Committee to Protect Journalists (New York)
PRESS
RELEASE
January 25, 2006
Posted to the web January 25, 2006
New
York
Six trustees of the independent news production company Voice of the
People
were charged today with broadcasting without a license, which carries
a
potential two-year prison penalty. Defense lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said her
clients appeared in court this morning in the capital, Harare, after
learning that police were seeking their arrest.
Police had visited
trustees' houses and had detained two household staff
employed by trustee
Arnold Tsunga, who is also director of the Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR).
The trustees were granted bail and told to report to police every
Friday.
Tsunga's driver and caretaker were released without charge after
spending
three nights in jail for allegedly obstructing an
investigation.
The six trustees charged today were: chairman David
Masunda, Isabella
Matambanadzo, Millicent Phiri, Lawrence Chibwe, Nhlahla
Ngwenya, and Tsunga,
according to CPJ sources. They are scheduled to appear
in court on February
10. VOP Director John Masuku was charged with the same
offense on December
23.
VOP staffers produce programs on a variety of
community and political issues
but do not broadcast directly within
Zimbabwe. The programming is
transmitted via shortwave from overseas. Local
sources say no new programs
have been aired since police raided VOP's Harare
offices on December 15,
confiscating equipment and files. They also arrested
three staff members,
who were released after Masuku and Masunda reported to
the police on
December 19.
ZLHR said the arrests of Tsunga's
household employees represented a
disturbing new tactic in which "innocent
individuals are being detained in
order to unlawfully secure the presence of
human rights defenders who have
been continually harassed by state
authorities and/or individuals acting on
their
instructions."
"Zimbabwe's international standing is eroded every time
the government seeks
to silence the ever-fewer number of critical voices,"
said Ann Cooper,
executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
"It's sad to see
so much time and resources devoted to quashing the sort of
diverse
viewpoints that would invigorate Zimbabwean society."
Police
last week arrested journalist Sydney Saize and accused him of writing
a
false story for the U.S. government-funded Voice of America. Saize was
released without charge after spending three nights in police custody,
according to the Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA). Read CPJ's
alert: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/africa/zim20jan06na.html.
CPJ
is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to
safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information, visit:
http://www.cpj.org.
The Star
January 26, 2006
By Basildon Peta
Students at all
Zimbabwean universities will later this year be
required to learn to speak
and write Chinese.
This is part of an offensive by President Robert
Mugabe to promote his
"Look East" policy, Higher Education Minister Stan
Mudenge has announced. He
said there was a "compelling need" to bring the
peoples of the two countries
together.
But the students, who
have been told to become fluent in
tongue-twisting Mandarin, have lashed out
at the idea, saying it was a case
of the "madness of the Mugabe regime
scaling new heights".
Washington Katema, president of the
Zimbabwe National Association of
Student Unions, said yesterday: "It seems
they are trying every political
gimmick to lure the Chinese into this
country to bankroll their bankrupt
regime. But they should not do that at
the expense of students."
Critics have dismissed Mugabe's "Look
East" policy as an empty
political slogan that won't rescue Zimbabwe's
collapsed economy.
African News Dimension
Thursday, 26 January 2006,
By ANDnetwork
Journalist
THE National Oil Company of Zimbabwe is saddled with a
$1 trillion
debt as farmers allocated fuel for agricultural purposes are
diverting it to
the parallel market in return for a quick
buck.
In his 2005 Fourth Quarter Monetary Policy Review
Statement on
Tuesday, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Dr Gideon Gono
condemned
the rampant abuse of the fuel facility.
"As monetary
authorities, we continue to point out that the current
arrangements in the
fuel sector, under which a privileged few were accessing
fuel at subsidised
prices is fomenting immense leakages, where the
recipients were tempted to
make quick gains through selling of the commodity
on the parallel markets,
far removed from the intended beneficiary sector of
agriculture," Dr Gono
said
As part of the fiscal realignment process, the governor said
it was
critical for the relevant authorities to realign the fuel sector to
rid it
of retrogressive arbitrage and rent-seeking behaviour.
The fuel facility was introduced two years ago with the Government
allocating 50 percent of all petroleum imports to farmers under a facility
administered by Noczim.
Dr Gono said the central bank was
working on tailor-made interventions
to cushion, on a targeted basis, the
vulnerable groups, to allow for the
realignment and liberalisation of fuel
pricing.
Zimbabwe Farmers' Union (ZFU) director Mr Dzarira Kwenda,
however,
accused some senior Government officials of abusing the fuel
facility for
selfish gain.
"Top Government officials who own A2
farms mostly have access to
Government facilities such as the subsidised
fuel which they then divert to
the black market.
"Loans from
Agribank were abused in the same manner by people who have
advantageous
positions to access funds from the Government," said Mr Kwenda.
Agriculture Minister Cde Joseph Made confirmed the abuse of the
subsidised
fuel facility yesterday, although he did not give details.
He added
that some people were procuring fuel at subsidised prices
claiming to be
bona fide farmers when they were not.
"There are two aspects to
this fuel scam issue; those who are getting
fuel under the guise of being
farmers and other individuals who are also
diverting fuel meant for Noczim
to sell on the parallel market," he said.
Because of the widespread
abuse of the fuel facility, Cde Made said
farmers would with immediate
effect start buying fuel at the official price.
In addition,
officials from the agricultural extension services would
be barred from
playing a role in the distribution of Noczim fuel to farmers.
Earlier, Mr Kwenda called on the Government to scrap the facility
since it
was not benefiting the agricultural sector.
Mr Kwenda said that
water-tight systems should be put in place to
monitor the legitimate use of
funds provided by the Government.
"I urge the relevant authorities
that funds which are intended for
farmers should be channelled through
farmer organisations and the Ministry
of Agriculture who should be
accountable to guard against abuse and misuse
as in the case of the
subsidised fuel," he added.
Farmers who spoke to The Herald echoed
similar sentiments and
applauded the Government for its decision to do away
with the fuel facility.
Mrs Eunita Chikwanda, a Beatrice farmer,
said most farmers who were
allocated A2 plots in the area were leasing them,
but continued to access
subsidised fuel and other inputs for resale at the
farms.
She said these acts flew in the face of the Government
efforts to
revive the agricultural sector, adding that this was taking a
heavy toll on
genuine farmers who were denied access to loans.
Mr Bhekimpilo Mafoshola, from Nyabira, said some farmers were using
their
offer letters to access crop inputs and hefty loans from Agribank,
which
they used to buy cars and other luxury goods.
Other farmers in
Harare South, Norton in Mashonaland West and Wedza
said it was time the
Government scrapped the fuel facility and other
subsidised facilities for A2
farmers.
"A2 farmers are supposed to be self-sufficient in terms of
finances
and crop inputs, among others. This is why these facilities are
being
abused.
"Not all people who were allocated A2 farms are
serious about
farming," said Mr Aaron Sibanda, a farmer in
Chegutu.
Source : The Herald
Business Report
January 26,
2006
By Brian Latham and Antony Sguazzin
Johannesburg - The
Zimbabwean dollar, the world's worst performing currency
this year, had
fallen 15 percent since December 30 and might decline further
because the
country did not have enough foreign currency to finance imports,
businessmen
and economists said.
The currency was at a record Z$99 202 to the US
dollar on Tuesday, down from
Z$97 632 on Monday, in trading between the
country's banks, according to the
central bank. It trades as high as Z$125
000 per US dollar on the black
market.
"Smaller businesses with less
cushion and no external operations are really
struggling and pushing up the
price [of the local unit]," said John
Gardiner, the chairman of the Cold
Chain, the largest supermarket supplier
in Zimbabwe.
"People really
have their backs to the wall."
Yesterday the Daily Mirror reported that
Unilever's Zimbabwean unit
suspended its manufacturing activities last week
because it had no foreign
currency to import raw materials. It cited human
resources director Noah
Matibiri.
The shutdown was temporary and
business should resume this week, the
newspaper said. The Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe said on Tuesday that it would
try to curb volatility in the
currency.
The Zimbabwean dollar would be able to fluctuate in a daily
band of 1
percent from its average rate if volumes reached between US$5
million (R30
million) and US$10 million, 1.5 percent if volumes rose to
US$15 million,
and 2 percent if volumes reached more than that, it said on
its website.
John Robertson of Harare-based Robertson Economics said the
decline in the
Zimbabwean dollar might push the consumer inflation rate to 1
000 percent
within three months as import costs rose. Inflation accelerated
to 586
percent in December.
- Bloomberg
VOA
By
Carole Gombakomba
Washington
25 January
2006
Activists have condemned inaction by the African Union at its
just-concluded
summit on a report from its own human rights commission
documenting human
rights abuses in Zimbabwe, accusing South Africa of again
providing Harare
with political cover.
The AU summit in Khartoum,
Sudan, this week declined to take up the report
from the Gambia-based
African Commission on Human and People's Rights, which
was critical of the
Zimbabwean government's 2005 slum demolitions which left
hundreds of
thousands of people homeless, among other alleged human rights
violations.
A Johannesburg newspaper quoted South African Foreign
Affairs Minister
Nkosazana Dhlamini Zuma as saying the Zimbabwe report was
not tabled because
Zimbabwe and other African countries facing similar
accusations had not had
time to respond. But Harare has officially refused
to acknowledge the AU
commission's report.
International relations
professor Stephen Chan of the University of London
School of Oriental and
African Studies told reporter Carole Gombakomba that
it is a "shame" the
African leadership gathered under the AU is not prepared
to tackle such
issues.
Reuters
Wed Jan 25, 2006 4:47 PM GMT
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE
(Reuters) - New rules by Zimbabwe's central bank aimed at restricting
the
local currency's depreciation by controlling the interbank market could
see
a resurgence in black market trade, analysts said on Wednesday.
The
Zimbabwe dollar has lost 73.8 percent of its value against the U.S.
dollar
since last October, when the central bank introduced a managed float
system.
On Tuesday governor Gideon Gono moved to stem the tide,
announcing that
fluctuations would be linked to actual volumes traded on its
fledgling
interbank market, with daily movements limited to a maximum of two
percent
in either direction.
"It's just a back-door way of
controlling the interbank market," Anthony
Hawkins, a business professor at
the University of Zimbabwe, told Reuters.
"The depreciation will now slow
down but at the same time the parallel
market will become more active. When
controls are put in place the activity
on the black market picks up, this is
exactly what will happen."
The Zimbabwe dollar was unchanged at
99,201/dollar on Wednesday, the first
time it has not moved since the
introduction of the interbank market. In
line with the new rules, volumes of
below $5 million will not cause changes
in exchange rate.
Dealers say
the interbank market used to trade volumes of above $5 million
before 1999,
but volumes have fallen, with most of the money traded through
informal
channels.
"There is a danger that the central bank will control the
movement to such
an extent that some people will feel prejudiced. Then we
will see more
people returning to the black market," a dealer with a Harare
commercial
bank said.
The currency was trading at around
125,000/dollar on the black market, which
analysts say has handled the bulk
of foreign currency trading.
Zimbabwe has experienced severe foreign
currency shortages, one of the
clearest signs of an economic crisis also
seen in high unemployment,
hyper-inflation and food and fuel
shortages.
Foreign currency shortages have been worsened by the
withdrawal of balance
of payments support by major agencies such as the
International Monetary
Fund (IMF) over policy differences with Harare, such
as the expropriation of
white-owned farms.
An IMF team arrived in
Zimbabwe on Tuesday ahead of a March deadline for
Zimbabwe to clear its
arrears or risk expulsion from the body.
"What the governor is saying is
put in more money and you will have more
movement," Luxon Zembe, president
of Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce
said.
"But what it shows you
is that we desperately need balance of payments
support to stabilise the
forex market, and if we don't do that we will
remain in this vicious
cycle."
Zim Daily
Thursday, January 26 2006 @ 12:06 AM GMT
Contributed by: correspondent
ZESA Holdings is projected to
have made an operational loss of
over $8 trillion by October 2005, while its
counterpart, the National Oil
Company of Zimbabwe, was $1 trillion in the
red owing to a retrogressive
pricing system. Central bank governor Gideon
Gono made the startling
revelations while addressing diplomats
yesterday.
Noczim sells hugely subsidised fuel to farmers
and government
departments at about $10 000 per litre. The official price
for the fuel is
$22 600 per litre, while prices on the thriving black market
range between
$100 000 and $120 000 per litre. Gono said ZESA, in
particular, was plagued
by a number of operational challenges, which would
continue to have a
negative impact on its operations. The central bank
governor said the
continued lack of clarity between the operations of the
holding company and
its subsidiaries was also impacting negatively on its
operations.
"Lack of clarity exists on the relationship
between ZESA
Holdings and its operations units," a central bank supplement
to Gono's
policy document states. The central bank said the parastatal was
riddled
with corporate governance challenges as it was operating without a
substantive chief executive officer while its wage bill was gobbling over
55% of its total revenue. Sydney Gata, who is married to President Robert
Mugabe's sister, currently heads ZESA Holdings operations as executive
chairman following the dismissal of the board in 2003.
"Corporate governance challenges where no substantive Chief
Executive
officer prevail over the operations of the company, high wage cost
as a
percentage of total revenue (in excess of 55%)." The RBZ noted that a
poor
pricing structure and mounting foreign debts was also adding to its
current
challenges. "A parallel tariff structure where ZESA sells
electricity at
ZW$218,08/KW hour after producing it at an average of
ZW$1,386.20/KW hour.
Poor investment and rehabilitation in electricity
generation capacity
resulting in a running capacity of 550MW for Hwange
Power Station against
920 MW potential capacity. Foreign debts amount to
US$330
million."
Zim Daily
Thursday,
January 26 2006 @ 12:04 AM GMT
Contributed by:
Reporter
The government through the ministry of Health, on Monday
spurned
a quest by the Zimbabwe Traditional Healers Association (ZINATHA) to
irregularise and subsequent extinction of condoms in Zimbabwe. In a document
that was sent to the ministry, ZINATHA, among other things, asked the
government to phase out condoms. ZINATHA contests that condoms are unAfrican
and that they spread the HIV virus.
"This is really
madness, how can a group masquerading as healers
call for the phasing out of
protection measures", said Sibangilizwe Sibanda,
a Harare
resident.
Sources in Ministry of Health indicated that Dr
David
Parirenyatwa and his deputy Dr Edwin Muguti were appalled by ZINATHA's
request.
ZINATHA's fresh lobby comes after its charlatan
members conned a
lot of desperate people on the pretext of curing the deadly
scourge. Some
ZINATHA members coined disastrous myths of curing AIDS such as
'sleeping
with a virgin'. This measure saw the alarming spread of HIV which
is still
to find cure.
Zim Daily
Thursday, January 26 2006 @ 12:03 AM GMT
Contributed by: correspondent
Government has hired Israeli
intelligence experts to step up
surveillance on mines amid fears that the
sector lost US$160 million through
smuggling and side marketing during the
last year. Gold deliveries to the
official market plunged 37 percent in
2005, prompting the central bank to
bring in Israeli security investigators
to probe avenues of possible
smuggling to external markets. Fidelity
Printers, a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
subsidiary, is the sole official buyer
of gold in the country. A total of
21.5 tonnes of the precious metal were
sold to the formal buyer in 2004, but
just over 13 tonnes were delivered
last year.
The gold price has approached 26-year highs in
recent months,
but Zimbabwean gold producers, as the rest of the exporting
community, have
to contend with exchange rate distortions that eat into
profits. This has
driven much of the bullion to the grey underground market.
Gono yesterday
told diplomats that politically powerful 'chefs' were behind
the smuggling.
He also announced measures meant to tighten the industry's
supervision.
Mining firms are now required to submit detailed
reports to the
Ministry of Mines and central bank for purposes of accounting
for
extractions and exports. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor,
Gideon
Gono, yesterday said the measure is targeted at curtailing the
increased
incidences of unofficial transactions in the mining sector. "It is
also
imperative that greater surveillance be instituted at the country's
mines,
so as to curb the growing incidences of smuggling and side
marketing," Gono
said.
Gono, who also said that the
surveillance instruments should be
rigorous, added that the central bank has
over the last quarter been
investigating the issue with the assistance of
Israeli experts with
collaboration from the police force. "Introduction of
the recommended
systems and reporting procedures should commence with the
gold sector next
month," he said. Gono also called for the restructuring of
the Minerals
Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ).
"It is also critical that the MMCZ be realigned and reoriented
to assume a
much more aggressive role in marketing and assuring early
repatriation of
our mineral exports." He added that the country could not
afford to live
under the 'paradoxical dichotomy' where miners' consumption
of fuel,
electricity, explosives, chemicals, spare parts and machinery which
are all
imported is rising, suggesting increased productivity, but the same
miners
are declaring falling output levels and "crying happiness" with
activities
in the same breath. Gono said that the work underway to finalise
the
country's Mining Laws, including the issue of government and or
indigenous
participation is a monumental agenda which when completed should
investment
in the mining sector. Two years ago, the government announced
that locals
should acquire at least 15% empowerment stakes in all mining
concerns but up
to now no local has successfully done so due to failure to
raise the
required amounts.
African News Dimension
Thursday, 26 January 2006,
By ANDnetwork
Journalist
THOUSANDS of commuters in Bulawayo were stranded
yesterday as commuter
omnibus operators withdrew their services amid reports
that the Bulawayo
United Public Transport Association chairman, Mr Strike
Ndlovu, was picked
up by police for allegedly inciting other transporters to
unilaterally
increase fares.
The commuter omnibus operators
withdrew their vehicles in protest over
roadblocks that had been set up by
the police to make sure that they stuck
to the $20 000 fare instead of the
$30 000 they effected on Monday.
Police mounted roadblocks on all
major roads leading into the city
centre and impounded the vehicles. A snap
survey revealed that the
withdrawal of services by the transporters left
thousands of workers and
school children stranded.
When a
Chronicle newscrew visited Egodini terminus yesterday evening,
it found
hundreds of people, including school children, milling around not
sure what
to do.
The kombi drivers and conductors, popularly known as owindi, had
no
soft words for the newscrew, blaming the paper for "all these
troubles".
Some people were seen walking along the Luveve and Khami
roads to
different suburbs in the western areas. The newscrew also saw
scores of
omnibuses parked at Sekusile Shopping Centre in Nkulumane. On the
picking up
of Mr Ndlovu, police sources said was to do with statements he
made in the
Press yesterday.
He was quoted as saying his
association would not reverse fares
despite an order from the Government to
do so. Mr Ndlovu also accused the
police of soliciting for
bribes.
"He (Ndlovu) is at the Bulawayo Central Police Station and
is being
questioned over what he said in your (Chronicle) story today
(yesterday),"
said the source.
However, the Bulawayo Province
police spokesman, Inspector Smile Dube,
could neither confirm nor deny that
Mr Ndlovu had been picked up for
questioning.
"I am not in a
position to say anything at this moment," he said.
Mr Ndlovu
confirmed through the phone yesterday evening that he had
been picked up for
questioning.
"I have been arrested because of your story.
"Are
you going to compensate me for the business I lost the whole day?
I am not
impressed," he said.
Insp Dube said police had impounded several
commuter omnibuses at
roadblocks set up on most roads in the
city.
"Yes, the omnibuses were impounded but it's not necessarily
because of
overcharging.
"We are always doing routine checks on
public transport vehicles and
those which are not fit for the road are
pulled out," he said.
Source : The Chronicle
African News Dimension
Thursday, 26 January 2006,
By Oscar Nkala www.andnetwork.com
A
procession of donkeys, moving as sluggishly as all idle animals do,
is the
only spectacle that attracts the attention of the visitor in this
solemn and
sombre-looking village of Northern Botswana.
Apart from the
occassional crowing of an over-fed cock and the
quacking of an excited duck,
there is no other sound, not even the usual
barking of dogs at Tshessebe
Village. Even the sound of cars on the highway
to the city of Francistown is
mutted because of the distance.
The village is almost deserted,
except for one village boy who should
obvioulsy have been at junior
secondary school like all youngsters his age.
"I could not go to
school today because my parents are away. They went
into the bush three days
ago to gather phane, and we are expecting them back
here next week. I have
to look after my younger brothers while they are
away," the boy
explains.
Boima, as he identifies himself, is one of those who
provide the
rear-guard action to an age old regional tradition of harvesting
the
caterpillar worm, known as "phane" in Botswana and "amacimbi" in
Zimbabwe
and South Africa.
The ugly and prickly nature of the
caterpillar worm has not prevented
it from becoming a regional delicacy,
consumed by the rich and famous at
high bills in cafes around Johannesburg's
Sandton City and munched with the
equally the same appreciation by beef
cattle at farms in the Groot Marico
and the Swartruggens areas of the
platinum province, the North-West.
Boima's parents are some of the
hundreds of Botswana, South African
and Zimbabwean rural poor who do not
only like the rains for providing water
in the thirsty, often
drought-stricken region. To them it also means the
coming of the caterpillar
worms, the only time when all families in the
village are guaranteed of
nutritious food straight from Mother Nature.
"When the phane comes
around, my parents know they will be able to
harvest enough for sale. That
way we are guaranteed of food and other basic
necessities. The people also
trade it for various other things they cannot
buy with money since they do
not have it.
To us the "phane" season is a chance for those who do not
have money
to have an item of bargaining. It is the currency here," he adds
with a
chuckle.
One does not need to look too far to see that
the 'phane' season is at
its peak. All around, the host mopane trees are
stripped bare of the lush
green leaves and festering with the zebra coloured
worms armed with short,
sharp pricks.
"In good times we harvest
up to 300 kg of phane between the first
season in December and the last one
in April. The harvest is divided into
what remains for family consumption
and what goes on sale to the dealers.
"Phane forms a very important
part of the local, although seasonal
economy because we all sell it to
survive before the harvest in April. We
get all we want by trading phane
although the traders exploit us," said 35
year-old Anna Sekorogoane, a
mother of three.
Charges of exploitation have always characterised
the nature of the
relationship between the harvesters and the middlemen.
While the local
harvesters would have demanded P100 per 25 litre bucket if
they were in
charge, the middlemen are charging themselves P50 for the same
measure.
According to Sekorogoane, it is naked exploitation and
abuse of their
hard labour, but there is nothing the communal people can do
because they
are the poor, desperate side.
"The middlemen are
exploiting us simply because we are poor, ignorant
and disorganised.
Besides, desperation pushes us to a point where we accept
anything, even
exploitative prices. Because we are always desperate, the
middlemen buy from
us at the lowest prices but charge the highest when they
get to the export
markets in South Africa," she added.
Although the Botswana market
consumes a lot of the caterpillar worms
harvested locally, the bulk of it
goes across the border to South Africa
where restaurants wishing to improve
their menu lists compete for it with
farmers vying for honours as top cattle
fatteners.
There are three principal markets in SA: the farmers buying
phane for
use as fodder, household and hotel consumption.
A lot
of Botswana's 'phane' is also bought by Zambian and Congolesse
traders and
taken into new found markets of south-central Africa in buses
and trucks
through the Kasane border post.
Apart from the problem of
exploitation by South African, Zambian and
Congolese middlemen, the host
population also suffers a lot of environmental
damage, notably the loss of
the mopane tree which the caterpillars feed on.
"A lot of people
come from Zimbabwe and literally live in our forests
throughout the 'phane'
season. Because they want money and nothing else,
they do not care whether
they harvest mature or immature worms. They take
everything and cut down the
old mopane trees just to get the worms.
"When the trees are
destoyed, the worm losses habitat and at times it
cannot regenerate because
of over-harvesting. The foreigners do not care
about the future of this
resource, they just want to fill up their bags and
go," said one harvester
found near the Jakalasi Community Centre.
In Zimbabwe and South
Africa, the worms are found in the mopani
woodlands of the largely arid
south-west and the northern provinces
respectively. Local populations face
the same pressures as those in
Botswana. Foreigners who know the 'real'
price of the worms
and the places of high demand have teamed up with
'smart' local
urbanites to strip the rural populations of their most valued
resource, all
for a song.
"The foreigners do not come directly
and they do not pay in cash. They
remain in the towns and send down their
'boys' with foodstuffs like sugar,
mealie meal and other basic necesities
that are hard to come by in this
country. That way they trade large
quantities of "macimbi" for junk goods
like plastic cups or plates and small
measures of sugar or a few candles.
"At the same time, they
encourage over-harvesting and habitat
destruction by hiring unscrupulous
locals as harvesters and promising them
more goods if they can meets certain
supply targets. We have had many
seasons when the caterpillar never
re-generated because it had been
ove-harvested and denied a chance to
breed," said Sifiso Sibanda, a
well-known caterpillar worm harvester in the
southern town of Gwanda.
In South Africa's northern town of Musina,
Zimbabwean caterpillar worm
traders line the pavements of the local markets
to announce who is in charge
of the gathering and sales process. Unlike
their neighbours in Zimbabwe and
Botswana, South Africans rarely harvest the
worm for sale.
"It is a local delicacy, so most of the people who
harvest it here
keep it for consumption latter in the year. There are some
youths who are
hired out by local farmers but people dislike the hard, dirty
job. So they
do not do it," said Fanuel Mudau, a businessman in
Musina.
In all three countries, the communities endowed with the
resource feel
that governments should assist them to process the worms
locally to avoid
exploitation and undervaluing.
"A regulatory
body that will bring all harvesters together would be a
good start. That way
they can present one outlet and set one selling price
as opposed to the
poverty determined give-away pricing system that works
now.
""Through such a body, locals can control harvesting by restricting
annual
harvest quotas to certain areas to protect the trees and allow the
worms to
breed. They will also be able to control and hold accountable those
among
them who destroy the environment in the process of harvesting the
worms,"
said Mudau.
Although the governments of Botswana, Zimbabwe and
South Africa have
legislation governing the harvesting of veld products, the
laws remain
ineffective because of lack of implementation.
In
Zimbabwe, the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous
Resources
(CAMPFIRE) has tried to help communities set up local caterpillar
worm
processing factories. However, the programme has not made any clear
progress, largely because of the worsening economic crisis.
MDC INFORMATION & PUBLICITY
Harvest
House
Harare
Tel 091 940 489 email
:mdcnewsbrief@gmail.com
25 January 2006
Gideon Gono, the governor of the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) on Tuesday
confirmed the MDC's position that
Zanu PF is at the epicentre of the
national crisis.
Gono, in his
monetary statement, was clear that there was endemic corruption
in all
sectors of the economy, from land redistribution to parastatals. He
was
clear that the large-scale corruption that had eaten into every pillar
of
the state was not driven by the ordinary man but by known thieves in the
top
echelons of Zanu PF and government.
The monetary policy statement
further manifests the naivety of anyone to
expect the monetary and fiscal
policies to solve our deadening economic
meltdown. It is clear that without
a lasting political solution to the
political crisis, merely tinkering with
interest rates or introducing new
bearer cheques will take us
nowhere
Gono's statement shows that this regime has failed in its
national duty to
rescue the economy and no amount of window-dressing by the
RBZ without
complementary government commitment will give this nation
political and
economic salvation. The MDC also believes that the governor
himself should
resign if he really believes his colleagues in Zanu PF are
the major
culprits in state haemorrhage. The governor should quit if he
truly believes
in his own statement that Zanu PF sharks are the major
players in the
pilferage of state assets, abuse of input schemes and the
sabotage of the
land reform programme, among other treasonous
crimes.
Gono's monetary policy measures could not achieve
anything as long as Zanu
PF sharks continued to waylay the economy in broad
daylight. .
The state of the economy is clear testimony that the
governor has been a
failure despite his oft-repeated cliche that failure is
not an option.
We believe Gono's statement only serves to
vindicate the MDC position that
there will be no respite for Zimbabwe as
long as Mugabe and his government
remain in power.
The
governor has proved that this cut-and-paste approach to economics
without
the requisite political commitment will bring this nation to
inevitable
doom. Gono has shown that empty slogans and imaginary turn-around
programmes
will get us nowhere.
We believe in a new Zimbabwe and a new hope;
a new Zimbabwe with a
leadership that has the political will to tackle graft
and allow for
far-sighted economics in the national
interest.
Nelson Chamisa, MP
Secretary for Information and
Publicity
____________________________________________________________________
Monetary
Policy Review Statements by the Reserve Bank Governor, just like
the annual
Budget Statements, have become unimaginative ramblings as devoid
of
solutions as they are badly written. The Monetary Policy Review
Statement
for the Fourth Quarter of 2005, belatedly announced on the 24th
January
2006, was no exception.
Once again as in the past, optimistic
predictions of inflation reduction and
anticipated growth in output are
made, but as in the past there is no
explanation justifying the exuberant
predictions.
In the latest of the Governor's fancy year end
inflation is predicted at
230%, a more realistic figure to that of 80% made
by the Minister of Finance
in the 2006 Budget Statement made on the 1st
December 2005, but nevertheless
it is an unrealistically low
prediction.
The premises upon which there will be a major
reduction in inflation is
sadly not explained in the Governor's latest
Statement. A normal rain
season does not equate to a good agriculture
year. Equally, a restrictive
money policy and the abandonment of
quasi-fiscal activities, highly
impressive targets will remain mere notions
and dreams that will not reduce
inflationary pressures.
The
fact of the matter is that unless the supply side of the economy is
addressed and unless massive capital investment takes place and we start
producing again any attempt of using monetary tools to deal with this
economy will result in one thing and one thing alone. INEVITABLE
FAILURE.
Whilst nominal recognition of expanding the exports is
made in the latest
Statement, a major policy reversal seems to have been
sneaked in. The move
towards Volume Based Adjustments of the Interbank
Weighed Exchange Rate will
effectively result in the pegging or freezing of
the exchange rate. Given
the fact that parallel market rates will continue
spiralling, exporters who
have always relied on informal supplies of
exchange will continue to be
squeezed out. Furthermore, the widening of the
gap between the two rates
will as usual have serious inflation pressures.
This is already happening.
Quite significantly the
Governor almost apologises in his Statement for his
misadventures in
dabbling in fiscal issues. We long made the point that he
legally held no
brief for this. However, it is quite clear that the
expressed intentions to
abandon quasi fiscal emprise is nominal. Only last
week $2 trillion was
handed out by the Central Bank to Local Authorities or
Parastatals.
In addition the much hyped Agricultural Sector
Productivity Enhancement
Facility (ASPEF) is progeny of the Central Bank and
not the Central
Government.
The main concern about the
Central Bank dabbling in quasi fiscal activity is
not one of the obvious
illegality. Rather the question is how does the
Central Bank raise funds to
support these adventures. In the absence of
production or direct budgetary
allocations to the Bank there is no question
that the bulk of these
activities are financed by the horrendous printing of
money. Herein lies
the disaster and the lith.
Another thinly veiled confession in
the latest Statement is the
acknowledgement of failure or a "delayed
success" engineered by "eclectic"
policies and the absence of a "grand
long-term National Strategy".
It has taken the Governor three
years to agree with us on the need of a
comprehensive, holistic national
plan to address the current crisis. No
country can develop without one and
this is why we led the way by crafting
our RESTART
programme.
The fact of the matter is that this country cannot
continue to be run on the
back of sterile knee jerk solutions, that have no
ideological foundation,
are unco-ordinated and ill
understood.
The inevitable result of the lack of planning and
co-ordination has been the
reality that this economy is now in a worse off
position than when Governor
Gono assumed office in December
2003.
An economy can not be run by charlatans or cartoon
characters. It requires
visions, strategies and not endless turnarounds.
That vision unfortunately
can not emerge from the blinkered breath of the
bespectacled gentleman at
No.80 Samora Machel Avenue,
Harare.
TENDAI BITI
25/01/06