FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief Political
Reporter
lTsholotsho ghost returns to haunt ZANU PF
AN expected vice
presidential opening in the ruling ZANU PF has stoked
tensions reminiscent
of 2004 when the race to succeed the late Simon Muzenda
almost split the
party, after it emerged that Joseph Msika has indicated his
desire to retire
before 2008.
Although ZANU PF largely managed to paper over differences
that erupted when
Emmerson Mnangagwa and Joice Mujuru battled it out for the
party vice
presidency, ruling party insiders said this week a fresh battle,
this time
to replace Msika, was inevitable in Matabeleland.
The
development also adds a new dimension to the ZANU PF successon
conundrum.
Msika, who became ZANU PF and state vice president in 1999
following the
death of Joshua Nkomo, is reported to have signalled his
intentions to close
colleagues, sparking a rat race among former ZAPU
stalwarts who, according
to the ZANU PF constitution, will be in line to
succeed the former ZAPU vice
president when he bows out. The unity accord,
signed by ZANU PF and ZAPU in
1987, reserves one of the two vice
presidential slots for former ZAPU
officials.
Although Msika reportedly
favours ZANU PF national chairman and Speaker of
Parliament, John Nkomo,
former intelligence supreme Dumiso Dabengwa and
Cabinet Minister Obert Mpofu
are reported to be lining up their bids for the
position.
Sources privy
to the escalating jockeying in the restive Matabeleland
provinces said Msika
has had to convene a series of meetings involving
senior ZANU PF officials
in recent weeks to cajole them into supporting
Nkomo's candidature and to
build consensus on who fills the post of national
chairman should Nkomo be
elevated to vice president.
The sources said the fight to replace Msika was
likely to intensify, raising
the spectre of 2004 when Mnangagwa was thwarted
in his charge towards the
vice presidency.
President Robert Mugabe
ultimately tipped the scales in Mujuru's favour
before cracking down on
Mnangagwa's supporters, many of whom allegedly
gathered in Tsholotsho to
plot his ascendancy.
The alleged Tsholotsho declaration resulted in six ZANU
PF provincial
chairmen being suspended from the party, while several other
senior
politicians were punished for their association with the alleged
plot, which
the party's old guard viewed as having he makings of a palace
coup.
"What is happening is very unfortunate," said a senior ZANU PF official
from
Matabeleland. "We (former ZAPU) are so few but this shoving and pushing
is
happening. I don't think the late Vice President Nkomo would have allowed
it."
Msika and Nkomo could not be reached for comment yesterday as they
were said
to be out of Harare on business. Dabengwa and Mpofu were also not
available.
The Financial Gazette, however, has it on good authority that
Msika had
become concerned at the political jostling for a position he still
occupies.
He is said to have rebuked politicians at a recent closed-door
meeting at a
hotel near the Gwayi-Shangani Dam site in Matabeleland for
fighting for
positions which will not be vacant within the next two
years.
"Msika has told everybody to relax, saying the leadership of the party
will
know how to handle the issue when he finally bows out. He wants us to
speak
with one voice.
"There are two distinct camps, those that want DD
(Dumiso Dabengwa) and
others rooting for Obiza (Obert Mpofu). Some are
campaigning against Obert's
candidature, saying he sold out when he joined
ZANU PF before Joshua Nkomo
did. Those supporting Obert are of the view that
he is the man because he
has been in ZANU PF longer than DD and has a
constituency after wresting
Bubi-Umguza from the grasp of the MDC in the
last parliamentary election. DD
surrendered his constituency to the MDC and
has since been removed from the
people," added another senior ZANU PF
official.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube Chief
Political Reporter
CONVICTED ZANU PF senator for Hurungwe-Kariba Phone
Madiro, has been
suspended from the House of Assembly following his
conviction two months ago
for public violence that left a man dead in
Mashonaland West in 2004.
Austin Zvoma, the clerk of parliament,
confirmed Madiro's suspension as it
also emerged the Attorney General's
Office was allegedly unhappy with the
lenient sentence meted out to the
lawmaker.
A Karoi magistrate last month fined Madiro $10 million or six
months in
prison after finding the lawmaker guilty of inciting a group of 18
youths,
allegedly loyal to him, to savagely attack supporters of his
political rival
Cecilia Gwachiwa.
"Yes, he (Madiro) has been suspended
after sentences for those charges,"
said Zvoma, adding that the house would
only decide on the length of his
suspension when Madiro's appeal had been
dealt with in the courts. Madiro
has lodged an urgent appeal against his
sentence and conviction.
"In terms of the constitution, when the person
appeals within a specified
period, which he has done, his or her fate cannot
be finalized until the
appeal has been disposed of," said Zvoma.
Madiro
and Gwachiwa were both vying to represent the ruling party in
Hurungwe West.
Gwachiwa is now the Hurungwe West Member of Parliament.
In sentencing Madiro,
the Karoi magistrate further wholly suspended six
months on condition that
the legislator is not convicted of a related
offence within that
period.
Charges against Madiro were that he and 18 youths were involved in
skirmishes with Gwachiwa's group leading to the death of a man.
The 18
youths were separately sentenced to 12 months each. They each had
four
months of their sentences conditionally suspended. The remaining eight
months were commuted to 280 hours of community service at public
institutions, mostly schools in their home areas.
FinGaz
Chris Muronzi Staff
Reporter
THE proposed amendments to the Access to Information and
Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA) would isolate Zimbabwe further and condemn
it as a
pariah state, a local media watchdog noted this week.
The
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Zimbabwe) said the proposals by
the
Media and Information Commission (MIC) to regulate distributors of
foreign
published material deemed hostile to Harare by amending the
draconian AIPPA
are ill advised and retrogressive.
MISA-Zimbabwe said the suggestions by the
Tafataona Mahoso chaired MIC were
reminiscent of previous bans that had been
imposed against the screening of
European football and foreign music videos
on national television.
"MISA-Zimbabwe notes with great concern that the
proposals are being
considered when the government is reportedly reviewing
the entire contents
of AIPPA with the view to removing offending provisions
in the Act," said
the institute.
"Most Zimbabweans can safely assume that
any reviews being undertaken are
part of efforts to ensure compliance with
the regional and international
conventions ratified and signed by Zimbabwe,
notably the Windhoek
declaration and the African Charter on Human and
Peoples Rights, among
others. MISA- Zimbabwe is therefore urging government,
the Parliament of
Zimbabwe and the nation at large to reject the AIPPA
amendment proposals, as
they will only result in the further isolation and
condemnation of Zimbabwe
as a pariah state," said MISA.
Over the years,
the government has gained notoriety as a human rights
violator, owing mainly
to arrests of political opponents and journalists.
The government accuses
civic groups and journalists of working with former
colonial powers but
critics argue that there is an onslaught on democracy
and freedom of
expression and that the state is violating fundamental
liberties guaranteed
by the constitution.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
Govt to demonstrate ability to pay first
A PRECARIOUS foreign
currency position that has dogged the country in the
past seven years is the
only serious hindrance that might scuttle Zimbabwe's
hopes of securing a new
fuel arrangement with the Equatorial Guinea.
Sources said while the
sub-Saharan African state has emerged among Zimbabwe's
dwindling friends
capable of hatching a fresh fuel deal badly needed to end
the chronic fuel
shortages facing the country, Harare would need to
demonstrate how it would
pay for the fuel supplies.
In the past, fuel deals entered into between the
country and the world's
renowned suppliers such as Tamoil of Libya and IPG
of Kuwait, have collapsed
after Harare reneged on its commitment.
"There
is nothing like free lunch these days. We have to demonstrate, first
and
foremost, how we are going to pay for the product. Nothing short of
convincing answers would be acceptable to Guinea", said a source.
Teodoro
Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president of the Equatorial Guinea was in the
country
last week to consolidate ties established two years ago after Harare
helped
break up an alleged international coup plot directed at the oil-rich
West
African state.
George Charamba, President Robert Mugabe's press secretary,
told journalists
ahead of Nguema's three-day visit that Zimbabwe would use
Nguema's stay to
discuss political and security co-operation and possible
trade and business
deals.
"It is essentially a state visit. It is partly
to say thank you to Zimbabwe,
and it is partly to look at co-operation,"
Reuters quoted Charamba as
saying. "They are an oil-producing country and we
are trying to see how we
can operationalise some kind of agreement (on fuel
supply to Zimbabwe)".
Equatorial Guinea, sub-Saharan Africa's third largest
oil producer, is a
welcome friend for Zimbabwe as it struggles with economic
meltdown and
isolation from Western countries, which have criticised
President Mugabe
over accusations of repression.
Once one of Africa' most
promising economies, Zimbabwe now fights serious
fuel, food and foreign
currency shortages as well as hyper-inflation.
President Mugabe's government
played a key role in 2004 in breaking up an
alleged coup plot directed
against Obiang, himself frequently described as
one of Africa's most
repressive leaders.
Zimbabwean officials arrested some 70 South African
mercenaries who had
stopped in Harare as part of the alleged plot and a
Zimbabwe court later
sentenced Simon Mann, the group's alleged leader and a
former British
special forces officer, to seven years in jail on weapons
charges.
FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi Senior
Business Reporter
MARCH inflation data is expected out early next week,
with a The Financial
Gazette poll of five analysts and economists showing
forecasts as high as
920 percent.
The lowest forecast gathered was
850 percent while the highest was 920
percent, which would be much higher
than the central bank's own highest
projection of 800 percent for the end of
the third quarter.
"I believe month-on-month inflation would have risen
between 20 and 25
percent in March," said one analyst, who forecasts
inflation to come in at
915 percent.
Annual inflation for February rose
168.8 percentage points to 782 percent,
breaking the previous 622.8 percent
record set in January 2004.
Month-on-month inflation stood at 27.5
percent.
If the size of the jump comes in at the top end of the analysts'
forecasts,
the big news would be how the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
reacts.
Last month, after inflation had shown a faster-than-expected rise,
the
central bank raised the accommodation rate from 700 percent to 750
percent,
its second rate hike in three weeks.
Statutory reserves went up
from 55 percent to 60 percent for banks,
returning to levels last seen in
October.
That round of rate and statutory reserve hikes pushed interbank
rates up and
squeezed banks, drawing criticism for the RBZ and raising fears
of a new
banking crisis.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono said in January he
expected inflation to slow in
the second quarter on "tight monetary
conditions, fiscal restraint, and the
expected improvement in food
security", to bring the rate to below 230
percent by December.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Senior Business
Reporter
ZIMBABWE has once again been ranked last among southern African
economies
that are developing their information communication technologies
(ICTs).
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s Global Information
Technology
Report (GITR) released last week, Zimbabwe ranked a dismal number
105 in a
survey that included 115 economies in 2005-2006.
The report,
which uses the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), measures the
degree of
preparedness of a nation or community to participate in and
benefit from ICT
developments.
The NRI examines an economy's ICT condition on three
dimensions: the general
macroeconomic, regulatory and infrastructure
environment for ICT; the
readiness of the three key stakeholders -
individuals, businesses and
governments - to use and benefit from ICT; and
their actual usage of the
latest information and communication
technologies.
Harare's ranking is a considerable slide from its 2004
position, when it was
number 94 out of 104 countries, ahead of neighbouring
Moza-mbique, which
ranked 96th.
In the 2005-2006 report, Maputo is ranked
number 101, four places ahead of
Zimbabwe.
At position 37, South Africa
leads sub-Saharan Africa in terms of networked
readiness while Mauritius
(ranked 45th) and Botswana (ranked 56th) trail
South Africa.
Tunisia,
which is ranked 36th, leads as the highest-placed African country.
In total,
Zimbabwe only outmanoeuvred two other African countries, Chad and
Ethiopia,
which anchor the rankings at positions 114 and 115 respectively.
Overall, the
United States climbed four places this year to replace
Singapore on the top
spot in ICT, confirming its position as an information
and communication
technology powerhouse.
Singapore, Denmark, Iceland and Finland were next,
confirming the ICT
dominance of Asia and the Nordic countries.
With
record coverage of 115 economies worldwide and published for the fifth
consecutive year, the GITR has grown into the world's most respected
assessment of the impact of ICT on the development process and the
competitiveness of nations.
Zimbabwe's ranking means that there is little
or no progress that is being
made in the adoption of the latest information
and communication
technologies.
The crisis-torn southern African country,
which is battling its worst
economic crisis in 26 years, is currently
hitting the headlines following
reports that the government is crafting a
notorious Bill empowering it to
snoop on telephone and individual private
emails.
The proposed law, the Interception of Communications Bill 2006,
reverses a
Supreme Court ruling in 2004 which declared unconstitutional some
sections
of the Posts and Telecommunications Act.
Harare has been scoring
poorly on global economic indices as its economy
declines.
Recently, the
Global Competitiveness Report gave Zimbabwe the world's worst
ranking
(117th) for the quality of its macroeconomic environment.
Since its launch in
2001, the GITR has become a valuable and unique
benchmarking tool to
determine national ICT strengths and weaknesses, and to
evaluate
progress.
It also highlights the continuing importance of ICT application and
development for economic growth.
The WEF said although technological
change had always been a central engine
of economic growth, what had been
significant about the past decade was the
acceleration in the pace of
change.
As more and more countries made efforts to improve their
macroeconomic and
policy environments, technology and technological
innovation appeared to
have entered a "golden age" when they were emerging
as the key drivers of
growth and development, it said.
John Chambers, the
president and chief executive officer of Cisco Systems,
co-authors of the
report, said: "Networking and communication technologies
are enhancing the
way people communicate and exchange ideas, opening the
next horizon for
creativity, innovation, growth and competitive advantage.
"The strong link
between the Networked Readiness Index and global
competitiveness has
increased and is evidence of the critical role that
these technologies play
in any economy or company's strategic plans. The
GITR will provide all of us
with greater insight and help to guide our
future decisions." said
Chambers.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda
Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwean government, which has failed to
extricate the country's
economy from a seven-year-old recession, has ceded
the initiative to direct
economic policy to a security arm.
Official
sources told The Financial Gazette this week that the National
Security
Council, which is headed by President Robert Mugabe, would feature
the heavy
involvement of defence and security officials, who have also taken
charge of
the troubled agricultural sector. The sources said the latest
development
underlined the extent to which President Mugabe has lost
confidence in his
underperforming cabinet.
State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa yesterday
confirmed the development
and referred The Financial Gazette to Economic
Development Minister Rugare
Gumbo, who had been expected to issue a
statement this week. Gumbo yesterday
confirmed the shift saying he will make
a statement next week.
"It is just a body that seeks to stabilise our
macroeconomic strategy," he
said.
Insiders said the National Security
Council, which is the country's supreme
national policy formulating body,
had been mandated to put Zimbabwe's ailing
economy back on track. The
Council, which is chaired by President Mugabe and
is virtually composed of
the entire Cabinet, is responsible for pronouncing
National Security
Policy.
Zimbabwe is in its seventh year of economic recession, which is
punctuated
by runaway inflation, hard currency shortages and rising
poverty.
Apart from the National Security Council, the Joint Operations
Command
(JOC), which is chaired by Mutasa and comprises top commanders of
the army,
air force, police, secret and prison services, heavily involves
itself in
policy intervention.
Late last year, the army launched a
command agriculture programme called
Operation Maguta in a desperate effort
to boost agricultural production and
avert massive food shortages. Under the
food-security initiative, army
officers are tilling rich agricultural land
to boost maize output following
poor harvests in the past five years after
new black farmers took over
productive white-owned farms.
The army is
also engaged in an ambitious housing reconstruction programme
codenamed
Operation Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai in which government is building
low-cost
houses for people who were left homeless in the aftermath of
Operation
Murambatsvina.
Until recently, Zimbabwe's electoral system has been heavily
militarised
with the elections body comprising mainly former army personnel.
In
addition, serving and retired army personnel have of late been seconded
to
head state institutions. Examples of parastatals headed by army personnel
include the Grain Marketing Board and the National Railways of Zimbabwe,
among others.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
RESTORATION of fruitful relations is not a bilateral issue
between the
United Kingdom and Zimbabwe but a matter of concern to the
international
community and the United Nations, a British government
spokesperson said in
Harare this week.
Commenting on recent moves
aimed at building bridges between the two
countries, the spokesperson told
The Financial Gazette that the Zimbabwean
government needed to address all
concerns of the international community as
set out in UN special envoy Anna
Tibaijuka's report on Operation
Murambatsvina, among other
issues.
Answering questions on moves to bring London and Harare closer
together, the
spokesperson said engagement already existed through
diplomatic missions in
both countries.
The principles enunciated by the
United Kingdom make it clear that the gap
between the two countries may
prove impossible to narrow. Even more
difficult is the fact that the
international community will have to be
consulted in every move aimed at
normalising relations between Zimbabwe and
the United Kingdom.
"The issue
is not about the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe, but the need for
the
government of Zimbabwe to address concerns expressed by the
international
community," the spokesperson said.
These included United Nations concerns as
set out in the Tibaijuka Report.
The other bone of contention is the emotive
land issue where Zimbabwe is
accused of spurning international suggestions
on how to proceed with the
land reform programme.
She cited the example
of a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
initiative in 2000 which
suggested slowing down the fast-track programme to
fit the country's
implementation capacity, allow independent monitoring of
the situation in
the commercial farming sector, the promotion of dialogue
and the resumption
of UNDP technical assistance.
The UNDP stressed the importance of adhering to
the principles of
transparency and a just and fair reform with respect for
the rule of law in
accordance with the principles agreed at the 1998 Land
Conference held in
Harare.
"We are not imposing any new conditions," she
said adding: "The government
of Zimbabwe's reply suggested that it was not
willing to move on the major
issues blocking re-engagement by the
international community."
The official said that Britain, accused by the
Zimbabwean government of
reneging on its undertaking to compensate
dispossessed farmers, however,
remained willing to support a land reform
programme implemented in
accordance with the principles agreed by donors and
the Zimbabwe Government
in 1998. This was also the position of the broad
donor community.
Those principles included the need for transparency, respect
for the rule of
law, poverty reduction, affordability and consistency with
Zimbabwe`s wider
economic interests.
The UNDP report of 2002 on land
concluded that Zimbabwe's fast-track land
reform programme was "chaotic,
unsustainable and lacking in transparency."
"The British government deplores
the approach adopted to recent land reform
which has disrupted commercial
and communal farming alike. It has been
violent and unfair to farm owners
and farm workers, and damaging to
agricultural production and national
economy," she said.
The British government insisted on poverty reduction and
transparency
because any land reform based on political expediency, paying
no due regard
to its long term effects, would tend to fail because it failed
to make
people better off. And land allocated through "patronage of
politically
influential groups" will not reduce poverty, she said.
FinGaz
Investment Advisory with Nyasha
Chasakara
LOOKING at the last trading day of March, one could be forgiven
for thinking
that he/she is holding the wrong price sheet.
That was
my quick reaction when I glanced at the price of Bindura on Friday.
The
counter plunged from $28 000 to $10 000 after publishing results that
fell
below market expectations, signalling that investors were looking at
financial results after all.
In terms of market capitalisation, Bindura
lost nearly $2 trillion from $3.5
trillion to $1.7 trillion. Phew! It is
frightening isn't it?
This brings to the fore the importance of profit
warnings. Companies need to
make sure that investors are better prepared
when results are released to
avoid panicky situations that destroy
value.
The outlook for Bindura and other mining companies remains uncertain,
despite lucrative international metal prices.
The uncertainty in the
mining sector and production constraints are likely
to be overriding factors
that will hurt profitability in 2006.
Where is the stock market going and
where are investors going to make money
in the second quarter?
It is not
at all clear and the risk of losing money is very high, hence the
need to
buy cautiously.
What looked cheap at the end of February is way cheaper
now.
Most companies have predicted a difficult 2006, with a few being
optimistic.
Unrealistically high interest rates on borrowing have rendered
planning
difficult, while inflation has crippled production as working
capital
demands shoot up.
You only need to see the number of companies
that have declared dividends to
realise that all is not well in the
economy.
Companies continue to seek new capital from investors to keep their
businesses running.
How sustainable are these high interest
rates?
This is a popular question that finds no convincing response from
anyone,
given that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has continued to issue
Treasury and OMO bills with high coupon rates and is yet to signal an
intention to reduce them.
For now, it is safe to assume that interest
rates will remain high as long
as inflation continues to rise, that is, if
the RBZ is serious about
fighting inflation.
It is all paradoxical,
really, because when you look at supply-side
constraints facing the economy
as a whole, mainly foreign currency
shortages, you come to the conclusion
that Zimbabwe is in need of some
serious foreign currency inflows.
Money
creation through the issuance of short-dated Treasury bills with high
coupon
rates can backfire if unsupported by other fiscal and exogenous
factors.
The authorities are faced with a mammoth task of trying to draw
the desired
response from consumers in the economy. If everyone expects that
inflation
will come down, then they will act in ways that will see
speculative and
inflation hedging tendencies disappearing.
Unfortunately,
for now, it is not very clear were policies stand. Economic
policies have
been very fluid.
Everyone is trading cautiously and hoping that a storm is
not brewing in our
financial sector.
Financial results from the banks
have been good and were until interest
rates shot up, showing its
vulnerability as a liquidity crunch of over $7.5
trillion has gripped the
money market.
At this time last year the RBZ was restructuring expensive
short-term paper
into cheaper long-term paper.
While interest rates
encourage savings, they also discourage investment
because they are
associated with reduced aggregate demand.
So, at the end of the day,
companies will not invest much in production;
rather, they concentrate on
managing their treasury function profitably.
Borrowing to meet working
capital needs is out of the question at punitive
rates of more than 750
percent.
At the end of it all, shortages of commodities increase and put
pressure on
prices. In fact, companies will end up profiteering as they try
and maximise
on margins.
That brings me to the subject of what investors
should be doing in this
bearish market.
Cash-rich counters are likely to
come out strong in the second quarter as
interest rates are expected to
remain high. Cash is once again king and so I
would hold on to Red Star, OK
and BAT or, indeed, buy if prices fall low
enough.
For now, buy with the
market and avoid buying shares because the price
sounds too good to be
true!
Hedging is also a popular strategy right now and Old Mutual, PPC,
Cottco and
Rio Tinto appear to be favourites. Note that this is not for
short-term
gains but for preservation of value. None of these counters is
likely to do
you wonders as long as interest rates are high.
Going
through my archives, I came across some interesting observation that
was
made when inflation was in decline in 2004.
It is quite clear why we managed
to reduce inflation in 2004: high interest
rates and the credibility of the
process. It was a real feeling supported by
changes in perceptions and even
exchange rates.
Consumers and investors alike were constrained from fuelling
inflation by
the insanely high interest rates at the time when yields short
up to more
650 percent.
Asset prices came tumbling down but there were no
takers because interest
rates were high relative to the expected returns
from asset disposal.
A lot has changed since then, as we are yet to see the
results of the
current tight monetary policy stance. It remains important
for the
authorities to continuously give that reassurance to the
investors.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda
Senior Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE'S national airline, Air Zimbabwe, has
slipped further into chaos
amid revelations that it once again cancelled a
chartered flight to Cuba
last Tuesday after failing to secure adequate fuel
supplies.
Sources said the national passenger carrier, which was once
voted the best
airline in Africa by a United Kingdom-based institute in
1998, failed to
secure fuel supplies from BP & Shell, its supplier of
Jet A1.
BP & Shell is alleged to have asked Air Zimbabwe to settle its
energy debt
first, estimated at $30 billion, before it could release any
supplies to the
debt-ridden AirZim.
Air Zimbabwe gets fuel from private
operators such as BP and Total because
it doesn't have equipment recommended
for dispensing fuel from tankers to
the aircraft.
Presently, the national
carrier requires about 450 000 litres of Jet A1 per
week. But there is
pressure to increase consumption after the recent launch
of a summer
schedule that added more routes for the airline.
The Cuba flight was
scheduled to leave Harare last Tuesday morning and to
make a brief stopover
in London before proceedings to Havana.
The aircraft, chartered by the
Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, was
supposed to fly Cuban doctors who
had finished their attachments at
government hospitals back to their
country.
But as a result of the fuel crisis, the Havana flight had to be
rescheduled
and only left Harare last Wednesday morning via Lusaka, where it
refuelled
after the airline managed to secure some foreign
currency.
Three weeks ago the national airline was forced to cancel its
Bulawayo-Harare flight after its aircraft failed to refuel in Bulawayo
because of a power outage imposed by the ZESA Holdings at Joshua Mqabuko
Nkomo International Airport.
Early last month, Air Zimbabwe cancelled a
Harare-Beijing via Singapore
flight after it failed to release an aircraft,
a B767, which was undergoing
a crucial check.
And just recently, a
Johannesburg-bound plane aborted its trip because of a
technical fault after
take off.
Air Zimbabwe spokesperson David Mwenga confirmed last Tuesday's
flight
disruption, attributing it to the delay by a client in processing
payment.
"Our client was not able to have the funds we required processed
quickly and
we also needed the money to pay for onward movement," Mwenga
said.
Apart from inflicting fuel shortages, Zimbabwe's six-year foreign
currency
crisis posed problems for the airline in procuring replacement
parts,
causing one of the airline's aeroplanes, a Boeing 737, to be
grounded.
Air Zimbabwe insiders also say that a Morden Ark (MA60) aircraft
that was
donated by China after Harare bought two similar planes to service
some
domestic and regional routes has been grounded for the past three weeks
after it developed some engine problems.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda
Senior Business Reporter
THE detrimental effects of incessant power
blackouts, coupled with erratic
supplies of beverages, is taking its toll on
the country's hospitality
industry, already reeling from operational
problems stemming from a hostile
economic environment.
Hoteliers told
The Financial Gazette that the power cuts that are currently
being effected
by the country's power parastatal ZESA Holdings (ZESA) were
bad news for the
limping hospitality industry.
"They (power cuts) are very disruptive to
service," said Francis Ngwenya,
the president of the Hospitality Association
of Zimbabwe (HAZ). "Most major
hotels have back-up generators but when these
power cuts become constant,
the generators need to be serviced regularly,"
he added.
ZESA has introduced intermittent load shedding in industrial and
residential
areas around the country, which households and industrialists
say is
disruptive and adversely affects operations. The electricity
rationing
follows a reduction in power imports from regional suppliers who
have begun
conserving resources ahead of a regional power deficit in
2007.
Ngwenya, who is also the chief operating officer of Cresta Hospitality,
said
that the sometimes unscheduled power outages were another unnecessary
burden
for hoteliers who are struggling to lure tourists to the
crisis-sapped
southern African country.
The HAZ boss implored ZESA to
display a higher degree of sensitivity and
prudence by warning the industry
of impending power cuts. Ngwenya said
unscheduled power outages were
damaging appliances such as television sets
and refrigerators.
"Switching
on and off is not good for television sets," he said.
Although Ngwenya
appreciated the preferential treatment accorded to some HAZ
members in the
allocation of beverages by Delta Beverages, he said the soft
drinks shortage
and power outages were a constant strain to hoteliers as
they were now
devoting much of their time and energies to giving
explanations and
reassuring tourists.
Zimbabwe has been plunged into a soft drinks drought for
the first time
since independence as Delta Beverages, bottlers of carbonated
soft drinks
such as the famous Coca-Cola and Fanta, has been unable to meet
demand owing
to a critical shortage of imported concentrates.
"These
things (soft drinks) are standard and are expected to be available
every
time," remarked Ngwenya. "Unnecessary costs are incurred by operators
trying
to ensure that they have expected standards. Hotels are the window
through
which tourists see our country."
Other hoteliers warned that they risk filing
for bankruptcy if the current
tribulations that are rocking the industry
persist.
Zimbabwe which earned US$777 million in 1999 in tourist receipts has
seen
earnings plunging to below US$77 million as tourists shy away from the
southern African country, which is grappling with its worst political and
economic crisis since independence.
Besides hoteliers, the country's
captains of industry and commerce have
expressed anger over load shedding,
saying it is crippling the operations of
many companies.
FinGaz
Chris Muronzi Staff
Reporter
ZESA Holdings and Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Works (ZISCO) owe
Hwange Colliery
Company limited a $500 billion debt, The Financial Gazette
has established.
Although management at Hwange which, in the past, has
had spats with the
parastatals over non-payment of debts, declined to
disclose information
pertaining to the debt, they conceded during an
analysts and media briefing
in the capital last week that "debts from major
customers were affecting
cash flow."
The two parastatals have been
struggling with debts over the years owing to
poor management and uneconomic
tariffs and charges.
ZESA has sunk deeper into debt, after it recently raised
$530 billion
through the floatation of 180-day megawatt bills, at an average
600 percent.
Analysts say Zisco, which recently handed out a management
contract to
Global Steel Holdings, might be on course top
recovery.
Hwange chief Godfrey Dzinomwa could not be drawn to comment on the
debts but
said the company was still to get payment from some of its
customers.
Turnover was $988 billion from $374 billion, showing a growth of
164
percent. The company's attributable earnings stood at $264 billion from
the
previous $49 billion last year.
The company realised some exchange
gains on exports after 4th quarter
devaluation earnings.
Coal delivered
to Hwange Power Station (HPS) stood at 2 million tonnes up
from a previous
1,9 million tonnes delivered in the prior year. Sales
declined from 1 022
497 tonnes in the previous year to 831 614 tonnes owing
to low production
from its new underground mine which was commissioned in
the first quarter of
last year while coal exports stood at 39 067 tonnes
down from 99 514 tonnes
in the prior year.
"Coke sales of 196 523 tonnes were 10 percent above the
tonnage achieved
last year. This product is a high revenue earner for the
company. There was
a significant off take of coke to the export market
especially during the
first half of the year.
"Coke export for the year
amounted to 105 927 tonnes and were 40 percent
above the sales achieved in
the previous year," said the company in a
statement attached to the
results.
"Gas supply to ZPC's Hwange Power Station increased from 19 million
Nm3 due
to improved plant availability throughout the year," added the
company.
"The company is in the process of procuring haulage equipment,
drills and a
coal fines recovery plant. The new 3 main Underground Mine
which was
commissioned during the first quarter of 2005 should be boosted by
the
current initiatives to expand mining operations when a second continuous
miner is brought into production. Demand for coal and coke is expected to
remain firm in both the domestic and export markets. The company is
targeting incremental exports from increased production," said Hwange.
FinGaz
Munyaradzi Mugowo Staff
Reporter
FOUR months after the government proposed a partnership for Air
Zimbabwe,
which is currently wallowing in an acute financial and management
crisis,
senior officials at the national airline say the project is "still
an idea".
Air Zimbabwe chairman Mike Bimha told The Financial Gazette
that his board
was still to identify possible partners.
"It's only an
idea. It's too early for us to start implementing the
strategic planning and
turnaround because we have not finalised a lot of
issues. We are still to
commission our marketing team to start scouting for
potential partners,"
Bimha said.
The government last year announced plans to forge an alliance for
the ailing
national passenger carrier after burying prospects for a similar
partnership
deal with Germany's Lufthansa in 2002.
Sources say the
government, which maintains a heavy hand on the parastatal,
is reluctant to
allow a full-fledged commercialisation of the airline
through the joint
venture.
Air Zimbabwe's fleet has dropped 33 percent since independence in
1980.
In the first 10 months of 2005, the airline made an operating loss of
about
$317 billion, largely because of unviable flights to China and
Dubai.
Records show that the airline is losing US$98 000 every month through
these
routes, encouraged by the government under what it calls its "Look
East"
policy.
AirZimbabwe acting group chief executive Oscar Madombwe
said the airline
would only take a cue from the government on its
"turnaround".
"The turnaround programme we are following is the one
prescribed by the
government in the budget statement.
"What the
government wants is an alliance for Air Zimbabwe and we are just
waiting for
a directive from the government on how to proceed. It (the
government) is
the one which is implementing the programme," said Madombwe.
Transport and
Communications Minister Christopher Mushohwe could not be
reached for
comment.
Sources say the government may be reconsidering approaching
Lufthansa, which
pulled out in a huff when Zimbabwe's economy started
sinking.
But analysts say the attempt could be a wild goose chase unless the
government appoints a credible management team to steer Air Zimbabwe's
strategic turnaround programme.
Air Zimbabwe is still operating without a
substantive chief executive after
Mushohwe fired Tendai Mahachi last year on
allegations of incompetence.
Mahachi had spent less than a year in
office.
FinGaz
Perspectives with Jonathan
Maphenduka
THE night the Patrice Lumumba story was shown on television, I
had a bad
dream in which I saw horse-riders, armed with assault rifles,
shooting every
black person in sight.
The riders were, conveniently,
white. But for some strange reason they
spared my life. Later, I saw
Lumumba, wearing his famous white T-shirt,
grinning forlonly. He knew his
fate had been sealed.
Earlier, I had seen on the screen hordes of armed
blacks attacking whites
and there were reports of massacres and wanton
raping in Kasai at the hands
of other ethnic groups. The horror of it was
petrifying. I am sure I dropped
a tear.
The fact that way back in 1961, I
had seen with my own eyes convoys of
Belgians fleeing the horror to Zambia
with a few portable possessions did
not help the situation.
Reports of
horror continued to come out of the Congo with streams of convoys
of
frightened blacks and whites.
One weekend in 1962, on a curious visit to
Mokambo border post, I stumbled
on Zambia's Harry Nku-mbula meeting with
Moise Tshombe. They sat in a
ramshackle building, sipping Simba beer and
chatting without a concern in
the world.
Tshombe had with him his foreign
minister, Godfroid Munongo, and minister of
information Kimba.
Was
Nkumbula, with his African National Congress now in opposition to
Kenneth
Kaunda's United National Independence Party, thinking of taking his
Southern
Province out of the rest of Zambia? That was the subject of
speculation.
Fate has never been kind to African leaders. Almost to a
man, they have
taken over government of their countries without money of
their own, a
situation that more often than not leads to a free-for-all.
This often leads
to bloodshed.
Look at what happened to Kwame Nkrumah,
the founding father of the
Organi-sation of African Unity.
Talking about
unity, how can African states talk about unity when they do
not work for it
back home, where tribalism is the order of the day and there
is no one doing
anything about it?
Lumumba and the Congolese episode is now so much water
under the bridge. Is
it?
The tragedy of the Congo has not been told, and
we in Zimbabwe have become,
as fate willed, embroiled in it. The fact that
the Belgians are no longer
there to take the blame for what happened in 1960
does not make it any less
tragic.
It is the blacks themselves who are now
killing each other like they did in
1960, with African leaders now left
without scapegoats to blame. Africans
are killing themselves all over the
continent and the African Union is
helpless.
Why helpless? Beca-use
pan-Africanism has shown itself for what it is - a
sham. Even more tragic is
the slogan of nationalism that has lost its
meaning, leaving in its wake
rivers of blood of victims of ethnicity.
In Sudan, Arabs are killing the
Bantu of Darfur as if what they did in the
south of the country was not
enough. In Sierra Leone the same is happening,
and in the Ivory Coast,
people in the north are killing those in the south,
and vice-versa, not to
mention what has been happening in Liberia.
Can anyone in the world,
reflecting on what happened and continues to happen
in the Congo, blame
Lumumba or the Belgians or Joseph Mobutu and those who
conspired to kill
Lumumba?
Can we blame Tshombe, the man who gave us our slogan of a sellout,
for
trying to secede after leaders in Katanga were left out of the
government in
Leopoldville.? Can we justify why Lumumba will forever remain
a hero and
Tshombe a villain?
The story last Saturday showed Lumumba
complaining bitterly about how Accra
had been caught paying lip service to
the cause in the Congo. And what cause
was it that dictated the exclusion of
the people of Katanga from the new
government?
African independence that
culminated with the Gold Coast becoming Ghana in
1957 has not, as expected,
brought in its wake the benefits of self-rule for
all its people, and the
basic reason why there is no peace, stability and
prosperity in Africa today
is the obsession of African leaders with tribe.
In Nigeria, they have tried
to tackle it by moving the capital from Lagos to
Abuja in the centre of the
country, believing (mistakenly) that every
Nigerian can claim some real
estate in the new neutral capital. But it is
not working.
In the Niger
delta, the rebels there are demanding their own state, and
elsewhere in the
country there is an uneasy peace, which often turns bloody.
In Zimbabwe, the
country in which one city has taken for itself the name of
Bambazonke, the
people are still struggling to find their national identity
26 years after
independence.
There are numerous other examples. African governments remain
an enigma, a
mystery to unravel.
In Zimbabwe, how successful the
experiment to find a national ideal has been
remains a matter of opinion 26
years after independence. Even after the
much-vaunted 1987 unity accord, the
whole idea of nation-building remains
elusive.
Many years ago now,
President Robert Mugabe made an extremely re-assuring
statement in his
reflection after the unrest of 1980s. He said Gukurahundi
had been an act of
madness. A sesame, one might say, to open the minds and
hearts of all
Zimbabweans to the ideal of nation-building.
And with the split of the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), a lot has
been heard and seen to
suggest the country might be falling apart.
In the western region, a great
deal of talk about federalism is getting
louder. There is even talk of
secession. Disillusionment is everywhere.
President Mugabe has since the
birth of the February 21 Movement used the
occasion of his birthday to make
major statements on the country's
challenges.
I listened to him again
this year addressing thousands of young people from
all over the country. I
am saying all over the country because I like to
believe that there were
people from the western region among his audience.
One thing, and one thing
only, has stuck in my mind about what the President
had to say. He was
relating how the people of Gwebu in Buhera came to be
there. They had been
displaced from their home in Matabeleland by whites.
Talking in royal Shona
prose, he said: "This is how the Gwebu people came to
live among our
people."
Talking in vernacular, maybe, was intended to conceal the message
from those
who came from the western region.
If indeed that was the idea,
it failed. Very few young people can say they
do not understand Shona
today.
If that was not the President's concern, those listening must have
gone home
feeling they had been disowned.
How much can one
To Page
16
From Page 13
blame those who are talking secession?
In March last
year, during the run-up to the parliamentary elections, chiefs
in
Chimanimani were told that if they voted for the MDC they would be voting
for the people of Matabeleland to take over the government of the
country.
It is baffling. Has it ever occurred to ZANU PF that it cannot rule
this
country without those people? Anyway, what is the party's agenda for
this
country? Domination of one ethnic group by the other so that there is
fertile ground for discontent?
I come from the western border with
Botswana, but I married a girl from
Chishakwe on southern tip of the Vhumba
Mountains. Originally, the Rakabopa
family lived near Leopard Rock Hotel on
the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border.
A few years ago, my father-in-law took me to
the place of his birth, from
where they were moved to make way for white
farmers, just like the Gwebu
people of Buhera. All we found where their
family home once stood was a lush
international standard golf
course.
This union has in recent years been consolidated further by my son,
who
chose a Muchena girl from Penhalonga for a wife. They have two beautiful
daughters and are happy with themselves.
The point of this narration is
that some people do not give a damn who they
choose for a wife. But should
my in-laws, for political expediency, disown
me because I come from the
other end of the country?
In February last year I found myself confronting a
man and demanding to know
why a legend was being used by the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings every
morning to remind one tribe how it suffered at
the hands of another.
The story which preceded news bulletins every morning
was the legend that
the victims were drowned in the Chirodziva Pool in the
Chinhoyi Cave.
It had been going on for sometime, possibly some years
,without being
noticed. But three months later it had vanished. Can anyone
defend
perpetration of hatred of one tribe by another, and still claim to be
building a nation?
A question for every Zimbabwean is: Can anyone claim
he has his people?
Lumumba claimed he had "his" people in the name of
independence but they
disowned and murdered him. What about those who do not
have anyone to claim
them as his own? Where can they look for hope?
For
many years after the Congolese holocaust, Mobutu ruled the Congo with an
iron rod. In due course, the man had to flee his own country. His successor
did not last a couple of years.
Perhaps what happened in the Congo was
inevitable: the country is too vast
and has a polyglot population. There is
simply no national cohesion, and
those who grab power simply want to make
the best of it, including
ethnic-cleansing, damn everything else.
In
Zimbabwe we are a small country. We cannot afford to let improbity rob us
of
a golden opportunity to build for ourselves a truly united nation where
all
ethnic groups, all minority groups should feel a binding sense of
belonging.
We started independence on a wrong footing by destroying the
government of
national unity. The government has since the signing of the
unity accord
spent precious time trying to repair the damage that came with
sending ZAPU
to oblivion.
Since the signing of the accord, the government
has wasted time trying to
woo the people of Matabeleland by trying to prove
to them how "great" Joshua
Nkomo was.
His name, instead of dealing with
those issues that matter to the ruled, has
been used as some kind of magic
wand to wean the people away from their own
thoughts.
But there is a
strong body of people in that province who believe that the
unity accord was
a betrayal of their identity and their interests. Because
the government has
done precious little to confound this feeling, these
people are now talking
of federalism. They are looking for an outlet.
When the MDC came in 1999,
they thought they had found something to make up
for what they lost with the
unity accord. The split has left them out in the
cold, and Nkomo, the only
man they ever trusted, is dead and buried. They
cannot appeal to
him.
Even while he lived, many of them had started drifting away from him
because, to them, he was no longer effective. This explains why, a year
after his death, they chose to join their compatriots who were disillusioned
with the ZANU PF government to vote for the MDC.
The split, however, has
left them in the lurch.
The government has not concentrated its efforts on
redressing the concerns
of the people of Matabeleland in an honest and
serious manner, leaving those
elements that yearn to see ZAPU revived
working to further weaken national
aspirations.
FinGaz
The Geoff
Nyarota Column
AN audacious rocket attack by ZANLA guerillas on
Salisbury's central fuel
depot in 1979 ignited a raging inferno, which the
fire brigade, assisted by
reinforcements from South Africa, battled to bring
under control for two
long weeks.
As this most terrifying spectacle
in Rhodesia's history made headlines
around the world, Zimbabwe's urban
population witnessed for the first time,
the ugly reality of a war that was
limited to sketchy Combined Operations
headquarters reports in the
newspapers or on radio.
Against the backdrop of the huge bonfire that lit the
skyline of Salisbury
every night, a large number of the white Rhodesians
finally lost faith in
Ian Smith and made up their mind to pack their bags
and leave a country they
had grown to love.
Meanwhile, many in the
township of Harare, now Mbare, from where the attack
was launched whispered
knowingly in Shona, "Moto waVheremu, moto waVheremu"
("Vheremu's fire,
Vheremu's fire.")
Marko Vheremu had left the township as a young
school-leaver, destined for
Mozambique where he joined ZANLA and trained as
a guerilla. He was part of a
small group of men that, in the most heroic
guerilla raid of that war,
launched the attack on the Shell depot under
cover of darkness, a short
distance from Harare Township.
The
conflagration became the turning point of the war. A few months later
Smith
sat on one side of the conference table at Lancaster House. On the
other
side sat his two adversaries, ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo and Robert
Mugabe of
ZANU, whose ZANLA armed wing had launched the ferocious attack.
After
independence Vheremu returned to Harare Township, soon to be renamed
Mbare.
He celebrated independence with rest of us and was attested into the
army.
By the time of his death in a road accident he had retired from the
army to
join the growing ranks of business entrepreneurs. Essentially he
died a poor
man.
He was, however, accorded a decent but modest burial by relatives and a
ragtag coterie of war veterans at the sprawling Kumbudzi cemetery, where the
capital city's poor are literally dumped and, in many instances
forgotten.
From the day of Vheremu's interment at Kumbudzi I have dismissed
Heroes'
Acre, the ornate Korean-built shrine in Warren Hills, west of the
capital
city, as a farcical and hypocritical charade, designed to deceive
the
majority while enriching the families of a few. My scepticism was
confirmed
twice in quick succession last week.
The occasion of the first
endorsement was the death of veteran Zimbabwean
politician, James Dambaza
Chikerema, in Indiana, in the United States, on
Thursday March 23 after a
long fight with cancer. The death of one of
Zimbabwe's most heroic
nationalist leaders was accorded low-key coverage in
the Zimbabwe media. As
for the tributes of fellow politicians there was a
deafening
silence.
Four days later, on Monday March 27, President Mugabe's long-serving
aide de
camp Winston Changara, recently re-hired after he lost his job in
mysterious
circumstances, died after what was said to be a short
illness.
Changara's province, Mashonaland Central, immediately launched a
campaign
for his elevation to the status of national hero. After lengthy
deliberation
ZANU PF's all-powerful politburo granted the province its
wish.
In announcing the good news, one of the province's more prominent
politicians, Chen Chimutengwende, a government minister and a cousin of the
deceased, said Changara had been declared a national hero in honour of his
illustrious record in protecting President Mugabe and other senior ZANU PF
leaders during Zimbabwe's war of liberation and thereafter. That it is
considered a heroic feat to protect a head of state described by the same
Chimutengwende, when it suits him, as very popular with the people, is a
major contradiction in terms.
Changara is not the first Zimbabwean of
dubious heroic credentials to have
his remains interred amid pomp and
ceremony at the national heroes' shrine
at Warren Hills. Others even more
controversial - Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi,
Border Gezi, to name but a few -
went before him.
Meanwhile, the real icons of Zimbabwe's revolution, heroes
such as Marko
Vheremu, Rev Ndabaningi Sithole, the founding president of
ZANU, Lookout
Masuku, the former ZIPRA commander and now James Dambaza
Chikerema are
accorded second-rate status.
Chikerema's body was flown
from the United States to Harare where it lay in
state before burial at his
village in Kutama, also President Mugabe's
traditional home,
coincidentally.
In fact, the two were related. The Zimbabwe Standard reported
that
Chikerema's former comrades-in-arms gave his funeral wake a wide berth.
The
government's Sunday Mail, once edited by Chikerema's brother, Charles,
dispatched of the fiery nationalist leader's departure in a paltry 142
words.
"You ask me why we did not go to Chikerema's funeral," State
Security
Minister, Didymus Mutasa remonstrated with an inquisitive
journalist, "why
don't you ask us why we did not attend Ndabaningi Sithole's
funeral? If we
were to attend a funeral, it would be because the person who
died was our
member."
As a rule, I don't understand Mutasa's logic on a
variety of issues,
although he is my clansman.
President Mugabe made an
appearance at Chikerema's burial on Sunday. In
attempting to justify his
nephew's burial away from Heroes' Acre, President
Mugabe said ZANU PF's
policy was that for anyone to be considered a hero
that person should have
participated in the liberation struggle and remained
consistently associated
with the party after independence.
Border Gezi and Chenjerai Hunzvi were not
associated with the liberation
struggle. In any case, ZANU PF cannot
rightfully be the common denominator
to all acts of heroism.
I
double-checked the meaning of the word "hero". The following
not-too-gender-sensitive meanings are offered - brave man, superman,
champion, conqueror, idol and icon. Changara certainly never evoked any of
these images as he stood transfixed in the background, while the President
delivered his many eloquent speeches.
The actions and decisions of the
ZANU PF leadership cannot, in any way,
detract from the public image of
Chikerema as a heroic figure, an icon of
Zimbabwe's liberation struggle. It
was he and the late George Bodzo Nyandoro
who invited Joshua Nkomo to lead
the Southern Rhodesia African National
Congress (SRANC), which kindled the
spirit of the African nationalist
struggle during the days of the Federation
of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The
two were arrested and detained in
1959.
Chikerema and Nyandoro remained loyal to Nkomo following the breakaway
of
ZANU from ZAPU. After their release from prison in 1964, Nkomo dispatched
them to Tanzania and, subsequently, to Lusaka, where Chikerema became the
acting president of ZAPU.
Chikerema's cardinal error in the eyes of those
who now despise him
posthumously as much as they disregarded him in life was
to form the
Zezuru-based Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe (Frolizi) in
1972, acting
in concert with Nathan Shamuyarira, the current Zanu-PF
secretary for
information and publicity. Throughout last week I fully
expected to read in
the Herald a heart-rending eulogy penned by Shamuyarira
in honour of
Chikerema.
If such tribute is, indeed published between the
time of writing this
article and its publication today, I will tender my
sincerest apologies to
him. It will be interesting, however, to see if
Shamuyarira himself goes to
Heroes' Acre, considering his Frolizi
past.
Chikerema also incurred the wrath of Zanu politicians when in March
1975 he
openly accused the late Zanla commander Josiah Magama Tongogara of
murdering
Herbert Wiltshire Chitepo, the Zanu chairman in Lusaka.
"You
will never get way with this," Chikerema fumed at Tongogara as the
police
struggled to restrain him from drawing his pistol.
In post-independence
Zimbabwe the bestowal of hero status by the Zanu-PF
politburo on citizens
has become a matter of emotional controversy. One
cause of genuine concern
is the fact that this body has elevated all and
sundry to national hero
status with reckless and partisan abandon, with the
national shrine fast
becoming full. Only two Mozambican national heroes,
Eduardo Mondlane, the
founding president of the ruling Frelimo party, and
Samora Moise Machel, the
country's founding president, have been buried at
the Heroes' Acre in
Maputo.
The criterion employed by the Zanu-Pf politburo to determine the
credentials
of Zimbabwe's heroes has become a matter of even greater
concern. The time
may have come for Zimbabwe to consider seriously a
proposal that has been
previously suggested by various other concerned
citizens. Before any more
mere mortals with no legitimate claim to hero
status are interred there,
while truly deserving cases are denied access to
the dignity, honour and
financial benefit associated with burial at Heroes'
Acre, a formal,
independent and non-politically-partisan Heroes' Acre
Committee should be
established.
Such committee would function outside
the ambit of Zanu-PF. The committee
would sit in deliberation only in cases
of conflict or dispute over the
status of the just deceased. In obvious
cases of heroic accomplishment, such
as those of Ndabaningi Sithole, James
Chikerema, Lookout Masuku, Henry
Hamadziripi Sheba Tavarwisa and Noel
Mukono, whose remains now lie buried in
various cemeteries, far from Heroes'
Acre, the committee would hardly be
required to sit in deliberation.
When
a real hero dies the nation feels it spontaneously. When a genuine hero
dies
it is hardly necessary for the official eulogy writers at the Herald to
resort to disingenuous and often ridiculous embellishments, while seeking to
upgrade the credentials of the just deceased.
Candidates for such
committee whose names immediately come to mind are
Zanu-PF's eminent
historian, Aeneas Chigwedere, former University of
Zimbabwe vice chancellor,
Professor Gordon Chavhunduka, a leading
sociologist, who is now an MDC
official, and Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius
Ncube of Bulawayo. Freedom
Nyamubaya would be another worthwhile candidate.
While she fell out of
favour with Zanu-PF, her liberation war credentials
are beyond reproach. A
respected citizen retired from the bench, such as
John Manyarara, would
chair the committee to ensure that heroes can be
identified outside the
domain of the liberation struggle.
The writer's email address is: gnyarota@yahoo.com.)
FinGaz
Personal
Glimpses with Mavis Makuni
FUNERALS are a sombre affair, but whenever a
hero is buried at the national
shrine in Harare, the regular eulogist,
President Robert Mugabe, always
brings an unexpected dimension to the
rituals with his impassioned railings
against Zimbabwe's most well known
enemies, American President George W Bush
and his British ally, Tony
Blair.
It was no different last Friday when the officer commanding the
Police
Protection Unit, Senior Assistant Commissioner Winston Changara was
laid to
rest. Changara was declared a national hero not only for the service
he
rendered to the President over a 30-year period but for the sacrifices he
made in fighting to liberate the country from colonial rule.
Predictably,
the eulogy included the usual brickbats for Bush and Blair when
the
President stressed that the country should never be allowed to fall back
into the hands of whites because it did not belong to the British and
Americans.
The head of state also gave Movement for Democratic Change
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai the usual dressing down in which he hinted darkly
that the
opposition leader would be looking for a way to die if he proceeded
with
plans to organise street protests against the government. What did the
President mean?
I, like all other ordinary Zimbabweans who look up to the
head of state for
protection am still puzzling over his statement. However,
when the President
told a parable in which he likened Tsvangirai to a dog
named Sekaurema that
he once owned I thought the analogy was ironic. The
President said this
poodle always caused him embarrassment during hunting
expeditions by turning
tail and racing back home instead of joining the
other dogs in chasing the
prey.
The President did not say whether he
ended up killing his cowardly dog but
it is clear it behaved as it did
because it had not received proper
training, guidance and orientation.
A
naughty thought occurred to me. This dog was not much different from
members
of the President's cabinet and government. When told, "you hold
these high
positions to serve the needs and interests of ordinary
Zimbabweans" they
rush off in different directions in pursuit of personal
gain and
self-enrichment.
Your Excellency, these greedy and corrupt ministers are the
real Sekauremas
against whom your fury should be directed, in view of the
fact that you have
previously conceded that these vices exist in your
administration. Their
collective greed, avarice, corruption and dereliction
of duty has had far
more serious repercussions for the generality of the
people than
Tsvangirai's, single, boyish act (if it is true) of supposedly
deserting the
liberation war more than 30 years ago.
Your Excellency, in
your eulogy at Heroes Acre. you wondered aloud why
ordinary Zimbabweans are
moaning about the prevailing economic hardships
when greater sacrifices were
made during the liberation struggle. "Inga
vamwe vakaifira wani but you
scold your government and leaders because you
didn't get a packet of sugar."
Mr President, the people around you may not
tell you the truth, but it is
not just sugar that the masses cannot access
or afford. They can neither
access nor afford most basic commodities, they
cannot afford healthcare,
ditto school fees for their children, rentals are
out of this world and most
families subsist on one sparse meal per day.
What adds insult to injury for
the ordinary people is that while they are
subjected to this unrelenting
austerity, Your Excel-lency's ministers and
other public officials are
wallowing in the lap of the most unimaginable
luxury with multiple farms,
fleets of luxury vehicles and grand mansions.
The corrupt dealings of these
Sekauremas in government result in the
diversion of essential commodities
such as sugar, flour, mealie meal, fuel,
fertilisers and many other items to
the black market, where the ordinary
person must pay through the nose to
access them.
With unemployment and inflation both galloping at record rates,
you can
imagine, Mr President, what a gruelling struggle it is for most of
your
subjects just to survive.
But while the ordinary people are groaning
under the weight of these
multiple burdens, they are confronted with images
of official ostentation
and opulence. Many times while watching television
in a bid to divert
attention from their rumbling stomachs they are bombarded
with images of
long tables groaning under all kinds of food at official
functions and
ruling party congresses. Your Excellency, this is like
experiencing famine
at the banquet! It is hard to convince them that
austerity for the masses
and opulence for the chefs is what the liberation
war was all about.
Mr President, ordinary people are scolding your
government, not because they
are unpatriotic but because they are hungry and
feel unfairly deprived. They
believe that whatever resources are available
in the country should benefit
all Zimbabweans and not just a select few. It
should not have to be
treasonous for Zimbabweans to wish to access sugar and
other basic
commodities.
I do not wish to raise your hackles Mr
President, by quoting a legislator
from the land of George Bush who once
characterised democracy as "liberty
plus groceries." In the long run,
independence and sovereignty become mere
abstract concepts to a populace
that is not free from hunger, poverty,
exploitation and oppression by those
in power.
As the countdown continues towards the commemoration of the 26th
anniversary
of the attainment of independence it might be useful for those
in authority
to reflect on why urban dwellers, who are more informed about
the corruption
and avarice of the ruling elites, have withdrawn their
support from the
ruling party as reflected by voting patterns in recent
years. They should
ask themselves seriously whether the single act of a
youthful Tsvangirai
absconding from the liberation war can overshadow their
collective abuses
and excesses over the last 26 years of independence, which
have pauperised
the population. If they do this honestly, they will realise
who the real
Sekauremas are.
FinGaz
NO other government initiative
since independence has ever spawned such
bewildering complexities as has the
much-vaunted land reform, which has seen
the key agricultural sector and
consequently the economy, slipping on so
many banana skins.
The
reasons for this state of affairs are pretty obvious - lack of forward
planning, upside-down priorities and certain government policies that have
no basis in realities whatsoever.
And the question is: With so many
imponderables, will Zimbabwe ever get it
right in agriculture? This is
probably the umpteenth time we have had to ask
this question over the past
three years simply because a vicious circle
appears at every turn as the
country continues to experience acute shortages
of critical inputs and one
form of problem after another. As a result, the
goals of the land reform
initiative have largely remained a pipedream.
And yet, if it had been well
planned and managed, the exercise could have
been the best way of
intervention to address historical injustices,
inequality and poverty for in
agriculture, which in the case of Zimbabwe
anchored the economy, lies the
seed of economic prosperity and
self-sufficiency. Unfortunately today, five
years after those spontaneous
wildcat farm invasions at the height of the
fast-track land reform
revolution, Zimbabwe is far much further from
guaranteeing food security
than it was in 1980 despite what the rhetoricians
in government would like
to make us believe.
And as far as black economic
empowerment is concerned, the situation is even
worse. Suffice to say that,
with the recurring input shortages, what the new
farmers gained on the
swings, they lost on the roundabouts, as they are
neither improving their
individual economic standing nor adding value to the
national economy. This
is mirrored in the shrunken state of the economy,
which has hit historic
contraction. If anything, the new farmers are now
specialising in
environmental degradation through wanton cutting down of
trees.
What is
of great concern to us though is that it is almost as if the farming
inputs
crisis has never happened before. Yet the country has had to grapple
with
this problem for almost five years. The German philosopher, Georg Hegel
once
wrote that history teaches us that people have never learned anything
from
history. The point is not lost in Zimbabwe where we are being told that
the
country faces yet another huge wheat deficit this year. The reason for
this
low wheat harvest forecast is the same as for the deficits for the
preceding
five years - shortages of key inputs.
Farmers' representative bodies say
given the circumstances, they can only
manage 45 000 hectares to produce 135
000 tonnes of wheat against the annual
national requirement of 420 000
tonnes. As would be expected however, the
overly optimistic government
insists that farmers will put 110 000 hectares
under winter wheat.
Coming
as it does at a time when the country is expected to have a maize
deficit of
close to 1 000 000 tonnes this year, the projected wheat
shortages can only
further exert pressure on the country's meagre foreign
currency resources
through imports.
The situation is eerily reminiscent of that surrounding last
year's winter
crop. As farmers would know, wheat should be planted between
May and
mid-June because a late planted crop can be difficult to harvest as
it
coincides with the early summer rains. Which is why we feel that talking
about inputs at this late hour should be cause for concern.
Most
frightening, however, is the fact that with persistent shortages of
inputs
in the aftermath of the land redistribution programme, Zimbabwe faces
the
spectre of a subsequent tragic and disastrous failure of the small-scale
commercial agriculture sector because the input shortages are not confined
to the winter wheat crop alone. The perennial problem is
industry-wide.
That the country's food security situation is at its most
precarious after
the land reform exercise has more to do with lack of
strategic planning in
government and the costly effects of poor preparations
than with
intermittent droughts. The grim projection of another poor grain
harvest
this year against a background of what has turned out to be one of
the best
seasons in terms of rainfall, confirms this.With the above normal
rains
received this year, is there any reason why Zimbabwe should remain a
basket
case?
There was no planning to prepare for or guard against such
eventualities, as
we are experiencing now. Government seemed to have been in
a hurry to give
out land for political expediency as if giving people land
was the
be-all-end-all for ensuring food security and economic empowerment.
Yet
nothing could be further from the truth. Redistributing land is not a
goal
in itself but a means to an end. The government should therefore have
followed it up with technical supervision and support so as to guarantee
overall success of the programme. This, other than some eleventh-hour
half-hearted gestures, it did not do. And Zimbabwe is worse off for it.
FinGaz
EDITOR ---
On March 31 2006 I withdrew $2 million from my bank account,
leaving a
positive balance of just above $1.7 million.
The following day, April 1 2006,
I went to the Samora Machel branch of this
bank with the intention of
withdrawing $1 million for immediate use.
To my surprise, there was now only
$400 000 in my account!
At first I thought it was some sick April Fools' Day
joke. I tried the $1
million transaction again. Same message: "Insufficient
funds".
Come Monday, April 3, I phoned my branch in Southerton to inquire
about MY
money. The explanation was so absurd it makes me sick to this
day.
A lady at the bank's information desk said I had made more than 10
withdrawals of MY money in one month from the bank and so the financial
institution had, in its wisdom, deducted $1.3 million from my account as
bank charges. If I wanted to confirm my transactions I could ask for a bank
statement - and be charged for my trouble.
I am not aware of any law in
Zimbabwe that limits the number of times that a
depositor can withdraw
his/her money from a bank --- even one with a
militarily powerful
shareholder --- and perhaps my dear bank may be so kind
as to enlighten
me.
Assume that the bank has 1 000 clients and all of them have $1.3 million
deducted from their accounts. That gives the institution a cool $1.3 billion
for free. Add this to other punitive measures meted on customers and the
press will go to town about the bank's superprofits.
I have always found
it ridiculous when managers of our so-called black-owned
banks and other
institutions that flaunt the "indigenous" banner go around
beating their
chests and boasting that they are running "hugely successful"
enterprises.
We have so many of these clowns in Zimbabwe at the moment
who are so well
connected among themselves and spend most of their time
scheming how to
fleece or exploit innocent citizens - be they employees or
customers - for
their personal enrichment.
And at the end of the day they
give each other awards: Manager of the Year,
Business Person of the Year,
etc.
As for my bank, one thing it can be sure of is that I will be
withdrawing my
custom and taking it to more depositor-friendly institutions.
And I will
provide the bank with exactly the sort of public relations
service that it
so richly deserves.
Bloody Thugs
Harare
FinGaz
EDITOR - In Africa,
the greatest wealth is surrounded by the greatest
poverty. This naturally
demands a revolutionary effort to help society
regain belief in itself
following years of denigration and self-abasement.
The damage to Africa has
already been done, and there's no need to continue
harping on that sob
story. Simply reiterating the problems of the continent
will not make them
go away. Africa needs to lift its head and hold it up
high. We must refuse
to be pushed over. But at the same time, we must desist
from acting like
cry-babies in this world, always expecting external hands
to clean up our
own mess.
We know that we will come right if we strive to focus on the future
without
losing the faith, courage and love to confront the immediate
problems. We
need to bring healing to our beloved continent. Our continent
needs to
rediscover itself, and the only way to achieve this is through
love. Only
through love will Africa rise to its fullest potential.
Unless
Africa calls out the dormant energies of its people, it will continue
to be
the basket case of the world. Sadly, no amount of donor aid - in spite
of
the good intentions - will change the status quo. The people of this
continent must awaken to the fact that they hold the key to their own
freedom. As Africans, we should no longer be afraid to expose the best in
ourselves. Slowly but surely we are becoming masters of our own
destiny.
The increasing dominance of our people in various sectors of the
global
economy is clear testimony of what we can achieve if we put our
various
talents to use.
However, it is important that our people retain a
perspective of their
cultural heritage. We must develop a sense of pride in
our past
achievements. We must use the best of our cultural heritage as a
foundation
to make greater contributions to the world
civilisation.
Because the world is developing at such a tremendous rate, it
is important
for us to keep abreast of new developments. We must read. We
must learn new
things. We must grow both our intellectual and spiritual
capacities. We must
develop innovative skills. But, at the same time, we
must not lose the best
of our traditional and cultural expressions.
Our
collective consciousness must be geared toward doing great things
everyday,
all the time. We Africans must no longer tolerate comfort zones.
We must
discard negative stereotypes,
We are not underdeveloped. We are not in the
Third World. We are not a
developing country trying to develop into some
prescribed form. We strive to
develop in our own God-given fashion. We are
bigger than the tags that have
been ascribed to us. We are special and
unique.
Today, we have everything we need to move forward with verve and
confidence.
We are the coming of the promise, and we hold the keys to future
generations
of our people. Today, we commit to using those keys to unlock
the best
within ourselves. We must embrace this new dawn. We must become the
best
again.
Chief K.Masimba Biriwasha
Harare
FinGaz
EDITOR -
Professor Arthur Mutambara has been "at the helm" of the weaker
faction of
the MDC for one-and-a-half months now and I have timely advice
for him: this
will take you nowhere Arthur, please QUIT.
If it required rocket science to
discover that Mutambara joined the wrong
side, he would have been the first
one to know as he is a renowned rocket/
robotics 'professor'. But it only
requires common sense and so Arthur was
probably going to take longer had it
not been for my advice herein and that
of others who have already attempted
to make the good professor see the
light.
The writing is clearly on the
wall: any attempt to undermine Morgan
Tsvangirai, currently viewed as the
embodiment of the struggle for a better
Zimbabwe, makes Mutambara an enemy
of the people's struggle and aspirations.
In Zimbabwe today, you are either
with President Mugabe or Tsvangirai -
there is no middle ground. That is why
Mutambara himself was at pains to
explain his difference with Tsvangirai at
a recent Chitungwiza rally
attended by about 800 people. He ended up saying
the difference was,
'strategy, strategy, strategy!'
Look at the
impressive crowds attending Tsvangirai's rallies all over the
country. This
should ring loud bells. Your own rallies, dear Arthur, are
being snubbed by
most Zimbabweans. Don't be fooled by people who lie to you
that it is
Tsvangirai who is destabilising your rallies: you and me were at
the poorly
attended St Mary's rally which, as fate would have it, was
deserted as
people opted for Nyao dancers. You had pulled your small crowd
using music
and when you stopped the music and started talking, they opted
for the Nyao
dancers. We can't be genuine supporters if we are so easily
snatched from
you! We had just come to assess what threat you posed to the
real MDC - none
at all!
Arthur, you should now face Welshman Ncube and company to tell them
that
they misled you to join a sinking follower-less splinter group of the
MDC.
If you do it now you may salvage what remains of your dignity.
Come
on Arthur let's join hands and fight for a better Zimbabwe with the
rest!
Urombo Mbonyeya
Harare
FinGaz
National Agenda with
Bornwell Chakaodza
"SO let us look at history as history - men placed in
actual contexts which
they have not chosen, and confronted by indivertible
forces, with
overwhelming immediacy of relations and duties and with only a
scanty
opportunity for inserting their own agency - and not as a text for
hectoring
might-have-beens" - E.P. Thompson, British Historian.
To
me, the above quote from the British historian E.P. Thompson aptly
summarises the extent to which the authorities have been very unfair and
diabolical in their failure to bestow a deserved honour on a man who
dedicated so much of his life to fighting for freedom and democracy in this
country.
To a very large extent, James Chikerema's sacrifices for the
liberation of
Zimbabwe are no less than those of his generation namely
President Mugabe
himself, the late Herbert Chitepo, the late Leopold
Takawira, the late
Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, the late Vice-President
Simon Muzenda, the late
Ndabaningi Sithole, the late George Nyandoro and one
of the two current
Vice-Presidents Joseph Msika, and others.
In fact,
Chikerema worked and sacrificed for Zimbabwe for very little reward
and it
is very painful that no full-blown recognition but half-hearted
acknowledgement comes from a person like his cousin President Robert Mugabe
who ought to know better. History will judge our erstwhile President very
harshly on this one.
If consistency right up to the end is the watchword,
as President Mugabe
told mourners in Zvimba last Sunday, why is George
Nyandoro at the national
shrine? It is a fact that one of the giants of our
struggle for
independence - George Nyandoro (God bless his soul) - just like
the colossus
James Chikerema, participated in the short-lived
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia regime of
Bishop Abel Muzorewa. Why is it okay for George
Nyandoro's remains to be
interred at the national heroes acre and not those
of James Chikerema? Is
there more than meets the eye here? For the record,
George Nyandoro was the
co-minister of agriculture alongside Bill Irvine in
the internal settlement
regime.
Far from clarifying Chikerema's hero
status, the President's address to the
mourners worsened the controversy
which has surrounded this whole issue for
a very long time now - the issue
of who is a national hero and who is not.
What President Mugabe said was not
comprehensible. It did not quite wash. If
anything, his address once again
served to underline the need to move away
from the selection process being a
ZANU PF affair to a body that is
representative of Zimbabwe's body politic.
A transparent and impartial body
could very well have reached a different
decision.
It is common knowledge that there are characters of dubious nature
and even
monsters who are not supposed to be at the national shrine. They
are there
because their sole qualification is that they were spirited
members of the
ruling ZANU PF party. A case in point is Chenjerai Hunzvi.
There are indeed
many other cases who lie interred at the national shrine
who pale into
insignificance vis-à-vis James Chikerema.
Of course, there
is no denying the fact that ZANU PF spearheaded the armed
struggle but the
struggle for Zimbabwe has a long pedigree - dating back to
the 1950s and
even before to the 1890s. The struggle for Zimbabwe was a long
and difficult
journey and everybody knows this obvious fact. So to try to
imprison the
selection of national heroes within a narrow framework of just
the era of
the armed struggle and to solely confine it to ZANU PF members
will be doing
a great disservice to the scores upon scores of Zimbabweans
who in their
various ways contributed enormously to our national liberation.
In any event,
Zimbabwe is much bigger than ZANU PF, which is just a
political party. It is
not synonymous with Zimbabwe. And I think this is the
biggest indictment
that can be laid at the door of the whole selection
process by ZANU PF: that
they alone are the custodians of the struggle for
Zimbabwe. The whole
process of picking who is a national hero and who is not
is deeply flawed
because of this.
The only way forward is to have a fresh approach to these
things, to have a
national body which is made up of eminent Zimbabweans,
political and
non-political alike. This kind of openness allows facts about
each
individual to be discovered, truth to break free, falsehoods to be
exposed
and contradictions to crumble under their own weight.
Such
transparency will indeed enable every Zimbabwean regardless of colour,
tribe
or creed to buy into whoever is declared a national hero - away from
the
present system which, save for a few obvious authentic heroes, is
greeted
with disbelief, scepticism and downright rejection. More so when
everybody
sees that the ZANU PF politburo starts with the conclusion, then
works out
the premise. It's all back-to-front, so to speak
In his wide-ranging address
at the Chikerema burial last Sunday, President
Mugabe implied that it was a
sin to disagree. No Mr President. It is
perfectly legitimate to disagree and
remain patriotic and loyal to Zimbabwe.
It is important to remind ourselves
that the period before 1980 witnessed an
enormous diversity of responses or
resistances to colonial experience. James
Chikerema and George Nyandoro
becoming part and parcel of Muzorewa-led
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, Nathan
Shamuyarira and James Chikerema launching the
Front for the Liberation of
Zimbabwe (Frolizi) and ZANU and ZAPU joining
hands to form the Patriotic
Front - all these were various fronts of the
same struggle for Zimbabwe.
There is no need to beat James Chikerema on that
score.
In fact, the
conditions and circumstances of the 1950s and 1960s in which
nationalists
like Ndabaningi Sithole, Joshua Nkomo, George Silundika, James
Chikerema,
George Nyandoro, Robert Mugabe, Enos Nkala, Samuel Parirenyatwa,
the
Malianga brothers, Herbert Chitepo, Leopold Takawira, Edgar Tekere,
Eddison
Zvobgo, Josiah Chinamano, Ruth Chinamano, Jason Moyo and many others
sowed
the seeds of modern-day Zimbabwe were much much harder than the later
years
of the struggle. Many never thought that the Rhodesian regime could be
dislodged but with immense courage, these nationalists persevered in their
various ways right up to the end.
The road between 1955, when Chikerema
and others formed the Youth League and
1980, the year of independence, was
hardly a smooth climb. Perhaps the best
way to look at the whole period of
the independence struggle is to regard
these different organisations as
stages in the development and fruition of
Zimbabwe, each stage building on
the previous one. We need to appreciate the
fact that things exist in their
own time. Seen from that perspective, there
are no villains - all are
victors!
The fact that nationalists like James Chikerema may have contributed
to a
negative image of the struggle along the way should not obscure the
enormous
sacrifices he made for the liberation of this country. True, he
made his
mistakes like any active and creative politician would, but no need
to
clobber him mercileslessly. Given his longevity, Chikerema's
contributions
and those of Rev Ndabaningi Sithole and Rev Canaan Banana are
plain to see.
As my brother and good friend Pius Wakatama rightly put it at
Chikerema's
burial: "heroism is never given to a person by another mere
mortal person. A
hero is a hero because of his deeds and actions". Well-said
Pius!
So indeed it is. In the end, whether Chikerema's bones failed to
To
Page 17
From Page 14
make it into the national shrine or are now interred
at his family cemetery
in Zvimba as of now, it is neither here nor there.
Zimbabweans will remember
him all the time for his deeds. It might be a poor
end of the Chikerema
affair and in retrospect poor testimony to the
percipience, fickleness and
mean-spiritedness of a political leadership that
says 'if you are not with
us, you must be against us', but the point still
remains that the people of
Zimbabwe and his God will be his ultimate
judges.
Not only do we understand the climate in which Chikerema operated in
the 50s
and 60s, but we also discovered in his character the unquenchable
urge for
freedom of his people, the capacity for courage and fortitude that
lives in
all human beings everywhere. To millions of Zimbabweans, young and
old,
Chikerema will remain a household name. You were a free thinker, a
patriot
and above all a nationalist.
Your courage, your honesty, your
dignity will always be remembered. Rest in
eternal peace.
borncha@mweb.co.zw
FinGaz
No Holds Barred with Gondo
Gushungo
I HAVE heard and read a lot about some
of the most
despotic governments in South East Asia, Eastern Europe and
Central America
where citizens can only whisper in the deep at their own
peril. But nothing
beats the heart-rending story of the African
continent.
Arguably the world's richest continent
in terms of
natural resources, which however has the dubious distinction of
having some
of the poorest people in the world, Africa takes the biscuit
when it comes
to having undemocratic systems of governance. Consequently, it
has been
reduced into a land of the down-trodden, deprived and
disillusioned.
If ever there was a continent in which
the
democratic achievements were hard to gain, it is Africa. Yet, instead of
being home to vigorous democracies given that self-determination in most of
the countries on the continent came after costly protracted bloody wars,
Africa is known for its repressive authoritarian regimes. For here, the
give-me-a-man's-scrotum-and-his-heart-will-follow philosophy reigns supreme.
The reign of terror on the continent is one for the
textbooks.
There are all forms of dictatorships on
the African
continent ranging from the most brutal and crude to what the
free and clever
pen of Peruvian writer and former presidential candidate,
Mario Vargas Llosa
once called "perfect dictatorships". This is where one
party governs a
country continuously for decades. But to camouflage its
dictatorial
tendencies, the ruling party tolerates criticism against it,
uses
intellectuals for its own end, skilfully keeping them in submission by
appointments to well-paid jobs and high public posts without demanding
flattery.
But whether it is Idi Amin of Uganda,
Emperor Jean
Bedel Bokassa of the Central Africa Republic, Mobutu Sese Seko
of Zaire,
Zimbabwe's guest Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia and Charles
Taylor of
Liberia - there is a common thread that runs through them all.
They never
learn that there comes a time when even the most despotic system
of
government and dictatorship cannot be preserved. Not even by
force.
That explains why they never want to renounce
their
monopoly on power. They would have to be carried feet first. And
citizens in
their country end up having to look up to death for their
situation to
improve. And when people have to count on death to alleviate
their plight,
it speaks volumes about those that they wish dead than about
the people
themselves.
I am not even convinced
that the scores of people
who attend the funerals of some of these dictators
do so because they have a
feeling of emptiness and loss. It is difficult to
think of anybody grieving
for such men, who if they did not exist, could
only be imagined! As Red
Skelton said about the large turnout at the funeral
of film producer, Harry
Cohn, in 1958, it only proves that if you give the
public something they
really want to see, they will come out for
it.
The dictators are a disgrace to human nature and
a
blot of blood upon the history of Africa. Their regimes have left terrible
legacies that range from obsolete social-political and economic structures,
abject poverty in a land of plenty, starvation, absence of basic human
rights and internecine ethnic conflicts among others. All this simply
because the dictators bear the birthmark of African politics - intolerance
of opponents and hatred for compromise. It is not as if this is something
the continent's historical situation prescribed!
The plight of the millions of people that suffered
under previous regimes or
that are currently suffering under the jackboot of
some of these dictators
still in power today, leaves a painful impression,
to say the
least.
That is why I will not shed even crocodile
tears for
Liberian strongman and probably West Africa's most feared warlord,
Taylor,
who has been arraigned before the courts in Sierra Leone to answer
charges
of crimes against humanity.
The charges,
according to media reports include
murder, mutilation, sexual abuse and the
use of child soldiers under the age
15 during civil wars in Liberia and
Sierra Leone for 15 years up to 2003.
The wars claimed 400 000 lives. The
question remains: how can the butchering
of hundreds of thousands of
innocent civilians qualify one for the various
difficult and complicated
duties of the presidency?
Admittedly Taylor's
complicity in these murders has
not been proved beyond reasonable doubt and
so I give him the benefit of the
doubt. He therefore deserves a fair and
impartial trial. And, oh yes, during
his first court appearance this week
Taylor predictably pleaded not guilty.
Hardly surprising because most of his
ilk will never admit to their crimes.
Saddam Hussein of Iraq denies genocide
charges levelled against him
following his Anfal military campaign against
the Kurds which claimed 180
000 lives. Even former Yugoslav president,
Slobodan Milosevic, who is now on
the other side of the grass, insisted that
he was arrested on trumped-up
charges.
It is
against this background that people should
understand why there was a chorus
of angry voices when newly elected
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
at one time intimated that Taylor,
who had sought refugee in Nigeria, would
not be tried for the grave
atrocities he allegedly
committed.
Nothing justifies the massacre of those
people by
whomsoever. No matter what Zimbabwe's Colonel Blimp who doubles up
as the
self-appointed chief of the thought police, and is well-known for his
comments about how Western influences and politics are supposedly dividing
the African society, would say.
There is nothing
African about the bloody massacre
of innocent civilians. We are talking
about human beings not flies, for
goodness sake! In any case, where was the
AU when hundreds of thousands of
women, children and men were being
butchered in their backyard? Or does the
AU have a strategy to deal with
murderous regimes? Most likely not, which
explains its defeaning silence and
inaction in the face of the massacres in
Sierra Leone and
Liberia.
Taylor, the notorious former strongman who
unsuccessfully tried to disappear rather than face the music deserves what
he is getting. Letting him off the hook would be seen to suggest that the
hundreds of thousands of people butchered by his attack dogs deserved to
die. And could there be anything more insulting and insensitive than
that?
Spare a thought for those that now have
permanent
emotional and physical scars after they either lost their loved
ones in the
civil wars or were maimed and raped.
Understandably, there is a whiff of panic inside the
bunkers of what I hope
is the last generation of dictators now on its last
legs across the African
continent. With the developments surrounding the
Taylor case, it has just
dawned on them that unlike what Shakespeare said,
the evil that men do not
only lives after them but lives with them too.
But
those concerned with the rights of the common
people, which no one remembers
when a system crumbles, just as happened in
Sierra Leone and Liberia, will
agree with the philosophy of action that has
now been adopted to deal with
Taylor, who played God in the West African
region. Africa as a whole should
rally behind the move because what happened
in that region is an indictment
of human civilisation. If Africa does not
want to face these problems
head-on, how does it hope to assert human rights
by way of assisting
national accords in the seats of conflicts and internal
tension?