Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
FINANCE minister
Herbert Murerwa and Reserve Bank governor
Gideon Gono, the country's key
economic managers, have clashed head-on over
policy issues as the economy
continues to slide. Gono says their
relationship has become
"untenable".
The battle between Murerwa and Gono exposes
widening fissures in
government over critical policy
matters.
Documents in the Treasury department reveal that
Gono at one
point wanted to resign due to political pressures although last
month he
changed his mind and decided to stay-put amid mounting
hostility.
A seven-page letter written by Gono to Murerwa,
dated February
6, details fierce run-ins between the two, usually following
visits from the
International Monetary Fund. It also shows the governor's
angry reaction to
the minister's accusations that he was acting outside his
jurisdiction by
venturing into quasi-fiscal activities instead of confining
himself to his
monetary policy mandate.
"Minister, I had
earlier on opted to tender my resignation from
the post of governor so that
you can appoint your own governor as they say
in the Finance ministry
'corridors'," Gono wrote to Murerwa.
"I have decided,
however, not to go that route for to do so is
to accept defeat, a thing I
will not do. I will not resign. Never, but you
can fire me if you so wish.
To be honest I now do not know anymore whether
we are working for the same
government."
Murerwa replied on the same day
insisting that Gono was
operating outside his mandate. Sources said
ministers have accused Gono of
acting like a "prime minister" and of running
a parallel government
bureaucracy at the central bank. Gono wrote back to
Murerwa on February 13
maintaining his ground.
This created a see-saw battle between the two which is
continuing unabated,
sources say.
The Zimbabwe Independent reported on May
6 last year that
"knives were out" for Gono to leave due to policy
differences and Zanu PF
power struggles.
The
conflict - a reflection of the raging Zanu PF succession
battle - has been
brought to President Robert Mugabe's attention and is
being dealt with at
the highest level of government. The two officials have
met Mugabe
separately over the issue.
Murerwa has accused Gono
of conducting his duties without due
consultation and without his approval
as the responsible minister. This has
led to clashes between them,
especially over the IMF issue.
The minister has also
blamed Gono for printing $46 trillion to
"dish out without" to government
and private-sector projects. The $21
trillion printed to pay the IMF arrears
now features in their quarrel.
Gono explains in the
letter that when he was approached to be
governor he was given the powers to
make the decisions he had taken in
pursuit of economic recovery. He said a
meeting between Mugabe, Murerwa and
himself on October 30, 2003 gave him a
clear go-ahead to "transform the
central bank into a developmental
institution".
He said he had always acted with the
direction of the presidium,
cabinet, parliamentary subcommittees on economic
affairs, as well as
private-sector stakeholders.
Gono
said this was how he came to financially support
parastatals, local
authorities, agriculture, food and fuel procurement,
embassies, the
ministries of defence, home affairs and "sensitive state
security organs",
as well as pay the IMF US$210 million.
He said he had
also made money available for the "urgent
refurbishment of sensitive
military establishments", elections, building of
infrastructure such as
dams, upgrading of airports, railways, power
stations, state farms and other
critical operations. Murerwa's claims, Gono
said, came as a "devastating
shock" to him.
"Now, on the advice of your trusted
ministry officials, you want
to turn your back on us when in fact they were
not there when you gave me a
'nod' to do these operations," Gono said in the
letter.
"Minister, for you to say that you were not being
consulted is
to forget the numerous meetings we have had with both VPs
(vice-presidents),
economic, social and parastatal ministers. I, therefore,
feel deeply let
down by now being viewed as having 'dished out' $46 trillion
'without
approval'."
Gono said his current working
relationship with Murerwa had
become "untenable, particularly in an
environment where the fiscus chooses
to be theoretical about its budgetary
frameworks, without due focus being
accorded to the peculiarities of the
challenges confronting the nation".
Gono said he did not
understand why "each time the IMF comes
into or leaves town we end up in
serious disagreements".
The two have fought over the IMF,
with Gono pressing for the
clearing of arrears while Murerwa was opposed to
printing money to do so.
Murerwa was also opposed to printing money for any
other purpose.
Zim Independent
Loughty Dube
THE future of a united
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) is set to be decided in the
coming few weeks as negotiators tasked to
chart the way forward are due to
make contact with the leadership of both
factions anytime from this week,
sources close to the negotiations have
revealed.
The
negotiations, which were initially meant to come up with an
amicable
separation of the MDC, are now likely to focus on reconciliation
after both
sides indicated that there was no way the opposition could tackle
Zanu PF
from a divided position.
Sources close to the Arthur
Mutambara faction said Bulawayo
South member of parliament, David Coltart,
was leading an initiative to
reconcile the two camps.
Coltart this week confirmed that he was pushing for either
reconciliation or
an amicable break-up of the party without involving the
courts.
"I have made it known to (Morgan) Tsvangirai and
(Gibson)
Sibanda that I am committed to a process of mediation and I have
written to
both camps with proposals on how we could go about it. Democracy
in Zimbabwe
will never be brought about by a divided opposition," Coltart
said.
The MDC split in October last year over whether or not
to
participate in the senate election.
Coltart could not
be drawn into revealing what other people were
working on the initiative,
only saying he could not do it by himself.
"This has to be
done with others as the process will need
negotiations and compromises," he
said.
Coltart said he had indicated to the two camps that
there are
respected people who should be engaged to resolve the feud
amicably.
Spokesperson for Mutambara's group Paul Themba
Nyathi, when
contacted this week said he was aware of plans towards
reconciling the two
factions but said it was premature to
comment.
"There are such plans but it is too early to talk of
reconciliation at the moment. It is clear that we cannot afford current
divisions," Nyathi said.
Nelson Chamisa, spokesperson for
Tsvangirai's camp, however
dismissed the reconciliation overtures saying
there was only one MDC, the
anti-senate one.
"We are
aware of Coltart's plans but we do not know what he is
talking about when he
talks of reconciliation and amicable divorce of the
two parties," said
Chamisa. "The MDC is united. We only have party
officials who left to form
another party and we will not discuss that."
Sources within
the opposition said seasoned politician
Washington Sansole and human rights
lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa were being touted
as likely mediators in the
crisis.
Coltart confirmed that Mtetwa and Sansole were
credible people
to lead the negotiations.
"There are
people like Mtetwa and Sansole that could be engaged
and if they are, they
will be the right people to look at the current
differences in the
opposition," Coltart said.
Correspondence in the possession
of the Zimbabwe Independent,
written to Tsvangirai and Sibanda by Coltart,
laid out a plan for solving
the crisis in the fractured
MDC.
The letters explain that pro-senate secretary-general
Welshman
Ncube and the anti-senate faction's Tendai Biti held informal
discussions on
likely ways of separating amicably but no solution was
reached at the
meeting.
Coltart in the letters said if
the current problems in the MDC
were solved through the courts, the
government would decide to the detriment
of opposition politics, who it
wanted to work with.
"If the vying claims to legitimacy are
not settled by mediation,
they will have to be settled by the courts," said
Coltart in one of the
letters.
"If the Zimbabwean courts
are entrusted with the role of
settling these issues, that in itself will
play directly into the hands of
the Mugabe regime.
"If
both factions cannot agree to settle these disputes they
will in essence
give the regime the power to decide through the courts how
long they want
this conflict to go on for and who ultimately they want to
deal with," he
said.
"Furthermore, court proceedings will be extremely
expensive both
financially and politically. I fully expect that during the
next two years
the Zimbabwean public will be subjected to the bizarre
spectacle of the two
factions fighting each other in court," he
said.
Coltart said issues that need to be addressed, in the
event that
there is no reconciliation, include deciding on who continues to
use the
party name, logo, slogans, physical assets, monetary assets and the
fate of
the party's members of parliament.
"During the
last six years the MDC has acquired substantial
assets including Harvest
House, other immovable properties elsewhere in the
country, motor vehicles,
computers and furniture. These properties are worth
billions of dollars,"
Coltart said.
"The temptation of course will be to adopt a
winner-take-all
mentality but this will inevitably result in protracted
litigation. The
attempted eviction of either party from the premises they
currently occupy
will be met with spoliation proceedings," he
said.
"Because those proceedings will only be able to be
decided by a
determination as to which faction is the legitimate MDC, which
in turn will
involve trial proceedings (because the facts will inevitably be
in dispute),
they will be long, drawn out, fractious and expensive affairs.
I doubt very
much whether a final determination will be reached within two
years," he
said.
On the issue of MPs, Coltart said
according to Section 41 (1)e
of the Zimbabwe Constitution, an MP can only be
forced to step down when he
or she ceases to be a member of the political
party on whose ticket he was
elected.
Coltart said the
concerned party would then have to write to the
Speaker for the MP to cease
representing it in parliament. Coltart said it
would be folly for either of
the factions to claim to have expelled MPs not
in their camp.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
IN a move that
portrays Zanu PF's land reform as a dismal
failure, government has launched
a massive US$277 million appeal for
humanitarian assistance despite the
country receiving above-average rainfall
this season.
Of
this sum, food accounts for the largest single item worth
US$111
million.
An appeal document, drafted by the United Nations
and its
implementing partners in conjunction with government, shows that
state
policies have compounded the humanitarian crisis resulting in the
country
seeking assistance in virtually all sectors.
Food, agriculture and shelter account for more than 65% of the
needs.
The appeal confirms that the country faces yet
another maize
deficit of more than 1,3 million tonnes this year and predicts
a worsening
situation.
"In the 2005/6 season at least
three million people will require
food assistance, as the country harvests
an estimated 600 000 tonnes of
maize compared to its requirement of 1,8
million tonnes," the appeal says.
"The humanitarian situation
is likely to continue to deteriorate
in 2006, particularly due to the steady
decline of the economy, which will
have an adverse effect for already
vulnerable populations."
The appeal says: "Among the expected
developments in 2006 are
decreases in the quality and access to basic
services, deepening of urban
poverty, continued difficulty of people
previously employed in the informal
sector to re-establish their
livelihoods, continued emigration, new farm
evictions and deepening overall
vulnerability to natural disasters."
The appeal says the
humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe is
further impacted by economic decline,
formal and informal migration of
skilled and unskilled labour which could be
countered by appropriate
government policies.
"In 2005,
the humanitarian situation was further compounded by
the government's
Operation Murambatsvina, which targeted what government
considered to be
illegal housing structures and informal businesses," the
appeal
said.
"The operation led to rapid growth in the number of
displaced
and homeless people, combined with loss of livelihoods for those
that
previously worked in the informal sector."
The
appeal aims to provide food assistance to an estimated three
million people,
provide agricultural and livelihood support to 1,4 million
households,
improve access and quality of education services for 93 000
children and
other social services and prevent further deterioration of
livelihoods and
enhance community-coping mechanisms as well as provide
protection for the
most vulnerable.
Government last launched a multi-sectoral
appeal in 2004 seeking
resources to fund recovery and basic social services,
in partnership with
other humanitarian stakeholders. The appeal included
targeted food aid,
nutrition programmes, basic social services, support for
prevention and
treatment of HIV and Aids and agricultural
recovery.
Zim Independent
MINES minister Amos Midzi has run into serious trouble
over his
recent statements that government plans to acquire 51% of
foreign-owned
mining companies, with 25% grabbed for
free.
Government sources said Midzi had stirred a hornet's
nest in
official circles and would soon be censured for his remarks by
higher
authorities, including President Robert Mugabe.
A
press conference scheduled to be addressed by Reserve Bank
governor Gideon
Gono in the presence of economic affairs ministers on
Wednesday was
cancelled at the last minute to give senior ministers time to
"set the
record straight by clearly spelling out that Midzi misdirected
himself in
uttering those misleading statements", sources said.
"Midzi
has created problems for himself and government over the
mines controversy,"
a source said. "He will be censured either publicly or
in private by Mugabe
or any other senior minister next week.
His remarks have
caused confusion and panic in the local
business and international
communities." Midzi was not answering his
cellular phone yesterday when
sought for comment.
Cabinet was said to be divided over the
matter. Sources said
ministers with interests in mining wanted the law on
indigenous shareholding
while others were against it. It was also said the
issue was partly a
publicity stunt by Midzi after Mugabe last month
suggested he was one of his
incompetent ministers.
After
Mugabe's remarks pointed at the ministries of Mines,
Industry and Trade, and
Agriculture, the relevant ministers have been
jumping around trying to be
seen to be doing something. This was widely seen
as desperate bids to keep
their jobs ahead of a looming cabinet reshuffle.
Mugabe said most of his
ministers were non-performers but it is not clear if
he will dump the
deadwood.
However, the writing has been on the wall for Midzi
over the
mining issue. Gono was recently quoted in the state media as saying
the
mines debate was a "hot issue" during his recent trip to Washington for
the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board meeting on Zimbabwe's
arrears.
Sources said the IMF was disturbed by the policy
which has the
hallmarks of nationalisation and government's chaotic land
reform programme.
Midzi has been trying to do some damage control by denying
that his policy
amounted to nationalisation.
The Zimbabwe
Chamber of Mines and other stakeholders have said
the policy proposals will
damage mining, one of the few performing sectors
of the economy.
Agriculture, the economic mainstay, and manufacturing, have
already crumbled
due to policy blunders.
The mining sector is a key pillar of
the Zimbabwean economy,
earning US$626 million last year, which represents
44% of the country's
total foreign currency revenues. It contributes 4% to
gross domestic
product.
Implats CEO Keith Rumble met
Mugabe last week to discuss the
issue. Implats, the world's second biggest
platinum producer, has an 86,7%
interest in Zimplats.
Zimbabwe, holding the world's richest platinum deposits after
South Africa,
is the main area of future growth for Implats. South Africa
and Zimbabwe
hold about 90% of the world's known platinum reserves.
Midzi
visited Zimplats on Monday in a bid to allay investor
fears of a looming
mine grab. Although he did not change his line, he
appeared to be on the
retreat.
Sources inside government who see the economy as the
potential
cause of Mugabe's downfall, were angry with Midzi because they
believe the
seizure of mines could be fatally damaging to an already reeling
economy. -
Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe/Shakeman Mugari
MORE details emerged this week of how state security agents, led
by the
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), abused suspects in the arms
cache
case.
This came as the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ)
condemned the CIO
agents for intimidating prosecutors dealing with the
case.
The LSZ said the intimidation of senior prosecutors by
members
of the CIO shortly before the state withdrew before plea charges
against the
six suspects arrested in connection with the discovery of arms
in Mutare was
reprehensible.
The CIO harassed lawyers
from the Attorney-General's office. Two
state lawyers - Joseph Jagada and
Florence Ziyambi - were forced to flee to
Harare "in fear of their liberty"
while Manicaland area prosecutor Levison
Chikafu abandoned his home for a
day.
In an interview on Tuesday, LSZ president Joseph James
said
intimidation of lawyers must be condemned.
"If the
intelligence operatives intimidated members of the AG's
office, that must be
condemned in the strongest terms possible. Members of
the AG's office are
lawyers who are objective. They make decisions based on
fact and law," he
said.
"If at the end of the day they are told by intelligence
operatives how to conduct their cases, it is fundamentally a fix for the
administration of justice. At the end of the day it may as well be members
of the CIO who prosecute."
Justice Charles Hungwe last
week slammed the CIO and police
officers for disregarding court orders,
abusing suspects and preparing an
affidavit for one of the suspects to
incriminate Roy Bennett and MDC MP
Giles Mutsekwa in the alleged plot to
assassinate President Robert Mugabe
and topple the
government.
Mutsekwa, together with other suspects, was
arrested two weeks
ago and accused of caching arms with the aim of
overthrowing government but
was later released after the state case
collapsed. Only Peter Hitschmann,
at whose house the arms were allegedly
discovered, has remained in prison.
He was yesterday denied
bail.
Details presented to court show that five of the eight
suspects
were jailed for 48 hours.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
OPPOSITION leader Morgan Tsvangirai has set
himself formidable
targets that could determine his political future in the
coming months.
Tsvangirai, re-elected leader of a faction of
the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Sunday, raised the
stakes by calling
for mass protests against President Robert Mugabe's
regime. This could have
a bearing on his and Zimbabwe's
future.
Political analysts were however quick to warn that
Tsvangirai's
political reputation would be on the line if the mass action
threats were
not carried out. Buoyed by a bumper 15 000 crowd at his
faction's congress
last weekend, Tsvangirai threatened to roll out mass
protests, promising "to
lead from the front and to use all available
resources and will-power to see
off the tyranny in Zimbabwe
today".
He said there was no need any more to wait for
miracles since
people were in charge of their destiny.
"From today, fellow Zimbabweans, kindly save a penny and stock
up where
possible. A storm is upon the horizon," Tsvangirai said in his
acceptance
speech.
Government has in the past responded to peaceful
demonstrations
and street protests by unleashing riot police, resulting in
violent clashes,
destruction of property and arrests but Tsvangirai urged
people not to be
cowed by Mugabe's tactics.
"The regime
has targeted our private space," Tsvangirai said.
"The aim is to clear any
thoughts of resistance through fear."
He said unless action
was taken "we shall perish with an
illusion that this can't happen in
Zimbabwe. This illusion leads many to
wait for a natural turn of events, to
wait for divine intervention.that a
miracle shall dawn on us", he
said.
"Let me say, fellow Zimbabwean, we risk wasting away if
we
follow that belief. We are our own liberators. Merely assuming an early
end
of a dictator can be wishful thinking. These are acts of self-deception.
You
may have as many wish lists as possible, the bottom line is that we must
rise and confront what is before us."
Political
commentator Eldred Masunungure said the MDC did not
have the capacity to
convince people to engage in street protests and
confrontational
marches.
"To say we will engage in confrontational street
protests would
be a mistaken understanding of what Zimbabweans are prepared
to offer as
resistance," Masunungure said. "People lack that culture of
street protest
and confrontation but are more used to withdrawing, making
calls for a
stay-away a more effective option."
However,
National Constitutional Assembly chairman, Lovemore
Madhuku, said the MDC
would have to join hands with civic organisations in
their call for the
protests.
"They cannot do it on their own," Madhuku said.
"They would have
to join hands with other civic organisations and I am sure
they will bring a
big number into the streets in protest."
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
THE Transport and
Communications portfolio committee has urged
parliament to institute
contempt charges against Zimpapers boss Justin
Mutasa after he barred its
members from carrying out an enquiry on the
operations of the state-owned
Chronicle newspaper.
Sources said the committee, chaired by
Makonde MP Leo Mugabe,
wrote this week to the Speaker of the House of
Assembly, John Nkomo, urging
him to cause contempt of Parliament charges to
be instituted against Mutasa.
They added that initially the
committee wanted President Robert
Mugabe's press secretary George Charamba
included as a collaborator, but his
name was withdrawn after he
apologised.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Nkomo said: "I
am in Bulawayo.
I am not in Harare so I do not know what is
happening."
In an interview on Wednesday, Mugabe refused to
comment on the
issue but revealed that his committee would be returning to
the Chronicle on
Monday.
"After we were barred from the
Chronicle three weeks ago, we
will be returning on Monday. On Tuesday we
will be at the Herald," said
Mugabe.
Asked about the
purposes of the investigations at the two
government mouthpieces, Mugabe
said his committee had received submissions
from the Zimbabwe Union of
Journalists and workers at the papers, which are
of concern to the
lawmakers.
The committee also held enquiries into the
operations of
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings and New Ziana.
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
ZIMBABWE'S economic
problems continue mounting, simultaneously
setting new records along the way
despite government denials.
In an attempt to exonerate itself
from blame, government has
attacked Western powers, sanctions, saboteurs and
even independent media.
President Robert Mugabe is the
captain of the blame team.
Yet despite the smokescreen, the
downward spiral has continued
and so has its ability to set fresh
records.
World figures for January show that Zimbabwe now holds
the
record for the highest inflation rate in the world. At 782% and nudging
800%
the figure is depressing.
When it comes to inflation
Zimbabwe has beaten the world hands
down. It leads war-ravaged nations and
countries that are coming out of
civil conflict.
The
figures show that government propaganda about sanctions
having caused
inflation do not hold water.
One of Zimbabwe's closest
allies, Cuba, that has been under
genuine United States sanctions for
almost half a century, has an inflation
rate of 4,2%.
Zimbabwe's closest rival is war-ravaged Iraq which is a distant
40% but is
in the midst of civil war.
Inflation in Zimbabwe is expected
to reach 800% in March and
analysts say it could be as high as 1 000% by the
end of the second quarter.
With no solutions in sight and
government running the money
printers, Zimbabwe is likely to continue
setting dubious records.
Figures at hand comparing inflation
rates for other countries
provide an insight into the
crisis.
War-ravaged Sierra Leone has an inflation rate of 1%
while
strife-torn Ivory Coast has 2%.
In West Bank
Palestine, which is virtually under military
occupation, inflation is 2,2%
while Sudan, ravaged by war and drought, has
recorded
11%.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), still battling
for
sustained peace, notches 9% and Afghanistan, battered by years of
repression
and war under the Taliban militia is at 16,3%.
Zimbabwe also beat Eritrea and Ethiopia that have been at each
other's
throats for years with an inflation rate below 10%.
Mozambique, recovering from 14 years of civil war, is a distant
7,8% and
Angola, coming out of two decades of a gruelling civil war has
17,7%.
Zimbabwe does not compare with countries like
Rwanda (8%) still
recovering from the devastating genocide of
1994.
The Mugabe government also seems to have learnt nothing
from its
interaction with celebrated friends in Asia where the average
inflation rate
is below 3%.
China, close to Mugabe's
heart, is at 1,9% while Malaysia, whose
economic recovery Zimbabwe says it
is emulating, is at 2,9%.
Singapore, one of Mugabe's
favourite stopovers, has a mere 0,3%
and indications are that it will get
better.
Zimbabwe has also outwitted its friends under tinpot
dictators.
Venezuela under Hugo Chavez who is Mugabe's friend and admirer
has 15,7%.
Its erstwhile ally Libya is at
1%.
Closer to home Zimbabwe also rules the roost. Namibia and
Tanzania that seem to have been laughing up their sleeves while publicly
urging Mugabe along the destructive path of land reform have 2,7% and 4%
respectively.
While Zimbabwe has been pillaging its
economy, its neighbours
have been making significant strides. Zambia that
for years has been
regarded as a classic example of economic mismanagement
now looks good at
19%.
Malawi's inflation is at 15,4%
while that of South Africa - our
biggest trading partner - is floating
around 4,6%. There was alarm in
Botswana when inflation hit a 12-year high
of 17%two weeks ago. Smaller
kingdoms - Lesotho and Swaziland - have 4,7 and
4% respectively.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe will stop at nothing to
ascend the ladder.
Seemingly unsatisfied with the damage so far, government
a fortnight ago
announced plans to torpedo another crucial sector of the
economy.
It now plans to nationalise mines.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
COMMMERCIAL banks are reviewing their minimum
lending rates
(MLR) after the Reserve Bank last week increased the overnight
accommodation
rates by 50 percentage points to 780% against an inflation
rate of 782% for
February.
Economic analysts told
businessdigest that the recent increase
in rates could curtail the growth of
bank loan books as borrowers evade huge
interest charges on
borrowings.
David Mupamhadzi, group economist for the
Zimbabwe Allied
Banking Group (ZABG), said the market should brace for an
increase in MLR
across all commercial banks as the increase in accommodation
rates would put
pressure on liquidity positions.
"The
increase will put more pressure on commercial banks to
revise their rates
upwards if they are to manage their liquidity conditions
under a
hyperinflationary environment currently prevailing. This can only be
done by
adjusting their rates," Mupamhadzi said.
"The attractiveness
of returns on savings would, however, depend
on the margin between deposits
and lending rates, which is usually a huge
gap," Mupamhadzi
added.
FBC Bank became the first bank to respond to the new
accommodation rates by increasing its MLR to 560% from
460%.
Kingdom and Stanbic Bank are now charging 500% from
460% and
400% respectively. NMB Bank is charging 560% up from
460%.
Merchant Bank of Central Africa, Zimbank and ZABG are
still
charging 500% while African Banking Corporation and Jewel Bank are
lending
at 560% and 465% respectively.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
IN 1902 - the year
before the Bolshevik-Menshevik split over the
political crisis in Russia -
Lenin wrote the book What is to be done?
criticising the legal approach to
his country's struggle for change.
Lenin, who went on to lead
Russia, said the approach was
ineffective and had lost sight of the main
objective of the struggle - the
challenge for state
power.
Although the situation in Russia then and current
politics in
Zimbabwe are very different in terms of dynamics, time and
space, the one
common denominator, if no other, is that Russia was then, as
Zimbabwe is
now, at a crossroads.
There is also a
parallel in terms of the breakup of the forces
for
change.
One of the feuding factions of the opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) led by Morgan Tsvangirai held its
congress last
weekend. Tsvangirai was re-elected for another five
years.
This came shortly after the recent congress of the
other MDC
camp now led by Arthur Mutambara. The MDC split over last year's
controversial senate election although many agree the event was merely a
trigger of other deep-seated differences within the party, most notably
Tsvangirai's autocratic leadership style.
The two
congresses all but formalised the split of the MDC which
nearly defeated the
ruling Zanu PF in 2000. Tsvangirai put up an impressive
showing in the 2002
presidential poll.
There is a widespread view that the MDC
and Tsvangirai were
cheated in both elections. The polls produced disputed
results, which in
turn created the prevailing political impasse that is at
the heart of the
economic crisis.
While the Tsvangirai
camp's congress was better organised and
better attended than that of the
Mutambara faction, the two leaders did not
offer anything
new.
Apart from blowing hot air, Tsvangirai and Mutambara
failed to
articulate new policy programmes and chart the way
forward.
They gave the impression they were up to the task
but their
supporters expected new strategies for engaging the Mugabe regime.
They
wanted fresh ideas and effective strategic plans to deal with the
situation
in the short to medium term but only got more of the same: idle
threats and
unfocused promises.
Tsvangirai warned Mugabe
of an impending "sustained cold season
of peaceful democratic resistance",
whatever that means.
During his own congress, Mutambara
threatened to "outflank
Mugabe's regime in every area of political combat".
On Sunday he also warned
at a rally in Bulawayo that his group would
out-manoeuvre Zanu PF in the
cutthroat political battlefield but didn't say
how he would go about it.
The two leaders could not even
locate their factions on the
ideological map. As it is, nobody knows what
the two MDC camps stand for.
While they claim that they are social
democratic parties, their policies,
which are largely influenced by a
neo-liberal agenda, remain vague.
Tsvangirai is still
clinging on to the MDC's shallow Restart
blueprint, which has found no
realistic purchase in local business or the
international community. The
jury is still out on Mutambara who has promised
a holistic, multivariable,
mathematical economic model. Critics are
sceptical but willing to give him
the benefit of the doubt.
While the opposition leaders are
doing their best under
extremely difficult conditions of repression and
economic collapse, they are
failing to break new ground in the struggle or
show dynamism.
Tsvangirai was able to attract a huge
gathering at his congress.
It seemed he wanted to show he was more popular
than his rival but
congresses by definition require fairly small, manageable
crowds to allow
for rational discourse. They are not political
rallies.
That is why Zanu PF, the ruling ANC in South Africa,
parties in
Britain or anywhere else for that matter, except in populist
regimes, do not
bring big crowds to congresses.
There is
no way serious debate, planning and resolutions can
take place among 15 000
people.
Zimbabwe's ethnic politics have complicated the dynamics
which
do not allow for simplistic reading of politics on a single-variable
basis.
While Tsvangirai was able to attract 15 000 delegates,
the
danger remains if the MDC fails to reunite, his faction will lose an
important power base: the south-western region (Matabeleland and parts of
Midlands) where the Mutambara camp is dominant.
Although
the region is not decisive in electoral terms,
proportionally it was the
stronghold of a united MDC. The party was mainly
entrenched in the
south-western region, including parts of the Midlands, in
urban areas and in
Manicaland. It failed to break into mainstream
Mashonaland and Masvingo,
which are the decisive provinces.
This means Tsvangirai's
group will have to try to break into the
northern provinces (Mashonaland
region) where the MDC stumbled at the height
of its popularity and could not
win a single seat.
The MDC still remains unpopular in
Mashonaland East, Central and
West especially, where it has lost key areas -
Kadoma and Chegutu - as
recently as three weeks ago. It has also lost
municipal polls in Chitungwiza
and Bulawayo, showing it has been conceding
strategic ground since the
infighting surfaced.
The
situation in Tsvangirai's camp was not helped by the failure
at the weekend
to recruit credible high-profile leaders from Mashonaland and
Matabeleland
as part of a strategy to move into Matabeleland and Mashonaland
to establish
a serious grip.
The parachuting in of more officials from
Tsvangirai's Masvingo
home region (although he is now physically located in
Buhera in Manicaland
due to a change of boundaries) will only fuel
resentment in Mashonaland and
Matabeleland.
Complaints
that homeboy and village politics are taking root in
both MDC factions are
growing. But the situation appears more blatant in
Tsvangirai's
faction.
The election of Tsvangirai (president), Isaac
Matongo
(chairman), Elias Mudzuri (organising secretary), Nelson Chamisa
(spokesman)
and Lucia Matibenga (women's chairperson) - seen as members of
the same
ethnic group - compounds matters.
It has also
been claimed by MDC insiders that secretary-general
Tendai Biti originally
comes from Masvingo. His deputy Tapiwa Mashakada
hails from
there.
There are also other senior members of the faction
from the same
region. These include William Bango (Tsvangirai's spokesman),
Professor
Eliphas Mukonoweshuro (Tsvangirai's advisor), Fidelis Mhashu,
Innocent
Gonese, Evelyn Masaiti and even their lawyers.
Mutambara's faction's failure to come up with a convincing
balancing act
might produce the same results: resistance to the MDC in
Mashonaland. While
other parts of the country matter, the original MDC's
woeful lack of support
in Mashonaland and Masvingo under Tsvangirai
guaranteed its defeat. The two
factions are still weak on the ground in
those regions.
It is clear if the MDC persists with narrow factional politics -
which give
a hostage to fortune to Zanu PF - it will remain firmly on the
path towards
self-destruction.
It is also evident without a broad united
front - not just in
the MDC but across a swathe of the political and civic
society landscape -
Zanu PF will remain in power by
default.
The MDC break-up has left the opposition in a
complete shambles
and taken the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe five
years backwards.
Against this background, Lenin's question
may still be relevant
again today: what is to be done?
Zim Independent
Candid Comment Joram Nyathi
IF a
crowd is what was needed, they had it. They came from all
over the country.
In all shapes and sizes, and every imaginable regalia.
Quite rightly, the
organisers of the congress of the MDC faction led by
Morgan Tsvangirai in
Harare must have felt pleased with themselves.
Fifteen
thousand is a huge crowd and the City Sports Centre is a
small venue. Even
the hostile state media that often wants to understate the
figures at
Tsvangirai's rallies this time put the number at 14 000.
The
Arthur Mutambara faction which held its congress in Bulawayo
three weeks ago
attracted a third of Tsvangirai's. The cynics who reported
on the congress
were more interested in the shortage of food and
accommodation. And of
course the sustained attacks on the robotics
professor. My verdict on both
congresses is that there were no earthquakes.
Both sides
retained the names we already knew, rededicated
themselves to fight
President Mugabe and change the Zanu PF culture - same
old
stuff.
But if the leaders of the two factions know what needs
to be
done and are committed to the future of this nation, they should seek
more
common ground. If their aim is the same then they should be able to
rally
their supporters towards this common goal.
In
classical definition, they say my enemy's enemy is my friend.
Nothing
strengthens the hand of the enemy more than two brothers fighting
each
other. So long as both factions remain determined to fight each other,
they
should know they are providing ammunition to the enemy.
Instead of splitting the vote because they cannot agree on
leadership
issues, their aim should be to lure more supporters from Zanu PF
by
demonstrating that they have better ideas and are very different from it
in
terms of their democratic culture.
A starting point in this
regard is recognition by both factions
that they are the left and the right
hand of the same body. So long as they
share the same target and aims, there
should be no conflict. So far it has
been a matter of using different forms
of rhetoric. None can claim to be
more determined than the other to change
the status quo.
The complementarity should come from sharing
the bigger picture
of what we want Zimbabwe to be, not necessarily who
should be the leader.
Instead, there has been undue emphasis
on the superficial
"village vs ivory tower" dichotomy. Its basis is that
Tsvangirai has more
support in rural areas and is closer to the people. This
support has never
been demonstrated in an election. What is evident is his
impact among the
urban poor for the simple reason that he appeals to their
immediate
requirements - the so-called bread and butter issues. All this is
fine but
too short-term.
On the other hand you have the
ivory-towerists - the more
educated Bulawayo faction - who are accused of
being out of touch with the
people and therefore cannot command sufficient
votes. They talk about
foreign policy and the constitution and human rights.
(Ironically, Zanu PF
derided the same issues when it decided instead to put
emphasis on the land
because the MDC was seen as trying to advance alien
concepts.)
The ivory tower dwellers are said to appeal to
intellectuals and
the rich. In reality both factions are tapping from the
same source - all
the urban dwellers who have been pauperised by Zanu's PF
misrule.
I was therefore impressed that Tsvangirai's camp has
in a way
sought accommodation with NCA leader Lovemore Madhuku. While he may
not be a
charismatic leader, he has shown enormous courage and consistency
in his
fight for a new constitution. Tsvangirai is therefore aware of the
sizeable
constituency he commands in the civic society
movement.
What is therefore vital is that while Tsvangirai is
able to
appeal to the short-term demands of a hungry population, the
Mutambara camp
can fortify those same needs by proposing long-term policies
that ensure we
don't get lost again.
Alex Magaisa
poignantly observed recently that a leader has to
look further than the
short-term wants of voters.
Failing to do so leads into the
Zanu PF cul de sac - lack of
policy initiatives to turn around the economy.
Even its electoral majority
sounds hollow. What next after land reform?
Which is where the opposition
has been patently paralysed as well - what
after congress?
The election of a leader should not be seen
as a mere
endorsement but as a challenge. People are stuck in a quagmire and
look to
the leaders for a way forward. None of the two factions can win the
contest
against Zanu PF on its own - even under a new constitution. A level
playing
field benefits all. It doesn't matter how many people attended the
congress,
without unity of purpose we are stuck in the same
rut.
And Zanu PF is doing its uttermost to accentuate
artificial
divisions in the opposition to weaken it. But the factions need
each other's
capacities and abilities more than they need the sympathy of
Zanu PF. They
should rise to this challenge and put their differences aside.
The nation's
interests should come first.
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
MOVES to
introduce draconian laws such as the Suppression of
International Terrorism
and the Interception of Communications Bills reveal
government insecurity
and plans to intensify repression as the economy
deteriorates
further.
Despite its failure to prosecute opposition leaders
on several
trumped up treason charges, including in the Mutare arms cache
case last
week, government is working on the Suppression of Foreign and
International
Terrorism Bill that will allow for a further crackdown on the
opposition and
dissenters accused of collaborating with foreigners to
destabilise the
country.
The proposed Interception of
Communications Bill, details of
which were first published in this paper
last week, will also strengthen the
instruments of
repression.
The law seeks to empower the chief of defence
intelligence, the
director-general of the Central Intelligence Organisation,
the commissioner
of police and the commissioner-general of revenue to
intercept telephones,
fixed lines and cellular phones and e-mail messages
sent by Internet.
When it comes into effect the government
will use it to
establish a telecommunications agency called the Monitoring
and Interception
of Communications Centre manned by spies tasked with prying
into private
mail.
Analysts this week said recent
developments characterised by the
crackdown on opposition MDC members
following the discovery of an arms cache
in Mutare show government was
running scared and wants to launch a campaign
of repression to consolidate
its faltering grip on power.
Political analyst Heneri
Dzinotyiwei said the developments point
to a government increasingly
defensive in the face of heightening
unpopularity.
"The
government is becoming defensive. There is more reaction to
the loss of
favour and support. That of course is not justified,"
Dzinotyiwei
said.
"But the government is failing to see the root causes
of its
unpopularity. It is trying to address the symptoms. It won't
succeed."
Dzinotyiwei said by concentrating on issues such as
prying onto
people's private lives, government was trying to divert
attention from real
issues. He said there were no credible grounds for
government to come up
with such legislation, except an attempt to curb
rising discontent.
The new legislation also appears to
buttress arguments by the
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
that in Zimbabwe: "There has
been a flurry of new legislation and the
revival of old laws used under the
Smith regime to control (and) manipulate
public opinion."
The commission also slammed state security
agencies, saying
"elements of the CIO were engaged in activities contrary to
the
international practice of intelligence
organisations".
The CIO last week was severely criticised by
Justice Charles
Hungwe for intimidating state lawyers in a bid to sustain
the alleged plot
to assassinate President Robert Mugabe linked to the Mutare
arms cache
"discovery".
The proposed laws fall in the
same category as the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act and
the Public Order and Security
Act which the African Commission has said had
a "chilling effect and spread
a cloud of fear" in
Zimbabwe.
Analysts say government's insecurity in the face of
the rising
tide of opposition on the political, social and economic fronts
was behind
the current efforts to devise a chain of restrictive
measures.
The Reconstruction of State-Indebted Insolvent
Companies Act and
the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No 17 Act are seen
as part of this.
The Reconstruction of State-Indebted Insolvent Companies
Act gives
state-appointed administrators powers to enable them to forfeit to
the state
shares or securities in a reconstructed company. The Act was used
to
legalise the government's inheritance of businessman Mutumwa Mawere's
empire
SMM Holdings under the guise of preventing its collapse and saving
jobs.
The repressive Council for Higher Education, which
Mugabe said
was put in place with " a view to improving operations of higher
learning by
investing council with certain disciplinary powers over students
and
lecturers", will further restrict academic freedom.
A
number of student leaders mainly at the University of Zimbabwe
have been
expelled and dozens others countrywide have been suspended.
The 17th constitutional amendment was meant to deal with white
commercial
farmers who were posing a headache to the government through
challenging its
chaotic agrarian reform in the courts.
The president of the
Law Society of Zimbabwe Joseph James on
Tuesday said the introduction of the
latest repressive laws pointed to its
insecurity.
"A
government which constantly passes repressive legislation
fears that it does
not have the support of its people," he said. "In a
democratic society if
you believe in your right to persuade the electorate,
there is no need to
close the democratic space. It is only when you are not
sure of yourself
that you pass repressive legislation - that is the only
conclusion one can
reach."
He said he was surprised when Media & Information
Commission
chair Tafataona Mahoso this
week called for the
tightening of Aippa through the control of
distributors of newspapers and
periodicals coming from outside the country.
"He suggested
that some foreign publications be subjected to
some form of scrutiny and
censorship. Why is it necessary when it is said
the world is now a global
village?" James asked. "Is that necessary at all?"
Brief
insight into Interception of Communications Bill
* The law
seeks to empower the chief of defence intelligence,
the director-general of
the Central Intelligence Organisation, the
commissioner of police and the
commissioner-general of the Zimbabwe Revenue
Authority to intercept: Fixed
telephone lines; cellular phones; e-mail
messages sent by
Internet.
* When it comes into effect the government will use
the Bill to
establish a telecommunications agency called the Monitoring and
Interception
of Communications Centre manned by spies tasked with prying
into private
mail.
* State agencies will be empowered to
open mail passing through
the post and through licensed courier service
providers.
* The Bill authorises the Minister of Transport
and
Communications to issue a warrant to state functionaries to order the
interception of information if there are "reasonable grounds for the
minister to think that an offence has been committed or that there is a
threat to safety or national security of the country".
*
The Bill will compel operators to install software and
hardware to enable
them to intercept and store information as directed by
the state. The
service providers will also be asked to link their message
monitoring
equipment to the government agency. Service providers will also
be compelled
to keep personal information on clients and provide it to the
state if asked
to do so.
* Failure by service providers to, among other
issues, install
the requisite software and hardware to intercept messages
and transmit them
to the government agency will attract a fine and/or
imprisonment of up to
three years.
Zim Independent
By Chikonamombe Mhara
MANY
households are weeping. Why? Zesa is at it again, failing
to diligently
carry out its duties. Last Sunday is a day that many
households in Harare
would like to quickly forget.
Electrical appliances got
damaged because of Zesa's failure to
stick to its load-shedding schedule.
Fridges, television sets, radios, DVDs
etc were extensively damaged because
of continuous interruptions in power
supplies in Harare and probably other
towns as well.
Executive chairman Sydney Gata and Energy
Development minister
Mike Nyambuya have exhibited gross incompetence and
unprofessionalism.
What are they doing in those portfolios?
Whose job is it to
inform the public about power-cuts and that they should
buy surge
protectors?
I guess they do not want to advise
members of the public to buy
surge protectors because in a way it will be
admitting their failure to
execute their duties.
I urge
fellow consumers with sensitive electrical gadgets to buy
surge protectors
to protect their valuable appliances.
Surge protectors cost
about $2 million compared to the cost that
one is likely to incur in
repairing damaged appliances.
To Gata and Nyambuya I say: God
is watching and do not say you
were not warned when asked to account for
your "sins" at the pearly gates.
What goes around comes
around. You still have time to "repent"
and apologise to the masses for the
damage that you are responsible for.
If legal action were to
be taken, we could be talking of huge
amounts of money in damaged
appliances.
I advise you gentlemen to refrain from the warpath
that you are
on and make peace with the people.
* Mhara
is a Harare-based writer.
Zim Independent
By Kurauone Chihwayi
THE MDC
faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai at the weekend congress
failed to present
credible leadership that could raise both public and donor
confidence.
While I have great respect for Tendai Biti
and Nelson Chamisa,
the re-election of Tsvangirai as the faction's president
has plunged the
whole team into crisis.
The team that was
elected into office is very risky to the
extent that no-one can expect
anyone in it to form a government.
Thokozani Khupe, Tapiwa
Mashakada and Isaac Matongo are not
credible leaders but opportunists whose
survival hinges on bootlicking.
Puppetry politics will never
bring democratic change to starved
Zimbabweans. The congress exposed
weaknesses of the Tsvangirai leadership as
it is important to try new ways
of unseating President Robert Mugabe.
The Arthur Mutambara
faction, on the other hand, appears to have
produced credible leaders at its
Bulawayo congress.
Welshman Ncube, Gift Chimanikire,
Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga, Gibson Sibanda, Paul Themba Nyathi and
Morgan
Changamire are tried and tested leaders who can work out new
strategies of
bringing democratic change.
The people around
Tsvangirai are only there to use him as a
ladder to the top only to dump him
when it is convenient.
* Chihwayi is a Harare resident
writing from Glen Norah A.
Zim Independent
Comment
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's wish to build bridges
with the British
is evaporating with each passing day. The latest setback to
talks is the
government's publication of a Mining Bill that will see the
state take a
non-contributory majority share in mining developments and an
eavesdropping
measure that overturns constitutional provisions on privacy of
communications.
"We need a bridge with the British,"
Mugabe told British
ambassador Dr Andrew Pocock when he presented his
credentials on February
16. "We politicians come and go, but the people are
there at all times."
Indeed, but the record of governance of
those politicians
determines the welfare of their people. There is not much
point asking for
international assistance if government policies vitiate
such assistance.
As US ambassador Christopher Dell pointed
out last year,
Zimbabweans are poorer today than their parents were in 1953
despite the
billions of dollars poured into the country in development
aid.
In fact, Zimbabwean and British officials have been
holding
low-level talks for some time. But those talks have gone nowhere
because
Mugabe and his ministers don't understand the need for policies that
improve
the lives of their people.
The British government
could never justify to parliament or
public opinion in the UK a dialogue
with Mugabe that results in no change to
Zimbabwe's repressive and
unproductive political climate. There has to be a
basis for such talks and
that basis is clearly political and economic
reform. The two are of course
inextricably linked. But there is no movement
at the top except in the wrong
direction.
Every month sees a new measure of repression
brought to
parliament. In addition to the Interception of Communications
Bill, exposed
by this newspaper last week, Bills piling up for approval
include the
ominous Suppression of Foreign and International Terrorism Bill
and the
Criminal Procedure and Evidence Bill which is designed to tighten
existing
repressive laws.
Last year a 17th amendment to
the constitution withdrew from the
courts their role in upholding rights in
land-related cases and enabled the
regime to withdraw the passports of its
critics. A Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act introduced penalties
of up to 20 years in
prison for publishing "false" information deemed
prejudicial to the state.
These measures very clearly abridge
constitutional rights to
freedom of expression, movement and privacy. The
latest round of arrests in
Mutare of MDC officials on the basis of a
spurious conspiracy demonstrate
the growing role of the intelligence service
in the country's politics and
the manipulation of the
police.
Matching these developments is the continued seizure
of farms,
many covered by Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion
Agreements,
and proposals by the state to take a majority shareholding in
mining
companies.
These proposals came at the very minute
Reserve Bank governor
Gideon Gono was meeting with the IMF in Washington to
present Zimbabwe's
case for assistance. Clearly embarrassed by the latest
ministerial
clumsiness, he made it clear to the local press that the RBZ was
opposed to
expropriation of any sort and that indigenisation needed to be
carried out
"with strict observance of private property
rights".
What is obvious here is that a small coterie around
the
president is busy sabotaging economic reform or any initiative designed
to
rehabilitate Zimbabwe in the international community.
Gono will make no headway in Washington in these circumstances.
And he has
been told this. It is also no secret that Zimbabwe's friends in
the EU are
finding it increasingly difficult to mount any meaningful
opposition to the
renewal of sanctions every year given the complete lack of
progress on the
ground.
Mugabe and his ministers appear unable to see this.
They respond
to the challenge by turning the screws. This will only compound
the country's
rogue status and growing isolation.
Even
President Thabo Mbeki has washed his hands of the problem.
And Tony Blair is
unlikely to choose this moment of his career to take on
another
international problem!
There will be no talks with Mugabe
because there is no basis for
those talks. Blair needs an unproductive
dialogue with Harare like he needs
a hole in the head. It isn't going to
happen and the sooner that is spelt
out to Mugabe and his officials the
better.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
Joram Nyathi
FARMERS are preparing for
the winter wheat cropping period. But
already there is a tug-of-war between
the farmers and government over the
amount of land that can be put to
productive use.
Presenting oral evidence to the parliamentary
portfolio
committee on agriculture, lands and land resettlement this week,
Agriculture
secretary Simon Pazvakavambwa said government had set a target
of 110 000ha
of wheat under irrigation.
Arda chief
executive, Joseph Matowanyika, told the committee
they planned to put a mere
10 000ha of wheat under irrigation but this could
not be achieved because
they don't have tillage equipment.
Farmers on the other hand
told the same committee that they
could manage only 45 000ha, not 110 000ha,
due to a shortage of inputs such
as seed, fuel and
fertilisers.
The yawning gap between wishful-thinking and
reality is evident
in the difference in targets between government and
farmers who are closer
to the ground - 110 000 against 45 000ha.
Representatives of the two major
fertiliser companies - Windmill and
Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company - confirm
this. They told the committee they had
no fertiliser in stock as they were
closed for routine maintenance until
next month.
But the real truth lay
elsewhere.
The Reserve Bank has given the fertiliser industry
a measly
US$6,5 million to import raw materials against annual requirements
of US$90
million. A simple calculation suggests that the industry would need
to
source more than US$80 million from the black market to bridge the gap.
Should they succeed in raising this amount, that will put the price of
fertiliser beyond the reach of a majority of farmers.
The
reality is that there will be a serious shortage of
fertiliser, not just for
the winter wheat crop but going forward as well
into the main farming
season.
The tobacco crop that used to be a foreign currency
cash-cow is
no more. From a high of 236 million kg produced in 2000, farmers
have
forecast a pathetic 55 million kg this year. Maize production is
estimated
at a paltry 700 000 tonnes in one of the wettest farming seasons
in a
decade. That leaves an import deficit of nearly 900 000 tonnes. As if
to
complete the destruction, government has just thrown a spanner into the
works in the mining sector by proposing de facto nationalisation. That was
one of the few remaining sectors still attracting serious foreign investment
and expanding.
Add to the fertiliser crisis lack of fuel
and the effect of
power outages on industry and mining and you have an
economy that is in deep
trouble.
Passing his verdict
on the way forward, the chairperson of the
committee, Walter Mzembi, said
they had resolved that agriculture be
declared a "strategic sector" in view
of its pivotal role in the economy.
This, he said, would allow government to
prioritise the sector in the
allocation of scarce
resources.
Is this an epiphany? Does a government worth its
salt need
reminding about the strategic role of agriculture? What was the
point of
seizing land if not its strategic importance in the
economy?
Commenting on the shortage of critical inputs (fuel
and
fertilisers), a member of the portfolio committee, Senator Vitalis
Zvinavashe, wondered aloud whether "this is news"? Shortages have become
such a way of life for Zimbabweans are expected to plod on quietly - see no
evil, hear no evil and speak no evil!
A deadpan
observation really, but critical because it is
emblematic of the wholesale
dearth of ideas and the arrogant attitude of
government since the 2000
election and the virtual collapse of the
opposition MDC.
Above all, it means nothing is being done.
The shortages will
persist and there won't be an economic
turnaround anytime soon so long as we
keep importing food.
The trouble is that we believe an event,
any event at all, will
necessarily mean change, more myopically, we expect
an improvement. We
warned when Zanu PF won the March election last year that
there wasn't going
to be any change, let alone positive change. It was the
same faces, the same
failed ministers and the same culture of doing things.
Apart from the
pernicious Constitutional Amendment No 17, nothing positive
has come out of
Zanu PF's controversial majority.
The
current hype about corruption is nothing new. How many times
in the past
have we had our hopes and expectations raised and brutally
smashed to the
ground? It is all part of a game to buy time and pray that
problems will go
away.
One of the questions I have not been able to answer of
late is
precisely what it is government is doing to get the economy out of
the rut?
A lot has been said about economic programmes that never take off
the
ground. Now we are literally leap-frogging from one subterfuge to
another -
spies, assassination plots, corruption, inflation and interest
rates - like
we were kindergarten kids who have to be distracted with toys
while adults
do adults things. But nobody has found the nub of our problems.
Officially,
everybody is quiet.
As a symbolic affirmation
of this "quiet approach" to national
crises, President Mugabe has been
stoically silent over the past two weeks.
He is telling us he has no
answers.
Zim Independent
By Erich Bloch
AS
very widely foreshadowed and feared, inflation is not only
continuing its
high-speed upward surge, but is doing so at an ever greater
pace.
After peaking at an all-time high of 623,8%
(year-on-year) in
January 2004, inflation fell dramatically, creating
excitement and a crisis
of expectation, to 123,7% in March
2005.
Admittedly the latter was still horrendous in the
extreme, and
almost the highest in the world, but nevertheless it reflected
a decline, in
a period of 14 months, of over 500 percentage points, or more
than 80%.
However, many very rightly cautioned that
complacency should not
set in, for not only was a continuing decline far
from assured, but many of
the economy's characteristics were suggestive of
that fall in inflation
having been primarily due to palliative measures,
rather than those as would
address and remove the underlying causes of the
rampant inflation.
Government was naturally very scathing of
all those who
expressed such fears and concerns, dubbing them as "prophets
of doom and
gloom", allegedly set upon sabotaging economic
recovery.
Its paranoia was of such magnitude that it was
almost wholly
oblivious to realities, and those realities were such that it
was virtually
inevitable that inflation would resume its former upward
spiral, in the
absence of constructive actions to transform the economy
meaningfully,
instead of superficially.
That oblivion to
fact, complemented by governmental megalomania,
which assured its endless
conviction as to its omnipotence, resulted in
ongoing destruction of the
economy in general, with especial focus upon
agriculture, tourism, and
investment, massively rising unemployment,
collapsing infrastructure,
parastatal mismanagement and fiscal abuse.
An unavoidable
economic consequence, amongst many others, was
that the impressive downward
movement in inflation was halted, and then
reversed.
From
an annualised inflation rate of 123,7% in March 2005,
inflation more than
doubled, to 254,8%, within the next following four
months to July
2005.
In the next following four months inflation almost
doubled again
to 502,4%, and rose by nearly 56% within the next three months
to February,
when inflation reached an all-time high of
782%.
Arguments will, as it already does, rage widely and
furiously as
to the causes of the rampant upsurge in
inflation.
Government will continue its vigorous endeavours
to deflect all
blame, doing so by using its greatly honed skills of
attributing blame to
others, usually coupled with contentions that such
others were doing so from
diabolical motives of achieving the overthrow of
government, or the
destruction of Zimbabwe, or Zimbabwe's permanent
subjugation, or all three.
The political opposition
reciprocally ascribes all blame to
government. Irrespective of political
considerations, government cannot be
absolved from blame, for it is its
bounden duty and obligation to the
Zimbabwean populace to subordinate its
political ideologies and objectives
to whatsoever is necessary to assure the
well-being of the populace,
including ensuring a good and sound, developing,
positive economy.
Others will blame the monetary authorities
and especially so
when their policies are seen to be the causes of distorted
exchange rates
and particularly so within the "alternative" markets, money
supply growth,
scarcities and gargantuan rises in interest
rates.
This has been very pronounced in recent weeks, in part
as a
consequence of the 169 percentage point increase in the rate of
inflation in
February, and to a major extent because of the disclosures that
the Reserve
Bank had been engaged in the purchase of foreign currency at
exchange rates
markedly different to the "frozen" interbank foreign currency
market rates,
and also to a major extent because those purchases were funded
by very
greatly increased printing of money.
This writer
acknowledges that printing of money is very often a
major fuellant of
inflation, but has argued that has not necessarily been
the overriding cause
of recent inflationary movements. Some strongly
disagree, to which they are
entitled.
I readily acknowledge that I may be wrong, but as
yet have to be
convinced - and not by those who condemn after admitting to
reading only 40%
of my contentions, and who shield behind anonymity and
insult, concurrently
with false allegations of my vested interests, in
marked contrast to
constructive reasoning by a respected columnist in
another leading weekly
business news paper.
In remaining
of my expressed opinion on the recent mammoth
money-printing, I am conscious
of the views of Jerry Schuitema, in his
excellent book Econosense, where he
says: "Monetarists claim that excessive
printing of money is the cause of
inflation. But it is really just a
symptom . Saying that inflation is caused
by too much money creation is the
same as saying that you are getting wet
because you don't have a roof over
your head. You surely cannot ignore the
fact that the real reason for your
sorry state is that it is
raining!"
And, when it comes to inflation, it is certainly
raining in
Zimbabwe. The deluge is due to many factors. One of the most
pronounced is
inflation itself. It is the enormity of Zimbabwe's inflation
that is a major
cause of further, immense inflation. Very understandably the
country's
workers, oppressed by a continuing erosion of their minimal
spending power,
demand wage increments commensurate, at the least, with
inflation. Employers
cannot, save with rare exception, agree to give those
increments unless they
concurrently increase prices of their goods and
services commensurately.
That is inflation!
In like
manner, when parastatals raise their charges (for
electricity,)
Zim Independent
Muckraker
WHAT exactly constitutes free and open
discussion of a subject?
Zanu PF says anything that is not
"clandestine".
Zanu PF secretary for the commissariat Elliot
Manyika says that
while President Mugabe has permitted debate on the
succession issue, "we do
not want any clandestine
meetings".
He was referring to the Tsholotsho episode in
which six
provincial party chairmen were suspended for holding a secret
meeting.
This comes under the heading of giving a dog a bad
name and then
beating it. Are members of Zanu PF not permitted to come
together at a
school or hotel to discuss a candidate they can support, as
they did in
November 2004?
What is wrong with a private
or confidential meeting at which
senior party members plan the position they
will adopt at congress? By
calling it "clandestine" Manyika is giving a
perfectly legitimate meeting a
sinister label. What we are witnessing here
is exactly the same form of
manipulation we see in regard to Zanu PF's
treatment of the MDC.
The MDC is free to debate the nation's
future but it has to be
"patriotic", we are told. So one side's childish and
self-serving definition
of patriotism becomes the template which others must
adhere to.
At one stroke the ruling party determines the
rules of
engagement. It sets the terms of debate by the language it
uses.
Mugabe promised his party a free debate on the
succession issue.
But then he decided that those meeting at a school or
hotel were acting
outside his remit, so he denounced and fired
them.
In fact he fired them because they chose somebody other
than his
anointed candidate. And on the same day that the dissident chairmen
were
meeting, he had the politburo rule that the next vice-president should
be a
woman.
Armed with this resolution it became possible
for party
spokesmen like Manyika to speak of the Tsholotsho participants as
agreeing
to "subvert politburo guidance".
So there we
have the ruling party's definition of democracy and
debate neatly set out.
There must be no "subverting politburo guidance".
No wonder
nobody will open their mouths when the president
invites them to debate his
succession! And can we take a party seriously in
the 21st century that
continues to refer to one of its officials as
"secretary of the
commissariat"?
Josef Stalin would be
proud.
Talking of which, does Tafataona Mahoso have any
idea how many
votes Slobodan Milosevic's party picked up in the last Serbian
election?
He told us that the former dictator and other Serb
leaders had
to be kidnapped by paid mercenaries "because they enjoyed
support and
security among the people who had elected
them".
He should look and see just how many people elected
them before
he next attempts to mislead us. He also appears to think that
only Serb war
crimes offenders have been arrested to
date.
All this in an article which accuses Financial Gazette
writers
of getting their facts wrong. (A columnist mixed up Argentina and
Chile.)
Let's hope none of this has anything to do with a Fingaz article
that
focused on Mahoso's role as chair of the MIC.
By the
way, has he discovered yet in which decade the Long March
took
place?
We appreciate that state employees are expected to
say some
pretty daft things occasionally. But Harare Polytechnic principal
Steven
Rasa took the cake when he suggested all was well at the institution
and
none of his students were complaining about fee
hikes.
"In fact some students had asked for a fee hike so
that the
money is used to improve standards," he claimed.
You can imagine hundreds of students lining up outside his
office imploring
him to increase their fees!
Rasa then had this to say: "Even
me, if school fees for my
children are increased, I just
pay."
What an obliging fellow!
Cuba
was quick to respond to US claims that it was an unsuitable
candidate for
the new UN Human Rights Council. The US had no room to talk
given its record
at Guantanamo Bay, the Cuban government retorted. But the
Cuban embassy in
Harare should edit the script before it sends handouts to
newspapers.
One of 400 intellectuals who joined the Cuban
protest against
alleged US double standards was British playwright Harold
Pinter. His name
was followed by somebody called Reino
Unido.
Muckraker was puzzled. Isn't that Spanish for United
Kingdom? In
other words, where Pinter hails from. And the last time we
looked Guantanamo
Bay wasn't "off the coast of Cuba".
By
the way, have any of the "intellectuals" like Pinter and
Nadine Gordimer who
signed the Cuban document ever protested about the
imprisonment of
intellectuals and journalists in Cuba?
Talk about double
standards!
We liked the picture in Friday's Business
Herald of Minister of
Small and Medium Enterprises Development Sithembiso
Nyoni reading a speech
to an audience of one person sitting on a sofa. He
turned out to be the
director of the ILO's sub-regional
office.
Did she have anything of value to say, we wonder?
Nyoni is of
course a notable electoral failure who was found accommodation
within the
president's patronage system. Her permanent secretary Evelyn
Ndlovu seems to
share some of her boss's delusional political
views.
The ministry was trying to fill the gap created by the
closure
of companies, she told a parliamentary portfolio committee recently
in a bid
to justify the ministry's existence. Some of them had been closed
for
"political reasons", she claimed.
"The initial
closure of some of the companies was not
necessitated by the economic
environment but was a response that we are
taking back our land," she
suggested.
So it had nothing to do with the toxic business
climate
government's failed policies has spawned? Threats to seize companies
and
mines, invasions by politically-sponsored thugs, price controls and an
artificial exchange rate had nothing to do with it?
"After the negative reaction by some of the companies our
economy began to
go down," Ndlovu suggested.
You don't say? What
qualifications does one need for this sort
of job?
"We
have asked the people to take up the challenge and come up
with projects for
commercial centres like Sam Levy's Village in Borrowdale,"
Ndlovu said. "We
are tired of foreign nationals dominating our towns."
This
obviously doesn't include Lithuanians!
Muckraker was
disappointed not to see Nathaniel Manheru
occupying his usual soap box last
week. What could have happened? But all
became clear with a report in the
same edition of Saturday's Herald telling
us that "notable among guests at
the official opening" of the little-read
Southern Times' offices in Windhoek
last week was "Cde" George Charamba.
PD should insist that
contributors get their copy in before they
go gallivanting on government
business abroad! Information minister Tichaona
Jokonya must have caused
consternation in certain circles when he said at
the opening ceremony that
at the height of the liberation struggle fighters
would stop whatever it was
they were doing to listen to the BBC news.
He said he looked
forward to a time when the Southern Times
would become the BBC or CNN of
Southern Africa.
What heresy is this?
National Security minister Didymus Mutasa says the land audit
teams that
have been touring the country "have not come across multiple farm
owners".
This was evidence, reported The Voice, that farmers had responded
positively
to the one man one farm policy.
Is this an assurance that
both former Lands minister John Nkomo
and President Mugabe were thoroughly
wrong? Or is Mutasa's "intelligence"
faulty?
But there
were bigger issues in the story. Mutasa said
government would delist all
farms belonging to blacks that had been
mistakenly listed for
acquisition.
"I will follow a policy that no one takes a farm
that belongs to
a black person and I will be delisting them," Mutasa
disclosed. Thank you
for that minister. At least we now know that all the
bluster about "sharing
the land" was pure deceit. It is, as we always
suspected, more about race
than land utilisation. Or will you next be
claiming all whites are poor
farmers who don't deserve to have their farms
delisted?
As if to confirm our suspicions about the race
issue, Mutasa
couldn't see the contradiction between giving beneficiaries
their ancestral
land and the vandalism going on on the farms. In his own
words, he said: "It
is sad that if you give some black farmers a place
with
equipment, they sell the equipment and move on to another
farm.
No, that is not land reform, it is sabotage."
So,
in Mutasa's lexicon, sabotage is not a crime so long as you
don't threaten
those in power!
Meanwhile, Mutasa told villagers and headmen
in his Makoni North
constituency to speak openly about problems in their
areas so that they are
solved urgently. He castigated those who "backbite"
others as traitors who
can stab you in the
back.
His counterpart from Makoni East, Shadreck Chipanga,
who also
attended the meeting, apparently didn't hear Mutasa's message. He
attacked
the same headmen "for openly attending MDC meetings yet every month
they are
paid by the Zanu PF government which they castigate at their
meetings".
No wonder the headmen appear confused. It starts
at the top.
zanu PF apologist Dick Chingaira is a
graceless winner. He was
given a Silver Jubilee award for his "revolutionary
music". Instead of
accepting the accolade with modesty, he went over the
mountain tops to boast
about how people like him spent seven years in the
bush to liberate the
country from white minority rule. He was equally bitter
that it took 25
years for him to be recognised.
He went
on to criticise the organisers for giving Thomas Mapfumo
an award. "They
should not have given him the award because he has become a
sellout ever
since he went to America," declared Chingaira.
Mapfumo sang
against corruption in high places as far back as
1989. The cancer has now
become endemic in government and we even have a
whole anti-corruption
ministry. Senior Zanu PF officials are implicated in
the deals that see fuel
finding its way into the black market instead of
farming. Perhaps Chingaira
could tell us who fits the description of a
sellout!
in the midst of poverty, poor service delivery and swingeing
rate increases
and service charges, the Harare council has achieved the
unthinkable: town
clerk Nomutsa Chideya says now they have all the money
they need "there
should be no excuse for failure." He said they were in the
process of buying
vehicles, plant and equipment, workers have been given a
130% wage review
and they are able to service their debt.
This month, revealed
Chideya to the Herald, they expect to
collect $850 billion from rates,
supplementary charges and "other sources of
revenue".
"Out of this, nearly $300 billion will go towards salaries and
wages,
leaving the city with a surplus of $500 billion."
So why the
punishing charges on struggling ratepayers? You would
expect council to ease
the burden on "the chicken that lays the golden egg",
as we read in one
newspaper this week.
No, not in Zimbabwe where the commission
runs the city and taxes
residents solely for its own benefit. No doubt they
have enough to buy
curtains for the mayoral mansion
too.
David Bullard writing in the Sunday Times provided a
lighter
look at the Danish cartoons furore. We should give the Danes a taste
of
their own medicine, he suggested, by having a go at their Viking
gods.
Proposed graffiti: "Odin is raven mad." "Thor wears a
thong."
"Valhalla is full of quiche eaters."
"Pretty
incendiary stuff," Bullard thinks, tongue in cheek, "and
we're publishing it
only in the interests of press freedom."
Finally, is the
new Swedish ambassador, who keeps giving a
hostage to fortune by making
naive statements to the government media, a
victim of Caesarian
section?