agricultural sectors where almost 100%
of the crop is grown under
contract-farming. Ginners use offshore funding or
borrow from banks to buy
inputs that they give to contracted farmers. This
is done without any
collateral; after all the crop is grown by small holder
farmers in communal
and resettlement areas and these farmers do not have the
kind of required
security.
By declaring cotton a controlled crop, the minister risks
destabilising that
arrangement — cotton ginners and banks will hesitate to
finance the crop
next year. This change in policy is coming midstream, when
changes should
have been made at the beginning of the
season.
Government is already failing to provide enough resources to
boost
production of essential cereals like maize and wheat. So where does it
expect to find money to fund the production of cotton. Whilst government
could not find US$20 million to finance inputs for the current winter wheat
programme, the cotton crop was sponsored by ginners to the tune of US$42
million. Financiers provide funding to cotton ginners on the basis that it
will yield increased benefits at the end of the season.
Why would
any financier provide funding to a cotton ginner for nine months,
only for
the ginner to be told to go and collect monies they invested from
GMB which
is already struggling to pay farmers for delivered maize and
wheat.
Government is failing to meet its revenue targets and pay
civil servants
adequately. Government should instead try to bring ginners
and producers
closer together on the producer price, fully aware that it
does not have the
resources to buy or subsidise the
crop.
Politicians will always say they cannot stand by while their
electorate are
being “cheated by unscrupulous merchants” when elections are
around the
corner, but if interventions are to be made at all, they must be
sustainable
in the long term. Policy contradictions and inconsistencies do
not
help.
Peter Gambara is an agricultural economist and
consultant with AgriExpert, a
local consultancy firm. He writes in his
personal capacity. Email:
pgambara@hotmail.com .
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012 16:54
Gamma
Mudarikiri
THE rehabilitation of Hwange thermal power station is set for
completion by
end of 2013 and this should significantly address erratic
power supply in
the country, incoming permanent secretary in the Ministry of
Energy and
Power Development Patterson Mbiriri said this week.
The
on-going rehabilitation of the project, which started in 2007, is
expected
to lift power output to 700MW by August this year from the current
500MW,
after the completion of repair to Units 1 and 2 of Hwange power
station.
Mbiriri said treasury had so far injected more than
US$50 million, with
Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) pumping US$40 million into
the project.
Part of the project to repair the ash and handling plant at a
cost of US$35
million was being financed by the Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust
Fund (Zimfund)
and was also expected to be complete by 2013.
The
EU-sponsored fund is administered by Africa Development Bank (AfDB),
with
ZPC as the implementing agent.
AfDB is also administering under
Zimfund, an urgent water supply and
sanitation rehabilitation project for
the municipalities of Harare,
Chitungwiza, Mutare, Masvingo, Kwekwe and
Chegutu in line with the
government’s Short-Term Emergency Recovery
Programme (Sterp).
Mbiriri said in order to address the erratic power
supply holistically, the
ministry would have to focus more on the
transmission and distribution grid.
However, this would be a challenge, given
the archaic primary equipment
available, he said.
“A lot of
primary equipment is very old and urgently needs to be
refurbished,” Mbiriri
said. “Key equipment such as reactors are out of
service due to their old
age as most of these were installed in the 1960s.”
Zimbabwe
Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company is also set to
embark on a
roll-out programme to install 5,5 million compact fluorescent
lamps in homes
and institutions to save electricity.
Mbiriri said the exercise would
save about 180MW of power, adding this would
also help the prepaid metering
programme to be launched this year.
Zimbabwe is facing chronic power
shortages, where output is about 1300MW
against national demand of 2200MW,
albeit total installed capacity is 1960
MW. According to a Medium-Term Plan
review report, domestic power generation
declined by 1,2% to 1280MW in
January and February from the 1295MW
registered in December 2011.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012 17:33
IN
a totalitarian state every aspect of public life is governed by the state’s
rulers. While it may appear that civic activists have room to operate, in
reality they are squeezed out and sometimes persecuted.
Last
Friday the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) had
been due
to host the Joshua Nkomo Memorial lecture at which Nkosana Moyo
had been
due to speak.
Moyo, it may be recalled, had served in government as
Minister of Industry
and International Trade. His frustration at being
unable to make progress as
a minister led to his resignation in a fax sent
from Johannesburg.
We don’t know what he proposed to say in his
speech on Friday night but
clearly the authorities deemed it potentially
subversive. Nust was told to
cancel the event which was to be hosted by
their media department, headed by
media commissioner Nqobile Nyathi, in
tandem with ANZ and the Joshua Nkomo
Foundation.
What does all
this tell us? Obviously a paranoid regime cannot allow
freedom of speech
that may embarrass it. The cancellation was a clear
attempt to suppress any
potential discussion that might have proved
uncomfortable for a government
thrashing around for legitimacy.
In this
context the reading public can’t have missed the way in which Joshua
Nkomo’s
legacy in the days leading up to July 1 had been hijacked by a state
keen to
cover itself in the mantle of nationalist glory which Nkomo
represented and
Zanu PF manifestly doesn’t. The lecture was being delivered
in a part of the
country where Nkomo’s popular support had held up to the
end of his life.
When he died in 1999 most of his supporters transferred
their allegiance to
the emergent MDC.
His autobiography revealed the extent to which he
was persecuted by Zanu PF
in the early 1980s, an episode conspicuously
airbrushed out of the glowing
hagiographies being carried in the state
media. The dishonesty of those
attempting to acquire his nationalist mantle
by republishing expurgated
episodes of his book that fail to mention the
ordeal he suffered –– along
with his chief lieutenants –– underlines why we
need a free press including
broadcasters that tell the
truth.
Muckraker came under fire in
parliament last week when Tourism minister
Walter Mzembi thought he should
respond to a point raised in this column.
“Zimbabwe tourism,” he said, “has
the capacity after bouncing back to
actually blossom and in fact, according
to the World Travel and Tourism
Council Economic Impact Report, it has been
projected to be the second
fastest growing tourism sector in terms of
contribution to GDP after China.
“Unfortunately, writers of some
newspaper columns like Muckraker of the
Independent weekly seem to find this
difficult to believe leading them to
suggest that I perhaps created these
projections yet these are made on the
basis of research and analysis done by
the WTTC in collaboration with Oxford
economists.
“We have
amongst us some people still stuck in the colonial mind-set where
they
cannot see a prosperous Zimbabwe,” Mzembi charged.
So we have a prosperous
Zimbabwe now, do we Cde Mzembi?
We were
interested in remarks made at the opening of the Jin’an Buddhist
temple in
Chiadzwa attended by President Mugabe. Master of the temple Ki Hui
said
President Mugabe was a great person just like chairman Mao and deserved
the
respect of everyone.
“Chairman Mao freed us from the old China,” he
said, “and was the founding
chairman of the modern China, and just like our
chairman, President Mugabe
freed Zimbabweans from the old world of
poverty.”
This is revisionism at its most radical. Chairman Mao was
responsible for
mass starvation with his Great Leap Forward. It was a
disaster, millions
died. And his violent Cultural Revolution caused
widespread suffering with
families torn apart. Children were encouraged to
denounce their parents as
reactionary “running dogs”.
Chinese
leaders paid a visit to Hong Kong this week to mark 15 years of
Communist
rule. The police kept demonstrators well away from where the
leaders were
staying. But their voices could be heard miles away.
The fact is
modern China is the product of Deng, not Mao. Deng famously
described his
attitude to reform: “I don’t care what colour a cat is so long
as it catches
mice.”
China has progressed rapidly since then (1978) but only by
learning from the
West.
China today runs a successful market economy
based on Deng’s philosophy, not
Mao’s. Zimbabwe is headed the other
way.
The Herald carried an interesting
piece on Tuesday about a Chinese
delegation visiting Zimbabwe. They met SK
Moyo and Rugare Gumbo during their
tour, we are told.
“Cde Gumbo
bemoaned the propaganda attack the country is being subjected to
by Western
countries,” the Herald reported.
“The West is highly advanced in
terms of technology and propaganda and after
imposing the illegal sanctions
on us they want the whole world to believe we
are a rogue state.” He called
for more Chinese assistance to counter Western
propaganda.
This
is a significant admission. Here is Zanu PF with the whole apparatus of
the
state at its disposal calling on the Chinese to help them.
They have just
increased their grip on radio and television so they can
dominate the
airwaves but it apparently hasn’t done the trick.
They still feel they are
losing the propaganda war. And of course they are.
The last thing
Zimbabweans want to hear is more of what they are fed by ZBC.
As for the
Chinese, they should not be interfering in our internal
affairs.
Meanwhile ZBC has signed
yet another MoU, this time with Chinese state
broadcaster China Central
Television (CCTV).
The move, according to ZBC, is aimed at “strengthening
relations” between
the two state-controlled
broadcasters.
However, under the agreement, ZBC will air CCTV news
programmes and not the
other way round. Clearly even the Chinese don’t want
the drivel that passes
for news at
ZBC.
Finance minister and MDC-T
secretary-general Tendai Biti took time out of
his supposedly busy schedule
to embellish President Mugabe to Sunday Mail
readers.
“He
(Mugabe) is very calm and seductive: I am sure every woman is in love
with
him,” Biti gushed.
Biti was not done, shocked readers were to
discover, adding: “He is a
fountain of experience, fountain of knowledge
and, most importantly, a
fountain of stability. There are a lot of horrible
things that would have
happened in this country if he had not said
‘No’.”
Victims of Gukurahundi, Operation Murambatsvina as well as of
the June 2008
run-off election violence will have a very different opinion
to that of the
fawning minister.
As recently as April, Mugabe was
quoted saying: “now is the time to remove
all the snakes on our way and
ensure that Bulawayo and the whole of
Matabeleland is
vibrant”.
These words were a chilling reminder of Mugabe’s statement
in the early
1980s in which he stated that:
“Zapu and its leader, Joshua
Nkomo are like a cobra in a house, the only way
to deal effectively with a
snake is to strike and destroy its head.”
How reassuring it must be
for long-suffering Zimbabweans, who have borne the
brunt of 32 years of
abuse, to hear the secretary-general of an alternative
party vouching for
their tormentors.
Biti is not alone in the lickspittle crusade with
MDC-T Organising Secretary
Nelson Chamisa saying Mugabe “provided leadership
from the cockpit and we
are prepared to be the
passengers”.
Chamisa had said Mugabe’s “wisdom makes sure the plane
does not crash”.
These sentiments are being expressed in a country which no
longer has a
currency, an airline and whose industries lie moribund thanks
to Mugabe and
Zanu PF’s policies.
The
Johannesburg Sunday Times has commented on President Zuma’s “second
phase
of transition” that would mean the adoption of radical policies to
speed up
social transformation.
“But it is not new concepts and revolutionary
sounding buzz words that South
Africa needs to turn around its fortunes,”
the paper points out. “We have
too many of those.”
“Bad planning,
corruption, and the lack of political will rather than the
compromises
reached during the multiparty negotiations at Codesa are to
blame for the
government’s failure to deliver textbooks to public schools in
Limpopo.
“Instead of dodging the real issues by introducing new
concepts at every one
of its five-yearly national conferences, it is about
time the ruling party
did some serious soul-searching as to why after nearly
two decades in power
it has done so little to reverse the legacy of
apartheid.”
Muckraker drew attention
recently to the anarchy in the administration of
Harare with arbitrary
structures going up all over the city.
A good example, we said, was
the car-sales yards which have been planted on
municipal property opposite
Prince Edward School. It is shocking that these
were given approval by the
city planners.
This week we can report that brick walls have been
built around the
car-lots.
In other words permanent
structures are being erected on what one assumes is
city
property.
Some well-connected individual will benefit. As we said,
this is part of the
breakdown in city administration at a time when the
council is declaring its
“shared vision” for a “world class” city. Purleez!
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012
17:26
ONE of the many factors underlying the distress of the Zimbabwean
economy is
the magnitude of corruption that prevails in almost all sectors.
Most
Zimbabweans are inherently honest, but when a man is constantly hungry,
that
honesty disappears and is replaced by desperate recourse to crime in
general, and corruption in particular, in order to survive.
Moreover,
the tendency to abandon the straight and narrow ends up being
institutionalised through usage. With Zimbabwe’s economy having withered and
increasingly decimated for most of 15 years, save for some very modest
recovery between 2009 and 2011, Zimbabwean poverty is
intense.
Unemployment has risen to about 80%. Significantly,
more than half of the
population is struggling to survive on incomes very
markedly below the
poverty datum line. Thousands are homeless and cannot
afford education for
their children, while even more cannot afford health
care.
The streets of cities and towns have many beggars who can also
be found
loitering at traffic-light intersections, and outside supermarkets
and
banks. Most community-service trusts and other organisations are
strapped
for cash, as need for their aid and assistance intensify
exponentially,
while traditional donors become less and less able to provide
for them due
to financial problems in their home countries. International
donors are
battling to overcome the consequences of economic and financial
recession in
most first-world countries. Meanwhile, Zimbabwean enterprises
struggle to
survive the deluge of the country’s ills.
Therefore,
more and more Zimbabweans have resorted to crime and corruption
in their
desperate efforts to make ends meet. They justify their actions on
the basis
of survival unlike national leaders who resort to crime and
corruption for
self-enrichment.
I recall travelling to Harare from Bulawayo some
years ago seated next to a
government minister. The minister asked: “Why are
you travelling to Harare?”
to which I replied that I was to participate in
and speak at a conference on
corruption. The minister immediately responded:
“That’s a very good thing,
because by now there are only two honest people
left in Zimbabwe!”
My immediate response was: “Really! Me and who
else?” The minister had the
grace to stop the conversation forthwith, for
many a true word is spoken in
jest.
It is common knowledge that
there is massive corruption in many ministries,
government departments and
parastatals. Contracts are often awarded on the
basis of “hand-backs”,
euphemistically referred to as “commission”. Money
is wasted in paying
people in ministries, government departments or
parastatals “commissions”
for furtherance of the purposes for which their
entities
exist.
Another prime example of wasted resources is the frequency of
international
travel. Here it’s not only the delegate that travels, but a
host of others
accompanying him who invariably end up doing nothing abroad
but shop and
have leisure.
Many assets of the public sector
entities are not used for their intended
purpose but for personal benefit of
employees with access to them. This
ranges from relatively minor items such
as stationery, to reckless usage of
telephones including personal
international calls, to the use of state-owned
vehicles for wholly-private
purposes. These are but a few examples of many
corrupt practices in the
public sector.
A stunning example of corruption was the disclosure
approximately 16 months
ago that the public service was employing more than
40 000 “ghost workers”.
This involved having fictitious names on the
government’s payroll, where the
creators of this bogus payroll are the
beneficiaries of the monthly
pay-cheques. Insofar as known, a year after
that disclosure, ghost-worker
payments are still being
effected.
Yet another prevailing corrupt practice is that pursued by
some members of
the Zimbabwe Republic Police. Whilst many police officers
fulfill their
duties with utmost probity and correctness, there are those
who blatantly
resort to corrupt practices. All too frequently, one hears of
spurious
charges being imposed at road blocks (mainly on national highways)
for
specious offences.
Those range from demands that drivers have
reflective vests — whereas no
such requirement has been gazetted, in
contrast to the valid gazetting of
the requirement every vehicle must have
fire extinguishers and red warning
triangles — to allegations of
over-speeding, or traversing continuous
centre-lines where no such lines
exist. Not only are spot fines unlawfully
imposed, but the payment of those
fines is pocketed by
the police officer, without the issue of a
receipt.
Yet other public sector corrupt practices are those of some
MPs who
unreservedly draw their salaries and allowances, notwithstanding
their
almost total failure to attend parliamentary sessions. Some of them
unhesitatingly make claims for expenditure reimbursements for expenses not
incurred by them. Yet others have no qualms or reservations about using
their positions and influence to obtain business
opportunities.
Recent key examples are those who have secured
expropriated farms under
Zimbabwe’s chaotic land reform programme, or equity
in businesses pursuant
to the equally abhorrent manner in which
indigenisation and economic
empowerment are being pursued. Similarly,
several of them as well as the
military and others in the public sector
domain have allegedly amassed
proceeds from the massive diamond resources in
Marange.
But corruption has not been the sole preserve of the public
sector. Many in
the private sector are equally culpable. Many of the “new”
farmers were
assisted by government and the Reserve Bank with agricultural
equipment and
inputs, but failed to utilise them for the intended
enhancement of Zimbabwe’s
agricultural production.
Instead,
immediately upon receipt the goods were sold, including many sales
(especially so during the pre-multicurrency period) to farmers in
neighbouring countries. Likewise, many employees in commerce and industry,
the financial and other sectors have emulated (and continue to do so) those
in the public sector in the expropriation of stock-in-trade, manufacturing
inputs, consumable commodities, and stationery.
They are also
involved in the unlawful and unauthorised usage of employers’
assets such as
motor vehicles, endless private telephone calls and the like.
Years
ago, government established the Anti-Corruption Commission, but to
date the
only evidence of action by that commission is the pursuit of
vendettas of
those with political connections.
If the economy is to not to be
continuously weakened by ongoing corruption
government, or the
Anti-Corruption Commission must urgently, without fear or
favour, take
forceful actions to contain the cancer of corruption.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012
17:20
Qhubani Moyo
WHILE it should not be our business to talk
about the way other parties
operate internally, it would be remiss to ignore
certain events, especially
those within main political parties in the
inclusive government given that
their actions affect people’s welfare and
future of the nation.
This is particularly important with regards to Zanu
PF as it has been in
government for decades and still retains control of the
levers of power
through state security organs and other key
institutions.
It is public knowledge that important national
processes like the
constitution-making exercise have suffered serious
setbacks due to the
internal power dynamics within Zanu PF as each of the
rival factions
battling to produce a successor to President Robert Mugabe
continue to
scramble to consolidate their positions. This inevitably has led
to a
situation where the Zanu PF factions have used national institutions
and
processes to fight each other. Using national institutions and processes
for
intra-party power struggles and internal conflicts is a danger not only
to
the party but also the nation.
In the process of succession
tussles, which have spilled into the national
and public domain, there has
been a blatant disregard for national interests
and the future of the
country.
Government business has also been seriously affected by the
infighting
within Zanu PF to an extent where government programmes have been
sabotaged
or derailed by competing forces.
It is in the context
of this background that the dissolution of the Zanu PF
District Coordinating
Committees (DCCs) becomes an important subject for
public discourse. This
debate on the disbanding of these structures is
important in three different
ways. First, it confirms the obvious: that Zanu
PF is an undemocratic
political party which will not accept the outcomes of
any electoral process,
including their own internal ones.
Indications from media reports and
other sources show how the faction led by
the party’s legal affairs
secretary Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is also Defence
minister, had
outmanoeuvred the group reportedly led by Vice-President Joice
Mujuru.
Second, it shows how fractured and fragmented Zanu PF now
is and that it is
unable to resolve internal contradictions and clashes
using credible
conflict-resolution mechanisms which produce satisfactory
outcomes
acceptable to the wrangling parties.
Last, the
disbanding of the DCCs after internal elections apparently won by
Mnangagwa
paints a dismal picture about Zanu PF’s willingness to embrace
democracy
internally and nationally. Further, it rasies questions about the
party’s
ability to run its own elections, let alone national ones. Mnangagwa
has
over the years projected himself as a strong man with political muscle
and
sheer force of personality to do the impossible, but events in the past
few
years have eroded that myth, leaving him exposed and appearing weak and
indecisive.
This is now breeding contempt for him in his camp as
he is slowly being seen
as a general betraying his troops or worse still, a
bulldog without teeth.
Simply put, Mnangagwa is proving he does not have
strong leadership
qualities, tenacity and character to be a national leader,
besides a brutal
disposition and reputation which is working against
him.
The litany of his failed bids for ascendancy is now stuff of
legend. Some
are now writing him off, although he must be given the benefit
of doubt.
However, the disbanding of the DCC polls, which insiders
say his group had
won, offers a stern test of his leadership qualities and
resolve. Remember
the incident when he was “awarded” an Honorary Doctorate
by the Midlands
State University (MSU) and was literally removed from the
list the night
before the graduation ceremony. So bad was the situation that
the employees
of the university spent the whole night “tippexing” his name
from the
booklet of graduands. In some instances the “tippexing” was so
badly done
that one could see his name below the white tippex
ink.
Then there is the 2004 “Tsholotsho fiasco” when his foot
soldiers staged a
major upset by delivering about seven out of 10 party
provinces in the
battle for the vice-presidency and again he failed to grab
power despite the
overwhelming support. After that most of his lieutenants
were heavily
victimised and he did nothing to protect them.
Then
now his people had done so much groundwork to ensure they control the
lower
structures that produce congress delegates and then the central
committee
and the politburo, but again his rivals outmanoeuvred him; dealing
him a
heavy blow by dissolving structures which he had seemingly taken
control
of.
If things continue moving this way and he does not show a new
impetus, he
might eventually lose his base and support, surrendering his bid
for the
presidency. His supporters are obviously frustrated with what has
happened
and also angry at him for showing lack of
leadership.
However, the most important point here is not Mnangagwa’s
dismal performance
per se but that Mugabe’s succession battle, which is
destabilising the party
with far-reaching consequences, has become a
national issue rather than
internal. It is precisely for this reason that
scrutiny of the events within
Zanu PF, which is a coalition government
partner, becomes a useful or
necessary part of national
debate.
There is overwhelming evidence that important national
processes like the
constitution-making exercise are now intertwined with
Zanu PF’s internal
power struggles, which means the issue now deserves
public attention. Zanu
PF’s insistence and bulldozing of the issue of two
vice-presidents is both
an internal matter and a national issue as it has
implications on the
structure of government and allocation of resources. But
this also has
something to do with succession as it locks the country into a
self-centred
structure which produces and protects a president from one
region and
deputies from elsewhere.
What has come out of the Zanu
PF DCC fiasco is that the party is in turmoil
and the debris of its
explosion is scattered across the coalition government
and the nation. It is
thus important and urgent to ensure that government
institutions insulate
themselves against this. This is now critically urgent
given that the
party’s warring factions might sooner rather than later,
engage in a
suicidal scramble for power as Mugabe grows older and
increasingly
frail.
Mugabe’s fast-approaching end is likely to wreak havoc in Zanu
PF and
consume the whole country. So this volatile political situation needs
to be
watched closely, checked and carefully managed to prevent a chaotic
transition.
Moyo is the director of policy and research
co-ordination in the MDC led by
Professor Welshman Ncube. E-mail: mdcpolicyguru@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 05 July 2012
17:18
Pedzisai Ruhanya
THE decision by Zanu PF central committee
to endorse a recommendation by its
communist-style politburo to disband the
district coordinating committees of
the party over factional infighting
poses serious questions about the
existence and appreciation of democracy
within this crumbling political
oligarchy.
The astonishing decision
which overlooks the human agency in the problems
facing Zanu PF raises the
query of which model of democracy the party
follows, if
any.
There are different models of democracy, but given Zanu
PF’s history,
politics and context, this analysis limits itself to two broad
types of
democracy advanced by David Held: direct or participatory and
liberal or
representative democracies.
Direct or participatory
democracy means a system of decision making in
public affairs in which
citizens are directly involved, while liberal
democracy is a system of rule
entailing elected officers who undertake to
represent the interests of
people within the framework of the rule of law.
In Africa, most
countries use a mixture of these two variants in terms of
the structures of
the state and the system of governance. Many countries,
including Zimbabwe,
purport to embrace democracy in one form or another.
While that ought to be
the case, the ideal is not problematic but the
implementation.
This is the problem that Zanu PF is grappling
with which has led to the
disbanding of a party structure without
investigating the human agency
attendant to the
disturbances.
Certain processes and criteria should take place in
order to determine a
democracy. Robert Dahl argues there should be effective
citizen
participation in policy formulation,that is, when policies are made
citizens
should have voting equality and within reasonable limits have equal
and
effective opportunities to learn and understand the policies and their
consequences on their lives.
It is argued the inclusion of adults
as a criterion for democratic practices
ironically rules out many cases that
political philosophers have regularly
taken as great historical models of
democracy. Dahhl, therefore, contends
Greek and Roman polities, among
others, which all built their political
models by excluding slaves, women
and paupers, should be critically
questioned.
Advocates of
procedural democracy, however, caution that if elections are a
non-competitive sham and an occasion to bash opponents,then they fail the
test of democracy. But if they cause significant governance changes, they
may be a sign of the presence of democratic practices.
It is
difficult to understand the kind of democratic practices Zanu PF
embraces.
It’s undemocratic actions through the disbanding of the district
coordinating committees and the failure to adopt credible internal electoral
processes explain why it has failed to administer free and fair elections at
the national level.
It is generally agreed a state is governed
democratically if government
offices and positions are allocated on the
basis of competitive popular
elections. The idea of administering credible
polls that offer citizens
varied choices in an environment where civil
liberties are not stifled are
characteristics all democracies have in common
and that undemocratic forms
of government lack. The current practices and
state of affairs in Zanu PF
are far from meeting the basic tenets of
democracy. So what type of
democracy does Zanu PF
practise?
Another leading democratic scholar, Samuel Huntington, sees
elections as a
barometer for defining democracy. In his view, democracy
could be understood
as a means of constituting authority and making it
responsible.
A modern state could be perceived as having a democratic
political system if
its most powerful political officers are chosen through
fair, honest and
periodic elections in which candidates freely compete for
votes in a system
which allows universal suffrage
“According to
this definition, elections are the essence of democracy. From
this follow
other characteristics of democratic systems. Free, fair and
competitive
elections are only possible if there is some measure of freedom
of speech,
assembly, and press, and if opposition candidates and parties are
able to
criticise incumbents without fear of retaliation,’’ Huntington
argues.
It is, however, questioned whether elections alone could
adequately capture
the essence of the concept of democracy. Larry Diamond
elaborated a key
distinction between liberal democracy and electoral
democracy. Liberal
democracies not only have elections but also other
important benchmarks of
democracy. They have restrictions on the power of
the executive, independent
judiciaries to uphold the rule of law; protection
of individual rights, and
freedoms of expression, association, belief and
participation, consideration
for minority rights, limits on the ability of
the ruling party to manipulate
the electoral process, effective guarantees
against arbitrary arrest, and
minimum state control of the
media.
Most electoral democracies lack these safeguards. The failed
Zanu PF
internal electoral processes and disputed elections in Zimbabwe pose
critical questions about existence or depth of democracy in the
country.
In Zimbabwe, electoral processes are only used as part of
what Cameroonian
anthropologist Benjamin Nyamnjoh described as “face powder
democracy” meant
to legitimise the continued rule of the political elite
while citizens’
rights are trampled upon, without a deepening democratic
culture and respect
for fundamental civil and political liberties of
citizens in electoral
administration.
Whatever the definitions,
democracy is a desirable form of government Zanu
PF and other parties should
fully embrace. Instead of suppressing the views
and electoral preferences of
its members by banning the district
coordinating committees, Zanu PF should
adopt open processes of leadership
renewal that has the legitimacy of its
members in various communities.
The Zanu PF leadership and indeed
other political players and parties in
Zimbabwe should realise that
democracy is critical as it celebrates
diversity and tolerance. The idea of
democracy is important because it does
not just represent one value among
many such as liberty, equality or justice
but values that can link and
mediate among competing issues and interests
in society. It is a process
that can assist Zanu PF in its battle for
political
survival.
Suppressing political dissent in order to stop either
Emmerson Mnangagwa or
Joice Mujuru from political ascendancy in the current
succession battles is
undemocratic, parochial and myopic.
Another
critical factor of democracy is that it does not pre-suppose
agreement on
diverse values but rather it suggests a way of relating values
to each other
and leaving conflict resolution open to participants in a
public process.
Zanu PF succession battles which led to the disbanding of
the district
coordinating committees have stifled democratic processes in
the party and
silenced people temporarily but the menace of infighting
remains. It will
manifest itself in other organs of the party and if Zanu PF
thinks that
disbanding its vibrant structures is the solution then it will
surely end up
dissolving itself!
Ruhanya is a PhD candidate on Media and Democracy
at the University of
Westminster, London.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 06 July 2012 11:20
THE
relentless attempt by Indigenisation minister Saviour Kasukuwere to
subject
the banking sector to the same model of empowerment where the banks
will be
forcibly made to surrender 51% of their equity to several shady
“institutions” under the guise of transformation begs thorough
examination.
For starters, if Kasukuwere does in the end manage to take over
the banks,
what in effect would he have indigenised? The buildings in which
these
banking halls are housed? The deposits or the assets in the form of
loans?
After all, many of the banks do not own the buildings which
house their
banking halls, apart from their head offices, and even if they
did, bank
customers are mobile. So taking over, for instance, Barclays
Bank’s
soon-to-be opened Kamfinsa branch will not lead to any acquisition of
the
bank’s assets, because the building is actually owned by Pearl
Properties.
Lest we forget, a bank’s real assets are the loans that it
advances to
borrowers. The depositors’ funds, which the banks on-lend to
borrowers are
in effect liabilities and these are extremely
“timid”.
The forcible takeover of foreign-owned banks will naturally
lead to a flight
of capital, not only from the targeted banks but from the
country at large.
Banks that have good corporate governance as has been the
case with most
foreign-owned financial institutions have attracted
deposits.
That may be the attraction for the Kasukuweres of this
world, but again,
those deposits are not assets but
liabilities.
Why should anyone want to rush to take over a business
with substantial
liabilities? Should a bank exercise prudent lending and
extend a smaller
proportion of these depositors’ funds means it will be
having more
liabilities. More importantly, should depositors have no
confidence in the
owners of the bank, they will naturally withdraw their
funds from it, what
is generally termed as a run on banks or “flight to
quality”.
So that which the indigenisation agents will be left with
will at most
consist of the US$12,5 million statutory requirements. Unless
of course this
is the myopic objective of the exercise.
If we
consider that there are about 26 financial institutions and with an
average
capitalisation of US$10 million each, this will translate into some
US$260
million, or US$300 million if we round off.
We shudder to think why a
responsible government would want to upset the
very vital banking sector so
that a few of its individuals can lay their
hands on very fickle assets. It
is telling that such desperate measures are
being taken now, as elections
are likely within the coming 12 months. If on
the one hand they really
intend to take over these banks as they say, this
may be the last chance by
those in power to loot before they are kicked out
of power by a legitimate,
democratically-elected government.
These desperados, seeing
international pressure for free and fair elections
closing in on them, are
having a last-ditch attempt to amass illicit wealth.
If not, the empty
threats are clearly destructive and may be an attempt to
ruin the economy by
dealing a lethal blow to make it difficult for the
incoming government to
restore growth.
Either way, the actions and rhetoric are severely
damaging and can only lead
the economy down the path of
destruction.
It might well explain why they are prepared to destroy
Zimbabwe’s legacy of
education by also helping themselves to private
schools, under the pretext
of indigenisation. Zimbabwe has been reputed to
have a well-educated
populace, that in spite of the destruction of public
education still remain
the envy of many on the continent and
internationally. Many of the private
schools are owned by churches and
trusts.
The church-owned mission schools are the very ones that
helped today’s
political elite to attain a decent education under
colonialism –– a case of
biting the hand that fed you. By implication,
taking over these mission
schools means taking over the churches that run
them. As for the
non-church-owned private schools, the majority of them are
owned by private
trusts or family trusts.
Government is targeting
the financial, tourism, education and sport,
engineering and construction,
energy, services, telecoms and transport
sectors. Indigenisation has now
descended into a scorched-earth policy.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 06 July 2012
11:17
Dumisani Muleya
FINANCE minister Tendai Biti’s interview in
the Sunday Mail, which on the
face of it seems to be awash with indulgent
praise-singing for President
Robert Mugabe and nationalist posturing, has
provoked a storm of controversy
and debate.
The interview
elicited different sorts of reactions, ranging from
appreciation to
criticism.
Those who agree with Biti say the interview shows he is
now mature and
strategic in his thinking and handling of national issues.
They also note he
has become statesman-like and a
consensus-builder.
However, his critics say he was trying to put
lipstick on a pig –– making a
superficial analysis of the situation with
cosmetic remarks –– while
gratuitously indulging in hero-worshipping
bordering on hagiography. They
also say he failed the test of humility and
being reflective, in the process
exposing his thinly-veiled political
ambitions and manoeuvres.
Biti’s interview covered a whole range of
key issues; historical events,
Mugabe’s contribution to the liberation
struggle, his national significance
as founding leader and legacy, what it
means to be Zimbabwean in his view,
generational challenges, political
questions, including rule of law,
violence and tolerance, and economic
issues, as well as GPA and MDC-T
dynamics.
But the most
controversial remarks he made centred on Mugabe whose
contentious leadership
and policies have polarised society.
Mugabe, in power for 32 years
without a break, is many different things to
many different people. To some
he is a liberator and hero; yet to others he
is a freedom
fighter-turned-tyrant. Admittedly, he is a complex and
sometimes
paradoxical character.
The dark side of Mugabe’s character emerged
early during the 1980s with the
ruthless crushing of bitter rival, Joshua
Nkomo and Zapu in pursuit of a
one-party state agenda and command economy.
His contemporaries and
colleagues during the liberation struggle say Mugabe
has always had a
ruthless streak which first manifested itself during his
days in exile in
Mozambique.
Edgar Tekere and Wilfred
Mhanda’s autobiographies show this. Mugabe is still
using the same
authoritarian methods to remain in power. In recent years,
Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC officials, including Biti, have
borne the
brunt of his repression. Arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture
and killings
have largely characterised his rule.
That’s why many ask: Is Mugabe
an African hero or a ruthless dictator
consumed by hubris and
self-righteousness? Is he that evil or just
misunderstood? Now that he is
facing an endgame of potentially horrifying
dimensions, how will he be
remembered?
“His importance in this country will be seen once he’s
gone. When he’s gone
that is when you will see that this man was Zimbabwe.
Some of us who came
from different parties have had to learn a lot from the
man. He is a
fountain of experience, fountain of knowledge and, most
importantly, a
fountain of stability,” Biti says.
“There are a
lot of horrible things that would have happened in this country
if he had
not said ‘No’. History will prove the correctness of this
statement. He has
been the number one symbol of stability. There are people
who would have
wanted to destroy this country internally, but his value has
been to say
‘No’. Even this GNU; there are people who wanted to destroy it
within two
months, and it would have died. Where would we have been with a
hyperinflation of 500 billion percent? So, I think us younger generations
are lucky to have gone through his hands.”
This was the most
controversial part which led critics to say Biti is
suffering from a
battered woman syndrome or what they call in psychology the
Stockholm
syndrome –– a phenomenon in which hostages end up expressing
empathy or
having a positive attitude towards their captors, sometimes
defending
them.
However, Biti is an intelligent man, lawyer and shrewd
politician. There
must be something he was conveying, especially given the
interview was in
the Sunday Mail where ordinarily he would hesitate to be
interviewed given
he has choice on other platforms.
Besides, the
journalist who interviewed him recently had a splash on Grace
Mugabe. The
question is, was the interview by accident or design? What was
the coded
message Biti was delivering and who is the target audience? Did
Biti achieve
his objective or not?
Whatever the case, Biti’s thought-provoking
interview stirred controversy
and debate in equal measure, perhaps the most
important thing after all.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 06 July 2012
11:14
Itai Masuku
READING about some treacherous deal last week to
trade Zimbabwe’s platinum
reserves to the Russians in return for some
Russian helicopters really got
one’s stomach turning.
Only a week
earlier, we had learnt about how the Chinese were creaming this
nation of
its diamond endowments in Chiadzwa in return for some supposed
military gain
by Zimbabwe.
This doesn’t make sense at all, given all this talk
bandied about in some
circles about selling-out the nation’s sovereignty,
ideals blah blah. What
about selling-out the country’s finite resources,
shouldn’t that count for
something? These arms for resources deals are the
proverbial selling of one’s
birthright for a mess of
pottage.
Were he still alive, Walter Rodney, famed for writing a
treatise entitled
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, might as well have
gotten ready to pen a
sequel entitled “How Brics underdeveloped
Africa.”
While Africa, Zimbabwe in particular, has been battling to
rid itself of the
shackles of European colonialism, it is instead going into
bondage under the
so-called Brics countries; Brazil, Russia, India, China
and South Africa.
Brazil’s place is not yet evident, but so far it’s
clear that it’s diamonds
to the Chinese, platinum to the Russians, iron to
the Indians (remember the
Essar deal?) and manufacturing to the South
Africans.
A summary visit to the newly-opened Pick n Pay will show
that more than 90%
of the products sold therein are made in South
Africa.
The same goes for Spar. Zimbabwean products in these
shops are minuscule,
including kapenta fish and
madora/macimbi.
In short, behind every one of those shops, which sell
the regular needs of
consumers, are profits and jobs for South Africa’s
factories, not Zimbabwe’s.
In order to compete, local retailers such as OK
have confirmed they have to
import 60% of their products, mainly from South
Africa. But our focus is
more on resources where we are being short-changed
by the Russians and
Chinese, our friends from the liberation
struggle.
We hope some clandestine arms for resources deals were not
signed during the
liberation struggle that similarly pledged our resources
for a song. For it
is now known that at the peak of the cold war, which is
when our liberation
struggle was prosecuted, the most fancied arm, the AK
47, invented in the
Soviet Union, was being produced at 50 US cents a unit
by the Chinese.
This begs the question, what is the real value of the
military hardware that
we are exchanging for our minerals? Isn’t this
equipment not cheaply
produced and isn’t it obsolescent?
Aren’t
we, as Rodney would have put it, exchanging undervalued minerals for
overpriced rubbish goods?
And what really is the story with this
military build-up?
We cannot deny that any nation needs defence, but
we seem to be going
overboard.
In any case, the superpowers will
never sell us arms that will allow us to
defeat them, be they the Russians,
Chinese or Americans.
The feared enemies, the US and its allies, have
more arms than we have
thought to give form, and barring us having nuclear
weapons, which we’re not
advocating, we don’t stand the slightest
chance.
The Iraqis and Libyans can bear testimony, and they even had
more resources
than we do.
So why not in spite of the flawed
deals, redirect the proceeds to more
beneficial areas like healthcare,
education and more importantly support for
the economic sectors of the
country, such as infrastructure (and by this we
don’t mean military
complexes) such as roads, railways, dams etc? Why not
direct some of the
funds to developing manufacturing and SMEs? Will the real
sellouts please
stand up!
