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Statement at the conclusion of an IMF Article IV mission to Zimbabwe


Press Release No.09/93

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Vitaliy Karamenko visited Zimbabwe during March 9-24, 2009 to conduct Article IV consultation discussions. The mission would like to thank the authorities for productive discussions and warm hospitality.

At the end of the mission, Vitaliy Karamenko, Mission Chief for Zimbabwe issued the following statement:

"A steep decline in economic activity and public services contributed to a significant deterioration in the humanitarian situation in 2008. Economic disruptions caused by hyperinflation and a further significant deterioration in the business climate led to an estimated 14 percent fall in real GDP in 2008, on top of the 40 percent cumulative decline during 2000-07. Poverty and unemployment have risen sharply.

"Against the backdrop of the acute economic and humanitarian crisis, the recently formed government of national unity prepared a short-term emergency recovery program. This program focuses on macroeconomic policy and supply-side measures aimed at achieving low inflation, arresting economic decline, and improving social conditions.

"The mission welcomes the authorities' commitment to eliminate quasi-fiscal activities and implement cash budgeting (i.e., matching monthly expenditure to monthly revenue) in 2009. To ensure an improvement in the delivery of public services, the government would need to mobilize significant donor financial support and contain the wage bill.

"The credibility of the government's commitment to fiscal discipline is reinforced by the adoption of the multiple currency system because under such a system it is not possible to monetize the budget deficit. To facilitate transactions and improve credit availability, there is an urgent need to attune the payments system and banking supervision to the needs of the multiple currency system.

"Accountability and transparency of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) should be strengthened. Moreover, the RBZ should refrain from quasi-fiscal operations and focus on core central bank activities.

"Regarding structural reforms, a number of positive steps that are in line with previous IMF recommendations have already been implemented, including price liberalization, the removal of surrender requirements and most exchange restrictions on current account transactions, the imposition of hard budget constraints on parastatal enterprises, and the elimination of the Grain Marketing Board monopoly. Going forward, strengthening the investment climate, ensuring protection of property rights, and maintaining wages at competitive levels will be essential for increasing domestic and foreign investment."


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Report From Recent IMF Mission To Zimbabwe Surprisingly Favorable

http://www.voanews.com

     

      By Studio 7 Staff
      Washington
      26 March 2009

On the heels of a fairly severe International Monetary Fund statement
earlier this week saying Zimbabwe would have to establish a track record of
"sound policy implementation" and other credentials to obtain new financing,
an IMF mission to the country has issued a surprisingly encouraging report
of its own citing "positive steps...already implemented."

The earlier statement declared: "Technical and financial assistance from the
IMF will depend on establishing a track record of sound policy
implementation, donor support and a resolution of overdue financial
obligations to official creditors, including the IMF." That seemed to dash
cold water on hopes in Zimbabwe for rapid progress toward new credits for a
turnaround.

The latest statement indicated Zimbabwe has taken steps on the path toward
reintegration in the international financial system and, potentially, new
loans for reconstruction.

An early test of Zimbabwe's credibility will come on Monday when leaders of
the Southern African Development Community will consider a US$2 billion loan
package for Harare.

Such bilateral loans are important because they will allow Harare to settle
arrears to the IMF and other multilateral lenders on its external debt of
some US$5.25 billion.

The IMF mission led by Vitaliy Karamenko was in the country from March 9 to
24 for so-called Article IV consultations to assess economic conditions and
the country's policy response. The mission chief issued a statement Thursday
reporting among other details an estimated 14% decline in gross domestic
product in 2008 on top of a 40% drop from 2000 to 2007.

"Poverty and unemployment have risen sharply," the statement said,
understating the case if anything as more than half of Zimbabweans need food
aid to survive and 90% are jobless.

With the country in an "acute" economic and humanitarian crisis, it said,
the recently formed unity government prepared a near-term recovery program
focused on "macroeconomic policy and supply-side measures aimed at achieving
low inflation, arresting economic decline, and improving social conditions."
The mission praised the new government's "commitment to eliminate" central
bank funding of operations and to limiting spending to revenues.

"The credibility of the government's commitment to fiscal discipline is
reinforced by the adoption of the multiple currency system," said the
mission report, referring to the decision to allow U.S. dollars, South
African rand and other currencies to circulate alongside the essentially
worthless Zimbabwe dollar for use by consumers and businesses.

Dollarization has not only quelled hyperinflation which ran at a staggering
rate measured in the quadrillions or more percent, but prices have actually
declined in recent months.

But, "To facilitate transactions and improve credit availability, there is
an urgent need to attune the payments system and banking supervision to the
needs of the multiple currency system," the mission's statement said.
"Accountability and transparency of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe should be
strengthened," it added in a circumspect comment regarding the institution
some have described as the world's worst central bank.

"Regarding structural reforms," the statement continued, "a number of
positive steps that are in line with previous IMF recommendations have
already been implemented, including price liberalization, the removal of
[foreign exchange] surrender requirements and most exchange restrictions on
current account transactions, the imposition of hard budget constraints on
parastatal enterprises, and the elimination of the Grain Marketing Board
monopoly."

It added: "Going forward, strengthening the investment climate, ensuring
protection of property rights, and maintaining wages at competitive levels
will be essential for increasing domestic and foreign investment."


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Human-rights group: Hopes for end to Mugabe repression not met

http://www.monstersandcritics.com

Africa News
Mar 26, 2009, 22:08 GMT

Harare - Expectations that decades of violent repression meted out by
President Robert Mugabe's henchmen would end with the creation of the new
coalition government have been bitterly disappointed, a leading local
human-rights body said Thursday.

Instead, 'not much has changed yet' to the 'almost inherent Zimbabwean
culture of political victimization and discrimination,' said the Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO forum in its latest report.

It catalogued 'continued heavy handedness' by police in handling peaceful
protests, the upsurge in invasions of white-owned farms and the forced
evictions of farmers, and the 'selective arrests' of supporters of new Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's supporters in incidents where they had clashed
with backers of Mugabe's ZANU(PF) party.

The report cited the blanket amnesty for perpetrators of 'the gruesome
crimes' committed by Mugabe's supporters in the bloody campaign for Mugabe's
re-election in June 2008, and the arrest of Roy Bennett, the white ex-farmer
appointed by Tsvangirai to be a deputy minister.

Most of the incidents occurred after Tsvangirai, the leader of the former
opposition Movement for Democratic Change, was inaugurated as prime minister
on February 12, ushering in the new government partnered with Mugabe, it
said.

'The swearing-in of the prime minister ... created optimism for a new
political dispensation,' it said, but it did not bring an end to repression.

In a series of demonstrations, protesters - one with an appointment with the
new MDC education minister to hand over a petition over the collapse of the
education system - were 'unlawfully arrested,' and many of them assaulted.

Observers say that the continuation of the violence and repression is the
key reason for Western governments' refusals to help finance the bankrupt
new government's desperate attempts to restore Zimbabwe's economy, shattered
after years of misrule by Mugabe.

Western leaders have said that they want to see far-reaching reforms in
human rights before they contribute toward the 5 billion US dollars the
government says it needs to rebuild ruined infrastructure.

Bennett's arrest on allegations of plotting insurgency contravened 'the
spirit and the letter' of the agreement setting up the coalition government,
the report said. Bennett was arrested after a month in jail on the orders of
the Supreme Court.

The harassment of the white farmers was 'in complete disregard' of a ruling
last year by a regional Southern African court, which ordered the Zimbabwe
government to protect the rights of the farmers and denounced as 'racist'
their persecution since the start of Mugabe's notorious 'land reform
programme,' which has left scarcely 400 of the original 5,000 farmers still
on their land.

Mugabe on Wednesday said there were 'no invasions,' but that white farmers
were 'resisting' attempts to evict them so that their land could be given to
landless blacks. Human-rights bodies say the farmers' land has instead been
parcelled out to members of Mugabe's ruling clique and his family, and
millions of hectares of once productive land now lies fallow.


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Latest Zimbabwe Farm Invasions Reveal Fault Line in Unity Government

http://www.voanews.com

By Patience Rusere
      Washington
      26 March 2009

The latest round of seizures of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe comes at an
awkward time for the national unity government that is trying to raise funds
from international donors to overhaul the country's economy, infrastructure
and society at large.

President Robert Mugabe has encouraged the commercial farm takeovers as the
final phase of the land reform program he launched in 2000. But such
seizures, though relatively small in number compared with the initial phases
of the often-violent fast-track land redistribution drive, have hobbled
Finance Minister Tendai Biti as he lobbies for donor support.

Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, which ruled from independence in 1980 until
losing its majority in parliament in last year's general elections, is
governing in an uneasy partnership with the Movement for Democratic Change
of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Besides holding the Finance portfolio,
Biti is secretary general of Mr. Tsvangirai's MDC formation.

Critics say the seizures prove at least one side of the Harare government
does not respect the rule of law while the violence associated with such
takeovers violates human rights.

Some 200 mostly white farmers have been turned off their land and in some
cases beaten.

Some said the invasions are engineered by those who want to scuttle the
unity government. But other observers say Mr. Mugabe has relaunched land
reform in a bid to activate his base in anticipation of the next general
election which some see in no more than two years.

For a closer look at the political ramifications of the land seizures,
reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe spoke with political
analyst Rejoice Ngwenya and Commercial Farmers Union of Zimbabwe President
Trevor Gifford.

Gifford said the farm invasions are instigated by what he describes as
"greedy" elements who do not want the country to advance.


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Zimbabwe Teachers Threaten New Strike Over US Dollar Wage Glitches

http://www.voanews.com

      By Chris Gande
      Washington DC
      26 March 2009

Zimbabwe's teachers have threatened to go on strike when the next school
term begins in May, saying the government has not fulfilled its promise to
pay them and all other state workers US$100 a month as a supplement to
local-currency salaries.

Banks have converted Zimbabwe dollar accounts into hard-currency accounts,
but have told customers they lack the U.S. dollar notes to distribute on
government orders.

Labor sources said some banks are offering South African rand or Botswanan
pula instead, but at exchange rates which take a big bite out of the US$100
supplement.

National Coordinator Enoch Paradzayi of the Progressive Teachers Union told
reporter Chris Gande of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the government has
made deposits into the accounts of teachers, but banks cannot fulfill the
commitment with cash.


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Privatisation of State-owned firms on course

http://www.herald.co.zw

Friday, March 27, 2009

By Walter Muchinguri

GOVERNMENT has set up a team comprising two ministers and the State
Enterprises Restructuring Agency to carry out a cost benefit on all
parastatals to assess their suitability for privatisation or
commercialisation, as Government steps up efforts to mobilise funding for
its operations.

The team comprises of Finance Minister Tendai Biti and the Minister of State
Enterprises and Parastatals, Joel Gabbuza Gabuza and SERA officials.

Speaking after their first meeting on Wednesday, Minister Biti said they had
been given two weeks to come up with a comprehensive report on the
parastatals, which they would present to cabinet.

"We will be taking a scientific approach in order to come up with a detailed
report that we will present to cabinet," he said.

The exercise comes at a time Government has recently unveiled a US$1 billion
budget and the Short-term Emergency Recovery Programme that will require
US$5 billion.

In his budget review statement, Minister Biti noted that the funding of the
budget, Sterp and the crafting of a new constitution would require
significant external financial resources, which could only be realised
through serious engagement of international partners.

These include World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the African
Development Bank.

He however noted that while this engagement was underway it was important to
consider the disposal or rationalisation of the country's 'Silverware' such
as parastatals.

This is particularly important as Government has been struggling to realise
much revenue in the absence of significant inflows from taxes such as Pay As
You Earn and Value-Added Tax.

For instance out of a budget assumption of revenues of US$1,7 billion which
averages US$140 million a month, revenue realisations for February and the
first half of this month were US$25 million and US$30 million respectively.

The commercialisation and privatisation of parastatals started in the early
1990s but since then only a few companies have been privatised.

These included CBZ Bank, Dairibord, the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe, Zimre
and Rainbow Tourism Group.

The privatisation of these former parastatals transformed them into very
profitable entities that are competing favourably in the market.

Government however still holds 100 percent shareholding in the National
Railways of Zimbabwe, Zesa Holdings, Cold Storage Company, Air Zimbabwe and
the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe.

Others include the Industrial Development Corporation, TelOne, NetOne, The
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, Minerals Marketing Corporation of
Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe National Water Authority.

Efforts to privatise some of these, which continue to be a drain on the
fiscus, has not yielded any fruit to date.


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Zimbabwe scores badly on ICT

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=14058

March 26, 2009

By Our Correspondent

HARARE - Newly appointed Information Communication Technology (ICT)
Minister, Nelson Chamisa, faces major challenges ahead.

Zimbabwe has once again ranked among the lowest on the list of the world's
information technology-compliant countries, according to the Global
Information Technology Report (GITR) 2008-2009 released by the World
Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe, which is now run by a coalition government established last month
scored 2.49 points to earn the ranking of 132 out of a total of 134
countries that were surveyed for the WEF's Networked Readiness Index, which
measures the range of factors that affect a country's ability to harness
information technologies for economic competitiveness and development.

Zimbabwe only managed to outpace Timor Leste, also known as East Timor
ranked 133 and war-torn Chad, which anchored the rankings at 134.

Chamisa said last week that a national website on Zimbabwe must be urgently
created if Zimbabwe is to be put back on the world map.

"We are very much behind in terms of ICT provision in this country and we
want to be seen as an able government," he said.

Chamisa said his ministry faced huge challenges.

"Statistically, Zimbabwe is probably lowest in terms of tele-density," he
said.

While Zimbabwe wallowed among the worst rankings this week neighbouring
Botswana was ranked at 77.

Tunisia, which was listed 38th with 4.34 points emerged as the foremost
African country on the index followed by Mauritius which was ranked 51 and
South Africa at 52.

While Zimbabwe ranked dismally in the technology readiness Denmark and
Sweden once again led the rankings followed by the United States which is up
one position, thus confirming its pre-eminence in networked readiness in the
current times of economic slowdown.

Singapore and Switzerland ranked fourth and fifth respectively and the other
Nordic countries together with the Netherlands and Canada complete the top
10.

The GITR report underlines that good education fundamentals and high levels
of technological readiness and innovation are essential engines of growth
needed to overcome the current economic crisis.

"The development story of the most networked countries in the world,
including the Nordic countries, Singapore and the United States among
others, has owed much to a consistent focus in the national agenda on
education excellence, innovation and an extensive ICT access. This success
stands as a reminder for leaders in both the public and private sectors not
to lose focus on ICT as an important enabler of growth and competitiveness
in times of crisis," said Irene Mia, senior economist of the Global
Competitiveness Network at the WEF and co-editor of the report.

The GITR report, which is produced by the WEF in cooperation with INSEAD,
the leading international business school, and is sponsored by Cisco Systems
remains the world's most comprehensive and authoritative international
assessment of the impact of ICT on the development process and the
competitiveness of nations.


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Stock Exchange resumes trade

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=14062

March 26, 2009

By Our Correspondent

HARARE - The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange resumed trade today with only one
counter trading.

Only Apex Corporation traded after all the other counters' offers found no
takers as the equities market in now trading in US dollars.

Interfin, the only active counter, bought 3 026 Apex shares at 1 US cent
during the trade.

More than half of the 78 listed counters were offering prices between 1 cent
and 5 cents. The prices were however all less that 0, 70 cents when trade
stopped on November 20 last year.

ZSE chief executive Emmanuel Munyukwi said he was happy that trade had
resumed and that some outstanding issues would be addressed while trade was
active.

"It is a positive move. There are still some outstanding issues which we
hope will be addressed as shares change hands," said Munyukwi.

Trading was brought to a halt on the ZSE on November 20 after Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono discovered that banks were using fraudulent
cheques to artificially inflate share prices.

As trade resumed yesterday a brokerage fee of 2 percent was agreed for
purchases, as the Ministry of Finance said it wanted to boost tax, although
brokers wanted 1 percent.

Stamp duty was agreed at 0, 5 percent while Value added Tax would be 15
percent of brokerage fee.

Fungibility was restored for all dual listed counters and a letter to that
effect was on its way to the Reserve Bank.

Trade on the bourse is now supposed to be backed by a letter of confirmation
from a bank chief executive officer.

The Zimbabwe stock market had over the past two years been the preferred
investment vehicle as it offered returns which were above inflation.

While the country's economy was crumbling, the Zimbabwean share speculator
was earning returns above inflation, keeping up much better than ordinary
citizens on the street.

Most shares were gaining by over 50 000 percent in one day. This jump in
share prices was in excess of increases in consumer prices which averaged 10
000 daily during the same period.

Events that stimulates Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - a country's wealth,
will growth inevitably drives stock prices up, and any event that hurts GDP
growth pulls stocks prices down.

The opposite was, however, happening in Zimbabwe, share prices were rising
while the economy continued to collapse.

Economic analysts said excess growth in money supply was giving a wrong
impression to investors who used the Stock Exchange as a barometer for
Zimbabwe's economic performance.

The country has been suffering from catastrophic economic and political
policies, largely blamed President Robert Mugabe's government. The only
means for government to fund itself has been to print bank notes.

The stock market had become a prime beneficiary of any monetary expansion.
Fresh money enters the economy first through banks and other financial
entities that may invest it in shares, or lend it to others who buy shares.

Thus stock prices rise above prices of food and other investment vehicles
and will outperform them as long as this monetary process is allowed to
continue.


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As Zimbabwe Cholera Crisis Eases, Harare Officials Step Up Water Works

http://www.voanews.com

      By Marvellous Mhlanga-Nyahuye
      Washington
      26 March 2009

Longsuffering residents of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, may anticipate
gradual and incremental improvements in public water supplies as municipal
authorities spend more than US$10 million on purification chemicals and
equipment repairs, a senior city official said Thursday.

Harare Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Chiroto said US$10 million received from the
Finance Ministry plus funds from international donors is being spent on
water purification chemicals and repairs to the capital's dilapidated water
distribution system.

Chiroto said the improvements should help reduce the incidence of cholera in
the capital and in the high-density suburbs or townships that have been hit
hard by the epidemic. Some have gone without running water for months at a
time over the past two years.

The World Health Organization said 4,082 have died of cholera in Zimbabwe
since the disease took hold in August 2008, with 93,046 cases recorded
through Wednesday.


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Air Zimbabwe passes IATA safety audit

http://www.zimonline.co.za

     

            by Simplicious Chirinda Friday 27 March 2009

HARARE - HARARE - Zimbabwe's cash-strapped national airline has passed a
rigorous international safety audit conducted in 2007, a top official at the
airline has said.

Air Zimbabwe chief executive officer Peter Chikumba said that the cash
strapped national carrier passed the International Air Transport Association
(IATA) Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) despite a host of operational
problems it is facing.

"Air Zimbabwe passed the internationally recognized IOSA test and we have
received the certification from IATA to confirm this," said Chikumba, adding
that the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development would soon
make an official announcement on the development.

"The test is carried out every two years and I have worked at IATA and this
is a confidence booster for our airline as we have left no stone unturned to
maintain our established safety record."

IOSA is a comprehensive review of eight operational aspects of the
international aviation industry. It examines airlines' organisation and
management, flight operations, cabin operations, aircraft engineering and
maintenance, operations control and flight dispatch, aircraft ground
handling, cargo operations as well as operational security.

In 2007, a team from IATA came to Zimbabwe to carry out an audit on the
airline. If Air Zimbabwe had failed the test, it would have been classified
as an unsafe airline and banned from flying to various destinations.

The results of the audit however come at a time when the airline has hit
rock bottom levels characterised by frequent flight cancellations, delays,
safety hiccups and a general decline in standards.

A shortage of foreign currency to buy spares for repairs, years of
under-funding, mismanagement and downright corruption have crippled Air
Zimbabwe which was at one time one of Africa's premier airlines.

Starved of cash for re-equipment, Air Zimbabwe uses mostly obsolete
technology and equipment while nearly all its long haul planes are between
18 and 22 years old. The airline requires at least US$1 million from the
treasury to keep it afloat. - ZimOnline


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MPs press for affordable passports

http://www.herald.co.zw

Friday, March 27, 2009

Herald Reporter

THE outrage over high passport, birth and death certificate fees has spilled
into Parliament with MPs demanding that these be reduced to make them
affordable to all citizens.

An urgent adult passport currently costs US$670, that of a child below 12
years US$400 while one requires US$50 for an emergency travel document. To
renew a passport, one must part with US$400.

Countries that insist on cost-recovery fees tend to charge in the range of
US$60 to US$100 for passports.

Birth certificates for children below six years are issued free of charge in
terms of Statutory Instrument 110A of 2000 and so are initial national
identity documents. Replacement of these costs US$25.

On Wednesday, Uzumba House of Assembly Member Simbaneuta Mudarikwa (Zanu-PF)
sought clarification from Home Affairs Co-Minister Giles Mutsekwa as to why
the cost of essential documents like passports and death certificates was
beyond the reach of many people.

The legislator said the cost of acquiring a death certificate now exceeded
that of buying a coffin.

Mwenezi East Member Kudakwashe Bhasikiti (Zanu-PF) said it was every citizen's
right to have a passport and challenged the Ministry of Home Affairs, under
which the Registrar-General's Office falls, to devise other ways of
generating income than depending on passport fee increases.

In response, Minister Mutsekwa said Government was aware that fees for
essential documents like passports were beyond the reach of ordinary
Zimbabweans and was in the process of reviewing them.

Minister Mutsekwa would not state when the fees would be reviewed or by what
percentage.

Passport fees in Zimbabwe rank among the highest in the world.

In South Africa, the most expensive passport costs R352 (or about US$35,20).

On the other hand, in Canada an adult passport with 43 pages costs US$73 and
the standard processing time is two weeks. There is no taxpayer subsidy for
this passport, the holder having to pay the whole cost of producing the
passport.

A Canadian passport for children aged between three and 15 costs US$31 while
that for children under the age of three is pegged at US$19.


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Floods and tropical storms ravage Mozambique


5 hours ago

MAPUTO (AFP) - Flooding has cut off food supplies to 4,000 people in
northwestern Mozambique, as swelling rivers and a strong tropical storm
raise fears of severe weather emergencies, state media said on Thursday.

"At this moment all our teams, including marine officials, the Red Cross,
the government, health, we're all prepared to face this storm," Antonio
Duarte, an official from the central coast district of Pebane, told TVM
television.

The station reported that food aid would be needed in Cuamba, in the
northwestern Niassa province, where the Lurio river basin has swollen under
heavy rains that have been pounding the southern Africa region for weeks.

"We're monitoring it," said Duarte adding that rains over the past weekend
damaged hundreds of houses and left three people injured in Pebane.

Flooding in the upper Zambezi river basin has already displaced hundreds of
thousands in Angola, Namibia and Zambia, the United Nations reports.

The deluge has jeopardized food security in the southern African region and
raised the threat of cholera and malaria outbreaks.

As the flood waters travel downstream, officials in Mozambique are nervously
watching their own stretch of the Zambezi basin.

Last year, heavy rains in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi caused flash flooding
in Mozambique that displaced tens of thousands of people and destroyed
almost 100,000 hectares of crops.

Emergency officials in Mozambique are also monitoring tropical storm Izilda,
which meteorologists say is gaining strength in the Mozambique Channel.

Mozambique is no stranger to weather-related disasters. In 2000-2001 about
700 people were killed in one of the country's worst floods when torrential
rains hit the southeastern African country.


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Know Your Ministers: Gabbuza, Mnangagwa

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=14070
 

March 26, 2009

With Conrad Nyamutata

gabbuza-joelGabbuza, Joel Gabuza (MDC), Minister of Water Resources and Development

Joel Gabbuza was born on September 10, 1967 at Kalima in the Binga District of Matebeleland North province. He is married with four children.

He is the MP for Binga South representing the Morgan Tsvangirai-led Movement for Democratic Change, of which he was a founding member in 1999.

Gabbuza holds a BSc (General) degree in Geology and Geography from the University of Zimbabwe. He says he is the holder of a diploma in photography and a certificate in house wiring and building design and drawing.

Before joining politics, he was a teacher and a lecturer at a number of government schools and private colleges.

Gabbuza was instrumental in the formation of the College Teachers Association. He is also the founder and chairman of the Binga Development Association.

He has been a member of the MDC National Executive Council since

2000, as well as treasurer in the party’s Matebeleland North provincial executive.

Gabbuza was first elected to Parliament at age 23 in 2000 for representing Binga Constituency and re-elected five years later. He was then appointed the MDC shadow Minister of Mines and Energy.

During the parliamentary term starting in 2005 Gabbuza was the chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Mines, Energy, Environment and Tourism.

In March 2008, he was elected MP for Binga South after Binga was split into two constituencies.

Gabbuza was a late inclusion in the MDC line-up of ministers in the coalition government. He was brought in after the party dropped the name of its policy advisor Eddie Cross from the list at the last minute.

ZIMBABWE-VOTE-COMMISSIONMnangagwa, Emmerson Dambudzo (Zanu-PF) - Minister of Defence

Emmerson Mnangagwa, one of Zimbabwe’s most powerful politicians, was born on September 15, 1942. He is married.

A lawyer by profession, his early education started at Lundi Primary School in Zvishavane.

He then went to Zambia where he completed his primary school education and attended secondary school. Mnangagwa is said to have completed his ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels through correspondence courses while in prison back in the then Rhodesia. He then enrolled for a law degree.  In 1972 he sat for his final LLB examinations with the University of London.

In 1975, he studied for his post-graduate LLB degree and after he successfully completed his law studies, he served his articles with a law firm set up by Enoch Dumbutshena, who would be Zimbabwe’s first black chief justice.

Long before then he had become involved in politics, first as a member of the United National Independence Party (UNIP) in Zambia. He later joined ZAPU. He was sent to Egypt for training in 1963, and later aligned himself with ZANU at its formation later that year.

He became one of the first ZANLA cadres to undergo military training in the People’s Republic of China also in 1963. He entered Rhodesia in 1964.

In August that year, his group blew up a locomotive near Fort Victoria, now Masvingo. Mnangagwa was arrested in January 1965, tried and convicted for the bombing.

However, he escaped the mandatory death sentence by a whisker because he was under age. He served a ten-year sentence.

In 1977 he left legal practice in Zambia and proceeded to Mozambique, where he joined the ZANU Central Committee. He was appointed chief of security, working in the office of Zanla commander, Josiah Tongogara, whose sister he was married to.

Apart from a stint as Speaker of Parliament, Mnangagwa has been a government minister since his return to Zimbabwe at independence in 1980.

His first portfolio was as Minister of State Security. Mnangagwa served as Minister of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs between 1988 and 2000.

While he exudes power, Mnangagwa has twice proved not to be a popular politician in his Kwekwe Constituency. He suffered humiliating defeat in the 2000 parliamentary election in Kwekwe Central. The campaign in that constituency was bitter.

The winner Blessing Chebundo of the MDC narrowly escaped death when the Zanu-PF youths who had abducted him and doused him with petrol were unable to light a match. Chebundo won the election while in hiding

Mnangagwa was then appointed Speaker of Parliament.

After he again lost the parliamentary election in 2005, Mnangagwa was appointed a non-constituency MP and Minister of Rural Housing and Social Amenities. His demotion to a minor portfolio specially created for him fuelled speculation that he was being punished by President Robert Mugabe for harbouring presidential ambitions.

But his appointment to the powerful post of Minister of Defence in the coalition government created in February 2009 has renewed speculation he might still be President Robert Mugabe’s favoured heir-apparent.

Mnangagwa is widely regarded as leading one of two powerful factions vying for control of Zanu-PF. The other is led by former army commander Solomon Mujuru, husband of Vice President Joice Mujuru.

Regarded as one of the wealthiest politicians in Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa has close business links with Colonel Lionel Dyck, an officer from the old Rhodesian Army.

Dyck founded MineTech International, a landmine clearance company which secured lucrative contracts from the Zimbabwe government to clear landmines in Zimbabwe border areas after the war. A UK-based company, Exploration Logistics Group, has since acquired full ownership of MineTech International.

Mnangagwa was Zanu-PF secretary for finance until 2002 and later became secretary for administration. As secretary for finance he controlled Zanu-PF’s extensive businesses empire under the holding company, Zidco.

Mnangagwa enjoyed a close relationship with Jayant Joshi, the managing director of Zidco and his brother Manharlal Chunibal Joshi, who also sat on the company’s board. The Joshi brothers fled to the United Kingdom when Zanu-PF instituted an investigation into the financial affairs of Zidco in 2004.

Attempts at previous Zanu-PF congresses to get Mnangagwa to divulge the financial status of Zidco had failed although he did reveal in 1992 that Zanu-PF’s assets were then worth a staggering Z$486 million.

In 2002, Mnangagwa was implicated in a shady deal involving money laundering and the trading of blood diamonds from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

An article in the Spanish daily newspaper, El Pais, named Mnangagwa and international financier Thamer Said Ahmed al Shanfari, the son of a former oil minister in Omani, as having connived to guarantee the safe passage of illegal cash and diamonds through Harare International Airport by circumventing customs.

The United Nations Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC reported that Mnangagwa and Zimbabwe Defence Force Commander General Vitalis Zvinavashe, now late, had enriched themselves from the country’s mineral assets under the pretext of arrangements set up to repay Zimbabwe for military services. Zimbabwe deployed troops to the DRC in 1997 to support President Laurent Kabila against foreign-backed rebel forces.

Various reports have appeared in the media linking Mnangagwa and wealthy business entrepreneur John Bredenkamp in ventures in the DRC.

Mnangagwa’s name has been linked to other allegations of corruption including the taking of bribes during the construction of Harare International Airport in the late 1990s.

Mnangagwa was recently reported to have teamed up with President Mugabe and a wealthy business magnate, Billy Rautenbach, to form a business partnership that acquired more than 60 000 hectares of land to grow sugarcane in Zimbabwe’s Lowveld.

Tomorrow: Paurina Gwanyanya (MDC); Kembo Mohadi (Zanu-PF)


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Zimra officers fleece new firms

http://www.herald.co.zw

Friday, March 27, 2009

Bulawayo Bureau

IN what could turn out to be a big scandal, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority
officers in Bulawayo are demanding R500 to issue tax clearance certificates
to new companies, despite the fact that the service is for free.

The officers have gone as far as giving clients an account number into which
they should deposit the money.

The officers, operating from the third floor of Mhlahlandlela Government
Complex, are asking for R500, P500 or US$50 to process the certificates.

Investigations by our Bulawayo Bureau this week revealed that the officers
give clients a tax number without the certificate and only release the
document when the money has been paid.

Zimbabwean law bars a company from trading formally without a tax
certificate. Not having one effectively stops an organisation from
transacting with big companies or legally supplying bulk orders.

A number of people called the Bulawayo Bureau on Tuesday when they
discovered they had been fleeced.

"A Mrs Ncube attended to me and when she said I should pay, I thought it was
part of the procedure. After paying, I got shocked when a friend told me
there was no charge for getting a certificate," said a man, who asked not to
be named.

Another man who also asked not to be named said a Mr Mudzingwa at
Mhlahlandlela gave him a CBZ account number when he said he did not have
money on him to pay.

"Mr Mudzingwa gave me Account Number 01222381360032 at CBZ and said the
account name was Commissioner General.

"He gave me my tax number but said the certificate could only be released
when the full amount had been paid. I am yet to pay so I do not have a
certificate, which means I cannot start trading legally," said the man.

He said he suspected scores more could have fallen prey to the corrupt
officials at Zimra .

Posing as a businessman, our Bulawayo Bureau called Client Services at Zimra
Mhlahlandlela pretending to be a customer who had forgotten the number and
was promptly given the same CBZ account number at the reception, giving rise
to speculation that many people were involved in the scam.

At the Zimra main offices, at the corner of 8th Avenue and Fort Street, our
bureau was emphatically told that tax clearance certificates were issued for
free.

"There is no charge for getting a tax certificate. Unless the law changed
within the last few hours and we have not yet been informed about the
change, it is free," said a woman at the reception.

In a telephone interview from Harare, the Zimra chief loss control officer
Mr Peter Paradza said they would institute investigations into the matter.

"We do not charge anything to issue tax clearances. If anyone has been doing
that, we welcome any details so that we can conduct our investigations and
bring the culprits to book," he said.


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Zimbabweans moved from pillar to post in SAfrica


3 hours ago

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Some lie awkwardly splayed on the stairs while others
sleep in a neat row outside a church in Johannesburg from where Zimbabwean
refugees will soon find themselves having to relocate again.

The Methodist Church, in the city centre, has long been a popular
destination for thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing their country's political
and economic woes and more recently a devastating cholera crisis.

The sheer numbers of refugees spilling out of the church as government
closed down a camp in the border town of Musina, has now led local
politicians to home in on the church for contravening city bylaws.

"The church and the surrounding area all are now overcrowded," said Bishop
Paul Verryn.

Desperate Zimbabweans seeking medical care or those running away from the
country's harsh economic conditions still flock into South Africa, despite
the formation of a unity government in their country in February.

The new government is expected to work together to revive the economy
brought to its knees by years of political turmoil -- characterised by food,
fuel and cash shortages.

Government was this week in the process of moving the refugees to six
different sites around the city and Verryn said Thursday the United Nations
refugee agency had profiled and interviewed 1,800 Zimbabweans.

He said while those conducting interviews had been gentle, and residents
would still be able to use the building's many skills training programmes,
the nuances of the trauma experienced by constant movement were
underestimated.

"It is very very unsettling and for some people very traumatic. They see
themselves as objects. Somebody described them as a coke bottle: you pick
them up and put them down in another place," said Verryn.

This week the non-governmental organisation Lawyers for Human Rights sought
to declare unlawful an immigrant detention centre at a military base in
Musina that deports up to 15,000 people a month.

"For much of last year there were no toilet facilities and there are still
no beds or enough food for detainees to eat," spokeswoman Kaajal
Ramjathan-Keogh said in a statement.

"Children are also kept in these conditions before being deported back to
Zimbabwe to either face the humanitarian catastrophe in that country or risk
the dangerous walk across the Limpopo River back to South Africa."

Deteriorating conditions where horrific stories of rape and abuse abound
have caused government to clamp down on places of refuge and set up more
formal centres.

For those who do make it to Johannesburg, the church is often a first stop,
and a welcome place to rest after a long day searching for work.

For refugees such as Kennedy Mayerwa, it is the hope of regaining a sense of
normality that spurs them on.

"What I want is...I only want to have my own house, my own space where I can
stay and my job for myself," he told AFP.

While a next door mall puts up spiked fences to keep out sleeping refugees,
and local businesses complain about urine and litter at their front door,
lying where they are not wanted is still preferable to what lies at home.

"There was no good life in Zimbabwe. There's no food, no jobs -- even if you
go to school," said a man identified only as Onward.


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Hope in Zimbabwe

http://www.theherald.co.uk/

March 27 2009

Fragile hope is returning to Harare. Some supermarket shelves are filling up
again and a start has been made on shifting the rat-infested rubbish that
has been building up in the streets for five years. Periodically, even the
moribund telephone system flickers into life. The cholera epidemic is
finally waning. Zimbabwe has been a byword for bad news for so long that
even the faintest note of optimism feels like tempting providence.

What has changed, apart from the appointment of the optimistically named
"unity" government of President Robert Mugabe and his old adversary, Morgan
Tsvangirai? The main answer seems to be the final abandonment of the useless
Zimbabwe dollar, after inflation exceeded 230 million percent. Its
replacement by the US dollar has brought a measure of economic stability and
prices are starting to fall, bringing the price of staple foods back into
the reach of some of the millions of Zimbabweans on the verge of starvation.
It is the payment of public service workers in the American currency that is
responsible for the partial resumption of services. Teachers are back in the
classroom, for now.

However, this is a partial and temporary solution. For those not lucky
enough to have been paid in foreign currency or subsidised by any of the
three million Zimbabweans to have fled abroad, life continues to be
unbearable. And nobody knows whether the government has enough funds to pay
public- sector salaries again this month.

The International Monetary Fund has made it clear that it will not help
Zimbabwe until it has cleared its debts and started implementing sound
policies. It is hard to see where the money is going to come from. Only 100
white farmers are left from around 4000 and most of their land, allocated to
black settlers, is lying uncultivated. More than 90% of the population is
unemployed.
Western donors are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They, too, want
evidence that a democratic government is operational and economic reforms
are in place, and are reluctant to do anything that might be seen as
perpetuating Mugabe's rule. But without foreign aid many risk starvation and
the faltering progress seen since the start of the year could grind to a
halt.

If Susan Tsvangirai's death is to leave a lasting legacy, it must be one of
unity. Her husband was back at his desk this week. Robert Mugabe appears
ready to set aside his brutal vendetta against him, and Mr Tsvangirai seems
prepared to accept his rival's condolences at face value.

Until recently aid would have been purloined or squandered but now the new
Prime Minister needs help to save his country and relieve its suffering. The
Australian government has recently resumed aid and Tanzania, once Zimbabwe's
fiercest critic, is now begging for the outside world to come to the rescue
of its stricken neighbour. Ultimately, Mugabe must be brought to justice for
his crimes but today a bigger priority is to help revive this ruined state.


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Do something about out of control university administrators

http://www.hararetribune.com

Thursday, 26 March 2009 19:20
Letters
I am a student at the University of Zimbabwe and would like to congratulate
the people's project, the MDC - not really for getting into the government
but rather for making a giant leap towards realising our dream of a
democratic prosperous Zimbabwe.

No matter how inconvenient and problematic the MDC's marriage with Zanu PF
may be, the fact is that the MDC now has the advantage of being in a
position to dismantle the dictatorship and steer Zimbabwe towards a peaceful
democratic transition from within the government.

Achieving this from outside the government has clearly proved impossible.
Former student leaders such as Tendai Biti, the Minister of Finance and
Nelson Chamisa, the Minister of Information and Communication Technology,
are now government ministers.

As students, we have endured extreme repression aggravated by the extreme
economic meltdown, coupled with the total abandonment of all the safety nets
meant to cushion students from the harsh economic predicament.

Having been in the trenches with the MDC for a long time and now having
people who understand our situation in positions of authority, there are
certain things that students expect from the MDC's presence in government.

Firstly, the junta-style administration of state universities needs to stop
immediately. The legal and political framework which gives university
vice-chancellors leverage to exercise arbitrary powers should be dismantled
as a matter of urgency and replaced with a student-centred and
student-friendly framework.

Secondly, the state must rededicate itself to its duty to provide
substantial financial support to students in institutions of higher and
tertiary learning.

Our Minister of Finance, Biti, went through his stone-throwing days at the
University of Zimbabwe on a full stomach and received a substantial
government grant. On the other hand, we, the students of today have
witnessed the commodification of education, which has made our burden much
more gruesome.

I trust that the people's party (and not the inclusive government) is aware
of our legitimate expectation.

Relevant
University of Zimbabwe
Mount Pleasant, Harare.


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Are We In A New Zimbabwe Yet?

http://www.nehandaradio.com

26 March 2009

By Dewa Mavhinga

Since the swearing in ceremony of the Prime Minister, his 2 deputies and
ministers some weeks ago l have been asking myself the question: Are we in a
new Zimbabwe yet? The answer eludes me still.

My hope, and l am sure many Zimbabweans and other well wishers shared this
hope too, was that the consummation of the inclusive government would be the
ushering in of a new era characterized by a bold paradigm shift on the part
of government and a fresh and new way of doing things.

In other words, with an inclusive government it cannot be business as usual.
I desperately wanted to feel the winds of change blowing across the country,
and to see the change with my own eyes.

It was with a heavy heart, but not entirely unexpected, that it dawned on me
that a new dawn has not come to Zimbabwe. Only minuscule and purely cosmetic
changes have taken place; there has been no paradigm shift on the part of
ZANU-PF and certainly there is nothing tangible to reflect a change of heart
and attitudes on the part of ZANU-PF.

Robert Mugabe and company has simply made a little room for the MDC to
squeeze in at the table without making any alterations to the menu. Those,
like me, who expected ZANU-PF to suddenly embrace accountability, human
rights and other democratic values were met with the a rude reality that its
business as usual for ZANU-PF and that all newcomers to the business of
government will learn the ropes at the feet of ZANU-PF.

It appears ZANU-PF has stood on the shores of the river of change, and,
instead of crossing over to the land of transparency, good governance and
democracy; ZANU-PF has beckoned to MDC to cross over to its side of the
river which is blighted with corruption, lawlessness and repression.

As soon as the inclusive government came into being ZANU-PF promptly began
vomiting on the agreement. State Agents, no, State thugs really, had the
audacity to abduct Deputy Minister of Agriculture designate, Roy Bennet and
incarcerate him on trump-up charges. Despite a High Court ruling by Justice
Karwi granting Bennet bail, one Prisons Assistant Commissioner Albert
Mandimika flatly refused to release Bennet.

What more, Robert Mugabe at his birthday Party in Chinhoyi declared that
farm invasions are not over until the last remaining white farmers leave
their farms. These events provide conclusive evidence to those in doubt that
we are certainly not in a new Zimbabwe. We are definitely in Mugabe's old
Zimbabwe where human rights and democracy are anathema. We are still in a
dictatorship where human rights defenders are threatened with extinction.

That MDC is now part of government so far makes little difference. They have
not demonstrated to observers that they will not take crap from Mugabe and
his cronies. They are yet to demonstrate that they wield some power, beyond
merely talking about it. I challenge the MDC to take decisive measures and
to stand up to ZANU-PF and demand that ZANU-PF stops this nonsense. I urge
the MDC to be open and transparency and resist ZANU-PF's way of doing
things. This is only way to ensure we make a clean break with the past.

The MDC cannot be preoccupied with saving the so called inclusive government
to the point of making concession after concession to ZANU-PF. Morgan
Tsvangirai and his team must stand solidly and firmly on principle and
refuse to move an inch from principle. If the government of national unity
will collapse because Morgan insists on respect for human rights - so be it.

A warning to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is this: Do not give ZANU-PF
any quota, if you give ZANU-PF your hand they will want your whole arm. In
the twinkling of an eye, ZANU-PF will swallow you whole. MDC remember your
slogan and promise to bring about change; and please deliver the change we
need in Zimbabwe. Chinja Maitiro!

Dewa Mavhinga is a human rights lawyer and a regular columnist on Nehanda
Radio with 'Reflections with Dewa'

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