http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 30 September 2011 07:30
Faith
Zaba
PRESSURE from the top echelons of Zanu PF and the military is
mounting on
defence chiefs to halt sensitive investigations into the conduct
of two
senior army commanders who sniped at their boss, General Constantine
Chiwenga (pictured right), in secret meetings with United States diplomats
which have caused a stir within state security circles.
Informed
sources say Zanu PF officials and military officers have clashed in
the past
weeks over what action to take against Brigadiers-General Herbert
Chingono
and Fidelis Satuku who criticised Chiwenga in disparaging terms,
describing
him as a “political general” with “little practical military
experience or
expertise”.
This comes as it emerged that the Zimbabwe Defence Forces
(ZDF) have frozen
the promotion of Chingono, Inspector-General in the
Zimbabwe National Army
(ZNA), to Major-General after the WikiLeaks
disclosures, while Satuku, ZDF
Director-General for Policy and Personnel, is
in Pakistan for training.
The two commanders are said to be highly-respected
in military circles and
this has compounded the
situation.
Sources say the Chingono and Satuku issue has divided Zanu
PF and ZDF in a
manner which has poisoned relations between Chiwenga and the
military brass
who are also now on bad terms over how to handle the tricky
issue which has
political overtones.
The issue, sources say, is
now boiling into a conflict between political
considerations and
professional military discipline involving codes of
conduct.
While some
army commanders like Chiwenga and his clique are arguing that the
military
risked setting a bad precedent if they do not deal with the two,
some army
commanders are urging caution, saying the WikiLeaks issue could
cause
serious damage to the ZDF if not properly handled. Some Zanu PF
politburo
members, with the support of President Robert Mugabe, are
insisting that the
military should follow the president’s lead on the issue.
Mugabe has
reportedly chosen not to act on senior party officials implicated
in the
WikiLeaks disclosures, at least for now. It is said in official
circles that
Mugabe would not act because he does not want to divide his
party and the
army — his last pillar of support — before the electons next
year or in
2013, although the official claim is that he would not act
because he “knew
about the meetings” even though he was not aware of the
details.
According to US cables, Chingono and Satuku spoke to US
Ambassador Charles
Ray last year about Chiwenga’s political ambitions,
conditions of service
and different views and opinions within the
army.
The two are currently under investigation for meeting with US
diplomats,
whom Mugabe considers enemies of the state. Although it is
generally
accepted among commanders that the two violated the Defence Forces
Act when
they met with Ray, Satuku and Chingono have the backing of some
senior army
officers and Zanu PF politburo members who believe the issue
must be allowed
to rest.
Sources in the army told the Zimbabwe
Independent this week that there has
been a lot of confrontation within the
military itself and also between
those calling for action against Satuku and
Chingono and top Zanu PF
officials trying to foster unity in the face of the
disclosures, which have
the potential to further divide the party ahead of
elections.
They said even Mugabe did not want anything done to the
two, preferring
reconciliation and unity. However, there are fears in the
army among those
pushing for the investigation to continue that inaction
would promote
indiscipline and lead to more violations of the law and the
military’s code
of ethics and conduct.
One top army official
said: “There has been a lot of internal confrontation
in the ministry.
President Mugabe doesn’t want anything to be done – what he
wants is a
situation where there is more unity and reconciliation.
“The ministry
is under pressure to stop the investigations but Chiwenga and
his clique are
saying that we can’t ignore violations of the law and our
code of ethics and
code of conduct because as a profession, the army follows
a certain
discipline code.”
He went further to say: “Chiwenga’s argument is
that the military must
observe the law and its professional code of ethics
and code of conduct and
that inaction promotes indiscipline and generates a
spirit of defiance
within the army and it will also set a wrong
precedent.”
The sources said one way being proposed around the issue
would be to allow
the investigations to be completed and if found with a
case to answer then
they would find other remedial measures which do not
include imprisonment.
According to the Defence Act, Chingono and
Satuku, if they have a case to
answer, could be court-martialled and face
imprisonment if convicted or even
a death sentence, although that is not
likely.
The sources said the other issue complicating the issue was
the fact that
Satuku and Chingono are highly respected in the army and are
considered to
be some of the best brains in the army, extremely professional
and
outstanding commanders.
In 1999, Chingono was the last ZNA
commander to train at the US National
Defence University under the
International Military Education and Training
programme, while Satuku
received his military training in Britain.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 30 September 2011 08:32
Wongai
Zhangazha
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s discomfort in working with Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai was clear right from the first day of the
coalition government as
he vowed that his erstwhile foe would not get
anything much from their
marriage of convenience.
As some
regional leaders tried to persuade Mugabe to be “more flexible” and
allow
Tsvangirai to play a more meaningful role in determining the affairs
of the
country, confidential US embassy cables show that Mugabe was
determined to
ensure that Tsvangirai would not have his way.
This issue came up in
a discussion between Swaziland’s Deputy Prime Minister
Themba Masuku and the
US ambassador to Swaziland Earl Irving on November 2
2009.
In a
cable published by WikiLeaks based on the discussion, Masuku is said to
have
told Irving that two weeks earlier on October 19 2009, he had been in
Uganda
representing King Mswati at an African summit on refugees, and had
sat next
to former Zambian President Rupiah Banda, who was next to Mugabe
for
dinner.
The cable says Mugabe explained to Banda that “the problem
with Tsvangirai
is that he doesn’t know he can’t get everything he wants
when he wants it”.
Masuku is said to have been shocked to see how arrogantly
Mugabe had
abruptly cut off a fellow Head of State.
“Even though
(Mugabe) can be quite lucid at times, I think he’s losing it,”
the cable
quotes Masuku as saying. Based on his assessment of Mugabe’s
response to
Banda, Masuku said the Zimbabwean coalition government was
destined for
failure because it consisted of political parties with clearly
different and
irreconcilable agendas.
Masuku also had some brickbats for South
Africa’s ruling tripartite alliance
comprising the African National
Congress, South African Communist Party and
the Congress of South African
Trade Unions. He also had no kind words for
Botswana’s President Ian Khama,
whom he said was a military man through and
through and had packed his
cabinet with fellow military officers.
This, concluded Masuku, was
making it “more difficult to be in Botswana”.
Although Masuku stated that
the views he expressed were his and not of the
government, his sentiments
appear to be widely shared by Southern African
leaders.
Banda
lost the Zambian presidency to long time rival Michael Sata on
September 20.
During his tenure, Banda occasionally came under fire from
Zanu PF
apologists who felt he was trying to arm twist the government to
give too
much power to Tsvangirai.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 September 2011
16:11
Faith Zaba AS the Constitution Select Committee (Copac) finalises
its
provincial and national reports in preparation for the actual drafting
of a
new constitution, it has emerged that most people who made inputs
during the
body’s countrywide outreach meetings prefer an executive
president with no
prime minister’s post.
Copac
co-chairman Douglas Mwonzora, Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana and Edward
Mkhosi met
on Wednesday and yesterday to finalise when the actual drafting
of the
constitution would start.
The process would be about two months
behind schedule since it had been
previously agreed and announced that the
drafting would start on August 24.
Although no set dates have been settled
on, Mwonzora said the drafting,
which would be done by Botswana High Court
judge Justice Moses Chinhengo and
lawyers Priscilla Madzonga and Brian
Crozier, should start in a fortnight.
The drafting process is set
to take 40 days. Documents gleaned by the
Zimbabwe Independent show that
nine provinces want an executive comprising a
president, one or two vice
presidents with no prime minister. The provincial
reports also showed that
67% of people who participated in the outreach
meetings want presidential
powers limited in some areas such as the
appointment of independent
commissions.
They want the anti-corruption, electoral, land,
human rights, media, women
and gender, labour and the truth and justice
commissions to be selected by
parliament. However, under the submissions,
the president would still retain
the power to appoint people in the
judiciary, police, defence, prisons and
public service commissions, the
attorney-general and comptroller and
auditor-general.
About
40% of people in Mashonaland West and Masvingo said the president
should
appoint people to serve on the public service commission while 30% in
Matabeleland South, Manicaland, Midlands and Mashonaland West want that
power to be vested with parliament. On the appointment of the AG, an average
58% said the president should make the appointment while 47% preferred
parliament.
All provinces, except for Midlands, whose data on
arms of the state was not
included in the report, had an average of 77%
people who attended the
constitution-making outreach meetings saying they
wanted all executive power
vested in the presidency.
On
whether, people preferred the current system which has a president and
prime
minister in the executive, only an average 38% in six provinces voted
for
executive power to be shared by the two. A provincial breakdown of
people
who voted for an executive headed by a president only showed that 79%
of
people in Matabeleland North supported such a move, Matabeleland South
90%,
Mashonaland West 65%, Mashonaland Central 88%, Mashonaland East 86%,
Manicaland 79%, Masvingo 59%, Bulawayo 72% and Harare 76%. When asked if
they wanted an executive with both a president and a prime minister, 44% of
the people in Matabeleland North, 52% in Manicaland and 39% in Masvingo said
they supported such a set up, although they all indicated that executive
power should rest with the president.
There were no responses
from the other six provinces on whether the
executive should comprise both.
During the outreach meetings, the two main
political parties were out to
have their entrenched positions captured in
the constitution-making
process.
Zanu PF wanted to retain the old system of a powerful
executive president
who has vast unchecked powers of making unilateral
appointments. According
to its position paper circulated during the outreach
meetings, Zanu PF said:
“We need an executive president who shares executive
authority with the
cabinet and no prime minister as this results in an
endless unproductive
contest for power between the president and the prime
minister that results
in a weak state in which neo-colonialism can thrive.”
By contrast, the MDC-T
preferred a system with an elected president who has
limited powers and a
prime minister with significant power as well in what
it calls a
co-habitation system. It proposed an elected president who
appoints a prime
minister from a party which commands a majority in
parliament and a cabinet
chosen by the prime minister.
On the
electoral system, an average 70% of people in eight provinces said
they
wanted a hybrid system, which included first past the post as well
proportional representation. On systems of government, an average 62% of
people in 10 provinces called for devolution of power to the provinces and
local authorities, while 82% in seven provinces said they wanted a unitary
system whereby central government was supreme.
Bulawayo led
the vote in support of devolution of power with 93% followed by
Matabeleland
North with 91%. Harare had 90%, Matabeleland South 78%,
Mashonaland West
39%, Mashonaland Central 33%, Mashonaland East 23%,
Manicaland 77%, Midlands
52% and Masvingo 41%. In Mashonaland Central, 94%
of respondents voted for a
unitary system followed by Mashonaland East and
West with 89%, Harare 88%,
Manicaland 72%, Midlands 82% and Masvingo 58%.
About 83% of people in the
country’s 10 provinces came out in support of the
South African style
provincial government system while 41% rejected it. Zanu
PF has been pushing
for a new constitution with a centralised form of
government as the present
set up which includes a central government,
provincial councils and
traditional leaders.
The MDC-T was advocating for a three-tier
government composed of national
government, provincial councils and local
authorities made up of urban
councils and district councils. District
councils would be mandated with the
responsibility of managing the affairs
of rural areas. While Zanu PF wanted
governors to chair the country’s 10
provincial councils to be appointed by
the president, elected rural and
urban councils, the MDC-T was pushing for
elected provincial councils and
local authorities with as much autonomy as
is compatible with good
governance.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 30 September 2011
08:27
Paidamoyo Muzulu
PARLIAMENT’S Public Accounts Portfolio
Committee has ordered CMED managing
director Davison Mhaka to supply the
House with all details and paper trails
pertaining to the purchase of 122
luxury vehicles for ministers and deputy
ministers earlier this
year.
The CMED is the government’s vehicle purchasing and maintenance
company.
Earlier this year the CMED purchased 72 Mercedes Benz and 50 Land
Rover
Discoveries worth close to US$10 million for the bloated
government.
The vehicle acquisition programme has been shrouded in
mystery with
ministers accusing each other of direct involvement in the
purchases. Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said the vehicles were bought
using US$1,6
million released by the Treasury to the Transport
ministry.
The Public Accounts Portfolio Committee’s acting chairman
Simon Hove
demanded detailed responses and documents related to the purchase
and
distribution of the vehicles.
“The committee needs detailed
responses on the distribution and acquisition
of (the) vehicles,” said
Hove. “You should also provide evidence of any
such instructions from the
Treasury to purchase and distribute vehicles,” he
said.
The
purchase comes at a time the government is faced with a US$700 million
budget deficit. Research by the Zimbabwe Independent on reliable vehicle
retailers showed that these cars cost much more than what Tsvangirai claimed
to have paid for them.
According to a UK-based car magazine, a
Land Rover Discovery 4 TDV6 HSE 2010
model retails at £47 695 a unit. This
vehicle is placed in the same range as
a BMW X5 3.0d and VW Toureg
V10TDi.
A Mercedes Benz model C220 retails £32 480 each. Civil
society organisations
attacked the acquisition of the luxury vehicles in the
face of severe water
and power shortages, crumbling education system, a sick
health sector and
dilapidated communication and social
infrastructure.
The Convention of People’s Charter (CPC), a loose
coalition of civil society
groups, has launched an online petition on social
networks on the internet
to protest against the coalition government’s
purchase of luxury vehicles.
CPC spokesman Blessing Vava said: “We
are very much disappointed by the
government’s misplaced priorities by
purchasing luxury vehicles at the
expense of the poor majority of
Zimbabweans.”
However, Tsvangirai defended the government’s purchase
of the luxury
vehicles on Wednesday as a necessity when compared with
ministers from the
region and beyond.
Tsvangirai said it was a
mere perception that ministers were living in
luxury yet they were far
behind when compared with their counterparts from
the region.
“We
should be sympathetic to the minister’s plight,” said Tsvangirai.
“Those
cars were bought using US$1,6 million released by Treasury. Do you
expect
ministers to go around on bicycles?” he asked.
He said perks should
be viewed in the context of Zimbabwean ministers’
plight where they “do not
have better salaries and education for their
children not paid for by the
state”.
He was adamant that “it is a harsh judgment (by media and
civil society)
that cabinet ministers did not deserve the vehicles”. The
vehicle purchases
come hard on the heels of Finance minister Tendai Biti’s
comments that the
coalition government was spending more money on less
productive issues such
as vehicles and foreign travel.
Biti
revealed that the government had spent US$30 million on foreign travel
within the first half of the 2011 financial year.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 September 2011 15:08
Wongai
Zhangazha ZANU PF hard-liners were accused by the Bankers Association
of
Zimbabwe of delaying efforts by the banking sector to devalue the
Zimbabwean
dollar for exporters so that they could enrich themselves.
According to a
cable released by WikiLeaks dated February 19 2003, former
Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries president Washington Matsaire said he
feared
decision-paralysis in the government unless it modified its economic
policies. The “hard-liners” were named as Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa, Agriculture minister Joseph Made, former Information minister
Jonathan Moyo and former Public Works minister Ignatius Chombo. Matsaire,
who is the Standard Chartered Bank chief executive officer, told former US
ambassador to Zimbabwe Joseph Sullivan that the government’s once formidable
infrastructure would be irreparably damaged if policies were not changed. He
told Sullivan that “Mugabe’s inner-circle hawks” were ignoring the
Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) agreement as well as the CZI’s proposal
to devalue the Zimbabwe dollar for exporters. The TNF is a coalition body
comprising government, business and labour representatives. “Hardliners
Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, Agriculture minister Joseph Made,
Information minister Jonathan Moyo and Public Works minister Ignatius Chombo
are either still enriching themselves from the government’s interventionist
policies (often accessing US dollars at the official rate) or unwilling to
press (President Robert) Mugabe to make a change,” read the cable. “This has
led to decision-making paralysis particularly frustrating because CZI’s
leadership believed it had convinced all the key players of the need to
devalue,” it reads. “Matsaire notices increasing infrastructure and even
moral decay in Zimbabwe, symptoms of the economic crisis that may become
permanent by the year’s end. An every-man-for-himself dictum is taking grip
of a society that once exalted community.” The banker bemoaned the level of
the economic crisis that had created unmotivated teachers and “bribe-hungry
policemen with an audacity unthinkable just five years ago. The brain-drain
is so severe that it is no longer possible to fill certain professional
positions at Standard Chartered despite the country’s high unemployment.
Indigenous fuel companies clandestinely send their supply of
heavily-subsidised fuel to neighbouring countries. In sum, Matsaire thinks
Zimbabwe is gradually being “Zaire-ised”, a reference to Mobutu Sese Seko’s
misrule in today’s Democratic Republic of the Congo,” says the cable.
Meanwhile, another cable sent in 2003 listed several Zanu PF members who had
helped themselves to farms revealing massive corruption in the land reform
programme. The list included Chombo, Home Affairs co-minister Kembo Mohadi
and his wife, Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment minister
Saviour Kasukuwere, Mines minister Obert Mpofu and Moyo, among others. Air
force commander Air Marshall Perrence Shiri and police spokesman Wayne
Bvudzijena were also cited as beneficiaries.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 September 2011 15:06
Paidamoyo
Muzulu POLITICAL bickering and grandstanding by coalition
government members
has stalled the completion of Essar Africa’s US$750
million takeover of
defunct iron and steel company Ziscosteel in what had
been hailed as the
biggest foreign direct investment in the last decade.
Essar’s takeover of
Ziscosteel is being handled by a ministerial committee
comprising the
ministries of Mines, Finance, Economic Planning and
Investment Promotion,
Industry and Commerce, and Justice and Legal Affairs.
Under the stalled
deal, Essar is to assume Ziscosteel’s US$240 million
foreign debt. Industry
and Trade minister Welshman Ncube lifted the lid on
the power struggle at
play hindering the finalisation of the deal, which was
given the nod by
cabinet last year. Ncube told the Zimbabwe Independent last
week that all
parties in the shaky coalition government wanted to take the
glory for
securing the biggest deal in the last decade. “The Essar deal is
becoming a
victim of power struggles and political expediency,” said Ncube.
“Every
minister involved wants to be credited for completing the most
lucrative
deal in the country in the last decade.” The deal involves the
purchasing of
Ziscosteel’s refining plant and its iron ore mine claims which
are said to
have 40 billion tonnes in deposits. Essar got a special cabinet
clearance to
secure the 54% stake in Ziscosteel, way above the 49% limit for
foreigners
as stipulated by the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act. Ncube
revealed that
some ministers were opposed to any form of success by the
coalition
government.“Some would not want any signs of success under this
dispensation
after their legendary failure. They would not want other
parties to be
credited for securing deals that help in reconstructing the
country
following a decade of economic decline,” Ncube said. As a result,
mineral
rights from former Buchwa Mine Company (Bimco) and other claims have
still
not been transferred to Essar’s new local company, NewZim Minerals.
The
transfer has been dogged by questions of undervaluation of the
resources.
Essar is also demanding uninterrupted coal supplies for its
smelter
furnaces, electricity and a reliable rail system to transport their
products. Mines minister Obert Mpofu yesterday said the Essar deal would
take time to be completed because there were a number of procedural issues
that had to be factored in when the deal was signed. “Essar has just
approached us for the transfer of Bimco shares,” said Mpofu. “However, the
time taken for the transfer will depend on the procedures to be followed and
these cannot be rushed.” The procedures involved proper legal transfer and
registration of new shareholder certificates with the Deeds and Registration
office. “These delays should have been factored in when the deal was penned,
but it is unfortunate that we were not involved in the deal from the onset,”
Mpofu said. Efforts to get comment from Energy and Power Development
minister Elton Mangoma on Essar’s uninterrupted power demands were
fruitless. The Kwekwe plant furnaces need a constant supply of electricity
and coal for them to operate at optimal capacity. Zimbabwe has of late been
experiencing persistent power blackouts due to low electricity generation at
Kariba and Hwange Power Stations.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 September 2011 15:04
Brian
Chitemba ZANU PF annual conferences and congresses have over the years
been
mere talk shops where thousands of party members gather to praise
President
Robert Mugabe for “winning the war against neo-colonialists”.
However,
behind the scenes, some influential party leaders want the ageing
leader to
go.The status quo is likely to be maintained at the December 6-10
conference
in Bulawayo — a province which is currently mired in bitter
factional
fights. Party heavyweights have previously jostled to endorse
Mugabe as the
undisputed leader leaving no room for debate on succession.
Amid sensational
WikiLeaks revelations that Mugabe’s closest lieutenants,
including
Vice-Presidents Joice Mujuru and John Nkomo, want him go, the
conference is
highly likely to endorse the 87-year-old leader as the party’s
presidential
candidate in the impending elections. According to WikiLeaks
cables, Zanu PF
bigwigs want Mugabe to quit because they believe that he has
overstayed and
his continued presence has destroyed the economy and
reputation of the
former liberation movement. Mugabe survived previous plots
to oust him in
2004. The most notable of these was reportedly engineered by
former
Information minister Jonathan Moyo at Tsholotsho. In 2007 former
politburo
members Dumiso Dabengwa and Simba Makoni also fiercely opposed
Mugabe’s
nomination as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2008
polls. But the
party’s conference in Mutare last year endorsed Mugabe as the
Zanu PF leader
and also resolved to push for elections this year but the
latter has since
failed because of several critical electoral reforms that
need to be first
implemented. Between now and December, Zanu PF provinces
will most likely be
scrambling to announce their endorsement of Mugabe as
their preferred
presidential candidate in the next elections which will end
the three-year
coalition government. But the conference comes against a
background of
serious infighting threatening to tear the party apart.
Bulawayo-based
political analyst Nyamutatanga Makombe said the Zanu PF
conference would not
yield changes except talk about next year’s elections
and confirming Mugabe
as the presidential candidate. “Zanu PF gathers once
again with talk of
elections hovering,” said Makombe. “It is important to
note that unlike last
year, this time around, it is more of a reality though
they (elections) may
not be held “by March” as Mugabe suggested. As such,
the conference is
likely to be dominated by talk on elections, the selection
of candidates and
it will be something extraordinary if Mugabe is not
confirmed as the
presidential candidate.” “Nothing is likely to change in
terms of how Zanu
PF does business but the content is likely to change
especially given the
issue of elections, the mortal combat among factions in
the party and the
latest revelations that there are some in the party who
want Mugabe to go,”
he said. Makombe said since the conference was not an
elective congress,
it’s unlikely to affect any changes save to reward a few
individuals who
would be elevated to the Politburo to replace the deceased.
Key politburo
members who died this year include retired former army chief
General Solomon
Mujuru, former Harare governor David Karimanzira and party
financier
Kantibhai Gordanbhai. But of interest to most people would be to
see if
Mugabe would just ignore party officials who met US diplomats and are
named
in the WikiLeaks cables. Mugabe overlooked the compromised politburo
members
at last week’s meeting in Harare and left them guessing about his
next move.
While Mugabe has remained mum on the WikiLeaks issue, the party’s
factions
are likely to take advantage of the cables to score political
points against
each other. Mugabe enjoys tremendous support from the
security apparatus,
which helped him in 2008. The same situation may recur
given that senior
military officials like the air force’s Air Vice Marshal
Henry Muchena and
former CIO director: internal, Sydney Nyanhongo, are
directly working with
Zanu PF. This may also show that Zanu PF conferences
have never influenced
the operational systems of the former liberation
movement save for
fulfilling what Mugabe and his inner circle want.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 30 September 2011 07:40
Paul
Nyakazeya
A FORENSIC audit into the shenanigans at Afre which led to the
company being
exposed to the tune of US$16 million owing to CEO Patterson
Timba’s
activities, concluded that Timba’s operations were fraudulent and
contravened the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, that he abused
his fiduciary duties and arm-twisted board members into signing a board
resolution without clearly stating the nature of the
transaction.
According to the report, Timba extended money he
borrowed from loan shark
Jayesh Shah, using Afre shares as collateral, to
RFHL and charged a monthly
interest of 3,5%, (42% annually). This, according
to the report, saw his
investment vehicle -- Bethel Trust-- making a 33%
profit margin.
The report also found that Timba had fraudulently
withdrawn security from 92
million RTG shares lodged with Metropolitan Bank
(MetBank) without the
authority of the Afre board and used the security to
secure lending from TN
Capital.
To secure a loan from MetBank,
Timba also misrepresented that he was a
trustee of Bethel Trust, yet he had
resigned from the trust in 2003, the
report said.
“BCA
established that the movement of the RTG shares from Metropolitan Bank
to TN
Capital increased Afre’s liability beyond the sum of US$3,7 million
which
was agreed upon by Mr Timba and Afre.”
Afre also lost 314 342 Econet
shares that Timba had lodged as collateral
with Infinity Asset Management
after the deposit was not paid on the due
date.
“It was revealed that
part of the scrip (10 980 989 RTG and 49 006 892 Pearl
shares) were
reportedly sold by Bethel Trust to Renaissance Trading (Pvt)
Ltd in a share
buy-back arrangement for a purchase consideration of US$0,8
million in order
to raise finance for RFHL.
This was despite the fact that the shares
belonged to Afre, FMRE Property
Consultancy (Pty) Ltd and Tristar,” the
report added. BCA concluded the
US$800 000 transaction amounted to abuse of
depositors’ funds and bordered
on theft.
In the case of Tristar,
34 047 398 Pearl Properties shares with a value of
US$1,06 million were
taken over by Infinity Asset Management. A division of
Afre,FMRE P&C
also lost US$400 000.
The report blasted the Afre board of directors
and senior management for
being negligent. “The board and senior management
of Afre Corporation gave
former CEO Patterson Timba permission to use scrip
owned by Afre and its
subsidiaries as collateral to secure funding from Shah
without fully
understanding the nature of the transaction,” part of the
audit report
reads.
The report, compiled by BCA Audit Services,
and seen by the Zimbabwe
Independent, shows how Timba fraudulently obtained
Afre scrip to retire a
personal loan to businessman Jayesh Shah, on“a round
robin basis without
clearly stating the nature of the
transaction.”
The report rapped the Afre board for appending
signatures to the resolution
in violation of ZSE regulations, given that the
transaction had material
impact on Afre’s shares.
Timba’s
transactions, the auditors say, would have required relevant
disclosures and
a cautionary statement from Afre. The report notes a full
board should have
convened where Timba’s interests would have been declared
and
considered.
Afre board members who were involved in the script for
loans transactions
involving Timba were non-executive chairperson Rachel
Kupara, non-executive
director Ricky Mapani, chief operating officer
Sibusisiwe Ndhlovu, group
financial director Kennedy Lemani, group company
secretary Charmaine
Daniels, non-executive director Daud Dube, non-executive
director Tose
Ndebele and non-executive director Norman
Nyazema.
The granting of the scrip for loans to Timba violated
Section 117 of the
Companies Act (chapter 24:04) which prohibits the
provision of loans to
directors without the approval of a directors at a
general meeting of
shareholders and full disclosures.
The report
says the Afre board and senior management contravened Section 317
and 318 of
the Companies Act when they conducted the company’s affairs in a
“in a
reckless and negligent manner.”
The report also blames Timba for
breaching his fiduciary duty when he acted
to benefit himself and prejudiced
Afre.
Contacted for comment on Wednesday Timba said he was baffled by the
allegations, saying he had requested written enquiries from all parties
detailed in the allegations, which he alleges he never
received.
“As a professionally trained auditor, my request was not
unreasonable but
actually the professional manner in which the audit should
have been
conducted,” he said.
He said the same auditor sent him
questions with regard to the ReNaissance
Merchant Bank forensic audit to
which he responded. “I am at a loss and do
not understand why they would
refuse to provide me with written questions
with respect to the Afre audit,”
Timba said.
The Reserve Bank (RBZ) met this week to discuss the
audit. Timba is said to
have borrowed a total of US$6,39 million from Shah
using 60% of ReNaissance
Financial Holdings Ltd shares held in the name of
Bethel Trust (29%), Timba
(5%), Daniel Kundishora (8%), Dunca Trust (11%)
and Clementine Sibve 7% as
security for the loans in September
2009.
Shah is holding onto to the shares as he claims that Timba owes
him US$12,5
million in capital up-liftment in line with their agreement. The
report
revealed that the transaction pursuant to the 21 February 2011
directors’
Resolution resulted in a total exposure of US$16,4 million to
Afre and the
group.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 September 2011 16:07
Paul
Nyakazeya AFRICA First Renaissance Corporation (Afre) cancelled its AGM
and
EGM at the eleventh hour, after failing to garner enough proxies and
following differences by board members over the accuracy and completeness of
the draft forensic audit by BCA Forensic Audit Services (Pvt) Ltd, it has
emerged. Businessdigest also understands that there were concerns by the
market over the conflicts of interest among directors and investors who were
supposed to attend the two meetings. Management and the share transfer
secretaries were responsible for receiving the proxies. Econet’s had 20% and
RFHL’s 33%. RFHL’s 33% constituted 47% of the total votes received. The
proxies to the chairman, Tawanda Nyambirai (pictured), constituted 44% of
the total votes received. The remaining 9% gave their proxies to their own
representatives who were going to attend and vote, had the meeting gone
ahead. If those individuals had not attended, then the default vote would
have been to chairman Nyambirai’s way. According to documents at hand, some
board members had reservations about Nyambirai’s presiding over the Afre
meeting, which discussed Renaissance Merchant bank (RMB) issues, as they
suspected he had a relationship with complainant businessman Jayesh Shah.
The board also sought clarification on some content of the forensic audit.
Some directors last week sought clarification on why the audit report did
not have any responses from some individuals who are facing allegations. A
draft of the report is in businessdigest’s possession. Nyambirai is said to
have been unhappy with the manner in which the matters were being raised,
describing them as “misrepresentation of facts” and “breach of fiduciary
duties”. Insiders allege he even requested not to be copied e-mails from
board members. “The ReNaissance crisis appears to have been handled by
people who have vested interests and hence conflicts. Are they the right
people?” questioned one analyst this week. According to a letter by Bart
Mswaka on behalf of ReNaissance Financial Holdings, dated August 20 , to the
Securities Exchange Commission chairperson Willia Bonyongwe, they considered
the Afre board to be irregular. “The current chairman of the Afre board,
Tawanda Nyambirai, together with other directors nominated from the TN Group
of companies are disqualified from sitting on the Afre board due to clear
conflict of interest that arises from their involvement in the TN Group,
which competes with Afre and RFHL in banking, short –term insurance, medical
insurance, asset management and stockbroking,” read the letter in part.
Mswaka said since Nyambirai and his TN Collegues were actually executives at
TN, it stood to reason that they were obtaining confidential information
relating to Afre, a competitor, which they would use for the benefit of
their own business. “All Econet nominees are subordinates of Nyambirai at
Econet in that he is the executive chairman to whom they all report.
Consequently, as Econet appointees on the Afre Board, they cannot exercise
independent judgement,” wrote Mswaka. According to documents at hand dated
April 4, Nyambirai occasionally gave Shah legal advice, including how to
recover his money from former RMB CEO Patterson Timba. Contacted for comment
on Tuesday on why the Afre meeting was cancelled and the contents of the
audit, Timba referred all questions to Nyambirai, who is Afre’s chairman.
“The best person to respond to why the AGM and EGM were cancelled is
Nyambirai as chairman. I cannot comment on that,” he said. “About that audit
report, I will not comment to the press. I will only comment if asked to do
so by the auditor but only in writing. Once I do so, whoever gave you that
report should be able to advise you of such developments,” Timba said.
According to Afre, in the run up to the EGM, they had meetings with the
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) in the hope that they would authorise the
release of the circular a day or so before the meeting. Nyambirai had a
meeting with the ZSE, who advised him they had failed to convince the
Insurance and Pensions Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission
that the meetings should go ahead. “That was a heavy blow for the minority
shareholders who had a right to assembly and review the mandate of the board
as well as consider the rights offer proposal,” said Nyambirai in response
to questions from businessdigest on Tuesday He said he conferred with the
Econet board, which was disappointed that the same regulatory authorities
that had asked Econet to come back into Afre were now fighting against the
mobile telecommunications company in a bid to save Afre. “I was directed by
the Econet board to disengage, but to do so in a responsible way. The only
party we believe can save Afre is NSSA. Econet has offered its shareholding
to NSSA. I am sure NSSA will consider the offer and revert to us in due
course once they have followed their internal procedures,” he said.
Nyambirai said he felt NSSA had a duty to save the institution to prevent
the loss that would be suffered by more than a million people who are either
policyholders or pensioners on Afre’s books. “A collapse in the insurance
services sector will have wider implications on the rest of the economy,” he
said. Industry regulators, ZSE, IPEC and SEC had clashed with Afre over the
proposed holding of its annual general meeting and extraordinary general
meeting last Friday. Industry regulators had asked Afre to defer the holding
of the meetings until investigations into its operations had been completed
while Nyambirai insisted the meetings would proceed as planned as they were
validly called. In a joint statement ZSE, IPEC and SEC said they had since
advised that the proposed meetings should not be held as planned. “The
regulators, in the exercise of their statutory duties, have resolved that
the AGM and EGM should be deferred pending: The completion of investigations
into the affairs of Afre and its subsidiaries that has been instituted by
the Insurance and Pension Commission,” read part of the notice. “The
regulators believe that the findings of the investigation will have material
implications on corporate governance, the suitability and probity of some
board members and senior management among other issues,” they said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 September 2011 16:04
By Evonia
Muzondo “A beggar sitting on a pipe of diamonds.” This irony can
be aptly
applied to RioZim Limited, a company that is in the business of
mining some
of the most valuable resources on earth. RioZim has been walking
a tightrope
since dollarisation, primarily due to its failure to
recapitalise. Absence
of additional equity finance has seen exploration and
development programmes
stalling while the company is indebted by
approximately US$53 million owed
to several local and foreign banks. The
huge finance charges, coupled with
low throughput, have seen the company
making losses since then. RioZim was
one of the companies on the ZSE that
was expected to exhibit superior
performance when the economy dollarised.
This followed the positive
sentiment coming through from the deregulation of
minerals by the
government. Also, the gold price was firming on the
international markets as
the global financial crisis took its toll, leading
to investors jumping into
safe haven assets. The perceived good prospects
led many analysts and fund
managers to aggressively buy the stock. Investors
were led to believe that a
return was imminent on what was believed to be
this soon-to-be
billion-dollar company. As could have been expected, the
share price peaked
at 420 cents in June 2009.Who would have thought
otherwise, given Rio Zim’s
attractive assets? Unfortunately, the dream
quickly turned into a nightmare
as later events revealed. The new dollarised
environment brought liquidity
challenges in the economy. All companies had
to start from scratch. Mining
is capital intensive. This meant that
companies like RioZim had to look for
funding in order to recapitalise.
Unfortunately, this did not quickly
materialise, leading to dismal June 2009
interim results when the share
price commenced its decline. Talks of a
proposed rights issue to raise
approximately US$40 million gave some brief
impetus to the share price
beginning in 2010.But when it looked highly
unlikely that an underwriter
might be secured, the share price went into a
freefall. The situation was
also worsened by the ballooning short- term
debt. The planned rights issue
has stalled, as the amount required is too
large for a domestic underwriter
due to limited local liquidity and foreign
reticence, given the
indigenisation regulations. Essar had shown some
interest, but according to
press reports, the plans were scuttled because
Essar insisted on no less
than 50% equity, something that was rejected by
government. Strangely, this
came at a time when the same government had
ceded more than 50% equity in
ZiscoSteel! Recently-released half year
results to June 2011 showed a loss
for the period of US$5,3 million, largely
affected by huge finance charges
of US$6,4 million, though the operating
level was profitable. Short term
expensive debt has continued to weigh down
the company’s profitability. The
market has not been sympathetic to RioZim.
The company, with huge assets and
attractive exploration projects in its
pot, is now valued at a mere US$17,9
million. Those who bought at 420 cents
must be kicking themselves as the
share price reached a low of US56 cents, a
huge discount to NAV per share
which is currently at US121 cents. Given the
failure of the rights issue to
materialise and the company’s serious need
for funding,RioZim plunged into
short term expensive debt. What is worrying
is the continued viability of
the company, going forward. In terms of market
capitalisation, considering
where its value once was in 2009, one can be
forgiven for believing that the
company is now virtually worthless. The
chances of a price correction look
remote in the short term. There could,
however, be a greater chance of a
turnaround if the necessary crucial steps
were taken. But who is to blame
for the situation the company now finds
itself in? It is obvious that
Indigenisation regulations have done more harm
than good to the mining
sector in terms of raising capital. On the other
hand, management may be
partly to blame as it appears they have been playing
hard to get at the
negotiating table, if press reports are anything to go
by. Obviously, for
someone to bring in that kind of money into Rio Zim, it
would not be
unreasonable to demand a change in management or board
representation. The
general feeling in the market is that management have
overstayed their
welcome and that RioZim needs new blood to take it into the
next chapter in
history. But the ‘I wont go mentality’ has always been and
still is a
problem in corporate Zimbabwe. For historical reasons, management
would
rather see the boat sink first. There are also allegations that
management
are wary of being diluted. From a close look at the share
register, it would
appear that management may not have an equity stake. But
who controls the
20% share of the RioZim foundation, a trust that was left
by the previous
owners RioTinto for the benefit of charity? It could be
possible that
management might have found a way to control the company
through
administration of the trust, which further taints their corporate
governance
resumes. What is needed for Rio Zim to recover is obviously a
solution to
the debt situation, which results from the generally
unsatisfactory
investment climate. In addition, the company also needs
further funds for
exploration and development projects. In a normal
environment it should have
been an easy task, given Rio Zim’s attractive
asset portfolio. But the
concerns highlighted above are too glaring. Maybe a
change of management
would not hurt as well, provided it can facilitate an
injection of capital
and expertise. The company received US$50 million from
the banks, but the
funds failed to turn it around. Market rumours have it
that the company is
working on a possible debt/equity swap with the banks,
which shall also
co-underwrite the proposed rights issue. Will the banks
benefit from such a
transaction and will it be transparent to ensure that
leakages at group
level do not occur and that the funds will be productively
used? For how
long should RioZim continue stretching out the begging bowl?
It should be
the other way round, given the embedded value that is in the
business.
Investors should actually be stampeding at Rio Zim’s doorstep, but
they have
been held back. Judging by current negotiations taking place
between the
company and the banks behind closed doors, the solution for the
way forward
may well be evident over the next couple of weeks.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 September 2011
16:01
Chris Muronzi ANGOLAN President José Eduardo dos Santos’s daughter,
Isabel,
has expressed interest in Zimbabwe’s smallest mobile phone operator
by
subscribers – NetOne, businessdigest has established. Isabel, a
businessperson of note with interests in telecommunications, finance and
energy, was in the country early this month and met government officials
with a view to buying a controlling stake in NetOne, the country’s first
mobile phone operator. Sources told businessdigest this week that dos Santos
is also eyeing investments in the country’s financial services sector.
According to sources, she is already doing a due diligence examination into
NetOne. Before her appearance on the Zimbabwean business scene early this
month, NetOne was said to be in talks with MTN. It is not clear if MTN has
pulled the plug on the deal. MTN has been linked to the NetOne deal after
the Zimbabwe government put the company on the market. The MTN deal was met
with massive resistance in government, with some officials such as Finance
minister Tendai Biti prefering to see NetOne recapitalised and contributing
more to the fiscus. Biti, according to a source, believes NetOne can compete
with the country’s largest mobile phone operator – Econet Wireless – for
market share and lift its top and bottom lines once recapitalised. Transport
and Infrastructure minister Nicholas Goche’s phone went unanswered on
Wednesday. But sources say Goche is considering selling the mobile phone
operator to dos Santos. Since 2008 she has held relevant interests in
telecommunications, media, retail, finance and the energy industry, in both
Angola and Portugal. In addition to her commercial interests in oil and
diamonds, dos Santos also owns shares in the Angola cement company, Nova
Cimangola. Her husband is a member of the board of the company, but more
importantly, acquired the exploration rights of a subsidiary of Endiama, the
Angolan state company for diamond exploration and sales. She also owns Kento
Holdings, based in Malta, has stock in ZON Multimédia and Portugal Telecom.
She is also member of the board of Banco BIC Português and through Santoro
Holdings holds stakes at Banco Português de Investimento, Banco Espirito
Santo and Energias de Portugal. Other major stakes she has are together with
Angolan state oil company Sonangol, through their mutual offshore holding
named Esperanza Holding in Portuguese Galp Energia. She has other financial
interests in Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Banco Santander Totta, Banco
Português de Negócios and Mota-Engil. Together with her father, Eduardo, she
constituted the Geni Holdings as an umbrella for their Portuguese
investments. The holding company is active in the banking, oil, diamonds and
construction industries. Dos Santos created Unitel in partnership with
Portugal Telecom.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 September 2011
15:59
Paul Nyakazeya RENAISSANCE Merchant Bank (RMB) curator Reggie Saruchera
and
his Grant Thornton Auditors team have charged US$630 316 in fees in the
months between July and September, businessdigest can reveal. RMB was placed
under curatorship by the Reserve Bank in June following allegations of
financial irregularities within the group. According to documents at hand,
Saruchera and his team of 12 officials submitted invoice GT17/11, amounting
to US$220 731, for the month of September to the Reserve Bank. The money was
to be paid into the auditors’ CBZ Borrowdale branch account. Officials at
the Reserve Bank acknowledged receiving the invoice on September 21.
According to the September invoice, Saruchera charged US$38 060 for 173
hours at a rate of US$220 per hour. Tatenda Zimondi, an Engagement Manager,
invoiced US$7 840 for 49 hours at a rate of US$160 per hour. Alex Dera,
Corporate Recovery Manager, charged US$28 960 for 181 hours at a rate of
US$160 per hour. Brain Hodza an investigations Manager will be rewarded
US$17 920 for 112 hours at a rate of US$160 per hour. Sherpard Chikomo, an
IT Manager, will be paid US$17 120 for 107 hours at a rate of US$160 per
hour. Christina Muzerengi, a Tax Manager, will be remunerated US$2 560 for
16 hours at a rate of US$160 per hour while Tatenda Mujati, another IT
Manager, will be rewarded US$6 720 for 42 hours at a rate of US$160 per
hour. Benson Makumire, an HR Manager, charged US$5 760 for 36 hours at a
rate of US$160 per hour. Onessious Mabuya, an Assistant Manager in Bulawayo,
will be paid US$19 760 for 152 hours at a rate of US$130 per hour. Bulisa
Mbano, an Audit Supervisor, invoiced US$13 500 for 135 hours at a rate of
US$100 per hour while Tawanda Kapikinyu, Supervisor investigations, will be
paid US$16 700 for 167 hours for US$100 per hour. Muhammad Umar charged
US$10 920 for 156 hours at a rate of US$70 per hour. Francis Nhamburo, a
Loans Collections Officer, charged US$6 120 for 153 hours at a rate of US$40
per hour. Visits by businessdigest at the bank’s premises in Harare in the
past two weeks show that the financial institution’s doors are still open
and it is taking deposits. Insiders said the bank was also paying people
whose duties and titles were similar to the team that Saruchera brought in.
In August, according to invoice number GT172/11, Saruchera and his staff
charged US$197 835. Saruchera charged US$23 760, Zimondi – US$18 240,
Dera –US$25 120, Hodza –US20 480, Chkomo –US$11 840 and Mujati US$8 800.
Mabuya invoiced –US$19 890, Mbano –US$11 600, Kapikinyu – US414 500,
Makoni - US$4 130, Umar –US$8 470 and Nhamburo –US$5 200. The central bank
acknowledged receipt of the invoice on August 26. But insiders at the RMB
are questioning why a forensic auditor was still needed when a curator was
appointed. The auditors will also be paid from depositors’ funds locked at
RMB. BCA Forensic Auditors have been at RMB since April this year. Audit
fees for listed companies for a full year’s work costs up to US$80 000.
According to a letter in the possession of businessdigest, dated April 4
2011, from businessman Jayesh Shah to the Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono,
former RMB CEO Patterson Timba, not RMB, borrowed US$5 million in his
personal capacity. Saruchera had not responded to businessdigest’s enquiries
at the time of going to press. “We must emphasise that the borrower was Mr
Patterson Timba, who had to discharge his obligations as a shareholder in
ensuring that the bank was sufficiently capitalized. Put differently, the
borrower was not ReNaissance Merchant Bank,” wrote Shah. According to the
July invoice GT153/11, a total of US$211 750 was invoiced by Saruchera and
his team. Saruchera demanded US$24 200, Zimondi – US$21 920, Dere -24 160,
Hodza –US$22 400, Chikomo –US$11 200, Mujati –US$10 240 and
Muzerengi
–US640. Mubuya was paid US$19 500, Mhererwa –US$8 900, Mbano –US$9
000, Umar
–US$6 370 and Nhamburo – US$5 200. The figure could rise to US$1
million by
December when Saruchera ends his tenure but he could still make
more if the
central bank extends his tenure at the bank.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 September 2011 15:39
IN
the best interests of the nation, we have decided to give an update on
the
state of the process of crafting the national code of corporate
governance
(national code). I have partnered with Canaan Farirai Dube, a
prominent
lawyer and the founder of the Zimbabwe Leadership Forum (Zimlef)
and
Chairman of the National Code on Corporate Governance to compile this
update. The national code, a developing project, is an initiative of the
combined efforts of Zimlef, the Institute of Directors Zimbabwe (IoDZ) and
the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (Saz). The initiative is motivated by
the desire to promote sound corporate governance (CG) in Zimbabwe. This
initiative is supported by the Government of Zimbabwe as well as civic
society, making this initiative a wholly indigenous project. The national
code was launched in September 2009 and significant progress has been made
towards the establishment of a code of corporate governance that is unique
and specific to Zimbabwe’s corporate needs and history. It is important to
note that this code should have been launched by April 2011 but due to
resource constraints the launching has been deferred to October 2011, based
on the premise that the project team would have managed to raise the
required funds to complete the code-crafting process. Why should Zimbabwe
have its own code? Minimise corporate collapses and the need to instill
discipline within the business sector. Establish minimum standards for
corporate leadership Attract and retain investment for overall national
economic turnaround and growth. Raise the bar on corporate governance above
legal stipulations on the concept. Trend worldwide: more than 70 countries
have their own codes, e.g. South Africa September 2009 – King III, Brazilian
code 2010, Malawi June 1 2010, UK code 2010. No buy-in to the Principles for
Corporate Governance in Zimbabwe —manual on best practice 1990s— by Mann.
Thus, in essence, the purpose of the national code is precisely to assist
incorporated entities at micro-level address the corporate government
problem in Zimbabwe and to achieve favourable corporate governance
practices, which are respected internationally. The process of developing
the national code for Zimbabwe has been long, but through the commitment of
the board, the steering committee members, as well the technocrats in the
thematic committees, there is now a zero draft which is in circulation for
critique by stakeholders. This is the fourth of six phases that make up the
project. The six phases The first phase was the launch. The second phase was
the establishment of management structures to direct and control the
process. Ten thematic areas were identified in this phase. The consulting of
stakeholders and research make up the third phase. The fourth phase is
code-drafting. The fifth phase is the launch and implementation of the
national code. The sixth phase in the life of the national code is the
monitoring and evaluation. It is worth noting that despite the financial
resource constraints the project has faced, the project team, through its
board, has fully accomplished the first three stages and is part way through
the fourth phase. The zero draft that is in circulation includes the
following key research components: Assessment of Zimbabwe’s current business
environment and practices; Evaluation of existing international best
practices; Assessment of Zimbabwe’s legal and regulatory framework,
including standards and codes and the; Identification of reform needs in
Zimbabwe through undertaking a gap analysis. In line with the code-crafting
best practices, the remaining activities to ensure the successful completion
of the project are: Face-to-face interviews with identified stakeholders and
nationwide consultative workshops; Drafting of the code; Testing of the
first draft code; Finalisation of the code and its launch. Challenges As
indicated earlier, the project has faced some challenges which, given the
economic environment, were to be expected. The main challenges to the
research and development of this code have been the availability of
financial resources, time and personnel. All project personnel with the
exception of the project manager are volunteers. Project board membership
Canaan Farirai Dube, Chairperson, representing Zimbabwe Leadership Forum,
promoter of the code-drafting process. Johannes Mudzengerere, Deputy Chair,
representing the Institute of Directors of Zimbabwe, promoter of the
code-drafting process. Emmanuel Jinda, Chairman of Saz, representing the
Standards Association of Zimbabwe, promoter of the code-drafting process.
Retired Colonel Christian Katsande, Deputy Chief Secretary to the President
and Cabinet, representing the Public Sector. David Mutambara, former IoDZ
Chairman, representing the Civic Society. Rita Likukuma, representing the
business donor community. Nimrod Chiminya, Chairman of Zimbabwe Local
Government Association (ZILGA), representing the Urban and Local
Authorities. Deon Theron, President of the Commercial Farmer’s Union,
representing the Business Council of Zimbabwe. Trust Chikohora, immediate
past President of Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC). Tinashe
Rwodzi, managing partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers Zimbabwe and Malawi.There
are 10 thematic areas identified as being representative of corporate
governance needs to be addressed by the national code. Each thematic area
has a committee of at least nine members, who are technocrats in the
relevant areas. The 10 thematic areas are: Board & directors Accounting
and
auditing procedures and control Governance of risk and IT management
Integrated reporting disclosures The governance of disputes and business
failures Compliance and stakeholder relationships Specific requirements of
governance in the financial institutions Specific requirements for
governance in state owned enterprises and parastatals Government’s role and
corporate governance (corporate governance and public policy) Culture,
ethics, values and development Aspects of the national code The zero draft,
which is currently in circulation, highlights the following areas as being
salient issues unique and to be incorporated in the national code for
Zimbabwe: SMEs and indigenisation Economic empowerment Governance of
risk, including ICT management. The contribution of culture, values, ethics
and development in business ethics The importance of alternative dispute
resolution (ADR) mechanisms in resolving disputes. The role of government
in corporate governance Balance between ownership and control Term limits
for directors Gender considerations in board representations.
Acknowledgements Stakeholders crafting the National code on corporate
governance acknowledge with gratitude the sponsorship we have received from
several organisations and individuals: This article was co-authored by
Brett Chulu and Canaan Farirai Dube. If you want to sponsor the National
Code crafting process contact Tsitsi Mutasa on
secretariat@nationalcodeoncg.co.zw
Brett Chulu Lets discuss at brettchulu
@consultant.com.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 September 2011 14:56
By
Qhubani Moyo
THE recently concluded elections in Zambia which saw
opposition leader
Michael Sata’s rise to power have generated a lot of
excitement in the
Zimbabwe political discourse. The excitement arises from
the historic link
of the two countries which were once one country under the
banner of
Northern and Southern Rhodesia.
The relations of the
two countries were further cemented by the role that
Zambia played in
assisting Zimbabwe during the liberation struggle. The role
played by Zambia
founding President Kenneth Kaunda and other Front Line
states in assisting
Zimbabwe achieve her independence are legendary. Most
importantly the
language and cultural links of the two countries make the
two countries seem
like twins.
There are many people on this side of the Zambezi
River who have relatives
on the other side of the river. In fact outgoing
Zambian President Rupiah
Banda was born in the Matabeleland South Province
of Zimbabwe.
The elections in that country were bound to create
plenty of excitement
especially given that Zimbabweans have not seen any
change of government
since Independence in 1980 and they can only celebrate
their wishes when the
next door neighbours achieve what they seriously crave
for.
However, the debate has been scratching on the obvious but
important issues
like the provision of democratic space provides results
that reflect the
true will of the electorate.
The elections in
Zambia indicate what we obviously know, that use of
violence, intimidation,
murder and all forms of coercion produces distorted
electoral results that
do not reflect the true will of the people. Another
issue that emerges is
that a well organised elections management body,
neutral security organs and
open media deliver what the electorate desires.
Below the veneer of
these obvious things there are important issues
requiring serious
interrogation, in particular the kind of leadership that
comes out of any
election. It is thus important to locate the argument on
where Zambian
political change began and the meaning of the current results
in the context
of the ousting of Kaunda in 1991 after 27 years in power.
To locate
the debate in that context will be very useful because Zimbabwe is
confronted with an almost similar situation to the one that confronted
Zambians in 1991 when they made their first change of
government.
The outcome of the 1991 elections had a direct bearing on
the way things
have gone in Zambia today. By the same token it is important
to use this in
constructing the change we seek as a country.
When
in 1991 Zambia had been completely battered economically by the effects
of
Esap, poor governance, corruption, and a leader who thought he was the
only
chosen one, people in that country found themselves in the exact fix
that we
find ourselves in as Zimbabweans today.
They were pushed into a
corner from where they sought to bring change at all
costs. They never sat
to define the change they wanted nor did they come up
with a well-defined
post-Kaunda governance framework .The mantra was just
change and the trade
union movement provided the political leadership that
was the rise of
Frederick Chiluba to power.
Unip, led by Kaunda who had overstayed,
had failed to reform itself from
within and many of its senior members
jumped ship to become part of the
popular movement. What is important about
events then that are a lesson for
Zimbabwe is that the leadership that came
out of the crises was a leadership
that many Zambians would not want to
remember. The pressure for change saw
Zambians elect in Chiluba someone who
lacked the necessary education,
competency and capacity.
Chiluba
suffered from seriously poor judgement and lacked the acumen and
vision to
take Zambia forward. The volumes of corruption that characterised
his reign
go down as among the worst in the history of that country. If
anything
Zambia was turned into an animal farm.
No doubt his self-engineered
successor Levy Mwanawasa had lot of running
battles with him to recover the
loot and also ensure that he deals with the
mess that Chiluba had created in
the country.
Even Rupiah Banda, Sata’s predecessor, had to deal
with the aftermath of
Chiluba’s incompetence but unfortunately it was
already too late and the
young and agitated voters were not prepared to hear
more narrations as they
booted the Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD)
out.
This signalled the failure of the labour-based movement
because of refusal
to pay critical attention to the quality of leadership
when you embark on
change of government. The workers party which should have
been in power
longer to defend their interests is now gone because of
failure to pay
serious attention to the question of the competence of the
leadership.
But questions are also raised on the quality of
leadership of Sata, the
former governor of Lusaka. While it is not our
business to determine who
leads Zambia it would be useful to remember the
words of Kaunda indicating
lack of confidence in Sata’s abilities. All the
same it would be unfair to
judge him now, his people will. But we will in
Zimbabwe make a thorough
scrutiny of all leaders that want to take charge of
this country.
The real lessons from Zambia are that while in Zimbabwe
it is urgent to
completely remove the gang that has been in power since 1980
it is important
to pay attention to the kind of leadership that wants to
rule this country.
Zimbabweans should guard against promoting a Chiluba who
because of lack of
education and competency betrayed the aspirations of
workers.
The Zambian template of change teaches us that we need
to be sensitive to
realities of the challenges confronting us and the kind
of leadership we
need to solve these. We need as a country to come up with a
template or
framework of the attributes of the leaders we want. It is also
important to
come up with clearly defined programmes that define the change
we want and
then assign individuals with the necessary competence to
lead.
The change of leadership in Zambia comes at a time when
Zimbabweans re
grossly engrossed in the debate provoked by Professor
Welshman Ncube on what
competency skills we need for the future leadership
of the country.
This is important for a country with the highest
literacy levels in Africa.
The unfortunate response from the usual suspects
who want Zimbabwe to be run
by a Chiluba cannot be allowed to suffocate the
truth that confronts us. It
is sad that a country like ours that boasts the
highest competency levels in
Africa wants to criminalise a necessary debate
like the competency levels we
require to run the country.
Those
that want to suffocate the debate on the need for election of
leadership
with the requisite capacity and competency cannot be allowed get
away with
murder. The real debate is about that and people should not abuse
people’s
emotions in the name of change; history will judge them harshly for
this sin
of commission.
As Zimbabweans prepare for elections in 2013 when they
are constitutionally
due the issue of the quality and capacity of the
leadership should be at the
centre stage of the change we want. African
countries have been destroyed by
incompetent leadership; imagine what Idi
Amin did to Uganda because of lack
of competency and education. Zimbabwe
surely deserves better.
Qhubani Moyo is the National Organising
Secretary of the MDC led by
Professor Welshman Ncube.
He is
contactable on qmoyo2000@yahoo.co.uk
.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 September 2011 14:46
WITH never-ending
persistence and emphasis, the hierarchy of Zanu-PF and
innumerable
vociferous supporters of that political party raucously insist
that almost
the entirety of Zimbabwe’s immense economic ills are wholly
occasioned by
“illegal international sanctions” imposed by diverse first
world countries
in general, and by the United Kingdom, USA, and their allies
in
particular.
Almost every speech by that party’s leadership
incorporates contentions that
the immense poverty that afflicts the majority
of the population and the
concomitant suffering, hardships and distress are
almost entirely
attributable to those “illegal international
sanctions”.
However, despite the recurrent insistence that Zimbabwe’s
ills are due to
the supposedly malicious, ulterior motive-driven actions of
those countries,
those who cite the alleged sanctions as the cause of our
economic stresses
merely state that as fact, without providing any
substantiating
corroboration.
Their failure to provide any
convincing, corroborative facts is not only
very significant, but inevitably
gives rise to innumerable questions as to
the actualities of their claims
and as to the veracity thereof.
In the first instance, if such
sanctions do exist, is it factual that they
are “illegal?” On the
exceptionally rare occasion that any supportive
explanation is given, the
alleged illegality is stated to be because such
sanctions were not agreed
upon by the United Nations.
But there is a total failure to evidence
that there is any binding
international law which states that sanctions may
only be applied against
any country through a United Nations’
determination.
Not only does no such international law exist, but it
is the sovereign right
of any country to decide whom they will trade with,
to whom they will lend
money or provide humanitarian or developmental aid,
and who may visit their
countries, invest in them and otherwise interact
with them.
Zimbabwe has the right to prescribe who may or may not
enter the country,
and has often exercised that right (as, for example,
evidenced by the
frequent refusal of visas to journalists, and others who
desire to visit
Zimbabwe, and the pronounced extent that foreign investment
into Zimbabwe is
rigorously regulated). Why are such actions by Zimbabwe
not illegal, if
like actions by other countries are illegal?
Many
other questions also flow from the claims that the country’s economic
woes
are a consequence of “illegal international sanctions”, without the
proponents of those claims even attempting to answer them. It boggles the
mind as to how sanctions imposed in 2002 caused:
Decimation of the agricultural foundation of the Zimbabwean economy from
2001, a year before such sanctions, resulting in more than 300 000 people
becoming unemployed, and rendering their more than 1,5 million dependants
destitute.
Prior to 2001, Zimbabwe was not only wholly food
sustaining, but was the
“bread basket” of the region.
Since then, the
country has been very dependent upon imports to supplement
its diminished
production. Its tobacco output fell from a high of 237
million kg. to less
than 45 million kg over seven years, albeit that it has
since risen to about
140 million kg. Was the decline in agriculture due to
“illegal
international sanctions” imposed only after the decline
began?
Zimbabwe to default in debt servicing to the
International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and other international lenders in 2002,
prior to the introduction of
“illegal international sanctions”? Those who
ascribe all the ills to those
sanctions state that the USA’s Zimbabwe
Democracy and Economic Recovery Act
(Zidera) initiated the barrier to
accessing critically needed loan funding,
but no lender lends to debt
defaulters, and the IMF’s constitution bars
lending to countries whose debt
servicing is in arrear.
Thus, the USA has never had to apply the Zidera
prescribed veto of IMF
funding to Zimbabwe, and hence that “illegal
international sanction” is only
notional, and not a reality in
practice.
A never-ending invasion of farms, with intensely
associated violence, in
total breach of law, devoid of any preventive action
by government and its
law enforcement authorities, not only severely
impacting upon agricultural
productivity, but also destroying investor
confidence and impacting severely
upon tourism, with potential tourists
fearing for their security. Is that a
consequence of “illegal international
sanctions”?
Unlawful frequent invasions of properties and businesses
by
self-appointed expropriators, also uncontained by the law enforcement
authorities, resulting in mass destruction of business and investor
confidence. How dare the international community impose such an “illegal
international sanction? It didn’t!
Over three million
Zimbabweans, many of them possessed of invaluable
skills, to depart the
country, motivated to do so only in order to generate
desperately needed
income to support themselves and their dependants?
Family lives were
destroyed, and Zimbabwe and its economy lost innumerable,
critically-needed,
skills (including doctors and other healthcarers,
educationalists,
engineers, accountants, managers, technical and industrial
experts, and
many, many others). What “illegal international sanctions”
enforced that
brain drain? — none! It was internally created economic
collapse.
Government to sustain endless fiscal deficits,
primarily occasioned by
the employment of an estimated 75 000 “ghost
workers”, by endless overseas
travels by all and sundry in the political
environment, by intensive
corruption, and much unproductive expenditure. Is
it not astounding that
this was caused, and continues to be caused, by
“illegal international
sanctions”?
Marked reductions in
Zimbabwean industrial exports to the region, in
general, and neighbouring
states in particular, being a major contributor to
the intense decline in
Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector?
The hyperinflation sustained in
2008, being the highest ever sustained
anywhere in the world, and primarily
occasioned by government-driven endless
printing of money, wholly
unsupported by requisite reserves? It is surely
incredible that the
international community is so overwhelmingly powerful
that it can impose
such a hyperinflationary “illegal international sanction”!
And there are
many more like imponderables as to the miraculously powerful
“illegal
international sanctions” which could so greatly impoverish a
country, when
effectively the only sanctions actually applied were
constraints upon travel
to, and asset acquisition in, diverse countries by
approximately 200
politically active or connected individuals and any
businesses owned by
them, and to transactions with Zimbabwean
governmentally-controlled
enterprises.
The only other effect of the “illegal international
sanctions” is that they
have accorded the politicians with a specious,
spurious justification of
Zimbabwe’s economic ills, in order that a duped
populace not realise who
really caused the tsunami like economic
earthquake.
By Eric Bloch
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 September 2011 14:39
Brian
Chitemba
A NEW dawn has broken across the Zambezi in Zambia where
long-time
opposition leader Michael Sata won the country’s presidential race
against
incumbent Rupiah Banda.
Sata (74), a former railway
station cleaner at Victoria Station in London,
won a close-fought poll
securing 43% of the vote compared to Banda’s 36%.
Sata had lost four
previous runs, the last being to Banda in 2008.
Sadc leaders and the
international community should be anxiously waiting to
hear Sata’s foreign
policy, particularly towards Zimbabwe. While in
opposition a few years ago
Sata publicly expressed admiration for President
Robert Mugabe and
criticised Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as a puppet of
Western
governments who enjoyed financial backing from Britain and the US
“to cause
trouble in Zimbabwe”.
On the other hand, Banda had no kind words for
Mugabe, whom he warned of an
Egyptian-style uprising in Zimbabwe as a result
of his refusal to step down.
Sata has lauded Mugabe for his
liberation war credentials and supported his
controversial land reform
programme saying Western governments which
criticised the ageing leader were
imperialists and capitalists who wanted to
see Zimbabweans
suffering.
The question on many lips is: does Mugabe have a new ally
in Sadc across the
Zambezi? However, the irony of it all is that Sata is no
friend of the
Chinese who have virtually taken over the economy of the
copper-rich
country, and has threatened to clampdown on them, while Mugabe
is best
friends with the Chinese.
The Chinese have liberally been
granted mining and business concessions in
Zimbabwe despite widespread
complaints of exploitation. They have been
accused of using cheap labour at
their mines and construction firms with
impunity.
Zimbabweans
are expected to go to the polls next year after the writing of a
new
constitution whose draft referendum is expected in January. The
constitution
has been delayed by several months due to bickering between
Zanu PF and
MDC-T as well as erratic funding.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed a
shaky coalition government in 2009 which has
been characterised by serious
infighting. “The election itself is
reassuring and inspires confidence
among Zimbabweans that elections can be a
vehicle to achieve change,” said
Mavhinga.
Some commentators have raised fears that Mugabe and his
securocrats may
refuse to hand-over power should he lose elections. In the
2008 harmonised
poll, Mugabe withheld presidential results for a month after
losing to
Tsvangirai.
Political analyst Blessing Vava said it was
uncertain whether Sata would
stick to his eccentric views on Zimbabwe
because the demands and
expectations of a Head of State are different from
that of an opposition
leader.
He said the critique on Tsvangirai
by Sata could have been a populist
campaign statement which does not
necessarily reflect his stance on Zimbabwe
because he once praised
Tsvangirai as one of the most courageous leaders on
the
continent.
“The trend of most African leaders, especially the newly
elected ones, is
how they quickly embrace policies that have a positive
bearing on the
economy and service delivery to their people and that
encourage and boost
investor confidence and try as much to embrace the
global village and
co-existence concept which is to the contrary to the Zanu
PF way of
governance,” said Vava.
As an opposition leader Sata
could say anything but as president, he may
need to engage in diplomacy and
not recklessly attack leaders across his
country’s border.
He
could have been ignored when he strongly criticised Tsvangirai and
praised
Mugabe because opposition leaders are often not taken seriously.
But
questions have also been raised over Sata’s age. At 74, will he seek
another
term in office?
Sata’s first term in office may plunge Zambians in
the same predicament as
Zimbabweans where Mugabe at 87 is still active in
politics. Vava said Sata
could not risk going the Zanu PF route which
ravaged the once prosperous
economy because he needs to attract investors to
Zambia which has a gross
domestic product of US$12 billion and a population
of 13 million.
Although the Zambian elections were marred by sporadic
violence, Banda’s
acceptance of defeat was a lesson for leaders like Mugabe
who have been
clinging to office for decades.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 September 2011 14:35
By Leon
Hartwell
WHILE President Robert Mugabe last week addressed the 66th
session of the UN
General Assembly in New York, South Africa’s ambassador to
Zimbabwe, Vusi
Mavimbela, gave a speech in Harare. Both individuals
presented different
narratives about state sovereignty.
Mugabe
said that “Zimbabwe reposes her hopes in a UN that recognises the
equality
of sovereign states”. Throughout his speech, Mugabe called for a
strict
interpretation of sovereignty, where states ought to adopt a laissez
faire
approach to their neighbours.
According to Mugabe, non-intervention
helps to prevent aggression between
states, which in turn serves to uphold
regional and international peace.
This is in line with Westphalian
sovereignty, which is associated with
principles of self-determination,
legal equality between states, and
non-intervention.
The UN
Charter‘s Article 2(4) supports this view as it prohibits attacks on
the
“territorial integrity or political independence” of states, while
Article
2(7) restricts (but does not rule out) intervention. However,
Chapter VII
of the Charter mandates the Security Council to “maintain and
restore
international peace and security”.
Mugabe views the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation (Nato)’s intervention in
Libya as a violation of the
country’s sovereignty and illegal. “There was a
quick resort to invoking
Chapter VII of the Charter with gross deliberate
misinterpretation of the
scope of the mandate originally given to Nato.”
He also argued that
“the process of mediation and peaceful negotiations was
never given full
play”. Furthermore, Mugabe lambasted the International
Criminal Court (ICC)
for its strong African focus as well as the
Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
for being misused by the international
community.
The ICC came
into force in 2002 with the aim of prosecuting individuals who
commit grave
crimes, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against
humanity. The
R2P became popular in the last decade and it was widely
endorsed by the
heads of state and government at the 2005 UN World Summit.
It is
a set of norms advocating that states have a duty to protect their
citizens
from grave crimes. If they fail to do so, their sovereignty should
be
temporarily suspended and the international community has a right to
intervene.
Intervention could take many forms, including
mediation, sanctions, or as a
last resort, war. The Global Political
Agreement is arguably an example of
the R2P, in as much as the AU, Sadc and
South Africa act as guarantors to
the Zimbabwe peace
process.
Back in Harare Mavimbela gave a different account of
sovereignty. He kicked
off his discussion by focusing on freedom in
relation to the nation state.
He argued “freedom is the appreciation that
there are other laws, other
forces, independent of our will or design that
impact on what we do as
societies.”
This freedom, he argued,
should be “sensitive” to two trends that
characterise the modern state. The
first trend is that the “authority and
sovereignty of the state is
(inescapably) surrendered and dispersed
downwards from government to civil
society”.
If governments respond positively, this would enhance
their democratisation
processes. Mavimbela warned that “the nation state
cannot be static over
time; it must adapt, transform and
change”.
A second trend that Mavimbela identified is that states are
increasingly
surrendering part of their sovereignty to multilateral
institutions (such as
Sadc). Consequently, states are subject to
supranational governance
structures and rules.
Again, states
can either positively respond to global governance by engaging
it
constructively, or “take the position of permanent hostility towards it
and
define it simply as the instrument of evil”.
Thus, both trends entail
that governments are in the process of losing
certain areas of their
traditional sovereignty which has hitherto been
sacrosanct. Mavimbela
stated that if governments challenge these inevitable
processes, they could
find themselves in a Tunisian, Egyptian or Libyan
situation. If they engage
it, states could “ride the crest of its positive
elements”.
Moreover, Mavimbela was unapologetic about South
Africa’s support for the UN
Security Council’s Resolution 1973, which
authorised Nato’s military
intervention in Libya. For Mugabe, Nato’s
intervention was premature,
“whatever political disturbances might have
first occurred in Benghazi”.
Although Mavimbela conceded that it is
extremely difficult to judge the
extent of grave crimes before they occur,
he warned that non-intervention
also has consequences and said it was
impossible to ignore the signs that
gross human rights violations were going
to transpire in Libya.
Before Resolution 1973, former Libyan
leader Muammar Gaddafi labelled
protestors “cockroaches” and demanded of his
supporters to “cleanse Libya
house by house”.
Mavimbela stated:
“Whether that constituted an impending massacre or not,
probably we shall
never know for certain. That uncertainty is perhaps the
price the people of
Rwanda had to pay as the world folded its arms, shocked
in the uncertainties
of the time, as the butchers went about their business
in genocidal
abandon.”
To be clear, Mavimbela does not condone military
intervention as the first
choice of action in a conflict situation. Since
1994, South Africa’s foreign
policy has advocated mediation as the preferred
method of conflict
resolution.
What should we make of Mavimbela’s
message to Zimbabwe? In essence, he
affirmed South Africa’s full support
for a free and fair upcoming election.
He also stressed South Africa’s
commitment in its facilitator role via Sadc
in relation to Zimbabwe where
“the higher body itself assumes the
responsibility with the understanding
that the internal mechanisms within
the country in question have failed to
secure a solution to the challenges”.
Reading between the lines,
Mavimbela said that Zimbabwe’s politicians have a
choice: listen to the will
of the people and deepen the democratisation
process, or, in addition to
economic instability, face a wave of internal
and external pressures akin to
one of the Arab Spring scenarios.
Mavimbela also alluded to changes
that could facilitate a peaceful
democratic transition in Zimbabwe. Drawing
on the Apartheid South Africa
example, Mavimbela pointed out that the
security sector and business
community realised they had an opportunity to
contribute to the development
of a new democratic country. “Their analysis
and estimation had the
foresight to see that there was no way out for the
regime except to initiate
negotiations with the ANC and help establish
democracy ... The truth was
simple: adapt or die!”
Mavimbela
concluded his speech by reiterating that economic and political
stability in
Sadc and the AU is dependent on that of its member states.
This assumption
is no different from the rationale behind the New
Partnership for Africa’s
Development, which links a stable political
environment with economic growth
and prosperity.
Although Mugabe and Mavimbela’s perspectives on
sovereignty have been
informed by their struggles against colonial and
racist regimes, the latter’s
views reflect concerns raised by a new
generation of African leaders who
acknowledge that sovereignty comes with
responsibility. I
n 2000, heads of state and government in
Africa endorsed this principle when
they adopted the Constitutive Act
establishing the AU. Together they
recognised that intervention is
necessary in “grave circumstances, namely
war crimes, genocide and crimes
against humanity”.
Leon Hartwell is an independent political
analyst based in Harare
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 29 September 2011
14:50
STANDARD Chartered Bank is on a collision course with government
after
expressing reluctance to meet indigenisation thresholds, the Herald
reported on Monday.
The bank said it was exploring options to cede 10%
ownership to indigenous
people.
Reports said it was considering
transferring 5% of its shares to its
employees and another 5% to its local
pension fund.
Last week Indigenisation minister Saviour
Kasukuwere met Stanchart chief
executive Diana Layfield who emphasised the
importance of Stanchart Zimbabwe
remaining part of Stanchart plc.
But
Kasukuwere ruled that this was not consistent with the law.
“The law is
clear,” he said. “It’s 51% shareholding to indigenous people,
not the 10%
they are talking about. Their plan is unacceptable.”
This is a
case of a minister imposing a spurious legal framework on a
company and then
declaring the company out of line when it declines to
pursue a policy that
would be ruinous to its business. It is no good
declaring “the law” to be
paramount when “the law is an ass” as the
expression goes.
It baffles
us why companies have not followed Stanchart’s lead in resisting
damaging
policies imposed by ignorant ministers. One top lawyer told
Muckraker this
week that there are at least 12 solid grounds for challenging
the
indigenisation law in the courts.
“It leaks like a colander,” he
said.
When the law is so obviously a bad law it needs to be challenged in the
courts.
What is Old Mutual doing to protect the interests of its pension
holders?
Should banks and firms that have been successfully run for decades
succumb
to takeover by a party that lost the last election because its
policies were
unacceptable to the majority of voters? That’s also of course
why Sadc
intervened.
Let’s hope this period is not recorded as one of
national failure. Zimbabwe’s
companies need to stand up to political
bullying and corporate seizures.
A special investigative unit at SABC
probing corruption and waste has
revealed that the corporation has paid more
than R100 000 for its employees’
subscription fees for M-Net and DStv.
That’s just over the past year.
The corporation’s employees apparently prefer
M-Net and DStv to their own
network.
This all sounds very
familiar!
Which ministers and their officials sat down recently
and decided how they
could best waste motorists’ time and further burden
them with new rules and
regulations?
This of course refers to the
decision to have all motorists retested no
matter how many years experience
they have had behind the wheel.
The decision to retest motorists is an
unnecessary and costly imposition. It
follows recent steps to replace number
plates and to make carrying all sorts
of items compulsory. Then there are
the left-hand drive cars.
Muckraker is convinced there is a government
committee that seeks ways to
make life as difficult as possible for
motorists.
Last weekend there were water cuts across Harare. No
announcement was made
as to when these would start or stop. And when tackled
on this arbitrary
state of affairs, officials told us the crisis was the
product of aged
infrastructure, pipe leakages and demand that has
outstripped supply.
This is only partly true. The performance of pumps at
Morton Jaffray has
also to be taken into account. The Zhing-Zhong pumping
machinery which the
“city fathers” thought would be a miracle cure turned
out to be another
Chinese disaster.
Only 60% of valves are currently
in working order. Local companies that
tendered for renovations at Morton
Jaffray were told the Chinese could do a
better job.
Now we see
it.
Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa has vowed to crush any
revolt against
President Mugabe’s rule, NewsDay reported this week. He
dismissed as wishful
thinking suggestions that Zimbabweans could stage an
uprising similar to
those that rocked North Africa
recently.
Mnangagwa made the remarks when touring Chinhoyi University of
Technology’s
Hunyani Farm accompanied by service chiefs.
“The US, Britain
and their allies invaded Libya so they can plunder their
oil resources,” he
said. “They might have succeeded in Libya but that will
not happen
here.
“Our detractors with the help of sellouts have been working
hard to bring
anarchy to Zimbabwe but that will not happen because we will
crush them.”
Mnangagwa claimed MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was working on
the
instructions of agents of illegal regime change.
He amusingly said
Zanu PF was the vanguard of dignity, democracy and human
rights.
Is that
the same Zanu PF that unleashed a mob on parliament when it was
about to
discuss human rights issues last month?
And then again outside
parliament while President Mugabe was denouncing
violence at the opening
session?
As for Tsvangirai working on the instructions of the agents of
regime
change, this was presumably the same Tsvangirai who Mnangagwa claimed
to be
working closely with not so long ago?
Can he make up
his mind please what political line he is peddling. As for
the story about
oil, why can’t the people of Libya thank their liberators
who helped to
defeat the North African tyrant? Just because Zanu PF is
unhappy with the
outcome of events in Libya doesn’t mean the people of Libya
have to be upset
as well. They are ecstatic. And while the AU has
surrendered to the popular
will in Tripoli, Zanu PF is hanging on to its
former benefactor.
In any
case Britain, France and Italy already have long-standing contracts
to
purchase Libyan oil.
Mnangagwa talks about “crushing” fellow Zimbabweans
because they don’t share
his reactionary views on events in North Africa.
What is it about Zanu PF
leaders that they can only function in the context
of crushing and bashing
people? Is this the Zimbabwe we
want?
And we were amused to see the reference to China and Russia
being
“all-weather” friends. Russia last month changed its policy on Libya
and
allowed the Libyan ambassador to stay. As for China, it will be a friend
to
anyone who gives it resources to feed on.
Do the Chinese seriously
think this regime is going to rule for ever?
Talk of inclusive
governments has become music to many a dictator’s ears.
After losing
elections or being violently deposed, dictators these days are
keen on
exploring the “inclusive” route. Remember Laurent Gbagbo, the
deposed
Ivorian leader who refused to cede power after having lost to his
rival
Alassane Ouattara.
Gbagbo remained defiant, ignoring calls for him to
have a “dignified exit”
from power. After a protracted struggle, he was
finally captured and
henceforth struck a conciliatory tone.
In Libya the
tale is somewhat similar. Muammar Gaddafi, while still in
power, described
the rebels as “rats” and was unwilling to cede power. Now
that he is
deposed, African leaders’ tongues are wagging over an inclusive
government
solution for Libya.
President Mugabe said on Monday that the
African Union still wants inclusive
negotiations between Gadaffi loyalists
and the National Transitional Council
which will result in an inclusive
government.
“We will not go as far as the Europeans, Nato countries,
to recognise them
de jure to say they are the absolute government. No, of
course, because we
still want negotiations, inclusive negotiations between
the NTC and the
Gaddafi loyalists,” Mugabe said showing just how out of
touch he is.
Meanwhile, Vice-President, Joice Mujuru, says African countries
should unite
and map out strategies in response to a scaled-up onslaught by
neo-colonial
forces which have resulted in violent removal of “legitimately
elected”
governments by rebels.
It seems to have conveniently
escaped Mujuru’s notice that none of the
regimes in North Africa were
legitimately elected. In Tunisia the National
Observatory of Election
Control was a mere piece of decoration to give the
veneer that the elections
were free and fair. As for Egypt, Hosni Mubarak’s
re-elections had become
synonymous with vote rigging. Gaddafi didn’t even
bother.
Aspiring Zanu PF candidates in all elections will now
be asked to produce
their programmes and justify to the people why they
should be voted for, the
Herald reported on Monday.
Zanu PF political
commissar, Webster Shamu, said leaders should come from
the people after
clearly articulating their vision.
“All people aspiring for
positions this time around will have to face the
people together to explain
their programmes of action,” he said.
“This applies to the incumbent and the
aspirant, so that they are chosen on
the basis of how well they articulate
and hope to address people’s needs.”
We sincerely hope that this rule applies
not merely at grassroots level, but
right up to the top. People like
President Robert Mugabe –– who have been at
the helm for 30-plus years ––
should explain what they intend to offer the
electorate which they have
failed all these years to provide.
Meanwhile President Mugabe met
a delegation of American businesspeople led
by Civil Rights leader, Reverend
Jesse Jackson, on the sidelines of the
United Nations General Assembly to
discuss investment opportunities in
Zimbabwe, it was
reported.
However, Jackson’s conduct seems to have confused ZBC,
largely because he
“would not reveal the subject of his meeting with Mr
Tsvangirai”.
ZBC was clearly disappointed that Jackson “was not vocal on the
issue of
sanctions”.
Jackson had said: “Now is the time to engage and
talk it out and not fight
it out. I think there has been enough fighting and
gamesmanship. If you
engage you will find common ground.”
This is
understandable considering how the state media last week claimed
that Jesse
Jackson, who heads a pressure group called Operation Push, was
“making
efforts to get Mr Tsvangirai to hold a press conference denouncing
sanctions”.
Popular American actor, singer and businessman
David Michael Hasselhoff,
popularly known as Michael Knight, was in the
resort town of Victoria Falls
this week on a three-day private
visit.
The Herald reports that Hasselhoff, who was in the company of
his fiancée
Hayley Louise Roberts and his cousin Nicholas Jean Corjon, said
he was in
the country to enjoy the splendour associated with one of the
Seven Wonders
of the World, the Victoria Falls rain forest and the mighty
Zambezi River.
Thankfully the reporter did not ask the “Hoff” about his
position vis-à-vis
the “illegal” and “debilitating”
sanctions.
How long will it take ZTV and other state organs to
realise nobody is buying
their silly sanctions story. If they want sanctions
lifted, they must fulfil
the outstanding issues required in the GPA instead
of trying to subvert the
GPA. It’s as simple as
that.
Finally, what was Dr Paul Chimedza doing on the Herald’s
opinion pages this
week advocating the resuscitation of Thabo Mbeki’s
career? He talked about
the dungeons on the Isle of Gorée and the African
century that will only
come through struggle.
Why doesn’t the
good doctor mention Zimbabwe’s dungeons where those
struggling for democracy
and dignity were incarcerated in the 1980s and in
2008? What dignity did
Zanu PF afford those beaten up outside parliament
earlier this month? Let’s
have a little more introspection from the regime’s
apologists.
And Dr
Chimedza, stick to your day job.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 30 September 2011 09:21
LAST
week there was a fundamental change in southern Africa’s political
landscape. Michael Chilufya Sata (74) of the Patriotic Front won the Zambian
presidential election, beating Rupiah Banda of the Movement for Multi-party
Democracy.
The smooth handover of power between Banda and Sata
was celebrated globally,
especially on the African content where this is
rare. The sight on Friday of
outgoing President Banda congratulating Sata at
his inauguration will be
forever etched in the memories of not only
Zambians, but Africa as a whole.
It is an important lesson for our
continent, especially for us in Zimbabwe.
As Banda called for the
people of Zambia to rally behind Sata as the new
president, we recalled with
sadness how President Robert Mugabe had
threatened to go to war if he had
lost the bloody presidential run-off in
June 2008.
When Banda
called for Zambians to respect the will of the people, it brought
to mind
Mugabe’s declaration that the bullet was stronger than the ballot.
As
we recall the celebrations by Zambians after the announcement of the
presidential election after just two days, Zimbabweans recalled waiting for
over a month for the March 2008 presidential results. Numerous lessons
indeed from the Zambian polls!
The seamless change of power in
Zambia was long overdue on the African
continent. What is premature though
is the celebration of Sata’s victory by
Zanu PF based on his previous
attacks on the MDC and its president Morgan
Tsvangirai. The celebrations are
hollow, to say the least.
Sata is no longer an opposition leader. He
is now a head of state who should
not only be accountable to Zambians, but
to the Sadc region as a whole. The
political situation in the region and the
quest for unfettered democracy
should be the guiding principle to Sata’s
policy on Zimbabwe.
His policy should be guided by what
Zimbabweans are yearning for and what
they want the country to be. The will
of the people should never be
subverted on the basis that Sata, Mugabe and
Zanu PF share nationalistic
politics.
What Sata said about
Tsvangirai when he was still in opposition is different
from what he is
expected to say as president. His opinions will have to be
informed by
events on the ground rather than personal sentiment.
As Zambian
president and a member of Sadc, he will soon be seized with the
region’s
problem child, Zimbabwe, and its shaky inclusive government. He
should, as
the late Levy Mwanawasa and Banda did, take heed of the
intransigence of
Mugabe and Zanu PF and implement what they agreed on in the
Global Political
Agreement.
Sata will be informed by his regional colleagues the
frustration of endless
meetings with the three political parties in the
inclusive government in
Zimbabwe where Mugabe commits himself to facilitate
a smooth transition to
free and fair elections, only to come back home and
table new positions that
reverse what would have been agreed
on.
He also faces an army in Zimbabwe that vows not to salute a
president chosen
by the people if he does not meet their own set criteria.
To ensure that
people in Zimbabwe will enjoy the same democratic process
that he enjoyed,
Sata will have to take on Mugabe, the man he has called his
hero.
He might not like Tsvangirai or the MDC-T, but if he is to
be a credible
leader, especially within the Sadc region, he will have to
fight for the
rights of the people of Zimbabwe to elect a leader of their
choice without
fear or favour.
By celebrating Sata’s victory,
Zanu PF may have counted its chickens before
they have hatched.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 30 September
2011 09:12
SINCE August 2010 Sadc leaders, prompted by the South African
team of
facilitators, has carefully revised the GPA roadmap to trim it down
to what
is essential for Zimbabwe to hold a credible election process that
can be
recognised by the international community. This is the bottom line,
because
no other outcome would offer a resolution of the never-ending
Zimbabwe
crisis.
The amended roadmap abandons many of the key
reforms negotiated under the
Global Political Agreement in 2008. The issues
of governors, ambassadors,
RBZ Governor Gideon Gono, Attorney-General
Johannes Tomana and the swearing
in of the MDC-T’s Roy Bennett have all been
abandoned.
Remaining we have the issues of a new constitution, a
new voters roll, new
delimitation exercise, new Electoral Act, greater
autonomy for the Electoral
Commission and strict regional supervision of
polls. This trimmed down
roadmap will take some time — we will wrap up the
constitution by the end of
the year, hold the referendum in February, then
spend some six months on a
new voters roll, and a couple of months on a
delimitation exercise based on
the new roll.
The Electoral Act is
going through parliament right now and then all we have
to do is clean up
the Electoral Commission, put enough resources aside for
the elections and
in early 2013 we should be where Zambia was yesterday —
swearing in a new
president and saying goodbye to the old.
Simple enough really; why
then all the uncertainty that is clearly evident
across the country? This
emanates from a number of sources: the continued
paralysis in government as
conflicts rage over state-inspired and managed
political violence,
indigenisation inspired asset grabbing and threats
against business, the
parochial application of the law and continuous
conflicting
statements.
Clearly all are deviations from the roadmap. Deviations
meant to delay
arrival at the destination of this road, deviations down
blind alleys
designed to confuse and even attempt to change the road map and
chart a new
destination altogether.
The prime minister says that
the Indigenisation Regulations were promulgated
without cabinet approval and
are therefore “null and void”. Saviour
Kasukuwere says they are irreversible
and he is the only minister with the
right to speak on the issue. The Zanu
PF thugs behave as if they are the law
and the regulations have been put in
place properly.
The roadmap says elections simply cannot be held
until all the reforms are
in place and this means late 2012 or early 2013.
The president says March
2012, the Registrar-General says he is registering
voters and “cleaning up
the roll”, whatever that means. The negotiators for
the MDC say that is
nonsense — and JZ remains mute. Just whom do we
believe?
The simple reality is that farmers continue to be
dispossessed of their
life-time work, people are being beaten for belonging
to the MDC and
politically inspired killings and disappearances are
continuing.
New investment is frozen and frightened people are
taking their assets out
of the country as fast as they can convert them into
cash. Only the mafia
has money, the rest of us struggle to make ends meet on
a daily basis and
the economy has slumped back into a no growth
mode.
So just what do we make of all this — who is winning? I hear
constant
statements to the effect that the MDC is ineffective, has no power
or
influence and is achieving nothing. The other view I hear regularly is
that
Jacob Zuma has no interest in the Zimbabwe situation and Sadc is on the
side
of Zanu PF — the MDC is crazy to depend on these regional leaders for
support in its struggle for democracy, the rule of law and respect for human
rights.
These critics say we need to change our tactics; we need
“Plan B”, whatever
that is. What astounds me about all of this is the
general failure to see
that the Sadc agenda is the agenda of the MDC — it
was the March 2006
Congress that adopted the resolutions that we have been
faithfully
implementing since then.
We have forced Zanu PF to
the negotiating table and in negotiations that
have been running since May
2007 (four and a half years now) we have
negotiated Zanu PF into a corner
from which they have been struggling to get
out of for the past two and half
years. While they have succeeded in
delaying the inevitable, they have not
been able to influence the
destination one iota.
By Eddie
Cross
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 30 September 2011
09:07
WITH all this hub-hub surrounding the indigenisation issue, one
important
economic matter that has been on the cards for a long time but
has been
subjected to vicious inertia and now seems about to be thrown into
oblivion,
is the issue of privatisation.
For 21 years, dating
from the publishing of A Framework for Macro- Economic
Reform (1991-1995),
very little has happened about privatising state-owned
enterprises. I’m
reminded of this after seeing that the daughter of Angolan
president Eduardo
dos Santos has been in the country positioning herself for
a stake in
government-owned mobile operator NetOne.
When last did you dial or
receive a call from that network? But we
understand it has great potential,
hence why even South Africa’s MTN has
also been interested in it. The fact
of the matter is, NetOne has gone the
route of all parastatals: down, which
boggles the mind why even the unity
government is still having cold feet
about privatising it.
We are told Finance minister Biti reckons money
should be injected into the
ailing network so that it can generate some
US$60 million a month for the
fiscus. The honourable minister forgets that
each of the parastatals is
equally lucrative, with some even being
potentially more lucrative than
NetOne.
The bottom line is
governments anywhere have never been known to run
business effectively, and
this should not be taken as an insult. That’s
because government should be
in the business of running government while
business runs business. No more
should one expect a soccer player to excel
in rugby, or vice
versa.
There is need for a change of mindset in this regard, for our
government
seems to feel that when they asked to leave business it’s an
indictment on
their competence as individuals; it’s not. If government had
not privatised
Dairibord and Cottco, does anyone want to guess where those
companies would
be by now? And isn’t SeedCo a more successful enterprise
now, sowing its
seeds beyond our borders?
The evidence is
there for all to see. Now compare those companies with the
sorry state of
Zupco, which we learnt this week has been evicted from its
Bulawayo premises
for failing to pay rent, CSC, whose operations are now
frozen, AirZim, the
world’s only ground airline, Zesa, the only power
utility in the world whose
turbines generate darkness, and NRZ, which should
be renamed No Railways in
Zimbabwe.
Need we say more? Most of these parastatals were and some
still are
monopolies, but that didn’t stop them from making losses. And one
of the
main reasons why they make losses is that they are the cash cows for
the
responsible ministers. At one parastatal I used to work for, the
minister
responsible had his entire farm wages paid from the parastatal’s
bill. He
also used to obtain fuel from the parastatal and needless to say,
he would
have something for himself.
It is common cause that when
a minister is appointed to a portfolio, the
first thing he does is to
appoint a chief executive that will facilitate his
looting of a parastatal
that falls under him. That way he can assure himself
of the opportunity to
plunder the parastatal in question.
Hence, Minister Biti’s idea
that NetOne can be a cash cow for the state
falls flat on its face. In fact,
the only way Minister Biti can assure
himself that he has money coming into
the fiscus is to let those companies
be run by people who are more capable
of running businesses and then he can
come in and collect revenue in the
form of corporate tax, value added tax,
income tax from employees and the
many other taxes, levies, fees that
businesses are wrapped in day to day.
And lest we forget, privatisation
offers the opportunity for indigenisation
without necessarily disrupting
successfully operating
enterprises.
By Itai Masuku
