Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET)
Date: 18 Jul
2007
- Humanitarian assistance
needed to fill
cereal gap
See attached report
This report
covers the period from 5/31/2007 to 6/29/2007
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda Acting Political
Editor
Surprise reshuffle signals shift to radical policies
PRESIDENT
Robert Mugabe might announce a surprise reshuffle of his Cabinet
anytime
soon, which ZANU PF insiders said would signal a further shift
towards even
more radical economic and political policy, as his government
seeks to
retain power in next year's harmonised elections.
Highly placed sources
said the veteran nationalist, who has all but secured
a fresh mandate to
represent the revolutionary party in the presidential
race, signalled the
impending reshuffle when he appointed and re-assigned
permanent secretaries
and heads of department on Monday.
The last Cabinet reshuffle was in
February, in which the most notable
development was the dropping as Finance
Minister of Herbert Murerwa, who had
been widely seen as one of the few
reformists in government.
Events have however, turned for the worst since the
February Cabinet
changes, with inflation soaring to a new high of over 4 500
percent, while
basic foodstuffs have disappeared from supermarket shelves
following a
three-week crackdown on business.
This week, President Mugabe
appointed two new permanent secretaries to the
Ministry of Lands, Land
Reform and Resettlement, and another for Economic
Development, while
re-assigning two others and one principal director.
Official sources say the
appointments are a precursor of changes to be made
in more senior positions.
The lower level appointments have caused panic
among Cabinet ministers, most
of whom had sub-contracted their
responsibilities to subordinates so as to
direct all their energies to their
fight for political survival in their
constituencies in next year's
elections, which were brought forward by two
years.
President Mugabe usually reshuffles his Cabinet after elections, and a
reshuffle just months ahead of next year's polls will revive old stories
about in-fighting, and more recent speculation about divisions within his
team over the price blitz, which has dashed any remaining hopes among less
radical sections of government that they could still push for some economic
reforms.
Sources said the Cabinet tinkering, will also afford the ZANU PF
strongman
room to rethink government policy on the price war, which has
hastened the
collapse of the country's economy.
Presidential spokesman
George Charamba said he was not aware of a pending
reshuffle, pointing out
he was on leave.
But a source said: "He (President Mugabe) wants to come up
with an election
Cabinet to drive the agenda for elections."
President
Mugabe routinely labels his different cabinets in line with a
dominant theme
and he in the past has chosen "development", "turnaround"
and, more
famously, "war cabinet".
The crackdown on businesses, which government
defends as necessary to
cushion poor consumers that are at the mercy of
profiteers, has turned into
a practical example of the monumental failure of
government's economic
policies.
Consumers have cheered the price cuts,
but store shelves have emptied and
left the poor even worse off.
Some
government officials concede that Cabinet changes would do little to
rescue
the country's economy, as several such shake-ups at crucial stages in
the
past yielded nothing.
President Mugabe, if he proceeds with a reshuffle,
would however, be likely
to load his Cabinet with the most radical of his
lieutenants.
In 2000, the President appointed "technocrats" to his
government, raising
hopes of reform. But he has gradually disposed of most
of them, most notably
former industry and international trade minister
Nkosana Moyo, former
finance minister Simba Makoni and Jonathan Moyo, the
former information
minister.
Other figures considered as technocrats at
the time, including Joseph Made
and Patrick Chinamasa, now form a hard core
of radicals seen as being
opposed to reforms.
The price blitz itself has
also shown that the rabidly radical section of
ZANU PF easily holds sway
over what little pragmatism remains in the ruling
party.
The drive has
been spearheaded by Industry and International Trade Minister
Obert Mpofu
and Elliot Manyika, the ZANU PF national political commissar who
said on a
television talk show last Thursday that a prediction made by
former United
States ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell, that
inflation would reach
1 500 000 percent by December had galvanised the
government to embark on the
price war.
Meanwhile, President Mugabe has reportedly retained faith in
Police
Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, and would reward him with yet another
term
in office.
The police commissioner's term, which expires next month,
was extended last
year by a year.
Chihuri was first appointed
commissioner in 1993, taking over from Henry
Mukurazhizha, who resigned in
1991.
President Mugabe extended Chihuri's term of office last year amid
intense
jockeying by other senior officers, including the President's
nephew,
Innocent Matibiri, who has made a mateoric rise through the police
ranks.
Chihuri, who has been in the force since 1980 when he joined as a
patrol
officer, was reported to have expressed his wish to
retire.
Chihuri's reign has been dogged by criticism that police have become
the
leading edge of the state's worsening rights abuses, notably the
detention
and torture of opposition and civic society leaders in March this
year.
Under Chihuri's stewardship, the police have been accused of harassing
legal
officers and defying court orders.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
MILLERS
have reached a deadlock with their employers over salary increments
for
July, forcing the parties to seek recourse from the government's Labour
Office, sources indicated this week.
The Labour Office is housed in
the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and
Social Welfare and acts as
arbitrator in labour disputes.
The Labour Office has since summoned the
industry's employers through the
Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe
(GMAZ) to "attend proceedings" over
the "wage deadlock".
The Zimbabwe
Grain Millers Workers' Union (ZGMWU) represents the workers in
the
dispute.
However, GMAZ insists there is no dispute yet with employees over
salary
adjustments.
In a letter to the Labour Office, dated July 12 and
signed by GMAZ chairman
Tafadzwa Musarara, the employers charged that there
was "no deadlock reached
yet between the Grain Millers Association of
Zimbabwe and the trade union".
Musarara challenged the workers' union to
"provide documentary proof" that
the two parties had reached a deadlock over
the wage negotiations.
He implored the Labour Office to note that the grain
millers had agreed on
four salary reviews.
"For the period from January
to June 2007, we consented to four wage reviews
contrary to our CBA
(Collective Bargaining Agreement) provisions," which had
made room for two
wage increments, he said.
Part of Musarara's response to the summons by the
Labour Office, a copy of
which is in possession of The Financial Gazette,
said the millers were still
holding consultations on the way forward in the
wake of "the government
directive to slash prices."
The letter added that
the government directive to have all prices of goods
and services slashed by
50 percent had "left millers (operating) in the
red".
The GMAZ chairman
said due to the current economic situation in the country,
"negotiations
will take longer than a single meeting. Salary review may and
can be
affected in retrospect".
Industry experts said this week that millers had
been hard hit by the
government's directive to slash prices and this had
inevitably influenced
wage negotiations.
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Staff Reporter
Debate
rages over death penalty
THERE have been no takers for the gory job of
hangman, and anti-death
penalty activists say this is evidence that
Zimbabweans are opposed to
capital punishment.
Activists say the time
has therefore come for Zimbabwe to abolish capital
punishment. But as the
debate rages, the courts continue to mete out the
death sentence, swelling
the numbers on death row.
No one out of the millions of jobless Zimbabweans
seems to be interested in
taking up the macabre job. This could be a
reflection of the sentiments of
Zimbabwean society about capital
punishment.
Traditional chiefs, anti-death penalty activists and government
officials
met in Harare last week to discuss the possibility of abolishing
the death
penalty.
"We are here to solicit your views on the death
penalty law in Zimbabwe. We
are coming to you as our elders and opinion
leaders in our Zimbabwean
society," said Edson Chiota, coordinator of the
Zimbabwe Association for
Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of Offenders
(ZACRO).
"The country has been failing to attract a Zimbabwean for the job of
a
hangman since 1995. During the period between 1995 to 2001, Zimbabwe did
not
carry out any executions, not because there were no people on death row,
but
because there was no Zimbabwean prepared to take up the job," said
Chiota.
"The executions only started in 2001 after the job was given to a
foreigner.
If all of us are not prepared to take up the job, why do we want
people to
be killed?"
Since the beginning of the year, ZACRO has been
spearheading a national
anti-death penalty campaign.
The organisation has
lined up meetings with traditional leaders, churches,
the general public and
members of parliament. It will also embark on street
campaigns and the
distribution of T-shirts inscribed with anti-death penalty
messages.
But
the organisation is likely to find opinion sharply divided.
"You should be
given a sentence in accordance with your crime. If you
deliberately kill,
you should also be killed," Chief Makoni declared,
eliciting strong opposing
views from his colleagues.
"Is it the custom in our culture that one who
kills should also be killed?
If one kills, and we say they should be killed,
are we solving anything? How
does the family of the person killed benefit?"
asked Chief Bushu.
After heated debate, the consensus that emerged among the
chiefs was that
tradition outlaws executions.
Some within civil society
have inevitably given the debate a political
slant.
They say the death
penalty is a relic of colonial legislation, a tool for
silencing
dissent.
Wonder Chakanyuka, ZACRO's information and publicity officer, did
not dwell
on whether the death penalty was being used to crush dissent. He
focused on
the perception that the death penalty violated traditional norms
and was a
throwback to the colonial era.
"It was used to intimidate and
eliminate black people, and as Zimbabweans,
we cannot continue having this
law on our books," he argued in a newspaper
article.
"An increasing
number of African states have abolished the death penalty and
Zimbabwe
cannot afford to be left behind."
The Human Rights Trust of Southern Africa
(SAHRIT) has also come out
staunchly against the death penalty saying it
should be replaced by life
imprisonment to allow for "reflection and
reform."
"The courts can sentence someone to death, but they cannot be 100
percent
sure that the person has committed the crime," said Noel Kututwa,
SAHRIT
executive director.
The office of the Master of the High Court was
contacted to establish the
number of prisoners on death row but these
efforts proved fruitless.
However, 70 executions are known to have taken
place since 1980.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
ZANU PF has dismissed outlandish claims diesel is oozing out of
a rock in
Chinhoyi.
The ruling party sent in a taskforce, comprising
State Security Minister
Didymus Mutasa, Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi
and Home Affairs Minister
Kembo Mohadi, to investigate claims that diesel
was cascading down from
rocks in Chinhoyi and at Makuti in Mashonaland
West.
State media had raved over what it said was "a diesel-like liquid"
coming
down from the caves.
But last week, Mutasa's committee presented
its report on its
investigations, dismissing claims of a diesel
discovery.
ZANU PF spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira at the weekend told the
ruling party's
mouthpiece, The Voice that the team reported that there was
no need to
pursue the claim any further as no diesel deposits had been found
in the
area.
"The team reported to the Politburo that there was no need
to pursue the
issue as nothing convincing had been found, meaning that there
are no
deposits of diesel in the area," Shamuyarira is quoted as
saying.
The diesel that had been collected in the area was part of a
"publicity
stunt" by a self-proclaimed spirit medium, whose intentions could
not be
ascertained, the report said.
The spirit medium reportedly claimed
that there were diesel deposits in
Mashonaland West, and had given out
prohibitive conditions and procedures he
wanted followed so as to allow
extraction of the "diesel".
A committee led by Deputy Police Commissioner
Godwin Matanga, and including
security forces, government officials,
supposed academics and traditional
leaders, also attempted to investigate
the discovery of diesel in the
province before the Mutasa probe.
The
Matanga committee had reportedly told the Politburo that it was
satisfied
that the liquid flowing out of Chinhoyi and Makuti was pure
diesel.
Experts say it is scientifically implausible that diesel would
gush out of
any rock. Others speculate that the fuel is part of a large
stash of fuel
hidden in the maze of caves by the Rhodesian military during
the transition
to independence.
But even more - including The Voice -
agree that ZANU PF would have loved to
strike oil.
The paper said reports
of a diesel find had "brought hope to many at a time
the country was
experiencing fuel shortages."
FinGaz
Charles
Rukuni Bureau Chief
BULAWAYO - The standoff between the Bulawayo City
Council and the Zimbabwe
Local Government Association (ZILGA)
continues.
The council insists it is not a member of the organisation and
has nothing
to do with it. But one of its councillors Stars Mathe, the only
woman
councillor in the 29-member chamber, is an executive member of the
organisation.
ZILGA was supposed to have been a merger of the Urban
Councils Association
of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) and the Rural District Councils
Association, but
apparently UCAZ still exists and the council is paying its
subscriptions to
the association and not to ZILGA.
Matters came to a head
a fortnight ago when ZILGA invited participants to
its first women's
conference that was held in Masvingo last week.
The council's executive
committee said it would not sponsor any candidate
because it did not belong
to the organisation. It said this was a resolution
passed on September 6
last year "that it should not pay expenses related to
ZILGA activities as it
is currently not represented on ZILGA."
The committee had estimated that it
would cost about $18.8 million per
delegate to attend the conference.
Clr
Mathe was elected to ZILGA after her colleagues walked out of the
meeting of
the two organisations that was held in Victoria Falls in August
last year.
Bulawayo city councillors were against the merger of the two
associations.
Differences between the two associations were centred on
politics. The
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) dominated
urban councils
while the ruling ZANU-PF ruled the roost in rural councils.
Bulawayo city
councillors felt that ZANU-PF had hijacked ZILGA and elections
for the
executive were a farce.
Mathe crossed the floor from the MDC to
ZANU-PF.
After failing to get sponsorship, a local weekly claimed that the
council
had barred Mathe from attending the conference. In response,
executive Mayor
Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube, said the council had not barred her
and could not have
barred her from attending the conference.
Since the
Bulawayo City Council had nothing to do with ZILGA, the mayor
said, council
could not pay her travel and subsistence costs. It could also
not send a
delegate since it was not a subscribing member.
He also said contrary to
reports that UCAZ was now defunct, Mathe had
attended two conferences
organised by UCAZ this year, one in January and the
other in June. She
attended six conferences organised by UCAZ last year
FinGaz
Charles Rukuni Bureau
Chief
BULAWAYO - Shop owners are now familiar
with the
pattern. Queues build up even before the shop opens. Members of the
task
force arrive.
They order them to slash
prices. People in the queue
stampede into the shop but only buy products
whose prices have been reduced.
Within 30 minutes the shelves are bare. The
"shoppers" move on to the next
target.
While some
residents have welcomed the price blitz,
which has seen prices reduced,
sometimes to ridiculous prices, others are
complaining that it is "looters"
and not genuine shoppers that are
benefiting.
They claim that most of the people buying the cheap
products may be hoarding
them for the black market or they are relatives of
officials in the
taskforce who are tipped about the "raids" before shops are
ordered to cut
prices.
Genuine shoppers are usually stranded at home
failing to get transport to town or are at work.
A businessman who preferred anonymity said while the
reduction of prices was
welcome because it brought sanity to the market, the
haphazard way in which
the taskforce operated made a mockery of the whole
exercise.
"The move is welcome because it had
become difficult
for us to operate. You would order something, but by the
time you sold out
your stock, the money that you made was not enough to buy
new stocks. In
that sense the move is welcome because things had gone out of
hand," the
businessman said.
"But the
implementation leaves a lot to be desired.
There is so much confusion one
cannot tell who is doing what. There are too
many people involved. One group
comes and tells you to reduce prices. You
reduce them. Another comes and
tells you that you are still overcharging.
You check the prices in the
newspaper. They are OK. You begin to wonder, who you should listen
to?"
A manager at one of the leading supermarkets
said
while the price reductions were welcome, very few genuine shoppers were
benefiting. It seemed members of the taskforce were colluding with their
relatives or girlfriends to buy all the products whose prices had been
reduced.
Employees of one of the country's
leading
wholesalers said they were baffled because their established
customers were
not the ones benefiting from the price reductions. Most of
the people that
were buying products at reduced prices were new
faces.
The vice-president of the Zimbabwe National
Chamber
of Commerce for Matabeleland region, Charles Chiponda, said while
some
business people were profiteering, a better organised way of dealing
with
them should have been found.
He said it was
grossly unfair for the government to
pounce on its partners in the
Tripartite Negotiating Forum, which represents
government, labour and
business and has been tasked with coming up with a
way to resuscitate the
country's economy, because this clearly indicated
that the government was
not negotiating in good faith.
"You cannot claim you
want to negotiate with someone
while you are pointing a gun at him,"
Chiponda said. "If the government
wants to negotiate in good faith there
should be no big brother versus small
brother. We should allow the best man
to do what he does best."
Chiponda said politicians
should stick to politics
and should not dabble in economics, farming or
engineering.
"Arresting directors is not the answer
because after
you release them then what? Politicians should understand that
what makes
money to a businessman makes sense. What does not make money does
not make sense.
"We should work together,
allowing the best man to
do the job. Politicians should not want to be
involved in everything. They
should get advice from experts in that field.
When there is a problem at
Hwange Colliery, for example, why do we send a
government minister there? He
is not going to solve the problem. We should
send an engineer, even a
retired one," he said.
FinGaz
Kumbirai Mafunda
Acting Political Editor
POLICE have seized food earmarked for relief aid
from a warehouse in
Masvingo as part of the crackdown on the business
sector, sources say.
Aid agency sources told The Financial Gazette this
week that police arrested
the manager of a Blue Ribbon Foods warehouse,
which stored relief supplies
sourced by CARE, an international
non-governmental organisation (NGO).
Police proceeded to seize the
consignment although CARE had formally
notified Masvingo Provincial Governor
Willard Chiwewe that the group had
stored foodstuffs at the warehouse
pending distribution to starving
villagers in the area.
In Mashonaland
Central, NGO officials report that police impounded and
ordered the sale of
a truckload of cement that World Vision International
(WVI) was distributing
to schools in Rushinga.
Lazarus Dokora, Member of Parliament for the area,
however, intervened to
stop the forcible sale of the cement after a WVI
officer sought his
assistance.
The crackdown on NGOs follows government's
threats to swoop on aid groups it
claims are stockpiling foodstuffs to hand
out to opposition supporters
before next year's elections as part of what
the ruling ZANU PF government
sees as an international plot to effect regime
change.
Aid officials say the current crackdown on relief agencies is
reminiscent of
what happened five years ago when soldiers impounded food
stocks stored at a
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
warehouse.
"What is happening now in terms of searching for perceived
hoarders mirrors
what happened in 2002 when the UN food basket at the UNICEF
warehouse was
forcibly taken by the army and the (UN) Secretary-General had
to intervene.
The President had to apologise at a meeting in New York. What
was taken was
given back," said one official.
To prevent further food
seizures, NGOs this week suggested that humanitarian
coordinators should get
a letter from the Social Welfare Ministry
authorising them to provide aid.
To do this, they would need to store
supplies in appropriately leased
warehouses with the knowledge of relevant
government or provincial
authorities. Officials said the letter would enable
them to store or
transport supplies.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
SEED CO'S Botswana subsidiary, Seed Co
International, has defaulted on its
loan repayment obligations to a
syndicate of banks, The Financial Gazette
learnt from official
documents.
The details of Seed Co's indebtedness are revealed in a
statement
accompanying the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco)'s financial
statements
for the year to March 31, 2007.
Cottco holds a controlling
stake amounting to 51.52 percent in Seed Co.
The company said Seed Co
International had "not fully met its settlement
obligations arising from
loans advanced by a syndicate of banks".
This was mainly due to higher than
expected production in the region and
non-materialisation of some export
orders," the group said in the statement.
Stocks held by fellow subsidiary
companies however, adequately covered the
loan.
But besides these stocks,
Seed Co International was "technically insolvent
and appears to have a going
concern problem", the group said.
"The loan of US$8 million was raised to
meet the seed purchases of fellow
subsidiaries during the year. At year end,
the loan amounted to US$16
million and will be reduced over the next
eighteen months," Cottco
announced.
The company's directors are however,
confident that with the winding down of
current stocks through sales in the
current market and reduced production,
the loan will be reduced to less than
US$4 million in the next 18 to 20
months.
FinGaz
Zhean Gwaze Staff
Reporter
TROUBLED Zimbabwean businesses have moved production schedules
to evenings
due to the intermittent power supplies from the Zimbabwe Power
Company, a
wholly owned subsidiary of the state-owned ZESA
Holdings.
The power utility recently increased load shedding due to
reduced power
generation at Hwange Power Station exacerbated by limited coal
deliveries
from Hwange Colliery Company Limited.
Industrialists told The
Financial Gazette that they had resorted to evening
working schedules
because power supplies were now usually more reliable at
night.
In
Manicaland, timber manufacturing companies and other industrial areas had
resorted to evening production cycles.
Affected companies included Mutare
Border Timbers, Forestry Company of
Zimbabwe and Karina Textiles.
Most of
the companies export their products to regional and international
markets
and industrialists said they had failed to meet export orders due to
power
supply problems.
"Production has been erratic during the day and over the
past two weeks we
have been working in the evening. Sometimes the situation
will be too bad
that we spend two to three days without production," said
workers at one of
the affected companies who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president Marah Hativagone
said they
are yet to assess the situation in the industry.
"We are yet to
get a survey so I can- not give you concrete information on
what is
happening on the ground," she said.
The situation is also reportedly the same
in the farming industry where
farmers had resorted to irrigating their
winter crop during the evening.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
METALLON Gold Zimbabwe, the country's largest gold producer, has
dismissed
speculation of a takeover bid by Alternative Investment
Market-listed
Central African Gold (CAG), which recently acquired control of
Falcon Gold
and has stated its hunger for additional Zimbabwean
assets.
Metallon Gold chief executive officer (CEO) Collen Gura said
yesterday there
have been no talks with any party over the sale of any of
his company's
mines, and revealed his company in fact plans a US$64 million
investment to
lift output.
"Metallon has not entered into any negotiation
to sell their business to
Central African Gold or to anyone else, neither
does it intend to enter into
any such negotiations in the near future," Gura
said.
CAG in March bought 84.7 percent of listed Falgold for US$6.2 million
and
bought the whole of privately held Olympus Gold.
Its CEO, Greg Hunter
- a former head of Metallon Gold - says his company is
on the hunt for more
Zimbabwean mining interests.
"If certain assets became available in Zimbabwe,
I don't think we would
hesitate, because the quality of some assets there is
pretty good,"
Miningmx, a mining publication quoted Hunter as saying last
week.
His remarks raised speculation of a possible deal with Metallon Gold,
which
forms the bulk of the gold interests of Mzi Khumalo's Metallon
Corporation.
Metallon owns five mines in Zimbabwe; How, Redwing, Shamva,
Arcturus and
Mazowe.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe
Staff Reporter
A HARARE magistrate has subpoenaed a government doctor,
Nathan Makanza, to
explain why no medical examination has been carried out
to establish whether
or not the seven alleged coup plotters were
tortured.
The magistrate ordered the suspects to undergo a medical
examination during
their first court appearance last month.
The alleged
coup plotters' defence counsel, Charles Warara, said: "The
application was
granted by consent. Papers have already been served."
Warara said Makanza
would appear in court on Monday.
Turning to the main case, Warara said the
defence team had withdrawn plans
to file court papers asking that their
clients be allowed to receive
visitors and food.
The suspects' families
are now allowed to visit and bring them food.
Albert Matapo and six others
are facing treason charges for allegedly
hatching a plot to oust President
Robert Mugabe from power and replace him
with the Minister of Rural Housing
and Social Amenities, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The suspects have denied the
charges. Some of the accused have said they
were arrested while planning to
form a political party.
A High Court judge last month acceded to an
application by state prosecutors
that the case be held in camera, citing its
"sensitive" nature.
The state alleges that between June 2006 and May 2007 the
accused persons
conspired to overthrow the government.
The suspects were
arrested at various locations beginning on May 29 this
year.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporters
SOUTH Africa maintains its mediation bid in Zimbabwe is on
course despite
the hardening of the Zimbabwean government's stance on the
proposed agenda
for the talks and the ruling ZANU PF's failure to turn up
for crucial
meetings.
The two ZANU PF representatives to the talks,
Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas
Goche, missed a meeting in Pretoria for the
third time two weeks ago, while
President Robert Mugabe reiterated his
declaration that there would be no
negotiation over a new constitution,
despite the fact that the Southern
African Development Community
(SADC)-appointed mediator, President Thabo
Mbeki, supports the idea of a new
charter.
The Financial Gazette reported last week that these developments,
coupled
with public statements by South African Foreign Affairs Minister
Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma, expressing frustration over the lack of progress,
had raised
fears that the talks were crumbling.
But South African foreign
affairs spokesman Ronny Mamoepa stressed this week
that the mediation effort
was still "on course".
He said ZANU PF had apologised for the failure of its
representative to
attend the last meeting.
"The ZANU PF delegation could
not attend the scheduled discussions in
Pretoria this week due to prior
engagements, and for this they tendered an
apology to the South African
government," said Mamoepa.
"In this regard, efforts are under way to set a
new date for the
facilitation talks, which the ZANU PF delegation will
attend.
"For its part, the government remains committed to the mandate of
SADC to
assist the people of Zimbabwe in their endeavour to find a solution
to their
political challenges."
Mbeki has come under pressure from
outspoken South African cleric Desmond
Tutu over his policy on Zimbabwe.
Tutu, with whom the South African leader
has strained relations, is said to
have made it clear that although he
backed the mediation effort, there was
need for "more explicit condemnation"
of the "deepening crisis in
Zimbabwe."
President Mugabe's reign, said Tutu, was "a success story, which
has turned
into a tragedy".
The Congress of South African Trade Unions,
an alliance partner of Mbeki's
ruling African National Congress, also
pressed this week for "alternative
methods" to propel the mediation process
forward.
The Zimbabwean situation also received attention at the South
African
Council of Churches (SACC) triennial national conference this
week.
SACC, which has been vocal in its criticism of Harare, is reported to
be
considering the merits of a visit to Zimbabwe.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
PROMOTERS of a church-led outreach programme to solicit the
views of
ordinary Zimbabweans on a proposed "National Vision" document last
week made
a hasty retreat from the volatile Mashonaland Central province
with ruling
ZANU PF supporters in pursuit.
The church activists told
The Financial Gazette that they were forced to
abandon their mission after
ZANU PF loyalists and officials blocked them
from holding meetings with
villagers to seek their views on "the Zimbabwe we
want".
Despite being
cleared by the government to conduct their outreach programme,
leaders of
the church groups were summoned to appear before a ZANU PF
District
Coordinating Committee, comprising ruling party national commissar
Elliot
Manyika and provincial chairman Chen Chimutengwende, and asked to
explain
the motive of the outreach programme, dubbed National Visioning
Meetings.
"They interrogated us on the motive and the timing of the
outreach
programme. They appeared suspicious that it has come a few months
before
next year's elections," said one official.
The church officials
said after the hostile reception in Bindura, a ruling
party stronghold, the
architects of the church initiative were forced to
change tack and restrict
the initiative to urban areas in the meantime.
Militant ruling ZANU PF party
youths and war veterans have in recent years
declared rural provinces a
no-go area for opposition party leaders and civic
society groups.
In the
run-up to the 2005 parliamentary elections, researchers for pollster
Mass
Public Opinion Institute were assaulted by a group of war veterans.
FinGaz
Nkululeko Sibanda Staff
Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC) met in Harare
yesterday but
said it had not adopted a formal position on an alleged sex
scandal
involving Bulawayo Archbishop Pius Ncube.
A formal response
on the allegations leveled against the cleric, which have
embarrassed the
Catholic Church, will only be made next week, a spokesman
for the bishops
said.
Onesimus Sibanda accuses the Archbishop of having a two-year adulterous
relationship with his wife, Rosemary, in a case that has tainted Ncube's
image locally and abroad.
ZCBC spokesperson, father Frederick Chiromba,
said no formal position was
taken as yet on the matter.
Chiromba said the
bishops could only take a firm position upon the return of
the bishops'
conference president, Archbishop Robert Ndlovu, who is away on
business.
Said Chiromba: "We held a meeting today (yesterday) and we
discussed a
number of issues concerning some internal matters. With regards
to
Archbishop Ncube's issue, we are yet to hold a formal meeting to discuss
that, because it is something that came to the fore on Monday and we are yet
to convene a meeting, if need be, to discuss that issue. For now, we are
waiting for the president of the conference (Archbishop Ndlovu) to return.
That will be next week."
Archbishop Ncube sounded deeply disturbed when
contacted for a comment by
The Financial Gazette on Tuesday.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe
Staff Reporter
EMBATTLED Mutare provincial prosecutor Levison Chikafu has
written to the
Attorney-General, Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, complaining about
Justice and
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa's alleged
interference with
the judiciary, saying this could make it impossible for
the senior law
officer to get a fair trial.
Chikafu is facing charges
of corruption, but his lawyer says the allegations
are part of a campaign to
victimise his client.
Chikafu led the prosecution when Chinamasa was charged
with trying to
obstruct the course of justice last year. The Justice
Minister, who was
subsequently acquitted, had been accused of trying to
coerce a witness to
drop violence charges against State Security Minister,
Didymus Mutasa.
In a letter to the Attorney-General, dated July 13, Chikafu
alleges that
Chinamasa has brought his influence to bear on the case by
interfering with
the work of magistrates.
"During the remand proceedings,
the presiding magistrate (Lillian Kudya)
contacted the chief magistrate, Mr
Mandeya, in my presence. Mrs Kudya asked
two questions that I think have a
bearing on the outcome of my trial.
"(The first question was) 'So who
referred this matter to the Minister?' and
the second was 'does it mean the
Minister is going to give directives on how
this matter is dealt
with?'"
Chikafu believes that magistrates viewed Chinamasa as their boss, but
that a
judgment handed down by High Court judge, Justice Bharat Patel in a
different case - the state versus Innocent Chibaya and others - had stated
otherwise.
"I shudder to think what will happen to me if the Minister is
allowed to
tamper with the independence of the judiciary. According to the
constitution, the Minister of Justice does not play any role in the
prosecution of criminal matters. I need to know how my case ended up being
referred to the Minister."
Chikafu claims that prosecutors in the
Attorney-General's Office are being
used to "fix" him for his stand against
Chinamasa last year.
He singled out acting director of public prosecutions,
Florence Ziyambi.
However, no comment could be obtained from her as she was
said to be away
this week when this paper phoned her office.
"It is a
fact that the majority of law officers at head office were against
the
prosecution of Patrick Chinamasa. My colleagues were not happy when I
agreed
to prosecute the matter," Chikafu says.
"Some of my colleagues did not
forgive me for executing my duties in a
professional manner. It is not a
secret that such individuals are being used
by Patrick Chinamasa to fix me."
FinGaz
Personal
Glimpses with Mavis Makuni
DESTROY first and rationalise later is the
motto that the government seems
to continue to place its faith in as it
battles to contain runaway
inflation, now conservatively estimated to be
standing at more than 5 000
percent.
A headline in the July 16 issue
of the state daily, The Herald, proclaiming,
"Government still working on
pricing formula", which came after a week
during which desperate shoppers
literally ransacked supermarkets, leaving
shelves bare, gave one a feeling
of déjà vu and an uncomfortable sense of
history repeating itself. The
Herald story quoted the chairman of the
Cabinet Taskforce on Price
Monitoring and Stabilisation, Obert Mpofu, as
saying that the government was
still working on a pricing formula to be
released soon to wholesalers,
manufacturers and retailers spelling out how
price distortions should be
corrected.
Said Mpofu, who is the Minister of Industry and International
Trade, "We are
still working on it and as soon as we finalise it we will
forward our
structures to the various stakeholders." On the face of it, the
statement
made a lot of sense. Only trouble is, Mpofu was doing first things
last,
topsy-turvy style. It is almost as if the idea of coming up with a
pricing
formula to guide the business sector was an afterthought. It appears
to have
occurred to Mpofu only after the damage had already been done. A
number of
firms that were invaded by frenzied shoppers after the government
had
unleashed its aggressive and apparently corrupt price monitors have made
such huge losses that they will have to close.
The giant South African
wholesale concern, Makro, which was forced to sell
imported electrical goods
and other merchandise at ridiculously low prices
that did not tally with
what it had cost to bring such items into the
country has indicated that it
is leaving Zimbabwe. The company would not
have taken such a drastic move if
the government had not acted in a rash
manner by implementing a policy that
it had not thought through properly.
The departure of a big organization
like Makro under these circumstances
conveys a crystal clear warning to
prospective investors to avoid Zimbabwe
like the plague.
The mayhem
prevailing in the aftermath of the rushed launching of the "price
war" gives
the impression that someone in government woke up on the wrong
side of his
or her bed one day and decided the business sector simply had to
be "fixed".
This explains why it was deemed necessary for the government to
make
arbitrary decrees for traders to slash prices by half regardless of how
much
it had cost them to order the goods and whether they would have enough
capital to restock, pay salaries and wages and run their businesses
viably.
What makes the latest government bungling a bitter pill to swallow is
that
it is not the first time it has bulldozed its way into an initiative
that
has sparked more repercussions than the intended benefits. As was the
case
with land reform and Operation Murambatsvina, when the government's
declared
objectives of correcting historical imbalances and providing needy
Zimbabweans with decent accommodation respectively were cancelled out by the
way the programmes were implemented, the same will happen with the pricing
campaign. Just as critics did not oppose land reform per se but expressed
reservations over the violent and vindictive manner in which it was
implemented, they will have the same worries about the way the price war has
been conducted.
It has been a free-for-all in which price monitors
entered supermarkets and
shops and decreed what different items should cost.
It is a popular
misconception that prices were slashed by half. The
reductions were
arbitrary and did not take into account what retailers had
paid to order
those goods. Simple logic and mathematics would show that
after selling
commodities at these huge losses, shop owners will not be able
to restock.
Rather than ease the consumer's plight, the government has
exacerbated it.
The consumer is now confronted with empty shelves and has to
resort to the
black market to access basics at more than double what the
shops were
charging before the blitz. One would be excused for sensing a
sadistic
streak in this confused frenzy that has not brought genuine relief
to the
ordinary person.
Not much comfort can be derived from the
government's threats to take over
shops and abattoirs when it has failed
over the past seven years to restore
agricultural production to what it was
before the 2000 land seizures. It is
also yet to build houses for the
hundreds of thousands of people it rendered
homeless under Operation
Murambatsvina. It is noteworthy that after the
destructive commotion of the
Murambatsviana tsunami, no word is heard these
days about Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle.
In the current clampdown, the Cold Storage Company has
been touted as having
become the sole supplier of beef following the
cancelling of the licences of
some private abattoirs. But where is the beef?
Instead of making affordable
beef more accessible to the consumer, all that
the price crackdown has done
is to cause its disappearance altogether and
expose the inability of the CSC
to service the market. The company's
redundancy is normally masked by the
efficiency of private players who were
brought in, in the first place
because the CSC was not meeting demand. Its
total failure to rise to the
occasion in the past 10 days raises the
question of why it is needed at all.
While it cannot be denied that the
Zimbabwean government usually insists on
promoting its own version of
reality that is far removed from that
experienced by the generality of the
people, it still has to be pointed out
that the ongoing blitz in its current
form has made things more difficult
rather than easier for consumers. If the
price monitors who forced the
arbitrary slashing of prices without reference
to any formula or regard for
any economic principles were honest, they would
admit that their handiwork
has caused some of the "unintended consequences"
that the Reserve Bank
warned about in the early stages of the
operation.
The government needs to go back to the drawing board to come up
with a
rational approach that balances the interests of all stakeholders.
The
heavy-handed approach the government favours to tackle the various
crises
bedeviling the nation has backfired many times. The government needs
to
swallow its pride and go back to basics. This involves basing actions and
decisions on realities on the ground rather than populist aberrations.
mmakuni@fingaz.co.zw
FinGaz
Christella Langton Staff
Reporter
'Affirmative shopping' leaves shelves bare, stokes parallel market
activity
WHEN Chipo Jasi heard that the price of Mazoe orange crush had been
reduced,
she wasted no time before abandoning her illegal foreign currency
dealing
business for the new and above board option of hunting for
bargains.
Last week, Jasi joined hordes of other desperate shoppers
converging on a
downtown store to grab a bottle of the fruit juice, whose
price had soared
beyond the reach of many before the government's
intervention.
"My kids are going to be happy because it had been long since I
last bought
them some Mazoe," said Chipo, as she emerged from the
supermarket.
Next, she joined another stampede to a Bata shoe shop, which was
selling the
popular tennis shoes - known as Tommy - at half the previous
price of $500
000.
Across the street was a queue snaking around the block
leading to an Edgars
clothing store, where a dozen police details struggled
to control a queue
for bread at a Bakers Inn outlet further down the
street.
The government has assumed firm control of the pricing of goods and
services
because of what officials have described as rampant "profiteering"
and
exploitation of consumers by "unscrupulous businesspeople."
Business
operators have been ordered to slash prices by 50 percent or more,
and close
to 2000 traders, including chief executives of large corporations,
have been
arrested.
The crackdown has spawned a new shopping culture among
Zimbabweans.
A month ago, queues outside shops such as Edgars and TV Sales
and Hire were
unheard of. But following the government decrees, consumers
are caught up in
a mad shopping spree.
However, after two weeks of
frantic bargain grabbing, the "officially
approved looting", or "affirmative
shopping", as the frenzy has been called,
has left shelves bare and stoked
parallel market commodity dealing.
But this has not stopped people from
moving around with bags of cash looking
for anything to buy.
Many foreign
currency dealers such as Jasi, reacting to a decline in
activity in that
normally lucrative market, have turned their sights on
shopping.
The most
bizarre aspect of the shopping frenzy is that people have taken to
buying
even goods they never used to bother about before the crackdown.
At a
supermarket along Mbuya Nehanda Street in Harare, shoppers jostled for
packets of potato crisps. Snacks such as "Cheesies" and "Jupiters" run out
of stock fast.
Courtesy of the government-ordered price reductions,
Zimbabweans have
suddenly become shopping addicts.
"Zimbabweans are
really funny. How can they queue to buy chips," remarked
Tinopona Jack as he
watched the seemingly endless stampede.
The demand for shoes and clothes has
gone up, but most of the goods are,
predictably, finding their way to the
black market.
Last week, after hordes of shoppers had descended on
shoe-manufacturer Bata,
brand new shoes made by the chain were on display at
a popular open market
in Mbare hours later.
In another bizarre turn of
events, police wasted no time in seizing the
shoes and by late afternoon,
they were being auctioned at the police
station.
At the giant wholesaler
Makro, police were called in to control a crowd of
bargain hunters, mostly
well-dressed professionals who piled the merchandise
into luxury
cars.
Similar scenes are being repeated across the country.
Budgeting had
long become impossible because of hyperinflation. But even now
when
affordable goods seem to be dropping like manna from heaven, it is
still
difficult to plan for the impromptu urge to grab as much as one can
when
prices are reduced when one is in the right place at the right
time.
Groceries are now regarded as a no-fail form of investment, as many
products
are now in high demand on the black market.
FinGaz
Matters
Legal with Vote Muza
A LOT of questions have been asked about the
legality or otherwise of the
ongoing price blitz that has left many business
people in a state of shock
and pauperised.
In the past fortnight
business executives of integrity who have
painstakingly strived to keep
their organisations viable in the face of the
terrible economic decline have
been dragged to police stations and courts in
what I believe is a futile
attempt by government to halt the economic
meltdown. The manner in which the
arrests are being carried out, which
methods are clearly in defiance of the
law, point to a government that has
lost all respect for its business
people.
Reports received from professional colleagues defending these
business
people are, to say the least, worrying.
Notwithstanding that in
terms of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, a
company is a fictitious
being with no physical body of its own and that it
can only be represented
by a person chosen for that purpose, the police are
indiscriminately
arresting whoever they wish at companies they are visiting.
Also, despite the
fact that these business people are only agents of their
organisations who
for that matter are not flight risks deserving any
detention, the police
have gone ahead to abuse their powers by locking up
these otherwise innocent
people.
Lawyers have been busy, but the sheer extent of the arrests has left
most of
them dumbfounded and bemused. To me, these arrests are just but
malicious,
intimidatory and extremely uncalled for. They are not being
carried out in
the interests of justice but rather in the political
interests of those now
desperate to clean up the economic mess that they
created and continue to
create through populist policies.
I am waiting to
see if Zimbabwe will score a historical first by permanently
halting the
scourge of inflation through a police operation.
Much as government might
have rushed to promulgate a statutory instrument
after exposure by sections
of the private media that the onslaught was
illegal, I still submit, as many
economic commentators and the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe governor have said,
that government's action is neither just nor
in the long term economic
interests of Zimbabweans. In the world of law
there is a wide divide
separating 'legality of a law' and its 'justness'.
A dictum by the famous
anti-apartheid South African Judge, Justice John
Mowbray Didcott clearly
exposes this dichotomy between legality and justice.
As a judge, this lawyer
is remembered most for his courageous and outspoken
condemnation of unjust
laws. He had a passionate belief in justice, and his
contempt for those
lawyers and judges who were apologists for the gross
abuse of human rights
during the apartheid era was manifest throughout his
career.
His comment
in the celebrated case of In re Dube 1979(3) SA 820 has been a
good quote
not only for students of jurisprudence but lawyers fighting
against
institutionalised rights violations. The case concerned the validity
of an
administrative decision that black people were "idle and undesirable"
and
should for that matter be ordered to leave the city.
After being asked to
confirm after an application for review whether a law
supporting such a
decision was in accordance with justice, this is what he
had to say: "The
trouble is that it was not. It may have been in accordance
with the
legislation, and perhaps because what appears in the legislation is
the law,
in accordance with that too. But it can hardly be said to have been
in
"accordance with justice". Parliament has the power to pass the statutes
that it likes, and there is nothing that the courts can do about that. The
result is the law. But that is not always the same as justice. The only way
that parliament can ever make legislation just is by making just
legislation.
Reference to "parliament" in the above quote may equally be
applied to
subsidiary legislation like Statutory Instruments passed by
government
ministers, and in particular, the instrument that the so-called
Task Force
is using against business people in the ongoing blitz.
No
matter how loud and persistent government's arguments about the
lawfulness
of the price freeze may be, the fact that its present action is
an illegal,
unjust and a fatal blow to all efforts to breath life into our
comatose
economy cannot be denied.
In all frankness, I judge government's present
action to be no different to
the notorious farm invasions that gave birth to
our present economic
quagmire. What the nation has witnessed and continues
to witness is another
political miscalculation that in itself is going to do
more harm than good.
I also view this looting crusade as a gross violation
of business people's
property rights that should invite investigation by the
United Nations.
For how does one explain government's false wisdom of
decreeing that fuel
must be sold at $60 000 a litre when the whole world
knows that it costs
private importers double this amount to import a litre
of fuel. When
government passes a law that attempts to support such
irrationality, it is
in my view, the height of political
self-delusion.
Such a law may be fair to government and perhaps to members of
the public
but albeit on a very temporary basis. But in the long term, and
in the
context of our quest to arrest the economic decline, the effects of
such an
unreasonable law will certainly be felt.
Law in other words can
be compared to a knife. In the hands of a sane
person, it can be an
instrument to improve a person's life. However, in the
hands of a deranged
person, it can be an instrument for much destruction. In
more than one way,
government in recent years has not hesitated to abuse the
law by using it as
an instrument to violate human rights in a quest to
ensure the political
survival of the powers-that-be.
lVote Muza is a legal practitioner with
Gutu and Chikowero. He can be
contacted on email: gutulaw@mweb.co.zw
FinGaz
Comment
THE government
crackdown on the business community, particularly the retail
sector, has
attracted significant interest both locally and internationally.
The
reaction to the blitz came from both friends and perceived foes of
President
Robert Mugabe's government. But both made uncomplimentary remarks.
Gordon
Brown, still trying to settle in as Britain's premier, condemned the
operation and called on the Zimbabwean government to change course. American
President George Bush's office issued the most scathing attack on the
operation, describing it as "reckless". White House press secretary Tony
Snow said this week the "irresponsible economic policies will only worsen
inflation, unemployment, growing food shortages and poverty". The South
African government of President Thabo Mbeki, which has previously shielded
the Mugabe government from international criticism, last week took the
uncharacteristic step of publicly expressing its worries about the
escalating economic crisis.
But as much as the crisis precipitated by the
blitz worried the
international community, it should indeed be a cause for
grave concern among
Zimbabweans. We acknowledge the government's concern to
shield the
long-suffering population from profiteering business people who
have failed
to demonstrate a modicum of care for their restive clients,
battling to
survive under an increasingly hyperinflationary
environment.
Prices had escalated by unprecedented margins in the past two
months since
the signing of a social contract on June 1 2007, understandably
raising
fears the situation was getting out of hand and could possibly lead
to a
mass uprising against the incumbent government.
But much as the
reaction of the government could have been out of concern
for the masses, it
was also selfish and calculated at self-preservation.
Once the government
taskforce on pricing and stabilisation embarked on the
blitz, there was no
thought given to the effect of the operation - dubbed
Operation Reduce
Prices - on confidence in the business sector and the
impact of the
draconian measures on sustainable supplies to the market.
Moreover, the
blitz degenerated into an orgy of looting, with members of the
operation,
their families and friends grabbing prime assets from retailers
after
forcing them to reduce prices to unrealistic levels.
There was such looting
at one of the country's biggest shoe retailers, and
at several big retail
operations across the country where members of the
taskforce ordered
management to cut prices and then chose the items they
wanted at those
discounted prices. At the shoe retail outlets, management
was shocked to see
large crowds around their shops before opening time, only
to receive new
price schedules that had wickedly discounted prices.
The crowd apparently
consisted of relatives and friends of the taskforce
teams who were tipped in
advance about the raids. Today, the retail
operators' shops are empty, and
their products are now available for sale by
these looters on the
streets.
The Financial Gazette had a harrowing encounter with a member of the
Harare
municipal police who had bought boxes of two-litre bottles of
vegetable oil
during the blitz for just $6 000 per box containing six
bottles. She was now
selling each bottle for $200 000 to neighbours. Cement
prices were reduced
from about $1.5 million per 50 kg bag to $150 000 per
bag. Retailers had
bought the cement for just over $1 million per 50 kg bag,
and had factored
the high transport costs into their profit margins.
If
this was not looting, then the authorities need to tell us what it
is.
Manufacturers are grappling with high input costs and cannot be expected
to
sell their products at a loss. Company managers oversee operations that
are
expected to make a profit; they are not running charitable
organisations.
The operation was bound to trigger serious shortages, as
evidenced by empty
supermarket shelves. Producers cannot produce products
over which they have
no pricing power, and retailers cannot order products
for which they will be
told they cannot recoup transport costs as well as
the exorbitant
electricity costs to keep refrigerators running to preserve
perishable
products.
Fuel dealers, who were forced to reduce petrol and
diesel prices from $160
000 to $60 000 per litre, have stopped importing.
Some of them were
"liquidated" by the government clampdown. Consequently,
the public transport
system had suffered immeasurably, and workers are
failing to commute to work
to produce for the economy.
The government
should quickly re-engage the business sector and come up with
a viable
pricing policy that ensures businesses operate profitably and
consumers are
protected. The current policy is doomed to fail, and has,
inevitably,
resulted in more hardships for the masses who now cannot access
basic food
commodities from the market.
Those that have orchestrated looting during the
blitz should be investigated
and appropriate action taken to reassure the
investing community.
Voodoo economics will be our
undoing
EDITOR - I have long been a faithful supporter of
ZANU PF and the fight for
sovereign rule. However, ZANU PF is showing no
signs of rescuing the economy
but rather making it even worse.
For some
strange reason the people in charge think that slashing prices and
ordering
businesses to have a certain profit margin will work. This is bush
economics, which will never work for as long as we breathe.
What these
politicians need to do is put themselves in the shoes of business
people.
People venture into businesses for profit and not for charity. If a
company
starts making super-profits, competition will take care of that
problem.
This habit of using guerilla war theories in economics will only
lead to
disaster.
ZANU PF needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with
different
strategies that work. Fighting with business people will only
result in them
not producing the goods. There will be empty shelves in
abundance,
businesses will shut down, unemployment will rise, crime will
rise, people
in need of government assistance will rise, hospitals will
collapse because
people will not pay their bills and inflation will balloon
even more. In a
nutshell, there will be chaos.
Where were the people that
studied economics when all these suicidal
decisions were being made. Surely
they can't be sitting on their laurels
when all of this nonsense is taking
place. Shame on our education system
that breeds people with several degrees
but who lack simple logic. You do
not need to be an economic guru to know
that this is like pulling a trigger
on a gun that is pointing at your
head.
For as long as ZANU PF takes this route, Zimbabweans can as well get
ready
for a long struggle of suffering. Let's not put Zimbabwe to shame for
our
individual benefit. Let's fight this crisis like the educated population
that we are.
This is purely an economic stunt, which will result in
poverty-stricken
families. We need these business people, their businesses
and their business
minds. Without them we will not win. The last thing we
want to do is fight
investment, which is the only hope for the Zimbabwean
economy. There is
little price to pay if we think before we act. We can do
it Zimbabweans, but
all we need to do is think before we act.
Martin
Majaji
United States
--------
Two ministers cannot lose war on
kombis
EDITOR - It is well and fine that the long-suffering
consumer has had some
respite in terms of price cuts, but the question that
begs an answer is why
is the taskforce on prices concentrating on retailers
alone and letting
other culprits literally get away with murder? I'm talking
here about the
commuter omnibus operators.
If you decide to declare war,
it must be total war and never piecemeal, yet
you find transport operators
doing as they like. They raise fares
willy-nilly yet hardly a day passes
without their condemnation by
politicians or government officials.
This
group of people has, on several occasions, thumped its nose at
government
orders and directives concerning fares. It looks like commuter
omnibus
operators are regarded as sacred cows and are allowed to charge what
they
feel like while government turns a blind eye to the people's suffering.
One
is tempted to believe stories doing the rounds that most of these
omnibuses
are owned by the fat cats, thus it wouldn't make sense to order a
clampdown
on their own businesses. Otherwise why are these operators being
left to do
as they like? Are they a law unto themselves?
This is most prevalent on the
Epworth-City route, where the operators have
had the audacity to increase
fares to $50 000 in the past few days. Thus you
find residents of Epworth,
who are supposed to be the poor of the poorest,
having to fork out more than
any other group of people in transport costs.
Time and again, we have seen
Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo on
television breathing fire and
brimstone ordering commuter omnibus operators
to charge fares in line with
government directives, but they have
contemptuously ignored the poor
man.
Now that Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu has
joined
the fray and seems to have scored some victories, though
questionable, in
his war against illegal price increases, we hope to see
some action soon.
Two ministers cannot be brushed aside by these kombi
operators as has been
happening in the past. Surely Chombo can learn a trick
or two from Mpofu.
Dhewa Muhombe
Harare
-----------
Price war
no election gimmick
EDITOR - I am disheartened by the lengths
to which the media and indeed a
lot of people are going to misinterpret the
price war as an election
gimmick. How can you justify a salary, which is not
enough to even buy a
shirt! And how many times has the government threatened
action against
business?
This is a very good opportunity for our country
and economy to have a new
beginning and we, especially the media, ought to
see beyond politics. In
fact, I can speak with a great degree of authority
that even President
Robert Mugabe may not exactly know what's going
on.
There is a God in heaven who loves Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans. This is His
doing and it will live well beyond President Mugabe and in fact the whole
generation of "abadala" who have run down our country and eroded the dignity
of the people. You ask if God can take away from one man to give to another?
The answer is yes - because we are stewards of whatever resources we get and
the purpose of business is to serve the people, not starve them.
May I
conclude by referring you to 2 Kings Chapter 7. Pick your place in
history.
Collin Powell once said: "Always be sceptical of experts, they oft
have more
data than judgment". From the reactions of economists and
so-called experts
on Zimbabwe, I guess he was right.
Moz
South
Africa
----------
ZESA succeeds where all others have
failed
EDITOR - Forget about price controls or external colonial
forces or
subversive elements or opposition politics destroying
Zimbabwe.
ZESA has moved to the top, single-handedly destroying
Zimbabwe.
No power means no production and no business. No power means no
phone and
cell systems, backed-up or not. No power means no wheat
production.
In the last week the nothern and eastern parts of Harare have
been without
power nearly 80 percent of the time, and this is mainly during
business
hours. We do not have to close our businesses because of price
controls, we
just cannot do business.
Sorry, Mr Inspector, I cannot cut
our prices by half as I have no power and
therefore all our systems are
down. Well done ZESA you have succeeded where
all others have failed . . .
bringing Zimbabwe to its knees.
I suppose the reply will be ". . . we regret
any inconvenience caused."
Douglas
Mpofu
Harare
------------
Zimbos blind to Mbeki's
shenanigans
EDITOR - Thanks for a paper that tells the tragedy that
we find ourselves
in.
I remain sceptical of the efforts of Thabo
Mbeki to solve our economic
problems. There are several reasons why he would
like Zimbabwe to go down
the drain.
Mbeki knows that only Zimbabwe can
threaten South African dominance in
sub-Saharan Africa. We have as many
resources as South Africa and we have a
more educated populace. So Mbeki is
not as stupid as most people would want
to believe but he is serving his own
country's interests.
See how South Africa is gaining from the massive skills
exodus hence we have
become a training ground for their booming economy.
What he is simply doing
is pretending to be concerned about our problems
then in fact, he is
enjoying the spectacle because we have appointed him to
solve our problems
yet he is a major benefactor of the economic mess we are
in.
It is because our political leaders are blind to facts like this that by
the
time we reverse this economic madness, we will find it very difficult to
catch up with other African economies. Surely with the level of education
Zimbabweans have, how can we fail to see that Mbeki is an interested party
and to appoint him as the pointman is arming him with more devices to see
South Africa prosper?
Many multinationals will relocate to South Africa
and that country will
continue to attract heavy industries like vehicle
plants. This means that by
the time we recover it won't make economic sense
for SA-based companies to
relocate some of these plants to Zimbabwe as they
can just export since we
are next door.
So I beg Zimbabweans to open
their eyes and see what's happening. We want to
dominate Africa in as much
as South Africa wants to. That is the reason why
our solution cannot be
found with South Africa.
Tariro The 1
Harare
--------
Price
controls worse than land invasions
EDITOR - If there is a
government that is determined to sabotage its economy
and cause
insurmountable problems for its populace, it is the Zimbabwean
government.
One would have thought that the tragic land invasions were a
lesson to the
government that populist decisions driven by hunger for power
have
far-reaching effects.
Now the war is on businesses. While some may rejoice at
this short-lived
party, like they did with the land grabs,the effects will
be detrimental.
History has taught us that whenever the governing
authorities pass laws
requiring an owner or supplier to sell an item for
less than the market
price, the result will be a shortage. It's just a law
of economics. And
contrary to what government officials throughout history
have believed, no
government can repeal a law of economics in as much as
they cannot repeal
the law of gravity.
The artificially low prices have
one major effect: they cause supplies to be
withheld from the market. The
price controls are being imposed because the
government is trying to conceal
the effects of the inflation monster that it
has created. Inflation is far
better fought by taking firm control of money
supply, which is caused by
printing too much money.
I am not saying that the government should do
nothing when high prices
threaten to cause hardships. If help is to be
given, instead of controlling
prices, proper measures like improving
supplies,cutting government
expenditure, encouraging investment and
political reform must be put in
place. After all, high prices are better
than famine.
The government propaganda machinery like the ZBC, The Herald and
The
Chronicle would have us believe that these controls are working, but it
is
all pure deception. For the government to fix a price without regard to
supply and demand is both unwise and unjust. Time will tell.
Asher
Tarivona Mutsengi
Canada