Zim Standard
BY OUR
STAFF
SECURITY officers have laid siege to many parts of
the country,
conducting mass seizures of people's belongings as Central Bank
Governor
Gideon Gono intensifies his "economic war".
Ordinary Zimbabweans trying to fend for their families have been
the most
affected.
Militias, soldiers and police beat up and plundered
civilians'
money and goods, reports from many parts of the country
show.
The situation was worse at the country's borders and on
the
highways, where reports speak of a "massive" looting
spree.
While the Reserve Bank says nearly 1 200 individuals
and
companies have been arrested and more billions in old bearer cheques
have
since found their way into banks as a result of a joint RBZ and police
operation, ordinary Zimbabweans have harrowing tales to
tell.
Zimbabweans coming from shopping trips to Botswana told
The
Standard how they were "stripped naked" by Border Gezi graduates. Any
money
found on them was confiscated, as were their goods, notably
DVDs.
They were forced to immediately surrender any foreign
currency
in their possession.
The Zimbabweans spoke of
body searches while being accused of
sabotaging the country's economy. There
were no receipts issued, the
travellers said.
"The scale
of confiscation was massive. We saw trucks being used
by RBZ officials full
of goods such as DVDs confiscated from cross-border
shoppers," said a woman
who travelled from Botswana on Thursday last week.
Declining
to be identified, she said many of the people caught
in the blitz believe
the money confiscated from them would find its way into
the pockets of the
Border Gezi youths.
But she spoke of how dehumanising it was
to be ordered to
"strip" and then being searched by people she said had
already "judged and
convicted" them as economic
saboteurs.
Travellers from South Africa through Beitbridge
spoke of
encountering as many as 12 roadblocks between the border town and
Bulawayo,
which they said were manned by youth militias. Travellers to
Masvingo spoke
of 10 roadblocks. There are five more roadblocks between
Masvingo and
Harare.
They told The Standard that despite
crossing the border in the
morning they only arrived in Bulawayo in the
evening. Normally the journey
takes a few hours.
A South
African traveller said he nearly lost his foreign
currency to the youth
militias. He was accused of coming to purchase bearer
cheques with the
intention of taking them back to South Africa, he said.
He
was saved, after he asked how they expected a foreigner
visiting Zimbabwe to
have no money for his upkeep and return journey.
A woman who
travelled from Beitbridge said a rural trader on his
way from Esigodini to
Bulawayo to purchase goods for his shop had $81
million seized from
him.
She said: "The people were not even allowed fares from
Bulawayo
to their final destinations."
Reports of similar
mass seizures were received from Mutare, the
eastern border city next to
Mozambique, with reports that irate Mozambicans
barred a senior government
official from entering that country because of
seizure of their money.
Mozambicans buy Zimbabwean currency which they use
for shopping in
Mutare.
Human rights organisations have described the mass
confiscations
as another "Operation Murambatsvina".
But
it was not only travellers who were affected. In Harare,
soldiers have been
beating up people in the city centre and suburbs
indiscriminately. There
were reports that even quiet suburbs like Borrowdale
were
affected.
On Thursday night more than 100 uniformed soldiers
beat up
Harare civilians in an orgy of violence that also saw three tourists
being
savaged by soldiers.
The Standard witnessed the
beating up of residents as they made
their way home from work during the
rush-hour. Mbuya Nehanda Street, where
most of the commuter buses pick up
passengers resembled a war zone as "the
people's army" turned on the
people.
Victims lay writhing on the tarmac while women and
children who
had been caught in the crossfire wailed. One panic-stricken
woman cried in
anguish as she searched desperately for her child, lost
during the
commotion.
Patrons at nearby drinking outlets
were not spared either as
they were ordered to pour their beer onto the
ground and to "swim" in it.
A man who was walking along Mbuya
Nehanda Street fainted after
the soldiers stomped on his head with booted
feet. They (soldiers) carried
him away, claiming they were taking him to
hospital.
Army public relations director, Lieutenant Colonel
Simon Tsatsi,
professed ignorance of the attacks.
Zim Standard
By Foster Dongozi
THE government on
Friday arrested and detained Methodist Church
in Zimbabwe's Bishop Levee
Kadenge and two other pastors in the Christian
Alliance as repression
escalates in the country.
Kadenge was the convenor of the
Save Zimbabwe Convention held
last Saturday during which leaders of
opposition parties pledged to form a
broad alliance to fight Zanu
PF.
Pastors who were arrested include a blind Reverend
Ancelimo
Magaya and his wife, Daphne, who also acts as his assistant and
Reverend
Brian Mugwidi also of the Methodist Church in
Zimbabwe.
Also arrested was newspaper columnist, Pius
Wakatama, who is a
member of the Christian Alliance's publicity
section.
They were arrested at a road-block mounted just
outside Harare
while they were coming from Bulawayo.
Wakatama said they were detained for two hours on Friday at the
notorious
Law and Order section at Harare Central Police Station.
They
were ordered to return yesterday and were grilled for three
hours.
Wakatama said police accused them of working on
plans to form a
new political party, a charge he dismissed outrightly as
false.
"We were arrested while coming from Bulawayo where all
the
bishops from Matabeleland wanted us to brief them on the operations of
Christian Alliance. In the end, the police said they were not going to
charge us but ordered us to work closely with some bishops who are
supportive of the government's policies," Wakatama said.
Zim Standard
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
POLICE are on high alert with
instructions to deal sternly with
any form of demonstrations in the country
at a time when soldiers and
national service youths are engaged in a blitz
against alleged economic
saboteurs.
Sources last week
said police recently carried out a major
service of its anti-riot gear,
which was last used three years ago.
"We had a major exercise
recently, servicing anti-riot gear to
make sure they are in good condition.
There are fears in higher circles that
they might be caught off-guard. This
was no ordinary check-up," said a
source in the police
force.
The anti-riot gear, including the dreaded water
cannons
stationed at Chikurubi, has not been used for a long time and there
are
fears that they could malfunction in an emergency.
The only time the Israel-imported water cannons were driven
around Harare in
a show of force was in 2003 when the opposition Movement
for Democratic
Change (MDC) tried, unsuccessfully, to dislodge President
Robert Mugabe
through a campaign they dubbed the "final push".
The
anti-riot gear was bought in 2001 from Israeli firm, Beit
Alfa Trailer
Company (BAT). The Riot Control Vehicles model RCU 4500 have
modern water
cannon technology.
The vehicles' command control panel allows
the operator to mix
additives such as scorching tear gas, pepper spray or
dye.
The tankers are also equipped with surveillance
cameras.
"It was feared that some of them might be
malfunctional by now
after being kept idle for a long time without being
used," said the source.
A fortnight ago, The Standard
witnessed the police dispersing
people standing or sitting in groups of more
than five in Harare's First
Street Mall and Africa Unity Square, confirming
the current paranoid state
of President Robert Mugabe's
administration.
The obnoxious Public Order and Security Act
(Posa) prohibits the
gathering of more than two people without police
clearance.
Police spokesperson Andrew Phiri refused to
comment referring
questions to his boss Wayne Bvudzijena. "Who told you
that? I think you
should phone Assistant Commissioner Bvudzijena," Phiri
said.
Bvudzijena has said he does not speak to The
Standard.
The heightening of security alertness follows
threats of massive
protests by the MDC and civic organisations over economic
collapse and human
rights abuses blamed on the
government.
Officially opening the second session of the
sixth parliament
recently, Mugabe, threatened to thwart any form of protest
designed to
topple him from power. " They should be warned that the forces
of law and
order will not hesitate to deal firmly with all those who have
made violence
their culture," Mugabe warned.
Zim Standard
BY VALENTINE MAPONGA
THE
government has controversially awarded a multi-billion
dollar contract to a
company owned by a deputy minister to undertake designs
for a new Parliament
building, ahead of a consortium of architects who
started working on the
project in the 1980s.
Although both parliament and government
officials have kept a
lid on the winner of the contract, investigations by
The Standard revealed
that the lucrative contract was awarded to Studio Arts
Architects.
Murehwa South MP, Biggie Joel Matiza (Zanu PF),
who is also the
deputy minister for Rural Housing and Social Amenities, owns
the company.
Studio Arts Architects is however working on the
project with
long-time partner Pantic Architects, a Yugoslav company based
in Harare.
Indigenous architectural companies who spoke to
The Standard
expressed concern over selection of the two companies to
undertake the
designs for the Kopje project.
They also
queried why government had found it necessary to draw
new plans for the
parliament building when a similar exercise was undertaken
decades
ago.
Though a fresh feasibility study has not been carried
out, the
project's costs are expected to run into several trillions of
dollars and
the undisclosed fee paid to the consultants could also run into
several
billions of dollars. "Parliament is a very important building. The
government should have looked for the best designers by way of an
international competition," said one Harare-based
architect.
Matiza confirmed that his company won the contract
but denied
that he was the major consultant for the massive complex,
expected to take
about five years to be completed.
"Yes,
but for the finer details please talk to Pantic. They are
the lead
consultants on that project. We are just junior partners and I don't
think
there was any politics involved since I am a qualified architect,"
Matiza
said.
A senior partner at Pantic Consultants, Ivan Pantic,
confirmed
they were working on the project with Studio Arts. The two
companies have
already drawn the designs for the new Parliament, which were
approved by the
Cabinet in April with minor amendments.
Investigations by The Standard revealed that government awarded
the contract
to the two companies and ditched four companies it had engaged
as early as
1984 for the groundwork. The four were Cathcart Fothergill &
Pearce;
Jackson Moore Architects; Hope Clark Associates and Montgomerie
Oldfield;
and Kirby Dennis Wilson.
The four formed the Parliament
Architects Group (PAG) for the
purposes of designing a new Parliament
building in 1984 and worked with the
then Ministry of Public Construction
and National Housing until the early
1990s.
They
undertook visits to France, United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia
scouting for
ideas before coming up with plans for a building comprising
debating
chambers, offices, caucus room , a speaker's house and an amenities
block.
Construction costs were estimated at $294 million
as of October
1989.
The last meeting between PAG and the
ministry was held 18 months
ago.
Acting Secretary and
principal director in the Ministry of Local
Government, Joseph Mhakayakora,
said the contract had not been awarded on
political
grounds.
"That project has been handled according to
procedure. We have a
list of all registered architects and all their working
history so anyone
could have been awarded the consultancy work unless we
decide to make the
project an open competition for which rules and
regulations are set by the
Architects Council," Mhakayakora
said.
He said they looked at profiles of more than 15
companies. "The
new requirements for the new Parliament building are two to
three times
bigger than the one in the 1980s and gives provisions for future
expansion.
We looked at the experience of the consultants firms and the
magnitude of
the project. We simply considered merit," he
said.
Matiza's company has in the past won contracts from the
government and worked on some of the projects with Pantic Architects and the
two companies were controversially awarded a $1,2 billion contract for the
design of the upgrading of the Bulawayo and Victoria Falls airports.
Zim Standard
BY OUR STAFF
THREE senior farm managers at Grace Mugabe's
Iron Mask Estate
have been arrested on allegations of stealing from their
employer, it has
been established.
Brian Marange,
Makhosini Khoza and Fimas Bvunzawabaya were
nabbed three weeks ago at the
farm which has been quietly renamed Gushungo
Dairy
Estate.
Sources said detectives had initially picked four
managers but
one was released because of his loyalty to the First Family.
His identity
could not be verified.
"They (the three) are
being accused of stealing fuel and other
farm equipments from the farm. It
is understood that during police
investigations, some of the stolen
equipment and fuel was discovered at one
of the managers' farm in the same
area," said a source.
Marange owns a plot at Monera farm in
Centenary, about 100km
away from Mazowe.
Court documents
show that the three managers appeared at the
Bindura Magistrates' Court on
20 July facing theft by conversion charges
allegedly committed in June this
year.
"The managers stole petrol which was meant for the
Estate's
requirements by means of unlawful buying of the commodity at very
low
prices," reads part of the charge sheet.
The
documents also show that the managers claimed they bought
the fuel with the
authority of the Estate's chairman, Mike Bimha. However
the police say Bimha
had not sanctioned such transactions.
The accused
unsuccessfully applied for bail and were remanded in
custody to 9 August.
They have since appealed to the High Court where their
case is still to be
heard. Officer Commanding Bindura District Chief
Superintendent Govo
confirmed the arrests but could not give more details of
the case.
Zim Standard
By
our correspondent
MUTARE Residents are angry at the
decision by the government to
extend the term of the commission running this
eastern border city saying
they should immediately pave way for
elections.
Elections to choose a new executive mayor and
councillors for
the city are slated for 19 August but the extension of the
term of the
commissioners has stoked fears that both the government and the
ruling party
do not want an election because they fear an opposition MDC
landslide
victory.
Ignatious Chombo, the Minister of
Local Government, Public Works
and Urban Development, told journalists he
was extending the term of the
commissioners until an "appropriate
time".
Chombo did not say whether elections will be held as
scheduled
or not, fuelling speculation the government and the ruling party
are
uncomfortable with the polls in Mutare, an opposition MDC
stronghold.
The extension of the term of the Mutare
commission, which is
made up of Zanu PF activists, comes in a week after
ruling party activists
in the city petitioned Chombo to postpone the
elections, possibly to next
year.
The activists argued
the ruling party was not yet ready for the
poll as it was in the midst of
conducting a restructuring exercise of its
structures in Mutare. Chombo
initially turned down the request saying
elections should go ahead as
planned. However, the minister made a surprise
U-turn when he extended the
term of the commission, which has become
unpopular with
residents.
The Minister made the announcement after touring
some capital
projects being undertaken by the council.
Supporters of the opposition MDC and ordinary residents alike
have
registered their dismay at the latest manoeuvres saying they undermine
democracy.
However, several said they were not surprised
the government was
reluctant to hold elections in Mutare fearing an outright
opposition
victory.
"I knew these elections were never
going to be held because
these people (Zanu PF) know what will happen," said
Innocent Mawoyo, an MDC
activist from Dangamvura, Mutare's second oldest
high-density suburb.
Several other supporters raised the same
sentiments saying they
were disappointed by Chombo's
machinations.
Yvonne Chepiri, a resident of Chikanga, said:
"Why extend the
term of a commission that clearly wants to fleece residents
by demanding
huge exit perks?"
Tendai Maunder, a shoe
maker from Sakubva said he cannot wait to
register his displeasure with the
ruling party and government come election
time.
Several
other residents expressed similar sentiments saying they
were unhappy with
the extension of the term of office of the
under-performing ruling party
commissioners.
The commission is currently mired in a scandal
after it emerged
last week that the chairman of the commission, Fungayi
Chaeruka and his
deputy, Irene Zindi wrote to the ministry of local
government at the end of
their six-month term of office requesting that they
be awarded an assortment
of exit perks that included top of the range
vehicles, commercial stands and
terminal benefits for the six months they
have been in office. The request
was promptly shot down by the ministry
which described the request as a
potential scandal.
Pattison Mbiriri, the local government permanent secretary, said
the request
was likely to be misunderstood by residents and ratepayers.
Zim Standard
BY OUR STAFF
THE High Court has
thrown out an application to stop the Harare
City Council from evicting a
second-generation occupant of Matapi Flats in
Mbare in a judgment that deals
a blow to 150 others facing a similar
predicament.
The
number of affected people could be higher as occupants stay
with their
families and relatives in the overcrowded flats.
The case
filed by Farai Pindehama assisted by the Zimbabwe NGO
forum was being used
as a test case, just days before the eviction notices
issued out to the
occupants on 27 June expired.
The council said it would evict
occupants who failed to produce
Certificates of Occupation anytime after 31
July. Most of the occupants
inherited the flats from their parents or
relatives who were issued with the
certificates before independence, in
accordance with the Salisbury African
Township Act.
In
court, Pindehama argued that he had been paying rent over the
years and
council was accepting that rent, meaning that it acknowledged that
he was a
legal tenant.
But Justice Lawrence Kamocha dismissed the
application after he
found no basis to grant the urgent chamber application
following an
undertaking by the council to follow laid down procedures in
the evictions.
This involved applying to the rent board for a certificate to
evict and
giving proper notices to Pindehama.
No-one
would be indiscriminately evicted, the council pledged.
Precious Shumba, a spokesperson of the Combined Harare Residents'
Association said while the occupants of the flats would not win their case
in courts since they did not have certificates of occupation, they did not
expect council to honour its undertaking.
"We are not
taking council seriously. The council has not been
following court orders in
the past. We foresee a situation where the
occupants will be
indiscriminately removed. This is a continuation of
Operation
Murambatsvina," Shumba said.
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
IT is almost
lunch hour but the frail-looking young boy has not
eaten anything or has any
motorist stopped to buy any of his mats, hung in a
long row on wooden
poles.
"It's either I get a buyer today or we will not have
supper
tonight. I last had porridge without sugar last night," 11-year-old
boy,
Kudzanayi said before rushing to flag down a passing
vehicle.
His mother - Tamari - seated under a huge tree a few
metres from
the road, is busy weaving more mats from baobab fibre for
sale.
But as soon as the car stops, the 47-year-old widow,
dashes to
negotiate the price with the prospective buyer.
When the motorist appears disinterested, Tamari pleads in a
desperate tone:
"You can give me whatever you have. I need to buy my
children food. We did
not harvest this season because this area is so dry."
A few
metres down the road, a group of children are also waving
down vehicles.
Here, they are not selling mats but the baobab fruit.
This is
how most villagers in Gudyanga Village in Chimanimani
district, which lies
about 115 kilometres along the Mutare-Masvingo Highway,
are
surviving.
The little village lies in Zimbabwe's Lowveld area
and is in
geological region five where no crop production is possible
without
irrigation.
Even the last agricultural season -
when most parts of the
country received good rains and produced bountiful
harvests - areas such as
Gudyanga, Changazi, Tonhorai and Wengezi in
Chimanimani experienced a severe
drought.
As a result,
the villagers have turned to the baobab tree for
survival. The baobab leaves
are used as relish while its seeds are consumed
raw or ground to produce a
coffee-like beverage.
People eat the fruit and extract the
bark to make mats for sale
to passing motorists, especially to
tourists.
But these days the tourists hardly come
by.
"Children are dropping out of school because their
parents can't
afford to buy food, let alone pay their fees," Tamari
said.
Some of the mats are now being sold in cities while
others find
their way to South Africa with cross-border
traders.
The prices of the mats range from $300 000 to $2,5
million each
depending on the size and design.
But due to
desperation, some of the villagers sell for much
less.
Food agencies, among them Christian Care International, are
helping the most
vulnerable people, including children and the aged in the
area.
Christian Care Harare office information officer,
Tariro Mubayi,
said they were helping many people in the drought-stricken
areas of
Chimanimani.
"I don't have the figures on my
fingertips because we started on
a new feeding programme recently," said
Mubayi.
Grain Marketing Board (GMB) public relations manager,
Muriel
Dzemura, said the parastatal was giving priority to drought-hit areas
of
Chimanimani during maize deliveries.
"Apart from
increasing maize deliveries in the affected areas,
we are also working with
the Department of Social Welfare to identify and
assist desperately needy
families," said Dzemura.
Apart from Chimanimani, she said,
the GMB had increased maize
deliveries to Chipinge, Chiredzi, Chivi in
Masvingo and parts of
Matabeleland South, where most people failed to
harvest due to drought.
However, for Tamari and other
villagers in Chimanimani there are
questions for the GMB: Who in Chimanimani
is receiving grain from the
parastatal? The villagers are
not.
A recent report of the United States-based Famine Early
Warning
Systems Network (FEWSNET) says household food access in Zimbabwe has
remained precarious with large numbers of vulnerable people failing to meet
minimum food requirements.
It is estimated that 3,5
million people in the country require
food relief.
The
World Food Programme (WFP) says it is feeding only 800 000
of the most
vulnerable people in the country, including children threatened
with
malnourishment and patients receiving anti-retroviral
therapy.
This flies in the face of government claims that the
country
harvested 1.8 million tonnes of grainthis season, enough to feed the
whole
country without having to import.
Aid agencies have
estimated this year's harvest to be between
900 000 to 1.1 million tonnes.
This means the country needs to import, on
average, 800 000 to cover the
food deficit.
Until such as a time the food situation
improves, Tamari's
family will continue to eke a living out of the giant
baobab tree, which now
faces possible extinction in Zimbabwe.
Zim Standard
From
Gibbs Dube
BULAWAYO - Private doctors and a leading
private hospital in the
city have stopped treating patients on Premier
Service Medical Aid Society
(PSMAS) scheme due to non-payment of billions of
dollars in medical fees by
the healthcare service
provider.
This comes at a time when Bulawayo has been gripped
by an
unidentified influenza which has left hundreds of people in need of
medical
attention as junior doctors at government hospitals continue their
strike.
Most private doctors and hospital authorities at
Mater Dei
Hospital confirmed that they had stopped giving medical attention
to
patients under the PSMAS scheme as the latter was failing to meet its
financial obligations.
"We are facing a crisis as PSMAS
is failing to pay us millions
of dollars in medical fees. We provide good
services to members of the
medical scheme but they fail to pay us. Right
now, we have not been paid for
almost four months," said one of the top city
doctors who declined to be
identified.
He said the
majority of private doctors had stopped accepting
PSMAS medical aid cards,
forcing patients to either pay cash up-front on
consultation fees of between
$3.8 million and $12 million or return home to
suffer in
agony.
Several other doctors said they informed PSMAS two
weeks ago
that they will stop treating members under their scheme and the
medical aid
society made frantic efforts to source at least a quarter of
what the
doctors were owed.
"The little payment did not
make sense at all as it was already
eroded by inflation and as a result, we
decided to stop treating PSMAS
members. Although a few doctors still accept
medical aid cards from
patients, most of us are demanding cash up-front,"
said another doctor.
Authorities at Mater Dei Hospital noted
that they had "serious
problems in terms of business we conduct with
PSMAS".
The hospital spokesperson said: "We need to talk to
PSMAS about
this problem (non-payment of medical fees). We are now using a
deposit
system in which patients pay a deposit and the remainder at a
specific
time."
The spokesperson declined to comment any
further referring all
questions to PSMAS.
Authoritative
sources said Mater Dei Hospital was owed billions
of dollars by PSMAS
resulting in the recent cutting of links with the
healthcare service
provider with members largely drawn from over 100 000
poorly paid civil
servants.
"The private hospital is owed billions of dollars
by PSMAS which
has failed to pay medical fees during the past four months.
The situation
has gone out of hand and patients on PSMAS medical aid are
being asked to
pay consultation fees of between $11.1 million and $12
million," said one of
the sources.
The Standard
understands the hundreds of patients being turned
away were now flocking to
the government-owned United Bulawayo Hospitals
(UBH), the second largest
medical referral centre in the eastern parts of
the city dominated by middle
and high income earners.
With large numbers of people
flocking to UBH, senior doctors and
nurses are struggling to cope as 270
junior doctors recently went on strike
demanding a hefty salary package of
$500 million per month and an
improvement of essential supplies and
equipment to State hospitals.
Although the hospital's medical
superintendent Gordon Gwisai was
not available for comment, doctors
confirmed that patients on PSMAS medical
aid scheme being turned away by
Mater Dei Hospital were flocking to the
hospital.
"We are
receiving an overwhelming number of patients on PSMAS
medical aid scheme who
cannot be treated by private doctors and Mater Dei
Hospital. We are trying
to assist them but the problem is that junior
doctors are currently on
strike and the few doctors and nurses available are
failing to cope," said
one of the hospital consultants.
Despite repeated assurances
from Cuthbert Dube, the CEO for
PSMAS, that his organisation would respond
to the allegations, nothing had
been received by close of business on Friday
afternoon.
A visit to UBH and Mpilo General Hospital in the
western suburbs
revealed that patients were failing to pay consultation fees
of between $3.8
million and $8 million.
The junior
doctors' strike, poor service delivery and serious
shortages of drugs have
worsened the situation.
Zim Standard
By
Nqobani Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - Power outages that have
crippled industry are set to
continue as the under-performing Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority
(ZESA) Holdings is failing to attract private
investors due to the country's
strict energy laws and policies, says the
power utility's former CEO.
Addressing delegates at the
just-ended Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries (CZI) congress Simbarashe
Mangwengwende said that attempts to
lure investors would be fruitless as
investors will continue shying away
from the energy sector due to the
electricity laws and policies that inhibit
investors to make money on a
sustainable basis.
Mangwengwende said that continued
government monopoly on the
pricing of electricity tariffs has run down the
energy sector, a situation
that has led Zesa record losses annually from
2002.
Mangwengwende said government should repeal tariff
controls in
Section 35 of the Electricity Act of 2002 which gives the
Minister powers to
control tariffs.
"The energy
insecurity in Zimbabwe is rooted in misconceptions
that have led to, first
and foremost, a problem of inappropriate regulation
and secondly a problem
of the resultant over-dependence on public sector
investment in the energy
sector," Mangwengwende said.
"We have a problem of regulation
in that we have inadequately or
inconsistently applied energy laws that make
it difficult for investors to
make money on a sustainable basis and for
customers to obtain reliable and
least-cost energy products and
services."
"If the government is not able to make a profit
when it has a
virtual monopoly in the energy industry and controls the
pricing,"
Mangwengwende asked, "what chance would a private sector investor
without
the same advantages have?"
He said that
government only needs to establish and maintain a
business friendly energy
regulatory framework and the country will
immediately benefit through the
profitable operations of its existing
companies and inevitable entry of new
investors.
Government through the Ministry of Energy and
Power Development
as well as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has shot down
proposed Zesa tariff
increases arguing that they would fuel
inflation.
But Mangwengwendedismissed the argumentsby
government noting
that power outages are more inflationary than the high
cost of electricity.
"Finally, it is important to reiterate
the fact that money to
ensure energy security is not inflationary. What is
inflationary is the high
cost associated with energy supply disruptions,"
Mangwengwende said.
Zesa is failing to lure investors to
inject capital in the
development of power stations to increase electricity
supplies and ease the
frequent power cuts that have adversely affected both
the industry and
domestic consumers.
Russian, Chinese and
Iranian investors are in talks with the
government on the establishment of
power stations to increase electricity
generation.
In
June former Zesa executive chairman Sydney Gata travelled
with the Vice
President Joice Mujuru on a week-long investment drive to
attract fresh
capital from the Far East and investment in the energy sector.
But nothing
so far has materialised.
Zim Standard
BY OUR STAFF
THE Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) will set up a board to
determine the exchange rate, central
bank chief Gideon Gono said on Monday.
Presenting the First
Half 2006 Monetary Policy Review Statement
Monday, Gono said that the
Exchange Rate Impact Assessment Board would be
drawn from major stakeholders
such as exporters, major importers, officials
from the ministries of
Finance, Economic Development and Industry and
International Trade and
Bankers' Association of Zimbabwe.
Gono will chair the board
to be created within the already
existing National Economic Development
Priority Programme (NEDPP)
structures. Gono said in the interim, he was
adjusting the interbank rate to
$250 for the US dollar from the
$101.
The adjusted interbank rate falls far short of the
parallel
market rates which shot up to new highs this week as traders bought
forex to
offload their money in line with the 21- day RBZ window period to
phase out
the old bearer cheques.
But analysts believe
the success of the Exchange Rate Impact
Assessment Board would depend on the
availability of the foreign currency.
"The board will
determine the price of a commodity which is not
available," said David
Mupamhadzi an economist with the Zimbabwe Allied
Banking
Group.
"In the past we tried the same route but the key issue
is the
availability of the commodity." Mupamhadzi said that the exchange
rate has
to be determined by market forces.
James Jowa
said that while the terms of reference for the board
have not been
announced, "what is important is that the exchange rate has to
be favourable
for exporters, importers and non-importers".
Jowa cautioned
that the country had had previous boards chaired
by RBZ, which advocated no
devaluation and this new board would make no
difference.
"We are still in the control regime because setting up a board
means we are
controlling something," Jowa said.
Zim Standard
By
Nqobani Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - Sub-economic prices charged by
most State enterprises
have impacted on service delivery, Finance Minister
Herbert Murerwa said on
Thursday.
Addressing delegates at
the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries
(CZI) congress, the Finance boss
implored the reversal of price distortions.
Murerwa said:
"The sub-economic prices being charged by
parastatals have tended to give
rise to poor service delivery. The reversal
of price distortions is critical
in improving service delivery."
Murerwa attributed the poor
performance of parastatals to poor
corporate governance and the continued
government subsidies of most prices
charged by the quasi-government
organisations.
Murerwa said that restructuring at parastatals
had been slow
with most of them continuing to make
losses.
"In the first six months of this year they made
losses of close
to $76.43 trillion ($76.43 billion in the new currency),"
said Murerwa.
He added: "As a result, parastatals are failing
to service their
debts and are constantly calling on government to help
them. This high
indebtedness remains a challenge for both the fiscus and the
public
service."
Past president of the CZI and CEO of
Dairibord Holdings, Anthony
Mandiwanza concurred with Murerwa saying: "There
is a need for parastatals
to charge economic prices. There is a need to
address price distortions for
the benefit of the private and public sectors
of the economy."
Analysts have called for the privatisation
of state parastatals
in a bid to help resuscitate their operations but the
government has
maintained a stranglehold on them.
The
government stands accused of running down parastatals by its
continuous
meddling in their business affairs.
Presenting the 2006
budget last year in December, Murerwa said
government would privatise seven
parastatals in a bid to stop them from
draining the
fiscus.
The government is at present restructuring
parastatals with a
view of turning around their fortunes but the process has
been slow and most
of them continue to make losses.
Zim Standard
Market Watch By Deborah-Fay Ndlovu
SHARE
prices rose sharply last week backed by a drop in interest
rates,
devaluation of the dollar and currency reforms that saw the Zimbabwe
Stock
Exchange rebasing both the industrial and mining indices.
ZSE
sent a notice last Tuesday announcing the move to rebase.
The
news, analysts said, sent some excitement into the market
with small cap
counters expected to fuel further gains in the benchmark
index.
"At times like this brokers will get excited and
push prices.
The slashing of dollars means small caps can have their prices
moving
easily. The growth will be big but obviously unnoticeable because of
the
currency reforms," said a local stockbroker.
A cut in
interest rates also helped the gains in the stock
market.
The RBZ last week said it had reduced the secured and unsecured
accommodation rates to 300% and 350% respectively to enable banks to lend to
productive sectors of the economy.
Financial institutions
followed suit by reducing deposit rates
to averages of 75% for 7 days, 100%
for 14 days 110% for 30 days and 160%
for 90 days.
The
91-day TB rate was also cut to 210% from the previous week's
261,7% while
the money market was forecast to be in deficit of $5,7 billion
last
Wednesday.
Analysts said that the market cash position was
not informing
the direction of interest rates but indicated moves to
"reprice" the funding
of government debt.
Government
estimated in the mid-term fiscal policy that it would
have to repay a total
of $1,076 quadrillion including interest using the old
money if it had given
in to requests to allocate $614 trillion to line
ministries.
"The budget figure was subsequently cut by
half meaning debt
plus interest was half the projected figure at the old
91-day TB rate of
510%. That is the whole concept informing rates now," one
dealer said.
He said investors wanted short-dated papers and
were willing to
"compromise" and accept the new 91-day TB
rate.
Others, some analysts said, would be finding their way
to the
stock market where returns are high.
Already the
industrial index closed 15.91% points high to 137
266.79
points.
Gains were mostly in blue chip counters that included
Econet
which upped $210 to $860 last Wednesday.Meikles pushed $100 to $700
while
Innscor added $45 to $225.
Losses were trivial
across the board with Cottco retreating $2.5
to $47.50.
The mining index closed Wednesday 3.68% points higher at 45
581.11 points
helped by gains in Halogen, Falgold and Bindura. The three
counters surged
on news of devaluation.
Zim Standard
News Analysis By Deborah-fay Ndlovu
ZIMBABWE cannot embark on
a new beginning without reducing
government expenditure, fighting inflation
and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
stopping its quasi-fiscal interventions,
analysts said last week.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor,
Dr Gideon Gono, indicated his
hopes for a new beginning during the
presentation of the mid-term monetary
policy review statement last
Monday.
The review statement unveiled under the theme a
"Sunrise - a New
Beginning for Zimbabwe" detailed the devaluation of the
local currency by
almost 70%, slashing of interest rates to induce
production and new export
incentives that allow exporters to keep part of
their foreign currency
earnings.
But analysts are already
sceptical about the success of the new
policy without a comprehensive
programme to ease inflationary pressures.
Finhold said that
inflation was likely to slow down in the short
term but peak later due to a
widening fiscal budget deficit, among other
factors.
"The
rate of inflation may slow down as foreign currency
parallel market
activities are dampened temporarily by, inter alia, the
introduction of the
new bearer cheques, the devaluation of the Zimbabwe
dollar and the stringent
cash holding measures introduced by the RBZ, the
continued existence of
subsidised lending schemes such as ASPEF and the
newly introduced $16
billion SME Development Fund at 70% per annum, widening
fiscal budget
deficit, and the continued poor performance of parastatals
will most likely
drive inflation upwards in the medium term," Finhold said.
Analysts expect that prices of commodities will remain the same
and contend
that the introduction of a new family of bearer cheques was just
delaying an
inevitable.
"The knocking off of three zeroes may have
appeased, albeit
temporarily, the IT systems' problem . but as long as the
causes of the
hyperinflation environment are not addressed, there will be a
resurgence of
the multiple digits problem, prompting a repeat of this
exercise," Stanbic
said in an assessment report of both the fiscal and
monetary policies.
Economic commentators are most unhappy
with the introduction of
the $16 billion SME fund, which they said was a
quasi- fiscal intervention
that is highly inflationary.
Washington Mehlomakhulu of Highveld said: "The central bank
appears to be
going back to quasi-fiscal activities which have been a
problem in fuelling
inflation."
He said while he had no problem with the monetary
policy as a
whole, he believes that the central bank should have brought
more incentives
to encourage banks to lend to SMEs instead of working
outside its mandate.
His view was supported by Stanbic Bank
which contends that the
quasi-fiscal activities "had generated high levels
of money supply growth".
Broad money supply growth increased from 582% in
February to 669.9% this
May.
Analysts however could not
reach a consensus on the effects of
lowering interest rates. While some
believe it will be good for economic
growth in the long run, others maintain
that there will be attendant
negative repercussions with such a
move.
"Low interest rates mean a low interest burden on the
fiscus
because when we talk of inflation we are talking of government debt,"
Mehlomakhulu argued.
He said the low interest rates would
have a positive spin-off
for those who want credit, especially at retail
shops famed for high rates.
Stanbic however said the downward
adjustment of accommodation
rates has been done at the detriment of
lenders.
On the new export incentives, analysts said relaxing
the foreign
currency retention rules will reduce the availability of hard
currency and
put "pressure on the parallel exchange rate to weaken
further."
"What is missing on that strategy is how we will
attract more
foreign currency. It was okay to allow exporters to retain
their earnings
but the central bank should have gone beyond retention
incentives."
Zim Standard
BY WALTER
MARWIZI
DESPITE being a constant source of headache for
the promoters of
the New Partnership for Africa's Development initiative and
the African
Union, Zimbabwe is set to benefit from a programme championed by
countries
upholding principles of good governance.
It has
emerged that after months of negotiations, the European
Commission recently
approved a proposal for a partnership on infrastructure
development between
the EU and Africa.
The partnership, which is a response to
the development goals of
the African Union and Nepad, aims to substantially
increase EU investment in
African infrastructure.
The EC
has set aside a total of 5.6 billion Euros earmarked for
regional
development in four priority areas: transport, energy, water and
Information
and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Africa.
This comes
at a time when expenditure by African governments has
fallen below 4% of
their countries' Gross Domestic Product, which experts
say is necessary to
maintain and operate infrastructure.
Economic planners say
improving infrastructure, and regulatory
frameworks of the ICTs will
contribute to economic growth, the promotion of
trade, employment and
regional integration.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an
EU official told The
Standard that Zimbabwe, which has been heavily censured
by the bloc over
democracy and human rights issues, falls under an area that
would benefit
from the facility.
This was despite the
fact that Zimbabwe has not been a keen
promoter of the Nepad, which binds
African leaders to pursue policies that
promote peace, security and good
governance.
Zimbabwe has also not endorsed Nepad's Peer
Review Mechanism
that allows countries to identify each other's weaknesses
in governance
issues and work out possible solutions.
President Robert Mugabe's government has been widely accused of
human rights
violations and pursuing policies that have ruined a once
prosperous
country.
Among proposed projects that could be carried out in
Zimbabwe
and other neighbouring countries are road transport corridors,
railways,
river basins and fibre network interconnections. The Southern
African power
pool also stands to benefit.
These
programmes, identified under Nepad's Infrastructure Short
Term Action Plan
(ISTAP), would aim towards facilitating interconnectivity
at continental and
regional level.
Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, the Minister of
Foreign Affairs was not
immediately available for
comment.
However, Louis Michel, the Commissioner for
Development and
Humanitarian Aid, said the partnership would allow Africa to
build the
infrastructure that is crucial for real economic
boost.
"Connecting Africa is essentially for its economic
growth,
trade, regional integration and fight against poverty," he
said.
Several countries in Africa will benefit from the
facility.
These include South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and the
Democratic Republic
of the Congo
Zim Standard
Comment
SINCE the
government embarked on its ill-fated "agrarian reform
programme" production
has been blighted by incompetent planning and an
unparalleled inability to
anticipate measures that need to be taken before
hand.
The winter wheat crop provides ample testimony of how determined
a
government ministry and its officials can be at subverting attempts at
attaining food self-sufficiency. The wheat crop will fall below national
consumption requirements because of a jinxed combination of a hapless power
utility and a ministry that failed to plan and anticipate the farmers' input
requirements.
President Robert Mugabe blasted his
agriculture minister - not
for the first time - for failing to make
available the necessary inputs for
winter wheat, but that is a bit like
closing the gate after the horses have
bolted. Zimbabwe will experience a
wheat deficit yet again.
The summer maize crop, by current
indications, will suffer the
same fate even if the weather is favourable.
Apart from the dodgy supply and
availability of agricultural inputs, many of
the small-scale growers who
have been delivering their grain to the Grain
Marketing Board have not been
paid promptly to enable them to begin purchase
of their inputs for the next
farming season.
By the time
they do receive payment for their grain, the cost of
the inputs will have
gone up and their resources will not be able to afford
them the input
requirements for their farming activities. That can only mean
a reduction in
both hectarage and next season's harvest.
Zimbabwe seems to
have perfected the art of shooting itself in
the foot. We want the farmers
to grow but are reluctant to pay them
timeously for their crops. We want to
claim our regional food basket
reputation and status but are tardy in
supporting growers. We want to avoid
food imports but avail support to
people who are more fascinated by stroking
their own egos than those
determined to restore agricultural productivity to
pre-2000 season
levels.
It is counter productive for the government to clamp
down on
side marketing when it is unable to support farmers. Most input
purchases
for the agricultural sector occur between July and September. What
most
farmers who are aggrieved by the GMB's inability to pay for deliveries
promptly are merely trying to do is to ensure they can access inputs now and
avoid price escalations.
Farmers complain that it is
expensive to hire transport to ferry
their grain to the GMB depots only to
be confronted with delays in payment
for their crops. They also complain
that where the parastatal promises
transport they wait for indefinite
periods. With each failure to fulfil its
part of the bargain, the next
season approaches making it the more difficult
for farmers to plan and
prepare for the impending agricultural season.
It is
difficult for the farmers to appreciate why they have a
Ministry of
Agriculture, when all it has done during the past seven years is
to
demonstrate just how ill-prepared it is to consult, listen to and work to
promote increased agricultural output.
What justification
could possibly be there for the existence of
such a ministry in the face of
demonstrable incompetence? Previous
ministries of agriculture headed by the
likes of the late Moven Mahachi,
Swithun Mombeshora, and Denis Norman
demonstrated how critical a ministry
could be in spurring agricultural
productivity. The records speak for
themselves.
The
government cannot expect the support of farmers when it
plays hide and seek
with them and treats them with such contempt.
Commandeering their produce is
not the way to guarantee food
self-sufficiency. When we begin to pay serious
attention to and attach
greater significance to the role agriculture is key
contributor to the
economy our efforts will be rewarded. Until that happens,
we reap the
whirlwind.
Zim Standard
Sunday
Opinion By Webster Zambara
THE issue that is dominating
discussion everywhere in Zimbabwe
these days is that of our local currency
following Dr Gideon Gono, the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor's mid-term
monetary policy review
statement last week.
The two most
important issues announced by Gono are the
devaluation of the Zimbabwe
dollar against the greenback and the removal of
three zeros from the
previous set of bearer cheques that we use as money.
While the first issue
is obviously much more important, there has been much
hullabaloo with the
second. For that very reason, let us try to unpack the
truth about the
second issue.
There are many reasons why more interest is
with the removal of
three zeros from the previous set of bearer cheques,
whether one is rich or
poor.
One thing that the sudden
removal of the three zeros brought is
the mathematical challenge. The old
and young, rich and poor have to revisit
their basic arithmetical
gymnastics, and being a retired teacher myself I
recall very well how
pupils' faces would suddenly go sullen when it was time
for the subject. And
tell this to my old mother in Chiguhune communal lands
in Gutu, then confuse
her to death.
The other thing is the realisation among most
of us that we are
not rich after all. We had suddenly become millionaires in
our poverty, but
the chickens are now coming home to roost. We are very
poor. It is not the
amount that matters, but the value,
period!
So where are we with the new set of bearer cheques?
The reason
given for the removal of the three zeros includes the much sung
but abused
word "convenience". We are told that we no longer need to carry
wheelbarrow
loads of cash to buy an item that fits in a pocket. The other
reason was
that less than a quarter of the printed bearer cheques were
circulating in
the formal system, so a new set would force illegal dealers
to bring back
the notes they had hoarded.
People were
given up to 21 days to bring the money back to the
banks. Individuals were
allowed to deposit only up to 100 million a day.
Bring more, and you should
be "accountable" in many ways. I do not want to
dwell on issues of
accountability in this article, but one would wish our
politicians would be
asked to account for the wealth they have accumulated
too!
Now back to the 21 days, it simply means one
individual can
deposit only up to 2, 1 billion dollars. To have only 21 days
to remove
money in circulation and introduce a new set altogether seems too
short.
Some of it is in pillows and tins in the rural areas. And some in the
pits
with the makorokozas.
Gono has even ordered that
borders be manned by police officers
who should make sure no one will be
allowed to enter the country with more
that $5 million in the old bearer
cheques. Zimbabwe could be the only
country on this planet where the police
get directives from the central
bank. Now, if we do not want these people to
bring in back the money, then
to say it should be brought back to the formal
market is hiding behind a
finger. And we have already started hearing,
through the State media, of a
blitzkrieg on individuals whose monies are
being confiscated. Welcome to
Zimbabwe!
So this much ado
about zeros is actually much ado about nothing.
At best for the government
it is a ploy to confuse people around money
issues while they buy time in
our economic demise. At worst, it is a time of
distraction. Or thirdly, to
find practical scapegoats to blame for the
failure of our economic
turnaround strategies.
The second actually holds more water
because our dollar has been
officially devalued but very few people have
commented on devaluation. Our
attention has been distracted from seeing a
weaker currency to seeing a new
bearer cheque. By virtue of devaluation of
the dollar, it means the value
has gone down in terms of what it was worth,
in this case by about 70%. The
issue of devaluation is by far more important
than the much talked about new
bearer cheques.
Even more
worrying is the fact that we are told a new currency
will be unveiledin the
not too distant future. In February, I gave a warning
in this paper that the
introduction of a new currency is not as easy as
eating sadza. We have to
put our economic fundamentals right first, which
will become the basis for
the stabilisation of our currency. These are our
agriculture, tourism,
industry and mining sectors.
As an example, we have the
largest coal resources in Africa at
Hwange, and if we put that to maximum
capacity, we do not even need to
import electricity. But now we are
importing coal from neighbouring
Botswana! Are we serious with our economic
turnaround strategies?
Zim Standard
Sunday Opinion By Dumisani Mpofu
I looked
forward to the journey to Harare. In the past, the last
few days of July and
the first week of August kept the nation rapt. Nobel
Prize winners such as
Wole Soyinka, and Nadine Gordimer, and other literary
luminaries in the
mould of Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Nurrudine Farah, Ali Mazrui
and Niyi Osundare
would make a bee-line for Harare.
In June I had been to the
Bulawayo edition of the Zimbabwe
International Book Fair (ZIBF) held at the
National Art Gallery, where Iran
was the only foreign country
exhibiting.
The Bulawayo Book Fair recorded a poor turnout of
exhibitors,
registering less than a dozen different local exhibitors at the
Fair.
Last year, the space allocated exhibitors was fully
subscribed
compared to this year, while at the same time the public also
appeared to
snub the event, as it was largely attended by school
children.
One of the main attractions for exhibitors is that
there are
prospects of concluding business deals. Many in the book
publishing industry
will look back and wonder whether it was worth their
while supporting the
event. Bulawayo seemed to set the tone for the disaster
I was to encounter
in Harare.
The Bulawayo Book Fair, for
me, was a shock decline from
previous years when the event was a hive of
activity with many foreign
countries participating. The organisers of the
Book Fair then had been
compelled to reduce the number of exhibition days
from two to one,
reflecting the economic hardships the rest of the country
is suffering from.
But Harare is different from the other
cities in the country, I
told myself. After all, this is the capital, where
everything happens. I was
infected with expectant optimism as I alighted
from a kombi from Kadoma.
I headed for the Book Fair offices
next to the National Gallery
and then the venue of the Indaba on Tuesday.
Nothing had prepared me for
what I was to encounter.
Zimbabweans never cease to amaze. "The dicussions were
insightful," I
overhead someone behind me remark during teabreak. I could
not make out who
the speaker was but I marvelled at this refusal to confront
reality.
I wondered whether the speaker was unconnected
to the organisers
and was therefore subtly attempting to get us to agree
that the reality we
saw with our very eyes was a mischievous figment of our
fertile imagination
and that what she was describing represented the lived
reality.
I have attended previous Book Fairs in Harare for
more than a
decade and a half and therefore do not need some spin Czarina to
tell me the
reality I was witnessing was a distant hallucination. To call a
spade a
spade, this year's Zimbabwe International Book Fair was low on
international
visitors - both writers and exhibitors. It was embarrassingly
low on
attendance. One afternoon session I attended - in the hope my
enthusiasm
would be proved right - had twice as many empty seats as
participants.
The stands told another saddening story. Where
there were no
takers, sculptors had occupied the space to lessen the
embarrassingly low
exhibitor turn out. For me it was a bitter and hard
lesson in how the Book
Fair had been shorn of its gloss. Others given to
theatrics would say I was
witnessing how this once major regional cultural
event was gasping its final
breath before expiration.
What made it all the more difficult for me to stomach was not
that this
disappointment came on the back of Governor Gedion Gono's currency
chaos and
how the previous day we had gone to bed millionaires and woken up
the
following Tuesday sans millions. My heart bled because I realised how
earlier on in April the same venue of the Book Fair and around the Crowne
Plaza was impassable to traffic because of visitors to the Harare
International Festival of the Arts. Vehicles swamped the stretch of Samora
Machel from Leopold Takawira right up to the Reserve Bank, then along Julius
Nyerere Way and Park Lane.
I found it hard to comprehend
how the same cultural consumers
could be nowhere during the Book Fair. It
was a profound statement, one that
must enjoin the organisers of the event
to step down or undergo serious
self-examination in order first to
establish, what has gone so terribly
wrong and secondly how to reclaim the
Book Fair's rightful position as a
major regional cultural crossroad, in
Sub-Saharan Africa.
Zim Standard
Sunday View By Tajudeen-Abdul Raheem
AN
Africa deliver on the Millennium Development Goals? This was
the Millennium
question that civil society activists campaigning against
poverty and for
the realisation of the MDGs across Africa sought to answer
at a public
meeting organised by the Africa Regional Office of the UN
Millennium
Campaign in conjunction with Africa Policy office of Action Aid
International and the Pan-African Policy Programme of Oxfam UK all based in
Nairobi, Kenya.
Almost half way to the 2015 deadline for
the achievement of the
MDGs this question will be asked again and again
across this continent.
It is a question that invites cynicism
from many corners. There
are many who are ideologically opposed to the MDGs
who regard it as a
neo-liberal surrender dictated by the current needs of
the hegemonic powers
for a more rapacious globalisation but pretending to
listen to the poor.
Since turkeys cannot be expected to vote
for early Christmas, it
is unrealistic to expect those who benefit and
control the current unjust
global order to be its leading
reformers.
Yet there are many others who take a tactical view
of the MDGs
even while admitting that the goals are minimal and may be, not
fully
deliverable without a fundamental restructure of power in favour of
the poor
masses both within nations / peoples and between nations and
peoples of the
world.
However, they see and use it as a
campaigning tool legitimised
by the declaration made and commitments
undertaken by 189 government leaders
across the world with time lines,
indices of progress and targets for
fulfilment. Yes, it could have gone much
further but holding the leaders
accountable for even these minimal goals
will do more for the poor and
create the space for bigger
demands.
All the speakers reported on the situation in their
countries
and discussed the opportunities and challenges facing them in the
realisation of the MDGs come year 2015.
There was
unanimity in accepting the MDGs, in spite of their
limitations, as a great
opportunity to put issues of poverty and development
on the agenda of all
governments in Africa. Unlike in the past when
progressive, pro-people ideas
are discredited and labelled as "communism"
all the leaders signed up to the
MDGs therefore all we are saying is that
they live up to their
commitments.
There was a lot of information sharing on
the challenges facing
campaigners. One, MDGs remains largely in the domain
of governments and even
here in the executive branch with legislatures
having little role in
monitoring any progress. Two, there is still popular
ignorance about the
MDGs among the vast majority of the peoples. Three,
although NGOs are very
active in many countries being largely better
organised in cities has meant
limited percolation of the information down to
the masses in the rural
areas.
Four, there is also
problem of competition for resources by NGOs
that make them vulnerable to
donor manipulation and also mercenary activism.
Five, campaigners all agreed
that there was a need to popularise the MDGs
and widen the constituencies
to
include all stake holders whether they are based in urban or
rural areas, employed and unemployed, youth, women, students, labour,
legislatures, farmers groups and others.
The biggest
challenge is mobilising the political will by our
leaders to honour their
commitments. Political wills are not made
automatically. They have to be
cultivated, nurtured and mobilised.
Governments cannot deliver on the MDGs
if people are not aware of them and
are not insisting that they do.
Therefore the biggest task is to make people
aware of the commitments. When
they are equipped with that knowledge they
can then begin to insist that
their leaders deliver on them.
The UNDP is the key agency in
co-ordinating MDG activities and
programmes. Civil society, including but
not limited to NGOs needs to
demand, that all of these agencies give them
information but more than that
involve them in their
activities.
Involvement should mean more than just
"inviting" them to
meetings in which they were not central to its
conception, planning and
execution.
The experiences in
this area are not uniform across the
countries. In some places they work
well whereas in others there are
suspicions between governments and UN
agencies on the one hand and civil
society on the other. Sometimes the UN is
seen as too close to the
government and wary of activists who are critical
of governments.
While openness, accountability and
co-ordination at the local
and national level are both desirable and
necessary to achieve the MDGs,
there are still structural problems about the
way in which our world is
currently organised around the hegemony of a
triumphalist neo-liberal
ideology that will severely limit the capacity of
many African states to
achieve the MDGs.
One, the
ideology of free market at all costs and rampant
liberalisation put poor
countries at the mercy of the richer countries who
determine both the cost
of what we produce and most of what we consume. Two,
it is contradictory to
expect poor countries to deliver on safe water,
universal access to
education, reduce infant and maternal mortality during
birth while at the
same time limiting their powers to spend on social
welfare.
How can everyone have access to potable water if
water is
privatised? Three, though there has been some progress on debt and
aid but
these are not sustainable if debt relief does not transform into
universal
cancellation.
Four, aid is the weakest link
in the troika of debt, trade and
aid that are at the core of the campaign in
the rich North.
Politicians can easily double, triple or even
quadruple aid and
show their voters that they care, but aid in itself
without the fundamental
reform of the unjust trade rules and exploitative
financial regimes that
pauperise the majority of the peoples of the world,
there is no hope of
redeeming the billions of peoples in the world who are
desperately poor.
The consensus from our Nairobi meeting is
that no matter how bad
the scenarios and outlooks, activists must strive to
organise instead of
agonising. Progress may come in drips and drabs but the
struggle must
continue.
In Africa and many poor countries
all politicians stand for
elections, whether they are aware of it or not,
mostly on MDG platform, the
challenge is to hold them accountable for
it.
Gono addressing symptoms, not causes of economic crisis
JUDGING
from the tone of Reserve Bank Governor's recent Mid-term
Monetary Policy
Review Statement, there is no doubt that Gideon Gono is
committed to
addressing the economic crisis in the country.
However, it
appears his austere measures are short-sighted and
will only temporarily
treat the symptoms of the problems. Slashing zeros and
introducing new
bearer cheques without corresponding productivity in the
economy are only
cosmetic changes aimed at deceiving people and buying time.
Does Gono seriously think that people just woke up one day and
decided to
sabotage their own country, and their own economy? With millions
of people
living and working abroad, does he think they just got fed up of
their
beautiful country and decided to go and live in foreign lands, often
receiving less than human treatment?
It is indeed illegal
to externalise money and engage in parallel
market activities, but people do
it because they have no confidence in the
official market. The real cause of
the crisis is the Zanu PF government,
with its skewed economic policies and
lack of accountability.
How can Gono address the so-called
sanctions imposed on the
country without addressing the numerous injustices
that the government has
committed against its own people?
Arresting individuals and private businesses for keeping large
sums of money
will put an unnecessary strain on police resources, but will
not help anyone
in the long term. How does Gono explain calling for a new
beginning on one
hand, and still arresting people for having large amounts
of money, which
they kept at home because previously banks were closed and
people could not
have access to their money. And was he sleeping when the
prices of goods and
services were rising to astronomical levels?
In his
statement, Gono refers to the 19th century USA where
inflation rose to over
5 000% because the American government was printing
money to fund civil
wars. Gono needs reminding that we are in the 21st
century and Zimbabwe is
not at war. Zimbabwe is a failed country simply
because the government is
corrupt and inefficient, and the people who should
know better keep covering
up these mistakes by creating artificial stability
and juggling with the
numbers.
Talking tough and acting tough is good, but this is
only
effective if we target real culprits, encourage production and
investment in
the country. After all, by Gono's own admission, paper money
itself does not
have an intrinsic value; it is merely a medium of exchange
which reflects
the amount of economic activity on the
ground.
Hudson Yemen Taivo
Birmingham
UK
------------
New bearer
cheques rather confusing
I FOUND the new set of bearer cheques
introduced by Reserve Bank
Governor Gide-n G-n- (slashing three zeros from
his name) in his mid-term
monetary policy statement last week rather
confusing.
According to the new arrangement, one cent is
equivalent to the
old $10, which was useless and could not buy anything. The
same goes for the
new 5 cents (old $50) and 10 cents (old $100). The highest
note is also $100
000, equivalent to the old $100
million.
It means the majority of us with salaries below $30
million of
old denominations will be able to withdraw up to three months'
salary in
just one note.
I have a feeling Gide-n G-n- did
not consult properly and widely
enough before introducing the new set of
cheques.
And what happens if someone has a mixture of the old
notes and
the new notes. It means, for example, $100 + $10 000 could be
equal to $10
100 or $110 000 or $10 000 100 or anything in between,
depending on which
notes are being used. So much for our learned
governor!
Tendayi Makuyana
Ruwa
-------------
Why Gono cannot win
There
were opposition parties before the MDC but in a way,
President Robert Mugabe
spawned the MDC just as Ian Smith spawned Zanu.
There was a black market for
foreign exchange before Gedion Gono but he
helped make it what it is today,
with his various attempts at controlling
market forces.
There was corruption before the Gono/Mugabe partnership but they
helped
create a fertile ground for it to grow, through a plethora of
subsidies in
one form or the other. There was inflation before Mugabe/Gono
but they
helped to push it into the stratosphere by printing money at rates
never
seen before in the central bank's history.
Now, like his
master, Gono has launched an attack on one of his
own by-products. Somewhat
analogous to Mugabe's land exercise, he has
plotted an ambush on his
nemesis, the parallel-market hidden behind what
could have otherwise been a
straightforward, smooth and gradual introduction
of the Institute of
Chartered Accountants' (short term) solution of the
zeroes
problem.
So now we have temporal confusion and then education
for a
massive and costly exercise after and not before its introduction.
Innocent
bystanders and small-to-medium time, street corner players become
casualties. This attempt to close down the black market will fail, as did
Homelink, for as long as the country continues to generate insufficient
foreign currency for its needs and the exchange rate is controlled. Most big
players are likely to have been using bank transfers, not boxes of
money.
Will the targeting of suspects appear selective, as we
saw with
the bank closures? One also begins to wonder if this is not an
attempt to
amass the new money centrally, to fund government's supplementary
budget and
ravenous appetite for money through domestic
borrowing.
Is this not tantamount to high jacking people's
money by forcing
them to lend it, through forced capture in their bank
accounts, to a
government most have lost confidence in? The lowest seven,
new notes are
apparently worth less than the cost of their production; where
is the money
for this ("phase I") costly, initiative coming from - more
printing? What
has become the role of parliament in all of this? Has the
office of the
Reserve Bank Governor become, like the CIO, an extension of
that of the
President?
Not long ago, we were told
inflation was due to corrupt banks;
banks were closed amid chaos and panic.
Inflation accelerated not long
thereafter. Now we are told it is due to an
assortment of crooks and
opportunists. Let us see where inflation is in six
months after the
confusion and panic from the latest crusade has settled.
Who will the
governor's finger be pointed at in his next polemic? In the
fullness of
time, we shall see the emperor's new clothes for what they
really are, and
where the useless zeroes that must be sent off truly
lie.
Rwendo
Borrowdale,
Harare
----------------
Opposition parties have let their
supporters down
I HAVE stopped counting the opportunities that
the opposition
has been gifted with by the government and it has failed to
capitalise on
them.
The recent mobilisation exercise by
the Combined Harare
Ratepayers' Association was one such opportunity that an
alert opposition
would have seized and kept the government on its
toes.
The same could be said of demonstrations by the Woman
of
Zimbabwe Arise, the students' movement and the National Constitutional
Assembly. But Zimbabwe's opposition does not believe in paying a price in
order to see justice done. Their major pre-occupation appears to be ensuring
they draw their parliamentary cheques and enjoy the attendant allowances
while letting the government get away with blue murder.
The opposition should have taken the government to task over the
sacking of
elected mayor Elias Mudzuri in Harare, his counterparts in
Chitungwiza and
Mutare. Instead, they have done nothing to cause the
government discomfort
and this is precisely why Ignatious Chombo and company
can continue to abuse
their office. They know very often the opposition will
not say a word about
it. When the opposition cries foul, there is no
sustained campaign against
the government.
It is my view that the opposition has let
down the majority of
the people who risked life and limb to support it. It
is a pity because more
and more people will begin to view the opposition in
much the same light as
the ruling party - a clique of rapacious
opportunists.
I am still to hear an outcry from the
opposition over the
sacking of the entire elected council in Mutare. Yet
Mutare is considered an
opposition stronghold. Why don't they embark on a
campaign to make the city
ungovernable? They could encourage residents not
to co-operate with the
government-appointed commission.
With local authority elections due this month, I am still to
hear sustained
protests from the opposition, even though obstacles have been
placed in
their way through a requirement that asks candidates to pay the
police a
clearance fee.
The government, ever uncertain about winning a
free and fair
election, has started announcing the servicing of more
residential stands in
various urban areas, Mutare, Beitbridge and Harare
among others. Clearly,
this is designed to win more votes for the ruling
party ahead of local
authority elections.
The function of
the opposition, in my view is to alert the
electorate to all these
shenanigans by the government and the ruling party
and to warn them against
being used to support people who have ruined this
country.
Issues of unemployment and lack of investment
are enough
platforms to create mass awareness about what is so wrong in this
country.
But the opposition appears incapable of recognising an opportunity
when they
see one.
M Moyo
Fitchlea
Kwekwe
----------
Letters In
Brief
Rabies risk in Glen View
A pile of
uncollected rubbish at the corner of 25th Road and
26th Street in Glen View
has become a major cause for concern for residents
in our
community.
During evenings, stray dogs, usually numbering
more than 20,
rummage through the rubbish dump and this has affected the
safety of
passers-by, not to mention residents living a stone's throw away
from the
rubbish dump.
Residents live in fear of
contracting rabies from some of the
dogs that are in the habit of charging
at people passing by for no apparent
reason.
I am
therefore appealing to the SPCA and the Commission running
the City of
Harare to urgently address our plight by removing the rubbish
and the
dogs.
Lastly, I wish to thank you for a great
newspaper.
H Nanyamu
Glen
View
Harare
----------------------
Relations with Mukanya
strong
WE refer to the article "Mapfumo blocks song"
published in The
Standard of 16 July 2006, which we believe needs our
official comment.
Firstly, we must point out that our
relationship with Thomas
Mapfumo is extremely strong and we do not
understand where your reporter
found his information to the
contrary.
With regards to the compilation album concerned,
yes one of the
tracks earmarked for this album was Ruva Rangu but we point
out that prior
to any formal production, we have the courtesy to approach
the artist, in
order that he may approve the remixed
version.
Mapfumo deemed the remix to be unsuitable, which is
his
prerogative, so it was removed from the proposed list of tracks to go on
the
album. This is common practice with remix albums.
We
hope this clarifies our position with regard to this
matter.
A B Wilson
Managing
Director
Gramma Records
---------------
Mugabe must now act on the corrupt
elements
IT would appear President Robert Mugabe is
afraid of
his colleagues in Zanu PF and that is why he continues to blame
America and
Britain, while his ruling party members, who are the main
culprits, go
scot-free.
Although Mugabe and
his party have been in power
since 1980, they do not seem to have a clue as
to how to stop the country's
descent into Hades. By destroying the
agricultural sector, Zanu PF
prescribed the death of our economy and
ultimately our once glorious and
promising
country.
Greedy Zanu PF leaders took over
productive land,
underutilised it, looted the machinery and continue to loot
the machinery
and are still taking over. Perhaps no one within the ruling
party listens to
Mugabe anymore.
This would
explain why despite going on the
offensive during recent weeks, condemning
corruption, influence peddling and
farm invasions, the axe has not descended
on anyone.
By disrespecting property rights,
Zimbabwe kissed
goodbye to foreign investment. It embraced disinvestment -
the kind of
situation we find ourselves in.
We can have as many economic blueprints as we like
and we can parade
well-educated and skilled persons to turn around the
economy but as long as
the political situation remains on a roller coaster,
our problems will not
go away.
We remain worse off than a country at
war. In Iraq,
where a lot of people are being killed on a daily basis,
inflation is 40%
compared to our own, which stands at more than 1
200%.
Our inflation rate shows that we take the
world cup
for mismanaging the economy and today Zimbabwe is a ghost of its
former
self.
Mugabe may have criticised those
in his party and
cabinet for corruption, but what we need now more than ever
is for him to
throw the culprits behind bars. He must crack the
whip.
I would personally challenge Mugabe to stop
talking
and start acting. If he is sincere in his outright condemnation of
corruption, let him act now.
M
Maunganidze
Checheche
Chipinge South
-------------------------
Disturbed by Gono's
overzealous approach
I must admit, that I did not
fully grasp the import
of the statement by the Governor of the Reserve Bank,
Dr Gedion Gono, when
on Monday he used the term "ethnic cleansing" during
presentation of his
mid-term monetary policy review statement, and suggested
that people should
not cry foul when his team swings into
action.
The next day we saw on national
television a bemused
Asian business person being paraded because it was
believed he was
conducting extra legal
activities.
I do not doubt that the Governor of
the Reserve Bank
means well, but I have serious problems with his approach.
I will endeavour
to elaborate. By singling out this Asian business person,
the subtle message
conveyed to viewers and readers of the State-controlled
media is that it is
such people who are sabotaging the economy and efforts
at economic
turnaround.
That for me is a
serious form of stereotyping. It is
this same approach to national problems
that resulted in the genocide in
Rwanda. The media fanned hate messages of
sections of the Rwandan community.
The approach
is also no different from that adopted
by former Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin,
who led, promoted and encouraged a
policy of ethnic cleansing of the Asian
community in Uganda during the
1970s.
I have
problems with the Governor's approach on two
accounts. Whenever there is a
change over such as the one the country is
supposed to witness until 21
August, usually there are no questions asked,
as long as people deposit
their monies with official banks. You do not
encourage people to off-load
any monies they may have and then hound or
prosecute
them.
Usually an amnesty is declared, but what we
are
seeing suggests confusion big time! The banks would not have virtually
closed for business on Monday and Tuesday if they had been part of the
process or consulted, because they would have moved in tandem with the
announcements from the central bank. The fact that they did not suggests
that there was lack of transparent consultations in the whole
process.
The second problem I have with the
Governor's
approach is that in the case of people in the border regions such
as
Manicaland, Zimbabweans go to Mozambique in search of the rand. They buy
the
rand using Zimbabwean currency. The Mozambicans then use the same
Zimbabwean
dollars to come to areas such as Mutare to make purchases which
they take
with them to Mozambique. The money circulates back in Zimbabwe
fuelling
purchases from shops and supermarkets, which in turn place more
orders with
the manufacturers, who in turn are kept busy because of demand.
In other
words Zimbabweans, their shops and companies benefit but when we
come down
heavy-handed, the shops can't sell because there are no
Mozambicans coming
across to buy and the shops cannot place more resupply
orders with the
manufacturers because their stocks are not moving. We score
an own goal!
The reason why Mozambicans, to use
an example, find
it attractive to resort to parallel markets could be the
absence of official
channels for them to secure Zimbabwean currency to
enable them to make
purchases in Zimbabwe. If there were official channels
at various crossing
points more people would gladly use them, but we have
not made these
available but we then criminalise ordinary, honest
people.
My third concern with the approach
adopted by the
Reserve Bank is that they always zero -in on the small fish,
while the big
fish get away scot-free. In any case, if there is a breach of
the laws of
this country surely that is a function of the police. But I
doubt whether
there is an intention to prosecute, rather it is to score
points using a
media blitz. This can be extremely short-sighted and damaging
in the long
term.
There is an urgent need to
reassess these
approaches. By the way what gains have been made from the
whistle-blower
fund established soon after Gono's appointment as Governor of
the Reserve
Bank? The fact that corruption continues to flourish suggests
even
whistle-blowers have no faith in attempts to sort out the economy. That
is
how far we are from getting things
right.
Dumisani
Mpofu
Waverley
Kadoma
------------------
Hodges
not an economist
I wish to challenge you to correct a
factual
inexactitude in the last issue of The Standard about Andy
Hodges.
Let me first make it clear that I buy
every issue of
The Standard, but I feel let down when your reporters do a
sloppy job of not
only seeking economic comment from a lay person like
Hodges, but go a step
further to refer to him as an economist. I can expect
that level of
sloppiness from the State media and not from The
Standard.
Firstly, your report quoted Hodges and
referred to
him as the group economist for ZABG. That is incorrect. The ZABG
website
www.zabg.co.zw lists Andy Hodges
as a treasurer and not group economist. If
my memory is clear, I think the
economist at ZABG is David Mupamhadzi.
Secondly,
to refer to Hodges as an economist is in
itself terminological fraud and an
abuse of the term. For one to be an
economist, they have to be trained in
economics. I am a qualified economist
myself. Those who studied economics
know that it's a rigorous course with
thorough studies in econometrics,
inflation, macro-economics and so on.
Andy Hodges
has no known tertiary qualification, and
least of all an economics one. This
is actually clear on the ZABG website.
He is just an experienced dealer who
worked for banks such as CBZ and First
Bank.
Thirdly, Hodges should assist reporters by
disabusing them of the opinion
that he is an economist. I urge Hodges to
speak less about things he doesn't
know. I think Stephen Gwasira, the ZABG
CEO, who is a qualified economist
himself knows what I am talking about.
I think
your reporters need to do these checks
before seeking economic comment;
otherwise, some of us will not take your
economic reports, and consequently
your paper very seriously.
Milton
Matigari
(Qualified
Economist)
Highlands
Harare
-------------
Why has Malawi Embassy discontinued its
field trips?
SOMETIME ago the Malawian Embassy would
make the
annual trip to Bulawayo to enable holders of Malawian passports
whose
passports would have expired during the year to renew them and also
respond
to other queries from nationals.
This
saved Malawians the expensive trip to Harare
where they would have to bear
the misery of spending the whole day virtually
on the street before they
caught the evening train back home as many did not
have any relatives in the
capital.
I don't know the last time the embassy
officials
made that trip to Bulawayo, but I know it was ages ago, and
Malawian
passport holders find themselves having to make that odious trip to
the
Malawian Embassy in Harare.
One just has
to see the congestion at the Harare
offices as people from across the
country crowd there as a direct result of
the centralisation of the
application and renewal of passports.
We must ask
therefore why the very useful annual
trips to Bulawayo were discontinued
when all logic points the other
direction. If anything, the regularity of
the trips should have been
increased to at least twice a
year.
Most diplomatic missions with wealthier
citizens
than Malawians travel to the major centres in the country where
they hold
clinics and process passports. They do this because they realise
the
hardships of travelling to one central location such as
Harare.
Frustrated
Nyasarande
Tshabalala
Bulawayo
----------
Chickens coming home to
roost
IT is interesting to note that no matter how
they
behave during day time and doing all sorts, the chickens are now coming
home
to roost. Everybody who was involved seems to know what happened during
the
Gukurahundi.
Some even have the audacity
to say that although
they were army officers they did not like what was
happening despite
following orders. Interesting, isn't it? It's going to be
more interesting
when the other members of the persecuted side come out into
the open to say
whom they rose up against and what it is that they
did.
Walter M
Budiriro
Harare