http://www.swradioafrica.com

 

 

US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Bruce Wharton

By Violet Gonda
25 April 2013

The United States Treasury Department Wednesday issued a general ‘license’ authorizing transactions with two banks in Zimbabwe. This effectively removes the targeted sanctions on the Agricultural Development Bank of Zimbabwe (AgriBank) and the Infrastructure Development Bank, as part of the US’s ‘action for action’ policy towards Zimbabwe.

The two institutions were among a group of companies and ZANU PF individuals under targeted sanctions because of the violent land invasions, rights abuses and electoral fraud. Many of the individuals, including President Robert Mugabe, have been under sanctions for more than a decade.

US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Bruce Wharton said the delisting of the two banks is to recognise progress being made by Zimbabwe, especially on the recent peaceful referendum on the constitution. But many rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch, warn that it is too early to ease the restrictions as intimidation continues in Zimbabwe.

“What these licenses mean is that it is now perfectly fine for Americans or American businesses, banks, institutions to do business with those two banks.

“Both of those banks were put on our sanctions list in 2008 but are in effect no longer affected by sanctions,” Wharton told SW Radio Africa on Thursday.

The Ambassador said there are at least 71 entities or firms on the US sanctions list but his government decided to remove the two institutions because they were the only ones not “owned by individuals” who have the power to support democratic institutions, rule of law and human rights in the country.

“We believe that these two banks hold the greatest opportunity to improve the lives of regular Zimbabweans. AgriBank has the greatest reach into rural areas of Zimbabwe and so we hope delisting or licensing AgriBank will make it easier for people in rural areas to access cash or to receive remittances or conduct transactions.”

“And the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe has a vital role to play in long term investments in the country – roads, bridges and the power grids,” Wharton added.

Asked why these banks were on the sanctions list in the first place if they are not owned by targeted individuals, the US Ambassador responded: “They have a very large percentage of government ownership. I was not here in 2008 when the decision was made but my understanding is that it had to do with concern about the possibility that government could use these banks in ways that would be harmful to those fundamental ideas of democratic institutions, rule of law and human rights.

The diplomat said this is no longer “a problem today and that is why we have taken them of the list.”

He said this is a first step in a process that will hopefully lead to a completely normal relationship with the two countries that moves beyond sanctions.

ZANU PF blames the economic crisis in the country on the targeted sanctions imposed by western countries and has consistently campaigned for their removal.

Wharton said this is an action for action approach to his country’s relationship with Zimbabwe and believes the removal of restrictions will be a ‘graduated response and not an all at once response.”

Click here: Ambassador Bruce Wharton interview

US to announce policy shift on Zimbabwe

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/

24/04/2013 00:00:00
     by Moses Matenga I NewsDay

THE United States will announce major policy changes in its relations with
Zimbabwe in a few weeks’ time, Ambassador Bruce Wharton has said.

Wharton told Star FM on Monday night: “It is my sincere hope that we will
announce changes on Zimbabwe policy within the next few weeks, and I hope it
will be taken in the context that it has to be taken.”

Wharton said the United States understood that Zimbabwe had no obligation to
invite observer missions from Western countries during forthcoming general
elections, but he hoped the country will open up to the widest scrutiny.

Asked to clarify on the policy changes, the US Embassy public affairs dean
Sharon Hudson said she had no adequate details.

Zanu PF representative during the live phone-in radio programme, Christopher
Mutsvangwa, spoke glowingly of the US, describing the country as an
“elephant” in the international arena.

“Zimbabwe should look forward to working with America. Anything that makes
Zimbabwe-America relations move forward is good for Zimbabwe because we are
a small country while America is a big country,” Mutsvangwa said.

Relations between Zimbabwe and the United States have been frosty since the
latter imposed sanctions in 2001.

However, the US has since re-engaged Zimbabwe with a view to normalising
diplomatic relations. Last week, a State Department envoy Andrew Young
called on President Robert Mugabe.

Tsvangirai reiterates reforms key to free and fair elections

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Tichaona Sibanda
25 April 2013

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said the issue of reforms that were
agreed on as part of the GPA, but remain unimplemented, has to be addressed
if the country is to hold a credible poll.

Briefing members of the media at Harvest House on Thursday, Tsvangirai
insisted that certain conditions have to be met before the crucial
harmonized elections that are now expected to be held between the months of
July and September this year.

‘We have outlined and stated the key minimum conditions for the holding of a
credible, free and fair election, namely guaranteeing the security of the
vote, the security of the voter and the security of the outcome of the vote.

‘All Zimbabweans must vote in peace without intimidation, victimization,
violence or being forced to attend a political meeting of this or that
party. No ‘bases’ and vigilante groups in our villages, suburbs or
communities. The people’s will must be respected and guaranteed,’ he said.

The MDC President raised the contentious issue of security sector reform,
insisting the role of the armed forces in the forthcoming poll must be
clearly defined in line with international best practice.

‘The security sector must be professional, impartial, and non-partisan and
desist from overtly making partisan political statements and abusing state
resources to further the narrow partisan interests.

Security forces are a national asset belonging to the people of Zimbabwe for
peace and tranquility and not the opposite,’ Tsvangirai added.

Hardliners in the former ruling ZANU PF remain adamant that the security
sector would not be reformed. However South African President Jacob Zuma
recently waded into this issue, saying all parties to the GPA would be bound
by their agreement and reforms of the security sector would also be
unavoidable.

Zuma’s facilitation team is expected in the country next week to look at
some of the issues that have been raised by the MDC-T, including the need
for security sector reforms.

Blogger and Harare based journalist Elias Mambo says the absence of reforms
works in favour of ZANU PF for a number of reasons.

‘ZANU PF has vowed that no reforms will be implemented in the security
sector. Ever since ZANU PF started losing its electoral hegemony in the
early 2000’s, Zimbabwe has been under subtle military rule,’ wrote Mlambo in
his latest blog titled; ‘Why ZANU PF wants elections anytime soon.’

Mlambo said the defence forces have lately been operating much like the
liberation army embedded in ZANU PF of the 1970’s and actively working for
regime security.

‘The military, that is highly politicized and extremely partisan, is
presently behind (Robert) Mugabe and ZANU PF. Throughout the
post-independence years, fundamental principles of civil military relations
have been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency in defence of ZANU
PF’s hegemony,’ explained Mlambo.

No elections without reforms: Tsvangirai

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/

25.04.13

by Nelson Sibanda

MDC-T will not participate in coming elections if agreed reforms are not
implemented, said party President Morgan Tsvangirai at a press conference
held at Harvest House in Harare today.

Tsvangirai’s speech follows recent statements by Zanu (PF)’s Patrick
Chinamasa that MDC should forget about security sector reforms.

Security sector reform remains one of the major sticking points along the
election roadmap drafted by SADC and initially agreed upon by parties to the
Global Political Agreement signed in 2008 that paved the way for the
formation of a coalition government in early 2009.

“The major stumbling block to full implementation of agreed reforms remains
a palpable deficit of political will to honour the GPA by some of our
partners in the GNU,” said Tsvangirai.

He said without full implementation of the reforms, Zimbabwe would be headed
for yet another disputed election outcome.

“The security sector must be professional, impartial and non-partisan. They
must desist from overtly making partisan political statements and abusing
state resources to further the narrow partisan interests.

Security forces are a national asset belonging to the people of Zimbabwe for
peace and tranquillity and not the opposite,” said Tsvangirai.

Among the conditions MDC-T wants to be met before going to the polls are
guaranteed security of the vote and voter as well as security of the outcome
of the vote, in addition to undertaking of a ward-based nation-wide voter
education, registration and inspection.

MDC also wants the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission secretariat to conduct
itself in an impartial, credible and legitimate given the 2008 electoral
experience.

Media reforms should be implemented to make public funded media that include
the ZBC to cover events by all political players in an impartial and
objective manner. The public media houses are expected to desist from hate
speech, malicious as well as partisan reporting.

MDC wants registration of independent and private radio and television
broadcasters before elections to provide Zimbabweans with ‘truly alternative
platforms of communications’.

Another precondition the party wants to be met, according to Tsvangirai, is
an inclusive invitation and accreditation of election observers six months
before the election.

Zanu (PF) intends to exclude particularly western observers as it has done
in past polls, accusing them of bias.

Under the control of ZEC, Tsvangirai said, the logistics of the election,
the selection and deployment of polling officers and stations must be
inclusive.

“We must ensure that the laws governing elections are in line with the
Constitution and the expectations of the people. Repressive laws such as
POSA and AIPPA have to no role to play in a free and fair election as
envisaged by SADC guidelines,” said Tsvangirai who added that he would
embark on a regional advocacy tour.

Why MDC reunification is impossible: Ncube

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/

25/04/2013 00:00:00
     by Guthrie Munyuki I Daily News

MDC leader Welshman Ncube says a re-unification of the former opposition
party is "impossible" and a coalition with the Morgan Tsvangirai-led party
very unlikely because he is unprincipled.

The MDC split in 2005 because of Tsvangirai's failure to tackle violence and
intimidation within the party, and his refusal to accept collective decision
making, Ncube says in an interview published on Thursday.

“Of course there is a problem. The problems which led to the split remain
alive today. They remain unresolved. In fact the cracks are wider today than
they were in 2005. The only thing we literally share in common is that we
agree that Zanu PF and Mugabe have been bad for the country,” Ncube told the
Daily News.

“That’s about all that we agree on. We are not in agreement on just about
anything and everything else. The things which divided us in 2005 still
divide us today.

People cannot simply say these are personal differences. They are not petty
and they are not personal.

They go to the foundation of the MDC itself.

“When we formed the MDC there were things that we agreed on, what we called
a programme for change. That programme for change bound us to certain values
and principles.

“And those values and principles included that it is an affront on anyone to
be subjected to violence in order to secure the support of that person.

“There is no greater affront on the dignity of a human being than to subject
a person to violence whether it’s within the family to say you must comply
as my wife with my dictates, if you don’t I beat you. In the political arena
it’s the same thing.

“If you don’t agree with me I then subject you to violence. It is an
affront. It is a basic violation of the dignity of every person. And we
agreed that we will never do that as a political party”.

“These are real issues. They are not petty. They are not personal. They are
fundamental and if we are going to work together in whatever form, you must
be able to address them.

“You can’t duck them or sweep them under the carpet. That’s why we have said
and continue to say we regret contentiously any attempt to trivialise those
issues into something personal and petty between Morgan and Welshman,” said
the former University of Zimbabwe law lecturer.

Ncube charged Tsvangirai promoted violence at Harvest House, the MDC
headquarters.

“Our colleagues in the MDC-T only have a rhetorical commitment to anti
violence. Day in, day out, beginning with the time of the split, they employ
violence.

“In the MDC, by 2005 we were running a militia in the party to abuse, to
abduct, to beat up people. There were senior party members who were being
abducted and taken to the sixth floor boardroom of Harvest House and
stripped naked in front of girls and beaten,” claimed Ncube.

“(Tichaona) Mudzingwa (late former deputy minister of Transport), for
instance was stripped naked at the party head office and made to stand on a
table to address young people who included girls as young as 20 years, and
was beaten.

“Frank Chamunorwa, who is our vice chairperson today, was beaten right at
the gate of my house and had his arm broken.

“When the national council said we expel these people, the president of the
party (Tsvangirai) said I reinstate them on my own, unilaterally. It simply
says we do not have a commitment to the principle of non-violence. It’s a
matter of public record that within the party, they use violence as an
instrument of getting their way even among themselves.

“Let us go to the core value.  We said never again will we have a country
which is led by a man who makes decisions alone, who has power to overrule
collective decisions. We want to institute collective leadership. What the
president of the united MDC (Tsvangirai) did in reinstating those violent
youths was overruling a national council decision.”

He said it was false to claim the problems between him and Tsvangirai were
personal, insisting abhorrence for violence and corruption were among the
issues which put him at odds with the prime minister.

“We identified in the programme for change that what had brought the economy
to its knees was that instead of creating wealth the economy was feeding the
greed of a few individuals through corruption. You don’t need to look too
far, look at any council today controlled by our colleagues in the MDC-T.

“You can’t distinguish the corruption from the Zanu PF corruption and you
ask yourself we are not there to replace Mugabe as an individual. We are
saying let us replace Mugabe and Zanu PF with a system which is
diametrically the opposite to the present one.  But we have no confidence
our colleagues in the MDC-T have equal commitment,” said Ncube.

“When people talk about reunification which I can rule out as an absolute
impossibility, it will not happen. The best you can hope for is some
coalition. It must be a coalition based on principles. But you cannot put in
a coalition political parties which are at opposite ends of each other
because that is where we are”.

The Industry and Commerce minister blamed Tsvangirai for finding comfort in
his meetings with President Robert Mugabe which he said were fooling him
into a sense of false comfort.

“In our view the prime minister and the MDC-T have been deceived and fooled
by the appearance of power and cosiness with Mugabe to think that if you are
having tea with Mugabe, you have power and influence.

“And the result of it is that we have seen a merry-go -round where
constantly we are chasing our tails. Zanu PF is constantly firing red
herrings, flares into the sky and we chase them and leave the real issues.
But it’s a red herring constructed by Zanu PF.

“We completed the constitution exercise on July 18 last year. Zanu PF spent
six months, from July to January 31, making us chase shadows. If you
actually compare the final draft as of January 31 this year to the July 18
draft there is no material difference save for the   suspension of two or
three clauses from coming into effect until a certain period of time,”
observed Ncube.

“But everything else is virtually as it was in July. But we spent six months
on a merry-go-round. And it was deliberate, calculated, to waste time so
that we do not do the real things that ought to be done. It is the failure
to appreciate this Zanu PF strategy that we will be chasing red herrings
until the election is unavoidable and the things that we ought to do have
not been done.

“And this is our profound disappointment with our colleagues in MDC-T in
failing to appreciate how Zanu PF is running rings around them. And they
serve you with tea; they make you think you are important because they have
included you in the meantime you are being deceived. The strategy of three
Ds — delay, deceive and destroy. That’s what being applied to them,” Ncube
said.

The apparent lack of unity between the two MDCs, said Ncube, was aiding
Mugabe.

“There is no appreciation that the true beneficiary of this is President
Mugabe. Tsvangirai doesn’t see that it undermines his own interests and his
party and that the only person who stands to benefit from causing this
paralysis in the government is the president and the party which has never
wanted the GPA implemented from day one, is Zanu PF."

Zim may tax mining sector to fund polls

http://www.news24.com/

2013-04-25 09:40

London - Zimbabwe could introduce new taxes on its mining sector to help
fund July elections instead of borrowing on the debt markets, Finance
Minister Tendai Biti said on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe, which is on the verge of bankruptcy, withdrew a request for the UN
election funding last week, saying the United Nations had tried to
"interfere" in security matters and the media.

"The fact of the matter is that Zimbabwe does not have the resources for
funding the election," Biti said in a speech in London.

The UN loan agreement, thought to be worth $132m, would have helped fund a
viable election for a country that has suffered contested and bloody
elections in recent years.

On April 15, Biti said South Africa would offer Zimbabwe a $100m loan as an
alternative, though a treasury spokesperson said the two governments were
only "engaged in ongoing discussions".

Biti, an ally of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangarai, who forged an uneasy
power-sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe in 2008 after bloody and
disputed elections, said he was "not keen to borrow".

Aside from enacting fuel duties, which came into effect on March 9 and
raised $80m, Biti said he would consider introducing three or four other
taxes, including some on the mining sector, likely to affect the world's two
largest platinum miners, Anglo American and Impala Platinum.

Under an "indigenisation" policy, Zimbabwe has been demanding that foreign
companies, particularly mining firms but also banks, transfer a 51% stake in
local operations to indigenous investors.

Mugabe's Zanu-PF party proposed a legislative amendment this week that would
have seized majority stakes in foreign-owned mines before the elections,
prompting suspicions the money would be used to fund his campaign.

The amendment, which requires the approval of a parliament dominated by the
MDC, to pass is unlikely to go through.

- Reuters

Mugabe blocking much needed reforms: PM

http://www.iol.co.za/

April 25 2013 at 06:43pm
By SAPA

Harare - Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Thursday accused
President Robert Mugabe's party of obstructing reforms needed to guarantee
the credibility of upcoming polls.

“The major stumbling block to the implementation of already agreed reforms
remains a palpable deficit of political will to implement agreed issues,”
Tsvangirai told reporters.

“The ball lies squarely (sic) on President Mugabe and ZANU-PF,” the prime
minister said in Harare.

Polls are due this year to end an uneasy four-year-old unity government
between the parties of Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, and former
opposition leader Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai argues that several key reforms - including on media, security
and electoral law - promised by the deal agreed after disputed 2008 polls
have yet to be implemented.

“There shall be no credible election without the implementation of...
minimum reforms,” the prime minister said.

He announced he would soon embark on a tour to urge the Southern African
Development Community and African Union to put pressure on Mugabe to
guarantee free polls.

Current opposition leader Simba Makoni this week said Zimbabweans feared a
repeat of the bloody 2008 scenario and accused both partners in the
government of failing to deliver.

The voter registration process is to begin next week.

The electoral roll has been a contentious issue, with Tsvangirai's party
alleging it was stuffed with millions of ghost voters who were used by
Mugabe to rig elections.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti has said the country needs $132

million (100 million euros) to organise the polls but state coffers are
empty.

Earlier this month the government withdrew a request for funding from the
United Nations following disagreement on the size and mandate of an
assessment team from the global body. - Sapa-AFP

Zimbabwe set to register voters for key election

(AFP) – 7 hours ago
HARARE — Zimbabwe will next week launch a campaign to register eligible
voters, a key first step to organising crucial elections planned for later
this year, a cabinet minister said Thursday.
Zimbabwe is expected to hold elections to pick a successor to the
power-sharing government formed four years ago by veteran President Robert
Mugabe and long-time rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The announcement of the registration campaign came after the cash-strapped
government released funds for it.
"Yes, treasury has released $8 million dollars to enable mobile voter
registration to take place and the excercise is expected to begin next
week," acting Finance Minister Elton Mangoma told AFP.
He would not give details on the campaign, referring further questions to
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who was not immediately reachable.
The electoral roll has been a subject of contention, with Tsvangirai's party
alleging it was stuffed with millions of ghost voters who were used by
Mugabe to rig elections.
Mugabe and his allies want the elections as early as June but Tsvangirai
insists on reforms first to guarantee a free and fair vote.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti has said the country needs $132 million (100
million euros) for the elections.
But that kind of money is just not available in the state coffers for the
election.
There are now plans to try to source funds locally and possibly turn to
international organisations if there is need for additional funding.
But earlier this month the government withdrew a request for funding from
the UN following disagreement on the size and mandate of an assessment team
from the global body.
Biti had last month complained that voter registration was underfunded and
inaccessible to many citizens, adding the roll needed thorough sanitisation.
Two thirds of the six million voters on the roll are dead, claimed Biti,
pointing to irregularities with the crucial list.

Zimbabwe’s Tsvangirai Wants Security Forces Code of Conduct

http://www.businessweek.com/

By Brian Latham
April 25, 2013

Zimbabwe’s security services and the the Electoral Commission must be
reformed before elections can be held, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
said.

“Zimbabwe cannot tolerate vigilantes or militia bases in the country,”
Tsvangirai, who leads the Movement for Democratic Change, said in a
telephone interview from Harare today. “We can’t have intimidation or
violence and people mustn’t be forced into attending political rallies or
voting against their will.”

The MDC, which won parliamentary elections in a violence- marred ballot in
2008, has accused Zimbabwe’s military and police of supporting the Zimbabwe
African National Union- Patriotic Front party led by President Robert
Mugabe.

“There’s a lack of political will to implement reforms ahead of elections
and I’ll be briefing the Southern African Development Community leaders on
the matter next week,” Tsvangirai said.

The 15-nation SADC brokered a 2009 power-sharing agreement between Zimbabwe’s
main political parties after it ruled a presidential election the previous
year was void. The ballot, held concurrently with parliamentary polls, led
to the deaths of about 200 MDC supporters, according to Tsvangirai.

Elections scheduled for this year will end a five-year power-sharing
agreement implemented by SADC, which brought to an end to a decade of
political and economic crises that saw inflation rise to 500 billion
percent, according to the IMF.

“There shall be no elections until reforms are completed,” Tsvangirai said.
Mugabe had agreed to a “road map” leading to elections that included reforms
demanded by the MDC, Tsvangirai said.

State security minister Sydney Sekeremayi, a member of Zanu-PF, dismissed
calls for reform of the security on April 22, the state-controlled Herald
newspaper said on its website.

No indigenisation u-turn: Kasukuwere

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/

24/04/2013 00:00:00
     by Staff Reporter

EMPOWERMENT Minister Saviour Kasukuwere has insisted that ownership deals
reached with major mining companies remain unchanged and dismissed reports
he was planning legislative tweaks to enable the takeover of foreign
companies without compensation.

"The ministry has not changed this legislative framework and reports to the
contrary are misleading and misguided," Kasukuwere told reporters in Harare
on Wednesday.

Under the indigenisation programme, foreign companies must transfer
ownership and control of at least 51 percent of their Zimbabwe operations to
locals with the beneficiaries expected to pay fair value for the equity.

But the State-run Sunday Mail reported that the government was working on
changes to the legislative framework in order to remove the requirement for
compensation with regard to mining companies since mineral resources
belonged to Zimbabweans.

Observers said if implemented, the changes would invalidate compliance
agreements reached with platinum producers Angle American and Impala
Platinum as well as the local unit of a Canada-based junior gold producer.

But Kasukuwere said he would continue to engage with the companies on the
basis of deals already agreed but insisted that the “term sheets” were
however non-binding.

“With the view to achieve a 51 percent indigenisation shareholding
requirement, on a mutually beneficial basis and in line with this my
ministry continues to engage the major mining companies on the basis of the
term sheets which we signed in 2012 and part of 2013,” he said.

“As previously stated, the term sheets are non-binding and subject to
negotiation and approval by the relevant government authorities. We are
engaged with these companies to make sure that we bring then in line with
the expectations of our nation in terms of the resource value. This is
subject to us discussing with key ministries and relevant bodies.

“This is work in progress and proposals which are being done on a daily
basis will not change the course of what we are trying to do and what the
government has mandated us to do and we believe that we will continue to
engage with the business community to achieve the expectations of the law
and of our country.”

Tsvangirai to Embark on Diplomatic Offensive Ahead of Crucial Polls

http://www.voazimbabwe.com/

Tsvangirai to Embark on Diplomatic Offensive Ahead of Crucial Polls
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Zimbabwe Talks

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Thomas Chiripasi
25.04.2013

HARARE — Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says he is embarking on a
diplomatic offensive to pile pressure on President Robert Mugabe and his
Zanu PF party to implement democratic reforms ahead of elections expected to
be held sometime this year.

Mr. Tsvangirai told a news conference at his party’s Harvest House
headquarters Thursday that he will meet with heads of states and government
in the Southern African Development Community and the African Union to drum
up support for the implementation of key democratic reforms before the
holding of general elections.

Both President Mugabe and Mr. Tsvangirai want elections held this year
although the protagonists are yet to agree on the date of the polls.

Mr. Tsvangirai said his party will ensure that the elections are not
conducted before key media, electoral and security sector reforms are
implemented.

The prime minister’s remarks buttress Mavambo Kusile Dawn leader Simba
Makoni’s call Wednesday for reforms in the security sector.

The Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, a local think tank, warned in a report
released Tuesday that the absence of security sector reforms may block a
peaceful transfer of power if Mr. Tsvangirai wins the pending elections.

The prime minister accused President Mugabe and his party of blocking
reforms agreed to by parties signatory to the Global Political Agreement of
power-sharing.

The MDC leader said the secretariat of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
should be professionalized to ensure the forthcoming polls are credible.

As elections draw near, the premier also called for the licensing of new
truly independent broadcasters. Two new radio stations, Zi-FM owned by
former ZBC broadcaster Supa Mandiwanzira and Zimpapers’ Talk Radio, which
operates as Star FM, were licensed last year but critics say the two
broadcasters are not truly independent.
Thomas Chiripasi
25.04.2013

HARARE — Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says he is embarking on a
diplomatic offensive to pile pressure on President Robert Mugabe and his
Zanu PF party to implement democratic reforms ahead of elections expected to
be held sometime this year.

Mr. Tsvangirai told a news conference at his party’s Harvest House
headquarters Thursday that he will meet with heads of states and government
in the Southern African Development Community and the African Union to drum
up support for the implementation of key democratic reforms before the
holding of general elections.

Both President Mugabe and Mr. Tsvangirai want elections held this year
although the protagonists are yet to agree on the date of the polls.

Mr. Tsvangirai said his party will ensure that the elections are not
conducted before key media, electoral and security sector reforms are
implemented.

The prime minister’s remarks buttress Mavambo Kusile Dawn leader Simba
Makoni’s call Wednesday for reforms in the security sector.

The Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, a local think tank, warned in a report
released Tuesday that the absence of security sector reforms may block a
peaceful transfer of power if Mr. Tsvangirai wins the pending elections.

The prime minister accused President Mugabe and his party of blocking
reforms agreed to by parties signatory to the Global Political Agreement of
power-sharing.

The MDC leader said the secretariat of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
should be professionalized to ensure the forthcoming polls are credible.

As elections draw near, the premier also called for the licensing of new
truly independent broadcasters. Two new radio stations, Zi-FM owned by
former ZBC broadcaster Supa Mandiwanzira and Zimpapers’ Talk Radio, which
operates as Star FM, were licensed last year but critics say the two
broadcasters are not truly independent.

Cash Strapped Zimbabwe Still Considering UN Funding For Polls

http://www.voazimbabwe.com/

Blessing  Zulu
24.04.2013

HARARE — A deeply divided three-member Zimbabwe cabinet committee tasked
with mobilizing funds needed to run the country's general elections expected
later this year plans to hold a crucial meeting to review its strategy this
week.

The committee comprises Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, Finance
Minister Tendai Biti and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa. Harare is
struggling to raise US$132 million needed for the general election.

It has also emerged that government was forced to borrow US$40 to fund the
March constitutional referendum from local companies, the National Social
Security Authority (NASA) and Old Mutual Insurance.

Mr. Biti insists Zimbabwe should engage the UN. But Mutambara and Chinamasa
are saying Zimbabwe must use its own resources.

The UN says it is open to engaging Harare though it will not back down from
its mission to also reach out to  non governmental organizations when
allowed to visit Harare. Zanu-PF says it is not comfortable with such
meetings.

Zanu-PF is also bitter that former United States envoy to Lebanon,
ambassador Jeffrey Feltman, now un undersecretary for political affairs, has
been appointed to oversee Zimbabwe’s application to the UN saying it is an
attempt by Washington to influence elections in Zimbabwe.

But the UN has maintained the missions are standard policies and are not
political.

“The UN remains open to engage with the Government of Zimbabwe to determine
if an agreement can be reached on the modalities that will allow the NAM
(Needs Assessment Mission) to be conducted in accordance with the UN General
Assembly resolutions.”

Biti told VOA  that Harare is running out of options. He accused Mr.
Chinamasa of  sending mixed signals to the UN.

Chinamasa was not picking his mobile phone but Zanu-PF spokesman Rugare
Gumbo said he supports  the justice ministers stance on the UN.

Gideon Chitanga, a PHD candidate in politics at Rhodes University says
Zanu-PF's conspiracy theories are worrying.

Fall out over poll funding

http://www.financialgazette.co.zw/

Thursday, 25 April 2013 11:26

Tinashe Madava, Senior Reporter

A MAJOR fall out is looming in the inclusive government as debate over the
funding of harmonised elections expected later this year rages amid discord
over the role of the United Nations in mobilising funds for the pending
polls.
In February, Zimbabwe sent an SOS to the UN via its local offices of the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) requesting about US$130 million
to bankroll the harmonised elections that will effectively bring closure to
the coalition government.
But it has emerged ZANU-PF and the two formations of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) are at loggerheads over a UN Needs Assessment
Mission (NAM) which is supposed to come into the country to assess the
country’s funding needs following a government request for election money.
The team, which had been stuck in Johannesburg, South Africa, was forced to
return to New York, the UN headquarters, as ZANU-PF and the MDCs haggled
over conditions set out by the international organisation, which among other
things, included demands to meet with civil society organisations deemed by
hardliners in the party to be hostile to President Robert Mugabe.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa (ZANU-PF) and Finance Minister Tendai
Biti (MDC-T) have issued conflicting statements over the NAM with the
ZANU-PF Justice Minister threatening to deport the UN staffers if they land
into the country without government approval of their mission.
Biti has indicated they were overtures to bring the team back into the
country as Harare has no financial wherewithal to fund the polls.
As Chinamasa and Biti appeared to grandstand over the UN assessment team, it
emerged yesterday that the inclusive government principals, President
Mugabe, Prime Minister (PM) Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister
Arthur Mutambara resolved on Monday to stamp the tide of mixed messages
coming from their lieutenants.
But whether President Mugabe would follow through on that resolution is yet
to be seen as members of his party continue to sing from a different hymn
book.
PM Tsvangirai’s spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka told The Financial Gazette
that in their Monday meeting, the principals resolved that the UN funding
matter was not a closed chapter and should be pursued conclusively by
working closely with the global body to allow the country to access election
money.
“The principals discussed this issue in their usual Monday meeting this week
and they are concerned with the mixed messages coming from the ministers
Chinamasa and Biti. The correct position is that the UN poll funding issue
is not a closed chapter as Chinamasa is alleging. Government will continue
to engage the NAM,” said Tamborinyoka in a telephone interview with The
Financial Gazette.
He said Chinamasa was not the spokesperson of the principals. The
spokesperson of the inclusive government principals is PM Tsvangirai.
President Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba was not available for
comment as his mobile phone went unanswered.
Chinamasa was also not immediately available to comment on the latest
developments over UN funding.
However, ZANU-PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, in a brief telephone interview,
said his party’s position was that which Chinamasa had articulated.
“Our position as a party is very clear. We will only accept UN funding
provided they restrict their activities to what we have set out. Chinamasa
is articulating the party position,” said Gumbo yesterday.
Biti was not available for comment but is on record as stating that the
country was  technically broke and was not in a position to fund the
forthcoming elections unless the ZANU-PF side of government released
proceeds from the sale of diamonds from Chiadzwa diamond fields in which the
state has mining joint ventures mostly with Chinese firms.
Critics of ZANU-PF claim President Mugabe’s party is wary of scrutiny hence
is opposed to the UN assessment team ahead of polls.
Confidential sources told The Financial Gazette last week that Chinamasa’s
announcement that government had withdrawn its UN poll funding request was
motivated by the issue of avoiding comprehensive security sector and media
reforms as these were some of the issues the UN NAM wanted to look into.
Biti has warned that if government has to raid the country’s economy again
as happened in the lead up to the March referendum, the long-term effect of
that on the country’s economic recovery would be catastrophic.
The country is literally broke although South Africa is said to have
approved a loan of US$100 million for Zimbabwe while the country has also
extended its begging bowl to neighbouring Angola. It is not yet known
whether the Portuguese speaking country would come to Zimbabwe’s rescue but
President Eduardo Dos Santos is an ally of President Mugabe.
ZANU-PF is bent on avoiding UN scrutiny. The party appears ready to fight
over the NAM’s terms of reference with the liberation war party aligned
public media going all out to attack the UNDP in the past week.
In February, the government made an official request to the UN for
assistance in mobilising resources for the constitutional referendum and
harmonised elections. In accordance with standard UN policy, the UN Focal
Point for Electoral Assistance at UN Headquarters responded and advised the
government that a UN NAM would need to ascertain how best the UN could
assist.
The inclusive government has been roundly criticised for the poll funding
crisis with critics questioning why a country with rich natural resources
was failing to fund its national election.
Reports that President Mugabe has caved in to demands by the UN have not
been rubbished in the public media and by statements from his party, meaning
there is no consensus among the partners in the inclusive government over
the UN’s role

Treasury releases US$8m poll cash

http://www.herald.co.zw/

Thursday, 25 April 2013 00:00

Felex Share Herald Reporter

TREASURY has released US$8 million to kick start mobile voter registration
next Monday as the country gears for watershed harmonised elections expected
this year.

The money is part of US$13 million needed to carry out the exercise that
would be supervised by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa confirmed the
development yesterday.

“I have secured US$8 million from the acting Minister of Finance, Elton
Mangoma, to kick start mobile voter registration,” he said.
“Disbursement of the funds to the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs will
be done tomorrow (today). We expect the massive voter registration exercise
to commence on Monday.”

Minister Chinamasa could not be drawn into revealing how long the exercise
would take.
Mobile voter registration should have started on January 3, but failed to
take off because Treasury had not released funds to the Registrar-General’s
Office.

Voter registration is a continuous process, but Government conducts a
registration blitz towards each election to cater for people who would not
have registered.
Minister Mangoma could not be reached for comment yesterday.

This comes after Cabinet on Tuesday instructed Treasury to source  funds for
mobile voter registration.
At least one vehicle would be required per each of the 1 958 wards
countrywide.

The voters’ roll is ward-based and one is required to produce proof of
residence to be registered as a voter.
Proof may include sworn affidavits, utility bills or confirmation letters
from chiefs or headmen in rural areas.
Cabinet also directed the RG’s Office to replace lost identity documents for
all Zimbabweans free of charge until the last day of voter registration for
the forthcoming harmonised polls.

Those not on the voters’ roll can be entered automatically.
After the elections, the cost of replacing identity documents lost through
negligence would be reduced from US$10 to US$5.

Those who lose the documents through circumstances beyond their control,
Cabinet said, would get replacements free of charge.
Aliens were also granted the nod to get identity cards with immediate effect
so that they could register as voters.

They were granted voting rights in the recently endorsed Copac draft
constitution.
The RG’s office was also directed to provide an electronic version of the
voters’ roll to all stakeholders, while the printed version would cost US$5
000 per copy.

In the past, the voters’ roll cost about US$30 000 which political parties
in the inclusive Government said was not affordable.
Married women who moved from their original birth places would be registered
in their new places of residence upon authentication by husband, husband’s
relatives, their children, neighbours, elderly people and or traditional
leaders.

Apart from the voter registration exercise, the RG’s office is expected to
deal with irregularities picked up by Zanu-PF in Marondera where suspected
MDC-T activists were registered using fake addresses.

The suspects registered their supporters using other people’s addresses and
unoccupied, condemned hostels.

Theresa Makone brands actions of the police as ‘stupid’

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Tichaona Sibanda
25 April 2013

Co-Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone on Thursday launched a blistering
attack on the police after they arrested two members of her campaign team in
Hatcliffe, branding the actions as ‘stupid and shameful.’

The two women arrested were carrying out a door-to-door campaign for Makone
in her Harare North constituency. Makone, the influential MDC-T women’s
assembly chairperson, told SW Radio Africa she felt revolted when police
changed their statements on the reasons why they picked up members of her
campaign team.

Initially when the two ladies were picked up, police intended to interrogate
them on the strength and tactics of the Minister’s campaign team. But when
Makone phoned the police to enquire about the arrests, police changed their
statement and told her they were not happy that they were wearing t-shirts
donated by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

‘Each time before a national holiday I and (Kembo) Mohadi (co-Home Affairs
Minister) are given those t-shirts to issue to people that we know to
publicize the Ministry. They can be worn by anyone at any time and it is not
a crime to wear them.

‘Obviously if I get such t-shirts, I give them to people I know and most of
them belong to the MDC-T family,’ a fuming Makone said.

The Harare North MP said she is baffled by the police actions, insisting she
was still trying to make sense of the whole episode.

‘I don’t know what message they’re trying to give to the public…as far as I’m
concerned its nothing to do with the t-shirts, but a plot to make my team
feel there are inferior to the other party that is going around the
constituency doing exactly the same thing as my team,’ she said.

She continued; ‘But members of my team are not impressed at all, in fact
they’re not scared, they’ve been telling me they will be back on the streets
tomorrow (Friday) in their own clothes and continuing with the door-to-door
campaign.

The Minister, in Bulawayo for the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, said
once she goes back to Harare, she’s going to wear the same t-shirt and
embark on the campaign trail.

MISA defends inclusion of ‘ZANU PF voice’ at Press Freedom Day event

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Alex Bell
25 April 2013

Media rights watchdog MISA-Zimbabwe has defended its decision to include
ZANU PF’s Supa Mandiwanzira as a presenter during its World Press Freedom
Day commemorations this weekend.

Mandiwanzira, the chief executive of the ZiFM ‘independent’ radio station,
will be giving a talk at this Saturday’s event at the Raylton Sports Club.
The event is part of a build up towards next week’s worldwide Press Freedom
Day, where MISA-Zimbabwe’s commemorations will be held under the theme:
‘Media Freedom Now!’

The annual World Press Freedom Day is commemorated globally on May 3rd and
this year the event marks its 20th anniversary. The day is a chance for
countries to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom, to
evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on
their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their
lives in the exercise of their profession.

Critics in Zimbabwe have since argued that the inclusion of Mandiwanzira in
commemorations to mark the day are ‘cynical’ and go against what the global
event is all about. This is because of his strong links to a party that for
years has fought to muzzle the independent media.

There have been serious accusations leveled against the Broadcasting
Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) that the license given to Mandiwanzira for ZiFM
was based on his ZANU PF links, with concern high that the radio station
will be another vehicle for the party’s propaganda. Mandiwanzira also owns
The Patriot publication.

Mandiwanzira, who is the current ZANU PF Manicaland provincial secretary for
finance, was the former head of the party’s Affirmative Action Group (AAG)
until he stepped down in 2011.

He was also implicated in the ZANU PF and CIO sting operation against Roman
Catholic Bishop Pius Ncube in 2007. Mandiwanzira was working at the time as
the Zim correspondent for the South African national broadcaster the SABC,
and used this status to allegedly lead the sting. The SABC later fired
Mandiwanzira for his involvement, calling his conduct “appalling and
unprofessional.”

MISA-Zimbabwe Chairman Njabulo Ncube on Thursday defended Mandiwanzira’s
involvement in their press freedom event this weekend, saying the platform
will give him a chance “to explain how he got the license, and how he’s
taken the criticism that he is an appendage of ZANU PF and how he is going
to deal with editorial policy as we trudge towards elections.”

“MISA stands for pluralism and diversity. So let’s come and let’s discuss
with him. We can’t suppress his voice. We’ve been among those who believe
his radio station is not independent and an appendage of ZANU PF. So we are
saying, come lets discuss,” Ncube told SW Radio Africa.

Takura Zhangazha from the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe, who will join
Mandiwanzira as a speaker at the weekend press freedom event, agreed that
Mandiwanzira as the head of ZiFM should be afforded the platform to speak.

“That station exists and that is the reality. The major issue has been the
government’s lack of understanding of what exactly broadcasting diversity
is. The fault does not lie with ZiFM and the democratic deficit around
broadcast issues doesn’t lie with ZiFM,” Zhangazha said.

Minister Mashakada: South African Businesses Safe in Zimbabwe

http://www.voazimbabwe.com/

Staff Reporter
25.04.2013

WASHINGTON DC — Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister Tapiwa
Mashakada on Thursday assured South African investors that their businesses
will not be affected by the country’s controversial indigenization
regulations.

Addressing a joint Zimbabwe-South Africa investment indaba on the sidelines
of the annual Zimbabwe International Trade Far in Bulawayo, Mr. Mashakada
said government will honor the bilateral agreement between Zimbabwe and
South Africa which protects investments of citizens of the two nations from
being appropriated by the state.

Yet, Harare has previously seized dozens of farms owned by South African
citizens and refused to compansate them. South African companies operating
in Zimbabwe, including the Pretoria Portland Cement, Tongaat Hullet and
Zimplats, are some of the foreign companies that are under pressure to
comply with the indigenization regulations to transfer a 51 percent
ownership stake.

Mashakada added that since 2010, South African companies have pumped $2.8
billion into Zimbabwe’s economy.

Addressing the same conference, South African ambassador to Zimbabwe, Vusi
Mavimbela, said his government remains committed to assisting Harare revive
its economy, adding Pretoria has a rescue package in place for its companies
operating in Zimbabwe.

Zim Student Official Arrested

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

HARARE – In yet another unprecedented and brazen attack on members of the
Zimbabwean civic society signalling increasing paranoia by the law
un-enforcement agents ahead of crucial watershed elections this year Trevor
Murai from the Students Solidarity Trust was arrested in Mt Pleasant
yesterday. Trevor Murai who is the Information and Advocacy officer of the
Students Solidarity Trust- a youth based organization that provides demand
driven solidarity to the students’ community was picked up by plain-clothes
officers after making a presentation on elections at a workshop organized by
the Christian Alliance (CA).

In a typical arrest-inorder-to-investigate the plain clothes officers who
were masquerading as church members during the workshop apprehended the
unsuspecting Trevor after he had finished his presentation and told him they
believe he had a case to answer before taking him to Marlborough Police
station where he spent the whole night. By midnight yesterday no charges had
been preferred against Trevor Murai. SST officials who made enquiries at the
police station were only told that Trevor Murai will be transferred to
Harare Central Police Station Law and Order Section early today where
charges are going to be preferred against him.

Lawyers representing Trevor Murai visited him last night at Marlborough
police station to enquire about the reasons for the arrest but only
discovered that his case has been recorded as ‘embarking on voter education’
in the Detention Book (DB). This suggests that the state wants to allege
that Trevor Murai was doing voter education which has been outlawed by the
new Electoral Act (Cap 2:11) through Section 40C (1) (h) read with 40F. How
can a mere presentation on elections suddenly become voter education?

“PROVIDING DEMAND DRIVEN SOLIDARITY TO THE STUDENTS COMMUNITY AND BEYOND”

Communities still traumatised by 2008 political violence

http://www.financialgazette.co.zw/

Thursday, 25 April 2013 11:17

Clemence Manyukwe, Political Editor

AS the country edges closer to polls, fear is still haunting some victims of
the 2008 electoral violence as political ghosts of that period were never
exorcised during the life of the inclusive government.
Election talk is opening old wounds, with those who were affected by the
extreme violence of 2008 unsure whether or not it would rear its ugly head
again as perpetrators of political violence have not been brought to book
more than four years after the Global Political Agreement (GPA) paved the
way for the formation of a coalition government to end civil strife.
The constituting of an organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and
Reintegration that was meant to foster peace and harmony has not been
helpful as the body largely proved to be ineffectual from inception.
As a result, victims’ grievances remain outstanding and a sense of
foreboding persists as fresh polls loom.
President Robert Mugabe’s repeated calls for peace have not reassured
victims of violence, as their tormentors are still roaming the streets with
a sense of impunity.
The Ndira family of Mabvuku falls into the category of those who feel that
they were wronged without any recourse to justice following the murder by
unidentified men of one of its members, Tonderai, in the run-up to the 2008
presidential election run-off.
The deceased was a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) national youth
secretary for defence and security. He was abducted from his home on May 14,
2008 in front of his two young children who were preparing to go to school.
Nearly two weeks later, he was found dead.
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is also the country’s Prime Minister
attended his burial back then.
In an interview with The Financial Gazette this week, Ndira’s elder brother
Cosmas, said his late brother’s two children — one who is now in Form One
and the other one in Grade Six — are still haunted by their father’s
kidnapping and subsequent death.
“He was taken in front of his children and he was crying. He was saying
these people are going to kill me. That was the last time they saw him alive
and when they later saw his body they knew he was telling the truth. I try
to counsel them, but I am not a professional counsellor,” said Cosmas.
The late Ndira’s activism was always a political minefield.
At one time, he had 38 charges preferred against him; ‘political nuisance’,
and attempted murder among others.
His abductors came in a pickup truck with a fake company name on it. They
were wearing overalls like some ordinary workmen, but they were armed and on
a mission.
“His killing emboldened everyone in the family as we are all now into
politics full time, my father and only sister included. When they killed him
we said yadeuka, yadeuka (it’s done) because he can’t die in vain. They
would rather finish us all as a family,” said Cosmas.
“My father is a headman in Makonde and when there is maize or seeds (being
distributed for free by government) he is never given (anything).
(Operation) Murambatsvina forced me to go to the rural areas but my house
was burnt down twice; in 2005 and in 2008 when I came to mourn my brother.
We have suffered a lot as a family, but I have offered myself for Member of
Parliament in the coming election. I hope the people of Mabvuku would be
sympathetic.”
The brother to the late MDC-T youth leader said he himself is lucky to be
alive. Weeks after Tonderai’s death, they decided that the late MDC-T
national youth secretary for defence and security’s family must move to
another house.
He and a friend helped move their belongings during the first trip and
Joshua Nyakabeza, an MDC-T driver and Tendai Chidziva, a party activist
handled the second trip with Ndira’s wife. Near Msasa, their vehicle was
stopped by unidentified men, and Nyakabeza and Chidziva were abducted in a
case Cosmas believes was a matter of mistaken identity as they were after
him. The two were shot at a farm near Beatrice and Nyakabeza died on the
spot, while Chidziva survived with bullet injuries.
Ndira’s widow declined to comment on the kidnapping that happened in her
presence saying she was afraid that doing so would put her life in danger.
“I am suffering now, please don’t get me in trouble,” she added. The widow’s
worries underline the monumental failure by the authorities to entrench
political rights to ensure that every citizen can participate in the affairs
of his or her country without unwarranted infringement or repression from
any quarter.
Nonetheless, Cosmas said Chidziva sought refuge in Botswana after the
shooting tragedy.
“He works at a surgery run by a Zimbabwean doctor in Botswana and has never
set foot in the country since then. When you talk to him on the phone he
talks as if there is still a war in Zimbabwe. His life has been affected
forever,” added Cosmas.
The above 2008 cases as well as the ordeals of human rights activists such
as Jestina Mukoko among many others, forced Tsvangirai to pull out of the
presidential run-off election which the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) went on to say was not reflective of the people’s will.
SADC as well as the African Union later pushed for the formation of an
inclusive government, with the GPA underlining the need to respect people’s
rights such as freedom of information and assembly that Ndira was not
afforded.
Tonderai Machiridza Ndira was the second born in a family of six and was a
popular figure in Harare as an MDC-T foot soldier.
He was born in 1977 and died when he was 31. He left behind two children and
a wife. His surviving friends call him Steve Biko, after the late South
African anti-apartheid icon and every year they hold a memorial for him.
Those friends and close family still live under a state of uneasiness and
apprehension over a sense of impending danger and misfortune in their lives,
especially ahead of the next elections.
Their distress and worries about future political uncertainties’ are
conditions afflicting many people in Zimbabwe as a result of government’s
failure to guarantee people’s safety and security as well as the sanctity of
one’s vote.
“I don’t feel safe at all as we go for elections, but when my brother was
killed I said, I am prepared to die. He was taken from home so where can I
hide? As a family, we decided that we won’t leave Zimbabwe. We could have
gone outside the country like the others who are not wanted, but we will
live here, we will die here,” said Cosmas.
“We campaigned together (governing political parties) for a Yes vote during
the constitutional referendum and I hope we are going to vote in peace.
After all that is what our independence is all about.”

Game Meat Poaching Rife in Zimbabwe

http://www.voazimbabwe.com/

Gibbs Dube
25.04.2013

WASHINGTON DC — A Zimbabwean anti-poaching specialist says game meat
poaching is now rife in the country due to increasing poverty levels.

Bryce Peter Clemence, director of an anti-poaching training institute -
Aggressive Tracking Specialists - said villagers in most parts of Zimbabwe
are believed to be teaming up with local poachers to kill wild animals for
domestic consumption.

Clemence, who is currently on an international program in the united states
where he is observing activities of U.S anti-poaching units together with
representatives of eight other African nations, said the poaching activities
have been worsened by the high demand for rhino horns and elephant tusks.

He said it has become difficult to control such activities as poachers are
normally heavily armed and demoralised anti-poaching units are also poorly
paid.

He is attending a three-week wildlife conservation, anti-poaching and
anti-trafficking workshop in the USA. Other participants are from Kenya,
Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Angola, South Africa, Botswana and Uganda.

Hunger looms large as Zim’s grain reserves continue to fall

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Nomalanga Moyo
25 April 2013

Zimbabwe is on the verge of a severe shortage of grain, reports by two
international development bodies have revealed.

In its latest monthly economic review, the African Development Bank (AfDB)
attributed the situation to a poor harvest and a lack of fertiliser in the
last season.

According to the March report, the national Grain Marketing Board (GMB) had
92,000 tonnes of maize in its reserves, which it had since stopped selling
to millers, reserving it for the grain loan scheme.

“The millers require 150,000 tonnes to meet the consumer demand before the
new harvest lands on the market. This grain shortage has pushed up
maize-meal prices.

“The supply of grain under the grain loan scheme is erratic and
inconsistent. This is because the reserved grain is insufficient and
transporters are not willing to move it to the affected areas, as they are
not paid on time,” the report said.

Farmers’ organisations have forecast total grain harvests this year of about
1.2 million tonnes, with the country’s annual consumption estimated at 2.2
million tonnes.

Zimbabwean traders import maize from Malawi, South Africa and Zambia, but
the costs involved in moving the grain from these countries to Zimbabwe make
it expensive compared to buying it from the GMB. Zambia, which is currently
facing food shortages, has imposed temporary export restrictions on grain.

While the Zambian government had promised that the ban would not affect
exports to Zimbabwe, players in the local milling industry revealed to news
agency IRIN that no grain has been officially coming from Zambia since
December 2012.

In a separate report carried on its website, the United Nations World Food
Program (UNWFP) said the worst was yet to come,” with the peak of the hunger
period, before the next harvests posing the highest level of food
 insecurity” in the past three years.

As well as the drought and the shortages of inputs, the UNWFP said farmers
opted to grow crops such as tobacco which have greater and better financial
returns instead of the maize staple, thereby worsening the situation.

Most areas in the country expect poor harvests in the current crop season,
with the majority of the population already surviving on food handouts.

The reports by the UNWFP and the development back agree that at least 2
million Zimbabweans are affected by the food insecurities, a rise of about
60percent from the same period last year.

The AfDB report called on the government to combat the looming disaster by
ensuring “that grain reserves are well stocked and that transporters are
paid on time.

“The government needs to not only intensify the presence of extension
service officers but also their interaction with farmers in drier areas to
encourage them to grow drought resistant crops, such as small grains,” the
body said.

In a statement that will re-ignite the debate around genetically modified
foods in a country that has strongly resisted these, the bank added: “There
is also need to come up with new drought resistant crops that adapt well to
the changing weather conditions in these drier parts of the country.”

In recent weeks, starving villagers across the country have told SW Radio
Africa how ZANU PF is using food as a political weapon against the
opposition by allocating the scarce grain only to its supporters.

Before the ZANU PF government embarked on the chaotic and violent farm
seizures in 2000, Zimbabwe used to be the regional breadbasket, producing
enough for its local needs and exporting its corn surplus.

Villagers Become ‘Water Scavengers’

http://www.ipsnews.net/

 

By Jeffrey Moyo

Villagers in Zimbabwe’s Mwenezi district have not had access to running water for more than a decade after more than half of the boreholes in the broke down. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

HARARE , Apr 25 2013 (IPS) - For the last 13 years, Trynos Mbweku, the headman of Mwenezi district in southeastern Zimbabwe, has had to use a cart to fetch water from the only remaining borehole in his area, which lies some 10 kilometres from his home.

For villagers in this district, which is about 160 km southwest of Masvingo, the capital of Masvingo Province, the water crisis seems to have no end in sight.

“We have been reduced to becoming water scavengers owing to several dysfunctional boreholes that broke down over 10 years ago,” Mbweku told IPS.

Officials from the Mwenezi Rural District Council, who requested anonymity, told IPS that out of a total of 46 boreholes in the district, 26 had broken down and had not been repaired for the last 13 years.

Locals blame the District Development Fund (DDF) and the Mwenezi Rural District Council, which are responsible for repairing and maintaining the boreholes.

But officials from the Mwenezi Rural District Council said that over 120,000 dollars was required for repairs, and that the DDF was underfunded and could not afford it.

Zimbabwe is still recovering from an economic crisis. Between 2003 and 2009, the country had one of the worst rates of hyperinflation in the world – year on year inflation was reported as 231 percent.

However, economists in this Southern African nation attribute the deepening water woes here to the forced departure of agricultural investors at the height of the country’s controversial and often violent land reform programme, which began in 2000. The programme was a government initiative that attempted to reclaim land from almost 4,500 white commercial farmers, and was carried out by disgruntled war veterans.

“The water crisis is Zimbabwe’s national problem. It worsened after the 2000 chaotic land reform programme, which saw a downturn in the country’s economy. It resulted in the country losing revenue to maintain community boreholes when productive commercial farmers were evicted from their farms,” economist Kingston Nyakurukwa told IPS.

With around 70 percent of Zimbabwe’s population living in rural areas, improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene is critical. Although the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development funded a 50-million-dollar rural water and sanitation hygiene programme in 2012, which aimed to benefit drought-prone areas, most of rural Zimbabwe has difficulty accessing safe drinking water.

“We are grappling with water shortages here because several community boreholes broke down and have been out of use for years now, owing to the country’s poor economy,” Dereck Siyaya, an agricultural officer based in Guruve, a rural district in Mashonaland Central Province, told IPS.

According to figures from a 2010 United Nations Children’s Fund report titled “Child-Sensitive Social Protection in Zimbabwe”, almost half the population lives below the poverty line of 1.25 dollars a day.

A top official from the Ministry of Water Resources Development and Management told IPS that about 60 percent of rural water pumps, out of a total of about 2,714, were broken.

An estimated 2.5 million of the country’s 12.5 million people do not have access to improved water sources. And officials from Zimbabwe’s National Statistical office told IPS that 56 percent of people did not have access to improved sanitation facilities.

“Failure to act on the water crisis in the country will see Zimbabwe fighting over the precious liquid … we must commit to a sustainable water sector,” Minister of Water Resources Development and Management Samuel Sipepa Nkomo said at a water summit on Mar. 20 in Bulawayo.

A senior government official from the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture told IPS that rural school children were also affected as they invested considerable time in fetching water instead of attending classes.

“The water crisis in rural areas has resulted in school pupils spending much of their time fetching water for their teachers alongside ordinary villagers also hunting for the precious liquid,” the official said.

In 2009, Zimbabwe signed an agreement with the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Institute of Water and Sanitation Development, Zimbabwe, to raise funds to supply clean water to the local population. But four years later, the agreement is yet to be implemented.

In order for Zimbabwe to reach the U.N. Millennium Development Goals to increase improved access to water sources, the country needs an investment of 400 million dollars per year, according to a 2010 U.N. Children’s Fund report. There are eight MDGs that were adopted by all U.N. member states in 2000 in order to curb poverty, disease and gender inequality.

But independent economist Hillary Jamela told IPS: “Constructing more dams for rural communities here would only help to further enfeeble the country’s already suffocating economy.”

 

 

Zimbabwe after hyperinflation

http://www.economist.com/

In dollars they trust

Grubby greenbacks, dear credit, full shops and empty factories
Apr 27th 2013 | HARARE |

THE OK Mart store in Braeside, a suburb of Harare, is doing a brisk business
on a sunny Saturday morning. The store, owned by OK Zimbabwe, a retail
chain, is the country’s largest. It stocks as wide a range of groceries and
household goods as any large supermarket in America or Europe. Most are
imports. For those who find the branded goods a little pricey, OK Zimbabwe
offers its own-label Top Notch range of electrical goods made in China.

The industrial district farther south of the city centre looks rather less
prosperous. Food manufacturers and textile firms have down-at-heel outposts
here. Half a dozen oilseed silos lie empty. Only a few local manufacturers
are still spry enough to get their products into OK stores. One is Delta, a
brewer that also bottles Coca-Cola. Another is BAT Zimbabwe, whose cigarette
brands include Newbury and Madison.

This lopsided economy is a legacy of the collapse of Zimbabwe’s currency.
Inflation reached an absurd 231,000,000% in the summer of 2008. Output
measured in dollars had halved in barely a decade. A hundred-trillion-dollar
note was made ready for circulation, but no sane tradesman would accept
local banknotes. A ban on foreign-currency trading was lifted in January
2009. By then the American dollar had become Zimbabwe’s main currency, a
position it still holds today.

Zimbabwe’s dollar had been too liberally printed: a swollen stock of local
banknotes was chasing a diminished supply of goods. Now the American
banknotes the economy relies on have to be begged, borrowed or earned. Even
so, the monetary system works surprisingly well. A scarcity of greenbacks
keeps inflation in the low single digits. The economy has made up much lost
ground.

The changeover was daunting, says Kevin Terry, the boss of CABS, a
Harare-based lender. Banks had to start almost from scratch. Inflation had
wiped out the value of both loans and deposits. “We had no customers, no
deposits, a bucketload of expenses and zero revenue,” says Mr Terry.

A big question was where the dollars needed to oil Zimbabwe’s banking system
would come from. The central bank could scarcely ask America’s Federal
Reserve for a credit line. Happily, the dollars came.

Those swimming around a thriving informal economy washed into banks in
search of a return: in Zimbabwe banks will pay 12% interest on three-month
deposits. Dollars that had been squirrelled away in New York or London came
back to Zimbabwe. Some firms could fall back on foreign credit: CABS
borrowed $1.5m from its parent, Old Mutual Group, a big insurer. Then came
the hot money as violence after disputed elections in 2008 receded and the
economy recovered. Bank deposits increased by 31% last year, to $4.4
billion.

This is no normal banking system, however. The lengthiest term that savers
are prepared to lock up their money for is 90 days, so banks can lend only
for short periods. Terms are long enough for a retailer to turn over stock,
but not to finance the refit of a factory. There is no lender of last resort
if a bank runs short of cash or suffers a run. Lending between banks is
limited. Excess cash is often parked abroad rather than lent locally. So
liquidity has to be marshalled carefully. Banks keep cash worth at least 30%
of their loans in reserve, further constraining how much they can lend.

The risk of a run means depositors flock to the five biggest banks: CBZ, the
largest, and four foreign-owned banks. But the indigenisation policy of
Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, which requires foreign-owned firms to hand
over at least a 51% stake, clouds even this modicum of financial stability.
The immediate threat to banks has receded thanks to an unlikely alliance
between Gideon Gono, the central-bank governor who is close to Mr Mugabe,
and Tendai Biti of the Movement for Democratic Change, who is finance
minister in an uneasy coalition government.

The indigenisation drive is nonetheless another bar to much-needed capital
spending. Zimbabwean industry cannot compete with imports, in part because
its machinery is old, says John Robertson, a Harare-based economist.
Investment requires a long-term vision. Under hyperinflation the long term
was tomorrow. Now inflation is under control but long-term credit is scarce.
Last year’s trade deficit was $3.6 billion. Zimbabwe has to attract yet more
dollars to fill this gap. “The country is borrowing itself into the grave,”
frets Tony Hawkins of the University of Zimbabwe.

Consumers are in sunnier mood. People who have seen their debts eroded by
inflation are all too willing to borrow even at high interest rates.
Retailers are thriving. OK Zimbabwe is one of the few firms able to invest.
It raised $20m of fresh capital in 2010 and used the money to open new
stores and refurbish old ones. The firm coped with a month-long transport
strike better than its South African peers, says Albert Katsande, its chief
operating officer. Its dependence on imports forces it to hold high levels
of stocks.

Sweet dreams
A problem for all retailers is a shortage of small change. One-dollar bills
are filthy from frequent handling. The South African rand is the main
currency in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, and one-rand coins are used in
place of dimes all over the country. If coins are short, a credit note or
sweets may be offered instead. Items that are frequent purchases have
rounded prices. A loaf of bread usually sells for $1.

Given their own experience with money-printing, locals are queasy about
“quantitative easing” as practised by the Fed and other rich-world central
banks. Yet for all the printing of electronic dollars by the Fed, the
greenback is a hard currency in Zimbabwe. Few are clamouring for its
replacement by a local brand.