Zim Independent
Clemence Manyukwe
ZANU PF has
revived a probe into its rundown business empire in a move seen
as a fresh
attempt to undermine Emmerson Mnangagwa's prospects in the party
scramble to
succeed President Robert Mugabe.
The initial probe by the ruling
party's politburo in early 2004 was widely
seen as an instrument to whittle
down Mnangagwa's political chances of
succeeding Mugabe ahead of the party's
congress in December the same year.
The congress turned out to be a
battle of wills between the two main rival
Zanu PF factions.
Once
touted as Mugabe's heir apparent, Mnangagwa presided over the party's
financial empire during his tenure as Zanu PF finance chief. The
investigation is seen as yet another attempt to corner him over the collapse
of the party's companies and alleged graft.
Mnangagwa lost the
bid for the vice-presidency to Joice Mujuru in the
aftermath of the 2004
probe which was understood to have been engineered by
the party's kingmaker,
Solomon Mujuru, who is Joice's husband.
The initial probe team was
made up of David Karimanzira, Simba Makoni, Obert
Mpofu, Thokozile Mathuthu
and Solomon Mujuru, all seen as belonging to the
Mujuru
camp.
Zanu PF companies that were said to have virtually collapsed
had no records
and had not been audited for years include M&S Syndicate
that is on the
United States Treasury's assets freeze list, Zidco Holdings,
Catercraft, the
then First Banking Corporation, and Zidlee
Enterprises.
Sources on Monday said a second probe is underway and
its work may result in
the prosecution of top ruling party officials
following initial findings
that the party could have been prejudiced of
billions of dollars due to
corrupt practices.
According to the
sources, the new probe team comprises David Karimanzira,
the party's Women's
League boss, Oppah Muchinguri, Labour minister Nicholas
Goche and two other
members from Matabeleland.
Karimanzira, Goche and Muchinguri are seen
as members of the Mujuru faction
which is locked in a power struggle with
the Mnangagwa camp.
"The committee started doing its work sometime
last year. This time around
we may see some people being charged," said a
source. "The committee has
been mandated to cover the gaps which were left
by the 2004 probe."
Muchinguri on Wednesday confirmed a committee had
been constituted, but
declined comment referring all questions to
Karimanzira.
"We are not allowed to discuss the matter with the
media," she said. "The
committee was assigned by the politburo to help the
secretary of finance,
Cde Karimanzira. When we finish our work it would be
presented to the
politburo. Maybe you can ask Cde Karimanzira. He is the
right person to
ask."
Karimanzira said: "What is your interest in
the report? Uneinazvo? This is a
private matter. We will only report to the
politburo."
Zanu PF administration secretary Didymus Mutasa on
Wednesday professed
ignorance over the issue.
"I do not comment
on things that do not exist. There is no such a thing,"
said
Mutasa.
Mnangagwa refused to comment when approached at parliament.
"Unganditsvage
nezera rako? (How can you look for me at your age?). You
should come to my
office," he said.
Zim Independent
GOVERNMENT
printed a staggering $21 trillion to buy foreign currency to pay
off
International Monetary Fund (IMF) arrears, Reserve Bank governor Gideon
Gono
said yesterday.
The move, which will avert expulsion but not avail
much-needed
balance-of-payments support, is set to stoke inflation and push
the local
currency against the wall.
Gono said printing money and
resultant broad money supply growth was the
major driver of inflation in
2005 and has spilled over into the current
year. He said the country had no
choice but to print money to pay its IMF
arrears.
Printing of
money fuels broad money supply growth which, together with the
yawning 8,6%
budget deficit and other factors such as state borrowing, is
the major cause
of inflation.
Broad money supply growth has been on a sharp upward
trend, from 177,6% in
January to 411,5% in November last year. Inflation
this week surged to
613,2% for January from the December rate of
585,8%.
"The collectivity of Zimbabweans must realise that this high
growth in money
supply was occasioned by printing of $21 trillion to buy
foreign currency to
pay the IMF," Gono said.
He said there was no
budget for the IMF payment in the 2006 financial year
and the money could
also not be feasibly absorbed in a single fiscal year
"without imposing a
perilous squeeze on critical public sector services".
Gono's
disclosures yesterday effectively settle the question of where the
government got the foreign currency to pay the IMF. Zimbabwe has paid a
total of US$210,6 million to the IMF in recent months. This sparked a storm
of controversy with accusations by some businessmen that the money was
seized from corporate foreign currency accounts.
South
Africa-based tycoon Mutumwa Mawere accused the central bank of raiding
his
nationalised companies to pay the IMF.
Zimbabwe on Wednesday made a
further payment of US$9 million to the IMF to
settle its remaining overdue
financial obligations to the General Resources
Account
(GRA).
However, Zimbabwe still has substantial overdue obligations to
the Poverty
Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF)-Exogenous Shocks Facility
Trust (ESF)
amounting to US$119 million.
"The clearance of GRA
arrears by Zimbabwe has no effect on the application
of the Fund's
procedures for the treatment of outstanding arrears to the
PRGF-ESF Trust,"
the IMF said.
"Zimbabwe, therefore, remains excluded from the list of
PRGF-eligible
countries."
Although the debt payment will
guarantee that Zimbabwe will not be expelled
from the IMF, it will not get
critically needed balance-of-payments support.
Zimbabwe has been
given four successive six-month grace periods to settle
its arrears and
introduce economic reforms to avoid expulsion from the IMF.
The IMF
board will next month look into the other sanctions against Harare
which
include the suspension of Zimbabwe's voting and related rights,
ineligibility to use fund resources under the GRA and declaration of
non-cooperation, as well as suspension of technical
assistance.
Zimbabwe was on September 24 2001 declared ineligible to
use the general
resources of the IMF, and removed from the list of countries
which could
borrow resources under the PRGF due to non-payment.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
A
FRESH wave of evictions looms in the city after the Harare Commission
ordered all tenants occupying municipal houses without certificates of
ownership to vacate.
Residents who spoke to the Zimbabwe Independent
said notices to vacate
rented houses were issued in Mbare, Mufakose and
Dzivaresekwa.
A copy of the notice in the possession of this paper,
issued to a
Dzivaresekwa family this month, gives it a 30-day ultimatum to
vacate the
house.
"This notice serves to advise you to vacate the
above premises within thirty
(30) days from 9th February 2006 and expiring
on 10th March 2006 without
failure," reads the notice.
"Your
occupation of this property is in contravention of city of Harare's
housing
policy in relation to rented properties. Failure to vacate the
premises
within 30 days will result in an eviction order being served on you
after
which you may be forcibly removed."
The notice advises the tenants to
take the warning seriously and seek
alternative
accommodation.
Many recipients of the notices said the houses were
allocated to their
parents between 1969 and 1971.
"We have lived
in this property from 1971 when our parents were allocated
this house by the
council," Albert Mano of Dzivaresekwa 3 said.
"All children born
after 1971 have been registered as tenants of the house."
Mano said in
Dzivaresekwa home-ownership certificates were issued to people
who were not
sharing toilets.
"Residents even contributed money to build separate
toilets but the money
was misappropriated by a councillor in 1985," he
said.
Mano said if the notice was enforced it would affect more than
half of
Dzivaresekwa tenants.
Reports from Mbare and Mufakose
indicate that the notices were served on
residents at the beginning of
December and there are fears that council
could be working to obtain
eviction orders to forcibly kick out the tenants.
Contacted for
comment yesterday, council officials at Dzivaresekwa district
office
referred all questions to Town House.
Council spokesperson, Madenyika
Magwenjere, said he could not comment on the
matter as he was attending a
series of meetings away from his office.
"I can't help you today because
I have meetings to attend. Phone me
tomorrow," he said.
Combined
Harare Residents' Association chairman, Mike Davies, said resident
could
only be evicted from a property if they were breaking a lease
agreement or
not paying their rentals.
He said his association would soon be
taking legal action to protect the
interests of residents until proper
procedures are followed.
Zim Independent
Augustine
Mukaro
LEGISLATORS have expressed concern over the continued collapse of
infrastructure and services in the country's cities and the arbitrary
removal of elected councils by government which has imposed its own
handpicked commissions to run most urban centres.
Moving a motion in
parliament last Wednesday, Harare North legislator, Trudy
Stevenson,
expressed public alarm at the collapse of infrastructure and
services in
cities and towns and the outbreak of cholera.
She said legislators
were dismayed by the removal of elected councils and
their replacement by
appointed commissions even though it was evident that
commissions had done
little to improve service delivery to residents.
"We demand that the
Minister of Local Government and Urban Development
immediately cease
interfering with elected councils and take immediate steps
to restore
democracy in local government," Stevenson said.
Fellow legislators,
Edwin Mushoriwa and Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga
agreed that government
should respect the will of the people and stop
interfering with elected
council officials.
Makonde MP, Leo Mugabe, agreed with Stevenson that
potholes, bad lighting in
all cities and sewerage in Chitungwiza, Bulawayo,
Mutare and other urban
centres had gone out of control.
"I agree
with her," Mugabe said.
"The solutions for the government is to say
who is supposed to be doing this
and if these local authorities that are in
power and are supposed to be
doing this, when they do not do their work you
cannot expect the minister to
just watch."
Local Government
minister, Ignatious Chombo, has fired councillors and
elected mayors in
Harare, Chitungwiza and Mutare.
But Mugabe justified the minister's
actions saying he was dealing with
errant councillors who were failing to
deliver.
Stevenson catalogued many cases of interference which she
said had a
discernible pattern.
"The pattern goes like this - you
first accuse the mayor and the councillors
of either corruption or failure
to provide services. Those are the two
charges. Then you institute a
commission of inquiry and you handpick the
people who are going to be in
that commission of inquiry, so that obviously
you choose some people to
produce a report which is going to be to your
liking."
She said
the mayor and the council would be suspended and when the report
came out,
the councillors were dismissed to pave way for a commission to run
the
city.
"This has happened since the arrival on the scene of councils
run by the
MDC," Stevenson said. "But, in every case, I can confidently say
the
allegations are just trumped up. We are now two years down the line of
the
commission in Harare but the situation in Harare has not improved,
instead
it has worsened."
Stevenson said interference in council
affairs increased following the
appointment of Harare and Bulawayo
Metropolitan governors to administer
these provinces.
"In the
Urban Councils Act, there is no such a thing as a metropolitan
governor. Now
in Harare and Bulawayo we have parallel structures, creating
confusion and
that is a recipe for disaster," she said.
Stevenson cited the
unavailability of water, roads that are almost
inaccessible because of
potholes, decomposing uncollected refuse resulting
diseases outbreak and raw
sewerage flowing in the high-density residential
streets as emblematic of
the collapse of infrastructure countrywide.
She attributed the
collapse to ministerial interference.
"In local government, people
have a right to elect their representatives and
their councils which are
mandated to run the affairs of our cities and
towns," she said. "So, when we
have interference by government in the
affairs of the council elected by the
people, we run into problems."
Stevenson said burst water pipes
affected the quantity of water available to
the residents, citing a burst
water pipe just outside her house for the past
two years. She said water
shortages had become severe in most cities, with
Bulawayo and Harare the
worst affected.
In Harare, areas like Mabvuku and Tafara have gone
for three weeks without
water. Residents have resorted to drinking water
from unprotected wells dug
along streams.
The streams are often
fed from burst sewer pipes, exposing people to
waterborne diseases. There
were media reports this week that five people
have died of cholera in
Epworth recently.
Stevenson said even in cases when water was
available, it was not potable.
The commission running Harare last year
announced that water in the capital
was below acceptable health standards.
"So, they recognised that they are
not providing clean water and they do not
seem to be finding chemicals and
we were told that we are drinking raw
sewage," Stevenson said.
Stevenson said provision of services in
cities had ground to a halt.
"We have all noticed mostly the lack of
refuse collection. Nobody comes to
remove the garbage," she
said
Stevenson said the collapse of infrastructure would bring about
outbreaks of
disease as was now happening in Harare and
elsewhere.
Fourteen children under the age of five have died in
Harare and Chitungwiza
because of diarrhoea since November last year.
Zim Independent
Ray
Matikinye
IF anyone doubted a sheaf of Biblical teachings that forewarns
believers of
any religion to be wary of wolves in sheep's clothing, they
need look no
further than some Zimbabwean religious sects for
proof.
A growing list of rape charges against high-profile religious sect
leaders
over the past few years has lent credence to the teachings in the
Scriptures.
Incidents of rape of church colleagues have been
gradually raising women
activists' hackles.
Gender lobbyists have
raised the tempo in baying for the delinquents' blood
and incited women's
groups to push harder for stringent laws to curb the
practice alongside
domestic violence.
It has also provided firm reasons for the
expeditious enactment of the
Domestic Violence and Protection of Victims of
Domestic Violence Act,
activists and women legislators say.
Says
Gender, Employment Creation and Women's Affairs minister Oppah
Muchinguri:
"When women talk about violence and rape they are speaking from
experience.
Who better than these victims to provide useful input in the
formulation of
such a Bill?"
Yet it is not only the sect followers that have been
stung by the debauched
behaviour of the role models in the sects but also a
headstrong ruling Zanu
PF party still grappling to rediscover its political
competitive edge.
The party has poked its snout into the religious
trough and allowed itself
to feed on the sect membership to boost its ranks
in a desperate effort to
maintain superiority.
But it cannot
continue to consort with errant pastors when the victims are
women who
constitute the bulk of the party's support base.
The ruling Zanu PF
party exploited the religious charisma of the sect
leaders to bolster its
membership hoping to reverse diminishing support
since 2000. It has courted
sect leaders to woo their members to boost its
ranks.
When
Women's League supporters realised it did not profit them much wearing
their
knees to the bone, kneeling at the airport for an itinerant President
Robert
Mugabe, sect leaders were more than willing to marshal their members
to
replace them.
Yet again, some sect leaders, whose fiery religious
sermons and
Bible-thumping antics have failed to keep their sexual
intemperance in
check, have nettled Zanu PF.
The leaders seem to
misconstrue the reverence accorded them by their
followers for a licence to
abuse female sect members.
So far two prominent sect leaders have
tarnished their images with rape
cases against female
members.
Another one will soon do so if women lobbyists maintain
pressure and remain
resolute about putting enough sting into a new rape
law.
Invariably, the trilogy of self-anointed leaders of these sects'
real -
though covert motives - appears to be hatred of democracy and
admiration of
totalitarianism.
They have not by any means
expressed impartial disapproval of human rights
violations but crow rather
loudly of their disapproval of Britain and the
US.
Sect leaders
Lawrence Katsiru, Godfrey Nzira and lately Obadiah Msindo fit
the
script.
First to turn sheep in wolf's skin was Nzira, the
Chitungwiza-based leader
of the Johane Masowe weChishanu
sect.
Nzira's apparent omnipotence was shattered when a magistrate's
court
sentenced him to a 32-year prison term for raping two women members of
his
sect at his shrine.
Last week, Nzira's sentence was reduced
to 20 years.
Ironically, in what had become their habit whenever
Nzira came to court,
crowds of his followers - mainly women - gathered at
the court building to
protest his innocence.
Nzira at one time
announced that he had a prophecy to the effect that
President Mugabe was
"divinely appointed King of Zimbabwe and no man should
dare challenge his
office".
That was after President Mugabe had addressed an audience
which included
hundreds of the sect members, holding and lifting placards
inscribed with
Zanu PF political messages, while they sang Chimurenga songs
as they
toyi-toyied.
Katsiru, whose fame for prophecy had wide
regional acclaim, easily
transformed that trait into a political career in
the mould of his religious
peer, the late Border Gezi.
For more
than a decade the "prophet" built a political career in Zanu PF
that
culminated in mobilising members of his sect to rally behind Zanu
PF.
But the dross set in on November 13, 2003 when Katsiru raped a
13-year old
church follower entrusted to the spiritual guru by her parents.
Katsiru had
acquired cult status among the followers.
Two weeks
ago, another magistrate punished the spiritual leader for not
walking the
talk by sentencing Katsiru to seven years in prison for the
offence.
The last of the unholy trilogy could be Reverend Msindo
who has rape
allegations hanging above his head like the Sword of
Damocles.
Msindo, the suave leader of Destiny for Afrika Network, has
built a profile
as a ruling party apologist famed for doling out largesse to
his followers.
Were he to be dragged to court on allegations of
raping his maid, we could
see another sheep in wolf's attire.
But
the tainted reputation has not stung the ruling Zanu PF party deep
enough to
discourage it from exploiting the membership of the sects, judging
by the
appearance of Mashonaland Central governor, Ephraim Masawi, at one of
the
large gatherings recently.
Masawi extolled sect members for "not
calling for the removal of the
country's leadership as other church
organisations are doing".
But that does not detract from the
embarrassing behaviour of the people Zanu
PF has been courting to boost its
support base as the economy continues its
decline and followers desert.
Zim Independent
Dumisani Muleya
FURTHER details of the decisive ruling Zanu PF
politburo meeting held on
August 24 2004 which thwarted South African
President Thabo Mbeki's
constitutional initiative emerged this
week.
Zanu PF sources said the meeting, at which the Mbeki-engineered
draft
constitution compiled by the former ruling party legal affairs
secretary,
Patrick Chinamasa, and opposition MDC secretary-general Welshman
Ncube was
buried, was one of the most explosive in recent
years.
The politburo meeting was held on the same day as the MDC's
national
executive gathering by mutual agreement between Chinamasa and Ncube
to
consider the draft.
Although the MDC approved the draft, it
came up with an unexpected
resolution to boycott future elections until
government had implemented the
Sadc Mauritius protocol on electoral
principles.
But the real motive for the boycott resolution, sources
said, was to duck
the impending Seke parliamentary by-election and possibly
put pressure on
Zanu PF to level the playing field ahead of last year's
general election.
This however proved to be a grave miscalculation on
the MDC's part as it
played right into President Robert Mugabe's hands when
he later used it as a
pretext to break off talks with the MDC, saying they
were not serious.
The sources said Zanu PF factions led by retired
army commander General
Solomon Mujuru and Emmerson Mnangagwa squared off in
a bitter war of words
which left officials shell-shocked.
The
meeting, they said, boiled over to a point where verbal abuse was hurled
at
each other.
Sources said although Chinamasa was directly in the
firing line because he
had negotiated the draft without the knowledge of the
party - except a
mandate from President Mugabe - Mnangagwa's faction was
also under siege.
It is understood the Mujuru faction thought
Mnangagwa's camp wanted to use
the draft to strategically position itself in
the Mugabe succession race.
"It was a dramatic and explosive meeting," a
senior Zanu PF official who
attended the meeting said.
"The draft
constitution was the main issue of the day although it was not on
the
agenda. As usual Mugabe opened the issue and (Nicholas) Goche (then
party
secretary for security) came to explain how the matter started.
Chinamasa
followed in that order with a report on the process which led to
the draft.
Hardly had he started when members of the Mujuru faction began
heckling him
and that led to a nightmare for him."
Sources said Mugabe indicated
there had been a draft and he had been in
touch with Mbeki over the issue.
They said he suggested the party should
consider the issue and make a
recommendation on the way forward. It is said
Mugabe did not want the draft
but was under pressure from Mbeki to show
progress on resolving the current
political impasse.
Sources said Goche told the politburo that he was
approached by Ncube and
other MDC officials for talks shortly after the
opposition's June 2003
"Final Push". They said he further indicated he then
brought the matter to
Mugabe's attention and Chinamasa as the legal affairs
secretary was assigned
to engage the MDC.
However, MDC sources
said Goche, party commissar Elliot Manyika and another
politburo member,
Saviour Kasukuwere - all with intelligence backgrounds -
approached Ncube
who then insisted that if their proposal for talks was
genuine, Chinamasa,
as head of delegation to the collapsed 2002
negotiations, must be
involved.
In the politburo meeting, sources said, Chinamasa came
under fierce attack
from Mujuru, Vice-President Joseph Msika, John Nkomo,
Dumiso Dabengwa,
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu and Obert Mpofu, among
others.
"Chinamasa read his report under a hail of fire and was not
able to finish
it. Apparently he had underestimated the amount of anger over
the issue
until he was in deep trouble," a source said.
Sources
said the meeting proved to be the graveyard of the draft as it was
thrown
out on the spot.
"Chinamasa was told 'we don't want to hear about it
again'," said the
source.
Mnangagwa and his lieutenants -
including former Information minister
Jonathan Moyo - were "dead silent"
during the dramatic meeting. "They
maintained a deafening silence," another
source said.
The constitutional initiative started after the failure
of the MDC's "Final
Push" although there had been initial contacts between
Chinamasa and Ncube
since the collapse of the 2002 talks.
After
the February 2003 stayaway by the labour movement and the MDC, it was
said,
Chinamasa and Ncube got in touch in a bid to revive the talks.
They also
contacted each other after the MDC's meeting in May 2003 with
former South
African negotiators during the Codesa talks - Cyril Ramaphosa
and Roelf
Meyer, in Pretoria.
Sources said South Africa and Zimbabwe's
intelligence networks played a key
role in setting in motion the
constitutional talks.
The draft constitution was then compiled from
the rejected
government-sponsored draft and the National Constitutional
Assembly
document, starting June 2003.
The draft was finalised in
July 2004. Two drafts initiated and signed by
Chinamasa and Ncube were
produced. They were given to President Mugabe as
Zanu PF leader and to
Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC. Mugabe then gave a
photocopy of his draft to
Mbeki who has confirmed seeing the document.
Zim Independent
Ray Matikinye
THE government has allegedly sanctioned a tender bid
to supply maize to a
South African company which is embroiled in a case in
which businessman and
farmer Cecil Muderedi allegedly sold locally acquired
maize to the Grain
Marketing Board (GMB) in foreign currency two years ago
on the pretext that
the commodity had been acquired from South
Africa.
Invoices from Industrial Commodities Holdings (ICH) run by Fred
van Zyl from
Owl Street in Johannesburg were reportedly used by Muderedi to
appear as if
he had imported the maize from South Africa when the grain had
been bought
from local farmers and stored at Bak Storage in
Harare.
Muderedi faces charges of externalising the proceeds although
his
high-profile case remains unresolved in the courts.
Director
of Public Prosecution in the Attorney-General's Office, Loice
Matanda-Moyo
yesterday said the state was still pursuing the Muderedi
case.
"The-two year delay has been caused by the fact that three key
South African
witnesses have not been able to give evidence," Matanda-Moyo
said.
"But the witnesses have since agreed to come to Zimbabwe and
the case will
resume in June and hopefully it will be concluded
then."
In August 2004 the State refused to disclose in court the
names of the
high-ranking politicians and senior government officials who
were allegedly
interfering with investigations involving the Chinhoyi
businessman and
farmer facing charges of smuggling and contravening the
Grain Marketing
Board Act.
A Harare magistrate had ordered the
State to supply it with the names of the
high-ranking politicians and senior
government officials after the
investigating officer, Chief Superintendent
Musarashana Mabunda, told the
court that some politicians and government
officials were giving him
instructions to stop the investigations and
prosecution.
Muderedi faces allegations that between August 2000 and
August 2001 he
exported 6 400 tonnes of cottonseed to PJC Raw Materials, a
South African
company, and instructed the company to pay US$527 500 due to
him into a
South African account. During the same period, it is alleged,
Muderedi
exported 2 000t of soya beans to PJC Raw Materials and instructed
them to
deposit a total of US$390 000 into his Absa bank account in Sandton,
South
Africa.In October 2003 Muderedi allegedly "exported" 2 000t of maize
to
South Africa's Industrial Commodities Holdings and advised the company to
deposit US$344 767 into his South African account. He had bought more than 2
500t of maize from Guruve, Chiweshe, Raffingora, Mhangura, Banket and
Chegutu without the authority of the GMB.
Veronica Smidt, a
personal assistant in ICH, blew the whistle on the shady
deals. She has yet
to be paid her fees from the Whistleblower Fund
established by Central Bank
governor Gideon Gono in 2004 to curb corruption.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro
FORMER
president of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) Colin Cloete has been
forced
off his Buffield Farm, becoming the latest victim of government's
never-ending land seizures.
Cloete from his time at the helm of the
CFU, has been conciliatory with
government, refusing to confront it through
courts resulting in a split of
the farming group. This gave birth to the
more militant farmers' group,
Justice for Agriculture.
Observers
said Cloete's appeasement policy had spared him the wrath of
marauding Zanu
PF zealots who have been invading farms wily-nilly over the
past five years
- until now.
Highly placed sources in the Selous area said two weeks
ago, a senior police
officer occupied Cloete's Buffield Farm, forcing him
out of the farmhouse.
"Cloete has been forced to relocate to the
Selous Sports Club," the source
said. "He now operates his father's farm in
which the platinum mine is
located."
Cloete refused to comment on
the developments, saying that would get him
into trouble. "I can't talk to
you about these issues," Cloete said. "The
last time you got me into
trouble."
Meanwhile, a Nigerian delegation from Kwara State is in the
country to court
more farmers to take up farms in the West African country.
At the time of
going to press yesterday the delegation was locked in a
series of meetings
and details of the deliberations were not readily
available.
Zim Independent
Itai
Mushekwe
GOVERNMENT will almost certainly not introduce a new currency this
year as
promised by the Reserve Bank to replace the battered local dollar
because of
economic and financial constraints, it has been
learnt.
Sources said government does not have the resources - money,
facilities and
logistics - to introduce a new currency in the middle of an
economic
meltdown. The budget for the project in local and foreign currency
terms is
simply beyond the state's resource capabilities, they
said.
The sources said the state-owned Fidelity Printers lacks the
capacity to
print enough banknotes, especially in such a hperinflationary
environment.
Zimbabwe has no foreign currency to import paper and
ink.
This, sources observed, would ensure the project remains a "pipe
dream". The
macro-economic fundamentals in which inflation, interest rates
and the
exchange rate are skewed, makes matters worse.
Zimbabwe
has the highest annual inflation rate in the world. It also has the
weakest
currency in Africa and the world's fastest shrinking economy outside
a war
zone.
Zimbabwe's economy shrank 3,5% last year after a 4% fall in
2004 and a
dramatic 10,5% contraction in 2003.
After the
revaluation of the recent Romanian leu, Mozambique's metical
briefly became
the least valued currency trading at 24 500 to the United
States dollar,
until the Zimbabwean unit seized the title in late August
last
year.
But there are many countries which have succesfully revalued or
introduced
new currencies in Africa in the right economic
conditions.
Other sources said the issue of a new currency was a
"political statement"
to dampen inflationary expectations at a time
inflation was surging to
stratospheric levels.
Inflation climbed
to 613,2% for January from December's 585,8%. Monetary
authorities expect it
to rise to between 700% and 800% next month before
starting to
decelerate.
Overnight accommodation this week shot up to 650%, from
540%, while the
official exchange rate stands at US$1:$99 201,58 compared to
the ruling
parallel market rate of US$1:$150 000.
Central bank
governor, Gideon Gono, last month said a new currency was
coming.
"As announced in October 2005, preparatory work is in
progress for the
introduction of a new currency during 2006," Gono said.
"Fuller and finer
details of this programme will be made available at a
strategic time during
the course of the year."
The Minister of
Finance - the responsible authority-has not raised the
issue. It has also
not arisen in parliament although a question on it by an
independent MP is
pending on the order paper.
Official sources said the new currency
was unlikely to materialise given the
current
obstacles.
"Firstly, there is no money or technical competence at the
moment to do such
a project. It needs a huge budget, which is not there, and
requires a lot of
work, including a massive publicity and awareness
campaign," a Finance
ministry source said.
"Secondly, it also
needs a national debate because it is a political issue.
The name of the
currency, why it is being introduced, and the way it will be
done need to be
debated. All these fundamentals are not in place."
Economic analyst
John Robertson said introduing a new currency would be a
"Herculean
task".
"Instead of printing a new currency, government must add more
zeroes to the
existing banknotes," he said.
The country last saw
a new currency - the Rhodesian dollar - in 1970
following the decimalisation
and replacement of the local pound. The
exchange rate then was $0,71:US$1.
At the time of Independence in 1980 the
local currency remained stronger
than the grenback. The rate was $0,68:
US$1. The currency gradually declined
after 1980 until its dramatic crash on
November 17 1997 after an unbudgeted
$4 billion outlay to war veterans.
The country experienced an
unprecdented shortage of currency in 2003.
Government failed to print enough
banknotes due to a foreign curerncy
crisis, leading to the introduction of
travellers' cheques and later
bearer's cheques.
At the time a
committee was formed to deal with the issue comprising
Ministers Herbert
Murerwa, Nicholas Goche, Patrick Chinamasa, and Jonathan
Moyo, and acting
Reserve Bank governor Charles Chikaura.
"The issue was raised but
dimissed as impractical at the time. Government
had difficulties because it
did not have foreign exchange to print currency
at the usual places -
Germany, Britain and Canada," a source said.
"South Africa was the
only option but it was also rejected for security and
financial reasons. The
whole issue has now become idle talk."
Zim Independent
OPPOSITION is
mounting against a hike in fees at tertiary colleges announced
by the
government last week.
Government critics say the increases of up to 1
000% will put education out
of the reach of ordinary
people.
Colleges increased their fees this term against a backdrop of
a general
erosion of incomes by hyperinflation that breached the 600% mark
in January.
Inflation is expected to rise to 800% next month,
according to the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe projections.
Tuition
fees at state universities have gone up from between $6 million and
$9
million per year to $66 million for arts and humanities students, $71
million for engineering and natural sciences and $76 million for those
taking science degree programmes after government support has been
deducted.
"Very few parents would be able to pay such fees," said St
Mary's opposition
MP, Job Sikhala.
Sikhala, a second-year law
student at the UZ, wondered how government
expected parents to pay such
hefty fees when most were struggling daily to
make ends meet.
"As
an MP and student I cannot afford to pay such high fees myself. I wonder
how
students from peasant families will be able to cope," he
said.
Sikhala said government should instead discontinue the
presidential
scholarship programme at Fort Hare where about 900 Zimbabwean
students each
pays R25 000 per semester. "That amount is equivalent to $500
million and
can support 20 students at local universities for a whole year,"
Sikhala
said.
He said it was surprising that no single child of
Zanu PF politburo members
or cabinet ministers attended local universities.
Most were studying at
universities in the United States, Britain and
Australia. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
THE Law Society of Zimbabwe has condemned the arrest and detention
of lawyer
Tafadzwa Mugabe while representing his clients, Women of Zimbabwe
Arise
(Woza) who were arrested for holding a peaceful Valentine's Day
demonstration.
Mugabe was arrested on Tuesday, only to be released
later that evening after
an urgent High Court application.
Law
Society president, Joseph James, said Mugabe's female colleagues,
Beatrice
Mtetwa and Irene Petras, were subjected to the "most crude and
demeaning
language" from officers at Harare Central Police Station. The
other lawyer
was Otto Saki.
"The constitution of Zimbabwe guarantees all
individuals the right to legal
representation and lawyers are empowered and
obliged to represent their
clients," James said in a statement
yesterday.
"Any attempts by the law enforcement agencies to
unlawfully arrest and
detain lawyers undermine the basic fundamentals of a
democratic state," he
said.
He said the Law Society was shocked
by the treatment meted out to Woza
demonstrators, both in Harare and
Bulawayo, who have since been released.
"There is no doubt that the
police have a duty to maintain law and order.
However, there can be no
justification whatsoever in any civilised country
to detain about 180 women
and 14 babies in Bulawayo and over 100 women and
babies in Harare
overnight," James said.
He said the weather conditions were
unfavourable such that some of the women
required medical treatment after
their release. There was insufficient space
and no food for those who were
placed in cells.
"The Supreme and High Court have stated that persons
who have been arrested
should only be detained when it is necessary. It
cannot be said that women,
some of whom were carrying babies and were
holding a peaceful demonstration
require detention as if they were dangerous
criminals," said James. - Staff
Writer.
Zim Independent
Loughty Dube
FISSURES in
the ruling Zanu PF continue to deepen after politburo member and
Home
Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi this week dragged former Zanu PF chairman
for
Matabeleland South province Lloyd Siyoka to court in a defamation
lawsuit
that is likely to open a Pandora's box.
Mohadi filed criminal defamation
charges against Siyoka over utterances that
were made during a meeting
addressed by President Mugabe last year to sniff
out masterminds of the
infamous Tsholotsho meeting that allegedly sought to
block Joice Mujuru's
ascendancy to the presidency.
Siyoka, at a meeting held at Elangeni
Training Centre in Bulawayo in
November 2004, told Mugabe that Mohadi had
threatened to shoot him (Siyoka)
at an earlier meeting in Gwanda where he
was suspended from the party.
Siyoka's case opened at the Bulawayo
magistrates' courts on Monday with two
state witnesses, Speaker of
parliament John Nkomo and deputy president of
the Senate Naison Ndlovu,
testifying against the former party chairman.
The latest litigation
comes against a litany of cases where Zanu PF
officials and party
sympathisers have taken each other to court, moves that
point to the deep
divisions in the party.
Former government spin-doctor, Jonathan Moyo,
before his unceremonious exit
from the party, took Nkomo and politburo
member Dumiso Dabengwa to court
over statements the two allegedly uttered
against him in Tsholotsho.
Nkomo recently took a junior party
official to court over the ownership of a
safari lodge in Matabeleland North
province.
Mohadi last September filed a lawsuit against Agriculture
minister Joseph
Made after war veterans invaded his farm in
Beitbridge.
In the Siyoka case, Nkomo was cited as a key witness
because he chaired the
meeting at Elangeni where Siyoka is alleged to have
uttered the statements
while Ndlovu is cited as second wittiness because he
was at the Gwanda
meeting.
Siyoka however denied ever making the
utterances, alleging bad blood between
him and the political leadership in
the region.
Siyoka, who is represented by Samp Mlaudzi, denies ever
telling Mugabe that
Mohadi pointed a pistol at him.
The hearing
continues today and provincial magistrate, John Masimba, will
call one other
witness, Eunice Sandi Moyo, a Zanu PF senator, before closing
the
case.
Testifying in court, Mohadi said after Siyoka had been given a
chance to
speak by Mugabe at the Elangeni meeting, he told the Zanu PF
leader that he
(Mohadi) had drawn a pistol at him (Siyoka).
Nkomo
in his evidence in court confirmed that Siyoka had uttered the said
words.
Nkomo also told the court that after Siyoka had made the
statement, he
questioned him whether he had seen the pistol but Siyoka
alleged that when
Mohadi threatened to kill him, he had his hands in his
pockets and he
assumed he had the pistol.
However, in his
testimony Ndlovu, the second witness in the case, denied
that Mohadi drew a
pistol and said he was shocked when Siyoka made the
allegations at
Elangeni.
Zim Independent
Shakeman Mugari
BELEAGUERED financial institution, Zimbabwe Allied
Banking Group (ZABG), has
been hit by a $2,2 billion fraud, exposing yawning
loopholes in the
celebrated Real Time Gross Settlements (RTGS) payment
system and
highlighting a potentially damaging crisis in the entire banking
sector.
The RTGS payment system was introduced in 2004 to facilitate easy
transfers
of large-value interbank funds and reduce the risk of daily
interbank
settlements.
But questions have been raised about the
adequacy of the system's security
measures, particularly after a massive $7
billion fraud was committed at
Trust Bank using the system soon after its
launch, creating a liquidity
crunch that sent tremors across the entire
financial services sector.
Sources indicated this week that behind
the veil of celebrated profits in
the financial sector, massive fraud was
taking place but was kept under
wraps by the institutions sensitive to any
reports that might spoil their
reputations.
But the ZABG scam
will once again put the RTGS security systems under the
spotlight, market
watchers said.
According to details obtained by businessdigest this
week, ZABG lost $2 232
035 550 after a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe transfer
through the RTGS of the
Zimbabwe dollar equivalent of foreign currency sold
to the central bank by
ZABG.
Documents seen by businessdigest
indicate that ZABG lost the money through a
scam in which staff in both its
treasury back office and treasury accounts
worked in collusion with a former
Royal Bank employee, Kudakwashe Chibanda,
to divert funds transferred from
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) through
the RTGS.
The transfer
had been settlement for US$22 500 sold to the central bank by
ZABG Bank. The
money was redirected to Chibanda's account instead of the
ZABG
account.
The fraud was picked up after ZABG's international banking
department made a
follow up with the RBZ on an entry which appeared
outstanding.
The ZABG employee implicated in the fraud is Clever
John, a treasury back
office worker who is accused of having tampered with
transfer documents to
show Chibanda as the beneficiary of the RBZ
payment.
They also include a Cain Chindowe into whose account
Chibanda deposited a
portion of the amount diverted into his own account.
Chindowe was arrested
on Tuesday.
Information obtained by
businessdigest indicates that after the ZABG
treasury back office had
received a message from the RBZ for the transfer,
John made an entry into
the treasury back office register for the transfer
as payment for foreign
cash, but he entered Chibanda as a beneficiary of the
funds.
The
instructions on the printed copy of the RBZ message were tampered with
through the use of a scanner.
Chibanda went on to make numerous
bank transfers. He was still at large at
the time of going to press.
Zim Independent
BELOW, businessdigest's
Shakeman Mugari gives details based on internal
investigations carried out
by the ZABG.
December 12, 2005: Kudakwashe Chibanda, one of the
accomplices, opens a
savings account number 9112023131200 at ZABG Travel
Centre Branch after
clearance from FBC bank. He made an initial deposit of
$10 560 000
December 16: Chibanda withdraws $10
million
December 20: He withdraws $400 000.
January 1 and
29, 2006: He makes four cheque deposits with the largest being
$6 460
000.
January 31: The RBZ transfers $2 232 035 550, the equivalent of
the sold
forex in Zimbabwean dollars, through RTGS to ZABG
Bank.
January 31 (afternoon): ZABG Treasury back office receives the
transfer
message and printed it. The instructions printed are tampered with
using the
scanner and the beneficiary of the funds is narrated as KR
Chibanda, account
number 9112023131200 instead of ZABG bank. The money is
transferred into
Chibanda's account.
February 1: Chibanda
instructs ZABG's Travel Centre Branch to transfer $850
million into Blue
Marble Investment whose account number is 19-003237 held
with Kingdom Bank
(Graniteside branch). The transfer was effected and the
money withdrawn from
the Kingdom account. Chibanda himself withdraws $40
million.
February 2: He withdraws $250
million
February 3: Chibanda withdraws $120 million but also
instructs the same
branch to transfer $500 million into Cain Chidohwe's
account, number
13-002053 held with Kingdom Bank Ruwa
branch.
February 10: He withdraws $120 million.
February
10: ZABG reports the case after investigations.
February 11 (Early
morning): Clever John is arrested at his parents' house
in Dzivaresekwa. He
is questioned by police but denies involvement and is
put into police
custody at Harare Central Police Station.
February 11 (0930h):
Chibanda calls wanting to know why the police and
ZABG's security department
were looking for him. He promises to visit the
police to
verify.
February 11 (afternoon): Checks are carried out in Ruwa and
Cranborne for
people who hold accounts with Kingdom Bank in whose account,
money was
transferred by Chibanda. The addresses are found to be
false.
February 12: Checks are continued to find Chibanda but without
success.
February 14: Police recover $352 million in Chibanda's
account. They also
recover $350 million and US$362 from Chidohwe
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
ANALYSTS this week said the Consumer Council of
Zimbabwe (CCZ)'s poverty
datum line was likely to breach the $50 million
mark by mid-year after
settling at $20 million for the month of
January.
The CCZ's monthly basket for a family of six rose to $21,8
million from
$16,6 million. The January figure represents a 31,7% increase
from December.
The same basket stood at $1,7 million the same period last
year.
The CCZ's basket represents the poverty datum
line.
The expected rise in the poverty datum line would be against
the backdrop of
tightening inflationary pressures in the economy likely to
push the
year-on-year inflation rate to over 1 000% by mid-year, they
said.
The CCZ's monthly basket for a low income family of six would
surpass the
$50 million mark by June as inflation continues to drive the
cost of living
up, economists have said.
Economic commentator and
treasury guru Andy Hodges said the current
inflationary trend could push the
CCZ's consumer basket above $50 million by
mid-year if
unstopped.
"The sharp increase in the year-on-year inflation rate is
driving the cost
of consumer products up nearly on a weekly basis.
Government, business and
labour should craft a strategy aimed at stabilising
incomes and prices,"
Hodges said.
"We are pinning our hopes on
the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF), which
has made a promising
resumption. All stakeholders should speak with one
voice to protect
consumers," Hodges said.
The TNF, a forum representing labour,
employers and the government, has been
dogged by boycotts from labour which
alleges government has not been sincere
in its efforts to repair the
country's faltering economy.
"We hope TNF, together with other
stakeholders in the economy, will come up
with ways of disciplining
inflation. No one wants to see this figure
continue to rise at such a rate
any more," said Hodges.
Another leading economic commentator, John
Robertson, said inflation was
likely to entrench Zimbabwe's poor into abject
poverty.
"CCZ's low-income urban monthly basket shows that many
people are becoming
vulnerable to poverty and hunger as some basic
commodities' price
adjustments are rampant," Robertson
said.
"Government and companies should by now know that a hungry
worker is not
productive. The new round of price increases experienced last
week will
aggravate the plight of the consumers," Robertson
maintained.Hodges said the
increase in the cost of living as measured by the
CCZ was coming at a time
when wages, pensions and savings were being eroded
by inflation while
employers appeared to be resisting awarding salary
increases.
The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe said the rise in the
January figure was
largely attributable to significant price increases
affecting both food and
non-food items. Major movers in the basket were the
maize staple roller
meal, which went up by 138% from $240 000 to $573 333
for a 20-kilogramme
bag, electricity and water charges 73,4%, clothing and
footwear 107% and
rentals 52%. "Although there were notable increases in
food items of the
basket, major percentage increases were in non-food
items," said the CCZ.
"Water tariffs were increased from the
beginning of the year, the costs of
clothing and footwear increased and
recently transport costs shot up. It is
still disheartening to note that
some goods are yet to find their way onto
the shop shelves," the CCZ
said.
"Commodities like roller meal and sugar are not constantly
available on the
formal market and, as CCZ, we urge all the relevant players
in various
industries to ensure the efficient supply to the formal market of
the two
commodities," said the consumer watchdog.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
AIR Zimbabwe is battling to raise US$3,5 million required for
mandatory
checks on its three Boeing planes which are grounded at the
airline's
service workshops, businessdigest established this
week.
The servicing, known in aviation terms as "C" checks, is done by
Boeing
staff. The three planes which have been grounded for over a year are
not
allowed to fly until the mandatory checks are done.
According
to information obtained by businessdigest, the three planes are a
Boeing 767
and two Boeing 737s.
The Boeing 737s have not been flying for over a
year, while the Boeing 767
was grounded during the second half of last
year.
Air Zimbabwe has been losing US$980 000 ($98 billion) a month
flying the
Dubai and China routes which inside sources said were causing
huge losses
for the airline.
Last year the airline broke aviation
records after flying one passenger 6
000 km from Dubai to Harare while
reeling from viability problems.
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono
said last month that the national airline
made a $317 billion loss in the
first 10 months of last year after a $47
billion loss in
2004.
The national carrier now has only six planes despite having a
fleet of 18
planes at Independence in 1980.
The planes still
flying include one 767, two 737's and three MA 60 planes
from China which
sources described as "fuel guzzlers".The money lost on the
China and Dubai
routes could have been directed towards servicing the three
Boeing planes,
sources indicated.
Gono last month lashed out at Air Zimbabwe's
management, describing it as
incompetent.
Gono said the Dubai and
China routes were generating a combined loss of
US$980 000 per month before
taking into account other costs like handling,
landing, navigation and
office administration.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
WITH cold
champagne and a saccharine cake, which all birthday cakes tend to
be, the
82nd birthday of President Mugabe will be celebrated on Tuesday in
Mutare
with special guests from the exclusive circle of power, as well as
the
inevitable presence of timid and obsequious cheerleaders.
The rest of us
will be watching the Mutare bash from a distance with
scepticism to see how
this national event will bring down inflation from the
current Weimar
levels, stabilise the free-falling dollar (would you believe
the Mozambican
metical is now more valuable than our currency?) and reduce
widespread
poverty.
As people advance in age, they usually develop a fondness
for children and
Zimbabwe is not short of kids requiring that grandfatherly
attention. There
are the vulnerable ones requiring money to pay for
life-saving operations,
street children requiring a home, those who scavenge
for food in dustbins
and rubbish dumps and those orphaned by HIV and
Aids.
It would be sad if the billions that have been raised to date
to celebrate
Mugabe's birthday are wasted in gluttonous consumption, the
sort we saw in
Esigodini when Zanu PF held its people's conference last
December.
Zanu PF planners are masters of grandiose displays.
Although 82 is not the
round number (like the 80 that he achieved two years
ago) more commonly
associated with extravagant feasts, there will not be
lacking choirs of
fawning well-wishers for the health of Zimbabwe's maximum
leader.
The 21st February Movement charged with planning the
president's birthday
has failed to ensure the event blends in with the
prevailing situation on
the ground.
In years of drought and the
few years of plenty through to the current long
days of abject poverty, the
spirit of the event has not changed. It is
merrymaking, cakes the size of a
kitchen table, music, speeches, and intense
fundraising with companies being
asked to donate billions. Should it not be
thematic?
I am keen to
know what the 21st February Movement does in between the
birthday bashes.
Should the movement not be employing the same vigour as it
is currently
displaying to raise money to build rehabilitation centres for
street
children and those traumatised by rapists and other sadists?
Whatever
happened to Iron Mask Farm which the Office of the President told
us would
be developed to house homeless children?
This is the tragedy of
Zimbabwe. Our leaders believe that national unity and
social progress are
achieved through celebrations, hence the proliferation
of musical galas. We
continue to celebrate history and when the guitars fall
silent we return to
our senses to mourn over our present state and agonise
about the future.
True celebration should be spontaneous and not prescribed
to the
revellers.
For the past year, Mugabe who has presided over the
fastest shrinking
economy in the world, has received rave reviews in the
state media.
Excerpts of a late 1980s song by the Runn Family imploring
God to bless
Mugabe has been played intermittently to ratchet up national
sentiment for
our dear leader.
The Mutare-based band offered the
nation this summation of the stature of
Mugabe:
Ishe komborerai
President Mugabe
Ndiye musimboti wedu, chivheneko
chedu
Ngativarumbidzeyi President Mugabe
Nerimwezuva
vachasunungura Africa yose.
Ndotaura inini ndisingambotya
Dai
pasi rese ratorawo muyenzaniso wavo
Ini ndakambofamba nyika
dzakawanda
Dai tangodzidzawo kubva kwavari...
Roughly
translated, the lyricist prays to God to "bless Mugabe, our support
and
light". He implores the nation to praise Mugabe because one day he is
going
to liberate the rest of Africa.
In the second stanza the singer
declares "without fear" that "the whole
world should emulate Mugabe". He
says that he has "travelled to many
countries . We should learn from
Mugabe.."
Not any more. There might be many admirers of Mugabe on the
continent and
the world over but that is all there is. His quest to be a
role model has
diminished in the heat and smoke of his land reform programme
which has
landed us where we are today. Currently there are no takers for
Mugabe's
model of land reform even among his fondest
allies.
Still Happy Birthday Gushungo, but on your great day, please
remember Aids
orphans and the long list of children requiring money for
medication outside
the country because there is no equipment or drugs at
Pari, Mpilo, Sakubva
and Harare hospitals. The children need help, not
cake.
Zim Independent
Clemence
Manyukwe/Ray Matikinye
SINCE the Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy Act (Aippa) came
on stream in early 2002 scores of Zimbabwean
journalists have found
themselves jobless when media houses have been forced
to close shop.
While firms have closed due to viability problems,
disgorging thousands of
workers onto the streets, journalists have not been
spared the ordeal
although their plight has stemmed largely from an
obstructionist supervisory
body created out of Aippa.
Unlike other
professionals, journalists have found themselves jobless
because media
organisations have been hamstrung under the weight of this
draconian piece
of legislation.
Riding on the back of Aippa, the Media and Information
Commission (MIC), a
media regulatory authority, closed down the Daily News
and its sister weekly
the Daily News on Sunday, the Tribune and the Weekly
Times.
Last week the High Court nullified the MIC's core determination
that had
shattered all hopes of publications in the Associated Newspapers of
Zimbabwe
(ANZ) stable ever re-opening.
The rescission of an earlier
decision to deny the ANZ a licence, if taken
together with other rulings
since 2003, shows that at law there is no
justification for the closure of
the two titles as no court has upheld any
decision by the MIC.
The
judgements also to some extent suggest that, although agreeing that the
actions of the MIC were unjust, the courts are somewhat reluctant to grit
teeth and award a licence.
They would rather keep on referring the
matter back to the MIC, whose
chairperson Tafataona Mahoso the judiciary has
found culpable of "bias".
The MIC action seems part of the government's
grand scheme to restrict all
other freedoms in the face of strident
criticism from the independent media
for its shortcomings.
But the
opportunity costs to government, in terms of international attention
that
has remained focused on the bans as symptomatic of suppression of press
freedom, now appear to outweigh any benefits.
The continued ban
represents an easy referral point for critics and the
courts could be asking
themselves whether the ban is worth the powder and
shot for a state that
has, more often than not, crafted unpopular laws.
These include the
restrictions on freedom of association, assembly and
choice as well as the
undermining of property rights under such acts as the
Public Order and
Security Act, the General Laws Amendment Act and the
Constitution of
Zimbabwe Amendment (No17) Act.
Aippa came on stream on March 15 2002
after numerous amendments to tone down
what Eddison Zvobgo described as "the
most determined assault on individual
freedoms and liberties" since
Independence. The MIC set December 31 of the
same year as the deadline for
media houses and journalists to apply for
accreditation.
The ANZ did
not register, contending that the requirements infringed on and
violated
freedoms entrenched in the Constitution. In January 2003 the
publishers
launched a constitutional challenge on the validity of the some
provisions
of the Act, but the Supreme Court said it should first comply
with the law
and make the application. It added that if it wanted to
challenge without
going through registration, ANZ should have mounted its
challenge before the
deadline for registration and thus avoid compliance
with the law it objects
to pending a determination by the court.
"For the avoidance of doubt the
applicant is not being barred from
approaching this court. All that the
applicant is required to do is to
submit itself to the law and approach this
court with clean hands on the
same papers," the Supreme Court ruling said.
ANZ subsequently applied for
registration but it was thrown out by the MIC
resulting in them seeking
recourse in the Administrative Court.
In
October 2003 the presiding Administrative Court judge Michael Majuru
ordered
the MIC board to issue the ANZ with a certificate, failure to do so
it would
be deemed as registered.
The court also ruled that the MIC was not
properly constituted and found
Mahoso as "biased" considering the contents
of articles he churned out
religiously in state papers.
"We are
satisfied that the applicant has shown that the respondent,
particularly its
chairperson was biased against the appellant," the
Administrative Court
judgment reads. "For the above reasons the appeal
succeeds."
The MIC
lost another case in the same court which was heard prior to the
hearing of
an appeal it had lodged with the Supreme Court contesting the
directive for
it to license the papers.
In the second case to be placed before the
Administrative Court the ANZ
wanted to be allowed to operate, citing
financial loss pending the
finalisation of the MIC's appeal to the highest
court on the land.
"In my view, on the overall, the scales tilt heavily
in favour of the
applicant (ANZ), I therefore make a finding in applicant's
favour," reads
the Administrative Court's ruling made on November 28
2003.
Although the following judegment by the Supreme Court in March 2004
set
aside the orders of the Adminstrative Court, it did not uphold the MIC's
decision but instead concurred to some extent with the lower court on the
issue of bias.
"In my view, the chairperson of the commission should
have appreciated that
he would chair the commission that would determine the
application for
registration by the applicant," the court said.
"Accordingly, he should have
refrained from making comments that were likely
to make the applicant
apprehensive of not getting a fair hearing from the
commission chaired by
him."
The latest High Court judgment was
anchored on the issue of Mahoso's
perceived bias.
The thread that
runs through the five judgements is that the MIC appears
determined to
remain the focal point of criticism levelled at government for
failing to
uphold freedom of expression.
Even in the face of overwhelming evidence
that it could easily take the heat
off government's back by simply complying
with court rulings without losing
face, the MIC's apparent approach in
dealing with the cases of closed
publications continues to attract
international attention to abridged
freedoms in Zimbabwe.
The MIC
court contests have cost government not only in terms of money and
time but
have worked to devalue government's constitutional commitment to
freedom of
expression in the eyes of the world.
The contests and subsequent
judgements have also cast unwelcome shadows on
how far the judiciary can
make its determinations stick.
None of the judgements have been
forthright in giving the MIC the
instruction it needs to provide an unbiased
hearing of the ANZ case.
Zim Independent
By
Chido Makunike
I COULDN'T help laughing at the over-eager tone of the
Daily Telegraph's
stories in recent days about a claimed about-turn by
President Robert
Mugabe's government in regards to the role of white
commercial farmers.
We will soon find out if indeed there has been a
significant reversal of the
last several years' aggressive moves to remove
white farmers. Time will also
tell if any policy reversal would lure back a
significant number of those
former farmers or not.
As one such
farmer pointed out in one of the Telegraph's stories, President
Mugabe's
assurances of security of tenure may not be worth the paper they
are written
on.
President Mugabe has been a stinging rhetorical nemesis of the
British in
recent years, so perhaps it is natural that a British paper would
react in a
triumphal tone to speculation about what would be a major
climbdown.
Quite apart from that, even the most rabid Mugabe
supporter can no longer
deny that his violent disruption of a sophisticated
commercial agricultural
system developed over decades has been disastrous
for Zimbabwe. If there was
ever any doubt, it has become glaringly apparent
that the white farmers had
a valuable, unique skills base.
In
addition to the economic benefits that accrued to the country from that
skills base, it gave the white farmers as a group an arrogance that was
partly their undoing at the hands of the politically cornered, clever and
willing-to-be-a-demagogue Mugabe.
The mix of their economic power
and social attitudes carried over from the
Rhodesian era made their
scapegoating by Mugabe for his loss of political
support in the face of
declining national economic performance, a relatively
easy
affair.
The cry of land reform struck a responsive chord among black
Zimbabweans for
obvious racial, historical, economic and other reasons. It
is a fact of
history that the issue of a pattern of land distribution that
was so
cynically and crudely tailored to the whites' benefit was one reason
a
bitter guerilla war was fought to bring about an independent
Zimbabwe.
In addition to these reasons, many blacks also did not mind
Mugabe bringing
down a powerful racial and economic bloc which lorded their
power over
blacks in many subtle, and not-so-subtle ways.
While
the white farmers can be forgiven for never having imagined that they
would
face the wrath of Mugabe in the way they did, it was also foolish of
them to
not see how their psychic isolation from the blacks demographically
and
literally made them vulnerable to demagoguery.
The Commercial
Farmers' Union had been happy to go to bed with Mugabe's
government for many
years. The two lived in a fairly happy state of
co-existence as long as the
white farmers felt unthreatened by any major
changes in the long-untenable
pattern of land distribution that served them
so well, and as long as the
white farmers' skills benefited the economy and
Mugabe's government in
various ways.
This unspoken pact was broken by a combination of
economic problems that put
political pressures on Mugabe, and in his eyes
the white farmers were
unforgivable owing to their public support of the
then new and upstart
opposition MDC party that came onto the scene with such
a bang in the 2000
general election.
When Mugabe unleashed his
fury on the white farmers, they found that they
did not have significant
linkages with any part of the majority population.
Even their support of
the MDC was in a deprecating, cheque-book waving way
that only emphasised a
certain patronising smugness.
And indeed up to then, their economic
power had made it possible for them to
set the tone and determine the nature
of their relationship with the black
majority. That meant keeping blacks at
a psychological and social distance,
and being able to pick and choose when,
in what manner and how far to
temporarily come down from that
aloofness.
I have heard many whites furiously retort how they paid
their workers better
than their neighbours, built farm schools for the
workers' children and so
forth. None of this addresses the point I am trying
to make, which is
essentially about respect - respect towards your
countrymen and good
neighbourliness towards them that goes much deeper than
dispensing largesse
from a lofty perch.
The attitudes associated
with being an isolated, privileged community may
have been a group habit
inherited from the Rhodesian days, but in the
evolving group power
re-arrangement of independent Zimbabwe, that did not
serve the whites
well.
I keep using the word "group" because there are individual
whites who have
long perceived the necessity and inevitability of these
changes and have
consciously worked to change how they see themselves in the
wider society
and their interactions with it.
My point is that,
for whites as a group in Zimbabwe, and quite likely in the
rest of southern
Africa, their long-term interests and survival is
determined by shifting
their group identity from "whites in Africa" to white
Africans.
Some will not be able to make this psychological shift
for many reasons, but
their prospects are poor.
Part of the
reasons for that difficulty is that by and large, whites in
southern Africa
as a group, have had very little experience in not being in
charge of
everything.
There are all kinds of attitudes and behaviours to do
with being a member of
a small racial minority that economic and political
power protected them
from having to learn. But as power relations shift,
bringing with them a
changed consciousness and more confident, less servile
and reverential
attitude towards them among the blacks, the group attitudes
among the whites
that might have had no consequences to them 10 or 20 years
ago, do now.
Blacks in any Western country instinctively know the
ways they must adapt to
the white majority culture for them to get ahead.
Those who choose not to
make that adaptation in terms of language and many
parts of the majority
culture have to pay the price of being marginalised
even more than the rest
of their communities.
Whites in Zimbabwe,
on the other hand, felt no such pressure to adapt
themselves to the majority
milieu at all. They, and the blacks, were
accustomed to the Africans doing
all the adapting to their ways.
This was always going to be a
temporary state of affairs. Without Mugabe's
political gambit to scapegoat
the whites for his failures, it might have
taken decades for these group
dynamics to evolve to reflect the demographics
and their attendant social,
political and cultural realities. But all these
issues were suddenly brought
to the fore in a way that cannot be undone even
if Mugabe kicks the bucket
today.
Whites who want to hang on to the view of themselves as a
special group
above the natives in southern Africa will likely never feel
comfortable and
secure. Apart from legal guarantees to farmland or
citizenship, there needs
to be a critical mass of whites who do, and are
seen to be identifying
themselves as Africans.
There is no longer
a group benefit to holding on to the self-image of an
elite group which just
happens to be in Africa, enjoying still generally
privileged status, but
also vaguely disdainful of the Africans and only
comfortable dealing with
them in situations where they are in control,
making as few cultural,
linguistic and social accommodations as possible.
That
difficult-for-many but necessary shift is what will best secure their
place
in Africa, far more than money, duration of lineage on the continent,
title
to land, citizenship papers, the reigning political dispensation at
any
given time, or farming expertise.
* Chido Makunike is a Zimbabwean
writer based in Senegal.
Zim Independent
By Pearson
Mbalekwa
THERE has been talk about the Zanu PF government's intentions to
introduce
yet another Amendment to the Constitution for the 18th time in 26
years. Far
from being the original Lancaster House Constitution of 1979,
this
constitution has been amended so many times that Lord Carrington and
Lord
Soames would not be able to recognise it.
That the nation needs
a new and not an over-patched constitution is
indisputable but then, the
Zanu PF government, which has been in power for
the duration of this
controversial constitution, has no desire to have it
replaced as it assures
it of its continued hold on power.
To illustrate my assertion, I will
give just two examples among sections of
the constitution which favour the
incumbent. The appointment of
non-constituency members of parliament and
traditional chiefs are glaring
examples of this undemocratic
system.
Unless there was proportional selection of these
non-constituency MPs
according to the number of seats, each political party
would have won in a
general election and unless chiefs were to be de-linked
from the executive
(since chiefs come under the administration of the
Ministry of Local
Government and the government has through the minister
powers to remove a
chief), these people's position is
compromised.
There is need to de-link the Council of Chiefs from any
control and
direction by a government minister and elevate it to an
autonomous
constitutional body funded directly by treasury. This would
ensure that
chiefs are true custodians of our traditional practices and
values and are
not treated as instruments of Zanu PF or any other government
that will be
there after Zanu PF is gone.
The reason for having
nominated MPs is for those members to represent the
interests of certain
groups of our society such as gender, race and the
disabled among
others.
It is assumed that the president as head of state would not
look at the
interest of his party but that of the state. But alas! The head
of state has
acted as though he is presiding over Zanu PF affairs instead of
national
affairs.
As a result of the president ignoring his role,
we have noticed with awe as
he goes about picking members of his political
party, some of whom may have
lost either in Zanu PF's primary or
parliamentary elections and other office
holders in the structures of the
party.
This is all in an effort to ensure a majority in parliament
for the purpose
of passing laws that are favourable to the executive. This
is how Zanu PF
gets its two thirds majority in parliament. It is important
to bring out
these facts so as to understand the preceding debate on the
proposed
amendment of the constitution.
Every person of average
intelligence is aware of the need to harmonise
parliamentary and
presidential elections so as to cut down on costs and also
avoid a situation
where in future we wake up with a president with minority
MPs after an
election.
This would put a president in a big quandary and his
government would be
shaky since our system of democracy is very different
from that of the
United States which allows a president to choose his
cabinet from outside
Congress.
The introduction of a harmonised
election would therefore be a welcome
development.
But then the
issue at hand is not the merit or demerits of this idea, but
its timing.
When should this exercise be implemented and why then? If we are
to go by
the contents of the Sunday Mirror of January 29, a paper which has
in the
past been accused of being run and owned by the Central Intelligence
Organisation and which by design has its ear very close to the ground
because of its umblical attachment to the corridors of power, then it would
seem the ground is being prepared to introduce Amendment Bill 18 albeit
through a very controversial route.
The current clause in the
constitution requires that when an incumbent
president vacates office, the
last acting president during the incumbent's
tenure holds fort for 90 days
during which elections should be organised and
held.
The Sunday
Mirror said the amendment could change this so that an interim
president
runs the country until 2010 as part of the synchronisation
process.
The paper went on to say everything largely depended on
the experts'
projections on the state of politics in the ruling party and in
the country
over the next two or so years. This makes interesting reading
and is a
revelation on the goings-on in experts' minds.
One
cannot but imagine who the "sources" and "experts" are whom the paper
widely
quotes. Those are in my view the people who are busy scheming ways on
how to
easily slide unhindered into the highest office in the land by
usurping the
people's right to choose their leadership in an
all-encompassing democratic
process. This is a clique in Zanu PF which not
so long ago subverted a
democratic process of electing Zanu PF's
vice-president and in turn the
country's vice-president by
unconstitutionally amending Zanu PF's
constitution so as to bar from
assuming the second highest office in the
land a person that had the support
of majority membership of Zanu PF. Had it
not been for the deliberate
gerrymandering of the constituency's boundaries
five days before the
elections so that he loses, he would obviously have won
the parliamentary
election though people of that constituency hate Zanu PF.
It is Zanu PF that
is unpopular in that constituency and not the loser who
stood on its ticket.
This clique within Zanu PF urgently needs the
presidency and cannot wait for
the day President Robert Mugabe vacates
office. But then there is an
obstacle in the way to that office. The biggest
obstacle is that any
candidate who stands for a presidential election under
the banner of Zanu PF
will not win an election under the current political
and economic meltdown.
The clique is only too aware of this and will avoid
an election any time
soon and would rather get into State House through a
dubious constitutional
amendment which it is mooting.
The clique
wants to use its coerced majority in parliament to amend the
constitution to
catapult it into power. This is where the importance of
cowed traditional
chiefs who are in parliament comes in as they have become
instruments of
Zanu PF's political corruption, brutality and inefficiency as
used to happen
in Rhodesian days when they were turned against their own
people by Ian
Smith's regime.
The clique is cognisant of the impotence of the
elected members of Zanu PF
and their internal betrayal of the people's will
and wish. The members of
Zanu PF are very vulnerable in their existence to
Zanu PF and the clique.
They are enslaved through the patronage system -
government loans, mileage
claims, and scholarships for their relatives and
all other government
stipends. Parliament has become a milking cow and they
are more interested
in serving their individual interests at the expense of
their electors.
Nominated MPs, the majority of whom end up in the
executive and owe their
rise to President Mugabe can surely not vote against
the hand that feeds
them. The clique obviously is confident that it can push
for the amendment
Bill and assume the presidency by using its assumed
majority in parliament
by by-passing the people.
The idea of
coming up with the harmonisation of parliamentary and
presidential elections
is welcome but the idea of postponement of the
presidential election to 2010
and having an interim president chosen by a
partisan parliament is immoral
and undemocratic. The mandate of an MP is
that of legislation or making and
amending laws. This is the primary duty of
every MP, but while they have
every right to change laws, it is morally
wrong to come up with unjust laws
which circumvent the people's will and
desires.
It is not the
duty of MPs to enact a law that would deprive the citizens of
this country
of their inalienable right to elect a head of state who would
thereafter
form a governmenet. We as a nation have elected them so that they
can make
laws for the good government of the nation by a government
appointed on
behalf of a state by a man or woman popularly elected by the
majority of
Zimbabweans for that purpose.
Why impose a leader upon our nation? We
have our elections - the
presidential, pencilled in for March 2008 and it
would only be prudent lo
harmonise or synchronise the elections
then.
It should be realised that we cannot entrust the future of this
country to
the hands of abusers of constitutions. The nation wants an
election now and
not in March 2008, worse still in 2010 as this would be
political
criminality.
We as law-abiding citizens supposedly
living in a constitutional democracy
have an inalienable right to rise up
and shake the foundations of a wicked
ruling party that sets up a government
that is equally wicked in handling
public affairs. The people are the state
and no government can ever be equal
to the people because the people are
sovereign and therefore always bigger
than any government of the
day.
Any suggestion to delay the presidential election and have an
anointed head
of state must be put to the test through a referendum. Only
this way can we
move forward. Any other way must be resisted by all
democratic and
self-respecting citizens.
All democratic forces
should, and must denounce any move to steal our right
to choose our leaders.
This should be resisted through democratically and
constitutional means at
our disposal.
Time has come for all citizens to realise that there is
no way out of the
present national predicament as long as President Mugabe
and Zanu PF remain
in power. Every day that the Zanu PF government lives to
rule is a day of
further misery for Zimbabwe and all its
citizens.
* Pearson Mbalekwa is former Zanu PF MP for Zvishavane.
Zim Independent
Dumisani
Muleya
SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy" approach to
securing
a negotiated settlement in Zimbabwe to break the current political
impasse
was bound to fail.
Although Mbeki pulled out all the stops to
secure a deal for Zimbabwe, local
and international dynamics as well as
objective realities on the ground sank
his plan.
Geo-politics and
the collateral damage the Zimbabwe crisis was causing in
the region had
apparently led to Mbeki's intervention. It is generally
accepted South
Africa is a regional superpower and from time to time it may
intervene in
such situations.
However, despite its economic muscle, Pretoria was
unable to influence
events in Zimbabwe largely because it lacked credible
and deliverable
capabilities. In international politics, without these
elements diplomacy
usually fails. A country may have economic, military and
political leverage
over the other but if these cannot be deployed
effectively, its diplomacy
does not work. This was Mbeki's dilemma, among
numerous others.
Firstly, Mbeki did not carry his government and his
ruling ANC, let alone
South Africans, behind his policy. There was a serious
lack of cohesion in
the various constituencies in South Africa over
Zimbabwe.
Class interests and political conflicts ensured South
Africans by and large
viewed the Zimbabwe situation differently and were
thus divided.
Mbeki also failed to articulate the most basic issue:
his objective. What
did he in the final analysis want to achieve in
Zimbabwe? Did he want a
reformed Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF to remain in
power or did he want the MDC
to get into power or both?
Then
there were historical and structural issues in Zimbabwe which made
Mbeki's
job - during the collapsed talks in 2002 and later the
constitutional
negotiations in 2003 - doubly difficult.
Negotiations are a very
useful tool in resolving certain types of issues in
conflicts, although in
some cases they are simply not an option at all. The
situation on the ground
and power relations between negotiating parties are
key variables in the
outcome of talks.
The power imbalance between Zanu PF and the MDC was
thus a problem on its
own. Zanu PF controlled the repressive apparatus of
state, while the MDC had
the moral high ground as it sought to introduce
good governance and the rule
of law.
Mbeki was further
constrained by the politics of revolutionary solidarity
between the ANC and
Zanu PF which has all but collapsed into state
structures. His apparent bias
towards Zanu PF also alienated the MDC.
Lack of adequate and
organised regional support for his initiative further
undermined his
plan.
Besides, Zimbabwe's internal conflicts have in the past been
resolved
through negotiations by local players themselves, albeit with help
from
outside.
The Lancaster House Agreement was largely between
the colonial regime and
the nationalist movements although Britain managed
for a short time to
entrench and protect its interests through
it.
The 1987 Unity Accord between Zanu PF and PF Zapu following the
civil unrest
between 1982 and 1987 was also internally
negotiated.
Then there was the Zanu PF infighting and the MDC
situation which was
bubbling under the surface.
Both the ruling
party and the opposition were not united behind their own
negotiators and
Mbeki's initiative. Zanu PF was divided along factional
lines, while the MDC
was at odds over the issue. The current MDC infighting
has something to do
with the matter.
As a result of this, there was distrust at various
levels of the talks:
within and between Zanu PF and MDC, between Zanu PF and
the ANC, MDC and the
ANC, and not least between Mugabe and
Mbeki.
Mbeki's motives were also questionable in some quarters in
Zimbabwe,
particularly in the corridors of power where the issue of
sovereignty and
paranoia loomed large.
Further, there was the
problem of the international community whose more
forthright stance was at
variance with Mbeki's quiet diplomacy. Within the
international community
itself, including Africa, there was lack of
cohesion, especially in the
European Union, which led to divisions that only
helped to undermine Mbeki's
initiative.
The United States' policy was also not in sync with other
countries and
institutions which may have agreed that Mugabe's regime had
failed but did
not agree with Washington's noisy approach.
The
result of all this was a disjointed and incoherent campaign around
Zimbabwe
whose lack of a systematic structure could not have possibly
produced a
positive outcome, despite the very real strides made in the talks
between
the two sides.
Mugabe exploited these divisions and lack of
sufficient internal resistance
to run rings around Mbeki and others. Taking
advantage of the rambling
diplomatic campaign and using his political
acumen, Mugabe managed - at
least for now -- to outmanoeuvre different
players in his desperate
political endgame.
In the end, Mbeki all
but washed his hands of Zimbabwe two weeks ago saying
he would now "watch"
the unfolding crisis and help if need be. But he said
he had managed to
ensure that Zanu PF and the MDC came up with a draft
constitution which
would have paved the way for a resolution of the
political stalemate and
hopefully the economic meltdown.
However in the end, it was the Zanu
PF's factional politics finally
torpedoed his initiative in dramatic fashion
at an explosive politburo
meeting on August 24 2004 when the blueprint for
constitutional reform
negotiated between the parties was thrown out at
Mugabe's urging.
Zim Independent
By Eric Bloch
IN
his Monetary Policy Review Statement for the fourth quarter of 2005,
presented on January 24, 2006, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ), Gideon Gono, yet again gave recognition to Zimbabwe's critical need
to attract investment. He noted that "significant scope has been identified"
for investment in "methane gas drilling, coal mining, platinum mining, gold
mining, power generation, extraction of liquid fuel from coal, bio-diesel
generation, value-addition manufacturing, tourism, and foreign exchange
generating agriculture (including horticulture, cotton, tobacco, paprika and
tea, among many other areas)."
He very correctly complemented that
recognition of the need for investment
generation, and of the many and
diverse opportunities for investment, with a
statement that: "It is,
however, starkly pertinent to emphasise that for any
meaningful investment,
both foreign and local to materialise and, hence,
turn our aspirations into
reality, we must, as a country, adeptly work to
spruce up our international
image; reaffirm our resolve to respect private
property rights; stabilise
our macro-economic environment; as well as
maintain investor-friendly
policies in the areas of exchange control and
taxation. Without these
fundamentals in place, the country's investment
strategies will continue to
remain unachievable ambitions, more so over the
short to medium
term."
The tragedy is that whilst his words of realism and fact fell upon
receptive
ears, far and wide throughout Zimbabwe, amongst an audience that
had long
been conscious of the economic need for massive and ongoing
investment, and
had been aware of the prerequisite of an investment
conducive environment,
the majority of those in authority, if not all of
them, allowed their
ongoing deafness - to anything that they did not wish
hear - to prevail.
Instead, they continue unhesitatingly with acts and
statements that destroy
the attractions of Zimbabwean investment. Within
days of Gono's statement,
the Minister of State for National Security,
Didymus Mutasa, reacting
angrily to a factual statement by the Famine Early
Warning System Network
(Fewsnet) that shortages of inputs such as
fertiliser, fuel and seed are
likely to worsen the food supply situation in
Zimbabwe, launched a vitriolic
attack upon the West, including the United
States.
He dredged up government's never-ending, totally baseless, claim
that the
difficulties faced by Zimbabwe are a direct result of a deliberate
anti-Zimbabwe campaign, stating that: "They imposed sanctions on us to harm
the economy, and then they go on to criticise us over the state of the same
economy".
What absolute hogwash! There has been no West-driven
anti-Zimbabwe campaign,
but only an anti-Zimbabwe government and ruling
party campaign.
The last time that there was an economic action directed
against this
country was from November, 1965 until December, 1979, during
the period
following the Rhodesian Unilateral Declaration of Independence
(UDI), when
the United Nations imposed international trade and economic
sanctions. No
such sanctions now exist. None of USA, the European Union in
general, and
United Kingdom in particular, the British Commonwealth or
others, have
imposed economic sanctions upon Zimbabwe. They continue to sell
goods to,
and buy goods from, Zimbabwe. Their residents remain free to
invest in
Zimbabwe, to travel to Zimbabwe, and to interact with Zimbabweans.
Such
sanctions have only been imposed upon a range of Zimbabwean
individuals,
perceived to be members or supporters and associates of a
fascist-style,
demagogic, non-democratic regime, who are barred from travel
to countries
which have imposed such targeted sanctions, from owning assets
in those
countries, and from engaging in financial transactions with
residents of
those countries. But those sanctions are only against the
selected
individuals, and not against Zimbabwe as a whole.
The
European Union, Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, the
Scandinavian
countries, USA, Australia and many others, continue to have
wide-ranging
investments in Zimbabwe, and especially in mining and in
manufacturing (and
had some significant agricultural investments until
government expropriated
the lands, in total disregard not only for property
rights, but also for
many Bilateral Investment Protection Agreements). Now,
over and above
wanting domestic investment, government wants foreign
investment from the
very countries that it abuses, falsely accuses of
economic sabotage, and
after demonstrating its contempt for investment
protection agreements, as
well as the fundamental principles of
international law and, when those
desired investments are not forthcoming,
it maligns those that do not pour
forth investment largesse.
Some seek to justify their contentions, that
economic sanctions have been
imposed, by pointing to the fact that
Zimbabwean industry does not benefit
from AGOA, being the USA's Africa
Growth and Opportunities Act, which
enables certain products of some African
countries to enter USA free of
import duties and taxes. However, the AGOA
provisions are not economic
rights. They are incentives to pursue democracy,
law and order,
international good-neighbourliness, and the like, granted as
a "bonus" to
those who qualify. That does not preclude others exporting to
USA, albeit
that in the absence of the AGOA benefits, it may be more
difficult to be
competitive. Zimbabwe is not precluded from exporting to
USA!
Others support their claims that Zimbabwe is a victim of
international
economic sanctions by contentions that countries who do not
grant Zimbabwe
developmental and/or humanitarian aid, or have reduced the
extent of such
aid, have imposed sanctions upon Zimbabwe. The reality is
that countries
wish to direct their aid to those who not only have the
greatest need, but
who also use the aid most effectively. They are reluctant
to give the aid
unless they are convinced that it will not be diverted by
the corrupt to
non-intended, self-enrichment purposes, or will be used for
the benefit of
those who are in political favour. Where they do not have
credible assurance
that that is so, they direct their benevolence to others,
where those
criteria do apply. That is not an economic sanction, but a
freedom of choice
as to whom should be the recipients of gifts.
As if
all these factors do not suffice to create an inconducive investment
environment, the State worsens the environment even further. It fails to
halt farm invasions, with concomitant violence and destruction of property,
and usually does not even make half-hearted attempts to do so. The crime
rate, including armed robberies, carjackings, murder, rape, and much more,
is growing exponentially, and the guardians of law and order are so
ill-equipped with vehicles and other resources that they are unable to
contain that growth.
The State also plays the racial divide.
Within the last two weeks, the
Minister of Agriculture, Joseph Made, has
once again spewed out venom
against white farmers, although he is not the
only Minister who has
demonstrated that the then justifiable bitterness,
against those who
practiced racial discrimination prior to the Independence,
endures 25 years
later, against any of Caucasian origin, and reinforces
their hatred for
whites by repeated statements that Zimbabwe does not need
the West, or the
peoples of the West, and should only look internally and to
the East. It is
Zimbabwe's right to espouse such beliefs, and pursue such
policies, should
it so desire, albeit foolhardily and against
the
fundamental principles of its own Constitution, of morals and ethics,
and of
responsible membership of the international community. But if it opts
to
exercise that right, it should not then expect Western investment,
funding
and support.
Domestic investment is equally discouraged by all these
negative investment
environment circumstances, for any investor wishes for
investment security
and growth, and Zimbabwe's self-declared aversion for
the West, and
resultant economic divide, the expropriation of the property,
the rule of
lawlessness and disorder, and the like, all render investment
unattractive.
Zimbabwe has great potential, and can be the crucible for
major and very
successful investment, but the State must cease breaking the
crucible. It
must stop chasing away the investment it yearns
for!
Zim Independent
Muckraker
YOU could safely say there is no fury like an unelected council
woman denied
luxury. Commissioner Sekesai Makwavarara, who until the
undiscerning MDC
found her a few years back was a nonentity in Mabvuku, says
she can't wait
to move into the mayoral mansion in leafy Gunhill, even if it
means moving
in without curtains and furniture. She wants to spend over $10
billion on
curtains alone.
Given her sponsorship this is unlikely to
be curtains for her! $10 billion
is a lot of money even given our tattered
currency. That money can buy a
decent house in Borrowdale and more than
three seven-roomed houses in
high-density suburbs.
But that is beside
the point. Makwavarara's claim to that money and the
luxury she craves in
Borrowdale is founded on the extravagant lie that she
is mayor of Harare. Is
that what the bungling Local Government minister
Ignatious Chombo told the
opportunist turncoat? The Gunhill villa was built
for the mayor of the
capital and what we know is that at the moment Harare
doesn't have a
mayor.
Makwavarara was imposed by Chombo as part of a temporary structure
pending
elections. Residents and ratepayers eagerly await the election just
to show
commissioner Makwavarara where she belongs.
"All I want is to
see the house furnished," declared Makwavarara defiantly
when challenged
that she had ignored tender procedures for the supply of the
curtaining
material.
Makwavarara accuses Harare town clerk Nomutsa Chideya of
exposing her
unconscionable extravagance in a sea of poverty. She said
Chideya had failed
to do his work. "Chideya has failed to buy the curtains
and furniture" for
the mansion, she claimed, as if that was his major
assignment at Town House.
The irony is that Harare has never been more badly
run since Makwavarara
came in through the back door hiding behind Chombo as
a born-again Zanu PF
follower.
Chombo, as we all should know, fired
all elected councillors before
elevating the Sekesais of this world. Which
is why we find it strange when
people who should know better like
journalists talk of the Harare city
council. We are dealing here
specifically with Chombo's personal creation
and no attempt to hide behind
the Urban Councils Act will convince us
otherwise. He must deal with his
Frankenstein monster at Town House. It is
therefore misguided for people to
call for government intervention as they
did in the Herald on Tuesday.
Government is already involved up to its neck
and we would not be surprised
that we are talking of a house that has long
been furnished. Herald, keep
your ear to the ground on this one. As for
complaints about lack of service
delivery by the commission, we can only say
welcome to the land of eunuchs.
Makwavarara knows nothing will happen to her
so long as Chombo remains
minister and there are no mayoral elections for
Harare.
Incidentally,
quite telling about where we are going as a nation, sitting
side by side
with Makwavarara's extortionate demand was the story and
picture of a
terminally ill woman with her four little children "living in
the open" and
a makeshift tent in Epworth in which nurses were treating
patients for
cholera. The disease has already claimed five lives but that's
not
Makwavarara's problem.
Also caught on the obscene side of the moral
spectrum this week was the Law
Society of Zimbabwe. They have increased
their fees sharply since January
and have no inclination to let up. They
blame it all on Gideon Gono -
inflation.
Lawyers who have been in
practice for up to 20 years have hiked their fees
from $4,4 million to $15,8
million an hour. A lawyer who has practised for
more than 15 years will set
you back $7,2 million for an hour's job. That
only applies to those who can
afford it. The devil will take care of the
rest.
The Herald reports
that the rates don't include VAT and incidentals such as
photocopying and
duplication. Of course you are alarmed and think you have
had enough. Not so
fast Jack. The fees will be going up by 30% every month,
the society
announced proudly. There are times when you feel you need
government
intervention. Imagine every enterprise copying these learned
Shylocks!
There were also interesting figures from the Central
Statistical Office.
Tony Blair and George Bush have reportedly kicked
inflation to over 610%,
the Herald revealed this week.
It reported
that a family of five now needs $20 million a month to get by on
just about
the most basic requirements to keep body and soul together.
"Those with
incomes less than the poverty datum line are quite likely to be
going
hungry, living in very unhealthy housing or inadequately dressed," the
paper
warned with prophetic insight. Which to all intents and purposes means
every
Zimbabwean except Makwavarara who says she is prepared to fork out $35
billion to furnish the Gunhill mansion if Chideya won't do it.
There
was also an element of innovation by the Herald this time around. The
tradition in the past has been to use an average family of six. But this
presumably would have reflected badly on Gono's performance with the monthly
figure going beyond $20 million. So you have to kill one member of the
family to survive on $20 million. The same family in Matabeleland North
requires more than $24 million because food is more expensive. Remember
every grain comes from the GMB, the food monopoly run by government. Give us
more potatoes and rice please, anytime!
The Sunday Mail's Munyaradzi
Huni claims that "Zimbabweans have had enough"
of sanctions which are
impacting on the whole country, not just targeted
politicians. He uses as
his source Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono who
referred to the "perceived
high country risk by both multilateral and
bilateral creditors" in his
latest monetary review statement.
"As such, international investors
preferred other countries for investment,
thus depriving Zimbabwe of the
much-needed direct foreign investment," Gono
said.
"The current wave
of declared and undeclared sanctions is negatively
affecting the image of
the country thereby distorting how financial markets
assess the risk profile
of Zimbabwe," he said.
All this was leading to economic decline and
emigration, Gono pointed out.
It is true that sanctions are taking a
heavy toll on the economy, especially
the IMF's refusal to extend
balance-of-payments support. But Gono's analysis
is fatally flawed - and he
knows it!
Sanctions stem not from some international conspiracy, aided
and abetted by
"some sections of the media" but by hard facts on the
ground.
Investors do not want to invest in a country whose government
arbitrarily
confiscates their property and in many cases the produce of a
lifetime of
hard work. They will not invest in a country where they will
have difficulty
pursuing grievances in the courts because judges have
declared land cases to
be political and thereby not amenable to judicial
resolution.
Where courts have ordered the state to refrain from
interference, those
orders have often been ignored. Nor will investors
invest in a country where
senior ministers instruct bankers and government
officials not to assist
commercial farmers because of their race or
perceived political persuasion.
Then there are arrests and harassment of
journalists and civic activists as
well as threats to businesses. This is
not a climate in which investors can
operate productively. Gono knows this.
He has referred to ongoing farm
seizures as a form of sabotage. But he finds
it politically convenient to
blame the press for the "negative perceptions"
about Zimbabwe's situation.
Huni has an excuse. He is the media hatchet
man of a regime that knows it
has lost public confidence. He has an
obligation to lie about the causes of
the nation's decline. What excuse has
Gono got?
We were amused to read the Nathaniel Manheru column of January
28. The
author spent much of his time attempting to persuade readers that he
was
someone other than "Secretary Charamba". The fact that he shared many of
the
same literary pretensions as George of the Jongwe Jungle and boasted
that he
wasn't obliged to adhere to any rules of accuracy when naming media
organisations rather gave the game away, as did the threat to unleash Aippa
against the Zimbabwe Independent for reporting that President Mugabe had
received a US$10 million loan from Van Hoog.
Simply reporting a claim
made in the Sunday Times constituted a "gratuitous
attack" on President
Mugabe, according to this excitable spokesman for
tyranny.
Whoever he
is we can be sure of one thing. Whereas just a couple of years
ago he was
cheering on Jonathan Moyo's every depredation against the media,
he now
loses no opportunity to take opportunistic pot shots against his
former
master. What a brave fellow he must be!
Manheru, by the way, has an
acolyte at the Herald called Charles Mutete who
shares a fondness for
beating up women. His target a few weeks ago was Mavis
Makuni of the
Financial Gazette who had made the ideological heresy of
commenting on the
African Commission's damning report on Zimbabwe. African
leaders were
beginning to wake up to Zimbabwe's human rights abuses, she had
the temerity
to claim.
This was unacceptable to Mutete who, like his mentor at the
Saturday Herald,
sees his duty as setting the MIC on other journalists. In a
thinly-veiled
attack on Olusegun Obasanjo for attempting to put Zimbabwe in
the AU dock,
Mutete said that in addition to journalists there would always
be willing
tools of the West right up to the level of head of
state.
Mutete didn't have the courage of his convictions to name
Obasanjo, but that
didn't stop him referring to "a certain African leader"
who was at the time
relinquishing the AU chair. This wolf in sheep's
clothing was on the CIA
payroll, Mutete claimed.
He should have told
us about state columnists on the CIO payroll about which
we are sure he
knows a thing or two.
There will always be apologists for a regime that
incarcerates and tortures
its opponents, including lawyers, and then calls
anybody who exposes these
atrocities a "liar".
Mutete thought he
would create the right impression by parroting Manheru's
"Icho" slogan.
Let's hope he was suitably rewarded for his squawking!
In similar vein,
Caesar Zvayi, having a go at NGOs, claimed former British
ambassador Sir
Brian Donnelly "staged looting scenes" at farms in
Mashonaland West in
2001.
Does Zvayi actually believe this or is he happy to repeat a facile
lie?
Whatever the case, he thinks the recent spy saga in Russia will
"resuscitate
debate for the expeditious finalisation of the NGO Bill in
Zimbabwe".
Leaving aside the spectacle of a state journalist who appears
not to know
the current fate of the NGO Bill, or even one who unwittingly
draws
parallels between Zimbabwe and the Soviet Union, here we have yet
another
scribe keen to unleash state tyranny against his colleagues in civil
society.
Finally we were amused by the Herald report on SK Moyo
whining in South
Africa about the SABC's reporting on cholera in Harare. It
was unfair to put
Zimbabwe in the dock when other countries had reported
cases of cholera, he
said.
Below this report was a picture of
residents of Kuwadzana clearing a path
for raw sewage to flow "after calls
for assistance from the Harare city
council fell on deaf ears".
Zim Independent
Comment
SINCE the exit of Jonathan Moyo as Information and Publicity
minister, the
new regime in charge of the portfolio has tried to portray
itself as very
different from the old order. The move by the new minister
Tichaona Jokonya
to reach out to the private press, respond to press
requests for comment in
a non-belligerent way and to invite all reporters to
press briefings is
commendable.
Jokonya has also given audience to
media practitioners advocating
self-regulation as opposed to statutory
control by the Media and Information
Commission. He has invited local media
bodies to give submissions on
egregious sections of the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy
Act.
Jokonya, as revealed by
reports in this paper last month, also appears keen
to deal with the
composition of the MIC, a contentious subject that has
featured prominently
in litigation on the closed Associated Newspapers of
Zimbabwe titles, the
Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday.
This quest to appear to be doing
things differently has raised hopes among
long-suffering journalists that
the new order bodes well for democracy in
Zimbabwe.
Last year the
minister met with editors from all major papers at which he
appeared to
proffer an olive leaf. We were however quick to issue a word of
caution that
the minister operated under a political system that still
harboured
hostility towards basic civil liberties. We said the minister's
bright ideas
still needed to be tested in the Zanu PF furnace before they
could be
adopted by the party and then government for implementation.
This is the
major hurdle in the quest to free the print media, especially
giving the ANZ
a publishing licence, and achieving plurality in the
broadcasting sector.
There has not been a sufficient shift in the mindsets
of the Zanu PF
government to bring tangible change, especially in media law
reform.
Only three weeks ago State Security minister Didymus Mutasa
blurted out
threats to the media in an interview with the Manica
Post.
"It is sad to note that there is a crop of journalists who are
selling the
country to the enemy by writing falsehoods, with the intention
of agitating
violence in the country," said Mutasa. He added: "These are
media houses
that are churning out falsehoods on a daily basis about the
country and
government. We will not sit on our laurels and watch people
undermining the
country's security."
That there has been no change of
heart is also amply demonstrated by the
executive's signing into law of the
General Laws Amendment Act which amended
sections of the Public Order and
Security Act to increase penalties for
journalists accused of writing
"false" stories and information deemed to be
prejudicial to the state. There
are now stiffer penalties for media
practitioners who write stories that
"cause hatred, contempt or ridicule of
the president or acting
president".
The new provisions reaffirm government's pursuit to
criminalise the
profession and ensure that an ominous axe continues to hang
over the heads
of journalists.
Given the deferential character of
Mugabe's inner circle, virtually anything
critical said against him can be
interpreted as causing ridicule or hatred.
Countries keen to open up their
media and facilitate debate have done away
with protectionist laws that
shield an all-powerful president from censure,
and thereby from
accountability.
There is no room for such a law in a country that
pretends to be a
democracy. But our government will not relent as long as it
positions itself
as a victim of media terrorism. In this environment
attempts by Jokonya at
rapprochement are in grave danger.
Promises to
reconstruct the MIC might resultantly be an academic exercise as
long as the
brief to the commission remains encrusted in archaic political
dogma
designed to limit media space. Which brings to the fore the issue of
the
licensing of the ANZ. The ruling by Justice Rita Makarau last week
directing
the MIC to make a fresh determination on the ANZ application
offered some
hope but it would be naïve to think that the publishing house
will get a
licence through the courts. It will take a political decision for
this to
happen. The same is true of the licensing of private broadcasters.
The
government's commitment to reform should be measured by its handling of
the
ANZ application and the laws that remain on our statute books. Jokonya
has
said there is nothing wrong with Aippa. He says it is the application of
the
law which was wrong. So why keep a law that can be abused to harass the
press and limit public accountability?
Yet another case for a Justice Commission
HAVING destroyed commercial
agriculture, education, the health sector, the
informal sector among others,
the Mugabe regime has launched yet another
stage in its ongoing project to
return the country to its pre-colonial
status.
The theft of property
in the urban areas by executive fiat in the case of
those properties
bordering President Mugabe's residence, or by outright
theft in the case of
Gletwyn Farm, will prove to be a pivotal act in the
destruction of our
cities. After all, cities are a colonial import and as
sites of resistance
to tyranny (against Ian Smith as well as President
Mugabe) are anathema to
tyrants from Pol Pot to our own home-grown example.
Operation
Murambatsvina eliminated the supposed threat from the urban poor
and this
latest onslaught will eradicate the middle class, or what is left
of
it.
When the police force are the main agents of illegal activities,
all
citizens must seriously consider their positions and responsibilities to
their society.
The ZRP is funded from taxes paid by ordinary
citizens including whites.
Deputy Finance minister, David Chapfika, is
paid from those same taxes.
Every Zimbabwean who pays taxes is therefore
assisting the illegitimate
regime in its onslaught against the nation.
Responsible citizens will refuse
to fund their oppressors.
This
is yet another case for a Justice Commission in a liberated Zimbabwe.
A
legitimate democratic government will hold those who have actively
participated in the looting of our national resources to account and will
confiscate their ill-gotten gains. Let those who illegally occupy Gletwyn be
advised accordingly.
Mandebvu,
Harare.
----
Aren't these bearer cheques inflationary?
ON February 1, the new $50
000 bearer cheques came into circulation courtesy
of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe.
This came as a great relief to both the public and the business
sector who
were evidently relieved of the burden of carrying huge amounts of
cash.
For this, RBZ governor, Gideon Gono, deserves applause. Long,
winding queues
and delays at ATMs have become a thing of the
past.
What is sad however, is that we can no longer buy anything
valuable. Two
days before introduction of the new bearer cheque, commuter
omnibus
operators hiked their fares to the extent of making $50 000
valueless.
Commuters from areas such as Ruwa, Mufakose, Seke and Norton
have to fork
out between $80 000 and $100 000 dollars per day on transport
only, this
from their meagre salaries.
Economists argue that what
is happening in Zimbabwe is the same trend that
developed economies had to
go through. For Zimbabwe, the end does not seem
to be in
sight.
With this current rate of inflation, the public should perhaps
look forward
to the introduction of yet another denomination of huge bearer
cheques like
a $500 000 one, but this time maybe yellow or pink in
colour.
The question is; isn't this
inflationary?
Scared,
Harare.
-----
Wish Mhende had applied his principles at Town House
I READ with interest
your article "Turmoil puts strategist under scrutiny",
(Zimbabwe
Independent, February 10) on the saga in the Harare City Council,
particularly with reference to the differences of opinion between town clerk
Nomutsa Chideya and fired strategist, Chester Mhende.
Mhende was the
recipient of a small, highly-developed farm in Mashonaland
West, which had
provided employment to over 120 people, educated others and
given a living
to my family over some 22 years of hard work and commitment.
Mhende
took over a standing crop of tobacco which he sold to his account,
greenhouses full of roses, fertiliser and chemicals. He also utilised my
tractors, vehicles and machinery.
Today that same farm stands
almost totally unutilised, weeds grow in the
fields, the greenhouses for
rose production stand rusting and idle and the
fields are empty of tobacco
or maize.
The fences are falling down, and much of the labour is
unemployed and hungry
except for a lucky few who have managed to find
employment elsewhere.
It came to my attention last week that Mhende
is intending to enter into an
agreement with a former commercial farmer
(yes, a white one) to operate this
place and get it back to an economically
sound base.
Just wishing he had ap-plied these obviously sound
management principles to
Harare City Council matters during his
stint.
J Whaley,
Harare.
-------
Christians troubled by MDC split
AS church leaders who share the
responsibility of ministering to all the
people of this land, we confess to
being deeply troubled by the uncertainty,
confusion and widespread despair
which have followed the collapse of the MDC
as a single and united, national
opposition movement.
We are equally troubled by the increasing
factionalism and tendency among
those committed to the struggle for freedom
and democracy to allow
themselves to be polarised according to the
particular leader each chooses
to support. The provocative and inflammatory
statements made by some have
only served to exacerbate the divisions, and we
condemn them.
Lest there be any doubt, we say again that we are
non-partisan. We are
concerned with politics in the broad sense of the word
which constitutes a
significant part of life and as such falls under the
Lordship of our saviour
Christ. But we do not take sides in party politics.
We have no brief for any
particular party or faction; we seek rather to
bring every existing and
aspiring political party under the most searching
examination and critique
of the Scriptures.
The standards against
which we judge the policies and practices of every
party are the most
exacting standards of all, namely those of the servant
king, Jesus Christ
and the kingdom values of truth, justice and compassion,
especially for the
weakest and most vulnerable in society.
Against these standards all
parties fail lamentably of course, but some
represent honest attempts to
serve the nation and are worthy of support from
individual Christians.
Others are so far opposed to the concept of servant
leadership and the
kingdom values that a Christian cannot support them
without betraying
his/her Lord.
In this matter as we have said before, we find the
present policies and
practices of Zanu PF to be abhorrent to God - indeed to
amount to an attack
upon his kingdom of truth and
righteousness.
It is our judgement that the sovereign God says to the
present Zanu PF
leadership as he said to King Saul through his prophet
Samuel: "Because you
have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you
as king," - (1
Samuel 15/23).
When God rejected Saul as leader of
his people, he anointed another to be
servant king under Him. That man was
David, a man described by God as "a man
after my own heart".
In
the same way, just as the sovereign Lord has rejected those who now rule
our
nation, we believe he waits to anoint another leadership entirely, but
they
must be men and women after God's own heart - wise, caring, humble and
obedient to the word of God.
They will be men and women who
aspire to leadership not because of what they
can get out of it, but because
of what they are willing to give of
themselves. And they will be men and
women who are always willing to be held
accountable by the people for what
they do or fail to do.
It is for this reason that we view the
disintegration of what was once a
united opposition party committed to the
democratic principles of freedom,
tolerance and non-violence with such
dismay.
It represents a betrayal of the hopes and aspirations of
millions of
peace-loving Zimbabweans who were looking for a radical break
with the
politics of lies, violence and lawlessness entrenched under so many
years of
Zanu PF misrule. Nor have those who have assumed the leadership of
the
resulting factions of the MDC so far demonstrated the qualities of godly
leadership for which the nation looks.
At this moment of
indecision in the nation's history, we urge our fellow
citizens to commit
themselves with us to the search for a new leadership of
Christian insight
and integrity.
We urge our people to reject the rush to join one or
other of the factions
or new parties and the making of shallow and
superficial judgements about
who is right and who is wrong. Instead, we urge
a deeper Christian
reflection and a closer examination of all those who put
themselves forward
for leadership positions and what each one
represents.
It may be that the sovereign Lord has rejected all those
who now posture as
leaders or potential leaders of his people. It may be
that the prayers of
the faithful for deliverance from evil during the last
six years of crisis
are about to be answered in a new and altogether
unexpected way.
In any event, it will fall to us as mature Christians
to consider carefully
the character and record of any who offer themselves
for the task of leading
this nation out of Satan's hold and creating the
conditions necessary for a
new beginning under the Almighty
God.
We take heart from the promise of God which we understand to be
directed to
his people engulfed as we are in deep crisis: "I know the plans
I have for
you . plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you
hope and a
future," - (Jeremiah 29/11).
Let us then reflect
carefully and exercise a godly discernment as we wait to
hear what the
Spirit says to the church today.
Christians Together
for
Justice and Peace,
Bulawayo.