MDC 'infiltrated'

FinGaz

Njabulo Ncube Chief Political Reporter
Report implicates CIO
ZIMBABWE'S secret service, the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) allegedly took advantage of the schism within the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change to perpetrate last July's brutal attack on Harare
North legislator Trudy Stevenson and four other party officials, according
to a report compiled by a commission of inquiry set up by one of the feuding
factions of the party.

In a 123-page report immediately dismissed by critics as a desperate attempt
at self-cleansing, a commission of inquiry appointed by Morgan Tsvangirai's
faction of the MDC - which has been accused of orchestrating the assault -
found that the opposition party had been heavily infiltrated by the CIO and
its agents.
The commission, chaired by Advocate Happias Zhou, found that the CIO
masterminded the attack on Stevenson, Simangele Manyere, Linos Mushonga,
Luxon Sibanda and Tawanda Mudzerema on Sunday, July 2 2006. Zhou's
commission included lawyers Irene Petras of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights, Kay Ncube of Gill, Godlonton and Gerrans and Kudakwashe Matibiri.
"Now they are finding a scapegoat in state security agents yet everyone
knows that some of their people were arrested over the issue," said State
Security Minister Dydimus Mutasa. "I think this is part of the unlawful acts
of the MDC to blame anyone except themselves", said Mutasa. He added, "This
lawyer appointed to investigate was not appointed by the state but by them.
They have left out our legal people, including the police to do the job by
appointing their own lawyer. The question which all Zimbabweans should be
asking themselves is whether the MDC now want to set up their own state
within Zimbabwe so that we prepare ourselves to meet them accordingly," he
added.
The controversial report claims the attack on Stevenson and her colleagues
was premeditated and was carried out by trained and experienced state
security agents with help from informants.
Reads part of the findings: "All evidence points to the involvement of the
CIO in the attack of Mrs Stevenson and her colleagues in so far as they
infiltrated the opposition MDC. Mrs Stevenson, herself, categorically stated
that in her belief the attack was carried out by or with the involvement of
the CIO who she believes have infiltrated the Tsvangirai-led MDC. She
(Stevenson) did not seem to have considered the possibility that her own
grouping had been infiltrated, although it is a real possibility. The
presence of a police motor vehicle soon after the attack is suspicious."
"The attack was carried out with such skill and efficiency that even though
it happened in broad daylight there were no eyewitnesses. Further, it took
the police about four or so days before they arrested the first suspects
whom they subsequently released. That approach is consistent with an
intention to divert attention from the real perpetrators of the brutal act."
"The Commission's attention was drawn to one Smart Mesa, who upon its
enquiry appeared to be an informer or operative of the Central Intelligence
Organisation. The member stated that he is a retired officer of the Zimbabwe
Republic Police. The Commission believes that he was more than just an
officer of the ZRP. He has made his way into the party structures, to the
highest levels of the Harare Province Security Department, yet nobody could
explain to this Commission how he had gone from being an ordinary member of
the security structures for the province, to heading it almost overnight."
The Commission said it also noted that one member, Stanford Nhende, could be
associated with the secret service.
"That member, who does not hold office even at the lowest structures of the
party, has detailed and accurate information about the operations of the
party at almost all levels. He has been involved in funding many party
activities within and outside Mabvuku Constituency. After the arrest of the
suspects in the case involving the attack on Trudy Stevenson and her
colleagues, Stanford Nhende readily offered to pay their legal fees even
though the party had taken a position that it was not going to meet the
legal expenses. He admitted that he had authored and paid for most of the
petitions, which had been presented against the district leadership,
including the latest one. Nhende works closely with a senior police officer
whose name he reluctantly mentioned. He stated that that officer was a
member or supporter or sympathiser of the party, who volunteers secret
information to the party."
The Commission's findings reveal what it described as a "naïve perception"
on the part of the leadership of the party in Mabvuku that there were some
members of the CIO and senior police officers who were sympathetic to their
cause. "Even the member of parliament is not immune to that quixotic notion.
As a result, the state agents and senior police officers have inside
information on all operations of the party."
While Tsvangirai yesterday said he had been exonerated by the findings of
the commission of inquiry, the rival MDC faction, headed by Arthur
Mutambara, dismissed the inquiry as a "self-cleansing exercise designed to
shift blame for the real crisis of undemocratic principles in the opposition
to the CIO."
"It is clear from the findings that the state was determined to cause
maximum damage to the MDC and to discredit the democratic movement,"
Tsvangirai told journalists at a press conference in Harare yesterday.
"State agents ensnared and trapped Honourable Stevenson and her colleagues
into this sadistic and unfortunate attack."
Tsvangirai said the bungling characterising the state's case against those
initially charged - including Mabvuku-Tafara legislator Timothy Mubhawu, who
is aligned to Tsvangirai's faction - was further proof of his camp's
innocence.
Harare magistrate Olivia Mariga ruled that there was not enough evidence
linking Mubhawu to the crime. Police had alleged that Mubhawu sponsored the
attack but failed to prove their claim.
"After the regime's failure to liquidate the MDC following the leadership
crack on October 12 last year, Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF changed their
tactics and are still pursuing their project to destroy the MDC. Before
October 12, the regime targeted our provinces and provincial structures for
infiltration. When they realised that the rest of the party remained intact
at grassroots level, they changed tack," he said.
Tsvangirai said the report had made a critical observation that the MDC had
considerable structural weaknesses. He, however stressed that the party
would move with speed to contain these machinations and "vaccinate" the
party against a "web of bugs and spooks" and negative external forces.
But Gabriel Chaibva, spokesperson for the rival MDC camp, said his faction
did not recognise the commission of inquiry set up by Tsvangirai, saying it
was not independent.
"I don't wish to waste time on a self-serving and cleansing exercise whose
findings we have always maintained were predetermined," said Chaibva. "To
suggest that it was the CIO when some of his party supporters and members
are the accused in the case is trying to hide behind a finger. Blaming the
CIO shows that there are many state security agents in his party," said
Chaibva.
Stevenson, who appeared before the Zhou commission, said she had not seen
the report but added that Tsvangirai had long been told that CIO moles had
infiltrated his inner circle.
"I have not seen the report and can't specifically comment on its findings
but he (Tsvangirai) knows and was told several years ago that people
surrounding him are CIOs. He did nothing about it. We know there are CIOs in
the MDC, especially his camp."
Tsvangirai said his party would go through "intensive leadership analysis
and scrutiny" in light of the findings of the commission. He also said he
did not agree with all the findings of the commission.
"We disagree with some of the findings because they are based on factually
incorrect information. For instance, the commission says we have a security
department headed by Nhamo Musekiwa. We do not have such a department.
"The commission also states that previous attempts to address issues of
violence within the party failed to bear fruit. That is incorrect. We took
action against certain individuals involved in violence in the past. In June
2005, we expelled more than 30 youths from the party because of their
violent activities," Tsvangirai said.

Massive water crisis looms

FinGaz

Kumbirai Mafunda

HARARE residents could face an interminable water crisis following
revelations that the floundering Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA)
and the Harare City Council (HCC) need $4 billion to address the capital
city's chronic woes, in yet another sign of the country's mounting troubles

Harare residents have over the past two weeks endured serious water
shortages after eight suppliers of crucial water treatment chemicals cut off
supplies due to non-payment of debts totalling $1.5 billion.
Among these suppliers of chemicals is Zimbabwe Phosphates (Zimphos), which
provides aluminium sulphate, used to purify water.
"Suppliers have put an embargo on supplies of chemicals and close to $4
billion is needed to solve this crisis," said this paper's sources, who
asked not to be named.
Insiders at the water management monopoly said although the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) had availed $250 million to settle some debts and that way
avoid exposing the capital's residents to health risks, the state-run body
and the beleaguered Sekesai Makwavarara-led council, which is tasked with
the distribution of water in Harare and satellite towns such as Chitungwiza
and Norton, still needs $4 billion to source replacement parts for worn out
motors and to repair ageing water pipes that cause huge amounts of water to
be lost through leakages.
As a result of the water shortages, residents of northern suburbs such as
Chisipite, the Grange, Mabvuku, Tafara, Kambanji and Glen Lorne, where
Zimbabwe's celebrities and most ruling Zanu PF politicians have homes, were
this week grappling with intermittent water cuts. Some residents in Mabvuku
and Tafara have resorted to fetching water from streams and unprotected
wells, which were dug at the height of last year's crippling water
shortages.
ZINWA insiders said Harare's raw water, which is drawn from Seke, Harava and
Manyame dams as well as Lake Chivero, is no longer adequate to meet the city's
needs as population growth has not been matched by a corresponding expansion
of water supply sources.
"Furthermore the quality of the water is poor, hence expensive to treat,"
the sources said.
They revealed that the combined design output for the two Harare water
treatment plants, Morton Jaffray and Prince Edward is 680 mega litres per
day against an estimated daily demand of about 800 mega litres.
"We are not even meeting the design output capacity and are producing on
average 600 mega litres per day because of outstanding rehabilitation
 works," the sources added.
The sources said the storage capacity of 830 mega litres of treated water
per day is not adequate because it is almost equal to a day's consumption.
Ideally, stored water should at least be double a day's consumption.
Water Resources and Infrastructural Development Minister Munacho Mutezo told
The Financial Gazette that the government had roped in some Chinese
investors to speed up the construction of the long- planned Kunzwi Dam in
Marondera to improve water supplies. The construction of more reservoirs is
also to be speeded up.

Civic organisations agree to rights body consultations

FinGaz

Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Business Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S civil society organisations will today finally meet government
representatives in the resort town of Kariba for consultations on the
establishment of the contentious human rights commission, which has been on
the cards since the beginning of the year.

The consultations, which were initially brokered by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) in June, twice failed to kick off after civic
organisations objected to a draft programme which they perceived as
favoureing government representatives most.
Rights bodies have agreed to a revised programme.
The revised draft programme lists prominent academic and former University
of Zimbabwe vice chancellor Walter Kamba as the facilitator of the four-day
meeting.
Rights groups under the umbrella body, the National Association of Non
Governmental Organisations (NANGO) had initially greeted plans to establish
a Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission with widespread scorn and cynicism,
citing the government's poor rights record.
NANGO spokesperson Fambai Ngirande yesterday indicated that members of his
organisation would take part in the consultations.
"We have realised that dialogue is constructive towards the resolution of
the prevailing humanitarian and human rights crisis," said Ngirande.
In attendance at the Kariba meeting will be Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Minister Patrick Chinamasa and his permanent secretary David Mangota, Anti
Corruption and Anti Monopolies Minister Paul Mangwana some government
officials, senior civil servants, judges, academics from the University of
Zimbabwe, the staff of the United Nations (UN) and leaders of civil society
organisations.
Chinamasa, who is spearheading the establishment of the commission, says the
rights body will be mandated to investigate human rights violations and
complaints and make findings and decisions on such issues.
However, civic bodies argue that the effectiveness of the commission hinges
on its composition, the process of appointing the commissioners, how its
decisions will be enforced and its relationship to the executive arm of
government.
Rights groups also contend that the establishment a human rights commission
in the prevailing legislative and administrative environment without
corresponding and simultaneous changes to existing repressive laws is
tantamount to deception and is an attempt to create illusory remedial
institutions. They say such a process will compound the human rights
situation in the country.
Critics fear that the planned commission could be ineffective if government
does not repeal legislation such as the Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which has been used to close independent media
houses and to arrest and intimidate journalists and the Public Order and
Security Act (POSA), which restricts fundamental rights such as assembly,
association and free expression.
According to Chinamasa, the ZHRC will ensure increased conformity with
various human rights treaties, to which Zimbabwe is a signatory, as a
mechanism to ensure promotion, protection and effective enforcement of human
rights. It will also assist the state in the preparation of country reports
required by UN treaty bodies and to investigate reports of human rights
violations and seek effective redress of any of the violations if they are
established.

High Court blocks Chigwedere's plot

FinGaz

Nkululeko Sibanda Own Correspondent

THE High Court has ordered the minister of Education, Sport and Culture,
Aeneas Chigwedere to stop ordering the arrest of headmasters for allegedly
increasing school fees without approval from his ministry.

In a provisional order delivered by High Court judge Justice Bhunu on
Tuesday, Chigwedere, who was cited as the first respondent, was ordered not
to order the police to arrest the headmasters of Arundel High School, Ariel
Boys High School, and Chisipite Junior School over fee increases.
The permanent secretary in the ministry, Stephen Mahere, and police
commissioner Augustine Chihuri were cited as second and third respondents,
respectively.
Bhunu ordered "that respondents shall not request, instigate, or effect, the
closure of any non-governmental school that is maintained by any applicant
or any member of the first applicant."
The Association of Trust Schools, chaired by Jameson Timba, together with
the three schools' trusts, went to court seeking an interim order barring
Chigwedere from causing the arrest of the headmasters.
This followed threats made by Chigwedere in parliament on September 6,
saying his ministry had granted the AST a two-week window to regularise
school fees.
The Hansard of Wednesday September 6 quoted Chigwedere as saying: "The
ministry demands that each school out of line regularises its position over
the next two weeks after which it (the ministry) has to take disciplinary
action in terms of the provisions of the Act including the possibility of
imprisonment of the culprits for a period not exceeding six months. Where
possible, the parents should be given the flexibility of paying fees in
instalments as long as the fees are paid in full by the end of the term."
Timba yesterday said his association had decided to take pre-emptive action
against Chigwedere to avert the arrest of school officials.
AST argued Chigwedere's threats had caused alarm within the schools.
"The minister has made some threats that have caused alarm and has issued an
ultimatum which expires this coming Wednesday (yesterday).the final school
term has now started and is an examination term which must proceed without
disruptions," said Mushore.
Furthermore, the lawyers argued that the delay by the Central Statistics
Office (CSO) in announcing the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of
August had resulted in the permanent secretary in Chigwedere's ministry
delaying his approval or dismissal of the application to increase school
fees.

ZSE hits new record

FinGaz

Staff Reporter

SHARES raced to record highs in a broad rally yesterday, as a new inflation
high and the central bank's recent actions on the money market bolstered
already strong investor support for stock.

The main industrial index rose 9.6 percent to a record 272 057.13 points, in
a seventh straight day of gains that drew the index closer to the 300
000-point level, now looking to be just one more session away. The mining
index was up 9.9 percent up to reach its own record 141 520 points high.
Only five counters were in the red on the ZSE's new electronic board.
Brokers expect the market to open firm today as there is still pent up
demand for stock.
"Going forward, we expect bulls to be continually present in quality
counters like export-oriented, banks and highly diversified ones. The need
to provide cheaper sources of finance to the productive sectors especially
agriculture and the 2008 Presidential elections is expected to determine the
bulls' term of office," analysts at Kingdom Stockbrokers said.
Recent remarks by central bank governor Gideon Gono that appeared to set the
tone for a low interest rate regime, lengthened tenors for zero percent
paper, Friday's release of new record inflation numbers, plus expectations
of record liquidity lying ahead have combined to build a consensus that the
money market will be down for the foreseeable future.
Analysts see RBZ increasing Treasury bill tenors to more than 365 days, at
even lower rates, as it tries to provide cheaper funding to producers and
restructure domestic debt.

Army, cops deployed at fuel filling stations

FinGaz

Njabulo Ncube Chief Political Reporter

THE government has deployed Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) and Zimbabwe
Republic Police (ZRP) operatives to filling stations as motorists and
industry grapple with one of the worst episodes of fuel shortages analysts
say could have an adverse effect on the new planting season which begins in
a few weeks' time.

Investigations by The Financial Gazette in Harare this week established that
uniformed soldiers and police details were a visible fixture at the few
filling stations and garages that received fuel deliveries, mostly from the
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe.
The soldiers and the police were observed controlling the long, winding
queues as motorists jostled to obtain the elusive liquid, which had dried up
at various parallel market points where both petrol and diesel have been
readily available, albeit at prohibitive prices.
Fuel industry sources that spoke to The Financial Gazette attributed the
acute shortage both at the official outlets and on the parallel market to
tight monitoring by the law enforcement agents, the purpose of whose
deployment is believed to be to nab fuel dealers charging more than the
gazetted prices.
Garage owners and dealers that spoke to this newspaper, on condition that
they are not named, maintained that it was not viable to sell fuel at the
gazetted pump price when they had sourced foreign currency to import the
commodity on the black market.
NOCZIM has pegged the pump price of petrol at $335 and diesel at $320 per
litre but filling stations that had supplies over the past week sold it for
an average of $720 000 per litre while it cost up to $1000 per litre on the
parallel market.

CZI blasts govt over arrests

FinGaz

Chris Muronzi Staff Reporter

The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has condemned the detention
this week of five senior industrialists for "illegal" price increases,
warning that the move was a setback to efforts to mend strained relations
between government and industry

Five industrialists were on Monday detained for more than six hours for
allegedly increasing prices without approval from government. Their arrest
has angered industry chiefs, who said the move amounts to harassment.
Richard Dafana of Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company Limited, George Rundogo of
Windmill, Circle Cement's Isiah Bingwa and Burombo Mudhumo of Lobels were
detained in Harare on Monday for increasing the prices of their products.
The police also arrested a senior executive at leading plastics packaging
maker Saltrama Plastics, for raising prices without approval. The wave of
arrests began last Friday when Benson Samudzimu, managing director of the
country's largest dairy producer, Dairibord Zimbabwe, was picked up for
increasing the price of milk.
Fertiliser producers argue that the cost of ammonia, a key raw material in
fertiliser manufacturing, went up by more than 300 percent a week ago, while
bakers argue that production costs have gone up significantly over recent
weeks. Industry executives say they would be forced to close down if they
can not pass on the cost of overheads to customers through price increases.
CZI, often criticised for shying away from publicly criticising government
policies, this week petitioned the Ministry of Industry and International
Trade, the Office of the President and Cabinet, expressing "serious concern"
over the detentions.
"The action taken by the authorities is unfortunate and it may reverse the
progress that we have made in recent months in developing a good working
relationship with the Government. It has brought about bad publicity and
damaged the trust that was beginning to develop among the various
stakeholders in our economy," the CZI said in a statement.
"We urge members not to dwell on the police action but to go about their
normal production and distribution activities without fear of interference,"
the CZI said, urging members to report any interference from the police to
the CZI or the Ministry of Industry and International Trade.
"It should be made clear that issues to do with price controls and
monitoring should be dealt with by the Ministry of Industry and
International Trade which should be engaging companies where it is felt that
price increases are unjustified. We understand that the implementation of
controls does not warrant the arresting of manufacturers."
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said the industrialists would appear in
court soon.
Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu endorsed the
clampdown, insisting private firms should not resort to increasing prices
but should wait for the government to tackle the problems afflicting the
economy.
"The police are merely following orders," said Mpofu, adding that he had
warned company executives of the consequences of hiking prices without his
approval.
The government has put a lid on the prices of three basic commodities,
namely bread, flour and maize meal, while the prices of a host of other
basics, and farming inputs such as fertiliser, are controlled. However,
critics say controls are unlikely to slow down inflation, which reached a
record 1204.6 percent in August.

Influential people milked Zisco: Minister

FinGaz

Chris Muronzi Staff Reporter

INDUSTRY and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu has pointed fingers of
accusation at "influential people" in government for taking advantage of the
crisis at state-controlled steelmaker, Ziscosteel, to engage in corrupt
activities for personal gain.

Mpofu told a parliamentary committee yesterday how a detailed report on
corrupt activities at Zisco submitted to the Anti-Corruption Ministry had
been suppressed because its release would further damage Zimbabwe's already
battered international image and slam the door on any new investment into
Zisco.
"There is a report which we sent to the anti-corruption ministry involving
some influential people involved in underhand dealings at Zisco and some of
them are colleagues in Parliament. But I fear that publicity of such
activities will not work in our favour as a country currently under
sanctions. Icala kaliboli. We can always deal with the issue later. It can
be a month, a year and even two years but it still is a crime but for now
let's bring in investment," Mpofu told the Parliamentary Committee on
Foreign Affairs and International Trade yesterday.
Zisco has been struggling over the years due to myriad problems ranging from
poor management to poor working capital requirements. Two years ago,the
Criminal Investigations Department and the Reserve Bank jointly probed
allegations of insider contracts and the alleged fraudulent sale of steel as
scrap from the steelworks. However, no arrests were made.
Yesterday, Mpofu told the committee that Global Steel Holdings Limited
(GSHL), the Indian company that has withdrawn from a US$400 000 contract to
revive Zisco, had been angered by the way it was treated as it endeavoured
to get an insight into the operations of the company. Throughout the
hearing, Mpofu said certain "interests" emerged after GSHL came on board..
"After the departure of Global Steel we have a board and management running
the affairs of the company and we hope to finalise the negotiations by the
end of this month or next month. There are lots of factors to consider
whenever a major investment of this magnitude is made. Since independence,
we have been looking for an investor and we had identified GSHL.
"I will be disappointed if we don't get this contract because after so many
years someone has finally agreed to put money into Zisco," Mpofu said,
adding that he was confident the deal could still be saved.
GSH had been conducting a due diligence exercise before investing money in
the company and was yet to sign a contract, Mpofu said, This triggered an
avalanche of questions from MPs who wanted to know whether GSHL had been
conducting a due diligence exercise or managing Zisco, The legislators also
wanted to know why former Zisco MD Gabriel Masanga was fired if no
management contract had been concluded with GSHL. Mpofu said Masanga and
Zisco parted ways amicably.
According to Mpofu, Zisco needs an average of 50 000 tonnes of coal to
produce about one million tonnes of steel per month. But last month the
steel company received 1000 tonnes, only enough to keep the furnace up. Coal
supplies dropped below 5000 tonnes in March when GSHL took over, said Mpofu,
who claimed this raised the possibility of sabotage.

Nyoni vows to deal with Langa

FinGaz

Nkululeko Sibanda Own Correspondent

SMALL to Medium Scale Enterprises Minister, Sithembiso Nyoni has vowed to
deal with her junior, Andrew Langa, through the appropriate channels after
the Insiza legislator allegedly insinuated that she was linked to cattle
rustling syndicates that have rocked Matabeleland South province lately.

The two lawmakers are alleged to have clashed during a meeting in Fort Rixon
last week while farmers were trying to identify measures to deal with
escalating cattle rustling activity in the area.
According to information at hand, Langa lashed out at "senior government
officials and members of the ruling party" who had been involved in cases of
cattle rustling.
Nyoni did not take kindly to Langa's statements and allegedly phoned him
later in the evening, to express her displeasure.
In an interview with The Financial Gazette on Tuesday, Langa said his
statements were not directed at particular individuals but targeted at those
who had links to rustling syndicates.
Langa said he did not understand why Nyoni took issue with his utterances
and why she phoned him demanding an explanation.
"I did not expect Minister Nyoni to call me and ask me why I said there was
need for farmers to be alert as there was a rise in cattle rustling cases in
the area. I said that the police should act on whatever cases are reported
to them, regardless of the suspected rustler's standing in society.
"I did not mention anybody's name in those remarks and I was surprised to
get a call from Minister Nyoni at around 8 pm saying I had targeted her
during the meeting," said Langa. Nyoni had told him she was angry with his
remarks and had discussed the issue "in various quarters."
Said Langa: "I have been told that she is talking about the issue in various
quarters. Given that I was not aiming at her, I will not be intimidated or
be afraid of her because I did not mention her name. I was merely making my
opinion known on the issue."
In a separate interview, Nyoni said she did not wish to discuss the matter
in the media but would use "the necessary channels of communication and
follow protocol" to deal with Langa.
"Langa is my colleague both in the party and in government. I do not want to
be seen discussing him in the media. In the party we have our own channels
of communication. We have protocol that we have to follow and I am going to
use that protocol to deal with him.
"If anything, he is my junior in the party and I will treat and deal with
him in that way," said Nyoni.
She however hung up when asked to elaborate on the protocol she would follow
in dealing with Langa.
Three of Nyoni's employees have appeared in court on allegations of stealing
18 beasts from a white cattle rancher, Robert Bruce Moffat. They are on bail
pending resumption of their trial.
Moffat is reported to have been threatened with unspecified action if he did
not get the police to withdraw the case. He has instead vowed to fight until
justice prevails.

Just resign, please!

FinGaz

No Holds Barred with Gondo Gushungo

A THIRTY-TWO-member cabinet in the troubled Cote d'Ivoire last week resigned
en masse over a toxic waste dumping scandal which left six people dead.

Although most of the ministers were later reappointed, the Minister of
Transport, who had issued permits to refuse collectors and the Minister of
Environment lost their jobs. This is alien to local politics where those in
government are known for their ever-shrinking accountability.
What exactly do I mean? I will explain. In Zimbabwe, agriculture, the
backbone of the economy has gone to the dogs, raising the spectre of hunger
and famine and no minister has resigned, billions of dollars of the
taxpayers' money silted up the pockets of a corrupt few under the War
Victims Compensation Fund and no minister resigned, the VIP Housing Scheme
was abused and the minister retained his job, no less than 300 influential
politicians flagrantly violated a government policy of one-man-one-farm but
no minister resigned.
Not only that but everyone except the ruling ZANU PF, which has always had a
problem with seeing the obvious, can see that Zimbabwe has plunged into an
unprecedented crisis. Things are falling apart, to borrow from Nigerian
writer Chinua Achebe. That is incontrovertibly evident. The extreme poverty
is there for all to see.
The accelerating economic meltdown characterised by stagflation - where
rising inflation (1 200 percent) is accompanied by falling industrial
production and joblessness (70 percent) - is now in its seventh year. An
estimated 75 percent of the population of what was once a regional
breadbasket is living below the breadline. All this points to a country in
great difficulty and uncertainty. And that is what is called a crisis. Yet
no minister has resigned and if anything ZANU PF officials continue to deny
there is a crisis in Zimbabwe. Barely logical. But that is a fact.
Let me in this context but in passing refer to the unbelievable antics of
former Industry and International Trade Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi who is
now the Minister of Indigenisation, if only to illustrate repeated official
denials of the very obvious.
Attending the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) congress in
Victoria Falls in August 2004, Mumbengegwi, who should have been a symbol of
Zimbabwean economic pre-eminence by virtue of his portfolio, stunned a
business community that had observed that Zimbabwe had suffered breathtaking
losses because of the continued international isolation.
Clearly incapable of being serious, Mumbengegwi insulted the business
community by saying that they had an obscure notion of what constituted the
international community. In other words Zimbabwe was doing just fine even
without the West (read in isolation). Mumbengegwi even waxed enthusiastic
and lyrical about how he had been able to bust the targeted sanctions to
attend meetings in Brussels, the seat of the European Union.
Mumbengegwi's tragi-comic posturing fitted in well with the political
thinking in the ruling ZANU PF government at the time. Initially, in what
can only be described as a mad, defiant act of bravado, the ZANU PF line of
argument was that the sanctions imposed on senior government officials by
the West over what it called the country's democratic deficit were
inconsequential. They were not effective. That was until it was convenient,
for the ruling party, which has always blamed everyone and everything except
itself for the economic mess, to blame the sanctions.
Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that the sanctions have not played to a
certain extent their role in weighing down the economy. No. Admittedly they
have. But not to the same extent as ZANU PF would like to make us believe.
Otherwise how does it happen that the EU, which as a bloc has imposed
targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe, accounts for 30 percent of Zimbabwe's
exports and the country had a trade surplus of 261 million Euros with the EU
member states in 2004 when the sanctions were already in place? Why does the
EU even up to this day remain Zimbabwe's biggest humanitarian donor, funding
health and education to combat poverty and diseases?
I digress. The point I am trying to make is simple. That the majority of the
people are living in abject poverty is a telling comment on the competencies
of those that make up the government of Zimbabwe. Period! The grinding
poverty in what should be a land of plenty is a damning indictment of the
ruling ZANU PF government.
True, our sages say that everyone can find fault but few can do better. But
the mismanagement of public resources, waste, fraud, abuse, criminality and
so forth in the public sector, which have impoverished the whole nation, is
proof enough that most government ministers with a few honourable exceptions
are incompetent.
Who are these incompetent ministers? Joseph Made, whose estimates (read
guesstimates) on agriculture are not only legendary but have also been
costly to the country, quickly comes to mind. So does Webster Shamu, the
voluble Minister of Policy Implementation in the Office of the President,
who alongside Chen Chimutengwende of Interactive Affairs, holds probably the
most useless office in the land. You may recall that in 2005 Shamu suggested
that only ZANU PF loyalists - the very people who have destroyed, through
mismanagement, what used to be state-owned businesses in fine fettle -
should run parastatals. Others are the lucky-in-politics Sithembiso Nyoni
for whom a job is always available in government, Stan Mudenge, Aeneas
Chigwedere, Herbert Murerwa, Amos Midzi, Obert Mpofu, Chris Mushowe, Kembo
Mohadi and Brigadier Ambrose Mutinhiri, the Minister of Employment Creation
in a sea of joblessness.
Yes, I have mentioned only a few. But readers who have been with this column
for even longer may recall that I have said it before that if a cost-benefit
analysis of having most of the ministers in Cabinet were carried out whereby
their performances are measured by results against specific targets, very
few if any would come out smelling of roses. Even President Robert Mugabe,
known for his unwillingness to drop probably some of the most incompetent
government ministers and belief that one does not fire on friendly troops,
has admitted as much.
In the current Cabinet, there are no spark plugs or impact players in the
mould of the late former minister Christopher Ushewokunze who, when he died,
there was a genuine feeling of irreparable loss. It would be next to
impossible to find one minister in government today who would be missed if
they were dropped from Cabinet. Instead such a move would engender a feeling
of it being good riddance to you-know-what among the poverty-stricken
Zimbabweans who know only too well that these ministers' continued stay in
government is ruinous for the country.
Which brings me to my next question, which question should be uppermost in
the minds of the long suffering Zimbabweans: Why don't the incompetent
ministers do the honourable thing and resign?
Of course, deep down I know that I am, from a ZANU PF point of view,
thinking the unthinkable. There is absolutely no chance of a Zimbabwean
government minister giving us a pleasant surprise by calling it quits of his
own volition.
We are talking of hard-boiled people who do not have enough conscience to
prick them regardless of the extensive damage they have inflicted on the
economy, which is why even as Zimbabweans are having a hellish time, they
sleep a sleep of the just as if everything is perfectly normal. The deadwood
in President Mugabe's Cabinet, some of whom are not in jail simply because
the country's criminal justice system has unofficially been twisted to
protect the politically influential and powerful, will not leave
voluntarily. They would have to be carried out feet first. A terrible
tragedy if ever there was one.

Chideya case to be concluded next month

FinGaz

Nkululeko Sibanda Own Correspondent
Hearing opens can of worms
THE case of suspended Harare Town Clerk, Nomutsa Chideya is expected to be
concluded next month after both the defence and the prosecution have
submitted closing submissions to the Mishrod Guvamombe-headed committee of
inquiry.

The inquiry has provided a rare insight into how senior ZANU PF and
government officials have hijacked the council and allocated themselves
stands and contracts.
Chairperson of the commission running the affairs of Harare, Sekesai
Makwavarara, Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development Minister,
Ignatius Chombo, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and ZANU PF Politburo
member Tendai Savanhu, who is also the commission's deputy chairperson, are
some of the high-ranking officials who have been exposed as having irregular
dealings with Town House.
Makwavarara, long blamed by Harare's stakeholders for extravagance, abuse of
council finances, council property, instigated the probe when she suspended
Chideya and could yet be hoisted by her own petard.
Defence counsel and Scanlen and Holderness lawyer, Jabulani Ncube said
yesterday the case should be concluded early next month after both counsels
have submitted their heads of argument.
"The prosecuting authority is supposed to provide us with his submissions by
the 28th of this month. After receipt of his submissions, we will then do
our own defence and hand it over to the committee by the 2nd of October.
"(Mishrod) Guvamombe's committee will then make its ruling whether the town
clerk is reinstated or not, and that should happen by the 4th or 5th of next
month," said Ncube.
He added that while they await the prosecutor's submissions, they also
expected a declaratory judgment by the High Court on the application they
made challenging the legality of the Makwavarara Commission.
The application, Ncube said, sought a ruling that would declare the
commission illegal, a development that would eventually see the constitution
of the hearing committee declared illegal as well.
The application, if granted, would deal a blow to the hearing committee as
it would also nullify the hearing process that has seen council pump in
significant amounts of money to pay the hearing committee headed by Harare
magistrate, Mishrod Guvamombe.
Should he win the case, Chideya will be reinstated to his position as Harare's
Town Clerk.

US/Zim body seeks turnaround map

FinGaz

Staff Reporter
ABAZ forum to discuss private sector intervention
AN ASSOCIATION of US business and investment interests in Zimbabwe will next
month convene a meeting that seeks to provide a platform for private sector
interventions in the country's economy.

The American Business Association of Zimbabwe will, on October 5 hold an
economic forum whose theme is "Private Sector Perspectives on the
Foundations for Economic Turnaround and Investment Attractiveness in
Zimbabwe."
ABAZ says the event is targeted at re-establishing Zimbabwe as a prime
investment destination in Africa.
The association has engaged leading business executives, decision makers and
opinion leaders to create a platform for constructive ideas and co-operation
by all stakeholders in Zimbabwe's economy.
"The American Business Association believes it can play a meaningful role in
generating useful discussion on business issues of all kinds. In the current
economic environment we would like to stimulate dialogue and far-reaching
debate on the key topics of turning around and reviving investment, Tony
Jordan, spokesman for the organising team said.
A panel of 11 speakers has been confirmed for the one-day forum, including
keynote addresses by award-winning Brazilian economist Caio Megale and South
African strategist and best-selling author Chantell Ilbury.
"The Brazilian experience in taming hyperinflation will be of major interest
to all of us, as will the various scenarios on the way forward for Zimbabwe
presented by the eminent strategist," said Jordan.
Other speakers will include Anton van Wyk and Judge Thabani Jali of
Pice-waterhouseCoopers in South Africa, agricultural economist John Mellor
of Abt Associates in the US, former Malawi central bank governor and Finance
Minister Mathews Chikaonda as well as a host of Zimbabwean personalities
such as John Legat of Imara Asset Management, Best Doroh of Finhold, World
Bank consultant Robert Geddes, Jameson Timba of eWorld and Kenias Mafukidze
of KM Financial Solutions.
Specific focus areas include the physical and social infrastructure of
Zimbabwe, the strengths and challenges of the key sectors, especially
agriculture, the country's capital and trading markets and public and
corporate governance.
ABAZ is an informal body representing businesses in Zimbabwe that have links
with the United States of America. Members include Price-waterhouseCoopers,
Western Union, Ernst & Young, Colgate Palmolive, AON, Coca-Cola and
Deloitte, among others.
Fred Mtandah of FredEx, a Western Union partner, chairs the ABAZ executive
committee, with Mark Oxley of Burco being the vice chairman.
David Scott, a senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers is the secretary and
treasurer.

Zisco minorities may be nudged out

FinGaz

Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Business Reporter
Minister says only state bearing brunt of recapitalising
MINORITY shareholders in troubled Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO)
risk losing their shareholding if they don't back government initiatives to
recapitalise the ailing company.

Christian Katsande, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Industry and
International Trade revealed during a parliamentary probe into the
operations of ZISCO last Tuesday that the government, the majority
shareholder, had singularly injected local and foreign currency resources
into ZISCO, which could whittle down the shareholding of minority
shareholders in ZISCO.
"If we look at (the equity structure) of ZISCO, those minority shareholders
may not exist. If we were to convert the trillions poured into ZISCO over
the years there might not be any minority shareholders in ZISCO," said
Katsande.
Government is the major shareholder in ZISCO, controlling up to 90 percent
while Lancashire Steel, Stewart and Lloyds and Tanganyika Investments
account for the balance.
Under the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) backed Parastatal Reorientation
Programme (PARP), ZISCO has utilized $666.26 million (revalued) of which 42
percent was used for working capital and 58 percent for Productive Sector
Facility (PSF) and debt retirement.
Because of low plant capacity use monthly production at ZISCO has plummeted
to 12 773, less than half the breakeven production output of 25 000 tonnes
per month.
The government has since the early 1990s attempted without success to
salvage the fortunes of the floundering Ziscosteel. Several rescue deals
that have been stitched up by the government have failed to yield positive
results for ZISCO with the latest one being the walk out of Indian company
Global Steel Holdings Limited (GSHL).
Although in March, Zimbabwe unveiled a US$400 million management contract
with GSHL to rehabilitate the ailing state-controlled steel works, the deal
collapsed in August after representatives of GSHL who had briefly assumed
management of the steel company left citing the lack of assurances on coal
supplies.
The government, which halted the privatisation of state enterprises in 2003,
is under increased pressure to rid itself of the loss making parastatal and
let private investors run the steel maker on commercial lines. Economic
critics say accelerating the pace of privatisation of state entities could
reduce the country's ballooning budget deficit and generate additional
financial resources for the financially crippled government.

US$700 000 RBZ bailout for TelOne

FinGaz

Staff Reporter

STATE-owned phone operator TelOne needed a US$700 000 bailout from central
bank to pay off a debt that had seen Zimbabwe's international link shut down
last week, causing a 90 percent drop in Internet traffic.

TelOne spokesman Phil Chingwaru confirmed sending a plea letter to the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), but had not responded to requests made last
week for further details by The Financial Gazette.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono also confirmed extending foreign exchange to TelOne
to relieve debts owed by the fixed phone monopoly in service charges.
The Independent Internet Service Providers Association, which groups the
country's ISPs, blamed slower browsing speeds on the shutdown of TelOne's
Intelsat, the country's largest international Internet link. Traffic volumes
were 90 percent down on the shutdown, the ISPs reported. "This is
catastrophic as all legal Internet Service Providers utilise TelOne for
their outgoing bandwidth to the World Wide Web as well as for e-mail
traffic. Thus all such ISPs have and are being affected by this downtime. In
short, this is causing an almost collapse of the Internet in Zimbabwe," said
MWeb, the country's largest ISP, in a notice to its subscribers.
TelOne technical director Hamton Mhlanga recently revealed that the company
was saddled with foreign debt of US$18 million and was desperate for cash to
replace ageing equipment, over half of which is well past its use-by date.
The company made US$10 million from an involvement in tobacco that Mhlanga
said was necessary to raise foreign currency for its operations.

Coal shortages burn

FinGaz

By Nkululeko Sibanda Own Correspondent

PRODUCTION at the country's largest beverages manufacturer, Delta Beverages,
has been adversely affected by the shortage of coal that has haunted the
country since the beginning of the year.

Hwange Colliery, the country's major coal producer, has been battling to
meet demand from both local and foreign companies.
Management at Delta, speaking during a facility tour last Friday, said the
shortages of coal had seriously hampered production, making it difficult for
the company to meet some of its targets.
Martin Mupunga, plant manager at Delta's Harare CSD, said the plant needed
about four tonnes a day to heat its boilers for the production of beverages.
"Due to the coal crisis that is faced by the industry as well as the
producers, we have had to buy coal from other suppliers. We need four tonnes
a day to conduct the boiler heating process and other functions and this
shortage has really affected us a lot," said Mupunga.
He added that due to the shortages faced at Hwange Colliery, they had been
forced to source coal from other suppliers, but stressed that some of the
coal they were receiving was of poor quality.
Said Mupunga: "We have had a good relationship with the colliery company
(Hwange Colliery Company). Whenever they have the adequate coal, they supply
us and if they don't, then we have to look at other alternatives.
"Our main problem is that these other producers have supplied us with poor
quality at times."

Lobels fined $1m for illegal forex dealings

FinGaz

Charles Rukuni Bulawayo Bureau Chief

LOBELS Bread in Bulawayo was last Friday fined $1 million after it was
convicted of illegally dealing in foreign currency to purchase some of its
bakery equipment.

The company, which was represented by human resources manager Roycent
Gwatidzo, pleaded guilty to illegally dealing in foreign currency amounting
to nearly $24 billion ($24 million revalued) to purchase slicing machine
parts in the United Kingdom and a second plant from South Africa.
It was initially supposed to appear in court on June 15 but only did so last
week.
According to agreed facts, the company purchased slicing machine parts from
a United Kingdom company called Ibonhart. The parts were valued at £368.32
(pounds sterling). $1 477 343 715,44 was paid through Sithulisiwe Moyo, a
former Lobels employee.
The company also purchased a second bread-making plant for R1 407 371,33
using Emprem Negusse who was based in the United Kingdom.
The plant was purchased from a South African company TecDesign.
A total of $22 552 700 000 was paid to Negusse between June 7 last year and
April 21 this year. Payment was made through 28 cheques but unlike in the
case of Ibonhart, the agreed facts did not state through whom Negusse was
paid except that he was indeed paid.
The plant was brought into the country through the Beitbridge border post on
February 6 this year.
Regional magistrate Olivia Zvedi said the company could not be fined on a
dollar-for-dollar basis because there were special circumstances.
The company, she said, had been forced to buy foreign currency on the black
market because of the shortage of foreign currency in the formal market.
She said the company was also genuinely convinced that it was not committing
an offence by asking someone abroad to pay for the goods it needed and
reimbursing that person locally.
Another factor was that the equipment the company needed was not available
locally and it was being brought in to save jobs and provide bread, an
essential commodity.
The company was given until September 29 to pay the fine.

Mangwana's crazy definition of patriotism

FinGaz

National Agenda with Bornwell Chakaodza

OVER and over again successive ministers of information say it.

But constant repetition of hopelessly flawed statements can become "a truth"
unless they are exposed for what they are: False.
The latest to jump onto this sort of bandwagon is acting Information
Minister Paul Mangwana who in his recent address to the Zimbabwe Union of
Journalists (ZUJ) Annual General Meeting and Masvingo Press Club waffled on
about unpatriotic Zimbabwean journalists who had "dedicated their careers"
to working with the country's enemies. He further warned the media against
criticising the state.
A case of Rasputin Jonathan Moyo revisited - Yes. I feel sorry for Mangwana.
"Father, forgive him for he does not know what he is saying and doing". He
is merely mouthing things that his officials in the Ministry of Information
and Publicity have written for him.
Feeling sorry for this rather naïve and eccentric fellow aside, let me
straightaway take a false issue off the table. There is general confusion
about the meaning of State versus Government not only among journalists but
also in the generality of the population as well - even among the educated.
State is not synonymous with government. Governments come and go but
Zimbabwe as a state will forever exist.
There is therefore a clear need to distinguish between the interests of the
state and those of the government in power. They may not necessarily be the
same. The criticism of the government or the propaganda carried on against
it, may not be against the national interests.
On many occasions, the criticism may be in the interests of the nation if
the policies and activities of the government in power are detrimental to
the interests of the nation. Similarly, the criticism of the political and
economic ideology or philosophy of the government and the advocacy of the
contra-philosophy cannot be considered anti-national.
The freedom of speech and expression would degenerate into the freedom to
toe the official line if the propagation of the contrary ideology were
prohibited or punished. That will be the negation of freedom of the press
and of democracy. And given the propensity of politicians to lie to the
public morning, noon and night, we will all be in peril if Mangwana's
dictates were to be followed!
As someone once rightly put it, 'Politics are for those who have a great
regard for themselves, little regard for others and no regard for the truth'.
Indeed, the secrecy and the mystery surrounding the functioning of the
government are not always in the interest of the nation. Power corrupts and
absolute power corrupts absolutely.
For me, the most patriotic Zimbabwean journalists are those who keep the
government on its toes all the time and who hold political leaders to
account - in the interest of the country. It is important to remember always
that politicians are invariably self-serving. That is why Paul Mangwana and
Rasputin Moyo before him and others sing from the same hymn sheet when
addressing seminars and conferences on press freedom and freedom of
expression.
There is therefore the crucial necessity to strip all discussion about the
role of journalism of Mangwana's and Rasputin's self-serving mantras.
How many times have we heard or read sunshine stories from government
ministers telling us that there will be this and that in six months' time
but when one looks on the ground - nothing. How many times has Joseph Made
been lying through his teeth about crop forecasts for the past six years -
and you expect the media to be patriotic in the face of such lies! Ah, the
mind boggles!
The tragedy of Zimbabwe is that many of the government policy statements
cannot be taken seriously as accurate forecasters of events or performance
because there is no noticeable link between what is officially stated and
what is being achieved or happening in practice. Without the media's
historic role of being the watchdogs especially on those who wield power,
how will this disjunction between theory and practice be exposed?
Mangwana in his address to the ZUJ gathering spoke about the public getting
worried by the deteriorating media standards in Zimbabwe. He missed the
point here particularly with regards to the privately "owned" media. The
real point is not about the public getting worried by the deteriorating
media standards in the country but in the public laughing off people like
Mangwana parroting the discredited Rasputin Moyo.
The Zimbabwean public might be worried and indeed saddened, not by the
deteriorating media standards per se but by the plummeting standards of
supposedly public institutions like the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings and
Zimbabwe Newspapers. These were totally transformed by you know who from
being media organisations (imperfect though they were) into confused and
half-baked pipe organs of government.
It is a sad reflection of the calibre of the information ministers since
Rasputin's departure that nothing new on the information front is being
offered. Paul Mangwana and who ever becomes the substantive head of the
ministry must not let Moyo's lesson escape them. See how the man has turned
in desperation to The Zimbabwe Independent to keep himself in the limelight
now that his former personal fiefdoms ZBH and Zimpapers have become no-go
areas. Nothing endures forever Rasputin. Now you know!
In conclusion I think it is important to underscore the fact that the
independent media in Zimbabwe does not have an agenda, hidden or otherwise.
It is not working with the country's enemies to effect a regime change. What
the media has been doing and continues to do is to render remarkable service
in exposing excesses and corruption in government and elsewhere and in
ensuring the accountability of all those holding public office.
If in the book of Paul Mangwana, this is unpatriotic behaviour, then the
last thing that the independent media would want to be is to be patriotic.
But we know that this is Mangwana's crazy definition of patriotism.
I want to tell Mangwana in no uncertain terms that every independent
journalist in this country has a vested interest in the success of our
country Zimbabwe. But those who are messing up the country big time - the
media will not spare.
As journalists, we are in the profession to report on the society's ills.
People go to a doctor when they are sick and not when they are well. Of
course, journalists in this country as elsewhere cannot claim to be
infallible. But be that as it may, the point remains that reporters working
in Zimbabwe are no different from those anywhere else: bad news is the only
good news. Bad news sells!
The of lack of 'patriotism' that people like Mangwana and his ilk accuse the
independent journalists of because they are involved in critical reporting
is something that was recognised as false many centuries ago. The legendary
author Franz Kafka recognised it as such at the beginning of the last
century when he said: "I think we ought to read only the kind of books and
articles that wound and stab us".
The last word however goes to the 26th United States President Theodore
Roosevelt who summarised the whole question of patriotism thus:
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President or that we are
to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic or
servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public".
Paul Mangwana and Rasputin Moyo - please take note!
borncha@mweb.co.zw

The dependency syndrome is getting worse!

FinGaz

Letter From America with Ken Mufuka

AFTER writing a letter describing the spirit of Americans, their generosity
towards their neighbours and their independence and belief that with reason,
any problem can be overcome, I was flooded by emails from our readers.

Since independence, all over Africa, the spirit of dependence on foreign aid
has in fact deepened rather than abated.
Chris Muzavazi wrote as follows: "During the colonial times, Africans could
not hope to get much help from the colonial authorities. They organised
burial societies, chimbadzo (exchange of money after pay-day) which
functioned like a credit union as well as knowledge networks based on beer
drinking clubs. Some fruit trees and vegetables had been planted in the
little garden available to them in Old Bulawayo locations. The African
Welfare Society provided guidance to its members on self improvement. The
point I am trying to make, Ken, is that we have lost the initiative to look
after ourselves in the misguided belief that every government should provide
every social need."
He added that western donors bring gifts of food and help create an idea
that government is neglectful of its people. The new African farmers are
insisting that government provide them with seed and other inputs. This is
ridiculous, considering the fact that when they sell their crops, they
resent paying back for the inputs.
Chris says that: "Ken, you should have mentioned respect for law at all
levels in America." Some warning about non-authorised construction in Harare
had been given, but the authorities were not respected because they
travelled on cycles instead of four-wheel drive vehicles. The point about
the danger of NGOs cannot be overstated. NGOs have a missionary zeal in
extending Eurocentric ideas all over the world. Among these ideas is that
the white man is superior to all tribes and nationalities in the world. In
Uganda, the World Food Programme did a wonderful job in feeding Lord's
Resistance refugees. But the price in humiliation will not be healed for a
long time. Government medical doctors were supervised by teenage white boys
and girls even in the medical field itself. The NGOs had the money, the
supplies and the authorities. The Ugandans, even though they had the
knowledge, were beggars.
Zimbabwean politicians should learn from the past. I was a patron of
Nerupiri Primary School in Gutu District. My job was to bring visitors from
America and just have a fun time with the kids. In return, we would offer
small scholarships to students in need selected by the teachers at the
school.
One year, the atmosphere was poisoned by a ZANU PF district secretary who
was wearing his badge of office and cursing us under his breath for failing
to allow him to make a political speech. Other readers have said: "Ken, the
issue was probably bigger than that. The politicians want to present the
gift as if it comes from the tireless efforts of the party." In the end, the
students will assume that they are receiving a gift from the party and the
givers will be overshadowed.
If I understand the American spirit very well, the US government does not
wish to run these self-help schemes. Jerry Lewis and his Muscular Dystrophy
Association did as they saw best without interference from US authorities.
In that way, the state encourages self-help.
In preparing for this article, I went to check the massive writing of a
black Pan Africanist, Professor John Henrik Clarke. Clarke says that the
dependency syndrome is widespread in Africa. Nigeria has all the human and
capital resources to be the richest country in Africa, but it hired a
Bulgarian company to build its national stadium. Imagine a Jewish synagogue
being built by pig-eating pagans. It takes away some of the nationalism of
the effort.
Clarke says that the degrading attitude by Africans towards their own kind
is the fruit of seeds sown by colonialism. The African was taught to hate
himself to such an extent that any educated African who visits a n'anga may
do so during the cover of darkness.
Dr L.S.B. Leakey says that these same Africans were not given credit for
what they knew, namely that they were pioneers in birth control, and they
knew the cure of malaria (using the very quinine which the white man now
boasts about.
The Zimbabwe government has made a step towards integrating these
"witchdoctors" (missionary propaganda) into the medical system. For once, I
support government policy. The n'anga's know a lot about medicine but every
profession needs updating, a job which Professor Gordon Chavhunduka is
doing. These n'angas are part of our heritage, and they may know something.
There is nothing to be ashamed about.

Police force that gloats about its brutality

FinGaz

Personal Glimpses with Mavis Makuni

I WILL never forget the day my daughter let it be known that she wanted to
be treated as a person in her own right, capable of fighting and winning her
personal battles fairly and squarely.

She was all of seven years old. She had been playing a card game with her
older sister and cousins when she caught me signalling to the older girls to
hold back or make the wrong moves to allow my "baby" to win. But rather than
welcome being allowed to have an unfair advantage, she made it clear she was
smart enough to win the game on her own wits. After stressing that she no
longer wanted to be mollycoddled, she declared that from then on, she did
not want to be accompanied to the busy and crowded bus terminus where she
caught a bus to school. She would henceforth find her own way to school and
back home.
I spent a sleepless night imagining my little girl getting hopelessly lost
after boarding the wrong bus. But my anxiety was misplaced. After I had
talked to her about not accepting lifts from strange people and the need to
approach her teachers if she lost her bus fare or had some other problem, my
daughter became a happy and independent girl. At home she continued to play
various games with her older siblings as an equal and on the basis of the
rules. She was always so proud when she won on merit on an even playing
field. Up to this day she has a strong sense of fair play for its own sake.
The government and the police in Zimbabwe could learn a lesson from this.
They never miss a chance to gloat about how well they are doing to remain on
top of things, when in reality they rely on heavy-handedness and ruthless
flouting of the tenets of justice and fair play to claim an upper hand in
various scenarios. An uneven playing field to win elections, selective
application of the law to disadvantage opposition groups and favour the
ruling party are some of the mechanisms government has been accused of
resorting to in its bid to close democratic space and crush dissent. Add to
this the gagging of the private press and the monopolisation of the public
media to peddle one-sided state propaganda, alleged interference with the
judiciary and a frightening picture of the establishment riding roughshod
over the populace to gets its own way at any cost emerges.
The rulers of the country speak incessantly about their fear that the gains
of the liberation war they spearheaded almost 30 years ago could be
reversed - apparently if the people they fought to liberate are allowed to
enjoy fundamental freedoms and liberties. This totalitarian approach is most
evident in the militarisation of state institutions and brainwashing the
police force to apply ruling party rather than national law. The police have
been so totally compromised professionally and morally that they see nothing
wrong with gloating about their brutality.
That is exactly what they did last week after forestalling a planned protest
march by the labour body, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and
brutalising the leadership. The ZCTU had organised the march to draw
attention to the plight of Zimbabwean workers in the prevailing economic
crisis. They had also hoped to draw attention to the government's failure to
provide enough antiretrovirals for the millions living with HIV/AIDS - an
issue of perfectly legitimate public interest considering that the
government collects an AIDS levy. But, declared the gun-totting and
trigger-happy riot squad, the real aim of the demonstration was to topple an
"elected" government and the labour movement needed to be taught a lesson.
Pictures of the wounded trade unionists were flashed around the world,
sparking fierce condemnation of these Gestapo-style tactics. This is the
fastest and most fail-proof way of exposing Zimbabwe's true image to the
outside world. Allowing the people freedom of expression and the right to
assemble and petition the state over grievances has never tarnished the
image of a democratic state. Why are those who govern this country so afraid
of hearing what the citizenry has to say, despite claiming ad nauseam, that
they enjoy a popular mandate. It's an incongruity that can only be sustained
in a police state, hence the establishment's tacit approval of police
brutality.
A few months ago ZANU PF apologists had a field day thundering their
condemnation of the thugs who assaulted
Harare North Member of Parliament, Trudy Stevenson and three colleagues from
the pro-senate camp of the Movement for Democratic Change. One rabid male
chauvinist even suggested in his public media column that Stevenson caused
her own trouble and it served her right that she had been attacked. Using
the diminutive to convey his insensitivity and crudity he declared, "Iko
kachinyanya"
Some senior party officials said the attacks proved that the MDC was a
violent party despite the fact that the trial magistrate ruled that there
was no evidence to link the suspects to the barbaric ambushing of the MDC
officials.
How can we get thunderous silence from these sanctimonious ZANU PF stalwarts
when police gloating has proved beyond doubt that they were responsible for
this dastardly brutality against defenceless Zimbabweans?
Perhaps it is because they know the state has scored a pyrrhic victory by
advertising in one fell swoop, its tyrannical governance to the world and
convincing Zimbabweans beyond doubt that it does not believe in fair play.
When seven-year olds can be more secure and tolerant of diversity,
competition and fair play than a state, the people will continue to
challenge the evil system whether government likes it or not. Zimbabweans
should be allowed to enjoy their freedom for its on sake.

Show Made the door

FinGaz

Comment

IN INTERMITTENT droughts, the government, in its search for a scapegoat, had
found what it thought was a perfect alibi for the savage slump in
agricultural production.

But such an excuse for failure cuts no ice with many who know only too well
that the successive failed harvests were in the main due to human error.
Indeed, the scandal-tainted land reform initiative has slipped on so many
banana skins mainly because of misplaced priorities informed by political
expediency. It is because of the upside-down priorities that the government
failed to take into consideration the country's implementation capacity and
affordability of the exercise when it embarked on the widely condemned
fast-track land reform exercise. And here we are. The exercise meant to
alleviate poverty has instead caused an unprecedented economic meltdown and
thereby aggravated poverty. That the initiative has spawned extreme poverty
is an enduring irony of the much-vaunted agrarian reforms.
The recurring biting shortages of critical inputs such as fuel that resulted
in the lack of tillage facilities, fertilisers and seed, which have
threatened to derail the back-to-the-land idealism, should also be seen in
the same context of affordability and the country's implementation capacity.
And it is against this background that we find ourselves in an unlikely
situation where we have to commend, though with reservation, the
announcement last week of a US$490 million agricultural support facility by
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).
At the longest last the government, which has made so many strategic
mistakes as regards the land reform exercise, seems to have realised, albeit
at the eleventh hour, that it should do something about a problem as soon as
it appears because it will only get worse if it is left until later. This is
probably the clearest sign yet that the government is now prioritising
agriculture, as it indeed should.
Zimbabwe has had to grapple with the recurring input shortages over the past
five years. The gravity of the problem is mirrored in the terrifyingly
falling production levels in maize, wheat and tobacco, to mention just a
few. With the launch and subsequent failure of small-scale commercial
agriculture, the country's food security situation has largely remained
precarious. Zimbabwe has been reduced to a grain deficit country. As it is,
the country will this year have to import 170 000 tonnes of wheat and
upwards of 500 000 tonnes of the staple maize to cover shortfalls. Thus, the
agriculture support package deal put together with the help of local and
regional financial institutions should be commended. Under normal
circumstances, this should signal a new era for Zimbabwe as agriculture,
which has been comatose for some time now, could tip-toe back to recovery.
But we don't have high hopes for it as long as Joseph Made remains the
minister responsible for agriculture. We choose to err on the side of
caution because we have a strong sense of deja vu. Much as we would like to,
we do not believe that even with all these resources at their disposal and
assuming that mother nature does not send her worst, those running the
country's agriculture, particularly Made who has proved beyond reasonable
doubt that he cannot organise a drink-up in a brewery, have what it takes to
return production in the key sector to its pre-crisis levels. This is why
under his stewardship agriculture has lurched from crisis to crisis over the
past seven years even to the point of touching off a humanitarian crisis of
catastrophic proportions. The gloom and pessimism is thus not without
foundation. It is because of Made's ineptitude that famine and hunger have
stalked Zimbabwe for years.
And unless such a critical development as the availing of US$490 million is
accompanied by the restructuring of the Ministry of Agriculture where Made
should be shown the door, it could be an exercise in futility. With all due
respect to Made - who came in as one of the so-called technocrats - the
minister has proved that no one in Zimbabwe ever knew so much that was so
little to the purpose. Otherwise drought or no drought, Zimbabwe should not
have been reduced to a perennial deficit country alongside Lesotho,
Swaziland and Malawi if only Made, who has seen Zimbabwe producing the
smallest tobacco crop since independence, had not slept on the job.
Thus we have guarded optimism for a quick turnaround in agriculture even
with the commendable efforts of those that put together the US$490 million.
We have said it before and we will say it again. Much as President Mugabe
must not throw away the baby together with the bath water when he reshuffles
his Cabinet, the continued stay of Made in the agriculture portfolio where
he is a typical square peg in a round hole not only provokes a sharp intake
of breath from the generality of Zimbabweans but also spells doom for the
economy. It is an issue of genuine public concern particularly when it is
hoped that government ministers must of necessity be re-deployed according
to best fit. The sacking of Made should therefore be an integral part of the
efforts to save agriculture from imminent collapse.

No questions, guv'nor . . . for now

FinGaz

Talking to tomorrow with Ray Mawerera

RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono exchanged some light banter
with journalists following his interim review report on "Project Sunrise"
recently.

Earlier, during the discussion session of the presentation, the Governor had
repeatedly challenged the journalists present to ask questions to avoid
speculative reporting.
"Ask the questions now," he said several times. "Aika, bvunzai, ask, so that
when you write, you do so with all the facts."
There were no takers. Most of the contributions had come from
representatives of different sector stakeholders, mainly throwing bouquets
at Dr Gono and his team for managing the process well. Others simply told
the Governor about the relative ease with which they had made the transition
from the three zeroes. As for the media people there, mum was the word.
One of the many stakeholders at the meeting voiced the opinion that the
reason could be that the journalists did not want to be "scooped".
A "scoop" is an exclusive piece of news that every journalist dreams of
unearthing or bumping into, news that no one else has. If, for instance, the
journalist receives a lead on certain information he or she is unlikely to
follow it up while everyone else is listening. They would rather draw the
prospective Interviewee aside afterwards, to talk to them away from
eavesdroppers.
This is becoming so commonplace these days that some press conferences have
been reduced to near-monologues. The person addressing the press conference
tells the ladies and gentlemen of the press the news they have been invited
to be told and, after speaking for a while, opens the floor to questions.
There is silence. Out of politeness, maybe one or two lame questions may be
asked. Afterwards, when the journalists are invited to stay on for an
informal chat-and-drink, they bombard the person with questions,
individually.
This is how Dr Gono found himself exchanging light banter with the media
after his Ilanga Seliphumile presentation.
Clients have asked why journalists seem to have taken to operating this way.
There are several reasons, the primary one of which could be the issue of
the elusive scoop. Another reason could be the challenges faced by reporters
on weekly or monthly publications to find a news angle that would not be
tackled on the electronic news bulletin that day or the daily paper
tomorrow. Yet another could be that the reporter might feel they want to
raise a totally different and unrelated issue.
It is, therefore, important at news conferences to know the spread of media
attending in order to satisfy their areas of focus and interest. Financial
newspapers may not always have the same interests as weekly family
newspapers, for instance.
That's one way of handling it. Politicians, who are renowned for their
creativity, have mastered the art of leaving immediately after the press
conference thus precluding any chance of chat-and-drink ambushes!
Corporate organisations, of course, cannot do this and we do not recommend
it because it is simply impolite. Besides, you could be passing up an
opportunity to interface informally with the media - a very important but
often underestimated aspect of public relations.
Press conferences, by their very nature, are non-exclusive media events
where everyone gets the same news. This is usually done when information is
so topical that the likelihood of all media chasing the same story is quite
high. Rather than wait to respond to each query as it comes, the
organisation takes the proactive step to provide all journalists with the
same information. Sometimes press releases can be issued, which serve more
or less the same purpose.
The press conference, however, tends to have more impact because of its
direct access nature. It provides journalists with the opportunity to follow
up issues right there, ask questions, seek clarification, prod further. It
can, therefore, be a source of frustration when no questions are forthcoming
but a report that is factually incorrect is published. Unfortunately this
has happened, creating negative perceptions of some journalists and their
media organizations.

Some organisations actually do not even like press conferences. This could
be because there is no restriction on what the journalists can ask. In other
words, they cannot - as a general rule - be expected to confine themselves
to questions revolving only around the subject of the press conference.
For instance, Dr Gono's Zuva Rabuda update could have been turned on its
head by a journalist asking something totally removed from the issue under
discussion - including, even, questions on the Governor's personal life!
That is the nature of press conferences. I have seen press officers who try
to direct reporters to stick to the subject at hand. Most times they are
simply ignored. The journalists simply reason that this may be the only
opportunity they have, especially if they are dealing with a usually busy
and therefore largely inaccessible figure. They fear being roasted by their
editors if they go back without the "real" story.
Our best advice to such press officers is to ensure that they coach their
executives on how to handle difficult journalists. Full and comprehensive
media relations training prepares them adequately for this so that, even if
they are asked questions during "chat-and-drink", they are able to
comfortably and confidently hold their own.
As we continue the inexorable path into a more demanding global arena where
issues of transparency and accountability become more and more newsworthy,
journalists can be expected to change their tactics.

rayma@wordsand
images.co.zw

n Ray Mawerera is a Harare-based public relations consultant and the current
President of the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Relations

Now Zim has its own Sept Thirteen or 9/1

FinGaz

3
The Geoff Nyarota Column

A FRIEND who visited the popular Guzha Township in Chitungwiza on the night
of Tuesday, September 12, the eve of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions'
scuttled protest march, tells a harrowing tale of the sudden arrival of
armed riot policemen, accompanied by youths dressed in ZANU PF Youth Militia
T-shirts.

They descended on the centre's many bottle stores and butchery shops,
outlets which keep Chitungwiza's residents as well as hordes of visitors
from the leafier suburbs of Harare, 30 kms away, entertained and nourished.
Apparently, the police ordered all shops to close at once and the patrons to
depart immediately. In a situation where the Public Order and Security Act
(POSA) renders it virtually impossible for members of civil society to
organise meetings where they can strategise on how to alleviate the common
man's plight in Zimbabwe; a situation where daily newspapers, radio and
television no longer disseminate information in the public interest, the
bottle stores, like the commuter omnibuses, have come to play a vital role
in providing convenient and free venues for the exchange of ideas and for
the organization of political strategies by a besieged civil society, while
the cell-phone texts messages from one bottle store to another and from
office to office.
The powers that be have become painfully aware of this loophole, hence this
effort to disrupt any last minute refinement of plans for the proposed ZCTU
march last week.
By all accounts the police were out in full force the following morning, on
September 13, cordoning off downtown Harare with their heavy presence and
thus effectively rendering it impossible for any citizen, however aggrieved
or determined, to assemble, let alone march, in any predetermined direction.
The demonstration started around 1pm with people singing and dancing in the
street. "It was over in seconds," says an MDC member, one of those arrested.
"The demonstrators were ordered to sit down and then the riot police went
beserk. They beat the people so viciously and brutally it was a terrible and
shocking spectacle to witness."
The arrested were loaded onto trucks and conveyed, some to Harare Central
and others to the notorious Matapi Police Station. The latter facility has
been condemned by the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe as being totally unfit for
human habitation. A police officer at Matapi allegedly informed the arrested
ZCTU leaders on arrival: "We are not trained to write dockets; we are
trained to kill".
It is alleged the arrested were "then taken two at a time into a room and
brutally beaten by five men with knobkerries and long baton sticks for up to
20 minutes."
In both stations the prisoners were:
lDenied access to legal practitioners
lSubjected to brutal and savage torture and beating in Matapi Police Station
lDenied access to relatives
lNot supplied with food or water
lNot supplied with blankets
lMostly kept in darkness.
lSubjected to extremely abusive language
lForced to make do with toilets that were overflowing with human excreta.
The older among them must have been reminded of the fate of political
detainees during Ian Smith's Rhodesia. Late that night the Matapi contingent
was moved to Harare Central.
"It was a pitiful sight to see those 14 physically and mentally battered and
brutalised figures appearing," says the MDC member. "Three could hardly walk
or stand."
The brutal smashing of the protest march by the police, reinforced by CIO
vigilantes and ZANU PF militias, served to effectively dispel any lingering
doubt that our revolutionary and supposedly benevolent rulers meant
business, assuming the dire threats issued by the likes of State Security
Minister, Didymus Mutasa, and others had not driven that point home during
the week preceding the proposed march. It is alleged that Mutasa was seen
hovering around Matapi as the ZCTU leadership was being brutalised.
Mutasa should take note that this is an allegation, which he is at liberty
to confirm or deny, before he rushes to his lawyers to institute legal
proceedings for defamation. In any case, the mere act of hovering around
Matapi cannot in any way further tarnish his already severely damaged
reputation.
It was the pre-emptive action on the part of the state machinery, rather
than the lack of support on the part of the public, that disrupted the
proposed march last week.
Yet the hawkish Dr Tafataona Mahoso has the temerity to propose in his
weekly column in The Sunday Mail, "Thanks to the masses of Zimbabwe, the
mass action has turned out to be the ZCTU leaders' equivalent of the MDC
leaders' 'Final Push' which, in fact, turned out to be the 'final yawn'.
Mahoso yawns too easily. In an article which labours under the ponderous
title "Sponsored politics, myths of civil society" Mahoso sallies forth in
his usually rambunctious and inimical style. He pronounces in the process
that, apart from being mythical, the concept of civil society is a western
creation, foisted on the allegedly simple-minded black population of
southern Africa by western imperialists. Indeed, the concept is a creation
of the West, in-so-much as democracy, parliament, The Sunday Mail, the
Mercedes Benz, the higher education, which the off-spring of Zimbabwe's
ruling elite imbibe in western institutions, and the scotch whiskey that
they so much love to quaff, are all creations of the West.
"Sponsored politics is big business and it is here to stay, until the people
learn to discard completely the twin myths of 'civil society' and
'multiparty democracy', the key mythologies used to justify the sponsorship
of puppet politics in Africa and the rest of the South," Mahoso says
disparagingly.
There are a number of definitions of civil society. The most illustrative is
the working definition of the London School of Economics Centre for Civil
Society: "Civil society refers to the arena of uncoerced collective action
around shared interests, purposes and values"
Civil society commonly embraces a diversity of spaces, actors and
institutional forms, varying in their degree of formality, autonomy and
power, it is explained. The centre's definition further clarifies that civil
societies are often populated by organisations such as registered charities,
development non-governmental organisations, community groups, women's
organisations, faith-based organisations, professional associations, trade
unions, self-help groups, social movements, business associations,
coalitions and advocacy groups.
It is eminently clear, therefore that, far from being a myth, as suggested
by Mahoso, civil society is a reality of the modern world, except in states
whose constitutions eschew democratic values. The threat to democracy and
civil liberties such as currently being experienced in our country, normally
fosters the emergence and strengthening of strong civil society
organisations such as the ZCTU, which Mahoso now dismisses with flourish of
hand.
What is particularly rankling is his suggestion that without the assistance
of the West we, Africans, cannot think lucidly for ourselves. "The ZCTU and
the MDC tried to present themselves as homegrown alternatives to the
liberation movement in Government, ZANU PF," he says. "They were going to
meet a supposed deficit in Zimbabwean politics as defined by white
imperialist powers."
The theory that political activism and advocacy in countries such as
Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia or where ever else in southern Africa civil society
has confronted tyranny and injustice are merely a symptom of control or
influence by western imperialist powers is unforgivably demeaning of
Africans. There is more than a hint in this theory that since Africans
cannot think for themselves, as alleged, Africans may not feel the pangs of
hunger until a white person points out to them that they have not had a
square meal for days on end.
It is not-so-subtly suggested, therefore, that without the instigation or
active support of western imperialists, Kenneth Kaunda would still be
President of Zambia while Life President Kamuzu Banda would have remained in
office until his untimely death in 1996 at the ripe old age of an estimated
100 years or so.
Such thinking is reminiscent of Prime Minister Ian Smith as the demise of
Rhodesia approached. He was wont to say he knew that "his Africans" were a
happy lot, or words to that effect, if it wasn't for the influence of the
Communists of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War era. The leaders of our
liberation struggle, Robert Mugabe of Zanu and Joshua Nkomo of Zapu, were
naturally included in this insulting proclamation. Today our own Mugabe, the
President, issues similar pronouncements. The people of Zimbabwe would be a
happy citizenry, he says, if it wasn't for the instigation of Western
imperialists, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and United States President,
George W. Bush, to be precise.
It is by resort to such debasing assertions that Mahoso now seeks to justify
the ruthless cracking down by government on the ZCTU last week.
Fortunately, the number of potential readers of Mahoso's anti-people
outpourings, as well as those of his paper, in general, is on the decline.
Hundreds of thousands of would-be readers have emigrated in search of
freedom and economic survival in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the
United States, Zambia, Mozambique, New Zealand and many other previously
unthinkable distant destinations. Meanwhile, the buying power of Zimbabweans
in the country has been sufficiently curtailed to turn newspapers into a
luxury, especially in cases where editors attach little importance to
factors such as public interest or relevance.
Two Sayings of the Week:
"To the extent that speculation is a major driver of our inflation, burning
or consigning these speculators to the incinerator is one sure way of
contributing towards inflation reduction." - Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
Governor Dr Gideon Gono. (The Sunday Mail).
"It is, therefore, the highest display of intellectual impairment by those
stakeholders who wanted to condemn the Sunrise Project on frivolous grounds,
missing the point that it was a national exercise carried out in response to
stakeholders' specific demands, a project implemented in record time and one
which averted the catastrophic collapse of our systems with attendant
consequences on our lives." - Dr Gono. (The Sunday Mail).
So Dr Gono admits, after all, that "our systems" are threatened with
catastrophic collapse.

Police brutality exposes govt's main weakness

FinGaz

William Bango
Mindless bungling complicates simple democratic process
Last week's protest action proposed by the ZCTU unearthed a number of
weaknesses in the crowd control methods of the ZANU PF regime.

These lessons are instructive if the democratic movement is to mount a
sustained onslaught on the dictatorship and the main defenders of its faith.
The main challenge facing the police in a world increasingly guided by a
rights culture is to improve crowd control techniques, manage life and
public activity and to minimise injury and avoid deaths whenever large
numbers of people assemble. Huge assemblies are natural: at sports
functions, especially soccer matches; political meetings and religious
congregations.
Public control requires an attack on the heart and on the mind to persuade
people against anarchy, looting and wanton destruction of life and property
in times of public expression. Public control, as an essential part of
public service, targets the growth of acceptable habits of citizenship and
public behaviour - not physical attacks on people's heads and other bodily
limbs. Internationally, governments compete to look after their own citizens
and would do anything to protect their people from either their officials or
from external enemies.
What we in Zimbabwe witnessed on Wednesday is a classic case of bungling.
Those who intended to march never moved an inch, yet the police resorted to
excessive force on what could arguably be regarded as bystanders in Harare's
streets. Earlier, the force had cordoned off the main streets leading to the
city centre, disrupting business and harassing citizens going about their
normal business.
It will be recalled that a few years ago 13 people died in a police-induced
stampede at an international soccer match between Zimbabwe and South Africa
after reckless members of the force lunged teargas canisters on spectators'
bays simply because one of them had raised a red card and displayed an open
palm from the terraces.
Fears of mayhem should public demonstrations be allowed in Zimbabwe are
totally unfounded. Wednesday's events show that the greatest threat to
national security and public order resides within Zanu PF and some sections
of the police force. Their panic attitude and desire to follow unreasonable
orders from politicians shall remain our major sign of national backwardness
in crowd control.
The MDC was informed that the police began mobilising a week before
September 13. All the officers and reservists on leave were summoned to
duty. By Tuesday night, about 40 000 officers were deployed countrywide.
Their mission was simple: harass any would-be protestors and their
sympathisers. The march routes were sealed. Vendors were arrested and locked
up. The Zanu PF militia and vigilantes, distinguishable through their party
regalia, were bussed in from Bindura and other training centres and
stationed at Zanu PF offices. On Wednesday morning, they were deployed from
the party Fourth Street offices, formerly the Rhodesia Front headquarters,
to various points in Harare to intimidate people.
In Chitungwiza, there was a heavy deployment of the army with an assortment
of military hardware. Fifty people were arrested and detained. These
included members of the Chitungwiza Residents and Ratepayers Association and
the wife of the Executive Mayor. This was long before anyone had taken part
in any demonstration.
No urban centre was spared for surveillance. In Plumtree, on the Botswana
border, there was a similarly heavy police presence. The same scenario could
be observed in Gwanda, Hwange , Chinhoyi (15 workers arrested), Chegutu,
Beitbridge (three people arrested) and Kariba. In Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare,
Kwekwe and Masvingo, 150 people were arrested, including our national
executive member Gertrude Mtombeni. Generally, the situation was tense and
residents were surprised at police provocation and uneasiness.
Relatives who attempted to supply those arrested with food and water were
chased away and beaten up by the Zanu PF militia, with the tacit blessing of
some police officers who turned a blind eye on what was going on.
In the tiny settlements of Shurugwi, Gokwe, Murambinda and Sanyati, dozens
of suspected activists were detained for varying periods of time.
The regime's response and the terror tactics it deployed showed that the
ZCTU message was effective: Zanu PF heard the workers' message - at a huge
cost, too.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that there were six helicopter gun ships on
standby; two army battalions were ready for action in Harare; the entire
secret service establishment was on the streets and all normal police
business was suspended as officers and even police recruits were thrown onto
the streets. Imagine what could have happened if the ZCTU was allowed to
march and handover their petition to the Minister of Labour? The whole
exercise could have been over in less than 30 minutes!
Zimbabweans yearn for the day when police shall ask organisers of protests
and demonstration to train their own marshals and discipline their own
participants. That way, no-one shall require bussed storm troopers,
helicopters, police reservists, stress and unnecessary tension when simple
issues like demonstrations are proposed by a normal citizenry.
A noticeable trend emerged, exposing serious cracks in the security
apparatus. Professional police officers openly declared their displeasure
with what they were being asked to do. They told the arrested suspects that
what was happening had nothing to do with basic policing and public order
work. President Robert Mugabe's government seems to be losing control of the
securo-crats many of whom feel bound by their Constitutional obligation to
protect the people and to act professionally. POSA specifically states that
any Zimbabwean individual or group wishing to assemble or demonstrate merely
informs the police of that intention. There is no legal requirement for
Zimbabweans to seek police approval for such activities.
On that basis, the ZCTU was right in ignoring the regime's pre-emptive
declaration that the proposed demonstration was illegal. Through Security
Minister Didymus Mutasa, the regime warned that security forces would be
instructed to shoot the protesters. Although the instruction to shoot was
given, the security forces did not follow through on the order. Reports
reaching the MDC indicate a sensitive analysis of the conduct of the police
and intelligence community after Wednesday's debacle. A number of police
officers and intelligence agents were said to have been identified and
disciplined for failing to respect certain orders. The reported differences
in the security establishment are becoming visible as more Zimbabweans
become fed up with the current political paralysis.
Concerns have been raised over what seems to be an unexplained involvement
of the Chinese in the current political impasse. MDC activists reported
seeing some Zimbabwean security officers taking instructions from some
Chinese nationals soon after the September 13 arrests.
Also noted was the involvement of young Zanu PF politicians and
businesspeople in the crackdown on the opposition. The bulk of the militia
deployed in Harare were housed and fed from the private coffers of a
youthful deputy minister and a Mbare businessman - both senior Zanu PF
mandarins.
Allowing private warlords to take an influential and decisive part in
national conflicts compromise our national institutions and breed
lawlessness. Warlords believe in terrorism, brutality, tyranny and savagery
as evidenced by the severity of physical attacks on the leadership of the
democratic movement on Wednesday. Warlords thrive on a patronage system and
have no respect for the people and their rights.
One young stranger from Bindura, in a brand new Zanu PF T-shirt and arrested
together with our activists boasted of strong connections. He threatened the
officers with disciplinary action, saying his group was untouchable. He was
released soon afterwards!
By all accounts, the ZCTU action was a major success. International
spotlight is once again on Zimbabwe. Locally the political temperature has
risen phenomenally and people are itching for a solution to the crisis. The
ZCTU action showed the world that the ZANU PF regime is afraid of one
thing - people power. The regime's response exposed that weakness.
lWilliam Bango is a spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change

FinGaz Letters

AirZim at it once again!

EDITOR - On Saturday September 2, 2006 I passed through Changi International
Airport in Singapore on my way to London from Thailand. I met a couple of
Zimbabweans waiting for their Air Zim flight to Harare. These were mostly
women who had come to Singapore to shop for items for resale back home.
The check-in desks opened and there began the nightmare for Air Zimbabwe
travellers. Their desk opened only to tell them that the plane to Harare was
fully booked and could not accommodate them. This was in spite of them
holding valid tickets for that flight. The plane was apparently connecting
through Singapore from Beijing.
An argument ensued between the passengers and the check-in desk officials
who were all Singaporeans. All they could say was they were acting on
instructions from Air Zimbabwe and could do nothing to help. While this was
going on, the Air Zim pilots and the air hostesses walked in. Among them was
the captain whose name I could not catch.
The Singaporean officials, who were clearly getting irritated by all this
asked him to explain to the passengers what the problem was. Poor young man,
he had no clue how to handle the situation and almost got manhandled by the
crowd. He was downright arrogant and kept insisting the passengers speak to
the check-in desk officials.
In the midst of all this a group of about 10 passengers - adults and
children - walked in, went straight to the check-in desk and were issued
with boarding passes! We later learnt that these were families of the pilots
and flight crew who had come to Singapore on holiday. God knows how much
their air tickets had actually cost them.
The crew made their way to the plane which by now had arrived from Beijing.
The pilot from Beijing, Captain Muzenda made an appearance after about half
an hour or so. He was going to pass through the desk quietly when someone
recognised him and asked him to explain the situation. I have never seen or
heard such arrogance and rudeness directed towards passengers from an
airline. In his own words: "Imi musandinetse mhani, asara asara, hameno
hake."
When asked why their wives and children were getting preference, he
retorted: "Ini ndine 7 maseats angu andinoita nawo zvandinoda. Imi kumabasa
kwenyu hamupiwewo here mabenefits emabenz. Kana muchida nyorai mumanewspaper
tione kwazvinosvika!" He flatly refused to apologise to any of the
passengers. You would have been forgiven for thinking he was talking about
people getting into his private car!
The passengers, about 12 of them, were eventually put up in a hotel for the
night and were to be routed via Joburg on Singapore Airlines the next day. I
hate to think how much all this cost Air Zim all because pilots' families
flying on ridiculous discounts were blocking the seats for paying
passengers.
Is it surprising that the airline is not making any profit? How long shall
we continue to fund this level of mismanagement, corruption and lack of
accountability?

Ed Musanhu
Thailand

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Don't waste your breath

EDITOR - Exactly four months after supplying the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority's
Loss Control/ Investigations departments with information about certain
Zimbabweans engaged in unethical business deals, nothing has been done.
ZIMRA officials promised to phone me but up to now there has been a
deafening silence.
Fellow Zimbabweans, it is a waste of time to inform ZIMRA about any
undervaluation of goods, smuggling, tax-evasion because the officials will
simply go behind your back vodya ivo, getting much more than the 10 percent
which you were supposed to be given for blowing the whistle.
Mr Editor, it's better to keep your information to yourself rather than give
it to ZIMRA. Mr Pasi or Ms Sadomba can you please comment on how long we
expect action to be taken after making our initial reports to ZIMRA.

Pasi Parohwa Nenyundo
Harare
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Spinning them off is not the solution

EDITOR - Reference is made to the comment "Spin them off!" in the last issue
(The Financial Gazette September 14-20 2006). I would like to agree with you
that parastatals have of late become a yoke on the fiscus, but the problem,
we must admit, is not only with parastatals but the rest of the economy.
What is taking place in parastatals like Air Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe National
Water Authority (ZINWA), National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) and the
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) among others is just a
microcosm of the whole country in general.
Things are falling apart everywhere despite the fact that a company is in
the hands of government or private hands. Thus, the panacea is not as you
suggested in your comment to privatise. Privatisation is just part of the
neo-liberal rhetoric, which promises a millennium but in the end, delivers
nothing more than an inferno. I am not a socialist fan, but neither am I a
capitalist devotee. You might suggest that I am in a quandary because the
world is capitalist particularly with the rapid expansion of globalisation,
which is a metamorphosis of capitalism. I agree, but I am a pragmatist who
refuses to fall victim to the rhetoric of the West that privatisation is a
solution to our economic woes and as explained through the Adam Smith
"invisible hand" inevitably all will well. This is not true and since when
have such arguments proved accurate in developing countries?
Structural adjustment as we know it and its entourage of solutions to the
developing countries is just but part of the conspiracy conjured by the West
to hoodwink the developing countries into a perpetual state of
underdevelopment. Part of the argument by the protagonist of the neo-liberal
school is that "government has no business in business" and its role should
be that of an umpire in regulating business. This is what you meant when you
rightfully said that the role of "government is to create an environment
that is conducive to doing business rather than being a major player in
business itself".
The government, it must always be remembered, has an obligation to the
people and one of these is to make sure that people have access to basic
needs like water, transport, electricity and cheap finance among others. In
this regard, privatising essential services like education and health and
the others already mentioned will relegate the majority of the poor, of
which we have many in the country, to the coteries of penury and want.
Imagine if ZINWA and ZESA were in private hands motivated by profit making,
how many today including you and me will still be affording electricity and
water in this country? Most developed countries developed under auspices of
the government and the governments including those of the US and Britain
still supports people-oriented policies.
What is needed is not simply an overhaul of these companies, as such a
change will just but be 'micro' or cosmetic. What we need is a 'macro'
overhaul of all our systems, because we are falling in an abyss, which is
now taking all of us with it including the parastatals.

Richard Nyamanhindi
United Kingdom