Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
CLASHES erupted
this week over the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)'s assets
and areas of influence as the split in the
party deepens.
The two factions locked horns over a motor vehicle on Wednesday
that was in
the Arthur Mutambara camp's possession. It was seized in the
centre of
Harare in broad daylight by "youth militia" belonging to the
Morgan
Tsvangirai camp.
The Zimbabwe Independent last night
established that the
incident was reported to the police at Harare Central,
IR number 032822.The
vehicle in dispute is a white Nissan Hardbody
registration AAB 79931.
This came after skirmishes among
faction supporters during a
poorly-attended rally addressed by Mutambara at
St Mary's in Chitungwiza on
Sunday. The events make the projected
bridge-building talks between the two
sides brokered by Bulawayo MP David
Coltart seem increasingly remote,
observers say.
The MDC
factions are on a collision course over the party's
assets that are a source
of growing conflict. The assets at stake include
the party's Harvest House
headquarters in central Harare, offices in
Bulawayo, Hwange and an office
stand in Kwekwe as well as almost 30 party
vehicles.
Apart from buildings, there is also office furniture, equipment
and
computers.
"After the seizure of the vehicle from the
Mutambara faction by
activists from Morgan Tsvangirai's group, this means
the Tsvangirai camp now
has 19 vehicles in its possession, while Mutambara's
group has eight," a
source said. "The Mutambara group has so far lost seven
vehicles since the
infighting began in October last year. There are also
other things at the
centre of the fight like equipment, faxes, photocopiers
and no less than 30
computers."
The source said
Tsvangirai's Strathaven home could also become
part of the tussle because it
was bought using party funds although it was
registered in his
name.
"It was bought using party funds from donors but it was
registered under his name," the source said. "Although at law it's legally
his, it can also be contested politically because he is now a factional
leader, which is different from the original MDC."
A
neutral official in the MDC said the prime target for the two
factions was
Harvest House, currently under the control of the Tsvangirai
faction.
"Tsvangirai wants to hang on to it because it is
his citadel of
power and Mutambara's faction will find it difficult to set
up a strong base
in Harare if it can't capture Harvest House," the official
said. However,
sources said there was unlikely to be a fight over money -
except the
already spent $8 billion from state coffers - because the MDC
didn't have
any. In fact it is broke. Donor funds have dried up since the
squabbling
started.
The battle for property between the
factions intensified this
week after the seizure of the vehicle from the
Mutambara camp by youths from
Tsvangirai's camp along Nelson Mandela Avenue
in Harare.
Mutambara faction spokesman Morgan Changamire said
10 members of
Tsvangirai's "youth militia" pounced on two of their officials
in central
Harare and seized a party vehicle.
He said the
group, led by Barnabas Ndira, waylaid the officials,
threatened the driver
and forcibly took the vehicle keys before driving off.
The allegation was
immediately denied by Tsvangirai faction spokesman Nelson
Chamisa.
"This sort of political clowning is not
acceptable," said
Chamisa. "Changamire is excited by his new position and
has been rubbishing
president Tsvangirai and the party."
Tsvangirai's secretary-general Tendai Biti said the Mutambara
camp was
creating stories to remain in the news. "They want to remain in the
news,"
said Biti. "Mutambara's ship has landed and they have to find ways of
remaining in the news."
Mutambara faction
secretary-general Welshman Ncube said he had
spoken to Biti three times over
the incident and Biti had promised to
investigate the
issue.
Changamire accused Chamisa of seeking to disrupt
Mutambara's
Chitungwiza rally.
"This act of criminality
is not isolated from Sunday's attempt
to disrupt the MDC rally in
Chitungwiza and the subsequent threat by Chamisa
that he would ensure that
our party would not hold any rallies in any part
of the country," Changamire
said.
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
PRESIDENT Robert
Mugabe on Wednesday came face to face with
Harare's chaotic service delivery
when two huge holes at the intersection of
Rotten Row and Samora Machel
Avenue delayed by about 30 minutes a politburo
meeting at the Zanu PF
headquarters.
Mugabe was due to chair a politburo meeting at
9am but came 30
minutes later after the large holes at the centre of the
road caused a
security scare.
His security men, including
the bomb disposal squad, were seen
checking the holes and lifting the
warning signs at 8:45am. The holes were
dug by council workers to repair
burst water pipes last weekend.
Mugabe was due to pass
through the intersection at 8:50am on his
way to Zanu PF headquarters for
the meeting.
Harare town clerk Nomutsa Chideya expressed
horror when the
Zimbabwe Independent alerted him at 8:50am that Mugabe's men
were examining
a "crater" left open in the middle of an intersection by his
workmen.
"Oh no, oh no," he exclaimed. "How many times do I
have to tell
these guys (Works department) to complete work they have
started?" cried
Chideya before calling for "Jaravaza" from the Department of
Works. Michael
Jaravaza is acting director for technical
services.
The motorcade passed through the intersection at
9:20am from
State House.
Council workers then arrived to
fill the craters at 10:20am.
They left after some 30
minutes.
Mugabe's motorcade later drove back through at
12:45pm. At about
2.20pm the council workers were back to drain the muddy
pool after lunchtime
rain showers.
Apparently this wasn't
enough as they were back again yesterday
morning to seal over the
patchwork.
This time instead of using Rotten Row via the
Prince Edward St
junction with Josiah Tongogara, the presidential motorcade
was forced to
come and go along Samora Machel Avenue.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
CENTRAL bank
governor Gideon Gono has warned the economy will
not recover in "a thousand
years" if government officials and the generality
of Zimbabweans continue to
work at cross-purposes.
Gono said this in his February 6
letter of protest and another
one on February 13 to Finance minister Herbert
Murerwa over government
policy and their working
relationship.
He said although he would now confine himself
to his mandate as
demanded by Murerwa, divisions in the government were
unhelpful as they
hindered economic recovery.
"Until as a
country Zimbabwe uses the same ladder of development
other states used to
get where they are, this economy will never turn around
in the foreseeable
future," Gono wrote to Murerwa. "Not with the current
mentality. Never and
not in the famous 1 000 years."
This was an expression first
used by Rhodesian rebel leader Ian
Smith.
As revealed in
the Zimbabwe Independent last week, Gono and
Murerwa have clashed head-on
over policy issues as the economy continues to
slide. Gono says their
relationship has become "untenable" and wanted to
resign at one time
although he has now decided to stay on.
The battle between
Gono and Murerwa is seen as part of Zanu PF's
power struggle now playing out
in the government bureaucracy.
Murerwa has accused Gono of
acting outside his jurisdiction by
venturing into quasi-fiscal activities
instead of confining himself to
monetary policy issues. The two have also
clashed on how to handle issues
relating to the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and payment of the
institution's debt.
Gono -
supported by President Robert Mugabe - has printed money
to settle IMF
arrears and fund government projects due to the prevailing
fiscal crisis.
However, Murerwa is opposed to the move.
Gono has reacted
saying he was after all battling with a problem
which started under Murerwa
in the late 1990s. Murerwa has stood his ground
and insisted Gono, now
accused by some in government of acting like a "prime
minister", must stop
interfering in the Finance ministry's remit through his
quasi-fiscal
activities.
Although Gono has agreed to back off, he said all
the decisions
he had taken were backed by cabinet and key government
officials. He also
said the $46 trillion he had printed was used for
government payments after
the Ministry of Finance failed to provide
money.
Gono said paper money funded parastatals, local
authorities,
food and fuel procurement, embassies, the ministries of Defence
and Home
Affairs and "sensitive state security organs", as well as pay the
IMF US$210
million.
He also said part of the money went
towards "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. But
henceforth, Gono
said, things will change.
"In order to
protect the integrity of the central bank, I have
directed that no special
support shall be given to ministries, parastatals
or any other sensitive
government payment requirements without the requisite
funding from the
ministry," Gono said.
"This should expose the hypocrisy of
your advisors in the
ministry. Equally, the government overdraft position in
the central bank
shall be limited only to levels permitted by
law."
He said Murerwa should now accept delays which come
with strict
adherence to bureaucracy.
Gono said despite
Murerwa's order that money could only be
disbursed by the Reserve Bank in
"emergency or exceptional situations", he
would not do so because the law
does not allow it. The governor also said he
would not leave the minister to
determine the exchange rate.
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
RESERVE Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono has
overruled Energy minister Mike
Nyambuya on Zesa's proposed power tariff
increases.
Nyambuya had proposed a tariff hike to cabinet last month but
his request
was thrown out after Gono wrote a counter memo contradicting
him.
This signals a widening rift between Gono and
ministers, coming
barely a week after this paper revealed his clash with
Finance minister
Herbert Murerwa over the RBZ's quasi-fiscal
activities.
In his memo to cabinet on February 9, Nyambuya
proposed that
Zesa be allowed to increase power tariffs by 560% with effect
from today
(March 31).
He wanted further hikes of 185% in
June, 15% in September, and
10% in November to bring the cumulative rise for
the year to 2 280%.
Nyambuya cited inflation, a weakening
exchange rate and the cost
of water and coal to justify his
proposal.
However, Gono immediately wrote a counter memo to
cabinet and
President Robert Mugabe attacking Nyambuya's
proposal.
In the memo, dated February 28, Gono blasted Zesa
for making
consumers pay for its inefficiency adding that Nyambuya's
proposal would
hurt key sectors of the economy and
consumers.
Instead he proposed that the tariff reviews be
spread over the
year at 95% per quarter. Cabinet has since adopted Gono's
proposal and is
expected to announce the new tariff structure next
week.
Gono said while Zesa whined about the exchange rate it
had not
repaid a "single penny on US$32,2 million (or $3,2 trillion)" it got
from
the RBZ for power imports and that the effective cost of the exchange
rate
had not materially affected Zesa's actual local currency
costs.
"Your Excellency, our analysis of Zesa's profile of
power
generation has revealed glaring levels of capacity underutilisation,
which
in effect explains the high cost burden ratios warranting high charges
being
lumped on the consumer base," wrote Gono.
He said
consumers were paying for suffocating overheads caused
by Zesa's unbundling
which duplicated roles.
Nyambuya's memo cited overheads as
the main cause of tariff
increases.
However, Gono shot
down the minister's argument saying it was
Zesa's "superstructure"
which
had seen it spending 65% of its revenue on salaries and
wages.
He suggested that the unbundling should be reversed to avoid
"corporate
incest" among the unbundled companies.
Irked
by Gono's remarks to cabinet, Nyambuya wrote another memo
on March 2
defending his position but failed to convince his cabinet
colleagues. In the
memo, Nyambuya said Gono's tariff structure would cripple
Zesa and boomerang
on consumers.
He said the US$32,2 million that Gono claimed
Zesa owed to the
RBZ was accounted for in its accounts as a loan but there
were no terms of
repayment.
He accused Gono of failing to
deliver on his promise to give
Zimbabwe Power Company US$3,5 million for
spares and maintenance of Hwange
Power Station.
Zim Independent
FORMER Information minister Jonathan Moyo has slammed
the Jewel
Bank (CBZ Bank) for suing him over a $500 million loan repayment
dispute,
saying the bank wants to "assassinate my
character".
Court papers filed last week show that Moyo
lashed out at CBZ
for allegedly leaking the summons to the media before they
were delivered to
him as the defendant in the case.
Moyo,
who denied refusing or neglecting to pay the $500 million
loan, said the
leakage and demand for loan repayment - "whose due date is
six months away"
- were part of efforts to discredit him "for reasons that
are best left to
speculation".
"How can I refuse or neglect a demand that did
not exist because
it had not been made to me?" he asked.
The loan, Moyo said, was borrowed to finance his activities at
his Mazowe
farm and is due in six months' time. He said he had sunk $60
billion in the
farm and it would be strange after that to fail to repay a
$500 million
loan.
Moyo suggested the Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) was
behind the "political and malicious" lawsuit because they banked
with CBZ
and had interests and influence in the Daily Mirror and the
state-controlled
Herald in which the story was published simultaneously on
March 21.
"As a preliminary point, I wish to register my
profound surprise
and disappointment at the fact that the plaintiff (CBZ),
who is a well-known
commercial bank, unprofessionally and unethically used
the media to
publicise the summons and declaration in the matter before I
was served with
the same," Moyo said.
"The record will
show after the summons were issued by this
honourable court on March 17,
(CBZ) or its agents availed the same to the
Herald and (Daily) Mirror
newspapers for publication on the front pages
under the byline of court
reporter when the matter was not yet in an open
court and when I had not
been served with the summons."
Moyo criticised the Herald and
Mirror for "unprofessionally and
unethically acting in a conspiracy with the
plaintiff in an attempt to
assassinate my character and
reputation".
He said although he was shocked by CBZ's
unethical conduct, he
was also aware that the bank had as part of its
shareholders "the ruling
Zanu PF government that is known to be malicious
and vindictive".
"What I find particularly objectionable in
the extreme about
(CBZ)'s behaviour in publishing the summons before they
were submitted to
the Deputy Sheriff for service on me is that one of the
newspapers, the
Daily Mirror, which is owned and controlled by the CIO, is
very closely
linked with the plaintiff who apparently has been bankrolling
it," Moyo
said.
"Based on the instant matter, Zimbabweans
and the banking
community at large have good reasons to have grave concerns
about the
unethical extent to which (CBZ) is ready and willing to go to
abuse its
links with the CIO and the Mirror by breaching confidentiality,
manipulating
and misrepresenting banking data and information to smear and
impugn the
character and reputation of some of its clients who may not be in
the
political favour of the CIO, Zanu PF and Mirror
newspapers.
"The loan cannot be said to be due as there are
still some six
months to go before it can be called or demanded as per
agreement," he
said. - Staff writer.
Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
ANTI-SENATE MDC faction leader Morgan
Tsvangirai has denied
accusing senior members of the pro-senate camp of
plotting with Zanu PF to
kill him.
Responding to a $100
billion lawsuit instituted by pro-senate
vice-president Gibson Sibanda,
secretary-general Welshman Ncube, chairman
Gift Chimanikire, treasurer
Fletcher Dulini Ncube and spokesperson Paul
Themba Nyathi, Tsvangirai said
he never made the remarks he was being sued
over. He claimed the media had
misquoted him.
Tsvangirai said: "The defendant (himself) did
address a
gathering of diplomats in Harare on 20th December 2005 and read
out a
prepared written statement. However, the article published by the Star
newspaper (of South Africa) and the words complained of, are not an accurate
and fair report of the defendant's address to the said
diplomats."
In the address in question, Tsvangirai said he
had information
his "erstwhile colleagues" wanted to "harm or physically
eliminate" him.
"We are aware of the level of logistical
support and the
quantities of material assistance that Zanu PF is providing
to our erstwhile
colleagues," Tsvangirai told diplomats.
"In the past few days it has been brought to our attention by
reliable and
impeccable sources that the turbulence within our party over
the past eight
or so weeks was also designed to create a convenient
opportunity and
circumstances in which some in the leadership, including the
MDC president,
are to be harmed and even physically eliminated, and the
heinous crime
blamed on intra-MDC conflict. This project is still very much
alive and
active."
The pro-senate leaders claim they were defamed
because the
reported allegations portrayed them as "criminals, unworthy and
corrupt
politicians who are dishonest sell outs".
Tsvangirai said in the event the court ruled his prepared
statement to
diplomats was defamatory, he will plead he was entitled to
deliver it in the
reasonable belief it was true at the time.
"That in the
circumstances the public right to receive
information as enshrined in
section 20 of the constitution of Zimbabwe
overrides the plaintiffs' right
to protection of their reputation,
particularly considering the political
positions of the plaintiffs," he
said.
Zim Independent
Itai Mushekwe
GOVERNMENT is
desperately trying to take advantage of the state
visit by Equatorial Guinea
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema to extract a fuel
supply contract from the
oil-rich west African state.
Zimbabwe is reeling from a
six-year-old fuel crisis which has
greatly undermined the economy. Fuel
scarcity is part of a myriad of
problems at the heart of Zimbabwe's economic
decline.
As reported by the Zimbabwe Independent in 2004,
President
Robert Mugabe has been trying to secure fuel supplies from
Equatorial Guinea
since the arrest two years ago of 67 mercenaries at Harare
international
airport who were allegedly en route to the west African
country to overthrow
Nguema's regime.
Ever since the
interception, relations between the two countries
have blossomed. Zimbabwe
is even working on a law to deal with international
terrorism as part of
efforts to appeal to countries like Equatorial Guinea
seen as vulnerable to
coup plots. The law is also seen as part of efforts to
curry favour with the
West.
Mugabe on Wednesday told journalists at State House
that he had
discussed wide-ranging issues in areas of co-operation with his
visiting
counterpart in a bid to "solidify relations" between the two
countries whose
"security systems are inter-twined".
Industry and International Trade minister Obert Mpofu yesterday
confirmed
that Zimbabwe is seeking to procure fuel from Equatorial Guinea at
a
breakfast seminar organised by local captains of industry for
Nguema.
"Our initial assessment, and we stand to be
corrected, is that
Equatorial Guinea exports vast quantities of mineral
fuels and oils, organic
chemicals and various other commodities which are of
great interest to
Zimbabwe," said Mpofu.
"At the same
time, among Equatorial Guinea's major imports are
products such as tobacco,
dairy products, beverages, beef, poultry and other
meat products; and
chemicals, which Zimbabwe produces."
Mpofu added: "Our
respective Chambers of Commerce and Industry
will therefore need to conclude
some Memoranda of Understanding on
Cooperation and Information
Exchange."
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries president,
Pattison
Sithole, echoed the same sentiments saying: "Your country is
endowed with
natural resources which our country
requires".
Equatorial Guinea has a sound economic base thanks
to oil. Its
gross domestic product (GDP) is US$5,5billion, while GDP per
capita is US$5
300. Its major industries cover petroleum, timber and natural
gas.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
RESERVE Bank
governor Gideon Gono is caught in a storm of
controversy for apparently
violating his visa conditions during his recent
visit to Washington for an
International Monetary Fund (IMF) board meeting
after attending a function
at the US Capitol in the process.
Diplomatic sources said
Gono might have breached his visa
conditions by attending a reception held
in his honour on March 7 at the US
Capitol where he discussed a chain of
business deals on mining,
agro-processing and tourism with
delegates.
The sources said Gono clinched deals with US
businessmen who
want to invest in Zimbabwe, those interested in buying gold
bars and
platinum, providing funding for mining equipment and building
refineries for
oil and other minerals in the country.
Gono also managed to negotiate structured finance for the
purchase of
diamonds and processing of methane gas as well as deals on
agricultural
chemicals, natural gas and fertiliser.
While this was helpful
to Zimbabwe, it was in breach of his
travel conditions, a source
said.
"Although the State Department and the Treasury
Department have
said Gono's attendance at the function did not violate his
visa conditions,
we think it in fact did because he got involved in business
negotiations," a
senior Western diplomat said.
"This was
a violation of visa conditions because he is on the
sanctions list which
prohibits those under travel and financial restrictions
from doing any
business with US individuals and companies. Officials in
Washington thought
the event was merely a dinner party."
The event was organised
by the Los Angeles African American
Women Policy Institute, the National
Black Leadership Roundtable and the
Independence Federal Savings
Bank.
It was attended by several guests, including California
democratic Congress- woman Diane Watson, who is on the international
relations subcommittee on Africa, and retired congressman Walter Fauntroy, a
close associate of prominent civil rights activist, Martin Luther
King.
Although Watson was the "special guest" at the
function, her
spokesman Bert Hammond said she was only asked to "stop by and
that's the
extent of it".
According to the invitation,
Gono was expected to "present plans
and complexities of the economic
turnaround of Zimbabwe's economy", which is
different from a dinner party.
He was also expected to speak on mining,
agro-processing and
tourism.
Sources said although Gono was within the stipulated
25-mile
radius from the Washington Monument, his discussion of business
issues at
the function was a violation of visa restrictions. Gono is on the
list of
128 Zimbabwean officials and 33 organisations under US
sanctions.
According to the US Treasury Department's Office
of Foreign
Assets Control, the sanctions include a ban on any business
transaction with
blacklisted officials and a freeze on assets they have in
the US.
The penalties for violating the sanctions include
fines of up to
US$250 000 or 10 years in jail.
Zim Independent
THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has finally
raised
the US$7 000 ($700 million) needed to clear a consignment of sanitary
pads
donated by well-wishers in South Africa after the Zimbabwe Revenue
Authority
(Zimra) refused to allow the load in without the payment of
customs duty.
The ZCTU accused the government of politicising
a social issue
meant to benefit the majority of Zimbabwean women hard hit by
rocketing
prices of sanitary pads.
The consignment has
been stuck in Johannesburg after Zimra
refused to waive the duty on the
goods arguing that the ZCTU was not a
registered charitable
organisation.
The consignment of sanitary pads was a donation
from South
Africans to Zimbabwean women after an appeal was sent out for the
free
supply to be availed to Zimbabwean women, the majority of whom can not
afford the high costs of the pads. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
ZIMBABWE Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has said
Zimbabwe needs
a new home-grown constitution and not piecemeal amendments to
the supreme
law.
In a hard-hitting statement, ZLHR
accused the state of
"mutilating the bill of rights" through frequent
amendments.
"The amendment to the Constitution of Zimbabwe to
establish the
Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission adds to the numerous
constitutional
amendments which have created a mutilated bill of rights and
a proverbial
constitution which does not espouse the principles of
constitutionalism," it
said.
The National Constitutional
Assembly, which for the past seven
years has been fighting for a new
constitution, also joined in, accusing
government of tinkering with the
constitution to establish a Zimbabwe Human
Rights
Commission
"The NCA rejects a partisan rights commission
designed merely to
serve as an additional bureaucratic ruling to prevent and
delay Zimbabweans
from mounting human rights complaints in the international
arena which
offers their only hope," the NCA said in a statement. "The NCA
fears that
such an amendment will also serve as a vehicle for more sinister
amendments
designed to keep the government's grip on
power."
ZLHR said government should refrain from manipulating
and
implementing piecemeal amendments which negate the need for broad-based
and
inclusive consultation with all stakeholders.
"To
establish a human rights commission in the prevailing
legislative and
administrative operating environment without corresponding
and simultaneous
changes to the current repressive laws is tantamount to
deception and
attempts to create illusory remedial institutions," the
lawyers said. "Such
a process will compound the human rights situation in
the country. The
commission will be a white elephant if institutions, laws
and state-
sponsored practices are not revisited."
ZLHR said Zimbabwe
should do away with laws which restrict the
fundamental rights of assembly,
association, expression and movement before
establishing a human rights
commission. These include the Access to
Information and Protection of
Privacy Act, the Broadcasting Services Act and
the Public Order and Security
Act. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
THE Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) has
filed an
application in the High Court seeking an order for the media house
to be
deemed registered arguing that the Media and Information Commission
(MIC)
has failed to deal with their application within the timeframe
stipulated by
law.
In the application, ANZ, the publisher
of the banned Daily News
and its sister paper the Daily News on Sunday, is
the applicant while the
MIC and Information minister, Tichaona Jokonya are
the respondents.
In court papers filed on Tuesday, John
Gambanga, ANZ's acting
chief executive officer, said the registration
application was supposed to
be dealt with within a month after a February 8
High Court ruling that
declared a previous decision to deny them a licence
null and void.
The court also directed the application be
reconsidered.
Gambanga said the commission was in violation
of Section 66 of
the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(Aippa) which
stipulates that the MIC must deal with an application within a
month of its
submission and Section 8 of Statutory Instrument 169 (c) of
2002 that
stipulates that the MIC should give written reasons for either
granting or
refusing the application. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Loughty Dube
MDC secretary for
legal affairs, David Coltart, is in a dilemma
over which side to back
between Arthur Mutambara and the Morgan Tsvangirai
factions, it has been
established.
Mutambara's faction has left the post of legal
affairs secretary
open as they wait for Coltart's decision.
Coltart, who has said his political future will be decided after
the final
resolution of the MDC crisis, has repeatedly spurned overtures to
join
either camp.
During Mutambara's congress in Bulawayo, Coltart
was elected in
absentia to the pro-senate executive as secretary for legal
affairs, but he
turned down the offer saying it was a mistake since he had
indicated that he
did not want to be elected to any
position.
It emerged this week that the Mutambara faction has
not filled
the position.
Paul Themba Nyathi, the
spokesperson for the camp, confirmed to
the Zimbabwe Independent that the
position of secretary for legal affairs
had not yet been
filled.
"We are still looking for a suitable candidate," he
said. "We
have a lot of suitable candidates interested in the position but
we want to
choose the most eligible," Nyathi said.
Sources this week however said the Mutambara faction was
struggling to find
a candidate.
"Ever since the congress, it has been difficult
to find a
suitable candidate to fill the legal affairs portfolio and the
faction still
believes that Coltart will change his mind and accept the
position," one
source said.
Coltart is the only MP in the
MDC who did not align himself with
either of the factions and says his major
commitment is to see the MDC
problem solved first.
The
sources said Coltart was a vital link in opposition politics
and each
faction wanted to woo him to its camp to utilise his wide
connections in the
international community.
However, Coltart has remained
adamant that he is not interested
in joining either of the two factions
yet.
"My decision on which faction I join, if they amicably
separate,
will be governed on the basis of which of the two sides is
committed to a
non-violent solution of the country's problems," Coltart
said.
The move to spurn the two factions has left Coltart
without a
national executive post in either camp.
"I have
always wanted to preserve my neutrality so that I can be
objective in my
dealings with both camps," Coltart said during an interview
where he laid
out his wishes for a united opposition MDC.
The Tsvangirai
camp last week dismissed the Coltart settlement
plan saying there was only
one MDC, hence no need for talks.
However, insiders suggest
this could represent political
posturing and that talks between the two
sides are still possible.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
ZIMBABWE'S
tobacco farmers have called for a devaluation of the
local currency ahead of
the opening of the auction floors next month.
The farmers
want the exchange rate reviewed from the current
levels of $99 201 to the US
dollar to $130 00 per US unit before tobacco
auction floors open on April
25.
Businessdigest is informed that farmers' groups had made
representations to the central bank to consider an exchange rate
review.
"We are engaging the Reserve Bank with a view to
improve the
current exchange rate if farmers are to return to farming this
year," said
Wilfanos Mashingaidze, an executive with the Tobacco Growers
Trust.
The exchange rate has not moved since Reserve Bank
governor
Gideon Gono announced in January that any Zimbabwe dollar exchange
rate loss
on the interbank market had to be volume-based.
Dealers said there had been inadequate volumes to allow a slide
in the value
of the local currency due to declining export proceeds.
Zimbabwe tobacco sales are expected to fall to the lowest levels
when
auctions open, further weakening the country's export
earnings.
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB)
this week said
the 2006 crop would drop to 50 million kg from 74 million kg
in 2005,
sustaining a five-year decline.
"We are
expecting a crop of around 50 million kg this year which
is much lower than
what we had in 2005 due to the numerous difficulties that
farmers are
experiencing on the production side," said Stanley Mutepfa, TIMB
general
manager.
Tobacco used to be Zimbabwe's main source of foreign
exchange,
but the agrarian reform by the government disrupted all major
tobacco
farming activities, precipitating a decline in volumes. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
THE government exceeded its borrowing limit by 74%
in 2004 in
violation of the provisions of the State Loans and Guarantees
Act,
businessdigest established this week.
The
development is a clear indictment of the government, blamed
for profligacy
and driving inflation due to increased money printing.
A
special report by the Public Accounts Committee presented to
parliament on
Tuesday has revealed that the government had not sought
parliamentary
approval when it went beyond its borrowing limit determined by
law.
The report, seen by businessdigest, said:
"Information received
by your committee from the Comptroller and
Auditor-General revealed that the
borrowing limit of 30% of the general
revenues of Zimbabwe as set by Section
3 (2) of the State Loans and
Guarantees Act (Chapter 22:13) was exceeded by
$224 332 128 491 (74%)
without parliamentary approval."
The committee said this was
a matter of grave concern.
Zimbabwe is currently going
through its worst economic crisis in
history, characterised by high
inflation rates which have gained the country
a place in the Guinness Book
of Records.
Year-on-year inflation for February stood at
782%, a record
international high in a country not ravaged by
war.
The committee noted that the Ministry of Finance did not
keep
records for treasury bills, money market instruments used by the
central
bank to borrow money on behalf of the government.
Last year, Zimbabwe's budget deficit ran into a massive $62
trillion or 60%
of gross domestic product, way above the 2,9% or $3 trillion
announced by
Finance minister Herbert Murerwa in his 2006 national budget in
December.
Much of the deficit had been run through the
central bank's
quasi-fiscal operations.
Zim Independent
AGRICULTURAL inputs firm, Seed Co, says it has
increased its
wheat seed stockpiles this year and hoped production from
other seed
companies would complement its efforts to meet demand for the
winter season.
Seed Co's communications manager, Marjorie
Mutemererwa, said
Seed Co had wheat seed stocks amounting to 6 000 tonnes
for the coming
winter season.
"It is apparent that one of
the major challenges facing Seed Co
and the industry is to ensure we produce
enough seed for whatever crop that
is in season to meet this challenge,"
said Mutemererwa.
"Issues that include securing and training
of committed growers
and also having enough land for own seed production are
currently being
negotiated and addressed with relevant authorities," she
said.
Zimbabwe is currently facing acute wheat shortages due
to a poor
harvest last year. Inadequate input supplies for farmers as well
as shortage
of diesel for harvest affected crop output.
Mutemererwa said Seed Co would ensure that it produced
world-class quality
seed and aggressively seek to protect its reputation on
the
market.
"Seed Co has a strong breeding team that continuously
releases
hybrids that are high-yielding and tolerant to major diseases," she
said. -
Staff Writer
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
LAST Friday the
Zimbabwe Independent came under siege from a
small but vociferous group of
self-styled thought police over our article on
the opposition headlined MDC
in shambles: what is to be done?
The group of readers, some
choking with emotion and others in a
state of self-righteous anger, charged
the newspaper and author of the
article with
thought-crime.
They claimed that the article had tribal
connotations and was
part of a plot to undermine the democratic
struggle.
Others gave informed criticism which persuaded us to
factor in a
number of considerations when looking at the MDC
crisis.
One of our critics even produced a statistical
document to
illustrate the MDC's regional representation for both
factions.
While it debunked some of the myths, especially to
do with where
individual MDC leaders hail from, it also confirmed the
villagisation of
politics in both camps, a point we tried to make last
week.
We also maintain our view that the MDC, even at the
height of
its popularity, was unpopular in Mashonaland and Masvingo for
various
reasons. This remains the case and one of its major
weaknesses.
We were better informed after reading the MDC
document and
appreciative of it. We acknowledge we could have been a little
off target in
some cases.
A prominent MDC lawyer, for
instance, was adamant that he came
from Shurugwi, not Masvingo but we were
not referring to him!
There were however a few readers who
insisted the author of the
article was not Zimbabwean but South
African.
This had something to do with Mzilikazi making
arbitrary
boundary adjustments in the 1840s, we gather!
The Harare lawyer said he was shocked by the "tribal tone" of
our article.
He claimed it was critical of only one of the MDC factions and
insisted we
should have noted the fundamental problem in the opposition:
that there was
a "Ndebele rebellion" against the founding MDC leader.
The
lawyer - along with many others - was plainly unhappy with
our claim that
Morgan Tsvangirai's faction was dominated by the Karanga
ethnic group, but
we pointed out to him that we also recently took to task
Arthur Mutambara
over claims that his faction was Ndebele-dominated.
We asked
Mutambara if he was a token leader. He gave us his
response without much
ado. So why should we not ask Tsvangirai the same
question if some political
observers make similar claims?
We wanted to put this question
to Tsvangirai in the past two
weeks but he declined an interview claiming he
was not yet ready to speak to
the press.
Indeed, his
press advisors have repeatedly declined to take up
the Independent's offer
of op/ed space to pitch their views and vision to
the
public.
Instead, William Bango apparently believes the
Independent must
be punished for not giving his faction uncritical coverage.
It must be said,
the Tsvangirai camp is not well served by this adolescent
attitude.
The idea is not to fan ethnic hatred, as the young
hotheads
would like to think, but to make leaders accountable for their
decisions and
expose the flaws of their command structures which might
create problems if
they ascend to power unchallenged.
We
have always exercised professional caution over these issues
because we
understand our responsibilities to readers and society.
That
is why we do not publish hate speeches, abuse or defamatory
allegations
which some readers send to us regarding the political
struggle.
We appreciate that in such a politically volatile
environment a
flutter of a butterfly's wing may cause a thunderstorm but we
are also not
inclined to slide into whitewash journalism out of fear of
being emotionally
blackmailed by a few holier-than-thou Harvest House
adherents.
There were other readers who sent messages by SMS
and e-mail
expressing mixed views.
We simply welcomed
their opinions and took most of them in good
faith.
Although we respect the views of our readers, the main issue
remains that
the MDC's internecine conflict has taken the struggle for
democracy five
years backwards.
It is plainly unhelpful to pretend that this
was a necessary
cleansing process, as with Zapu and Zanu in
1963.
That episode was followed by petrol bombings,
bitterness and
violence in the nationalist ranks that lasted until
1987.
The only cleansing dimension to it was
Gukurahundi!
As it is, the MDC has let the country
down.
At just the moment when democrats are crying out for
leadership,
it has chosen to pretend that unity is unimportant; that the one
camp is the
only authentic voice of the party and the other will be whipped
into line by
the force of public opinion.
This is arrant
nonsense.
The opposition forces are fractured and fragmented
and as a
result Zanu PF continues to rule by default when it hasn't got a
clue how to
rescue the country from the current crisis.
The opposition as it stands is performing a signal disservice to
the nation
with its self-indulgent divisive politics.
Our article asked:
What is to be done?
Many in the MDC appear unable or
unwilling to answer that
question.
Our columns remain
open to them. They should stop sulking and
assist their cause by engaging in
open discourse.
Zim Independent
By Jethro Mpofu
DESCRIBING the
worrying social, political and economic condition
of Africa, Professor
George Ayittey in his book Africa In Chaos, mentions
disorder, division,
confusion and chaos as the "qualities" that punctuate
the African
condition.
The picture is gloomy as the continent seems to be
"lost" in
chaos, underdevelopment and poverty.
Adding
chilli sauce to a fresh wound is the fact that
governments are increasingly
behaving like a bloodthirsty "vampire" with an
insatiable
appetite.
As things stand, Zimbabwe fits neatly in the
description.
Our economy is in decay, while our political
affairs appear to
be in disorder as poverty threatens to envelope
everyone.
The government continues to ignore good political
and economic
advice like the proverbial fly that ignored sound advice and
followed the
corpse into the grave.
As things look, if we
collectively do not exercise the needed
seriousness, concern and
imagination, we will find ourselves sleepwalking
our country into
doom.
Besides the evident chaos in the opposition, the
splits, the
factionalism and the disappointments, the unity of purpose
amongst all the
political forces in the country, the creation of a new
democratic
constitution, the removal of Zanu PF and the experience of a new
democratic
dispensation are still feasible in Zimbabwe.
Previously, politics has always been referred to as a "dirty
game". It is
the only department of our lives where there is no one truth.
There are as
many truths as there are politicians and political groupings.
Politics is that sphere of our daily existence where what is
true cannot
always be correct. It is not a game for angels nor is it a game
for saints
and philanthropists.
Machiavelli actually put it that "human
beings are either good
or bad - but for the purposes of politics, they must
be treated as bad".
This means that in politics, mistrust,
suspicion and general
distrust of the politician is a
strength.
Politicians by nature are slippery characters, they
are sly.
They are cunning. They are dictators. They can betray, they can
confuse
and they can mislead. They can create wars, spark genocide and
manufacture
national crises.
They are dangerous people.
But, fortunately and unfortunately,
they always become our heroes and
idols.
It is actually said that "politicians are those people
who
privately create problems and then publicly pretend to solve them" and
then
expect our thanks and our votes for it.
We have a
problem with our politicians in Zimbabwe.
They create
factions in the opposition, they betray our trust
and those in government
continue to slide us into the mire of suffering and
despair.
We are even afraid that after removing President
Robert Mugabe
and Zanu PF, another Mugabe might rise again, and the question
is what must
we do?
What must we do about the political
parties and politicians who
are our heroes and villains, at the same time
our assets and suspects?
I believe strongly that what will
protect the citizens of
Zimbabwe from the trials and tribulations and from
the social and economic
vagaries that can be created by the leaders who lead
us in the removal of
Zanu PF and its traditions and eventually form our new
government is a
democratic and a new people-driven
constitution.
We need, as Zimbabweans, to realise that our
heroes, the leaders
of our political parties and other groupings have
potential to outdo Mugabe
in Mugabeism and even our political parties have
the potential to outdo Zanu
PF in Zanuism but a new constitution drawn from
the depths of our economic
and political experiences, inspired by the
heights of our collective
national heroism, strengthened by our wealth of
intellectual strength,
maturity, commitment and love for our motherland will
protect us today and
tomorrow from the excesses and weaknesses of our
political leaders.
In pursuit of the historic grand project
of creating a new
political culture in Zimbabwe, our politicians in the
opposition and the
creative ones in the ruling party must play a big role in
restoring the
confidence of the masses and the interests of the citizenry in
the political
processes in the country.
The MDC split has
disappointed and disillusioned millions of
suffering Zimbabweans. This has
the danger of possibly leading the masses
into believing that practice in
opposition politics in Zimbabwe is an
exercise in
futility.
This bears the danger of cultivating one of the
worst enemies of
democracy in Africa - apathy.
This also
has the danger of donating the masses and all the
publics to Zanu PF, which
would be a tragedy.
So our politicians have the grave
responsibility to assure the
publics that these divisions are constructive
rather than destructive.
I believe, strongly actually, that
these divisions can
creatively be turned into a strength.
If the opposition leaders in the country decide to employ the
sacrificial
spirit, suppress personal ambitions for the national good, it is
possible.
If they decide to suppress the temptation of working for fame and
fortune at
the expense of collective national happiness, it is possible.
The (Morgan) Tsvangirai-led faction of the MDC can strengthen
its
strongholds while the Arthur Mutambara-led faction can also strengthen
its
strongholds.
As the United People's Movement also extends its
base and draws
out scores of leaders and followers from the ruling party,
the opposition in
Zimbabwe will definitely emerge
stronger.
These political parties need to go to the ordinary
people in the
rural areas and enlist them into their support
bases.
There is need to create huge no-go areas for Zanu
PF. There is
need for our political parties to recognise and respect their
differences
and then work over time to ensure that a new constitution is
created in
Zimbabwe that will protect the rights of the citizens, the
politicians and
the political parties.
In his very good
book Manufacturing African Studies and Crises,
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza complains
that political parties in Africa have the
problem of concentrating on
personality contests instead of policy and
programmatic
contests.
They have the problem of concentrating in
intra-elite urban
political and economic struggles, forgetting that the
country is bigger than
names and towns.
He says that
actually, politicians of the elitist approach "tend
to expel" the ordinary
people from history. So, our political parties, if we
are to bury Zanu PF as
we all wish, should have a rural mobilisation
programme that will enlist the
support of the peasantry into the struggle
against
tyranny.
A strong MDC 1 and strong UPM and a strong MDC 2 can
have a
united purpose of creating a new constitutional era that ensures that
Zanu
PF and Zanuism are history in Zimbabwe.
Jethro
Mpofu is a Bulawayo-based civic activist.
Zim Independent
Candid
Comment with Joram Nyathi
I WAS wrong. At least in the eyes
of some senior members of the
MDC faction led by Morgan
Tsvangirai.
A number of commentators who have been writing
about a split in
the MDC are equally mistaken.
Also lost
are those like myself who were advocating a mending of
fences between the
two imaginary camps in the MDC.
There is only one MDC led by
Tsvangirai.
I got this enlightenment during an informal
discussion with two
senior members of Tsvangirai's camp at the
weekend.
Their argument was that there are no factions in the
party.
Unlike the split that occurred in Zapu in 1963, in the case of the
MDC, it
was only "a few members of the executive who walked away". "There
was no
split down the middle," they said.
The officials
said there was nothing to reconcile over since
"there was never a
split".
This despite the bitter acrimony and
counter-recriminations
prior to the two congresses!
The
executives who went away were free to return if they so
wished, I was
told.
There was a caveat though.
The
"erstwhile colleagues" had complicated the rules of
engagement by bringing
in an unknown factor called Arthur Mutambara.
It would
therefore be difficult to discuss anything with
Welshman Ncube and Gibson
Sibanda because of the Mutambara factor, I was
told.
"Who
is he and where did he come from?" they asked. "How do we
talk of
reconciliation or unity with somebody who was never in the
MDC?"
I asked if the imaginary rift would not affect the
opposition
vote.
The answer was the
same.
There was only one MDC and therefore the issue of
splitting
votes did not arise.
The few executive members
who left the party did not take away
any voters with
them.
I was left to ask myself why the party fielded two
candidates in
the Chitungwiza ward and council elections.
The officials said we were also wrong in reading too much into
the number of
people who attended the MDC congress in Harare.
The president
wasn't happy about the huge turnout, they said.
But he had to
follow the constitution which people have accused
Tsvangirai of
ignoring.
They said the constitution required that every cell
head be
physically present at congress.
They strenuously
denied that the 15 000-throng was a deliberate
show of
strength.
For their resolutions to have effect they would
therefore need
about 9 500 delegates for a two thirds
majority.
This meant, I was assured, that the congress in
Bulawayo couldn't
pass a binding resolution because there weren't enough
people. In short,
they violated the constitution.
We were
wrong again to say the party did not enjoy overwhelming
support in
mainstream Mashonaland - especially in rural areas.
The Zanu
PF rigging machine was working non-stop in those areas.
But
they couldn't explain why the effort was half-hearted in
other parts of the
country where the MDC has been winning, from Matabeleland
South to Gweru
Rural in the Midlands up to Mondoro.
It was an inauspicious
discovery I made.
I realised a party that is in deep denial
about what is an
obvious reality. Could it be true that we are all mistaken
about there being
factions in the MDC and the real danger that the party is
losing voters?
It is one thing for a court to confirm
Tsvangirai as the leader
of the MDC, but quite another to face the reality
that there are two camps
and that voters are divided and confused about the
way forward.
By denying the existence of factions, the party
is refusing to
accept the fact that there are other options in fighting the
same evil
system.
It is denying the synergies that
emanate from democratic forces
coming together.
There is
a danger of mistaking the individual or individuals for
the party and
pretending that there is no other way of doing things except
the proverbial
Zanu PF way.
For the truth is that everybody else from civic
groups, business
and students to churches and other well-wishers can see the
chasm in the MDC
and this does not augur well for opposition
politics.
When the stakes are so high and the enemy is Zanu
PF, there is
something to be gained from knowing that this is not the time
to be making
new enemies.
If losing 23 MPs against your
18 means nothing to a party
leader, that party must be very strong indeed.
Unless the message is that
those who voted for these MPs did so for the love
of its leader. While a
crowd of 15 000
looks impressive
inside the City Sports Centre, in a national
election that figure is far too
thin on the ground.
I concluded that without a positive
change of attitude, we are
all doomed.
What I discovered
is that all the discourse is framed in such a
way as to allow for no
alternative - there is no room for accommodation,
compromise, or other
options and that no fruitful exchange of ideas can take
place to break the
impasse.
Whatever it is that was decided at the City Sports
Centre is
cast in stone. I was immediately reminded of the MDC trying to
make
overtures for dialogue with Zanu PF soon after President Mugabe's
disputed
reelection victory in 2002.
What could there be
to discuss with losers, Zanu PF's amadoda
sibili or hawks must have asked
themselves disdainfully.
Yet the whole nation and the
international community felt that
therein lay the best option for the
country. You can already see that
playing itself out all over
again.
Even interviews with the party leader have become a
journalist's
Holy Grail. It's a pity the way they all turn out the same for
all the
differing rhetoric! And Zimbabwe and democracy are the biggest
victims.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
ZIMBABWE'S 2006
consolidated appeal for aid has exposed the
failure of government policies
to improve people's lives or attract foreign
investment, forcing the nation
to seek assistance in virtually all sectors.
A massive US$277
million is being sought to fund food imports,
agriculture, shelter, health
and other basic needs. Of this sum, food
accounts for the largest single
item at US$111 million despite the country
receiving above-average rainfall
this season.
Agriculture, which was the mainstay of the
economy until the
launch of government's chaotic land reform programme six
years ago, requires
US$44 million, the second largest sum on the
appeal.
Shelter, which has never been an issue in Zimbabwe's
previous
appeals, requires US$20 million, courtesy of government's
disastrous
Operation Murambatsvina.
Sweden, Norway,
Ireland and the Netherlands have already
responded to the appeal either
through direct contribution or pledges, with
Sweden availing US$5
million.
The allocation will be channelled through the
International
Organisation for Migration and the United Nations' arms of
Humanitarian
Assistance and Children's Fund Unicef.
The
appeal, drafted by the United Nations and its implementing
partners in
conjunction with government, shows that state policies have
worsened the
humanitarian situation characterised by high unemployment,
sharp economic
decline and fuel shortages.
"The humanitarian situation was
further compounded by government's
Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order
which targeted what government
considered to be illegal structures and
informal businesses," reads the
appeal.
"The operation
further exposed the underlying challenges
involved with rapid, unplanned
urbanisation and the subsequent acute housing
problems.
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."
Government estimates that 133 000
households were destroyed
during the operation but UN secretary-general Kofi
Annan's special envoy for
Human Settlement Issues in Zimbabwe, Anna
Tibaijuka, said 700 000 people
were directly affected through the loss of
shelter and livelihoods.
"Of those who lost their homes many
continue living in the open,
while others stay in the ruins of their former
houses or drift from location
to location. Some have found alternative
rental housing in urban areas,
while others have returned to rural areas,"
the appeal says.
In response government built only 5 000
housing units under
Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle programme, leaving the
donor community to
seek over US$20 million for shelter for displaced
people.
The appeal further exposes government's failures in
agriculture
and food security policies. Food and agriculture account for
US$154 million
in the appeal in a year when government has forecasting a
bumper harvest.
"Government acknowledged that more than 2,9
million people will
be in need of food relief in 2005/6," the appeal says.
The appeal confirms
that the country faces a maize deficit of more than 1,3
million tonnes this
year.
"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," it said.
"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
enactment of the Constitutional Amendment No
17 nationalising all land,
created uncertainty which
made investors hesitant to venture into
agriculture.
"In September 2005, parliament ratified the
Constitutional
Amendment Number 17, which nationalised all commercial farms
and ousted
powers of the courts to entertain any claims by owners of
nationalised
land," the appeal says.
"This has further
marred the interest of foreign investors in
the Zimbabwean
economy."
Analysts said the uncertainty in the agricultural
sector had
affected both commercial farmers and the new farmers since they
don't have
security of tenure on the land they are
occupying.
The appeal says the priority humanitarian action
would be to
save lives, enhance positive coping mechanisms, mitigate the
impact on
vulnerable populations and ensure comprehensive and coordinated
humanitarian
response.
The appeal aims to provide: food
assistance to an estimated 3
million people; agricultural and livelihoods
support to 1,4 million
households; improve access and quality of education
services for 93 000
children; temporary shelter to 23 000 displaced and
homeless households;
immunise 5,2 million children against preventable
communicable diseases and
ensure nutrition and disease surveillance; support
home-based care for 55
000 persons living with HIV/Aids, health care,
including essential drugs and
anti-retroviral drugs to 3,6 million people;
assist 600 000 women and
children in mother and child health care
programmes, target 1,6 million
community members in the health monitoring
and surveillance;
conscientise 4,5 million people about HIV;
sensitise 1,5 million
people on the prevention of sexual and gender-based
violence; provide
multi-sectoral assistance to the 300 000 mobile and
vulnerable populations;
assist 96 000 returning deportees; offer
assistance and
psychosocial support to over 500 000 orphans and vulnerable
children, and to
deliver improved the water and sanitation services for 2,4
million people.
Zim Independent
By Charles Frizell
MOST
ordinary people in Zimbabwe are confused about the reason
for the
frightening level of inflation. Who knows where it will go from
here?
Economists will give you many complicated reasons
for the causes
of runaway inflation, and indeed the reasons are many and
complicated.
However, in the case of Zimbabwe, the reason is
that the value
of Zimbabwe's exports is far smaller than the value of
essential imports.
And it continues to shrink.
Added to
this and compounding the problem is the fact that as
local industries close,
the products that they used to manufacture now have
to be
imported.
This requires far more foreign currency than the
small amount
needed by the manufacturer.
We should all
remember from school that when you divide one
number by a smaller number the
answer is a larger number.
We should also remember that when
we divide a number by zero,
the answer becomes an infinitely large
number.
Now if we divide the value of our imports by the value of
our
exports we will get a number larger than one if exports are smaller than
imports.
As exports shrink, this number becomes larger
and larger. And
then, when exports cease the number becomes
infinite.
At this point the currency becomes valueless and
the economy can
be said to have collapsed.
With official
inflation of nearly 800% (and unofficially
estimated to be much higher) we
are obviously getting very close to the
"divide by zero"
situation.
The reasons of course are known by all: the
destruction of
agriculture leading to the collapse of many industries, the
continual
attacks on all productive businesses and now the proposed
nationalisation of
the mining industry.
Even the
government no doubt knows the reasons but as it caused
them in the first
place, it is very unlikely to have the courage to rectify
them.
Charles Frizell is a Zimbawean writing from the
UK.
Zim Independent
By Percy Makombe
WHEN the history
of Zimbabwean journalism is told, there is no
doubt in my mind that Geoff
Nyarota's name will be among the top crop of
journalists who have made
sacrifices and risked life and limb to tell the
Zimbabwean
story.
Nyarota's role in investigative journalism is a matter
of public
record not least because of his strenuous efforts that led to the
revelation
of the Willowvale scandal.
Indeed, the way
Nyarota and his team of dedicated journalists
managed to continuously churn
out copy after copy of the now banned Daily
News is
commendable.
Much more commendable is the way they were
prepared to return to
work and continue with their profession even after
their printing presses
were bombed in what had the hallmarks of a military
operation.
Nyarota and his journalists refused to be
intimidated and for
that they carved their place in our media history for
their dedication to
the cause of freedom of expression and investigative
journalism.
I must however express my utter disappointment
with Nyarota's
article, "Tsvangirai, Mutambara and MDC's future", that first
appeared in
the Financial Gazette (March 16).
Much more
disappointing is Nyarota's failure to acknowledge the
terrible error of
judgement on his part during that abominable Gukurahundi
era.
At that time Nyarota was the editor of the
Bulawayo-based
Chronicle newspaper - a paper that was very loud in its
silence as
defenceless Zimbabweans were being slaughtered for their
perceived PF Zapu
support.
Journalists have a tendency to
spin their mistakes.
In a subsequent article in the Financial
Gazette (March 23),
Nyarota attempts to spin his mistakes by making
allusions to the different
and difficult times that they were operating in
at that time.
This simply does not wash, especially as
evidenced by the stance
that he took in the Willowvale
investigations.
In 1988 then Defence minister Enos Nkala
summoned Nyarota and
his deputy Davison Maruziva to his offices and
threatened to send the army
to drag them if they refused to
come.
Needless to say that both were not intimidated and went
on to
publish information that was regarded as sensitive in a
government-controlled newspaper.
The point is that Nkala
was running a whole army but Nyarota and
Maruziva still refused to succumb
to his threats.
This is the same stand that Nyarota should
have taken during the
Gukurahundi era. Having failed to take such a stand
then, it is not amiss to
show contrition rather than hand-wringing
arrogance.
Also disturbing is not so much his attack on
Welshman Ncube as
his utter lack of evidence to back his claims. Nyarota
takes the use of
evidence to new lows.
He is convinced
that Ncube was plotting a palace coup since
2002.
His
evidence for this is based on information received from
Elias Mudzuri and
Colonel Dyke. So because Mudzuri and Dyke have said it, it
must be the
untainted truth.
The whole idea of Ncube sending Dyke to
negotiate for coverage
in the Daily News is as suspicious as it is
unbelievable.
This idea we are told also had the backing of
Emmerson Mnangagwa
and Solomon Mujuru. Mnangagwa and Mujuru working
together?
It is a sign of journalism gone awry when
illustrious editors
build an entire body of evidence based on information
gleaned from
suspicious sources.
Nyarota also accuses the
pro-senate MDC faction of pursuing an
MDC-Zanu PF unity pact. Indeed Nyarota
makes a meal of the meetings between
Patrick Chinamasa of Zanu PF and the
MDC's Ncube.
He is not the only one who seeks to make a meal
out of these
meetings.
It has been suggested in other
circles within the MDC that Ncube
took a unilateral decision to begin talks
with Zanu PF and come up with a
constitution as part of the process to deal
with the Zimbabwe problem.
This, it is said, was done without
MDC president Morgan
Tsvangirai's knowledge.
This is
patently false.
And one need not look beyond Tsvangirai's
national council
report to congress to see that Ncube was doing no more than
what the MDC had
asked him to do. This is what Tsvangirai has to
say:
"After the June 2003 mass action - a time when the
people shut
down the country for five days - Mugabe, working with President
Mbeki,
revived the dialogue.
Former secretary-general
Welshman Ncube and Justice minister
Patrick Chinamasa began to explore a
possible solution through the
constitutional amendment
route.
That effort was once again stalled by Zanu PF and
Mugabe. The
process took us nowhere."
Arthur Mutambara is
accused of making strategic miscalculations
by joining the "rebel"
faction.
He is also attacked for joining an "irrelevant
ethnic-based
clique" although little is offered in the form of evidence of
why the group
he prefers to join is called "irrelevant" or
"ethnic-based".
Ncube and Paul Themba Nyathi are accused of
having an unhelpful
"traditional attitude that the party is the exclusive
preserve of the
founding fathers and mothers".
This seems
to be ridiculous, for how do you attack Ncube and
Nyathi for inviting
Mutambara into the party and then in the same breath
accuse them of wanting
to keep the MDC a preserve of its founding fathers
and
mothers?
So what is to be done?
Nyarota's
suggestions are as clear as mud as they are an
exercise in
doublespeak.
He says if Mutambara or Tsvangirai are to lead
Zimbabwe, then
they need to have the capacity to "rally around them some of
Zimbabwe's more
progressive politicians" and he gives as an example the
following people:
Simba Makoni, Tendai Biti, Roy Bennett,
Daniel Shumba, Francis
Nhema, Oppah Muchinguri and Thokozani
Khuphe.
Here is a person who throughout his article has been
attacking
Ncube and company for ostensibly wanting a government of national
unity now
proposing what by all accounts looks like a government of national
unity of
his own.
What exactly is going on
here?
Having said all this, I still look forward to reading
Nyarota's
book. Nothing will take away his achievements in Zimbabwe under a
very
trying environment.
As Zimbabweans, and especially
as witnesses, we need to record
our history so that the world will know our
story, and history.
The kind of national identity that is
promoted by the public
media is a xenophobic kind. It will therefore be
interesting to read an
account of journalism in Zimbabwe from one who has
both the public media and
the private media experience.
To the feuding MDC camps I offer the advice of the 18th century
French
philosopher Voltaire. When he was invited on his deathbed to renounce
the
devil he replied: "This is no time for making new enemies."
Percy Makombe was the MDC's senior press and communications
officer in the
run-up to the 2002 presidential election.
Zim Independent
Comment
THIS week Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR) came out
strongly against government's intention to amend the
constitution for the
18th time to set up a Zimbabwe Human Rights
Commission.
On the other hand, the usual crowd of cheer
leaders who applaud
every government move were wheeled onto national
television to give the
proposed amendment a thumbs up and to praise
government for its vision.
But their blindness to the
realities on the ground and the rules
of constitutional governance is the
dangerous instrument which our
government has always used to justify
mutilating the constitution for
political expediency.
Lawyers have pointed out that the amendment to establish the
Zimbabwe Human
Rights Commission will create "a mutilated bill of rights and
a proverbial
constitution which does not espouse the principles of
constitutionalism".
They are right.
History has shown that in constitutions written on the spur of
the moment,
at a specific point in time, usually when society faces very
difficult
economic, social and other problems, there is a temptation and
often a
necessity to deal with these problems swiftly.
But provisions
designed to quickly deal with immediate problems
may not be appropriate
solutions for the long-term.
In such instances human rights
are not adequately protected, and
it will be difficult to do so
later.
Our government has been introducing piecemeal
constitutional
changes to deal with land, to set up an upper house and now
to set up a
Human Rights Commission.
In the first two
instances, the omnibus amendment carried with
it provisions which infringed
the bill of rights by attacking property
rights and abridging the authority
of the judiciary to hear cases relating
to land.
It will
not be surprising if the proposed amendment also brings
in egregious
provisions to limit our democratic rights.
As rightly pointed
out by ZLHR, government should refrain from
manipulating and implementing
piecemeal amendments to the constitution,
thereby negating the need for
broad-based and inclusive consultation with
all
stakeholders.
This handicap in constitutionalism is
deliberate. The government's
constitutional draft was rejected in the 2000
referendum.
It is fully aware that in an all-inclusive
process, the people
will reject self-serving laws. The plan is therefore to
introduce piecemeal
measures on the hoof.
This brings us
to the dichotomy arising from Zimbabwe's
tinkering with supreme law-making
and enactment of legislation.
A constitutional amendment
should be necessary to deal with a
particularly important issue. In this
case the government has told us that
it intends to protect the citizens of
Zimbabwe by setting up a body that
will deal with
human
rights abuses by state and non-state actors.
We agree with
human rights lawyers that to "establish a human
rights commission in the
prevailing legislative and administrative operating
environment without
corresponding and simultaneous changes to the current
repressive laws is
tantamount to deception and attempts to create illusory
remedial
institutions".
A commission crafted in an environment of
state-perpetrated
authoritarianism aided by repressive laws is a mockery to
the populace
seeking protection from the constitution.
Laws deemed to infringe the constitution must first be removed
from our
statutes if the government's proposed commission is to be taken
seriously.
On that raft of legislation is the Access to
Information and
Protection of Privacy Act and the Broadcasting Services Act
which have been
used as a pretext to close independent media houses, harass
and arrest
journalists and to close independent radio
stations.
Laws which restrict the enjoyment of fundamental
rights such as
assembly, association, protection of the law, freedom of
expression and
movement such as the Public Order and Security Act, the
Miscellaneous
Offences Act and Constitutional Amendment Act No 17 should be
repealed.
What Zimbabwe is crying out for are not more
sweet-sounding
monoliths fashioned to bribe the nation's conscience that
freedoms and
protection of rights will come from
statutes.
We live in a closed society where repression and
brutality by
security forces is condoned by the state on the pretext of
maintaining law
and order while the courts are unable to uphold the
liberties to which we
are entitled.
There is urgent need
for a democratic constitution as the
foundation for a democratic government
and only after such a process can our
constitution contain provisions for
the establishment of a genuine and
effective human rights
commission.
Zim Independent
Eric Bloch Column
ONLY those
capable of gross self-delusion and unfounded, extreme
optimism would suggest
that all is well with the Zimbabwean economy.
In fact, to the
other extreme, a majority of the business
community are almost totally
convinced that the economy has been destroyed
to such an overwhelming extent
as renders it beyond recovery.
Despondency and depression
ranges far and wide, be it in
Zimbabwe's industrial areas, business centres,
shopping malls, mines and
mining offices, or elsewhere.
There is an almost continuous caterwauling that all is lost and
beyond
redemption.
If this were the characteristic of each and every
Zimbabwean in
general, and of the entirety of the business sector, in
particular, it would
be not only an absolute prophecy of doom and gloom, but
also a prophecy
which will be self-fulfilling.
Fortunately, however, that is not the case.
Although the
negative perceptions are massively wide-ranging,
with ever greater numbers
at, or near, the point of no return, there are
still some who are not
prepared to surrender to the abysmal economic
environment.
There are those who are not prepared to
succumb to the
innumerable business problems confronting them, and who
remain determined to
overcome the crippling difficulties oppressing their
business operations.
Admittedly, those with the continuing
resolve to fight on until
better times arrive are a minority of Zimbabwe's
economic community.
Nevertheless, they are still sufficient in
number to provide a
foundation and a platform upon which the governmentally
destroyed economy
can be rebuilt.
One very pronounced
element of the fighting spirit of those who
are not prepared to give in is
adherence to a concept that every challenge
also presents an opportunity,
and a belief that the opportunity must be
seized in order to overcome the
challenge.
One of those that have demonstrated, and continue
to
demonstrate, that resilience and desire to survive is the Zimbabwe
International Trade Fair Company which vigorously continues to mount the
Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) every year, without fail, as well
as divers other exhibitions.
In so doing, it does not
only aid its own survival but also that
of the economy in general, and the
enterprises that avail themselves of the
opportunities that it provides, in
particular.
ZITF and its antecedents can trace a history of
promoting the
economy over a period of more than 107 years, commencing with
an
agricultural show as long ago as 1899 on the same prime site in Bulawayo
as
now houses ZITF.
Over more than a century shows were
staged with pronounced
regularity, promoting agriculture, commerce,
industry, mining, education and
much else.
The extensive
exhibits by both local and foreign exhibitors have
displayed furniture and
interior décor, tourism and hospitality, engineering
and construction,
electronics and information technology, transport and
automotive products,
mining supplies, clothing and textiles, agricultural
equipment and
implements, seed, fertilisers and pesticides, irrigation and
water
technology and almost all other facets of economic activity, inclusive
of
informal sector produced commodities.
Moreover, ZITF has
provided a forum for dialogue on diverse
critical economic issues through
the medium of international business
conferences and similar events,
generally staged concurrently with the
annual fair.
Inevitably, with the intensifying straitened economic
circumstances that
have prevailed in Zimbabwe, and which continue to worsen
almost
continuously, the extent of participation in ZITF has progressively
declined.
In 1991, the fair hosted 1 190 exhibits, of
which 552 were
non-Zimbabwean, representing 42 foreign
nations.
By 2001 the number of exhibitors had fallen to a low
of 585, but
during the following four years there has been a progressively
increased
participation, with a total of 696 exhibitors in 2005, including
eight
"direct" foreign exhibitors (Austria, Botswana, China, Kenya, Malawi,
Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia), and 70 "indirect" (via Zimbabwean
representative enterprises) foreign exhibitors.
Also of
great importance is that over and above the public
visiting the fair to
witness the array of products on display, it was also
visited by 47 689
business visitors last year, some from Zimbabwe, some from
the foreign
exhibitor countries, and some from Bangladesh, Namibia, Angola,
Russia and
Kuwait.
The bottom line of the 2005 ZITF was that not only
were there 78
foreign countries and enterprises who recognised that the
Zimbabwean economy
will, no matter how distressed, survive and recover, and
that therefore
there is benefit in continued promotion of self and of
products, but there
were also 618 Zimbabwean enterprises who had like
recognition.
They were the ones who were not prepared to submit
to the
surrounding economic morass, but are determined to do everything
possible to
survive, and to play a role in bringing about economic
transformation.
In other words, those who displayed their
wares at ZITF during
the years of economic decline were not prepared to be
part of that decline,
but resolved to "hold their own" in anticipation of
better days to come, and
to do what they could to assist and hasten the
arrival of those better days.
They were not oblivious to the
myriad of challenges confronting
them, but were set upon not only
surmounting those challenges but also to
converting them into opportunities,
attracting business and support that
their competitors were forfeiting by
depression-induced lethargy and
destructive attitudes.
Current indications are that, although there is not yet any
prospect of an
early return to the exhibitor support levels of 15 years ago,
ZITF 2006 will
again be a vehicle for those with the tenacity and commitment
to overcome
Zimbabwe's economic ills.
To quote ZITF's general manager,
Daniel Chigaru: "Despite the
difficulties that all businesses are
experiencing currently, the response
for ZITF 2006 is good."
Zim Independent
Muckraker
WE read with interest the Herald story on
Tuesday about a
policeman who lost his car keys and a communication radio to
suspected armed
robbers in Hatfield.
There is no doubt
that his was an act of outstanding valour in
approaching the four men
single-handed. But there was also a certain level
of bravado that suggests
foolhardiness.
After forcing three of the robbers to
surrender and lie down,
why was it necessary for him to chase after the lone
run-away?
Did it not occur to him that they might not just
take the
vehicle keys but drive the car away with them? Why did he leave the
keys in
the ignition and the communication radio in the vehicle when he
needed it to
call for reinforcements?
Did it not occur to
him that the robbers left behind could
easily have shot him dead and
disappeared? Yet arresting the three robbers
he had already subdued would
have helped the police track down the fugitive.
The article
reads like a fairy tale in which the villain is the
victor. It doesn't paint
a good picture of police training if it produces
such reckless officers. In
seeking to win everything, he almost lost
everything.
Still on the subject of car keys, why did none of the Herald
reports on
Kumbirai Kangai's stolen Merc ask what the driver was doing
giving lifts to
people at Roadport bus terminus? This was a government
vehicle. The
suspicion arises that it had become a taxi!
On Friday the
Herald carried the colour portraits of nine
ambassadors who were presenting
their credentials to President Mugabe. The
significance of this item cannot
have been lost on even the most obtuse
Herald reader.
Most of the new envoys will be "conducting their diplomatic
business from
South Africa", we were told.
In some cases it was Zambia. But
the point is, nearly all the
countries cited in the report used to have
ambassadors based here in Harare.
Denmark, Slovakia and
Argentina, for instance, used to be
represented here but decided to relocate
elsewhere in recent years.
Others have reduced their staff
numbers as trade and the need
for consular services dries
up.
Many of the envoys presenting their credentials at State
House
last week tried to think of something polite to say about their new
posting.
But all they could manage was that there was "potential" for trade
and
investment.
The Danish ambassador nearly gave a
hostage to fortune by saying
relations between Harare and Copenhagen were
"now on the right footing
again".
He should beware of a
Caesarian section!
New British ambassador Andrew Pocock
nearly had an involuntary
operation when he made some uncontentious remarks
last week after a meeting
with Joseph Msika about the need to lay
foundations before bridges could be
built.
But he was
obviously not going to be drawn beyond that. So the
Herald had to content
itself with repeating what Mugabe said when he met the
ambassador last
month.
It must be obvious to all observers now that there is
no basis
for talks between Harare and London. You cannot have talks when new
draconian measures are being presented to parliament and the state is
fuelling inflation of over 800%, thus making business of any sort
impossible.
The Herald's reporter trotted out the tired
official line that
"relations between Zimbabwe and Britain have been sour
since the year 2000
when Harare embarked on the land redistribution
programme".
This is a comforting illusion. Relations between
Zimbabwe and
many countries soured when political violence and fraud were
used to prevent
the MDC winning the 2000 election. That is the reality the
Herald's handlers
refuse to admit.
And the establishment
of a Human Rights Commission will make no
difference. The government has had
ample time to investigate complaints of
torture by what Patrick Chinamasa
calls "state actors" and has done nothing
to punish those responsible. Its
failure to apprehend Joseph Mwale is
emblematic of its refusal to take human
rights seriously.
Chinamasa unwittingly sabotaged the
commission's credibility by
saying it would have "the same independence as
our judiciary and our
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission".
So,
no change there! But what interests Muckraker is how this
all came about in
the first place.
Obviously, key cabinet ministers don't wake
up one morning and
decide to set up a Human Rights Commission because
Zimbabwe is out of step
with certain international treaties. So who has
spurred them into action?
How does it work?
The Herald's
Nathaniel Manheru column was last week spewing
venom at Independent staff
over what appeared to be resentment of comments
in this
column.
The author didn't say which comments in particular
had given
offence and to whom but we do recall drawing attention to the
absence of
Manheru from the Herald the previous week and references in the
same paper
to "Cde" George Charamba's presence in Windhoek at the opening of
the
Southern Times' offices there.
This apparently
constituted "cockiness" which joins the long
list of offences an
increasingly paranoid state finds unpalatable. Can we
expect a Suppression
of Cockiness Bill to make its way to parliament soon?
The
reptilian author of the Manheru column, who likes to
regularly advertise the
little learning he received at the hands of our
erstwhile imperial masters,
threatened the editor and proprietor of this
newspaper with retaliation for
letting the "Rhodesian dogs" out.
"Kana koririsa koda
kaparuka," he warned.
This is not the first time this
individual has threatened staff
at this paper. But let's put it on the
record so when Chinamasa stands up in
parliament and talks about the need to
bring delinquent "state actors" to
account we can mention a few
names!
And hasn't Manheru learnt yet that his threadbare
"Rhodesian"
label has lost its purchase on the public imagination? Doesn't
the miserable
failure of his Keystone Cops gang in Mutare tell him something
about public
impatience with these diversions when the country is going down
the tubes
thanks to his time-expired boss?
And there was
Didymus Mutasa in the Saturday Herald trying to
blame the police for Zanu
PF's latest debacle.
Needless to say, he was allowed to get
away with it by the
nation's most unchallenging reporter who asked questions
like: "What do you
think about the discovery of arms caches 26 years after
Independence?"
Shouldn't that have been: "How can you go on
pulling stunts like
this 26 years after Independence?"
But Mutasa had some jewels to share with us.
"There are
people in Zanu PF who worked so hard to bring this
country to where it is
today."
Indeed, no disputing that. Then there was his
assertion that
"the economy we inherited was never intended
for
the number of people there are in the
country".
So that's why he's running it
down?
And can you believe Ceasar Zvayi asking a question that
begins:
"Morgan Tsvangirai, who was tried on charges of high treason, has
threatened
to violently remove President Mugabe", without disclosing that
the MDC
leader was acquitted on those charges?
Indeed,
it has become a habit of the state press to repeat
charges at length long
after they have been dismissed either before plea or
in
court.
Mutasa was asked if he was being "groomed for the
presidium".
"I do not have that kind of ambition," was the
reply.
But wasn't it in an earlier "conversation" with Zvayi
that he
revealed his ambition to be vice-president? Have both he and Zvayi
conspired
to forget that?
"What is the secret behind your
success?" Zvayi gushed.
Muckraker was too busy throwing up to
catch the reply.
Meanwhile, Vice-President Joseph Msika has
been calling
Tsvangirai a fool.
"Do not listen to that
fool. He is nothing. He is waffling,"
Msika told farmers in
Makonde.
But he appears to forget that "there's no fool like an
old fool".
We recall him waffling about dogs sniffing around not so long
ago.
"I will defend the gains of our liberation struggle with
all my
intelligence." he told his audience. They must have been greatly
reassured.
Also reassuring was his claim in Gwayi that "everything is well
on course in
so far as the turnaround strategy is
concerned".
Still on the subject of intelligence, why did
Nathan Shamuyarira
and Elliot Manyika have to issue a joint statement
condemning Tsvangirai? Is
it a double act? Do they need to prop each other
up?
And next time Shamuyarira purports to be defending the
gains of
the liberation struggle he should be reminded of the F-word.
Frolizi! By the
way, what happened to his magnum opus on the
struggle?
Some of our ambassadors abroad are so intimidated
by negative
reports about Zimbabwe that they are failing to undo the damage
caused, a
former senior diplomat told a meeting last week. Strategies were
needed to
overcome a hostile press, Ambassador Tendai Mutunhu
said.
"If the negative reports are not true there is no
reason why our
tourism sector should continue to suffer like
this."
So what sort of untrue reports is he talking about:
inflation at
over 800%; arbitrary arrests and detention of government's
critics;
newspapers closed down; commercial agriculture ruined; irrigation
equipment
stolen; fuel diverted for sale on the black market; 700 000 made
homeless by
state-sponsored attacks on their homes and businesses (with more
to come)?
Which one of those negative reports is "untrue"
Ambassador? Were
they all invented by the media? And do you really think you
are going to
lure visitors back to this country by getting our diplomats
abroad to claim
nothing like that is happening?
People
who live in our tourism source markets are not the fools
you take them for.
And, unlike ours, the media there cannot be suborned into
saying all is well
in Zimbabwe when it manifestly isn't.
A reader called in on
Tuesday to say he witnessed the following
incident at around 8pm on Monday
night. The presidential motorcade had just
passed the junction of Lomagundi
Rd and King George Road heading back into
town, presumably after visiting
the home of the late police protection unit
officer, Winston
Changara.
A vehicle had apparently detached itself from the
motorcade and
a soldier who had got out was beating a motorist, kneeling on
the ground
beside his car, with his truncheon. The victim had his arms up
trying to
cover his head from the savage assault.
This
horrific episode was caught in the headlamps (the
streetlights weren't
working) of numerous motorists who, transfixed by the
scene, remained
stationary despite the lights turning to green.
It was useful
to have this report in the same week that
Chinamasa referred to
"falsifications" and "exaggerations" of human rights
incidents.
Let's hope there were no tourists
watching!
Finally, a lighter moment:
A
young man consults a fictitious publication's agony aunt.
Hallo Tete,
I have a problem and ndovimba kuti
muchandibatsira ne nyaya iyi.
I am a car thief and dealer in
Mbare who has recently been
diagnosed as a carrier of the HIV virus. My
parents live in Mufakose and one
of my sisters, who lives in Mabvuku, is
married to a gold smuggler.
My father and mother have
recently been arrested for growing and
selling marijuana. They are
financially dependent on my two sisters, who are
prostitutes at a city
hotel.
I have two brothers, one is currently serving a
non-parole life
sentence at Chikurubi and my other brother is currently at
Remand Prison
awaiting his sentence.
I have recently
become engaged to marry a former prostitute who
lives in
Highfield.
All things considered, my problem is this. I love
my fiancée
very much and look forward to bringing her into the
family.
I certainly want to be totally open and honest with
her.
Should I tell her about my cousin who is an MDC
supporter?
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
Vincent Kahiya
IN his short story
When god came to town, author Yuval Cohen has
these lines: "The sun should
have been shining and the birds should have
been singing, but not even god's
almighty sun could have penetrated the gray
clouds of smoke and the yellow
clouds of sulfur that hang over town like a
painting by some mad artist
who'd have made Dante's description of hell look
like a childhood fantasy of
an imagination-less nun...And besides, all the
birds were
dead."
The reason for this failure of the godly power to
bring light to
the doom and gloom is perhaps because this was not the real
omnipotent God.
There are many who have pronounced themselves or have been
given the title
god but are in reality deeply bereft of the messianic
mantle.
A god came to town this week. Equatorial Guinean
President
Teodoro Obiang Nguema who is in Harare on a state visit has been
given this
fulsome title by his praise-singers. Like Cohen's god, we do not
expect his
sun to bring any illumination after the visit.
In 2003, state-operated radio in his country declared that
Obiang was a god
who is "in permanent contact with the Almighty".
"He can
decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and
without going to
hell because it is god himself with whom he is in permanent
contact and who
gives him this strength," a presidential aide announced on a
show
Bidze-Nduan (Bury the fire), which deals with "peace, tranquillity and
the
order reigning in the country".
His visit was an important
fillip for our rulers as the list of
visiting heads of state has over the
years dwindled. Zimbabwe is definitely
not the flavour of the month and
Obiang's visit this week was a rare
opportunity for the president to
showcase his newfound allies after falling
out of favour with the
West.
I recall in the early 1980s being bussed into town
early in the
morning and dropped off along Julius Nyerere Way to cheer a
visiting head of
state.
We would miss school all day
waiting in the baking sun for the
esteemed leader amid promises from our
teachers that he would be arriving
soon. The wailing siren of a council
ambulance would send us rushing for
strategic positions to view the great
leader. When the real wailers came
through we would all wave at the speeding
vehicles without even getting a
glimpse of our target hidden behind darkened
windows.
The streets were then adorned with portraits of the
visiting
head of state and flags of his country and of course our own prime
minister
smiling down at his subjects from the perch of a shiny steel
mast.
The masts and boards to hold the portraits have rusted
over
extended periods of idleness. Some of them have been brought down by
inebriated motorists. The rusting tall poles are reminders of the heyday of
Zimbabwe's foreign policy when the country had friends who mattered and had
clout abroad.
This was a time when heads of state would
come to announce
generous plans to assist the fledgling state and aid would
flow in.
There was an attempt at this former splendour this
week with
flags and portraits to announce the arrival of Equatorial Guinea's
Obiang
who has been in power since 1979 after he toppled his uncle in a
violent
coup and subsequently executed him.
Prior to this
Obiang visit, Zimbabwe had received Uganda's
Yoweri Museveni in 2004, Meles
Zenawi of Ethiopia in 2002 and the DRC's
Joseph Kabila in 2001. All these
heads promised to enhance co-operation
between their countries and
Zimbabwe.
Museveni signed memoranda on agriculture and
tourism. Kabila
promised greater co-operation in mining and agro-forestry
while showing his
appreciation for Zimbabwe's expensive campaign in the DRC.
We are still
waiting for the spin-offs from these visits.
The "god" who was in town this week has fuel, and an energy pact
with his
counterpart would not be a bad idea.
He was also excited with
Zimbabwe's timely tabling of the
Suppression of Foreign and International
Terrorism Bill to protect the
country from those trying to remove the
government unlawfully. Remember
Zimbabwe's "valiant" efforts in thwarting a
mercenary mission to remove
Obiang from power in 2004?
Mugabe was in familiar company this week considering Obiang's
political CV.
He formally assumed the presidency in October 1979. A new
constitution was
adopted in 1982; at the same time, Obiang was elected to a
seven-year term
as president. He was re-elected in1989 as the only
candidate.
Although Obiang's regime is considered more
humane than that of
his uncle, most domestic and international observers
consider it to be one
of the most corrupt, ethnocentric, oppressive and
anti-democratic states in
the world, a reincarnation of Haiti under Papa Doc
Duvalier. Equatorial
Guinea is now essentially a single-party state,
dominated by Obiang's
Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
(PDGE).
All but two members of the 100-seat national
parliament belong
to the PDGE, or are aligned with it. The opposition is
severely hampered by
the lack of a free press as a vehicle for their views.
Obiang was re-elected
in 1996 and 2002, but the conduct of both elections
was not acceptable to
international observers.
Sounds
familiar, doesn't it? By the way, does anyone still
remember Tony Gara's
proclamation of Zimbabwe's only "begotten son"?
Yearning for a headline:
"Two deities meet". But sadly there will be no
deliverance!