From: "Justice for Agriculture" <justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw>
Sent:
Friday, October 21, 2005 7:07 AM
Much widespread contention and
debate has arisen over the past five years
as to the part played by DROUGHT
in the demise of Commercial Agricultural
Production in Zimbabwe and the
resultant knock-on effect seen in the
subsequent melt-down of our
economy.
Most of what has been put out has emphatically been propaganda,
by, not
only the regime, but also various organisations whose self interests
and
causes were best served in promoting and supporting this line.
The
following comprehensive and thoroughly compelling REPORT deals
conclusively,
once and for all, with this propaganda issue. This report
and the findings
contained therein should be disseminated as far and wide
as possible. This is
the unvarnished TRUTH of the matter! READ IT !!!
THE JAG TEAM
Click here to read the document
Zimbabwe telephone directory is online at
http://www.telone.co.zw/directory.html
- you can search by name or by
number.
New Zimbabwe
By
Violet Gonda
Last updated: 10/21/2005 13:10:11
PAUL Themba Nyathi wants
Morgan Tsvangirai to retract his claims that vote
buying and self interests
swung the vote in favour of participation in
senatorial elections when the
Movement for Democratic Change's national
council met in Harare last
week.
Nyathi, the MDC's national spokesman said he was "distressed" and
"hurt" by
the MDC leader's "defamatory" claims after the party's pro-senate
lobby won
a clear majority.
Tsvangirai rejected the outcome and sought to
impose a boycott - plunging
the six-year-old party into chaos.
Nyathi
was stung by Tsvangirai's claims made on SW Radio Africa on Tuesday,
including suggestions that Nyathi and another national executive member,
Renson Gasela, wanted senate seats.
"Unless circumstances change, and
they would have to change drastically, I
have no interest (in a senate
seat)," Nyathi stormed on Thursday.
"I repeat I have no interest in
standing for a senatorial seat for the
simple reason that I have a lot of
work that would actually be put into
jeopardy by my standing. If Mr
Tsvangirai had the courtesy of asking me
instead of making disparaging
remarks, I would have told him my position.
"There was an outcome of a
vote in the National Council. I was asked what
happened. My response was...
'the outcome was 33 in favour of participation
31against, 2 votes were
spoilt and that the position of the MDC president is
that he does not accept
that outcome.'
"Was I expected to tell a lie to say there wasn't a vote
or that there wasn't
an outcome which was 33 vs 31? Where is the challenge
here, can anybody tell
me what constitutes a challenge if you tell the truth
as it is and the
president tells a different view. Where is the challenge on
the leader's
authority?
Nyathi also rejected Tsvangirai's claims that
the national council members
who voted only expressed their opinions and not
necessarily those of their
constituents.
"I'm extremely reluctant to
get involved in that kind of discussion given
the amount of intimidation
that has been coming directly from the president's
office," Nyathi
said.
"I'm too embarrassed and ashamed as a member of the MDC to even
talk about
those things and I hope Mr Tsvangirai himself would actually
desist from
talking about those things because they put the party in
disrepute, because
they are not very helpful in the search for a resolution
to this extremely
difficult matter."
Nyathi would not engage on
whether it was simpler to boycott, insisting that
there was a different
dimension altogether and did not want to get involved
in a situation where
he might appear as supporting one group or another.
"It's not good enough
for democracy for somebody to claim that another group
wants to participate
because they want money...they want to participate
because they have been
bought by Zanu PF and so on. That kind of language
is, in my view, inimical
to democracy. Let's hear both sides. We shouldn't
attempt to block debate by
imputing impure motives on those who seek to
participate or those who seek
not to participate.
"It's imperative for us as leaders to desist from
making statements which
are not very helpful. because those who are bent on
creating mischief will
go ahead and spread those rumours.we had it coming,
we have ourselves to
blame for failing to protect our
integrity."
Nyathi also said the MDC was "wasting time bickering and
spending endless
time throwing insults and organising violence against each
other."
"Zanu PF is at its weakest. But look at us as a party, are we
taking
advantage of this party that is virtually on its knees? Of course
not. It is
despicable. It is a betrayal of the people of Zimbabwe; I find it
absolutely
appalling that we are doing that kind of thing."
On
Thursday, South African President Thabo Mbeki extended an invitation to
the
MDC's leaders. All but Tsvangirai from the MDC's powerful "Top Six" flew
to
South Africa to meet Mbeki.
Tsvangirai's spokesman, William Bango, said
the MDC leader only heard of the
trip as "rumours".
The other five
members of the "Top Six" who flew to South Africa were
Professor Welshman
Ncube, Gift Chimanikire, Fletcher Dulini, Isaac Matongo
and vice president
Gibson Sibanda. They are all known to favour
participation in the
senate.
Also Thursday, President Robert Mugabe had a crowd of Zanu PF
youths in
stitches during a televised speech. He told the youths Tsvangirai
did not
accept defeat.
"He doesn't want to be defeated," a cheerful
Mugabe said. "In the 2002
presidential elections, he claimed that he was the
one who had won. Now he
has been rejected by his own people, but he still
won't accept the results."
The group that opposes senate participation
has argued strongly that it's a
costly exercise and the money could be
better spent on fighting poverty,
improving the health system and creating
employment.
However, supporters of participation - mostly from the MDC's
stronghold in
Matabeleland - insist that having MDC MPs alongside Zanu PF
senators would
be highly disruptive and could weaken the party's hold on
secure seats.
New Zimbabwe
By Staff
Reporter
Last updated: 10/21/2005 13:10:07
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's
nephew, Leo Mugabe, was secretly moved from police
holding cells to the
comfort of his home following his arrest on smuggling
allegations on
Wednesday, New Zimbabwe.com can reveal.
A top cop and relative of
President Mugabe was last night named as having
personally intervened to
rescue the former Zimbabwe Football Association
boss, although prosecutors
gave the impression that he had come from holding
cells when he appeared
before a magistrate on Thursday. He was released on
bail.
Police
sources told New Zimbabwe.com that another of President Mugabe's
nephews,
Innocent Matibiri, who is a Senior Assistant Commissioner for the
police
went to a suburban police station on Wednesday and got Mugabe out
after he
had spent just under 12 hours in custody.
"It's a damning indictment on
Zimbabwe's judiciary that we can have one law
for Mugabe's nephew and
another law for many other Zimbabwean citizens who
have been abused by the
legal system," a senior police source said.
The source contrasted
Mugabe's treatment, and subsequent bail, with the
cases of former Finance
Minister Chris Kuruneri, businessman James Makamba
and another businessman
Cecil Muderede who were held in remand prison for
periods ranging from eight
to 16 months on similar allegations.
Mugabe's mobile phone was not being
answered last night, and no comment
could be obtained from police spokesman
Wayne Bvudzijena.
Appearing before a Harare magistrate with his wife
Veronica, Mugabe was
released on $50 million bail. They were also required
to surrender their
passports and put down a surety of $700 million pending
their next
appearance at the Harare Magistrates' Court on November
9.
Mugabe and his wife are jointly accused of selling 30 tons of flour to
Zambia in violation of tight controls on the trade of basic foodstuffs,
according to their lawyer, Eric Matinenga.
They were not asked to
plead to charges of fraud and violating the Grain
Marketing
Act.
Matinenga said the couple purchased the grain legally for a bakery
they own,
but did not comment on the charge that they illegally exported 600
bags.
Veronica Mugabe was arrested Tuesday and her husband the following
day, he
said.
Leo Mugabe, a quiet but highly influential figure, is
regarded as one of the
wealthiest people in Zimbabwe. His mother, Sabina, is
President Mugabe's
sister.
The multiple farm owner has previously
been accused of high-level corruption
and violating the law with
impunity.
He gained notoriety in 1999 after acting as an agent in a £33
million
contract for Harare's new international airport, representing a
Cypriot
company run by a Saudi millionaire who eventually built the
facility.
The Saudi millionaire then helped build President Mugabe's new
Borrowdale
mansion estimated to have cost £5 million. No charges were
brought against
Leo over the affair.
Additional reporting by
Times
New Zimbabwe
By Staff
Reporter
Last updated: 10/21/2005 12:11:10
ZIMBABWEAN Big Brother loser
Makosi Musambasi on Thursday told an
immigration tribunal that she fears
"ill treatment" at the hands of "very
brutal security forces" if deported to
Zimbabwe.
On the first day of a hearing into a Home Office complaint that
she breached
her working visa by going on the hit TV reality show, lawyers
for the
25-year-old cardiac nurse also said a legal precedent had been set
when a
court ruled last week that Zimbabweans faced possible persecution if
deported.
The 25 year-old was pulled over by British cops for not
wearing a seat belt
before the immigration services intervened, insisting
she had lost her right
to stay when she ditched her nursing job for
fame.
Makosi, who schemed her way to third place on Big Brother 6 in the
summer,
arrived for the hearing wearing a trendy scarlet jacket over a black
skirt
and top.
She listened intently as her barrister, Mark
Henderson, told the tribunal
she would face "ill treatment" by Robert
Mugabe's brutal regime if sent
back.
Henderson said: "To remove my
client to Zimbabwe at the present time would
be contrary to both The Refugee
Convention and the Human Rights Act because
of the risk of ill treatment
that would arise in the present conditions and
at the hands of the very
brutal security forces."
He claimed that a legal precedent had been set
only last week stating that
no-one should be deported to Zimbabwe at the
present time because their
safety cannot be guaranteed.
Henderson
also said that the Home Office had failed to follow "proper
procedures" when
it gave Makosi notice to quit.
He said: "It did not interview my client
or secure any information from my
client about her position. It simply
served a curtailment notice."
Makosi was handed over to immigration
officials in August after being
arrested by police for not wearing a
seatbelt in her cousin's car.
She spent five hours in custody as she was
quizzed by immigration officials
and has since told of her fears if returned
to her homeland.
She said at the time: "I'm worried and scared. Back in
Zimbabwe, I've been
judged for things I've done that African people do not
like.
"There are people in my country who believe I've humiliated
Zimbabweans by
showing my tits on telly.
"I would love to stay in
Britain. I have been saving British lives - and I
could save
more."
Makosi lost her right to stay when she resigned from her job as a
trainee in
the cardiac unit of High Wycombe Hospital, Bucks.
The
hearing continues.
News Release
LONDON, October 21 /PRNewswire/ --
Action for
Southern Africa (ACTSA), supported by UK trade unions including
Amicus, will
today (21st October) launch a campaign at the House of Commons
to raise
funds for millions of women in Zimbabwe who are suffering without
the most
basic sanitary products.
Thabitha Khumalo, trade union activist and
women's campaigner has flown to
the UK to launch the campaign. She is facing
court charges in Zimbabwe, has
been tortured and sexually abused for her
political activities.
As Robert Mugabe's leadership plunges Zimbabwe
deeper into crisis - basic
goods like sanitary products are becoming a
luxury item for the rich.
Thabita Khumalo says,
"Ordinary women
cannot afford sanitary wear we are using old pieces of cloth
or newspapers.
Consequently we're suffering the loss of our dignity and
serious infections,
in some cases leading to infertility. Many women are
facing violence from
their husbands who believe these infections to be
sexually
transmitted."
Zimbabwean women would have to spend 50% of their monthly
salary to be able
to afford sanitary products. The average salary for a
Zimbabwean woman is
GBP20 a month with sanitary products costing on average
GBP3 a packet with 3
packets needed a month. Unemployment is currently
75%.
The trade union movement and Action for Southern Africa are raising
funds
and intend to buy large quantities of sanitary products to send into
Zimbabwe.
The campaign is supported by the comedian Jo Brand,
politician Kate Hoey,
actresses Patricia Potter from Holby city and
Elizabeth Estensen from
Emmerdale.
Euan Wilmshurst, Director of
Action for Southern Africa says,
"The situation in Zimbabwe may seem
complicated to many people in the UK but
the plight of these women is clear.
This campaign will enable people to make
a real difference to Zimbabwean
women's health dignity and rights."
Simon Dubbins, Amicus Director of
International says,
"Amicus alongside other UK based trade unions are
committed to working with
the labour movement in Zimbabwe and Action for
Southern Africa to raise
funds to buy large quantities of sanitary products
to send to Zimbabwe.
Working people in the UK can make a huge difference
that can change
someone's life. We are urging people to give generously and
help ACTSA to
help millions."
Notes to Editors:
The meeting
will take place at 12.30 Friday 21st October in the Boothroyd
room
Portcullis house, Whitehall. Speakers include Kate Hoey MP, Thabita
Khumalo,
Secretary of the Women's Advisory Council of the Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade
Unions and Euan Wilmshurst , Director of Action for Southern
Africa. Tabita
is available for interview 20th October until 27th October
2005.
Distributed by PR Newswire on behalf of Amicus
First Night reviews
The Times
October 21, 2005
Times2
Sam Marlowe at Swan
Stratford
Robert Mugabe hardly
has an international
reputation as the best-adjusted of individuals; in
Fraser Grace's engaging
new play, he's the psychiatric patient from Hell.
His paranoia and mood
swings have become so extreme that his wife, Grace,
refers to him as "the
Devil", and hires a respected white doctor, Andrew
Peric, to treat him.
Analysing Mugabe is a
dangerous job. For the
Zimbabwean President believes he is being persecuted
by the malevolent
spirit, or ngozi, of a former associate, Josiah Tongogara,
who was widely
expected to become the first president of independent
Zimbabwe, but died in
dubious
circumstances.
Menace and manners meet in
Antony Sher's
production for the RSC's second New Work Festival, as Noma
Dumezweni as the
elegant, steely Grace, who sexually usurped Mugabe's
previous wife before
her death, politely welcomes David Rintoul's tense,
sweating Peric to the
Presidential Palace. Colin Richmond's design, with its
creamy carpet and
electric gates, suggests a well-appointed prison that both
keeps Grace and
her children in, and enemies
out.
A wall beyond the bars is covered with
what
could be scarlet blossom, or
blood.
This is the setting for a series of
confrontations - inspired by alleged actual encounters between Mugabe and a
psychiatrist - with a Shakespearean flavour. The President is haunted by his
ngozi as is Macbeth by Banquo. Guilt lurks everywhere: Mugabe's for
atrocities of which only he knows the true extent, Peric's for the voracious
colonialism of his ancestors.
Grace
neither demonises nor excuses his four
characters. He allows Joseph Mydell's
powerful Mugabe an impassioned account
of black oppression under Rhodesian
rule, but doesn't shrink from his
homophobia and hate-fuelled polemic.
Dumezweni as his ruthless wife is also
a desperate mother, her anguish
betrayed by the rasp in her voice. Peric's
motives are far from pure - he
hopes the future of his farm will be secured
in return for his services -
and the loyalty of Mugabe's bodyguard
(Christopher Obi) can be bought for
the price of a Mercedes.
A more acute sense
of life beyond the
consulting-room walls might have sharpened the drama, and
a touch of
contrivance sometimes creeps into Mugabe's diatribes and Peric's
psycho-speak. Sher's production is occasionally too self-consciously stagey
in its efforts to overcome the essentially static nature of a play that
centres around talk rather than action. Still, Grace's probing of Mugabe's
mind, speculative but riveting, ensures that this Breakfast offers plenty to
get your teeth into.
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari/Dumisani
Muleya
RESERVE Bank governor Gideon Gono yesterday for the first time all but
admitted failure in his war against unrelenting economic
decline.
Putting on a brave face as usual and again claiming "failure was
not an
option", Gono admitted in the central thrust of his lacklustre
monetary
policy statement that economic fundamentals have further
deteriorated since
his July presentation.
While maintaining his
derailed economic recovery programme was on track,
Gono did not come up with
a viable reconstruction model but clung to the
failed plan.
He
acknowledged he was losing the battle against inflation - described as
"enemy number one" even though government's policy failures are evidently
the major problem - by revising his forecast for December to a range of
280%-300%.
His previous forecast had been for between 50% and
80%.
He said inflation was now expected to fall within the 50%-80%
range by
December next year. Analysts have described Gono's initial
projection as
"clearly delusional".
The International Monetary
Fund (IMF) said recently Zimbabwe's inflation
will top 400% in December.
Under Gono's tenure, Zimbabwe has achieved the
dubious distinction of having
the highest inflation and the weakest currency
in the world.
In a
further admission of failure, Gono said a new currency would be
introduced
in 2006. The move is usually associated with failed economies.
Brazil,
the former Yugoslavia and the Democratic Republic of Congo have
changed
currency in the recent past in the midst of economic failure.
The IMF
said the economy would shrink by 7% after a 4% decline last year,
and 10,5%
negative growth in 2003. Zimbabwe's economy has contracted by a
cumulative
30% over the past five years.
Gono did not make a GDP projection but
said regional economies grew by 4,8%
last year compared to 3,6% in 2003. In
July he claimed the economy would
grow this year by between 2%-2,5% after
climbing down from a 5% growth
forecast.
The IMF projected a
widening of the fiscal deficit, which will fuel money
growth, pushing
inflation upwards. It said although monetary policy had
tightened, it has
not been consistent.
The IMF said the fiscal deficit would widen to
11,5% of GDP, from 4,7% in
2004, due to greater spending. This expansion is
due to a sharp increase in
the government wage bill from 15,5% of GDP in
2004 to about 20% in 2005.
Gono dumped the foreign currency auction floor
for a floating system. He
said the auction system would be replaced by a
tradable foreign currency
system in which exporters will retain 70% of their
proceeds in foreign
currency and the remaining 30% at the official auction
exchange rate
determined at the market from time to time.
The
auction system failed to curb the parallel market which has flourished
since
Gono took over in December 2003. When Gono came in the parallel market
rate
was US$1: $9 000. It's now US$1:$85 000. The official rate was US$1:$5
000
but is now US$1:$26 000.
Gono said exports were rapidly declining.
This would worsen shortages in the
market and lead to a further crash of the
crumbling local currency.
He also adjusted the interest rate, putting
it deeper into positive
territory. He increased the rates from 405% to 415%
for secured lending and
from 415% to 430% for unsecured lending.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
THE opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which is locked in
increasingly
rancorous political combat, appeared yesterday rigidly
determined to
self-destruct.
The very public power struggle within the ranks of the MDC
- triggered by a
dispute over the forthcoming senate election - continued
unabated after
party leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday avoided a critical
meeting with
senior officials.
The MDC crisis meeting was
initially scheduled for Wednesday afternoon
following emergency talks
between Tsvangirai and his deputy Gibson Sibanda
who later lambasted his
boss for "willfully violating" the party's
constitution.
Tsvangirai's faction lost the MDC's national
council vote by 31-33 on the
senate election debate before staging a coup
against the party's
constitution. The MDC leader resorted to martial
law-style tactics to
suppress what he sees as a revolt against his
leadership.
MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube's camp is resisting
the assault on the
party's structures and Tsvangirai's attempt to block its
candidates from
contesting the poll.
"The meeting failed to take
place yesterday," a source said, "because
Tsvangirai decided to go on his
anti-senate campaign in Manicaland. "The
party's other five top officials
were on their way to Tsvangirai's house
when they were told he was on his
way to Manicaland. They were later
informed the meting might take place
tomorrow (today)."
After squandering another chance to resolve the
crisis, the MDC appeared to
be irretrievably heading for a breakup unless
today's meeting produces a
resolution.
Sources said the situation
had deteriorated into a state of anarchy because
central authority in the
party has collapsed. The MDC was now widely seen as
being run by parallel
command structures.
"No one is really in control," a source said.
"Everybody is just muddling
through. Neither faction is yielding
ground."
But sources said some of the more thoughtful officials in
the Tsvangirai
camp were beginning to realise the crisis was not only
damaging individuals
but also the organisation and now needed a quick
resolution. The same
applied to some in the Ncube faction.
Due to
worsening turmoil, it was no longer clear what the level of support
for each
of the factions was at provincial level as almost everyone was now
able to
speak on behalf of the party and pass their opinions off as official
positions.
Tsvangirai's intransigence persisted even after his
camp suffered initial
setbacks this week following a rejection of his appeal
to the electoral
authorities for the banning of the Ncube faction's
candidates from
nomination.
The Ncube camp was also not helping
matters as it sought to hold fast to its
position, although its process of
selecting candidates for the poll ahead of
nomination on Monday had been
thrown into serious disarray by the chaos
engulfing the
party.
"The longer this crisis remains, the greater the damage to us
becomes," a
senior MDC official said last night. "No one will emerge a
winner out of
this clumsy power struggle. It's a lose-lose situation for
both factions."
Zim Independent
Dumisani
Muleya
DETAILS of suspended Zimbabwe Mirror Newspapers Group CEO and
editor-in-chief Ibbo Mandaza's exit strategy from the papers that have been
taken over by the intelligence service emerged this week.
Documents
show that Mandaza had proposed that his Southern African Printing
and
Publishing House (Sappho), now split into two entities and which hold
30% in
the Mirror group, should withdraw by selling its interest in the
company
through a new agreement of sale.
The Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) has taken over the Mirror's two
titles, the Daily Mirror
and Sunday Mirror, as well as the Financial Gazette
through an ownership
front. The state security agency also has influence in
other media
organisations and is trying to expand its tentacles.
Mandaza
suggested a valuation of the company and a resale of the 70% of the
Mirror
to Unique World Investments and Zistanbal Investments which already
controlled 70% shareholding in the Mirror.
"Unique and Zistanbal
will pay the requisite purchase price, based on the
current valuation -
which is to be undertaken immediately by a firm of
accountants to be
mutually agreed upon by the three parties of the Mirror
group," the
documents say.
This would take into account the $924 million paid by
Unique and Zistanbal
"plus the interest thereof, calculated on the basis of
the dates on which
the monies were variously disbursed in the period August
2003 to late
January 2004 and the applicable interest rates
thereof".
"Sappho will then sell the remaining 30% shareholding to a
third party,
negotiations with whom are in progress. Obviously, this
proposal is neat and
also provides an appropriate business-type framework,"
the documents say.
"Also, it would be media-friendly and puts a
favourable end to the kind of
media speculation that has been attendant to
this matter over the last few
weeks."
The modalities of sale and
transfer were supposed to be completed by
September 30 after which Sappho
would no longer be a shareholder in the
Mirror and Mandaza's securities and
guarantees at the Jewel Bank, the
company's bankers, would be
cancelled.
However, the CIO rejected Mandaza's proposal and came up
with a different
modality for his withdrawal. They refused to have an
evaluation and an
effective resale of the 70%, suggesting Sappho should just
sell its 30% to
Unique and Zistanbal and move out.
"Sappho
Holdings is (should be) selling the remaining 30% shareholding to
the
remaining partners, who will then share it between themselves in
proportion
to their existing shareholding," the documents say.
"Thus, Unique
(the CIO shelf company) will be entitled to 21%, thereby
increasing its
shareholding to 72%, and Zistanbal to 28%, with the cash
transaction
being based on an evaluation to be agreed upon."
At a time when
Mandaza thought the issue was still being discussed, the CIO
had already
finalised their plans and concluded that "Sappho is no longer a
shareholder
in the Mirror and will immediately have all its securities
cancelled at the
bank, and all monies owing duly paid".
The CIO, however, agreed with
Mandaza that the "editorial policy of the
Mirror newspapers has been
consistently nationalist and pan-Africanist ever
since their inception in
December 1997 and that this is a policy to be
maintained and sustained
regardless of the ownership".
Their proposal also indicated that
Unique and Zistanbal "will proceed to
appoint new editors of the newspapers
as it has been agreed that Mandaza
will cease being CEO and editor-in-chief
as from October 1 2005."
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
TOP Zanu PF politicians are raking in millions of
dollars from illegally
sub-leasing hunting concessions, camps and safari
lodges on farms they
grabbed under the land reform programme.
Highly
placed sources in the safari business said Zanu PF bigwigs who were
allocated safari farms with lodges and camps, proceeded to obtain hunting
concessions and are now raking in millions of dollars from renting out
infrastructure to established operators.
The Safari business
brings in huge sums of money, mostly hard currency, paid
by professional
hunters and tourists.
In one such case, Tourism minister Francis
Nhema and President Robert
Mugabe's nephew, John Mapondera, were reported to
have descended on Chikweya
Camp and Forthergill Island in Kariba claiming to
be the new owners.
Speculation is rife that Nhema and Mapondera, who
already have other
properties through the land reform programme, targeted
the camps for no
other reasons other than leasing them out. Camp operators
are in the process
of filing papers in the High Court seeking an interdict
against the
takeover. The court papers cite Nhema as the first
respondent.
The camps, which fall within the National Parks area,
have been making up to
US$200 000 each year through bookings by professional
hunters and other
tourists.
Contacted for comment, Nhema scoffed
at the allegations saying there was no
way he could be eyeing the camps,
which his ministry advertised.
"My ministry through National Parks
floated a tender because the lease for
the camps expired in December last
year," Nhema said. "Current operators had
an option to renew their leases
but they didn't, forcing us to advertise
them."
Nhema said he had
no interest in personally owning the camps.
Last month Zanu PF
chairman John Nkomo dragged his farm neighbour, Langton
Masunda, to court
over the control of Jijima Lodge in the Gwayi River
Conservancy.
Nkomo claimed the lodge falls within Lugo Ranch,
which was allocated to him,
whilst Masunda, who occupies Volunteer Farm
47,48, and 49 situated in the
same area, has occupied the same
lodge.
Nkomo is demanding more than $5 billion for the loss of
business for the
period which Masunda has been occupying the lodge and
occupational damages
or rentals suffered pegged at $50 million per
month.
In 2003 Zanu PF chefs, including the late Enos Chikowore,
Kumbirai Kangai,
Patrick Nyaruwata, Philip Chiyangwa, Chris Kuruneri and a
number of A2
farmers, were accused of leasing rented farms to FSI Agricom
for huge sums
of money.
They were demanding $50 million upfront
before FSI could start operations on
the farm. They also signed five-year
contracts stipulating that further
annual payments were supposed to be on a
profit-sharing basis between the
landowner and the land-user, after all the
costs have been deducted.
Where the produce was exported, the landowner
would receive 5% of the gross
income in foreign currency. Chikowore leased
out Gombera farm, Kangai Paarl,
Kuruneri Escortvale, and Chiyangwa rented
out Old Citrus in Chinhoyi.
The scheme only ceased when then Special
Affairs minister and land
implementation committee chairman John Nkomo
announced that it was illegal
for land beneficiaries to lease farms to third
parties.
Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro
THE Harare City Council has clashed with the Zimbabwe National Water
Authority (Zinwa) over the transfer of council water treatment facilities to
Zinwa as the authority takes over the capital's bulk water supply
functions.
Sources in the Treasury department said the commission running
Harare shot
down a government directive to transfer council workers,
liabilities on
water treatment chemicals and other council assets to Zinwa
at no cost.
Zinwa, which took over Manyame, Chivero and Seke dams
last May, had a
directive to take over raw water pipelines, tunnels
supplying water to
treatment plants, the water works and staff involved in
water processing
without paying the local authority.
"Zinwa wants
to take over Morton Jaffray and Prince Edward Dam treatment
works and
associated analytical laboratories," a source said.
"All the staff
related to the supply of water and council assets will be
transferred to
Zinwa at no cost," he said.
The source said a council delegation led
by Sekesai Makwavarara approached
Local Government and Water Resources
ministries to raise concerns over free
transfer of ratepayers' assets and
impressed on them the need for
compensation, forcing government to call for
an evaluation.
"A team of council officials and private evaluators
will be set up to
quantify the value of council assets in the water division
to be transferred
to Zinwa," the source said.
Sources said
although Zinwa agreed in principle to compensate council for
its assets, it
has no resources to pay.
Town clerk Nomutsa Chideya confirmed that
council was in the process of
valuating its assets to prepare a bill for
Zinwa.
"The modalities are still being worked out," Chideya
said.
"Zinwa will have to pay for the assets once the valuation is
completed."
The fight over assets comes at a time when Zinwa has
failed to solve
Harare's crippling water shortages, exposing residents to
threats of disease
outbreaks.
The water situation has
deteriorated to an all-time low in virtually all
suburbs.
Residents
said in some places water was available for only six hours at
night when
people are sleeping.
"We have resorted to fetching water at night
when it comes," Eric Makaya of
Msasa Park said.
"Sometimes you
wake up to be told that the water is already gone."
Zim Independent
Itai Mushekwe
ZIMBABWE
Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) has come under attack for its monopoly
over the
airwaves and its disposition to peddle state propaganda as news.
This
emerged at a meeting organised by the Media Institute of Southern
Africa
(Misa) as part of its campaign to open the "airwaves and reclaim the
public
broadcaster".
Misa chairperson, Thomas Deve, expressed concern over
the punitive legal
framework in which the media is operating. He said the
ZBH had deviated from
its mandate to serve the public by pursuing a
state-tailored editorial
policy.
At the Southern Africa Social
Forum which opened in Harare on Thursday,
former editor-in-chief of the
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, Shepherd
Mutamba, expressed frustration
with the state broadcaster's monopoly over
the airwaves, which he said
denied Zimbabweans freedom of choice.
"The tragedy about Zimbabwe is
the absence of a public media serving a full
spectrum of public interest.
What is obtaining is a truly state media
propagating and protecting
government policy and interests," said Mutamba.
"We have a state
media pandering to the whims of government without question
or regret. It is
designed to defy basic theories of communication by
disallowing interactive
speech except where it suits the piper. In other
words what we have is a
monopolistic state media feeding off public coffers
without being made
accountable to the public," he said.
Mutamba said the ZBH's brief was
to give voice to the ruling party and its
sympathisers. A Media Monitoring
Project of Zimbabwe report recently
revealed that Zanu PF and government
were getting unprecedented airwaves
coverage.
Zim Independent
BELOW are
excerpts of an interview between President Mugabe (RM) and Sky
News' Stuart
Ramsey (SR) in May last year in which the president predicted a
bumper
harvest and an imminent economic turnaround.
SR: Mr President, there are
a number of issues I'd like to talk to you
about. I'll start first with the
political situation in Zimbabwe today. One
of the impediments to substantive
negotiations between Zanu PF and the
opposition MDC was the opposition's
demand that you step down from office.
Now they have told us that that
demand has gone away, do you think it is now
time for negotiations between
the two parties to get under way?
RM: Well if there is business to
negotiate about we will welcome
negotiations but if there is no business I
don't see why we should talk
about negotiations. What I mean is if you have
a democratic system running
and if your ruling party, naturally it has its
policies and is trying to
effect its policies on the one hand and the
opposition on the other, well
the real functions, respective functions of
the two are clear. The
government is there to govern, the opposition
naturally to keep watch, try
to criticise government as much as possible in
the normal way. They are in
parliament, they get their voices heard in
parliament, their criticisms are
made there and that's the normal way of
running a democratic system.
SR: There are those who say that the
election wasn't fair and that they
actually .
RM: That's what
they say. We say the election was fair. We say all the
African groups
pronounced the election fair. There might have been one odd
one which went
the way Europe wanted things to go and of course they are a
voice not of
themselves, not of our people, that is them to see, the voice
of Europe, the
voice of Mr Blair, Mr Bush.
SR: But before the election took place, I
remember it clearly, the voter
rolls were confused, people weren't sure
where they would vote, which part
of the country they had to vote
in.
RM: No, there might have been some confusion here and there but
by and large
things were quite correct. I mean we were not running the
election for the
first time, we had run elections before and we are very
faithful to our
democratic system and the demands of that system. We have
held elections
timelessly, every five years and there was very little to
learn you know for
this last election. Sure, there might have been hitches
here and there and
there are always hitches, not just here but even in
democratic countries,
let alone in developing countries and we were prepared
to look at the
hitches and to try and correct things as effectively as we
could but
generally the elections went quite smoothly.
SR: Can I
ask you about another issue, this is the view of the international
community
toward you and towards them. Recently at the National Chief's
Convention you
described Tony Blair as a colonist who still thinks he owns
Zimbabwe. Surely
that isn't really the case.
RM: That's the case. That man, I don't
know how Britain came by him. You can
see some of the mad things he has done
and the world now is in turmoil.
SR: You don't think that Tony Blair
or Britain for that matter considers
Zimbabwe a colony, surely
not?
RM: Yes, he does, he does. He doesn't say so but his actions do
say so. What
has he not done to try and control how things should go here?
He has opposed
us in my election, he has called upon nations to in fact
regard Zimbabwe as
a lawless country, a country where democracy is not
respected, where there
is no rule of law, where human rights do not exist
and all that is a lie.
SR: But he is by no means the only
international leader.
RM: No, no, no, no, it is him and
.
SR: The Commonwealth wanted you to remain suspended, you've removed
yourself
from the Commonwealth. Now why would they do that? They are doing
that
because they also have concerns about the rule of law and
democracy?
RM: Who is the Commonwealth? Who is the dominant character
there? It's
Britain and Britain supported by the other white countries,
Australia, New
Zealand, Canada and they call the tune, you see. The Africans
try to oppose
but they were not heard, they were ignored. There it is, fine,
what is the
Commonwealth just now?
SR: It is not just Britain of
course, it is not just Commonwealth, Botswana
has been critical in the past,
South Africa and the Sadc nations, another
club that you are a member
of.
RM: Critical of what?
SR: Critical of the fact that
for example 1,3% of its economic growth in
South Africa didn't happen almost
as a direct result of .
RM: No, no.
SR: . 20 to 30 000
jobs didn't happen.
RM: No, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no.
SR: Trade declined by R15 billion.
RM: No, we were not
the cause of that, we are not the South African economy.
SR: But you
were vitally linked to it at one point but now.
RM: Our trade with
them has always been good, and they admit it, that in
spite of the sanctions
the trade has been rising, rising, rising in terms of
volumes and all of the
.
SR: What trade is that? It's declining, not
increasing.
RM: The what?
SR: The trade is declining it's
not increasing.
RM: No, no, no, you go and ask Irwin, he will tell
you that in spite of all
that has, you know, been done to Zimbabwe,
Zimbabwe's trade with South
Africa has always been rising, not
declining.
SR: Why do you . what are your links with Britain? Why are
you unhappy with
Britain to such a degree? You were friends for a very long
time.
RM: To tell you the truth we are not unhappy with Britain as
Britain, with
Blair's Britain yes, we are unhappy, that is the rulership of
Blair, very
unhappy and unhappy, first of all he is a man, I don't know he
considers
himself as a super human, he doesn't want dialogue, he doesn't
want to talk.
I haven't had any discussion with him except in Scotland
during the
Commonwealth summit there. We have asked for discussions, for
dialogue-he
won't have it.
SR: Why do you think he won't have
it?
RM: He won't have it because he doesn't want to talk to us. We
are inferior,
he is a super human, no, and he won't be drawn into any
discussions with us,
he has got that stance.
SR: One of the
reasons why .
RM: And we have been asking, we are open. We talk to
everyone who wants to
talk to us.
SR: Would you like to talk to
Britain again, would you make efforts now to
negotiate and to
discuss?
RM: We've made enough efforts. If Britain wants to talk we
are ready, we
have said so again and again and even the people he has asked
to intervene,
Obasanjo, Mbeki, have asked to try and have dialogue with us.
There is a
Zimbabwe which some countries would want to regard as a pariah
state and
never say any good about it, everything that it does is bad but we
are not
bad. Stay here and you will see that our people are free, you will
see that
they are able to say things that they would want to say about
government,
criticise us as much as possible, there is an opposition, not
just the MDC,
we also have small other groups which have not succeeded
naturally in
raising members of parliament but they are vocal, they say
things against us
and they are not arrested. Also things have been said, bad
things, personal
criticisms even.
SR: The World Food Programme
says that urban food shortages are approaching
critical. A United Nations
memo to say that you could reach the level of
tonnage that is being
estimated is complete nonsense and quite impossible.
The farms, outsiders
say, simply aren't producing enough food. You've got
bread prices that the
state media says could go up by 50%.
RM: So what is WFP wanting us to
do?
SR: What they are saying is you need food aid and therefore
.
RM: We need food aid and not the land to produce, we don't need to
produce?
SR: No, they are saying you need to produce more and you
need food aid.
You're saying you don't need food aid. In fact last week you
were saying you
would produce 2,3 million tonnes which far exceeds anything
ever produced
before. You are saying you do need food aid?
RM: We
have produced that before.
SR: You are not going to produce it this
year though.
RM: We are producing it this year, definitely. Our
estimates are there and
they are showing us we will have enough food for the
country and with a
surplus.
SR: 800 000 tonnes the shortfall is
estimated.
RM: Why is WFP wanting to feed us when we are saying that
.
SR: Because they don't want people to starve.
RM: We are
not hungry. It should go to hungrier people, hungrier countries
than
ourselves. They need the food and we urge it to go and do good work
there.
SR: When we first arrived here a couple of weeks ago,
government ministers
estimated crop production at 1,5 million, many thought
that that was a
little high. In two weeks it went up to 2,3, now how did
that happen? You
didn't suddenly have a bumper harvest and they'd got their
figures wrong.
The fact is, and the view from the outside is that you will
get 2,3 million
tonnes but you will do it by buying it from outside,
probably from Zambia.
RM: Do you want to wait here until the harvest
is over and then you will see
.
SR: I'd like to come back and see
it and I'd like to see.
RM: Well come back, you'll be free, you are
invited to come back.
SR: Are you going to be buying food from
outside?
RM: No. Definitely no, never. Not this year.
SR:
So why are all these estimates wrong Mr President?
RM: From
agriculture. We have an agricultural system which is second to none
in
Africa.
SR: Had is the argument, not has. It is no longer producing
the .
RM: Have, we have.
SR: So why are these estimates so
wrong?
RM: The whites who were here were mere actor farmers,
ill-educated and we
brought in a system which is much more enlightened than
the system they had,
you see. Go everywhere and you will see agronomists,
you will see our
Agritex, extension officers who are well educated and they
give us these
estimates across the country.
SR: Are you perhaps
just believing these estimates because they are telling
you want to
hear?
RM: I travel. I travel, I travel quite a lot across the
country, there is no
corner of the country I don't know.
SR: You
have been applauded by the opposition even for your moves to fight
corruption. Is it not the case that the party has become corrupt under your
stewardship which is why in 2004 it has been adjudged that you are going to
have to move.
RM: Why the party? What are you talking
about?
SR: The Finance Minister has been saying .
RM:
These are corrupt individuals. I suppose you get corrupt individuals
across
the board. You are now telling me that your government is absolutely
pure,
without ..
SR: I am not representing our government, I am simply
asking questions.
RM: But I am putting it back to you, you have a
government in your country
and you get individuals who are corrupt
naturally. If you get them it
doesn't mean that everybody else is
corrupt.
SR: The chief communications of Zanu PF said to me that it
wasn't just ...
RM: Of where?
SR: Of Zanu P F, said it wasn't
just a disease it was actually an epidemic
of corruption and it was high
time it was addressed. You are addressing it,
but the question still
remains, how has corruption been able to develop.
RM: The same way as
it developed in other countries, surely you shouldn't
ask that question.
Corruption develops, the human being is greedy, in some
cases he wants to
enrich himself by adopting irregular methods of attaining
the wealth he
desire and this is what happens. There are thieves who think
the shortest
way to enriching themselves is by way of possessing that which
doesn't
belong to them.
SR: A regular allegation from the outside world is
that Mr President, you
are corrupt as well.
RM: Oh come on, come
on, come on.
SR: Can I move quickly on to the economy, I know we are
running short of
time here. I interviewed the Reserve Bank governor who does
seem to be a man
determined to turn things round but he has huge problems.
Inflation, 600%,
maybe more, maybe over 1000%. 40% contraction in the
economy between 1999
and 2003. You owe the IMF US$273 million and the World
Bank and the IMF will
no longer lend you any money. The economy is in a
right mess isn't it, Mr
President?
RM: It was, yes. It is now
improving, it is getting out of that mess, sure,
yes, with sanctions imposed
on us.
SR: The sanctions are mainly imposed upon individual members
of .
RM: No, no, no, no. This is a game where you don't understand
your Prime
Minister. What did he do? He said personal sanctions because that
was the
more acceptable form of sanctions to some of his allies but behind
us he
says no to countries, stop your aid and so on and don't invest and so
we
have had real sanctions, economic sanctions.
SR: But you don't
think your country's own economic mismanagement has been
perhaps compounded
by the land reform programme which took away a lot of
potential
exporters.
RM: No, if anything the land reform programme is going to
reinvigorate the
economy, get it to revive. Just now the revival that is
taking place is due
to that, to the fact that now this season is a good
season and agriculture
is going to yield quite a good percentage of our GDP
and so that we will
assist the process. Of course in the financial sector,
the measure we are
taking, the monetary policy that has been enunciated and
we are getting now
countries that belong to the other world than the Western
one, you know,
interested in us and .
SR: Yet the estimates are
that there are real concerns about direct foreign
investment isn't there,
because of the instability.
RM: We would rather not have Western
investment any more and we are going
East with China, we have the Tigers,
they are interested, India is
interested and I think we will get the
necessary investment coming from
those countries.
SR: One of your
good friends is the Libyan leader, were you surprised when
Tony Blair turned
up in his tent shaking his hand?
RM: Yes, yes I was, I was actually
surprised and I knew that the idea was
not just to get Libyan oil but also
to get Libya to desist from assisting
us.
SR: You think that's
his specific attempt to try and stop him.
RM: An attempt,
yes.
SR: But it does seem to have worked, the various deals that were
put in
place for fuel and . those have been put on the back
burner.
RM: No, we are still working together with Libya, he is still
a good friend
of ours in spite of that.
SR: What did you say to
him about Tony Blair?
RM: About Tony Blair? I said I was surprised
that he was meeting with Tony
Blair but of course they are entitled to have
relations with Britain. We do
have relations with Britain you know, British
Airways, I'm sure you flew by
them to here and they make lots of money
flying to Zimbabwe, enabling people
to go to the Victoria Falls. We have
nothing against the Britons as such, it
is just this one man who we think is
really an anachronism and should never
have been Prime
Minister.
SR: President Bush was asked this question recently, has he
made any
mistakes? He didn't give a very convincing answer, have you made
any
mistakes Mr President?
RM: Yes, I have and that is how I have
developed. You develop by making
mistakes that naturally you correct. If you
make mistake and don't correct
them then you won't develop at all. But the
mistakes must not be in the
majority, form the majority of your thinking, of
your actions, of your
deeds, they must be just the exception to the
positive, affirmative and
correct actions you take. Otherwise you are a
mistaken person the whole way
through and you become devil then. But I don't
think I have become that
devil. You judge yourself by firstly your ability
to achieve the goals you
set yourself, secondly by ensuring that in your
performance you have the
actions, the thinking and the co-operation of
others and then you judge your
performance that others also are able to
judge you and if your own judgement
of yourself is the same judgement as
others make of you, then you are a
happy man. But if you are gong to say I'm
right when others say you are
wrong, you will get self-opinionated and that
is what the likes of Bush and
Blair are, you see.
SR: President
Mugabe, thank you very much for joining Sky News.
RM: Thank you.
Zim Independent
SPEAKER of
Parliament John Nkomo and a delegation of MPs failed to travel to
Geneva,
Switzerland, to attend an Inter-Praliamentary Union (IPU) conference
last
week due to lack of foreign currency.
Official sources said Nkomo's team
could not travel to the meeting last
Friday because "parliament is broke"
and has no usable foreign currency.
The delegation was expected to
comprise, in addition to Nkomo, President
Robert Mugabe's nephew and Zanu PF
MP, Leo Mugabe, Margaret Zinyemba (Zanu
PF), Job Sikhala (MDC), and Gilbert
Shoko (MDC).
Sources said parliament, which has exhausted its budget,
could not raise the
required US$1 500 travel allowances for each of the
delegates.
"The delegation was supposed to leave on Friday morning
for Geneva (and be
away) until October 22," a source said. "Everything was
ready, including air
tickets and travel arrangements, but parliament failed
to raise US$7 500 for
allowances.
"Parliament is bankrupt," the
source said. "MPs haven't been paid their
sitting allowances for last month
as a result. This illustrates how bad the
current economic crisis
is."
However, another source said the trip could have been called off
for
political reasons. The source said the trip was cancelled because the
government was anxious to avoid a debate on its human rights
record.
The IPU, an international organisation of parliaments which
provides a forum
for political multilateral negotiations, had tabled
Zimbabwe's human rights
abuses on the agenda for debate.
"The
real reason why the trip was cancelled is government didn't want Zanu
PF MPs
grilled over their party's appalling human rights record," the source
said.
"Authorities also wanted to prevent MDC legislators from
speaking out on the
human rights situation in the
country."
Zimbabwe has been widely condemned for gross human rights
abuses, including
arbitrary arrests and detention of MPs. Dozens of MDC MPs
have been arrested
many times. So have journalists and civic
activists.
Sikhala alone has been arrested on various offences over
20 times. On one
occasion he was tortured while in police custody. He had to
seek medical
treatement abroad after his release. Mugabe promised General
Olusegun
Obasanjo in 2003 that Sikhala's torture was being investigated but
nothing
has been done. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro
HARARE City Council will once again miss the deadline to submit its
annual
budget for approval by its parent ministry, the Zimbabwe Independent
heard
this week.
Highly placed sources at Town House said council was
still in the process of
compiling the estimates figures. Under normal
circumstances the budget
should have passed through the processes of
stakeholder consultation and be
ready for presentation to the Local
Government ministry for approval.
"Council have not even started
consulting stakeholders," the sources said
this week. "After consultations
and compilation of estimates, Council would
have to advertise the budget and
wait for a month to receive objections from
stakeholders."
Last
month Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo said all local
authorities
were expected to have submitted their budgets to the ministry by
October
31.
Meanwhile, the Sekesai Makwavarara-led commission running the
affairs of the
city has approved a $2 trillion revised budget for the year
2005 which would
see all rates increase by at least 100%. The increases
would be effected at
the beginning of November and at the beginning of next
year.
Proposed increases advertised in the Herald yesterday show
rentals for
houses in the high-density suburbs rising from $70 000 to $120
000 in
November, then to $204 000 at the beginning of the
year.
Burial expenses are expected to rise from the current $500 000
to $881 500
and $1,4 million by November and the beginning of the year
respectively.
The commission have also approved the hiking of
hospital fees from the
current $40 000 to $80 000 by November. They jump to
$200 000 by January
next year.
For all other rates and services
the commission has approved a minimum 100%
increase.
Zim Independent
Ray
Matikinye
ZIMBABWE'S failure to learn from economic disasters that befell
other states
that expropriated land led to its swift slide from a plum
investment
destination in 1980 to one of the grimmest places on earth, a
recent study
says.
Land seizures after 2000 and total disregard for
property rights have
converged to haul Zimbabwe into an economic cesspool
contrary to claims by
Harare and aid agencies that blame the drought for the
country's economic
woes, the study says.
The study by Craig
Richardson, associate Professor of Economics at Salem
College in the US,
disproves assertions by the IMF, the UN, and the
Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) which blame
"severe drought" in 2001/2
along with a host of other factor, including
Aids, poor fiscal and monetary
policies, and rigid price controls - for
causing much of the food shortages
and resulting economic difficulties.
Richardson estimates that from
1999 to 2000, more than US$5 billion in
wealth which included the total
revenue from all commercial farm production
vanished from the agricultural
sector.
During 2000 the value of the commercial farmland dropped
dramatically by
US$5,3 billion and changed into "dead capital" because it
lost its value as
collateral security.
With banks now holding
worthless titles and unable to foreclose on
properties, 13 of Zimbabwe's 41
banking institutions were in financial
crisis by late 2004, Richardson
says.
He notes that before 1997, an average of 1 600 tractors were
sold each year
throughout Zimbabwe, with farmland used as
collateral.
By 2002, total national sales dropped by more than 1 590
tractors to only
eight.
Gross private capital formation, once a
healthy 20% of GDP in 1995, fell to
minus 6,7% in 2002 as farming equipment
was looted, destroyed, or sold, and
new farmers saw little reason to invest
in tobacco barns or tillage
equipment.
The study shows Zimbabwe's
economy contracted by 5% in 2000, 8% in 2001 and
by 12% in 2002, peaking at
an estimated 18% in 2003 while inflation
spiralled to 500%, forcing the
Zimbabwean dollar to lose more than 99% of
its real exchange
value.
Currently the inflation rate stands at 359,29% and is still
rising.
"Land reforms alone were responsible for an estimated 12,5%
average annual
decline in GDP growth," Richardson says. "Rainfall played a
minimal role in
the GDP contraction."
He says of the 15 countries
in his study that undertook arbitrary seizure of
property, nine had negative
growth rates. These included Chad (- 6,1 %),
Liberia (- 4,0 %), and Zaire
(-5,1%).
Richardson says after the revoking of commercial farm
property titles, the
aggregate value of Zimbabwean farmland dropped so
quickly that the net loss
in one year was nearly three and a half times
larger than all the World Bank
aid ever given to Zimbabwe.
This
loss in wealth rippled throughout the economy, severely strained the
banking
sector, and led to a rapid downward spiral in the economy.
Last month
Zimbabwe further consolidated its land seizures by enacting the
Constitutional Amendment Bill No 17, which effectively nationalised all
agricultural land. The amendment curtailed owners' rights to contest the
acquisition of their farmland in the courts.
The study
illustrates Zimbabwe's collapse by showing how the damage to
property rights
destroyed three key components of the marketplace: investor
trust, land
equity, and entrepreneurial knowledge and incentives.
"There are
three effects of attenuating private property rights that
ultimately change
individuals' perceptions in a drastic way," Richardson
says. "First, there
is the loss of trust in the government to enforce the
law, which
dramatically affects foreign investors' views of the country.
Second, the
loss of property titles dramatically limits the amount of
borrowing and
entrepreneurial activity by disrupting the banking sector.
Individuals no
longer can offer banks their property as collateral for a
loan. Third, there
is the loss in the incentive to pass along
entrepreneurial knowledge, and
work initiatives are sharply stymied as well,
since one's investment is not
retained."
Richardson says by 1996, Zimbabwe's equity markets on the
ZSE were surging
with more than half the top 35 sub-Saharan companies
(excluding South
African groups, which are listed separately) coming from
Zimbabwe.
More importantly, their combined market capitalisation more
than doubled to
$2,6 billion from $1,2 billion. Zimbabwe was one of top
performers in the
world's emerging markets and a new favourite of
investors.
Yet in 1998, the stock market began to plunge mainly
because of loss of
confidence in the government, including the government's
publicly stated
intention to acquire commercial farms for resettlement. At
the end of 1998,
the value of stocks traded on the ZSE had dropped by
88%.
Foreign investors became increasingly concerned with the Mugabe
government's
willful disregard of the law. Between 1998 and 2001, foreign
direct
investment dropped by 99%, the study reveals.
Zim Independent
Grace
Kombora
GOVERNMENT will go ahead with O and A-level examinations this month
although
a lot of question papers have already leaked after exam papers fell
off a
vehicle and scattered along Simon Mazorodze road last week.
Eye
witnesses this week told the Zimbabwe Independent that exam papers that
were
being transported fell off a vehicle at a traffic circle along the
Harare-Masvingo road outside Harare and were picked up by members of the
public.
The vehicle's tailgate accidentally unhinged releasing
cartons containing
examination envelopes, sources said.
The
Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council (Zimsec) tried to underplay the
incident saying the issue could be best discussed after the
exams.
Zimsec director Happy Ndanga confirmed the incident but said
exams will
proceed at the scheduled dates despite the fact the papers had
already
leaked.
"It is in the national interest that the
examination proceeds with minimal
publicity," Ndanga said. "We therefore do
not mind discussing the issue
after November 22.
"The situation
you referred to in your letter is under control. We are
dealing directly
with examination centres. The examination will proceed as
planned, following
the original scheduled dates," he said. "Nothing will
change as far as
candidates are concerned."
He said everything was being done to
safeguard the integrity of the November
examinations and to ensure that
candidates were not prejudiced.
The incident has heightened anxiety
among parents over the number of cases
of examination paper leaks. This year
exam papers have reportedly been sold
in the high-density suburb of Glen
Norah and could have been disseminated to
other provinces by
now.
Question paper leakages and mix-ups of results have
characterised the
running of exams over the past four years since the
implementation of a
populist decision by the government to localise O-level
and A-level exams in
2001.
The continued leaking of exam papers
from Zimsec is now a cause for serious
concern and has impacted negatively
on the credibility of the local
examinations board. It has raised questions
about the integrity of
Zimbabwe's examination system with other countries
refusing to recognise
certificates issued by Zimsec.
There have
also been instances of serious mix-ups in the issuing of results
with some
candidates getting grades in subjects they did not sit for whilst
others
failed to get marks for subjects they had written.
Zim Independent
Godfrey
Marawanyika
HAVING managed to weave his way into Wankie Colliery and the
Rainbow Tourism
Group (RTG), British businessman Nicholas van Hoogstraten
plans to spend £2
million (about $91 billion at the official exchange rate
of $45 500 to the
pound) buying shares on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE),
businessdigest
heard this week.
The stock exchange's capitalisation
stands at $98 billion. With £2 million
therefore, van Hoogstraten will
easily control a number of stocks on the
bourse.
Market
capitalisation refers to the total value of all outstanding shares in
a
listed counter.
Van Hoogstraten's investment drive compares
favourably with that of Jiao
Ming, a Chinese businessman who was a big
spender on the bourse in the late
1990s.
Old Mutual, Pretoria
Portland Cement (PPC) and Delta now hold about 45% of
the total market
capitalisation on the bourse.
The Briton, a savvy businessman, does
most of his transactions by fax,
though on a few occasions he visits
brokers.
Company executives described van Hoogstraten as a "cunning
person, who
changes moods all the time".
Once heralded as
Britain's youngest millionaire, van Hoogstraten has not
made a secret of his
robust approach to business.
He has homes in Barbados, St Lucia,
Florida, Cannes and Zimbabwe and has
reportedly spoken warmly of Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe, whom he once
described as "100% decent and
incorruptible".
Van Hoogstraten could not be reached for comment at
the time of going to
press.
In the RTG rights issue, he became
the biggest individual investor using his
company - Messina Investments - to
buy 35 727 640 shares, representing 2,17%
shareholding.
This came
after the failure to exercise rights by French group Accor Afrique
and the
Libyan Arab Africa Investment Company.
Accor and Laaico have reduced
their stake to 9,08% and 3,65% respectively.
Previously, Accor Afrique and
Laaico had 34,20% and 13,84% shareholdings
respectively.
In
Wankie, van Hoogstraten is the largest individual shareholder with a
12,66%
stake through the same company.
He is also understood to be a
significant shareholder in Willoughby
Consolidated, a UK-registered company
which has a 1,41% stake in Wankie.
Government has the largest stake
of 38% in the coal-extracting firm.
The tycoon triggered shockwaves
in the banking sector in August when he
announced that he had a controlling
stake in NMB Bank at 20%.
He also has an interest in the group
through Edward Nominees.
Analysts said van Hoogstraten's investment -
if it materialises - would be a
source of much-needed foreign currency. They
also called it a windfall for
the investor, considering the collapse of the
Zimbabwean currency.
Van Hoogstraten's land holdings in Zimbabwe were
left untouched during the
farm invasions allegedly because of his close
connections with Mugabe.
Born in 1946 in Shoreham, East Sussex, as
plain Nicholas Marcel
Hoogstraten - the "van" was added later - by the time
he was 22, he was
reputed to have had 350 properties in Sussex alone and to
have become
Britain's youngest millionaire.
Zim Independent
IN a major
policy shift, the government has agreed to float the exchange
rate, thus
effectively doing away with the RBZ auction system.
The auction system
has been in place for 22 months during which it failed to
increase foreign
currency inflows.
Insiders at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said they
had "struggled" to get
the nod from government to float the
currency.
In his third-term monetary policy presentation yesterday,
Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gonosaid in line with market developments as
well as
inflation trends, the auction rate had been allowed to periodically
adjust
to support exporters.
"Against this background of incisive
inputs from stakeholders, as well as
the growing need for allowance of the
interplay of market forces in
promoting allocative efficiencies in the
foreign exchange market, it has
become necessary that, with immediate
effect, a new foreign exchange
management system be introduced," Gono
said.
"Under this framework, which replaces the existing auction
system, the
Tradable Foreign Currency System, all exporters will retain 70%
of their
export proceeds in foreign currency, and sell the remaining 30% at
the
official auction rate determined and announced to the market from time
to
time."
Initially, Gono said the rate would be set at the
prevailing exchange rate
of US$1:$26 000.
Under the new system,
corporate FCA balances would be retained for up to 30
days, after which the
unutilised remainder would be liquidated onto the
interbank
market.
Holders of free funds, including individuals, embassies,
international
organisations and Zimbabweans in the diaspora, can sell their
foreign
exchange in the interbank market at the market
rate.
However, all importers, save for government and other strategic
and social
payments, will access foreign exchange from the interbank market
at the
market rate.
The new policy, which analysts expect to
increase inflows of foreign
currency into the formal system, is bound to
catch a number of banks unaware
as most of them had long abandoned the use
of foreign exchange electronic
boards.
Another challenge is to
determine the interbank rate.
The International Monetary Fund has
said there is need to eliminate foreign
exchange restrictions, multiple
currency rates and surrender requirements.
The IMF recommended that
as a first step towards unification of the exchange
rate, the official
exchange rate should be depreciated substantially by
60-65% based on the
June data. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Roadwin
Chirara
RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono yesterday revised his
year-end
inflation targets to 280-300% from the previous estimate of 50-80%.
In his
monetary policy statement, Gono set a new target of 50-80% by
December 2006.
"The upward trend is, however, expected to slow down
during the last quarter
of the year with annual inflation expected to reach
levels of 280-300% by
December this year and of between 50-80% by December
2006," Gono said.
The latest revision comes against a backdrop of
massive price increases
which have pushed up the month-on-month inflation to
359,8% for September
from 265,6%.
Gono also blamed the current
surge in inflation on the errant behaviour of
some sectors of the
economy.
"These targets will be achievable if we all play our part
and do not cause
some "tsunamis" in our daily behaviours, our policy
pronouncement (and)
spending patterns.
"Do not continue to play
the parallel market, destroy productive
infrastructure and desist from
smuggling out gold and other precious metals;
avoid all actions which will
diminish foreign currency inflows," said Gono.
"Avoid actions that
will diminish productivity efforts and thus adversely
affect our fight
against inflation," Gono said.
He said the central bank was putting
in place a tight liquidity management
programme to reduce money supply
growth as part of efforts to fight
inflation.
"Excessive growth in
money supply remains a major factor underlining the
resurgence in inflation
in the economy and as a firm response to this, the
Reserve Bank has put in
place a tight management programme supported by
positive real interest rates
to curtail any further inflationary monetary
growth," said
Gono.
He said continued increases in prices of basic foodstuffs had
been
identified as a major driver of the country's
inflation.
"Accounting for 32% of the country's total consumer price
index (CPI), the
food component is a major driver which deserves the focal
attention of every
Zimbabwean if the inflation scourge is to be tamed," Gono
said.
Analysts however warned that the central bank was unlikely to
meet its
revised inflation targets due to the worsening economic
situation.
Annual inflation ended last year at 132,7% against a
revised target of
150%-150%, which Gono had set.
In his monetary
policy in October the same year, the governor declared that
inflation was
going to slow down to between 30-50% by December this year.
Sensing
that he was conquering it, in January this year Gono then revised
the figure
to close the year at 20-35%.
On May 19, he was forced to revise the
figures again saying it would end the
year at between 50-80%.
He
blamed drought for failure to meet the target.
A recent International
Monetary Fund (IMF) report forecast Zimbabwe's
inflation to end the year at
320%. The damning report by the fund accused
the central bank of stroking
the figures by printing more money.
It noted that government's
expenditure, the Reserve Bank's quasi-fiscal
activities and Operation
Murambatsvina were the major contributors to
runaway inflation.
Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro
GOVERNMENT has shifted the onus to revive agriculture and feed the
nation to
A1 and communal farmers by supplying them with key inputs ahead of
commercial farmers.
Presenting his third monetary policy statement
yesterday, Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono said government would now shift
attention from
commercial farmers and give priority to resettled and
communal farmers.
"In a bid to ensure food security, a facility of $1
trillion has been put in
place to support A1 and communal farmers with seeds
and fertiliser for
growing maize and sorghum," Gono said.
He said
government had difficulties in sourcing foreign currency to import
grain to
feed the nation.
"We call upon all relevant arms of government to
ensure that these funds are
productively utilised, so as to guarantee food
security, as well as
forestall the potential inflationary effects of the
disbursements."
Over the past five years food imports have been
gobbling up to 45% of
Zimbabwe's imports.
"It is against this
background that we urge the nation to ensure that this
season becomes a
success, because a repeat of the food deficit we are
experiencing this year
will have serious consequences on the socio-economic
and political wellbeing
of the country," Gono said.
"For all maize, rapoko, sorghum and other
small grains grown and sold to the
Grain Marketing Board, the RBZ is setting
aside an import-substitution fund
in the form of an incentive of $2
million/tonne for deliveries between
February and May 2006 and $1,5
million/tonne for deliveries between June and
July. The incentive will be
over and above the selling price," he said.
Gono also denounced the
current wave of farm invasions and called on the
authorities to take action
against the criminals so as to attract
investments.
"Our abhorrence
against the reported current land invasions stems, not from
diminished
patriotism or revulsion towards land reform," Gono said. "We
support the
landless people of this country. In so doing we are not blind to
the fact
that it was not land for the sake of having it and merely looking
at it that
mattered to our liberators. It was not about having vast pieces
of land and
using them as braai spots and weekend picnic venues."
He said the
liberation struggle and land reform sought to empower
Zimbabweans
economically through utilising the land's potential to create
jobs, generate
foreign currency and produce food.
"That is how former holders of
land used to employ that land; they used the
land to economically empower
themselves, their kith and kin, and hence,
became a very powerful
socio-economic bloc and political pillars of the
government of the
day.
"They also created institutions that ensured financing,
logistics, training
and proper land use, surveillance through the extension
workers and land
inspectors; things we are not doing efficiently today,
hence the low yields
of half a tonne per hectare."
Gono said
there was need to get rid of overt criminal practices such as the
recent
farm invasions which undermined the gains of land reform.
"Our
collective tolerance for such retrogressive acts can only go to condemn
and
limit our capacity to attract investment in the key sectors of our
economy,"
he said.
He also said "successful investment attraction can only be
achieved through
unreserved assurance to the international investor
community of utmost
security of their assets".
Zim Independent
Eric Chiriga
THE Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe says total government debt has grown by an
unsustainable 1
037%.
Presenting his monetary policy statement for the third quarter
2005, RBZ
governor Gideon Gono said government debt had contributed to the
249% annual
growth in money supply, which fuelled inflation.
From
1998 to 2004, the average proportion to domestic credit of government
debt
was rising from 23%, to 24,6% (1999), 32,4% (2000), 41,6% (2001), 32,5%
(2002) and declined somewhat to 22,4% and 17,6% in 2003 and 2004
respectively.
It currently stands at 37,5%.
Gono said
the increase in the credit to government reflects mainly grain
imports
against the background of the current drought as well as fuel
imports.
The annual growth in credit in the private sector was
302,5% in August 2004
before declining to 134,4% in December 2004 and 60% in
June 2005.
But the private sector continues to command the biggest share
of domestic
credit, averaging about 70% of total domestic credit in the late
90s through
to 2004.
The average private sector credit for 2005
stood at 55,3%.
Gono said annual credit to public enterprises grew by
660,6% in August this
year, reflecting disbursements made under the
Parastatal Reorientation
Programme and the Local Authorities Reorientation
Programme.
Some of the institutions that were given money under the
LARP include Air
Zimbabwe, Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe and National
Railways of
Zimbabwe who got $509,4 billion, $73,4 billion and $69 billion
respectively.
Gono said annual growth in reserve money that had
declined from 383% in July
2005 to 235% in August increased to 285% in
September 2005.
"In absolute terms, reserve money growth increased
from$6,4 trillion in July
2005 to $7,3 trillion in September 2005," Gono
said.
He said the growth in reserve money emanated from the
significant increase
in demand, which increased from $4,8 trillion in July
2005 to $6,5 trillion
in September 2005.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
Vincent
Kahiya
PRESIDENT Bingu wa Mutharika has declared a national disaster in
Malawi. He
has also launched an international appeal for food assistance for
nearly
five million of his countrymen facing starvation.
Malawi
recorded a huge cereal deficit this season due to a combination of
drought,
a shortage of fertiliser and other inputs.
All this should have a
familiar ring in Zimbabwe except for one thing: we
are ashamed to launch an
international appeal for food aid because we are
not ordinary victims of
inclement weather patterns. We are the proud owners
of our land and part
authors of our national catastrophe.
There is another difference. As
I was passing by TM supermarket in the Kopje
area on Tuesday, I noticed that
people no longer buy maize-meal inside the
shop. They use the dirty sanitary
lane facing Speke Avenue behind the shop -
away from the glare of the
public.
We have not only bungled national food security, we are also
in denial about
the resultant shortages. Talking about food shortage in
public carries
nearly as much stigma as being HIV-positive.
I was
immediately reminded of President Robert Mugabe's long interview with
Sky
News in May last year (see Page 11) in which he denied that the country
faced food shortages or that people were starving. We are living
dangerously; our leaders are living a lie and putting innocent people's
lives at serious risk.
There is an emerging pattern of a
president far removed from our earthly
realities. In that interview
President Mugabe claimed the country would
produce 2,3 million tonnes of
maize and that there would definitely be no
need for imports.
He
predicted a bumper harvest and a surplus and told NGOs to take their food
assistance where it was more needed. Zimbabweans did not want to choke on so
much food, he said.
As it turned out, the harvest was less than a
million tonnes and the country
has been importing maize ever since.
(Incidentally, the interviewer, Stuart
Ramsey, has a standing invitation
from the president to revisit Zimbabwe.)
Mugabe followed up that
fiction this year in New York with claims that there
were plenty of potatoes
and rice to feed the nation. We still don't know the
source of that
information, but that is not the issue here.
There is a very real
danger of a president who is told what he wants to hear
regardless of the
truth on the ground. Those who gave Mugabe those
fictitious figures knew
what he wanted to hear. He then proceeded to make
national decisions and
pronouncements on the basis of that fiction.
Already, we are being
told that this year's harvest is going to better than
last year's in spite
of the seed, fertiliser and fuel situation being worse
than it has ever been
in the past five years!
Operation Murambatsvina offers us the
clearest danger of a president living
in the world of misinformation as
opposed to reality. New African magazine
editor Baffour Ankomah stunned
Zimbabweans with revelations that the whole
military-style operation was
inspired by paranoia, a rumour that there was
an imminent uprising against
Mugabe and his government.
The solution was to destroy all possible
trouble spots in urban areas. The
upshot was the destruction of hundreds of
homes and displacement of
thousands of people countrywide.
It is
not for us to dispute Ankomah's claims, except to say that government
has
not offered a more plausible explanation for the brutal
operation.
Finance minister Herbert Murerwa said there was never a budget
for the
operation. The slow progress of Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle
bears
testimony to that if any were needed.
So the nation is
still in the dark about the motives of those who fed Mugabe
the fiction of a
foreign-instigated rebellion. What is now known is that
Mugabe proceeded to
act on the basis of that dangerous rumour without
cabinet
approval.
Unfortunately, and more importantly, in so-doing Mugabe was
isolated from
the herd the way predators of the wild isolate a buffalo
before killing it.
In seeking to achieve absolute power, he has
unconstitutionally and
unwittingly yielded that power to sinister forces
that have taken him
hostage.
They have an agenda and information that
he apparently doesn't have.
There is a danger of an elected executive
president assuming titular status
after ceding all power to security agents
engaged in an internecine
succession war, using unorthodox means to shape
the destiny of the country.
All this because Mugabe will not admit failure
or that the land reform so
far has failed to assure national food
security.
The question is: what other misleading information is
Mugabe fed every day?
Are these the same intelligence sources that inform
him about the
performance of the economy and the fuel situation which he
promised two
weeks ago would soon improve?
Is it the same lying
sources reporting of progress on Operation Garikai but
will not allow the
media to view the construction projects? Why are
thousands of people still
living in the open along Mukuvisi River?
I would like to end with
Mugabe's evaluation of himself in the Sky News
interview. Asked if he had
made mistakes, he answered in the affirmative,
but said his overall score
was positive.
"You judge yourself by firstly your ability to achieve
the goals you set
yourself, secondly by ensuring that in your performance
you have the
actions, the thinking and the co-operation of others and then
you judge your
performance that others also are able to judge you and if
your own judgement
of yourself is the same judgement as others make of you,
then you are a
happy man. But if you are going to say I'm right when others
say you are
wrong, you will get self-opinionated . . ."
Indeed,
Mr President.
Zim Independent
Ray
Matikinye
THE low-level conflict that emerged from the Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC)'s national executive council meeting last Wednesday
over whether or
not to participate in the forthcoming election for a revived
senate has cast
a long shadow over the party's ability to forge a united
front to fight Zanu
PF.
The squabbles threaten to tear apart the
six-year-old opposition party that
has mounted the sternest challenge yet to
President Robert Mugabe's 25-year
grip on power.
An announcement by
party leader Morgan Tsvangirai against participation
after the meeting and a
countermand by information secretary Paul Themba
Nyathi have confirmed
public perceptions of widening divisions in the
opposition movement due to
blurred policies.
Tsvangirai, who has in the past been blamed for
electoral losses and lack of
leadership qualities, is unwilling to repeat
past mistakes that placed the
party at a disadvantage by contesting
elections on a lopsided playing field.
"Our reasons for calling for a
boycott of senatorial elections are
well-grounded," he said in a statement.
"The electoral management system in
Zimbabwe is still a recipe for political
disasters. The system breeds
illegitimate outcomes and provides for a
predetermined result."
Opposition supporters are as divided as the
leaders themselves on how to
deal with the impasse. But Tsvangirai seems to
have invested heavily in the
belief that the electorate wants no further
collaboration with a system that
is institutionally flawed.
"Given
our experience in the past six years, the party's new thrust is to
turn the
corner, to chart a new direction against the dictatorship," he
said. "We are
engaged in a full-scale organisational programme to build
people power and
confidence to take on Zanu PF."
An insider said Tsvangirai had every
right to differ with his lieutenants
because the party's constitution
mandated him to make subjective decisions
if he felt this was in the
interests of the party.
"The buck stops with Tsvangirai. He is expected
to take drastic measures to
hold the party together," one insider said. "He
cannot be seen to be
repeating the same thing all over again and getting the
same result. He is
prepared to be lynched at congress if need
be."
Tsvangirai could have taken a huge gamble and put his head on the
block by
differing with his colleagues and allowing the standoff to widen
the chasm
in the MDC and erode confidence which was slowly rebuilding after
a messy
youth revolt following the March election. He is convinced none of
his
lieutenants has the wherewithal to call for an extraordinary congress or
break ranks to form a new political party in the short period before the
senatorial election.
But party legal secretary David Coltart said he
hoped the issue would be
resolved amicably.
"People should not liken
difference of opinion to factional divisions,"
Coltart said.
He said
the majority of the party's grassroots support was for
participation.
"They say they have no other means of expressing their
anger against the
government other than going for it just to spite Zanu PF.
They also say if
we don't participate we yield ground in areas where Zanu PF
has no chance of
winning votes," Coltart said.
This reasoning might
be useful in stopping Mugabe from bringing in
"deadwood" members of the
politburo who do not sit in parliament and would
benefit from an MDC
boycott.
They could then assist Mugabe in his succession plans. Mugabe is
unsure if
the Emmerson Mnangagwa camp will support his retirement plan and
so he needs
an acquiescent old guard buttressing him in
parliament.
The MDC's taking part in the election could stop serial
losers such as
Sithembiso Nyoni from strolling into the senate unchallenged
in as much as
it could kill the hopes of Dumiso Dabengwa, Dzikamai Mavhaire,
Edgar Tekere
or Irene Zindi of going into the upper chamber.
Other
victims could be the candidates for Harare and Chitungwiza who are
likely to
stand in urban constituencies where the MDC has a lot of voter
clout and
risk losing if the MDC participates.
But Coltart said even then,
supporters felt the election was an expensive
farce particularly in the
light of the MDC having voted against the
establishment of the
senate.
"Whatever decision we take would be a disaster," Coltart said,
discounting
speculation that the senate issue would exacerbate discontent in
the party.
Analysts say the financial demands of an election campaign,
including
supervision and monitoring against fraud, could have persuaded the
MDC
leader against participation.
While there are 50 senatorial seats
at stake, the poll needs as much energy
and resources as a general election
as the number of polling stations
remains the same. The Political Parties
(Finance) Act does not cater for
senatorial elections.
While the
ruling party can tap into government resources such as vehicles
and fuel for
campaign purposes, the opposition has to finance its campaign
from own
resources which have been heavily depleted by protracted court
battles
arising from past electoral challenges. Zanu PF can also rely on the
state
media to place a gloss on its threadbare propaganda.
Unlike in March,
there won't be international observers to monitor the poll.
Zimbabwe
Election Support
Network chairman Reginald Matchaba-Hove said his
organisation would not
provide support services due to financial
constraints.
"We are unprepared for the senate which will not have any
powers. We have
not budgeted for it because it has come so soon after the
March election and
we don't see how parties can participate effectively with
the current fuel
shortage," Matchaba-Hove said.
Zim Independent
By Chido Makunike
IN
recent years we have become accustomed to the amazing belligerence
expressed
in the statements of public officials in Zimbabwe.
In most normal
societies, politicians go out of their way to at least give
the appearance
of being persuasive, concerned about, and heeding concerns of
the
public.
In Zimbabwe however, it seems that politicians and public
officials compete
for attention on the basis of how they can defy public
sentiment and get
away with it.
For instance, to appear "tough"
in an old-fashioned, bullying way seems more
important than to come up with
a well-thought-out position on any issue of
public interest and then selling
and defending it to the voters on its
merits.
The "toughness"
that has become an overriding concern to project, even at
the expense of
problem-solving, permeates from the very top of the ruling
structure to the
bottom.
Many people have spoken out on how the police not only
carried out President
Robert Mugabe's universally-condemned Operation
Murambatsvina campaign of
official terrorism with speed and efficiency that
is unusual for them, but
with great enthusiasm.
At the bottom we
had the police doing the actual destruction and beatings
with a puzzling
sadism, yet they were socially and economically in the same
boat as their
victims.
At the top we had violent, abusive public pronouncements
from top police
officials in addition to those from ministers, city council
officials and so
forth.
There was no logic at all that what they said
and how they acted reflected
any sense that they thought of themselves as
officials whose primary
responsibility was to the public. Instead, one got
the feeling that they
were all competing for the attention of President
Mugabe, whose propensity
for violence is well-documented.
They
were more concerned about how shrilly they showed their allegiance to,
and
support for him by how much they issued negative, corrosive statements
that
were abusive and contemptuous of the public, just like President Mugabe
himself often does.
So this negative has become a way of
competing for attention from a ruler
his officials know respects the
language and the physical expression of
belligerence and
violence.
In the media one listens to, or reads the words of Mugabe
propagandists like
George Charamba, Tafataona Mahoso and others and marvels
at the level of
venom and anger in them, over and above robustly expressed
opinions.
If these men are so sure and convinced that their side is
right and
supported by the majority, why do they sound so angry and
defensive all the
time?
Why do they not seem more calm, secure and
confident in their posturing?
Even if President Mugabe's propensity
for the abusive language and violence
he is now widely associated with is
not new, it has become much worse in
recent years. Part of this is his
enraged response to becoming more helpless
to stop or reverse the
unravelling of all the things that made Zimbabwe such
a highly-functional
country.
When things seemed to be working, and before the majority of
Zimbabweans had
turned against him, he could afford to project a facade of a
calm and secure
statesman at peace with himself.
But even back
then, we would get glimpses of the real person beneath the
facade in his
outbursts of violent, destructive rage when he felt humiliated
or threatened
by a strong challenge of one kind or another.
Then he would give
orders to his goons to unleash their own frustrations,
jealousies and
resentments by going out and having a good time beating up
and imprisoning
one group or another of citizens.
When he really felt the
"disobedience" against him was more egregious than
could be dealt with by
such relatively mild means, we had a lot of people
dying, houses destroyed
and people's lives turned upside down.
Many people have pondered why
a person who on the surface seems reasonably
intelligent, would engage in
such behaviour that would attract negative
reactions and inevitably earn
condemnation.
Perhaps he can no longer help himself. The seeds of
violence and notoriety
may have simply grown too big and addictive to
overcome despite whatever
remnants of his rational mind tells him in calmer,
more rational moments.
But then one could ask how many rational
moments there can be after looking
around at the havoc and destruction he
has wrought, the withdrawal of the
respect and sense of importance he
craves?
Perhaps raw, negative emotion then becomes the main drivers
of one's words
and actions.
Naturally, after every such episode
there would be howls of local and
international outrage. But it was almost
like the compulsion to exorcise
this deep well of rage and destructiveness
could not be resisted.
It was as if the resultant misery and pitiful
pleas for relief from
beatings, destruction and killing campaigns acted like
a catharsis, a way to
temporarily relieve a deep, sick and destructive
itch.
The protests against these periodic outbursts of rage that have
seen so many
perish and suffer at the hands of President Mugabe and his
whole apparatus
of power, only seemed to feed the compulsion for importance,
notice and
attention.
Rather than act as a brake on more
excesses, condemnation and international
revulsion seem to only feed the
megalomania and recklessness.
It is interesting to reflect on how
personal pathologies cannot only consume
and destroy the essence of the
person they afflict, but destroy nations as
well.
* Chido
Makunike is a Zimbabwean who writes from cyberspace.
Zim Independent
By Denford
Magora
WHY should the people of Zimbabwe believe anything government tells
us,
especially during the Senate election campaign?
Anyone with at
least one brain cell can look back to the March election and
examine the
promises made to realise that, not only have none of Zanu PF's
election
promises been fulfilled, but also that government has made no
effort
whatsoever to fulfill them.
If anything, it would appear that
government and the ruling party are
actually going around with a hammer in
hand, smashing to smithereens any
evidence of putative
recovery.
Let us also not forget that the current runaway inflation
and
intensification of our hardships started as a result of wanton and
wasteful
expenditure by government in the run-up to, and during the March
election
when inflation started picking up.
This time around, war
collaborators are being given more free money and the
Senate itself will
also be a big contributor to the rise in inflation.
Because parties
are elected on the basis of their records, let us look at
the promises made
in the Zanu PF manifestos and those made by the president
of this country
himself during the parliamentary election.
Examining these promises
will provide us with a clue as to whether we should
take President Mugabe
and his people seriously.
Luckily, Zanu PF provided a summarised list
of promises in garish, huge,
full colour adverts which they placed in
newspapers as they campaigned.
These adverts is reproduced promised
an end to:
* factory closures;
* withholding of
commodities;
* price increases;
* sanctions;
*
"No safe haven" for corrupt bankers and
* no disruption to fuel
supplies.
The list also promised "a faster economic turnaround and
more foreign
currency inflows".
After you have finished laughing,
consider this: when Zanu PF placed this
joke in the newspapers in the run-up
to the election, we assumed they had a
plan to achieve
them.
Inflation at the time was going down and, sure enough, the
ruling party, as
soon as it was elected, turned inflation around so that it
started
skyrocketing again.
As for the claim that there would be
an end to price increases, we know that
prices have shot up to levels
unimaginable in the run-up to the March
election. Commodities are still in
short supply, withheld by "racists" or
not.
As for bankers not
finding a safe haven, we all know how that has
progressed, with some people
rumoured to actually have been helped to skip
the country by the ruling
party or its functionaries.
And this thing about "more foreign
currency inflows"?
As soon as they got elected, the ruling party
started telling us that there
was no foreign currency inflows coming into
the country.
Not only that, but they also apparently could not do
anything about it. So
we had to accept this excuse and forget about the
election promise.
After all, it was just a promise made insincerely
and everyone should have
known that at the time.
Fuel supplies,
disrupted by racists or not, have now completely dried up.
The ruling
party also talked about the desire to end sanctions. What they
did not say
is that their plan to "end sanctions" consisted of merely asking
(MDC
leader) Morgan Tsvangirai to use his immense power and influence with
the
Western powers to get this done.
All these promises were clearly not
worth the paper they were written on.
Let us hear no justification about
what Tony Blair and George Bush are
doing, and to whom.
President
Mugabe and Zanu PF knew their status in the eyes of the world when
they made
these promises. Either the promises factored in those challenges
and
government had a plan to overcome them, or they were insincere. We all
know
what the truth is.
So, what hope is there when our own leaders treat
us like idiots with
amnesia?
In the light of these broken
promises, why should the educated people of
this country listen anymore to
anything the president and his self-serving
friends (or should I call them
fiends) have to promise this time?
Faith has been shattered,
naturally. Those who cast their votes for Zanu PF
now realise that not only
were they led up a garden path, but they were also
used, lied to and taken
for buffoons.
It is bloody cheek then, is it not, for the same liars
to come back to the
electorate and ask for votes again, and with a straight
face?
Would it be too much to expect at least some shame? Remorse?
Less
hard-headedness?
It appears it would be too much to expect
indeed.
So, what do we do then?
In the rural areas, the
party has fudged the issue so successfully that
villagers now don't know the
difference between ineptitude and Blair.
But in the cities, the decay
is felt most acutely. The lies are exposed
within a matter of days. It is
here that the people should really humiliate
Zanu PF.
Even those who
normally vote for this corpse of a party should be urged to
show their
displeasure at being taken for a bumpy ride.
Ideally, the ruling
party should get less than half a percentage point of
the urban
vote.
Ruling party lackeys at cell, district and provincial levels
should all deny
the party their votes. Whether they vote for another party
or candidate, or
not at all, is immaterial.
Only this will prove
to the insular, out-of-touch leadership of this country
that the people are
indeed incandescent with rage.
This government provides nothing for
the people now except comic
entertainment. Unfortunately, no nation can
survive on comic entertainment
alone. What we need is
substance.
On the evidence of these broken promises, any last
fig-leaves of credibility
it had, disappeared in the aftermath of the March
parliamentary election.
The government can force people to fear it,
but it can never force people to
love it as they did in the 1980s. That is
gone forever. But it appears that
the ruling party has decided that it is
better to be feared than loved.
It's pure Machiavelli, but it is also
outdated. This party will live to
regret this decision, as surely as night
follows day.
* Denford Magora is a Harare-based marketing
executive.
Zim Independent
By
Bill Saidi
LAST May, the government launched Operation
Murambatsvina that
everybody in the country came to know as The
Tsunami.
Five months earlier, there had been a massive earthquake
on the Indian
Ocean floor and the subsequent tsunami had killed 140 000
people and
rendered millions homeless in 12 countries, the hardest hit of
them
Indonesia.
Most Zimbabweans made the distinction:
theirs was man-made while the
Asian one was what Newsweek magazine called "a
monumental humanitarian
disaster".
But for most, their
tsunami, its suddenness, unexpectedness and
deadliness was equivalent to the
Asian one.
Initially, the government had no ready label for the
campaign. When
the label, Murambasvina/Restore Order was first used, many
cynics thought it
too glib. It smacked of the sort of thing people obsessed
with gallows or
ghoulish humour - like the Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) - are
fond of.
So, by the time a London-based
magazine suggested the CIO had
choreographed the entire tsunami in Zimbabwe,
such cynics felt vindicated.
The story went something like
this: the CIO told President Robert
Mugabe that they had impeccable
intelligence that there was a plan to launch
a march on State House. The
idea was to force him to flee into exile.
A number of
autocratic leaders, particularly of the former Soviet
states, had been
ousted in this manner. George Shevardnadze of Georgia was
an
example.
To forestall the march, the CIO proposed a terror
campaign in the
major urban centres, the stronghold of the opposition
MDC.
Mugabe, reportedly one of the most insecure leaders in the
region,
readily agreed to the plan. It was not the first time he had acceded
to the
CIO scare-mongering.
Since this exposé from the New
African magazine, there have been
spirited flimsy denials by the Information
and Publicity permanent secretary
who said the magazine did not speak on
behalf of government. This in other
words meant that the magazine, an
undisguised mouthpiece of President
Mugabe, lied, and the lie was carried in
the state media.
How ironic!
But there is all
the evidence that President Mugabe is now hostage to
the security
functionaries who have dramatised his insecurity to justify
desperate
measures.
Operation Murambatsvina fits into this realm and
state agents moved
with speed to execute the savage plan with
precision.
It was the same readiness to believe the CIO scare
tactics which led
to Gukurahundi.
The CIO is reported to
have made such a solid case for the overthrow
of the government by ex-Zipra
dissidents that Mugabe didn't think twice
before deploying the deadly Five
Brigade troops into Matabeleland and the
Midlands
provinces.
In the aftermath, albeit years later, he admitted
the killing of an
estimated 20 000 people, including women and children, was
a terrible
mistake. The nation is still waiting for his
apology.
For his pains, Zanu PF will never reclaim Matabeleland
politically,
ever again. The CIO is also believed to have frightened
President Mugabe out
of his wits over the hare-brained demands of the war
veterans led by the
late Chenjerai Hunzvi.
Their scenario:
if Hunzvi persuaded the ex-fighters to ditch Zanu PF
and make common cause
with any opposition party, the ruling party's
political goose would truly be
cooked.
Recently, President Mugabe realised the war veterans
were not the
political asset that he always thought they were. He acted
against them
rather harshly: their leader was recently fired from the party
and there has
so far been not a peep from the rank and file
members.
But his greatest blunder was probably to succumb to
the CIO plot on
the farm invasions.
He had conceded defeat
in the constitutional referendum. A few days
later, he told the judiciary to
go to hell and unleashed war veterans on the
commercial
farms.
In the elections that followed, 40 people were killed
and this
triggered Zimbabwe's economic slide.
The payment
to the war veterans had caused a tsunami of its own in the
billions of
unbudgeted expenditure. The dollar plunged in value - and has
still not
recovered.
Clearly, if the CIO is now virtually running the
government, by
presenting President Mugabe with their own versions of the
truth, there
could be a time-bomb ticking under him.
Intelligence services all over the world can take over a country. In
the
United States, a book called The Invisible Government detailed how the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) virtually took over the running of the
government from the president. Richard Nixon, before he took office after
his first victory in 1968, he was not too keen on the CIA.
In his book, The White House Years, Henry Kissinger, who served as his
secretary of state, says: "He was determined to run foreign policy from the
White House. He felt it imperative to exclude the CIA."
*
Bill Saidi is former editor of the banned Daily News.
Zim Independent
Eric Bloch Column
By Eric Bloch
FOR many years government, being unable to
acknowledge any capacity of its
own error, has attributed Zimbabwe's
distressed economic circumstances to
Britain and its allies in general, and
to Tony Blair in particular, to the
minuscule white Zimbabwean population,
and especially the former white
commercial farmers, to non-existent
international economic sanctions, to its
political opposition, and to
climatic conditions. Government has assiduously
sought to shift the burden
of blame for decimating the economy from its own
shoulders to those of
others.
For a long time, its endeavours to disclaim responsibility for
reducing most
of Zimbabwe to pronounced poverty, deceived and deluded the
majority of
Zimbabweans. Most were sufficiently trusting, naïve and gullible
as to
believe that government was blameless, and that all Zimbabwe's
economic
misery was a consequence of vile machinations of government's
enemies,
compounded by the elements.
But even the most unworldly and
easily persuadable eventually cease to
believe a never-ending reiteration of
the same explanations for their
continuous suffering, begin to query the
failure of government to counter
the alleged perfidy of others, and start to
ponder whether there is not, in
fact, an element of culpability on the part
of government.
Over the past eight years, when- ever government realised
that it was no
longer successfully convincing the populace that it was
faultless, and that
all the economic ills were solely due to others, and to
circumstances beyond
government's control, it has desperately sought new
third parties upon whom
it could place blame, even if without foundation.
Heretofore it has always
achieved a high rate of success in convincing most
that the responsibility
for the economic woes was not that of government,
but of others.
This pattern of blame transfer has recurred yet
again.
A fortnight ago Zanu PF political commissar, Elliot Manyika,
accused the
business sector of sabotaging the economy. He did so when
addressing a
representative body of more than 40 industrialists and
businessmen, claiming
that the two-fold motives of profiteering and of
discrediting government
were the reasons for the supposed actions of the
business sector to destroy
the economy.
In doing so, he was ably
aided and abetted by the Minister of State for
Public and Interactive
Affairs, Chen Chimutengwende, who stated
"authoritatively" that some
industrialists and retailers are economic
saboteurs bent on effecting
government change through increasing people's
suffering due to offending
price increases. Such increases were, he claimed,
wayward
practices.
The previously alleged causes of the near-destruction of the
economy were
very far-fetched, only readily believable because so many had
been
indoctrinated into deep-seated belief that government is omnipotent,
infallible and aware of all and that, therefore, if it stated a cause or
causes for ongoing and intensifying economic hardships, such cause or causes
had to be fact.
But as the economic decline continued and
intensified, and government was
perceived to be doing nothing to address it,
other than blame others, or by
making empty and false promises of economic
turnaround and recovery, the
deep-seated beliefs have progressively worn
thinner and thinner.
Hence, it is not surprising that government has
found it necessary, once
again, to deflect the ire of the economically
oppressed Zimbabweans by
finding others upon whom to place the blame. Doing
so has become
increasingly difficult for the ruling party, for over the
years it has
blamed so many, without foundation and without effective
remedial actions,
that there are ever fewer that can be blamed with even
superficial
credibility.
So, it has focused upon the business
community, believing that it can
conjure up credibility by intensive
reference to the pronounced price
escalations that have become a daily
characteristic of the economy, and a
source of hardships for the
majority.
But the suggestion that such price increases are driven by
avarice, greed
and orchestrated profiteering is specious and spurious in the
extreme. So
too is the contention that the business sector resorts to such
price
increases in order to discredit and displace government.
These
allegations are far-fetched and ludicrous beyond all credibility. The
reality is that most industries, wholesalers and retailers are desperately
struggling to survive and to stave off liquidation.
The
hyperinflation caused by excessive state spending, pronounced
corruption,
state-driven decline in agricultural production and numerous
other factors
beyond the control of the private sector, impacts upon the
operations of the
business sector to as great an extent as upon all
Zimbabweans.
Industry, and the distributive trades are faced by
markedly lesser demand
for their production, and their commodities, due to a
major decrease in
domestic market purchasing power, and due to lower volumes
of exports as a
result of loss of export-market price competitiveness
(caused by increased
production costs not for by adequate exchange rate
movement).
But the reduction in production is not matched by reductions
in operational
costs. Instead, commerce and industry is confronted by the
same crippling
hyperinflation as is its customer base.
It is faced
with quarterly increases in salaries and wages, with interest
charges on
working capital borrowings at over 400% per annum, endless
increases in
input costs and in overhead charges. To survive in such an
environment,
enterprise has little alternative but to increase prices, and
especially so
after it has taken all possible, reasonable actions to enhance
productivity
and to contain costs.
If industry cannot achieve productive efficiencies,
due to erratic and
inadequate availability of the foreign currency necessary
to source imported
inputs, and yet is faced with massively rising costs
which are subject to
little opportunity of containment, it is faced with
only two options.
One is to discontinue operations and cease to exist,
and the other is to
increase prices to enable the rising costs to be funded.
That is not
profiteering, it is an act of attempted survival. That is not a
political
action to discredit
government, it is an act of
self-preservation.
But a devious government, steeped in duplicity which
includes self-delusion,
is incapable of accepting unpalatable facts, and
therefore misinterprets and
distorts them so as to absolve itself of
blame.
Chimutengwende went so far as to destroy any, even remote,
possibility of
his contentions, and those of Manyika, being received as
factual, by stating
that government does not own or control any industries
or service providers,
this being "in line with the free market system
existent in Zimbabwe".
Obviously, he said this in order to distance
government from the price
increases which it claims are driven by malice and
self-interest of the
private sector. It should be brought to his attention
(although he should
already know it) that government owns the Industrial
Development Corporation
of Zimbabwe Ltd, which owns one of Zimbabwe's
leading fertiliser producers,
Chemplex Corporation Ltd, Willowvale Mazda
Motor Industries (Pvt) Ltd, which
is a leading producer of motor vehicles,
and diverse other industries.
Government also owns the Zimbabwe Iron &
Steel Ltd (Zisco), the Cold Storage
Company Ltd (CSC), and many other
industrial enterprises.
Moreover, it owns service enterprises such as Air
Zimbabwe, National
Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), the Zimbabwe Electricity
Supply Authority (Zesa)
and its underlying companies, and also Tel*One,
Zimpost, the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation, and 38 other
parastatals.
It is of particular relevance that increases in prices and
charges of most
parastatals have risen over the last year (and previously)
to a far greater
degree than the rate of inflation has risen, and to a far
greater extent
than many private sector price increases. Air Zimbabwe's
fares go up more
frequently than its aircraft! Electricity charges have
soared, as have the
costs of telecommunications and postages (postal
services rose in cost by 2
915,2% in the year to August
2005!)
If
the claims of Manyika and Chimutengwende have any substance, then it must
be
taken for granted that the state-controlled enterprises, which the
minister
claims do not exist, have increased their prices and charges solely
in order
to discredit and displace their masters! That surely is as baseless
as were
those governmental claims .
Zim Independent
Muckraker
WHY is President Mugabe so shy when it comes to hugs? It is very
much a part
of the socialist tradition. In the Soviet bloc it used to be
kisses as well.
While nobody is calling for a return of that tradition, it
is surprising
that the president wriggles like a worm on a hook whenever he
is embraced by
a communist-era ruler.
The Herald showed him doing his
funny little dance to escape the fond
embrace of fellow demagogue Hugo
Chavez. Instead of reciprocating, Mugabe
appears to be saying: "Stop
tickling you brute. Let me go!"
But Chavez will have none of it and is
determined to thank our leader for
including Venezuela in his list of states
under dire threat from Uncle Sam
and his annoying sidekick from across the
ocean who were responsible for
"underhand destabilisation manoeuvres". These
included limiting the size of
Chavez's entourage accompanying him to the UN
conference in New York
recently.
This "humiliation" was completely
unwarranted, our leader declared. Clearly
the size of presidential retinues
is a matter dear to his heart. And, as if
to inflate his importance in such
matters, Mugabe declared himself to be the
leader of 14 million
people.
What he didn't tell Chavez was that as a result of his disastrous
economic
policies and political repression, three million of those 14
million now
live abroad. And they certainly don't count themselves as his
people!
One wonders whether Patrick Chinamasa has calculated the
damage to
Zimbabwe's image abroad of his maladroit public pronouncements. A
few weeks
ago he spoke of the need to "mop up" the remaining white
commercial farmers
at the same time that Didymus Mutasa was reported as
making all sorts of
threats against them. Violent land seizures
followed.
On Sunday the Sunday Mail reported Chinamasa as threatening
"drastic action"
against farmers in Mashonaland West who exercised their
legal rights in the
courts following a High Court ruling that nullified
offer letters received
by resettled farmers.
Those seeking legal
redress should not cry foul in the event of government
taking drastic
measures against them, he was reported as telling the Sunday
Mail reporter,
herself a recipient of government's land seizures.
It would be difficult
to find a more emblematic case of bad governance.
Chinamasa was reported in
2000 as among those bringing pressure to bear upon
judges whose rulings
government found unpalatable. When they quit he was
quoted as suggesting the
new appointees would be more sympathetic to the
state's agenda. He was
subsequently embroiled in a dispute over a farm
awarded to his
wife.
Now he is threatening "drastic measures" against people exercising
their
rights at law. The government must stop blaming bad publicity on the
foreign
media. It would be difficult to find a more serious example of
misrule than
threatening individuals who seek protection through the courts
against
high-handed state behaviour. And it is a wrong-doing entirely
made-in-Zimbabwe. Chinamasa said it and he must be held accountable for the
consequences.
Flora Bhuka was quoted in the same story as saying
resettled farmers should
stay put as her ministry was fully behind
them.
So in other words court rulings are irrelevant? It is ministers
whose
pronouncements must be obeyed. And then ministers object when Zimbabwe
is
branded a lawless society!
Chen Chimutengwende recently
provided an example of where the rot lies when
he accused businessmen of
sabotaging the economy. Commenting on daily
increases in the cost of goods,
he said it seemed "many businessmen have
either adopted the dangerous policy
of extreme profiteering or have decided
to deliberately sabotage the
economy".
Here is a minister who is part of the problem but cannot see
it.
Runaway inflation is the product of incontinent state spending.
Handing out
billions of dollars for new ministries that do nothing except
provide
sheltered employment for the economically illiterate is a massive
spur to
inflation.
Why do we need a Ministry of Public and
Interactive Affairs with a principal
director who is an electoral loser and
a whole apparatus of employees,
offices, vehicles and other expensive
equipment when it is obvious that its
deadwood minister hasn't got a clue
what causes inflation but is happy to
blame the business sector? It is
doubtful that he has even read the latest
IMF report on what is preventing
economic recovery.
Now he thinks price controls are the answer, a policy
that has repeatedly
failed in Zimbabwe as everywhere else it has been
tried.
Zimbabwe is cursed by intellectually challenged dimwits who climb
aboard the
inflationary gravy train only to make statements that show not
only that
they have nothing to contribute to our salvation but are actually
intent
upon making a bad situation worse.
Which brings us to
William Nhara, principal director for Public and
Interactive Affairs in the
Office of the President.
From 2000 to 2005 Nhara was the executive
director of the Southern African
Institute for Democracy and Good
Governance, his CV, advertised by the
Zimbabwe International Trade Fair,
tells us.
Could the ZITF please tell the public what this institute
actually did and
who funded it? It is extraordinary to think that somebody
conducting
research into democracy and good governance could stand as a
candidate for
Zanu PF!
It is significant to note in passing that the
Minister of Industry and Trade
gets to appoint the ZITF board members. This
must surely undermine the
credibility of what is supposed to be a
business-driven organisation?
Nhlanhla Masuku is chairman.
We
liked the following remarks from the Sunday Mail's business reporter on
inflation: "Some members of the governor's advisory board, who are supposed
to be helping Dr Gono in policy formulation, are not committed as they
openly declared that the inflation targets are not attainable while at the
same time claiming to be fully behind the efforts of the central
bank."
So to be a good advisor, it is necessary to ignore the fact that
the
governor has got his forecasts wrong and to pretend instead that he has
got
them right?
What sort of help is that? And how "committed" is it
to pretend that the
governor can succeed in a political climate that is
sabotaging economic
recovery? The governor's advisors fully back his efforts
to bring down
inflation. But like the rest of us, they know it is impossible
to do so as
long as Zanu PF continues to throw money around like
confetti.
How badly did we need an airshow, for instance, in a period of
fuel
shortages? Why were trillions of dollars spent on parastatals that show
no
sign of institutional reform? Why are ministries created that add nothing
of
value to the nation's performance? How important is it to resuscitate the
senate when it is quite obviously a retirement home for deadwood? Who
approved the purchase and importation of all those luxury vehicles for
cabinet ministers and service chiefs when the government is approaching
international donors for food?
We should at this point
apportion some of the blame for our national
problems to UN agencies that
will stop at nothing to propitiate the
government. How does the FAO and WHO
justify providing a platform in Harare
for President Mugabe to talk about
food security when he has done more than
anybody to sabotage food security
in the region? How does the FAO justify
inviting Mugabe to Rome where he
talks about elections for the senate and
his dispute with Britain which
appears to have completely invaded his
political consciousness to the
exclusion of all else? What does Mugabe know
about food and agriculture
except to jeopardise its production?
We know the FAO will justify the
invitation on the grounds that he will be
pressed in the Italian capital by
senior UN officials to open the way to
much-needed food supplies. But that
sort of diplomacy actually leads him to
believe he has defeated his
"enemies" which in turn only compounds his
obduracy.
We must
thank the Herald for their funny little story about the US
ambassador last
Friday. It brightened our day. The story related how
Ambassador Christopher
Dell had been detained by security forces after
"trespassing" into a
restricted security zone while walking in the National
Botanic Gardens. An
overheated Foreign Affairs spokesman spoke about a
"flagrant disregard by
the ambassador for the security laws of Zimbabwe".
The ambassador was
"better placed to know the consequences of such
violations", the ministry
darkly suggested.
A melodramatic George Charamba then weighed in to spell
out what those
consequences were.
"The ambassador must consider
himself very lucky that he was dealing with a
professional army," he
admonished. "Elsewhere, and definitely in America, he
would have been a dead
man."
Perhaps somebody could count how many people have been shot over
the years
outside State House because they didn't see the restriction
notices and then
compare that figure to the numbers killed outside the White
House (zero).
But Charamba should not be denied his moment of high drama.
The Herald used
capital letters to describe the sign which it claimed said
"NO ENTRY
SECURITY ZONE" -- which provided greater visibility than the sign
itself
which was attached to a tree and said something slightly
different.
A Sunday Mail cartoon showed the ambassador climbing
under a security fence
which he had cut. Like most Sunday Mail material it
failed to disclose the
reality that the fence had been stolen. Large parts
of the security zone are
now unfenced and anybody can inadvertently walk in
there. They might or
might not be lucky enough to see the
sign.
Readers of the Herald may want to know why "news" of the
ambassador's arrest
was withheld from them from Tuesday to Friday? The
incident occurred on the
Monday.
Perhaps the suggestion that somebody
innocently strolling in the Botanic
Gardens could be arrested or open
themselves to an even worse fate was not a
suitable disclosure for a week in
which the Travel Expo was taking place at
the Sheraton. Charamba's remarks
will have done little to lure foreign
visitors to our shores! But why, in
reporting the story, did the Herald
ignore the apology the government made
to Dell, with the admission that the
army did not know how to treat
diplomats caught in such a situation? Might
it have got in the way of their
story?
As for Dell's record in Angola, which the Herald twisted in its
best
reporting tradition, his mediation in talks between the two sides to
the
Angolan conflict won him an award.
This week we had
evidence of how government deals with the country's many
crises. This was
from presidential spokesperson, George Charamba. Fuel was
flowing in but
priority was being given to farmers "so that they take of
your stomach",
Charamba told a Standard reporter. "After that we will move
to joyriders,"
he said, presumably meaning Zimbabwe's harried and tormented
urban
commuters.
For the avoidance of any doubts about joyrides, Charamba
disclosed that the
majority of those footing to work were Zanu PF
supporters. That, we assume,
includes him and Bright Matonga.
If all
is well as we were told when MDC Morgan Tsvangirai staged his one-man
walk
to work, why are Zanu PF voters not being given the freedom trains and
Zupco
buses? Surely this can't be a publicity stunt for the international
media to
embarrass their government?
As for joyriders, we have one once or twice a
week thundering down Rotten
Row in a twelve vehicle motorcade accompanied by
foul-mouthed outriders who
threaten to kick the hell out of every motorist
who can't find a hole out of
the road fast enough. The drive always ends at
Shake-Shake building.
There have been numerous allegations of
something thoroughly wrong with
Zimbabwe's prison services. Beatings,
torture, starvation and various other
forms of human rights violations. All
the proof was there for all to see in
the Herald of
Tuesday.
Criminals of all descriptions were left to their own devices in
the Masvingo
police holding cells. In the event, two thieving army officers
were let
loose on them the whole night.
Some of the victims
reportedly sustained grievous bodily injuries during the
beatings during
which they were ordered to shout their names and the nature
of their
crimes.
Several questions arise from this: where were the prison wardens
during this
mayhem? Why were the rogue soldiers allowed to go into the
holding cells in
their military gear which they used to intimidate fellow
inmates? Is it the
custom that arrested soldiers go into holding cells
putting on their black
boots when lesser mortals are almost stripped naked?
We hope the authorities
will get to the bottom of this Abu Ghrab without
much hypocrisy about what
the Americans and the British are doing in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
Zim Independent
Comment
THE opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is locked
in mortal
combat over participation in next month's election for the senate.
The
centre of conflict is in the top echelons where a battle of wills is
being
waged between party leader Morgan Tsvangirai's faction and a camp seen
as
led by secretary-general Welshman Ncube.
This follows Tsvangirai's
rejection of the decision of the MDC national
executive council - the
party's supreme decision-making body outside
congress - to participate in
the November 26 poll. Tsvangirai claimed a
deadlock and that he had
therefore decided for non-participation.
In fact Tsvangirai's camp lost
the vote by 31 to 33, with two spoilt
ballots. A majority of the MDC's 12
provinces also voted for participation.
Among the party's "top six"
Tsvangirai was the only one against although
national chairman Isaac Matongo
voted with his boss.
Tsvangirai's group is supported by Harare,
Chitungwiza, Masvingo and
Mashonaland Central provinces, while Ncube's
faction is backed by
Matabeleland, Manicaland and Midlands. Mashonaland East
and Mashonaland West
have since indicated they want to vote.
What is
at stake is the survival of the party. There have been clashes in
the past
for supremacy among rival camps. But Tsvangirai is clearly in the
minority
on the senate issue. Instead of taking the loss as a genuine
expression of
the will of the people, he has opted to take off gloves
against the entire
party and campaign against his opponents, thus playing
into the hands of
Zanu PF.
Tsvangirai said it was futile to participate in elections which
"breed
illegitimate outcomes". Judging from experience, he said the result
of the
senatorial election was predictable. He also said electing members to
the
senate would not help his party but was a waste of scarce resources. It
was
a "warehouse for geriatrics", he said.
On that score he is dead
right as shown by Zanu PF's primaries where failed
politicians are being
recalled from semi-retirement for the Last Supper with
their
benefactor.
However, Tsvangirai's rivals have equally cogent arguments.
The MDC in
January took the decision to participate in all future elections
in pursuit
of "democratic change". The decision was taken by the national
council, the
only body that can rescind it.
Ncube's group reasons
that if the MDC boycotts the senate election, it will
be guilty of
inconsistency if not frivolousness. It begs the question what
next? Is
Tsvangirai now ready to go into the streets after he recently told
the
nation public protests were risky as people would be shot by Mugabe's
army?
Will he also boycott the 2008 presidential election, if it comes,
since the
result is "predetermined"? What is there to lose in the senate
poll that the
MDC has not already lost in the lower chamber? If the real
reason for the
boycott is a political management system that produces
fraudulent results,
what is the MDC doing about it? If they want a new
constitution, at least
Lovemore Madhuku and his National Constitutional
Assembly have been more
visible and voluble on that front than the confused
MDC.
The MDC
cannot hope to win power through election boycotts. Voters are not
going to
sit and wait for the MDC to decide which election it wants to
contest. There
is no doubt the party will become irrelevant outside
parliament. Only
through representation can it make its views known and
expose the
incumbent's policy failures thus making a compelling case for a
chance to
rule.
Those in favour of participation say they fear "yielding ground in
areas
where Zanu PF has no chance of winning votes".
The infighting
has exposed the MDC's fundamental flaws and its lack of
ideological
cohesion. The risks of an acrimonious split are very high,
especially given
the widely divergent positions of the rival camps. And the
cause of that
split, the senate poll, is, to all intents and purposes,
almost
farcical.
It would be a great betrayal of the cause of democracy for the
MDC to break
up over an institution which every fool knows has no national
value
whatsoever except to accommodate Mugabe's comrades who lost in past
elections, and then prepare the mat for his own soft landing.
The MDC
needs to look where it has come from and where it is supposed to go
to
appreciate the magnitude of the damage it is causing to itself and the
disservice to the nation. It needs to focus on the big picture of how best
to confront the regime in a variety of contexts, not tear itself apart over
an upper chamber Zanu PF wants only for short-term political
expediency.
Mugabe must love the way Tsvangirai is committing political
hara-kiri in
public. He has vowed in the past that Tsvangirai will never
rule this
country. Those words are now turning into a sick prophesy.