http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own
Correspondent Friday 08 August 2008
JOHANNESBURG - Talks
between Zimbabwe's rival political parties are likely
to yield a compromise
pact modelled on the French system, with an executive
prime minister and an
executive president sharing power, ZimOnline has
authoritatively
established.
The international media has been awash with reports that
opposition MDC
party leader Morgan Tsvangirai is on his way to become
executive prime
minister with President Robert Mugabe reduced to a purely
ceremonial role.
But ZimOnline has established that all these reports are
not true.
The Star newspaper of Johannesburg even went as far as quoting
a document
that it said was a draft agreement confirming the executive
premiership for
Tsvangirai and a ceremonial presidency for Mugabe whom the
newspaper said
would also be granted blanket immunity from any future
prosecution.
ZimOnline is authoritatively informed that this was in fact
a draft
discussion paper by one of the MDC factions participating in the
talks which
had been inputted by South Africa and not a draft agreement as
reported.
Our sources, who agreed to speak on condition they were not
named, said
Mugabe's party ZANU PF had flatly refused to have the veteran
leader demoted
to a ceremonial role and insisted he would have to retain
some executive
powers if the negotiations are to produce a
deal.
President Thabo Mbeki, who reports had said would travel to Harare
on
Thursday for a meeting with Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara -
leader
of the smaller MDC formation - was in fact in his country and had a
number
of activities planned for Friday, including receiving accreditation
documents from several new diplomats to Pretoria.
ZimOnline is
informed that Mbeki - southern Africa's chief mediator in the
talks - will
now travel to Harare this weekend to mediate a meeting between
Tsvangirai,
Mugabe and Mutambara that will tackle some outstanding issues
about the
power sharing system.
"The principals (Mugabe and Tsvangirai) will iron
out a number of
outstanding issues and concretise the draft agreement in the
presence of
Mbeki . . . ," said a source.
The source added: "If all
is agreed the agreement would then be referred to
experts for the requisite
legal drafting needed to effect constitutional
amendment number 19 to pave
way for Tsvangirai's inclusion in government,
among other
things.
"Mbeki will also fulfill his wish to greet his fellow SADC
(Southern African
Development Community) peers with an agreement on Zimbabwe
in hand at their
summit in Johannesburg next week."
It was not
immediately clear whether Tsvangirai would ultimately accept
sharing
executive powers with Mugabe.
Tsvangirai had put forward two positions
which his larger formation of the
MDC considered non-negotiable. These were
that he should either be at the
very top of any new unity or transitional
government to emerge from the
talks or at least become executive prime
minister with Mugabe demoted to a
ceremonial role.
The talks had
almost collapsed after ZANU PF had offered Tsvangirai the
third
vice-presidency.
Sources said progress had since been made since the
talks resumed on Monday
but they emphasized that this progress did not mean
that Mugabe would become
a "wholly ceremonial King".
Zimbabwe's
feuding political parties began dialogue about two weeks ago in a
bid to
break a long-running crisis that took a turn for the worse following
Mugabe's disputed and violent re-election in the June.
The SADC and
the African Union have leaned heavily on Zimbabwe's political
leaders to
form a power-sharing government seen as the most viable way to
end a
political and economic crisis seen in severe food shortages, deepening
poverty, 80 percent unemployment and the world's highest inflation rate of
more than two million percent. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by
Patricia Mpofu and Wayne Mafaro Friday 08 August 2008
HARARE
- Zimbabwean civic society groups say they are going to use a summit
of
regional leaders in South Africa next week to raise their objection to a
government of national unity between President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU
PF party and the opposition MDC formations.
A power-sharing
government is seen by Southern African Development Community
(SADC) leaders
as well as the African Union as the most viable way to
resolve Zimbabwe's
long-running political and economic crisis
But civic society groups have
long said Zimbabwe's future cannot be
guaranteed by an "elitist
power-sharing pact" between the country's most
powerful
politicians.
Fambai Ngirande, the spokesman for the National Association
of
Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO) said the civic groups would
organise
protest marches, demonstrations and public meetings to draw the
attention of
SADC leaders to ordinary Zimbabweans' objection to a unity
government.
South African civic society groups will also take part in the
protests in
solidarity with their Zimbabwean colleagues, said
Ngirande.
He said: "We are going to the SADC summit to press for the
Zimbabwe people's
rejection of the proposed government of national unity and
the elite
power-sharing arrangement being fronted by President Thabo Mbeki
(the South
African leader is SADC's chief mediator in the Zimbabwe
talks).
"A number of solidarity actions will be undertaken at the event,
including
marches, demonstrations and public meetings."
Zimbabwe's
feuding political parties began dialogue about two weeks ago in a
bid to
break a long-running crisis that took a turn for the worse following
Mugabe's disputed and violent re-election in the June.
Zimbabwean and
South African officials speaking separately on Thursday
described the
power-sharing talks as progressing "very well" although a
widely expected
meeting between Mugabe and main MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai
did not take
place.
Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba, said no such meeting took
place because
none had been scheduled, adding that South African President
Thabo Mbeki -
chief mediator in the talks - was not coming to Harare as had
been reported
earlier.
However impeccable sources told ZimOnline
later on Thursday that Mbeki would
now be travelling to Harare this coming
weekend and will facilitate a
meeting between Tsvangirai, Mugabe and another
MDC leader Arthur Mutambara
that will tackle some sticking points standing
in the way of a power-sharing
deal between the three rivals.
Meanwhile
Zambian immigration authorities on Thursday deported more than 10
Zimbabwean
civic activists saying meetings they were due to hold "were aimed
at
destabilising dialogue" between ZANU PF and MDC.
The activists, among
them, Abel Chikomo from the Media Monitoring Project of
Zimbabwe (MMPZ),
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition director Xolani Zitha and
spokesperson Mcdonald
Lewanika, and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
director Irene Petras, had
gone to neighbouring Zambia for a series of
consultative meetings on
Zimbabwe's slowly unfolding transition process.
"The Zambian immigration
officers alleged that the meeting was bent on
disrupting ongoing dialogue
between ZANU PF and MDC," said one of the
activists, adding they were
deported upon landing at Lusaka International
airport. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Red Cross
Friday 08 August 2008
This preliminary emergency appeal seeks
CHF 27,755,314 (USD 26,837,020) in
cash or in kind to support the Zimbabwe
Red Cross Society (ZRCS) to assist
260 100 OVC, HBC clients and their
household members within its community
home-based care programme across 25
districts in the country's 10
administrative provinces for nine
months.
The food supply situation in Zimbabwe has deteriorated
significantly in
recent years. The country has been facing stern
socio-economic decline since
2000, a vulnerability compounded by the
aggravated impacts of climate change
such as drought, low crop performance
and limited irrigation.
All these factors have combined to lead to severe
shortages of basic food
across the country. Estimates suggest that up to 5.1
million people may be
without access to food by the end of 2008. In
addition, Zimbabwe, like so
many countries on the African continent is
suffering appallingly as a result
of HIV and AIDS. The pandemic claims an
estimated 2,300 lives every day.
This preliminary emergency appeal,
launched at the request of ZRCS, is
therefore intended to provide vital
support in responding to immediate
humanitarian needs in the following areas
across 25 districts of the country's
eight provinces:
· Procurement
and distribution of basic food items;
· Agricultural support and
livelihoods recovery;
· Water and sanitation (WatSan
interventions).
This operation is expected to be implemented over nine
months, and will be
completed by May 2009. A final report will be made
available by 30 August
2009 (three months after the end of the
operation).
The situation
The food security situation in Zimbabwe
is likely to be the worst ever on
record in 2008. By December, approximately
5.1 million people will not have
access to food. This extremely worrying
situation will only be addressed
through the joint efforts of all relevant
actors. The Red Cross - ZRCS and
the International Federation of Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies
(IFRC) - is in this regard only one important
player.
An exceptional accumulation of negative factors have created this
unprecedented humanitarian situation. Unpredictable weather patterns,
drastic socio-economic decline and a deepening humanitarian crisis have left
millions of Zimbabweans without access to sufficient food, while the HIV and
AIDS pandemic continues to ravage the country as it claims an estimated
2,300 lives every day (According to MoHCW1: Herald Newspaper on 1 November
2007). The country's predominantly subsistence agriculture economy is
particularly prone to the changing weather patterns induced by climate
change. To worsen the situation, Zimbabwe is struggling with the world's
highest inflation rate (over two million per cent as of end July 2008). As
most rural communities are dependent on agricultural production this
financial strain has a significant effect on food security and
livelihoods.
According to the 18 June 2008 Food and Agricultural
Organization (FAO) and
World Food Programme (WFP) joint crop and food supply
assessment (CFSAM),
the total number of food insecure persons in rural and
urban areas will be
2.04 million persons for the period between July and
September 2008, rising
to 3.8 million people between October and December
2008 and peaking to 5.1
million people between January and March 2009. This
is approximately 45
percent of the total population. The capacity of the
government to import
food will be constrained by soaring food prices, and
unavailability of
foreign currency in the country. The expected harvest may
only reach 40 per
cent of the needs for 2008/2009.
This dire
situation comes on the back of a difficult 2007. The 2007 rainy
season was
characterised by inconsistent rainfall, a pattern that lead
alternatively to
droughts and floods across the country.
According to the Zimbabwe
meteorological department, by January 2008, 95 per
cent of the country had
received 150 perent of average rainfall. These
inundations in many areas of
the country led to flooding, leaching, erosion,
limited farming activities
and late planting. This in turn affected national
crop production.
A
June 2007 CSFAM estimated that national cereal production for large grain
(maize) and small grain (sorghum and millet) was 44 per cent lower than 2006
estimates. Maize production was 46 per cent below the 2005/06 level and 13
per cent below the 2004/05 level. National production of main season maize
is estimated at 575,000 tonnes, which is 28 per cent lower than 2007
production (using CFSAM estimate of 800,000 tonnes).
This downward
trend of cereal production has also affected the 2008 farming
season.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture's agricultural food
security briefs
from December 2007 to February 2008, the fertiliser supply
situation
remained depressed throughout the season. Only seven per cent of
the
targeted 600,000 tonnes of basal fertiliser and ten per cent of top
dressing
fertilizer that was needed reached farmers on time.
The Ministry of
Agriculture update on the 2008 winter wheat season notes
that only about 12
percent of the targeted farming area had been prepared
for planting by 16
May 2008 - itself only 43 percent of the area planted in
2007. Once again,
limited availability of fertilizer is having serious
impacts on planting
prospects for the next harvest in November. Only 24
percent and 19 percent
of required Compound D and top dressing fertilizers
respectively are
available. At the same time, high seed costs and slow
disbursements of loans
(Agribank has disbursed only three per cent of funds
required by wheat
farmers) are hindering preparations.
Ministry of Health and Child
Welfare
There is continued contraction of economic activity in all
sectors,
infrastructural degradation (particularly in the agricultural
sector
including capital asset depletion - irrigation structures and
equipment) and
the loss of productivity and the higher social and medical
care burden
caused by the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Although economic decline
and food
insecurity impacts across all sections of Zimbabwean society, the
sharpest
impact will be felt by the most vulnerable communities, including
those
households affected by HIV and AIDS.
Coordination and
partnerships
The ZRCS is initially targeting 12.5 percent of the
estimated total of
vulnerable people from July - September 2008. It is
understood that other
agencies will also carry some of the
caseload.
WFP is for example planning to launch a USD 205 million food
security appeal
(214,000 MT).
WFP will probably, after the
government, be the single largest provider of
food in Zimbabwe during this
project period. ZRCS and the IFRC will
coordinate its own efforts in close
collaboration with WFP and other
partners to avoid overlap.
ZRCS
works in collaboration with several partner Red Cross societies
including
the British, Danish, Japanese, Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian Red
Cross
Societies, in implementing the integrated CHBC programme and
complimentary
programmes. With the support of partners, ZRCS has developed
capacity to
plan, deliver, monitor and report on programming. Partners have
also
provided additional in-country expatriate technical support to the
ZRCS.
ZRCS has developed and will maintain various partnerships with
key technical
organisations including, FAO, WFP, Tree Africa and ICRAF, who
provide
technical input and support on implementation and training. Officers
from
the Zimbabwe government's Agricultural Research and Extension Services
(AGRITEX) provide training and information on improved farming practices,
seed variety selection, and general crop production management. The officers
are also involved in the monitoring and evaluation of livelihood projects.
ZRCS is a member of the Agriculture Coordination Working Group (ACWG), which
is made up of various agencies including WFP, UNICEF, AGRITEX and the
Zimbabwe Civil Protection Unit (CPU) and the IFRC also
participates.
There are a number of factors that could feasibly impact on
the
implementation of this emergency operation. An important concern, at
present, is the accessibility to vulnerable communities in the light of the
current political instability. In terms of procurement, delays could arise
as a result of logistical challenges related to transportation, access to
fuel and customs regulations. There could also be hiccups in the supply
chain: if the operation is not supported early enough in the planning
process there is a risk that regional food supplier might run-out of food,
forcing the IFRC to use continental or overseas suppliers, which would
invariably increase the price of food commodities and thereof delays in
deliveries.
In the event of a rapid-onset disaster during this food
security operation
timeframe (e.g. floods), the implementation could be
slowed down as focus
and resources would, temporarily, have to be diverted
to the immediate
disaster response. In order to cope with the previous
issues of capacity,
this appeal includes the need for resource to cover
temporary human resource
support by recruiting a number of local
staff.
The assumption is that the IFRC and the ZRCS will have full
compliance from
local authorities and also that most of the procurement will
be done
directly by the IFRC or through in-kind support from donors. Any
in-kind
donation will be well coordinated with the IFRC in-country team to
avoid
delays, consistent type of assistance and avoid breakages of the
food-pipeline. The assumption is also that significant support for this
appeal will be received in August 2008 in order to ensure all necessary
procurement is done by the end of August 2008, so that ZRCS is able to
distribute to all beneficiaries within sufficient time for the next planting
season in November.
Planned Red Cross and Red Crescent
action
A significant part of the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society's (ZRCS)
operational
focus lies on its HIV and AIDS programming. Operating through
its network of
trained community-based volunteers, ZRCS provides
community-based home care
(CHBC) for 16,762 chronically ill people as well
as 49,519 orphans and
children made vulnerable by HIV (OVC). As a follow-up
to this initiative,
the ZRCS is at present piloting an antiretroviral
treatment (ART) programme
for 1,500 HBC clients in Chivi and Mount Darwin.
The ZRCS has 25 CHBC
project sites in the country's eight provinces. In all,
Red Cross volunteers
assist 260,100 people through this programme including
the 193,819
dependents of the target groups outlined above.
The CHBC
programme will serve as an entry point for this emergency food
security
operation, in an effort to speedily capitalize on already
established
structures. The initial focus of ZRCS is therefore to provide
food
assistance to the 260,100 vulnerable clients - a caseload spread across
Zimbabwe's eight provinces. This figure represents approximately 12.5 per
cent of the population that FAO and WFP estimate will require food
assistance from July to September 2008. The ZRCS is willing to re-assess the
situation as it evolves and is prepared to increase its reach if needed,
depending on its own capacity, the needs of affected communities and work of
other humanitarian and governmental actors. The prognosis is that the food
security situation will reach its peak in January up to March 2009 with
about 5.1 million food insecure people.
The largest food security
operation previously conducted by the ZRCS was in
2006 - an effort that
reached and supported 140,000 beneficiaries, a figure
that will be almost
doubled under this current proposed operation.
Previously in 2002 and this
2006 operation, ZRCS distributed food aid in
coordination with WFP. During
the recent acute food insecurity situations,
ZRCS has also distributed food
aid to CHBC clients who received assistance
through the Red Cross integrated
HIV programme. The people living with HIV
(PLHIV) and their dependents are
particularly vulnerable to inadequate
access to food.
The ZRCS
livelihoods programme was established in 2004 with funding from the
British
Red Cross and the United Kingdom's Department for International
Development
(DFID) and the Finnish Red Cross. The funding support for the
programme
ended in July 2007. The ZRCS livelihoods programme hence has been
on of the
five countries in southern Africa who received funding support
from Finnish
and Norwegian Red Cross Societies during 2007 and 2008.
However, there are
still gaps which are requiring long-term funding in-order
to strengthen the
livelihoods programme.
From precedent experiences, it has become clearer
that longer-term
interventions need to be addressed during emergency
operation in order to
mitigate the impact of food shortages in the future.
This is partly achieved
by building community-based coping mechanisms and
strengthening the capacity
of Red Cross volunteers at the very local
level.
The needs
As outlined above, the 2008 CFSAM report
indicates the total number of food
insecure people persons in rural and
urban areas will reach 5.1 million
people by March 2009, which is
approximately 45 per cent of the total
population.
Table 1:
Projected National Requirements 2008/2009
08/09 Needs Expected Harvest
2008 Government Import Requirement Deficit
2,080 million MTs 848,000 MTs
850,000 MTs 382,000 MTs
Table 2: Estimates of food insecure individuals
in rural and urban areas
2008/9
Province
Jul-Sep 2008 Oct-Dec 2008 Jan-Mar 2009
Manicaland
285,400 535,100 713,400
Mashonaland Central 154,600 289,800
386,400
Mashonaland East 187,000 350,600
467,500
Mashonaland West 126,300 236,800
315,700
Masvingo 252,200 472,800
630,400
Matebeleland North 127,500 239,100
318,900
Matebeleland South 148,500 278,400
371,200
Midlands 243,800 457,200
609,500
Rural Provinces 1,525,300 2,859,800
3,813,000
Urban & peri-urban 515,500 966,600
1,288,800
Total 2,040,800 3,826,400
5,101,800
Source: FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission (CFSAM
to Zimbabwe,
18 June 2008
With the total annual national utilization
of cereals at about 2.080 million
tonnes to cater for the projected
population of 11.865 million, the
shortfall of the national production is
estimated at 1.232 million tonnes,
of which the maize deficit accounts for
about one million tonnes.
Availability of maize grain is now restricted to
making it difficult to
access from the formal market. High transport costs
are being borne by the
communities since the grain is being sourced from
distant markets.
Supplies from the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) have been
erratic and some
districts have not received any supplies.
Table 3:
National Estimates of required food assistance in 2008/09 (MTs)
Province
July-Sept 2008 October-Dec 2008 January-March 2009 Total
Manicaland
10,274 19,263 25,684 55,221
Mashonaland Central 5,564 10,432 13,910
29,906
Mashonaland East 6,732 12,623 16,830 36,185
Mashonaland
West 4,547 8,525 11,366 24,438
Masvingo 9,078 17,022 22,695
48,795
Matebeleland North 4,592 8,609 11,479 24,679
Matebeleland
South 5,345 10,092 13,362 28,729
Midlands 8,777 16,458 21,943
47,178
Rural Provinces 54,908 102,953 137,270 295,131
Urban and
peri-urban 18,558 34,797 46,396 99,751
Total 73,470 137,750 183,670
394,880
Source: FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission (CFSAM)
to Zimbabwe,
18 June 2008
Needs identified through the on-going ZRCS
assessments include urgent food
aid for food-insecure households. There is
also an urgent need of assisting
poor households to resume crop production
activities in the next
agricultural season. ZRCS is appealing for a total of
USD 26,837,020 for the
operation to be implemented in nine months (the
appeal coverage will extend
to 12 months as some staff and costs will be
required for activities before
and after the actual nine-month
distribution/implementation period),
focusing on food aid and livelihood
recovery programme; including water and
sanitation and disaster risk
reduction activities as well.
Beneficiary selection:
Surveys
conducted by FAO/WFP and the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment
Committee
(ZIMVAC) in the previous years have identified districts that have
higher
levels of food insecurity than others throughout the country. The
districts
identified are illustrated in the map below. The districts' food
insecurity
is ranked from high to low. It is important to note that most of
the medium
to low insecurity districts now fall under highly insecure
categories due to
the lean periods and harsh economic environment.
Most of the ZRCS' 25
target project sites are within areas of high food
insecurity. The community
home-based care (CHBC) clients and OVC will be
targeted as the entry point
as these groups comprise of extremely vulnerable
households that will
require food assistance since household food production
has been
compromised. However, there will be on-going assessments to include
other
vulnerable groups meeting the National Society's selection criteria
who also
need food assistance.
These will be inline with the National Society's
capacity at hand.
The priority need of the beneficiaries as identified by
surveys conducted by
the ZRCS is food aid.
Most beneficiaries
highlighted that they could not implement livelihoods
activities or farming
activities on empty stomachs. Food needs will be
addressed through direct
food distribution in rural areas and in urban
areas. Food aid is the single
largest budget line in this appeal - a result
of the current global food
crisis and soaring inflation within Zimbabwe.
Support for agricultural
production and livelihoods recovery including water
and sanitation
activities will be conducted to address medium to long-term
needs. The
number of beneficiaries will vary depending on the nature of the
activity,
taking into account the capabilities of beneficiaries and levels
of
community effort to enable effective resource utilisation. Some
activities
although targeting specific households, will benefit the
surrounding
communities indirectly (model gardens, wells, dams etc).
The proposed
operation
The strategic plan of the operation is guided by the IFRC's
four Global
Agenda Goals2 and seeks to achieve two strategic
objectives:
The IFRC's activities are aligned with its Global Agenda,
which sets out
four broad goals:
1. Reduce the number of deaths,
injuries and impact of disasters.
2. Reduce the number of deaths,
illnesses and impact from diseases and
public health emergencies.
3.
Increase local community, civil society and Red Cross Red Crescent
capacity
to address the most urgent situations of vulnerability.
4. Reduce
intolerance, discrimination and social exclusion and promote
respect for
diversity and human dignity.
1. The provision of timely emergency relief
to meet the basic needs of the
most affected by the food security crisis
and,
2. The provision of early recovery support to restore and improve
agricultural resilience of the most vulnerable people in target
areas.
Food aid will initially be targeted towards CHBC clients, OVC and
their
household members in the eight provinces and 25 project sites that the
ZRCS
operates in (refer to tables 5 - 7 below for detailed breakdown of
these
groups). Direct food aid is more appropriate in Zimbabwe due to the
national
shortage of basic food commodities on the open market (the voucher
system is
viewed as not feasible under current socio-economic
circumstances). ZRCS
will continue to attend WFP coordinated food aid
meetings where humanitarian
agencies share information on areas of operation
to avoid double dipping.
The planned recovery activities will help
beneficiaries to be more self
sufficient in the future.
These will
include the establishment of sand dams, protection and deepening
of wells,
micro-projects, conservation farming, piloting of treadle and
elephant
pumps. Results from ZRCS assessments and programme reviews
indicated the
need to strengthen integration of water and sanitation and
livelihoods
interventions. Most livelihoods interventions are
agriculture-based and it
recommended having reliable water sources to ensure
high yields and
sustainability.
Table 4: Summary Food Requirements for the Red Cross
operation (MTs)
MT Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March April
Total
Maize 2,601 2,601 2,601 2,601 2,601 2,601 2,601 2,601 2,601
23,409
Beans 468 468 468 468 468 468 468 468 468
4,212
Oil(1,000lts) 117 117 117 117 117 117 117 117 117 1,053
CSB
780 780 780 780 780 780 780 780 780 7,020
Grand Total 3,967 3,967 3,967
3,967 3,967 3,967 3,967 3,967 3,966 35,694
Table 5: Summary of Targeted
Beneficiaries - HBC Clients
HBC Clients Household
Members
Province Male Female Total HBC Male Female
Total
household members Total HBC+HH members
Masvingo 1,572 1,699 3,271 4,910
5,542 10452 13723
Mat North 1,167 1,585 2,752 4,795 6,126 10921
13673
Mat South 1,192 1,663 2,855 4,542 4,580 9122 11977
Midlands
510 562 1,072 1,411 1,532 2943 4015
Manicaland 642 757 1,399 1,373 1,487
2860 4259
Mash Central 980 1,308 2,288 2,749 2,853 5602 7890
Mash
East 424 731 1,155 1,349 1,464 2813 3968
Mash West 883 1,087 1,970 1,158
1,470 2628 4598
TOTAL 7,370 9,392 16,762 22,287 25,054 47,341
64,103
Table 6: Summary of Targeted Beneficiaries - OVC
Clients
OVC Province
Boys Girls Total OVC Household Members Total
OVC and households members
Masvingo 1,212 1,321 2,533 7,599
10,132
Mat North 3,668 3,990 7,658 22,974 30,632
Mat South 3,929
5,895 9,824 29,472 39,296
Midlands 1,323 1,414 2,737 7,176
9,913
Manicaland 5,841 6,319 12,160 36,480 48,640
Mash Central
1,445 1,538 2,983 8,949 11,932
Mash East 1,498 1,568 3,066 9,198
12,264
Mash West 4,210 4,348 8,210 24,630 32,840
TOTAL
23,126 26,393 49,519 146,478 195,997
Table 7: Summary of All
Targeted Beneficiaries (OVC plus HBC Beneficiaries)
Province Total
HBC
+ HH members Total OVC + HH members Total HBC + OVC + HH
members
Masvingo 13,72310,13223,855
Matebeleland
North 13,67330,63244,305
Matebeleland South
11,97739,29651,273
Midlands 4,015 9,913
13,928
Manicaland 4,25948,64052,899
Mashonaland
Central 7,89011,93219,822
Mashonaland East
3,96812,26416,232
Mashonaland West 4,598
33,18837,786
TOTAL 64,103 195,997 260,100
The
activities outlined below have been designed to meet the minimum
standards
demanded by the Sphere project's Humanitarian Charter and minimum
standards3
in disaster response.
Food Aid
Objective: To meet immediate food
needs of 260,100 vulnerable people (52,020
households) for nine months
through monthly food distributions in targeted
areas until the next
harvesting season.
Expected results Activities planned
· Improved
nutrition status of beneficiaries.
· Safety-net provided for vulnerable
households.
· Assisted children have improved capacity to concentrate at
school.
· Distribution of food packs (maize 10kg, beans 1.8kg, cooking
oil 0.5
litres and 3kg corn soya blend per individual per month) to 260,100
vulnerable people and their households in rural and urban
areas.
(Food packs are based on WFP standard of 2,100 Kcal per person per
day)
· Monitoring and evaluation of relief activities and reporting on
relief
distributions.
Agricultural Production and Livelihoods
Recovery Objectives:
1. To build agricultural recovery and stabilise
household food production of
100,930 people (20,186 households) through
distribution of agricultural
inputs, strengthening community seed banks and
supporting agricultural
management for nine months
2. To establish
sustainable systems that protect livelihoods through diverse
interventions
to improve household income, food security, nutrition status
and self
sufficiency of 128,500 people (25,700 households) for nine
months
Expected results Activities planned
· Increase in area
under agricultural production
· Improved access to agricultural inputs in
the next farming season
· Increase in household food production.
·
Livelihood projects are implemented in line with country strategic plan
·
Cost effective input usage
· Significant increase in yields
·
Improved nutritional status of beneficiaries
· Improved household
income
· Improved household food security
· Distributing recovery
seed packs consisting of 10kg maize, 10kg sorghum,
5kg beans, 5kg
groundnuts, 100kg ammonium nitrate and 50kg compound D
fertiliser to 20,186
rural households (100,930 people)
· Training beneficiaries on seed
preservation and seed storage.
· Training beneficiaries on better farming
techniques.
· Conservation farming trainings with technical support from
AGRITEX
benefiting 2,500 people (500 households).
· Training 60,000
people (12,000 households) in nutrition promotion.
· Distributing
vegetable seeds (five varieties) benefiting 128,500 people
(25,700
households).
· Installation of low cost water pumping technologies i.e.
500 treadle pumps
and 20 elephant pumps
· Conducting a total of 50
training sessions in market linkage and vegetable
processing
benefiting.
· Providing 200 families (1,000 people) with three goats
each.
· Training the recipient households on animal husbandry. Goats are
passed on
to an additional 200 households (who in turn will do the same),
three months
after their first set of kids.
· Implementation of
specific projects such as bee keeping, mushroom
production, aquaculture and
crafts, based on viable project proposals and
feasibility assessments
benefiting, 100 projects benefiting 1,000 people in
total in each
region.
· Provision of 100 water troughs at water points for domestic
animals.
Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Promotion
Objective: To
improve access of households to safe water and health and
hygiene promotion
for 3,000 vulnerable households (15,000 people) in 25
project
sites
Expected results Activities planned
· Access to sustainable
safe and adequate water for both human and animal
consumption.
·
Improved behaviour change through hygiene promotion activities.
·
Rehabilitating 200 water points (hand pumps and apron).
· Conducting a
total of 50 Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation
Transformation (PHAST)
training targeting 15,000.
· Training 200 water point committees in
community-based management (CBM).
Logistics
The IFRC southern
Africa Zone logistics department in close collaboration
with the ZRCS
logistics department have extensive experience working with
other
organisations based in Zimbabwe, such as WFP and European Commission
Humanitarian Office (ECHO). The IFRC southern Africa Zone logistics
department in collaboration with the regional logistics unit (RLU) in Dubai
is experienced in providing services in major operations and is conversant
with customs clearance and other requirements in Zimbabwe.
The food
distribution points (FDPs) will be monitored by ZRCS provincial
officers and
trained volunteers. In conducting all these logistics component
processes,
the ZRCS logistics structures from the headquarters to the IFRC
zone level
will be strengthened in order to ensure adequate support to the
operation
The food is delivered to FDPs and distributed on the same
day to identified
representatives of registered CHBC clients and OVC. Care
facilitators are
on-site at the distribution points to ensure accuracy of
the process.
Monitoring is undertaken at FDPs to ensure that ration sizes
are maintained,
and to investigate issues such as travel distances, modes of
transport and
statistics related to household members sharing the
food.
Capacity of the National Society
ZRCS is a volunteer driven
organisation, which depends on community-based
volunteers (approximately
30,000 at present) working with the most
vulnerable. ZRCS has a long
standing experience working with communities
across the country. The
community-based approach will be enhanced through
the capacity building of
staff and volunteers to monitor and evaluate
projects and to participate in
data collection. Community consultation will
take place through the
participatory approach exercise to identify ways of
supporting the entire
community's food security and to strengthen the social
protection around the
most vulnerable.
Specific volunteers have been identified for the
agricultural recovery
programme. These volunteers and lead farmers will
continue to reach the
targeted households, cascading information and
assisting in monitoring
projects and are key facilitators of community
action. Volunteers will
receive inputs to use in their own plots as model
gardens and they will
continue to work closely with AGRITEX officers to
train lead farmers in each
project site.
ZRCS staff members are
committed at all levels (national, provincial and
district) to ensure
effective and efficient implementation of all
programmes. The national food
security team is made up of a food security
and livelihoods programme
officer, programme assistant and a secretary,
skilled in programme
management, agronomics, and research and data
management. There are also
food security and livelihoods officers in all
provinces working with the
district and ward levels.
In some provinces there are also district
officers who help to coordinate
and monitor projects.
ZRCS has also
established a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) unit at national
level.
The department is focused on building the capacity of staff and
volunteers
to effectively monitor programmes. This will help in the
production of
quality, impact-based reports through the development of
indicators, M&E
plans, and development of data bases and mapping of
strategies to
meaningfully involve beneficiaries.
The National Society will continue to
work with existing government
structures such as AGRITEX to ensure
sustainability of projects. AGRITEX
will assist in monitoring and providing
technical support to beneficiaries
in implementing and managing agricultural
projects. Technical partners such
as FAO, WFP and the Ministry of
Agriculture will assist through joint
monitoring and evaluation visits with
ZRCS staff and volunteers. Evaluations
conducted at the mid and end points
of the operation's phases will enable to
identification of programme
weaknesses as well as successes which can then
be captured as best
practices. Partners have also provided additional
in-country expatriate
technical support to the WatSan, HIV AIDS and
livelihoods
programming.
Cognisance must be given to the challenges that a large
scale operation of
this kind can place on the ZRCS. This appeal caters for
capacity issues
through the engagement of temporary staff such as finance
and logistics
officers, dedicated solely to this programme.
Capacity
of the IFRC
A Federation Country Representation office (FCR) was
established in Zimbabwe
in January 2008 following a request from ZRCS. The
FCR is dedicated solely
to the support of the ZRCS and will enhance the
capacity of ZRCS staff to
manage this integrated programme. The IFRC has
coordinated the development
and implementation of past food security
operations in Zimbabwe.
Food insecurity has been the major humanitarian
challenge in southern Africa
as a whole since 2002 and the IFRC has
strengthened capacity in response and
sustainable recovery
programmes.
The objective of the FCR is to coordinate and capacitate the
National
Society to effectively respond to disasters such as the food
security
operation, to provide technical advice and training in priority
areas on
request and as and when necessary. Back-up is also available from
partner
Red Cross societies based in Zimbabwe such as Danish and Norwegian
Red
Cross.
For this specific operation, the IFRC will engage two
technical delegates
and one local officer to strengthen logistics,
procurement and finance and
provide continuous technical support. One driver
will also be recruited
under this programme. Two delegates will comprise of
the relief coordinator
who will counterpart with the ZRCS national food
security and livelihoods
officer, while the logistics delegate will
counterpart with ZRCS logistics
officer. They all report through the
national programmes coordinator. The
third will be a finance person directly
relating to the finance officer and
reporting through the finance manager
while the forth will be a driver for
the operation.
Due to the strong
emphasis on logistics and finance most purchases will be
made directly by
the IFRC and finances will be closely monitored to minimize
exchange rate
losses.
The relief team will be supported by IFRC Southern African Zone
disaster
management, health, water and sanitation, finance, logistics and
planning,
monitoring, evaluation and reporting (PMER) departments. The zone
was
established in Johannesburg in 2008 as part of the IFRC's recent global
restructure. Assuming many of the responsibilities previously handled by the
IFRC secretariat in Geneva, the zone office is responsible for directly
supporting the development of Red Cross society capacity in Southern Africa
as well as for providing strategic and technical assistance.
Budget
summary
Budget Item Priority Cost (CHF)
Food relief (maize, beans,
CSB, oil) 1 16,836,593
Seeds, plants, fertilizers 1
3,447,255
WatSan 1 246,250
Vehicle procurement (cars, motorcycles,
bicycles) 2 108,150
Livelihoods training 1 111,720
Computers/
telecommunications (cameras, laptops, printers, fax) 2 30,765
Warehousing
and distribution (rental, customs fees, loading etc) 2 3,966,645
Vehicle
maintenance costs (fuel, service, insurance, spare parts) 2
143,911
Federation personnel 3 292,920
NS personnel 3
599,328
Consultants fees 3 9,975
Workshops and training (capacity
building, evaluation) 1 47,250
Travel 2 5,195
Information
materials (visibility / publicity) 2 11,550
General expenses
(administration) 3 21,263
Communication (postage, courier, telephone,
internet) 3 40,950
Professional fees (audit) 3 31,500
Programme
Support Recovery 1,804,095
Total 27,755,314
Resource
Mobilisation and Alternative Strategies
In the event that funding is
received late or the appeal is under-funded,
there are several strategies,
which could be applied to modify this appeal.
The first of these could be
the reduction of the appeal time frame to six
months thus cutting the budget
while covering the entire targeted population
in all project areas. Priority
until August 2008 will be given to
agricultural starter packs taking into
account the planting season
(November) after which increasing vegetable seed
procurement could be an
option as these are not as time-bound as cereal
crops.
Thomas Gurtner Bekele
Geleta
Director Secretary
General
Coordination and Programmes Division
How we
work
All International Federation assistance seeks to adhere to the Code
of
Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) in Disaster Relief and is committed
to the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response
(Sphere) in delivering assistance to the most vulnerable.
The
International Federation's activities are aligned with its Global
Agenda,
which sets out four broad goals to meet the Federation's mission to
"improve
the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of
humanity".
Global Agenda Goals:
· Reduce the numbers of
deaths, injuries and impact from disasters.
· Reduce the number of
deaths, illnesses and impact from diseases and public
health
emergencies.
· Increase local community, civil society and Red Cross Red
Crescent
capacity to address the most urgent situations of
vulnerability.
· Reduce intolerance, discrimination and social exclusion
and promote
respect for diversity and human dignity.
Contact
information
For further information specifically related to this
operation please
contact:
· In Zimbabwe: Emma Kundishora, Secretary
General Email zrcs@ecoweb.co.zw;
ekundishora@comone.co.zw , Phone:
Tel: +263.4.332638; +263.4.332197;
Fax +263.4.335490
· In
Zimbabwe: Peter Lundberg; Country Representative, Zimbabwe Country
Representation, Harare;
Email peter.lundberg@ifrc.org .Phone: Tel:
+263.4.705166; +263.4.720315,
Fax +263.4.708784
· In
Southern Africa Zone: Françoise Le Goff, Head of Zone Office,
Johannesburg;
Email francoise.legoff@ifrc.org; Phone:
Tel: +27.11.303.9700;
+27.11.303.9711;
Fax: +27.11.884.3809;
+27.11.884.0230
· In Geneva: John Roche, Operations Coordinator, Email:
john.roche@ifrc.org;
Phone: +41.22.730.4400, Fax: +41.22.733.03.95
APPEAL BUDGET
SUMMARY
Zimbabwe Food Insecurity Appeal No.
ORIGINAL
RELIEF
NEEDS
Shelter 0
Construction Materials 0
Clothing &
Textiles 0
Food 16,836,593
Seeds & Plants
3,447,255
Water & Sanitation 246,250
Medical & First Aid
0
Teaching Materials 111,720
Utensils & Tools 0
Other
Supplies & Services 0
Total Relief Needs 20,641,818
CAPITAL
EQUIPMENT
Land & Buildings
Vehicles Purchase
108,150
Computers & Telecom Equipment 30,765
Office/Household
Furniture & Equip.
Medical Equipment
Other Machinery &
Equipment
TRANSPORT, STORAGE & VEHICLES
Storage - Warehouse
510,405
Distribution & Monitoring 3,456,240
Transport &
Vehicles Costs 143,911
PERSONNEL
International Staff
292,920
Regionally Deployed Staff 3,300
National Staff
236,880
National Society Staff 359,148
Consultants
9,975
WORKSHOPS & TRAINING
Workshops & Training
47,250
GENERAL EXPENSES
Travel 5,195
Information &
Public Relations 11,550
Office running costs 21,263
Communication
Costs 40,950
Professional Fees 31,500
Financial Charges
0
Other General Expenses 0
PROGRAMME SUPPORT
Programme
Support - PSR 1,804,095
Total Operational Needs 7,113,497
Total
Appeal Budget (Cash & Kind) 27,755,314
Available
Ressources
Net Request 27,755,314 -- ZimOnline
http://www.hararetribune.com/index.php?news=193
Tribune Staff/AFP 07 August, 2008 01:32:00
A
human rights group is putting together a case that will see ZANU-PF
militia
perpetrators of violence and rape against women prosecuted
A human-rights
group on Thursday announced it was collecting legal evidence
of politically
motivated mass rape by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's
youth militia to
build a case for prosecuting the men responsible.
AIDS-Free World, set up
by the former UN special envoy for AIDS in Africa,
Stephen Lewis, said it
would shortly dispatch lawyers to southern Africa to
collect testimony for
prosecutions that could take place domestically or in
an international
tribunal after Mugabe leaves power.
"The legal definition of a crime
against humanity is a widespread and
systematic attack against a civilian
population," the group's legal
director, Noah Novogrodsky, said on the
sidelines of the International AIDS
Conference in Mexico City.
"We
believe members of Mugabe's inner circle who turned [ruling party]
ZANU-PF's
youth militia into rapists and killers are responsible for crimes
against
humanity."
Betty Makoni, founder of a Zimbabwean grassroots groups for
girls called
Girl Child Network, said that her organisation had collected
evidence from
53 women who had been raped by the youth militia, and private
doctors had
accumulated evidence for many more.
The tally of known
cases "may be up to over 700 now," said Makoni. "No
single perpetrator has
been arrested."
Makoni said that the mass rapes occurred after the
stalemated March 29
election in Zimbabwe, when many male members of the
opposition went into
hiding.
Militiamen in rural areas toured
villages demanding that women identify
brothers, husbands and fathers who
were members of the opposition, and beat,
tortured or raped them to get the
information, she said.
"If you don't tell the youth militia where the
suspected opposition members
are, they insert pesticides in your vagina,"
Makoni told a press conference
hosted by AIDS-free World.
"A lot of
them had sticks inserted into their vagina... pushed in there in
order for
you to tell them 'I will never never support the opposition'."
Victims
included a 13-year-old girl who was abducted and traded to a youth
militiaman in exchange for goat, and a 60-year-old woman raped by 18
militiamen.
"I'm talking about an old granny, whom I saw in the
morning, with the power
to look after her grandchildren, but in the evening,
she's in the bush, with
the semen dribbling from 18 men," said
Makoni.
After one gang rape, a woman was told, "we are coming again until
you give
birth to a ZANU-PF child," Makoni said.
Police turned away
women who sought to file a complaint for rape, and many
women, suffering
vaginal bleeding and other serious injuries, who asked for
help at state
hospitals were told by doctors "'I don't want to cause trouble
for myself. I
don't have a choice but to turn you away'," said Makoni.
"They are
co-perpetrators and accomplices in crimes against humanity," she
said.
"Rape is still taking place," she said, adding that the latest
case she had
received occurred on July 24.
One of the biggest worries
of the rape victims was that they may have become
infected by the AIDS
virus. Zimbabwe has one of the highest rates of the
human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV) in the world, with 15.3 percent of the
adult population
infected.
But getting an HIV test was difficult and expensive, and many
women were too
afraid to find out, she said.
Novogrodsky said the
legal mission was "to record the names of the
perpetrators. We want to take
the statements of the witnesses while the
memories are still fresh. We don't
want to allow a culture of denial or
legal erasure."
He admitted that
there was scant hope of prosecuting rapists or those who
may have ordered
the assaults while Mugabe remained in power.
But, he said, there were
excellent chances of prosecution domestically or in
an international trial,
in the same way that Liberian warlord Charles Taylor
and Serbian Radovan
Karadzic had been put in the dock.
The evidence could also be used in any
future Truth and Reconciliation
Commission in Zimbabwe, an idea modelled on
the experience of post-apartheid
Africa, he added.
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
07 August
2008
Despite reports of progress in South
African-brokered Zimbabwean
power-sharing talks, police in Harare on
Thursday raided the offices of the
Crisis In Zimbabwe Coalition seeking
information on its directors, in
particular National Director Xolani
Zitha.
Crisis Coalition lawyer Tawanda Chiurayi told reporter Patience
Rusere of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the raid constituted harassment
as
information on the directors of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, an
umbrella for civic groups, is a matter of public record.
Elsewhere,
civil society sources said about 10 activists from various groups
were
deported Thursday from Zambia after immigration authorities there
claimed
the activists were trying to disrupt the ongoing power-sharing
talks.
Those deported included Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
Chairwoman Irene
Petras, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Chairman Abel
Chikomo, Combined
Harare Residents Association Chairman Barnabas Mangodza
and officials of the
Kenya office of the National Constitutional Assembly, a
leading Zimbabwean
civic advocacy organization.
VOA could not
reach the individuals said have been deported. Sources said
they were trying
to hold a consultative meeting on the country's proposed
transitional
government.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
07
August 2008
A farm in the Zimbabwean district of Rusape,
Manicaland province, has been
invaded by militants led by self-styled war
veteran Agatha Mugomba, who told
the farm's current owners she has an offer
letter from the Ministry of
Lands, Land Reform and
Resettlement.
Thousands of white-owned farms were invaded by war veterans
and other
militants starting in 2000 when the government of President Robert
Mugabe
launched a land reform program that most experts cite as the root
cause of
the country's precipitous economic decline.
Today only a few
hundred farms remain in white hands, and many of those
remaining have come
under attack by pro-government militants in the wake of
the March
presidential and general elections, which gave rise to months of
often
deadly political violence.
After the militants invaded Masasa Plot July
29, farmer Gavin Woest and his
family remained barricaded inside their home
while the invaders sang
revolutionary songs outside.
Woest told VOA
he has been farming on the plot for 10 years and was
surprised to hear that
the ministry had given Mugomba a letter offering the
property for
acquisition.
Woest's lawyer, Leonard Chigadza, told reporter Jonga
Kandemiiri of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that his client is seeking a high
court order to expel
the invaders.
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
07
August 2008
A Zimbabwean child rights activist told delegates
to the the 17th
International AIDS Conference in Mexico City on Thursday
that rape as a form
of political violence seems likely to boost the rate of
HIV infection among
women and girls in the Southern African
country.
Girl Child Network Director Betty Makoni charged during a
session organized
by AIDS-Free World of Canada that many women and girls
were subjected to
rape and torture by militia members allegedly under the
control of the
ruling ZANU-PF party during a wave of political violence that
followed March
elections and was mainly directed at the opposition.
AIDS
Free World said it is now documenting such crimes and is naming alleged
rapists with the intention of bringing them to justice. Makoni said it will
not be difficult to name names, because most of the perpetrators are
individuals known to residents of the localities, often remote rural areas,
where the alleged sexually based attacks took place.
Makoni said most
of the cases were reported to the police, but that
government doctors were
reluctant to document the crimes, or administer HIV
prophylactic
treatments.
Makoni told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7
for Zimbabwe that
her main concern at present is to help rape victims heal
physically, but
added that given the high HIV prevalence rate in the
country, many victims
could find their plight even more dire.
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
07 August
2008
New outbreaks of diarrheal disease are affecting
thousands of residents of
the Zimbabwean capital of Harare, according to
local officials who blame the
failing water system.
Deputy Mayor
Emmanuel Chiroto said the latest outbreak has hit the Harare
districts of
Letombo Park, Masasa Park, Warren Park and Glen View. He noted
that diarrhea
has been a chronic problem for residents of the Mabvuku-Tafara
district for
some time.
Chiroto said he could not provide exact figures as to the
number of
residents who have fallen ill, explaining that most of them cannot
afford to
seek treatment at a clinic or hospital.
Zimbabwe's
municipal water systems have been increasingly troubled in part
due to the
age of facilities, but also because authorities lack hard
currency to buy
purification chemicals.
Chiroto told reporter Patience Rusere of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
the city is trying to wrest control of the
water supply from the Zimbabwe
National Water Authority, which took over all
municipal systems last year,
to assure residents have safe drinking
water.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
07 August
2008
Power-sharing talks between Zimbabwe's long-ruling
ZANU-PF and both two
formations of the Movement for Democratic Change
concluded Thursday in
Pretoria, according to sources close to the talks, and
the resulting
agreements were set to be handed over to President Robert
Mugabe and MDC
leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara.
Sources in Harare and Pretoria said South African President
Thabo Mbeki was
expected to go to Harare on Sunday to encourage the
principals to approve
the accord. Mbeki, mediator in the crisis for the
Southern African
Development Community, had been expected in Harare
Thursday, but the
negotiators asked for more time, political sources
said.
Despite the official optimism being expressed in Pretoria, the
Zimbabwean
government cast a shadow over outlook by moving to block a
proposed
consultation visit by United Nations Assistant Secretary General
for
Political Affairs Haile Menkerios.
Menkerios is a member of the
high-level reference group recently formed to
support the talks. The
reference group also includes delegates from SADC and
the African
Union.
Sources in Harare said the government noted that Menkerios's visit
was not
announced in advance, while top officials including Mr. Mugabe will
be on a
long Heroes Day holiday.
But the same sources reported
suspicions among Harare officials that
Menkerios has been sent by U.N.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on behalf of
the United States and Great
Britain, setting up what they denounced as a
"parallel process."
The
U.N. secretary general's assistant spokesman, Farhan Haq, told VOA that
Menkerios is still in Pretoria and "arrangements for him to travel to Harare
are still to be worked out."
International Crisis Group Senior
Analyst Sydney Masamvu told reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that a breakthrough is likely -
but cautioned the deal must be
signed before celebrations are in order as
anything can happen in
politics.
http://www.fingaz.co.zw/
Njabulo Ncube Political Editor
DANIEL
Shumba, the leader of the United People's Party (UPP), has threatened
to sue
South African President Thabo Mbeki if he is not immediately included
in the
on-going SADC-mediated talks.
Mbeki will be in Harare today to meet
President Robert Mugabe and opposition
leaders, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara to discuss the finer details
of a power-sharing deal between
ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).
Shumba was barred
from submitting his papers as a candidate in the March 29
presidential
election to the nomination court in February after failing to
meet the
deadline.
However, in a judgment last Friday, the supreme court ruled that
the refusal
of the nomination court to accept Shumba's papers was not in
accordance with
Section 46 (7) of the Electoral Act.
Documents in The
Finan-cial Gazette's possession indicate that based on the
Supreme Court
ruling, Shumba on Tuesday engaged a South African law firm,
Van Huyssteen
Incorporated Atto-rneys, whose offices are in Houghton,
Johannesburg, to
write to Mbeki about the need to include him in the
negotiations to work out
a solution to the Zimbabwean crisis.
In papers submitted by his lawyers,
Shumba argues that ballot papers for the
March 29 presidential election
included his name as one of the candidates.
Shumba's lawyers contend that he
is "entitled to participate in the on-going
consultations that are taking
place concerning the affairs of Zimbabwe under
the auspices of Honourable
President T. Mbeki appointed by the SADC
countries as the facilitator in
this regard.
"Our client has a direct and substantial interest in the outcome
of the
talks; any process of consultation concerning the democratic future
of
Zimbabwe is fundamentally flawed if it is limited to only two parties,"
reads part of the letter Shumba's lawyers wrote to Mbeki.
Shumba notes
that his UPP is not the only minority party excluded from the
talks.
He
believes civic society organisations and human rights groups should also
be
included in the negotiations but questions the inclusion of Mutambara,
who
did not contest the election.
Mbeki's office has acknowledged receiving the
letter.
"The existing structure of the talks is indicative of unfairness,
imbalance
and lack of proper thinking in as much as not all individuals and
parties
who contested the elections on March 29 are included in the talks,"
said
lawyers representing Shumba.
"For instance we are instructed that
Arthur Mutambara, who did not contest
the elections and was in fact allied
to Simba Makoni before the election and
only subsequently, after the
election, formed an alliance with the
Tsvangirai faction of the MDC, is
included in the talks."
http://www.fingaz.co.zw/
Staff
Reporter
MASVINGO - There was an uproar in
Gutu, one of
the province's biggest districts last week when ZANU-PF
councillors stormed
out of a swearing-in ceremony after their Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) counterparts who comprise the majority, took
advantage of their
numbers to elect members of their party as committee
chairmen.
The councillors, whose assumption
of office
was delayed owing to the political impasse that ensued after the
March 29
harmonised elections, met at Mpandawana growth point to choose a
council
chairman, as well as heads of various
committees.
The councillors were at each
other's throats
over power sharing in the local authority between the two
main political
parties.
The MDC, which has
25 councillors against
ZANU-PF's 16, voted for Daniel Jinga of ward 38 as
council chairman and
another MDC member, Jameson Makovere, of Ward 20 as his
deputy.
This sparked an uproar, with ZANU-PF
councillors demanding that someone from their party should be Jinga's
deputy. This was turned down by the MDC
councillors.
The ZANU-PF councillors, as well
as some local
chiefs in attendance, then walked out after sensing that this
voting trend
would continue in the election of chairpersons of the various
committees.
But undeterred, the MDC group
proceeded to
elect committee chairpersons in the absence of the ZANU-PF
councillors.
Amid the chaos, the two parties'
supporters
broke into song to taunt each other, creating tension that
threatened to
degenerate into violence.
The
election of committee chairpersons in the
absence of ZANU-PF councillors was
however, nullified and will now take
place after a swearing-in
ceremony.
Observers said the walkout was a ploy
by
ZANU-PF to dilute the power of the MDC in local authorities, most of
which
are now dominated by the opposition
party.
At Nemamwa, which houses the Masvingo
Rural
district council, as well as Jerera growth point, the councils are MDC
dominated.
In terms of Section 80 of the
Urban Councils
Act as amended by Section (4a) of the Local Government Laws
Amendment Act
number 1 of 2008, the Minister of Local Government, Public
Works and Urban
Development, Ignatius Chombo, can appoint "special interest"
councillors.
But such "special interest"
appointees have so
far proved to be losing ZANU-PF
candidates.
In Gutu, Chombo's "special
interest"
appointees will bring the number of ZANU PF councillors to 21
while in
Masvingo, losing ZANU-PF candidates, including businesswoman
Namatirai
Chivhanga, were roped into the new
council.
http://www.fingaz.co.zw/
Clemence Manyukwe Senior Political
Reporter
JUSTICE Minister Patrick Chinamasa's co-accused in his trial in
2006 on
allegations of trying to defeat the course of justice will be
prosecuted
next month despite a court having acquitted the minister on the
same
charges.
Chinamasa, two senior Central Intelligence Organisation
operatives in
Manicaland Innocent Chibaya and Dennis Masiya as well as
Rusape District
Administrator Cosmas Chiringa and Manicaland businessman
Robson Makoni were
arraigned before a Rusape magistrate in 2006, for
allegedly pressurising
state witnesses to withdraw their testimonies against
National Security
Minister Didymus Mutasa's supporters who were facing
political violence
charges.
Chinamasa was acquitted after being tried
separately from the four others
who have now been informed that they will be
prosecuted on the basis of the
same allegations.
Charles Warara, a lawyer
representing one of the accused persons, confirmed
the latest development to
The Financial Gazette.
"The Attorney General's Office has notified us that
the trial will continue
next month. The accused persons want this to close
and look at their
rights," Warara said.
During his trial Chinamasa
described himself as a "political victim" with
media reports at the time
suggesting that the court case was one of the
intrigues between ZANU-PF
factions led by Emmerson Mnangagwa and Solomon
Mujuru that were vying for
power in the event of President Robert Mugabe's
retirement.
Last year
Levison Chikafu, the law officer who served as prosecutor during
Chinamasa's
trial resigned from the AG's Office to join former finance
minister Simba
Makoni's Mavambo project. In the March 29 harmonised
elections, Chikafu
stood as an independent but lost the Headlands House of
Assembly seat to
Mutasa at a time when Chinamasa was linked to Makoni's
presidential
bid.
While dismissing suggestions that he was backing the former Politburo
member
who dumped ZANU-PF in February, Chinam-asa described his prosecution
as
"malicious."
"They started with the spread of falsehoods against me
around the so-called
Tsholotsho incident and they went on to mount a
malicious criminal
prosecution in 2006 and now we have this," Chinamasa
said.
Chinamasa has emerged in recent months, as the most vociferous defender
of
President Mugabe's rule, earning him the chairmanship of the ZANU-PF
information committee formed to spearhead the party's presidential re-run
campaign after the disputed March 29 poll won by Morgan Tsvangirai of the
MDC.
http://www.fingaz.co.zw/
Staff Reporter
THREE Cabinet
ministers have blocked the ejection from Intersew Flats in the
Harare
central business district of ZANU-PF members some of whom kidnapped
and
assaulted a city lawyer as he tried to serve them with eviction
orders.
The irate tenants took the legal practitioner, Stuart Nyamushaya,
to the
party's provincial offices where he was assaulted. He suffered
serious
injuries.
Three ruling party supporters appeared in court last
month in connection
with the lawyer's assault, but The Financial Gazette
established this week
that political pressure was brought to bear on
Nyamushaya to withdraw the
charges against the suspected
assailants.
Documents at hand show that as a result of the intervention of
ruling party
politicians, the tenants will not be evicted as ordered by the
High Court.
Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo chaired a meeting,
which was also
attended by Mines Minister Amos Midzi and Agriculture
Mechanisation
Minister, Joseph Made, where it was "agreed" that alternative
accommodation
should be found for the tenants.
Midzi attended the meeting
in his capacity as ZANU-PF's Harare provincial
chairperson.
"The ministry
and City of Harare will work with representatives of the
tenants to identify
suitable unutilised buildings and open land where they
can be relocated," a
ministry document says.
"By copy of this letter, the Director of Planning
Services in the city of
Harare is requested to work with the Director of
Housing in the Ministry of
Local Government, Public Works and Urban
Development in carrying out the
above task."
Alternative accommodation
for the affected tenants should be found in three
months.
Sources that
attended the meeting on Tuesday said Midzi insisted that the
court order
should be respected but his colleagues shot this down.
In an interview on
Tuesday, a Harare lawyer Moses Kambesere said he had
brought Nyamushaya and
the three ZANU-PF supporters who were being charged
with kidnapping and
assaulting him together and "they agreed in principle to
withdraw the
matter."
Kambesere said he was a neutral mediator between the parties.
http://www.fingaz.co.zw
Nelson Chenga Staff Reporter
A COCKTAIL of
impediments threatens to dry up Harare's water taps while raw
sewage
continues to contaminate the city's water reservoirs.
The main
constraints pertain to chemical costs, poor funding, an unrealistic
tariff
regime, frequent power cuts and a half-hearted approach to water
management
policies, officials say.
"The combination of water shortages and sewerage
spillages expose urban
populations to a great risk of water-borne diseases,"
Zimbabwe National
Authority (ZINWA) chief executive officer, Engineer Albert
Muyambo warns
amid increasing chronic diarrhoea outbreaks.
All the water
supplied to the City of Harare and its environs is virtually
free, judging
by the unrealistic tariffs levied.
In addition, out of the overall water
supplies, only 25 percent of total
daily requirements reach consumers.
A
further drop spells doom for the almost three million people living in and
around the capital, Chitungwiza and Norton.
As of last month ZINWA was
spending more than $20 quadrillion ($2 million
re-valued) per day to treat
one cubic metre of water (an equivalent of five
200-litre drums) yet at the
end of the month residents were expected to pay
a $500 trillion ($50 000
re-valued) in water bills.
Water treatment alone costs an equivalent to $60
quadrillion monthly yet
consumers are paying an average of less than a cent
of the new currency.
The cost of chemicals needed to treat raw water was
pegged at one
quintillion ($100 million).
At the sewerage plants where
waste is treated before being recycled into raw
water supply reservoirs, the
cost of installing filters has shot up to
US$2,5 million in addition to the
US$500 million required for major
rehabilitation work.
Though the
situation has prompted some in government to "agitate for serious
approaches
to help improve the water situation in Harare fast" many are yet
to heed the
wake up call.
Blaming government officials for not pushing water management
issues hard
enough a ZINWA official, who chose to remain anonymous,
protested: "People
are not appreciating the economic value of water at a
time when the costs of
managing water are escalating."
In the meantime,
ZINWA, with the assistance of the United Nations Children's
Fund (Unicef),
hopes to commission at least 20 boreholes in Mabvuku and
Tafara high-density
suburbs where taps ran dry many months ago.
Current energy and project
funding problems besetting Zimbabwe have delayed
the rehabilitation of 11
more boreholes in the plush suburbs of Highlands
and Greendale while 12 new
boreholes are near completion in Mabvuku and
Tafara.
Although Zimbabwe's
economic problems that merged around 2000 are a
convenient scapegoat, water
woes in Harare and its environs are a disaster
that has grown steadily since
independence in 1980.
According to ZINWA officials, demand has increased in
the past 28 years due
to rapid population growth, while the capacity to
deliver has plummeted.
As a result, Harare's major water supply plant at the
Morton Jaffray Water
Works cannot meet the 1 020-megalitre daily water
demand.
Half of the 440 megalitres produced at the Morton Jaffray Water Works
is
lost daily in the distribution channel.
Accusing fingers have been
pointed at ZINWA, which has been blamed for the
collapsing water supply
system.
Harare and Chitungwiza are now campaigning to manage their own water
affairs.
Norton, also grappling with the challenge of providing enough
water to its
residents, could soon join the bandwagon.
However, Walter
Mzembi, the Deputy Minister of Water and Infrastructural
Develop-ment says:
"We feel pointing fingers at each other and inciting
'warlike' water
management has become such a complex matter that solutions
are becoming hard
to come by given the fact that a population of about three
million in Harare
and Chitungwiza and Norton depend on under-utilised water
purification
plants at the Morton Jaffray and Prince Edward plants. The
Price Edward
plant produces just about 60 megalitres daily".
ZINWA took over water
management in the capital from the Harare City Council
last
year.
According to records, the change over was necessitated after major
development funders - the World Bank and the European Investment Bank -
raised concerns about the manner in which the city's water was being
managed.
By this time the City of Harare was battling to manage water
supplies with
an ageing and collapsing pipe network.
So, ZINWA assumed an
enormous task entailing water resource management,
clear water production,
overhauling a rusty water supply network as well as
increase capacity to
meet rising demand for domestic and industrial
consumption while waste
treatment created new challenges.
Water reticulation and sewer rehabilitation
programmes have been affected by
the drying up of funding from traditional
sources such as the World Bank and
the European Union, that used to
facilitate multilateral and bilateral aid
agreements.
Harare's main raw
water supplier, Lake Chivero already is "carpeted" with
water hyacinth
nourished by nutrients from sewerage waste directly
discharged into the
lake.
It is only a matter of time before fish start dying once the lake
becomes
over-saturated with nutrients and eventually fails to support water
organisms.
An environmental disaster akin to one in the early 1990s
looms.
With a crumbling national economy hampered by an uncertain political
future
and a slow-to-act government bureaucracy weighing down ZINWA's water
management efforts, things have finally come to a head.
But the fight for
control of the water management system could worsen the
situation given the
fact that past problems remain unsolved as new ones
emerge.
The Herald
recently quoted Chitungwiza mayor Israel Marange as saying: "We
support a
breakaway from ZINWA. We are ready to assume the management of
water and
sewer reticulation. We want to improve water supply to the
community and
industry. We feel ZINWA should be responsible for bulk water
supply."
But, officials at ZINWA expressed surprise at disgruntlement
voiced by
councils and doubted that their wish for autonomy would be
granted.
They said handing over water management to local authorities would
entail
government backtracking on its policies after amending the Water
Rights Act
to legalise the formation of ZINWA.
A reversal would be long
and tedious, involving lobbying through Parliament.
Harare and Chitungwiza,
for example, would still need government assistance
for the removal of
sludge that is underway at the Firle and Zengeza sewerage
treatment
works.
Mzembi has defended ZINWA and attributed the parastatal's perceived
failures
to poor funding and an unrealistic tariff regime.
"ZINWA always
begs for money to pay for chemicals, to pay salaries,
infrastructural
development and consumables and that puts it in a very
vulnerable
position.We are agitating for sustainability and self sustenance
because we
know if problems are scrutinised and addressed ZINWA can deliver.
"We would
like water to be affordable but at the same time the situation we
are in
requires realistic pricing and measures that would ensure the water
authority does not run out of chemicals."
While the squabbling continues,
taps are fast running dry and it may be a
matter of time before a real
disaster befalls the capital.
http://www.fingaz.co.zw
Staff Reporter
. . . as starvation looms
MASVINGO -
Most boarding schools have been forced to close early to avert a
hunger
crisis, as the dire food shortages have not spared institutions of
higher
and tertiary education.
Masvingo, a drought-prone province has been hit
by severe food shortages for
the past five years due to poor rains and lack
of farming inputs that saw
the last farming season becoming 'the mother of
all poor agricultural
seasons' due to lack of proper government
planning.
All this is despite the fact that the province boasts massive water
bodies
that can be harnessed for irrigation purposes.
Severe food
shortages, according to students, have also impacted negatively
on colleges
and universities in the province such as the Great Zimbabwe
University, as
well as the Masvingo Technical College.
Most students from boarding schools
around the province were all over town
this week as most schools closed
earlier than the official closing date
after they ran out of mealie-meal,
cooking oil as well as other basic
commodities. The official closing date is
today.
Notable schools that sent students home early after they completed
writing
their mid-year exams were the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe-run
Zimuto,
located a few kilometres out of Masvingo town and Pamushana Mission
in
Bikita
The situation was also said to be dire at other boarding
schools such as the
Roman Catholic-owned Mutero, Serima, and Gutu and Dewure
high schools in
Gutu District.
Other boarding schools advised parents
pick up their children earlier as the
schools are struggling to feed
them.
Although the school heads remained mum on the issue, students who spoke
to
The Financial Gazette this week said while the authorities had struggled
to
feed them, the situation had gone out of control the past three
weeks.
"We were just eating to survive, being fed a daily diet of cabbage and
hardly ate any beef for the whole term.
"The quantity of food we were
served was reduced drastically after the
school authorities said they had
insufficient basic commodities," said a
student from Mutero High
school.
The student, looking malnourished, said on better days, they had tea
without
bread, but on bad days, they only had watery porridge in the
morning.
But acting provincial education director in the Ministry of
Education,
Sports and Culture, Clara Taridzo Dube professed ignorance of the
matter,
insisting that it was illegal for schools to close earlier than the
official
date without notifying her office.
"I am not aware of that. As
far as I am concerned, no single school has
asked for permission to close
early.
"We are going to launch investigations and penalise them," said
Dube.
She said some schools had remained open until today. Masvingo, a
province of
more than 1,5 million people, is failing to feed itself amid
reports that
peasants in the rural areas are surviving on wild fruits as
they cannot
access maize meal at the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), or cannot
afford the
exorbitant prices charged on the parallel market for a bag of
maize.
A 50kg bag of maize-meal, which should be obtained from the GMB at
less than
$50, will not cost anything less than R200 on the informal market.
http://www.fingaz.co.zw
Comment
IT is almost certain that the resolution of
the country's political impasse
is now on the horizon. The anxiety gripping
Zimbabweans as the negotiations
edge closer to the climax speaks volumes
about the high expectations on
their part to see an end to the excruciating
suffering spawned by the
bickering between the main political
parties.
Last month's signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by
the major
political actors in the country paving the way for the talks being
held in
South Africa became the precursor to the elusive resolution of what
had come
to be known as the Zimbabwe crisis.
The signing of the MoU also
bolstered the shaky confidence of Zimbabweans,
including that of the
doubting Thomases, who initially could not believe
that the boisterous
ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
could commit themselves
to ending a festering socio-political crisis that
was threatening to
destabilise the entire southern African region, through
dialogue.
One
hopes that the impending political settlement between the two MDC
formations
and ZANU-PF will coincide with the Heroes Day commemorations on
Monday, so
that the dawn of a new era in the country's political history
becomes a
fitting tribute to the fallen heroes who made supreme sacrifices
to the
nation so that its citizens can enjoy peace and prosperity.
Zimbabweans have
endured the worst economic crisis in history spanning nine
years. It is only
natural that after going through such an agonising phase
in their lives they
are now pregnant with expectations for a better future.
There is a danger,
however, that the expectations being built around
whatever political
arrangement likely to emerge out of the negotiations
might come back to
haunt the nation if they are not fulfilled. There is
therefore, need for the
country's political players to guard against a
crisis of expectations, which
if not managed property, might undo whatever
would have been achieved
through the negotiations.
It means therefore, that instead of spending a lot
of time congratulating
each other after the talks and massaging the egos of
those who led the
process to bring about a political settlement, Zimbabweans
should quickly
get back to business.
The polarisation and hatred caused
by years of political infighting and
government's scorched earth policies do
not augur well for the country's
development. The immediate challenge is for
the political leadership to
embark on a process of national healing to
soothe the emotional wounds
inflicted on both sides of the political
divide.
Such national healing should be backed by concrete steps to cater for
those
affected by political violence in the run-up to the elections in which
army,
police and intelligence chiefs betrayed the nation by aligning
themselves to
specific political parties.
It is not going to be a stroll
in the park. There should be some form of
safety nets to cushion those who
will find the going tough without
necessarily creating a dependence
syndrome.
Zimbabweans should also not lose sight of the fact that the March
29
elections and the sham June 27 poll failed to produce winners to take
charge
of the economy hence the country has for the past four months
operated in a
vacuum, which needs to be filled as a matter of
urgency.
Then there is hunger lurking in the shadows. This week reports
emerged that
up to five million people may be at risk of chronic food
insecurity by the
beginning of next year because of the anticipated poor
harvests caused
largely by poor planning.
Despite acknowledging the
pitfalls of the land reforms and the need to
re-organising the country's
agriculture as the first step towards turning
around its economic fortunes,
farming preparations have always been at sixes
and sevens with key inputs
such as fertilizers, seed and chemicals, reaching
the intended beneficiaries
well into the farming season. The funding for the
farmers has been
insignificant and not well structured.
As it is, the International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies is appealing for almost US$26.6
million to assist 260,100
vulnerable people yet those who are supposed to be
at the forefront of such
initiatives in Zimbabwe are doing nothing about the
looming famine.
This comes also amid reports that a United Nations (UN)
report released on
June 18 suggests that Zimbabwe's 2008 winter harvest may
only produce about
40 percent of national needs, which means the country
would have to import
wheat to cover the deficit.
The UN report projects
that there will be more than two million food
insecure people for the period
between July and September this year, rising
to 3.8 million between October
and December and peaking at 5.1 million
between January and March next
year.
This figure (5.1 million) represents approximately 45 percent of the
country's
population and gives a clear indication of how severe the
situation is and
could become.
Instead of this being a concern to
international organisations alone, a
rejuvenated administration emerging
locally should immediately mobilise
resources to ensure famine is
averted.
The Ministries responsible for the civil protection unit, social
welfare,
finance and agriculture should come up with a workable plan of
action,
clearly outlining how they intend to respond to the
crisis.
Without getting it right in agriculture, the nation will continue to
lose
critical resources through the importation of grains to bridge the
deficit
of either the staple maize or wheat. Tied to ensuring food security
is the
need to overhaul the country's economy and to rid it of the politics
of
patronage that now pervades industry and commerce.
While it does not
need a rocket scientist to figure out what needs to be
done to take the
economy forward, the current leadership has been hesitant
to deal with the
multiple exchange rates, price controls and a host of
arbitrage
opportunities in the pricing of fuel, maize, etc.
http://www.fingaz.co.zw
Mavis Makuni
THE police force has not done
itself any favours in recent years by
resorting to political rhetoric as a
substitute for professional and ethical
conduct.
Their behaviour
reminds me of a minister who was reputed some years ago, to
tell
subordinates that whenever they encountered a situation requiring
elaboration and explanation with specific facts that needed to be kept away
from the public, they should let him know and he could "go political and
ballistic".
This, of course, meant resorting to bombastic tirades that
did nothing to
shed light on the issues at hand but focused on blaming
scapegoats.
By all accounts, Police spokesman Chief Superintendent Oliver
Mandipaka
seems to place a lot of faith in this approach, judging by the
energy he has
devoted towards discrediting University of Zimbabwe academic,
John Makumbe.
The UZ lecturer, who is also the chairman of Transparency
International, has
been taken to task for failing to substantiate claims
made when he appeared
on a television programme about continuing political
violence in the
aftermath of the June 27 presidential run-off. He said the
violence had
resulted in some villagers taking to the mountains.
In a
story published in the state press on July 26, Mandipaka says police
"summoned" Makumbe to furnish them with more information to back his
allegations.
"He only referred the officers who quizzed him to a hostile
newspaper, The
Zimbabwean and said he had got some of his information from
the pirate radio
station run by the Voice of America."
The state paper
quoted Mandipaka as saying after visiting Makumbe at the UZ,
police had
dismissed his claims as being unfounded and designed to cause
alarm and
despondency.
Makumbe was accused of misleading the nation into believing that
violence
was still prevalent "yet there were no cases of violence since the
elections
ended", the state paper's story said.
Is it any wonder that
state agents have been implicated in the perpetration
of retributive
violence if the police force's investigation of its incidence
is limited to
harassing and interrogating anyone who expresses concern about
it or
informants, who give them tip-offs about the latest incidents? This is
a
classic case of shooting the messenger instead of investigating the
allegations he has made.
Mandipaka and his colleagues do not seem to be
aware of the fact that it is
not incumbent on Makumbe to prove anything, the
onus is on the police force
to quell the violence and prove to the nation
that they are capable of
guaranteeing the safety of all Zimbabweans. They
can only do this by
executing their duties in a non-political and
non-partisan way.
But alas, the police seem only keen to comment on violence
when it is
politically correct and expedient to do so. Their onslaught
against Makumbe
is a ploy to divert attention from the real issues
considering that they
have reacted with deafening silence to the verdict
reached by the African
election observer missions that monitored the June 27
run-off that the poll
was marred by violence.
Election observers from the
African Union, the Pan African Parliament and
the Southern African
Development Community unanimously condemned the run-off
as not having been a
free and fair election and thus not representing the
will of the people of
Zimbabwe because of the violence.
Why have the police not told the nation why
they failed to quell this tumult
when they had repeatedly vowed in the
build-up to the March 29 elections
that there would be "zero tolerance" to
violence?
The unanimous condemnation of the June 27 run-off by the election
observers
and the outside world suggests there was 100 percent tolerance to
the
political violence widely alleged to have been perpetrated by state
security
agents and ruling party youth militias after March 29.
Why does
Mandipaka not give the nation chapter and verse on this instead of
harassing
Makumbe?
And instead of labelling The Zimbabwean a hostile newspaper, the
police
should investigate the heart-rending stories of victims of state
violence
following the publication of pictures of their horrific injuries by
the
weekly.
Did the law enforcement agents establish that those pictures
were not of
flesh and blood fellow citizens who are as entitled as anyone
else to call
this country their motherland and to live in it in safety and
freedom?
A transparent way to follow up on the paper's allegations would have
been to
organise facility trips for journalists to the affected areas to
establish
the truth for themselves. The police only draw attention to their
political
partisanship and lack of professionalism when they resort to
nit-picking
instead of regarding any allegations about violence as tip-offs
to
follow-up.
There have been reports about abductions, murders,
displacements, rampant
raping of women and girls, brutalising of children
and the seizing of
livestock and food from villagers by militias. Why have
these not caused the
police any concern?
The police seem more bent on
abrogating the freedom of Zimbabweans to speak
out compassionately against
these horrors than quelling the barbaric acts.
Last year opposition leaders,
trade union officials and lawyers were
brutalised by the police and pictures
of them with punched faces, smashed
skulls, broken legs and bruised bodies
appeared in the newspapers. In some
instances, police were said to have
resorted to force either after being
provoked or because the victims were
resisting arrest.
Mandipaka has never taken the same trouble as he has done
with regard to
Makumbe, to explain to the public exactly how principled and
professional
law enforcers can be provoked into committing brutal acts of
violence
against defenceless citizens in their custody and whether such
unstable
officers should be retained in the police force.
He has never
elaborated on how trade union officials could resist arrest
when they were
already in police custody when they were battered in October
2006.
Feedback: mmakuni@fingaz.co.zw
http://www.fingaz.co.zw
Juniors Marire, Economic
Viewpoint
ECONOMIST Erich Bloch, speaking at the Institute of Chartered
Accountants of
Zimba-bwe, recently said it would take six years to achieve
full economic
recovery.
He said it would take three years to get back
to where the economy was
before it went into decline and a further three
years to bring it to where
it should be.
He premised his argument on the
possible "good" outcome of the inter-party
talks between ZANU-PF and the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
He said recovery would start within the
next three months. He edged
businesses to act more forcefully than in the
past to bring about a social
contract. A social contract would be a key
factor in any turnaround, he
said. I would like to argue to the
contrary.
l The outcome of the inter-party talks will certainly influence
economic
outcomes in this economy. It is my belief that the two sides to the
talks
have to possess some degree of compromise if the economy is to take
off.
However, the fact that the ruling party politiburo resolved that
l
The land reform exercise is irreversible
l That there should be
non-interference by the West
l The June 27 presidential run-off poll results
were non-negotiable.
The last condition of the above three points will be the
bone of contention.
We have read and heard the G8, United Kingdom and United
States argue that
they would want the talks to be premised on the March 29
elections results,
rather than the June 27 ones.
What this implies is
that any outcome of the talks that is based on the June
27 poll results will
be regarded as an abortion of mission and a politically
illegitimate
outcome.
Further it will communicate imposing of more sanctions on the
Zimbabwean
people. Although AU and UN envoys have been accommodated in the
talks, that
per se will not anchor investor confidence.
The talks will
kick-start turnaround and economic growth if, and only if,
they communicate
a major shift in policy paradigm, otherwise it is an
overzealous and
premature conclusion to say the economy will start to heal
in the next three
months.
l As analysts we should not forget that the indigenisation drive that
we are
currently implementing is dealing a heavy blow on the economy.
It
is destroying the wings for economic take-off. In the past week or so,
over
400 British companies were identified and earmarked for indigenisation
as a
proactive stance to forestall capital flight.
I believe that economic
empowerment is a big solution to poverty but it
should have been
administered through new business formations rather than
through disruptions
of already productive entities.
In fact, this empowerment drive has increased
investment risk in Zimbabwe so
much that business confidence is at its
lowest. Moreso, the indigenisation
drive has not in any significant way
contributed to the fiscal revenues.
Rather, the indigenised entities are a
drain to the fiscus as the Ministry
of Finance and the Ministry of Small and
Medium Enterpri-ses year
in-year-out pump out financial resources without
reciprocation in the form
of tax payments from the beneficiaries.
In fact
this drive has burgeoned budget deficits and budget deficits will
remain a
big challenge that will undermine any possibility of economic
take-off.
l
For as long as the National Income and Pricing Commission is in place and
all the various other stringent controls in this economy, there will not be
significant improvement in capacity utilisation, let alone new investments.
Instead the status quo will obtain.
So what economic recovery are we
prophesying?
l Portfolio inflows, particularly of foreign direct investments,
are needed
to jump start the economic recovery and take-off. The problem we
face is
that of country risk and no significant portfolio inflows can be
anticipated.
Price controls, exchange controls, indigenisation policy and
such like
interventions deter foreign direct investment and domestic
investment
inflows. The country will have to remain dependent on the East
for FDIs.
Whether there will be a lot of fruitful investment deals from the
East
remains largely unascertainable. Economic growth, thus, is not expected
any
time soon.
l Regarding the social contract, I doubt any possibility
of its
implementation in Zimbabwe. There is a high degree of mistrust
between
business and government in particular.
The three social partners,
namely government, business and labour, should be
ready to suffer the brunt
of economic correction. Business would have to
suffer price freezes and
continue to produce to full capacity.
Now with the proposal by the central
bank to freeze prices for the next six
or so months, things can get
worse.
We are starting at a point in time when firms are struggling to
survive.
How much more distress will they face when prices are frozen,
bearing in
mind that they have not yet fully recovered from the price blitz
of 2007?
Labour will have to suffer wage freezes and remain motivated to work
through
the spell.
Government has to rationalise expenditure, cut
luxuriant expenditures and
other packages given to senior officials.
Piecemeal atte-mpts to implement a
social contract in the past saw NIPC
institutionalised.
Business alone suffered from blanket price freezes. Labour
was sparred from
wage freezes and government has continued to grow in size,
recurrent
expenditures and other luxuriant allowances to senior official
have
continued to increase.
This is where the whole system crumbles.
Government should streamline
ministries and eliminate duplication of effort.
So turnaround efforts are
undermined here and a social contract remains a
lost dream.
l Dollarisation could be adopted because it has provided a
solution under
hyperinflation in many economies. However, authorities might
not accept this
option for pride reasons.
Bloch's argument that
dollarisation does not work in Zimbabwe is a weaker
standpoint.
Dollarisation does not imply use of US dollars only but any
other foreign
currency unit. Implementing a parallel currency system would
soft land the
crisis in this economy. We can partly use US dollars, the rand
and our
Zimbabwe dollar.
In fact, this economy is heavily dollarised,
suggesting that we have a deep
rather than a shallow US dollar and rand
market. What makes the inflows into
the formal forex market small is because
the exchange rate was not
liberalised fully.
For as long as holders of
forex can sell willingly to banks but that
willingness is not reciprocated
by banks when the people want to buy forex,
they will rather supply their
forex to the parallel market.
The priority list according to which forex is
sold is tantamount to fixation
of the exchange rate. Thus the productive
sector will have to augment forex
requirements by sourcing it on the
parallel market, a situation that leads
to further decline rather than
recovery of the economy.
In a study I carried out, I found out that an
increase in money supply by I
percent will lead to an outright economic
decline. The idea being that an
increase in money supply will increase
inflation. However, the interactive
effect between inflation and the tax
system erodes business profitability.
How?
Allowable depreciation is
based on historic cost of an asset and under
hyperinflation, the allowable
depreciation becomes highly insignificant. It
therefore pushes up taxable
profits and lead to over taxation of companies.
Equally, if inflation is high
the price of replacing a capital item when it
wears out is much higher than
the allowed depreciation. This creates a
strong disincentive to invest in
plant and growth by firms.
How then can we argue for speedy recovery given
loose monetary and fiscal
policies?
In conclusion, it should be noted
that the outcome of the talks will in a
way foster economic recovery if
investors perceive a major shift in the
policy paradigm and that the
political structure and infrastructure does not
largely benefit the
incumbent system.
If it largely benefits the incumbent system, there will be
no significant
FDI inflows, thus making it difficult for the economy to
take-off.
The pre-crisis position of the economy can be reasonably indexed to
the 1996
national economic performance. At that time, there was no capital
flight, no
deindustrialisation, no policy flip-flops, no sanctions, no
capacity
underutilisation and no price controls but there was strong
agricultural
performance, strong manufacturing performance, mining
performance and a
better managed macro economy.
l The views
expre-ssed in this article are those of the author and not the
Ministry of
Finance and the Zimbabwe Economic Society (ZES). ZES articles
are
co-ordinated by Lovemore Kadenge (president) and he can be contacted on
Cell: 0912732873 or e-mail: lovemore.kadenge@g mail.com
http://www.fingaz.co.zw
Synodia Bhasera Staff Reporter
l Bottle tops in
short supply l Foreign brands invade market
THE National Incomes and Pricing
Commission (NIPC) last week ordered
National Breweries (Natbrew) - a
subsidiary of Delta Corporation Limited -
to slash the price of clear beer
to July 22 levels, as it also emerged that
the country's largest brewer is
struggling to secure sufficient quantities
of bottle tops to meet
demand.
Guzzlers woke up to a present surprise mid last week when the
price of clear
beer, which had gone up to above $800 billion before the
lopping off of
zeros, softened to around $300 billion for a
quart.
Industry sources told The Financial Gazette this week that the boon
for the
country's beer drinkers was a result of an NIPC directive, which saw
Natbrew
rolling back its prices for lagers to July 22 levels.
The
sources, however, warned that the directive by the state-run NIPC might
result in shortages of beer hitting the local market and the re-emergence of
a parallel market for clear beer.
"It is sad that the NIPC is not
learning at all from its past mistakes.
Controlling the price of luxuries
such as beer and cigarettes does not help,
all it will serve to achieve is
to reduce taxes collected by ZIMRA and to
create a black market of the
controlled products," said a source.
ZIMRA, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority,
is the country's revenue collecting
agency.
If at all there is going to
be shortage of clear beer it may not be a result
of the NIPC's directive
after all.
Industrial behemoth Delta Cooperation last week said it has been
affected by
the shortage of bottle tops, also known as crowns, despite
having enough
beer to satisfy the market.
"We have no shortage of beer
but we have problems in getting crowns. We have
enough beer to flood the
market," said George Muten-dadzamera, Delta
Corporation's corporate affairs
executive.
The sole producer in Zimbabwe, Carnaud Metalbox Zimbabwe Limited,
supplies
the crowns.
Metal Box admitted this week it is failing to
acquire the foreign currency
required to import the major raw material, tin
plate, from South Africa.
"We have no foreign currency to bring the material
in the country. We use
imported material from South Africa," said Maxwell
Kadzi-ngwa, the company's
marketing manager.
The country has been going
through chronic foreign currency shortages ever
since the Inter-national
Monetary Fund (IMF) pulled the plug on Zim-babwe in
the late 1990s.
The
IMF withdrew balance of payments support to Zimbabwe citing lack of
seriousness on the part of President Robert Mugabe's government in pursuance
of Western-backed economic reforms.
A number of other international donor
agencies and multilateral financial
institutions have since taken the cue
from the Bretton Woods institution,
drying external support for
Zimbabwe.
The foreign currency shortages have been made more acute by the
poor export
performance and the haphazard land reforms, which have reduced
foreign
currency earnings for tobacco, the country's single largest foreign
currency
earner.
The latest CZI Manufactu-ring Sector Survey revealed
that the number of
companies operating below 50 percent capacity as a result
of the shortages
of foreign currency among other things has increased from
49 percent to 75
percent in 2007.
Asked whether it was impossible to
recycle the crowns, Kadzingwa said: "We
cannot recycle that because we deal
with food and its dangerous (to recycle
the bottle tops)," he
said.
"Foreign currency should be (made) available, that's the only measure,"
added Kadzi-ngwa.
Foreign brands such as Hunters, Heineken, Peron,
Amstell and Redds are
flooding the local market as a result of the shortages
of crowns.
http://www.fingaz.co.zw
Shame Makoshori Senior Reporter
AIR Zimbabwe
(Air-Zim) broke its silence this week on a chartered flight
scam unearthed
by its auditors this year, saying those caught on the wrong
side of the law
will face the due processes of the law.
Pride Khumbula, the airline's
spokesperson, told The Financial Gazette this
week that AirZim will move to
take corrective measures once the
investigations have been concluded.
The
probe was triggered by revelations that the national passenger carrier
could
have been prejudiced of US$22 000 or more after some of its senior
officials
connived to massage flight details in 2006.
It now appears that the
investigations have been widened to cover other
flights as Peter Chikumba
and his team dig deeper to get to the bottom of
the scam.
Chikumba,
according to sources at AirZim, has adopted zero-tolerance to
crime ever
since he took over the reins at the airline as chief executive
officer last
year.
"We wish to assert that the company will take the appropriate action
against
any employee whose conduct is proved to have prejudiced the
company,"
Khumbula said.
"We are unable to divulge information on this
matter as this may prejudice
the investigations, which are currently
underway," she said.
According to information gathered by The Financial
Gazette, some senior
managers at AirZim connived with Birds Breeding Farm of
the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2006 to prejudice the airline of
US$22 000 on a
chartered flight to Kinshasa, the DRC capital.
The
fraudulent officials lied to the DRC government that President Robert
Mugabe
was the one using the flight after attempts to secure international
clearances was denied in that country because AirZim had not given the
prescribed 72 hours lead time.
The Financial Gazette has documents
detailing how on May 18 2006 the
officials deliberately und-ercharged flight
UMCHT 505 hired by Birds
Breeding Farm.
The audit revealed that the
Advice of Charter was fraudulently written as
the series of numbers is
reserved for the Chinese made MA60s.
A quotation to charter a B737 from
Harare to Kinshasa and back was given as
US$41 920 then but US$22 000 was
paid by Birds Breeding Farm because the
officials at the airline purported
to have used the MA60, which is cheaper,
hence the US$21 930
shortfall.
Investigations have revealed that the purported MA60's mark up was
quoted as
15 percent instead of the then prevailing 25 percent.
http://www.fingaz.co.zw
Shame Makoshori Senior Reporter
ON Tuesday,
Memory Vambe weaved her way through empty shelves of a once
well-stocked
supermarket in central Harare.
She was one of the scores of women who
braved the chilly weather that
morning to hunt for scarce commodities such
as sugar, soap, maize-meal and
toothpaste, among other basics that have
vanished from the supermarkets
shelves for more than a year
now.
Zimbabwe's manufacturers, protesting against government-backed price
controls, have stopped producing basics, throwing the market into
disarray.
President Robert Mugabe's government in July last year ordered
companies to
slash pri-ces by half, accusing them of hiking prices in order
to foment
public anger against his administration, which has pre-sided over
the
country's affairs for the past 28 years.
Business leaders have
vehemently denied abating the so-called regime change
agenda, which
President Mugabe bla-mes for the economic demise.
The July 2007 blitz-krieg
has resulted in basic commodities disappearing
from the formal market, only
to resurface on the black market at
extortionate price.
Where commodities
are produced, they come at punitive prices beyond the
reach of at least 80
percent of the country's population, which is wallowing
in
poverty.
Basket in hand Vambe picked up a packet of meat, checked the price
and
quickly places it back on the shelf as if she was dropping a piece of
hot
iron.
She picked a packet of fresh milk from the fridge and did the
same upon
checking the prices.
Within a few minutes she was out of the
supermarket without having purchased
anything due to the exorbitant
prices.
Prices have skyrocketed in Zimbabwe bec-ause of hyperinflation at a
time
when the average monthly income has remained stagnant at about $500
billion
before the re-basing of the local currency last week.
The
economic crisis has been triggered by the lack of balance of payments
support from the International Mone-tary Fund for nearly a decade now, poor
management of the country's economy, rampant corruption in both the public
and private sectors and the introduction of targeted sanctions by the United
States and the European Union against President Mugabe and his close
associates.
Like many others who were taken by surprise by the
announcement by the US
and the EU of additions to the sanctions list, Vambe
bemo-aned that her
future could be ruined should the Americans and their
allies tighten the
noose on local companies and the country's ruling
elite.
The US last week widened the sanctions net, adding 17 companies to
scores of
individuals already banned from transacting or travelling to that
country
and Europe.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture David Chap-fika's
Divine Homes, a property
company, was also included while deputy Minister of
Youth Development and
Empl-oyment Creation Savi-our Kasukuwere's COM-OIL, a
petroleum impo-rting
company, is also on the list.
"This is not a life,
we will all die of hunger. The government must just act
to end this madness.
Now they say companies have been added to the list of
sanctions. What does
the future hold now?" asked the mother of five, a
resident of the
high-density suburb of Mbare.
Most people are worried that the widening of
the sanctions net could be the
last straw precipitating the collapse of an
economy already choking under
massive de-industrialisation, hyperinflation,
brain drain and acute
shortages of foreign currency and energy.
Fears
heightened this week that the imposition of fresh sanction could dry
up the
few lines of credit still trickling into Zimbabwe.
Transactions involving ZB
Financial Holdings, for example, could be frozen
once they passed through
the US, while any deal that the Minerals Mar-keting
Corporation of Zimbabwe
could enter into on the international minerals
markets could also be
withheld, leading to an escalation of the economic
crisis.
Already, there
is a law in the US - the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic
Reco-very Act -
prohibiting American companies from transacting with
Zimbabwean
firms.
But local economists were in disagreement this week.
"It will not
be of any significant effect to the economy," said Univ-ersity
of Zimbabwe
economics lecturer Tony Hawkins.
"The economy is already heading for the
rocks very, very quickly and the
sanctions will be of no effect. Comoil
could be on the list but whether its
inclusion on the sanctions list will
affect the economy depends on whether
it imports the fuel from the
US.
"And if you look at the choice of the companies on the sanctions list,
why
ZB Financial Holdings and not CBZ, which is more active in supporting
government projects?" argued Hawkins.
Independent economist John
Robertson concurred:"It is unlikely that the
sanctions will impact on the
economy because there are very few lines of
credit coming into Zimbabwe,
sanctions at that level I think are not going
to make any difference," said
Robertson.
http://www.fingaz.co.zw
Synodia Bhasera Staff Reporter
BLACK
market activities, which are becoming the in thing in the property
sector,
might be brought under control once the authorities agree to the use
of the
United States dollar as a medium of exchange, analysts told The
Financial
Gazette this week.
The use of the greenback as a form of payment in
Zimbabwe, otherwise
commonly referred to as dollarisation, is gaining
currency throughout the
country as more and more people are now shunning the
Zimbabwe dollar, which
is losing value daily due to hyperinflation.
The
knocking off of zeros from the local unit seems not to have helped
either.
But despite being widely in use countrywide, transacting in
foreign currency
has remained illegal in Zimbabwe with Local Government
Minister Ignatius
Chombo threatening the arrest of all those caught flouting
the country's
rigid exchange control regulations.
Some landlords have
since appeared before the courts on allegations of
charging rentals in
foreign currency.
At least three landlords were arrested within a month
recently over foreign
currency deals.
Estate Agents Council chairman
Oswald Nyakunika told The financial Gazette
this week that although the
government was disregarding transactions in
foreign currency, the push for
the dollarisation of the economy has been
strong.
"There is a general
demand for liberalisation or dollarisation of the
industry in terms of rent
or prices paid in line with what has happened with
the foreign currency
sector," said Nyakunika.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which has for a long
time operated under a
controlled foreign currency regime, this year took the
unprecedented step of
liberalising the exchange rate.
The central bank
achieved the liberalisation of the exchange rate by
introducing a willing
buyer-willing seller concept - a move that was meant
to unlock foreign
currency inflows into the inter-bank market.
Should the government agree to
the dollarisation of the economy, it means
Parliament, which is yet to sit
following the disputed March 29 harmonised
elections and the subsequent
talks featuring the country's main political
parties - ZANU-PF and the
Movement for Democratic Change formations - would
need to effect the
necessary amendments to the Foreign Exchange Control Act,
which prohibits
foreign currency deals.
In the wake of the currency freefall, whose roots are
steeped in the tragic
Black Friday of November 1997, most property owners
are now quoting their
rentals and property prices in foreign
currency.
This has, however, come at a huge risk for the unlucky
ones.
Early this year, British property tycoon, Nicholas Van Hoogstraten was
arrested for demanding rentals in foreign currency. He is currently on
bail.
Writing in his weekly column Matters Legal, The Financial Gazette
columnist
Vote Muza said the country was now in desperate need of
dollarisation.
"Here I do not mean re-dollarisation of our worthless
currency, but rather
floating of the United States dollar as legal tender in
all transactions,"
he said.
"This is the only practical remedy that the
country needs now in order to
kill speculators once and for all.
"Such a
bold courageous move, may be embarrassing to make because of ZANU-PF's
perceived hatred of the United States government, but ultimately it may
serve our national interests," he added.
Muza said people start
disrespecting the law once it becomes unreasonable,
static and unresponsive
to the public's needs and expectations.
" .then such law would have ceased to
be relevant.
"Thus the overwhelming use of foreign currency in broad day
light by many
members of the public is a clear sign that the law penalising
use of foreign
currency as a medium of exchange has become superfluous,
absurd and totally
unacceptable," said Muza.
Nyakunika said the
dollarisation of the property sector was likely to
attract fresh investments
into the property sector and shore up the country's
depleted foreign
currency reserves.
Once the industry starts to generate lucrative returns,
property owners
might be motivated to undertake repairs and maintenance of
their properties,
which had become too costly in view of the negative
returns.
"This will curb black market activities and formalise all
operations.
"It will also attract and generate additional foreign currency
reserves in
line with the Homelink concept that the central bank introduced
some time
ago," said Nyakunika.
The property sector, like every other
industry in the country, is going
through hard times.
The major
challenges include the unavailability of building materials and
the
astronomical cost build-ups.
Property players said these challenges have
affected the pricing of most
properties in the country.