FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief
Political Reporter
THE South African government has granted Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) national treasurer Roy Bennett a temporary residence
permit as he
awaits the processing of his application for political asylum,
The Financial
Gazette can reveal.
Sources in Harare and South Africa
said the temporary residence permit,
issued about a month ago, allowed
Bennett to legally stay across the Limpopo
while South Africa's department
of Home Affairs considered his asylum
application.
"It is the same
temporary residence permit that has been issued under
Section 22 to several
other Zimbabwean professionals, among them
journalists, working in South
Africa," said a source privy to the saga.
Danie Fourie, who sources claimed
represented Bennett in South Africa,
declined to discuss the issue, saying
he was not the right person to speak
about the MDC official. "I don't think
I am the right person to talk to
about that. Get in touch with Arnold
Tsunga," Fourie said.
Tsunga, the director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights is, however,
reported to be in Ethiopia.
The latest disclosure
comes amid reports last week that some of Bennett's
workers at his former
Chimanimani coffee farm in Manicaland have had their
applications for
political asylum turned down on the grounds that there was
no political
persecution in Zimbabwe.
Bennett skipped the country two months ago after
police indicated they
wanted to question him after the discovery of an arms
cache at the house of
a former Rhodesian operative and licenced arms dealer,
Peter Michael
Hitschman. Several MDC Manicaland officials, including Giles
Mutsekwa, the
MDC legislator for Mutare North, were arrested over the
discovery of the
arms as the state claimed they intended overthrowing
President Mugabe's
government.
The case crumbled after state prosecutors
declined to proceed with the trial
citing lack of incriminating evidence.
However, the state has set June 26 as
Hitschman's trial date on charges of
conspiracy to possess an assortment of
weaponry for insurgency.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior
Business Reporter
Sniffer dogs search for Bennett
HEAVILY armed policemen
raided and searched the home of the opposition
Movement for Democratic
Change's Manicaland Provincial chairman Godfrey
Mubatsa in Zimunya last
Saturday, in a move the police described as
"routine."
Manicaland
provincial spokesperson Pishai Muchauraya told The Financial
Gazette that
the police squad of 12, which was aided by sniffer dogs,
rummaged through
Mubatsa's residence, presumably searching for arms of war
and subversive
materials.
The team, which was led by an Inspector Mavhenyengwa, is alleged
to have dug
up the yard around Mubatsa's homestead in search of 'weapons of
war.'
At the time of the raid, Mubatsa had gone to address a rally in Buhera
South.
Muchauraya said the police interrogated Mubatsa's family on the
whereabouts
of former Chimanimani legislator Roy Bennett, who is seeking
political
asylum in South Africa.
"They asked the family about Bennett,
saying Mubatsa should know much
because he was Bennett's deputy before
assuming the provincial
chairmanship," said Muchauraya.
Before his
appointment as the MDC national treasurer, Bennett was the party's
provincial chairman and was deputised by Mubatsa.
The police did not
produce a search warrant before the raid.
Yesterday Mavhenyengwa confirmed
raiding Mubatsa's homestead.
"They were routine duties," Mavhenyengwa said in
a terse response before
referring The Financial Gazette to his
superiors.
The raid comes barely two months after the police ransacked the
MDC's
provincial offices and the home of Mutare North legislator Giles
Mutsekwa in
search of arms of war. The raid on Mutsekwa's home and his
subsequent arrest
in March followed the discovery of a small cache of arms
at the house of a
Mutare arms dealer, which police said was linked to the
MDC.
The case against Mutsekwa and five others crumbled in farcical
circumstances
when a judge ordered their discharge following a series of
disagreements
between the prosecutors and state security agents.
MDC
spokesperson Nelson Chamisa yesterday charged that the weekend raid was
aimed at intimidating the opposition party and its supporters.
"This is a
well orchestrated and calculated strategy at the centre of this
dictatorship. To think that they hope to find Roy Bennett underground is
shocking," said Chamisa. 'We are calling on the police to preserve the
rights of citizens," he added.
FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi
Senior Business Reporter
GOVERNMENT has lifted the specification of Time
Bank, its directors and six
companies linked to the bank, raising new hopes
the bank could reopen nearly
two years after its closure.
Justice,
Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa has
revoked the
specification order on Time Bank, Time Bank Investments (TIBC)
and on CEO
Christopher Tande, managing director Kenneth Chikonzo and former
head of
risk, treasury and finance Killian Kapaso.
Also out of specification are
Watermount Estates, Assetfin, Unitime
Investments, Total Insurance, Shoppex
and Release Power Investments, the
companies that had been at the centre of
a probe into whether the bank's
directors could have used them to defraud
the bank of $440 billion in 2004.
The directors of Watermount, Kwaziso
Bosha, Onias Gumbo and Emelda
Mapanzure, have also been released from
specification.
Also having his specification withdrawn is key TIBC
shareholder Web Beter
Mashumba, who in December 2004 launched a landmark
application for the
enforcement of the Administrative Justice Act (AJA)
seeking a reversal of
the curatorship. Mashumba had questioned the central
bank's integrity in
ordering the closure of the bank when there was an
earlier legal challenge
against RBZ by Time.
Mashumba said the
curatorship was ordered on the basis of a $320 billion
loan to Watermount,
criticising the action as contravening key sections of
the AJA as the RBZ
had not given the bank adequate notice or a chance to
respond.
The bank
has been under curatorship since October 2004, when the RBZ shut it
down
after a probe showed its balance sheet had negative equity of $174
billion.
But Time in turn has a claim of $400 billion against the RBZ from
"incorrect" debiting of its current account and also alleges the central
bank overstated its liquidity support to the bank.
FinGaz
Njabulo
Ncube Chief Political Reporter
ONE year after the government
controversially descended on vulnerable
informal traders and sprouting urban
settlements under the infamous
"Operation Murambatsvina", Zimbabwean civic
groups are still counting the
full cost of the widely condemned
crackdown.
The civic groups, under the umbrella of the National
Association of
Non-Governmental Organisations, have set up a working group
tasked with
assessing the living realities of affected groups in the
post-Murambatsvina
era.
Although a year has passed since Murambatsvina,
the government's hurriedly
constructed "alternative accommodation" for
displaced persons remains
largely unoccupied.
The housing scheme, dubbed
"Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle" has been dogged by
allegations of corruption in the
allocation of stands and housing units,
amid disclosures that the unplanned
projects were not adequately funded.
The civic organisations have identified
areas for field trips for
journalists that include Hatcliffe, Mukuvisi,
Chitungwiza, Mbare, Epworth,
Kuwadzana and Dzivarasekwa, seven high-density
areas most devastated by the
crackdown which lasted until June last year
when the government was censured
by the United Nations over the human rights
implications of the demolition
campaign. The organisers have also invited
local and international media to
assess the impact of the exercise a year
down the line.
"Several organisations working on these areas have already
been appraised of
this initiative and will be on hand to facilitate the
visits around their
areas of operation," reads part of a letter written by
an executive of the
National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations
to various
stakeholders.
The letter said several other commemorative
activities had been lined up
whose objective it said was to elicit a
nationwide process of healing,
restoration and rebuilding.
Investigations
by this newspaper have revealed that local non- governmental
organisations
were providing monthly rations to at least 3 000 households
identified as
vulnerable in the resettlement camps in and around Harare.
State security
agents continue to run some resettlement camps such as Hopley
Farm, about 10
kilometres south of Harare. At least 50 tiny box-like houses
have been built
at Hopley while another 100 are nearing completion at
Hatcliffe.
All
these units lack ablution facilities and access to water and
electricity.
According to Ignatius Chombo, the Minister of Local Government,
Public Works
and National Housing, the government has in the past year built
7 000
housing units under Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle and intends
constructing
another 15 000 by the end of next year.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi
Annan sent Anna Tibaijuka, an
international diplomat from Tanzania and Jan
Egeland, to assess the impact
of the operation. Tibaijuka, who visited
Harare in July last year, produced
a damning report condemning the operation
as "indiscriminate and
unjustified" and carried out with "indifference to
human suffering."
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
ALL but two of the nine commissioners running the affairs of
Harare did not
turn up for a hearing called by the parliamentary portfolio
committee on
local government this week, raising the ire of some panel
members, who
accused the commissioners of trying to evade
scrutiny.
Only commission chairperson Sekesai Makwavarara and Prisca
Mupfumira
appeared before the parliamentary committee, while Tendai Savanhu,
Musavaya
Reza, Terrence Hussein, Michael Mahachi, Viola Chasi, Jameson
Kurasha and
Noel Muzuva stayed away.
Town clerk Nomutsa Chideya and
council heads of departments also turned up
for the meeting.
"They do not
take all this seriously. In any case, they are all busy running
their
businesses, some of which feed off council, so they cannot find time,"
fumed
one member of the parliamentary committee, who declined to be named,
citing
"procedural issues".
The stage had been set for an explosive encounter after
a public hearing
conducted by the committee heard of startling cases of
abuse of council
assets by commissioners and senior employees.
The
hearing, held in Harare late last month, revealed that commissioners had
gone on a spree of acquiring "free" stands in prime residential
areas.
Council employees have also complained about "the Zanunisation of Town
House", with activists - mainly women - clad in ZANU PF regalia now a
common sight at the municipality's head office.
They also alleged that
the town clerk had "single-handedly bought a new
vehicle - a Toyota Raider
AHH 6235 - for one commissioner without following
tender
procedures".
Tender procedures were also reportedly flouted in the purchase
of tractors
for refuse collection, with the wife of a senior council
official reported
to be the beneficiary of the supply deal.
The
anti-corruption commission launched a probe into the operations at Town
House two weeks ago and is yet to report on its progress.
The
parliamentary portfolio committee also took an interest in the affairs
of
the capital's administration and is expected to meet next Tuesday to
compile
its report, which will be tabled in the House of Assembly.
Committee
chairperson Margaret Zengeni (ZANU PF, Mazowe West) was not
available for
comment yesterday.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
LOCAL Government Minister Ignatius Chombo tried to dissuade
Jayesh Shah from
making a police report following the alleged bribery
demands made by
Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (ZUPCO) chairman Charles
Nherera, the
businessman said in court this week.
Shah, the managing
director of Gift Investments, one of ZUPCO's bus
suppliers, is the key
witness in the Nherera corruption trial, which opened
in Harare last
week.
The businessman, who claims Nherera demanded US$5 000 for every bus to
be
supplied to ZUPCO, told the court he had delayed reporting the bribery
demands at Chombo's instigation.
Shah said Chombo - whom he said was
"shocked" at the revelation - had told
him to delay reporting Nherera's
demands for an inducement until after the
2005 parliamentary elections,
which were held on March 31.
Incidentally, Nherera has previously been part
of Chombo's election campaign
teams in his Zvimba North constituency of
Mashonaland West province, while
Shah was one of the biggest sponsors of the
ruling ZANU PF's campaign.
Shah also claimed Chombo had suggested the matter
could be resolved
"amicably".
It was also revealed how, on April 10 2005,
police pounced on Shah, before
he made his report, saying they were charging
him with corruption after he
imported buses earmarked for ZUPCO without the
State Procurement Board's
approval.
These charges, Shah said, were not
sustained.
Shah's Gift Investments last year supplied ZUPCO with 69 buses
despite
resistance from both the ZUPCO board and the State Procurement
Board, which
cited pricing and technical reasons for cancellation of the
deal.
The businessman claims Nherera had resisted the deal because Gift
Investments would not accede to his demands for a bribe.
Shah has since
produced a master copy of a recording he claims to have made
of a
conversation between himself and Nherera in which the latter can be
heard
demanding payment in return for facilitating the bus supply deal.
The trial
continues tomorrow.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief Political
Reporter
Owners demand return of looted equipment
IN a volte face of major
proportions, government is set to return Kondozi
Estate to its previous
owners following the dismal failure of the
quasi-state Agriculture and Rural
Development Authority (ARDA) to run the
prime estate
viably.
Government sources revealed yesterday that Tuesday's Cabinet
meeting had
dwelt on concerns over the underutilisation of the property,
which has been
systematically looted by named ministers and senior
government officials.
"A decision has been made at the top that Kondozi
should be given back to
its former owners. All those familiar with the
Kondozi saga are aware of
this. In fact it is a story known all over
Harare," said the source,
speaking anonymously.
He added that Edwin Moyo,
who headed a consortium of businessmen that owned
Kondozi, had been fully
briefed about the latest developments.
"The former owners now want to take
stock of the destruction which has taken
place at Kondozi since its
seizure," he said.
Moyo, however, declined to discuss the matter.
"I can't
comment on Kondozi. Direct your queries to the government
authorities," he
said yesterday.
Moyo, Adrian Zeederburg and the De Klerk family jointly owned
Canvest
Farming, a former Export Processing Zone agro-firm that in turn,
owned
Kondozi and had secured markets for flowers and horticultural produce
in
Canada and Switzerland. Moyo had a majority 52 percent shareholding in
Canvest Farming.
Didymus Mutasa, the Minister of National Security who is
also responsible
for Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, did not answer his
mobile phone
when The Financial Gazette sought to confirm the latest
developments
regarding the 224-hectare property where the army has utilised
only 40
hectares of the land under the government's command agriculture
programme
dubbed Operation Taguta.
During a recent tour of the estate,
Vice President Joice Mujuru - one of the
ministers reportedly against the
takeover of the farm in 2004 when the
matter sharply divided Cabinet - was
told how senior government ministers,
including Mutasa, Transport and
Communications Minister Chris Mushowe,
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made and
Energy Minister Mike Nyambuya
systematically looted the estate, carting away
farm equipment and other
accessories worth trillions of dollars.
The
equipment included 48 tractors, four Scania lorries, five Nissan UD
lorries,
several T35 trucks and 26 motorbikes. An unspecified amount of
fertiliser
and chemicals was also allegedly pillaged.
Sources yesterday said a senior
manager at ARDA, who allegedly helped
himself to a disc harrow at the height
of the confusion on the property, had
been arrested for the theft and was
expected to appear in court before the
end of the week.
"But what is of
concern is that it is only the small fish that are facing
the music as far
as the looting of Kondozi is concerned. Vice President
Mujuru was told which
senior ministers stole what but nothing has been
done," added another
source.
During Mujuru's tour of the property, soldiers from Operation Taguta
accused
ministers and senior ZANU PF officials of plundering equipment from
the
estate.
When it was seized, Kondozi was heavily indebted to its major
financiers
Barclays' Fincor, Zimbank's Syfrets and the African Development
Corporationwho in 2004 had collectively invested about $37 billion in the
project.
Should government return Kondozi to its previous owners, this
would
constitute a rare admission that the takeover of some productive
estates
under the disastrous land redistribution programme had contributed
to the
decimation of commercial agriculture.
At its peak, Kondozi - which
raked in about US$15 million in turnover -
employed about 5 000 workers and
sustained scores of outgrowers. ARDA
quickly lost virtually all the
lucrative export markets it had previously
penetrated.
Government has
recently invited white commercial farmers, whose farms were
expropriated
under the controversial land redistribution programme, to apply
for 99-year
leases on pieces of land that were allocated to blacks but have
remained
largely unutilised.
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Own
Correspondent
THE government is set to reverse the unbundling of Zimbabwe
Broadcasting
Holdings (ZBH) and restore its old structure as it battles to
bring sanity
and viability to the ailing public
broadcaster.
Impeccable government sources told The Financial Gazette
yesterday that the
issue would come up for discussion at next week's Cabinet
meeting.
It is understood that the latest move will see the abolition of the
nine
strategic business units which were put in place in 2004. Most of these
units are headed by chief executive officers who enjoy lucrative perks while
presiding over perennial lossmakers.
Since they were established, all but
one of the units have been making
losses and their continued existence puts
a strain on public funds.
The Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity,
Bright Matonga, last week
revealed that the government was not happy with
the current structure at
ZBH.
"We are not happy with the current
situation where you have all those CEOs.
We can't have that, it's a waste of
resources. If you cannot make money then
you can't get paid," said Matonga
in reference to the loss-making subsidiary
units.
Matonga was himself
head of television at the state broadcaster before he
was spirited away to
another struggling state media house, New Ziana, in
mysterious
circumstances.
He deplored the top-heavy structure at ZBH, which was set up
in the name of
"commercialisation."
Among the nine units headed by chief
executive officers are On Air Systems,
Zimbabwe Television, Newsnet,
National Television, Power FM and National FM.
According to insiders at ZBH
Radio Zimbabwe is the only unit which is making
a profit while National
Television and Channel C are yet to go on air
despite having recruited
staffers for various posts.
"The current structure is confusing, there are
too many of these CEOs, there
is an urgent need to put things in order. The
organisation has to make money
for itself," said Matonga.
Matonga,
however, refused to say when exactly the impending restructuring
exercise
would begin.
ZBH has for a long time been facing cash flow and viability
problems due to
inefficient revenue collection methods. A number of senior
journalists and
radio presenters have left the state broadcaster citing poor
salaries and
deteriorating working conditions and more are contemplating
leaving.
Matonga admitted that the salaries were poor and needed to be
reviewed.
" I acknowledge that the salaries of the journalists are very low
and need
to be raised, the ministry is looking into that," said Matonga.
FinGaz
Nelson Banya News
Editor
THE ongoing corruption trial of Zimbabwe United Passenger Company
(ZUPCO)
chairman Charles Nherera has once again brought the state-owned
transport
firm's problems with regard to tender procedures under the
spotlight.
Although an alleged demand for inducement is at the centre of
the court
case, the flotation of a "special tender" by the State Procurement
Board
(SPB), for the purchase of 69 buses by ZUPCO, is a controversy that
has
refused to go away.
The dispute - which erupted after Shah's company
had imported 69 buses and
proceeded to paint them in the ZUPCO colours in
anticipation of a quick
sale - raged on and came to a head in March last
year, with Nherera
declaring that ZUPCO would not accept buses without going
to tender.
"We go to tender and those who win tenders supply the buses. Gift
Investments did not follow that procedure. They went ahead and brought in
the buses without our request," Nherera said at the time.
The standoff
prompted Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, whose
ministry oversees
the running of ZUPCO, to intervene, saying: "If it is a
matter of urgency
that the buses be acquired, then ZUPCO should ask for a
special tender
process. They can specify that we have a supplier who has the
goods that we
want," Chombo said.
This is despite the clear provisions of the Procurement
Act, whose Section
31(2) stipulates that "a procuring entity shall conduct
its tendering
proceedings in accordance with procurement regulations or, in
regard to any
matter that is not prescribed in such regulations or this Act,
in accordance
with such procedure as the procuring entity may fix; provided
that any
procedure so fixed shall be such as to ensure that all suppliers
are treated
fairly and impartially and shall be communicated without delay
to all
suppliers concerned."
While ZUPCO management, led by Nherera,
steadfastly resisted approaching the
SPB to float the "special tender,"
higher forces prevailed and the tender -
from which Gift Investments'
competitors' pulled out saying it was
tailor-made for Jayesh Shah's company
- was floated.
However, even then, the matter was by no means over.
The
SPB, which had floated the tailor-made tender ZUP01/2005, was to cancel
it
in June, citing pricing and technical considerations.
"The State Procurement
Board has, through PBR 0577 of June 16, 2005 resolved
that the tender for
the supply and delivery of buses be and is hereby
cancelled because the
prices were too high apart from failure to meet
technical specifications by
bidders," the SPB announced.
This did not, however, stop the delivery of the
69 buses by Gift
Investments, reportedly following high-level political
intervention.
FinGaz
s
Nyasha Nyakunu
A
LEADING human rights lawyer, Jacob Mafume, on May 3 2006 described
Zimbabwe's media legislation as obsolete and urged the government to enact
laws that guarantee media freedom as well as protect self-regulation of the
industry.
Speaking during the World Press Freedom Day celebrations in
Harare last
Wednesday, Mafume said in terms of the Banjul Declaration on the
Principles
of Freedom of Expression in Africa and the Windhoek Declaration,
it was
"commonsensical" that journalists should self-regulate.
"If
surveyors, dentists and lawyers, among other professions, are
self-regulatory, the media can also easily self-regulate. There should
therefore be no debate on this issue," Mafume said.
"We should therefore
come up with laws that protect self-regulation and
constitutional provisions
that guarantee media freedom," he added.
This year's celebrations organised
by the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe - which
comprises MISA-Zimbabwe, the
Zimbabwe Union of Journalists and the Media
Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe -
were held under the theme: Self
Regulation - Yes. State-Controlled
Regulation - No.
The alliance is forging ahead with plans to establish an
Independent Media
Council.
Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity
Bright Matonga, who was the
guest speaker, said the government fully
supported the principle of
self-regulation.
Matonga was, however,
non-committal as to what steps the government was
taking to amend or repeal
the offending sections of the Access to
Information and Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA) to pave way for
self-regulation of the media vis-à-vis
the existence of the statutory Media
and Information Commission
(MIC).
The pressure for self-regulation also comes in the wake of a damning
report
by the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on Zimbabwe's
human
rights that also urged the government to repeal AIPPA, the Public
Order and
Security Act and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA).
Matonga,
who was at pains to defend AIPPA, could not be drawn into
commenting on why
the government continued to retain confidence in the MIC
despite a finding
by the High Court that its chairman, Tafataona Mahoso, had
been biased in
the case where the banned Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe
sought to be
granted an operating licence.
He refused to comment on unchallenged reports
that the Central Intelligence
Organisation had taken over the Zimbabwe
Mirror Newspapers Group, publishers
of the Daily Mirror and the Sunday
Mirror.
MISA-Zimbabwe chairperson Thomas Deve said the reign of former
information
and publicity minister Jonathan Moyo, which saw the closure of
newspapers
using AIPPA and the retrenchment of seasoned broadcasters from
the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings, was a legacy never to be
cherished.
Deve said the era had given way to embedded journalism,
euphemistically
referred to as "patriotism" in Zimbabwe, with some
journalists being
literally turned into zombies.
"Our hearts are still
sore and many wounded souls still hope that justice
will one day prevail
when such authors of poisonous . . . media laws will
confess their evil
machinations before our own truth and reconciliation
commission," Deve
said.
Mafume said it was "nonsensical" to continue hanging on to laws such as
AIPPA and BSA under the guise of protecting national sovereignty,
particularly in this era of the convergence and divergence offered by
information communication technologies.
The fallacy of restricting media
diversity and pluralism had been proved as
such through the coming on stream
of online publications such as ZimOnline
and independent radio stations such
as the VOA's Studio 7 and SW Radio
Africa which are all manned by Zimbabwean
media practitioners in the
diaspora, he said.
These radio stations and
online publications, which beam into Zimbabwe, were
proving to be so popular
that even government ministers were keen to be
interviewed by them, said
Mafume.
"What it means is that for one to establish a private radio station
that
beams into Zimbabwe, one has to do so from outside Zimbabwe.
"The
media is about business. This is about the economy and the state should
invest in its own media.
"We need to employ our own people in Zimbabwe in
order to generate the
revenue that will drive the economy."
He said laws
such as AIPPA, BSA and the proposed Interceptions of
Communications Act
entailed huge investments in security which the country
could
ill-afford.
In apparent reference to an article authored by the Secretary for
Information and Publicity, George Charamba, published in The Herald on the
same day, the human rights lawyer dismissed as contradictory the notion that
media freedom was a lesser freedom to national sovereignty.
In his
article, Charamba said: "Nowhere in human history has any nation
sacrificed
its sovereignty for a lesser freedom, least of all press
freedom."
Mafume said in the modern age, sovereignty was now being
defined and
strengthened through guaranteeing and protecting the freedoms of
citizens
and not necessarily in terms of geographical confines.
This new
definition of sovereignty is aptly captured by the Universal
Declaration on
Human Rights, the African Charter on Human and People's
Rights, the Banjul
Declaration and the Windhoek Declaration, among others,
he said.
"Under
the Banjul Declaration, the sovereign people of Africa agreed that
media
freedom is a fundamental right. It is therefore nonsensical to say
media
freedom is a privilege. It is clear that media freedom is a higher
right and
not a privilege," said Mafume.
The issue of sovereignty, he added, now
transcended borders and was now
defined in terms of shared values and
principles, hence the existence of the
Windhoek Declaration and Banjul
Declaration, among others.
"Sovereignty is guaranteed and better strengthened
through the enjoyment of
greater freedoms and rights by citizens of any
given country," argued
Mafume.
He gave examples of African countries such
as Mali, Uganda, Mozambique,
South Africa and Zambia that had several radio
stations as states that had
embraced the vital role played by a diverse,
pluralistic and independent
media without sacrificing their national
sovereignties.
"What is good for a media practitioner in South Africa should
therefore be
equally good for a media practitioner in Zimbabwe," he
said.
Earlier, scores of journalists marched through central business
district in
Harare carrying placards demanding the repeal of AIPPA and the
return of the
banned Daily News, Daily News on Sunday, The Tribune and
Weekly Times.
lNyakunu is the research and information officer of
MISA-Zimbabwe.
FinGaz
Mavis Makuni Own
Correspondent
THE headline, "EXILE FOR ZUMA's ACCUSER" in the May
7 issue of the South
African newspaper, the Sunday Times, was a grim warning
that by the time
JudgeWillem van der Merwe delivered his verdict in the
former deputy
president's sensational rape trial the following day, the
judiciary and
social systems would have 'raped' the woman at the centre of
the drama not
once or twice but many times over regardless of whether the
accused was
acquitted or convicted.
As it happened, Van der Merwe
returned a verdict of not guilty, sending
Jacob Zuma's vociferous supporters
into a frenzy of loud cheers and
ululation. The 31-year old complainant was
not in court to hear the judge
say, "In my judgment, the state has not
proved the accused's guilt beyond
doubt." She was already under police
protection at a secret location after
law enforcement agents tightened
security around her because of threats to
her safety. She will soon be
bundled off into exile.
The judge said he was satisfied that consensual sex
had taken place in the
bedroom of Zuma's Johannesburg home, but chided the
man who would be South
Africa's next president for not wearing a condom
during his intimate
encounter with the woman, who is HIV positive. Press
reports said after the
verdict, a triumphant Zuma addressed his supporters
after leading them in a
Zulu song whose lyrics mean "Bring me my gun." Zuma
faces another trial for
corruption in July.
But while Zuma may have
emerged victorious after his three-month trial, his
triumph is strictly
limited to the legalistic domain. The trial has severely
dented his moral
standing and indicted him on numerous fronts. Some
defenders of the former
deputy president of South Africa have railed against
the fact of his having
sex with an HIV positive woman without wearing a
condom being an issue in
the trial, saying this was what he was being
prosecuted for. This, of
course, is not true. Such issues came into focus
because of who Zuma
is.
He is a national figure who, before his sacking last year, was the second
most powerful man in South Africa and headed the country's anti-Aids and
Moral Regeneration campaign. In this position, he was supposed to be a role
model for the youth. His attitude towards his accuser, who looked up to him
as a father, could therefore not escape scrutiny and condemnation. Neither
could his statement that all one needs to do to practise safe sex is to take
a shower afterwards.
Africa has the highest AIDS prevalence and mortality
rates and its leaders
must demonstrate greater political will and commitment
towards eradicating
the scourge that is decimating the generation that
represents the
continent's future. It is obvious that the continent needs
leaders who can
lead by example and not those who prescribe higher moral
standards for the
rest of the people than their own.
That Zuma, who was
interacting with a much younger person, was prepared to
throw all caution to
the wind at the drop of a kanga (ethnic wrap-around) is
an indictment of the
calibre of leadership the people are saddled with. It
is shocking for a
national leader not to realise that his cultural beliefs
operate within the
framework of the rights of others, particularly in a
country as racially,
culturally and ethnically diverse as South Africa.
Zuma's testimony in court
that it was a dictate of his Zulu culture for a
man not to ignore a woman in
a state of arousal is sickeningly patronising,
chauvinistic and crude. It is
no different from claims sometimes made by
depraved men who rape their own
minor daughters that the girls consented to
the violation of their young
bodies. But even if these perverse claims were
true, what kind of father
would exploit such a situation for his own
gratification?
The point is
that Zuma, like these fathers, should have known better than to
abuse his
position of power and authority to exploit or lead astray someone
he had an
obligation to correct, protect and guide. After all, a leader is a
leader 24
hours a day in all situations.
However, the biggest impact of Zuma's high
profile trial, which was an
embarrassment for his country and the rest of
Africa is that it has exposed
the existence of a dual morality for men and
women as well as the connivance
of the judiciary system in perpetuating
these double standards. It is an
indisputable fact that even if Zuma had
been convicted of rape, vindicating
his accuser's claims, she would still be
the one who was crucified and who
bore the brunt of seeking justice.
The
presiding judge, Van der Merwe "put her on trial" the moment her ruled
that
Zuma's flamboyant lawyer, Kemp J Kemp could trawl into her past to
establish
her sexual morality. This is an approach that women's and human
rights
groups have long deplored because it puts rape victims on the spot to
prove
that they did not invite trouble upon themselves when the onus should
be on
the accused to prove his own moral fibre and his ability to resist
temptation.
The prosecutorial type of cross-examination the woman was
subjected to is
analogous to asking the victim of an armed robbery to prove
why he or she
should not have been robbed. It is akin to saying it is all
right for a
rapist not to have any self-control.
Moreover, trawling into
a woman's past does not prove anything as only the
facts of the case at hand
should be used to determine what happened. The
legal system has always
failed rape victims in this respect because it has
always sought to crucify
the victim and exonerate the perpetrator of the
crime. The ordeal of the
young South African woman in the Zuma trial
highlights the urgent need for
judiciary reforms that recognise the rights
of women and girls as human
rights that must be protected by law.
As things stand now reported rape cases
in most countries will continue to
be only the tip of the iceberg as
victims, knowing the trauma and shame of
testifying in court and how
difficult it is to secure a conviction under the
current skewed set-up, will
conclude that seeking justice is not worth the
trouble and humiliation.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior
Business Reporter
BORDER Timbers Limited (BTL) has cut back on its
operational shifts at its
Mutare factories due to diminished timber
supplies.
Insiders at the timber producer told The Financial Gazette this
week that
working slots had recently been downsized from two to one shift
per day.
Prior to the rationalisation to two shifts, the company had three
staggered
shifts a day.
BTL's management is reported to have cited the
depleted timber resources at
its picturesque Eastern Highlands estates as
the reason for the review of
the working hours.
BTL operates two
factories in Mutare - Paulington and Border Timbers
International (BTI) or
Nyakamete Factory. Paulington produces veneer,
plywood and blockboard in
addition to further manufactured products such as
doors and mouldings. The
products from this factory are sold locally in
Zimbabwe, regionally and
exported to European and American markets.
The other factory, BTI, is a
separate legal entity wholly owned by BTL. The
separation is necessary to
maintain its tax advantages and Export Processing
Zone status. BTI produces
doors, shelves and other manufactured items for
export markets primarily in
South Korea and the USA.
In March BTL reported that its plantations in
Chimanimani had been a victim
of 60 bush fires, which had destroyed 3 000
hectares of timber worth $62
billion.
It said most of the fires were
caused by newly resettled farmers who moved
in under the government's
controversial land reform programme. As a result
of the wanton destruction
of its plantations, BTL warned that Zimbabwe will
experience severe
shortages of timber in the next five years. Timber has
25-year production
cycles, according to BTL.
Production at the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed
company, which has been in
the business of growing, milling and
manufacturing timber products from
managed plantations for over 50 years,
has declined as forest operations are
not supplying adequate volumes of
logs.
Besides, erratic power cuts are contributing to reduced output.
The
wanton destruction of timber plantations by newly resettled farmers
remains
the greatest threat to the timber sector.
Since 2000 fires have become an
annual occurrence at BTL's plantations. In
2004 BTL lost 706 hectares of
timber to 75 fires. The chronic fire outbreaks
have gobbled up a large chunk
of BTL's profits as the company invests in
fire protection equipment.
The
growing of managed plantations is undertaken at five sites - Sheba,
Imbeza,
Charter, Tilbury and Sawerombe estates all totalling 47 000 hectares
along
the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe.
BTL operates three sawmills - Sheba,
Charter and Tilbury - that cut the pine
and eucalyptus logs into rough sawn
timber into a variety of sizes, grades
and finishes.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Business
Reporter
TOP African political and business leaders are expected to focus
on the next
steps the continent should take towards sustainable growth when
the annual
meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa gets underway
in Cape
Town at the end of this month.
The leaders and business
executives are expected to consider the growing
influence of Asian countries
- notably China and India - in Africa.
Zimbabwe, which is fast losing
significance in continental economic affairs,
will once again not feature
prominently on the agenda.
The theme of the WEF meeting will be: "Going for
Growth".
Africa's premier gathering of business, political and civil society
leaders
is expected to identify action priorities to sustain a five percent
growth
rate, engage business as a catalyst for change in the continent, draw
lessons from best-performing states and sectors, address new risks and
assess new opportunities.
Focusing on the distinct competitive advantages
of African countries and the
regional and national development priorities
for growth, the leaders are
also expected to discuss the opportunities that
exist for South-South
collaboration should Africa increasingly look east and
how new pledges on
malaria, infrastructure and AIDS should be
allocated.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, Mozambican leader Armando
Guebuza and
Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania are scheduled to attend the three-day
meeting,
while top ministers and senior business leaders of African
companies and
multinationals active in Africa will contribute actively to
the discussions,
the organisers said.
The co-chairs of the WEF on Africa
will be Tata International India chairman
Symal Gupta, Transnet chief
executive officer Maria Ramos, central bank of
Nigeria governor Charles
Soludo and Jim Goodnight, the chief executive of
SAS.
More than 700 heads
of state, politicians, captains of industry, trade
unionists, academics and
other experts will review what was delivered during
the "Year of Africa" in
2005 and what is in the pipeline.
They will analyse the impact of China and
India on Africa as well as ways to
improve the branding and perception of
the continent.
"The World Economic Forum on Africa will focus on the
individual success
stories driving growth and discuss ways to scale up these
pockets of
success," said Haiko Alfed, the director of the WEF.
"Business
has a key role in building credibility of reform and rebranding
efforts, not
least to counter the 'collective contagion' still afflicting
Africa," he
added.
The WEF on Africa meeting will launch a business alliance to reduce
chronic
hunger on the continent.
In this proposed public-private
partnership, committed forum member
companies and hunger experts will design
a model for businesses to work
together to attack the root causes of hunger
through initiatives that
include expanding rural market systems,
disseminating effective business
models and microfinance.
Political and
business leaders will also take part in a globally televised
BBC World
Debate on The Future of African Growth, which will be moderated by
Nik
Goving.
FinGaz
Chris Muronzi Staff
Reporter
A GROUP of 234 workers dismissed from the Zimbabwe Banking
Corporation
(Zimbank) is taking the bank to the labour court, this time
represented by
leading lawyer Tendai Biti of Honey & Blanckenberg legal
practitioners.
Biti said this week the employees, who were dismissed from
Zimbank in 2004
after staging a two-hour job action that grounded the
group's operations,
will appear in the labour court today seeking
reinstatement.
Biti, who did not give further details on the case, faces an
uphill task
after other lawyers failed to get a favourable judgment in the
past.
"Yes, we are appearing in court on Thursday this week," said
Biti.
The fired Zimbank workers first hired prominent Harare lawyer George
Chikumbirike of Chikumbirike & Associates in 2004 soon after their
dismissal
but failed to get a favourable judgment.
They then engaged Alec
Muchadehama of Muchadehama & Associates, but still
got little
joy.
The Zimbank employees were found guilty by the National Employment
Council,
but dismissed the ruling as unfair and biased.
The NEC
pronounced all the workers guilty and liable to dismissal without
any
benefits and consideration.
The Financial Holdings (Finhold) group, parent
company to Zimbank, has had a
volatile relationship with its staff over the
past few years.
In 2004, the Supreme Court ruled against Finhold management
in a case in
which employees were fighting for the return of 16 million
shares that had
been scrapped by the group's board of directors.
FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi
Senior Business Reporter
Strong Kwacha leaves most Zambians singing happy
songs
WHEN Zimbabwean businessman Farai moved to Zambia six years ago, he
would
return to Harare every weekend for groceries to carry back to Lusaka.
Now he
carries groceries from Lusaka to
Harare.
"There was nothing here. Everything was terrible
- the roads, the shops, the
currency", he says. "Now things are changing and
you can actually see it."
Zambians have never been the cocky ones. So what a
bummer it was when a
senior Zambian government official gave me the pity
eye, put a sympathetic
hand on my shoulder and gently asked: "But what's
happening to your
country?"
Why have they become so cocky all of a
sudden? Zambia's economy has seen a
dramatic change since a large part of
its foreign debt was cancelled last
year. The commodity price boom has also
given Zambia a copper windfall. So
without the slightest hint of irony,
Zambians are talking about their
country being in a "currency
crisis".
What is this "currency crisis"? When I arrived in Lusaka, bureaux
were
trading the US dollar at around K3 500. A week later, the Kwacha was up
to
K3 000 on the greenback. A real crisis if I ever saw one.
But the
surging Kwacha has brought some gloom. The Lubinkhoff family - who
employ a
Zimbabwean financial manager - run a farm southwest of Lusaka that
produces
nearly half Zambia's coffee output.
"Because of the strong Kwacha, we face
unfair competition from foreign
goods. We don't want to import jobs, we want
to create them," Jesper
Lubinkhoff says at his family's 1 600 ha
spread.
But that's about all the pessimism I found. The rest I got were snide
remarks about the state of Zimbabwe's economy, and - this one really bites -
being asked why Zimbabweans "can't just get that man out like we did with
Kaunda and Chiluba".
Attracted by at times outrageously lengthy tax
holidays, South African
investors are leading the investor race into Zambia.
MTN - the great African
capitalist - fixes her famous bright yellow gaze
down on every street from
billboards.
Shoprite's 20-plus outlets choke
with South African imports. There is very
little made in Zambia on the
shelves, evidence perhaps of the damage the
strong Kwacha is having on local
manufacturers.
The Chinese are in there too. They apparently built a downtown
shopping
mall, ostensibly for locals, but government gave the Chinese
60-year leases
for the same stalls instead. Well, perhaps, as Chiluba once
famously said as
he sold everything: "It doesn't matter what colour the cat
is, as long as it
catches the mice".
As Zambians finally discover
property, construction is booming, while Lusaka's
notorious potholes
disappear under massive Japanese road investment. And
just days before I
arrived, official data had shown inflation at 9.4
percent.
Said Miles
Sampa, head of Zambia's Financial Markets Association: "This
(slowdown in
inflation) will trigger other economic indicators. Base rates
are also
coming down. People now have access to cheaper borrowing. The
supply of
goods is not quite high while the impact of high oil prices has
not been
adverse so far". He forecasts a further slowdown in inflation after
maize
harvests.
But there is worry that lending remains too high.
"We are
observing the banks closely to see the direction that interest rates
will
take. We have been calling on the banks for a long time now to start
looking
at ways of reducing interest rates" said Denny Kalyalya, Bank of
Zambia
(BoZ) deputy governor.
Although the optimism far outweighs the pessimism,
there is doubt Zambia can
sustain the growth, driven by "non-permanent"
factors.
"We would be more comfortable if the improvements being experienced
now
resulted from real growth in the economy because this would lay the
groundwork for growth in the economy that would translate into jobs for the
millions of Zambians who are currently unemployed," The Post, Zambia's
largest private daily, warned in a comment.
There's obviously still a
long way to go. Japanese reconditioned cars are
all you ever see on the
streets, and unemployment is high.
But you would never tell, what with the
visibly buoyant consumer confidence.
Unlike in Zimbabwean supermarkets where
the contraption is now only for
giving kids a ride, you can't get a free
shopping trolley when Lusaka goes
out shopping.
At Manda Hill, Lusaka's
most elite mall, Zambia's growing yuppie class troop
out of Shoprite and
Game Stores, and it's as if each one of them is pushing
a bulging trolley
-or two. Just down the same street, an investor recently
opened another
snooty mall, Arcades, again brimming with big spenders.
The "economic
turnaround" has been swift here, and - at least on the
surface - it appears
real. For the Zimbabweans here, suddenly becoming the
poor neighbour is hard
to swallow.
"Why can't our own government just do the right thing?"
Zimbabwean Farai
asks, ordering another Zambian "Mosi Lager" beer.
FinGaz
Personal
Glimpses with Mavis Makuni
IF the Zimbabwe Journalistic Awards included a
category for verbosity and
self-contradiction, there is no doubt that
writers like the permanent
secretary for information and publicity, George
Charamba and his raging
clone, Nathaniel Manheru, of the Saturday Herald,
would win hands down every
time.
The foul-mouthed and abusive
Manheru, who recently ended a column by barking
"hu hu hu" like a canine,
has distinguished himself for practicing an
anything goes brand of "command"
journalism in which the premises on which
he bases his arguments and the
conclusions he reaches don't have to tally or
make sense - they are simply
imposed by decree! Charamba's screed on press
freedom published in The
Herald on the eve of Press Freedom Day on May 3 was
in similar vein.
In
their book, Government by the People, Burns, Peltason and Cronin say:
"Believers in democracy insist on free debate and the unlimited exchange of
ideas because they feel that no group has a monopoly on truth. No group has
the right to establish in the field of politics absolute standards of what
is true and what is false". American Supreme Court judge Wendel Holmes
echoed this when he said: "The best test of truth is the power of thought to
get itself accepted in the competition of the market."
The problem in
Zimbabwe is that we have individuals who have anointed
themselves the sole
definers and defenders of "sovereignty" and freedom of
speech who seek to
impose their ideas on the rest by brute force. The
headline, "Press freedom
can't supercede sovereignty" over Charamba's
profuse verbal waterfall was an
ominous signal that this was not a
thoughtful and reasoned piece but the
usual bombastic repetition of tired
mantras to defend the unjustifiable and
indefensible. No one has ever
suggested that the freedom of the press should
supercede the country's
sovereignty. In a democratic atmosphere, these
freedoms should exist side by
side.
Ironically, Charamba makes this point
himself, albeit without intending to,
when he says: "Simply put, press
freedom is enjoyed by free men and women,
by sovereign nations whose
continued freedom must be assured for all times."
Now, if Zimbabwe is a
sovereign and democratic nation as we have been told
ad nauseam, why is it
necessary to curtail press freedom through
authoritarian legislation such as
the Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy Act (AIPPA)? Yes indeed,
as Charamba says, only free people can
enjoy press freedom. We do not enjoy
it under ZANU PF rule in Zimbabwe
because we are not free. It is as simple
as that. That is why media
practitioners are agitating for their freedom and
not because of the false
reasons suggested by Charamba.
The much-vaunted
sovereignty of the country does not benefit the people
because those in
power have not used it to ensure and guarantee the freedoms
and liberties of
the rest of the populace but to give themselves limitless
powers to abridge
them. As a result, sovereignty has become a hollow mantra
and a taunt about
the carte blanche those in power have to crush dissent,
abuse their powers,
enrich themselves and engage in corrupt activities with
impunity, away from
the prying eyes of an emasculated media. Sovereignty
means the self-
allotted right of individuals like Charamba to sit in
judgment of an entire
profession on the basis of archaic arguments and
precedents. "The present
generation of media practitioners has not given
this nation heroes in the
mould of the late Musarurwa, Chikerema,
Tungwarara, media cadres of high
intellect and national convictions and
consciousness," he intoned.
First
of all, press freedom has nothing to do with heroism. It is about
allowing
journalists to do their work without hindrance. Media practitioners
are not
looking for heroism, particularly that conferred by Charamba sitting
as
prosecutor, assessor, judge and jury. He proved that as far as he and his
superiors are concerned, the only good journalists are dead ones who can no
longer be a thorn in the flesh of corrupt officials. He cited Willie
Musarurwa, who was hounded out of an editorship by the state, as one of
three deceased heroes. As for Tungwarara and Chikerema, what were their
outstanding journalistic contributions? It is illogical for Charamba to make
disparaging remarks about journalists who win international awards when he
knows that people in government, including the head of state, have eagerly
accepted honours such as knighthoods from foreign powers and honorary
degrees conferred by foreign universities.
In fact, on the day Charamba
made his churlish remarks about Zimbabwean
journalists whose efforts in the
difficult conditions they operate under
have been recognised by their
international colleagues, the President was
being honoured by the government
of Malawi, which named a road after him.
Not long ago ZBH-TV was awash with
news of the Grain Marketing Board
receiving a Spanish award. People from
different parts of the world have
been proud recipients of the Nobel Prize
for excellence in various fields of
human endeavour. It is only in
isolationist Zimbabwe that citizens are
attacked and ridiculed for earning
international recognition.
Journalists are not to blame for the victim
mentality that apparently exists
within government because of its aversion
to scrutiny and criticism, which
Charamba characterised thus:
"Misrepresenting or bending facts assures one
of fabulous donor support,
especially if government, the president and ZANU
PF are the victims." Those
in government are in politics by choice and
having the spotlight lingering
on them comes with the territory. Their egos
are not more important than the
right of the electorate to question and
scrutinise their decisions and
actions. Democratic governments all over the
world take scrutiny and
criticism by the media in their stride. Why are our
public officials not man
enough to do the same or get out if they cannot
stand the heat?
It was a
struggle to follow Charamba's meandering references to the French
and
American revolutions and his discussion of the First Amendment as a
product
of the American civil war. All this "trafficking with foreign
issues" as he
would put it, was designed to illustrate that Zimbabwe was not
the first
country in the world to impose restrictions on the press. But the
problem is
that Zimbabwe is aping precedents from at least 200 years ago.
These
dispensations have evolved into more enlightened laws suitable for the
21st
century. He omits to mention the prohibitions placed upon the American
government by the Bill of Rights, such as the provision that the state has
no right to punish a person for his beliefs or to interfere with freedom of
conscience.
He fails to mention the different doctrines and tests that
the American
supreme court uses to determine the constitutionality of laws
governing free
speech, such as prior restraint, vagueness, over-breadth and
least means,
etc. most of which AIPPA would fail. For example under least
means it is
stipulated that: "Even for an important purpose, a legislature
may not
choose a law that impinges on First Amendment Freedoms if there are
other
ways to handle the problem . . . that do not impinge on freedom of
association or free speech."
If we had similar guarantees in this
country, would the closure of
newspapers by the Media and Information
Commission pass the least means test
as a way to get journalists and media
owners to comply with registration and
accreditation procedures? It is these
vindictive shutdowns that have made
scores of journalists redundant and not
the price of newsprint and other
inputs as Charamba claims. Granted,
production costs are prohibitive, but
the independent papers have soldiered
on without retrenching any
journalists. The largest redundancies so far have
been the result of
government action either through the MIC or the wholesale
Charamba/Moyo
"restructuring" exercises at state media institutions
beginning in 2002. It
is a patent falsehood to claim otherwise.
The
greatest contradiction however is that Charamba does not see the irony
of
quoting copiously from the 18th century press laws of western countries
that
he regularly slams as oppressors and imperialists to justify sovereign
Zimbabwe's own archaic and totalitarian media restrictions.
FinGaz
Comment
THERE is no
arguing the importance of tobacco to the country's economy. At
its peak, the
erstwhile premier export commodity earned close to US$700
million in 1999
from 250 million kg.
Sadly though, farmers in the sector are projected to
produce a leaf that
does not come anywhere near yesteryear's crop in terms
of both quality and
quantity - a decline wrought largely by the chaotic land
reform exercise
seen by critics as a miserable failure.
Thus, at the risk
of being accused of repeating our editorial of three weeks
ago, we cannot
help but state the obvious: all is not well in the tobacco
industry. There
is a dark cloud without the proverbial silver lining hanging
over the
sector. And the sense of despair, fear, doubt and negativity
gripping the
tobacco sub-sector is so tangible that it can literally be cut
with a knife.
And understandably so because it will be a long time before a
measure of
confidence returns to the sector. What with the prohibitively
high interest
rates, high inflation and crippling shortage of foreign
currency, all of
which have translated into high input costs and thus
checking the viability
not only of the tobacco sub-sector but the generality
of business across
Zimbabwe.
According to tobacco farmers' umbrella organisations, the viability
crunch
is attributable to what they call unviable prices and a static
exchange
rate. The farmers argue that the new system put in place by the
Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe (RBZ) a fortnight ago and which gives an implied
exchange rate
of US$1:134 000 is below their breakeven point. They would
have been happier
with an exchange rate of US$1: 180 000.
There is
nothing new in these arguments. The issue of "an acceptable
exchange rate"
from the farmers' point of view has over the years often
generated heated
but sterile debate. The problem is that the tobacco farmers
have so
frequently cried wolf over the issue of the exchange rate that even
genuine
complaints are now treated with scepticism. The story was the same
in 2000
when the tobacco industry seemed to be alive, if a little unwell.
This
explains the angry chorus directed at the farmers: get out of the
kitchen if
you can't stand the heat.
The government has always been reluctant to let go
of the official exchange
rate to the extent demanded by the farmers without
imposing certain
controls, citing its effects on inflation and purchasing
power parity
differentials. Of course the farmers have always felt that the
economy is
already absorbing the effects of devaluation through the parallel
market.
But, according to the government, which is at sea as to how to deal
with
rising inflation, falling industrial production and unemployment, this
is
not the same as formalising the issue through the economy.
Whatever
the arguments advanced by both parties, it is pertinent to point
out that
indeed many farmers can testify to the distress that they have
faced and
continue to face due to increasing input costs. But so too can all
the
businesses across the various sectors of the economy. The import of our
argument being that the whole economy is not made up of tobacco farmers
only. There is no denying their significance to the country. But the tobacco
growers do not make up the sum total of the Zimbabwean economy. There are
also other exporters who yearn for the best translation value for their
products. It is as simple as that.
Thus the government needs to ensure
that appropriate schemes are put in
place to incentivise all those in
exporting sectors such as tobacco, cotton,
horticulture, mining, tourism
just to mention a few. This will not only take
into account the expectations
of the vociferous tobacco farmers but also
realities on the ground as well
as the concerns of all the other key
exporters.
This is why we couldn't
agree more with the Governor of the central bank, Dr
Gideon Gono who, when
addressing the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association's 40th
annual congress on June
21 2000, said that no sector, however critical to
the economy or how big its
contribution to the national cake, should be
tempted to hold or be allowed
to hold back the progress of the whole nation
and other sectors by pursuing
a sectoral approach that can inadvertently be
misconstrued as detrimental to
all other sectors.
In any case, as already reported but not yet denied, the
tobacco farmers
were given support through subsidised loans at 20 percent
when market rates
were as high as more than 600 percent due to runaway
inflation. Not to
mention the subsidised fuel and electricity. Better still,
some of these
cry-babies even got the pieces of land for free under the
fast-track land
reform exercise! Which other exporting sector has enjoyed
such privileges?
When are they going to grow out of this dependence syndrome
and evolve into
serious and passionate business people?
FinGaz
National Agenda with Bornwell
Chakaodza
AS he strides into the sunset of his political life, President
Robert Mugabe
must surely be concerned with both his legacy and the kind of
ZANU PF party
he will leave behind. And this also happens to be the talk on
most people's
lips as the economic and political crisis worsens.
What
kind of legacy is the President going to leave behind? What are they
going
to say in the history books? Will Zimbabweans be deeply divided over
his
legacy? Is President Mugabe sufficiently worried about the terrible
aspects
of his legacy to want to fix them before his departure? Will the
ruling ZANU
PF party survive his exit or will it disintegrate and split into
groups and
factions signalling its demise? Will the opposition MDC under the
leadership
of Morgan Tsvangirai exploit the post-Mugabe ZANU PF situation to
its
advantage? What sort of influence will the military have in all this?
For
anyone interested in the manner in which this country's drama is going
to
unfold in the next 12 or so months, such questions are food for thought.
For
there is no doubt whatsoever that ZANU PF's centre is holding precisely
because of President Mugabe. Take him out of the picture and the ruling
party will not be the same again. All Zimbabweans agree that his legacy will
be profound. About that, there is no doubt.
Where there could be
differences of opinion is over the nature of the
footprints he will leave
behind depending on whether one is looking at the
last six or so years of
our crisis or at the first 10 or so years of our
independence. But then
again, all was not well during the first decade of
Zimbabwe's independence.
The Matabeleland troubles in the early eighties
were a very dark chapter in
this country's history.
So, politically, it is not only in recent times that
a lot of Zimbabweans
ceased to be huge fans of President Mugabe. It dates
back to the early
eighties.
However, until about 1997, the economy (Esap
notwithstanding) was in fairly
good shape. Little wonder there was no
formidable opposition party during
much of the first 20 years of Zimbabwe's
independence. This was so because
the ruling party was to a very large
extent meeting the needs of the people.
The phenomenal expansion of
education soon after independence was a case in
point. So was the generally
good life that Zimbabweans enjoyed. Opposition
parties become stronger when
a ruling party fails to deliver.
It was therefore not until the unbudgeted
payments to the war veterans and
joining the war in DRC that the economy was
ruined in 1998. Then came the
unplanned and chaotic land invasions resulting
in the destruction of
commercial agriculture. The rest, as they say, is now
history except that it
is the kind of history that we are living with on a
daily basis.
Unimaginable poverty, hyperinflation, unemployment standing at
about 80
percent, human rights abuses - all this became commonplace. Worse,
Zimbabwe
is now a fractured society. The country has been wrecked and the
political
leadership does not seem to care.
In an act of desperation and
as an escape route, millions of Zimbabweans
have left to become economic
refugees in foreign countries. It must be a
terrible and awful choice to
leave one's culture and one's family and
kinsmen to become a stranger in
other people's lands. The Zimbabwean economy
which was once the envy of the
region has virtually collapsed. It has really
become an untenable
situation.
Whether the ruling party chooses to accept it or not, the brutal
truth is
that President Mugabe and ZANU PF have become extremely unpopular -
a far
cry from the overwhelming national and international vote of
confidence that
was given to our President in 1980. Enthusiasm and the
spontaneous outbursts
of hero worship President Mugabe might once have
expected are, outside the
coterie of the faithful, a thing of the past.
Their passing has coincided
with the economic melt-down for which no answers
have as yet been found.
Ordinary people, and even those not so ordinary,
have been pushed to the
limit.
In this regard, the crisis reminds me of
the cyclical nature of human
history. First, there is exploitation (the
Rhodesian situation), which is
followed by resistance with its acts of
heroism and betrayal (as happened
during the liberation struggle). Next, if
the cause is won as it was in
1980, there is elation, hope and visions of a
new beginning. Then a new set
of oppressors and exploiters sets in (the
ruling ZANU PF party) and
resistance begins again (opposition parties). The
situation comes full
circle - back to square one, so to speak.
For 26
years, President Mugabe has occupied the pivotal position in the
Zimbabwean
political structure. And there is no doubt that he has given so
much in his
lifetime before and after independence and is in fact one of the
greatest
sons of the Zimbabwean soil. However, his best days as Zimbabwe's
leader
ended around 1996. If he had stepped down then, he would have
continued to
be an admired and respected political figure and international
statesman -
in the mould of former South African President and living legend
Nelson
Mandela.
In his usual satirical and witty manner, the late national hero
Eddison
Zvobgo once told a story of a psychiatric patient at Ngomahuru
hospital in
Masvingo who joined a relay race with other patients. Instead of
passing the
baton onto the next person, he ran into the adjacent hills with
the baton!
Be that as it may, there is no doubt that President Mugabe's
departure will
be of great importance in terms of curing the political and
economic crisis
that is presently bedevilling this country. Whatever the
manner of his
going, the people of Zimbabwe will not lack the leadership of
dynamic and
dedicated men and women to carry on the baton and at some stage
pass it on.
The economic calamity facing this nation cannot be sustained.
His going
sooner rather than later will be a welcome response to the mood of
the
country.
There is of course that tiny fraction of Zimbabweans inside
the corridors of
power who are benefiting from the regime and who will fight
tooth and nail
to retain President Mugabe in power. But my message to these
people is this:
You will never be secure politically and economically as
long as the vast
majority of Zimbabweans are wallowing in poverty. It is
unmitigated folly on
the part of the military and political elite in this
country who think that
there is enough for a few as opposed to the majority
of Zimbabweans who
sincerely believe there is enough for everyone. The
instinct of
self-preservation must not be allowed to get into the way of the
interest of
the majority.
Zimbabweans have been incredibly resilient and
patient in the face of the
terrible and unnecessary suffering they are going
through. That patience
should not be taken for granted.
Even at this late
hour, President Mugabe can help the people of this country
by deciding at
the stroke of a pen to become part of the solution rather
than continuing to
be part of the problem.
As a pariah state in the community of nations, we
have been isolated from
the benefits of globalisation and no amount of
cooperation agreements
between Zimbabwe and equally poverty-stricken SADC
countries like Malawi and
Tanzania will make a significant difference to the
lives of Zimbabweans.
Such agreements can only be meaningful in the context
of our acceptance by
the entire international community.
We therefore
pray that President Mugabe will have enough sense which I know
he has to
leave a legacy of a united and unified people and a country ready,
able and
willing to regain the momentum and dynamism - economic-wise - of
the first
decade of independence. The potential is there.
borcha@mweb.co.zw
FinGaz
No Holds Barred With Gondo
Gushungo
PRIORITY attention returned to the banking sector whose
phenomenal growth
was as surprising as what went wrong after that measure of
realism when a
plethora of banking institutions faltered in
2004.
This comes in the wake of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)'s
decision last
week to throw out Trust Holdings and Royal Bank's appeals
against the
transfer of the two institutions' assets to the Zimbabwe Allied
Banking
Group (ZABG).
The group came into being through a shotgun
marriage of troubled banks two
years ago as the banking authorities sought
to clean up probably one of the
world's messiest piles of financial
wreckage.
But just as everyone thought that the curtains were coming down, it
would
seem this has just opened up a legal minefield. The two banking
institutions
(Trust and Royal) have since indicated their intentions to
appeal against
the central bank's decision.
Of course there are some who
strongly believe that given what has been
revealed in the RBZ judgment,
pursuing the case further amounts to an
exercise in jurisprudential polemics
if not sophistry. According to these
people, the case against the would-be
appellant is unassailable. I am not
however going to discuss the case's
merits or lack thereof. In any case, I
hold the view that it is within the
aggrieved shareholders of the two
institutions' constitutional and
procedural right to seek recourse through
the courts of law even if they do
not have any legal legs to stand on.
There are also those who say that the
fact that there is a groundswell of
opinion against the way Gideon Gono as
the governor of the RBZ and the
central bank as an institution handled the
troubled banks, means they now
have a dark cloud placed against their names
and integrity. The cloud formed
in the early months of 2004 when several
banks were choking from a liquidity
crunch and a host of self-inflicted
problems but they pointed an accusing
finger at the RBZ for their woes.
I
remember The Financial Gazette warning the RBZ against its awkward silence
in the face of these accusations. The paper maintained that silence was not
always golden. It can simply be yellow. To this end it published a series of
editorial comments: Make Information On Banks Public (January 21, 2004),
Break The Egg To Make The Omelette (January 8, 2004), Unmask Them (April 1,
2004) and Double-Edged Sword of Gideon (March 1, 2004), all warning the
central bank that its grave silence could be taken as an admission of
guilt.
The weekly argued that the central bank should make public, in
footnote
detail: which banks were experiencing liquidity crises and why,
their
capital inadequacies and other compliance weaknesses, the
multi-billion-dollar related-party transactions, what measures were taken
before each bank was placed under curatorship, how many times the RBZ met
the affected banks to consider escape options and how many corrective orders
it gave each of the affected banks.
The paper's view, which I couldn't
agree with more, was that the banking
institutions should be measured by the
same gauge of transparency and
accountability that we demand of political
institutions. The argument here
being that transparency fosters, if not
guarantees, good corporate
governance.
But most striking of all, despite
the smoking gun it had in the form of
insolvency, liquidity crises and
flawed insider lending which it produced
this week in its report, the
central bank maintained that the brickbats
notwithstanding, it would not
throw stones from the pulpit! Thus it allowed
the devil to run away with the
Bible.
I know that the rationale or is it fear, was that publicising the
weaknesses
of these banks would result in the law of unintended consequences
taking
hold. The authorities were wary that it could trigger a run on some
banks as
unnerved risk-averse depositors would rush for the exits, shifting
accounts
from perceived weaker to stronger banks or even to pillow banking
for fear
of burning their fingers on their exposures. Not only that but such
a move
would also result in a bank in such a situation being shunned by
other
financial institutions since banks do business among themselves. This
would,
in the process, aggravate the situation. The Trust situation is a
case in
point. As is already public knowledge, other banks were no longer
accepting
cheques drawn on Trust after they learnt of its crisis. Against
this
background, the RBZ's dilemma is perfectly understood. Banking is a
pretty
sensitive area which is all about confidence.
But look at where
that got the RBZ. The cloud subsequently turned darker
until it started
raining with opprobrium. Bankers consumed with anger and
hatred over the
loss of control of their banks accused Gono and the
curators - that he
appointed to protect depositors' funds and ring-fence
trouble spots to put
paid to systemic risk - of all sorts of things, from
victimisation to
alleged attempts to keep a lid on the banking scandal's
political dimension.
In other words, the bankers were to all intents and
purposes denying that
they engaged in questionable behaviour. Gono just came
short of admitting as
much in his report on the dismissal of appeals by
Trust and Royal.
Thus
my point is that I can never over-emphasise the general public interest
that
could have been served by releasing critical information on the banks
at the
time the scandal started unfolding. Indeed critics argue that even
though
the information was finally made public last week, this was too
little too
late in that what was finally disclosed makes no impact on
decision-making
by the already hurt legitimate depositors. In other words,
the public got to
know of the extent of the rot in these banks long after
investment decisions
had been made and fingers charred.
The question is, other than putting into
proper perspective all that
justifies the RBZ's actions in placing the banks
in question under
curatorships, what use is the information to the public
that was duped and
cheated into insolvency now? Wouldn't it be prudent for
the information
pertaining to the soundness and stability of banking
institutions to be
readily available to the public to ensure that the market
imposes discipline
on banks as creditors would be able to decide whether or
not a bank
qualifies to receive their money? Thus poorly managed banks and
those
sitting on shifting sands will not get business.
Otherwise, how is
the public expected to bear the full consequences of doing
business with
certain banking institutions when there isn't enough financial
detail on
these banks? For how long will depositors be expected to continue
jumping in
the dark?
Indeed the three years that elapsed since The Financial Gazette on
May 8
2003 broke the story on how some banking institutions were skating on
thin
ice have brought new realities in the financial sector. But the
question
still remains: How does the RBZ deal with this delicate issue which
presents
it with very difficult choices? That to me and indeed any other
ordinary
man-in-the-street depositor, on whose psyche the financial scandal
had a
distressing effect, is the question. The question that is Gono's
dilemma
because if the RBZ had not intervened and left the roubled banks to
twist in
the air, it would have been charged with neglect.
FinGaz
The Geoff
Nyarota Column
I READ with a mixture of amusement and astonishment a
story which graced the
pages of The Financial Gazette of Friday, April
28.
The heart-rending story outlined the miserable life experience of a
High
Court Judge, Mr Joseph Musakwa, while living on the ground floor of a
government-owned apartment block in Mabelreign, Harare.
"Soon after our
appointment to the bench", the judge said, "Justice
Chatukuta and myself
raised the issue of alternative suitable accommodation
with the Secretary as
well as the Minister for Justice.
"We have also met Minister Chombo on the
issue and he has tasked the chief
evaluations officer in the ministry to
look for suitable accommodation for
us."
This statement instantly wiped
out an embryonic sense of sympathy as induced
in me by the High Court
judge's severe accommodation problems. Far from
holding planning meetings
with the Ministers of Justice and of Local
Government and, separately, with
their respective permanent secretaries,
Justices Musakwa and Chatukuta
should approach any of Harare's many estate
agents and register with them
their specific needs in terms of either the
rental or outright acquisition
of a property of their choice.
A situation where Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa and Ignatius Chombo of
Local Government hold court with a High
Court judge to discuss the
accommodation needs of the latter is, of course,
a scandal, which ever way
one views it. By the time Chombo has personally
intervened in the housing
needs of government ministers, senior civil
servants, as well as the
tempestuous Sekesai Makwavarara, the eminently
incompetent chief executive
officer of the former Sunshine City of Harare,
the minister will have no
time left to attend to his legitimate
duties.
Any other boss would long ago have relocated Chombo to an office and
lodgings not in any way associated with government.
In any society a High
Court judge is a man of much substance, with many
years of service in the
judiciary. It is normal to expect men and women who
are appointed to the
bench to have acquired not only experience, but
property of their own, such
as housing, as well. If a High Court judge
cannot afford to secure decent
shelter unsubsidised by government, that
situation could be symptomatic of
premature elevation to the bench.
Reasonable independence from the employer -
government in this case - on the
part of senior members of the judiciary
would engender that sense of
professional independence that is expected of
them. Judges cannot expect to
dispense appropriate justice in cases that
threaten or affect the interests
of government when they are wholly
dependent on the same government for
survival. When judges are beneficiaries
of apartments and farms from
government their independence becomes seriously
eroded.
It is a graphic illustration of the skewed state of our national
economy
that a High Court judge cannot afford a roof over his head. If a
person of
such elevated status in society cannot afford decent
accommodation, what
about service station forecourt attendants, soldiers and
the ubiquitous
Green Bombers. This over-dependence on government on the part
of those
employed by it places undue pressures on our national fiscus.
A
total of 26 years under ZANU PF has inculcated among the otherwise
hard-working and enterprising citizens of Zimbabwe a legacy of poverty and
mediocrity, while reducing a once proud people to a nation of roadside
soapstone carvers and fishing worm-sellers.
Meanwhile, mundane issues
such as the welfare of Zimbabwe's long-suffering
population appear to have
ceased to be the concern of our increasingly
corpulent politicians.
It
was recently reported that some of Zimbabwe's prisoners were virtually
going
about in their birthday suit. While Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa,
under whose portfolio prisons fall, professed ignorance of any
severe
shortage of prison uniforms, he promised to investigate the claims
that
inmates now sometimes go about naked.
"We try to provide dignified conditions
for our prisoners according to
international requirements," the minister
said imperturbably. "To a large
extent we have managed, although in some
cases funding affects us."
What our government claims to be a shortage of
funds is often nothing but a
case of distorted priorities. Does the
commissioner of prisons need to drive
the latest Mercedes Benz in the
prevailing economic situation?
Last month Mmegi, a Gaborone newspaper,
reported that the influx of
Zimbabweans had become an irritant to the people
of Botswana "as they roam
residential areas, continuously knocking on doors
looking for piece jobs -
sometimes as early as 6am".
The paper reported
that the intruders, mostly female, were moving from
house-to-house in pairs
to ask for piece jobs, ranging from weeding to
laundry. The situation was
reported to have become uncontrollable.
As the British Protectorate of
Bechuanaland, Zimbabwe's neighbour to the
west was once an economic
wasteland. When Botswana became independent in
1966 it was rated among the
world's most impoverished nations. But it has
since then maintained one of
the world's highest economic growth rates.
Through fiscal discipline and
sound management, Botswana has transformed
itself to a middle-income country
with a per capita Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) of $11 410 in 2005.
Zimbabwe's GDP last year was $2 607.
Botswana's capital city, Gaborone, is
the fastest developing city, not just
in Africa, but in the world, hence the
invasion of foreigners, Zimbabweans
especially.
"We did not come here of
our own will", Mmegi quoted one of the Zimbabwean
women as lamenting. "We
are driven by the economic situation back home and
the fact that we have
families to look after."
The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe reported early in
April that while an
average family of five required at least Z$35 million
every month, an
average middle class citizen earned Z$15 million.
A
Gaborone resident interviewed by Mmegi complained bitterly about the early
morning disturbance of his sleep by marauding Zimbabweans.
"They are a
complete nuisance", he said. "There is no sleep nowadays.
Zimbabweans knock
(on your door) one after the other and there is no way you
can fail to
attend to them as they are patient enough to wait until you wake
up."
He
said in desperation the women offered to do one's laundry for as little
as
10 Pula. Residents are fined 1 000 Pula for employing foreigners without
work permits. The paper quoted a police official as saying that some
Zimbabweans were hired to harvest amacimbi (Mopane worms) in the
bush.
From the other side of Zimbabwe it was reported at about the same time
that
Zimbabwean traders, the majority of them school teachers who cross the
border into Mozambique for survival were being harassed by both the police
and ordinary citizens.
The situation was reported to have prompted top
ZANU PF politicians from
Manicaland to call for unspecified urgent action to
stop the alleged abuse
by our former comrades-in-arms, the Mozambicans. In
their heyday not too
long ago Zimbabweans abused Mozambicans and called them
names when they
flooded the rural areas in search of employment.
While
Minister Oppah Muchinguri, the Member of Parliament for Mutasa South,
promised to take the matter up in order to protect Zimbabweans, an official
at the Mozambican consulate in Mutare did not beat about the bush.
"The
problem is that we want to protect our industries," he said. "We cannot
allow cross-border traders to flood our markets with Zimbabwean products.
That will affect our companies."
The Mozambican official is of course
right. Hopefully, the efforts of
Muchinguri and fellow cabinet ministers
will be directed at protecting
Zimbabweans, not from Mozambicans, but from
the ravages and hardships caused
by commodity shortages, unemployment,
runaway inflation and a general
deterioration in living conditions, as a
direct result of government
mismanagement.
As if acting on cue from
Muchinguri, President Mugabe made an impassioned
plea to millions of
Zimbabweans now living abroad to return home.
"You might go to England," he
said during his Independence Day address on
April 18, "but you will be
discriminated against there. You will be given
menial jobs like looking
after old people in their homes. If you flee (from
Zimbabwe) then who will
make the country better? Is it Mugabe alone? Did I
fight for the county
alone?"
President Mugabe was right. Fighting to liberate Zimbabwe and
sweating to
develop the country in the early years of our independence was
certainly not
the solo initiative or enterprise of the President of
Zimbabwe. But the
intransigency and ruinous policies that have spawned the
near collapse of
the economy were certainly no collective effort.
Zimbabweans were not
consulted when troops were deployed to the Democratic
Republic of the Congo
to prop up the beleaguered regime of President Laurent
Kabila. Neither did
the citizens endorse the decision taken in 1997 to pay
gratuities and
compensation to war veterans when the funds were not
available.
It is true that many Zimbabwean professionals currently in
employment,
especially in the United Kingdom, work
on menial jobs. But
the President does not seem to have taken into
consideration the
consequences of a massive return even of only thousands of
skilled workers
and professionals when unemployment now hovers around 85
percent, with
inflation racing towards 1 000 percent?
Many Zimbabweans I meet say they are
ready to return to their beautiful and
once prosperous country if their
welfare is assured and the future of their
children is secure.
In
September 2003 a Zimbabwean woman collapsed and died in her apartment in
the
city of Lowell, north of Boston. It was to be two days before her body
was
discovered. She lived on her own in the wilderness of the so-called
diaspora. A full two weeks were to elapse before she was buried, pending the
arrival of relatives from Zimbabwe. They never came. Eventually her daughter
arrived from Canada, where apparently she had been granted asylum. It is not
easy for people on asylum to travel outside the country of their
refuge.
Like many other Zimbabweans, I travelled to Lowell to attend the
burial of a
person I had not known in life. It was a sad occasion. The
deceased's
courageous daughter delivered a moving testimony about the plight
of
Zimbabweans in the diaspora. Her compatriots packed the church to the
rafters. How so many came to be in a place that most had never heard about
before was sad testimony to the disintegration of our own country.
As the
mourners huddled in the rain while burying their departed sister, I
pondered
over the wretchedness of a situation where the remains of this
daughter of
Zimbabwe were interred in a graveyard far away from home, with
her last
rituals being performed by total strangers.
If the policies of our
politicians were more people-centred the poor woman
would probably have died
and been buried among her own people. Perhaps she
might not have died, in
the first place.
gnyarota@yahoo.com
Tribal divisions will not get us
far
EDITOR - I would like to applaud Jonathan Maphenduka for
being sensible and
mature enough to give a fair view of the tribal nonsense
being fanned by the
likes of Geoff Nyarota.
If the Ndebele people were so
tribal, would they have rejected ZAPU 2000 the
way they did? I notice that
naive Zimbabweans have already bought into
Nyarota's tribal grudges but I
call upon all sensible Zimbos to ask
themselves why people who really put so
much into the MDC would just walk
away.
Is it tribalism as Nyarota would
want us to believe or it is because the
guys differed with the dictatorial
traits that Tsvangirai was beginning to
show.
I think Welshman Ncube was
once quoted as saying he has no presidential
aspirations because in
Zimbabwe, a Ndebele candidate is always reduced to a
clique leader. I'm yet
to see a non-tribal article from brother Geoff
because since he started
writing in the Fingaz, his agenda sounds like that
of a man on a mission to
cause another Gukurahundi.
I am Shona and I'm begging brother Geoff to write
sensible stuff that will
assist our country solve the problems at hand
rather than fan tribal
divisions.
Tiny
Murefu
Harare
---------
Hats off to Gono for telling it as it
is
EDITOR - I read with great interest events and stories
unfolding in
Zimbabwe. The economy is battered, mangled and smoking badly.
The economy
can not really be called an economy anymore. The economic
fundamentals are
off the rails and cannot be used to measure any economic
performance.
While all and sundry are quiet on the causes of these
macroeconomic
deficiencies, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono
has reminded all
Zimbabweans about the importance of telling the
truth.
The governor has openly spoken about market distortions, use of money
to buy
favours from powerful politicians and opinion leaders, and the
deep-rooted
corruption in society. The man has accused executives of some
banks of
corruption and their unethical problem solving approaches.
The
recent George Smith Panel on Trust Holdings/Royal Bank appeals revealed
to
both students and the general public the evils our leaders do.
Half-truths
on CVs, hiding behind churches, fabrication and manipulation of
records and
egoism.
Our farmers are no exception. To the governor, I say go on. Also
crack the
whip on micro-lenders especially those that are now operating
illegally
after their licences were cancelled. We need more professionals
like you in
this country.
Editor, your paper has also done very well. I
am sure readers appreciate
your efforts and wish the fearless, professional
and balanced reporting
continues.
Revive
Economy
Harare
----------
Verbal sparring a waste of
time
EDITOR - Since the beginning of time, national tragedies
have been used for
political capital. War, terrorist attacks, natural
disasters, etc have been
spun to gain advantage for one politician or
another.
I do not, however, believe that Professor Welshman Ncube's breakdown
over
the killings in his family quite qualifies for the "political capital"
tag.
When people accuse you of going to bed with a particular organisation
and
you explain through personal circumstances how unlikely that would be,
it is
rather harsh to turn around and accuse the same person of using
personal
tragedies for political capital.
Your correspondent refers to
the liberation war but omits one key
difference - the recognition of what
happened through various
activities/policies from burial sites,
commemorations, even compensation.
As long as Zimbabwe does not deal with
what happened head-on, many will
react to any little thing the way Nyarota
is doing - tribalism! Let's deal
with the issues of Gukurahundi rather than
engage in useless verbal
sparring.
Boyd
Marara
Harare
------------
Tribalism is like a
cancer
EDITOR - It is high time someone out there in the
corridors of power brings
forward to Zimbabweans the discussion of the issue
of tribalism. Tribalism,
like racism is like a cancer, if we fail to contain
it now we have no
future. Tribalism has been there since the beginning of
time and can be
noted in our modern history back to the 1960s during the
split of Zapu.
Having lived abroad and enjoyed not only the freedom and
fruits of democracy
but benefited from government policies in the UK and USA
that offer equal
opportunities or affirmative action for once disadvataged
people, one cannot
understand why my own black government and fellow
citizens can't offer the
same to its own citizens who we all know were
previously disadvantaged by
the so-called dissident era commonly known as
Gukuraundi from 1982 to 1987.
lt has become the norm that when we differ with
our Ndebele compatriots
politically we quickly label them tribalists. l for
one do not believe that
Welshman Nube and company are tribalists but these
are guys who have struck
me as a group of individuals who are guided by
principles, principles that
border around the issue of respect for the
constitution. Can we really trust
a leader who happens to be in opposition
who violates his own party
constitution with our national
constitution?
This is one instance where, instead of focusing on the
violation of the
constitution, we have decided to play the tribal card. What
kind of a nation
are we building for the future of our children? What
difference does it make
with ZANU PF?
Government and other agencies be it
newspapers have constantly lambasted the
Ndebeles as tribalists going as far
as the early eighties even before Geoff
Nyarota came on the scene, bless
him. We view them as people who have not
contributed to the liberation
struggle and some have gone to the extent of
claiming that the MDC is the
biggest opposition party since independence yet
there was PF Zapu, a
political party that survived the rough terrain of
Rhodesia and
post-independent Zimbabwe where thousands of its members were
murdered.
Jonathan Moyo is blamed for AIPPA yet we all know that the
crafting of AIPPA
was a ZANU PF project. Whether Moyo had been minister of
information or not
that law would have been enacted anyway. Jonathan Moyo
only served as the
mouthpiece of the government, his only crime being that
he is an eloquent
speaker. It is as good as people who claim that Eddison
Zvobgo crafted the
Executive Presidential powers that President Mugabe
enjoys today. But
because Zvobgo was a Shona and one of us, this is not an
issue at all. Would
Jonathan Moyo have been treated the way he was if he
were Shona?
That man did not destroy the economy or free speech in Zimbabwe.
It is the
ZANU PF government and if he were the one who crafted AIPPA
personally then
Tichaona Jokonya should change it to reflect new thinking in
that ministry.
lt should however be noted that Ndebele people have
contributed a lot to the
economy of Zimbabwe - be it taxes or sporting
events but despite all this
there are deliberate efforts to cut them out of
the Zimbabwean political and
economic way of life. Through national
liberation movements ZIPRA and ZANLA,
those people contributed to our
independence that only a few enjoy today. It
is through the steadfast
leadership of Joshua Nkomo that Zimbabwe did not
descend into civil war as
witnessed in Angola and Mozambique.
Even under the most difficult
circumstances, Nkomo never called for
sanctions against his own country but
decided to take the bull by the horns
and it seems very few in our ethnic
group (Shona people) recognise the
personal sacrifices he made.
Today we
all know that we are suffering and we are failing to make ends meet
due to
sanctions. The illegal sanctions are hurting our economy and some of
the
blame lies squarely at the Harvest House doorstep. We had Morgan
Tsvangirai
criss-crossing western capitals campaigning for sanctions against
his own
country, but none of us has opened their mouth against him and when
the
likes of Ndebele politicians raise this issue we quickly label them
tribalists.
People in Matabeleland have shown just like everyone else in
Zimbabwe that
they want to be Zimbabweans by shunning regional parties like
Zapu 2000 in
the same manner that people shunned Margaret Dongo's ZUD in
previous
elections.
The Press and control of information is a powerful
tool. The press can turn
a lie turn into the truth if it is repeated over
and over again. There is a
perception that Joshua Nkomo was a regional
leader of the Ndebele people but
far from it, it was the controlled
government press that hammered the point
home until the majority of us began
to believe it.
We need as Zimbabweans to celebrate our ethnic diversity.
Let's unite
against dictatorship and corruption be it in government and
opposition
politics. We need to have mature politics 26 years after our
hard-won
independence. We need to differ on policies not on different ethnic
groups.
Today we may be united against the Ndebele people but that time will
come
when they are out of the equation and we will be at each other's
throats.
I do not hesitate to say Tsvangirai lost a golden opportunity to
unite
Zimbabweans under the onslaught of dictatorship by failing to unite
his
party at a critical time. Looking at the executive structure of the MDC,
I
feel saddened. Are we saying ZANU PF can do better than the MDC in the
tribal balancing act? I hope one day Tsvangirai will have the courage to
withdraw the comments he made that Gibson Sibanda and company were motivated
by tribalism. Those MDC members from Matabeleland might have been lobbied by
their constituents to participate in the senate elections, so are those
constituents tribalists too?
Some of you have lived abroad and have
experienced the pain of racism. It is
against this background that we have
decided to stand up against any form of
hate/tribalism. We need each other.
Let's shun divisive tribalism politics
and develop our nation. Let's ensure
that our political parties show the
image, colour and ethnic diversity of
our lovely nation.
I am not writing in defence of the Ndebele but I feel they
need to be
accepted by fellow Zimbabweans on equal terms. We have been told
time and
again that a Ndebele will never rule Zimbabwe. And we are also
constantly
told that Zezurus will rule till kingdom come or until donkeys
grow horns!
We need to fully recognise the roles played by Joshua Nkomo,
Enos Nkala,
Callistus Ndlovu, Mark Dube, Lookout Masuku, Nikita Mangena in
the same
manner as the roles played by Robert Mugabe, Ndabaningi Sithole,
Josiah
Tongogara, Webster Shamu, Joice Mujuru, Joseph Msika etc etc in the
liberation of Zimbabwe.
Twenty six years after independence our politics
should not be about numbers
and ethnicity but about principles, I rest my
case.
Simba
USA