http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011 11:11
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
ANXIETY has gripped residents of Mazowe Valley in
Mazowe after they were
last week ordered to vacate their houses with
immediate effect by the First
Lady Grace Mugabe to make way for the
expansion of an orphanage she is
building in the area.
Officials from
Mazowe Rural District Council told the 62 households that
they were supposed
to have moved on October 1 as the First Lady wanted to
build a school on the
land they are occupying.
What worries the residents is that the area
they are supposed to relocate to
has not been serviced.
The area
has no roads, no toilets or running water, a recipe for an outbreak
of
diseases during this rainy season.
Even if the roads were to be
opened up they would not be passable because
the soils are “heavy” and
become muddy when it rains, complained the
residents.
Authoritative sources said the First Lady had
initially promised to
compensate the residents but she has since shifted
goal posts ordering
Mazowe Council to do it.
The council, said
the sources, has no money and has pledged to compensate
the evictees by
giving them more land.
But residents said it would be difficult for
them to build their houses if
they were not compensated
financially.
After complaints from the residents, Grace on Wednesday
is said to have sent
her emissaries informing them that they can stay until
December.
The emissaries included Minister of Local Government, Rural and
Urban
Development Ignatius Chombo, Mashonaland Central governor Martin Dinha
and
several senior officials from Mazowe Rural District
Council.
Officials from the local authority informed residents at the
meeting that
construction of roads would commence this weekend but by
yesterday there was
no sign at the new site to show that work would begin
any time soon.
The residents said the timing was wrong as most of
them would not finish
building habitable houses in the two months they were
given.
They also feared that once they moved, they would not be
compensated.
But council officials, residents said, assured them that
they would be
compensated but failed to give a date.
Some will be
given additional stands elsewhere as compensation as the
council has no
money, they were told.
Residents are furious that Grace cherry-picked
an area already developed and
legally acquired to build her orphanage
instead of looking for virgin land
like the one where they are told to
relocate to.
“The way the Mugabes are using their political muscle is
getting out of hand
now,” said another resident.
“How does she
expect us to build our homes without compensation? They have a
penchant for
grabbing: they grabbed farms and now it’s our land.”
Another resident, who
requested anonymity for fear of victimisation, said
they had heard that the
orphanage would be converted into a private school.
“I don’t think she
(Grace) is doing this project for the orphans because if
she was doing it
for them, she would also have considered our plight,” said
one affected
resident.
“How do you build restaurants and a shopping mall for
orphans?”
When The Standard news crew visited the area on Friday
afternoon
construction workers were busy building what they said were school
blocks.
But there was no activity across the road where the residents are
supposed
to move to.
Other than a grinding mill which has stood
there for years, there is no
other sign to show that it would be home to 62
families in two months’ time.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011 11:24
BY NQOBANI
NDLOVU
NKAYI — Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was yesterday forced
to abandon a
rally in the Nesigwe area after police ordered the crowd to
disperse during
his address.
MDC-T had on Friday secured a High
Court order overturning a decision by
Matabeleland North police to bar
Tsvangirai from addressing the weekend
rallies in Nkayi North and South
constituencies.
A truck load of police officers descended on
the venue in Nkayi South and
despite being shown the court order, they
demanded that the crowd of about
1 000 people disperse
immediately.
Plain clothed police officers travelling in two vehicles
also arrived at the
scene.
Tsvangirai and other MDC-T officials
tried to reason with the police
officers who responded by threatening to
call for more reinforcements.
The PM then stopped the meeting as the
situation was turning volatile. But
that was after he demanded that police
show him more respect.
“I have a message for the police: does Mugabe
apply to hold meetings such as
these?
“I hold the same executive
powers as Mugabe,” Tsvangirai said. “I deserve
the same respect as
Mugabe.
“Mugabe is too old and he must step down.”
In
seeking to bar the rally, the police had reportedly claimed it would turn
violent.
But a few kilometres from the venue in Gwelutshena, Zanu
PF’s Small and
Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development minister
Sithembiso Nyoni was
allowed to proceed with her rally.
Abedinico
Bhebhe, the MDC-T deputy organising secretary and former Nkayi
South
legislator said the party would deal with police officers disrupting
its
activities when it wins the next elections.
“The MDC, starting from
today, will be writing names of the police officers
who are working against
the wishes of the people,” he said.
“Once the MDC goes into
government we will retire such officers.”
Matabeleland North police
have been preventing Tsvangirai from campaigning
in the province since the
run up to the June 27 2008 presidential run-off
poll.
His
armoured BMW campaign car was seized by police in the provincial
capital,
Lupane and has not been released.
Tsvangirai, who had won the first
round of the vote, was eventually forced
to boycott the run-off poll by
violence on his supporters blamed on security
forces.
Meanwhile,
Tsvangirai told the rally that elections could be held in the
last quarter
of next year despite Mugabe’s wish that they be held by March.
He
said the 87-year-old ruler would not be able to unilaterally call for the
polls and the MDC-T would not take part in any elections before the playing
field was levelled.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011 11:30
BY
NQABA MATSHAZI
THE entertaining sideshow of provinces stampeding to
endorse President
Robert Mugabe (pictured right) as the candidate for the
next election is a
missing ingredient to the run up to the party’s
conference set for December
in Bulawayo.
In the past years, the provinces
shouted themselves hoarse, as they each
wanted to be the first and the
loudest to declare Mugabe as the sole
candidate for the
elections.
A few years ago some provinces even had the audacity to
demand that Mugabe
be declared supreme leader of the party, but this year
they have been
conspicuous by their silence.
Only Umguza District
has come out and endorsed Mugabe’s candidacy, but many
say since Obert
Mpofu, the Minister of Mines and Mining Development, is the
legislator for
that area, it was only expected.
Mpofu, who infamously referred to
himself as Mugabe’s most obedient son
would be expected to endorse the
ageing leader.
Others claim that failure by provinces to endorse
Mugabe was a replication
of the 2008 scenario, where some prospective
legislators were urging their
supporters not to vote for the veteran leader
and instead, figuratively,
kick the ball into the bush rather than
scoring.
But political analyst, Dumisani Nkomo said it was too early
to start singing
a dirge for Mugabe’s long political career, as the
president could still
pull out an ace that could lead him to certain
victory.
“With Mugabe you never know,” he said. “You might think he
is weak then he
pulls a winning card.”
Nkomo said it was early
days yet and since it was only October, some
provinces could yet start
backing Mugabe to contest the next polls.
“There might be a few more
people who might emerge and start licking Mugabe’s
boots, as they have done
in the past,” he said.
The political analyst however said leaked US
envoy cables, had revealed
deep-seated divisions within the party and it was
clear that the majority of
Zanu PF members were against his continued
leadership.
This sentiment was echoed by another political analyst,
Effie Ncube, who
reckoned that the cables had revealed that there was
fatigue within Zanu PF
due to Mugabe’s seemingly unending
reign.
“There is fatigue within the party and most of them want
someone else to
lead Zanu PF except those who are benefitting from Mugabe’s
largesse,” he
said.
It is reported that several senior
politicians have only escaped prosecution
from corruption and other crimes
thanks to Mugabe’s benevolence.
The president himself has repeatedly
threatened to take action against
corrupt officials, but is yet to see out
that threat.
Ncube said the failure to endorse Mugabe, hardly six
weeks ahead of the
congress, showed that there were divisions and camps
within the party and
this could signify that the house that Mugabe built
could be crumbling.
Ncube said Mugabe and his party were on the
decline and the December
conference was going to illustrate how much the
party had collapsed.
The Zanu PF leader has hinted that the
conference will sit like a congress,
meaning that it will have to endorse or
choose a leader to contest the next
elections, which Mugabe and his party
want to be held at their earliest
convenience.
Since the release
of hundreds of leaked American cables, Mugabe has been
playing his cards
close to his chest.
Most Zanu PF members who met with US diplomats
showed their disdain for
Mugabe and wanted an end to his rule. Mugabe is
known for being harsh at
people who question his rule, but he is yet to take
action against party
members that deviated from this strict code.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011 11:31
By Khanyile
Mlotshwa
A parliamentary hearing on the Electoral Amendment Bill
was on Friday
abandoned after participants who had filled the Small City
Hall started
squabbling and made it impossible for the meeting to
continue.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and
Parliamentary Affairs, which is chaired by MDC spokesperson Douglas
Mwonzora, is holding nationwide public hearings on the Bill.
On
Friday evening, Mwonzora, who had managed to retain control of an
otherwise
ill-tempered and emotional meeting, lost the plot when he allowed
some
participants to continue with contributions that angered a section of
the
crowd.
This led to a 30-minute slanging match with the audience
prompting Mwonzora
to ask the participants to put their contributions in
writing.
“We will only continue with this meeting once you learn to listen to
each
other.
“Otherwise, I would advise that those that can write,
they can write and
make their submissions on paper,” he said.
A
section of Zanu PF youths took advantage of the confusion and briefly sang
revolutionary songs before some of their members snatched a notebook from
one of the parliamentary clerks who were taking down submissions. “This is a
notebook that one of the committee’s clerks used to record the public’s
submissions,” Mwonzora said.
“This Zanu PF youth came and grabbed
it.
“Obviously this was an attempt to steal the views that had come
out.
“Unfortunately for that person, we had other recordings. We want
to assure
the people of Bulawayo that their views are safely recorded in
another
format,” he said.
Similar meetings have been disrupted in
Marondera, Masvingo and Mutare.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011
11:28
BY RUTENDO MAWERE
GOKWE — Moses Chokuda, an MDC-T
activist, killed by Midlands governor Jason
Machaya’s son and three other
Zanu PF supporters was finally buried in
Chipere village in Gokwe yesterday,
nearly three years after his death.
The burial only went ahead after the
governor gave the slain activist’s
family 20 cattle, US$15 000 cash and
bought a coffin as compensation.
The Chokudas had reportedly demanded
70 cattle, US$15 000 and a virgin girl,
but the demands were reduced after
the intervention of Chief Moses Njelele.
The governor is yet to give
the family an additional 15 cattle.
The Standard was informed that
before collecting Moses’ remains from the
Gokwe mortuary, where they had
been removed from a metal coffin and put in a
plastic bag by police, the
Chokudas spent nearly an hour alone inside.
No one knows what they
were doing inside the building, where even mortuary
attendants and Chief
Njelele, who mediated between the Chokuda and Machaya
families, were not
allowed.
Mourners who went for body viewing yesterday said they only
saw bones in the
white coffin. This was hardly surprising as Moses’ body lay
in the mortuary
for nearly three years with his family demanding
justice.
Machaya’s son Farai, Abel Maphosa, Edmore Gana and Bothwell
Gana were last
month sentenced to 18 years in jail for the March 2009
murder.
Machaya, who is also the Zanu PF provincial chairman,
attended the funeral
where he preached forgiveness.
“When people
wrong each other, it’s only prudent to ask for forgiveness,
hence our
engagement with the Chokuda family,” Machaya said.
“I have children
and I know how painful it is to lose a son, but what we
have witnessed today
is a sign of greater things to come.
“We are aware that Moses left a
son and a wife, we will try to help the
Chokuda family and we are sorry for
what happened.”
Tavengwa Chokuda, Moses’s father, said the case must
be a warning to
perpetrators of violence that they were not above the
law.
“The Machayas realised their mistake and we have forgiven them,
we can drink
together,” he said.
Chief Njelele, who mediatated
between the Chokudas and the Machayas, said he
was initially afraid to get
involved in the matter after hearing that Moses
was “avenging” his death.
His father claimed his son had been seen seated on
top of his coffin and had
chased away self-proclaimed prophets who wanted to
conduct prayers before
collecting his body for burial.
“I just decided to act like (South
African president) Jacob Zuma and be a
facilitator so that the boy who has
been dead for two years and nine months
is buried,” he told mourners. “In
our culture we don’t allow a corpse to be
kept for more than two
days.
“So this had worried me for a long time, but I am glad we have
laid him to
rest.”
But Moses’ widow Ruramai Chokuda said she had
not forgiven her husband’s
killers.
“I am still grieving and I
have not forgiven the murderers and the burial is
not the end of Moses,” she
said.
Finance minister Tendai Biti told more than 200 mourners that
the case was a
reminder that political violence was retrogressive.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011 11:33
BY
NQABA MATSHAZI
THE government is considering setting up an
independent National Peace and
Reconciliation Council (NPRC) under the Organ
on National Healing,
Reconciliation and Integration (ONHRI), although there
are fears that lack
of funding could choke it at birth.
Ideally, the
council is supposed to be free of political interference, but
observers fear
it could turn out to be a paper tiger, like the national
healing
organ.
The draft policy framework document, produced by human rights
consultant
Clever Nyathi, has been circulating among various political
parties’
national executives for consideration before it goes to cabinet for
debate.
Senior leaders from both MDC formations and Zanu PF were
scheduled to
discuss the draft document last week, but the meeting had to be
postponed
due to a Common Market for East and Southern Africa, (Comesa)
summit in
Malawi.
The draft document titled “National Policy
Framework for National Healing
and Reconciliation” says the operations of
the peace council would be
financed mainly through external
resources.
“An endeavour shall also be made to mobilise resources
from bilateral,
international and local cooperating partners,” reads the
document in part.
Already the government has declined funding from
Nordic countries, which
offered to bankroll elections and human rights
programmes in the country,
saying this could open the door for external
interference in the country’s
internal affairs.
The United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has on some occasions come
to the
rescue of the organ which could not carry out its operations due to
financial constraints.
The document said since the organ was a
creation of the Global Political
Agreement (GPA), the proposed peace council
“should be viewed and situated
well beyond the current GNU and inclusive
government”.
“The council shall honestly deal with the past in order
to shape a truly
peaceful future, provide safe space for facilitating
dialogues.”
The peace council would have nine members with at least
four women and
nominated members “shall be vetted for suitability by
parliament”.
If ratified, it is expected that members of the council
will report to both
parliament and a yet to be named ministry.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011
11:34
BY LESLEY WURAYAYI
FOR Kudzai Makone of Harare’s
high-density suburb of Glen view 2, memories
of the 2008/9 cholera epidemic
that killed 4 000 Zimbabweans are still
fresh. But she still finds herself
without any choice but to fetch water
from an unprotected well, a known
fertile ground for cholera.
“There is nothing much we can do,” said Makone
who was on her way from one
of the boreholes in Glen view where meandering
queues have become the order
of the day.
“I have clothes that
need to be washed and I have to bath my kids and do
other household
chores.
“As for diseases, we have survived worse situations than
this. Remember,
2008 was worse than this but we survived.”
Most
of Harare’s western suburbs have gone for almost a week without water
after
the Harare City Council embarked on a major rehabilitation of its
Morton
Jaffray water treatment plant.
Council says the water cuts could
continue for some time after a Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa)
transformer at the plant blew up,
complicating the maintenance
work.
Glen Norah, Budiriro, Kuwadzana and Glen View, the epicentre of
one of the
most devastating cholera epidemics in the history of the country,
are again
the hardest hit by the water shortages.
In Glen Norah
B, residents wake up as early as 3am to queue at the only
borehole located
at the intersection of Cross and Ambi roads. Two boreholes
drilled by the
United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) as a response to the
cholera
outbreak are not working due to lack of maintenance.
In Budiriro,
Victor Siraha said they were even getting water from drainages
and
unprotected wells.
Some residents were seen fetching water from a
well dug adjacent a stream of
overflowing sewage.
“We have been
without running water since Sunday and the council has not
bothered to
explain to us what is going on,” said Vimbai Hove, a housewife.
“If
they had given us prior warning, we could have made plans to store water
for
drinking and cooking.”
Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda yesterday said
repairs at the treatment plant
had been slowed down by the electricity
outages. But he hoped the water
supplies would be restored by early this
week.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011 11:35
BY PATIENCE
NYANGOVE
What may have started as a genuine need to empower locals
has turned on its
head with Zanu PF youths running rampant and grabbing
properties across the
country, under the guise of the indigenisation
programme.
In scenes reminiscent of the 2000 land grab, Zanu PF youths and
supporters
have unleashed a reign of terror, forcing people out of
buildings, which
they claim to have taken over.
In the latest
episode, Zanu PF youths invaded a business premise in Mbare
where they
threatened to take over the building and open spaces around it.
The marauding
youths last Tuesday occupied Angelbeck’s plot that houses 32
properties
being leased to 87 tenants.
The property belongs to the late Samuel
Koefman’s family and is currently
being administered by Knight Frank Newmark
Global Real Estate.
Some of the affected properties include Club
Matute, Chiduku Wholesalers and
Retailers, Karima Cash and Carry among many
other businesses that include
home industries operating from the
plot.
When The Standard visited the plot on Friday, the Zanu PF
youths were busy
clearing part of the open space which they had grabbed
while others had
already fenced off another part of the open
space.
The caretaker of the plot, Everest Mayor, on Friday confirmed
the invasion.
“This plot is a private property but the Zanu PF youths
came and grabbed
pieces of land along Shashi Road, also at the roundabout
and spaces on the
back yard of Mudhomboyi, Motsi, Masiyanise and Nhekairo
businesses,” Mayor
explained.
“They are not even considering that
there are water pipes on those
backyards.
“According to them,
once they are done with grabbing the open spaces they
will start evicting
tenants inside buildings on the plot and they take
over.”
Other sources
said the youths have since early this year been trying to grab
the piece of
land.
“They came a few weeks before President Robert Mugabe’s
birthday and tried
to extort US$5 000 ostensibly for ‘protection’ from the
property owners
before management at Knight Frank asked them to make the
cash request
through formal ways and that the money should not be demanded
as ransom,” a
source said.
“The youths were even offered
places to operate their businesses on
condition that they also, like anybody
else, pay market rent but they
refused saying they wanted to use the place
for free.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011 11:35
BY NQABA
MATSHAZI
FOREIGNERS in South Africa, particularly Zimbabweans living
in Alexander
Township in Johannesburg, face an uncertain future after locals
there
ordered them to vacate cheap government housing.
Authorities there
have sought to assure foreigners that they were safe, but
a local vigilante
group, Alex Bona Fides, says the outsiders were given
enough notice and it
was time for them to vacate.
Foreigners were given yesterday as the
deadline for vacating the premises,
with South Africans claiming they had
been given offer letters but failed to
get houses, as these had been
allocated to outsiders.
However, the foreigners got a temporary
reprieve after leaders of the
vigilante group said they would now challenge
ownership of the government
houses in court and report to the residents next
week.
This prompted the restive crowd to demand immediate action, but
Alex Bona
Fide leaders, probably fearing arrest, called off the planned
march.
As early as 10am yesterday, more than 600 people had gathered
at a stadium
in the township with a view to take an audit of who had been
allocated
government houses, raising fears that this could ignite xenophobic
violence
on the scale of the 2008 attacks that gripped the southern African
nation.
Authorities said they were monitoring the situation carefully
and hoped to
avoid a riot, considering that Alexander was one of the
epicentres of the
2008 wildcat xenophobic attacks.
Alex Bona
Fides yesterday insisted that the evictions were not xenophobic,
but rather
they were repossessing government houses from undeserving people
and handing
them out to South Africans, the rightful owners.
Police yesterday
morning on the other hand insisted that a planned march to
the government
houses was illegal, but an expectant crowd was willing to
walk to the houses
and evict foreigners.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011 11:37
BY NDAMU
SANDU
WHEN Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono was
pictured in
January this year all smiles with retrenched workers, it marked
the end of
quasi-fiscal activities.
The retrenchment was hailed as the
central bank’s first step towards
normalcy after it had steeped itself in
activities that fall in the realms
of the Ministry of Finance as the
custodians of fiscal policies.
Nine months after the exercise was
carried out, the former RBZ employees are
struggling to make ends meet as
the bank has failed to pay them retrenchment
packages on time.
In
the process some have died due to stress caused by the delays.
One
such victim is Clive Tinashe Gwara (30), a young man who had showed all
sorts of promises, until he was retrenched in January. He hanged himself
early this month.
Standardbusiness tracked his family to
Glendale, a small town just outside
Mazowe.
Gwara was employed in
the imports division of the RBZ and his family says
his life changed
drastically after his retrenchment.
His mother, Loice Gwara, in
between sobs, told Standardbusiness how Gwara’s
death devastated the
family.
“He was my father. Even if he was not working, he would fend
for the
family,” she said.
She said Gwara had bought a digital
camera and a printer, which he wanted to
use to start a photography
business. But such a vision was buried with him
more than two weeks
ago.
“When he was going to work, things were okay but the situation
deteriorated
when he left Harare for Marondera after the retrenchment,” she
said.
The family has a house in Marondera.
“When you leave one job
you keep on applying thinking that you will get
another job.
“His
friends would come to see him with their cars, but for him he had
nothing
despite his two degrees,” she said.
Loice Gwara spoke of how her
son, Clive, was hallucinating and his behaviour
had changed in the few days
before he met his fate.
The family took him to a psychiatrist at
Harare Hospital who referred them
to a physician. On the day that he was
supposed to go to the physician,
Clive died.
Gwara is one of the
former RBZ employees who died before receiving exit
packages as the
institution has failed to honour its part of the bargain. As
part of the
agreement that paved way for the retrenchments, the RBZ agreed
to pay the
former workers a lump sum of US$5 000 each when they left the
organisation.
It promised to settle the packages in two installments, on
March 31 and on
June 30.
The bank agreed to cover medical and funeral expenses for
six months to
coincide with the last date of paying the installment. RBZ
also said that it
would pay school fees for two terms to employees who
enjoyed that privilege.
While the bank is still to fully pay all the
former workers, it stopped
paying out medical aid and funeral cover after
six months. To date RBZ has
paid the retrenched workers US$15 000 in three
equal installments.
‘Situation dire for RBZ
retrenchees’
Webster Ngundu, a representative of the retrenchees told
Standardbusiness
that the situation was dire for the former
workers.
“It’s the retrenched and the entire train behind him.
Assuming that the
retrenched worker had a family of six to look after, we
are talking of more
than 7 000 people suffering,” Ngundu
said.
The bank says it has no money and will only pay out after it
has completed
the disposal of its non-core assets.
The ex-workers
approached the Labour Court in May to force RBZ to honour its
obligation.
An arbitral award issued on September 16 ordered the
bank to pay all
outstanding dues immediately and pay compensation of 5% per
annum as a
penalty for delaying payments.
The court ruled that a
focal person should be appointed to interface between
the bank and the
former workers. In its appeal against the award, RBZ argued
that it would
suffer irreparable harm if the award was enforced.
“Respondents
(ex-workers) have already indicated they will be approaching
the High Court
for enforcement purposes. If the award is enforced, the
applicant may not be
able to pay and contempt of court proceedings may
follow to the detriment of
the applicant,” RBZ averred.
Ngundu says the delay in paying the
packages shows that the bank does not
understand the true value of
money.
RBZ contends that no one has been prejudiced as it had already
paid workers
part of the money.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011 12:21
BY NQOBILE
BHEBHE
The revitalisation of the collapsed industrial sector in
Bulawayo would be
difficult because it has been politicised, the Zimbabwe
Coalition on Debt
and Development (Zimcodd) has claimed.
In its latest
report, A Contribution to the Ongoing Debate on the
De-industrialisation of
Bulawayo, Zimcodd also cites political instability
and squabbling in the
inclusive government and lack of funding as
impediments to
re-industrialisation.
“The biggest impediment to industrial revival
however, is the politics of
the day.
“This can be identified in
two ways. Firstly political instability and
squabbling in the inclusive
government has not helped business confidence.
It is perhaps due to
political uncertainty and the threat of seizure of all
businesses under the
country’s empowerment law that has discouraged
industrial growth,” reads
part of the report.
“Secondly, revitalisation of industry in Bulawayo
has already been
politicised, with the country’s three main political
parties (Zanu PF, MDC
and MDC-T) positioning to score cheap political goals
from the issue.”
Zimcodd said the focus and strategy to revitalise
had been centred on
Bulawayo, without accepting the far-reaching nature of
the city’s problems.
“From the above analysis it is clear that a
strategy to revive Bulawayo that
is outside a broader strategy to revive the
country’s economy is either
misinformed or dishonest,” it added. Government
has set aside a US$40
million fund under the “Let Bulawayo Survive”
campaign to revive industries
in the city.
Over the years, almost
100 companies have closed shop in Bulawayo and over
20 000 workers lost
their jobs, a development that has put the coalition
government under
pressure to save the country’s second-biggest city.
Bulawayo was
historically known as Zimbabwe’s industrial hub.
All big companies
like Zimbabwe Engineering Company, Hubert Davies, Radar
Metal Industries,
National Blankets, G & D Shoes, Merlin, Tregers Group,
Stewarts &
Lloyds, Hunyani Holdings and Cold Storage Company among others
were based in
the city but have since closed or have downsized.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011 12:14
BY NDAMU
SANDU
NKULULEKO Rusununguko Mining Company, the government-approved
empowerment
partner for Zimplats, can only be considered after government
has completed
the broad-based empowerment of locals, a Cabinet minister said
last week.
Saviour Kasukuwere, Youth Development, Indigenisation and
Empowerment
minister said on Tuesday the empowerment legislation would first
look at
three critical areas — community share ownership trusts, employee
ownership
trusts and the Sovereign Wealth Fund.
This, he said, is
designed to ensure that the programme achieves its
objectives of empowering
the masses.
“There were a number of groupings which existed before .
. . from where we
are in terms of indigenising the economy.
“The
first step is to empower the communities. Those who are interested, as
the
programme unfolds, we will be looking at the situation, but as far as we
are
concerned, the three-layer strategy basically forms a uniform
empowerment
programme that we are undertaking as a ministry.”
The disclosure is a
fresh setback for the outfit which has been struggling
to buy the 15% stake
after it won the bid to partner Zimplats in 2004.
A cabinet committee gave
the nod to Nkululeko ahead of Needgate and National
Investment Trust. Alex
Manungo, the outfit’s boss could not be reached for
comment since
Tuesday.
As part of the transaction, Nkululeko could have bought 13
390 423 ordinary
shares at a price of A$3,47, which is 69% more than the
share value on the
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).
However,
despite getting the green light, the empowerment grouping has
failed to
execute the transaction after facing serious hurdles as government
was
offering conflicting statements.
Then Mines minister Amos Midzi was
pushing for the creation of a Special
Purpose Vehicle to accommodate losing
bidders, Needgate and National
Investment Trust.
The process was
also stalled after central bank chief, Gideon Gono, wrote to
Zimplats
imploring them not to proceed with the transaction.
Zimplats had
written to Gono informing him that they were proceeding with
the transaction
in line with instructions from the Ministry of Mines.
Gono told
Zimplats that the Reserve Bank was interested in the platinum
industry
“including the fact that we are now interested and mandated to
examine all
indigenisation programmes in that sector before they can be
implemented”
Gono told Zimplats to comply with the new policy
framework, “which seeks to
consolidate growth in the sector in a transparent
and investor friendly
manner”.
According to the Indigenisation
and Empowerment Act, locals must have at
least 51% shareholding in all
foreign-owned companies operating in Zimbabwe.
The ministry has
already concluded discussions with major mining houses and
will now move to
the manufacturing and financial sectors.
Kasukuwere said after the
launch of the Mhondoro-Ngezi Community Trust,
similar schemes and employee
share ownership trusts would be launched in the
next two weeks.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011
12:11
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — Government has availed
US$11 million to the National Railways of
Zimbabwe (NRZ) against the US$2
billion it requires to rehabilitate its
ageing infrastructure, Transport,
Communications and Infrastructure
Development minister Nicholas Goche has
said.
Goche told journalists on the sidelines of a NRZ stakeholder’s
conference
held in Bulawayo on Wednesday that government had only managed to
avail
US$11 million out of the US$15 million allocation to the troubled
parastatal.
He said the rehabilitation of the NRZ infrastructure
was necessary in order
to accommodate and facilitate the promotion of trade
in the Southern African
Development Community and Common Markets for Eastern
and Southern Africa
region.
“As a shareholder, the government is
committed in supporting NRZ’s
rehabilitation programme.
“This
year, government allocated US$15 million and so far US$11 million has
since
been disbursed towards railway infrastructural rehabilitation,” Goche
said.
“The funding is not enough since the NRZ requires nearly
US$2 billion over a
period of 10 years for its long term total
rehabilitation programme of the
railway infrastructure.”
He said
in the short to medium-term, US$395 million was needed to restore
the
infrastructure to acceptable levels of safety and service delivery,” he
added.
NRZ, like other state parastatals, is facing numerous
problems, stemming
from lack of funds to import spare parts and improve
services.
Most of NRZ diesel and electrical locomotives are out of
service while
passenger and freight services are constantly
cancelled.
Other challenges facing the company include the widespread
collapse of the
rail infrastructure, vandalised communication equipment and
dilapidated yard
facilities.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011 11:45
By
Jeffrey Moyo
The International Day of Peace came and went past,
but global peace summits
continue to be held, with millions of people across
the world fooled by
politicians who fantasise about embracing peace while
wars are raging in
scores of countries across the world.
Peace is the
absence of war, but Barack Obama, the American President,
addressing the
United Nations General Assembly in New York recently said:
“Peace is not
only the absence of war…..”
This then shows that there is more to
peace than just the mere absence of
war, which renders our global peace
questionab-le.
In Somalia, th-ere is no legitimate government. The
country is literally run
by warlords, with close links to marauding sea
pirates, who raid ships
loaded with goods in transit, and demand
extortionate ransoms, which they
use to perpetrate anarchy in the chaotic
nation in the Horn of Africa.
Starvation and drought continue in
Somalia, with millions of people fleeing
the country. Some escape political
unrest while others run away from hunger,
with millions of children dying
from malnutrition every day. It boggles the
mind to talk of world peace
commemorations, or even its existence when
people continue to face such
situations.
Coming back home, the International Day of Peace may have
had no relevance
in our context as we have been divorced from it by the
horrible and
increasing levels of political violence. It is now over 10
years since the
turn of the new millennium, following the then government’s
chaotic land
seizures from commercial white farmers, throwing the entire
nation into long
periods of starvation.
In Zimbabwe, years of
political and economic crisis have thrown many people
into abject poverty,
with the country suffering an unemployment rate of over
80%.
Unquestionably, Zimbabwe has had nothing to celebrate during
all the
successive years of international peace days.
Rather, the
country should have invited the rest of the world to come and
bemoan the
death of peace nationwide at the hands of abusive security forces
and
violent politicians and youth militia. Journalists and ordinary
citizens
have been routinely arrested, brutally assaulted and tortured or
detained in
filthy cells.
Poverty is rife in North and South Sudan, with people
still living in tents
although South Sudan became independent from the
mainland in July this year.
Peace remains fragile in the two
states, with we-apons everywhere in the
countryside and rampant tribal
battles taking their toll in the troubled
states.
In the fragile border
region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, terrorism and
extremism are daily
occurrences. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is one of the most
fragile areas in
Pakistan in which terrorism has grown to become one of the
biggest security
threats to the region and beyond, jolting powerful nations
into action
against the scourge.
Militant groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan
continue to incite extremism and
violence among young
people.
Israel and Palestine continue to engage in a war that has
been going on for
a very long time while Kashmir, a disputed territory
between India and
Pakistan, continues to be a source of violence and
brutality among the
divided Hindu and Muslim communities, forcing over 40
000 people to flee
their homes.
World leaders have gone for
summit after summit to broker world peace, but
more and more conflicts have
continued to emerge globally, with reports of
over 45 wars taking place
across the world presently.
It defies logic for the world to
commemorate International Peace Day year in
year out when peace is so
elusive, if not non-existent; when poverty and
corruption have blighted the
entire world, and when economic and political
suffering is evident
everywhere, particularly in Africa.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011
11:41
By Nevanji Madanhire
Most of Zimbabwe’s mineral
wealth is found in the Great Dyke, a geological
feature that runs almost in
a straight line north-south through the centre
of Zimbabwe.
It is made up
mostly of hills spanning about 550 km. It is host to vast ore
deposits,
including gold, silver, chromium, platinum, nickel and asbestos.
This makes
it a very strategic economic resource with significant quantities
of chrome
and platinum. Economic concentrations of nickel, copper, gold and
platinum
group metals (PGM) exist in the dyke.
First discovered in the middle
of the 19th century by European explorers,
its vast mineral wealth was only
known in 1918.
Now it has dramatically been turned into a major
source of conflict.
The new indigenisation method launched recently
by the Zanu PF half of the
inclusive government and put into effect recently
at Zimplats by no less a
person than President Robert Mugabe himself sounds
well-intended and, if run
properly, communities in which major economic
activities are taking place
will benefit immensely.
But the
concept of community share trusts immediately alienates huge chunks
of
Zimbabweans who do not live anywhere near the Great Dyke. At its
broadest,
the dyke is only 12 km wide. Outside the dyke there is a
sprinkling of
minerals here and there but huge swathes of populations live
in semi-arid
lands that have little to offer but subsistence agriculture and
angry young
men. This is how the concept becomes problematic.
Mugabe called the
launch at Zimplats “a commendable development in the
implementation of our
indigenisation and economic empowerment laws,” but
failed to appreciate its
implications on other issues that have dogged
efforts to economically
empower all Zimbabweans. Land reform, for example,
benefited only a few. It
is true, as he said, the country is endowed with
natural resources mined
over the years by multinational corporations without
benefiting the people.
But to craft a policy that would result in oases of
prosperity dotted across
the country that are surrounded by large deserts of
debilitating poverty is
to discriminate people according to a whim of
nature.
Chrome is
mined throughout the dyke, especially in the Darwendale, Lalapanzi
and
Mutorashanga areas. So, only the communities in those areas will benefit
when the three largest chrome mining companies, Maranatha Ferrochrome,
Zimaloys and Zimasco are also forced into community share ownership
schemes.
Besides the Zimplats venture at Ngezi, platinum group metals
in the dyke are
mined at Unki Mine near Shurugwi by Anglo American and
Mimosa Mine near
Zvishavane by Zimasco. Again, only communities around these
areas will
benefit.
The president said whereas in the existing model in
which the communities
did not directly benefit from economic activities in
their areas, such
communities relied on government and donor funding for
social and economic
infrastructure development. At face value it might sound
wrong for
communities to depend on government. But if we take away the donor
factor,
it is the duty of government to fund social services and
infrastructural
development; that is why companies pay
taxes.
Controlled centrally, these taxes could be distributed
equitably throughout
the country thereby benefiting everybody including
those who, for historical
and geographical reasons, find themselves living
in less
natural-resources-endowed regions. This does not reinforce a
dependency
syndrome; it enforces natural justice.
“Community
Share Ownership Trusts are a vehicle for broad-based
participation in
shareholding in various businesses by our communities. The
proceeds from
such participation shall be used for the provision of social
and economic
infrastructure in line with the priorities of the communities
concerned,
such as the provision, operation and maintenance of schools,
clinics,
dipping tanks, roads, water works, sanitation, soil conservation
and
prevention of environmental degradation,” Mugabe said.
Is this some
kind of devolution? Many regions have, in the past, called for
devolution to
be enshrined in our national constitution without success
mainly because of
the potential dangers it poses to national unity. But
after the launch of
the community share ownership trusts it becomes
impossible to stand in the
way of devolution; only the devolution this time
would not be according to
provinces but according to little communities
living around rich areas. This
will splinter the nation into fragments of
few rich and many poor clans who
will naturally turn against each other.
Most conflicts are fights for
natural resources.
Mugabe said the proceeds from the community share
ownership trusts should be
properly accounted for and used in projects that
benefit communities but
this is well-nigh impossible, not just because of
the corruption such
schemes naturally sp-awn, but also the impracticality of
traditional leaders
overriding the dictatorships of the political
leadership.
But already we have seen politicians circling the
programmes like vultures;
infighting has already escalated among the
political leadership and the
traditional leaders have also turned against
each other as they already
smell foul play. This is just a microcosm of what
will happen when the
scheme goes national.
It would seem the
share ownership scheme project is gimmick to purchase
votes in anticipation
of the watershed elections likely to come next year.
This is reinforced by
the fact that the schemes are not government projects
but are driven
undisguised by a political party. Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment
minister Saviour Kasukuwere has said this over and over again,
that the
schemes are a Zanu PF project. But this is likely to backfire and
alienate
communities against Zanu PF.
If the taxman, in this case the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority, has failed to
collect taxes thereby necessitating this
extra-judiciary tax on
foreign-owned companies then Zimra should be revamped
to make it more
effective. But Zimra has generally been doing a good job;
sometimes too good
to the extent of exercising extortive measures to collect
revenue.
The problem has been that government has been profligate in
spending the
revenue and the now-all-pervasive corruption has taken its
toll. So, it’s
not entirely because of lack of money that government has
failed to fund
community development projects and social services but
because of bad
governance which has resulted in the national kitty leaking
like a sieve.
Share ownership schemes should be controlled centrally
and the money
distributed equitably among all communities regardless of
where they live;
to do otherwise is to fail in nation building.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 23 October 2011
11:39
In March this year, Richard Emslie, chief scientific officer for
the Species
Survival Commission of the International Union for the
Conservation of
Nature and head of African Rhino Specialist Group (AfRSG),
told a meeting of
top rhino experts gathered in South Africa that poachers
had slaughtered
more than 800 rhinos in Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe in
2010 alone.
Emslie also told the three governments why the rhino
conservation lobby was
deeply concerned about the ongoing butchery:
“Although good biological
management and anti-poaching efforts have led to
modest population-gains for
both black and white African rhino, we are still
very concerned about the
increasing involvement of organised criminal
poaching networks, and that
unless the rapid escalation in poaching in
recent years can be halted,
continental rhino numbers could once again start
to decline.”
At a local level, we are now concerned that
unlike South Africa and Kenya,
which took the advice of the experts and
turned the tide against rhino
poaching, the Zimbabwean government is not
doing anything to save this
endangered species. We do not understand why the
government has not taken
robust action to crackdown on the Harare-based,
Chinese-sponsored syndicates
which are responsible for rhino plunder in
conservancies around the country.
However, we fear that this is because top
government and “party” officials
are implicated, as are members of various
arms of the security forces.
This has been proven in many court cases
where poachers have turned out to
be serving or retired troopers. Some
ministers and top Zanu PF politicians
have also been named in various
reports as the prime suspects behind many
poaching
syndicates.
With the rhino horn selling for as much as US$60 000 per
kg on the black
market, it is not difficult to understand why greedy
politicians can’t avoid
spilling rhino blood to shorten their route to
riches.
We are even more concerned that despite numerous cases where
evidence of the
complicity of members of the security forces is presented in
court, there
seems to be no institutional measures taken to weed out
poachers from among
their ranks. The rhino conservation lobby is also
disturbed by government
in-action against the continued use of state-owned
firearms in poaching. The
AK-47 rifles and heavy machine guns which poachers
use to kill rhinos are
defined as arms of war in this country and as such,
they are not sold in any
gunshop but are owned by government, and issued
only to the security forces.
So we maintain that poachers source
these high-calibre assault rifles from
the national security armoury.
Recently, parks-director Vitalis Chadenga
told a collection of local, German
and British “environmental” journalists
that the poaching scourge is the
work of foreign syndicates. True and well
said, but Zimbabweans also know
that foreigners operate here with local help
and enjoy protection from
“party” politicians, rogue elements of the
security forces, parks officials
and even provincial magistrates (as in one
district of Matabeleland North)
who are part of the syndicates.
There is no doubt that foreigners
—South Africans, Russians, Chinese,
Americans, the British and the French —
are deeply involved. But the Gwayi
Valley Hunting Report of 2003 which
mentions these nationalities also shines
a brighter light on many local
politicians who colluded with the foreigners
in poaching all over that
Intensive Conservation Area between 2000 and 2003.
Our fear is that
the poaching crisis will escalate because Zanu PF
officials, securocrats and
their Chinese benefactors are too deeply
involved. There is also a clear
lack of political will to stop it in both
factions of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) because species
conservation does not seem to have a
place on their agendas.
The Parks and Wildlife Management Authority
claims that the country has over
1 000 rhinos but we find this very
difficult to believe because authority
has no history of accuracy with
figures. Instead, it has a long reputation
of doctoring figures to keep
poaching casualty figures as low as possible to
fool the world and please
the political master in Zanu PF.
Instead of taking measures to
protect rhinos, the authority is working hard
to distort reality and
downplay the intensity of the poaching crisis. The
crisis is much bigger and
it cannot be dressed up or sanitised by naked
lies.
Poaching will
not stop until Zanu PF stops encouraging supporters to invade
and poach with
impunity in conservancies as continues to happen in Masvingo,
the Save
Valley, Chiredzi and Gwanda.
The conservation of threatened species
will not happen when senior
politicians encourage invaders to stay put in
conservancies and eat all the
animals if they choose to, simply because they
are the black Zanu PF
followers and the conservancy owners are white like
the Rhodesians used to
be.
