Zim Independent
Dumisani
Muleya
RESERVE Bank governor Gideon Gono on Wednesday summoned the Air
Zimbabwe
board for a crisis meeting to discuss the national airline's
deepening
problems.
Aviation sources said Gono summoned the board
after the troubled airline -
which broke aviation records in May by flying
one passenger thousands of
kilometres from Dubai to Harare - continued to
extend the begging bowl for
foreign currency and local funds to the central
bank.
Sources said President Robert Mugabe's office and a chain of
ministries had
been making desperate efforts to save the airline from
sinking.
"Gono summoned the Air Zimbabwe board for a crisis meeting
to discuss the
airline's worsening problems. Reserve Bank authorities read
the riot act to
the board members, warning them their borrowings had become
unsustainable,"
a source said.
"Board members were also told that
the airline must develop its own survival
and viability strategies and
borrow money from commercial banks instead of
the central
bank."
Gono yesterday confirmed summoning the Air Zimbabwe
board.
Documents obtained from Air Zimbabwe show the airline has largely
been
surviving on Reserve Bank hand-outs. They also show that between August
15
and December 7, the airline borrowed US$13 million and £378 591 from the
central bank.
But between October 1 and December 5 the airline
only managed to generate
and deposit with its Jewel Bank foreign currency
account US$732 285.
The borrowed forex was used largely to pay Air BP
International for fuel,
aviation insurance, auxiliary power unit, and IATA
for clearing charges.
Air Zimbabwe has so far received $722 billion
for working capital and
servicing its overdraft facility with the central
bank's Parastatal
Re-orientation Programme, which started in
February.
On November 22, chief secretary to the president and
cabinet, Misheck
Sibanda, convened a meeting of top government officials to
tackle Air
Zimbabwe's problems. This followed a meeting held the previous
day between
Air Zimbabwe and fuel companies to deal with the airline's fuel
requirements. Air Zimbabwe needs 800 000 litres a week.
The
November 21 meeting noted the airline was facing serious problems due to
Jet
A1 fuel shortage and that it was relying on borrowed fuel from other
carriers. It was said borrowing fuel had become unsustainable as other
airlines' reserves had also become "critically low".
For
instance, it was noted British Airways' fuel stocks had fallen to 100
000
litres against its weekly requirement of 800 000 litres. Airlines flying
into Zimbabwe are currently bumping off passengers from their flights to
accommodate extra fuel to avoid being grounded in the country due to fuel
scarcity.
British Airways (operating as Comair in South Africa),
South African
Airways, as well as smaller carriers like SA Airlink and
kulula.com, now
rely on contingency fuel plans to fly into Zimbabwe. Booked
passengers were
bumped off a Harare-bound Comair flight at Johannesburg
airport on Sunday to
accommodate more fuel.
The November 21
meeting resolved Air Zimbabwe should enter into fuel hedging
contracts to
ensure it did not get grounded due to the fuel crisis. It also
decided the
airline should buy fuel from neighbouring countries.
The November 22
meeting also focused on the Air Zimbabwe fuel crisis and
cabinet's decision
eight months ago that the National Oil Company of
Zimbabwe should import
fuel for the airline. An advisory committee to assist
the permanent
secretary for Transport and Communications on the Air Zimbabwe
issue was
established.
Air Zimbabwe, run down through extended periods of
mismanagement and
under-capitalisation, now only has eight planes, two of
which are not
operational, compared to the 18 planes it had at Independence
in 1980.
After scrapping 12 regional routes, the airline still flies
to Johannesburg,
Mauritius, Lusaka, Lilongwe and Nairobi. Locally, it flies
to Bulawayo,
Victoria Falls and Kariba after pulling out of the Masvingo,
Hwange and
Buffalo Range routes. Internationally, it goes to London, Dubai
and Beijing.
Zim Independent
THE
Attorney-General's office this week baulked at prosecuting Zimbabwe
Cricket
(ZC) chair Peter Chingoka and managing director Ozias Bvute over
exchange
control violations for what appeared to be political reasons, it
emerged
yesterday.
High-level official sources said the Attorney-General's office
shied away
from taking further measures against Chingoka and Bvute, arrested
on Monday,
because of disagreements within government's own
bureaucracy.
It was said the Attorney-General's office was fighting a
war of attrition
with the Reserve Bank which investigated Chingoka and Bvute
for the alleged
exchange control breaches.
"The Reserve Bank did
a comprehensive investigation on the cricket issue and
the report was given
to the police and the Attorney-General's office for
prosecution," a source
said. "However, much to the surprise of central bank
authorities, the
prosecuting department said there were no grounds for a
case."
A
senior central bank official said they were shocked by the sudden release
of
Chingoka and Bvute because "in our view they have a clear case to
answer".
A report done by the Reserve Bank's Financial
Intelligence Inspectorate
Evaluation and Security unit reveals that Chingoka
and Bvute were involved
in transactions that amounted to violations of the
exchange control rules.
The report, titled "Zimbabwe Cricket: Summary
of Charges", lists 12 exchange
control violations against the ZC
officials.
It accuses them of failing to repatriate US$6,3 million
proceeds from the
sale of TV rights in violation of Section 5 (1) of the
Exchange Control Act,
chapter 22.05 as read with Section 5 (1), (2) of the
exchange control
regulations SI 109 of 1996.
It says British firm
Octagon CSI collected revenue on behalf of ZC and
deposited the funds into
the ZC's Barclays Bank account number 58255922,
Knightsbridge Business
Centre, unlawfully.
Octagon, which holds TV signals rights to produce
and sell all cricket
matches hosted by Zimbabwe, has a contract with ZC
structured 10 years ago.
The report also lists the controversial
purchase of the ZC's outside
broadcasting equipment for £1 million through
Octagon, which paid £550 000,
with Ten Sports of Dubai injecting £450 000,
as part of the violations of
exchange control rules.
The report
says there were breaches of the law by ZC in the buying of
vehicles using
offshore funds, which vehicles were sold to Croco Motors for
US$772,1
million. ZC also paid £5 000 for the purchase of a Mazda 626.
There was
also the issue of paying players' allowances of about US$544 018
into
offshore accounts.
Chingoka was paid £50 000, while US$750 000 was
diverted to South Africa.
The ZC also received US$3 million and diverted the
funds. All these
payments, the report says, were in violation of exchange
control
regulations.
Sources said Attorney-General Sobusa
Gula-Ndebele was unhappy that Reserve
Bank governor Gideon Gono did not help
his department in its bid to secure
conviction against former Finance
minister Chris Kuruneri who is facing
corruption charges.
Gono
testified mid this year in Kuruneri's case and gave evidence which
strengthened the former minister's case for acquittal. He said Kuruneri had
saved the country from a major "national catastrophe" by providing a US$500
000 bail-out for an unspecified purpose. Although he did not say what the
funds were for, the Zimbabwe Independent later established the money was
used to buy indelible ink for the 2002 presidential
election.
Sources said the Attorney-General's office was riled by
Gono's evidence and
was still sulking about it.
The sources said
police and the Attorney-General's office were "not
interested" in the matter
because it has become a political issue trapped in
the Zanu PF camp
fights.
Gula-Ndebele said last night the claims against his office
were untrue.
"It's absolute nonsense, total hogwash. When cases come before
us we deal
with them on merit and professionally,"
Gula-Ndebele
said.
"We are not fighting with the Reserve Bank.
We have got a good working
relationship with the central bank. Those claims
are untrue." - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Grace
Kombora
THE Combined Harare Residents Association has urged city residents to
reject
the massive budget increases unveiled by the Sekesai Makwavarara-led
commission this week.
The commission announced a whopping $32,5
trillion budget for 2006 that will
be financed through sharp increases in
rates and charges at the beginning of
the new year.
Harare
residents' representatives have accused the commission of failing to
deliver
services, which have resulted in the outbreak of diseases in high
density
suburbs as refuse goes for months on end uncollected and they have
to endure
perennial water cuts.
Mike Davies, chairperson of Combined Harare
Residents Association said the
budget was illegal as it was prepared by an
illegal commission with no
mandate from residents to do so.
"As a
residents association we call on all residents not to pay their rates
to the
city council," Davies said.
He said the city council and the Local
Government had been the enemies of
the residents especially during Operation
Murambatsvina.
The budget means rates will be increased by at least
100% for basic services
which council is failing to meet. In most
residential areas refuse has not
been collected since May when government
launched its infamous Operation
Murambatsvina that displaced at least 700
000 people and robbed thousands of
others of their sources of livelihood.
Hundreds of homes described as
illegal structures were razed in a
military-style blitz condemned worldwide
for its brutality and the suffering
it caused.
The capital's infrastructure has all but collapsed,
characterised by
unavailability of water, raw sewerage flowing in the
high-density
residential streets, roads almost inaccessible because of
potholes and
decomposing refuse mountains at street corners posing risks of
disease
outbreaks.
Sewer fees, currently pegged at $165 000 for
low residential, high
residential areas and residential flats are to double
to $330 000 with
effect from January next year and then double again to $660
000 in July.
For commercial areas, the fees will rise from the
existing $600 000 to $1
200 000 effective January and then double to $2 400
000 in July.
The tariffs for refuse collection for high residential
areas will increase
from the current $134 896 to $250 000 with effect from
January and to $350
000 from July. In low residential areas the tariffs will
rise from $157 447
to $300 000 effective January next year and to $420 000
six months later.
Uncollected garbage piling on street corners has
become common in both high
and low density areas and along sanitary lanes in
the city centre.
Residents question whether the ballooning budget
will be in tandem with the
service delivery.
When water is
available, most of it is lost through burst pipes, which
remain unrepaired
for months.
But council has never run out of excuses. Failure to
collect garbage has
invariably been blamed on the withdrawal of service by
the three main
contractors who cited the unavailability of fuel and low
payments.
"The city is struggling to maintain a semblance of refuse
collection given
the scarcity of fuel, aggravated by an aged fleet of refuse
compactors,"
read the budget.
The costs of burial in the city's
cemeteries have increased sharply.
The burial of an adult in area "A"
has risen from $750 000 to $8,5 million
effective January next year. Burial
charges will double to $17 million in
July.
A resident child will
be buried in area "A" for $4,2 million from January
from the existing $375
000 and council proposes to increase the fee to $8,5
million in July.
Zim Independent
Itai
Mushekwe
GOVERNMENT is failing to meet a self-imposed deadline of year-end to
complete 200 000 housing units under Operatin Garikai/ Hlalani Kuhle, a tour
of the construction sites his week revealed.
The mammoth housing
project, largely seen as cosmetic, was launched
following the demolition of
hundreds of urban dwellings under Operation
Murambatsvina in May, which left
700 000 people homeless and robbed many of
their source of
livelihood.
United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan's envoy, Anna
Kajumulo
Tibaijuka, who was in the country five months ago to assess the
humanitarian
cost of the operation, doubted government's ability to meet a
target of 1
003 houses by end of August. The government then shifted the
deadline for
the rest of the reconstruction programme to the end of the
year.
But reality has caught up with President Robert Mugabe's
defiant government
which maintained that the reconstruction exercise would
be completed before
the turn of the New Year.
Operation Garikai,
which has reportedly stalled after government failed to
pay building
material suppliers and workers, has been dealt another blow
following
reports that some of the houses had collapsed in Chinhoyi due to
heavy
rains.
In an effort to keep Operation Garikai on the rails, Finance
minister
Herbert Murerwa last week presenting the 2006 national budget
before
parliament in which he made an allocation of $800 billion towards the
reconstruction project.
He said $972 billion would be allocated
to national housing construction
projects with a lion's share of that amount
going towards Operation Garikai:
"Of this amount," Murerwa said, "$800
billion is earmarked for the
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle programme. This brings
government's contribution to
the programme to more than $1
trillion."
The $800 billion appropriation is widely seen as miniscule
considering the
effect of hyperinflation on the cost of building
materials.
Mugabe in a state of the nation address to parliament on
Tuesday said his
government's efforts to provide decent accommodation to the
people had
"received a major impetus following the implementation of
Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle programme".
He added that a $1
trillion commitment under phase 1 of the programme in
July had been made,
while the reconstruction programme "is expected to
continue until the
national housing backlog is significantly reduced". Last
year the capital
Harare alone had a housing backlog of more than 500 000.
This could have
trebled following the retributive eviction blitz, thus
making government's
claims a pipedream.
Mugabe also met UN under-secretary for
humanitarian affairs and emergency
relief co-coordinator, Jan Egeland, who
was in the country to make a follow
up assessment of the humanitarian
situation. Government wants the UN to
provide permanent housing structures
as opposed to temporary tents.
Egeland described Murambatsvina "as
the worst thing ever to happen, when the
country was already facing enough
homelessness". He pledged UN support in
averting looming food shortages.
Egeland's visit is a follow up to
Tibaijuka's visit in July during which she
came out with her guns blazing
against the operation. Egeland becomes UN's
third high profile delegate to
visit Zimbabwe in a space of six months,
after Tibaijuka and World Food
Programme representative Tony
Hall.
There are unconfirmed reports that Kofi Annan might visit the
country early
in the new year.
Zim Independent
Ray
Matikinye
LESS than a fortnight before the launch of the United People's
Movement
(UPM) on Unity Day, there is little to show for its grand entry
into the
Zimbabwe political scene.
The mooted political party, whose
top executives and members are supposed to
be drawn from Zimbabwe's two
major parties, claimed the potential to create
headaches for Zanu PF and the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), weakened by
factionalism.
Yet it suffered a setback this week when Emmerson
Mnangagwa, initially
tipped as its leader, dissociated himself from the UPM
for the second time
in less than a month.
Mnangagwa, who was
appointed Rural Housing and Social Amenities minister in
President Mugabe's
current cabinet, reportedly warned members at a Zanu PF
provincial
coordinating committee meeting for the Midlands that they risked
expulsion
if they associated with the UPM.
Fronted by former Information
minister Jonathan Moyo, the UPM gave an
initial impression that it had the
support of six former Zanu PF provincial
chairmen who were suspended for
attending what Mugabe later described as an
illegal meeting in Tsholotsho,
allegedly organised by Moyo to challenge
Mugabe's leadership and the
composition of the presidium.
Zanu PF Midlands chairman July Moyo,
chairman for Masvingo Daniel Shumba,
Jacob Mudenda for Matabeleland North,
Lloyd Siyoka for Matabeleland South
and Mike Madiro of Manicaland were
suspended for attending the meeting on
November 18 last year. The suspended
chairmen led areas that form the
bulwark of Zanu PF support.
The
United People's Movement was expected to get support from disgruntled
members and executives of both parties. It claimed to have attracted a
significant number of members from the opposition MDC and the ruling Zanu
PF. But both the MDC and Zanu PF have scoffed at the new political party,
doubting its staying power as a player on Zimbabwe's rough political
landscape.
MDC presidential spokesman, William Bango, wondered
how a party that claims
to present an alternative agenda to unseat Mugabe
would remain enigmatic and
secretive about itself.
"Where are
they and who are they?" Bango asked, adding: "If they are a
serious
political force they should come out in the open and show that they
are
courageous enough to withstand scrutiny by the electorate. Mere media
publicity does not constitute existence."
Moyo said revealing the
names of the Zanu PF defectors now would endanger
their lives. "What do you
think would happen to those people when they
announce that they have left
Zanu PF? There are people who thought they
could change Zanu PF from within
but have failed, those are the people we
are
targeting."
President Mugabe has also scoffed at an opposition party
ever ruling
Zimbabwe, saying Zimbabwe has no room for political
upstarts.
"They can only rule after we have died. Even then our
ghosts will rise to
haunt them," Mugabe said.
Dismissing the
threat that the UPM could pose, Bulawayo East MP David
Coltart said: "I do
not see the party becoming credible because the people
do not know what it
stands for. This party is not a threat," he said.
Coltart said it
would be difficult for the UMP to get members from the MDC
but said it could
get people from Zanu PF.
"I do not believe that the UPM would attract
members from the MDC but they
could in Zanu PF," he said
MDC
party organiser in Bulawayo, Victor Moyo, said his party was aware that
some
of its members had moved to Moyo's UPM but said the numbers were
insignificant.
"Some youths have been swayed by money to join
UPM. This party is known in
the southern region only and there is strong
suspicion that Jonathan Moyo's
party is still part of Zanu PF," he
said.
"The UPM is on the way up and that is why the people in Zanu PF
are getting
jittery. That is why also the Zanu PF government is trying to
delay
presidential elections to 2010," the former government spin doctor
Moyo
said.
He remained mum on the people set to defect from Zanu
PF and the MDC
although Pearson Mbalekwa, who resigned from the ruling party
over the
widely-condemned Operation Murambatsvina, was touted
vice-president.
The UPM was expected to take advantage of the current
divisions rocking the
MDC, while the Zanu PF succession issue gave it
impetus to poach disgruntled
members.
But Coltart said he was not
aware of any member of the MDC who had crossed
over to the UPM. "We are
committed to democracy and people are free to
support a party of their
choice but once any MDC parliamentarian joins any
other party he ceases to
be an MDC member," Coltart said.
He said the MDC was not threatened
by the emergency of the UPM and that with
people like Moyo in its ranks, the
party would not be taken seriously by
Zimbabweans.
"I do not
believe that the UPM will make a lot of impact."
Zim Independent
Ray
Matikinye
THE re-establishment of a bicameral legislature disowned by the
bulk of the
electorate and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) has
brought about a familial dimension to Zimbabwe's
parliament.
The upper house has broken a tradition set by the prime
minister-elect,
Robert Mugabe, who brought pressure to bear on his
colleagues not to
nominate his late wife, Sally, as a candidate in the first
popular election
in 1980.
But that did not deter the former
guerilla leader from giving his sister
Sabina the nod to stand for Zvimba,
her home area.
The Zvimba South legislator, who sits in the lower
house alongside her elder
son Leo Mugabe and his sibling Patrick Zhuwao, are
the MPs for Makonde and
Manyame respectively.
Zhuwao is Science
and Technology Development deputy minister.
Another set of brothers,
Simbarashe and Samuel Mumbengegwi, both hold
ministerial posts while two
ministers have their spouses occupy the red
benches in the
senate.
Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi has his wife Tambudzani
sitting in the
upper house while Youth Development and Employment Creation
minister Ambrose
Mutinhiri will share legislative moments with wife
Tracy.
Tracy Mutinhiri is legislator for Marondera-Seke senatorial
constituency
that comprises Marondera East, Marondera West and Seke
parliamentary
constituencies.
She therefore represents 150 684
voters as opposed to her spouse who
represents only 51 437 voters in
Marondera West.
Mutinhiri only surpasses his wife when it comes to
boasting a ministerial
post.
On the other hand, Tambudzani Mohadi
shares the same constituency in
Beitbridge with spouse Kembo. The couple
represents the same 52 697 voters
as Beitbridge was not affected by the
arbitrary collapsing of constituencies
as were others to form electoral
boundaries for the senate.
The Mohadis' constituency constitutes the
smallest area, thus holding the
record as the most over-represented by
husband and wife.
Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro
GOVERNMENT is forcibly acquiring agricultural equipment stored in
warehouses
from dispossessed white farmers as it steps up efforts to equip
farms
earmarked for the command agriculture scheme, "Operation
Maguta".
Legal sources said government this week wrote letters to
farmers' lawyers
stating it would be acquiring the equipment in accordance
with Section 7 of
the Acquisition of Farm Equipment and Material Act
promulgated in September
last year.
The Act says "the acquiring
authority may, if there is no agreement for the
purchase of the farm
equipment or material concerned, acquire the farm
equipment by making an
order compulsorily acquiring the equipment for
compensation equivalent to
the value placed on the material by the
designated valuation
officer".
A lawyer representing a group of affected farmers, David
Drury, confirmed
attempts to seize the farming equipment removed from farms
but said
government was not following the provisions of the
Act.
"In the numerous cases I have dealt with, government is found to
be in
violation of its own laws," Drury said.
"The Act requires
government to prove that the equipment is lying idle
before preparing an
inventory and the owner could agree or refuse to sell.
In case of
disagreement, a preliminary notice to acquire is issued and this
can be
challenged. When the owner contests then government would have to
apply to
the Administrative Court for an order confirming the acquisition
but
government has not complied with the law."
President Robert Mugabe
this week said government would execute Operation
"Food
Security/Maguta/Inala" to enhance agricultural production and meet
national
food requirements.
The Zimbabwe Defence Forces have been mobilised to
operate farms selected to
grow maize under the operation. Government has
been seizing farm equipment
from properties in the
Lowveld.
Mugabe said the major objectives of the operation are to
boost the country's
food security and consolidate national strategic
reserves.
Zimbabwe requires 1,8 million tonnes of grain for national
consumption
annually and a further 500 000 tonnes as strategic grain
reserves.
Compulsorily acquiring farm equipment from farmers whose
farmland was
expropriated comes at a time when President Mugabe has admitted
to UN envoy
Jan Egeland that Zimbabwe needed food aid. Egeland said the UN
had requested
US$276 million to lessen the deteriorating food, health and
agricultural
situation in Zimbabwe.
He said the UN, through the
World Food Programme, would be feeding more than
three million people by
February next year in Zimbabwe. The country's
agricultural output has fallen
by over 70% in the past five years.
"We are eager to help Zimbabwe regain
food security and I hope we can have
some kind of task force that can focus
immediately on that," Egeland said.
Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro
ZANU PF chefs and war veterans who grabbed farms under the land reform
programme are being taken to court for failing to pay levies to Rural
District Councils (RDCs,) the Zimbabwe Independent heard this
week.
Highly-placed sources said summons have been dispatched to more
than 200 A2
farmers, the majority of them political bigwigs and war veterans
who have
evaded levy payments over the past five years when they forcibly
moved onto
commercial farms.
Association of Rural District
Councils president, Jerry Gotora, confirmed
that farmers' reluctance to pay
levies had crippled RDCs' operations and
capacity to provide basic services.
He however could not provide specific
details on RDCs that had engaged debt
collectors.
"I can't give you which RDCs have already engaged debt
collectors now
because I am not in my office," Gotora said.
"But
you should understand that it is within the RDCs' powers to engage debt
collectors or even lawyers to ensure that farmers pay the
levies."
Gotora said he would be willing to provide specific details of
what is
happening next week when he gets back to his
office.
Sources said RDCs which have already forwarded names to debt
collectors
include Mazowe, Shamva, and Mvurwi in the fertile Mashonaland
Central
province where chefs stampeded to grab prime
properties.
"Topping the list of non-paying people are A2 farmers," a
source said. "The
majority have not paid anything from the time when they
moved on to the
properties."
Levies are used for the repair and
upgrading of district infrastructure such
as roads, clinics and
schools.
But the newly drafted 99-year leases for occupiers of state
land stipulate
that the lessee can only secure the lease agreement when they
have paid
annual levies based on the type of land and improvements on the
property
they occupy.
Government has the right to cancel the
agreement if the lessee fails to meet
these conditions.
Zim Independent
CONTRARY to Justice
minister Patrick Chinamasa's claims that he has never
referred to the
recently-re-established senate as a temporary institution,
he is on record
as having told the ruling Zanu PF's central committee that
the upper house
was a "stop-gap measure".
A copy of Chinamasa's memorandum to the party's
central committee dated May
27 confirms the reports.
Chinamasa
last week wrote a letter to the Zimbabwe Independent claiming he
had never
said the senate would only last from 2005 to 2010.
"I have
erroneously been reported in several issues of your paper to have
said that
the senate is a temporary institution to last from 2005 to 2010,"
Chinamasa
wrote to the Independent.
"At no time during my submission to the
politburo and central committee of
Zanu PF and during my second reading
speech did I ever refer to the senate
as a temporary
institution."
However, according to the May 27 memorandum, Chinamasa
said: "The senate
will be a temporary institution.
"The proposal
to introduce a senate at this hour, at this juncture, should
correctly be
regarded as a stop-gap measure for the period 2005 to 2010,"
Chinamasa's
memo said.
"The structure and composition of the senate will again be
reconsidered in a
more holistic manner within the context of the more
comprehensive
constitutional proposals that I shall propose later in the
life of this
parliament," he said.
In his letter to the
Independent, Chinamasa denied all this. "As far as
government is concerned,
the senate is to become a permanent institution on
our democratic
landscape," he said.
"What I stated to be temporary, a fact which is
incorporated in the
provisions of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Act
(No.17), is the
bunching of House of Assembly constituencies to make up
senatorial
constituencies."
Chinamasa's memorandum states that
the senate will be operative from 2005 to
2010.
"Central
committee is being asked to approve this proposal as the best
workable
proposition in the circumstances for the period between 2005 and
2010,"
Chinamasa said.
"This proposal enhances representation of traditional
chiefs in that they
will, for the first and perhaps only time, be
represented in both houses of
parliament," he said. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
THE legal
fight to force government to repeal draconian sections of the
Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa) has made
progress at the
African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR)
which is set to
make a crucial ruling on the matter before year-end.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights (ZLHR), together with the Independent
Journalists Association
of Zimbabwe and the Media Institute of Zimbabwe,
took the issue to the
commission following the failure of a Supreme Court
application by local
journalists challenging the provisions of the Act two
years ago. Civic
groups can take cases to the commission if they feel they
have exhausted all
local remedies to force their governments to uphold human
rights.
The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Aippa,
notably the
accreditation of journalists and registration of media houses
and the powers
and composition of the government-appointed Media and
Information
Commission.
"The applicants have exhausted local
remedies," says the communication sent
to the commission. "They have
litigated the two issues in the highest court
in Zimbabwe.
"The
Supreme Court of Zimbabwe declared null and void only unintentional
publication or fabrication of falsehoods and declined to declare
unconstitutional intentional publication of falsehoods and compulsory
accreditation of journalists. In the premises, the applicants are left
without a remedy other than the remedy provided for in the African Charter
for Human and Peoples' Rights."
The Aippa case went through the
preliminary stages of "seizure" in May.
Evidence on the admissibility of the
communication from civic groups was
then presented with legal
representatives from the state and the NGOs filing
papers and giving oral
evidence. The commission is now set to make a ruling
on whether government
has complied with provisions of the ACHPR charter
regarding freedom of
information. The government of Zimbabwe is a signatory
to the
charter.
The government was represented at the commission by Director
of the Civil
Division in the Attorney-General's Office Loice Matanda-Moyo
while Sternford
Moyo of Scanlen & Holderness represents civil
groups.
If the commission rules in favour of the civic groups the
matter will be set
down for a full hearing. The government has expressed its
willingness to
consider amendments to Aippa but has not yet moved on the
issue. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Godfrey
Marawanyika
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is today expected to officially open Zanu
PF's
national conference under the cloud of a deepening economic crisis
characterised by food and fuel shortages.
The annual conference which
started yesterday in Esigodini in Matabeleland
South, will last until
Sunday.
The ruling party's constitution has not been amended for some
time but
insiders expect a conclusive decision on the succession issue after
the 2004
debacle which resulted in the elevation of Joice Mujuru to the
vice-president's post and a purge of Emmerson Mnangagwa's
supporters.
Mujuru was being challenged by Mnangagwa, which caused a
serious rift in the
party.
Mugabe has already indicated that he
will step down in 2008.
The amendment of the constitution is on
number six out of nine issues on the
conference agenda. The conference,
which is expected to be attended by 5 000
delegates, will review the general
state of the party and progress of
restructuring.
Zanu PF is also
set to discuss "the diplomatic offensive and the financial
report" of the
party.
The party will review the state of the economy which
encompasses mining,
manufacturing and tourism.
On Tuesday, Mugabe
hinted the government would be putting in place policy
instruments such as
the Empowerment Bill, the National Empowerment Fund and
the Empowerment
Charter.
"The instruments seek to create a comprehensive
institutional framework for
indigenisation and empowerment programmes,
facilitate financial assistance
to further indigenise the economy and
forestall negative tendencies of the
empowerment that previously manifested
themselves in the form of economic
malpractices and corruption," Mugabe
said.
At the meeting, Zanu PF will also discuss the land reform
programme.
There will be progress reports on land audits and the A1 and
the A2 land
allocations.
The meeting will also review the impact
of the Constitutional Amendment
Number 17 and assess "preparations for the
current agricultural season".
Zanu PF will also review state of the
social services which includes
Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle, health,
education and transport. A
resolution should also be passed on the state of
social services.
The meeting will also co-opt new members into the
central committee and the
politburo but the issue of Mugabe's successor is
not likely to feature.
"Even if succession arises it will not be on
the public agenda because there
are no vacancies, the president is only
retiring in 2008 and therefore there
is no sense of urgency," Eldred
Masunungure, a political analyst from the
University of Zimbabwe, told
Reuters yesterday.
Tensions still exist from last year's Zanu PF row
over a successor to
Mugabe. The dispute nearly split the party in two a few
months before
crucial parliamentary elections, which Zanu PF went on to win
despite the
internal turmoil.
Mugabe persuaded his party faithful
to endorse his preferred candidate for
the vacant post of second vice
president in Zanu PF party and government, a
post seen as a step up the
ladder to his own position.
Mugabe then cracked down on senior
members of a faction which had lobbied
for Mnangagwa, suspending several
from the party and demoting others both
within Zanu PF structures and
government, quelling any lingering murmurs of
discontent.
But the
veteran leader has not publicly anointed a successor.
"The faction
leaders from last year's debacle have retreated and it is still
too early
for them to re-enter the gladiator (arena) because the dust has
not
settled," Masunungure said.
Zim Independent
Roadwin Chirara
FINHOLD has said Zimbabwe's economic growth
projections for 2006 are
unlikely to be driven by agriculture as the sector
is hampered by shortages
of inputs and late rains.
Finance minister
Herbert Murerwa has projected that the economy will grow by
2% to 3,5% in
his budget statement. The financial services group in its
budget analysis
said factors such as the shortage of fuel and seed will
negatively impact on
the sector resulting in reduced production.
"Notwithstanding the
ambitious growth projections every year, the Minister
of Finance still
believes that Zimbabwe's economy will expand by between 2%
and 3,5% in 2006,
with agriculture expected to spearhead the recovery,"
Finhold
said.
"This optimism is not backed by developments on the ground,
where production
is likely to be compromised by, among other factors, the
shortage of
essential inputs such as fertiliser, chemicals and fuel. The
late arrival of
the rains is also likely to result in lower than normal
agricultural
production."
The group said although the minister
had called for discipline in
agriculture, it remains to be seen whether this
will be respected.
"Additionally, while the minister's statement on
discipline in the
agricultural sector is welcome, it remains to be seen
whether such
sentiments will be respected so as to encourage investment in
the sector,"
Finhold said.
Finhold said the budget statement had
failed to provide details as to how
government would reduce inflation from
411% in October to the projected
target of 80% at the end of
2006.
"The budget statement states that even though the year-on-year
rate of
inflation stood at 411% in October, it will be brought down to end
2006 at
80%. However, there is not much detail on how this will be achieved,
except
the belief that the country will experience normal rains," Finhold
said.
It said given the frequent droughts, the projected rebound of
agriculture as
a major contributor to the economy was highly
unlikely.
"Moreover, there is mention of a desire to implement
complementary
restrictive fiscal and monetary policies. Given the frequent
occurrences of
drought, over which the country has no control, and the
constraints listed
above, the expected rebound in agriculture may not
occur."
The financial services group said conditions under which the
current budget
was crafted were unfavourable as the economy was expected to
decline by
3,5%.
"The conditions under which the 2006 budget was
crafted are highly
unfavourable, with the economy forecast to decline by
3,5% in 2005 compared
to the budgeted growth of between 3,5% and 5%," said
Finhold.
It said the policies announced by the minister were at
variance with the
need to reduce inflation and move away from a controlled
economy.
"In addition, there are other policy measures announced by
the Minister of
Finance that are at variance with the need to reduce
inflation. There is the
desire to move away from a regulated economy to one
where market forces play
a greater role."
The financial
institution said the ability of the policy statement to deal
with inflation
would largely depend on how it would finance the projected
budget deficit of
$13,9 trillion.
"Moreover, the extent to which inflation can be
reduced will also depend on
how the projected deficit of $13,9 trillion in
2006 will be financed," said
Finhold.
"While the minister's
desire is to source the bulk of this amount from
non-bank sources in order
to reduce the inflationary impact of bank
financing of the deficit, the
capacity is not there," Finhold said.
"As a result, and in, line with
recent experience, a large proportion of the
deficit is likely to be
financed through bank borrowings which will result
in an inflationary growth
in money supply."
Zim Independent
Godfrey
Marawanyika
ZIMBABWE Stock Exchange-listed timber processor, Border Timbers,
this year
lost 706 hectares of timber to 75 fires caused mainly by
newly-resettled
farmers, the company has said in its annual report. It said
93% of the fires
were due to arson.
During the year under review,
Border said group performance was below
target. "The fire season was
extremely taxing with 75 recorded fires leading
to a loss of 706 hectares,"
Border said. "Furthermore, of the 75 recorded
fires, 36 occurred on the
Charter Estate, illustrating the severity of the
impact of the land
invasions. It is important to note that 93% of the
recorded fires were due
to arson."
The company said new technology in the form of
state-of-the art fire trucks,
rapid response strike units and specialised
small tools, significantly
enhanced its firefighting operations and
prevented substantial destruction
of the plantations, specifically Charter
Estate.
During the period under review, Border Timbers failed to
access cheap funds
under the Productive Sector Facility (PSF) for most of
the year, which
contributed to reduced profits compared to the budget, while
hyperinflationary conditions contributed adversely to the cost structure of
the company.
Border's financial results this year indicate a
decrease in profit after
taxation and an extraordinary item of nearly $12
billion. Selling price
increases in both local and the export market lagged
behind input costs,
while the auction exchange rate rendered exports
unviable.
The net result of all this was a further reduction in
margins. In the
report, Border expressed concern at government's disrespect
for the 2002
High Court rulings against all designations of its properties
for purposes
of acquisition. Last year government continued with its
listings despite the
court orders.
"The number of illegal
settlers on the company's properties continued to
increase; this was the
case in the Chimanimani properties," Border said.
"It is, however,
encouraging that some of these illegal settlers were
subsequently evicted.
The risks associated with these illegal occupations
are evidenced by the
numerous arson fires experienced during the year."
Zim Independent
Eric
Chiriga
GOVERNMENT'S domestic debt now stands at $14 trillion, increasing
more than
threefold since the beginning of the year as government failed to
rein in
excessive expenditure.
According to statistics from the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, as at November 25
total government domestic debt
was $14 trillion from $3 trillion on January
7.
The domestic debt
is mainly made up of treasury bills, government stocks and
RBZ advances to
government.
Out of the $14 trillion, RBZ advances to government
amounted to $1,5
trillion and treasury bill amount at cost and interest were
$5,5 trillion
and $6 trillion respectively.
On June 24, the debt
had increased to about $11,6 trillion and rose to $12,5
trillion by August
26.
In almost all his national budget statements, the Minister of
Finance,
Herbert Murerwa, has emphasised that the government should control
recurrent
expenditure.
While presenting his 2006 national budget
statement last week, Murerwa said
the financing of the budget deficit had
been dominated by domestic bank
credit.
"Given this scenario,"
Murerwa said, "government will limit recurrent
expenditures to revenue
generated and only borrow to finance capital
development."
He
said the continued dominance of domestic financing of the budget deficit
during 2005 pushed the total stock of domestic debt up from $1,7 trillion in
December 2004 to $15,9 trillion by the end of October.
"The
structure of domestic public debt reflects the dominance of short-term
paper
(93%), with long to medium-term debt only taking up 7%."
"This
structure of debt is expensive and not sustainable," Murerwa
said.
The domestic debt is expected to increase further because
government borrows
for consumption, to finance recurrent expenditure, rather
than for capital
projects.
The major components of the recurrent
expenditures are public service
employment and social service delivery
costs.
Besides borrowing from the domestic market to finance its
expenditure,
government can also use its overdraft facility with the central
bank.
However, there is a statutory limit stipulated by the RBZ Act
on the amount
the government can borrow, set at 20% of the previous year's
revenue
collection
Zim Independent
Godfrey
Marawanyika
INTERNATIONAL fuel distributor Mobil Oil Zimbabwe has started
disposing of
its assets in the country, businessdigest can reveal. The fuel
company has
engaged a real estate agent to evaluate the assets to be
disposed of.
According to a letter written on November 2 to one service
station dealer
titled "Sale of Assets" by Mobil's area manager for southern
Africa,
Goodmore Chatora, the firm will be conducting fuel tank integrity
tests to
determine their condition.
"Mobil Oil Zimbabwe's
contractors will in the next few days be conducting
tank integrity tests to
determine the condition of the tanks at your service
station. Please afford
them co-operation," Chatora said.
"Should tanks be found to be in a
sound condition, we will offer to sell
them to you. In the event that you
are unable to finance their purchase, we
will offer them to other parties
with whom you can enter into separate
supply arrangements," reads the
statement on a Mobil letterhead.
Chief executive for Mobil Zimbabwe
Nester Ankiba had not responded to
written questions sent to his office on
Monday to ascertain if the
organisation is disinvesting from Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe has been experiencing
an acute shortage of fuel over the past five
years owing to foreign currency
shortages.
The government blames
the scarcity of fuel on targeted sanctions slapped on
the Zanu PF political
leadership by Britain and its western allies.
President Robert Mugabe
and his ministers were slapped with sanctions by the
European Union and the
United States following the disputed 2002
presidential
election.
As part of plans to ease the crisis Finance minister
Herbert Murerwa last
week announced that fuel importers will now be
accessing foreign currency
using the inter bank rate.
Chatora
recommended that after the completion of the disposal process the
affected
garages enter fuel supply arrangements with the National Oil
Company of
Zimbabwe (Noczim) who have the infrastructure and operational
capacity.
"If the tanks are found not to be in sound condition,
Mobil Oil Zimbabwe
will not be able to sell them to you and might have to
pull them out for
environmental reasons. The other assets such as pumps will
be sold to you
regardless of the results of the integrity tests," Chatora
said.
"In the next few days and weeks our real estate agent Lead will
visit you to
negotiate the prices of our assets and will deliver the
contracts for your
signature. Once again we thank you for having partnered
us over the years."
Since August, the central bank has allowed the
buying of fuel at selected
garages using foreign currency.
The
failure to supply fuel by Noczim has led to a number of garages
retrenching
whilst some service stations are importing directly and
reselling the
commodity at between $100 000-$115 000 a litre.
Zim Independent
THE International
Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that the country's gross
domestic product
(GDP) will next year shrink by minus 4,8% rather than the
minus 7,1% it
forecast in June this year.
Finance minister Herbert Murerwa last week
announced that the economy would
grow next year for the first time since
1999 on the back of a major
turnaround in the troubled agricultural
sector.
Murerwa forecast gross domestic product growth of between 2
to -3,5% in
2006, against a 3,5% contraction this year.
This
decline is in sharp contrast to the projected growth of 4,3% to 4,8%
for the
world economy and sub-Saharan Africa respectively.
Murerwa said
agriculture, which has been on a slide for the past six years,
would grow by
14,8%.
He said the key drivers of this growth would be maize
production which he
said would increase by 33% and cotton by
26%.
He said the mining sector would also contribute to economic
growth with an
increase of 27%.
"Growth will be driven mainly by
agriculture, manufacturing, mining and
tourism," Murerwa
said.
Analysts however said Murerwa's optimism was not backed by
facts on the
ground, where production is likely to be compromised by the
shortage of
essential inputs such as fuel, chemicals, and fertilisers, among
others.
The IMF forecast the consumer price index at
253,1%.
The country has suffered six years of recession, with output
contracting by
more than a third.
A combination of foreign
currency shortages and drought has forced the
manufacturing sector to
operate well below capacity.
Murerwa predicted the budget deficit
would dip to 4,6% of GDP in 2006 from
5% this year.
He, however,
gave no explanation for the lower forecasts, but has warned
government
departments against overspending.
The IMF said without decisive
policy action, the outlook for 2006 and beyond
was bleak. The IMF predicted
further difficulties in agriculture. It said
the current maize crop was
unlikely to meet national requirements.
It also projected higher
inflation and foreign currency shortages. "The
widening fiscal deficit and
quasi-fiscal activities will contribute to money
growth, pushing inflation
to about 320% by end-2005," the IMF said.
"The current account
deficit will widen temporarily to 7½% of GDP due to
higher food imports.
Output is projected to contract again in 2006, with a
less severe decline in
agriculture assuming normal levels of rainfall."
It said inflation
would decelerate to 200% by the end of next year as the
fiscal deficit was
held back by the erosion of government expenditure in
real terms. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Itai
Mushekwe
THE Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) has called upon consumers to
take
prudent and self-sustaining measures to weather the economic storm
which has
seen the shopping basket increasing twelve-fold since the
beginning of the
year.
Consumer disposable incomes continue to be
eroded by escalating prices
severely affecting the low income
earners.
In January, a family of six required $1,7 million per month
representing a
4% increase from December 2004. The cost of the basket has
continued to rise
over the past 12 months.
While the CCZ puts the
cost of the basket of a family of six at nearly $13
million, the average
salary of a civil servant is around $2,1 million. A
private soldier for
instance, earns about $2,5 million while a teacher takes
home about $2,1
million.
Last month the basket surged to a new high of $12,9 million,
representing a
10, 7% increase from October's grand total of $11,6
million.
The consumer watchdog warned consumers against impulse
buying and to be wary
of unscrupulous retailers.
"Consumers
should shop around to avoid being ripped off by unscrupulous
retailers, this
will also help them in getting a fair deal," said the CCZ.
The lobby
group which recently came under fire for lacking legal muscle to
pounce on
dubious manufacturers and retailers to the best interest of the
consumer's
cause, added that consumers should broaden their economic
horizons to beef
up their meagre incomes.
"During these difficult times," said the
CCZ, "we urge consumers to expand
their economic activities by engaging in
extra trade, small-scale businesses
and other lawful income-generating
activities to augment their wages and
salaries."
However,
effective yesterday, fuel prices were hiked from the government
gazetted $22
300 per litre for petrol to about $120 000 per litre on the
open market, a
scenario expected to exacerbate consumer woes due to the
inflationary impact
ignited on goods and services.
Hyper-inflation which is hovering at
411% together with plans by government
to allow market forces to determine
prices will further weaken the
consumer's buying power as prices are likely
to soar to unprecedented
levels.
The CCZ said the economy's
various stakeholders must agree on realistic
prices commensurate with
consumer sustainability.
"The CCZ urges relevant authorities to agree
on realistic, yet sustainable
prices, which will ensure consistence in the
availability of commodities on
the market."
The consumer watchdog
also noted that "increases in the cost of basic
commodities and services
reveal that the incomes of the majority of the
workforce in the informal
sector drastically mismatch the cost of living".
Since the onset of
the economic meltdown some five years ago, consumers have
borne the brunt of
the unstable macro-economic fundamentals, thereby making
them submissive to
market forces.
Zim Independent
Letter
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe, the governor of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe,
Gideon Gono and one Nathaniel Manheru (Saturday Herald columnist)
were
literally frothing at the mouth about the extension of smart sanctions
to
spouses and children of Zanu PF big wigs who have damaged the country
beyond
repair.
They try unsuccessfully to give the impression that
they are not really
bothered by their inability to travel to the First World
while deep inside
they seeth with anger.
If they really do not
care, why did they protest when one Joshua Malinga was
bundled onto the next
plane from London on his way to the USA?
If they do not care, why did
one Samuel Mumbengegwi boast when he was in
Brussels: "Mupfana
ndiripakatikati payo Brussels, unoiziva inonzi Brussels,
ndiripakati pavo
varungu".
He really made a fool of himself. The president went
ballistic when the new
list was published.
I think "thou doth
protest too much". The big wigs are besides themselves
with rage as their
shopping is now restricted to the Second World -
Singapore, Malaysia
etc.
Vanzwa sugar butter (serves them
right).
Totemless,
South London.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
Vincent
Kahiya
WE are living in abnormal times. The abnormality stems from poverty
which
unfortunately has triggered weird survival tactics and outlandish
entrepreneurial skills in many among us.
Zimbabwe has abundant human
capital but most of it today is being employed
negatively or is being
wasted.
There are doctors I know of who have stopped practising in
order to sell
fuel. There are architects who find the lure of a quick buck
from selling
cement more attractive than draughtsmanship. Senior bankers
have left
executive offices to run lodges and brothels in the avenues and
suburbia.
This is where the money is.
It is no longer just
people selling foreign currency at Roadport or fuel in
front of Noczim House
in Harare or the now common cheque fraudsters
constituting the parallel
economy also known as the black or grey economy
(depending on one's colour
sensitivities). The new economy outside glass and
mortar structures has
created billionaires who can never thrive in a
properly-run economy. When
ordinary rural folk in Mberengwa can harness
donkeys to pull a cart packed
with $8,4 billion, then it's time to reflect
seriously on the parlous state
of our economy.
The new entrepreneurs go about their business with
stunning efficiency.
Purveyors of the parallel economy can easily claim to
be more efficient and
effective than those running the formal economy. They
see opportunities
where many cannot envisage any. This week the Harare
commission's $33
trillion gargantuan budget presented a break for some. A
youngster I met
this week was rubbing his hands with glee at the
announcement that the cost
of burial space was going to increase from the
current $750 000 to $8,5
million in January and then to $17 million in
July.
That is prime real estate with returns unmatched by any
property investment
in the city, he mused. This is just over three square
metres set to fetch
$8,5 million. Prime residential land in Harare's leafy
suburbs is selling
for $500 000 a square metre. The youngster was planning
to buy hundreds of
graves in city cemeteries for resale next year. There is
always a ready
market.
This is not a greenfield venture because
there are others already in the
business. No wonder Warren Hills cemetery is
said to be full but burials
still take place in the graveyard. There are
graves available on the black
market. Competition in this area is set to
increase as more "estate agents"
join the fray.
The challenging
economic environment has brought with it a measure of
cunning and
opportunism which borders on the criminal. The smart middleman
making
billions on the street is thriving because of criminals performing
the less
honourable tasks of providing merchandise.
The merchants of the
ill-gotten products then drive the illegality in the
country. There is a
ready market for cheap oil for commuter omnibus drivers
and its source, Zesa
transformers, which when drained of oil, switch off
whole suburbs for weeks.
Backyard foundries provide a ready market for
felons stealing Zesa copper
and aluminum cables every night. Enterprising
hawkers are loading water onto
bus carriers from Harare for resale in
Chitungwiza.
The
government does not deny the existence of a black market but has
popularised
the belief that the black economy is rooted only in fuel and
foreign
currency shortages despite more facets of the economy becoming
black. It
encompasses all sorts of pilferage, adulteration and evasion,
which have
become the hallmark of this economy. While everybody acknowledges
the
existence of a black market the government appears at a loss over how to
tame it.
The vibrancy of the parallel economy is a sign that the
official economy is
not providing enough goods and services, and that a norm
of illegality
exists in a country. The land reform programme gave illegality
fresh impetus
as those who looted farm implements, stole cattle and
harvested crops they
did not grow appeared immune to prosecution. They were
stealing from white
farmers four years ago and today, black resettled
farmers are victims. Their
loss is feeding the "other"
economy.
Zimbabwe has become a haven for counterfeit goods
manufactured here and
across borders. Recently there have been adverts by
beverage manufacturers
warning of cheap bottled drinks on the market
packaged under their
trademarks. Glue manufacturers have also warned of
imitation products being
sold in hardware shops. Be careful when buying
padlocks for your doors. One
imitation brand is packaged in exactly the same
box as the genuine product.
Manufacturers of the counterfeit product have
replaced the "U" on the brand
name of the proper product with an "O". This
gives the cheap product the
name of a vegetable and that is exactly what it
is.
There is all the evidence that the illegal economy has drained
talent and
initiative from the official economy, deprived the government of
tax
revenues, and led to inefficient use of resources. The government cannot
manage key resources like fuel and foreign currency because these are not in
the hands of the state. Those in charge of the key resources would rather
use them for self-enrichment and not national development because they do
not want to support a system they abhor.
The net effect of all
this is that the parallel market has become a major
source of inflation and
currency instability. It has made nonsense of hard
work and genuine business
acumen. And there is no sign that the government
knows what should be done.
Indeed, it is part of the problem.
Zim Independent
By Denford
Magora
A DAY after the senate election, Morgan Tsvangirai told the world that
the
apathy that led to the low voter turnout was a response to his call for
a
boycott of the polls.
International news services said he "boasted"
that the people of Zimbabwe
had heeded his call.
But Tsvangirai
is deluding himself. That there was massive apathy is not in
dispute. It
should also be evident even to him that the low voter turnout
was a serious
indictment of the way he has led the opposition over the past
six years as
much as it was a definite slap in President Mugabe's face.
It all
started with the March parliamentary poll. The turnout was also low.
Tsvangirai campaigned in those elections, even after initially talking of a
boycott. But the turnout was still dismal. The explanation is simple
enough.
We had a low voter turnout in the March parliamentary poll
because the
electorate had written both Tsvangirai and Mugabe off already.
They had
decided voting for Tsvangirai's MDC was as much a waste of time as
was
voting for the now thoroughly dysfunctional ruling
party.
Tsvangirai is intelligent enough to realise that when people
say "voting is
a waste of time" they are talking as much about the way the
MDC utilises the
votes it is given, as much as they are talking about the
ineptitude of Zanu
PF.
If he realises this, then he should be
hiding his face in shame at the way
his party and leadership have ruined
people's enthusiasm for the democratic
process.
Yes, their votes
are wasted because when Tsvangirai and the MDC pocket those
votes, they do
not appear to champion the causes that are dear to their
supporters' hearts.
Those causes go beyond the attainment of power. People
have to live in the
meantime.
We really should not be repeating over and over again the
need to tune into
the people's daily tempo. Their daily struggles, hopes and
little battles
should never have been ignored by Tsvangirai who thought that
he had a
"higher" calling and better things to do with his time than bother
with
bread and butter issues.
The people of Zimbabwe, with the
exception of the geriatrics who pottered
along to cast their votes for Zanu
PF last week, are now sick and tired of
meaningless
elections.
Zanu PF also carries a very large part of the blame for
this apathy. Voters
have given up on a Zanu PF led by Mugabe which they now
never take
seriously, except when it comes to beating peaceful protesters to
a pulp and
detaining them. This government has not given the vast majority
of our
people any reason to turn up at the polls.
Promises made
by Zanu PF may as well be written on toilet paper, which will
be flushed
down the drains before the ink has even dried on it.
In any serious
democracy, or even in a society with pretensions to
democracy, it ought to
shame both the person in power and the one seeking to
take that power when
people just don't care anymore. This is Zimbabwe's
reality. But do not hold
your breath for any signs of shame from either
Mugabe or Tsvangirai. These
people live in their own world, believing
whatever makes them feel most
comfortable at any given moment.
As for Tsvangirai, the only credit
that should go to him is that he has
managed to so thoroughly disenchant the
people of this country that they
really do not believe that he has any more
fight left in him. They know he
has no strategy either, after having seen
him blow hot and cold after losing
three elections, which he claimed were
rigged.
No one needs to remind the people of this country of the
ineptitude and
apparent helplessness of the opposition "leader" in the face
of successive
opportunities presented to him on a silver
platter.
There was the anger of the people after the 2000
parliamentary poll was
allegedly "stolen" by Mugabe. Then came another wave
of anger when Mugabe
closed the polling stations early during the
presidential election, thereby
denying Tsvangirai the presidency by a margin
of some 400 000.
Tsvangirai did not channel this anger with the
people. Instead, he left them
to swing in the wind, while he globetrotted
and asked foreigners to put
pressure on Mugabe.
Meantime, those
who voted for the opposition leader looked on as Mugabe and
his ministers
like Ignatius Chombo (Local Government) and Joseph Made
(Agriculture)
proceeded to govern the country as though it were a rubbish
dump.
They did not see their lot improve in any way. What they
saw instead was an
intensification of their hardships, brought on by further
isolation of the
newly-elected Zanu PF government. Inflation continued to
spiral out of
control, fuel blues continued to bite really hard despite
assurances by
President Mugabe.
This led to the population
experiencing intense public transport problems.
Both Tsvangirai and
Mugabe remained mum on this issue, even as people waited
for hours on end to
catch buses in the morning and at night.
Zhupco, despite making a
dubious and convenient "profit" that allowed it to
donate to Zanu PF is, to
this day, failing to make a dent in the public
transport problem. Of course,
Tsvangirai is not in power, and he has
protested before that he should not
be blamed for these happenings.
But that is sheer nonsense. The
people who voted for him are suffering
because of the incompetence of the
government that he says stole the
election. They expect him to do something
to show that he has not forgotten
their plight. That something is not the
addressing of endless rallies. It is
not the frequenting of foreign capitals
in search of moral and financial
support. It is not the issuing of
statements condemning this and that from
the comfort of his
home.
They expect him to take the lead in confronting this government
over its
callous insensitivity over everything from the shortage of basic
commodities
to the so-called Operation Murambatsvina. In fact, not one
person I speak to
has any recollection of whether Tsvangirai said or did
anything to defend
the urbanites who were treated like criminal dogs during
this operation.
It then comes down to this: people are now of the
opinion that neither
Tsvangirai nor Mugabe can make a difference to their
daily woes. Neither
seems to care that the country is burning and the
economy has collapsed.
Yes, collapsed. Neither has the capacity to change
their circumstances.
As a result, people have taken the attitude:
each man for himself and the
devil take the hindermost. If they desert their
fields during this rainy
season to waste a Saturday voting in a contest
between two corpses, they had
only themselves to blame for hunger,
deprivation and suffering when tomorrow
comes. They will not hear from
Tsvangirai or Mugabe. So, their Saturday was
better spent trying to ensure
the survival of their families the following
week. They have now realised
that the fate of their individual family groups
lies in their hands and
theirs alone, not in Mugabe's discredited
pronouncements or Tsvangirai's
floundering.
Do not be fooled. Even if Tsvangirai had accepted to
participate in the
polls, the level of apathy would have been the same. It
would have been a
continuation of the widespread apathy we saw in March,
when the MDC had its
seats reduced amidst a massive fall in voter
turnout.
Apart from a cabal of die-hard fanatics on both sides of the
political
fence, no one cares anymore how many elections are held. For this
reason, if
for no other, those who are making moves to dismiss Tsvangirai
from the helm
of the party should be applauded by all who cherish
democracy.
* Denford Magora is a Harare-based marketing
executive.
Zim Independent
By Phillip
Pasirayi
ONE of the stories that made the headlines on national television on
Monday
was the misleading claim by the MDC deputy secretary-general Gift
Chimanikire that Morgan Tsvangirai destroyed the party.
There are
many flaws in this statement which I wish to highlight.
It is wrong
in the first place to argue that the MDC has been destroyed.
There is
nothing that points to the demise of the party because its organs
are still
intact despite the bickering by an MDC minority, that is, members
of the
so-called "Top 6" that in the past, I and other writers have equated
to an
undemocratic institution such as the politburo in Zanu PF.
The
grassroots of the MDC is well-oiled as exemplified by the number of
people
who turn up at Tsvangirai's rallies countrywide, except that it is
continuously betrayed by a tribalistic, timorous and incompetent
leadership.
We have not heard about defections of MDC members since
the 2002 Zanu
PF-concocted resignations from the opposition
party.
Leaders of the MDC must be clear in their intentions rather
than take the
people for granted. What is baffling about Chimanikire's
claims is that they
came barely two days after he declared his ambitions to
challenge Tsvangirai
at the MDC congress.
It is wrong for
Chimanikire to challenge Tsvangirai in a manner that weakens
the MDC and
takes away people's trust in the party.
Chimanikire has adopted a
"scorched earth policy" by destroying everything
in his way so that he gains
pre-eminence in the MDC.
Members of the pro-senate faction, who until
recently, used to argue that
they had lost confidence in the country's
judiciary, must also be honest
with Zimbabweans and explain why all of a
sudden they now say the courts can
impartially resolve MDC
problems.
It is a pity that one member of this faction, himself a
professor of
constitutional law, still can trust the courts and want them to
adjudicate
in MDC disputes. The implications of taking Tsvangirai to court
on the
allegations that he is flouting conditions for his suspension are
far-reaching and may see the complete demise of the MDC, which is what
people like Chimanikire want.
There is a possibility that
Tsvangirai is going to be barred from conducting
party business on the basis
of his suspension. If he defies this order, he
will be arrested around the
time that the MDC should be going to congress so
that he does not seek
re-election as MDC president.
This will be done so that presidential
aspirant, Chimanikire, who so far has
proved a willing tool of Zanu PF,
emerges the winner.
Zanu PF is more comfortable with Chimanikire as
MDC president than
Tsvangirai because they know that he is an "ignoramus".
No serious
electorate would entrust power in such a person.
The
other likely scenario from the court challenge is that the battle will
be
protracted and be manipulated by Zanu PF to suit its own agenda. If
Tsvangirai refuses to surrender party assets, police will intervene in the
name of enforcing the law and as such expose the MDC regarding what it has
and what it does not have, including where it got some of the
assets.
We are certainly poised for more interesting times ahead of
the MDC congress
but we might be going there without the man who is a hero
to many people
fighting for democracy in Zimbabwe!
* Phillip
Pasirayi is a civil rights activist.
Zim Independent
By Bill
Saidi
AMONG members sworn into the new senate last week were two housewives
with
distinctive credentials. Their husbands are members of the lower house,
the
National Assembly. One husband is a long-serving cabinet minister, the
other
a fairly new deputy minister.
Now these ladies could very well
possess brilliant credentials as liberation
war heroes. Yet, if they had not
been the spouses of two prominent Zanu PF
politicians, chances are that they
might have had to struggle hard to make
it into the senate, described by
cynics as a political scrapyard turned into
a juicy part of the gravy
train.
The lower house itself has three members of the same family as
MPs: Sabina
Mugabe and her two sons, Leo Mugabe and Patrick
Zhuwao.
Sabina herself is the sister of President Robert Mugabe and her
political
credentials may indeed be impeccable, but her sons' are less so,
to be quite
honest.
Leo's reputation was made as the leader of
the Zimbabwe Football
Association. His departure from that post was steeped
in controversy.
Patrick was suddenly thrust forward as a Zanu PF
candidate for Manyame.
Then, just like that, he was a deputy
minister.
Many serious analysts, stretching their neutrality to
absurd heights, could
argue that there is no big deal here: all these people
came by their
positions legitimately, unless there is solid evidence of
duplicity.
But that is being naive. This is politics, the bedrock of
which is cynicism
and impunity.
Marie Antoinette immortalised the
quip "Let them eat cake" when asked what
the people of Paris could eat as
there was no more bread for them.
At the time, the ruling elite of France
were stuffing themselves sick with
food while the poor perished of
hunger.
Marie Antoinette may or may not have said what she is said to
have said, but
she is stuck with the quote for all time.
But the
trait most admired by many in a politician is the capacity for
cynicism in
the face of adversity. The relatives mentioned above would
react, typically,
with a nonchalant: "So what? Sue us."
This cynicism or impunity was
evident in the decision to go ahead with the
senate election, right from the
start.
A Newsnet survey had demonstrated candidly that most people in
the country
had no idea why they were being bothered with this particular
trek to the
polling stations.
The impunity with which the
government went ahead with the election is, as
they say, "par for the
course" as far as Zanu PF is concerned.
You have to go back to the
first election to obtain an insight into the
impunity with which Zanu PF has
run this country, killing democracy softly,
in a manner of
speaking.
In the first election before Independence, it was Mugabe's
party which
decided they would not fight the polls jointly with their
Patriotic Front
partners, Joshua Nkomo's PF Zapu.
This turned the
election into an ethnic contest, with Mugabe's party winning
in most of the
country and Nkomo's victorious in Matabeleland.
This was the
harbinger of the Gukurahundi bloodbath. We know that there will
be arguments
about this for a long time, but posterity will not be cheated
or
bamboozled.
In 1985, Nkomo, having returned from exile, led his party
in their last
election as an entity and won everything on offer in their
turf.
In 1990, the united Zanu PF faced another offshoot, Edgar
Tekere's Zimbabwe
Unity Movement, which they creamed.
Tekere lost
to Mugabe, but Patrick Kombayi lost much more: he was crippled
for life. His
opponent in the election was Simon Muzenda, who died in 2003
and was
immortalised by Zanu PF as "The Soul of the Nation".
One of the
people arrested, charged and convicted as a result of the
attempted murder
of Kombayi was an employee of the Central Intelligence
Organisation. The
cynicism with which Mugabe pardoned the two would-be
assassins was a lesson
in political expediency.
In 1995, Zanu PF brushed aside the feeble
challenge of the Forum Party of
Zimbabwe, led by the former Chief Justice,
Enoch Dumbutshena. There were no
reported assassination attempts in that
election campaign.
But the 2000 election campaign marked a new level
in the impunity with which
Zanu PF intended kill democracy in the country.
Forty people were reportedly
killed before the polls, including Talent
Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya.
Once again, the CIO was involved - one
of the people allegedly involved in
the torching of the two MDC activists'
vehicle belonged to the CIO. His name
was mentioned publicly, but to this
day - unless a secret trial has been
held - neither he nor his alleged
accomplice have been brought to book.
And so with the 2005 senatorial
election, with Zanu PF still trying to kill
democracy softly and with
impunity, again, the CIO was mentioned. They are
reported to have had shady
dealings with the pro-senate faction in the MDC.
After the election,
which recorded one of the lowest percentage polls ever
and in which the MDC
rebels won a measly seven out of then 26 seats they had
contested, there was
no defeat conceded by any group in the MDC.
But Morgan Tsvangirai had
been vindicated. His boycott call had been largely
heeded. A majority of the
voters had stayed away from the polls.
They had indicated to Zanu PF that
they were determined to stop the rot, to
stop the murder of their democracy,
which Zanu PF has been trying to do
since Independence.
Perhaps
it wasn't even a victory for Tsvangirai as an individual, but
awareness by
the people that it was time to show Zanu PF that they would not
be taken for
granted any more.
If the rebel group in the MDC insists that someone
ought to be punished for
the success of the election boycott, then serious
questions may be asked. It
is difficult to believe that people like Gibson
Sibanda, Welshman Ncube,
Gift Chimanikire and Paul Themba Nyathi would risk
the demise of the MDC,
for which they fought the Zanu PF bullies alongside
Tsvangirai, over the
senate election.
It would suggest there was
more to their fight than the election. In that
case nobody would mourn the
death of the party. It would thoroughly deserve
to be killed softly, and
with massive impunity by Zanu PF.
* Bill Saidi is editor of the
banned Daily News on Sunday.
Zim Independent
Shakeman
Mugari
LAST week Finance minister Herbert Murerwa announced that
government was
going to privatise seven parastatals to ease the burden on
the fiscus and
improve their operations.
Murerwa admitted that
parastatals and local authorities were an "impediment
to economic growth and
a drain to the fiscus". He also conceded that some of
the turnaround
strategies being implemented were inadequate.
"Government has, therefore,
decided on the restructuring of some of the
public enterprises through
strategic alliances and joint ventures that
facilitate the injection of
additional equity capital, as well as access to
modern technology and
equipment," Murerwa said.
Seven parastatals are earmarked for
privatisation through what the minister
called joint ventures, strategic
alliances and concessioning. Zimbabwe Power
Company (ZPC), Tel*One, Net*One
and Air Zimbabwe will be privatised through
strategic partnerships while the
National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) will be
commercialised through what the
minister called concessioning.
Zisco will be privatised through a joint
venture or a management contract.
The minister said the state would sell
part of its stake in the troubled
Cold Storage Company (CSC) which would be
listed on the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange.
Murerwa said government was
going to sell its shareholding in other
parastatals to raise capital. "In
order to raise resources, especially
foreign exchange and to ensure wider
indigenous participation in the
economy, government will also divest some of
its shareholding in other
companies."
Analysts say most of the
collapsing parastatals require foreign currency
which government has been
battling to generate over the past five years.
Selling parastatals to locals
would not change their fortunes because they
do not have foreign currency to
meet import requirements, analysts say.
Many of the companies earmarked
for privatisation are crumbling because they
lack foreign currency to
acquire new technology. The NRZ's wagons and rail
systems are falling apart
because of lack of foreign currency. Net*One and
Tel*One's network systems
are congested for the same reason. The ZPC's power
generators at Hwange and
Kariba are not being repaired because there is no
foreign currency to
acquire spare parts.
Most problems in parastatals are a result of
perennial foreign currency
shortages and only foreign direct investment
(FDI) can inject forex and new
technology.
Government will therefore
need to dispose of its stake in state companies to
foreign investors who
have the capital to resuscitate them.
It is however the ability to
attract offshore investment that might prove a
major stumbling block for a
government that has earned a dubious reputation
for disregarding the rule of
law and property rights. Investors are still
worried about Zimbabwe's high
political and economic risk, analysts say.
While the proposed changes
suggest that government is moving towards a
market-driven economy which it
dumped in 2000 at the height of the land
crisis, analysts say the new
measures are piecemeal and might not amount to
privatisation in real terms.
They say although government is signaling that
it wants to divest from the
parastatals, history shows that there is no
political will to relinquish
control over companies like Air Zimbabwe, the
ZPC, Tel*One and the
NRZ.
The state has in the past used these companies to provide sheltered
employment for cronies and are fertile grounds for corruption.
Prices
of their goods and services are controlled by the government which
wants to
be seen to be doing something to cushion the public. The ZPC and
Tel*One are
not allowed to review their tariffs without cabinet approval.
The state also
has a say in what the NRZ charges for its services.
Analysts say that
while strategic partnerships, management contracts and
joint ventures are
all forms of privatisation, their effectiveness depends
on government's
level of interference in their operations. Strategic
partnership means that
government will sell part of its shares to inject
fresh private
capital.
This means that while government might retain a controlling
stake,
operations are shared with a private investor.
An economist
with a local bank said unless government totally relinquishes
control of the
companies, all suggested models would not work. "Judging by
Murerwa's
statements, it seems government wants to have its cake and eat
it," he
said. "It wants private capital to resuscitate state firms but
still wants
to maintain a dead man's grip on their running."
The history of
privatisation in Zimbabwe is littered with examples of
failure, especially
where government has a political interest, often
described as the "national
interest". Zimbabwe United Passenger Company
(Zupco) is a clear example
where a strategic partnership with the government
has failed. Despite the
joint ownership with Zimre, which has a 49% stake in
the transport company,
government uses its 51% shareholding to make
arbitrary
decisions.
Government uses Zupco buses for state and party functions.
During elections
and national days, Zanu PF uses Zupco buses to ferry its
supporters to
rallies.
Government has also insisted on making
political appointments to the board
and management.
Political
fingerprints are also apparent in botched privatisation deals. For
instance,
the privatisation of Tel*One, a state-run fixed telecommunications
company,
should have been completed last year had government not
meddled.
Tel*One's privatisation had reached an advanced stage two years
ago when
cabinet backtracked at the last minute after two bidders had been
shortlisted by Trust Bank, then the local advisors to takeover the
company.
The privatisation policy has also been modified extensively
since 1990 when
government adopted the Economic Structural Adjustment
Programme (Esap) on
the advice of the International Monetary Fund. Esap
required government to
offload parastatals to reduce its bloated
expenditure. Companies such as
Dairibord and Cottco were privatised under
the programme but the policy was
terminated in 2000 when government dropped
Esap.
In 2002 government inexplicably announced that it was not
privatising
anymore but commercialising the remaining parastatals. A classic
example of
a botched privatisation deal is that of Astra Industries, a
company which
was demerged into three entities - Cairns, Astra and Tractive
Power.
Government had invited bidders to take over the companies but later
shifted
goal posts when it decided not to privatise. Ukubambana Kubatana
Investments
(UKI), a company owned by Mutumwa Mawere, is still fighting to
get the
shares after it won the bid.
All these, analysts say, will
work against government when it starts the
privatisation process. The major
stumbling block apart from lack of
political will, is that local investors
no longer have confidence in
government policies.
Offshore investors
are likely to be put off by both government's policy
flip-flops and
Zimbabwe's high political risk. It will be difficult to
persuade outsiders
to invest in a country with no respect for property
rights as amply
demonstrated in the seizure of white commercial farms
without paying
compensation and the ongoing Shabani Mashaba Mine saga with
Mawere. The
current battle in which Trust Bank and Royal Bank shareholders
are
challenging the takeover of their assets by government through the
Zimbabwe
Allied Banking Group paints a vivid picture of the risks of losing
huge
investments.
Zim Independent
Eric Bloch Column
By Eric Bloch
AS Zimbabwe listened to the very erudite
delivery to parliament of the 2006
national budget statement last Thursday
by Finance minister Dr Herbert
Murerwa, the reaction of many must, in the
early phases of that delivery,
have been that the minister must be the
latest victim of the very pronounced
"brain drain".
Although all will
desperately hope that the 2006 economic outturn will be as
foreseen in the
budget statement, most - if not all - Zimbabweans are
undoubtedly so
highly-sceptical of that outturn being realised that they
assume that the
minister has emigrated to Cloud Cuckooland. The prospects of
the projections
becoming reality are remote in the extreme!
However, when the minister
continued his statement and addressed revenue and
expenditure issues, he
demonstrated that he is not unaware of the prevailing
economic environment,
for he approached those issues with a very high degree
of realism, and with
very real concern for the widespread hardships
confronting the majority of
Zimbabweans.
Therefore, it must be assumed that the improbable economic
projections were
not because the minister is not in touch with the facts on
the ground, but
that he was obligated (possibly at risk of his ministerial
post) to sing the
governmental melodies of economic myth.
Ever since
the president and his government set the economy upon its
disastrous decline
in late 1997, he and his ministers have consistently
denied culpability, and
have unwaveringly blamed others, whilst concurrently
promising, year after
year an economic turnaround.
Of course, the economic recovery did not
materialise because, with equal
consistency, government has not only
continued to do that which has been
diametrically opposite of the necessary
for restoration of economic
well-being, but has also continued to reject any
blame for ongoing economic
collapse.
According to government, the
economic ills have been attributable to the
acts of the United Kingdom in
general, and Premier Tony Blair and Jack Straw
in particular, the USA and
President George Bush, the Commonwealth (with a
few exceptions), white
commercial farmers, white industrialists, the
political opposition, and
drought, to name but a few.
Destructive land reform implementation,
profligate payouts to actual and
so-called war veterans, gross governmental
overspends, disregard for
economic fundamentals, abuse of the principles of
law and order, contempt
for human rights, alienation of the international
community, and the like,
had nothing to do with the continuing economic
collapse, according to
government, and it persists in finding alternative,
spurious targets of
blame.
The first of the improbable 2006
expectations of government, as disclosed in
the budget statement, was that
agriculture is "expected to register a
positive growth rate of 14,8%.on the
back of the normal rain season,
increased hectarage under irrigation, timely
provision of critical inputs
and the introduction of the targeted production
programme to promote food
security."
The drivers of the growth are
projected to be a 33% increase in maize
production and a 26% increase in
that of cotton. However, even if those
production increases materialise,
despite inadequate land preparation, and
despite many farmers selling the
fuel allocated to them into the black
market, they will surely be offset by
the very probable 30% decline in
tobacco production. Moreover, general
reports project no growth in the
coming year in the production of sugar,
tea, coffee, citrus, or within the
dairy and beef sectors.
Mining is
expected to grow by 27% in 2006, and this is a real possibility,
if the
world gold price continues at current levels in excess of US$500 per
ounce,
but only if the Reserve Bank allows market forces to drive exchange
rates.
That is essential if the mining industry is to be enabled to meet
ever-rising operational costs, the most pronounced being wage escalations
(in view of ongoing hyperinflation), energy and imported spares and
consumables. But, if the rate continues to be "managed", instead of being
market-force driven as prescribed by the governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr
Gideon Gono, in his 2005 third quarter monetary policy statement, then the
mining industry will not achieve the projected increases in
output.
The minister also referred to own "anticipated increase in
tourist arrivals",
suggesting that "the country's continued track record of
peace and
tranquillity should also benefit tourism".
Unfortunately,
whilst that should be so, it does not correlate with the
continuing farm
invasions, harassment of farmers, and the savage and brutal
murder of a
farmer near Norton only five days prior to the budget statement,
which
vicious attack has not even been the subject of a condemnatory
statement by
government.
Whilst Vice-President Joseph Msika and Gono have repeatedly
called for the
cessation of farm invasions, discontinuance of molestation of
white farmers,
and an end to white farmer persecution, government has not
shown any will or
intent to ensure compliance. That does not emit a sense of
"peace and
tranquillity" as sought by tourists. It also is not conducive to
investment
stimulation.
On the issue of great concern to all, being
the intense upward surge in
inflation, after it was reduced by almost 500
percentage points during the
2004 and early 2005, the minister stated that
the annual rate of inflation
is targeted to decline to "around 80% by the
end of 2006".
This is similar to the Reserve Bank projection of a rate of
between 50 and
80% by December 2006, but the minister disclosed that the
projection is
"premised on the expected normal rain season, complementary
restrictive
fiscal and monetary policies and significantly subdued parallel
market
activities".
Although there are real prospects of a normal
rain season, Zimbabwe will
nevertheless have to resort to food imports in
2006. Even if the forecast of
a 33% increase in maize production
materialises, Zimbabwe will still have to
import in excess of 800 000 tonnes
of maize, and inevitably will also have
to resort to wheat
imports.
Such imports will either necessitate higher prices payable by
the consumers,
or massive subsidies by government. Either will be
inflationary!
Zim Independent
Muckraker
SUNDAY Mail political editor Munyaradzi Huni has all but admitted
that the
Zanu PF government has failed to reverse the economic decline. In
his
scenario-building on the possible leadership crisis in the MDC, Huni
said:
"The people who support (Morgan) Tsvangirai don't support him because
they
think he is a better option, but they support him because of anger
against
the ever-escalating cost of living."
That was the reason why
the party has much of its support base in urban
areas, concluded
Huni.
Is he trying to tell us something about how Zanu PF wins in rural
areas? How
does Zanu PF justify its "landslide" victories in rural areas
when we all
know voters there are worse off materially? We don't want to
speculate that
it has anything to do with coercion or inflating of figures.
By the way, has
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission or the government media
confirmed the
percentage poll yet in the senate election?
The
Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network has put it at 19,4%. That would mean
of
the 3,2 million eligible voters only 630 000 turned out. Why is the ZEC
and
the Herald keeping this shocking statistic a secret?
The Sunday News
reports that two villagers in Mberengwa district were last
week robbed of
$8,4 billion in a Jericho-highway style attack. The report
says the money
was being carried in a donkey-drawn cart to an unknown
destination.
The two men were descended upon by two thieves who
attacked and forced one
of them to flee before they searched and got away
with their booty. The
story doesn't say whether the robbers took away the
cart and donkeys as
well.
What is interesting though is the quantity
of money involved, especially
when you consider that Chitungwiza was
recently allocated a measly $5
billion to "sort out all" its problems. It
also reflects badly on the
country's currency when mere villagers who can't
even open a bank account
have to move around with over $8 billion on them.
When we used to read about
people in Germany using wheelbarrows to carry
money during the Great
Inflation of the 1920s these sounded like bed-time
fairy tales. It didn't
occur to us as students that we would live to see it
happen here.
The same paper carried a story about the South African
constitutional court's
landmark ruling legalising same-sex marriage. The
author of the story
boasted that such a thing would never happen in Zimbabwe
because we are a
conservative country. He quoted what was described as "a
public-interest
litigation lawyer" who sounded more conservative than the
law itself, saying
same-sex marriages were out of the question because
President Mugabe doesn't
like them.
"According to my own opinion,"
said the lawyer, "our society will never
allow gay marriages and our judges
usually pass judgements that reflect the
feelings of society.If society is
not prepared for such marriages, then the
judges are not pressured to pass
favourable judgements."
The "lawyer" said Zimbabwean judges' "cultural
values do not approve of
same-sex marriages" because they were raised in
societies that do not permit
such unions.
We found a number of things
pretty strange with the report. Why should a law
passed by the South African
courts evoke such strong feelings in Zimbabwe if
we are not obliged to adopt
it? Is being conservative for its own sake
anything to be proud
of?
Why do the human rights lawyer's views sound so much like Mugabe's?
In fact
the comments are so value-laden that it is hard to believe he was
giving a
legal opinion. We might be a conservative society, true, but
judges' rulings
are supposed to reflect the law and uphold the constitution,
not the
feelings of society or those of Mugabe. We also don't agree that all
Zimbabwean judges share the same "cultural values". That's an unnatural
trait that can be found only in Zanu PF.
And where does the stance
adopted by the Sunday News leave minority rights
in our society we wonder?
Trying to deny people what they are can only turn
it into a vice and drive
it underground, and that doesn't make the country
any less gay than South
Africa. In fact we would be a better society with
fewer child molesters and
rapists and less violence against women than
worrying about
gays.
Masvingo South Zanu PF MP Walter Mzembi is reading the riot act to
a number
of civil servants. The import of his statement this week is fairly
simple:
either you are a civil servant or you are a farmer.
He said a
number of civil servants had been allocated farms but the country
wasn't
benefiting. Most of them spend time in between: masquerading either
as civil
servants or as farmers. His view is that streamlining the public
service
should be the easiest of tasks because "we have given some civil
servants
farms but they are doing nothing".
He told a post-budget presentation
seminar that the same farmers failing to
deliver were usually the first to
access inputs which they diverted to the
black market.
"Those who
should be brutally dealt with are those allocated farms who are
not
performing," he said.
We have in the past listened to similar fire and
brimstone threats against
those holding on to more than one property and
others using their ill-gotten
land as "weekend braai resorts". Can Zanu PF
be trusted to deal "brutally"
with cronies on the farms when the police are
doing nothing to curb the
illegal sale of fuel in the CBD? Apparently
anybody allocated fuel for
farming activities sees it as a jackpot that
turns them into instant
billionaires!
The government and players in
the private sector have gone on "an intensive
drive to market Zimbabwe", we
are told.
"Buoyed" by the government's declaration that 2005 is the Year
of Investment
and taking advantage of the presence of the high-profile
delegates who were
attending the meeting in Harare last week of the African
Bankers Forum, they
spoke about the opportunities that
existed.
Ministry of Industry and International Trade permanent secretary
Rtd Col
Chris Katsande said the country provided an "enabling environment"
for
investment and trade. He spoke glowingly about the investment potential
in
beef, dairy, tobacco, cotton, sugar, and horticulture. He waxed lyrical
about the prospects for tourism which included the "tranquil Eastern
Highlands".
Former cabinet secretary Dr Charles Utete said as the
country consolidated
its agricultural reforms opportunities in the
agro-processing sector would
arise.
Why do they assume African
bankers and other investors are completely naïve?
Just because President
Mugabe said 2005 was the year of investment it does
not follow that Zimbabwe
proved a draw for investors. In fact it has
arguably been a year in which
investors have stayed away in droves.
There is a simple explanation for
that. Anybody listening to Didymus Mutasa
or Chris Mushohwe would know that
the Zimbabwean government is a threat to
investment. Its ministers promote
not only seizures of productive farms but
other businesses as
well.
Indeed, many of the farms taken recently have been the subject of
Bilateral
Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements. Roy Bennett's
farm,
Charleswood in Chimanimani, was the subject of six High Court
protection
orders which the state ignored. The "tranquil" Eastern Highlands
have also
witnessed other lawless and brutal farm
invasions.
Currently, the lowveld sugar estates are in turmoil as
companies that
invested billions of dollars there are chased off their
properties. Anglo
American boss Lazarus Zim was told his company's agreement
with the
government on sugar production was not worth the paper it was
written on.
What would the former owners of Kondozi Estate have to tell
the African
Bankers Forum about the prospects for horticultural investment
in Zimbabwe?
Herbert Nkala spoke at the same meeting about investment in
tourism and
pointed to opportunities in wildlife management, transfrontier
game reserves
and conservancies.
Thousands of wild animals died
recently in Hwange because the wildlife
management authorities there failed
to maintain water pumps and other basic
facilities. Across the country
national parks and conservancies have been
invaded and occupied by poachers
who have set fires and snares. These
include Gonarezhou which is part of a
much-touted transfrontier park.
Very simply, the government has made 2005
a year of disinvestment and
decline. Nobody in their right mind would sink
money into a country where
court orders are ignored and properties
arbitrarily confiscated.
Private-sector chiefs such as Antony Mandiwanza who
have contributed to the
government's delusional campaign in the last month
of the year to sell
Zimbabwe as an investment destination need to be told to
stop misleading the
international community. Until the rule of law is
restored there will be no
investment coming this way. Nor should there
be.
The German authorities may be surprised to see how the lifting of
their
government's travel warning on Zimbabwe has been twisted by
state-media
propagandists to mean that previous warnings were
"false".
This is a word the government loves to use. A party of German
travel agents
came to Zimbabwe ahead of the recent Travel Expo, the Sunday
Mail reports,
and were impressed by the prevailing serenity, "a far cry from
the
information peddled by their country's press". Zimbabwe Tourism
Authority
boss Karikoga Kaseke said the German ambassador had been very
cooperative
when the travel agents requested a meeting with "him".
It
is difficult to believe that Kaseke would have failed to observe that the
German ambassador is a lady who has been in office for over a year
now!
The move could influence other EU countries who "shared the same
hostility
towards Zimbabwe" to reconsider their negative warnings, Kaseke
said.
EU governments should note that the ZTA is a parastatal that lives
off the
revenues of the private sector and makes partisan comments of this
sort on a
regular basis.
Media and Information Commission chair
Tafataona Mahoso has been waving his
fists at the Financial Gazette for
suggesting that the CIO blocked the
registration of the Daily
News.
Mahoso seems to object to the implication that he is not his own
man. He
gave the pink paper a week to retract. He has made the same demand
on the
Zimbabwe Independent in regard to another matter.
Let us bear
in mind that it emerged in a court case that the MIC has the
same address as
the Office of the President. And its members are handpicked
by the Minister
of Information. Correspondence between the President's
Office and ZUJ in
2002 regarding the appointment of MIC members was included
in court papers
last year. Former MIC member Jonathan Maphenduka recently
revealed that the
regulatory body had at its June 16 meeting decided there
was no legal basis
to deny the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe a licence
to publish the Daily
News. This supports an interview given to the SABC in
April by President
Mugabe in which he suggested there should be no obstacle
to registration by
"genuine" applicants. But subsequent to the MIC's June
meeting, it ruled
against granting ANZ a licence.
We don't know what occurred in the
meantime. But that is what the public
need to know if they are to believe
that the MIC is an independent body. Why
are we being asked to believe that
it is an egregious falsehood to suggest
the CIO was behind this particular
decision when it has been exposed as
heavily involved in media manipulation
over several years without the MIC
once publicly objecting?
In his
officious letter to the Fingaz Mahoso said: "The question whether
quasi-judicial bodies in Zimbabwe observe the rule of law and administer
their affairs in accordance with the rules of administrative justice is a
matter of national interest and public concern."
He is absolutely
right there. Quasi-judicial bodies should be seen as
independent and fair,
not biased and partisan.
'Zim pins hopes on Murerwa", the Business Herald
declared last Thursday
ahead of his budget. But who in their right mind were
pinning their hopes on
a minister who has failed to make any impact on the
government's pattern of
failure over a lengthy period? This is not entirely
his own fault. But like
Gideon Gono, he is too embedded with Zanu PF to
redirect them away from
their delinquent habits.
Even the usual
Pollyanna columnists were admitting defeat.
"The economy had largely been
expected to grow between 3% and 5% but it is
now expected to contract by
7%," said one who is usually optimistic. "This
has largely been attributed
to drought which has seen agriculture achieving
a paltry 1% growth against a
projected 14%."
Murerwa had originally touted a figure of 28% for this
year but he later
revised it down.
He is now projecting 15%
agricultural growth if a number of other factors
such as "timely provision
of critical inputs" are in place.
Despite this obvious credibility gap,
the Business Herald's Pollyanna was
determined to have a rainy
parade.
"However, the rainy season is looking up and we could register
phenomenal
growth on the agriculture front," she chirpped. "What with the
trillions of
dollars that have been poured into this sector."
This is
evidently an exercise in mind over matter!
Finally, we noted the
president's remarks to parliament this week about
turnarounds, commemorative
events and returning confidence. Perhaps the most
emblematic event in his
delusional address was the power blackout in the CBD
that accompanied his
opening remarks. ZTV screened cartoons while Mugabe
droned on.
Many
will consider this entirely appropriate!
Zim Independent
Comment
NOTHING more graphically illustrates the gravity of misgovernance in
Zimbabwe than two statements from President Mugabe and Agriculture minister
Joseph Made this week.
In his State of the Nation address on Tuesday,
President Mugabe expressed
his frustration at the steep increases in the
prices of basket goods which
he said was contributing to
hyperinflation.
"Regrettably, this is also immensely contributing to the
rapid erosion of
people's standards of living," said
Mugabe.
"Government however continues to implement measures designed to
turn around
the economy so prices can stabilise in the context of a growing
and
expanding economy."
Listening to the presidential speech evoked a
sense of déjà vu. We have
heard all this before and as usual, very little
has been done to improve our
lot. Instead, real government measures were
contained in Made's
pronouncement on the same day that the Grain Marketing
Board (GMB) was
raising the selling price of wheat to millers from $900 000
a tonne to over
$12 million, more than 11 times that is. We wait with bated
breath for the
new selling price for maize.
Made knows the net effect
of his new policy. There will be a sharp rise in
the price of bread and
flour. But in typical Orwellian doublespeak, Made was
quick to warn bakers
to comply with government regulations when determining
new bread
prices.
He lamely threatened: "In the past we have seen both prices of
flour,
wholesale and retail bread being escalated in an unrealistic manner
under
the guise that the GMB has increased its wheat selling price to
millers."
This is shameful duplicity by the minister. Can Made stand up
and tell the
nation that the steep increase in the price of wheat from $900
000 to $12,3
million is "realistic"?
For a start, the GMB is buying
wheat from farmers at about $6 million a
tonne and now wants to sell it for
$12,3 million a tonne. This is
state-instigated profiteering, the sort that
government condemns with
shameless passion in the ailing private
sector.
Manufacturers have operated under very difficult conditions in
which
government has forced them to charge uneconomic prices, ostensibly to
put a
lid on inflation. But our government is culpable. It has regularly
triggered
inflationary tremors in the economy.
The sharp increase in
the selling price of wheat is one such example. The
price of bread will have
to go up unless President Mugabe's government can
pull out another trick
from its bag of voodoo economics. We expect increases
in the selling price
of maize as well. Currently, the GMB is buying maize
from farmers at $2
million a tonne and selling to millers at $600 000.
These aberrations can
be tolerated if the state can afford to pay a subsidy.
Our government cannot
pay that subsidy because it is broke. In fact, there
should be a proper and
predictable policy regarding agricultural subsidies.
Subsidies are meant to
protect a vulnerable segment of the society. Thus we
have all along been
told that government was protecting the poor among us by
subsidising maize
and wheat.
Industrialists who raised prices in response to inflation were
branded by
government as saboteurs keen to effect regime change. The same
government
purporting to champion the cause of the poor wakes up one morning
to effect
shocking price rises on basic foodstuffs. This shows that past
price
controls were not meant to cushion the poor. This was cheap populism
to give
consumers temporary relief during election campaigns.
When
"subsidies" are withdrawn without planning, it is bad for the economy.
The
result of such action is inflationary and defeats all efforts to achieve
a
rate of 80% in the New Year.
Central bank governor Gideon Gono who has
been commanding the war on
inflation has suffered another major setback from
political leaders who
should otherwise be helping him in this fight. This is
a battle lost as the
price of bread should soon jump to well over a $100 000
a loaf from the
current $35 000.
There are bound to be more increases
especially after Finance minister
Herbert Murerwa last week implored state
enterprises to charge economic
prices for goods and services. Fuel and
telephone charges have already gone
up while electricity and other services
are expected to follow suit.
Transport is already unaffordable to a
majority of the Zimbabwean
population. There will be very few traditional
family reunions this
Christmas, what with the crippling fuel shortages
taking their toll on
private transport. The government-appointed Harare
Commission on Tuesday
announced a $32 trillion budget which should see rates
and charges going up
at least three times.
Is this what Mugabe had in
mind when he talked of expanding the economy and
stabilising prices? People
expect government policies to show some
uniformity and consistency, not
uncoordinated hands-behind-the-back tricks.