The Times (UK), 21
April
Soldier's family fear for safety
By Jan
Raath in Harare
The parents of Private Christopher Muzvuru, the Irish
Guardsman who died in
action on April 6 in the assault on Basra, have been
questioned by Zimbabwe'
s secret police over their son's role in the British
Army, a relative said
yesterday. He said that the family had been visited by
agents of the Central
Intelligence Organisation, President Mugabe's secret
police, and by
plainclothes CID officers. "Their mother is now terrified," he
said. "They
are getting calls from all over all the time." Provisional
arrangements had
been made to return the body this week for burial. However,
the family,
fearful of the hostility that their son's participation in the
war has
provoked in Zimbabwe, said that Private Muzvuru, who was 21, may be
buried
in Britain, where he has some family. "It's no longer clear whether he
will
be buried here or in Britain," his relative said.
Private
Muzvuru has been vilified in Zimbabwe's pro-government press. The
Zimbabwe
Daily Mirror denounced him as "a mercenary" for fighting for a
country that
was "virtually at war" with Zimbabwe. It said that he should be
buried "in
the country he preferred to die for". The state-controlled daily
The Herald
portrayed Private Muzvuru in a cartoon as a "Buffalo Soldier", a
black unit
in the United States cavalry described by the reggae singer Bob
Marley as a
group of ex-slaves exploited by whites. His parents in the city
of Gweru have
refused to speak to the press and relatives say that they fear
retribution by
the Government or by ruling party vigilantes. More than 40
relatives and
friends of Private Muzvuru gathered at RAF Brize Norton last
week, when his
body was flown to Britain. He was the first black piper in
the history of the
Irish Guards, which he joined in October 2001.There are
about 200 Zimbabweans
serving in the British Army, along with other
Commonwealth subjects who are
eligible to serve in the Armed Forces.
Mail & Guardian (SA), 18
April
Double blow for Bob
David
Masunda
Harare - The retirements - one after the other - of two of
Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe's key civil servants during the past two
weeks, are
testimony to the fact that many of the mandarins at his
Munhumutapa offices
have seen that the writing is on the wall and others
might soon be
clamouring to get out, say analysts. Charles Utete, chief
secretary to the
president and Cabinet and a close adviser to Mugabe since
independence from
Britain in 1980, announced his retirement a week ago, after
23 years in the
Office of the President. Utete, a reclusive man, was regarded
as Mugabe's
closest adviser and the man who was involved in the formulation
of the Zanu
PF leader's post-independence policies and cabinets. The former
academic,
who lectured in Tanzania in the 1970s, was not seen at many
functions of the
ruling Zanu PF party, unlike many other senior civil
servants who often
drive thousands of kilometres to attend and be seen at
Mugabe's political
rallies. In fact, his continuous absence from Zanu PF
rallies and the fact
that he rarely made any political statements of his own
in public grudgingly
earned Utete respect even among the Zimbabwean
opposition. Utete was,
however, said to belong to the powerful "Chivhu Mafia"
that includes some of
Zanu PF's most influential politicians, who, party
sources say, have
considerable say on who gets appointed to Mugabe's Cabinet.
Utete is also
related to Mugabe's wife, Grace. The measure of his importance
was felt at
his farewell party when Mugabe was quoted in the state-controlled
Herald
newspaper as saying that although Utete deserved a good rest,
"his
retirement had left an acute sense of anxiety, wistfulness, ending,
loss,
emptiness and even desertion". Utete said he had tried to retire in
1999 but
Mugabe had persuaded him to stay on. He had stayed even longer to
help with
the formulation of the Zimbabwean leader's internationally
condemned land
reforms and with his controversial re-election last
year.
A few days after the retirement of Utete, Zimbabwe's attorney
general,
Andrew Chigovera, also announced that he was calling it quits after
23 years
of service in government. The attorney general, who at times
repeatedly
clashed with the media, joined Mugabe's government in 1980 and
rose through
the ranks to become Zimbabwe's top law officer. It was during
Chigovera's
tenure that some of the most draconian pieces of legislation,
such as the
notorious Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and
the Public
Order and Security Act, were crafted. Although Chigovera sometimes
appeared
too keen to please Mugabe and his ministers, he occasionally came
under fire
from the likes of Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, who publicly
rebuked
the attorney general's office for - according to Moyo - being too
soft on
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) members and
journalists
under prosecution. Luke Tamborinyoka, the secretary general of
the Zimbabwe
Union of Journalists, said Chigovera "was overwhelmed by
politics" during
his tenure as top law officer. While Mugabe did not publicly
bemoan
Chigovera's departure as he did that of Utete, their retirements may
signal
the beginning of an exodus from the public service as many
professionals
begin to feel that the Zanu PF leader's administration is
sinking.
Meanwhile, the MDC's top executive met last weekend and resolved to
continue
with its mass action strategy as a means to oust Mugabe's government
from
power. The MDC was split over the decision, with one section favouring
mass
action while another preferred to lure Zanu PF and its leader back to
the
negotiating table.
Parastatals Gobble Up Funds As Economy Limps
The
Daily News (Harare)
April 21, 2003
Posted to the web April 21,
2003
Hama Saburi Business Editor
THE pathetic performance seen in
parastatals is painfully bringing the
economy to its knees.
It has
become difficult for the small economy like Zimbabwe, to sustain and
justify
excessive losses incurred by public enterprises on a yearly
basis.
This year alone, over $122 billion of the taxpayer's money
would be spent to
ensure that these entities limp through into the coming
year.
At least $60 billion was set aside to cover the Grain Marketing
Board's
(GMB) trading account losses this year alone.
The $60 billion
can finance the farming season and remove the burden from
Syfrets Corporate
Merchant Bank, which has struggled to raise $60 billion
needed to fund A2
farmers.
As of June last year, parastatals were sitting on external
arrears amounting
to US$338 million (Z$18,59 billion) and yet Zimbabwe only
earned US$1,4
billion in exports last year.
Most parastatals are
surviving at the mercy of creditors, who are obviously
aware of the enormous
power wielded by the custodian of the assets - the
government.
Herbert
Murerwa, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, admitted
that
parastatal remain a drain on the economy.
Murerwa said: "Public
enterprise reform has not successfully addressed
problems of poor management,
corporate governance and inconsistent pricing
of goods and services offered
by these enterprises."
Almost all parastatals can be lumped into one
basket in terms of their
problems despite operating in different economic
segments.
They are all under-capitalised and suffer from poor management,
red-tape,
uneconomic pricing and too much interference. Only on Wednesday,
the
government had to raise the pump price of fuel to save the National
Oil
Company of Zimbabwe from collapse.
Air Zimbabwe is almost
grounded, blighted by poor industrial relations, a
slow-down in the tourism
sector and allegation of mismanagement.
Zimbabwe' sole coal supplier,
Wankie Colliery Company (WCC), has reported a
loss above $5 billion on the
back of failure to secure foreign currency
needed to import spare
parts.
The cold at WCC has caught on a number of other critical sectors
that are
dependent on coal.
The worst hit are cement manufacturers,
namely; Circle, Portland and
Sino-Zimbabwe. Sino-Zimbabwe temporarily closed
last month.
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) is struggling to
pay its debts.
Futile attempts by ZBC's to attract fresh funding through a
$1,7 billion
bond could spell disaster for the public
broadcaster.
GMB, which is sitting on mature grain bills worth $48
billion, is also
incurring heavy losses. The parastatal has been criticised
for
over-burdening itself with unnecessary work. For instance, GMB has
no
business in distributing seed, which could be done more effectively
through
the open market.
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority
(ZESA), although it has reported a
surplus in recent years, is failing to
perfect its billing system and faces
the risk of being cut off by regional
suppliers whom they owe billions of
dollars.
The Cold Storage Company
has been virtually run down and has had to go back
to creditors owed in
excess of $5 billion for salvation.
Over 18 studies have been done at the
Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company
(Zisco) to rescue the giant steel-maker, but
none of them have been
implemented.
Today, Zisco, continues to milk
the taxpayer with no solution in sight. The
late director of the Consumer
Council of Zimbabwe, Muchaneta Nyambuya, once
remarked at a privatisation
conference that he would not buy Zisco even it
was offered to him for
$10.
Mthuli Ncube, the National Investment Trust chairman also attracted
the
wrath of Zisco management when he told a gathering in Kadoma that the
trust
does not consider the Redcliff company, as a worthwhile
investment.
Flamboyant Member of Parliament and a proponent for
indigenisation, Phillip
Chiyangwa once led a committee that looked into the
situation at Zisco.
Chiyangwa's committee recommended the dismissal of
Zisco's top management
and the re-capitalisation of the
parastatal.
The situation is even worse at the National Railway of
Zimbabwe,
inefficiency has already claimed a number of lives through train
accidents .
The biggest question remains: When is the parastatal meltdown
going to end?
Jonathan Kadzura, a local analyst,said operations in most
parastatals
reflect the Leninist/socialist principles touted by the
government at
Independence in 1980.
Leaders navigating parastatals had
to fit into that particular ideology,
hence their management styles were not
based on business principles.
The trend has persisted despite the
adoption of capitalist-inspired market
reforms in 1991.
Management of
public enterprises, Kadzura said, should be left in private
hands except for
those considered strategic.
Kadzura said: "Government must be commended
for realising that parastatals
are not doing well, but it must be pushed into
doing something about it."
He said there must be cohesion in the
management of parastatals to clear the
current discord where ministries seem
to pull in different directions.
"If we don't do this, we will see the
taxpayer's money going into a hole
that is unending.
"But we have to
privatise the parastatals responsibly and we should avoid
giving them to
people who will strip these entities of assets and rob the
public of their
own wealth. There must be absolute transparency," Kadzura
said.
David
Mupamhadzi, the group economist for Century Holdings Limited, said
poor
parastatal performance has contributed to perennial budget deficits
because
the government is forced to borrow to finance their needs.
Mupamhadzi
said: "If you look at some of the losses, they are a result of
structural
problems in these parastatals. They (parastatals) seem not
worried about cost
implications of their actions, but merely delivering the
service.
"For
example, Zesa is not worried about containing costs and efficiency, but
just
delivering electricity. So, the structures are not tailored to
achieve
efficiency. I think parastatals need to move from the traditional way
of
doing business."
The Century group economist said the government
has not bothered to turn
parastatals into commercial entities because of its
preoccupation with other
social considerations.
"There are a lot of
social considerations like: what would happen if we
increase the price of
fuel or electricity?", Mupamhadzi said.
Some of the products that have
been kept at artificially low prices have
become scare on the formal
market.
For example, fuel is now found on the black market where it is
fetching as
much as $1 000 per litre compared to the pump price of $450 per
litre.
Efforts to turn parastatals into viable entities have made little
progress.
The privatisation exercise, which saw the formation of the
Privatisation
Agency of Zimbabwe Privatisation is now mired in controversy
with certain
camps in government pushing for its abandonment.
Out of
about 45 companies earmarked for privatisation, only a few companies
have
been privatised namely Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited, the Commercial Bank
of
Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Reinsurance Company and Cotton Company
of
Zimbabwe.
Privatisation improves operational
efficiency,competition, revenue
collection and often results in reduced
prices.
Reuters
Zimbabwe unions call strike to protest fuel
prices
Mon April 21, 2003 10:43 AM ET
HARARE, April 21 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main labour movement called
on
Monday for a three-day national strike over sharp rises in fuel prices
and
warned the stoppage could last indefinitely if the government did
not
reverse the increases.
Lovemore Matombo, president of Zimbabwe's
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU),
said the ZCTU's general council unanimously
decided to challenge a decision
by President Robert Mugabe's government to
more than treble the price of
some fuels.
"The ZCTU is undertaking a
peaceful three-day stayaway from Wednesday 23
April to Friday 25 April 2003,"
he said in a statement. "Unless the
government gives in to the above demand
(to reverse the price increases),
the job boycott will be indefinite," he
added.
Zimbabwe is facing its worst economic crisis in more than two
decades, with
soaring unemployment and shortages of fuel, foreign exchange
and food which
critics blame on Mugabe's policies. Annual inflation hit a
record 228
percent in March.
Last month, the main opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) staged
one of the biggest protests against Mugabe
since he came to power 23 years
ago after calling a two-day strike that shut
down about 80 percent of the
southern African country's businesses and
industries.
The MDC accuses Mugabe of rigging March 2002 presidential
elections and has
vowed to lead street protests in a bid to drive him from
office. It said it
would support protests against the fuel price hikes
announced last
Wednesday.
The government said the increase, which saw
petrol rocket to Z$450 ($0.55) a
litre from Z$145, was necessary to help
improve fuel imports. Fuel supplies
have become scarce since Libya halted
shipments last year when a barter deal
collapsed.
There was no
immediate reaction from the government on the strike threat.
But Information
Minister Jonathan Moyo was quoted by the state-owned Herald
newspaper on
Monday as saying the government was working on urgent measures
to cushion
workers and consumers from the fuel price increase.
A police spokesman
said the proposed strike was illegal and that police were
ready to deal with
any disturbances.
In a statement on Monday, the MDC called on "all
progressive Zimbabweans" to
support the strike, saying they should refuse to
pay for economic
mismanagement.
"There is no doubt that this
inconsiderate fuel increment is the result of
bad governance," it
said.
Business Day
Zimbabwe pledges review
of wages
HARARE - The Zimbabwe government has promised to
review workers' wages to
cushion the blow of fuel price hikes, in an apparent
attempt to avert a
nationwide strike called by the main trade union
body.
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo told the state-controlled
Herald
newspaper that the government was looking at measures, including a
review of
salaries, to cushion workers from last week's price hike, which saw
the cost
at the pump of petrol nearly treble.
The fuel price increases
prompted an outcry from the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions (ZCTU), which
threatened a job stayaway in protest.
"We must endure the pain designed
to make our living better," Moyo was
quoted by The Herald as saying in
justification of the price hikes.
Erratic fuel supplies to the southern
African nation over the past three
years have worsened in recent months due
to a crippling shortage of foreign
exchange needed to import the
commodity.
Moyo said that increasing the price of fuel was not the sole
initiative of
government, but had been decided on by a national forum
grouping labour,
business and government.
He said measures to cushion
workers, which included a review of salaries
frozen earlier this year, would
"have to be finalised and adopted as a
matter of urgency".
Last week
the president of the main labour body, Lovemore Matombo, described
the fuel
price hike as "illegal". The ZCTU leader demanded that the
government reverse
the price increases or face mass action.
And at the weekend, Matombo was
quoted by a private weekly newspaper as
saying mass action would be called
this week to protest at the price hikes,
but did not give a day.
The
labour body's call for a job stayaway is not directly linked to a
similar
call for further mass action by the main opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC).
Last month the MDC called a job stayaway to protest at
alleged misgovernance
by President Robert Mugabe's government. The strike was
widely followed and
shut down urban centres across the country.
In a
statement Monday the MDC said the labour body was "completely justified
and
deserves the support of every progressive Zimbabwean" for its
strike
call.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudizijena was quoted in Monday's
Herald as saying
the proposed ZCTU stayaway was illegal. He said the police
were prepared to
deal with any
disturbances.
AFP
VOA
Uncertainty of Zimbabwe's Food Situation Causes
Planning Problems for Aid
Agencies
Peta
Thornycroft
Harare
21 Apr 2003, 13:30 UTC
Crop forecasters in
Zimbabwe are presenting widely different predictions for
this year's harvest,
making it difficult for aid agencies to plan food aid
to the country for the
rest of the year.
The group responsible for warning about food shortages
says the situation in
Zimbabwe will not be as bad this year as it has been
for the past two years.
The Famine Early Warning System forecasters, known as
FEWSNET, say the maize
crop now being harvested will be nearly 1.3 million
tons. That would be
enough to feed two-thirds of the population during the
coming year.
But the Union of Commercial Farmers, who have had their
farms confiscated
under the Land Reform Program, says the harvest will be
only about half that
amount, and that much of it is being eaten by
desperately hungry people in
the countryside, while it is still
green.
The Union says very few growers will deliver their dried maize to
the
government's Grain Marketing Board for milling to supply retailers.
The
Union predicts most of the growers will choose instead to keep much of
their
crop, or sell it on the open market, even though that is against the
law.
Only the Grain Marketing Board is allowed to trade in
grain.
It is difficult for aid agencies like the U.N. World Food Program
to sort
out the predictions and make plans. FEWSNET is relatively new, and is
partly
U.S. funded, but it has been accurate in recent years. The
Commercial
Farmers Union has a long history of accurate forecasts, but its
members have
had their land taken, and are no longer as closely in touch with
the
situation.
The Land Reform Program has been widely blamed for the
current food shortage
in Zimbabwe, which has left half the population relying
on U.N. handouts to
survive.
The Land Reform Program was designed to
give the large, productive
white-owned commercial farms to landless blacks.
But most of the land went
to supporters of President Robert Mugabe. They
lacked experience and funding
to make the farms work, and were also hit by a
drought, resulting in very
little production in the Land Reform Program's
first two years.
The Zimbabwe government says the drought is responsible
for the entire
shortage, not its policies.
The World Food Program says
it will be feeding nearly five million
Zimbabweans when it downsizes its
distribution program next month to
coincide with the annual harvest. The
question is how to plan for the rest
of the year. The WFP could be buying
cheap maize now from South Africa,
where there is a large harvest. But
spokesman Luis Clemens says that without
reliable forecasts, it is difficult
for the agency to raise the money needed
to make the purchases.
Mr.
Clemens says the planning is made more difficult by the Zimbabwe
government's
refusal to disclose how much grain it has imported during the
past year. The
government has also been withholding its own crop estimates.
While maize
is the staple crop in Zimbabwe, other harvests are also expected
to be low
this year. The Commercial Farmers Union says very little wheat or
soybeans
will be harvested, and the beef and dairy herds are now too small
to fill the
country's needs.
Zim
Standard
Blackout
looms
By Itai
Dzamara
ZIMBABWE faces a total power
blackout by the end of the week unless
the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority (ZESA) urgently acquires foreign
currency to settle outstanding
debts to regional power suppliers.
Sources
within the parastatal yesterday told The Standard that the
regional
electricity suppliers, South Africa's Eskom and HydroCahora Bassa
(HCB) of
Mozambique, had lost their patience with Zesa which had since last
year,
failed to settle debts amounting to billions of Zimbabwean dollars due
to the
critical shortage of foreign currency.
Over the past few weeks, the suppliers had substantially reduced the
supply
of electricity to Zimbabwe, forcing the local power utility to
introduce load
shedding which has severely affected Zimbabwe's
industry.
Already, supply from SNEL of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
was reportedly switched off last
month.
Documents availed to this paper
last week revealed that senior
officials at Zesa were holding a series of
meetings with the Tripartite
Negotiating Forum (TNF) in an effort to raise
hard currency from big
business and avert a looming
blackout.
It has, however, emerged that
the meetings did not yield anything due
to the general unavailability of
foreign currency in Zimbabwe.
Said Anthony
Mandiwanza, the president of the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries (CZI),
a key organisation within the TNF: "There has not
been any progress. It has
been mere talk without any tangible results. The
issue is now beyond the
control of ZESA and unless something is done
quickly, we could face a
blackout by the end of this week. Unless
outstanding debts are settled, and
they require foreign currency which is
not available, we are in deep
trouble."
Lovemore Matombo, the president
of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) said: "The suggestion raised
at the TNF to have exporting
companies pay their bills to Zesa in foreign
currency has not yielded
anything and has therefore rendered futile any
efforts by the forum to solve
the crisis. We have a big problem which can
cause a blackout any time."
Contacted for
comment last week on Thursday Zesa's executive chairman
Sydney Gata,
acknowledged the gravity of the crisis but refused to be drawn
into further
discussion saying a statement would be issued this
week.
Said Gata: "Indeed the problem has
been with us for long time.
However, we are currently meeting with government
and other stake holders
such as members of the TNF and will be issuing a
statement either on Tuesday
or
Wednesday."
On Friday morning, however,
Gata claimed to be in yet another meeting.
Panic is reported to have gripped
the parastatal and government last week
resulting in marathon meetings-which,
apparently, also yielded nothing.
It
emerged that efforts by Zesa to solve the problem by appealing to
exporters
to pay their bills in foreign currency hit a snag as many business
people are
questioning government's commitment to solving the crisis. Part
of the 50% in
foreign currency earnings the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
receives is supposed
to go towards payments for electricity.
"Many business people feel government is not committed to solving
this
problem. They want the TNF to call for an emergency meeting in order to
find
an all-inclusive solution," said a member of the
forum.
Zesa is among the major economic
players to have suffered the severe
effects of the economic malaise which
intensified in 2000 as a result of
Zimbabwe's unplanned and violent land
grabs. The souring of relations with
most of the international community
exacerbated the problem as trade with
Zimbabwe became highly risky and as a
result, foreign currency dried up.
Load
shedding was introduced last month as a means of economising on
limited power
supplies. Industry and labour have been hardest hit by the
load shedding,
which has resulted in workers being sent on forced leave
because of the
significant downsizing in production.
Zim
Standard
'Fuel increases: A tonic
for uprising'
By Henry
Makiwa
TUESDAY'S shocking fuel price
increases announced by the government
will make life virtually impossible for
the majority of battered Zimbabweans
already hard hit by the effects of a
worsening economic crisis, The Standard
has
established.
Not even the joint
Independence and Easter holidays could raise the
spirit of many Zimbabweans,
some of whom chose to forlornly walk the
derelict streets and shops-and their
largely empty shelves-hoping they might
come across some mealie meal or
cooking oil for sale.
Hardest hit by the
fuel hikes is the Harare urban commuter, especially
the ordinary office
worker or general employee in industry, who now has to
fork out as much as $1
600 a day to go to and from work.
Many
general workers in Zimbabwe earn about $30 000 a month while
domestic workers
normally take home less than $10 000, and would not be able
to afford to go
to work and still pay for basic
necessities.
For example, a trip to the
city for a domestic worker who lives in
Mabvuku or Tafara high density
suburbs now costs $450 for a single journey,
making it $900 for the round
trip back home.
In just one week, the
worker would have to spend $4 500 on transport
alone, almost half a salary of
$10 000.
A domestic worker who is employed
in the Avenues area of Harare but
lives in Tafara now needs at least $22 000
a month for transport alone, more
than twice the monthly salary of $10 000.
And that is before they factor in
other needs such as rent, food and
clothing.
But it is not the lowly paid
alone who will feel the pinch of the new
fuel hikes. A worker who takes two
commuter buses to work will now need at
least $2 000 a day for transport
alone. That is before adding the cost of
lunch, groceries, rent, electricity
and so forth.
Workers living in far-flung
areas such as Chitungwiza and Ruwa will be
even worse off. After the new
price increases, a single trip to Chitungwiza
now costs about $700, about
three times its cost before the fuel
price
hikes.
So what it means, say
labour experts, is that an ordinary Zimbabwean
worker now needs to earn in
the region of $100 000 per month to make ends
meet after the new fuel price
increases and the subsequent ripple effect on
the cost of other basic
commodities.
A gloomy-faced Sarah Mhako of
Crowbrough North gave a run down of her
problems which apply to many other
Zimbabweans.
"There's no bread, no cooking
oil, no sugar S nothing. And now, thanks
to the government, transport costs
have become unaffordable, accommodation
rentals have shot up and everything
else is set to follow the same trend
because fuel prices have a ripple effect
on every other commodity," she
said.
"But worst of all," said Mhako, "is the fact that even our employers
cannot
give us a pay rise to match the skyrocketing inflation rates because
things
are hard for them too."
Despite Minister
of Energy and Power Development, Amos Midzi's call on
Zimbabweans to "tighten
their belts", most Zimbabweans say they can no
longer do so and many withdrew
from state activities to mark Independence
Day on
Friday.
"I have nothing to celebrate but
everything to mourn. These new fuel
increases are alarming to say the least,
so I am forced to work. I think
this fuel increase is the last sign of the
total breakdown of our economy,"
said Arnold Mutembo, of Harare's Kuwadzana
high-density suburb, who said he
was busy working in his
workshop.
The recent fuel hike has had
disastrous effects not only on ordinary
commuters but businesses as well.
Industry and commerce have said the fuel
price increases would cripple them
and some of the costs would obviously
have to be passed on to the
consumer.
On the other hand, the
government has warned commuter operators
against "charging illegal fares
without consultations".
One commuter
operator who refused to be named for fear of
victimisation accused the
government of fomenting ill-feeling between
commuters and public transport
operators.
He said: "We have more empathy
for the people than this heartless
government. How do they expect us to keep
our businesses viable if we cannot
raise our fares to match their fuel
increases?"
He said besides the new fuel
prices, the lot of commuter operators was
worsening because it now cost them
as much as $1.5m to buy a single bus tyre
on the black
market.
Wellington Chibhebhe, the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
secretary general, lamented the plight of the
workers in the face of the
latest fuel
increases.
"The (fuel) increases show the
extend to which the government
disregards its own people who are suffering
from a crisis of its creation,"
Chibhebhe
said.
"Earlier this year, the ZCTU
requested that the government peg
salaries at an average of $46 000 for
workers in the industrial and
commercial sector, $40 000 for agro-based
workers, $22 000 for farm workers
and at least $13 000 for domestic workers.
And yet these considerations were
never effected. With these fuel increases
it means that most workers cannot
even afford to live from hand to
mouth..."
Silas Mangono, the MDC Member of
Parliament for Masvingo and shadow
minister for Transport and Communication,
described the fuel increases as
the "repercussions of long years of the Zanu
PF regime's economic
mismanagement and graft
activities".
"The Zanu PF government would
want to hide behind the thin finger of
comparing our fuel prices with other
countries in the region but this is
nonsense because the difference between
Zimbabwe and other southern African
countries is that they have the foreign
currency (to buy fuel) which we do
not have," Mangono
said.
He warned that the fuel increases
were a tonic for an uprising.
"The people
are angry," he said, adding: "They want to register their
anger and many are
asking the MDC to lead them in a peaceful struggle to
uproot this rotten
regime."
Zim
Standard
Zanu PF youths halt Aids
relief work
By our own
Staff
GWANDA-Over 84 000 villagers as well
as home-based care patients and
Aids orphans in the drought-ravaged
Umzingwane district of Matabeleland
South, are threatened with starvation
following the disruption of the
Umzingwane Aids Network (UAN) relief
programmes by some Zanu PF youths.
UAN is
the only non-governmental organisation running feeding, care
and HIV-related
support programmes in the district.
However, The Standard learnt yesterday that the programmes were
suspended
after a gang of Zanu PF youths forced UAN co-ordinator Lucia
Malemane and
senior programmes officer Bigboy Ngwenya, to flee their offices
last
week.
The youths declared the two
"suspended" on allegations of corruption,
support for the opposition MDC
party and decision making without the
approval of the UAN
board.
The trouble followed the
termination of the contract of a Zanu PF
aligned worker. The worker
reportedly informed officials of her party that
she had been dismissed
because of her affiliation to the ruling
party.
"The Zanu PF leadership, which has
over the past three years worked
hard to remove the two officers from the
NGO, reacted by handing the matter
over to the ministry of Youth, Gender and
Employment Creation. The officers
there, then took the unilateral decision of
suspending the two and of
hounding them out of their offices last week," said
one Zanu PF source who
declined to be
identified.
The two officers left work
last week and have not reported for duty
pending the resolution of the
matter.
The UAN has been running
programmes to do with Aids prevention, home
based care, communication for
social change and orphan care and support for
the infected and
affected.
The suspended programmes include
a feeding programme for all the
districts' children under five, the elderly,
lactating mothers and at least
30 000 children between Grade One and Form
Two. It has also directly
supported over 300 orphan-headed
families.
Zim
Standard
Education International
slams attacks on teachers
By our own
Staff
A THREE-member dele-gation of the
global academic authority, Education
International (EI) which quietly slipped
into the country last week to
assess the conditions of service of teachers,
says it has noted with great
concern cases of politically motivated attacks
on teachers in Zimbabwe.
The delegation of
Thembelani Nxesi, the vice-president of EI, John
Katumanga, the African
region president and Nicholas Richards from the
association's headquarters in
Brussels, held a series of meetings with
officials of the Zimbabwe Teachers'
Association (Zimta) and the Progressive
Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe
(PTUZ).
Their visit was prompted by
increasing reports of the hardships faced
by teachers in Zimbabwe who are
said to be grossly underpaid and had become
victims of political
victimisation.
Katumanga said the EI
delegation had noted with great concern cases of
politically motivated
attacks on teachers in Zimbabwe.
"Zimbabweans, especially the government, should realise that this
country
needs teachers of all shapes, sizes and tribes as long as they
are
professional," Katumanga said.
"Teachers should be free to perform their roles anywhere without fear.
It
defeats the aim of national unity and cohesion to allow teachers to
be
victimised."
Since the June 2000
parliamentary election, teachers in urban and
rural Zimbabwe have been
targets of harassment and beatings by suspected
ruling party supporters and
war veterans who accuse them of being
sympathetic to the opposition.
Consequently, scores of teachers have fled
the
country.
Katumanga also lamented the
deterioration in the lot of
Zimbabwean
teachers'.
He said:
"Although we cannot expect Zimbabwean teachers to be paid as
much as
Americans because of the economic differences, we genuinely expect
the
government here to award teachers better packages. We have made it clear
to
all the educational officials we have met that they need to achieve a
unity
of purpose and agitate for an improvement in the teachers' conditions
of
service."
The visit by the high level
delegation also exposed the shadowy
Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (TUZ) as a
"dubious organisation with no
grassroots support", according to the EI
officials.
While the EI was eager to
dialogue with TUZ representatives, it
emerged that the whereabouts of the
union could not be traced.
"We are really
baffled by the non-availability of TUZ officials at
these important meetings.
We were hoping to hear them out after they
approached us requesting EI
membership but we wonder if they will still be
accorded the status now,"
Katumanga said.
TUZ was reportedly formed
in 2002 at the instigation of war veteran
and Zimbabwe Federation of Trade
Unions leader, Joseph Chinotimba, to
counter the influence of other
independent teachers' unions, especially
PTUZ - the union that orchestrated a
successful industrial action
last
October.
Katumanga said: "We have
told all the education officials we met that
the EI will not entertain any
teachers' union with political links though we
appreciate that teachers have
the right to join any political party they
desire as
individuals."
The EI is a global academic
authority that uplifts and assesses the
conditions of service of teachers
across the world.
Zim
Standard
Evict Zanu PF lodgers,
says MDC official
By our own
Staff
TIMOTHY Mubhawu, the Manicaland
chairman for the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), has called on the
party's urban supporters to evict
all Zanu PF youths and "unprofessional"
members of the uniformed forces who
are lodgers, ahead of the forthcoming
Mutare mayoral election whose dates
are yet to be
announced.
Mubhawu said it was only fair
that the party's supporters ejected all
rogue ruling party elements in towns
and cities since Zanu PF was harassing
and murdering opposition activists in
both the urban areas and its
"rural
strongholds".
"Let's give Zanu
PF its own burden. Let's evict all Zanu PF supporters
and biased army and
police details who are terrorising us day and night,"
said
Mubhawu.
"It is a show of our strength and
it will tell Zanu PF that the towns
and cities are ours. They cannot rape and
murder our people in their
so-called rural domains and in the cities as
well," the visibly emotional
Mubhawu told The
Standard.
He said the MDC's call for
people to boycott businesses linked to Zanu
PF had not been as effective and
hence his idea of chucking ruling party
supporters out of their
lodgings.
"This call is also extended to
all MDC supporters living in towns and
cities across the country. We cannot
allow Zanu PF to flex its muscles even
in our homes," said
Mabhawu.
The MDC won 57 parliamentary
seats including all the urban
constituencies in Zimbabwe's major cities and
towns in the 2000 legislative
polls.
The historic June 2000 election also saw the new party wrestling 20
more
seats away from Zanu PF in the rural
constituencies.
Mubhawu's sentiments come
in the wake of allegations by the government
that the MDC was terrorising
urban residents through a team of 23 suspected
army
deserters.
"The issue of the MDC using
some military wing to cause chaos is a
clear Zanu PF ploy to hoodwink the
Southern Africa Development Community
(SADC) task force that is expected to
evaluate and investigate the situation
concerning the alarming wave of human
rights abuses Mugabe is fomenting,"
Mubhawu
said.
"The MDC will not entertain members
of the uniformed forces, the
police or army who are supping with the Zanu PF
devil to abuse the people,
their own brothers and sisters," said
Mabhawu.
The MDC says more than 500 people
were arrested, while at least 300
others were taken to hospital with
injuries, after they were attacked by
suspected pro-Zanu PF vigilante units
dressed in army and police uniforms
after the successful two-day mass
stayaway last month.
Zim
Standard
Mugabe harps on about
land reform
By Henry
Makiwa
With national morale at its lowest
ebb due to the worsening economic
and political crisis, an embattled
President Robert Mugabe on Friday chose
the 23-rd Independence anniversary to
remind the people of the so-called
"successful completion" of the chaotic
land reform process.
Addressing a subdued
audience, dominated by members of "VaPositori"
sect, Zanu PF youths and the
top brass of the uniformed forces, Mugabe
failed to address the key issues
affecting the country, dwelling instead on
the supposed glories of his land
seizures and perceived Western machinations
to recolonise
Zimbabwe.
"Our land, our dear Zimbabwe,
will never, never, never never again
fall into foreign hands," said
Mugabe.
The 79-year-old Zanu PF leader,
now isolated from most the West and
his own people, skirted around thorny
issues that are currently affecting
Zimbabwe such as the shortage of fuel and
the crippling electricity power
cuts.
He simply said: "The fuel shortage that the country is experiencing
has
prompted the government to review its entire energy sector. The
government is
pursuing a number of options and ensure that the productive
sectors continue
to enjoy a steady supply (of fuel)."
Despite attempts by the government to downplay warnings by the
international
community that the Zanu PF leader-who is accused of stealing
last year's
poll-should step down and call for fresh elections, his speech
may have
confirmed what might be his mind's darkest
fears.
"We abhor imperialistic
machinations and iniquitous efforts by Britain
and its ally, the United
States, to recolonise us and we stand ready to
resist such attempts, " he
said.
Meanwhile, Itai Dzamara reports that
Nolbert Kunonga, the outspoken
Anglican bishop for Harare was at it again:
this time saying reconciliation
between blacks and whites in Zimbabwe was not
practical because the latter
have not returned all the land to the
blacks.
Kunonga was giving a sermon during
low key celebrations presided over
by Mugabe at the National Sports Stadium
in Harare.
"Many people, especially
Christians, talk of reconciliation and peace.
But you can only accept
reconciliation if the other person would have given
you your things which he
possessed. Otherwise, there can't be any
reconciliation," said
Kunonga.
"In our case, the same applies.
Let us be wary of those who seek to
entrap us with goodies like is done to
mice which are enticed into the trap
with a groundnut in order to take our
independence whilst calling for
reconciliation. Independence means things
should be returned back to the
rightful
owners."
Mugabe addressed the gathering of
about 15 000 that included a huge
contingent of the armed forces, Zanu PF
militia, school children performing
mass displays and the "VaPositori"
sect.
The young Zanu PF militants, the
products of the national Border Gezi
training centres and notoriously known
as "Green Bombers", maintained a
heavy presence around the stadium and
occupied one whole bay while the "Va
Positori" occupied
another.
Mugabe echoed Kunonga's
sentiments and claimed that there was peace in
Zimbabwe but failed to mention
that his government recently arrested scores
of so-called army deserters who
are being accused of trying to destabilise
the
country.
He once again said his office
would instigate a new land audit after
he refused to make public a similar
one that was headed by the minister of
Land Reform, Flora Buka, a Zanu PF
official.
Contents of the Buka report have
however been leaked to the Press and
expose many of Mugabe's close aides,
including members of his family, of
having grabbed more than one commercial
farm each.
The highlight of the day in
Harare, however, was the Independence Day
soccer trophy final between
Bulawayo giants Highlanders and the army team,
Black
Rhinos.
By the time of the match, the
stadium-which holds at least 65 000
spectators-was almost half full
with about 30 000 people drifting in to watch the free
soccer show and
witness Rhinos lift this year's trophy after defeating
Highlanders
2-1.
Zim
Standard
Fuel hikes herald
economic meltdown
By Kumbirai
Mafunda
THE recent fuel price hike will
push the economy further into turmoil
and force some companies to curtail or
stop operations, it has
been
established.
Industry and commerce
said the government had "shot itself in the
foot" by hiking the price of fuel
because that would spawn a boomerang
effect on the prices of commodities and
push the tattered economy into
deeper
catastrophe.
Reacting to the massive
increases in the price of both diesel and
petrol-by 68% and 309%
respectively-captains of industry and commerce said
the fuel hike would add
acid to the country's disintegrating economy and
create more
poverty.
"It is going to impact on costs
not only for the materials we use
because our suppliers will have to factor
in the increase in manufacturing
input costs and distribution costs. These
costs will have to be passed on to
consumers resulting in price increases of
many products," said a managing
director with a Harare-based manufacturing
firm.
The fuel hike, which is the second
in less than two months, comes hard
on the heels of the introduction of load
shedding by the country's sole
electricity supplier, Zesa, which has already
reduced the production
capacity of the few companies still
operating.
Zesa is failing to meet its
payment obligations to suppliers in
Mozambique, South Africa and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and has
resorted to load shedding during
crucial production times.
Experts say the
fuel saga and the load shedding were part of a broader
energy crisis that is
deepening by the day and would force Zimbabwe onto
its
knees.
They said the enormous price
increases of fuel also greatly undermined
the government's own policy of
trying to reduce inflation to a double digit
figure of 96,1% by December,
down from its March figure of 228%.
"That
target is now unachievable considering that there is going to be
an immediate
impact on the inflationary figure," said a leading
commentator.
Others said the government
had bidden good-bye to the restoration of
macroeconomic stability because for
macroeconomic stability to be realised,
it had to be anchored on price
stability.
Industrialists who spoke to
Standard Business said they could not
absorb any more new costs at a time
when overall productivity was declining.
Former Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) president and
chief
executive of Surgimed Trading, Danny Meyer, said the local industry
could not
continue to sustain these knocks.
"Industry is facing challenges from all directions and with this
recent hike
we are being pushed into a corner," said
Meyer.
"Industry can't operate efficiently
when you have inflationary
pressures, energy and liquid fuel shortages and
government trying to control
prices. The industrial base of Zimbabwe is being
eroded at an alarming rate
and this means loss of jobs, exports and loss of a
range of products for the
consumers," he
added.
Zimbabwe has been in the grip of a
fuel crisis for the past two years
after deals with Kuwait and Libya
collapsed because of non-payment of
fuel
suppliers.
Promises to address the
energy crisis by President Robert Mugabe in
December, have yielded
nothing.
The opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) on Wednesday said
the increases in the pump price of
fuel showed that government had reached a
cul-de-sac in terms of economic
policy.
Welshman Ncube, the party's
secretary general, said the fuel hikes
would "simply serve to accelerate the
collapse of the Mugabe regime and that
Mugabe is learning the hard way that
it was easier to steal an election than
to live with the consequences of that
theft".
Zim
Standard
Open up economy says
UNDP's Angelo
By our own
Staff
GOVERNMENT needs to revisit its
economic policies in order to address
the economic crisis which has pushed
Zimbabwe into its fourth year of
recession, Victor Angelo, an official of the
United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), has
said.
In opening remarks at an assessment
meeting of the Tripartite
Negotiating Forum (TNF), jointly convened by the
Zimbabwe National Chamber
of Commerce (ZNCC), the Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries (CZI) and the
Zimbabwe Economics Society (ZES) in Harare, Angelo
said the Zimbabwean
economy would gain tremendously from more market-based
policies.
He said the lifting of
government controls would address the acute
deficits of basic commodities
that have aggravated poverty and caused
rampant
inflation.
Government introduced price
controls in November 2001 which later
culminated in a price freeze on all
basic commodities last year.
Since then,
commodities such as mealie meal, sugar and cooking oil
have disappeared from
supermarket shelves but are readily available at
exorbitant prices on the
streets of Mbare, Chitungwiza and other
high-density
suburbs.
"The economy would immensely
benefit from the more market-based
policies and less administrative
constraints that would address the
prevailing hyperinflation, acute shortages
of basic commodities and
worsening poverty," said
Angelo.
He said the most difficult
challenge to the National Economic Revival
Programme (NERP), Zimbabwe's new
economic blueprint, was the establishment
of a macro-economic environment
conducive to the meaningful participation of
all
sectors.
Although government divorced
itself from foreign development partners
that stressed thriftiness, Angelo
said Zimbabwe should consider the support
of the international community if
there was to be an economic turnaround.
"We believe that there is need for the government and its social
partners to
actively engage with international development assistance
providers," said
Angelo.
"The declining economic
performance and the deteriorating humanitarian
situation makes it more
imperative for stake holders to urgently explore
ways of enhancing
consultation with the international community on programme
areas and on
mobilisation of financial and technical resources," he
added.
Angelo said he was prepared to
arrange discussions to ease the stand
off between Harare and the
international community which had worsened in
1999 and had aggravated the
economic downturn.
Government discarded
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank
prescribed economic policies
after failing to halt its appetite for spending
unbudgeted funds and instead
accused the Bretton Woods institutions of
sabotaging developing countries'
economies.
The IMF responded by
withdrawing balance of payments support to the
southern African nation which
was already in arrears to the fund. The
Washington-based group has also
earmarked Zimbabwe for possible expulsion
from the fund in June as a bad
debtor.
Other major donors who take a cue
from the IMF and the World Bank have
also withdrawn funding for Zimbabwe's
crucial projects while international
credit lines to Harare have been
frozen.
Zim
Standard
Fuel hikes to impact
heavily on family life
By Loughty
Dube
BULAWAYO-A leading local economist,
Eric Bloch, has warned that the
latest fuel price hikes announced by the
government on Wednesday will
further exacerbate the country's rate of
inflation and will have a knock on
effect on the cost of
commodities.
Bloch said the increases
would add a further 15 to 20% to the
country's latest inflation rate of
228%.
"The increase would impact
substantially on inflation and its effects
would be felt in the May inflation
figures and we should expect inflation to
have gone upwards by a further 15
to 20% as a result of this fuel
increment," Bloch
said.
He said the direct effects of the
fuel increase would be felt in
transport and on the prices of commodities but
said the fuel price increases
were long overdue and
inevitable.
"The fuel price increases will
have a knock on effect on the costs of
commodities as a result of the direct
increase in transport costs that the
manufacturers would carry forward onto
the overburdened consumers,"
Bloch
said.
The March inflation rate
announced by the Central Statistics Office
(CSO) on Tuesday indicates a rise
of 7,1 percentage point rise
from
February.
The CSO said food
inflation was highest at 247,9%. Zimbabwe's average
annual inflation was
22,6% in 1995.
Famine and price controls
coupled with a chaotic government land
reform scheme have contributed to food
shortages which have led to
sky-rocketing prices in Zimbabwe, once a regional
breadbasket.
Bloch said the official
inflation figure is an understatement because
it is measured according to
state-controlled prices while food is sold on
the parallel market at several
times the official price.
"I think the
real inflation figure should be about 260% but the figure
could surpass 300%
by year end and with the fuel price increases, it could
be worse," said
Bloch.
The fuel price increases would also
impact heavily on the quality of
family life whilst compromising productivity
and efficiency in industry,
said Bloch.
"What we will see happening soon is a situation whereby workers walk
to and
from work and coupled with hunger, there would be less production
taking
place in the industries," he said.
Zim
Standard
'Zim's economy mirrors
war ravaged economy'
By our own
Staff
THE opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) has equated the
damage done to Zimbabwe's economic
fabric through mismanagement by the Zanu
PF government, to a post-war
situation in which immediate reconstruction is
usually needed by the
administration coming into power.
Tendai
Biti, the party's secretary for economic affairs, told Standard
Business that
the dislocation of economic fundamentals in Zimbabwe mirrored
that of a
war-ravaged economy.
This situation, Biti
said, had compelled the economic affairs
committee he heads in the MDC, to
draw up an "Audit and Options" paper to
carry out an audit of the national
economy as it stands right now.
The
party's Bold Realistic Innovative Development Growth and
Employment Strategy,
commonly referred to as "BRIDGE", was crafted two years
ago as an economic
recovery and stabilisation plan aimed at ending the
vicious cycle of poverty
and job insecurity, among its other
targets.
The audit and options paper was
presented to the party's national
executive last weekend and was warmly
received.
"Our economy is actually rapidly
sinking into a scenario found only in
countries that have gone through
war...The situation we are witnessing right
now is akin to the one that
existed in Europe after the Second World War,"
said
Biti.
"You can't stabilise a situation
whereby the per-capita income of a
Zimbabwean is less than US$40, compared to
that of a Tswana whose per-capita
income is US$2 000. This is the real
problem we face as an incoming
government," said
Biti.
Tapiwa Mashakada, the party's shadow
minister of finance, added: "You
can't look at orthodox economic measures
alone because they can't adequately
redress the structural
distress."
Although the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) is carrying
out an audit of the manufacturing
sector, preliminary reports say more than
500 companies have closed shop
during the last two years.
Formal sector
employment has declined by more than 25% over the past
two years with
informal sector opportunities declining even faster. This has
been reflected
in the loss of more than 400 000 jobs.
Domestic and foreign debt continues to balloon and some multilateral
lenders
such as the International Monetary Fund are now even considering
suspending
Zimbabwe.
Foreign currency inflows have
dwindled to a trickle as exports have
decreased substantially due to many big
companies relocating to neighbouring
countries or closing shop as a result of
the harsh operating environment.
Zim
Standard
Corrupt administration,
lavish lifestyles-Zanu PF style
Americannotes By Ken Mufuka
ALEXANDER
Kanengoni wrote in the Daily News about his 100 days with
President Robert
Mugabe in Mozambique. Though I did not have the chance of
being so close to
Mugabe, I was a friend of former Speaker, Nolan Makombe,
who always spoke of
Mugabe as a gift to Zimbabwe and Africa. Kanengoni says
the perceptions of
the man "have to do with the position where one is
standing, looking at
him".
Makombe was my father's friend and
therefore of a revered generation.
In his position, he lacked nothing. He had
a Mercedes Benz and never worried
about petrol in his tank. Everything was
taken care of.
However, it so happened
that the good man was thrown out of the
Speaker's chair and for the first
time in 10 years, he had to buy his own
petrol and drive his own Mercedes
Benz. Those were the good days when a full
tank cost $200. I am not revealing
any secret if I say brother Makombe died
a rather disgruntled man. It is no
secret either that the day he left the
Speaker's chair and had to pay for his
own petrol was the day he began to
have a different view of the world Mugabe
had built around him.
I pray that brother
Kanengoni in his praise of the President has been
fair enough to realise that
for the majority of Zimbabweans, who now have to
pay for their own petrol at
$450 per litre, it is not the world of banquets
and fleet of government-owned
cars that exists for them. I pray too that
brother Kanengoni is not one of
the brothers who have grown fat from the
unfair trade practices supported by
the state.
Kanengoni asks the question:
What happened since 1994 that has led the
British to demonise Mugabe, except
the land reform? Let us accept as fact
that when the government was
oppressing blacks-the Matabele pogroms and the
general whippings, murders and
beatings of opposition members-the British
cared little about human rights.
It was only when 11 000 whites of British
descent were removed from farms
that all hell broke loose. This fact does
not, however, take away the
mismanagement and the corruption for which the
government should accept
blame.
Here are a few examples of the
mismanagement and oppression that are
daily
occurrences.
A student from the University
of Zimbabwe wrote me an e-mail yesterday
stating: "The university has not
opened. Most departments are at half
strength. Computer cartridges are not
available, some toilets are stuffed up
and there is no toilet paper in the
dorms."
A white professor who once taught
me, wrote to me saying: "Ken, the
U-Zee is in a
shambles."
A black professor passed by my
house. His petrol bill was $20 000 per
month in 2002 when a full tank cost
him $5 000. With a monthly income of
less than $70 000, he cannot afford to
live in any decent way.
The land belongs
to the natives and we agree that it should have been
restored to us a long
time ago. But it was done in a wicked and vicious way
that has become a
pattern of the ruling party. Good things, in the hands of
evil men, become
tainted with their wickedness. It takes a very long time to
build a
reputation-businesses and countries alike, need a positive
reputation in
order to function. Whatever positive reputation our country
had has since
been squandered.
It is because of Mugabe's
one-man showmanship that all these problems
are intricately bound up with his
leadership. When a leader has overstayed
his welcome, he becomes the
problem.
The Mercedes-Benz lifestyle of
Zimbabwean ministers feeds into the
imperialist propaganda. When the
imperialists effect a regime change, such
regimes have no support among the
general populace. For brother Kanengoni to
ignore the facts of the matter by
offering blind loyalty, is to do a
disservice to the nationalist cause and to
fall into the imperialist trap.
Zim
Standard
Why Mugabe must
go
By Chido
Makunike
PRESIDENT Mugabe has often
complained about how some newspapers are
seemingly obsessive in their focus
on him. Some of his dwindling number of
defenders point out how Zimbabwe's
many problems will not be automatically
solved by the departure of
Mugabe.
They are right, but there are
perfectly legitimate reasons why the
calls for change usually coincide with
demands for the exit of Mugabe from
the seat of
power.
Power is concentrated in Mugabe the
individual, far more than is the
case in most countries. Mugabe has,
unfortunately, been allowed to wield so
much control over all aspects of
governance that checks and balances exist
in name only. It is therefore an
entirely legitimate exercise to put the
blame for so many of the ills that
bedevil this country right at his door.
To talk about meaningful, positive
change in Zimbabwe that does not involve
the exit of Mugabe from the
political scene, is an oxymoron.
Any talks
or initiatives, local or international, to deal with the
multi-faceted crisis
in Zimbabwe that does not recognise this central point,
is doomed to failure.
Zimbabwe simply doesn't have a chance at getting back
to normality as long as
Mugabe is president, and pussy-footing around this
issue is a waste of
time.
The shock fuel price increase this
week, with petrol going up by an
unheard of 300% at one go, gives us an
opportunity to reflect on some of
Mugabe's failures as a leader that have led
us to the pitiful state we find
ourselves in, on the twenty third anniversary
of our independence.
In an attempt to
prepare us for fuel price increases, the propaganda
press has repeatedly
reminded us how our fuel prices are the lowest in the
region. Our fuel was so
cheap, people from neighbouring countries would
drive in to Zimbabwe just to
buy fuel, then they would drive back over the
border to resell it at home at
a huge profit.
We have also been told how
our low prices were way below the cost of
importing fuel, how they
contributed to the perennial problems of Noczim and
to the chronic fuel
shortages of the last few years. Let us ask some
questions of Mugabe and his
regime. What kind of economic model have you
been following all these years,
that required you to sell fuel at a loss?
Why did you so heavily subsidise
fuel all these years? When you made the
policy decision to do so, what did
you know that others who charge realistic
prices for fuel did not? Why does a
parastatal that has done so much more
harm than good continue to
exist?
If the answer is: "socialism, we
were trying to cushion the people
from the effects of charging the real price
for fuel," that only shows how
inept and lacking in foresight the Mugabe
regime really is. It shows that
Mugabe never grew into his job. It is one
thing to espouse populist,
pie-in-the-sky theories when you are a guerrilla
leader, but it behoves a
statesman to graduate from those perhaps initially
well-intentioned but
thoroughly naive theories once he has the responsibility
of charting the
economic course of a nation. Voodoo economics is fine in
theory and in the
bush, but it should have stayed
there.
The negative socio-economic effects
of increasing the price of fuel by
such a huge percentage at one go, will far
outweigh any good that might have
accrued from subsidising fuel all these
years. While the need to increase
the price of fuel to more realistic levels
is not at all in question, the
fact that it has had to be done in response to
a crisis, rather than pro
actively and as part of the enlightened stewardship
of the economy, is due
to the economic illiteracy of Mugabe and his
henchmen.
If we had been weaned off
subsidised fuel gradually over the years by
regular but smaller increases, we
would not be in the mess we are in now.
So, once again, we see how Mugabe
makes misinformed decisions based on an
outmoded, unworkable ideology that on
the surface sounds people-centred, but
which he has to back-track
dramatically while causing huge suffering to
those he would want us to
believe he is so concerned about.
These
disastrous about-faces have been a hallmark of Mugabe's ruinous
rule. His
whole tenure has been characterised by a practice of one step
seemingly
forward, then 10 steps back. That is why as we 'celebrate'
independence, we
find ourselves much further back in most respects than we
were in 1980. "Oh,
but at least we now have the land, we showed those whites
a thing or two!"
When are we going to get real and stop being hoodwinked by
Mugabe's long list
of economic blunders? It is trite to say land reform was
overdue-we all know
it, yet Mugabe and his cohorts like to sound like they
almost invented the
idea.
If Mugabe's economic record of the
last two decades is anything to go
by, just as we have seen with the fuel
situation, we will be paying for the
folly of his method of changing land
ownership for many years to come.
Whether
with regard to fuel, land or anything else, it is not enough
to enunciate a
policy designed to address a problem. Good leadership, the
kind Mugabe lacks,
requires you to then successfully strategise to find ways
to implement that
policy for the maximum good, with the minimum harm. I
challenge anyone to
show me how Mugabe's fuel strategy over the years, which
has led to this
week's economically crippling increases, can be said to have
done
this.
As we struggle to adjust to the
manifold implications of the massive
fuel price increase, the latest blow to
a dying economy, let us remember
that it is has been necessitated by Mugabe's
lack of economic foresight. We
all make bad decisions and mistakes, for which
we often have to pay heavy
penalties.
What is unique about Mugabe is that he never owns up to his, and it is
us the
people who have to pay for his long litany of failures. This is just
one of
the many reasons why Mugabe must go, so that we can begin to figure
out how
to get out of the mess he has got us into.
Zim
Standard
In God's name,
Go!
AS we have published
elsewhere in this issue, Zimbabwe has reached the
bottom of economic and
social despair and people are finding it impossible
to live. It has taken
more than three years to plumb that bottom. How much
practice does it take to
plan a human sacrifice of your own people?
Today in Zimbabwe, no name moves men and women, young and old quickly
to
anger than that of Robert Gabriel Mugabe. You gave us hope in 1980 and
now
that hope has completely evaporated.
The
fundamentals of life no longer exist. Prices of everything have
gone through
the roof. The old, tedious and exclusive pre-occupation with
imperialism and
the defence of Zimbabwe's sovereignty continue to sound
ridiculous and
irrelevant to the pressing need to cure the country of its
political and
economic malaise. People do not eat sovereignty, Mr
President.
As Zimbabweans, we are no
longer proud of who we are and what we are.
The country is one gigantic mess.
Zimbabweans have never seen or experienced
anything like this
before.
If you say you are
governing-governing what? Assassinate this country
no further, Mr President.
You have done enough. Before this society
explodes, please help the people of
Zimbabwe with just one action:
Step
down!
The moment has come and it
is a moment that the majority of
Zimbabweans and the world are waiting
for.
Zim
Standard
'Courage brother, do not
stumble'
ONCE upon a time, it was
one of the two brightest spots in sub-Saharan
Africa. The other was and still
is South Africa. Now Zimbabwe has gone
completely off the rails-thanks to a
political leadership that has
sacrificed the country on the altar of greed,
power and privilege.
Things have reached
breaking point in Zimbabwe. The recent fuel
increases have shocked the
country to its core. Life has become impossible
for the majority of
Zimbabweans. The only people who are smiling all the way
to the bank are
Mugabe's cronies, courtiers and other sympathisers who are
benefiting from
his patronage, and the exploitation of acute shortages of
commodities that
are stalking this land.
At 23, there is
really nothing to celebrate or to write home about.
Zimbabwe has become "a
house of hunger". People are starving. The standard
of living for most
Zimbabweans has plummeted to an all-time low. Even those
people who are
working (let alone the unemployed) in the few companies still
open no longer
can afford transport, food and many other costs. The enormous
suffering that
Zanu PF has inflicted on Zimbabwe is reducing many people
to
tears.
Is it that the Zimbabwean
political leadership is in sublime and
comfortable ignorance of what is going
on? How is it possible that a
political party that was so admired and
respected in 1980 has moved from
perfect vision to total blindness as far as
the people's plight is
concerned?
In
the early years of independence, the Zimbabwe government intervened
in the
economy to provide a better infrastructure, better education and
better
health. It invested in people and supported both domestic and
exporting
industries. Zimbabweans of all races helped themselves by working
very hard
in an honest and sincere manner. Now everything is gone. We are in
deep and
desperate trouble.
The tremendous progress
that was registered during the eighties in the
areas of education, health,
road construction and many others has been
completely reversed. It is not
Western countries that have reversed the
gains made in the early years of
independence but Zanu PF itself. The
President and the ruling party must
accept the responsibility and
consequences of their own
actions.
It is wicked to talk about the
recolonisation of Zimbabwe in this day
and age. Such scapegoating is totally
unacceptable. Recolonisation of the
country by Britain? Pure fantasy!
Colonisation formally ended more than 20
years ago and there is not the
slightest chance in hell it will ever
come
back.
When self-inflicted wounds
start hurting, it is nonsense to turn
around and blame everything on white
Zimbabweans, imperialism and other
external forces. We do concede and
acknowledge that certainly we would not
be facing many of our present
pathologies if it weren't for the legacy
of
colonialism.
But we must realise
that today much of the responsibility for our
problems lies at our feet.
Zimbabwe's political leadership must not be
oblivious to the reality that
their actions will always have consequences
and that a terrible price has to
be paid for shortsightedness and
bad
policies.
In a more open and
globalised economy as we now have, it is evil and
ridiculous to talk about
"Africa for the Africans" and "Zimbabwe for
Zimbabweans". It was perhaps
useful during the fight for our independence
but in 2003 it is meaningless
sloganeering.
Zimbabwe cannot remain an
island and a closed environment if it is to
succeed. The whole world is now
open and investment goes to the best. Siege
economies have never worked in
the past and will not work now or in
the
future.
Zimbabwe is a young
country. More than 50% of its population is below
the age of 15. Where will
the jobs for the youngsters come from? Investment
is obviously the key but
because of the anarchy and collapse of the economy,
no investment of any sort
is coming our way. Little wonder that the
country's industry is operating at
30% capacity. No wonder Zimbabweans, old
and young, are leaving the country
in droves in search of jobs in Britain,
South Africa and
elsewhere.
Zimbabwe is now reaping a
tragic harvest due to the infectious need on
the part of the President and
his cronies to cling to power at all
costs.
As we have said clear in and out of
season, it is not in the interest
of any country that leaders overstay their
welcome. Zimbabwe's current
crisis stems largely from this. We are entitled
to ask the President why he
is causing so much suffering to the people of
Zimbabwe?
Perhaps these massive fuel hikes
might just be the last straw that
breaks the camel's back. There is indeed a
feeling in the air that change
must come. We know that we have been saying
this for the past two years.
Yes, optimists including ourselves have been far
off the mark. But we
believe that this time around, the pessimists and the
skeptics might just be
proved wrong.
Let us continue living in hope and to perennially sing the song
"Courage
Brother, Do not Stumble".
Zim
Standard
Revolutionary spirit
engulfs troubled nation
overthetop By
Brian Latham
AN enterprising businessman
in a troubled central African country has
said he is soon to start moulding
statues of the most equal of all comrades
simply so they can all be torn down
again.
The businessman said his novel
project would begin just as soon as
someone switched on the electricity,
which has mysteriously disappeared from
the industrial area that's home to
his factory.
Sadly it was pointed out to
the enterprising businessman that the
electricity was unlikely to be switched
on while the most equal of all
comrades was still around, mainly because the
most equal of all comrades'
fiscal policy was responsible for the electricity
being turned off. The
enterprising businessmen then said it wasn't a problem,
he'd get the statues
made elsewhere, import them and then put them up so that
they could be torn
down.
But then the
now frustrated businessman reported that this plan had
also been foiled. He
was unable to find the necessary foreign currency to
pay for the
statues.
All in all, he said, it did not
bode well for the revolution.
Recent
events on television had shown that the tearing down of statues
was an
important element in any successful revolution, as was an element of
healthy
looting, the shredding of bank notes and arson attacks on
government
buildings.
And in the
general mayhem, there was also ample opportunity to set
light to the German
sports car that belongs to the guy who someone said
slept with your
wife.
Meanwhile other, more reasoned,
friends of the frustrated businessman
told him not to worry. Instead of
pulling down statues-which has a certain
symbolic but otherwise hollow
feeling-there will probably be more than
enough living ears to nail to the
pavement once the revolution is over.
And
then there'd be the pleasure of watching the green-clad
Dzaku-dzaku
disappearing over the southern border in search of safety and
political
asylum that will no doubt be granted by the inventor of the
African
Renaissance.
The frustrated businessman's
friends also pointed out that there were
other things to look forward to in
the troubled central African nation.
Finding that policeman who made you
perform a Zany Party dance in the middle
of the road while singing sad songs
about cockerels will also provide a
certain amount of vengeful
amusement.
Actually any policeman will
do.
And as for Zany's soldiers... well,
unspeakable things are likely to
happen if they're seen in certain popular
shebeens in the troubled central
African nation's
capital.
Still, political analysts said
all this was unlikely to happen.
While
there'd undoubtedly be a revolution spearheading the way for the
first
democratic government the troubled central African regime has ever
known,
analysts said it would be a peaceful
revolution.
Over The Top suggests that
while a peaceful revolution may not be an
oxymoron, it would be too boring
for words. What the people want is some
healthy, cathartic fun in the
streets.
And if the bishops and clerics
and other fundamentalists say that
vengeance belongs to the great democratic
in the sky; well, the people say
they'd rather negotiate that after the fact.
There's nothing like a fait
accompli to give you the winning
hand.
Unfortunately the More Drink Coming
Party backed the analysts calling
for peace and goodwill, quite forgetting it
was not the troubled central
African way. The troubled central African way
involves drinking lots of beer
to fire up the revolutionary spirit and then
lobbing bits of pavement at
the
oppressors.
It's been going on
since the 1950s, and there's every reason to
believe it'll carry on for years
to come.
Zim ranked 122nd in term
of freedom of the press
Out of 139 Zimbabwe is ranked 122nd in
terms of freedom of the press on a
list published by Reporters Without
Borders.
This places Mugabe's Zimbabwe in the same company as regimes the
like of
Belarus, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Nepal, Tunisia, Libya, Iraq, Vietnam,
Eritrea,
Laos, Cuba, Bhutan, Turkmenistan, Burma, China and North
Korea.
Not exactly the company one can be proud of keeping but these are
desperate
times for the Mugabe regime as they cling to power by any means
possible and
of course they must "protect" the people from the truth at all
costs.
Letter
to Zim Gateway
Mugabe's gravy train heading for disastrous
derailment
Shame on Tafataona Mahoso, who is frantically trying
to disguise his support
for Zanu PF by pretending to be sympathetic with the
Iraqi gangsters. We all
know who this disguise is serving. Shame on you and
be warned that the gravy
train you are so keen to get on is headed for a
disastrous derailment.
If he really feels we can make a difference and
stop the imperialist
Americans and the Britons, why not send in our gallant
army to teach the
Yankees and all other Uncle Sams a thing or two? We all
know how our 5
Brigade dealt with the Ndebeles, and how we dealt with Renamo
in Mozambique
and how successful our army was in the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
Come on, Bob, send our boys in to sort out the Americans - after
all you
have a score to settle.
Kwanele Xolo - South
Africa
Zvakwana Newsletter #20 – Support the
ZCTU Stayaway
April 21,
2003
GENERAL,
YOUR TANK IS A POWERFUL VEHICLE
It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred
men.
But it has one defect:
It needs a driver.
(Bertolt
Brecht)
People!
support the ZCTU stayaway. We must make sure that zanu pf runs out of drivers.
Every person and every employer that rejects the calls for action become one of
zanu pf's drivers, keeping their regime in power. Let us render the regime
driverless.
zvakwana - sokwanele - enough is
enough
SUPPORT
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and stayaway from 23rd April - 25th
April 2003
Zvakwana congratulates the ZCTU for rallying its members and the people
of Zimbabwe, to show the mugabe regime that enough is enough by calling for a
national stayaway. It is very apparent that a broad cross section of our society
has had their fill of abuse.
It is clear to all but a select few
that runaway inflation, "poverty datum line" wages and massive unemployment are
due to the political crisis in Zimbabwe. Nothing can move forward without the
critical issue of governance being addressed. Messing with parts of the economy,
such as the panic stricken increase of fuel prices, will go nowhere in the
absence of investors’ confidence.
The regime should make way for a
competent government that has the people of Zimbabwe at heart and that
understands the socio-economic dynamics of a developing and democratic country.
Zvakwana, who draws much of is
membership from the working class, ask the employers to show support for this
call to action by closing their doors. It will be assumed that those that remain
open can afford to meet the burgeoning costs of running a business, including
paying wages that stay ahead of inflation.
It is likely that those that remain
open will be the first to be lobbied to meet a significant wage increase.
As with the previous actions
Zvakwana will have activists monitoring the situation on the ground.
We are in this
together.
The tiger is waiting to be tamed
Remember
that things are coming to a boiling point because Zimbabweans are finally saying
Enough! We will be calling for persistent civil disobedience in order to bring
about some positive change.
The last successful stayaway was
helped on its way by many small actions: -
- Zimbabweans having the courage to
attend the Harare Mayor's Town Hall meeting in the face of riot police and
teargas
- activists protesting outside the
Nigerian Embassy to criticise Obasanjo's "quiet diplomacy"
- protests at the Namibian and
Australian Embassies during the World Cup Cricket
- brave women gathering in Harare
and Bulawayo to commemorate Valentine's Day as a day to say no to violence
- brave women marching on
International Women's Day
- pastors petitioning the police in
Harare
- the continued noise campaigns
throughout the cities
Three Day Job
Stayaway - from 23rd April - 25th April
2003
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
April 21,
2003
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) General Council called an urgent meeting on the 16th of
April 2003 to deliberate on the fuel price increases.
The General Council then
unanimously decided that;
The fuel price increases are not
acceptable and the ZCTU demands that the government reverses the price increase
with immediate effect.
The government’s continued
unilateral decision making has shown that they are negotiating in bad faith and
that the TNF is being turned into a playground hence the ZCTU is withdrawing
from the TNF with immediate effect until the issue of the fuel price is
resolved.
The TNF minimum wage of Z$46 000
has been overtaken by events and therefore the ZCTU does not recognise it any
more. The Poverty Datum Line (PDL) for March before the fuel increase was $53
029.10
The ZCTU is undertaking a
peaceful three-day stayaway from Wednesday 23 April to Friday 25 April 2003.
Unless the government gives in to the above demand the job boycott will be
indefinite.
The ZCTU urges all workers to take
part in this noble cause. Do not be intimidated, it is your right to
protest.
Lovemore Matombo
ZCTU
PRESIDENT
Say a very loud "no" to evil - how much
more evidence do we need?
The Solidarity Peace
Trust, comprising four Zimbabwean church leaders and two from South Africa have
published a report on torture in Zimbabwe. Janah Ncube, who is the chairperson
of the Zimbabwean Women's Coalition and attended Thursday's function, said there
had been a dramatic increase in women being raped by youths dressed in military
uniforms. "It is as if we are at war and they are using rape to get to us," she
said. "In one case a grandmother was raped by 12 men, in another a woman was
raped by five men. It is so dehumanising. They are trying to rob us of our
dignity." A woman also had an AK47 forced into her vagina at a youth training
centre where she was held for eight months as a sex slave, Ncube said. The
youngest sex worker at the training centre was said to be 12 years old. Ncube
said the women's movement wants to establish a rape crisis centre in Zimbabwe to
assist victims of sexual abuse. "We need to get them medical care, to put them
in contact with lawyers and to supply them with antiretrovirals." She said the
people of Zimbabwe simply wanted to be treated with respect. "We are ordinary,
uncomplicated people. We want to have families, a job, the security that comes
from a job, go to soccer once in a while, be allowed to live free and without
fear."
Zvakwana - Sokwanele - Enough is
Enough