FinGaz
Hama Saburi Deputy Editor-in-Chief
Ailing
Vice President breaches protocol
ZIMBABWEAN banks have snubbed an invitation
to an urgent meeting called by
the under-the-weather Vice-President Joseph
Msika to discuss the plight of
the sector, hit by the flight to quality
ahead of the September 30
recapitalisation deadline.
Msika was
reportedly not amused.
Impeccable banking sector sources yesterday said that
Msika, who recently
dismissed speculation about his retirement on medical
grounds, instructed
the Finance Ministry to call all bankers to an urgent
meeting. The Minister
of Finance, Herbert Murerwa, only managed to tie down
the meeting for May 3.
He then advised the chief executives of all banking
institutions through the
Bankers Association of Zimbabwe (BAZ).
However,
on noting that the meeting breached protocol by excluding the
Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe (RBZ), which controls the country's financial
levers, the CEOs
turned down the invitation, saying they could only attend
if the central
bank boss, Gideon Gono, was part of the meeting.
Some observers however said
that while the absence of the RBZ governor was
indeed a contentious issue,
the move by the bankers was widely seen as
calculated to clearly signal
their opposition to the fact that at such
meetings, political measures are
persistently suggested as a remedy for the
country's economic woes and
disintegration.
Murerwa, who could not be reached for comment at the time of
going to print,
promised to relay the bankers' concerns to the
Vice-President. But he is yet
to come back to the bankers with
feedback.
"It is not correct to say that we snubbed the meeting," said the
BAZ
president Pindie Nyandoro. "The Vice-President calls often to discuss
issues
and, in this case, the invitation came through the finance ministry.
We are
still waiting for confirmation of the date of the meeting," she said
in a
terse response.
Highly placed sources said while the Vice-President
was not amused by the
response, he might put pressure on the central bank to
meet the bankers and
tackle the industry's concerns.
They said the
government was forced to call for the meeting after being
stung by a $4
trillion recapitalisation request by one of the retail banks
in which it is
a shareholder. That made it eager to understand the magnitude
of the
problems in the sector many say is still sitting on shifting sands.
Sources
said the failed meeting was also to have discussed a letter written
by BAZ
to the central bank in March in which the association called for
urgent
action to mitigate what then appeared an imminent crisis within the
banking
sector, whose phenomenal growth was brought to a halt in 2003.
In a memo to
the RBZ, BAZ said it was lumbered with a huge portfolio of
Treasury Bills
(TBs) and had suffered liquidity shortages because of the
high statutory
reserve that removed substantial amounts of market liquidity.
BAZ also cited
the rise in accommodation rates among the policies that could
precipitate
bank failures if nothing is done to correct the situation.
On receipt of the
memo, the central bank is said to have called for a
meeting with the bankers
at which the RBZ stuck to its guns.
Sources said as a result of the impasse,
some bankers have been Nicodemously
lobbying the Vice-President's office to
exert pressure on the RBZ.
FinGaz
Hama Saburi Deputy
Editor-In-Chief
DANIEL Shumba, the former ZANU PF chairman for Masvingo
whose star lost its
shine the moment he got entangled in the Tsholotsho
saga, has for the first
time added his voice on the intriguing political
plot that clearly exposed
the divisions within the ruling party.
The
former freedom fighter, who later resigned from ZANU PF, was among the
six
provincial chairmen slapped with five-year suspensions for attending the
November 2004 Tsholotsho meeting, whose architects were ruthlessly dealt
with by the party.
The coterie, which threw its weight behind former ZANU
PF secretary for
administration, Emmerson Mnangagwa, for post of
vice-president ahead of the
party's congress, was considered a dissident
network out to block Joice
Mujuru from ascending to the second most powerful
post in the party and
government.
Speaking for the first time on the
ill-fated indaba Shumba, who now heads
the rival United People's Party (UPP)
as its interim president, said he has
no regrets about the role he played in
trying to shape the future for ZANU
PF.
"The so-called Tsholotsho meeting
never took place. A meeting was, however,
held in Bulawayo to update members
on the ZANU PF politburo meeting and
resolutions taken in respect of the
pending elections," he said.
"Naturally, individuals lobbied for a number of
options. I took a position
that would have provided for a balanced
distribution of power and
leadership," he added.
The ZANU PF politburo,
which seemed to have long settled for Mujuru, had
resolved to propel a woman
to one of the positions of vice-president. But
unknown to the Politburo,
tacticians that met in Bulawayo had other ideas to
keep Mnangagwa in
contention.
A nationwide purge that was meant to punish the meeting's
participants has
worsened the divisions within ZANU PF, giving the
impression that the
succession wars rocking the fractious party could be far
from over.
"The Masvingo vote was 100 percent behind me. Why is there no
mention of the
Marondera meetings? The rest is history," said Shumba. "It
became clearer
that it is impossible to bring democracy to Zimbabwe through
ZANU PF
structures. The country should not expect a ZANU PF miracle."
The
interim UPP president also spoke about his relationship with Jonathan
Moyo,
the dismissed former government spin-doctor. Prior to UPP's formation,
Shumba had been linked to Moyo's United People's Movement (UPM).
"I have
had discussions with members of the UPM, as much as I have had
discussions
with members of other opposition parties in the past. At a
personal level,
people are free to relate and communicate without fear or
permission from
ZANU PF.
"It is every individual's right to freedom of association, is it
not? I do
not belong to the UPM nor have I ever held a UPM membership card,"
he said.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Staff
Reporter
THE government's ambitious project to electrify rural
communities is in
jeopardy because of lack of funds.
Sydney Gata, the
chairman of ZESA Holdings, said the funds budgeted for the
programme had run
out, stalling the project midway.
The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) -
the power utility undertaking the
project - has completed only 49 percent of
the planned projects or 2 835
projects out of the targeted 5767.
"REA is
ailing because of lack of resources," said Gata who also doubles up
as
chairman of REA.
Gata said the termination of financial support from ZESA
Holdings coupled
with the virtual freeze on electricity tariffs, had
crippled REA.
President Robert Mugabe launched the expanded rural
electrification
programme in 2002. At the time of its launch, critics said
although the idea
of the project was noble it was being revived to placate a
disgruntled
electorate in rural areas where President Mugabe's party enjoys
massive
support.
The REA board is lobbying the Energy Ministry to force
the power utility to
release the five percent development levy to REA. It is
also lobbying for an
increase in the rural electrification levy to raise
more funds to speed up
the project.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior
Business Reporter
STATE-RUN National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) has
discontinued
subsidised fuel sales to some health institutions and
practitioners, a move
likely to further cripple the already collapsing
health delivery system.
Noczim notified the health practitioners late
last month about the
cancellation of the facility.
Doctors and nurses
said they were last served fuel at their designated
service stations on May
21. Since then fuel attendants were turning them
away.
"They told us that
fuel allocations will be stopped on the 1st of June
without giving reasons,"
said one doctor.
At Montagu service station where the bulk of the health
practitioners were
refuelling, a litre of diesel was retailing for $22 000
while petrol cost
$24 000. But the majority of Zimbabweans are buying a
litre of diesel and
petrol for over $500 000 at service stations that
mobilise their own
resources to import the precious liquid.
Paul
Chimedza, the secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Medical Association
(ZIMA)
confirmed that supplies were being limited.
"It (fuel) comes very
erratically," said Chimedza. "Some doctors are failing
to cover hospitals
and are now boarding taxis, which are very expensive," he
added.
Chimedza
said his association was currently receiving
5 000 litres of fuel, which he
said is inadequate to serve the more than 700
members affiliated to
ZIMA.
"Only 200 of us are getting that fuel and some of our members are going
for
three to four months without accessing it," he said.
Noczim's
marketing and distribution director Krispen Mashange this week
confirmed the
termination of the subsidised fuel facility strangely
ascribing it to
improvements in the supply of the commodity.
"We have screened some of them,"
said Mashange. "When we came up with that
facility the objective was to make
fuel available to them (medical
practitioners) but we have now just realised
that fuel is now available on
the market so they can go and buy," he
added.
Zimbabwe is grappling with a seven-year-old fuel crisis, which has
halted
industrial operations while thousands of workers have resorted to
walking to
their workplaces.
A severe shortage of
foreign currency
caused by a poor export performance,
decimated agricultural output and the
drying up of balance of payments
support, is making it difficult for the
country to import fuel.
FinGaz
Zhean Gwaze Staff
Reporter
THE government has reportedly reneged on its pledge to
compensate fully,
displaced white commercial farmers for developments on
their acquired
properties.
This represents a major government
volte-face and could draw sharp attacks
from the international community,
which has accused Zimbabwe of spurning
international advice on how to
proceed with land reform.
Although exact figures could not be ascertained at
the time of going to
press, displaced white farmers this week claimed that
they have since been
advised that contrary to earlier official assurances,
they will now get only
between five and 10 percent of the total value of
infrastructural
developments on the farms.
Government had pledged to pay
for the developments in full and had proceeded
to set aside $820.8 billion
for the exercise in the 2006 national budget,
which critics say falls far
short of the true market value of the
improvements on the farms up to the
time the fast-track land reform exercise
began. The authorities insist that
compensation for farms acquired under the
controversial land reform
exercise, which has led to tragic consequences for
the economy, is the
responsibility of former colonial master, Britain.
Government, which accuses
Britain of pushing for regime change in Zimbabwe,
says this is what was
agreed at the Lancaster House Conference of 1979. The
British government,
however, says it made no commitment to compensate
dispossessed farmers.
Between 1980 and 1985 it provided 47 million pounds
for land reform under
the United Kingdom Land Resettlement Grant. The grant
was signed in 1981 and
was terminated in 1996 with three million pounds
still unspent. The British
government has maintained that it will support a
"transparent, just and fair
land reform"programme implemented in accordance
with the principles agreed
at the 1998 Land Conference held in Harare.
The latest turn of events will
stir up bitter feelings among the over 4 500
farmers who have waited for
compensation for the past six years. Farming
sector sources indicated that
only 200 farmers in near-destitute situations
have accepted the revised
offers. Sources said the rest of the white farmers
were still trying to
persuade the Land Reform Ministry to revise the
figures.
"It puts the
industry into disarray," lamented John Worsick, president of
Justice for
Agriculture, a radical farming pressure group.
Contacted for comment this
week, Lands and Land Reform Minister Didymus
Mutasa darkly hinted that
government was unequivocal on the issue. He said
compensation would be based
on calculations by government evaluators without
saying exactly how they
would assess improvements on those farms where
movable property had been
looted.
"What is important is that the offer is available for those who
qualify and
the farmers know the modalities," he said. "Of course they
(farmers) can do
their independent assessments, but we will go by what is
done by a
government evaluator," he added.
Mutasa dismissed the farmers'
complaints as "statements from people who just
want more money".
This is
not the first time the government has tried to coerce displaced
farmers to
accept paltry compensation offers. In 2003, the government paid
less than
$100 million instead of the $72 billion it should have coughed up
to
compensate displaced farmers. By then the former commercial farmers
claimed
that $23 billion worth of equipment was looted, seized or vandalised
before
and after the expiry of Section 8 orders.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda
Senior Business Reporter
IN yet another kick in the teeth for the rule of
law, the powerful State
Security Minister, Didymus Mutasa, has ordered the
eviction of a new black
farmer, Langton Masunda, who is locked in a fierce
ownership wrangle with
Speaker of Parliament John Nkomo over a lucrative
hunting concession in
Matabeleland.
Barely a week after the High
Court ordered Nkomo, who is also the ZANU PF
national chairman, not to
meddle with operations at Lugo Ranch, Mutasa on
Tuesday served Masunda with
a letter ordering the Bulawayo businessman to
immediately cease all farming
and hunting operations and vacate the
lucrative property.
"Please be
advised that the Minister of State for National Security, Lands,
Land Reform
and Resettlement in the President's Office is withdrawing the
offer of land
made to you. You are required forth with to cease all or any
operations that
you may have commenced thereon and immediately vacate the
said piece of
land," reads part of the withdrawal letter signed by Mutasa.
Masunda was
given an offer letter in 2002 under the government's
resettlement programme,
which was supposed to economically empower the
majority of landless
Zimbabweans.
But in 2005 Nkomo, widely viewed as level headed among President
Robert
Mugabe's lieutenants and who at one time was in charge of land
redistribution, filed papers in the High Court seeking Masunda's eviction
claiming he was offered the farm by the government in 2003. However, Masunda
successfully challenged Nkomo's eviction bid resulting in the Speaker of
Parliament withdrawing the case.
However, Nkomo renewed his bid to evict
Masunda a fortnight ago when his
loyalists reportedly drove out four
international tourists who had paid
Masunda deposits for a hunting
safari.
In a provisional order granted by Justice Nicholas Ndou last
Wednesday
following an urgent chamber application filed by Masunda seeking
to stop the
eviction of the tourists, Justice Ndou ruled that Nkomo and his
agents
should stop interfering with the occupation and use of the lodge. He
also
ordered Nkomo not to interfere with hunting activities and let Masunda
conduct hunting safaris in the area allocated to him.
In a letter written
to Mutasa yesterday and seen by The Financial Gazette,
Masunda's lawyers
charged that Mutasa did not serve their client with a
notice of his
intention to cancel the lease as stipulated under the
Agricultural Land
Settlement Act, which could have accorded Masunda an
opportunity to make
representations. The attorneys also say the annulment of
the offer letter is
motivated by improper motives since Nkomo has on several
occasions failed in
his bid to evict Masunda.
"It is a basic tenet and a fundamental of our law,
whether customary or
general, that a party is entitled to be afforded a
hearing before a decision
adverse to his interests is taken. Equally
fundamental is the tenet that
such a party must know the case he has to meet
and be allowed time within
which to prepare his defence," read part of the
lawyer's letter to Mutasa.
The legal representatives say they will resort to
a court challenge in seven
days if Mutasa does not reverse his decision to
withdraw his land offer.
Masunda's eviction is the latest in a series of
blunders by the government
in the execution of its jumbled land reform
exercise. The government has, in
the past six years, overridden court
rulings in favour of former white
commercial farmers who were dispossessed
of their farmland and properties.
Critics say the government's disrespect for
the rule of law and property
rights is to blame for the country's economic
woes. Besides battling a
severe hard currency squeeze, the country is
reeling from out-of-control
inflation, officially estimated at 1 193.5
percent, a shrinking agricultural
output and endemic poverty.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
THE Media and Information Commission (MIC) has fired two of its
senior
employees who were suspended last month over unspecified
irregularities.
Finance chief Clifford Govo and the MIC chairman's
understudy, Munyaradzi
Nyamagodo, were served with dismissal letters this
week as attention briefly
shifted from the commission's court battles to
human resources issues.
The MIC has been embroiled in a lengthy court battle
with the Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe, which is challenging the closure
of its mass
circulating Daily News and its sister weekly The Daily News on
Sunday.
Sources said Govo and Nyamagodo incurred the wrath of Tafataona
Mahoso, the
MIC boss, after attending an Egyptian embassy reception without
his consent.
A disciplinary hearing was later held after which the pair were
sent
packing.
Mahoso this week refused to comment and said it was not a
media issue while
Nyamagodo also refused to shed light on the matter.
A
small organisation with a staff complement of less than 15 people, the MIC
has had its fair share of problems with labour issues. Last year, the
commission had to part ways with two female employees who were accused of
dealing in foreign currency.
The pair received US$50 each from a South
African journalist in exchange for
Zimbabwe dollars at parallel market
rates.
FinGaz
Zhean Gwaze Staff Reporter
THE trial
of the five trustees and three staff members of the Voice of the
People
(VOP) has been deferred to September 25-28 after the state indicated
it was
not yet ready.
The case, which had been due to begin on Thursday last
week at the Harare
Magistrates' Court, was postponed after the state
indicated that its key
witness, a Mr Muganyura from the Broadcasting
Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ)
was not available and that it had not subpoenaed
some witnesses.
The station's employees and directors are being charged for
contravening
sections of the Broadcasting Services Act.
Prominent Harare
lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa of Mtetwa and Nyambirai Legal
Practitioners is
representing the trustees and staff members of VOP.
Although charges had not
been preferred on the staff members Nyasha Bosha,
Kundai Mugwanda and Maria
Nyanyiwa, they were issued with summons recently
to appear in court along
with the directors as the state launches a fresh
crackdown on officials at
the private radio station.
One of the directors, Isabella Matambanadzo who is
based in South Africa,
was issued with the summons alongside the staff
members.
"We were ready to proceed to trial. We were raring to go and we had
all our
witnesses present," Mtetwa said.
The three staff members and were
arrested in January this year and released
four days later when police and
officials from the BAZ ransacked the VOP
offices in Harare at Beverley Court
and confiscated equipment and documents.
The private radio station, owned by
Zimbabweans, has been battling since
2000 to obtain a commercial licence to
broadcast locally on FM. The station
produces programmes on a variety of
community and political issues but does
not broadcast within Zimbabwe.
A
bomb destroyed its Milton Park offices in 2002 and no one has been
arrested
in connection with the crime.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
BAKERIES might
seek a court order to suspend the gazetted prices of bread in
the wake of
the arrests of their merchandisers and the confiscation of
over-priced bread
that has spurned serious shortages of the product.
Industry sources said
the National Bakers Association (NBA) is seeking legal
advice before
mounting a court challenge that might signal the breakdown in
price
negotiations between bakeries and the state.
Members of the NBA hiked the
price of bread by at least 52 percent this
month, citing exponential costs
of flour and diesel among other things.
A standard loaf of bread is now
selling for $130 000 against the gazetted
price of $85 000.
President
Robert Mugabe's populist government, fighting its worst economic
crisis, has
responded by issuing tickets worth millions of dollars to
non-compliant
retailers, seizing bread and arresting their merchandisers.
Instead of
pushing the price of bread down, the state's heavy-handed
response has
caused nationwide shortages, giving rise to a thriving parallel
market of
the product.
"Bakeries have found themselves in a catch-22 situation whereby
the company
laws do not allow directors to operate at a loss," said a
representative of
the BAZ.
"At the same time, there is the government
gazette with unrealistic prices.
All we want to do is to prove to the courts
that there is no way we can sell
at these unviable prices," added the
source.
At least 50 bakeries have closed shop since the beginning of the
seven-year-long economic crisis that has reduced the one-thriving Zimbabwean
economy from being a breadbasket into a basket case.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda
Senior Business Reporter
THE rapidly deteriorating Zimbabwean economy
continues to claim more
corporate victims, with leading industrial lobby
groups saying even big
companies now have their backs against the wall and
are scaling down
operations.
Although the government has set up the
Distressed Companies Fund which is
aimed at reviving closed firms and
support troubled companies with cheap
loans, manufacturers are still
burdened with rising input costs, which are
driving them out of
production.
Luxon Zembe, president of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of
Commerce (ZNCC)
placed the blamed squarely on the country's runaway
inflation, which
recently went up to 1 193.5 percent, foreign currency
shortages,
intermittent power outages and the high cost of borrowing, among
other
things.
"Companies are scaling down operations," said Zembe.
"Things are pretty
tough and it's getting worse on the ground," he
added.
Zembe said despite the launch of the much-vaunted economic blueprint,
the
National Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP), which
government
hopes will arrest a seven-year-old economic crisis, manufacturers
are yet to
derive benefits from the programme.
"Things haven't started
improving," said Zembe. "If you need foreign
currency you have to go on the
open market so a lot of companies are being
pushed against the
wall."
Zembe blamed the prevailing high interest rates for pushing up the
cost of
doing business in the country and inhibiting most companies from
borrowing
to fund operations.
He also lamented the high prices of fuel,
currently hovering over $400 000
per litre on the black market, and high
rentals. As a result Zembe said most
manufacturers' order books were
diminishing while workers were losing their
jobs.
Zimbabwe is grappling
with one of its worst energy crises caused by the
drying up of foreign
currency to import electricity and fuel. Harare imports
35 percent of its
power needs from neighbouring South Africa, Mozambique and
the Democratic
Republic of the Congo.
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president
Patison Sithole
concurred with Zembe, blaming the distortion in the exchange
rate for
inhibiting exporter viability.
"Companies have been operating
under difficult conditions and things are
tough," said Sithole. It's more or
less survival of the fittest," he added.
Sithole however said his body has
since made recommendations during
engagements with government for the
devaluation of the skidding Zimbabwe
dollar which, at $101 000 to the United
States dollar, is overvalued.
"We are recommending a complete review of the
whole system to have a stable
exchange rate," he said.
So evident is
Zimbabwe's economic crisis that Mutare-based timber producer
Border Timbers
Limited has already cut down on working shifts due to
diminishing timber
supplies following the torching of its timber plantations
by illegal
settlers.
At the same time construction giant Murray & Roberts has
already closed down
four of its branches owing to a reduced order
book.
Although the CZI did not report on the number of companies that shut
down in
2005, it instead said Zimbabwe's manufacturing sector had lost 42
percent of
its labourforce in the last two years as companies closed down or
downsized
operations due to a sustained economic meltdown.
In its
February State of the Manufacturing Sector report which measures
manufacturing sector performance, the apex industrial body said the few
remaining workers have had their hours severely reduced because of capacity
underutilisation. According to the CZI, more than 750 companies closed shop
between 2000 and 2004.
FinGaz
Tawanda Karombo
Staff Reporter
LEADING industrialist Shingai Mutasa has called on the
government to
prioritise economics and rigorously implement sound policies
if the
enfeebled economy is to recover from a seven-year slump. "What is
lacking, I
believe, is a combination of the courage to put economics first
and the will
to implement policies accordingly.
"Zimbabwe has earned
a double first in the areas of hyperinflation and gross
domestic product
growth. Zimbabwe has suffered from both the highest
inflation rate in the
world and the lowest economic growth rate in 2005,"
Mutasa, who is executive
chairman of TA Holdings, said in statement to
shareholders.
The Zimbabwe
Stock Exchange-listed TA is an investment holding company with
interests
spanning the hospitality, insurance and agrochemicals industries,
all of
which have taken a battering from the economic crisis.
Mutasa said TA's
prospects for excelling as an investment holding company in
a
hyperinflationary environment are bright as the firm has three sources of
revenue - operating profits, investment gains and profits derived from
corporate action.
For 2005, TA recorded historical best cost accounting
results since 1971.
"The encouraging performance for 2005 creates the
confidence that we are now
structured to grow and achieve our ambitions,"
Mutasa added.
He also said Zimnat Lion did not perform well as it recorded a
second
consecutive year of underwriting losses.
Mutasa said operating
profits in the holding firm's hotel divisions were
modest while Sable
Chemicals' profits mask the harsh reality of massive
asset impairment
because the company can no longer afford basic repairs and
maintenance.
He, however, said that TA has its own failures, the biggest
being the group's
inability to generate huge amounts of cash from operating
activities, a
failure which springs from the firm's failure to lower its
unit cost of
production to the lowest industrial levels in subsidiaries.
Cash flow from
operating activities for the group increased to $274 billion
in 2005 from a
cash outflow of $21 billion in 2005.
Mutasa concluded his
statement on the note that the current
hyperinflationary environment should
be used as a spur to improve the
operating performances of TA's subsidiaries
to increase cash flows.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior
Business Reporter
Banks urged to merge to raise capital
INTERNATIONAL
rating agencies - increasingly wary of the turbulence shaking
the local
financial markets - are placing Zimbabwean banks on watch in yet
another
kick in the teeth for the troubled economy.
Sources said the banks were
being downgraded in their rating status owing to
the volatility within the
economy, which has impacted on profitability and
ultimately their ability to
meet the new United States dollar-linked capital
requirements.
As if to
confirm this, the Global Credit Rating Company (GCR), an
influential
international rating agency, was quite critical in its analysis
of the
banking sector in its April report.
Following intense scrutiny in recent
months, GCR announced important changes
to the services it has been
providing to Zimbabwe. It says it took the
decision to downgrade the
country's status because of escalating volatility.
GCR says it will closely
monitor and review statistics on all its rated
banks so as to better analyse
the impact that the current liquidity crunch
is having on the individual
participants in the Zimbabwean banking industry.
". . . all ratings will be
closely monitored by GCR," the prominent credit
rating agency said. "In
addition, due to the breakdown in the traditional
links between short and
long term ratings, GCR will in future only accord
long term bank ratings in
Zimbabwe."
Credit ratings are a broad measure of a country's
creditworthiness.
Accordingly, a formal rating provides an independent and
internationally
recognised measurement of an organisation's financial
strength.
A favourable rating can immediately result in an increased pool of
investors, can facilitate direct access to capital markets and can
ultimately result in reduced funding costs.
Zimbabwe's banks are facing a
nightmarish threat to their liquidity owing to
movements in statutory
reserve requirements, which are soaking away
substantial amounts of market
liquidity, causing banks to fall into major
liquidity squeezes.
The
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has also set a tough hurdle for most
financial institutions as they have to pump up their capital bases to US$10
million or $1 trillion for commercial banks, US$7.5 million or $750 billion
for building societies and merchant banks and US$5 million or $500 billion
for discount houses by September.
The central bank says the review in
minimum paid up capital will act as a
buffer when banks run into liquidity
crisis.
However, GCR said though it backs the enlarged capital requirements
as a
fallback position in times of crisis, the capital leap over could
precipitate the collapse of most commercial banks who are battling the
central bank's painful reforms.
"Banks that are not strategically well
positioned, and or have limited
access to capital, could be particularly
vulnerable in the prevailing
circumstances," said GCR.
As a way out of
the pending catastrophe, GCR advises Zimbabwean institutions
to merge to
raise the much-needed capital set by the RBZ. It says failure to
consolidate
operations could result in a major fallout in the banking
industry.
Zimbabwe, which lost four commercial banks due to a clean-up of
the then
soiled financial sector in 2004, currently has 32 financial
institutions
comprising 14 commercial banks, six merchant banks, six
discount houses,
four building societies and two finance houses.
FinGaz
Chris Muronzi Staff
Reporter
TIME Bank employees last week besieged the offices of the
institution's
curator demanding payment of their May salaries, The Financial
Gazette has
established.
This comes after the bank's workers
committee appealed to the curator,
Tinashe Rwodzi, seeking clarification on
their employment status following
the cancellation of the bank's licence by
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
last month.
A letter to Rwodzi from
Time Bank workers dated May 31 2006 read: "We refer
to the above-mentioned
and our subsequent meeting with Mr W. Militala, and
seek clarification as to
our status as employees, since Time Bank's licence
has been cancelled (RBZ
press statement). Since we are employed by Time
Bank, the implications are
that we have now been made redundant.
"We therefore, seek your advice on
options available to us, the way forward
and notification of any development
that affect our welfare. Furthermore, we
are concerned about our welfare,
our salaries, which are very low, and
benefits. We are keen to know whether
our employment contracts are still
valid," said B. Mushipe chairman of the
workers' committee.
The workers have also appealed to the Ministry of Labour
over non-payment of
salaries and failure to pay increments since November
last year despite its
continued membership to Zimbabwe Bankers and Allied
Workers Union.
The bank has been under curatorship since October 2004, when
the RBZ shut it
down after a probe showed its balance sheet had negative
equity of $174
billion. But Time, in turn, has a claim of $400 billion
against the RBZ from
what it calls "incorrect" debiting of its current
account and also alleges
the central bank overstated its liquidity support
to the bank.
More than five banks were closed in 2004 at the height of a
sector-wide
liquidity crisis.
FinGaz
THE nation no doubt wishes Vice President Joseph Msika a
speedy recovery
after undergoing surgery in South Africa.
He appeared
on television a few days ago looking rather poorly but to his
credit, he
admitted openly for the first time that he had been unwell and
had sought
treatment in a neighbouring country because of the collapsed
state of the
Zimbabwean health system.
The Vice President said he had been referred to
South Africa by his
Zimbabwean doctors because the equipment and facilities
needed to treat his
stomach ailment were not available in this country. I
remember that in April
when Msika had been absent from public view for
sometime, this newspaper
reported that he had once again, been receiving
medical treatment in South
Africa. On that occasion, however, the Vice
President was less candid in
spite of the fact that he had been accompanied
on that trip by no less than
the Deputy Minister of Health and Child
Welfare, Dr Edwin Muguti,
Both Msika and Muguti dismissed The Financial
Gazette's story, saying it was
the work of speculative journalists who were
being used by imperialists. "As
you can see, I am quite fit. I did have some
ailments, you can call them,
but far from cardiac ailments. I have never
suffered from heart problems . .
. " The tone of Msika's interview with a
state-controlled newspaper in which
he pooh-poohed this paper's report was
belligerent when all he needed to do
was to clarify the nature of the
ailments that had necessitated his being
flown to South Africa to be
attended to by specialists.
Msika and other public figures who get hot under
the collar when the press
makes enquiries about the state of their health,
seem to believe that it is
infra dig to be unwell. And yet if death is the
leveller, physical
infirmities are the most undeniable harbinger that all
humans, whether they
are rich or poor, leaders or ordinary people, will one
day go the way of the
flesh. Msika's candid admission of his ailments on
this occasion is
therefore refreshing and commendable because it shows he is
a mortal being
like the rest of us.
What needs to be admitted with equal
candour, however is that while top
leaders and other men of means can access
the best medical care outside the
country for themselves and their families,
ordinary Zimbabweans literally
become sitting ducks if they fall ill. The
majority cannot afford the most
basic preventive medical care while hundreds
of thousands are condemned to
unnecessary and premature death because of the
collapse of the health
delivery system.
I know I will be called a zealot
or worse but I will say it anyway:
something is seriously wrong if our
leaders are quite happy to have their
own health needs taken care of outside
the country in the full knowledge
that ordinary Zimbabweans cannot access
similar care at home. This
nonchalant I
am-alright-Jack-every-man-for-himself attitude is preposterous
especially as
the same leaders are culpable for ruining the economy and
destroying public
institutions through corruption and ill- advised populist
policies.
What
is tragic is that the chances of reversing this rot continue to be
remote as
long the leaders continue to harden their hearts and bury their
heads in the
sand. And as far as the health delivery system that is now in
the intensive
care unit, what hope is there for its recovery when the man
directly in
charge has caught the same malady - denying glaring realities -
afflicting
the rest of his government colleagues?
The Minister of Health and Child
Welfare, Dr David Parirenyatwa was quoted
in the press about a week ago,
blasting the public for being ungrateful for
the good work being undertaken
by his ministry. "I am disappointed that with
the tremendous work being done
by health workers the public is not being
grateful", he fumed. "Harare
Hospital has about 600 patients admitted and
it's a lot of work to look
after these people but the public never
appreciates the efforts but
continues to insult the nurses and doctors."
The good doctor needs to be
reminded that the real reason the public feels
shortchanged is that the
health delivery system has simply collapsed under
his stewardship. Nobody
disputes the fact that doctors and nurses, like
professionals in most other
sectors, are toiling under extremely difficult
conditions. But this hard
work comes to naught as long as there are no drugs
to administer to patients
and no equipment to undertake other life-saving
medical interventions. The
people are frustrated and angry because there is
mostly no health delivery
taking place at all. Where equipment and
medication are available to
diagnose and treat particular ailments, the fees
are so out of this world
that many people die at home after being turned
away from health
institutions. Dr Parirenyatwa's ire against the public is
therefore
misplaced because he is railing against people who have borne the
brunt of
the government mismanagement and corruption that has spawned
pervasive
general decay in all sectors of public life.
The minister and his colleagues
in government are the ones who need to
change their outlook and examine
their consciences so as to move away from
policies that have left skilled
health professionals no choice but to seek
greener pastures in other
countries. The long-suffering public cannot be
blamed for this brain drain,
which cannot be stemmed as long as the root
causes - poor working conditions
and remuneration - are not addressed.
Dr Parirenyatwa knows the real reasons
why the health delivery system has
collapsed. He alluded to them when he
said: "The country must channel more
resources into the health sector. I am
appealing to us as government to
allocate more resources and release more
funds towards improving the health
delivery system in the country. I would
like to see shortages of blood
ending, equipment being sterilised, drugs
being made available."
The minister is not the first member of government and
cabinet to resort to
the incongruous ploy of appealing publicly to an entity
of which he is part
and parcel. Are we to believe that it is not possible
for him to make a
pitch for the needs and requirements of his ministry at
cabinet meetings and
other government fora and has to do so via the media?
All this is not very
reassuring about the calibre of official deliberation
on such important
issues.
FinGaz
Comment
CHINA, whose
economy is feared to be over-heating, is known for many things.
With the
world's fastest growing economy, it is now indisputably a key
player in the
global economy.
But it also stands accused by its Western critics of
shoring up despotic
regimes in the world. As if to confirm this, the Chinese
Prime Minister, Wen
Jiabao, this week categorically stated that China
attaches little or no
importance to the issue of human rights because its
foreign policy is
defined by the "principle of mutual respect, equality,
mutual benefit and
non-interference."
That is probably why Zimbabwe,
ostracised over an alleged democratic deficit
by erstwhile key trading
partners in the West, has joined the crowded path
to the East. In China, its
human rights record would not be put under the
microscope as would be the
case in the EU bloc and the Americas - the
regions that are opposed to
Zimbabwe's politics.
And inside 12 months Zimbabwe, whose friends are few and
far between, has
sent high-powered delegations to negotiate bilateral deals
with China. Among
these was one led by President Robert Mugabe in July 2005
and of late
another led by Vice President Joice Mujuru last week, just to
mention but
two.
And if the hype surrounding the much-vaunted Look-East
policy is anything to
go by, in China, Zimbabwe has found a friend indeed -
not only flushed with
cash and eager to lend but also keen to finance
infrastructural development,
which could be the lifebelt for the sick
economy. Or so we are made to
believe.
Indeed from what the government
propagandists have been saying, Zimbabwe is
China's biggest friend in
Africa! Yet nothing could be further from the
truth. If anything, recent
developments expose the Sino-Zimbabwean bilateral
relations as a partnership
full of sound and fury signifying very little.
Our argument is not without
reason.
In April this year, Chinese President, Hu Jintao visited Nigeria,
Morocco
and Kenya among other African states. That Zimbabwe, once one of the
most
robust economies in Africa, was not part of the itinerary almost a year
after President Mugabe had been to Beijing, speaks volumes about the
significance the Chinese
attach to their relations with Zimbabwe. This
could be understandable if
only because while trade between China and Africa
was estimated at US$40
billion in 2005, Zimbabwe accounted for a very
negligible amount, which
makes for some pretty dismal reading.
As if that
was not enough, the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao last Saturday
embarked on a
seven-nation African tour that will take him to Egypt, Ghana,
Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Angola, South Africa and Tanzania. Again
Zimbabwe is
not part of this latest African visit.
Whatever their reasons, the Chinese
leaders' actions are even more
perplexing in light of the fact that the
African tour is widely seen as a
diplomatic push for deeper bilateral
relations of which Zimbabwe is supposed
to be part of the equation, if the
political posturing from both sides, as
regards the "solid" bilateral
relations between the two countries, is
anything to go by. Unless of course,
they are sending some ominous signal.
Indeed, there is a justifiable feeling
among many an observer who do not
want to risk speaking too soon that this
was clearly intended as a
deliberate snub on Zimbabwe which we are told has
the most favoured nation
status.
What then is the moral of the Chinese
preference of the African countries
that are also ironically in favour with
the West? Despite the diplomatic
niceties over recent years, just like the
West, China is also avoiding
Zimbabwean risks like the plague. Given what
happened during the wildcat
farm invasions under the controversial
fast-track land reform exercise,
China does not trust that Zimbabwe will
uphold bilateral investment
protection agreements. Thus, other than the good
words of intent emanating
from Beijing, very little will come from this
initiative. What is now clear
is that the Chinese view Zimbabwe with the
same suspicion as does the West.
The only difference is that they do not say
it.
Even with their "soft diplomacy" driven by their insatiable appetite for
raw
materials which has seen them use their veto power in the United Nations
Security Council to protect dictators, the Chinese will maintain a
wait-and-see attitude as regards Zimbabwe. And that will remain so unless
there is macroeconomic management to international standards and Zimbabwe
stops the arbitrary violation of that which is fundamental to market economy
and business confidence - the law of property and law of contract.
Of
course being the good businessmen that they are, the Chinese will
maintain
the low level contact with Zimbabwe, just to keep the lines of
communication
open, until such a time that the situation is deemed to have
returned to
normal. True, Zimbabwe might have signed many business
agreements with China
mainly due to the "good" political relations between
the two countries. But
these would have to be implemented on a purely
commercial basis or else they
would not be worth the paper they are written
on. And therein lies the rub
which has seen many such an agreement
collapsing. The Libyan fuel deal is a
case in point. Thus for now, all
Zimbabwe will get from China are good words
but very little, if any, action.
FinGaz
Continued from last week
In the UK, authority to
intercept communications can only be given by the
Secretary of State
personally. Where the warrant is the result of a request
for assistance made
under an international mutual assistance agreement and
where the subject or
premises to which the interception relates appear to be
outside the United
Kingdom, a senior official may give authority. Such
authority can only be
given to those persons specified in Section 6(2) of
the Regulation of
Investigatory Powers Act 2000. They are:
the Director-General of the Security
Service;
the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service;
the Director of the
Government Communications Head Quarters;
the Director-General of the National
Criminal Intelligence Service;
the Commissioner of Police of the
Metropolis;
the Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (now the
Police Service
of Northern Ireland);
the chief constable of any police
force maintained under or by virtue of
section 1 of the Police (Scotland)
Act 1967;
the Commissioners of Customs and Excise;
the Chief of Defence
Intelligence; and
a person who, for the purposes of any international mutual
assistance
agreement, is the competent authority of a country or territory
outside the
United Kingdom.
Further, authority can only be given where
the Secretary of State is
satisfied that the interception is
necessary:
(a) in the interests of national security;
(b) for the purpose
of preventing or detecting serious crime;
(c) for the purpose of safeguarding
the economic well being of the United
Kingdom;
(d) in circumstances where
he would issue a warrant under (b) above, to give
effect to an international
mutual legal assistance agreement.
In the United States, it is necessary to
state that one of the crimes that
electronic surveillance is authorised for
is being committed; the identity
of the location and persons being targeted;
certification that normal
investigative procedures have been tried and
failed, or are likely to fail
or are too dangerous; and a promise to
minimise the interception of
conversations to only those relevant to the
investigation. Other countries
including Canada and New Zealand have similar
procedural requirements.
In Uganda, law enforcement agents usually require
information as part of
surveillance which is largely due to suspicions or
investigations relating
to offences such as threatening violence, robbery
and terrorism in which
telecommunication devices are used as well as the
theft of
telecommunications handsets.
The court orders are requested for
by the Criminal Investigations Department
and other agencies such as the
Inspectorate of Governance in whom the law
vests powers.
Wire-tapping and
electronic surveillance are invasions into communication
privacy and these
are usually occasioned by private-investigative firms,
telecommunications
operators, service providers who have the capacity to
look at what they
transmit and public-law enforcement agencies such as the
police particularly
the Criminal Investigations Department and the
Inspectorate of
Government.
The Judiciary has participated in this process by issuing court
orders,
which authorise telecommunication companies to release traffic data.
Such
orders are based on provisions made in the law. In Uganda the rules or
principles of privacy and guidelines concerning interception on the basis of
law enforcement or intelligence gathering have not been developed which may
culminate in abuse.
Unlike other countries, Uganda lacks wiretap law with
express provisions on
how the surveillance is to be conducted.
Consumer
protection agencies have not come up to address privacy concerns,
as they
tend to focus on quality and standard of goods.
Establishment of
an
independent
commission
Under Section 4 the Bill establishes a Monitoring
of Interception of
Communications Centre. Section 4 (3) establishes that the
centre shall be
manned, controlled and operated by designated technical
experts from the
MICC. Technical and other staff within the service
providers and the
monitoring centres have access to highly sensitive
information and are
vulnerable to approaches by criminals and others
determined to know whether
their communications are being monitored and/or
demanding access to the
content of monitored communications. Staff who have
access to intercept
related information should undergo a vetting
procedure.
Initial indications are that state security agents will man the
Centre.
However, it is important to note that such a sensitive issue has to
be
handled by an independent commission.
An independent commission should
be established to oversee all monitoring
and interception activities.
Independent commissions have been established
in many nations that have
implemented surveillance laws, such as Australia,
New Zealand and
Britain.
The commissions ensure that only the communications of the suspect
are
intercepted and sent through to the monitoring centres, and that
communications of a suspected party are methodically intercepted and
time-stamped to ensure evidential integrity.
The commission undertakes a
full and public reporting process; the report
can be presented in such a way
as to not compromise the information.
The need for such a commission is
especially critical in a developing
country context where people have
concerns about trusting those in power. It
will also curb the potential for
abuse within the communication monitoring
centres, and ensure that
accidental interceptions of unwarranted
communications are reported and
minimised.
Costs
The Bill requires that industry providers bear the
costs of upgrading and
maintaining their networks to make them capable of
interception. The SA Act
also makes any communication service that cannot be
monitored by the
authorities illegal, and gives the minister of
communications broad powers
to specify technical and security requirements,
facilities and devices as
well as the type of communication-related
information to be stored.
This will result in increased surveillance, a
stifling of innovation,
reduction of the availability of services, and
higher costs on consumers.
Industry commentators in many countries around
the world have consistently
asked for the inclusion of a reimbursement
requirement, and the private
sector has supported such
requests.
Requiring that law enforcement agencies pay for their surveillance
capabilities provides an important level of accountability through the
budget process. The lack of reimbursement significantly lowers the barriers
to law enforcement surveillance by removing budgetary limits that would
require that new surveillance capabilities be cost effective before they are
implemented. Without it, it has been the experience in many countries that
law enforcement places unreasonable demands on providers for expansive
surveillance capabilities without justifying their demands.
Service
providers in acquiring the necessary equipment for interception,
providing
technical maintenance thereof, can incur significant costs in
meeting the
running operating costs. This has been a contentious issue in
other
countries that have dealt with the same issues that have not been
easily
resolved.
An alternative approach would entail making the service provider
responsible
for the monitoring of information on its communication networks
to cover the
costs. Some argue that this brings exorbitant and unfair
expenses on the
Internet and telecommunications industries particularly at a
time when the
international economy is experiencing a downturn in these
sectors.
The Netherlands serves as an illustrative example. The Netherlands
Telecommunications Act places the responsibility for the cost of acquiring
and maintaining interception technologies on the service providers. In
February 2001, up to a third of Dutch Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were
facing bankruptcy due to the high costs of mandatory Internet traffic
interception and due to the technical difficulties and the high costs
involved, ISPs were unable to make their systems interceptable by the
deadline date of 15 April 2001
Others argue that the current software
utilised by many of the larger
service providers already has the routing
capabilities required for
interception. Smaller service providers would
incur costs, but there are
appropriate solutions to help them defray the
expense. For example, British
legislation holds that the Government will
cover "reasonable costs" incurred
by the smaller ISPs in ensuring that their
services conform to the
legislation.
There is concern that the Bill
will place onerous demands on smaller ISPs
and that the growth of the
industry will be affected at a time when access
to communication services
needs to be actively expanded. The demise of
smaller service providers can
have a detrimental effect on the overall
economy and the integration of ICTs
into society, especially within a
developing country context. The imposition
of these requirements will be
difficult and very expensive. Most equipment
does not come with the
capability for surveillance, so no off-the-shelf
solution is available.
While it is argued that a market for technologies with
embedded surveillance
capabilities may emerge and reduce the costs, there
are three intertwined
problems inherent in this argument. First,
particularly within ISPs, each
network is very different and introducing
these technologies may harm the
effectiveness and efficiency of the
networks. Second, these technologies are
being developed within strict
standards regimes. Meanwhile the Internet
Engineering Taskforce (IETF), a
relatively open body, has refused to develop
such technologies.
And
third, such a market has failed to emerge, perhaps because of the
technical
burdens and substantial public opposition in many countries to
facilitate
increased electronic surveillance.
Countries that have attempted to impose
wholesale the law enforcement costs
on the industry have seen delays and
loss of new companies and jobs. In the
Netherlands, the Telecommunications
Act imposes a similar burden on
providers as envisaged under the Zimbabwean
Bill.
The costs for creating this capability are not compensated by the
government.
The government did not assess the probable costs and it was
particularly
difficult for ISPs to comply, as there is little experience in
creating such
capabilities in networks. The Industry Organisation of
Internet Service
Providers in the Netherlands (NLIP) has estimated that the
costs will be
several million Euros, and there are strong concerns as to how
this will
affect small local and regional ISPs. NLIP expects an increase in
the price
of Internet access in the Netherlands as a result and a mass
closing of
small ISPs. After much lobbying, the deadline for lawful
interception
implementation was delayed for ISPs and it is expected that the
majority of
the ISPs will not meet the extended deadline.
In Australia,
carriers are also obliged to develop and implement at their
own expense an
interception capability. The costs and burden upon the
operators have proven
more difficult and expensive than anticipated. As a
result, the carriers
were given both a waiver from the requirement for
several years and, it is
understood, a subsidy towards the cost.
There is also the issue of the
unquantifiable opportunity cost. While
technological researchers and network
experts expend time and resources on
interception capability, they are
losing time that could be spent
researching network efficiency and
operations. As a result, the costs
incurred by the interception capability
work are enormous. A study conducted
by Privacy International and the London
School of Economics on the economic
impact of the UK's wiretap bill
concluded that opportunity costs were a
major part of the economic costs of
the legislation.
LACK OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY
Another important
oversight measure missing in the Bill is a provision
requiring the
production of annual public reports on the use of electronic
surveillance by
government departments. This is a common feature of wiretap
laws in
English-speaking countries and many others in Europe and should be
included
in the draft law.
Countries that issue annual reports on the use of
surveillance include the
U.S., U.K., Sweden, Canada, Australia, New Zealand
and France. These reports
typically provide summary details of the
electronic surveillance conducted,
the types of crimes authorised for, their
duration and other relevant
information. In the US, the Administrative
Office of the U.S. Courts
produces the report and submits it to Congress. In
Australia and Canada, an
annual report to the Attorney General must be
tabled in Parliament. In the
UK the Interception of Communications
Commissioner publishes the report.
These countries recognise that openness
and transparency are essential to
limit abuses. They are widely used in many
countries by the Parliaments for
oversight and also by journalists, NGOs and
others to examine activities
related to law enforcement.
A number of
countries including the United Kingdom and France also have
special
commissions that review wiretap usage to check against possible
abuses.
These bodies have expertise that most judges who authorise such
surveillance
do not have. They also have the ability to conduct follow -up
investigations
once a case is complete. In other countries, the Privacy
Commission or Data
Protection Commission also has some ability to conduct
investigations on
possible oversights of electronic surveillance.
In addition, there are no
provisions in the Bill to inform individuals who
have had their
communications intercepted or their transactional information
collected once
the investigation has been completed. Nor is there any
timetable set for
expunging information once it is no longer necessary. This
is an important
feature found in many laws around the world that provides
another level of
oversight, especially in those cases where innocent parties'
communications
are intercepted.
EVIDENTIAL INTEGRITY OF INTERCEPTED INFORMATION
Section 8
of the Bill deals with the inadmissibility of unlawfully
intercepted
information.
The Bill, however, does not state the processes required to
ensure
evidential integrity of intercepted information. This should be
clearly
stated. The entire content of the intercepted message has to be
made
available to the defence if an intercepted communication is to be used
as
evidence in a court of law.
It is recommended that the systems and
procedures that will be in place to
ensure the integrity of the information
and prevent evidential tampering be
clarified.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The
Zimbabwean government, borrowing from other jurisdictions worldwide,
should
develop a policy to:
ensure that privacy protection is a core consideration
in all activities;
ensure that accountability for privacy issues is clearly
incorporated into
the duties of all institutions, jurisdictions and
sub-sectors;
provide decision-makers with the information necessary to make
fully-informed policy decisions based on an understanding of the privacy
implications and risks and the options available for avoiding and/or
mitigating those risks;
promote an awareness of sound privacy practices
and also regulate
surveillance as other countries such as Australia have
done. Law enforcement
agencies and other entities require law to guide the
conduct of
investigations. In Australia, the Telecommunications Act 1997
includes
provisions dealing with the privacy of personal information held by
carriers, carriage service providers and others, provisions that embrace the
development of voluntary industry codes and standards relating to
privacy.
Policies on privacy should among others address:
obligations and
other related duties; rights; sanctions and compliance
measures;
enforcement, monitoring and implementation
mechanisms;
institutional framework and collaborative arrangements required
implementing
the policy.
Departments and agencies must ensure and
document that privacy principles,
legislation and policies are adhered to
and that privacy impacts and risks
associated with programme and service
delivery activities have been resolved
or mitigated.
Disclosures of
information should be monitored so as to reveal what
information was
disclosed, the source of the request, justification and the
time.
Law
enforcement officers need laws and guidelines to keep them in line with
the
requirements of privacy laws so as to prevent abuse when conducting
investigations. An example could be the UK Regulation of Investigatory
Powers Act 2000 discussed above.
There is need for telecommunications
companies to develop privacy policies,
to raise awareness for customers
through consumer organisations and to
establish and boost the activities of
complaints desks in telecommunications
companies with better capacity to
address growing needs.
There is need for more education and awareness of
privacy vis-ą-vis cultural
considerations and perceptions of what amounts to
privacy.
Capacity building remains crucial especially where it concerns legal
issues
pertaining to ICTs including privacy concerns. This process involves
the
development of curriculum at universities and other tertiary
institutions
and specialised institutions such as the Judiciary, Parliament,
human rights
bodies, criminal investigation arms and state security
agencies. This will
cater for the expected demand for human resources and
also meet the human
resource capacity standards required at all
levels.
The constitutionality of privacy-invasive laws has to be determined
at all
times before policies are passed and reduced to draft laws and passed
in
Parliament.
Parliament should make a special requirement for the
proposed Zimbabwe Human
Rights Commission to make a report on the state of
privacy in Zimbabwe to be
able to develop benchmarks on the basis of which
regulators can operate.
CONCLUSION
Overall, the Bill is flawed, as it does
not contain basic safeguards against
the invasion and unwarranted intrusion
into privacy as found in other
countries. The Bill represents a step
backwards and is inconsistent with
international standards on human rights
and other legal requirements. On the
basis of international experiences, the
lack of these essential safeguards
to protect the right to privacy will
inevitably lead to abuses.
The lack of legal protections in this Bill will
invite abuse and have a
severe impact on human rights and privacy.
It is
recommended that the Bill in question should be subjected to rigorous
scrutiny before it is even tabled before Parliament as it has immeasurable
inadequacies compared to laws in other jurisdictions which respect the right
to privacy.
1 See Lee. A. Bygrave; 'Privacy Protection in a
Global Context-A Comparative
Overview', Scandinavian Studies in Law, 2004,
Vol. 47, p 319-348.
FinGaz
No Holds Barred with Gondo
Gushungo
OUT-OF-FAVOUR toffee-nosed ZANU PF businessmen whose riches
remain one of
the greatest mysteries of modern times, never cease to amaze
me.
While all is well, they see, hear and speak no evil about their
beloved ZANU
PF. To them, the ruling party is the best thing to happen to
Zimbabwe since
sliced bread. Those critical of the ugly face of the party's
attack machine
are branded unpatriotic as if ZANU PF is Zimbabwe.
But
when things fall apart and their businesses hit hard times, they turn
around, quick as a flash, accusing the very party about which they saw
nothing wrong, of not only orchestrating the collapse of their businesses
but also of picking over the corpses of those companies - adding a probably
imagined political dimension to their woes.
But I know of no one who
could say something so intrinsically preposterous,
as did TeleAccess founder
Daniel Shumba - that other politician of
monumental littleness - and still
expect to be taken seriously.
With all due respect to the editor of The
Financial Gazette, what Shumba
who, just like other former ZANU PF
activists-cum-businessmen remain utterly
unspoiled by their great failures,
said about his businesses being under
siege from the ZANU PF government was
undisguisedly nonsensical. The page on
which Shumba's story appeared was
wasted and it deserves to be used for that
other purpose and flushed down
the toilet - hoping that it will not clog the
pipes!
". . . No Zimbabwean
should die or suffer for choosing to belong to an
alternative party to ZANU
PF. Already there is an effort to target me by the
selective application of
the law. My businesses are under siege. But I am
not scared. I have said
this before; I respect man but fear God . . ." the
out-of-sorts Shumba said
as he tried to make the world believe that his
fixed telecommunication
services project is doomed because the government is
trying to punish him
for taking part in the ill-fated 2004 Tsholotsho
meeting which ZANU PF
believes was meant to block the rise of Joice Mujuru
to the position of vice
president.
How convenient? No wonder it is said sometimes we can learn a lot
from
watching politicians than listening to them. If we are to believe him,
then
there is a political backlash against the businessman. And that is
supposed
to explain the failure of TeleAccess? Please! Didn't the
cataclysmic
Tsholotsho meeting happen in November 2004, exactly two years
after Shumba
had been given a licence? What had been holding him back from
rolling out
his network? I hold no brief for ZANU PF. And I will be the
first to admit
that the ruling party touches nothing it does not dehydrate.
The evidence is
there for all to see. The unprecedented economic meltdown is
a case in
point. But a few home truths need to be told.
TeleAccess
Zimbabwe (Pvt) Limited was granted licence number PFT 20030102 on
January 3,
2003. And the licence was cancelled on November 24, 2005 - almost
a
staggering three long years after it was issued. With all due respect to
Shumba, it seems to me that the project, whose future is still up in the
air, had since come unstuck long before the licence was cancelled three
years down the line. It, to all intents and purposes, suffered a
stillbirth.
If, as we are told, the terms of the licence were that TeleAcess
should have
been offering commercial services by May 1, 2003. Why then had
it not been
on stream by November 2005? Thus I might as well observe, as did
David
Houston of Williams Jennings Bryan, that one could drive a prairie
schooner
through any part of Shumba's arguments and never scrape against a
fact.
Unfortunately, Shumba is not alone. There are so many of these
businessmen
who are singing the same blues tune. And they are blaming it all
on their
erstwhile party, ZANU PF. They can say it in their millions, it
will never
transform from balderdash to the truth. The truth is never
dependent upon
consensus of opinion. Of course in this debate, highly
charged rhetoric has
often been substituted for informed and reasoned
analysis. But those of us
who had ringside seats when it all started know
that were it not for
political connections and back-scratching
relationships, most of the ZANU
PF-linked businessmen did not have what it
takes to start or acquire
existing businesses. Their wealth has therefore a
lot to do with ZANU PF
patronage.
It is an open secret how licences in
banking and in the mobile phone sector
were awarded on political rather than
purely business considerations. And
yet legitimate businessmen who had the
technical know-how and financial
wherewithal such as Econet founder and CEO,
Strive Masiyiwa had to literally
walk through a legal minefield to get a
licence!
When these ZANU PF businessmen emerged, they were touted as unique
and
incomparable - just in the mould of Masiyiwa who seemed to have an
internal
compass which showed him which direction to go.
But as it has
turned out, most of them were either retail minds in wholesale
businesses or
they were nothing more than errand boys and frontmen for their
political
Godfathers in the ruling party. And inevitably, failings of
businesses run
by these out-of-favour ZANU PF politicians-cum businessmen
have become a
permanent feature of the Zimbabwean corporate landscape.
Check how the
companies they took over - after doing the equivalent of
putting guns to the
heads of the companies' former owners under the black
economic empowerment
drive where government navigated without a compass -
have gone down the
tubes.
They found these companies in fine fettle. And they ran them down. But
not
before making billions of dollars from crony capitalism where banks
pumped
funds to these politically well connected businessmen who ran up
large debts
in misguided expansion plans during their pursuit of
empire-building as
opposed to a more value-driven approach.
When they
took over the companies we were told that this was a triumph for
financial
engineering. But these were politically-motivated leveraged
buyouts. The
outside investors financed the takeovers of the companies by
borrowing at
high rates against the promise of thumping earnings growth in
the
future.
While admittedly, risk is an unavoidable consequence of doing
business,
banks extended credit to this risky crop of new businessmen. It is
not as if
sound risk management is a discipline less developed in Zimbabwe.
But the
banks were arm-twisted into doing so against their better judgment.
And
those in the know will tell you that loans extended under these
circumstances threatened the very existence of the banks saddled with these
under-secured and unsecured exposures.
Before long, after the frenzied
company takeovers, asset-stripping was
commonplace. The fly-by-night new
owners, who could not develop the
businesses as they could not carry out an
idea and work through the full
result, were driven by the desire for quick
profits. Some of the companies
were failing to pay their workers and facing
bankruptcy proceedings with
creditors scrambling for their assets. Examples
abound. A classic one is the
fate of those companies taken over by a
loud-mouthed former ZANU PF
businessman who now thinks himself deaf because
he no longer hears himself
being talked about!
When all is said and done,
the moral of this story is that being associated
with politicians for a
businessman is both a blessing and a curse. In most
cases, no business can
keep to its course if the owners dabble in the
treacherous waters of
Zimbabwean politics and rely on the deeply-rooted
patronage system. It is as
simple as that. Like any other wheeler-dealer,
they will always find
themselves indebted to ZANU PF. That is a sort of
situation moral examplars
do best to avoid because it is not healthy. Come
to think of it, what stops
the ruling party from pushing, cajoling and
threatening the businessmen to
do things its own way, which way is not
always prudent?
That is why I
feel the businessmen, most of whom are self-inflated
mediocrities, have been
stupidly and grossly undiscerning even when
discernment was called for. Now
they are like sausages sizzling and
sputtering in their own fat. And I, as
indeed would many, say stiff cheese!
I have no sympathy for them - It is all
their fault. They made a deal with
the ravenous cannibal to eat them last.
And dinner is now being served.
e-mail: gg@fingaz.co.zw
FinGaz
The Geoff
Nyarota column
WHEN Daimler-Benz AG, the world-famous German manufacturer
of luxury
automobiles, emerged in 1924, little did executives realise that
their
product would make such an intoxicating impact on the life-style of
the rich
and the powerful of Africa for ages to come.
Following the
merger of two companies founded by Karl Benz and Gottlieb
Daimler, a
decision was taken to name the company's cars Mercedes-Benz.
Mercedes was
the name of the daughter of Daimler's earlier partner, Emil
Jellinek.
Daimler is credited with designing the world's first four-wheeled
car in
1886.
One hundred and twenty years later, in 2006, a businessman of
indeterminate
entrepreneurial hybrid and infamous pretentiousness led
journalists from a
daily newspaper in Harare into the cavernous basement
garage below his
lavish mansion to show off his latest
acquisition.
Phillip Chiyangwa, a born-again Christian, whose rarely coherent
excerpts
from the Bible Herald reporters quote with gay abandon, had become
the proud
owner of the ultimate in Mercedes-Benz luxury and power. The S600
model is
the top-of-the-range model currently manufactured by
Daimler-Chrysler, apart
from the exotic Maybach, which I will refer to
later. Daimler-Benz merged
with United States automobile-maker, Chrysler, in
1998 to form the world's
third largest car manufacturer
DaimlerChrysler.
Chiyangwa reportedly paid a cool £103 000 to indulge his
insatiable craving
for luxury chariots. The journalists fawningly described
his new car as the
only one of its kind in Africa. I doubt that they checked
in Nigeria, South
Africa, Egypt, Algeria or wherever else well-heeled
Africans are attracted
to the famous German marque.
"The businesses that
I have demand such a car," the failed politician and
former music promoter
boasted. "I am celebrating my own success. Everything
that I have, I owe to
God."
Any businessman who genuinely believes that he requires a vehicle
powered by
a 5.5-litre, 12-cylinder engine to travel to his appointments
needs to have
his head examined. But when a country has businessmen of
repute such as
Joseph Chinotimba what else can one expect? More competent
journalists
would, in any case, have inquired whether God had provided the
currency
required to import such a car into a foreign currency-strapped
country.
While I do not dispute the fact that God the Almighty is
Christendom's
ultimate benefactor, in the case of Chiyangwa I dare state,
even at the risk
of being accused of blasphemy, that his constant
acquisition of very
expensive assets must be the consequence of the
intervention of the ruling
ZANU PF party rather than that of the
Almighty.
It is amazing that Chiyangwa's foreign currency-gobbling pursuits
do not
arouse the curiosity of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
Gideon
Gono is usually a man of sternly inquisitive temperament.
It
positively was not a case of divine intervention that Chiyangwa was
mysteriously spirited out of Rhodesville Police Station, while his alleged
conspirators were put on trial and convicted in that celebrated case of
espionage.
Chiyangwa's surprise arrest back in 2004 on charges of
allegedly spying for
an undisclosed foreign power occurred not long after he
had taken another
group of journalists on a guided tour of the same palatial
mansion. They
described the opulent palace in a subsequent article as having
18 bedrooms,
25 lounges, nine servants' quarters, two swimming pools, a
basement garage
with space for 17 cars and three heliports, in case friends
literally drop
in for dinner. Such impudent showmanship must have incurred
the wrath of
even his staunchest allies in ZANU PF.
After his sojourn in
remand prison, during which he traded the luxury of his
palatial manor for
the flea-infested rags that passed for blankets in the
cells at Rhodesville,
where Wilf Mbanga and I spent a miserable night in
2001, Chiyangwa instantly
became a born-again Christian. Mbanga and I were
co-founders of Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe, publishers of the now
banned Daily News. Around the
time of our arrest, Chiyangwa granted
Australian Television Network an
interview. He frothed at the mouth while
denouncing us as
unpatriotic.
After Rhodesville he followed in the spiritual footsteps of more
accomplished politicians, Enos Mzombi Nkala, who was forced into premature
retirement, and the once fearsome Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa.
Curiously,
some of Zimbabwe's born-again pastors treat the ranks of the
moneyed, the
powerful or the obviously corrupt as fertile hunting ground for
new
converts. As a result the lifestyle of some of the clerics, by all
accounts,
exudes an ambience of opulence that, alongside the abnormal sexual
appetite
of some, is totally inconsistent with their devout calling and the
penury
endured by the greater part of their flock.
The guerilla war that liberated
Zimbabwe sought to eradicate the racial
discrimination that sustained a wide
gap between the rich white minority and
the poor black majority. Today, 26
years after the attainment of that
independence, the gap between the rich
and poor continues to widen
defiantly. Paradoxically, it has become a gap
between rich black and poor
black. To add insult to injury, the wealth of
the black nouveau riche is
more visible to the poor. The wealthy whites
lived in a racially segregated
world, away from the prying eyes of the
masses. The newly rich flaunt their
immense and often ill-gotten wealth as
they cruise in their powerful BMW and
Mercedes SUVs along the port-holed
streets of poverty-stricken Mbare and
Makokoba, where they grew up. For the
poorest nation on earth ownership of
luxury vehicles is inordinately high in
Zimbabwe.
The addiction of Zimbabwe's ruling elite to luxury cars of Teutonic
origin
is a post-independence phenomenon. Cabinet ministers under the regime
of the
rebel Rhodesian leader, Ian Smith, were allocated the French
sanctions-busting Peugeot 404, a modest and fairly common model. Then they
graduated to the Peugeot 504, which in its old age has become the butt of
uncharitable political jokes following the announcement of the decisive
outcome of the recent Budiriro parliamentary by-election in
Harare.
Zimbabwe's first generation of cabinet ministers inherited this
robust and
durable model, but not for long. While the new political elite
dutifully
preached socialism, self-denial and social equality, they soon
displayed an
unnerving penchant for that ultimate symbol of the decadence of
the
capitalist west, which they decried daily - the three-pointed star, as
attached to the bodywork of the latest offering from Stuttgart.
When he
rides in his latest acquisition Chiyangwa faces little prospect of
competition, apart from that posed by State House, where a similar model was
reportedly delivered not so long ago. Elsewhere, opposition leaders in the
Kingdom of Swaziland condemned Africa's last absolute monarch, King Mswati
III, in 2004 after he invested R3 million in an awesome Daimler-Chrysler
Maybach 62.
"It is puzzling how a head of state could buy a car for
US$500 000 when his
nation is surviving on food aid," The Sunday Times of
Johannesburg quoted a
University of Swaziland political scientist as saying.
"It is unfortunate
the king's government is unable to prioritise and do
things that will save
the nation, as opposed to the interests of the monarch
and his family."
At the time of Mswati's shamelessly lavish spending the
English-educated
monarch was already the proud owner of a stretch Rolls
Royce, as well as a
fleet of BMW and Mercedes Benz limousines to whisk him
and his one dozen or
so official wives in style and comfort around the tiny
and impoverished
mountain kingdom. The newspaper reported that Mswati had
been forced to
shelve plans to purchase a private executive jet after his
long-suffering
subjects took to the streets in protest. Mass action became
an effective
deterrent to royal profligacy.
Any reference to lavish
spending takes me back to my first visit to the
United States back in 1983.
I covered the visit of the then Prime Minister,
Robert Mugabe, to New York
where he addressed the United Nations General
Assembly. The delegation was
huge by any standards. Numbering around 30, it
included the usual coterie of
foreign affairs officials, officers from the
Prime Minister's department,
the press corps, secretaries, medical staff, a
culinary technician and other
domestic staff.
The entire delegation was booked, quite extraordinarily, into
the Waldorf
Estoria on Park Avenue, then the world's most expensive hotel.
The rich and
famous pay a fortune to indulge in the luxury of the hotel when
visiting New
York. During our own stay, management never got wise to the
fact that their
important guests from the newly independent Republic of
Zimbabwe gave the
culinary delights of the hotel's world-famous restaurants
a wide berth while
smuggling into their plush rooms hamburgers from the
nearest MacDonald's
outlet. Meanwhile, junior staff at the UN mission was
kept on their toes
buying colour television sets, a novelty then, for
delegates, using their
generous allowances.
The Mugabe government
launched its campaign of mismanagement of the economy
as soon as it
entrenched itself in power. Let's call a spade a spade here.
While Smith's
Rhodesia was buffeted by international sanctions and civil war
for more than
a decade, the economy was robust when the new government took
over. So was
the infrastructure. The Zimbabwe dollar was stronger than the
US dollar in
1980. Space limitations prevent me from quoting the current
exchange
rate.
While our ruling and wealthy elite wallow in the lap of luxury, the
masses
responsible for their empowerment or their enrichment wallow in
abject
poverty. The emergence of a breed of Zimbabwean entrepreneur with
that rare
combination of wealth and a big heart that has transformed Bill
Gates into
the most charitable human being on earth appears destined to
remain in the
realms of a pipe dream. Not that Zimbabwe suffers from any
shortage of
wealthy citizens.
In fairness, I must mention that Strive
Masiyiwa of Econet has set up the
Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Scholarship Fund for
the furtherance of education of
young Zimbabweans. He also had occasion to
donate towards the welfare and
development of our popular sport, soccer.
President Mugabe has lately made
numerous donations of computers to rural
schools, especially during election
campaigns. His detractors are quick to
suggest, however, that the computers
may have been donated to him, while
others question the prudence of donating
computers before ensuring a regular
supply of electricity. I understand Vice
President Joice Mujuru recently
donated 10 000 day-old chicks to women's
organisations - a very practical
gift.
But too few of our affluent plough back into their communities some of
what
they make out of them. The religiously zealous Chiyangwa could have
sacrificed his new S600 to fund the construction of a magnificent clinic for
the rural poor, and still have enough money left over to cover running costs
for many years to come.
Chiyangwa would then be remembered by posterity
as a conscientious and
public-spirited hero, rather than as the pretentious
and profligate pain in
the public neck that many Zimbabweans outside Herald
House regard him as.
The problem which they unwittingly created for Africa
must occasionally
cause Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler to turn in their
sepulchres.
-gnyarota@yahoo.com
FinGaz
National Agenda with Bornwell Chakaodza
ONCE upon a time, they used
to call Harare the sunshine city but today all
that has changed, thanks to
the Minister of Local Government, Public Works
and Urban Development,
Ignatius Chombo who has done virtually everything
conceivable to ruin this
yester year beautiful city.
Last Friday, the government through the
Minister of Local Government
reappointed for the fourth consecutive time the
semi-literate Sekesayi
Makwavarara and four members of the illegal and
unaccountable commission
running the capital city for a further six
months.
This was done against all the expectations and objections of the
long-suffering Harare residents and ratepayers.
To say that Harare
residents were left open-mouthed by this reappointment
will be an
understatement. They truly could not believe it. This was yet
another
example of the attitude that government could not care less what
people
think and want.
In reappointing these self-serving commissioners, Chombo
unashamedly said
that government was pleased with the work being done by the
commission,
adding that the establishment of business units and utility
agencies has
enhanced the city's revenue base.
"I observe and hear with
extreme pleasure that, to date, this strategy has
paid dividends in the
increased visibility of the city in areas such as road
maintenance, street
and traffic lights management, improved refuse
collection capacity as the
plant and equipment is slowly but surely being
brought back on the city's
roads," Chombo opined.
Democratic unaccountability of this Makwavarara woman
and her commissioners
aside, what Chombo said is simply not true.
No sane
Harare resident will swallow that piece of insulting nonsense from
you
Chombo. Patching roads and filling portholes here and there does not
amount
to improved service delivery.
Harare has become a run-down city and there is
no hard evidence on the
ground that the so-called turnaround process in the
city is succeeding.
Residents will continue to pour scorn on your claims
Minister as long as the
evidence is not there.
What the residents of
Harare continue to see and experience is uncollected
garbage, water cuts for
days on end, poor sanitation, filthy and smelly
street lanes, non-working
street lights - in a phrase: terrible service
delivery.
All this reflects
very badly on the government, unfortunately.
It is common knowledge that the
unelected commissioners do not give a damn
about the Harare residents and
ratepayers. Essentially, we are dealing with
people who want to enjoy the
privileges of power: buying houses and stands
for a song.
The illiterate
and completely clueless Makwavarara is a notorious case in
point. I cannot
imagine for the life of me why such a person should be
reappointed - in
fact, why was she appointed in the first place?
Of course, this woman is not
alone in sin. There are hundreds, if not
thousands, of people in this
country who are misbehaving in the same way as
Makwavarara but their actions
are not being scrutinised by the media and the
public to the same
extent.
Nevertheless, she is the public face of the City of Harare at the
moment and
must therefore be made accountable. By the same token, the media
must shine
its lamp and ferret out the corrupt thousands who are hiding in
dark corners
throughout the country.
The City of Harare, unlike Bulawayo
and other towns, finds itself in this
unlucky position for a number of
reasons.
First, it is the seat of the government of Zimbabwe and the ruling
party
thinks it owns the city hence the unlawful dismissal of the MDC-led
council
in 2004. Strange and unbelievable, yes, but ZANU PF genuinely thinks
that
they own us Harare residents - body and soul!
Incredible as it may
seem, that is what ZANU PF believes.
Second, we are stuck not only with
Chombo's poodle - Makwavarara - but we
are also unlucky in the sense that
the Town Clerk himself, Nomutsa Chideya,
is somewhat incompetent. I do not
know whether he can reform himself, but
the truth of the matter is that the
cock-up in Harare should also be laid at
his door.
Chombo, of course, is
the number one culprit, but Chideya comes a close
third after the clueless
Makwavarara. Chideya is the number one advisor to
Council so there is no way
we can separate the uselessness of the City of
Harare from him. This is the
crux of the matter.
We can all agree, I am sure, that the best Town Clerk
that post-independent
Zimbabwe has ever had is the former Town Clerk of
Bulawayo, Mike Ndubiwa.
The man was just competent and knowledgeable and how
l wish to God that all
town clerks everywhere could take a leaf from
Ndubiwa's book. Bulawayo was
not only the best-run city in the country but
even now under the able
leadership of Josephat Ndabeni-Ncube continues to be
so.
This tradition has its roots in the pre-independence period in the
various
successive Bulawayo mayors including the then far-sighted director
of
African administration, Hugh Ashton
People with good management skills
do not make excuses like Nomutsa Chideya,
the Harare Town Clerk, who
recently said "Some of the problems affecting
Harare should be understood
from a historical perspective". He went on ". .
. the City of Harare was
created for whites in the colonial era and a few
blacks who provided labour
. . . at the moment the city has a population of
three million people, while
the infrastructure can take one million people
or so"
Twenty six years
after independence this is a crazy observation by Chideya.
While his
observation is true historically it does not hold water anymore.
No
right-thinking Zimbabwean will buy into that backward thinking at this
point
in time. Chideya, colonialism ended more than 20 years ago and there
is no
way we can continue hacking back to it time and time again.
My question to
you Chideya is this: Have you heard of the phrase 'Planning
for the future'?
Is this not the kind of thinking which has killed our
country and wrecked
our health delivery system, education and almost
everything else? It is
failure to plan, stupid! I am sure you will dutifully
inform us again, for
example, that Parirenyatwa Hospital is in such a sorry
state because it was
built for whites in the colonial era! Get real,
Nomutsa.
I must point out
that it no longer suffices to continue to claim that our
current problems
are firmly rooted in the past. Absolutely not. Totally
untrue. We are solely
to blame for the crises that we find ourselves in
whether it is in the
Harare City Council or the country at large. Logic must
not be turned on its
head and neither must people be asked to believe the
unbelievable like what
the Minister of Local Government mouthed at his last
week's press conference
when he reappointed Makwavarara and her fellow
commissioners.
The
minister's ruling out the holding of municipal elections in the city
until
Harare Metropolitan Province districts are properly defined was just
another
ruse and excuse to keep out the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
By
way of conclusion, l want to emphasise the fact that it is a sad
reflection
of what we fought for when democratic accountability is being
thrown out
through the window the way it is happening with incredible
rapidity in the
City of Harare.
My heart goes out to the residents and ratepayers of this
city. There is
absolutely no reason why the Zimbabwe government should be
seen to be at war
with its own people.
So, Harare limps on. A hopeless
situation? I do not know. But for now it is
difficult to see what we can do
to help these creatures at the top of the
council in their take-off into
self-sustained doom except maybe to sing:
Bon Voyage Vampires.
Email:
borncha@mweb.co.zw
Coltart driven by democratic principles
EDITOR - It is good
to see that we still have Zimbabweans who are motivated
and driven by
democratic principles.
David Coltart's move to join the Mutambara faction of
the MDC is welcome
news. Their party is trully democratic driven
fundamentally by democratic
principles which are slowly being removed in the
Tsvangirai faction because
it is a hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil,
ZANU PF type of party.
Lack of checks and balances in the MDC will, if the
party were to come into
power, replace one dictatorship with
another.
Unfortunately as Zimbos, hunger makes us fail to appreciate this. We
are as
short-term minded as we were in 1980. We need to ask ourselves the
question:
Once a new leader (not necessarily Tsvangirai) is in power what
checks and
balances will there be to prevent another scenario like the one
we have now?
We cannot leave this to a submissive secretariat like the one
under Tendai
Biti. It is a disaster because it is a bootlicking secretariat.
What we need
is an independent secretariat like what Welshman Ncube sought
to build as
MDC secretary general but for which he is now being persecuted.
Lies are
even being told about someone whose only crime was to try and build
democratic order and checks and balances in the MDC.
Finally to Arthur
Mutambara and others, I urge you guys to keep going. You
have shown that you
are driven not by economic need but by a desire for
democracy. You are all
still relatively young and in a few years time you
will prove to Zimbabweans
that at times a few people can be correct and the
majority wrong.
We all
know one day you will govern (not rule) this country and put in place
the
very democratic institutions you are fighting for today. Then investors
will
flock to Zimbabwe because they will know that their rights will be
respected. It is possible for a few people to exercise better judgement even
if the majority think they are a tribal clique or are wrong.
Tiny
Murefu
Harare
-----------
Daniel Shumba should shut up and ship
out
EDITOR - I was really amazed to read your article titled
"My empire under
seige: Shumba". It is amazing that after all these years of
failure your
journalists still believe that the fall of Daniel Shumba is due
to politics.
The man is just a failure as a businessman due to his failure
to listen to
sound advice.
I say all this for I have been working for
TeleAccess for the past four
years and nothing that Shumba touches turns to
gold. The failure of
TeleAccess to launch a telephone service is because he
spurned many deals
from manufacturers who wanted to be technical partners.
That he now wants to
launch the service is like an April fool's day joke
only that the month is
wrong.
One of the companies mentioned in the
article, Systems Technology, now only
exists at the Registrar of Companies
as virtually everyone has left due to
non-payment of salaries by Shumba. His
flagship TeleAcess is also collapsing
as workers have not been paid their
salaries for the past four months. Even
if he were paying, the salaries are
a mockery of the engineering profession
as he is paying technicians as
little as Z$12 million - the same as a
security guard. So for this guy to
now talk of buying equipment when he is
failing to pay such paltry salaries
is total madness.
Shumba should just shut up and ship out. If the courts
return his licence
that will be a travesty of justice for the man will not
operate in a
thousand years.
Admore
Tshuma
Harare
--------
'Evil eye' cause of our
suffering
EDITOR - The evil eye is responsible for what is
causing so much suffering
in Zimbabwe today. Whether it be Mawere against
Moyo or whoever it is still
symptomatic of "the glance of malice". This
energy has permeated everything
and anyone and is denying us our
freedom.
I have felt since I was a kid that no one or anything is a threat to
me
unless I allow them to become one. Believe me, growing up with a tyrant
for
a father made it even easier. Zimbos need to rein-in this glance of
malice
fast because it's a cancer that is invading our very beings and
spreading to
our our children.
The evil eye is passed on when the person
casting it is envious, jealous or
possessive.The act of transmitting the
glance of malice is completed by
looking at the person whose possessions,
happiness or good fortune is most
susceptible to injury. The spiritul energy
from the eyes, when malevolently
charged, is what produces the effect we
know as the "evil eye".
That's why we are now bound to one spot emotionally,
physically, mentally
and spiritually. The intensity of this transmission of
malevolent energy has
even bewilderded church leaders and traditional
healers.
Julliana Mbiri
Harare
---------
Zimbos living like
kings
EDITOR - Life in the diaspora is not so rosy, wrote one
Nelson Katsande in a
daily paper last week. Nelson you are lying and you
know that's cheap
politics.
I live in London and not every Zimbabwean is
a cleaner as you claim. Every
year in all univesities in the UK half or more
of the graduates are
Zimbabwean. If you don't know the UK that well, feel
free to contact me and
I will show you Zimbabweans living like kings.
How
much is a Zim salary worth today? Nothing. My father worked for 40 years
in
Zimbabwe and he is getting a $1 million pension a month which is £1.30.
I
feel sorry for those who are living in Zimbabwe now. Mr Katsande, I
sincerely hope you are the only Zimbabwean who thinks like that because if
there are two like you, it would be a great shame.
Solomon
United
Kingdom
--------
African leaders never learn
EDITOR -
Sir, If you go back to the '60s and '70s, if you are kind to the
truth, you
may actually state that all black people lived in such amazing
harmony under
the terribly racist Rhodesian government. Despite their
attempts at dividing
and ruling Zimbabwe along tribal/ethnic lines, like
their kin had done
elsewhere in the world, the black people had always
maintained a dignity and
love for each other that must shame the current
leaders of the country.
I
remember growing up in the Midlands and Matabeleland how as a Ndebele, my
closest friends were, and still are Shonas with whom I mixed so freely. In
fact, my being in London is because of a very dear Shona friend of mine.
Language was not a problem, as we would interchange between the main
languages in a jocular way we came to call 'Shobele'. You would find the
guys speaking in Shona with a sprinkling of Ndebele words and
vice-versa.
My dad is Ndebele and mom is Shona and for me this was a perfect
scenario.
Fast forward to the current thugs in government - I witnessed
first-hand the
atrocities of the 5th Brigade. This was no laughing matter.
The violence and
downright sadistic savagery traumatised some of us: no
human being should
descend to such levels in unleashing inhuman treatment on
others. The end of
such people (if they are that at all) is usually
characterised by worse
tragedy that befalls them and their families -
Ceascescu, Amin, Hitler,
Saddam. you name them. African political leaders
(with few exceptions) are a
really disappointing lot. It's as if they come
from the same mother (direct
translation from Ndebele: kungathi bazalwa
ngunina munye). They learn
nothing from history and there has perhaps been
none so great a
disappointment than our very own president. A man so imbued
with such a high
intellect, articulation of issues, education, and undoubted
leadership
qualities that if they had all been channelled correctly,
Zimbabwe and
Zimbabweans would not be the laughing stock they are
today.
Instead, like the Macbeth character, he's been full of sound and fury,
all
signifying nothing. Then you have rogue ex-editors like Geoff Nyarota
who
appears to hate anything Ndebele (specifically), accusing these same
people
who have been abused by the white supremacist government of Ian Smith
and
their own kith and kin government of not being able to rise up and do
anything about it.
If he knew what real trauma is, perpetrated over 40
years of unrelenting
racism and tribalism combined against them, and
especially the unbelievable
savagery that was unleashed on them by their own
black kin, then it would be
clear how unfair that kind of criticism is.
Statements such as this from
your correspondent really relegate him to a
nonentity: "The majority of the
population cannot articulate their views or
concerns openly on such
sensitive but divisive issues as Gukurahundi for
fear of being branded
tribalists or Mugabe-lovers. Ndebele subjects who
campaign for justice on
this issue, however belatedly, do so away from
public platforms, their
campaigns assuming the countenance of rebellious
plotting against the Shona
majority".
This helps no one. I personally
have yet to see a Ndebele person who rebels
against the so-called Shona
majority: why this needless divisiveness Geoff?
Why are you so terribly
blinded by such ethnic-prowess seeking? I doubt
normal Shona people think
like you do. And this is the very cross of Africa
where tribal ascendancy is
propagated above national interests and as long
as such narrow mindedness as
so spectacularly displayed by Geoff exists,
Africa and black Africans can
forget progress and will always play into the
hands of the oppressors of
yesteryear, be mocked by the rest of the world
and lag behind in everything
that determines self-actualisation.
Is it not enough that life expectancy is
shrinking while it's increasing for
others - in the UK, for instance, there
is a serious pensions crisis because
people are no longer dying when they
were expected to. Is it not enough that
ZANU PF has destroyed agriculture,
public transport, education, health, the
export/import sector, relations
with other countries, given us all a bad
name (the Zimbabwean passport is a
terrible curse for those of us who can
travel), confidence, etc?
Instead
of attacking the Matabeles and accusing them of hiding, Geoff could
do the
country a service by encouraging unity among us all; the sort of
unity that
saw us all take up arms to fight Smith not as a divided tribal
pairing but
as a nation. Instead of espousing unrealistic challenges for a
people that
ZANU PF has sought to subjugate and/or decimate at all costs,
Geoff should
have compassion for his fellow men and apologise for the role
he himself
played in assisting in ZANU PF's savagery. I have communicated
with you
Editor on this particular matter before and I am surprised that you
allow
such a vile man so much space but you could never publish such a
letter as
mine.
Why does your correspondent hate the Matabeles so much? I have written
to
him in my personal capacity and the responses have, apart from
intelligible
gibberish most times, drawn such far-fetched and surprisingly
paranoid
conclusions about me. Once, because I have expressed common pain
with Prof
Ncube, he assumed I had met him and that I participated in the MDC
meeting
in London, neither of which is true. I have never met Prof Ncube but
I
understand why he would break down and weep over his dead
grandmother.
Tom Albert
United Kingdom