Zim Independent
By
Dumisani Muleya
RESERVE Bank governor Gideon Gono has escalated
his fight against
government's price reduction blitz which has left shops
empty and the
economy crumbling as divisions within President Robert
Mugabe's embattled
regime widen.
Gono intensified his
unprecedented resistance to the blitz this week,
warning the authorities the
crackdown could lead to "unintended
consequences" such as the collapse of
businesses, worsening economic decline
and suffering of the
poor.
Gono likened the state-sponsored crackdown to the United
States'
invasion of Iraq in which a military campaign was launched into a
dangerous
territory without an exit strategy. He further said government
must avoid
creating a scenario similar to the biblical situation in which
the
Israelites ended up thinking it was better to go back to Egypt during
their
long journey to the promised land.
After telling the
government and Zanu PF early last week that their
campaign was ill-advised,
Gono last Friday warned the Cabinet Taskforce on
Price Monitoring and
Stabilisation that while the price-slashing policy
might have been
well-intentioned, it has inadvertently created problems that
have worsened
the situation. Gono again put his thoughts in writing this
week, raising the
political stakes in the crackdown clearly designed to win
votes in next
year's parliamentary and presidential elections.
Zanu PF officials
fear defeat at the polls because of the economic
crisis and a crippling
power struggle currently rocking their party.
Mugabe has been
saying the price blitz was triggered by his regime's
fears that business
wanted to use economic pressure to ensure his defeat at
the
elections.
The crackdown was apparently driven by the Joint
Operations Command
(JOC), which comprises the army, intelligence, prisons,
and police. Sources
said JOC, which was accused of being the architect of
Operation
Murambatsvina that displaced at least 700 000 people in 2005, was
anxious
that unless the government did something dramatic to change the
situation,
Mugabe would lose next year's elections, leading to the collapse
of his
regime and his 28-year rule.
Gono warned the government
this week that authorities must guard
against "the law of unintended
consequences" via which the blitz could lead
to economic implosion and
attendant problems such as further political
instability and social
dislocation.
"Let's avoid the law of unintended consequences in the
action
government has taken which will leave the country in a worse-off
position
than now; avoid the trap of temporary victory and instant
gratification that
backfires with consuming return-fire from both the
business community and
consumers alike," Gono said.
"It is
critical that urgent steps be taken to, once and for all, deal
with the
supply side imperatives without which, or failure of which, will
leave the
country in a worse-off situation."
He said authorities risked
fulfilling doomsday prophecies like
"government will collapse within six
months" through such policies as the
prices crackdown.
"Let's
avoid the 'take me back to Egypt syndrome' as done by the
Israelites when
they suddenly developed disillusionment during their arduous
journey to the
promised land," Gono said.
"Soon they started thinking that it was
better where they were coming
from; and us we risk having the same mentality
when suddenly our shops
become empty, with foreign exchange inflows into the
central bank drying up,
among many other backlashes, leading us to
needlessly draw spears against
each other."
Gono also said
government must avoid getting bogged down in the
current situation like the
US in Iraq by choosing wrong policy strategies
that can easily
backfire.
"Let's avoid what in contemporary strategy has become
known as the
US/Iraq syndrome where the US, backed by its allies, went into
Iraq without
an exit strategy," Gono said. "We need to define clearly at
what point we
will exit from the current blitz. Alongside the exit strategy,
there is also
a mechanism that needs to be put in place: monitoring the
monitors. This is
particularly so against a background of reported cases of
corruption,
looting and general waywardness by some
stakeholders."
Gono said a holistic package of measures which
include the need to
reduce government expenditure, reduce the budget deficit
and ensure fiscal
discipline were needed to reduce inflation, not just a
blitz. He said price
controls without production do not work. Gono made
recommendations on the
protection of property rights and how to attract
investment to revive the
economy.
He said everyone was battling
for survival and government must not
make the situation worse for everybody,
including itself.
"Our backs are against the wall and to survive as
a people (labour and
consumers) we must survive, as the business community
they have to, and
survive as a government we also must," he said. Gono said
government would
still be able to implement its policies without threatening
the survival of
business, the economy, the people and itself.
Zim Independent
RULING Zanu
PF hardliners supporting the price blitz want Reserve Bank
governor Gideon
Gono's "wings clipped" or get him dismissed for resisting
the campaign which
has bankrupted businesses.
Inside sources said cliques of Zanu PF
diehards - who are opposed to
political and economic reforms - who include
Elliot Manyika and Nicholas
Goche, want President Robert Mugabe to cut
Gono's "prime ministerial powers"
because he was now opposed to government
policies.
The sources said the coterie of hawks, including
politburo member
Obert Mpofu, feel that Gono must be dismissed if he
persists in his
opposition to the crackdown. Manyika and Mpofu have been at
the forefront of
the blitz endorsed last week by the Zanu PF politburo,
central committee and
national consultative assembly.
Mugabe
has come out in full support of the clampdown, a position which
situated him
at odds with Gono. Vice-President Joseph Msika has also
publicly backed the
blitz, leaving Gono - who is a bitter political rival of
Vice-President
Joice Mujuru, in the firing line. The price war is said to be
the brainchild
of the Joint Operations Command (JOC), which comprises the
army,
intelligence, prisons and police.
This means that Gono is
vulnerable from many fronts in the system. The
sources said Zanu PF
hardliners feel that Gono is becoming like his
predecessor, Leonard Tsumba,
who during his tenure was accused of
technocratic and bookish considerations
in the execution of his duties and
needed to be pushed out.
During the course of the week, the diehards warned in private
meetings - one
of them a lunch meeting at a restaurant in Harare - that Gono
would suffer
the same fate as former Information minister Jonathan Moyo, who
was
dismissed against a backdrop of serious fighting within Zanu PF and
government.
While Gono is very close to Mugabe and has access
to him more than all
cabinet ministers, he has no support among ministers
and within the party,
especially in the wake of the price reduction blitz, a
vote-grabbing
strategy ahead of next year's joint presidential and
parliamentary
elections.
The Zanu PF faction led by retired
army commander General Solomon
Mujuru has for a long time been fighting Gono
and has reportedly joined the
current campaign to push him out. Gono is also
not particularly popular with
the other main faction led by politburo member
Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Although the Mnangagwa faction has not overtly
been fighting Gono, it
is said to be rather unfriendly to him due to the
ongoing power struggle
over Mugabe's succession. Gono is being touted by
some as a potential Mugabe
successor because of his strategic position in
government. Through the
central bank, Gono virtually controls the financial
levers of the state and
hence the treasury. He has huge influence over
economic ministries such as
Finance, Industry and International Trade,
Economic Development and
Agriculture. Besides, he is also seen as a close
Mugabe ally and some say he
is a family friend and this provides him with a
springboard to challenge for
power. This has brought him into conflict with
leading Zanu PF luminaries
fighting to win power in the party. Zanu PF's
central committee last Friday
adopted a resolution backing Manyika and Mpofu
who are spearheading the
prices crackdown. Prior to that the politburo also
supported the blitz.
Gono clashed with government last week over
the crackdown following
the campaign which led to the looting of shops and
supermarkets in a doomed
bid to curb spiralling inflation.
Official inflation is now 4 500%, although analysts say it is double
that.
In an unprecedented move, Gono wrote to Zanu PF and
government,
distancing himself from the campaign and warning it would
collapse the
remaining pillars of the economy and spell more trouble for
Mugabe's
regime. - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Augustine Mukaro/ Loughty Dube
RESERVE Bank governor Gideon
Gono's cattle restocking programme could
face hurdles as government forces
cattle producers to sell their livestock
to the Cold Storage Company (CSC)
at sub-economic prices in its ongoing
blitz.
Government this
week revoked licences for private abattoirs and
ordered all cattle producers
to send their slaughter stock to the CSC. The
CSC is offering between $4-$5
million a beast, much lower than the $45
million the farmers had been
receiving.
Sources said government officials have been dispatched
into the rural
areas to armtwist farmers into selling all their cattle to
the CSC. One of
the blitz teams yesterday stopped a cattle auction in
Mashonaland East,
saying all cattle should be sold to the CSC. Nearly all
farmers took their
animals back in protest.
In Matabeleland,
price reduction teams moved into the rural areas and
stunned villagers by
ordering that they should only sell livestock to the
CSC since it was now
the sole authorised buyer.
Villagers in Matobo district told the
Zimbabwe Independent that a team
moving around with police told them that
cattle should be sold for not more
than $5 million a beast.
Previously a beast was selling for $45 million before government
ordered the
price of beef to be reduced to $80 000 a kg. Slaughter stock is
normally
penfed, which is very expensive.
Over the past two years Gono has
availed more than $1,5 trillion under
the Agriculture Sector Productivity
Enhance Facility (beef cattle support
scheme) to rebuild the national herd.
The national herd is estimated at 80
000 animals, down from the nearly four
million in 1999.
All major privately owned abattoirs confirmed that
they had stopped
cattle slaughter and are applying for the renewal of their
licences. They
said they were likely to send their slaughter stock to the
CSC in line with
the government directive if their application for licence
renewal failed.
"All I can say is that we have stopped cattle
slaughtering," an
official at Surrey Abattoir said. "We are in the process
of applying for the
renewal of our licence so that we can resume our
operations."
Officials at Montana Meats said they had met Industry
and
International Trade ministry officials over the revocation of their
licence.
Failure to secure the licences would push the abattoirs
out of
business and render billions worth of equipment
redundant.
"Our primary function has been taken away, leaving our
facilities
idle," the abattoir said. "We are going to incur serious losses
and it won't
be viable to supply meat outlets by buying beef from the
CSC."
MDC MP for Matobo, Lovemore Moyo, confirmed that police had
ordered
businesspeople in the village to slash prices. He said people were
following
the price teams from as far as Bulawayo hoping to land a
bargain.
"The main problem with the teams is that they are
travelling with
people from Bulawayo who buy everything after prices are
reduced. The
lowering of prices should benefit villagers in the area and not
'foreigners',"
Moyo said.
Zim Independent
Constantine Chimakure
THE government will
next month ban the import and export of various
goods, among them groceries,
for resale or disposal without a permit.
This is meant to kill off
cross border trade in basic commodities
which has largely kept shops
supplied in the absence of locally manufactured
goods.
According to statutory instruments 137 and 138 of 2007 gazetted last
week,
the importation of goods such as beef, butter, cooking oil, milk,
cheese,
sugar, tea, wheat flour, ice-cream, fertiliser, cotton lint and
hides and
skins without a permit will be outlawed with effect from August 1.
The exportation of meat, millet, milk, poultry, sorghum, soya beans,
sunflower, tea, vegetables and wheat will also be banned. Families are
allowed to import goods worth US$250 a month for domestic consumption
only.
Individuals and companies wanting to import goods will have
to apply
for a permit from the Ministry of Industry. The ministry's
secretary can
revoke the permit if the holder fails to comply with its
conditions. The
permit is not transferable.
Legal experts said
the ban on the importation of groceries would
mostly affect cross border
traders who have been buying an assortment of
groceries from countries such
as Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia
and Malawi for resale back
home.
The traders, most of them women, have managed to keep the
country's
markets alive by supplying various goods such as cooking oil, soap
and
margarine in times of shortages of locally manufactured
brands.
Their goods were sold at affordable prices as compared to
locally
manufactured ones.
Cross border trading had also become
a major source of employment,
income generation, improved food security for
households and a means for
improving living standards.
Zim Independent
Kuda
Chikwanda
MANUFACTURERS and retailers have started to quantify
their losses amid
fears that companies could shut down in the coming weeks
as government this
week intensified its blitz on businesses, the Zimbabwe
Independent has
established.
Government reneged on its promises
to business to subsidise fuel and
other vital inputs as part of efforts to
control prices. This forced
business to continue sourcing fuel on the black
market where it was selling
for as much as $200 000 per litre this
week.
Shortages of basic commodities worsened this week as the
effects of
government's order for producers and retailers to slash prices by
50% took
effect. At the same time government stepped up its campaign to
arrest
industrialists perceived as working against the order.
Major casualties of the blitz include National Foods (Natfoods), TM,
OK,
Lobels, Circle Cement, National Tyre Services, Star Africa, Schweppes
Zimbabwe, Net*One and Makro Mega Centre, a wholesale giant.
The
number of companies which face bankruptcy is much higher but
business
executives have been unwilling to give estimates of the losses they
have
suffered so far, fearing arrest and victimisation by government.
It
has been established that TM has suffered a loss of between $35
billion and
$40 billion in the past two weeks while OK lost $38 billion.
Natfoods incurred a loss of $18 billion after importing an unspecified
quantity of salt from Botswana, only to be forced to sell it at below cost
at the old price of $34 000 a kg. Natfoods has also suffered losses on its
other product lines.
"It is correct that we have incurred
losses on some product lines due
to pricing. However, these are not
quantified at this time," said Linda
Musesengwa, Natfoods' public relations
consultant.
NTS on the other hand suspended a lucrative contract to
supply tyres
to listed giant Delta for its entire fleet of vehicles. A
company official
confirmed the developments but refused to disclose the
value of the
transaction, referring all questions to managing director, Mark
Vickery, who
was said to be out of the country.
Bakers have
been incurring losses of between $15 000 and $20 000 a
loaf. A Schweppes
official said they had been bearing losses since the order
was issued by
government and had only started compiling the extent of their
losses on
Wednesday.
Government has threatened to nationalise defiant
companies and also
arrest officials at the helm of these companies. So real
has been the threat
that over 1 000 individuals having been arrested so far
under the blitz.
OK's boss, Willard Zireva, was arrested on Tuesday
as the retail giant
closed its Gweru branch. He appeared in court yesterday.
Other retail giants
and manufacturers refused to disclose their losses
fearing retaliation from
government.
Gutsai Convenience Stores
management said while they would comply with
government's order, they would
be in serious trouble once current supplies
run out.
Meanwhile,
Net*One is in financial dire straits and could fail to pay
salaries for July
if Transport and Communications minister Chris Mushohwe
does not intervene
with a cash injection.
The Cabinet Taskforce on Price Monitoring
and Stabilisation ordered
all network operators to revert to the old prices.
Econet Wireless managing
director Douglas Mboweni refused to
comment.
Western Union Transport had 2 000 litres of its company
fuel seized
yesterday morning by price control officers, a company official
said.
"They just descended on us and threatened to arrest us if we
did not
give them the fuel. It was sold for $60 000 a litre. One officer
said we
were working with (US ambassador Christopher) Dell for regime change
in six
months and that we were going to suffer as a result," said the
official.
Wholesale giant Macro Mega Centre was mobbed yesterday as
Zimbabweans
rushed to buy groceries whose prices had been
slashed.
When shoppers yesterday morning descended on a South
African-owned
wholesaler, police forced the shop to slash prices in line
with the
presidential decree. But prices were reduced to ridiculous levels
with
television sets going for $3 million and refrigerators for $20
million.
Shoes that cost $4 million were sold for $57 000 while
pairs of
trousers were sold for a fifth of the original value. During lunch
hour, at
least 500 shoppers - a number of them in top of the range vehicles
-
besieged the wholesale's entrance hoping to land bargains.
They however drove off disappointed as soldiers and police sealed off
the
access gate. Occasionally though, members of the blitz team emerged from
the
wholesale carrying white goods and garden tools.
On Wednesday,
Grant Pattison, chief executive of SA retail giant
Massmart, the major
shareholders in Makro, told Fin24 that police had
detained the shop's
assistant manager and forced him to close the store.
Elsewhere
across Harare government's price police ordered retailers to
comply with the
directive. The price of television sets fell from around $50
million to $2
million, sparking pandemonium in downtown Harare, while DVD
players were
selling for a $1 million.
Bata Shoe Company outlets were stripped
bare as customers jostled to
buy shoes whose prices had been
reduced.
Portland Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pretoria
Portland
Cement and Circle Cement, are faced with trying times after the
price of
cement was slashed from $1,5 million to $120 000 for a 50kg
bag.
Zim Independent
Orirando Manwere
THE proposed composition
and functions of the Senate in the
Constitutional Amendment (No18) Bill are
aimed at extending and further
buttressing the government's power of
patronage, legal experts have said.
The Bill, among other things,
seeks to change the composition of the
House of Assembly and Senate by
increasing the number of legislators to 210
and 84 from 150 and 66
respectively.
Under the Bill, the Senate will comprise 18 chiefs,
10 provincial
governors, six presidential appointees and 50 elected
members.
The legal experts said under the amendment the Senate
would simply
rubber-stamp President Mugabe's decision to appoint key people
like service
chiefs, pubic service commissioners and the Chief Justice
because most
senators would be ruling party loyalists.
"The
pushing of 18 chiefs, who have openly declared their support for
President
Mugabe and unanimously endorsed his candidature for next year's
scheduled
presidential elections means 18 Zanu PF loyalists already in the
upper
house.
"The 10 provincial governors already appointed by the
president are
obvious loyalists who will again be pushed to the Senate
including six other
presidential appointees which will make 34 out of the
proposed 84 Senate
members already loyal to the president," said MDC chief
whip Innocent Gonese
who is a lawyer by profession and a member of the
parliamentary legal
committee
"On the other hand, the
Delimitation Commission which will be
responsible for determining the
boundaries of the senatorial constituencies
will deliberately ensure that
Zanu PF strongholds get the largest chunk as
opposed to opposition
party-dominated areas like what happened in the 2005
parliamentary
elections."
Fortune Charumbira, the president of the Chiefs
Council, this week
said chiefs had endorsed President's Mugabe's candidature
in next year's
election at a two-day seminar in Harare.
Charumbira this week said Mugabe was the only leader they wanted to
contest
and win next year's presidential election.
Traditional leaders are
custodians of culture and are held in high
esteem in their communities which
respect and adhere to their rulings and
guidelines as
authoritative.
However, Gonese said chiefs are supposed to be
apolitical and should
represent their respective communities regardless of
individuals' political
affiliations.
"That is why we are saying
we need a new constitution to correct all
these problems. We do not want
continued piecemeal amendments to the
Constitution. How can we have chiefs
who are expected to be apolitical
openly declaring their support for a
particular political party when they
are members of the Senate?" asked
Gonese.
Clauses 11, 14, 16 and 18, 22, 26 and 28 provide that where
recommendations of either the Judicial Service Commission or Public Service
Commission on the appointment of the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission, Secretary to Cabinet or a ministry are not adopted by the
president, the president "will cause the Senate to be informed of this fact,
and not both houses".
"This creates an impression," said
Gonese, "that the Senate would make
ultimate decisions but the president
will merely inform the Senate. Even if
the Senate were to make a decision,
it would simply endorse the president's
decision by virtue of most members
being loyal to him. So in essence, the
Bill gives the president much more
power. There is no democracy or checks
and balances expected of the upper
house."
Gonese added that in the event of having a balanced lower
house, the
partisan Senate would then be used to rubber stamp executive
decisions, thus
putting paid to any efforts to promote expected
parliamentary democracy.
Lovemore Madhuku, the chairman of the
National Constitutional
Assembly, echoed Gonese's sentiments adding that
Bill was all about
consolidating Mugabe's power and continued
rule.
"Essentially the proposed Senate is meant to rubber-stamp the
president's will on the people," said Madhuku. "It is a useless amendment
which must simply be rejected by the people of Zimbabwe. The Delimitation
Commission will deliberately ensure that boundaries cover Zanu PF areas.
Already there will be 34 senators aligned to the ruling party and this
figure almost constitutes a quorum. Its quite clear this amendment is meant
to consolidate existing executive powers."
Commenting on
appointments of personnel to key public offices, Gonese
said parliament
should have a well-balanced appointments committee which
should generate
names of suitable candidates for such posts and recommend
the to the
president.
"The current scenario we have where service commission
members and
chairpersons appointed by the President being the ones who also
recommend
candidates for public offices is not impartial," said
Gonese.
In its analysis of the Bill, the Zimbabwe Election Support
Network
(Zesn) legal unit said the proposed composition and expansion of the
Senate
was unjustified, expensive and meant to extend the government's power
of
patronage.
"So far as presidential appointees are concerned,
what the House of
Assembly loses, the Senate will gain. Any reduction in the
number of members
of parliament who owe their seats to the president is
welcome, but the
precise number is unimportant. The fundamental point is
that the executive
should not be allowed to appoint any members of the
legislature and
governors at all. The only exception to the rule should be
chiefs, who have
a legitimate role to play in the Senate even though they
owe their initial
appointment to the president," said Zesn in a
statement.
Zesn said chiefs should remain outside politics and play
an advisory
role as was the case in Lesotho and other
countries.
The election monitoring organisation recommended the
system of
proportional representation to elect members of the Senate for
inclusivity
and broadening representation of special interest groups, women,
the
disabled, the youth and other disadvantaged minority groups.
Zim Independent
Constantine
Chimakure
THE Morgan Tsvangirai led faction of the Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) this week said it will boycott next year's
harmonised polls if
there are no significant electoral law
reforms.
Addressing hundreds of supporters in Mabvuku on Sunday,
Tsvangirai
said the South Africa president Thabo Mbeki-mediated talks
between the MDC
and the ruling Zanu PF should come up with resolutions that
guarantee free
and fair elections if the opposition party is to participate
in the polls.
Mbeki was in March mandated by the Southern Africa
Development
Community (Sadc) to mediate between the two
protagonists.
"We want real electoral reforms. Posa (Public Order
and Security Act)
must be abrogated, Zimbabweans in the diaspora must vote,
international
monitors and observers should be allowed into the country
three or four
months ahead of the polls and we should be guaranteed space in
the public
media," Tsvangirai said. "If these minimum conditions are not
met, why will
we participate in fraudulent polls? We will allow (President
Robert) Mugabe
to have a walkover."
Tsvangirai said if the
government goes ahead with the polls minus his
party, that would be "the
endgame" of the Mugabe regime. He said "rigging"
of the 2008 poll was
already in motion with thousands of perceived MDC
supporters being refused
voter registration, while police have turned down
over 800 planned rallies
by the opposition party.
"Out of the over 1 000 rallies we intended
to hold throughout the
country, only 200 were sanctioned under Posa. Zanu PF
is holding rallies
without even notifying the police as per provisions of
Posa.
"Thousands of prospective voters are being turned away. Is
this not
rigging?" asked Tsvangirai.
He said if these problems
were not ironed out during the Mbeki talks,
his party would see no reason in
participating in the polls.
However, political analysts this week
questioned the efficacy of such
a move as Zanu PF would go ahead with the
polls and "win convincingly".
University of Zimbabwe political
science lecturer Eldred Masunungure
said boycotting the elections would work
against the MDC.
"Zanu PF will not lose sleep if they boycott,"
said Masunungure. "It
will proceed with the polls and I can assure you that
new opposition parties
will be created to give an aura of legitimacy to the
elections," Masunungure
said. "I also foresee some members of the MDC
rebelling against such a
decision and contesting the polls as
independents."
He said the boycott would signal the demise of the
party.
"The boycott would be costly to the party. They will not be
able to
remain credible outside parliament. Currently they are visible
because of
their participation in parliament," Masunungure
added.
He said there was nothing wrong with the MDC pushing for
minimum
requirements to be met before next year's polls, but boycotting them
would
be counterproductive.
Michael Mhike, another political
scientist, said boycotting the
elections by the MDC would not stop Zanu PF
from forming a new government,
even though the country's relations with the
international community will be
further strained.
"Mugabe will
form a new government," said Mhike. "The Tsvangirai camp
should learn from
previous encounters. They boycotted the senate elections
in November 2005,
but they were held and Zanu PF won convincingly. In my
view, boycotting is
not the way to go. They must participate and expose the
weaknesses in the
electoral process and then challenge the legitimacy of the
government formed
from the results of the polls."
A political analyst who preferred
anonymity said the only route for
the MDC to unseat the Zanu PF government
was the ballot and as such the
party must contest.
"Their
concerns are genuine, but it is my considered opinion that they
must fight
it out with Zanu PF. What they must strive to do is to mobilise
every voter
to go to the polls and I do not think the ruling party will be
able to rig
under such circumstances," the analyst said.
Zim Independent
Constantine Chimakure
OUTGOING United States ambassador to
Zimbabwe Christopher Dell says he
will not bid farewell to President Robert
Mugabe whose government has been
highly critical of the envoy's three-year
tour of duty in the country.
Dell is accused by government of
working with opposition parties and
civic organisations to effect regime
change in Zimbabwe.
He leaves for Afghanistan where he will be
deputy chief of mission.
In an exclusive interview on Wednesday,
Dell - a career diplomat -
said he considered it inappropriate to say
goodbye to Mugabe.
"Unfortunately I cannot do that (bid farewell to
Mugabe) for reasons I
have communicated to the president privately," Dell
said. "In the current
circumstances, it would be inappropriate for me to bid
farewell to President
Mugabe."
Dell - who has served as chief
of mission in Angola, Kosovo, Bulgaria
and Mozambique - said the government
was yet to accept his successor's
credentials.
"You ask the
government (about acceptance of the credentials). They
haven't communicated
to us. At the moment I am the accredited ambassador to
Zimbabwe and even if
I leave (before the acceptance of my successor's
credentials), I will remain
the accredited ambassador to Zimbabwe," Dell
said.
Turning to
Zimbabwe's crisis, Dell said recent price cuts by
government would result in
the spiralling of inflation and precipitate
economic collapse.
"What the price controls have done is to force businesses to sell
their
stock at a loss," Dell said, adding that soon shelves would be empty,
forcing the central bank to print money and buy foreign currency for
imports.
The envoy insisted that inflation would hit the 1 500
000% mark in the
next six months and that in history no government ever
survived such a
situation.
He said independent statistics
indicated that inflation in June was 28
000%, contrary to the official 4
500%.
The ambassador said the price cuts were a populist move by a
desperate
government.
"This is classic Robert Mugabe," Dell
said. "When he is scared and
desperate, he lashes out.From a tactical view,
the strategy (of price cuts)
will work, but it is a short-term populist
strategy."
However, the diplomat said the failure of the policy
would hurt the
down-trodden.
He cited the land reform programme
of 2000 that destroyed the
agricultural sector, and the 2005 Operation
Murambatsvina which almost
killed the informal sector, as having hurt
ordinary people most.
Dell said the government should participate
seriously in the South
African president Thabo Mbeki-led mediation between
Zanu PF and MDC if a
lasting solution to the country's crisis is to be
found.
The Southern African Development Community appointed Mbeki
in March to
mediate in the Zimbabwe crisis.
Dell said it was
disappointing that government's negotiating team made
up of Justice minister
Patrick Chinamasa and Social Welfare minister
Nicholas Goche failed to
travel to South Africa at the weekend for the
talks.
"I think
this is another area where the president is making serious
miscalculations,"
Dell said. "He thinks he can continue to treat Thabo Mbeki
with
contempt."
He said if Mugabe continues along this path, he would
force the region
to have a new thinking on him.
"The Sadc
initiative is the only way for Zimbabwe to come out of this
crisis," Dell
added.
Zim Independent
MORE
than 40 computers, most of them destined for constituency
information
centres, were recently stolen at Parliament House in what is
suspected to be
an inside job. The theft exposed the inadequacy of security
at the august
house. Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma on Tuesday confirmed
the
theft.
"It is correct that computers were stolen. The thieves got
away with
hard drives and other accessories. The machines were to be
allocated to
constituency information centres in the country, while some of
them were to
be given to various parliamentary departments," Zvoma
said.
A source told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that the
computers
were housed in parliament's information technology department and
their
disappearance was discovered last month.
"Most of the
computers were to be dispatched to constituency
information centres across
the country and others were destined for various
departments. It was only
discovered last month that the computers and other
accessories were
missing," one source said. He added that soon after the
discovery of the
theft, an employee in the information technology department
has not been
reporting for work amid suspicion that he skipped the country.
"The
biggest question was how the computers were stolen given the
security at
parliament. It is clear that the theft was an inside job," the
source added.
"After the theft, efforts were made to keep the case secret.
One of the
employees in the information technology department disappeared
after the
discovery." - Staff Writer.
Zim Independent
Orirando
Manwere
A FORMER ZB Bank official - Tendai Chimhini, now
running a haulage
company - was last week arrested alongside at least 10
other transport
operators, drivers and clearing agents at Chirundu border
post by Reserve
Bank officials and police detectives for allegedly using
fake CD3 forms to
evade forex remittance, the Zimbabwe Independent has
learnt.
Several haulage trucks laden with various goods for export
were also
impounded pending the outcome of investigations.
The
arrests followed the unearthing of a syndicate involving bank
officials,
haulage companies and clearing agents who are buying stolen
genuine CD 3
forms from bank officials and using counterfeit bank date
stamps to effect
transactions, prejudicing the central bank of millions in
foreign
currency.
It has also emerged that the arrest of Chimhini could
suck in a police
senior assistant commissioner (name supplied) who is his
friend, for
allegedly attempting to interfere with investigations, while the
net is
reportedly closing in on top officials in various commercial
banks.
The CD 3 forms issued to haulage companies on behalf of the
central
bank are used to record freight charges that should be paid in
foreign
currency to local transporters by foreign companies.
Chief police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena
yesterday
confirmed the arrests, adding that the operation launched at
Chirundu had
since been extended to border posts countrywide.
"I can confirm
that Chimhini was arrested and is still in police
custody while
investigations are continuing. The operation has been spread
to all ports of
entry where these forms are used. However, I am not in a
position to give
you details at the moment as we are still to receive
updates from the
centres," he said.
Zim Independent
Shame
Makoshori
GOVERNMENT has lined up another economic blueprint,
the Zimbabwe
Economic Development Strategy (ZEDS), to succeed the National
Economic
Development Priority Programme (NEDPP) that was unilaterally
terminated by
the Joint Operations Command (JOC) last week amid a blazing
price war with
industry.
Business was strongly involved in the
formulation of the NEDPP.
Businessdigest understands that there was
suspicion within JOC that
captains of industry could orchestrate the
downfall of President Robert
Mugabe's embattled regime through price hikes
designed to foment social
unrest.
JOC, which comprises the
country's security chiefs, was also riled by
industry's refusal to back down
on directives to reverse prices to June 18
levels by
government.
Economic Development minister Sylvester Nguni did not
respond to
questions faxed to him last week.
Sources however
told businessdigest that ZEDS, which was originally
pencilled in to be
launched early next year, could be brought forward "to
salvage the country's
ailing economy".
It is part of several economic policies government
will implement in
the next four years under the revived Vision
2020.
Under the Vision 2020 programme, government says its drive
towards
economic revival will be spearheaded by "good governance and
political
stability, sustainable macro-economic growth, regional and
provincial
development, employment creation and elimination of poverty and
the
management of human and natural resources".
The document
says government will work towards the provision of
adequate, affordable, and
accessible social services, and promote culture,
sport and strong
families.
"The essence of this aspiration is a democratic,
well-governed and
just society characterised by transparency and
accountability," says the
economic blueprint, signed by Mugabe in
January.
"For Zimbabwe's manufacturing products to successfully
compete on the
domestic and international markets, the country needs to
enhance its
technological capacity. There is need to create a critical mass
of
scientists that will carry out research and developmental work," the
blueprint reads.
"ZEDS and other national policies are vehicles
through which the goals
and aspirations contained in Vision 2020 and the
MDGs (Millennium
Development Goals) will be realised," the paper
said.
But analysts this week said the new policy was a
regurgitation of
previous documents government has tabled as panaceas to the
burgeoning
crisis, and could face the same fate as its
predecessors.
For instance, under the National Economic Recovery
Programme (NERP) of
February 2003, several measures were proposed to deal
with the crisis.
The measures were supposed to be implemented under
strict deadlines
but NERP was shelved without achieving its objectives and
replaced by NEDPP
in 2006.
Dairy industry players were to
"introduce a dairy development
programme aimed at reviving distressed dairy
farms" by March 2003.
The Ministry of Economic Development was
instructed to speed up the
irrigation development programme by March 2003,
government promised to
develop industrial clusters for manufacturers while
plans to review the
industrial development strategy to address
de-industrialisation were also
proposed. But as evidenced by the worsening
economy crisis, NERP failed to
live up to its targets.
Zim Independent
Shame Makoshori
WHEN government launched the
National Economic Development Priority
Programme (NEDPP) last year, it was
greeted with optimism by the Ministry of
Economic Development that rated it
as a formidable plan for economic
recovery.
The architects of
the NEDPP said Zimbabwe had to forget the sad
memories of a cocktail of
other failed blueprints that preceded the NEDPP
because government had
finally crafted a plan to reverse, within nine
months, the severe effects of
10 years of recession also driven by bad
international
relations.
"It is a quick-win strategy," said former Economic
Development
minister Rugare Gumbo at the launch of the NEDPP in April last
year.
He said the "highest office" had taken a keen interest in the
programme and, unlike in the past, strict deadlines would be
followed.
"Past policy documents were brilliant but we did not have
the
institutional framework to drive them. I have been trying to find a
formula
of implementing our programmes. This one has an implementation
framework,"
he said.
Inflation, described as the country's
enemy number one, was forecast
to decline from 1 092% in April last year to
a three-digit figure by
December.
NEDPP had to raise US$2
billion to beef up capacity, stabilise the
economy, reduce inflation,
increase agricultural coordination and ensure
adequate supply of inputs and
food security.
Snaking fuel queues, government claimed, would be
history.
A US$50 million fuel deal involving the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe, MBCA
Bank and Bindura Nickel Corporation signed in May 2006 was
billed as the
work of the NEDPP.
But as NEDPP entered its 15th
month last week when the Joint Operation
Command terminated it due to
swelling hostilities over controversial price
controls, it was clear that
the programme had failed to achieve the
objectives for which it was put in
place.
Inflation, which was at 1 092% surged to 4 530% at the end
of May.
Interest rates are still hovering at uneconomical levels of
between
500% and 600%, an indication of havoc in companies dependent on
borrowings.
According to the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries
(CZI), Zimbabwe's
manufacturing sector could collapse due to a growing level
of unutilised
capacity in industries.
"Players in the
manufacturing sector risk being swept aside if they do
not re-group and
strategise," the CZI said.
"The manufacturing sector is estimated
to have declined by 7% in 2006.
"This compares to a growth of 3,2%
that has been registered a year
earlier."
The manufacturing
sector had perennially been the backbone of the
country's economic
development.
But economists this week said in its present state the
country's
manufacturing sector is missing out on a potential market of 420
million
people with an estimated gross domestic product of US$267 billion
because
capacity utilisation has plunged to 33,8%.
About nine
out of 10 manufacturing companies are unable to cover their
costs and make
full use of their standing capacities.
Major mines have closed
leaving 40 000 on the streets and 3,4 million
have fled the economic
crisis.
Four in every five people are unemployed and 60% of the
country's
estimated 13 million people are living on less than US$1 per day
and
Zimbabwe has been going cap in hand to other countries praying for food
to
replenish its dry reserves.
About four million people are in
dire need of aid.
Economic commentators have forecast a gloomy
picture of all
indicators.
Inflation is projected to hit 100
000% by the end of 2007.
The Zimbabwe dollar traded at $2 700 to
the greenback in January but
was trading above $140 000 to US$1 this
week.
In fact, government had indicated during the launch of the
NEDPP that
the project was a joint effort with the private
sector.
But events in the past few weeks, including the unilateral
termination
of the NEDPP itself, exposed the hypocrisy in
government.
Contrary to pledges that it would engage industry in
good faith,
government took a confrontational approach over
prices.
A crackdown on business to slash by 50% their prices has
left the
market dry.
"It is the first time that I saw
Zimbabweans queuing for shoes,"
commented ZABG head of treasury Andy Hodges
this week.
"Government is not going to back down on this. The
measures taken by
government were in response to market fundamentals but
price controls will
not work," he said.
Economic analysts said
the controversial price controls were the
latest indications of the failure
of the NEDPP.
They said during the launch, there was convergence of
thinking that
market forces should determine prices if complete recovery is
to be achieve
within a reasonable time.
But the near collapse
of the economy now evident across all sectors,
the power cuts, streams of
sewerage in high density suburbs, unscrupulous
dealings and the
deteriorating situation in schools, universities and health
institutions are
a clear indication that the NEDPP was another futile effort
by government to
correct its blunders.
The other efforts included the Growth with
Equity in 1981, the
Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (1991), the
Poverty Alleviation
Action Programme (1994), the Zimbabwe Programme for
Economic and Social
Transformation (1996 to 2000) and the National Economic
Revival Programme
(2003).
Zim Independent
Kuda
Chikwanda
WHILE insurance companies are raking in huge profits,
workers and
pensioners have been handed a raw deal and are left with little
to look
forward to on their pensions.
Most employees can no
longer afford to pay monthly premiums that will
guarantee them adequate
returns upon retirement. Some pensioners on the
other hand are earning as
little as $100 000 per month.
Zimbabwe's hyperinflationary
environment has pushed up insurance costs
but insurance premiums, which have
risen sharply, have failed to keep pace
with inflation.
The
number of people subscribing to pension funds has gone down, while
most of
the remaining policy holders are now undersubscribed.
Investigations this week revealed that teachers and most members of
the
civil service are paying between $200 000 and $400 000 a month as
pensions.
This is far below the minimum required to assure them
of real value
monthly pension payments in tandem with the Poverty Datum Line
(PDL) of $5,5
million for May 2007.
An official with a leading
life assurance company said while it was
his job to sell pensions plans to
the current workforce, he was finding it
difficult to convince workers to
subscribe to pensions.
"Frankly I would not encourage one to take
on a pension. The
hyperinflationary environment has made it difficult for
workers who are
earning far below the poverty datum line. Trying to convince
them to take on
a pension is almost impossible," he said.
The
revealed that the largest premium his company was receiving was
$50 million
a month while teachers paid the lowest average premium of $200
000 a
month.
"To try and protect our market against inflation, if someone
is
contributing $5 million a month, we usually find it necessary to increase
the premium to $10 million two months down the line. At the rate inflation
is rising the next two months will see the premium raised to about $25
million," he added.
A 49-year old business executive recently
took out a pension plan
which will guarantee her $1,8 trillion upon
attainment of 69-years.
Her current contribution is $1 million a
month but will automatically
be reviewed upwards to hedge against
inflation.
If the inflation trend continues unabated, her $1,8
trillion
retirement nest egg will have had most of its value eroded. While
official
inflation is 4 530%, unofficial estimates say it is over 10
000%.
Most insurance companies replaced policies that attracted low
and
unsustainable contributions with new ones matching prevailing rates of
inflation.
At the same time insurance companies have played the
stock market
ruthlessly where returns have been much higher than interest
rates which
have been maintained at around 500% by the central
bank.
The industrial index has gone up by 7 400% since the start of
this
year and has offered more returns than the parallel market rate for the
greenback which has been 5 862%.
But there have been concerns
amongst workers and pensioners alike that
while the premiums match the CPI,
the returns are far below that.
The National Social Security
Authority (NSSA) recently claimed it paid
better benefits than any other
pension scheme in the country, including
state pension schemes.
NSSA said pensioners would have been getting much less than they had
bargained for had it not invested in several high rise buildings, shopping
centres, the stock market and the money market.
The minimum
invalidity pension was increased from $5 700 in January
this year to $110
000 a month. However, NSSA only reviews all benefits twice
a year - in
January and July.
At the same time, month on month inflation has
been increasing by over
100% in the past two months.
AON
general manager for pensions Emmanuel Matina said workers should
take
pensions despite all their shortfalls.
"Pension funds are
benefiting because they offer returns above
inflation rate and the US dollar
on the parallel market," said Matina.
"Pensions remain the only
form of saving. They are the only benefit
one looks forward to on
retirement."
Matina also said the value of a pension on retirement
depended on the
pension fund and whether it was being actively
managed.
An official with Old Mutual said while pensions still made
economic
sense for workers and pensioners alike, public perception based on
political
and economic factors.
"We have noticed that when one
gets money, they tend to think that in
this environment it is a lot better
to buy a bar of soap or tangible asset
to preserve the value of their money.
They don't realise that pension funds
can store their value for them," he
said.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
A TOTAL of 46,6 million kg of flue-cured tobacco
valued at US$108
million (about $26,9 billion at the interbank rate) have
gone under the
hammer at the country's three auction floors on day 53 since
the beginning
of the selling season on April 24.
The sales are
33,4 million kg less than the 80 million kg projected
this year with about
two months of trade left.
Figures obtained from the Tobacco
Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB)
yesterday revealed that the deliveries
were 61,43% more than the 28,8
million which were sold at the same period
last year.
In monetary terms last year's sales for the same period
were 374,25%
less at US$56,2 million ($5,6 billion) in Zimbabwe dollar terms
due to
hyperinflation.
Inflation which is currently at 4 530%
for May was 1193,5% during the
corresponding period last year.
A total of 513 031 bails have gone under the hummer so far compared to
339
509 last year a 51,11% increase the TIMB said.
Of Zimbabwe's three
auction floors, Burley Marketing Zimbabwe (BMZ)
has sold 6,1 million kg
worth US$14,4 million ($3,6 billion). Tobacco Sales
Floor (TSF) sold 6,6
million kg valued at US$14,4 million ($3,6 billion).
Zimbabwe Industry
Tobacco Auction Centre (ZITAC) accounted for 5,8 million
kg worth US$13,9
million ($5,8 billion).
Contract tobacco farmers have so far sold
27,9 million kg valued at
US$64,2 million ($16 billion).
The
current season has also witnessed an increase in the selling price
that has
averaged US$2,32c compared to US$1,94c which prevailed during the
corresponding period last year.
The increase in the selling
price has been attributed to a better
quality crop on offer compared to last
year and an attractive special
exchange rate.
Last year's crop
was affected by low rainfall and late planting which
resulted to the leaf
fetching lower prices.
The waste percentage during the period under
review is 4,14%, 47,15%
less than 7,83% recorded during the same period last
year.
Over the last few years, production of the crop has been on
the
decline owing to recurrent droughts and unavailability of essential
inputs.
Government has so far disbursed a support price of $2,8
trillion
compared to $1,9 billion.
Year Output Year
Output
(million kgs) (million kgs)
1980 -125 038 1994
-182 466
1981 -71 812 1995 -198 380
1982 90 602 1996 -
208 716
1983 98 956 1997 - 215 369
1984 124 872 1998 -
215 000
1985 107 957 1999 - 193 183
1986 116 456 2000
- 236 130
1987 121 320 2001 - 202 540
1988 114 736
2002 - 165 842
1989 130 361 2003 - 81 812
1990 130 394
2004 -69 112
1991 178 565 2005 - 73 392
1992 211 394
2006 - 55 553
1993 204 790 2007 Projection 80 000
Total output of tobacco since 1980
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
THE industrial and mining indices fell by 30% and 23%
respectively
over the past three weeks as the market responded to price
controls which
have resulted in most investors shying away from the stock
market.
The two indices which had risen by 7 400% and 5 862%,
respectively
during the first half of the year, retreated from 47 917 408,12
points and
24 596 700,52 points respectively on June 25 when the directive
was made, to
37 450 803,21 points and 20 002 858,26 points
yesterday.
Analysts yesterday said investors were engaged in panic
selling,
pushing the market further down. This has resulted in 89% of the
listed
counters trading negatively since the crackdown.
Counters mostly affected are CFX, Zimpapers, Border Timbers, Natfoods,
OK
Zimbabwe, Pelhams and Interfresh whose share prices have dropped by over
50%.
Analysts said a bear market would prevail in the
short-term as
retailers, manufacturers and government fail to find agree
pricing measures.
Kingdom Bank economist, Patrick Saziwa said the
affected counters were
unlikely to declare a dividend as they preserve cash
for future operations
as their future was uninviting.
"The
retail counters led the losses as uncertainties persisted on the
continued
viability of the sector. The other counters were affected by the
contagion
effect," Saziwa said.
ZB Bank chief economist, Best Doroh said the
rate of growth of the
equities market will continue to slowed down somewhat,
given the challenges
faced by retailers and manufactures especially of basic
foodstuffs.
"Nevertheless, the market still expects the equities
market to give
investors real returns on their investments up to the end of
the year as
other alternative investment markets, outside of property, are
not
attractive at the moment," said Doroh.
Zimbabwe Allied
Banking Group group economist David Mupamhadzi said
counters in the
manufacturing, retail and services sector were likely to
struggle in the
short to medium-term.
"The stock market's performance will largely
depend on the impact of
the price reductions on the viability and survival
of companies," said
Mapamhadzi.
Paul Koning, a stock market
researcher, said the current stock market
performance demonstrates how
changes in stock prices can be driven by
monetary conditions, and not
changes in gross domestic product.
In Zimbabwe's market there are
limited investment alternatives
resulting in stocks benefiting.
"Keep Zimbabwe dollars in your pocket, and you've already lost a chunk
of
its value by the next day. Putting money in the bank, where rates are
pitiful, is not much better. Investing in government bonds is the equivalent
of financial suicide. Converting wealth into foreign currency is difficult;
hard currency is scarce, and strict rules limit exchangeability," said
Koning.
Analysts yesterday said the growth on the stock market
during the
first half of the year had been on the back of depressed money
market rates
and spiralling inflation.
There however were
temporary episodes during the six months when the
stock market retreated
briefly as small time speculators took profit.
During the period
under review, growth in the consumer price index was
about 800%. This means
investors were able to gain real returns on their
investments on the stock
market.
Doroh said the stock market's performance during the first
half of the
year outperformed the parallel foreign exchange market whose
returns were
about 3 000% during the same period.
Mupamhadzi
said the stock market recorded remarkable growth during the
first half of
the year, largely driven by negative real returns on the money
market and
negative inflation projections.
"Conglomerates emerged as the best
performing counters rising by 18
995%, while the telecommunications were the
worst performers, only realising
a growth of 5 237%," said
Mupanhadzi.
Zim Independent
Paul
Nyakazeya
PRICES of commodities have risen by an average of 9
200% during the
first half of the year driven by high inflation and the fall
of the dollar
against major trading currencies.
The biggest
movers were bread which rose by 5 669,2% from $780 in
January to $43 000 in
June, while 2 litres of cooking oil rose by 7 274,6%
to $500 000 from $6 780
during the same period.
A 2kg packet of sugar rose 25 900% to $130
000 from $500, while a 10kg
bag of mealie meal rose by 7 004% to $120 000
from $1 689.
Two litres of Mazoe orange and 1kg of economy beef
were beyond the
reach of many after being increased to $550 000 and $380 000
from $6 800 and
$4 500 respectively.
Most basic commodities
have however disappeared from shop shelves
sparking fears of long-term
scarcities after government ordered that they be
reduced by
half.
Since last week shoppers have been in stampedes in
supermarkets,
heaping trolleys with groceries after government ordered that
prices be
slashed by half in a bid to curb inflation.
While
analysts said a number of retailers had gone over board as they
were
profiteering much from unjustified increases, some believe the latest
move
by government was being done to win the hearts of consumers ahead of
presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for March next year as
was the case in 2005.
"Government could be forced to go through
the back door to offer
subsidies to manufacturers in order to subdue the
upward movement of prices
but it will be short-lived as they cannot sustain
it since all major sectors
of the economy are depressed," said a shop owner
who spoke on condition on
anonymity.
The business community
faces collapse as government's price blitz has
forced most producers,
wholesalers and retailers to shut shop while
commodity shortages persist
because of panic buying and non production.
Zim Independent
Shame Makoshori
ZIMBABWE could face a serious corporate
leadership crisis within the
next five to 10 years as most experienced chief
executive officers (CEOs)
and other managers running major companies leave
their positions through
retirement and other reasons, a senior banking
executive has warned.
At a recent presentation of a research in
Harare, Kingdom Financial
Holdings (KFHL) human resources director, Lynn
Mukonoweshuro fired a
broadside at what she described as "the fat cat
syndrome" where CEOs are
reluctant to groom successors.
Chamber
of Mines president, Jack Murehwa has already said the
leadership crisis has
caught up with the mining industry where "second rate
and mediocre" managers
have taken over.
"In the next five to 10 years we are going to run
out of the crop of
seasoned professionals," Mukonoweshuro said in the
report, presented to CEOs
and human resources managers from more than 30
major companies.
She added: "The succession debate should not be
confined to politics
alone.
"The traditional process of
executive development will not take us
there (to the turnaround) quickly
because those in the CEO's post have no
interest in who will become CEO when
they leave. But in five to 10 years
they will be gone."
The
report was entitled "Zimbabwe's Corporate Picture in 2015."
Experts
say the corporate leadership crisis will be compounded by the
current wave
of emigration by thousands of professionals such as chartered
accountants
who have fled Zimbabwe's deteriorating economic crisis.
Zimbabweans
living in the Diaspora have increased from about one
million in 1999 to 3,4
million during the first quarter of the year and
researchers say most of
them have left to pursue their professions due to
shrinking opportunities at
home.
Painting a rare positive picture of Zimbabwe's economy by
2015, the
KFHL manager took a swipe at those she called "prophets of doom"
who have
predicted a gloomy future for the country arguing the time to work
on the
anticipated recovery was now.
This should be done by
grooming "the right people" to lead companies
in the future, or Zimbabwe
will be hit by more "bitter ENG experiences".
In other countries
like the US, succession plan policies have turned
into a hot corporate
governance issue which is closely watched by
shareholders and potential
investors.
Zim Independent
By
Obert Gutu
ODIOUS debts are defined as those debts incurred by
the state, which
debts are not for the needs or interest of the state but
merely to
strengthen the state's despotic power as well as to repress the
population
that fights against despotism.
Such debts are
referred to as odious debts simply because they are in
extremely bad
taste.
It is a notorious fact that most developing countries have a
complicated web of debts resulting in innocent citizens having to
continuously pay debts while corrupt and negligent borrowers and lenders get
away scot-free.
Put alternatively, the third world debt is a
debilitating yoke around
the necks of the majority if not all developing
countries particularly on
the African continent. One always wonders why the
third world countries'
debt continues to balloon simultaneously with the
escalation of poverty and
destitution; especially amongst the ordinary
people.
The third world debt trap can hardly be divorced from some
of the
controversial lending policies of the Bretton Woods institutions -
the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Most of the
economic policies that are dictated to developing
countries by the said
institutions are hardly appropriate to the individual
needs of the
developing nations. You have a situation where the Bretton
Woods
institutions adopt a one-size- fits-all approach to solving the
developmental challenges of developing nations.
All of us
acutely recall the debilitating side effects that were
brought about on the
ordinary people of Zimbabwe after the adoption by the
government of the
Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (Esap) in 1990.
It is my
argument that the World Bank as well as the International
Monetary Fund are
hardly the best friends of developing nations.
The doctrine of
odious debts was defined by the world's eminent legal
scholar on public
debts, Alexander Sack, as far back as 1927. Sack's theory,
several decades
since its conception, remains the rallying point for the
moral justification
to cancel most if not all of the developing countries'
foreign
debts.
It is hardly disputable that the overwhelming majority of
the third
world's foreign debts are odious in law. One of the conditions
that
determines the legality of the debts of the state is that such debts
must be
incurred and the funds from them employed for the needs and in the
interest
of the people.
What is particularly puzzling is the
fact that most developing
countries continue to borrow money, especially
from the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund, while at the same
time the living conditions of
the average person in developing countries
continue to deteriorate.
One therefore wonders where all the money
from these debts is going
to! Isn't the money lining the pockets of corrupt
bureaucrats in both the
public and the private sectors?
It is
humbly submitted that when a despotic and corrupt regime is
pushed out of
power, lenders of money to such a regime should not expect
that a nation
freed from a despotic power should assume the odious debts.
Countries which lend money and other resources in a corrupt and
underhand
manner, to an unaccountable and corrupt regime, should bear the
consequences
of colluding with a repressive and corrupt government.
The writer
perceives odious debts as basically personal debts of the
despot. These
debts should not be obligations of the new dispensation.
Odious
debts include loans incurred by members of the government or by
persons or
groups associated with the government to serve interests that are
manifestly
personal; interests that are totally unrelated to the cause of
the majority
of the people.
In Zimbabwe, for instance, a new and accountable
government is
required to prove that all the debts acquired by the state
served the public
interest and that the creditors were bona fide lenders who
knew, exactly,
the intended beneficiaries of their loans.
Further, I also humbly submit that odious debts are not enforceable
and that
they should simply be cancelled.
In Africa, we always hear about
the debilitating effects of foreign
debts. We know that there are hundreds
of US dollar billionaires in Africa
while the average African remains
pauperised and continues to wallow in
abject poverty.
This
clearly shows that the doctrine of odious debts can never be
divorced from
the subject of corruption. Most, if not all, odious debts are
intricately
linked to graft and corruption.
In Zimbabwe, it is disheartening to
note that some well-placed public
officials have managed to amass
unbelievable and obscene ill-gotten wealth.
These corrupt officials have
even managed to buy properties and to build
villas and holiday homes in
countries such as Malaysia and Australia.
And all this happened
while the Zimbabwe economy is tottering on the
verge of collapse! Where did
these public officials get all this money?
Odious debts have
pauperised the ordinary African.
Former Zambian president Fredrick
Chiluba has been mired in corruption
scandals and court trials since the
time he left office in 2001. Chiluba's
Institute for Democracy and
International Studies, through a Lusaka High
Court decree of August 2002,
was repossessed by the government after it was
proved that it had been built
by funds acquired through graft and
corruption.
It is against
this background that the doctrine of odious debts is now
gaining momentum
and, throughout the world, activists are calling for the
cancellation of
most, if not all, developing countries' debts.
Odious debts should
not be honoured because they are morally
repugnant. The funds from these
debts never benefit people but they simply
line up the pockets of well-
placed and well-connected officials.
Despite the grinding poverty
faced by more than 90% of the Swazi
people, a few years ago King Mswati III
proceeded to purchase a private jet
worth R450 million or USD$65 million.
Surely, this is tantamount to theft of
public funds. Little wonder therefore
that donors were immediately called
upon to cut any funds directed to the
Swazi monarch.
A few years ago, the Canadian-based engineering
giant Acres
International, was convicted of corruption in the Lesotho
dam-building
scandal. This scandal involved the construction of one Africa's
most
advanced and sophisticated water works.
The former chief
executive of the Lesotho Highland Water Project was
also convicted of
accepting huge bribes from Acres International and he was
sentenced to 10
years imprisonment by the Lesotho High Court in Maseru.
The Lesotho
Highland Water Project was bank-rolled by the World Bank.
There is need
therefore to come up with effective systems in Africa to
ensure that public
officials are not bribed by multi-national companies
whose main motivation
is the generation of huge profits and not the
upliftment of the living
standards of the ordinary African. These
multi-national companies are
notorious for nourishing corrupt governments in
Africa.
Odious
debts are not a monopoly of African countries. There is already
serious
debate regarding the financial commitments inherited from the
executed
former Iraq dictator, Saddam Hussein.
The Iraq Central Bank has
stated that it will only honour those debts
that were legitimately incurred
by Saddam's regime.
It is contended that Saddam exploited the
United Nations oil-for-food
programme to steal US$10 billion of Iraq public
funds. While the United
Nations thought that the oil-for-food programme was
meant to benefit the
ordinary Iraq citizens, Saddam used this programme to
plunder resources and
to establish his own global network of
finance.
It is a pity that although the oil-for-food programme in
Iraq was the
largest humanitarian aid programme ever undertaken by the
United Nations,
this programme provided the biggest opportunity for
corruption - even among
top UN officials.
Odious debts should
not be enforceable as a clarion call to all
corrupt lenders and borrowers
that they can not have their cake and eat it.
* Gutu is a
Zimbabwean lawyer based in Harare and he can be contacted
on gutulaw@mweb.co.zw
Zim Independent
Paul Nyakazeya
THERE has been jubilation in the market by
consumers following
government's order to producers and retailers to reduce
commodity prices by
50%.
But the major question is: Did
government not learn anything from the
disastrous effects of price controls
between 2003 and 2006?
Government has provoked the perennial
question once more: Should
business be allowed to charge prices in line with
their costs of production
or should it step in to shield the poor from
profiteering business
operators?
Analysts say it makes economic
sense to allow companies to charge
viable prices, but government, facing
strong criticism over its actions, has
argued that it is duty bound to
cushion low-income earners against
"unscrupulous business
practices".
According to the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries
(CZI), the
manufacturing sector is operating at below 30% of capacity due to
high input
costs and lack of foreign currency for imports.
The
business community might agree to the forced reduction, "but who
is going to
shield us against rising input costs?" questioned a manager with
a leading
supermarket chain this week.
Past events in 2003, 2005 and 2006
have shown that such directives
have forced a massive rift between business,
government and the consumer. It
created a thriving black market for sugar,
bread, washing soap, cooking oil
and fuel, with controlled foodstuffs
disappearing from supermarkets shelves.
Market watchers said
history was repeating itself although this time
around it was likely to have
a more disastrous impact on the economy.
In 2003 it was fuel, in
2005 it was mealie meal, cooking oil and
sugar. Last year it was bread; a
fortnight ago it was almost every basic
commodity!
"Such a
situation is not healthy because it retards economic growth,"
independent
economist, John Robertson, said "Worse still, neither of the
warring
parties' initial objectives have been fulfilled. At the end of the
day, the
consumer is the biggest loser and will continue to suffer."
On
Sunday, a truck offloaded flour at a shop in Mabelreign and
shoppers
streamed into the shop to buy the commodity. Some soon left
disappointed
after they could not get the commodity.
Flour, although appearing
to be scarce, seems not to be making it onto
shop shelves, but is instead
mysteriously resurfacing on the black market.
Following
government's directive that fuel be sold at $60 000, the
commodity is now in
short supply, but readily available on the parallel
market where it is being
sold for between $400 000 and $500 000 a litre.
In 2003, government
ordered service stations to sell fuel at the
gazetted price, resulting in
the commodity disappearing on the formal
market, but it was readily
available on the black market at an exorbitant
price.
After
realising that it was shooting itself in the foot, government
two years
later allowed private importers to import fuel through the direct
fuel
import scheme.
In 2005, ahead of the parliamentary elections,
government ordered that
shops stick to gazetted prices. The then Minister of
Finance, Herbert
Murerwa, reduced Value Added Tax from 17,5% to 15% to
justify the call for
price reductions.
An increase in VAT
results in the simultaneous increase in the price
of taxable products and
vice versa.
Manufacturers responded by reducing production as they
were operating
at a loss. Most goods were readily available on the parallel
market and the
effect is still being felt today.
Last year
government ordered bakeries to reduce the price of bread to
$200 from $335
despite the cost build of bread being above $320.
About 14 managers
accused of ignoring the directive were arrested. The
decision by government
resulted in a massive shortage of bread for about two
months.
"Government should first deal with the manufacturers before imposing a
price
slash," Robertson said. "Forcing prices to go down when production
costs
continue to rise will only result in shortages. Government might only
be
successful in this project if it subsidises manufacturers in such a
hyperinflationary environment," he added.
Manufacturers and
service providers have been accused of inducing
inflationary pressures on
the economy through unwarranted price adjustments.
Striking a
balance between salaries and prices has proved to be a
major challenge in
the country as product and service adjustments continue
to accelerate while
salaries lag behind.
Almost everyone from the informal trader right
up to middle-income
earners are complaining of diminishing purchasing
power.
Government has crafted a Statutory Instrument that empowers
it to
arrest and imprison companies and individuals for "profiteering". But
its
bid to operate outside the bounds of basic economics is doomed to the
same
fate as previous market interventions.
About 1 400
companies and 300 managers were reportedly arrested last
week for allegedly
failing to obey government's directive to reduce prices.
The
controversial National Incomes and Pricing Commission Act allows
government
to "monitor price trends of goods and services through
comprehensive surveys
and inspections, producing periodic price monitoring
reports and initiating
corrective measures in case of unscrupulous business
practice affecting
Zimbabwe's pricing system".
The Act also allows government regular
reviews and updates on capacity
utilisation in various sectors of the
economy, promote public understanding
and disseminate information on matters
related to prices and wages, compile
regular reports on the status of
incomes and conduct stakeholders training,
education and awareness campaigns
on pricing and income issues.
Analysts this week said the National
Incomes and Pricing Commission
had done nothing tangible to ensure that
manufacturers and retailers remain
in business.
The
establishment of the cabinet taskforce on price monitoring and
stabilisation
will not improve the situation either as it will be a mere
duplication of
duties.
Zim Independent
By Nyasha Nyakunu
WITH the 2008 presidential
and parliamentary elections only a few
months away, the question of
equitable and equal access to the public media
as envisioned under the Sadc
Principles and Guidelines on the Conduct of
Democratic Elections will
inevitably be of intense interest and debate among
political parties and
freedom of expression activists.
The issue should also feature
prominently during the ongoing South
African-mediated talks between the
opposition MDC and ruling Zanu PF as
central to the holding of free and fair
elections in 2008 among other
critical items on the agenda of the Southern
African Development Community
(Sadc)-initiative.
However, the
Sadc principles and guidelines risk being confined to the
region's mausoleum
of protocols, charters or declarations that member states
ignore but only
pay lip service to when questioned about their dubious
democratic
credentials.
This will be the stark reality, more so in the absence
of enforcement
codes and mechanisms if the guidelines continue to be viewed
in isolation of
the need to transform state broadcasters into truly
independent public
broadcasters.
Their long-term successful
implementation and credibility rests in
transforming state broadcasters such
as the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation (ZBC) into a public broadcaster
through sustained media law
reforms that will expunge existing restrictive
media laws such as the
Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) and the Access to
Information and Protection
of Privacy Act (Aippa).
To argue
otherwise will be pretentious hypocrisy that has seen many an
African
government including Zimbabwe paying scant regard to the Windhoek
Declaration and the African Charter on broadcasting which both call for
respect of media freedoms including a transparent and representative public
broadcaster.
The Sadc standards stress the full participation
of citizens in the
electoral process, press freedom and equal access by all
political parties
to state media, freedom of association and political
tolerance and
independence of the judiciary among its other 10 fundamental
tenets for the
holding of free and fair elections.
It is in
that regard that the transformation of the ZBC into a truly
independent
public broadcaster among other contributory factors will
therefore go a long
way in securing a free and fair environment ahead of the
2008 elections and
thus render the Sadc guidelines meaningful and
achievable.
By
subscribing to the guidelines and principles, as well as the Sadc
initiatives, the assumption is that the Zimbabwean government understands
that it needs to democratise to realise its full development potential and
regain its lost esteem and privilege among progressive nations.
Media freedom is therefore paramount to the establishment and
continuity of
democracy as it is the primary indicator of the existence of
democratic
societies.
The very existence of repressive and restrictive laws
such as Aippa,
BSA, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation Commercialisation
Act, the Public
Order and Security Act (Posa) and the Interception of
Communications Act
(ICA) is a mockery of the government and ruling Zanu PF's
claims to
democratic practice.
Laws such as Aippa, Posa, ICA
and the BSA as it relates to the state's
control of the ZBC are designed to
regulate free speech thereby muzzling
citizens' right to freely formulate
and air their beliefs and political
attitudes through open discussions and
platforms, more so through the ZBC
which is funded by the
taxpayer.
Public service broadcasting therefore plays a critical
role in meeting
the citizens' hunger for the broadest possible information,
advice, debate
and analysis to enable them to make informed decisions on
issues that affect
their daily lives.
The prevailing regulatory
environment as dictated by the ZBC
Commercialisation Act, BSA and the ZBC's
governance, ownership and
management structure chokes its editorial
independence, allowing the
Ministry of Information and Publicity free rein
over the appointment of its
board of directors, chief executive officer and
editorial decisions.
It is political fraud and painful for the
taxpayer to continue funding
the operations of a broadcaster which they
cannot freely access thereby
limiting the views and ideas broadcast to those
who have been vetted and
cleared by the ruling Zanu PF as "super
patriots".
ZBC has remained biased in favour of the government and
the ruling
Zanu PF as it has centred more on serving as the public relations
arm of the
ruling elite in contravention of the Sadc Principles and
Guidelines on the
Conduct of Democratic Elections, the African Charter on
Broadcasting and the
Banjul Declarations on the Principles of Freedom of
Expression in Africa.
The editorial stance of the ZBC as a public
media should therefore
change as it has failed to meet its public service
mandate and conform to
the Sadc guidelines. Free and fair elections
including freedom of the press
and access to national radio and television
are not achievable under the
existing constitutional and legislative
environment which has seen the
government tightening its grip on the
ZBC.
The legal framework under which the ZBC operates is anathema
to media
freedom and the concept and principle of public service
broadcasting.
For the ZBC to be respected as a truly independent
broadcaster, there
is need to repeal the BSA and ensure that the new
legislation surrenders the
appointment of its board of governors to a
transparent public nomination and
selection process.
The new
democratic Act should include provisions that allow for the
expansion of the
public broadcaster into communities that are currently not
receiving its
signals, promotion of local languages and artistic talent and
the imperative
need to cover elections fairly and equitably.
In short, ZBC should
be accountable to parliament to foster openness
about its mandate and
activities.
Sadc should therefore insist and impress upon the
ruling elite during
their forthcoming summit in August that the
transformation of state
broadcasters into truly independent entities that
reflect the plurality and
diverse views of society is a pre-condition to the
holding of free and fair
elections.
Without that the Sadc
Guidelines and Principles on the Conduct of
Democratic Elections will remain
hollow and utopian in outlook.
* Nyakunu is Misa Zimbabwe's
research and information officer.
Zim Independent
MuckRaker
THE Herald carried a story on Monday claiming a white
farmer had
ploughed under 30 hectares of wheat "as revenge to the land
committee that
had acquired his farm".
It is difficult to know
who used the expression about "revenge"
because, as is often the case in the
state media, the quotation could well
be the invention of the journalist
writing the story. It certainly doesn't
sound like the farmer, Doug
Taylor-Freeme, even though it is designed to
implicate him.
What is significant about this episode is that Taylor-Freeme was among
those
paraded recently as beneficiaries of the state's largesse in
distributing
tractors and agricultural equipment. He has often been regarded
by his more
radical colleagues as somebody who was prepared to work with the
government
in its resettlement programme.
Now he has learnt the hard way that
there are no rewards for
collaborators. The government has no regard for
farmers wanting to assist
the resettlement process and will evidently target
every single white farmer
remaining.
And do you remember all
those statements by President Mugabe and
ministers in 2000 that "we just
want to share the land"? They were designed
to impress international
opinion. Any white farmer who had more than one
farm would be asked which
one he wanted to keep.
What deceit!
But we feel
sympathy for Taylor-Freeme, a transparently decent man who
like CG Tracey
and all the others, has seen the real face of "land reform".
You would have thought that given the precarious situation the country
is
in, any leader would want to find solutions. He or she would seek
national
dialogue and engage the various interests that make up our economy
so there
is consensus on the way forward. But instead we have a situation
where the
ruling party is mobilising its followers against those engaged in
legitimate
business so it can claim to be championing the people's needs.
This
is populist demagoguery at its worse. The people will not be
served by
shortages and a raging black market, nor will they be helped by
measures
that destabilise the economy and scare off investors.
The
international press has been full of reports of gangs of
"consumers"
arriving at stores in the immediate wake of the price inspectors
and filling
up their trolleys with goods.
Many of those items, we can safely
assume, will now appear on the
black market. The international media has
also been drawing attention to the
injuries suffered by supermarket
managers, including a broken jaw in one
case, when they didn't respond
quickly enough to the commands of
"law-enforcers".
Gideon Gono
appears to understand that price-fixing won't work. But
what do Obert Mpofu,
Didymus Mutasa and Sithembiso Nyoni know of how a
modern economy functions?
They must be held accountable when the economy
goes down the tubes in a few
weeks time.
Just as land was seized to provide electoral advantages
ahead of the
2002 poll, so businesses will be taken and redistributed to the
vulturine
class that cares not what damage it inflicts on the economy so
long as it
retains political power.
The only difference with
land redistribution and the current campaign
is that the farms were
destroyed after they were taken. Currently businesses
are being wrecked
before they have been seized. Predatory scavengers like
State Trading
Corporation officials are advertising their interest in any
carrion that
might be available.
It is extraordinary when you think of it that
the same ruling class
that has crippled Air Zimbabwe, brought the railways
to a grinding halt,
sabotaged Zisco and orchestrated power blackouts, now
believes it can manage
Dairibord, Lobels, National Foods and Innscor. This
is another disaster
waiting to happen.
Let us be clear about
this. What we have here is the same military
campaign supported by Zanu PF's
auxiliaries that we saw with land invasions
and Operation Murambatsvina. It
is reportedly being masterminded by the
Joint Operations Command and
represents a vicious assault upon law-abiding
individuals and their
constitutional right to carry out their business free
of harassment and
plunder by the state.
We were pleased to see Mugabe responding
to our front page story last
week about price-slashing measures being
illegal. There was a sudden
realisation in the government camp that there
was no legal instrument to
underpin the attacks on businesses. The state
rushed that day to provide a
Statutory Instrument legalising the
intervention.
But that didn't cover all the assaults on businesses
over the previous
two weeks. Those measures were manifestly illegal and,
contrary to the
advice of the mealie-mouthed Callisto Jokonya, businesses
should claim
against those who authorised the pillaging of their stock. This
was theft,
whatever ministers might call it.
A source at a big
international company in the industrial sites says
his employees watched as
a coach with about 40 ruling-party price enforcers
aboard arrived last
Thursday and began to impose reductions on products. But
their attention was
soon diverted to easier pickings. They quickly
discovered the company's
staff canteen and devoured the entire contents. The
company's staff had to
go without their lunch that day!
By the way, what is the
significance of June 18, the day that became
the benchmark for all price
determinations? We are not sure. Usually the
beginning of the month is the
date authorities use for pronunciamentos of
this sort. The Herald no doubt
got wind of the impending change as it hiked
its cover price from $15 to $25
on June 14, just four days ahead of the
cabinet edict.
And why
didn't Zimpapers CEO Justin Mutasa in his little homily on the
cost of
inputs disclose that his company gets subsidised fuel from Noczim to
run its
fleet of vehicles? Other newspapers could do with that sort of
helping
hand!
Muckraker is sickened by the chorus of praise for Joshua
Nkomo in the
state media. Is this the same Joshua Nkomo who was forced to
flee into exile
in 1983 because his life was under threat from the same gang
who now claim
he was their patriotic hero?
The Standard has
been serialising Judith Todd's autobiography.
She narrates how his
driver and two others were shot dead in cold
blood at his Pelandaba
home.
"The killers then rampaged through his home destroying all
they could,
smashing the windscreens of three cars with their rifle butts
and slashing
the upholstery."
Mugabe's subordinates were
evidently making good on his injunction to
"strike the cobra at its
head"!
Shortly afterwards the Zapu leader escaped into Botswana.
Once he was
safely settled in the UK, he wrote The Story Of My Life, an
account of the
Fifth Brigade terror that stalked the land with its
blood-soaked footprints
in 1982/3. It is an instructive memoir and should be
read by all those
currently pretending they were his admirers.
Incidentally, what is the significance of the emphasis on his
non-tribal
pedigree which earned him nicknames like Father Zimbabwe and
Chibwe
Chitedza? Is this an indirect comment on somebody not fit to be
Father
Zimbabwe? It is tribal to the core.
The Sunday News had a
moment of triumph last weekend. Following a
police investigation, the paper
was able to proudly announce that two
individuals claimed by the MDC to be
casualties of Zanu PF violence in fact
died of natural causes.
This discovery, prompted by diplomatic inquiries, was paraded by the
paper
as "liars exposed". This referred to organisations like the Crisis
Coalition
and Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum who have been documenting
human rights
abuses.
The death of Edward Chikomba was referred to in passing at
the end of
the story. "Recently some media representative bodies locally and
internationally claimed that a cameraman who was found dead in Mashonaland
East was murdered by security agents."
The implication was that
this was another opposition "lie".
If that is the case, perhaps the
author of these "ruling party
exonerated" stories could tell us who the
killers of Chikomba were and what
has happened to them?
And by
the way, what progress have the police made into the assault on
Nelson
Chamisa at Harare Airport?
We were intrigued by comments made
by Caesar Zvayi in his Herald
column on Wednesday. He suggests that "a
certain African government appears
to have bought all copies of New
African's May edition that had a splash on
Zimbabwe".
"The jury
is still out," Zvayi said, "on whether the government in
question bought the
copies because of an unflattering article therein that
questioned its cosy
relationship with the West, or whether it had to do with
an attempt to
obliterate the truth about the situation in Zimbabwe."
So what do
we have here? A fellow African government buying up all
copies of the May
edition of Baffour Ankomah's propaganda vehicle containing
a highly
deceptive "splash" on Zimbabwe? The world has thus been deprived of
the
"truth" about Zimbabwe, Zvayi suggests.
You can imagine hordes of
Africans roaming the continent complaining
bitterly how disappointed they
were not to hear the "truth" about Zimbabwe
from New African's
pages!
But the plot thickens. While many Ghanaians may have greeted
President
Mugabe on his recent visit to Accra as a leader in the mould of
their great
Redeemer, African governments, it is now clear, are giving him
the cold
shoulder.
Zvayi, whose opinions often emanate from the
Office of the President,
expressed open disappointment that "the AU failed
where it matters most,
that is in condemning the illegal Western siege on
Zimbabwe".
ZTV by the way carried excerpts from Mugabe's solidarity
rally in
Accra. His inspirational presence didn't appear to prevent members
of the
audience from talking loudly among themselves during his
speech!
As for Zvayi's theory that travellers who want to go to
Francophone
West Africa from Anglophone Southern Africa have to first pass
through Paris
or through London if travelling from Francophone West Africa
to Anglophone
East Africa, he should look at a Kenya Airways route map. They
have dozens
of flights from West Africa to East Africa every day. Passengers
can then
reconnect in Nairobi to Southern Africa or to other African
destinations.
Ethiopian Airways offers a similarly diverse routing
system. It is Air
Zimbabwe that is caught in the colonial nexus of its
London route.
Have you noticed how we like our acronyms? No
Zimbabwean organisation
is complete without one. There is Noczim, Zesa,
Telecel, Econet, Nango, and
Potraz among a host of others.
But
now we have a new set of words to add to our PC vocabulary thanks
to the
Ecumenical Peace Initiative of Zimbabwe, Epiz.
Epiz has invented a
new species of church workers called DOFs or
district outreach facilitators
who are charged with promoting Epiz's
national vision process. Below them is
a raft of WOFs or ward outreach
facilitators.
But the most
senior ranks of outreach facilitators are provincial
outreach facilitators -
POFs!
Let's just hope the WOFs don't DOF the POFs!
And
how's this for NGO-speak: There will be "training of Epiz officers
in
effective group leadership and interpersonal skills to enable them to
maximise on their strengths, minimise on their weaknesses and function
effectively in group settings"? This will require three
"sensitisation/awareness workshops", we are told. Among those being
"sensitised" are several DOFs, WOFs, and POFs. Also attending, we gather,
will be their "para-church partners".
All very liberating.
Anybody gate-crashing will of course be told to
Epiz off.
Zim Independent
By Eric Bloch
FOR more than 20 years, the
Roman Empire was ruled autocratically (and
verging on tyranny) from 284 AD
by Emperor Gaius Aureluis Valeruis
Diocletianus, known as
Diocletian.
Authoritative historians cite him as having been a
dominating ruler,
who demanded absolute loyalty and unequivocal submission
and compliance from
his ministers, subordinates, and all others. He ensured
this by having a
strong, ever-increasing military infrastructure,
notwithstanding that that
necessitated almost continuous imposition of
taxes, enabling him to
remunerate his forces in cash and in kind (his troops
receiving
distributions of foodstuffs and other commodities in addition to
their wages
in cash).
Emperor Diocletian is recalled in history
for the extent of his
pronounced controls over every facet of the Empire's
economy, and for the
devastating consequences of most of those controls. His
controls, and
policies behind them, were supposedly formulated by his vast
array of
officials and numerous ministers. These included two ministers
responsible
for fiscal and economic issues (shades of Zimbabwe!), and
diverse others,
including a barrage of provincial governors. Two of his
economic measures
for which he remains recorded in most historical works
relating to his era
were:
* The Empire's currency had, over the
years of rule by Emperor
Diocletian and his ministers, almost continuously
declined in value. The
silver denarii had been withdrawn from circulation,
as had also gold, with
denarii being replaced with silver-washed copper,
known as nummi. The
Emperor then issued gold coins (initially at 70, and
subsequently 60, to the
pound). However, he was unable to issue a
sufficiency of gold and silver
coinage, much of that which he issued
disappearing rapidly from circulation,
as hoarding became more and more
pronounced on the part of much of the
population, so he then flooded the
market with nummi. In consequence, the
nummi very rapidly depreciated, and
this caused an almost continuous rise in
prices.
* Concerned at
the intense escalation in prices, in 301 AD, Diocletian
issued an edict (for
which he became famous - or, was it infamous?)
prescribing prices that could
be charged for all types of goods, and maximum
charges for services.
Concurrently, he imposed a penalty upon any who
disregarded his edict, be
that disregard by charging in excess of the
specified maximum, or by
withholding goods from the market. That penalty was
death! Despite the
severity of the penalty, and its imposition becoming the
order of the day,
there being numerous executions, the edict proved to be
grossly ineffective.
Traders disposed of those goods that they had at the
time of issued of the
edict, but they did not replace them. They simply
could not afford to sell
the goods at prices lower than cost or, even where
the prices exceeded cost,
that excess did not suffice to fund operating
expenses, let alone any
livelihood for the traders. As a result, the
hardships experienced by the
populace, who had initially been enthralled and
exhilarated by the issuance
of the edict, intensified exponentially.
Moreover, the rampant
inflation had driven Diocletian's government to
pay its employees in
general, and its military in particular, very
substantially in kind, it
sourcing the required foodstuffs, clothing and
other items by requisitions
which had to be fulfilled by the oppressed
commercial sector. Diocletian
systemised the requisitions (known as
indictions). All landed property,
other than urban, was classified in fiscal
units, as also the population of
animals and people. Thereafter, government
would annually estimate the
quantities of goods required by the state, and
would thereupon issued
indictions correlated to the assessed fiscal units.
So, as the hardships of
the populace intensified, so too did taxation
obligations of the
people.
Neither of these measures of Emperor Diocletian and his
government
achieved the declared objectives, and the economic state of the
Roman Empire
continued upon its accelerating, cataclysmic decline, ending
only after
Emperor Diocletian reluctantly abdicated and, together with many
of his
ministers, retired to Croatia to grow cabbages. His successor, and a
new
government, thereupon revoked the foolhardy, destructive edict, and
embarked
upon a constructive, successful, programme of economic recovery,
founded
upon realisation that only effective inflation containment measures
were
governmental frugality, facilitation of productivity, and stimulation
of
market competitiveness, in an environment of minimal
controls.
The catastrophic consequences of the endless production
of money, and
of the devastatingly disastrous edict, was succinctly
summarised by a
historian of that era, known as Lactantius, who said: "Then
much blood was
shed for the veriest trifles; men were afraid to expose
anything to sale,
and the scarcity became more excessive and grievous than
ever."
It is an old maxim that "history repeats itself", and that
which
occurred in the Roman Empire more than 1 700 years ago is undeniably
being
mirrored in the Zimbabwe of today. Admittedly, government has not gone
so
far as to apply the death penalty to those manufacturers and traders as
fail
to comply with its price control directives, but over and above arrests
and
prosecution, there are countless instances of recourse to brutal
beatings,
in total disregard for international standards of respect for
human rights,
and in complete abuse of prevailing Zimbabwean law. And many
are being
subjected to financial death, being forced to incur unsustainable
losses.
Supermarkets made to sell goods at below their costs have been
subjected to
losses of billions of dollars, as have filling stations
throughout the
country. Those filling stations had purchased petrol and
diesel at prices
ranging from $130 000 to $150 000 per litre, none being
available at lesser
prices, and yet were threatened, bullied and forced by
the police to sell
that fuel at $60 000 per litre. Losses sustained by them
ranged from $500
million to over a billion dollars, but this was of no
concern to government
and to its so-called crack units of law
enforcers.
It is ironic to refer to them as enforcers, for the
reality is that
they are enforcing that which is not law. The current price
control regime
is in terms of a directive issued by a cabinet task force,
but the Zimbabwe
constitution, and its underlying parliamentary-legislated
law, does not
empower the cabinet to issue unilateral directives. Not that
that is of any
concern to the government, as evidenced by statements made by
President
Mugabe, Vice-President Msika, Elliot Manyika, Obert Mpofu and
various of
their colleagues.
At a funeral a fortnight ago, the
president unhesitatingly warned the
private sector of dire consequences if
prices were not reduced in alignment
with governmental directives, as did
Vice-President Msika, at another
funeral, less than a week later. And last
Friday, following upon his return
from Ghana (where he claimed to be a
disciple of former Ghanaian President
Nkrumah, despite the harm Nkrumah had
inflicted upon his country and
people), President Mugabe said that his
government would not be deterred in
its price stabilisation moves by
business people and opposition politicians
who were clamouring that the
prices were illegal. In other words, government
is above the
law!
He continued that: "Factories must produce. If they don't, we
will
take over. We will take over those factories if you don't want to
produce.
We will seize the factories." Clearly, it is irrelevant that there
is no law
enabling government to seize the factories. Equally clearly, it is
irrelevant that government has neither the expertise or the resources to run
the factories (as irrefutably evidenced by the recurrent failed performance
of almost all parastatals, and the ever-greater deterioration and failure of
infrastructure. The proud Zimbabwe, born in 1980 and then destined to
overturn the evil oppressions of the past, is now more oppressive than that
which it abhorred. Rule of law is no more, for it is now rule by decree.
Democracy is no more, for the role of parliament has been usurped, and
domination by a few now reigns supreme. The Zimbabwean government appears to
be as resolutely set upon the national destruction as was Emperor
Diocletian, with the same abysmal consequences for all but a few of the
people.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
By Vincent Kahiya
SINCE government
launched the current war on prices, awestruck
stakeholders have been gazing
into the horizon to see where this rush of
blood into government's head will
take us to.
Already we have seen arrests of company executives,
empty shop
shelves, retrenchments and reduced productivity in industry. But
the impact
of this madness is going beyond that. The government of President
Mugabe is
once again travelling a well-beaten path: that of converting
national assets
into dead capital.
Increasingly, national
assets can no longer be used to their full
potential. These are institutions
that give life to an economy and
facilitate the creation of wealth. They are
fast diminishing.
Two events this week aptly demonstrate how our
government is
shamelessly strangulating instruments that should be creating
wealth for the
country. There was a report on Monday that thousands of
tonnes of harvested
sugarcane at the state-run Arda Chisumbanje estate were
left to rot in the
fields and hundred of hectares of the crop was wilting in
the fields due to
moisture stress. This is the same parastatal responsible
for another blunder
which saw 500 hectares of wheat failing to
germinate.
On Tuesday, the Cabinet Taskforce on Price Monitoring
decreed that it
had cancelled licences for all abattoirs, making the
ramshackle state-owned
Cold Storage Company the only firm allowed to
slaughter cattle. This means
that abattoirs such as Montana Meats, Pama
Meats, Carswell Meats, Mutasa
Meats, Lishon and so on were overnight
transformed into dead capital because
they could not avail meat at the
government controlled price of $100 000 a
kg.
The smaller
abattoirs entered the industry because of the degenerating
state of affairs
at the then Cold Storage Commission which hopelessly failed
to service
export quotas as well as the domestic market. The company was
only rescued
from the scrapyard following President Mugabe's declaration in
Marondera
last year that the company should reopen its closed abattoirs.
This is the
same contraption that is now being entrusted with providing meat
to the
country. Last week in this column, I questioned where President
Mugabe had
learnt this form of destructive economics. More traits of these
disastrous
tendencies are becoming clear. In Zanu PF's scheme of things, the
only way
they can create business for the corrupt and shoddily-run
parastatals is to
use heavy handed tactics to push private sector
competitors out of
business.
We have seen this in the transport sector where private
operators are
daily hounded by the police to give Zupco leverage. Despite
its massive
advantages, Zupco's depots today are littered with broken-down
buses only
recently launched onto our roads with much pomp and ceremony. The
story is
the same with the GMB whose monopoly in grain trade killed the
Zimbabwe
Commodity Exchange which afforded producers competitive prices.
Today, GMB
silos have also become dead capital because farmers have resisted
selling
their crop to the parastatal for a give-away price.
The
flagship citadel of destruction remains Kondozi Farm in Odzi which
after
rape by the state was reduced to a wasteland. This piece of land used
to
produce vegetables and fruit for export to Europe and South Africa. It is
now dead capital together with vast swathes of farmland seized under the
agrarian reform.
The same goes for scores of parastatals
presided over by the state.
They are not producing wealth for the nation but
they instead rely on the
handouts from the fiscus for their
survival.
This is where the current price blitz is heading. It is
rendering
retail outlets, butcheries, abattoirs, factories and buses dead
capital.
The closure of abattoirs this week could be a harbinger of
worst
things to come for this already floundering economy. Contemplating the
Kondozi pretext in the case of the abattoirs would be ghastly. After the
forced takeover of the estate, the state looted equipment in the name of
transferring it to Arda Estates - whose exploits on the land are a scandal.
The equipment never got to Arda. It was stripped of key assets like
tractors, lorries and pack yard infrastructure. The government brought in
soldiers to till the land and they failed dismally in this endeavour. This
is how the state killed that vital asset and private abattoirs could befall
the same fate. The lunacy is most likely to be extended to other sectors of
the economy with disastrous consequences because the government does not
have a post-blitz plan to ensure that manufacturers continue to produce and
retailers remain open.
With a whole mortuary of non-performing
assets, this economy will be
much harder to revive. For a government that
has presided over so much death
and destruction the current exercise is
routine business.
Zim Independent
Comment
THE image of President Mugabe addressing ruling-party
supporters last
Friday must have made an impression on all who saw it. Here
was the head of
state inviting his followers to back government's campaign
to dispossess
business people who are victims of his own damaging economic
policies.
People were being asked to take the law into their own hands,
which they
duly did.
A fig-leaf of legality was only placed
over this shameful episode
after this newspaper was told by prominent
lawyers last week that enforced
price reductions were illegal.
"Which law are you talking about.?" Mugabe asked. He referred to
"extreme
greediness" among the business community. "They want to get richer
at the
expense of the poor," he claimed.
These remarks would have been
more accurately directed at his own
supporters for whom greed has become a
way of life. And the whole point
about the law is that it should be obeyed
by rulers as well as ruled. But
once again we have the president choosing
which laws he is going to respect
and which he will ignore because "people
are struggling".
They are struggling largely with the fallout from
policies he has
pursued in the teeth of advice from every economist in the
country.
Inflation is being fuelled by incontinent state expenditure; by
government's
appetite for funds; by a bloated administration that offers no
value for
money; and by the absence of political will.
Then
there is the destruction of forex-generating revenue sources such
as tobacco
and horticulture, money-spinners just a few years ago.
Meanwhile,
the seizure of farms has reduced agricultural output by 60%
and tourists
have been scared off by scenes we witnessed last week at
supermarket tills.
So have investors. Nobody will invest in a country where
the head of state
threatens to seize factories because he needs to court
popular support in
the run-up to an election.
The current campaign against the
business sector will be just as
damaging as farm seizures and Operation
Murambatsvina. Again we see the
involvement of the military through the
Joint Operations Command. Again we
see Zanu PF's Green Bombers and Youth
League being unleashed against the
citizenry. Again we witness violence and
looting of private property.
This is Mugabe's idea of helping the
poor. On his watch the economy,
once the pride of Africa, has contracted
annually since 2000. Per capita GDP
has shrunk to levels not seen since the
1950s. By any standard Zimbabweans
are immeasurably poorer today than they
were at Independence in 1980.
This is a novel approach to helping
the poor! More accurately he is
pauperising the nation. Now he wants to do
to manufacturing what he did to
commercial agriculture. And then he will
offer himself to the country as
indispensable!
How
indispensable is somebody who cannot stop ruining a once thriving
economy?
How indispensable is a leader who instead of calling for national
dialogue
and well-considered policies to tame inflation provides no example
of
restraint in patterns of public spending and unleashes gangs of
undisciplined youths to mete out punishment to business people who have
struggled against the odds to remain in business; whose taxes and
expenditure keeps tens of thousands in employment and Mugabe in the manner
to which he has become accustomed.
By crushing the business
sector because he believes it to be in league
with Anglo-American
imperialists Mugabe is destroying the nation's means of
recovery.
What signal does this send to Sadc executive
secretary Tomaz Salomao
who is attempting to craft a regional recovery
package for Zimbabwe? He will
first need the support of Sadc's international
development partners. And
they are unlikely to throw good money after bad
when they see a regime
determined to pursue damaging policies and heedless
to calls for
macro-economic reform.
Zim Independent
Candid Comment
by Joram Nyathi
IT was the same in business,
the media and the opposition. The
response to government's crackdown on
business for hiking prices of basic
foodstuffs last week was notoriously
familiar: Hang Mugabe. The results were
equally predictable: empty shelves
and a burgeoning black market. Nobody was
bothered that the galloping prices
were themselves stoking inflation faster
than government spending and the
printing of money by the Reserve Bank.
Nobody in the media bothered
to ask the all-important question why
business was suddenly in this frenzied
bout to increase prices, all as if
acting in concert.
On June
1, government, labour and business signed the protocol on
price
stabilisation. The social partners agreed to act in good faith and
create a
conducive business environment. Government would cut expenditure,
business
would maximise productivity and make reasonable profit margins
while labour
would exercise restraint in its wage demands.
Prophets of doom were
already at the altar telling us the social
contract would not work before
they had even read it. Government later
raised the non-taxable benefit
without forcing companies to increase workers'
wages. It has resisted calls
for a supplementary budget, which Eric Bloch
believes is long
overdue.
Business' response was a price madness without precedent
in Zimbabwe.
In two weeks, prices of some basic goods went up four-fold,
wiping out
overnight the tax benefit I hadn't yet received. Those in the
know told you
prices were being pegged to the black market exchange rate of
the US dollar.
The major fuel of the price spree was the so-called
"replacement cost" of
stocks. It was as if everyone wanted to be counted as
having contributed a
sterling effort to the attainment of 1 500 000%
inflation by year-end. How
much of this "replacement cost" went into the
pocket of the toiling worker?"
Government might have overreacted in
reversing all prices to June 18
levels. The cut in prices of 50% is
irrational and therefore unsustainable,
but that doesn't take away the fact
that business gave a hostage to fortune.
Any government would have
responded. Zanu PF is making political capital
which may force some
companies to close down and hurt the poor more. But
business was putting the
same basic commodities that are now in short supply
beyond my reach. Whether
they were available in the supermarket, I was still
denied their enjoyment
because somebody felt they couldn't forego a huge
profit margin for the sake
of the social contract. ZNCC president Mara
Hativagone admitted as much this
week.
Nobody doubts the cost of foreign currency. Nobody doubts the
detrimental effects of pricing distortions on the market. Indeed, nobody
questions government's culpability in the entire economic mess.
Unfortunately, that doesn't diminish business' failure to act with
circumspection and in good faith. They knew the rate of inflation at the
time of signing on June 1. They also knew that the social contract would not
flood the country with foreign currency overnight.
Speaking in
a radio programme soon after the contract was signed,
Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries president Callisto Jokonya said with
commitment from all
partners, economic recovery was possible within three
months. So what caused
the price panic so soon after the signing? To me the
social contract was
never given a chance purely for political reasons, not
because it was
futile. We have grown to prefer foreign interventions ahead
of local
initiatives.
In any case, what is the value of business operations
which our
businessmen risk losing relative to the profit margins they could
have
foregone to meet their side of the bargain?
What I often
find interesting is that while most of our businessmen
will tell you in
conversation that we are dealing with a mad government,
they still go for a
head-on collision. Land seizures and Operation
Murambatsvina seem to have
made no impression about the political leadership
they are dealing
with.
For opposition parties, the price escalations were
celebration time.
They served three purposes:
· As a
demonstration of Zanu PF's failure to run the country.
· Exposed
Zanu PF's failure to manage the economy.
· That the opposition was
indispensable in the economic recovery.
None showed any sympathy
for the starving worker. All waited
breathlessly for food riots and chaos
that would force Mugabe out. I was
left wondering whether our nation still
has a soul at all. Nowhere was this
soullessness more evident than in a
labour-based party failing to balance
the interests of business with those
of workers. Nothing was said about the
gap between wages and the PDL as
prices skyrocketed.
At the end of the day, what has been exposed is
the myopia of both
government and business. Government's harsh response has
predictably left
supermarket shelves empty. On the other hand, relentless
price escalations
were a classic time bomb. They were bound to lead to a
more catastrophic
end. A starving nation staring at well-stocked shops will
likely be tempted
to loot before any political considerations. This could
lead to the
destruction of property and even loss of lives.
Nobody can deny the resentment among shop assistants as they are made
to put
fresh price mark-ups daily on goods they need for their families but
can't
afford. Witness how they have been the first to provide incriminating
evidence against their bosses to the price monitoring taskforce about hidden
merchandise. It is what Mahatma Gandhi termed "commerce without
morality".
Instead of trying to "fix" each other, isn't this time
for a sober
reflection among the stakeholders in the national interest?
There is a
certain belligerence that is as futile as it is
ill-conceived.
Zanu PF manipulated land issue to hold onto power
WHAT I am going
to do in this letter is set out as clearly as I can
the reasons why it is in
the best interests of all Zimbabweans that large
scale-commercial
agriculture is rebuilt. It is also in the best interests of
all Zimbabweans
that commercial investment takes place in the communal
lands, thereby
enabling the peasant farmers to enter the cash economy as
small-scale
commercial farmers.
Historically, the land holding configuration in
Zimbabwe was based on
race, this discrimination was enforced by the Land
Apportionment Act and
later on the Land Husbandry Act. This divisive
legislation caused resentment
and anger among the indigenous population,
understandably and justifiably
so.
It is this longstanding
resentment that President Mugabe has made use
of to promote the notion that
most of the ills and injustices of the
colonial era can be made right by the
removal of white farmers from the land
and make that same land available to
the peasant population.
The term "land reform" became, by means of
propaganda and repetition,
the battle cry of the Zanu PF government in its
fight to retain political
power. This cry had resonance amongst a large
proportion of the Zimbabwean
population, taking from the "haves" and giving
to the "have-nots" is a cheap
way of generating empathy and
support.
In reality, production and prosperity was destroyed
without any
commensurate benefit accruing to the peasant population. The
real reason for
the destruction of commercial agriculture was it had become
a hotbed of
support for the MDC. For land reform, one should read,
"Murambatsvina No 1".
The much advertised land hunger was a
deliberate misrepresentation of
the true feelings and aspirations of the
people who live in the communal
lands. The true cry of the people is they
want to free themselves from the
poverty and drudgery that subsistence
farming imposes upon them. The 1995
Poverty Assessment Survey endorses what
I have just said.
This survey was government-led in close
collaboration with the donor
community and civic society, it was a
countrywide survey and 19 173
households were interviewed. Only 2% of those
interviewed believed that more
land or better land would help them out of
poverty. As always the voice of
the common people was drowned out by
government hyperbole and propaganda.
Today, most of the once productive
commercial farms are empty and abandoned.
Large-scale commercial
agriculture was introduced during white rule.
The direct benefits flowing
from this advance were not available to the
peasant farmers because they did
not hold title to the land they occupied.
This denial was wrong, but not the
principle of large-scale commercial
agriculture.
Large-scale
commercial agriculture went on to become one of the
pillars on which our
modern economy was built. Similarly, China's modern
economy was preceded by
a 117% expansion in commercial agricultural
production in the 1970s. A
modern industrial economy is always urban-based
and to exist an urban-based
population must be assured of a reliable flow
and range of competitively
priced food products. Only large-scale commercial
agriculture can fulfil
this role, by producing in large volumes and being
able to exist on tight
profit margins. There is no third way.
The post-independence racial
imbalance in large scale commercial
agriculture cannot be blamed on white
farmers. This imbalance was
deliberately maintained by the Zanu PF
government as a weapon in it's
re-election war chest. Re-igniting old
resentments and whipping up ant-white
feelings was a cheap and easy way of
bringing in the votes. For the future,
any young person of any race who
wishes to make his or her career in
commercial agriculture should be helped
and encouraged.
Recently, MDC faction leader, Arthur Mutambara,
said he wants to see
Zimbabwe become the first tiger economy in Africa. Also
at the inaugural
meeting of the MDC, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said "we
want to get people
off the land not on the land". Both these statements are
wise and prophetic,
meaning we must develop a modern industry-based economy
to succeed the
present (albeit crippled) agrarian economy.
If
in addition to the many economic and social problems we face in
this
country, if we factor in climate change, then a modern industry-based
economy is the only hope if we are serious about achieving a civilised
standard of living for the people of Zimbabwe.
Bruce
Gemmill,
Harare.
----------------
Come clean
Prof
I WANT to ask Jonathan Moyo who seems to criticise the
government at
every opportunity how he feels about his time in
government?
Moyo suddenly finds what the government is doing
totally unacceptable,
but it was during his stay in office that we had some
of the most violent
events in the country. And to his credit, he used to
sing in the loudest
voice that that was the best for the
country.
It was under him that the repressive laws such as Aippa
among others
were formulated and passed as law. He made it clear to all of
us that this
was the best thing for the country and made public media a Zanu
PF tool.
I want to ask Moyo to come out in the open and tell us
whether he was
just singing for his supper or not; else he was part of what
went on? Did he
sincerely think that the violent seizures we witnessed were
moral, legal and
acceptable?
Does he regret what he did while
in government, and any lies he might
have told the nation? Did he believe
then that Zimbabwe's problems were
caused by Tony Blair and George Bush? Was
he or wasn't he part of the
corruption within Zanu? I am still to hear him
tell us exactly how he feels
about putting us where we are right
now.
Responsibility is an honourable thing and how much does he
take for
the mess we are in?
I find it interesting that he was
one of the biggest critics of the
government, then suddenly became the most
ardent fan, and then again a big
critic. If he doesn't come clean about his
responsibility when he was in
government, he is nothing more than the
hypocrite and the biggest
opportunist Zimbabwe has ever had.
At
least with the rest of Zanu members, hate them or like them, we
know exactly
where their loyalties lie and that they are a corrupt bunch of
useless
people who are not even ashamed of it.
Cekay
Tawham,
Boston, USA.
----------------
Remedy
for economic mess
I THINK three things should be reduced to address
the economic woes
the country is facing: government expenditure, the level
of unemployment and
inflation.
By reducing the size of the
cabinet, government will be showing its
propensity to save and will be able
to divert funds to production.
Those cabinet members made redundant
will at least be forced to
venture into real economic business where they
feed from. That way they will
see the real impact of their
policies.
As long as the unempolyment rate remains as high as it
is, it becomes
increasingly difficult to restore sanity because all and
sundry are feeding
on money obtained otherwise. We have people surviving
just from hoarding
commodities and selling at a margin. As long as this
level of unempolyment
persists, illegal deals will be the order of the
day.
Inflation should also be addresed. Economists say where there
is high
inflation and it is coupled with high unemployment rates, it's a
disaster.
However, if the level of unemployment is low, we can mass produce
and export
as much as possible.
observer@gmail.com
---------------
Why not excommunicate him?
The word excommunication is from the
Latin ex (out of) and
communicatio meaning communion. It is a banishment
from the Catholic church
and it is the most serious penalty that the church
can inflict.
Excommunication is not so much to punish the culprit
as to correct him
and bring him back to the path of righteousness. Such
exile can have an end
as soon as the
offender has given suitable
satisfaction.
Meanwhile, his status before the church is that of a
stranger. He may
not participate in public worship, nor receive the "body of
Christ" or any
of the sacraments.
Why is it that the Catholic
church has not exercised this right of
censure against their fellow member
and worshipper Robert Mugabe?
I would appreciate comment from Fr
Oskar Wermter SJ, the spokesperson
for the Catholic church in
Zimbabwe.
Mike Rook,
Surrey, United
Kingdom.
--------------
Prisoners of ignorance
THANK you for a newspaper that allows us to see evil, speak about evil
and
hear evil.
The supporters and members of Zanu PF are prisoners of
ignorance. They
are victims of their own environment. They have created a
culture in which
they think alike. Look at Joseph Chinotimba, Tafataona
Mahoso and Claude
Mararike.
They have different education
levels but they think alike. It's like
they read from the same textbook. I
term it "groupthink". This means
deterioration of the decision-making
processes because of in-group pressures
to think alike.
The
leaders of Zanu PF think silence of its members means consent or
agreement.
What they don't know is that their supporters and other party
members engage
in self-censorship, failing to mention a legitimate idea
contrary to the
party's decision. Any person who thinks differently will be
seen as a
sellout or alien. Look at Simba Makoni. The party members also
suffer from
illusion of unanimity; that is noone wants to break up the
cohesiveness of
the faulty ideas in the party.
The other problem in the party is
that of shared stereotypes. Any
person who thinks differently is treated as
an enemy. "Groupthink" generates
the illusion of invulnerability. After all,
we have been in power for 27
years why should people not accept our ideas?
The idea that party members
cannot think differently leads to feelings of
grandeur and infallibility.
Zanu PF thinks that it is immortal.
In short "groupthink" inhibits thinking hence whenever you hear Zanu
PF
members speak ,you really know that you have heard that thinking
somewhere.
What one has to do after interviewing a Zanu PF member is ask,
"So what do
you think?"
Tariri,
Braeside,
Harare.
-------------
The height of cruelty
THE
Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe (SCMZ) notes with great
shock and
concern the abrupt and ill-timed de facto closure of the
University of
Zimbabwe barely a week before examinations were set to begin.
This
week, UZ vice chancellor Professor Levy Nyagura, unilaterally
issued an
eviction order that all students were to leave the campus in 30
minutes.
This effectively means that more than 4 500 resident
students have
been left stranded without any alternative place to stay. This
is because
more than 75% of them come from poor peasant backgrounds outside
Harare.
We have also established that students were forced out of
lecture
rooms and from the library. Heavily armed riot police and the army
were
summoned to implement these forced evictions.
This
directive came in the wake of student protests against being
denied food for
failing to pay top up fees of $1 million. The top up fees
were announced
last week, leading the Zimbabwe National Students Union to
file an urgent
court application at the High Court challenging the top up
fees.
The basis of the challenge is that it is the University
which reneged
on its part of the bargain by unilaterally extending the
semester following
protracted industrial action by the university
staff.
The High Court is still to make a determination on whether
the top-ups
are justified or not. These developments obviously pre-empt the
court's
findings and will render whatever court ruling insignificant which
undermines the independence of the judiciary.
What is more
disturbing is that most students neither have funds nor
means to go back to
their homes having been given barely sufficient time to
source funds from
their homes for such purposes.
Regrettably, the UZ administration
has used a sledge hammer to crack a
nut. In simpler terms, it has used the
axe to kill a mosquito on the
university's neck. Helpless students have been
placed in a vulnerable
situation. At the height of winter, this is a
situation reminiscent of the
shameful Operation Murambatsvina.
Students now face various problems including starvation, HIV and Aids,
rape,
sexual and/or psychological abuse and greater health hazards.
SCMZ
calls upon all stakeholders to join hands and assist the needy
students who
have been made more vulnerable by these developments. We call
upon the UZ to
refrain from attacking the right of students and to uphold
the right to
quality and affordable education.
SCMZ national
office.