Zim Independent
Dumisani
Muleya
SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki yesterday piled
pressure on
President Robert Mugabe to speed up the pace of talks between
the ruling
Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
Mbeki's push comes in the wake of a slowdown in the tempo of
negotiations between the two parties which have been engaged since
May.
The two parties have missed deadlines in September, October
and
November. Now they have come up with a new early December deadline which
should be met before the Zanu PF congress and the ANC's conference mid next
month. Fears linger that Zanu PF is trying to take Mbeki and the MDC down a
garden path and sink the process later.
Sources say the delays
are indicative of pitfalls which lie ahead in
the talks that need to be
dealt with now. Mbeki is said to have come to
ensure the talks remain on
track and the parties display a sense of urgency
in their attitude as the
elections fast draw closer.
Talks which had resumed on Sunday in
Pretoria broke off on Tuesday
because Zanu PF chief negotiator Patrick
Chinamasa wanted to attend a
meeting in Lesotho and then another gathering
in North Africa.
It is said MDC delegates also had other
commitments although they
accepted a postponement largely because they
wanted to put in order their
position paper on sanctions and
land.
This falls under agenda item No 5 which also deals with
issues such as
demilitarisation of state institutions, the role of
traditional chiefs, use
of food aid for political benefit and foreign
broadcasts into Zimbabwe.
However, Mbeki said yesterday he was
"very confident" a solution to
the country's political stalemate would be
found soon.
"They (the talks) have gone very well. I came to Harare
today to see
the president and the leadership of the MDC so we can reflect
on where we
are and to report to them (Sadc) as facilitators how the talks
have gone and
also put my own perspectives on where we are going. There has
been progress
indeed," Mbeki said after meeting the two sides.
Regional leaders appointed Mbeki in March to mediate between Zanu PF
and the
MDC. South African Local Government minister Sydney Mufamadi is
chairing the
talks assisted by Director in the Presidency Reverend Frank
Chikane and
Mbeki's legal advisor Mujanku Gumbi.
Zanu PF negotiators are
Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche and the MDC has
Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti,
assisted by Lovemore Moyo and Priscillah
Misihairabwi-Mushonga.
Mbeki in August reported progress to the Sadc summit in Zambia. It is
said
he told Mugabe and MDC leaders yesterday that he has to report to the
Sadc
troika on politics, defence and security chairman Angolan President
Eduardo
Dos Santos on progress so far.
Mbeki met with Mugabe separately at
State House. It is said he told
Mugabe that there was need to finalise the
talks as soon as possible because
the process was lagging
behind.
Mbeki is also said to have indicated that he wanted to
report as soon
as possible to the Sadc troika and as a result he wants to
the talks
finalised by the first week of December. Mbeki also urged Mugabe
to
reciprocate the MDC's support for Zanu PF's constitutional amendment
project.
It is said Mugabe had given assurances to Mbeki that
if the MDC backs
the amendment, Zanu PF would also make significant
concessions. The MDC was
told that Mugabe had agreed to remain in the
process and that he would adopt
the final agreement. Mbeki and Sadc are the
underwriters of the promise.
Mbeki also told Mugabe that as far as
he was concerned there had been
significant progress because most of the
things have largely been agreed on,
with only a few things remaining on the
first four agenda items -
constitution, electoral laws, security
legislation, and media laws. The
parties are currently discussing the last
agenda item, which is the
political climate.
The negotiating
parties have already agreed upon a draft constitution
and have basically
agreed on the other three agenda issues which have been
"parked" in the
meantime to deal with technical issues and matters that
cannot be resolved
until the final agreement is in place.
Some of these issues are
transitional mechanisms and the date of
elections. While the negotiators are
agreed informally that elections should
be postponed to June, Mugabe has
flatly rejected the suggestion. The sources
said the date, which the MDC
said yesterday is still on the agenda, could
actually become decisive,
determining the failure or success of the talks.
If Mugabe insists on the
March date, the sources said, the MDC might walk
out of the talks and
boycott the elections, taking the country back to
square one.
They said Mbeki told the MDC leaders the same message he gave to
Mugabe.
Mbeki met MDC leaders at the South African ambassador's residence.
MDC
leaders present were Morgan Tsvangirai, Gibson Sibanda, Welshman Ncube,
Arthur Mutambara, Thokozani Khuphe, Tendai Biti, Priscillah
Misihairabwi-Mushonga and Lovemore Moyo.
While the MDC is
upbeat that progress has been made despite delays,
Mugabe and Zanu PF took a
decision in a crucial politburo meeting on
September 5 they would not accept
a new constitution before elections under
any circumstances or an agreement
which might lead to their defeat.
Mugabe said in that meeting that
the negotiators were doing a good job
because they had managed to put across
the party position in a "strong,
confident and progressive manner", it has
been confirmed.
Vice-President Joseph Msika also applauded the Zanu
PF negotiating
team, saying there had been "fears that they may give in to
demands which
would compromise the party".
Zim Independent
Constantine Chimakure
THE MDC yesterday told South Africa
President Thabo Mbeki that Zanu PF
was not committed to the Sadc-initiated
inter-party talks as political
violence is escalating ahead of next year's
elections.
Tendai Biti, the Morgan Tsvangirai-led faction of the
MDC's
secretary-general, told a media conference yesterday that both
factions of
the opposition said to Mbeki that violence was intensifying
against its
members. Biti said they told Mbeki, facilitator of the talks,
this was an
indication that Zanu PF was not sincere about
dialogue.
Biti said the MDC asked Mbeki to tell President Robert
Mugabe to stop
violence against the opposition forthwith.
"We
highlighted that violence against citizens occurs everyday, our
meetings are
still being banned. Everyday what the government is doing is
illogical to
logical intended goals of the dialogue," he said.
"We told
President Mbeki that there is a big gap between what is
agreed during the
talks and what takes place out there. There is no evidence
of a definitive
paradigm shift on the part of Zanu PF that there is a crisis
in Zimbabwe.
They are in denial. There is denial that the opposition exists
in Zimbabwe,"
he added.
But Mugabe, speaking to journalists after meeting Mbeki,
dismissed the
MDC claims of state-sponsored violence.
Mugabe
said: "That's the usual accusation from the MDC. What basis do
they have for
raising that matter in the dialogue that is taking place?
Maybe he
(Tsvangirai) wanted to confer to his friends whoever they are. We
wonder
whether he raised the issue of the recent violence in his party
between
factions of the two women and him taking sides. I don't think he
raised that
issue as he told his friends about the ills of my government."
Biti
said the MDC also told Mbeki Zanu PF should realise that dialogue
was the
only way to end Zimbabwe's crisis.
He said the MDC wanted the talks
to end the crisis of legitimacy by
ensuring that elections are not stolen
and that there is a new democratic
constitution.
"We want
legitimacy through uncontested elections. The elections must
be acceptable
to the international community and the region. They must also
be in line
with international standards and norms of democratic elections,"
Biti
added.
He said the MDC discussed with Mbeki the timeframe of the
dialogue and
it was agreed talks should end by early December.
"There are critical time limits on the dialogue. When you have gone
through
the process of re-writing laws and you need a gestation period to
have those
laws take root in the ground, when do you have elections?" Biti
asked.
He said the parties to the dialogue were yet to
deliberate on when
next year's harmonised presidential and parliamentary
elections would be
held. "The elections date is still on the talks agenda.
We are still to
negotiate on the matter," Biti added.
Asked
whether the MDC would contest next year's elections if the talks
collapse,
he said the opposition was yet to make a decision on that. "We are
committed
to the peaceful resolution of the Zimbabwe crisis. The party will
make a
decision on whether or not to participate in the elections if the
talks
collapse," Biti said.
He said the MDC and Mbeki also discussed the
expectations of the Sadc
region on the talks.
Both factions of
the MDC met Mbeki at the South African High
Commissioner's residence at
Highlands in Harare, with Tsvangirai leading his
team made up of his deputy
Thokozani Khupe, chairman Lovemore Moyo and Biti.
The other faction was
represented by its president Arthur Mutambara, his
deputy Gibson Sibanda and
secretary-general Welshman Ncube.
Tsvangirai and Mutambara met
Mbeki in Pretoria, South Africa, last
weekend to discuss progress on the
talks.
Tsvangirai is said to have given Mbeki a document
chronicling alleged
Zanu PF acts of violence against the opposition.
Zim Independent
Kuda Chikwanda
RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe
governor Gideon Gono's threat that the
introduction of a new currency was
imminent had failed to improve bank
deposits as cash barons continued to
cling on to their holdings to trade on
the parallel market.
The
cash shortages were still prevalent by yesterday with banks saying
they were
not getting deposits from the market. The shortages are set to
worsen after
it emerged that $30 trillion is missing from official
circulation. This
means that 51% of total cash issued cannot be accounted
for in the banking
system.
This leaves only $28 trillion out of an initial $58
trillion in
official circulation.
The latest figures beat last
year's record when 22% of the country's
bearer cheques disappeared from the
system on the eve of Sunrise Part 1.
This year's cash crisis comes
after the central bank said it had
injected $10 trillion into the market
through the Basic Commodities Supply
Side Intervention Facility meant to
help revive businesses affected by a
government-sponsored price blitz in
July.
The RBZ is also sitting on $20 trillion of $500 000 bearer
cheques
which are yet to be issued. The central bank had also printed a new
$1
million bearer cheque note which Governor Gideon Gono says will however
not
be introduced
because plans are at an advanced stage to launch
a genuine new
currency.
"Just under half of the cash we put
into circulation is still in
circulation. We believe that cash barons are
holding the rest," Gono said.
He said the introduction of a new currency was
imminent.
"Cash barons would be caught unawares. The cash that will
not come
back into the system will be shown in the RBZ's books as profit,"
Gono said.
"I will simply add it to my books as profit, so I
cherish the prospect
of catching them off-guard," he said.
Gono
however poured cold water on hopes that the central bank would
intervene to
solve the current cash shortages.
Instead he promised to launch
Sunrise 2, saying the central bank was
adopting stern measures targeting all
those stashing large amounts of cash.
"As monetary authorities, we
say no to this callous path, and hereby
declare total war against the
illegal dealers who are causing havoc in our
markets. This time around,
those who do not take heed will never recover
financially, as a definite
ultimate blow is being set on
them."
While Gono said a new
currency was imminent, market speculation was
that he was
bluffing.
Bank executives who spoke on condition of anonymity said
they were
convinced Gono was just trying to scare companies holding cash
into banking
it in the formal system.
"He did promise that it
would be launched without prior warning. If he
is convinced there are people
breaking the law and holding onto cash, where
is the wisdom in pre-empting
the Sunrise strategy?" said one banker.
Zim Independent
THE Zanu PF
Masvingo provincial executive has denounced war veterans'
leader Jabulani
Sibanda saying that while they backed the marches he is
leading in support
of President Robert Mugabe's candidature in next year's
elections, they want
Sibanda to be treated as persona non grata in the
party.
"As a
provincial executive, we are clear of the fact that Jabulani
Sibanda was
suspended from the party and still remains suspended until we
get official
notification from the party's top leadership to the contrary,"
provincial
executive spokesperson, Retired Major Kudzai Mbudzi, said.
Mbudzi
said the provincial executive was getting agitated by Sibanda
leading the
marches in support of Mugabe.
"Sibanda in some cases can be likened
to a fool and a hallucinating
psychotic whistling through a graveyard while
naked in the middle of the
night," said Mbudzi.
Mbudzi said the
Masvingo provincial executive would not accept Sibanda's
leading role in the
marches.
He said the issue of Mugabe's candidature was now water
under the
bridge.
"I think the issue of retaining our present
presidium in next year's
landmark elections is now water under the bridge.
And those who continue
marching for the same cause might probably have
hidden agendas which might
be totally different from those of the party," he
said.
Mbudzi said the provincial executive had taken the view that
the
marches were now unnecessary.
"The effectiveness of our
provincial executive is not measured by the
number or intensity of road
marches or road runs in support of our top
leadership but by the efficacy in
the execution and implementation of those
constitutional functions which we
were mandated to perform," he added.
He accused Sibanda and Joseph
Chinotimba of not being genuine war
veterans, accusing them of insulting the
party's presidium, in particular
Vice-President Joseph Msika, when they took
their roadshow to Masvingo.
"Some of these guys who are always on
the streets have a propensity of
overdoing things and were far removed from
the thick of things during the
armed struggle hence the feelings of
dissonance that they might not have
given enough in return for their present
appointments," Mbudzi said. "Or is
it simply an advertising venture for
future appointments?"
Zim Independent
Constantine Chimakure/
Dumisani Muleya
ATTORNEY-General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, arrested three weeks ago for
alleged
abuse of office, was reportedly part of former Zanla general staff
that met
in Harare in March and resolved that it was time President Robert
Mugabe
left office.
Zanla was the military wing of Zanu during the
liberation struggle of
the 1970s.
The arrest of Gula-Ndebele
was allegedly part of Mugabe's succession
battle that signaled the beginning
of a crackdown against a camp in Zanu PF
that wanted Vice-President Joice
Mujuru to succeed the octogenarian.
Impeccable sources said the
onslaught on the faction led by retired
army general Solomon Mujuru was
aimed at whipping the camp members into
supporting Mugabe ahead of the
ruling party's five-day special congress in
December.
Gula-Ndebele is linked to the Mujuru faction.
The AG was arrested
on allegations that he met fugitive former NMBZ
deputy director James
Mushore and assured him he would not be arrested for
alleged foreign
currency externalisation.
But the sources told the Zimbabwe
Independent that the alleged
participation of Gula-Ndebele in the former
Zanla general staff meeting in
March, his failure to prosecute over 50 MDC
activists accused of petrol
bombings and constant clashes with Justice
minister Patrick Chinamasa, had
irked Mugabe.
"There were two
meetings of the former Zanla general staff in Harare
at the beginning of the
year where it was resolved that they approach Mugabe
and tell him to quit,"
one of the sources said. "The meetings were attended
by Mujuru, retired
general Vitalis Zvinavashe and Gula-Ndebele, among
others."
The
sources said Gula-Ndebele and an influential group of former Zanla
soldiers,
who backed Mugabe to seize control of Zanu during a turbulent
period of the
liberation struggle in Mozambique in mid-1970s, had reportedly
lured former
Mugabe personal assistant in Mozambique, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to
see if they
could confront the president and tell him to retire.
It is
understood Mnangagwa refused to be part of the sensitive
mission.
The sources said Mugabe refused to meet the group and
has since that
time been looking for an opportune moment for a
counter-attack. It is said
as a result, a ruthless campaign is now underway
to wipe out the Mujuru
faction.
During an interview to mark his
83rd birthday in February, Mugabe for
the first time uncharacteristically
attacked the Mujuru faction, accusing it
of trying to oust him. He, however,
said the group had lost the plot.
Since then Mugabe is said to have
been fighting back all the way,
especially after the Mujuru faction
frustrated his efforts to secure
endorsement during a crucial Zanu PF
central committee meeting on March 30.
The Mujuru camp, riding on
the crest of a wave of unprecedented
success against Mugabe at the party's
Goromonzi conference in December last
year where it blocked the
octogenarian's 2010 plan, thwarted the president's
bid for
endorsement.
This forced party spokesmen to lie to cover up the
embarrassing
failure.
Mugabe was not endorsed to be the Zanu PF
candidate at the meeting. He
was only endorsed last month.
The
Mujuru faction was defeated during the politburo and central
committee
meetings last month where Mugabe emerged on top of the situation.
Mugabe was all but endorsed as candidate at the meetings where the
Mujuru
camp not only failed to block him but also ended up tacitly
supporting him.
Prior to that on September 5, Mujuru had climbed down at a
politburo meeting
where he told Mugabe that there were people lying to him
saying he wanted to
oust the Zanu PF first secretary.
Senior Zanu PF officials said it
was the first clearest indication
they got that Mujuru and his faction were
backtracking on their mission to
confront Mugabe head-on over the
contentious party leadership.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya/Lucia
Makamure
ZIMBABWE Revenue Authority (Zimra) workers have given
notice to go on
strike on December 3 demanding better salaries and working
conditions, a
development that is likely to plunge operations at the
country's border
posts into chaos and cripple revenue
collection.
The workers yesterday said they could embark on the
strike as early as
today after realising that their salaries, which were
scheduled to have been
deposited in their accounts, had not been reflected
by last night.
Zimra workers want their salaries to go up by 5 000%
but management
says the revenue collection body can only afford a 200% hike
as revenues
have declined drastically following government's controversial
price blitz
in July.
Last month the organisation failed to pay
workers on time because it
was broke.
In a circular to members
of staff by Commissioner General Gershem Pasi
recently, Zimra was said to be
negotiating for more funding from its parent
ministry, the Ministry of
Finance.
Meanwhile, workers at Avenues Clinic have also threatened
to go on
strike because of poor salaries and working
conditions.
The workers yesterday demanded a meeting with
management to address
their salaries that they wanted reviewed.
Some of the workers at the clinic who spoke to the Zimbabwe
Independent said
they would not be taking home any money this month after
deductions on their
salaries to cover medical aid shortfalls.
An employee at the clinic
this month received a payslip reflecting
$0,00 balance.
"I do
not know how they expect me to survive when they give me a
payslip
indicating that I will not be getting any money from them," the
worker
said.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
LANDS, Land Reform and Resettlement minister
Didymus Mutasa has come
under attack from the Zanu PF leadership for
flouting land redistribution
procedures laid down by the party at its eighth
annual conference at
Esgodini in 2005.
Highly placed sources in
Zanu PF said the ruling party provincial
leaderships throughout the country
have raised concerns over the continued
issuance of offer letters to
Mutasa's cronies, which they described as
unprocedural since they do not
conform to the requirements set out by
President Robert Mugabe.
Government requires that all new land allocations have recommendations
from
district lands committees, provincial lands committees and be approved
by
the national lands committee before Mutasa can issue an offer
letter.
"You cannot have people from nowhere coming to claim land
in districts
where they are not known," a Zanu PF MP from Mashonaland West
said.
The MP said Mutasa had gone on an offer letter issuing
frenzy,
planting his cronies at few operating farms as a way of boosting his
influence.
"Mutasa cannot simply settle his people, resulting
in the current farm
disruptions. What we are saying is that vast stretches
of land are not being
utilised. Let's first ensure that the land lying idle
is put to productive
use. When we see the need for more land then the
maximum farm size policy
should apply before disturbing those that are
operating."
The sources said all provinces have disapproved of the
continued
issuance of new offer letters arguing that this was
counterproductive.
"Mashonaland East, Masvingo and Manicaland came
out strongly against
the continued disturbances in agriculture during last
month's politburo
meeting," said one source. "They have sent delegations to
make
representations to Vice-President Joseph Msika saying what Mutasa was
doing
was discrediting the party ahead of elections next year."
Another source said Msika's recent pronouncements in Chiredzi that
conservancies should not be disturbed were partly in response to the
representations brought to his office.
The Mashonaland West
leadership last month demanded the removal and
nullification of offer
letters issued to Noma Mliswa for Summerhill Farm,
Rotina Mavhunga for
Baguta Extension, Brigadier General Dube for Grande
Parade and Brigadier
Mtisi for Folliot farm.
Mliswa, Mlotshwa and Mavhunga are
well-known Mutasa cronies. Mlotshwa
is Mutasa's lawyer while Mliswa is the
minister's nephew and Mavhunga is the
controversial diesel n'anga and
Mutasa's personal consultant.
The source said the Mashonaland
provincial leadership would ensure
that those with unprocedural
offer letters would be removed so that sanity prevails ahead of the
elections.
"We will seek the consent of Msika (VP responsible
for land reform)
and what he says will carry the day," the MP said. "As we
approach the
elections there is no need to create a disgruntled electorate
who will vote
against us."
The continued issuance of offer
letters has triggered a wave of
evictions throughout the country, disrupting
the few operating agricultural
businesses.
The sources accused
Mutasa of using the land reform to plant his
people in provinces to bolster
his bid for a position in the presidium.
Mutasa has openly declared
his interest to become vice-president.
Earlier in the week he
defended his position, describing his approach
as nationalistic and
progressive in outlook, castigating some politicians
for advocating racial
and tribal tendencies.
He accused some politicians of supporting
white farmers for personal
gain.
Zim Independent
THE United States yesterday said it was still committed to
seeing free
and fair presidential, legislative and council elections in
Zimbabwe next
year.
Speaking soon after presenting his
credentials to President Robert
Mugabe, new US ambassador to Zimbabwe James
McGee said he was thrilled to be
in the country and excited about the
challenge ahead.
"Today's meeting with President Mugabe was the
beginning of my work. I
am looking forward to working with the people of
Zimbabwe during this
increasingly difficult period in their lives," McGee
said. "My job as US
ambassador to Zimbabwe is to work with anyone who wants
to cooperate with us
to improve the situation here. The US remains committed
to seeing free and
fair elections next year through which the people of
Zimbabwe can express
their will."
McGee also said an important
part of his job was to oversee US
assistance to Zimbabwe.
The
US will give over US$$200 million worth of assistance this year.
It
will help feed nearly one-in-five Zimbabweans with about US$170
million of
food aid. HIV and Aids programmes have increased to US$31 million
this year,
including anti-retroviral treatment for 40 000 Zimbabweans.
McGee
noted: "Today is Thanksgiving in the US. It is a day on which we
give thanks
for all that we have. That makes it even more important to focus
on our
programmes that help bring aid to the many Zimbabweans in need."
McGee came to Zimbabwe after three years as US ambassador to
Madagascar and
the Union of the Comoros.
He has also served as ambassador to
Swaziland from 2002 to 2004.
McGee began his foreign service career
in 1981 and has served in
Lagos, Nigeria; Lahore, Pakistan; the Hague,
Netherlands; Mumbai, India;
Bridgetown, Barbados; Kingston, Jamaica; and
Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire.
He was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1949
and is a graduate of Indiana
University.
He served in the US
Air Force from 1968 to 1974 and completed
Vietnamese-language studies at the
Defense Language Institute in Monterey,
California.
McGee
earned three Distinguished Flying Crosses during his duty in
Vietnam. -
Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
By Jonathan Moyo
WHAT are the reasons behind President Robert
Mugabe's quest for
another term in office in the forthcoming general
election as it is now
clear to everyone that there is absolutely nothing
good or better which he
will be able to do for Zimbabwe which he has been
unable to do in 27 years
since 1980?
Apparently, there are
three reasons and all of them are personal.
The first has to do
with what Mugabe sees as the "Kaunda jinx". With
old age obviously getting
the better of him, Mugabe is said to be now
displaying the typical
granny-habit of frequently talking to himself a lot
about all of kinds of
little nothings. One such nothing about which he has
been repeatedly
mumbling to himself to validate his 2008 candidacy is that
he will not leave
office after 27 years like the former president of Zambia,
Kenneth Kaunda,
who was thrown out of power through the polls after 27
controversial years
in power.
To Mugabe, "27 years" is cursed by the ghost of Kaunda's
unceremonious
exit in 1991 and for that reason he must seek reelection in
March in order
to remain in office well beyond 27 years in order to set his
own standard.
On this score, Mugabe is said to mumble to himself words like
"Oh, they
think I am like Kaunda and I will go after 27 years. Why? They are
mad. I
won't go like Kaunda. I will go in my own way and at my own time.
They will
see."
The second reason that Mugabe is said to be
mumbling to himself like a
jolly good old man while rationalising his
divisive 2008 reelection bid is
that he is deeply troubled by the fact that
allegations that he is an
illegitimate president who stole the election in
2002 have refused to go
away. Hence Mugabe is said to habitually mutter to
himself such things as,
"Oh so they think I am an electoral thief! Okay, I
will show them who I am.
I will run again in 2008 and humiliate them once
and for all by showing them
that the people are with me. Let them have
whatever they mean by free and
fair elections and they will not defeat me.
No, they just can't defeat me if
we give them their free and fair elections
in March and not later."
Winning "free and fair" elections that
will not be credibly disputed
by his detractors has become a legacy issue
for Mugabe. Opposition and
international charges that he is an electoral
thief have deeply wounded him.
This is because he believes that he is so
popular with the electorate that
there is nobody in or outside Zanu PF who
can defeat him in any popular
election.
Indeed, Mugabe's
determination to prove his detractors wrong about his
electoral support is
one of the key explanations behind his Machiavellian if
not meaningless
concessions in the ongoing Sadc-mandated dialogue between
Zanu PF and the
MDC factions being mediated by President Thabo Mbeki who was
in the country
yesterday in a desperate effort to salvage the dialogue that
is now clearly
on the rocks.
The third and most fundamental reason that Mugabe is
said to murmur to
himself as justification for his contentious 2008
reelection bid comes from
his profound fear of the "Hague Factor". Although
he does not want to
discuss the issue with anybody, Mugabe is said to be
only too eager to talk
to himself aloud about his fear that he would be
dragged to the Hague in the
Netherlands by "imperialists or their puppets"
on charges of having
committed crimes against humanity during his troubled
rule through
horrendous acts such as Gukurahundi.
The murmurs
he is said to make about this fear are to the effect that,
"Oh, so now they
want me to step down even when the people clearly want me
to continue
serving them! All because they want to take me to their Kangaroo
court in
The Hague? What temerity! We shall see. They won't get anywhere
with that.
After all they are the ones who have committed the worst
atrocities in Iraq
and Afghanistan. They are the ones who should be put on
trial, not me.
Anyway, I'm not going anywhere. I will remain here serving my
people till I
die."
It is telling that Mugabe's desire to remain in office for
life in
order to retain his immunity lest he is prosecuted on allegations of
committing crimes against humanity is the only one of his three reasons for
seeking reelection in March which has been astonishingly picked up as a
campaign issue by some of his opportunistic backers in Zanu PF.
Two weeks ago Vice-President Joseph Msika, who all along had been seen
as a
towering voice of reason against Mugabe's hunt for endorsement in Zanu
PF,
shocked the nation by proclaiming at a party meeting organised by the
Harare
province that Mugabe should remain in office for life.
Msika's
proclamation opened the floodgates of irrationality bordering
on insanity.
Last weekend the head of Zanu PF's women's league, Oppah
Muchinguri, who is
also Gender and Community Development minister, made a
deathly statement
while addressing a party meeting to rally support for
Mugabe's endorsement
in Gweru that was also addressed by Zanu PF secretary
for legal affairs and
Minister of Rural Housing Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Said she: "The late
Vice-President Joshua Nkomo died in office and the
late Vice-President Simon
Muzenda died in office; President Mugabe must also
be allowed to die in
office."
Muchinguri's scandalous statement - which revealed Zanu
PF's morbid
manifesto for 2008 - was broadcast on ZTV news on Monday. The
essence of
that manifesto, whose pillars are the three reasons why Mugabe is
seeking
reelection as outlined above, is that the ongoing solidarity marches
and
rallies proclaiming Mugabe's endorsement as Zanu PF's presidential
candidate
next year are all about trying to keep Mugabe in office for
life.
As such, Mugabe's reelection campaign is all about himself
and for
himself. The reactionary forces in Zanu PF and from other groups
allied to
the ruling party that have been falling over each other to
opportunistically
proclaim their endorsement of Mugabe's candidacy have not
put forward even
just one rational explanation for their incredulous support
for Mugabe
beyond scandalously profiling him as a revolutionary who must
rule for life.
Yet the simple fact is that there has never been,
and there never will
be, a revolution that is for and about an individual.
Those who confuse an
individual with a revolution are repugnant
reactionaries who pose
danger-most-serious to society and who are thus
enemies of the people's
revolution.
Any person who, as head of
state and government, wants to rule for
life under any pretext is by
definition a danger to society. And anybody and
any group that supports and
endorses such a person's continued stay in
office under whatever pretext is
also by definition very dangerous to
society.
While it may be
possible for some people to stop themselves from going
up, it is just not
possible for anyone to stop themselves when they start
going down. Mugabe is
clearly going down yet even he is pretending to be
going up through his
reelection bid. He cannot and will not stop himself. He
needs to be stopped
for his sake.
Those blindly supporting and endorsing his ill-fated
reelection bid
must know that human beings do not get stronger, healthier
and wiser as they
grow older. The contrary is true because the passing years
necessarily steal
from any person one thing after another until there is
nothing left. When
age is in, the wisdom is out. That is why it is a
contradiction in terms to
describe an aged person, such as Mugabe, as a
visionary.
It should therefore go without saying that Mugabe is no
longer as
strong, healthy and wise as he may have been in the
past.
Right now Zimbabweans have become hopeless and helpless as
the country
continues to face three intertwined challenges that are crying
out for
systematic attention, namely:
The need for a political
settlement to restore national confidence in
our system of governance and
legal dispensation;
The need for a rational economic rescue package
to halt the
precipitous economic meltdown and to turnaround the national
economy; and,
The need to end to Zimbabwe's international isolation
and economic
sanctions.
None of Mugabe's three reasons behind
his 2008 reelection bid
addresses any of these challenges. In fact, it is
not possible to address
these challenges through any presidential election
campaign that has Mugabe
at its helm.
The weight of the crisis
facing Zimbabwe today requires an energetic
leader who is among the
stronger, healthier and wiser members of our society
to lead a national
people's patriotic front that brings together everyone
while addressing
national and not personal issues.
Professor Jonathan Moyo is
Independent MP for Tsholotsho.
Zim Independent
By Steve H
Hanke
SINCE March, Zimbabwe has been in the midst of a
hyperinflation (a
rate of inflation per month that exceeds 50%). This
phenomenon is rather
rare.
Indeed, prior to Zimbabwe, there had
only been 29 hyperinflations.
Zimbabwe's hyperinflation is
destroying the economy, pushing more of
its inhabitants into poverty and
forcing millions of Zimbabweans to
emigrate. Since 1997, inflation has
surged by over 1 030 217%, while living
standards (as measured by real GDP
per capita) have fallen by 35%.
In addition, hyperinflation has
robbed people of their savings and
financial institutions of their capital
via negative real interest rates.
This form of theft occurs, in large part,
because the laws and regulations
governing financial institutions (pension
funds, insurance companies,
building societies, and banks) force them to
either purchase government
treasury bills that yield only a small fraction
of the current inflation
rate or to make deposits at the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe that pay no
interest.
Not surprisingly, the value of
the Zimbabwe dollar has been wiped out.
The accompanying figure tells the
devastating story - one that is ominously
following the same plot as that
taken by the mark during the great German
hyperinflation of the
1920s.
If all that destruction hasn't been painful enough, worse is
yet to
come. Private sector economists expect Zimbabwe's GDP to fall by 12%
in
2007, and the International Monetary Fund projects that year-on-year
inflation could exceed 100 000% by year-end.
As I conclude in
my recent book, Zimbabwe: Hyperinflation to Growth,
the most rapid and
reliable way to stop hyperinflation in Zimbabwe is to
replace central
banking with a new monetary regime. This would signal a
clean break with the
practices that have created hyperinflation and give
Zimbabweans reliable
assurance that inflation will henceforth remain
relatively low.
One monetary regime that would stop Zimbabwe's hyperinflation is free
banking. Under this system, private banks issue notes (paper money) and
other liabilities with minimal regulation. A completely free banking system
has no central bank, no lender of last resort, no reserve requirements, and
no legal restrictions on bank portfolios, interest rates, or branch
banking.
Free banking systems have existed in nearly 60 countries
during the
1800s and early 1900s. Zimbabwe had free banking from the time
the first
bank was established in 1892 until the government replaced free
banking with
a currency board in 1940.
Zimbabwe's free banking
was among the least restricted that ever
existed. At the time, the country
had only two commercial banks, the
Standard Bank of South Africa and the
Bank of Africa (later part of Barclays
Bank).
They issued notes
denominated in pounds, and kept their privately
issued pounds equal to the
pound sterling - except during the First World
War and for a few years
afterwards, when the local pound floated along with
the South African pound
(the predecessor to the rand) against the pound
sterling.
Free
banking ended in Zimbabwe not because it performed poorly, but
because the
government desired the profit from issuing notes.
Although free
banking might be unfamiliar, the principles of
competition that underlie it
are not, because they are already at work in
deposit banking. We do not
usually think of deposits from different banks as
being different types of
currency, but in effect they are - at least, they
are different brands of a
common unit of account. By holding a deposit at
one bank rather than others,
a depositor is choosing that bank's management,
portfolio and services over
those of its competitors.
Free banking extends competition from
deposits to notes. In practice,
multiple brands of notes have generally not
created problems for free
banking systems any more than multiple brands of
deposits create problems in
central banking or other systems. In a system of
fully free banking, the
field includes anyone (domestic or foreign) who
meets the requirements
common to other businesses (registering a place of
business, stating who the
officers are, listing the shareholders
periodically, and publishing
financial statements if the company is not a
private partnership).
Competition weeds out firms that are less
astute at delivering what
consumers want. Abundant experience indicates that
depositors want assurance
that they are placing their funds with a
financially solid bank.
That is why the tendency almost everywhere
is for a few large but
highly competitive banks to dominate the market,
though leaving niches for
small banks to serve specialised
clienteles.
Under free banking, banks would have the liberty to
issue deposits and
circulate notes in any currency - the US dollar, South
African rand, gold,
etc. In past free banking systems, they have converged
on a single unit of
account, typically gold or a foreign
currency.
In Zimbabwe it is quite possible they would converge on
the South
African rand. However, free banking leaves it for banks and
customers to
discover what works best for them; it does not presume that the
government
already knows the answers.
Steve H Hanke is a
professor of applied economics at the Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore
and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in
Washington, DC.
Zim Independent
CORRUPTION in Africa is declining as potential bribers realise it is
bad for
business, one of the continent's richest businessmen said on
Monday.
Sudanese telecoms entrepreneur Mo Ibrahim said booming
commodity
prices and new leadership were ushering in new growth and the
Western world
risked ignoring a new era in Africa.
"I think we
are turning a corner," he told Reuters on the sidelines of
an African
investment conference in London.
"For the first time, we are
getting a reasonable price for
commodities. At the same time, you are seeing
a clear improvement in the
standard of governance in Africa."
Ibrahim, who sponsors a new US$5 million prize for African leadership
given
this year to former Mozambican leader Joaquim Chissano, said the
commodities
price rise was primarily due to growth in China and India.
The
improved governance came from a new generation of leaders coupled
with a
more vocal civil society unwilling to watch their leaders get rich
for
nothing.
Investors had also realised that fostering corruption cost
money in
the long term, he said, adding that he had never felt tempted to
bribe his
way forward.
"The problem with greasing palms is that
once you start it never
ends," he said. "You always have to bribe another
minister. The regime
changes for next year and you have to do it all again.
It just erodes your
bottom line."
Once people realise you do
not give bribes, they stop expecting them,
he said.
Ibrahim
said his US$5 million prize - the largest single prize of its
kind in the
world, several times a Nobel Prize - was aimed at promoting
greater
leadership and transparency.
He said the outside world tended to
concentrate much more on bad news
in Africa than on good, and African
leaders such as Chissano - who stood
aside after leading his country to
peace and democracy after years of civil
war - were not well
known.
"You have limited space for Africa and so you only run two
stories,"
he said. "Every man, woman and child in Europe knows who
(President Robert)
Mugabe is but who has heard of Chissano?" -
Reuters.
Zim Independent
Orirando Manwere
ZIMBABWE'S recently launched biodiesel project
will, according to
experts, largely depend on a consistent supply of
feedstock in the form of
cotton, soya beans and jatropha seed for its
success, a requirement which
poses a serious challenge to players in the
agricultural sector.
While stakeholders have welcomed the
initiative, there are mixed
feelings on whether farmers who are failing to
produce enough food crops due
to underutilisation of land and lack of inputs
will be able to ensure
sufficient supplies for the project.
According to a document issued at the launch last week, the inaugural
plant
at Heydon Farm in Mount Hampden has the capacity to produce "up to 100
million litres when fully integrated, supported by the availability of
sufficient feedstock of oil seeds" per annum.
The document says
at full capacity, the economy requires around a
billion litres of diesel
annually, which can be achieved if the 10
provincial plants, envisaged to be
in place by 2010, produce 100 million
litres each.
At least 500
tonnes of seed oil would be required annually to produce
100 million litres
of biodiesel.
Harare-based economist John Robertson said the
biodiesel initiative
was a noble idea which could only be successful if the
country's
agricultural industry operated at full throttle in order to
produce the
required feedstock.
"There should be total
utilisation of the land to ensure the required
feedstock supplies," said
Robertson. "It must be borne in mind that we are
currently not able to
produce enough food as a nation and we are depending
on imports," Robertson
said.
"Part of the feedstock for biodiesel is from food crops like
soya
beans, sunflower and rape and other non-food crops like cotton and
jatropha
which is the main crop for the project. So, there is need to strike
a
balance between food and fuel producing plants and to ensure that
plantations are well maintained by providing enough water, fertiliser and
other requirements," he said.
He said given the current state
of agriculture, the project would take
a lot of time and money to be fully
operational.
"It is practical to produce the envisaged quantities
of biodiesel. It
is not beyond us but it is not going to be easy. There is
need for optimum
land utilisation," said Robertson.
"On the
other hand, there is need to ensure uninterrupted power
supplies for the
processing plant and water at farms where oilseed should be
produced on a
large-scale without depending on rain and that means
developing reliable
irrigation infrastructure," he said.
"Although jatropha is
draught-resistant, there is need to scale up
production of other oilseed
crops all year round to ensure sufficient
supplies for the intended
provincial plants and this is where I feel the
challenge lies," said
Robertson.
The chairman of Transload Enterprises, which is involved
in the
project, an SP Parirehwa, said the project was anchored on the
ability of
farmers to produce enough feedstock.
"As
Zimbabweans, we are fortunate that our country has rich soils and
a very
conducive climate for growing oilseeds. Our farmers are therefore
challenged
to grow abundant oilseed to support this plant," said Parirehwa
at the
launch.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono also
acknowledged the
challenge on the farming community to produce adequate
feedstock and pledged
that the bank would provide farmers with the necessary
financial support for
the programme, which he said would save the country
US$35-80 million per
annum in foreign currency.
Fuel costs
account for 15-20% of the total production costs across key
sectors of the
economy.
Estimates from the Ministry of Agricultural Engineering,
Mechanisation
and Irrigation show that the overall production of various
crops and
livestock for the 2007-2008 season requires 3 322 222 hectares of
land and
119 458 500 litres of diesel.
An agricultural expert
within the ministry, who requested not to be
named, said there was need for
more land and identification of capable
farmers to produce oilseed crops for
the project.
The expert pointed out the need for government to
ensure early
provision of inputs like seed and fertiliser.
"If
we continue the way we have been running our agriculture over the
past five
years, this otherwise noble biodiesel project will be a flop," he
said.
"We need productive farmers on the land and full support
by government
in terms of incentives. Already our preparations for this
season have been
affected by lack of inputs and this problem should come to
an end if this
project is to succeed," he said.
Officials from
two leading oil companies also hailed the biodiesel
initiative but said its
success would depend on the commitment of government
and the farmers charged
with producing the oilseeds.
"Obviously, that is a positive
development and we hope the farmers
will be able to meet the demand for
oilseed," said one official.
"At the moment all is not well in our
agricultural sector and one
hopes that there is going to be better planning
and coordination this time
around," he said.
According to
statistics in the launch booklet, the production of
oilseeds has been in
decline since 1994, mainly due to droughts experienced
in the southern
African region and Zimbabwe's chaotic land reform programme.
While
the country produced about 105 000 tonnes of soya beans in 1994,
the figure
dropped to 55 000 tonnes in 2006.
Sunflower production dropped from
40 000 tonnes in 1994 to 20 000 in
2006.
Groundnut production
went down slightly from about 95 000 tonnes to 90
000 while there was an
increase from about 105 000 tonnes to 150 000 tonnes
in cotton seed
production.
Since 2005, government through the Ministry of Energy
and Power
Development and the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe has stepped
up efforts
to promote the production of the jatropha curcas plant as an
alternative
source of biodiesel to minimise fuel shortages in the
country.
It established a Jatropha Growers and Biofuels Association
aimed at
disseminating information, technology and agricultural inputs to
farmers.
The jatropha project was launched in October 2005 in Mutoko where
the plant
is common.
The National Oil Company of Zimbabwe was
mandated to spearhead the
project through an outgrower scheme under which it
would enter into
contracts with farmers who were willing to put at least
five hectares or
more under jatropha. However, the production of the crop is
still at the
experimental stage in Mutoko.
Farmers in the area
would rather produce food crops than jatropha as
they still have to come to
grips with the benefits of the new cash crop.
Statistics on the production
of the crop are not readily available and it is
not clear how much feedstock
quantities are available at the Mount Hampden
plant.
Officials
in the oil industry said with commitment, Zimbabwe could
join Germany,
Central American countries, Egypt, India and South Africa that
were enjoying
the benefits of developing biodiesel plants.
Zim Independent
Lucia
Makamure
HIGH Court judge Justice Tendayi Uchena on Wednesday
denied bail to
six men facing treason charges for plotting a coup against
President Robert
Mugabe after the state gave new evidence that could lead to
conviction of
the accused.
The six alleged coup plotters,
Albert Matapo, Nyasha Zivuku, Oncemore
Mudzurahona, Emmanuel Marara, Patson
Mupfure and Shingirai Mutemachani, have
been in custody since May and this
was the second time they were applying
for bail.
"Knowledge by
the applicants that the state has gathered such evidence
would in my view
induce the applicants to want to abscond to avoid a trial
at which such
evidence may lead to possible convictions," said the High
Court
judge.
Uchena said the investigating officer, Simon Mundondwa's
evidence
indicated that more arrests could be made.
"Mundondwa's evidence is in fact to the effect that other arrests may
still
be made," he said.
According to Uchena's judgement, the
investigating officer has
gathered credible evidence.
"He
(Mundondwa) had recorded statements from witnesses who were
approached by
the applicant and requested to take part in the coup plot. He
mentioned in
particular an Air Force officer whose evidence he recorded in
Gweru who was
approached and asked to fly a plane for a particular task
during the coup
plot. He also mentioned that some of the
participants/witnesses were asked
to remain on duty to facilitate an easy
take over of barracks," Uchena said
ruled.
The judge said Mundondwa's new evidence includes statements
that were
recorded from military and government officials who were
approached to take
part in the coup.
"It was argued by Mr
(Charles) Warara for the applicants that no coup
could have succeeded
without the involvement of the military or government
officials. That is a
valid observation but only if the military and
government officials were not
approached. The investigating officer's
evidence is that he has recorded
statements from such officers who were
approached and asked to participate
in the coup plot," he said.
He said the applicants would abscond
with the assistance of Matapo who
runs a travel agency and is well connected
outside the country.
He said Matapo had demonstrated his ability to
evade systems as he
once travelled to the Unite Kingdom without using a
passport.
Zim Independent
Lucia Makamure
THE African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)-European
Union (EU) Joint
Parliamentary Assembly which met in Rwanda this week has
said universal
principles and standards, free media, minority representation
and effective
opposition are vital to democracy.
Zimbabwe was
represented at the assembly by Senator Clarisa Muchengeti
and Forbes Magadu,
both of Zanu PF and Nelson Chamisa from the MDC.
"All states should
recognise that whilst free and fair elections are a
prerequisite for
democracy, they do not guarantee democratic governance.
States establishing
democratic institutions and frameworks should also be
guided by the
universal principles and standards in international and
regional
instruments," said a report on elections and electoral processes
that was
presented at the assembly.
Presenting the report, co-rapporteur,
Betty Amongi (Uganda), gave a
list of prerequisites for free and fair
elections. These included
independent institutional frameworks for
organising them, respecting the
rights of all parties to recruit, assemble
and freely associate, independent
media to which the opposition has equal
access, and an environment free of
violence.
Amongi also
stressed the need to "bring women and other disadvantaged
groups on board"
to enable them to "access positions of leadership".
"Secret
ballots, a legal framework for complaints about
irregularities, and
international observer missions are also necessary," she
added.
"We agreed that elections are essential, but not sufficient, for
democracy,"
said the other rapporteur, Miguel Angel Martinez, explaining
that the report
seeks to go for the" whole truth".
The report said governments
should establish a legal regime that
allows for an independent, free and
balanced media by ensuring that the
state does not have a monopolistic or
dominant position and encouraging a
wide-range of private media that is not
dominated by one group or
individual..
Zimbabwe earlier this
year refused to grant permission to an ACP
fact-finding mission to the
country to assess the human rights situation.
Meanwhile, the 42nd
Ordinary session of the African Commission on
Human and Peoples' Rights
which is in session in Brazzaville has called on
Zimbabwe and Kenya, which
face elections in the coming months, to ensure
freedom of expression and
access to information, saying these are
prerequisites for free, fair and
credible elections.
Zim Independent
Loughty Dube
FORMER PF-Zapu members in Zanu PF
in the Matabeleland region are
fuming after the government delayed
conferring national hero status on
Retired Lieutenant Colonel Masala
Sibanda, who was buried at Lady Stanley
cemetery in Bulawayo on
Saturday.
The late conferment of national hero status on Sibanda
comes barely a
week after another former PF-Zapu cadre and Bulawayo town
clerk, Stanley
Donga, was declared a liberation war hero almost a month
after he was
buried.
Donga was also buried at Lady Stanley
cemetery.
Sibanda was a former Zipra High Command staff during the
war of
liberation.
He was arrested and detained by President
Robert Mugabe's government
after independence on allegations of treason
after arms caches were
allegedly discovered at former Zapu
farms.
He was arrested together with former Zipra commanders
Lookout Masuku,
Dumiso Dabengwa and Swazini Ndlovu.
Ndlovu and
Masuku are also buried at Lady Stanley cemetery after the
Zanu PF-led
government did not accord them national hero status.
In the Sibanda
case, Zanu PF's secretary for administration, Didymus
Mutasa, wrote to the
party leadership on Monday this week declaring him a
national
hero.
This was despite the fact that Sibanda had been buried two
days
earlier.
Mutasa said the delay was
because the
party was facing communication problems among senior
leaders.
"It's unfortunate that Sibanda has been buried but we are announcing
that he
is a national hero. We cannot say there was a delay, it's just that
there
was a communication breakdown with the national chairman, John Nkomo.
Phones, both landlines and mobile, were giving (us) problems," Mutasa
said.
But PF-Zapu cadres who spoke to the Zimbabwe Independent this
week
said the issue of delaying in conferring former PF-Zapu members with
hero
status was a deliberate ploy by the Zanu PF government to ensure that
they
are never buried at the National Heroes Acre.
"Zanu PF
does not want deserving PF-Zapu cadres to be buried at the
National Heroes
Acre and the delays are only witnessed in Matabeleland while
for former
Zanla cadres there are no delays. All this indicates that Zanu PF
does not
take the Unity Accord seriously," said one former senior PF-Zapu
cadre.
Former PF Zapu secretary-general, Welshman Mabhena, who
was
unceremoniously dismissed from government, said the Unity Accord was a
horse
and rider relationship and Zanu PF was benefiting more from the pact
than
PF-Zapu.
"It is sad that deserving heroes like Lookout
Masuku, Jean Ntutha and
Swazini Ndlovu are buried at Lady Stanley cemetery
when they are supposed to
be at the National Heroes Acre," Mabhena
said.
Zimbabwe Liberators Peace Initiative president Max Mnkandla
said
latest developments indicate that the Unity Accord was not signed on an
equal basis.
Zim Independent
Kuda
Chikwanda
A PARLIAMENTARY portfolio committee will next week
launch an
investigation into the cancellation of an airport construction
tender by the
Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ).
The
tender was for the construction of a runway at Victoria Falls
airport and
had been awarded to Zimlantic Investments. The main tender for
the
construction of the airport terminal was awarded to Costain Africa.
Zimlantic Investments got the tender as a subcontractor.
The
parliamentary portfolio committee on Transport and Communications
wants to
know why Zimlantic Investments' contract was cancelled when it had
already
found a foreign financier for the construction of the runway.
Zimlantic Investments had agreed with South Africa's Nedbank to fund
the
project but the deal collapsed after the contract was cancelled at the
last
minute.
CAAZ general manager, David Chaota, this week told the
committee that
the decision to cancel the contract was made by the board of
directors.
When asked why the contract was cancelled in the first
place Chaota
said: "We don't just cancel tenders for the sake of cancelling
them."
Committee chairperson, Leo Mugabe, told Chaota that the
committee
believed he was protecting a higher authority.
"In
this age of sanctions, in a situation where our country risk is
very high,
it is surprising to hear that a contract which has found an
external
financier is cancelled," Mugabe said.
"I think you are protecting
someone here. We will have to meet you,
alone next week and get to the
bottom of this matter."
A member of the committee told
businessdigest that they would be
launching an investigation into the
issue.
"It's clear that something is not right about the whole
issue. We want
to investigate to get the real issue," said the MP. "We can't
have
parastatals just canceling contracts willy-nilly when the country is
already
behind schedule in the preparations for the World Cup."
The tender has since been awarded to a company called Dubai World.
The plan was to expand the Victoria Falls airport in anticipation of
increased traffic during the 2010 soccer World Cup to be held in South
Africa.
The portfolio committee was informed that Dubai World
had engaged a
South African-based engineering company to redesign the runway
and reduce it
from 4km to 3km. Construction work on the airport terminal
building has also
been stopped due to the confusion surrounding the runway's
sub-contractor
and escalating costs.
When the tender was
floated, the total cost of construction was $3
billion but it has since
escalated to $3,1trillion plus a foreign currency
component of US$4,5
million.
Costain cannot continue to build the terminal unless
construction at
the runway proceeds.
"The terminal building
will not make money unless there is a runway
which provides throughput. That
is why the runway is a big issue," said
Chaota.
During the
floating of the tender, CAAZ told interested bidders to
submit financing
proposals with their bids after the cash-strapped
government failed to
commit itself to funding the construction works.
The main
contractor and sub-contractor submitted a build pperate
transfer (BOT)
financing proposal to ring fence revenues generated from the
airport and
recoup investment costs.
Chaota told the committee that most works
would have to be redone
because of the delays.
"We are in a
worse off position because some works have to be redone
because they were
weathered as they were earthworks," Chaota said.
Chaota said CAAZ
had not been able to find off-shore funding for the
construction of other
airports around the country.
"We have in the past engaged a number
of possible partners but when we
get to the crucial stages they just
disappear," he said.
Some of the World Cup projects that have
stalled include expansion of
Buffalo Range Airport and the construction of a
stadium in Beitbridge.
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
THE Minister of Finance Samuel Mumbengegwi will
present the 2008
National Budget next Thursday but the market is not
expecting any surprises.
Analysts who spoke to businessdigest this
week said Mumbengegwi was
unlikely to come up with viable policies to revive
the economy which has
been in recession for the past seven years. Zimbabwe's
economy has shrunk by
more than 50% since the crisis started in 2000.
Shortages of basic
commodities, power, fuel, water and foreign currency have
persisted despite.
Mumbengegwi will present his budget at a time
food shortages have
worsened and inflation has galloped to an all time high
of 14 840,6%.
Service provision had collapsed on the back of deteriorating
infrastructure
like roads, schools and health facilities. Unemployment
continues to grow.
"Given the state of the economy, the market
should not expect any
serious policy shift in the budget," said an economist
with a commercial
bank. "It will just be a tabulation and allocation of huge
figures that are
not related to revenue growth," he said. Mumbengegwi will
also have problems
in distributing the government revenue which has been
shrinking for the past
five years because of company closures and increased
unemployment.
The government is also yet to recover from the losses
it suffered
during the price blitz. As at September 31 government has lost
$20 trillion
in potential revenue from income and Value Added Tax. Analysts
say the loss
could increase to about $65 trillion by the end of the year.
Given the
shrinking revenue base Mumbengegwi is likely to rely heavily on
the
borrowings from the local market and money printing in order to cover
government's costs. In September Mumbengegwi presented a $37,1 trillion
supplementary budget which however failed to meet the request by ministries
that wanted $255 trillion.
"There is no way inflation can be
contained given that budgets are
being financed through tax increases," said
Genesis Bank economist, Brains
Muchemwa.
Economic consultant,
John Robertson said the market expected the
minister to address the supply
side bottlenecks in order to improve the
availability of commodities on the
market. "The problem is that minister
will not be able to deal with this
problem decisively because of politics,"
Robertson said.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions secretary-general Wellington Chibebe
said
workers should not raise their hopes because previous budgets have
shown
that the government is not interested in reducing the tax burden. "We
want
taxes to be linked to the poverty datum line according to the Incomes
and
Prices Stabilisation protocol which was signed by social partners,"
Chibebe
said.
Zim Independent
Shakeman
Mugari
THE government and Cottco transaction on Olivine
Industries (Pvt) Ltd
might be a done deal but the controversy surrounding
the acquisition is far
from over.
Government used the deal to
become the majority shareholder in Olivine
with 51% but invited Cottco to
take up the remaining 49% after HJ Heinz
pulled out.
It all
sounds like a fair deal considering that Cottco officially paid
US$6,8
million for a company whose value could otherwise be over US$100
million
were it not for the economic crisis and the fact that HJ Heinz just
wanted
out.
However, an investigation into the specifics of the deal
reveals that
there is more to it than has been told to the
market.
The market was told that HJ Heinz was paid US$6,8 million
by Cottco on
August 16, 2007 but all the public announcements and statements
on the deal
seem to have conveniently omitted to mention that more money
changed hands
in order to make the transaction possible.
Businessdigest can reveal that government could have structured the
deal in
order to benefit from a combination of tax and duty waivers that it
gave
itself during the transaction.
While the agreed value of Olivine
had come to about US$7,5 million if
taxes and duties are included Cottco was
made to pay US$6,8 million directly
to HJ Heinz.
The difference
between the actual value of the deal and what Cottco
paid to HJ Heinz went
to Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) which had
negotiated the deal on
behalf of government. IDC is an investment vehicle
for the
government.
Confidential documents in possession of businessdigest
show that
Cottco was made to pay US$460,947 to IDC using the Old Mutual
Implied Rate
(OIMR).
"The GoZ (Government of Zimbabwe) through
IDC has invited Cottco, as
technical partner, to acquire 49% of the entire
issued share capital of
Olivine Holdings (Pvt) Ltd and all its subsidiaries
and associates in return
for which Cottco will effect payment to H J Heinz
in the amount of US$6 825
000 payable in foreign currency in full settlement
of IDC's obligations to
HJ Heinz arising from preamble E plus US$460 947
payable in local currency
after conversion at the Old Mutual Implied Rate,"
said part of the
shareholder's agreement.
The problem is that
IDC was not supposed to get the money in the first
place because it was for
taxes and duties under the structure of the deal.
The other issue
is that Cottco was being made to pay using a rate
which is far more than the
official rate which at that time was US$1:$250.
The OMIR is the accepted
parallel market rate in business circles.
Government has in the past
threatened to deal with businesses that use
parallel market
rate.
Questions have been raised as to why the official rate was
not used.
The third issue is that the shareholder's agreement does
not state the
purpose of the extra payment that Cottco made to IDC. An
official who was
part to the talks that culminated into the deal said the
extra amount arose
from the fact that government did not want to extend the
tax waiver in had
given itself to Cottco.
"Government gave
itself a waiver on tax and duty that came with the
deal but they still went
on to claim the money from Cottco. If this was a
transparent deal government
should not have claimed money they did not pay
from Cottco," said the
official. The waiver was for the whole deal and not
government
alone.
In other words government got a reimbursement for tax and
duty money
it did not pay. There is yet another problem though.
Although Cottco paid the money as fees for duty and tax questions have
been
raised as to why the payment went to IDC instead of Zimra as the
revenue
collection authority.
This means that IDC was therefore making a
profit from a waiver that
government had approved. Because IDC is 100% owned
by the state it means
that government was actually benefiting from its own
waiver.
The problem through is that the money was not accounted for
in Zimra's
books but went to a government company which is not supposed to
collect
taxes.
Buy allowing IDC to make a profit from that tax
waiver government was
in other words shortchanging the national treasury in
order to benefit its
own company.
Although IDC and Zimra are
all under government, their roles are
totally different. Zimra collects
revenue which is then distributed under a
national budget.
IDC
on the other hand is an investment vehicle which government uses
to do
commercial businesses.
IDC managing director Micheal Ndudzo denies
that the money was from a
tax waiver.
In an interview last week
Ndudzo said the extra amount was meant to
cover IDC's "human resources and
legal cost" incurred during the
transaction.
"The place (IDC)
literally came to a standstill during the
transaction. We had to push all
our top managers to deal with those issues,"
Ndudzo said.
On
why the parallel market was used Ndudzo said: "It really does not
matter
what rate was used. We used a rate that gives value."
He however
does not explain why IDC as a local company had to peg its
costs in foreign
currency.
Sources close to the issue insist that the extra money
paid by Cottco
was not meant to cover the costs IDC incurred in the deal
because each part
had foot their own bills.
Cottco had its on
accountants and legal representatives. IDC has its
own team. HJ Heinz hired
a consultant from Botswana to act on its behalf.
Under normal
circumstances IDC's costs should have been covered by the
government which
had appointed it to work on the deal.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
ABOUT 90% of the country's bakeries have closed shop
since the
beginning of the year after they failed to get consistent fuel and
wheat
supplies from government, the National Bakers Association (NBA) has
said.
Speaking to businessdigest yesterday, NBA chairman Vincent
Mangoma
said 90% of the bakeries have shutdown and they were likely to
remain closed
until government announces a new price that would make the
baking business
viable.
"About 90% of the bakery industry has
closed down according to the
calculations done by the bakers association,"
Mangoma said.
"The majority of the bakeries are not getting flour.
Most of the small
to medium bakeries have not been receiving enough fuel
from Noczim as was
the case with big bakeries," said Mangoma.
Mangoma said most bakeries were buying wheat at $1 billion per tonne
instead
of the gazetted $100 million. The bakeries are also buying fuel on
the
parallel market.
"The cost of producing one loaf of bread is
between $400 000 and $500
000 and if bakeries are not obtaining inputs from
the official market they
will not survive as the end product is controlled,"
Mangoma said.
Government this week increased the retail price of
bread from $100 000
to $200 000. The wholesale price has been pegged at $185
000.
Bakers this week said their inputs were rising weekly and the
Ministry
of Industry and International Trade was pretending as if nothing
was
happening.
Mangoma last month wrote to the National Incomes
and Pricing
Commission proposing that the viable standard price of a loaf of
bread
should be $400 000.
He submitted that the ultimate remedy
to the bread shortage was to peg
the price of bread in Zimbabwe at regional
levels tracking the price of the
United States dollar.
The
baking industry did not, however, specify the rate at which the
greenback
should be pegged, but considering the static nature of the
official rate and
its fluctuating rate on the parallel market, they were
said to be looking at
the latter.
The NBA submitted that the general price of bread was
US$1 per loaf
and urged the government to take a leaf from the regional
pricing model for
the commodity.
The National Incomes and
Pricing Commission which they were scheduled
to meet yesterday is on record
as saying it does not recognise the parallel
market, and has ordered
companies to submit import invoices to the
commission from which it would
convert the foreign currency component to the
local currency using the
official rate.
Major bakeries have scaled down operations
drastically citing
viability problems, and calling for an expeditious
determination of the
price review application.
Bread is
available on the parallel market where a loaf is going for
$650
000.
The baking industry is also reeling from high labour and
packaging
costs.
Zim Independent
Jesilyn
Dendere
NOMSA Bere will be homeless by the end of this month.
The owner of a
one-bedroom flat she has been renting in town for the past
four years last
month told her that he now requires payment in foreign
currency.
"He said he wanted US$100 a month but I told him that I
would not be
able to afford it so he gave me a month's notice," said Bere, a
receptionist
with a local commercial bank.
Bere's notice will
expire at the end of this month but she has not
been able to get alternative
accommodation in town.
"Everyone I ask is giving me the same
figures. They want their rentals
in foreign currency." This week Bere
approached someone who had advertised
to lease a bachelor's flat but she
found no joy.
She was told to either offer something in the range
of R450 or there
was no deal. When she tried to explain that it was against
government
regulations to charge rentals in foreign currency the landlord
said: "Then
go and get a flat from those guys who are telling you that. Why
should I let
you stay in my flat for the Zimbabwean dollars? Go and tell
whoever you
want, even the government is doing it."
It is not
only individuals who are demanding payment in foreign
currency. Government
has over the past eight months passed regulations
forcing people to pay for
services and duties in foreign currency.
In fact the whole country
is almost dollarised. Two weeks ago Paxton
Ndebele, a Bulawayo based
businessman, received a note from the Post Office
notifying him to collect a
parcel that had been sent by a friend in South
Africa.
The
parcel contained old clothes which Ndebele intended to give to his
workers'
children as Christmas presents but when he went for collection the
post
master demanded foreign currency to release the package.
"They gave
me a choice to pay US$29 or 170 pula or R200 but I refused
because I am in
Zimbabwe and cannot be paying for services in foreign
currency. I simply
don't have the foreign currency," said Ndebele.
"I asked them to
take it back and they said they would. I was supposed
to pay the initial
amount and failure to do so will result in the parcel
being auctioned and
the proceeds will be given to government."
Bere and Ndebele's cases
are only a few examples of the hundreds of
Zimbabweans who now are now being
forced to pay for goods and services in
foreign currency.
As
the Zimbabwean dollar continues to crush against major currencies,
eroding
the purchasing power of consumers, businesses and individuals are
now
demanding payment in foreign currency to hedge against loss of value.
Some
businesses are now pegging their quotations in foreign currency as a
hedge
against rising inflation. Quotations in local currency are lasting for
less
than a day.
The explanation from business is that the local
currency is losing
value everyday. Individuals have the same concerns but
they have an extra
assurance in doing it: government is doing it
too.
Companies like Zimplats have been paying their power bills in
foreign
currency since last year. Mutare Board and Paper Mills, the
newsprint
manufacturing subsidiary of listed Art Corp, has pledged to pay
power bills
in foreign currency. Government departments have joined in the
rush for
foreign currency. The registrar general has given the prospective
passport
seekers an option to pay in foreign currency. Those that pay the
fee of
US$220 will get their passports faster.
Zimra is also
demanding duty in foreign currency for imported
vehicles, electrical gadgets
and clothes. In some cases foreign currency can
be paid for food
imports.
The idea has found supporters even among business
leaders.
Three weeks ago Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce
(ZNCC)
president, Marah Hativagone, threw her weight behind Air Zimbabwe's
proposal
to charge airfares in foreign currency saying the country was
'awash with
United States dollars'. She maintained her position even after
media
criticism.
The question is whether Zimbabwe's economy has
been dollarised?
"Partly so," most analyst said this week.
They
said although it is still early to say the country has been
dollarised the
situation on the ground indicates that Zimbabwe was
approaching that
situation. With inflation now at 14 840% most people find
it unwise to save
money in local currency. The logical thing is to convert
and save in foreign
currency.
But there is a cost to everything.
Brains
Muchemwa, an economist with Genesis Bank, said the use of
foreign currency
was creating distortions.
"The existence of various goods and
services requiring payment in
United States dollars creates multiple pricing
distortions," Muchemwa said.
"The authorities don't wish to embrace
dollarisation in its entirety
but in piecemeal approach which unfortunately
does not carry with it the
full benefits associated with
dollarisation."
Muchemwa said the government is concerned with
losing its ability to
generate revenue out of issuing the Zimbabwean dollar
if it adopts 100%
dollarisation because it won't be able to print money to
finance its
activities.
"As long as the budget deficit is still
very high as is the case right
now, the government will be less willing to
adopt full dollarisation." The
trouble with a dollarised state is that it
entails that money be generated
instead of being printed.
Economic consultant, John Robertson, said individuals and businesses
that
charge in foreign currency were only taking a defensive position
against a
weak currency whose value had been destroyed by government's
economic
policies.
"We have destroyed our economy, the money has lost all
its value, the
productive capacity has been destroyed," Robertson
said.
"Government has lost tax revenue because it is has destroyed
all the
sectors that used to generate income hence the new drive was to
swindle the
few hard currency that Zimbabwean are making, said
Robertson.
He said it is government that sent the wrong message to
the people
when it started to charge for duty in foreign
currency.
"It is government that has said it's acceptable to demand
payment in
foreign currency.
"It's because the Zimbabwean
dollar is now valueless and people need
to be paid money with value. The
Zimbabwean dollar is not convertible, and
no individual wants to exchange
any currency for the Zimbabwean dollar,"
Robertson said.
Zim Independent
THE Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines has started lobbying against a proposed
amendment of the Mines and Minerals Act which will compel foreign owned
mines to sell 51% to locals.
According to the amendment
government will get 25% for free while the
remaining 26% will be paid for
over a period.
Chamber of Mines president, Jack Murehwa, said the
Mines and Minerals
Amendment Bill H.B 14 of 2007 which was gazetted on
November 16 would have a
serious impact on the mining industry.
"The second component introduces the issue of indeginisation into the
law.
Regrettably the Chamber of
Mines has serious concerns about the impact
of this component on the
Zimbabwean mining industry," said Murehwa
said.
Murehwa said the chamber was now planning to lobby the
government to
deal with the contentious clauses on the shareholding
structure of foreign
owned mines.
"It is therefore the
intention of the Chamber of Mines and mining
development on this matter with
a view to seeking convergence of the
though," said Murehwa.
The
Chamber of Mines has warned that the policy would put to waste all
the
investment that mines had put tin to their operations so far.
It is
not clear how the amendment proposes to fund the acquisitions
which have to
be paid in foreign
currency. Zimbabwe is currently
facing
serious foreign currency shortages.
"The government and locals will
have to fork out at least three
trillion Zimbabwe dollars (US$ 3billion) to
take any significant equity in
current mining operations," said Murehwa. -
Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
By
Garikai Chimuka
THE current standoff between the EU and the AU
regarding President
Mugabe's participation at the EU-AU summit to be hosted
by Portugal next
month has raised a number of interesting
points.
As it is now clear that Mugabe will attend and the summit
will still
go on even if British Prime Minister Gordon Brown does not
attend, focus has
now shifted to how to send a clear message to Mugabe that
the EU does not
tolerate what is happening in Zimbabwe.
In
whatever way the EU chooses to communicate this message to Mugabe,
it must
be wary of elevating Mugabe to a martyr, for it is what he is
exactly
looking for. Mugabe's strategy at the summit is to be the point of
focus
through his predictable, now monotonous anti-British and anti-EU
rhetoric.
Given that he has dismally failed at home where his
self-serving
policies have spawned an economic crisis never seen outside of
a war zone,
his approach will be to shift focus from domestic problems and
use his usual
land rhetoric to cast Zimbabwean problems into the hands of
Britain and the
EU.
He believes, that playing the victim of the
British and the EU, he can
gain sympathy, particularly from other African
countries and those
uninitiated about the realities of the genesis of the
Zimbabwean crisis.
So if the EU formally introduces debate on the
human rights situation
as has been suggested in some media reports, Mugabe
will simply outsmart
them by deflating the discourse from human rights to
land issue.
It is in this context that I strongly believe that the
best position
for the EU to take at the summit will be to focus mainly on
the issues on
the agenda and totally ignore Mugabe as if he were not there.
This does not
however mean sweeping the Zimbabwe issue under the carpet but
rather quietly
coming up with decisive actions behind the scenes with other
African
countries to settle the Zimbabwean issue.
Obviousily,
if Mugabe realises that he has been ignored, he will try
by all means to
initiate a media war himself. The EU should proactively work
with the other
progressive African countries to make sure that he is not
given the time to
grandstand on any issues at the summit.
Chimuka writes from the
Netherlands.
Zim Independent
By Jan Raath
IT was Ian Smith's war-damaged left eye that drew
people's attention
first: wide open, heavy-lidded and impassive from
experimental plastic
surgery, it hinted at a dull, characterless nature. The
other was narrow,
slanting and slightly hooded. Being watched by it was an
uncomfortable
experience. Each eye could have belonged to a different
person.
A Foreign Office official, in a biographical note to prime
minister
Sir Alec Douglas Home in 1964, caught the same contradictory
appearances:
"His pedestrian and humourless manner often conceals a shrewder
assessment
of a particular situation than at first appears on the surface,
and he
should not be underrated."
The advice was not heeded. He
held the attention of a fascinated world
for more than 15 years with an
outrageous rebellion against the British
Crown; created a booming economy in
the face of United Nations sanctions;
and on a shoestring fought a
counter-insurgency war that he came close to
winning.
His
ordinariness and lack of artifice helped make him an extraordinary
leader.
Farmer, sportsman and quiet-spoken church-going Presbyterian, he saw
the
world into neat packets of wonderful chaps, terrorists, communists and
traitors.
His cold reserve served him both as a Spitfire pilot
and in the face
of a bawling Harold Wilson. His obstinacy led his personal
secretary, Gerald
Clarke, to pass on to him a British complaint that "once
you have stated
your position, they are unable to get you to
move".
Henry Kissinger perceived honour and courage in Smith when
he
delivered what were effectively the terms of Rhodesia's surrender, and he
wept. He was modest to a fault. He refused to press for the DSO and DFC he
deserved after the war, but was not awarded through oversight.
Throughout most of his tenure at Independence, his official residence,
anyone could walk down the driveway and knock on the front
door.
He was the world's perfect rebel. Wilson was warned there was
a strong
likelihood of a mutiny in the British armed forces if he ordered a
military
suppression of UDI. Former South African foreign minister Pik Botha
said
Smith could have won an election in South Africa in 1976 while Pretoria
was
secretly forcing him to accept black rule.
Smith will
struggle to lose the image of the arch white racist. But
black Zimbabweans
after Independence admired him for his unbending, blunt
criticism of
President Robert Mugabe - giving voice to opinions they dared
not utter. As
economic decay set in, Mugabe would be haunted by the words of
fellow
blacks: "It was better under Smith."
To dismiss his UDI as an
attempt to impose a crude white supremacist
state is a serious
oversimplification. He never evinced the coarse racism of
many of his
colleagues. His was an anachronistic vision of a sovereign
Rhodesia that
embodied the traditions and values of an unchanging empire: he
saw UDI as a
short-term measure that would be quickly resolved, with
Rhodesia independent
but still closely tied to Britain through the
Commonwealth.
The
winds of change shattered his vision. By the time he became prime
minister,
he was up against a Britain that wanted not merely to introduce
black rule,
but to strip his government of the powers of self-rule granted
by Whitehall
in 1923.
With the brutality of post-independence Africa vivid in
the minds of
white Rhodesians, he persisted with "evolutionary, not
revolutionary
change".
Thirty-five years after UDI, the racist
bogey is less clear. But he
remains condemned for ignoring the extreme
disparities between blacks and
whites, and his refusal to change the
situation.
Ian Douglas Smith was born in the village of Selukwe
(now Shurugwi) in
central Rhodesia on April 8 1919, of a Scottish father,
Jock, and
Rhodesian-born mother, Agnes. He was educated at Chaplin school in
Gweru
with moderate academic achievement, captained the first XV and ran the
100
yards in 10 seconds.
He began a Bachelor of Commerce degree
at Rhodes University in South
Africa in 1938, establishing an impressive
academic record and rowing for
the university.
War broke out
and in 1941 he joined the RAF Empire Air Training Scheme
at Guinea Fowl in
central Rhodesia. He was posted to 237 (Rhodesia) squadron
in the Middle
East, flying Hawker Hurricanes.
Taking off from Alexandria on a
dawn patrol in 1943, his throttle
malfunctioned, he lost height and clipped
the barrel of a Bofors gun. He
crashed and rammed his face against the
Hurricane's gunsight. He suffered
severe facial injuries, broke his jaw, a
leg and a shoulder and buckled his
back.
Surgeons at the
Fifteenth Scottish Hospital in Cairo reconstructed his
face and after only
five months he rejoined his squadron in Corsica. He
realised his dream to
fly Spitfire Mark IXs, carrying out strafing raids and
escorting American
bombers. In mid-1944 Captain Smith was leading a raid on
train of fuel
tankers in the Po Valley when he made the mistake of going
back for a second
run.
The Spitfire was hit by an anti-aircraft shell, caught fire
and he
baled out. Within minutes of landing, a German patrol walked past his
hiding
place in a bush. He was soon picked up by the Partisani. The five
months he
spent with them near Sasello, learning Italian, reading
Shakespeare and
working as a peasant, he regarded as one of the best times
of his life.
Near the end of the war, he and three other allied
fugitives made
their way through occupied Italy to the Maritime Alps. At one
point the
conspicuously tall, fair-haired Rhodesian strode unhindered
through a German
checkpoint. He led his tiny group over the mountains,
walking barefoot on
ice, until they reached an American patrol on the other
side.
In 1946, Smith completed his final year at Rhodes
where he was also
elected chairman of the students' representative
council.
In 1948, he bought his farm, Gwenoro, in the plains of
Selukwe,
married Janet Watts and in elections in July, became the Liberal
Party MP
for Selukwe, the youngest MP ever in the Southern Rhodesian
parliament.
Fundamental change shook southern African politics in
1960, when he
was chief whip of the ruling Federal Party in the parliament
of the Rhodesia
and Nyasaland Federation.
Harold MacMillan's
tour of Africa ended with his "winds of change"
speech in the South African
parliament. Rhodesian whites saw from close up
the bloody aftermath of Congo
independence. The federation was breaking up
and independence was inevitable
for Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland as
Zambia and Malawi respectively - but,
to Smith's bitter resentment, not for
Southern Rhodesia.
At
home, the voice of Joshua Nkomo was blowing a tide of black
resistance with
the hitherto unheard of demand for "black majority rule
now".
White opinion hardened. Smith was behind the formation in 1962 of the
Rhodesian Front which easily won elections in December the next year, with
Smith deputy prime minister and minister of finance.
He first
encountered the Foreign Office at a meeting with foreign
secretary Rab
Butler at Victoria Falls in December 1963. Butler grandly
declared that
Britain was "very happy to agree" to independence for Southern
Rhodesia, at
least at the same time as Zambia and Malawi. No minutes were
taken. Smith
asked Butler for the undertaking in writing. Butler demurred
with: "There is
trust between members of the British Commonwealth."
Smith wagged
his finger at Butler, and said: "If you break that, you
will live to regret
it."
The expression "perfidious Albion" was fixed in his vocabulary
from
then on.
In April 1964, Smith became the RF's leader and
prime minister. Almost
immediately, he imprisoned the entire leadership of
the black nationalist
movement, and paralysed it for a decade. Wilson's
Labour victory in October
that year was a drastic setback to Smith's
hopes.
He rebuffed Wilson's opening approaches. It took Winston
Churchill's
funeral in January 1965 to bring them together.
Smith attended the funeral, but was not invited to the lunch
afterwards at
Buckingham Palace. He was at his hotel when the Queen's
Equerry arrived, and
expressed Her Majesty's surprise at his absence.
Smith left
immediately and was warmly received by the Queen and Prince
Philip. Wilson
also buttonholed him there and asked him to come to 10
Downing Street that
afternoon.
Both men surprised each other at the absence of personal
animosity,
but their discussions were the first in 15 years of missed
chances.
By October, it was becoming increasingly clear that
Rhodesia was
heading for a unilateral declaration of
independence.
Smith - reinforced by a clean sweep by the RF in an
election in May -
held that illegal independence and "the maintenance of
civilised standards"
was better than the chaos that white Rhodesia believed
would follow an
African government.
The government was fully
organised for the likelihood of sanctions.
Fuel stocks were built up and
other essential commodities distributed. Smith
had secured the support of
South African prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd and
Portuguese president
Antonio Salazar, for the continuity of Rhodesia's trade
routes through South
Africa and Mozambique.
There followed a series of last-ditch
shuttles. Smith went to London
on October 5, but his talks with Wilson ended
with a communique concluding
that their positions were "irreconcilable".
Wilson went on television with
his grave appeal to Smith: "Prime minister,
think again."
Ten days later Wilson was in Salisbury, with fresh
proposals, which
Smith rejected.
There was an unexpected
personal understanding between the two men.
They were on first-name terms,
and Smith remarked afterwards "he was closer
to us than he was to them"
(Nkomo and Sithole whom Wilson met on this trip).
Wilson also
betrayed his sympathies with his remark: "I don't think
Rhodesia is in a
position to have one-man, one-vote tomorrow."
On November 5, Smith
declared a state of emergency. His cabinet met on
November 10 to discuss
final arrangements for UDI. At 7.30 pm British high
commissioner Jack
Johnstone was allowed to present the meeting with an
appeal from Wilson.
Wilson telephoned Smith at 8.30 the next morning, when
the cabinet was about
to take the final vote. For 30 minutes, Wilson pleaded
quietly. Smith told
him it had already gone too far.
He returned to the cabinet room
and told them of his discussion with
Wilson. He asked each of his 15
ministers in turn to say "yes" or "no." It
was a unanimous yes.
The declaration was signed in a nearby conference room, beneath a
portrait
of the young Queen Elizabeth, and for the first time since American
independence in 1776, a British colony was in rebellion.
Smith
delivered his radio address, telling a stunned and frightened
nation: "So
far and no further". Then he went home to bed.
"I was immensely
upset," he wrote later. "There was within my whole
system a very strong
desire to preserve my links with the history and
tradition and culture I had
been brought up to believe in. It was a terrible
decision."
In
December 1966, with Wilson's forecast of UDI being "a matter of
weeks rather
than months" firmly buried, Smith, with British governor Sir
Humphrey Gibbs,
was in an RAF Britannia on its way to Gibraltar and the
frigate, HMS Tiger,
for the first contact with Wilson in over a year.
Smith was given a
spell at the controls. For 25 minutes rebel prime
minister was alone in the
cockpit of a British aircraft with Her Majesty's
governor aboard, while the
crew had a break. Aboard the frigate, Wilson
tried to humiliate Smith. He
took the admiral's cabin and put the Rhodesians
in non-commissioned quarters
with a shared toilet.
In their first meeting, he shouted at Smith.
Smith rose, stared out at
the Mediterranean for interminable minutes and
then told Wilson to behave
himself. Back in Salisbury, his cabinet rejected
the proposals.
Wilson and Smith next met in October 1968 aboard HMS
Fearless. This
time Wilson, on the advice of his secretary, Lady Falkender,
treated Smith
hospitably, but resolution remained elusive.
Edward Heath's Conservative government in 1970 made far more progress
with
Smith and an agreement was ready for conclusion, pending only the
approval
of the black population. Unrest and overwhelming resistance greeted
Lord
Pearce's mission to assess black opinion, and the bid failed.
The
ensuing 70s ended the complacency of booming, peaceful UDI
Rhodesia.
Guerilla forces opened their long war against Smith with an attack
on Altena
farm in Mount Darwin in December 1972. In April 1974, the
right-wing regime
in Portugal was toppled in a coup. In October 1974, South
African prime
minister John Vorster launched his policy of "détente" with
black
Africa.
He demanded that Smith release the black nationalist
leaders in
detention. Smith gave in and agreed, and the relationship with
his most
important ally was suddenly undermined.
Without
warning Smith, Vorster removed the contingent of South African
police
guarding the northern border against guerilla incursions. Smith was
shocked.
One could expect this from the British, he said, but now with the
South
Africans, "there was obvious deceit".
Vorster kept on squeezing
Smith. The supply from South Africa of fuel,
munitions and aircraft spares
for what was now a substantial war began to
dry up. The Rhodesian war effort
was severely curtailed.
Smith's impotent anger was clear in his
remark then: "I longed for
those carefree days when I was flying around the
skies in my Spitfire,
saying to myself: 'let anyone cross my path and he
will have to take what
comes his way'." Vorster's first attempt to bring
Smith and the black
nationalists together was in August 1975, in the
majestic setting of South
Africa's luxury White Train parked in the middle
of the bridge over the
Victoria Falls.
Smith laid down his
position, the nationalists barked demands and they
broke up in a muddle
after about an hour.
His trip to Pretoria on September 18 1976, to
meet United States
secretary of state Henry Kissinger, signalled the final
stage of his
rebellion. A few months before he had made his famously
regrettable
statement: "I don't believe in black majority rule ever in
Rhodesia, not in
a thousand years."
The trip began
inauspiciously. At a rugby test match between the
Springboks and the All
Blacks, Vorster had the Rhodesian delegation shunted
to the side of the VIP
stand, well away from his own group. "We were on our
own," Smith
said.
The meeting in the American embassy in Pretoria was an event
of great
emotion for both the Rhodesian farmer and the world's most powerful
diplomat. Kissinger proposed black majority rule in two years, and any
subsequent proposals would be infinitely worse.
As he spelt out
the situation, he was wiping tears away from his eyes.
"This is the first
time in my life I have asked anyone to commit political
suicide," he told
Smith. "You have no alternative. I feel for you."
Smith was sunk in
despair, but awed by Kissinger. "He spoke with
obvious sincerity and there
was great emotion in his voice. For a while
words escaped him," he
said.
Kissinger's ultimatum was "the coup de grace", he said. "We
were
rudderless after that."
In September 1977, Smith did the
unthinkable. Without consulting his
cabinet, he flew to Lusaka in the
private jet of Lonrho chairman Tiny
Rowland, for a day's talks with Kenneth
Kaunda, a few kilometres from a
major guerilla base. The Zambian president
"couldn't have been kinder", but
the initiative failed.
Smith
again tried to settle without the rest of the world and pursued
a settlement
outside the military alliance between Nkomo's and Robert Mugabe's
Patriotic
Front. On March 1978, he signed the "internal agreement" with
Bishop Abel
Muzorewa, the Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and two tribal
leaders.
The country's first one-man, one-vote elections in
April 1979 drew a
63% turnout, were won by Muzorewa's United African
National Council and the
country became Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. Nearly no-one
recognised it and the war
continued. Smith vacated his office and
Independence for Muzorewa on May 31
1979 and moved into a plain
double-storey in the suburbs.
Margaret Thatcher's Conservative
victory in May finally resulted in
the Lancaster House constitutional
conference in London under foreign
secretary Lord Carrington.
Smith was irrelevant at Lancaster House, raging fruitlessly against
the
"treachery" of almost everyone from Carrington to members of his own
delegation. When they voted in November on the proposed constitution, Smith
was the only dissenter.
He boycotted the post-agreement party,
and went to dinner instead with
former RAF colleagues and Douglas Bader. He
refused to attend the
"nauseating" signing ceremony on December 19. On March
2 1980, near the end
of vote counting in the just-ended election, it was
clear that Zanu PF was
heading for an overwhelming victory. Smith was
surprised to receive a call
to meet Mugabe at his house.
Mugabe
assured Smith he would adhere to a private enterprise economy
and to retain
the confidence of the whites. He referred to the country as
"this jewel of
Africa".
Smith went home in astonishment and told Janet he hoped he
had not
been hallucinating. Mugabe "behaved like a balanced Western
gentleman, the
antithesis of the communist gangster I had expected," he
said.
Zanu PF won 57 out of the 80 black seats created by the new
constitution, but the RF won all 20 white seats, with Smith still the party
leader. For the Independence celebrations on April 18, he went on holiday to
South Africa, telling Mugabe it would be "the tactful thing to do". The two
men met several times, until in 1981 Smith criticised his plans for a
one-party state. Mugabe stopped the meetings.
In December 1982
Smith was briefly arrested, his Harare and Gwenoro
homes were searched and
he was forced to surrender his passport. To Mugabe's
chagrin, Smith was
returned to parliament in the 1985 elections, but a year
later was suspended
for denouncing black majority rule, and again in 1987
for dismissing
Mugabe's threats of sanctions against South Africa as "a
waste of time".
Before he could return, the constitutional provision for 20
reserved white
seats was abolished.
Smith leaves behind two stepchildren, Robert
and Jean, from Janet's
previous marriage. His and Janet's own son, Alec,
died of a heart attack in
London last year, to Smith's deep grief.
Zim Independent
By Denford
Magora
AMBITION is not necessarily a bad thing, but when it is
ambition for
its own sake, the consequences can be enduringly devastating.
This is why
some among us have always expressed our disquiet that the
mission of the
opposition MDC seems not to be the delivery of a better
Zimbabwe.
Rather, it appears that the purpose of the MDC's
existence as defined
by its leaders and their die-hard cohorts is to replace
the ruling Zanu PF
at Munhumutapa Building. This replacement has become an
end in itself.
Viewed in this context, the fratricidal infighting
within the MDC
makes perfect sense: Morgan Tsvangirai is not motivated by
the desire to see
a better Zimbabwe. Rather he is driven by an overarching
desire to be
president, regardless of anything else really.
Of
late Tsvangirai and his followers have demonstrated they are
willing to walk
to State House on a carpet of the dead bodies of free speech
and a free
media. Lacking the authoritative power to silence the media that
points out
the inconvenient truths, MDC supporters have recently been
attempting to
intimidate observers into silence.
Trevor Ncube, the publisher of
this paper, is now apparently a Zanu PF
apologist, according to some who
have responded to his musings on the way
forward for our battered nation.
His crime: pointing out that the fight the
MDC has been engaged in is
unwinnable on the terms that it set out for
itself.
Advocating
compromise, Ncube is immediately called a traitor. But a
traitor to whom? To
the ego of the Tsvangirai faction of the MDC?
Then certainly Ncube
should wear that badge with honour. And he can do
so with the knowledge
that, since 1998, we have been pursuing a pipedream
engineered by the MDC
leader and his followers. Still, there is no end in
sight.
Time
is running out because the longer we continue to dig, the harder
it will be
for us to clamber out of the hole we find ourselves in. The
nation cannot
afford the MDC "strategy" of letting Zanu PF implode in the
hope that in
picking up the pieces, we will also then pick up our salvation.
We
will not be sacrificed on the altar of Tsvangirai's ambition. We
will not go
quietly into the night. If Tsvangirai and his followers want to
rule sheep,
then they should be farmers, not politicians. People, on the
other hand, are
another matter entirely.
Much as it may surprise the followers of
Tsvangirai, his bit of the
MDC does not have a monopoly on brains. We also
think. We can also reason.
We can see when we are being led like lambs to
the slaughter and it is our
right to refuse to play along. When we so
refuse, it serves no purpose to
force us to think like lemmings. The days of
blind loyalty, unconditional
belief in the wisdom of political leaders and
collectivism in everything
including thought died with the Iron
Curtain.
Unless, of course, the MDC is a club of like-minded people
like the
Masons. In which case, the club must speak only for its members and
stop
claiming to be speaking on behalf of the whole nation. If that were the
case, and the MDC were not staking a claim to our conscience, then we would
let them bludgeon each other in peace.
But that is not the
case. The MDC says it stands for the people. That's
me. And Trevor Ncube.
And every person who carries a Zimbabwean ID or has
the right to one. When
it sabotages itself, the MDC is doing so in my name
and in the name of every
person who wants a better Zimbabwe.
So it is quite alright for
Ncube to be entirely dissatisfied with the
way the MDC is conducting its
affairs and to offer suggestions and make
observations. So why should we not
have a say? And having a say is by no
means only confined to nodding our
heads and turning a blind eye.
This country's future belongs to all
of us. At birth, we each bought a
share in the company Zimbabwe Inc just by
virtue of being. The value of our
shares in this country is being eroded
every day from both sides of the
political divide and we have reason to not
only be disappointed but to also
openly express our dissatisfaction. After
all, freedom of expression happens
to be the dividend from our shareholding
in this country.
We must, therefore be alarmed when the MDC and its
agents appear to
fear the power of ideas, for we subscribe to the belief
that our future
should be one where different ideas are explored, if not
embraced. But never
dismissed.
Even as the MDC leader is busy
pumping bullets into his own foot, his
blind followers insist that we should
ignore the fact that they are pointing
to him as the man whom we should send
off to fetch us water.
Our faith has been solely sorely over the
last decade and our thirst
is so great and the least we can do is speak out
and demand better
representation and protection of our interests. This is
one inalienable
right we claim and which nobody, even God, has no right to
take away.
Indeed, it is the premise of the Christian faith that God gave
man choice.
Man can choose to worship Him or to worship Satan or indeed to
worship no
one at all. If God recognises the right of man to make his own
choice and
speak his own mind, then when the MDC denies us this right it is
making
itself out to be bigger, mightier and morally superior to
God.
At the root of our problem, then, is the fact that we are
faced with a
double calamity. Those who want to replace the failed people in
government
do not themselves inspire confidence. If anything, they are
displaying
alarming signs of being no better than a different face of the
same beast.
Ncube is not advocating the destruction of the MDC, so there is
no
justification for calling him a Zanu PF apologist. Instead, he is calling
for the strengthening of our nation.
It just so happens that,
to some people, the strengthening of our
nation is equivalent to the
destruction of the MDC. Hence these people snipe
at the heels of every
person who demands that the national interest be put
before the interests of
the MDC. In which case it becomes not only valid but
imperative to ask the
question: do we need the MDC? If so, what for?
If the argument, as
one so often hears, is that the mere removal of
Robert Mugabe from power is
enough to guarantee the redemption of this
nation, then it follows that
almost anybody will do.
We must then ask: with all the repressive,
intolerant traits evident
in the way the MDC is conducting its affairs, why
does it have to be them
and no other?
They have no programme
apart from the begging bowl out, in the process
perpetuating our nation's
status as the street kid of the global village.
They have no specific vision
apart from whatever meaning they choose to
attach to the words better and
change.
So again we ask: do we need the MDC?
Denford
Magora is a Harare-based writer.
Zim Independent
By Magari
Mandebvu
HEROES don't last very long these days. That can be
good and it can be
bad.
The good side of it is that it makes us
less likely to trust anyone
unconditionally. The hero won't save us all on
his own without asking for
some reward.
If the reward for
removing an unpopular president or is that the hero
gets the presidency -
hokoyo!
He may be very good for a while, but unquestioned power is
bad for
anybody - Robert Mugabe or Morgan Tsvangirai. We need, at least, to
question
our heroes - often.
As a wise man once said, "the
price of liberty is constant vigilance".
The bad side of this
tendency is that, as soon as we discover that our
hero has some fault,
however small, in the media and in a lot of people's
estimation, he goes
instantly from hero to zero. Or hero to villain. Or, if
he is lucky, he only
goes from hero to bumbling incompetent.
But hold on a moment. Is
real life made up of only those extremes?
Is everybody either a
hero or a zero? What if you treated your family
like that? How long would
your marriage last if your spouse had to be either
perfect or
useless?
I won't ask how long your children would be allowed to
stay in the
house if you were to throw them out the first time they gave you
problems.
If that was your attitude, you would have thrown your
spouse out long
before you could produce children capable of disobeying
you.
Yes, we do have more ways of resolving problems with those
close to us
than we do with political leaders, but why should we expect all
our
politicians to be either angels or devils? They are human.
Like the rest of us, they have a bit of the angel and a bit of the
devil in
every one of them. That means that very few of them can ever be
accurately
be summed up in a newspaper headline or a radio "soundbite".
And
that means we must not rush to judge them until we are sure we
have enough
facts. It also means that we have to learn which imperfect
politician is
less dangerous than his or her rivals. After all, we know that
any man who
has been married for years and says his wife is perfect is a
liar.
The same goes for any married woman's judgement of her
husband. Both
have to learn to live with the less than perfect spouse they
have. It doesn't
mean they would have been any happier married to somebody
else.
Now, I am not arguing any political line, but I do want to
offer a few
questions that might make us all slow down when newspaper
headlines seem to
say that another hero has fallen to the depths. It might
be less provocative
if I start by talking about someone who is no longer
with us. My questions
are my own. You may have your well-considered answers,
based on more facts
than I have, on this one.
I have heard
people, even during the struggle, question the late
Herbert Ushewokunze's
dedication to the socialist ideals he preached.
Yes, we know he had
big faults, but he tried harder than others I know
to teach those ideals. As
Minister of Health, he worked hard to create a
system that served the
people.
We know the stories about how, if he heard poor people were
badly
treated at some clinic, he himself went there, in an old suit and
manyatera.
If he, looking like a poor villager, was treated badly,
he returned
the next day in his ministerial car and sacked the people
responsible.
Now stop and ask yourself: don't you know other
people, maybe a man
who seriously tries to follow the rules of his church
but is likely to lapse
from them seriously from time to time?
You might be careful not to let your daughter near a man like that, or
not
to offer him alcohol, but those who know him know he is trying to
overcome
his problem.
Was the late Ushewokunze that kind of socialist? As I
said, you might
be better able to answer that question than I am, but it
seems worth asking.
Now to a more topical question. Because it is
more topical, it will be
more controversial, but I feel it must be asked
before we all rush into
hasty judgement. We heard of the rather sudden
elevation of Therese Makone
within the MDC, and then of her being dropped
because she was a friend of
Jocelyn Chiwenga.
Stop a moment and
ask yourself: is my enemy's friend always my enemy?
Or is my friend's friend
always my friend? Makone and Chiwenga could have
become friends because they
were neighbours.
Must they break all contact because they now
support different
political parties? Must I refuse to talk to somebody
because I disagree with
their actions?
Would not a real friend
of someone who has gone wrong, even very badly
wrong, look for opportunities
to advise and criticise, as a friend? Though I
myself have broken with an
old friend over differences: not because he
joined the cabinet, not because
he was sacked for corruption, but because he
bounced back from that
unrepentant. If he's never listening, why talk to
him?
On the
other hand, if Makone behaved like Chiwenga, even if she wouldn't
know her
from a bar of soap, that wouldn't offer any hope that, given the
chance, she
would improve on the system we groan under now.
Anyone who behaves
like that should be drummed out of any party that
claims to have the
people's interests at heart.
So nobody is accusing Therese Makone
of being that bad? I'm glad to
hear it. But is there any strong reason to
say she would be better heading
the MDC women's wing than Lucia
Matibenga?
If there isn't, there are a lot of other good posts
where someone with
her undeniable drive and energy could be very useful.
That opens a lot more
questions and don't blame the press if you don't get
all the answers on a
plate, or in one edition of even this
paper.
The trouble is that fast modern communications lead to more
demand for
fast, immediate and spectacular news.
It is more
difficult for anyone to publish real, in-depth analysis.
But we do need it.
We have to work harder to keep up that vigilance that is
the price of
freedom.
One closing question: why has Tsvangirai attracted so much
criticism
recently? Is he considered a failure because he hasn't got into
State House
yet? He's got nearer to it than anyone else in nearly 30 years -
and before
that he wasn't ineffectual. Didn't he significantly help that
Zanu PF
invention, the ZCTU, to become an independent labour
movement?
That takes skill; has he lost all that skill? I am not
suggesting
answers to any of these questions, but they do seem to be
questions that
need to be answered.
If anybody out there has
answers, I don't suppose that I am the only
one who would be glad of a
little enlightenment.
Magari Mandebvu writes from Harare.
Zim Independent
Comment
RESERVE Bank governor Gideon Gono this week scored a point
against
evil. Whether that ultimately translates into a policy victory
against
unnecessary encroachment by the establishment in what amounts to the
day-to-day running of business remains to be seen.
After weeks
of anxiety and uncertainty across all sectors of the
economy, Gono on
Tuesday announced that there would be no second price blitz
to force
importers of basic commodities to charge unrealistic prices. He
said a wrong
impression had also been created that government wanted to ban
the
importation of basic goods.
In the light of the scarcity of goods
on the formal market, Gono said
"we welcome imported goods and products in
our market as we wait for local
products to fill those shelves. If we take
out the products without
replacing them, all that we would have created are
empty shelves," Gono told
a press conference in Harare.
The
good thing is that the author of all the uncertainty and anxiety
among
producers and consumers alike, National Incomes and Pricing Commission
chair
Godwills Masimirembwa, was sitting next to the governor. It was
Masimirembwa, in a moment of "irrational exuberance", who gave companies
stocking foreign goods an ultimatum to clear them by November 22 or face a
mass invasion as happened in July.
Over the past few weeks
since his appointment to that ivory tower
post, Masimirembwa has not pulled
punches, showing how power can suddenly
breed dangerous arrogance in a
man.
He has rejected pleas by business that often they fund some of
their
key components through imports obtained at onerous black market rates
and
therefore cannot adhere to prices that his commission plucks from the
air.
In fact, he is demanding that businesses justify their prices, but will
not
listen when they explain what they are doing.
Masimirembwa
told The Voice newspaper last week that another price
murambatsvina was on
the way. "Definitely there is going to be another price
blitz as we have
discovered that shops are now filled with imported goods
which are
substituting essential local products," he said. "The local
products are
supposed to be cheap, but they are not in the shops and are
only found on
the parallel market."
This week he was forced to recant, pretending
he always knew that
imported goods acted as a "buffer to complement internal
production levels".
He said mistrust and suspicion had been created
among stakeholders
about what needs to be done: "Consistent with this, I
wish to clarify that
it is not factual that NIPC had or ever contemplated
banning the sale of
imported goods in our shops," said Masimirembwa on
Tuesday. "To the
contrary, the imported goods are essential to complement
internal production
levels."
But even that misses the essential
point, which is that the country is
relying on imports because local
manufacturers are not allowed to charge
economic prices for their goods.
Manufacturers can also not produce freely
when there is constant fear of
company takeovers by a predatory state.
On the other hand, shop
owners face a serious dilemma - they cannot
stock sufficient goods when
there is fear that they may be raided without
warning and have all their
goods looted to punish "profiteering" or "errant
businesspeople", as
Masimirembwa calls them. When they take the risk and
stock the goods, they
are not allowed to recover costs. In short, we have
come to a point where
businesses are treated like charity organisations
which survive on donor
support.
Masimirembwa and his principals might be right that many
basic
commodities which are missing from the formal market are found in
abundance
on the black market. This is because the same people they are
trying to
protect, the poor, loot the cheap goods from the shops to sell
them to
fellow sufferers at satanic profits. Unfortunately, they don't
produce.
Then of course there is the fundamental issue that price
controls per
se cannot provide a sustainable solution to the crisis of
inflation and high
consumer prices. Instead of the pricing commission
harassing producers and
retailers, they should be monitoring people given
free seed, fuel, ploughs
and tractors that they are putting these to
productive use. This is the root
of all our problems: until we increase
productivity on the farms we shall
continue to run in circles and targeting
the wrong people for blame. Gono
should make this elementary truth clear to
his principals, and Masimirembwa
should revert to his role as a fulltime
Herald columnist and stay out of
economic matters.
Zim Independent
Candid Comment
THE story of Rhodesia has been told and retold many times by
historians and those who seek to understand the country's dramatic history.
Former Rhodesian premier Ian Smith, who died on Tuesday, features
prominently in that story.
The history of Rhodesia spans
colonial invasion, repression,
exploitation, suffering, rebellion, war and
independence.
It is also a story of economic prosperity at one
time, greed and
corruption by a white ruling elite that monopolised the
economy while
marginalising the black majority. After independence, efforts
to transform
the economy led to the enrichment of a clique of the political
and business
elite, while impoverishing the masses.
But it was
Smith's UDI rebellion against Britain in 1965 which
propelled the then
colonial backwater led by parochial racists on to the
world
stage.
Rhodesia under a hardnosed Smith became a long tragedy
punctuated by
melodramatic events - fierce clashes between rival armies,
confrontational
rhetoric and false promises, secret meetings and
negotiations, angry
encounters on ships, sham elections, and eventually the
final resolution.
Smith, whose colonial regime could not and would
not see beyond white
supremacy, fashioned and presided over a violent and
repressive state. He
crafted draconian laws and put in place a repressive
state apparatus used to
dominate the oppressed and maintain power at all
costs.
His arsenal of autocratic legislation was so formidable that
it could
easily quash the opposition and stifle liberties. There was
institutionalised discrimination and terror.
Those opposed to
Smith were frequently arrested and detained mostly
under the Law and Order
(Maintenance) Act and Emergency Powers Act. Curfews
were commonplace. The
reliance on military and police repression and the
neglect of civilians'
hearts and minds was most pronounced, especially in
rural areas, the
principal theatre of war during the 1970s. That was Smith's
Rhodesia.
However, there is an interesting irony we cannot
escape about
President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Mugabe inherited a colonial
legacy in
the form of a violent state, repressive laws and political
intolerance. He
also inherited a strong economy from Smith, which he is
destroying with
reckless abandon.
Instead of transforming the
repressive Rhodesian state, Mugabe kept
its key institutions largely
unreformed, including military and security
personnel. For instance, Peter
Walls remained commander of the army, while
Ken Flower headed the CIO, a
largely unreformed Rhodesian creature. The
Rhodesian era Joint Operations
Command remains up to now.
Smith's repressive laws were later used
by Mugabe to arrest and detain
his former liberation struggle allies, mostly
Zapu leaders. The bitter irony
is that Mugabe used Smith's laws and jails to
deal with Zapu leaders - the
same laws used against him and them during the
liberation struggle.
Gukurahundi atrocities were largely
perpetrated through the Fifth
Brigade and Rhodesian state security
structures and laws. The brutality
under Mugabe during the 1980s was in some
respects the same as the
repression under Smith if not worse.
Ordinary people who did not agree with Mugabe's one-party state agenda
also
fell victim of the laws inherited from Smith. Up to this day, the
repressive
apparatus put in place by Smith is still being viciously used to
arrest,
detain and silence Zimbabweans - the same people who supported
Mugabe on his
way to power.
This reminds me of Frantz Fanon's insightful book,
The Wretched of the
Earth. From here onwards Fanon takes over: The people
who for years on end
have seen their liberation leader and heard him speak,
followed his contests
with the colonial power, put their trust in this
patriot.
Before independence, the leader generally embodies the
aspirations of
the people for independence, but soon afterwards the leader
will reveal his
inner purpose: to become the general president of that
"company of
profiteers impatient for their returns.
In spite of
his frequently honest conduct and his sincere
declarations, the leader loses
contact with the masses. The leader asks the
people to fall back into the
past and to become drunk on the remembrance of
the epoch which led up to
independence.
From time to time, however, the leader makes an
effort; he speaks on
the radio or makes a tour of the country to pacify the
people.
The leader is all the more necessary in that there is no
party. The
party has sadly disintegrated; nothing is left but the shell of a
party, the
name, the emblem and the motto.
Opposition parties
are liquidated through beatings and stonings. The
opposition candidates see
their houses set on fire. The police increase
their repression.
This party, which used to call itself the servant of the people,
hastens to
send the people back to their caves.
It becomes, in fact, the tribe
which constitutes itself into a party.
This party which proclaims to be
national, and which claims to speak in the
name of the totality of the
people, sometimes degenerates into a tribal
dictatorship. Ministers,
ambassadors and civil servants are chosen from the
same ethnic group as the
leader, sometimes directly from his own family.
This imposture and
intellectual and spiritual poverty does not cause anger
but
shame.
Such leaders are the true traitors in Africa, for they sell
their
country to the most terrifying of all its enemies: stupidity. It's
Fanon
speaking, not me!
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
THE issue of worship is often an emotive subject that has
caused
conflict - both subtle and physical - among nations and individuals.
In all
forms of worship there are certain basic tenets expected of
followers.
These include respect for the sanctity of life,
upholding moral values
to do with sexual relations, marriage, respect for
elders and so on.
In the Christian faith - which I am more familiar
with - the Bible is
the key manual of values and principles which have also
been adopted by
individuals and groupings who do not necessarily want to be
labelled
followers of Christ. Such is the wholesomeness of the Bible that it
forms
the foundation of many laws in many countries including
ours.
But Christian groups have enforced biblical principles with
varying
degrees of tolerance and strictness.
There are sects
which believe that sinners should stand atop the
nearest soapbox to confess
their transgressions publicly.
There are others who believe that
the same act of confession can be
done in front of a pastor who "intercedes"
between the sinner and God, while
others feel that confession can be done
quietly through meditation and
prayer.
I have been to a
congregation where a philandering gosa (deacon) was
forced to spell out in
graphic detail his exploits with a single mother from
the same
denomination.
The confession, punctuated by shouts of "Amen" and
"God is good", as
far as I saw it, provided great entertainment value to the
perverted spirits
in the church who urged the poor fellow to reveal
more.
All this in the name of building the body of Christ, I
wondered? In
the end there was great celebration, tears and prayer. The
pastor declared
that the poor guy's sins had been forgiven and he had "been
purified by the
blood of Jesus".
Among other Christian
groupings it's a sin to watch television, seek
medical treatment, take
contraceptives or to put on make-up. Others enforce
the rule of tithing with
military precision - to the extent of applying a
garnish.
The
differences in the enforcement of values and principles are a
matter of
degree. There are sects which see nothing wrong with polygamy or
marrying
minors. Others prohibit the playing of drums and instruments in
church while
others see prayer en-mass as demonic.
There are those whose
ministries have been built around magical
episodes of healing and casting
out of demons.
Others see nothing wrong with drinking alcohol and
smoking. They all
say they worship the same God. In all these congregations,
people willingly
become members and they will confess that their lives have
never been the
same since their association with the sect.
Amid
such variations to worship, Bishop Trevor Manhanga, in an article
in the
Sunday Mail this week, proposed that religion should be regulated to
rid the
Christian faith of rogue pastors and churches which he believes have
devious
designs.
He says regulation should punish errant churches, pastors
and leaders
because there is so much evil happening in the name of
religion.
I share Bishop Manhanga's concerns that there is growing
worship
without God but who then is the paragon of virtue to lord it over
errant
Christians and enforce discipline? Can it be humanly done in
this world where all have sinned and will continue to sin?
Bishop
Manhanga's plan is bereft of moral grounds of execution. He
tries to equate
religion with medicine and law where strict regulation is
enforced and
culprits punished by law.
I believe Manhanga is head of a church
because of a calling and not
the law. He does not practise religion because
of training but because he
committed his life to saving souls, he will
confess to this. He should
concentrate on this ministry and not invite
government to regulate religion.
Manhanga falls short of saying
there should be a law to ban errant
Christian leaders from practising
religion or that they undergo
reconstruction and rehabilitation. Under whose
stewardship I ask?
What has happened to the right to worship as
enshrined in our
constitution? I am even more worried about the mechanisms
of setting up
religious regulation.
It is not only Christianity
whose ethics require scrutiny. There is no
common ground of ethical issues
among Christians, Moslems, animists,
Nazarenes and so on.
Also,
people are free in this country to form churches and register
them. That is
how Manhanga's church came into being, legally that is.
Instead of
trying to awaken government to a possible nascent avenue of
control, he
should be worried about how the church in Zimbabwe is slowly
being suborned
to the state with leaders pushing slogans in support of
tyranny and
misrule.
In the Bible, was it not the role of prophets to caution
transgressing
leaders instead of consorting with them?
I
shudder at the prospects of a political appointee deciding between
good
churches and bad ones.
Which ones will be the good ones? Those that
sing loudest in praise of
the incumbent? Those that troop to the airport to
meet our dear leader or
those who owe their existence to state
largesse?
Zim Independent
MuckRaker
VP Joseph Msika has added a new item to the country's
luxuries. He
told Zanu PF supporters at the weekend that there was no need
to remove
President Mugabe from office so long as he continues to serve the
people.
"We do not change leaders as fast as we change our shirts,"
said
Msika. "In Zimbabwe we do not accept that. So the issue of changing a
leader
after a specified period is out of the question. It is a luxury we
cannot
afford. If they are still serving the people, then they should stay
on or
even die there," Msika said with a straight face despite the grinding
poverty in the country.
Although he said Zimbabwe has continued
to excel despite so-called
Western-induced sanctions, he didn't have a shred
of evidence for his
captive audience, except inflation of nearly 15 000% and
unemployment now
estimated at 80%. That's all the evidence one needs to show
how far removed
from reality Zimbabwe's leaders are.
But this
new template for Zimbabwe's leadership shows us more: that
none of those in
the Zanu PF presidium wants to leave office alive unless
they are forced to
do so. One wonders what price is enough for Zimbabweans
to be freed from the
arthritic clutches of these octogenarians.
Another minister
living in cloud cuckooland is Information minister
Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu.
Speaking at a function for vocational training in Bulawayo
last week,
he said Zimbabwe's unemployment was being exaggerated by the
country's
detractors. He said a woman selling potatoes or tomatoes by the
roadside
could not be called unemployed. The same applied to youths selling
cigarettes, he said.
If this is not desperation to defend the
indefensible, then we don't
know what is. And this is what Msika means by
Mugabe still serving the
people and therefore deserving to remain in office
for another five years?
Finally Reserve Bank governor Gideon
Gono speaks. He said they had
adopted a wait-and-see attitude regarding the
shortage of cash at banks.
He also said there will be no second
price blitz as threatened by
National Incomes and Pricing Commission
chairperson Godwills Masimirembwa.
"We want to allay fears borne
out of the speculation that the country
was heading back to the blitz as was
seen some weeks back," said Gono.
"The rumours and speculation
themselves seem to have emanated from
misquotes of what the NIPC had said in
respect of all imported goods," he
said.
With that, Gono said
there would be no price blitz on imported goods.
But the anxieties were not
entirely due to speculation and rumour. According
to the Zanu PF mouthpiece,
The Voice, Masimirembwa said it.
"Definitely, there is going to be
another price blitz as we have
discovered that shops are now filled with
imported goods which are
substituting local products," Masimirembwa told The
Voice of November 11.
"These local products are supposed to be
cheap, but they are not in
the shops and are only found on the parallel
market."
He didn't care then that a new price blitz would have as
disastrous
consequences as the first one in July, which Gono had opposed to
no avail.
Apparently after some stern warning by Gono, Masimirembwa
was forced
to beat a haste retreat, unctuously telling reporters at the
joint press
conference on Tuesday that the NIPC had "never contemplated"
banning the
importation of goods.
"In an environment of
mistrust, suspicions among stakeholders, it is
very easy for negativities to
be multiplied and spread like veld fires," he
said.
And
negative is all he has been since that mighty leap from the pages
of the
Herald to the top of the NIPC. We can only hope that he has learnt
his
lesson about negative emissions.
The MDC must be a hell of an
unfortunate opposition party. At every
stage some one wants to infiltrate it
to make life rosy for the bundling
Zanu PF.
The party hasn't
recovered from convulsions it suffered when some of
its members were bought
by Zanu PF and enticed to break away. In the past
few weeks it has been
fighting for its soul after one of its most trusted
lieutenants in the form
of Lucia Matibenga was infiltrated and turned
Lucifer by challenging her
removal as head of the vociferous women's
assembly.
She lost
her case in court, and there were celebrations in the party.
Her issue
became "water under the bridge" following the restaurant cabinet
meeting in
Bulawayo which chose Theresa Makone as its leader.
But that became
not all. At the weekend there were reports of more
fighting in the party.
Matibenga's ghost was seen making its way towards the
party headquarters at
Harvest House. It was only the swift reaction of the
party's vigilant
militia that saved Morgan Tsvangirai from mortal danger.
The
vigilante "kicked, kneed and felled" the group of women who were
making
their way to meet the party leader over some unresolved "issues",
according
to state media reports.
This time even the MDC's organising
secretary defended the leader's
"unacceptable" sacking of Matibenga, saying
the youth wing had been
infiltrated. Whatever the case, said Elias Mudzuri,
those who beat up
"friends of Matibenga" were not bona fide MDC
youths.
So which wing of the party is not yet infiltrated by the
enemy we
wonder?
here was a hilarious report in the Sunday
Mail this week in which we
were told that Zimbabwe was more than ready to
counter a British invasion.
Former British armed forces boss Lord
Charles Guthrie is said to have
"revealed" that Britain had considered
invading Zimbabwe on several
occasions. The paper said the plan had not been
executed for fear of
Zimbabwe's military capabilities.
Presidential spokesperson George Charamba spun out of control, saying
a plan
had been operationalised.
"We were also aware that short of a
full-fledged invasion, the British
were and are still contemplating the
elimination of our political leadership
through a number of assassinations,"
he said.
The report said former British premier Tony Blair had been
told the
Zimbabwe Defence Forces was "a very capable" army. The evidence for
this
reputation were the wars in Mozambique and the DRC more than five years
ago!
A delusional "defence source" also tried to demonstrate that
Zimbabwe
had defeated the British during its liberation war of the 1970s.
"Britain
also indirectly fought Zimbabwe's two liberation movements during
the
Rhodesian war and was thus aware of Zimbabwe's defence establishment
from
this historical experience," the defence source warned.
We
were reminded of Italy's Benito Mussolini fooling his fellow
gangster Hitler
that he could mobilise a thousand aircraft just before the
Second World War
when in fact he didn't have more than 300. What is the
basis of Zimbabwe's
military capability we wonder when its soldiers are
starving in the
barracks?
Speaking of which, Retired Lieutenant Colonel Masala
Sibanda who died
last week and was buried in Bulawayo at the weekend must be
turning in his
grave. It was announced on Monday that Sibanda had been
declared a national
hero, which means his body must be exhumed and buried at
the National Heroes
Acre in Harare.
Explaining the bungling,
Information secretary George Charamba said
the delay in conferring Sibanda
with national hero status was caused by the
formal consultation
process.
"Owing to this delay related to the scattered fixtures of
most
politburo members," said Charamba, "Cde Sibanda had to be buried at the
weekend in Bulawayo well ahead of both the consultations and the official
programme which envisaged interment on Wednesday November 21 at the National
Heroes Acre in Harare."
This makes for curious reading given
that most senior politburo
members from Matabeleland region, including party
chairman John Nkomo and
Dumiso Dabengwa, attended Sibanda's burial at Lady
Stanley cemetery.
Writing of the Sibanda, the Herald says: "His
name and activities are
well-recorded at decisive moments in the struggle
for national liberation."
So why would consultations about his
status take longer than normal?
There is obviously more than meets the eye
here, something to do with
efforts to rewrite the history of the liberation
struggle. Perhaps George
could explain further.
Rotina
Mavhunga has earned herself a place in Zimbabwe's history as
the villager
who fooled a whole government into believing "pure" crude oil
could be
extracted from a stone. She is now famously known as the diesel n'anga
for
her feat.
But President Mugabe was apparently angry with this cheap
hoax. He
said he ordered her arrest after some of his cabinet colleagues
started
talking about the woman's beauty. He said government wants to get to
the
bottom of the whole thing to find out who had planted the idea of diesel
in
the woman's head.
That is the million dollar question.
Muckraker doesn't believe a poor
rural woman who dropped out of school at
Grade 3 could have spun this yarn
on her own.
But we can safely
conclude that whatever eventually comes out of these
inquiries, the level of
superstition reflects badly on government. No wonder
we are in this
mess.
Unfortunately that is not the end of the story. On Monday
the Herald
ran a story in which a group of traditional healers expressed
their desire
to continue working with government, especially the Ministry of
Health.
"We therefore urge government to take stern measures
against bogus n'angas
who have brought our profession into disrepute," said
the group. Fine point.
They need to talk to Didymus Mutasa first before they
can think about
injured reputations.
Zim Independent
Eric Bloch Column
GODZILLA was a fictional, maniacal ape that strove to
destroy the city
of New York.
I would not have the temerity to
suggest that the chairman of the
National Incomes and Pricing Commission
(NIPC), Godwills Masimirembwa, is
Godzilla reincarnate, and especially so
because he is not.
Nevertheless, he is determinedly destroying
Zimbabwe's already
severely emaciated economy as Godzilla sought to destroy
mankind, cities and
thereby, economies.
Although there is some
similarity in names, Masimirembwa is not
Godzilla, but his actions are
pronouncedly reminiscent of Godzilla's, to an
extent that it appears that
Godzilla is striking yet again.
Only a few weeks ago, not long
after Masimirembwa was appointed, this
column expressed grave concern at his
first policy enunciations, which
demonstrated a gross unawareness of
economic realities and, if implemented,
such policies could only grievously
exacerbate the distraught state of the
economy, and the consequential
extreme hardships and suffering of almost all
of Zimbabwe's oppressed
population.
This column was not alone in voicing those concerns,
which were
emphatically expressed by most of commerce and industry,
economists, and
many others.
Clearly, however, all those
forebodings of encroaching intensified
catastrophe went unheard, and hence
went unheeded, and the disastrous
policies have been progressively
pursued.
And, as they were implemented, so the foreshadowed
economic decline
continues.
As a result of the abysmal
determination to pursue endlessly policies
which have naught but negative
consequences, product scarcities have
intensified, inflation has soared, an
increasing number of businesses have
been reduced to minimal levels of
operations, whilst others have closed,
unemployment has become ever greater
in extent, the brain drain continues to
gain momentum, both foreign direct
investment and domestic investment have
virtually ceased, fiscal revenues
have markedly diminished in real terms,
and these are but a few of the
repercussions of the hearing disability of
government, of NIPC, and of its
chairman.
Not satisfied with the extent that NIPC, aided and
abetted by its
governmental master, has accelerated the implosion of
Zimbabwe's economy, on
November 9, Masimirembwa informed businesses that
they have until November
22 to dispose of any stockholdings of imported
products, at the then
existing prices, whereafter a new pricing model would
become effective,
based upon the official exchange rate.
Concurrently he stated that the practice of sourcing foreign currency
on the
black market, and factoring the costs thereof into selling prices,
would "no
longer be acceptable".
With astounding naivety he said that "it is
the duty of companies to
generate foreign exchange rather than expect
handouts from central bank",
and demanded that prices should not be indexed
using parallel market rates.
He further, very commendably, stated
that "NIPC is keen to work with
business", but regrettably the actions belie
the words for, in reality, the
stance of NIPC is one which can only assure
the demise of almost all
businesses.
Masimirembwa failed to
explain to business how they can fulfill their
"duty" to generate foreign
exchange when they are obliged to sell 35% of
that foreign exchange to the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) at a specious
rate of US$1: $285
000.
Admittedly, RBZ has valiantly striven to minimise the
prejudice of a
government which steadfastly refuses to effect realistic
currency
devaluation, and which very belatedly, 10 weeks ago, devalued to a
niggardly
and ludicrously unreal US$1: $30 000.
However, even
RBZ's courageous rate adjustment did not suffice to
address the extent that
Zimbabwe's currency has actually devalued.
According to the Central
Statistical Office, inflation for the year to
October 31 was 14 840, 6 %,
but the exchange rate has not moved by 14 840, 6
% in that
year.
If businesses' costs have risen to such an extent, does
Masimirembwa
seriously believe that they can export without a commensurate
exchange rate
movement? Surely not!
In like manner, he is being
ingenious in the extreme if he believes
that businesses can afford to sell
imports at a 50% mark-up, and that
manufacturers can be viable by using "an
investment window", as a basis for
costing, which translates to
270%.
Even if businesses do not source their imports through
alternative
markets, which most have no choice but to do in the absence of
export
viability, and with absolutely no allocations of currency from RBZ,
that
decreed costing base is grossly disparate to actual, inflation driven
costs.
If manufacturers and importers are precluded from selling
their goods
at prices which wholly recoup the costs thereof, fully recover
operating and
finance costs, yield a reasonable return upon investment
sufficient to
maintain the real value of that investment, plus an
inflation-related return
thereon, then they are forced to discontinue
operations.
In consequence, the already near-bare shelves of
Zimbabwe's
supermarkets and other shops will be even emptier, that emptiness
intensified by non-availability of imported products to substitute for those
no longer locally produced.
The worsened levels of scarcities
can only result in two things, the
first being ever-greater discomfort,
suffering and misery for more and more
of the population, and the second
being that the black market will thrive
even more than
heretofore.
As the virility of the black market intensifies, with
demand
progressively outpacing supply to an ever greater extent, inflation
will
become even more than presently the horrendous, highest in the world,
circumstance further decimating the economy, crippling the already insolvent
fiscus, and reducing Zimbabweans to all-time lows on the scale of economic
wellbeing.
Deaths through malnutrition, non-treated health
deficiencies, and the
like, will increase, and the economy will be reduced
to one reminiscent of
the stone-age era of barter only.
The
only positive results will be that NIPC will cease to exist, for
there will
be no incomes or prices to control and Masimirembwa will be out
of a
job.
If he wishes to avoid those results, he and his colleagues as
well as
government as a whole, must get real!