http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Simplicious
Chirinda Friday 23 October 2009
HARARE - President Jacob Zuma
on Wednesday told Zimbabwean Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai to go back to
Harare and re-engage coalition partner
President Robert Mugabe, the South
African President's special political
adviser, Lindiwe Zulu, told ZimOnline
on Thursday.
A statement released by Zuma's office after his Wednesday
meeting with
Tsvangirai said he had told the Zimbabwean premier that
Pretoria was ready
to assist the Harare coalition partners resolve their
differences.
The statement that also said Zuma had expressed concern with
the situation
in Zimbabwe appeared a thinly veiled statement of support for
Tsvangirai's
calls for Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders
to intervene
to diffuse the crisis in Harare.
But Zulu said while
Zuma expressed his sympathy with Tsvangirai's concerns,
he was more worried
by the Zimbabwean Prime Minister's decision to disengage
from all
cooperation with Mugabe and his ZANU PF party.
Zulu said Zuma also made
it clear to Tsvangirai that he had to go back to
Harare and try to resolve
his problems with Mugabe because there was simply
no alternative to the
power-sharing government.
"President Zuma told him that the only
mechanism on the table is to remain
in government and ensure the
implementation of outstanding issues," said
Zulu.
"This is the only
mechanism available and there is no other. President Zuma
and South Africa
cannot afford to let Zimbabwe go back to last year's
condition. The way
forward is to engage, engage and engage," she added.
Zulu said Zuma
suggested "Tsvangirai and Mugabe must sit down and iron out
their
differences as a matter of urgency".
Tsvangirai last week announced his
MDC party's decision to boycott Cabinet
and cut all cooperation with Mugabe
and his ZANU PF party, blaming the
veteran leader's obstinacy for failing to
fulfil the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) that gave birth to the unity
government, and the slow pace
of democratic reforms.
The MDC's action
was also to protest the indictment of its treasurer general
and deputy
agriculture minister-designate, Roy Bennett, as well as what it
says is the
continued harassment and politically motivated prosecution of
its activists
and legislators.
As a result of the disengagement, Tsvangirai's and his
ministers boycotted
this week's Cabinet meeting.
Tsvangirai, who met
Zuma in Cape Town, has since Monday visited key regional
capitals to explain
his party's boycott of the unity government and to try
to persuade regional
leaders to exert pressure on the 85-year-old Mugabe to
fulfil his
power-sharing commitments.
But Zulu said: "President Zuma is worried by
the disengagement from the GNU
(government of national unity). He fears that
it will put the whole
arrangement in jeopardy.
"The MDC has to go
back to the agreement and do their best to make it work.
South Africa and
other countries will on the other hand rally around the
implementation with
an understanding that all role players must play their
part in a positive
manner."
Asked what the South African leader proposed as the way forward,
Zulu said
Zuma urged SADC's special politics, defence and security organ -
also known
as the Troika - to visit the country and assess the progress of
the GNU.
The organ was last month tasked by regional leaders to monitor
Zimbabwe's
February coalition administration. Mozambique, Zambia and
Swaziland make up
the Troika, while South Africa attends the Troika's
meetings on Zimbabwe as
mediator in the crisis.
"The SADC Troika
should speed up its engagement with Zimbabwean leaders.
They should visit
the country and review the process and look at other
arising issues," said
Zulu.
Tsvangirai on Tuesday met Troika chairperson and Mozambican
President
Armando Guebuza who reportedly promised to send representatives of
the
Troika to assess the situation in Zimbabwe and meet with MDC and ZANU PF
officials, including Mugabe.
Analysts have warned that if the MDC's
move did not yield any pressure from
SADC, it could prove a costly gamble
and the party could lose any leverage
over ZANU PF.
Mugabe could in
future make unilateral decisions to frustrate Tsvangirai and
drive the
former opposition party from government. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own
Correspondent Friday 23 October 2009
JOHANNESBURG - The
European Union (EU) presidency on Wednesday urged
Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe to swiftly implement a power-sharing
agreement he signed with
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, and end a fallout
that is threatening to
collapse the country's coalition administration.
The EU presidency -
currently held by Sweden - in a statement also called on
Mugabe, who formed
a unity government with Tsvangirai last February to end a
political crisis
following inconclusive elections last year, to speed up
democratic
reforms.
The statement follows last week's decision by Tsvangirai and his
MDC party
to boycott all cooperation with Mugabe and his ZANU PF party,
blaming the
veteran leader's failure to fully implement the Global Political
Agreement
(GPA) that gave birth to the unity government.
Sweden took
a swipe at hardliners in Mugabe's ZANU PF party whom it accused
of retarding
meaningful progress towards implementation of the power-sharing
pact which
the EU said was "the key to re-engagement" with the southern
African
country.
"However, elements within (Mugabe's party) have consistently
failed to
accept real power sharing and to demonstrate a willingness to
assist in the
implementation of the reforms to which they have committed,"
the statement
said.
The EU called on the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) and South
Africa - brokers of Zimbabwe's power-sharing
agreement - "to make all
efforts to create a constructive environment in
which outstanding issues can
be resolved" to end the current
crisis.
The MDC announced a boycott of the country's power-sharing
government,
saying it will not "sit in meetings with an unreliable and
unrepentant
partner" after the re-arrest and detention of Tsvangirai's to
ally Roy
Bennett on terrorism charges.
The former opposition party,
which says the charges against Bennett are
political, says Mugabe's
prosecution of Bennett is a further breach of the
GPA under which Mugabe
undertook to halt all political prosecutions.
Under the GPA Harare is
supposed to stabilise the southern African country's
economy that has been
in decline for the past decade, liberalise the media
and democratise key
state institutions that have been under the control of
Mugabe's ZANU PF
party since independence in 1980.
The unity government should also write
a new constitution for the country
after which free and democratic elections
should be held.
Western donor nations have refused to provide direct
financial support to
the Harare government demanding more political reforms
and a return to rule
of law on commercial farms that are key to economic
recovery and food
security. - ZimOnline
http://www.voanews.com
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
22 October
2009
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai pursued a regional
diplomatic
initiative on Thursday, briefing Democratic Republic of Congo
President
Joseph Kabila, current chairman of the Southern African
Development
Community, seeking support in the runup to next week's meeting
in Harare of
SADC's troika or committee on security and defense.
Mr
Tsvangirai met with President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique late Tuesday
and
South African President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday in Cape Town. Mozambique
currently holds the chair of the SADC troika or working group, which
includes Swaziland and Zambia.
Following his talks with Mr. Kabila,
Mr. Tsvangirai's formation of the
Movement for Democratic Change issued a
statement saying the prime
minister's message was that SADC "must grapple
with" the constitutional
crisis that has arisen in Harare.
The
statement quoted Mr. Tsvangirai as saying that "SADC must live up to its
responsibility" as a guarantor of the 2008 Global Political Agreement for
power sharing by "ensuring that all parties to the agreement abide by" its
letter and its spirit. Mr. Tsvangirai added that SADC leaders had the right
to know the situation first-hand, the statement said.
The troika will
try to reconcile Mr. Tsvangirai's MDC with its ZANU-PF
governing partner,
from which the prime minister announced Oct. 16 that his
party has
"disengaged" while making clear that the MDC formation is not
quitting the
government as such.
President Robert Mugabe, for his part, Wednesday
hosted top officials of
Angola's ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation
of Angola at State
House, including MPLA Secretary General Juliao Mateus
Paulo. Sources in
ZANU-PF said Mr. Mugabe updated the Angolan delegation,
adding that the
meeting was intended to pre-empt Mr. Tsvangirai's scheduled
meeting late
this week with Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos
Santos.
Tsvangirai spokesman James Maridadi told reporter Blessing Zulu
of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that DRC President Kabila undertook to
actively help
resolve the crisis.
SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz
Salomao was expected to meet meantime with
Mr. Zuma and his predecessor,
Thabo Mbeki, SADC's longtime mediator on
Zimbabwe.
SADC sources said
Salomao wanted to persuade the two men to join the members
of the troika in
Harare next Thursday, but Zuma spokesman Vincent Magwenya
professed
ignorance about the meeting, saying his boss has no plans to
travel to
Harare at this point.
Salomao himself declined to comment on the matter
in an interview with VOA.
Political analyst and human rights lawyer Dewa
Mavhinga said bringing Thabo
Mbeki back into the controversy in Harare will
not advance the work of the
troika.
Elsewhere, scores of MDC
supporters in the Chiweshe communal lands of
Mashonaland Central province
have fled their homes amid alleged intimidation
by ZANU-PF party activists
and war veterans which has revived fears of a
resumption of political
violence.
Local MDC members said threats followed Mr. Tsvangirai's
declaration of
"disengagement" from ZANU-PF, as VOA Studio 7 correspondent
Thomas Chiripasi
reported.
http://www.apanews.net
APA-Kampala (Uganda) The
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on
Thursday challenged African
leaders to step up risk and disaster prevention
strategies in order to
minimize the ever increasing numbers of refugees and
internally displaced
persons.
In a speech read by Antonio Gutierrez of the UN High Commission
for Refugees
(UNHCR) to the special summit on refugees, returnees and
internally
displaced persons (IDPs) at Commonwealth Resort in Kampala, the
UN boss
saluted African leaders in coming together to address the causes
generating
the refugee situations and finding remedies. He hoped the outcome
of the
summit would give a ray of hope to the refugees and IDPs.
The
host President Mr. Yoweri Museveni flanked by Rupia Banda from Zambia
and
Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe said "we need to build our capacity to predict
disaster and conflict situation and provide necessary responses to the
problems of refugees." He said there is need for proper diagnosis of the
causes for the right prescription to the problem adding that it is wrong to
sweep the dust from under the carpet instead of dealing with the
causes.
He told the summit that in conflict situations, proper
distinction ought to
be made between freedom fighters and terrorists, saying
some wars are
justified using proper methods. Why should one target women,
children or
innocent civilians instead of the armed combatants in a war ?"
he asked. He
proposed that state institutions like the army and police need
to be
strengthened to prevent or deal with conflict situations.
He
said even in justified wars, all peaceful methods must be exhausted
before
resorting to violence.
He also castigated the habits of interfering with
the environment by way of
settling in drainage areas leading to floods,
drought and other vagaries of
weather that displace people.
Museveni
said the refugees and the displaced must have their right to
security,
education, medical care, shelter and clothing as well as
empowerment in
various practical skills so that their time in the camps is
not put to
waste. He also suggested that with the land becoming scarce,
absorption and
integration of the refugees should be encouraged in urban
areas where they
are least likely to conflict with the locals over resources
like
land.
He said for instance that there is a big community of Somali
refugees in
Kampala city who have contributed a lot especially in the
transport industry
and they live harmoniously with the locals.
He
commended the World Food Programe and the UNHCR for their continued
support
to the refugees and the IDPs in terms of relief.
The summit closes on
Friday with an anticipated "Kampala Convention on
refugees and IDPs after
the heads of state and other experts discuss the
draft recommendations from
the extra-ordinary session, in a closed session.
JM/daj/APA 2009-10-22
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October 2009 21:33
A SPECIAL audit report on ministerial accounts has exposed corruption
through gross abuse of state resources by top government officials and
unlawful recruitment of over 10 000 youths during the countdown to last
year's
violent presidential election run-off.
In a damning
report by the Comptroller and Auditor-General, Mildred
Chiri, for the first
quarter of 2009 financial year, several ministers and
their deputies and
permanent secretaries took away vehicles, some as many as
four, from
ministries where they had been working before the formation of
the inclusive
government.
The audit also revealed irregularities and
inadequacies in the payroll
administration in several
ministries.
The Ministry of Youth Development was singled out
as the worst case of
abusing government recruitment procedures when it
employed 10 277 youths
between May and June 2008 without the existence of
posts on the ministry's
establishment.
The youths were
deployed throughout the country as ward officers in
what Chiri said was a
violation of a treasury instruction that stated "no
officer shall be
appointed unless an appropriate vacancy exists on the
authorised
establishment and no unestablished officer shall be appointed for
specific
work unless adequate provision has been made for the purpose".
"In terms of the authorised establishment supporting the 2008 Budget
estimates, the ministry had an establishment of 144 youth officers," reads
the report. "This was based on the criteria that there would be two youth
officers in each of the country's 72 districts.
In a clear
violation of Treasury Instruction 1101, in May and June
2008 a further 10
277 names were added to the ministry's payroll. Although
no provision had
been made in the estimates, a decision had been taken to
the effect that the
additional appointees would be deployed up to ward level
throughout the
country and designated as ward youth officers."
Between May and
June 27 - the day of the presidential run-off - there
was widespread
political violence in the country. The Morgan Tsvangirai-led
MDC alleged
that close to 200 of its supporters were killed and thousands
tortured and
injured by Zanu PF youths, war veterans and state security
agents.
The audit said public service appointment
procedures were flouted as
there were no public advertisements for vacant
posts, no offers of
appointment and no letters of engagement
issued.
"The appointees were not subjected to a medical
examination as
required by the public service regulations quoted above.
Declarations of
official secrets were not completed and there was no staff
files opened at
either the ministry headquarters or the provincial and/or
district offices
in all the provinces and districts covered by
audit."
The audit report reveals that there was duplication of
458 names on
the payroll.
During the audit there was the
absence of personal details of the
employees and the very "likelihood of
some of these or the majority thereof
being ghost
employees".
"The appointment process was unprocedural as
evidenced by the
following irregularities: duplicated names and surnames
with the same ID,
individuals appearing in two ministries, no appointment
documents, same date
of birth for most employees and same bank account used
for paying
employees-imprests accounts," reads the report.
The Auditor-General said though salary cessation was effected in March
using
IDs as the controlling key to identify duplicates after the revelation
of
ghost employees by the print media, there was no evidence that
disallowances
were raised to recover salaries from non bona fide employees.
The auditor raised concern that there was no evidence of the fraud
having
been refereed to the police for investigations. There was also no
evidence
that disciplinary action had been taken or a board of enquiry
instituted.
The audit said when the ministry's accounting
officer was taken to
task, he conceded that the ministry's establishment had
no room for any
vacancy. He indicated that some 1 260 existing posts of ward
officers under
the Ministry of Women's Affairs were going to be converted
and transferred
to his ministry to cater for the
recruitment.
He attributed failure to follow laid-down
procedures and the absence
of personal files to budgetary constraints to
facilitate the purchase of
files and stationery.
The
accounting officer promised that he would produce a "vigorous and
extensive
audit" in the ministry, but it was never submitted to the
Auditor-General,
the report reads.
Last night, Youth minister Saviour Kasukuwere
confirmed seeing the
report, but said it had a "lot of
inaccuracies".
"I saw the report by the Comptroller and
Auditor-General which is
based on her own findings," Kasukuwere said. "We
are still studying the
report as we feel that there are a lot of
inaccuracies. The ministry's
accounting officer is looking at all the issues
raised and carrying out our
own investigations. Once we have completed, we
will make an official
response."
The audit report also
exposed the misapplication of funds in the
Ministry of
Agriculture.
"It was observed that US$21 738 for the
Agricultural Revolving Fund
was used for minister (Joseph Made)'s business
cards, Internet router, head
office provisions and hotel bill. Audit
considered that the above
expenditure did not fall within the ambit of the
Agricultural Revolving Fund's
core business," the report said. "Funds
allocated to statutory funds should
only be applied to the services for
which those funds were established.
Accordingly, the minister should
consider making arrangements to refund to
the fund the monies thus
spent."
In the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, the
Auditor-General
uncovered unvouched expenditure.
The
auditee incurred expenditure amounting to US$1 909 without
supporting
documents. However, a statement was prepared by the auditee to
confirm the
expenditure amounting to US$382."
Irregularities were also
found in the Ministry of Industry and
Commerce where the ministry's total
vehicle holding had been depleted after
former Minister Obert Mpofu and his
ex-deputy Phineas Chihota and permanent
secretary took possession of cars
they had been using before leaving the
ministry.
"The
former cabinet minister took possession of two motor vehicles
which he had
been using before leaving the ministry, the former deputy
minister was
authorised to purchase the vehicle which he has been using
before leaving
the ministry, the former permanent secretary took possession
of four motor
vehicles which he had been using when he left the ministry and
one vehicle
was allocated to an officer who was assigned to carry out duties
outside the
country," reads the report. It further states the allocation
was
unauthorised.
Former Minister of Transport and Infrastructure
Development Chris
Mushohwe and his ex-deputy Hubert Nyanhongo and permanent
secretary are said
to have taken possession of three motor vehicles each
they were using before
they left the ministry and relevant authorities for
the acquisitions were
not produced during the audit.
Wongai Zhangazha
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October 2009
21:27
THE SOUTHERN African Development Community (Sadc) will next
Thursday
dispatch to Harare a fact-finding ministerial team - drawn from
countries
represented on the regional bloc's organ on politics, defence and
security
cooperation - to deal with the Zimbabwean political
situation.
The move would mark Sadc's intervention in
Zimbabwe's political crisis
following the partial withdrawal from government
by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) last week.
Diplomatic sources said the Sadc organ on
politics, defence and
security cooperation chair, Mozambican President
Armando Guebuza, told
Tsvangirai on Tuesday when they met in Chimoio that a
ministerial team would
visit Harare on Thursday to kick-start a regional
mediation process to sort
out the current situation.
The
team would comprise ministers from Zambia, Swaziland and
Mozambique.
Tsvangirai also met Sadc chair, DRC President
Joseph Kabila, yesterday
in Kinshasa and would be meeting Angolan President
Eduardo Dos Santos in
Luanda today for further talks on Zimbabwe with
regional leaders.
James Maridadi, Tsvangirai's spokesman,
yesterday confirmed the
meeting.
"The prime minister has
just met with President Kabila to discuss the
Zimbabwe situation," he said.
"He appraised him on the current events in
Zimbabwe and President Kabila
made a commitment to treat the issue as an
urgent matter. He will engage
with his Sadc colleagues, particularly
President Guebuza on the way
forward."
Sources said all necessary arrangements for next
week's meetings have
already been made by the Sadc executive secretary Tomaz
Salomao who has been
seized with the issues since last week. Salomao visited
Zimbabwe last
weekend for talks with the political leadership, including
President Robert
Mugabe, to lay the ground for Sadc
intervention.
Salomao also attended the Chimoio meeting and was
frantically trying
to hold talks with South African President Jacob Zuma and
Zimbabwe mediator
Thabo Mbeki to brief them on the outcome of the Chimoio
meeting. Sources
said Mbeki remains the mediator in Zimbabwe and might soon
visit the country
if the current political deadlock
remains.
Salomao has indicated Zimbabwe's problems must be
primarily resolved
by the country's fighting political principals, a view
shared by Mbeki and
some Sadc leaders. Smaller MDC faction leader Arthur
Mutambara has been
trying to broker a meeting between Mugabe and Tsvangirai
which is expected
to take place anytime now.
Prior to
meeting Kabila yesterday, Tsvangirai met Zuma on Wednesday in
Cape Town for
talks. Maridadi confirmed all the meetings. A statement issued
by Zuma's
office said the South Africa leader had "expressed concern at the
situation
in Zimbabwe" and said "Zimbabwe should not be allowed to slide
back into
instability".
Zuma, who relinquished the Sadc chairmanship last
month, remains
influential in the regional bloc since South Africa remains
part of the Sadc
summit troika which also includes the DRC and Namibia. The
summit troika is
different from the Sadc organ on politics, defence and
security troika which
has Mozambique, Zambia and Swaziland as its
members.
Tsvangirai and the MDC partly pulled out of government
- via a boycott
of cabinet and the council of ministers - citing Mugabe and
Zanu PF's
refusal to fully implement the Global Political Agreement (GPA)
and a series
of outstanding issues.
Mugabe's press
secretary George Charamba has dismissed the MDC boycott
as "monkey business"
- a move "full of sound and fury signifying nothing".
However,
MDC deputy Information minister Jameson Timba said Charamba's
remarks
reflected his "political naivety".
"If it's a non-event why is
he talking about it? It shows his
political naivety," Timba said. "Charamba
is a civil servant who should not
dabble in issues that don't concern
him."
Dumisani Muleya
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October
2009 20:56
TSHOLOTSHO North villagers want to summon their member of
parliament
Jonathan Moyo in a fortnight so that he can explain his decision
to rejoin
Zanu PF. If he snubs them, the villagers said they would bar him
from
visiting the constituency.
Villagers who spoke to the
Zimbabwe Independent on Tuesday said they
were shocked to hear through
foreign radio stations that Moyo was back in
Zanu PF after repeatedly vowing
during his campaign last year that he would
never rejoin the
party.
Some of the villagers said they still doubt the
authenticity of the
information and now want Moyo to personally address
them.
"We are not 100% convinced by reports that our MP (Moyo)
has gone back
to that party (Zanu PF). We only heard it on radio stations.
We will only
believe it when Moyo comes down here to address us," said
Mbonisi Ndlovu,
who said he was in Moyo's campaign team last
year.
Last weekend, villagers from the constituency met to
discuss Moyo's
re-joining Zanu PF and resolved to summon him in the next two
weeks.
A letter will be sent to Moyo on Monday to inform him of
that
decision, said Ndlovu.
"Many people are now confused
by his (Moyo's) action (if what we hear
is true) and we have resolved to
summon him within two weeks to Tsholotsho
to explain his move. Why is he
taking so long to do that if he rejoined Zanu
PF?" asked
Ndlovu.
Another villager at Jimila Business centre, Mfokababa
Nxumalo, said if
Moyo still respected the electorate he should be humble
enough to explain
his decision in person.
"It's shocking
that the same Moyo who used to tell us that he will
never rejoin (President
Robert) Mugabe's party has done it," Nxumalo said.
"We have not forgotten he
said that once he rejoins Mugabe we have the right
to take drastic action
against him. This leaves us with no option but to
summon him here and if he
refuses we will bar him from ever setting foot in
Tsholotsho North and we
will do it."
He wondered what Moyo was promised by Zanu PF,
which he said must have
been "too tempting to resist".
However, some villagers said they were not worried about Moyo
rejoining Zanu
PF as long as he did not abandon them.
"Moyo is a likeable
person and action-oriented. He started several
critical projects like
electrification, borehole drilling and helping in
schools. We would be
disappointed if he abandons us now that he is back in
Zanu PF," said Monica
Ncube, another villager in Tsholotsho North.
Earlier this year,
there were media reports that Mugabe wanted to
appoint Moyo Minister of
Media, Information and Publicity but faced stiff
resistance from some top
Zanu PF politburo members.
In a recent interview with state
media, Moyo claimed that people in
Tsholotsho North "are without doubt Zanu
PF people or those sympathetic to
Zanu PF's ideology and principles and who
appreciated the development
projects that have been done there through Zanu
PF".
But some villagers said they only voted for him on the
understanding
that he was no longer a Zanu PF member as they did not want to
be associated
with Mugabe.
Another villager who campaigned
for Moyo, Agrippa Moyo, said: "He is
an MP because we don't want Zanu PF
here and that (MDC leader Morgan)
Tsvangirai did not have a candidate, he
knows that. We wanted to vote for
Tsvangirai's person."
Moyo is the only independent MP in the House of Assembly.
He is
accused of having crafted Zimbabwe's tough media laws that saw
several
private newspapers shut down during his tenure as Information
minister.
But he fell out of favour with Mugabe when he
allegedly masterminded
the so-called Tsholotsho Declaration in November 2004
to re-arrange the Zanu
PF presidium.
Mugabe blocked his
nomination to the central committee and dropped him
from the
politburo.
Moyo was fired from the party after he decided to
contest the election
as an independent candidate in the 2005 parliamentary
election for
Tsholotsho North, a seat which Zanu PF had reserved for a
female candidate.
Moyo retained the Tsholotsho North seat last
year by a slight margin
after beating a candidate from the splinter MDC
formation led by Arthur
Mutambara and a Zanu PF
candidate.
Nqobile Bhebhe
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October
2009 20:47
THE Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC last week resolved to
"disengage" from
Zanu PF in cabinet and the council of ministers, but at the
same time
remained in the inclusive government. Our news editor Constantine
Chimakure
on Tuesday posed questions to the party's spokesperson Nelson
Chamisa on the
meaning of the disengagement and its implications, among
other issues. Below
are the excerpts.
Chimakure: In
layman's language, can you explain your party's decision
to "disengage" in
relation to Zanu PF and the inclusive government.
Chamisa: We
have a right of freedom of dissociation from Zanu PF
because of its
dishonesty, unreliability and inconsistencies, lack of
paradigm shift and
its lack of respect for us as an equal partner. Zanu PF
has exhibited
encyclopaedic levels of insincerity and palpable deficit of
goodwill.
However, we are not disengaging from the government. There is no
pullout
from government because we are government ourselves. It is
impossible for
one to pull out of themselves.
Zanu PF is not government and government
is not necessarily Zanu PF.
The inclusive government has three parties which
are signatories to the
global political agreement (GPA). There cannot be any
inclusive government
without any one of the three. We won the people's
mandate. We have a
covenant with the people; that promise, a promise of
leadership, the duty to
lead, the call of representation. Who are we to
abdicate a responsibility to
govern given the overwhelming confidence the
people of Zimbabwe have in the
party of excellence, the MDC? Disengagement
is only a gesture of
disenchantment, a demonstration of unhappiness over a
political logjam in
the implementation of the GPA. Disengagement is a signal
call to the
guarantors to expeditiously intervene and adjudicate as a way of
unlocking
the political gridlock.
Chimakure: What were the
reasons for the disengagement? Was it because
of the incarceration of your
treasurer-general Roy Bennett?
Chamisa: It is important that
the gains and processes of the inclusive
government do not slide back, that
is, there are irreversible and bankable.
We have been worried as a party
that each time we are planning, others are
plotting. Each time we are
building, others are destroying. When we see
lights others create
darkness.
In this inclusive government it is supposed to be give and
take
affair. Unfortunately, we have been giving and giving and giving
without
taking anything in retain. We know that the Bible says blessed is
the hand
that gives than the one that takes. In our case we are simply
asking
blessings as the hand that has been giving.
The people of
Zimbabwe deserve hope, food, jobs, medical care and a
happy life. To deliver
the above, stability and credibility of government
are key ingredients. It
is in this context that all outstanding issues that
threaten the stability
and credibility of the inclusive government are
jettisoned.
The
reasons for disengagement are therefore self-evident and have to
do with the
continued failure to honestly resolve the outstanding issues in
the GPA. The
selective application of the rule of law, non-appointment of
governors and
ambassadors, senior government appointments, the vile and hate
speech in the
public media are just a few manifestations of fundamental
issues which we
cannot just sit and watch.
Chimakure: Does the disengagement
affect business of government at
operational level, for example, duties and
responsibilities of ministries
under the MDC?
Chamisa: This
disengagement fundamentally affects those platforms
where we have direct
contact with Zanu PF, which means cabinet and the
council of ministers. Our
ministers are going to their offices and executing
their duties diligently
as ministers of excellence.
Chimakure: Why have you not
informed President Mugabe of your
decision?
Chamisa: The
statement by the party president on 16 October 2009
reached every living
room in Zimbabwe. Every citizen is aware of that
progressive and patriotic
decision, including our colleagues in Zanu PF and
their First
Secretary.
Chimakure: During your party's national council
meeting in Bulawayo on
September 13 there was a resolution to consult your
party structures and
Zimbabweans at large on whether or not the party should
disengage from the
government. The consultations were still going on when
you decided last
Friday to disengage. Why that decision when consultations
were on going?
Chamisa: The MDC is about the people, for the
people and from the
people. Indeed, we took a decision to consult the people
on the
sustainability and worthiness of the inclusive government in
delivering real
change. That process is proceeding exceedingly well since
October 1 2009. So
far, the party has held 1 233 meetings in the various
wards and by the time
we complete the exercise, we hope to have held
meetings in all the 1 958
wards in the country. Every village, every suburb,
every farm shall be
consulted.
The decision to disengage from Zanu
PF is not a pre-emption of the
on-going consultative process, which in
essence will be a referendum on the
inclusive government. The action we have
taken is directed at Zanu PF
pending the direction from the
people.
Chimakure: In your view, how can this impasse be
resolved?
Chamisa: Coalition governments are always difficult
propositions. The
forces of continuity are always in contestation with the
forces of change.
It is this contest that should make the political parties
constituting the
coalition to constantly and genuinely communicate; to
forever create the
meeting of the minds on the interpretation, the letter
and spirit of the
GPA.
Chimakure: What should the Sadc and
the AU do given the current
circumstances?
Chamisa: It is
important that African problems be resolved by African
institutions. African
challenges require African responses. In this regard
it is important for
African institutions to deal speedily, expeditiously and
satisfactorily to
resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe. More importantly, logic
must be caused to
visit our colleagues in Zanu PF on the profit and benefit
of implementing
the GPA to the full. No political party or signatory should
be allowed to
run away from their signature either in word or in deed. A
special meeting
to deal with all the outstanding issues wholly and squarely
would be the
best prescription for the ailment afflicting our country. Sadc
and the AU,
as guarantors, occupy the umpire's role in the resolution of the
impasse.
Chimakure: What do you say to allegations peddled
in the
state-controlled media that your decision was influenced by the US,
Britain
and other Western countries who are pushing for fresh
elections?
Chamisa: That is a tired song. The state media
behave like an old
record stuck in a groove. The state media have become a
theatre of fiction,
a factory of falsehoods and a conveyor belt of
perfidy.
It is an insult perpetrated by a few elites that black people
in
Zimbabwe cannot think for themselves. Ian Smith used to suggest that "his
blacks" were the happiest on the continent and were only being influenced by
the communists.
The neo-colonial inheritors of Smith's legacy still
want to perpetuate
the condescending myth that black Zimbabweans cannot
think for themselves.
Our decisions are coined and passed in the villages
and suburbs of Zimbabwe
by ordinary men and women in the countryside and in
urban areas. This is why
the party won the majority of votes. It is an
insult to the people of
Zimbabwe that a party controlled from Washington or
Berlin is the majority
party in Zimbabwe. Generally, in life, allegations
usually grow on weak
minds and dishonest hearts.
Chimakure:
Are elections the best solution to the political crisis and
can the
elections take place before the crafting of a new constitution?
Chamisa: Ideally, a people-driven constitution is the foundation of a
free
and fair election. In all cases elections are inevitable. The GPA is
implicit that elections will be held after the consultative process. It is
important that this country holds free and fair elections to finalise the
unfinished business of 2008.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22
October 2009 20:44
GOVERNMENT has given a lifeline to the
constitution-making process,
which had stalled due to lack of funds, by
agreeing to release the US$11,3
million in batches for the reform process,
whose completion has been delayed
by at least three months. Co-chairperson
of the parliamentary select
committee on the constitution, Munyaradzi Paul
Mangwana, told the Zimbabwe
Independent yesterday that they were expecting
the first batch of US$3,6
million from treasury either today or early next
week.
This, he said, would enable the committee to start
training the teams
of about 860 people, set up offices, recruit
administrative staff, hire
vehicles and thereafter deploy the teams for the
outreach programme.
Mangwana said the consultations should be
done by January next year
and they need US$4,2 million for the outreach
programme. This includes funds
to hire about 165 cars for select committee
members and allowances for the
teams.
"We were promised
money from the Ministry of Finance," said Mangwana.
"The management
committee approved our budget and they promised to release
the money on a
monthly basis. Although nothing has come yet, we are
expecting the first
disbursement either tomorrow (Friday) or next week.
"This will
enable us to start consultations, recruit staff and set up
offices. We will
be able to set into motion our administrative machinery. We
will be able to
start training and that will take us a week and thereafter
we will deploy
the teams. We need 65 working days to carry out
consultations."
To expedite the process, the three
principals of the global political
agreement (GPA) agreed that the six
negotiators of the unity deal -- Patrick
Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche of
Zanu PF, Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma of
MDC-T, and Welshman Ncube and
Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga of the
MDC-M -- would form the
constitution-making organ's management committee
together with three members
of the 25-member select committee of parliament.
The management
committee will have an independent secretariat.
According to
the timetable outlined in the GPA, the outreach programme
was supposed to be
completed in mid November, four months after the
stakeholders meeting which
was held in July.
Consultations had been scheduled to start on
August 25 and should have
been completed by November 13.
The only thing that the select committee has managed to organise since
it
was constituted in April was the stakeholders meeting, which was chaotic
because of disruptions from Zanu PF supporters.
The draft
of the constitution is supposed to be tabled within three
months of
completion of the public consultations to a second stakeholders
conference.
The draft and the accompanying report should
then be debated in
parliament and the debate concluded within one
month.
A referendum on the new draft constitution should be
held within three
months of the conclusion of the debate.
The whole process, according to the GPA, was supposed to take 18
months
before the referendum is held, paving the way for free and fair
elections.
Mangwana said because of lack of funds,
disagreements and infighting,
the process has been delayed.
\
The fight was over control of the process between the select
committee, parliament administration and Constitutional Affairs minister
Eric Matinenga, while there were also disagreements over the use of the
Kariba draft constitution as the basis for the process and negotiations were
still ongoing.
While Zanu PF wanted to use it, MDC-T was
insisting that the process
should be driven by the people with the Kariba
draft constitution used as a
reference document like the NCA draft, the
Lancaster constitution and the
rejected 2000 draft
constitution.
"Obviously we will not be able to meet our
timetable outlined in the
GPA. Already there is a delay of three months but
at least things are now
looking up now that we are under a management
committee.
Progress has been done to see that we are
autonomous and able to run
this process," Mangwana said.
To
go round the Kariba draft issue, the select committee is working on
a
questionnaire or talking points to use during the outreach
programme.
Asked how the disengagement of MDC-T from Zanu PF
would affect the
process, Mangwana said he did not foresee any problems
because the ministers
were attending to their ministerial duties and the
Finance minister, Tendai
Biti, would still be able to disburse the funds
during this crisis period.
"They (MDC-T ministers) are at work
full time. Tendai Biti will be
able to release the funds we are expecting. I
don't see any problems and the
disengagement will not affect our process,"
he said.
MDC-T has disengaged from Zanu PF, but says it will
remain in
government until all outstanding issues including the appointments
of
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono, Attorney-General Johannes Tomana and
provincial governors are resolved.
They also want their
treasurer-general Roy Bennett sworn in as deputy
Agriculture
minister.
Thematic committees of the constitution-making
process were now being
reconfigured so that all the three political parties
chair five thematic
committees each, with the other two being chaired by
traditional chiefs. The
17 thematic committees will lead the consultative
phase of drawing up the
new constitution.
The
representation of people in the committees will remain the same.
Civil
society, chiefs and other stakeholders still maintain a 70%
representation,
while parliament will remain with 30%.
Faith
Zaba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October 2009
20:41
WHEN the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) launched the
electric
train more than two decades ago, the long dreary journey between
Harare and
Dabuka, south of Gweru, became an enjoyable one. Although long
overdue
considering that the first electric train was launched more than a
century
earlier in 1879 in Germany, it was a step in the right
direction.
While the electric train would not travel the entire
journey linking
the country's two largest cities, Harare and Bulawayo, the
effort was
commendable.
However, 20 years later, the
electric locomotives have all been
suspended after the overhead wires which
are used to transmit power were
vandalised.
NRZ public
relations manager Fanuel Masikati confirmed that they had
suspended the
electric locomotives as a result of extensive vandalism.
"Between six and eight of the electric automotives have been suspended
as a
result of vandalism and this means that we have to use locomotives
which
were meant for other routes to service the Harare - Dabuka route," he
said.
Masikati said apart from the massive vandalism of the
overhead cables,
the thieves were also targeting the poles supporting the
wires as well as
the machines which are used for control.
This is straining NRZ which is the backbone of the country's transport
sector as it is the most cost-effective mode when it is fully
operational.
Replacing the vandalised infrastructure would cost
an estimated US$10
million, Masikati said.
A number of
industries, especially those that transport heavy or
voluminous materials,
are directly affected by the vandalism of NRZ
equipment.
Agriculture, for example, relies heavily on railway transport for
transportation of inputs such as seed and fertilisers because road transport
costs three times more.
Profit margins in the agricultural
sector are so narrow that farmers
would prefer rail because it is the
cheapest mode of transport and its
infrastructure needs to be replaced to
serve the nation.
However, before the country looks at
replacing the vandalised
infrastructure, NRZ and other companies which have
been hit by vandalism
should put in place measures to eliminate cases of
cable theft.
"We need to address the issue of theft and
vandalism before we replace
the equipment because once someone is used to
vandalism, then they would do
the same to the installed wires," Masikati
said.
One of the major problems is that there is a ready market
for the
wires, in Zimbabwe and in the region.
Zesa
spokesperson Fullard Gwasira said the vandalised equipment was
usually used
by the informal sector with "some contraband being targeted for
the export
market".
One way of curbing cable theft is to heavily guard the
infrastructure;
this could be done by either private security guards or the
security forces.
An increase in security could deter cable thieves who have
become daring to
the extent of vandalising electrical cables within the
high-density areas of
Harare.
The other option is to have
deterrent sentences for vandalising,
buying or selling copper
cables.
Masikati said NRZ, together with TelOne and Zesa, have
been lobbying
for a total ban on trade in scrap copper as well as a stiffer
penalty for
those found guilty.
Convicted cable thieves now
serve a minimum five years in prison and
this is a result of the lobby by
companies which have been hit by vandalism.
Gwasira said they
were holding various anti-vandalism and anti-theft
campaigns.
"We have also lobbied for the ban on trade in
copper and aluminium
trading as the only copper producing mine, Mhangura
Copper Mines, closed
down in 1999 and it defies logic where the vandals and
thieves are sourcing
their scrap copper," said Gwasira.
It
is also important to note that the thieves also take advantage of
the power
cuts as they are only able to cut the cables when the lines are
"dead", thus
an improved power supply could also contribute towards the
reduction of
cases of cable theft.
NRZ has tried to reward members of the
public who have reported cases
of cable theft which lead to successful
arrests.
Under this arrangement, a whistle blower would get a
percentage of the
total cost of the cable recovered.
Zimbabwe's train journey may be going full circle if the sector
reverts to
steam as was suggested at the turn of the century when the
country was faced
with a massive shortage of fuel.
This would have meant going
two steps back in terms of technological
advancement, since the country
would have moved from the use of electricity
to diesel and then to the use
of coal.
Steam engines are powered by coal and Zimbabwe argues
that it has
abundant coal resources compared to diesel which was scarce at
that time as
a result of low levels of foreign currency.
Two decades ago NRZ electrified 300kms of railway line between Harare
and
Dabuka, but now all that has been reversed for personal
enrichment.
Leonard Makombe
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October 2009 19:22
LACK of finance continues to hamper a proper rebound of tobacco
production
as the planting of irrigated tobacco started last week. Financing
of the
2009-2010 tobacco season has been unstable, with prospective
financers still
to make a full commitment.
This is likely to affect the anticipated
increase in production which
has far reaching effects on the entire
economy.
Zimbabwe Tobacco Association president Kevin Cooke confirmed
that the
planting of the dry land crop started last week.
"Basically planting of the dry land crop went ahead well but there are
problems with the unavailability of inputs and finance for the production of
the crop," said Cooke. "There is a large number of tobacco farmers who have
not received inputs on time and this may affect ultimate
production."
A rebound of tobacco production has continuously been
hampered by
unavailability of inputs.
"We are aware that the
Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) is
going to support farmers
towards production of the crop and we are hoping
that this goes well," added
Cooke.
Apart from TIMB, there are other contractors who have supplied
inputs
to tobacco farmers.
Last season, 57 million kgs of tobacco
were produced and the industry
was targeting 65 million kgs for the 2010
selling season though some players
have put the figure at 80 million
kgs.
Contractors accounted for the greater part of tobacco which was
produced last year and it is expected to be the case this season.
Cooke said with proper planning it was possible to increase production
beyond the targeted 65 million kgs.
Players in the tobacco industry
have been arguing that it is an 18
month crop and planning should be done
well in advance to avoid hasty
preparations which would have a bearing on
production.
There has been an increase in the number of tobacco farmers
compared
to last season mainly because of the improved returns at the
auction floors
where producers were paid in hard currency.
Tobacco,
at its peak production levels, accounted for more than half
of total
agricultural exports and this translated to 30% of the country's
total
exports.
Tobacco production peaked at 260 million kgs in 1998, which is
almost
five times as much as what the industry is producing 11 years
later.
At its peak, the crop earned the country around US$270 million
and it
accounted for 10% of the country's gross domestic
product.
Leonard Makombe
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22
October 2009 19:12
ZIMBABWE'S banking institutions might not witness
any foreign
investment in future due to the unfavourable laws and procedures
required by
the Reserve Bank, Zimbabwe Investment Authority and the Zimbabwe
Stock
Exchange for listed banks. According to information gleaned from the
country's
financials institution this week; Zimbabwe might not witness a new
bank or
foreign investors coming on board soon.
Given the structure
of the banking law and Zimbabwe Stock Exchange
(ZSE) regulations, any
significant injection of capital by foreign investors
into a Zimbabwean bank
would require upfront exemptions to be given to the
potential investor by
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the Ministry of Finance
and the local
bourse.
Exiled businessman Gilbert Muponda told businessdigest on
Wednesday
that: "Zimbabwe was a very high risk investment destination. Apart
from
banks look at Meikles Africa and Shabanie Mashaba Mines. All similar
cases
but treated differently. Laws are selectively applied so no foreign
investor
would want to come moreso in the financial sector."
Coronation Financial Services economic analysts Lance Mambondiani said
technically, it was easy to attract foreign investment into Zimbabwean banks
since all sectors in the economy, particularly the financial sector, are
facing liquidity constraints as a result of dollarisation.
"There
are however several practical challenges such as the
credibility of the
Reserve Bank as an efficient, competent and impartial
regulator, the
stability of the sector itself after the 2003 crisis and
whether the banking
sector has the capacity to be profitable in a market
generally considered as
overbanked," he said
"The Reserve Bank's new capital requirements in
terms of which banks
are required to have a minimum capital of US$6,25
million whilst well
intended, may be too high for a market where banks are
hardly able to cover
their overheads or pay their employees in US
dollars.
"In my opinion, it is not likely that we will see an influx of
foreign
investors into the banking sector just yet," Mambondiani
said.
Economist Brains Muchemwa told businessdigest this week that
while the
environment might not be favourable for foreign investors it was
important
to find out if "banks were adequately capitalised to meet the
demands of the
economy, or whether we need more foreign investors to start
new banks and
inject more capital and expand credit creation to bring down
cost of funds".
The country's banking regulations and rules are said to
be impediments
to bank mergers or takeovers with specific reference to
foreign investors.
"Historically, Zimbabwean banking institutions have
held their capital
in Zimbabwe dollars and as a consequence were able to
paper over
inefficiencies, capital inadequacy and poor performance.
Hyper-inflation
used to mask a lot of mistakes," an analyst with a
commercial bank said.
However, dollarisation of the banking sector has
left the players
exposed as the Zimbabwe dollar tide disappeared, and left
the institutions
semi-naked, for all to see - warts and all. Everyone can
now see who had
been swimming naked.
Economic analyst John
Robertson said foreign investors to not want to
be treated like they are
committing a crime to invest in the country.
"Investors always look for
a friendly and rewarding environment. Ours
has not been when compared to
what is happening in other countries,"
Robertson said.
"Foreign
investors are even more cautious when it involves the
financial sector,
where a lot of money will be changing hands. Given the
unfortunate incident
when a lot of depositors have lost their money no one
in their right mind
will come to Zimbabwe," he said.
For listed banks, in terms of the
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE)
regulations, a foreign investor may only hold
up to 10% of the issued share
capital of a listed company, irrespective of
whether it is a bank or banking
institution.
The total shareholding
that foreigners can collectively have in a
listed company is 35%.
Therefore, subject to structuring, the maximum
shareholding that a foreigner
can have in a listed banking institution is
35%.
"It is therefore
difficult, under the current ZSE regulations, for a
foreign investor to
invest a significant chunk of capital into a Zimbabwean
banking institution
in return for only 10% or a maximum of 35% equity," an
analyst
said.
In the event of a rights offer being made, it will take between
52 and
58 days to be complete if managed well.
Under ZSE rules,
should the shareholding exceed 35%, the investor
might be obliged to make a
compulsory offer to the minorities and take over
the entire
institution.
An investment in a financial institution requires not only
sufficient
capital injection but also significant changes in the management
and board
of the institution, post investment that are directly controlled
and
regulated by the Reserve Bank.
Economist Eric Bloch said
financial institutions had a great need to
access international lines of
credit, partially because their capital
resources have also been eroded, and
substantially because of the very
considerable funding requirements of their
clients.
"Zimbabwe's bankers need to be conservative in their
operations, but
such conservatism should not be excessive," Bloch
said.
"In the interests of their own viability, their clients
operations and
the progression of economic recovery, they need to reassess
their present,
non-constructive stance. Their current policies are fuelling
national
illiquidity, which is slowing the critically needed economic
recovery," he
said.
Paul Nyakazeya
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October 2009
19:08
IF the South African-owned platinum mining company, Zimplats, had
thought it had found new friends in government when President Robert Mugabe
showered it with praise last week it must have been shocked at the weekend
when the opposite was dished out by a government minister. Zimplats must be
wondering what triggered a tirade against the company for what Media,
Information and Publicity minister Webster Shamu said was its "self-centred"
approach to business.
The outburst from Shamu came two days after
Mugabe commissioned the
Zimplats Ngezi expansion programme where he praised
the South African-owned
company for complementing government development
goals through projects
"outside the realm of mining".
In an
apparent disagreement with his boss, Shamu criticised Zimplats
for what he
described as its "self-centeredness".
He was speaking at the burial of
Chief Chivero, whose chieftainship
oversees the platinum-endowed Ngezi
area.
In a news report by the state broadcaster, ZBC, Shamu lashed out
at
the mining group for not honouring chief Chivero.
The Chegutu
East Zanu PF MP said the late traditional chief had died
"without anything
to show for large quantities of platinum ore that is being
mined by Zimplats
in his area".
He added that Zimplats should have tarred the road to the
chief's
homestead.
According to ZBC, Mhondoro MP Bright Matonga
together with traditional
chiefs petitioned Zimplats management earlier this
year over their
employment policies which they alleged were unfavourable to
locals.
However, last Thursday Mugabe said Zimplats' operations and
social
corporate responsibility were a model for the country.
Mugabe summed up the investment prospects by saying: "It is pleasing
to note
that despite the economic challenges which have largely been forced
on our
country through illegal sanctions, you have committed yourselves to
completing this major investment for the furtherance of your business and
the sustenance of our economy."
He went further to say: "I have no
doubt that the achievements you
have made are of great benefit for the
future of both your operations and
that of the local community, and
ultimately, the well-being of our country's
population.
"The
strides that you have made in assisting government to invest in
infrastructural development will go a long way in creating a conducive
environment for those businessmen who may wish to set up their operations in
this area."
So what could have triggered this backlash against a
company that is
widely regarded as the largest investor in recent years?
Could Shamu's fury
have been set off by Impala Platinum (Implats) Holdings
chief executive,
David Brown's criticism of government's half hearted
commitment to
investment policies.
In a frank speech at the
commissioning of the programme, Brown warned
that government could lose more
foreign direct investment due to lethargic
bureaucratic inertia in
fulfilling mining agreements. The company signed two
agreements - the
Framework of Agreement and the Release of Ground Agreement
which outlined
ground rules for operations.
"It is important to stress Your Excellency
that as investors our
confidence to embark on such a significant investment,
particularly at a
time when other investors choose other destinations, was
premised on the
agreements referred to earlier," Brown said.
Zimplats, a subsidiary of Implats, invested in Zimbabwe's platinum
deposits
-- third largest after South Africa and Russia - when leading
mining group
BHP ceased operations 10 years ago after citing viability
problems.
"Speaking as an investor I would like to stress the importance of
adherence
by both parties to the letter and spirit of all agreements."
Government, Brown added, is yet to resolve obligations under the
Framework
of Agreement signed in 2001. The Zimbabwe Investment Authority
during the
inaugural Investment Conference also alluded to government's
"reluctance to
fully honour agreements" which could constrain growth of the
mining
company.
Subsequent to Mugabe's first visit to the mine in 2006,
negotiations
for a working partnership for the exploitations of platinum
group metals on
the Great Dyke were successfully concluded.
This
has resulted in Zimplats offering a third of its claims to
government, thus
creating a diversity of investors in platinum mining.
Government in return
promised a favourable taxation incentive among other
enabling
conditions.
The future of the automobile industry, currently dogged by
the
financial crisis, Brown said, could determine the prices of metals on
the
world market.
Implats has over the last eight years injected
US$600 million in
Zimbabwe creating 5 000 jobs. The mining company also
funded a 132Kv power
line to complement the widely politicised government
rural electrification
programme.
According to company officials,
Zimplats constructed the Ngezi road in
a "record time" and funded the fibre
optic switching equipment for
state-owned telecommunication company TelOne,
spurring development in the
area.
These impressive investments
benefiting the local economy are what
Shamu calls "self-centredness" because
they didn't result in
a road to the chief's home. Crude populism, it
seems, trumps national
benefit!
On the controversial indigenisation
law, Brown said that there was
need to amend the law to "take into account"
the concerns of the investors
while allowing for "meaningful indigenous
participation" in the economy.
Foreign investors have expressed concern
over the "empowerment" which
law which makes them surrender 51% stake of the
business venture to locals.
Bernard Mpofu
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October 2009 18:56
GOLD production at New Dawn Mining's Turk Mine has continued to
increase
since the company resumed production early this year. This comes at
a time
when RioZim has reported that gold production at Renco Mine,
Masvingo, is
set to increase to 80kgs a month from the current 60kgs.
New Dawn
Mining said gold production for September was 1 029 ounces
which translates
to 32kgs which is a slight improvement on the 1 019 ounces
which is
equivalent to 31,7kgs produced in August.
An increase in production
last month marks the sixth consecutive month
that the mining company has
recorded an improved output.
Last month, New Dawn Mining realised
US$965 900 from the sale of
around 977 ounces of gold which was selling at
an average price of US$988
per ounce of the yellow metal in
September
"We are well on our way to achieving our first sustainable
production
target of 1 200 ounces of gold per month or between 14 000 and 15
000 ounces
of gold on an annualised basis," commented Ian Saunders,
president and CEO
of New Dawn Mining. "We believe that New Dawn is
well-positioned to move
forward over the near-term with its plans for
increased production and
exploratory activities in Zimbabwe."
New
Dawn Mining last month announced that it was disposing
of its
operations in South Africa so that it would focus more on
production and
exploratory activities in Zimbabwe.
Saunders added that as at the end
of September the company had an
additional 733 ounces or 22,8kgs of gold
which were to be exported for sale
in South Africa.
At the end of
August, the mining company had 770 ounces of the yellow
metal which awaited
exportation to South Africa.
Another gold producer, RioZim, last week
announced that it was
targeting an output of 80kgs of the precious metal by
the end of the year. -
Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October
2009 18:56
THE Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) says capacity
ultilisation in the manufacturing sector for the first six months of the
year was at 32,3%. According to the 2009 CZI Manufacturing Sector Survey,
the sector has improved from below 10% largely due to the dollarisation of
the economy. CZI president Kumbirai Katsande said despite improvements in
economic activity, government should still come up with bold decisions to
ensure that the manufacturing industry thrives.
"The
challenge is what to do next. Unless we build from where we are
there is a
risk of us going backwards again," Katsande said.
The
survey also showed that 83% of companies that took part did not
make any
investment owing to lack of funds to undertake such projects.
"There is notable improvement in the country's economy but the
environment
needs to be supported by the political will as recent political
uncertainty
has slowed down economic activity," he said.
A total of 89,2%
of the respondents recorded a positive output growth
while 10,8% recorded
negative growth in output.
About 89,2% of the respondents
recorded volume of exports growth
greater than zero while 28% of the
surveyed firms cited uncompetitive export
markets as the major reason for
not exporting during the first six months of
the year.
High
cost of production and the unavailability of working capital were
also cited
as hindrances to exports as well as incapacity to import enough
requisite
inputs to produce high quality goods demanded in international
markets.
"If we are to do a score card of the inclusive
government there is
more that has been done than that has not been done but
we continue to focus
on what has not been done to our detriment," he
said.
This year's survey was launched under the theme 'Cost
competitiveness
key to industrial recovery'.
Paul
Nyakazeya
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October 2009
19:35
THAT a settlement between Kingdom Bank founder Nigel Chanakira
and his
rival Kingdom Meikles Limited (KML) front man John Moxon was in the
offing
could be seen coming a month ago.
But what few had seen
coming was Chanakira emerging with a handsome
49% stake, much more than he
has ever had in Kingdom Financial Holdings
Limited (KFHL) post KML
de-merger.
It seemed on the surface, at least, that things
would get a little
complex for the banker given that he did not hold real
control of his bank
but relied largely on alliances with business associates
Strive Masiyiwa and
initially Moxon to call the shots at
KFHL.
And without such key support, his future even post
demerger seemed
rather hazy.
Had Moxon opted not to sell
his KFHL shares, he would have emerged as
the major shareholder in KFHL as
well. But Moxon possibly weighed his stake
in KFHL against his
holdings-hotels, agriculture and retail-and thought:
"Why the hack should I
keep fighting."
The Moxon family also regains about 50% of
Meikles, one of the oldest
businesses in the country.
And
Econet's unclear position in the fight also fed into the
speculation. Even
Chanakira himself according to his draft affidavit, could
no longer tell his
enemies from his friends a few weeks to the settlement.
He
alleged conflict of interest on the part of his then lawyer and
negotiator
Tawanda Nyambirai who also doubled as his go-between with
Moxon.
Now, Chanakira seems to have put the KMAL chapter behind
him. He
believes once the de-merger is complete, he will pursue his dream -
a
listing on the Wall Street.
He also wants to see KFHL
shares trading on the JSE once separation is
achieved.
Last
month Chanakira said: "Once the de-merger is behind us, we can
move forward
and are looking to take the company further than just Zimbabwe.
I remain
confident that in the next month or two we will have a resolution
on the
de-merger and be able to move on."
Kingdom Meikles Africa
Limited was formed in January last year by
combining Kingdom, Meikles and
Tanganda.
KMAL announced on June 26 the businesses would
separate after
disagreements between John Moxon, who was the biggest
shareholder in Meikles
Africa, and Chanakira, Kingdom Meikles' former chief
executive officer.
Earlier this year, government placed Moxon
and associate companies
under specification amid allegations of
externalisation of foreign exchange.
Kingdom is looking to
raise private capital, having already put about
$12,5 million in the bag, or
about half, of what is needed for the company
to "get back to business,"
Chanakira told Bloomberg last month.
After that, the financial
services group says the company wants to
raise as much as $100 million so
that it can expand into Africa, he added.
Kingdom got a licence
to operate in Cameroon and is already active in
Malawi at FDH. The group is
also planning a move into South Africa where it
says it "will run a niche
operation for the four million or so Zimbabweans
living there," he
said.
Kingdom is "positive" that it will be able to increase
earnings from
individual savings accounts in the next two years as
Zimbabwe's economy
begins to improve.
Moxon believes the
settlement was the end of a "horrific period" in
his life. But is it really
the end of that nightmare?
Observers are keen to see how fast
government will revoke the
specification. This is because Zanu PF officials
could be eyeing Meikles
Africa's assets which cut across agriculture,
hotels, retail and printing.
The market fears Chanakira could
have opened Pandora's box and might
not have control over the specification
even though he sealed a rather
handsome deal that will see him emerge with
more control of the bank than he
has had since listing.
Moxon stands accused of "externalising" $22,3 million - banking
euphemism
for smuggling foreign exchange out of the country. In government
circles
exetrnalisation is a serious crime judging by the way offenders are
treated.
The specification, analysts say, only shows how
government machinery
can be manipulated for political and personal
ends.
Moxon is also planning.
"The general
view after . negotiations was that the specification will
be lifted, and
fairly soon. But it has to be lifted by the courts."
Moxon
doesn't seem worried about the specification hanging over his
empire and is
already looking into the future.
According to Moxon, the
resolution of the KMAL dispute could pave way
for South Africa retail giant
Pick n Pay to invest more money into Zimbabwe.
Pick n Pay owns
25% of TM Supermarkets, which is controlled by Moxon's
family.
Chris Muronzi
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October 2009
19:26
SOUTH African retail group, Pick n Pay, is "anxious" to reinvest
in TM
Supermarkets but has been awaiting a settlement in a shareholder
dispute in
Kingdom Meikles Ltd (KML), John Moxon said. Moxon told South
African media
last week that Pick n Pay, which holds a 25% stake in TM
Supermarkets, the
largest retail chain in Zimbabwe, has been holding back
investment until a
settlement was reached between himself and former KML CEO
Nigel Chanakira.
Moxon, whose family owns 43% of KML, said: "Pick n Pay
have been quite
anxious to extend their investment in Zimbabwe. They want to
rejuvenate the
stores, starting with the equipment, but they did
not
want to go ahead until this was resolved."
Pick n Pay CEO
Nick Badminton confirmed he had been in discussions
with Meikles about
investing more in TM, but did not give details.
Ironically, Moxon's
comments come after another South African retail
group - Shoprite -
announced it would not be pursuing opportunities in
Zimbabwe saying the
company needed to be "sure" that the economic climate
was stable.
Shoprite chairman Christo Wiese was quoted as saying: "It was simply
one of
those cases where the buyer and the seller could not agree on terms."
But insiders say Shoprite wanted to pay a discount to OK's share price
as
the stock hardly traded and the market value does not reflect true
value.
Shoprite was in talks with OK Zimbabwe in a deal worth around
R375
million (about US$37 million) on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange but
reports say
the parties could not agree on the price for the second largest
retail group
in the country.
Shoprite CEO Whitey Basson said: "We
need to be sure that the economic
climate has stabilised and is showing good
growth, and we just do not think
it is at that stage yet".
Basson
says the KML saga was not the reason for pulling the plug and
believes once
they are positive indicators on the ground the group would
consider
investment.
Basson said: "The grass in Zimbabwe is not long enough for
us to make
an investment decision. We are not ruling it out again at all -
it sits
right next to our SA business after all. We just need more positive
indicators."
Moxon was specified earlier in the year for allegedly
externalising
US$18,6 million and R21,2 million out of the country without
exchange
control authority.
Last week saw the end of the corporate
brawl between Moxon and
Chanakira after they reached an agreement which
analysts believe was an
amicable settlement between the warring
factions.
Chanakira claimed he urged Moxon, his then chairman, to
repatriate
funds back to Zimbabwe before alerting the police with no
success.
Moxon then attempted to remove Chanakira from the board
sparking a
political backlash.
Meikles Africa Ltd merged with
Kingdom Financial Holdings Ltd in
November 2007 to form
KMAL.
Chris Muronzi
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October
2009 20:36
IT'S a crisis by any definition. And the clumsy attempt by
Zanu PF
spokesmen to pretend otherwise won't wash. Let's be clear about
this. The
treatment of Roy Bennett is only one dimension to this falling
out. The
central complaint is that of insincerity.
Certain
targets were identified in the GPA and there has been no
attempt to meet
them. What happened to the provincial governors? Why has
there been no
progress on that front?
A free media was agreed upon together
with the unimpeded return of
journalists in the diaspora. Why then is
President Mugabe sitting on the
list of nominees for the Zimbabwe Media
Commission submitted to him weeks
ago? And why is the Media minister unable
to give the assurances he is
required to in this regard? Instead he has
announced board members for
media-related parastatals that he should have
consulted on, and which
contain many manifestly unsuitable individuals
including army officers who
know nothing about the media.
As for the weightier matter of the Attorney-General and Reserve Bank
governor, nothing could be more emblematic of Zanu PF's deceit. It was
agreed in the communiqué of the Sadc extraordinary summit in Pretoria in
January that these matters and other outstanding issues would be resolved by
agreement between the parties immediately upon their return to Harare. But
Mugabe refused to budge, claiming it was his constitutional right to make
the appointments. The GNU was thus confronted with its first fait
accompli.
It may indeed have been his constitutional right to
make senior
appointments. But Mugabe had at the same time agreed to uphold
the Sadc
Pretoria protocol. He gave a solemn undertaking to his future GNU
partners
and then ignored their objections. It was to become the pattern of
things to
come. These include accommodating more ministers than the GNU
agreement
allowed.
The Bennett affair is actually the straw
that broke the camel's back.
Bennett, it will be recalled, had experienced
appalling treatment at the
hands of Zanu PF including the seizure and
pillaging of his coffee farm and
a lengthy prison term for pushing Patrick
Chinamasa to the floor after he
had insulted Bennett's forebears in
parliament.
Bennett's real offence was his popularity. Mugabe
to this day
splutters with indignation when he is asked to explain his
campaign against
Bennett. He points to Bennett's past as sufficient grounds
for excluding him
from government.
This is where Zanu PF
lives - in the past. They could not understand
how their record of violence,
coercion and deceit could have lost them a
series of elections. The people
were "voting with their stomachs", it was
explained as if hunger and misrule
were not grounds for political rejection!
To this day Mugabe
and his inner circle believe the Americans, through
the Zimbabwe Election
Support Network, deprived them of their historic right
to misgovern the
country.
This explains why extraordinary steps - such as
reviving the youth
militias and appointing military men to parastatal boards
- are being taken
to ensure the next election doesn't go against them. The
public media which
should be opening to a variety of voices has become a
crude instrument of
mind-control in the hands of last year's losing
party.
Mugabe sees the GNU as a means to lift sanctions and
sanitise his
rule, not a genuine means to share power and engineer recovery.
He doesn't
see himself as the loser he is and hopes to turn the tables on
Morgan
Tsvangirai. And he doesn't seem to understand what is needed for
economic
recovery.
Meanwhile, as we report today, the
optimism of the business sector so
evident six months ago is fast
evaporating. It is inevitable given the
failure of the GNU to act in
concert. Clear and predictable policies -
essential for success anywhere -
are invisible here. And then we have a
chorus of denunciation when
Tsvangirai understandably draws a line in the
sand. What is the point of the
MDC remaining in government when they cannot
make a
difference?
Zimbabweans must impress upon the reactionary
clique around the
president that there is no future in isolation. Arthur
Mutambara made this
point forcefully this week. Charges against him for
voicing his views last
year - and many others - remain outstanding. This is
not "healing".
Twenty years ago the Berlin Wall fell and East
Europeans recovered
their liberties in a largely peaceful transfer of power.
Today they live in
modern democratic societies. Zimbabwe is still in thrall
to a Stalinist
cabal holding the country back. We need to pull down the wall
that separates
us from the liberties to which we are entitled, and which
are clearly spelt
out in the GPA as preconditions for
recovery.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October
2009 20:26
A QUESTION I am frequently asked these days is: What is
Jomic? The
simple answer is that Jomic is an acronym for Joint Monitoring
and
Implementation Committee. It was constituted under Article XXII of the
Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed on September 15 2008 between the
leaders of Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC. That is where the "joint" comes
from.
The committee is composed of 12 senior members, four each
from the
three signatory parties to the GPA. The committee is co-chaired on
a monthly
rotational basis by leaders of the parties' representative
members. It needs
to be stressed that all 12 members of Jomic are senior
members in their own
political parties.
In summary, the
functions of Jomic are to ensure the full
implementation of the GPA, create
mutual trust between the parties, promote
continuous dialogue and to receive
"reports and complaints" relating to the
implementation of the GPA. Jomic is
the "principal body dealing with issues
of compliance and monitoring" of the
GPA.
The three political parties themselves also undertook
under the GPA to
"channel all complaints, grievances, concerns and issues
relating to
compliance with this agreement through Jomic and refrain from
any conduct
which might undermine the spirit of cooperation necessary" to
fully
implement it.
Jomic has in the past few months been
criticised for not "doing
anything" or "not doing enough" to enforce
compliance with the provisions of
the GPA by the signatory parties. Many
have called it a toothless dog or
suspect it of being an agency of one party
or the other. It is not clear why
a committee composed of four senior
members each from all the three parties
to the GPA should be an agency of
one of them. Jomic is in fact the
collective face of the three political
parties in action.
A pivotal function of Jomic is to monitor
compliance with the GPA. It
is also there to receive complaints from any
member of society or group,
including political parties, about the
implementation or lack thereof of the
GPA. It must then "sensitise" the
principals to the GPA, President Robert
Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara about these complaints
and deficiencies in the implementation of
the GPA.
It
cannot force parties to perform any specific provision. Jomic can
only
persuade the parties to be faithful to the letter and spirit of the
GPA.
Where the parties hit a deadlock, Jomic's role is to try and break it
or
propose alternatives.
More importantly, because of its role as
a "permanent" negotiating
forum of the parties to the GPA, Jomic cannot
afford the luxury of standing
on hilltops to attack or condemn its
constituent partners for infringements
of the GPA. It operates by way of
"continuing dialogue" between the parties.
If Jomic is
relatively "invisible" as some critics tend to say, it is
because by the
nature of its mandate it cannot draw light unto itself. What
Jomic seeks to
make most visible is the GPA. We want to make as many members
of the public
as possible more acquainted with the GPA and its provisions.
Jomic cannot be expected to monitor the implementation of the GPA
alone nor
can members of the public raise pertinent complaints about
non-compliance
with the GPA when they have not read it, let alone be
familiar with its
provisions.
In the interests of transparency and
inclusivity, we believe it is
only when people have turned the GPA into a
bedtime story book that they can
make informed comments and decide for
themselves what they believe to be top
priorities of the new
government.
It is lack of familiarity with the provisions
of the GPA which has led
to either misdirected accusations against Jomic or
misplaced expectations of
its role and functions.
We
believe it is because a majority of the people are not familiar
with the
provisions of the GPA that we have not been getting any direct
complaints or
comments about its implementation, except what newspapers tell
them are the
priorities.
To date the only direct complaints the Jomic
secretariat has received
since it was set up in July have been about "fresh"
or "continuing" farm
invasions or "disruptions" from the Commercial Farmers'
Union.
Some farmers have personally brought their cases to
our offices. We
have complemented these initiatives through site visits to
randomly selected
farms from the list we have to find out the situation on
the ground.
It is these farm tours which have revealed a gap
between what the
media report and the situation on the ground, and the chasm
between Jomic's
mandate under the GPA and people's expectations on the
acquired farms.
For instance, the most embarrassing
question we have had to face is a
farmer whose land was acquired by the
state as early as 2002. He is excited
about the Jomic team's visit, clearly
hoping that finally his "troubles" are
over.
What do
you tell him when at the end of his narration of the history
of the farm he
asks the Jomic team what he should do? "Should I continue
farming or not?"
asked several farmers we have visited in Mashonaland West,
Central, East and
Manicaland.
Where I have been able to comment on this
question, the truth of it
has left most of them disappointed. My observation
has been that Jomic is
not taking over the role of the police, the courts or
the Ministry of Lands.
Cases which have to be reported to
the police must be reported, those
in the courts will be handled by the
courts and the Ministry of Lands, not
Jomic, executes government policy on
land reform and farm allocations and
the issuing of offer letters. Jomic's
power is limited to what the
principals to the GPA decide based on the
information placed before them.
Joram Nyathi is Jomic
communications manager.
Joram Nyathi
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22
October 2009 20:12
THE government media, controlled by the hard-liners
in Zanu PF and
their vitriolic spokesmen, seem to think we should be worried
by United
States support for the prime minister's office. Every few days
there is a
new fit of hysteria about the Americans providing funds to Morgan
Tsvangirai's
office.
But the purveyors of these shrill stories are
not getting the public
response they seek. Most people want donor funds to
be kept out of Zanu PF's
grasping hands. They are perfectly comfortable with
the Americans funding
the PM's office.
The state media has been
playing the nationalist card, attempting to
whip up indignation over US
support for the MDC. But nobody buys this any
more. They just want things to
get better. And that won't happen if the gang
around President Mugabe
intercept funds from the US and EU. Their populist
policies have spelt
disaster in the past.
We had a mysterious "African diplomat" on
Sunday suggesting there was
a shift in US policy "necessitated by the
creation of the inclusive
government, the stabilisation of the economy
following measures announced in
Minister Patrick Chinamasa's budget, the
reengagement of Zimbabwe and the
mounting campaign against
sanctions".
This is all laughable. We are now led to believe it was
Chinamasa's
budget that saved us from penury, not Tendai Biti's fiscal
measures. And the
"African diplomat" obviously didn't hear Sweden's
ambassador say there would
be no help from the EU so long as there was a
lack of commitment to the GPA.
Ambassador Sten Rylander, whose country
holds the EU presidency, said
last week the renewed indictment and
subsequent detention of Roy Bennett was
"nothing less than provocative given
the ongoing political processes in the
country".
"This action,
taken just prior to very important donor discussions on
Zimbabwe, together
with other important developments recently - such as the
implied threats
against independent media practitioners and the intense
attacks on Finance
minister Tendai Biti in his efforts to pave the way for
continued
macro-economic reforms and debt relief - does not facilitate the
ongoing
dialogue to normalise relations with Zimbabwe," Rylander said.
So much
for re-engagement! And for those who have suggested Zimbabwe's
civil
servants are professional and politically neutral, it would be useful
to get
George Charamba's remarks on the record.
"The MDC-T has disengaged from
nothing," he said. "It's sound and fury
signifying nothing. There's no
amount of monkey business that will change
things on the ground."
Did somebody say professional? The MDC have been delinquent in
allowing this
partisan posturing to go on unchallenged. If Charamba doesn't
agree with the
inclusive government, he should leave it. It is
unconscionable to have one
of the most senior public servants in the country
publicly opposing
laid-down government policy - and encouraging others to do
the same
thing.
The Zanu PF public relations machine has been telling us
that Mugabe
doesn't care about the MDC walkout. It won't change
anything.
So why then does Mugabe in all his public pronouncements say
how
wonderfully well the GNU is working; how convivial relations are with
Tsvangirai? Why does he tell investors that everything is going amazingly
well and reforms are surging ahead?
The current claims that Mugabe
doesn't give a hoot about the boycott
are manifestly at variance with his
frantic messages of the past few weeks
that include TV interviews,
statements at the UN, and remarks made to
parliament. You can't one week say
relations with your partners in the GNU
are just fine and dandy and then the
next week your spokesmen say they don't
give a damn that Tsvangirai no
longer wants to work with you because you are
an "unreliable
partner".
Surely, even those who want to show off their Shakespearean
erudition
can grasp that contradiction!
Our thanks to Professor
Welshman Ncube for clarifying the issue. He
pointed out that the
incarceration of Bennett had the potential to cause a
political
crisis.
"The AG's office should be sensitive to the fragile political
environment and decisions should not be made recklessly," he told a business
meeting in Gweru before news of Bennett's release became known. "There are
people driven by a desire to undermine political stability," he said. "Do
you think that the incarceration of Bennett is so important that we can risk
the entire collapse of the inclusive government and what it has achieved so
far?"
Still on the Bennett case, we were interested to see
President Ian
Khama's comments on the crisis in the GNU.
"If it was
to collapse for genuine reasons," Khama said, "we would
certainly not
recognise a Zanu-only government or certainly not one headed
by President
Robert Mugabe because he certainly did not win the presidential
election
last year."
Phew Ian! That was three "certainlies" in the same
sentence.
And there we were being told the other day in Kinshasa that
Botswana
had switched sides and now saw things from Zimbabwe's point of
view.
"Certainly" not, it seems!
South Africa's Department of
International Cooperation spokesman
Nomfanelo Kota said that as a member of
Sadc, South Africa was "very
concerned" about the latest developments in
Zimbabwe.
He urged the parties to recommit themselves to the GPA and
"move
towards resolving outstanding issues".
We don't think he was
talking about sanctions!
Meanwhile, back home the state media was
telling us "Tsvangirai still
PM".
This was because Mugabe's pompous
officials were claiming he hadn't
got permission to travel outside the
country. Ian Makone's efforts to notify
them were described as "frantic".
And Tsvangirai wouldn't be getting any
funds for his trip because it
wouldn't be of "benefit to government as a
whole".
Let's hope
Makone remembers that the next time Zanu PF wants one of
its ministers to
accompany his MDC counterpart overseas.
Then we had headings in the
Herald like "Outrage over MDC-T decision".
The "outrage" was shared by
just four people out of the five
interviewed in a "snap survey". Among those
responding was the Zimbabwe
Sovereignty Preservers and Economic Survival
Support Network. Ever heard of
it? Nor have we. Its secretary-general,
Kingston Chimbwanda "blasted the
MDC-T's 'cry-baby' attitude" and said their
type of politics was "Bohemian".
He didn't elaborate but it could have
something to do with gypsies.
It's amazing isn't it? The Herald is
located in a city that voted
overwhelmingly for the MDC-T in successive
elections. But it can only find
Zanu PF supporters in a "snap poll". Quite a
feat! And what on earth is the
Zimbabwe Sovereignty Preservers and Economic
Survival Network? Any relation
of the Zimbabwe Heritage Project? Or Lawyers
for Justice?
Is there a dark little room in Munhumutapa Building where
these
outfits are dreamt up?
Herbert Murerwa has been engaging
in a bout of uncharacteristic
demagoguery. He was quoted on Tuesday as
saying Zimbabwe would not accept
funding for the land audit from foreign
countries and groups that want to
push "dubious agendas".
This was
in the wake of the EU's offer to assist with funding and
expertise. The
audit would only be carried out on the government's terms,
Murerwa
asserted.
So what have you got to hide Herbert? There appears to be
some panic
in the ranks of the multiple-ownership gang. They want to hide
their
"dubious agendas". Also, we should remember Zanu PF's need to signal
to its
lootocratic followers that it is still in charge.
But at the
same time donors need to emphasise the need for full
disclosure in the
interests of justice and fair play. Can you imagine the
uproar if
politicians were able to hang on to their ill-gotten gains.
EU
governments would have difficulty justifying that to their
constituents.
Last week, South African Justice minister Jeff
Redebe told parliament
in Cape Town that South Africa had halted all arms
sales to Zimbabwe. He was
answering a question from the Democratic
Alliance.
Radebe, who heads the National Conventional Arms Control
Committee,
said since July South Africa had decided to halt all pending arms
sales to
Zimbabwe. But it would be sending arms to Venezuela, he
said.
Strange how the state media didn't think this story was important
enough to carry. By the way, what came out of the talks between President
Mugabe and Hugo Chavez last month?
Chavez is busy silencing
Venezuela's independent media. Meanwhile, he
appears on
government-controlled TV for hours at a time beating his chest
and
denouncing the "gringoes". But unlike his newfound Zimbabwean allies, he
likes Obama to whom he handed some reading matter recently. Obama was
careful not to look too pleased!
Finally we note the Mo Ibrahim
Foundation will not be making an award
this year for good governance in
Africa. Apparently there wasn't any!
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October 2009 20:01
IT IS clear that Zanu PF and President Robert Mugabe have never been
serious
about engaging the MDC-T and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai,
specifically,
and about the concept of power-sharing in general. Whereas
Zanu PF has acted
in bad faith throughout the life of the inclusive
government, the MDC-T
itself has also acted in a manner that does not
inspire confidence in their
ability to rise above the problems bedevilling
Zimbabwe.
Since the
inauguration of the inclusive government, the premier has
insisted at every
opportunity that everything is well, that "Mugabe is
genuine", "Mugabe is
not the problem, but other people around him", and
"Mugabe is committed to
power-sharing" despite warnings and clear evidence
to the contrary.
This went on even as the prime minister's MPs, Deputy Minister of
Agriculture-designate Roy Bennett and MDC-T supporters were persecuted and
harassed all over the country. Yet, now the prime minister says "in this
period, we have seen a complete lack of paradigm shift on the part of Zanu
PF."
Everyone could see this, even as the premier told the world
"Mugabe is
indispensable and irreplaceable".
We note with concern
that the issues over which the MDC are
disengaging from Zanu PF are issues
of "jobs for the boys and girls" and not
policies that can deliver real
change for Zimbabweans.
The people want stable and permanent jobs,
economic development,
repair of dilapidated infrastructure, food,
functioning health and education
systems and social support networks. The
people want their dignity and
respect back. In this regard, we note that
since they entered the inclusive
government, the MDC-T have not put forward
policy initiatives aimed at
pulling the country out of crisis. The modest
improvements that have
occurred in people's lives over the past year are the
result of the default
dollarisation which commenced in early 2008 and was
formalised by Zanu PF
before the inclusive government.
The MDC-T
says it is unhappy that it still has no ambassadors posted,
no provincial
governors and resident ministers appointed and that Bennett
has still not
been sworn in as Deputy Minister of Agriculture.
In principle, MKD
stands opposed to a bloated government, especially
the executive. We would
have expected that, instead of fighting for posts
that will expand
government and burden the struggling Zimbabwean taxpayer,
Tsvangirai would
be fighting Mugabe over policy matters that can improve the
economic
fortunes of the country and the well being of citizens.
One such policy
we are still waiting for from the premier and his
party is the reduction in
the avaricious consumption of limited resources by
the bloated executive,
freeing up what little resources we have for the
improvement of the quality
of life of all Zimbabweans.
Indeed, while it is patently obvious that
Mugabe has no intention of
sharing real power with Tsvangirai, the premier
and his party is expected to
at least show that they have what it takes to
change the fortunes of
Zimbabweans. The people expect them to propose
effective development
policies, not just fight for public sector job
opportunities.
The people expect MDC-T to champion causes such as
national
reconciliation and healing, in order that we never get a repeat of
the
violence and brutalities that have characterised recent
elections.
The people expect the MDC-T to demonstrate better governance
competency than Zanu PF, instead of helping implement destructive Zanu PF
policies, as they have been doing since they entered the inclusive
government
The people want the MDC-T to demonstrate they can govern
the country,
facilitating prosperity through policies that are different
from what we
have come to expect from Mugabe and Zanu PF.
This is
not happening.
Political will to bring social stability and economic
well-being and
create jobs seems to be lacking in both MDC-T and Zanu PF.
The focus is all
about power, command and control, creating room at the
feeding trough of
government for themselves and a small number of their
supporters and
officials, while at the same time pursuing destructive
policies that belong
to the dinosaur age of the Zanu PF regime of the last
decade.
On careful examination, it emerges that the reasons for the
MDC-T
disengagement from Zanu PF have nothing to do with delivering real
change to
the people of Zimbabwe. The fight is about the MDC-T being allowed
a bigger
share of public sector jobs, cars, travel allowances and good
living.
We urge both Mugabe and Tsvangirai to show genuine concern for
the
suffering people of Zimbabwe, to apply themselves diligently to
resolving
their power disputes. We further urge Mugabe, especially, to show
that he is
committed to genuine partnership and power-sharing with the
MDC-T, a party
that defeated him in the March 2008 elections. This will
enable the
inclusive government to formulate and implement the policies
required to
create jobs, stimulate economic growth that benefits all our
people and
bring Zimbabwe back into the 21st Century where it
belongs.
Also of concern to us is that even this action of
"disengagement from
Zanu PF" by the premier and the MDC-T is not clear in
its meaning. The MDC-T
cannot have their cake and eat it. They say they have
"disengaged from Zanu
PF" and from cabinet and yet they are still in the
inclusive government,
they are still reporting for work and they are still
executing their duties
as cabinet ministers? So what exactly is the meaning
of their action as
announced last Friday? Can the prime minister clearly
spell out to a
concerned and confused nation the practical meaning and
effect of this
action because the people cannot see its
significance?
At the same time, we are aware, as is the entire nation,
that there
are three parties to this agreement and this inclusive
government. How is
the premier relating to the third party in government,
the MDC-M? Is he
meeting with them in the cabinet room in the absence of
Zanu PF? Is he
engaging them at all or ignoring them?
The people of
Zimbabwe are genuinely concerned and confused over this
unclear position
from the MDC-T. They have the right to an explanation from
their prime
minister.
It is time to stop playing with the people of Zimbabwe over
petty
positions and power. It is time to deliver real change to the
long-suffering
people of Zimbabwe. If the amount of attention that is being
given to who
gets what post in the inclusive government was directed towards
delivering
jobs, economic recovery, social harmony and stability, this
country would
have been much further down the road to prosperity than it is
now.
It is time to bring real change to the people.
It is time
to Get Zimbabwe Working Again.
Simba Makoni is the interim
president and chairperson of the national
steering committee of
Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn party.
By Simba Makoni
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October 2009
19:57
WHEN the MDC formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai announced last
week
that it had disengaged from Zanu PF, but had not quit government, many
people were confused as to what this meant exactly. A local journalist at
the press conference called to announce the disengagement last Friday asked
Tsvangirai to "explain to me as if you were doing it to a four year old,
what the MDC has done", but the premier brushed him off and asked for the
next question.
The journalist was right in seeking
clarification and Tsvangirai
should have tried to make clear what
disengaging from Zanu PF meant. He said
his party would not attend cabinet
chaired by President Mugabe and the
council of ministers, which he
chairs.
"It is our right to disengage from a dishonest and
unreliable partner.
In this regard, whilst being government, we shall
forthwith disengage from
Zanu PF and in particular from cabinet and the
council of ministers until
such time as confidence and respect is restored
amongst us," said
Tsvangirai.
Political analysts
interviewed by the Zimbabwe Independent have raised
a pertinent question.
They have asked how MDC could disengage from "itself"
since it is the
government, together with Zanu PF and the other MDC
formation led by
Professor Arthur Mutambara.
Clarifying that position, MDC
spokesperson Nelson Chamisa pointed out
that it would be "foolish and
stupid" for anyone to claim that they had
disengaged from government when
they were the government.
"But we can't say business is as
usual with all these outstanding
issues," said Chamisa adding that: "If Zanu
PF is ever claiming that this is
a non-event - certainly we are not there,
and when we are not there, there
is a missing link and they can't say it's
business as usual."
But what exactly does this mean? Does it
mean that MDC ministers will
attend to daily government business? Will
Finance minister Tendai Biti
authorise disbursement of funds to, for
example, the Ministry of Health if
need arises during the period of
disengagement? Will the budget be announced
if the crisis continues to
November when Biti is supposed to present the
2010 budget after consulting
his Zanu PF counterparts?
Investigations by the Zimbabwe
Independent revealed that some
ministers have cancelled meetings in and
outside the country and were only
going to their offices for a few hours and
not attending to their
ministerial obligations.
Political
analyst Takura Zhangazha said although there is no quorum
required for
cabinet meetings, politically, the disengagement put Zanu PF in
a
quandary.
Technically speaking, he said, Zanu PF ministers can
meet without
their MDC colleagues but decisions as stated by the global
political
agreement (GPA) should be done collectively.
"We
wait to see if Mugabe will wait or whether he will make major
decisions
without MDC. If such decisions are made, will MDC have the
capacity to
reverse those decisions? What this means is that the inclusive
government is
under threat and whoever backs down will be humiliated," said
Zhangazha.
While Zhangazha says Zanu PF might concede to
issues relating to the
appointment of provincial governors and deployment of
ambassadors without
giving in on Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and
Attorney-General Johannes
Tomana, University of Zimbabwe lecturer Professor
Joseph Kurebwa does not
see Zanu PF compromising on any of the issues the
MDC is raising.
The MDC wants all outstanding issues resolved
before re-engaging Zanu
PF.
Kurebwa said Zanu PF might want
to see all issues dealt with,
including the removal of sanctions and
stopping the beaming of anti-Zimbabwe
messages by pirate radio
stations.
The outstanding issues which the MDC is raising have
been said by the
politburo to be non-issues because the appointments of the
governor of the
Reserve Bank and Attorney-General were done in accordance
with the
constitution and so was the appointments of provincial governors,
which they
said was a prerogative of the president.
But for
an ordinary Zimbabwean, does this mean the possibility of
going back to last
year's levels which brought tremendous suffering? People
also want to know
if it means that the unity government is on the verge of
collapse, if Zanu
PF refuses to budge.
Academic and former newspaper publisher
Ibbo Mandaza feels that it was
more of a threat than a real
disengagement.
"He (Tsvangirai) can't say he has disengaged but
remains prime
minister. It is a threat rather than a real disengagement,"
Mandaza said.
"Neither can do without the other and they both have to agree
on policy.
Zanu PF might be playing up but they are
worried."
He said Zanu PF, despite appearing indifferent, could
not afford to
return to the pre-January 26 period when Mugabe did not have
legitimacy and
when he faced both local and international threats. On
January 27 Sadc
issued a communiqué that enabled the formation of the
inclusive government.
"The implications are that GPA is now
threatened and Mugabe is the
main beneficiary of the agreement and he cannot
afford going back to the
period before January 26," Mandaza
said.
Zhangazha said the disengagement created a functional
problem and
could only become a constitutional crisis if Mugabe decides to
fire
Tsvangirai or appoint acting ministers for the posts held by the
MDC.
He said the MDC had three options - firstly to backtrack
and secondly
to lobby the guarantors of GPA, the Southern African
Development Community
(Sadc) and the African Union (AU) to intervene. The
third option, Zhangazha
said, would be to insist on fresh elections, but it
would have to be clear
which elections they want - just presidential or
harmonised.
Chamisa said it was now up to Sadc and the AU to
try and resolve the
crisis by putting pressure on Mugabe to fulfill all
outstanding issues,
including the swearing-in of Roy Bennett as deputy
Agriculture minister and
an end to harassment and persecution of MDC
officials.
He said if intervention by the region fails, the MDC
would be left
with no option but to call for internationally-supervised
elections.
While the MDC might have some faith in Sadc and the
AU, which
Tsvangirai has been lobbying this week in his 10-day tour of the
region,
Mandaza said the MDC leaders was better off returning and fighting
it out
with his Zanu PF counterpart at home.
"Sadc is a
toothless talking shop. It's a club of heads of state and
therefore almost
completely precluded from taking any decisive positions on
such matters.
Tsvangirai must come home and fight it here and discuss the
problems. If you
are part of the state, it's better to fight it from
within," pointed out
Mandaza.
Kurebwa said Tsvangirai would not get much joy from
Sadc.
Mutambara, whose party attended Tuesday's cabinet
meeting, concurred
with Mandaza saying Mugabe and Tsvangirai should sit down
and iron out the
issues at home.
"The inclusive government
is the best arrangement that this country
can have for the moment. It is the
best way we can move forward to creating
conditions for free and fair
elections," he said. "If we were to pull out
now without a new constitution,
without political reforms, without media
reforms then we cannot have free
and fair elections and we will be back to
square one. We need to use the
inclusive government to create conditions of
free and fair
elections."
While Mutambara describes MDC's disengagement as
grandstanding,
Kurebwa believes that the party overreacted because the main
reason for the
disengagement was Bennett's detention and he has since been
released on bail
and his trial postponed to November.
"After raising all the dust, two to three days later, there was no
need. He
overreacted and the decision was not based on principles. When he
does not
get what he wants he is quick to boycott. In Zimbabwe, the
political culture
does not have respect for boycotting as a political
strategy," Kurebwa said.
"Tsvangirai was under pressure to be seen to be
recognising Bennett
internationally. That action is offending, it gives a
very nasty picture and
I don't think MDC wants the race factor hanging over
their head. He wants to
uphold the rule of law and at the same time he wants
it
ruptured."
Faith Zaba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October
2009 19:51
NOW Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my
brother
would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of
God, God
will give you." Jesus said to her, " Your brother will rise
again."
Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in
the
resurrection of the last day."
Jesus said, "I am the
resurrection and the life. He who believes in
me, though he may die, he
shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me
shall never die.." (John 11
verses 21-26).
And so, according to the scriptures, Jesus went
on to perform one of
his many miracles and Lazarus was brought back to
life.
Last week, a mere mortal called Jonathan Nathaniel Moyo
claimed in a
local weekly that he was the Messiah who would spur another
"Lazarus moment"
which would lead to the instant resurrection of a dead
political party -
Zanu PF.
While Zanu PF is "Lazarus", the
major question as to who would be its
"Jesus" appeared to have been answered
by the professor's desperate attempt
to play the knowing old Coaster,
suggesting he was the Messiah who had
returned to rescue his
people.
And if Moyo is the Messiah to rescue Zanu PF from its
Lazarus moment,
the nation would be happy to know who in Zanu PF are
Lazarus' sisters; the
Marys and Marthas in Zanu PF who fell down at his feet
and begged him to
come back and bring the party back to
life!
It was Moyo himself who announced the political death of
Zanu PF when
he told journalists at the Quill Club earlier this year that
the party was
dead and awaiting burial.
It was Moyo himself who
told us that after almost three decades in
power, "Mugabe Must Go" had
become more than just an opposition slogan but a
political reality. It was
Moyo who bared his heart and revealed how Zanu PF
had become a party for the
archives; a relic of antiquity fit for a
political museum.
But today, he claims to have returned to bring the glamour back to a
party
that he himself wrote off; a party that Zimbabweans have unambiguously
rejected and condemned to the cemetery.
Moyo's return to
Zanu PF is nothing but a stroll in the graveyard; a
celebrated harlot's
meaningless visit to her erstwhile boyfriend's grave in
the vain hope that
her bouquet of flowers will resurrect her former bosom
partner of five
years!
He may deny it in his long monologues in the Sunday Mail,
but it is a
fact that he is politically promiscuous: a person of loose
political morals
prepared to bed any political organisation that hops along,
including those
who only four years ago threw him naked out of the bedroom
window.
A politician who venomously attacks a political party
in 1998, joins
it in 1999, is fired from it in 2005 and rejoins it in 2009
is nothing but a
political turncoat. In the murky world of espionage, he
would not even be a
double agent, but a triple agent who is as dangerous as
they come, even to a
fickle and unsophisticated spy agency.
Moyo is mistaken that some of us are worried that he has rejoined Zanu
PF.
That is where the devil belongs. Zimbabweans will only be happy that the
devil has returned to his lair. What Zimbabweans will not tolerate is Moyo's
unbridled abuse of the public media to vilify and malign ministers of
government because they are MDC.
What Zimbabweans will not
tolerate is Moyo's hate speech against the
democratic forces simply because
they are saying what he himself said about
Zanu PF in the 1990s and as
recently as February 2009!
Forget the dry, sulking monologue
and the long sentences of more than
100 words each, Moyo is a man of
contradiction. In last week's issue of the
Sunday Mail, while claiming that
sanctions, the US and imperial Europe were
the real enemies of Zanu PF, he
was to make a telling admission in the same
article that "Zanu PF's problems
are entirely internal as evidenced by the
rise of
factions.".
But never mind his glaring inconsistencies and his
persistent and
consistent life of political malice. Never mind his diatribe
in the public
media, the truth is that Zimbabweans, and Moyo admits these
include one of
his own daughters, are clear that it is only the MDC which
will deliver real
change to the people.
From Msampakaruma
to Mandidzudzure, from Kazungula to Tamandayi, from
Zaka to Nyafaru, from
Kazangarare to Sianchundu, Zimbabweans rejected Zanu
PF and Robert Mugabe on
March 29 2008. No amount of propaganda will undo the
people's loud and
unambiguous verdict.
Credible political parties do not
primarily depend on propaganda to
win elections because ultimately
propaganda will not walk to the polling
booth. Credible political parties
primarily depend on the people who will
ultimately vote for them come
election time. And the MDC is a people's party
that won the presidential
election on March 29, has a majority in parliament
and controls the majority
of local authorities throughout the country.
Moyo may
blasphemously claim to be Zanu PF's political Messiah. And
his colleagues in
the archaic, feudal party may prematurely start writing
their own
celebratory scripture: "The second coming of Jonathan Moyo."
But for now, Moyo's false prophecy of the resurrection of a political
cadaver called Zanu PF will remain what it is; the far-fetched dream from
the most decorated political turncoat of our time.
Luke
Tamborinyoka is the director of Information and Publicity in the
MDC
formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai. He can be contacted at
mhofu@yahoo.co.uk This e-mail address is
being protected from spambots. You
need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October 2009
19:45
NINE months have elapsed since Zimbabwe effectively demonetised
its
currency, and replaced it with a basket of international and regional
currencies, and yet the country is still pregnant with conflicting views and
opinions on the currency that Zimbabwe should use. The president, and many
of those in his political entourage, recurrently demand reinstatement of the
Zimbabwean dollar, contending that usage of any other currency constitutes a
surrender of national sovereignty.
But the Zimbabwean
dollar is so appallingly worthless that reverting
to its usage at the
present time represents naught but sovereignty over
nothing!
Many others earning monies in US dollars, but
incurring the greater
portion of their expenditures in the South African
rand (which is
particularly prevalent in Bulawayo and its surrounds,
undoubtedly primarily
due to the close proximity to South Africa) have been
significantly
prejudiced by a major reduction in spending
power.
This is as a consequence of the strengthening of the
rand against the
US dollar. In the past six months the rand has moved from
approximately
ZAR10:US$1 to ZAR7,2 to US$1, resulting in a decline in the
number of rands
realised for each US dollar earned of about 28%, and
therefore a
corresponding decrease in purchasing power.
There are diverse reasons for the strengthening of South Africa's
currency,
amongst the foremost being that the substantial economic recession
sustained
in USA in 2008 and early 2009 has eroded confidence in the US
dollar, with a
consequential weakening of the currency against many others,
especially
those not as greatly affected by the global financial
recession.
A by-product consequence has been that with the
decline in confidence
in the US dollar, demand for gold has substantially
increased, driving its
price upwards from approximately US$900 to over US$1
040. South Africa,
being a very major gold producer, has benefited greatly
from the surge in
the gold price, with resultant strengthening of the
rand.
Responsive to the greater decrease in value of the US
dollar for those
whose expenditures are mainly in the rand, those US dollar
earners are
embittered by the movement in the currency cross-rates, and
therefore
vigorously demand that Zimbabwe adopt the rand as its currency,
and should
abandon the multi-currency basket.
In doing
so, and focused wholly upon their current stressed
circumstances, they
ignore that in the same manner as the strength of the
rand surged upwards,
so it could reverse in the future and very greatly
weaken in value against
the US dollar and other currencies in the future.
Should
the rand become Zimbabwe's currency and future weakening
occurs, all
advantage from abandoning other currencies and tying wholly to
the rand will
be lost, and buying power would become even less than is
currently the case.
But the advocates of a rand-based currency are oblivious
to such a
possibility, being only conscious of the current stresses
afflicting
them.
Yet a third school of opinion suggests that in view of
the declared
intent of Sadc to introduce a regional currency for the 15
countries
comprising Sadc (in the same manner as the euro is the currency of
most of
the countries constituting the European Union) it would be premature
for
Zimbabwe to adopt any one currency, or to reintroduce its own currency,
only
to be faced with having to replace such currency with the intended new
Sadc
currency.
Although such argument has some
substance, for recurrent currency
changes are economically disruptive and
undesirable, it must nevertheless be
borne in mind that it is probably at
least five years before a Sadc currency
comes into
being.
With the volatile and evolutionary state of the
Zimbabwean economy, it
may well be undesirable to await the introduction of
a Sadc currency, albeit
that it is equally undesirable for Zimbabwe at this
time to concentrate
exclusively upon one regional or international
currency.
For Zimbabwe to commit itself to any one existing
currency could be
extremely disadvantageous, especially if that currency is
the rand.
Although that country's economy has demonstrated
a surprisingly great
resilience to the impacts of the intense international
financial and
economic recession, there is regrettably a likelihood that
that economy will
recede to a significant extent in the foreseeable future,
although for the
sake of Zimbabwe, and its neighbours, one must hope that
that will not be
so. However, there are harsh facts suggesting a South
African economic
decline is imminent.
Nearly 70% of South
Africa's textile industry has collapsed and ceased
operations primarily due
to an inability to compete against imports from the
Far East, in general,
and China in particular.
Similar circumstances are
progressively impacting upon South Africa's
formerly substantial clothing
industry. South Africa's construction sector
has been riding high, thanks to
the magnitude of the 2010 World Cup
projects, but as those projects attain
completion, there is great
uncertainty as to future demands on that sector
of South Africa's economy.
Concurrently, the global
recession has impacted negatively upon
demand, and therefore market prices,
for diamonds, and diamond production is
a meaningful component of the South
African economy. And, although the gold
production sector is enjoying a
heyday as the global recession diminishes,
and aligned thereto the US dollar
strengthens, the world gold price may well
recede, with inevitable adverse
impacts upon the South African economy.
Growing labour unrest is also
beginning to impair that economy's
circumstances.
In the
regrettable event that the South African economy does
experience a decline,
that decline will inevitably necessitate substantial
changes to South
Africa's monetary policies.
These changes may, and probably
will, be very desirable and positive
for South Africa, and for an economic
recovery, but could be totally
unsuited to then prevailing Zimbabwean
circumstances and needs. But if
Zimbabwe is exclusively using the rand as
its currency, it will then be
locked into those monetary policies. Hence,
adopting the rand as Zimbabwe's
currency would be unwise in the
extreme.
Similarly, it would not serve Zimbabwe's economy's
best needs to adopt
any other country's currency as its sole currency, for
doing so would then
commit Zimbabwe to that country's monetary policies. In
contradistinction,
if Zimbabwe continues to use a multiplicity of currencies
until such time as
it is opportune to reintroduce a Zimbabwean currency, or
a regional currency
is introduced and adopted by Zimbabwe, then Zimbabwe is
linked to a
multiplicity of monetary policies, acting as hedges against
negative
consequences of any of them.
Therefore,
despite the current cross-rate prejudices suffered by some,
the national
interest and the medium to long-term wellbeing of all, Zimbabwe
should
adhere to the current currencies' basket for the foreseeable
future.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October 2009
19:16
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's decision to "disengage" his
MDC
party from the (GPA) "partnership" with President Robert Mugabe and his
Zanu
PF party on October 16 will have surprised many observers at home and
abroad, especially given both the timing and his own assertion, only a few
days earlier, that he had established a good working relationship with the
president except for a few difficult factors from the "old order" (Sky News,
October 7). Even in his statement through which he announced the
disengagement last Friday, Tsvangirai acknowledged that "we have papered
over the cracks and have sought to persuade the whole world in the last
eight months that everything is working".
For, indeed, the
inclusive government is in place, ministers have
taken up their posts and,
as Tsvangirai's interview confirmed a few days
earlier, the two "executives"
have been co-existing functionally.
So, what is it that
accounts for this drastic turn of events for which
the Roy Bennett affair
might only be a pretext? For we have here, no doubt,
a political crisis
which, if allowed to escalate, can only plunge Zimbabwe
into a bigger mess
than the country experienced in the post-March election
period last
year.
Of course, there have been problems, including the
unresolved issues
highlighted in Tsvangirai's statement.
But it
is also true that the inauguration of the transitional
government in
February this year heralded a period during which the country
experienced
real respite from the political and economic tribulations of the
previous
months. Not to mention the nightmare of post-election violence and
economic
meltdown which the country had to endure in the months before the
signing of
the GPA on September 15 2008.
And even as this crisis is
simmering, few observers at home and abroad
would fail to acknowledge the
relative peace across the country nor the fact
that the economy is certainly
out of the emergency ward and beginning to
walk.
This is
not to suggest that the GPA and its inclusive government were
already over
the horizon, one year since September15 2008.
The land question has
been central in all this, with the beginnings of
its resolution hinged on
the outstanding land audit, a "landmine" that still
stands to make or wreck
the transitional government for real, depending on
how Mugabe and Tsvangirai
navigate through it; and the constitution-making
exercise, a lesser
"landmine" than the land audit by any standards, but one
which nevertheless
remains a barometer on the basis of which to assess both
the pace of the
democratisation process and the resilience of the inclusive
government.
Apart from these two "landmines", all else -
even the posts of
Attorney-General and Governor of the Reserve Bank -
appeared on course for
resolution. For example, the MDC should have seen
its provincial governors
and ambassadors take office by August 1 and sources
within the inclusive
government were suggesting last month that the
president and prime minister
were close to an amicable solution over Tomana
and Gono.
So why this delay in resolving these outstanding
issues until, it
would appear, the case of Bennett became the final straw as
far as the MDC
is concerned? Or, is it mere administrative backlog within a
transitional
government that has not yet found the groove, or is bogged down
under the
burden of "dual executive" machinery?
Perhaps
this also accounts for the embarrassing situation in which the
inclusive
government finds itself, to quote Tsvangirai's statement: "There
has been no
review of the GPA nor of the ministerial positions six months
after 26
January 2009; and the National Security Council itself has met only
once in
nine months".
More seriously, however, are the allegations
contained in Tsvangirai's
statement, namely the partisanship (to Zanu PF and
the old order) of
sections and individuals in the national security
apparatus, and the
"extensive militarisation of the countryside through
massive deployment of
the military and the setting up of bases of violence
that we saw after the
March 29 2008... including over 16 000 of Zanu PF
youth functionaries who
have been imposed on the government
payroll."
Likewise, the MDC's complaint against the Herald and
the ZBC, both of
whom "continue to treat the MDC and our leaders in
government as if they
were a third rate treasonous and sell-out element
instead of a genuine and
equal partner in the transitional
government".
Admittedly, these are serious enough matters to
confirm that all is
not well in the transitional government, even though
many will be inclined
to ask why these had not been sufficiently highlighted
and placed in the
public domain until the occasion of Bennett's indictment
for trial on
October 14. Equally, the less pessimistic about the GPA and
its inclusive
government will have been "persuaded", to use the PM's own
words, that
"everything is working" and that the MDC "as the dominant party
in Zimbabwe",
would in due course overcome and persevere.
So there could be a contradiction in the position taken by Tsvangirai
and
his MDC, as much in word as in deed. The element of threat to collapse
the
inclusive government is implicit throughout the PM's statement of
October
16, but less evident is what "disengagement" from a "dishonest and
unreliable partner" really means in practice. For the MDC "is not pulling
out of the GNU", it disengages "whilst being government", and even the
Herald (October 20) was careful to highlight (in its headline) the correct
constitutional position, namely that Morgan Tsvangirai is still prime
minister (after "disengagement"!)
In the meantime, neither
the president nor the PM can cause or affect
a policy without the
concurrence of the other. That is the import of the
GPA and the practical
implication of the current "dual executive" order. It
means a paralysis of
policy rather than a collapse of the government per se.
But, contrary to the
partisan and even propagandist statements published in
the Herald this
Wednesday, it cannot be "business as usual" nor can Cabinet
function
smoothly as long as one element of the inclusive government is
absent.
As such, there is no obvious constitutional crisis,
only a political
one which, if allowed to escalate, might mean a premature
end to the GPA,
through the holding "of a free and fair election to be
conducted by Sadc and
the AU and under UN supervision". Thus, concluded
Tsvangirai's statement
last week, albeit, with a less than veiled threat
thrown thereby at his
counterpart, President Mugabe.
What
then?
It remains to be seen whether the MDC can carry out this
threat,
assuming Zanu PF laughs it off altogether and does nothing to
resolve the
outstanding issues attendant to the GPA. Less certain in this
regard is
whether the MDC leader's visit around Sadc will yield any more
than was
agreed upon at the regional organisation's extraordinary meeting of
January
26, namely the formation of the transitional government, the
resolution of
the issue of provincial governors, the Reserve Bank Governor
and the
Attorney-General, and the review of the allocation of ministerial
positions
after a period of six months.
Of course, there
are factors within Sadc - particularly Ian Khama of
Botswana and Jajaya
Kikwete of Tanzania - who would have wanted to see a
more decisive position
taken at the last extraordinary summit in January:
that is, to reject the
idea of an inclusive government (which they feared
would not work as long as
Mugabe remained in place); and support the
"self-evident solution" of
holding of a free and fair election to be
conducted by Sadc and the AU and
under UN supervision. But, fearful that
such a position might escalate into
the upper echelons of the world order
and attract the attention -- and
possibly also the wrath - of the UN
Security Council, South Africa in
particular steered the summit to the
compromise that saw the birth of the
inclusive government.
There was also (more than)
speculation about the threat of "external"
intervention in those days, had
Sadc failed to reach this compromise and the
Zimbabwean crisis thereby
worsened further into a humanitarian and economic
catastrophe.
Clearly, it is the "international community"
factor (read USA, Britain
and the rest of the EU) upon whom Tsvangirai and
his MDC depend as the other
card (in addition to the mass base at home) with
which to raise the stakes
against Mugabe and his Zanu PF. It is not
difficult to imagine a possible
convergence between these external forces
and the MDC's own calculations
vis-a-vis a president who, though the main
beneficiary of the GPA, is not
willing to rein-in those of his camp so blind
to the objective realities of
the balance of forces within and around
Zimbabwe.
One does not have to be alarmist, especially if, as
most of us hope,
the crisis can soon de-escalate on the back of good sense
and judgement on
the part of Mugabe and Tsvangirai. But, unless that
happens, we have here a
recipe for a real disaster, perhaps worse than that
which Zimbabwe witnessed
during the post March 29 election last year, but
with an end about which
none of us can safely predict.
Ibbo
Mandaza is a Zimbabwean academic, author and publisher.
By
Ibbo Mandaza
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 22 October 2009
20:15
THE last time President Mugabe visited Uganda to attend a Smart
Partnership dialogue, he took with him Deputy Prime Ministers Thokozani
Khupe and Arthur Mutambara whom he put to good use as billboards advertising
the smooth functioning of the inclusive government. At Munyonyo resort in
July host president Yoweri Museveni had this to say in his welcome speech:
"Mzee Mugabe has brought with him two deputy prime ministers (Khupe and
Mutambara); please can you stand up, which is a symbol of political smart
partnership we are not used to here in Uganda, where the two deputy prime
ministers are part of the higher echelons of government though they are
coming from two different political parties."
Our ruler was
then able to strut his stuff at the shindig to lecture
his peers on his
"inclusivity and national vision" as a statesman.
Mugabe this
week returns to the Munyonyo resort to attend a rather
low-key African Union
summit on refugees and displaced persons. The
glamourless event will
fortunately for Mugabe not afford him the opportunity
to tell gathered heads
of state about the inclusive government.
There will be no real
opportunity to discuss the politics of the
country, in public that is, but
privately one of two heads would want to
know from Mugabe what has happened
to the inclusive government which was
feted at the same venue only three
months ago. In fact one brazen ones might
want to know from Mugabe what he
is doing at a refugees conference when
there are problems at
home.
What boosted Mugabe's profile at the Smart Partnership
Dialogue in
July was the company he had from the inclusive government.
Partners in the
inclusive government have clothed Mugabe under a sheen of
legitimacy and
respectability. But that veneer is peeling off and cannot be
restored by
boisterous statements dismissing the partial pull-out of the MDC
from the
inclusive government as a non-event.
It is a
notable event because Mugabe's handlers know all too well that
the GNU was
consummated to solve an economic and political crisis that
threatened lives
in this country. Therefore mechanical faults in the
functioning of that
vehicle specially designed to bring change is a glitch
to achieving
reform.
Mugabe also knows very well that the only way investors
can believe
his promises for reform and creating a conducive environment for
business is
when he speaks as a facet of the inclusive government. He cannot
preach
reform and change from the Zanu PF altar.
At
Zimplats last Thursday he spoke well to listening business people,
commending the platinum miner for showing confidence in this market and for
investing in basic infrastructure. That was well-received.
Compare this with the dissonant eruption by Media and Information
minister
Webster Shamu at Chief Chivero's funeral the next day at which the
minister
attacked the mining company for not building a house for the chief
or
tarring the road to his homestead.
There is no doubt which
audience Shamu was trying to excite - Zanu PF
reactionaries who have since
day one of the formation of the inclusive
government been working towards
its downfall.
We expect a lot of that political gibberish in
this environment of
serious contestations in the inclusive government. There
will be many
dancing out of tune, much to the detriment of business which is
still trying
to find its feet. Potential investors are not pleased
either.
The reactionaries were quick off the blocks to
celebrate disengagement
by the MDC and condemn the party. They will now not
push for a resolution of
the crisis but will want to see a full escalation
of hostilities which will
result in the MDC pulling out altogether. They
want power at any cost.
The challenge from Mugabe on his return
from Munyonyo is dealing with
this bhora mudondo grouping. Notably this is
the grouping which pushed
provinces and party organs to endorse Mugabe as
party leader ahead of the
December congress. Mugabe has basked in this
new-found popularity in the
party but it comes at a cost. He has to return
the favour. He will be
manipulated by the strong faction
leaders.
He cannot be seen to be giving in to the demands
of the MDC ahead of a
crucial congress. This is not the time to show your
soft underbelly; the
hardliners will urge him to be
defiant.
Mugabe has two clear options: to sit down with
Tsvangirai and agree to
sort out the outstanding issues in order to keep
this economy on the rails
and move forward, or to give in to pressure from
strong faction leaders in
order to save his throne come December but
sacrifice all the good that has
been achieved since
February.
The choices seem very clear and Zimbabweans must
demand an outcome
that does not set us back to the era of
zeros.
Vincent Kahiya
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Tsholotsho Betrayed by the Constitution
Thursday, 15 October 2009
18:49
WHILE we cherish, celebrate and to a large extent embrace the
freedom
of association which is accorded to everyone in this country
courtesy of our
constitution, we must therefore make sure that we do not
disadvantage others
when exercising this freedom. I have been prompted by
the recent readmission
of Jonathan Moyo to Zanu PF. My argument to this
regard is that while it is
more than okay for the professor to join a party
of his choice, my major
concern lies however with the plight of the people
of Tsholotsho.
The majority of the people in this constituency
expressed beyond doubt
that they have no love for Zanu PF or the MDC hence
they voted for someone
who did not represent the
above-mentioned.
Is it not betrayal to the electorate when
someone they chose decides
to stab them in the back and join the party they
rejected.
The laws of the land allow it as was said by Justice
minister Patrick
Chinamasa, but surely there should be a certain office
somewhere, where
these kinds of grievances can be aired in the interest of
the defenceless
and betrayed electorate.
Those elected on a
party ticket are barred from crossing the floor and
should they decide to do
so, their seats are declared vacant.
But those elected as
independent candidates can decide to join any
party and still maintain their
seats. In my view I think this is not fair to
the
electorate.
If the type of democracy practised here was the
same as that practised
in other countries, I am sure the electorate of
Tsholotsho would have been
allowed to petition for their MP's removal for
such a treacherous move or to
at least pass a vote of no confidence in him
and demand his removal.
Daniel Chingundu,
Kadoma.
------------
Growers are the ones being ripped
off
Thursday, 15 October 2009 18:32
IN response to the letter
written by "Spud" on potato prices "Local
potato prices a rip off" (Zimbabwe
Independent October 9), I say please do
not blame the grower. I am a grower
who does the following:
* Pay for the soil to be tested to make
sure that I apply the correct
fertilisers,
* Buy diesel for
ploughing, discing, ridging, spraying chemicals and
for harvesting,
* I buy seed,
* I pay for the labour, electricity for
irrigation,
* I pay Zinwa for the irrigation water,
* I tend
the crop for nearly four months before I get any returns.
* I then buy
packaging and pay the transporter to deliver to "Spud"'s
retailer.
The total cost to me per pocket is US$4,50 and I sell at US$7,50 and
get a
return of US$3 after a four month wait but "Spud"'s retailer sells for
US$12-15 and makes between US$4,5 to $7,50 within a week.
Who is
ripping who off?
Potato grower,
Harare.
---------
Muckraker got some facts wrong
Thursday, 15 October 2009 18:31
WHILE I am an avid reader of the
Zimbabwe Independent, I believe that
Muckraker (Independent October 9) got a
few facts wrong in his opening piece
on Namibia's former president Sam
Nujoma.
As a Zimbabwean who has been resident in Namibia for a few
years, I
think a few points need to be made and clarified. Nujoma did not
try to
"hang on to office for three terms; he actually did hang on for a
third term
until 2004.
In other words he was the president from
Independence in 1990 to
around 2005.
The country's constitution was
amended to allow for the third term on
the argument that for the first term
(that began at Independence) he had not
been democratically elected by the
people but by parliament.
According to them his first "proper" term
began in 1995/6 when he was
"popularly" elected by the people.
The
Swapo party in no way would have the guts to tell him "to go" as
you put it.
In fact they officially refer to him as the founding president
and the
"Father of the Namibian Revolution/Nation".
For good measure, there is
an official office of the founding
president (like a government department
with special assistants) that
receives its own allocation from the national
budget
I also disagree with your statement: "Namibia has been out of
step
with its Sadc neighbours by backing Robert Mugabe's continuation in
office
and his assault on civil society."
I believe there are many
more neighbours that have taken the same
route, namely Angola, Mozambique,
Malawi, Swaziland (although technically
the last two are not neighbours but
are part of Sadc).
The current president Hifikepunye Pohamba is not as
young as you would
want to put it. In fact at 76 or thereabouts, he is in
the same generation
as Nujoma, who is 80.
The good thing about
Swapo is that there was a relatively smooth
succession transition that,
although marred with low level clashes, allowed
leadership renewal and a
change in the CEO of the country without a
prolonged stay in office of the
so called "revolutionary pioneers of the
armed struggle against
imperialists".
Masimba Moyo,
Namibia.
--------------
Justice, Democracy Must
Prevail
Thursday, 15 October 2009 18:25
JESTINA Mukoko and
other activists were abducted tortured and
illegally detained on trumped up
charges of banditry and terrorism. The
state-controlled media made a lot of
noise about the charges. Today Mukoko
walks free and the state-controlled
media has become deaf and dumb.
Is this the Zimbabwe we want? I
am a Zimbabwean and this is not what I
want. As a Zimbabwean I can't wait to
see the day that the people
responsible for tormenting Mukoko and others are
in court. I
might not be well versed with the Zimbabwean laws but I
believe these
violators of law deserve a life sentence as what they did was
illegal and
that is banditry at its best.
It seems we have
our own Bin Ladens in Zimbabwe walking around with
state badges.We want
security in Zimbabwe. If the people who are supposed
to be protecting us
are the ones victimising us then who do we turn to. As a
Zimbabwean I feel
betrayed by Zanu PF. We all know that such thuggery can
only emanate from
Zanu PF.
We want real change, real freedom and real security. I
put my hopes on
MDC to deliver such and I urge real Zimbabweans to do so too
without fear
for God is on our side and democracy is in our
hands.
Thomas Toda,
ttodanana@gmail.com
-----------
SMS The Zimbabwe Independent
Thursday, 15 October 2009 18:25
BARACK Obama did not deserve to win the Nobel Peace Prize ahead of PM
Morgan
Tsvangirai. Whilst I concede that he has good intentions and talks
about
creating a better world free of conflict, we are yet to see the
results of
his policies. Tsvangirai however has toiled to bring democracy
and peaceful
coexistence in Zimbabwe. To me he deserves to be the winner.
Taurai
Musingarabwi.
IF ever there was a man deserving of the Nobel Peace
Prize then Morgan
Tsvangirai is it. Deserving because of what he has
achieved rather than what
he might bring about as is the case with Barack
Obama.
MO.
MORGAN Tsvangirai gave up a presidency in order
to avoid violence
continuing against his constituents. He suffered beatings,
torture and
imprisonment in order to bring peace to his people. He deserved
the Nobel
Peace Prize.
Analyst.
THE move made by the
MDC-T leadership to retain the current leadership
is good because we would
go to the elections with a tried and tested
leadership structure to
guarantee success. We do not need new leadership at
the moment since they
would need time to establish themselves before the
elections.
Tiny,
Mutare.
WILL PM Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC-T please answer my
question: are
white Zimbabweans not allowed to own farms in
Zimbabwe?
Nan.
AS long as Zanu PF zealots continue with
unjustified farm invasions
and disruptions, no sane person will ever take
Zimbabwe seriously. The means
can never justify the end particularly now in
2009. This is a crying shame.
Sigadegade.
THANK you
Independent for exposing Zanu PF for what it is. Repression,
poor governance
and corruption are just too prickly to be packaged as
nationalism.
Ndlubu, Bulawayo.
AS part of your social obligation can you please
run a free dating
service for civil service bachelors? We are tired of being
rejected since
everyone knows our salaries. Maybe you could partner with
Malawian and
Zambian female civil servants.
Baba
Chemwandoita.
BOSSO is the team to beat next season. Coach Mohammed
Fathy is the man
and we should give him all the support he needs.
Mukosera, T.
TO Jonathan Moyo I say it is more humiliating to continue
in sin than
to repent and sin no more. Let's go the HIPC way and help redeem
the nation.
Deliverance comes with an acceptance of one's wrongs and a
commitment to sin
no more. This is what is missing in 99% of our so- called
leaders.
Repentant sinner.
JONATHAN Moyo is evidently very
ambitious and what he wants is very
clear: to get to the highest office in
the land. He should however be
reminded that voters hold the key to whether
he succeeds or not.
Chibox, Marondera.
I REALLY do not
understand Jonathan Moyo's political ideology. Some
years back he was a
critic of Robert Mugabe only to change and support him
in 2000. In 2005 he
had another about turn and started to speak out again
against Mugabe.Now he
is at it again with his political acrobatics. I don't
think that at this
stage anybody can take him seriously.
Taurai Musingarabwi.
READING Jonathan Moyo's interview in the Sunday Mail, I could not help
but
feel sorry for Zanu PF that they have been reduced to putting their
hope in
such a person.
Hip hop.
ONLY those who still tune in to
ZBC must pay their television and
radio licences. For ZBC to coerce us to
pay for services that are not
friendly to our ears and eyes is totally
unjust.
Vicar General.
THE process of getting a driver's
licence is now very expensive. Why
can't we just go straight to VID without
having to pass through CMED?
Economist, Harare.
A RECENT
environmental degradation discussion highlighted the
devastating effects
on our ecosystem of discharging plastic hair imports. A
quick glance at
women in the streets suggests that they have adopted this
phenomenon without
due regard to the dire consequences they have on the
environment.
Zuda.
CAN the authorities concerned deal decisively with the
plunder and
destruction of natural resources at Darwendale dam. This once
beautiful
resort area, which brought enjoyment to nature lovers has now
deteriorated
to unacceptable levels. Environment minister Francis Nhema must
do something
fast.
Bemused.
I APPEAL to cell phone
network operators to install base stations in
Ngundu.
Network
starved.
http://www.radiovop.com
Chiweshe, October 22,
2009 - Over 15 teachers of Jingamvura Primary
and Secondary schools in
Chiweshe were on Tuesday beaten and and forced to
vacate the schools by
suspected Zanu PF supporters because 'their' party
President Morgan
Tsvangirai had withdrawn from the Inclusive Government.
Sources at
the school said the affected teachers, who were last year's
political
violence victims, were once again being beaten and chased away
from the
schools. The schools were last year temporarily closed during the
height of
political violence.
"A group of well known ZANU-PF
youths stormed the school on Tuesday
midnight knocking doors and shouting
out names of the teachers whom they
wanted. They destroyed several doors in
search of the victims...they
assembled them and gave them orders to vacate
the school before being
assaulted," said one teacher who witnessed the
violence.
"For fear of their lives they had to flee that
particular time because
of the threat they had received and they spent the
whole night in theBanje
Mountain, in fact they had been threatened with
death," said another
teacher.
Police chief spokesperson
Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said
the police is still
investigating the case. "That report has not yet reached
my office, but
however we are going to investigate and bring the culprits to
book."
Prime Minister Tsvangirai last week said his
party was partially
withdrawing from taking part in government activities
until such a time
President Mugabe and his Zanu PF party showed genuine
commitment in the
implementation of the Global Political Agreement
(GPA).
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=23988
October 23, 2009
By Owen
Chikari
ZVISHAVANE - Workers at the Shabanie and Mashava mines, who were
forced to
return to work this month following a one and half month strike,
now say
they want Mutumwa Mawere, the exiled former owner of the troubled
asbestos
mines, back in charge.
Three workers were shot and seriously
wounded by government security agents
during the strike.
The workers
have accused the government of neglecting them. They say they
are now
considering what measures to take to facilitate the return of the
exiled
Mawere so that he may take over his former empire.
The two mines which
are the only asbestos producers in the country were
expropriated from Mawere
by the government in 2004 after Justice Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs
Minister Patrick Chinamasa specified the Zimbabwean
businessman who now
lives in South Africa.
"We are contemplating taking legal action against
the government so that
Mawere returns to take over his properties", said a
member of the workers
committee who requested anonymity for fear of
victimisation.
"The government through its administrator has completely
failed to cater for
our needs as workers.
"We are living like beggars
and some of us have not been paid salaries since
April this year.
"We
have approached our legal adviser and we are ready to fight a court
battle
so that Mawere returns. We never experienced this kind of situation
during
Mawere's time and I think as workers we should have a say in what is
happening in this company".
Another worker who only identified
himself as Abraham said the employees
were working under protest since their
grievances were not resolved
following their month long industrial
action.
"We are working under protest because we were forced to go back
to work when
our grievances were not resolved", said Abraham.
"The
only way forward is for us to push government through any other means
to
ensure that Mawere returns."
It emerged this week that some of the
workers were earning a paltry US$30 a
month while others have not been paid
since April.
It also emerged that nearly 400 jobs are on the line at the
two
government-run mines as management seeks to dismiss them for engaging in
the
strike.
The two mines have a total work force of about 1 285 people,
excluding
management.
The government appointed administrator Alfas
Gwaradzimba refused to comment
on the new developments, only saying that all
the workers had returned back
to work.
"What I can tell you is that
all the workers are now at work," said
Gwaradzimba. "I have no further
comment besides that one."
Workers at the mines were forced to return
back to work by security agents
who knocked on doors and ordered them to
resume their duties.
Some workers fled into nearby mountains as security
agents, including
members of the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation
CIO, went on the
rampage while seeking to end the industrial
action.
Three of the workers were shot and seriously wounded when the
riot police
opened fire on the strikers.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Union officials say the injured were transferred
to Harare for specialist
treatment.
No comment could be obtained from Mawere in South Africa.