FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube and Clemence Manyukwe
Staff Reporte
SA leader in Harare for talks with ZANU PF, MDC
SOUTH
African President Thabo Mbeki arrives in Harare today for crucial
meetings
with ZANU PF and both factions of the opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC), as he steps up a late bid to push the two sides to
reach a
settlement before next month.
Mbeki's visit comes days after negotiators
for the two sides held a fresh
round of talks in Pretoria. At these
meetings, discussion centred on the
prevailing political climate in
Zimbabwe, and opposition threats that its
participation in next year's
elections is subject to the implementation of
key agreements concerning the
voters' roll and the reform of the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission
(ZEC).
Mbeki's spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, confirmed the South African
leader's
plans yesterday.
"He will have consultations in Zimbabwe during
a stopover on his way to the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in
Uganda. He will meet the
political leaders of ZANU PF and both factions of
the MDC for a few hours,"
Ratshitanga said.
Sources privy to the
secretive deliberations said Mbeki intends to attend
the December European
Union-Africa Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, with a
comprehensive and positive
report on the talks.
MDC faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is unlikely to
meet Mbeki as he is
already on a lobbying mission in Uganda, has accused the
ruling ZANU PF of
being dishonest in its approach to the Southern African
Development
Community (SADC) talks.
Mbeki, who was chosen by SADC to
mediate in the dialogue, met both
Tsvangirai and rival faction leader Arthur
Mutambara in Pretoria last
weekend. The two MDC leaders are said to have
warned Mbeki of what the
opposition believes to be a ploy by the ruling
party to use the talks to
gain legitimacy while continuing its repression
against opponents.
Following his meeting with Mbeki, Tsvangirai, citing
alleged political
violence against MDC supporters by state security agents
and ruling party
supporters, told a meeting of his party's district
officials on Sunday that
ZANU PF was yet to demonstrate its commitment to
the process, whose goal is
to find common ground between the ruling party
and the MDC so as to ensure a
free and fair poll.
"As a
confidence-building measure the MDC expects tangible deliverables from
ZANU
PF such as the cessation of violence and political persecutions," said
Tsvangirai. "All hostility must stop, the opposition must be allowed access
to the public media while independent newspapers must be allowed to
operate."
The MDC also expected the Public Order and Security Act, the
Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Broadcasting
Services Act
to be repealed so as to restore key freedoms, such as the right
of assembly
and speech.
"The MDC wants a new voters' roll, the
constitution of a truly independent
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, and the
provision of technical support for
the running and conduct of
elections."
The MDC said these measures must include international monitoring
and
observation of elections by SADC, the African Union and the United
Nations.
The MDC also demanded a transparent delimitation exercise and
electoral
management system.
ZANU PF's insincerity, the MDC has told
Mbeki's mediators, had been exposed
by what it claimed was continuing
violence by the ruling party as well as a
"non-transparent" voter
registration and delimitation exercise conducted by
what it alleges to be
biased electoral bodies.
Mbeki is anxious to expedite the dialogue process
and deliver a free and
fair election which would not yield another contested
outcome.
But the MDC has said it suspects an attempt is afoot to deceive
Africa and
the rest of the world on the kind of progress made in the talks
so far.
It was too early to judge the process, the opposition has said, and
it would
be "unfortunate" if the forthcoming EU-Africa summit were used to
"score
cheap diplomatic points" by "prematurely rewarding President Robert
Mugabe
before he had delivered anything tangible on the ground".
The
success of the SADC talks would only be measured by President Mugabe's
ability to deliver a free and fair electoral environment, said Tsvangirai.
Only a free and fair poll, he said, would address the legitimacy crisis
faced by the government and would be a major step towards a resolution of
the crisis.
Sources say at today's meetings, Mbeki is expected to brief
President Mugabe
on how he believes the impasse that has hit the last leg of
the talks can be
broken. Discussion will also centre on the major points
agreed by both
parties at the last meetings in Pretoria.
The MDC,
according to the sources, remains concerned over security and media
law
reforms, ZANU PF's use of traditional leaders and food aid to sway the
rural
vote, and the denial of the vote to non-resident Zimbabweans. ZANU PF
is,
they said, still keen to discuss Western sanctions.
ZANU PF, on the other
hand, will use new electoral laws it gazetted last
week to show it is
committed to the process.
The Electoral Laws Amendment Act bars the police
and army from working for
ZEC, as was the case in the past. Police are also
no longer allowed into
polling stations, except when voting or when called
to maintain order.
A prospective voter aggrieved by a constituency registrar
can now approach
the magistrates' court for redress, and not ZEC. Voter
registration would
now be a continuous exercise, and the voters' roll would
only be closed a
day before nomination.
Presiding officers at polling
stations are now required to make a public
count of ballot papers delivered
to their stations before voting begins, and
ZEC now has powers to order a
recount of votes on request. All parties will
be allowed equal access to the
national broadcaster, the draft law says.
Sources said the MDC and ZANU PF
would soon issue a joint statement
supporting the latest amendments, which
would be their second agreement
after Constitutional Amendment Number
18.
A source said the negotiating team has refrained from putting a firm
deadline on the talks, but there was consensus that the process must be
concluded by year-end.
FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi News
Editor
A NEW currency could be launched within days, Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ)
governor Gideon Gono announced yesterday.
Gono held a
meeting with chief executive officers of banks and building
societies
yesterday to discuss "logistical issues" on how the new currency
operation
would be executed.
Gono had appeared to dampen speculation over an imminent
currency change two
weeks ago when he told the Sunday Mail that the central
bank's priority at
this time was to come to the aid of an industry
devastated by the price war.
But yesterday, Gono said this remark had been
made only to "entrap
disruptive dealers".
Gono's refusal earlier this
week to intervene directly in a cash shortage
that has hit the market over
the past two weeks - saying he would wait and
see where the crisis led -
helped fuel speculation a currency change was
imminent.
Yesterday, Gono
discussed with bank chief executives and Information
Technology personnel
how a second currency switch in 15 months was likely to
impact on the
financial sector.
"We have closely trailed the recent trends and studied the
avenues through
which cash is being kept outside the formal systems, and
time has now come
that swift measures be taken," Gono said.
The police
have been briefed on the plans, he said.
He did not give a timetable for when
he would strike, but he was quick to
warn against immediate suggestions that
this meant he was merely looking to
scare cash back into the formal
system.
Gono displayed samples of the new notes and marked-out maps to
convince
"diehards who think the Reserve Bank could be bluffing".
The new
round of currency changes, he said, would be "short and precise",
and a lot
stricter than last year.
"This time around, questions will be asked on all
bulk cash deposits to
certify source. Where no convincing proof is rendered,
the money will be
frozen in zero interest anti-money laundering bonds for a
minimum period of
five years pending further investigations."On Tuesday,
Gono said he would
not directly intervene to end the deepening cash
shortages, saying he found
it puzzling that there should be a shortage given
the liquidity central bank
has pumped onto the market.
He said he
believed intervening with additional cash injections would only
help what he
believes is growing speculative activity.
The RBZ had, in fact, earlier
planned to introduce new, higher denomination
notes. The bank is sitting on
$20 trillion worth of $500 000 bearer cheques
it had been close to rolling
out.
At the moment, there is $58 trillion in circulation.
Under the Basic
Commodities Supply Side Intervention (Bacossi), which hands
out cheap credit
to shore up businesses hit by the price cuts, the RBZ has
so far ploughed
$10 trillion and US$13 trillion onto the market.
There is more liquidity
coming out of a battery of farm subsidies the
central bank has also been
handing out since mid-year. However, one analyst
said he believed that
"inflation is now simply running faster than the
printing press", causing
the cash crunch.
World record inflation forced RBZ into the first currency
switch last year,
as computer systems failed to read the extra zeros while
routine cash
transactions became impossible due to the increasingly huge
amounts of bank
notes required.
The first leg of the currency reforms in
July last year saw the RBZ knocking
three zeros off the currency,
introducing a new set of bills. The bills are
only bearer cheques, but the
new phase will see the introduction of bank
notes.
"It seems government
is determined to burn speculators big time this time
around," said a bank
source who also revealed that police have been put on
standby for Sunrise
11. Added the source, "Police have been promised huge
bonuses for the
exercise."
The Central Statistical Office this week said it had delayed the
release of
October inflation numbers owing to difficulties in gathering data
arising
from commodity shortages. However, Gono himself has said he expects
inflation to rise sharply over the short to medium term before any slowdown
can be expected.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff
Reporter
POLICE have obtained a warrant to search Attorney-General (A-G)
Sobusa
Gula-Ndebele's office and home, as the screws continue to tighten on
the
government's final prosecuting authority, The Financial Gazette
established
this week.
A senior Harare magistrate, according to
highly placed sources, this week
issued the search warrant against the A-G,
who is facing serious allegations
of abusing his office.
But a few legal
technicalities have delayed the police, who three weeks ago
recorded a
statement from Gula-Ndebele, from pouncing on the former freedom
fighter.
Police say Gula-Ndebele met former NMBZ Holdings deputy managing
director
James Mushore and assured him that that a warrant for his arrest
would be of
no effect.
Mushore, who is facing charges of violating
exchange control regulations and
the Immigration Act after fleeing from
pursuing police through an
undesignated route, is out of custody on
bail.
The issuing of the search warrant represents an escalation of the
pressure
being brought to bear on the A-G to resign, which The Financial
Gazette
reported on last week.
Gula-Ndebele is an ex-officio member of
Parliament and Cabinet.
The A-G's lawyer, Welshman Ncube, yesterday denied
knowledge of a warrant to
search his client's offices or residence. Police
do not comment on warrants
issued against suspects.
Senior judiciary
sources however, said a warrant had indeed been issued,
authorising the
police to seize any documents they deem useful in
incriminating government's
top law officer.
A source said the police hope the searches will yield enough
evidence to
level and make more charges stick on the A-G.
Critics see
Gula-Ndebele's problems as being part of ZANU PF's factional
fighting.
ZANU PF insiders point out that Gula-Ndebele's position had
always seemed
shaky because of his frosty relations with his immediate
superior, Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa, and National Security Minister
Didymus Mutasa.
Gula-Ndebele last year authorised the prosecution of
Chinamasa on
obstruction of justice charges. Chinamasa, who was later
cleared, had been
accused of attempting to force witnesses not to testify
against Mutasa's
supporters, who were facing political violence
charges.
James Kaunye, the key witness in the Chinamasa case, was to later
claim in
court that he had been coerced by the A-G to testify against the
Justice
Minister.
Early this month, the prosecutor in the matter, Levison
Chikafu, told The
Financial Gazette that he had been accused of "belonging
to the Mujuru
faction".
Chikafu was arrested in April on allegations of
accepting bribes, only to be
cleared by the courts this month.
This was
not the first time reports of bad blood between Chinamasa and an
Attorney-General had emerged. In 2003, Gula-Ndebele's predecessor, Andrew
Chigovera was reportedly forced out of office for failing to represent the
minister in a contempt of court case for which a warrant of arrest was
issued against Chinamasa.
This was after Chinamasa had criticised the
imposition of a six-month jail
term against three Americans convicted of
contravening the Firearms Act.
He had said the sentence "induced a sense of
shock and outrage in the minds
of all right-thinking people", and that the
"nation should know and be told
that the leniency of the sentences
constitutes a betrayal of all civilised
and acceptable notions of justice
and Zimbabwe's sovereign interests".
Chigovera is now the African Commission
on Human Rights and People's Rights'
special rapporteur on Freedom of
Expression.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe
Staff Reporter
THE Kimberly Process (KP) has released a long awaited
report exonerating
River Ranch mine in Beitbridge, against which allegations
of diamond
smuggling had been levelled, of any wrongdoing.
But the
report, which says no evidence was found to support the allegations,
has
fuelled further controversy.
A seven-member team that probed allegations that
vehicles registered under
the Zimbabwean office of the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) had
been used to smuggle diamonds from River
Ranch prepared the report,
presented to Cabinet on Tuesday.
Bubye
Minerals, which is locked in an acrimonious ownership wrangle with
River
Ranch Limited, was among those accusing it of smuggling.
In exonerating River
Ranch and the UNDP, the report quotes Bubye Minerals
lawyer Terrence Hussein
as telling the investigating team that there was no
smuggling of
diamonds.
However, Hussein disputes this.
The report says: "The lawyer
acting on behalf of Bubye Minerals later denied
having said that a UNDP
vehicle was ever involved. The UNDP representative
believes that no
employees of the organisation were ever involved in diamond
smuggling. The
allegations referred to have furthermore never been
substantiated by the
sources, neither have they been substantiated by any
other available
information."
In a letter addressed to KP chairperson Karel Kovander, Hussein
said the
investigating team refused to meet either him or his clients for
purposes of
receiving proof of the alleged smuggling and statements in the
report to the
effect that he had said no smuggling was taking place
surprised him.
In June, Sergei Oulin, who headed the team, said he did not
meet Bubye
Minerals officials or Hussein because that would have been
extending his
activities beyond his mandate.
"At no time and in no manner
have I ever denied that the UN vehicles were
involved at River Ranch diamond
mine . . . I request as a matter of urgency
that you delete the false
representation that is attributed to me as regards
the UN vehicles and/or
afford the readers of your report the benefit of my
side of the story,"
Hussein told Kovander.
In addition, he had complained to United Nations
secretary general Ban
Ki-moon about the conduct of UNDP resident
representative in Zimbabwe,
Augustino Zacharias.
Adel Farquhar, a Bubye
Minerals director, has also written to Kovander,
calling on him to resign
after complaining about the false impression given
by the report that she
and other officials at her company had denied that
there was smuggling at
River Ranch.
She wondered why the KP could say there was no smuggling after
only hearing
evidence from those accused of misconduct - the UNDP and River
Ranch
Limited - without getting Bubye Minerals' side of the
story
Farquhar said besides refusing to meet Bubye Minerals, the probe team
did
not a visit the Central Vehicle Registry where it would have accessed
proof
that UNDP vehicles were involved in the racket.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff Reporter
LOW salaries and poor
working conditions are fuelling corruption in the
police force, a
parliamentary committee said in a report that reveals things
are so bad that
police officers are living in houses that have been
condemned as being unfit
for occupation.
The report, by the portfolio committee on defence and
home affairs, said
there was need to constantly review the conditions of
service of police
officers so as to improve morale within the
force.
"Some officers live in rented accommodation outside the cantonment and
this
compromises their job and creates fertile ground for corruption. The
officers' poor remuneration also leads to officers engaging in corrupt
activities," the report said.
"Police officers have inadequate uniforms,
and this adversely affects the
morale of the officers and the image of the
organisation."
The report, which also covers the Registrar General's office,
the
Immigration Department and the National Archives, said officers had
resorted
to living in condemned structures due to a critical shortage of
accommodation.
The Members of Parliament said it was necessary for
officers in the police
camps to reduce their expenses and their interaction
with the public, so as
to curtail corruption.
"Under-funding is generally
felt throughout the (police) department,
resulting in operations being
negatively affected, including having to
operate from dilapidated
infrastructure that cries out for refurbishment,"
the report said.
"There
is a general shortage of accommodation leading to officers staying in
condemned houses, for example at Tomlinson Depot in Harare."
For the
police force to be fully operational, it needs 15 000 vehicles, but
it only
has 1 268 vehicles on the road while another 538 are damaged.
By June 30, the
police force had been granted $257 billion from the
unallocated reserve, as
funds allocated in the original budget were
inadequate.
The Registrar
General's office was said to have failed to issue public
documents because
of inadequate funding.
For the mobile registration exercise carried out
between June 18 and August
17, funds were also inadequate, leaving the
department owing a number of
service providers such as CMED (Private)
Limited.
"Due to financial and other constraints, the department failed to
achieve
its objectives of issuing public documents to the general populace,"
the
report said.
The Immigration Department was said to be failing to
computerise border
posts, while the National Archives is offering
"sub-standard service", also
due to inadequate funding.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube
Political Editor
OPPOSITON Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) faction
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai is in Kampala, Uganda, where he hopes to brief
African leaders
attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
(CHOGM) on the
political impasse in Zimbabwe and progress in regionally
mediated talks.
Zimbabwe is no longer a member of the Common-wealth after
President Robert
Mugabe withdrew the country from the Club in 2003. This was
after
Common-wealth leaders meeting in Abuja, Nigeria had agreed to extend
Zimbabwe's suspension indefinitely for alleged human rights violations.
A
series of civic society meetings are lined up on the sidelines of CHOGM,
which opens on Friday and will be attended by 52 heads of
state.
Yesterday, aides said Tsvangirai addressed the Commonwealth People's
Forum,
before holding discussions on the Zimbabwean crisis with the Ugandan
Interior minister, Ruhakana Rugunda.
In his address to the Forum,
Tsvangirai implored African leaders and the
international community to
ensure free and fair elections next year whose
outcome would be acceptable
to all the contestants.
"A free and fair election can easily reverse decades
of political
corruption, economic mismanagement, political patronage and the
current
decline in our fortunes," said Tsvangirai.
"A free and fair
election can win us friends and eliminate our pariah
status. A free and fair
election, certified by Zimbabweans and the
international community, can help
stabilise our food supply and food
security and open up opportunities for
jobs and economic prosperity."
Turning to talks being brokered by South
African president Thabo Mbeki,
Tsvangirai said although significant progress
had been made, the situation
on the ground remained unchanged.
"We are
concerned that the insincerity of President Robert Mugabe and ZANU
PF in
this process is causing immense anxiety and, in some cases, national
uncertainty. While the process is underway, (President) Robert Mugabe is
still determined to pursue a destructive path through state-sponsored
violence, the abuse of state institutions, abuse of traditional leaders and
open dishonesty," he said.
Tsvangirai said the MDC had made numerous
concessions at the talks, as it
believed these were important steps to take
for the national good.
"But on the ground, ZANU PF is behaving differently,
threatening the SADC
(Southern African Development Community) initiative.
(President) Mugabe and
ZANU PF are brutalising the nation while at the same
time saying they want
to talk peace," he said.
The MDC leader said the
opposition supported the SADC initiative and
political dialogue in the hope
that an orderly transition would lead to a
legitimate outcome. "Such an
outcome is critical for Zimbabwe to come out of
the woods and to tackle the
huge humanitarian catastrophe in our midst," he
said.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
THE High Court yesterday dismissed a second bid for freedom by
seven men
facing charges of plotting to oust President Robert
Mugabe.
The presiding judge, Justice Tendai Uchena, ruled that the
alleged coup
plotters could not be released on bail.
"We are going to
take instructions, but definitely we are going to appeal,"
said defence
lawyer Charles Warara.
The accused persons were arrested in Harare in May,
with police saying their
alleged leader Albert Matapo, an ex-soldier, had
hatched a plan to seize
power and install himself as Prime Minister "in
order to solve the country's
problems".
Police also alleged that the
group planned to invite the Minister of Rural
Housing and Social Amenities
Emmerson Mnangagwa to become president.
The accused men denied the charges
and said they were seized by state agents
from a building in Harare while
planning to form a political party.
Warara said yesterday the group's bail
application was based on the fact
that police investigations ought to have
been completed by now and that his
clients would not abscond.
The lawyer
said, except for Matapo, all the other accused persons did not
have a
"travelling history."
Giving evidence last week, Matapo said he was gainfully
employed during his
stay in the United Kingdom and was pursuing business
studies. In addition he
voluntarily promoted government programmes.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube
Political Editor
RETIRED Anglican Bishop Sebastian Bakare, appointed to
head the fractious
Diocese of Harare after the ouster of Bishop Nolbert
Kunonga, says he has
come to the capital to stay, dismissing reports that he
turned down the job
after being offered a "paltry" monthly salary of US$1
500.
Bakare, who was based in Mutare until his appointment by the Dean of
the
Church of the Province of Central Africa, said through his spokesman
Chris
Tapera yesterday he would stay on as the caretaker head of the
Anglican
Diocese of Harare until a substantive leader was elected next
year.
Sources within the church earlier in the week claimed that a Zambian
clergyman, a Bishop L. Mwenda, had been appointed to replace Bakare, a
development denied by Tapera.
"The recent developments within the
Anglican Diocese of Harare have created
some unnecessary divisions among the
Christians in our Church, with the
former Bishop of the Diocese Nolbert
Kunonga and his misinformed supporters
making grossly misleading statements
about their status in the Diocese of
Harare," he said.
Bakare and the
Anglican community, said the spokesman, understood the rules
and procedures
of how to conduct business in the Church and would not engage
in acts of
violence to defend their position "but will seek God's guidance
during these
difficult times."
Anglicans in Harare, he said, dissociate themselves from
members of the
clergy still allied to Kunonga.
Tapera stressed that
Kunonga, who could not be reached for comment this
week, officially left the
Anglican Diocese of Harare in his personal
capacity, and did not pull out
with the diocese.
"The fact is that Bishop Bakare was legitimately appointed
by the Dean of
the Church of the Province of Central Africa on 7 November
2007 as the
caretaker head of the Anglican Diocese of Harare until a new one
is properly
elected next year. Since his appointment, he has been conducting
church
business, supported by various priests, church wardens and
laity".
Kunonga, who maintains he is still the legitimate head of the church
in
Harare, was fired last month after he withdrew the diocese of Harare from
the Province of Central Africa, made up of Anglican churches in Zambia,
Botswana, Malawi and Zimbabwe, citing alleged rampant homosexuality in the
church.
These allegations have been dismissed by the Diocese of
Harare.
Kunonga, who is known to be close to the ruling ZANU PF and to be a
beneficiary of its largesse, has hinted that he wanted to affiliate the
Harare diocese to the Anglican Province of Kenya.
On Saturday, Bakare
presided over a meeting held at Harare Sports Club to
discuss Church
business.
The meeting, attended by the Chancellor of the Church of the
Province of
Central Africa, Eric Matinenga, and his deputy and Chancellor of
the Diocese
of Harare, Rob Stumbles, resolved to support Bakare as the
legitimate head
of the Anglican Church Diocese of Harare under the Church of
the Province of
Central Africa.
FinGaz
Charles Rukuni Bureau
Chief
SAFARI operator Langton Masunda, who is locked in a land ownership
dispute
with ZANU PF national chairman and Speaker of Parliament John Nkomo,
says
the case should go to trial so that imperfections in the land reform
allocation system can be exposed and ironed out once and for
all.
Nkomo is seeking to evict Masunda from a farm in Gwayi, which hosts
Jijima
Lodge, through a summary judgment by the High Court in Bulawayo. He
says
that the lodge, currently being operated by Masunda, is on his piece of
land.
Masunda and Nkomo have been locked in court battles over the same
piece of
land for the past two years. Masunda says Nkomo is on a fishing
expedition
and is judge-shopping because he has previously sought to evict
him without
success.
He says he was allocated subdivision 1 of Volunteer
farms 47, 48 and 49 in
2002. At the time he was advised by the land officers
that the farm extended
up to Jijima Safari Camp.
Masunda was allocated
the piece of land with three others - Zenzo Ncube,
Sithabiso Gama and
Thembelani Ncube. Gama and Ncube confirmed Masunda's
claim in a written
statement that when they were given the farm they were
informed that it
extended to Jijima Safari Camp and as such they started
rebuilding the camp,
which had been run down.
Masunda argues that if Nkomo was allocated the same
piece of land in 2003 as
he claims, then his (Masunda's) application has
priority by date of
application as he was allocated the land a year
earlier.
Nkomo says he was offered the land by then Minister of Lands, Joseph
Made.
But the offer letter he is using was issued by current Minister of
Lands,
Didymus Mutasa.
Masunda queries why, if Nkomo was allocated the
land in 2003 as he claims,
the offer letter for Lugo Ranch he has produced
in court is dated September
20 2007, well after Nkomo sued Masunda for
eviction. If the offer letter
existed, and Nkomo lost the original as he
claims, he asks, why the
government could not simply give him a
duplicate?
He also says that Nkomo should not rely on diagrams provided by
the
surveyor-general or on records at the Deeds Office because the land
allocation exercise ignored and cut across diagrams in the
surveyor-general's
office.
"New subdivisions were created, which
subdivisions are not recorded in the
surveyor-general's office," he argues.
"The land reform exercise is novel in
many respects. It is without known
precedents in the history of this
country. It requires many explanations as
to how the allocations are made.
For instance, four people were allocated
three farms. Who then owns which
portion as there is no indication that the
beneficiaries own undivided
shares."
The previous owner of the farms,
Aubrey James Chatham, said in a statement
in 2005 that Volunteer Farms 47,
48 and 49, which were then known as Lugo
Ranch were operating as one unit
and had one title deed. They belonged to
his parents. Lugo extension was
owned by his father and had its own title
deed.
He said there were no
visible beacons or boundaries between Volunteer Farms
and Lugo extension.
But Chatham says that Jijima Safari Camp and some
bee-hives were on Lugo
extension.
Masunda says for the guidance of the courts and the public it is
necessary
that evidence be led explaining the workings of the land
allocation system.
"There are several pitfalls in the system. The fact that
the responsible
minister found it necessary to amend the property
description is but one
example of the gaps in the system," he argues. "A
trial would expose, for
the benefit of all concerned the imperfections in
the system, laudable as
the policy may be."
"This is certainly not an
open and shut case. It has just too many holes
which hopefully a trial may
cover and there would hopefully thereafter be a
certain and transparent
policy," he says.
FinGaz
Shame Makoshori Staff
Reporter
WHEN international oil prices raced towards the US$100 per
barrel mark last
week, shivers ran through the spines of Zimbabweans and the
entire petroleum
importing countries worldwide.
The corrosive impact
of bullish petroleum prices has already been felt on
the domestic market and
further surges could worsen Zimbabwe's economy
currently under intensive
care.
And when the influential Organisation for the Petroleum Exporting
Countries
(OPEC) descended on Saudi Arabia to look into the issue of the
rampant
prices, there was strong optimism that at last, the 11-member
grouping of
oil producing countries would succumb to international pressure
and agree to
up oil output in order to stabilise fuel prices. That did not
happen.
And for now Zimbabwe faces the daunting reality of enduring sharp
fuel price
rises transmitted through relentless increases in transport
costs.
The ever-increasing transport and distribution costs have been passed
on to
the final consumer, feeding into inflation, which is not showing any
sign of
receding.
Analysts this week said unless throughput at the US$6
million bio-diesel
plant - situated 15km northwest of the capital - reaches
sufficient levels
to complement trickling fuel imports, it would be
difficult to put the
country's tottering economy back on its rails.
A
joint venture between a Zimbabwean company - Transload Enterprises - and a
South Korean firm, the plant was commissioned last week, with funding from
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).
When fully integrated it will produce
between 90 million and 100 million
litres of diesel per annum from
cottonseed, soya beans, sunflower seed and
jatropha. This translates to
about 2.7 million litres of diesel a day.
The figure is within striking
distance of the 3.5 million litres of fuel
Zimbabwe requires per day,
including petrol. It is estimated that the
country would be able to save at
least US$80 million in fuel imports every
year.
On paper, the plan looked
robust as foreign currency earmarked for diesel
imports would be invested
into the procurement of petrol and other inputs
fed into the local
industry.
Economic analyst John Robertson said the fact that the system has
worked in
other countries is no guarantee that it will succeed in
Zimbabwe.
"It will take years to achieve full production on the plant,"
Robertson said
this week.
"There are uncertainties in terms of climate,
the environmental impact of
the project and poor jatropha yields, the main
raw material of the
bio-diesel plant. We have to plant hundreds of hectares
of jatropha; it is
going to take many years. So we still need to continue
enjoying strong
industrial growth to be able to import fuel. The tragedy is
that investors
are not prepared to come due to unfriendly policies,"
Robertson told The
Financial Gazette.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono, who has
previously hit out at what he called
"armchair critics", could have been
aware of the threat of poor raw material
production for the plant.
Gono -
the only visible figure at the centre of the country's economic
turn-around
initiatives - unveiled $1 trillion for each of the country's 10
provinces to
support the production of jatropha.
But lessons from the $2.7 trillion
Productive Sector Facility doled out in
2005 showed, some farmers have been
destructive. Billions of dollars of
concessionary funding were diverted
towards speculative investments that
have stoked the inflation fires.
The
incentive for Zimbabwe this time, however, is that with international
oil
prices on the upward trend and OPEC refusing to give in to lobbyists,
the
pressure from oil prices could be absorbed by gold, platinum and other
metals, which are fetching good prices on the international market.
Gono
has also weighed in to support the farmers, pledging to pay part of
their
earnings in foreign currency.
One billion litres of bio-diesel from the
provinces per annum in the next
decade could be a dream-come-true for
Zimbabwe.
But the danger is there could be the temptation to sacrifice food
crops,
particularly staple grains, for jatropha and other crops supporting
the
bio-diesel plant.
Statistics show that soya bean production in
Zimbabwe has dropped from 150
000 tonnes in 2001 to about 60 000 tonnes last
year.
Sunflower output declined by 50 percent from 40 000 tonnes in 1994 to
20 000
tonnes in 2006.
Groundnuts output has been disappointing, and any
attempts to tamper with
these crops could trigger a major
catastrophe.
This leaves Zimbabwe, unlike other leading bio-diesel producing
countries
such as Brazil, South Africa and China with little option but to
redirect
energies towards the extraction of biological fuels from Jatropha,
which is
not expensive to maintain, and has the highest oil content at 35
percent.
Moisture content is 18 percent for cotton and Soya.
Zimbabwe
Academy of Sciences president Christopher Chetsanga however, said
this could
easily be dealt with.
"This concern can be met by using biotechnology derived
energy crops with a
high bio-fuels yielding capacity," Chetsanga
says.
"It is important for Zimbabwe to engage in the development of
biotechnology
crops so that the country can quickly work towards reducing
the amount of
fossil fuels that it is importing by systematically replacing
it with
bio-fuels."
"Cuba is already working with a jatropha variety that
can yield 1 500 litres
of bio-diesel per hectare. This is a good model for
Zimbabwe to emulate. As
a country, we cannot afford to delay using
biotechnology to meet our
strategic development needs," said
Chetsanga.
Once a Jatropha seed is planted it does not require much
maintenance in
terms of chemicals and labour except for harvesting.
The
by-products of the manufacturing process can also be turned into
fertiliser.
The other advantage is that jatropha production can be done
in wastelands
such as the hostile terrains in the lowveld, which can be
transformed into
productive estates supporting the bio-diesel plant.
This
could be with major ecological disturbances to the current fauna and
flora.
Jatropha takes about three years to mature.
This means full
throttle production at the Harare plant could only be
realised in
2010.
Chetsanga says because of the rapid increase in oil costs, as well as
the
environmental concerns about the global warming from greenhouse gas
emissions from fossil fuels, bio-fuels production remains imperative and can
also help small-scale farmers.
"Important considerations in bio-fuel
production are that they be of benefit
to the national economy and that the
sourcing of energy crops from farmers
be of benefit to the resources-poor
rural small-scale farmers," Chetsanga
said.
National Biotechnology
Authority acting chief executive Abisai Mafa sees
biotechnology as one of
the few ways of dealing with Zimbabwe's worsening
economic crisis and
stressed that the goal is to achieve a target where
biotechnology would
contribute 20 percent of the country's gross domestic
product.
Unfortunately, apart from South Africa, there are no progressive
African
case studies for Zimbabwe to emulate.
Statistics show that global
bio-fuels production has been concentrated in
developed countries. This
leaves Zimbabwe among the pacesetters in trying to
produce the fuels at a
large scale across Africa. In 2005, the United States
produced 16 214
million litres of bio-fuels, Brazil 16 067 million litres,
China 3 800
million litres and India 1 700 million litres. South Africa was
the eighth
leading producer at a distant 390 000 litres.
Other analysts warn that while
the development of the bio-diesel project
could re-ignite life into the
country's collapsing economy, Zimba-bweans
should be empowered to run the
plant without too much assistance from the
South Koreans.
"There are no
permanent friends or enemies in international relations," said
an analyst.
"The Koreans have led the assembling of the bio-diesel plant.
These are good
times, but who knows what the future holds between the two
economies? It is
imperative therefore that Zimbabwe accelerates the training
needs of the
country's technicians to take full responsibility of the
plant," he said.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff
Reporter
SECTIONS of the media and political commentators were cocksure
that ZANU PF's
extraordinary congress next month would produce fireworks,
but all
indications are that it will be an anti-climatic affair dominated by
wining
and dining.
One by one, party organs and those initially
thought to be gearing up for
battle are falling over each other in a
frenzied race to "endorse" President
Robert Mugabe as the ruling party's
candidate in next year's elections.
Two weeks ago, Vice President Joice
Mujuru denied publicly for the first
time that she was eyeing the top post,
years after reports that she was a
serious contender for the highest office
in the land first emerged.
Last weekend Vice President Joseph Msika said
President Mugabe should be
left to "stay on or even die
there".
Leadership, Msika enthused, should not be changed as frequently as
one would
a shirt.
Harare province is the latest party structure to
endorse President Mugabe,
doing so at the same time that war veterans, who
intend to hold a "million
man" march in support of the ruling party's first
secretary, marched in
Murombedzi, near the President's rural home.
ZANU
PF political commissar, Elliot Manyika, secretary for women's affairs
Oppah
Muchinguri, youth league chairperson Absolom Sikhosana and his deputy
Saviour Kasukuwere attended a meeting that "endorsed" the party's
leader.
The meeting was rather comical - a possible harbinger for the
congress
itself - with Kasukuwere mimicking football commentary, with
President
Mugabe as an imaginary and skillful striker dribbling past a host
of lame
opponents, including Tony Blair and other faceless people trying to
stop
him.
Members of Parliament have rushed to lead their constituencies
in the
endorsement bandwagon, the latest being Industry and International
Trade
Minister Obert Mpofu, who represents Bubi-Umguza
constituency.
Recently, ZANU PF Masvingo provincial chairperson Alex
Mudavanhu said "every
card carrying member" of the ruling party in his
province was behind
President Mugabe. Presumably, this also includes a
reformed Dzikamai
Mavhaire.
Against a background of such a feverish rush
to President Mugabe's side, the
question now is: Why was a special congress
called if, as party leaders now
proclaim, it is game set and match for the
President?
Said political commentator Eldred Masunungure: "If there is
nothing
extraordinary to be discussed, then the congress cannot be called an
extraordinary one. An extraordinary congress is called for something that is
an emergency, that cannot be settled through an ordinary
conference."
With President Mugabe having already secured his position,
Masunungure
stressed, the "extraordinary" must surely fall away.
There
are questions as to whose idea it was in the first place to call an
extraordinary congress.
President Mugabe, some say, may have wanted this
in order to silence
whispers by his rivals that he had failed to secure an
outright endorsement
at Goromonzi last year.
His rivals, others say,
would also have wanted an extraordinary congress in
the hope that they
would, by then, have gathered enough courage to put an
alternative candidate
forward.
After all, it was Mujuru herself who told state media while on a
visit to
Cuba that the special congress had been called to elect - not
endorse - the
party leader for elections next year.
ZANU PF says there
are four items on the special congress agenda: confirming
President Mugabe,
the 18th constitutional amendment, the farm mechanisation
programme and the
state of the economy.
The meeting will obviously breeze through the first
item, talk a bit about
the second, cheer a lot over the third, and say very
little about the last.
Which, as has been the case at previous meetings,
means that feasting, will
take centre stage.
At the party's 2005
conference in Esigodini, 2000 delegates feasted on 50
cattle, 11 kudu, five
reedbuck, 17 impala, five buffaloes and 60 chickens.
Last year, the chairman
of the fundraising committee said more than 140
beasts had been earmarked
for the Goromonzi Indaba, with 80 being
slaughtered for the more than 3 500
delegates in attendance.
The remainder of the beasts were said to have been
kept at a farm owned by a
ruling party member for use at this year's
extraordinary congress.
In June, Mashonaland Central provincial governor
Ephraim Masawi said the
provincial leadership had pledged 48 beasts and 44
tonnes of maize for
consumption.
As at previous conferences, discussion
of the economy is not likely to be as
robust as to come up with measures to
pull the country out of the current
quagmire.
Previously, sound economic
advice offered by the party's economic committee,
chaired by economist
Richard Hove, was discarded outright.
Last year's report by Hove's committee
blamed the economic collapse on price
controls and an unrealistic exchange
rate.
"The (manufacturing) sector experienced viability problems, especially
for
companies whose output faced price controls and loss of export
competitiveness on the basis of an overvalued exchange rate," the report
said.
Previous party discussions on agriculture also failed to yield new
ideas to
turn around the fortunes of the sector.
The parliamentary
committee on lands and agriculture said the government was
not following
some of the recommendations it had made that would have gone a
long way in
addressing problems in the sector.
Besides a lack of inputs and erratic
energy supplies, government had not
addressed the issue of pre-planting
prices, which serve as an incentive for
farmers to prepare for a new
cropping season.
"Stakeholders also cited the lack of a pre-planting price as
a contributing
factor to lack of preparedness by farmers. Stakeholders that
appeared before
your committee said farming was a business venture and hence
farmers needed
to know if their investments would earn them attractive
returns," the report
said.
"Your committee notes with concern that
despite several recommendations it
made on the same issue in its previous
reports, no policy measures have been
taken by government to address the
issue. As argued before by your
committee, pre-planting prices serve to
incentivise farmers to produce at
optimum levels."
FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi and
Kumbirai Mafunda Staff Report
ZIMBABWE'S controversial draft law
compelling foreign owned mining
enterprises to cede 25 percent of their
shares to the government will scare
away existing and potential investors,
mining executives and economic
analysts said this week.
President
Robert Mugabe's government on Monday published a draft legislation
that
would require virtually all foreign-owned mining companies to transfer
majority shareholdings to local owners as well as surrendering a 25 percent
stake to the government at no cost.
But the Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines
this week reacted angrily to the proposed
draft bill warning the move would
be disastrous to the ailing and delicate
sector as it would drive away
foreign direct investment into the capital
intensive sector.
"We have
made our position known clearly to the government. We don't agree
with the
position they have taken. We want a situation that encourages
production,"
said Murehwa.
Murehwa, the chief operating officer at platinum miner
Zimplats, which is
controlled by South Africa's Impala Platinum Mines, said
the government's
move to force foreign enterprises to surrender half their
shares to locals
and to the government for free would kill off any new
investment.
"It is unlikely that there will be new mines. Chances of new
investors
coming on those regulations are close to zero," Murehwa
said.
Harare based economic consultant John Robertson warned that expansion
programmes will collapse as the government doesn't have the financial
resources to support expansion of mines.
"It (new law) is going to bring
a complete end to mining investment. While
existing companies will continue
new ones will not start. Expansion
programmes will be at risk because the
government doesn't put any money for
development. So the existing
shareholders of the mines will need to
constantly contribute capital for
development. It is very short sighted and
selfish, Robertson said.
The
publication of the draft legislation comes a month after the government
announced that it will force all foreign owned enterprises to cede 51
percent of their shareholding to locals under a scheme to empower
"indigenous" Zimbabweans. The government said firms will surrender 25
percent for free and pay for another 26 percent over five years.
But
critics including Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono warned
that
the proposed legislation would undo all efforts to bring Zimbabwe back
into
the international community.
South African-owned Stanbic Bank and UK
controlled Standard Chartered Bank
have also rejected the bill, which the
government calls a plan for black
empowerment.
Zimbabwe, which is
grappling with one of its agonising economic crisis since
independence has
in recent years been ranked as the worst place to do
business owing to its
repressive business laws.
According to the latest draft legislation,
companies risk losing all grants,
rights and licenses if they fail to
comply, the draft law says.
There would be no renewal of mining grants unless
"the existing shares or
any new shares issued by the company are disposed of
to the state or one or
more indigenous Zimbabweans, until such time as the
controlling interest in
the company is held directly or indirectly, whether
through one or more
individuals, associations, syndicates, companies or
otherwise, by the state
or one or more indigenous Zimba-bweans".
However,
one of the most controversial provisions of the proposed law is on
how
government intends to fund the "contributory" part of the stake it
demands.
According to the draft, the contributory 26 percent interest of
the state in
"any mining company shall be paid for from dividends on the
shares making up
the non-contributory interest of the state".
Proposing
to fund the 26 percent with future earnings only really gives
government a
free 51 percent stake, given that most mining companies in
Zimbabwe are in
fact ploughing capital into developing their investments,
and dividends are
far out on the horizon for them.
Zimplats, the country's largest platinum
producer, is on a long term US$2
billion expansion plan under which it aims
to lift output from the current
99 000 ounces per year to 1 million oz.
Capital expenditure last year for
Zimplats amounted to US$62 million, US$40
million of which was spent on the
Phase 1 expansion project.
The company
will spend a further US$340 million on Phase 1, expansion
scheduled for
completion by June 2009. In 2008, planned capital expenditure
will be US$264
million. Some US$24 million is planned for a sub-station to
secure power
supplies.
It is unlikely that government would, in the event that it took 51
percent
of Zimplats, make any contributions to this scale of outlay. This
all means
miners would invest 100 percent of the capital, for only 49
percent of
potential returns.
The law proposes a "strategic energy
minerals tax" of royalties of 25
percent of the total unbeneficiated annual
value of the production of any
strategic mineral by each
company.
However, government argues, in the Bill, that it deserves the shares
anyway
"by virtue of its original ownership of all useful minerals in its
subsoil".
Since a 15 percent stake of Zimplats, valued at US$31 million, was
not taken
up because favoured empowerment companies could not raise the
funding,
government hopes that by ruling that empowerment stakes could be
funded by
dividends, it can sidestep the issue of either itself or chosen
groups
having to raise funding independently.
Even for companies getting
dividends from their investments, they are
putting in more than what they
are getting out.
Mwana Africa got US$2.6 million on its 52.87 percent share
of Bindura Nickel
Corporation (BNC) from the company's third interim
dividend in February, the
same time it announced spending of US$100 million
to develop a new mine at
Hunters' Road.
Given BNC's valuation yesterday
of around US$134 million, it would take
government some 25 dividend
declarations to pay for the "contributory"
stake - while it sits around the
boardroom without contributing anything.
FinGaz
Africa
File with Mavis Makuni
REPORTS published in the press at the weekend
claiming that the possibility
of invading Zimbabwe was discussed during Tony
Blair's tenure as British
Prime Minister appear to have sent jitters across
parts of Africa.
The report quoted a former head of the British army,
General Lord Guthrie,
as saying he regularly discussed the possibility of
intervening militarily
in Zimbabwe with Blair. "We used to talk about
things. I could say anything
to him. The subjects discussed included
invading Zimbabwe, which people were
always trying to get me to look at. My
advice was, 'Hold hard, you will make
it worse'," the report quotes the
general as saying.
Despite the fact that Guthrie advised against such a move,
the fact that it
was discussed at all has re-ignited debate on the
controversial subject,
which constitutes one of the main themes of
Zimbabwe's crusade against the
West. The South Africa-Zimbabwe Joint
Permanent Commission on Defence and
Security takes the matter so seriously
that it has warned that Southern
African Development Community (SADC) member
states face a "very real
challenge" of regime change occurring in their
countries at the instigation
of foreign powers.
South African Minister of
Defence, Mosioua Lekota told a meeting of the
Commission last week that
regime change was a serious external threat. "We
need to share information
and intelligence on activities in this area.
Working together, our reach
stretches further." He said southern African
countries should speak with one
voice on the issue of the United States
African Command (Africom), whose
establishment will result in thousands of
American soldiers being stationed
in Africa. Lekota said Africom threatened
the sovereignty of individual
countries.
While African countries are justified to take umbrage against the
concept of
externally imposed regime change, they seem to have steered clear
of
discussing the best way to avoid giving foreign powers a pretext to
intervene in their internal affairs. External forces often go into countries
to quell disturbances and civil strife during civil wars, after coups or in
situations where the national government is accused of committing atrocities
against the population. It seems leaders guilty of human rights abuses,
repressive governance and unwillingness to hold free and fair elections have
the most to fear.
Regime change has such a pejorative ring in Africa
because some leaders now
take it to encompass even legitimate agitation for
a change of government by
their people. Unwillingness to countenance the
relinquishing of power under
any circumstances whatsoever is underscored by
cases of leaders who have
been in power for decades and still allege that
any calls for change by
their own people are externally fuelled. Such
leaders, who cling to power at
all costs, do not accept that there are ever
acceptable circumstances under
which they should give up power. Opposition
parties in countries where such
leaders hold sway are relentlessly
persecuted, with their democratic right
to aspire to form the next
government being criminalised and branded a
foreign concept planted in their
heads by imperialists.
Yoweri Museveni, who in 2005 forced an amendment to
his country's
constitution to enable him to extend his already formidable 20
years as head
of state by another five years is one of the foremost
opponents of regime
change. During a state visit to Zimbabwe in 2004, the
Ugandan leader
declared that regime change would never work in Africa. This
was despite the
fact he himself had ascended to power through regime change
in the form of a
coup in which his predecessor, Milton Obote, was
overthrown.
During a visit to Mozambique in the same year, former Tanzanian
president,
Benjamin Mkapa sermonised on the need for opposition parties in
Africa "to
accept election results", saying accepting defeat was part of the
democratic
process.
These self-serving sentiments were echoed by
Zimbabwe's former foreign
minister, Stan Mudenge, who urged opposition
parties in the SADC region to
gratefully accept permanent defeat." "Do not
only expect to win, be prepared
to lose." He did not say why the same dictum
should not apply to ruling
parties although he made this declaration while
addressing a meeting of the
SADC committee on governance, which was in the
process of formulating
guidelines for the conduct of free and fair
elections.
A crucial ingredient for the existence of a truly popular
government in
Africa is the holding of free and fair elections in which the
people are
able to elect leaders of their choice. This is currently
impossible in many
countries where draconian laws result in the muzzling of
the media thereby
denying voters access to facts, criticism and competing
ideas.
Zimbabwe, which is to hold elections next year, has some of the
harshest
media restrictions under the Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy
Act. Such media laws coupled with equally undemocratic electoral
procedures
have ensured that the parties that led countries to independence
in the
1960s have maintained their grip on power up to know.
Instead of
merely sharing information as suggested by the South
Africa-Zimbabwe Joint
Commission of Defence and Security as a way to
safeguard themselves against
the threat of regime change, African leaders
should ask themselves whether
the administrations they lead are popular
governments enjoying the support
of their people or imposed tyrannical
regimes.
mmakuni@fingaz.co.zw
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Staff
Reporter
TRAVELLING along the Harare-Bulawayo highway used to be an
exhilarating and
breathtaking experience during the economic boom of the
1980s. Adorned on
either side by lush farmland interspaced by prospering
industrial towns, the
route gave travellers a glimpse of a ticking
economy.
Today, the billowing chimneys that were once a permanent feature
of the
towns along the way are no more and adjoining farms lie fallow
painting a
gloomy picture of an economy in crisis now in its eighth
year.
The only sign of any remaining meaningful industrial activity along the
highway is at the Zimbabwe Platinum Mine (Zimplats)' refinery at Selous,
whose bright lights break the monotony at night and heavy-duty trucks
ferrying ore, which occasionally cruise along the 78 km Ngezi Road by
day.
The mine is, itself, a reminder of yet another sad chapter. Broken Hill
Properties burnt its finger in the late 1990s, forcing it to transfer
ownership of the mine to Zimplats, whose mining methods have paid
dividends.
The journey into Zimbabwe's industrial and agricultural decline
starts at
Norton, where a farm once operated by Kintyre Estates and was a
delight to
behold when its vegetables were thriving and flowers in the
horticulture
section were in bloom, is now a mere collection of patches. The
estate has
since been subdivided with no activity-taking place on some of
the plots.
Further along, in Chegutu, the armies of vendors lining the
highway selling
various items and inundating the few operating restaurants
give an insight
into the joblessness spawned by reduced productivity on
neighbouring farms.
David Whitehead, the textile company, is yet another
disheartening example
of de-industrialisation.
A huge David Whitehead
logo at the main entrance of the textile monolith is
the only reminder that
this was once a thriving company providing employment
for the majority of
residents from the Chegutu community.
David Whitehead's demise blamed on
under-capitalisation and corporate
governance deficits has had a devastating
knock-on effect on the now
derelict Kadoma.
A new investor has since
assumed 51 percent ownership of the giant textile
concern, but only time
will tell whether new money can awaken the sleeping
town of Chegutu.
One
can only imagine what a place like Kwekwe, home to several heavy
industries,
would look like today if the industrial sector there had not
also
collapsed.
Kwekwe and neighbouring Redcliff are home to the Zimbabwe Iron and
Steel
Company - the country's largest steelworks. It also boasts of the
Zimbabwe
Iron and Smelting Company, the largest ferrochrome producer, and
one of the
biggest power processing plants, ZESA Munyati.
But the
engines, blast furnaces and turbines have fallen into a deathly
silence.
Redcliff, once a thriving centre, is now a ghost town, deserted
by banks and
large department stores that once catered for its well-off
population.
The Midlands city of Gweru induces more despair. With many heavy
industries
in the city collapsing, the story of Bata Shoe Company is the
saddest of
all.
A huge signpost along the highway is the only remaining
vestige of a company
that was once one of Africa's biggest shoe
manufacturers.
The firm had been struggling for years as a result of foreign
currency
shortages but the government-ordered price slashes in June seem to
have
driven the final nail into the coffin. Bata Shoes outlets in Gweru,
like the
rest across the country, are empty.
A few kilometres out of
Gweru is the National Railways of Zimbabwe control
station, Dabuka. Once, it
was abuzz with rail traffic, but now there are no
trains to attend to and
the traffic controllers must think of ways to kill
time.
The government's
response to the collapse of industry has been characterised
by
contradictions. On the one hand, it has announced a scheme to "mechanise"
farms, has provided funding to prop up ailing industries, and most recently
has announced a plan to set up bio-diesel plants in each of the country's 10
provinces.
But on the other hand, critics point out that while it has
been doing all
this, the government has stuck to policies - such as the
continuing price
war and tacit approval of farm disruptions - that only
serve to kill the
industrial sector along with the towns that thrived as
industrial hubs.
Analysts cite inflation as the biggest challenge militating
against
government's efforts to resuscitate collapsing
industries.
Inflation, the highest in the world, reached an all time high of
over 14,000
percent in October.
"It's (inflation) out of control now, and
they have to bring it back in
control," a foreign newspaper quoted John
Robertson, a local economist,
saying. "We are reaching the steepest slopes
of the process. They say they
can fix prices but the things that cause price
increases come from so many
different directions that the government can't
control them all," added
Robertson, a fiery government critic.
In its
2007 report, the Index of Economic Freedom blamed the economic
meltdown on
tariff and non-tariff barriers that have combined to stifle
investments into
the country.
"State influence in most areas of the economy is stifling, and
expropriation
is common as the political executive pushes forward with its
resource
redistribution by-angry-mob economic plan.
"Political
interference has wrecked the once-prosperous financial market and
the state
has made a point of not welcoming foreign investments," read part
of the
2007 report.
FinGaz
Comment
ZIMBABWEANS
have become increasingly restive due to an economic crisis now
in its eighth
year. There is growing despondency, and people are
increasingly appealing
for the intervention of the divine hand of the
Almighty God for a solution
to the crisis.
There is an acute shortage of fuel: diesel, petrol,
coal, etc - basically a
shortage of every essential commodity. And the
economy is in free fall, with
gross domestic product (GDP) expected to
contract a further six or seven
percent this year, which would bring the
cumulative GDP decline since 2000
to about 40 percent.
National days of
prayer have been held, with tacit support from a paranoid
government. The
powers-that-be have reached a breaking point, although,
publicly, they will
not admit it, and will also not acknowledge that the
crisis Zimbabwe is
facing is now out of hand.
That admission, obviously, would require of them
to humbly give up power or
pass on the baton to others, more able or better
placed to deal with the
situation confronting the country.
Indeed for
many, the country has reached a point where, like the Israelites
in
Rephidim, faced with thirst, grumbled against God and their leader Moses,
resulting in God asking Moses to "take in your hand the staff with which you
struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb.
Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to
drink".
You get that sense of dejection among Zimbabweans today; they have
lost
faith in all state institutions, and are grumbling against their
leadership
and appealing to God for that water to quench their
thirst.
But just how desperate can the government get to splurge billions of
dollars
of taxpayers' money on a hopeless "spirit medium" to get diesel
gushing from
a rock because of the people's "grumbling"? And how desperate
can the
government get to parcel out land to a bunch with no history or clue
of
farming. Those who lost lives in the struggle for land must be turning in
their graves!
There is no denying that Zimbabwe's economic crisis
presents the biggest
headache - nay heartache - to government, battling to
extend its incumbency
by hook or crook, but even a kindergarten kid would
laugh at the gullibility
of a whole politburo and Cabinet agreeing to claims
that a Chinhoyi-based
"spirit medium" had power to cause a rock to pour out
huge quantities of
diesel to sufficiently supply the country with the scarce
commodity.
Yet this is exactly what our country's leadership did. The
Financial Gazette
reported last month that the government had squandered $5
billion worth of
taxpayers' money and given away a farm to a pseudo spirit
medium, Rotina
Mavhunga, after she had claimed she could extract diesel from
a rock by just
pointing her magical stick at it.
Should it be surprising
therefore, that some of the senior politicians
holding government posts
today claimed disability levels as high as 80
percent, as they ransacked the
War Victims' Fund in the mid 1990s?
A provincial governor, Nelson Samkange,
later told the nation that the
government and its numerous state agencies
had accepted Rotina's lie because
"the government and the President believe
in African culture and in spirit
mediums". "She said the diesel was coming
from our ancestors so we had to
pursue it," Samkange said.
President
Robert Mugabe later reaffirmed Samkange's claim, but angrily
demanded that
Rotina, who has been arrested on charges of being a criminal
nuisance, and
her accomplices should be punished for fooling him and his
entire Cabinet
and the party politburo.
The President has highly learned individuals in his
Cabinet, some of them
scientists who should know better that diesel is
extracted from crude oil
through a purification process; there was no way
this fuel could have gushed
from a rock, even under the alleged mystical
powers of a grade three school
drop-out.
Samkange would have the nation
believe that if Rotina's claims had not been
pursued, she would have blamed
the government for the fuel shortages. Now he
wants to be a key state
witness because she "took the government for a
ride". Indeed extra state
resources are being marshalled to punish Rotina
through the court
prosecution system.
But who will hold the powers-that-be to account for their
naivety? Who will
hold them to account for spending so much money on a wild
goose chase, so to
speak, on a non-existent bargain from a fake spirit
medium? For how long
will Zimbabwean taxpayers pay for the foolishness of a
government
desperately battling to defend itself from collapse?
We had
the case of Ari Ben Menashe a few years ago, who was paid huge sums
of money
to pin down opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in an alleged plot
to topple
President Mugabe from power through the barrel of the gun. Despite
spending
hugely on a court case against the opposition leader, the case
collapsed
like a deck of cards, but Menashe went all the way to the bank
smiling.
What rank madness!
Our leaders are too
self-centred
EDITOR - It appears there is no end in sight to
the current crisis
bedevilling our country. The Zimbabwean situation is
unrivalled anywhere in
the world including countries where civil wars are
raging at the moment.
The problem is that our leaders are full of their egos
and do not realise
that nation building is not centred on a few
individuals.
It was interesting to read last week's edition of your satirical
column,
Cabinet Files where the writer raised the issue that most of the
officials/members in ZANU PF today are so rich that just one of them can
fund the party's extraordinary congress.
My worry is that with such rich
people in our midst, the situation in the
country continues to spiral out of
control. No food, no work, no medicine in
the hospitals, education standards
have plummeted with teachers and
lecturers leaving in droves for other
countries.
Even some of us who are working hard towards higher academic
qualifications
see no future in this country.
I say so because the
systems have been destroyed and it will take at least
two decades, all
things being equal, to recover from the malaise.
The President has the power
to stop all this madness going on in the
country. All he needs to do is to
publicly tell his minions to stop all
their corrupt activities and order all
those who have occupied farms and are
not utilising them to vacate
them.
He must also instruct the police to be impartial and limit the army's
involvement in civilian matters of governance.
Once he does that he
should act. He should not show any fear or favour
because he owes his
position to the people of Zimbabwe and not individuals.
At the moment, the
President has encouraged these institutions (police and
military) to be
partisan.
They are supposed to protect the nation but alas, they protect only
a
privileged few. They only pander to the whims of the rich and the ruling
class.
They are prepared to sacrifice the lives of ordinary citizens in
order to
buttress their masters' hold on power.
By the same token, they
have tested the sweetness of power sand they,
especially the military
leadership, are deeply contemplating dethroning
winners of the next election
if they are not ZANU PF.
To them the current status quo has been a God-sent
opportunity to make
money.
However, people need to remember that despite
all the flirting with material
things that we do day-in-and-day-out in our
lives, there is a limit to what
that can do for us.
The more material
things we have, the more miserable we become. Money cannot
buy happiness or
an extra measure of life. It is time that we start thinking
as a nation what
we are really benefiting by destroying the systems and
infrastructure of the
nation.
For some in ZANU PF, history will judge them harshly for turning the
freedom
they brought to the nation, into a nightmare.
As we head into the
New Year, let us reflect especially on the course we
should take with
regards to the current status of our nation.
The nation is above political
parties and individual differences. We owe all
future generations of
Zimbabweans a decent and stable country.
McLytton N.
Clever
Australia
-------------
The height of
desperation
EDITOR - I read with complete dismay comments by
the President that justice
ought to be done to the n'anga who misled the
nation about diesel oozing out
of rocks in Chinhoyi.
According to The
Herald, the government was "forced" to send a taskforce
comprising Cabinet
ministers and senior government officials to verify
claims that diesel was
oozing out of rocks at Maningwa Hills in Chinhoyi.
Okay, reality check. We
are a 21st century nation seeking solutions to the
country's problems from a
n'anga? Shame on us!
I don't know what other people think, but this is
perhaps one of the most
embarrassing stories to come out of our
country.
We really have sunk that low haven't we? Superstition (and that
includes the
version wrapped up as religion) is understandable at the
individual level,
but for men and women tasked with the duty of leading a
nation to resort to
a n'anga for solutions in the 21st century is a serious
tragedy. I'm short
of words.
Muchenjeri waBundo
United States of
America
--------------
He tricked me
EDITOR - I would
like to remind Albert Matapo (the suspected coup plotter)
that what goes
around comes around.
Matapo tricked me that his organisation could help bring
my husband to the
United Kingdom in 2003 after he had been diagnosed with
cancer.
I paid his organisation the few pounds I had after a British
organisation
had referred me to his Charity Zimbabwe Association, saying I
should seek
help from my own people.
I later discovered that Matapo was
only interested in my money yet he had
been given a grant to form the
association in order to assist Zimbabweans in
need. But instead, he made the
association his own cash cow at the expense
of innocent
Zimbabweans.
Where are you now? I think if you read this you will remember
all those you
have duped.
Anna Mabena
United
Kingdom
----------
Sack this man
EDITOR - If the facts
as reported in the press are accurate, how can Mr
Godwills Masimirembwa
continue to occupy his position as National Incomes
and Pricing Commission
chairman? He should resign immediately. Failing this,
the ministry should
sack him. Have they no shame?
N.
March
Harare
-------------
What nonsense
EDITOR -
Government talks a lot of nonsense about the parallel market.
Without it,
where would we get fuel? Or food?
There is not a single person in the country
who has not somehow been
involved in the parallel market. This applies in
particular, to all the
ruling party chefs.
W
Nichols
Harare
-------------
Robbed of
Christmas
EDITOR - It is tragic to realise that the majority
of our citizens will not
have a happy Christmas. Gone are the days when this
once beautiful nation
was a heaven whenever the festive season
approached.
November was the month when our fathers used to receive a 13th
cheque and
our houses would be awash with groceries; new clothes for
Christmas and the
mood would be a merry one in most townships.
Some opted
to spend the Christmas holidays in the rural areas with their
parents and
they could still afford to buy them groceries as well. But this
year we will
have Christmas with a difference - no chicken, no bonus, no
sugar, no beer,
no sweets, no electricity, no cooking oil etc.
Our dear leaders who are
clinging on to power like wounded tigers have
largely caused all these
problems. I wonder what their children are going to
eat during Christmas.
The country is facing its worst economic and political
crisis since
independence.
Failed policies by government officials who continue lying to
us that
inflation is going down are the order of the day. And as if that is
not
enough, we are still being fooled that the biodiesel project will end
the
fuel crisis. This also goes to show how they were duped by that diesel
n'anga.
Promises that our shelves will soon be full also show how they
are playing
with the suffering people of Zimbabwe. We certainly hope that
the Lord's
hand will remain the only solution to this crisis.
Vava
Blessing
Former Student Union president
Bulawayo
Polytechnic
----------------
The sewage has hit the
fan
EDITOR - As I write, the residents of Mbare's Matererini
flats have not had
electricity since Monday last week. Coupled with the
unbearable lack of
proper sanitation, thanks to the Zimbabwe National Water
Authority's (ZINWA)
legendary incompetence, it is not difficult to imagine
what life must be
like in these overpopulated dwellings.
And the
residents are well aware that the responsible authorities are not
about to
restore electricity, let alone give an explanation. Silence has
become
government policy in Zimbabwe, a clear sign of cluelessness and
incompetence. If any heads must roll, it is the heads of those who criticise
them.
Nearby, several home industries like welding, furniture making,
hair salons,
phone shops, spray painting and service stations have no doubt
lost billions
in this busy metropolis. Not that anybody at Munhumutapa
cares. After all,
these are small-scale businesses.
But with 80 percent
unemployment, these small people matter. They hold the
economy together.
When they lose business, they lose money. No money, no
cash to pay bills,
and nothing to deposit in the banks.
We now live in a country where we have
to contend with ZESA and ZINWA bills
that are based on the rule of thumb,
simply because someone is too lazy to
get off their bum to read the
meter.
I'm tempted to agree with someone who said the other day: It's a black
thing. The sewage has hit the fan.
By continuing to be silent on matters
of public interest, the ruling party's
merry band of wishful thinkers keep
deluding themselves that they will wake
up one day to find that everything
has sorted itself out. Reality check: To
sit back hoping that someday,
someway, someone will make things right is to
go on feeding the crocodile,
hoping he will eat you last - but eat you he
will. (Ronald Reagan, former US
President.)
The unfortunate thing is that government's policy of silence has
spawned a
vacuum that has been quickly filled by the people's ability to
survive. Just
like they survived Operation Murambatsvina, Operation Sunrise
1 and
Operation Dzikisa Mitengo, they are surviving Operation Blackouts and
Operation Dry Taps - by chopping down trees and digging boreholes.
The
country has stopped functioning, all because those brains elected to run
it
are well past their sell-by date.
"When a palm-branch reaches its height, it
gives way for a fresh one to
grow."(Nigerian proverb).
Tony
Namate
Harare