http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011
19:49
Constantine Chimakure in
Johannesburg
THE Southern
African Development Community (Sadc), which begins its meetings
this weekend
ahead of its annual summit in Luanda, Angola, should revamp its
conflict
resolution mechanisms to effectively and emphatically deal with the
political crises in Zimbabwe and other hotspots in the region.
In a
communiqué to Sadc at the end of a four-day Southern Africa Civil
Society
Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Wednesday, the
non-governmental
organisations said the deteriorating political situation in
Zimbabwe, the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi, Swaziland and
Madagascar needed
the regional bloc to flex its muscles and rein in the
rogue
regimes.
“We call upon Sadc to recognise the DRC, Malawi, Swaziland,
Zimbabwe and
Madagascar as problem cases that require the urgent attention
of the heads
of states, given the precarious political situation and
deteriorating human
rights violations in these countries,” reads the
communiqué that was sent to
the Sadc secretariat in
Botswana.
“(We therefore call upon Sadc member states to) continue
increased
engagement and acknowledge the lack of progress in the ongoing
Sadc
mediation processes and call for the review of the Sadc conflict
resolution
mechanisms to make them more effective,” the communiqué
added.
Zimbabwe has been in a political crisis since 2000. In
September 2008, Sadc
facilitated the signing of a global political agreement
(GPA) between
President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF and the two MDC formations
that culminated
in the formation of an inclusive government five months
later.
Mugabe was retained as president and his major antagonist,
Morgan Tsvangirai
of the main MDC party, became prime
minister.
Mugabe and Zanu PF stand accused by the two MDC formations
of refusing to
fully consummate the GPA. Several outstanding issues in the
pact, among them
the re-hiring of central bank governor Gideon Gono,
appointment of
Attorney-General Johannes Tomana and the appointment of
provincial
governors, remain unresolved. More sticking issues continue
propping up.
Besides the GPA issues, Mugabe and Zanu PF were alleged
to have deployed the
military in the countryside to intimidate villagers and
perceived supporters
of the MDC ahead of anticipated polls most likely to be
held next year.
“We take note of the enhanced engagement of Sadc and
the modest advances
made with regard to Sadc mediation processes on
political crises in Zimbabwe
and Madagascar,” reads the communiqué.
“However, we are seriously concerned
with the lack of progress in Sadc-led
mediation efforts in both countries.
“We also note the lack of
urgency from Sadc and the African Union with the
evolving political
situation in DRC as the country heads to elections,
Swaziland, Zimbabwe,
Malawi and Madagascar.”
In plenary sessions, the executive director
of the Sadc Council of
Non-Governmental Organisations, Boichoko Ditlhake,
challenged the regional
bloc to isolate Mugabe and Zanu PF for their
intransigence to the GPA.
He said Mugabe and his counterparts in the
region should desist from
continuing to blame “external forces (entirely)
for the crises which are
internally and willfully generated by some of those
leaders”.
Ditlhake said the civil society in the region must ensure
that Sadc
guarantees free and fair polls in Zimbabwe.
The
Zimbabwe government was, during the forum, roundly condemned for failing
to
liberalise the public media and stopping hate speech against Mugabe’s and
Zanu PF’s opponents.
The forum called for media reforms across
the region, arguing that there was
continued existence of repressive laws
and practices in many member states
that negatively affected freedom of the
press and restricted access to
information.
“Therefore, we demand
Sadc member states to repeal and reform the existing
repressive legislation;
ensure media presence in election coverage is
undeterred and unrestricted;
guarantee the safety of media practitioners;
ensure state does not have a
monopoly over public broadcasting; and enact
laws that guarantee freedom of
the media and access to information.
The forum said the immediate
task of the region’s civil society would be to
ensure a thorough
investigation by Sadc and the African Union Peace and
Security Council into
the killing of 19 protesters in Malawi last month, and
get perpetrators to
account.
Police in Malawi reportedly opened fire against civilians
who were
protesting against acute fuel shortages in the country and calling
for the
devaluation of the local currency, among other
concerns.
“Swaziland must be put on the agenda of Sadc and that
appropriate sanctions
are affected,” the council of the Southern African
civil society said. “Sadc
and African Union must assist DRC to ensure
legitimate elections and that it
does not slip back into civil war. Sadc
must expedite implementation and
finalisation of the peace process in
Madagascar.”
The DRC is expected to go to polls before year-end, but
reports from
Kinshasa are that the political playing field has not been
levelled and is
skewed in favour of the incumbent President Joseph Kabila.
Madagascar was
suspended from the 15-member Sadc after a military coup.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011 19:45
Brian
Chitemba
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has ordered members of his Zanu PF
politburo to
audit and rebuild collapsing party structures ahead of
elections he insists
will be held this year.
Zanu PF
officials told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that Mugabe tasked
senior
members of his party to rebuild lower structures amid reports that
cells,
branches and districts had skeletal membership.
The politburo
members would visit the 10 provinces next week to carry out
the
restructuring exercise.
Mugabe has repeatedly told the politburo that
the elections would be held
this year although the timelines agreed by the
Global Political Agreement
(GPA) negotiators show that polls were only
feasible next year.
Last year, Zanu PF political commissar Webster
Shamu warned Mugabe that Zanu
PF was not ready for elections because of poor
structures.
Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo yesterday confirmed that
politburo members
would be deployed in provinces to reconstruct the
collapsing structures of
the former liberation movement. He said the
programme was being coordinated
by Shamu.
“We are just verifying
and auditing our structures, there is nothing amiss
about the programme.
Further, our structures are intact and they are not
collapsing,” said the
Zanu PF spokesman.
Gumbo could not disclose which politburo members
would be sent to provinces.
In Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South, Zanu
PF has skeletal structures
as most of its members joined the revived Zapu.
Provincial meetings are
attended by a few members as most of them are
boycotting party activities
due to infighting.
However, sources
said the visit by politburo members was in preparation of
primary elections
expected later this year.
MDC-T, MDC and civil society have said
elections were not possible this year
before implementation of critical
reforms, including the writing of a new
constitution. Business and Reserve
Bank governor Gideon Gono are also
opposed to early
elections.
Mugabe and his erstwhile rival Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai formed a
coalition government in 2009 after a bloody 2008
presidential run-off. Under
the GPA, a new governance charter is needed to
pave way for elections to
choose a new government.
But the
constitution-making process has been delayed by several months due
to lack
of funding and bickering between MDC-T and Zanu PF. Copac says the
referendum will be held in January while elections are expected in August or
September next year.
Sources said the politburo members would
also deal with fierce factionalism
rocking the party in provinces. Zanu PF
is seriously divided as the muffled
succession debate takes toll on the
former ruling party. Serving top army
officers have formed a third force in
the succession race, which was
dominated by Retired General Solomon Mujuru
and Defence Minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011 19:44
Brian
Chitemba
THE Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (MZWP) is still far from
fruition
after it emerged this week that the Ministry of Water Resources
only
received US$4 million to implement the project, estimated to cost
US$1,2
billion.
The massive project is expected to ease critical
water supply problems in
the arid Matabeleland
region.
Water Resources minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo said the
State Procurement
Board a fortnight ago gave his ministry the green light to
re-engage the
contractor, who will be given the US$4 million to undertake
the site
re-establishment, which is expected to be completed early next
year.
The money was released recently by the Ministry of Finance from
the 2011
budget allocation. Nkomo said the funds would only cover site
re-establishment at the Gwayi Shangani Dam, which is the first phase of the
MZWP.
Site re-establishment is an insignificant step given that
the project was
mooted in 1912 and has been on the cards since then. Lack of
financial
support has been blamed for the delays in implementing the
project, which in
2007 was estimated to cost US$600 million.
The
contractor, China International Water Electrical, abandoned the project
in
2005 due to lack of funding and moved equipment off the site.
The
Chinese firm was contracted by the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust
(MZWT)
which used to run the project, but now the Ministry of Water
Resources has
placed the contractor under the Zimbabwe National Water
Authority
(Zinwa).
Nkomo said his ministry was engaging the Chinese financiers
to fund the
construction of the giant Gwayi-Shangani Dam, laying of a 450km
pipeline
from the dam to Bulawayo, and another pipeline from the Zambezi
River to the
dam. Last year the minister sought partnerships from Botswana
but no deal
was sealed after several visits to the neighbouring country.
Botswana has
also announced plans to draw water from the Zambezi
River.
The MZWP is seen as a panacea to Matabeleland’s perennial
water woes due to
recurring droughts. Water rationing is also said to be one
of the major
factors that led to companies fleeing from
Bulawayo.
Nkomo said Zimbabwe had the right to exploit Zambezi water
after the signing
and ratification of the Zambezi Watercourse Commission.
The commission was
ratified by eight states connected to the Zambezi River,
Angola, Namibia,
Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania and
Mozambique.
“The ratification of the protocol means we can draw water
from the Zambezi
River for the benefit of communities in Matabeleland,” he
said.
Sipepa Nkomo said unlike in the past when Zanu PF only talked
about the
project during election periods, the Water Resources ministry was
committed
to seeing the project becoming a reality.
Political
parties, observers say, are seeking political mileage from the
project the
same way they are tussling over the resuscitation of collapsing
Bulawayo
industries.
Observers said Nkomo was also aiming to win MDC-T votes
after wrestling
control of the project from Dumiso Dabengwa, who led the
revival of Zapu,
while Zanu PF also has interests in the project. Vice
President John Nkomo
is the chairman of the MZWT.
If fully
implemented, the MZWP would enhance agriculture, boost tourism,
contribute
to the mining sector and benefit the Matabeleland and Midlands
regions.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011
19:33
Nqobile Bhebhe
BUILDINGS taken over by Zanu PF youths from
the Indian community in
Bulawayo, under the guise of government’s black
economic empowerment
programme, are being leased out to small to medium
businesses, it emerged
this week.
This has further widened divisions
between the party’s provincial executive,
which is opposed to the seizures,
and the youths, who are saying that they
are acting on orders from the
top.
In recent months several Indian businesspeople have been
disposing of their
unoccupied properties, which Zanu PF youths are
targeting.
Isaac Dakamela, the Zanu PF chairman for Bulawayo
province, has on numerous
occasions raised concern over the seizures of city
buildings by the party
youths.
The youths responded by
threatening to remove him from the chairmanship,
accusing him of being a
stumbling block to black empowerment.
Zanu PF youths have accused the
property owners of charging exorbitant rents
for flats, though some of the
apartment buildings they are taking over are
not occupied.
The
Zimbabwe Independent was this week shown a list of buildings and firms
earmarked for takeover before December. Nearly 60 buildings are
targeted.
“Two weeks ago, a building grabbed from an Indian family
along Herbert
Chitepo Street (within the city centre) was partitioned and
leased out to
several small businesses,” said the source. The youths are
said to be
charging US$300 per partition.
“The youth wing is
grabbing buildings so as to present a report during the
December conference
expected to be held in Bulawayo. In that report, they
plan to highlight that
they have turned unutilised buildings into productive
places for the
unemployed.”
Youth provincial chairman, Butholezwe Gatsi on Wednesday
dismissed reports
that private residential properties were being taken over
by the youths.
“We are not targeting the residential properties but
industrial ones, so
some unscrupulous individuals are using our name to take
over residential
properties.
“The youth indigenisation committee
was long dissolved and merged with the
main wing which is chaired by Joseph
Tshuma, Zanu PF Bulawayo Province
Secretary for Security, and this was
done to ensure that we have a
coordinated approach as a party in the black
empowerment drive,” said Gatsi.
Some of the buildings that have been
invaded include Zambesia and Canberra
flats, and Capri which houses the
Pizzaghetti, owned by the Di Palma family
who are of an Italian
origin.
Recently, the youths blocked one property owner, Khalil
Gaibie, from
evicting tenants from his Elons Court building.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011 19:32
Wongai
Zhangazha
THE humanitarian situation in the country still remains
fragile, with food
security, health, water and sanitation a serious cause
for concern.
Millions of people are said to be drinking from unprotected
water sources
and living under unhygienic conditions.
Due to the
immediate humanitarian needs, aid agencies through the United
Nations Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Unocha), last
week appealed
for US$488 million, an increase of US$73 million from the
original
requirements of US$415 million.
Key priorities to be addressed by the revised
2011 Consolidated Appeal
Process include improving levels of food security,
which have been described
as a “pressing issue,” nutrition, water and
sanitation and addressing the
needs of asylum seekers as well as other
vulnerable groups.
About nine million people, more than half of Zimbabwe’s
estimated 12,3
million people (according to the Central Statistical Office’s
population
projections 2010), are set to benefit this year from water,
sanitation and
hygiene services, while 8,2 million people will benefit from
the health
budget and another 6,2 million people from the money budgeted for
agriculture.
About 4,95 million women and children are in need of
immediate nutritional
facilities while 3,2 million pupils, 600 000 teachers
and other groups are
targeted to benefit in the education sector.
As of
June 30 2011, four million people have benefited from safe water,
hygiene
and sanitation while more than three million out of the targeted
seven
million people are still in need of safe water and sanitation
services.
However, half of the targeted people have benefited as of mid
this year.
According to the report as of June, 1 750 450 students and 49 890
teachers
have been assisted. This is far below the target of more than three
million
students and 100 000 teachers and school administrators.
In
addition, less than half of the five million targeted people to benefit
from
primary health care facilities have been reached while food security
remained an urgent issue after a ‘protracted’ dry spell affected six out of
10 provinces this year.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Regional
Integration and
International Cooperation Tedious Chifamba said an internal
exercise by the
World Food Programme revealed that following extensive crop
failure and lack
of other food or livelihood, some districts required
immediate food
assistance for nine months instead of the usual four
months.
Chifamba said: “Usually vulnerable group feeding is offered for four
months
(January to April) during the hunger period.
“WFP estimates that
it will soon be responding to the needs of approximately
1,4 million people
and requires US$83 million to meet these needs. We
understand, however, that
USAid has already contributed US$18,5 million to
meet some of the food
needs.”
Due to the dry spell in the six provinces that recorded minimal
harvest,
vulnerability, especially among people living with HIV/Aids, child
headed
families, women and the unemployed, had increased.
Although there
has been stable food availability and marginal improvement in
household
incomes, poverty, as defined by generally low income, high
underemployment
and unemployment levels, has remained a major challenge to
household food
security in both urban and rural areas.
According to Famine Early Warning
Systems Network (Fewsnet), Zimbabwe’s food
security outlook for July through
to December 2011 released last week,
Binga, Kariba, Mudzi, Umzingwane and
Zvishavane districts need to be
monitored closely as they have annual
localised food deficits and their
current production was heavily compromised
by the dry spells.
The Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee
(ZimVAC)
rural livelihoods assessment estimated the prevalence of food
insecure rural
households to be six percent in July 2010.
This number was
projected to increase to 11% between October and December
2010 and further
to 15% during the peak hunger season.
“Rates for chronic and acute childhood
malnutrition still stand at 35% and
2,4% respectively,” read the
review.
“One third of rural Zimbabweans still drink from unprotected water
sources.
While the scale of cholera has significantly reduced compared to
past years,
localised outbreaks continue due to the poor state of the health
and water,
sanitation and hygiene sectors.”
UN humanitarian
co-coordinator for Zimbabwe Alain Noudehou said though there
has been
improvement in the social economic context in the country and
stability in
the humanitarian situation, there are
still some weak areas
where
humanitarian assistance was still needed.
He said an announcement by
the South African government that it would start
deportations of Zimbabweans
by August 1 is expected to result in an influx
of people, increasing the
need for assistance.
“I would like to refer to needs related to food
insecurity, response to
disease outbreaks like cholera epidemics,” said
Noudehou.
“There could also be the need to support Zimbabweans who may be
repatriated
from South Africa in the coming months.”
The review also
read: “Gains made in the education sector, especially under
the Basic
Education Assistance Module, are at risk unless pledged funds are
disbursed
quickly.”
Minister of Finance Tendai Biti in his mid-year fiscal policy
statement said
according to the second round crop assessment survey, about
164 000
households were confirmed to be in need of food assistance.
This
has prompted his ministry to put in place a framework which requires
US$32,4
million to facilitate distribution of food.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011 19:31
Paidamoyo
Muzulu
Only a quarter of the government’s works programme for 2011 had
been
implemented by end of June due to lack of capacity as Zimbabwean
professionals continue to seek economic refuge from the Sadc region and
beyond, according to Finance minister Tendai Biti.
Biti told senators who
were debating his midterm fiscal policy statement
that this was well below
last year’s accomplishment towards this goal as the
inclusive government is
struggling with funding.
“The Prime Minister reported in Cabinet that the
government works programme
for this year had been implemented by 25% to the
end of June 2011 compared
to 35% of 2010, so, we are suffering from lack of
implementation capacity,”
Biti told
Biti added that the country’s
implementation capacity was further reduced by
the fragility and fluidity of
Zimbabwe’s politics that pushed professionals
away.
“When a country goes
through some form of conflict and fragility, it loses
70% of its
implementation capacity. A lot of this is lost through our
children who live
in the diaspora, doctors, lawyers, accountants, scientists
and so on,” Biti
added.
He told the upper house that the African Capacity Building Foundation
this
year came up with 16 capacity indicators of fragile states, and
Zimbabwe
ranked lowly on each of those capacity indicators.
Zimbabwe
country faces a shortage of doctors, accountants, lawyers,
engineers and
economists in the public to help implement its programmes.
Most of these
professionals left the country for the diaspora at the height
of political
instability in the last decade.
The two year Government Works Programme(GWP),
unveiled by prime-minister
Morgan Tsvangirai in December 2009, included
repealing and amending 17
different pieces of legislation in order to
democratise the country after a
decade of political haggling.
The
programme, along other legislation, wants to introduce media reforms,
security sector reforms, electoral reforms and a land audit before the
holding of any fresh elections.
The programme also intended to implement
a land audit on the fast track land
resettlement programme that took place
from 2000 when local people invaded
commercial farms and settled themselves
haphazardly.
“Timely implementation of this critical dimension (land audit)
is likely to
promote accountability and directly enhance productivity in the
agricultural
sector. It is therefore one of the critical targets under the
government
work programme,” the document said
However, to date no
amendments have been effected because of discord within
the shaky coalition
government formed in 2009 after the signing of the Sadc
facilitated GPA in
September 2008.
Laws that still need to be amended according to the GWP are:
Posa, Aippa,
Police Act, Public Health and Health Services Act, and there is
need for a
new act to regulate the operations of the Central Intelligence
Organisation.
The programme also proposed the enactment of Freedom of
Information Bill and
Media Practitioner’s Bill. These bills are expected to
increase
accessibility of official information and regulate the conduct of
media
practitioners.
However, to its credit, the government has made
amendments to Reserve Bank
Act, Public Finance Management Bill and the
Office Audit Bill. All these
pieces of legislation were intended to improve
public finance management in
the country.
Cabinet ministers will now be
required to make monthly reports to the
council of ministers chaired by
Tsvangirai, who is in charge of implementing
government policy.
“This
document is also intended to help members of parliament … in their
task of
holding government ministers to account for their performance,”
Tsvangirai
said at the GWP launch.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011
19:30
Faith Zaba
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has allowed corruption to
flourish unchecked among
his close political associates while failure by the
police to take action on
a long list of corrupt individuals has created a
widespread perception that
it is acceptable in high places.
Over the
years Mugabe appeared content to live with corruption, which in
many
societies is seen as a cancer which should be fought with relentless
determination.
Despite Mugabe’s posturing over the years about
corruption, saying it will
not be tolerated, he has never named corrupt
people in his government nor
has he taken action against those named in
several audit reports.
However, since the formation of the inclusive
government in February 2009,
police have opened dockets against top Zanu PF
opponents, including high
ranking officials in government.
While
political analysts believe that there should be no sacred cows when it
comes
to corruption, they said if the police were serious about dealing with
corruption, it should not be selective in applying the law.
The analysts
said Mugabe’s opponents were being arrested at a time when Zanu
heavyweights, who were committing crimes of corruption were being left free,
with police refusing to either arrest or investigate them.
Zimbabweans
are waiting to see how the police are going to deal with Prime
Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, who is currently under investigation for
allegedly
misappropriating US$ 1,5 million given to him by the Reserve Bank
of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) in 2009 to buy an official residence.
The Criminal
Investigation Department (CID) have opened a criminal docket
and are
intensifying their probe in the case allegedly involving Tsvangirai
and a
close relative, Hebson Makuvise, Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Germany.
However,
these allegations come at a time when the police are being accused
of
launching a crackdown on perceived Zanu PF opponents.
Several top government
officials from the two MDC formations have been
arrested and investigated
over the past few months.
In March Energy and Power Development Minister
Elton Mangoma was arrested on
two separate occasions on charges that he
authorised the purchase of five
million litres of fuel from NOOA Petroleum
of South Africa, without going to
tender. He was acquitted and absolved of
‘”criminal abuse of office” at the
end of June.
While in April National
Healing Minister Moses Mzila-Ndlovu of the smaller
MDC faction was arrested
for addressing a Gukurahundi memorial service in
Lupane.
Just last month,
police launched investigations into a case in which Finance
minister Tendai
Biti is suspected of unlawfully authorising an officer in
his ministry to go
on several foreign trips and awarding her per diems at
“special”
rates.
However, political analysts said if government was committed about
dealing
with corruption, it should demand that all politicians and public
officials
should declare their assets and explain to the public how they
acquired
them.
Political analyst and publisher Ibbo Mandaza questioned
how some top public
servants could afford the lifestyles they lead on their
salaries.
“I believe that there is a law whereby public officials should
declare their
assets and say where they got the money from. The public has a
right to
demand it,” he said.
“All politicians, all public figures,
public servants and those in the
private sector must all be vetted. We must
all declare our assets and how we
made our money.”
While Transparency
International (TI), a global coalition that is fighting
corruption, said
there is no political will to fight corruption in Zimbabwe.
TI projects
manager for Africa Servaas Feiertag said recently: “There is no
political
will to prosecute (alleged corrupt officials) in Zimbabwe.”
“At the moment
Zanu PF and MDC are in the government together but there
remains no
political will.”
Zimbabwe was ranked 134 out of 178 in last year’s corruption
perception
index released by TI.
TI Zimbabwe has over the years been
calling for action against high-ranking
government officials, but no action
has been taken by the police and
prosecuting authorities.
The analysts
said while they are not implying that MDC officials should not
be
investigated or arrested for corruption, the police should be balanced
when
dealing with this issue.
Political commentator, Blessing Ivan Vava said:
“Corruption is bad whether
that person is from Zanu PF or MDC — anyone
embroiled in corrupt activities
should be brought to book, corruption should
never be tolerated. It should
be fought from all angles if we want our
nation to succeed.”
On Tsvangirai’s probe, Vava believes that: “The
continuous allegations about
his (Tsvangirai) personal involvement in
corruption have a potential to be a
distraction in the operation of
government and in his role as prime
minister.
“Even if you are not
guilty, the highest moral ground dictates that if you
are implicated in
something that distracts government business, you resign,
especially if you
claim to be head of that government.”
Vava added that: “Now ministers and the
media are focusing on the corruption
allegations instead of proper
government business that brings bread to the
table. With all due respect, he
must resign.”
The analysts also gave an example of two recent reports – a
damning report
by the comptroller and auditor-general Mildred Chiri for the
first quarter
of the 2009 financial year, which exposed corruption through
abuse of state
resources by top government officials and the other by Harare
City
councillors who accused local government minister Ignatius Chombo and
business tycoon Phillip Chiyangwa of illegal land deals.
In April last
year, acting Harare Mayor Charity Bango made a report to the
police
implicating Chiyangwa and Chombo.
The alleged land scam was seen by legal
experts as a test case to see if the
police had reformed in accordance with
the global political agreement, which
states that uniformed forces should be
impartial, non-partisan and should
fully appreciate their roles and duties
in a multi-party democratic system.
Although the police said last year that
they were investigating the matter,
no arrests have been made and none of
the people implicated and reported to
the police have been summoned for
questioning.
In the comptroller and auditor-general’s report, several
ministers and their
deputies and permanent secretaries took away vehicles
from the ministries
where they had been working before the formation of the
inclusive
government. Gross financial mismanagement was also exposed in the
report,
with some ministers being alleged to have diverted state funds for
unauthorised use.
In addition, RBZ governor Gono in 2007 accused top
government officials of
being involved in the smuggling out of gold, of
which 15 tonnes was smuggled
out every year.
Mugabe even lashed out in an
interview to mark his 83rd birthday at
ministers whom he said were greedy
and involved in smuggling of gold and
diamonds.
Despite Mugabe’s
hypocritical tirade and Gono and the police saying they had
given him the
names of people involved, nothing was done.
The only time that a cabinet
minister was hauled before the courts was when
former finance minister Chris
Kuruneri was arrested in 2004 on allegations
of externalising foreign
currency, a charge which analysts say was invented
by Gono when he was
appointed in 2003 to position himself as an action man
determined to rid
Zimbabwe of an economic disease.
Kuruneri, who spent 15 months in remand
prison and a further two years under
house arrest, was acquitted in
2009.
But over the years, several ministers were named in corruption
allegations,
but no arrests were made and no police investigations were ever
opened.
Examples include the Willowgate scandal, in which several ministers
were
proved to have acquired Mazda cars at knockdown prices from the
Willowvale
assembly plant in Harare and then resold them for huge
profits.
There was also widespread abuse of a VIP housing scheme in 1995,
with
relatives and friends of ministers and top military officers and civil
servants issued with luxury homes at low prices.
This scandal was
followed soon afterwards by the plunder of the War Victims’
Compensation
Fund, set up to help those who had participated in Zimbabwe’s
liberation
struggle of the 1970s. Once again, there were no arrests or
prosecution.
Abuse of fuel allocated to new farmers at heavily subsidized
prices was
resold on the black market with huge profit margins
As farms
were confiscated from white owners from 2000, ministers acquired
multiple
farms. Mugabe has so far instituted seven land audits, all of which
have
confirmed that most of his ministers and senior police, intelligence
and
military officials possessed more than one farm.
In 2006, allegations were
made against a number of senior politicians,
concerning misappropriation of
funds at the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company.
Recently, a number of Zanu PF
and government officials have been implicated
in the smuggling of precious
ministers since the discovery of diamonds in
the Chiadzwa district of
Manicaland.
But if the country is serious about ridding itself of corruption,
no one
should be immune to prosecution — be it Zanu PF officials or
members of
the MDC formations.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011 19:00
Reginald
Sherekete
HWANGE Colliery Ltd workers are planning to go on strike over
outstanding
employee share option schemes which have not be honoured to them
by the
company, chairman of the workers’ union Emmanuel Riyano
said.
“This is a serious issue to the work force and possible industrial
action
will be taken if the outstanding share option scheme is not
resolved,” said
Riyano.
Riyano told businessdigest on the sidelines of
the company’s Annual General
Meeting (AGM) last week that workers at the
colliery have not been issued
with share certificates for shares options
they exercised in 2007, with the
single major shareholder Nick van
Hoogstraten being a pain in the flesh for
employees, after he continually
blocked the scheme.
In the adjourned AGM of June 30 2011, the British tycoon
had again blocked
all extraordinary resolutions on the board, approving an
employee share
option scheme, saying the company’s performance was not
reflective of the
demands of the employees.
Hwange introduced a share
option scheme in 2005 for a period of 10 years to
2014, but in 2007 van
Hoogstraten blocked the scheme, yet workers had
already exercised their
rights on the options that year.
“The company indicated that there was need
to increase the issued share
capital and it has remained a sticky issue up
to now and workers are now
impatient as the issue failed to pass through
many shareholders’ meetings,”
said Riyano.
To compound the matter
further, workers at the colliery have not been able
to exercise their
options since 2008 because of the outstanding issues and
some employees have
passed on, leaving beneficiaries with no compensation.
“We have widows and we
now have a situation whereby some (widows) have also
died and yet still the
beneficiaries have not received their shares,” said
the workers’ union
chairman.
But in an about-turn, van Hoogstraten gave in at the recently held
controversial AGM that saw the Tendai Savanhu-led board being booted out and
voted for the approval of a new revised share option scheme.
The new
proposal sought to consider approval of the 2008, 2009 and 2010
share
options which were not exercised and also the extension of the scheme
to
2017.
Shareholders approved the increase in authorised share capital of
Hwange
Colliery to 204 million ordinary shares from 186 million for the
undertaking
of the proposed new share option scheme.
The company placed
18 million ordinary shares under the control of
directors, which is not more
than 10% of total issued capital as per
requirement of the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange.
The workers’ representatives argue that the new proposal was not
taking into
consideration the outstanding 2007 shares.
“We want to know
if workers will be compensated for 2007 since they had
exercised their
options but have not yet received certificates,” said Riyano
in response to
the proposal by the company.
Hwange MD Fred Moyo said: “The 2007 conversion
has not been approved by
shareholders but we are working towards
regularising the issue so that
workers are compensated their shares.”
“We
are going to sit down with management to peg the time frame for them to
resolve the outstanding 2007 shares,” said Riyano.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011 18:54
Happiness
Zengeni
IN spite of the problems currently facing the banking sector in
terms of
liquidity, the macroeconomic trends not only provide growth
opportunities
for Zimbabwe’s banking industry, but also offer opportunities
for it to
revamp the existing business models and diversify
income.
Generally there has not been much in the competitive structure of the
banking sector since dollarisation in 2009, with only a few dominant
commercial banks setting the pace. CBZ remains firmly in pole position while
the general view across the market being that most banks have to
recapitalise or offload shareholding to interested investors in order to
boost performance.
The banking sector has continued to witness relative
growth in deposits,
loans and advances in the half year although overall
demand for credit
continued to outweigh the available supply as evidenced by
the premium rates
on lending (average 18% per annum).
While the current
low liquidity should have seen an upward movement on
deposit rates as banks
compete to attract deposits, these have remained
relatively depressed.
Analysts expect lending rates to gradually decline
while deposit rates
should also increase as banks compete for customers. The
proliferation of
micro-finance houses offering loans and advances will
impact on the net
interest margin for banks as the market appears to be
overcrowded.
The
RBZ’s roadmap for the entry of foreign banks and the acquisition of
stakes
by the foreign entities in Zimbabwean banks has been overshadowed by
the
Indigenisation Act and defers proper recapitalisation for the time
being.
However, according to research on the banking sector by an
independent
market analyst Joana Hwata, the tussle for higher market share
in the
already fragmented sector is only set to intensify.
Country risk will remain
the greatest hindrance to accessing offshore lines
of credit and with the
export sector struggling to recover, the gap between
demand and supply of
loanable funds may persist.
The banking sector deposits continue to increase
month-on-month, with the
five months to May seeing an increase of 21% to
US$2,85 billion, 91% being
short-term deposits. Total loans and advances in
the first half of 2011 were
at US$2,01 billion from US$1,09 billion in June
while an interbank market
seems to be operating cautiously.
Analysts say
there will be little inflows in terms of lines of credit. The
deposits
profile is short-term, which will continue to negatively impact on
the
banking sector’s ability to on-lend. Further increases in the loan to
deposit ratios are likely to be constrained by the RBZ’s inability to
execute its lender of last resort function in addition to the high level of
credit risk.
According to the mid-term fiscal policy review, the banking
sector is
expected to regain its key role in promoting economic growth by
providing
credit at affordable rates. However, the current operating
environment
characterised by liquidity challenges have seen banks being
reluctant to
aggressively advance loans as they fear huge
impairments.
Strong credit risk management will remain critical for the
management of
impairments, while the use of collateral should enhance
recoveries in the
event of defaults.
Non-interest income continues to be
the major source of revenue for all
banks as interest income remains subdued
owing to the transitory nature of
deposits and the high credit
risk.
Profitability of banks has been affected by high operating costs,
mainly
driven by staff and administration expenses. However, pressure from
labour
union over wages will remain a contentious issue for banks trying to
contain
costs.
Looking at individual banks, BancABC looks stable and the
group has
continued to report strong financial results. The expansion into
the retail
segment of the market has boosted deposits growth, which is
aligned with
management efforts to focus on growing net interest income to
anchor revenue
growth going forward.
BancABC’s strength will lie in how
it aggressively utilises its lines of
credit, given the quality of
institutional shareholders they have in their
books.
The coming on board
of the micro-finance operation in Zambia, with a wide
branch network, is
expected to boost income outside Zimbabwe operations.
Barclays Bank’s
conservative approach has seen the bank reporting
disappointing financial
results. Despite having huge deposits in comparison
to the other banks, its
advances have remained low, impacting on its
capacity to grow net interest
income.
While operating expenses have remained high, the non-interest income
component has been stretched to cover expenses. Analysts forecast that the
bank’s approach will remain the same until there’s a sound interbank
market.
CBZ continues to hold pole position in terms of assets, deposits,
advances
and overall profitability. The group has been aggressive in growing
its
market share, in addition to leveraging on its relationship with
government
and quasi-government institutions. CBZ has been proactive in the
market and
this is yielding positive results as shown by the offshore bond
issue.
However, the group needs to keep an eye on its bad loans.
FBC
Holdings looks attractive and cheap at the current trading price.
However,
financial performance has mainly been driven by its manufacturing
unit,
Turnall. Though efforts have been made to reduce costs, analysts feel
that
the revenue base of the group has to improve both interest income and
non-interest income.
Kingdom Bank still needs to put more effort on the
recapitalisation exercise
and its poorly performing loan book, which is
close to the minimum capital
requirement. The bank made a modest profit in
2010 and the market is waiting
to see how it will perform in the half-year
to June.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011
18:54
ZIMBABWE’S goal of improving rural livelihoods can only be done by
accelerating the shift towards a more commercially-oriented small-scale
agricultural sector that produces goods for identified markets, according to
international agri-products and supply chain management company Olam.
At
a recent media briefing, Olam president and regional head of South and
East
African operations MD Ramesh pointed out that this depended on
incentivising
the rural farmers to go commercial.
One such method was prompt payment of the
farmers for their crop at
competitive prices, such as the cash spot payment
facility that his company
was using in Zimbabwe.
The other was employing
schemes where farmers can access inputs such as
seed, fertilizer and
chemicals on credit.
This system, initiated in Zimbabwe by Cottco and
employed by Olam in the 28
African countries in which it operates, has
scored measurable success.
However, according to Ramesh, ultimate success for
the agricultural sector
lay in partnerships between and among the public and
private sectors in the
country in growing the sector.
“We believe we are
in a very attractive industry with strong growth
prospects,” Ramesh said.
Olam, he said, was committed to supporting the
growth and development of
agriculture in Zimbabwe and to working towards
economic improvement for the
country as a whole and for the people of
Zimbabwe, using its well-known
international strength and diversity to
stimulate and enhance economic
progress. Ramesh complimented the high
literacy and education skills in
Zimbabwe, which put it in a good stead to
compete globally. Olam is a
leading global supply chain management
organisation and a processor of
agricultural products and food ingredients.
The company operates an
integrated supply chain of 20 products in 65
countries, employing more than
18 000 people, delivering these products to
over 10000 customers
worldwide.
Products with which the company is involved include edible nuts
(such as
cashews, peanuts and almonds), spices and beans, food staples and
packaged
foods (such as cocoa and coffee), confectionery and beverage
ingredients
(such as rice, sugar, dairy and palm products), industrial raw
materials
(such as cotton, wool, wood and rubber) and a range of commodity
financial
services.
The company is involved in local maize and soya
procurement and wheat
imports for millers, and providing them with credit
facilities during low
liquidity periods.
Olam has ginning operations in
Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Uganda,
Tanzania, Mozambique and Nigeria.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011 18:53
Paul
Nyakazeya
A TOTAL 129,5 million kgs of flue-cured tobacco valued at US$
355,5 million
has gone under the hammer at the country’s three auction
floors since the
beginning of the selling season in February, figures
released by the
Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB)
show.
According to TIMB, the deliveries were 11,79% more than the 115,8
million
kgs valued at US$338,2 million sold in the same period last
year.
The average price at this year’s selling season was US$2,75, a 5,98%
decline
from last year’s average price of US$2,92.
Of the 129,5 million
kgs sold, Tobacco Sales Floor (TSF) handled 32,1
million kgs valued at
US$80,3 million, while Boka Tobacco Floors (BTF) sold
15,1million kgs valued
US$34,7 million. Millennium Tobacco Floor (MTF)
handled 9,7 million kgs of
tobacco valued at US$23,6 million.
Contract farmers accounted for 72,4million
kg valued at US$216,8 million.
BTF and MTF started auctioning a month and
half after the selling season
started.
Of the 1 669 022 bales laid, a
total of 1 552 067 were sold while 116 955
were rejected.
According to
TIMB, Zimbabwe is expecting 177 million kgs this year from 123
million kgs
which earned the country US$347,8 million last year.
Zimbabwe is the world’s
sixth-largest exporter of the flue- cured Virginia
tobacco. It lags behind
Brazil, India, the United States, Argentina and
Tanzania, according to the
website of Universal Corp, the world’s biggest
tobacco-leaf
merchant.
Fortunes in the tobacco sector have been particularly buoyed by
adoption of
the hard currency regime in the country.
Previously, tobacco
growers had suffered from delayed payments against the
background of an
accelerated erosion of value on the domestic currency which
was under severe
assault from runaway inflation.
The tobacco-selling season opened early this
year after the TIMB tried to
cushion farmers who needed ready cash.
The
industry was prepared for high volumes of tobacco after six other
suppliers
of tobacco wrapping material were licenced to avoid shortages that
occurred
last season.
No shortage of the packaging material was reported this season.
However, the
booking system put in place to reduce congestion at the auction
floors was
not as effective as growers continued to bring their tobacco
without
registering.
The board had decentralised its booking offices but
still some farmers
failed to take advantage of the arrangement.
This
resulted in congestion at the Tobacco Sales Floor, which was the only
operational auction floor when the selling season opened.
Boka Tobacco
Floors opened late due to renovations while Millennium Tobacco
Floors also
came on board although it took long to clear the congestion.
The issue of
pricing also came up this season as the sales had to be
temporarily
suspended after buyers started offering prices as below as
US$0,10 to
US$0,50.
Farmers complained over the decline in prices as they expected
prices to
continue firming as the quality of the leaf improved. At the
beginning of
the selling season, tobacco was selling at prices ranging
between US$3,50 to
US$4,50 per kg during the early days of the selling
season.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011 19:21
By
Qhubani Moyo
IF there is any term that best defines Morgan
Tsvangirai‘s political
character it is that he is a village politician –– he
is a political leader
who in many respects is sophomoric.
No doubt he is
a pleasant personality and a jolly good fellow, but if truth
be told
honestly, without fear or prejudice, Tsvangirai is popular but lacks
leadership qualities, acumen and vision to take Zimbabwe forward.
The
facts for this realistic and frank conclusion will follow in this piece
but
the reality is that Tsvangirai has been a beneficiary of a protest vote
and
Zimbabweans’ profound antipathy towards President Robert Mugabe and Zanu
PF.
Because people have suffered enough and are desperate to remove
Mugabe and
Zanu PF from power, they do not want anyone to criticise
Tsvangirai. For
some this is almost like a hanging offence, but the issue
must be confronted
for the sake of progress and the future.
Regrettably,
most Zimbabweans have now built a cult of personality around
Tsvangirai, the
same way Mugabe was treated during the 1980s, making it
difficult to
truthfully and candidly evaluate his leadership qualities and
ability to
rule the country.
While it is not my business to say who should rule the
country (it’s a
preserve for the people), it is in the best national
interest to interrogate
the issue of Tsvangirai. This is particularly
important because of his two
major recent pronouncements. The first to a
French magazine where he defined
Professor Welshman Ncube as someone leading
a regional party. The second at
the burial of the departed Public Service
minister Professor Eliphas
Mukonoweshuro where he said that no one in his
party should dare challenge
him.
It is ironic that this statement is
coming from Tsvangirai four months after
his party’s congress. It would have
been understandable if it was four
months before congress because it
reflects a telling tale about his
insecurity.
The question is why does he
feel so threatened to an extent of erecting a
Berlin Wall around himself
when he still has about five years to go. Could
it be possible that MDC
secretary-general Tendai Biti, who was conspicuous
by his absence at the
funeral, is breathing hard on his neck? Is Tsvangirai,
who changed his party
constitution to serve more than the required two
terms, so much afraid of
Biti?
Tsvangirai’s statement about Ncube was just a political cheap shot
devoid of
substance, but reflected his chronic poor judgment and other
shortcomings.
Tsvangirai’s insinuation that Ncube leads a regional party
because he comes
from Matabeleland (as a matter of fact he comes from the
Midlands, not
Matabeleland), which in itself is tragic coming from the Prime
Minister of
the Republic, shows his limited understanding of
nationalism.
By strict definition he himself has never led a national nor
democratic
movement. His is leading a party with national
aspirations.
What Tsvangirai fails to appreciate is that a party does not
become national
because it has seats in most of the provinces of the country
or vice versa.
It becomes national because it has a national vision, carries
a national
message and has a national programme. The form and content of the
party
informs the definition of whether it is national or not. It’s not
about
region or ethnicity.
A national party lifts and highlights issues
affecting all people in their
diversity onto a national platform and define
solutions in a national
context. It’s not about the parochial us versus them
mentality, which
clearly defines Tsvangirai’s paradigm.
Tsvangirai is now
showing all and sundry that he is either unwilling or
unable to define
national issues and propose solutions to problems in a
national
context.
That is why with all due respect I think he is a village politician.
He may
be well-meaning but his reckless statements and actions usually don’t
help
him. While he claims Ncube’s party is regional, he fails to realise
that his
own party is in reality in terms of organisational architecture,
structure
and control confined to regions.
His appointments to senior
positions also testify to that. That’s partly why
Biti is having all sorts
of problems in the MDC-T hierarchy.
There is also another compelling
variable. While the MDC-T or the united MDC
before the split which
Tsvangirai presided over, has done well in all other
provinces, it has
failed to make serious inroads in Mashonaland West,
Central and
East.
Indeed, if Tsvangirai had managed to take control of the three
Mashonaland
provinces, he would by now, despite his limitations, be
president of this
country.
Against this background, are we now to make a
simplistic conclusion, like
Tsvangirai does, that the MDC-T is a regional
party because it has not won
majority seats in Mashonaland provinces?
If
we use Tsvangirai’s template the answer would be yes, but if we seriously
interrogate the issue, it is clear the MDC-T has national aspirations. The
same applies to the MDC led by Ncube.
A party can be small in terms of
representation in parliament or other
structures of the state, but remain
national in outlook. The issue between
Ncube and Tsvangirai, and indeed any
other leader for that matter, should
not be about who is leading a national
party or not or personal rivalries.
The issue must be who has a national
vision and progressive message compared
to the other? Let’s put issues on a
national platform and debate without
resorting to name-calling and other
such despicable propaganda techniques.
I have great respect for Tsvangirai as
a person but his political bankruptcy
sometimes frightens me. I often wonder
what Zimbabwe would be like under
Tsvangirai’s leadership and this for me is
an important question to ask
given precedents we have seen in Zambia under
the late Frederick Chiluba and
elsewhere. Yes Chiluba could have paved a
path for Zambia’s transition from
dictatorship to democracy, but he was also
an incompetent and corrupt
leader. That is what we must guard against in
Zimbabwe.
Probably the best analysis of Tsvangirai’s character as a
politician and
leadership qualities I have seen so far came from former
United States
ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell.
While I
sympathise with Tsvangirai because of the ruthlessness with which
Dell dealt
with him, I agree with his conclusion in its entirety. In secret
diplomatic
cables exposed by WikiLeaks, Dell said:
“Morgan Tsvangirai is a brave,
committed man and, by and large, a democrat.
He is the only player on the
scene right now with real star quality and the
ability to rally the masses.
But Tsvangirai is also a flawed figure, not
readily open to advice,
indecisive and with questionable judgement in
selecting those around
him.
He is the indispensable element for opposition success, but possibly an
albatross around the necks once in power. In short, he is a kind of Lech
Walesa. Zimbabwe needs him, but should not rely on his executive abilities
to lead the country’s recovery.”
This is precisely the point. I don’t
think I can put it any better. I am
aware Dell also said Ncube is “deeply
divisive and destructive” but I find
this also aptly describing Tsvangirai
in the context of the MDC split in
2005. My conclusion therefore is that as
a people we must give Tsvangirai
his dues but let’s also point out his
limitations so that we can make
informed decisions about who should run this
country after Mugabe.
Moyo is the National Organising Secretary of
the MDC led by Professor
Welshman Ncube.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011
19:17
A TINY correction in the Herald caught our attention last week. It
was
headed “Matter of fact” and ran as follows: “In the Herald of July 30 we
carried a story based on an interview with the Zimbabwe Defence Forces
Commander General Constantine Chiwenga.
“In the story General Chiwenga
mistakenly stated that the country had
peace-keeping officers in Botswana,
Burundi, and Ethiopia.
“Zimbabwe does not have soldiers deployed in the three
countries.”
It would be useful if the general knew where Zimbabwe’s forces
are currently
stationed.
Meanwhile, the Herald of August 4 carried a
picture of President Mugabe
receiving a leopard’s head souvenir from Essar
Global vice-chairman Ravi
Ruia at the launch of the New Zimbabwe Steel Co in
Redcliff.
How long has this company been in the country and how much game
have they
shot out already? Please Mr Ruia, leave our leopards
alone.
The Sunday Mail informs us in a story headed “Gays and Lesbians on
the
loose” that police are investigating the “invasion” of a popular club,
the
Book Café, by a group of at least 40 gays and lesbians last
month.
This provided the Sunday Mail with a pretext to advertise its
ignorance.
“They paraded their unholy acts in full view of the public during
a
performance by popular Afro-pop artiste John Pfumojena,” we are
told.
The Sunday Mail reporters, Lincoln Towindo and Edwin Mwase, completely
ignored a story in the Zimbabwe Independent setting the record straight,
pointing out that while members of the audience did dress up for the
occasion, they were most certainly not gay.
“The funniest rumour,
reported as sinister fact by the Sunday Mail,” the
Independent’s Own
Correspondent reported on July 15, “was a ‘gay parade’ at
Book Café which
turned out to be a bunch of very straight party-time lads
out for a massive
booze-up.”
We suspect the Sunday Mail wasn’t interested in correcting its
daft story.
It just wanted to persecute people as part of its bigoted
agenda. And then
its editors and reporters wonder why they end up on
sanctions lists!
Talking of which, who is feeding the president this
story about there being
400 British companies operating in Zimbabwe? There
may have been 400 here 10
years ago but like everything else that picture
has changed. Owing to Zanu
PF’s assault on the economy there are probably
half that number now.
And anyway, who would want to invest in a country where
the head of state
threatens to “hit” them in retaliation for sanctions?
Those companies are
not responsible for the policies of their government. In
all probability
they oppose sanctions.
But let’s bear in mind companies
will go where the investment climate is
best. That means somewhere where the
authorities are friendly and helpful
like Mauritius, Namibia and Ghana. Why
should they invest in a country where
a predatory elite wants to seize 51%
of their capital?
Zanu PF thinks it is doing companies a favour by allowing
them to come and
work here. But anybody listening to ministers like Saviour
Kasukuwere will
very quickly take their capital elsewhere. There are many
countries which
are happy to have investors and which reach out to them.
After all, they
bring with them fresh capital and technological know-how.
Most progressive
countries see that as a plus. They also welcome the tax
revenues that go
with investment. Not in Zimbabwe it seems. Here the
plundering instincts of
a lawless post-liberation aristocracy scares off
investors and wrecks growth
and employment prospects.
The Zimbabwe
cricket team’s victory over Bangladesh on Sunday was a welcome
relief
considering the hammering they have been getting of late.
Understandably the
media was awash with adulatory stories of the team’s
exploits. However, ZBC
had to take it a notch higher, soaring into the realm
of hyperbole.
“The
Zimbabwe cricket team sent shockwaves on the test cricket arena after
cruising to a 130 run victory over Bangladesh at Harare Sports Club this
Monday on the team’s return to test cricket after a six year absence,” ZBC
claimed on Monday.
Defeating Bangladesh, at the lower end of ICC rankings
for Tests and one day
internationals will hardly “send shockwaves” as ZBC
claims.
What will happen if Zimbabwe manages to defeat India or Australia?
Will it
be a tsunami?
Meanwhile, Zanu PF loyalists were this week
milking the violence that has
hit the United Kingdom for all that it is
worth.
Tafataona Mahoso said the violent protests were expected as the
British
government, which claims to be a champion of democracy, is now
forced to
have a taste of its own medicine as the violence erupted in an
area
inhabited by neglected ethnic and other social groups.
Jonathan
Moyo, ZBC reports, said the violence that has hit London has
exposed British
authorities’ hypocrisy and double standards as they parade
democratic
principles by day yet they exhibits (sic) the opposite by night.
While we
know that this is all self-serving drivel from apologists, we have
to point
out the British media’s hypocrisy. In light of the United Kingdom
hosting
the Olympics next year, should they not be questioning the “security
threat”
in their country because of the protests?
Who can forget the overly negative
portrayal of South Africa as a
crisis-ridden country before the 2010 World
Cup?
A cheeky colleague asked Muckraker if Zimbabwe can issue a travel
warning to
nationals not to visit the UK. He went as far as suggesting that
Sports
minister David Coltart ask for Zimbabwe to host the Olympics in light
of the
“security threat” in the UK.
We were also amused by a ZBC
story in which Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
is said to have “baffled”
mourners at Public Service minister Eliphas
Mukunoweshuro’s
funeral.
“Reports from Warren Hills indicate that Tsvangirai left mourners
baffled as
he used the burial of the late MDC-T minister to intimidate and
castigate
any candidate within his party who attempted to question or
contest his
position as the Western-sponsored party leader.”
Tsvangirai,
ZBC adds, re-affirmed his “octopus-like grip” on the MDC-T as he
declared
war against any dissenting voices within his party, “a development
that
should have left his party supporters questioning the Prime Minister’s
so-called democratic principles which he purports to preach”.
It seems
that the mandarins at Pockets Hill did not read Jonathan Moyo’s
latest
instalment in the Sunday Mail. From his article it is clear from
where the
people refusing to let go of power come from.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011 19:15
THE Monetary
Policy Statement (MPS) recently presented by the Governor of
the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono, was like several breaths of
fresh air. It
demonstrated an awareness of the innumerable constraints still
impacting
upon Zimbabwe’s economy, in striking contrast to the recurrent
contentions
by so many in the political hierarchy, that all is well save for
the
alleged, highly misrepresentative, impact of the so-called “illegal
international sanctions”.
Whilst there has been a minimal economic upturn
as evidenced by a marginal
increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the
reality is that almost all
economic sectors continue to be confronted by
many major restraints in terms
of real and lasting growth, something not
acknowledged and admitted by those
politicians.
In contrast, the MPS
recognises that most Zimbabweans continue to be plagued
by intense poverty
and concomitant hardships, and that reversal of the ills
of the majority of
the populace necessitates substantive actions to address
the countless
growth restrictions of the many afflicted sectors of the
economy. Some of
the realities highlighted in the MPS included:
That notwithstanding
growth projections for the mining sector are 44%
in 2011, the sector
continues to face challenges of lack of funds for
recapitalisation and
refurbishment of mining equipment, unsustainably high
costs of production,
an uncompetitive investment environment and skills
shortages.
Apart
from being underfinanced, the prevailing political uncertainties
around
compliance with Zimbabwe’s Indigenisation law requirements, cast a
dark
shadow on the sector.
That the manufacturing sector faces major
challenges of antiquated
plant, equipment and machinery, low effective
demand, liquidity constraints,
high competition from imports, and high costs
of borrowings.
That the tourism sector enjoyed improved performance
in 2011, but that
performance is expected to be weighed down by
non-implementation of an open
skies policy, the deteriorating road and rail
network, congestion at
Beitbridge border post, lack of access to Visa card
facilities at some
tourist sites, and unavailability of lines of credit to
improve the quality
tourism products, and many other factors.
The
financial sector has witnessed the manifestation of structural and
operational deficiencies since 2004, including a shift from core banking
business to speculative transactions, abuse of bank holding company
structures to evade regulation via a web of sinister companies, poor
corporate governance and management practices as well as insider dealing and
abuse of depositors’ funds in pursuit of incestuous self-aggrandisement
schemes.
Their holding companies have wafer thin capital bases, and
engage in rapid
local and regional expansion with no proper internal
controls and adequate
capacity, and disregard of prudential laws and
regulations.
The MPS emphasises that going forward, Zimbabwe needs effective
debt
management policies to curtail accumulating debt to unsustainable
levels,
concurrently with encouraging mobilisation of domestic savings and
foreign
direct investment into the key export and productive sectors.
The
statement reinforced the Reserve Bank’s very forthright and commendable
recognition of these and other realities by calling for a diverse range of
positive and constructive policies and programmes to address the myriad of
the economic ills, and to progress a meaningful economic
recovery.
Amongst the measures emphasised as necessary was that Zimbabwe must
have a
holistic programme covering the entire production chain in
agriculture.
That programme needs to encompass security of tenure for
farmers, financing,
distribution mechanisms, constructive marketing and
pricing, contract
farming, realistic measures for loan recoveries, dispute
resolution
mechanisms, and a state role in rural community agricultural
production.
In particular, emphasis was placed on the need for security of
land tenure
to ensure long-term agricultural planning and access to
financing, with
99-year leases being market valued, registrable and
executable, enabling
them to be used as collateral for financing of farming
operations.
Currently, farmers have no effective and assured ongoing, secure
tenure, and
therefore they have no substantive collateral needed in order to
obtain
working capital funding.
The Reserve Bank issued a 35 page,
comprehensive supplement to the MPS,
urging a constructive sectorial
approach to economic empowerment and
indigenisation. At the outset of the
supplement, Gono emphatically stated
that whilst the Reserve Bank is
unreservedly supportive of Zimbabwean
indigenisation and economic
empowerment, its pursuit must not be “any
attempt to hide behind the
indigenisation law in order to commit or justify
acts of economic banditry,
expropriation and or unfair practices that
suggest that we are not a
law-abiding citizenry, or any attempts to parcel
out pieces of the economic
cake and opportunities to a few connected cliques
of people, whilst the
majority of intended beneficiaries remain with
nothing”.
Moreover, the
governor said that the “law must not be used to multiply
pockets of
inefficiency, in as far as utilisation of national resources and
opportunities of the country of the country is concerned”. He added that
“the empowerment strategy should also take account of the fact that, in
terms of ownership” 73,5% of GDP is already indigenised or under
governmental control. That statement will undoubtedly be viewed sceptically
by most of the population, and by almost all of Zimbabwe’s political
leadership.
However, the governor did not rest only upon that statement,
but
corroborated it with a detailed tabulation. It demonstrates the GDP
contribution of those governmental or predominantly indigenised enterprises
as including agriculture, hunting and fishing ventures that have a 17,6%
share in GDP, those in the distribution, hotels and restaurants sector
having an 11,1% share, transport and communication enterprises having a 7%
share in GDP, education with a 9,2% share and many other sectors’
enterprises and operations (also predominantly indigenised or under
governmental control) also participating materially in GDP.
The
supplement contends that the indigenisation and economic empowerment
thrust
must be to improve basic welfare of the nation and reduce poverty in
line
with the internationally recognised United Nations Millennium
Development
Goals. It also calls for awareness that “the acquisition of
equity and
majority shareholding in companies have minimal short-term
benefits to the
indigenous people and should therefore be the medium to
long-term national
goals”, instead of being pursued with undue haste.
Hopefully, these sage
advices will be heeded by the politicians in general,
and by the Minister of
Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment,
Saviour Kasukuwere, in
particular.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011
19:09
Paidamoyo Muzulu
ZIMBABWEANS looking forward to the Sadc
Summit next week in Luanda, Angola,
to bring finality to the country’s
decade-long political crisis are likely
to be disappointed.
Analysts say
as in the past the summit was likely to be deadlocked on
critical issues.
The three political parties in the unity government are
not close to any
agreement on the GPA’s outstanding issues and indications
are that they will
never agree on these remaining matters, the analysts say.
The shaky coalition
partners are deeply divided on the issue of sanctions,
and on the security
sector, constitutional, media and electoral reforms.
Zanu PF and the two MDC
formations have remained stuck in their entrenched
positions.
The summit
is expected, among other things, to endorse the roadmap to free
and fair
elections agreed to by the GPA negotiating teams.
However, the three parties
are divided on when elections should be held and
what needs to be done
before the country can hold polls that are credible,
free and fair.
While
Zanu PF wants early elections later this year or early 2012 with or
without
a new constitution in place, the two MDC formations say general
elections
should only be held after the full implementation of the global
political
agreement, paving the way for undisputed, credible, free and fair
polls –– a
point which Sadc supports.
The previous two Sadc summits on Zimbabwe have
called on the partners to
speedily implement the GPA and promised to enlarge
the facilitation team by
seconding a committee to join the Joint
Implementation and Monitoring
Committee (Jomic). Sadc is still to appoint
the team.
Political analysts interviewed by the Zimbabwe Independent believe
that the
Luanda Summit will be another talk shop since the outstanding
issues are
irresolvable due to intransigence among the political
partners.
Constitutional law expert Lovemore Madhuku said the Luanda Summit
did not
hold anything for Zimbabwe.
“The parties are engaged in
non-resolvable issues. Issues such as
re-staffing of Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission and security sector reforms
will not be resolved because the
parties are not interested in solving
them,” Madhuku said.
Madhuku added
that the talk about the election roadmap was only a ruse and
polls would
only be held when they are constitutionally due.
“Sadc is not the one that
decides. Parties have to talk among themselves.
The current roadmap is just
headlines or topics. Elections will be held in
2013,” added
Madhuku.
President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF have categorically stated they
will not
implement any security sector reforms since they see it as an
assault on
Zimbabwe’s sovereignty. Zanu PF has said no to security sector
reforms
because according to it, Zimbabwe’s security sector is highly
professional
and recognised worldwide.
They further argue that all the
other outstanding issues should be resolved
concurrently –– a herculean task
even for the most ardent negotiator.
Zanu PF politburo member Jonathan Moyo
has opined on different occasions
that “only an early election will settle
the dysfunctionality in the
inclusive government.”
Sanctions’ removal is
not a simple task since that power resides in other
sovereign powers: the US
and EU. To further compound the matter, the US and
EU have since said they
will only consider removal of sanctions once the
Sadc-facilitated GPA is
fully implemented.
MDC chief negotiator, Regional Integration and
International Cooperation
minister Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga confirmed
the intricacies of
international diplomacy last week at a public meeting in
the capital.
Misihairabwi-Mushonga said Sadc was finding it difficult to
bring to
finality the question of security sector reform.
“International
diplomacy is a difficult ball game and we are often told to
go back and
negotiate among ourselves the country’s problems,”
Misihairabwi-Mushonga
said.
South African political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki (pictured) on Sunday
said
Sadc’s impotence was clearly represented by the regional body’s failure
to
solve Zimbabwe’s political turmoil in a decade.
Mbeki made the remarks
at a Sadc Council of Non-Governmental Organisations
Forum in Johannesburg,
South Africa.
Mbeki said Zimbabwe was the regional bloc’s biggest test and it
had failed
dismally.
“Zimbabwe was their (Sadc’s) biggest challenge and
it failed completely to
deal with (President) Mugabe…. If you look at all
the fraudulent elections
in Zimbabwe since 2000, where was Sadc?” Mbeki
said. “Protocols to sanction
the government’s behaviour were there, but
never enforced to deal with the
fraudulent elections that have taken place
since Mugabe and Zanu PF lost the
constitution draft referendum in
2000.”
Civil society activist and political analyst Hopewell Gumbo is
convinced the
Luanda Summit will not bring much for Zimbabwe because of the
political
leadership in the region.
“This summit is going to be another
talk-shop. I do not foresee any leader
coming out strongly against
developments in the country. The solidarity
among the leaders will always
come into play,” Gumbo said.
Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos will
take over the chairmanship of
the regional bloc at the summit. Considering
that he now rarely travels
outside Angola for fear of a coup, will he be
able to effectively deal with
the Zimbabwean question during his
tenure?
Sadc’s commitment to solving Zimbabwe’s outstanding problems is never
in
doubt but the nature of the issues that are closely linked to sovereignty
makes it difficult. The thing that the regional body can advise, which will
now sound like a vinyl record stuck in a groove, is to say go back and sort
it out among yourselves.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011
19:08
By Takawira Musavengana
THE last few years have witnessed
the “Zanufication” of the public service,
traditional leadership structures,
youth training centres and the
militarisation of public
institutions.
Serving and retired military, police and intelligence officials
have been
deployed to key public service positions. These include the
electoral
commission, strategic grain reserve, the judiciary, prison
services,
permanent secretary positions in government ministries and heads
of state
enterprises (parastatals). Some have also joined politics and now
serve as
MPs, ministers and provincial governors.
On the face of it,
there is nothing irregular about former state security
officials retiring
from active service and participating in politics and
public life. It is in
fact within their civic and constitutional rights to
do so. However, what is
significant is the fact that “retirements” from the
security sector into
civilian public institutions have been directly linked
to the active pursuit
of a partisan agenda — namely retaining Zanu PF
hegemony.
The
pronouncements and actions of newly deployed officials have clearly been
tailored to advance a party political agenda. Some of the affected
institutions have since become avenues of economic plunder.
The
militarisation of public institutions also confirms Zanu PF’s increasing
lack of trust in professional public servants to guarantee the entrenchment
project. An example of this phenomenon was the accusation that public
servants, who were seconded to the electoral commission during the 2008
elections, may have rigged the elections in favour of the MDC. This was the
first time in the history of Zimbabwe that such accusations had been made by
a governing party which controls all facets of the electoral
process.
National youth service (vocational) training centres have also been
converted into places where young people are indoctrinated with anti-MDC and
pro-Zanu PF rhetoric. In 2008 in particular, some of the national youth
training centres were converted into torture camps, where opposition
supporters were raped and beaten. Together with indoctrinated youths, groups
of veterans of Zimbabwe’s war of liberation — including some who were far
too young to be called veterans of anything — had earlier been at the
forefront of the violent land dispossession campaign, with the support of
the state security sector. Confirmation of the youth militia-state security
alliance was confirmed by interviews that were conducted in August 2003 with
former militia members, who declared that “we are Zanu PF’s ‘B’ team. The
army is the ‘A’ team and we do the things the government does not want the
‘A’ team to do.”
The discovery of diamonds in the eastern parts of the
country has proved to
be both a blessing and a curse for Zimbabwe. It was a
blessing because it
came at a time when the country’s economy was on its
knees and desperately
needed a massive capital injection to breathe life
into its crumbling
economy. Much was expected from this natural
resource.
But the discovery became a curse when the state security sector,
the
military and police in particular, turned the diamond areas into torture
and
killing fields, where local villagers were subjected to child labour,
forced
labour and wanton violence. Launching a seminal 62-page report
entitled
“Diamonds in the Rough: Human Rights Abuses in the Marange Diamond
fields
of Zimbabwe”, Human Rights Watch noted: “The police and army have
turned
this peaceful area into a nightmare of lawlessness and horrific
violence.
Zimbabwe’s new government should get the army out of the fields,
put a stop
to the abuse, and prosecute those responsible.”
Predictably,
like all matters involving securocrats and human rights in
Zimbabwe, no
prosecutions followed.
Although the military has officially withdrawn from
the diamond fields, and
the Kimberley Process (KP) has approved the sale of
some of Zimbabwe’s
diamonds resulting in a motley collection of private
companies involving
themselves in the business, transparency and
accountability are concepts
altogether alien to the diamond trade in
Zimbabwe.
Speculation is rife that the lack of transparency in diamond
trading and the
secrecy associated with the auctioning of precious stones
and ongoing
illicit exportation may in fact be feeding into Zanu PF’s war
chest in
preparation for the next elections. It has been argued in some
quarters that
apart from President Robert Mugabe’s failing health and
related succession
battles in Zanu PF, and the quest to rid the government
of the MDC
formations, one of the key factors motivating Zanu PF’s desire
for elections
is the freedom from bankruptcy occasioned by the opaque
diamond trade.
Indeed, the diamond proceeds have been an unprecedented
political
aphrodisiac for Zanu PF. The recent upsurge of violence especially
in rural
areas aided and abetted by war veterans and “boys on leave” — who
are in
fact military personnel executing an intimidation-filled pre-election
campaign — falls within the JOC’s grand plan of retaining Zanu PF at the
ballot box and with it, preservation of the new-found wealth of the
elite.
In response to the gap in the formal institutional architecture of
civil
military relations and the apparent violation of the precepts of
civilian
control of state security services, the Global Political Agreement
created a
supreme policy making organ called the National Security Council
(NSC). The
NSC was mandated with reviewing national policies on security,
defence and
law and order; reviewing national, regional and international
security,
political and defence developments; considering and approving
proposals
relating to the nation’s strategic security and defence
requirements;
receiving and considering national security reports and giving
general or
specific directives to the security services; and, ensuring that
the
operations of the security services comply with the Constitution and any
other law.5 Thanks to lack of political will and the security service
chiefs’
undisguised disdain for non-Zanu PF elements on the NSC, the body
has not
fulfilled any of its major functions, especially that of “ensuring
that the
operations of the security services comply with the Constitution
and any
other law”. And the JOC remains actively engaged in party political
work.
Reforming the security sector should be seen and done within the
context of
broader political and economic reforms. As illustrated above, the
entry of
the security sector into politics has been driven largely by the
desire to
maintain the hegemony of Zanu PF for selfish reasons. Contrary to
the
propaganda in the state-controlled media, the offensive has not been
driven
by altruistic or nationalistic intentions. It is about the retention
of
political power and the related fear of losing not only political power
but
economic influence and wealth, most of it ill-gotten. As the case
diamonds
shows, unless transparency and accountability are entrenched in the
extractive resources sector, the
To Page 18
appetite of the security
sector to remain permanently embedded in the
political economy of the
country will remain.
However, at another level, it is important to note that
the security sector
is not a monolithic, single-minded body. Socio-economic
and political
privileges associated with the land, diamond and minerals
economy have
accrued only to a small but very powerful minority of
politicians, senior
public officials and securocrats. The majority of low
level military, police
and intelligence personnel are professionals and
patriots who are obviously
disillusioned with low salaries, politicisation
of the security services and
related non-merit based promotions that
normally accompany partisan
organisations, and the resultant loss of respect
from the public.
It is equally significant to note that most of the senior
securocrats who
purport to defend the “objectives of the liberation
struggle” are now old by
military standards — in their mid to late fifties —
and in the minority.
Although they have all passed the retirement date of
either 20 years of
service or 50 years of age as set out in their terms of
office, their
contracts continue to be renewed. But below them the ranks
must surely now
be dominated by born-frees given that it is 31 years since
independence and
considering the regular recruitment of born-frees, and
natural and
war-related attrition and retirements. While the senior figures
benefit from
the current crisis, the majority of born-free personnel would
surely stand
to gain from a quick return to normalcy.
March 2012 will
mark a decade of South Africa’s involvement in mediating the
electoral and
governance crisis in Zimbabwe, hardly a success for the policy
of “African
solutions for African problems” espoused by South Africa, Sadc
and the AU.
And unless reform of the security sector is addressed, the
crisis and
crisis-mediation could well continue for many years to come.
Returning the
troops to the barracks and making the rest of the security
sector
professional will require the guarantors of the GPA — Sadc and the
AU — to
tackle the security sector, through inter alia, peer to peer
engagement with
sister security services in the sub-region and the
involvement of the
appropriate technical structures of the Sadc Organ on
Politics, Defence and
Security Cooperation — namely the State Security
Committee, the Public
Security Committee, the Defence Sub Committee and the
Chiefs of Police
Sub-Committee, through to the Ministerial Committee of the
Organ and the
Heads of States’ Troika.
The fact that security forces in the majority of
Sadc countries are not
partisan and are not involved in, and do not
interfere with, elections and
other democratic processes provides a window
of opportunity for mediation at
the level of securocrats.
It is time for
the guarantors of the GPA to provide leadership by tackling
and reining in
the elephant in the room — the partisan and politicised state
security
sector — as provided for in SADC’s own statutes and international
best
practices for civil, military and security relations. If they do, then
they
will pave the way for real progress towards a new Zimbabwe. If they do
not,
then the will of the people will continue to be frustrated by the whims
of
the politico-military elite.
Musavengana is the Human Rights and
Democracy Building Manager at the
Open Society initiative for Southern
Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011 19:06
THE
original rationale advanced for imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe is that
they
would alter the unacceptable behaviour of the government and those that
presided over abuses. By limiting access to economic resources for elite
members of the regime, sanctions would also limit their capacity to sustain
repression against their own people.
A variety of sanctions and punitive
measures have been imposed on Zimbabwe,
including: the enactment of the
Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery
Act (Zidera) of 2001 by the United
States Congress; the suspension of
budgetary support previously provided to
the government by the European
Union; the imposition of visa bans and asset
freezes by the US, EU, Canada,
New Zealand and Australia on influential
individuals associated with
government and the ruling Zanu PF; and the
prohibition of military support
and technical assistance that could enhance
the government’s repressive
capacity.
Zidera empowers the US to veto
Zimbabwe’s applications to multilateral
lending agencies, such as the
International Monetary Fund, the World Bank
and the African Development
Bank, for finance, credit facilities, loan
rescheduling and international
debt cancellation. Zidera also permits travel
bans and assets freezes to be
imposed on individuals regarded as being
responsible for human rights abuses
and undermining the rule of law.
In Article 4, the Global Political Agreement
(GPA) deals with “sanctions and
measures” imposed by some sections of the
international community. The
parties all agreed:
To endorse the Southern
African Development Community (Sadc) resolution on
sanctions concerning
Zimbabwe;
That all forms of measures and sanctions against Zimbabwe be lifted
in order
to facilitate a sustainable solution to the challenges that are
currently
facing Zimbabwe; and,
To commit themselves to working
together in re-engaging the international
community with a view to bringing
to an end the country’s international
isolation.
Sadc and the AU have
both called for the removal of sanctions and
restrictive measures against
Zimbabwe in order to give the GPA a chance.
The two MDC formations have also
been publicly advocating for the removal of
sanctions, although there are
allegations that in private they prefer that
targeted measures be retained
in order to rein in Zanu PF hardliners.
Meanwhile, Zanu PF asserts that
sanctions are intended to turn Zimbabwean
citizens against the government in
order to effect regime change and has
taken the position that it will not
meet any further GPA obligations until
sanctions are lifted.
However, key
sanctions countries maintain that the inclusive government
“...will have to
make significant progress before the lifting of sanctions
will be
considered” (David Milliband, UK’s Foreign Secretary, 2008).
The sanctions
debate needs to be considered in the context of Zimbabwe’s
unique
circumstances. There is no doubt that Zimbabwe has faced crises of an
economic, political and social nature. What are contested are the causes.
Zimbabwe experienced a precipitous economic decline in the 2000s with record
breaking hyper-inflation that eventually killed off the national currency.
In 2008, the country was so vulnerable that it struggled to contain a
preventable cholera epidemic, which claimed the lives of around 4 000
people. In the same year, serious political violence followed the first
round of presidential elections with hundreds of supporters of the then
opposition MDC being attacked and killed.
President Robert Mugabe and his
Zanu PF party have consistently maintained
that the problems that Zimbabwe
faces today have been authored as part of a
neo-colonial and imperialist
regime-change agenda. They argue that the MDC
and those calling for
democratic reforms are creations of their Western
masters, who want to
retain control of their former colonies and maintain
racist white supremacy
by proxy.
Those calling for democratic and political reforms, including the
MDC,
insist that Zanu PF and its leadership are largely to blame for
Zimbabwe’s
current problems. Decades of misrule, ill advised policies,
subversion of
the rule of law, corruption, gross abuse of state power and
violence against
citizens have all combined to create a huge governance
deficit, which is the
root of the country’s problems.
According to the
MDC, the Zanu PF government was a moribund regime, which
was determined to
retain power at all costs by closing down options for
citizens to exercise
popular control over national decision making.The
causes of Zimbabwe’s
crisis are obviously much more complex than these two
competing narratives
suggest. They include structural issues, the vagaries
of an inequitable
global economy and the misguided policies of international
finance
institutions of the 1980s and 1990s.
The contention that Zimbabwe has been a
victim of global apartheid by the
West because of its courageous stand
against neo-colonialism and imperialism
cannot be wished away. It has found
currency with sub-regional, continental
and international actors. It must be
acknowledged that because of double
standards by the West in demanding good
governance in some countries but not
in others, a perception has been
created that gives credence to Zanu PF’s
claim that Zimbabwe is targeted for
regime change because it has dared to
challenge white supremacy.
There
are numerous countries in Africa and around the world whose governance
credentials are no better than Zimbabwe’s but they have not attracted the
wrath of the West in the same manner that Zimbabwe has. But while this
narrative might have rhetorical power, it is unacceptable to argue that
because the West has not sanctioned the likes of Ethiopia, Uganda, Libya,
Angola and Swaziland for abuses such as manipulating electoral processes,
torture and extra-judicial killings that Zimbabwe should not be sanctioned
for similar actions.
But the real question is not why the international
community imposed
sanctions, but whether they have actually strengthened the
prospects for
democratisation — or simply made life worse for ordinary
citizens.
Since they were imposed, debates have raged about the impact of
sanctions,
particularly on the well being of Zimbabwe’s economy. Mugabe and
his Zanu PF
party have vehemently argued that sanctions, were the major
cause of
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown and resulted in the unjustified
suffering of
ordinary citizens. Often cited is Zidera’s potential to scuttle
Zimbabwe’s
chances of accessing much needed international capital through
international
financial institutions.
However, there is no evidence to
show that the veto provided for in Zidera
has ever been exercised in respect
of an application brought by Zimbabwe. In
fact, the real reason that the IMF
issued a declaration of non-cooperation
and suspended all technical
assistance with Zimbabwe in 2002 was that
Zimbabwe had not been repaying its
debts to the Bretton Woods Institutions
since 1999.
There is little
evidence to suggest that sanctions are achieving their
objectives or that
the behaviour of those who have condoned torture and acts
of violence has
been transformed by the travel bans and asset freezes.
While there was a
noticeable drop in levels of violence and human rights
abuses in the
aftermath of the GPA, there has recently been a marked
resurgence of
violence and acts of intimidation directed at the supporters
of the MDC and
pro-democracy activists.
The impact of sanctions on political change is
always debatable. Proponents
point to the role sanctions played in ending
apartheid, while critics point
to the catastrophic failure of sanctions in
Iraq, where ordinary people were
the only ones who suffered. The situation
becomes even more complicated when
sanctions do not enjoy the full support
of the international community — as
is the case in Zimbabwe.
There is no
evidence to suggest that the behaviour of those responsible for
repression
in Zimbabwe has changed because of the sanctions and other
measures imposed
on them. However, the sanctions have certainly sent a
strong signal that
aiding and abetting repression will not be tolerated —
and pointed the
finger of blame at specific figures in the political,
military and business
elites. This international condemnation and the
broader isolation of the
Zanu PF regime, while not comprehensive, provided
the opposition with
critical support in its struggle for democratic space
against a dictatorial
regime, which culminated in electoral victory and then
the GPA.
Despite
its shortcomings, there was widespread acceptance back in 2008 that
the GPA
represented a credible opportunity to achieve democratic transition
in
Zimbabwe. It was critical for the international community to win the
goodwill of the regional community — and to support the “solution” that all
three parties had signed up to. A sure way to do that was by removing the
sanctions. Unfortunately, the opportunity was not seized. Instead, by
maintaining the sanctions after the signing of the GPA and the inauguration
of the inclusive government unwittingly presented Mugabe and Zanu PF with
their own opportunity to scapegoat sanctions and use them to escape
responsibility for their subsequent acts of omission and commission and for
delaying key reforms outlined in the GPA.
But now sanctions must remain
in place. The recent resurgence of state
sponsored violence directed at
those who are perceived as political
opponents of Zanu PF demands
intensified isolation of those responsible for
such acts. To the extent that
Zanu PF and its backers in the security sector
have consciously chosen to
unleash violence against people who hold
different political views and to
maintain their grip on power through
unconstitutional means, current
sanctions need to be retained.
Ozias Tungwarara is the director of
the Africa Governance Monitoring and
Advocacy Project, a project of the Open
Society Foundations — Openspace
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011
19:28
Itai Masuku
SO we are about to enter Part III of
indigenisation saga. And this time the
main target is the banking sector.
Obviously we are to assume that this is a
different type of indigenisation
for as far as we can ascertain, nearly 90%
of the banking institutions in
this country are already in indigenous hands,
and to borrow an expression,
indigenous indigenous hands.
Only three banks, Standard Chartered,
Barclays and Stanbic are
non-indigenous and we are also learning that
Ecobank is increasingly
becoming foreign owned. For the record,
indigenisation of the banking sector
began in earnest more than 15 years
ago, when government opened the doors
for indigenous aspirants by lowering
the minimum capital requirements for
one to be granted a banking licence.
Funny that 15 years later these are
being raised and yet we are talking of
indigenising the sector.
While we have been critical of the mischief the
majority of banks in this
country have been up to, we nevertheless
recognise the critical role they
play in oiling a nation’s economic engine.
And with what we fear is the
direction that may be taken in terms of the few
international banks that we
have remaining in our country, we shall end with
oil that has lost its
viscosity. We all know what happens when oil loses its
viscosity; the engine
eventually ceases as there would be no smooth
operation of the engine parts.
Now foreign banks play a vital role in an
economy as they provide linkages
with the international banking networks for
our industrialists and even
fellow banks. Where an economy is stable, they
can also bring in capital to
it as they are also linked to international
businesses, giving confidence to
international investors and anyone who may
want to do business with and in
the country. The credibility they give to a
banking system of a developing
nation such as ours is immeasurable.
This
is so important when one considers that the world is increasingly
becoming
global and the average global citizen wants to deal with readily
recognisable brands. Evidently, this is less about genuine indigenisation as
it is about self aggrandisement. We know that many, particularly in Zanu PF,
are eyeing those banks for themselves. But lest they forget, those trade
names cannot be used by one not authorised to do so. Secondly, a bank’s
assets are essentially the loans it has advanced to different classes of
borrowers, and the banks basically lend from the money they receive from
depositors. So when a bank reports increasing assets, which is an increasing
loan book, they will similarly balance this with their increasing
liabilities to their customers.
With other forms of asset-grabbing that
took place eg on the farmers, the
victims made off with those assets in the
form of tractors, combine
harvesters etc. The same principle will apply if
there is a whiff that one
Cde Zvavahera has been given Standard Chartered
Bank, for instance.
Customers will simply withdraw their money and keep it
in their drawers,
ceilings, once again as happened during the lost
decade.
Perhaps there were some conspirators that thought that when the run
on
foreign banks happens, customers will move to their cronies’ banks. This
will not happen as customers will not even think of taking it to local banks
since their confidence in the banking system will have been perforated, and
we know that banks have been working hard to restore this confidence. Right
now many Zimbabweans have migrated back to the international banks because
it was government itself that made them lose confidence in the local banks.
They should not aggravate the situation.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011
19:27
Dumisani Muleya
ZANU PF, formed in August 1963, will
this month be turning 48 (the party
would be 50 in 2013 when the next
elections are due), amid growing signs
that unless radical and sweeping
renewal measures are undertaken, the party
may soon lurch from the political
twilight zone it is in towards complete
darkness and obscurity, as the sun
rapidly sets on its fairly long history.
This gloomy picture of the
situation is increasingly becoming a reality as
the party now finds itself
battling for political survival in the midst of a
divisive and debilitating
power struggle, at a time when its leader
President Robert Mugabe, at the
helm for 34 years, is facing the exit due to
old age and health
problems.
Dogged by an explosive and crippling succession crisis, internal
strife and
a battered reputation due to leadership and policy failures, as
well as an
awful record of violence, brutality, human rights abuses and
corruption,
Zanu PF, founded on progressive principles and which fought for
independence
on the platform of its predecessors, now finds itself facing
the fate of
other former liberation movements particularly Unip in Zambia
and Kanu in
Kenya, and in a way the Malawi Congress Party (MCP).
Unip is
virtually dead with one seat in parliament, while Kanu is now part
of
coalition arrangements. MCP now has 26 out of 193 elected seats.
For Zanu PF,
which has a checkered history despite starting as a progressive
movement, to
survive and live to tell the tale of the Zimbabwe story it must
reform and
change — and do so now. Otherwise, it’s doomed to political
marginalisation
or disintegration like some of its former allies.
Having failed to learn
anything useful from other liberation struggle
parties like Chama
Chamapinduzi in Tanzania, Frelimo in Mozambique and even
the ANC in South
Africa, Zanu PF is currently more than anything else
battling for political
survival. Judging by the plethora of problems
besetting it and the dismissal
failure of its leadership to resolve those
problems — internal and external
— it’s going to be an uphill task for the
party to extricate itself from the
current situation. Barring dramatic
developments within and outside the
party, Zanu PF may well be facing the
fate of Unip, Kanu or MCP.
It is
instructive President Mugabe this week attended a meeting of former
liberation struggle parties in Namibia where he could have picked up helpful
lessons on how he could ensure Zanu PF’s survival and secure his own legacy,
but as usual it would be most surprising if he learnt anything progressive
from there. There is so much Zanu PF can learn from within itself and from
other former liberation struggle movements in the region and beyond.
Learning from others doesn’t mean Zanu PF abandoning its own history and
ethos but picking salutary lessons from its allies.
As Zanu PF turns 48
and Mugabe has returned from a meeting of former
liberation struggle
movements, the question is: Will the party survive
Mugabe’s departure and
possible defeat in the next elections?
In theory it is still possible Zanu PF
could survive Mugabe’s exit and
defeat at the polls. However, for this to be
possible, the party needs to do
certain things and do them urgently. If Zanu
PF has to survive beyond Mugabe
and defeat at the elections, it must
urgently resolve the succession issue.
This implies a radical and sweeping
leadership renewal plan which could be
implemented gradually but embarked on
straight away.
Having come up with a new and hopefully young leadership, the
party can the
rework its vision in line with current local and global
realities. From this
it can focus on rebranding and realigning its policies,
programmes and
messages to capture the public imagination of the majority of
voters who are
youths.
In short, Zanu PF must urgently reform, change and
adapt, while consigning
to history its record of misrule and ineptitude, or
die. If it fails to do
that now it will inevitably suffer the fate of Unip
or Kanu. The end is
nigh.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 11 August 2011 19:26
SADC leaders will
once again be meeting on August 17 in Luanda, Angola, for
their annual
summit where Zimbabwe will feature prominently in their
deliberations.
Zimbabwe has been on the Sadc agenda for the past decade due
to the
political stalemate in the country mainly stemming from disputed
elections.
The impasse has had a devastating impact on the economic and
social fabric
of the nation. If Zimbabwe had not plunged into crisis, Sadc
would be a more
stable, stronger and thriving region.
Now as Sadc leaders
meet in Luanda, where Zimbabwe’s political and security
situation would
dominate proceedings, it is important to locate the issue in
the context of
the region’s democratic reform, transition and consolidation
process.
The
most important item on Zimbabwe will be the elections roadmap endorsed
in
Sandton, although it needed more detail on timelines and other issues.
After
Luanda, Sadc leaders must keep Zimbabwe on the road from dictatorship
to
democracy.
The whole point of the GPA and GNU is to ensure the country
creates, during
the political interregnum, conditions for free and fair
elections to restore
democratic governance and legitimacy, whoever wins the
elections.
So Sadc leaders must keep their eyes on the ball and not be
distracted by
shenanigans of political parties seeking to control and
manipulate the
process. It is clear all sorts of arguments, some bordering
on political
insanity, will arise as parties jostle to gain control and
influence the
process.
As usual, Zanu PF will have some new and strange
representations to make.
Not that Zanu PF is the only culprit, but it never
misses an opportunity to
try to manipulate the situation. After failing to
hoodwink the nation and
Sadc on the lifespan of the GPA, the elections
roadmap, the timing of
elections and Mugabe’s power to call for polls, Zanu
PF is back again with a
new spin based on lies and deception to influence
the Luanda summit.
For instance, we are now told that South African President
Jacob Zuma cannot
remain as Sadc facilitator when he takes over in Angola as
chairman of the
Sadc Troika of the organ on politics, defence and security.
It is claimed he
will have a conflict of interest when the Zimbabwe issue
comes before the
troika meetings. Now a wide gamut of scenarios is being
built on false
premises to resolve the alleged conflict of
interest.
These include that Sadc must decide whether or not Zuma should
remain as
facilitator when he takes over as chairman of the troika of the
organ. If he
does take over, it is suggested maybe he could recuse himself
when the
Zimbabwe issue comes before the troika of the organ. Or he could
postpone
his assumption of the chairmanship. If all this fails, a retired
Sadc
president should be appointed facilitator.
This is high-sounding
nonsense. Zuma could be facilitator and also chairman
of the organ. As Sadc
executive secretary Tomaz Salomao said this week,
former South African
President Thabo Mbeki was facilitator and Sadc chairman
at the same time at
one point by sheer coincidence.
Besides, Mugabe was once involved in Lesotho
and Swaziland situations during
the 1990s while he was chairman of the
organ. Zanu PF officials and their
supporters must not have selective
amnesia or be conveniently revisionist.
It is false to say if Zuma becomes
chairman of the organ while he remains
facilitator that would be
“unprecedented” or offensive to principles of
natural justice. There are
precedents in Sadc on this issue and hence that
argument collapses on its
own.
Zanu PF’s bid to sabotage Jomic must also be thwarted. They want Jomic
to
remain ineffective, that’s why they are resisting efforts to reinforce
the
body. Sadc must not be fooled. Zanu PF is simply afraid of free and fair
elections and, indeed, democracy.
It is important to realise that Sadc
has been slowly but surely changing
over time, although that gradual and
incremental shift has sometimes been
stalled in the process by vicissitudes
of transition and transformation.
After the gains of Livingstone and Sandton,
Sadc leaders meeting in Luanda
must consolidate and accelerate Zimbabwe’s
reform agenda to facilitate
transition to democracy, something which will
ensure the region becomes a
beacon of peace and stability on the continent.
Zimbabwe remains the test
case in this regard.