MDC
PRESS
3
February 2005
MDC to
Participate in 2005 Elections
The National Council of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) met this morning of the 3rd of February 2005 and
deliberated on the critical issue of participating in the 2005 general
election.
The Council noted that the on the
26th of August 2005, the National Executive of the party suspended
the party’s participation in the elections until such time as the Mugabe regime had complied with basic fair election
standards as set out in our Restore Document and the SADC Election Guidelines
and Principles as agreed in Mauritius on the 18th of August
2004.
The National Executive stated that for this
to happen, the government needed to combine a comprehensive reform of Zimbabwe's
electoral framework with significant political reforms, in particular the ending
of political violence and the repeal of repressive laws that place gratuitous
curbs on the independent media and citizens' democratic rights pertaining to
freedom of speech, assembly and association.
The Council reviewed the extent to which
the regime has complied with the party’s demands for compliance with the SADC
Protocol and noted that the regime has failed and failed dismally to comply with
those guidelines.
More than ever the electoral playing field
remains uneven and unequal. Rule of law concerns have not been addressed. The
media remains muzzled. Free assembly is proscribed by the Public Order Security
Act. The recently appointed Electoral Commission is yet to prove its
independence. The shambolic voters’ roll continues to
be the principal vehicle for electoral fraud. The Constituency boundaries have
been subjectively gerrymandered whilst militias and militia bases continue to
multiply. International observers continue to be
unwelcome.
The Council expressed concern over the
violation of the one-man, one-vote principle, through the continued
disenfranchisement of Zimbabweans because of their ancestry, place of residence
and a deeply flawed voter registration and management regime.
At the same time we note with regret the
failure of the SADC of putting the regime on the spot and demanding the
reproduction and implementation of fair electoral standards in this country.
Zimbabweans feel betrayed and let down by the region.
Clearly therefore a free and fair election
is not possible in
Zimbabwe
under the present conditions.
The Council noted various resolutions from
our 12 provinces, from hundreds of party structures, from our supporters and
friends and from our pro-democracy partners mandating the MDC to lift the 26
August suspension, in spite of the hostile political environment in the country
today.
We, however, remain vigilant of the
regime’s machinations and reserve the right to take corrective measures should
the political situation on the ground deteriorates
further.
Having regard to the above, it is with a
heavy heart, that the National Council has resolved the MDC will participate in
the forthcoming elections.
This is a decision based primarily on the
demands of our people, the working people of
Zimbabwe
who wish to exercise their hard fought and inalienable right of voting and still
make a statement against the tyranny of this criminal state.
The participation is therefore a strategic
decision to recognize our internal democracy and sacrosanctity of nationhood and the right to vote.
We participate under protest. We
participate without prejudice. We participate to keep the flames of hope for
change alive.
Paul T
Nyathi
Secretary
for Information and Publicity.
FinGaz
ZANU PF at war
Charles Rukuni & Felix
Njini
2/3/2005 7:23:32 AM (GMT +2)
THE ruling ZANU PF will
go into next month's polls in a state of
disarray as it emerged this week
that its Young Turks, slowly being
sidelined from President Robert Mugabe's
inner cabal, are itching to hit
back at the party's old guard at the least
expected time.
A coterie of disgruntled Young Turks, claiming to
have played a
crucial role in securing the disputed 2000 and 2002 ZANU PF
election
victories against the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), is
causing
discord in the volatile provinces of Matabeleland, Midlands and
Manicaland,
where the party is yet to regain ground lost to the MDC in
2000.
The infighting between the old guard, credited for freeing the
country
from the yolk of colonialism, and the Young Turks, ostracised for
disrespecting senior ZANU PF members, could put spanners in the party's
campaign trail, which goes into full throttle next week.
Fissures
within the party, which has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980,
worsened after the
divisive party primary elections held last month and the
suspension of six
provincial chairmen and other senior party officials in
December over what
has come to be known as the Tsholotsho Declaration.
Observers however
say the escalating discord in the upper and lower
ranks of ZANU PF meant
President Mugabe was fast losing control of his
faction-ridden
party.
In the Midlands and Manicaland provinces, there is a strong
feeling
that the most senior representatives in ZANU PF have neglected their
people
and were now being used by President Mugabe to maintain his ethnic
balancing
act.
The situation has reached boiling point in
Matabeleland, where the top
leadership of Vice-President Joseph Msika, ZANU
PF national chairman John
Nkomo and former PF Zapu commander and politburo
member Dumiso Dabengwa are
accused of frustrating efforts to rebuild the
party and reposition it to
recover from massive losses inflicted by the MDC
in 2000.
They even accused the trio of working flat out to ensure the
MDC
maintains its stranglehold in the region where the ruling party won only
two
seats in the controversial 2000 parliamentary elections.
Worse
still, the Young Turks say the leaders are not prepared to put
themselves
before the electorate to prove that they are popular and truly
represent the
region. None of the three contested the just ended ZANU PF
primary elections
to decide who is going to stand in the forthcoming
elections.
The
1987 Unity Accord, painstakingly forged between arch rivals ZANU
PF and PF
ZAPU, said sources, could face a serious litmus test amid calls
for the
sacking of Nkomo and the party's political commissar Elliot Manyika.
In
a rare show of dissent, deposed war veterans leader Jabulani
Sibanda
challenged Nkomo, who declined to contest in the parliamentary
elections
saying he is a national leader, and Dabengwa to show their
political mettle
by contesting in the March 31 polls.
"I wonder why the President has
not taken action against Nkomo and
Manyika, they are only destroying the
party," he said.
Sibanda accused Nkomo and some senior ZANU PF
officials of taking the
ruling party as their 'social club'. "There is no
superman in the party who
is above the constitution," he added.
The
attack comes barely a week after embattled Information Minister
Jonathan
Moyo launched an acerbic attack on Nkomo and Dabengwa, whom he
called
"primitive liars" after they implicated him in an alleged foiled coup
against top party officials.
Both Nkomo and Dabe-ngwa have hit
back, labelling Moyo "a stupid and
confused Professor".
A former
ZANU PF provincial chairman for Bulawayo, who declined to be
named for fear
of reprisals, said problems in Bulawayo and Matabe-leland
started soon after
the death of Vice President Joshua Nkomo in July 1999.
"For some
leaders, especially those who had never supported the Unity
Accord of 1987,
the death of Nkomo meant the end of the marriage between
ZANU PF and PF
ZAPU," the former chairman said. "For them, the unity accord
was just a
marriage of convenience. With Nkomo dead the unity was no longer
convenient."
The former chairman said the leadership from the
region had from 1999
frustrated any progressive moves by the provincial
leadership by setting up
parallel structures to ensure there was no united
front.
A quick check shows that Bulawayo province has had nine
provincial
chairmen since 1999, with Edson Ncube, a member of the central
committee who
has been elected to the interim committee currently running
the province,
being one of the longest serving chairmen.
Ncube
began facing stiff challenge from war veterans in 1999 but
weathered the
storm until his executive was dissolved in October 2000.
Swazini Ndlovu
took over as interim chairman and served for just three
months before a new
executive led by war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda
was elected.
Sibanda was suspended in January 2003 after a series of run-ins with
the top
leadership whom he accused of failing to champion development in the
region.
"There are some individuals who want to maintain the
pre-1987 Unity
Accord scenario," Sibanda said before his suspension. "The
same people have
always complained about the marginalisation of
Matabeleland."
Sibanda was replaced by Silas Dlomo, who in turn gave
way to Abednico
Nyathi who served until Themba Ncube, a war veteran, was
elected substantive
chairman last year.
Ncube was sacked for his
role in the infamous Tsholotsho indaba and
was replaced by George Mlala,
whose executive was kicked out last month,
though it claims to have resigned
en masse.
Accusations that divisions in Matabeleland are being caused
by the top
leadership are not new. Saineth Dube, then publicity secretary
for Bulawayo
province, made the same allegations way back in 1999 claiming
that the top
leadership from the former ZAPU was creating divisions soon
after Nkomo's
death as they jostled to fill Nkomo's shoes.
The
former provincial chairman said the situation had not changed
because deep
down, some of the leaders still harboured ambitions of
resuscitating ZAPU in
one form or another.
The only difference, he said, was that this time,
President Mugabe had
bought into their scheme because they had convinced him
that his future was
at stake too.
"What pains some of us most is
that these leaders do not want to
subject themselves to the electorate. They
claim to be national leaders but
will not stand for the vote. Who are they?
Even President Mugabe is elected.
Vice-President Joyce Mujuru went to the
primary elections and will be
contesting the coming elections."
Some people from Matabeleland have always harboured ambitions of
resuscitating ZAPU even when Joshua Nkomo was still alive. Although two
parties called ZAPU already exist, one led by Agrippa Madlela and the other
by Paul Siwela, a Scottish newspaper on Sunday reported that a Zimbabwean
based in the United Kingdom, Arthur Molife, was planning to revive ZAPU
after the March elections.
"We are keeping out of the March general
election so as not to split
the anti-Mugabe vote," Molife was quoted as
saying. "But the moment those
elections are over, we will hold a ZAPU
congress inside the country, elect a
new leadership, and then go for
Mugabe."
Molife claimed that his party would win overwhelming support
from the
region because people had voted for the MDC because there was no
one else
around.
"The leadership of the MDC is ineffectual, weak
and discredited and
everyone voting for the MDC today will vote for ZAPU
tomorrow. They know our
record and understand we never really packed up,"
Molife said.
FinGaz
Govt bungling to cost ZESA billions
Charles
Rukuni
2/3/2005 7:24:32 AM (GMT +2)
BUREAUCRATIC bungling
by the government could cost the cash-strapped
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority (ZESA) billions of dollars, as all the
tariff increases it has
effected since August 2003 are technically illegal,
it has
emerged.
Under the Electricity Act (Chapter 13:19), which
was promulgated in
2002 but only came into effect on August 1 2003, the
country's sole supplier
of electricity, which made a loss of $163 billion in
2003 and has an
external debt of over US$150 million, can no longer increase
tariffs.
That responsibility was given to the Electricity Regulatory
Commission
that was supposed to be established under the Act but was never
set up. The
commission was supposed to have not less than five but not more
than seven
commissioners. At least three of them had to be full-time and at
least two
had to have experience or professional qualifications in the
generation,
transmission or distribution of electricity; or law,
accountancy, economics,
finance or administration.
This revelation,
which could have serious repercussions on the
operations of ZESA as
consumers could rightly insist they can only pay
tariffs that prevailed
prior to August 2003, came out of the High Court in
Bulawayo after eight
companies challenged the authority over its revised
tariffs effected towards
the end of 2003.
ZESA hiked tariffs by 450 percent and said exporters
should pay part
of their bills in foreign currency.
The companies
include some of the city's biggest industrial concerns.
They are Nimr and
Chapman, Cecon Enterprises, Nampak Foil, National
Blankets, O'Conolly and
Company, Cotton Printers, Radiator and Tinning and
Universal Component
Manufactu-rers.
ZESA had threatened to cut off the firms' electricity
unless they paid
their bills. The companies reportedly owe ZESA over $5
billion.
The companies took ZESA to court challenging the bills because
the
tariff increases had not been approved or gazetted under the new
Act.
High Court judge George Chiweshe last year ruled in favour of two
of
the companies, Nimr and Chapman and O'Connolly and declared the tariff
increases null and void.
ZESA appealed against Justice Chiweshe's
ruling and tried in vain to
settle the matter out of court, but it was dealt
another blow last week when
Justice Nicholas Ndou ruled that the eight
companies should not pay the
amounts requested by ZESA because nothing had
materially changed.
"I should point out the minister responsible for
the administration of
the Act should by now have appointed the commission so
that the respondent
(ZESA) can effect increases in consultation with
consumers as provided for
in the Act," Justice Ndou said.
According
to the Act, only the commission can approve price or tariff
increases. The
commission should also "ensure that the prices charged by
licencees are fair
in the light of the need for prices to be sufficient to
allow licencees to
finance their activities and obtain reasonable earnings
from their efficient
operation".
The government approved a ZESA tariff increase of 126
percent last
month but central bank governor Gideon Gono said the increase
should not be
affected because it was inflationary.
FinGaz
Mystery diamond deal
Dumisani Ndlela
2/3/2005 7:26:03 AM (GMT +2)
CAYMAN Islands-incorporated Oryx
Natural Resources has taken over a
US$2 billion, 800-square-kilometre
diamond concession in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) under a
mysterious transaction in which original
owners are said to have received no
payment.
The Sengamines diamond concession south of Mbuji Mayi in
the DRC was
originally owned by a Zimbabwe-incorporated company, Operation
Sovereign
Legitimacy (Osleg), Comiex and MIBA - the latter two representing
the
interests of the DRC government.
While Osleg has been reported
as a Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF)
company, a three-month investigation by
The Financial Gazette revealed that
the real owner of the shadowy military
company is not the ZDF, but four
prominent citizens, two of them key figures
in the defence forces during
Zimba-bwe's military intervention in the
diamond-rich country to prop up the
late DRC leader Laurent Kabila's
regime.
During the investigations, questions on the ownership of Osleg
where
flatly denied by the individuals associated with the company, while
the ZDF
refused to entertain the newspaper's questions on the activities of
the
group and its shareholders.
The Financial Gazette also
encountered an intricate web of companies
representing the interests of
either key members of the military or those in
the government.
The
concession was allegedly given to the ZDF as compensation for its
participation in the war against insurgents funded by Uganda and Rwanda
since the DRC did not have the cash resources to prop up the war
Geoffrey White, a spokesman for Oryx and chief executive officer for
African
Mining Management Company (AMMCO), told The Financial Gazette that
the
current ownership structure of Sengamines since January 2003, confirmed
by a
presidential decree, is 80 percent Oryx and 20 percent MIBA.
Osleg,
White said in written responses to The Financial Gazette's
questions, was no
longer a shareholder in Sengamines.
"There was no payment by Oryx to
Osleg or individuals related to Osleg
when the new Sengamines was formed and
Osleg departed," White said.
During a follow-up to White's responses,
The Financial Gazette spoke
to Rob Scott, an executive with the South
Africa-based AMMCO headed by
White, on telephone.
Asked how it had
been possible for Oryx to take over the Sengamines
concession without paying
a cent to the original owners, Scott said the
decision had been made at a
political level between the governments of
Zimbabwe and the DRC.
"Originally, Osleg was involved, with Oryx as the major funder (of the
Sengamines). The two states decided that they would not be involved (in the
Sengamines business) and took a back seat," Scott said.
Scott said
the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank had
insisted that states
should never be involved in the running of businesses,
prompting the
decision to have Osleg on the "back seat".
Both the DRC's Comiex and
Zimbabwe's Osleg were involved in the
project through a vehicle called
Cosleg, jointly owned by the two companies.
Oryx owned 49 percent of
Sengamines, Comiex had a 35 percent stake in
the large diamond concession,
while MIBA held a 16 percent shareholding.
After a foiled listing on
the London Stock Exchange in June 2000,
Sengamines claimed that it had
restructured its equity, and that Oryx owned
49 percent under the new
shareholding structure, with Comiex and MIBA owning
35 percent and 16
percent respectively.
But a United Nations (UN) panel tasked to
investigate the plunder of
mineral resources in the DRC in 2000 said in its
report that the ZDF,
through Osleg, still owned 49 percent of Sengamines
that was being claimed
by Oryx.
"In the course of a meeting held on
1 August 2000, Osleg nominated
Oryx to hold its 49 percent interest in
Sengamines; 35 percent is held by
Comiex-Congo, and 16 percent has been
allocated to MIBA," the panel's report
to the UN Secretary-General, Koffi
Annan, said.
The UN panel said this had been done to "disguise the
close
association between Sengamines and ZDF, and to deceive international
investors".
Oryx executives vigorously denied the panel's report,
challenging it
to make the claims at an open forum outside the UN to enable
them to
challenge the claims in a court of law.
The current
restructured Sengamines is therefore the second since the
one allegedly
undertaken in 2000.
Oryx planned a reverse listing through South
Africa's Petra Diamonds
but its links to President Robert Mugabe's
government, and claims that the
company was dealing in conflict diamonds,
led to the resignation of its
British financial adviser Grant Thornton. This
immediately scuppered the
company's listing on the London bourse.
"Oryx assumed the responsibility for the management and financing of
the
project following the creation of the new Sengamines," White said. "The
total development costs of Sengamines have been invested by Oryx Natural
Resources, which has invested in the project by way of a repayable, interest
bearing, foreign direct investment loan."
During its
investigations, The Financial Gazette established that four
individuals, not
the ZDF, were listed as the core owners of Osleg.
The four are retired
ZDF general Vitalis Zvinavashe; Job Whabira, a
former Ministry of Defence
permanent secretary recently appointed to the
Delimitation Commission ahead
of this year's parliamentary election; Onesimo
Moyo, the Minerals Marketing
Corporation of Zimbabwe general manager; and
Isiah Ruzengwe, a former
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corpo-ration (ZMDC)
general manager.
Zvinavashe, who was commander of the ZDF - which incorporates the
Zimbabwe
National Army and the Airforce of Zimbabwe - until 2003, presided
over the
ZDF's military intervention in the DRC to prop up Kabila senior's
regime in
1997.
Zvinavashe denied when interviewed last November that he had any
shareholding in Osleg, maintaining that he was no longer a director in the
company as he was "now no longer in the system".
"Phone the
Zimbabwe Defence Forces and they will tell you who is
running that company.
I am no longer in the system," said the retired army
commander.
Asked about his shareholding in the company, he said: "What do you
mean? I
am not a shareholder. The papers are with the Ministry of Defence."
But
The Financial Gazette can reveal that the ZDF never officially
held the
stake since the four individuals own Osleg. The four individuals
are also
the only listed directors in Osleg, in accordance with Zimbabwe's
Companies
Act.
Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi denied in an interview with The
Financial Gazette in October that the ZDF had any commercial interests in
the DRC.
Moyo also denied that he was a shareholder in
Osleg.
"I was never a shareholder and I am also no longer a director,"
Moyo
said.
Ruzengwe claimed that he did not have any interests in
Osleg, saying
he had signed a document of incorporation entitling him to a
stake in the
company as a representative of a mining parastatal, ZMDC, as
its head at the
time.
According to a document of incorporation
shown to The Financial
Gazette during its investigations, the four directors
own 2 500 shares each
in Osleg.
A statement of incorporation reads
in part: "We, the several persons
whose names, addresses and occupations are
subscribed, are desirous of being
formed into a com-pany in pursuance of
this memorandum of association, and
we respectively agree to take the number
of shares in the capital of the
company set opposite our respective
names."
The ZDF refused to comment on the ownership structure of Osleg.
A
military spokesman, Squadron Leader Mukotekwa, said in a terse statement
responding to The Financial Gazette's questions: "The permanent secretary
has said we cannot respond to your questions."
Information gathered
during the investigation indicates that Oryx was
invited by Zimcon
(Zimbabwe-Congo), a Zimbabwean military-led diamond
company, which was in
partnership with the DRC military, to come in as a
financier to the
Sengamines project.
Zimcon either transmuted into Cosleg, the
investment vehicle jointly
owned by Comiex and Osleg, or was simply replaced
by Cosleg.
The ruling party's diversified investment vehicle, the
Zimbabwe
Development Company (Zidco), then purchased a 0.24 percent stake in
Oryx
valued at 120 000 pounds in 2000.
But White said about Zidco's
investment in Oryx: "Zidco is no longer a
shareholder on Oryx Natural
Resources and has not been one since November
2000."
White did not
say how Zidco had lost its shareholding in Oryx.
He said Oryx had been
restructured in July 2004 following a
cash-raising exercise to continue the
development of the company.
"At this restructure, Dr Issa Al Kawari and
the office he represents
injected further funds into the company to further
its development, and in
so doing diluted the original shareholders in Oryx.
Africa Mining
Investments (AMIL), a company 100 percent owned by Dr Issa Al
Kawari and the
office he represents, during the restructure, took over
equity and board
control of Oryx. They ceded the management rights of
Sengamines to AMIL, who
now operates the company," said White.
FinGaz
RBZ grapples with impossible trinity
Nelson
Banya
2/3/2005 7:27:01 AM (GMT +2)
THE Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe's (RBZ) success in extinguishing the
economic turmoil precipitated
by the International Monetary Fund's (IMF)
withdrawal of balance of payments
support in the late 1990s, hinges on the
inflation, interest and exchange
rates - the seemingly impossible trinity.
In his fourth quarter
monetary policy review announced last week, RBZ
governor Gideon Gono
stressed that the central bank would rigorously pursue
a disinflation
programme, seek to stabilise the exchange rate and
progressively reduce
interest rates, concurrently.
Since the inception of the economic
recession, Gono's predecessor
Leonard Tsumba had struggled to find a proper
prescription to the three
macro-economic fundamentals, that seem to require
totally different
approaches to rein in.
The incumbent RBZ boss,
whose inflation-targeting plan has seen the
annualised rate of inflation
decline from a peak of 622.8 percent in January
2004 to 132.7 percent by
December 2004, appears to have struck the right
chord and has set a year-end
target in the 20 percent to 35 percent range.
On the interest rate
front, Gono announced further rate cuts, with the
central bank's key policy
overnight accommodation rate being slashed by 15
percentage points from 110
percent to 95 percent with effect from February
1.
The RBZ also
announced the discontinuation of the dual interest
policy, with rate
convergence expected in June, when the productive sector
facility (PSF),
under which funds were lent to producers and exporters at a
concessionary 50
percent, is expected to be wound up.
There will be progressive cuts
until June, when the rate is envisioned
to be down to 70 percent. Penal
rates for unsecured borrowing are 10
percentage points higher than the rate
for secured borrowings.
Banks' minimum lending rates, which averaged
400 percent in April last
year but have recently receded to levels around
140 percent, are expected to
be dragged further down in the aftermath of the
central bank's intervention.
The exchange rate, which was devalued by
as much as 600 percent in
2004 after the introduction of managed foreign
currency auctions by the RBZ,
is critical in the disinflation programme and,
for the first time since he
introduced quarterly monetary policy reviews,
Gono did not announce a new
floor rate.
He, however, adjusted
incentives availed to exporters for enhanced
foreign currency generation and
also sought to converge the various schemes
under the "carrot and stick"
package of incentives.
Exporters who remit their export proceeds within
90 days will retain
70 percent of their earnings in their foreign currency
accounts (FCAs) and
sell the remainder at the ruling auction rate.
Remittances after the 90-day
period, following the granting of an RBZ
waiver, will see exporters
surrendering 15 percent of their earnings at $824
to the United States
dollar, 35 percent converted at the ruling auction rate
and the remaining 50
percent retained in FCAs.
The foreign currency
auctions have been critical to the eradication of
inflationary exchange rate
volatility - a common feature before last year -
while the progressive
reduction in interest rates, after the 2003 spike,
which saw rates going up
to as high as 900 percent, has brought about
increased levels of
productivity.
The central bank's robust liquidity management programme,
through
various money market instruments such as RBZ Bills, RBZ Financial
Bills,
Special Zimbabwe Treasury Bills and ZTB Open Market Operation (OMO)
Bills,
has been critical in reining in money supply, a major inflation
driver.
Broad money supply growth receded from 490.9 percent in January
2004
to 219.4 percent in November. Gono said the December outturn of 150
percent
was expected. The money supply growth is expected to further come
down to 60
percent by the end of 2005 and 14 percent by mid-2006.
The RBZ is, however, faced with a poser - keeping the market short, as
it
did for long period in 2004, inevitably results in firming rates on the
short end of the market.
The Zimbabwe Financial Holdings (Finhold)
economics department has
also cautioned that the low interest rate policy
pursued by the central bank
could work against its disinflation crusade
through the inflationary
expansion of credit.
"It is our view that
the low interest rates the central bank is
advocating for may actually
encourage credit expansion and again militate
against the RBZ's
initiatives," Finhold said in its analysis of the monetary
policy
review.
Finhold further points out that going forward, the 2004/2005
agricultural season would be critical in the achievement of the inflation
target for 2005.
"Not only will a good harvest reduce pressure on
food imports, it will
also limit domestic food price increases and thus
dampen food inflation."
Food inflation has the biggest weight of 33
percent in the consumer
price index (CPI) basket.
Wage increases in
2005 would also be critical and analysts have
cautioned that labour might
not be willing to cooperate with the central
bank on its pleas for moderate
increments.
Witness Chinyama, an economist with Kingdom Financial
Holdings, said
the major challenge for the monetary authorities in 2005
would come on the
exchange rate front.
"The missing link in the
governor's policy arsenal is the
unavailability of effective policies to
enable the external sector to
generate more foreign currency from known
sources.
"The known sources of foreign currency are export earnings,
capital
inflows such as loans and unrequited transfers, private and
official, as
well as foreign direct investment. The plan, however, targets
one source of
foreign currency - exports. It should be noted that the export
sector alone,
even if it is served with the best exchange rate policy, is
not able to
generate enough foreign currency to service the domestic
economy, that is
monthly national requirements plus reserves that need to
run into several
months of import cover," Chinyama said.
Last year,
the country realised foreign currency inflows amounting to
US$1.71 billion,
up from US$301 million in 2003. The RBZ is now targeting
inflows of US$3.050
billion this year, an all-time peak of US$3.9 billion in
2006 and US$4.5
billion in 2007.
Zimbabwe, which realised its highest level of foreign
currency
inflows - US$3.88 billion - in 1996 has monthly requirements of at
least
US$250 million. Last year the country raked in a monthly average of
US$142.6
million.
Proceeds from minerals - mainly platinum, gold
and nickel - tobacco
and remittances from non-resident Zimbabweans are
expected to continue
boosting inflows.
Chinyama said the
re-engagement of the international community and
clarity on the country's
investment climate were prerequisite if Zimbabwe
were to get meaningful
capital and foreign direct investment to further
bolster the foreign
currency situation.
"Flows from multilateral financial institutions are
locked up in the
provisions of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery
Act (ZDERA)
(passed by the United States in 2001). In addition to smart
sanctions that
have seen the assets of top government officials being frozen
and their
trips abroad being curtailed, the economic sanctions bar Zimbabwe
from
receiving financial aid from multilateral financial institutions and
the
IMF. Foreign direct investment flow might not improve because foreign
investors normally use the Bretton Woods institutions as the international
commissioner of oaths to assess the sovereign risk of a country," Chinyama
said.
FinGaz
No easy walk to parastatal reform
Nelson
Banya
2/3/2005 7:27:38 AM (GMT +2)
STIFF challenges stand
in the way of the far-reaching parastatal and
local authorities
reorientation programme (PLARP) announced by Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
governor Gideon Gono last week.
The $10 trillion PLARP is a
critical cog in the RBZ's monetary policy
framework, through which Gono has
sought to trigger positive supply side
responses through greater and more
efficient capacity utilisation. The funds
are going to be raised through the
issuing of medium to long-term government
paper.
The funds will be
committed towards inter-parastatal debt-takeovers,
manpower rationalisation,
capital expenditure, external debt servicing as
well as research and
development in parastatals. Municipalities will channel
the funds towards
roads, water treatment and reticulation, lighting,
housing, investment
promotion, computerisation and debt restructuring.
Gono labelled
parastatals and local authorities the "missing link in
enhancing quick
productive sector supply response to fiscal and monetary
policy
incentives."
"Intense analysis of the country's supply side response
rates has
clearly shown that the fight against high inflation and
productivity
reversals can be much longer if there is no radical
transformation in the
parastatal and municipal sectors," Gono said.
However, analysts this week cautioned that the plan could turn out to
be a
monumental failure if structural reforms of the state enterprises and
local
authorities do not precede it.
"The intervention is noble because state
enterprises have been
enmeshed in costly mismanagement and inefficiency and
drained the fiscus,
but the governor should be wary not to throw money at
this problem without
addressing the roots of this profound ill, which are in
government itself,"
a Harare economist, who preferred anonymity,
said.
Although Gono spoke of "stress-tested" turnaround programmes as
prerequisites for funding PLARP funding, analysts maintain that radical
manpower changes needed to be effected first.
"While this is a
positive and long overdue move by the central bank,
it would be better to
first undertake extensive restructuring of the
management structures at some
of the parastatals in order to eliminate
managerial deficiencies, which have
often led to the underperformance of
these enterprises in the past.
"Both parastatals and local authorities should also be allowed to
charge
economic prices and tariffs for the goods they produce, otherwise
they will
continue to post huge operational losses and hence continue to
place a huge
burden on the fiscus," a local financial institution, Finhold,
said in a
post-policy commentary.
Under the 18 to 24 month PLARP, state
enterprises and municipalities
are expected to be weaned off budgetary
provisions in 2006. Repayment of
interest obligations by institutional
beneficiaries are expected to begin
this year.
Most parastatals
have been run down due to managerial shortcomings and
government
interference in the running of the enterprises, some of which are
perennial
loss-makers despite the monopoly positions they enjoy.
In the past year
alone, power utility the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority, the National
Railways of Zimbabwe, the Grain Marketing Board, the
few state enterprises
where the shroud covering their financial statements
was lifted, recorded
massive losses, while Air Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe United
Passenger Company,
the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings and the Zimbabwe Iron
and Steel Company
remained in the financial doldrums and relied on grants
from treasury to
remain afloat.
Under PLARP, most of these firms will receive about $1
trillion.
Government's efforts to reform municipal administration
through the
provision, in the Urban Councils Act, for executive mayors as
opposed to the
previous ceremonial figures, has largely failed to improve
service delivery.
Instead, the venture has provided a platform for
political meddling,
by central government, in municipal affairs.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change secretary for economic
affairs
Tendai Biti, whose party dominates most urban council chambers, says
the
ruling ZANU PF government, has abused local authorities to "promote its
narrow, selfish interests."
"The prime example of this is the
interference with the work of the
elected MDC council of the city of Harare.
Its programme of recovery for the
capital city was thwarted and the council
eventually illegally and cynically
pushed aside," Biti said.
The
MDC's Elias Mudzuri, who was elected Harare's executive mayor in
2002, was
suspended and eventually dismissed by Local Government Minister
Ignatius
Chombo in a development the opposition party have charged was
designed to
weaken the council. For the second time since the executive
mayorship was
introduced in 1996, the affairs of Harare Municipality have
been placed in a
government-appointed commission, while service delivery and
general
standards have continued to deteriorate in the capital.
Indeed, the
past couple of years have seen Chombo reversing budgetary
decisions taken by
councils, particularly where rates are concerned, further
resulting in
attenuated revenue streams for the already under-funded
councils.
Biti also charged that parastatals "have long been a vehicle of
clientism
and partriarchalism fostered and promoted by ZANU PF and its
parasitic
followers."
While Gono has managed to come up with a workable,
government-approved
framework to rescue the moribund state enterprises and
municipalities, it
remains to be seen whether he will get the critical
support of politicians
in government, many of whom have benefited from a
deeply entrenched system
of patronage.
FinGaz
Comment
Populist intervention
2/3/2005 7:39:11 AM (GMT +2)
SERVICE delivery in almost all the
country's local authorities without
exception is, for want of a better
expression, on the brink of collapse.
Prospects for a quick turnaround under
the current circumstances are rather
grim to say the very
least.
This could be aggravated following weekend reports that the
Ministry
of Local Government and National Housing, headed by Dr Ignatius
Chombo, has
once again shot down proposed rate hikes by local authorities.
It is
imperative to point out right on the outset that the situation in the
municipalities has been allowed to deteriorate over the years as the
powers-that-be ignored graft, cronyism and the influence of reality and
instead opted for populist decisions for political capital. All this because
all the responsible minister sees around him is the fierce struggle of
politics - mostly imagined, at that!
A case in point is the
government directive that local authorities
should not increase rates by
more than 70 percent this year, ostensibly to
cushion the long-suffering
ratepayers. That the people, feeling the pinch in
the face of an
unprecedented economic meltdown, need cushioning is beyond
argument. While
the minister might not have said exactly that - a lot is
said by the unsaid
in politics. In any case that could be the only plausible
reason why
government would give the proposed, and in most cases reasonable,
rate hikes
the thumbs down.
But from our past experience with Zimbabwean
government ministers, the
concern for ratepayers could be nothing more than
window-dressing for the
public's benefit. It is a falsity and it seems more
false than the ministry's
insincerity, so to speak. The latest move is a
threadbare
politically-motivated uncalled for and short-sighted populist
intervention
because Zimbabweans can endure even suffocating belt-tightening
for the
long-term good as long as there is accountability on the part of the
authorities. Put simply, Chombo's directive is a vote-buying gimmick
whatever the authorities may call it. Just as well Zimbabweans have learnt
not to confuse real life with politics otherwise they could end up believing
the things that some of these ministers say.
This is not the first
time we have taken issue with government's
predilection, through Minister
Chombo, to be involved in the day-to-day
running of local authorities
especially in the face of the long-drawn
acrimonious wrangling with Movement
for Democratic Change-dominated councils
over key issues. And we are afraid,
at this rate, Minister Chombo is fast
joining the ranks of his Cabinet
colleagues whose word no man relies on
anymore. These include Dr Joseph Made
of Agriculture, Dr Simbarashe
Mumbengegwi of Industry and International
Trade and of course Aeneas
Chigwedere whose handling of educational matters
connotes the strange
behaviour of the guy in the science fiction movie who
is the first to see
the "creature".
Because of their bungling,
these ministers are part of a coterie of
politicians who, when they take a
position on anything, Zimbabweans
automatically take the opposite one and
know they are right! In any case,
the people always know where they are with
these ministers because they have
always let the nation down.
Admittedly, as alluded to earlier, there has been widespread
corruption,
management ineptitude and inefficiency which have worsened the
crises in
most of these local authorities. And this we do not condone, which
is why we
have, time without number, called upon government to deal
decisively with
corruption in other areas of public life which have remained
largely opaque
and unfriendly to scrutiny.
But whatever his motivations, we are at a
loss as to what really
prompted this decision by Minister Chombo. We ask
again as we did in our
editorial of July 8 2004: Did government, which for
political
considerations, is wary of upward price movements, ever consider
the
requirements of the respective local authorities for them to be able to
restore their fast collapsing service delivery systems? Isn't what the
government has done tantamount to postponing the inevitable? Would these
budgets not have to be revised upwards before anybody could say election
after the Parliamentary poll in March? Shouldn't the Ministry of Local
Government have looked at each case on its own merit? Will Zimbabwe ever
have Cabinet ministers who have ideas above scheming for political survival?
Lastly but not least, when is government going to learn that the
one-size-fits-all approach does not work?
We ask these questions
because they are pertinent. While it might seem
politically convenient now
as it could capture the all-elusive urban voter
into the jam-jar for ZANU
PF, the move to revise downwards the proposed rate
increases is as sure as
hell, an unrealistic and wrong-headed stance which
shows that government did
not learn anything from the fuel-pricing debacle a
few years ago.
Somewhere down the line, the government will have to bite the bullet
and
allow local authorities to charge economic rates whose cumulative shock
the
people might not be able to absorb due to their magnitude! And that, we
dare
say, could be sooner rather than later. In fact government could learn
a lot
from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's pragmatic approach which has seen
the
central bank setting up the Parastatal and Local Authorities
Reorientation
Programme which also covers municipalities and will eventually
see them
being weaned from the life support system provided by the fiscus in
the
not-too-distant future.
Given the foregoing, we are left wondering
whether the government
would not see the justice of it all when we say that
some narrow-minded and
obstinate government ministers have been so hackneyed
in populist politics
and so lost to all sense of pragmatism - which in
essence has become the
hallmark of Zimbabwean politics? How sad!
FinGaz
...and now to the Notebook
2/3/2005 7:38:34
AM (GMT +2)
Humble pie?
So the government this week
finally decided to eat the proverbial
humble pie and dropped its appeal
against the just acquittal of MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai?
So,
what this means in total is that there was nothing in the first
place?
Someone was just kidding? What an ulcerous waste of public resources!
Imagine how much money was spent on this case in the four years from
2001
until now? How much was spent on those state goons who repeatedly went
on
holiday in Canada under the guise of investigating the case, how much was
spent on flying conman Ari Ben-Menashe and his colleagues around the globe .
. . and their lengthy stay in one of the world's top 10 hotels which is here
in Harare . . . and how many man-hours were spent by the judiciary on this
case?
Is there no way someone - whoever it is - can be prosecuted
for gross
abuse of public funds, wasting other people's time, and just being
a
nuisance? Isn't there any crime like "abuse of the judicial system" or
such
other law under which mischief-makers can be punished for keeping
serious
judicial officials busy on a see-saw when there are other more
important
cases to attend to? If there isn't, we ought to coin one to
protect our
justice system from being abused.
Strategic?
CZ could not understand why last week Chinhoyi town
council officials
reportedly booked themselves in one of Kadoma's hotels for
a good three days
under the guise of holding what we were made to believe
was a strategic
workshop to turn around the town.
Why Kadoma of all
places on earth?
Sounds like our government officials going to
Johannesburg to hold a
workshop to discuss how to turn the country around,
doesn't it?
Was the idea here to discuss how to turn the fortunes of
the town
around or someone just wanted to have a good time away from work
and family
commitments at the expense of the poor ratepayer? Surely what was
it that
needed to be discussed at such expense that could not be discussed
in the
offices?
So the culture in the donor community is fast
spreading even to
publicly funded entities?
Postponed!
And the guys at the Zimbabwe Tourism Council decided to
enter
themselves into the Guinness Book of Records by postponing their
congress
for a record nine months!
Last week the organisation
announced that it was postponing its
two-day congress from January 26-27 to
October 27-28, a record nine months,
because the event clashed with the
Reserve Bank's fourth quarter monetary
policy statement.
While we
can understand the reason (or is it excuse?) given this time,
we just wonder
whether there is any justification for the nine-month wait.
And
remember, this is not the first time the congress has been
postponed. It was
initially pencilled for December last year and it was
postponed because it
clashed with the ZANU PF congress! ZANU PF congress of
all events on the
calendar!
Hopefully, the MDC will not hold its congress during the same
dates in
October because the Zimbabwe Council of Tourism indaba may never be
held at
all!
Or is this congress elective? Maybe this explains why
someone,
somewhere is taking their sweet time . . . the longer it takes, the
better,
since there are lots of featherbeddings that come with these public
offices.
Remember, there is the six-month Aichi fair in Japan. One can
go and
market one's private firms wearing that institutional
hat!
Newsy!
Below is a bit of news sent to CZ by a
concerned patriotic colleague.
The newsy item was extracted whole and raw
from the December 2004 issue of
ZANU PF's magazine, Zimbabwe News.
"Tel-one on expansion programme - Public fixed telephone company,
Tel-one,
has embarked on a phased expansion programme to add up to 1.6
million new
telephone lines over five years at a cost of US$288. The
contract for the
first phase of the drive worth US$28.9 was expected to
start soon. When
commenced, the project will take nine months to complete,
and will mainly
target rural areas."
Due to exigencies of space, the party publication
could not tell us
which donor country - China, Malaysia, Libya, Iran, etc -
was involved in
this latest project. CZ wonders what our detractors, who for
a long time
have been saying life in Zimbabwe is now a struggle, will say
this time.
Yes, the country is starved of good news, but surely this is
something
else.
Developments!
With our one and
only TV station now also available on DStv, we are
pleased that most people
can also witness the torture we are subjected to
every day of our lives. By
the way, when are we getting the next jingle?
cznotebook@yahoo.co.uk
FinGaz
Letter
Dongo a crucial factor in the political
game
2/3/2005 7:36:19 AM (GMT +2)
EDITOR - Former
MP Margaret Dongo's comeback bid is a welcome
development in the politics of
our country. I'm saying this because
independents by their nature rarely
assume national power. This fact should
not be scoffed at.
There is no doubt that the current tug-of-war between the two main
parties
is all about the control of the instruments of governance. Very
little, if
any, effort is invested in finding solutions to the burning
issues. The
feeling that the opposition sees an escalation of the economic
and social
situation as a potential blow against the ruling party is
growing. On the
other hand, the ruling party seems to be investing all its
energy in
fighting off the opposition. With this scenario, there is no will
by both
sides to concentrate on seeking out solutions.
Exprience in the UK,
Australia and India has shown that independents
can be very effective at a
single or limited number of issues. During her
last tenure in parliament,
Margaret Dongo concerntrated on the issues of
corruption and helped to
uncover the abuse of the War Victims Compensation
Fund and the corrupt lease
of government farms in the land reform programme
of the early 1990s. She
also helped to uncover corruption at Solomon
Tawengwa's Town House
administration, which was subsequently sacked.
Such a remarkable record
and the fact that Dongo, if elected, will
likely only dream about the
ultimate political power, is something an
educated population like ours
should consider seriously. Dongo would be a
crucial factor in the political
game.
Lawrence Ncube
Harare
FinGaz
NRZ to be leased to private investors
Nelson
Banya
2/3/2005 7:29:55 AM (GMT +2)
THE National Railways
of Zimbabwe (NRZ) could soon be leased to
private transport players as the
government seeks to resuscitate the ailing
parastatal, which is now
struggling to pay its workers.
The government, which has turned to
the Far East to salvage most of
its lossmaking enterprises, has listed the
NRZ among 58 projects open for
various forms of public-private partnerships
(PPP) under new guidelines
recently announced by acting Finance Minister
Herbert Murerwa.
Other projects in which private sector involvement has
been invited
include the long-stalled thermal power projects in Hwange and
Gokwe, the
rural electrification programme, airport upgrades in Buffalo
Range, Kariba
and Victoria Falls, the Harare-Chitungwiza railway line, the
dualisation of
major highways, blast furnace refurbishment at the Zimbabwe
Iron and Steel
Company as well as the construction of various dams across
the country.
Murerwa has said the launch of the PPP framework in
infrastructure
provision was born out of a realisation that "government had
limited
resources and capacity to adequately address the country's large
infrastructural requirements".
The government has been criticised
for committing inadequate resources
towards capital expenditure, with 81.8
percent of the 2005 national budget
allocated to recurrent
expenditure.
Under the PPP guidelines, private institutions can forge
partnerships
with the NRZ, which has suffered from gross
undercapitalisation, uneconomic
tariffs and mismanagement over the years, on
the basis of either a
management contract or, as is more likely, a
lease.
The government, which has aborted its privatisation scheme
launched in
the early 1990s, is keen to retain control of its assets but has
indicated,
through the guidelines, that it is amenable to letting private
partners run
or manage some of the enterprises.
"In the case of a
lease, government maintains ultimate ownership of a
facility but leases to a
private partner full operating rights and
responsibilities, in exchange for
a lease payment to the government. The
private partner directly derives
income from tariffs, but bears full
commercial risk and responsibility for
maintenance and replacement of
short-term assets.
"Government will
retain the responsibility for fixed assets and
servicing of long-term debt.
This partnership can apply to transport and
water supply, among other
sectors," the guidelines state.
Under a management contract, the
government also retains ownership,
with private partners managing the
operations and maintenance of the
enterprise, guided by set out targets. It
also retains the decision-making
role with respect to capital
investments.
The guidelines state that this model will be used for the
energy,
waste water and construction sectors.
The NRZ, whose
severely depleted and obsolete rolling stock has
compromised the mining and
industrial sectors, has been one of the worst
performing
parastatals.
The NRZ is, along with the similarly afflicted Air
Zimbabwe, in line
for a $1.1 trillion capital injection under an ambitious
$10 trillion
parastatal reform plan announced by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
governor Gideon
Gono last week.
The government has in the past
mooted several rescue packages for the
NRZ and other state enterprises, but
the initiatives have failed to take off
the ground. The railway monopoly has
signed memoranda of understanding with
several potential technical partners,
apparently to no avail.
FinGaz
Govt moves to protect shaky Vic Falls bridge
Staff Reporter
2/3/2005 7:30:27 AM (GMT +2)
THE government
has imposed a tonnage restriction on the Victoria Falls
Bridge, a trade
gateway between Zimbabwe and other regional countries such
as Zambia and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, amid concerns that the
crucial link had
reached the end of its lifespan.
The bridge, constructed in 1905
with a lifespan of up to 100 years,
urgently requires reconstruction to
avert a potentially disastrous
structural failure.
The government,
through the Ministry of Transport and Communications,
announced a maximum
restriction of 10 tonnes, from the previous 30 tonnes,
with effect from
December 17 2004.
The tonnage restriction was gazetted by the ministry
in terms of
Section 68 of the Roads Act (Chapter 13:18).
Officials
in the National Railways of Zimbabwe's (NRZ) infrastructure
division had
raised alarm that the high-level dual carriageway bridge -
which carries a
railway line, a roadway and a pedestrian walkway - had for
long been
overburdened because of lack of load restrictions.
However, the NRZ
officials said the bridge's railway loading remained
within stipulated
levels.
The 1929 design load for the roadway was derived from two
five-tonne
axles spaced about three metres apart. Two such lorries were
allowed side by
side to give an intensity of one tonne per foot (or 32.8
kiloNewtons per
metre).
Documents prepared by the NRZ
infrastructure department revealed that
the bridge was being overloaded for
the past 15 years.
"There have been no loading restrictions operational
on the bridge.
Thus the legal load limit on the roadway has been assumed to
be the limit on
the bridge by transport operators. The legal road limit for
vehicles in
Zimbabwe is 24.6 tonnes (241 kiloNewtons) for a triaxle
combination 2.8
metres long.
"This gives a load intensity of 57.4
kiloNewtons per metre, which is
75 percent over the design load. Overweight
vehicles have been measured and
found to have weights of up to 37.9 tonnes
for a triaxle combination, giving
load intensity of 88.5 kiloNewtons per
metre, which is 170 percent above
design limit.
"There are
excessive vibrations being felt whenever heavy truck
traverses the bridge,"
reads part of the document, prepared by the NRZ to
lobby for othern
neighbour Zambian support in imposing load restrictions.
Zimbabwe
shares the bridge with Zambia.
A structural analysis of the bridge was
carried out last year, on the
basis of which action to either reconstruct or
reinforce it would be taken,
NRZ sources said last year.
It has
also been established that the Zambian authorities have
received World Bank
funding for adjustments to be made to the bridge.
Built by Freeman Fox
and partners in 1905, the bridge was originally
set up to support two
railway lines but was reconfigured in 1929 to
accommodate one railway line,
one roadway and a walkway.
FinGaz
RBZ takes cleanup exercise to farm sector
Felix
Njini
2/3/2005 7:32:43 AM (GMT +2)
CHICKENS may be coming
home to roost for farmers and institutions that
might have abused the
productive sector facility (PSF) in the agricultural
sector as the central
bank takes its cleanup exercise into the bedrock of
Zimbabwe's
economy.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), which has successfully
cleaned up
imprudent banking practices in the erstwhile financial sector,
last week
sent chills down the spines of most farmers and agro-concerns when
it
announced that it would soon be carrying out a probe into how $1.5
trillion
allocated to the sector through the Agriculture Ministry was
used.
There are suspicions that some farmers and farming institutions
abused
cheap PSF funds meant for the purchase of agricultural
equipment.
Cases of PSF abuses were also detected in other industries
where
directors commandeered the resource to pay dividends at the expense of
production, forcing the RBZ to descend heavily on the offenders.
Last year the RBZ recalled funds which had been diverted by companies
to pay
dividends.
In his fourth monetary policy review presentation last week,
RBZ
governor Gideon Gono said the bank would soon carry out an "exhaustive
audit" to find out whether the funds were put to proper use.
"Within the turnaround framework of promoting transparency and
accountability in deployment of public funds, the Reserve Bank will be
conducting an exhaustive audit on how these resources were used, including
deployment of agricultural equipment that was acquired under the
agricultural equipment scheme," Gono said.
The central bank, which
has gone all out to stimulate the supply side,
doled out the $1.5 trillion
for the procurement of agricultural equipment,
upgrading of irrigation
facilities and the purchase of fertiliser.
Sources within the industry
said the RBZ's inquisitive eye would also
fall on the Agricultural Rural
Development Authority, which has been
spearheading the sector's standstill
mechanisation programmes.
Suspicion is high that there was
over-invoicing in the importation of
some agricultural equipment.
"If a company is given public funds to boost production and then the
money
is not put to its intended use, there is justification for the central
bank
to intervene," said a local economist.
The probe into the abuse of PSF
funds comes hard on the heels of a
similar investigation into the abuse of
loan facilities at the Agricultural
Bank of Zimbabwe (Agribank), the
national land bank.
The Agribank probe has since revealed more than 120
cases of abuse of
funds.
There are also fears that some of the
irrigation equipment such as
tractors had surreptitiously found their way
into the hands of undeserving
senior government officials.
Industry
players said the biggest drawback in the agricultural sector
over the past
years has been the unavailability of tillage and irrigation
facilities.
Farmers have also been failing to access the critical
ammonium nitrate
fertiliser despite numerous promises made by government to
provide all the
required inputs.
Analysts forecast the 2004/5
farming season to be one of the worst
ever due to poor planning and lack of
adequate financing.
Over the past four years production in all facets
of the sector has
plummeted, dragging down the economy. Analysts estimate
that agriculture has
declined 70 percent.
The spotlight is also
likely to fall on the corruption riddled
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe
over the abuse of a farming sector fuel
facility introduced to benefit
farmers with subsidised fuel for their
productive activities.
Investigations have clearly revealed that the bulk of the fuel is not
reaching the targeted needy farmers but is being diverted to insider petrol
stations or underground fuel catchments.
FinGaz
Where will you be on April 18 2005?
By Mavis
Makuni
2/3/2005 7:45:18 AM (GMT +2)
To the question:
"Where were you on April 18 1980?", a sizeable number
of Zimbabweans would,
I am sure, respond to the effect that they were at
Rufaro Stadium in
Harare.
For it was on that day 25 years ago that the people of this
country
experienced the incomparably euphoric phenomenon of attaining
independence
from Britain.
As the Union Jack was lowered for the
last time after 100 years of
colonial oppression and the new Zimbabwe
standard went up, I honestly
believed the sky was the limit to what this
new, fledgling nation could
become.
Unfortunately, I was not at
Rufaro Stadium that historic day but
followed the proceedings on television
and radio. I had landed in the
capital Harare, which was called Salisbury
when I had left six years
earlier, the previous day.
As a result, I
was nursing a serious case of jet lag after a long-haul
flight from an
"imperialist" Western country where I had been studying.
However, despite
the fatigue I was experiencing, the sense of national
pride, excitement and
hope was almost palpable and I felt privileged to be
part of this great
moment in our country's history.
It is tragic therefore that as the
countdown towards the 25th
independence anniversary continues, I see this
milestone as an anti-climax.
Despite being advertised and promoted to
saturation point, the
forthcoming Silver Jubilee has failed to ignite any
sense of excitement,
hope and anticipation in me. In fact, if the truth be
told, I find our next
independence anniversary quite painful and
depressing.
Why? The main reason is that I honestly do not believe that
the
ordinary person has much cause to celebrate. There is not much evidence
that
the quality of his or her life has improved or that it is likely to do
so in
the foreseeable future.
Much as he or she would like to be
upbeat and positive, the ordinary
person's sense of optimism is dampened by
a heavy fog caused by the
countless crises bedevilling the country.
Indeed, nothing could be more disturbing than the fact that in order
to
appreciate the full impact of the attainment of independence, one is
obliged
to sift through the ashes of the past to find inspiration. The
prevailing
landscape is bleak indeed, littered as it is with all the ills
Zimbabweans
thought would be eradicated through the defeat of colonialism.
One of
the worst problems is that the average person has to toil even
harder than
he or she did under Ian Smith's rule to barely survive
economically.
True, people now earn salaries running into millions
of dollars, but
what good are these millions when prices have shot through
the roof? It is
sad but true when people say they were better off with their
two-figure
pre-independence wages because they could at least afford to meet
their
financial obligations.
The gap between the rich and the poor
was wide under colonial rule,
but it has now become an unbridgeable chasm.
Courtesy of rampant corruption,
lack of accountability, economic
mismanagement, a deeply embedded crony
system and a culture of impunity, the
ordinary person can only gape at the
opulent lifestyles of the ruling
elites.
To add insult to injury, he is just as helpless as he was under
colonial rule with regard to voicing his grievances in a bid to improve
his/her lot.
The ordinary person has been bombarded with relentless
propaganda over
the last four or so years. Its main thrust has been to drum
into Zimbabweans
the message that despite the evidence of their own eyes and
experiences,
everything is, in fact, hunky-dory! Failure to see things in
these glowing
terms amid suffocating belt-tightening and unbearably pinching
shoes results
in being labelled unpatriotic or puppets of foreign agents,
particularly
Tony Blair.
The government's "Look East" policy - or
look wherever else in a
geographical sense - is debatable. However, its
"Look to the Past" in order
to move forward decree is a definite no-no. It
has never worked anywhere
else.
Granted, the liberation war, to
which most Zimbabweans contributed in
different ways, represents an
important period in our history. No one can
dispute that. However,
participation in this war should not be decreed a
permanent point of
reference for every other facet of our existence.
It can be a
retrogressive fixation, as the political and economic
stagnation of the last
few years has demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt.
It has been a
polarising force. It has definitely hampered national
political growth by
limiting free and unhindered participation to a
particular party and section
of the nation.
Those with specialised knowledge and skills that could
enhance
democracy and improve governmental performance have been excluded on
the
basis of party affiliation. But as an American judge Justice Robert
Jackson
once said: "It is not the function of our government to keep the
citizen
from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep
the
government from falling into error."
The low voter turnout in
the ruling party's recent primary elections
suggests that people are fed up,
cynical, disgusted and turned off by the
political system. Unfortunately,
this is what I also feel with regard to the
Silver Jubilee unless the
occasion can be used as a rallying call to
reassure and re-unite all
Zimbabweans.
Daily News online edition
Police arrest photographer at
airport
Date: 3-Feb, 2005
HARARE -The police
manning the Harare International Airport on
Wednesday arrested an official
from the Crisis Coalition of Zimbabwe, Itai
Zimunya, for allegedly taking
pictures of a deported South African
delegation without seeking government
authority.
According to Pedzisai Ruhanya, the information
officer at the CCZ,
Zimunya was at the Harare International Airport at the
same time immigration
officials were deporting the 20-member Congress of
South African Trade Union
delegation that had come to Zimbabwe for
a
fact-finding mission.
"Zimunya took pictures of
the COSATU delegation," Ruhanya said. "The
police then pounced on him and
arrested him for taking the photographs in a
protected security area without
State authority. He was detained for nearly
four hours. The police only
released him after he paid a $25 000 admission
of guilt
fine."
Zimbabwe immigration officials barred the COSATU
delegationfrom
entering the country, charging that they had come without
following laid
down procedures.
The deportation became the
second within a few months after Zimbabwe's
police and immigration officials
expelled the COSATU delegation in October
for defying a government directive
barring such action.
The opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) condemned the
government action saying: "The treatment of the
COSATU officials should
clear up any lingering doubts about the Government's
position on political
tolerance and ensuring freedom of association - two of
the key principles in
the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
Protocol on democratic
elections."
The Zimbabwe government
has constantly come under attack from Zimbabwe's
opposition political
parties, civic society and the international community
for being
undemocratic and pursuing dictatorial political values.
Daily News online edition
Embassy staff caught up in espionage
net
Date: 3-Feb, 2005
JOHANNESBURG - Staff at the
Zimbabwe Embassy here have been caught up
in the espionage case in which a
former senior embassy official was recently
nabbed on charges of selling
state secrets to a South African handler in the
country's secret
service.
Sources at the embassy yesterday told The Daily News
Online that
members of Zimbabwe's secret service, the Central
Intelligence
Organization (CIO) were at the embassy and questioned
staff on their
involvement in the activities of Godfrey Dzvairo, the
former
consular general. They said some of the intelligence
officers at the
embassy were set to be relieved of their duties or posted
elsewhere
after it was discovered that they were aware of Dzvairo's
activities
but did not bother to inform their bosses in
Harare.
"There is apprehension among the members of staff
because they are now
under the watchful eye of the CIO. Although we were
aware that our movements
would be monitored, current surveillance by the CIO
is now a bother," said
one of the employees who refused to be
identified.
Activities at the Zimbabwean embassy recently came
into the spotlight
when Dzvairo, was nabbed by the intelligence agents,
together with
flamboyant businessman and politician, Phillip Chiyangwa,
banking executive,
Tendai Matambanadzo, Zanu PF employees, Kenny Karidza and
Itai Marchi. The
four were nabbed after a South African intelligence
officer, arrested in
Zimbabwe, spilled the beans, and agreed to talk,
resulting in their arrests.
The other three, Marchi,
Matambanadzo and Dzvairo, have so far been
convicted on their own plea,
after a magistrate refused their
defence that they had pleaded
guilty to espionage under duress.
Chiyangwa, who is being charged
separately, has pleaded not guilty to
espionage
charges.
According to media reports, the agent, who is
currently under the
custody of intelligence officers in Harare, is alleged
to have tried
to add on his list of informers, a senior official of
the CIO. The
move however backfired when he was trapped, resulting in
his
subsequent arrest.
An official at the embassy,
told The Daily News Online that what
Dzvairo had done was unacceptable and
that some of them were set to
suffer as a result of that. The
official said although members of the
CIO had finished their investigations
at the embassy, a witch-hunting
process between those who
sympathized with Dzvairo and those who did
not, was set to start
soon.
"Everyone trusted Dzvairo, even those who knew that he
was involved in
some clandestine activities. Even president Mugabe trusted
him, hence his
promotion and subsequent posting to Mozambique as an
ambassador," said the
official, adding that recent developments had resulted
in the president not
trusting young turks within the party and
government.
"Embassy staff are the highest paid civil servants
because even junior
officers are paid more than government ministers. We do
not understand why
Dzvairo decided to trade state information for money
because he was living
pretty," said the official, adding that
the whole incident had embarrassed the government because people had
always
thought that spies where within the opposition MDC, and not the likes
of
Chiyangwa and Dzvairo.
Efforts to get comment from the
Zimbabwean ambassador to South Africa,
Simon Khaya Moyo, proved fruitless as
he was said to be too
busy to respond to media
queries.
However, Moyo, who has always spoken the loudest
whenever issues
concerning Zimbabwe's main opposition party, MDC are raised,
has remained
mum on the issue.
On the other hand, the South
African government, which has always
publicly spoken out against harassment
and illegal detention of its
nationals, has equally played down the
issue, choosing to instead make
indirect comments concerning their arrested
secret service agent.
Daily News online edition
Civil society attacks Zim government over
COSATU deportation
Date: 3-Feb, 2005
JOHANNESBURG
- Yesterday's deportation from Zimbabwe of a
Confederation of South African
Trade Unions (COSATU) delegation
which had intended to embark on a
fact finding mission in the country,
has been roundly condemned by civic
organizations inside and
outside Zimbabwe.
The
COSATU delegation, which had the blessings of both the ruling
African
National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party
(SACP), was
yesterday barred from entering Zimbabwe by the embattled
government of
Robert Mugabe, which is arguing that the South African trade
union movement
was being used by western critics bent on meddling in
Zimbabwe's internal
affairs.
COSATU secretary general, Zwelinzima Vavi, speaking
from Harare
International Airport, said his delegation had been issued with
a
prohibition order by the government, stating that the delegation
was
not welcome in Zimbabwe.
"There is a prohibition form
waiting for all here containing all our
names, so the plan was to kick us
back," said Vavi. Another
member of the team, Rosaline de Wee,
speaking just before the group
left the Harare International Airport, said
the group would not
resist deportation and that their fears that
Zimbabwe was not being
run democratically, had been
confirmed.
"We have been kicked out formally . We are about to
go home on the
very same flight we came with.
Jorum Mlambo,
chairman of the Johannesburg based Disadvantaged People
of Zimbabwe Forum,
told The Daily News Online that what the government had
done was not
acceptable. He said most of the people who had decided to move
out of
Zimbabwe had done so as a result of Mugabe's dictatorial
tendencies.
"What will the ANC government say? What it means is
that they have
been chased out of Zimbabwe because the Labour Minister
here,
Membathisi Mdladlana had indicated that the government was
very much
behind the mission. What our government does not know is that
democracy in
South Africa is built on the bedrock of workers, who are a key
element in
the success of ANC in the previous elections," he
said.
In England, Dr. Edison Musanhu, a Zimbabwean who has
lived there in
exile since 1983, said the attitude shown by the
Zimbabwean
government was not encouraging. Dr. Musanhu, who also
co-ordinates
activities of Zimbabweans in Birmingham, under the Zimbabweans
in England
Business Consortium, a business focused group which is pulling
resources for
investment in the country after the Mugabe era, said the
decision to refuse
peer criticism was not good for
business.
"We have one life to live and therefore no one should
have the right
to make decisions which can negatively affect all of us.
Many
Zimbabweans have lost their jobs, with some of them living in
abject
poverty because of what one man is doing. That is not fair," he said,
adding
that a number of British companies which his organization had
approached,
had indicated that they were not prepared to invest in Zimbabwe
because of
the political risks.
In Zimbabwe, Eddison Ncube
of the Bulawayo based Concerned Christians
Forum, said what had been done by
the government was an indication that it
would not accept any dissenting
voices.
"We are heading towards an election and such things
should not have
happened. We are calling on the government to allow open
debate on political
issues. This business of banning the opposition from
holding any campaign
meetings should stop. MDC commands a reasonable
following in the Zimbabwean
political field and therefore it should be
allowed to carry out campaign
meetings," he added.
The
COSATU debacle has come a few days after ANC secretary general,
Kgalema
Motlanthe, also expressed concern over the banning MDC meetings in
the
country. He urged the Zimbabwean government to level the country's
political
playing field.
"As a party, we are nudging Zanu PF to ensure
that the outcome of the
election should really be without the possibility of
being questioned by
anybody. It is in the interests of South Africa to
ensure that Zimbabwe's
forthcoming elections are free and fair," he said,
adding that the country
should stick to the Southern Africa Development
Community (SADC) electoral
principles.
Meanwhile, ANC is
set to urgently meet over COSATU's deportation from
Zimbabwe, sources in the
party have indicated. An official in
the party said the party's
lekgotla, was set look into the COSATU
issue as a matter of
urgency.
"For ANC, political developments in Zimbabwe are a
sensitive issue
which has to be tackled with delicacy. Of late ANC had
abandoned its
pro-Zanu PF attitude, and looked at issues in that country
from both sides,
hence the recent criticism of the ruling party. We have
come to realize that
MDC is also a party of repute in Zimbabwe and that
there are many
Zimbabweans who see it as a viable entity," said the
official.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
State backtracks on Tsvangirai
judgment
Brian Mangwende Assistant Editor
issue date
:2005-Feb-03
IN a move perceived by political analysts as maximising
political mileage
for the government, the State has somersaulted on its
leave to appeal
against a High Court judgment that set free MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai on
charges of attempting to kill his nemesis, President
Robert Mugabe.
The country's newly-appointed Attorney-General, Sobusa
Gula-Ndebele,
confirmed the withdrawal to The Daily Mirror yesterday, but
denied the
latest development was politically motivated.
Last November,
the State made an application for leave to appeal in the
Supreme Court
against a decision by High Court Judge President Paddington
Garwe who threw
out its case.
Garwe said the State had failed to prove beyond reasonable
doubt that
Tsvangirai had requested Dickens and Madsen - a Canadian based
political
consultancy - to assassinate President Mugabe and stage a military
coup.
The judge also dismissed evidence by the State's key witness, Ari Ben
Menashe, a former Israeli spy, saying his evidence was unreliable and
unsubstantiated.
Yesterday, Gula-Ndebele said: "It's true that we have
withdrawn the case."
Asked why, he replied: "We considered the documents
before us and saw that
there was no merit in pursuing the
matter."
Tsvangirai's lawyer Innocent Chagonda said: "It's a realisation by
the State
that there was no basis for the application. Garwe's judgment
can't be
interfered with on appeal. The application had no merit whatsoever.
The
whole treason trial should not have taken place because it was
unfounded.
Constitutional law expert and chairman of the National
Constitutional
Assembly, Lovemore Madhuku said of the government's sudden
U-turn: "The
government wants to gain maximum political advantage and create
an
impression that the political environment has improved in the country.
The
reality is that they no longer consider Tsvangirai as a threat and
keeping
him on a leash would not be advantageous."Asked about the timing of
the
State's decision to withdraw seeing that the elections were just around
the
corner, Madhuku claimed: "They think that Tsvangirai gets more political
mileage by claiming political persecution, therefore it would be to their
advantage to set him free, because they believe he is now a political
nonentity. They will probably withdraw the second treason charge as well
before the election."
Tsvangirai, who switched unionism for politics,
faces another treason charge
for allegedly inciting the public to remove
President Mugabe from power
through civil action dubbed by the media "The
Final Push" after the 2002
presidential election controversially won by the
Zimbabwean Head of
State-whose results the MDC leader is challenging in
court.
In response Gula-Ndebele said: "If someone gets political mileage out
of it,
so be it, but we considered this issue purely as a legal matter and
nothing
else. We took a legal and not political decision."
Harare lawyer
Terrence Hussein said the withdrawal signalled a vote of
confidence in the
judiciary by the State.
Said Hussein: "Essentially it's a vote of confidence
by the State. They are
simply saying that they may not have been happy with
the decision but they
accept it. It is a vote of confidence in Garwe's
decision after the State
saw it fit not to proceed."
Political analyst
Eldred Masungure from the University of Zimbabwe had this
to say of the
State's backflip: "I would like to agree with sceptics that
there could
indeed be some political undertones to the withdrawal because
everything
relating to the government has some political connotations.
"However, on the
other hand it may work in favour of creating a more
conducive environment
for the forthcoming elections. It maybe a
reconciliatory statement by the
government to pave way for dialogue and can
be seen as healing process in
that Tsvangirai no longer has an appeal
hanging over his head. It can also
be seen as a morale booster for
Tsvangirai and his party."
Tsvangirai was
initially charged alongside two senior MDC
officials-secretary general
Welshman Ncube and shadow agricultural minister
Renson Gasela who were
acquitted during the trial.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Gono clashes with ZCTU
The Daily Mirror
Reporter
issue date :2005-Feb-03
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor
Gideon Gono has clashed with the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
over his statement recently,
imploring employers and employees to exercise
restraint in wage increases
this year.
In a statement Wellington Chibebe,
the union's secretary general said
yesterday:
"The ZCTU is concerned
with the Governor's disregard of the laws that
govern collective bargaining
in this country, in particular, the Labour
Relations Act.
"Gone are the
days in which government officials peg parameters of wage
negotiations. His
sentiments are also contrary to ILO Convention 98 that
deals with the Right
to Organise and Collective Bargaining."
Gono, widely perceived as the
country's economic messiah after introducing
measures that saw inflation
tumbling from over 600 to below 200 percent,
impressed on employers and
employees in the private sector not to increase
wages by more than 80
percent.
The monetary czar's argument was that since the average inflation
for 2005
was expected to drift between 80 and 90 percent, wage increments
should move
in sync with the projected targets, unless they were still below
the market
rate.
Chibebe added: "It is unacceptable for the RBZ to set
the agenda on
negotiations. We would like also to remind him that the social
partners
signed the Prices and Incomes Stabilisation Protocol on 30 January
2003 in
which it was agreed that the wages have to be linked to the poverty
datum
line (PDL)."
Presently, Chibebe said, the average wage for workers
in the private sector
was around $800 000 yet the PDL was around $1 700
000.
The ZCTU noted that the belief by Gono was premised on the fact the
central
bank chief was using the Central Statistics Office PDL figures
pegged at
$662 541 in December 2004. Chibebe said the figures were based on
"economic
theories that have nothing to do with the reality on the
ground."
"The ZCTU can only restrain its demands for higher wages if and when
the
workers start earning wages that match the PDL and will continue to
advocate
for higher wage increases as long as workers' wages fall below the
PDL,"
vowed Chibebe.
Hospital in need of care
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the
views of the United Nations]
HARARE, 3 Feb 2005 (IRIN) - Lack of
finance has left the Harare Central
hospital, one of Zimbabwe's major
referral centres, on the verge of
collapse.
The superintendent of the
1,428-bed hospital, Chris Tapfumaneyi, told IRIN,
"Most of our machines are
obsolete and cannot be repaired - some of them
have been like this for the
past 10 years".
When IRIN visited the hospital last week, five elevators
were broken down;
many toilets and sinks were blocked; part of the ceiling
leaked badly; the
laboratory equipment and anaesthetic machines were not
functioning;
incubators were operating at reduced capacity; and three out of
the five
dialysis machines were not in working order.
Dirty linen -
normally carried down in elevators from the upper floors - was
being thrown
haphazardly to the ground floor corridors below.
Speaking on condition of
anonymity, a nurse at the hospital said sick people
had to be carried up the
stairs to wards on upper floors, while bodies being
removed from upstairs
wards to the mortuary were placed in body bags and
dragged down the
stairs.
A company called in to repair the elevators five years ago had
declared them
obsolete; last year the National Social Security Authority
inspectors
declared the elevators unfit for hospital use.
"We were
allocated $300 million (about US $5,000) to purchase two elevators,
but our
problem is that the State Procurement Board has not yet awarded a
new tender
for the work. We wrote to them in October last year but there is
no
development yet," Tapfumaneyi said.
Theatre equipment, including
anaesthetic machines, barely function.
Patients also have to cope with
bathing in cold water, as the geysers and
showers have broken down - showers
are recommended in hospitals, as they are
more hygienic.
In the
maternity wing more than 60 women give birth every day. When IRIN
visited,
thirty-six sick and premature babies were being looked after in the
nursery,
where the central heating system that is supposed to provide a
regulated
environment for them no longer works.
Tapfumaneyi said facilities at the
hospital started deteriorating three
years ago when foreign currency
shortages hit the country.
"A hospital cannot function properly without
the injection of foreign
currency by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Things
are improving now with the
new developments at the bank, but we are not yet
there," he explained.
When contacted for comment, the Minister of Health
and Child Welfare, Dr
David Parirenyatwa, failed to respond.
National Review
February 03, 2005, 9:25 a.m.
"No" to
"Democracy"
Zimbabwe's implosion.
By Roger Bate
Zimbabwean
president Robert Mugabe recently cut short a month-long holiday
in Malaysia
and Singapore to stem wrangling within his ruling Zanu-PF party
due to a
vicious internal power struggle.
Party insiders say Mugabe, never
known for admitting a crisis, is now
seriously worried that growing rifts in
the party could have a catastrophic
effect on the March general election in
which Zanu-PF is pitted against the
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC). For the final, fatal
collapse of the odious Mugabe regime,
however, the MDC must withdraw from
the election it cannot win.
The
president stole the elections in 2000 and 2002 and has brutally
suppressed
the opposition from operating properly. He says he will live up
to regional
Southern African Development Community (SADC) election
protocols, but no
-one believes him, and with good reason. Without an MDC
withdrawal the
façade of democracy will remain and the international
community will not
intervene as it must.
As army officers, team captains, and
political-party leaders know, nothing
prevents infighting as well as a
common enemy. So it would be of no surprise
if Mugabe sincerely hopes that
the MDC contests the election. Without an
opposition to fight, Zanu-PF might
well implode - the result of which may be
civil war.
Boycotting the
election will have two additional effects. First, it will
force the
international community to get off the fence when the reality of
Zimbabwe's
dictatorship replaces the façade of democracy. Second, it will
exacerbate
the infighting within Zanu-PF, probably leading to a real power
struggle.
As for the U.S., the State Department must make all aid,
trade deals, and
other largesse to the region dependent on their pressuring
Mugabe to stand
down - or hold fair elections, not the farces of 2000 and
2002. In the very
short run they must demand that food aid be brought in.
Mugabe no longer
cares how the world sees him, but the presidents in the
rest of the region,
including South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, do. It is pressure
applied to them
that counts, and it can work. There is an entirely relevant
historical
precedent - the white Rhodesian Government of Ian Smith was
brought to its
knees by pressure from America, South Africa, and Britain. If
those three
countries work together again it could be achieved - but it has
to be led by
Mbeki. The big question is will Mbeki finally stand up to the
man who
supported him during the apartheid years by allowing ANC bases in
Zimbabwe.
America can, and it should, make it too uncomfortable for Mbeki
not to.
- Roger Bate is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and
a director
of the health advocacy group Africa Fighting Malaria.
Plea for a safe Haven Feb 3 2005
Mike Blackburn,
Evening Gazette
An asylum seeker who fled Zimbabwe after her
husband and daughter were
murdered is desperately fighting deportation from
Teesside.
Edneth Gotora, who is trying to rebuild her life in
Stockton, fears
she will be in danger if forced to return to her
homeland.
The widow is being backed in her battle to stay by local
churchgoers
and church leaders, who she has befriended and who have now
launched a
petition on her behalf.
Edneth's husband, a
prominent political activist, was murdered in 2002
after speaking out
against Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF Party.
After he was beaten and
arrested without charge a number of times a
group of Zanu PF members came to
the Gotora's house and subjected the family
to an unspeakable
ordeal.
Edneth's husband was taken and killed and her four-year-old
daughter
later died in hospital from her injuries.
The gang was
arrested, but when released on bail came back to the
house and threatened
Edneth. She was then abducted and taken to a
"rehabilitation camp" where she
was raped by the camp leader.
She became so unwell that she was
taken to hospital from where she
escaped and fled to England in October,
2002.
Edneth was settling in her new community in Stockton, where
she became
a member of the United Reformed Church, when she was hit with
devastating
news - the Home Office had rejected her application for
asylum.
"The people here have made me feel so welcome and safe,"
she told the
Gazette.
"If I am made to go back to Zimbabwe I
fear for my life."
Edneth's minister, the Reverend Colin Offor of
the Stockton United
Reformed Church, has launched a petition and is urging
Teessiders to show
their support.
"We are urging the Home
Office to be compassionate and give Edneth
exceptional leave to remain," he
said. "She has just been told to make
immediate arrangements to leave the
country, but she is terrified if she
returns to Zimbabwe she will be in
great danger.
"Edneth has been coming to our church since she
arrived in Stockton
two years ago and we all know and love her. She has been
through so much and
we are keen to support her as much as we
can."
Mr Offor, who is seeking support from Stockton North MP Frank
Cook, is
urging people to sign the petition at the church in Springfield
Avenue or
visit the website at www.urc.org.uk/petition/index.htm
IOL
Zim says Cosatu eviction won't mar relations
February 03
2005 at 10:15AM
The Cosatu incident will not affect relations
between Zimbabwe and
South Africa, the South African Broadcast Commission
(SABC) reported
Zimbabwean home affairs minister Kembo Mohadi as saying on
Thursday.
A delegation from the Congress of SA Trade Unions
(Cosatu) was refused
entry to Zimbabwe on arrival at Harare's international
airport on Wednesday.
The African National Congress (ANC) is to
meet Zimbabwe's ruling
Zanu-PF part to discuss the matter, the SABC
reported.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the Zimbabwean Congress of
Trade Unions
(ZCTU) will meet members of Cosatu in Limpopo on
Thursday.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said talks would
probably get
underway at around 9am at the Aventura resort in
Tshipise.
The Zimbabwean delegation arrived in South Africa late on
Wednesday
night after crossing into the country at the Beit Bridge border
post.
SABC
Cosatu and ZCTU meeting under way
February 03, 2005,
11:15
The meeting between Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu)
and the
Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) is underway at the
Tshipise
Aventura resort outside Musina in Limpopo. Delegations from the two
federations arrived in Musina last night.
This is after the
Zimbabwean government denied them permission to hold
discussions in Harare.
Zwelinzima Vavi, the Cosatu delegation leader, is
adamant that his
federation will continue pressuring the Zimbabwean
government to respect the
rights of workers. Vavi also briefed Cosatu
members about what happened in
Zimbabwe.
Cosatu to find out ZCTU needs
Vavi also told executives of
member unions such as the National Union of
Mineworkers (NUM), Police and
Prisons Civil Rights Union, South African
Democratic Teachers Union, South
African Municipal Workers Union, and
National Education Health and Allied
Workers Union, ahead of today's meeting
in Musina last night, that Cosatu
will also find out from its Zimbabwe
counterpart about the help they needed
in their fight against the oppression
they were going through in
Zimbabwe.
Gwede Mantase, the Num leader, is also part of the delegation.
He says
because mining is one of the pillars of the Zimbabwean economy, his
union
feels it is important for the Zimbabwean employees particularly
miners, to
be liberated. Lucia Matibenga, the leader of the Zimbabwean four
member
delegation, told the media that it was for them an emotional moment
yesterday as Cosatu members were turned away from Zimbabwe. Today's meeting
is expected to end with a press conference at the Aventura resort at about
2pm
From The Financial Mail, 28 January
Zimbabwe's new gold rush, 19th
century style
By Brendan Ryan
Displaced farm workers have
founda new livelihood
In Brazil they would be known as garimpeiros
but, in Zimbabwe, the hordes of
gold miners wielding picks and shovels are
called mkorakoza, a Shona word
meaning "panner". It's estimated there are
more than 1m of them countrywide
and they produce in total between 400 kg
and 600 kg of gold a month. That
means the mkorakoza could account for
between 25% and 37% of Zimbabwe's gold
output, which was 19,5 t for 2003,
according to Gold Fields Mineral
Services. Many have been driven into gold
panning by Zimbabwe's land grabs,
which have forced hundreds of thousands of
farm workers off farms. They can
find no other way to make a living and, in
inflation-racked Zimbabwe, gold
mining pays a lot better than most unskilled
occupations, even if there were
jobs available. A panner can recover around
2 g of gold a day, from which he
will make about Z$140 000 (about R140).
That's what a Zimbabwean farm
labourer makes in a month. The result is a
19th-century-style gold rush as
the mkorakoza flood - legally and illegally
- on to farms in Zimbabwe's
various gold belts. Zimbabwe has extensive
gold-bearing zones but the reefs
are narrow, geologically complex and
erratic in grade, making standard
commercial mining operations generally
unviable.
The mkorakoza live in tents and "bivvies" made of plastic
sheeting or
hessian sacks, right next to their mine workings. They get their
supplies
from - and let their hair down in - shanty towns in the bush near
the
workings. Apart from the harsh working and living conditions, many risk
long-term health problems because they use mercury to form the gold they
recover into a crude amalgam for smelting. They are also using technology
that dates back to 1886, when gold mining first started on the
Witwatersrand. The mkorakoza get their ore crushed by stamp mills. There's
still one stamp mill in Johannesburg. It's a national monument on a plinth
outside the Chamber of Mines building in Hollard Street. Yet these mills are
now being made to order by small engineering firms in Zimbabwe. Stamp mills
were replaced in the early 1900s by the vastly more efficient ball mills,
which are, with significant enhancements, still standard technology in
modern gold recovery plants. According to the Zimbabwean operator who showed
me around his property on condition of anonymity, stamp mills "are a son of
a bitch to maintain because they vibrate like hell. One worker is dedicated
full-time to constantly tightening every nut in sight and knocking bits of
metal back into the frame that are being shaken out of it."
The
mkorakoza refuse to use ball mills. They prefer stamp mills because they
can
watch their ore being treated. One miner says: "There's a mukiwa [Shona
for
white man] in the ball mill stealing our gold." In a way he's right,
because
some gold is lost as fine particles get trapped in the cracks
between the
liners of a ball mill. The trapped gold is recovered through
clean-up
operations when the liners wear down and have to be replaced, which
happens
every few months. The mkorakoza cannot afford to buy their own stamp
mill.
These are often owned by the holder of the mining permit for the area
being
exploited. Frequently, that's a white farmer who has been kicked off
his
land and has also turned to gold mining to survive. The mkorakoza brings
his
ore, usually a ton at a time, to be crushed. He then takes the recovered
gold-bearing fraction of the ore and concentrates it further through several
stages of panning to isolate the heavier gold particles from the lighter
waste material.
With high-grade ore it's at this stage that the
gold becomes visible as a
yellow "tail" in the bottom of the pan, standing
out against the dark grey
of the remaining dense material. The gold-bearing
concentrate is then formed
into an amalgam using mercury and crudely smelted
to produce a form of
"sponge gold", which the mkorakoza sells to Fidelity
Printers & Refiners,
which buys it on behalf of government. The operator
makes his money in two
ways. He charges a fee for toll-milling the ore and
providing basic services
such as a tractor and trailer to haul ore from the
workings to the stamp
mill. The stamp mill recovers only the coarse gold
fraction in the ore. The
fine gold fraction is carried through the process
by the flow of water but
is then trapped in a small slimes dam. That
fraction belongs to the
operator, who recovers it using the same cyanide
process that most modern
gold mines use. Depending on grade and geological
properties, the mkorakoza
recovers 50%-80% of the gold that was contained in
his ore. The cyanide
tailings treatment process typically yields between 1
g/t and 2 g/t for the
operator.
New Zimbabwe
Gono's relaunch of failed banks is doomed
By Patrick
Mlambo
Last updated: 02/03/2005 23:53:44
I HAVE watched with interest the
unfolding events regarding the
yet-to-be-opened Zimbabwe Allied Banking
Group. In my own opinion, that bank
is essentially doomed unless the
political process of coercion and beatings
is applied to retain clients who
still have something to salvage from the
banks that make it up.
It is
such a pity that Dr Gideon Gono has already made up his mind about its
formation and attempting to retract that decision may not be politically
correct. I have compelling reasons for feeling the way I do.
The
first reason is that this bank is not a result of market forces. It is
not a
result of any conspicuous intellectual verve. No one has a passion to
see it
succeed except for the regulator, being the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
When
you look at the likes of Kingdom, you realise that the Nigel Chanakiras
were
passionate about the successes of their ventures. Even the Tandis of
Time
Bank, the Nyembas, the Dr Ncubes whose institutions ultimately failed
were
passionate about their ventures. No amount of the regulator's
persuasion can
entice clients to switch from banks that they already have
relationships
with to this one especially knowing where it came from.
Because of the above
deficiencies, I do not see the bank doing anything
special.
In
addition, the ZABG is, put simply, an amalgamation of failed banks. It is
dysfunctional. There will be no real organisational culture to talk about
because the people at the top are from the various failed banks. The man at
the helm is a former regulator. And what contribution can a regulator make
to this bank besides managing compliance? He lacks the necessary
entrepreneurial background required of such a position. I am not too sure if
that would be encouraging to the departmental heads who fall under
him.
Taking the point further, the potential market knows what the
constituents
of this new bank are - the failed banks. There are healthy
banks that were
there before independence and that are still there to date.
There are also
healthy banks that were born in the mid-90s that are still
there today. And
there is this big bank that is composed of most of the
failed banks. Faced
with this array of banks, it would beat all reason to go
to a bank whose
constituents once resulted in an individual failing to
access their savings
and/or salary just a year ago. The implication of this
is that there is
nothing to gain by being a depositor with ZABG. Ibhengi
remadofo.
As if the above is not enough, the bank's failure to open as
envisaged is a
stark reminder to anyone intending to bank with them that it
is a bank that
is not well organised. That relaunch of failed banks should
have been done
in style. That would perhaps have put paid to messages of
discouragement
from people like me. Failing that first hurdle was a sure
sign of what
awaits those who will choose to bank with it.
Their only
hope is to be one of the banks used by government departments.
The Reserve
Bank might also like to channel foreign currency from those in
diaspora
though that bank.
In conclusion, that bank is a non-starter. Lest RBZ
does not know, the
bank's current clients (those whose savings were frozen
when the ZABG's
constituents went under) would like to see one thing happen
- time to take
away their savings. Already they are with other institutions
and no amount
of pursuasion will push them away from their current banks. As
such, there
is no real potential market for this bank and those intending to
join it are
better off ensuring that they make their next moves to more
solid banks as
soon as the opportunities arise.
Reuters
S.Africa sees "positive" poll reforms in
Zimbabwe
Thu February 3, 2005 2:28 PM GMT+02:00
By Andrew
Quinn
PRETORIA (Reuters) - South Africa on Thursday praised
electoral
changes in Zimbabwe, calling them "positive developments" ahead of
a March
poll seen as a crucial test of the country's commitment to
democratic
reforms.
Chief government spokesman Joel
Netshitenzhe said South Africa had
taken note of the recent reforms,
including a new "independent" electoral
commission, which is a key element
of the electoral guidelines agreed by the
Southern African Development
Community (SADC) last year.
"There are some positive developments
which give us hope that Zimbabwe
should come as close as possible to the
protocols that have been agreed by
SADC," Netshitenzhe told a news
conference.
He said South Africa was unable to make a judgment on
complaints by
Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) that the
reforms do not go far enough and fail to take into account a
raft of
security and media laws, which it says favour President Robert
Mugabe's
ruling ZANU-PF.
The MDC said on Thursday it had
decided "with a heavy heart" to take
part in the March 31 parliamentary
elections after earlier threatening a
boycott in protest at the
laws.
Netshitenzhe said SADC, a 14-member regional bloc, planned to
send a
technical fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe before the elections to
assess
the situation and that South Africa would reserve judgment until the
team
reported its findings.
He said Pretoria would not be
diverted by "sideshows" after a Congress
of South African Trade Unions
(COSATU) team was denied entry in Harare on a
planned fact-finding visit on
Wednesday.
"There is a fundamental strategic objective that we
pursue as South
Africa and as the Southern African Development Community,
and that objective
is to help (Zimbabwe) achieve free and fair elections,"
Netshitenzhe said.
"If we allowed ourselves to be diverted by
sideshows, we might lose
sight of the ball."
COSATU, a key ally
of South Africa's ruling African National Congress
(ANC), reacted with
outrage after Harare turned back its delegation as
uninvited visitors with a
hostile agenda.
Daily News, SA
Starting all over again
February 3,
2005
By Daniel Balint-Kurti
Riding through a Nigerian
forest on motorbikes, four white Zimbabwean
farmers are checking out the
land they'll soon settle on, hoping to start a
new life here after being
chased off their farms by government-backed thugs
back home.
Uprooted by Zimbabwean Presi-dent Robert Mugabe's land redistribution
programme, scores of farmers have already been welcomed by the country's
immediate neighbours for the jobs and economic growth they promise to
create. But Nigeria, 4 000km north-west of Zimbabwe, represents a new phase
of a budding exodus.
The four men visiting Shonga are an
advance party for 15 farmers
planning to move here next month, along with
families, 50 black Zimbabwean
farm workers and 2 000 cattle.
"Everybody is enthusiastic for the project to get going," says Alan
Jack,
46, whose farm was grabbed five years ago by about
50 youths armed with
clubs and machetes.
Mugabe has encouraged the land seizures as a
means of redressing
wealth inequalities rooted in British colonial times.
But the policy has
been widely criticised for its brutality and has made
Zimbabwe, once a food
exporter, dependent on food aid to save nearly half
its 12.5 million people
from starvation.
Since 2000, some of
the thousands of farmers forced off their land
have moved to neighbouring
Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia.
Few, if any, have moved to
West Africa, but governments here - Ghana
and Senegal as well as Nigeria -
are lining up to host them, according to
the farmers.
It's an
endeavour that requires tact, if only because all these
countries bear the
legacy of white colonial rule.
Zambia has publicly warned its
newcomers not to form white "cliques"
or set up "elitist" white country
clubs, to stay out of politics and not get
involved in supporting opposition
groups as they did in Zimbabwe.
There are also fears in Nigeria
that the farmers' arrival will raise
unrealistic expectations among the
low-income farmers already working in the
Shonga area, 322km north of
Nigeria's main city, Lagos.
But the Nigerian government, which
initiated the white migration,
remains gung-ho. Olayinka Aje, an aide to the
governor of Kwara, Shonga's
state, says the farmers could turn the area
"into the food basket of the
West African sub-region."
Jack
said he was attracted to Shonga because of good rainfall and
firm, deep soil
in which "just about any crop will grow".
Nigeria, Africa's
most populous country with 126 million inhabitants,
also offers a huge
domestic market.
If things go well, more white Zimbabweans could
move in next year, he
said.
Mugabe's government refuses to
comment on the farmers' emigration, but
continues to insist the land
seizures are the way forward.
The farmers will hire hundreds of
Nigerian workers who, along with the
Zimbabwean farm workers, will clear an
allotted 14 800ha of trees and
towering termite mounds to make way for
maize, rice, soybeans and dairy and
poultry farms.
Nigerian
farmers here tend small plots growing staples such as cassava
and corn
without machines or fertiliser. The Zimbabweans are offering
technical
know-how and advice on cost-free techniques for improving yields,
such as
better crop spacing. The government has promised to fund a 16th farm
for
training purposes, run by a Zimbabwean farmer.
But people here are
wary. Huge state-run projects here usually are
gutted by corrupt managers.
Near Shonga, a number of harvesters corrode in
open fields, left over from a
project that collapsed in the 1990s.
"We have a vision and I am
trying to share that faith with the
people," says Halina Yahaya, the emir of
mainly Muslim Shonga, but "people
say we hope we are not being taken for a
ride."
As well as signing an agreement with the local government,
legal owner
of Kwara's land, the farmers also needed to negotiate with the
emir, who
also holds land rights under local custom.
The 7
000-plus villagers of the area, who have virtually no health
care or primary
education, harbour very high expectations.
Jibril Muazu, the chief
of Ogudu, a village bordering the Zimbabweans'
future farmland, wants new
roads, electricity, drinking water, hospitals and
schools.
"If
the commercial farmers are going to benefit from our land, these
are the
ways we shouldbenefit from them," he says.
Aje, the governor's
aide, in-sists all these demands will be met by a
trust fund financed by a
1% levy on the newcomers' turnover.
The four Zimbabweans,
constantly joking like old friends, seem
undaunted by the challenge of
rebuilding a social life far from home.
"In Zimbabwe, we did
everything together as farmers. We'll just do the
same here," Jack said.
"There's 15 of us. It's enough to get on in life." -
Sapa-AP
ReliefWeb
UN agency provides Zimbabwe with 1 million-US-dollar aid
package
HARARE, Feb 3, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The United Nations
Development
Program (UNDP) has unveiled a 1-million-US dollar aid package to
Zimbabwe
for the agricultural sector, The Herald newspaper reported on
Thursday.
Three departments in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development --
the Agriculture Research and Extension Department, the
Irrigation Department
and the Economics and Marketing Department are to
benefit from the aid
package.
The UNDP would provide the financial and
technical support, while the
ministry will be responsible for implementing
the project in ecological
regions 4 and 5 which are prone to drought and low
rainfall, said the
report.
The program is expected to benefit between
3,000 to 4,000 small- scale
farmers in the country.
The UNDP is to
rehabilitate the irrigation schemes among the farmers and
provide them with
water-saving technologies to enhance their productivity.
Irrigation allows
farmers to at least double their productivity as they
would be able to grow
crops all year round. Small-scale farmers would also
be able to diversify
into other crops which they would not normally grow in
the absence of
irrigation.
Agriculture contributes significantly to Zimbabwe's economy,
accounting for
at least 16 percent of the country's Gross Domestic
Product.
Zimbabwe's small-scale producers have been battling to increase
productivity
in low-rainfall areas as some of the irrigation equipment
commissioned in
the 1980s is now antiquated.
LegalBrief
Justice Minister dismisses exiles election bid as a
political move
Published in: Legalbrief Today
Date: Thu 03
February 2005
Category: General
Issue No:
1268
Zimbabwe's Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa,
has dismissed as a
political ploy the action by exiles to file a
constitutional application
seeking to invalidate the government's decision
to exclude them from taking
part in the March polls.
The
state-owned newspaper, The Herald, quotes Chinamasa as saying the
move was a
political stance by the country's detractors to disturb the
electoral
process. 'It is a frivolous and vexatious application. They are
free to come
back home and vote provided they are registered like anybody
else,' said
Chinamasa. He said the government would strongly oppose the
application
because such actions were a clear abuse of the court process. A
group called
the Diaspora Vote Action Group filed an urgent chamber
application seeking
to be allowed to vote.