http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 12:35
Owen
Gagare
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is intensely lobbying Sadc leaders ahead
of a
crucial summit in Luanda, Angola, to secure regional consensus before
he can
call for elections possibly by December despite raging disputes over
the
Global Political Agreement (GPA) and botched constitution-making
process.
The Luanda meeting would be critical in determining
Zimbabwe’s direction
amid intensifying fights over the GPA,
constitution-making and the elections
roadmap.
Seeing the dangers of
unilateral action, Mugabe, who needs regional
endorsement and legitimacy,
this week went all out to consult Sadc on
elections before he could
proceed.
Regional leaders last year demanded at summits in
Livingstone, Zambia;
Sandton in Johannesburg, South Africa; and Luanda the
need for Zimbabwe to
follow the roadmap before free and fair elections after
2008’s
hotly-disputed presidential poll run-off.
“Heads of state
and government will meet in Luanda on June 1 for the
tripartite summit of
Comesa, East African Community and Sadc. Senior Sadc
officials will first
meet in the Angolan capital on May 30 followed by the
Council of Ministers
on May 31,” a senior Sadc diplomat said last night.
“Apart from
regional integration and trade issues, they will discuss the
political and
security situation in the region and that’s where Zimbabwe
comes in.”
In
a bid to build consensus and avoid confrontation with regional leaders,
Mugabe on Monday dispatched Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa to deliver a
special message to Sadc chair, Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos in
Luanda.
Last month, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai sent
Minister of State in his
office, Jameson Timba, to meet with the
Angolans.
On Tuesday State Security minister Sydney Sekeramayi met with
Zambian
President Michael Sata in Lusaka.
Mnangagwa and
Sekeramayi were in Maputo last week for the sixth
Zimbabwe-Mozambique
defence and security permanent joint commission meeting
with their
counterparts and reportedly sounded out to President Armando
Guebuza.
Vice-President John Nkomo was sent to Pretoria to meet
South African
President Jacob Zuma, while Zanu PF chairman Simon Khaya Moyo
travelled to
Namibia.
Others envoys went across to other Sadc countries,
including Tanzania. Zuma
chairs the Sadc Troika of the organ on politics,
defence and security. Sata,
a key Mugabe ally, also sits on the troika,
together with Tanzanian
President Jakaya Kikwete. Tanzania is incoming
troika chair. Mugabe met Sata
last month when he came to open the trade fair
in Bulawayo. They also had a
meeting in Livingstone last
December.
Zuma, facilitator in Zimbabwe, is expected to brief the
meeting when it
discusses the political and security situation in the
region. The South
Africa leader in March visited Botswana, Namibia and
Angola.
Senior Zanu PF officials said Mugabe’s envoys were not
pursuing party
manoeuvres but “national interest”.
“The president is
exercising responsibilities as head of state and
government. Zimbabwe is a
member of Sadc, not Zanu PF or the two MDC
parties. So these envoys are
representing government and not Zanu PF which
is why they are meeting
presidents and not party leaders,” a senior
politburo member
said.
“The idea is to consult and compare notes because the situation
has shifted.
Things have moved and changed. We are no longer at the stage of
mediation
but at a point where we are discussing collectively the way
forward. The
country can’t be held hostage by the constitution-making
process; life has
to go on. To the extent that the constitution-making
process is necessary,
let it go on but the country must also move on and
that’s why we must have
elections by December 31. Other parties want
elections by March next year.
What’s the difference between December 31 and
March 31, other than three
months?”
Zanu PF is also expected to
take advantage of the meeting of
secretary-generals of former liberation
movements to be held in Zimbabwe
soon.
Mugabe’s envoys reportedly gave
the regional leaders an update of the
political and security situation in
the country — painting a picture of a
politically stable and peaceful
country burdened by a dysfunctional
government. The emissaries reportedly
indicated the constitution-making
exercise had reached a dead end, hence
the need for elections this year.
Zanu PF officials say Mugabe (88)
is pressing for polls this year due to old
age and deteriorating
health.
The MDC parties say they would only agree to polls when a new
constitution
is in place and the GPA is fully implemented. Mugabe’s
emissaries reportedly
carried messages to convince Sadc leaders it was in
the national interest
for Zimbabwe to hold elections this year so that the
country starts 2013
without divisive political issues. Further they do not
want elections to
disrupt the United Nations World Tourism Organisation
general assembly to
held in Victoria falls in August next
year.
Zanu PF is also arguing there is no material difference between
holding
elections in December and March next year. The party also claims
rain
patterns have changed, hence it would be more practical to hold polls
in
December than March when people are ploughing fields even though March is
traditional polls month.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012
12:30
Faith Zaba/Owen Gagare
GOVERNMENT has come up with a
collective position on the US$750 million
Essar deal aimed at reviving
defunct steelmaking giant Ziscosteel after a
heated high-profile meeting on
Tuesday.
The meeting, which was chaired by President Robert Mugabe
and attended by
ministers, resolved Essar should be given 20 claims in
Mwanezi Ranch while
exploration is being done on the remaining concessions
to determine the
quantity and value of iron ore reserves it critically needs
in the area.
Government and Essar reached an agreement in March last
year in which the
Indian firm acquired a 60% stake in Ziscosteel to form a
new company, NewZim
Steel Ltd.
Essar also acquired 80% of Buchwa Iron
Mining Company (Bimco) to form NewZim
Minerals Ltd. Bimco held the rights to
iron ore claims for feedstock into
Zisco operations.
However,
Essar has failed to kick-start operations because the Ministry of
Mines had
refused to give it mineral rights to mine in Mwanezi, arguing it
does not
know the quantity and value of the iron ore. This was amid claims
there are
30 billion tonnes of high-grade reserves and the country could
lose billions
of dollars in the process.
In March, Mugabe instructed Mines minister
Obert Mpofu and Industry and
Commerce minister Welshman Ncube to speedily
resolve the issue but the
problem persisted. Cabinet ministers said Ncube on
Tuesday gave a detailed
update report on the Essar deal so
far.
He indicated that Essar was given mineral rights to mine the
Buchwa and
Ripple Creek claims. Buchwa has about 15 million tonnes of iron
ore, but the
mineral is believed to be so deep that it cannot be mined
unless new
technology is introduced.
By the time Ziscosteel
ceased operations, Bimco had already stopped mining
the claims. The Ripple
Creek claim in Kwekwe has about 30 million tonnes,
but the iron ore is of a
low grade with 54% iron ore content instead of the
recommended content of
between 64% and 74%.
Besides that, the iron ore at Ripple Creek would
be exhausted in five years
at the level of mining which Essar wants to
operate, and the Indian company
has been arguing that by then it would not
have recouped its investment.
This made the Mwanezi claims critical to the
deal.
“Ncube presented a report and it was debated afterwards. Then a
consensus
was reached.
“Mpofu and Ncube later met to iron out issues
before they could inform Essar
of the decision,” one minister said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012
12:28
Wongai Zhangazha
A REPORT by the Comptroller and
Auditor-General has cited financial
irregularities in several government
ministries including the Defence
ministry which failed to account for about
US$18 million for the financial
year-ended December 31
2010.
Comptroller and Auditor-General Mildred Chiri rapped the
ministry’s
accounting records as unreliable and incomplete, saying it was
difficult to
reconcile expenditure figures. The ministry’s total expenditure
as per the
Appropriation Account amounted to US$176 478 621 while the Public
Finance
Management Systems (PFMS) report recorded a balance of US$158 562
920,
leaving an unreconciled difference of US$17 915 701.
“Proper
and reliable accounting records should be maintained at all the
times. The
two different expenditure figures should be reconciled to ensure
completeness and accuracy of information,” Chiri recommended.
The
report also unearthed fraudulent activities where US$197 043 was paid to
six
companies which did not provide any goods or services to the ministry.
Only
US$22 174 was recovered after an internal audit.
Chiri said no steps
were taken against the officers who committed the fraud
and no mechanisms
had been put in place to prevent such lapses in internal
controls.
“Total
losses will occur if the fraud is not investigated to its logical
conclusion. Failure to take appropriate measures against those found to be
negligent will send wrong signals.”
Chiri warned the ministry
against circumventing government systems in making
payments for
institutional provisions, saying audit trails were lost,
resulting in public
funds being misused.
The report also exposed the Ministry of
Agriculture Mechanisation and
Irrigation Development for failing to
reconcile three different figures it
submitted. The Appropriation Account
reflected US$215 511 694, the Public
Finance Systems’ consumed budget had a
figure of US$112 730 411, while the
Sub Paymasters-General’s bank statement
showed an amount of US$205 876 312.
Chiri said the submission of
three figures suggested that the ministry’s
total expenditure might include
fraudulently processed vouchers. She also
found that the Agriculture
ministry had failed to do monthly payroll
reconciliations.
“Therefore I could not ascertain the correctness
of the wage bill. (The
chances of) Ghost workers having been paid could not
be ruled out,” said
Chiri. The ministry had also not paid about US$3,7
million it borrowed for
agricultural inputs from various seed companies
during the 2008 financial
year.
“The ministry did not produce the
list of beneficiaries of the seed for the
audit and the examination could
not, therefore, confirm whether the inputs
were distributed to deserving
farmers,” said Chiri.
Her report noted the Local Government ministry
had issued 27 Mitsubishi L200
pick-up vehicles to chiefs without any form
of regularisation.
She said loans for the purchase of 161 vehicles issued to
traditional
leaders were written off without approval by treasury. The audit
revealed
the Department of State Land was not following procedures in land
allocation.
Chiri said the Ministry of Home Affairs had no cash
book records. There was
also misappropriation of about US$960 000 at
immigration between May and
June 2010.
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs
had an unreconciled balance of close to US$4
million.
She said
six vehicles purchased by the Housing ministry for US$100 362 had
not yet
been delivered.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 12:27
Brian
Chitemba
BULAWAYO town clerk Middleton Nyoni, housing director Isaiah
Magagula and
his finance director Kempton Ndimande have been branded
incompetent by the
council and blamed for deteriorating service delivery and
the city’s
ballooning debt totalling over US$56
million.
According to a confidential council report compiled in
April, the three
officials had failed to explain why the city was in such a
precarious
position. Council is riddled with a crippling debt as a result of
bank loans
totalling US$8,2 million, salary creditors US$26 552 374, and a
Zesa bill of
US$19 079 906 while other creditors are owed US$2 652
420.
Council took bank loans for financial working capital and
purchase of
top-of-the-range vehicles for senior managers, but councillors
have charged
that the local authority was losing thousands of dollars
through corruption
in the financial and housing departments.
It
was also losing money through properties that are not on the council
records
being leased by corrupt officials. “Council did not follow-up the
request
for a comprehensive report of council properties,” reads the report.
“Council is under-collecting monthly revenue due to incompetence and as
such, dead wood must be removed from the system.”
The report also
noted that council was hiring new staff in violation of a
motion to suspend
recruitment to contain the huge wage bill. Ndimande
presented a report
detailing how council was intensifying water
disconnections to recover money
owed to it by residents. As a result of
these disconnections, about US$2,1
million was being collected a week, but
it’s still below council’s target of
US$6 million.
He said council was set to engage debt collectors in an
effort to collect
more revenue but councilors rejected his plans to attach
ratepayers’
property saying such a move would plunge the council’s name into
disrepute.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 12:25
PRIME Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and South African President Jacob Zuma
yesterday came under
attack at the World Federation of Democratic Youth
General Council Meeting
being hosted by the Zanu PF Youth League in Harare.
While Zuma was not
mentioned by name, ANC Youth League deputy president
Ronald Lamola accused
the ANC leadership of suppressing the league’s fight
against
imperialism.
The ANC Youth League has been at loggerheads with the
mother body following
the expulsion of its president Julius Malema,
suspension of
secretary-general Sindiso Magaqa and spokesperson Floyd
Shivambu for
bringing the party into disrepute.
Lamola said the
youth league was facing difficult challenges in South
Africa. “We have
condemned Africom (US-Africa Command) in Botswana and the
ANC Youth League
has been charged for that position,” said Lamola.
“The youths from
South Africa remain determined to fight imperialism,”
Lamola said. “We are
unshaken. Views of the young people are being
suppressed by these elders but
we are going to continue with the struggle.
We are inspired by the
indigenisation programme of Zanu PF because it
benefits people in
Zimbabwe.
Lamola added: “This kind of programme must be exported to
South Africa,
Mozambique, Angola and all our countries. We can’t have a
situation where
one white person remains rich while millions of black people
remain poor. We
will never accept dying poor in our own land. We must defend
African
resources.”
Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party were branded
“puppets” of the West by Zanu PF
national chairman Simon Khaya Moyo who told
the youths to defend their
country against “pseudo- democracy” being
promoted by Western countries
through “these puppets”.
––
Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 12:24
Faith Zaba
FORMER
Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano (pictured) yesterday called on
former
liberation war heroes like President Robert Mugabe to consider
transferring
power to a new generation of leaders.
Chissano said this in response
to a question on leaders like Mugabe, who
manipulate the liberation struggle
and use it as an emotional blackmail to
stay in power, during a discussion
on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: How
elections in Africa confirm and
confound what we know about inequality at
the Open Forum 2012 conference in
Cape Town.
“I think that if there are any who are doing that, it is
because what they
should do is to educate the new generation on the values
of the liberation
struggle which they want attained,” said
Chissano.
“In my country, this may not apply because if you go to the
cabinet of the
present government, you will find three people who fought in
the liberation
struggle. All the other ministers and their deputy ministers
didn’t fight in
the liberation struggle.”
Chissano said his
country had managed to produce well educated and bright
Mozambicans capable
of running the country since the country’s independence
in 1975.
“Imagine
the type of brains that we now have. So the ability of liberation
movements
to transfer the values to the new generation is very important.
This is
empowering the citizens who come from different places. Things have
evolved
over the years; we now have cellphones, microphones, iPads, etc ––
all these
things have made us all evolve. We cannot act on reference of how
we acted
10 years ago. You also have to take into consideration the changes
in the
world,” Chissano said.
Chissano was a founding member of the Front
for the Liberation of Mozambique
(FRELIMO) and became president after the
tragic death of founding president
Samora Machel in 1986. He voluntarily
stepped down in 2004.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 12:18
Paidamoyo
Muzulu
CIVIL society organisations have warned the country is not ready
to hold
credible, free and fair elections until reforms have been
implemented and
electoral conditions improved.
Below are eight
issues they highlighted in a seven-page dossier handed to
Pillay, in Harare
on Tuesday.
Operating environment — that the government of
Zimbabwe take immediate
and time bound steps to honour its commitment to
ratify and domesticate the
UN Convention against Torture and other
international human rights
instruments.
Elections — it is
apparent that elections in Zimbabwe are critical in
order to bring to
finality the political impasse. However, in the absence of
credible
electoral (legislative, institutional and political) reforms,
elections are
likely to result in gross human rights violations.
Economic, social
and cultural rights — food assistance to poor
communities should not be
politicised, the government should improve health,
especially access to ARVs
and safe water to avoid recurrence of cholera and
typhoid in urban
areas.
Natural resources — there should be transparency and
accountability in
the generation and expenditure of funds from the
exploitation of natural
resources such as diamonds and proper relocation of
displaced families in
areas with health and educational
facilities.
Media — that the government should open up the
broadcasting industry to
more independent players and repeal laws such as
Posa and Aippa.
Women — that the government should take adequate
steps to protect women
from abuse during political processes such as
elections time where numerous
cases of rape, assaults, intimidation, arrests
and unlawful detentions are
being reported.
Vulnerable and
marginalised groups — that the government should
adequately protect the
rights of children, the disabled and gays and
lesbians, especially that the
government is leading a constitution review
process.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 12:16
Tendai
Marima
UNITED Nations (UN) Human Rights Commissioner Navanethem Pillay’s
visit to
Zimbabwe has raised uproar, with government and civil society
groups
clashing on issues ranging from her itinerary to the content of their
briefings which have shown they are worlds apart on the state of human
rights in the country.
The situation, including polarisation of
opinion and growing tensions across
the political divide, puts Pillay in
dilemma as she faces one of the
toughest tests of her diplomatic savvy and
skills.
Zimbabwe has a long record of grisly human rights abuses but
Pillay has been
confronted with different dossiers of information and
accounts – ranging
from efforts to whitewash the situation to horror
stories.
Since her arrival on Sunday, the Zanu PF section of the
coalition
government, through Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, has been
trying to
keep a tight leash on her to ensure she “hears, sees and speaks
no evil”.
President Robert Mugabe’s officials and supporters have
also been
desperately trying to hijack Pillay’s mission and put a spin on
her visit
and the situation on the ground. The state media have been roped
into the
propaganda campaign to mislead the world about Zimbabwe’s human
rights
situation.
The state-controlled daily Herald, which
together with other state media
outlets operate as government and Zanu PF’s
mouthpieces, yesterday for
instance, had three front page stories, an
editorial and a letter to the
editor about human rights, in a clear
agenda-setting move.
Chinamasa led the campaign of deception and was
supported by Zanu PF groups
and supporters, including the state-run media.
“There is no state-sponsored
violence, these are all lies....there are no
torture chambers in Zimbabwe,”
he said after emerging from a meeting with
Pillay on Monday. Chinamasa also
said there were “torture chambers” in
Zimbabwe.
However, Chinamasa’s assertion contradicts well-documented
evidence of human
rights abuses in Zimabbwe stretching from the 1980s to
date. Pillay’s
five-day visit was expected to include a trip to Marange
where the notorious
military-controlled diamond base is situated, but
instead her itinerary
indicated she would pay two courtesy calls on
President Robert Mugabe and
possibly meet with the Joint Monitoring and
Implementation Committee (Jomic)
chairperson, and deliver a public
lecture.
Pillay on Tuesday called on Zimbabwe to take steps to
prevent a repeat of
2008 political violence in elections that are due next
year after meeting
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
Pillay told
reporters after the hour-long meeting she had asked Tsvangirai
what progress
Zimbabwe had made in establishing a human rights commission,
which she said
should start functioning ahead of the poll.
“I was able to raise many
areas of concern from a human rights point of
view, such as non-recurrence
of violence that occurred in last elections and
what steps are being taken
to protect ordinary people from such violence,”
Pillay said, showing she had
rejected deception.
“The Prime Minister was very firm, forthright and
convinced me of his
commitment towards protecting human rights. His goal
also is to have
successful elections.”
Efforts to restrict access to an
audience with Pillay angered civil society
groups. A last minute venue
change on Tuesday riled the groups and prompted
them to boycott her meeting
held at parliament.
In a joint statement issued by the Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR),
36 civil society organisations and NGOs
said they would not participate in a
“stage-managed” event that gives a
“superficial picture of the human rights
situation in our
country”.
However, Pillay later held a closed-door meeting with over
45 civil society
representatives Dewa Mavhinga, a human rights lawyer and
activist, said
their briefing helped to counter attempts by government to
distort the
situation.
‘We were very clear as civil society
leaders that the position by government
was obviously false. We do have
serious human rights challenges continuing
in Zimbabwe,” he
said.
“We had detailed presentations from various civil society
groups focusing on
what is happening, including political violence, violence
against women, the
non-implementation of a number of international human
rights treaties that
Zimbabwe has ratified.
“We still face
challenges in the deregulation of NGO’s, food distribution on
a partisan
line and extreme polarisation of the Zimbabwe environment,
particularly the
militarisation of state institutions as we draw closer to
an
election.”
Deputy Justice minister Obert Gutu said Chinamasa’s
briefing to Pillay “was
littered with inaccuracies”. “He came up with a
sugar-coated presentation
that sought to portray Zimbabwe as a country that
observes human rights, but
the situation on the ground tells a different
story,” he said.
Chinamsa last year in October and in March
vigorously defended Zimbabwe’s
human rights record the UN’s Universal
Periodic Review sessions in Geneva,
Switzerland.
However, human rights
abuses, spanning Gukurahundi massacres in the 1980s to
2008 lections
killings, featured prominently during discussions of his
report.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 12:10
Paidamoyo Muzulu
THE
Agriculture and Rural Development Authority (Arda) decimated its beef
herd
from an all time high of 36 000 head in 1998 to a paltry 1 062 in 2012
through forced sales to newly resettled A2 farmers when some of its ranches
were parcelled out under the land reform programme, parliament has
heard.
Arda acting general manager William Mbona revealed the sorry
state of the
ailing authority’s herd when he appeared before the portfolio
committee on
Agriculture on Tuesday.
“We sold most of the 36 000
cattle on our farms after some of the estates
were allocated to new
farmers,” said Mbona. “Transau Estates, one of our
biggest ranches, was used
for resettlement of people from Marange diamond
fields.”
Of the
36 000 cattle, Sesembe had 16 000, Transau 12 000 and Battlefields 6
000.
The rest were scattered across other estates countrywide. Mbona added
that
revenue realised was insignificant in monetary value since this forced
destocking was carried out during the hyperinflationary Zimbabwe dollar
era.
“We did not get a lot of money from either the private and
auction sales of
the cattle during (the) destocking exercise since we sold
in the valueless
Zimdollars at the height of hyperinflation,” he
said.
Arda has been in the spotlight for its involvement in the
controversial
Green Fuels project in partnership with Billy Rautenbach in
Chisumbanje, as
well as the suspected looting of tractors from Iran by
senior officials.
The audit into the tractors is still to be made
public six years since it
was instituted. Mbona told the committee that the
authority could only be
saved by creating partnerships with other companies
to work on its vast
estates.
“The way forward for Arda is smart
partnerships, joint ventures and contract
management with private investors.
This is the only way if the shareholder
(government) cannot recapitalise the
authority,” Mbona said.
Arda is one of the 78 struggling state-owned
enterprises which, among
others, include Air Zimbabwe, NetOne, TelOne, the
Cold Storage Company,
Agribank and the National Railways of Zimbabwe.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012
12:07
Tendai Marima
FINANCE minister Tendai Biti has strongly
criticised the military for its
involvement in mineral extraction in the
country. Biti questioned the
military’s role in Anjin Investments, a
shadowy network of Chinese
businessmen and Zimbabwe’s military chiefs,
saying their deals were not
transparent and lacked
accountability.
“I have got a big bone to chew with all the mines,
but particularly with
Anjin,” said Biti. “We are not getting anything from
Anjin. I am not that
much worried about the other companies like Mbada and
Marange because those
are partly owned by Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation (ZMDC) and so
we are getting something from them,” Biti
said.
Speaking at the Centre for Research and Development workshop on
diamond
mining in Harare on Tuesday, Biti queried Anjin’s shareholding and
said
instead of the Chinese firm partnering with the ZMDC, the military was
embedded in its operations.
Since its set up, Anjin has been
under scrutiny because it has not remitted
anything to the ZMDC despite
generating more than US$72 million in sales
from the beginning of the
year.
“I think it is totally unacceptable that Anjin does not remit.
I am also
very angry with Anjin because they are by far the biggest mine
there. Anjin
has seven shafts combined, that means they have seven mines in
one area,”
said Biti.
To prevent further exploitation of
Zimbabwe, Biti has proposed a Diamond
Act, which will create a diamond
oversight board to administer the receipt
of diamond revenue, regulate
mining standards and prevent smuggling.
Biti said this would help
ensure that there was more transparency in the
diamond sector. The Minerals
Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe currently
oversees the marketing,
processing and selling of all the country’s
minerals, including
diamonds.
Careful management of a resource valued at US$800 billion
could reportedly
help grow Zimbabwe’s economy by more than 15% in the next
decade and raise
the nation’s per capita income from an average US$250 to
more than US$300,
which is above international poverty
thresholds.
Due consideration of communities displaced by the
discovery of alluvial
diamonds in 2006 was emphasised, but only 600 out of
an estimated 4 700
displaced families have been resettled on Arda Transau
Farm in Odzi, a move
described as inadequate compensation for the loss of
livelihood and valuable
land.
“Chiadzwa is in a dry area full of
baobab trees and the communities there
practiced conscious preservation of
the trees, but the Chinese are making
baobab soup. When I went there I had
some and enjoyed, but the Chinese are
eating the baobabs,” said
Biti.
Militarisation of mining in Chiadzwa has also been accompanied
by gross
human rights violations with rights groups saying people’s homes
are
surrounded by armed security personnel who randomly beat up people and
sometimes set their dogs on them.
While the Diamond Act is still
being formulated, diamond mining is currently
regulated by the Precious
Stones Trade Act. The non-remittances by companies
like Anjin and
under-invoicing by other firms has heavily prejudiced
treasury of its
rightful revenue and created resentment between local
communities and mining
firms.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 12:05
Elias
Mambo
ZANU PF officials in Masvingo have said the party was shooting
itself in the
foot by barring former provincial chairman Daniel Shumba
(pictured) from
contesting in primary elections.
Shumba was
suspended eight years ago together with Manicaland provincial
chairperson
Mark Madiroand five other chairmen, among other officials, for
their role in
the Tsholotsho debacle which President Robert Mugabe said was
an attempted
“palace coup”.
Shumba’s suspension was lifted in 2010 and he was
readmitted to the party as
an ordinary member, but it is the politburo’s
decision to bar him from
contesting the polls that has puzzled Masvingo
party officials.
“Zanu PF is shooting itself in the foot and lacks
strategic vision because
it is stopping people like Shumba who have got
support from contesting and
retake seats lost to the MDC in 2008,” said a
politburo member.
“It is at this time that we need people like him
who can pose a threat to
the MDC and we urge the authorities not to be
blindfolded by internal feuds
within the provinces if we are to win the
elections.”
Zanu PF lost Masvingo province to the MDC-T in the 2008
elections and
officials were hoping to rope in Shumba to mobilise and
reclaim the
province, but factionalism seems to have scuttled their
plans.
Following an explosive politburo meeting held to address
factionalism in the
party last week, Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said
the politburo had
reaffirmed its position Shumba follows laid down
procedures before
re-admission.
However, contrary to Gumbo’s
statement, Shumba said he was cleared in 2010
after following all the
procedures for nominations to hold office. “All I
know is that procedures to
readmit me and all the others who were under
suspension were followed,” said
Shumba. “We are ready to win the elections.”
In a letter to Masvingo
provincial chairman Lovemore Matuke dated November
24 2010, the party’s
secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa said Shumba
had been accepted
back into the party as an ordinary member.
“Thank you for your letter
dated 15 September 2010. The recommendation was
considered in terms of
Article 3, Section 14, sub-section 2 of the party
constitution and has been
accepted,” the letter reads.
But Gumbo yesterday said Mutasa made a
mistake by unilaterally re-admitting
Shumba without consulting the
politburo.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 12:02
Wongai
Zhangazha
WHEN Zimbabweans went to the polls in 2008, Tawana Mabwe was
only 17 years
old and could not vote. Now she is 21, has enrolled at
university and has
gained political consciousness. The problem now is she is
not a registered
voter.
It is not that Mabwe does not want to
register to vote, but she simply does
not know how to go about it and she is
not alone in this dilemma. Thousands
of other Zimbabwean youths and even
mature voters are facing the same
problem.
The political
landscape is currently dominated by debates on the
constitution-making
process, election dates and how political parties are
likely to fare, among
other things, but very few people have paused to think
about voter education
and registration.
About a year ago, Zambia made its own history by
recording over a million
first time voters in an election that brought the
20 years of Movement for
Multiparty Democracy (MMD)’s rule to an end. The
MMD’s dominance had
followed 27 years of founding leader Kenneth Kaunda and
his Unip’s reign.
The million first-time voter milestone was no fluke
but a result of the
concerted efforts of the Zambian government, civil
society and political
parties to mobilise people to register to
vote.
However, Zimbabwe’s situation is far different. Nothing much is
happening in
terms of voter-registration, despite the intensifying hype
about elections.
Only two million people voted in the 2008 elections out of
the six million
registered voters. Limited resources and lack of confidence
in the system
were some of the factors which increased voter apathy, but
there is no doubt
lack of knowledge and preparedness were some of the major
contributing
variables.
Last week there were allegations people
in Mashonaland West underwent a
forced voter-registration exercise with Zanu
PF teams moving around taking
down people’s names and national
identification numbers under the guise they
were going to register them as
voters.
Such incidents highlight the fact that most people are not
well-informed on
the voter registration processes. Armed with the correct
information, they
would not be coerced into divulging personal information,
but would instead
register to vote by themselves.
The Election
Resource Centre (ERC) recently released a report indicating an
increasing
number of challenges facing those who want to register as voters.
The ERC
said its findings showed a “very disturbing pattern in the voter
registration process”, especially given some political actors have insisted
on holding elections this year.
Their findings were based on
visits to some registration centres in Harare’s
suburbs of Mount Pleasant,
Kuwadzana, Mabvuku-Tafara, Hatfield and
Highfields in Harare. Irregularities
the ERC recorded include closed
registration centres, limited time for
registration, registration by
coercion and partisan registration.
But
where is the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) in all this?
The
Electoral Amendment Bill is clear on voter education and states: “Apart
from
the commission (ZEC), political parties or persons authorised to assist
the
commission…satisfying the criteria…will be entitled to provide voter
education in Zimbabwe”.
However, ZEC is mandated to take a
leading role in the entire
voter-education exercise.
Zimbabwe Election
Support Network director Rindai Chipfunde-Vava expressed
disappointment at
the silence of the ZEC on voter education and registration
as the country
prepares for a referendum and elections. She said with less
than a year
before the next elections, this was the right time to start
voter-education
and registration.
“Actually, for first-time voters, the process
should have begun, not only in
reference to elections, but to the
referendum,” Chipfunde-Vava said. “There
have been complaints of lack of
resources, time and so forth to assist in
voter-education but this is the
time to publicise the process through
adverts on television, radio and in
newspapers,” she said.
Chipfunde-Vava said the main issue would be to
urge peaceful election
campaigns, and this is the central role of ZEC. She
said voter-education was
important, particularly in rural areas where a lot
of people were
unregistered.
There have been calls for the
adoption of a biometric voter-registration
system which is more efficient
and reduces chances of vote rigging.
While the debate rages on, Tabwe and
others like her risk being
disenfranchised and hence manipulation or
distortion of the election
results.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 11:57
Herbert
Moyo
GODFREY Madanhire left his teaching job in Zimbabwe in 2000, at a
time when
the country was in the economic doldrums, to pursue a better life
in the
proverbial greener pastures of South Africa.
As the
continent celebrates Africa Day tomorrow, Madanhire, now the Chief
Executive
of Dreamworld Promotions, reflects on his journey from his home
country due
to political and economic failure, to neighbouring South Africa
where he met
with harsh realities of life before soldiering on towards
success.
Madanhire says life in South Africa was not easy in the
beginning. “When
people realise that you are a foreigner they treat you on
the basis of their
assumptions, which may even include fears that you are a
carjacker,” he
says.
After doing menial jobs and struggling with
life, Madanhire worked for a
marketing company where he proved his mettle
enough to become a regional
manager entrusted with supervising 11 branches
at the time of his
resignation in 2006.
While Madanhire believes
prejudice and stereotypes are real problems
confronting foreigners in South
Africa and the diaspora, he says foreigners
have an important role to play
in normalising relations with their hosts
through compromise and
integration.
“Yes we need to be tolerant of each other as Africans
and people in general,
but it is also important for us foreigners to
compromise, adjust and
integrate into the societies we find ourselves in,”
Madanhire told the
Zimbabwe Independent in an interview.
He said
while locals, in his case South Africans, could be hostile and
xenophobic in
some situations, foreigners also complicated matters by
isolating themselves
and engaging in activities that fuel suspicion and
hatred.
Madanhire worked hard to overcome his initial challenges,
ending up founding
Dreamworld Promotions which focuses on motivational
programmes for companies
as well as individuals. He says the company now
employs 300 people and
produces motivational compact discs (CDs), selling
40 000 units per month.
Madanhire believes his company has “helped
individuals grow, families unite
and organisations prosper through his
seminars, workshops and presentations”,
thus contributing to the
pan-Africanist vision the founding fathers had
when they launched the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa in
1963. The OAU was
re-launched in Durban, South Africa, and became the
African Union (AU) in
2002.
As the continent celebrates Africa Day tomorrow, analysts
agree that a lot
has been achieved in political and economic terms even
though some of the
achievements may not have been planned.
“I
don’t think there is a deliberate agenda to democratise the African
continent being pushed by the AU. On the contrary, there are glaring
deficiencies in the AU,” says political analyst Charles
Mangongera.
Mangongera said Africa was no longer a dark continent but
its much-touted
economic development has been realised on the back of a boom
of commodity
prices on the world market and “to attribute that growth to the
AU’s
conscious planning the same way we would when talking about the
European
Union would be taking things too far”.
“South Africa and Nigeria
have achieved massive growth because they have
become global players
pursuing narrow national rather than pan-African
interests,” says
Mangongera. “In fact, South Africa is a global player in
Brics (Brazil,
Russia India, China and South Africa) rather than in
partnership with other
African countries.”
In the AU’s half-century of existence, Africa has seen
positive political
developments, including freeing the entire continent from
colonial rule, and
also trying to integrate the continent
economically.
Political pluralism has also steadily replaced the dark
era of one party
states, dictatorships and life presidents which dogged the
continent for
many years.
Notable countries which shook off the shackles
of dictatorship and one-party
rule include Zambia, Malawi, the DRC (formerly
Zaire), Kenya, Central
African Republic and many others. Even apartheid came
to an end in
neighbouring South Africa. More recently, the “Arab Spring” in
North Africa
heralded a new wave of democratisation and the collapse of
notorious regimes
of Zine Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt
and Muammar
Gaddafi in Libya although long-serving leaders remain in many
states,
including an absolute monarch King Mswati in
Swaziland.
Many African countries now hold elections and increasingly
transfer power
smoothly, as in the case of Ghana, Zambia and most recently
Senegal. This
shows democratic progress and consolidation are growing,
although Africa's
problems remain.
Troubles like those seen in
Kenya, DRC and Zimbabwe where elections are
disputed and countries plunged
into violence are still common. The recent
military coup in countries like
Guinea, Mali and Guinea Bissau show Africa
still has a long way to go.
Besides, Africa is still reeling from poverty,
suffering, disease and human
rights abuses.
However, there is promise. Many African countries such
as Angola and
Mozambique emerged from civil wars and are now recording
economic growth and
social recovery. This makes it easier for people like
Madanhire to prosper.
However, the AU has been generally under fire
for failing to deal with
dictators and repression on the continent, while it
has also been attacked
for being unable to stand up to Western intervention
and bullying.
Political commentator Tafataona Mahoso has attacked the
AU and the present
generation of African leaders for “sleeping on the job”
as the West tries to
“re-colonise” the continent.
“The change
from OAU to AU was misguided in the sense that it is an
imitation of the EU
which is imploding,” Mahoso said on state television on
Monday. He described
the recent South African High Court ruling paving the
way for the
prosecution of government officials for human rights violations
as “the kind
of wars that Africans are facing from imperialists,” saying
they also
demonstrated how much African leaders are sleeping on the
job”.
State media and authorities this week raised the idea of Africa
setting up
its own international court, citing perceived bias by the
International
Criminal Court following the conviction of former Liberian
president and
warlord Charles Taylor for crimes against
humanity.
Commentator Blessing Vava argues AU has largely failed
because it is a
“toothless bulldog”. This is a view widely shared on the
continent. Most
Africans believe people like Madanhire have been failed by
their governments
and leaders, although they are now playing a progressive
role due to forced
circumstances. Millions however are still languishing in
poverty and
disease on the African continent due to a combination of
internal and
exogenous factors.
The state of Africa, as the
continent celebrates Africa Day tomorrow, is
being intensely debated all
over.
On Tuesday Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa,
held a discussion
to mark Africa Day with a debate on the topic: State of
the African Union at
10: Prospects and Challenges, which featured prominent
scholars, including
Zimbabwe’s Professor Tawana Khupe, Dean of the Faculty
of Humanities, who
was the moderator.
While intellectuals debate
the subject, people like Madanhire and millions
of Africans now living
across borders are working hard practically to
achieve some of the OAU/AU
objectives, including unity, social and economic
integration and progress.
But there is still a lot to be done before Africa
achieves integration and
prosperity.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012
11:43
ZIMBABWE’S relations with the United Kingdom have been strained
since
Britain refused to fund the government’s chaotic land reform programme
from
2000 which saw thousands of white commercial farmers being displaced
and the
country’s agricultural output plummeting.
The relations have
also been tense due to London’s forceful condemnation of
Harare over
political repression, human rights abuses and disputed election
results
which led to the imposition of sanctions by the European Union.
Zimbabwe
Independent senior reporter Owen Gagare (OG) spoke to the British
Ambassador
to Zimbabwe Deborah Bronnert (DB) about Zimbabwe-UK relations,
the current
political situation in the country and elections, among other
issues.
Excerpts:
OG: You arrived at a time (last year) when relations between
Zimbabwe and
Britain were strained. What have you done to normalise the
situation?
DB: Britain has a very strong commitment to Zimbabwe and our
development
programme (which stood at US$140 million last year) is part of
that
evidence. There are clearly problems at the political level, although
this
isn’t just a UK-Zimbabwe issue but goes much wider, and our views are
shared
by many.
Part of my job is to try and ensure there is good
communication between both
sides. I want to ensure the UK has an up-to-date
view of Zimbabwe. For
example, when I was in London (recently) I spoke to a
number of audiences in
the British parliament, business and civil society
about what is happening
in Zimbabwe now.
OG: What is your
assessment of the country’s political situation? Is
Zimbabwe on the right
path? What is your country’s view on the
implementation of the Global
Political Agreement (GPA)?
DB: I have heard lots of frustration about the
lack of progress on full
implementation of the GPA, but I think the
inclusive government remains the
most credible means of taking forward
reforms and transforming Zimbabwe’s
prospects until the next elections. The
inclusive government has a lot to be
proud of — the economy has grown,
inflation is stable and basic education
and health services have been pulled
back from the brink of collapse. There
has also been some political reform
and reports of human rights abuses seem
to have fallen. Of course, we hope
that reforms which have started will be
seen through.
OG: What is
your assessment of Sadc and South African President Jacob Zuma’s
mediation
efforts in Zimbabwe?
DB: We very much welcome his personal leadership and the
work to produce an
election roadmap and we fully support him and Sadc in
their efforts to
create the conditions for credible and properly monitored
elections in
Zimbabwe.
OG: How do you relate with Zimbabwe’s
political players across the divide?
DB: I talk to everybody and I’ve
generally found that ministers from across
the political divide have been
very happy to talk to me and exchange
views. We obviously don’t always agree
but all exchanges have been
courteous.
OG: Most European
countries have been sceptical about Zimbabwe’s
indigenisation programme;
what is Britain’s position?
DB: I’d start of by saying it’s really important
ordinary people in Zimbabwe
benefit from investment and economic growth. So
the idea of sustainable and
inclusive economic growth has to be right and
has to be particularly
important in the context such as Zimbabwe’s. I’m
concerned, and I have said
this to the relevant ministers, about the way the
indigenisation policy is
being implemented and reports that I’ve heard from
business that it’s
undermining the business confidence and deterring
investment that the
country clearly needs.
OG: Would you say the
policy has stopped British investment from flowing to
the Zimbabwean economy
and to what extent?
DB: It’s up to individual companies to make their own
decisions, but recent
figures (from the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development World
Investment Report 2011) suggest the Sadc region
(excluding Angola) attracted
some US$10 billion in foreign direct investment
in 2010. Some neighbouring
countries apparently received nearly US$1 billion
each compared to just over
US$100 million in Zimbabwe. This may be an
indication that the Zimbabwean
government needs to work harder to improve
the business climate, including
implementation of its indigenisation
policy.
OG: There have been reports that Britain and the EU are
desperate to
re-engage Zimbabwe so that they benefit from its rich resources
which
include diamonds, in the face of massive movement by the Chinese,
hence the
removal of travel restrictions on Zanu PF ministers who are part
of the
re-engagement team. Is this the case?
DB: No. The UK and the rest
of the EU want to see a stable and prosperous
Zimbabwe. Of course, we’d like
the political relationship to improve. On
China, we welcome investment from
China in the UK and China is playing an
important role in the growth and
development of Africa. Like China, we see
trade as vital in helping African
economies grow and exit poverty. But for
countries to grow and develop, they
require not just infrastructure but
skills, improved health and better
governance and institutions.
OG: Zimbabwe is likely to hold elections
by the end of next year. Given what
is going on in the country, do you think
the country is ready?
DB: This is really for Zimbabweans to decide, but
clearly in terms of what
the rest of the world thinks, we would be looking
at implementation of the
GPA, and clearly the prospects for credible
elections will be greater if
sufficient time is allowed for important
reforms.
OG: Does Britain see itself playing any role in these
elections?
DB: We are ready to assist in monitoring efforts in Zimbabwe,
including
through multilateral partners such as the Commonwealth, but the UK
will only
come at the invitation of the government of Zimbabwe. I should
just say in
the UK when we have national elections we have a lot of
international
observers and the reason we do that is that we think it’s a
good part of the
democratic process. It’s important for countries to
demonstrate both
to their own systems and to the rest of the world that they
are open and are
proud of their democratic process and, therefore, they are
comfortable with
other people looking at what they are doing.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 12:08
Herbert
Moyo
MORE gross irregularities were unearthed in the operations of the
National
Social Security Authority (NSSA), including lack of a comprehensive
risk
assessment, unapproved organisational structure, unsanctioned board
fees,
unauthorised rollover of investment deals and failure to adhere to
good
corporate governance. These practices have potentially harmful
implications
on the operations of the pension fund.
The findings
are contained in a report compiled by Comptroller and
Auditor-General
Mildred Chiri. The report warns NSSA’s related-party
dealings with
institutions such as Africom, FBC Bank and stockbroking firm
MMC in the
absence of a policy document governing related party dealings
risked
compromising transparency and accountability.
“There is also risk that a
significant volume of finance may be channelled
towards entities that are
only related to the authority even if the
transaction is not profitable,”
Chiri says in the report.
NSSA has 20% shareholdings in both Africom
and FBC, and uses Africom as its
telecommunication services and FBC as its
banker. Efforts to get comment
from the mentioned companies were
fruitless.
MMC was involved in the purchase of Star Africa shares,
raising the
possibility of conflict of interest as one of the managers is
related to
NSSA investments’ settlement supervisor.
Chiri also
found that NSSA management had access to 50% of approved loans
and in the
absence of an appropriate policy, there was a high risk of
transferring
“undocumented resources and services and even obligations
between
parties”.
She also said NSSA was operating without an approved
organisational
structure where “positions below executive directors were not
formally
approved by the board”.
“I further observed that staff
complement for some departments were not
reviewed despite increase in the
level of activities while in other
departments, the reporting structures
were not clear, for instance, the
accountants reporting to the finance
director instead of finance manager,”
she says.
Unauthorised
transactions, including the payment of board fees, were also
made without
the approval of Labour and Social Services minister Paurina
Mpariwa as
stipulated in Section 14 of the NSSA Act.
Management was also found
to have acted improperly by disposing of vehicles
to themselves without the
approval of the board. A report by National
Economic Conduct Inspectorate
(NECI) has shown that NSSA, which holds sway
across the Zimbabwean economy
in terms of investments in equities, the money
market, and property
portfolios, is a haven for corruption.
The report by NECI, which
probes white-collar crimes, showed NSSA is rotten
to the core due to an
extended period of corruption and fraudulent
activities. The corruption
unearthed by NECI spans a wide range of areas,
including tender processes,
real estate projects that include housing and
hotel projects, structured
finance in all sorts of areas, even buying wheat,
investing in shares,
banking, including the money market, among various
sectors of the
economy.
NSSA directors and management also splashed money in buying
mansions and
luxury cars for themselves, while contributors struggle to lead
decent lives
after retirement.
NSSA management has promised to
implement Chiri’s recommendations but
ignored the NECI report.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012
11:04
By Jimmy Girdlestone
THE country’s enjoyment of three
consecutive years of positive growth since
the adoption of a multiple
foreign currency regime at the beginning of 2009
is in danger of coming to
an end . That, reading between the lines, is the
essence of the message
contained in the ‘State of the Economy Report’
released by the Minister of
Finance, Tendai Biti, last week. It is likely to
have come as a rather rude
awakening for all those who have become firmly
convinced that all our
troubles are now behind us.
The authorities themselves must take
their fair share of the blame for
lulling the country into a false sense of
complacency. Not many months back,
strong growth of 9,4% was officially
predicted for 2012 based upon
anticipated vigorous expansion in local
mining, agriculture and tourism.
This was notwithstanding that even then
tell-tale signs of deep-seated
weaknesses were already manifest both within
the domestic and, particularly,
in the international, economies. Now, it
seems, failure to meet diamond
revenue targets will frustrate our attempts
to resolve our external debt and
arrears problems and lead to a budget
crisis.
Insofar as the international issues are concerned, failure to
appreciate the
full extent of their threat to the world economic situation
may owe its
origins to overexposure rather than underexposure to the flood
of media
world news. Most human beings are capable of absorbing only a
finite amount
of fact or information before becoming saturated or
intellectually
constipated by it, particularly if it is served at speed in
highly large
helpings.
The constantly repetitious nature of
most media presentations also tends to
promote resistance to assimilating
the full meaning and import of the
continuous flow of information or
appreciation of the significance of each
turn of events as they occur.
Presentation of the so called ‘Euro Crisis’
has been with us long enough now
to have generated a sense of weariness or
‘déjà vu’, as a result of which
our senses have become dulled to the real
problem and our urge to do
something positive to understand, if we can, its
adverse effects upon
ourselves has been undermined. We have simply become
mesmerised by the
apparently endless succession of heads of state,
government, finance
ministers and other representatives of the 27 countries’
meetings, which
never seem to achieve any lasting progress, still less avert
the necessity
for further meetings.
The key issue for the EuroZone, as was pointed
out on the adoption of the
single currency in the 1990s, is, and remains, a
political one. It is
whether each of the 27 governments is also prepared to
adopt the unitary
fiscal policy in framing its budgets and setting borrowing
and inflationary
targets as well as interest rates. More lately, major
differences have also
arisen over common welfare objectives. Unless the
European Union moves much
closer to a political union more like that of the
United States of America,
stresses and strains between members will be an
interminable source of
disagreement.
As bad luck would have it,
virtually the entire developed world, not
excluding the power centres of the
USA, the Far East and Europe, is
currently afflicted by a major downturn in
the business, or trade cycle.
That much is blindingly obvious from recent
external events. What is not at
all clear is what kind of business cycle we
now have to contend with.
Economists identify four broadly different
kinds of cycles according to
their length, or duration, ranging from the
short, or Kitchen cycle of 3-5
years, to the very long, or Kondratiev wave
or cycle of 45-60 years or more.
But the subject is one of great
controversy, not least because of the
difficulties in identifying when
cycles begin and when they end, points
which in many cases only become
apparent a considerable number of years
later.
When, or if they
think about the subject at all, most run-of-the mill
economists probably
have in mind the Juglar, or 7-11 year cycle. But more
illustrious men
obviously have greater ideas. Paul Samuelson of MIT fame, a
very clever man
and Nobel Economics prize winner who predicted that the
business cycle was
doomed because of government’s spending powers, is said
to have, rather
unkindly, referred to Joseph Schumpeter’s (a long standing
Harvard professor
of economics) description in his 1939 book of the very
long trade cycle as
nothing more than ‘Pythagorean Moonshine’.
Gordon Brown, as
Chancellor of the Exchequer, went one better in boasting
that he intended
to free Britain from the old cycle of ‘boom and bust’.
History records that
when he was subsequently leader of the Government, Mr
Brown had to suffer
the indignity of presiding over a full blown recession
and ‘the worst
housing slump in living memory, if not ever.’ Such things
make lesser
mortals more than a little wary of predicting ‘busts’ if not
‘booms’.
Nevertheless, the omens for Zimbabwe’s economy for the next year or
so may
be fairly confidently described as far from promising, given the
conjunction
of uncertain prospects at home and the momentous adversities
abroad.
What can a small, pretty insignificant would- be
independent country in
Southern Africa do in such circumstances? Probably
first take on board
Winston Churchill’s famous promise to the British people
at the start of the
Second World War to the effect that: ‘I offer you
nothing but blood sweat
and tears’. At least with that to begin with there
is no risk of feeling let
down whatever might subsequently
happen.
Second, the plan should be, surely, to stop digging ourselves
ever further
into self-imposed trouble and debt. We need to mend fences with
our friends,
especially those who are able to offer us concrete assistance
and support.
In this hostile environment we do not need any more
enemies.
Third, we need to take a long hard honest look at ourselves,
acknowledge
where things have gone wrong, and why, and take every possible
step that we
can to put things to right as far as others are concerned . In
this way we
will get credit for our positive attitude and the physical and
financial
assistance to follow it up. Finally, we should demonstrate that we
are
prepared to accept advice and guidance on the best way forward not
greeting
every suggestion we don’t like with accusations of base motives and
bad
faith. Countries, like people, can be favourably surprised by the
effects on
others of a signal change in attitude. Should we feel that this
is all too
much to ask, we could sit down quietly and consider whether
there is really
any viable alternative on offer.
Jimmy
Girdlestone is a consultant economist with the Tetrad Group and writes
in
his personal capacity.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 11:02
Staff
Writer
STATE Procurement Board (SPB) Executive Chairman, Charles Kuwaza,
has
dismissed allegations of corruption and incompetence levelled against
the
procurement body by Finance Minister Tendai Biti, labelling the
minister’s
utterances as “unwarranted and malicious” and meant to undermine
the
functions of the SPB.
Kuwaza revealed to businessdigest that
he had written to Biti to register
the board’s concerns over press
statements attributed to the minister, which
suggested that the SPB was
failing to carry out its mandate. In the letter,
Kuwaza protested the
increasing pitch and regularity of Biti’s attacks.
“We believe that
your advisors, some of whom are of questionable morality
and have little
experience in the administration of tenders, are
deliberately misleading you
for what we see as very clearly ulterior
motives. They want to get control
of the State Procurement Board, and get
rid of the Chairman, (who) is
considered a workaholic and too wide-eyed, “
Kuwaza said in the letter to
Biti.
Presenting his March 2012 state of the economy report last
week, Biti
alleged that the government’s procurement arm was causing huge
project
delays which were costing the government a lot of
money.
Biti said the SPB was inordinately delaying the approval
process for tenders
and in some cases approving incompetent companies that
did not have the
necessary capacity to carry out work on government
projects.
Earlier this year the Minister said the SPB was awarding
tenders to
undeserving bidders, some of whom were blacklisted by government,
a charge
that Kuwaza also dismissed. The minister accused the board of
awarding a
tender for the supply, delivery and installation of eight
passenger lifts at
Kaguvi Building to Eleco Elevator Company, an entity
which he said had been
blacklisted by government.
In a letter to
Biti dated February 12 2012, Kuwaza asserts that at no time
did the board
consider barring or blacklisting Eleco Elevators, challenging
the person(s)
making the claims to adduce evidence of such blacklisting.
The SPB
chairman also queried why it had taken over two years for anybody
to raise a
complaint or appeal about the execution of the contract. He said
SPB had on
more than three occasions offered to meet with the Minister since
last year
to discuss any real issues.
“We were accused of sitting on water
projects which turned out to be false.
We were once again accused of slowing
down national projects, including the
lifts at Kaguvi Building, which again
was false”, Kuwaza said.
He said the delays in implementing
government projects were instead due
mainly to funding problems and a lack
of other resources. The SPB was also
aware that hundreds of projects, some
more than 14 years old, including the
building of central registry offices
in the districts and elsewhere, had not
been completed due to lack of
resources. Many building projects were at
window level and deteriorating
very fast. The Harare-Masvingo and
Harare-Norton dualisation projects were
some of the major projects that
Kuwaza gave as examples of having been
stunted by lack of funding.
“We have advised the Ministry of Finance
and other high offices to limit the
number of projects to a figure that can
be afforded at any point in time,”
Kuwaza pointed out.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 10:44
Clive
Mphambela/Gamma Mudarikiri.
GOVERNMENT has no choice but to revise its
ambitious budget projections,
following a cumulative revenue collection
deficit of US$98,6 million, or
12,8% target in the first quarter, Finance
Minister Tendai Biti has
admitted.
This development will see most
of government’s targeted projects failing to
secure funding. Economists and
analysts say government’s revenue performance
threw into question its
ability to accurately forecast performance,
introducing huge planning risks
across the economy. According to Biti’s
March 2012 state of the economy
update, revenue in the first quarter
totalled US$771,1 million against a
target of US$869,7 million.
The cumulative US$98,6 million deficit
in revenue collection in the
period was against the backdrop of huge
government expenditure in
salaries, which gobbled up 70% of revenue.
The average monthly
employment cost outlay between January and March
totalled US$191
million against a target monthly expenditure of US$178,4
million,
meaning only US$231,3 out of the collected US$771 million could be
channelled to key developmental projects.
Biti blamed the
under-performance of revenue collection to a let-down by
diamond mining
firms, which only remitted US$30,4 million against a target
of US$122,5
million. If this trend of diamond revenue persisted, it would
result in the
need to revise targets for 2012.
“The 75% deficit in diamond
revenue contribution leaves government
with no choice but to review
downwards the projected economic targets
for 2012,” Biti said.
Diamonds
were expected to contribute US$600 million to this year’s
US$4billion
budget, a forecast analysts say will not be achieved this year
given slow
remittances from the sector.
Biti said there was no transparency in
the remittance of proceeds from
diamond mining companies. Whilst
agriculture was projected to grow by
11,6% , maize output was now
anticipated to decline by 33% to 968 041 metric
tonnes this year, down
from 1,451,629 metric tonnes last year. The
underperformance of the
agriculture sector is expected to exert
more pressure on food
inflation.
The resultant general decline in maize production would
have an adverse
impact on overall agriculture output and this year’s GDP
projection, Biti
said.
The decline in maize production would also worsen
the trade deficit,
currently at US$900 million, in the first quarter of the
year. Imports by
end of March totalled US$1,8 billion against exports of
US$900 million in
the same period.
Government, however, has not
taken any significant measures against the
rising import bill.
Worryingly, the trade gap, which continues to grow,
is being financed
by banks which are already facing liquidity
challenges.
The
economy faces downside risks owing to failure to realise budget
revenue targets and moreso, demand for the country’s export
commodities continues to decline. Coupled with rising imported inflation
against the background of rising global prices, this will have a negative
bearing on the overall GDP growth this year.
Key indicators of
the economy show a negative growth, which brings
into question the
achievability of the government’s Medium Term Plan
(MTP) target.
Statistics from the Ministry of Finance show that
inflation is
expected to rise to 4,3% in April and reach an average
of 5% by year
end.
According to economics professor Tony Hawkins, the government’s
targets for
2012 are extremely optimistic. “Obviously one cannot forecast
agricultural
production before planting. Government’s idea of forecasting is
taking last
year’s numbers and increasing them, and this will always be
unrealistic.
This creates an upward bias, particularly in the revenue
predictions that
leads to such scenarios as we have now,” Hawkins said,
highlighting
Government’s poor forecasting record.
He said that
it was still a bit too early to judge the performance of
diamond revenues
because they do not come evenly during the year.
“Presumably the minister’s
forecasts were based on estimates provided by the
Ministry of Mines”, he
said.
Hawkins identified several downward risk factors that resonated
with those
identified by Biti. “In my view, the main risk to the economy
remains the
politics, instability and uncertainty created by the unclear
implementation
of indigenisation laws. The economy cannot grow under such
uncertain
conditions,” he said.
Militating against growth were
electricity supply challenges, where the
country was now producing a quarter
less electrical power than it did three
years ago. Coupled with liquidity
challenges, these two forces were
combining to lower local productivity. The
gap was being filled by imports
whilst the country was not exporting much.
This explained the ballooning
balance of payments position.
It
was not clear how the BOP deficit was being funded but this was clearly
not
sustainable and would implode any time, the professor warned. It was the
negative balance of payments position that was a drain on domestic
liquidity.
While Finance minister Biti thought local banks might
be funding the BOP,
Hawkins believed that it was diaspora remittances and
“mattress” money being
recycled outside the banking sector that was
partially funding the BOP.
“In theory, the accumulating external debt
arrears are also funding the BOP,
as last year we borrowed perhaps US$1
billion and accummulated a further
$650 million in arrears,” he
said.
Bulawayo-based economic analyst Eric Bloch believed GDP growth
rates
projected for this year were possible. “Growth in the economy is
coming from
a low base, making the 9,4% achievable in my view. However the
other targets
are unrealistically high,” Bloch said.
He said
expecting US$600 million from diamonds was unrealistic as the mines
were
still under development and there was still a lot of investment that
needed
to go into these mines so that they could reach full production. He
also
argued that diamond markets were depressed at the moment, given huge
economic problems in major markets such as Europe.
“I would say
Biti will be lucky to get US$300 million in 2012,” Bloch said.
Turning to
the major downside risks facing the economy, Bloch identified the
major risk
as the inability to attract investment due to the way the
indigenisation
laws were being implemented.
“I have always said that we need
indigenisation, but it needs to be managed
in a way that attracts
investment. At the moment we are only getting limited
investment mainly from
the Chinese, whom we are giving special concessions,”
Bloch
said.
He said the other important risks to Biti’s budget and MTP were
that
Zimbabwe would need recourse to substantially increased food imports
due to
poor rains this year.
“We will be lucky to harvest 500 000 metric
tonnes when we need 1,8 million
tonnes to feed our people. The increase in
imports will worsen the trade
balance, increase the cost of food and
increase inflation pressures,” he
said.
Bloch also said the rapid
decline in utility services was negatively
impacting on industry. Limited
electricity supplies to industry was reducing
industrial production and
increasing the costs to industry, also leading to
higher inflation, whilst
iIliquidity of the financial sector would result in
further output declines
as the country experienced company closures across
the
economy.
“There is need to accelerate the privatisation of state
enterprises and to
rein in government spending for the targets to be
remotely achievable, Bloch
said
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012
11:33
POOR old Tourism and Hospitality Industry minister Walter Mzembi.
He was
“overcome by emotion” when presented with a portrait of the president
at a
ceremony to mark the official opening of the Africa Travel Association
Congress at the Victoria Falls last weekend.
The tears cascaded
down his cheeks as he held aloft the full-size portrait
of President Mugabe
in earlier times.The portrait was inscribed “Man of the
Moment”.
“I was
overcome by emotion,” Mzembi confessed. “I did not expect this. It is
monumental. At times I fail to explain to the ordinary person how it feels
to serve under a first republican president. That is why I could not hold
back my tears.”
How truly pathetic! Here is a minister who every day
sits in his office
beneath a portrait of the president but bursts into tears
when presented
with a similar picture. It was presented by an outfit called
Friends of
Joshua Trust, whatever that is.
Vice-President Joice Mujuru
who presided at the ceremony received a portrait
of Mbuya Nehanda. It is not
known if she was tearful. But she still appears
to be labouring under the
impression that Nehanda was hanged at the
so-called hanging tree in
Tongogara Ave. In fact that is a well-worn myth.
Nehanda was executed at the
Market Square jail.
But never mind. We won’t let the facts, in this case at
least, get in the
way of a good story.
Another minister
choosing to perform patriotic stunts recently was Mines and
Mining
Development minister Obert Mpofu who has urged government to release
all
jailed illegal gold panners and declare them national heroes in honour
of
their “immense contribution to the national economy”. This episode
provides
a good example of the routine misgovernance that Zimbabweans have
to deal
with.
Mpofu, NewsDay reports, made these remarks in the presence of President
Mugabe at Colleen Bawn mine last week.
“The term makorokoza (illegal gold
panners) should be banished because they
contribute gold to the country.
They are actually national heroes,” Mpofu
said.
This is noteworthy. The
illegal gold panners are responsible for the
systematic degradation of the
environment. That includes the pollution of
major rivers, siltation of dams,
and widespread use of poisons such as
cyanide. And here is a minister
presiding over this irreversible destruction
in the presence of the
president.
Mpofu is responsible for administering the Mines and Mining
Development Act.
He recently hiked fees for all manner of things in the
mining sector.
But the gold panners operate without licences causing
extensive damage to
the environment and depriving the government of revenue.
So how do we
explain this dereliction of duty? Very simply. It is
election-related.
We reported a few months ago on the destruction of wetlands
in the vicinity
of the Chinese-built national sports stadium where a hotel
complex –– also
Chinese-built –– is going up. Visiting heads of state had
been encouraged to
adopt a tree in the area in earlier times. That legacy is
rapidly vanishing.
Archbishop Nolbert Kunonga was again in the
news last week calling on
President Robert Mugabe to ignore the new
constitution currently being
drafted and instead dissolve Cabinet and call
for elections.
Speaking at a Press conference held at his church offices,
Kunonga said an
election and not a constitutional referendum was
necessary.
NewsDay reports that Kunonga also claimed there was “some kind of
demon”
that was driving the constitution-making process.
“When you look
at parliament, the president has been pruned of all power and
it is the same
with all commissions. It is like a political agenda and we do
not want that
in our constitution. The powers of the president are eroded
against the
wishes of the people,” Kunonga said.
Who are the “we” you are refer ring to
Archbishop? Clearly it cannot be the
people of Zimbabwe who have clearly
expressed their displeasure at the
unchecked powers of the ruling regime for
32 years. Is it not the same
people who gave Mugabe and Zanu PF a red card
in March 2008 before they were
coerced to ensure his “landslide
victory”?
Anyway has President Mugabe not made it clear that the clergy
should not
interfere in politics? It seems they conveniently make exception
to the
likes of Kunonga and “Reverend” Obadiah
Msindo.
Shockingly the Ministry of Information had phoned media
houses announcing
Kunonga’s press conference. It seems they busy themselves
with organising
Mickey Mouse press conferences while defying directives to
institute media
reforms. Media minister Webster Shamu defied a cabinet
directive to
regularise the appointment of the Broadcasting Authority of
Zimbabwe board.
He also ignored a letter from Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai in November
2009 ordering him to dissolve the Mahoso-led
board.
Despite such blatant insolence, Shamu was recently threatening that
“gloves
may soon be off” against the private media and journalists if they
persist
with an “anti-African and anti-Zimbabwe frenzy”.
Last
week we ran a story in which the cash-strapped Bulawayo City Council is
proposing to slash workers’ salaries by 20% to service a loan used to
purchase luxury vehicles for senior officials after a local bank threatened
to attach some of its buildings.
A report by the council’s finance
committee shows that the council wanted
salaries cut to enable it to repay a
US$4,5 million bank loan used to buy 20
top-of-the range vehicles for
managers. Among the vehicles purchased were a
Land Rover for town clerk
Middleton Nyoni, a Toyota Prado for the housing
director Isaiah Magagula and
a Toyota Fortuner for finance director Kempton
Ndimande.
This is failure
of governance at its worst. How can they demand that rank
and file employees
tighten already taut belts for something they were not
even beneficiaries
of?
It speaks volumes of the culture of spending and selfishness that has
gripped all sectors of government. Why buy such expensive cars without the
money to bankroll them?
‘MDC-T threatens to unleash
violence,” the Herald told us on its front page
on Monday. It didn’t take a
rocket scientist to work that one out. There on
the same page was news of
the arrival of UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Navanethem Pillay.
What is amusing about this is the thought that
the UN Commissioner was
likely to fall for the suggestion that it was the
MDC-T that would unleash
violence if it won the proposed election. Not
likely is it?
What is the
reality? What has been the pattern to date, in 2008 for
instance? What
happened to Jestina Mukoko? Or worse still, Tonderai Ndira?
There was much
talk of Zimbabwe having “nothing to hide”. Which raises the
obvious
question, why then do they attempt to hide so much? Pillay is a
former South
African high court judge. South African judges have been
subject to
systematic abuse in the Zimbabwe state media in recent weeks,
largely
because they have upheld appeals by dispossessed Zimbabwean farmers
seeking
compensation.
What Zanu PF doesn’t understand is that the courts in a
democracy have a
duty to support applicants the government doesn’t like as
well as those they
do. The fate of the Sadc tribunal illustrates this point.
A rights-based
culture is one that protects all.
‘When I got
off the plane at Harare airport I was pleased to see the
opposite of what I
had known. I met very good people, very happy people and
Zimbabwe is very
beautiful and attractive.”
You would expect this sort of naivety from a
finalist in a beauty contest.
It is called “Giving a hostage to fortune”,
and it came from of all people,
the US ambassador, Charles Ray.
“What you
see on CNN is not true,” he declared as he prepares to depart.
This sounds
like an epiphany of some sort!
He said he had found Zimbabwe “fascinating”.
“You can do elephant riding if
you are daring”.
So we are glad he found
something useful to do! We welcome his successor
Bruce Wharton who will be
an experienced observer of the Zimbabwean scene
having been stationed here
in the early-2000s. He should “sail through”, as
we say in Zimbabwe, his
senate hearings. Not likely to be any naivety
there. And no need for the
bullet-proof limos he was obliged to use in
Guatemala.
So
what was said at that now famous meeting at Bulawayo Airport last
weekend?
We have what was reported in the Standard from Enos Nkala about
Mugabe being
tired and wanting to retire. But Nkala appears to have thought
better of
that statement and told Business Day a different story.
“From
what we discussed, Mr Mugabe said he was tired and wants to retire but
he
cannot do so now because Zanu PF would die,” Nkala was reported as
saying.
“He cannot leave when the party is in such a state. What is holding
him now
is managing and containing Zanu PF to prevent it from
disintegrating.”
Realising the potential damage of that statement and
anxious not to blot his
copybook with the president just as they were about
to mend fences, Nkala
told Business Day: “Mr Mugabe wanted me to tell him
how to win back
Matabeleland because Zanu PF has done badly in Matabeleland
in the past
decade.”
Business Day reported that highly placed sources
told the newspaper that
Mugabe had sought to enlist help from the veteran
nationalist on how to claw
his way back into the three Matabeleland
provinces. It is also entirely
plausible that Mugabe confessed to being
tired but unable to go. This is not
the first report of that
nature.
Nkala is a bit of a maverick and would relish the role of being
recognised
as co-founder of Zanu after the role he played in the August 1963
coup.
But it must be said, the last thing the people of Matabeleland want is
having Enos Nkala foisted upon them. It would be entirely
counter-productive. How many people can recall, we wonder, the treatment he
got at his brother’s funeral many years ago?
We were amused
by the MDC-99’s vociferous denial of any association with
Aaron Muzungu,
their former spokesman who was arrested on allegations that
he stole a brand
new Ford Ranger T6 vehicle that was on display at the
Harare Sports
Club.
The Herald states that Muzungu allegedly gate-crashed the launch event
hosted by Croco Motors started the engine and drove for more than 1 300km
over the next eight days before the police caught up with him.
The MDC99
had expelled him for “bringing the name of the party into
disrepute”, we
were told.
“We urge the public to ignore any statements issued by Muzungu on
behalf of
the party,” they said. “We do not associate ourselves with
fraudulent
activities.”
If we may digress, what happened to the promised
66-day hunger strike the
MDC-99 had threatened to conduct “until Mugabe is
gone”? They all got
hungry it seems.
Finally it seems that it
is not only President Robert Mugabe and Ugandan
dictator Idi Amin with the
propensity for outrageously long titles. Of
course Amin takes the cake for
his self-given title: “His Excellency
President for Life, Field Marshal Al
Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC,
Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and
Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of
the British Empire in Africa in General
and Uganda in Particular.”
Malawian President, Joyce Banda, has joined the
fray with an equally lengthy
title. She has come up with a mouthful: “Her
Excellency the State President
and Commander in-Chief of the Malawi Defence
Force and Malawi Police
Service, Minister responsible for the Public
Service, Statutory
Corporations, Civil Service Administration, National
Relief and Disaster
Management and Nutrition and HIV/ Aids.”
And this
after only a few months in office!
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 11:29
IT is eight months since
the Minister of Industry and Commerce Professor
Welshman Ncube first stated
that, as a matter of urgency, a fund would be
set up to aid the recovery of
ailing industries in Bulawayo. He noted that
87 companies had ceased
operations in the past few years. Some companies had
relocated to Harare
while others had markedly downsized their operations.
The
economic consequences on Zimbabwe, in general, Bulawayo in particular
and
the entirety of the Matabeleland provinces were immense. Thousands of
people
were no longer gainfully employed, swelling the numbers of the
distressingly
impoverished.
Approximately a month later, the Minister of Finance,
Tendai Biti, was in
Bulawayo in pursuit of his nationwide consultations
ahead of the national
budget. Concurrently, he announced the launch of the
fund for the
distressed industries nationwide, but with special focus on
those in
Bulawayo. The fund would be known as the Distressed Industries and
Marginalised Areas Fund (Dimaf), and would have US$40 million dollars, of
which half would be provided by government, and the balance by Old Mutual.
Administration of Dimaf and the provision of funds to distressed enterprises
would be done by CABS, transparently and independent of political
influences.
Within weeks thereafter, President Robert Mugabe
expressed very supportive
comments on Dimaf, and how it would bring positive
transformation to
Bulawayo’s ailing industries, as well as elsewhere in
Zimbabwe. These
sentiments were echoed by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai,
and several
others in Zimbabwe’s political hierarchy. Despite the declared
funding
intended for Dimaf being very little, in pronounced distinction to
the more
than one billion dollars essentially required for a significant
industrial
upturn, an atmosphere of hope and expectation rapidly developed
within the
decimated manufacturing sector.
As the months have
passed by, industry’s expectations have been
progressively quashed, and the
hopes of imminent recovery totally destroyed.
Despite the grandiose talk by
government, there has been virtually no
assistance to industry from Dimaf.
Admittedly, government has yet to
provide the US$20 million it pledged to
the fund, despite recurrent
statements by ministers that the release of the
funds was imminent. That
fund timeously received the money committed to it
by Old Mutual, and yet
allocations to industry have been so miniscule as to
be of any significance.
Diverse press reports and comments from industrial
representative bodies say
that since the “launch” of the fund in October
2011, only two industrial
enterprises have received funds, and the
aggregate so received is
apparently less than US$3
million.
Apparently the actual or intending funders of Dimaf (being
government and
Old Mutual) have prescribed, amongst other conditions,
that:
No company under judicial management or provisional
liquidation is to be
a beneficiary of Dimaf funding. That inevitably poses
the question as to
how any enterprises can be considered to be distressed to
a greater extent
than such companies. The allocation criteria should be
whether the
provision of the funding would reverse the distressed
circumstances.
The maximum duration of any Dimaf loan to any industry
would be 12
months. Very few distressed enterprises can realistically
service loan
repayment within such a short time. Once they are in receipt
of the loan
funding they must solicit orders from customers, which would
rarely be
forthcoming over-night. Then they have to order, and await
delivery of the
required manufacturing inputs. Once such inputs have been
received,
manufacture must commence, whereafter the manufactured products
must be
despatched to the customers, and then payment received from the
customers,
generally 60 to 90 days after delivery. Meanwhile, further
manufacturing
inputs must be purchased to enable execution of the next slot
of customers’
orders, and so the cycle continues. Outstanding debts with
suppliers must
progressively be settled and in many instances, plant and
machinery
refurbishment, rehabilitation or replacement need to be funded.
Thus, as a
general rule, meaningful industrial recovery requires a minimum
of
three-year funding, with no capital repayments in the first year, and
progressive capital repayments over the following two years, failing which
the enterprise will again become distressed, and will probably collapse.
Thus, the entire intent of Dimaf would fail to be achieved.
Indications have also been forthcoming, from Dimaf’s administration,
that
funding will only be provided against collateral security of first
mortgage
bonds over immovable property. In so prescribing, there is
evidently
complete disregard of the fact that many industrialists operate
from rented
premises, and therefore are not possessed of land and buildings
to provide
as collateral. Insofar as some are possessed of land and
buildings, most
had already secured commercial loans by such collateral.
Dimaf necessarily
must have greater flexibility as to the nature of
collateral to be
provided.
With the total of present, and intended funding for Dimaf
being inadequate,
and with such unrealistic loan conditions, Dimaf will not
be a success. If
Dimaf is not realistically restructured, substantially
funded, and the funds
expeditiously released to industry, it is doomed to
fail.
Therefore the inevitable conclusion must be that the
conceptualisation of
Dimaf, and the concerns to restore industrial
well-being, are devoid of
credence, and are naught but a ploy to try to
procure votes, from the
economically afflicted populace, in the elections to
be held later this
year, or in the first half of 2013. It appears that the
Dimaf
conceptualisation is, in reality, only an attempt at capturing the
votes of
the electorate and, therefore, that the future of industry is
bleak.
By Eric Bloch
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012
11:24
Clive Mphambela/Herbert Moyo
HUGE inter-parastatal debts
which have accumulated over the years are
impeding the recovery and
restructuring of state enterprises making it
difficult to attract
investment.
Zimbabwe has about 78 state enterprises with a capacity
to contribute 40% to
the gross domestic product, which stands between US$8
billion and US$9
billion, but excessive debts, rampant mismanagement and
corruption have
instead seen them bleeding the
economy.
University of Zimbabwe Graduate School of Management
lecturer Professor Tony
Hawkins said the huge inter-parastatal debt was a
reflection of
inefficiencies, both within and outside these
institutions.
“For example, it is quite sad that Zesa cannot even run
an effective billing
system, and ultimately it is difficult to rely on what
they tell us about
the figures that they are owed by different people,” said
Hawkins.
Hawkins said the whole issue eventually boiled down to poor
governance, and
ultimately the politics of the country. At the individual
business level,
Hawkins said the debts resulted in poor provision of
services by the
affected companies, while at national level the
inefficiencies resulted in
dead weight loss.
Strong calls have
been made for government to dispose of state entities, but
very few takers
have been forthcoming given crippling nature of these debts.
Zimbabwe has
failed to come up with a viable commercialisation or
privatisation
strategy.
In Russia, for instance, the state paid off most bills by
selling
state-owned oil companies to the oligarchs while South American
countries
sold off state water companies, metal mines and fruit plantations
to reduce
their obligations.
However, in Zimbabwe the government
has been reluctant to follow that path,
arguing privatising state companies
would be tantamount to surrendering the
backbone of the country’s economy to
foreigners.
Although Zimbabwean state enterprises have drastically
lost their markets to
new businesses after deregulation of the economy
coupled with the decline of
the overall industrial production, they still
continue to enjoy privileged
access to public financial resources and other
forms of government
subsidies.
State Enterprises and Parastatals
minister, Gorden Moyo, said state entities
were in serious debt, warning
unless an urgent inter-parastatal debt
strategy was developed to resolve the
problem, they would continue to bleed
the fiscus.
Moyo said
inter-parastatal debt amounted to US$600 million but the
cumulative figure
could easily exceed US$1 billion if other debts were
included. Finance
minister Tendai Biti said recently government also owed
state enterprises
huge amounts –– US$72 million to Zesa and US$22 million to
Zinwa.
Moyo said the inter-parastatal debt had become a major
destabiliser to the
economy because the situation where parastatals owed
each other large
amounts was affecting overall service
delivery.
He said because of these debts strategic partners were
shunning these
entities. He cited national carrier Air Zimbabwe as an
example of such
entities with a huge inter-parastatal debt, saying it owed
Zimra close to
US$34 million, the Civil Aviation Authority US$15 million and
TelOne US$500
000 bringing its total inter-parastatal debt to US$51
million.
An unnamed potential investor held talks with government
last year over
entering into a possible strategic partnership with Air
Zimbabwe, but the
talks collapsed because of a myriad of challenges facing
the national
flagship carrier.
The carrier’s ageing fleet and
huge debt overhang owed to various creditors
has been cited by economists as
the reason the potential investor pulled
out. Air Zimbabwe’s fleet comprised
ageing Boeing 737-200 planes which
pilots wanted retired saying they are too
old and obsolete.
The government decided to disband Air Zimbabwe
Holdings and constitute Air
Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd to start operations on a
clean slate with the hope of
attracting investors, but to date there have
been no takers since the
government would remain the majority shareholder in
the “new” airline.
The handling of the Essar deal in which the Indian
company agreed to buy
defunct steel-making giant Ziscosteel for about US$750
million, including
inheriting its debts, further shows government’s
inability to be a viable
business partner.
The ministries of
Industry and Commerce and Mines have been blaming each
other for the near
collapse of the deal just over a year since the
government announced that it
had been signed and sealed.
Moyo said the inter-parastatal debt had
also generated negative spill-over
effects into the whole economy since the
contagion was far-reaching. The
debt also means the enterprises cannot
provide basic services they were set
up to cater for the
public.
The decline of the National Railways of Zimbabwe, for
instance, has not only
affected the parastatal itself and the transport
sector in general, but the
economies of Bulawayo, Hwange, Gweru, Kwekwe and
surrounding areas, which
depended on the rail carrier and associated
activities.
Bulawayo industries depended on NRZ’s cheap
transportation costs for the
mainly steel products used in the city’s heavy
duty industries from
Ziscosteel in Redcliff as well as Zimasco in
Kwekwe.
Coal from Hwange was also cheaply ferried to Bulawayo’s
coal-fired thermal
power station, which reduced the city’s power dependence
on Zesa. But the
thermal power station now stands quiet together with the
city’s industrial
hub of Belmont which has now been reduced to a mere ghost
town.
As a result of the decline of NRZ, the country’s major roads
have been
damaged since this has now become the preferred mode of
transportation. Moyo
says his ministry will come up with a state enterprises
and restructuring
manual which will give detail on the processes of
commercialisation and
privatisation after a summit that will bring in
international experts to
help unlock all the bottlenecks impeding the
restructuring process next
month.
However, observers questioned
whether summits would solve the problems
bedevilling parastatals saying only
the country’s policies held the key to
unlocking their
potential.
Economic analyst Eric Bloch said the government has to
urgently deal with
the inter-parastatal debt together with the entire
national debt question.
“The reality is that first and foremost, government
must privatise these
institutions,” said Bloch. “They need to first assume
the entire parastatal
debts and come up with a settlement programme for the
debts that parastatals
owe each other,” he said.
The debts have
resulted in the inability of paratsatals to attract
investment and debt
funding and the longer term solution should be to
completely privatise the
parastatals so that they have some independent
shareholding.
“One
of the major problems has been operational inefficiencies emanating
from
poor ownership structures. New shareholders will demand that the
management
be restructured to avoid recurrence,” Bloch said.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012
11:17
By Qhubani Moyo
NO one can dispute that at the time of the
imposition of targeted sanctions
on President Robert Mugabe, his cronies and
selected entities by the
European Union (EU) and the United States,
Zimbabweans were under siege from
rogue elements in government who were
abusing their power and authority to
suppress dissent. The country had
become a pariah state and internal
democratic processes to try to change the
government were thwarted with
brute force using the state security
apparatus. Instead of being used to
protect the citizens, the security
machinery was used to bludgeon the
masses.
The record of human
right abuses from the time of Independence to the time
of imposition of
sanctions in 2002 is diabolic to say the least. The
sanctions — which were
triggered by the refusal to accredit EU observers for
the 2002 presidential
election — were therefore probably a necessary measure
and part of the
global efforts to contain the rogue regime.
In fact, it was a
necessary tool and measure to try and protect the people
of Zimbabwe from
the monster that was prepared to swallow any one just to
stay in power. The
effects of the sanctions were there for all to see, they
hit below the belt
but the regime survived due to all sorts of machinations,
especially the
questionable methods of the Governor of the Reserve Bank who
used all
unorthodox means to become master of the casino economy.
The
crippling of the whole economy did not deter the regime as it ignored
everyone’s well-being and concentrated on its own survival. If the situation
had continued everything would have closed down but the regime would still
have refused to go. They remain very afraid of what might happen to them
given that the world is now more eager than before to deal with those that
criminally abuse their citizens’ rights.
But the critical
question that begs for an urgent answer is whether the
sanctions remain
relevant given the amount of positive developments in the
country as a
result of the inclusive government. It is time the European
Union (EU)
reconsiders its stance on sanctions.
The resumption of talks between
the EUand the Zimbabwean government mark yet
another milestone for the
Government of National Unity (GNU) because the
issue of sanctions has
remained a big hindrance to attainment of some of the
key things that the
GNU set out to achieve. The resumption of talks has seen
the government
delegation consisting of ministers Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga, Patrick
Chinamasa and Elton Mangoma go to Brussels
for talks with the European
Commission leadership.
The continuation of the talks is important for
both the EU and Zimbabwe
because the sanctions, or restrictive measures as
some would like to call
them, have outlived their usefulness and are not in
any way assisting the
country move forward. Equally, maintaining sanctions
does not add value to
the foreign policy interests of EU as a regional block
or EU countries as
individual member states. If anything the interests of
those countries are
best served with no restrictions in trade, investment
and other economic
partnerships in relationship to
Zimbabwe.
There is doubt that there are many EU individual member
states who badly
want to do business with Zimbabwe. It is also my contention
that a number of
them never wanted the imposition of sanctions in the first
place while
others want them removed as of yesterday. But it is obviously
the solidarity
with those who feel strongly about the sanctions that some of
the countries
continue endorsing the continuation of the
embargo.
However, what the EU is not realising is that the sanctions
issue has
remained the only tangible and sensible argument that Zanu PF
continues to
have to justify refusal to adopt reforms, while scuttling some
of the key
Global Political Agreement (GPA) issues.
If the
sanctions are removed, Zanu PF will be at sixes and sevens in terms
of which
way to go because sanctions is now their main argument to justify
blocking
change. There are many within Zanu PF ranks who would rather have
the
sanctions continue as that assures them of political capital and a
viable
campaign platform. Removing sanctions would be like pulling the rug
under
their feet. In fact, it will scuttle their election strategy.
Also
one of the key deliverables of the GPA, which is important for
democratisation of the political playing field, is a sound revival of the
economy. In the absence of a sound economy those who have monopolised
resources will continue to use them for political expedience. It is
important to ensure macro-economic stability and sustained economic recovery
and that is where the removal of sanctions becomes critical as it would
unlock lines of credit for the traditional bilateral and multilateral
lenders, including global financial institutions such as the IMF, World
Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Paris Club,
to come back.
While arguments can be raised that Zimbabwe’s
failure to pay its debts with
these financiers made it difficult for them to
continue lending, the truth
of the matter is that there is also an intrinsic
link between the sanctions
and Zimbabwe’s failure to access lines of credit.
The situation has been
made worse by the decision by the US to impose
sanctions as well.
State entities working with companies expected to
contribute US$600 million
to support this year’s US$4 billion are under
sanctions. Unfortunately this
has led to the justification of dubious means
of diamond trade in which
leakages and looting are rampant. Sanctions are
being used to justify theft
and raiding of diamond revenues by corrupt
individuals pursuing
self-enrichment.
Even the calls to transform
the country into a developmental state by
allowing it to be at the forefront
of the diamond mining cannot work given
that a number of companies that
provide ancillary services to the diamond
sector are embargoed from trade
with Europe. The net effect is that
ironically the sanctions are propping up
Zanu PF, instead of hurting it.
They have allowed the party to regroup,
reorganise and justify financing
themselves from the national wealth in the
name of fighting sanctions.
Given all these and many other compelling
reasons, it is clearly time for
the EU to start considering a policy shift
and comprehensive lifting of the
sanctions.
The other point is those who
were targets of sanctions caused the problem
but at the same time they are
part of the solution, hence the GNU. The GNU
has shown significant
willingness by the three parties in government to
engage seriously to
resolve problems facing the country and thus it means
collective and
holistic action in tackling Zimbabwe’s problems is
critical.
Important institutions like the EU should be part of the
solution and not
the problem. While it is true that there are still strong
attitudes by
hardliners resisting change, the EU can outmanoeuvre them by
removing
sanctions and becoming part of the solution.
Moyo is
the former Organising Secretary and now Director of Policy and
Research
Coordination in the MDC led by Professor Welshman Ncube. He is also
a
lecturer at Nust.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 11:53
FINANCE minister
Tendai Biti last week raised fresh fears that diamond
revenues are being
looted — possibly by senior government officials and
military officers
involved in the shady Marange mining activities.
Biti said on
Thursday, while presenting a state of the economy update,
diamond proceeds
have remained a trickle and that was now affecting his US$4
billion national
budget which partly depends on a US$600 million
contribution from the gems
income.
The minister has often complained about diamond revenues,
which people
suspect are being siphoned off by government officials, in
collaboration
with those mining in Chiadzwa, including private companies,
state entities
and security forces.
Biti last week disclosed that
Chinese firm Anjin, which mines diamonds in
Chiadzwa, has not submitted any
revenue to Treasury despite the company
being the largest mining entity in
the diamond-rich area.
Biti, who has for years now complained about
the lack of transparency and
accountability at Marange, on Tusesday further
stepped up the pressure on
President Robert Mugabe, Zanu PF ministers,
particularly Mines minister
Obert Mpofu, and companies involved there, to
explain what is going on.
Speaking at a Centre for Research and
Development workshop on Zimbabwe’s
diamonds and the Kimberley Process, Biti
said so far this year mining
companies had exported US$241 million worth of
diamonds.
However, Treasury had only received US$34 million, none of
which came from
Anjin Investments, the main defaulter. Anjin has a shady
shareholding
structure (controlled by the Chinese and security forces) which
does not
include the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation
(ZMDC), the
official partner in other deals. ZMDC now operates on its own
through its
subsidiary, Marange Resources, the successor to Canadile which
was a joint
venture between the state and Core Mining. The Canadile deal
collapsed over
allegations of corruption, looting and brazen
theft.
“I have got a big bone to chew with all the mines, but
particularly with
Anjin,” Biti said. “We are not getting anything from
Anjin. I am not that
much worried about the other companies like Mbada and
Marange because those
are partly owned by ZMDC and so at least we are
getting something from
them,” Biti said.
He said unlike other
firms mining in Chiadzwa, Anjin was partnered by the
military, a situation
which he said raises eyebrows. “Anjin is not
partnering ZMDC, someone says
the army is its partner, but I have raised
this with President Mugabe. I am
saying what does mining have to do with the
army?
“Do we have a
parallel government? I think it is totally unacceptable that
Anjin does not
remit. I am also very angry with Anjin because they are by
far the biggest
mining company there. Anjin has seven shafts combined, that
means they have
seven mines in one area,” he said.
There is “opaqueness and
unaccountability surrounding our diamonds”. Last
year, Biti also raised
serious issues with diamond revenues which were not
properly accounted for
and had a fierce row with Mpofu over the matter which
was discussed in
cabinet several times. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has
also been
raising the issues, together with ministers mainly from the MDC
parties.
Zanu PF ministers are also equally concerned although they can’t
voice their
worries.
Addressing a parliamentary committee on Monday, Mbada
chairperson, Robert
Mhlanga, said his company had remitted about US$300
million to government
since 2009.
“In total, we have paid a total of
US$293,5 million to government and this
constitutes nearly 50% of the gross
we generate with 26% going to working
capital while 24% went to the other
shareholder (New Reclamation),” he said.
Now, whichever way you look
at it, there is a serious issue here. Compared
to what the private
companies, which in the first place came through dubious
routes, and their
shadowy controllers are making, government — and by
extension the people —
are getting peanuts. It is clear that the country’s
diamond revenues are
being looted.
If that was not the case, why are responsible
authorities unable or
unwilling to provide clear answers? Why are they
tongue-tied if what they
are doing is right? Who is stealing the country’s
diamond revenues? Some
people, surely, are siphoning and possibly salting
away the money to
offshore bank accounts. We need answers.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012
11:49
ZIMBABWE’S ballooning trade deficit is a ticking time bomb, a
disaster
waiting to happen. It is odd our policy makers are only mentioning
it in
passing. They make fleeting references to it when they are talking
about
more serious economic issues. We think it is not really getting the
attention it deserves.
There are several problems associated with
Zimbabwe’s seriously negative
balance of trade (BOT). The first is the sheer
size of the deficit in that
it represents the largest share of the overall
balance of payments (BOP).
Last year, the trade deficit was a massive
US$3 billion. In the first three
months of 2012, Finance minister Tendai
Biti said we exported US$900 million
worth of goods and services whilst
imports have gobbled US$1,8 billion. This
suggests US$900 million worth of
“official” imports have been funded from
other sources. Projecting the trend
so far to year-end easily gives us a
trade deficit of US$5 billion this
year.
Clearly, we should not be worried about just the sheer
magnitude of the
trade gap, but also need to be informed about the more
serious issues. For
instance, are we sure how the trade deficit is being
financed? And what are
the economic implications of such
funding?
As a country, we also need to worry about what is being
imported. Are we
allocating the scarce foreign currency efficiently? If our
policy makers
start looking at some of these questions, an ominous picture
will quickly
unfold.
Biti innocently suggested last week that the
local banking sector is funding
the BOT and this simple assertion does ring
true. The banks are indeed
mobilising foreign lines of credit and most of
this money is funding imports
of one thing or
another.
Recently, Sakunda Energy got US$23 million from the PTA
Bank to fund imports
of petroleum products. CBZ similarly obtained US$60
million to support the
SME sector; and we all know what the major business
activity of our SME
sector is? You guessed right!, it is commodity broking,
ie, importing goods
in small quantities that the big guys can’t be bothered
to import
themselves. And, of course, quite a chunk of this goes to
importing motor
cars.
If this is true, then we are all watching a
national crisis unfold. Why?
Zimbabwe has become a net importer across
virtually all economic sectors.
With the exception of the mining sector,
which remains the country’s net
foreign currency earner, all others
including agriculture are net importers
at the moment. Mining is a
particularly interesting in the sense that heavy
investment into capacity is
required today to generate exports in future,
and the machinery and
equipment is all imported; consumables such as fuel,
explosives, oils and
energy are also imported.
However, the mining sector has also been
accused of importing banking
services, shipping out all export revenues to
offshore accounts and only
localising the little they need to pay local
taxes and other expenses.
Agriculture is a net importer when one tries to
balance agricultural exports
against the fertiliser and agro-chemical
imports. It’s a gloomy picture if
we add food and power imports to the
agriculture equation.
How are our imports being funded? Is it
transfer payments from the diaspora
and “other offshore sources” of funds.
Therein lies a real possibility for
the country’s import sector to be
exposed to money laundering syndicates.
Should the authorities not request
importers to declare their source of
funding? Should we not at least attempt
to curb unnecessary imports?
One shudders to think how much of the
US$2,5 billion in the banking sector
loans are funding consumptive
imports.
Clive Mphambela
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 May 2012 11:47
I FIND space
travel infinitely fascinating. The news is that Mae Jemison,
best known as
the first black female astronaut to travel to space, will lead
an audacious
US project that will within 100 years result in a spaceship
that will take
humans to the stars.
Now to the present, recently the
reclusive North Korean dictatorship was
severely embarrassed when an attempt
to prove it had mastered the
complexities of spacecraft came to an
inauspicious end: the rocket
disintegrated into pieces a mere 90 seconds
into its flight, in full view of
invited foreign journalists! For
poverty-stricken North Korea to try to send
a rocket into space smacks of
warped priorities, but dictators’ penchant for
vainglory is legendary; the
launch was meant to coincide with the centenary
of the birth of North
Korea’s founding leader, the late “eternal chairman”
Kim
Il-Sung.
The Global Political Agreement, precursor to the unity
government, hardly
reads like rocket science. In its preamble, the
signatories recognise “the
historical obligation and need to reach a
solution that will allow us to put
Zimbabwe first and give the people a
genuine chance of reconstructing their
livelihoods”.
Sadly, this
is an ideal that has failed to launch — so to speak — the
exception being
the oft-cited stabilisation of the economy and decline in
political
violence. Government remains stuck with a grave implementation
deficit as
promised reforms remain mere GPA statements of intent. While the
inclusive
government masquerades as a “unity government”, it is increasingly
a Zanu PF
regime in disguise — old wine in new bottles.
Whenever there is a
clash of interest or on interpretation of the GPA, it is
the Zanu PF
interest that prevails. And major decisions and policies are
rarely
official unless the Zanu PF element of the GNU political amalgam has
had its
say, as Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and deputy premier Arthur
Mutambara
have found out to their regular chagrin.
So it was with the issue of
the extension of the service chiefs’ contracts.
In February Tsvangirai and
Mutambara insisted at a press conference that the
Zanu-PF aligned service
chiefs were in office in an acting capacity, only
for Mugabe to announce 48
hours later that he had extended their contracts
to 2014.
In May
Mutambara, in his colourful style, condemned the proliferation of
roadblocks
saying they were not necessary since Zimbabwe is not a police
state. “There
is no need for all those roadblocks. We do not want corruption
whereby the
police use these as fundraising methods,” he told parliament
saying cabinet
had tasked Home Affairs co-minister Kembo Mohadi to
investigate the matter
with the aim of reducing the number of roadblocks.
Alas, this week
Mutambara had the rug pulled from under his feet when none
other than Home
secretary Melusi Matshiya told a Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee that
“roadblocks are a necessity because it is part of policing
and you cannot
remove that element from the police ...”.
That echoes sentiments of
Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri, an
avowed Zanu PF supporter.
And it is Chihuri’s cops that even decide whether
or not the MDC can hold a
political rally, but the same police can stand
akimbo while rowdy Zanu PF
supporters disrupt a public hearing on the Human
Rights Bill after
assaulting legislators and journalists inside parliament,
as was the case
last year.
Zanu PF holds the politically strategic posts in cabinet.
Of course the
MDC-T’s Tendai Biti is Finance minister, a key post, but then
again
government is broke. This week he was lamenting budget revenue targets
were
slipping away, while also bemoaning he was not receiving anticipated
diamond
revenue. What’s more, he has proved to be a convenient scapegoat for
problems ranging from non-remittance of war vets’ pensions and other
benefits, to underfunding of agriculture.
Add the army’s recent
menacing declaration that “as soldiers we will never
be apologetic for
supporting Zanu PF ”, and the party’s vice-grip on the
state media, and the
picture becomes that much clearer.
Maybe the most profound
acknowledgement that the GNU is a Zanu PF government
came from (MDC-T)
Nelson Chamisa who hailed President Mugabe as a leader who
was in the
“cockpit” while leading a team of ministers who are passengers in
Zimbabwe’s
development plane. Chamisa said “Mugabe’s wisdom makes sure the
plane does
not crash”.
Many would argue that this plane is not flying, but
grounded on the runway.
The reality? Thirty-two years of Zanu PF rule, and
counting.
By Stewart Chabwinja
schabwinja@zimind.co.zw
