Reuters
Fri 2 May 2008,
6:50 GMT
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's
opposition on Friday disputed results of a
March 29 presidential election
released by electoral officials, saying
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
had the outright majority needed to
avoid a run-off.
The official
data showed Tsvangirai had 47.9 percent of the vote, beating
President
Robert Mugabe with 43.2 percent, but short of the majority needed
to avoid a
run-off ballot with the veteran leader, who has led Zimbabwe
since
1980.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says Tsvangirai
got 50.3
percent of the vote.
"We don't agree with their figures.
They will have to prove us wrong. We are
now going into the verification of
those figures," said Chris Mbanga, a
representative of Movement for
Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Election officials released
the figures to candidates on Thursday at the
start of a verification process
after a month-long delay to results that had
raised fears of widespread
bloodshed in the country suffering economic ruin.
The MDC has accused the
government of launching a campaign of violence and
intimidation ahead of the
possible second round and said 20 of its members
had been killed by
pro-government militias.
The government denies carrying out a violent
campaign and accuses the MDC of
political attacks.
Tsvangirai has
suggested he could still take part in a second round if
international
observers led by the United Nations monitored the process. The
main
international observer group at the first round was from Zimbabwe's
neighbours.
If Tsvangirai refused to take part in a run-off, Mugabe
would be declared
the winner, according to election rules. A run-off should
be held within 21
days of a result being announced.
(Editing by
Matthew Tostevin)
The Namibian
Friday, May 2, 2008
HIDIPO HAMUTENYA
THE crisis in Zimbabwe
goes on without abatement.
As we go to press, the
presidential results of the now one-month-old
election in Zimbabwe remain
unknown.
This is fundamentally a manifestation of the persistence
and
intractable problem of a leadership succession crisis in Africa, a
crisis
that has been besetting Africa since the advent of the main wave of
independence at the beginning of the 1960s.
Soon after the
achievement of independence, the process began to
unfold whereby political
parties in Africa became mere fiefdoms of their
party bosses.
And the broad masses of followers, whose political enthusiasm and
energy had
been aroused during the struggle for independence, found
themselves held
hostage to the patronage of the party bosses.
Also, in the absence
of internal party democracy, parties began to
largely fulfil the role of
being instruments of the political ambitions of
their leaders, whose
preoccupation was now to stay indefinitely in power.
The
constitutional provisions that restricted the office of presidents
or prime
ministers to a specific number of terms (mostly two) had to be
subverted so
that leaders could prolong their staying in power.
The avenue to
democratic and peaceful leadership succession became
blocked by the then
emerging civilian autocracy and military dictatorship,
which ascended to
power through coups.
Political instability eventually became the
order of the day.
To remove the entrenched autocratic dictators and
military rulers
became a formidable task, holding back socio-economic
development and
progress in Africa.
In Zimbabwe, President
Robert Mugabe has been one of the civilian
autocrats who has been in power
for 28 years, tolerating no rivalry to his
power.
His political
desire to stay in the presidential office remains
insatiable and
unconstrained by conscience.
Hence, the repeated flare-up of that
crisis.
As African leaders devote their attentions and efforts to
clinging to
power, our continent continues to endure the burden of
underdevelopment,
widespread poverty, high levels of illiteracy, widening
income gap between
the haves and have-nots, etc.
The end of the
Cold War, namely, the ceasing of the once sharp
ideological division between
the East and West, at the beginning of the
1990s appeared to herald an era
of democratisation on the continent.
The phenomenon of military
coups d'etat, an undemocratic way of
bringing about leadership succession in
Africa, seemed to be on the decline,
as various forms of multiparty
political systems were being introduced
around the continent.
But the introduction of multi-partyism did not prevent the leadership
succession from developing into an acute crisis on the
continent.
With military coups being widely discredited, gaining
and clinging to
power now took the form of civilian dictatorship, that is,
self-entrenched
autocratic rule via different forms of intimidation,
election rigging and
many other forms of undemocratic
cheatings.
These dishonest methods of leadership succession often
led to violent
conflicts.
African autocrats did not hesitate to
tamper with their national
constitutions to prolong their stay in
power.
Among the recent cases of succession-driven crises in Africa
are those
of Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Togo, Kenya and
Zimbabwe.
Thousands of lives have been lost due to the destructive
nature of
these conflicts.
Another aspect of the leadership
succession crises in Africa is that
of African heads of state stepping down
from the presidential office but
manoeuvring to desperately cling onto a
certain measure of power by
remaining leaders of their political
parties.
The most recent examples are those of Namibia and
Malawi.
In the case of Namibia, the constitution had to be amended
to
accommodate a third term for the former president, Sam Nujoma,
only.
In Malawi, Nigeria and Zambia, similar attempts were made to
amend the
constitutions, but these were thwarted by a coalition of forces
made up of
opposition political parties, civil society organisations, and
even sections
within the ruling parties.
The ambitions of
Bakili Muluzi, Olusegun Obasanjo and Frederick
Chiluba, in their attempts to
amend the constitutions of their respective
countries in order to extend
their terms of office, were shameful because
all these men came to power
masquerading as born-again democrats.
In Zimbabwe and Uganda,
opposition parties and civil society
organisations failed to stop the
incumbent presidents Robert Mugabe and
Yoweri Museveni from amending their
constitutions in order to extend their
terms of office.
Hence
these two autocrats succeeded to extend their stay in power.
And
this why the crisis of leadership succession is continuing to brew
in those
two countries.
The succession issue engendered a constitutional
crisis in Ivory Coast
resulting in a military coup, electoral fraud, civil
unrest and subsequent
division of the country into the south and the
north.
In Togo, a succession crisis ensued in 2005 following the
death of
that country's former military strongman, Gnassingbe Eyadema, and
the
military installation of his son, Faure Gnassingbe.
Because
of the ongoing crisis of leadership succession, Africa has
just witnessed
carnage in Kenya.
Now we are seeing the inexorable deepening of a
similar crisis in
Zimbabwe.
In all these instances, countries
did not only lose lives and
property, but the process of democratisation has
also been rolled back.
Development and socio-economic progress took
the back burner to the
self-serving, blind and egotistical ambitions of some
of these leaders.
As a consequence, Africa lost decades of
opportunity to overcome
poverty and its current global
marginalisation.
This happened as Asia and other developing regions
were making quantum
leaps in their economic growth and
development.
In the light of these crises, African leaders must
adopt a paradigm
shift regarding their style of governance in the
continent.
They must resolutely strive to oppose those who seek to
cling to power
through electoral rigging and attempts to change
constitutions to suit their
greed for political control and
self-enrichment.
Africa must adhere to constitutional governments,
respect for human
rights, and respect for the rule of law, inclusiveness and
freedom of
expression and association.
This is what
ideologically distinguishes the position of the Rally for
Democracy and
Progress from that of those who advocate the reactionary and
archaic notions
of ''guided democracy'' and no regime change.
Africans must shame
and reject the autocratic style of leadership in
order realise a bright and
just future for our continent.
This is our unfailing duty and
historic responsibility.
* Hidipo Hamutenya is a former MP and the
leader of the RDP.
FinGaz
Dumisani Ndlela Business Editor
…as
Reserve Bank floats exchange rate
ZIMBABWE’S battered currency was yesterday
thrust into the open market in a
major policy shift that could significantly
improve inflows into the
inter-bank market and grind down the parallel
foreign currency market
largely blamed for the country’s economic
turbulence.
The move by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor
Gideon Gono was
announced as part of a comprehensive package meant to win
the confidence of
a restive business sector and take the economy back on a
recovery path.
Under this new policy, exporters and importers can now freely
trade foreign
exchange in the deregulated inter-bank foreign exchange
market, but they
will use a pre-determined list of key sectors for disposal
of the foreign
cash.
Top on the priority list is the grain, food
producers, fertilizer, seeds,
animal drugs, good-related machinery and seeds
category, commanding 35
percent of allocations, followed by fuel,
electricity (20 percent) and the
non-food equipment and other industrial
machinery (20 percent).
Other priority payments include public and commercial
transport, vehicle
kits, tyres, batteries, wind-shields and other essentials
(20 percent);
school fees, business travel, professional fees, Information
Technology
licences and dividends (10 percent); and medical drugs and
equipment (10
percent).
Authorised dealers are expected to match sellers
and buyers of foreign
currency under this arrangement.
Also effective
today, authorised dealers, who include banks, money transfer
agencies (MTAs)
and the central bank-owned Homelink, can now buy and sell
foreign exchange
at market-determined exchange rates.
They will be compelled to display the
average buying and selling prices of
foreign currency for willing sellers
and willing buyers.
Non-governmental organisations, embassies, international
organisations and
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora as well as other foreign
currency holders would
also be able to dispose their foreign currency at the
inter-bank rates,
likely to replace the fixed exchange rate of $30 000 to
the United States
dollar.
A banker said the decision by the central bank
was in line with the sector’s
expectations, saying it would certainly shore
up foreign currency inflows
into the official market.
Homelink and MTAs
would sell foreign currency bought under this new
framework to the
RBZ.
Gono, who indicated the central bank would start a programme to rebuild
the
country’s depleted foreign currency reserves, said all authorised
dealers
would sell their end-of-day foreign currency positions to the RBZ at
the
ruling inter-bank rates, leaving cash for their daily float of not more
than
US$100 000.
In announcing the new policy, which he said was guided
by the desire to
prioritise the production of basic goods, Gono said it had
always been the
desire of government “to move our economy more towards the
interplay of free
market conditions in our allocative and productive
systems”.
Gono also sought to encourage export growth by reducing the
surrender
thresholds from the previous 35 percent sold upfront to the
Reserve Bank at
the government rate to as low as 2,5 percent for those
exporters able to
grow their export revenues by 35 percent and above.
The
surrender levels, thus, vary depending on the exporter’s incremental
inflows. Reduction of the surrender level means that the Reserve Bank will
also now rely on market purchases of foreign exchange to meet government
requirement.
Exporters will, however, retain money in their foreign
currency accounts
(FCAs) for up to 21 days to ensure “greater circulation of
foreign currency”,
Gono said.
Reflecting the central bank’s growing
concern over inflation, Gono further
tightened monetary policy, increasing
the key accommodation rates.
This move is expected to inhibit speculative
borrowing from the market.
In unveiling these new measures, Gono also
castigated government ministries,
parastatals and local authorities for
adopting a “business as usual” when
the economy was “on fire”.
He also
called for a truce between business and government, calling for a
return to
the negotiation table between stakeholders and the signing of a
lasting pact
in the form of a social contract.
Gono also described corruption and price
controls as evils slowing down the
country’s recovery drive.
He called
for stiffer penalties on corrupt practices, as well as the removal
of
pricing controls.
Gono gave the banking sector a clean bill of health but
warned banks to
prepare for higher capital requirements later in the year.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
THE United States says people implicated in the on-going
political violence
in rural areas and towns in the aftermath of the disputed
March 29 elections
risk being added on to Washington’s growing targeted
sanctions list after
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
claimed that at least 20
of its supporters have been killed so far by
alleged ZANU-PF militias and
state security agents.
James McGee, the
US ambassador to Zimbabwe, told a press briefing on Tuesday
he was
personally recording the incidents of violence and interviewing the
victims
of the alleged terror campaign in both rural and urban areas.
The US envoy
said he had identified victims of the violence and its
perpetrators who were
unhappy with the way the people had voted.
“We are looking and taking note of
the people responsible for the violence.
Out of the 500 cases that I have
handled, only one has been attributed to
the MDC as an aggressor. We have
affidavits; we have the names of the
perpetrators. We know the perpetrators
and there will be justice at the end
of the day,” said McGee.
He said the
more than 200 senior army officials allegedly deployed in the 10
political
provinces of the country and the militias whose names feature
repeatedly in
the affidavits of some of the victims of the violence would
most likely be
added to the revised targeted sanctions list of Zimbabweans
banned from
travelling and transacting business in the US.
The targeted sanctions,
slapped on President Robert Mugabe and his ruling
elite after the disputed
2002 presidential elections, have now been imposed
on about 500 people.
McGee said: “The Zimbabwean government asked us for
evidence. We have
availed it. In fact I have tried to talk to the government
and ZANU-PF but
they have not been forthcoming.”
The American Ambassador spoke as Nelson
Chamisa, the spokesman for the
Morgan Tsvangirai MDC faction, which claims
to have won the polls, announced
that the death toll from the on-going
violence rose on Tuesday from 11 to 20
of its supporters who had lost their
lives.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena, maintained police were
investigating some
of the alleged incidents of politically motivated
violence.
“At the moment we are compiling the statistics on violence that
have been
reported to the police,” said Bvudzijena. “Some incidents are
still being
investigated,” he said.
Chamisa, however, said the “horrific”
brutalisation of the people had
reached alarming levels with reports showing
that more and more people
perceived to be MDC supporters continued to be
beaten up.
“Only over the past two days, five MDC activists have been killed
by ZANU-PF
militia and soldiers,” said Chamisa.
He identified the five
victims killed since Sunday as Tabitha Marume of
Makoni West in Manicaland
who was allegedly shot by soldiers at Chiwetu Rest
Camp, Percy Muchiwa, a
teacher in Guruve who was beaten to death by ZANU-PF
supporters in Bakasa
area on Monday; Tenos Manyimo and Bigboy Zhuwawo of
Mbire in Mashonaland
Central who both died on Sunday when they were brutally
battered by ZANU-PF
militias for being MDC supporters.
Chamisa said in another resort to brute
force in Shurugwi, Midlands
province, Clemence Dube of Poshayi Village in
ward 12, was killed when
ZANU-PF supporters and war veterans assaulted him
on April.28.
He said Dube was an MDC polling agent. His body had been ferried
to Bulawayo
for a post mortem.
“Thousands of people have been displaced
while hundreds have been seriously
injured and are hospitalised in various
hospitals across the country as the
violence by ZANU-PF militias and youths
continues to increase to alarming
levels,” said Chamisa.
In another twist
to the goings-on, the MDC alleged that unarmed villagers in
Makoni West;
Manicaland, on Monday managed to confiscate rifles from three
soldiers and
10 war veterans who had descended on the area and were
harassing and beating
up innocent people.
“Countrywide, reports indicate that MDC activists are
being picked up and
assaulted by ZANU-PF supporters and war veterans with
the aid of people who
are dressed in army uniforms following the defeat of
ZANU-PF in the March 29
elections,” Chamisa said.
Tichanzii Gandanga, the
MDC director of elections for Harare province was
abducted by the ZANU-PF
militias on April 18 and was severely assaulted for
four days before he
managed to escape. Gandanga, whose legs were broken
during his ordeal, is
being treated at a hospital in Harare.
Another senior MDC provincial activist
for Manicaland province, Knowledge
Nyamhuka was left for dead by ZANU-PF
militias in Makoni West.
McGee said of the 500 victims of political violence
his offices had
documented, only one had been attributed to the
MDC.
Patrick Chinamasa, the minister of justice, legal and parliamentary
affairs,
has denied ZANU-PF is behind the violence.
“We know it is the
MDC and some of their people have been arrested,” he
said. “The MDC is
trying to destabilize this country at the behest of
Britain and its Western
allies.”
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe
Staff Reporter
WITH the outcome of the March 29 presidential polls still
not announced a
month after voters cast their ballots, the two factions of
the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) have closed ranks in a bid to end
President Robert
Mugabe's rule, with the Arthur Mutambara group formally
resolving to pursue
unity talks and back Morgan Tsvangirai in the event that
he participates in
a presidential election run–off.
Priscilla
Misihairambwi– Mushonga the deputy secretary general of the
Mutambara
faction of the MDC told The Financial Gazette on Tuesday that the
formation's National Council met on Wednesday last week and adopted
resolutions on the two issues.
"The National Council met last Wednesday
and resolved to back Morgan
Tsvangirai in the event that he participates in
the run–off," the former
chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee in the
last parliament said.
She said the second resolution mandated the faction's
leaders to "negotiate
areas of co–operation" with Tsvangirai's
grouping.
Misihairabwi said the media had misquoted Mutambara as saying the
two
factions had already united in parliament during a press conference held
jointly with Tsvangirai in South Africa
"The national council mandated
leaders to negotiate in a number of areas and
that includes parliament —
whether we will co–operate in parliament and how
that co–operation will be
achieved," she said.
An agreement on that score is yet to be reached.
The
purpose of the press conference held jointly by the two opposition
leaders
in South Africa on Monday was for the two formations to express
solidarity.
At the press conference Mutambara said: "There will be no
division among
ourselves vis–a–vis the resolution of the Zimbabwean crisis.
I am here to
show solidarity with the winner of the presidential election in
Zimbabwe."
Before the March 29 polls, unity talks between the two rival
groupings had
collapsed, resulting in the Mutambara camp throwing its weight
behind the
presidential bid of independent candidate Simba
Makoni.
Misihairabwi–Mushonga said after the elections there had been talks
between
the two leaders as well as between the two formations' secretary
generals
Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube.
However, before the Mutambara
faction resolved to back Tsvangirai, these
talks had been informal, but they
have now been endorsed by the party's
executive.
FinGaz
Clemence
Manyukwe and Stanley Kwenda Staff Reporte
STATE security agents have
intensified their crackdown on civic society
leaders as violence escalates
countrywide ahead of an anticipated
presidential run-off.
This week
police arrested the National Association of Non Governmental
Organisations
(NANGO) information and policy manager Fambai Ngirande, barely
a week after
he had presented to the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) a
document outlining the extent of violence countrywide following the
March 29
polls.
In another development last week, law enforcement agents ransacked
Zimbabwe
Election Support Network (ZESN) offices in search of “subversive
materials”,
which they claimed the organisation has been using in a bid to
unconstitutionally remove President Robert Mugabe from power.
The raid
followed the detention of the organisation’s director, Rindai
Chipfunde,
upon her return from a foreign trip.
Chipfunde was quizzed about the role her
organisation played in the
elections.
The police are said to have pressed
her to reveal the source of her
organisation’s funding as well as its
relationship with pro-democracy groups
in the United States.
Ironically,
in justifying a poll re-run amid Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) claims
that Morgan Tsvangirai won an outright victory in the March 29
presidential
poll, justice minister Patrick Chinamasa has repeatedly quoted
ZESN’s
election figures that say no presidential candidate garnered enough
votes to
avoid a second round of voting.
Last Saturday the state media described ZESN
as “an American sponsored civil
society appendage of the MDC”.
The
crackdown on civil society and raids on the MDC offices in Harare saw
workers at the Crisis Coalition in Zimbabwe vacating their offices for fear
of being arrested.
This week another civil society organisation,
ZimRights released a report
detailing incidents of violence, destruction of
property and displacement of
people in an alleged retributive terror
campaign by ZANU-PF members.
According to the human rights organisation on
April 13, at least five houses
in Cherutombo high-density suburb in
Marondera were stoned by ruling party
youths who are camped at two houses in
the same area.
“Nearly 20 families of opposition supporters in Pondoro
Village, which is in
ward 2 of Pfungwe rural area woke up during the night
of 16 April to find
their houses blazing after being allegedly petrol bombed
by mobs of ZANU-PF
supporters,” the ZimRights report said.
“The family
included the losing MDC candidate in the area and the opposition
party’s
election director for the Maramba Pfungwe constituency.”
ZimRights said the
incident was reported to the police under RRB NO 851208
and identified the
investigating officer only as Nyahwema.
In an interview yesterday police
spokesperson Assistant commissioner Wayne
Bvudzijena said the police were
compiling statistics on violence and would
release details once the exercise
was completed.
Chinamasa could not be reached for comment yesterday.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff
Report
SHEPHERD Gurira ignored the call by the opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) three weeks ago for workers to stage a stayaway to
force the
immediate release of presidential poll results. Gurira is a vendor
and the
opposition had specifically pleaded with operators in this sector to
stay at
home.
A month has passed since the March 29 polls with the
outcome of the
presidential poll in an election that saw ZANU-PF losing
control of
parliament for the first time since independence in 1980, still
being
withheld.
But for Gurira, even today — Workers’ Day or Labour Day —
when workers
around the world take a break, it is business as
usual.
Labour economist Godfree Kanyenze said the hardships prevailing in the
country made it impossible for workers to take a rest from the unrelenting
struggle for survival.
“It is a survival thing. You can see that the
people are angry from the way
they voted. It may, however, be difficult for
the opposition to persuade
them not to go to work because they are
scrounging for basic necessities,”
Kanyenze said.
He said high taxes and
inflation posed the biggest headaches for workers.
The situation might be
more bearable if the people had access to public
utilities and essential
services to justify the punishing taxes, but the
state was failing to
deliver, he added.
“It is a case of state failure,” Kanyenze
said.
“Zimbabwe’s taxes are still very high. You are still taxing someone who
cannot make ends meet. You are squeezing someone earning below the poverty
datum line.”
Kanyenze added that the country had become a “nightmare” for
workers because
even after a hard day’s work one goes home to find that
there is no water or
electricity and at the end of the month one has to
contend with long queues
at banks where the maximum withdrawals are
unrealistic.
The labour economist said because of inflation, most workers’
earnings were
not enough even to cover their transport costs.
He said the
hardest hit group were farm workers because “new farmers
generally do not
pay”.
Kanyenze’s observations tally with those of the Parliamentary Committee
on
Lands and Agriculture, which expressed alarm last year over the poor
salaries in the sector, with a farm worker at that time earning a monthly
salary only enough to buy two loaves of bread.
At the time, the Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights described the farm
workers’ earnings as “slave
wages”.
Kanyenze said the hyperinflationary conditions meant that the
middle-income
group that could previously afford to buy goods like cars had
almost
disappeared.
Poor remuneration and conditions had sparked a
massive brain drain and the
loss of skills.
“The formal sector has
shrunk. It now employs less than one million people,
the lowest since
independence,” Kanyenze said.
“The informal sector is now the' economy. The
informal sector reflects the
sickness of the economy. It grows out of the
crisis, out of the failure of
the formal sector to grow.”
The labour
economist described the country’s workers as “highly
impoverished”. They
constitute the working poor. They work so hard to earn
so little, which is
not enough to cover their requirements."
Another economist, Eric Bloch, said
in addition to hyperinflation, workers
are also grappling with job
insecurity.
The Bulawayo-based chartered accountant said any wages paid out
are
immediately wiped out by inflation, while jobs cannot be guaranteed
because
companies cannot afford to adjust wages and salaries to keep up with
inflation.
“The workers are suffering, their life has become a battle.
They have to
walk to work, they have to live on one meal a day instead of
three, they
have to send their children to rural schools because they cannot
afford the
fees in urban areas,” said Bloch.
Against a backdrop of these
hardships, more and more workers are resorting
to industrial action, with
doctors currently being on strike. Teachers were
on strike for the better
part of last term.
In March, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
issued a statement
saying strikes by civil servants were being exacerbated
by the fact that the
government was prioritising the needs of the army and
the police ahead of
other government employees.
“The ZCTU condemns the
selective increment of salaries in the civil service,
with the military and
the police force being given preference.
“It would seem government is afraid
of a backlash from the army as we head
towards elections, hence the move to
increase the military salaries.
“All workers should be treated equally as
they buy from the same shops,” the
labour movement said.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Political
Editor
WHEN Zimbabwe joins the rest of the world in celebrating World
Press Freedom
Day on Saturday, two local journalists will be languishing in
jail on
allegedly trumped up charges of torching a bus two weeks ago while
the head
of the country’s biggest journalists’ union will be nursing
injuries
sustained when he was assaulted by uniformed forces.
Frank
Chikowore, a freelance journalist and Luke Tamborinyoka, a former news
editor of the banned Daily News, were arrested separately on April 3, 2008
near the wreckage of the privately owned bus in question. Their arrests took
place after a failed stayaway called for by the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).
Information gleaned by The Financial Gazette
indicates that Chikowore (28)
was nabbed while filming the wreckage of the
public transport vehicle.
Tamborinyoka (36), who now works for the MDC as a
director of information
and publicity after the banning by the government of
The Daily News and its
sister paper The Daily News on Sunday in September
2003, was arrested at the
popular Mereki Shopping Centre in Harare while
roasting meat with friends,
nearly 20–hours after the alleged
arson.
World Press Freedom Day was designated by the United Nations to raise
awareness on the importance of freedom of the press and to remind
governments to respect and uphold the right of freedom of expression as
enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Rights.
The state
of affairs in Zimbabwe was underscored by the fact that as
Zimbabwean
journalists prepared to join the rest of the world in marking the
day,
lawyers were battling to bail two of their colleagues, Tamborinyoka and
Chikowore, out of jail. Court papers show that the state is charging the two
journalists with the torching of the bus, which Chikowore and Tamborinyoka
have vehemently denied.
In another clear violation of press freedom,
soldiers at Chikwanha Shopping
Centre in Chitungwiza whipped Matthew
Takaona, the president of the Zimbabwe
Union of Journalists (ZUJ), as he
arrived at the popular watering hole with
friends. Another freelance
journalist, Stanley Karombo was hauled by
plainclothes detectives from the
terraces of Gwanzura stadium while taking
notes of President Robert Mugabe’s
Independence Day speech.
Karombo, a journalism student at Wits University in
South Africa, spent
three days in police custody where he was allegedly
brutalised. After his
release, the aspiring journalist was admitted to a
private medical clinic
where he was also treated for trauma.
In another
unmistakable indication that the authorities view journalists as
sworn
enemies, a group of Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) employees
became
victims of police brutality when they were beaten up by riot police
in
Chitungwiza two weeks ago. The group, made up of late night shift
workers,
were assaulted at about midnight at C Junction, Unit K while on
their way
home. The crew had just finished working on the 11 pm news
bulletin. A
source narrated their ordeal; “ They were coming from work after
preparing
the late night bulletin just days after the police were deployed
to deal
with the aftermath of the MDC organised stayaway. They were ordered
to lie
down and the baton sticks started raining on them.” The source said
the
police ignored their pleas that they were workers from ZBC, even their
official ZBC and Media and Information Commission (MIC) accreditation cards
could not save them as the riot police were said to be in no mood to listen
to any explanations.
“They were actually accused of having forged the
identity cards somewhere in
Mbare,” said the source. Only a ZBC driver and a
radio news bulletin reader
who was lucky to be identified by one of the
police officers, were spared
the beatings.
It is understood that since
the incident, ZBC management has been having
difficulties identifying
volunteers to take up late night shifts.
Foster Dongozi, the secretary
general of ZUJ, said the crackdown on
journalists and other media workers
came when memories of the murder of
former ZBC journalist and freelancer,
Edward Chikomba, by suspected state
security agents in March last year were
still fresh in the minds of the
media fraternity. Dongozi said the
harassment and intimidation of media
workers was most likely to worsen as an
election run–off likely to feature
President Robert Mugabe and MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai loomed.
“As we approach a run–off in the presidential
polls, journalists fear for
their lives as law enforcement agents who are
supposed to protect them have
turned against defenceless people,” said
Dongozi.
“Journalists are living in a war zone right now in Zimbabwe. It is
unfortunate that we are commemorating World Press Freedom at a time when the
assaults on media practitioners have reached unacceptable levels,” he
said.
Takura Zhangazha, the acting director of the Media Institute of
Southern
Africa (Zimbabwe), said lack of information regarding the outcome
of the
presidential race was in itself a flagrant violation of the right of
access
to information.
“There is no access to information vis-a-vis the
results of the elections,”
said Zhangazha.
“The abductions, assault and
torture of journalists are unacceptable. We
call upon those in the ZANU–PF
establishment not only to release the
journalists in jail but also to desist
from stifling media freedom,” he
said.
The government has maintained its
ban on the Western media, forcing a number
of journalists to sneak into the
country to cover major events such as the
disputed harmonised elections. Two
journalists from The New York Times and
The Telegraph (UK) were arrested at
a lodge in Harare for allegedly
practising journalism without accreditation.
The pair, Barry Berack and
Stephen Bevan were, however, eventually acquitted
before being deported.
FinGaz
Kaitira
Kandjii
THE Media Institute of Southern Africa, a regional media and
freedom of
expression advocacy organisation, based in Windhoek and working
through
national chapters in 11 Southern African Development Community
(SADC)
countries joins the rest of the world in marking the World Press
Freedom Day
on Saturday.
MISA commemorates May 3 under the theme
“Press Freedom, Access to
Information and empowering the people.” This theme
captures all we expect
from our media, and the role our governments should
play in promoting media
and freedom of expression rights.
The 2008 World
Press Freedom Day comes at a time when the enjoyment and
respect for media
and freedom of expression rights in Southern Africa is on
the slide.
We
mark May 3 under the shadow of a crisis in Zimbabwe and the deterioration
of
media freedoms throughout the region notably in Lesotho, Angola and
Swaziland.
May 3 comes at a time when the international spotlight is once
again on
Southern Africa, home to some of the world’s archaic and repressive
media
environments with Zimbabwe taking the lead.
We mark May 3 with
mixed feelings, while we have made substantive strides
since the Windhoek
declaration in 1991, the last three years have witnessed
a steady
deterioration of media freedom, reminiscent of Africa’s one party
state era
of the 70’s and early 80s, characterised by the suppression of the
basic
fundamental rights of freedom of expression, assembly and human
dignity.
The southern Africa envisaged in the Windhoek Declaration of
1991 is a far
cry from the arrests, beatings, torture and detention of
journalists and the
general repression of freedom of expression that are
characteristic of
Zimbabwe and the region today. The democracy we fought for
so hard is not
the model we have witnessed in Zimbabwe and Angola where the
state rules
with absolute impunity, with no respect for the rule of law and
total
disregard of the will of the people.
The SADC leadership we
envisaged 10 years ago is a far cry from what we have
today, where some of
our leaders sacrifice their morality and integrity in
the face of
unspeakable human suffering and state decay in Zimbabwe.
Southern Africa is
a region at a cross roads, with a choice to regress or
move with the rest of
the world and reap the benefits of a free and diverse
society.
South
Africa, a beacon of hope as a result of its advanced constitution,
which
protects basic rights and its political and economic leadership is
slowly
showing signs all too familiar with Africa’s post colonial
nationalist
governments. That is the intolerance towards criticism and
leaning towards
legislative power to seek protection from public scrutiny.
The threats of a
Media Tribunal proposed by the ruling ANC government, and
the ensuing tussle
for control of the public broadcaster, the SABC, as well
as the proposed
Protection of Information law is a serious retrogression
from the spirit of
1994, the spirit of a people’s victory and freedom. On
May 3, the ruling
party and government in South Africa need to take stock
and introspect with
a positive mind, on the relationship between the state
and the media and
also look at the role that the media plays in checking on
centres of power
to ensure accountability. More critically, South Africa
should look at its
leadership role and the implications to the rest of the
region and the
continent on the reversal of the enjoyment of basic rights in
that
country.
MISA further expresses concern on the state of government, media
relations
in Lesotho. The arrest of Thabo Thakalekoala, MISA regional
chairperson, in
2007 on allegations of sedition point yet again to the need
to repeal
archaic insult and security laws that can be abused for political
ends. MISA
further expresses concern at the general continued use of insult
laws not
only in Lesotho but in Swaziland and Zimbabwe by powerful
individuals in
government, politics and business to silence journalists. In
light of these,
MISA is participating in a campaign with fellow civic
organisations to
establish a SADC Insult laws free zone. This campaign takes
cognisance of
the need to improve journalistic skills and also promote
amicable dispute
resolution through voluntary Media Councils.
In the
course of the year, MISA issued 181 alerts. The media alerts document
media
and freedom of expression violations and developments in Southern
Africa.
Zimbabwe had the highest number of alerts at 57. The monitoring
of media and
freedom of expression violations generally point to further
deterioration in
the relationship between our governments and the media.
This bad
relationship is demonstrated through threats made on journalists
and media
organisations, and the enactment of unfriendly media
laws.
While new positive laws were drafted and passed in Zambia, their
implementation remains in limbo as the government procrastinates on taking
the laws forward. New laws are also being proposed in Swaziland with far
reaching consequences on the future of the underdeveloped media in that
country.
Tanzania is also going through a media legislative process whose
consultations are not satisfactory. MISA underscores that while some aspects
of media regulation, especially democratic broadcasting and
telecommunications are required, governments in southern Africa are
generally caught in a time warp, where legislation remains focused on the
traditional media, newspapers and television, and also focused on
controlling rather than developing, focused on protection of the elite and
the powerful rather than accountability and transparency. New laws being
proposed in the region fall far short of recognising developments in the
ICTs sector and how our media can be assisted to further reach out and
develop capacity and skills.
On May 3, MISA urges SADC government and
civic society to work towards
achieving the principles of the Windhoek
Declaration of 1991 and the African
Charter on Broadcasting of 2001, as well
as adhere to the African Union
Banjul Declaration of Principles on Freedom
of Expression in Africa. These
declarations and principles broadly recognise
the positive role that the
public and independent media play in social,
political and economic
development.
In this regard a lot of work needs to
be done in enacting democratic media
laws that promote the growth of the
media and telecommunications sector,
hence promote freedom of expression
rights.
On May 3, we emphasise that SADC governments should work to
consolidate
media and freedom of expression rights through improving
protocols such as
the SADC Protocol of Information, Sport and Culture. More
work needs to be
done to ensure the enforcement of these protocols and
declarations on
freedom of expression. More should also be done to
strengthen the capacity
of protective bodies such as the African Commission
on Human and Peoples
Rights and the SADC Tribunal as a way of enhancing
their role in defending
basic rights.
The knee–jerk response to the
crisis in Zimbabwe serves as a reminder on why
SADC and Africa need stronger
and effective protective regional and
continental bodies.
On May 3, MISA
celebrates the sacrifices being made by journalists, media
organisations and
communities in defending media and freedom of expression
rights, often under
serious threats of all sorts.
MISA commends the few governments that continue
to maintain a healthy,
interactive and consultative relationship with the
media and civic society.
May 3 is therefore, that time to take stock, and
ask the question how far
have we come?
Kaitira Kandjii is the regional
director for MISA, Windhoek, Namibia
FinGaz
Staff
Reporters
Govt debt hits fresh record
GOVERNMENT domestic debt
spiralled out of control to touch an incredible
$6.4 quadrillion on April
17, 2008 on mounting government spending, figures
from the latest monetary
policy statement reveal.
The surge was on the back of an acceleration in
money supply growth, which
leapt from 1 638.4 percent in January 2007 to 51
768.8 in November 2007.
Money supply growth levels have maintained an upward
trend and could
therefore be close to 100 000 percent by the time of the
latest domestic
debt figures.
The Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono
yesterday said the acceleration in
government domestic debt levels was due
to the absence of external balance
of payments support, which had led
government to rely on domestic bank
sources to finance its
operations.
The Financial Gazette last reported domestic debt levels at $2.5
quadrillion
on March 20, 2008.
This was after the debt stock had earlier
touched another high of $1.6
quadrillion in the first week of March on
intensifying spending by
government to finance an expensive harmonised
election on March 29.
Government debt stood at $21 trillion at the start of
the year.
The government has entirely depended on domestic sources to finance
its
ever-increasing budget deficits, resulting in increased money
printing.
Bilateral and multilateral financial institutions terminated
balance of
payments support to the country over alleged human rights
violations by
President Robert Mugabe’s government, accused of rigging the
2002
presidential election in order to retain power.
There is a stand-off
between the Zimbabwe government and the international
community, led
primarily by the US and its allies, over the recent
presidential election
whose results have not yet been released.
The Movement for Democratic Change
claims its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won
the poll against the incumbent, but
the ruling ZANU-PF says non of the
candidates won the 50.1 percent majority
needed to declare a winner under
constitutional amendments made just before
the poll.
RBZ mourns social contract demise
THE Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) yesterday issued its first public
statement over the collapse
of a social contract by key stakeholders, saying
the worsening economic
climate was an indication that the country was now
paying the price for its
demise.
“As Monetary Authorities, our hearts are heavy at the realisation
that well
over 16 months down the road since we first advocated the urgent
adoption of
a social contract early 2007, this virtuous path has not been
fully followed
through,” said RBZ governor Gideon Gono yesterday.
He said
had the different stakeholders “collectively shown maturity,
tolerance and a
burning desire for a better Zimbabwe through the adoption of
the social
contract”, the country would not be suffering wide-spread
shortages of basic
commodities and other economic ills.
Negotiations to hammer out a social
contract between government, labour and
the private sector collapsed early
last year amid accusations and
counter-accusations between the three
parties.
The social contract was meant to stabilise prices and incomes by
binding
business, labour and the government to shared objectives that were
to be met
within agreed timeframes.
The RBZ, which is the most visible
economic agency in efforts to resuscitate
the country’s economy, had been
instrumental in bringing the three sides
together.
Zimbabwe is currently
grappling with an economic recession now in its ninth
year, characterised by
acute commodity and foreign currency shortages that
have disrupted the
normal functioning of all economic activities.
Gono said the social contract
could have resulted in a gradual stability of
the economy, with inflation,
current close to 200 000 percent, receding to
single-digit
figures.
“Indeed, under the mutually reinforcing covenants of a social
contract, by
now we would not be suffering from the scourge of price
controls, let alone
shouldering the heavy burden of price review
applications.”
“Instead, we allowed sectoral and personal bravados and
selfish interests to
rule the day and now we are paying the price and it is
a very heavy one
indeed,” Gono said.
“We allowed political expediency to
override the virtues of a noble
programme, which was meant to deliver a
better Zimbabwe for all
Zimbabweans.”
“Events over the past years, more
so over the past few months and recent
weeks, have clearly shown that it is
not just naïve but utter folly to
separate the economy from the politics of
the day” he said.
He said the central bank had been amazed that some
Zimbabweans in the
political arena had gone as far as proclaiming that he
should be removed
from office and be replaced by a duo of external
consultants as the panacea
to Zimbabwe’s difficulties.
“Well, let them be
my guest! But, as I have repeatedly told the nation, the
governor of the
central bank can be replaced a million and more times yet if
the broader
fundamental issues on the political landscape; if efficiency
issues in our
parastatals and local authorities, and if the global issues of
sanctions,
among many other imperatives, remain unattended to, then Zimbabwe’s
economic
environment will take almost forever to bring back to normalcy, and
collectively we will have done injustice to ourselves and our future
generations,” he said.
“Therefore what is needed is a radical and
audacious policy shift to
breakaway from the shackling ‘business as usual’
mindset. It is for this
reason that we once again, even at this seemingly
eleventh hour, call upon
stakeholders, comprising government, labour,
business and civil society to
please put Zimbabwe first and go back to the
negotiation table for the
establishment of a mutually agreed and
implementable social contract,” Gono
urged.
He said without such a
cohesive instrument to reconcile the diverse sectoral
interests, it would
take much longer to deliver a stable and prosperous
Zimbabwe.
“As a
country we have no luxury of allowing that to happen.”
Banks
sound despite liquidity crunches
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has given
the banking sector a clean bill
of health despite systemic liquidity
challenges that stalked industry
players last year and early in the
year.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono said the sector, which has confounded critics
by
releasing financial results for the full year to December 31 2007 that
were
above expectations, had remained stable and resilient.
The central
bank boss, who prefers to use the carrot and stick method to
maintain order
in a sector that was rocked by financial imprudence before he
took office in
2003, however warned of non-compliance of a shareholder
vetting system by
sector players.
Without revealing names, Gono said some banking institutions
were wilfully
avoiding the vetting of their shareholders and accounting
officers by the
central bank.
“With immediate effect, all shareholders
with holdings of 5 percent and
above are required to be formally vetted by
the Reserve Bank,” he said. “All
banking institutions shall, with immediate
effect, ensure compliance with
this requirement in respect of existing and
prospective shareholders who
have not been formally vetted by the Reserve
Bank,” he added.
He noted that the banking sector “continued to exhibit
stability and
resilience” despite an economic crisis now in its ninth
year.
To maintain stability in the sector, the RBZ had responded through
increased
monitoring and adjustments to monetary policy instruments.
He
said the central bank continued “to call upon financial institutions to
closely monitor their capital levels, not only in adherence to regulatory
requirements, but as a proxy for the increased levels of risk that they are
assuming and the current challenging macroeconomic environment”.
Minimum
capital requirements were last reviewed in January 2006.
With effect from
September 1, 2008, the Reserve Bank would again review
minimum capital
requirements to levels that will be unveiled in due course.
Gono said
concentration in the asset management sector remained high, with
three asset
management companies accounting for 81 percent of total funds
under
management.
“The Reserve Bank continues to call upon asset management
companies to
consolidate their businesses,” Gono said.
Out of the 309
registered micro-finance or money lending institutions, only
184 were still
operational. The majority of these institutions had ceased
operations and
surrendered their licenses citing harsh business conditions.
Gono said some
banking institutions continued to use unregulated entities in
their group
structures as conduits for engagement in non-permissible
activities.
Last
year, a number of banks were issued with corrective orders for various
corporate governance breaches including trading in equities and currency on
the illegal parallel market.
To guard against such malpractices, the
Reserve Bank’s supervisory
methodologies had fully embraced latest advances
in consolidated supervision
techniques in order to provide for better
insight into and strict monitoring
of the operations and organisational
structures of financial conglomerates.
“Once again, banking institutions are
reminded to conduct their operations
within the confines of the law and best
practice.”
Monetary policy: Key highlights
l Exchange rate
liberalised
l Unsecured lending increased from 4,500 percent to 5,000
percent
l Secured lending increased from 4,000 percent to 4,500
percent
l BACCOSI window extended to December
l Fourth phase of
the Farm Mechanisation Programme to be launched in July
l Minimum cash
withdrawal limit up from $1 billion to $5 billion
l Cheque limit
increased from $10 billion to $100 billion
l Strategic Imports Fair-Value
Asset Swaps (SIFVAS) arrangement introduced
l Resolution of outstanding
Foreign Currency Accounts deposits
l Import/export of local currency by
travellers up from $500 million to $5
billion
l $300 trillion Strategic
Products price controls mitigation fund
introduced
Mechanisation: Phase Four date set
THE fourth
phase of the Farm Mechanisation Programme will be launched in
July to
consolidate efforts aimed at reviving the agricultural sector, which
is yet
to recover from the disruptions suffered after the land reforms of
2000.
The programme, which has seen the central bank handing thousands of
tractors, ploughs, combine harvesters and other key agricultural implements,
is bolstering capacity among the poorly capitalised new farmers.
Most
indigenous farmers, who displaced white former commercial farmers under
a
controversial land reform programme spearheaded by the war veterans eight
years ago, have relied on traditional farm implements since 1980.
But
thanks to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s efforts, the newly
resettled
farmers have gone a long way in replacing ageing farm equipment
and other
implements that were vandalised or stolen at the height of the
emotive land
reforms.
Critics had rushed to accuse the RBZ of aiding ZANU-PF’s election
campaign
by distributing farm equipment ahead of the harmonised March 29
elections
but the central bank had warned against politicising its
programmes.
“Elections or no elections, this noble programme was still going
to take
place. Soon there will be Phases 4, 5, 6 and so forth. Surely, this
does not
mean there will be that many elections to come over the outlook
period,” RBZ
governor Gideon Gono said at the time.
But yesterday, Gono
seemed to have confounded the bank’s critics when he
announced additional
phases of the programme that has so far been funded to
the tune of US$180
million.
Presenting the first quarter Monetary Policy Statement yesterday,
Gono said
the central bank would continue with the programme until
2010.
“As Monetary Authorities, we will continue to capacitate the country’s
agricultural sector through sustenance of the Farm Mechanisation Programme,”
Gono said.
“To date, three successive phases have been launched, giving
productive
impetus to our farmers,” he added.
Previously, the RBZ had
introduced other facilities such as the Agricultural
Sector Productivity
Enhancement Facility (ASPEF), which helped increase the
production of most
crops across the country.
ASPEF was mostly aimed at the provision of working
capital.
“As was previously announced in earlier Monetary Policy Statements,
the
mechanisation programme will continue to be implemented in phases
through to
2010.
“Consistent with this, I am pleased to give notice that
Phase 4 of the
Mechanization Programme will be unveiled in July 2008,” Gono
said.
He said the thrust of the programme would continue to be the
empowerment of
A1, A2 and communal farmers.
BACOSSI to
tackle diversion of cheap funds
THE Basic Commodity Supply Side Intervention
(BACOSSI) facility is to be
refocused to close loopholes that have resulted
in the diversion of the
cheap funds into non-productive purposes.
The
decision to refocus the programme is expected to balance the
anti-inflation
stance with the need to stimulate overall economic
production, according to
the First Quarter Monetary Policy review statement
unveiled by the central
bank yesterday.
Central bank governor, Gideon Gono, said the Reserve Bank had
come up with
an output based BACOSSI score-card principle.
“We have noted
that notwithstanding the noble virtues of the BACOSSI window,
some
beneficiaries have unfortunately tended to divert the received funds
into
areas distant from their core productive activities,” Gono said.
“In order to
ensure effective deployment of BACOSSI funds into production,
this facility
has been remodified to incorporate upfront social pacts
between the Reserve
Bank and the beneficiary corporates,” he added.
The facility would ensure
that on application, each company shall commit to
producing and delivering
specific output levels, over explicit timeframes.
The support will be
extended on a re-imbursement basis, based on actual
output produced,
according to the statement.
He said he would support companies from the
unintended effects of price
controls through the introduction of the
Strategic Products Price Controls
Mitigation Fund (SPPC Mitigation
Fund).
“Price controls, which in themselves should be a transitory
intervention,
often have the unintended consequences of infringing on
producer viability,
in the interim to long-term, constraining new investment
in whatever sector,
compounding maintenance, progress, critical skills
retention and sometimes,
promoting the parallel markets activities," he
said.
“In the meantime, given the current urgent need for companies to get on
with
the job and increase capacity utilisation, it has become necessary that
a
transitional Strategic Price Controls Mitigation Fund be created for
strategic commodities,” the central bank chief said.
He said under the
facility, producers of strategic and basic commodities
would apply and get
financial support to make up for and recover losses
caused by price
controls.
He said $300 trillion had been budgeted for the
programme.
Companies that will benefit from the facility include those that
produce
bread, mealie-meal and flour.
Companies producing products such
as agricultural chemicals, coal, stock
feeds and cement would also be
eligible.
RBZ takes battle against inflation to new
level
THE central bank yesterday further tightened monetary policy as it
continued
its battle against inflation, currently at 165 000 percent
year-on-year for
February.
The bank increased the key accommodation rates
yesterday, with the rate for
unsecured borrowing moving up to 5 000 percent,
from 4 500 percent pegged in
March.
The secured accommodation rate went
up to 4 500 from 4 000 percent.
“The country’s inflation level remains the
economy’s number one enemy. It is
for this reason that the Reserve Bank will
continue to maintain tight
monetary conditions,” said Reserve Bank governor
Gideon Gono, when
announcing the measures yesterday.
He urged banking
institutions to mobilise deposits and avoid borrowing from
the central bank,
which he said had “no appetite for lending money to the
banking
system”.
Annual inflation for the month of January 2008 stood at 100 580.2
percent,
up from 66 212.3 percent recorded in December 2007. The
month-on-month
inflation for January 2008, however, declined from 240.1
percent recorded in
December 2007 to 120.8 percent.
“At these levels,
inflation remains the country’s enemy number one, which
enemy must be
decisively destroyed through unrelenting focus on production,
foreign
exchange generation and food security,” Gono said.
The major factors driving
inflation
l The food category contributes 32 percent of the Consumer Price
Index (CPI)
and in this regard a decline in food output exerts an upward
pressure on
overall inflation.
l Food inflation poses the greatest
challenge to efforts to tame inflation.
The situation has been exacerbated
by projected lower than normal output of
grains as a result of incessant
rains experienced during the first half of
the season and the very hot and
dry weather experienced between January and
February.
l Global prices of
grain have risen sharply due to increased global demand
and depressed output
compounded by the diversion of maize towards
development of bio-fuels. The
international price of maize is above US$300
per tonne and is anticipated to
rise further.
Govt moves to boost forex inflows
SIFVAS introduced,
while BACOSSI has been extended
GOVERNMENT has stepped up efforts to
increase foreign currency earnings into
the country’s coffers through a new
system called Strategic Import
Fair–Value Asset Swaps (SIFVAS).
SIFVAS
comes at a time when the country is grappling with acute foreign
currency
shortages as a result of a decline in export volumes.
The new system would
encourage free fund holders to import critical
requirements needed to
stimulate production in industry and to meet other
essential needs.
“In
order to encourage holders of free funds, both individuals and
corporates to
import critical requirements, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) has
introduced a Strategic Imports Fair–Value Asset Swaps programme,”
central
bank governor Gideon Gono said.
“Under this framework, holders of foreign
exchange balances can bring in
essential imports in exchange for domestic
assets equivalence in shares,
real estate and FCA (Foreign Currency Account)
retention exemptions, among
many other alternatives. Prior Exchange Control
Authority has to be obtained
through the importer/customer (bank(s),” said
Gono.
A variety of commodities would be imported under the programme with
priority
being given to fertilisers, agro–chemicals, certified agricultural
seeds,
water treatment chemicals, certified grain maize and wheat/flour,
agricultural equipment; and implements, fuel, industrial chemicals,
machinery and spare parts, cement, packaging material and tyres, coal,
cooking oil, salt/yeast, stock feeds and drugs.
It is hoped that improved
availability of critical imports would help shore
up capacity utilisation
and stabilise both supply and prices.
The RBZ also revealed yesterday that
the Basic Commodity Supply Side
Intervention (BACOSSI) facility, which was
introduced to mitigate the impact
of a price blitz embarked by the
government in July last year would be
extended to the end of
December.
The extension is likely to give further impetus to the productive
sectors of
the economy that were dealt a body blow by the July blitzkrieg
under which
companies were ordered by the government to slash prices by half
in a failed
attempt to stabilise prices.
Government accuse companies of
hiking prices willy–nilly to foment anger
against President Robert Mugabe’s
administration whose continued hold on
power is being threatened by the
Movement for Democratic Change, which is
riding on public disenchantment
against ZANU–PF’s failure to revive the
economy. But the RBZ will be
tightening screw on the beneficiaries of
BACOSSI by introducing what it
called an output–based score card.
Gono, tourism players eye world
cup revenue
GOVERNMENT has been urged to relax duty on tourism–related
imports in order
to boost the capacity of the industry ahead of the 2010
World Cup to be
hosted in South Africa.
Despite the negative publicity,
the country’s tourism sector has remained
buoyant with official figures last
year indicating a 27 percent increase in
tourist arrivals compared to the
previous year.
But like many other sectors of the economy, the industry is
facing problems
in importing critical requirements due to the punitive
duties charged by the
government, which is paid in foreign
currency.
Central bank governor, Gideon Gono yesterday said the tourism
industry
needed some form of tax relief to enable it to bring into the
country
essential imports.
“In view of the forthcoming 2010 World Cup
soccer games, it is necessary
that as a country, we fully embrace and take
advantage of the benefits that
can accrue to the country across all
sectors,” Gono said.
He said the tourism sector provides a rich avenue that
would enable the
country generate the much-needed foreign currency.
“It
is in this regard that we strongly recommend, to the Ministry of Finance
a
review of the current regulations on payment of duty in foreign currency
for
goods and services imported by the tourism sector, where such goods are
aimed at improving the standard of tourism facilities in the country,” added
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor.
The RBZ’s call came as
industry players in the tourism sector are at various
stages of refurbishing
their facilities and constructing new hotels in
preparation of the World
Cup. The main constraint, has however, been the
shortage of foreign currency
required to import equipment and building
materials.
The Rainbow Tourism
Group (RTG) is one of the country’s leading hotel
operators that have moved
a gear up in preparing for the World Cup. The RTG
is planning a major hotel
project in conjunction with the National Social
Security Authority in the
border town of Beitbridge.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA)
will be hosting 14 tour
operators and travel agents from Russia between
today and May 10.
The team, led by Ultra Travel, will consist of managing
directors and
company owners only.
A spokesperson for ZTA said the visit,
coming at a time when Zimbabwe is
receiving negative publicity in major
source markets particularly the
western markets, will complement the
authority’s Perception Management
Programme launched in 2006.
“The visit
by the Russian VIP agents is a follow up to our recent
participation at
Russia’s major tourism exhibitions; the Intourmarket and
MITT Travel and
Tourism Exhibitions, which took place from 15 to 22 March
2008,” said the
ZTA spokesperson, Annah Moyo.
Ultra Travel are consolidators and specialists
in packaging Africa having
worked with Tanzania for over 10 years.
The
consolidator will work with ZTA in packaging its tourism products as
well as
promoting the country in Russia and beyond, in line with the
memorandum of
understanding signed with ZTA in March this year.
Ultra Travel has also been
appointed by ZTA to act as a public relations
agent in the Russian
market.
During the tour, the visitors will have the opportunity to sample an
array
of Zimbabwe tourism products and services to enable them to come up
with
packages suitable for the Russian market.
Russia is arguably the
biggest emerging market in Europe, and has recorded
over 28 million tourists
last year of which 3 million visited Africa and 3
800 specifically visited
Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe expects to receive at least 50
000 tourists from Russia
by 2009 contributing at least USD$110 million by
the same period.
The
delegation’s tour will cover Harare, Great Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Matopos,
Hwange and Victoria Falls.
The group is also visiting South Africa,
Botswana and Mozambique during
their tour of southern
Africa.
RBZ reviews cash withdrawal limits upwards
INDIVIDUAL
and corporate cash withdrawal limits will be increased from $1
billion to $5
billion with immediate effect.
The relaxation in the withdrawal limits seeks
to improve convenience to the
transacting public.
On April 3, the central
bank reviewed the withdrawal threshold to $1 billion
but the figure had
become to little for the transacting public in view of
inflation and its
impact on prices.
The lender of the last resort was also forced to
introduce$50 million bearer
cheques to minimise the wads of cash needed to
transact.
Yesterday, the bank also reviewed the restriction on cheques and
other
instruments that go through the Clearing House.
The new limit is
now $100 billion, up from $10 billion.
“With immediate effect therefore, no
cheques and instruments above $100
billion shall be allowed to go through
the Clearing House,” Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono
said.
Financial institutions were urged to ensure compliance with these new
requirements by continuously educating their clients.
Analysts yesterday
said with inflation on an upward trail, the RBZ should
immediately consider
introducing a new family of higher denomination bearer
cheques or dropping
off a couple of zeros from the currency to make it easy
for the banking
public to move around with cash.
Except for the $50 million bearer cheques,
the other lower denominations
cannot buy any item in the supermarkets due to
inflation, which has eroded
their value.
Is West guilty of
duplicity on the role of Central Banks?
Arnold Shumba
AS I
scrolled through pages and pages of the web sites of the Bank of
England,
the Federal Reserve Bank of the USA and other contemporary
financial
publications, I was filled with mixed sensations, not knowing
whether to be
happy or disgusted at the duplicity being shown by the so
called
global/world leading central banks.
Indeed, as I read through the literature
of how industrial economies have
and still are responding to such natural
calamities as Tsunamis, droughts,
land-slides, earth-quakes, as well as to
financial crises, it soon became
apparent that their central banks have been
jolted into providing the life
boats through hefty “rescue packages” of one
form or the other.
In their basic format, these rescue packages have entailed
the central banks
in these “super-powers” injecting financial resources in
the economy through
the targeted sectors to save the day. Call a rose by any
name, it will still
remain a rose.
My anxieties, discomforts and mixed
sensations were triggered by the
striking similarities between what the USA
and UK central banks are busy
doing and what our own central bank back in
Zimbabwe is doing, but being
condemned as perilous quasi-fiscal
operations.
Whilst I neither hold a brief to defend the men and women at the
Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe nor have a cousin, a daughter or uncle who works at
the
Central Bank, my conscience has overwhelmed me to present for public
debate
what I have found to be spiteful duplicity by some so-called
text-book
economists who have been allowed to get away with their
condemnatory
attitudes towards our own Central Bank Governor whenever he has
engaged in
similar packages for the good of the economy.
A few cases in
point will help clarify my observations in this regard.
Firstly and most
recently, in a publication floated on its official web site
of
england.co.uk/publication/new/2008/029.htm, the Bank of England unveiled
a
£50 billion (fifty billion pound sterling)! rescue package on 21 April
2008,
under the guise of a “Special Liquidity Scheme” to salvage the UK’s
financial sector from a looming systemic liquidity crunch, following the
aftermaths of the recent mortgage crisis in industrial countries.
Under
this new scheme, banks in the UK will swap their mortgage-backed and
other
securities for UK Treasury bills, effectively injecting more tradeable
and
liquid assets in the UK’s financial system.
This intervention is almost
exactly what the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe did in
2004 when it created the
Troubled Banks Fund under which distressed banks
got liquidity support
against delivery of collateral (asset swaps) at the
central bank. Alas! No
sooner had Gono and his team introduced this policy
than the so-called
experts, locally and abroad, including the IMF, vocally
criticised
Zimbabwe.
Instead, their prescription was that the Central Bank in Harare was
supposed
to swallow the sour pill and turned a blind eye to the distressed
banks.
“Please don’t bail the liquidity-strained banks” they said.
Almost
four years later, under stress in their own backyards, Mervyn King,
Governor
of the Bank of England follows the same road our Reserve Bank at
home
followed amid rockets of attack from the so called experts.
My second example
of the duplicity of the so-called narrow-minded experts
relates to how the
current US administration responded to the recent
mortgage crisis in that
country, where most homeowners failed to honor their
mortgage obligations
due to a grueling liquidity crunch.
Despite the Bush administration’s public
opposition to bailouts, in sharp
contrast, the USA Central Bank, the Fed,
stepped in pouring billions of
dollars into the American system.
In a
matter of a few weeks since December 2007, at least US$160 billion (£80
billion) was extended to banks through a soft-lending life-boat they coined
the “Term Auction Facility”, which was further bolstered through sharp cuts
in interest rates.
Again, when one closely looks at what this amounts to,
it is apparent that
it simply shows how the American Central Bank extended
“an olive branch” to
targeted sectors of the economy to deal with
extraordinary circumstances
which threatened overall economic stability in
that country.
Another interesting similarity between what our Central Bank
back in
Zimbabwe is being vilified for and what the American Central Bank
did, with
deserved applause was the decisive manner in which the then Fed
Chief Alan
Greenspan intervened after the calamities of Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita.
Without much delay, the Fed pumped billions of American dollars
into the
economy to prop up the financial machinery of the USA economy out
of the
calamitous effects of Katrina and Rita. Over and above this, laws had
to be
passed, sponsored by the Department of the Treasury of the USA, to
soften
the ground through their Central Bank for a safe landing when
Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita had struck the impoverished communities of
Alabama,
Mississippi, Texas counties and Louisiana.
As an example,
temporary exceptions had to be introduced to modify Section 2
of the USA’s
Depository Institutions Disaster Relief Act of 1992 (DIDRA) to
allow for the
smooth injection of relief liquidity into the American system.
Again, the
parallel with our own situation at home is striking, yet the so
called
external experts, supported by some of our own “converts” back home,
castigated our Central Bank as “stepping outside its mandate” for providing
loans to distressed banks, farmers, buying tractors, combine harvesters and
other farm implements to foreclose the disaster of starvation, amid the
unfolding global food crisis.
Again, when one looks at the growing global
crisis of food shortages, one
clearly feels very let down by the “experts”,
the levels of deception they
have committed to, especially the developing
world in the areas of food
security and the adoption of market
systems.
Firstly, it is a hard, incontestable fact that Europe and America
top the
list in the provision of subsidies to farmers, yet when our
so-called
experts give advice to third world countries, they loudly condemn
the
subsidies as bad economics. We all saw the trauma that fell on the
Zambians
in the early 90’s when they lifted off subsidies on the back of bad
advice
from the IMF.
As the World starts to awaken to the excruciating
reality of a global
catastrophy of food shortages, Zimbabwe has traveled
considerable miles
ahead in terms of preparing its farmers to be resilient
and productive.
The country has, through its Central Bank, embarked on a
revolutionary
programme to equip farmers with state of the art tractors,
ploughs, combine
harvesters, chemical sprayers, planters and many other
implements. Again,
our armchair experts’ immediate response was that all
this was “bad
economics”.
Equally, since 2004, our Central Bank embarked
on an ambitious programme
under which dams and irrigation systems are being
constructed. This
far-sighted programme will ensure that over the medium
term, Zimbabwe will
be able to diffuse the effects of droughts through
deployment
FinGaz
Comment
AS the world marks
May Day, there is need to spare a thought for the workers
of Zimbabwe who
are bearing the full brunt of the man-made crisis ravaging
the country's
once robust economy.
While the rest of the world is celebrating the
efforts of labour unions in
fighting for the inalienable rights of the
worker and their achievements,
the same cannot be said of Zimbabwe whose
workforce has succumbed to
grinding poverty with no respite in
sight.
Twenty-eight years after Independence, the chasm between the majority
of the
workers and the rent-seeking ruling elite that has mastered the art
of
feeding on endemic corruption, is widening.
The middle class that
should power the country's economic turbines has
disappeared — creating a
huge gap in between classes that is one of the
missing links in attempts to
right the nine-year-long recession.
Compounding the workers' plight is the
never-ending political bickering in
the trade union movement and rising
unemployment, estimated at more than 80
percent, that have combined to
weaken the employees' clout at the collective
bargaining table. And as a
result, conditions at workplaces are
deteriorating fast as the workers
literally sing for their supper.
Inflation, officially put at a staggering
165,000 percent in February
although independent estimates suggest the rate
could have zoomed past
300,000 percent, has opened the floodgates to all
sorts of problems haunting
Zimbabwean workers whose salaries cannot keep
pace with the relentless price
increases.
With the National Incomes and
Pricing Commission admitting that prices might
continue to escalate as long
as the powers-that-be do not identify solutions
to correct the foreign
currency shortages giving rise to a thriving parallel
market, the government
has all but failed to stabilise prices through the
legislative route. This
means that the worst is still to come for the
embattled worker.
The
inflation scourge, which is like a mad bull on steroids, is eroding
disposable incomes to the point where being formally employed is now a new
form of corporate social responsibility on the part of the workers to keep
their equally struggling employers afloat in the hope that a solution to the
country's multi-faceted crisis would be found.
It has been worse for
those made redundant by the retrenchments sweeping
across industry as
companies downsize operations or suspend production under
the weight of
soaring costs of production and shrinking market share.
The paltry severance
packages being paid by the employers can hardly sustain
beyond a month let
alone afford them the opportunity to start
income-generating projects as
encouraged by President Robert Mugabe's
government.
And yet the safety
nets that were put in place by the government to cushion
pensioners and
retrenchees have also been caught up in a time warp. For want
of a better
word, the pensions from the National Social Security Authority
are an insult
to the extent the relevance of the pay-as-you-go pension
scheme has become
questionable.
But because most workers find themselves trapped between a rock
and a hard
place, the only viable option has been to join the massive exodus
of skilled
and professional staff into the diaspora.
At least a quarter
of the country's population or three million people are
now living outside
the borders, reducing the country into a mere training
ground.
The worst
nightmare for the workers remains the harsh tax regime, considered
to be the
most punitive in the world. With the highest taxed employee taking
home less
than 40 percent of his or her income, workers can hardly fend for
their
families.
Considering that the majority of the workers are earning below the
breadline, it is a miracle that they can still afford to report for duty. It
is almost certain that most of them are now resorting to moonlighting in
order to subsidise their employers and keep body and soul
together.
Others are resorting to cycling or walking long distances on empty
stomachs
since their meagre incomes can no longer sustain a square meal
daily.
And from the balance left after the tax collector has deducted his or
her
dues, the worker still has to pay other levies such as NSSA, Aids Levy
and
Medical Aid etcetera-etcetera.
In order to carry themselves through
the month, the majority of the workers
are cancelling medical aid
subscriptions and encashing their leave days but
in the end it is the
employer who is paying a heavy price due to increased
absenteeism due to ill
health and resignations as workers hunt for better
paying jobs.
With the
government maintaining a tight lid on workers' protests through
repressive
laws, anger has been bottled up for quite some time now and it is
just a
mater of time before it ruptures.
The prevailing economic environment demands
that labour movements in
Zimbabwe become more organised in order to be
heard. Unions must be led by
people who have the interests of the workers at
heart if they are to be
taken seriously.
In Zimbabwe, the effectiveness
of labour unions has been severely
compromised by leaders who manipulate
them for political expediency and
fame.
Going forward, it is critical
that the workers play a more proactive role in
reviving discussions on the
social contract, which in our view is key in
resuscitating the economy.
FinGaz
Mavis Makuni Own
Correspondent
The spectacle of police trucks descending on Harvest House,
the downtown
Harare headquarters of the Movement for Democratic Change(MDC)
was last seen
during the government’s propaganda blitz about this time last
year, which
was designed to prove that the opposition party was waging a
terror campaign
against a “lawfully elected government.”
The MDC’s
alleged acts of terrorism were said to involve the bombing of
police
stations and other government installations. But as is well known,
the
trumped up charges levelled against the suspects in this phantom terror
war
collapsed like a deck of cards in the courts. Attempts to make the
charges
stick by claiming the supposed “terrorists” received training in
South
Africa only served to dent the credibility of the police force further
when
South African authorities dismissed the cock-and-bull claims. They
declared
that the fictitious training camp at which the training was
supposed to have
taken place did not exist and to make matters worse
Zimbabwean police
officers could not pinpoint the location of the site on a
map when required
to do so in court.
A judge before whom the case was heard ruled that the
police had fabricated
fictitious details in a bid to nail innocent people.
The suspects were freed
after more than five months of being detained
without cause and being
brutalised while in custody. After that it was
business as usual for the
police, who never offered a public explanation for
their unprofessional
conduct.
This brutal propaganda offensive, it will
be recalled, was designed to
buttress claims that were to be made in a
dossier presented to the Southern
African Development Community (SADC)
emergency summit held in Dar-es-Salaam
in March last year following the
brutal battering by state agents of
opposition and civic society leaders.
The aim of the dossier was to convince
the assembled SADC heads of state
that the government had been responding to
acts of terrorism perpetrated by
the opposition when the police resorted to
the primitive form of law
enforcement involving brutally attacking
defenceless government opponents
and then denying them access to medical
attention.
The yarn being weaved
by the police in connection with the current siege on
the MDC offices is as
unlikely as their claims last year that they descended
on Harvest House to
recover weapons they believed had been cached there
under their noses. But
just as it would not have made any sense for any
“terrorists” worth their
salt to keep their weapons in the most regularly
raided building in the
whole of Zimbabwe, it is ludicrous to claim that
perpetrators of
post-election violence in the rural areas have rushed into
town to hide at
Harvest House.
The police persist in telling these tall tales when they have
never
explained to any reasonable person’s conviction why the MDC would
resort to
post-election violence when it won a majority of seats in the
parliamentary
elections and when its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is widely
believed to have
beaten the incumbent in the presidential race, hence the
withholding of the
outcome, a full month after the March 29 polls.
It is
obvious to everyone that the on-going raids are an attempt to mask the
fact
that the people being rounded up from Harvest House are victims of
retributive post-election violence being perpetrated by the state against
innocent and defenceless peasants. It would beggar belief for the opposition
to react to its electoral victory by resorting to violence. It raises
serious questions about the efficiency of the police force for them to fail
to nab the suspected perpetrators of post-election violence at the scenes of
the crimes in the countryside and wait for the culprits to deliver
themselves, like sheep to the slaughter, by converging at the MDC
headquarters.
The whole world recognises that the people being rounded
up, who included
pregnant women and children, are simply victims of state
violence who have
fled their rural homes to seek refuge at the MDC
headquarters. The primitive
approach of the police, who are prepared to
arrest for the sake of arresting
and feel nothing at seeing fellow human
beings with gruesome injuries
consistent with the use of the type of force
not known in the rural areas
exposes them as the hand behind the
attacks.
Speaking during an interview in Paris last Friday the leader of
South Africa’s
ruling ANC, Jacob Zuma deplored the police raids during which
heavily armed
police arrested hundreds of people and seized materials. He
said such
incidents created “a situation where people now say this is a
police state”.
The situation in Zimbabwe was now “going beyond the point
where people
should just look at it.”
The police are not telling the
truth. They are taking the people of Zimbabwe
for dimwits expected to
believe any ridiculous fabrications they come up
with to deny their
culpability in the escalating state violence and
repression in the aftermath
of the March 29 polls. The public is familiar
with the handiwork of the
police and other state operatives through the
brutal beatings they have
perpetrated with official approval against
opposition activists in the past.
In fact, some of these atrocities have
been proudly worn like a badge of
honour, accompanied by statements that the
police had the right to “bash”
such people and that the victims were getting
their just desserts.
And
yet one of the basic distinctions between a free society and a police
state
is the existence and observance of restraints in the way public
officials,
particularly law enforcement agents, perform their duties.
Constitutionally,
there should be limits not only on the procedures the
government must
follow, but also on the ends it must pursue. Some things are
simply out of
bounds regardless of the procedures followed. The government
simply has no
right to pit innocent and defenceless citizens against the
full might of the
state.
Feedback: mmakuni@fingaz.co.zw
FinGaz
Ken
Mufuka
MY last letter entitled “There is
only one
way — Out!” provoked massive reactions from readers. These
responses are in
two groups.
First,
allow me to restate my thesis, which is
both empirical and
theoretically-based. Pan African nationalists, like
Mukuru, make the
terrible mistake of thinking that they are the only players
on the field.
While their policies may be based on historically impeccable
foundations, as
the land reform in Zimbabwe was, Mukuru’s policies are
reckless and
provocative to the extreme.
Mukuru’s reckless
policies are dangerous to
the internal economy and to the freedom of the
natives on whose behalf they
were implemented. A leader cannot call British
Prime Minister Tony Blair a
“Blair toilet”, or be seen to be seemingly
approving the murder of 11 of the
Queen’s children, or tell the (former)
American ambassador Chris Dell that
the only word Mukuru knows is spelled
Hell.
It is not surprising to me that the Bank
of
England, or the World Bank, does not support the Zimbabwe dollar. Each
time
I try to take my students to Zimbabwe, there is a red flag at the
United
States State Department warning Americans not to travel to Zimbabwe
if they
can avoid it.
Where is the common
sense of nationalising Roy
Bennett’s agro-industry, which employed 1 000
people? These employees have
children in colleges, mortgages to pay, and
Bennett himself is a supplier of
Lord Sainsbury’s grocery chain in
England.
I do not support imperialists who want
to
control our resources. My advice is that please do not be reckless in
your
demeanor. Whatever you do will affect millions of
Zimbabweans.
I have never supported the
Mercedes Benz
socialism. In those days, Mukuru and his entourage, practiced
a two faced
policy, flying abroad every other week for shopping and
junketeering. At
home, they were socialists, who loved English suits and
roses in their
lapels.
Having followed
these reckless policies,
Mukuru has been overwhelmingly defeated by the
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC). There is no other way acceptable to
the imperialists other
than that he goes
OUT.
Below are the readers’ reactions to my
column.
Ms Jackie: “I read with disgust your
article
posted on a Zimbabwean website titled: “There is only one way —
OUT”. I
cannot understand why you say that Britain and the US have anything
to do
with the current crisis in Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans elected a black
government,
let them kill each other in their efforts to rape and pillage
the country,
which was my birth place.”
Peter Macklyn: “I had the most unfortunate
experience of reading your
article that you bastardised our newspaper with.
You have a racist
kleptomaniac dictator here who has destroyed this country
by himself with
his cronies and they are now wanted by The Hague. So that is
where they
belong. I cannot tolerate people like you who obviously hate the
western
world (but) sit in the USA while sponging on the benefits that your
so-called imperialism brings.”
If Peter
would clean up his extremist
language, there may be points of agreement
between us.
L. Francis: “You are wrong on
Zimbabwe. Only
the racist elite worry about intervention in
Zimbabwe.”
Generally, the white readers who
wrote to me
regarded me as an incorrigible chief propagandist operative for
Mukuru.
Peter amused me. I am a native, son of Chief Chiweshe Muhera, a man
of some
substance, writing in a black newspaper, and Peter cannot tolerate
me.
Mukuru must be laughing in his bed
today.
I was once asked to write for the CIO,
and
their selling point was: “You know Ken, Mabhunu do not even know that
this
is our country”. I refused to work for them on the grounds that I would
compromise my integrity, now I am having second
thoughts.
Intervention, as a matter of
principle,
produces horrendous results. The Anglo-Americans intervened in
Iraq partly
to save the Iraqis from a dictator, who was horribly terrible.
Doctors
without borders say that close to a million people have been maimed,
injured
or killed as collateral damage, and three million Iraqis fled their
country.
Brothers who wrote me had a different
take.
Brother Chokwadi of Truth Logistics asked why I have placed too much
emphasis on the strength of the
imperialists.
Chokwadi: “It is true that they
have fixed all
the African leaders of the past who have not toed their line.
Does it mean,
therefore that we must allow them to do whatever they
want?”
That is the question a CIO chief asked
me when
he was trying to recruit me. “This is our land, should we allow them
to keep
our land because they are
powerful?”
With hindsight, Chokwadi added:
“Mukuru was
finally put in a corner by the same imperialists whose land he
was trying to
protect and now he is the worst
enemy.”
I was not able to answer the CIO chief
in 1999
satisfactorily, nor can I answer Brother Chokwadi now. I may,
however, add
that Mukuru was honoured with a knighthood by the Queen after
the
Matabeleland atrocities.
My position is
that the last 28 years have
been wasted by political decisions, which do not
make economic sense. The
Bennett story is an example par
excellence.
Zimbabweans are famous for their
hospitality,
and if that market had been encouraged and developed through
trade union
funds and insurance mutual and annuity funds, ZimSun and Rainbow
could be
dominant in the SADC areas today.
I asked Mukuru that question at a tourism
convention.
“Until we settle the land
issue, nothing in
Zimbabwe will work right,” was his answer. That was 10
years ago.
My thesis was that an African leader
cannot
afford any recklessness, knowing that the imperialists are waiting to
remove
him.
Mathew Chandavengerwa: “Ken,
you are basically
saying that we should succumb to the machinations of the
imperialists. In
reality, you are right. Both Machel and Mandela employed
their brains as
opposed to their emotions.”
I thank God for this brother. That has been my
point all
along.
Then Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku is
bitter
that Zimbabwe lost its World Bank export facility. These brothers
used to
say that they can go it alone. They even told us “mazezuru
vanorima”.
Bennett’s farm lies idle with machinery lying
mangled.
By all means we must reclaim our
heritage, but
we must go about that business with cool heads, incorporating
all those
white people who want to stay and not going about deliberately
making
provocations.
The case for foreign
intervention is now
almost complete. All the writers in one fashion or the
other, brothers and
whites, say torture and beatings are going on in
Zimbabwe even as we speak.
Mazwi: “Mukoma
Kenny, they came at 1.05 after
midnight. They were going to kill me and rape
my wife and daughter before my
eyes. I was taken to a farm on Lake Chivero.
He urinated in my mouth, and
then they began to beat me. They wanted to know
who is supporting the MDC in
the US and in the
UK.”
Howard Lester at Voice of America called
me
last Thursday, bringing my attention to a statement by Assistant
Secretary
of State, Jendayi Frazer, which read: “There may need to be a
political
solution, but any government should be led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
Normally,
when you contest for president, you are finished if you lose. The
US
government is increasingly concerned about the violence and human rights
abuses. This has created a climate of intimidation and violence. We can’t
stand back and wait for this to escalate any
further.”
If you don’t do right to your
brothers, the
imperialists are always ready to
intervene.
Ken Mufuka is an award winning
writer and
professor at Lander University in the USA. He can be contacted at
kenmufuka@yahoo.com
FinGaz
Mavis Makuni Own Correspondent
The sadistic collusion of
African leaders in prolonging the Zimbabwean
crisis and therefore the
suffering of the people has been underscored once
more through the
convoluted utterances of ex–Zambian president, Kenneth
Kaunda.
Kaunda
was widely quoted in the press over the past week attacking British
prime
minister Gordon Brown and warning him to keep his hands off Zimbabwe.
Kaunda
was quoted as telling journalists in Lusaka that the British leader
was
unqualified to comment on the Zimbabwean crisis because he lacked proper
background information. “Brown does not understand what he is talking about.
It is a sad thing that he said that”, said Zambia’s founding president after
being riled by a call by Brown for more sanctions against the Zimbabwean
government .
Kaunda made similar noises last year after Brown took over
as British prime
minister from Tony Blair.
The former, president, who
ruled Zambia for 27 years until he was ousted
through the ballot in 1991 in
elections that also signalled the end of the
one–party state that he
cherished, lectured Brown on how the problems in
Zimbabwe had come
about.
The octogenarian, who turned 84 on Monday, called on Brown and the
West to
leave Zimbabwe alone to solve its own problems, particularly the
political
tension between ZANU–PF and the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
The former Zambian head of state accused the West of always wanting to
prescribe solutions for African problems. “I think people in Zimbabwe are
trying to find a way out of their own problems by talking of a government of
national unity.”
Kaunda’s dishonest outpourings resulted in the banner
headline; “Hands off
Zimbabwe”, being used in the official press. About a
week previously, the
same headline had been used in reference to the United
Nations.
The prevailing electoral deadlock, which African leaders are
trivialising,
means that even the people of Zimbabwe, the rightful owners of
the country,
are being told; “hands off” through the confiscation of their
votes.
Kaunda is not the first African leader to display the sadistic streak
that
suggests that they would rather see the suffering of the people of
Zimbabwe
continue as long as they can remain on good terms with officials in
Harare
by continuing to defend what is clearly wrong and
indefensible.
The former Zambian president is simply not telling the truth
when he says
the people of Zimbabwe are trying to solve their problems by
discussing a
government of national unity.
The true position is that the
people of Zimbabwe indicated loudly and
clearly what course they want their
country to take through the way they
voted on March 29. All right thinking
people of goodwill throughout the
world should be calling for the honouring
of the expressed will of the
people rather than seek to cloud the issue as
Kaunda has tried to do.
The current impasse is a result of the failure of the
authorities to
announce the outcome of the presidential election a full
month after voting
took place, which is odd and indefensible by any
standards. No one, least of
all a British prime minister, whose country has
close historical ties with
Zimbabwe, needs any special background
information to recognise that
something is seriously wrong.
More
importantly, no one needs a special dossier to be outraged by the
brutal
violence that has been unleashed against defenceless peasants for
exercising
their democratic right to vote for candidates of their choice in
last
month’s polls.
Instead of slamming Brown and the West, Kaunda and other
African leaders
within the Southern African Development Community and the
African Union
should be pressing their colleagues in Harare to say why
innocent
Zimbabweans are being brutalised by alleged state agents and why
election
results are being withheld. It is an indictment on the calibre of
leaders
Africa has today that despite gruesome pictures of the injuries
inflicted on
victims of state violence having been widely published since
the disputed
elections, not a single one of them has spoken out on behalf of
the besieged
populace, which has found itself pitted against the full might
of the state.
Rather than contemplate a trip to Britain to scold Brown for
showing
compassion towards ordinary Zimbabweans who are being hunted down
like
animals by their own government, Kaunda should make the short hop
across the
border into Zimbabwe to see for himself how the people are being
punished
for voting the way they did last month.
By accusing Brown of not
having the correct background information on
Zimbabwe, Kaunda implies that
he and other African leaders are the ones who
are properly informed.
But
the question the former Zambian president and other African leaders must
answer is, armed with that information, what have they done to help resolve
the Zimbabwean crisis which has steadily escalated since 2000 when
state–instigated farm invasions began?
If Kaunda is honest, he should
admit that African leaders have looked the
other way and concentrated on
stroking each other’s egos while terrible
atrocities were perpetrated
against innocent citizens. This is why even in
the current situation Kaunda
is more outraged by a call for more sanctions
against the Harare government
than by the fact that thousands of Zimbabweans
have perished over the years
as state repression and brutality have
escalated.
In all this time,
African leaders have equivocated between telling the rest
of the world to
keep its hands off Zimbabwe because the problem was a
bilateral issue
between the country and its former colonial master and in
the next breath
telling Britain “hands off” because an African solution must
be identified
to resolve the crisis. But after almost a decade it is clear
what this
African solution is; it is tacit endorsement of repressive
governance and
brutal subjugation of the people of Zimbabwe in the name of
brotherhood and
solidarity.
lFeedback: mmakuni@fingaz.co.zw
Keep it up!
EDITOR — I must say that I applaud The Financial
Gazette for the
independent, non-partisan reporting.
When I read some of
the newspapers in Zimbabwe I get sick from what is
clearly partisan
reporting. When change comes, and it shall come, those
wayward journalists
may well end up at The Hague.
Thank you Fingaz, and your team of journalists,
for taking the risk and
being honest about what you see. For indeed by being
honest you risk your
very lives — that encourages many people too, to take
their positions
fearlessly in the face of such obvious
tyranny.
Chishuvo Gunda
Harare
---------
Police, army must be
impartial
EDITOR — I write this letter to urge all civil
servants not to engage in
violent activities against civilians.
The
police and the armed forces are supposed to serve and protect the
nation. In
no way are they supposed to use any force against the people in
order to
protect the selfish interests of their superiors.
I urge you brothers and
sisters to turn your backs on these few. Look at
yourselves, you cannot even
afford to buy food and clothes for your
families, you can no longer afford
to look after your parents yet your
superiors live in luxury. Their children
enjoy luxurious lives yet you
cannot afford school fees for your
kids.
Let’s unite in our efforts to get rid of these few. It’s not your fault
that
people have spoken.
Gerald
United
States
----------
Sick and tired of poll results
delay
EDITOR — We are tired of the same old result-less
rhetoric and wild
speculations of all African leaders and ZEC.
What we
want as Africans and Zimbabweans is action or election results. They
wine
and dine at these summits in posh hotels but come out with no
solutions.
It is now a month after our hearts spoke through the ballot
paper but we are
in a stationary situation. Our once booming economy is on a
steep decline
Now is the time to make a stern move as President Robert
Mugabe’s single
vote has proven to be a dilution to the will of the
people.
We want a break and rest from
speculations.
Tired
Harare
-------------
Zuma got ZEC issue
wrong
EDITOR – I do not agree with Jacob Zuma that the
releasing of (presidential)
results lies entirely with ZEC.
The person
blocking this is our great leader. Who can dare open his mouth
that so and
so, got so many votes? If he had won he would have announced
there and then
and appointed his recycled ministers.
Teddy Ndlovu
United
Kingdom
------------
Vanjick out of touch with
reality
Editor—I read with disappointment the letter from
Bomby Vanjick, UK, and
this is my response to him
While Vanjick raised
some mature issues, which I totally agree with, I was
baffled to read his
statements, which gave the impression that the battered
people who appear on
television and in the media are from other countries
and not
Zimbabweans.
Whoever you are Bomby Vanjick, you need to come home if you are
truly a
Zimbabwean.
If all is as well as you say it is, what are you
doing in the UK?
My advice to you is that if you are not so conversant with
what is happening
to innocent souls in rural areas back home, please just
keep quiet and enjoy
GMO chicken and all the other goodies over there. There
is no bread in
Zimbabwe, Bomby Vanjick!!!
I am sure that's why you are in
the UK. Don't you think you sold your
important vote for bread? Do you think
you are qualified to make those
comments from where you are right
now?
Get real my brother, things are not right at all back home.If you really
are
a Zimbabwean and as brave as you say you are, please get on the first
plane
and come back home.
Mlambo
Harare
----------
What
happened to Daily News case?
Editor — A few weeks ago, before
the elections, we were informed that some
official body was looking at The
Daily News’ application to be registered
and that it was supposed to take
about 30 days, at most. Could someone
please tell me what is happening on
that front now or is “Justice” George
Chiweshe of ZEC chairing that
adjudication process as well?
Dance of the
Fools
Harare
---------
Readers
Forum
The winner takes it
all
EDITOR — I can’t understand why
Thabo Mbeki or Jacob
Zuma should not be criticised for their bias against
the MDC. The press is
also not helping at all in the fight against
tyranny.
Mbeki and his successor, Zuma, cannot
stomach the
prospect of an MDC government next door and openly favour
ZANU-PF, but
nobody comes out to criticise them for trying to choose who
rules us.
Instead of mediating they are very
biased.
Zuma said on BBC television that, ‘There is
no big
difference in the votes and there are still some people who think
(President) Mugabe should still rule’!
He
proposed the impossible that (President) Mugabe
and Tsvangirai should sit
down together. It looks like it’s below
(President) Mugabe’s dignity to meet
with Tsvangirai.
Zuma said Mbeki had done quite a lot
as far as
Zimbabwe was concerned, which is not
true.
Mbeki hoodwinked the MDC into participating in
sham
elections. The grand plan was to have an election now when the MDC was
in
disarray (split in the MDC) and show the international community that
ZANU-PF was indeed the people’s choice.
ZANU-PF
was supposed to walk over MDC in these
elections and give the regime some
sort of legitimacy.
The scheme backfired big-time.
Recounting and the
delays have been engineered now as part of the scheme to
extricate
themselves from the mess with some measure of
respectability.
We are all waiting to see how 6000
votes for the MDC
and 3000 votes for ZANU-PF in a particular are going to
change to 4400 votes
for the MDC and 4600 votes for ZANU-PF in the
‘recount’.
SADC is also part of the conspiracy to
choose the
rulers in Zimbabwe. The ANC regards ZANU-PF, as their comrades in
arms so
there are no surprises here.
We don’t
want a so-called government of national
unity or a transitional government.
The victors dictate; Tsvangirai should
get this message loud and clear - No
transitional or so-called government of
national
unity.
They never included us in the governing of
their
affairs why should we include them in ours? Yes, we will be undergoing
a
transition from tyranny to normality but not in the sense of including
ZANU-PF in government.
It has never worked
anywhere let alone in Africa.
The MDC should desist from listening to
self-seekers like Ibbo Mandaza and
Jonathan
Moyo.
T Kahari
United
Kingdom
-----------------
Mbeki’s double standards laid bare
EDITOR —
When Thabo Mbeki visited Rwanda some years
ago he lambasted the former
apartheid regime for fomenting conflict in the
Great Lakes region
culminating in the Rwanda massacre in 1994.
Fast
forward 2008, Thabo Mbeki is now giving tacit
approval for Chinese arms to
be delivered and used by the government in
Harare against the people of
Zimbabwe. As far as we know Zimbabwe is under
no threat from invasion from
anyone. The priority should have been food or
agricultural machinery for the
starving populace not arms of war.
The last thing
that Africa, not least Zimbabwe,
needs are arms of war. Mbeki is so
arrogant, he is unable to figure out that
any conflict in neighbouring
Zimbabwe will have adverse consequences on
South Africa and the whole
region.
The dire situation in Zimbabwe is inflamed by
leaders of his ilk who instigate sham elections on the pretext of mediation
in the hope that his ally will win with a landslide over a supposedly
divided MDC.
After seeing his ally beaten Mbeki
goes against all
electoral rules by urging the Zimbabwean government to buy
time by agitating
for a ‘recount’.
Mbeki is
literally choosing who governs us. In most
elections results are announced a
day or two after the polls. Why should
this one be any
different?
Mbeki cannot stomach an MDC government
next door. He
is clearly determined that this will not happen under his
watch. The local
independent press has not helped matters by trying to
self-censor any
criticism of Mbeki.
Every time
you write about Mbeki sections are either
cut off or not published at all.
Slowly society is being cowed into
worshipping
tyranny.
Let the truth come out no matter what. As
for the
election process in Africa: perhaps the white regimes were right to
deny us
the right to vote because not only are our voting procedures flawed,
it
inevitably always turns into a civil war compared to, say UK, where you
cannot even tell that it’s polling day.
Here the
process is peaceful and only facts and
policies matter not banal rhetoric
and violence. We were better off during
the colonial era because mature
voting was done on our behalf without any
violence.
My white neighbour asked me on Saturday
morning why
President Mugabe was railing against the British who had left
almost 30
years ago, in his independence speech on April
18.
My neighbour couldn’t understand the logic and
gave
me an example of the Second World War when the USA dropped an atomic
bomb in
Japan. He said to me the Japanese moved on very quickly and are now
the best
of friends with the USA despite their differences in the Second
World War.
He said the Japanese do not spend time
giving
excuses by railing against their former adversary - they just look
forward.
I quite agreed with him.
Why on earth
would any right thinking person ever
decide to vote for someone who keeps on
ranting the same old tune for 30-odd
years, about colonialism, when they are
starving?
President Mugabe’s speeches are so
predictable
anyone could stand in for him. Nothing on progress, more on the
so-called
liberation struggle. People don’t eat
liberation.
G Kwenda
United Kingdom