http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Caroline Mvundura Saturday 21 August
2010
NGEZI - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday called on
investors to
acknowledge work done by his unity government with President
Robert Mugabe
to stabilise the economy that he said has made Zimbabwe a
safer investment
destination.
Tsvangirai admitted that more work
needed to be done to ensure certainty in
Zimbabwe's future political
direction but said continued vilification of the
country was not a true
reflection of developments on the ground.
"This country is still defined
as a risk to investors .. that is not a true
reflection of the situation,"
said Tsvangirai, while opening a US$2 million
shopping complex at Ngezi
Platinum Mine, the country's biggest platinum
mine.
"We have removed
the foreign currency risk .. the exchange risk is no longer
there. What we
should focus on is to create predictability in our politics
to remove
uncertainty," added Tsvangirai.
Zimbabwe, still struggling to recover
from a decade-long economic collapse
and a protracted political crisis that
followed its disputed 2008 elections
pitting then opposition leader
Tsvangirai against Mugabe, registered its
first economic growth in ten years
last year.
The economy grew by 5.1 percent in 2009 and is this year seen
expanding by
4.5 percent.
But unending political disputes between
Mugabe's ZANU PF party and the MDC
of Tsvangirai continue to influence
perceptions about Zimbabwe, with rich
Western governments and multi-lateral
institutions reluctant to provide
badly needed financial support demanding
that the Harare collation
demonstrates greater commitment to democracy to
get help.
A controversial economic empowerment plan to force
foreign-owned firms to
transfer significant stake to local blacks over the
next five years has also
raised fresh questions about Zimbabwe's commitment
to free enterprise and
property rights among foreign investors.
Many
foreign investors have reacted by putting on hold new projects until
there
is more clarity on the indigenisation programme.
The Ngezi mine that is
situated 140 km south-west of Harare is owned by
Zimplats, a subsidiary of
Implats, the world's second-biggest platinum
producer. The shopping complex
opened by Tsvangirai was built by insurance
giant, Old Mutual. - ZimOnline.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010
16:43
ZIMBABWE'S much hyped sale of alluvial diamonds has become a damp
squib for
locals who were hoping for a windfall that would contribute
significantly to
the revival of the country's economy, which has been in
the doldrums for
over a decade.
Zimbabwe sold 900 000 carats of what
Mines minister Obert Mpofu said was
just part of a six million stockpile
after a protracted battle to get
certification from diamond regulator, the
Kimberley Process Certification
Scheme. Finance Minister Tendai Biti says of
the US$45 million realised from
the sale, government pocketed US$15
million.
Government gets 10% from the Marange diamond sales as royalties and
25%
corporate tax on profits while the remainder will be shared by the
state-run
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and South African
companies,
Mbada and Canadile. ZMDC will pay dividends to
government.
Economists say even if the entire stockpile was auctioned, the
figure would
still be inadequate to ensure immediate, visible development.
Reports of
corruption in Marange further worsen the situation, they
say.
"We should not expect quick returns from diamond sales. The impact of
diamond sales is not going to be realised in the short-term but in three to
five years," said Witness Chinyama, an economist with a local bank.
The
country's underfinanced national budget for 2010 is US$2,2 billion,
while
the internal and external debt is estimated at US$5,7 billion.
Multilateral
lender, the International Monetary Fund, in July noted that the
extraction
of minerals would not result in a dramatic improvement of
Zimbabwe's
economy.
Support from the multilateral institutions has been slow despite the
formation of a coalition government in February last year that brought
relative stability. The discovery of a vast field of alluvial diamond rich
land in Marange lifted national spirits and hopes were high that the country
is in for an immediate cash haul.
Politicians from president Robert
Mugabe's party, Zanu PF, had celebrated
the sale of the diamonds as the
panacea to Western imposed sanctions. But
they could have celebrated too
soon, if figures from the maiden sale of part
of a stockpile of Marange
stones last week are anything to go by.
For a country coming out of a
decade-long recession, and needing over US$45
billion to fully recover,
amounts declared to have gone to the fiscus from
last week's diamond auction
are nothing more than small change, say economic
commentators.
Zimbabwe
is struggling with dilapidated social and industrial
infrastructure,
underperforming parastatals and biting electricity shortages
caused by
failure to pay for power imports.
The sale of diamonds from Marange was
suspended in 2008 after human rights
groups complained of gross human rights
violations by the army against
illegal miners. Zimbabwe got the Kimberley
Process Certification Scheme nod
to sell two supervised exports of rough
diamonds by September after which
the KP monitoring team will decide whether
the country has complied with its
standards before being allowed full
exports.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai cautioned against exaggerating the
benefits
that could accrue from diamond wealth when he officiated at last
week's
diamond sale.
Still, this has not stopped the clamour for a share
of the diamond cake.
Civil servants, earning salaries half the poverty datum
line, have said
money from Marange diamonds should be used to improve their
conditions.
Mugabe, speaking in China last week, said the money should go
towards
agriculture, a sector his government in 2000 virtually killed
following
violent land reforms.
Economic commentator John Robertson says
it is too early to lay claim to
diamond funds, whose quantification is still
subject to controversy and
allegations of missing cash.
"It's not clear
how much Zimbabwe will get from the diamonds because
authorities are not
clear with figures. The government's style of management
is suspicious. They
should tell people the correct information concerning
the diamonds' value,"
said Robertson.
"We need to be cautious and really look at what is at stake
for Zimbabwe
from the diamond sales. Whatever little amount is realised from
diamonds
should be used carefully. There is no reason to splash billions on
civil
servants' salaries when parastatals are bleeding. Government should
place
its priorities right," said Robertson, a critic of Mugabe's economic
policies.
Though underpaid, government employees still chew up US$600
million in
salaries per year.
"Why should they (civil servants) get more
money when service delivery is
crippled," said Robertson.
Chinyama said
new legislation was necessary to plug irregular licensing and
illicit trade
if Zimbabwe were to benefit in the long-term.
"If the diamonds revenue
circulate in the country, that would help in
solving liquidity challenges
while regulations like the Diamond Act will
increase accountability," said
Chinyama. He was referring to Biti's proposal
for a Diamond Act that would
make state participation in all alluvial
diamond mining a
pre-condition.
Even at its infancy, trade in Zimbabwean diamonds faces
resistance in some
of the leading markets, leaving the stones vulnerable to
under-pricing.
The New York-based Rapaport Diamond Trading Network, which
links global
diamond buyers, has warned that it would shut out of its
network any buyer
trading in Marange diamonds. Rapaport claims rights abuses
by soldiers
guarding Marange fields are still rampant, rendering the stones
dirty.
Brian Chitemba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010 16:54
VIGILANT
villagers this week stopped a group of axe-wielding militants from
disrupting a constitution-making outreach preparatory meeting in Nyanga
North constituency, according to constitutional reforms boss Douglas
Mwonzora.
Mwonzora, a joint chairman of the Parliamentary Select
Committee, also known
as Copac, told the Zimbabwe Independent yesterday that
the incident was one
of cases of violence affecting the constitution-making
process.
He said seven people, armed with axes, stormed Nyadowa Business
Centre, the
venue of the meeting, with the intention of attacking officials
and
participants on Sunday.
"There was violence in Nyanga where seven
people armed with axes tried to
stop a meeting I was addressing at Nyadowa
Business Centre. The meeting had
about 500 people and it was a preparation
to public meetings that were
starting this week," said Mwonzora, who is MP
for the constituency.
Because of the big crowd at the meeting, he said, the
men were apprehended
and were handed over to Nyamaropa Police
Station.
Mwonzora's allegations contradicted statements by his co-chair Paul
Mangwana
of Zanu PF who this week accused the media of misleading reportage
on the
level of constitution-related violence. The Joint Monitoring and
Implementation Committee (Jomic) also dismissed reports of violence in
Bikita.
Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka, who had promised to verify the
incident,
had not done so by the time of going to print. But police officers
from the
area who cannot be named because they are not authorised to speak
on behalf
of the force confirmed the incident.
Meanwhile, independent
monitors, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR),
Zimbabwe Election
Support Network (Zesn) and Zimbabwe Peace Project have
reported more
disturbances affecting the process.
The organisations, which have deployed
monitors countrywide, said an
outreach meeting was cancelled in Chipinge on
Saturday after disagreements
on sitting arrangements degenerated into
clashes between Zanu PF and MDC
supporters. Two people were injured during
the commotion at Checheche
Primary School and were rushed to the nearby St
Peters Hospital.
In Mashonaland West province the MDC-T alleged that
rapporteurs were forcing
participants to vote, by a show of hands, on
various talking points.
MDC-T Mashonaland West provincial coordinator David
Mangezi said some
villagers in Hurungwe and Chegutu said the pattern had
left villagers
intimidated and afraid to publicly offer views.
"In areas
like at Alpha Farm one person would stand up and say we want
devolution of
power and the rapporteurs would ask those who supported this
view to raise
their hands voting for his suggestion. The rapporteurs would
do the same
with those who disagreed with that particular point," said
Mangezi.
He
alleged that a number of war veterans were intimidating villagers in
areas
like Kazangarare.
Commenting on the allegations, Mwonzora said no one was
allowed to cause
people to vote on any matter.
"It is not allowed. We are
not carrying a referendum. People must not be
allowed to vote. Rapporteurs
must agree on how to assess the popular
position," he
said.
Wongai Zhangazha
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010
16:53
SANCTIONS imposed on President Robert Mugabe and his close
associates will
remain until the implementation of democratic reforms in
Zimbabwe, the US
ambassador has said.
Charles Ray, the US ambassador,
told a roundtable discussion with senior
editors in Harare on Wednesday that
his country, the world’s largest
economy, would consider lifting the
sanctions only if there was “real and
tangible” reform.
Ray was reacting
to the decision by Sadc leaders this week to intensify
pressure for the
removal of the sanctions, which they say are hurting
Zimbabwe’s
economy.
He described the sanctions, imposed in 2001, as a reaction “to a
situation
that was hurting the people of Zimbabwe and when that situation is
rectified
then there is no need for them”.
“If you read the language of
these various sanctions or restrictive
measures, they all point to the fact
that the motivation behind them was the
human rights violations that were
violent and blocking progress,” said Ray.
“This part gets ignored. They are
sanctions that are designed to try and
influence behaviour that creates a
better Zimbabwe for the people.”
Ray’s comments put the issue of sanctions
into perspective as some lawmakers
in the US congress have been pushing for
the repeal or amendment of the 2001
sanctions law, known as the Zimbabwe
Democracy and Economic Recovery Act
(Zidera).
At the beginning of this
month, US Senator, Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma) introduced
the Zimbabwe Sanctions
Repeal Act of 2010 seeking to lift economic sanctions
imposed on the
country.
Inhofe said the government of national unity had resulted in the
recovery of
Zimbabwe’s economy and a repeal of Zidera was necessary to fully
restore
the economy and assist the transition to
democracy.
Inhofe’s
Bill becomes the second proposed legislation aimed at repealing
Zidera.
Senator Russ Feingold, supported by two other senators, Johnny
Isakson and
John Kerry, introduced a Bill in May this year called the
Zimbabwe
Transition to Democracy and Economic Recovery Act to replace
Zidera.
Feingold’s Bill sought to “update US policy and authorities and
help advance
genuine transition to democracy and promote economic recovery
in Zimbabwe”.
Ray acknowledged the two proposals, but said they were not
government policy
as they only represented the views of the
sponsors.
Mugabe and long term rival and now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
promised
economic stability and democratic reforms as part of their power
sharing
arrangement.
Ray said while there had been progress in some areas
such as the elimination
of hyperinflation and reduction of cases of
violence, more needed to be done
to open the political and democratic space
which he classified as still
closed.
“There is need for more freedom of
information, there is need to air
different ideas” said Ray. “Zimbabwe’s
situation is not simple, and it does
not lend itself to a simple sound bites
solution,” he said. “It requires
very intense and reasoned analysis and a
response that takes into account
that there are a lot of people who are
involved in the decision-making
process and whose interests have to be taken
into account. And my
recommendation in general is let us look at what is in
terms of what we
would like to see and not focus on
individuals.”
Relations between Zimbabwe and the US deteriorated in the past
decade to a
level “of name-calling,” according to Ray, adding that while
there was still
“some negative spin” it was less vitriolic than in the
past.
“My philosophy is I do not have time for name- calling,” said Ray. “I
feel I
am here to represent the interests of the American people and the US
government and in the process to try and help Zimbabweans have a good life.
When little negatives arise, I treat them like a speed hump on the way. I
slow down and drive over.”
He said despite the sanctions, trade between
Zimbabwe and the US has trebled
during the first half of the year compared
to the same period last year.
“In the first six months of this year,
Zimbabwe’s exports to the US were
more than three times higher than in the
first half of 2009,” said the
ambassador without giving figures of the
volume of trade. “The year-on-year
increase in bilateral trade volumes
exceeds 50%,” he said
On possible elections next year, Ray said only
Zimbabweans should decide on
the issue, but warned against a flawed
process.
“The question whether or not the people of Zimbabwe are ready for
elections
is one for the people of Zimbabwe because they are the ones that
would do
the voting and live with the outcome,” he said. “There are
certainly things
at a minimum that need to be done for an election to be
effective. They have
to be free of violence and intimidation.”
Despite
frosty relations between the two countries, the US continues to fund
humanitarian projects in the country.
Following a US$310 million
commitment for humanitarian assistance made by
President Barack Obama after
meeting Tsvangirai in 2009, the US increased
assistance this year by 20% in
the budget to fight HIV/Aids.
Ray said the US President’s Emergency Plan for
Aids Relief budget for 2011
would rise by US$10 million to a total of
US$57,5 million. In addition, the
US would continue to support Zimbabwe’s
scale up of antiretroviral
treatment. — Staff Writer.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010 16:46
STATE
Enterprises and Parastatals minister Gorden Moyo has warned that
Zimbabwe’s
economic recovery could be hamstrung by poor performance of
loss-making
government companies.
Moyo yesterday told delegates attending a convention on
best practices in
leading and managing “exceptional” state-owned enterprises
and parastatals
in South Africa that Zimbabwe’s recovery from the
decade-long recession
could be retarded by a host of problems affecting
financially beleaguered
government-owned companies.
“The combined effect
of political and economic challenges had a severe
impact on almost all
State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) in the last decade and
the consequences could
be far more devastating for the country in future
unless appropriate
measures are put now,” Moyo said.
Zimbabwe’s parastatals continue to be
saddled by a huge debt overhang that
has resulted in serious deterioration
of infrastructure due to limited
maintenance.
Investors, according to
Moyo, continue to shy away while working capital and
external lines of
credit are elusive.
“Our kingpin in turning around the fortunes of SOEs is
adopting the global
best practices, especially corporate governance,” he
added.
The minister said government is at an “advanced stage” of
formulating a
Corporate Governance Framework for state enterprises and
parastatals.
He said the new measures would, among other reforms, ensure more
disclosure
in parastatals and introduce performance-based management.
His
remarks come after Finance minister Tendai Biti last month projected the
economy to grow by a modest 5,4%, marking a downward revision from an
initial projection of 7,7%. Biti said the projected growth would be driven
by a rebound in the agricultural sector.
Meanwhile, the ZSE last month
asked Indigenisation minister Saviour
Kasukuwere to push for the
privatisation of troubled parastatals in line
with the empowerment
regulations gazetted earlier this year.
The exchange argued that since
independence in 1980, former parastatals,
Dairy Marketing Board now
ZSE-listed Dairibord and Cotton Marketing (now
Cotco but trading on the
exchange as Aicco) successfully turned around
business fortunes after
government weaned off the companies.
The ZSE is targeting parastatals that
include power utility Zesa, the Grain
Marketing Board, National Railways of
Zimbabwe, unreliable public
transporter Zupco, national carrier Air
Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Iron and Steel
Company, Minerals Marketing Corporation of
Zimbabwe and telecommunications
companies NetOne and TelOne.
Government
has already categorised public entities into three broad
categories –– those
to be commercialised, those to be privatised and those
to be restructured
although it remains tight-lipped on which enterprises
would be
affected.
Moyo however said his ministry would ensure “the end of ad hoc
approaches to
policies resulting in contradictions and counter production”
to the
lethargic privatisation process.
Bernard Mpofu
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010 16:45
SOME cabinet
members are living in a block of flats in the Avenues area in
Harare due to
shortages of official accommodation, amid reports that former
ministers and
senior government officials were refusing to vacate state
houses.
Housing
and Social Amenities minister Giles Mutsekwa has since threatened to
evict
the ex-ministers in the next two weeks.
The Zimbabwe Independent established
that several cabinet members, among
them, Minister of State Enterprises and
Parastatals Gorden Moyo, Minister of
Water Resources Samuel Sipepa Nkomo and
Minister of Public Works Joel
Gabbuza were living in a block of flats in the
Avenues.
The Avenues, an area with little security, is Zimbabwe's centre for
red
light vices such as prostitution and drugs.
Mutsekwa last week told
the Independent that he was compiling a
comprehensive record of former
government ministers and bureaucrats still
occupying state
houses.
According to Mutsekwa, ministers were entitled to an official
residence
secured by the Police Protection Unit (PPU), an official Mercedes
Benz and
personal aides as part of their employment benefits.
He said
government was paying exorbitant rentals for serving officials who
did not
have official state accommodation.
This, he charged, was because former Zanu
PF cabinet members, widows of top
Zanu PF chefs and connected former top
government officials were reluctant
to move out and pave way for people who
should legitimately occupy the
houses, he said.
"I will evict former
government ministers who are living in state
properties. When I evict the
ministers, some former government officials
will also be thrown out by
officers from my ministry," said Mutsekwa, who
himself does not have an
official residence despite his ministry being in
charge of the
properties.
Mutsekwa said the cash-strapped government was forking out US$1
000 per
month in rentals for each of the ministers without official
accommodation.
"Official residence will cushion the lowly paid civil servants
who include
ministers. When we assumed office, we used to stay in hotels but
that was
highly costly for the government and we sought alternative
accommodation.
"The problem is that those who don't deserve the houses are
occupying the
properties and I am saying no to that," he said. "In fact, we
are supposed
to have vacant houses but the former government workers took
advantage of
lack of records."
Sipepa Nkomo said government should
urgently correct the situation because
areas such as the Avenues posed a
security risk.
"I am squatting in flats in the Avenues," fumed Sipepa Nkomo,
whose
parliamentary constituency is Lobengula in Bulawayo. "I am staying in
the
same block of flats with other ministers.
"It is worrying that we are
struggling to get accommodation while civil
servants, some of whom have left
the country, have given the houses to
relatives and friends."
Moyo said
efforts to get a government house were so far unsuccessful.
"I don't have a
house and I'm staying in a flat which I looked for because
of a shortage of
accommodation although we are told of former ministers and
civil servants
living in state properties," he said.
Almost all MDC ministers are without
official houses, and the Speaker of
Parliament Lovemore Moyo, an MDC
official, is also living in a rented house.
A top MDC-T official said it was
worrying that none of the ministers from
his party were allocated a house
except for Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
who was allocated a house in
Highlands after President Robert Mugabe refused
him access to Zimbabwe
House.
Tsvangirai is still living at his family home in Strathaven because
the
Highlands house is undergoing renovations.
"That's a big scandal and
something should be done to correct the
irregularity," said another
minister, who refused to be named.
Brian Chitemba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010
16:44
THE Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development ministry has
raised
fears that women, who constitute the highest number of participants
in the
constitution-making process, are being intimidated into silence at
outreach
meetings.
Women make up slightly over 41% of participants to the
outreach programmes,
while men contribute 38,7%, with youths making up
19,4%. People with special
needs make up the least number of participants at
0,52%, according to
statistics released by the Parliamentary Select
Committee also known as
Copac.
Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community
Development Deputy Minister Jessie
Majome said despite an encouraging
attendance by women, her ministry feared
that intimidation reduced them to
mere spectators.
“The statistics given by Copac are merely attendance figures
and that means
we cannot gauge the quality of their participation. Women
have a tendency of
not participating in fear of intimidation and would
rather just agree to
what the rest are comfortable with,” she said this
week.
Political issues such as the separation of powers and presidential
powers
and term limits have dominated debate on the constitutional reforms.
This,
according to civil society groups monitoring the process, had reduced
key
social and gender issues to the periphery.
Majome said the tendency
was for men, particularly youths, to threaten women
into silence, including
on issues that specifically related to women’s
affairs.
“During outreach
meetings there are men who have a tendency of discouraging
women, for
example, from opposing a point like ‘we do not want women to wear
trousers’
which instills fear in women resulting in them complying with
whatever is
suggested because they fear they will get into trouble if they
go against
it,” said Majome.
Majome said women’s affairs were a sector that needed
special attention in
the constitutional reforms.
“It is important that
when women attend the constitution-making process they
are free to air out
their views. This is because some areas like civil
rights, children’s rights
and basis of custom and culture need their special
participation,” she
said.
Winfilda Shana
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010
16:33
RURAL poverty is deepening in Zimbabwe, a country endowed with vast
mineral
and other resources. Reports show that more rural people are
vulnerable
today than at Independence, increasing the spectre of instability
as
resources continue to be plundered ahead of
development.
Community-based economies that could provide jobs and improve
the lives of
rural people, where the majority of Zimbabweans live, have
failed.
A case in point is the Communal Areas Management Programme for
Indigenous
Resources (CAMPFIRE) that was launched in 1989 to assist
communities in
managing and benefitting from wildlife resources. Communities
under the
CAMPFIRE project are supposed to benefit from trophy hunting but
in most
instances, local authorities have diverted the funds, taking
advantage of
the low levels of literacy and knowledge of financial
accounting among rural
folk.
In many instances in Zimbabwe, the problem
facing rural communities is
either the lack of will power and capacity to
embark on business or a lack
of locally based resources.
Rural
communities are generally living on less than a dollar a day despite
sitting
on billions of dollars worth of resources, a situation that has
resulted in
armed combat in countries such as Nigeria.
In Zimbabwe, the discovery of
resources has often led to even deeper
suffering for community members while
foreign companies and politically
linked individuals enrich
themselves.
Communities have been displaced as soon as resources are
discovered in their
areas. Years later, as foreign elements make a mint,
local people have
nothing apart from bitter memories to show that they once
lived in resource
rich areas. The Marange issue, where families forcibly
removed from diamond
rich lands are being dumped at a disused farm only
represents the most
recent example of government neglect.
Their situation
is reminiscent of that of the Tonga people who, in the
1950s, were displaced
to make way for the construction of Kariba Dam, which
today generates
electricity for Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Half a century later, many Tonga
community members have no access to
electricity and the lucky ones with an
extra dollar resort to candles and
hazardous paraffin lamps. Most youths,
failing to get a piece of the
lucrative fishing and tourism business
generated by the dam, skip to South
Africa. In the streets of Johannesburg,
they do menial, low paying jobs and
stay in shacks, forever fearing
xenophobic attacks.
In Mutoko, the community wallows in poverty, making a
living from poorly
resourced farming ventures. But daily, trucks traverse
the dusty, poorly
maintained roads transporting black granite for
export.
While Mutoko residents may not have been moved to make way for the
extraction of giant rocks, the same could not be said about the Marange
communities who are cursing the discovery of diamonds in their area.
The
manner in which families are harassed by soldiers guarding the fields,
denied employment by private firms mining there, and for some, relocated to
an abandoned farm, exposes how communities are detached from local resources
in Zimbabwe.
Phillip Pasirayi, the executive director of the Centre for
Community
Development (CCDZ), an organisation working with different
communities
across the country, said it was important for local people to
benefit from
resources.
"We are opposed to the siphoning of resources to
benefit a few politicians
in government," said Pasirayi. "We want these
resources to benefit the local
people who suffer damaged
environments."
Pasirayi's organisation has produced a paper on local
government reforms
advocating for legislation that explicitly allows local
authorities to
benefit from resources found in areas under their
jurisdiction.
Pasirayi said his organisation advocated for companies to
satisfy minimum
standards of corporate social responsibility before being
awarded contracts
to extract resources.
South Africa's state-owned Royal
Bafokeng Resources Holdings which partnered
Impala Platinum to extract the
mineral from that country's Bafokeng
community provides such an example. The
community has a significant stake in
the company and development around the
area is visible.
The situation is different in Zimbabwe, where secrecy
surrounds the value of
natural resources.
It is not clear, for example,
how much diamonds from Marange are worth. The
maiden auction of 900 000
carats last week caused more confusion, as
official figures kept
changing.
Analysts say while Zimbabwe's population is largely peaceful, the
nature of
resource allocation was unsustainable for the country's long-term
stability.
In Nigeria for example, communities mobilise, sometimes
militantly, to
demand a share of natural resources.
The dictatorial Sani
Abacha regime hanged activist and writer Ken Saro Wiwa
in 1995 for speaking
out against the environmental damage caused by Shell
Oil to the Niger Delta.
Wiwa brought international attention to Shell Oil,
which had been extracting
the precious liquid from the country for 37 years
then, allegedly
contaminating the air, water and land used for agricultural
purposes.
There are no Wiwas in Zimbabwe, and communities continue
singing the blues
while the fat cats whistle all the way to the bank.
Analysts, however, warn
this could be unsustainable.
In a paper presented
last year, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, an
independent Swiss
foundation dedicated to helping improve the global
response to armed
conflict, pointed out that failure to properly manage
natural resources was
a potential cause of conflict.
While these issues are especially important in
decentralised nations and are
particularly salient in a federal context,
they can arise in any state
confronted with demands for increased autonomy
over local resources from
individual communities, said the authors of the
report, titled Negotiating
Natural Resources for Peace: Ownership, Control
and Wealth-sharing.
Under these circumstances, the framework for the
treatment of natural
resources can strengthen a nation or cause
conflict.
While chances of serious conflict over resources, along the lines
of what
happens in West Africa, may be remote in Zimbabwe, the authors said
it was
important to include provisions on natural resources in the
constitution.
Some local organisations have seized the debate on
constitutional reforms to
push for provisions that would guarantee the
accrual of benefits to
communities living in resource rich areas.
Shamiso
Mtisi of the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association said there
should be
provisions in the founding principles of the constitution that
guarantee
transparency and accountability when dealing with natural
resources.
The
Bill of Rights should have something that relates to economic rights,
said
Mtisi.
The constitution should also guarantee rights to communities and
access to
justice in situations where their rights have been
violated.
Leonard Makombe
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010
09:33
ACCUSATIONS of political chicanery at the just-ended South African
Development Community (Sadc) summit in Windhoek, Namibia, have surfaced
following the failure of regional leaders to fully discuss Zimbabwe in their
main proceedings and reflect the issue in detail on the
communiqué.
Diplomats and representatives of political parties at the summit
say that
the issue of Zimbabwe was abandoned midstream after it was
initially
discussed comprehensively by the Sadc troika of the organ on
politics,
defence and security at the opening of deliberations on Sunday.
This raised
eyebrows, with claims that President Robert Mugabe had used his
influence,
as he did at the Democratic Republic of Congo last year, to block
the issue
from a full discussion by the summit.
Those who spoke to the
Zimbabwe Independent said the proceedings started
well with the organ on
politics, defence and security meeting focusing in
detail on Zimbabwe before
the issue was "blocked" from a full discussion by
the regional leaders at
the summit.
The Zimbabwe issue was mainly discussed after a briefing to the
Sadc organ
on politics, defence and security by South African President
Jacob Zuma, the
regional body's facilitator on the matter. Zuma's report was
fully adopted
by the organ on politics, defence and security which was
chaired by
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza and the summit which met on
Monday and
Tuesday.
"President Zuma briefed the organ on politics,
defence and security on the
Zimbabwe issue and his report was unanimously
adopted. What was supposed to
happen was that Guebuza should have then
briefed the summit and the leaders
would have discussed the issue. But the
Sadc secretariat blocked the issue
on behalf of Mugabe and as a result it
was not fully discussed as it should
have," one diplomat said.
"There was
chicanery and as usual the Sadc secretariat was used to ensure
that the
Zimbabwe issue was not wholly discussed and proceedings on it not
fully
reflected in the communiqué."
A senior politician from the MDC-T said there
was "mafia" in the Sadc
secretariat which did a "hatchet job" on behalf of
Zanu PF to protect Mugabe
from rigorous engagement by his counterparts at
the summit. "The mafia in
the Sadc secretariat intervened and blocked a full
and proper debate on
Zimbabwe at the summit level. The same mafia
manipulated the communiqué to
downplay the Zimbabwe issue," the MDC-T
official said. "But all the same the
issue received full attention at the
organ on politics, defence and security
and that is what is
important."
MDC-T secretary-general Tendai Biti said his party was
"reasonably happy"
with discussion on Zimbabwe in Windhoek, although all the
proceedings were
not fully captured in the communiqué.
"There has never
been a Sadc so focused on Zimbabwe," he said on Wednesday.
"Most of the
issues on Zimbabwe were raised by the facilitator (Zuma) at the
meeting of
the organ on politics, defence and security although the
communiqué does not
capture everything. The communiqué is just a summary."
Biti emphasised at a
media briefing on Wednesday issues raised in Zuma's
report and its
recommendations which he said were "endorsed and accepted by
the full
summit" rather than the communiqué.
He said it was now "critical for flesh to
be put into the summit decisions"
and highlighted the need to fully
implement agreed issues in the Global
Political Agreement, strengthen the
Joint Monitoring and Implementation
Committee, various reforms including on
the economy, electoral framework and
media, and the National Security
Council.
However, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara had a different view
from
Biti on the outcome of the Sadc meeting. He said the most important
resolutions of the Sadc summit were only those "captured in the communiqué",
not "opinions" of political parties after the meeting.
"If you want to
know Sadc's position on Zimbabwe and the most important
issues it discussed
at the summit just read the communiqué," he said.
"Everything else is just
people's views and opinions."
Prior to the meeting there was a battle between
Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai to influence events at the Sadc
summit. Mugabe wanted the
issue to down-played and it appears in a way he
succeeded. Tsvangirai
managed to force a full discussion at the organ on
politics, defence and
security, although the communiqué did not capture
that.
Mugabe appears to have done his work before the summit, judging by his
spokesman George Charamba's remarks. Charamba was categoric that Zimbabwe
would not be a big issue at the summit.
"It (Zimbabwe) will not be an
issue at the summit," he said days before the
summit. "What will happen is
that the facilitator (Zuma) will give an update
to the troika (peace and
security) which will brief the summit as a point of
information and not of
discussion."
Charamba seemed convinced Zimbabwe would be raised "as a point
of
information and not discussion" and that seems to have been the case
although there was vigorous debate at the organ on politics, defence and
security. Mugabe is happy with the outcome of the summit as a result.
The
meeting of the organ on politics, defence and security started with Zuma
presenting his report in which he chronicled events from up to the time when
the principals agreed on 24 of the 27 outstanding issues. He gave the matrix
of implementation agreed upon by the principals.
Mugabe then thanked
former South African president Thabo Mbeki, Zuma and the
organ on politics,
defence and security. He said three quarters of what Zuma
said confirmed the
narration of events. Mugabe did not initially agree with
Zuma on parts of
his report on the "road ahead" although he later concurred.
Tsvangirai raised
issues about the need for permanent representatives in
Zimbabwe of Sadc and
the African Union as guarantors of the GPA. He
recommended that Sadc second
a person to Jomic which he said should now be a
statutory body. The premier
said he agreed with the recommendations made by
Zuma.
Mutambara told the
organ on politics, defence and security that the meeting
should not be
bogged down on a debate about elections but should instead
focus on GPA
implementation. Mutambara, with the concurrence of Mugabe, said
there should
not be external interference in Jomic. He recommended that
Jomic reports to
the principals on the work they are doing. The meeting
lasted less than an
hour.
The row over the Sadc summit proceedings and communiqué is likely to
raise a
storm at the secretariat in the next few weeks as parties and their
leaders
begin to stock and act on what they consider to be "damaging
political
shenanigans" that characterised the summit.
Efforts to get
comment from Sadc executive secretary Tomaz Salomao on the
issue failed this
week.
Dumisani Muleya/Faith Zaba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010 09:30
THE Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe board has ordered the central bank to cut —
with or without
packages — three quarters of its staff to match its scaled
down operations
and avoid a ballooning retrenchment bill.
An International Monetary Fund
(IMF) team which was in the country made
similar recommendations when it met
RBZ officials on Tuesday, according to
central bank sources.
The IMF team
visited the RBZ on Tuesday and was locked in marathon meetings
from morning
until 8pm to push for critical reforms.
The sources said the IMF team further
recommended an audit of the RBZ
structures following allegations that there
are “ghost workers” milking the
bank’s dry coffers.
According to the
sources, the board wants to retrench 1 500 workers,
retaining over 500 who
will work on the RBZ’s now lean duties.
“There is a concern that if the bank
keeps the workers for a longer period,
the package will be ballooning, so
they have to go,” said a central bank
insider, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
RBZ officials told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that central
bank
board members met the RBZ governor and board chairman Gideon Gono and
management in July where they agreed to take the drastic measure. The RBZ
bloated its staff during Zimbabwe’s crisis when the bank took over the
financing of virtually all of Zimbabwe’s sectors, including parastatals and
local councils.
Finance minister Tendai Biti, appointed to the portfolio
in February last
year, stopped the bank’s involvement in quasi-fiscal
activities that had
turned into a gravy train for politically connected
individuals.
He appointed a new RBZ board in May this year to transform the
central bank’s
operations and deal with a plethora of major challenges,
including devising
methods to clear a staggering US$1,2 billion
debt.
Some of the new board members are deputy chairman Charles Kuwaza,
finance
ministry permanent secretary Willard Manungo, retired judge George
Smith,
lawyer Modercai Mahlangu, labour expert Godfrey Kanyenze and leading
academic Professor Primrose Kurasha.
Sources at RBZ said retrenchment had
been delayed by lack of money to pay
packages for affected workers, the
majority of who were hired by Gono when
he assumed office in 2003.
“A
clean-up is looming at the RBZ following a board meeting in July that
resolved to lay off workers because they can’t even pay salaries. The RBZ
board said 2 000 employees should lose their jobs in the near future; It’s
not yet clear when the workers would be retrenched but it’s soon,” said an
RBZ official.
Brian Chitemba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010 09:25
THE
financial scandal rocking state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation (ZMDC) has deepened amid further revelations that the company's
suspended top managers, including CEO and general manager Dominic Mubayiwa,
invested millions of dollars in the money market while the corporation's
mines were being closed.
A confidential ZMDC report in possession
of the Zimbabwe Independent show
that Mubayiwa and his suspended colleagues
are being investigated for
investing at least US$9 million in the money
market while they let
ZMDC-owned mines shut down due to lack of
capital.
As reported in the Independent last week, ZMDC is also is
investigating the
suspended Mubayiwa and three other company executives over
the alleged
siphoning and shady usage of US$40 million in gold and diamond
proceeds.
"Each time they were asked about the US$12 million taken
from gold proceeds
to open a diamond mine, the US$30 million raised from
diamond sales between
October 2008 and April 2010 and the US$9 million
invested in the money
market while mines closed down, they just raised dust
and failed to provide
clear answers," a senior ZMDC official told the
Independent. "They didn't
provide clear explanations, they just raised bull
dust."
Documents show that Mubayiwa and his colleagues invested
millions of dollars
in fixed return securities in banks and asset management
companies. The
records show that between March and April, Mubayiwa and his
team poured
money into Premier Bank, Kingdom Bank, BancABC, Interfin,
Fidelity Asset
Management and Premier Asset Management.
"Proceeds
from diamond sales were invested with financial institutions
instead of
being utilised to capacitate the gold mines," the report says.
"The primary
function of the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation is to
invest in the
mining industry in Zimbabwe on behalf of the State and not to
invest on the
money market. Part III, Section 20 of the ZMDC Act clearly
articulates the
primary function of the corporation," the official said. \
The report,
titled ZMDC - Forced leave: The General Manager Mr Dominic
Mubayiwa and
Three Others to Facilitate Investigations into Allegations of
Misconduct,
says "thorough investigations into the utilisation of the
corporation's
funds are now being carried".
According to the ZMDC report, the
investments in the money market included:
* US$403 176.44 at Fidelity
Asset Management invested on 22/03/10 which
had a maturity date of
16/08/10)
* US$1 064 577.36 at Premier Asset Management put at
15/04/10, maturity
date 30/07/10
* US$1 064 577.36 at Premier
Bank 16/04/10, maturity date 29/07/10
* US$742 000 at Kingdom Bank
invested 22/03/10, maturity date 29/07/10
* US$1 800 00 at BancABC
deposited on 20/04/10, maturity date 29/07/10
* US$2 000 000 Fidelity
Asset Management put on 28/04/10, maturity date
18/10/10 and,
*
US$2 055 000 at Interfin on 27/04/10, maturity date 28/12/10
Repeated
efforts to contact Mubayiwa this week over the issue were
unsuccessful.
However, sources said while it was not clear why
the ZMDC management chose
to invest in the money market while mines were
closing down, usually heads
of state enterprises do that to get the returns
from such investments. Mines
were also allowed to shut down so that they
could later be sold for a song,
the sources said.
While the
suspended ZMDC officials invested funds in the money market, mines
were
shutting down. Sandawana mine has virtually closed due to lack of
working
capital.
"The management chose to invest on the money market instead
of capacitating
the corporation's mines," the report says. "Kamativi mine
has proven huge
tantalite and lithium deposits in its dumps. About US$3
million is required
to exploit these deposits. Income generated from selling
the minerals will
then be used to fully operationalise Kamativi. However,
management chose to
invest in a bank instead of investing in the
mines."
ZMDC under Mubayiwa also failed to pay government serious
dividends although
it had money in the fixed return
securities.
"The first ever dividend of US$1 million was in March
2010 and US$3 million
dividend paid on July 26 2010 was only made after the
board insisted to
management that one of ZMDC's responsibilities was to
generate revenue for
the fiscus," the report notes.
Dumisani
Muleya
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010 09:20
A ROW is brewing
within the inclusive government over the timing of the next
elections and
the level of Sadc's involvement in any such polls as regional
leaders
increasingly view fresh free and fair polls as the way out of
Zimbabwe's
decade-long political stalemate.
President Robert Mugabe has made it
clear that he wants early elections with
or without a new constitution.
Mugabe's position, which he reflected at this
week's Sadc summit in Namibia,
is that elections should immediately follow
the referendum of the draft new
constitution whose crafting is underway.
The process is expected to be
completed in the first quarter of next year.
The Global
Political Agreement provides a framework for constitutional
reforms that
should lay the basis for future credible elections and
political
stability.
Mugabe wants the coalition government to stick to the GPA
roadmap, instead
of adopting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's proposal for
Sadc to come up
with a guideline and framework for the next elections.
Mugabe is resisting
Sadc's deep involvement in the
elections.
Tsvangirai wants elections, but believes Sadc, guarantors
of the GPA, should
to play a central monitoring role. The prime minister
told diplomats and
civil society in separate meetings yesterday that Sadc
should be involved in
Zimbabwe's elections.
The issue of elections which
was raised at the Sadc summit left the parties
and their leaders
divided.
While Mugabe wants the elections under the prevailing conditions -
without
many changes to the status quo and without Sadc's strong involvement
-
Tsvangirai wants the elections after the referendum, provided that the
conditions for free and fair elections would have been
created.
Tsvangirai's party, MDC-T views the issue of elections which
was raised in
South African President Jacob Zuma's report as one of the key
outcomes of
the Sadc summit. Zuma is Sadc's facilitator in
Zimbabwe.
Zuma's report, on its section of the Road Ahead, flagged
the issue of
elections. It said the agreement on outstanding issues and
their
implementation would "lay the basis for the conviction to grow that
Zimbabwe
can reach her goal of holding free and fair elections whose results
would be
acceptable to all".
"The critical issue is to ensure a
sustained focus on developments in
Zimbabwe towards elections; the
monitoring of the situation and timely
interventions to deal with problems
as and when they arise," Zuma said.
"Leading to the elections, the inclusive
government should be united in its
effort to ensure everything is in place
for the elections. The
constitution-making exercise, as well as the
referendum on that
constitution, should be a joint task of all parties in
the inclusive
government."
Zuma said the inclusive government
should find "an uninterrupted path
towards free and fair elections and the
removal of impediments as and when
they arise". He also said the troika of
the organ on politics, defence and
security should persuade Sadc to "draw up
guidelines for free and fair
elections where intimidation and violence would
not play any part and where
the result of such elections would be
credible".
MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti emphasised Zuma's report
during a press
briefing on Wednesday, saying the report was "endorsed and
accepted by the
full summit".
However, Deputy Prime Minister
Arthur Mutambara said the issue of elections
was not an important matter as
far as Sadc was concerned. He said what was
important at the moment was to
fully implement the GPA and create conditions
for free and fair elections,
instead of harping on about elections when the
situation on the ground had
not changed much.
"The Sadc summit was a victory for the people of
Zimbabwe. It was a
statement of acknowledgement of the progress Zimbabweans
are making in
implementing the GPA. All important issues discussed at Sadc
are captured in
the communiqué. Those that are not in the communiqué are not
important at
this stage. The issue of elections is not in the communiqué,"
Mutambara
said.
"Sadc carefully and deliberately crafted that
communiqué. It was not an
accident. The communiqué only contains resolutions
on important issues
discussed at the summit. The issue of elections is not
there because Sadc
did not put any timeframes and dates for dates for
elections.
Whoever says or insinuates there will be elections next year
is basically
peddling lies. Some of these things were discussed by the organ
on politics,
defence and security but they are not reflected in the
communiqué because
they are not important. Sadc agreed that this talk about
elections and the
political tensions created thereof will undermine the
implementation of the
GPA and thus the prospect of free and fair
elections."
Mutambara said political parties should "avoid playing to
the gallery and
trying to score cheap and meaningless" on such a "critical
issue" as
elections.
"Sadc did not decide anything on elections;
the issue was discussed by the
troika but no timeframes were put. Let's not
try to score political points
by creating unmitigated confusion over such a
clear issue. The question in
Zimbabwe is not when should the next elections
be held but what will be the
conditions, the quality and credibility of
those elections. The Sadc
communiqué clearly captures what happened at the
summit. Political parties
can have their opinions but that should not be
confused with the Sadc
position which is clearly stated in the
communiqué."
While the parties fight over what Sadc resolved about
elections in Zimbabwe,
there are also serious problems within the parties
over the polls.
Informed sources told the Zimbabwe Independent that
even though Mugabe and
Tsvangirai want elections, their party officials and
structures were
resisting.
Sources said most senior Zanu PF
officials and MPs were against Mugabe's
position on the need for an early
election because they fear he might lose
again. The sources say even the
Joint Operations Command, which brings
together army, police and
intelligence chiefs, and was instrumental in
Mugabe's disputed re-election,
is not convinced by Mugabe's push for early
elections.
Although
Zuma said Sadc wanted free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, the
decision on
the timing of the polls would be decided government's
principals.
Biti told journalists this week that there was no
timeframe set at the
summit but that an election was a process and there
certain reforms that
needed to put in place before credible, free and fair
elections are held.
"The summit did not define in terms of dates but
in terms of sign posts and
landmarks. First there has to be the
constitution-making process, then the
referendum," he said. "The other sign
posts is to have a fresh voters roll
and we have to do the delimitation -
all these things take a long time and
are small bits that lead to decisive
dates of elections. There is also need
for national
healing."
Mutambara said harping on the issue of elections instead of
creating
conditions for free and fair elections first was
counterproductive.
MDC-M secretary-general Welshman Ncube said
pronouncements on polls was
misplaced because there was no-one at the summit
spoke about elections in
2011. He said elections would only be held after
the full implementation of
the GPA, which would ensure conditions for free
and fair elections.
Realistically, parties agree that it would appear as if
the elections would
be held in 2013 although they do not want to say it in
public.
Faith Zaba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010 16:25
IN July, both the
fiscal and monetary authorities laid down blueprints which
embodied various
policy proposals for the economy and the monetary sector.
At face value, a
country with an estimated unemployment rate of over 80%, a
debt overhang
estimated at over US$6,7 billion, and manufacturing industry
operating well
below full capacity, the pronouncements in those manuals
might be considered
kindergarten solutions to the country’s economic
problems. The case of
Zimbabwe’s economic recovery remains debatable in
public opinion where
several advocates of economic growth and development
have continued to
suggest differing solutions for the economy.
Several economic blueprints such
as Sterp 1 &2, as well as the three year
Macroeconomic Framework, were
introduced after the formation of the
inclusive government in a bid to
resuscitate the ailing economy. But the
success of these roadmaps is being
retarded by lack of funding. However,
notable progress has been made since
the introduction of the multicurrency
system and the signing of the global
political agreement with the country
recording real GDP of 5,7% and
improvement from 9-digit to single digit
inflation (June 2010 year on year
was 5,3%).
For quite some time the country has been internationally isolated
because of
various factors which are part of country risk ratings. Thus, the
next
question would be: Does Zimbabwe’s economic condition defy universally
agreed economic principles? Across the world, each economy has a pivot
industry, for example, agriculture has always been the leading sector for
Zimbabwe before the economic malaise started. From recent budget review
figures, projected growth in the mining sector has overtaken agriculture in
total contribution to GDP.
In 2010, agriculture is expected to grow by
18,8% whilst mining is projected
to grow by 31% in 2010. In the mining
sector the talking point currently is
the discovery of alluvial diamonds in
Chiadzwa with some economic agents
saying that proceeds from exports could
be a major contributor to the
national income, going forward.
The recent
sales which generated $56 million have already raised
expectations in the
country with the most notable one being suggestions by
certain sections of
the civil service for the proceeds to be used to
increase salaries. While it
is within any employee’s right to demand a raise
from the employers, it is
regrettable that rather than prioritising growing
the economy, many are
actually seeking just to boost their current
consumption. Although the
National Treasury has been resolutely declaring
that ‘‘what we gather is
what we eat’’, it will be imperative also to invest
what we gather to enjoy
increased benefit later.
Part of the anticipated revenue streams should be
deliberately channelled
towards the financial sector to enable banks to
spread it to needy sectors
with the overall objective to increase productive
capacity beyond 50%.
Critical areas such as energy also need to be
prioritised in the deployment
of any revenue because it is difficult to grow
the economy without adequate
and stable power supply.
Seesaw in business
confidence, “business as usual mindset”, debt servicing
difficulties, policy
discord and inconsistency in business law enforcement
add to the pool of
factors which have deprived the country of foreign direct
investment ,
liquidity and foreign currency inflows thus corroding the
country’s economic
growth engines. Mining, agriculture, manufacturing and
tourism have their
targeted growth forecasts but high cost of funds and
shortage of capital has
been problems for these sectors since the
introduction of the multicurrency
system.
It is acknowledged that the pendulum had swung too far for Zimbabwe,
but
there are various overlooked simple things which make us continue to
revise
GDP or other economic growth indicators downwards. There is need to
refocus
our own fundamentals which repel foreign direct investment, for
instance,
and the ease of doing business in Zimbabwe. This refocus is a
recovery
prescription for attracting foreign currency inflows in fragile
economies
where low GDP levels reduce reliance on votes of
credit.
Revenue generation enhancements measures which do not cripple
industry and
investment promotion activities are important factors to
achieve sustainable
economic recovery.
As the Finance minister Tendai
Biti rightfully said, “Foreign direct
investment and indeed domestic
investment are essential in expanding the
production base, thereby; creating
headline employment, aggregate demand and
surplus rent which is the basis of
savings and more investment.”
Recently, privatisation has been tabled, with
the intention to
simultaneously boost revenue and improve efficiency in
parastatals.
Privatisation of public utilities is commendable and has some
success
stories but it has to be supported by comprehensive and consistent
privatisation law for it to be a success.
For the year 2010, growth was
originally forecast at 7% but was revised down
to 5,4% by Biti . The budget
review coming with real GDP sweeteners and a
recast of the underlying
fundamentals which propel us to reduce growth
forecasts is important. It
might be an uphill task to achieve the forecast
without such a review given
the already downgrade of 1,6 percentage points.
This would mean that we
scout for another solution to improve foreign
exchange inflows essential for
economic growth. Therefore, the road to
recovery may not require complex
metrics as it is neither bumpy nor slippery
but rather in need of much more
straightforward remedies.
Jealous Chishamba
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010
16:15
TOBACCO farmers keen to make a killing by holding onto their crop
until the
end of the selling season have been caught out as prices have
depreciated by
US52 cents since the beginning of the season.
According to
figures at hand, prices fell as deliveries improved on the
auction
floors.
Farmers had hoped to cash in on stronger prices of the crop owing to
poor
crop supplies but prices have fallen from an average US$3,45 to US$2,93
per
kg. The downward trend on prices began in week five.
Zimbabwe has
earned US$331,1 million from the sale of 113 million kgs of
flue-cured
tobacco in both contract and auction systems since the beginning
of the 2010
tobacco marketing season, figures released by the Tobacco
Industry Marketing
Board (TIMB) this week show.
Tobacco sales nearly doubled the 58 million kgs
valued at US$174,4 million
sold during the same period last year.
Prices
of tobacco have over the past two weeks been relatively lower than
last
year, with the seasonal average at US$2,93 per kg against US$2,98 per
kg
over the same period last year.
Presenting the 2010 mid-term fiscal policy,
Finance minister Tendai Biti
said tobacco sales would contribute
significantly to the revival of the
economy. He projected that 120 million
kgs of tobacco would
have been sold by the end of the selling season.
In a
telephone interview this week, TIMB acting CEO, Meanwhile Gudu, said
his
company was yet to announce a date for the closure of the auction
floors.
"(Tobacco) Deliveries are still arriving; we want to find out how
many
farmers are still on their way before we announce a cut-off date. Once
that
is taken care of, we will then announce a date," said Gudu.
Tobacco
deliveries have considerably increased from an average of around 420
000 kgs
a day in the first two months of the season to an average 1,4
million kgs in
June and July.
According to TIMB, the increase in deliveries has resulted in
the national
output target for this year's crop being revised to 114 million
kgs, from
the initial target of 77 million kgs.
According to TIMB, the
first statistics were drawn from an early crop
assessment where most of the
tobacco crop was affected by the dry spell that
hit most parts of the
country.
A total of 1 350 422 bales have been sold compared to 697 313 during
the
same period last year.
This year, 122 666 bales have so far been
rejected compared to 44 407 last
year.
Government hopes that internally
generated sources of funding such as
tobacco, diamonds and other metals'
sales will play a critical role in
improving market liquidity and
stabilising interest rates.
Paul Nyakazeya
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010 16:37
THERE is
some fiercely contested perspective in Zimbabwe which has resulted
in a
lunatic fringe that argues President Robert Mugabe must not apologise
for
Gukurahundi atrocities until the Ndebeles themselves apologise for King
Mzilikazi's and his son Lobengula's raids in Mashonaland during their reign
prior to 1890.
I am aware that by exploring this issue I am treading on a
minefield as by
Zimbabwean socio-political tradition, the subject is often
emotionally-charged and shrouded in great controversy; hence any attempt to
explore it can be easily misinterpreted or deliberately
distorted.
Nonetheless, my instinct tells me that ignoring such a burning
issue will be
tantamount to scholastic cowardice and burying our heads in
the sand.
Perhaps the time has come for a constructive national debate on
this topic
because we cannot go on like this, that is, if we are to continue
calling
ourselves an independent country. We need to be independent
politically,
economically and intellectually.
I can confidently say that
while most Zimbabweans today feel Mugabe has
presided over a brutal regime
that persecuted MDC leaders and supporters,
not much attention is being paid
to atrocities before 2000, including
Gukurahundi massacres. Political
violence in Zimbabwe did not start in 2000.
It has a long
history.
Minister Sekai Holland claims the culture of violence was brought by
Mzilikazi, but that sort of claim can only come from conflict entrepreneurs
or merchants of lies.
The issue of Zimbabwe's political violence and
atrocities must be understood
in its context, space and time.
There are
those who claim the Gukurahundi massacres were a revenge for
Mzilikazi's and
Lobengula's historical raids in Mashonaland region. By this
logic, it is
claimed Mzilikazi and Lobengula committed atrocities in
Mashonaland hence
Mugabe's retribution mission via the deployment of the
murderous Fifth
Brigade to Matabeleland and Midlands areas where its killing
machine left 20
000 civilians dead.
Of course, Mzilikazi was not the architect of mfecane and
attendant violence
(the time of trouble and mass migration) and the
concomitant territorial
wars. Mfecane was there before Mzlikazi but it was
fuelled by the rise of
Tshaka who triggered mass movements across the
sub-region, from present day
South Africa across Swaziland, Lesotho,
Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi
and Tanzania.
Prior to the arrival
of Mzilikazi in Zimbabwe there were fierce territorial
wars between the
Shona and other tribes and among the Shona themselves. So
Mzilikazi did not
introduce violence but struggled for survival within the
context and
circumstances of the time where the politics of the spear and
assegai ruled
in the absence of constitutional orders and the rule of law,
international
laws and conventions to promote peace and stability.
Which brings me to the
point that the Mzilikazi era which was precipitated
by the rise of Tshaka
and mfecane belongs to the primitive era where there
were no nation-states
and constitutional orders as we know them today. The
period was defined by
the law of the jungle -- survival of the fittest --
and everyone fighting
against everyone while the Gukurahundi era falls under
the modern era
governed by international laws, including four Geneva
Conventions of 1949.
The primitive territorial wars were obviously backward
and they happened
under a completely different situation and different
circumstances.
It
was only after 1945 that the world properly defined codes of conduct for
the
army or any security agents to prevent primitive-style raids and wars.
These
codes were put in place to assure the modern world that lessons have
been
learnt and standards have now been set.
According to Gutman and Rieff (1999),
the codes were intended to be a
firebreak between civilisation and
barbarism. The difference between the
Mzilikazi era and the Mugabe period is
like chalk and cheese in terms of
political order and international law;
they clearly belong to different
epochs of civilisation.
The Nuremberg
tribunals of 1945 set down the principle that there were such
things as
crimes against humanity, systematic crimes against civilians that
can occur
inside a country but that might be tried anywhere else.
After 1945, which
became the fire break between civilisation and barbarism,
the power centres
of the world went further and intertwined the country's
human rights record
with the performance of the economy.
The Genocide Convention of 1948 gave
legal meaning and force to the worst
crime in the lexicon. The 1949 Geneva
Convention codified and advanced the
rules governing wars between states,
differentiating legal conduct from
illegal acts of war.
Together with the
two Additional Protocols of 1977, the Geneva Conventions
are the central
summation of the agreed rules governing the conduct of war.
Perhaps it is
important to know that at the heart of the international
humanitarian law
are grave breaches such as targeting non-combatants or
civilians. These
grave breaches or serious crimes are found in the four
Geneva Conventions of
1949 and the first Additional Protocol of 1977.
The Additional Protocol 1 of
1977 states that the civilian population as
such, as well as individual
civilians, shall not be the object of attack.
Acts of threats of violence,
the primary purpose of which is to spread
terror among the civilian
population, are prohibited."
However, this law turns out to be customary
because even if Zimbabwe has not
ratified it, its provisions are universally
applicable. This probably
explains why President Mugabe cannot retire
despite signs that he is too old
and tired. He knows that these
international provisions can be easily
applied on him.
Most importantly,
the post-1945 world, particularly the international
humanitarian law makes
it illegal for anyone to support a mass-murderer --
doing so one can be
easily branded an accomplice of mass murders.
It has been suggested in a
certain vein of contemporary thought that if
scars of the past are hidden
away there will always come a time when those
scars will suppurate and
become a poison that will engulf all of us even the
future
generations.
As a student of restorative justice versus retributive justice,
I am an
advocate of psychotherapy and symbolical healing which comes in
various
packs such as openly discussing burning issues that continue to
blight our
beloved nation, Zimbabwe.
There is crystal clear evidence that
Zimbabwe today is a deeply-divided
nation among the black community than it
was before independence, hence the
need to come up with mechanisms to
establish a stable country that functions
in compliance with the
international humanitarian law.
I wonder how Mugabe wants to be remembered
long after he is gone. The fact
that the Ndebele/Shona tribal tension has
become intergenerational is
symptomatic failure of our politics and more so
an indictment on our
leaders. It also reveals that our politics has for far
too long thrived on
ethnic grounds, if not catalyse it. To be precise, our
brand of politics has
suppressed public debate on burning issues such as the
one under scrutiny
here.
Those who say Mugabe should not apologise and
redress the Gukurahundi
situation until Ndebeles (who among the Ndebeles)
apologise for Mzilikazi's
and Lobengula's raids are clearly politicising and
tribalising an issue
under which remedies can be found under national and
international law.
I find this argument not just absurd and myopic, not only
because it
encourages tribal hostilities and more massacres in future but
also on
account its lack of grounding in current national laws and
international
conventions.
This irrational argument (which reeks of
ethnocentricism and not an
intellectual discourse at all) suggests that all
Shonas (not Mugabe and his
murderous regime) were responsible for
Gukurahundi. Of course this is
ridiculous. The Shona people did not commit
massacres in Matabeleland, it
was Mugabe and his regime who were certainly
motivated by the pursuit of
political consolidation and hegemony to achieve
their one party and
socialist state agenda. The campaign had ethnic
undertones, no doubt, but to
make it appear as if it was a Shona versus
Ndebele conflict is not just a
dull and awful discourse but clear
bigotry.
For sure, there are serious questions to be asked about the role of
ethnicity in Zimbabwean politics and Gukurahundi. We know for certain that
ethnic politics are alive and well elsewhere in Africa. Most of the
conflicts in Africa today have an ethnic dimension. Ethnicity is usually
harnessed by bigoted and reckless politicians to win political power and
access to state resources. So it is legitimate to ask what has been the role
of ethnicity in African politics?
What has been the role of tribal
politics in Zimbabwe's past civil strife,
including Gukurahundi? What was
the role of ethnicity in Mugabe's rise to
power? These are issues which we
should be able to debate freely without
fear or favour! We also don't have
to reduce an intellectual discourse
around such issues, including
Gukurahundi, to an Us versus Them dichotomy
and mentality.
By refusing or
fearing to confront our past honesty and bravely in the
community and
national interest, are we not just perpetuating the problem?
Are we not
guilty of moral indifferences by ignoring such dangerous signs of
an angry
society? British criminologist Steven Box (1983) has argued that
someone who
is indifferent to causes of harm displays more disdain for
humanity in
general. Those who support Mugabe and his atrocities for
whatever reason are
clearly showing cold disregard for humanity. If the law
doesn't, then
history will judge them harshly.
l Tshuma is a journalist currently wrapping
up his PhD in poverty and social
justice in transitional nations in the
United Kingdom.
By Admore Tshuma
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010 16:36
THE
Herald has once again demonstrated why it cannot be trusted to provide
balanced news and information of national interest.
We were able to get
another insight of the paper's culture of deceit in its
Tuesday issue.
While reporting on Sadc's deliberations in Namibia, the
paper told us that
leaders of the regional bloc had hailed Zimbabwe leaders
for "setting aside
sectarian interests for nation building".
The paper did not tell us that the
Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and
Security had expressed its unhappiness
on the failure by the same leaders to
resolve outstanding issues of the
global political agreement (GPA). The
propaganda broadsheet unashamedly
decided to conceal public information by
ignoring to tell its readers that
the inclusive government was directed to
come up with a roadmap leading to
free and fair polls.
We would have wanted The Herald to tell us that the Sadc
Council of
Ministers was also unhappy with Zimbabwe's refusal to obey
rulings by the
Windhoek-based Sadc Tribunal on land disputes.
The
incoming chairperson of the Sadc Council of Ministers Hage Geingob, who
is
also Namibia's Minister of Trade and Industry, did not have kind words on
Harare's refusal to obey rulings that declared the land reform programme
illegal and racist.
"When the ruling was made from here about the
farmers, people were saying
the Windhoek ruling as if Windhoek owns the Sadc
Tribunal. The court is your
court that is based here," Geingob told
journalists.
"People say Namibians are against Zimbabweans or President
Mugabe, but we
signed the Sadc Treaty, Zimbabwe signed and if you sign,
there are
obligations that come with signing and we will say this to
Zimbabwe, but
diplomatically of course."
Justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa should have heard this. We have heard him
and his colleagues say
the tribunal's rulings are a "day dream" and he
continued singing the same
hymn this week.
Chinamasa and the hardliners went on to declare the country
was no longer
going to be bound by any of its rulings. Are the chickens
coming home to
roost?
Despite Chinamasa's machinations aimed at
misleading Zimbabweans about the
tribunal, we all know the regional court
was formed in 2003 by a Sadc Treaty
signed by regional governments. Its duty
is to provide legal recourse to
issues from aggrieved regional citizens who
would not have received
satisfactory court rulings in their own
countries.
The Sadc Council of Ministers now fully understands why the
European Union
and other Western countries have imposed sanctions and other
punitive
measures on Mugabe and his inner circle. They do not observe the
rule of
law, pure and simple!
Can Chinamasa tell us what was suspended in
Windhoek? Was it the Sadc
Tribunal or deliberations on Zimbabwe snubbing the
tribunal's rulings?
Despite that glaring evidence of Zimbabwe's
inclination to ignore the rule
of law, Sadc will, for the sake of the
suffering masses of Zimbabwe,
continue to make great efforts to have the
sanctions removed.
A United States senator now also wants the punitive
measures removed. Jim
Inhofe, who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee,
has proposed that
Congress come up with the Zimbabwe Sanctions Repeal Act of
2010 that seeks
to lift economic sanctions and travel restrictions against
Mugabe and his
inner circle imposed in 2001.
We hope Mugabe and his Zanu
PF party will complement these efforts by
playing their part, restoring
democracy in Zimbabwe and ensuring people's
liberties are respected. This
includes allowing Zimbabweans to freely
contribute their views during
constitution-making outreach meetings in the
countryside.
Fearful
villagers in Chipinge and Nyanga have devised a whistle strategy to
combat
increasing attacks from Zanu PF thugs and war veterans, as the police
standby, refusing to come to their aid.
"Local people have now devised
this strategy of whistling, so that they
mobilise each other in the event of
an attack. This is because the attacks
are being done by very few people who
do not have the local support. There
is strength in numbers," said Douglas
Mwonzora, the national co-chairperson
of the Constitutional Parliamentary
Committee, on Monday.
"Once a person is attacked or an attack is imminent,
they whistle; those who
hear the whistle also whistle while advancing
towards the location of the
first whistle, so there will be a lot of
whistling. Firstly it puts off the
attacker and confuses the attacker. It
then mobilises people towards the
person being attacked."
It seems
The Herald reporters never miss an opportunity to distort
information in
service of their handlers even when such information is
provided in front of
witnesses. A case in point was the press luncheon given
by the Ambassador of
the Republic of Indonesia Eddy Poerwana last Wednesday.
Responding to a
question from a Newsday journalist on whether he thought the
Western envoys
who walked out of the burial ceremony of Sabina Mugabe were
correct, the
Ambassador said in terms of diplomatic etiquette the envoys
were wrong to
walk out the way they did, but added that so was President
Mugabe for using
a solemn occasion such as a funeral ceremony to make a
political statement
of the nature he made. But, of course, it would have
been expecting too much
of The Herald that they could include the last part
of Ambassador Poerwana's
remarks. The Herald report last Thursday simply
stated that Poerwana had
slammed his Western colleagues for walking out of
the funeral
ceremony.
Why are Swazi authorities persecuting a youth activist for
reading and
making photocopies of an article that was carried by a South
African
newspaper on a raging sex scandal rocking the royal
family?
Authorities in the tiny kingdom are desperate to put a lid on the
scandal in
which a cabinet minister was caught red-handed making love to
Inkhosikati
LaDube, one of the 13 wives of King Mswati III.
The minister,
Ndumiso Mamba, a close ally of King Mswati, has since been
forced to resign
as Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
Sibusiso Mhlanga, a
member of the banned Swaziland Youth Congress (Swayoco),
was arrested in
Manzini as he tried to make copies of the article which
appeared at weekend
in the City Press newspaper. This shows how backward the
royal family is.
Caught in a time-warp, King Mswati's minions think that
they can destroy
evidence of royal indiscretions by intimidating civil
society. They have not
heard of facebook and twitter where the saga was
kicking big time. Mswati is
a victim of his own doing. This is what happens
when you display to the
world hidden secrets of your conquests. There are
others waiting for a
closer look.
Muckracker liked the piece by NewsDay deputy editor Brian
Mangwende
questioning the credentials of some of the rogue war veterans
moving around
threatening villagers in the countryside.
It would be
interesting if Jabulani Sibanda or Joseph Chinotimba would tell
their
liberation war credentials, not the 2000 and 2008 land and
presidential
election run-off jambanjas.
Did anyone read the article which appeared in The
Sunday Mail claiming
Rwandan secret agents had "sneaked" into Zimbabwe
hunting down fugitives of
the 1994 genocide believed to be hiding in
Zimbabwe?
The paper claimed reports from the Rwandan capital, Kigali,
confirmed that
security agents from the tiny central African nation sneaked
into the
country early this year to hunt down two suspects - Charles Bandora
and
Protais Mpiranya - apparently without the knowledge of Zimbabwean
authorities.
The paper did not tell us it plagiarised the story from some
websites. Talk
of professionalism. We hope next time they lift stories from
other
publications the Sunday Mail will give attributions.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010
16:35
AS Zimbabwe strives for economic recovery, a key focus area must be
a
transformation of the manufacturing sector. Innumerable and diverse
measures and actions are a prerequisite for any substantive economic
recovery, including rescission of negative political agenda and policies in
respect of the agricultural, mining, commercial, tourism, financial and
services sectors, as well as many other facets of Zimbabwean law. However,
one of the key areas that require major positive actions and reforms is
manufacturing.
Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector was, and can once again
be, a major
contributor to economic wellbeing. At one time, Zimbabwe had the
second
largest and developed industrial infrastructure in all of Southern
Africa.
It was Zimbabwe’s second largest employer of labour after
agriculture,
generated considerable foreign exchange through substantial
exports to all
countries in the region and further afield, had a major
beneficial impact
upon the downstream economy, and was a significant
contributor to the
fiscus. Tragically, that is no longer the case. The
sector has contracted
markedly, with great reductions in numbers employed,
and massive decreases
in volumes of production. Many in the industry have
wholly discontinued
operations, and most of those still in operation have no
alternative but to
downsize to a major extent in a desperate struggle to
survive.
Radical, dynamic and innovative actions are necessary if the
manufacturing
sector is to be set on a path to recovery and growth. To some
extent, those
actions must be pursued by the sector itself, aided therein by
other
economic sectors, but the overriding need is for government to pursue,
urgently and vigorously, measures that are facilitative of that recovery.
Although not exhaustively so, among the key issues that need to be addressed
are:
Appalling low levels of productivity. The intense decline in
volumes in
recent years is due to numerous factors, but one of the main
reasons is the
exceptionally low morale of most workers. With their incomes
generally
being far below the Poverty Datum Line, most workers are not
focused upon
achieving necessary volumes of production, but instead are
continuously
thinking about their financial stresses. However, in so doing
they
exacerbate those stresses, for the lower the levels of production the
lesser
is the ability of employers to enhance wages, and the greater the
risks of
business closure and consequential loss of employment. Employers
and
workers need to pursue productivity growth and, as an aid to that
objective,
there is a need for intensified recourse to performance-related
worker
remuneration.
Compounding the poor levels of productivity is the
ongoing erratic supply of
energy to industry. On the one hand, the Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply
Authority (Zesa) needs to prioritise energy supplies to
economic sectors,
albeit to the prejudice of residential areas and, on the
other hand, Zesa
must ensure adherence to its published load-shedding
schedules, save in
unavoidable instances of infrastructural breakdowns,
thereby enabling
industry to coordinate production schedules with energy
availability.
A key requirement for the revitalisation of the manufacturing
sector is
access to working capital. Almost without exception, all
industrial
enterprises are grievously under-capitalised. The extreme
hyperinflation
that prevailed in 2008 seriously stripped the majority of
manufacturers of
working capital resources. Such diminished resources that
remained were
then almost wiped out by the demonetisation of the Zimbabwean
currency in
February 2009. If industries thereafter had any residual
working capital,
that capital was decimated by the operational losses of
2009 and 2010. Due
to the lack of capital, most manufacturers are unable to
fund a continuing,
timeous availability of manufacturing inputs, thereby
further hindering
attainment of survival levels of productivity.
In
normal economic environments, working capital inadequacies are addressed
by
recourse to money markets, or by accessing new capital investment. This
has
hardly been possible in recent times in Zimbabwe. The money market has
an
exceptionally limited availability of funds, in part due to the
reluctance
of many to utilise the banking system for fear of non-access to
their funds
when required, and to a large degree due to the paucity of
international
lines of credit. The miniscule availability of credit is
primarily due to a
sense of lender insecurity because of Zimbabwe’s unstable
political and
economic environment, and due to recurrent confrontational
statements by the
political hierarchy. For like reasons, there is a
pronounced scarcity of
investment funds, and such limited funds as are
available are possessed by
bargain-hunters seeking investment acquisitions
against payments far below
fair value.
Yet another constraint afflicting the manufacturing sector is
the
difficulty in being price competitive in export markets, further
impinging
upon attaining viable productivity levels. High utility charges,
at levels
many times greater than prevailing elsewhere in the region, higher
wages
than apply in the countries competing with Zimbabwean exports, steep
finance charges on the limited availability of funding, and low levels of
productivity preclude most manufacturers from being able to price
competitively in export markets. Moreover, they have to compete against
recipients of considerable export incentives and subsidies, such as those
accorded by China to its manufacturers, whilst Zimbabwe fails to provide its
manufacturers with any incentives or subsidies.
Not only does Zimbabwean
industry face major constraints in achieving high
volumes and fair value,
but concurrently it faces great competition in its
domestic market, that
competition emanating from imported products. Those
imported products are
massively price competitive, partially due to the
export incentives and
subsidies accorded them by their countries, but also
due to many of them
escaping the import duty net. Innumerable products
manufactured in the Far
East enter Zimbabwe with falsified documentation and
packaging imputing that
the origin is actually Sadc or Comesa, and therefore
not subject to
importation imposts. Others enter through unlawful channels,
thereby
escaping the imposition of duties. Whilst Zimbabwean industry must
be
prepared to confront import competition, this should be on a level
playing
field where the key criteria should be quality, price and delivery
reliability.
A critical need for the recovery of the manufacturing
sector is the
refurbishment, modernisation and upgrading of plant, machinery
and
equipment, but capital inadequacy presently precludes this need being
effectively addressed. Concurrently, the sector desperately needs to obtain
skills to replace the thousands lost through the “brain drain” of the last
decade.
The manufacturing sector can be a key contributor to the
wellbeing of the
Zimbabwean economy, as it was in the past, but much reform
is needed, driven
by government creating an enabling
environment.
By Eric Bloch
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010 16:32
TOURISM
was initially intended to be a major source of revenue for Zimbabwe
during
the World Cup, but negative press took its toll on the country's
ability to
draw tourists. Those who chose to travel around Africa before or
after the
Cup seemed to develop the uncanny ability to avoid Zimbabwe by
going through
Mozambique and Tanzania, or Botswana and Zambia. It was
initially estimated
that 30% of these travellers would pass through
Zimbabwe; obviously this
wasn't the case.
As one of the few tourists who ventured to Zimbabwe during
this time, I was
disappointed to see the tourist spots and markets so quiet.
I experienced a
warm, welcoming side of Zimbabwe, one which is unexpected
considering the
impression imparted by negative coverage in the West. I
couldn't help but
wonder where all the other tourists were and, in my
opinion, they were
missing out. But then, having pleasant people and unique
tourist attractions
doesn't necessarily make a country attractive to
travellers.
For a tourist, the place which most vividly illustrates the
differences
between Zimbabwe and other Southern African nations is Victoria
Falls.
Comparing the two sides of the Zambezi River is a stark reminder of
the
losses suffered by Zimbabwe's tourism industry and its potential to rise
again. The Victoria Falls Hotel, overlooking the Zambezi, is testament to
the heritage of Zimbabwean hospitality and tourism. It's a good example of
what Zimbabwe lost and what it could someday gain back. Travellers to Africa
used to flock to the Zimbabwe side to take advantage of what most people say
is the best view of the falls. Now the town of Victoria Falls, on the
Zimbabwe side, is run down and seemingly deserted. People sell 100
trillion-dollar bills as souvenirs to the odd tourist who comes
through.
And where Zimbabwe once flourished, now Zambia is the main
beneficiary of
the tourism generated by the world famous water fall. The
town of
Livingstone is prosperous and receives a healthy trade from the
travellers
who crowd the backpackers and hotels.
But why do so many
tourists shun Zimbabwe, preferring instead to travel to
other countries
which seemingly offer more to tourists?
In 1999, Zimbabwe hosted 1,4 million
tourists, earning US$250 million in
revenue. By 2005, the figure had dropped
to only US$40 million in tourism
revenue. During these first years of
Zimbabwe's decline, potential
travellers, who would once have considered
Zimbabwe as a travel destination,
were now fearful of the violence they saw
on their TVs and newspapers. The
land reform programme and pre-election
violence was widely publicised and
the coverage did long-term damage to the
Zimbabwean economy in terms of
tourism and investment. Political instability
seems to be the major factor
in Zimbabwe's lack of credibility as a tourist
nation and senior figures in
the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority have long
claimed that the key to prosperity
in the industry is a climate of political
stability.
Since the formation of the unity government there have been signs
that a
perceived increase in political stability has encouraged tourists. A
modest
rise in the revenue gained from tourism came soon after the new
government
took power.
While it is likely there was a perception that the
unity government was a
more stable form of leadership for Zimbabwe and
therefore the country itself
was a safer bet for travel, it could also be
the case that the West's
distaste for Robert Mugabe is a contributing
factor. The image of Mugabe and
Zanu PF was diluted upon the formation of
the coalition between the two
parties and accordingly and Zimbabwe became
more palatable to the Western
traveller.
While political instability and
negative coverage in the West have been a
good enough reason for many
Western travellers to stay away, there are now
more practical and simple
reasons for tourists to avoid Zimbabwe. Power cuts
are a chronic short
coming in rural areas and even the cities.
During my time in Harare power
cuts occurred on an almost daily basis. I
witnessed desperate residents
digging trenches and laying new cables
themselves rather than waiting for
someone who may or may not fix the
problem. This ingenuity is impressive to
any outsider, but the fact that
Zimbabwe's government puts its public in a
position where they have to use
their ingenuity in order to survive is
not.
Wild animals, once so abundant in Zimbabwe, have now become scarce.
Driving
from South Africa the difference is obvious when the Limpopo is
crossed. On
the South African side the wildlife can often be seen at the
road side but
once the border is crossed scarcely an animal is seen. The
fact that they
have been snared by villagers to feed their families is once
again down to
mismanagement at government level and it's precisely this sort
of tragic
situation which turns travellers away.
Yet the potential is
there. The eastern highlands, Great Zimbabwe, Lake
Kariba, Victoria Falls
and Hwange National Park all wait for the changes
which will see them
bustling with tourists once again. The hunting and
fishing industries still
draw large numbers of wealthy tourists and,
increasingly, Zimbabwe is being
seen as a desirable safari destination.
Since the formation of the unity
government, articles and advertisements for
Zimbabwe have begun to pop up in
travel magazines. They show mainly safari
trips, cruises down the Zambezi, a
week in a lodge living with African
wildlife. It's not exactly the real
Zimbabwe and you could be forgiven for
seeing a certain amount of self
interest in the promotion of tourism in a
country with such a government
record of human rights violations and
corruption. Those who travel here will
seldom see the extent of the poverty
faced by the population or the violence
used by Mugabe to consolidate his
rule. But the message that tourists should
consider Zimbabwe as a travel
destination is not intended only for safari
companies to line their pockets,
but for the population of Zimbabwe to find
its feet.
By the time the tourism industry is at the height it once was,
Zimbabwe will
be well on the way to a full recovery. Tourism itself cannot
save Zimbabwe
but it can at least be part of a process which leads to the
eventual
recovery of the country. For this recovery to take place certain
changes
need to come about. The image of Mugabe and Zanu PF is such in the
Western
world that for Zimbabwe to appeal to tourists, as it has done in the
past,
Mugabe must not be at the helm. In basic terms he is the major
deterrent to
tourists.
During my time travelling through Zimbabwe the
questions I was most often
asked when I told someone I was from New Zealand
was "why would you want to
come here"? It's a hard question to answer but
the truth is Zimbabwe has
something special about it which I can't put my
finger on. The people are
particularly warm and cheerful, the streets are
safe compared to the likes
of South Africa.
I hope for the sake of
Zimbabwe that next year's possible elections are free
and fair and tourists
are once again attracted to the beauty of the people
and the land in great
numbers.
Sam Gregory is a foreign journalist who recently visited
Zimbabwe.
By Sam Gregory
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010 16:31
THERE are
too many rumours circulating about where and when diamonds were
discovered
in Chiadzwa and by whom. The responsible minister was quoted in
some media
reports as having said the diamonds were “discovered” by
villagers.
The
Herald columnist, Nathaniel Manheru, fuelled speculation two weeks ago
by
suggesting that the then ruling party, Zanu PF, was at fault for not
having
known all along that Chiadzwa was diamond rich. And in other rumours
the
name De Beers has been thrown into the fray. The accusation being that
perhaps De Beers knew all along of the diamond deposits and did not want to
disclose them until a time suitable to themselves.
And then again there
is also speculation that even the colonial state knew
of these diamonds in
the 1970s but did not want a majority government to
know about it.
The
list of various conspiracy theories may go on. The point however is
that
they must now be investigated, and not only for diamonds.
The Zimbabwe
National Anthem, for those who might not know all of its
lyrics, extols our
soil and the minerals under it. Various presidential
addresses to
parliament have also lauded the fact that we have minerals of
various
shades. The only problem is that no one has bothered to fully
assess what
is where, and in what quantities. Even if they have, there must
be an
explanation as to why it is secret to the public and /or to some
quarters of
government. This is because since Independence the government of
the day has
tended to be in the thrall of the big mining companies that they
allowed to
prospect, give a verdict, and in most instances depart without
full
disclosure. The diamond saga is only the latest known incident of this
nature.
According to statements reported in the media citing government
sources,
there was some prospection at Chiadzwa, perhaps by De beers or
Anglo
American. Whichever company it was, it left without full disclosure or
perhaps it genuinely made a mistake and did not find any evidence of
alluvial diamonds. The government of the day accepted its verdict until, as
Mines minister Obert Mpofu says, villagers “accidentally” discovered
diamonds. Why the government is not even embarrassed by this baffles the
mind. And it leads one to question what do we really know, through our
government, about the minerals dotted elsewhere in the country?
For
example, does Bikita Minerals only mine lithium or are there other
minerals
that occur with it? Alternatively does the Hartley Platinum Mine in
Selous
and Ngezi only get platinum or are there other minerals that are
being taken
from there as well? And what is the geological spread of these
minerals? In
other countries they talk of diamond belts, of which I am
pretty sure we
might have one in our country, but the debate has not even
begun to touch on
this issue. What we have is a newly emergent political
culture of “we eat
what we gather” which does not always seek a broad
understanding of
realistic and structural issues concerning the mineral
wealth of the
country. It instead emphasises “hand to mouth” politics
without thinking of
the long term. Because diamonds are high value
minerals, the government
seems to have forgotten that it has other minerals
that need to be put to
use for the public good. These are still silently
being mined without
anyone raising a furore. Even where the Finance
ministry has been seeking
to increase the taxation of mines and minerals,
its argument is not so much
the usage of this revenue. Instead it is
seeking to acquire the revenue and
determine usage later, a proposition
which is more technical than it is
political.
The inclusive government must change its approach to mines and
minerals in
Zimbabwe. Firstly it must outline clearly the purpose of the
revenue
acquired from not only diamond sales but all valuable
minerals.
To give vague statements such as “for the benefit of all” is
inadequate.
If, for example, they mean that in the next two years minerals
should
establish a functional public health system, they must put it in
black and
white. And this should be done through the public endorsement of
a Zimbabwe
Mining Charter that outlines the fundamental uses of all acquired
mineral
wealth.
Secondly the inclusive government, parliament and civil
society must
immediately set up an independent commission of enquiry into
the mineral
wealth of this country. Such a body would then assess the
geological
surveys at hand, measure their weaknesses, look at the history of
the mining
concessions and prospection done since Independence and establish
a
framework for present and future mining/mineral prospection and
ownership.
This framework would take into account the fact that previously
government
has failed to prospect its own land and does not have adequate
information
on the country’s resources. Thirdly, this independent commission
must review
the nature in which citizens lose their land to mines and mining
companies
after the discovery of a mineral.
Takura can be contacted
on kuurayiwa@gmail.com This e-mail
address is being
protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to
view it .
By Takura Zhangazha
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010
16:42
THE certification and subsequent sale of diamonds last week came as
relief
to most Zimbabweans after years of wishing for divine intervention in
the
resolution of the country's economic meltdown.
Prior to the
certification of the diamonds, government and industry
officials had thrown
around jaw-dropping figures that would have accounted
for the national
budget. The average Zimbabwean reckoned this would bode
well for
government's cash budgeting system, especially in a situation where
the cash
would be at hand.
However, no sooner had the nation been informed that the
first diamond sale
had generated US$72 million than the Minister of Finance,
Tendai Biti,
slashed the figure to US$42 million. Mines minister, Obert
Mpofu, later
revised the figure to $56m. Of the amount, the fiscus was
expecting a measly
US$15 million, meaning that government would need a
hundred times more than
the carats that were sold to finance the budget from
diamonds. Minister Biti
said the paltry figure due to the exchequer was
because the miners had
invested in machinery and associated production
costs. He did not explain
how the figures relating to the costs were arrived
at, what machinery had
been invested in (at what cost) and whether this
expenditure would diminish
with time.
Further, the nation deserves to
know the timeframe within which the money
that is due to government is paid.
It is common knowledge that government is
entitled to royalties and
"dividends" from the Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation (ZMDC) but the
time-frame within which these are
deposited into the exchequer remains
anybody's guess.
According to information at hand, government is supposed to
get 10% as
royalties and 25% corporate tax on profits while the remainder
will be
shared by the state-run
ZMDC and South African
companies,
Mbada and Canadile, with ZMDC paying dividends to government.
And, going by
the standard practice among parastatals, the dividends might
never come,
thanks to the incompetent managers presiding over most of
them.
Examples of parastatals that should be cash-cows for government abound.
Apparently, the managers have been allowed to entrench a culture of failure
to the extent that competence has become the exception. It is therefore
imperative that government officials realise that this is not business as
usual; Zimbabweans take the diamonds issue seriously. Politicians who do not
realise this will reap rewards, come election time.
It is also incumbent
upon the government to build trust in the owners of the
diamonds -
Zimbabweans - who have very high expectations from the glittering
stones.
Already, civil servants have expressed their desire to be awarded
pay
increases based on diamond revenue and the man in the street expects
some
form of benefit, such as reduced income tax or value added tax that
would
leave them with more disposable income. Although it is comforting to
know
that parliament, through the chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on Mines and Energy, Edward Chindori Chininga, has emphasised the
need for transparency and closing pilfering holes, mere rhetoric is not
enough. The rhetoric becomes even less convincing when the pilferage
involves as much as US$30 million disappearing with no trace. It is
surprising that up to now, government, with its glut of bureaucrats, is yet
to announce a formula for diamond income.
According to Chininga, Biti and
his Mines ministry counterpart, Mpofu, are
still agonising over the
"structures of how the transactions should be
worked out." There is also
need for government to state which companies are
doing what on the diamond
fields. The secrecy surrounding the exploitation
of the national resource
gives the impression that it is only the privileged
few who should know what
is happening. This creates room for the kind of
corruption that has
characterised diamond mining.
Edwin Dube
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010
16:41
THE Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation met in
Windhoek, Namibia, on Sunday to deliberate on the Zimbabwe political crisis
and recommended that the only way out of this calamity is free and fair
elections.
The troika's resolution was reached after facilitator,
South Africa
President Jacob Zuma, tabled a sagacious report on the state of
political
affairs in Zimbabwe under the shaky inclusive government.
Zuma
made three recommendations that were, without alteration, adopted by
the
organ - the parties in the unity government should resolve outstanding
issues of the global political agreement (GPA) within one month as part of a
confidence-building measure; "should find an uninterrupted path towards free
and fair elections and the removal of impediments as and when they arise"
and that the troika "should persuade Sadc to help Zimbabwe to draw up
guidelines for a free and fair election, where intimidation and violence
would not play any part and where the result of such elections would be
credible".
No timeframe for the proposed elections was set, although over
the past
month there has been a crescendo call for the polls to be held next
year
from the two main protagonists of the country's body politic - the
MDC-T and
Zanu PF.
While there is no doubt that the election trajectory
would be the panacea to
our political quagmire, the challenge is whether our
leaders have the
capacity to create the conducive environment for violent
and
intimidation-free elections given that they have close to two years
failed
to adhere to the GPA they cobbled out of their own volition.
Do
our leaders have the will to abandon the tussle for the political turf
for
the sake of the nation when they are still in the trenches fighting for
positions of political influence, such as that of provincial governors, the
Attorney-General and the central bank governor, just to mention a few?
It
is naive to suggest that if Sadc draws up election guidelines, the polls
would be free and fair. It is also naive, a suggestion from the MDC-T, to
say that Sadc should come up with a commission to be stationed in Zimbabwe
six month before and after polls to ensure security of citizens.
History
is on my side. Zimbabwe's first democratic elections in 1980 were
held under
international supervision and monitoring, but they were the most
tense ever
in this country. President Robert Mugabe escaped several
assassination
attempts in the countdown to the poll and his Zanu PF party,
according to
Lord Soames, won mainly because of violence.
Though Lord Soames had wished to
see "the freest, fairest elections possible
in this country", he lamented
that "intimidation is rife, violence is rife".
Lord Soames was transitional
governor of Rhodesia and was empowered to
enforce law and order in the then
divided country, oversee fair elections
and help form a government to
advance the state to independence.
The argument is that we do not need
election guidelines and commitments from
political parties our future
elections to be free and fair. What we need as
a matter of urgency are
strong democratic institutions to be put in place
before contemplating fresh
elections.
These institutions should be etched in a new
constitution.
Institutions of coercion and brutality must be disbanded. The
police, the
Central Intelligence Organisation and the army should be
reformed for them
to serve the interests of the country, not a particular
political party.
Another important move would be to open up the democratic
space, allow
various players room to facilitate, for example, voter
education, which
could be done within the confines of the law. It is also
vital that voter
registration and the voters' roll be cleaned up to have a
true reflection of
who is eligible and where they would cast their ballot,
unlike now where
there are thousands of ghost voters.
Besides my
suggested reforms, do Zimbabweans want an early election? The
answer is an
emphatic "no".
The electorate is wary of early polls and would need time to
heal from what
they went through and witnessed in June 2008 when alleged
security agents,
Zanu PF militia and war veterans unleashed an orgy of
violence throughout
the country.
The MDC claims that at least 200 of its
supporters were murdered and
thousands injured and displaced during the
jambanja to secure the presidency
for
Mugabe.
Constantine Chimakure
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 20 August 2010 16:40
WE
are not keeping our fingers crossed. And, unlike Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's party, we are not jubilant either about this week's Sadc Heads
of States and Governments summit held in Namibia.
President Robert Mugabe
and Tsvangirai are said to have agreed on 24 of the
27 outstanding issues as
part of an exit strategy for a troubled and
dysfunctional Government of
National Unity.
President Zuma, the mediator in Zimbabwe's crisis and his
Sadc colleagues
are certainly congratulating themselves for "breaking"
Zimbabwe's political
impasse.
But a closer look at the Sadc summit
resolutions betrays the purported
agreements as a façade. It is one big
pretence that has become
characteristic, not only of our coalition
government, but of Sadc.
Successive Sadc meetings that have touched on
Zimbabwe have, in vain, tried
to paint a picture of progress in dealing with
Harare's stalemate.
In the latest turn of events, coalition government
partners have settled for
an implementation matrix that should result in the
implementation of the 24
issues agreed on within a month.
So, within 30
days we are supposed to see the establishment of an
Anti-Corruption
Commission, a National Economic Council and a Land Audit
Commission. During
the same period, Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa is
expected to pilot the
completion of electoral amendments while a new
Broadcasting Authority of
Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings board
should be
appointed.
Jomic is expected to have started doing its job and the Home
Affairs
ministry, the parent ministry for Zimbabwe's partisan police, should
have
worked means to end violence and ensure the security of persons. Are
these
not the issues Mugabe and Tsvangirai agreed to when they signed the
Global
Political Agreement on September 15, 2008?
And are these not the
very same issues that they have pledged to work on at
successive Sadc
meetings, notably the January 27 2009 extra-ordinary summit
in Pretoria and
the Troika meeting in Maputo on November 5, 2009. The Troika
meeting's
15-day deadline turned into a six-month marathon of disagreements
that have
stunted economic growth and heightened political instability.
This week's
Sadc summit, to most Zimbabweans, presented yet another display
of failure
and attempt to hoodwink Zimbabweans by leaders bent on protecting
one of
their own.
It is hard to believe that coalition government partners who have
failed to
agree on substantive issues since the formation of their
administration in
February last year will suddenly find the currency to
resolve these matters
before the expiry of their term, let alone in 30
days.
It is good when regional leaders nudge their colleagues to agree to
work
together for the common good of the nation. But it is another thing for
a
club of associates - for that is what Sadc is about-to lie to a whole
world
that things are moving again in Zimbabwe.
We have known that Sadc
meetings provide a platform to legitimise Mugabe,
and present him to the
world as if he is doing something about Zimbabwe's
problems.
But it is
incomprehensible that Tsvangirai, whose party still publicly
points to
harassment of its officials as an example of unfulfilled GPA
commitments, is
part of those leading Mugabe's cleansing ceremony. Maybe he
is out of touch
with his party, but then that would be an example of bad
leadership. His
Harvest House information people were sending communication
to the media
this week on continued arrests of MPs and the alleged abduction
at gunpoint
of seven activists in Chimanimani. What assurances has
Tsvangirai received
that makes him party to such deception by Sadc and
Mugabe?