SABC
June 29, 2007, 06:15
Water
shortage has hit Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, with about half the city
going
for nearly a week without supplies. The latest crisis resulting from
maintenance works at the sole reticulation plant has resulted in households
sourcing water from unhygienic sources creating a serious health
time-bomb.
Harare has run dry and families are in crisis. Water supplies
to all western
suburbs have been cut as authorities grapple with maintenance
works. Scores
of women searching water with buckets and tins in suburbs of
Budiriro,
Glenview, Mufakose and Glen Norah have become common
sights.
Desperate citizens
They are turning to any source of water.
Wells in wetlands, sewer systems,
anywhere where the precious liquid can be
extracted. The desperate citizens
know that the water is not fit for
consumption and are breathing fire.
Government admits that the situation
is critical. Munacho Mutezo, the water
resources minister, says that there
are technical problems at Morton
Jeffrey, the sole reticulation plant, and
it may take time before supplies
are restored.
Recurrent power
cuts
"There is a valve failure which we are working on, but as you know, the
lines are low and it takes time to identify where exactly the problem is,"
said the minister.
The plight of Harare residents has been compounded
by recurrent power cuts
which have seen households going for days without
electricity. As a result,
firewood and generators have become a popular
source of power for many. With
no water and electricity, tough times rarely
come worse than this.
Business Report
June 29, 2007
By Tom Robbins
Cape Town - Pick 'n
Pay's Zimbabwean chain, TM, would work with the
government of President
Robert Mugabe to resolve "the practicalities" of
complying with an order to
slash retail prices, the local retailer said
yesterday.
On Tuesday
Mugabe ordered retailers and food processors to cut the selling
prices of
basic foodstuffs by up to half. The government said security
forces would
enforce the order.
Prices of basics go up on a daily basis in Zimbabwe,
with an annual
inflation rate believed close to 5 000
percent.
"Currently the retailers, including TM, are working closely with
wholesalers
and authorities to work through the practicalities of
compliance," a Pick 'n
Pay spokesperson said yesterday.
However,
according to the Independent Foreign Service, most retailers have
instead
chosen to withdraw their goods and some manufacturers have stopped
production.
Other alternatives include selling products at current
prices, risking
possible government sanction, or compliance with the order,
selling goods
for less than the retailers paid for them.
A source
with reliable knowledge of the situation said business executives
feared
severe punishment if they defied the order.
On Wednesday Mugabe said
some businesses were profiteering from inflation.
He threatened to
nationalise retailers and manufacturers that did not halve
prices.
Shoprite chief executive Whitey Basson said the company,
which had only one
store in Bulawayo, "will sell at the government
recommended prices; we have
to". If the store became unviable, the company
would re-evaluate the
situation, but it had a responsibility to staff and
shareholders, he said.
Pick 'n Pay has a 25 percent stake in the TM
supermarket group but has been
forced to write down the value of the
investment by as much as R64 million,
to just R9 million.
Because of
worsening economic conditions "and a lack of foreign exchange,
the
possibility of remitting funds from Zimbabwe is currently remote", said
Pick
'n Pay .
TM is controlled by the Meikles group, with 75
percent.
Basson said Shoprite had been forced to put a stop to "quite
big" expansion
plans in the country after the economy nosedived. He noted
that the country
had good infrastructure and supply lines.
Health24
Last updated: Thursday, June 28,
2007
Zimbabwe's health service is no longer in danger of collapse but has
collapsed, a doctors' group said Monday.
"It's chaotic. Don't get sick
right now," said one Zimbabwean doctor who
asked not to be identified as
strike action left sick and infirm patients at
a main government hospital
Monday uncertain they would get attention, even
for minor
ailments.
Some drifted away from the outpatients' lobby at Parirenyatwa
hospital in
Harare as work stoppages by junior doctors, nurses and
hospital-staff over
pay and deteriorating working conditions continued and
were spreading.
Staff overwhelmed
Doctors and staff who showed up for
duty were overwhelmed and could not
bridge the gap left by striking
colleagues, hospital officials said.
A doctors' group said Monday the
government had failed to "address the
prevailing emergency in the public
health sector." The Zimbabwean
Association of Doctors for Human Rights said
the crisis left all the
nation's major referral hospitals unable to
function.
"It can no longer be said the health service is near collapse.
The emptying
of central and other hospitals of staff, and therefore
patients, means the
health service has collapsed," the group said in a
statement.
Transport fares unaffordable
It said even if staff were not
on strike, most could not afford transport
fares to reach their posts that
now exceeded monthly incomes.
Several other clinics and public health
facilities were also affected by
strike action that has been sporadic for
the past month. Zimbabwe is also
facing acute shortages of drugs and basic
medical equipment.
The petrol price rose last week and commuter bus fares
generally doubled.
From Monday, a hospital cleaner earning the equivalent of
about US$25 a
month, less than one dollar a day, expected to pay up to US$3
a day on
transport to and from work.
Growing absenteeism
Business
executives also reported growing absenteeism.
The doctors' group said
absenteeism by doctors and health staff in the same
predicament across the
country was causing loss of life. No details of
increased deaths were
immediately available.
Hospital officials, however, confirmed details of
the reported case of a
50-year-old woman who was admitted to one state
health facility on Wednesday
after falling and dislocating her
hip.
She was discharged on Friday without being examined by a doctor and
told go
to a functioning private medical practice - and there were other
cases like
it, said officials not permitted to speak without authority of
their
superiors or be identified.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa,
after whose father the main Harare
hospital was named, acknowledged Monday
the government health service was
broke and appealed to businesses and
corporate interests to "rescue" it, the
official Herald newspaper reported
Monday.
Medical professionals leaving
"It is a question of social
responsibility," he told the newspaper, a
government mouthpiece.
He
said many key Zimbabwean medical professionals found jobs outside the
country after suffering "burn out" caused by watching helplessly as patients
suffered or died through the lack of staff, medicines and
equipment.
Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since
independence in 1980,
with record inflation of 3,714 percent, the highest in
the world, and severe
shortages of food, hard currency and
gasoline.
The brain drain of experienced medical staff "seriously
compromised" the
health service which itself lacked enough working
ambulances and other
transportation for the sick, Parirenyatwa said. -
(Sapa)
29 June 2007
By Pedzisai Ruhanya
EVENTS
relating to an alleged military take-over of the government need a
thorough
interrogation in order to explain the continued deterioration of
the
political and economic crisis that Zimbabwe has been grappling with for
the
past seven years.
While the ingredients for a military take-over are
there for everyone to
witness, the question is whether indeed such a plot
was foiled or whether
there are other explanations such as the possibility
of a coup, the raging
succession war in Zanu PF or the party's usual
diversionary tactics when
faced with critical national issues such as the
continued freefall of the
economy.
It is important to understand that
the military by nature, composition and
design is authoritarian, in most
cases extremely undemocratic. Such
qualities help soldiers to serve their
constitutional mandate which includes
defence against foreign enemies. The
role of the military is to destroy
threats, not to apprehend them for
processing through a system that presumes
them innocent until proven
guilty.
In most cases elsewhere, the military have cited economic decay,
the
prevalence of anarchy or lawlessness, corruption, nepotism and the
possibility of a collapsed state as some of the reasons for taking over the
government from the civilians. The soldiers argue that they are a
mechanised, technical lot with abundant capacity to redress the
situation.
One is therefore tempted to argue that a military coup could
have been
foiled given that the most critical elements for a military
takeover are
currently prevailing in Zimbabwe. This is so because for the
past seven
years, Zimbabwe has been experiencing negative economic growth, a
shrinking
industrial base and consequently lack of production for the
critical export
sector which is very important for securing foreign currency
needed to
import necessities such as electricity and fuel.
As a
result of the freefall of the economy, people's wages continue to be
eroded
to the extent that civil servants including the military are now
receiving
pocket-money wages that they are being paid every fortnight. These
people do
not have disposable incomes to pay for basic necessities such as
schools and
hospital fees as well as groceries for their families.
The military also
cites corrupt tendencies by the incumbent government as
one of the reasons
for army takeovers.
Zimbabwe's history under the administration of
President Robert Mugabe is
littered with numerous cases of corruption
ranging from the Willogate
Scandal, the War Victims Compensation Fund, the
DRC war and the diamond
looting associated with the adventure, the
Pay-For-Your-House Scheme, the
fast-track land reform programme and the
piling of farms on Zanu PF leaders,
the Zupco saga, the Ziscosteel plunder,
the Noczim fuel fiasco and more
recently the Operation Garikai scheme where
senior public officials
benefited from a project that was meant for the poor
after their houses were
destroyed during Operation
Murambatsvina.
Associated with these cases is the issue of nepotism where
relatives of
government and Zanu PF officials benefit from the looting of
national
resources. Such cases invite the military to take over purportedly
to rescue
the nation from decay.
Cases of lawlessness that form the
cornerstone of Zanu PF's role are also
important in explaining the causes of
military coups. Usually the army comes
in order to restore law and order
after the failure of civilians to maintain
law and order in the
country.
The invasion of courts by war veterans, the attack against
lawyers,
journalists and ordinary citizens without any recourse to justice
have
become endemic in Zimbabwe's political psyche under Zanu PF. Attendant
to
this is the glaring selective application of justice where there is one
law
for Zanu PF supporters and sympathisers and another law for the rest of
the
population. Such unjust and inequitable application of the law also
forms
the bedrock of army involvement in civil matters.
Having noted
the existence of an environment conducive for the army to be
tempted into
violating the constitutional order of the country, it is my
contention that
attempts to overthrow the government of Mugabe are close to
remote or
somewhere nearer.
It is therefore plausible to argue that the attempted
coup plot was
pre-emptive. This seems so given that the establishment
through its secret
services such as the Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) operatives is
aware that the situation on the ground can create such a
scenario. It could
have been the strategy of the government through the CIO
to warn those
harbouring such unconstitutional ideas that Big Brother was
watching them.
One of the reasons a military coup is next to impossible
in Zimbabwe is the
geo-political location of Zimbabwe. The Southern African
Development
Community -- bar the former Zaire, now the DRC, and the failed
coup in
Lesotho -- does not have a history of military coups.
This
factor is important to make the military aware of the difficulties it
faces
in the event of such an unlawful misconduct. Most important, the
countries
that Zimbabwe share borders with are administered by civilian
governments
and some of them such as Zambia, Botswana and South Africa are
fairly
democratic.
Also crucial is the composition of the military in Zimbabwe
where both high
and middle-ranking officers are former liberation war
fighters with an
umbilical cord with Zanu PF. To infiltrate such an
establishment needs a lot
of courage and planning.
More so the big
people in the army are part of the patronage system of Zanu
PF. They have
amassed a lot of wealth through the allocation of farms and
luxury vehicles
to the extent that they have become part of the problem and
cannot overthrow
themselves from power.
The other hindrance is the ubiquitous nature of
the CIO among the country's
repressive state apparatus including the army to
the extent that any such
ideas can be nipped in the bud.
In most
cases, such as what happed in Chile when Augusto Pinochet in 1973
overthrew
the Socialist government of Allende, there was the heavy
involvement of
foreign forces or governments, just as what happened when
Mobutu Sese Seko
took over in the Congo.
In the current Zimbabwe scenario, there are no
indications that a foreign
power is involved, which further gives credence
that the so-called coup was
a child's play at best and imaginary and
hallucinatory at worst. This leaves
us with at least two possible
explanations for the alleged coup.
The alleged involvement of Housing
minister Emmerson Mnangagwa gives a
political dimension to the whole saga.
Mnangagwa, like retired general
Solomon Mujuru, leads a Zanu PF faction that
wants to succeed Mugabe.
The mentioning of Mnangagwa in the court papers
and the failure by the
security agents to arrest him for such a serious
crime gives an impression
that the alleged coup plot is bogus. It seems that
the whole issue is part
of the infighting in the ruling party between the
two feuding factions.
One of the remote explanations which cannot be
ruled out given Zanu PF's
desperation is the idea of trying to create a
state under siege that
requires huge funding for the security forces for
them to be able to
maintain law and order.
In my view, behind this
plan could be the ruling party's intention to deploy
the military in the
country for its election campaign as it did in 2002.
Zanu PF has realised
that without the assistance of the military and other
repressive state
apparatus such as the CIO, their chances of winning the
2008 poll are next
to nothing.
Nehanda Radio: Zimbabwe's first 24 hour internet radio news
channel.
zimbabwejournalists.com
29th Jun 2007 00:55 GMT
By Pelle Neroth
EARLIER this year Zimbabwe
made the news when leading opposition figures to
president Robert Mugabe
were beaten by police, during pro democracy rallies
in the capital
Harare.
Movement for Democratic Change figures such as leader Morgan
Tsvangirai and
foreign spokesman Nelson Chamisa have recovered though, are
free to walk the
streets, are contesting next year's elections, and are even
said to be set
up for talks with leading figures of the ruling Zanu PF
movement under the
benign eye of president Thabo Mbeki of South
Africa.
Some MDC followers are still paying the price though for the ZANU
party
leadership's hostility to the MDC, partly a matter of political
calculation perhaps, but also spiced with a visceral hatred for the MDC's
leading white Zimbabwean member, party treasurer Roy Bennett, who is living
as a political exile in South Africa since he'd he says he would be
"eliminated" by the Zimbabwean secret police had he stayed.
The
scapegoat is MDC member Mike Hitschmann, a white Zimbabwean of German
origin, and he, almost certainly innocent, is, languishing in
jail.
In the official Zimbabwe press, it was initially a dastardly plot
to kill
president Mugabe that was foiled by the clever undercover work of
the
regime's secret agency's policemen.
The official story of the
plot was so ludicrous and improbable it soon was
dismissed by a judiciary
that still retains some of its independence; the
air of buffoonery in the
clumsy allegations raises a smile until one is
reminded of how buffoonery
and wickedness often cohabit.
According to the government-owned Herald of
Harare, the so called "Zimbabwe
freedom movement" (ZFM), whose members
included Hitschmann, and Bennett,
plotted to kill four businessmen, bomb the
local newspaper the Chronicle's
offices in Bulawayo and pour used oil on the
road to derail the Presidential
motorcade ahead of President Mugabe's 82nd
birthday celebrations held in the
eastern town of Mutare in February
2006.
The four businessmen's deaths were allegedly going to be a "
birthday
present" for President Mugabe.
According to the prosecution
chief witness, one Major Israel Phiri, who
allegedly managed to gain the
confidence of Hitschmann while posing as a
keen potential co conspirator of
the Zimbabwe freedom movement, Hitschmann
recruited him for his military
experience, drove him around the Bulawayo
suburbs for target assessment, and
paid him a large sum of money to recruit
further conspirators.
After
playing along for a while to get sufficient information, Major Phiri,
who
worked for the secret police, rumbled the plot and Hitschmann and three
other co conspirators were arrested - but one wanted man, Roy Bennett,
escaped. .
This prosecution's case collapsed in court, too ludicrous
even for the
loyalist judiciary, and Hitschmann's three co-accused were
released. It was
revealed during the court proceedings that in fact the
Zimbabwe freedom
movement - supposedly the "commando wing" of the official
opposition party
the Movement for Democratic Change, does not in fact exist,
and Mugabe never
travels by motorcade outside Harare.
Hitschmann
might have been released too, but was instead charged with a new
felony: for
illegal possession of weapons under a new public order act that
assumes that
nearly all weapons may be used for purposes of terrorism.
This was
unfair: Hitschmann, a former Rhodesian Army soldier who had
completely
accepted the new dispensation, was regarded as a friend of the
blacks,
actually worked with the police - and they knew he possessed the
weapons
Hitschmann, who is a guns hobbyist and trained the police in the use
of
firearms for a living, only possessed his small cache of fireams -
alleged
to be the source of weapons for the resistance against Mugabe -
because they
were the latest set of weapons handed in by the white farming
community,
with whom he was also a confidante, under the "no questions
asked" policy
that accompanied the new ban on weapons.
An accepted go-between, he was
about to hand in the cache when was arrested
and has papers to show he did
so in the past.
His lawyer says one reason why in particular he was targeted
by police
because, when a policeman, dealing with arms smugglers from
Mozambique made
him unpopular with the top ranks in the corrupt local police
hierarchy.
It's clear that there was a larger picture, related to
central government,
and that he may be encouraged to held on up on the
trumped up alternative
charge when the original case collapsed because of
Mugabe's fury at seeing
Roy Bennett slip through his fingers.
Also
alleged to be implicated in the assassination plot, Bennett slipped
through
the country's porous borders with Mozambique and made his way to
South
Africa, where he is now benefiting from political asylum; he retains
his
post and his work involves building links between the MDC and the South
African government..
The outspoken, maverick 49-year-old white
tobacco farmer-turned-MP who had
just immediately beforehand been appointed
to MDC's senior treasury post has
long been a thorn in the Zanu PF party's
side, outspoken against the
confiscations of the white farms - and the six
successive attempts to take
over his property, despite his carefully
acquired legal permissions to
retain it for its profitability and therefore
economic contribution to the
Zimbabwe economy.
A personal enmity
between him and the justice minister led to an altercation
in parliament -
"due continuous provocations about my ancestry", said
Bennett, who was
imprisoned, he told me recently, "in conditions that were
humbling": he had
to wear a uniform covered in excrement, and lived in a
cell designed for
eight but was occupied by 20.
He was released after eight months and
returned to his farm.
I am told by people who know him that Hitschmann is
essentially a
straight-forward kind of guy: the typical soldier, one
completely reconciled
to, and prepared to build, a multiracial
future.
The latest development is that he has confessed to possessing the
weapons
for illegal intent, but has also told his lawyer his confession was
signed
under torture, including burns and kickings. His bail applications
have been
dismissed since he faces a "serious charge" While still under
arrest, with
ailing lungs, his wife and child, who are both French
citizens, are left
without a means of subsistence.
What can Europe
do?
Hitschmann's case has been brought to the attention of the European
parliament, which has issued a wide-ranging condemnation of Zimbabwe for its
human rights abuses, especially, the slum clearances in 2005. It was
probably wise of President Jacques Chirac to uninvite Mugabe from this
spring's Francophonie summit:
France has in recent years sought to engage
with Mugabe rather than
ostracise him, which is Britain's position.
Doubtless people will say that
France just wants to gain trade and
influence, or at least twit its old
imperial rival, but the main reason is
the belief that appeasing Mugabe's
sense of outrage at being ignored by
Europe will improve his human rights
behaviour; clearly Mugabe still has
some work to do.
For similar reasons, it was also wise that the EU in
February voted to
continue EU sanctions for another year; recent speculation
had centred on
rumours that both France and Portugal were considering voting
to end them.
It is often said that sanctions don't alter the behaviour of
regimes, but
lifting them might be seen as condoning the holding of
political prisoners.
As for Hitschmann, he languishes in jail indefinitely,
with no trial date
being set, a reminder, perhaps, to the MDC of the ZANU
leadership's hatred
of whites like Bennett (and Hitschmann) who want to be
a part of Zimbabwe's
democratic future.
Also, a political warning of the
arbitrary power of Mugabe's rule hanging
over the leadership, already beaten
and jailed once, as it campaigns in next
year's elections, that it too can
be arrested and held indefinitely on a
whim.
zimbabwejournalists.com
29th Jun 2007 00:34 GMT
By Nothando
Motsipe
POLICE in Harare on Wednesday denied Zimbabwe Law Society
members access to
the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs'
offices forcing
the protesting lawyers to dump a petition by the minister's
door.
The protest was part of a countryside campaign with lawyers uniting
and
boycotting Zimbabwe's courts for the first time since the country became
independent. The lawyers were protesting against government brutality
towards them, continued harassment, arrests, beatings and related
issues.
Speaking by telephone to zimbabweJournalists.com, prominent human
rights
lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said although the march was peaceful and
successful,
officers manning the office wing housing minister Patrick
Chinamasa's office
refused them entry to present the minister with their
grievances.
"We couldn't hand the petition to the minister because the
constable who
manned the entrance to the section were minister is housed
wouldn't let us
in. But we left the petition by the door," said
Mtetwa.
More than fifty legal practitioners on Wednesday slipped a
petition under
Chinamasa's offices after ducking police who had attempted to
stop their
protest march.
The lawyers marched from the High Court to
the Attorney General's office to
present the petition although the police
tried to prevent them from gaining
access to the minister's
office.
The lawyers were last month beaten up by riot police as they
attempted to
present a petition to the Justice minister.
The petition
raises issues surrounding the treatment of lawyers particularly
attacks and
arrests of lawyers.
"The Law society of Zimbabwe has for sometime been
concerned at the
relentless and unjustified attacks on its members for
actions taken during
the course and scope of their mandate as legal
practitioners. The attacks in
the main took the form of vilification and
threats by the state media and
politicians against those members of the
profession who would have taken on
cases and causes which are unpopular with
the state," the petition says.
The lawyers said they were concerned with
the unjustified attacks on
lawyers.
The LSZ said the harassment of
their members began on March 11 after police
arrested more than 50
opposition activists and leaders who were on their way
to attend a Save
Zimbabwe Campaign prayer meeting in Highfield.
They called on Chinamasa
to address the issues raised in the petition.
zimbabwejournalists.com
29th Jun 2007 00:04 GMT
By Dennis
Rekayi
VUMBA - President Mugabe no longer has the ability to solve
problems
besetting Zimbabwe because he is too tired and short of new ideas
after
ruling for such a long time, the outgoing United States ambassador has
said.
Christopher Dell told journalists here Wednesday that because he
has been in
power for too long, Mugabe was no longer relevant to the
country's restive
population and its problems, which he said were of Zanu PF
and Mugabe's own
creation.
He said after staying in power for almost
a generation Mugabe and his regime
no longer had new ideas to rescue the
country from total collapse.
But he said there were some individuals
within the government and Zanu PF
who were able to offer solutions should
they be allowed to rule the country.
"I don't think he (Mugabe) has the
answers that the country needs," Dell
said. "Any government that stays in
power for 27 years will be tired and
will have no new ideas."
"After
27 years we can not look at the current government to turn around the
country."
The out-going diplomat repeated his predictions that the
country was about
to witness key political changes driven by poor economic
policies that have
brought the country on its knees.
"I believe
political change is coming," Dell said. " Political change driven
by failed
economic policies."
He, however, said after the change there was a lot of
rebuilding to be done
in Zimbabwe.
Dell said he was optimistic the
two opposition MDC factions would re-unite
to form one formidable opposition
political party to compete against Zanu PF
for political
office.
This, he said, was evident by the fact the two MDC factions were
pushing one
agenda and speaking with one voice in Pretoria where South
African President
Thabo Mbeki has been chairing talks to smooth over the
platform for
negotions between the opposition and Zanu PF.
"There is
no tremendous rift," Dell said, "The MDC is not represented by two
parties
in the Mbeki talks but they have one common position."
"What that tells
me is that their core beliefs and values are the same and
are working on one
agenda," he said. "It is easy for reunification."
The government on
Sunday attacked Dell and described as "malicious" chis
omments saying raging
inflation would force Mugabe from office before the
end of the
year.
In an interview published by The Guardian on Friday, Dell said
Mugabe's
government, which is blamed for an economic crisis exemplified by
an
inflation rate above 3,700 percent, was "committing regime change on
itself".
Dell, who will soon leave Zimbabwe to take up a diplomatic
posting in
Afghanistan, predicted inflation would hit 1.5 million percent by
the end of
2007, adding that "the Mugabe government is reaching end
game".
Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu accused Dell of celebrating
the
misery brought about by economic sanctions imposed by Western nations on
Zimbabwe by countries such as the US and Britain.
"Discredited
outgoing U.S ambassador Mr. Christopher Dell has repeated the
hateful
utterances against the government of Zimbabwe to a British
newspaper, the
Guardian, predicting the fall of the government within six
months on the
basis of the British and American-sponsored sanctions and the
resultant
inflation," Ndlovu said.
"The government wishes to dismiss ambassador
Dell's malicious propaganda
story with the contempt it deserves ... the
government of Zimbabwe is in a
much stronger position now politically and
economically than ever. Events on
the ground speak for themselves," he
added.
eGov Monitor, UK
Source: United Nations
Published Wednesday, 27 June, 2007 -
17:07
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says it is deeply concerned
about
increased suffering for everyday Zimbabweans, particularly children,
as a
result of grave economic problems facing the southern African country.
"Every
day in Zimbabwe the basic elements required for a healthy and happy
childhood -affordable education, three meals per day, clothing and shelter -
are being pushed out of reach for people," said UNICEF's Representative in
Zimbabwe, Festo Kavishe.
With official inflation at 4,530 per cent,
the cost of essential goods and
services is increasing every day, in some
cases doubling, the agency notes
in a press release issued today. The
country is facing "critical shortages"
of drugs, as well as key health and
education staff, and has entered another
drought year.
Last month
Zimbabwe's Central Statistics Office said the basic "family food
basket" for
a family of six cost $100. However, a teacher's salary equates
to just $18
per month, and that of a nurse $20. Unemployment is reported at
more than 70
per cent.
And yet, UNICEF says, amid these colossal hardships,
significant
accomplishments have been made. Ninety-five per cent of orphans
continue to
be absorbed by the extended family, while last year Zimbabwe
became the
first country in southern Africa to record a fall in the HIV rate
- from
24.6 per cent to 20 per cent.
Working across Zimbabwe in areas
of child protection, education, health,
nutrition, water, sanitation and HIV
prevention, UNICEF says Zimbabweans
have been "nothing short of miraculous"
in attempting to cope with the
current economic crisis and in caring for
their children.
"This country is full of heroes," said Mr. Kavishe. "The
grandmothers who
work 18-hour days to keep half a dozen orphaned
grandchildren in school, the
volunteers who devote their time to caring for
those racked with pain from
AIDS but without drugs, the millions of
Zimbabweans who just refuse to give
up hope."
At the same time, he
cautioned that the country has entered a new phase of
hardship. "These are
people who forgo bread for books so as to keep their
children in school, who
are uncomfortable with putting their hand out, but
their options are
exhausted."
In the past two years, with funding from the United Kingdom's
Department for
International Development, the European Commission, and the
Governments of
Sweden, Germany, New Zealand, and Australia, UNICEF has
increased the number
of orphans in Zimbabwe it reaches tenfold, from 50,000
to 500,000. But it
warned that critical programmes in HIV prevention,
health, nutrition and
education remain less than 20 per cent funded.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
RURAL Housing minister and Zanu PF politburo
member Emmerson
Mnangagwa, who has been linked to a foiled coup plot, has
met with President
Robert Mugabe over the saga that has intensified
infighting within the
ruling party.
Sources said this week that
Mnangagwa met Mugabe on June 18 after the
president's return from Libya and
Egypt to clear the air over the divisive
issue which has dramatically raised
political temperatures in Zanu PF.
It is said Mugabe told Mnangagwa
that he knew he was not involved in
the coup and assured him there was no
need for anxiety.
This came against a backdrop of fears that
government wanted to arrest
Mnangagwa during Mugabe's absence.
Vice-President Joice Mujuru, a bitter
Mnangagwa rival, was acting president.
Sources have said Vice-President
Joseph Msika intervened to stop Mnangagwa's
arrest.
Mnangagwa is understood to have expressed grave concerns to
Mugabe
about the cutthroat politics now at play within the ruling party. It
is said
Mnangagwa was anxious about the threatened arrest and worried by the
damage
inflicted upon his reputation by the coup plot story.
Mnangagwa's Zanu PF faction suspects the coup story was arranged by
the
rival group led by retired army General Solomon Mujuru to tarnish their
camp
leader's name and undermine his credibility ahead of the expected
special
congress at the end of the year although others believe it has all
the
hallmarks of a state-engineered operation.
A series of past alleged
coup plots turned out to be political
manoeuvres.
These include
the Dumiso Dabengwa and Lookout Masuku cases and those
of Ndabaningi Sithole
and Morgan Tsvangirai. In all instances the alleged
coup plotters were
acquitted by the courts, exposing the political designs
behind the arrests
and prosecutions
The Zanu PF power struggle is now increasingly
becoming a rough and
dirty game in the run-up to congress which might end up
electing a new party
leader if the Mujuru faction manages to block Mugabe's
bid for endorsement
as the party candidate in next year's joint March
elections. Speculation
abounds within the Mujuru camp that Mugabe could quit
before the end of the
year.
Ibbo Mandaza, a Mujuru faction
ally, on Wednesday told a South African
Institute for International Affairs
roundtable discussion, Zimbabwe: Still
at the crossroads? A perspective on
current developments, in Johannesburg
that Mugabe might leave
soon.
"My expectation is Mugabe will retire and is likely to do so
in
September to give the party time to organise for the elections next year.
The current economic meltdown is causing a political meltdown which is
pushing for change in Zanu PF," Mandaza said.
"Zanu PF members
calling for Mugabe to leave office are doing so out
of respect for Mugabe as
a founding father of the liberation struggle
together with the late Joshua
Nkomo. Contrary to the widely held perception
that such party members are
trying to be rebellious and vindictive, the
truth is they're not pushing
Mugabe down the shoot.
They want him to retire peacefully and
believe that he remains a
source of reference for the nation." Mugabe in
February attacked Mandaza in
his birthday interview alleging he was involved
in a campaign for Joice
Mujuru to oust him.
"The (Edgar)
Tekere/Mandaza issue, ah they are trying to campaign for
Mujuru using a book
(Tekere's biography, A Lifetime of Struggle).you can't
become a president by
using a biography. Manje vairasa (they have lost the
plot). They don't
realise they have done her more harm than good."
Sources said the
coup story has further divided Zanu PF because the
two main factions appear
involved in the issue as part of the tussle for
power which has become a
dangerous affair.
Sources said the purported coup plot reflects the
fierce infighting
within government and Zanu PF. It is also said that Mugabe
has been
unruffled by the coup claims because he knew it was part of
succession
politics.
Zim Independent
Kuda
Chikwanda
A MAJOR price war is raging between government and
producers following
the forced price freeze on basic commodities and the
introduction of
subsidies described as damaging by industry
stakeholders.
Producers who spoke to the Zimbabwe Independent
yesterday said the
freeze on prices had created serious distortions in
cashflows as government
has put a cap on the prices of products but failed
to deal with workers'
wages.
"Right now our end product is
being controlled which means the rate of
price increase will be determined
by the government," said an executive with
a milling company. "On the
shopfloor, the workers will continue demanding
wages based on CPI. At more
than 50% a month this is unsustainable."
In a bid to redress the
distortions government has introduced
subsidies in the production chain.
Government this week announced price
reductions in selected grocery items in
a populist move designed to win the
hearts and minds of a suffering
populace.
The move however promises to plunge the economy deeper
into crisis as
the cash-strapped government will be forced to print money to
finance the
subsidies.
Government sources revealed yesterday
that manufacturers of basic
commodities would be subsidised as a means of
curbing the recent spate of
price increases.
Government
promised to sell flour to bakers at $10 million a tonne
instead of the
market price of $20 million while fuel will be supplied at
$15 000 a litre
instead of the prevailing market price of $150 000. All
suppliers of basic
commodities have also been assured of the cheap fuel.
The rapidly
depreciating dollar fell victim to government activity on
the black market
last week as it bought foreign currency to buy fuel for the
subsidies
operation. This saw the Zimbabwean dollar lose almost 56% of its
real value
against the United States dollar.
Government has continued to
scuttle the process of economic recovery.
Its debt stands at over $2
trillion owing to huge borrowings to finance
government departments and
parastatals. The fiscal budget has become a dead
letter owing to
inflation.
Contacted for comment, Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries (CZI)
president Callisto Jokonya said it was regrettable that
government had opted
for this route.
"From a business point of
view we have always pushed for prices to
come down provided we have adequate
foreign currency and raw materials. If
they are going to subsidise these
commodities through the printing of money
we face inflationary challenges of
magnitudes we have never imagined," said
Jokonya.
A CZI State
of the Manufacturing Sector survey released last week
revealed that
industry's capacity utilisation had declined to 33,8% in 2006
from 35,8% in
2005. The trend is expected to continue this year.
Jokonya said
while CZI shared the same vision with government in
seeing the economy
recover, they did not back any measures that were
inflationary.
"Subsidies from balance of payments support are good, but not from
printing
money," he said.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC)
president Mara Hativagone
said price controls and freezes by the government
would affect industry and
commerce and worked against the spirit of the
social contract.
"We don't believe that price freezes and controls
work. This will
result in shortages of goods on the market," Hativagone
said.
Hativagone said the social contract provided for
manufacturers to come
up with pricing models and justify why they intended
to hike prices.
"That is the only way to go. No price freezes or
controls. They harm
the companies and the economy at large," the ZNCC boss
said.
Government has already instructed the central bank to print
money to
pay salaries for civil servants. The RBZ printing press is now set
to go
into overdrive to fund the subsidies. Commodities whose prices have
been
reduced include beer, Mazoe orange crush, bread and tissue
paper.
Beer went down from $60 000 to $30 000 a pint, tissue paper
from $190
000 to $90 000, bread from $49 500 to $22 000 and Mazoe orange
crush from
$495 000 to $120 000.
However, most of the
commodities have since disappeared from the
shelves as waning confidence on
the part of the buying public in the
resilience of the dollar and the
sustainability of the plan saw people
hoarding basic commodities this
week.
Zim Independent
Constantine
Chimakure
A FACTION in Mashonaland Central backing
Vice-President Joice Mujuru
in the Zanu PF presidential succession battle on
Tuesday verbally attacked
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon
Gono for allegedly
misallocating tractors under the central bank's
agricultural mechanisation
programme.
Sources told this
newspaper that at a provincial development council
meeting chaired by
provincial administrator Joseph Jaji held at Bindura
municipal offices, Gono
was accused of lack of transparency and fairness in
the recent allocation of
tractors and other farming equipment.
The meeting was attended by
Vice-President Joice Mujuru, governor and
resident minister Ephraim Masawi,
Interactive Affairs minister Chen
Chimutengwende, minister without portfolio
Elliot Manyika, members of
parliament and senators in the
province.
"Almost everyone at the meeting questioned the criteria
Gono and his
bank officials used in selecting beneficiaries of the
tractors," a source
said. "There was great concern that the tractors were
allocated to the rich
and famous, yet farmers in need of them were those
resettled under the A1
category."
He said Mujuru was livid that
the central bank was allocating tractors
to favoured
recipients.
"Mujuru said it was wrong to give tractors to
commercial farmers who
should have the means to buy them using other
facilities, such as bank
loans. She said Gono and the RBZ should have given
the tractors to groups of
A1 farmers who would have demonstrated their
ability to produce," the source
said.
Farmers at the meeting,
the source said, alleged some people were
continuing to benefit from
agrarian reforms at the expense of A1 farmers.
The source said
harsh words were used against Gono and the central
bank.
"There
was an acerbic attack on the central bank governor," another
source said.
"He was called all sorts of names and some people in the
meeting accused him
of abusing taxpayers' money by buying tractors and
allocating them to people
who do not deserve them."
On Tuesday, Mujuru was captured by a
ZBC-TV newscrew telling the
development meeting that the agricultural
mechanisation programme launched
by the RBZ should not only look at the
creditworthiness of the established
farmers.
Speaking at the
launch of the programme on June 11 in Harare, Gono
said the allocation of
the tractors was not easy.
"Much as our emphasis was and will
continue to be on productivity. We
know that we will be criticised left,
right and centre for this shortcoming
or that; beneficiaries will also be
labelled this and that and so life goes
on. We have developed thick skins
where our vision and conscience are
clear," Gono said.
Zim Independent
Lucia
Makamure
THE state's case against Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC)
activists accused of masterminding and carrying out a spate of
alleged
petrol bombings that took place between March and April has fallen
apart as
a result of the government's failure to provide concrete evidence
to support
its allegations.
Alec Muchadehama, one of the
lawyers representing the alleged petrol
bombers, told the Zimbabwe
Independent this week that the case has collapsed
as a result of the
police's failure to prove his clients guilty of any
offence.
"Our clients are innocent and did not do anything and the courts have
dismissed quite a number of their cases as the state has failed to provide
evidence to link them to the petrol bombings," he said.
Muchadehama said the state has been using its investigations in South
Africa
as an excuse for not having evidence.
"There was no case against
our clients as proved by the police failure
to bring any solid evidence
against them. All along they have been using
their investigations in South
Africa as an excuse for not having evidence
and now that the investigations
have hit a brick wall there is no reason for
the state to continue keeping
our clients in custody," he said.
So far, 18 of the activists
arrested in police raids around Harare in
connection with the bombings have
been cleared of the terror charges.
The courts have so far dropped
charges against Luke Tamborenyoka, a
former journalist and now information
officer for MDC, Zebediah Juaba,
Brighton Matimba and Enock
Mukudu.
The charges against the four were dropped after their
lawyers
successfully argued that there was no reasonable suspicion that the
activists had committed an offence.
Ian Makone, special advisor
to faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was
released on $150 million bail on
May 30.
Justice Tedious Karwi in granting Makone bail said although
he
(Makone) was opposed to the government and wanted to see a change of
government, he was opposed to the use of violent means and as a result he
was found fit for bail.
Piniel Denga and Raymond Bake were
released on $50 million and $10
million bail respectively on June
19.
Glen View MP Paul Madzore and 16 others who include Boniface
Chivizhe,
Nyasha Chikombe, Kenneth Nhemachena, Ishmael Kauzani, Tonderai
Ndira, Shame
Wakatama, Dennis Murira, Morgan Komichi (in hospital), Better
Chokururama,
Friday Muleya, Amos Musekiwa, Phillip Mabika, Arthur Mhizha,
Peter Chikwati,
George Chindare, and Phillip Katsande are still in
custody.
The group is facing charges of allegedly training as
bandits and
insurgents in South Africa. They have applied for bail which is
due to be
heard before the High Court this week.
Last month
three detectives from the Harare Central Police Station
were arrested for
allegedly supplying Alec Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni
with false
information about the petrol bombing of Zanu PF offices in Mbare.
Elfas Mahuku, Tapiwa Goredema and Lawrence Ndlovu all from the
Criminal
Investigation Department's Residential Unit were accused of lying
to
Muchadehama and Makoni that there was no bombing at the offices and that
the
case was stage-managed by Zanu PF members as a political gimmick.
Tamborenyoka alleged that all the activists who were arrested at
Harvest
House on March 28 were tortured while in custody as well as denied
food,
medical attention and access to their lawyers.
"We were all
tortured while we were in police custody and our lawyers
have since
submitted evidence in court to support the claims," he said.
The
weapons which the state allegedly recovered from the MDC include
two
revolvers, ammunition, loud hailers and communication radios and
t-shirts
inscribed with MDC slogans, 53 explosives, 24 detonators, 88 tins
of paint
and t-shirts.
Zim Independent
Constantine Chimakure
THE government has denied
that the police illegally detained,
assaulted and tortured leaders of the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) last September when they blocked
the labour organisation's
demonstration against the worsening economic
crisis in the country.
In papers lodged recently with the High
Court opposing an over $25
billion lawsuit filed by ZCTU president Lovemore
Matombo and 14 others, the
government said the union leaders were arrested
for violating provisions of
the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform)
Act.
"The plaintiffs had defied a police order not to go ahead with
their
planned illegal demonstration," read the defence plea filed by the
Civil
Division of the Attorney General's Office. "Defendants deny ever
assaulting
the plaintiffs. Defendants only used minimum force in order to
effect arrest
of the plaintiffs who were resisting arrest and were
themselves violent."
The ZCTU leaders took the Minister of Home
Affairs, Kembo Mohadi,
Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and 19 police
officers to court
claiming over $7,7 billion in general damages for unlawful
arrest, detention
and prosecution.
They also claimed damages
for the pain, shock, suffering,
post-traumatic stress and disfigurement to
the tune of $9,7 billion.
Further, the union leaders want the
government to pay them close to
$6,9 billion for medical expenses they
incurred after the alleged torture.
They also demanded special damages of
about $66 million for estimated future
medical expenses.
The
High Court is yet to set a date for the hearing of the case.
Matombo and his colleagues were allegedly assaulted and tortured at
Matapi
Police Station, Mbare, after they were arrested on September 13 last
year
during an aborted protest march against poor wages, high taxes and
workers'
lack of access to anti-retroviral drugs.
Film footage of the
assaults, circulated widely on the Internet, shows
police beating up the
demonstrators in the city centre before shoving them
into a truck where they
continued to beat them.
The government had barred the protests,
accusing the ZCTU of pursuing
an opposition political agenda under the guise
of fighting for workers'
rights.
The assault of the trade
unions drew sharp criticism from local and
international human rights
organisations and Western governments.
The ZCTU, considered an ally
of the main opposition MDC by the
government, said workers had borne the
brunt of an economic recession widely
blamed on President Mugabe's
rule.
Zim Independent
Constantine Chimakure
THE Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment
(No18) Bill gazetted at the
beginning of this month has renewed debate on
whether or not harmonised
presidential and parliamentary polls should take
place in 2010 after it
emerged that President Robert Mugabe can
constitutionally remain in office
if the proposed law sails through
parliament.
Whether it was by omission or commission on the
government's part,
Mugabe could remain in office until parliament is
dissolved in 2010 - two
years after the expiry of his six-year term in
office in March 2008.
Clause 2 (2) of the Bill states: "The
amendments made by subsection
(1) apply to the president in office on the
date of commencement of this
Act, notwithstanding anything contained in
Section 29 before its amendment
by this Act.
"The amendments
made by subsection (1) of clause 28 of the Bill
provide that an election to
the office of president must take place at the
same time as general
elections of members of parliament."
Analysts believe that the move
was well calculated by the Zanu PF
government to give a leeway for the
octogenarian leader to continue in
power, while his party finds a solution
to its succession debate that is
threatening to tear it apart.
There are three camps in Zanu PF fighting over the succession issue -
one
backing Mugabe's continued stay, the other rooting for Rural Housing
minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and the third supporting Vice-President Joice
Mujuru.
"My reading of the situation is that if Zanu PF fails
to resolve the
succession issue, Mugabe will soldier on as president until
2010," one
political commentator observed. "If a solution is found between
now and
March 2008, Mugabe will simply dissolve parliament and call for both
the
presidential and parliamentary elections."
Mugabe is
empowered by the Constitution of Zimbabwe to dissolve
parliament anytime he
feels appropriate.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn) in
its analysis of the
Bill said: "The effect of subclause (2) is that
President Mugabe (who will
be the president in office when the Bill comes
into force as an Act) need
not subject himself to re-election until the next
general election is held
in 2010, and this applies notwithstanding the
current Section 29 of the
constitution, which states that the presidential
term is limited to six
years. His term, in other words, is extended to the
next general election.
So President Mugabe will not have to face the voters
until 2010, unless he
chooses to dissolve parliament before then in
2008."
Zesn was of the opinion that the true import of the
amendment needed
to be "clearly understood."
Last year, when
some elements in the ruling Zanu PF pressed for the
holding of harmonised
elections in 2010, the Morgan Tsvangirai-led faction
of the MDC launched a
campaign: "Say No to the 2010 presidential extension.
Say no to elections
under the current constitution. Say No to Robert Mugabe
and Zanu
PF".
In current talks between the MDC and Zanu PF being mediated by
South
Africa President Thabo Mbeki, the opposition insists that there is
need for
a new constitution.
Both formations of the MDC have
rejected the Constitutional Amendment
No 18.
The opposition
wants a draft constitution agreed on between Justice
minister Patrick
Chinamasa and MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube in 2003
to be used as a
working draft for constitutional reforms.
Tsvangirai said the Bill
was about Mugabe and Zanu PF's
re-consolidation of power at the expense of
the suffering Zimbabweans.
"Constitutional Amendment No 18
regrettably is not about food, jobs or
drugs, it is about power, its
maintenance, reproduction and re-consolidation
by Zanu PF," said Tsvangirai
at a press conference soon after the Bill was
gazetted.
"The
national project of Zanu PF is the power equation, it is not
about the
suffering of millions of Zimbabweans at home and abroad."
Tsvangirai insisted there was need for a new constitution now.
"As
far as we are concerned, Zimbabwe needs a new holistic
constitution that is
people- driven and people-owned. Without this there
will be no solution to
the burning national question of the day. We reject
the Bill," added
Tsvangirai.
It is Tsvangirai's contention that the Bill undermines
Mbeki's
mediation efforts.
"Over and above this, given that the
issue of a new constitution and
the contents thereof are some of the things
that will be clearly covered in
the Sadc negotiations currently underway,
pursuant to the resolution of the
Sadc heads of states in their meeting in
Dar es salam on 29 March 2007,
Constitutional Amendment No18 becomes
contemptuous of that dialogue," said
the former trade unionist.
He added: "The message that Zanu PF is sending out is loud and clear.
It is
oblivious and blind to the Sadc negotiations. It is simply not ready
for
genuine dialogue."
Gabriel Chaibva, the MDC Mutambara faction
spokesperson, said his camp
was opposed to the postponement of polls to 2010
and also insisted that
there was need for a people- driven
constitution.
"We need the polls next year and they should be held
under a new
constitutional dispensation," Chaibva said last week. "It will
be evil for
Mugabe to cling to power until 2010."
However, some
analysts believe that if the MDC insists on a
constitutional overhaul, then
the parliamentary and presidential polls
should not take place next
March.
"If the MDC wants a presidential election next year it must
forego a
new constitution," said political scientist Michael
Mhike.
"On the other hand, if they want a new constitution they
must be
prepared to forego a presidential election next year. They cannot
have it
both ways. There is no way a constitutional consultation process can
begin
now and be completed in time for a presidential election in March 2008
as
currently scheduled."
Zanu PF secretary for information and
publicity Nathan Shamuyarira was
quoted this week in the party's official
mouthpiece, The Voice, saying local
government, parliamentary and
presidential elections would take place next
year.
He said the
party was now in the process of selecting the candidates
for the
polls.
The Bill also seeks to increase the number of members of the
House of
Assembly from the present 150 to 210 of which 200 would be directly
elected
and 10 of these will be presidential appointees.
In
addition, it intends to increase the composition of the Senate from
66 to 84
members, and of those 84, 10 would be provincial governors, 16
traditional
chiefs and six presidential appointees.
Over and above this, the
Bill seeks to create and establish a human
rights commission and also
establish the office of the deputy chief justice.
Zim Independent
Loughty Dube
VISITING South African clergymen have accused
President Mugabe of
serious human rights violations arising from increasing
cases of torture in
the country. This comes amid revelations by civic groups
that 300 cases of
torture have been reported in the country so far this
year.
The South African church leaders were speaking at Saint
Mary's
Cathedral in Bulawayo during commemorations to mark the International
Day in
Support of Victims of Torture.
Commemorations for the
day were also held on Tuesday for Zimbabweans
in London and in
Johannesburg.
In London, a service of solidarity was held at St
Paul's and was
organised by several organisations including the Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO
Forum, Amnesty International, Redress, the International
Bar Association,
the International Rehabilitation Council for Victims of
Torture, and the
Zimbabwe Association.
The Johannesburg
commemorations were organised by the Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition and the
Zimbabwe Torture Victims Survivor Project.
The Bulawayo ceremony
was presided over by Archbishop Pius Ncube, an
outspoken critic of President
Mugabe, and saw several victims of torture
giving shocking testimonies of
the torture they went through by state
security agents.
Bishop
Kevin Dowling of the Catholic Diocese of Rustenberg in South
Africa, who led
the South African delegation, said President Mugabe's
government was using
torture to create fear and silence the people of
Zimbabwe.
"A
government that tortures its own people is not a government at all
but a
regime, an illegitimate regime for that matter," said Dowling. "Just
as the
apartheid government tortured its own people, this government is a
regime
because it is torturing its own people," Dowling told a packed St
Mary's
church.
"Why would a government torture its own people, why would a
so-called
government inflict injuries on its own citizens? The Zimbabwe
government is
creating fear to make people afraid to do
anything."
Dowling said the Zimbabwe government would soon fall
just like the
South African apartheid government.
"Pastors from
South Africa know what apartheid did to the spirit of
the people, our people
suffered, they were tortured some disappeared and
others were killed. We are
here to support you.
"God was not with the apartheid regime and God
is not with this regime
in Zimbabwe, it will fail," Dowling
said.
An opposition activist, Cleopas Chivi, who was abducted from
his Gweru
home and left for dead in a bushy area in May this year, gave
harrowing
details of the torture he sustained from state security agents.
Chivi, who
had difficulty in walking and was helped to stand throughout his
long
narration, sustained serious injuries all over the body.
Meanwhile, human rights activists said so far this year there have
been 300
cases of torture compared to 154 cases that were reported during
the same
period last year.
Zim Independent
Itai Mushekwe
THE International Monetary
Fund (IMF) this week painted a bleak
picture of Zimbabwe's economic crisis
predicting that annual inflation will
hit the five-digits mark by
year-end.
The Bretton Woods institution in written responses to the
Zimbabwe
Independent on Wednesday said the country was now experiencing
hyperinflation as its month-on-month rate had shot above 50%.
A
spokesman from the global financial lender said Harare's official
Consumer
Price Index (CPI) which uses a notional basket of goods
"substantially"
understates inflation while private-sector indices put the
rate for April
and May above 10 000%.
"We believe that official CPI data are
likely to substantially
understate inflation because about a third of the
basket reflects
price-controlled items and the weights are outdated. Some
informal
private-sector indices put annual inflation above 10 000% in April
and May.
It seems clear that Zimbabwe is now experiencing hyperinflation
(that is,
inflation above 50% a month). In this context, we have not yet
finalised our
revised projections, but expect inflation to be well in the
five-digits by
year-end."
President Robert Mugabe's
administration is at the centre of fighting
a price war accusing
industrialists of fuelling inflation by hiking the
prices of basic
commodities to foment a price-induced popular revolt against
his
government.
"The nonsense of price escalation must come to an end
immediately,"
said Mugabe on Wednesday during the burial of
Brigadier-General Armstrong
Gunda.
"Tinokutevera. Ende hausi
mutambo uchaitwa mutambo wakanaka. (We will
track you down and this game is
not going to be a fair one). It's going to
be a rough game."
The IMF said the government was yet to implement its recommendations
to
redress the failing economy. It said Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono's
interim monetary policy announced in April was piecemeal as it fell short of
a comprehensive package needed for economic stabilisation.
"The
Zimbabwean government has not implemented the IMF's
recommendations to
address the economic crisis, which were provided in the
context of the
Article IV discussions completed earlier this year.
International experience
with stabilising very high/hyperinflation shows
that comprehensive and
far-reaching
policy measures are needed to achieve macroeconomic
stabilisation and,
more generally, an economic turnaround. Recent ad-hoc
policy changes will
not resolve the crisis."
The IMF added:
"Changes announced in the April Monetary Policy
Statement fall far short of
a comprehensive package that would be needed.
This is also reflected in a
widening parallel market premium."
The fund also repeated its
concern about the deteriorating economic
and social conditions in Zimbabwe
adding it had repeatedly urged the
government to urgently adopt a
comprehensive policy package to address
Zimbabwe's economic crisis calling
upon government to provide adequate
social safety nets and food security to
vulnerable groups.
Zim Independent
Itai Mushekwe
ZIMBABWE Broadcasting
Holdings (ZBH)'s Spot FM Editor-in-Chief
Methuseli Moyo faces dismissal for
resisting deployment to the new state-run
radio station, Voice of Zimbabwe
(VOZ), it was heard yesterday.
Government sources said Moyo could
be fired soon for refusing to take
up a senior position at the short wave
radio station in Gweru.
VOZ is a government propaganda station
headed by Happyton Muchechetere
to counter so-called negative publicity
against government by what officials
call "pirate" radio stations. This
refers to the Voice of America (VOA)'s
Studio 7, SW Radio which broadcasts
from London, and Voice of the People
(VOP). Officials says the State
Department-funded VOA, and SW Radio which
they say is British-financed, as
well as VOP which they claim is
Dutch-funded, are on a negative publicity
campaign against the government,
hence the setting up of VOZ.
Sources said Moyo rejected an appointment at the controversial station
arguing that he was a professional journalist and not a
propagandist.
The row has sucked in President Robert Mugabe's
spokesman George
Charamba who is said to have clashed with Moyo whom he
accused of being a
relative of former Information minister Jonathan
Moyo.
Charamba, it is alleged, has been pressing ZBH boss Henry
Muradzikwa
to fire Moyo for his alleged links with the former
minister.
Sources said journalist Moyo was now facing the
chop.
"Moyo received a letter from his bosses in Harare advising
him to
relocate from Montrose studios in Bulawayo to Gweru with immediate
effect,
on Wednesday," a source said. "But Moyo rejected the appointment.
His
colleagues think the move is a demotion intended to force him
out."
Moyo, former Sunday News news editor, has also been under
pressure
after Muradzikwa told him there were claims from a senior ministry
official
that he was no longer trustworthy because he had "got another
job".
Moyo is said to have told Muradzikwa it was untrue, but the
Jonanthan
Moyo issue lingers on.
"Charamba confronted Moyo
about the issue in March 2005 after former
minister Moyo's dismissal," a
source said.
"But journalist Moyo told Charamba in the presence of
other ZBH
managers that he was not related to Jonathan Moyo, and that even
if he was,
he didn't see anything wrong with that because he and Prof Moyo
were not the
same," a source said.
"Charamba suggested Moyo was
brought into ZBH by Prof Moyo as part of
the Mnangagwa camp's strategy. Moyo
told Charamba that he would never
support anyone involved in Gukurahundi
massacres to be president, and said
he wondered why Jonathan Moyo supported
Mnangagwa in the first place."
After that their relations soured
and now Moyo is facing dismissal.
Moyo yesterday refused to
comment.
Zim Independent
Shame
Makoshori
AT least 40 000 workers have resigned or lost
employment in the mining
industry in the past 10 years and more
professionals in the sector could
leave Zimbabwe for other regional
countries where the mining sector is doing
well, a senior mining executive
said this week.
Chamber of Mines president, Jack Murehwa, told a
conference on
Zimbabwe's skills crisis in Harare on Tuesday that the closure
of mines and
the slump in output have scared away both skilled workers and
potential
investors in the industry which in 1997 employed 75
000.
The mining sector now employs about 35 000 but there are fears
that
more skilled professionals could leave this year. The bulk of the
workers
are destined for South African, Zambian and Mozambican mining
industries
which are growing on the back of fresh foreign investment
inflows.
"At the height of the relatively good times, which is not
so long ago,
formal mining companies had the capacity to employ about 75 000
employees,"
Murehwa told human resources executives from more than 30
companies.
"This figure, unfortunately, has since dropped in the
last 10 years to
about 35 000 owing to mine closures and a high vacancy rate
in the skilled
and professional rankings.
"There has been a
skills flight. Best skills are leaving and most
operations are now manned by
second rate managers," he added.
"Mining companies were led by the
best brains but we are into a period
where the worst mangers are leading and
as we speak second rate and mediocre
managers are leading operations. This
applies to all sectors because our
skilled personnel cannot afford houses
and cars and their wages are no
longer enough to meet basic
needs."
The HR practitioners who attended the conference told
businessdigest
this week the country's economic crisis had seriously
affected their skilled
staff complements. For instance this year alone the
sugar industry has lost
about 900 skilled workers to South African companies
that are offering
lucrative packages.
Figures produced by HR
experts this week indicated that at least 3,4
million Zimbabweans have fled
the economic crisis. About 37% of them have
settled in the UK, 35% in
Botswana, 5% in South Africa and 3,4% in Canada.
Most of them were pushed
out of Zimbabwe by work related reasons.
Recent research by a group
of economists found that at least 57% of
Zimbabweans have at one time
thought about leaving the country while 30% of
recent graduates were
considering leaving Zimbabwe six months after
graduation due to high
taxation, lack of economic growth and poor salaries.
The HR
practitioners warned that a crisis was looming. They said at
the prevailing
exchange rate of US$1:$150 000, a senior bank executive who
earns $100
million will have his salary translate to about US$670.
A bank
executive who earns $20 million earns the equivalent of US$133,
far below
what their counterparts are earning in other countries.
Economist
David Mupamhadzi said he was worried that the majority of
workers were
earning about $1 million, which translated to about US$4 per
month at the
black market rate. This is equivalent of about US 10 cents per
day.
HR managers said this week said 62% of Zimbabweans,
including
teachers, nurses, soldiers, journalists, agricultural technicians
and
accountants were leaving under the United Nations poverty datum line of
US$1
a day.
To mitigate the crisis, government this week
increased the tax free
threshold by 1400% from $100 000 to $1,5 million but
economic analyst
Godfrey Kanyenyenze told businessdigest in an environment
where the poverty
datum line had shot up to $9 million, the threshold fell
far short of what
was needed to bring food to people's tables.
About 149 qualified Chartered Accountants have migrated since 2002.
Murehwa told the conference which was organised by a local employment
consultants agency, Human Performance Solutions, that the situation was
desperate.
"It is a sad outlook and nobody can blame these
people for their quest
for a (better) life," he said.
"Metallurgists are operating rubbish trucks in Europe, experienced
mining
engineers are teaching geography in South Africa and HR practitioners
are
nursing the elderly in the UK," Murehwa added.
Zim Independent
By Admire Mavolwane
HOW does one explain this?
Iran, the country which we were hoping
could bridge our fuel supply gap and
which has the world's second-biggest
proven reserves of oil after Saudi
Arabia, has started rationing fuel. On
Tuesday, this week around 10pm
Iranian time, the government announced that
the rationing was to start at
midnight. Under the new rules, drivers will be
restricted to buying 100
litres of petrol a month, or just over three litres
a day. The restrictions
will last for four months, with a possible extension
to six months. The
Iranian public was understandably enraged and vented
their anger on a number
of petrol stations.
The answer to this puzzling development is that
while Iran is the
fourth largest producer of oil, after Saudi Arabia, Russia
and the USA, it
imports 40% of its fuel requirements. It is anticipated that
the United
Nations-led sanctions would cut off this top-up. The country
suffers from a
serious lack of refining capacity, hence the significant
reliance on
imports.
Inquisitively, why is that so? Refining
fuel needs serious investment,
particularly in western world developed
technology. Lack of investment in
refining technology, patents and ownership
which is held by the West -
arising out of the Mid East politics and the
country's bad boy image - has
meant that the country cannot boost its
capacity, even to meet its own local
needs. This underlines the importance
of foreign direct investment,
particularly when the capacity to internally
develop the necessary
technology has not been fully developed.
Back home, a lot of things are happening all at the same time,
unfortunately, at the expense of stock market investors. It started off as a
minor weakness last week as the market readied itself for the corporate tax
payments which were due on Monday this week. Also, a close look at the
recently released financials and even activity on the stock market,
companies are now significant players and some of them were liquidating to
meet their obligations to Zimra. On Monday, the money market suffered a huge
outflow in the form of statutory reserve payments and the remission of
taxes. The extent of the deficit in the banking system was estimated at over
$650 billion. Naturally, short-term interest rates strengthened and that had
a negative impact on shares.
Secondly, on Monday, a few hours
before the Iranian decree, our
Minister of Industry and International Trade,
Obert Mpofu, directed all
manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers to reduce
prices. In actual fact
they were supposed to revert to prices they were
charging on the June 18.
The primary product that for some reason caught the
attention of many was
the two-litre Mazoe orange crush. The President added
his weight behind the
price control initiative by further suggesting that
the government will not
hesitate to nationalise companies that opt to stop
production.
On the same Monday, the Herald ran a story announcing
the gazetting of
the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill. The Bill
makes provision
for the establishment of an Indigenisation and Empowerment
Fund to provide
finance for the indigenous people to assist in the
acquisition of shares,
working capital and other forms of finance.
Ultimately, it is intended by
the Bill to provide an enabling environment in
which at least 51%
shareholding in the majority of businesses in all sectors
of the economy is
in the hands of indigenous people.
We can
state at the moment that a lot of the legal gurus are in the
process of
reading between the lines to establish what it means exactly, its
constitutionality and impact on bilateral agreements. For instance, will all
the Asian businesses being set up, like the coking coal plant under
construction in Hwange, be subject to the 51% empowerment
threshold?
What it does, however, is to introduce yet another
uncertainty in to
the whole market equation, which incidentally does not
operate efficiently
with a lot of unknowns. The result has been the marked
weakness in the stock
market, with the industrial having lost 14,83% to
Wednesday this week.
The Zimre Property Investments (ZPI) initial
public offering opened on
Monday after a two-week delay. To bring it into
line with the movement in
share prices that took place during the two-week
sojourn, and justifiably
so, the subscription price has been revised upwards
from $720 per share to
$1 500.
The takers of the private
placement phase of the transaction were
Imara Asset Management, which
contributed eight Borrowdale Brooke properties
in exchange for 2% post IPO
shareholding, Fidelity Life Assurance which got
a 16% shareholding in
exchange for the jewel in its portfolio, the Fidelity
Life Tower, and other
buildings in Mutare, Kwekwe and Bulawayo, whilst
Comarton Consultants
contributed 516 325 Old Mutual shares. In total, 35%
was parceled out in the
private placement and the IPO will be for 22% of
ZPI. Zimre will retain 51%
of ZPI.
The IPO unfortunately coincided with weakness in the stock
market
which could dampen investor appetite. However, the listing being a
much
awaited event, it would imply that investors had already put aside the
cash
resources for the IPO and should deploy these with ease. An added bonus
is
that the properties that were already owned by ZPI owned properties are
being sold to IPO investors at a huge discount. These properties valued at
US$20,4 million, using the Old Mutual Implied Rate (OMIR) of $2 401,7 as of
the beginning of this year, were valued at US$11,6 million using the OMIR at
31 May 2007 of Z$46 499.57, implying a significant
undervaluation.
However, the subscription by Fidelity Life
Assurance to the private
placement raises a lot of concern, particularly as
to the rights of
minorities. The company swapped 73,57% of the whole
property portfolio for
16% of ZPI without reverting to minority
shareholders. Furthermore, the
properties included in this transaction are
the prime ones. Fidelity's
market capitalisation at May 31 was $148, 5
billion which was less than the
market value ascribed to the Fidelity Life
Tower building of $150 billion.
Surely this relationship by itself
should have warranted approval for
the transaction by both the Zimbabwe
Stock Exchange and minority
shareholders. The worthiness of these buildings
to the valuation of Fidelity
Life should, in our view, have alerted the
board of Fidelity to at least
seek the opinion and consent of shareholders.
In our view, the same value
will not translate to the 16% shareholding that
the company is getting.
Zim Independent
THE Environment Management Agency (EMA) has suspended the construction
of a
US$3 million coke processing plant in Hwange by a Chinese firm, South
Mining
Company (SMC) saying they should apply for an Environmental Impact
Assessment plan first.
EMA district coordinator, Emmanuel
Banda, confirmed that work on the
site had to be abandoned until a proper
EIA report has been submitted.
"The EMA has stopped the
construction of the coke processing plant due
to the unavailability of an
impact assessment plan," said Banda
The Chinese firm was expected
to begin the construction of the plant
this week as most of its US$60 000
worth of construction equipment had
arrived in the coal mining town of
Hwange.
At the completion of the plant SMC intends to be obtain
coal from the
Hwange Colliery Company which will process the product into
coke and then
export the end product to the copper manufacturing
industry.
Meanwhile, more than 500 small-scale miners have left the
mining
sector and have crossed the border into South Africa after failing to
secure
the EIA certificate, businessdigest established this
week.
Police shut down and arrested over 1 000 registered
small-scale miners
before confiscating and destroying millions of dollars
worth of mining
equipment under Operation Chikorokoza Chapera which began in
November last
year.
The government through the EMA made it
compulsory for the closed mines
to attain an EIA certification first and pay
a $5 million review fee while
consultants assisting in the assessment were
at the time demanding at least
$7, 5 million from miners.
Under
the new regulations the miners are also required to obtain a
management plan
from the EMA on land rehabilitation.
The miners should also have
licences from both the Mines and Mining
Development ministry and from the
Ministry of Environment and Tourism.
Zimbabwe Miners Federation
president, George Kawonza, this week said
more than 500 small-scale miners
had jumped the border into South Africa
after they
failed to secure
or meet the requirements for EIA certificates.
"Things are not
alright in the mining sector," said Kawonza. "More
than 500 of our members -
especially those miners from areas like Maphisa,
Beitbridge, Tsholotsho and
Kezi - have dumped the mining sector and
illegally jumped the border into
South Africa in search of jobs."
He said his organisation has tried
to engage the EMA to relax
regulations and requirements for obtaining EIA
but all was in vain.
"The main problem we have is that the
government through the EMA does
not consider that we are small-miners and
usually their requirements are
difficult to meet." - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Kuda Chikwanda
THE Finance Ministry says it
will reject requests for funds from
parastatals and state bodies that have
failed to submit annual reports and
accounts to parliament as required by
law.
Acting Finance minister Sylvester Nguni told businessdigest
that the
ministry would demand explanations as to why parastatals were yet
to submit
their accounts six months into 2007.
"We want those
accounts as soon as yesterday. It is a legal
requirement for those
parastatals to submit their account to parliament,"
said Nguni.
So far only one institution - the National Aids Council - has
submitted its
2006 accounts to parliament for approval.
"If we are not satisfied
without their explanations then they will not
get any additional funding
from government. We will block any such
attempts," said Nguni.
Analysts say the tough stance adopted by government could be a result
of the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) putting a lid on cheap financing after
a
stinging International Monetary Fund (IMF) report lambasting the central
bank for its quasi-fiscal activities.
The RBZ has since taken
measures to move quasi-fiscal losses into the
fiscal budget in line with IMF
requirements.
However, the success of such an initiative remains in
doubt given that
past promises had not been adhered to. The portfolio
committee on Public
Accounts and the central bank have failed to force
parastatals to submit
their accounts to parliament.
Records
obtained this week from parliament show that almost all
parastatals had not
yet submitted annual reports and financial statements
for the financial
years 2005 and 2006.
Only Tel*One and the Industrial Development
Corporation had managed to
lodge their 2005 financial statements with the
committee.
The delinquent parastatals include the National Railways
of Zimbabwe,
Zesa, the Cold Storage Company, the National Oil Company of
Zimbabwe,
Zimbabwe National Water Authority, the District Development Fund,
and the
Grain Marketing Board.
Air Zimbabwe, the Agricultural
Rural Development Authority, Tel*One,
the Industrial Development Company,
the Zimbabwe Mining Development Company,
the Minerals Marketing Corporation
of Zimbabwe and the Central Mechanical
Engineering Department are also yet
to submit their accounts to parliament.
Public Accounts portfolio
committee chairperson, Priscilla
Misihairambwi-Mushonga said her committee
had tried in vain to get line
ministries to force parastatals to submit
their accounts.
"They have not been submitting their accounts. They
have a long record
of refusing to submit their accounts, some are yet to
submit their
statements for the past five years," she said.
The
majority of accounts tabled before parliament since July last year
were for
the 2002 to 2004 financial years. Zimpost, Zimsec and the National
Arts
Council of Zimbabwe have submitted accounts for the period ranging 2000
to
2004.
Parastatals are required by law to submit their annual
reports and
financial statements before the parliamentary portfolio
committee every year
for inspection on matters to do with accountability of
public funds.
Zim Independent
Orirando Manwere
THE proposed establishment of a
Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission in
the recently gazetted Constitution of
Zimbabwe Amendment (No18) Bill - under
the prevailing repressive legislative
and administrative environment - is
tantamount to deception and attempts to
create an illusory remedial
institution, civic organisations have
said.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and the Zimbabwe
Election
Support Network (Zesn) both say that without a new democratic
constitution
and corresponding changes to the current laws by the
government, the
proposed commission will be a totally ineffective
institution.
In written responses on the proposed commission, the
organisations
said the commission could only play a meaningful role in the
human rights
field if the government setting it up was committed to
upholding and
protecting human rights.
ZLHR director, Irene
Petras said if there are no positive changes to
the current environment, the
establishment of the commission is
unacceptable.
She said the
appointment of the commission chairman and commissioners
by the president,
after consultation with the Judicial Services Commission
(JSC) is
partisan.
"The president is not neutral as he heads the ruling
party and
therefore seeks to protect his own and his party's political
interests,"
said Petras. "If one looks at the composition of the JSC and
their method of
appointment, most are appointed by the president and
therefore it is also
not an independent body.
She said the
chairman of the proposed commission will not be
independent.
"The same applies to the rest of the commissioners as they are
appointed by
the president from a list provided by the Committee on Standing
Rules and
Orders in Parliament. This committee is made up of legislators,
and even if
the opposition has members on this committee, they will be
overruled by the
ruling party representatives and effectively have no say in
those put on the
list.
Petras said committee members will always vote along party
political
lines. A truly independent process of appointment, she said, which
has been
used in other jurisdictions, is public nominations and interviews
which
allow for public and civil society input and scrutiny.
"As it stands, those who should rely on an effective and independent
commission have no input in the process," she said.
She said
this goes against the provision of the United Nations Human
Rights
Commission Paris Principles which stipulate that:
"The composition
of the national institution and the appointment of
its members shall be
established in accordance with a procedure which
affords all necessary
guarantees to ensure the pluralist representation of
the social forces
involved in the protection and promotion of human rights,
particularly by
powers which will enable effective cooperation to be
established with, or
through the presence of, representatives of
non-governmental organisations
responsible for human rights, trade unions,
concerned social and
professional organisations, trends in philosophical or
religious thought,
universities and qualified experts, parliament and
government departments in
an advisory capacity."
The Paris Principles provide that a national
institution shall have
extensive powers to assist in the protection and
promotion of human rights.
As the Bill currently stands, said
Petras, the proposed commission
will have powers allowing it in some measure
to promote human rights but the
protective mandate is clearly
excluded.
At most, it can "monitor and assess the observance of
human rights in
Zimbabwe" and only "recommend to parliament effective
measures to promote
human rights and freedoms". Whilst the proposed
commission may have included
in its constitutive Act powers to "conduct
investigations on its own
initiative or on receipt of complaints" and
"secure or provide appropriate
redress for violations of human rights and
for injustice", the language is
very vague and undefined and does not
assuage fears that either these powers
will not be included, or that if they
are, it will remain an ineffective
body.
"If the courts of
Zimbabwe have struggled to provide redress and
continuously have their
orders being defied or ignored by other branches of
government, what more of
a commission with unclear powers?" she said.
Zesn echoed the ZLHR
sentiments, emphasising the need to consult all
stakeholders on the
appointment procedures, roles, composition, tenure,
reporting mechanisms and
funding in order to enhance the independence and
autonomy of the
commission.
"There is increasing violation of human rights but the
government
persistently denies this and refuses to conduct investigations
into them,"
said Zesn in written responses to the Independent. "Instead it
repeatedly
accuses the Zimbabwean human rights organisations of concocting
false
reports to satisfy the hostile governments who fund them. It has also
granted amnesty to human rights abusers and given them legal
immunity.
"It appears therefore that the government is not setting
up this
commission to try to put a stop to its human rights violations. This
commission will potentially be another ineffective institution. It will be
used by the government to show the international community that it is taking
measures to uphold human rights.
"As it has done with other
commissions, by creating a purported
internal mechanism for dealing with
human rights abuses, the government will
be able to delay referring cases of
abuses to bodies like the African
Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.
It could do this by asserting that
the domestic remedy should be pursued
before resorting to the regional and
international remedies," said Zesn in a
statement.
Commenting on the office of Public Protector (PP-
currently the office
of the Ombudsman), Petras said the PP will not have
powers to investigate
violations of the Declaration of Rights and remain
only with the mandate to
investigative powers relating to administrative
acts of those in the public
service where there is no reasonable judicial
remedy.
However, she said the ZLHR noted that the proposed
commission could
take over these powers too on as yet vague and undefined
grounds, which
makes it possible that there would be duplication of roles by
the two
bodies.
She said the Paris Principles stipulate that:
"The national
institution shall have an infrastructure which is suited to
the smooth
conduct of its activities, in particular adequate funding to
enable it to
have its own staff and premises, in order to be independent of
government
and not be subject to financial control which might affect this
independence."
Petras said the state of the judiciary in
Zimbabwe today, by its own
public confession, is suffering as a result of
the prevailing economic
instability.
"The office of the
Ombudsman has shirked its constitutional
responsibilities and has also used
financial constraints as its excuse. Do
we have the necessary funding to set
up a whole new structure before we have
even half begun addressing the
challenges we face in the judicial sector,
where magistrates in outlying
areas regularly have to postpone court
sessions, and thus justice, because
they do not have pens and paper to take
notes?"
Zim Independent
By Arthur Mutambara
THERE has been a lot of debate and
discussion about the succession
matter in Zanu PF and its attendant
factional activities.
In some quarters the issue of the Zanu PF
successor to Robert Mugabe
has been lauded as the key to unlocking the
Zimbabwean crisis, while others
have postulated a reformed Zanu PF as the
answer to our national challenges.
There is speculation that some
of our friends in South Africa prefer a
reformed Zanu PF government with or
without the opposition as a junior
partner.
The international
community and Western governments in particular have
shown a keen interest
in the jockeying for positions among Zanu PF factions,
which seems to imply
that if any one of the factions were to successfully
replace Mugabe (by
whatever method) they will consider normalising
relationships with Zimbabwe.
The thinking seems to be that the problem is
Robert Mugabe the person, and
that anyone else will do just fine.
We seek to destroy this myth
and challenge the efficacy of a reformed
Zanu PF strategy.
First and foremost, the Zimbabwean crisis is bigger than the person of
Robert Mugabe. There are institutional, structural and systemic dimensions
to the challenges we are facing.
Over the past 27 years Zanu PF
has developed a distinct
socio-politico-economic culture and value system
rooted in political
illegitimacy and poor country governance, economic
mismanagement, bad
policies, corruption, patronage, incompetence and
disrespect for the rule of
law.
Yes, Mugabe is the
personification and cardinal symbol of this
misrule. More importantly, he is
the mortar and glue that keeps the rot
together.
However,
dismantling this oppressive system and creating a peaceful,
democratic and
prosperous Zimbabwe requires more than the demise of Robert
Mugabe, the
political player.
There are many individuals and institutions
linked to Zanu PF that are
benefiting from the status quo. They seek to
continue milking this patronage
system with or without Mugabe.
None of the potential Mugabe successors in any of the factions or
sub-factions have articulated a different value system, institutional
framework, or strategic vision. They have no transformative
agenda.
Their value proposition is simply that they are not Robert
Mugabe.
Beyond that it is business as usual.
In fact, some of
the would-be successors have corruptly and
primitively amassed more wealth
than Mugabe, have worse democratic
credentials and have been directly
involved in heinous crimes against
humanity in Zimbabwe.
How
can those in the international community, including South
Africans, that
claim to cherish values of democracy, freedom and economic
prosperity even
entertain or fathom such a perverted succession?
We hope we are not
witnessing those treacherous tendencies towards
double standards, hypocrisy
and duplicity.
A reformed Zanu PF succession strategy must be
rejected purely on the
grounds of principles and values. The ANC and PAC
freedom fighters would not
accept a reformed apartheid framework. Jewish
freedom fighters would not
accept alliances with factions of the Nazi
regime.
Consequently, Zimbabweans will not sell their souls on the
altar of
convenience and compromise. We seek a total institutional and
structural
revolution rooted in radical transformation of our political
value system.
The second basis for rejecting a Zanu PF solution
centres around the
doctrine of collective responsibility.
Zanu
PF has been in power for 27 years and Mugabe has been running the
country
through his central committee, politburo and cabinet. Yes, he has
dominated
these institutions, but members of these three organs must take
collective
responsibility for all of Zimbabwe's problems.
All those Zanu PF
leaders involved with Mugabe up to the Unity Accord
of 1987 are collectively
responsible for Gukurahundi in Matabeleland where
20 000 innocent
Zimbabweans were massacred. How can anyone who had a
position of authority
during a period of such heinous violation of human
rights have the moral
authority to lead our country?
Over the years Zanu PF has destroyed
our economy and violated our
human rights with impunity. All the Zanu PF
leaders are linked and married
to these their party's vices.
Currently, there is an unprecedented economic crisis, social
degradation and
brutal repression leading towards the complete collapse and
paralysis of our
nation. We cannot place responsibility for this on one man,
Robert Mugabe.
Those men and women in his organs of power must take
collective
responsibility for the fate of our nation.
No one among them is
qualified to replace Robert Mugabe as a solution
to our national
tragedy.
How can a cabinet minister or a governor of the central
bank serving
under this corrupt, criminal and illegitimate regime even
contemplate being
a leader of our great country?
How can they
de-link themselves from criminal and political
culpability?
Furthermore, on careful scrutiny all the potential Zanu PF successors
have a
disgraceful record of failure in their public careers.
The third
argument against the pretenders to Mugabe's throne is that
in addition to
being content-free in terms of alternative vision, values and
economic
strategy, they lack courage. They are spineless cowards.
Assuming
that some of them have disagreed with Mugabe on strategy why
have they not
challenged him?
The current crisis is a case of the chickens coming
home to roost.
Where were these unimaginative cowards, opportunists and
morons who now wish
to replace Mugabe? Even today where are
they?
The economy is in freefall and the population is going
through
unprecedented suffering and turmoil. They are silent.
Political activists and their leaders are being brutalised, tortured
and
murdered. They don't say a word.
Oh no!
If you cannot
stand with the people in their bitterest hour of need,
how dare you envisage
yourself as a potential leader of the Zimbabwean
nation?
If you
cannot stand up for your beliefs or what is just because you do
not want to
sacrifice your position at the feeding trough or because it will
endanger
your political ambitions, then you are nothing but a spineless
coward. The
integrity and true character of a person is judged by where they
stand
during invidious moments of crisis.
Zimbabweans will not be led by
a coward.
In conclusion, it is not our intension to disqualify Zanu
PF leaders
from the democratic process.
We are saying let us
make the electoral processes transparent, level
the political playing field
and create conditions for free and fair
elections. The future of Zimbabwe
will then be determined by its citizens.
Those that govern must do so with
the consent of the governed.
Considering the arguments presented
against a reformed Zanu PF within
the context of a devastated economy, an
impoverished majority and
dehumanised electorate, while taking cognisance of
the level of discontent
in the country, it is clear that people will choose
a clean break with the
disempowering past as they seek to build a new
Zimbabwe - a peaceful,
democratic and prosperous nation.
The
people should and will reject a reformed Zanu PF in a free and
fair
election.
Professor Arthur Mutambara heads one of the two Movement
for
Democratic Change factions.
Zim Independent
By Patrick Laurence
THE recent talks in Pretoria
between the main political adversaries in
Zimbabwe mark the first public
sign of progress in President Thabo Mbeki's
quest to facilitate a peaceful
settlement of the potentially incandescent
political dispute in
Zimbabwe.
Mbeki, of course, is acting with the backing of the
Southern African
Development Community which, at a summit of heads of state
in Tanzania in
March, gave him a mandate to assume the role of
peacemaker.
It is easy to scoff and observe that a preliminary
meeting between the
main adversaries - President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF and
the majority and
minority factions of its main political opponent, the
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) - is not a significant achievement. But
the task of
persuading the main political parties to meet at all almost
certainly
required a finely matched combination of tact and
persistence.
Nevertheless, a long and hard road still lies ahead.
As the Chinese
proverb has it, even a 1 000-mile journey has to begin with a
first step.
But there are many obstacles and one is undoubtedly
Robert Mugabe,
Zimbabwe's wily and increasingly unpredictable octogenarian
president. While
he seems to have given his blessing to participation in the
Mbeki-orchestrated settlement talks by sending a Zanu PF delegation powered
by two cabinet ministers, his actions in Zimbabwe raise doubts about his
sincerity.
These actions include the seizure of the passport of
Arthur Mutambara,
the leader of the minority faction of the MDC, on the eve
of his departure
to a Save Zimbabwe campaign meeting in Europe. Justifiably
it is described
as a display of heavy-handedness that does not augur well
for a successful
outcome of Mbeki's initiative.
Further actions
calculated to harass and alienate opposition
politicians include, according
to Mutambara, the abduction of two MDC
activists who were later found dead
and the continued detention by police of
MDC stalwarts, one of whom is a
member of parliament, on trumped-up charges.
Referring to
"detention, abduction, torture and murder" of MDC
activists, Mutambara says:
"What is happening right now is an indication
that Mugabe is not ready for
any serious talks with the opposition."
While apparently seeking to
disrupt and intimidate the MDC, some of
whose activists are still suffering
from injuries inflicted on them by
Zimbabwean police and soldiers in March,
Mugabe is simultaneously involved
in wooing the MDC. As a recent report on
Zimbabwe on the News24 website
notes, Mugabe departed from the text of his
speech at a function marking the
handing over of tractors to farmers when he
spotted MDC political opponents
and welcomed them with these
words:
"We are happy they are here. They are part of us in the
(Zimbabwean)
nation and (political differences) can never make them alien .
. . After
all, we eat together."
Mugabe might be pursuing a
two-track policy with the MDC, striving
simultaneously to intimidate and woo
them, adopting a hard-cop, soft-cop
stratagem, to lure and drive them into
his camp, a gambit which, if
successful, will enable him to tell Mbeki that
Zimbabwe can and will solve
its problems without the South African president
as an honest broker.
As long as Mugabe clings to power, as he seems
intent on doing by
standing for re-election as president next year and
thereby prolonging his
presidential tenure for another seven years, he risks
being toppled in one
of two ways: either in a sudden and dramatic implosion
or in a military or
palace coup.
With inflation running at 4
530%, it does not require the intelligence
of an Einstein to realise that
the implications are extremely ominous.
The departing United States
ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell,
has left no one in doubt about the
fragility of the situation: he said the
"economic madness" had made it
impossible for Mugabe to remain in power much
longer.
The other
threat to Mugabe is a palace coup to replace him as Zanu PF's
leader and as
Zimbabwe's president. The threat emanates - in theory if not
yet in practice
- from two different camps led by rival contenders to
succeed
him.
The first is headed is by Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former
Zimbabwean
security generalissimo who, after reportedly carving out a
fortune for
himself as a carpetbagger in the Democratic Republic of Congo in
the late
1990s, is now biding his time as Minister of Rural
Housing.
The public face of the second is Vice-President Joice
Mujuru, though
many observers believe she is a front for her husband Solomon
Mujuru, the
former commander of the Zimbabwean African National Army and now
an
immensely wealthy businessman.
Mugabe's decision to stand
for re-election next year puts the chances
of Mnangagwa and the Mujurus
succeeding him in jeopardy, as it could
precipitate an implosion that would
bury all of them and impoverish the
entire nation, including Mujuru. The
prospect of a palace coup by either
camp or even both camps acting in
concert increases as the situation
deteriorates.
The past
fortnight has witnessed the leaking of information about a
pre-emptive
strike by Mugabe loyalists against an attempted coup by a former
army
officer and several serving officers, all of whom have appeared on
charges
of treason in an in-camera court hearing. The alleged conspiracy,
which some
observers have described as an attempt by Mnangagwa's rivals to
denigrate
him in the eyes of Mugabe, is rightly seen as a sign of the
febrile
atmosphere in Zimbabwe.
If Mugabe persists in pursuing his ambition
to serve another seven
years as president, he risks more than displacement
in a coup. A successful
coup could be the prelude to Mugabe's indictment for
crimes against
humanity.
The British minister responsible for
Africa, David Triesman, warns
that it is a possibility. Perhaps he has in
mind the ruthless crushing by
the Mugabe government of the "Matabele
rebellion" in the 1980s.
Triesman refers pointedly to the
indictment in the International Court
of Justice in the Hague of Charles
Taylor, the ousted dictator of Liberia.
If Mugabe wants to avoid the
possibility of an implosion, being the target
of a coup or the accused in a
trial on charges of gross abuse of human
rights, he would be well advised to
help Mbeki put together a settlement
that offers him a retirement package
and indemnity from prosecution.
Independent political analyst
Patrick Laurence is a contributing
editor to The Star.
Zim Independent
Editor's memo
by Vincent Kahiya
WHAT is Zimbabwe really set
to gain from South Africa's hosting of the
2010 soccer World Cup? Perhaps
US$50 million from tourism receipts if
football tourists think of coming to
Zimbabwe in between matches or at the
end of the World Cup.
Government technocrats spearheading the strategy to attract business
to the
country have spoken of ambitious projects like sports tourism,
dualising the
Harare to Beitbridge highway, upgrading airports and sports
infrastructure
and so on. They also hope to increase employment by 5%
through public works
and increased business in the hospitality sector. Very
few of these huge
tasks will be achieved before 2010 because the capacity
and financial
resources to achieve them are just not there.
Just to illustrate
this point, road construction projects on either
side of the Beitbridge
Border post provide an apt example of the difference
in capacity between
Zimbabwe and South Africa. Both countries have been
widening the roads
leading to the bridge across the Limpopo River. During a
recent road trip to
South Africa three weeks ago, it was all too evident
which of the two
neighbours has the capacity to carry out the work. On the
South African
side, work was progressing so well that by now, the stretch of
the road to
Musina should be open to traffic.
On our side, obsolete plant
equipment - some of it looking like museum
pieces - were labouring to cut
through the hard and dry earth. Work has been
progressing at the speed of a
glacier. Beitbridge, perpetually a dust bowl
due to unpaved roads is in
sharp contrast with Musina which is bristling
with business brought in by
Zimbabweans. It has literally become a
Zimbabwean town where the Asian
traders there speak fluent Shona and Venda.
Shop assistants there are
Zimbabweans, so are taxi drivers, petrol
attendants, illegal roadside
vendors and even the beggars.
They see opportunities on the other
side of the river where they are
prepared to carry out menial work for the
rand. The major capital projects
in South Africa in preparation for the
World Cup have increased
opportunities for Zimbabweans. Worryingly though,
it is not cheap labour
that is now in demand. Construction companies
contracted to build roads, the
Gautrain rail project and stadiums around
that country are recruiting highly
skilled workers from our construction and
mining sectors. This is a major
negative spin-off for Zimbabwe from the Word
Cup.
Last week a large vacancy ad in the Herald sought applications
from
Zimbabwean technicians to take up posts in South Africa. The numbers
sought
should be a wake-up call to our rulers who have no control over this
haemorrhage. According to the ad, wanted in South Africa were 75
electricians, 50 fitters, 50 boilermakers and 25 riggers. These are 200
professionals who will be leaving this country soon. The South African
companies have gone into overdrive to attract our artisans, draughtsmen,
estimators, geologists and plant operators among others. The recruitment
drive will not stop until the jobs to hand are competed. Elsewhere in this
paper, we report that the mining sector has lost 40 000 professionals in 10
years.
Apart from technicians, support staff in the form of
accountants, IT
technicians and lawyers are also migrating south But our
government,
opportunistic as ever, believes it should also benefit from this
brain-drain. As reported in the businessdigest last week, government wants
an agreement with South Africa "in order to facilitate systematic and legal
provision of these services to the mutual benefit of both countries". This
is to say that South Africa should compensate Zimbabwe for the loss of
personnel or that our government believes it can run a cross-border
employment agency, exporting manpower to South Africa. I do not think that
the architects of this funny plan themselves believe that it is going to
work.
This is another futile attempt to turn Zimbabwe's
professionals into
exportable commodities with government as brokers. I just
wonder how
government intends to execute this. Perhaps create communist-type
building
brigades which are shipped across borders to work to raise money
for a
corrupt and oppressive aristocracy? Making capital out of a
crisis!
It is prudent to note that Asian migrant workers to
high-income
countries have helped to build economies back home. Last year,
the UN
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific estimated
that
migrant workers remitted more than US$167 billion to their
families.
In countries such as Bangladesh and the Philippines,
annual
remittances exceed official development aid and foreign direct
investments.
The same cannot be said of the professionals leaving
this country.
They want to leave because they can't stomach government
policy which is
rendering professionals destitute.
vincent@zimind.co.zw
Zim Independent
Eric Bloch column
SOARING inflation is far from a new phenomenon in Zimbabwe.
From an
annualised 16% rate in April 1996, it more than trebled in the next
four
years to April 2000, to 56%. Over the following two years, to 2002, it
rose
to 139%. Then it surged upwards to 385% in 2003, and to 624% in
2004.
A very marginal decline in 2005 saw the annual inflation rate
in April
of that year fall to 586%, but in the following year it increased
to 1 281%,
and then it reached a horrendous 3 714% in April, 2007 and is
irrefutably
spiralling upwards at an exponential pace. Moreover, there is
little doubt
that those officially determined rates, computed by the Central
Statistical
Office, (CSO) are markedly lower than actual
inflation.
The disparity between computation and reality is due to
diverse
factors, including utilisation of a 2005 average "spending basket"
which no
longer accurately reflects spending patterns of the majority of the
population. Moreover, understandably, no regard is had to black market
prices, and yet an increasing number of commodities are only obtainable in
that market. Compounding the CSO understatement of inflation is that it is
grievously under-funded, and therefore under-resourced, constraining the
efficacy of its operations.
In contradistinction to the CSO
data, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe
(CCZ) calculates the inflation rate,
for the year to May, 2007 to be 11
067,22%, based upon the movement of
prices of the basic essentials for a
family of six persons. Such a family
needed $3,3 million to survive in
April, 2007, and $5,5 million only one
month later, representing an
inflation in May of 65,6% (That one month's
inflation was greater than the
inflation in any entire year during the first
21 years of Zimbabwean
Independence!).
As the inflation
burgeons upwards at an ever greater pace, poverty for
the overwhelming
majority of the population grows ever greater, with
accompanying escalating
misery, discomfort and distress.
More and more are suffering the
pangs of hunger and increasing
malnutrition, cannot afford healthcare, or
education for their children, and
are reduced to nothing other than an
endless struggle for survival.
Inevitably most give vent to their distress,
and associated anger, against
suppliers of goods and services, be they
industrialists, wholesalers,
shopkeepers, street vendors, or others. They
are unhesitatingly perceived as
unscrupulous, callous, self-centred
profiteers, and are increasingly the
targets for the fury and vitriol of the
anguished, embattled populace.
Government, which is the real
culprit that should be unreservedly
condemned, is very quick to support, and
even encourage, the outcries of the
embittered, struggling masses, in order
to deflect any possible realisation
that it is actually government that is
responsible for the pronounced
economic morass wherein misery grows apace,
and survival is increasingly
endangered.
The near-total
destruction of the economy is, without exception,
attributable to the
combination of government's gross mismanagement, and of
its abysmal
policies.
Those policies have destroyed agriculture, undermined
industry,
discouraged investment, alienated the international community,
demolished
the value of Zimbabwe's currency, brought the infrastructure to
near total
collapse, and fuelled an intense brain drain which has denuded
Zimbabwe of
critically necessary skills.
Any government with
even a smattering of ethics, integrity and
self-respect would resign, or
resolve determinedly to recognise and
acknowledge error, learn therefrom,
and reform and transform.
But the Zimbabwean government has
demonstrated a total inability to do
that, or anything else that is right.
Instead, everything that is wrong is
the fault of others, either resorting
to evil machinations to displace the
government, or focused solely upon
self-enrichment.
Thus, government endlessly ascribes all Zimbabwe's
ills to the
machiavellian ploys of the United States (and of its irrefutably
well-intentioned ambassador, Christopher Dell), the European Union in
general, and United Kingdom and its Prime Minister (until two days ago),
Tony Blair, to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and many
others.
In this specious endeavour to divert blame to others,
government is
strongly supported by the state-controlled media, whose
fantasies and
fictions are greater than the fairy tales of Hans Christian
Anderson, the
Grimm Brothers, Aesop's Fables, and others, but drastically
less
entertaining, and devoid of credibility. The mind boggles at the
thought
that the editors and journalists of the media can even remotely
imagine that
any rational, thinking person can believe the far-fetched
stories of US-led,
devious stratagems to fuel hyperinflation, cause economic
collapse, and the
like, in Zimbabwe.
Because government, and
its media, have lost all credibility, they are
desperately seeking to
reinforce that the economic collapse in general, and
hyperinflation in
particular, is not the fault of government.
To do so, they
increasingly ascribe spiralling prices to private
sector profiteering Isn't
it amazing that on the last five occasions that
the state-controlled
newspapers increased their prices, on the same days, or
the very next
following, they published editorials and articles scathingly
attacking the
business sector for price escalations! Very evidently, that
which is sauce
for the goose is not sauce for the gander!
Similarly, there is no
outcry from Zimbabwe's ministers in government,
or the non-independent
media, when TelOne, NetOne, Zimpost, Zesa, NRZ, Air
Zimbabwe and other
parastatals raise their charges, or that is done by
governmental
departments, but President Mugabe, his Vice-Presidents,
Minister of Industry
and International Trade, Obert Mpofu, and others have
no reservations upon
castigatingly attacking the business sector.
The reality is that
that sector has two choices. It can raise its
prices, or it can shut down.
It is faced with an endless upward surge in
production and operational
costs, primarily due to:
Non-availability of foreign currency in
the interbank market, as all
surrendered export proceeds are taken by
government to fund imports of food,
energy, fuel, antiretrovirals,
agricultural inputs, other essentials, and
boundless governmental travels
abroad.
As a result, the business sector is unavoidably
increasingly dependant
upon sourcing import requirements through alternative
currency markets,
wherein demand massively exceeds supply, with resultant
never-ending
escalation of costs. And, the supply and demand imbalance has
been greatly
exacerbated by the extent that the Reserve Bank has been in the
market to
buy "free funds".
By way of example, the retail
prices of petroleum products has doubled
in a month, severely impacting upon
operating costs of business, and most
other costs have escalated to a like,
or greater degree.
Productivity has fallen sharply. A recent study
by the Confederation
of Zimbabwe Industries identifies that capacity
utilisation of industry has
fallen to 33,8% in 2006, with 80% of industry
experiencing a volume decline,
and the manufacturing sector's contribution
to gross domestic product
reducing from 24% in 1991 to 15,5%. As a result of
shrinking production,
unit costs have unavoidably risen.
Although inadequately to surmount poverty levels, salaries and wages
and
attendant costs such as medical aid and National Social Authority
contributions are constantly rising, driven by inflation, thereby in turn
driving prices upwards.
Business financing costs are soaring
upwards, with prime overdraft
rates having risen from about 230% per annum
to 550%, and more, in the last
six months.
Concurrently,
businesses now need far greater working capital than
heretofore, in view of
the increased costs that they are subject to. Just as
the populace is
struggling to survive, so too does business, but it is
increasingly
difficult to do so when inflation has gone berserk and
government does
nothing constructive to address the crisis.
Zim Independent
Zimbabwe's economy is in crisis.
Even its political managers admit to
that. What they and the rest of society
disagree about are the causes of
that crisis.
Government
insists it is the victim of an external conspiracy inspired
by vengeance
over land reform policies. The opposition, civil society and
external
lenders believe the crisis is the direct consequence of bad
policies and
institutional failure.
Obviously government would want us to
believe that foreign meddling is
at the root of the problem. That would
excuse their persistent misrule and
provide a pretext for
repression.
Britain, the former colonial power, has engineered a
world-wide
coalition against Zimbabwe, it is argued, to unseat President
Mugabe's
regime and recolonise the country.
This theory of
course ignores 60 years of determined decolonisation by
Britain, sometimes
unloading dependencies that weren't altogether happy to
go. And it accords
Britain more clout in the world than it actually
possesses. But with
elections pending, the ruling party sees political
mileage in well-worn, if
threadbare, mantras that it can use to claim a
legacy which it doesn't
rightfully own.
It is significant that some of the loudest and most
uncouth voices in
the state media bellowing about independence and
sovereignty belong to
commentators who made no contribution whatsoever to
Zimbabwe's freedom. But
they can't ignore certain facts on the
ground.
Those facts begin with the reckless award of vast sums the
state didn't
possess in 1997 to silence an inconvenient constituency, the
war veterans.
It was followed by a wholly predictable crash in the value of
the currency
and a break in ties to traditional development partners and
international
lenders.
In the years that followed Zanu PF
resorted increasingly to repressive
policies to prevent criticism of its
increasingly delinquent rule. A pattern
of contempt for court orders was
established after the illegal abduction and
torture of two journalists from
the independent press.
In the 2000 general election and 2002
presidential poll there was
extensive state-supported violence and coercion
including the murder of
opposition election agents. The accompanying land
redistribution programme
saw attacks on white farmers and their workers, a
suborned law-enforcement
system and growing international isolation that,
following the expulsion of
EU election observers, resulted in the imposition
of sanctions.
The economy has now experienced 10 years of severe
recession as a
direct product of failed agrarian policies which have
impacted on downstream
industries. The economy has contracted by 60%. Every
attempt to get
agriculture back on its feet has been thwarted by the voodoo
economics of a
small coterie around Mugabe.
That the country
has been held to ransom by ideological dinosaurs has
meant that funds that
could have been obtained from a successful
agricultural sector have been
spent instead on food imports. Money that
should have gone to development
and social investment has instead been spent
on the upkeep of a spendthrift
post-liberation aristocracy.
Diminishing forex receipts have in
turn fuelled inflation as have
tax-and-spend policies, or more recently
print-and-spend.
Bolstered by an array of laws designed to curb
dissent the ruling
party thinks it can proceed without a national
consensus.
That is what the talks in Pretoria are designed to
change.
But Zanu PF's heart is not in it. Having excoriated the
opposition so
viciously for so long, it now finds sitting down to talk with
them
predictably uncomfortable. The Rhodesian Front went through the same
experience at Lancaster House.
But talk they must if they want
the country to be rescued from the
decline-and-fall it is now
experiencing.
It is becoming more and more obvious that Zanu PF are
on their own
unable to find their way out of the morass their rule has
spawned. But if
there is to be any recovery in the economy or support from
the international
community there has to be a commitment to institutional
reform and a vision
for the country that supersedes any one party's
interests.
Zimbabwe needs change urgently. Above all it needs to
rejoin the
international community, a prospect which only a national
settlement can
fulfil.
If Sadc is to be of any use it must show
its friends in Harare the way
ahead. Otherwise we are all doomed, not simply
to more of the same but to
much worse to come.
Zim Independent
Candid comment
by Dumisani Muleya
SOUTH African President Thabo
Mbeki's government has reportedly
imposed a blackout on the ongoing talks
between the ruling Zanu PF and
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) to protect the process of
negotiations from the glare of the media
spotlight.
All the parties involved in the talks, Mbeki's team,
Zanu PF and the
MDC, have given their word that they will not leak any
details of the talks
to the media.
The main reasons for this
secrecy are said to be the need to safeguard
the integrity of the dialogue
and avoid leakages of information which would
give Zanu PF a pretext to
withdraw from the talks leading to their collapse.
The ruling party is said
to have hinted at the start of the negotiations
that media leaks could force
them to walk out.
President Mbeki and the MDC are understood to
have been worried that
if the details of the talks leak, Zanu PF would carry
out its threat.
As a result Mbeki and the MDC have been frantically
trying to locate
the leaks of information to the media, especially the
Zimbabwe Independent
which has been breaking news on the talks, to ensure
Zanu PF does not walk
out.
South African Foreign Affairs
spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa confirmed last
week Mbeki's cabinet had taken a
decision not to comment on the talks. They
would not even confirm a meeting
which has taken place even though it would
be known by everybody to have
occurred.
But Mamoepa also admitted that leaks were
unstoppable.
"You should ask who is leaking.somebody is leaking
despite our
commitment not to say anything," he said.
South
African Deputy Foreign Affairs minister Aziz Pahad showed how
Mbeki's
government is committed to the blackout when he pretended he was not
aware
Zanu PF and the MDC had met in Pretoria on June 17-18. "As Foreign
Affairs
we are not aware of any meeting that has taken place," Pahad said.
What has been happening in others words is that the parties to the
talks
have conspired to censor the media to supposedly protect the process
of
dialogue.
Censorship is defined as the removal or withholding of
information
from the public by a controlling group or body. The withholding
of official
secrets, commercial secrets and intellectual property and
privileged
information such as bank-client or lawyer-client details is not
usually
described as censorship because censorship carries with it nuances
of
untoward and repressive secrecy. This is the case in the current embargo
on
information on talks.
Last week there was a paranoid bid by
certain elements - who should
know better - to block the Independent from
publishing exclusive details of
the talks agenda. The argument that Zanu PF
would walk out if details of the
talks leaked was used to try to gag us. We
politely but emphatically
rejected that because we think the argument lacks
credibility.
We simply don't believe it is a good idea to agree to
conspire on a
media blackout on such issues. This is even more strange,
especially coming
from a government like that of South Africa that
apparently believes in
media freedom.
Mbeki on June 17 met a
delegation of senior South African editors at
the presidential guesthouse in
Pretoria in a bid to promote good relations
with the media. This means he
understands the best way to deal with the
media is not to adopt a hostile
approach but a civil one in which the media
respects the role of government
and vice-versa.
A blackout is a poor media strategy by definition
because it's
premised on frozen thinking. In this day and age - when there
is the
so-called information superhighway - it not possible to impose
blackouts.
What Mbeki and others in this case should be doing is at least to
try to
manage the flow of information by having briefings designed to keep
the
public in the picture about the talks, while limiting room for media
speculation. This is how they do it elsewhere in the world.
Otherwise, talks must be conducted in a reasonably transparent way to
ensure
that those involved are accountable to the public. While it is not
possible
to negotiate in the glare of media publicity, it is also unhelpful
to put an
iron curtain around talks and have an opaque process in which Zanu
PF can
withdraw without any political price to pay in the court of public
opinion.
If Zanu PF is to be held to account for its actions during talks,
it must be
known what in the first place has been happening.
The argument that
Zanu PF would walk out if details of talks are
published is therefore not
just threadbare but patently spurious.
If Zanu PF withdraws from
talks because of newspaper stories, it means
the process is not credible in
the first place. It's a dead cert that Zanu
PF would try to wriggle off the
hook but the strategy to keep them around
the negotiating table can't be a
media blackout. Mbeki and the MDC must try
something else. Censorship and
blackouts don't work anymore in this hi-tech
age of advanced communication
technology and media diversity.
Zim Independent
MuckRaker
ZANU PF has the effrontery to tell the MDC that it must
declare its
acceptance of the president and government's legitimacy as a
condition for
talks. They have also demanded, in a position paper submitted
to President
Thabo Mbeki, that the opposition must "drastically reorientate
its attitude
towards national events", stop forthwith its "promotion of
violence", commit
itself to the "irreversibility of land reform", "respect
the country's
sovereignty and its national laws", call for the lifting of
sanctions, and
"stop calling for outside interference in Zimbabwe's domestic
affairs".
This from a party that daily seeks the approval of other
nations in
its domestic affairs.
Thankfully, Mbeki has since
knocked heads together at the Pretoria
talks and secured approval for an
agenda that both sides can live with. But
as an insight into Zanu PF's
delusional thinking the ruling party's position
paper submitted to Mbeki
several weeks ago is useful to have on record.
There can be no
question of opposition parties reorientating their
attitude towards national
events so long as those events are used for
partisan purposes and as
occasions where opposition parties and their
supporters are routinely
insulted by the president. Nor can they be expected
to recognise as
legitimate those whose legitimacy is the subject of national
contention.
As for violence, it must be clear after the release
of MDC supporters
accused of petrol bombing and militia training that the
whole stew of
charges against them was cooked up by those in power. Indeed,
who was
responsible for the attacks on Morgan Tsvangirai at a police station
and
Nelson Chamisa at Harare airport, not to mention the abduction, torture
and
killing of lower-ranking MDC members? What has happened to those
responsible
for that violence?
As for respecting national laws,
who in their right mind would respect
a flawed law like Aippa or Posa? They
are widely recognised as bad laws and
there is no reason why they should be
regarded as anything else. Let's hope
that Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti
disabused Mbeki of the impression that
the MDC had voted for Aippa. Where
did that story start?
No doubt Zanu PF will be advancing these
claims in its election
campaign. The MDC needs to be a good deal more robust
in rebutting them than
it was in Pretoria!
Have you noticed
how government spokesmen can no longer simply dismiss
statements they
disagree with? They have to dismiss them "with the contempt
they
deserve"
The latest example is Sikhanyiso Ndlovu's response to US
ambassador
Christopher Dell's comments on the economy. What appears to have
enraged the
government was Dell's observation that "by carrying out
disastrous economic
policies the Mugabe government is committing regime
change upon itself".
This was a fitting rebuke to a regime that has
dishonestly tried to
convince the nation that it is the victim of an
external conspiracy. What we
are suffering now is entirely home-made. And if
anybody is looking for
evidence as to how that is done they need look no
further than the
Indigenisation and Empowerment Bill which will sabotage any
attempt by
Gideon Gono and others to attract foreign
investment.
At the same time the Interception of Communications
Bill gives to the
world the impression of an Orwellian regime monitoring the
correspondence of
its citizens to detect sources of disloyalty.
Big Brother is alive and well and living in Zimbabwe!
Did Ndlovu
stop for one minute to ask how such a brazen interference
with people's
privacy will be seen abroad? This is clearly not a government
safely
ensconced in the affections of its people!
"The government of
Zimbabwe is in a much stronger position now
politically and economically
than ever," Ndlovu implausibly claimed in his
response to Dell. "Events on
the ground speak for themselves."
Indeed they do, as the following
paragraph in the Reuters report of
Ndlovu's statement reveals: "The southern
African country is in the grip of
a deep economic recession - now in its
eighth year -- and is struggling to
feed itself, while four in five
Zimbabweans are out of work and foreign
currency shortages
persist."
A "stronger position" with inflation at 4 500% and
heading north
because a gang of economic illiterates has hijacked the
government?
Another salient point made by Dell needs to be
underlined. People have
lost confidence in the currency and in the
government that issued it.
Ndlovu must be delusional if he thinks
things are looking up for the
government when it doesn't have a clue how to
remedy the situation and
things are getting worse by the day. He thinks the
National Income and
Pricing Commission will save the day by "stabilising"
the economy. He
forecast a drop in inflation to 25% by
year-end.
The government had imported enough grain to feed the
nation, Ndlovu
claimed.
So why is government holding out its
begging bowl to the donor
community? And why are prices continuing to
rocket?
We challenge Ndlovu to tell us in December what happened to
his 25%
forecast and to apologise to the country for misleading it.
Inflation will
not come down to 25% this year or next so long as we have a
delinquent
regime determined to ignore macro-economic
fundamentals.
What has probably ruffled Ndlovu's feathers is the
realisation that
even Zanu PF's core supporters are beginning to understand
where the problem
really lies.
Meanwhile, the CZI, Emcoz and
ZNCC see no evil, speak no evil and hear
no evil. Like the Consumer Council,
they have been bought.
The begging bowl was very much in
evidence in Nyamapanda last week.
"As government our hands are
stretched out to the donor community,"
Mashonaland East governor Ray
Kaukonde told the Canadian ambassador, Roxanne
Dube, at a function to mark
Canada's support for a women's self-help
project. "We need
funds."
Kaukonde lamented the slide in the Zimbabwe dollar, the
Standard
reported, saying the current exchange rate was
"shocking".
"It's so shocking, we need more help," he was reported
as saying. He
made it clear that such help would have to be forthcoming from
NGOs and the
international community.
"Don't worry about the
media. Those boys always write what they want.
Otherwise government needs
more funds."
Kaukonde appears to be under the impression that he is
on a mission
from God.
"God has chosen us as leaders to lead
this nation," he told a stunned
audience, "so we don't have to be
selfish."
While the government welcomed donors, they had to be
cleared first, he
said.
"Our president has always said that
they should concentrate on that
area and leave the political field to the
animals of that political field."
He wasn't feeling so well, he
said, but felt he should attend because
it was "to our advantage that the
electorate benefits".
So all is clear then. The government wants
donor funds but doesn't
want donors intruding into the field that belongs to
politicians. And we can
safely assume their exclusion zone is restricted to
the ruling party.
Donor projects will help local politicians get
elected, Kaukonde
suggests. Let's hope the Canadians take note.
Kaukonde admits that the economic situation is serious but wants more
money
for development, presumably because government is no longer able to
allocate
funds for development because it has destroyed the means to
generate those
funds.
Anyway, as an admission of state bankruptcy it sits nicely
alongside
Ndlovu's fantastic forecasts.
Meanwhile, what
news of the diesel-bearing formations in Chinhoyi?
Strange isn't it that we
haven't heard a peep from Sydney Sekeramayi's
taskforce set up to explore
this miraculous occurrence. That may have
something to do with the fact that
there is a more prosaic explanation.
Has the taskforce discovered
yet where the diesel originates? If they
look hard enough, we are told, they
might find a large cave nearby where
stockpiles of equipment were stored in
early 1980 pending an operation that
was subsequently aborted. The diesel
was not removed together with the other
equipment because it was too heavy
to transport. Instead, the hatches of the
tanks were opened and the fuel was
left to drain into the rest of the cave.
It has taken all these years to
seep through the rock.
Muckraker is not at liberty to publish the
full story of the Chinhoyi
diesel deluge at this stage. But if the taskforce
remains coy we may be
obliged to revert to our sources for permission to
tell more. And we promise
not to wait 27 years.
Another
slow learner is Minister of Industry Obert Mpofu who thinks he
can wave a
magic wand and halt the escalation of prices. Sadly, it doesn't
work like
that. Prices are determined by inputs and the cost of production.
When
manufacturers can't recover the cost of production they will
understandably
stop production. That leads to three things: empty shelves,
unemployment and
a thriving black market.
That is what will happen here within days
of this clumsy, economically
ignorant decision. Price controls haven't
worked here or anywhere else they
have been tried. Mpofu, we understand, was
advised against this course by
every industrialist who he consulted. He
proceeded regardless.
Now watch those shelves empty. Populist
demagoguery doesn't keep
prices down. It merely distorts the economy. And
once again we have here a
warning to investors: ministers will interfere
with the market if they think
there are electoral dividends to be had, with
dire consequences for the
economy.
Some sections of the
South African press and international
publications were peddling
"falsehoods" about the situation in Zimbabwe,
visiting South African judge
Moses Mavundla told the Herald this week. "They
have not been telling the
truth."
Do these "falsehoods" include reports of court orders that
have been
ignored; of detained individuals refused access to families and
lawyers; of
lawyers abducted and beaten; and the "aggressive vilification of
lawyers by
the state media" reported by the International Commission of
Jurists
recently after a fact-finding mission to the country?
Were all these stories "falsehoods"? And what about those detained for
lengthy periods whose cases fell away before plea because there was no case
against them?
The ICJ said it was astonished by the cavalier
attitude of the
attorney-general who told them he had no plan to investigate
reports of
police mistreatment of lawyers.
"We were shocked by
what we found," the ICJ said. The beatings of
lawyers by police, the
beatings of people and in particular the refusal of
the police to carry out
court orders was shocking."
What is Justice Mavundla's view of
these very serious state abuses?
And what can South Africa expect from
judges who, it would appear, see
nothing remiss in all this.
Zinwa accounts department must wake up
MUCH has been said about Zinwa's
unsuitability to provide water to
Harare. Just looking at their accounts
department seems to verify these
concerns. For example:
They do
not have offices of their own but operate out of municipal
offices. The
question is how much rent do they pay?
Their reference numbers are
so large that they can cater for 24 x ten
thousand billion account holders,
or alternatively lead to mistakes when
making payments and being credited
with same.
They cannot bill sewerage and water on one
bill.
They send more than one invoice for the same
service.
They are charging two months in arrears.
They
have a due date that is a month before the billing date - look at
your April
account. Billed in June and due in May!
They can take up to a month
to bank cheques for payment.
They do not know which are their
genuine receipt numbers.
They advertise on their accounts hot line
telephone numbers that
belong to private firms. (The patience of the
operator at one number is
commendable. He must have had thousands of calls
and he has remained
polite.)
All this and they inherited a
system that functioned well.
How many organisations get given for
free a functioning company the
size of our city's water supply network? They
must now deliver without any
hitches like any normal
company.
Fed up,
Harare.
--------------
NRZ responds
WITH
reference to a letter published in your letters to the
editor section
(Independent, June 15) entitled "Beat errant NRZ staff into
line" the NRZ
comments as follows:
We would like to thank our valued
customer for taking trouble to
highlight issues he observed during his
recent visit to our Harare railway
station. This enables us to address
issues of concern to our valued
travelling passengers who may assist us as
to correct shortcomings which may
create negative perception towards our
rail services.
We want the writer to know that following the
alleged ticket
scam that was reported in Harare recently, the NRZ sent a
team of senior
officials from NRZ headquarters to investigate among other
things the
alleged ticket scam, laxity and arrogant behaviour amongst our
staff.
The NRZ values and appreciates the travelling public's
contribution toward both our intra- and inter-city passenger train
services.
Furthermore, the NRZ does not condone the
harassment of
customers by front line staff and any employee reported or
found to be
mistreating the public will be dealt with
accordingly.
It is true that the television sets in our upper
class waiting
rooms are meant for the convenience and comfort of our
travelling passengers
and not for relatives and friends of our staff as
alluded to by the writer.
May I assure our valued customer
that all the issues which he
observed during his travel are being addressed
and staff in the Eastern Area's
Reservation and ticket offices have been
moved to other areas and new staff
members were deployed at Harare
station.
Concerning the issue of a substantive manager in
Harare, the
writer may also wish to know there is now an area manager for
the Eastern
Area.
It is also pertinent to mention that
the security department
referred to by the writer has since been revamped
following the recruitment
and training of new personnel, as well as the
introduction of refresher
courses and retraining of all security
details.
The department is now manned by a team of
professionally and
highly trained officers, who are committed to duty and
the protection of NRZ
property and its customers.
During
the recent visit to Harare by senior officials from
headquarters, the
security services manager was part of the team that went
to Harare to
investigate and correct shortcomings and any misdemeanor among
our staff in
Harare.
Some security details have since been removed from
Harare and
new security personnel were deployed there. Investigations will
be
intensified in order to weed out any bad apples among our staff in the
reservation, ticket and security offices.
I apologise for
the inconvenience and unpleasant experience
caused to the writer and valued
customers.
Fanuel Masikati,
NRZ public
relations manager.
----------------------
Nkomo/Ncube comparison
offensive
I WOULD like to register my displeasure with
one Kurauone
Chihwayi in a letter titled "Tsvangirai needs Mutambara"
(Independent, June
22).
The writer made an unsettling
comparison that Welshman Ncube is
the Joshua Nkomo of Matabeleland. I found
this comparison disturbing and an
insult to the late Joshua Nkomo and the
people of Matabeleland.
Welshman is not a Nkomo. Nkomo was a
uniter not a divider. All
he wanted was for the nation of Zimbabwe to
unite.
On the other hand, Welshman Ncube is a rabble rouser.
The MDC
split was never about the senate elections. There was a sinister
underlying
agenda.
Ncube is not in the best position to
talk for or represent
Ndebeles. This is his seventh year as the legislator
for Bulawayo
North-East. What has he to show for being the MP for this
constituency, does
he wield any influence in this constituency? Recently a
former Bulawayo
deputy mayor and several councillors from his constituency
defected to the
other MDC faction.
Ncube does not stay in
Bulawayo. He stays in a leafy suburb in
Harare. Nkomo stayed among his
people. He was humble.
Ncube has never contributed anything
to his constituency ever
since his election in 2000 despite all the donor
funds that he gets. Nkomo
as we all know although he faced obstacles was
passionate about development.
The Zimbabwe Development Trust among other
projects was his brainchild.
If Ncube is the spokesperson for
Matabeleland and in touch with
people there, he could have known better
about the senate elections. I was
in Mangwe during the ill- fated senate
elections, people were against the
senate. That's why those who contested
lost dismally.
Ncube and his faction friends are driven by
political ambition
and self interest, nothing else.
Umdala wethu was a consensus builder, a beacon of unity and
should not be
disrespected.
Asher Tarivona Mutsengi,
Alberta, Canada.
-----------------
Incompetence, corruption or deception?
THE recent dishing
out of farm implements smacks of the usual
incompetence that we are getting
so used to from the Zanu PF government.
The Herald listed
several people who do not even own a farm.
This is how the whole land reform
exercise has been carried out - sheer
incompetence. Farms have been given to
people who have no desire to farm or
knowledge of how to. It was just a case
of "give, give, give at the
taxpayers expense". It defies
logic.
Maybe it is not incompetence but corruption. Give to
your
cronies so they will look after your own selfish interests and they all
get
rich together. This looks more like it when you see that other
beneficiaries
are government ministers, war vets, et al.
There is another explanation for the granting to opposition and
civic
society members of these wonderful gifts - deception. Deceive the
electorate
by handing out these implements to the very people who we see as
our
saviours from Zanu PF's normal corruption so that the electorate becomes
disenchanted with them. It will never get published by the Herald that they
did not actually receive their allocated gifts and the damage is
done.
Whatever the reason for dishing out this monumental
expense so
generously to undeserving members of our society, one thing is
for sure, the
electorate is unimpressed with the rampant inflation this
extravaganza is
costing them.
The arrogance of Gono and
his masters in dishing out scarce
forex and tax dollars on publicity
campaigns is now beyond measure.
A
McCormick,
Harare.
-------------------
Chihwayi erred
I
MAKE reference to a letter by Kurauone Chihwayi (Independent,
June
22).
It is apparent that Chihwayi is a great admirer of Prof
Welshman
Ncube. Fair and fine. However, to compare him with the great Joshua
Nkomo is
taking a very simplistic approach to Zimbabwean politics and trying
to
rewrite our history.
Joshua Nkomo's contribution to
the liberation struggle and post
Independence democracy is
unquestionable.
The only achievement that Prof Welshman Ncube
has made that is
unquestionable is his academic excellence. Apart from that
all that he has
done most of us have also done. He was lucky to be at the
right place at the
right time when the MDC was formed.
If
indeed he is popular as Chihwayi says then why unite? Let him
go it alone.
Let the two MDC factions go to the elections as different
political
entities. Whether Zanu PF takes advantage of it is neither here
nor there
because what we want is democratic change.
Godwin
Ndhlovu,
Amaveni, Kwekwe.
-----------------------
Zifa must be
innovative
I AGREE with Darlington Majonga (IndependentSport
View, June
22). Inflation really affects everything. The corporate world has
to be
commended for giving back to society taking into account the harsh
business
environment they are operating in.
But again
they aren't the ones to blame for this wayward
inflation. The challenge is
upon the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) to
strategise with sponsors on
ways to best make their donations make monetary
sense.
It
is my humble submission that the CBZ FA Cup period and number
of teams be
shortened because it's uneconomic to involve more than 10 teams
because the
rate of inflation is going up on the tick of every second.
It's upon this basis that I therefore urge the sponsors and our
strategy-deficient Zifa to be innovative.
Itai G
Watinaye,
Harare.