The Times
July 20, 2007
Jan Raath:
Harare Notebook
It's been like this for three months. The first thing when I
wake, I press
the switch on my bedside lamp. Six days a week there is no
response. The
power is off. It will be like this for at least 12 hours. It
sinks any
positive charge I may have woken with, and the mood will underlie
the whole
day.
This week I gave a lift to Charles, a technician with
the sinking state
power utility company. He said last month he and 250 other
technicians went
for interviews in Botswana with the UK National Grid. "We
all got offered
jobs," he said, and laughed when I asked if anyone would be
left in
Zimbabwe.
I check my landline, which has been dead for three
weeks. The phone is not
just silent, you can hear the deadness. The
batteries in the local exchange
have run down because of the persistent
power cuts.
I try my mobile instead. The red "network busy" sign flashes
with the first
ten attempts. It can go on like this for 20 minutes.
Congestion became
severe immediately the Price Monitoring and Stabilisation
Task Force ordered
the mobile companies to halve their tariffs. Everyone can
now use the
telephone with no regard for the cost, and does - if he can get
a signal -
all the time. The sense of isolation that comes with being
without
functioning telephones for extended periods is
profound.
Nyarai, my housekeeper, arrives nearly two hours late. There
are almost no
commuter minibuses. Fuel is unobtainable from service stations
since the
owners were ordered to cut the price to about 18p a litre two
weeks ago. She
had to walk for an hour and then struggle in a heaving mob to
get on to an
open truck. My friend Nicolle couldn't find a hairdresser that
was open.
They all had power cuts and those that had generators didn't have
fuel.
The big OK supermarket near me also closed for a day because it had
no
diesel for its generator. TM supermarket has not closed, but inside
people
are running toward the back of the shop to join the bread queue. At
the
checkout till everyone looks hungrily in everyone else's shopping basket
for
something they missed on the thinning shelves. A woman in front of me
had a
box of 30 litres of milk in cartons. It will coagulate in the freezer
before
she can use it. I snatched up two packets of bacon. I don't eat bacon
from
one year to the next.
We are all behaving abnormally. Because we
all know that before long there
will be nothing left in the shops and there
will be no fuel and we will have
to hunt around the black market for food
and fuel, and even that is bound to
dry up and then everything will
stop.
Everyone knows that what the Government of Robert Mugabe is doing
is not
just bungling, not just senseless - but mad. It feels as though we
are
slipping, out of control, God only knows into what.
Jan Raath is
Zimbabwe correspondent for The Times
Zim Online
Friday 20 July 2007
By Patricia Mpofu
HARRAE - A
South African-led initiative to pluck neighbouring Zimbabwe out
of crisis
this week looked in danger of collapsing as President Robert
Mugabe's ruling
ZANU PF party insisted it would not discuss a new
constitution with the
opposition, sources told ZimOnline.
The Southern African Development
Community (SADC) last March tasked South
Africa's President Thabo Mbeki to
lead efforts to resolve Zimbabwe's
eight-year political and economic crisis
by facilitating dialogue between
ZANU PF and the main opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) party.
Mbeki - who will report back to SADC
leaders in August - has previously said
progress was being made in the
search for a negotiated solution, while
reports in Zimbabwean and regional
media suggested ZANU PF and the MDC had
agreed on a formal agenda of talks,
with the issue of a new constitution
topping the list.
However,
sources on Thursday said ZANU PF representatives, Patrick Chinamasa
and
Nicholas Goche, earlier this week met the South African team of
mediators
led by Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi to tell them
they had
instructions from their party not to discuss a new constitution.
The ZANU
PF team is said to have met Mufamadi and his team in Pretoria on
Monday.
Frank Chikane, director-general in Mbeki's office, also attended the
meeting
at which Chinamasa said ZANU PF's powerful politburo cabinet had
decided the
ruling party should press ahead with plans to amend Zimbabwe's
constitution
through Parliament.
"He (Chinamasa) told them that the MDC rejected
constitutional reforms in
2000 and that the politburo had now resolved to
push the 18th Amendment to
the constitution to allow for joint presidential
and parliamentary elections
next year," said a top ZANU PF and government
official, whom we cannot name.
Constitutional Amendment No. 18, which the
government has tabled in
Parliament, will in addition to harmonising
elections, empower the House -
in which Mugabe enjoys sweeping support - to
elect a successor in the event
that he dies or plans to step
down.
The MDC says the amendment is a ploy by Mugabe - who will extend
his rule to
33 years if he is re-elected next year and finishes the
five-year
presidential term - to hang on to power for life.
The
opposition party insists the Mbeki-led talks should lead to the
promulgation
of a new and democratic constitution that will guarantee free
and fair polls
in 2008.
Chinamasa and Goche were not immediately available for comment
on the matter
while ZANU PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa
confirmed that the
two party officials had indeed flown to South Africa on
party business.
But Mutasa would not be drawn to disclose the nature of
the business and
also refused to confirm or deny that the ruling party
wanted the issue of a
new constitution removed from the talks
agenda.
"I don't think it is any of your business (whether ZANU PF does
not want to
discuss new constitution) because I do not think you are a
member of our
party," said Mutasa, before cutting off the
conversation.
The South African government has remained mum on the talks
but our sources
said it had summoned representatives of the two MDC factions
to Pretoria to
discuss the way forward after the latest snag to hit the
talks.
MDC officials declined to comment on the matter but sources said a
delegation of the opposition party comprising Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube
left Harare on Thursday afternoon aboard a British Airways flight headed for
South Africa.
Diplomatic sources said the talks - which many analysts
say could be the
last chance to save Zimbabwe from total collapse - were
wobbling but should
not be written off yet.
However, they strongly
emphasised that Mbeki needed to work harder to save
the talks from collapse
or degenerating into an irrelevant sideshow.
It was critical for Mbeki to
ensure that the issue of a new constitution
remained on the agenda and that
there was a commitment by all players to end
political violence and human
rights abuses, they said.
Zimbabwe is suffering a debilitating economic
crisis that is highlighted by
the world's highest inflation rate of nearly 5
000 percent, a rapidly
contracting GDP, the fastest for a country not at war
according to the World
Bank and shortages of foreign currency, food and
fuel.
The crisis took a turn for the worst after Mugabe three weeks ago
decreed
that business should halve prices of all commodities in a desperate
bid to
control inflation. Economic experts have said the price cuts will
certainly
backfire as more companies will collapse because they are being
forced to
sell goods at a loss.
Mugabe, 83, and Zimbabwe's sole ruler
since the country's 1980 independence
from Britain, denies ruining the
country and instead claims economic
troubles are because of sabotage by
Western nations determined to punish his
government for seizing white-owned
farms to give to landless blacks. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 20 July 2007
By
Regerai Marwezu
MASVINGO - Six senior police officers in Masvingo town
are facing demotion
after they set free several opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
party activists who were arrested during a
government crackdown last March.
The six, whose names could not be
immediately established, will be demoted
from the rank of superintendent to
inspector with effect from 31 July 2007.
The officers were last month
hauled before the police disciplinary board for
releasing the MDC supporters
who had been arrested for protesting against
the torture and arrest of MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai last March.
Tsvangirai and several other MDC and
civic leaders were arrested and
tortured by suspected state agents last
March after they attempted to hold
an unsanctioned prayer rally in Harare's
working class suburb of Highfield.
Under the government's tough security
laws, Zimbabweans must first obtain
permission from the police to hold
public meetings and demonstrations.
In a memo written to officer
commanding Masvingo province, Assistant
Inspector Charles Makono which was
seen by ZimOnline, Police Commissioner
Augustine Chihuri said the
disciplinary board had recommended the demotion
of the six
officers.
"Please be advised that the board of inquiry sat and
recommended that six
superintendents based in your province will have to be
demoted to the rank
of inspector on 31 July this year," said Chihuri in the
memo.
"These officers have been found guilty of releasing suspects
especially
members of the opposition in March this year without following
proper
procedures," wrote Chihuri.
Makono confirmed the demotion of
the officers but refused to give further
details on the matter insisting
that it was an internal police matter.
"Who told you all this? It is true
that there are some officers who will
have to be demoted at the end of the
month but let me tell you that there is
no story here because it is a police
internal issue," said Makono.
Chihuri, a fierce Mugabe loyalist, earlier
this year ordered the Police
Internal Security Intelligence (PISI) to weed
out junior officers suspected
of backing the MDC accusing some of the junior
officers of having
"questionable levels of loyalty" to the
government.
The police chief has in the past openly declared his
allegiance to President
Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party and threatened
to expel any police
officers backing the MDC.
Human rights groups
accuse the Harare authorities of weeding out police
officers suspected of
being sympathetic to the opposition and replacing them
with pliant
brainwashed youths from the controversial national service
programme. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 20 July
2007
By Nigel Hangarume
HARARE
- Zimbabwean business tycoon Billy Rautenbach was on Thursday
expelled from
the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where he has
extensive mining
interests.
The DRC government yesterday said it had deported
Rautenbach, a close
ally of President Robert Mugabe, because he had entered
the minerals-rich
country illegally.
Rautenbach, who ran
cobalt-mining ventures at the height of the DRC's
civil war, was told by the
Interior Ministry in Kinshasa this week that he
was persona non grata but he
proceeded to enter the country by private
plane.
He was
detained by authorities in Katanga on Wednesday and deported to
Harare
yesterday.
The DRC government did not give reasons for the
expulsion of
Rautenbach, who has a significant stake in Central African
Mining &
Exploration Company PLC.
The London-listed company
yesterday, according to international media
reports, accused the DRC
government of trying to undermine its offer for
Canadian-listed Katanga
Mining Ltd.
The controversial businessman first ventured into the
Congo as a
relatively unknown in the mining world after he was hired by the
DRC's slain
president Laurent Kabila in October 1998 to run Gecamines, then
the mainstay
of the former Zaire's economy.
Zimbabwe had
deployed its army to help Kabila repel rebels fighting
him for the control
of the minerals-rich country.
Rautenbach is a fugitive from justice
in South Africa where he is
wanted in connection with fraud involving
billions of rand. He has been
holed up in Harare and would make frequent
visits to the DRC.
The mining entrepreneur's farm in Mashonaland
West was last year
listed for expropriation by the government in a
development that was
believed to be linked to the power struggles within
ZANU PF.
Rautenbach is believed to be closely connected to ZANU PF
strongman
Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is locked in a vicious struggle with
former army
general Solomon Mujuru over Mugabe's succession.
Rautenbach, who has denied links to the ruling party, could not be
reached
for comment yesterday. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 20
July 2007
By Mandla Sithole
HARARE - One of the
country's most talented guitarists Philani Dube died
recently. Many Oliver
Mtukudzi fans remember Philani.
That he died is most unfortunate but that
some people expected Oliver to
foot funeral bills, attend the funeral and do
whatever the relatives might
have wanted is sad and a great
shame.
Yes, he worked with Oliver for several years. He left at some
stage. Oliver
is a humble person who helps where it is humanely
possible.
He gave the family fuel to take them to Bulawayo and bought
them a coffin.
What did the relatives do for one of their own? Where is
their sense of
gratitude?
Where I come from, if the deceased had not
made his or her own arrangements,
the relatives club together and buy a
coffin and pay for transport and food.
Friends chip in, in consultation
with family only because they want to and
not because it is their
duty.
Why do we always expect our employers and friends to foot our
funeral bill?
Why is it so difficult for us to face up to the fact that one
day we will
die and when that happens someone is going to have to pay for
the funeral?
Is it a crime that at some point Philani worked for Oliver?
Does Oliver have
to bury everyone who has worked for him?
If all the
business people had to foot funeral costs of their current and
past
employees would they be able to prepare for their own death?
What we
should all condemn is the fact that despite the fact that we have
already
lost several artists who die paupers because they failed to plan for
their
future and death, we still have huge numbers of artists who spend
their
money on alcohol and women without a thought about tomorrow.
Each band
member should be responsible enough to save what he or she makes,
work
towards buying a house or building a rural home. It is not the
responsibility of the band leaders to baby sit colleagues. These are adults
not children!
People like Oliver have mansions because they plan and
know that they will
not always be superstars. They know that one day they
need to retire. At
times ill health overtakes one's career and we should all
be prepared for
that.
If you live for today, you should not expect
your friends to drop everything
they are doing just because you have fallen
ill or you have died.
People do go on with their lives and there is
really nothing wrong with
that. It is unfair and thoughtless to expect
colleagues to foot your health
bills.
The sooner we all accept that
each and every one of us is responsible for
their own lives the better. If
you expect your wife, husband, brother or
sister to be buried by their
employer or friends then you are in for a very
big
disappointment.
Any family that expects an outsider to bury their beloved
is not only
misguided but is being very unfair and unreasonable. In my view
it is being
irresponsible.
That Oliver ended up explaining that he
had actually paid for Philani's ARVs
is sad but understandable under the
circumstances.
He is only human and he was upset by the fact that after
all he had done for
a former colleague some people thought he was
callous.
In these times of hardships why do people think they can just
phone up
someone and ask for money and expect to get it?
At times
tough love is necessary especially where people live for today and
forget
that tomorrow might not be so rosy. You should not expect to live off
the
goodwill of friends.
People say do not speak ill of the dead but I think
it is important that
people be honest with each other. At times we mislead
each other because we
are scared of the truth.
If someone was
reckless or bad, dying does not turn them into a saint. We
should stop lying
at people's funerals and start saying things as they are.
What is the
point of turning a blind eye towards a deceased's misdeeds and
blaming
friends or employers for not giving someone a proper send-off?
We risk
the possibility of people like Oliver deciding in future that they
will not
contribute a coffin or the fuel. Who can blame Oliver tomorrow if
he decides
not to help ever again?
You want to give your relative a hero's send-off
then be prepared to pay for
it yourself. Don't expect others to do what you
yourself cannot do.
And what is this about insisting that a person should
be buried at a certain
place even when it is so obvious that there is no
transport and money to do
it?
Why can't we be more realistic about
life and refrain from placing on
strangers burdens that we ourselves cannot
carry?
At most funerals the people who have no money are usually the most
vocal
about the kind of coffin or where the person should be buried. They
always
expect cousin so and so or friend so and so to foot the
bill.
If the deceased was employed, you have a small committee of
non-contributors
asking what the company is going to do for the deceased.
What cheek!
Why don't we have a shred of pride? I would die of shame if I
had to watch
helplessly while strangers bought a coffin for my child or
husband.
Giving a member of your family a decent burial is the least you
can do to
show your love for them and to bid them goodbye.
Friends
are there to give us moral support and if they want to help
materially then
that is a bonus. And we should not expect all friends and
colleagues to drop
all they are doing because someone we love has died.
We are increasingly
becoming people who survive from mooching off others and
not even feeling
guilty about it. We need to take stock of our lives and
work on getting back
our dignity.
Be blessed.
Gulf News
By Tony Hawkins, Financial
Times
Published: July 20, 2007, 00:12
If Zimbabwe's economic
numbers are at all reliable, President Robert
Mugabe's 27-year rule should
be nearing its end. Gross domestic product,
already down 40 per cent since
the government's accelerated land reform
programme was launched in 2000, is
declining this year at its fastest rate
ever - probably about 12 per cent,
say economists.
May inflation was 4,530 per cent, with most analysts
predicting a June
figure of at least 6,000 per cent. But because the
authorities believe that
the release of official inflation figures
encourages businesses to raise
their prices, inflation numbers are no longer
being published. Instead, the
government statistical office has been told to
develop a new - sanitised -
inflation figure that "better reflects the
situation on the ground", said
one official. Unofficial estimates put the
June figure at 15,000 per cent.
The government's own figures put the
poverty rate at 75 per cent (in 2003),
while formal sector unemployment is
estimated at 50 per cent. Ironically,
both of these are improving because,
according to South African estimates,
2,000 Zimbabweans enter South Africa
illegally each day. Official estimates
put the population at 12 million but
it is believed to be substantially
less - perhaps as low as 10 million.
Accordingly per capita incomes are
higher than estimated while unemployment
is lower.
When Mugabe took over as prime minister in April 1980, the
Zimbabwe dollar
stood at US$1.50. Today, at the official exchange rate
(Z$250 to the US
dollar), it is worth less than half a cent, while at the
much more realistic
parallel rate of Z$100,000 to the dollar it is all but
worthless.
Yet despite this record of economic failure, it is hard to
find anyone
willing to wager on Mugabe's leaving any day soon. Even those
who have been
the target of his "price blitz", whereby retailers and
manufacturers were
ordered to halve their prices or face heavy fines,
imprisonment and the
expropriation of their businesses, are to be heard
defending this action.
Guilty of profiteering
The Retailers
Association has issued a public statement that admits
implicitly that many
of its members were guilty of profiteering; organised
commerce and industry
has come out in favour of agreed "pricing models" that
will specify mark-ups
for individual companies and sectors. The trade
unions, which bitterly
oppose Mugabe, are in disarray with their members
welcoming the price
cuts.
Some businessmen, no doubt with an eye on the government's plan to
force
companies to sell 51 per cent of their shares to indigenous
Zimbabweans, are
anxious to be seen and heard defending the
government.
All of this is grist to the government's mill. It is claiming
credit for
cutting the parallel market ex-change rate to Z$100,000 to the US
dollar
last week from Z$200,000 a fortnight ago. The July inflation figure
will
show a sharp fall, and the authorities might go back on their plan to
suppress publication.
But short-term gains aside, there is no exit
strategy from the price freeze.
One garage owner said he lost Z$300 million
($1.23 million) in three days
when forced to sell fuel at less than half the
price it had cost to import.
Obert Mpofu, industry minister, says his
officials are working on pricing
models to make controls
"permanent".
However, the dozens of filling stations with no fuel, closed
butchers and
fast-emptying shelves in the food stores where staff pack meat
counters with
soft drinks are a reminder that time is running
out.
Mugabe's threat to take over factories that close or retrench staff
are
being countered by industrialists who produce evidence of applications
to
the central bank for foreign currency to pay for essential
imports.
Last week, Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe, admitted
publicly that foreign currency was extremely short - the
key priorities
being imports of fuel, electricity and basic foodstuffs,
especially maize
and wheat.
Climb down
John Robertson, an
economist, says the crunch "cannot be far away", but some
other analysts
expect Mugabe to climb down as gracefully as he can by
ordering the central
bank to print the money needed to finance huge consumer
subsidies,
especially for meat, bread and fuel while simultaneously relaxing
the price
freeze to allow companies more realistic mark-ups than the 5-10
per cent
mooted.
Despite the meltdown, there are many winners - those able to
exploit the
price cuts that have opened up a Pandora's box of black market
opportunities, the well-connected party "chiefs" able to become US dollar
millionaires in just three transactions by buying foreign currency at the
official rate from the central bank and selling it in the black market, and
those close to the seats of power cashing in on their political
muscle.
SW Radio
Africa (London)
19 July 2007
Posted to the web 19 July
2007
Tererai Karimakwenda
Over 100 brand new vehicles were
handed out to chiefs by government this
year. War veterans got a hefty
increase in allowances and more so-called
youth training camps were opened
around the country. Furthermore, government
policies created severe food
shortages and hyperinflation which forced
prices to soar. Then government
suddenly ordered businesses to reduce those
prices at a loss, causing people
to praise the authorities for making goods
accessible. These are signs that
can only mean one thing. There are
elections due in a few months.
The
SADC initiated talks being mediated by South Africa's Thabo Mbeki are
supposed to lead to free and fair elections, but Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF
are going ahead with their own preparations, using the same system that the
opposition is urging Mbeki to help dismantle. The state controlled Herald
newspaper said it all on June 15th when it reported: "Preparations for next
year's joint presidential and parliamentary elections are gathering momentum
with mobile registration of eligible new voters, including those who have
changed constituencies since the last poll, and inspection of the voters'
roll beginning on Monday next week." And sure enough the national exercise
began and is expected to run until August 18th.
So the question
many Zimbabweans are asking themselves is whether they will
participate in
these joint parliamentary and presidential elections
scheduled for March
2008, under the current conditions. Should those who
need to register do so,
regardless of any rigging and manipulation of the
voters roll? Voter turnout
was dismally low in several by-elections that
were held this year and
election observers say this is because many have no
faith in the
process.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, an independent group
which observes
elections in the country, has been urging voters to register
regardless of
the outcome of the Mbeki mediation, or the allegations of ZANU
PF rigging.
ZESN spokesperson Rindai Chipfunde said:
"Participation
is the basis for any democracy. We believe if you are not on
the voters
roll, you do not have the basis to participate." Chipfunde added
that if the
outcome of the Mbeki talks is positive and changes are made, the
voter
registration exercise will already have been completed and potential
voters
would lose out.
Although ZESN supports registration now, they are
concerned about the lack
of publicity, particularly in the rural areas where
information is scarce.
Chipfunde said government advertised the registration
exercise in The Herald
newspaper only once and on a Saturday. Secondly she
said the time frame
allocated for the exercise was inadequate, and called
for an extension. This
would allow more time for government to issue
identification or registration
cards to thousands of voters who are on a
waiting list due to a lack of
resources at the Registrar General's
office.
Zimbabweans in the diaspora are also demanding their right to
vote in the
elections. Millions who left the country as the political and
economic
crisis intensified are currently not allowed to participate in
elections.
During his recent visit to London, Pastor Useni Sibanda of the
Christian
Alliance said no election will be fair if the 3 million plus
Zimbabweans in
the diaspora are not allowed to vote.
It's impossible
to predict Zimbabwe's future - but what is clear is that
everyone who can,
should register to vote. Who knows what is going to
happen!
New Zimbabwe
By Lebo Nkatazo
Last updated: 07/20/2007 04:49:25
ZIMBABWE
has given the country's last few remaining whites commercial
farmers notices
to leave their farms by September 30, it emerged Thursday.
The eviction
notices, signed by the Didymus Mutasa, the Minister of Lands,
Land Reform
and Resettlement, say the farmers should have left the
properties by
February 4, but the government extended the period to enable
them to wound
up operations.
In an interview Thursday, one of the lawyers representing
the farmers, David
Drury of Harare law firm Gollop and Blank said: "We don't
know anyone who
has been left out of the equation, apart from Dr (Timothy)
Stamps."
Stamps, a former Health Minister, is President Robert Mugabe's
advisor on
health policy.
The eviction notices say those who fail to
leave their farmers would be
jailed in terms of the Gazetted Land
(Consequential Provisions) Act.
"Your attention is drawn to the
provisions of the Gazetted Land
(Consequential Provisions) Act whose
effective date is 20 December 2006,"
reads part of the notice.
It
said the said Act gave the farmers 45 days from the date it became
effective
to vacate their properties. That day was February 4.
"In view of the
above you should have vacated on the 4th of February 2007
following an
assessment of operations on the farm by the district technical
committee and
in line with guidelines drawn by my ministry authority is
hereby granted to
you to wind up your business and harvest your crop or
dispose your livestock
strictly up to the dates shown hereunder 30 September
2007," the notice
added.
The Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Act, which repealed
the Rural
Land Occupiers (Protection from Eviction) Act makes it an offence
to occupy
or to continue to occupy land without lawful authority after it
has been
gazetted in accordance with section 16B(2)(a) of the
Constitution.
Part of the Act reads: "If a former owner or occupier of
Gazetted land who
is not lawfully authorised to occupy, hold or use that
land does not cease
to occupy, hold or use that land after the expiry of the
appropriate period
referred to in subsection (2)(a) or (b), or, in the case
of a former owner
or occupier referred to in section 2(b), does not cease to
occupy his or her
living quarters in contravention of proviso (ii) to
section 2(b), he or she
shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine
not exceeding level seven
or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two
years or to both such fine
and such imprisonment."
Zimbabwe began a
violent seizure of white commercial farms in 2000 after
accusing former
colonial power Britain of refusing to honour its Lancaster
House commitment
to compensate the farmers. At least 12 farmers were killed
in
violence.
A few hundred farmers still remain on commercial farms but they
too will not
escape the latest push by Mugabe's government.
New Zimbabwe
By Tamuka C.
Chirimambowa
Last updated: 07/20/2007 07:08:56
IN 2000 when the Zimbabwe
crisis reached the crescendo, it was the white
commercial farmers in cahoots
with the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) that were
undermining the economy through calling for sanctions
and fighting land
redistribution.
Posters and press campaigns of the ruling Zanu PF
parroted the same message
monotonously. 'Zimbabwe will never be a colony
again', 'The land is the
economy, the economy is land' and 'Reclaiming our
sovereignty and
territorial integrity'; were some of the messages that Zanu
PF invented to
divert the attention of Zimbabwe from the real issues
affecting the economy.
Thus people were made to believe that through land
invasions, they were
going to be made farm owners and automatically become
prosperous.
Many Zimbabweans were misled, and right until today, there is
chaos and
bleak hope on the farms. This article seeks to make a contribution
to recent
developments that have been happening in Zimbabwe, arguing
diversion has
become Mugabe's tactic of ruling.
Mugabe has so far
successfully managed to divert attention from the Zanu PF
birthed economic
malaise and political quagmire that has been nagging the
country for the
past decade. There is need for Zimbabweans to remain focused
and give Zanu
PF a retrenchment package in the forthcoming 2008 elections.
In 2000 it
was the Bureau de Changes that were claimed to be causing the
massive
devaluation of the Zimbabwe currency on the parallel market. The
government
alleged that Bureau de Changes were engaged in clandestine deals
outside
their normal activities and fuelling the parallel market. The result
was a
closure of Bureau de Changes, and strict controls of foreign currency.
There
was a temporary drop of the rate of the parallel market and suddenly
after a
few days the exchange rate skyrocketed again.
For a few days a lot of
people lived in fools' paradise, forgetting that
mismanagement of the
economy had resulted in the crushing of the Zimbabwe
dollar. There was
no-one who was willing to go to the official market since
our currency was
overvalued. It is common sense that people will always go
to the bidder who
is willing to pay the real value for their product, and
following that
logic, no-one would have gone to the official market.
Nevertheless to
Mugabe and his sycophants, it was the bureaus' fault. Seven
years later, the
exchange rate continues to plummet and foreign currency is
still
scarce.
Gideon Gono's crackdown on the financial sector was the other
point of
diversion. People were made to believe that the hyperinflation
being
experienced by the country was as a result of the financial sector
being
involved in illicit deals and speculation on the parallel market. This
led
to a closure of banks and the prosecution of several businesses. These
measures, like the ones before them, failed to address the economic ills
affecting the country.
Zanu PF termed the 2005 parliamentary
elections 'Anti-Blair'. This time the
major problem was argued to be Tony
Blair, despite that this was a head of
state of another country who was not
even eligible to contest. One wondered
how Blair would become an electoral
issue in a country in which he holds no
citizenship. Thus people were not to
discuss bread and butter issues, but
Blair (Alas!). By the way Blair
resigned from office, but we still have
problems.
The year 2005 saw
another antic from Zanu PF, when there was a crackdown on
informal traders.
It was argued that Flea Markets and Tuck Shops were
hoarding and channeling
products to the parallel market. The measure was a
closure of flea markets
and tuck shops despite a lot of people losing their
livelihoods. This was
expanded further to include backyard cottages and even
legitimate building
structures in the name of Operation Murambatsvina.
What the authorities
forgot was that it is them who have become filthy to
the country and thus
need to be discarded. This daylight robbery of ordinary
people's livelihoods
was argued to be supposed to eradicate shortages of
basic commodities, but
this was not the case.
The most recent has been Operation Dzikisa (Lower
Prices), which has been
targeting business across all sectors. The logic of
the government's
argument has been that business is colluding with Britain
to increase prices
to topple it. Such a siege mentality is very frightening;
from a government
that is digging its own grave.
Zanu PF is like the
proverbial fool that cuts the branch of the tree that it
is sitting on.
Mugabe forgets that the printing of money and buying foreign
currency on the
parallel market by the Reserve Bank has been causing the
crushing of the
Zimbabwe dollar on the parallel market. Even Mugabe publicly
admitted on
television printing money to pay the IMF. There seems to be
amnesia in
government that their voodoo economics is the one destroying the
economy not
business.
The latest attempt to divert the people's attention has been
the case of the
Archbishop Pius Ncube. The story lacks any factual coherence
and substance
in it to vindicate the allegations made. It is one of the
typical poorly
directed ZBC dramas such as the Cain Nkala murder case. Zanu
PF's main
attempt is to divert the attention of the people from the
shortages in the
shops, since the honeymoon is over, to this alleged case of
adultery. The
major question is how would the committing of adultery by an
archbishop
solve our imminent economic and political collapse?
All
along Mugabe has perfected the art of diversion, which would lead us to
losing focus lest we are not careful. There is need to be constantly
vigilant and fight Mugabe's dictatorship until it becomes history. We are
approaching the 2008 elections and Mugabe will keep on trying to delude us
from focusing on the real issues.
There is need from Zimbabweans from
all walks of life to avoid falling
victim to Zanu PF's tomfoolery. We cannot
keep on being diverted from the
real issues forever. The banning of
cross-border trading in foodstuffs is
another attempt at diverting the
people's energies to forget about the
elections. There is need to be extra
careful, and to 'Seek the political
kingdom first' as Kwame Nkrumah once
remarked.
The Struggle Continues.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
19 July
2007
Zimbabwe's National Constitutional Assembly, a leading
component of the
country's democratic opposition, said the government has
been harassing its
members in an effort to silence it, this following the
arrest of the group's
chairman in eastern Manicaland Province for
criticizing Harare's blitz
against price rises.
It was the third
arrest in two weeks for NCA activist Elisha Makuyana. He
was being held at
Chipinge Police Station pending his appearance in court
late
Thursday.
NCA National Director Ernest Mudzengi told reporter Jonga
Kandemiiri that
Harare is concerned at the large number of NCA activists
around the country.
Elsewhere, Harare police summoned Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions
Secretary General Wellington Chibebe Thursday and demanded
that he answer
charges of making utterances deemed to be inciting the
overthrow of the
government.
He was said to have made the comments
during a May Day celebration.
Chibebe went to the station with his
lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, but the
investigating officer was unable to appear
due to transport problems and
Chibebe was released.
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
19 July
2007
Zimbabwe state television Thursday resumed broadcasting
video footage and
photos purporting to show Roman Catholic Archbishop Ncube
of Bulawayo in his
bedroom with various women, stirring debate over the role
of state media in
the scandal.
Ncube was hit this week with a Z$20
billion dollar (US$125,000) suit by a
Bulawayo man who charged the prelate
had been sexually involved with his
wife since 2006.
Sources said
Zimbabwe state television management had instructed news
executives to stop
broadcasting the images, this following a demand from
Ncube's lawyer saying
the images were "defamatory." But Thursday evening the
main news bulletin
again showed video footage. However, the state-controlled
Herald and
Bulawayo Chronicle newspapers appeared to have taken heed of the
defense
lawyer's demand.
Lawyer Nicholas Mathonsi said Wednesday that he wrote to
state media
managers demanding that the stop showing or printing
"unauthenticated and
inappropriate" images, threatening legal action against
them if they
persisted.
Advocacy officer Abel Chikomo of the Media
Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe
told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that
broadcasting or publishing such images
represented a serious breach of
journalistic ethics.
VOA
By Patience Rusere, Babongile Dlamini & Taurai
Shava
Washington, Bulawayo & Masvingo
19 July
2007
The World Food Program says it is stepping up its
efforts to provide food
assistance to Zimbabwe given deteriorating
conditions in the country, while
the U.S.-based Famine Early Warning System
urged international donors to
mobilize for relief.
WFP Southern
African spokesman Richard Lee said the agency had increased its
estimate of
the number of Zimbabweans who would need food aid to 1 million
from a
"vulnerable group" of 300,000 previously - and expected to raise the
figure
again.
He said the donor community is "alarmed" at the deterioration in
food
availability.
The Famine Early Warning System or FEWSNET said
the Harare government and
the donor community "need to mobilize for an
immediate and coordinated
response to address the growing levels of food
insecurity in the country."
FEWSNET said stocks of maize and wheat have
dwindled while prices have
soared.
World Food Program spokesman Lee
told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the crisis
will intensify late this year and in
early 2008.
Reflecting the
scarcity of basic foodstuffs and public agitation over
shortages, two people
were injured today in Bulawayo in a disturbance at a
supermarket when a
crowd pursued a truck carrying maize meal, bringing
police to the
scene.
Hundreds of customers had been standing in line for hours in hopes
the
supermarket might receive a shipment of sugar when a truck loaded with
maize
meal passed. Some in the crowd gave chase and jumped onto the truck
when it
stopped at a light. Two fell off the truck when it pulled away from
the
light, sustaining minor injuries.
Correspondent Babongile
Dhlamini witnessed the incident and filed a report.
Elsewhere, residents
of Masvingo rural districts complained that they must
travel long distances
to purchase basic commodities due to the state's blitz
on prices. Shops in
Bikita and Gutu districts have either closed or have
nothing to sell,
residents said.
From rural Masvingo, correspondent Taurai Shava
reported.
New Zimbabwe
By Joram
Nyathi
Last updated: 07/20/2007 07:53:58
IT WAS the same in business, the
media and the opposition.
The response to the 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's 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?"
The 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 last 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. The 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.
Joram Nyathi is the deputy editor of the Zimbabwe
Independent newspaper
New Zimbabwe
By Mary
Revesai
Last updated: 07/20/2007 07:54:00
IN HIS weekly column in the
Zimbabwe Independent issue of July 13-19,
journalist Joram Nyathi takes
Zimbabwean "prophets of doom" including the
media, the business sector ,
opposition parties and civil society, to task
for rushing to condemn the
on-going mayhem unleashed by the Mugabe regime
under the so-called Operation
Slash Prices.
Nyathi complains: "The response to government's
crackdown on business for
hiking prices on 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
galloping prices were themselves
stoking inflation faster than government
spending and the printing of money
by the Reserve Bank."
The
respected journalist is concerned that no one in the media bothered to
ask
why business was "suddenly" in "this frenzied bout to increase prices as
if
acting in concert."
Nyathi talks as if the frenzied raising of prices
only began in the past few
weeks when in fact Zimbabweans have lived with
the phenomenon for several
years. As a result, millions of them who live
below the poverty datum line
can no longer afford to put food on the table,
send their children to school
and pay medical bills.
It is not clear
to what extent the business sector went out of its way to
"act in concert"
this time around but it is generally true that when prices
have gone up in
tandem with galloping inflation, the prices of commodities
have generally
gone up by about the same margin. This is why Zimbabweans
could no longer
use their "buying power" to withhold their custom from any
culprits guilty
of overcharging. The business sector had been driven into
one corner the
same way pauperized Zimbabweans have been forced to flee to
other countries
without consciously acting in concert.
Through all this, the Mugabe
regime remained unmoved. If the truth must be
told, Mugabe sprang into the
on-going madness because of predictions that
escalating inflation would
finally cause his downfall before the end of the
year. It is no secret that
after inflation hit the 4500 percent mark, the
Central Statistical Office
has not given further updates and has in fact
announced that it is to revise
its method of calculating the rate of
inflation.
However, the
blackout on inflation data does not mean things have improved
or stabilised
and the business sector could very well have been reacting to
realities it
was encountering on the ground.
In view of the fact that the on-going
state-sanctioned pillaging has left
supermarket shelves empty and many
businesses unlikely to recover, I submit
that the Mugabe regime deserves all
the brickbats it is getting for this
latest ill-considered and desperate
populist perversity.
The people elect a government into office so that it
leads and directs the
country. It is supposed to lead the way in
safeguarding and promoting
stability through the observance of the rule of
law and a humane and
civilized culture of governance. This is the only way
it can improve the
quality of life for the whole population.
Alas,
all these tenets of democratic governance are alien to the Harare
regime. It
is the mastermind of lawlessness in the country and is the main
culprit in
breaking national laws and conventions. Its delinquency and
bullying tactics
did not begin with the "price war." There have been so many
other scorched
earth policies and approaches in the past that stakeholders
who remain alert
enough to see through Zanu PF's self-serving antics are to
be applauded
rather than disparaged.
Whenever the ruling party has embarked on a
destructive action for the
ostensible purpose of easing the plight of the
ordinary people, it has
always turned out to be a foolhardy subterfuge to
save Mugabe's political
skin and extend his despotic rule. Consider the
long-standing onslaught
against the media, civil society, the judiciary,
lawyers, non-governmental
organizations, teachers, students, and the
opposition the list is endless.
It is instructive to recall how the
regime sanctioned the anarchy sparked by
the farm invasions. The still
unresolved humanitarian crisis and mass
suffering triggered by the sadistic
destruction of abodes and informal trade
infrastructure under Operation
Murambatsvina does not portray a sensitive
government that learns anything
from past mistakes.
Nyathi complains: "For opposition parties, the price
escalations were
celebration time" because they demonstrated Zanu PF's
failure to run the
country and manage the economy. I am not aware of any
opposition group
celebrating the escalating cost of living. Instead I
remember how leaders of
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions were battered
by the police in October
last year when they tried to organize protest
marches to highlight the
deteriorating economic and social situation in the
country that Mugabe is
now belatedly trying to tackle by decree.
The
opposition party, the business sector, civil society, the media all have
their faults but the fact remains that it is the government of the day that
has the responsibility and the means to implement national policies in an
orderly manner.
Against this background it is difficult to understand
the context in which
Nyathi claims: "Nowhere was this soullessness more
evident than in a labour
based party failing to balance the interests of
business with those of
workers."
How, exactly was the opposition
supposed to achieve this feat when it does
not control the formulation and
implementation of national policies? Such a
scenario is even more difficult
to imagine when it is an indisputable fact
that the ruling party never
listens and never takes advice from anybody.
It is true, as Nyathi says,
that "a starving nation staring at well-stocked
shops will likely be tempted
to loot before any political considerations."
The nation has been
starving for the last seven years since the Mugabe
regime embarked on the
systematic decimation of the agricultural sector
through the violent and
indiscriminate land seizures. In all that time, the
proud and hard working
ordinary people of Zimbabwe have never resorted to
looting and neither has
the opposition ever called for such action. The
suffering masses have in
fact watched helplessly as the ruling elite has
plundered national resources
through endless scandals and rackets that have
all been swept under the
carpet.
The on-going madness under the price war was engineered by Zanu
PF. The
Mugabe regime alone deserves condemnation for its irrationality.
Everything
in the country is being destroyed because of Mugabe's siege
mentality and
aberrations of foes lurking every where to effect regime
change.
A government that preys on the desperation of its own people by
embarking on
a deceitful campaign to win their hearts and minds in the
build-up to an
election deserves to be censured by all right thinking
people. More-so when
it is the one that has in the first place created the
dire economic
conditions spawning world record inflation through corruption,
pillaging and
fiscal indiscipline for the benefit of those within the Zanu
PF patronage
network.
The July 16 issue of the state-controlled
Herald quotes Mugabe as
re-affirming the government's "commitment to
fostering close and fruitful
co-operation with well meaning partners from
the private sector." This is
vintage Mugabe. He never looks before he leaps
and always adopts a
topsy-turvy approach regardless of who has to pay the
price.
A related story in the same issue informs readers that the
government is
still working on a pricing formula to be released to
wholesalers,
manufacturers and retailers!
The question to ask then
is: why did the regime not do all this groundwork
before plunging into the
rash and arbitrary slashing of prices that has
sparked economic anarchy
nationwide? It is obvious that Mugabe has grown
senile along with his regime
and it can no longer be depended upon to meet
even minimum standards of how
a government should behave.
Mary Revesai is a New Zimbabwe.com columnist
and writes from Harare. Her
column will appear here every Tuesday
VOA
By Marvellous Mhlanga-Nyahuye
Washington
19 July 2007
Zimbabwean swimming star Kirsty Coventry
concluded a brilliant All-Africa
Games performance late Wednesday by
clinching a seventh gold medal.
Coventry, who also claimed a silver medal
in the breast stroke, left Algiers
after the last event for the United
States where she attends university.
Zimbabwean athletes in Algiers said
Coventry's performance inspired them.
Zimbabwe Swimming team manager
Philipa Ferris told reporter Marvellous
Mhlanga-Nyahuye that she was amazed
at the outcome and hoped more
Zimbabweans would take up competitive swimming
as a result of Coventry's
effort.