http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in
Politics
VICE-PRESIDENT Joice Mujuru has virtually secured a
copper-bottomed
guarantee to take over as the next president of Zimbabwe in
the event that
President Robert Mugabe resigns, is incapacitated or dies in
office,
provided he wins the next elections, it has emerged.
Report
by Faith Zaba
Senior Zanu PF politburo members said this week, barring
unforeseen events
and circumstances, Mujuru was almost assured of taking
over from Mugabe if
she wins the party leadership at congress next
year.
A top politburo member said this week the succession issue was
virtually
dealt with by Zanu PF’s senior leadership during marathon meetings
last year
when the party was discussing the Copac draft
constitution.
During the lengthy meetings — which cumulatively lasted 50
hours and at
which Zanu PF made wholesale amendments to the Copac draft
constitution —
the politburo tacitly endorsed Mujuru as the likeliest person
to succeed
Mugabe by secretly agreeing the most senior official of the party
would take
over from the president in the event he leaves office for
whatever reason.
The politburo meetings, held between June and September
last year, made
extensive amendments to the draft constitution but the most
important change
was a provision on succession at the national
level.
Realising Mugabe would be 89 and frail, the Zanu PF politburo made
a
contingency plan to ensure that his departure for whatever reasons would
not
negatively affect the party.
“We proposed the removal of the
clause on the running mates and suggested
that when the president retires or
dies in office after he is re-elected, he
would be replaced by a person from
the same party,” the senior politburo
member said.
“We then agreed as
a party at those meetings that the most senior person in
the party will
immediately take over as president of the country. We were
all in agreement
on that and this is contained in the minutes of those
politburo meetings.
This means as things stand Mai Mujuru is the person to
take over because she
is the most senior official in the party.”
According to the 54-member
politburo’s official ranking revised list
provided to the Zimbabwe
Independent this week, Mugabe is at the helm of the
party, followed by
Mujuru (2), then a vacant second vice-president position
after the death of
John Nkomo (3), Simon Khaya Moyo (4), Didymus Mutasa (5),
David Karimanzira
(late) (6), Webster Shamu (7), Sydney Sekeramayi (8), Stan
Mudenge (late)
(9), Rugare Gumbo (10), Nicholas Goche (11), Emmerson
Mnangagwa (12),
Dzikamai Mavhaire (13), Oppah Muchinguri (14), Absolom
Sikhosana (15),
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu (16), Obert Mpofu (17), David Parirenyatwa
(18), Saviour
Kasukuwere (19), Abigail Damasane (20), Ignatius Chombo (21),
Stanley
Sakupwanya (22) Olivia Muchena (23), Sithembiso Nyoni (24) and
Francis Nhema
(25).
The politburo also has 10 deputies and 19 committee members.
In
terms of the Zanu PF constitution, the politburo should have four members
of
the presidium, 19 heads of departments, 19 deputies and 10 committees.
However, the revised list provided for four presidium members, 21 heads of
departments, 10 deputies and 19 committee members.
Another Zanu PF
official, however, said while the official pecking order
matters, it could
always change after congress or a reshuffle of the
politburo. Although
seniority is a major advantage, there have been
instances in the past where
junior members, including Mujuru herself in
2004, leapfrogged their seniors.
However, Mnangagwa’s allies have dismissed
the hierarchical rankings, saying
they were merely for operational purposes
and not for determining the
succession issue.
“We have a presidium and ordinary politburo members who
are equal in terms
of seniority in the party,” a Mnangagwa ally said. “If we
go by the
constitution and the list that would mean Kasukuwere, for
instance, was more
senior than the late General Solomon Mujuru, Dumiso
Dabengwa, General
Vitalis Zvinavashe and Air Marshal Josiah Tungamirai. That
doesn’t make
sense.”
When the new politburo was appointed after the
2009 congress, there was a
public row between Mnangagwa and Gumbo over who
was more senior. Gumbo
insisted he was senior in terms of the constitution,
while Mnangagwa said he
was higher-ranking than him in practice. Mujuru and
Mnangagwa are fighting
pitched battles to succeed Mugabe who seems to be on
the cusp of departure.
During last year’s debates on the Copac draft
constitution, the original
documents introduced presidential running-mates
under the chapter dealing
with the executive. It stated the presidential
candidate would nominate two
candidates to contest as running-mates, who in
the event of the team winning
would become first and second
vice-presidents.
The draft said in the event that the president dies,
resigns or is removed
from office, the first vice-president will
automatically assume office for
the remainder of his term. This clause was
rejected by Zanu PF during the
meetings but a compromise was later reached
to introduce it after 10 years.
Instead, Zanu PF inserted a clause that
says if the president retires after
his re-election, is incapacitated or
dies, he would be replaced by a
candidate from the same party. The politburo
agreed privately the most
senior party official would take over, giving
Mujuru a major boost.
Given that Zanu PF will hold its congress in
December next year to elect a
new leadership, Mujuru’s chances will also
depend on whether she will win,
something her allies think is assured given
her current traction in the
party succession race.
Although some
Mujuru allies wanted a special congress to anoint her, senior
Zanu PF
leaders, particularly those aligned to Mnangagwa, have rejected the
move as
it would fuel divisions and weaken the party’ election campaigns.
Party
officials also say there would be no point in holding an extraordinary
congress after elections because a scheduled one was due next year
anyway.
Mujuru and Mnangagwa are going head-to-head across provinces in a
bid to
seize control of the structures ahead of congress. Mnangagwa last
year
outmanoeuvred Mujuru during District Coordinating Committee elections
before
the latter went for broke and got the structures
dissolved.
That gave Mujuru space to reo-organise and now a politburo
team comprising
her allies is going around the country putting her faction’s
ducks in a row,
in preparation for the final assault on power, given
Mugabe’s frailty.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Politics
THE
MDC-T’s long-awaited primary elections commence this weekend amid
accusations that behind the scenes some aspiring candidates are cutting
deals while others have subtly been blocked from contesting against party
heavyweights through the controversial confirmation process.
Brian
Chitemba/Paidamoyo Muzulu
The divisive process reignites deep-seated
factionalism within the party,
particularly in volatile Manicaland, Masvingo
and Bulawayo provinces. The
provinces experienced intra-party violence
leading to the 2011 congress in
Bulawayo.
Fearing a humiliating
defeat at the hands of emerging party contenders
during the confirmation
process or primaries, some sitting MPs have
strategically chickened out of
the race.
Most significant are deputy president Thokozani Khupe and
Masvingo Central
MP Jeffreyson Chitando who have stood aside and expect the
party to second
them to parliament under the proportional representation
system in the new
constitution.
Among the sitting and senior MPs
facing challenges are outspoken Bulawayo
East legislator Thabitha Khumalo,
Housing and Amenities minister Giles
Mutsekwa, Luveve MP Reggie Moyo, Mutasa
South MP Misheck Kagurabadza and
Manicaland spokesman Pishayi
Muchauraya.
Khumalo, whose seat was initially reserved for a woman, is
said to be
battling to secure her position against Mandla Nyathi, Tarubereka
Mabhena
and Tinashe Kambarami. On the other hand Moyo is fighting it out
with
businessman Kidwell Mujuru who was once disqualified but reinstated
after
appealing to the party’s national council.
Mutsekwa would have
to fight it out against lawyer Arnold Tsunga after
former Mutare mayor Brian
James this week said he had withdrawn his
candidature and now supports
Tsunga.
James also said he is awaiting the party to clear him to contest
against
Kagurabadza in Mutasa South.
Muchauraya will have to battle
it out against veteran journalist Geoffrey
Nyarota if he loses confirmation.
Other interesting contests in Bulawayo
will pit Pumula MP Albert Mhlanga
against Speaker of Parliament Lovemore
Moyo’s personal assistant Artwell
Sibanda, and MDC-T deputy organising
secretary Abednico Bhebhe will have to
prove his mettle against Nomathemba
Ndlovu in Nkayi South.
Meanwhile
State Enterprises and Parastatals minister Gorden Moyo will stand
unopposed
in Makokoba constituency, while the party’s former youth assembly
chairperson, Thamsanqa Mahlangu, is standing unchallenged for Nkulumane
constituency.
The same scenario obtains in Harare where most of the
standing committee
members are unopposed after aspiring candidates were
disqualified. Some of
the major beneficiaries of the disqualifications are
Finance minister Tendai
Biti, Home Affairs minister Theresa Makone,
Information Communication
minister Nelson Chamisa and Economic Planning
minister Tapiwa Mashakada.
Information gleaned from inside sources show
that ambitious Harare
councillors like Emmanuel Chiroto and Xavier Vengesayi
had their
applications turned down on allegations of corruption in council.
The two
had shown interest to contest against Biti and Makone
respectively.
Sources close to the party say that a decision was reached
to allow the
standing committee members not to be contested. However, party
president
Morgan Tsvangirai insists there are no scared cows in the
party.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Politics
THE Zanu PF
faction led by Vice-President Joice Mujuru whose current
ascendancy is
riding on the party’s restructuring exercise was last week
thwarted in
Masvingo where it failed to remove the executive aligned to
Defence minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Report by Elias Mambo
However, the Mujuru
faction sought to establish a firm grip on structures in
the province by
declaring its regional stalwart, Dzikamai Mavhaire,
“godfather” of the
province.
By installing Mavhaire, a politburo member, as the godfather of
Masvingo
ahead of former governor Josaya Hungwe, sources say “the probe team
had to
come up with a different strategy of propping up the Mujuru faction
after
failing to dislodge the Lovemore Matuke-led executive”.
Hungwe
has been involved in a fight with Mavhaire — who is reportedly
aligned to
Mujuru’s faction — for control of the vast province. The
politburo-appointed
probe team has come under fire for fanning smouldering
factionalism.
The team, comprising party national chairperson Simon
Khaya Moyo, national
commissar Webster Shamu, national secretary for
security Sydney Sekeramayi
and secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa,
was appointed to
investigate the latest incidents of infighting and compile
a report on the
state of the party ahead of crucial elections later this
year.
It is however accused of trying to position Mujuru to take over
from
President Robert Mugabe when he vacates office.
Sources close to
the infighting revealed the Khaya Moyo-led team descended
on Masvingo with
the aim of restructuring the party leadership after reports
of internal
factional fighting threatening the party ahead of national
polls.
“The probe team had a line-up of the proposed Masvingo
executive which we
rejected because it was aligned to the Mujuru faction,”
said a senior Zanu
PF member in Masvingo.
“There were plans to
install Mwenezi East legislator Kudakwashe Bhasikiti
and Tourism minister
Walter Mzembi to the provincial chairmanship and
vice-chairmanship
respectively,” said the source.
The sources also said the probe team wanted
to catapult Brigadier Gibson
Mashingaidze and Nelson Mawema, said to be in
the Mujuru faction, into the
provincial executive.
Last week this
paper disclosed the probe team was under the spotlight after
reports emerged
it is purging Mnangagwa’s allies in the provinces and
replacing them with
those aligned to Mujuru, in the process laying the
ground for her to take
over from Mugabe.
A fortnight ago the Masvingo provincial co-ordinating
committee held its
meeting where members agreed to resist any changes
proposed by the probe
team.
Last year Zanu PF was plunged into
nationwide infighting following its
controversial District Co-ordinating
Committee (DCC) polls characterised by
intimidation, voting irregularities
and ballot rigging.
The DCC elections became a theatre for internal
political power struggles as
the main factions battled to seize control of
the party and position
themselves to produce a successor to Mugabe (89), now
reeling from old age
and reported ill-health.
Mugabe feared
succession-fuelled infighting would disrupt his election
campaign, hence the
dissolution of the DCCs which had resulted in defeat
across provinces for
Mujuru’s faction at the hands of Mnangagwa loyalists.
Sources also say
the current outbreak of squabbling in the party still poses
a serious threat
to Mugabe’s campaign.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in
Politics
WITH the clock fast-ticking towards make-or-break elections
expected later
this year, the main political parties in Zimbabwe are now
finalising their
manifestos set to be launched ahead of polls.
Elias
Mambo
In many Western countries like the United States and Britain,
well-articulated economic, foreign and social policies often win elections,
but in Zimbabwe, this does not appear to be the case.
There is
general consensus that Zimbabweans, most of whom are struggling to
eke out a
living in a harsh economic environment, do not take the time to
read the
parties’ voluminous documents or listen to policy debates, hence
their vote
is based more on the history of parties and charisma of their
leaders,
besides what the parties and their leaders generally stand for.
A common
political culture by no means suggests that all Zimbabweans think
alike.
Some are influenced by history and tend to vote Zanu PF. Others are
worried
about the present and future, and tend to vote MDC parties. Some
voters have
more negative attitudes toward public officials than others do,
and these
largely vote MDC parties as well since they think Zanu PF leaders
destroyed
the country.
Analysts say people’s political and social backgrounds and
attitudes
determine how they participate, whom they vote for and what
political
parties they support. Many factors — including family, gender,
religion,
race and ethnicity and region — all contribute to Zimbabwean
voters’
political attitudes and behaviour.
Some political observers
say the country’s electorate is divided into two
segments, most of whom have
a strong loyalty to the party of their choice
regardless of what manifestos
they have or their governance record, while
the other group can be referred
to as sway voters whose decision is based on
what policies the parties are
offering.
While there is general consensus manifestos do little to
attract voters,
analysts say Zanu PF’s chaotic land reform programme and
indigenisation have
helped the party to survive this far.
After
Zimbabweans rejected the 2000 draft constitution backed by the ruling
Zanu
PF government, the party embarked on a violent seizure of white-owned
commercial farms and used the land reform programme as its election
mantra.
Exploiting a legitimate historical grievance, the party used the
land reform
issue and now indigenisation as an instrument to mobilise votes,
while
unleashing terror across the country.
University of Zimbabwe
lecturer Eldred Masunungure said the land reform
programme helped Zanu PF to
galvanise its support base because the policy
resonated with the poor
majority peasants.
“Land reform managed to help Zanu PF to keep on
winning those controversial
elections. Although the programme was violent,
it resonated with the poor
peasants and President Robert Mugabe won the
admiration of the rural folk
because he sought to address issues that
affected them,” Masunungure said.
The land reform exercise became Zanu
PF’s trump card for the 2000
parliamentary, 2002 presidential and 2005
parliamentary elections and a
combination of the land reform programme and
brutality worked for the party.
While Zanu PF used land reform as the
centrepiece of its campaign, the MDC,
which emerged in 1999 against a
backdrop of growing demands by civil society
and political activists for
reform, campaigned on the basis of “change”,
underpinned by the “Mugabe must
go!” refrain.
The “change” wave took Zimbabwe by storm as the country reeled
from a
political and economic meltdown, particularly in
2008.
Analysts say Zimbabweans who voted for the MDC were not really
bothered
about the party’s policies, but were driven by a desire for a new
political
order. For the first time, Zanu PF’s hold on power became tenuous
in the
face of widespread social discontent and demands for change. It won
narrowly
in the 2000 general elections, with 62 parliamentary seats to the
MDC’s 57.
As Zanu PF’s land reform campaign lost steam towards the 2008
elections,
with the country experiencing an unprecedented socio-economic
crisis, the
party shifted its focus to the controversial indigenisation and
empowerment
programme, while the MDC-T promised the masses jobs, economic
growth and
resuscitation of social services like health and
education.
The MDC-T is under pressure to respond to Zanu PF’s populist
policies of
land reform, indigenisation and company seizures which recent
opinion
surveys suggest are finding traction with voters, including the
middle
classes, largely the bedrock of MDC-T support.
MDC-T’s
blueprints, including the initial Bridge, Restart and now Juice were
designed to buttress the party’s ideological position, manifestos and
electoral messages based on its change-rallying call.
The MDC led by
Welshman Ncube has also launched its own policy blueprint,
Actions.
Political analyst Pedzisai Ruhanya, who is Zimbabwe
Democracy Institute
director, said the current Zanu PF manifesto which is
centred on
indigenisation compares poorly to the MDC-T blueprint centred on
jobs.
“Zanu PF’s indigenisation message is not as attractive as the land
reform
and cannot be compared to the jobs agenda which will drive the
MDC-T,”
Ruhanya said. “MDC-T is cruising on the jobs campaign and this has a
bearing
on the common people. The jobs agenda is appealing to the electorate
because
people want food on their tables and not promises of (company)
shares that
will never materialise.”
Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate is
estimated at over 80%.
However, as the country approaches elections, Zanu PF
is basing its
manifesto on indigenisation which analysts believe will not
help much given
its controversial, divisive and corrupt
dimensions.
Professor Brian Raftopoulos, director of Research and
Advocacy in the
Solidarity Peace Trust, said although indigenisation is
still bankable,
complaints of corruption might taint Zanu PF’s
manifesto.
“By implementing this controversial programme, Zanu PF has
managed to claw
back some space which it lost to the MDCs in the 2008
disputed elections and
increase its support base, but allegations of
corruption by a few
individuals in the party has destroyed the manifesto,”
Raftopoulos said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Politics
THE Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has blasted MDC-T’s Agenda for
Real
Transformation (Art) policy document launched last weekend as
anti-workers
and pro-capital as it seeks to make it easier for employees to
be dismissed
and privatise essential services like electricity supply if it
wins general
elections expected later this year.
Report by Paidamoyo Muzulu
In
its policy document the MDC-T, formerly a close ally of trade unions,
incorporates policies deemed anti-workers, which include free-market
enterprises, deregulation of the labour sector and accelerated privatisation
of public utilities in an effort to streamline government involvement in the
market.
ZCTU secretary general Japhet Moyo said the unions are
dismayed by the
proposed policies which would create a worse scenario than
is obtaining.
“For the record, trade unions would never allow flexibility
where an
employee is dismissed for an act outside his or her contract
environment,”
Moyo said.
“If one is convicted of beating a spouse at
home then the employer is
empowered to dismiss you; a brawl in a bar will
get you fired if convicted.
These proposed provisions are worse than what is
available now.”
The MDC-T proposes to privatise and commercialise the 72
state-owned
enterprises, which include the Cold Storage Commission, Arda and
Air
Zimbabwe.
“It (CSC) will be sold to the private sector as a going
concern under agreed
arrangements that will allow the state to gradually
recover its investment,”
the document reads.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in News
CENTRAL
Intelligence Organisation (CIO) deputy director- internal, Elias
Kanengoni
has died.
Staff Reporter
Top CIO officials said Kanengoni was
rushed to West End Hospital on
Wednesday evening after collapsing upon
arrival at his farm in Concession.
He was pronounced dead on arrival at
the hospital. “Kanengoni had gone to
his farm to take a rest after
undergoing some physiotherapy in the
afternoon. He was complaining of a
severe back ache,” said a top CIO
official. However, when contacted for
comment, Information and Publicity
minister Webster Shamu said he would only
comment after getting a briefing
on what transpired.
“I am on my way
from Chinhoyi and I will get the briefing once I am in
Harare,” Shamu said.
“I cannot comment before I am informed of what
happened.”
Kanengoni
together with another CIO operative, Kizito Chivamba, was
convicted of
attempted murder and sentenced to seven years in prison after
he shot the
late Gweru mayor Patrick Kombayi on March 24, 1990 in an
assassination
attempt just three days before general elections.
Kombayi was contesting
the Gweru urban seat against the late vice–president
Simon
Muzenda.
Kombayi, who at the time was National Organising Secretary of
the Zimbabwe
Unity Movement (Zum) led by the late Edgar Tekere, survived the
shooting.
Kanengoni and Chivamba were later pardoned by President Robert
Mugabe.
According to sources in Zanu PF, at the time of his death
Kanengoni had
expressed interest in contesting the imminent general
electionsa key
ingredient in complying with democratic benchmarks.”.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in News
THE Media
Institute of Southern Africa – Zimbabwe Chapter (Misa-Zimbabwe)
has made a
passionate plea to government principals to urgently implement
media reforms
following the signing into law of the new Constitution by
President Robert
Mugabe on Wednesday.
Staff Reporter
In a letter written to Mugabe,
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, deputy
Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara and
MDC leader Welshman Ncube, Misa-Zimbabwe
said there was an urgent need to
streamline media laws, media regulatory
bodies and the public media to allow
conformity of the new constitution to
other regional and international laws
that provide for freedom of the media
and of
expression.
Misa-Zimbabwe chairman Njabulo Ncube noted that laws such as
the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Public Order and
Security Act,
Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Broadcasting
Services Act,
Censorship and Entertainment Controls Act, Interception of
Communications
Act, Official Secrets Act and Broadcasting Services Act,
among others,
should be repealed because they stifle media
freedom.
Ncube said: “Viewed in the context of the forthcoming elections,
ensuring
that these reforms are instituted well in advance will not only
allow for
increased enjoyment of media freedom, citizens’ rights to freedom
of
expression, assembly, association and access to information, but will go
a
long way in complying with the Sadc Guidelines and Principles on the
Conduct
of Democratic Elections as well as the region’s asserted position on
Zimbabwe’s election roadmap.
“We humbly submit that the urgency of
these reforms is of significant
importance ahead of the harmonised elections
and thus necessitate increased
impetus towards the realignment and
streamlining of the country’s laws,
media regulatory bodies and the public
media accordingly.”
Ncube added that: “In making this humble appeal,
MISA-Zimbabwe together with
its alliance partners under the auspices of the
Media Alliance of Zimbabwe
(MAZ), is not only guided by the universally
accepted fact on the critical
role played by the media in the enjoyment of
fundamental rights, but more so
by the fact that media freedom by its very
intrinsic nature, is a key
ingredient in complying with democratic
benchmarks.”
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in News
JUDGE President
George Chiweshe and Justice Antoinette Guvava are now acting
judges of the
newly established nine-member Constitutional Court that
started work
yesterday when it heard a Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR)
application challenging the ill-treatment of people living with HIV
in
detention by police and prison officers.
Report by Paidamoyo
Muzulu
Chiweshe and Guvava joined Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku,
Deputy Chief
Justice Luke Malaba, Paddington Garwe, Annemarie Gowora,
Vernanda Ziyambi,
Bharat Patel and Ben Hlatshwayo to hear the first case
brought before the
court since it was established on Wednesday when
President Robert Mugabe
signed the new constitution and gazetted it on the
same day.
The new constitution automatically elevated the entire Supreme
Court bench
to the permanent constitutional court for the next seven years.
In the past
the five supreme court judges under the chairmanship of the
chief justice
sat as the constitutional court on a case by case
basis.
Judicial Services Commission deputy secretary Rex Shana confirmed
the duo’s
elevation to the constitutional court as being in line with the
new
constitution’s requirements of Section 166 (2).
The clause
stipulates the Chief Justice may appoint a judge or a former
judge to act as
a judge of the Constitutional Court if their services are
required for a
certain period.
Advocate Chadambuka instructed by ZLHR lawyers Tawanda
Zhuwarara and
Dzimbabwe Chimbga became the first lawyers to present their
case before the
court.
They were representing Douglas Muzanenhamo, an
activist living with HIV, who
was denied access to life-saving
anti-retroviral drugs after his arrest for
watching videos on the Arab
Spring. The Arab Spring refers to revolutions
that took place in North
Africa and the Middle East and overthrew
governments in Tunisia, Libya and
Egypt.
Chadambuka had a torrid time convincing the court that indeed
Muzanenhamo
was denied medication while in police and prison custody after
the officer
in charge Harare Central Prison deposed an affidavit refuting
the
allegations. Chidyausiku then suggested the applicant seek redress from
the
High Court since there were many disputed points in the case.
The
court reserved judgment on the case after the state argued the matter
should
be referred back to the High Court or dealt with as a civil matter.
The
Constitutional Court is expected to hear its second case today when a
Harare
man Jealousy Mawarire seeks the court to compel President Robert
Mugabe,
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC leader Welshman Ncube to
proclaim
election dates as there may be a constitutional crisis if June 29
elapses
without proclamation of poll dates in terms of the law.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in News
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe
will next week gobble millions of dollars when he
takes a huge entourage of
more than 50 government officials to attend the
fifth Tokyo International
Conference on African Development (Ticad) from
June 1 to 3, the Zimbabwe
Independent can reveal.
Report by Elias Mambo
Top government
sources said Mugabe is expected to take a high-powered
delegation of cabinet
ministers, directors of ministries, their political
aides, personal
assistants, national security personnel and specialists from
government
departments to a three-day conference that gives an opportunity
for African
countries to interact with their Japanese hosts.
The trip, wholly funded
by Treasury, is expected to drain millions of tax
payers’ dollars in
airfares, accommodation and general upkeep of the
delegation in
state-of-the-art hotels in Japan’s Yokohama city.
Finance minister Tendai
Biti has frequently warned government should limit
foreign travel to
sustainable levels. Mugabe spent more on foreign trips
compared to any
official in the inclusive government in 2012. His office was
allocated US$15
million by Treasury and had chewed up US$20 million in six
months,
overshooting the budget by 133% by mid last year, according to
sources in
the Finance ministry. Most of the money funded foreign travel.
In June
last year Mugabe came under serious criticism after blowing more
than US$7
million when he took an entourage of 92 to the United Nations (UN)
conference on sustainable development in Brazil.
In his 2012 national
budget proposals, Biti warned against excessive foreign
travel saying the
executive had blown US$45,5 million on trips in the
previous
year.
Yumi Sakata, advisor at the Japanese embassy in Zimbabwe, said
African
governments were encouraged to send as many delegates as they could
afford
to the conference.
“There is no limit on the number of
delegates, so governments can send as
many people as they can afford so as
to have a chance to exchange ideas,”
she said.
Sakata also said Japan
launched Ticad to promote high-level policy dialogue
between African leaders
and development partners on issues facing Africa,
such as economic
development, poverty and conflict.
Ticad is co-hosted by the government
of Japan, the African Union Commission,
the United Nations Office of the
Special Advisor on Africa, United Nations
Development Programme and the
World Bank. Its stakeholders include all
African countries and development
partners.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in News
Zimbabwe Electoral Commiss-ion (Zec)
chairperson Justice Rita Makarau (RM)
has chall-enged critics who have
accused Zec of being run by state security
operatives and incompetent
officials to prove it.
Makarau said this yesterday in a wide-ranging
interview with Zimbabwe
Independent senior political reporter Wongai
Zhangazha (WZ). Zec has come
under the spotlight as Zimbabwe approaches
make-or-break general elections.
Find below excerpts from the
interview:
WZ: What has Zec done to raise awareness among ordinary people
on voter
education on registration and elections?
RM: I would want to
believe that we have done quite a bit. Although we would
have wanted to be
more on the ground but due to limited funding and a short
time-frame within
which to do our voter education we couldn’t. But we
believe to date that
what we have done has resulted in people showing a
whole lot of interest in
voter registration which has reflected in the
queues that were formed at our
voter registration centres. People are
already showing an interest to
participate in the forthcoming elections
whenever that date will be. We
would want to believe that the interest is
part of the work that Zec has
done.
WZ: How much would you have wanted as Zec to do your work?
RM:
We submitted a total budget between us and the Registrar-General’s
office of
US$21 million, out of which we got US$4 million for the
Registrar-General’s
Office and US$500 000 for Zec and that was very
inadequate. So we got US$4,5
million out of US$21 million that we wanted.
WZ: What did you manage to
cover from the little that you received?
RM: We managed to cover quite a
number of wards. The wards that we covered
were not the entire number of
wards in the country. It resulted in us
registering at least 200 000 people
throughout the country.
WZ: You said you had limited time to conduct
voter registration. What is the
normal period for voter education?
RM: I
am informed by the Registrar-General’s Office that before an election
he
normally does a three-month voter registration exercise.
The exercise that
just ended was done over 21 days. So 21 days compared to
three months you
can see the difference.
Normal depends on quite a number of factors. If
the Register-General’s
office was constantly updating its records as it
normally does then maybe we
would have required a shorter period but we were
informed last year there
was no outreach programme to register voters so it
means that they have gone
for a whole year without capturing those eligible
voters. So we would have
needed a whole lot more than the 21
days.
WZ: There are debates, especially among political parties and civil
society,
on the composition of Zec, with one party saying the electoral body
is being
run by security operatives. What’s your comment?
RM: This is not
the first time that I have heard these allegations. I have
been with Zec
since March just before the referendum and so far I haven’t
had any evidence
or seen any bias for myself. I have met a very professional
team which I was
quite impressed with and I am still impressed with. But if
there are any
examples of double allegiance by our staff to some
organisations I would
really like to have that information, because we would
want to maintain the
integrity of Zec and we would want people to trust it.
So if there is any
evidence I would really like to have that, then we can
use it to clean up
Zec.
WZ: During the Sadc facilitated negotiations between political
parties, Zanu
PF and MDC failed to reach an agreement on the need to recruit
a new
secretariat. Do you think there should be a new Zec secretariat before
elections and why?
RM: No, I don’t think so. You don’t change your horses
just before a big
event like the elections that are forthcoming. If we were
to have a new
secretariat they would need training, they would need
experience and I don’t
think we need a new secretariat now. I believe the
secretariat I found in
place will be able to deliver even during the
elections. We are trying our
level best to deliver. But in the event that
there is evidence that there is
any area of incompetence, I would like such
evidence to be given to the Zec
as a commission for it to
consider.
WZ: How is Zec funded?
RM: Zec is funded mainly by the
government, although there are provisions in
the Act that we can also seek
donations from others, for example UNDP but
with the approval of
government.
WZ: How much has it been given for general elections
preparations?
RM: Zero. Nothing at all at the moment.
WZ: We understand
that Zec met with Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa last
week over funding
issues. What was the nature of the discussions?
RM: Yes Zec had a meeting
with Minister Chinamasa and we appraised him of
our need for funding. He
said they had taken the matter to cabinet, and it
was a matter to be
discussed by cabinet how the US$164 million we need for
elections will be
raised.
WZ: Over three million people voted for the new constitution.
There have
been some critics, especially from NGO, saying the number might
have been
inflated. What is your comment on that?
RM: We invite them to
be specific. Figures from provincial officers have
been verified and found
to be authentic. If they have evidence of their
claims they should come
forward.
WZ: When you were appointed some people doubted your
impartiality because
you are a former appointed non-constituency Zanu PF
Member of Parliament.
Does that compromise your impartiality?
RM: I will
let the people judge that at the end of the elections exercise. I
cannot
judge my own case.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in News
THE Mining Industry
Pension Fund (MIPF) could have prejudiced pensioners’ of
their contributions
by the sale of its property investment, St Andrews House
in Harare, at half
the market price to Associated Mine Workers Union (Amwu)
in 2001, The
Zimbabwe Independent can reveal.
According to a forensic report of
investigations by a local audit company,
Five WH Corporate Services (Pvt)
Ltd into the affairs of the fund, St
Andrews House, a four-storey building
which had a market value of Z$15
million in 2001 was sold for only Z$8
million to Amwu.
Forensic investigations revealed that while the building
was sold for Z$8
million a price of Z$13 million was quoted in an
application for a loan from
Beverly Building Society which provided the
mortgage to Amwu.
Sources said only Z$8 million was paid to the MIPF as a
full and final
settlement for the property through the mortgage facility
despite a
Memorandum of Agreement between MIPF and Amwu which stated “the
purchase
price of the property shall be in the sum of Z$13 000 000 (thirteen
million
Zimbabwe dollars only) payable in full upon transfer of the
property”.
The investigation report also stated that Beverly Building
Society provided
a mortgage facility to Amwu based on allegedly fraudulent
documents while
Amwu later resold the building at a profit.
The
fraudulent dealings are a cause for concern to pensioners, the report
says.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in News
ZIMBABWE has
enough frequencies to licence more radio and television
stations despite
assertions by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory
Authority of
Zimbabwe (Potraz) and Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (Baz)
that the
frequency spectrum is fully utilised.
Report by Brian Chitemba
The
Media and Technology Trust (MTT), a local advocacy group for media
freedom
and access to information, says since the analogue system is not yet
fully
utilised, the country could capitalise on the usage of the Ultra High
Frequency (UHF) instead of Very High Frequency (VHF) which has a narrow
bandwidth and shorter wavelength.
MTT accuses Potraz of deliberately
choosing the VHF which has a coverage
radius of a mere 70km instead of the
UHF with a bigger spectrum and coverage
radius of 120km.
While Potraz
says the frequency spectrum is full, MTT argues that the
Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) surrendered band one (channel 3-4)
which used
to carry TV1, and this could be used by community broadcasters as
it is
still vacant.
MTT says Potraz’s deliberate under-estimation of the
frequency spectrum was
in contravention of local, regional and international
charters that promote
media freedom and access to information.
These
include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, African Charter on
Human
and People’s Rights, Windhoek Declaration, African Charter on
Broadcasting,
Banjul Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in
Africa, Article
19 of the Global Political Agreement, Broadcasting Services
Act and the new
constitution.
The licencing of more radio and television stations is
being lobbied for by
the MDC formations in the inclusive government, civil
society organisations
and media bodies as part of media reforms. The
appointment of Baz board
members is also a bone of contention in the shaky
coalition government whose
tenure is almost up.
Zimbabwe experienced
television broadcasting in the mid-1960s, while South
Africa followed in the
late 1970s, but the neighbouring country is now
leading because it chose
UHF.
“The argument by Baz that it can only provide a three–tier system of
broadcasting in Zimbabwe when the country has digitised is a clear deception
by a partisan-constituted and run board as digitisation is not an overnight
affair,” says MTT.
“This process requires huge capital investment
which Zimbabwe does not have
at the moment. This money is required for
awareness raising purposes, buying
digital ready transmitters, paying the
persons assisting with technical
expertise as well as ensuring the
availability of set-top boxes.
“To this end, MTT’s evaluation of the
whole digitisation process progress
points to the fact that Zimbabwe will be
nowhere near meeting the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
deadline of 2015 even if a new
and competent government comes into office
after the coming elections
because our economy is in a very serious
precipice.”
MTT adds that the country does not have resources for
digitisation, hence it
should fully utilise the analogue system since it has
the capacity to
accommodate the three-tier system of broadcasting without
much investment.
The switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting,
MTT says, could be
done in phases, while the nation accesses broadcast news
which is cheaper
and widely accessible.
Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai recently toured Sadc, lobbying regional
leaders to push President
Robert Mugabe to free the airwaves and end the ZBC
monopoly as part of
minimum conditions for free and fair elections.
The public media stands
accused of being Zanu PF propaganda mouthpieces.
Freeing of the airwaves,
the MTT says, was critical especially in an
election cycle — pre–election,
during voting and post-election — to enable
the electorate to make informed
electoral choices.
The latest experience in Kenya where the people went
to the polls
well-informed by a three-tier system of broadcasting is a clear
example to
emulate, according to MTT.
“We are further awake to the
seemingly limited time to implement the issue
before elections are held. We,
therefore, submit that no time is limited for
ready-to-broadcast firms,
particularly those that were dubiously denied
registration last time, such
as KissFM and Voice of the People (VoP),” says
MTT.
“It is our
reliably informed submission that these companies are ready to
broadcast
anytime they are given licences. This also applies to already
established
community radio stations such as Radio Dialogue, Community Radio
Harare,
Kumakomo, Wezhira and Kwelas, among others, as well as 15 radio
stations all
working in collaboration with Zimbabwe Association of Community
Radio
Stations and Media Institute of Southern Africa-Zimbabwe Chapter,
respectively.
Government recently licensed two Zanu PF-linked radio
stations, Star FM and
ZiFM.
“Liberalised airwaves are therefore
capable of producing programmes that
discourage voter apathy. Liberalised
airwaves can make an informed
electorate,” MTT says.
MTT further
notes 84% tele-density offered opportunities to the majority of
community
dwellers to participate in national discussions through phone-in
programmes
and social media platforms, hence encouraging popular
participation of
citizens on issues affecting them.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in News
WHENEVER
its democratic and human rights record has been criticised,
President Robert
Mugabe’s Zanu PF often retorts; it cannot be condemned for
its abuses
because it actually brought respect of human rights and democracy
in the
first place at Independence in 1980.
Report by Herbert Moyo
Zanu
PF officials say Mugabe’s regime has done well in other areas,
including
education, health and land redistribution, apart from purportedly
empowering
Zimbabweans.
“Zimbabwe’s literacy levels are at 92% and I am a
beneficiary of his
(President Robert Mugabe’s) empowerment initiatives for
the girl-child,”
said Vice-President Joice Mujuru last week at the launch of
the Food and
Nutrition Policy for Zimbabwe in Harare.
Mujuru then
read out a long list of purported achievements under Mugabe’s
reign in
education, health and housing among other things, which she said
were
evidence of Zanu PF’s commitment to development and respect for human
rights.
However, the reality is that there has been widespread
systematic human
rights violations in Zimbabwe under Mugabe as they were
during the colonial
period.
According to empirical evidence, analysts
and human rights organisations
like ZimRights and a host of other local
rights groups, as well as Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch,
Zimbabwe is one of those countries
where rights to food, shelter, movement,
assembly, association and
expression — including media freedom — are still
being violated on a
disturbing scale.
Assaults on human rights
defenders, civic groups, opposition parties and the
media are still
prevalent.
As a result Amnesty International says Zimbabwe’s new
constitution presents
a golden opportunity for the country to “break away
from a culture of
impunity for human rights violations”.
Mugabe
signed into law a new constitution on Wednesday, following a
three-year
constitution-making process to replace the Lancaster House
constitution
adopted at independence in 1980.
“The new constitution is a positive
development with the potential to
increase ordinary people’s enjoyment of
their basic rights,” said Noel
Kututwa, Amnesty International’s Africa
deputy director.
“Not only is the world watching whether the country has
truly turned the
corner on this historic day, but millions of people in
Zimbabwe hope that
this new constitution will usher in a new political order
where human rights
are respected and protected.”
There has been an
increase in human rights violations in Zimbabwe since the
political crisis
that started in 2000 and led to millions fleeing the
country to escape
political persecution and economic hardship.
In 2008, more than 200
people were killed in state-sponsored violence during
the second round of
the presidential elections, while thousands were
tortured, maimed and
displaced.
“The next elections in Zimbabwe present a real test for the
authorities to
prove their commitment to the declaration of rights in the
new
constitution,” said Kututwa.
“The real test is whether all
political parties and civil society
organisations will enjoy their rights to
freedom of expression, association
and peaceful assembly.”
Government
has generally responded to accusations of human rights violations
through
denials or accusing its critics as Western fronts.
Zimbabwe is a signatory to
various international conventions concerning
human rights, including the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948,
and has included a Bill of
rights in the new constitution.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which recognises that “the
inherent dignity of all members of the human
family is the foundation of
freedom, justice and peace in the world”,
includes civil and political
rights as well as economic, social and cultural
rights.
During the coalition tenure, government formed the Zimbabwe Human
Rights
Commission (ZHRC) under pressure to ensure and maintain respect for
human
rights.
However, serious under-funding and constant bickering
among the coalition
government partners have crippled the implementation of
the ZHRC as Zimbabwe
continues to stutter along what University of Western
Cape Professor Brian
Raftopoulos calls “the hard road to reform”.
As
analysts say, although the question of human rights is very complex,
there
are basic or minimum standards expected in reasonably free and
democratic
societies.
According to Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association (Zela)
legal
officer, Veronica Zano, human rights have three broad categories,
namely
civil and political rights — first generation rights — economic and
social
rights (second generation) and environmental, cultural and
developmental
rights (third generation).
However, these rights are
increasingly converging and becoming interlinked.
“There is a movement
away from these rigid classifications to embracing all
rights as being the
same,” said Zano. “You cannot talk of enjoying rights of
association and
expression when you lack access to shelter, education and
health.”
Analysts say Zanu PF has only been willing to implement
second and third
generation rights as they do not directly affect politics.
Although it has
failed on second and third generation rights, it was not for
lack of trying.
But its record of first generation rights is appalling, they
say.
Bulawayo-based analyst Godwin Phiri said Zanu PF does not respect
and uphold
human rights due to lack of political will and repression. He
said
atrocities like Gukurahundi and Operation Murambatsvina show the
party’s
blatant disregard for human rights.
Raftopoulos said
authoritarianism, lack of political will and a culture of
impunity have
resulted in Zimbabwe’s failure to protect human rights.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in News
TOMORROW
Africa celebrates 50 years since the formation of the African Union
(AU),
formerly the Organisation for African Unity (OAU), on May 25 1963
withsome
countries, including Zimbabwe, reeling from political repression,
struggling
economies, poverty and instability.
Herbert Moyo/Hazel Ndebele
It
will also be a little more than a decade since the formation of AU, which
seeks to promote “an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by
its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global
arena”.
Consequently, the AU heads of states declared the year 2013 the
“Year of
Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance”.
According to
the AU, the anniversary is expected to facilitate and celebrate
African
narratives of past, present and future that will energise the
continent’s
population and use their constructive energy to accelerate a
forward looking
agenda.
Analysts say while the founders of the OAU, which included the 32
independent states and liberation movements that attended the founding
summit in Addis Ababa in 1963, completed their mission of liberating the
continent, as Namibia and South Africa became independent during the early
1990s, African leaders have largely failed to ensure democracy and
prosperity in the region.
Although one-party states and long serving
dictators have virtually
vanished, the continent is still riddled with
serious political problems,
including military coups, civil wars, repressive
governments, struggling
economies, corruption, disease and
poverty.
The majority of Africa’s one billion population continue to live
below the
poverty datum line due to misrule, corruption and legacies of
colonialism.
Skewed global economic trade patterns and market upheavals also
worsened the
situation.
But is it all doom and gloom in Africa? No!
The AU Commission chairperson Dr
Dlamini-Zuma says despite all the problems
the continent is moving towards a
new era of hope and progress.
“The new
millennium, starting with the adoption of the New Partnership for
Africa’s
Development and the transformation of the OAU into the AU, marked
the start
of a new era for the continent,” she says.
Dlamini-Zuma says Africa has a
bright future because it boast a growing
youthful population and an
expanding middle class, currently estimated at
355 million, which will
spearhead development on the continent.
She says abundance of resources
and embracing of the information and
communications revolution will take
Africa forward. While some analysts say
Africa has still a long way to go,
given prevalent political instability and
conflict, Zuma insists there is
progress on all fronts.
“Africa is also making progress on conflict
resolution and expanding
democracy, through its Peace and Security,
Governance Architectures and the
African Peer Review Mechanism,” she says.
“These positive trends took place
in the context of the reawakening of
discourse and action on African
development and continental renewal and
renaissance.”
However, analysts say conflicts across Africa are still
hindering progress.
There has been over nine million refugees and internally
displaced people
due to endless conflicts.
Analysts say despite
decades of conflict, death and tragedy, coverage of
issues in Africa has
often been ignored, oversimplified, or excessively
focused on limited
aspects. They say deeper analysis, background and context
have often been
lacking. However, there has been good news in recent years.
Economic
growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is likely to exceed 5% on average in
2013-2015
as a result of high commodity prices worldwide and strong consumer
spending
on the continent, ensuring that the region remains among the
fastest growing
in the world, according to the World Bank’s latest Africa’s
Pulse.
In
2012, about a quarter of African countries grew at 7% or higher and a
number
of states, notably Sierra Leone, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia,
Ethiopia,
Burkina Faso and Rwanda, are among the fastest growing in the
world.
The World Bank report forecasts that medium-term growth
prospects remain
strong and will be supported by a gradually improving world
economy,
consistently high commodity prices, and more investment in regional
infrastructure, trade, and business growth.
“African countries will
need to bring more electricity, nutritious food,
jobs and opportunity to
families and communities across the continent in
order to better their
lives, end extreme poverty, and promote shared
prosperity,” said the World
Bank’s Africa vice-president Makhtar Diop.
Africa’s Pulse says that
recent discoveries of oil, natural gas, copper, and
other strategic
minerals, and the expansion of several mines or the building
of new ones in
Mozambique, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Zambia, together with
better political
and economic governance, were sustaining solid economic
growth across the
continent. Research from the McKinsey Global Institute
shows resources
account for only about a third of the newfound growth.
“We believe its
economy could double by 2020 to US$3 trillion, and we are
getting a clear
signal from our international clients that Africa is an
increasingly
important market for them,” said Dennis Nally,
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
International chairman.
The African Development Bank projects consumer
spending in Africa will jump
from US$680 billion in 2008 to US$2,2trillion
by 2030. The International
Monetary Fund says Africa will have the world’s
fastest growing economy over
the next five years and “seven of the world’s
10 fastest-growing economies
are African”.
However, analysts say bad
leadership, poor government policies and conflicts
could halt or even
reverse these gains. Looking forward, it is expected that
by 2020, only four
or five countries in the region will not be involved in
mineral exploitation
of some kind, such is Africa’s abundance of natural
resources.
University of Zimbabwe analyst, Professor Eldred
Masunungure said while
democratisation is gaining momentum in Africa, there
is still a long way to
go before democracy deeply and sustainably takes
root. He also said the AU
needs to show political will and action if it is
to lead the political and
economic developments taking place in
Africa.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Business
EARLY signs
show that Zimbabwe’s trade deficit will widen to more than US$3
billion this
year from US$2,6 billion in 2012, an economist has warned.
Staff
Writer
UZ Economics lecturer Professor Tony Hawkins said this was because
the
country was over-consuming and excess demand was spilling over as
increased
imports.
“At the same time the economy has become a high
cost producer because wages
are rising faster than productivity,” Hawkins
said.
Zimbabwe’s trade deficit in the first quarter widened to US$845,51
million
and is expected to widen further as there is generally more
importing
activity in the second-half of the year. According to import and
export data
from Zimstat, exports in the period amounted to US$813,57
million and
imports totalled US$1,66 billion.
At the Institute of
Directors Zimbabwe corporate governance seminar
recently, Hawkins said this
year’s exports would be constrained by weak
global demand and soggy prices
as well as the binding supply-side
constraint — electricity.
In the
first quarter, exports were down 10% and hopes that imports would
continue
to slow had been dashed by the first quarter numbers.
Hawkins said trade was
one of the two main transmission channels through
which global developments
influence economic performance in the country. The
second transmission is
capital.
He said the country was missing out on FDI inflows as investors
were being
put off by political instability and uncertainty. “This includes
the
unknowns surrounding indigenisation and most recently, mineral sales and
mining taxation.”
The economics lecturer said there had been a surge
in portfolio inflows,
which pushed the Industrials Index on the ZSE to a
record high above the 200
point level.
To finance the trade gap
Zimbabwe is unsustainably reliant on foreign
capital – “deeply ironic given
the government’s indigenisation policy.”
In the last two years, capital
inflows have averaged US$1,3 billion a year —
approximately US$1,75 billion
when arrears are included. The bulk of this is
borrowed money — only US$350
million a year is offshore investment.
“And this by an already
over-borrowed country (foreign debt is 116% of GDP,
over half of which is in
arrears).”
Hawkins said the official figures suggest that almost US$1,7
billion of the
financing gap of US$3,6 billion for the last two years has
been funded by
unrecorded inflows, which underlines the crucial role of the
informal
sector. The balance was being funded primarily by the accumulation
of fresh
arrears.
Hawkins said the huge figure for omissions in the
balance of payments — some
US$830 million a year — could well mask an even
larger volume of offshore
borrowing than that currently
recorded.
Various policy recommendations have been put forward by
analysts who argue
that the current trend on the current account needs to be
urgently reversed.
In the short-term the country needs to put in place
mechanisms to ensure
that it earns a fair value for its mineral and natural
resource wealth.
Analysts say prominence should be given to the
establishment of production
facilities that enable the country to weave its
own cotton into finished
shirts, process its tobacco into cigarettes, polish
its own diamonds and
beneficiate them into high value jewellery, and also
refine its own
platinum, among other possibilities which can be explored to
add value to
primary products.
Recently Industry and Commerce
minister Welshman Ncube said government will
by mid-year launch the Leather
Sector Strategy because the industry presents
investment opportunities that
lie along value addition.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Business
THIRTEEN years after its
fast track land reform programme, Zimbabwe is still
importing most of its
food and is far from regaining its breadbasket status.
Report by Taurai
Mangudhla
Analysts have said the discordant land tenure system ushered in
after the
reforms remains an albatross around the economy’s
neck.
However, President Robert Mugabe appears to ignore that the country
needs a
deep relook at land resettlement and the resultant unclear land
tenure
system before any attempts to revive farming sustainably can bear
fruit.
At the official launch of the country’s Food and Nutrition
Security Policy
last week, Mugabe said implementation of the land reform
programme has
become the cornerstone of ensuring food and nutrition security
as the
majority of people now have access to agricultural
land.
However, analysts, critics and most in the agriculture industry
feel
otherwise, with Commercial Farmers Union president Charles Taffs saying
a
comprehensive approach that tackles pertinent issues in respect of land
reform and a way forward is the solution to Zimbabwe’s agricultural
crisis.
“The fundamentals to enable sustainable crop production are just
not there,”
Taffs said.
“Why do we keep skirting the issues, we need
to sit down and say what has
happened has happened and what can be corrected
will be corrected, and once
we do that, all the things like manufacturing
will naturally fall into
place,” he added.
According to CFU
statistics, the fast track land reform programme, that
displaced most of the
4 500 white commercial farmers, had contributed to the
low agricultural
output on the farms today.
CFU immediate past president Deon Theron is on
record as saying the land
grabbing and subsequent displacement of productive
farmers had heavily
weighed the economy down, costing the country an
estimated US$12 billion as
at the end of 2011.
Theron said the figure
was reached after considering farm production before
and after the land grab
as well as projected foregone production.
He said the economic loss was
worsened because resettled farmers had to
re-equip the farms by buying new
machinery and other capital equipment to
replace vandalised
assets.
Theron said Zimbabwe’s total agricultural output in 2000 was 4,3
million
tonnes valued at about US$3,5 billion, but this had plunged by 73%
in 2011.
Economist John Robertson argues Zimbabwe will only have a real
shot at
resuscitating its agricultural sector if it relooks at the land
reform and
land tenure system. Robertson said new farmers were struggling to
expand
their business as they had no access to lending facilities from
banks, which
required collateral.
Financial institutions have long
said they cannot use the 100-year land
leases given to farmers by government
as collateral.
“We need a system that actually assists farmers get lines
of credit and the
best system which has been used all over the world is to
use the land which
you own and are working on as collateral,” he
said.
“Unfortunately, government is saying, ‘we won’t go back to the issue of
land
tenure’, but that’s the model that actually works and anything else
doesn’t,”
Robertson said.
He added: “ There is no need to put water
in your petrol tank because you
know that doesn’t work.”
The
economist argued a food and nutrition policy alone was not enough to
turn
the country’s agriculture around.
He said a host of policies that promote
employment creation and industry
growth should accompany the
policy.
“That one policy cannot solve all our problems, and food security
and
poverty problems need policies that create employment. Policies like the
Indigenisation Act are not supportive of this, because more than anything,
indigenisation actually kills jobs,” added Robertson.
He said
Zimbabwe should also adopt genetically modified organisms (GMO) to
compete
on an equal footing with the global market.
Robertson’s argument is in
line with the World Banks’ submission that the
country should allow farmers
to grow GMO food and cash crops to greatly
enhance its yields and
international competitiveness. In its Zimbabwe Growth
Recovery Notes on
Agriculture, the World Bank said the move would reduce
pesticide costs and
the rate of pesticide poisoning.
Bulawayo based economic analyst Eric
Bloch said while the policy was silent
on land tenure, it could be mitigated
by provisions in the new constitution
which will allow the 99-year land
leases to act as security.
“It is a positive development that the 99-year
leases can be negotiable and
used as security,” Bloch said, adding other
critical enablers needed to be
addressed.
“Even if the leases will be
used to access loans, financial institutions do
need money to lend so we
need a general economic turn-around,” he added.
“Government should also
ensure agricultural production is driven by market
forces so that farers get
fair prices.”
Bloch’s call for an economic turnaround to enable banks to
give funding to
farmers follows Bankers’ Association of Zimbabwe
vice-president Sam Malaba’s
pronouncements last week that the banking sector
is unable to provide
adequate funds to support agricultural production due
to lack of long-term
lines of credit.
At the official launch of the
Food and Nutrition Security Policy, Malaba
said the total deposits in the
banking sector last week were about $3,8
billion, with as much as 87% being
short-term transitory deposits.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Business
THE new
Minerals Policy should contain a clause which states that the right
to mine
should be linked to payment for the value of the un-mined asset,
according
to Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.
Staff Writer
In a
keynote address to the Chamber of Mines’ annual conference, Mutambara
said
Zimbabwe had been shortchanged in most of the mining deals it had
entered
into because of lack of knowledge on money. He said deals such as
the
Essar/Ziscosteel and Zimplats ones should have taken into account the
difference between working capital and equity capital.
Essar was
charged US$750 million, which would be used only to pay the debts
Zisco owed
as well as provide some working capital, but the Ministry of
Industry and
Commerce had not put a value to the resource underground. He
quipped that
this was because civil servants, including the minister
(Welshman Ncube)
were so lowly paid that they didn’t know about money.
On the Zimplats
deal, Mutambara said the company had been given a US$4
billion resource at
the time, and invested US$400 million, which was
borrowed from local banks.
Yet when they were negotiating for indigenisation
they charged government
for the US$150 million for the ground they gave up,
yet they never paid for
it.
“They were not charged for the resource underground when they came to
invest
in Zimbabwe,”Mutambara charged.
He said overall, the stamp
from the Mining Commissioner on claims and rights
does not guarantee
ownership, but only gives the investor the right to do a
certain activity.
Mines permanent secretary Prince Mupazviriho concurred,
saying the stamp
would not guarantee ownership as all mineral rights in the
country are
vested in the President.
These remarks follow an objection made by
Zimplats over government’s move to
seize 27 000 hectares of the platinum
miner’s claims.
Mutambara also said government would not pay for
indigenised mining stakes
from dividends declared by the company, but would
pay from the asset
underground.
He said if greenfields are obtained
for free, then government should not pay
for anything. Mutambara said the
51% equity empowerment law is the
foundational law which will be followed by
government, adding that it was
not possible to use the supply side model to
ensure compliance as this was
only a supplement to the equity
model.
He said the 51% being asked for by government was too low a
threshold as
other countries such as Norway were asking for 93%. “Companies
flock to
Norway because 7% of value is a lot of money. Foreign companies
should be
grateful for the 49% because it was a lot of money.”
Youth
Development and Economic Empowerment and Indigenisation minister
Saviour
Kasukuwere told the same meeting that indigenisation of the mining
sector
was still work in progress following the signing of most term-sheets.
He
said his ministry was involved in negotiations and companies were
committed
to the programme, “even though it is in the nature of capitalists
to drag
their feet.”
He said the process was irreversible and after agreeing to
the principle,
government would proceed to the next level and find consensus
on the other
structures of the deal.
Mutambara said overall there
must be analysis of the value of the land
before such deals are signed so as
to ensure that the country is not
shortchanged. He said private investors
know more about the geology of the
country than does government because not
much had been done in terms of
exploration.
He said private investors
who know about the geology of a particular area
raise money and list in
countries such as Canada and Australia against the
claim.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Business
PENSIONERS need not fear
a sudden and unplanned return of the Zimbabwe
dollar, which could upset
savings and reverse current efforts aimed at
growing confidence in the
pensions industry, a cabinet minister has said.
Report by Clive
Mphambela
Addressing delegates to the 38th annual congress of the
Zimbabwe Association
of Pension Funds in Victoria falls recently, Minister
of Economic Planning
and Investment Promotion Tapiwa Mashakada said fears of
a slide back to the
Zimbabwe dollar were unfounded as the country’s agreed
economic blueprint,
the medium term plan (MTP) guaranteed the continued use
of the
multi-currencies until 2015.
Mashakada was responding to a
representative of First Mutual Life Assurance,
Peter Shonhiwa, who pointed
out that the great fear among consumers of
insurance and pension products
that the Zimdollar might come back soon was
slowing down the recovery of the
sector.
“Very so often, we read reports about pronouncements by people in
government
that the Zimbabwe dollar is about to return and this causes fear
and panic
among pensioners,” Shonhiwa said.
Mashakada said pension
funds should be protected as they play a significant
role in the economic
development of the country as they are the core of any
economic
development.
He said the pensions industry was a big source of savings
and formed the
largest proportion of the deposit base of the banking sector,
and therefore
its liquidity.
In addition, the majority of stock
market and property investments are owned
by pension funds Delegates asked
Mashakada when the full demonetisation of
the Zimbabwe dollar was going to
happen as this was contributing to the loss
of confidence in the pensions
sector and financial services in general.
In response, Mashakada said:
“Government looked at the issue and agreed that
a value be placed on the
Zimbabwe currency balances. The exercise was
shelved when validity and
accuracy of the Zimbabwe dollar balances was
thrown into question when
initially the figures were estimated at US$37
million, only for it to
balloon to three times that amount just before the
process was finalised,”
Mashakada said.
Another delegate, Wadzanai Phiri, a councillor with Zapf
and operations
manager at Marsh Insurance Brokers, said government should
shoulder part of
the responsibility for the demise of pensions values as it
was responsible
for printing the local currency, which lost
value.
“It is unfair that blame for loss of policy values after
dollarisation is
being heaped on players in the industry when it was
government that played a
major role in the diminution in value of the local
currency.” she said.
“Government therefore contributed to the erosion of
value for Zimbabwean
pension funds,” Phiri emphasised.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Opinion
IT has been argued that
in today’s world where countries are increasingly
racially and culturally
diverse, progressive nations are, among other key
indicators, judged by
their treatment of minorities.
Candid Comment with Stewart
Chabwinja
It is thus baffling Zimbabwe is systematically disenfranchising
a
substantial minority, effectively rendering them second-class
citizens.
The prolonged battle by the country’s so-called “aliens” to
(re)gain
citizenship and voting rights is a serious indictment of the
country’s
attitude towards a large chunk of its population some estimate to
be well
over a million.
The word “alien”, stamped on the minority’s
identity documents, is as
derogatory as it is a misnomer for by definition
it refers to anyone who
does not belong in the environment in which they are
found; or a person who
comes from a foreign country and does not owe
allegiance to the country
he/she is in. How Zimbabwe can call those born
within its borders aliens
defies logic.
That the “alien” shambles
persists despite provisions in the new
constitution signed by President
Robert Mugabe on Wednesday which recognises
citizenship by descent and
birth, and contrary to recent cabinet
pronouncements, is testimony to
deep-seated official xenophobia.
Zimbabwe has third-generation immigrants
and those born in the country, but
of foreign parents falling under the
alien branding. They have made and
continue to make indelible contributions
to the entire spectrum of the
nation’s endeavours.
The irony of this
situation is that millions of Zimbabweans are currently
economic refugees in
neighbouring countries and overseas, having fled a
mostly self-inflicted
socio-economic crisis wrought by a Zanu PF regime bent
on maintaining its
increasingly tenuous grip on power by all means.
The “alien” status,
courtesy of the amendment of the Citizenship of Zimbabwe
Act (Chapter 4.1)
in 2002 resulted in many people losing Zimbabwean
citizenship, forcing them
to identify with the nationalities of their
parents despite, in many cases,
never having set foot outside Zimbabwe.
In a 2008 research document
titled A Right or a Privilege: Access to
Identity and Citizenship in
Zimbabwe, the Research and Advocacy Unit noted
that the long birth
certificate which became mandatory in 2001 prior to the
2002 presidential
election introduced a new section detailing the country of
origin of
parents, effectively stigmatising all those of foreign descent
born in or
out of Zimbabwe.
It is quite clear the objective of this requirement was
to disenfranchise
all those of foreign origin, including farmers and farm
workers perceived to
have voted for the then opposition MDC in the 2000
parliamentary elections
in which Zanu PF was almost defeated.
With
high-stakes elections imminent, “aliens” attempts to secure documents
to
facilitate voter registration face institutional resistance from a Zanu
PF
political elite which dreads payback time.
For a country that purports to
subscribe to the founding principles of the
OAU and the AU’s vision of “an
integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa,
driven by its own citizens …”,
Zimbabwe remains woefully out of touch with
the dynamics of its
population.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Opinion
ZIMBABWE’S
political playing field is still uneven and heavily tilted in
favour of the
incumbent President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party.
Opinion by
William Muchayi
The failure by the coalition government to implement
agreed reforms has not
helped the situation. The MDC parties and others
cannot afford to boycott
the coming elections in protest as much is at
stake.
It means that political parties opposed to Mugabe and Zanu PF have
to
squeeze the most out of this hostile environment that favours the
incumbent
if at all they wish to defeat him at the ballot box.
How
then can the MDC parties overcome this monumental obstacle and enhance
their
chances of winning? There is no single answer to this question, but
without
doubt, the strategy they will use will play a significant part in
determining the outcome of the elections. Many analysts have dwelt on this
subject before and it is thus familiar among readers.
However, in as
much as analysts have criticised the MDC parties for their
failure to come
up with a credible, clear and coherent strategy to win at
the polls, it is
unfortunate that few of them have come up with ideas as to
what is to be
done to end Mugabe’s reign.
Parties opposed to Mugabe and Zanu PF need a
grand strategy that is more
robust and effective than Mugabe’s to win. It
takes a coalition of
opposition forces to remove a dictator.
History
is littered with evidence to back this argument that dictators cling
onto
power not much because of their shrewdness or craftiness, but because
of the
weaknesses of the opposition. In most cases, the opposition is
hopelessly
fragmented, disorganised and prone to squabbling.
Today, Zimbabwe has
almost 30 political parties with the addition of Joseph
Busha’s Free Zim
Congress which was launched recently. Of late, Lovemore
Madhuku, Raymond
Majongwe and Job Sikhala have hinted that they may form
their own political
party to add onto this crowded political space. One
would ask, do we need
all these parties?
Fragmentation is the curse of African opposition
parties and sitting
dictators exploit this to their advantage. In the
November 2011 elections in
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), there
were 25 contenders challenging
President Joseph Kabila. In the end, Kabila
outmanoeuvred them all to be
proclaimed the winner.
In 2006, Ivory
Coast had 130 political parties, Senegal 77 and Liberia 200.
Mali had more
than 159 political parties and Angola had more than 138 in
2008. In the
October 2011 elections in Cameroon, there were over 200
political parties
and over 50 candidates challenging President Paul Biya.
In all the above
examples, the opposition failed to unseat the incumbents
not only because of
the uneven playing field, but also due to their
fragmentation and failure to
present a united front.
By contrast, a coalition of opposition parties
succeeded in unseating Daniel
arap Moi of Kenya in 2002 after many years of
failure due to divisions and
the same happened in the 1993 elections in
Malawi when ex-president Kamuzu
Banda was removed. Moi and Banda were just
as ruthless as Mugabe.
The recent strategic coalition between President
Uhuru Kenyatta and his
deputy William Ruto during the Kenyan elections shows
the power of alliances
in such situations.
Compare that to what is
happening now in Zimbabwe. The endless spats between
Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvanggirai, Industry and Commerce minister Welshman
Ncube and Madhuku do
not help anyone. The primary focus of all opposition
groups should be to
remove the current despotic regime from power and
anything else is
secondary. Few, if any, opposition leaders seem to
understand this open
secret.
The major problem with opposition groups is failure to advance
policy
alternatives to voters. Usually, parties are limited only to
emphasising on
their ability to run the government “better” than the
incumbent party. That
is a serious flaw in opposition strategy.
Even
though the MDC-T and MDC have launched their policy blueprints,
opposition
forces in Zimbabwe tend to emphasise human rights issues, while
failing to
clearly articulate Mugabe’s failure to deliver in education,
health,
economic development and poverty reduction. The opposition should
articulate
these issues in a language that resonates with the electorate
whether rural
or urban.
An example is the perennial water and power crisis in urban
areas. The
electorate has the right to know why the opposition which
controls most
urban constituencies, has failed to resolve these problems in
spite of
having been in charge for five years.
The opposition should
swallow their pride and admit their powerlessness and
at times incompetence
to effect change as their role is mainly ceremonial in
the current coalition
arrangement.
It is naïve for MDC parties to claim to have any meaningful
power to effect
positive change in the coalition as Zanu PF still dictates
policy in most
cases. At the same time, they should be prepared to justify
their stay in
this political marriage of convenience as most politicians in
other parts of
the world would have quit in protest.
In most cases,
the opposition is weak in developing a comprehensive
political vision,
leaving the incumbent entrenched in power. Emphasising the
need for
alternative policy by the opposition, Phillip Isakpa argues that
“if ruling
politicians are failing the people, it is the responsibility of
the
opposition to step in, in a credible, robust, articulate, clear and
coherent
manner, to provide alternative policy options on how to deal with
the
challenges that confront the country”.
This means the opposition should
explain their policy alternatives to the
water and power crises in urban
areas, education, health care, unemployment
and other crucial
issues.
Mugabe is at his weakest since 1980. Factionalism threatens to
tear Zanu PF
to pieces as the president has failed to resolve the succession
issue. This
chaos should be an opportunity for opposition parties to
capitalise on. The
first rule of combat is “know the enemy”, his weaknesses
and strengths.
In the next elections, the MDC parties should go for the
kill, targeting the
regime’s weak spots. Mugabe is increasingly failing to
come to grips with
Zanu PF’s infighting and divisions. He is now old, tired
and frail to stamp
his authority on his party.
The opposition should
not be like bystanders watching a free boxing contest,
but should reach out
to moderate factions within Zanu PF for engagement and
mutual co-operation.
By so doing, they would weaken Mugabe’s already shaky
grip on
power.
However, caution should be exercised as the MDC groups can be
vulnerable to
infiltration by moles from Zanu PF.
The MDC parties
should exhaust all possible channels in isolating the
regime. This may seem
bizarre, taking into consideration that a coalition
government is in place
today in Zimbabwe. Diplomatic recognition is one
external support systems
the dictator survives on as well as foreign aid,
foreign loans and other
props.
It is a serious mistake for the MDC formations to embrace Mugabe
as if he is
a saint today, yet he has not honoured his side of the bargain
in the
coalition. Mugabe has not yet reformed and accepted change. No
meaningful
reforms have been implemented since 2009.
The brutal
murder of Christpowers Maisiri, harassment of human rights
activists and
curtailing of freedoms of speech and expression are clear
signs that Mugabe
and his party are still on the warpath.
Recent reports that MDC-T
secretary for defence and security Giles Mutsekwa
has reached out to the
military commanders is positive news in the party’s
quest to negotiate
transition with the armed forces.
Mugabe is still clinging onto power
largely because of security forces. The
MDC parties should realise that it
is largely the top brass in the security
sector who are too close to Mugabe,
but as for the lower-ranked forces,
their situation is not much different
from that of the ordinary people.
To succeed, a popular movement for
change must have the backing of the
security sector as happened in Egypt and
Tunisia. The same thing happened in
Georgia in November 2003 when security
forces were charmed with roses.
Within the army and the police force as
well as the judiciary, there are
many who are sympathetic to the cause of
change and MDC parties should throw
an olive branch to them.
If
Mugabe managed to work with Rhodesian commander General Peter Walls and
others, what prevents the MDC parties from working with Zimbabwe Defence
Forces commander General Constantine Chiwenga, Police Commissioner-General
Augustine Chihuri, Air Force commander Air Marshall Perrence Shiri and
others?
Mugabe’s old age is a massive disadvantage in his bid to seek
re-election.
He is no longer marketable to the electorate. The president is
frail and
tired. The MDC parties should capitalise on this and other Mugabe
weaknesses.
Besides, the MDC parties must make use of modern
technology to the fullest
as happened during the Arab spring revolutions.
Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp
and many other social media platforms must be
used to update others on
election processes and results.
Muchayi is a
political analyst who can be contacted on wmuchayi@gmail.com
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Opinion
One has to give
it to the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Robert
Mugabe, for he has a
way of throwing a cat among pigeons.
Opinion by Tabani Moyo
His
bluff call for elections by the dissolution of parliament next month has
led
to his opponents roving all over the political map in attempts to
checkmate
the early holding of the polls.
So immense are the implications of this
bluff to the extent that the
investment and business environment is now
characterised by anxiety and
uncertainty as the veteran leader continues
politcking about elections
dates.
Despite concerted efforts by Mugabe
and Zanu PF to claim they are ready for
elections around June 29, he in fact
does not want to go for the polls by
that much-hyped date.
In
unpacking the circumstances that show how Mugabe is not prepared to
proclaim
June 29 as the date for the next general elections, I shall expand
on the
following points:
Elections will be held after the United Nations World
Tourism Organisation
(UNWTO) general assembly scheduled for August this
year.
The holding of primary elections and its domino effects.
Sadc
and its quest for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.
Since 2000, Mugabe
and his Zanu PF party have been fighting to undo the
albatross of legitimacy
around their necks regarding the outcome of disputed
election results, human
rights violations, endemic corruption and the
authorship of the man-made
crisis in Zimbabwe.
The legitimacy crisis has been mitigated by the
sharing of political power
through the Global Political Agreement signed in
September 2008. For the
first time since 2000, the feuding parties in
Zimbabwe were in agreement
that the head of state in Zimbabwe is
Mugabe.
This acknowledgement comes with the full knowledge the president
would not
squander more years battling with a legitimacy crisis given the
fact that he
no longer has the energy, good health or endurance to absorb
international
pressure being exerted on him.
Having noted the
foregoing, one has to appreciate that the impending UNWTO
conference marks
an intersection of orbits between Mugabe’s quest to show
the entire world
that he is the legitimate president of the country and the
need for the UN
to hold its conference in a peaceful environment, a feat to
be shared by his
political contestants, the Southern Africa Development
Community (Sadc) and
the general populace.
It would therefore be foolhardy for anyone to waste
such a prime opportunity
to be the “president of the world”, so to speak, by
going for the gamble in
which one is not sure whether he will emerge as
president or general
citizen.
We must equally understand that the
president no longer has the amount of
time that those still younger have to
undo his mistakes. Hence, for the head
of state, it’s a high-stakes game
where political decisions he makes will
define his legacy.
It’s a
life time opportunity for Mugabe that has knocked on his door at the
sunset
of his political career.
Above all, since the conference is a tourism
sector-related activity, it is
sensitive to processes like elections. Given
a choice, which he has, Mugabe
would not trade the conference for elections
that can retire him “untimely”.
Suffice to say if elections are held
before the tourism indaba and disputes
arise, there is risk that the UN will
move the conference to another
country.
On the other hand, Zanu PF is
in flames as party stalwarts continue fighting
to succeed the 89-year-old
leader. The party is struggling put out the
raging fires in some provinces
with the party’s commissariat, administration
and office of the chairperson
hoping from one region to the other in
desperate attempts to seal the
widening factional divisions.
When you have a party whose intestines are
increasingly being corroded ahead
of make-or-break elections, there is a big
chance unity of purpose will be
lost and the biggest causalty would be its
head. What seems to be cell or
ward, district or provincial attritions will
have ripple effects that will
rest on the leader’s doorstep.
It has
never been this brazen, to read of factionalism openly unfolding at
politburo level in the presence of Mugabe himself — times are truly changing
and for the worst. The president knows better that when you are in such a
dog-eat-dog situation you don’t expose yourself to gruesome competition. If
he stands to live his bluff, then the end is nigh.
I have no doubt
Mugabe understands these dynamics, hence for him to buy time
he will
continue calling the polls bluff so that the other parties are
caught up in
the chaos of thinking that the election season is now with us.
That is why
the other parties are also struggling to hold their own primary
elections.
Forget about the legal interpretations of how impossible it is to
hold
elections by June, Mugabe is taking his party on a garden stroll he
himself
will not take.
If he is clear that his party is ready for elections, why
dare all and
sundry that he intends to proclaim the date for the polls? It’s
only logical
that those who are ready for it would move tactfully and rope
in key
individuals in the process and proclaim the date. But Mugabe is aware
that
by the succession politics now playing out in the public domain will
likely
repeat the 2008 bhora musango (sabotage).
It makes sense to
note that he will not call for elections next month
because he would not be
done with extinguishing the inferno in his backyard.
The situation is
made worse by the fact that the region is becoming hostile
to MDC parties.
They love to be crybabies and forget Sadc leaders also have
the burden of
running their own countries. In the process, Zimbabwe is
portrayed as a
country on auto-pilot.
However, after everything has been said and done,
the region will remain the
guarantor of the government of national unity in
Zimbabwe, therefore will
play a significant role in local processes like
elections. The region will
not accept June 29 as an election date.
Period!
We, as Zimbabweans, are not interested in dates of events, but in
the
transformation that national processes should usher in. It is therefore
critical that we depart from the mindset of doing things for the sake of
doing it to fulfill fixtures without paying attention to the realities on
the ground.
If it is a strategy of intimidating opponents — it is not
working. It has
only succeeded in creating confusion in commerce and
industry. Business has
literally been grounded and investment is being
scared away. This has a
lasting negative effect on our
livelihoods.
There is a political answer to the holding of the next
general elections and
our leadership must show clarity of thought to
mitigate both the known and
the unknown consequences of their actions. The
next elections must be held
in an environment that enables the country to
start rebuilding and moving
forward.
Moyo can be contacted on rebeljournalist@gmail.com
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Opinion
Industrialist
Anthony Mandiwanza is concerned about “distorted”
representation of Zimbabwe
and suggests that a “strategic response” is
needed to demystify negative
perceptions, according to a report in the
Business Herald on
Monday.
By The MuckRaker
Mandiwanza said some misinformed
statements about the country reflected
ignorance and stereotypes gripping
the nation. He rejected the notion that
Zimbabwe was a failed
state.
Zimbabwe doesn’t come anywhere near any definition of a failed
state, he
said.
What was needed, he said, was a strategic response to
“misunderstandings” on
issues such as indigenisation.
An ideological
gap
This project is bound to fail because it is based on a false premise.
There
are no misunderstandings.
Zanu PF has embarked upon a programme
which seeks to satisfy the greed of a
small coterie of party apparatchiks.
Foreign investors should not be scared
away, Mandiwanza said, but should
consider partnerships with locals.
We all know what that means: hand over
your businesses!
“The policy requires foreign-owned companies to turn
over their majority
stakes to black Zimbabweans,” he explained. “We hear
simplistic comments
around indigenisation, but fundamentally speaking, this
is a conceptual
ideological gap.”
So that’s what it is? An
“ideological gap?” The “misunderstanding” on
indigenisation, he says, “is an
issue which needs to be properly presented,
forcefully, so that people can
understand.”
What people already understand perfectly well is that
indigenisation is not
a popular policy. Have you ever seen people marching
through the streets
with placards saying “We want indigenisation?”
It
is part and parcel of Zanu PF’s damaging populist electoral campaign
headed
by a minister who is actually a failed banker who thinks this is a
way to
recover popular support. In fact, the MDC is right to promise to
repeal it
if they get in because nobody wants it and sees it for what it is;
the
product of a self-serving gang of discredited has-beens attempting to
restore their fortunes via smash and grab.
This is precisely what
Sadc wanted Zimbabwe to avoid so its contagion didn’t
spread to other
states. Yes, there are negative perceptions about Zimbabwe,
and they are
entirely self-inflicted.
Zimbabwe gets the reputatation it deserves. It
is the reputation of a failed
state. Mandiwanza should stop deluding
himself. Once we get a democratic
government, the problem of misconceptions
will disappear.
One example is illustrative of the problem. Here we are in
the midst of an
economic crisis but resources are found to subsidise an
event featuring Miss
Heritage Zimbabwe 2013 and her companion Carnival Queen
Zimbabwe 2013. The
pair are honoured with a salute from the presidential
guard, we are told,
soon after their crowning at the event last Friday
night. What a waste!
Mpofu’s admission
Meanwhile, Mines minister
Obert Mpofu has been doing his party proud by
denouncing the corruption that
corrodes it at every level.
Speaking in Nkayi, he mentioned in particular
the massive looting of farming
equipment and maize donated under Mugabe’s
input scheme.
“People did not want to vote for the MDC,” he said, according
to NewsDay,
“they did so out of sheer anger after realising lack of
leadership among
some of us.”
“President Mugabe loves his people,”
Mpofu continued, “but the food and
farming implements he donated have been
abused, stolen by some of the cadres
in leadership positions.”
“Some
of us have become selfish,” he said, “to the extent that we do not
want to
help those who are suffering when we have plenty.”
“Food, seed and maize
being donated by the president is being sold or given
to relatives and
friends. Instead of getting a bag of maize some are
grabbing 10 leaving
others with nothing,” Mpofu said. “This is killing the
party.”
Mpofu’s remarks come at an opportune time. Publicists in
Mugabe’s coterie
have been suggesting that the land battle has been won and
there will be “no
going back”.
This is nonsense. The party in power
will decide whether there is any going
back. And given popular revulsion of
corruption, the nation will want to see
which individuals helped themselves
to land and implements. Who, for
instance, stripped Kondozi bare? Do those
publicists around Mugabe really
think they will get away with their
ill-gotten gains? They will be held to
account one day.
Tutu
incisive
Congratulations to Archbishop Desmond Tutu for his incisive
remarks on
Zimbabwe. Quoted in the South African press, he said it was the
deliberate
decisions taken by politicians that had caused “the terrible
situation in
Zimbabwe, our neighbour”.
Zimbabwe had been a “showpiece
country”, he said which was thriving to just
a few years ago.
He
wished we could return to those days.
“It seems such utter, utter
madness,” he said, “the things they’ve done
there, destroying a very
profitable agricultural sector for example by
handing over farms to people
who weren’t really able to run them and left
equipment to go to
seed.”
Tutu came under sustained fire for those remarks. In particular,
the Herald’s
Isdore Guvamombe launched an attack calling him a “numbskull”.
African
leaders would be expected at that age to hail land reform, not
denounce it,
he said.
What Guvamombe doesn’t seem to understand is
history is not on his side
despite his protestations.
“All and sundry
in Africa expect such elders to explain how Africans were
dispossessed of
their land and dignity,” he claims. “With elders like Tutu,
the youngsters
are guaranteed to be led off course.”
So Africa’s elders are expected to
go along with Zimbabwe’s damaging and
counter-productive “land reform
programme”? If they see their neighbour’s
house burning down, are they
expected to set fire to their own? This is
utter folly writ
large.
Even if one is a beneficiary of that land patronage, they must
still be
rational.
Manhanga straying
Bishop Trevor Manhanga
has given us a good demonstration this week of why he
is no longer invited
to do his Martin Luther King impersonations at embassy
national day parties.
He appears to have dropped off the list of countries
which used to admire
him so much.
And make no mistake, it was a tour de force. He spoke in the
thundering
cadencies of his American inspirers. But since then he appears to
have
strayed. He now believes we shouldn’t demand security sector
reform.
“It must be clear to the discerning mind,” he wrote in the Herald
this week,
“that our service chiefs have gotten a bad rap. The discerning
mind will
interrogate the long repeated mantra that Zimbabwe needs security
sector
reform as nothing more than an attempt to weaken the very essence of
our
nationhood.”
Now whose agenda does that sound like?
“To say
that those who gave so much to usher in the nation of Zimbabwe are
stumbling
blocks to the progress of this nation, is nothing short of
practising
selective amnesia at best and gross self-immolation at worst. No
nation
worth its salt assaults its security sector with a view to decimating
it and
then expects peace. It just is not possible.”
And so he goes on in the
vein of what appears to be his new inspirers.
“Where would the DRC be
today if our gallant forces had not intervened?” he
wanted to
know?
None of this will surprise those who have been following the good
bishop’s
career. It has not been a pleasing sight. And somebody needs to
tell him
that despite his ringing tones, he is not the man Martin Luther
King was and
will not be.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Opinion
One of the most
important characteristics of any group that is developing
towards dominance
is its struggle to assimilate and conquer ideologically
the traditional
intellectuals, but as this assimilation and conquest is made
quicker and
effectively, the more the group succeeds in simultaneously
elaborating its
own organic intellectuals and solid policy position.
Opinion by Pedzisayi
Ruhanya
In The Ruling Class and the Ruling Ideas Marx and Engels argue
that the
prevailing ideas of a given historical epoch are formed by the
ruling class
and serve the ruling class. This is contrary to the apparent
illusion that
ideas and thoughts form and exist separately from the ruling
class.
The class which has the means of material production at its
disposal
consequently controls the means of mental production so that the
ideas of
those who lack the means of mental production are on the whole
subject to
it, postulate Marx and Engels.
In other words, it is
difficult to be a ruling class without ideas to
influence economic, cultural
and political processes at any historical epoch
of any given
society.
My interpretation is that last weekend’s MDC-T policy conference
was meant
to show the party’s intellectual capacity, its ability to produce,
reproduce, articulate and re-articulate policy issues associated with its
broad social democratic political ideology.
The conference was also
an indication that the coming elections would partly
be a struggle for
supremacy of ideas, quantitative and qualitative policies
that address the
economic, political, social and cultural problems citizens
are grappling
with and the national vision for Zimbabwe that captures bread
and butter
issues.
Most critically, it seems that the message the policy conference
sought to
drive home was that the coming elections would not be premised on
the usual
and now tired opposition “Mugabe must go!” mantra.
It would
be a battle of ideas and policies that will seek to show a
difference
between the MDC-T and Zanu PF. The policy conference was an
overhaul of the
yesteryear mentality that being merely fed-up with an
incumbent
authoritarian regime will translate into votes for the opposition.
That
is the message that the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
secretary-general Japhet Moyo failed to capture when he went on a tirade
against MDC-T secretary-general Tendai Biti who, in my view, has been one of
the most effective ministers in this coalition government, together with
David Coltart in the Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and
Culture.
Instead of interrogating and bringing labour issues to influence
relevant
policy debates, Moyo decided, for reasons best known to him, to
attack the
person of Biti — who is also Finance minister — but not the ideas
contained
in the policy package. That is why for the first time the
government-controlled media that have consistently attacked Moyo and his
unions suddenly found a partner in him.
What is ironic is that both
the labour and economic policies presented at
the conference are pro-labour
and seek to revitalise industries and create
jobs that will make the ZCTU as
viable as it was during the era of the late
Gibson Sibanda and Morgan
Tsvangirai.
The MDC-T labour policy respects the social contract which
among issues
recognises the freedom of workers to exercise their fundamental
rights to
organise and to collective bargaining.
It is critical for
labour leaders not to go to bed with the government to
protect their
constituency, but that safeguard should be based on
issue-articulation than
unhelpful personal attacks that fail to give
analytic
contributions.
Contrary to Moyo’s ranting, the economic policy presented
by Biti’s
colleagues proposes to transform Zimbabwe’s economy from the “dual
enclave”
to one that is democratised, in which every citizen fully
participates and
achieves their full potential.
This will be achieved
through strengthening and sustaining macro-economic
stability, leveraging on
the country’s potential in order to attain
efficient, inclusive and pro-poor
growth that is capable of generating jobs
and uplifting the standards of
living for the people.
The economic policy embraces both commercialisation
and democratisation.
There are no value contradictions as espoused by
Zanu PF which seeks to
advance liberal market economy policies through state
and political party
structures governed autocratically.
These
contradictions within and around Zanu PF will not assist the country
in a
world that is moving towards both liberal economic policies and
democracy.
Economic growth on its own does not ensure human
development and poverty
reduction unless it is accompanied by rapid growth
of productive and
remunerative employment. It is not just the size and pace
of economic growth
that only matter, but also the quality and pattern of
that growth as the
MDC-T blueprint argues.
The MDC-T says it will
ensure that the economy accommodates every citizen,
enabling them to
participate as an active player whether in the rural, urban
or informal
sector. This will be made possible by creating value and reaping
the
benefits of shared growth for a better life.
A social democratic state
pursues democratic developmental that gives all
economic players the
opportunity to engage in their individual choices while
ensuring the
maximisation of the public good.
The central idea is that wealth creation
should come before distribution,
something in sharp contrast with Zanu PF’s
indigenisation policy.
Realising that Zimbabwe has more than 80%
unemployment rate, the MDC-T says
if elected to form the next government, it
will adopt labour market and job
creation policies that are aimed at rapidly
reducing unemployment. In this
regard, it will target to create one million
jobs in the first five years.
The key growth drivers for employment creation
among other things will be
entrepreneurship.
This sounds very
romantic, and that is why delivery on these promises will
be the ultimate
test.
Policies as ideas or positions ought to gain traction starting at
the level
of everyday experience and only then drawing from more formally
structured
statements of principle.
It has been argued that a
century’s worth of scholarship in the sociology of
knowledge suggests a few
principles for understanding the place of ideas in
social life. First, ideas
do not exist as isolated bits that can be picked
up and discarded
separately. Rather, they live and die insofar as they are
sustained by their
place in broad patterns of thought, in paradigms, systems
of value and in
belief.
The policy positions by the MDC-T are an indication that the
party has
recruited thinkers and technocrats involved in the production of
knowledge
that speaks to the party’s ideology.
In the coming
elections, the citizens, through a vibrant, investigative,
robust and
independent media, will have an opportunity to interrogate these
policies,
put them to public scrutiny and allow citizens to have a
comparative
analysis of different political party policies before they make
a choice on
the best party to lead them.
What cannot be dismissed about the MDC-T’s
policy conference and its policy
papers, never mind contestations on their
content, is that the party has
managed to create a counter hegemonic
strategic policy package to compete
with its political rivals at the level
of ideas.
It has set the agenda for contestation of ideas rather than the
usual
name-calling, intimidation, violence and propaganda programmes where
others
have distorted history on a daily basis in order to hoodwink the
public into
voting for certain political parties despite evidence of clear
policy
bankruptcy and failure.
Over the centuries of its expansion
and consolidation, capitalism maintained
and organised its leadership
through agencies of information and culture
such as schools and
universities, churches, literature, philosophy, media
and corporate
ideologies.
By having a policy conference to discuss how a state is
governed, especially
in the context of the coming elections, the MDC-T seems
to be sending a
clear message that ideas run the world and that
intellectuals who were
involved in crafting these policy position papers
have a critical role in
the future of state politics in Zimbabwe. It also
shows that the party is
mounting a future bureaucracy to run the
state.
Historically, intellectuals have created the ideologies that have
molded
societies; each class creates one or more groups of intellectuals.
Thus, if
the democratic contingent wants to succeed in becoming influential,
it must
also create its own intellectuals to develop a new ideology that
resonates
with subaltern and oppressed groups in Zimbabwe. A state cannot be
run
without an organised and coherent ideological or policy
framework.
Ruhanya is director for Zimbabwe Democracy Institute.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Opinion
The
wrangling among Zimbabwe’s diverse political parties, numerous political
action groups, the president, prime minister and many others in the
political hierarchy as well as the media as to when the presidential and
parliamentary elections will be (or should be) held is having a grievously
negative impact on the country’s economy, severely worsening its already
very fragile state.
Column by Eric Bloch
The president
persists that the elections be held on June 29 2013, the date
constitutionally prescribed for the dissolution of the present
parliament.
In pronounced contradistinction, the majority of Zimbabwe’s
other political
leaders and their parties, with reason, insist that the
requisite elements
for a wholly transparent, free and fair election cannot
be created and
assured if it is to be held on that date and therefore, the
polls should be
delayed for such period as permitted by the Constitution and
as will enable
the elections to be properly and fairly
conducted.
Effectively, their demands are that the elections should not
be conducted on
June 29 2013, but that they be held not later than October
30 2013.
It is also very evident that the Southern African Development
Community
(Sadc) is not only supportive of the election date being one which
can
assure the propriety of the elections, but is also insistent that this
be so
and therefore it is not possible for the elections to be conducted in
June.
Over and above the immense sense of insecurity instilled in almost
all
Zimbabweans by the unceasing political squabbling over the election
date,
there are fears that the elections will not be free and
fair.
For some of Zimbabwe’s key politicians endlessly seek to minimise
the extent
to which international observers should be allowed to monitor the
polls,
which are vital to the country’s future. The grounds recurrently
cited as
justification for certain would-be observers to be barred are that
such
observers would be representatives of countries which have allegedly
imposed
“illegal” international sanctions on Zimbabwe.
In doing so,
the opponents of a presence of such observers stubbornly
disregard that
there is no “illegality” in the application of the sanctions,
and that if
the elections are properly conducted, such sanctions would be
lifted and
would cease to exist.
The concerns of most of the populace are
intensified by the frequent threat
from leaders of diverse action groups
such as the alleged war veterans and
recurrent incidents of apparent
involvement in the political arena by some
of the leaders of Zimbabwe’s
security and armed forces (who,
constitutionally, should be
apolitical).
Their vituperative outpourings and frequent threats fuel
intensifying
apprehensive of violence, intimidation and harassment, and
especially so in
rural areas.
The further erosion of confidence in
the future, occasioned by the extremely
negative vibes as to when and how
the elections will be conducted, has
directly and pronouncedly adverse
impacts on the economy. Worry and
despondency is not conducive to
productivity, which is one of the
prerequisites for the viability of
industry and of many other economic
sectors, including
agriculture.
Such uncertainty destroys confidence within the financial
sector, resulting
in lack of availability of loans and other facilities
greatly needed by most
operations in the economy. Similarly, the atmosphere
of doubt intensifies
the reluctance of many to keep their funds within banks
and other financial
institutions.
There is an unfounded belief that
such limited funds as people may have are
more secure if kept in their
wardrobes, under their mattresses, or in their
wallets and handbags.
Businesses prefer to hold such cash as they may have
in their
safes.
Many fear that the country might not have a democratically-elected
Government in office.
Many are therefore externalising such monetary
resources as they are able.
The result is an intensifying monetary
illiquidity in Zimbabwe, further
constricting economic activity. Therefore
the economy will continue to
decline and it will be foolhardy for Zimbabwe
to prematurely revert to its
own currency.
For a very considerable
time, potential foreign investors have been
reluctant to commit their
resources to Zimbabwe, notwithstanding their
awareness of the stupendous
potential for such investment. They have long
recognised the magnitude of
opportunity for viable and substantive
investment into mining,
manufacturing, tourism, services, and many other
sectors of the
economy.
However, ever since the pursuit by Zimbabwe of a land reform
programme which
had total disregard for property rights, liability under
Bilateral
Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (Bippas), and for
preserving
and enhancing agricultural viability, potential investors were
fearful of
similar inequitable and destructive policies being pursued by
government in
other economic sectors.
Such a pursuit would destroy
investment security and occasion great losses
for investors, and hence they
were reluctant to pursue any of the many
investment
opportunities.
The concerns of investors were subsequently intensified by
Zimbabwe
embarking on its Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
programme.
Almost without exception, the potential investors are
supportive of the
principles of Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment, but
not when it is
founded on investment and asset expropriation, deprivation of
investment
security, and imposition of indigenous participation without
availing the
investor the opportunity to select his or her own indigenous
co-investors.
Now the hullabaloo over when and how the elections will be
conducted, and
associated disquiet as to whether such elections will yet
again be devoid of
law and order and will not be democratic, free or fair,
has provoked even
greater reservations by potential investors as to whether
or not to pursue
opportunities here.
For economic recovery to be
comprehensive, investment is essential, but
Zimbabwe continues to create
concern barriers for the much-needed
investment.
Zimbabwe’s economic
wellbeing is also contingent upon alleviation of its
gargantuan overdue
foreign debt. It can only achieve that by a combination
of
debt-rescheduling, and debt-relief.
To a great degree that relief can
only be obtained under the Heavily
Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) convention,
but uncertainties on elections are
a major barrier to seeking and being
granted HIPC relief, or any
rescheduling of debt.
The international
community will not entertain any representations for such
measures to be
granted unless convinced that Zimbabwe is genuinely
conducting unequivocally
proper, free and fair, elections.
The current election hiatus does not
provide that conviction. Similarly,
Zimbabwe greatly needs, in order to spur
economic recovery, international
developmental aid, over and above the
welfare aid presently given to address
the inadequacies of food
availability, healthcare, and education. But that
development aid will not
be forthcoming to any significant extent until
proper elections are
held.
For great economic recovery to be realised, the first and most
urgent need
is for elections to be timeously held, but not with such undue
haste as
precludes their proper conduct.
It is blatantly evident that
legitimate elections cannot conceivably be held
within six weeks as sought
by the president and his political party, but
equally that necessary actions
must be vigorously and intensively pursued to
ensure internationally
acceptable elections within the next four months.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Opinion
AS the mother
continent marks the golden anniversary of Africa Day tomorrow,
it would be
amiss not to delve into the significance of the founding of the
African
Union (AU), formerly the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which
in
essence is the cause for reflection on May 25.
Zimbabwe Independent
Editorial
Like any human being at the age of 50, independent Africa has
surely come of
age. Whether the coming of age coincides with the wisdom
normally associated
with that is a subject to debate.
The greatest
irony is that, even though this date has behind it the idea of
African
unity, it is only an official holiday in five countries, including
Zimbabwe.
We pose the question: does this mean the other 49 member
states feel there
is nothing to celebrate? We wouldn’t blame them for doing
so, for,
notwithstanding the harsh impact of slavery and colonialism, the
continent
has been a failure among nations due to the ineptitude and greed
of its
leadership.
Our West African elder brothers have been renowned
for political strife that
included military coups, brazen dictatorships and
gross economic
mismanagement.
Nigeria, the continent’s largest nation
in terms of population, made
headlines for all the wrong reasons with the
Biafra war in the late 1960s
and continues to do so. Ethiopia, where the OAU
was founded and is still the
headquarters of the successor AU, sent
shockwaves around the world when
images of famine were beamed across the
globe some years ago.
Not to be outdone, young Zimbabwe, barely two years
old, embarked on one of
the most ruthless episodes of post-colonial
massacres when it unleashed the
notorious North Korean-trained 5 Brigade in
south-western parts of the
country, code-named Gukurahundi.
Although
the rest of the world was quiet about Gukurahundi (and many were
misinformed) with the passage of time, the US dubbed North Korea one of
three countries that formed the modern-day axis of
evil.
Interestingly, the architects and perpetrators of Gukurahundi still
roam the
steets scot-free. Its senior leaders are in the running for
presidential
office while army officers involved are among the country’s
military top
brass today.
And yet Zimbabwe, in spite of the toxic and
divisive politics of its
political leadership, is one of the countries that
fervently marks this day.
Charity begins at home. You cannot claim
solidarity with the rest of the
continent while your own house is on fire.
In typical African culture, your
neighbours may not speak, but they know the
truth. When they need to talk
among themselves, they will as the
Shona-speaking people do, make you feel
important by asking you to slaughter
the goat “desperately” needed by the
gathering during
deliberations.
Zimbabwe has given itself some self-importance as a
champion of Africans’
rights, be it the right to land or empowerment. But
its neighbours in the AU
are exasperated by its failure to accord its own
citizens basic human
rights, such as civil and political liberties, that is
freedom-oriented
rights and security-oriented rights.
If this
persists, then the country will be unable to take advantage of all
the
positive indicators of a new era of prosperity dawning on the continent.
Africa is marching on while Zimbabwe lags behind.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
May 24, 2013 in Opinion
WHENEVER President
Robert Mugabe speaks in public these days, if he is not
involved in
political polemics and campaigning, there is always a hint of
atonement —
clues that he wants to make amends for his mistakes on the cusp
of the
sunset of his controversial political career.
Editor’s Memo with Dumisani
Mleya
On Wednesday, in an off-the-cuff speech at the signing ceremony of
the new
constitution at State House in Harare, he again struck a
conciliatory tone,
sounding like someone delivering a valedictory speech yet
making it clear he
is still around.
In measured tones, Mugabe spoke
about history, the Lancaster House
constitution, Independence, nationhood,
justice and equality, political and
economic power, civil and political
liberties, tolerance, peace and the
media, among other
things.
Despite his cynical remarks about journalists, the delivery was
worlds apart
from his usually sabre-rattling speeches. This time around, he
sounded
rather reflective and mellow, discounting traces of bellicose
rhetoric and
combative politics.
The question is: why is Mugabe doing
all this? Is it to deceive the nation
and give the impression he is changing
ahead of watershed general elections
or to show he is getting better with
age like fine wine?
One can go on: Is it an attempt to atone for his
excesses in power and leave
a more positive legacy of unity and peace? Is it
a Machiavellian move to win
hearts and minds, including those of rivals, or
a bid to airbrush his dark
legacy?
There can’t be copper-bottomed
answers to this sort of enquiry because it’s
only him who knows the truth,
but a candid assessment of his remarks,
gestures and pointers can help to
illuminate the debate.
Mugabe’s legacy has often been embellished by
some, yet oversimplified by
others, or excessively focused on limited
aspects.
Deeper analysis, background and context, has often been lacking,
distorting
the history of his politics, his contribution and
legacy.
Zimbabwean historians — and academia in general — have a
responsibility to
write about him, set the record straight, not as
praise-singers or cynical
critics, but incisive scholars guided by
intellectual enterprise, public
interest and the need to enlighten.
What
of the Mugabe legacy itself? How will he be remembered when he is
gone?
Without confining oneself to a binary framework, there is the good,
the bad
and the ugly on his balance sheet — advocates of Mugabe’s rule will
always
put forward what they claim he has achieved during his 33-year reign
so far,
while his critics say it is nothing but a disastrous
failure.
Mugabe’s supporters claim the most enduring positive legacy of
his rule is
his achievements on the social service delivery front,
particularly on
education. Zimbabwe’s literacy rate is the highest in
Africa, they always
say.
They also note his social programmes and
land reform exercise uplifted the
subaltern majority. For instance, his
government gave priority to human
resource investments and smallholder
agriculture, resulting in a rapid
improvement in social
indicators.
Despite his warped socialist vision and command economic
policies, the
economy started off well as he tried to bring the poor to the
centre of
national development. That was it.
On the flip side,
Mugabe’s critics say after 33 years in power, he failed to
build Zimbabwe as
a sustainable democracy and viable economy.
Instead, the country has
regressed and he will almost certainly leave it in
a shambles — with record
unemployment, inequalities, corruption, poverty and
social exclusion as well
as divisions on racial and ethnic lines. That is
besides his legacy of
repression, brutality and appalling human rights
abuses.
Overall,
whatever the arguments and justifications, Mugabe’s legacy is
unedifying to
say the least. The evidence is there for all — with eyes — to
see.