Zim Standard
BY OUR
STAFF
MUTARE - Ignatious Chombo, the Minister of Local
Government who
has played havoc with elected local authorities, could have
his wings
clipped, The Standard understands.
Manicaland
Governor, Tinaye Chigudu, says President Robert
Mugabe has ordered the
reinstatement of the Saruchera Commission that Chombo
fired in
March.
An apparently disappointed Chigudu said the directive
is yet to
be complied with, two months after it was issued, leading to
confusion in
the eastern border town.
Chigudu told The
Standard Mutare residents were not happy with
the way the commissioners had
been fired by Chombo who has maintained a
tight grip on local authorities in
Zimbabwe.
Chombo dismissed commissioners, sworn into office
three days
earlier, on reasons still to be made public. These were John
Gwitira, Abiot
Maronge, Ellen Gwaradzimba, Victor Mazengero and Henry
Nemaire.
He also demoted the commission chairman Kenneth
Saruchera to the
post of deputy chairman responsible for public
works.
Chombo then appointed new commissioners and a new
chairman,
Fungai Chaeruka.
The Standard understands that
Chombo claimed Saruchera had
"failed to stamp out factionalism" which was
besetting the city council.
But unhappy with the way Chombo
was handling the issue, Chigudu,
who is the resident Minister in Manicaland
sought an audience with Mugabe.
Chigudu said: "Here
(Manicaland) I represent the President. I
have a duty to report to him what
I see on the ground and in this case I
briefed him about the way the
commissioners had been fired by the minister.
"The President
said to me: 'leave the Saruchera commission in
place. Leave it as it is.'
And this is the position that should prevail on
the
ground."
The governor said, as a result, he only recognised
the ousted
commission led by Saruchera, a veteran educationist and
businessperson and
not the one in place at the moment.
Chigudu added: "I am abiding by that until I get further
instructions from a
superior authority, the head of state or the Vice
President. I know that the
Saruchera commission should remain in place and
that is the commission I
should work with.
"Just yesterday there was a meeting in
Mutare with people
complaining about the way the minister had handled the
issue. "There is
greater confusion than before and people are not
happy."
Chombo could not be reached for comment for the past
fortnight.
Yesterday people at his home told The Standard Chombo had gone to
Banket on
farming business.
However, Presidential
spokesperson George Charamba said
yesterday he was not aware of Mugabe's
directive.
Zim Standard
By
Nqobani Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - MPs hatched a plan to force
President Robert Mugabe
together with the speaker of Parliament, John Nkomo,
and Vice-President
Joseph Msika to leave office during a parliamentary
session in 2004, the
High Court heard last week.
Virginia
Ndlovu, a member of the Zanu PF Tsholotsho District
Co-ordinating Committee,
told the High Court that Nkomo revealed that the
November 2004 Dinyane
prize-giving ceremony was meant to strategise Mugabe's
ouster along with
that of Nkomo and Msika.
She said this under
cross-examination by defence lawyer, Francis
Chirimuuta of Gula-Ndebele
& Partners, in a $2 billion defamation lawsuit
filed by former
Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, against Nkomo and
politburo member,
Dumiso Dabengwa.
Moyo is suing Dabengwa and Nkomo for
allegedly telling Mugabe
that he (Moyo) plotted a coup against Mugabe and
other senior ruling party
leaders.
Ndlovu said Nkomo, who
is also the Zanu PF national chairman,
made this disclosure during a meeting
of the Tsholotsho DCC held last year
on 12 January.
The
revelation corroborated the minutes of the meeting that Moyo
read in court
last Thursday as evidence.
Ndlovu said in support of Moyo:
"People were surprised after
Nkomo said Dinyane was meant to stage a
parliamentary coup where Nkomo and
Msika were to be ordered by Parliament to
step down during the first phase
and in the second phase President Mugabe
was also to be ordered to step
down."
When Chirimuuta
suggested that her allegations were serious,
Ndlovu said: "I remember him
saying that. It was something said publicly and
as I said before, the room
was three quarters full.
"Nkomo said it is apparent we did
not know what we were doing.
'You were exploited, led by the nose by a
mafikizolo. My children you were
almost dragged into a pit. The whole thing
was planned before hand.'"
Ndlovu told the High Court that
the DCC meeting was meant to
explain to the national chairman what had
transpired at Dinyane High School
in November 2004, now called the
Tsholotsho Declaration.
However, Ndlovu said Nkomo told them
their explanations were not
adequate.
Moyo, who is the
independent MP for Tsholotsho, last year,
dragged Nkomo and Dabengwa to
court saying they defamed him at the DCC
meeting.
The
former information Minister says the two claimed that he had
hatched a coup
against Mugabe and other top cabinet ministers using foreign
funding.
However, Nkomo and Dabengwa are denying the
charge.
High Court Judge Francis Bere is presiding over the
defamation
case that opened Tuesday. The trial continues tomorrow with Moyo
expected to
call in more witnesses. Job Sibanda of Job Sibanda and
Associates is
representing Moyo.
Zim Standard
By our staff
SIXTEEN Bindura University
students will remain in custody until
26 May following their arrest for
allegedly insulting the President and the
Minister of Higher and Tertiary
Education during a demonstration, The
Standard has
established.
According to court papers, the students are
being accused of
denouncing Stan Mudenge and President Robert Mugabe before
demonstrations
erupted at the university.
The students,
including ZINASU secretary general Beloved
Chiweshe, are being charged with
contravening Section 19 (1) and Section 24
of the Public Order and Security
Act (POSA).
Part of the police charge sheet against the
students reads:
"During the address, the accused denounced Cde Mudenge, the
minister of
Higher and Tertiary Education, as a sick person who cannot
address their
problems. They said he had . and suffered of old age. They
also said the
President was from a poor family and only got educated because
of the church
he attended."
After the address, police
say, the accused led students on a
march along Mt. Darwin road towards
Bindura without notifying authorities.
The charge sheet also
says that: "The accused persons were
observed by the police while carrying
out their unlawful demonstration and
were dispersed."
Bindura Magistrate Lazarus Murendo on Thursday denied the
students bail and
remanded them in custody to 26 May, arguing that the
police needed time to
investigate.
However, Aleck Muchadehama of Mbidzo,
Muchadehama & Makoni Legal
Practitioners, who is representing the
students, said the magistrate erred
when he denied his clients
bail.
"We have made an urgent High Court bail application.
The
Magistrate argued that there is still chaos at the college and if
released
my clients may commit other offences but that is completely wrong
because we
don't know who burnt that building," said Muchadehama, referring
to a block
at the university, which was torched last
week.
Police have since arrested 39 students in connection
with the
burning of a building, which occurred after the arrest of the first
16
students.
Although forensic tests are yet to be
conducted to ascertain the
cause of the fire, university officials have
since ruled out any electrical
faults and are accusing the students of
arson.
Zanu PF officials have pointed fingers at the
opposition MDC.
But sources from Bindura said students were
calling on the
government to review tuition and examination fees, which
students argue are
beyond the reach of many.
Zim Standard
BY WALTER MARWIZI
A government official last week failed to
provide a clear time
frame when Zimbabweans can expect to see the results of
the latest economic
rescue programme.
This left
industrialists unconvinced that the National Economic
Development Priority
Programme (NEDPP) could help lift Zimbabwe out of its
economic
crisis.
Determined to clear the air over the programme, the
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) on Thursday organised a luncheon
where Samuel Undenge, the Deputy Minister of Economic Development, was
provided an opportunity to explain how NEDPP could turn around the country's
economic fortunes.
Undenge repeated government claims
that before the end of the
year the crisis facing the Zimbabwe economy would
be over.
But unimpressed industrialists would not let him off the
hook.
One said: "Honourable deputy minister, can you tell us
when we
can start seeing the results? Yes, we have been listening, but we
are going
back still in the dark, when can we see the
results?"
Undenge, with a straight face, said: "Expect
results anytime.
All the areas of concern are addressed. The programme is
not about talking
but delivering results. We will talk less and results will
speak for
themselves."
The deputy minister said by the
end of the year, "things will
have changed for the better, which is the
essence of the programme".
Mashonaland Chamber of Industries
President Chester Mhende,
however, said for the economy to work, distortions
in the pricing of
utilities and public goods had to be removed as a matter
of urgency.
He said price controls on power imports for
example meant that
the power utility would not be able to pay for
imports.
This would, in turn, result in erratic supplies of
power to
industry and the country as a whole.
Mhende
said: "We believe that subsidies should be targeted at
the final consumer
and distortions eliminated such that there is pricing
stability and
viability which spurs confidence, investment and increases
productivity. It
is our conviction that farmers and government for instance
should pay the
full cost of fuel and get rid of distortions, which are
inherent in the fuel
sector."
Undenge however said farmers would continue to
receive
subsidies.
Government announced NEDPP a month ago
saying it had specific
objectives of reducing inflation, stabilising the
currency, ensuring food
and foreign currency generation, among other
things.
A Cuban style high-level committee, the Zimbabwe
National
Security Council chaired by President Robert Mugabe, formulated the
economic
programme aimed at stabilising the economy by the end of the
year.
There are a string of committees charged with
implementing
programme objectives in a move which appears to render
Zimbabwe's 31
ministries redundant.
Zim Standard
BY
OUR STAFF
ABSENCE of the rule of law and poor governance are
fuelling
corruption with senior government and Zanu PF officials becoming
immune to
prosecution, Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) has
said.
Speaking during a seminar on The State of Corruption in
Zimbabwe
on Tuesday, TIZ chairman Dr Goodwill Shana, said corruption in the
country
was being justified "as a political strategy and patronaged for
political
protection".
He expressed concern that
government officials implicated or
convicted in corruption cases continued
to be recycled in positions of
authority.
"Involvement in
corruption appears to have enhanced their
political careers, not damaged
them," said Shana without mentioning names.
He continued: "We
need to change the model of governance
practised in our nation as it has
played a significant part in creating
political patronage, immunity and
impunity to perpetrators of crime and
corruption."
Shana
cited several instances where senior government officials
were implicated in
corruption but went scot-free. The most notable cases are
the War Victims'
Compensation Fund scandal, Grain Marketing Board scandal,
VIP Housing fraud,
the Harare Airport Tender and Willowgate affair.
The First
Lady, Grace Mugabe, was mentioned as among those who
benefited from the
pay-for-your-house scheme. Police Commissioner Augustine
Chihuri, Vice
President Joice Mujuru, benefited from the war victims'
compensation
fund.
As a result of politics of patronage, Shana said,
national
institutions such as Parliament, the judiciary, law enforcement and
civil
society had lost autonomy, professionalism and accountability to the
nation
for service delivery.
Sylvester Maunganidze, the
permanent secretary in the Ministry
of State Enterprises, Anti-Corruption
and Anti-Monopolies, who spoke at the
same seminar, admitted that corruption
was prevalent in the country. He
however denied that government was
protecting corrupt officials.
Maunganidze said: "Indeed,
certain elements in government are
corrupt and the President said as much in
his independence address. It
(corruption) requires an unequivocal national
commitment and inter-agency
partnership across the social divide to fight
it."
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
EXACTLY a year
after the internationally condemned "Operation
Murambatsvina" thousands of
people who were left homeless by the exercise
face yet another cold winter
after government failed to provide them with
alternative
accommodation.
A drive around Harare by The Standard news
crew showed that
"Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle" - a damage-control
project initiated by
government following the unplanned demolitions of
houses - amounts to a
mockery for victims of the clean-up
exercise.
At some of the demolished sites, the victims have
erected one
metre high structures, which, for the past year have been their
homes.
The structures, constructed from broken farm bricks -
remnants
of the operation - without mortar to bind them together, have
gaping holes
letting in draughts of cold air and rodents at
night.
Every morning, children and their fathers crawl out of
their
shacks to go to school and work respectively. They have resigned
themselves
to this situation.
John Matemba, who has made
such a structure from remnants of his
house at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Heights
in Kambuzuma, summed up the plight of
"Murambatsvina"
victims.
Pointing to Kambuzuma high-density suburb, which is
less than
100 metres from the demolished settlement, Matemba said: "It's
like we're
living in hell while people across the road are in heaven. It's
cold here."
At Hopley Farm Settlement, where the government
dumped 1 600
families affected by the operation, hundreds of people - some
with infants -
are still sleeping in tents or on dusty
floors.
A recent draft report by an international
humanitarian
organisation that provides free treatment to people in need
fell just short
of condemning the settlement as
inhabitable.
The report said: "Hopley families have low
resources, are living
in crowded conditions and in many cases in makeshift
shelters with plastic
sheeting, thereby increasing their vulnerability to
health problems such as
scabies and pneumonia."
The
snail's pace at which the houses at Hopley Farm Settlement
are being
constructed irks the victims.
Official records show that only
209 houses have been roofed
while 56 are at roof level and some of the
incomplete structures have
already been occupied.
An
elderly man, who identified himself as Sekuru Solomon, said
he feared that
children could die from cold during this winter.
Weather experts
predict this season will be one of the coldest
in many
years.
Sekuru Solomon told The Standard: "I have neither a
bed nor a
warm blanket. I sleep on the floor with my children. I fear they
(children)
will contract diseases."
The slow construction
pace at Hopley mirrors that at Hatcliffe
Extension and Whitecliff Farm,
where government plans to resettle hundreds
of families affected by the
operation.
So far, only an estimated 500 houses have been
completed at
Whitecliff out of the 9 000 available stands. Other houses are
at various
stages of construction.
At this rate, it could
take nearly two decades before all the
intended beneficiaries secure decent
shelter.
Murambatsvina victims in Harare are part of nearly
one million
families displaced by the operation countrywide, according to UN
special
envoy Anna Tibaijuka.
The Minister of Local
Government, Public Works and Urban
Development, Ignatious Chombo, claims the
government has built 7 000 houses
during the past year under the
reconstruction programme.
Chombo could not be reached for
comment. However, the situation
on the ground does not support his
claims.
This week, civic organisations, human rights
defenders and
journalists will tour settlements affected by the operation in
Harare.
Hopefully, they will be able tell the international
community
that one year after, the victims of the government-sponsored
operation are
still out in the cold and desperately in need of
assistance.
Zim Standard
BY
OUR STAFF
BITING poverty and the HIV and AIDS scourge has led
to an
increase in the cases of child labour in the country's farming areas,
a
government minister has said.
Speaking at the launch of
the International Labour Organisation
(ILO) Global Report on Child Labour,
the Minister of Public Service, Labour
and Social Welfare, Nicholas Goche,
said poverty and the AIDS pandemic were
hampering government efforts to
fight child labour.
"It is indeed true that HIV and AIDS
remain a challenge in
combating child labour since the children orphaned as
a result of this
pandemic find themselves in a state of desperation and
helpless thus making
themselves susceptible," Goche said, in a speech read
on his behalf by the
ministry's permanent secretary, Lance
Museka.
According to the General Agricultural and Plantation
Workers
Union (GAPWUZ), thousands of children, a large number of them driven
out of
school because of high fees and the clean up exercise, now constitute
the
bulk of farm labour in the country.
The children,
below the age of 16, are forced to work for long
hours a day on the farms
and are given low wages to supplement dwindling
family
incomes.
Tayo Fashoyin, the director of the ILO sub-regional
office for
southern Africa, said the cases of child labour in Africa have
slightly
increased against a background of a decline in some parts of the
world.
"The results of the 1999 National Child Labour Survey
carried
out in Zimbabwe show that the majority (82%) of the working children
in the
country are in the Agricultural sector, where children of the workers
in
this sector are engaged to supplement household incomes," Fashoyin
said.
He added that the media, however, tended to focus
public
attention on street children and those who were sexually exploited
which are
"numerically in the minority".
"Many aspects of
work in agriculture can extremely be hazardous
and this includes the use of
poisonous chemicals, inappropriate or dangerous
equipment," he
said.
Wellington Chibebe, secretary general of the Zimbabwe
Congress
of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said the eradication of child labour in the
country
would be very difficult because of the current economic
woes.
Zim Standard
BY WALTER MARWIZI
MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai raises the
stakes in Budiriro
today when he hits the campaign trail in a by-election
set to determine
which of the two factions in the opposition party has
greater support on the
ground.
Although Zanu PF is also
in the race, the spotlight is on the
squabbling MDC factions, both of which
claim to enjoy support of the
grassroots.
Aides to
Tsvangirai told The Standard the MDC leader would this
afternoon appeal to
the voters to support his faction's candidate, Emmanuel
Chisvuure.
An aide, disclosing that 30 000 fliers had
been distributed in
the constituency, said: "He wants to prove a point and
will go there to
campaign for Chisvuure in Budiriro 4."
The fliers inform voters faced with two candidates from the same
party, that
Chisvuure is the candidate for the anti- Senate faction.
But
Morgan Changamire, the pro-Senate Deputy Organising
Secretary, who is
co-ordinating the campaign process for Gabriel Chaibva,
said they were not
intimidated by Tsvangirai's move.
Changamire said: "Yes, he
is going there, but forget about him.
We have the best candidate and rallies
don't matter, only the people who go
to vote."
Asked if
pro-Senate leader Arthur Mutambara was also not joining
the campaign trail,
Changamire said: "He is busy, but we are looking at the
possibility of him
making a walkabout in Budiriro in the coming days."
Both
Chisvuure and Chaibva lock horns with Jeremiah Bvirindi of
Zanu PF in a
by-election set for Saturday. The campaign period has largely
been peaceful,
according to the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN),
which has been
observing the campaign process.
Bvirindi, the Zanu PF
candidate, refused to talk to The Standard
about the progress of his
campaign.
He said: "I am campaigning right now. I don't have
time to talk
to you, just give me your number, I will call you
later."
Chaibva is however asking the voters to vote for him
saying he
is no newcomer to Parliament.
Chaibva, who
promised to hold government accountable for its
actions, said: "For five
years I was in Parliament and fought hard and
opposed the Public Order and
Security Act (POSA) and Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA)."
Chisvuure, who was at a campaign rally on Friday,
said victory
was certain.
Chisvuure said: "People know
what we represent and there is no
doubt who we are. If I was in doubt, you
would be seeing me approaching
newspapers looking for publicity."
Zim Standard
By
our correspondent
GWERU - Two workers at a commercial bank in
Gweru have been
suspended as authorities step up investigations into
circumstances
surrounding cash found in a dustbin two weeks
ago.
Workers from Gweru City Council's refuse collection
department
reportedly stumbled upon R30 000 stashed in a dustbin while they
were on
duty.
The waste collectors reportedly became
excited and caused a
commotion, which attracted the attention of security
guards and members of
the public.
The Standard
understands that investigators established the
cash, discovered behind the
Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ), may have come
from another
bank.
CBZ Public Relations Manager, Matilda Nyathi, said the
money did
not belong to their bank.
"Our books were
checked and they were balancing. We share the
same sanitary lane with
another bank but I cannot say whether the money is
from that bank," Nyathi
said.
Banking sources told The Standard that two workers at
the nearby
Stanbic Bank had been suspended after foreign currency went
missing at the
bank.
According to sources, the two were
suspended last week as
investigations now involving the police,
continue.
Officers from the Criminal Investigation Department
who are
investigating the case said they could not shed any more light on
the issue
saying doing so could jeopardise their
investigations.
Pindie Nyandoro, Stanbic Managing Director,
confirmed to The
Standard that some workers had been suspended to allow
investigations into
the disappearance of foreign
currency.
"Actually it's R2 000 and not R30 000. I don't know
where this
high figure is coming from. The money must have been stolen and
it was
picked from the dustbin at the CBZ because we share the same sanitary
lane,"
Nyandoro said.
Zim Standard
BY
OUR STAFF
NINE people died yesterday morning while 15 others
were
njured - three of them seriously - when a Tanda Tavaruva bus was
involved
in an accident with a commuter bus along Simon Mazorodze road in
Harare.
According to police, the driver of a commuter bus,
turned right
in front of oncoming traffic resulting in the
collision.
Acting police spokesperson, assistant inspector
Honest Musara,
said the injured were rushed to Harare and Parirenyatwa
hospitals.
Musara said: "The bus, which had no passengers,
was heading
north along Simon Mazorodze and was reported to have been on its
way to pick
up passengers at Mbare Musika.
"The kombi
driver turned right in front of oncoming traffic
resulting in the accident
and eight people died on the spot."
Musara said the front of
the bus was extensively damaged while
the whole right side of the commuter
bus was also damaged.
"We have not yet received the finer
details on the condition of
the drivers but all the people who died were on
the commuter omnibus."
Names of the victims were still being
withheld, as their next of
kin are yet to be informed.
Zim Standard
marketwatch by Deborah-Fay Ndlovu
THE Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe last week phased out the 91-day
Treasury Bills to replace them with
long-term papers in a development meant
to mop up excess liquidity and
reduce money supply growth.
Central Bank Governor, Dr Gideon
Gono, released a circular
announcing that monetary authorities had stopped
issuing 91-day TBs but had
instead introduced one-year, two-year and
three-year TBs each with a yield
linked to the Consumer Price Index and
additional margins of 2 %, 7,5 % and
10 % respectively.
"The highlight of the week was the phasing out of the 91-day TBs
last
Monday. The Governor (Gono) wrote a memo stating that there would be
new
instruments on the market in the form of the one-year, two-year and
three-year Special OMO (Open Market Operation). The one-year OMO is linked
to CPI and has a margin of 2%," said Terrence Mazango of
Highveld.
Market watchers said the move was meant to mop up
excess
liquidity coming through to the market because of TB maturities and
money
from the tobacco auction floors and also to restructure Government
debt.
However, the development prompted a drop in short -
term
interest rates after the notice unnerved financial institutions, who
fearing
that the development would trigger liquidity constraints, decided to
reduce
call rates to between 100 and 200% last week
"Giving
people a seven-day instrument when the asset is one year
could affect
liquidity. There has to be a match between assets and liability
that is why
most banks were offering reduced short-term rates," said an
analyst who
declined to be named.
Fears were also abound that investors
would as in the past shun
long term TBs but Mazango said he expects their
popularity to increase when
liquidity improves next week.
The analyst also said using a rate pegged to the CPI should also
contribute
to the popularity of the OMOs.
Meanwhile, the stock market
recovered as a result of the decline
in short- term interest
rates.
The industrial index closed Wednesday 25,69% points
stronger at
45 556 117.66 points.
"It's the low interest
rates and the fact that the market has
not moved much since January that has
contributed to the gains. Stocks had
become under valued and the movement is
just to match with inflation,"
explained an analyst with a local broking
firm.
There were no losses recorded last Wednesday with counters
such
as Old Mutual leading the gains after adding $100 000 to
$7 00 000.
Econet added $25 000 to $325 000 because of its
growth potential
while Delta, Natfoods and TA soared a
significant
$10 000 apiece to close at $60 000, $70 000 and $30
000
respectively.
Analysts said the blue chip counters
gained because investor
interest was directed to heavily capitalised
counters whose performance was
based on the strength of their financial
results and the potential to grow.
"People would prefer the
blue chips first because they know if
there are policy changes the stock
performance would be based on
fundamentals such as financial results and
growth potential."
The mining index shrugged off news of a
take over of foreign
companies by locals to gain 33,14% points to Wednesday
at 11 666 413.89
points.
Zim Standard
BY GODFREY MUTIMBA
THE
Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe (HAZ) has expressed
concern over the
continued decline of the tourism industry, aggravated by
the incessant
economic meltdown over the years.
Speaking during a
conference to announce the HAZ Indaba slated
for Masvingo this week, HAZ
co-vice president, Fungai Mutseyekwa, said the
challenging economic
situation facing the country had a detrimental effect
on the hospitality
industry.
Mutseyekwa said this year's three-day congress that
begins on
Wednesday, would discuss ideas to revive the declining
industry.
He said: "Our association has a crucial role to
play and we owe
it to our country and ourselves to consider practical
solutions and
initiatives that will help us find ourselves again.
Hospitality and Tourism
are the Siamese twins of the country's economy-when
one coughs; the other
catches a cold. The decline in tourism anywhere in the
world is bad news for
hospitality service; that's why people talk of
hospitality and tourism in
the same breath."
This year's
congress is held under the theme Great Ideas for
Hospitality Revival. HAZ
said that the theme is derived from the economic
woes that have impacted
negatively on the hospitality industry.
Mutseyekwa said:
"This theme is informed by the challenging
economic challenges economic
situation facing our country, which has a
deleterious effect across the
board, including our industry. Rather than
continue in a state of what
someone called 'analysis paralysis', we felt
that Congress this year should
be used as an opportunity to discuss
solutions."
Zim Standard
BY OUR
STAFF
ZIMBABWE deserves a place among economically successful
First
World countries, if unemployment figures released by the Central
Statistical
Office (CSO) last week are anything to go by.
At 9% Zimbabwe joined the elite league of prosperous nations
such as UK
(4.7%), Sweden (6.3%), Netherlands (4.6%) and Ireland (4.5%) with
single
digit figures.
In its latest Labour Force Survey for 2004,
CSO shocked the
business community with figures that are far below estimates
put forward by
independent economists who predict that the figure is
anywhere above the 60%
mark.
CSO said: "Population age 15
years and above, considered to be
the working age population, accounted for
60 percent of the population. Out
of the population age 15 years and above,
87 percent was economically
active. Using the broad definition of
unemployment, nine percent was
unemployed."
CSO went a
step further estimating a total population of 10.8
million compared to the
11.6 million from the 2002 Population Census. CSO
said the 2004 LFS survey
excluded visitors and students in boarding schools,
which were included in
the 2002 Census. The number of persons aged 15 years
and above excluded from
the labour force (inactive population) was estimated
at 829 000 of whom the
largest percentage (40%) were students.
CSO said that 193 000
persons were at least once retrenched in
the period 1995 to May
2004.
"The highest prevalence of retrenchment was among those
with
lower levels of education," CSO said.
When the bulk
of companies are operating at just 50% of
capacity, it means more
retrenchments and jobs losses. The informal sector,
which used to take a
sizeable number of the population, is a pale shadow of
the
90's.
But the CSO statistics are a stark contrast to the
Confederation
of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) report released early this year.
The report,
State of the Manufacturing Sector, said that the manufacturing
sector had
lost 42% of the labour force in formal employment in the period
2004-2005.
The survey said that only 13%of the companies that responded to
the survey
were operating at 75% of capacity.
The CZI
report said that retrenchments and reduced working hours
in the
manufacturing sector were caused by low capacity utilisation.
The CSO survey is carried out after every five years with the
last one
having been conducted in 1999.
Information from the survey is
used to formulate policies on
employment, human resources development
strategies, macroeconomic
monitoring, incomes support and social
programmes.
With new inflation figures coming up any time
from now, strident
calls to make CSO's calculations representative of the
situation on the
ground are justified.
Zim Standard
By Our
Staff
THE Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce will next
month hold
its annual congress at the resort town of Victoria Falls, chamber
president,
Luxon Zembe, said last week.
The congress to
be held under the theme "In pursuit of a shared
economic vision, confidence
building, transparency and policy consistence"
will run from 28 to 31
June.
Zembe said key issues to be discussed include the need
for a
market-driven economy, creating an environment conducive for
investment and
economic empowerment and vowed that business will keep
"pushing" on until
Government responds positively.
"Some
of the key issues to be discussed include the need for a
market driven
economy. That will entail the removal of price controls and we
will continue
pushing until the walls are broken down. We will never give up
because that
will be giving up on our future and ourselves. We will not keep
quiet
irrespective of the resistance," Zembe said.
Zimbabwean
businesses are faced with an acute shortage of
foreign currency and have had
to downsize operations to survive.
But ZNCC believes the economy
can improve with the "right
atmosphere".
Zembe said they
would also be inviting regional investors to
talk about the creation of the
"right atmosphere" and what they expect out
of Zimbabwe for them to plough
in their money.
He said discussions on economic empowerment
will centre on the
proposed controversial amendments for the Mines and
Minerals Act, which the
industrialist said should be carried out
amicably.
"No one has qualms with the policy but we are
worried that the
approach will further destabilise the situation. The
methodology used should
make us stronger instead of weakening our position,"
he said.
Government has proposed that the State acquires a
non-contributory 25 % equity from foreign owned mines on the promulgation of
the bill into law and the nationalised stake would be increased to 51 %
within five years.
Zim Standard
By Our Staff
SOUTHERN Africa prepares
for a common monetary area by 2018 but
talks have stirred more debate than
progress.
A requirement for single digit inflation by 2008,
doubts over
which currency to use and political will to allow central banks
to operate
autonomously could prove costly to the talks.
While the Central Banks of Southern African Development
Community have said
use of common currency is a must and pencilled its debut
for 2018 they are
worried about the hurdles they face.
An official adding that
a Memorandum of Understanding has
already been signed by regional central
banks, said: "The Model Act presses
against the involvement of civil
servants from the central banks. Talks are
still at rudimentary stages and
are running slow because of doubts over
which currency to take. The other
question is: are politicians ready to let
go of central banks because talks
have raised debate on issues of
sovereignty."
He could as
well have been talking about Zimbabwe. Local
analysts contributed to the
debate last week and said the requirement that
the civil service
disassociates itself from involvement in central banks to
enable the project
to take off could be a tall order given government's
reliance on the Reserve
Bank to settle its bills.
One economist, who declined to be
named, said: "We have got a
central bank that is printing money against its
will, what other evidence do
we need of government
interference?"
Government denies interference but analysts
believe that could
stand in the way of Zimbabwe meeting the 2008 deadline
for single digit
inflation.
David Chapfika, the Deputy
Minister of Finance, said the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe operates autonomously
"but obviously they have to consult
with the Ministry of
Finance".
South Africa's suggestion for the use of the Rand
has not helped
ease the debate either.
Zimbabwe National
Chamber of Commerce president, Luxon Zembe,
said: "That is being bullish and
South Africa is behaving like a big
brother."
His
sentiments could just as well reflect popular opinion on a
debate marred by
memories of an abandoned currency - the Common Market for
Eastern and
Southern Africa phased out UAPTA in 1997 to replace it with the
United
States dollar.
ZABG economist Andy Hodges, believes the
memory could hang over
SADC's efforts to use a common currency and raised
concern that stronger
economies will benefit at the expense of weak
ones.
"The strong economies will benefit and those without
export
infrastructure will be at disadvantage. Target has been set in the
future so
countries will be ready and if that does not happen then they can
join
later," Hodges said.
While the debate rages on
analysts acknowledge that using a
common currency would be beneficial
especially to Zimbabwean businesses.
Zembe said: "It will
facilitate trade. There would be no need to
look for foreign currency and
issues of exchange rate risk or exposure will
be eliminated for Zimbabwe
because everyone will be trading in the same
currency."
Zimbabwe's volatile exchange rate has been a source of headache
to industry,
which has had to contend with a ban on their imports in
countries like
Zambia.
Zambia banned imports from Zimbabwe last year citing
a multiple
exchange rate system that has seen the country operate both an
official and
parallel market for foreign currency.
Local
businesses have also had to contend with a
hyper-inflationary environment
that has made it difficult to operate at
optimum production levels and
resulted in company closures.
However, use of common currency
should eliminate these problems
through the establishment of an integrated
economy throughout Southern
Africa.
"National central
banks will begin to operate along the same
philosophies, having the same
inflation figures and growth targets and that
is what economic integration
is all about - the whole of SADC running like
a single country," said the
industrialist.
Kingdom economist, Witness Chinyama said the
move should reduce
production and transport costs for local
companies.
Zim Standard
Comment
THE government concedes Zimbabwe has
pursued a costly and
disastrous course over the past six
years.
It is out of this realisation that it has decided to
reverse
occupation of seized productive properties such as Kondozi Farm in
Manicaland to their original owners so that they can continue to generate
much-needed foreign currency for the country.
Kondozi
raises intriguing issues: Vice President Joseph Msika
deplored the seizure
of the enterprise. So did his colleague, Vice President
Joice Mujuru. The
architects of the plunder of Kondozi are known. Will the
government have the
will to deal with and make an example out of its own
rogue elements? Or will
it condone their brazen acts of illegality at far
greater cost to the
nation, its popularity and legacy?
But for the government to
demonstrate that it is serious about
bridge building, about pulling Zimbabwe
from the morass and itself from the
dangerous experiment of the past six
years it will need to demonstrate its
zero tolerance of the mayhem that
continues to manifest itself countrywide
contrary to government's
declarations that the land reform programme was
concluded long
ago.
Recent cases have identified on-going violent evictions
in
Rusape, Nyazura, Chipinge, Karoi and Beatrice in particular, where an
enterprise that should enjoy international investment protection has been
commandeered, with law-enforcement officers seemingly
impotent.
Kondozi not only raises questions of whether anyone
is in charge
of this country and if so what exactly they believe they are
driving it
towards; the fate of the estate also demonstrates the crass
incompetence of
the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority,
ARDA.
Ownership of Kondozi cannot be restored without
deciding the
fate of those who cost the country so much in international
exports, foreign
exchange and general perception of its contempt for the
rule of law.
Restoration of Kondozi and similar projects is
not difficult.
Consider for a moment the impact of President Robert Mugabe
instructing the
commissioner of police to arrest, in a matter of weeks,
anyone who disrupted
farming activities throughout the country by forcibly
evicting the previous
owners and occupying farms.
If
there is resolve to restore order to the agricultural sector,
the government
could put commercial farmers back on the land with a new
mandate that is
certain to revolutionise agriculture: each commercial farmer
to work with
and mentor half a dozen new farmers surrounding him/her and
have this
repeated throughout the country.
For example, if there are
still an estimated 900 commercial
farmers around, the number of highly
productive farmers could rise to 5 400
and farm productivity would witness a
giant leap forward if the new farmers
are initially limited to graduates of
agricultural colleges. With the kind
of government support the sector has
enjoyed during recent years, the sector
could experience a real revolution
and become a model for other countries
Zim Standard
sundayopinion by Marko Phiri
AN old woman walked into a
hospital last week for a routine
diabetes check up. By her own wishes, she
would do this then return to her
rural home where she had lived peacefully
all her life. She did not make it
back this time around.
She died two days later. It was her sons who discovered her dead
when they
came during the visiting hour. And the nurses? - well, they
simply said
they were not aware of her state! Welcome to Zimbabwe's hospital
hell.
In a country like the United States, attorneys
would feast on
the hospital with the family claiming millions of dollars for
negligence.
They would not demand a fee for the case, but would simply
claim a third of
the punitive damages likely to be awarded by the courts.
All this because
they know the institution will have a case to
answer.
The government has assumed the arrogance of those
priests from
an Asian religion who sit on pedestals and snort at the low
caste
untouchables; families here just take the devastation without any
recompense
from the bungling institutions. But then, what can replace
life?
It is important to interrogate the manner in which
people have
resigned themselves to the manifold abuses by this government
but still can
do nothing about it, with elections having proved useless as a
means of
registering their discontent.
Somebody has
written about policy paralysis with the government
having no clue about
virtually anything to heave the country out of this
miasma. It is that
paralysis which graphically manifests itself in how
service delivery has
gone down to levels that would not be acceptable
anywhere in the world.
Well, maybe other African democracies!
While Zimbabwe had one
of the most envied health delivery
systems this side of the Sahara, it
appears over the past decade or so,
decided to stick to the African way
where hospitals are known to have not a
single pill in the dispensary; where
hospitals have become places where one
goes to die, not to look for
life.
Perhaps most bizarrely; one of those hospitals is
actually
called Mpilo, meaning life. But what they dispense with alarming
frequency
has no modicum of the life thus claimed.
The
thinking appears to be, if Zambia or Malawi our good SADC
neighbours can
have abject conditions at their hospitals, why not run down
ours in
solidarity with our African brothers?
This appears true
within the context of that obsession with
pan-Africanism, and because one of
Africa's last strongmen was recently
honoured with a whole thoroughfare
named after him, it thus seems to make no
sense to have a functioning
economy when your neighbours are living amidst
untold
poverty.
The country's gangrene is seen in areas that ought
to provide
hope for the people here, and hospitals, among other essential
services,
become the index through which a country's development or lack
thereof is
adjudged. Surely if hospitals are turned into virtual involuntary
euthanasia
centres should not the government move in to investigate? Or it
would be the
case of a government investigating itself therefore the verdict
being pretty
obvious?
With the manifold failures of this
regime, it still remains
baffling that they insist on steering this ship
when it is obvious other men
and women of goodwill ought to take charge. But
perhaps it is naive to
expect an African politician in the fashion of
Richard Nixon to look the
nation in the eye and say "the people of Zimbabwe,
I am sorry I failed" and
duly resign.
The interesting
dimension of the state Zimbabwe finds itself in
is that will the country see
any major policy shift if Mugabe were to step
down tomorrow and still make
way for a dyed-in-the-wool Zanu PF "cadre".
Or the country's
fortunes lie in a totally new political
dispensation? Suppose Zanu PF
capitulated and decided to re-author the
country's constitution and call for
a referendum, would that also signal a
turn of the country's fortunes still
with this party in power? But as the
good professor Jonathan Moyo said in
his erstwhile days as government's
chief of spin doctor, no government can
legislate itself out of power! That
leaves little or no options for a power
shift considering elections have
failed abysmally to be that vehicle of
political transition.
A country like Japan, an economic
behemoth today, has a
fascinating political history where governments came
and went with such
alarming frequency that one wondered if there was ever
anybody competent
enough to rule that country for two full
years.
The factors ranged from allegations of corruption to
failure by
political parties to claim a majority in government as coalitions
simply
crumbled as differences became violent with punches thrown in
parliament.
Zimbabwe however has endured two very long
decades of a party
that has run down the country despite the now
institutionalised corruption
with government officials bearing the
torch.
"If something makes you cry, you have to do something
about it.
That is the difference between politics and guilt." (Bill Clinton,
1994).
Zim Standard
sunday opinion by Webster Zambara
As schools opened for the
second term there was no joy at all.
Instead, there was anger and trauma in
pupils and students, parents and
guardians as well as school authorities.
This is against a tapestry of
massive fee hikes coupled with sharp rises in
prices of school uniforms and
all the necessities required in an educational
set up.
There are three things that preceded the beginning of
the second
school term that advance my thesis in this article. In Bulawayo,
70 children
and 112 women were held by the police for demonstrating against
school fee
increases.
In Harare 48 college students were
detained, allegedly for not
respecting the portrait of President Robert
Mugabe. It was also reported in
this paper a child led coalition of
children's organizations, Child and
Youth Budget Network, would like to
organize massive demonstrations by
children in order to force the government
to reverse fee increases. I will
try to analyse these demonstrations
separately although the fact that they
derive from the same thinking and
feeling, hoping for the same output, is
obvious.
The
underlying issue is that these Zimbabweans will not
genuflect as their
dignity and rights to education are systematically
stripped from them. And
to me as a conflict worker these are just symptoms
of much deeper underlying
conflicts that have not been resolved. And without
beating about the bush,
it is our economy, stupid!
For Minister Aeneas Chigwedere to
come out in the open trying to
put the blame on school authorities is like
trying to hide behind his
finger. When we had a normal economy we never
experienced such massive
increases in both government and private
institutions. When we got our
independence we promised each other that
everyone had a right to education
and primary education would be for
free.
Whether making it free was the best option is not the
issue, but
I personally benefited from it because I was a deserving citizen.
I recall
very well at Chiguhune Primary School in Gutu district in 1980 that
on the
first day at school I would receive all the required textbooks and
exercise
books, including the wrappers, better known as khaki covers. When
my ball
point pen was finished, I would simply go with the emptied
're-fills' for
replacement. At break-time we would have mahewu. Pupils in
urban areas tell
of receiving pints of milk and candy cakes at break
time.
Our duty when we went to school was to learn. No one
would
starve.
I also recall vividly that at one time my
two sisters and I were
attending boarding schools when our dear father,
Nicholas Zambara, was only
a primary school teacher back in Gutu but he
could still afford to pay for
us.
Now as schools opened
last week most civil servants had earned
around $10million. I am therefore
not surprised when Women of Zimbabwe Arise
and their children took to the
streets to protest because they themselves
(mothers) were exercising their
right to education. They get frustrated if
that right is denied their
children. And the children have the right to
sympathise with their mothers
because it is for their cause as well.
I watched with a heavy
heart when Chigwedere was on local news
on our one and only broadcasting
station. He had the audacity to tell the
nation that there is no law that
says a child may be sent back home because
he or she does not have uniform.
This coming from a qualified teacher like
him? I am a retired teacher myself
and I know the classroom environment from
a professional point. Such a child
would be traumatised and that will affect
performance. And how would the
parents and guardians feel? By the way, who
wanted to introduce one uniform
for all schools not long ago?
As I am writing this article,
there is jambanja at Bindura
University, and thirty-nine students have been
arrested. While government
has hiked tertiary fees, payouts have not been
increased. Naturally students
feel short -changed, and their academic
endeavours have been jeopardised.
Education is no longer a right, but a
privilege for a few who can afford.
When I personally went
through the system, we would receive our
education on a government loan that
we would pay back after completion of
our studies. Now the economy is in
such tatters that the government knows
all these graduates will not be
employed, thus recovery of the loans will be
difficult, and students are the
pawns! So it's the economy, simple.
But even when the economy
was good, the government was so lazy
to collect the loans. Or rather
incompetent, or both. Look at this:
government gave me a loan and later
employed me as a teacher. It had to hire
a private firm called Magfair to
collect its loans from me, its employee!
Anyone who attained tertiary
education in the past two decades can bear
witness.
And
when young children threaten to demonstrate against fee
hikes and general
economic hardships, then our dead did not see anything.
Chave
Chimurenga!
Zim Standard
sunday view by Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
If you read anything
about Mozambique today and the "tremendous
progress" the country is supposed
to be making, one cannot help recollecting
similar rave reviews and reports
about Uganda in the late 1980s through the
1990s.
The
statistics are very familiar: more than 6% growth rate,
expanding
opportunities for business, IMF/World Bank ideology, a confident
middle
class, and an environment open to foreign investment, international
non-governmental organisations and donor organisations
etc.
In plain words, a nation open to business. In the case
of Uganda
there was also identification with "a strong man", considered an
"enlightened" or "benevolent" dictator. Of course the ovation for Uganda is
no longer as enthusiastic as it used to be not only due to the economic
limitations of macro-economic rejuvenation in a dependent economy but also
the limits of political tolerance between the ruling party/clique and
President on the one hand and their erstwhile over indulgent foreign
supporters.
In some senses President Yoweri Museveni has
become the tail
trying to wag the dog. A beggar who cannot accept the
ultimate loss of
sovereignty stemming from an economy that is too much
dependent on outside
forces and support.
So it was with
Uganda in mind that I arrived in Maputo last
week. There are no doubts about
the visible signs of a country in some kind
of rebirth after a painful
history of armed conflicts, largely the result of
regional destabilisation
of neighbouring apartheid
South Africa and the immoral logic of
the cold war.
Many new buildings are going up and old ones
being
rehabilitated. The hotels are in brisk business full of ubiquitous
United
Nations, Western NGO officials and assorted business men and women
all over
the place.
There are more than 20 major donor
agencies and organizations in
the country that are basically the engine of
the new growth. It is a reward
for successful peaceful settlement of the war
against RENAMO, ideological
capitulation or pragmatic realignment away from
the former Stalinist model
and endorsement for the political
leadership.
But as in Uganda this support come with costs
that increase
everyday. One, it is not sustainable that a country be so
dependent on
foreigners through both direct budget support and resources for
its capital
development. Two, such endorsement come with
political consequences that often lead to collisions in the
future
especially after a period of stabilisation. Those who pay the piper
will
want to call the tune eventually. Also the growth may not guarantee any
long
lasting development.
Speaking to some of the officials of the
key government
ministries the story is similar to what many people in the
Ministry of
Finance and Economic Planning in many African countries will
recognise. Just
take the example of the time that the government of
Mozambique spends on a
twice yearly review with donors. Each round takes 45
days each which means
90 days in the year.
If you had one
month of official holidays in the country
(January) and the one month of
annual leave in the Western countries
(generally August) this means that the
working year is actually seven months
including all the national holidays,
usual weekends! What time is spent by
government officials on actually
working to deliver services to their own
people?
Those
who are condemned to these endless missions, evaluations,
know that as a
consequence of these meetings more meetings and missions are
generated. In a
way development becomes paper-driven. No wonder the
"miraculous" average
growth rates bandied about often mean nothing to the
vast population
condemned to eke out their living in the "micro" level.
Many
African governments as a result of their collective
political failure and
mismanagement of the resources of the continent have
made themselves
supervisors for foreign interests and are now conditioned to
be accountable
to donors and Western agencies. They are often too scared or
intimidated to
resist unless when their narrow political interests (like
continuing stay in
power) are concerned.
Yet donor demands and interventions are
collectively undermining
the capacity of our governments and
peoples.
Many of the so-called opposition politicians spend
more time
complaining, whining and pining to foreign (and usually Western )
diplomats
and other aid officials than organising to politically challenge
misruling
governments.
Our governments sign up to
international commitments like the
Millennium Development Goals in addition
to mountains of other Intra-African
protocols or agreements like NEPAD, the
African Peer Review Mechanism,
without expecting to fulfil
them.
Not a few Africans are fed up with this situation but
too many
of us agonise instead of organising. But Reverend Nyongonkulu
Ndungane, the
Archbishop of Cape Town, following in the tradition of
activist priests like
his predecessor, Bishop Desmond Tutu, is hoping to
reverse the trend of
governance without accountability both on the continent
and internationally.
And he is challenging other Africans to join
him.
On Wednesday 3 May, after almost a year of consultations
across
the continent among civil society, NGOs, governments, international
agencies
and multilateral institutions, he launched the African Monitor. The
mission
is to make sure that African governments and non-African governments
too
meet the commitments they have made under various instruments chiefly,
the
MDGs, NEPAD, G8, etc.
It is a very daunting task.
However because the Archbishop has
a wide constituency of Faith based groups
(not limited to Christians or
Anglicans but involving other faiths) and also
due to the existence of so
many groups working (often in isolation) across
the continent, the African
Monitor, may actually provide a useful service in
building bridges of
activism and policy engagement and ensure accountability
through high level
advocacy backed by grassroots
activism.
As I have argued elsewhere Africa does not need new
commitments
or promises just a fulfilment of old ones we made to ourselves
and made by
others.
While our governments are used to
being formally accountable to
outsiders the African Monitor hopes to make
them accountable to their own
peoples and also monitor the accountability of
others to us. In a way it may
operationalise one of the few good things in
the APRM - the principle of
mutual accountability between us and those who
claim to be our international
partners.
As the South
African Vice President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka,
observed in her conclusion at
the Workshop that preceded the launch even the
Monitors need to be watched.
The ultimate monitor is the active citizenship
in Africa and outside of
Africa that governments they elect be politically
accountable to them and
honour commitments they signed.
Army can be a force for good
OUR elected MPs and those of their colleagues in government have
failed us,
throughout the history of this country. None of them ever worked
for the
good of the nation.
Whatever they have done was simply to
endorse the thoughts of
President Robert Mugabe. We are in our current mess
because of the
ineptitude of our government ministers who have never been
able to challenge
Mugabe.
I am not for challenging the
President for the sake of
challenging but constructive challenging would
have averted where we are
today as a country.
Mugabe has
unwittingly put himself on the spot. The President
has always believed that
the army is in his pocket but alas, this has been a
pipe dream and could be
his undoing. The army has been put in every
government department and what
the generals have seen has opened their eyes
to the current sorry state of
the nation.
Zimbabwe is on the verge of collapse. That is why
the army is
flexing its muscles. First the army warns Mugabe of possible
food riots.
The cowardly Minister of Agriculture, Joseph Made, could not
summon enough
courage to give such a simple warning.
Now
the army is doing the unbelievable - negotiating with
commercial farmers and
bringing them back onto the farms.
George Charamba, the
Secretary for Information and Publicity,
refuses to call this capitulation
of his government. This should not
surprise anybody because even the Deputy
Minister of Information, Bright
Matonga is a man in denial. He is like a
sick man who denies that he is sick
when he cannot even stand up on his
own.
The army should not be deterred by the likes of
Charamba. Unlike
the spineless and voiceless government ministers, the army
has been telling
the President a number of home truths. Mugabe must have
been told that the
army could only shoot so many Zimbabweans but not all
Zimbabweans when push
comes to shove.
The Minister of
Defence, whoever he is, could not say that to
the dreaded President. The
army is not accepting any "No" from the
President, where the well being of
the country is concerned.
The army was really at fault when
they allowed Zanu PF to take
the whole country for such an ignominious ride.
Warnings of disaster have
been in abundance for years, yet the army failed
to help the people of
Zimbabwe - which is their real duty to do so during
times of peril.
The soldiers even took part in plundering and
raping the
country. However, now we hear a whisper of sanity coming from the
barracks.
The army is helping in repossessing everything that has been
plundered by
our greedy government ministers. The army should not accept any
resistance
from these spineless robbers - it is the duty of the army to
rectify our
current disaster.
How far can the country
survive with people whose lifespan has
dropped to between 32 and 35 years of
age? I appeal to the army to go on
doing the good they have initiated not
because I support army coups. I do
not, but the army can possibly help
organise fair and transparent elections.
Let the army push
for a new constitution acceptable to all
Zimbabweans, followed by general
elections. The army must not allow Zimbabwe
to collapse because of a handful
of directionless politicians. Rogue
elements in the army can easily be dealt
with by sending them to prison
farms where they can sweat it
out.
This is why I am in full support of the army and believe
it can
be a force for good. I have not gone soft in the head by pronouncing
my
support for the new role of the army.
Reformist
Masvingo
------------
Hell hath no
fury like a cop spurned
I write in the hope that the Commissioner
of Police sees this
letter and understands what his officers out here at
Mutorashanga are doing.
One of the officers at the station
proposed love to a woman,
Chipo Muponda, during a meeting at Mutorashanga
club. The lady turned him
down but was warned that one day he would fix
her.
On 21 April 2006 around 3PM the officer in question met
the same
lady, who was going to the shopping centre in the company of three
other
ladies. One of these ladies - Jannet Muponda - happens to be the elder
sister of Chipo, the lady the officer had proposed to. They live in Tafara 2
in Mutorashanga. The second of the three ladies, Taurai Manyukise, also
lives in Tafara 2, while the third - Egness Marko - lives at Muriel
Mine.
The officer, who was driving, stopped and offered the
ladies a
lift. They got in and were driven straight to the Charge Office,
which is
very near. They were detained. They were informed that they were
being
charged with loitering for the purpose of
prostitution.
This happened during daylight, and the law says
otherwise.
The four were officially detained at 5PM in a cell
that also
held male accused persons. They stayed like that for some time.
They were
only separated much later. The accused male persons were taken to
the Charge
Office in order to make way for the ladies as there is only one
cell at the
police station.
The ladies were detained for
three days even though some of them
could afford to pay fines. They were
released on 23 April at 8AM after
paying fines.
These
ladies learnt the lessons that an officer's attention
could not be spurned.
Their receipts show that they were arrested at 7PM in
the evening, which is
a lie.
Residents in this area are not happy with the type of
treatment
the four ladies received. I just wanted Police Commissioner
Augustine
Chihuri to understanding what his officers are getting up to in
some of
these far flung places.
Worried
Mutorashanga
---------
Makwavarara should be booted out
without a cent
WHEN "Asset stripper" Sekesai Makwavarara leaves
the Commission
running the affairs of the City of Harare, I hope the
government will not
reward her with anything in the same way it did to
Joseph Macheka, the
former mayor of Chitungwiza or any other former
mayors.
My point is very simple; name any five things she
did to
benefit the residents of Harare. Quite frankly I have tried very hard
but
failed to come up with half an explanation.
All I
find is that she has, from the word go, sought to feather
her own nest. I
was glad to see that some of the Commissioners decided to
reconsider the
offer to let her buy the council house in Highlands for a
song.
It was grossly immoral for who ever thought up the
idea that
she be given the house in the first place. I used the word given
because
that is what it is. How can one in their right mind think of selling
a
property that is worth more than $20 billion for less than $1 billion? It
just shows that there are a lot of bootlickers crawling
everywhere.
We have allowed a lot of these functionaries to
abuse us at will
and civil society organisations must demand that the people
or committee
that sat down to think of such a silly offer to Makwavarara be
hauled before
a "Truth Commission" to explain themselves.
Makwavarara deserves nothing - absolutely nothing. She has done
nothing for
the party to which she defected. In fact, she has cost them
considerable
support and this could be confirmed in this month's
parliamentary by
election in Budiriro. She has also failed completely to
justify why the
government ever thought she could rise to the job. I think,
whoever, though
she was suitable for the job must be asked to explain to
residents of Harare
what criteria was used to assess her capabilities.
Voters in
Budiriro will, on Saturday, be asked not merely to
vote in a new MP. They
will also be asked to pass a decision on the status
of service delivery in
Harare. I hope the contesting parties do not miss
this
point.
It is time to reclaim their right. Too much of
watching from the
sidelines has in part been responsible for the neglect and
plunder of the
city's resources by people appointed to add value to it and
improve on
service delivery.
Tirivanhu
Mhofu
Emerald Hill
Harare
----------
Moyo disclosures expose the cowards
surrounding Mugabe
RECENT disclosures of the inner workings of
both the ruling
party and the government by former information minister,
Professor Jonathan
Moyo, have made riveting reading. Now we understand what
kind of cowards
they are.
But not only are they cowards,
among them are informers and
unrepentant opportunists. This is one thing
that those in the larger circle
around President Robert Mugabe do not
understand. However, it is this
knowledge that comforts Mugabe and enables
him to do as he wishes.
The reason why the Tsholotsho gang
was flushed out is because of
opportunists around Mugabe, who hoped to curry
favour by ratting on their
colleagues. These are the sort of people who do
not tolerate free debate on
the future of the country, even that of Zanu
PF.
Moyo's disclosures will, in my view, show Mugabe that
none of
the bootlickers around him can be trusted. Sadly for the majority of
Zimbabweans it means Mugabe will put off his retirement plans. As Vice
President Joseph Msika says, how can they hand over to such
"pseudo-revolutionaries"?
Events elsewhere on the
continent have only saved to reinforce
this mistrust. Mugabe can never trust
his lieutenants not to do a Charles
Taylor on him. So the rule is: If in
doubt, don't do anything.
Yet if those around him were real
men and not bootlickers, they
would have advised Mugabe that it would be in
the interests of the nation
and his young family to begin to work on a
succession plan that will ensure
a smooth transition and guarantee stability
for the country.
Others, such as those who scuttled plans to
encourage democracy
within the ruling party did so because change represents
a threat to their
interests. For them things could never better. As long as
the situation
remains the way it is their interests are
safeguarded.
It is in our interests to identify who these
people are and warn
them about the possibilities of facing music at some
point in the future for
their role in derailing an economy that held so much
prospects for growth
and expansion.
Jonathan Moyo did
well by "firing" himself from the government
and his recent instalments are
some kind of a truth and reconciliation
"confession". He is proving how
useful he is to the country, even though
people will always view him with
suspicion.
So Patrick Chinamasa and Emmerson Mnangagwa will
work on the
necessary amendments to ensure that Mugabe extends his term to
2010, but
once they have done that they will want to recall what happened to
the late
Eddison Zvobgo, when he worked so tirelessly to create the
institution of an
executive presidency.
M
Moyo
Fitchlea
Kwekwe
----------
MIC, an irrelevant media
anachronism
I found your report on the demand by the Media and
Information
Commission for a list of journalists covering the Harare
International
Festival of the Arts very intriguing.
However, I believe you missed the point. The mission of the MIC
had nothing
to do with accreditation. It had everything to do with extorting
money from
the foreign press corps here to provide coverage of HIFA. The
government and
the MIC are fond of lamenting the negative publicity the
country receives
from both local and foreign media. HIFA was a wonderfully
positive story and
what the MIC's handling of the whole thing demonstrated
was its ineptitude
at managing situations to its advantage. This was not the
point behind the
hue and cry concerning accreditation of the media.
I suspect
the lure of foreign currency was too tempting for the
MIC. It will be
recalled that there was a case involving the improper
handling of foreign
currency by one of the MIC workers.
As for the policing
aspects, the MIC was well represented.
Anyone who believes a media house
with a vastly smaller number of
journalists than The Herald and Sunday Mail
can send 31 people to cover the
festival needs to have their heads examined.
What coverage was this army of
journalists providing to their organisation?
It seems to me many of the
so-called journalists were something else. I
leave readers to draw their own
conclusions. like the guys with their
shades.
I also believe that the MIC has very little interest
in the
welfare of journalists. In fact, it seems as if it would be happy
with no
media operating in this country at all - the same thing they have
caused at
The Daily News, The Daily News on Sunday, the Tribune and the
Weekly Times.
It is for this reason that they will not bat an
eyelid before
shutting down a newspaper and throwing hundreds of workers
onto the streets.
What single act has the MIC undertaken
since its establishment
and aimed at promoting the interests of journalists
or those at training
schools?
It is a pity that the
Ministry of Information does not appear to
have the necessary desire to
resolve this anachronistic structure.
Because Ian Smith had
the Censorship Board - the moral and
thought control body of his time -
therefore we must have something of our
own?
No more of
this bungling! Let's for once think about something
positive and actually
get it implemented.
For years this country functioned without
an MIC. What are the
compelling reasons for its existence
now?
No More
Newlands
Harare
-----------
Behind those statistics
WORKERS at the
Central Statistical Office are among the worst paid in the
country. Our
concern is not just about poor salaries, but for the past two
years we have
never been paid on time.
The earliest time we have been paid is the 6th
of the following month. We
have extended families and right now we have
children at school whose fees
were due before Tuesday. We cannot pay because
of late payments by our
employer.
We do not understand whether
someone is not doing their work or whether this
is just an attempt to fix
other people. We are treated like beggars when we
have contracts with our
employer.
We are the people who collect data on inflation each and every
month and so
we know and understand how workers are affected, yet we have
not been
getting our money on time. Each time we ask why there are delays we
get
stupid explanations.
CSO
workers
Countrywide
----------
ZTV's senseless
programming
THE local television programming has no quality to talk about
at all. This
is because the people behind the scheduling obviously watch
international
channels. How else do you justify popular programmes being
screened before
six in the morning when everybody is preparing to go either
to work or
school?
Talking farming on a Sunday? - I would rather
retire early. Visiting farmers
on their newly allocated farms to show the
nation success stories of the
land reform exercise would be a good idea than
just someone appearing on
television in the studio.
It is very
important that ZBH do some surveys to determine the popularity of
their
programmes. I would also think the soap studio 263 has totally lost
direction now.
Lance Saungweme
Makomo
Section
Epworth
---------
Harare commission shows
indifference to workers plight
THE Commission running the
affairs of Harare is riding roughshod
over employees of the city because of
its lackadaisical approach to
negotiations over salary
adjustments.
Despite the recent ministerial orders that
council employees be
remunerated salaries that relate to inflation, the
commission chooses to
look the other way and is busy squandering council
resources for their own
benefit.
It seems to me that for
the Commission the word employee refers
to two bodies - the council
executive made up of the town clerk and heads of
departments and the
Commission, which is an albatross to the ratepayers.
The
common worker, who happens to be the goose that lays the
golden eggs, is
inconsequential, according to the commission.
Morale among
the rank and file of the employees is at its lowest
ebb, affecting the
capacity of the council to improve its services.
At the heart
of the problem is this Commission, which without
reason or conscience wishes
to punish the city worker.
In January and February this year,
when inflation was pegged at
815%, the same Commission decidedly awarded a
60 and 70% adjustment
respectively and assured the employees that this was
only meant as an
exercise to cushion workers during these hard
times.
The Poverty Datum Line was then only $20 million. Now
inflation
has gone beyond the 1 000% mark while the Poverty Datum Line is
$41 million.
But the commission feels that its
poverty-stricken employees can
manage with a 30% adjustment. What hogwash
when this translates into a
paltry $7 million basic salary for the lowest
paid council worker. Who would
survive on this figure? Many questions
abound.
Are these not the same peripatetic officials who blew
almost $1
billion last year on a purported learning tour of Moscow, where
they were
impressed to find that council workers are handsomely paid to the
extent of
affording a holiday?
Are these not the very
commissioners who last month awarded
themselves an allowance of $150 million
each for the five-day Zimbabwe
International Trade Fair in Bulawayo? How do
they expect the lowest paid
council worker to survive on $7 million in a
whole month?
If the government sees sense in linking its
workers' salaries
with inflation and at least pays its lowest paid worker
$14 million-tax
free, why is the commission not following the same
line?
We also wonder why the Minister is not taking any
action against
the Commission for failing to implement his directive to pay
workers
inflation-adjusted salaries. The Minister should demonstrate that he
meant
business by being firm with those that defy his
orders.
It's time for the non-performing Commsion to go!
Someone must
show the lot of them the door.
T
Vulcan
Glen View
Harare
---------
Correcting damaging misconceptions about
Johanne Marange sect
THERE are so many misconceptions about the
Johanne Marange sect,
which as a member of the sect, I would like to correct
for the benefit of
your readers.
Some people claim that a
girl is instructed by a church member
who to marry and that this usually
happens after the church member has seen
a vision or has had a dream. This
is a complete fabrication of the truth. It
is a lie!
No
such thing happens. In fact, young men propose love to girls
and get married
just like everyone else. And the rules and regulations are
like in any of
the other churches - no sex before marriage and being
faithful to one's
partner.
It is also suggested that a member of the church who
marries an
outsider becomes an outcast. Again this not true. Boys and girls
are
encouraged - not forced - to marry within the church because of the
desire
to maintain the ideals of the church throughout their married
life.
Polygamy is not forced on anyone but is found among
church
members probably because of calls made during the 1930s by the
founder of
the church. These calls were made to ensure the growth of the
membership of
the church.
Cases of forced marriages or
relations with under-age girls are
referred to and dealt with by the
police.
I hope that that this, in some measure, tries to
assist most
Zimbabweans to understand the operations of the Johanne Marange
sect.
Just like any other denomination, it has its own rules
and
regulations. It would a mockery of one's spiritual probity to utter
false
things about any church. Even the Bible counsels against
this.
T P Z
Western Triangle
Harare
May 14,
2006
By ANDnetwork .com
Confusion and lack of
co-ordination within the ranks of the City of
Harare recently saw the local
authority losing millions of dollars after its
waste management department
hired refuse compactors from a private company
to replace broken-down ones
when the Department of Works had the same
equipment that was
functioning.
This embarrassing episode has prompted calls for the
city's
departments to co-ordinate activities to avoid the unnecessary loss
of
revenue.
The commission running the affairs of the City of
Harare recently
heard during a meeting that the city's equipment which
included a D4 dozer
and D7 dozer had been grounded in the workshops since
2000 awaiting repairs
and that council has been hiring such equipment ever
since.
Acting director of works Engineer Michael Jaravaza told a
procurement
board meeting that there was urgent need for landfill management
equipment
to push and compact refuse at dumpsites which were now posing fire
and
health hazards to the public.
"Several complaints have been
received from residents regarding the
bad state of the dumpsites," the
commission heard.
The procurement board committee said R. Davis and
Company was
contracted to supply plant and equipment in 2005, but the
contract had since
expired.
The board inquired whether the D4
and D7 dozers could not be repaired
by the city's own
engineers.
Engineer Jaravaza's representative said the equipment
could be
repaired in-house if funds for purchase of spares were made
available,
adding that the department of works had equipment to perform the
task.
"The board was advised that the Department of Works had
several
front-end loaders which were operational and could be hired by the
waste
management department.
"The board felt that consultations
should have been done in-house to
determine the equipment which was
available from other departments and
encouraged the inter-departmental
hiring of equipment as this would save
council a lot of money," said Eng
Jaravaza.
A representative of the acting director of waste
management, Mr
Emmanuel Muza, said a tipper truck and front-end loader would
be hired from
the Department of Works.
Source : Sunday Mal
May 14, 2006
By ANDnetwork
.com
Fitheen people are feared to have died of cholera last week
after an
outbreak of the disease in Kachuta, 46 km north-west of Guruve
centre in
Mashonaland Central in Zimbabwe
No official
confirmation of the deaths could be obtained yesterday. It
is said the first
death occurred early in the week when a person from
Kachuta area attended a
funeral in the Dande area where he contracted
cholera after eating
contaminated fish from Cabora Bassa Dam in Mozambique.
died after
returning to Kachuta and people who attended his funeral
also contacted
cholera resulting in the disease spreading to other areas
such as
Chikwidibe, Gota, Masvitsi, Chimufombo and Nyangavi.
The Ministry
of Health and Child Welfare dispatched health personnel
to the affected
areas on Tuesday while the Civil Protection Unit (CPU) held
a meeting
yesterday after visiting the affected areas.
When The Sunday Mail
visited Guruve yesterday, all senior officers at
Guruve District Hospital
were said to be out visiting affected areas.
The Mashonaland
Central provincial medical director and provincial
environmental health
officer are said to have told nurses at Guruve Hospital
that anyone seeking
information should contact them.
No comment could be obtained from
the two by the time of going to
press as their cellphones were not reachable
while their landlines rang
continuously without being answered.
It was also not clear yesterday whether the situation had been brought
under
control. Cholera has been a cause for concern in Zimbabwe since late
last
year. Fourteen people have died of the disease since December.
Source : Sunday Mail