FinGaz
Nelson Banya News Editor
Heavyweights
find new feeding ground in city
RULING ZANU PF bigwigs, senior police
officials, government heavyweights as
well as politically connected elites,
have used their influence to bend the
rules to acquire stands in Harare for
themselves and their associates,
senior council officials revealed this
week.
James Chiyangwa, Harare City Council's acting director of housing
and
community services, and his two assistants, Rodgers Mupambirei and Agnes
Fologwe, told a committee of inquiry into the conduct of suspended town
clerk Nomutsa Chideya that numerous "recommendations and directives" on the
allocation of stands came from people in high places, in contravention of
standing procedures.
The three officials' testimony was in defence of
Chideya, who has been
charged with flouting procedures by allocating council
facilities and stands
to undeserving people.
To qualify for a council
stand, one has to be on the housing waiting list -
Harare's runs into
millions - and should not own any other property.
Applications are
considered by the allocations committee and approved by the
director of
housing.
"It is normal to have directives to assist. We get directives from a
lot of
higher offices either verbally, by phone or through letters. We have
allocated a number as a result of these approaches," Chiyangwa said.
He
cited a case in which the First Lady, Grace Mugabe, asked his office to
facilitate the allocation of stands in Southerton to two gospel
musicians.
Asked by prosecutor Takunda Tivaone why he did not challenge any
of the
requests made by the town clerk, the minister or commission
chairperson,
Chiyangwa said: "I can only say this in camera because most of
the requests
were from high offices, for instance, the President's wife,
Grace Mugabe, to
allocate stands to M. Mutsvene and Fungisai
Mashavave.
"I did so though at the back of my mind I knew that it was a
survival
instinct. I couldn't deny the directive."
He also added that
Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, who is
embroiled in the power
battles that have erupted at Town House, and Sekesayi
Makwavarara, Chideya's
nemesis who chairs the commission appointed to run
the capital city, had
made similar requests. A senior police officer,
Assistant Commissioner
Rodias Chirinda was allocated a stand in Southerton.
Fologwe and Mupambirei
also confirmed, under cross-examination, that Chombo
and Makwavarara had
issued directives that "special persons" be allocated
stands
expeditiously.
"We could not challenge their authority. We were just asked to
comply since
they called these people special cases," Mupambirei said.
It
emerged during the hearings that in addition to deputy commission
chairperson Tendai Savanhu's residence, the council's fire department had
been obliged to send water tenders to the Zvobgo residence as well as
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa's house.
A council source told The
Financial Gazette that it was common practice for
top ZANU PF officials to
call with orders to allocate stands to their
associates or relatives.
"We
always get calls for that sort of thing from the chefs and people
claiming
to have been sent over by them. Sometimes there is no way of
checking, one
can't really go to a minister to verify . . . it's a hot
potato," the
official said.
Council stands and plum contracts have long been acknowledged
as being
central to the ongoing battle to control the Harare City Council,
with
accusations and counter-accusations flying between one faction, led by
Makwavarara and supported by Chombo, and a rival faction led by Chideya and
supported by reticent ZANU PF politburo member Tendai Savanhu, who is also
deputy chairperson of the commission appointed to run Harare.
Ruling
party heavyweights have previously been involved in the abuse of a
government housing facility, which enabled many well-heeled officials to
access cheap loans at the expense of deserving cases.
Other cases of
rampant abuse were unearthed following a probe into the War
Victims'
Compensation Fund and VIP Housing Scheme while the land reform
exercise also
provided more fertile ground for corruption on a grand scale.
Although the
Anti-Corruption Commission made a highly publicised visit to
Town House in
April, nothing has been heard from the watchdog body ever
since.
Harare
has not had a substantive administration since opposition mayor Elias
Mudzuri was hounded out of office in 2003, just over a year after his
historic election.
The government-appointed commission headed by
Makwavarara, who defected from
the MDC, has been plagued by in-fighting,
deterioration in service delivery
and allegations of shady deals.
It
remains to be seen if Chideya, who holds the distinction of having been
suspended by four council administrations since he was appointed town clerk
in 1998 under the late Solomon Tawengwa, will outlive the current
leadership.
The Elijah Chanakira commission, which was appointed after
Tawengwa was
dismissed, Mudzuri and now Makwavarara, have all suspended
Chideya on
various grounds.
FinGaz
Nkululeko Sibanda Own Correspondent
A CATTLE rancher who filed
stocktheft charges against a prominent Cabinet
minister's employees this
week claimed that war veterans in Matabeleland
South were threatening
unspecified action against him if he does not drop
the
charges.
Robert Bruce Moffat, a neighbour of Small to Medium Enterprises
Development
Minister Sithembiso Nyoni, allegedly lost 18 beasts to cattle
rustlers in
February but found hides that bore his brand hidden at the
minister's
Fountain Farm.
Three of Nyoni's employees were picked up by
the police after a report was
made and have since appeared in court facing
stocktheft charges.
Moffat told The Financial Gazette that he had received
calls from the former
fighters of the country's protracted liberation
struggle ordering him to
withdraw the charges.
He said: "They have called
me on several occasions telling me that I should
withdraw the charges of
stocktheft against Nyoni's employees. I have been
told that I should do so
or face unspecified action."
The farmer vowed to press on with the charges
despite the threats.
"I am an aggrieved party. I cannot be seen withdrawing
the charges because I
lost a significant number of beasts to the cattle
rustlers. I want justice
to prevail," Moffat said.
Nyoni's husband, Peter
Baka Nyoni refuted the allegations yesterday, saying
he was not aware of any
threats against Moffat.
"I do not know what the threats are all about. I have
not heard of these and
I can't comment on something that I do not know.
Also, I have not met the
Moffat you are talking about. It's quite news to
me," he said.
"I cannot comment further on that matter at the moment since
it's before the
courts," said Nyoni.
On Tuesday, a Bulawayo magistrate
remanded the three employees to Monday
when the trial is expected to
resume.
The beasts were driven to Nyoni's farm where brands bearing Moffat's
identity were allegedly tampered with and replaced with brands that bore
Nyoni identity.
Nyoni, who exonerated her family from any wrongdoing, has
accused her
political enemies of planting the story in the media in a bid to
settle old
scores.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief
Political Reporter
RAMPANT corruption in the allocation of farms has
decimated production in
the Lowveld, amid fears that the country could
experience serious shortages
of sugar, a parliamentary report on the
viability of the sugar industry
shows.
The report, which recommends a
new land audit by an independent body to
address the sorry state of affairs
in the Lowveld made startling revelations
about the emergence of a new type
of land grabbers dubbed "A5 farmers" who
are in the habit of hopping from
one mature sugar cane field to another.
As part of the land reforms initiated
in 2000 to redress historical
imbalances, the government split the
expropriated farms into two distinct
categories, A1 (small-scale) and A2
(commercial).
However, the land reforms, which have reduced the country from
being a
regional breadbasket into a basket case, have been marred by
disruptions on
productive farms, accusations of multiple farm ownership and
corruption
among other vices.
In its findings the committee, chaired by
Masvingo South legislator Walter
Mzembi, alleges graft by government
officials in the allocation of farms or
plots in the Lowveld, where
production has nose-dived since 2001, at the
height of the farm
seizures.
"Your committee learnt that there has been the emergence of what
are called
A5 farmers seizing plots with ready to harvest sugar cane crops
with the
assistance of land officers in Chiredzi and Masvingo," reads part
of the
report. "Farmers told your committee during the stakeholders meetings
that
they were tired of being moved from one farm to another. Ministry
officials
were cited as culprits in these movements. It was alleged that
this happens
mostly during harvesting time."
Players in the sugar
industry, including executives at Hippo Valley Estate,
Triangle Limited,
Mkwasine Estate and the resettled farmers in the Lowveld
were appealing to
members of the House of Assembly to put a stop the
disruptions.
"Your
committee appeals to the ministry officials to carry out their duties
professionally and not become land grabbers. Now that the cutting season is
upon us, these culprits will go around reaping where they did not sow. Many
names of land officers were cited. Greedy people must not be allowed to
harvest where they did not sow," the report added.
The committee said a
new land audit would expose and root out corrupt
officers, as they were
obstacles to initiatives aimed at turning around the
country's waning
economic fortunes.
"People were being moved from one farm to another for no
apparent reason.
Your committee noted that there was conflict of interest on
the part of land
officers. Your committee was told that the officers were
allocating
themselves the best plots with irrigation equipment, homesteads
and larger
hectarages at the expense of ordinary people who were supposed to
be the
real beneficiaries of land reform."
As has been generally the case
with land reform, which saw the seizure of
land from about 4 000 white
commercial farmers for redistribution to about
140 000 landless blacks, the
report noted that some A2 farmers had multiple
farms registered in different
names, such as maiden names or the names of
children belonging to one
family.
The committee said it was disturbed by the manner in which land was
being
parceled out in Chiredzi.
Out of 652 A2 sugarcane growers in the
Lowveld, only eighty were benefiting
from the subsidised fuel from the
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM),
it emerged.
The report adds:
"This has left sugarcane growers with no option except to
get their inputs
from millers at a very high cost. It seems the government
has forgotten that
it has settled A2 farmers to grow sugar cane. Government
should have taken
an interest the moment it settled A2 farmers in the
Lowveld. Farmers are
left at the mercy of Hippo Valley and Triangle Limited
yet they are private
companies who are in business to make money and not to
be good
Samaritans.
"Government must realise that there is a lot of emotion attached
to the land
reform. Hippo Valley and Triangle Limited cannot continue to
help farmers
with loans and inputs at no premium."
New sugar cane farmers
were bitter that the government was not taking the
sugar sector seriously,
as it funded other crops under different facilities.
Lack of reliable power
supplies from the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority and alleged
exorbitant fees for raw water were also adversely
affecting the operations
in the Lowveld.
Hippo Valley Estate executives told the committee they had
been experiencing
a reduction in sugar cane production since 2001 due to
inadequate supply
from farmers who were still very new in the industry,
coupled with
inadequate irrigation water storage capacity. Triangle Limited
executives
told the Committee they produced 234 523 tonnes of sugar in 2005
which
represented a drop in output of 349 000 tonnes .
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief Political Reporter
A SENIOR ZANU PF
member, Charles Pemhenayi, says Zimbabweans should demand
to be granted
licences to run community radio stations as provided for under
the
Broadcasting Services Act (BSA).
Pemhenayi, who was speaking at the
official launch of Kumakomo Community
Radio Station (KCRS) in Mutare last
Saturday, said the Broadcasting
Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) should be taken
to task over its failure to
issue radio licences to private players, urging
local communities to make
the "right organized noises" and demand urgent
action.
"I urge you to pursue this issue by lobbying parliament and
approaching your
local representatives to ask why the BAZ is not issuing
these licences
because they (legislators) are elected to serve the interests
of the
communities they represent," he said. "We need to make the right
organised
noises and demand these licences. Why is the media silent about
this . . . I
cannot understand this," added Pemhenayi.
The launch of KCRS
is the result of intensive lobbying initiated by
MISA-Zimbabwe under its
Community Radio Initiatives (CRIs) to mobilise
communities to demand the
licences under its Free the Airwaves Campaign
aimed at breaking Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings' monopoly.
The CRIs are fast gaining momentum following
the launch of Wezhira, Kwelaz
and Gweru community radio stations in
Masvingo, Kwekwe and Gweru,
respectively.
In the event of KCRS eventually
being licensed, its board of directors
should strive to maintain the
station's editorial independence and ensure
that its operations focus on the
needs of that particular community as well
as promote human rights issues,"
said Pemhenayi.
Kelvin Jakachira was elected chairperson, Sidney Saize, (vice
chairperson),
Farai Makotsi (treasurer), Chengetai Murimwa, (secretary)
while Perpetua
Guwira, Evidence Chenjerai and Thembani Mudavanhu came in as
members of KCRS'
management committee.
The following members were also
elected into the board of trustees, Daniel
Chigudu (chairperson), Beauty
Serbia (deputy chairperson), Kenneth Saruchera
(finance secretary) while
Farai Maguhwu, Ngaaite Zimunya, Vonese
Masanganise, Mike Tembo and Sydney
Mukwecheni are committee members.
Jakachira described the launch of KCRS as a
historic development saying
communication was vital for democratisation and
central to community
development.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior
Business Reporter
Airline's can of worms opened at portfolio committee
hearing
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has ploughed over US$50.7 million
into
Air Zimbabwe over the past year to avert the collapse of the national
airline, governor Gideon Gono said this week.
The national airline,
which in 2005 broke commercial aviation records by
clocking more than 6000
kilometres with a single passenger on its maiden
trip to Dubai, gobbled up
the foreign currency in payments for fuel - whose
shortage at one time
grounded the airline's entire fleet. The money was also
used to pay
International Air Transport Association (IATA) bills, as well as
aviation
insurance cover.
Gono blew the cover on the extent of state support for the
national carrier
on Monday at a joint Parliamentary committee hearing of the
Budget, Finance
and Economic Development and the Transport and
Communications portfolio
committees.
Gono was reacting to comments by
Makonde MP Leo Mugabe, chairman of the
committee on Transport and
Communications, that parastatals under his
portfolio had told the committee
that Gono's July 31 policy statement had
thrown them off budget and forced
them to revise their business plans.
Gono revealed that the RBZ had given
US$21.4 million to Air Zimbabwe in
2005, which the national airline has not
yet paid back. From January to
August this year, the central bank had
advanced an additional US$29.3
million to Air Zimbabwe, "for which they have
not given back to the central
bank a single cent."
Although a turnaround
programme crafted by the national airline had
projected a break-even
scenario for the company by December 2005, documents
show that Air Zimbabwe
actually recorded a loss of $2.6 trillion in the
period April 2005 to May
2006. Apart from the RBZ advances, documents show
that the airline owes
US$23 million to foreign creditors and $400 million to
local
creditors.
This excludes its Parastatals and Local Authority Reorientation
Programme
(PLARP) debt, which stands at $1.381 billion. Air Zimbabwe also
owes another
$2.617 billion, which was advanced to the parastatal outside
PLARP.
A recent appraisal carried out by the RBZ attributes the woes
besetting the
national airline to persistent servicing of unprofitable
routes, poor
decision making by management, poor marketing and revenue
generation
initiatives and weak corporate governance structures and systems.
Of the
airline's seven plane fleet, two are grounded due to a critical
shortage of
foreign currency to purchase replacement parts, while the three
Chinese made
Modern Ark (MA) aircraft frequently pack up.
While Air
Zimbabwe hurtles from one crisis another, other airlines in the
region are
reporting increased traffic on their routes. In March, Kenya
Airways
recorded a profit of 4.829 million Kenyan shillings (1USD: 72Ksh)
for the
year ended March, 24 percent above the previous year, after carrying
a
record 2.4 million passengers.
FinGaz
ABOUT 40 London-bound
passengers have been stranded in Harare since Sunday,
after Air Zimbabwe
failed to ferry them on its aircraft.
Insiders at the national carrier
said the airline could not accommodate the
passengers because it was using a
single aircraft to service its
international routes.
They said when the
airline booked the passengers, it had hoped that it would
be operating two
planes on its international routes. But one of the airline's
planes has been
grounded since April and is being repaired in Germany.
"We were supposed to
have two operational aircraft but one is in Germany. So
the remaining one
can't cope," said the insiders.
The passengers are booked at Crowne Plaza
Monomotapa Hotel in the capital.
Air Zimbabwe spokesperson David Mwenga
confirmed the setback, attributing it
to a delay in the release of the
airline's aircraft being repaired in
Germany.
"It is peak period and a
lot of these people had booked with us and were
issued tickets before our
aircraft broke down," said Mwenga. "Other airlines
are fully booked and are
not prepared to take our passengers," added Mwenga.
Following the grounding
of one of the airline's Boeing 767s, Air Zimbabwe is
only operating one
aircraft to service its London, Dubai, Singapore and
Beijing routes. The
aircraft being repaired in Germany is expected back in
service at the end of
this month.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief Political
Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) yesterday held
closed meetings
with opposition parties and civic society groupings in the
country to
persuade them to back the militant labour body's mass protests
scheduled for
next Wednesday as it gears up to confront the
government.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials who are
mulling their own
mass action on a date yet to be announced, yesterday
insisted they were not
part of Wednesday's planned street protests. But
well-placed sources said
that ZCTU leaders held consultations with the main
opposition party as the
labour body sought to ensure that the mass action
was a success.
The Financial Gazette can reveal that in addition to
consulting the MDC,
ZCTU leader Lovemore Matombo and secretary-general
Wellington Chibhebhe
yesterday held meetings with the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA), the
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CZC) and
the Zimbabwe National Students Union
(ZINASU).
The ZCTU general council,
the decision-making body of the country's
influential trade union
organi-sation with 300 000 paid-up members and 36
affiliates drawn from all
sectors of the economy, including the informal
sector, on Saturday endorsed
the workers' decision to stage a peaceful
protest in the wake of the
deepening economic crisis.
According to fliers being circulated by the ZCTU,
the protests are scheduled
to last two hours, starting from 12:30pm until
2pm in all the major towns.
The labour body, which has been a thorn in the
government's flesh since it
gave birth to the MDC in 1999, is demanding
minimum wages and salaries
linked to the Poverty Datum Line (PDL) that last
month was pegged at $84
million, reduction in income tax to a maximum of 30
percent and that workers
paid salaries below the PDL should not be
taxed.
"The leadership today (Wednesday) has been meeting other like-minded
organisations such as the NCA, ZINASU and the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
basically to try and find common ground," said ZCTU spokesman, Mlamuleli
Sibanda. "This is a workers' action regardless of affiliation to any
organisation. Everyone who is a worker or identifies with the cause of
suffering Zimbabweans is expected to join the workers in the protest under
the banner of the ZCTU. It is a peaceful protest march that will culminate
in the leadership in Harare presenting petitions to the Ministers of Labour
Nicholas Goche, Finance Herbert Murerwa and the Employers Confederation of
Zimbabwe," Sibanda said.
Matombo and Chibhebhe are expected to lead from
the front.
The ZCTU is also demanding free distribution of anti-retroviral
drugs, in a
country where HIV/AIDS experts say only 12 000 out of 400 000
people are
accessing the drugs.
The ZCTU spokesman said police had been
notified about next Wednesday's
protest marches.
"We have dispatched
notification letters to the police in all towns and
cities. We are not
seeking clearance but to notify them of our intention to
stage a peaceful
protest or march over the prevailing harsh economic
environment."
ZINASU,
a grouping of students at the country's universities and tertiary
colleges,
on Monday gave the government an ultimatum to reduce fees as well
as improve
conditions or risk protests later this month.
Its leader, Promise Mkhwananzi,
who confirmed meeting the ZCTU leaders,
said: "We met today and as students
support them wholeheartedly and will be
out in full force as the crisis we
are facing is broader and requires that
we must walk together with the
suffering workers of Zimbabwe."
Jacob Mafume, the coordinator of CZC, a
coalition of about 300 civic society
organisations, also confirmed holding
talks with the ZCTU leadership over
the planned protest. "We met some of
them and will support them all the
way," said Mafume.
Morgan
Tsvangirai's camp, whose leadership last week shocked the government
when it
led impromptu demonstrations in the streets of Harare catching state
security agents unawares, said yesterday it welcomed any action highlighting
the suffering of the generality of Zimbabweans. "We sympathise with the
workers as we support all democratic efforts instituted to realise a new
Zimbabwe and a better life for all, especially the toiling workers," said
anti-senate spokesman Nelson Chamisa.
The party had initially planned to
hold protest marches, dubbed Cold Season
of Discontent, in June.
Chamisa
said plans were still afoot to stage protests. "We fired warning
shots last
week," he said.
FinGaz
Nkululeko Sibanda Own
Correspondent
AGRICULTURE Minister Joseph Made, accused of misleading the
nation on the
critical issue of grain stocks with his overly optimistic
projections that
masked huge deficits that have proved costly to compensate
for, is under
fire after failing to convince a parliamentary committee
probing the state
of agriculture in the country that he is on top of the
situation.
Walter Mzembi, the Masvingo South legislator who chairs the
Parliamentary
Portfolio Committee on Lands, Agriculture, Resettlement, Rural
Resources and
Water Development, told The Financial Gazette that the
committee was
dismayed by Made's inadequate responses during a hearing held
two weeks ago,
adding that the committee found the minister's testimony
unconvincing.
President Robert Mugabe, rumoured to be mulling a cabinet
reshuffle insiders
say would most likely signal a departure from the widely
condemned tradition
of musical chairs, has previously cited Made's portfolio
among ministries
performing below expectations. Over the past few months
speculation has been
rife about Made's political future with some of
President Mugabe's
lieutenants reportedly pushing for his ouster from
Cabinet.
The Agriculture Minister, one of the 'technocrats' appointed to
Cabinet in
2000, has presided over the collapse of the country's once
vibrant
agricultural sector, with his tenure coinciding with upheavals on
the farms
under the government's emotive land redistribution programme.
While some
critics say that the country's much-vaunted agrarian reforms have
come
unstuck because the fast-track initiative did not fit the country's
implementation capacity, others blame the collapse of agriculture squarely
on Made.
Zimbabwe, once the regional bread basket, has been reduce to a
basket case
under Made's stewardship at the ministry. Made, an agronomist,
once headed
the struggling Agriculture and Rural Development Authority
(ARDA) which has
failed dismally to fulfil its mandate.
"The committee
was not happy with the minister's response and we feel there
is need to put
in place proper administrative structures if the country's
agricultural
sector is to reach its peak ," said Mzembi. "The minister was
quizzed about
the absence of boards at the various institutions that fall
under his
ministry and he told us that they were still working on the
appointment of
the boards. He also said that the first board the ministry
will have to
restructure was that of ARDA and then they will move on to all
the others.
Despite the explanation, members of the committee remained
unconvinced that
things were being done correctly in the ministry," said
Mzembi.
Mzembi
said there was a glaring lack of proper management structures at
several
institutions falling under Made's ministry, which oversees
operations at
ARDA, the Grain Marketing Board, the Tobacco Industry
Marketing Board, the
Cold Storage Commission, the Pig Industry Board, the
Zimbabwe National Water
Authority and the District Development Fund, among
others.
The Grain
Marketing Board, which enjoys a monopoly in the marketing of grain
including
the staple maize and thus occupies a central position in the
country's food
security system, has been operating without a board since
2003. Several
posts, including that of the chief executive, financial
accountant and loss
control manager, have not had substantive appointees for
a long time.
In
the absence of a board and substantive executive management, the
parastatal,
which continues to record heavy losses, has failed to fill more
than 900
posts that have been vacant for some time.
"The GMB issue is just a tip of
the iceberg and we believe that the
situation could be similar in most of
these institutions. There is an urgent
need to put the house in order so
that our farmers can work without any
problems that might derail the
agricultural sector," Mzembi said.
"The minister was adamant that he would
deal with the appointments as soon
as possible to avert the collapse of the
sector. He said that a lot of
problems needed to be sorted out first before
the appointments could be made
and waiting for everything to be put in place
will mean that our farmers
continue to lose."
Added Mzembi: "Farmers are
the people who feel the pinch of this lack of
proper administrative
structures. The losses that the farmers incur are a
result of lack of proper
administration and the only way to curb them is
through the setting up of
effective administration systems that will plug
all leakages in the
sector."
Agricultural production has dropped markedly across the board since
2000,
when the government embarked on a chaotic land redistribution exercise
that
saw commercial farmland, previously held by white farmers being
parcelled
out to blacks. Government has publicly admitted that only over 40
percent of
the land allocated under the agrarian reforms is under productive
use.
The programme, which government said would result in increased
production,
has led to the country's failure to feed itself and having to
rely on costly
imports and food aid. Production of the staple maize, wheat
and tobacco, as
well as milk, beef and horticultural produce has plummeted,
largely due to
poor financing, lack of institutional and technical
support.
State institutions that are supposed to play an ancillary role in
the
productive process have virtually collapsed under the burden of
mismanagement and corruption.
FinGaz
Zhean Gwaze Staff Reporter
THE
government has granted Al Jazeera a license to operate in Zimbabwe,
making
it the first international news channel to beam from the southern
African
state in over three years after a major clampdown on foreign
stations.
The Arabic television channel, whose headquarters are in
Doha, Qatar and
broadcasts news and current affairs in English, has already
established a
two-man bureau in Harare.
Acting Information Minister Paul
Mangwana confirmed the development but
referred all questions to the Media
and Information Commission (MIC), which
regulates the media industry
locally.
"They must have been licensed for them to be operating. They cannot
operate
here without a license because they are governed by the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). Check for the details
with MIC," Mangwana said.
MIC chairman Tafataona Mahoso referred all
questions to the Al Jazeera
bureau.
Al Jazeera director of news Steve
Clark, managing editor Ormar Bec and
bureau chief-Africa Andrew Simmons
recently visited Harare and were
scheduled to address a press conference at
Munhumutapa Building, which was
later aborted after Mangwana was said to be
busy attending to government
commitments.
South African media has quoted
the station announcing the appointment of
Farai Sevenzo as the Harare
correspondent and Cyrus Nhara as
cameraman/producer. Both have international
news coverage experience.
Sevenzo has contributed to the UK's Channel 4
while Nhara was the television
journalist for Reuters in Harare.
The
station will be the first international news channel based in Zimbabwe,
giving it access to the entire southern Africa region after the government
clamped down on Western television and radio broadcasters such as the
British Broadcasting Corporation.
Most of the Western networks can still
be allowed into Zimbabwe on a
temporary basis but only to cover specific
stories.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior
Business Reporter
ZIMBABWEAN police have seized two vehicles belonging to
embattled David
Whitehead Textiles (DWT) chief executive Edwin Chimanye, as
government steps
up efforts to take control of the textile manufacturing
company.
Sources told The Financial Gazette that detectives from the
Criminal
Investigation Department (CID)'s Serious Fraud Squad raided
Chimanye's house
in Strathaven and seized a Mazda B1800, one of the vehicles
which the chief
executive is entitled to and was being used by his
driver.
Another vehicle, a Ford Laser, was seized at a Harare garage. The
vehicles,
the sources said, were surrendered to Cecil Madondo of Tudor House
Consultancy, DWT's provisional judicial manager, while Chimanye was also
taken in for questioning at the CID offices.
Madondo confirmed the
seizure of the two vehicles, claiming that by
continuing to hold on to the
two vehicles, Chimanye was contravening Section
184 of the Insolvency Act,
which orders that all company assets be
surrendered.
"The company is in
intensive care and we need to distribute the vehicles to
management and
other staff members," said Madondo, who assumed
administration of the
textiles manufacturer in May.
Last Tuesday's raid on Chimanye's home came a
day after a representative of
Guscole Investments, which acquired DWT from
Lonrho, issued a statement
disclaiming all previous statements issued by
Chimanye on Guscole's behalf.
With a 67 percent stake in Guscole, Chimanye
is the single largest
shareholder in the investment vehicle, which in turn
controls 88 percent of
DWT.
The sources also said Chimanye, faced with
the possibility of losing his
assets, had approached Economic Development
Minister Rugare Gumbo to
intervene and try and settle the ugly wrangling at
DWT.
Top ranking ruling ZANU PF party officials have been fingered in a
takeover
bid of the troubled company and have been accused of fuelling the
dispute
between workers and management at the company.
The sources also
revealed that at the return day of the provisional judicial
management held
at the High Court last Wednesday, the judicial manager and
the major
shareholders had committed themselves to a consent agreement to
iron out
their differences.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
CBZ Bank, the
country's second largest lender, is not worried about any
potential harm
from keeping half its $7 billion loan book in agriculture,
saying it sees
even "further scope" for farm lending.
John Mangudya, managing director
of CBZ Bank, said the bank believed it had
adequately provided for its farm
lending, still seen as risky by other
players in banking despite strong
prodding from the central bank and
government to increase their agriculture
lending.
"We believe that we have adequately covered for our agriculture
lending.
Remember, under agriculture lending, we are not only referring to
lending
direct to farms. We are also in there to support other aspects of
agriculture," Mangudya said, referring to CBZ's financing of farm equipment
and the bank's involvement in funding commodities.
At 49.2 percent of its
$6.9 billion loan book, the $3 billion that CBZ has
put into agriculture is
among the highest of the country's top lenders.
Manufacturing accounts for
23.3 percent of CBZ's total loans.
Standard Chartered, the biggest bank by
assets and share of deposits, has
$1.8 billion of its $8.2 billion loan book
in agriculture, while Stanbic had
lent $1.1 billion to agriculture out of
its total loans of $5.4 billion as
at June.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) governor Gideon Gono recently warned that he
would review statutory
reserves and accommodation rates if banks did not
"reciprocate these
supportive efforts by also deploying their free funds
into lending" to
industry and agriculture. But banks are wary of making big
changes to their
lending policies on agriculture, where farmers remain with
no real title to
land six years after government began its land reforms.
But despite the fears
over loan security, bankers say opportunities remain
for increased farm
lending. FBC Holdings chief executive officer Livingstone
Gwata said
recently that his bank had indications from the central bank that
it wanted
banks to gradually move more lending activity out of ASPEF and
into
commercial lending. He said this could be possible if the anticipated
restoration of stability to agriculture was achieved.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Business
Reporter
Timber processor Border Timbers Limited (BTL) is retrenching
scores of
employees from its Mutare plants in a bid to cut
costs.
Insiders at BTL disclosed that over 100 workers had signed up for
the
voluntary retrenchment, which the company dangled for them early this
year
to offset mounting operational costs. The workers, based at two of
BTL's
Mutare factories, left the company last Friday after getting their
severance
packages.
About 47 workers at BTL's Paulington factory, which
produces veneer, plywood
and block board, took up the retrenchment package
while the rest came from
Border Timbers International (BTI), a wholly owned
subsidiary of BTL.
BTI, which is also known as Nyakamete Factory, produces
doors, shelves and
other manufactured items for export markets primarily the
United States of
America (USA). However, it has since discontinued the
manufacture of special
timber doors for export to the US market because of
depressed prices being
quoted for the products in the US.
The low prices,
which have also been triggered by high stocks from Brazil
and the recent
entry of China into the US market, were providing little
incentive for BTI
to continue exports, given what exporters see as a hostile
exchange rate set
by central bank.
The Financial Gazette has learnt that Border has agreed a
package made up of
125 percent of the workers' current salaries multiplied
by the number of
years served, five months salary for disturbance and $20
000 for transport
allowance.
BTL has also, since 2000, suffered losses of
its timber plantations to arson
fires blamed on illegal settlers who moved
onto its estates with the backing
of the government, while erratic power
outages have also limited output at
its factories. BTL lost 3 000 hectares
of timber at its Eastern Highlands
estates worth $62 billion to the fires in
2005. It had lost 706 hectares of
timber to 75 fires in 2004, 93 percent of
which were attributed to arson.
Because of the large-scale fires BTL has
warned that Zimbabwe will
experience severe shortages of timber in the next
five years, which could
force the crisis-ridden country to import raw
timber.
In spite of a bilateral investment protection agreement that spares
its
estates from being seized for redistribution to landless peasants the
government has listed BTL's estates in Chimanimani for compulsory
acquisition.
FinGaz
Mavis Makuni Own
Correspondent
IT was an extraordinary sight. The chairperson of the
so-called European
African Reconciliation Process, Christ Seaton, who was
draped in the Union
Jack, was shown on Zimbabwean television kneeling on a
richly coloured and
luxuriant mat before former Mozambican president,
Joachim Chissano.
Seaton led a delegation of Christian leaders from
Britain, Germany, France,
Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and the United
States of America to
Zimbabwe last week to ask for forgiveness for sins
committed by their
ancestors against Africa. These included the slave trade,
exploitation of
the continent, the killing of innocent people and causing
conflicts.
Chissano, who accepted the apologies on behalf of the continent,
said he was
humbled and wished he had "the mandate to ask for forgiveness as
well
because most of the sins committed by Europeans were not committed by
them
alone"
Apologising specifically for the havoc wreaked by Cecil John
Rhodes in
Zimbabwe, Seaton said his ancestors tricked King Lobengula into
signing the
Rudd Concession more than 100 years ago, paving the way for
occupation of
the land by white settlers.
There was an inexplicable sense
of deja vu about the scene, may be because
history was repeating itself.
While Seaton's ancestors had used tricks and
material inducements to dupe
illiterate chiefs to act against their own
people's interests during the
partitioning of Africa, he and his colleagues
have now resorted to semantics
to stroke the inflated egos of our
authoritarian 21st century rulers. They
risk causing offence and
polarisation between rulers and the governed as
ordinary people cannot be
sure whose side they are on.
While it is
accepted that the apology was only symbolic, it is still true
that such a
gesture can be totally meaningless as long as it does not focus
on the
present and future. What happened in the past cannot be changed and
beyond
mouthing the words, "We are sorry", the European men of the cloth
have not
enunciated what practical steps they propose to take to repair the
damage
and make life better for those alive today.
These European churchmen needed
to explain how their contrition would be
translated into meaningful
initiatives to help prevent a recurrence in
modern day Africa of the very
injustices and atrocities committed by their
forebears.
The churchmen
have chosen to ignore the fact that an apology for sins
committed a century
ago means absolutely nothing to oppressed, displaced,
diseased, impoverished
and starving Africans who are unnecessarily subjected
to these ills by
erstwhile liberation heroes who spearheaded the fight for
independence from
colonial rule.
Since the end of colonialism, different situations have
prevailed in various
African countries, depending on the style of governance
of the black rulers.
Some countries have been devastated by civil wars,
genocide, disease or
famine. Progress has been impeded in some others by
natural disasters,
rampant corruption and oppressive governance.
It
should be obvious to Seaton and his group that a grovelling apology in
Harare can not be a cure-all to ease the plight of present-day Africans.
They live in countries that are at different levels of political and
economic development and have had different experiences since the end of
colonialism. They are grappling with problems requiring specific solutions,
not a blanket apology.
Expressing emotional regret for events that took
place in the 19th century
cannot, for example, mean very much to the people
of Rwanda who are still
grappling with the trauma of the genocide of 1994
when almost one million
people were massacred under an African dispensation.
The same goes for the
people of the Darfur region of Western Sudan, Liberia
and Sierra Leone who
have endured years of political upheaval and civil
strife.
Instead of limiting their efforts to meaningless platitudes, those
involved
in European African Reconciliation would make greater impact if
they came up
with initiatives tailored to address current pressing African
needs such as
poverty alleviation, AIDS, education and health issues. These
churchmen
should take a leaf out of the book of celebrities such as Bob
Geldof, who
was galvanised into action to address massive famine in Ethiopia
some years
ago by doing something practical.
African leaders have always
said that what they need to ensure development
in their countries is fair
trade rather than aid and it follows that
apologies are even less effective.
Chissano's observation that if he had a
mandate he would do his own
apologising has been echoed by Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni who has
said imperialists were not solely to blame for the
colonisation of
Africa.
"It is also the fault of our chiefs, who so divided our people that
they
could not defend our sovereignty. It is also the fault of many of the
post-independence leaders of Africa who have failed to transform our
economies and end Africa's balkanisation in order to create power blocs on
our continent with global influence when it comes to our legitimate
interests", Museveni has said.
FinGaz
EXPLAINING the
obligation of the police to recognise and protect the rights
of persons
suspected of having committed crimes, an American jurist has
commented, "The
history of liberty has largely been the history of
observance of procedural
safeguards.
Their purpose is not to convenience the guilty but to protect
the innocent .
. . "
Anybody familiar with how seriously compromised the
police force in Zimbabwe
has become, knows that the main role of the law
enforcers now is to protect
wrongdoers and to ensure that they never have to
answer for their crimes.
The police have abdicated from their responsibility
to uphold the rule of
law and ensure that all citizens enjoy equal
protection under the law. This
dereliction of duty is demonstrated by their
selective application of the
law and their preparedness to be openly biased
in support of the political
interests and agendas of the ruling
party.
This is why despite the explosion of indignant anti-corruption
rhetoric that
has engulfed the nation over the past three years, the police
have continued
to tango gingerly around the big sharks while frenetically
and vindictively
trawling the shallow waters for small fish to harass and
arrest as a ploy to
divert attention from the big-time culprits. It is a
charade and we all know
it.
Considerable noise is currently being made
about the anti-graft crusade
gathering momentum following the prosecution
and conviction of Zimbabwe
United Passenger Company (ZUPCO) board chairman,
Charles Nherera for
soliciting bribes.
Anti-Corruption and
Anti-Monopolies Minister, Paul Mangwana has also been
patting himself on the
back for the arrest of Grain Marketing Board acting
general manager, Samuel
Muvuti for fraud. "You are going to see an increase
in the number of people
being arrested for corruption", he has been quoted
as saying. He explained
that the main thrust of the campaign was to tackle
"grand" corruption and
deal with petty cases separately.
Is the minister trying to tell this long
-suffering nation that the
relatively minor fraudulent activities of Muvuti
and Nherera represent
"grand" corruption while the looting of equipment
worth billions of dollars
from Kondozi farm by identified culprits holding
important ministerial
positions is a petty misdemeanour that his ministry
and the police should
continue to ignore?
Mangwana should know that he
cannot pull any wool over the eyes of the
public by pretending that Muvuti's
diversion of GMB funds to pay his workers
is a more heinous crime than the
grabbing of multiple farms, the abuse of
subsidised agricultural inputs such
as fuel and the scandalous hijacking by
ZANU PF bigwigs of the allocation of
stands under Operation Garikai/Hlalani
Kuhle for personal
gain?
Mangwana's ministry and the police have never bothered to explain why
the
culprits in these scenarios, whose ramifications have translated into
untold
suffering and deprivation for the ordinary person, continue to be
viewed as
sacred cows who cannot be brought to book.
How is it possible
that after the long-running debacles and well-documented
irregularities at
Harare's Town House revolving around the chairperson of
the imposed
commission running the affairs of the capital city, Sekesai
Makwavarara, the
Anti-Corruption Commission has remained catatonic?
Anti-corruption
commissioners went through the motions of a probe at the
local authority
some months ago but that was the last the public heard
anything.
The
diversionary tactics resorted to by law enforcement agents either to buy
time or to protect criminals were also evident in July when Harare North
Member of Parliament, Trudy Stevenson and three colleagues from the
pro-senate faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), were
ambushed and brutally assaulted by thugs on their way into town from
Mabvuku.
The barbaric and dastardly attack rightly sparked a chorus of
condemnation
by all right thinking people. Unusually, however, some of the
most vehement
condemnation came from ZANU PF, a party not normally known for
abhorring
violence and jackboot tactics in pursuance of its political
agenda.
It was almost with glee rather than regret that various ruling party
apologists lined up to convict the Morgan Tsvangirai faction of the MDC as
the perpetrators. ZANU PF information and publicity chief, Nathan
Shamuyarira, conveniently forgetting his own party's boast about having
"degrees in violence" declared the incident proof that the MDC was a violent
party which was showing "its true colours."
This version of events was
helpfully repeated ad nauseam by the official
media until it became a
self-fulfilling prophecy culminating in the arrest
of MDC legislator,
Timothy Mabawu, who was accused of hiring a group of
youths to attack
Stevenson and company. Those who expressed reservations
over ZANU PF's
sanctimonious pointing of fingers of accusation at the MDC
when its own
record was populated with numerous documented cases of brutal
violence
against opponents that have been swept under the carpet, were
ridiculed.
Now, after two months of the case going nowhere, charges
against Mabawu were
withdrawn before plea last week for lack of evidence.
Countless other cases
involving MDC activists and officials have ended
similarly after the
suspects have been subjected to months of defamation and
trial and
conviction by the state media.
In the meantime, the real
culprits in these cases remain unidentified and
unscathed and can escape or
go underground if need be. In the case of the
barbaric attack on Stevenson
and her colleagues, the police as usual
resorted to the unprofessional and
politically motivated approach of
arresting in order to investigate instead
of arresting on the basis of
exhaustive investigations.
After two months
of publicly parading the wrong suspects in the Stevenson
case, can the
police now tell the nation who the real culprits are? Their
failure to solve
cases like this that happen right under their noses does
not inspire
confidence in the tax-paying public that they are supposed to
serve without
fear or favour.
FinGaz
Comment
ZANU PF politicians
have endlessly engaged in an orgy of self-congratulation
about the supposed
success of the "most radical change in land ownership on
the African
continent".
Of course, it would have been a pleasant surprise and out of
character if
they had not done so even though there is hardly any cause for
celebration.
The goals of the indisputably necessary land reform initiative,
as
enunciated by the same politicians some seven years ago, when the country
embarked on a somewhat chaotic and disruptive fast-track land reform
exercise have largely remained a pipe dream. Instead, there have been so
many strategic mistakes that the back-to-the-land idealism has spawned
bewildering complexities that have brought with them serious loss of face
and lasting shame for the Zimbabwean government as well as abject poverty
and loss of human dignity for millions of the country's
citizens.
Production in the agricultural sector, which once anchored the
economy, has
experienced a savage slump as mirrored through the frightening
shrunken
state of the economy, now in historic contraction. Thus the land
reform
programme has had disastrous consequences for the economy. During the
seven
years, despite the fact that nature has not always sent its worst,
Zimbabwe's
food security situation has always been precarious. If anything,
the
erstwhile regional bread-basket has been reduced to a perennial grain
deficit country, a situation which could one day touch off a humanitarian
crisis of catastrophic proportions.
There is neither the guaranteed food
security nor economic empowerment of
the historically marginalised blacks.
With the persistent shortages of
inputs experienced for the better part of
the last half decade, what most of
the resettled blacks gained on the
swings, they lost on the roundabouts.
Yes, the government says it chose
agriculture for intervention because in it
lies the seed of economic
prosperity and self-sufficiency. Nobody can argue
with that. Yet those who
were allocated farms under the fast-track land
reform exercise, partly
through no fault of theirs, are neither improving
their individual economic
standing nor adding value to the national economy.
They are devastated by a
psychology of impotence and pessimism against a
background of debilitating
input shortages. Thus, only an estimated 40
percent of the acquired farmland
has so far been put under productive use.
It is indeed a shame because it
ought not to be this way if only government
policies had a basis in
reality.
So will Zimbabwe get it right this time around? Don't hold your
breath. We
don't have any high hopes for it. The spectre of yet another
failed
agricultural season due to human error as happened last season when
the
country achieved a less-than-satisfactory grain harvest against a
background
of what turned out to be one of the best seasons in terms of
rainfall,
remains real.
True, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, who seems
to believe that merely
distributing land is a goal in itself and not a means
to an end, has already
sought to assure the nation as regards the
availability of inputs. It might
well be so. But Made's word cannot be
trusted. And therein lies the problem.
Much as there is no point in raking
over the ashes, it should be remembered
that the minister has, for reasons
best known to himself, on many previous
occasions led the nation up the
garden path over the country's food security
situation and the general state
of agriculture where he just plucked figures
from the air.
And why should
we believe him now when he has lied to the dregs of infamy
before? What
guarantee is there that Zimbabwe will not be caught in a
similar situation
like that of last season when we were told that there were
adequate
fertilisers and yet the fertilisers were only distributed when it
was too
little too late after a sizeable maize crop had already turned
yellow due to
nitrogen deficiency. This impaired the quality of the crop and
affected
yield levels. The debacle exposed the government, which had
previously
blamed intermittent droughts ad nauseam for the plummeting
production on the
farms or seed and fertiliser producers for sabotaging the
economy.
All
this means is that Zimbabwe's agrarian reforms have been characterised
by
teething problems mainly because government pursued the initiative
without
due regard to the country's implementation capacity. Hence the
vicious
circle of input shortages. With such imponderables, it takes an
incredible
leap of faith to believe that Zimbabwe will ever get it right
vis-ą-vis land
reform to bring agricultural output to its pre-crisis levels
and soothe the
economy's running sore. It's a real shame. Thus we are just
hoping against
hope that agriculture can be rescued.
FinGaz
Workforce Solutions
With Anthony Jongwe
THIS week's instalment is a departure from
tradition. In the past, the focus
of this column has been on recommending
best practice in workforce
management hence the title 'workforce solutions'.
This particular instalment
has nothing to do with workforce solutions but is
an outline of land reform
in Asia, particularly in countries such as
Vietnam, Japan and South Korea.
It is this writer's view that the experiences
of these countries are useful
in shaping a better understanding of land
reform dynamics with special
reference to Zimbabwe's own Fast Track Land
Reform Programme (FTLRP).
This instalment has been inspired by a recent
public lecture on Korean
economic development delivered by Professor Doowon
Lee of Yonsei University.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe hosted Professor Lee.
South Korea has
experienced land reform as part of its development process.
For the purposes
of this instalment, land reform and agrarian reform shall
be used
interchangeably.
Land plays a central role in the economies of
developing nations.
Agricultural production accounts for a substantial
fraction of total
production in most developing countries, particularly the
poorest. Yet,
historically and to date, many world regions continue to be
characterised by
land inequalities. To a large measure, these land
inequalities have proven
to be a fundamental constraint to social and
economic development.
Attempting to explain the causes of land reform is a
Sisyphean task. Land
reform is invoked as an instrument for both direct and
indirect poverty
reduction. It is argued that long-standing distortions in
land, labour and
product markets mean that in many countries the
distribution of land is
highly unequal with vast tracts of potentially
productive land lying idle
while small producers are forced to scrape a
living on fragile and often
environmentally fragile lands.
FAO,
Multilingual Thesaurus of Land Tenure (2003) defines agrarian reform as
"a
collection of activities and changes designed to alter the agrarian
structure of a country and the ways of using land. It invariably has
political, economic and socio-cultural dimensions. The objectives of land
reform are generally to improve qualitatively and quantitatively the levels
of agricultural production and to improve the standards of living of
agricultural producers. Such reforms will often involve elements of
redistribution of land and changes to the land tenure system".
Empirical
studies on the economic implications of land reforms have largely
tended to
focus on equity and productivity considerations. Focus has been
specifically
on the inverse relationship between small farm size and
productivity (ILC,
2006). It has been argued for example that the operation
of the inverse
relationship means that a more equitable distribution of land
could result
in an increase of anything between 10 and 30 percent in food
production. The
following paragraphs are a review of land reforms in
selected Asian
countries based on this inverse relationship.
The land reform programme of
Japan imposed a ceiling on land holdings of one
hectare. The landowners were
compensated in cash and development bonds. In
the course of the reform, the
actual tillers were given full ownership
rights for the holdings they had
previously cultivated and received a
subsidised mortgage. Labour
productivity increased annually by 5 percent and
land productivity by 4
percent between 1954 and 1968. Key factors for the
success of the reform
were an existing well-developed extension service,
land records and an
efficient bureaucracy.
In Taiwan the land reform placed a ceiling of one
hectare. The former
landowners were compensated in industrial bonds, which
they invested in the
urban-industrial zone. Between 1953 and 1960 the annual
production and
consumption of inputs was 23 percent and 11 percent
respectively.
Vietnam experienced similar productivity gains from breaking up
large
collective farms into tiny family units. Laws enacted in 1981 and 1987
aimed
at improving agricultural productivity through increased incentives of
individual farmers and recognised land use rights of individual households.
These reforms have resulted in an impressive growth of agricultural output,
transforming Vietnam from a food-deficit country into a food-surplus
country. Rice production increased from 12 million tonnes in 1981 to 22
million tonnes in 1992. In addition, there has been a significant increase
in the area under industrial/commercial crops including rubber, coffee, tea,
coconut, fruits and vegetables, while the area under inferior crops such as
cassava and sweet potatoes has declined.
A critical factor for success of
the land reform in South Korea has been the
equally thorough development and
support to local village government to
assume land administration function.
Thus the country has been able to
maintain continuous agricultural and rural
development. In the course of the
reform 65 percent of the agricultural land
was redistributed. A ceiling on
all individual holdings was set at three
hectares of good cropland and land
in excess of this ceiling was distributed
in units of one hectare to former
tenants. This low ceiling enabled nearly
76 percent of the total
agricultural households to own land for the first
time. Under the impact of
the reforms agriculture achieved an annual growth
rate of almost 4 percent.
In the early 1950s, agriculture's contribution to
Gross Domestic Product
stood at around 47 percent while primary exports
stood at a lowly 0.04
percent. By 2005, the contribution of agriculture to
South Korea's economic
development had fallen to a paltry 3.3 percent while
value-added exports
were a mammoth 76.6 percent.
The following lessons
can be drawn from the experiences of the Asian
countries at land reform.
Carried out properly, land reform can impact
positively on productivity.
Numerous studies have shown that small family
farms are more productive than
large farms per unit of land because of their
differential advantage in
labour cost and the superiority of soil quality.
There is greater labour
intensity and more attention to the land and crops
with the use of household
labour.
Owner operated family farms are generally more efficient in the use
of land
and other inputs than large farms operated with supervised wage
labour.
Secure property rights promote long-term investments in enhancing
productivity and in implementing conservation. Another important lesson is
that a well-thought-out land reform programme could lead to sustainable
management of natural resources.
Lastly, carried out properly, land
reform can have a positive impact on
poverty. Studies in the Philippines
have shown that land reform has induced
a decline in the incidence of
poverty among land agrarian reform households
from 47.6 percent in 1990 to
45.2 percent in 2000. In contrast, the
incidence of poverty among non-land
reform beneficiaries increased from 51.1
percent in 1990 to 56.4 percent in
2000.
The challenge for the Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe is
to
ensure that it scores highly in the three dimensions of poverty
alleviation,
enhanced agricultural productivity and sustainable management
of natural
resources.
lAnthony Jongwe is a Full Member of the Institute
of Personnel Management
and has just completed an MBA with the UZ. He also
holds a Bachelors degree
in Politics and Administration and a Diploma in
Training Mana-gement. He can
be contacted on cell: 023 306 193.
FinGaz
Bornwell Chakaodza
IN January 2002 we created a monster
called the Public Order and Security
Act (POSA), marking the commencement of
a determined assault on
constitutional freedom of speech and
association.
This was then immediately followed by the creation of
another monster in the
enactment of the Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy Act (AIPPA)
in March 2002 which dealt one of the greatest blows
to freedom of expression
and press freedom that both pre-independent and
post-independent Zimbabwe
has ever seen.
Now we are saddled with yet
another monster - the Interception of
Communication Bill which is currently
before parliament.
What will it take to stop the insanity of these
laws?
How tragic to see that the terrible legacy of Rasputin Jonathan Moyo
lives
on!
All Zimbabweans were in peril because of Rasputin Moyo. And we
continue to
be even after he has left.
Certainly in the context of the
succession race, no one is safe.
I think it is important to ask the question:
Why this undemocratic Bill at
this point in time?
Of course, it is a
further attempt by the ruling ZANU PF government to exert
a stranglehold on
those perceived to be in opposition to the government and
its policies. But
a different faction within Zanu PF: beware! The Bill if
passed (God forbid!)
could devour its own children.
It is important to isolate the basic tenets of
this Bill.
The Bill proposes to establish a monitoring centre or agency for
the sole
purpose of authorized monitoring and interception of any
communication
within the country or inter-state.
It is proposed in the
Bill that the Minister of Transport and Communications
will have the power
to issue an interception warrant on application by
persons authorized to
apply for a warrant of search namely; the Chief Of
Defense Intelligence,
Police Commissioner, the Director-General in the
President's Office's
Department responsible for Security and the
Commissioner- General of the
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority.
The Bill also stipulates that no court of law
shall accept as evidence where
such evidence has been obtained by means of
interception committed in
contravention of the proposed law.
If this is
not usurping the function of the courts, then I do not know what
would
be.
And we happen to know that the Police and the Defense Forces at the
moment
are not accountable to the people of Zimbabwe but to the ruling Zanu
PF.
In a clear case of the minister being a player and referee at the same
time,
the Bill says that any person who may be aggrieved by a warrant,
directive
or order issued to or by the authority, authorized person or
agency may
appeal to the Minister. A person would be appealing to the same
person who
would have issued the interception of phone conversations, faxes
and
e-mails.
The mind boggles!
The Bill goes further to say though
that if an aggrieved person is not
satisfied with the decision of the
Minister, he or she may appeal to the
Administrative Court.
This scenario
is a nightmare given what happened in 2004 in a case between
the Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe and the then Minister of Information
and Publicity in
the President's office and others.
That case clearly demonstrated the extent
to which the doctrine of the "rule
of law" in this country was subverted to
the "rule by law"!
Indeed it is worth putting these things into some kind of
perspective.
There appears to be a pattern and logic behind all these
draconian laws ever
since the Zimbabwean crisis broke out six years ago. I
have always believed
that events should not be seen or presented as
isolated, accidental or
superficial occurrences. No.
They are invariably
grounded in a much deeper political and social process.
The Interception Of
Communication Bill is but the latest in a series of
undemocratic pieces of
legislation clearly designed to control and
manipulate public opinion
thereby reducing democratic space and severely
limiting freedom of
expression.
The similarities between this proposed Bill and its earlier
cousins AIPPA
and POSA are so glaring that one can only describe them as
identically
different!
It is not for nothing that we are witnessing a
spirited but as usual
misplaced defense of this Bill from Tafataona
Mahoso.
He is obviously singing for his supper.
But more important, the
two laws have in them two all powerful
government-appointed bodies or
agencies which have quasi-judicial and
investigative powers which usurp the
functions of the courts and police
respectively and which allow them to
unjustifiably and unconstitutionally
intrude in the affairs of media houses
and the generality of Zimbabweans.
In Bill form, the late national hero
Eddison Zvobgo (God bless his soul)
representing the Parliamentary Legal
Committee described the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA) as "the most determined
and calculated assault on our political and
civil liberties".
I can hear him beyond the grave
saying exactly the same
words about this Interception of Communication Bill.
Section 20 of the
Constitution of Zimbabwe guaranties freedom of expression,
freedom to
receive and impart ideas without interference with one's
correspondence.
But it is one thing to commit democratic niceties to
paper, quite another to
implement them in practice.
By paying lip service
to its own constitution through these repressive laws,
Zimbabwe remains the
most notable example in the region of lack of freedom
of expression.
The
enforcement of POSA and AIPPA
and now this Interception Of Communication Bill
has and will greatly
contribute to the denial of freedom of expression and
they continue to
further impede the free flow of information to the public
inside and outside
Zimbabwe.
Zimbabweans continue to be dismayed by the
directions in which Zanu PF is
taking us.
It is indeed an irony that at a
time when the whole world is moving in the
direction of universal values of
democracy and freedom of expression, the
government of Zimbabwe is setting
the clock back.
How many times have people of goodwill said that we need in
Zimbabwe now, as
a condition of our survival, a global outlook and
constructive engagement
with both East and West, North and
South.
Technology and democracy - these
are some of the major themes of
this decade and they inter-react.
The internet has opened up a whole new
world.
As we are now in the throes of internet and satellite communication,
it is
going to be very difficult to keep private information private.
In
deed, the internet makes State control of information very difficult if
not
impossible.
Even in free countries, citizens have new powers to communicate
with each
other and about their rulers. It is not in the long-term interest
of the
government to suppress opinions and ideas.
Long experience has
taught us that it is foolish for any
government to imagine that it can
pretend to do so.
It does however raise grave constitutional issues when
governments attempt
to use software filters to restrict freedom of
expression.
National interest and security are not the preserve of the ruling
party.
The defenders of this Bill are saying that it is necessary "in the
interest
of the protection of national interest and security".
Yes indeed
but there must be a clear distinction between national interest
and a
political party in power.
Zimbabwe does not translate itself to Zanu PF. The
country is much bigger
than the ruling party.
As someone once said:
"Freedom of speech cannot be rationed. It cannot be
dispensed piecemeal.
Rather it is a single entity that belongs to all".
Comparisons with other
countries are not helpful because different countries
have different
contexts and political climates.
The key point that needs to be made is that
any law must be demonstrably and
reasonably justified in a democratic
society. Like its earlier cousins POSA
and AIPPA, which are still on the
statute books, the Interception of
Communication Bill is not.
Over and
above this, this Bill is imprecise and is worded in a confusing way
and
provides grounds for misunderstanding and confusion.
We would rather clean
them all
out - for Zimbabwe's sake!
FinGaz
No Holds Barred with Gondo
Gushungo
THE late Mother Theresa, famous for her philanthropic work, was
in 1984
touched by the depressing situation in Ethiopia where people were
dropping
like flies.
An entire population was almost wiped out by
famine and hunger under the
jackboot of military dictator, Mengistu Haile
Mariam, who was to be later
controversially granted political asylum by the
Zimbabwean government after
his regime was toppled.
Said the remarkable
Roman Catholic nun, who stated in no uncertain terms
that the situation in
Ethiopia drove her around the bend: ". . . I don't
approve of myself getting
angry. But it's something you can't help after
seeing Ethiopia . . ."
One
can have the same feeling about the lengthy crisis in Zimbabwe,
previously
considered the investment harbour of calm in Africa but which
has, almost
overnight, transformed into a land of contagion and uncertainty
shunned by
investors and is thus bogged down in a dramatic crisis.
Disturbingly, the
ZANU PF government, whose 26-year rule has been ruinous
for the country,
does not seem to know a way out of the crisis.
I do not believe that the
ruins must necessarily obstruct the prospects. But
it is pertinent to note
that the fact that the government does not seem to
have a firm hand on the
tiller as regards the deepening crisis makes
prospects for a quick
turnaround under ZANU PF rather grim. Moreso when
political measures are
continuously suggested as a remedy for the country's
economic woes and
national disintegration without due regard for economic
and common sense.
This hardly inspires the kind of confidence that unlocks
people's energies
and private capital.
Thus when their time comes as it inevitably will, the
ruling party, whose
politicians have been on and on about an economic
turnaround only they can
see will, as surely as the sun rises from the east
and sets in the west,
bequeath to Zimbabwe a legacy of obsolete
socio-political and economic
structures, acute shortages of basic
commodities and fuel.
It gets worse, for there is also the absence of basic
rights and freedoms.
How so and why? I will explain. It is an open secret
that the ruling party's
political star is on the wane. And the deep well of
disenchantment with ZANU
PF, which has been arrogant enough to think that it
is the only capable
political force in the country, is an expression of the
general
disillusionment of Zimbabweans frustrated by social deprivation.
This is why
pressure has been inexorably rising for political reforms and
the democratic
renewal of the country. In any case, Zimbabwean voters now
have a
significant component of a generation historically with no party
allegiance.
And how has the ZANU PF government, which has always acted in the
interest
of one party instead of being an instrument of different social
interests,
reacted to the loss of popular support?
In a rash of
impatience with critics and dissenting voices, it started
behaving like a
cornered animal, formulating objectionable pieces of
legislation that stifle
democratic space by making it next to impossible for
people to freely
organise on the basis of their political convictions.
Contrary to the laws
of physics, at least in Zimbabwe's case, any pressure
in politics encounters
a strong and irrational reaction. Some of these laws
that expose the ZANU PF
government's anti-democratic nature and intolerance
are POSA and AIPPA,
which on paper guarantees the right to obtain data and
public information
under the control of governmental organisations. And now
we have the highly
intrusive Interception of Communications Bill government
is desperate to
push through Parliament.
This has given rise to a very dangerous and poisoned
political culture where
supporting any political party other than ZANU PF,
which is everyone's
democratic right, earns hostility and even hatred -
something that should
belong to history's septic tank.
Thus the
Zimbabwean government came in for some severe criticism over its
democratic
deficit. Friends became few and far between as criticism of the
ruling ZANU
PF government's poor human rights record and its attitude
towards democracy
reached a crescendo. Western critics argued that the
political process in
Zimbabwe should, just like any other constitutional
democracy, be based on
the voluntary and individual choice of the people.
Simply put, this was a
call for political pluralism. But of course the
government did not see it
that way. It accused the West of meddling in
Zimbabwe's internal affairs to
push for regime change.
To find a way round the ostracism, the ZANU PF
government, which makes no
secret of the fact that it despises countries
that say that they want to
base their friendships with other countries on
their observance of human
rights, looked elsewhere - the East. And that is
understandable.
Most governments in the East hide, justify or turn a blind
eye to immoral
political behaviour. Hence their foreign policies which
attach little or no
significance to issues of human rights because these
policies are supposedly
defined by the "principle of mutual respect,
equality, mutual benefit and
non-interference". The underlying belief in
these countries is that flattery
brings friends and truth, enemies. This is
particularly so for China whose
foreign policy is driven by its insatiable
appetite for raw materials for
its over-heating economy which has seen it
use its veto power in the UN
Security Council to protect known dictators.
True, it's a judgment call but
are these the kind of friends that Zimbabwe
wants?
But even then, much as the ZANU PF government, which always fails to
see the
obvious does not want to recognise it, the fact remains that very
little, if
any, has materialised from the much-vaunted Look East policy. At
best all
Zimbabwe has got are good words of intent. And it is not difficult
to see
why.
Despite the "good" political relations that exist between the
eastern
countries and Zimbabwe, these countries remain highly sceptical.
Thus they
will continue with their fence-sitting because not even they are
confident
that Zimbabwe will stop its arbitrary violation of that which is
fundamental
to market economy and business confidence - the law of property
and law of
contract. And therein lies the rub because the memorandums of
understanding
signed between Zimbabwe and its eastern "friends" will have to
be
implemented on a purely commercial basis!
And what is the upshot of
all this? The same old story of a sadder spectacle
of a flower that withers
on the stalk before blooming. Zimbabwe's needle
remains well and truly stuck
as the broader international community
continues to avoid it like a plague.
Thus there is no proverbial silver
lining in the ominous dark cloud. And a
turnaround will not come any time
sooner than the end of the third
millennium. Meanwhile, an estimated 80
percent of the country's population
continues to live below the breadline.
Thousands live under some of the most
wretched conditions in Africa and they
are going hungry because of the
failure of several years' harvests. Theirs
is extreme poverty which has
stripped them of their human dignity as if it
is something their historical
situation prescribed. The population is
increasingly restive. But there
doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency on the
part of the government.
Thus
Zimbabwe remains a nation of the deprived and disillusioned - stoking
fires
of discontent. And that is precisely what ZANU PF, known for its
brutal lust
for power, will be remembered for - half-baked democracy and
lasting harm to
the economy which they inherited in an era of surplus and
security. What a
legacy that would be for a generation of liberation war
fighters who through
their sacrifice and selflessness wrote the most
outstanding chapter in the
history of Zimbabwe. Little wonder cynics say the
PF in ZANU PF stands for
poor finishing.
Why is ZANU PF afraid to open up
airwaves?
EDITOR - Years back when Strive Masiyiwa of Econet
wanted to bring cellphone
technology into the country, the ZANU PF
government denied him a licence.
And for seven years he gallantly fought
against the system of patronage and
cronyism and refused to be embedded with
ZANU PF to get a licence. But those
who were embedded with ZANU PF like
James Makamba and Leo Mugabe were given
a licence for Telecel.
It took
the intervention of the late Vice President, Joshua Nkomo, to order
Joice
Mujuru (ironically now vice President) who was Minister of
Telecommunications to licence Econet. But Mujuru would not budge and instead
caused a furore by describing Nkomo's order as coming from a "senile and old
man". And there was such an outcry that Mujuru had to issue a public
apology.
However with Econet's licensing jobs have been created both
formally and
informally, through its dealerships and the sale of various
support
products. Furthermore, communication has improved tremendously in
the
country after years of archaic and shoddy service from the then PTC, now
Tel*one.
And this brings us to the issue of the Broadcasting Authority of
Zimbabwe
(BAZ) that exists in name only. After the Capitol Radio debacle,
when
Jonathan Moyo ruled supreme, we thought the coming of BAZ was a welcome
relief. But things have turned out for the worse.
Thomas Mandigora and
company have to be "forced" by any means necessary, it
seems, to issue
prospective service providers the necessary licences. One
can imagine the
number of jobs that will be created if say, each province
has a radio/TV
station or if each district has a community radio station?
Why not take a
leaf from Zambia or South Africa whose free airwaves are the
envy of all
freedom loving people. In South Africa, community radio stations
are all
over and play a leading role in the development of the community in
their
dissemination of information.
It's a pity that an area like Beitbridge
district, long forgotten by ZBH,
relies on South Africa for TV and radio
reception.
Why is ZANU PF afraid to open the airwaves? Only time will
tell!
Frank Matandirotya
South Africa
------------
Tsvangirai
leads by example
EDITOR - I would like to say hats off to the
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
for fulfilling his promise that when the time
comes for mass protests, he
will be there leading from the
front.
Tsvangirai's bold move is just a precursor of things to come, as he
promised
in his address to the crowd.
The deafening silence and complete
blackout of news of the march by the
state media is laughable, to say the
least, as you can never run away from
the truth by burying your head in the
sand.
Tsvangirai has shown Zimbabweans that the solution to our problems lies
within us.
C Moyo
Harare
--------
Stop defending such
ineptitude, Maridadi
EDITOR - This in an open letter to James
Maridadi, the ZESA public relations
manager.
As I was watching you on
ZTV a few Fridays ago giving us yet another of your
indefatigable
explanations on the ongoing ZESA circus, my lights went out. I
have since
come to the conclusion that lying to your customers has now
become part of
your brief as ZESA public relations manager.
The joke in the townships is
that ZESA now means Zimbabwe Electricity
Sometimes Available.
When ZESA
first seriously embarked on its journey of full-time incompetence,
inconvenience and self-delusion, you told us lightning was responsible for
our misery. Once the "lightning strikes" became too frequent for your
comfort, you shifted the blame to thieves draining oil from transformers at
substations. Lord knows why armed personnel do not guard these substations.
Surely it would be much cheaper than allowing ZESA to lose $50 billion
(revalued?) monthly.
Now you want us to believe that blackouts will
decrease because fewer people
are using heaters and boiling less water? We
are holding our collective
breath.
The last explanation, courtesy of the
Herald was that some power lines from
Snell, a DRC company, had been
vandalised and were being repaired. Stories
elsewhere suggest a different
scenario. Not surprisingly, the blackouts
became worse. Even if we're
half-wits, we pay for this electricity. While
they are busy electrifying
rural areas (read chief's homesteads), they are
busy "de-electrifying" the
urban areas!
I now challenge Maridadi to either take month-long leave, go on
a soul
searching mission; or issue a full statement explaining the true
position of
ZESA.
Failing that, sir, the honourable thing is for you to
resign and enter
politics where lying is an occupational hazard.
The
Power of Darkness
Harare
---------
Cultural hypocrites must shut
up
EDITOR - The issue of prostitution in Africa is a
sensitive one and needs a
mature approach. We can only handle this subject
fairly if we keep emotions
out of it and face facts squarely. I for one do
not care about the
legalisation of prostitution or same sex as it was, and
will always, remain
with us in this world.
Both Nelson Mandela of South
Africa (Christian) and Hassan al-Turabi of
Sudan (Muslim) agree that the
"moral police" cannot go into people's homes
to investigate the so-called
anti-social behaviours: they risk legal
nightmares over trespassing!" The
problems with my home continent of Africa
are taboos, religious dogma and
moral hypocrisy.
I ask the following questions: How many "men of God" taste
the forbidden
fruits secretly? How many politicians and big men are
entertaining
harem-like collections of "sugar babies" and mistresses? How
many
sugar-mummies are pampering lover-boys? How did the sex cases against
former
US President Clinton, Dr G Basyge (Uganda) and Jacob Zuma (South
Africa)
fail in their initial targets of character assassination? Why is it
that
every 30 minutes a woman is raped and a man sexually exploited between
Cairo
and Cape? Why is divorce becoming rampant and outrageous? Which
sections of
the Holy Qur'an and the Bible said that the sexual pleasure of
our womenfolk
should be sliced through female circumcision? Why are war
refugees and war
victims sexually exploited in the DRC, Liberia, Sierra
Leone, Northern
Uganda, South Africa, Niger Delta, etc?
We all know that
HIV/AIDS and other sexually-transmitted infections (STIs)
are not
transmitted through portable water or polluted air. Until and unless
we
Africans are prepared to face the truth and promote responsible education
in
sexuality and reproductive health openly, we will only be caricaturing
ourselves like the naked emperors.
Some say it is "un-African" to
legalise prostitution. I would like to add
that is also un-African to wait
till half of Africa's population is sent to
its graves by HIV/AIDS/STIs due
to lack of political will to allow public
discourse on sexuality! It is
always easy to blame western television and
materialism for "corrupting our
holy African cultures!"
Sex is said to be the world's "first profession" and
Africa is documented as
the birthplace of mankind. Therefore, the practice
of sex in exchange for
food and security as in the rural areas camps/
trouble zones or in the
"civilised cities" where parents "sell" their
daughters to wealthy suitors,
is as old as Africa - long before the Arab and
European slave traders
arrive.
Before our moralists start blaming
teenagers for unwanted pregnancies and
sexual frustrations, they should ask
if they (teenagers) had access to
balanced education on the pros and cons of
sex! Before our African political
and religious class start ordering the
harassment of prostitutes and
sexuality rights activists at gunpoint, they
should allocate part of their
defence budgets to economic empowerment
programmes for young adults - it is
about survival and not
promiscuity!
The cultural hypocrites should keep their mouths shut - we are
tried of
dogma! Taboo kills!
Abubacarr B. Sankanu
Cologne,
Germany