The Sunday Times,UK January 07, 2007
Mugabe has ruined his country with policies that are
killing
thousands, writes RW Johnson in Harare
Suffer the little
children is a phrase never far from your mind in today's
Zimbabwe. The horde
of painfully thin street children milling around you at
traffic lights is
almost the least of it: in a population now down to 11m or
less there are an
estimated 1.3m orphans.
Go to one of the overflowing cemeteries in
Bulawayo or Beit Bridge and
you are struck by the long lines of tiny graves
for babies and toddlers.
A game ranger friend tells me that
hyena attacks on humans, previously
unheard of, have become increasingly
common. "So many babies, not all of
them dead, are being dumped in the bush
that hyenas have developed a taste
for human flesh," he
explains.
Under the weight of the general economic meltdown - the
economy has
shrunk by 40% since 2000 and is still contracting - the health
system has
collapsed and a populace now weakened by five consecutive years
of
near-starvation dies of things which would never have been fatal before.
A
staggering 42,000 women died in childbirth last year, for example,
compared
with fewer than 1,000 a decade ago.
A vast human cull
is under way in Zimbabwe and the great majority of
deaths are a direct
result of deliberate government policies. Ignored by the
United Nations, it
is a genocide perhaps 10 times greater than Darfur's and
more than twice as
large as Rwanda's.
Genocide is not a word one should use hastily
but the situation is
exactly as described in the UN Convention on Genocide,
which defines it as
"deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life
calculated to bring
about its physical destruction in whole or in
part".
Reckoning the death toll is difficult. Had demographic
growth
continued normally, Zimbabwe's population would have passed 15m by
2000 and
18m by the end of 2006. But people have fled the country in
enormous
numbers, with 3m heading for South Africa and an estimated further
1m
scattered around the world. This would suggest a current population of
14m.
But even the government, which tries to make light of the issue, says
that
there are only 12m left in Zimbabwe.
Social scientists say
that the government's figures are clearly rigged
and too high. Their own
population estimates vary between 8m and 11m. But
even if one accepted the
government figure, 2m people are "missing", and the
real number is probably
3m or more. And all this is happening in what was,
until recently, one of
Africa's most prosperous states and a member of the
Commonwealth.
When I visited Zimbabwe in 1997 it was still the
breadbasket of
southern Africa and you could read letters in the local
papers from members
of the well- educated black middle class complaining,
for example, that a
floral roundabout was not being properly
maintained.
Such innocence abruptly vanished after 2000, when
President Robert
Mugabe launched farm invasions and a political terror
campaign to counter a
rising tide of opposition. Since Mugabe forbade entry
to foreign
journalists, getting in at all became increasingly
tricky.
With fuel shortages routine, I drove in at remote border
points in a
car jammed to the brim with cans of petrol - all I needed was a
cigarette
lighter to be a pretty effective suicide bomber. In 2002 I watched
a
half-hour programme about myself on state television: apparently I was the
evil genius behind the entire opposition movement.
Thereafter
my visits had perforce to be real undercover affairs. Each
time the
situation was far worse than before and more and more things did
not work -
this time, even mobile phones did not. Happily, this makes
surveillance
harder.
In Bulawayo I was approached by a man claiming to seek
Mugabe's
violent overthrow and wondering whether I could arrange CIA
assistance.
Since such talk would normally mean arrest and torture, it was a
simple
decision to treat him as a secret police agent
provocateur.
Bulawayo, capital of Matabeleland, is a virtual ghost
town, its wide
and gracious streets sparsely peopled even at midday, for
emigration and
starvation have drained its lifeblood.
Matabeleland, always the centre of opposition to Mugabe, was the first
to
experience his iron fist in the mid-1980s and has taken more terrible
punishment in recent years. Last year, in common with the rest of the
country, it was the target of Operation Murambatsvina (Shona for "drive out
the filth") in which the police and army destroyed shanty towns and cracked
down on informal traders after Mugabe decreed that they needed to be
forcibly "re-ruralised" to regain their peasant roots. All told, some 2m
people were affected.
Just what that meant becomes clear from
the study carried out by the
Reverend Albert Chatindo, whose parish,
Killarney, lies on Bulawayo's
northern side. Here 217 families (1,300
people) whose houses had been
demolished crowded into his church hall - only
for the army to descend upon
them again, load them into trucks and dump them
in the middle of the bush
without food or shelter.
Chatindo
spent more than a year tracking them down to discover their
fate. A few made
it back to Killarney but half are dead, the children from
exposure and
malnutrition. Many of the adults, especially the men, were so
dazed with
despair that they ceased to function in a situation where only
the most
energetic and resourceful had much chance of surviving.
Others tell
me in hushed tones of the latest atrocity, Operation
Maguta (live well),
prompted by a shortfall in maize production since the
commercial farms were
invaded and destroyed. Under Maguta, the army descends
on villagers to
compel them to grow maize and sorghum, which they must then
sell to the
army-run Grain Marketing Board.
In Matabeleland - where maize does
not grow well - the army has gone
in hard, beating peasants who resist,
raping wives and daughters, and
chopping down orchards and tearing up
vegetable patches in their
determination to allow no competing crops.
Maguta, with its echoes of Stalin's
campaign against the kulaks (Russia's
relatively wealthy peasants), is
already producing more misery, starvation
and death.
The only people brave enough to talk to me about what is
going on
preface everything with "but you can't quote me". The only
exception is Pius
Ncube, the Catholic Archbishop of Matabeleland, whose
outspoken critique of
the Mugabe regime has earned him death
threats.
When I go to his house behind the cathedral he speaks in a
flat
monotone, without looking at me, almost as if soliloquising or speaking
to
history. He strikes me as a man driven to the limits of exhaustion both
by
his punishing workload in the 40C heat and his own deep
depression.
Given the terrible death toll, I ask him about the
infamous statement
by Mugabe's henchman (and secret police boss), Didymus
Mutasa, in 2002, that
"we would be better off with only 6m people, with our
own who support the
liberation struggle. We don't want all these extra
people".
Is this a master plan, I ask? Is the government trying to
reduce the
population? Ncube shakes his head slowly. "What is going on is
truly evil
but I do not think they set out to kill people, it is just that
they do not
care. Their only concern is to stay in power and enrich
themselves and to
turn people into terrified, compliant subjects. Some
public killing is
useful for that, of course. It frightens the
rest.
"They have broken the confidence of the people. If you speak
out, it
is seen as odd, even mad, for there is a brotherhood of
silence.
"Only 20% of the people are now above the poverty line. We
used to
have 30% unemployment but now it is 80% - there are more Zimbabweans
working
in South Africa than are working in Zimbabwe, and the only thing
that keeps
us going at all is the flow of remittances back from these
migrants," he
says.
"Proper burial has always been important in
African society but now
many people have a pauper's burial - no coffins, no
service, no relatives
present; the bodies are just thrown in a pit like
cattle. Our young people
cannot think of marriage because they are
poverty-stricken. So many are just
waiting to die. Some say to me there is
no difference between life and
death, that life has lost all
meaning.
"The women suffer the most. At a certain point the men
just walk away
but the women are left with their children, watching them
starve. We used to
have universal schooling but 50% of the children are now
out of school
because the parents cannot afford even the smallest
fees.
"Such children have no future. The only hope lies in the end
of
Mugabe. Some people pray for him to die but they are very scared. In any
meeting of 20 people there will always be two informers.
"Mugabe is a murderer and also a traitor - he is selling the country
to the
Chinese. It is lonely to be the only one to say that," Ncube says.
"People
tell me they pray for me but they are too frightened to speak out
themselves. For myself, I shall not stop speaking out. I am perfectly
willing to die."
To move on to Harare I have to take my
chances on one of Zimbabwe
Airways's new Chinese MA-60 turboprops, planes
that have already given
endless trouble. In line, I suppose, with Mugabe's
"look East" policy, all
the safety instructions are in Mandarin. The plane
seems to have been built
for very small and uncomplaining people who like a
great deal of noise.
After an hour I am virtually deaf and my knees are
almost too sore for me to
walk.
Harare's northern
suburbs are as beautiful as ever - tall trees,
plants and flowers and
luxuriant birdlife. The death rate among four-footed
wildlife has rivalled
that of humans these past few years as land invaders
move on to game
reserves and massacre the animals. Nobody has been able to
kill off the
birds.
But death is all around. As I drive through the suburbs I
see inert
bodies lying on the kerb and in the grass, bodies which have not
changed
position when I come back half an hour later.
If you
stop, you sometimes find people in the last stages of an
exhaustion so
complete that death seems not a different state but part of
the same
continuum.
Down near a pond I see a little shelter nestling in the
reeds. This
turns out to belong to Murambatsvina victims who have managed to
walk back
to town after being dumped in the bush, and are now trying to hide
from the
police. Be careful, friends advise: most of those people are sick
or dying
and have no reason not to rob you. But the walking skeletons I saw
were no
threat to anyone.
All round Harare people stand
thumbing lifts, for the inflation rate
of 1,050% means that a bus fare is
now much the same as the average daily
wage. I give lifts all the time. I
meet not a single black person who is not
mourning the loss of a relative or
friend in the past month but, Harare
being the capital, one also sees the
luxurious Mercedes and SUVs of the
ruling Zanu-PF elite and its business
allies.
This group has actually turned hyperinflation to good
account, using
political power to change money at the official rate and then
playing the
currency black market to multiply it tenfold.
This
tiny political elite still exudes self-righteousness. I notice
that none of
the big cars ever gives lifts.
While I am in Harare the state media
carry the news that Zanu-PF has
decided to extend Mugabe's presidency to
2010 (when he will be 86) and there
is talk of a life presidency. In fact
they are reporting what Mugabe wanted
the news to be: the motion to extend
his presidency was blocked.
I see Trudy Stevenson, an MP for the
opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, who has carried out her own
survey of Murambatsvina
victims in Harare's Hatcliffe Extension township,
work that earned her a
brutal assault by Zanu-PF thugs from which she
narrowly escaped with her
life. Stevenson estimates the death toll there at
around a quarter.
I go out to Hatcliffe and talk to some of the
survivors. One of them,
Philomena Makoni, tells me that her family had a
legal lease for their
dwelling but this did not prevent the police from
tearing it down.
"They came at night, shouting and yelling, made us
get out of the
house and just levelled it to the ground. "Then we were
carted off into the
countryside and dropped there. The president had said
that people like us
had lost our roots and that we must rediscover
them.
"My baby that I was nursing died - I had no food and could
give her no
milk. We buried her in the bush. My other two children are
terribly thin and
sick. "We walked all the way back to Hatcliffe, it was
many miles, but
things are much harder even than before. My husband lost his
job through
being sent away and we have no income.
"We are only
alive because the churches give us some food, but I am
very frightened for
my children. They are no longer in school and they are
now begging at the
roadside. I cannot see what will become of us."
Like every black
Zimbabwean I met, Makoni would like to leave the
country but is in effect
trapped by her own poverty and weakness. Despite
the horrendous death toll,
Archbishop Ncube is right. This is not a genocide
like that in Rwanda, where
some 900,000 people were butchered in an orgy of
tribal hatred. Instead, the
regime's key motive at every stage has simply
been its own maintenance of
power.
From 2000 on, it destroyed commercial agriculture because it
saw the
white farmers and their workers as opposition to Mugabe. This led to
the
first wave of killing, as some 2.25m farm-workers and their families
were
thrown off the farms, many after being beaten and tortured. An unknown
number died. The eviction had the effect of collapsing the economy and
cutting the food supply far below subsistence in every subsequent
year.
What scarce food there was left, along with seeds,
fertiliser,
agricultural implements and every other means to life, was made
dependent on
possession of a Zanu-PF party card. Campaigns of terror
followed in 2000 and
2002-03. The population has since been kept in a
continuous state of anxiety
by a series of military-style "operations", of
which Murambatsvina and
Maguta are merely two particularly murderous
examples.
Even Operation Sunrise - introducing a new currency last
July - had
its casualties: many rural folk who failed to surrender their old
notes in
time had their small savings wiped out.
"These
operations remind the population who's boss," a Catholic priest
told me.
"They remind people that they are subjects, not citizens. They keep
them off
balance, terrified and compliant. "Believe me, Mugabe would win any
election
he called in these conditions.
Of course, the regime knows it's
hated, that it would never survive a
genuinely free election, so it
practises continuous and overwhelming
intimidation." All these factors
interact.
Some 29% of sexually active Zimbabweans are reckoned to
be
HIV-positive and the economic collapse has devastated the health system
and
stopped the distribution of anti-Aids drugs. Studies show that
HIV-sufferers
with severe malnutrition are six times more likely to die than
those who are
properly fed and have access to proper
medication.
The Murambatsvina and Maguta campaigns - sharply
increasing stress and
malnutrition - would be large killers, even if people
did not die first of
exposure or starvation. As it is, with the
Murambatsvina affecting 2m
people, the resulting death rate may be somewhere
between the 50% reported
in Bulawayo and 25% in Harare.
Murambatsvina was also about staying in power: Mugabe realised that
urban
shanty-dwellers were becoming restless and decided on a pre-emptive
strike
against them. The political toll, plus Aids, in turn, have had a
ruinous
effect on the rural economy, robbing it of productive labour and
thus
dramatically reducing food security. The government ignores all this,
blames
it on Tony Blair or flails against reality with the economics of the
madhouse.
Gideon Gono, governor of the central bank, orders in
the Green Bombers
(young Zanu-PF thugs) to enforce his diktat and bakers are
jailed for
exceeding the subeconomic bread price set by government. In this
- as in the
programme for forced re-ruralisation - there are reminders of
Cambodia's
Khmer Rouge.
World Health Organisation figures show
that life expectancy in
Zimbabwe, which was 62 in 1990, had by 2004
plummeted to 37 for men and 34
for women. These are by far the worst such
figures in the world. Yet
Zimbabwe does not even get onto the UN agenda:
South Africa's President
Thabo Mbeki, who has covered for Mugabe from the
beginning, uses his
leverage to prevent discussion. How long this can go on
is anyone's guess.
After Rwanda, the UN vowed "never again" but
Mugabe - and, to a
considerable extent, Mbeki - have already been
responsible for far more
deaths than Rwanda suffered and the number is fast
heading into realms
previously explored only by Stalin, Mao and Adolf
Eichmann.
Independent, UK
7 January 2007 10:24
World Heritage status may be revoked as Zimbabwe and Zambia compete for
tourist income
By Christopher Thompson
Published: 07 January
2007
Victoria Falls, one of the world's greatest natural wonders, may
cease to be
a World Heritage Site as a result of the chaos in
Zimbabwe.
Known locally as Mosi oa Tunya, or "the smoke that thunders",
the falls are
more than a mile wide and 420ft high. They have been a tourist
hotspot since
1905, but Unesco is now considering listing the site as
"endangered" because
of mismanagement that has allowed the once prosperous
resort to deteriorate.
Furthermore, over-zealous Zambian developers are
proposing to build 500
chalets in a national park overlooking the falls,
prompting warnings that
the plan could lead Unesco to remove the site'sWorld
Heritage status
immediately.
Control of the Victoria Falls, named by
the explorer David Livingstone in
1855, is at the centre of a turf war
between two government bodies - the
National Museums and Monuments of
Zimbabwe and the Department of National
Parks and Wildlife Management - both
fighting over rights to manage one of
the country's last remaining sources
of valuable tourist revenue as
hyperinflation touches 1,100 per
cent.
The Zambezi river, which plunges over the falls, forms the border
between
Zimbabwe and Zambia. Most Western tourists used to stay on the
Zimbabwean
side, attracted by top-class facilities such as the Victoria
Falls and
Elephant Hills hotels, but the surrounding decay, and safety fears
after the
often violent land seizures initiated by President Robert Mugabe,
have seen
tourist revenues plunge by more than 70 per cent to $98m (£51m)
last year
from $340m in 1999, before land reforms started.
Unesco is
also alarmed by Zambia's efforts to benefit from Zimbabwe's
disarray. In a
reversal of the traditional position, most foreign visitors
now approach the
falls from the Zambian side, even though the view is less
spectacular. The
tourism industry in Zambia is booming, with the number of
overseas arrivals
doubling between 2003 and 2005, bringing the country
much-needed income, and
new hotels are springing up near the Zambian town of
Livingstone.
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
ONE of the latest and the fastest Mercedes Benz in the
world, imported
by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono last
week, has caused
a stir at the central bank.
Impeccable sources
at the bank said the Mercedes Benz - a Brabus E V12
Biturbo - imported from
Germany at a cost of US$365 000, was delivered on
Wednesday.
The importation of the luxurious vehicle has infuriated many workers
at RBZ
who were denied annual bonuses last November by Gono on the grounds
the bank
did not have the money.
"Employees were barred from going to see
the car until it was taken
away, presumably on Wednesday night," said a RBZ
source. "The question is:
where did he get the foreign currency to import
such an expensive vehicle
when the country has nothing?"
There
was a virtual stampede by the workers to the basement of the
23-storey
building when it was reported the new car had been seen there.
But
soon senior management staff had barred them from entering the
basement,
fearing that some of them might take photographs, using their
cellphones,
and show the rest of Zimbabwe the beautiful car the RBZ governor
had bought
for himself while most of them can't raise the bus fare to work.
One of the sources said Gono, who is said to be on leave, was furious
when
he heard that the posh vehicle had been delivered to his office.
He
ordered senior managers not to let workers near the vehicle and
that the car
be driven away to a "safe" place.
Gono's fancy car reduces
flamboyant businessman Phillip Chiyangwa's
most published Mercedes Benz
S600, which cost
103 000 pounds (US$198 841.70), to a child's
toy.
The governor's is one of the fanciest and fastest cars in the
world.
According to a Mercedes Benz Website, a Brabus E V12
Biturbo, has a
top speed of 217.6 mph (350.2 km/h) and is powered by a 640
bhp twin-turbo
twelve cylinder engine.
The vehicle set a new
world record during the Auto Motor und Sport
magazine high-speed tests in
Nardo, Italy, recently.
In addition to reaching a top speed of
350.2 km/h, the world's fastest
sedan also has sprinter qualities capable of
reaching 62 mph (about 100
km/h) in 4.5 seconds and 125 mph (about 200 km/h)
in 11.7 seconds.
RBZ spokesperson Kumbirai Nhongo said he could not
comment because he
was not on duty.
"I am away from work. I
will be back in the office on Monday. Try and
speak with Dr (Munyaradzi)
Kereke, nditori kumusha (I am in the rural
areas)," Nhongo
said.
Kereke, an advisor to the RBZ Governor, also refused to
comment on the
matter.
"I only got back from Bikita yesterday,
I would not know about that.
If it's his personal business talk to him," he
said.
Gono could not be reached for comment yesterday. His
secretary said
the governor was away and would be in the office on 15
January.
But sources at the RBZ said Gono was on holiday with his
family and
two members of the Central Intelligence Organisation in Asia. "He
was
supposed to come back on the 12th but he might extend the holiday by a
few
days," said the source.
Zim Standard
By Foster Dongozi
ZANU PF politburo member Emmerson Mnangagwa is going ahead with a
lawsuit
against his party chairman, John Nkomo, despite calls by President
Robert
Mugabe for the two rivals for his mantle to settle their differences
internally, his lawyer confirmed in Harare last week.
Mnangagwa
instructed Jonathan Samkange to claim $500 million in
damages from Nkomo,
the Speaker of the House of Assembly, who told the
Bulawayo High Court
Mnangagwa was the "brains" and financier of the
Tsholotsho Declaration,
drafted at Dinyane in 2004.
Nkomo allegedly made the statement last
November as he gave evidence
in a lawsuit brought against him and another
party heavyweight, Dumiso
Dabengwa, by Tsholotsho MP Jonathan
Moyo.
A few days later, a disgruntled Mnangagwa asked his lawyer to
prepare
a defamation suit against Nkomo. Both men are known to be seeking
support to
replace Mugabe if and when he steps down as party
leader.
Mugabe publicly rebuked him after learning of the legal
wrangle.
Addressing the 68th Session of the Zanu PF Central
Committee, last
month, Mugabe said: "This going to court . . . damages . . .
what damages? A
colleague has offended you, then talk to him and get him to
apologise."
Mugabe claimed going to court was a sign of greed for
money.
However The Standard learnt the rebuke had not deterred
Mnangagwa, who
is widely regarded as a potential successor to
Mugabe.
Samkange confirmed that they had not dropped the case after
Mugabe's
threats.
"I am not a politician, I am a lawyer.
Politics is not my domain, my
domain is to represent my client and he has
not given me new or different
instructions on the case."
Because of the high inflationary environment, Samkange warned, the
money he
was demanding on behalf of his client would be revised upwards.
"Surely in such an economic environment with high inflation, we would
have
to look at revising the figures."
Samkange said he was still
waiting for a response from Nkomo's lawyer,
Francis Chirimuuta.
"Nkomo's lawyer said he would get back to us with a detailed response.
He
said they would get it to us by 18 December but we have not received
anything up to now."
Chirimuuta however told The Standard that
he had already sent their
response to Samkange.
"We wrote to
Samkange saying my client would not apologise or retract
his statements
because he never said the statements and in any case, the
statements were
said in the process of court proceedings."
Nkomo's lawyer said
following Mugabe's comments on the clash between
Mnangagwa and Nkomo, he was
not aware of new developments.
"I don't know if they (Samkange and
Mnangagwa) are still pursuing the
lawsuit or maybe it will be a question of
sitting down to resolve the
matter," Chirimuuta said.
Zim Standard
BY
WALTER MARWIZI
THE National Social Security Authority (NSSA) has
imported 53 new Ford
vehicles, among them top-of-the-range cars meant for
top managers.
The authority, which pays paltry pensions to members,
has already
received 14 of the cars. Some of the vehicles, which came from
South Africa,
are neatly parked at Duly's Motors, along Robert Mugabe Road,
in Harare.
They have not yet been handed over to the managers
because of delays
in issuing of number plates.
Investigations
by The Standard revealed that NSSA has imported 26 Ford
Ranger XLT, nine
Ford Focus and nine Ford Ranger Petrol and nine Ford Ranger
diesel vehicles
at a cost of over US$700 000.
A Ranger XLT, a double cab costs
US$16 000 and attracts $7.5 million
duty. A Ford Focus costs US$13 000 and
an additional $5 million is needed
for duty while the pick-up trucks cost
US$11 000 and $4 million duty each.
A car dealer told The Standard
that the vehicles, especially the
twin-cab and Focus sedans had added extras
which made them very comfortable.
"As a matter of fact, they (NSSA)
have a high specification fleet,"
remarked the dealer who said he found it
difficult to understand how NSSA
could afford to pay for such a new fleet
when the country was facing
critical shortages of foreign
currency.
NSSA public relations manager, Philemon Chereni,
confirmed that the
authority had bought the vehicles using forex sourced
from the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe. He defended the purchase as
necessary.
"There is nothing unusual about those cars. I know there
are some
employees in NSSA who are disgruntled, everything was done above
board,"
Chereni said.
He said 10 Rangers would be given to
managers while the six Focus cars
would be used as pool cars.
"The rest would be operational vehicles. Those managers who are
benefiting
did not have cars for the past four years, though their contracts
entitled
them to have cars."
Asked whether it made sense for NSSA to splash
money on cars when
pensioners were getting as little as $2 500 a month, he
said: "I don't think
those issues are related."
Chereni then
referred The Standard to Acting NSSA general manager Amod
Takawira, who
could not be reached for comment yesterday. A woman who
answered his mobile
phone said he was at the farm in Beatrice.
However, Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Secretary General
Wellington Chibebe said
the decision showed that NSSA was clearly
insensitive to the plight of
workers.
"Our position is that NSSA is a national fraud. It
benefits its
employees and government officials not the pensioners
themselves. There is
clearly no accountability in the organisation," Chibebe
said.
NSSA has been without a substantive general manager since
2000.
Zim Standard
By Kholwani
Nyathi
BULAWAYO - President Robert Mugabe has ordered the Zanu
PF
Matabeleland North leadership to allow Minister of State for Small and
Medium Enterprises Sithembiso Nyoni to transfer from Bulawayo to the rural
province in what is seen as an attempt to win her a constituency after three
consecutive election defeats in the city.
It has been disclosed
that Mugabe issued the order during a briefing
by the provincial leadership
and heads of government departments at the
Lupane State University site
before he addressed a rally at Somhlolo grounds
in Lupane last
month.
Matabeleland North Governor Sithokozile Mathuthu, Nyoni
herself,
Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development,
Ignatious
Chombo, Minister of Water Resources and Infrastructure
Development, Munacho
Mutezo and Zanu PF provincial chairman Headman Moyo
attended the meeting.
Nyoni, a three-time loser in as many attempts
to win a seat in the
House of Assembly, is reportedly seeking a "safe"
constituency in rural
Nkayi, a Zanu PF stronghold.
Her problem
now is not the MDC but her own party, Zanu PF.
There is still
resistance to her candidacy from Zanu PF heavyweights
in the
province.
She lost to MDC candidates in Makokoba and Bulawayo South
in the 2000
and 2005 Parliamentary elections respectively as well as in
Luveve-Lobengula
during the Senate elections in 2005.
She is
currently a non-constituency MP.
In the run-up to the Senate
elections, Zanu PF Matabeleland North
provincial co-ordinating committee,
whose members include the Speaker of the
House of Assembly, John Nkomo and
the Minister of Industry and Trade, Obert
Mpofu, among other senior party
officials, turned down Nyoni's application
to transfer from the party's
structures in Bulawayo to Matabeleland North.
The transfer would
have enabled her to represent the party in the
Nkayi senatorial constituency
but she was turned down on allegations that
she originally hails from the
Midlands Province, which she denies.
But Mugabe's intervention
might help her revive a waning political
career with reports that the
leadership is already considering her co-option
into Matabeleland North
Province.
"She has told me that she wants to be part of
Matabeleland North
Province but I know that there are some leaders who don't
want her. Perhaps
they fear she might upstage them," Mugabe is said to have
told the briefing.
"But I know her to be a hard worker, you know.
She will add value to
the province," he insisted.
After telling
the briefing that Nyoni was born at a village in Nkayi
bordering the
Midlands Province, Mugabe asked the leaders if they were ready
to welcome
her to Matabeleland North.
They all said yes.
But Zanu
PF sources told The Standard it would be difficult for Nyoni
to be welcomed
to the province.
Asked whether she had transferred to Matabeleland
North, Nyoni said:
"Not yet. If something like that happens we will let you
know," she said.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
STAFF
BULAWAYO - Bulawayo will this week start experiencing
serious water
shortages after the city council decommissioned two of its
five major dams
from its supply network, the local authority has
warned.
The council stopped pumping water from Umzingwane and Upper
Ncema dams
after they ran dry last month but water shortages were delayed by
the one
million cubic metres of raw water held at its Criterion
Reservoir.
The council can only draw a limited amount of water a
day from the
remaining three dams - Insiza, Lower Ncema and Inyankuni - as
it relies on
gravitational force for pumping.
An internal
meeting of the council's Engineering Services Department
on Thursday noted
that despite heavy rains that pounded the city and
surrounding areas during
the festive season, water levels at major
reservoirs were going
down.
Council spokesman, Phathisa Nyathi confirmed the impending
crisis,
saying water levels at the Criterion Reservoir were critical, which
meant
that high lying areas would start experiencing shortages this
week.
He said the reservoir held about 6,6 metres deep of water on
27
December and the levels had since gone down to 4,8 metres. Water
shortages
especially in high-density areas will set in when the levels reach
one
metre.
"We are going back to last year's problems," Nyathi
said. "Ironically
water levels at dams are going down yet we are in the
middle of a rainy
season, which might mean the situation will be worse than
last year."
"Imagine what the situation will be like in
June."
He said inflows received so far were insignificant compared
to those
of the last rainy season where shortages had eased by the beginning
of
December.
"In fact, we are recording net inflows because the
water that we have
received is far less than what is being drawn from the
dams," Nyathi said.
The five dams only recorded inflows amounting
to 0.05% of their
combined capacity between 27 December and 2 January when
their catchment
areas in Matabeleland South experienced heavy
downpours.
Nyathi said council was considering a number of options
to minimise
the impact of the crisis, which included scheduled water
cuts.
"It's a tricky situation and engineers will be experimenting
on this
option," he said. "It also means going back to bowsers, which are
already on
standby."
He said this time council would use the
bowsers to fill up elevated
tanks installed at its housing offices in
high-density suburbs to supply
residents with water.
Council
will also make use of rehabilitated boreholes in some
high-density areas to
lessen the impact of the shortages.
The local authority introduced
water rationing in July last year to
bring down daily water consumption from
90 000 cubic metres a day from an
average of 141 000 cubic metres when its
dams started drying up.
However, the daily consumption has remained
high at an average of 130
000 cubic metres a day.
Bulawayo has
been experiencing perennial water shortages since the
1990s, which the local
authority blames on lack of government support.
The last supply dam
was built in 1976 but the council says it needs at
least one new dam every
10-12 years if supplies are to match the growing
population.
Zim Standard
BY WALTER MARWIZI
ZANU PF has classified the declining economy as its main security
threat,
says an official party document.
The report comes at a time when
President Robert Mugabe has repeatedly
warned that any protests against his
government would be ruthlessly crushed.
Mugabe gave the chilling
warning again recently when he delivered the
State of the Nation address in
Parliament.
This fear of a mass uprising was exposed in a 2006
central committee
report presented to delegates at Zanu PF conference held
in Goromonzi last
month.
The report shows that topping the list
of Zanu PF's security worries
is the faltering economy, which has resulted
in many Zimbabweans being
reduced to paupers, while an estimated four
million have left the country to
seek economic, as well as political
asylum.
The document notes that "the declining economy continues to
be the
major threat to the ruling party's popularity".
"The
state of the economy has therefore, provided the opposition with
ammunition
to use against Zanu PF . . .The state of the economy has also
given a
pretext to anti-government groups, chief among them the labour
movement, to
further the opposition agenda under the guise of fighting for
the interests
of the workers."
The report urges party officials to blame
sanctions for the economic
crisis.
"What is essential is to
clearly explain the issue of sanctions to the
people . . .The economic
problems, which are being experienced need to be
understood in this
context," says the report.
Interestingly, the report says the
threat posed by the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) has been diluted by
the squabbles in the party over
its participation in the elections for the
Senate last year.
It says the MDC was now only active in Harare,
Bulawayo, Matabeleland
North and South provinces.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
STAFF
THE dissension in Zanu PF over President Robert Mugabe's
intention to
extend his term presents a unique opportunity to build a
national consensus
for change, the country's opposition says.
But the pro-Senate faction of the MDC concedes that the opposition
cannot
even begin to work on this momentous task when there is bickering
among
itself.
"In 2007 things have to be drastically different," declared
Professor
Arthur Mutambara, "we have to quickly put the opposition house in
order.
Only then can we be relevant and effective in the democratisation of
our
country."
However, while the apparent discontent in Zanu PF
should be leveraged,
Mutambara warns, the opposition forces should not base
their strategy on
this aspect; neither should they solely depend on
it.
"Why would the opposition bank on Zanu PF authoring its own
destruction," he asks rhetorically. "We cannot pin our hopes on 10 Zanu PF
MPs rebelling in Parliament to support the 41 MDC MPs in blocking insecure
and incompetent Robert Mugabe's insatiable lust for power."
The
fight, he insists, has to be broader than participating in Zanu PF
institutions. "In 2007 we will take the struggle to the streets, villages,
valleys, and jails of Zimbabwe. We must defeat Mugabe and his bootlickers
with or without Zanu PF dissension. We should never allow the people's
revolution to depend on those Zanu PF cowards who are, for all intents and
purposes, Mugabe's wives."
In his reflections on this year,
Mutambara said, the focus of the
opposition will be to bring Mugabe's regime
to its knees. "2007 is the year
of the people's revolution!"
But he said as they pursue the agenda of a new constitution and
internationally supervised elections, the opposition should not be naïve and
too idealistic. "We must have a plan B. Zimbabwean national elections could
be held in 2008 or 2010 before a new constitution, and without
internationally supervised elections.
"In addition we need to
carry out comprehensive voter registration and
education, protect and
guarantee secrecy of the vote, train effective
polling agents, and establish
functioning party structures throughout the
country."
If, for
example, the voter turnout was more that 70% in every
constituency,
Mutambara explained, and the opposition garnered more than 80%
of that vote
while deploying effective polling agents, it would be very
difficult for
Zanu PF to manipulate the results.
"One of the rigging
opportunities for the regime, Mutambara explained,
"lies in manipulating the
unspent vote and the narrow margins of opposition
victory in some
constituencies. Thus our challenge in this illustration is:
How does the
opposition ensure that there is 70% voter turnout throughout
the country and
that 80% of those voters are against the regime?"
In his view, only
a united, all-embracing, but focused and disciplined
opposition can even
begin to address this challenge.
Saying that they were tired of
describing the pain of "our people",
Mutambara suggested the challenge and
obsession for the opposition should be
on redemptive action: What should be
done in 2007?
"We need to focus on the nexus between politics and
economics in
identifying lessons from the past as we chart a path into the
future. We
have a duty and obligation to confront our plight as a nation,
and deliver
change. We owe it to posterity.
"Leaders of the two
MDC formations must accept this without
equivocation. They must pledge to
put national interest before misguided
personal ambition. There is need to
re-energise the core opposition
supporters while inspiring and attracting
non-core constituencies."
Mutambara says that even if reunification
of the two MDC factions is
achieved, it would not be enough, to dislodge
Zanu PF.
"We have to grow the democratic forces beyond the
traditional MDC
support base. This should be done by attracting reform-
minded people from
Zanu PF, other political parties, and those who are not
currently in active
party politics.
"Furthermore there should
be enhanced co-operation with Zimbabwe civic
society organisations, thus
unlocking synergies amongst all democratic
forces. Organisations such as
NCA, Crisis Coalition, ZCTU, ZINASU and the
Churches have shown spectacular
courage under vicious attacks. A results-
driven, broad democratisation
alliance should be established."
The experiences from Kenya,
Zambia, Malawi, and elsewhere clearly
demonstrate that the opposition has to
break the ruling party before it can
contemplate success in an uneven
political playing field such as ours.
Mutambara declared: "We have
to break and destroy Zanu PF as part of
our strategy to victory. "
Zim Standard
By Nqobani
Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - Bulawayo, the country's second largest city
has been hit by
a critical maize-meal shortage after the Grain Marketing
Board (GMB) depot
ran out of maize before the festive holidays.
Millers said they were given their last maize allocations by GMB in
early
December while retail outlet managers said they last received supplies
from
the millers a week before Christmas.
Maize-meal is the staple diet
of most people in the country.
GMB is the sole buyer and
distributor of grain in the country and last
year the southern region,
including Bulawayo, suffered persistent maize-meal
shortages due to the
maize harvest deficit the country recorded during the
previous agricultural
season.
A survey by The Standard revealed the critical shortage had
spiralled
out of hand with some residents claiming they last bought
maize-meal last
week.
Benson Moyo said: "I have been all over
the city since last week in
search of maize-meal but all the retail shops
don't have it. I have not
eaten sadza since the start of the New
Year."
Precious Mukanhaire said: "I have been trying to save the
little that
I had but it has run out and I don't know what my kids will
have."
Contacted for comment, GMB chief executive officer, Samuel
Muvuti,
professed ignorance of the shortage, claiming there was "plenty of
maize in
the country".
"I am surprised you say there is no
maize-meal in Bulawayo and maize
at the GMB because there is plenty in the
country," said Muvuti.
But he did admit that urban areas were
"deficit areas and they need
maize". He could not disclose the exact figures
of GMB maize imports saying
"they are not necessary".
After the
2005/6 summer cropping season, the GMB collected far less
than the 1,8
million tonnes of maize the country needs for one year.
Reserve
Bank governor Gideon Gono has said the decline in food
production was
militating against efforts to reduce inflation which
currently stands at 1
099%, the highest in the world.
The country has faced a food crisis
since 2000, which critics blame on
the chaotic land reform programme that
forced most white commercial farmers
off their farms.
Critics
accuse the government of parcelling out large portions of
productive land to
Zanu PF zealots with little or no farming expertise under
the guise of
redressing colonial land imbalances.
President Robert Mugabe denies
the food crisis is caused by the land
reform programme.
The
World Food Programme has already indicated that 1.4 million
Zimbabweans will
need food aid until this year's harvests to avert massive
starvation.
Zim Standard
By
Kholwani Nyathi
BULAWAYO - Bulawayo City Council says a paltry
36 households out of an
estimated 10 000 people left homeless by the
universally condemned Operation
Murambatsvina over a year ago have been
provided with shelter under
Operation Garikai, fuelling discontent amongst
the would-be beneficiaries.
Murambatsvina or Operation Restore
Order was a government campaign
that left nearly one million Zimbabweans
destitute and homeless and affected
2,4 million people
countrywide.
President Robert Mugabe publicly acknowledged that
some of the people
victimised by the operation need not have
suffered.
In the aftermath, the government rebuffed all offers of
international
assistance from donors claiming it had the resources to
shelter the victims
through Operation Garikai, under which security forces
were mobilised
hurriedly to build houses in urban areas.
But
the operation failed dismally to meet its targets and the
allocation of the
few completed structures was mired in controversy with
Zanu PF officials and
their relatives being the main beneficiaries.
In Bulawayo, people
allocated 700 houses built at Cowdray Park in
December 2005 are yet to
occupy them as the government, perennially short of
funds since 2000, is
struggling to lay sewer and water infrastructure in the
area.
In a report to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM),
which has
proposed to build temporary shelters for the victims of the
clean-up
operation, the council said poor households were still without
shelter.
Bulawayo has a housing waiting list of over 80 000 and
the government's
much-trumpeted Operation Garikai has provided a paltry 700
houses and 5 000
unserviced stands in Cowdray Park.
"According
to the council's register, 10 000 units were affected by
the disaster and
the number could be much more than that," reads the report.
"Out of
those, only 39 families have been rehabilitated by Operation
Garikai/Hlalani
Kuhle."
The council has since offered 1 950 surveyed but unserviced
stands in
Pelandaba, Pumula and Cowdray Park high-density suburbs for the
project.
IOM, which has already built 1 700 temporary shelters for
Murambatsvina victims in Harare will provide building materials while the
beneficiaries will erect the shelters.
The organisation said it
would also bring the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) to provide
sanitation while churches in Bulawayo
would be asked to assist in the
identification of the beneficiaries.
"If the funding is
insufficient to complete each shell, IOM will
consider putting up the walls,
roofing and frames and leave the rest to the
beneficiary to complete and
council to monitor development," council minutes
read.
The
beneficiaries would be assisted with funds to start
income-generating
projects to enable them to complete the structures.
Last year, the
council distanced itself from the allocation of
Operation Garikai houses,
saying most of the beneficiaries were not drawn
from its housing waiting
list.
The council also said civil servants, prominent soccer
players and
politicians had benefited from the programme ahead of
Murambatsvina victims.
In Matabeleland South the houses had to be
re-allocated to
beneficiaries in Gwanda and Beitbridge after the initial
exercise was marred
by corruption, while in Matabeleland North, there were
complaints the
programme had benefited Zanu PF officials only.
Two UN envoys - Jean Egeland and Anna Tibaijuka - sent by the world
body to
assess the situation after Operation Murambatsvina, reported that
the
government had no capacity to provide shelter to the affected
households.
Zim Standard
BY VALENTINE
MAPONGA
STRUGGLING Zimbabweans say 2007 could turn out to be
the most
difficult year since independence as hardships continue to
mount.
Many people who spoke to The Standard as the first week of
the New
Year drew to a close, said they had no doubt the coming months would
be
filled with more misery than they have known since 1980.
The
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) expects the consumer basket for
a family
of six to soar to over $375 000 by the end of the month; in
contrast, the
average monthly income of a worker is between $50 000 and $60
000.
Among these are most civil servants.
Salaries
have remained low, yet rentals have risen by more than 300%.
A single room
in most of Harare's high-density suburbs is now going for
between $10 000
and $20 000 a month.
The prices of bread and transport fares have
recently shot up.
"The year 2007 is bad news already, although we
have been in it for
only six days," said Simbarashe Macheka, a security
guard.
Margaret Mazhambe, a secretary in Mt Pleasant, stays in
Chitungwiza,
35 kilometres away. She said she might have to quit her job
since most of
her pay would now be spent on transport.
"Now, it
does not make any sense to go to work, because I am working
for transport
alone." She asked: "Every day I need about $3 400 for
transport; where on
earth can I get all that money?"
To get to work for the whole
month, Mazhambe needs around $80 000. "If
I don't get an increment this
month, then it means I will just have to quit
and stay at home," she
said.
Economic analyst Eric Bloch believes the first half of 2007
is going
to be very difficult for the majority of Zimbabweans. "There is
likely going
to be greater unemployment as more and more companies struggle
to survive
and this means more suffering," he said. "Economic recovery will
take long
and I hope inflation will start to ease from the second half of
the year."
He predicts inflation will drop to between 600-800% by
the end of the
year.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
secretary general Wellington Chibebe
agreed 2007 would be a very tough year
for the workers.
"There are very obvious indicators already that
this year is going to
be a tough one. Firstly, the economic performance is
very poor and the
ruling party has proved it has failed to resolve the
country's problems
since nothing came out of its (Zanu PF's people's)
conference," Chibebe
said.
He said the ZCTU, which has staged a
number of anti-government
protests, including one brutally crushed by the
police last September, would
"employ both dialogue and action" to press the
government to address the
plight of workers living below the poverty
threshold.
"Right now there is no commitment from the workers
because what they
get from work is not sustaining them," he
said.
Washington Katema, the national co-ordinator of the Zimbabwe
National
Students' Union (ZINASU), said the year would be difficult for all
students.
"Our parents are civil servants and their salaries are
very low and so
it means most students are going to suffer," he said.
"Definitely, the
government has to do something to increase student grants.
We are going to
meet the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education in two
weeks' time and we
hope something fruitful will come out of that
meeting."
Zimbabwe is in the seventh year of an economic recession
characterised
by record inflation, foreign currency and food shortages and
high
unemployment.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
CORRESPONDENT
MUTARE - Edgar Tekere, the fiery former freedom
fighter, has called on
Zimbabweans to stand up and resist plans by President
Robert Mugabe to cling
to power until 2010, saying his continued stay in
power was ruining the
country.
Tekere said it was time for the
people of Zimbabwe to stand up against
Mugabe's bid to extend his hold on
power because his rule was now
retrogressive to both Zanu PF and the
government.
He declared he was not afraid of anyone and would
continue resisting
Mugabe's desire for an extended term at the helm of the
country.
"Kusiri kufa ndekupi?" the tough-talking Tekere said in an
interview.
"If there are people who say Tekere must die they must know that
I have had
many attempts on my life but midzimu yenyika neyekwaTekere
inondichengeta."
Tekere said it was now time for Zimbabweans to
make a bold decision
that was in their own interests because Mugabe's
continued stay in power was
destroying the country.
"Mugabe has
become a liability to the party and to governance in
Zimbabwe," he said,
declaring: "It is time for Mugabe to go!"
Asked who the most
suitable successor to Mugabe was, Tekere said it
was up to Zimbabweans to
choose a capable leader on their own but what was
important now was to
ensure that Mugabe's bid to extend his rule was stopped
immediately.
Tekere appears to enjoy tactical support from a
number of senior Zanu
PF officials who oppose Mugabe's bid to extend his
tenure of office to 2010.
Zim Standard
By Nqobani
Ndlovu/Pindai Dube
BULAWAYO - A Bulawayo man, allegedly shot by
a policeman on New Year's
Day last week, died in hospital last
Friday.
Relatives of Artwell Magagada (25) said he was on a life
support
system at Mater Dei Hospital since the early hours of 1 January
after he was
shot by a police officer outside a popular food court in the
city.
The bullet was still lodged in his head when he died, they
said, after
doctors failed to remove it.
They said Magagada was
"brain dead" after the bullet sunk two
centimetres into his
brain.
Magagada worked for Chicken Inn fast food chain in Bulawayo.
He was in
the company of workmates at the time of the shooting.
Southern region Innscor human resources manager, Juta Tshuma,
confirmed that
Magagada was shot after knocking off from work on 31
December.
The acting Bulawayo police spokesperson, Langa Ndlovu, was not
available for
comment, being said to be constantly out of his office.
Chief
Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka and Assistant Commissioner Wayne
Bvudzijena
could not be reached for comment either, while Home Affairs
Minister, Kembo
Mohadi, responded to questions with a curt "I do not run the
police".
But a grief-stricken Charles Magagada, the deceased's
brother, said:
"The police never expressed any interest in the matter after
my brother was
shot. Chicken Inn has taken care of all the costs while they
(the police)
only seem to be trying to cover up the matter. This matter will
not die just
like that. We are taking it up with the courts."
Eye-witnesses claimed Magagada was shot in the head just after leaving
the
celebrating crowd on his way home after 12 midnight.
They said two
unidentified police officers in a Mazda B1800 pick-up
appeared to have been
incensed by the firecrackers, hooting and screeching
of cars turning in
circles at 12 midnight.
They are alleged to have first shot at one
of the cars with South
African number plates. They later shot at Magagada in
the ensuing chaos,
before driving off.
Earlier on the same day,
Bulawayo police had warned residents against
celebrating the New Year with
firecrackers, claiming people usually took
advantage of the celebrations to
engage in violence.
They warned residents they faced arrest if they
used firecrackers
without police clearance.
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
BURDENED by the ever-rising cost of school uniforms,
most parents have
now called on the government to abolish them
altogether.
A Standard survey last week heard parents appealing to
the government
to scrap school uniforms because they had become an
"unnecessary burden", as
school fees, now almost beyond the reach of many,
were giving them enough
trouble.
The parents complained that
the cost of a school uniform was now
higher than that of educating a child
the whole year in public schools.
Interviewed as she was buying a
uniform in Harare for her son, Mollen
Munyakwe (41) said she would be
"greatly relieved" if the government
abolished school uniforms.
She accused uniform manufacturers and retailers of exploiting
poverty-stricken parents by unilaterally hiking prices at the beginning of
every year.
"I have heard that in other countries, children
don't wear uniforms at
all," she said. "Under the present economic
circumstances, where most
households can barely afford a decent meal, it is
only logical to abolish
school uniforms."
Munyakwe is a school
teacher by profession.
A full school uniform - a pair of boxer
shorts, a matching shirt, grey
stockings and school blazer - cost Munyakwe
more than $122 000, which she
said she had struggled to raise.
A trained teacher's salary averages $60 000 a month; one uniform would
take
two months' pay.
John Munenzwa (36), a security guard, vowed he
would not buy a uniform
for his son who begins Grade One in Warren
Park.
"I will only pay school fees. I cannot afford new uniforms.
Where in
this world would I get $100 000 for the uniform?"
The
secretary-general of the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe
(PTUZ),
Raymond Majongwe, supported the abolition of school uniforms. He
said this
would leave parents with more disposable income, to buy basic
necessities at
home.
"It's no use for a child to go to school in an immaculate
uniform on
an empty stomach and faint in class at the end of the day. Pupils
should
just wear decent clothes to school," he said.
In some
countries in the West, students did not wear uniforms to
school, he said.
"It's not the uniform that instills discipline in a child
but the whole
socialisation process, starting at home."
Association of Trust
Schools (ATS) chairman, Jameson Timba, said the
decision to have a uniform
should be at the discretion of individual
schools.
There is no
statute in Zimbabwe that compels schools to have uniforms.
"In my
view, a uniform represents freedom of expression; so the
decision to wear or
not wear should be that of a school," Timba said.
For the past few
years, Timba has fought legal battles with the
Ministry of Education, Sport
and Culture over its drive to set school fees
for private
schools.
Timba said the high cost of uniforms was a reflection of
the
distortions in the national economy.
Educationist and
former University of Zimbabwe vice-chancellor
Professor Gordon Chavhunduka
said he would support the abolition of school
uniforms.
"I
support anything that reduces the parents' financial burden," he
said.
A headmaster, who asked not to be named, said when
students were not
in uniform they tended to misbehave because it would be
difficult to
identify them.
"If that happens, we will have a
lot of pregnancies and alcohol
consumption by students will certainly
increase," he said.
Apart from that, the headmaster argued,
children from poor backgrounds
would be mocked, ostracised because they
would come to school in tattered
clothes and their academic performance
might suffer as a result.
But Majongwe quashed the argument that
students would engage in
prostitution and other immoral
behaviour.
"As long as the clothes do not provoke the other sex
that is fine with
me. On civic days and holidays students put on their
clothes and we have not
heard of any adverse reports," he said.
The Minister of Education, Sport and Culture, Aeneas Chigwedere, could
not
be reached for comment but he is on record as saying uniforms were not a
necessity.
In 2002, he said: "While school uniforms are not an
absolute
necessity, the ministry will however, support their continued use
partly for
easier monitoring of the pupils wherever they might be and partly
to reduce
the dangers, inconveniences and expenses of 'fashion shows', at
the expense
of the parents and disadvantaged pupils."
Chigwedere was criticised for suggesting the introduction of a "one
school
uniform policy" as a way of reducing high costs of uniforms.
Zim Standard
BY NDAMU
SANDU
IT'S a New Year and a new beginning, but for the majority
of
Zimbabweans, 2007 promises to be another nerve-racking year.
A new round of increases in commuter bus fares and basic commodities
has
painted a gloomy picture for ordinary people.
Commuter bus fares
went up 60% last week while the prices of basic
commodities are on the
increase eroding workers' little disposable income.
Rentals and water rates
went up this month piling up the pressure on the
hard-pressed average-income
household.
Over 50% of all workers earn between $40 000 and $60 000
a month, far
below the $100 000 tax-free threshold announced by Finance
Minister Herbert
Murerwa last year.
This comes at a time when
the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe has
forecast an increase in the consumer
basket for an urban family of six to
shoot to over $375 000 by the end of
January.
Economic analysts have warned people to tighten their
belts for a
tumultuous year.
"It is gloom and doom and I can't
see anything better this year," said
Tony Hawkins of the Graduate School of
Management at the University of
Zimbabwe.
"The problem is
political and until there is a political change I don't
see the economy
recovering."
Hawkins said the Monetary Policy Statement to be
delivered by central
bank chief Gideon Gono later this month could provide
an opportunity to
ignite economic revival.
Hawkins said: "There
is an opportunity to do something, though his
(Gono) hands are tied by the
ruling party, the presidium, politburo and
central committee. I don't think
he will be able to do what he wants."
Bulawayo-based economic
analyst Eric Bloch said the first half of the
year would be characterised by
foreign currency shortages, resulting in
retrenchments, pushing up
unemployment.
But he said the second half would see some
improvements.
"There is a slow recovery in the second half. Some
improvements in
exports and mining will help generate some foreign
currency," he said.
Even promises by Murerwa that the economy would
grow this year have
not lifted the hopes of the general populace. Announcing
the 2007 National
Budget, Murerwa projected an economic growth target of
between 0.5% and 1%
this year, a figure analysts have dismissed as
untenable.
"At best, we will achieve a standstill position, no
growth and no
decline in growth," said Bloch.
A new economic
blueprint, the National Economic Development Priority
Programme (NEDPP)
launched last year expires this month, with nothing to
show for it. Launched
amid pomp and fanfare, the NEDPP promised an end to
farm disturbances. It
promised to raise US$2.5 billion in cash or
investments in six to nine
months. NEDPP was touted as a plan which would
bring quick solutions to the
beleaguered economy; but like its predecessors,
the model is turning into
another damp squib.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will next
month discuss Zimbabwe's
continued membership. While the country will not
face immediate expulsion,
the chances are very high that it may continue
being ineligible to access
loans from the IMF.
Analysts said
last week Zimbabwe's revival would be boosted by an
injection of foreign
direct investments but has to adhere to certain
parameters that stimulate
investor confidence.
"Investors are keen to invest, provided their
investments are secure,"
Bloch said.
"As a country, we have to
look East... West, South and North."
The mining industry looks up
to 2007 with anxiety as uncertainty hangs
over the proposed amendments to
the Mines and Minerals Act, legislating for
the government to take a 51%
stake in all mining ventures.
Mother Nature seems to be conspiring
against Zimbabwe, as the heavy
rains that usually fall in January of every
year are elusive this year,
setting the possible stage for another year of
hunger.
Zim Standard
ZIMBABWE'S annual inflation at
1 098.8% as at
November will clock the 2000% mark by mid-term, analysts
warned last week.
The projection is way ahead of Finance Minister
Herbert Murerwa's
forecast in his 2007 National Budget last
November.
Murerwa said then inflation would decline to between 350%
and 400% by
December 2007 and subsequently decline to under 10% by December
2008.
Analysts said last week inflation would continue heading
northwards as
variables on the ground were fuelling the upward
trend.
"Inflation will continue to reach new highs every month as
factors
driving inflation, such as foreign currency shortages and imports,
are still
in place," said James Jowa, an economic commentator in
Harare.
"We are still fighting food shortages caused by disruptions
in
agriculture and we need to import raw materials," he said.
Independent economic analyst John Robertson said, on average,
inflation
would peak at 3 500% by December.
"We are set to have an average
inflation of 3 500% which means the
highest point would be above 4 000%," he
said.
Some of the factors driving inflation included the land
reform
programme which had caused food scarcities, he said.
Dubbed No. 1 Enemy by Murerwa inflation has been on the increase,
breaking
new highs for the better part of last year.
Zim Standard
Comment
AS Zimbabwe enters its 27th year of independence, it is
pertinent to
remember what shattered our dreams of prosperity. Until 2000,
the country
enjoyed the prospects of ending up as one of the most successful
economies
in the region.
There had been a few hiccups,
admittedly. The ill-advised flirtation
with socialist economic policies had
burnt a few fingers and the disastrous
concession to the demands of a
radical group of war veterans had nearly
bankrupted the
country.
But by 2000, things were beginning to look up, although
politically
the results of the February 2000 constitutional referendum had
cast a dark
shadow on the political horizon.
The final
catalyst, however, were the farm invasions. People were
killed during the
invasions, as they were during the campaign for the 2000
parliamentary
elections.
Nobody in the Zanu PF leadership could stand up today
and proclaim
that these deaths could be slotted into a compartment
conveniently labelled
Casualties of War, as someone tried to do, initially,
with the Gukurahundi
massacres.
It was courageous of the ruling
party, in the end, to admit that the
atrocities inMatabeleland and the
Midlands were "an act of madness" that
ought never to have been allowed to
happen.
It is time for the party to confront the truth about the
farm
invasions and the killings that accompanied them. This was a madness
too and
such an admission would save the country a lot of pain and agony, as
it has
done, albeit not completely, with the admission of guilt over
Gukurahundi.
What is worse is that as a result of the farm
invasions, our economy
has suffered such damage it may be years before we
regain our status as "the
breadbasket" of the region. To make up for the
loss of revenue from
agriculture, the government has engaged in political
and economic gymnastics
worthy of a world-class Olympics
athlete.
None of it has worked: inflation is still speeding out of
control like
a runaway train. The government has no immediate plan to halt
inflation, or
indeed to halt the almost inevitable descent into
penury.
Julius Nyerere, a great African politician before he became
a great
world statesman with his resignation from the presidency
ofTanzaniain 1985,
admitted failure with ujamaa. There may still be critics
ofTanzania's
repudiation of socialism after Mwalimu's resignation, but that
country's
economy is not inthe mess thatZimbabwe's is right
now.
WhatZimbabweneeds is a blunt recognition of the tragedy of the
2000
farm invasions. If it entails amea culpafrom the leadership of Zanu PF,
so
be it. The price this country and its people have paid for the aberration
of
a few hot-headed war veterans is entirely disproportionate to thealleged
benefits of the land reform programme.
It is time for the
government to return to the basics of economic
rectitude: a return to the
world international economic community is
absolutely imperative if we intend
to return to the good old days
whenZimbabwewas counted among the African
countries with the brightest
prospects of achieving economic
success.
What must be recognised is that the present crisis has
spawned a new
breed of villain, a rapacious villain who is mostly
Zimbabwean-born but is
completely heartless about exploiting his country and
his own people if this
will reward him with illicit wealth.
Unfortunately, some of these villains are in positions of power and
will
discourage any attempts to reverse the present pell-mell descent into
an
economic wasteland.
It will take men and women of courage
toconvince the leadership of
Zanu PF that nothing is more important now than
to save the country from
becoming a typicalThird Worldbackwater with no
international respect and no
prospects of recovery.
Zim Standard
By Alex T
Magaisa
Most readers may recall situations when they have either
faced
resistance to change or they have been the ones that have resisted
change,
for no reason other than that that it is the way things have always
been. If
not, it is probably just a matter of time.
Change is a
phenomenon that most people find difficult to deal with.
Even when it is
necessary and inevitable, many people still find it hard to
come to terms
with change. Sometimes, the mere thought of change strikes
fear into the
hearts of most people.
Having observed events and circumstances
obtaining within Zanu PF
circles in recent times, it is arguable that
perhaps the single greatest
challenge it faces is to overcome the fear of
change. This is not simply
change on the broader political and economic
landscape, but change within
its own ranks.
Given the malady
currently affecting the MDC and the consequent loss
of momentum within the
opposition movement generally, most attention now
focuses on Zanu PF and
whether or not it has the capacity and will to
change. This has admittedly
been a narrow focus, which is centred not on the
wider politics and policies
of Zanu PF but simply on the issue of succession
of President Robert
Mugabe.
It is part of what has termed the biographical approach
that has been
largely applied in conceptualising, analysing and
understanding the
Zimbabwean problem; an approach under which the
circumstances of the country
are viewed and analysed via the person of
President Mugabe. This
biographical approach posits that if Mugabe retires
sooner, things are more
likely to get better in Zimbabwe, since essentially
all the shortcomings and
challenges facing the country are invariably blamed
on the leader of the
ruling party. Simple and straightforward as it might
appear, it is not
entirely convincing that his departure will easily wash
away the myriad of
problems, given that they arise from multiple
sources.
The weaknesses this approach notwithstanding, it is
difficult to
dismiss the view that, even if only for image purposes, change
in leadership
is a necessary consideration at this stage. It matters no more
whether it is
right or wrong, since it seems clear that the problems of
Zimbabwe have
become so closely aligned to the name of the President that
one would be
forgiven for suggesting that whoever replaces him, whether or
not he belongs
to Zanu PF, there is likely to be a change in perceptions,
both locally and
internationally, putting aside the argument that the
changes in perception
may be misguided.
Implicit in this
approach is the assumption that new leadership could
usher a new approach to
the political and economic issues affecting the
country. Perhaps that is why
even the staunchest critics of Zanu PF have
probably been willing it to
drive change from within, seeing as it is that
the body and spirit of the
MDC seems to be dithering at critical times.
This approach may be
too simplistic and narrow since it ignores the
myriad of causes of the
crisis and the impact of the political culture in
Zanu PF, which even
President Mugabe himself has struggled to control and
contain. Yet still, in
a country where hope is waning by the day, anything
that represents change
is probably regarded as a credible goal and
achievement.
The
Zanu PF Congress held at Goromonzi in December 2006 suggests that
there are
some voices in Zanu PF that realise that change is necessary and
ultimately
inevitable. There fact that there was reportedly no consensus on
the key
issue of extending the Presidential term from 2008 to 2010 indicates
the
differing views and presence of those willing to effect change. Perhaps
the
most visible sign of an appetite for change was what is now commonly
referred to as the Tsholotsho Declaration, a euphemism for the plan under
which it is said, some sections of Zanu PF were apparently orchestrating
changes in the leadership of the party. Nonetheless even if these are
indications of an appetite for change, there is no visible will to go the
full mile. It seems to me that there is the familiar reluctance in Zanu PF;
perhaps even fear to accept and cope with change.
My
favourite book, Paolo Coelho's The Alchemist, tells the story of a
man who
finds it very difficult to embrace change, even when he knows that
it could
benefit him materially. The man in the story is a merchant, who is
in the
business of selling crystal glass. A boy in his employ eager to
create
wealth brings fresh ideas and proposes that business could be
enhanced if
they install a display cabinet outside the shop, showcasing the
crystal
glasses. However, the merchant is reluctant at first because he
fears people
might knock over the cabinet and break his glasses.
After some
persuasion, he concedes to the plan and sure enough, the
level of business
increases. Later on, the boy notices that people walking
up the hill where
the shop is located often complain of thirst and
tiredness. He proposes to
the merchant that they should start selling tea in
the crystal glasses. The
people would find something to quench their thirst
and having tasted tea in
crystal glasses, they might even end up buying the
glasses as
well.
One would have thought this would be a good plan for the
business,
which any merchant would be keen to embrace. But our merchant
reacts rather
differently. He explains to the boy that he has been in the
business of
selling crystal for three decades and knows the character of
crystal very
well. He admits that if they start selling tea in crystal
glass, his
business would expand but he says he is reluctant to do it
because he fears
that it would mean he would have to change his way of life.
In a classic
statement of fear of change, he says,
"I am
already used to the way things are . . . the shop is exactly the
size I
always wanted it to be. I don't want to change anything, because I
don't
know how to deal with change. I am used to the way I am."
I
sometimes wonder whether this is the same mode in which Zanu PF
operates.
Perhaps they cannot even imagine a world without President Mugabe.
He has
led the party and the country for so long that for them he is now
part of
the natural order. They see no reason to change anything. They
probably fear
change because they do not know how to manage it. Unlike his
detractors,
they see him as a victim of external machinations.
They are used to
the way they are and do not know how to deal with
change, especially given
the factional divisions centring on the battle for
succession. They cannot
even dare talk about succession openly because they
do not know how to deal
with it. Like the merchant, they do not want to be
forced to "look at wealth
and at horizons (they) have never known". But in
the end, as did the
merchant, Zanu PF just has to realise that, "sometimes,
there is just no way
to hold back the river".
Hard as it might be for many people to
swallow, it is futile to deny
that Zanu PF remains a critical player on the
political landscape, primarily
because it is the party that holds the levers
of power and more so now than
a few years ago when the MDC was seen as the
primary agent of change. The
MDC leadership in both factions must pick up
the pieces and realise what
most of their ordinary members have said all
year - that they ought to
become a more solid and focused unit. Arguably,
attention is shifting to
Zanu PF not because it promises greatness but
because it has remained
entrenched in power and observers see little chance
of overcoming it
especially with the opposition in its current sorry state.
Perhaps some
people have come to the point where they think that sometimes
you just have
to face the harsh reality and live with what you have, hoping
for the best.
Zanu PF has never had a better opportunity in recent years to
make positive
steps and rehabilitate its image in the eyes of the people.
Yet Zanu PF has
shown a remarkable reluctance to embrace change. It has
postponed inevitable
change whilst not reducing the burden on the citizens.
In fact, the
postponement serves nothing except to perpetuate the misery of
the citizens.
In the story of the merchant and the boy, it is
gratifying to note
that when our dear merchant finally accepts the boy's
proposal to sell tea
in crystal glasses, business flourishes and he realises
he has done well to
overcome his fear of change. To cope with change he
hires new staff and
introduces other ideas. Perhaps one day, as did the
merchant, Zanu PF will
overcome its fear of change and shall embrace it and
learn to cope with it.
It is a big player on the scene and Zimbabwe
desperately needs it to change.
Just like Zanu PF, the MDC must learn that
things do not always stay the
same. In the tropical rainforest, the
competition for space and light is
fierce. In that jungle, there are giant
trees that grow to great heights.
Sometimes these giants live for hundreds
of years. But sure enough, one day,
each giant faces its end. When the giant
falls, it does not mean that the
rainforest ceases to grow. Instead, the
fall of a giant creates space and in
that space, new plants begin life.
There are those that are quick, but they
do not live long. Then there are
slow growers, the hardwoods that take their
time, but ultimately have the
strength and power to live much longer.
Whichever way, the tropical
rainforest is always replacing itself. The
language of the rainforest is the
language of change. It is the same
language that Zimbabwean politicians must
embrace.
* Dr Magaisa can be contacted at
wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
Zim Standard
TWICE in
my life, I have
been called a monkey -both times unrelated to my
physiognomy.
The first time was during the federation - this being
the
British-imposed experiment of partnership of all races in the three
British
possessions of Southern and Northern Rhodesia and
Nyasaland.
All three countries had their fair share of people of
Asian descent,
most of them traders.
They even had a sprinkling
of so-called Coloureds, the offspring of
relations between black and white.
Some were traders, but most were
artisans.
During federation,
as during the period before that political
abomination was foisted upon the
black people, the Coloureds had a fairly
easy time of it - compared with the
blacks.
So, in essence, the partnership was between white and
black. As we now
know, it was a total, unmitigated disaster. We all breathed
a huge, loud
sigh of relief when it ended in 1963.
This
signalled the birth of independence for the three
countries -Nyasaland and
Zambia in 1964, and Zimbabwe 16 years and much
bloodshed later.
Why it took us longer is a long, tragic story of madness.
It was
shortly after our independence that someone threw that "monkey"
thing at me
again. During federation, it had been hurled at me by a white
woman, a
rather matronly, fat lady who, for some strange reason, always
reminded me
of Cinderella's cruel, ugly stepmother.
After independence, the
epithet was thrown at me by a colleague, as
black as midnight - like me. It
was as replete with contempt as the first
one.
And like that
first one, it was not a response to any provocation from
me - at least, not
that I could detect with the naked eye or ear. What it
was intended to do,
like all such stupid, unreasonable expressions of power,
was to make me feel
so low, so useless, so worthless I ought to be reduced
to a snivelling cur.
It didn't.
This "monkey" business has always raised in me the
sneaking suspicion
that the more things change the more they remain the
same: the white people
despised us because we were seen as socially
inferior; the black person
after independence despised us for . . . the same
reason?
Anyone who was not actively involved in the war of
liberation was and
is still despised by those who were.
Today,
the syndrome goes even deeper. The only reason black
entrepreneurs are being
jailed for raising the price of commodities is that,
in the perception of
the people who now believe they "own" our independence,
they didn't suffer
during the war but are now profiting from the blood and
sweat of the people
who did.
In a perverted act of some sort of revenge, some of these
people are
engaging in the same corruption they believe the businesspeople
have done;
they are ripping off the country's wealth through the naked
looting of the
parastatals - Ziscosteel, Noczim, Zupco, NRZ, Air Zimbabwe
and others.
Some critics have called it "asset stripping", citing
the example of
Harare whose control by a government-appointed commission is
said to be for
the sole purpose of carving up the wealth of the city among
Zanu PF cronies.
The evidence may seem, at first glance, rather
negligible, but if you
study the reason for the repeated renewal by the
government of the
commission's tenure, you must begin to wonder: it is
obviously not because
Harare is getting any better, so it must be because
they are playing monkey
business with the wealth of the city.
Sadly, the villains of the federation, or even of the leaders of the
country
before 1953, seemed to be endowed with the same characteristics of
latent
dictatorial tendencies, selfishness, corruption and greed as the
people we
have called our leaders since 1980.
Would it be irrational for any
student of political research to
conclude that these people, who are playing
monkey business with our wealth
and independence could suffer the same
humiliating defeat as those other
villains?
The distinction of
colour is, in the end, incidental.
PA not being honest on Lake Mutirikwi disaster WITH all due respect to the
provincial administrator (PA) for Masvingo, Felix Chikovo, I would like to
point out that the man is not being honest to the country and himself when
he claims that he is not aware of the destruction taking place around Lake
Mutirikwi.
As the provincial administrator of the area, he is
the man most likely
to be aware of everything taking place in the province.
What is the role of
an administrator if his work is not to know about events
taking place in his
province?
If the PA says that he is not
aware of what is happening around Lake
Mutirikwi, when he literally lives on
the shores of the lake, then he is not
the right man to look after the
province and its resources.
Why is he allowed to remain glued to
his chair, in his office, when he
is supposed to be visiting different parts
of the province regularly? What
is the point of allocating him fuel and a
government vehicle if it is not to
visit various parts of the
province?
The destruction at Lake Mutirikwi has been observed and
noted by
visitors from as far afield as the United States of America, Great
Britain,
Australia and others, yet the PA is not aware of the destruction
around the
catchment area! God help us.
The PA should be man
enough to admit shortcomings in his
administration. The whole country is
aware of the political pressures
exerted on government workers such as the
PA. The people settled around Lake
Mutirikwi are political pawns, who are
difficult to deal with and the PA
should be brave enough and admit that he
is facing this problem. Admitting
to such an administrative failure would
only earn the PA sympathy from the
ordinary people in the
province.
It is the ordinary people who have the power to force the
ruling party
and the government to act. I advise the PA not to lie to
them.
The reality of the situation is that the PA is a lame duck
being used
by politicians to do their work. The PA has no real power to
correct the
situation around Lake Mutirikwi. However, as soon as disaster
strikes, he
will be the linchpin and the people in Masvingo and the ruling
party and the
government will blame him.
Even a person with the
most basic knowledge of Geography will realise
that farming near and around
Lake Mutirikwi is not permitted. The area has
never been designated a
farming area, which is why it has always been fenced
off. The illegal
removal of the fence is no passport to illegal settlements.
Maps in the PA's
office will bear me out. What then makes the PA believe
that Lake Mutirikwi
catchment area has farms on it? Or is he simply passing
the buck onto
extension officers?
Does the PA appreciate what happens to rivers,
dams and lakes affected
by uncontrolled farming activities or illegal
settlements? He should take a
drive to Save River and see, first hand, the
results of illegal stream bank
cultivation.
The PA should
undertake a scientific study of the environmental impact
assessment of the
farming activities around Lake Mutirikwi and submit a
paper to the
government in the hope that someone up there will take the
study seriously.
If this does not work, I suggest that he looks for another
job where his
skills will be put to use.
There is more bad news for the PA: the
upper shores of the lake are
being invaded by the water hyacinth. The weed,
if not attacked now will soon
cover the entire lake - spelling disaster for
the province. Complacency will
result in what has happened to the water
sources of the City of Harare,
where the weed seems to be
winning.
The other headache for the PA is untreated industrial and
domestic
effluent that is pouring into the lake. I agree with Petros
Dzingirai from
Murinye for advocating total removal of the settlers from
Lake Mutirikwi.
His suggestions would be of great use to the
PA.
What is taking place at Lake Mutirikwi can only bring shame to
the
entire province of Masvingo.
Save Lake
Mutirikwi
Masvingo
-------------
Appeal
to Gono: please resolve fuel pricing imbroglio This is an open
letter to Dr
Gideon Gono, the Governor of the Reserve Bank.
You and your
team have scored various successes. However, as in
William Shakespeare's
Macbeth, you are only wounding the snake by hitting it
on the tail instead
of the head. The snake is now more dangerous.
The war against
corruption, indiscipline, inflation and now
bureaucratic inertia has to be
fought on all fronts. Please allow me to
highlight one area that needs an
urgent visit since it forms the backbone of
the economy.
Fuel is energy - the ability to work. All of commerce runs on
fuel. If fuel
is expensive, the chain reaction affects everything. The
simple question we
must ask ourselves is: Are we getting fuel cheaply? If
the answer is no,
please let us visit our fuel procurement system because
this is the head of
the snake blighting our economy. Please visit the
Ministry of Energy and its
subsidiaries and put their house in order.
I invite you to
Mutare to see for yourself - from the Christmas
Pass - how fuel tankers are
going up and down carrying the much needed fuel
from Beira to Harare, while
burning up the same precious liquid. The owners
of those tankers are smiling
all the way to the bank after receiving fat
cheques from Noczim. This is
corruption. If not, what is it?
Just study how the water
problem in Mutare was addressed - a
long term solution - the Pungwe-Odzani
pipeline will be there for
generations to come.
We have
the Beira-Harare pipeline for fuel - let's use it. We
also have the Beira-
Harare railway line - let's use it. Full use of these
facilities will bring
to an end the bad, expensive and corrupt way of
transporting
fuel.
The aim is to cut costs, thereby bringing down the
price of
fuel. Consumers will benefit and gone will be the runaway prices of
everything.
Crispen Tendai Masenhu
Chikanga, Mutare
-----------
Time
electorate demanded training for politicians It seems that
politicians are
the only professionals who achieve their positions in
society without
undergoing any training.
Teachers undergo a training
course for two - three years.
Doctors spend more than five years of medical
training after six years of
secondary schooling. Farmers undergo two-three
years of farming course.
Drivers dare not operate a vehicle without a valid
licence, and so on.
However, politicians are a
different type of
professionals. The world is literally run by untrained
people. This may
explain the many problems bedevilling the world today. In
Africa, it seems
that to be a politician, one only has to refine his/her
skills in telling
lies, cheating and threatening opponents. To cap
everything, one has to
spend time in prison or
detention.
Are these the kind of qualifications needed
for one to run
an entire nation? Time spent lying, cheating and threatening
innocent people
spiced with a spell in prison only stiffens the character of
the would-be
politician. His/her hatred for society is fine-tuned resulting
in a product
who believes that society owes him/her for his/her suffering in
prison or
detention.
The prison/detention graduate
believes that he/she is
entitled to all kinds of favours from society for
his/her stay in prison.
When the politician is elected into office, he/she
likes to show that he/she
has power to do anything. The display of power is
a form of revenge on the
politician's former jailers and society at
large.
In civilised societies, being held at ransom by
disgruntled politicians is not tolerated. Unfortunately in Africa, where
civilisation is assumed to be in its infancy, politicians behave in a heavy
handed manner towards their compatriots.
Whenever
an unlicensed driver rams a car into another,
he/she is prosecuted because
he/she is not qualified to drive a car. No
unqualified doctor or teacher is
allowed to run a hospital or a school. Why
then are our politicians allowed
to rule us without any qualifications? I
would like to suggest the creation
of a unique college where all aspiring
politicians must go through.
Political students must go through the first
year learning the basic course
in how to lead, debate, run finances, prepare
projects etc. At secondary
level, the aspirants undergo a course on the role
of the constitution of a
country, the role of local government, the work of
security forces and the
role of the judiciary.
Tertiary level will deal with
good governance and the use
of general elections to ensure the continuance
of good governace. Of course,
these are a hotchpotch of ideas from a mere
novice. The Department of
Political Science at the University of Zimbabwe
can be asked to work on an
appropriate syllabus for the proposed college for
politicians.
Graduands from the political college(s)
will then form a
pool where possible government leaders will be drawn from.
Elections will be
contested by different political graduands for positions
in government.
We may not get rid of all our governance
problems but at
least we would be making a start at improving the quality of
our
politicians.
Bird
Brained
Masvingo
-------------
Primitive methods IT'S so sad to read
about what happened
to Godfrey Mukombachoto of Zengeza, Chitungwiza, and his
family (The
Standard 23 December 2006).
A
similar incident almost happened to my family when
I was out of the country,
ironically on police business. They came to my
house and found my wife and
children. They demanded to enter and
search the house
using a search warrant bearing a
wrong name but correct
address.
They eventually left but my family was
traumatised.
My advice to the CID is: gather "intelligence" first, and then,
equipped
with knowledge of the criminal it becomes easier to pinpoint the
target.
They should move away from the primitive
methods of
using force in order to obtain information. A lot of innocent
citizens are
left with scars for life for things they really don't know and
are not
guilty of.
O
M
Chitungwiza