http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010 19:06
THE
Zanu PF jingles on television and radio are not helping the party but
rather
are alienating it from the public, a recent study into television
claims.
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) radio and television
have been
airing pro-Zanu PF jingles for almost a decade now, much to the
annoyance of
other political players who always cry foul, claiming this made
the
electoral field uneven.
But a study by University of Zimbabwe
lecturer Nyasha Mboti claims that this
strategy has not only failed to work
but has hardened attitudes against the
party.
In his thesis
titled “Visual forensics – an investigation of the function of
the gaze in
Hollywood films about Africa and selected Television texts”, he
argues that
the idea was to swamp the consciousness of audience with
liberation themes
but this had so far failed.
Mboti, who graduated with a doctorate
from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ)
last week, claims that ZBC’s strategy
is based on repetition in the hope
that this will get the audience to
support the constant themes on TV, but
this had failed
spectacularly.
“Repetition on ZTV, in the context of the heavily
polarised Zimbabwean
setting, has the ironic effect of appearing to be
cynical, one-sided and
biased,” he argues.
Mboti further states
that this one-sidedness heightens the sense of national
division and hardens
attitudes, when the aim may have been to soften them.
Zanu PF has
over the last decade produced a number of jingles that have
drawn the ire of
the MDC. The most recent set was produced by the Mbare
Chimurenga Choir,
with the main song being Nyatsoterera, literally meaning
people should
listen and hear who is in power.
A number of jingles have been
produced especially during Jonathan Moyo’s
(pictured) tenure as information
minister. The most popular was arguably
Rambai makashinga which advised the
country to be strong in the face of
adversity.
Despite MDC
protestation, Zanu PF and ZBC have stubbornly refused to stop
playing these
jingles, which observers describe as partisan and against the
spirit of
unity, born out of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).
Mboti goes
on to describe the jingles and their constant repetition as
poorly developed
and resulting in a badly systematised propaganda campaign.
“For
instance, ZTV appears to have one persuasive device for use throughout
the
years from 2000 to 2008: repetition,” he says. “While repetition may
work in
certain contexts in others it fails.”
Mboti partly blames the failure of the
so called Third Chimurenga to ZBC and
Zanu PF’s heightened propaganda
drive.
“One reason for the failure of the Third Chimurenga would be
the nature of
ZTV’s techniques for persuasion,” he said adding that they
were poor and
thus alienating the audience.
He observed that the
jingles have usually coincided with periods when there
was political flux
and heightened violence, with their function being to
manufacture
consent.
“The emphasis is on consent,” he said noting that oppressive
regimes
maintain power through a combination of consent and coercion.
“Because
systems of power cannot be maintained by force alone, people have
to be
persuaded and be made to do certain things willingly and
happily.”
The university lecturer further described as ideological
myopia ZBC’s idea
that since Zanu PF has the dominant voice and its ideology
is seen to be the
only correct position, other ideologies are
counterfeit.
In his thesis, Mboti also studies programming like
Talking Farming and
National Ethos and concludes that these are harmful
rather than beneficial
to Zanu PF.
BY NQABA MATSHAZI
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010
20:46
Pensioners and workers, who have entrusted all their life savings
with the
National Social Security Authority (NSSA), say they have now been
made
destitute by the organisation which pays them starvation remittances
every
month and does not adequately cater for those injured while at
work.
Until about two decades ago, going into retirement was a thing
that would
stimulate joyous moments for any worker.
Then, pensioners were
assured of a hefty retirement package and an equally
dignified monthly
payout enough to live on for the rest of their lives and
those of their
dependants.
But those were the old good days.
Pensioners,
who are getting their monthly payouts from NSSA, said they have
virtually
been turned into paupers despite making huge contributions to the
body for
several decades.
To them NSSA, created in 1989 to administer the
country’s social security
programmes, is ripping them off by giving paltry
monthly payouts.
Sixty-four-year-old pensioner, Naison Phiri of
Rugare in Harare, said the
national social security authority was pushing
him into destitution as the
money he was being paid was far short of what a
person needed to survive on
per month.
“Very soon most
pensioners, including myself, will be roaming the streets as
destitutes,”
said Phiri, who is getting $25 per month as pension.
“And yet NSSA
has bought a lot of assets and their managers are living in
good houses and
driving flashy cars. They have misplaced priorities.”
Phiri said he has
not been able to pay for water and electricity charges for
several months
now and both the Harare City Council and the Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply
Authority are threatening to disconnect service.
From that $25
payout, Phiri said he is also supposed to buy food, clothing,
medication as
well as fees for his two children in high school.
This is compounded
by the fact that his paltry payout is deposited into his
People’s Own
Savings Bank (POSB) account, where it is further “eaten up” in
bank charges
leaving him poorer.
His situation is a similar to that of all
pensioners in the country. Another
pensioner, who stays in Mukumbura in
Mashonaland Central province, said he
travels to his nearest post office in
Mt Darwin, over 100 km away, to get
his pension.
For transport to
and from Mt Darwin, he uses $10, meaning that he will only
be able to take
home about $12 a month when bank charges are deducted from
his pension
payout.
“I now go to withdraw my money after every two or three
months but surviving
those months is like living in hell,” said the
pensioner, who requested
anonymity saying he still had some “papers” being
processed at NSSA.
“I don’t think I would urge people to contribute
towards NSSA because they
will never benefit,” he said “The only problem is
that it is compulsory.”
Due to the poor payouts, most pensioners who
are still able-bodied have
returned to work while others are looking for
jobs to supplement their
income. But with unemployment topping 80 percent,
very few have been able to
get employed. Desperation forces those that get
jobs to accept and live on
pathetic salaries.
NSSA statistics
indicate that as of August this year, there were 226 777
pensioners who were
being paid $25 a month while surviviving spouses’
pension and children’s
allowances were both $10 each.
This means most pensioners are
surviving on less than a quarter dollar a
day.
Lovemore Matombo
(pictured), president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU), the
country’s largest labour representative body, said NSSA
was short-changing
pensioners by paying them “peanuts’.
He urged the authority to review
the amount upwards to ensure that
pensioners get enough money to survive
on.
“We have made our opinion about the urgent need to review that
amount but
nothing has happened,” said Matombo. “NSSA is under-utilising its
mandate.
They are behaving like a commercial entity instead of a social
protection
authority.”
Even NSSA officials who spoke to The
Standard last week said the huge
amounts they raised on a monthly basis
makes a mockery of what they pay out
to the pensioners.
According
to NSSA statistics, the authority is grossing about US$9 million
per month
from members’ contributions and premiums. Out of that amount, it
is paying a
paltry US$2 million to pensioners and U$630 000 towards workers’
compensation insurance scheme. “Most of the revenue goes to salaries and
benefits of the executives here who are sitting pretty when the pensioners
are wallowing in abject poverty,” said one official.
Junior
managers at NSSA, said the official, get a minimum gross salary of
U$3 000
per month plus benefits such as a company car, fuel, school fees for
their
children as well as housing loans. There is an option of buying the
car
after every three years at “residual” value.
“As I speak, those with
at least 10 years with the company have two or more
vehicles they bought for
a song from the authority but pensioners are dying
in poverty,” said the
official. “Some don’t even claim their pensions
because the paperwork is
cumbersome.”
Pensioners complained that NSSA’s huge investments in
properties, money
market and equity were only benefiting the organisation’s
workers through
obscene salaries and perks while the supposed beneficiaries
were wallowing
in abject poverty.
As of August this year, NSSA’s
investment portfolio (national pension scheme
and the workers’ compensation
insurance scheme portfolio) amounted to U$349,
9 million while the
organisation’s money market exposure totalled U$97,1
million during the same
period.
NSSA owns office blocks, shopping malls, factory shells,
hospitals and other
related properties and rentals are a significant
contributor to the
authority’s revenue.
Properties the
authorities bought in the past year include Dominion House,
Ballantyne Park,
Emay, Linhro buildings in Harare, among others.
NSSA General Manager
James Matiza conceded that payouts to pensioners were
low but added the
authority was in the process of getting International
Labour
Organisation-sponsored actuarists to work out the possible margin of
increase.
He said NSSA wanted to increase minimum payouts to $40
last year but was
advised against that fearing the scheme would
collapse.
“The money we are collecting is not for the current
pensioners but for those
currently in employment and if we use all the money
we will not be able to
pay those workers contributing at the moment,” said
Matiza. “It’s not money
for today but for the future.”
Matiza said
the amount of payouts depended on one’s contribution during his
or her
working years. For example, while NSSA was paying a minimum of US$25
there
were other pensioners who are getting as much as $1 447 per
month.
“You cannot expect a farm worker who earns $30 monthly to get
the same
pension with a person who was earning $6 000 per month,” he
said.
Matiza also attributed the low payouts to low contribution
rates by workers
as compared to other countries.
For example,
while Zimbabwe’s contribution rate is 6 percent, countries like
Egypt and
France have 40 percent and 45,04 percent contribution rates
respectively,
meaning that their pensioners get more money, he said.
But a recent
adverse audit report on NSSA by the comptroller and
auditor-general which
unearthed a number of anomalies in the manner
properties were bought, the
way tenders were offered, loans were extended to
board members and the lack
of a comprehensive risk assessment at the
authority pours cold water on
Matiza’s defence.
The report, released recently and which covered the
period between December
2009 and March 2010, said huge loans were extended
to board members in
unclear circumstances.
“Loans amounting to
over US$3 million were accessed by two companies that
were under the
directorship of one of the board members who was also the
chairman of the
risk and investments committee,” says the report.
In some cases, says
the report, shares were bought at prices lower than
quoted on the national
stock exchange.
In one instance, the authority suffered a loss of
U$1,6 million.
The report noted that during that period deals were
structured with
unregistered companies, a move which could have prejudiced
the authority of
millions of dollars.
In most cases, says the
report, NSSA contracted companies in which it had
shares to provide services
further exposing the authority to risks. For
example, it contracted Africom
to provide telecommunications services and
yet it has 20 percent shares in
the same company.
“… there is risk that related party transactions
may result in the transfer
of undocumented resources and services and even
obligations between
parties,” says the report. “There is also risk that
significant volume of
finance may be chanelled towards entities that are
only related to the
authority even if the transaction is not
profitable.”
However, Matiza dismissed most of the issues raised in
the adverse report.
He said the assertion that NSSA bought property which
was not authorised by
the board committee was incorrect.
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010 20:40
SIX
teachers from Gwangwava Primary School in Rushinga last week lodged an
urgent application with the Labour Court contesting their recent transfer
from the school.
The teachers — who allege that they are being
persecuted for being Karanga,
being members of the Progressive Teachers’
Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) and
suspected supporters of the MDC, submitted that
their pending transfer was
unfair because it was immediate and
unilateral.
They said the school head, allegedly a member of the Zimbabwe
Teachers’
Union (ZTU), connived with the school development committee (SDC)
chairperson and the district education officer (DEO) to transfer them citing
unspecified problems at the school.
The teachers are represented by
Pardon Makuvaza of Sinyoro and Partners law
firm.
In his founding
affidavit, one of the teachers, Julius Mawarire said the six
were among 11
teachers who last month went to fetch water outside the school
premises
between 8.30am and 9am on a working day as there had been
unexpected water
disconnection at the school.
The incident, Mawarire said, led to a visit to
the school by the DEO and
some warning letters were issued to 10 of the
teachers.
He further alleges that on the fateful day, the headman, only
identified as
Mr Mupezeni, openly told them that he was going to incite
parents to chase
them away, especially the Karangas.
“His statement is
confirmed by that out of 11 teachers who went to fetch
water, it is only the
six of us (who are being transferred) and the majority
of victims are
Karanga,” reads part of the affidavit.
He says the SDC chair and the head
organised a meeting with the community
which teachers refused to attend when
they were called in hours after the
meetings had commenced.
The meeting,
he said, was characterised by loud chants of Zanu PF slogans.
A Zanu PF’s
district chair and two councillors reportedly attended the
meeting.
He
further alleges that from that day, Zanu PF officials are always at the
school uttering some intimidating remarks.
The teachers, who were served
with transfer letters on November 2, said they
could not possibly move at
the moment as they had not planned for transfer
expenses.
BY
JENNIFER DUBE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010
20:24
BULAWAYO — Gwanda municipality has threatened to sue Water
Resources
Development and Management minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo for
instructing the
country’s water authority to stop handing back sewer and
water treatment
plants to council.
Nkomo is said to have instructed the
Zimbabwe National Water Authority
(Zinwa) not to hand back water treatment
plants to the council arguing that
the municipality had no capacity to
maintain them.
He also argued that Gwanda municipality should not be given
back its sewer
and water reticulation systems because the council owed Zinwa
about US$1,8
million in unpaid water charges.
In an interview with The
Standard last week Gwanda mayor Lionel De Necker
said his council was suing
both Nkomo and the water authority for refusing
to return its
properties.
“We are taking the legal route against the minister and Zinwa,”
said Necker.
“The minister’s arguments for refusal show utter ignorance and
arrogance. He
is annoying the council and the residents of Gwanda.”
He
added: “Zinwa has been using reticulation systems of our municipality and
has not paid even a cent for all the years to the council. We give Zinwa
free chemicals every week to purify water but in return the council gets
estimated bills from it.”
Necker also accused the water minister of
politicking.
“The minister’s refusal shows ignorance because all other towns
have been
given their equipment and it boggles the mind why he is just
refusing. He is
politicking with water.”
According to the Necker Zinwa
claims council owes it US$1,8 million for
water supplies, a figure he
dismissed as estimation.
Nkomo however defended his position insisting that
the council had no
capacity to maintain water treatment plants as evidenced
by its failure to
pay for water supplies.
“They can go to court,” said
Nkomo “They have not paid for water supplies
and that is evidence enough
that they do not have the capacity to maintain
the water treatment
plants.”
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010 19:22
ZANU PF
Harare province vice-chairman Christopher Chigumba has dragged seven
members
of Zanoremba Co-operative in Chitungwiza to court accusing them of
disrupting the co-operative’s operations despite the fact that they are not
fully paid members.
Chigumba, through his company Chigumba Property
Holdings, also accused the
seven of threatening other members, demanding
them to stop paying
subscriptions and assaulting those who defied
them.
Chigumba Property Holdings is now running the co-operative.
A
Chitungwiza magistrate last week postponed the matter indefinitely to
allow
Chigumba’s lawyers to deal with another case related to problems
affecting
the co-operative.
However, a fortnight ago another Chitungwiza magistrate had
granted an order
barring the seven from interfering with the operations of
the politician’s
company.
The order bars the seven from assaulting and
intimidating the company’s
employees and beneficiaries of the housing scheme
in Unit L in Chitungwiza.
It also empowers the police to arrest the seven –
Histancia Musetwa, Taurai
Zikwende, Kalitso Masango, Erifa Chivavaya,
Clemence Chitsanga, Tendai
Nyangande and Elwin Tsongoro — should they fail
to comply.
Chigumba also filed papers against the Chitungwiza Town Council to
stop it
from granting leases to the beneficiaries and collecting rates from
them.
It is expected that the outcome of the case involving the council will
determine the way forward in the case involving the beneficiaries.
The
co-operative was started in November 2004 by residents of Seke South,
mostly
Zanu PF supporters, civil servants and ordinary people struggling to
secure
accommodation.
Meanwhile, the beneficiaries accuse Chigumba of personalising
the
cooperative in 2005. More than 50 beneficiaries recently demonstrated
against the cooperative’s failure to grant them leases for their
houses.
BY SIMBARASHE MANHANGO
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010
19:20
GOGO Mary Zingwena casually glances at the nearby green tent and
with a
satisfactory smile she starts tidying up the place, which she says
has given
her a new lease of life.
A victim of stroke, Zingwena (58) says
she will not let that condition bring
her down and she now invests most of
her time by running a day care centre
for Hatcliffe Extension residents’
children.
Spending most of her time with the kindergarten kids has become “a
therapy”
to her condition, she says.
A former nurse aide at Parirenyatwa
Hospital, Zingwena who suffered a stroke
in 2003, says she cannot afford
medications which she used to administer to
patients for the greater part of
her working life.
“My doctor advised that I find something to occupy myself
with after
realising that stress could have contributed to my ailment,” said
Zingwena,
who immediately established Zororo Day Care Centre to keep her
occupied.
“I could not talk then because I was paralysed, so I would attempt
to shout
out whenever I saw some of the children misbehaving or beating up
others,”
she said. "I kept trying to move my jaws until I could stammer then
later I
regained speech.”
Unfortunately, the crèche was demolished at the
height of Operation
Murambatsvina in 2005. With other residents , Zingwena
was driven to
Caledonia where they stayed for sometime before moving back to
Hatcliffe
Extension.
Afterwards, Zingwena negotiated for a small piece of
land and re-established
the crèche, which now has an enrolment of 100
children.
It was registered in 2006 and its first graduates are now in Grade
Five.
The crèche was run in the open until recently, when well wishers
donated a
tent for the play centre. Planks and cement were also donated for
make shift
classrooms while some materials were donated for Blair
toilets.
The children greet visitors with English and Shona poems. Though
poorly
dressed and barefoot, they comfortably recite poems describing
various body
parts.
With their lyrical poems, the children tell visitors
that they have a right
to education, shelter, food, clothing and
love.
This is despite the fact that they have never known a life outside
shacks
and their parents can hardly afford the five rand that the crèche
charges
per week.
Four volunteers watch over the children as they play
and also teach them to
recite prayers.
Zingwena, who is the crèche’s
principal, pays them with a bar of soap per
week which she buys using her
pension of $50 per month.
“The children’s parents only pay five rand for
firewood per week, which most
have never paid because they cannot afford
it,” she said. “We cook porridge,
maize meal and brew maheu for them,
usually donated by well wishers.”
During the rainy season, her 27-year old
son and a caretaker, plant maize in
a small garden which will be fed to the
children once harvested.
About 32 of children will this month graduate from
the green tent-on-poles
crèche. Zisengwe has asked the parents to contribute
a cup of rice and some
sweets towards this month’s graduation but none has
done so yet.
“The teachers had to forgo their pay for two months as we tried
to ensure
the kids also experience some of the things that their
counterparts in
better centres enjoy although our standards are always
lower,” she said.
Parents from the area spoke highly of Zingwena, who
suffered another stroke
last week but instead of visiting a doctor, used the
little money she had to
cater to their children’s needs.
“I occasionally
take some painkillers given to me by visiting well wishers,”
she said. “But
I feel I have to do something for these children before I
die.”
While
some residents, including some with children attending the crèche,
were
building their houses, Gogo Zingwena sleeps in a plastic tent at the
crèche
premises so that she saves enough for the children.
She shares the tent with
her widowed daughter, a grandchild and two other
children of deceased
relatives.
Zingwena’s lease for the crèche expires next year and that means
she will
not have children around her which used to be her therapy for the
past five
years.
“I cannot think of anything else to occupy myself with,”
she says. “I would
not want to be stressed up again, worse now when I am
this old and not in
good health.”
She suspects she suffered a stroke
because she and other Hatcliffe residents
were facing evictions after moving
into the area a year earlier. Before
settling in Hatcliffe, she had been a
tenant in Chitungwiza.
On leaving Chitungwiza in 1992, she and her family
settled at Churu Farm
where they were evicted a year later to be settled at
Porta Farm. They were
to be later moved to Hatcliffe Camp, Hatcliffe
Extension, and Caledonia and
then back to Hatcliffe
Extension.
BY JENNIFER DUBE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010
19:08
BULAWAYO — Zanu PF Politburo member Joshua Malinga has threatened
to sue a
Bulawayo police officer for causing his arrest on allegations of
failing to
appear in court.
Malinga is currently on trial at Bulawayo
Magistrate Courts on charges of
undermining the authority of the police
after he allegedly insulted a police
officer last year for speaking in Shona
in Matabeleland.
But four heavily armed police officers from Bulawayo central
police station
last month raided Malinga’s home in Richmond suburb and
arrested him on
charges of defaulting court.
After the arrest Malinga was
lucky not to be detained for long as his lawyer
Job Sibanda of Job Sibanda
and Associates sought his release after bringing
in a Clerk of Court who
clarified that Malinga had not defaulted court and
had no warrant of arrest
issued against him.
In a letter dated November 1 2010, to the Officer
Commanding Bulawayo
District Chief Superintendent Rita Masina, Sibanda
demanded an explanation
on why Malinga was arrested when there was no
warrant of arrest that had
been issued against him.
“It has come to our
client’s knowledge that on October 16 2010, a radio
communication emanated
from your office to the Officer in Charge, Bulawayo
Central police station
directing the Officer-in-Charge to ensure that Mr
Malinga was taken into
custody and detained for defaulting court on October
8 2010,” reads the
letter.
“Our client, in an effort to clear his name and also to put the
record
straight was forced at great expense and inconvenience to attend at
Magistrate Courts.”
Sibanda accused Masina of abusing her office by lying
that there was a
warrant of arrest issued against his client.
“Our client
is left wondering as to the intentions behind such blatant
misuse of your
office. Why was communication based on lies given to effect
his arrest when
there was no official warrant of arrest? What interest, if
any, does your
office have in this matter?” questioned Sibanda.
He added, “Our client
demands answers to these questions and is prepared to
take the matter to
court and shall indeed take the matter further should no
satisfactory
answers be provided to these questions.”
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010
18:50
ZIMBABWE needs a stable political environment to ensure economic
growth as
well as to attract foreign direct investment, a government
minister said
last week.
Economic Planning and Investment Promotion
deputy minister Samuel Undenge
said the country was unable to reform at the
desired pace owing to the
unstable political environment.
“Hopefully
sanity and reason shall prevail on the political front for more
investment
to be forthcoming,” said Undenge.
Undenge’s comments come after Zimbabwe
slipped one place down to 157 in the
World Bank’s latest Doing Business
Rankings. The WB Doing Business Report
was presented last week.
Undenge
said government recognised the significance of the latest rankings
and his
ministry was taking critical steps to attract more investment and
improve
the business environment in the country.
Undenge said a one-stop investment
shop run by the Zimbabwe Investment
Authority (ZIA) would be established by
the end of the year.
“The one stop investment shop will be ready at the end
of the year,” said
Undenge. “The time of approving investment projects will
be cut down from
the current 45 days to 5 days.”
The deputy minister said
ZIA was undergoing massive refurbishments in
preparation for the one-stop
concept.
In September this year, World Bank Africa Manager for Investment
Climate
Advisory Services, David Bridgman said political leaders must
cultivate the
will to transform state institutions that are responsible for
investment
promotion.
Speaking at the presentation of the report last
week, World Bank Country
Manager Nginya Mungai Lenneiye said the government
has to work more closely
with the multilateral institution.
“Government
has to work with the World Bank in terms of coming up with a
review process
in areas where there is need for reform. We are still
engaging government in
areas where we can assist,” said Lenneiye.
He commended the idea of a
one-stop shop being a pre-requisite for making it
easier for businesses to
set up.
Lenneiye said the time taken to start up a business in Zimbabwe
through
legal and formal channels was a cumbersome 90 days compared to the
Southern
African Development Community (Sadc) regional average of 42,5
days.
This drawback has resulted in growth of the informal
sector.
“Entrepreneurs and investors in low and lower-middle-income economies
continue to face more bureaucratic formalities and weaker protections of
property rights than their counterparts in high income economies,” says the
WB.
“Many businesses in developing economies might simply opt out and
remain in
the informal sector.”
Lenneiye further recommended increasing
levels of efficiency by tax
authorities and the registrar of companies so as
to accommodate the country’s
large informal sector.
This, he said, would
calculatedly have a trickle-down effect on the whole
economy.
“There is
no need for small businesses to submit tax returns, rather, this
should be
on the basis of presumptive tax. Although Zimbabwe has implemented
some
reforms, they are taking some time to trickle down to the intended
beneficiaries,” said Lenneiye.
BY KUDZAI CHIMHANGWA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010 18:49
THE
fibre-optic cable roll out programme, expected to increase connectivity
and
improve telecommunication efficiency countrywide, will be complete
before
the end of the year, a senior government official said last week.
The
government made a US$6,2 million budgetary allocation for the project,
which
started early this year.
Minister of Information and Communication
Technology, Nelson Chamisa said
the roll out programme should be finished by
end of this year.
“We initially anticipated that the cable roll out would be
complete by the
end of November but it should be complete by the end of this
year,” said
Chamisa.
The minister also explained that once completed, the
project would have an
operational capacity of 10 gigabytes per second which
would take up to five
decades to exhaust in terms of demand.
“The
fibre-optic cable is currently 6% complete in the laying of cables
while 50%
through in backfilling,” said Chamisa.
The minister pointed out that
countries such as Kenya had witnessed a
decrease in ICT service costs and
related prices going down by about 50%
upon using fibre-optic cables rather
than satellite transmission.
He said despite being landlocked, Zimbabwe is
positioned to cut on costs as
it has created synergies with neighboring
states such as Mozambique, South
Africa and Botswana through the signing of
bilateral agreements.
The government is expanding the fibre-optic cable
programme in key cities
and towns of the country while invitations are open
to the private sector to
implement a similar project in rural areas.
The
removal of duty on ICT products being imported into the country has
witnessed a phenomenal increase in investment in the sector as more base
stations have been set up in rural areas.
The latest areas now connected
onto the communications grid include remote
areas of Mberengwa, Chipinge,
Nyazura and several remote districts in
Matabeleland North and South.
It
is envisaged that by 2014, Zimbabwe will have ubiquitous connectivity,
low
cost access to data and good quality ICT services.
Chamisa also explained
that the corporate sector will soon have to embrace
the e-governance
framework once the completed and approved ICT Bill is
promulgated into
law.
The ICT bill incorporates aspects such as enforcement of cyber security,
digital signatures for purposes of internet business transactions as well as
convergence of ICTs.
Zimbabwe faces a major challenge in the form of a
very high ICT price basket
as compared to other countries within the SADC
region.
BY KUDZAI CHIMHANGWA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010
18:48
JOHANNESBURG — Zimbabwe will publish guidelines this month on local
ownership of various types of companies, ending months of uncertainty that
has weighed on the stock market, a government minister said on
Thursday.
The Zimbabwe government introduced a law early this year saying 51%
of firms
worth over
$500 000 should be owned by black Zimbabweans but
accepted that most
sectors, especially the capital-intensive mining
industry, will take time to
get there.
Fourteen committees set up to
determine minimum initial local ownership
thresholds for various sectors had
now finished their work, Saviour
Kasukuwere, Minister of Youth Development,
Indigenisation and Empowerment
said.
“We will review them and publish
them before the end of the month,” he told
Reuters on the sidelines of an
investment conference in South Africa’s
commercial capital.
“We are
moving. We need to bring about certainty. We can’t keep people
hanging
there.”
Robert Mugabe told Reuters in an interview in September that he would
press
ahead with plans to transfer control of foreign firms — including
mines and
banks— to local blacks.
Kasukuwere sought to allay those
external fears, saying the bill was simply
addressing the unresolved
economic imbalances left by decades of white
minority rule, and would
ultimately create a stable and fair economy and
society.
“This is not
about nationalisation or expropriation of businesses. This act
is to bring
our people on board the economy,” he said.
“We accept foreign direct
investment is critical in getting our economy to
work. But it is necessary
to balance foreign interests and the aspirations
of our people.” Kasukuwere
said.
Meanwhile, Finance minister, Tendai Biti told the same conference
Zimbabwe's economy was on track to grow by 8,1% this year and close to 10%
in 2011.
Zimbabwe was battered by a decade of economic contraction and
hyperinflation, which reached 500 billion percent in 2008 at the peak of the
country's political and economic crisis.
The country's economy has begun
to recover after a unity government set up
last year dumped the worthless
local currency for foreign currencies and
after a revival in the agriculture
sector. — Reuters
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010
18:47
Southern Africa is slowly emerging from the global financial and
economic
downturn that has affected the world since 2008.
However, Sadc
is faced with a mammoth task to ensure that this recovery is
maintained if
sustainable development is to be achieved in the region.
The Sadc Ministerial
Task Force on Regional Economic Integration has
proposed a number of
wide-ranging measures that could be adopted, in its
report on the impact of
the global economic crisis on the Sadc region.
These strategies include the
deepening of economic integration to facilitate
an increased internal demand
in the region, which could serve as a buffer
against external financial
shocks.
Increased trading among Sadc member states would also reduce
dependence on
trade links to the global market and reduce impact from the
financial and
banking turmoil that engulfed Europe and the United States of
America over
the last couple of years.
Due to the colonial establishment,
African countries in general and Sadc in
particular trade more with Europe
and the United States than among
themselves, exposing the region to market
changes that may occur in the
other continents.
The Task Force says
deeper economic integration among Sadc members has the
capacity to promote
the development of cross-border projects in various
sectors of the economy
such as energy and infrastructure, thereby
facilitating trade in the
region.
Another policy measure outlined by the Task Force is the need for
Sadc
countries to diversify into other economic sectors and not depend
heavily on
the primary sector for development.
Countries whose economies
are more integrated into the global markets and
most dependent on global
imports and exports were most affected, as were
those who rely heavily on
the mining sector, such as Botswana, South Africa
and Zambia.
Those
countries that diversified into other sectors such as fisheries and
manufacturing were not as badly affected. Sadcmember states will need to
broaden their economic base to ensure long-term sustainability.
Brazil
offers one of the best examples of successful diversification. The
South
American country has been for many years the world’s largest producer
of
coffee.
Since the 1990s, however, coffee is no longer central to the
Brazilian
economy. The country diversified into other areas including
manufactured
goods, propelling its economy to become the tenth largest in
the world.
— Source: Sadc Today
Countries such as Mauritius have achieved
sustained growth through a
diversified economy that relies on tourism,
textiles, sugarcane and a
steadily developing manufacturing base. The other
sectors helped to cushion
the impact of tourism as one of the worst hit
sectors.
A report prepared by the SADC Trade Industry Finance and Investment
Directorate (TIFI) says there is need for the region to work closely with
ICPs to ensure that any financial package put in place to minimize the
effects of the crisis is not withdrawn prematurely.
The TIFI Directorate
said cooperating partners should scale up their support
to enable the SADC
region to deal with the effects of the economic downturn,
which has hindered
the implementation of Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs).
Five years
remain until the 2015 deadline to achieve MDGs and other
international
development goals identified by the global community through
the United
Nations to improve the general socio-economic conditions in the
world,
particularly in developing countries.
“Considering that most of SADC
countries may not be in a position to put up
rescue and stimulus packages
like the developed countries due to limited
resources, there is need for
bilateral and multilateral cooperating partners
to step up their support to
enable them to attenuate the effects of the
crisis on poverty,” the
Directorate said in its 2009 report. The Directorate
added that there is
need to keep reforming the industry so that it is more
resilient to
shocks.
“Institutional and policy reform in the area of industry should be
high on
SADC’s agenda. The region should close the infrastructure gap on
which
industry depends; improve trade logistics which matter a great deal
for
export performance; support industrial clusters; and regional
integration
not only for broadening the export market but also to allow free
movement of
goods, capital and people across borders.”
Another policy
measure would be for governments to cut excess spending in
their national
budgets as well as mobilizing domestic resources to address
the
crisis.
“The need to raise domestic resource mobilization efforts in the
region is
obvious in view of the fact that the crisis has depressed external
inflows
and possibly has had a negative impact on some domestic
resources.
“It is therefore more prudent, especially in the medium to long
term, for
SADC to expend much more efforts on domestic resource
mobilization.”
The impact of the global economic crisis did not only result
in severe
reduction in import demand or commodity prices, but also made it
difficult
for the region to secure external financing, whether commercial or
donor for
its developmental agenda.
SADC is struggling to raise crucial
resources to finance rehabilitation and
construction of new priority
infrastructure projects in the region.
As much as US$100 billion is needed
over the next five years to fund various
infrastructure projects in the
region, according to the SADC Director of
Infrastructure and Services, Remmy
Makumbe.
Investment in the critical energy sector, which is currently
experiencing
shortages, is estimated at about US$47 billion while surface
transport
infrastructure requires up to US$26 billion.
“Financing remains
one of the major challenges we are facing,” Makumbe said,
adding that, “It
is imperative that an aggressive resource mobilization
strategy should
follow to ensure that there is no stagnancy in the
implementation
process.”
Before the global financial crisis two years ago, southern Africa
was among
the few regional communities experiencing a healthy commodity
boom.
Improved revenues from mineral exports and sale of other export
commodities,
coupled with improved Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows
and Official
Development Assistance (ODA) contributed immensely to the
sustenance of
budgets, balance of payments and overall positive economic
performance in
the region.
However, this situation changed dramatically
in 2008 following a global
deterioration in financial and economic
conditions that intensified the
whole of last year and saw many SADC
countries experiencing a decline in
economic growth.
The financial
recession started as a localized credit crisis in the United
States and
later spread across the globe with far reaching consequences.
SADC Today
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010 18:46
The UN
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) launched a project in
Zimbabwe
recently to promote the use of small grains such as millet and
sorghum to
boost food security in three drought-prone provinces —
Matabeleland North,
Matabeleland South and Masvingo.
Small grains are considered drought tolerant
and have better nutritional
value than maize, which is viewed as an
unsuitable crop in these provinces.
The US$399 000 project — Promoting
Production, Processing and Marketing of
Small Grains in the Marginal Areas
in Zimbabwe — which envisages the
provision of improved seed varieties, will
target small farmers, and aims to
be up and running by the rainy season
that is just starting.
It will provide small grain inputs sufficient for the
cultivation of half a
hectare, and this will also enable farmers to produce
seeds for the next
planting season.
Gaoju Han, FAO’s sub-regional
director for Southern Africa and Zimbabwe’s
country representative, said:
“The project will also build the capacity of
community-based smallholder
seed producers so as to ensure sustainable
availability of high quality
small grains seed.” — Irin
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010 19:04
Are the
youths registered to participate in the electoral process? There has
been a
well-planned strategy on the part of Zanu PF to have elections as
early as
is possible. To achieve that there was rampant disregard for the
Global
Political Agreement orchestrated in such a way that the unity
government was
bound to fail.
I am talking about the agreed items on the GPA that never saw
the light of
day in terms of implementation. These are media reform,
electoral reform,
human rights issues , the constitution-making process and
appointments of
senior government officials among other things.
Those
that were agreed upon could not be implemented as they were linked to
the
removal of restrictive measures, the so-called sanctions.
The Zanu PF
government did very little in my opinion in terms of educating
the people
correctly first and foremost on how the sanctions work. What Zanu
PF did was
to target the less informed (Vapostori) and tell them that the
sanctions
were hindering them from prayer.
They then went on to say everything that
went wrong in the country was
because of the sanctions. I guess this
strategy works for the mentally
constipated, who, because of propaganda,
have become impervious to
knowledge.
So where is the facilitator in all
this? President Thabo Mbeki made a
breakthrough in having the deal signed
but left office before total
implementation could happen.
In came
President Jacob Zuma who, because of his many challenges back home,
could
not be bothered by a people who cannot see a right from wrong by
themselves.
He also had the football World Cup to host, so the only thing
that he needed
to do was to ensure there was peace up north during the
tournament.
The
facilitator’s role has thus been to ensure that parties continue to talk
to
among themselves until they find as solution. By this the facilitator is
saying, Zimbabwean problems were created by Zimbabweans and will surely be
solved by Zimbabweans themselves.
There is a new song on television, Get
Connected, which is clearly targeted
at the youth come elections next year.
There is no doubt that the youth hold
sway in any country, more so a
developing country like ours when it comes to
elections and the processes
leading to an election such as campaigns
(mobilising the voters through
rallies or even calling for the rallies in
the rural areas and urban areas
alike).
The song is meant to tell the youth that they need to be politically
connected to make it in life; that they need to be empowered through
political connections. That is well and good. In my opinion, there should be
a campaign that ensures that all the youths, 18 years and above, are
registered in time for the election.
There is no need to have all sorts
of songs targeted at the youth if they
are not going to vote!
Julius
Malema`s ANC Youth league is probably at par in terms of power with
the
mainstream ANC-lead by Zuma and this is just a figurative expression to
illustrate my point. One other political arm of the ANC is the workers union
body, Cosatu.
In South Africa there is a positive correlation between the
ruling party,
the workers union and the youth.
That is the winning
combination for any political party. You can’t dream of
winning an election
in Africa if you don’t have control over the youth and
the working
class.
The other aspect is that leadership ought to be renewed at regular
intervals
as that will continually take the party forward. If it’s done at
national
level it will take the country forever forward.
Let me remind
you of some leaders within Sadc who have come and gone.
Tanzania: J Nyerere,
A H Mwinyi and B Mkapa; Zambia: K Kaunda, F Chiluba and
L Mwanawasa (late);
DRC: M Seseko and L Kabila; Malawi: K Banda and B
Muluzi; Mozambique: S M
Machel, and J Chissanoa; Namibia: S Nujoma;
Botswana: Sir Seretse Khama, K
Masire and F Mogae.
I will go on to exclude the two Kingdoms within Sadc
namely Lesotho and
Swaziland. In South Africa, N Mandela and, T Mbeki and K
Mothlante made way
for incumbent Jacob Zuma.
In Zimbabwe too, Canaan
Sodindo Banana left office for the Robert Mugabe. So
in essence Zimbabwe has
had two presidents and I don’t know why people say
the sitting president has
been president since independence.
BY NOBERT CHURU
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010
19:03
A few weeks ago Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri did
the
unexpected: he transferred all the officers at Avondale police station
to
remote outposts, ostensibly to stamp out corruption at the station. At
face
value this was a vindictive act; meting out collective punishment is
unfair
because it does not take into account individual liability; some
might have
been punished for misdemeanours they never committed.
But the
support that Chihuri’s action received from the residents of
Avondale and
its environs seemed to vindicate him; there were provable cases
of flagrant
corruption at the station. But if Chihuri thought he could use
the Avondale
case to divert attention from the rot in the police by showing
that he is
doing something about it, the opposite happened.
It turned out the whole
force is a can of worms. One only needs to take a
look at what the police
have done to the transport sector. Bus operators are
the main
targets.
They are coerced for bribes literally at every turn. Many have gone
under
while others have found a way to go along with the corruption by
passing on
the cost to commuters.
This is all very sad because in
civilised countries the police serve the
interests of the people; in
Zimbabwe apparently they serve their own selfish
ends.
There is some kind
of audit by the police themselves taking place in which
officers are being
asked to account for their newly acquired wealth.
This is a sign that the
police leadership acknowledge rampant corruption in
the force.
The public
fears that police corruption could be institutionalised; there
seems to be a
systematic modus operandi.
Could it be that the police are milking the
travelling public so they can
raise money to run their operations?
If
that’s the case, it’s a huge scandal. It means the police are charging an
extrajudicial tax. It must be stopped.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010
19:01
If you want to insult a Shona man call him a hare. In Zezuru a hare
is
called tsuro; in Karanga it is called shuro. Zezuru and Karanga are the
most
widely spoken Shona dialects.
If you say to a Karanga man, “Uri
shuro”, or to a Zezuru man, “Uri tsuro”
meaning you are a hare he will do
one of three things; either he will kill
you, he will hang himself in shame
or he will go out to seek his fortune and
come back to prove to you that he
is in fact not a hare.
But that was in the old days.
A friend of mine was
called a hare by his wife 10 years ago. I don’t think
that description was
apt; he was a lecturer at a tertiary institution,
meaning he was okay.
Teachers across the globe are never fairly rewarded for
producing the
greatest minds that come along to run their respective
countries.
My
friend, in spite of the poor remuneration he got from the ministry, was
an
industrious man. He would get up very early every morning to go to the
outlying farms to buy produce such as fresh mealies, vegetables, eggs or
whatever, which he sold at a modest profit to his lecturer friends. For all
his pains he greyed prematurely.
But his wife was not impressed; she
herself was a fat good-for-nothing whose
younger sister was married to a big
politician who was most of the time on
foreign trips with the president of
the country.
When his wife that short decade ago, in a fit of madness, called
him shuro
or tsuro, he didn’t hang himself; neither did he go to the
Diaspora to seek
his fortune. He joined Zanu PF.
Now he is stinking
rich.
But he has lived up to the stereotype of the hardy Mashona man, whether
Zezuru or Karanga; he has left the very wife who motivated him to join the
grave train — for a younger woman, some say for several younger women. But
as the old adage goes, hell hath no fury like a spurned wife; she has hung
his dirty underwear in public.
People – except Henrietta Rushwaya –
didn’t know that being a member of Zanu
PF was the only passport to travel
from penury to luxury. Henrietta is
famously quoted a few years ago saying,
“In Zanu PF the sky is the limit.”
Indeed she became Zifa CEO. It was a
revelation to the general public and
quite a few have heeded her call. They
include former television anchormen
and Big Brother House failures.
But
everyone who fast-tracks himself or herself to riches sooner or later
gets
his or her comeuppance. Henrietta now probably rues the day she ever
set her
foot in Asia. Thanks to lax Zimbabwean laws she will probably never
be
brought to a court of law.
But some will; think of the Zimbabwe Minerals
Development Corporation mob.
They joined Zanu PF and got immense influence
which allowed them to create
fictitious companies in which they ganged up
with some of the globe’s most
notorious diamond thugs. Now they are
languishing in filthy cells around
Harare.
They outed themselves by
joining the construction industry. Not that they
were driven by the
primitive urge to seek shelter that inspired VS Naipaul
to write A House for
Mr Biswa; they already had mansions built on clean
money.
There is
another primeval urge among Zimbabweans; the propensity toward
ostentation!
So the ZMDC gang began to build little hotels and called them
their
homes.
But back to my friend the former cabbage vendor-lecturer! So, he
joined Zanu
PF and said, “No, the sky is not the limit.” Now he is richer
than a small
country.
He epitomises the “Henrietta Prophecy”. But what is
the cost of the
prophecy?
When Europe began to suffer revulsion towards
the Transatlantic Slave Trade,
one European woman (was she a queen) is
famously quoted as asking her
compatriots whether they knew that the ivory
handles of their umbrellas,
which they held so fondly as they went to church
every Sunday, and the
handles of the cutlery which they used to chop their
favourite Roast Beef of
England and their piano keys, were products of one
of the most inhuman acts
in human history.
In retrospect when one looks
at the slave trade one sees that it was 10
times more murderous than the
Holocaust. Thirty million African people were
transported across the
Atlantic; many millions perished along the way. It
was, and continues to be,
the worst pogrom of all time.
My friend’s newfound wealth, has he ever
stopped to consider the number of
people who have been killed in the past 30
years so he could individually
plunder the country’s wealth for his own
personal aggrandisement? Has he
considered what it takes to sustain the
lifestyle he has chosen for himself?
We have seen in the past 10 years to
what extent Zanu PF is prepared to go
to remain in power. We have seen how
they have perfected the art of
political violence. They sing about it and
have fashioned slogans around it.
They have said without a whiff of regret
that they have degrees in violence.
They sing that they are terrorists
(Mbiri yechigandanga, ndiyo mbiri
yatinayo) and that our country is a
country of flowing blood.
Now, thanks to my friend, we know why they can
never think of relinquishing
power.
They have institutionalised their
plunder.
When they first came to power in 1980 they had something they called
the
Leadership Code which was supposed to force those in positions of power
to
declare their assets. Leaders were not allowed to own much; they were for
instance, only entitled to 50 hectares of land. Although this was an extreme
idealistic communist measure, its intention was noble.
But over the years
few real liberators are still to be found in the
corridors of power. They
have either died or have fallen out of favour with
the cabal of tribal
pirates who will stop at nothing to loot the country.
They have brought the
country to the ground and continue to enact laws that
enable them to plunder
the country.
At face value, these laws seem well intentioned yet their
ignoble nature is
manifest in the unexplainable riches they have been able
to acquire in the
most impossible periods of time.
My friend’s estate in
now worth more than the national budget.
Nevanji Madanhire,
Standard Editor
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
Saturday, 06 November 2010
18:57
Despite all its heckling, the inclusive government must be credited
for
opening space for the review of laws and policies. In recent months, we
have
seen public consultations on the Public Order and Security Act by the
Parliament, the launch of the constitutional outreach process, the review of
the National Youth Policy and, as a first, consultations on the budget for
the coming 2011 fiscal year.
The consultation processes marks the birth
of a new culture where people’s
voices have, at least, been sought by
policymakers to influence policies
that will affect the lives of the same
masses.
What makes for interesting inquiry for me, now, is that in the wave
of
reviewing the country’s legal and policy framework under a transitional
government, along came the National AIDS Council (NAC) making headlines
announcing the review of the Zimbabwe National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan
(ZNASP).
What is important to note is that the review of the ZNASP itself
is not a
contagion of the general policy review frenzy grasping the country.
Rather,
the review is an imperative seeing that the current strategy crafted
and
launched in July 2006 was, as defined by its time-frame, destined to die
this year.
The policy that the NAC, the Ministry of Health and Child
Welfare and other
stakeholders seek to review could be credited for a
significant check on the
HIV prevalence in the country. Though, at around 13
percent (the last time I
checked), the HIV prevalence, admittedly, remains
high and burdensome to an
economy recovering from a comatose
state.
Again, the increase in the number of people receiving antiretroviral
treatment is significant though not adequate to ease the burden of a
pandemic with far-reaching consequences on the country’s development, be it
social, political and economic. In a recent interview with Studio 7, an
employee with NAC said that more than 200 000 people in need of the
life-saving treatment remain without access.
Granted still, the ZNASP of
the past half-a-decade did well, together with
other policies and strategies
(eg the Behavior Change Strategy) to harmonise
and make strong the
prevention strategies which saw an addition of male
circumcision to the
league of already touted prevention methods.
The strides made by all
stakeholders in the HIV response coordinated under
the ZNASP of 2006-2010
are laudable and cannot be wished away.
However, the downside of both the
soon-to-be-dated policy and the process of
crafting such policies could be
the gap between our plans to arrest the
pandemic and the results we get. In
2007, upon the formation of the
NAC-coordinated National Young People’s
Network on HIV and AIDS (NYPNHA), I
made a case for meaningful and genuine
youth involvement in the
multi-sectoral response to HIV and AIDS.
In my
analysis of the same strategy, I submitted that the policy had done
well to
diagnose the problem and bring out the effects of HIV and AIDS on
the youth;
what the ZNASP lacked was congruent, practicable and
youth-focused
strategies to deal with the identified challenges for the
sector.
As a
result, the past five years have been the saddest to our youth sector
having
lost numerous colleagues needlessly. I say needlessly, because were
it not
for the obstacles that remain in accessing crucial services, I could
still
be counting a dozen more friends in my phone book.
What priority is going to
be given to youth in accessing HIV and
AIDS-related services in the
continuum of prevention, treatment, care and
support? The new strategy must
address this question. It is not a secret
that the many youthful lives we
have lost to AIDS-related illnesses in
recent years are attributable to the
reality that they did not have access
to services that could have saved
their lives.
The lesson in this is that swiftness and preparedness in the
provision of
services is as important as the availability and accessibility
of the same.
The country needs a strategy that prepares and enables service
providers to
act swiftly when it comes to the youth because many youths, due
to stigma,
wait until it’s very late to seek services. While we encourage
them to seek
treatment early, we need to anticipate them when they turn up
at some later
stage.
• Tayson Mudarikiri has a keen interest
in policy and youth development
issues. He writes in his own capacity.