http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 07 April 2011 18:54
Tendai
Zhanje
JOINT Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic)
co-chairperson Opah
Muchinguri blamed political parties for the escalation
of violence in the
country.
Addressing delegates at a workshop
launching Jomic’s district liaison
committees in Harare yesterday,
Muchinguri attacked all political parties
for preaching violence at their
gatherings.
“Political parties cannot absolve themselves from
political violence because
people are dying in the name of political
parties. This problem of violence
starts with political leaders who when
addressing their members encourage
them to be violent,” said
Muchinguri.
She also added that incidents of violence being reported
to Jomic indicated
that police were being biased in executing their
duties.
“We have held meetings with the police because in all the
cases of violence
reported, it seems as if there is a selective application
of the law, but
the police are saying the problem starts with political
parties which
address their members encouraging them to be violent,” said
Muchinguri.
The liaison committees would consist of representatives
from all three
political parties and be tasked with dispensing of
information to people
Jomic is unable to reach, particularly rural
areas.
“The aim of the liaison committee is to promote dialogue,
fairness and human
rights issues. We cannot reach everyone so these
committees will collect
that information and pass it on to us,” she
said.
The smaller MDC’s representative Frank Chamunorwa said that the
language of
violence was against the GPA and his party had appealed through
the media
and other concerned organisations to encourage people to desist
from using
hate speech.
“The operation of the GPA centres on the
spirit of dialogue as opposed to
violence. Anyone who talks the language of
violence is in blatant violation
of the letter and spirit of the GPA,” said
Chamunorwa.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Wongai Zhangazha
PRESIDENT Robert
Mugabe is holding back the appointment of the
Anti-Corruption Commission
amid reports that Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa was pushing for his
personal preferences, Justice Chinembiri Bhunu
or Judge President George
Chiweshe, to chair the constitutionally
established
body.
Government sources told the Zimbabwe Independent that Mugabe
had withheld
the process of nominating candidates for the commission leaving
the Standing
Rules and Orders Committee (SROC) in
limbo.
Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma told the Independent
yesterday that the
proposed names were being examined and that the SROC was
now awaiting a
response from the President’s Office.
“In terms of
Section 100 of the constitution, the appointment of the
Anti-Corruption
Commission is done by the president in consultation with the
Standing Rules
and Orders Committee, which means the president comes up with
names as
required by the constitution,” Zvoma said. “The proposed names are
then
submitted to the Standing Rules and Orders Committee for its
consideration
in order for it to express its position on whether the names
of the people
so proposed qualify in terms of qualification, experience as
well as
eligibility.”
He added: “The criterion is that those who have served
two terms in the
commission are not eligible unless the Anti-Corruption Act
is amended. Some
of the names proposed did not qualify to be on the
commission.”
However, Zvoma refused to reveal the proposed names
saying it was unethical
for him to do so.
The sources said
prominent Harare lawyer Wilson Manase had initially been
earmarked to chair
the commission before Chinamasa’s move. Manase reportedly
had the backing of
both the MDC formations and Zanu PF, but faced opposition
from
Chinamasa.
The new commission will replace the one headed by former
auditor and
comptroller general Eric Harid whose term ended in 2009. Harid’s
commission
is currently negotiating an exit package with the
government.
Chinamasa declined to comment on the matter, while
efforts to get a comment
from Manase were also
fruitless.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights chairman Andrew Makoni
said the delay in
the appointment of the Anti-Corruption Commission was a
tactic by the powers
that be to evade investigations.
“What I can
only say is that the delay demonstrates that parties in the
inclusive
government lack political will to tackle the vice of corruption,”
Makoni
said. “Corruption is visible in every sector, private or public and
yet
corruption gurus are escaping prosecution owing partly to the failure to
appoint new commissioners in compliance with the GPA. Corruption is a cancer
which if not treated early will spread rapidly and irreversibly. We have
almost reached the point of no return.”
In a report titled
Articles of Faith — Assessing Zimbabwe’s GPA as a
Mechanism for Change — a
Legal Perspective”, the Research and Advocacy Unit
(RAU) blamed Mugabe for
delays in the appointment of AAC.
Reads the report: “Mugabe is
unlikely to permit the existence of an
anti-corruption body that threatens
this system of patronage. Zanu PF’s
antipathy to any probe into corrupt
activities is reflected in a reluctance
to undertake the land audit provided
for by the GPA. It also emerged, when
the Minister of Finance Tendai Biti
suggested to cabinet that an
investigation be undertaken to establish how
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
became so heavily indebted, that its assets
were being auctioned to settle
debts with creditors, the suggestion was
greeted with outrage by Zanu PF
cabinet ministers.”
RAU also said
that some Zanu PF officials prevented a parliamentary
committee from
investigating corruption and rights violations in the
Chiadzwa diamond
mining area by blocking attempts to visit the minefields.
Speaker of
the House of Assembly Lovemore Moyo was last month reported
saying four
individuals appointed by Mugabe to the commission were
ineligible because
they had served their mandatory two terms in previous
commissions.
It is understood that because there was a
constitutional problem with the
appointment of the four, the SROC tasked
Chinamasa to pursue the matter.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Dumisani Muleya
DESPITE
obstinate resistance from Zanu PF and its leaders, South African
facilitators in the Zimbabwe political dialogue, which is endorsed by Sadc,
held meetings with party political negotiators in Harare yesterday to review
the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and finalise the crafting of an
elections roadmap.
The move showed President Robert Mugabe and
Zanu PF’s protests over alleged
meddling by Sadc leaders and their
facilitators have been brushed aside by
the regional leaders, who confirmed
last week they were disappointed and
becoming increasingly impatient with
Zimbabwean parties’ failure to
implement the GPA and maintain peace and
stability within the Government of
National Unity (GNU) and the
country.
Informed sources close to the negotiators and
facilitators said Sadc
leaders, chairman of the troika of the organ on
politics, defence and
security, President Rupiah Banda of Zambia and his
colleagues, South African
President Jacob Zuma and Mozambican leader Armando
Guebuza, as well as Sadc
chair, President Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia,
now want to give new
impetus to the Zimbabwean process to ensure all GPA
provisions and issues
are implemented. The leaders are pushing the country
towards free and fair
elections, which they hope would break the decade-long
political impasse and
produce a legitimate government to work on the
country’s economic recovery,
national healing and international
recognition.
Negotiators and facilitators confirmed they met
yesterday afternoon. Those
in the negotiations include Zanu PF’s Patrick
Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche,
while the MDC-T is represented by Tendai Biti
and Elton Mangoma, and the
MDC-N by Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and
Moses Mzila Ndlovu.
The facilitators, who arrived in the country on
Wednesday, include Charles
Nqakula, Mac Maharaj and Lindiwe Zulu. Sadc
leaders have appointed a new
team to reinforce the efforts of the
facilitation team. Although Mugabe and
Zanu PF are trying to resist the
team, Sadc said it would implement all its
resolutions made by the troika
summit last week in Livingstone, Zambia.
Negotiators have been
meeting since Monday, focusing on reviewing the GPA
and GNU, as well as the
drafting of the roadmap required prior to the hold
of fresh elections
designed to break the country’s decade-long political
stalemate.
Initially Zanu PF tried to resist this process,
claiming that the GPA “on
its own is an election roadmap”. However, the MDC
parties said the GPA was
“the basis and only a starting point” of the
roadmap. They demanded that a
comprehensive elections roadmap must be drawn
up with benchmarks, timeframes
and signposts. This was adopted by Sadc
facilitators and endorsed by
regional leaders last week, forcing Zanu PF to
fall in line. Chinamasa
confirmed on Wednesday to the state media that the
latest negotiations were
about reviewing the GPA and crafting an elections
roadmap.
MDC-T chief negotiator Tendai Biti also confirmed what
Chinamasa said. “We
are holding meetings to review the GPA, the performance
of the GNU and to
craft an elections roadmap,” Biti said. “We are doing this
in terms of
Article 23 of the GPA which deals with periodic review
mechanism.”
Article 23 of the GPA says: “The parties will continually
review the
effectiveness and any other matter relating to the functioning of
the
inclusive government established by the constitution in consultation
with
the guarantors (Sadc and the African Union)”.
Zanu PF and
the two MDC parties are locked in disputes over the
implementation of the
GPA, lifespan of the GNU and elections. The MDC-T
mainly accuses Zanu PF of
stalling the implementation of 24 outstanding
issues which have been agreed
upon. MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is
also Prime Minister in the GNU,
has also accused Mugabe of acting
unilaterally in making appointments of
judges, ambassadors and provincial
governors. While there is still a dispute
over this and other remaining
issues, attention has shifted to the
constitution-making process, referendum
and elections.
Tsvangirai
has also been complaining about political violence and
intimidation, which
he blames on Zanu PF and the security forces, including
the army, police and
intelligence. Sadc leaders said last week this must
stop.
The
premier has of late been travelling across the region to brief Sadc
leaders
about the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe. He has been to
Zambia,
Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania and
DRC.
Tsvangirai left for Lesotho yesterday and he will travel to
Angola today.
His spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka confirmed the trips but would
not give
details.
Mugabe and Zanu PF want to stampede the country
into elections this year
without fully implementing the GPA, while the MDC-T
wants elections next
year. MDC-N believes there is still a long way to go
before elections if
conditions for genuine free and fair conditions were to
be created. MDC-T
thinks credible and genuine elections are only possible by
at least May next
year, while MDC-N feels if the process is followed
meticulously, polls would
come in 2013. Zanu PF wants elections by August or
September.
After complaining in vain over the resolutions of the Sadc
troika summit in
Livingstone, Zambia, last week, Zanu PF is now claiming
that the communiqué
of the meeting supported its position on elections. The
communiqué only said
“The Inclusive Government of Zimbabwe should complete
all the steps
necessary for the holding of the election, including
finalisation of the
constitutional amendment and
referendum”.
“Sadc should assist Zimbabwe to formulate guidelines
that will assist in
holding an election that will be peaceful, free and
fair, in accordance to
Sadc Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic
Elections,” the
communiqué said.
However, the MDC parties are
arguing that while elections should come, the
problem is that the GPA has
not been fully implemented to create conditions
for free and fair
elections.
Under Article 22 of the GPA, the parties are expected to
ensure “full and
proper” implementation of the agreement. The parties set up
the Joint
Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic), comprising four
members
from each organisation, to ensure the GPA is wholly implemented in
“letter
and spirit”. Sadc leaders last week formed a new team to reinforce
operations of Jomic and help to step up GPA implementation.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Paidamoyo Muzulu
A NEW report by
the Harare-based Research and Advocacy Unit says the
democratisation agenda
envisioned in the 2008 Global Political Agreement
(GPA) largely depended on
President Robert Mugabe’s benevolence since the
MDC formations were only
given nominal power in the resultant inclusive
government.
In a report
titled “Articles of Faith: Assessing Zimbabwe’s GPA as a
Mechanism for
Change — A Legal Perspective”, Derek Matyszak and Tony Reeler
concluded that
the democratisation agenda was far from being achieved by the
current system
and actors.
The GPA is a political settlement guaranteed by Sadc and
the African Union
to end a decade-long political crisis in Zimbabwe
conceived after the bloody
2008 elections, and is aimed at creating
conditions for genuine political
and electoral reforms.
The
reforms include, but are not limited to, media, constitutional,
electoral
and security sector reforms and national healing.
Matyszak and
Reeler’s report says the “implementation of democratic reform
contemplated
by the GPA has thus depended on the goodwill and political
willingness of
Mugabe and his ministers, qualities that were notably lacking
prior to the
signing of the GPA and notably lacking thereafter”.
The research
authors argued that the GPA was replete with lofty provisions
designed to
widen democratic space in Zimbabwe, but there was, however, a
dearth of
provisions by which they may be implemented.
These include amendments
to draconian legislation, such as the Public Order
and Security Act, Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and
the Broadcasting Services
Act.
They further argued that the reforms may only be implemented if
MDC
ministers got necessary executive authority, which they unfortunately
failed
to get on the negotiating table since Mugabe kept for himself and his
Zanu
PF party powerful posts.
“To ensure implementation, the MDC
required control over ministries and
statutory institutions with the
appropriate executive power. None of the
ministries Mugabe allocated to the
MDC afforded it such control,” reads the
report.
It pointed out
that the MDC was failing to exploit the few opportunities
available to it
through its role in the inclusive government. This was in
stark contrast to
Mugabe who continued to control all vital sectors,
ministries and
institutions capable of effecting reform, namely the
military, the media and
security sectors.
The researchers believe that Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and the MDC
had two options to become more relevant and push for
reforms, but they
seemed reluctant to exploit them.
“One is the
requirement that all key appointments in terms of the
constitution and any
appointment in terms of any Act of Parliament can only
be lawfully made by
the President with the consent of the Prime Minister,”
the researchers
wrote. “Mugabe has simply ignored this requirement where it
suited him to do
so, and Tsvangirai has not sought to exercise this right in
all
instances.”
The researchers further argued that Sadc had not fully
grasped the
importance of the MDC’s right in the GPA implementation, as
exemplified by
it asking the MDC-T to “park” the issues arising from
Mugabe’s unilateral
appointments.
Matyszak and Reeler insisted
that the correct approach was for Sadc to
persist pressing for compliance,
something which the MDC had not done with
due rigour.
Mugabe last
year unilaterally appointed provincial governors and has
declined to rescind
the appointment of central bank governor Gideon Gono and
Attorney-General
Johannes Tomana. The ageing president has also refused to
swear in MDC-T
deputy treasurer general Roy Bennett as Deputy Agriculture
minister, among a
host of other issues of the GPA he refused to implement.
The report
said the other option for the MDC was to use its numerical
advantage and
dominance in parliament’s Standing Rules and Orders Committee
to implement
changes that simply required the House to change.
“They should ensure
that Constitutional Committees, particularly the all-
important Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission, comprised resilient, resourceful
and informed
individuals who could robustly advance an agenda of democratic
reform. This
(unfortunately) it failed to do,” reads the report.
Matyszak and
Reeler concluded that the GPA could not be celebrated as a
successful
regional solution to a regional problem.
“Accordingly, one should
exercise some caution before referring to the GPA
as an ‘African solution to
an African problem’ as certain uncomfortable
readings of the maxim may
suggest themselves,” they wrote.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Brian Chitemba
FIREWORKS are expected at
the MDC-T provincial assembly elections in
Matabeleland at the weekend as
party hawks battle for influential positions
ahead of the party’s long
awaited national elective congress.
The Bulawayo provincial elections
will take place tomorrow while those for
Matabeleland North and South will
be on Sunday and Monday respectively.
The elections come in the wake of a
surprise visit to Hwange and Bulawayo by
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai last
weekend. Tsvangirai informally told
senior officials in the region to end
factionalism and prepare for
elections.
The biggest
battle is for the Bulawayo provincial chairmanship pitting
Parastatals and
Enterprises minister Gorden Moyo and Mzilikazi Senator
Mattson Hlalo. The
victor will replace the little known incumbent Agnes
Mloi.
Campaigns for provincial posts took violent twists in the
past few weeks
with factions trading insults and coming close to fist
fights.
“There has been violence in district elections in Bulawayo
because Moyo and
Hlalo’s factions were fighting to position their members to
vote in
provincial assembly polls,” a senior MDC-T official told the
Zimbabwe
Independent this week.
MDC-T insiders believe that Moyo
was likely to win the vote after he
successfully lobbied the Bulawayo
Progressive Residents’ Association (BPRA)
for support. Moyo is the patron of
the organisation, which was formed two
years ago to rival the Zanu
PF-aligned Bulawayo Residents’ Association.
“Moyo has been using BPRA
to build his political base and most of its
members are in MDC-T structures.
That could easily see him edging Hlalo,”
said an insider.
MDC-T
bigwigs in Bulawayo tried to stop Moyo from contesting but Tsvangirai
intervened paving the way for him to throw his hat into the ring.
Some
MDC-T officials believe that Moyo is Tsvangirai’s blue-eyed boy after
he
handpicked him from civil society to be a minister at the inception of
the
coalition government two years ago.
Vote-buying, sexism and
factionalism have rocked the MDC-T in the run-up to
the national
congress.
In Matabeleland North, incumbent provincial chairman
Sengezo Tshabangu will
battle with Binga Senator Hebert Sinampande.
Tshabangu faces ouster because
he stays in Bulawayo.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Paidamoyo Muzulu
JUSTICE
and Legal Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa (pictured) was on
Wednesday
forced to drop certain clauses in the General Amendment Bill which
threatened media freedom and the smooth operations of local
authorities.
The Bill had sought to introduce minor changes to 17 different
pieces of
legislation, among them the Copyright and Neighbouring Act, Urban
Councils
Act, Rural District Councils Act, Procurement Act, Parks and
Wildlife Act,
Police Act and Health Services Act.
The contentious
amendments related to copyrighting public documents such as
statutes, court
judgments and the Government Gazette, among other state
publications. Local
authorities were to purchase goods and contract services
through the State
Procurement Board under the proposed amendments.
Chinamasa told
parliament that he was withdrawing all amendments cited as
retrogressive in
a democratic state. He said he would further consult on
amendments on local
government procurement with the relevant ministers.
Chinamasa said:
“I also agree with your comments Honourable (Douglas)
Mwonzora on the
Copyright Act. This is something that we had already decided
in my ministry
that we should not amend the Copyright Act.
“I am going to withdraw
this clause or any reference to procurement so that
I allow the two
responsible ministers, that is the Minister of Local
Government and Urban
Development and the Minister of Finance who is
responsible for the
Procurement Act. I would then ask them to bring in a
separate Act of
Parliament, a separate Bill to deal with this issue so that
it can receive
the attention that it deserves.”
Mwonzora, the Justice Portfolio
Committee chairman, had attacked the
Copyright and Neighbouring Amendment
Act as detrimental to freedom of
information as enshrined in international
conventions and the Zimbabwean
constitution.
“The committee heard
that in 2000, the BEN Convention in Geneva said every
citizen has the right
to free access to all the laws and statutes of that
country. The committee
is concerned that the proposal violates Section 20(1)
of the Constitution.
Section 20(1) of the Constitution provides as follows:
Except with his own
consent or by way of parental discipline, no person
shall be hindered in the
enjoyment of his freedom of expression, that is to
say, freedom to hold
opinions and to receive and impart ideas and
information without
interference,” said Mwonzora.
Local Government Portfolio Committee
chairperson Lynette Kurenyi said her
committee was sceptical of the proposed
amendments to procurement of goods
by local authorities.
She said
her committee believed the changes would bring unnecessary
centralisation
and corruption in the procurement of goods and services.
Kurenyi
said: “To this end, your committee recommends the following: that
the
Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs withdraws the amendments and or
proposed repeals relating to local authorities procurement as it is against
the spirit of decentralisation and equitable distribution of wealth. The
Ministry of Local Government Rural and Urban Development should come up with
a model procurement by-law for use by all Local Authorities.”
The
Amendment Bill was referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee to be
further scrutinised if the amendments made were consistent with the
Constitution before being brought back for its third reading.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Wongai Zhangazha
FALLING
classroom blocks, inadequate and rundown school furniture,
pothole-filled
roads, dilapidated recreational grounds and unhealthy dining
rooms, flowing
raw sewage and inadequate health facilities are all woes
commonly shared by
Zimbabwe’s 210 parliamentary constituencies.
Some dilapidated
infrastructure has proved fatal and recently cut short the
life of a 14-year
old girl and seriously injured three others, after a
makeshift classroom
collapsed at Munhondo Secondary School in Darwendale.
Maybe the
introduction of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), through
the Public
Finance Management Act, is the answer to people’s problems in the
previously
neglected constituencies.
The CDF gives communities a platform to
debate on, select and prioritise
projects they want undertaken in their
constituencies with little red tape.
This departure from the norm is seen as
providing a gateway for the genuine
empowerment of people at grassroots
level, as well as helping push back the
frontiers of
poverty.
Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs minister Eric
Matinenga said
Treasury allocated US$10,5 million for this project last year
and US$10,45
million was disbursed to 209 constituencies, with the exception
of
Tsholotsho North, which did not apply to the fund.
Under the
fund, each MP is allocated US$50 000 for developmental projects
and
operations, guided by a constitution and accounting officer’s
instructions.
A management committee was established by the
Constitutional and
Parliamentary Affairs ministry to supervise CDF
activities.
At constituency level, a committee comprising the MP as
chairperson, the
local senator and elected councillors discuss the various
projects to be
implemented.
The Comptroller and Auditor General
and the office of the Accountant General
keep a close eye on the projects to
ensure that the funds are being spent
appropriately.
Some of the
constituencies currently being inspected include Mazoe South,
Highfield
East, Glenview North and Sunningdale.
Highfield East MP Pearson
Mungofa told the Zimbabwe Independent that he used
CDF money to drill
boreholes at Mutasa, Chengu and Mhizha primary schools.
He also used the
fund to erect a wall around the Old Highfield clinic and
also bought more
than 200 benches and desks for Mukai High School and Mhofu
Primary School.
He still has a balance of $8 000.
Mazoe South MP Margaret Zinyemba
said she used the money to buy building
materials and school furniture, to
be used in renovations at a number of
schools and clinics in nine
wards.
She said the money was also used to complete the sewage and
water
reticulation system in Glendale- urban.
Glenview North MP
Fani Munengami said his constituency had built a computer
laboratory at
Glenview Number 2 Primary School and bought 50 computers for
Glen View
Number 5 Primary School. Glenview 7 Primary School got 29
computers, while
some blocks at Glenview 3 High School were electrified.
However,
while the CDF appears to be a noble idea, critics argue that it is
prone to
abuse by political parties. At several launch functions of CDF
projects and
disbursement, residents and villagers are made to believe that
the money was
sourced from political parties.
When the Zimbabwe Independent spoke
to some people in Harare’s high density
suburbs, most of them had no idea
what the CDF was and what developments
were taking place in their
constituencies. Some didn’t even know who their
MP was.
Social
analyst Maxwell Saungweme said though CDF should be applauded, it was
fundamentally flawed “in an environment like Zimbabwe” and could be hijacked
by politicians.
Saungweme said: “Zimbabwe’s constituencies are
highly polarised and
politicised and experience by development workers is
that even with
development projects managed by NGOs, the biggest challenge
is polarisation
of projects, with politicians wanting the projects to serve
their supporters
at the expense of the most vulnerable members of the
communities.
What more when the politician, the MP, is presiding
over the project? He
will simply ensure that his supporters benefit from the
CDF and further
divide the constituency along political
lines.”
Another analyst questioned the involvement of MPs in the
projects and
suggested that a Constituency Development Trust be formed
instead.
“To give US$50 000 to MPs is to seek to confuse their
legislative role with
that of ministers and councillors. It is also to seek
and give an MP power
beyond his or her mandate. What should have been set up
are constituency
development trusts that do not get the resources via the
MP, but via either
the Ministry of Social Welfare or that of Constitutional
Affairs, involving
a formal process that has a broad based stakeholders’
consultative
structure.”
“It is subject to abuse, but the initial
abuse is that of the public, whose
expectations are falsely raised by
grandiose pronouncements of the fund by
the minister responsible, as well as
the MPs, when we all know that $50 000
is nothing. Instead it should be the
government’s primary responsibility to
provide electricity to clinics,
repair schools, distribute anti-retroviral
drugs and provide grinding
mills,” said the analyst.
But Highfield legislator Mungofa rubbished
these allegations, saying MPs
were solely taking advantage of the
CDF.
“I never make the decisions on my own. In my constituency, apart
from
including the councillors, I also involved headmasters from different
schools, informal and formal business people in the area to come up with
ideas or priorities in the constituency which need urgent attention. Those
meetings are pretty tough, with people coming up with so many ideas. You
just have to reach a compromise and deal with important issues first,” said
Mungofa.
Saungweme felt that for development projects to be
successful and
appreciated, they had to be participatory and beneficiaries
of projects
should have a say on all phases of the project from conception,
design,
implementation, monitoring, completion and evaluation.
He
said what was worrying was that some of the MPs had lost touch with what
was
happening in their constituencies.
“Most of these MPs do not go back
to their constituencies and do not spend
time discussing development
priorities. They are divorced from community
priorities and do not even
know some of the problems that exist in their
constituencies. There is need
to have a re-think about this fund by going
back to the drawing board and
involve civil society and community-based
organisations, leaving the role of
MPs to be that of monitoring of how the
fund is being used,” he said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Monday, 04 April 2011
12:05
Bernard Mpofu
ZIMBABWE Stock Exchange stockbrokers have
proposed to government a new law
on demutualisation of the exchange, as the
capital-starved bourse pushes for
listing by year end.
A concept
paper in the possession of businessdigest shows that plans to
demutualise
the US$4,2 billion ZSE could be on course after a first draft of
the
exercise was completed in February .
In the meantime the ZSE,
a quasi parastatal, is being regulated by the
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange Act
and the Securities Act.
“Having looked at the pros and cons of
demutualisation, we believe the ZSE,
being one of the oldest and best
performing exchanges in Africa, is ripe for
demutualisation,” reads the
paper.
“We therefore believe the ZSE and relevant authorities will
take the
initiative and consider the process of demutualising the ZSE. This
will
enable the exchange to be more commercially nimble and respond to
market
needs more quickly, unimpeded by member committees and their diverse
interests, and also give access to capital markets for fund
raising.”
Demutualisation, according to the paper, entails a change
in the legal
status of a stock exchange from a mutual association with
one-vote per
member—guided by consensus based decision making—to a company
limited by
shares with one vote per share. This process would also result in
the ZSE
becoming a for-profit firm in a competitive financial markets
environment.
The ZSE wants the exercise to be modelled along the
lines of Malaysia’s
Bursa Malaysia Bhd (which demutualised in 2004 and
listed a year later),
where 40% of the total value of the exchange was
allocated to the stock
broking industry, a further 30% allotted for setting
up a Capital Markets
Development Fund and the remaining 30% to
treasury.
“Zimbabwe has not been left out of the wave as over the
years, investors
have been drumming up support for securities quoted on our
exchange to be
listed on other exchanges, so as to access the much needed
capital.
Demutualisation has been seen as a better way of achieving such,”
reads the
paper.
“Again there has been an outcry as to whether an
organisation (ZSE) that
controls the fortunes of thousands or millions of
investors should be left
in the private hands of a group of individuals
whose operation, integrity
and expertise are shielded from public scrutiny,
or it should be entrusted
into the care of private-public entity that can
strip naked publicly for all
stakeholders to see and appreciate the
organisation for what it really is.”
The ZSE, which is currently
reeling from low market confidence on the back
of perceived liquidity and
counterpart risk, low standards of corporate
governance, vulnerability to
market shocks and lack of competitiveness in
the local market, among other
factors, sees demutualisation as a means to
unlocking the potential of the
lacklustre exchange.
Apart from tapping in capital, the ZSE, still
lagging behind on
computerisation, believes demutualisation could also equip
the exchange with
latest technologies.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Monday, 04 April 2011 11:45
THE
current economic stability should be sustained so as to enable the
banking
sector to start lending long term, according to Standard Bank acting
chairman, Ian Mackenzie.
Analysing the bank’s financial results
in which it reversed a loss of US$3,7
million in 2009 to a profit after tax
of US$8,4 million in the year ending
December 31 2010, Mackenzie said
increased savings pursuant to economic
stability would facilitate structured
medium to long term lending to
industry.
Zimbabwe’s
economic growth has, since dollarisation in February 2009, been
stymied by
inadequate liquidity in the banking sector, where banks are
mostly lending
short term on rates punitive to industry.
Standard Chartered
attributed its phenomenal results to non-funded income
and interest returns,
with the latter arising from solid growth in the loan
book. The bank’s
total operating income was US$43 million up from US$22,4
million. Its
margins, however, remained subdued as a reflection of both
competition and a
realignment of interest rates to international norms.
Operating
expenses increased by 1,2% to US$30,7 million from US$27,4
million, a figure
the bank said was well above average inflation.
“The cost to income
ratio improved from 123% in 2009 to 72% and is expected
to maintain this
positive trend as performance continues to improve,”
Mackenzie
said.
Standard Chartered loans and advances grew by 132% year on
year, well above
market average. Total assets rose to US$281,7 million from
US$269,8 million.
The bank’s capital, at US$32 million, exceeds the minimum
regulatory capital
requirement of US$12,5 million and is sufficient to meet
all prudential
guidelines.
“Capital adequacy ratio at 22,15% is
above the prescribed minimum regulatory
ratio of 10%,” Mackenzie said. He
said the bank will continue to leverage in
markets where it has a strong
presence such as China, India and South Korea.
Mackenzie said the bank
would continue to grow its loan book in line with
prudent international
credit risk best practices, which protect depositors
and ensure long term
viability.
An analyst this week said the banking sector was a mirror
of the overall
performance of the economy. He said the performance of the
banking sector
was progressing in line with the rest of the economy
following
dollarisation.
“One of the key success factors of any
business is the ability to put in
place strategies that speak to and
resonate with any operating environment,”
the analyst told
businessdigest.
“Continuous refinement and realignment of the
strategies to the operating
environment is critical to the success and
growth of any bank regardless of
size or sector,” the analyst said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Qhubani Moyo
THE
recently held elections for Speaker of the Parliament of Zimbabwe
brought
interesting insights into the configurations and alliances that are
crucial
and may help shape the future of Zimbabwean politics in a direction
that
very few people ever imagined.
The politics of consensus and convergence
around hopefully new ideas and
values is gradually but surely emerging while
leaving political dinosaurs
across the political divide
stranded.
The election of Speaker came after a legal
challenge by Jonathan Moyo
supported by Moses Mzila Ndlovu, Siyabonga Ncube
and Patrick Dube from the
MDC led by Professor Welshman Ncube (MDC-N) to
cleanse parliament of the
corruption, manipulation and electoral fraud that
characterised the previous
election.
The challenge was of
paramount importance in restoring the credibility of
parliament and the
electoral system of the country. What makes the election
to be crucial in
redefining the future of the politics of the country is
that it revealed a
set of interesting dynamics and power relations amongst
various key
political players in the country.
The most crucial being the last
minute intervention by the MDC-N which
despite being undermined, humiliated
and belittled by some myopic
opportunists within the MDC-T (led by Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai) took
a strategic decision in the national
interest and intervened with the votes
that did not only deliver victory to
Lovemore Moyo and the MDC-T, but to the
millions of Zimbabweans who have
suffered for years under tyranny. It was
this intervention which was based
on a principled stand and response to a
call to national duty to defend all
gains made by the democratic forces in
the years of the struggle against the
repressive regime.
While it is clear that the MDC-T has limited
capacity within its ranks and
that it is dangerously bankrupt on policy or
governance issues, it would
have been a negation of national duty and a
betrayal of the masses to allow
Zanu PF to win the position of Speaker and
control parliament. The MDC-N,
despite the fact that it initially took a
decision to let Zanu PF and
MDC-T — on and off allies who have occasionally
ganged up to thwart the
MDC-N from playing its role in government — to fight
it out, events towards
the election made it impossible to stand aside and
watch the strangulation
of democracy by Zanu PF.
The MDC-N
believes in a just and fair society. It would have been unjust, a
betrayal
of the masses and the broad democratic movement for the MDC-N to
stand by
and watch Zanu PF grab the speakership from the MDC-T. The arrest
of MPs,
political violence and use of state apparatus to subdue opponents is
one of
the key reasons why the MDC-N intervened to ensured Zanu PF was
defeated in
the service of democratic change. And that democratic change is
change that
carries with it a sustainable vision for the country, an idea
that the MDC-N
embrace. So watching the Zanu PF mandarins and securocrats
trying to crush
the MDC-T would have been tantamount to watching a neighbour’s
daughter
being raped without intervening. It would have been a dereliction
of duty to
the democratic cause on the part of MDC-N.
It is important to know
that this intervention was not about Moyo or support
for the MDC- T but it
was for the people of Zimbabwe who were obviously
going to be the most
devastated and weakened by a Zanu PF victory. The MDC
intervened to support
Moyo and MDC-T in the service of democracy and the
need for change. It is
therefore illogical and ridiculous to say the MDC-N
must then fold and join
the MDC-T after this. The politics of consensus and
alliances is there to
stay.
It’s known that over the years pro-democracy forces have been
fighting to
cleanse important national institutions and public positions of
Zanu PF
influence and a Simon Khaya Moyo victory would have been a serious
drawback
in the battle for the removal of Zanu PF as an institution and
President
Robert Mugabe as an institutionalised individual who has led the
country for
over 30 years. The role played by the MDC proves that there are
no small
parties in politics; parties may have fewer seats in parliament but
that
does not make their role less important. It is more about strategic
positioning on the political landscape and issues than just
numbers.
For the MDC-T, the re-election of Moyo through a coalescence
of democratic
forces should be a lesson that every player is important in
politics and
that the politics of undermining and even trying to annihilate
others would
be counterproductive in the long run. It is exactly this kind
of approach
and myopic political arrogance that denied Tsvangirai victory in
the 2008
presidential elections. Slow in learning as some in the MDC-T are,
one can
only hope that this time around they have learnt a lesson on the
importance
of political strategy and collaboration. The election results
were also
crucial in that they exposed the depth of divisions within Zanu PF
that are
almost irreparable.
Zanu PF has in the last couple of
months been at the forefront in the
calling for elections because amongst
many advantages it thought it had, it
had assumed that the party was united
and its members were pulling in one
direction. Zanu PF had identified
divisions as the critical cause for its
2008 electoral defeat and as such
thought it had now healed the wounds to
fight as a united force. But last
week’s election of the Speaker showed that
the problem still exists and can
only get worse.
The election of Speaker indicated that contrary
to the assumptions of the
Zanu PF leadership, the rift is in fact widening.
It is clear that the
battle for the control of the Zanu PF leadership has
intensified and that as
long as that contestation for power remains, bhora
musango (this
figuratively means making sure that the other group doesn’t
win) would
persist. Problems in Zanu PF revolve around Mugabe’s divisive
succession
crisis and the party’s failure to resolve it.
So
during the Speaker’s election it was clear that the Emmerson Munangagwa’s
faction would not assist the Solomon Mujuru faction by allowing them to
capture the crucial position in parliament. But in all this, what is even
more interesting are the arithmetical indications that there was a
significant number of Zanu PF MPs who voted for MDC-T. This is a clear sign
that Zanu PF fissures are so wide that the centre can no longer hold. It
shows that Zanu PF, which thought it could easily win a national election,
may suffer a crushing defeat while deluding itself thinking it is still a
strong and cohesive force.
What Zanu PF seems not to understand
is that it has become such a colossal
institution which is now collapsing
from its own weight. It has become so
big with so many players with
intricate and conflicting interests which can’t
be reconciled. Its failure
to change leadership, reform and adapt has left
it facing
extinction.
Against this background, the election of the Speaker has
created a landmark
that sets the agenda for political cooperation going
forward. The MDC-N has
shown that it is a solid and dynamic party which
always keeps its eyes on
the ball and the broader picture, in the national
interest. It has become
the advocate of the new politics of consensus and
convergence — the key to
delivering change and democracy in
Zimbabwe.
Qhubani Moyo is the national organising secretary of the MDC-N.
Email:
qmoyo2000@yahoo.co.uk
.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
ISN’T it funny how Zanu PF celebrates
defeat? The Herald last week carried a
large picture of SK Moyo being
congratulated by fellow senators after his
swearing in as a member of the
upper chamber. But the paper forgot to
mention that just a few days earlier
Moyo had been soundly defeated in his
bid to become Speaker of the lower
House.
Was his elevation to an unelected post in any way a consolation for
his
loss?
Zanu PF obviously thinks so. It’s rather pathetic to
see them clutching at
straws like this.
Moyo said he felt very
humbled by his appointment by the president.
Actually he should be
feeling humbled by the extent of his defeat in the
House of Assembly and the
fact that he has been reduced to a refugee in the
Senate.
“The
voice of the people is the voice of God,” he declared as if to enhance
his
shaky mandate. Following the hammering his party got in the
parliamentary
vote and the hard words from its erstwhile friends in
Livingstone, it would
appear that Zanu PF is definitely not on the side of
the
angels!
Meanwhile our thanks to ENK Management Consultancy for dreaming
up another
excuse for agricultural failure. Chief executive Emily Walker
said on the
sidelines of a Comesa farming workshop Zimbabwe had “good
programmes in
place through initiatives that are being spearheaded by the
government”.
“We can see the tremendous progress in production,” this rather
naïve lady
said, “which could have been much higher last year were it not
for
hailstorms experienced in some parts of the
country.”
Hailstorms! Anybody remember the hailstorms? No? Nor do we!
Meanwhile Ian
Scoones of the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex
University should
see the extent of the propaganda value Zanu PF has managed
to squeeze out of
his report on land use. We shall never hear the end of
it!
Saviour Kasukuwere was among those seeking to exploit the exhumations
in Mt
Darwin for party advantage.
“The spirits refuse to lie
still,” he said. “They want the world to see what
Smith did to our people.
These spirits will show the way it’s to be done.”
Governor Martin Dinha
invited PM Tsvangirai, MDC-N president Welshman Ncube
and MDC-T spokesman
Nelson Chamisa to come and witness the exhumations and
see “what their white
friends did to the people so that they will repent”.
We gather busloads of
school children have been taken up there to see “how
it’s
done”.
It is therefore good to read that the Zipra Veterans Trust has
sent a team
to Mt Darwin to witness what they said was the chaotic
exhumation of
remains. Bodies were wantonly dismembered, they
reported.
“This is the most atrocious thing that could ever happen to
any departed
soul, be it friend or foe,” Zipra Veterans Trust leader Ray
Ncube told
NewsDay. “We call upon civility to dawn in the law, traditional
leadership,
churches, and civil society to stop this uncivilised exercise
forthwith,” he
said.
Kasukuwere and Dinha deserve a rebuke for
their crass demagoguery. Those who
want to show the world what Smith did
should go to Matabeleland to see what
the Fifth Brigade did. There are 20
000 people buried in mines down there
such as Belagwe which illustrate what
Zanu PF was prepared to do to anyone
who opposed its rule.
What has
been so encouraging about the Livingstone meeting is that Zanu PF’s
claims
that reports of torture have been exaggerated have now been dealt a
blow.
None of the heads of state bought the denials. Instead they called for
“an
immediate end to violence, intimidation, hate speech, harassment and any
other form of action that contradicts the letter and spirit of the
GPA”.
Patrick Chinamasa said that at a special cabinet meeting the
MDC-T failed to
come up with a single example of politically motivated
violence.
If Zanu PF is going to make misleading comments of this
sort the MDC-T
should publicise the examples they have of violence so the
public can judge.
Shouldn’t be too difficult. Perhaps Jestina Mukoko can
help. And does
anybody remember Tonderai Ndira whose memorial was held this
week?
We do.
What happened to the president’s visit to Ecuador? We
were told that it
would take place in December but nothing has transpired.
The proposed visit
was a product of Archbishop Walter Crespo’s visit to
Zimbabwe last year. It
was thought Mugabe might stop off there on his return
from the UN General
Assembly last September. But they had a coup
instead!
Could somebody tell us why there was so much hoopla
surrounding Crespo’s
visit here and no mention of the Ecuador visit? It has
just disappeared off
the map.
The shrillness with which the state
media are trying to outshout their
handlers’ detractors continues to defy
the laws of absurdity. The vitriol,
normally reserved for political
opponents, has apparently spilled over into
the arena of
sport.
The Sunday Mail back page led with a story entitled
“Dembare crash out.” The
story referred to MC Alger’s overturning of a 1-4
defeat suffered at the
hands of Dynamos in the first leg by thrashing the
latter 3-0 in the second
leg.
It starts off by boldly stating
that the game was “The great Algerian
robbery!”
“An Egyptian
buffoon, masquerading as a referee, played the devil’s advocate
for the
benefit of Algerians as Dynamos’ 2011 Champions League dance came to
a
crashing end amid chaotic scenes at Stade Omar Hamadi,” it goes on to
say.
The story gives media lecturers –– keen on giving their students
examples of
gutter journalism –– ample material. The writer seems more
aggrieved than
even the Dynamos players taking it upon himself to make
accusations
bordering on the xenophobic.
The story adds: “Only a
lunatic can argue against the notion that Egyptian
referee Fahim Omar handed
the Algerian side passage into the next round of
what is supposed to be
Africa’s premier club competition.”
While we sympathise with Dynamos
and also found the referee’s conduct
questionable, the reporter should not
have succumbed to the urge to lash out
at the referee. That should be the
coach and players’ job!
According to ZBC, youths have embraced
government’s indigenisation drive by
launching the “Millionaire’s cash flow
club” in Harare to provide financial
literacy among the
youths.
“The flight to indigenisation has taken off and in it are
youths who have
taken the initiative of undertaking projects to economically
liberate
themselves,” we are told.
The club is meant to “educate
people to take control of their financials”
(sic).
“The club will
provide a forum for people who want to improve their
financial well-being,
to share ideas with other international cash flow
clubs through exchange
programmes,” said Tamuka Chiota, a member of the
club.
We just
hope that the millions being referred to here are not Zim dollars!
As we
said last week, Henrietta Rushwaya and controversy never seem too far
apart.
Following the furore over her appointment to the vice presidency of
the
Affirmative Action Group its eight-member committee unanimously agreed
to
resign over the “individualisation and personalisation” of the
empowerment
organisation.
Philip Chiyangwa had claimed to be the sole appointing
authority and that
all the members had no option but to accept the founding
council’s new
appointments.
Seemingly unperturbed by these
developments, he spoke glowingly of Rushwaya,
describing her as “a teacher,
college lecturer, the first Zimbabwean woman
football CEO, one of the two
women football CEOs worldwide, a visionary
leader who brought the Brazil
football team to Zimbabwe in 2010.”
He went on to describe her as “an
intelligent empowered businesswoman, a
miner, a farmer, a leader par
excellence. (She is also) an advocate for
women’s rights”.
Since
we are a lot less smitten we will add some more material to her
résumé.
She was found guilty of authorising trips for football
teams without
consulting the Sports and Recreation Commission, among other
offences.
Zifa tried and found her guilty of the offences. In the
circumstances we
find it difficult to understand why the police have not
taken action.
Recent utterances by the police concerning the MDC-T and
holding of rallies
cannot go unchallenged. The Zimbabwe Republic Police have
been reported as
saying that the MDC-T will have themselves to blame if the
police refuse to
grant them permission to hold rallies in future as the
party failed to
conduct a police-sanctioned rally which was scheduled for
the past weekend.
Police Spokesperson, Inspector James Sabau, told
ZBC that the ZRP
“sacrificed the little resources at their disposal by
deploying equipment
and manpower for the expected event but no one turned
out” (sic).
“We are leaving no stone unturned in finding out why this
party let the
police release officers and other equipment to provide
security at the
grounds. We were surprised as the police were the only ones
at the grounds
as the party supporters did not turn out, so what we are
saying is that we
are no longer taking them seriously,” said
Sabau.
“The police have warned MDC-T not to cry foul as they risk not
being given
permission to hold rallies in the future as they are taking the
police for
granted,” the ZBC reporter pitched in.
This is quite
rich coming from the police who have –– on countless
occasions –– frustrated
the MDC-T’s right to hold rallies in Harare for one
reason or another. Only
last month they banned three MDC-T rallies, saying
Zanu PF had either booked
the venues or was holding its own rallies in close
proximity to where the
MDC-T wanted to assemble.
As far as we know freedom of assembly is
still etched in our constitution
and the seeking of police clearance is
supposed to be a formality –– not a
road block.
Finally we enjoyed
Keith Simpson’s BBC interview with Col Gaddafi’s son,
Saif
al-Islam.
Saif was asked if his father and family would seek asylum
in Zimbabwe or
Venezuela. He just smiled. Apparently, despite the trials and
tribulations
Gaddafi faces including a raging civil war, some things were
just
inconceivable!
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 07 April 2011
18:28
Paidamoyo Muzulu
AFTER years of predictable talk-shops by
the Sadc troika on Zimbabwe, the
regional body’s organ finally sharpened its
teeth and stood up to President
Robert Mugabe’s evasive tactics by directly
confronting the elderly leader
at their one-day summit in Livingstone,
Zambia, last Thursday.
Since the formation of the coalition government in
2009, Mugabe had
continuously shifted goalposts without any sound of
murmuring from his
regional counterparts, resulting in the opposition MDC
accusing the Sadc of
protecting one of their own.
But the
Livingstone summit took an unprecedented twist with the Heads of
State
taking off their gloves and condemning Zimbabwe’s insufficient
progress in
implementing the GPA signed to bring stability to the country in
the
aftermath of the bloody 2008 presidential election run-off.
The
Heads of State demanded an immediate cessation of political violence,
intimidation, hate speech and political harassment which have reared their
ugly heads after only a season of relative calm.
The troika bared
its teeth by promising to set up a panel to work with South
African
President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team and the Joint Monitoring
and
Implementation Committee (Jomic) to ensure an effective monitoring,
evaluation and implementation of the GPA. The panel is also expected to
produce time frames as well as to provide regular progress, the first of
which would be presented at the next Sadc extraordinary
summit.
The Sadc Troika’s stance took everyone by surprise. Zambian
President Rupiah
Banda categorically warned that the region should be wary
of events in North
Africa lest they be replicated in the
region.
This unexpected resolution seemed to have alarmed Mugabe and
his Zanu PF
party. In its response, Zanu PF accused Sadc of attempting to
meddle in
Zimbabwe’s internal political affairs saying no one was qualified
to
“dictate” to the country which political path it should
walk.
Sadc had at its three previous troika summits in Mozambique and
South Africa
respectively called for the inclusive government’s strange
bedfellows to
make up.
At the January 2009 Sadc meeting in
Pretoria, South Africa, Zimbabwean
political leaders were given until
February 5, 2009 to pass Constitutional
Amendment 19 that would pave way for
the appointment of the MDC into
government.
The inclusive
government was rocked by power wrangles prompting the Sadc to
hold a troika
meeting in Maputo, Mozambique. That meeting called on the
coalition to meet
and discuss the 27 outstanding issues that were not dealt
with in Pretoria.
The MDC had earlier disengaged from cabinet causing Sadc
to act without
delay.
The previous troika in January 2010 held in Mozambique noted
with
appreciation the efforts of the Sadc facilitator in assisting Zimbabwe
to
fully implement the GPA and urged the parties to implement decisions
made.
What remains to be seen is whether the Sadc can remain resolute
in the face
of attacks on the person and office of the regional body’s
appointed
mediator, President Zuma, by Mugabe and his
acolytes.
University of Zimbabwe Law Professor Lovemore Madhuku said
although the Sadc
Troika’s recommendations would be difficult to implement,
Mugabe was shocked
by its decision and would continue trying to manoeuvre
his way off the hook.
“Mugabe will try to intimidate Sadc, employing
long delays in implementing
the resolutions. He will play hard ball by
querying the status of the troika’s
decision and call it unfair,” said
Madhuku.
Madhuku argued that Sadc had done its best by speaking out
but now had to
revert to former South African President Thabo Mbeki’s quiet
diplomacy for
results.
“Sadc cannot flex its muscles beyond
speaking out. It does not have the army
to back up its stance. It can only
achieve more by continuous engagement and
persuasion.”
Political
commentator Charles Mangongera concurred with Madhuku saying Sadc
could not
do more than speaking out.
“There would be some resistance from Zanu
PF hardliners since Sadc does not
have a mechanism to back up its
resolutions. It can only continue issuing
strong, candid political
statements against the regime,” Mangongera said.
Mugabe and Zanu PF
were clearly rattled by the troika’s outcome and counter
attacked by
denigrating anyone associated with the troika’s decision as
willing tools of
neo-colonialists and puppets of the West.
Mugabe even took pot shots
at Zuma at a Zanu PF central committee meeting in
Harare on Friday. He said
the function of facilitators was “to mediate and
not dictate” solutions to
feuding parties.
The state-sanctioned media’s columnist Nathaniel
Manheru and the
vituperative Jonathan Moyo went overboard in the state
media. The two
slammed Zuma for his “indecisive leadership and being a
willing puppet of
the West”.
Moyo wrote in the Sunday Mail that
“the mere fact that President Zuma of
South Africa voted for the atrocities
that the US and its Nato allies are
committing in Libya under UN Resolution
1973 makes him an undesirable Sadc
facilitator on the political and security
situation in Zimbabwe. Zuma can no
longer be trusted if he ever
was.”
Such Zanu PF reaction informs the world of two main issues:
that Sadc
has turned a new leaf´in handling regional problems and that the
MDC-T made
some headway in its diplomatic shuttles prior to the Livingstone
summit.
The resolution was the first stinging rebuke Mugabe received
from his
counterparts since 2007. They were forthright and candid in their
recommendations unlike in the past when they drew up vague
resolutions.
On the other hand Tsvangirai’s whirlwind diplomatic tour
soliciting support
against Mugabe seemed to have yielded positive results.
The regional leaders
acknowledged for the first time that Mugabe was
persecuting his political
enemies using state machinery.
Mugabe’s
machinations were laid bare and the Sadc guns were on target for
once. It
remains to be seen who blinks first. However, one result is very
obvious —
Sadc has started a new course and it remains to be seen how long
it can keep
on that path.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
By Ibbo Mandaza
THE outcome of both
the re-election of the Speaker of Parliament on March 29
and the recent
meeting of the Sadc Troika on Politics, Defence and Security
Cooperation on
March 31 constitute sufficient warning lights to the effect
that the balance
of forces attendant to the Zimbabwe political process are
fast turning
against the power mongers in the state.
Thus, those in Harare, for so
long spoiling for a fight and unwilling to
make the government of national
unity (GNU) and its inclusive government
proceed as originally designed,
need to take note and cast aside the
reckless rhetoric that has accompanied
policy statements on the economic
front, and the arrogant disdain in the
face of the Troika’s pronouncements
on Zimbabwe last
Thursday.
First, the re-election of the Speaker and the
suggestions and conclusions
that MPs voted across party lines; or, more
significant, that MDC-T’s
Lovemore Moyo could not have been re-elected
without the critical support
from some of Zanu PF’s MPs. Rather than any
one on the Zanu PF’s side
crying over spilt milk, it would be more useful to
reflect and consider for
a moment the extent to which such an outcome, the
second time around, might
reflect the growing convergence, across the
perceived political divide and
towards a consensus about obvious national
priorities, including the need to
have the GNU and its inclusive government
succeed in its twin mission of
national reconciliation and economic
recovery.
To put it simply, there is a fifth column within the
Zimbabwean state,
purporting both to represent the “securocrats’’ who,
according to this
thesis, are opposed to the MDC and its involvement in the
GNU and reflect
the mainstream Zanu PF thinking.
All this is
reflected in the manner in which, inter alia, the state media is
piloted in
the hands of a self-appointed “prime minister’’ who, in the words
of one
senior Zanu PF politburo member and cabinet minister, “is accountable
to no
one but himself’’! messages carefully crafted and orchestrated so as
to
create a convenient world view which, though out of sync with the reality
on
the ground, is systematically projected as the view of the party, of the
president, “Head of State and Government, and Commander in Chief of the
Armed Forces”, etc, of the state itself, of the majority of
Zimbabweans!
So, it is this little fifth column — made up of no more
than five or seven
persons, including the self-appointed “prime minister” —
that has claimed
and assumed a most disproportionate space in the body
politic of Zimbabwe.
And as long as no one within the Zanu PF establishment
has stood up to it
publicly, the little fifth column appears to be the state
itself, writ large
and indispensable. In reality, however, this is a
downright reckless and
dangerous lot which, in the not-too-distant future,
is bound to be
shipwrecked as the majority of Zimbabweans, tired and
impatient with the
dangerous pranks of a few malcontents, lend their support
to the emerging
convergence across both Zanu PF and the
MDC.
Second, the outcome of the meeting of the Sadc Troika held in
Livingstone,
Zambia, last Thursday. The fifth column is understandably
wounded, even if
its response to the tough message from the regional body is
nothing less
than myopic and even delusional.
Take, for example,
this excerpt from The Saturday Herald’s columnist last
week: “While Zanu PF
has all along depended on Sadc support in its fight
against imperialism, it
should remember that in the final analysis, it may
have to confront
imperialism alone. This urges for a none-but-ourselves
stance.”
And,
probably through the same pen, the strident editorial in the last
Sunday
Mail, a scandalous attack on South Africa and its president whom the
paper
describes as “a dishonest broker”; a position regrettably echoed by
Jonathan
Moyo who, in my view, is otherwise more informed than his novice
editor at
The Sunday Mail and his colleague at the Ministry of
information.
Sadly, such reactions constitute an indictment on the
Zimbabwe state itself,
as long as no one therein stands up to distance the
country from the most
undiplomatic of utterances against a sister country
and its head of state.
But even President Robert Mugabe himself cannot be
excused, not least for
suggesting, as he did in his statement to the Zanu PF
central committee last
Friday, that Sadc is noble only when the regional
body is on his side!
The truth is that Sadc (inclusive of Zimbabwe!) which,
contrary to the
assertions of the Saturday Herald’s columnist, has never
been
anti-imperialist, is merely responding to the reality of global
politics,
including the ascendancy of the “doctrine of interventionism” such
as we are
witnessing not only in North Africa but also in Sierra Leone a few
years
ago, and now in the Ivory Coast.
In this regard, there
might be significance in the fact that South Africa
had been guest in
Mauritania for the Ecowas Summit on the Ivory Coast on
March 29, days before
the Sadc meeting in Livingstone. Reports from there
indicate that Nigeria
in particular had politely and diplomatically advised
South Africa — and by
implication, also those other members of Sadc
concerned — against meddling
in Ivory Coast where Ecowas, together with the
African Union (and the
“imperialists”!), had decided to intervene to make
good an election outcome
gone wrong: a glaring red card for Gbagbo!
Could it be that the South African
president and the other Troika members
had taken a leaf from Ecowas,
including the happenings in North Africa
reference to which President Rupiah
Banda of Zambia made during the meeting
in
Livingstone?
Intervention, whether military or otherwise, should
remain an anathema in
global politics, regardless of whether it is at the
hands of imperialists,
as in the case of Iraq, a combination of imperialists
and the diplomatic
support of such neighbours as the Arab League and Nigeria
and South Africa,
as in the case of Libya, or directly by Ecowas, as in the
case of Ivory
Coast. Ultimately, it should always be the responsibility of
the citizens
of a country to determine its destiny.
However, it
is naïve to expect that global politics will always play out
according to
that book, least of all that this should be so when the rest of
the world
regards you as a “rogue state”, when even the best of your friends
conclude
you are now not only a liability, but also a spent force and a
danger to the
survival of your country and stability of the region.
Indeed, the
pronouncement by the Sadc Troika amounts to “intervention” in
Zimbabwe,
however benign in real terms and regardless of how offensive it
might be to
those concerned in Harare. This marks a drastic shift in the
balance of
forces within Sadc and the AU alike, responsive as these bodies
are bound to
be in the face of global realities, including a “UN Chapter
VII”, as the
basis upon which intervention per se appears to be premised.
It might
be that South Africa has as yet no coherent foreign policy or that
it has
tended to act impromptu on various issues, including Zimbabwe. But it
is
self-deception and even delusional for anyone in Harare to believe that
South Africa cannot, even when forced to do so impromptu, pluck up the
courage and capacity to act on Zimbabwe, as an expression of its national
interest, in defence of its capitalists (including the mining houses whose
share prices tumbled last week on the back of threats of nationalisation in
Harare), or at the promptings of international capital and its
“imperialists”.
For those who have self-appointed themselves the
indispensable “think tank”
in the Zimbabwe state, this is neither the
occasion for arrogant disdain of
warnings from Sadc, nor for reckless
rhetoric that has so far scared many an
investor and prevented Zimbabwe from
capitalising on its enormous human and
material resource base and
potential. This is the time for a reality check
on the part of the fifth
column, to decide whether to join the mainstream of
political convergence
that characterises Zimbabwe today, or continue with
reckless abandon, to
your own peril in the not-so-distant future.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 07 April 2011 18:43
DOES President
Mugabe understand why he had to sign the Global Political
Agreement (GPA)
and appoint a government under its terms?
It seems
not.
He had to submit to the GPA terms because Sadc states
could not accept that
he had won a legitimate election in 2008. What they
witnessed was an
election marred by intimidation and violence. So they
harnessed the
president and his party to the opposition MDC-T and MDC-M.
This, they
assumed, would lead to political stability and economic
growth.
It didn’t because Zanu PF tried to subvert the arrangements
set out in the
GPA. It was in denial about the MDC-T’s electoral advance and
resolved upon
a reversal of fortune. This, as Morgan Tsvangirai pointed out
to regional
heads of state in his recent tour, could only be achieved by
resort to
violence and posed a mortal threat to the success of the next
electoral
contest.
Despite claims to the contrary Zimbabwe has
repeatedly ignored Sadc’s
electoral rules set out in 2004 at Grand Baie and
the regional grouping
could not afford to have the world watch it do so
again. Which is why Mugabe
got such a rough ride in Livingstone last
week.
Mugabe and Patrick Chinamasa made spirited attempts to pretend
that reports
of violence were MDC-T fiction which could be safely ignored.
“After all,
which country is free of violence?” the president disarmingly
asked upon his
return.
It didn’t wash. Mugabe was put in the dock
at Livingstone, his delaying
tactics blocked.
There followed the
central committee meeting last Friday where Zanu PF’s
resentment of Sadc
leaders mounted, leading over the weekend to vitriolic
statements in the
state press. You would have thought we were at war against
South
Africa!
The Sunday Mail’s charge of “duplicity” against Zuma and
the suggestion that
“his disconcerting behaviour had become a huge liability
not only to South
Africa but also to the rest of the continent”, will have
its consequence in
a less indulgent view of Zimbabwe in Pretoria. George
Charamba’s attempts to
distance the government from the paper’s leader
writer were unconvincing.
There can be little doubt the attack on Zuma
represented official thinking
and it was typically
delusional.
Sadc has the full backing of the AU for its Zimbabwe
diplomacy. Most African
states will have been appalled by the tirade against
Zuma who has worked
hard for national reconciliation in Zimbabwe and
economic revival. The
hostile stance of a captive media will have simply
isolated Mugabe further
and confirmed in the region what the MDC-T has been
saying all along about a
problematic dictatorship.
While Zuma’s
office referred politely to the need to follow diplomatic
channels if
Zimbabwe wanted to learn more about South Africa’s foreign
policy — also the
subject of the Sunday Mail’s vitriol — it would be
interesting to see how
the animosity of the gang around Mugabe pays off in
the weeks and months
ahead in the absence of any friends.
The best thing to come out of
the events of last weekend was the Livingstone
Communique´. It was
unambiguous. The Troika of heads of state expressed
concern over the
political polarisation obtaining in the country which was
characterised by
violence, intimidation and arrests. It therefore called for
“an immediate
end to violence, intimidation, hate speech, harassment, and
any other form
of action that contradicts the letter and spirit of the GPA”.
It’s a
tall order. Zanu PF and its suborned security arms will have to
demonstrate
markedly better behaviour from now on. Above all the law must
not be abused
to punish political opponents.
The GPA calls for media diversity
which is not happening beyond a handful of
newspapers while the commission
promoting healing is moribund.
Worse still, the new constitution already
looks like a lame duck and not the
robust defender of our rights that we
hoped for.
It’s not too late to change direction. Sadc has proposed
the establishment
of a three-member panel to assist the South African
facilitation team and
Jomic to evaluate implementation of the GPA . It is
progress of a sort. But
without political will the prospects of change are
slim.
At least Sadc has signalled it is prepared to adopt a more
robust approach
in its dealings with an increasingly rogue regime in Harare.
Diplomacy
hopefully will be a little less quiet from now on.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 07 April 2011
18:41
By Itai Masuku
THE major problem in this country is
an inconsistent policy environment for
business. Laws get changed at whim,
they are reversed and the next thing is
you don’t know whether you’re coming
or going. Just maintaining the status
quo, where it’s achieving desired
results, is acceptable.
The issue of our indigenisation policy has
been belaboured in the media, but
it only belies the inconsistent manner in
which our country is run. It’s
very difficult for business to plan because
of an erratic policy
environment. As you know, if you fail to plan, you plan
to fail. No wonder
we have so many business failures at present. It has
nothing to do with what
Zanu PF extremists now call “tsvanctions”, it is the
general economic policy
environment that is not conducive to proper business
planning.
In this country business has been forced into
short-termism, hence the
tendency to profiteer whenever the opportunity
arises. So it’s from this
premise that our economy has been running. Even
the growth rates that we
project could be much better and greater if there
was a predictable
environment. The mining sector, for all its optimism since
last year, has
had cold water poured over it. Mining has been the only
performing sector
post-dollarisation benefiting from the general firming of
mineral
commodities on the world markets.
That development
has been arrested, and as a reflection, international
prices for shares in
Angloplats, Aquarius and Zimplats took a knock as of
last week and continue
to decline. Obviously the contagion is stronger on
the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange, where we have already seen many counters
heading south, some
losing up to 50% of their value in within a week.
Last year
government announced it would phase out car imports and restrict
imports to
cars less than five years old, which is the same as brand new by
this
country’s standards. Then there was policy reversal, the government
listened
to complaints from its constituency, or at least we hope so. But in
the
first place, how had these laws come into existence without adequate
consultation with the relevant sectors?
Again at the beginning of
the week we read that commuter omnibuses with a
carrying capacity of less
than 26 passengers might be banned? Is this
because the government has
imported a new lot of buses for Zupco? Herein
lies the problem, our policy
is always dictated by changed circumstances and
does not reflect any forward
planning. The changed circumstance may be
simply fortuitous or coincidental.
We don’t really know how Zupco, which had
literally gone bust, acquired
those buses. It may be just another of the so
many one off
donations.
Shall we now change policy because of that? And
besides, the last lot of
Zupco from our friends in the east didn’t last
long. Has anyone seen any of
those FAW buses on our streets since? The
biggest problematic factor in our
policy inconsistency is the greed factor.
Usually when there is a new law,
there’s some big shot ready to gain from
the new policy.
Before it was made mandatory that all vehicle
licence plates should have the
Zimbabwe bird foiled on them some 20-odd
years ago, I was surprised to find
that one favoured company was already
producing them long before the law was
even passed. As for the current
mandatory vehicle licence plates, which cost
US$165 apiece, we also
understand that some big shot is the beneficiary of
this law, and perhaps
the sole manufacturer.
We have seen a similar situation with the
inclusion of designated entities
in the new mining indigenisation laws. We
are also made to understand that
of all indigenisation proposals that are
going to be submitted by the
foreign companies, some crafty minister is
getting himself a piece of the
action in each company. So far, about 400
companies have submitted their
proposals. Surprised? Not really, a former
secretary of finance earned
himself the name Mr 10%, as he demanded a 10%
cut in every lucrative deal
from which Zimbabwe was supposed to benefit. In
fact, a Swedish company
refused to locate a proposed truck assembly plant in
Chinhoyi because it
wouldn’t go through with the “incentive”. God help
us.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 07 April 2011
18:39
By Dumisani Muleya
SADC leaders treated President
Robert Mugabe with kid gloves for a long
time. This is probably because he
is one of the founding members of the
organisation, even though he was not
involved in the initial discussions by
leaders of the Frontline
States.
Mugabe was also somewhat immune to criticism because
he is a liberation
struggle figure. Besides, he ran a country relatively
successful before he
ruined it through disastrous policies. In addition,
Mugabe is one of the
most erudite leaders around and previously a respected
leader.
What made it even more difficult to censure him is that most
Sadc countries
were run by authoritarian leaders who had also failed to
manage their own
economies.
Sadc leaders thus closed their eyes,
ears and mouths (the see no evil, hear
no evil, speak no evil syndrome) when
his regime opened killing fields in
the south western and Midlands regions
soon after Independence in 1980 in a
bid to crush opponents and consolidate
power.
Mugabe was brutally campaigning for a one-party socialist
state and
president-for-life as is now evident. His regime even tried to
assassinate
Joshua Nkomo in pursuit of power and other evil
agendas.
Throughout the fierce repression and massacres of the 1980s,
crackdown of
the 1990s and the onslaught after 2000, Sadc leaders remained
mum as Mugabe’s
regime ran amok.
However, there were simmering
undercurrents of anxiety and resentment among
some Sadc leaders in the
process. The transformation of the original Sadcc
to Sadc in 1992, followed
by the rise of Nelson Mandela in 1994, also
changed the
situation.
When he assumed the Sadc chair in 1996, Mandela
consolidated democratic
gains in the region and brought a new way of doing
business. Mandela’s
chairmanship was engineered by former Botswana President
Quett Ketumile
Masire and his allies.
A year after he became Sadc
chair, Mandela took the bull by the horns —
challenging Mugabe’s hold on the
organ and its parallel modus operandi. That
started a bruising battle which
would only end in 2001 with Mugabe being
forced to relinquish the
structure.
Mandela stepped up the pressure. Even though they worked
together in trying
to resolve problems in Lesotho and Swaziland, among other
issues, the rivals
fought everywhere across the region — in South Africa,
Malawi and Angola —
over the organ. Mandela even flew to Harare in 1997 to
confront Mugabe over
the dispute after a bitter fallout in Luanda. Masire
and Joachim Chissano
tried to mediate, but the rivalry only
intensified.
In August 1998 Mandela and Mugabe also clashed over the
DRC war which split
Sadc into two major blocs.
But a watershed
had been delineated. Mugabe was no longer a sacred cow.
After the Mandela
era and the departure of Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda
and Masire, coupled
with the earlier death of Samora Machel (the Frontline
States leaders),
Mugabe became fair game.
Some of the Sadc leaders to have quarrelled
with Mugabe during the past
decade over his misrule and mismanagement
include former Malawi president
Bakili Muluzi, Chissano, the late Zambian
leader Levy Mwanawasa and Botswana
President Ian Khama.
Mugabe
stormed out of a Sadc meeting in Lusaka in 2007 after clashing with
Mwanawasa. Prior to that, he had left a Lesotho summit in 2006 in a huff.
Sadc leaders also blocked Mugabe in 2003 from hosting their summit and took
it to Tanzania.
But even then Sadc leaders didn’t want to
directly challenge Mugabe. Not
because they feared him, but largely out of
revolutionary solidarity and
comradeship.
However, Mugabe’s luck
ran out last week in Livingstone, Zambia. The Sadc
Troika took him on.
Presidents Rupiah Banda of Zambia (Troika chair), Jacob
Zuma of South Africa
(deputy Troika and also incoming chair and
facilitator), Armando Guebuza of
Mozambique (outgoing Troika chair) flogged
Mugabe after years of tolerating
his leadership and policy failures, as well
as arrogance and
disdain.
The Livingstone summit was a breaking point and defining
moment, a turning
point in Sadc history. It was a moment of truth in which
Sadc read the riot
act to Mugabe. His angry reactions and the ranting and
raving of his
panic-stricken propagandists, as well as hysterical editorials
in the Sunday
Mail which had a fascist pitch, showed that he was subjected
to a painful
reality check through a dramatic “shock and awe”
treatment.
The Gaddafi-like frenzied insults against Zuma only made
the situation
worse. Sadc was not intimidated at all and that’s why its
facilitators are
around. Meanwhile, Mugabe and his terrified diehards are
now beating a hasty
retreat through disclaimers, retractions and denials.
There is another game
in town.